Now this is interesting

If you’re in the military stationed in Iraq, you’re not allowed to get pregnant, or get someone pregnant without consequences.

The problem? Married couples serve in the same unit, and they happen to be serving in theaters of war. So now thanks to Major General Anthony Cucolo’s order married couples have to make sure they don’t get pregnant while serving in Iraq or they could face a court marshal.

Just out of curiosity I checked to see what contraceptives the military has available for members of the armed forces. I found a pretty comprehensive list of his and hers condoms, oral, patch, injectable and so on, the usual stuff available at any drug store; provided you’re ready to pay over the counter for it because the previous government made it illegal for insurance companies to cover it, and Obama hasn’t fixed that … yet if ever. What did catch my eye however – EC, or emergency contraceptives are NOT available to military personnel, and haven’t been since 2002. A bill to make EC available to women serving in the military was introduced on December 16th.

Uh … this seems like a no-brainer to me. No contraception method is 100%, and even with using condoms, the pill or depo provera shots there is always the chance of pregnancy. Why do our military personnel not have access to EC, especially to married women who are serving in the war theater alongside their husbands? Do married service people in Iraq now have to abstain from sex? Doesn’t seem like a healthy rule to lay down General, when you have married couples serving under you. Might as well tell them to stop breathing while you’re at it.

Hopefully this news tidbit making the national scene will shed some light on this situation, and the bill will get passed. The obvious solution is too much to ask for. In the meantime, head on over to MSNBC and take their meaningless poll.

The reason why it took so goddamn long to make a decision about Afghanistan

They spent three weeks staring at this:

Why do I get the feeling they stared at it, tapped their pencils on their yellow legal pads, picked their noses, flicked it behind their chairs and said “Yup, looks good lets do it.”

Click here for the clear as mud step-by-step breakdown.

Because damn … that’s a lot of stuff, which can be summarized this way:

1. The central government’s a sham.
2. Roughly a dozen warlords each control their little piece of the country, and they all more or less hate each other, don’t even think they’re about to trust the central government, because everyone knows it’s a sham to begin with.
3. Which works on our side, because these factions will never band together to drive us out for good.
4. Economy … what economy?

And finally …

5. We’ve been there for 8 years and still don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on.

The only plan Obama needed to think about was how fast can we get the hell out of there.

No longer cool to kill someone because you hate what they do

While the teabagging lunatic fringe beat their chests and insist Obama hasn’t kept any of his campaign promises, he’s going to keep one on Wednesday by signing the promised hate crimes bill.

It will be named after Matthew Shepard The man from Wyoming who was beaten to death for being gay.

Yeah I know, crime is crime, and what happened to Matthew Shepard is a crime and those guys who did it got what they deserved, so why do we need to specify hate crimes?

Perhaps because in this country, people not identified by a very narrow mainstream demographic don’t get the same protection as others. Sure the law applies to all, but in some cases it applies more to some based on skin color, gender, or sexual orientation than others. If you don’t know this it’s time to pull your head out of that hole in the ground.

The only other way stuff like this won’t happen any more is if we ask pretty please with sugar on top for everyone to stop being bigots. Yeah, that’s the ticket …

Woman jailed for being pregnant, and other tales of American misogynist terrorism

“Pass enough laws so we all can be criminals”; a statement that describes those moments when you need to laugh to keep from crying.

Two news articles recently caught my eye. I mulled over which to blab about, and decided on both of them, even though they seem unrelated. As I thought about it more however they really are related, as they touch on the same issue.

A woman in Corpus Christi was jailed for being pregnant. Wait, there’s more.

Actually, she was paroled after serving time for drugs and forging checks. Drug addiction seriously sucks, it makes people do things you can only scratch your head at; unless you’re doing drugs too, then it makes perfect sense. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m human enough to realize people who get into these kinds of situations are dealing with a bigger problem, anyway, moving on …

Where it becomes a seriously WTF situation is when the judge decided to put her in jail not for violating her parole necessarily, but because she was six months pregnant. That’s right, she was put in jail to protect the fetus from the mother’s high risk behavior.

Now notice the word I used up there? Fetus? That’s the proper word to use when describing a pregnancy, NOT unborn child, which is used in this news article. There’s no such thing as an unborn child. This is a sexist charged term originated with the anti-choice people to make people think a fetus has personhood. Because of this, police and judges now believe they have the right to make decisions like the one that was made for this (admittedly not making the best choices for her fetus) woman.

The judge ordered the woman to be put in a treatment facility until she had the baby, but a bed never opened up so she spent three months in county lock up. She went straight from county lock up to the hospital to deliver. How much prenatal care do you want to bet she got while in county lock up? Remember, she was put in jail to “protect” the “unborn child”.

Welcome to the new American misogyny. Women are so reviled in this country they’re imprisoned for being pregnant. Sure, you’re thinking “but they did it to protect the child!” Ever been in county lock up? Neither have I, but I’ve worked in ‘the system’ long enough now to know it’s not the place I want to be pregnant. Find someone who has been in county lock up (there’s more and more of us these days) and they can tell you what it’s like.

