the phone call ended in such a way...

Following up on the last couple of entries here,  as you may have heard, the HHS has proposed redefining contraception as abortion.

Since some people assumed feminist bloggers were making this up or overreacting, the actual document is here in .pdf format.

Almost all of the text is below.  This gets really long, so I have cut it.  I have bolded the parts I feel warrant especial concern, and I have made comments in red throughout.

If my understanding of something is faulty, that's probably because I am not a lawyer.  I think, however, I have a pretty good idea of where this is going.

 

So.  Now you see why I'm so worried.  That is subtle, insidious, and entirely horrifying.

What is just as bad is that I had not known that there were already federal laws in place which specifically prevent medical institutions from refusing to hire people who will not perform their jobs.

People, I understand conscience.  I really do.  I don't want people to have to do things they do not want to do.  I strongly feel, therefore, that people who cannot cope with abortion, who object to contraception, should not be in medicine.  Those two things are cornerstones of health care, as well as basic human freedom.  Anyone who would deny them to a patient based on their conscience does not have anyone's best interests at heart.  Only their own.

I also understand these people do not want to have anything to do with what they see as taking a human life.  Again, if that is the case, if a person's grasp of biology and medicine is so weak that one can actually believe that a fertilized egg is of equal or greater importance than a woman's right to determine the course of her own life, I do not believe that person has any place whatsoever in medicine.

I'm not really open to debate on these points, and I am warning everyone of that well in advance.  If you wish to debate, do so in your own journals.  That is what they are for.

This, if passed, would be disastrous, and I urgently request that you do something.  Write a letter, speak to someone, pass the word around.  This must not go unchallenged.  Too much ground has been lost already.  This is a very real danger to the reproductive freedom of all human beings.  If this sort of thing is allowed to spread, it is going to affect you, your siblings, your children, your friends, everyone you know.

Please write or make a phone call.  Please do something.

Please.  These are your rights, too.

Well, celticmistress stayed with me overnight on Wednesday, and has now moved on to Michigan. The last I heard, early this morning, was that she was home; I am assuming that she's been sacked out or recovering ever since. I know I would be after a drive like that.

A wonderful foster home has been found and, to the best of my knowledge, celticmistress's cats will be there very soon. That part is a little out of my hands at this point, given that they're a long way off.

But I thought I would let you know that she left a nasty situation despite a critical lack of support from key individuals and some incredibly annoying delays, and has successfully returned home with self and cats intact.

Thank you to everyone who helped spread the word. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This goes way above and beyond anything I had expected, and I am insanely, incredibly grateful for your help, because I could not have done this without youall. I don't know who it was who forwarded the link to the foster couple, or who forwarded it to them. I don't know how it happened. I do know that without the collective effort it wouldn't have happened at all, and my friend might very well still be stuck down there.

And, Babe, I don't think I said it the other night, but I will say it now, right here in front of everyone. I am so, so proud of you.

Love you, babe.

Marge: Homer, you'll love going to Japan. You liked Rashomon.
Homer: That's not the way I remember it.

So...have you guys seen this? Am I really slow on the uptake?



Neil Patrick Harris is a wannabe mad scientist/super villain operating a video blog that involves well produced musical numbers.

Seriously, watch it.

Edit: Because it's only going to be up for two more days. Third act debuts tomorrow, and they're gone after the 20th!

Edit 2: Apparently it's all done by Joss Whedon. So now you KNOW you want to watch it.

Ok.. I have Adobe Premiere Pro and I want to learn how to effectively compression a short video (less than 10 min) for viewing on the web. Medium quality, but higher than your standard Youtube quality. Cam anyone tell me how to do this?

Best result I could get for a 6 min .mov, at 23 fps, 75% quality with sorenson 3 compression was 137mb.

Lyrics from a song heard in a dream:

The lights are on
But you're not here
I'm not here
Nobody really is at home

Apparently the song was about showing/giving gestures of affection even when really uncomfortable with it, for whatever reason.

Apparently even a very brief flirtation with a mustachioed elf priest through an online game is enough to give me a guilt complex.

The song, incidentally, was sung by Nelly Furtado in my dream. In the music video I was watching, she was either wearing a very thick black nightie or a mid-length cocktail dress and was laying in a bed... but casually, not provocatively, kinda like she just flopped there. It was rather cool.

The Dark Knight.

Was it good? That's almost an understatement. The movie is spectacularly good. When the only fault I can find is that I still get bothered by Bale's "SWEAR TO ME" Batman voice, then you know something was done absolutely right with the film. Every worry I had, every niggling doubt that the movie not might live up to what I hoped it can be...gone. Obliterated in a whirlwind of a movie.

