Because OMM is easier to remember than Four Thousand and Ninety-Five Moms.

I've spent far too much of my day on this page:

[Click here to doubt the intellectual evolution of humanity]

basking in the stupidity it perpetuates. Just when I think I've done all the smh'in I could do, I move on to the next post and realize there is yet more stupidity to be discovered.

When November rolls around and you think you're too tired/busy/irrelevant to vote, just remember that these 40,095/1,000,000 (someone was optimistic) will undoubtedly be voting in line with their hate-ridden agendas.

While I'm not proud that this group (and its parent NFPO) is from Mississippi, it certainly didn't surprise me. In fact, as I read over their page, I thought, "Hmmm, wonder where they are based? Kentucky? Mississippi? Texas?" Well, one out of three ain't bad.

 At least stupidity is centralized...I suppose that's a positive.

Feel free spending a little time marking their page up as I did today. Sure, it won't make you feel any better, but, speaking from experience, it's better than screaming at the computer screen as your co-workers stare on in shock and disbelief.

Hail to the Chief (of inconsistency)

It really puts a damper on my day when the first story I open my Internet browser to is one like this.
If you don't understand why, revisit my November blog here.

You, Mr. President, have finally lost me.
I sat by while you made fiscal decisions that I found appalling.
I didn't moan when you stumbled on keeping your promises.
I've defended you, citing that you had come into an economy (and war) that you did not create and were destined for perceived failure from the start.

But now, you've done it.
I vote with my conscious over my pocket book, which generally leans me towards the democratic party (personal rights being more important to me than fiscal policy) and now my conscious is telling me to walk away.

Don't get me wrong: I don't want my daughter to be put in a position where she would find herself at Walmart buying Plan B (although let's be honest: Walmart is the right-wing's mecca--and they would never carry this OTC anyway*), BUT I would much prefer that over her having a child she isn't ready for.

Supposedly the ban is intended to prevent 10 and 11 year old girls from harming themselves with an OTC drug they cannot understand, but having a child is much more life-threatening for an 11 year old than taking a Plan B pill. And truly, even an 11 year old could master taking the pill--it's ONE pill. How difficult could that be? What they want to say (but never would) is that an 11 year old isn't ready to master her sexual choices (and rightfully so), but at the point the same child is buying Plan B, she has already made that decision, right or wrong. Implying that Plan B could encourage girls to become sexually active is as absurd as saying the HPV vaccine will do the same. It's absolutely ridiculous. Good planning and smart decision-making begin at home with real, honest conversations and involved parenting, not through legislation that attempts to punish girls (and let's be honest, it only affects girls) for those decisions.

So I suppose it is time to begin following the candidates and determining where my support may go. I may follow Obama for another 4, although he certainly isn't getting that vote for free. Especially after this move.


*On a side note, I went into Walmart for chex seasoning mix last week and they had none. But on my way back from the photo dept, I couldn't help but notice they had no fewer than twenty different bibles available, which struck me as ironic because, after all, don't they say the same thing?

Hump Day Vent

Here is the actual "support" chat between me and an AT&T CSR a few minutes ago:

Bonnie: There isn't another link. I will have to try a different browser, I suppose (I have already tried logging out). Thanks, anyway.

Dolores: Did you want me to stand by? If I can give you a number to order by phone.

Bonnie: No I need to be able to look at the phones and compare. I'll either have to get it figured out online or go into a store.

Bonnie: It wont even give me an option to see other phone options at this point.

Dolores: What about ordering by phone?

Bonnie: No, I'd have to be able to see the phones and their features in order to be able to pick a phone out to order it by phone.

Dolores: To purchase over the phone, please call the AT&T Sales department at 1-888-333-6651. I'd hate to see you frustrated even more.

Bonnie: Ok, thanks

Bonnie: but I'm not purchasing by phone since I won't be able to pick a phone out over the phone.

Dolores: You're most welcome! Enjoy the new phones.

This is comical to me. At one point I thought: is she even reading what I'm typing?" I considered typing something random like, "Baby elephants make me happy" to see when and if she would even mention it.

On another note, what is up with the Kim Kardashian petition going around on FB? This further solidifies my contempt for people due to the general level of stupidity they exhibit. If you don't want to watch Kim Kardashian, then don't. I have managed to go my entire life without watching a single episode of "Keeping Up." I didn't need a petition to do so. It amazes me that we can't get people to sign petitions on things like world-wide genocide (Hey-if it doesn't affect Americans, who cares, right?), but they will happily seek out and sign the anti-Kardashian petition.

Also, while I'm a rant:
Could the occupiers please go home already?
I'm tired of hearing about them.
Aside from that, they don't even have a goal. At least the Korean War protesters (whom I've heard them compared to) had a goal: bring the troops home. These people are just causing mayhem and making themselves look ridiculous. I'm sure the initial group had good intentions (although still no clear goal other than (I suppose) awareness), but they should have begun screening the nut jobs that hopped on the bandwagon and started causing all the problems. Now they all look like a bunch of loons.
98% of Americans want more than they have?
Nay, 100% of Americans want more than they have.
And guess what: You aren't going to get it by camping out in a city park.
Pack your shit up, go home and get a job.
[Yes, I realize as a liberal I am supposed to follow the herd of mindless sheep and occupy something myself, but I am very much fiscally conservative, hence the opposition.]

