Hosted by walnut.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker aforalpha: "What food gift are you actually happy to receive? 'None—I want books!' is a perfect answer, of course."
Cheese. What kind of cheese? ANY KIND OF CHEESE.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Racism; police brutality; carcerality.]
"What started as an effort to keep guns out of schools has become a way of getting kids out of school."—Harold Jordan of the ACLU, quoted in a must-read piece about policing in public schools and the school-to-prison pipeline, "Too many American schools are using police officers to enforce classroom discipline."
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
Late Term Abortion Is Health Care: A Personal Story
[Content note: This post includes discussions and descriptions of specific instances of fetal distress and abnormality, infant death, maternal morbidity and maternal mortality. This note also applies to linked material.]
This is not the most dramatic, heartwrenching, or important story you will ever read about abortion.
But it is mine.
I lived most of my adult life without a strong desire to have children. I’m still not entirely sure I am cut out to be a parent, and none of the people I partnered with, male or female, were people I especially longed to co-parent with.
That changed a few years ago, when I met K, my current partner. He’s the first person I could imagine having children with, a person who is already a great parent to a child from a previous relationship. For the first time in my life, I really wanted to have a child with another person.
Because I was over 35 when we met, I was keenly aware that we didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision. And because I was myself born to a mother who was nearly 40, I already had some idea of the health risks involved in a pregnancy later in life. My mother spent most of her last trimester when she was pregnant with me on bedrest.
Basically, it gets harder and harder to conceive every year in the mid 30s or so. If one does manage it, there is an increased chance for fetal abnormalities and as well as maternal complications. And a lot of these complications don't show up until later in pregnancy. Gestational diabetes (which increases the risk for diabetes later in life), pre-eclampsia (which can cause kidney failure) pre-term rupture of membranes (“water” breaks too early), placental abruption (placenta separates from the uterus) are just a few examples. I’m also at risk for HELLP syndrome, both because of age and because of a family history with it.
As far as fetal abnormalities, many of these also are not detectable until later in pregnancy. For older mothers, the risk of chronomosomal defects increases. One of the better known of these is Down Syndrome, but there are several other possibilities. Some, like Patau Syndrome and Edwards Syndrome (which can be associated with anenecephaly, among other things), usually mean that a baby will survive only a few hours, days, or at best, months. Others may cause developmental disabilities, of varying kinds and degrees, but a child born with that particular chromosomal abnormality might still have a good overall prognosis for quality and length of life. And some are very unpredictable.
My mother, who passed away not long ago, had often spoken to me about her anxieties that I would be born with Down Syndrome. I was a “surprise” baby, and she was unaware of her pregnancy until the second trimester, complicating things even further. She told me that she often talked to me while she was pregnant, encouraging me and assuring me that I would be loved no matter what. She was ready to love and welcome me, in any case, and she apparently told me so, frequently, when she was pregnant.
What she didn’t voice to me for many years were her anxieties that she and my father might not be able to care for me properly if I did have Down Syndrome. As older parents, she feared they might become incapacitated themselves or even die while I might have many years of life left, and still be in need of care. What would happen to me then? Who would have my guardianship? Could my significantly older siblings do it? What about if they, too, became ill or passed away? Would I be provided for? Would I be loved? And now I was wondering the same thing about my ability to ensure a lifetime of care (and not just care, but loving care) if I had a child who needed it into their adulthood.
As I investigated, I learned that we have much better ways of detecting fetal abnormalities today, compared to when my mother was pregnant with me. But we still can’t predict, in many cases, how severe certain conditions may turn out to be, including whether they will even be compatible with life or not. Or whether there may be a life, but only a brief one of suffering and pain. Depending on the abnormality, my partner and I might be facing an tough decision whether to continue with the pregnancy.
Both for myself and for my fetus, there would be many risks if I tried to become pregnant, risks that might not materialize until late in pregnancy. There were emotional, difficult, and highly personal questions I would have to face. Decisions that would be made between me, my doctor, my partner….and a ridiculous state and national government.
