Inland, Dreaming of Waves

Leftover dominatrix

Speaking of saving things, I made Todd eat leftovers for the second night in a row. I, personally, was saving myself for pie (see next post). So I go upstairs to work a little more and I hear him talking to the cat, in mournful tones:

“Rufus, you and I have to singlehandedly eat all the leftovers so that Beth and I can go out to dinner someday.”

Tonight he’s gonna get Bayou Bob’s greasy Cajun, so that should make his dieting ass happy.

posted by Price of Silence @ 10:36 AM 0 comments

Bush is so green

So, I didn't actually listen to the State of the Union address last night, because I can't stand to look at Bush for that long (and my neighbors were having a party for National Pie Day anyway), but I heard he mentioned these words:

CLIMATE CHANGE

Probably he said them in hushed tones.

In case you're so motivated by the State of the Union that you want to do something, here's a commonsense list from Co-op America:

Twelve Steps

Just think of it as Alcoholics Anonymous for those of us with big houses and big cars (like me). Give yourself over to the higher power of biodiesel or wind or solar.

Hey dudes! Let's worship the sun!

posted by Price of Silence @ 10:24 AM 0 comments

It's that time of year again

Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v Wade.

I think 2006 may have been a turning point in the struggle for women's reproductive rights. Pro-choicers stopped being on the defensive last year. Instead of running scared from the ridiculous South Dakota abortion ban, they came up with the innovative solution of having a referendum on the matter, and the people defeated it. I'm looking forward to lots more anti-choice measures being overturned soon and many more pro-choice measures, including comprehensive sex education, becoming the norm.

The anti-choicers will finally have to admit that giving our children information is the best way to keep them from getting pregnant before they're ready.

Here's a revised version of the article I posted here last year. It's a little more negative than what I said a couple of paragraphs up. It's good to see what difference a year can make.

However, I still think that women should take more control of contraception. It's not as if men are rushing out to use it, after all.

Into our own hands

by Beth Partin

So close to the thirty-fourth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, how long it seems since the spring of 2004, when I flew east to join the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., and felt briefly hopeful about women’s rights in this country. The more I consider the political landscape since then, the more I see how false that hope was and how urgently change is needed.

After Bush won reelection, I gave up on traditional methods of securing women’s reproductive rights. Since the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, I have harbored grave doubts about the longevity of Roe v. Wade. And ever since pharmacists have started organizing for the right not to fill prescriptions, I’ve worried about the availability of birth control.

The Democrats’ victories in 2006 made me happy, but they did not change my mind about the state of reproductive rights in the United States. Let’s face it: since the 1980s, the Right has been gaining ground. I don’t see the Left gaining ground. Instead, I see members of the Left crossing over in order to win the enemy’s support. What kind of fight is that?

A better option for women would be for them to return to the basics of providing reproductive care for themselves, using some old methods and some new ones.

At first I thought of flashing pictures of women who’ve died from abortions to counter the pictures of fetuses. I wanted to organize a wave of righteously angry pro-choice women and men to drive so-called Christian protestors far from clinics and other public spaces. We’d herd them home and protest at their houses and businesses, do unto them exactly as they do unto abortion doctors. In 2006, Operation Save America posted fliers in Dr. Warren Hern’s neighborhood in Boulder and got away with it, so I thought, why not turn their methods on them and see if they’re flattered by the imitation?

But that would involve fighting on their terms. I cannot stress strongly enough that women who care about access to reproductive rights must cease to engage with the Right and make choice a reality, instead of waiting for the courts and legislatures to grant it.

We need to take abortion underground where protestors and legislators and prosecutors cannot find it. Wherever we take it, we need to keep it safe (whether it’s legal or not, whether Roe v. Wade stands or not). To do so, we need a network of doctors who will smuggle emergency contraception and RU-486 to women who need them, doctors who can teach medical residents and nurses in their area to perform safe surgical abortions, thus creating an ever-expanding network of abortion providers. Other people would be solicited to provide funding for these underground abortions and, at some point in time, money to purchase the contraceptive method of her choice for every American woman who cannot afford to pay for it herself.

These “clinics” would have to be highly mobile, not only to get services as quickly as possible to the women and girls who need them most, but also to avoid triggering state laws that criminalize transporting a minor across state lines for an abortion. They would need to be easily dismantled into their component parts, thus making them harder to track.

Why make this proposal?

Because I’m sick of the rhetoric and disgusted by the amounts of money spent by both sides since 1973, when Roe v. Wade was handed down. (I wonder how much health care for women all those dollars would have bought.)

And because I think that women should be making these decisions for themselves. We must get over the idea that we need permission from our government to exercise our right to choose.

And because I believe that in a few years, women will desperately need the service I propose. Some need it now.

posted by Price of Silence @ 9:32 AM 0 comments

We're in hot water

Last Thursday Brothers Plumbing paid a visit to our house.

Todd and I seem to have an extraordinary capacity to let things go around the house. But we finally got tired of water leaking through the bathtub faucets and the general difficulty of getting hot water in the house.

We had them rebuild the faucets and check the water heater. Apparently the dip tube had completely corroded after more than a decade of use. So they fixed that, and now we can get hot water within a minute or less! I'd been wondering why our household water use had been increasing when I have every low-flow appliance you can think of in this house. I guess it was because you had to run the shower for 5 minutes to get any hot water at all.

Just to be safe, we also had them replace the valve in the shower, which was quite expensive. But that valve was put in when companies were scared of being sued by people getting boiled in the shower, so they were set to be cooler. As the plumber said, "You're not going to get cold showers now."

I think I'll be able to live with it.

posted by Price of Silence @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

I wish I were in one now

I published my first travel article on Sunday, January 14, in the Arizona Daily Star. Check it out--it will probably be online until Friday or Saturday.

"Plentiful Hot Springs Delight Skiers"

That pool on the right, where one person is standing and one is sitting--that's about 114 degrees. It's a natural formation. You walk across a partially submerged bridge to get to it. It's one of the best pools in Colorado, I think.

posted by Price of Silence @ 8:49 PM 3 comments