Top notch performances all around. Bale, Oldman, Eckhart, and Ledger.

You know, I don't think I've ever actually seen a film with Heath Ledger in it until tonight. And only now do I truly miss his presence. His Joker was something...something approaching perfect.

I cannot wait to see the movie again.

If you use yahoo mail, and you get a message with the header 'Yahoo alerts (Account Close Notification)', DO NOT RESPOND.

It's a phishing scam. Replying to it will not send anything to Yahoo officials, but a Hotmail mailbox, instead. You can check the full header to verify this for yourself.

Figured I'd post this so people can see it before it's taken down.

Watchmen trailer. And it actually looks good. Though I'd hardly call Zack Synder a "visionary director."

I love the shot of Rorschach's closeup...and of Doc Manhattan vaporizing Vietnamese fighters...

Edit: Good version HERE.

I would like to discuss the portentous significance of coming home to find a dead crow on my porch. It certainly appears to bring with it the weight of ill-omen, what with its black feathers crawling with flies, its button-shine eyes now hazy and sightless. Then again, as a traditional bird of death, a deceased crow might represent the triumph over mortality.

And then what does it represent when I scoop it into a Hefty bag and throw it in a dumpster?

Why is it that children, who are prone to running around naked, aren't allowed to look at naked people, and adults, who ARE allowed to look at naked people, get yelled at for running around naked?


Also.

Why is "At night" correct and "At day" not? "In night" "In day" does the same thing. Why is "In the evening" correct but not "In 7PM"?

( Tiny jins are behind the cut )

I'm looking for photo reference for a picture I'm working on. I have a male character, mostly nude, resting on his stomach, with his torso propped up off the ground, resting on his arms from the elbows down. The viewer is looking at his back/dorsal side. I don't think I can complete this picture without photo reference of this pose. In the (probably unlikely) event that someone has a photo reference of a man in this pose or finds one I would be very grateful for the help.

Dude. I so do not even remember writing that last night. I have vague recollections of being really pissed off, and some memory of being at the keyboard in a frothing rage, but no concrete memory of actually writing it. No recollection of my thought process at all.

Anyway, I stand by it, and it came out well, for all that I was out of my gourd on Benadryl. (Which is how the whole red, red pony thing happened, as you'll recall.)

For those of you seeking a more formal solution, take this information and do something with it.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt
Office Phone: 202-690-7000 or 202-205-4708
Email: mike.leavitt@hhs.gov
Fax: 202-690-7203
Correspondence Secretary: 202-690-6392

Letters and faxes are awesome. Calls are good. Emails are okay. Don't just sit there and let them get away with this shit, please.

And if you are a dude, you really ought to speak out, because I know y'all hate wearing condoms as much as I hate having them inflicted on me. And don't think they won't come after condoms next. So get your ass in gear and fucking say something. This is not just some chick thing you can afford to ignore. This is for the safety of every woman you know, including moms, sisters, daughters, friends, lovers, wives, and coworkers. If you love any woman, anywhere, this should be just as troubling to you as it is to women.

You may not "do" politics. Fine. Nobody's asking you to fly to Washington for a march or hand out flyers. Just take five minutes, write a fucking email, and then forget about it.

You may think that what you say won't make a difference. It certainly won't help if you don't say anything. In fact, I strongly suspect that it's exactly that sort of apathy that got us where we are today, and that pisses me off.

You may think you don't know what to say, but your letter doesn't have to be a finely-crafted work of art. It just has to be there. It's your voice. Use it.

Stand your fucking ground, people. It's the first step toward turning the tide.

Okay, this is a rant, and it got really long, and it probably wandered all over, but I beg of thee, WHAT THE FUCK?

This fundamentalist infestation is getting out of hand. The shit I have read this week has just appalled me, and now this:

United States Department of Health and Human Services proposes classifying contraception as abortion.

Just . . . I am too revolted to sum it up. Just go read.

Yeah, yeah, it may not go through, and I hope that it doesn't, but still. Does the fact that this has been proposed not scare the bleeding fuck out of you?

But remember, folks,

Having kids will make you happy and fix everything. In fact, it's pretty much the greatest thing ever.

FOR EVERYONE.

You don't have to like it, just fucking do it, you stupid, stupid bitches. God knows, you don't know what's fucking good for you.