For example, what if I found out that my pregnancy would lead to a long-term health risk, putting my ability to make a living in question? Between my partner and I, I’m the primary breadwinner. But 43 state legislatures think they know better than me and my doctor about when my pregnancy might need to end. I live in the US South, so it’s no surprise that my state is a restrictive one.
And about my doctor… there are only four physicians still providing late term abortions in the United States. I don’t live anywhere near their clinics. Ending a pregnancy electively would not be easy.
Nor would it be cheap. Does your insurance cover abortions? Mine doesn’t. At least I don’t think so. It was pretty hard to get a straight answer out of them when I called to ask, but basically, unless my life is at risk, I would seem to be footing the entire bill for any abortion. Plenty of states openly ban various insurance plans from covering abortions. The story of Dana Weinstein, who had to end a pregnancy due to severe fetal abnormalities, was heavy in my mind. She faced $17,500 in bills –all from trying to end her fetus’ suffering.
But even if it were an emergency procedure rather than a planned one, I might not be able to find a local hospital to perform an abortion. Catholic affiliated hospitals have refused to perform abortions even in the case of pre-term membrane rupture (one of the significant risks I would be running). And there are states where restrictive laws keep all hospitals from performing these needed abortions. Would I be forced, like Danielle Deaver of Nebraska, to give birth and then watch as a baby with undeveloped lungs slowly suffocated to death? Would I myself die of infection or other complications that could be easily prevented by an abortion?
With great regret, but in light of the risks and restrictions, I decided not to pursue a pregnancy. Some people might have made a different choice, but for me, this one seemed best. And the lack of abortion access was the number one reason. Had I had confidence that I could access one if I really needed it, I would have gone ahead.
I don’t write this asking for pity. As I said, my story is far from the most important or tragic one about abortion. I am basically content with my life, with being an aunt and step-parent rather than being a mother, and with turning the energy I might have given to my own children to other things. I love my partner and he loves me. We are a family.
There are many reasons for pregnant people to need an abortion. Abortion’s availability—or lack thereof— can also play a role in the decision to even try for children. Ceding even an inch of ground in this discussion is actively harmful. So-called moderates and even progressives have too often ceded that sure, abortion is icky and tragic and nobody should have to pay for someone else's abortion! Thus the ridiculous insurance situation. They have too often ceded allegedly “reasonable” abortion restrictions, particularly on later term abortions, which are really anything but. Thus the additional and unnecessary risks for what are already high risk pregnancies. They have acted as if abortion is something shameful, to be whispered about or not mentioned at all, and coddled religious sensibilities that risk human rights. Thus the denial of what should be routine healthcare to people with doomed pregnancies.
Instead of whispering, it needs, desperately, to be shouted: ABORTION. IS. HEALTHCARE.
No, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, I am pretty far from “complacent” about abortion. I have never, ever been complacent about abortion, not in all the years that “moderate” members of Democratic party were busy ceding my ability to end a pregnancy. Turns out, they were also ceding my possibility of beginning one. My life has been altered because of somebody's complacency--but it sure isn't mine.
[This post has been slightly edited to clarify medical information. My thanks to Flyby in comments.]
Oh Jeb! Oh Poor Awkward Jeb!
[Video via Raw Story.]
Video Description: Jeb! Bush appears via satellite on the Fox News show Fox & Friends.There's more to the video, during which Jeb! touts his awesome credentials or whatever, but who cares.
Host Steve Doocy: You know, speaking about going back in time, Bill Clinton—there in New Hampshire, where you're sitting right now, yesterday on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Uh, what'd you think about his first solo outing?
Jeb! Bush: I didn't—I didn't follow it, to be honest with you. I don't really follow what's going on on the Democratic side [inaudible]. I do know that Hillary Clinton's not trustworthy. Um, she's continues [sic] to, uh, not tell the truth about the emails, about Benghazi, about a lot of things. I don't think she's trustworthy to be President of the United States. Irrespective of how charismatic her husband is, uh, the issue is about 2016 and beyond. And she is not trustworthy to be President of the United States.
Host Brian Kilmeade: Uh, Governor, the reason—one of the reasons I was thinking that would be a good question for you was because a lot of people say, you know, your brother also has a lot of popularity—like Bill Clinton has with Democrats, your brother has it with Republicans. Is that something that you think, if he could tell your story as well as you can, if not better, is that something you're considering?
