Mississippi Personhood Amendment
[info]bjhull
Originally posted by [info]gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment
Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.




tonight's House
[info]bjhull
Great episode, but I have a feeling I'm going to have nightmares from this one.  You see, it was just about 5 years ago that I got a call from my mom telling me that my sister was in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism.  It turned out to be stage IV renal carcinoma.  Average survival from diagnosis is 3 months (or it was then, I haven't kept up on the statistics) once the cancer spreads from the kidney.  And renal carcinoma doesn't respond to traditional chemotherapy.  Immunotherapy has some promise, and for awhile it seemed like it was working.  But as House said, once the diagnosis was official, it was game over.  

I already can't watch shows where babies die, so now I have to watch out for renal carcinoma stories too?  I never, ever thought it would be a problem.

Two things.
[info]bjhull
First, I fuckin' hate cancer.  It took my sister nearly 4 years ago, my beautiful, brilliant, sister.  We spoke nearly every day.  The loss of her is still a huge hole in my heart.  3 years later to the day, nearly to the hour, it took my dad.  It's not like in the movies where the brave cancer patient closes their eyes with a sigh, easily mistaken as a healthy person.  In her last weeks, my sister looked like she had been in a concentration camp.  My father could not walk from the bedroom to the living room unassisted for months before he died.   Every time I hear that stupid "Live Like You Were Dying" song, I want to hunt down whoever wrote that piece of crap and punch them in the face.

Today I was tooling around on livejournal and I read a journal entry that about broke my heart.  A woman who I admire for her writing and fabulous style, wrote about how her battle with cancer took away her ability to bear children.  And it all came back again how much I fuckin' hate cancer. 

But here's the second thing.  She won.  She is still here, bitching out stupid airheads, making me laugh my ass off on a daily basis, creating worlds of fiction that blow me away.  She won, cancer lost.  Take that asshole cancer.

(no subject)
[info]bjhull
I've got a fanfic idea rattling around my brain.  Gilmore Girls AU (set in Xanthe's BDSM universe) but the pairing that is coming to me most clearly is Taylor / Kirk.  I am somewhat horrified.

(no subject)
[info]bjhull
If one more of my facebook "friends" posts this shit about "I live for Christ" I am seriously going to go postal.  Don't do status after status about beer and NASCAR and then tell me your whole life is about Jesus.  BULLSHIT!

Externally applied ADD
[info]bjhull
Ever have that?  That's what work is like for me these days.  I got chewed out by a customer on Thursday because I didn't call him back.  Well, dammit, how can I call you back when everytime I try to dial the phone it rings?  And then he proceeds to spend the next 15 minutes keeping me from looking up the part I need to find for him so that I can call him and let him know when we can fix his washer.  

Oh the entitlement continues.  I went into the office today to feed the cats and check the machine.   One of the messages?  A guy called Saturday afternoon about a dishwasher problem.  He wants us to go out to fix it tomorrow.  Two problems with that: we're booked about 10 days out and he lives about 90 minutes out from our shop.  Yeah, that's gonna happen.  I can't pay people to hang out at the shop just in case someone happens to call. 

(no subject)
[info]bjhull
Funny story that my husband told about NIS when he was in the Navy.  He was a 2nd class petty officer working as photographer's mate based in Norfolk.  He got transferred to NIS, but eventually ended up at NISC.  I guess it was fairly common because both names were changed within a few years of his discharge in 1987.

procrastitation
[info]bjhull
I'm avoiding piles and piles of work.  I know that I'd feel so much better if I would just get off my ass and do it. 

(no subject)
[info]bjhull
Today my baby is 5 months old. I'm amazed at how different she is from her sisters; how much she is already her own person with her own ideas. Her oldest sister hated pacifiers, was not a snuggler and weaned after 3 months. The middle sister loved her binky until she was a year old, still loves to snuggle and nursed until she was a year old. This one used a pacifier on and off until she was 3 months, loves to be held, and likes to nurse and takes a bottle well.

(no subject)
[info]bjhull
Sometimes it sucks to be the mom. The kids are bouncing off the walls, fighting with each other, crying if someone looks at them sideways. You sit there are wonder what the hell you were thinking having kids.

Sometimes it's terrific to be the mom. The baby looks up at you and smiles with her whole body, the 4 year old says "you know what mama? I love you!" The 8 year old makes up a silly song to make her baby sister happy.

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