Blog Re-Post: People Who Oppose Abortion Are Officially More Important Than You

... from the blog Griper Blade
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6231355696199236063

Or just read it all here:
People Who Oppose Abortion Are Officially More Important Than You

A long, long time ago, I was working for a fundraising firm. One of our biggest clients was NARAL -- then the National Abortion Rights Action League, now NARAL Pro-Choice America. One of my jobs was to identify and counter common objections to fundraising appeals and someone came to me with one that I thought was pretty much a gimme. People were objecting that, while they were supportive of a woman's right to choose, they were also sympathetic to complaints by anti-abortion types that they shouldn't have to their tax dollars paying for abortion. This just wouldn't be fair.

The first words out of my mouth were, "What makes them so special?" After all, the number of Americans who can't point to some use of taxpayer money that they're against is probably so tiny as to be almost non-existent. By this argument, should Quakers be forced to pay for the military, should environmentalists be forced to subsidize roadbuilding in wilderness areas, should privacy advocates have to fund the NSA and human right supporters have to foot the bill for Gitmo? From the death penalty to war to torture to domestic surveillance, people are forced to pay for things they passionately oppose. Setting abortion aside, as if it were somehow a special circumstance for "pro-life" taxpayers, would be absurd -- akin to letting animal rights activists skip on paying for the meat portion of meals served to military personnel.

But, in Washington, never bet against the absurd. When the legislative sausage is made, a key ingredient is often a heaping scoop of stupid. Or, as was the case this weekend, Stupak.





See, the House passage of a healthcare reform bill this weekend came with a price. Ambulance services wouldn't be covered, because of the deep religious beliefs of the Amish. No, wait. I misread that. Anti-abortion people won't have to pay for abortions. In fact, no one will. Abortion, a legal medical procedure, has been made all but illegal for insurers to cover. For this, we can thank Rep. Bart Stupak and 240 members of Congress. Many of those voting to add the measure voted against the final bill anyway -- the entire reform bill passed 220-215.

Stupak, a Blue Dog Democrat and member of the C Street cult "the family," managed to get a vote on his amendment at the last minute. And not without a lot of behind-the-scenes drama.

Politico:

One by one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had leaned on her rank-and-file Democrats for months to cast off personal prerogatives for the sake of a history-making health care bill.

But for Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, this was too much to ask.

So when Pelosi announced late Friday that she would allow an amendment strictly limiting insurance coverage of abortions, it touched off an angry yelling match between DeLauro and another Pelosi confidant, California Rep. George Miller, and tears from some veteran female lawmakers, according to people in the room.

Some of the lawmakers argued that Pelosi was turning her back on a decades-long campaign by female Democratic members in support of abortion rights. Miller rose to Pelosi’s defense, which resulted in an angry confrontation between him and DeLauro, said the sources.



To get the skinny on what the Stupak amendment would actually mean, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I turned to NARAL:

The Stupak-Pitts amendment forbids any plan offering abortion coverage in the new system from accepting even one subsidized customer. Since more than 80 percent of the participants in the exchange will be subsidized, it seems certain that all health plans will seek and accept these individuals. In other words, the Stupak-Pitts amendment forces plans in the exchange to make a difficult choice: either offer their product to 80 percent of consumers in the marketplace or offer abortion services in their benefits package. It seems clear which choice they will make.



As I said, under the amendment, covering abortion will become all but illegal. Anti-abortion types won't have to pay for abortions and neither will anyone else. Meanwhile, you'll still be buying Viagra. No controversy in covering that.

Still, it seems likely that the House bill wouldn't have passed if it weren't for the amendment. Apparently, 240 House members believe that people's objection to abortion are more important than your objections to war or the death penalty or whatever various and sundry nightmares you're paying for. And 64 of those were Democrats. I know how my rep voted, you might want to see which way yours went. I don't get to yell at Rep. Tammy Baldwin very often, so do me a favor and yell at yours if they're among the yeas, OK?