Bush: Yeah. It is something to consider, 'cause he is very popular. And I also know I need to go earn this.
First of all: Nice grammatically incorrect talking point. "She's not trustworthy to be President." That is not words to be sentence.
Secondly: Jeb! Bush has some cheek calling Hillary Clinton untrustworthy while saying that his brother is very popular. Liar liar pants be fire.
Finally: I would say he looks like a deer in the headlights, but that would be an insult to deer and possibly also to headlights. "Perpetually on the verge of an audible gulp" is not a good look for a presidential candidate.
Go home, Jeb! Take a nap.
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie ♥ Viola Davis. She gets that from me.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Terrorism; appropriation] The latest from Malheur: 1. "Tension grows as Oregon militia occupies wildlife refuge for fourth night." 2. "Sheriff says steps being taken to end militants' occupation of federal compound." 3. [CN: video autoplays at link] "Leader of armed protesters in Oregon took out $530,000 federal loan." 4. "Oregon protester Ammon Bundy compared himself to Rosa Parks." These folks are dangerous fools. Few things worry me as much as dangerous fools.
* * *
[CN for following four paragraphs: Misogyny; sexual assault; anti-migrant hatred.] There is a troubling story out of Cologne, Germany, about a group attack on women on New Year's Eve: Der Spiegel reports that "dozens of women were harassed and groped in the heart of Cologne on New Year's Eve by a large group of men on the crowded square in front of the city's main train station. According to police, many also had personal items stolen and fireworks were also fired into the crowd of revelers. According to police, some 90 complaints had been filed by Tuesday morning. ...At a press conference on Monday evening, Cologne's police chief, Wolfgang Albers, said that a quarter of the complaints made were related to sexual harassment or groping, with many others pertaining to theft of purses, wallets and mobile phones. He said that smaller groups of men repeatedly emerged from a crowd of about 1,000 young men to surround women, harass them and steal from them."
I've been reading about this case over the past couple of days, and waiting for more information, because witnesses have reported that the attackers were migrant men, and, bearing in mind cases like the Central Park Five and the current anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, I want to approach this with caution. Der Spiegel underlines why sensitivity is warranted: "Indeed, groups critical of Islam and foreigners have been quick to seek to appropriate the events in Cologne for their own purposes. Pegida, for example, the Islamophobic movement that got its start in Dresden, has posted several comments about the Cologne attacks on its numerous Facebook sites, with supporters responding in a predictably offensive manner."
To be abundantly clear, I believe the victims of these assaults. I am just exercising caution around reporting as fact that the attackers were migrant men. My sympathies and solidarity are with the victims, and I hope they have access to the support they need.
Relatedly: Cologne's mayor, Henriette Reker, is being rightfully criticized for suggesting "that women 'keep at an arm's length' from strangers to avoid sexual harassment." The fuck.
* * *
[CN: Class warfare] In news that should surprise no one: "Some of the top experts on income inequality released a study of new, more accurate data this week, revealing that Americans in the top 1 percent have done far better than everyone else for the last half century—and why they've gotten so far ahead. ...Part of what's happening is that the source of the top 1 percent's income has changed. Up until the late 1990s, most of the growth was driven by the rich getting higher wages. But since then, it's been driven by capital income—money made from returns on investment. That jibes with a past study that found that lowered tax rates on capital gains income are 'by far the largest contributor' to growing income inequality."
[CN: War on agency] Whoa: "An unprecedented group of medical experts, legislators, legal scholars, business leaders, and reproductive justice advocates joined the Center for Reproductive Rights yesterday to announce the filing of 45 amicus briefs, urging the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn a Texas law that threatens to close more than 75% of abortion clinics in the state and deny millions of women access to safe, legal abortion." Do the right thing, SCOTUS, for fuck's sake!
GOOD: "After an hour of public debate on Tuesday, the Oklahoma City Council narrowly voted to ban LGBT discrimination in the housing sector."
