I will believe that a corporation is a person, and its money is speech, and a corporation has spiritual life when a corporation goes to jail for depraved indifference. A big corporation has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and its entire food chain. Who is going to jail for that? Anybody? Hello?
A big Corporation, Religious Authoritarians and the Supreme Court are practicing medicine and making social policy. They just picked my pocket. A meat person who picks pockets goes to jail. And they did it to me because ... wait for it ... they did it because I am a woman and they can. They did it to me for Jesus.
I am so angry and stunned it has taken me days to write or do a thing but garden. I am getting upset just writing about this right now. Do not expect this rant to be coherent.
Brendan Boyle
I was pulling weeds and muttering "I do not know what to do." And then the light dawned. The Democratic Party 170th district candidate for PA State Senator is a "staunchly pro life" forced birth cultist. I am going to do a Mississippi-McDaniel on Brendan Boyle.
I swear that I will never vote for an anti choice Democrat. Never. I am going to vote for his Republican opponent. I am going to ask every pro choice woman I know to do the same.
Except he has no Republican opponent it seems. I googled. Okay. I am going to write Margaret Sanger's name on the ballot.
I know Boyle is popular. I also know I am not alone. Women talk and we do not have to whisper about abortion and contraception in the kitchen anymore.
If I cannot control my own body and sexual and family life, what difference does it make who holds the whip? Maybe the Democrats will get the message. Do not mess with the Roe v. Wade the Republicans gave us. Oh the irony.
Our State of PA, which cannot find money for schools to educate children, has found more tax money to fund "crisis pregnancy centers" like Real Alternatives in order to manage PA women's reproductive decisions. I think PA women can manage their own sexual and family lives and should be left alone to do so.
It is state politics that we must concentrate on now, Folks. Bigtime.
Just this summer, the Pennsylvania legislature doled out $5.8 million to Real Alternatives, which is not a penny less than last year, giving the organization a special distinction indeed. In a year that saw huge slashes to the state budget — including cuts in AIDS pharmaceutical services, an 18 percent loss in the operating budget of the Department of Environmental Protection, and $1 billion eliminated from schools, among many other cuts — Real Alternatives' budget was left untouched. - Holly Otterbein, City Paper
I am going out into the garden and pull some more weeds. And continue to ask myself "What can I do about this?" Can you impeach a Supreme Court Justice?
The sign in question is indisputably the most remarkable political sign that I saw in June. It is the work of street artist Sabo. You can see it in one of its settings below.
I almost let the month slip by without a winner. I have been gardening obsessively. Sometimes that is all I do in June.
Go Wendy. Do not let the bastids grind you down. Keep on going no matter what is said or what they do.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi
So I googled "feminazi barbie" and a really interesting batch of images came up.
I thought this image ----> was funny in a perverse sardonic way. Google images said its best artistic source is Nazi propaganda. The rest is the product of a witty photoshop artist. Anybody know who?
UPDATE 2: The man murdered in the video, James Boyd, was shot in the back and that is the shot that murdered him. The citizens of Albuquerque are battling their own police force.
ALBUQUERQUE — The 13 protesters who stormed the mayor’s office here and were arrested and jailed Monday said they were spurred by renewed outrage over the latest development in a string of fatal police shootings: An autopsy released last week showed the bullet that killed a homeless man, James Boyd, had been fired into his lower back.
What began as a peaceful protest against the Albuquerque Police Department’s systemic abuse of force and frequent shooting of unarmed civilians spiraled into chaos Sunday evening after police officers—many mounted on horses and in riot gear—assaulted the demonstrators with tear gas.
UPDATE: Because of the Isla Vista mass murder by a mentally ill man, I thought it would be useful to publish this essay again. My apology to those who have already read it. I wrote this precisely a year ago. Not much has changed. In fact, the gagging of doctors has gotten worse.
Do you want the government telling your doctor what to say to you? Or what S/he must not say to you? Did Nancy Lanza's doctor ask her about guns?
Gagging doctors and scientists or giving them a script to follow seems to be a right wing hobby these days. Who do we thank for the proliferation of bills dictating what your doctor can or must say to you? Is it ALEC, the NRA, the Republican Party or the Religious Right?
AMA Supports Blocking Illegal Florida Gun Gag Law
CHICAGO - The American Medical Association (AMA) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the State of Florida’s attempt to revive a law preventing doctors from asking patients and families about guns in the home. The brief condemned government-sponsored censorship of private medical discussions between patients and physicians.
It is easy to see why medical personnel might ask clients about guns. Take a look at the leading causes of death per the CDC. Suicide is #10. Chronic depression and bipolar disorder can and do kill patients and others who know them.
I wonder if Nancy Lanza was afraid of her son? Many parents of mentally ill children live in fear. The Police routinely ask medical professionals if they are aware of guns in the home in the course of investigations, for their own safety as well as ours. Do we really want to tell medical professionals they cannot ask about guns?
Psychiatrists and Psychologists who have clients like shooter Jared Loughner and the Lanza boy are understandably confused. They are damned if they do report a scary or aged client and damned if they do not. "Why did you not know they were dangerous?" we accuse. They may get sued if they speak about a client's behavior or their guns. And sued if they do not. Add gun gag laws to the mix. No wonder malpractice insurance is so high. I think the President has got this. Now let us all make a lot of noise and help him out!
President Obama’s multifaceted plan to reduce gun violence calls on physicians to play an important role in decreasing shooting deaths and injuries in communities nationwide.
Obama clarified that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors from discussing gun safety. He assured physicians that they can report credible threats of violence without fear of penalties from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule. He also authorized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the causes and prevention of gun violence, work that was suspended in 1996 after a National Rifle Assn.-backed push to block the study’s funding.
Dr. Denise Dowd
“We need to counsel our families about how to keep our children safe,” regardless of whether that involves bicycles, guns or swimming pools, said Denise Dowd, MD, MPH, a pediatric emergency physician and director of research in the Division of Emergency and Urgent Care at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.
Dr. Dowd said Obama’s clarification on this issue was needed, because some physicians were confused by language in the ACA that prohibits the collection of any data pertaining to firearm counseling, language inserted by pressure from theNRA.
Update: Kansas legislature proposing aBillto prevent doctors from asking questions about gun ownership. Five other states have gag laws in the works. Why?
Sec. 9. No physician, other than a psychiatrist, shall inquire of any patient in conjunction with obtaining the patient's personal information and medical history, whether the patient has any firearms in such patient's home or on such patient's property and shall not require such information before providing treatment.
Open Carry Guitar Rally
I will believe that a corporation is a person, and its money is speech, and a corporation has spiritual life when a corporation goes to jail for depraved indifference. A big corporation has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and its entire food chain. Who is going to jail for that? Anybody? Hello?
The sign in question is indisputably the most remarkable political sign that I saw in June. It is the work of street artist Sabo. You can see it in one of its settings below.