Reading about this incident made me think of another recent development within the American law system that I promised myself not to blather about because Jesus Christ on a bicycle it’s probably the most heinous thing any state has done to hate on women so far, but it’s related. Starting November 1, 2009 in Oklahoma, any woman seeking an abortion must have personal details about her posted on the internet which will be available to the public. There are 37 questions in all the doctor by law must answer, but here are the first eight, just for shits and giggles:

1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
Live Births
Miscarriages
Induced Abortions

And those are just the first eight! Screw the constitution, one nation under constant surveillance! Think about the teen aged girl already traumatized about getting pregnant, now personal details about where she lives and how many times she’s been pregnant will be on the web, where her friends and neighbors can all read about it and make her life even more of a living hell. Oklahoma is full of small towns where only a few hundred people live. How hard will it be to figure out who the doctor is referring to on that web site?

American law is used to hate and demonize women, everyone knows that. What some Americans still don’t seem to grasp is that this is all part of a bigger, more terrifying trend in this country. The whole purpose of Roe v. Wade was to protect a woman’s right to privacy when making informed decisions about her reproductive health care. How on earth have we gone from that landmark legislation to imprisoning pregnant women and registering them online as if they’re sex offenders? Easy, none of us have a right to privacy anymore. None. of. us. Don’t believe me? Then read this and get back to me after you’ve thought about it.

Darl McBride gets the boot

Neckbeards everywhere celebrate with a mad yellow dye no. 5 head rushing Cheetos binge.

Slashdot, the finest online news source available, complete with analysis with forum bigwigs like Commander Taco, had in their news queue this wonderful tidbit about Darl McBride getting sacked by SCO Caldera.

Welcome to 2003.

Darl McBride became the brunt of much mirthfulness back in 2003 when SCO Caldera decided Linux users were illegally using UNIX code developed by their company, and therefore anyone using said code needed to pay SCO Caldera licensing fees to continue using it. Heh, really? No really they insisted, and went on a mad hunt to scour the universe looking for any whisper of code belonging to them being used by anyone. They held press conferences and lectures, had numerous articles printed in journals, and kept the Linux computing community in stitches with some of the amazing statements they made to the press. They also (unsuccessfully) sued everyone from IBM to Auto Zone for illegally using “their” code.

The only problem with this was by 2003 Linux, a free, open source operating system had been available to anyone with the ability, a 486 box and the desire to get their hands on Linux code and use it to their little computer nerding heart’s content for years. I’m sure there are still, somewhere in dusty, cluttered computer rooms around the world shrines erected to Linus Torvalds, Prometheus to the open source computing world.

SCO Caldera is only about 6 years too late. Better late than never.

Here I am, on the raggedy edge

I hate blogging personal stuff but it’s relevant to what I usually use this blog to blather about, because I’ve become part of the national trend. I was laid off last Thursday from my job.

I worked for a corporate residential treatment facility that ran an on-site school. My dedication to working with at-risk youth, helping them become successful adults and a steady paycheck were the only things that kept me there honestly, because I assure you private sector run schools – especially when they are run by non-education people – in a word … suck.

The fact that my former supervisor, a man with an elementary education certificate is now teaching my high school social studies classes is the only regret I have for being laid off. I’m used to it though, because social studies teachers are not hired for their vast knowledge in social studies, they are hired to coach. I have been passed up for plenty of teaching jobs I was more than qualified for because I don’t have coaching experience. All schools do this, and I assure you from experience teachers hired for their coaching experience are not concerned with what’s happening in their classrooms nearly as much as what’s happening on the field or on the court. I have loads of examples from personal experience and from the experiences of acquaintances to substantiate this problem.

Strangely enough I haven’t been sad or depressed at all about being laid off. If the census at my former employer’s goes up (not likely) I would get hired back. That’s comforting. Unfortunately the state of Idaho, in dealing with the current economic climate in this country hasn’t been sending clients our way, because although the treatment provided there has a 97% success rate, it costs money. There are other facilities in the state that don’t cost as much, or any money, and our usual clients are being sent there. Some of you know the population of adolescents I worked with, if you don’t you can ask. Just keep in mind, because of budget cuts the state of Idaho is putting these people back on the street after receiving less than successful treatment.

So for now I’m living off of severance, applying for unemployment and will sign up to substitute teach for the local school district. The only bad thing is I have joined the fifty some million and counting who don’t have health insurance. And the senate finance committee just passed a health care package that doesn’t have the public option. Fuck all y’all, thanks for nothing. The insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank. Assholes.

Now that I’m between jobs as they say, maybe I will have time to actually write that book I keep saying I want to write, but never have time to get done. Wish me luck!

How to celebrate being the longest running tv comedy series ever

Have your cartoon wife appear on the cover of Playboy.