[CN: Misogyny] What the hell: "Dan Salamone, an executive producer at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, this week told the women who report on 'Good Day Chicago' not to wear hats during their outdoor live shots this winter, sources said Tuesday. Salamone's directive, which he did not issue to male reporters, said the women would 'look a lot better without hats' and should go without them from now on. He'd be willing to make an exception, he said, 'if it's 20 below.'"
[CN: Birtherism] Oh terrific: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has questioned whether rival candidate Ted Cruz is eligible to become his party's nominee because he was born in Canada. Mr Trump called it a 'very precarious' issue for the party and said that Mr Cruz's nomination could be challenged in court. Mr Cruz was born in Calgary to an American mother and a Cuban father. Most legal experts believe Mr Cruz meets the requirements to be president."
Neat! "Astronomers have spotted two huge waves of gas being 'burped' by the black hole at the heart of a nearby galaxy. The swathes of hot gas, detected in X-ray images from Nasa's Chandra space telescope, appear to be sweeping cooler hydrogen gas ahead of them. This vast, rippling belch is taking place in NGC 5194—a small, neglected sibling of the 'Whirlpool Galaxy,' 26 million light years away. That makes it one of the closest black holes blasting gas in this way."
Speaking of giant holes disgorging gaseous emissions: Mel Gibson will be a presenter at the Golden Globes, because of course he will.
[CN: Moving gifs at link] This is extraordinary: "Heartbreaking Video Uses a Gorilla Signing to Emphasize the Impact of Climate Change."
Wow: "Rare Giant Jellyfish Bred at Zoo Vienna."
And finally! "Woman Adopts Cat, Returns to Shelter for His BFF." All the blubs forever. ♥
"Religious Liberty" and Reproductive Rights
[Content Note: War on agency; Christian Supremacy.]
The Guttmacher Agency, still and always a national treasure, has just released an important report on how anti-choice activists are increasingly exploiting religious liberty in order to chip away at abortion and contraception access:
The term "religious liberty" has, in recent years, become highly politicized and distorted. Social conservatives have pulled together many of their long-standing political demands—targeting reproductive health and LGBT rights, most prominently—into an overarching campaign couched in the language of religious liberty.Emphasis mine. There is much, much more at the link, and I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
On the basis of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and similar federal and state laws, they have argued in court, in legislatures and in the public square that laws meant to promote access to contraception or equal treatment of same-sex marriage, for example, are unlawfully restricting the rights of certain Americans to live according to their religious beliefs. In perhaps the highest profile example of this approach, conservatives have won another hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court this term on their claim that, in essence, any employer's assertion of religious liberty must trump their employees' right to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
...Social conservatives are in effect using laws like RFRA to erode rights, programs and services that they wish to eliminate entirely but have been unable to do so directly through other means.
The author, Adam Sonfield, also urges lawmakers and activists to push back against this misuse of religious liberty—"Policymakers and advocates must guard against the abuse of these laws"—and details how it can be done and has been done in the past.
Let us fervently hope that our pro-choice policymakers aren't complacent in response to this obscene abuse of religious rights in order to restrict the reproductive rights of others.
Complacent My Fat Ass
[Content Note: War on agency.]
Via my friend Mary, this New York Times interview with Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a hot mess on many counts, but this just takes the fucking cake:
Do you notice a difference between young women and women our age in their excitement about Hillary Clinton? Is there a generational divide? Here's what I see: a complacency among the generation of young women whose entire lives have been lived after Roe v. Wade was decided.OH HELL NO.
If there's COMPLACENCY regarding repro rights, it's in the Democratic Party, most of whose members won't even say the word "abortion" aloud.
If Debbie Wasserman Schultz is concerned about COMPLACENCY, she could try telling her party to stop being afraid of the word abortion.
Does Debbie Wasserman Schultz not think it's COMPLACENT to be the ostensibly pro-choice party without prioritizing erosion of access?
COMPLACENCY is letting Roe become an empty statute because your party treats abortion like something necessary but icky.
COMPLANCY is the motherfucking Hyde Amendment. (And the Helms amendment.)
COMPLACENCY is a national party effectively treating abortion access like a state's rights issue.
COMPLACENCY is a national party that claims to be pro-choice not doing anything meaningful to address anti-choice terrorism.