:) No, I'm not upset. Just venting a little. (:
Enjoy your eve!

So you have an opinion on Roe v. Wade. Now what about everything else?

     In high school, we never sat through one single class of sex education because it would "encourage the behavior" and therefore wasn't allowed. So it was not surprising that, at the tender age of 18, I got pregnant with my daughter. I asked my Dr. to tie my tubes once I had her, certain that she was the only child I wanted, and I was told that I had to be at least 24 or have at least 3 children before it would even be considered. And I remember an uneasy feeling at having someone tell me when I could decide not to have more children. Fourteen years later and I am still a mother of one, but it has taken much effort and many forms of contraception to stay in tune with the plan I had for my family.
     Now funding for the clinics that support this type of planning (PP) is being cut because the clinics support a woman's right to choice. So at least once a year I have to visit my PCP and pay upwards of $200 to have a myriad of tests run (only one, a pregnancy test, at all applicable) in order to obtain a Rx for birth control. Birth control which is, by the way, largely available over-the-counter in other developed countries (after all, there is no risk or benefit to "abusing" birth control). I pay for my Rx out of pocket monthly (because many insurance plans are no longer covering their costs), endure its side-effects and hope that (1) I remember to take it at the exact same time each night and (2) I don't accidentally take it with another medication that may render it ineffective. Amazing that we put a man on the moon some fifty years ago and still cannot develop effective birth control. IUD, the morning after-pill and other forms of contraception on are on the verge of being outlawed in states like my own (Mississippi), further restricting my access to quality reproductive healthcare.
    So when the system (above) fails a woman and she has an unintended pregnancy, she resorts to her last available measure: an abortion. There, she is met with a group of protesters who call her a whore and a murderer; she endures a costly, painful and time-consuming process and is, at times, left with the guilt and grief of having to make such a decision.
   If you took notice only to that last paragraph (whether appalled or pleased), then you are part of the problem. It seems to me that the debate on reproductive healthcare these days focuses on one lone issue: Roe v. Wade. But what about our broken system? Why not focus on other means of birth control so that fewer woman are left in a position to make to make a choice? Why require women to jump through hoops to be responsible for their reproductive health and also be angry when the hoops YOU helped to create result in an unintended pregnancies?
     The old "abstinence" lectures are not working. In fact, they never have. Furthermore, why restrict access to available measures to control a situation simply because a person doesn't abstain? I've never heard of a doctor refusing a patient Lipitor because (s)he isn't abstaining from fast food. It's irrelevant.
     Far too often I hear things like, "Do the crime, pay the time" or "I did it and now I have to be responsible for my actions" or "I know these consequence could happen and now I have to take it on." But is this really the mentality that we want families to begin with? One of obligation and consequence rather than love and desire to parent? How ready do you think these parents are? We have failed to protect them from the pregnancy and we've failed to prepare them for the ramifications. Yet we judge them. We place a stigma on teen moms that they will carry throughout their lives. We applaud their pro-life mentality and shun them for asking for government assistance because they were not financially prepared. We do not prepare our young men to protect themselves (often leaving it up to the woman) nor do we explain the difficulties of being a young father. We continue to fail them daily.
     I encourage you to think about the many flaws in our broken system and how we might ensure more women are not forced to consider that final measure when all else has failed them. I encourage you, rather than spending your time trying to outlaw abortion, to focus on measures that open the door to more wide spread reproductive healthcare availability. I encourage you to talk to your child(ren), explaining that bringing a child into this world and raising it is a tremendous responsibility that cannot be taken lightly. I encourage you to focus on filling all the gaps in so women may plan their families without the burdens currently in place. Until we do this, women will always resort to the last measure as a final desperate means to plan her family--whether it be in your state or another, a doctor's office or an alleyway. Focus on fixing the system rather than blaming one who cannot navigate her way through it. Then, and only then, will women have fair and adequate reproductive healthcare.

It's Getting Hot in Here...

With Election Day right around the corner and an election year right around the corner from that, things are getting pretty politically charged.

I was reading the blog of an activist I follow when I read the following quote, which I think is profound:

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
~Desmond Tutu

I have always thought this to be the case, although I doubt I've ever expressed it as articulately.

I hope you will take a moment to reflect upon Tutu's words as we approach election day and vote with your conscious rather than taking an apathetic or (cliche) they-are-all-crooks-anyway approach to the political movement(s) in your area.

Voting is both your right and your duty.

...And...she's at it again!

Oh, Ann Coulter, will you ever learn?

Did you really tweet

Kim Kardashian inspires slogan for 2012 presidential campaign, [Once] you go half-black, you CAN go back. [???]

And, on the same day, follow that up with an appearance on Fox (the only station worthy of such a poor showing), telling Hannity, "Our blacks are so much better than their blacks." [???]

I mean, come on. Seriously?
Have you been eating paint chips again?

Someone please put a muzzle on that girl.
(You'd think the Republican party would have already thought of this, seeing as how (1) she can't be good for the party's image and (2) they are sooo in favor of intruding on individuals' rights on a daily basis. They must be too busy denying minorities' rights to focus on it at this time.)