The Simpsons have been on the Fox network for as long as Fox has existed, first as a short on the Tracey Ullman show, and later as their own 30 minute series. Being the longest running comedy series ever, and an animated one at that is a pretty amazing achievement. So how better to celebrate their achievement than do a full page spread of Marge in Playboy Magazine?

Wait … wut?

You may be thinking “Okay, so what’s wrong with that? What bugs me about it are two things:

1. Playboy, in trying to boost lagging sales put Marge on their cover to deliberately attract younger readers, and

2. The magazines with this cover will only be sold on newsstands.

If you subscribe to Playboy, you won’t get the Marge Simpson cover. If you want your magazine complete with a starkers Marge on the cover you have to go to a store where it’s sold. Don’t worry, even 7-Eleven plans to sell this issue in their stores.

In other words, Marge Simpson is on the cover of Playboy Magazine to encourage the younger generation to buy it, and it will be sold in stores where younger people congregate. I realize magazines like this have done publicity stunts in the past, but this blatant attempt at getting younger people to buy the magazine by putting a cartoon on it just seems … ick. What makes me say ick the most is that this type of iconic placement on products meant to attract younger consumers works. Think Joe Camel.

Playboy promises the article with Marge will include “very, very racy” images.

That’s just great.

Where I’m going to be

For oh … the next 5 years or so.

Google Books, the cool kids website that provides me with tons of research material now has every issue of Life Magazine from 1935 to 1970 available online in PDF format. How effing awesome is that?

The Life Magazine website is great all by itself, a treasure trove of photography you can spend the rest of your life browsing through. But what makes Google Books’ contribution to archiving magazines like this even better is now you get the articles and most importantly, the advertisements! Oh boy oh boy oh boy, the advertisements!

We’re not racist or anything!

Yay Patriarchy!

Sometimes a cigarette is just a cigarette …

The magazines themselves are wonderful, this 1943 issue is dedicated to the Soviet Union.

By 1948 of course it was all about hatin on poor old Karl.

This article also from 1943 has a great article about Detroit race riots. The pictures are pretty brutal, and a sad reminder of the problems that have existed in Detroit for a long time.

I like how Life Also tried to be educational and informative:

And provide important statistics:

For being a power to the people revolutionary Che sure did have a nice watch:

This just rules:

Life Magazine had cartoons too. Here’s some from World War II:

I’m going to have lots of fun looking through this archive.

This happens every year!

Tomorrow I leave for a three day conference in Sun Vally. My garden is still producing like mad but today may be the last day for most of the plants. A cold front is coming through tomorrow and they’re forecasting freezing temperatures by Thursday morning. Last year I was in Portland Oregon and it snowed on my garden; I lost a lot of groceries as a result.

Not this year! I spent the morning in my garden gleaning everything I could. It’s overcast today, which is odd for Tater land; from May to October it’s usually hot and dry and sunny without a drop of rain in sight. I took some pictures of my hard work.

Chanterais melons. These taste so much better than those California melons at the store. Worth the effort.

California wonder and jumbo jalapeno peppers. One of them turned a beautiful dark chocolate brown color.

Lots of tomatoes. My counter is covered now with all the green and not quite ripe tomatoes that I picked, I’m estimating about 50 lbs total. I also picked the only green onion that survived the June hailstorm. I cut it up and put it in the pizza I made for dinner. Also, fresh rosemary and chives, which are washed and in the fridge. I also picked the last of the fresh basil.

Cherry tomatoes that won’t have the chance to ripen.

And finally, today I tried a recipe from this month’s Vegetarian times … Roasted Ratatouille Pizza. The tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini were from my garden. It turned out very well, except I made an oat flour pizza crust. I will definitely make this recipe again.

Al Franken Reads 4th Amendment in Committee Meeting, DoJ Official Never Sees It Coming

As you may or may not know, some of the provisions of the UNPatriot Act are due to expire, so there’s plenty of committee meetings right now to get them renewed. Those of us with brains and elect to use them at all times know how unconstitutional this freedom denying piece of shit legislation is and pray for the day that it’s stricken forever. So does The Honorable Senator Al Franken of Minnesota

One of the provisions of the Patriot Act that’s up for renewal is where the government can tap into your cell phone or internet without a warrant and spy on you. Usually the FBI or police need to get permission to do that, and provide details of who, where and what they are looking for. It’s called the 4th amendment to the US Constitution, one of our basic rights as Americans we’re supposed to have.

Senator Franken yesterday brought up this very point with David Kris, and proceeded to read the 4th amendment to him in the committee hearing. Kris’s comment to this was “this is surreal.”

Did you read that? I wish there was a video of this somewhere I want to see it and hear it myself. The senator – who pointed out that he is not a lawyer, but neither are most Americans – read from the document that is supposed to govern us all, and all David Kris could say is “this is surreal.” In other words, somebody actually bothered to read the constitution and apply it to the actions of our government, and the government can’t grok it at all. Imagine that.

If this isn’t a litmus test for the dire straits this country is in … Anyway, God bless you Al Franken, God bless you.