And anyone who tries the "There, there, pat pat, things aren't so bad!" tactic on me tonight is going to be wearing their ass for a hat. This individual instance may not be that bad. No individual thing is that bad. But it's part of a pattern. What the fuck does it take for people to see what is going on? From where I'm standing, in a backwards state full of poor people who cannot afford to travel, with only one abortion clinic, with mandatory counseling and waiting laws, it looks very fucking bad indeed. They are required to have an ultrasound, often a vaginal ultrasound, even if they are rape victims who might, you know, object to having things shoved into them by people they don't know. They are required to wait 24 hours between "counseling," which is biased against abortion, and abortion itself. Many can't afford the drive, much less the overnight stay.

These amoral fucks do not want women to have control over their own bodies. Period. End of story.

It is exactly. That. Simple. No other explanation fits. They either have to trust women to make their own decisions, even if some might be decisions they don't like, or they decide they don't trust them, in which case they obviously think that they are smarter than all women and believe that nobody should have a choice at all. If you are against it, you are an amoral shit. Period. And I really don't give a flying monkey turd if I have anti-abortion people hanging around here who will start wringing their hands about my having called them amoral shits.

An amazing number are even hypocritical, amoral fucks who think abortion is okay if it's, you know, for them, or for their daughter, or whatever. But not for us irresponsible spraddle-legged fuckslots. Oh, no!

Last week, we learned that Barack Obama is not our friend. He supports tightening restrictions on abortion, and he does not believe that mental distress is serious or life-threatening. Even if he was lying to that Christian magazine, his words are reprehensible, and further, an act of cowardice. I've heard it dismissed as "politics", people have excused it: "Of course he's saying that. He's trying to get votes." It is not politics. It's hundreds of thousands of lives. My life is not a fucking bargaining chip on the table of rich assholes arguing over who gets to be King Shit. He's either someone who either genuinely believes the damnable lies our culture tells about women, or who is too chickenshit to say what he really thinks.

I'm past caring which it is. All I care about is that women's rights are seen as negotiable, something that there should be give and take on, compromise on. Fucking compromise. On our humanity. Our lives. All I care about is that now women's safety is getting narrowed from both ends.

Pharmacists are denying people birth control. Do these smarmy little dog turds get barred forever from practice? No! In fact, the fundie asshole brigade has started their own little fundie pharmacy where you can't buy basic shit like condoms or birth control. Bet they still stock Viagra, because thwarting god's will does not extend to boners.

Ambulance drivers can now refuse to transfer women for lifesaving abortions because these people who deal with decapitations and eviscerations and impalements and amputations think it's icky that a woman might want to save her own life by ditching a baby that's going to fucking kill her. And if she drops dead, can they be held responsible? Not in Mississippi!

And other states are eyeballing similar laws, which would allow small-minded fundie doucherags hiding their bigotry behind the aegis of "conscience" to cast aside their sworn duty and take their moral high horse out for walkies while people suffer and sometimes die. More here, if you can stand to read it. There's some doozies in the comments.

And here, in case you wanted to know all the ways in which an abortion could be needed to save someone's life, which apparently these snotty little shits count more cheaply than tongue-kissing their god's honky ass while rubbing their hard conscience through their bullshit-filled moral diapers until they achieve some kind of transcendent orgasm attainable only by people capable of fitting their entire heads up their self-righteous asses. Every time a fundie fuckwit masturbates his puny little ego, god kills a poor woman. How about that? Oh, that's right. They don't care!

Open letter to you simpleminded, condescending little twits:

What the fuck, people? Your petty grandstanding means fuckall in the face of someone else's life, and if you have sworn to serve, you are flying in the face of your duty to even think twice about doing something that puts the life of a pregnant patient at risk if she consents and wants you to fucking do it. If I want my unborn baby dead and me alive, you had goddamn well better respect my wishes, because I'm the one who can think, reason, remember pain, and feel fear.

Sometimes, you dead-souled, unreasoning fuckwits, a woman actually wants a baby she is forced to abort. But no, you'd have her suffer, and have the baby suffer -- if either lived -- because it tickles your sense of righteousness' dick when innocent people suffer. Suffering, after all, brings us all closer to Jesus! Isn't that right? Letting innocent people suffer, letting them die, that's just like kicking ass for the lord! Let women die, just so you can feel good about not having done anything that goes against that book you've had to have explained to you by people who believe that god created pretty much everything except homos during a week-long manic state.

Fuck. You.

All you vapid, fundamentalist shits. Fuck you and your "The female body is an enemy. It can't be trusted. We need laws to govern it, we need a higher authority to keep it out of trouble."

Fuck you. You actually think you fucking own us? To the point of blaming us for "consequences" that you fucking inflict on us?

Fuck that shit. Fuck it, you moral coprophages. Fuck it, suck it, eat it, and die shitting it again.