But I guess that's how the sausage is made; two steps forward, one step back. It isn't pretty and it isn't fair, it just is. And that's why it never ends. We like to believe that we elect all the right people and everything gets fixed and stays fine forever, but that's not the way democracy works. It's always a fight for what's right and it's always a struggle for progress. It'll keep going that way, day after day, until the final day of the republic. What we lose, we can gain back -- and what we gain, we can lose.

I always say, after you win, don't go anywhere. You aren't done by a long shot. This issue isn't going away and neither should you.

-Wisco

Exercise idea to think about

The past month I've been working out like crazy at the gym and eating between 1200-1400 calories a day. Thanks to jell-o (TM) sugar-free pudding and new birth control, I am not yet on the verge of killing other people, then myself, as is normally the case when I diet.

Currently I am enjoying it more than derby (blaspheme!) because I feel in better shape and so far it's drama and meeting free. I hate meetings. I know I will start to miss derby as the season draws nearer and I will go back, but I am reluctant to give up the strength and endurance I've gained over the summer. Which leads me to this...

While searching the internet for calories in mung bean noodles (not on the back of the package I bought at the grocery store, because they are imported noodles), I came across this and thought it was an interesting concept to keep in mind as my summer of crazy hardcore workout comes to an end:

"Most of us need to develop and maintain a lifelong exercise plan that blends with our more sedentary work lifestyles. This should include a natural seasonal variance that ideally coincides with the cycles of light and dark in our area. The activity should be outdoors and energy expending during the warmer, lighter months; energy gathering exercise, such as yoga, done indoors is best in the colder, darker times. The exercise program should provide a balance that leads us to our optimum weight, good strength, and adequate endurance-and should be an integral part of our life, as it was for most of our ancestors." -Elson M. Haas 'Staying Healthy with Nutrition'

In a culture where everything is go-go-go all the time, it feels good to get permission to stop. I will be ramping up my workload, time commitments, and physical activity level during the very months when I feel like we should all be able to hibernate, and least for a month. As a trainer at my gym said, "You have to build toward something. You can't peak all the time". You have to cycle, in physical activity and in life. Build, build, build, peak, start again. It's just the way it goes.

Physical fitness wise, I think I may be peaking at the beginning of September. Then un-peaking all season, and maybe ramping up again by finals.

P.S. Mung bean noodles have 491 calories per cup. Don't eat them. They are the devil's food. Sugar free jell-o (TM) with 2 tbsp of cool-whip (TM), on the other hand, only has 75 calories.

Age Appropriate T.V.

Today one of my co-workers told us his 2 year old son is scared of police sirens... because he was watching the TV show Cops with his son, and now every time his kid sees or hears a police siren, he gets scared and wants to go inside because he thinks the police are going to take him away.

"I never even thought of that.." said my co-worker, feeling bad about his child's now apparent terror of the police.

Yea, when the giant "MA-TV - for mature audiences only" warning popped up on your TV screen, you never considered that your 2 year old wasn't mature enough to view the show? Or maybe you thought he would be able to absorb it.

Great googly moogly, I can't even fathom that an ADULT would want to watch that show, let alone let their impressionable 2 year old child view it.

God Bless America.

Countdown to Finals: Part II

No practice or gym on Tuesday, so I made the hubster go for a bike ride with me after work, but not before I called the woman who owns the house we want to tell her YES we are interested, find out when she’s putting it back on the market, and who the realtor is. It was a yin and yang conversation – the good news is she’s listing it June 1 and as soon as she signs with her realtor at the end of May she’ll call us so we can come see the house again with OUR realtor. The bad news is she said she’s ready to “be done with it all (home ownership)”, but that if she doesn’t find someone who’s “really interested” she’ll just take it off the market again. I took that to mean if she doesn’t get the price she wants she’s pulling it. Rawrgh.

After the bike ride I jumped rope in the basement for … not long enough as one of our downstairs neighbors came down to change over his laundry and complain about our landlord and the washers and driers in the basement, while pulling 3 loads worth of laundry out of their drier. “Maybe it would work better,” I thought to myself, “if you didn’t put 3 loads of laundry in it.” But there’s no talking to some people. At least it was the non douche-bag downstairs neighbor.

