I recently read that in 32 states rapists have "rights of parenthood" if the rapes they commit result in pregnancy and the women decide to bear the children. This adds an entirely new dimension to the crime against the woman.
Do I believe this happens? Absolutely. For years I watched one of my dearest friends struggle to maintain control of the parenthood of her child. The father was NOT a rapist. He was a deserter who abandoned her to her fate when he learned she was pregnant. He WAS a substance abusing manic-depressive. But family court MANDATED he be given custodial weekend visits.
My friend spent days after these visits dealing with the ramifications of her son's visits with his father. The night terror, the anxiety, the temper tantrums. To this day I do not know how she managed to get through this torturous period of her life.
She never gave up her fight for full custody and after YEARS and repeated failures of her son's father to provide child support, she did achieve it.
Her son is a miracle. A beautiful person because of HER incredible strength and UNFAILING dedication to her own parenthood.
The law, on the other hand, did her no favors and put her and her baby through HELL.
Women's issues are about a lot more than access to abortion and birth control. They are about women's rights to PERSON HOOD.
Politicians like Todd Akin are the tip of the iceberg with his definition of "legitimate" and illegitimate" rape.
This should NOT be a Republican v Democratic issue. It IS NOT a conservative v liberal issue. It is ABOUT THE RIGHTS of 51 percent of this country's population.
We do not live under Sharia Law after all (or do we?).
Here's what I think...
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Pregnancy by Rape or Incest
I hear the stories of Muslim fathers who butcher their raped daughters because these girls have blemished their precious "honor".
I hear American representatives elected by the people claiming there is a difference between "legitimate" i.e. "real" rape and "illegitimate" rape i.e. she said no but meant yes.
My child-bearing years ended decades ago with a hysterectomy. I am well past menopause. But the thought of a woman, any woman, being forced to bear the abomination of a pregnancy inflicted upon her by a rapist's attack still curdles the blood pounding through my veins.
The Church and religion in which I was raised leads the field of those who would insist "punish the rapist, not the child." But what of the victim of the crime? The woman forced first by the superior physical strength of her attacker to undergo the vicious attack upon her very person hood and then by the male-dominated legislaturalists and religionists to bear the hideous fruit of that attack in her body for nine excruciating months?
I speak directly to the Church I abandoned in the 1990s when I finally realized it was a Church that loved men and despised women - This is unacceptable. Your institution protected the rapists of children. Your institution condemned the parents of those children for "attacking the Church" when they protested the violation of those children. Your institution abandoned the nuns who dedicated their lives to your good works or castigated them for not pursuing your anti-abortion anti-birth control agenda and concentrating on serving the poor, the unrepresented, the needy.
A woman, any woman, who is forced by her society's laws to bear the child inflicted upon her by rape or incest has been betrayed by that society. She has been enslaved.
I hear American representatives elected by the people claiming there is a difference between "legitimate" i.e. "real" rape and "illegitimate" rape i.e. she said no but meant yes.
My child-bearing years ended decades ago with a hysterectomy. I am well past menopause. But the thought of a woman, any woman, being forced to bear the abomination of a pregnancy inflicted upon her by a rapist's attack still curdles the blood pounding through my veins.
The Church and religion in which I was raised leads the field of those who would insist "punish the rapist, not the child." But what of the victim of the crime? The woman forced first by the superior physical strength of her attacker to undergo the vicious attack upon her very person hood and then by the male-dominated legislaturalists and religionists to bear the hideous fruit of that attack in her body for nine excruciating months?
I speak directly to the Church I abandoned in the 1990s when I finally realized it was a Church that loved men and despised women - This is unacceptable. Your institution protected the rapists of children. Your institution condemned the parents of those children for "attacking the Church" when they protested the violation of those children. Your institution abandoned the nuns who dedicated their lives to your good works or castigated them for not pursuing your anti-abortion anti-birth control agenda and concentrating on serving the poor, the unrepresented, the needy.
A woman, any woman, who is forced by her society's laws to bear the child inflicted upon her by rape or incest has been betrayed by that society. She has been enslaved.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
How can rape possibly be "legitimate"?
Someone, PLEASE tell me the difference between "legitimate" and illegitimate" rape. In the meantime, please excuse me while I empty my stomach over the toilet bowl.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The Poor are Spoiled? Really?
I heard someone complain that "poor" people had satellite dishes, flat screen tvs, refrigerators, air conditioners and microwaves. They felt this was inappropriate. But we live in an information age in which you really, really need access; refrigerators keep your food from rotting; air conditioners in cement block inner city blocks that have no shade and no air circulation in 100F+ weather do not sound like a luxury to me and microwaves come in real handy and you can get them pretty damn cheap. I just can't bring myself to resent "poor" people for having what I consider the most basic necessities for any level of comfort for myself.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
But I LIKE cash!
There are times when the cost of money gets me down. The monthly service charges on my checking account - including a charge for giving me badly faded copies of my checks. But only, mind you, those checks that weren't processed through ACM or ACH or whatever they call it wherein the vendor processes your check for immediate withdrawal from your checking account.
Then there are the charges on my credit card - the charges levied on the vendors. The annual fee I have to pay. Since I pay them off immediately, I can USUALLY avoid late fees and interest charges except on those rare occasions when the U. S. Postal Service fails me. (Oh yeah, I still send in my bill payments by check with a first class stamp! Old fashioned? Maybe. But far CHEAPER than paying them online!