And you know what? I've had to listen to your offensive, misogynist shit for so long that I am sick to the point of barfing. Your story has gotten aired so much it's nauseating stench is noticeable worldwide, and I really don't give a rat's prolapsed asshole to hear your dick-puke opinion. So go rant on your own little fundie troglodyte corners about what a heinous bitch I am, but don't you fucking bring your "but, but, but" shit here.

That's right. Y'all can just shut up and know how it feels to be denied your voice and to know that nobody gives a lizard-raping fuck what you think.

Hope to find your head in a beehive someday,

Naamah

ETA: Go here. Sign this.

Well... Pearl passed on at 7:35PM this evening. I need to figure out where to bury her, now.

Yeah, I still suck on the updating. Lol

Things are going all right here. Since the husband came home, it's been busy as usual. Twice the laundry, twice the cleaning, and I actually have to cook. Not to mention we seem to go out and do something with friends nearly every night.

We bought my brother's gaming laptop a couple of weeks ago and just got it in the mail the other day. I've been going through my regular routine of downloading programs and installing games, as usual. The new thing for this computer though is Age of Conan, Hyborian Adventure. I think I've lost my husband as a WoW partner forever to it... So long as he's happy though. I haven't been playing WoW nearly as much as I used to, but I can't see myself getting rid of it. I still have too much fun when I do play...

Anyways, that Conan game has some crazy high system requirements. Fortunately the laptop has been able to provide decent game quality, even if it isn't quite as smooth and pretty as our friend Tim's computer can play it.

Thismorning, we and our friends got to go to the military version of traffic court. One of the base police officers has been causing a lot of problems, “warning” (harassing) people that they can't park in areas painted with green paint. We looked up the California traffic laws, which apply to the base, and showed him that we could park in those areas, so he called up his other cop buddies to write us tickets for illegal parking. Said officer was off-duty at the time, so he felt free to stand by holding his bottle of BudLight and harass us, while joking around with his cop buddies, in a half drunken stupor.

But you don't mess with a woman when she knows she's right, and has the paperwork to back it. I got photos of the street, both where I was ticketed, and where my friends were ticketed, and with the full copy of the California state driving laws, we presented our cases in turn.

Our tickets were thrown out, and the judges seemed both surprised and amused that we went so far to prove our innocence. Apparently there were a couple of similar cases last time the traffic court was in session, and we weren't the only ones there today with bogus tickets. So they kept our photos and are going to see about making the cops stop writing the bogus tickets in those areas... 'Tis a great victory for two quiet little wives who generally try to avoid confrontations of any sort. Lol

We just hope that the other individuals in there today, who were ticketed on the same street, also had their tickets thrown out.

It's really sad, too. The base police officers we met today were all really nice, and previous ones we've met have been pretty reasonable as well. It's just that prick that wrote us the tickets, while we were pointing out our rights in that book, and the drunkard SOB that started it all.
You'd better watch out Mr. M-A K-9 unit cop... We've tasted victory, and it was sweet...

I'm now dead of wrong. I just hit a sleeping cat with a Hitachi Magic Wand attachment.

I was switching the boring vinyl head out for a more entertaining one, lost my grip, and the durn thing sailed across the room and right into Tazendra's amorphous black mass. Specifically, the portion of her amorphous black mass with eyes.

Is it cruel of me that my first reaction was not concern but poorly-stifled, convulsive laughter at her look of utter reproach?

Thank heavens they can't be traumatized by things like this, or they'd be drawing some pretty fucked-up shit in kindergarten.

Technical difficulties have pushed the ETA back a bit, but a temporary home-with-humans is still needed for three kitties who will be in Michigan on or around Thursday.

There are shelters that will take them but proof of shots is needed, which is problematic for one of the kitties who has had her shots but lacks papers. Also, the other Amanda and I really think they'd do better with people instead of boarded in a cage. The move is going to be disorienting enough for the little guys.

So, if you or someone you know is available for this, either email me your contact info at naamah@gmail.com and I'll forward it to celticmistress, or email it to her directly at kthnxkbai@gmail.com, and she will get back to you when she's able to do so.

And, yes, Charlie still needs a home.



OMG. I wish he lived close enough for me to squeeze him into marmalade! He is so cute.

Anyway, the kitties will be northeast of Lansing, in Perry. The fostering would be strictly temporary until Amanda can get her own place. More details about the whole shebang are here.

I really, really appreciate youall helping me out and spreading the word as far as you have. This is one of those cases where helping animals is going to help a person, too, in a major way.

I didn't make this, but it's so true.

Yet, at least. Pearl, my cat of eight years who has at least eight more behind her... well, she's dying. Over the course of today, it seems she's finally lost the ability to walk. She can sit upight if, well, I help her up. Otherwise...

She's going.