Then I did some stretching / yoga and ate dinner. D made a delicious spicy venison / potato / half soup / half stew thing. Then I drank not one but THREE glasses of wine while we cleaned our apartment because the landlord is showing it tonight. Last time he showed it I hadn’t cleaned the mold off the top of the shower (our bathroom doesn’t have a fan and so mold grows in it at a disturbing rate). I figured the prospective tenants might want to know about the mold situation, but this time I cleaned off the mold.

Then I ate popcorn, watched a few episodes of Weeds, soaked in an Epsom-salt laden bathtub because my arms hurt a lot, and went to bed.

Victory, here I come.

Countdown to Finals: Part 1

Finals are this Saturday, May 16.
This finals bout marks the first time in 5 years of Mad Rollin’ Dolls history that the Vaudeville Vixens and Unholy Rollers have ever played for 1st place.

So, how am I preparing for our victory in finals? Good thing I have this blog to record the process.

Monday 5/11/09 – Workout with Stitch and Blone.
A local gym does a special “derby only” class for us twice a week. Monday the class was cancelled because our instructor couldn’t make it, but we can drop in on another class at the same gym for the same price.

I dropped in along with Stitch (Quad Squad) and James Blond (Referee and Dairyland Dolls bench coach). It was a killer workout of 20 body rows, 20 Hindu push-ups (or divebombers), 20 sit-ups, 20 cleans (with 30% - 70% of your body weight), and 1 lap around the building (1/4 mile). Repeat 4 times. We did the whole thing in just under 38 minutes. I would like to note that’s the workout people are required to pass in order to be qualified to serve in the F.B.I. I would also like to point out that I biked to and from the gym.

I then went home and ate about 700 grams of protein and some pasta, went to the grocery store, came home and had a snack of more pasta and cottage cheese, drank a giant glass of wine, and finished watching Kung Fu Panda, which I watched so many times in for free online in crappy resolution that my husband bought it for me.

I then downloaded the version of the song Kung Fu Fighting done by Jack Black and Cee-Lo, which I am trying to convince my team to skate out to at finals for our intro. They aren’t fans. Clearly, the rest of my team does not identify with Kung Fu Panda as closely as I do.

The muffin man.

The past 2 days I have been talking to a customer who lives on Drewry Ln.
Do you know who else lives on Drewry Ln.?
The muffin man.








THE MUFFIN MAN!?!
The muffin man.

Awesome Blogs

THE PEOPLE have been clamoring for this for a long time – my personal recommendations of the best sites on the web.

I know this might sound dubious, but I assure you there are many who consider my website recommendations as a sort of “Seal of Approval”, signifying a truly quality website.

So presented here for the first time are The Best Sites on the Web ™ (thus far), in random order:

Fail Blog. A blog about fail, epic fails, and occasionally a win. http://failblog.org/

Engrish.com. A blog about mistranslations from Asian languages
to English. http://www.engrish.com/

Stuff White People Like. A blog about stuff people like. Hilarious. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

White Whine. A blog about things only white people complain about. Not as funny as Stuff White People Like. http://whitewhine.tumblr.com/

Garfield Minus Garfield. Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. In other words: Awesome. http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. In other words, this should be featured on Stuff White People Like.
http://xkcd.com/242/

Cake Wrecks. When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Fuck You, Penguin. A blog where I tell cute animals what’s what. http://fuckyoupenguin.blogspot.com/

Go Fug Yourself. Possibly my favorite. It's a blog about celebrities' dressing disasters. It sounds awful, I know, but I assure you it's beyond your wildest expectations. http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/

ONLY FOR THE BLACK-HEARTED:
Tard Blog. This is a weblog written by a real life special education teacher.*
http://www.tard-blog.com/
*I highly doubt the authenticity of this statement. The blog is still hilarious.