The other day I overheard a bank officer listing penalty charges for a debit card customer who was trying to clean up her account. $30 damn bucks for each charge against the account that had insufficient funds and he listed a lot of them. A simple refusal to pay the damn debit would have been far more reasonable and fair.
Soooo. When I go to the supermarket, I pay cash. When I eat out, except on those rare occasions at VERY expensive restaurants, I pay cash.
Buying cigarettes or booze - you betcha I pay cash. No nasty entries on my credit card transactions that become part of my elusive cyberspace identity.
Trips to the casino - same thing. Why give my bank information on ATM withdrawals from casinos? None of their damn business in my opinion.
Every credit card transaction results in a "tax" merchants have to pay. The checking account fees are obscene.
Sooner or later the PTB (Powers that Be) will eliminate cash from my choices. The advantages to them are far too great to ignore. But until they do - Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson (who absolutely HATED BANKS), Ben Franklin and company get my vote!
Then there are the charges on my credit card - the charges levied on the vendors. The annual fee I have to pay. Since I pay them off immediately, I can USUALLY avoid late fees and interest charges except on those rare occasions when the U. S. Postal Service fails me. (Oh yeah, I still send in my bill payments by check with a first class stamp! Old fashioned? Maybe. But far CHEAPER than paying them online!
The other day I overheard a bank officer listing penalty charges for a debit card customer who was trying to clean up her account. $30 damn bucks for each charge against the account that had insufficient funds and he listed a lot of them. A simple refusal to pay the damn debit would have been far more reasonable and fair.
Soooo. When I go to the supermarket, I pay cash. When I eat out, except on those rare occasions at VERY expensive restaurants, I pay cash.
Buying cigarettes or booze - you betcha I pay cash. No nasty entries on my credit card transactions that become part of my elusive cyberspace identity.
Trips to the casino - same thing. Why give my bank information on ATM withdrawals from casinos? None of their damn business in my opinion.
Every credit card transaction results in a "tax" merchants have to pay. The checking account fees are obscene.
Sooner or later the PTB (Powers that Be) will eliminate cash from my choices. The advantages to them are far too great to ignore. But until they do - Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson (who absolutely HATED BANKS), Ben Franklin and company get my vote!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Enabling The Next Geological Age
For some time I have suspected my reading has been way too concentrated on science fiction and this has had a negative impact on my world vision.
For several years now a persistent thought echoes through my aching brain: the entire purpose of the human race on earth is to prepare its host planet for the next geological age.
I hope I am wrong.
As I witness the merciless, continuous depredations committed against my home, my planet's life support systems by the mindless, unaccountable, unmanageable, apparently indestructible multinational institutions that have gained control of it, I cannot but fear I am right.
Barach Obama was supposed to stem the tide. It appears to me that in the four years of his presidency, it has actually gained force, not lost it.
The United States of America has handed over its birthright lock, stock and barrel to multinational institutions. The disempowerment of its population is well underway.
The European Union is completely in thrall to the leviathan financial institutions that are bringing it to its knees.
If the earth's greatest hope lies in poisonous, Communist/Capitalist China, what hope is left? That somewhere out there in the vast universe some other life forms are faring better than we?
As for me. I surrender. I will continue to fight for survival for my loved ones as best I can. I might even still vote, but spinsters' phrases by political pundits, candidates, PACS are fantasies in which I no longer dare to believe.
For several years now a persistent thought echoes through my aching brain: the entire purpose of the human race on earth is to prepare its host planet for the next geological age.
I hope I am wrong.
As I witness the merciless, continuous depredations committed against my home, my planet's life support systems by the mindless, unaccountable, unmanageable, apparently indestructible multinational institutions that have gained control of it, I cannot but fear I am right.
Barach Obama was supposed to stem the tide. It appears to me that in the four years of his presidency, it has actually gained force, not lost it.
The United States of America has handed over its birthright lock, stock and barrel to multinational institutions. The disempowerment of its population is well underway.
The European Union is completely in thrall to the leviathan financial institutions that are bringing it to its knees.
If the earth's greatest hope lies in poisonous, Communist/Capitalist China, what hope is left? That somewhere out there in the vast universe some other life forms are faring better than we?
As for me. I surrender. I will continue to fight for survival for my loved ones as best I can. I might even still vote, but spinsters' phrases by political pundits, candidates, PACS are fantasies in which I no longer dare to believe.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
It's all over now, Baby Blue
The recall of Governor Walker of Wisconsin, darling of the Koch Brothers, poster boy of Citizens United and Scourge of Working Stiffs everywhere, evidently failed. Early returns and a preemptive call by NBC have named Walker the winner in the recall election.
Robocalls to voters informing them they did not have to vote if they signed the recall petitions.
Robocalls to voters informing them the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday.
Eight to one funding and spending advantage, most of the funds from out of state.
And the state with the proudest progressive history in the country joins the chilling march toward corporatocracy.
If this is democracy, I am a rocket scientist. God help us all.
Robocalls to voters informing them they did not have to vote if they signed the recall petitions.
Robocalls to voters informing them the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday.
Eight to one funding and spending advantage, most of the funds from out of state.
And the state with the proudest progressive history in the country joins the chilling march toward corporatocracy.
If this is democracy, I am a rocket scientist. God help us all.
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