kcobweb

Consider watching the CBC coverage on C-span 2. Just overheard: "*IF* Napoleon had had nuclear submarines, we'd all be speaking French."

Also, they read an email from a viewer complaining that they wouldn't be covering it if it weren't for Oprah Winfrey and Tina Fey. The two anchors totally cracked up over this. Also, they aren't feeling as shy about discussing projections as the American networks. :)

It has occurred to me - watching the news about early voting, reading in the blogs and whatnot what to do tomorrow - that I have never lived anywhere where I had to stand in line for much time AT ALL to vote. Is it just me? Am I lucky? So it's time for a timely poll!! (This could apply to Election-Day voting or early voting, as long as you're going somewhere to stand in a voting booth, not mailing your ballot in.)

[Poll #1290638]

Please feel free to elaborate, question, rant and/or discuss in the comments.

Post this on your LJ if you're in an opposite-sex marriage and you don't want it to be "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage cheapens or hurts it somehow.

Yup. Having lived in Massachusetts for 2 1/2 years now, with Teh Gay Mairrage all around us, I can't say it's affected my marriage in any way whatsoever.

(I'm suddenly reminded of the bumper sticker: "Don't like abortion? Then don't have one."

Only this would read "Don't like gay marriage? Then don't have one." Even better than the original, I think.)

Whew. It's been a crazy couple of days. My Dad's been here visiting, which has its own set of Stuff -n- Issues. More later on that, perhaps.

School is good. I am doing well in my classes, and the workload is manageable - I'm only taking 2, so it's not that bad. My biggest fear - posting enough on the discussion boards - seems to be unfounded and I'm even doing okay (or oaky) on that front. (I always hated class participation. I'm better about that stuff than when I was 18, certainly, but it's still sometimes a struggle.)

Work is good too. I've been totally swamped lately, but in a good way, I suppose. Let me just say that I hate shelving picture books. They are all oversized (or strange shapes) and so thin, and easily pushed behind each other, and each author has about 14 different titles to rummage through. And a medium-sized stack is a million books (roughly) and just that much takes forever. Give me chapter books, any day. :)

Today I drove my dad to the airport - saw my first snow of the season crossing the small rise on Route 7 just past the Vermont border (just flakes blowing around in the air). What a cold day, too! While in the Big City, I ran a bunch of errands. I went into a JoAnn Fabrics Etc., and was stunned by the huge range of crafty stuff there (the words "You've never seen such a place!" entered my head).

I just got a call from Obama people asking me to volunteer, and the bitch nasty person.... no, bitch made me feel bad for saying that I was swamped and couldn't volunteer. Thanks a bunch. I should have chewed her out, instead of just sharing my frustration with y'all. Sometimes I wish I were a leetle more confrontational, and a little less passive about these things.

It occurred to me that I haven't been listing books here lately - and I'm not sure I'm going to catch up. Um, I do track them via Goodreads (which you can see on my Facebook page too). If you strenuously object, and you need my reading lists to be a regular feature of your life or something - tell me that, and I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll post the highlights for my adoring fans.

I just donated to Obama.

I'd like to thank Sarah Palin for inspiring me to get off my ass. I practically *never* donate to presidential campaigns.

Signal-boosting from fairoriana:

The Hill, a DC paper, asked all 97 of the senators who are not running for president if they would consider the position of vice president if asked. It's hilarious. Be sure to click through at the bottom of the article to the full list of all 97 answers.

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, and thereby Blog for Choice Day. I don't usually get into these things in this space, but I'm feeling in the mood for it today, somehow.

The Roe decision was handed down on the day I was one month old. I think of that, every year on this anniversary - if she had wanted to, if I had not been the result of a planned pregnancy, my mother would not have had any legal options. That makes me squirm a little bit, on her behalf. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be forced to carry a pregnancy I didn't want. (Being pregnant when you want to be is *wonderful*; my pregnancy only made me more pro-choice, as does having a daughter.)

I have been pro-choice as long as I can remember. Somewhere in the late 80s, while I was in high school, there were a bunch of news stories about abortion (Congress? the Supreme Court? not sure....), and I remember my 15-year-old self being very offended and appalled that a bunch of white old guys in suits and red power ties who were 2000 miles away could decide my fate like that (yeah, that's pretty much how I phrased it back then). And I was *years* away from having sex - but I knew that this impinged on my bodily integrity in a way few other things could.

My first real job out of college was working in an abortion clinic. These days, I lurk - and sometimes comment - in abortioninfo, which is a fabulous community dedicated to providing unbiased factual information without any pressure (either way, really) to girls and women in need. There is so much fear around the abortion decision and especially the procedure itself, even though an early abortion is something like 11 times safer than childbirth. Because it's a taboo issue, most people don't know of anyone around them who has had an abortion - in reality, 35% of women will have had an abortion by the time they turn 45.

I read that community because it makes it *real*. I do think that the pro-choice / pro-life debate tends to get bogged down in the rhetoric and it all becomes hypothetical, semantics, etc. This is not a hypothetical or a theory, this is someone's life, and that's what's on display in abortioninfo. The one thing I'd say I took away from my year working in the clinic is that everyone has a story, and every story is different. I see that in abortioninfo too, and that's what keeps me there - the stories.

I vote. galagan has accused me of being a one-issue voter, and that's actually kind of true. But as I said to my friend Z the poli sci professor, abortion rights is a litmus test for me: if I agree with a candidate on abortion, it is a fairly good indicator that I agree with them on a whole range of other issues. (sanj suggested that queer rights/gay marriage were also a good litmus test.)

Personally, I come down on the side of prevention - there's nothing inherently wrong with abortion, but it would be unnecessary surgery if the pregnancy didn't have to exist. I continually find it damned *appalling* that nearly half of the pregnancies in this country (to women of ALL ages) are unintended. We need better access to contraception (as well as emergency contraception), and comprehensive sexuality education, for children of all ages. I fully intend to be the cool mom who will answer all questions - my daughter can (hopefully) bring home her friends to ask me questions, and I will have a drawer with a boxful of condoms that people can take without my watching over them. Because knowledge is power.

Source for statistics here.

Random thoughts:

*Babies smell so good - but especially after baths.

*The EB's hair is soooo soft after it's been washed.

*She likes baths! This is A Good Thing. Especially considering how many excretory functions there have been issuing from her various orifices.

*Unbelievably gorgeous weather here today.

*I managed to do a load of baby laundry, but I really need to do my own. Everything I am currently wearing has spit-up on it (it was quite a day).

*The Little House series on ABC is managing to be pretty good still, if a tad sensationalized. I've had to quell my inner that's-not-what-happened-in-the-book critic a couple of times. But just a couple.

*Funniest political rumor I've seen in a long time: that new Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is contemplating a Presidential run in 2008. My first thought was "oh please". Um, people? This is a podunk state, especially in political terms. Presidents don't *come* from podunk states. They come from big electoral-heavy states like Texas or California, or from the South. (There are two famous politicians from Montana - Jeanette Rankin and Mike Mansfield - both of whom predate the modern media era.)

I'm being rather calm about the whole election debacle, but there is one tiny bizarre aspect that is nagging at me. A very personal thing.

( more fallout from my summer )