COMPLACENCY is leaving pro-choice activism to individual activists up against a funded movement and then calling those activists complacent.
I was born after Roe. I am anything but fucking complacent. I really don't think most of the members of the Democratic Party can say the same.
I'll tell ya this: I am pretty goddamn complacent about donating to Democrats.
North Korea Says It Tested an H-Bomb
North Korea claimed this morning that it detonated a hydrogen bomb. A seismic event was detected in the region, prompting overwhelming criticism from the international community—although its size, smaller than might be expected, has also evoked some skepticism. Still, it is clearly cause for concern.
The New York Times has a brief primer on what we know so far about the detonation, and the Guardian has been providing live coverage of responses and information.
I don't want North Korea to have nuclear weapons. I don't want any country, including my own, to have nuclear weapons.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker DesertRose: "What question do people ask you frequently that you hate or are tired of answering? (For example, when people find out I majored in English, I can just about put money on the fact that their next question is going to be "Do you/are you going to teach?") (Of course, only answer this if it's not upsetting or triggering or anything like that; in asking, I'm thinking more of annoying questions like the example from my life than anything else.)"
"How do you do your job day after day?" I hate the question, because normally the people who ask it don't really want to hear the answer. They want to hear some feminist superhero shit about how I'm impervious to pain, instead of the real answer: With lots of stress and trauma.
What I'm Listening To
Andra Day: "Rise Up [Acoustic]"
I love this song, but I'd never heard this acoustic version, until Shaker GoldFishy sent it to me earlier today. It's amazing. HER VOICE!
Finish This Sentence
The book I'm reading right now is...
...Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg.
This Makes Sense
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy; Islamophobia; guns.]
Fresh off the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll having found that, of the GOP candidates, Donald Trump has the highest support among white evangelical voters at 33%, Trump has announced he will be speaking "at Liberty University's first convocation this year, addressing thousands of young evangelicals on Jan. 18 when students return to campus."
Several evangelical leaders have frantically searched for ways to defeat Trump in the GOP presidential primaries by supporting other candidates, but Liberty will be welcoming Trump with open arms.As I noted last August, when Bernie Sanders announced he would be speaking at Liberty University, the school is explicitly anti-feminist and anti-gay, and has a Civil War "mourning room" that contains among its decorations a cross made from the hair of dead Confederate soldiers. (Yes, for real.) It sounds like a perfect match for Trump.
Liberty's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., has generally stayed out of the political spotlight — unlike his late father, who founded the school. But Falwell made waves in December for urging students to carry concealed weapons so "we could end those Muslims before they walked in," clarifying later that he was referring to the November attacks in Paris and the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif.
On a recent Fox News segment, Falwell said his three favorite presidential contenders are Republicans Trump, Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). "I think Trump reminds me so much of my father," Falwell said on the show. "He says exactly what he thinks no matter what anybody cares."
Republican presidential candidates have been speaking at Liberty University for years; in fact, Ted Cruz launched his candidacy from Liberty, which is the largest Christian university in the US and a hotbed of Christianity-justified bigotry.
Just another reason that it's complete garbage when the Republican Elite pretends to have any illusions about the nature of their base.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There are flickery lights in this video.]
Glasvegas: "Geraldine"
I love this song so much. I just adore how it seems like a very typical "I'll be your everything" romantic pop song, but it's really about a therapist. Genius.
Thank you, social workers!
Of Course
[Content Note: Guns.]
Like clockwork:
Even before President Obama began explaining a slate of executive actions to tighten background checks for gun buyers on Tuesday morning, Wall Street speculators delivered a late Christmas present to gun manufacturers.If this doesn't underline that the only real gun reform that will ever matter is reducing access to guns across the board, I don't know what will.
Stocks in Smith & Wesson and competitor Sturm Ruger leapt dramatically in morning trading as investors flocked to the firms, anticipating that gun sales will spike in response to the modest tightening of background check rules.
Smith & Wesson's stock went up more than 12 percent in the first half of the day. Sturm Ruger also leapt 7.4 percent, according to the New York Post. One analyst expects Ruger's stock to push even higher, to $70 from its current $66.
Daily Dose of Cute
Duckie makes the bestest pillow.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
