Women don't actually need any rights, right?

Well, the Shrub's done it again. This time his assault on womens' reproductive rights is a White House Rule through the Health and Human Services department that is meant to "protect the moral and religious objections" of medical workers who object to abortions or sterilization. The major problem is that the wording is so vague it could end up being applied to simple birth control - among other things. Of course, my feeling is that if a doc or even the person sterilizing the instruments (protected under this proposed rule) has such a strong objection to what they're expected to do in their daily jobs, they should be looking for another one, not expecting me to curtail my rights to please theirs to be an ass.

Here's a link to an Adobe Acrobat pdf of the whole rule: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/08/20080821reg.pdf

Read it and see if you have a problem with it. If so, contact the White House before September 25, which is the deadline for public commentary. If you want to leave a comment at the main site, use this link: http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp. Of course, I just tried finding the proposed rule using all the search criteria I could think of and didn't, so good luck that way.

There are plenty of online groups that are already circualting petitions like the NARAL, NOW, Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org. However, a personal letter with specific insights from the proposed rule itself might be more effective.

Now, to read it more thoroughly and figure out what I'll be using for my letters, one to the editors of the Times and one to the Health and Human Services Department.

Ugh! Shall we all be barefoot and pregnant, ladies?

Mom just had to spoon-feed Grandma because she was refusing to eat. I don't know how much of this I can take. I asked Mom if it really was time to look at a nursing home and she said they'd not feed her, just insert a feeding tube, which Grandma has refused to have before. I think I'm reaching the end of my rope. I know she'd never let me spoon-feed her if I have to. She doesn't even speak to me if she can at all avoid it, but for the insults she hurls at my head.

Head hurts...

I really hate my head. I've been alternating between shooting pains behind my left eye to dizziness to just a plain headache all day. I took four pills to get through the workday and somehow managed to stay nice to everyone.

Migraines suck. And I've put up with the computer screen long enough to burn the discs I promised for a friend and I'm getting off. Need to do one more load of laundry then I'm going down for the count.

Wish grandma good luck at her doctor's appointment, everyone. She's going to need it with her health and behavior the last few days on top of this thyroid mass.

Stitching Olympics

I've been trying to keep my stitching and my real life separate, even by having a different blog for stitching, but lately they've entwined so much I can't.

I posted that Grandma hurt herself. She's not doing too hot. Wandering from room to room because she can't get comfortable and refusing to give any position a chance to relax. Well, she turns out to have degenerative disc disease (or some name like that) as well as a mass in her thyroid. They did an ultrasound Friday and she has an appointment with her doctor Wednesday to discuss the results. The Vicodin isn't doing much except make her loopy and crueler than usual. At times she's convinced she's really in the hospital and people are walking through the room. Mom's going to talk to her doc about a low-dose morphine patch.

Anyway, the stitching comes in because it is such a relief for me. Mom and others tell me I should make and sell my jewelry, but the stitching is so much more my art, you know? I'm going to show off what I've been doing lately.


This is a chameleon I'm making for my nephew. It's being stitched on Silkweaver's Jungle Fever, 32 count, with DMC threads. I've made slightly more progress on it since I took this picture on August 7th. If I finish page two of the pattern, I'll get the Silver medal and if I finish the whole thing before the Olympics are over, I'll get the Gold medal.

This is a mystery freebie from Papillon Creations, parts 1 through 8. I finished Part 8 around 1 this morning, hence getting my Bronze medal in my LJ community's Stitching Olympics.

And the bug is for myself. It's from The World of Cross-Stitching, a British magazine. It was supposed to have been done in shades of orange and red, but I like green bugs better, so I converted the colors and added beads and the peace sign to hang from the mirror. After I get back from Dragon*Con, I'll make it into a stretched canvas frame to hang in my room.

Shoot me now, please.

Okay, I'm ready to scream. About a week ago Grandma fell and hurt her back. This was right before my aunt's wedding. She's in pain, a lot of it. So, of course, she deals with this by walking from her bedroom to the living room to the bathroom to the living room to the bed again. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! She won't believe us that she'll recover better by staying still!

If I end up in jail tonight charged with murder, leave me there. I need the vacation.

Oh, and my aunt (not TAFH) has arranged with her best friend, Grandma's only reliable caregiver, to watch her new granddaughter instead of Grandma. Selfish fucking bitch. So, now we get to try Telespond and their idiotic boss and unrelaible caregivers again.

The wedding was really nice, though.

What a waste of great DNA

Be proud of me. I managed not to hit someone today. On the bus ride home, I ended up talking to two of the more obnoxious of my fellow bus riders today plus an absolutely gorgeous male specimen whom I had briefly spoken to on the ride up to the mall. Well, when my little conversation with the three men was done I went back to perusing my new stitching magazine. Mr. Gorgeous turns to me and my heart went a little pit-a-pat. Then he opened his mouth and uttered these words: "I think Women's Lib has killed the American family."

Let me back this up and tell you how this started. I got on and was reading my magazine. I suddenly realized all three men were staring at me. I asked what was wrong. Obnoxious Rider #1, responded that they had been talking about sewing. I was reading a sewing magazine (sort of). So, I commented that he knew very well that if I'm not stitching on the bus, I'm reading about it. This is mostly accurate. Mr. Gorgeous then turned to me and said, "I'll bet Rumpelstiltskin was your favorite fairy tale." I scoffed at this and said I preferred stories where the princess ended up saving the prince, totally disregarding the fact that Rumpelstiltskin wasn't exactly about sewing, even if spinning is pretty much the most vital step of getting decent thread to use. There was a little more about women in sports and athletes of all genders and types doping, with a little segueway into David Beckham, but the conversation pretty much died a natural death.

I went back to my magazine. That's when Mr. Gorgeous proved that great genes do not necessarily make a great person. I kept my cool through the whole conversation, even when he brought in the Bible and God making women inferior, yadda yadda. I brought up some polyandrous and matriarchal societies in history that did well. He tried the religion card again and I told him I didn't believe in his and to drop any point he wanted to make that hinged on the religious. He then brought up divorce rates in America and I told him that divorces weren't necessarily bad, see the example of abused women getting out of bad relationships. Here's where the restraint came in, people.

Mr. Gorgeous says that women are abused because they mentally and emotionally abuse their men first and that when said "man" strikes back, he's accused of being in the wrong. Women want to be equal to men, but when they are abused they cry foul. So, basically, it's that old argument that women just ask to be abused.

I did agree with him that there are unhealthy relationships out there, but I did not agree with him that anyone deserves to be hit. In fact, I'm even the one that brought up the fact that there are abusive women out there. I brought up my uncle's relationship with his wife. He's completely whipped. They have scream fights, yes, and she's really in control of the relationship, to his detriment, in my opinion, but he does not strike her. He doesn't, as Mr. Gorgeous contends, get back at her for "abusing him first".

Then Mr. Gorgeous brought up "the mother of his child". Apparently, she talks trash about his deceased mother, who was a drug user. He says he's pushed her, but not hit her. She is apparently a nasty piece of work, so in his mind, she deserves this. My comment to that was that I'd just stay away from her as much as possible, interacting only in regards to the child. Personally, it sounds like he shouldn't be throwing any stones. Too much glass around.

Pity, he really is a gorgeous man: high cheekbones; shaved head; yummy, runner-fit body; creamy, cafe-au-lait skin. What a waste of great DNA.