5 posts tagged “rant”

I am extremely curious as to whether, in any widely-known television show, anti-abortion activists/right-to-lifers/pro-lifers/whatever you want to call us this week have ever been shown as anything but raving lunatics.

You might disagree with me about whether an unborn child/fetus is a human being from the moment of conception.  I believe that little clump of cells is a human being and is endowed with a soul.  You may not.  While I think that you are most deifinetly wrong about that, I will respect your person because I believe that you are also a human being.  I disagree with you on this issue, but that doesn't mean that we can't have a reasonable discussion about it.  Contrary to popular belief, most of us do not bomb abortion clinics or kill doctors who perform abortions.  Why?  Because that would involve loss of life--HUMAN life--and would not stop abortions from happening. 

Please try, for just a moment, to put yourself in our shoes.  If, for the sake of argument, you believed that unborn children/fetuses/products of conception were indeed human beings--I said, FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT--then you would, I sincerely hope, feel that you had to at least ask people not to kill them and, if you believe in some sort of deity, pray to that deity that he/she/Cthulu keep those children safe.

I have stood outside abortion clinics and prayed.  I pray for the mothers, for their unborn children, for the doctors.  I wish none of the above any harm.  I have exactly twice tried to counsel with women and ask them not to abort.  I was a teenager, I went to the local abortion clinic to pray quietly and I saw that there was no one to speak to the women about my point of view.  I did not raise my voice, I did not scream.  I spoke quietly and mentioned other options.  I knew personally two families who would pay for all medical bills and adopt those babies in a heartbeat.  I pointed out that in a few weeks these "products of conception" would be considered viable.  I asked them to consider their alternatives.  They both went into the clinic.  I did not follow them, yell at them, or do anything else.  I merely stepped back and prayed.

There was a woman who counseled at this clinic entrance twice a week for ten years.  She had persuaded, over those ten years, approximately thirty women to not have abortions.  She, too, never screamed, never threatened, and was nothing but an example of love.  She knew the names of every one of those children.  Some of the mothers decided to raise their children; others gave families a gift that those families could never repay.  Some of the adoptions were "closed," in which the children were not familiar with their birthparents while growing up.  Some of the mothers preferred "open" adoptions, in which the children had the option of contacting them.

Were those childrens' lives perfect?  Certainly not.  Yet those are thirty children and, now, young adults, who would not have existed today if it were not for that woman.  These are wonderful, beautiful human beings who might not have been here.

That's a rather sobering thought.

We are often accused of not caring about the woman.  I have seen that, but it is rare.  Very rare.  I've seen far more cases where if a girl had nowhere to stay, a room in a private house or an apartment was found for her.  If she had no money for medical bills, a doctor might donate his services or money would be found for them.  If she needed baby items, she'd be inundated by baby showers.  If she needed a job, something would be found.  If she needed to go back to school, people would offer childcare.  That I have seen many times.  Many, many times.

I have a friend who has been rather active in this movement for some time.  Her own children grown, she adopted three minority siblings (it is notoriously difficult to find parents willing to adopt non-babies, particularly sibling groups and minorities) who were born addicted to various types of drugs.  None of those kids will be the next Einstein.  All of them are doing reasonably well in school, and are adjusting well emotionally.

We care about those babies after they are born.  They are human beings, we say, before and after birth.

Those of us who pray and counsel outside of abortion clinics are, generally, not the crazed individuals that are portrayed in the media.  The media will cover the murder (yes, murder) of an abortion doctor for days on end.  I have yet to see anything about people like that counselor who has saved thirty children, or those "anti-abortion-rights activists" who adopted those three crack children.

(end rant)

(note: this is still very much in draft form.  I'll be going back to edit it in a little while)

I'm delighted that the Hair Goddess (room mate) has a new boyfriend.  Pleased as punch.  Couldn't be more thrilled.

I'm going to shoot him and bury his remains in the backyard if he doesn't quit the late-night visits.

The late-night visits would not be so objectionable if he'd be satisfied by saying hi and then leaving me alone.  They are most objectionable when he shows up at near-midnight and is then offended that I won't talk for hours afterward. 

I have to be at work at 7 AM, I am in my pajamas (and therefore braless), my hair is braided and hair-netted, I am very sans-makeup and have oil on my face (very moisturizing, not very attractive).  GO AWAY.  Err, I mean, "Hi Sam, nice to see you, sorry, but I have to go to bed as I need to be up at 6."

His response, in a whiny Israeli accent:  "But I thought you were my frieeeeeeeend!  Why won't you come talk to me?"

"Because I have to be at work in less than eight hours, and need to get some sleep.  Goodnight."

"But why can't you just stay up a little longer?"

"Because the last time I stayed up 'a little longer' I didn't go to bed until 3.  Goodnight."

"Why don't you like me anymore?"

"GoodNIGHT!"  (closes door)

(overheard through door, plaintively) "Why doesn't she like me anymore?  What did I do?"

Nothing, you twit.  Except that I don't like people who don't respect boundaries.  I do not like people who whine about other people going to bed in their own house at a more than reasonable time for bed.  Come to think of it, I don't like people who whine, period.  And, frankly, your crude jokes are nothing to write home about except in the "eww" department.  And that story about how you paid a girl not to file sexual assault charges on your nephew?  Bloody hysterical.  Not.  Put them all together, and just NO. No. NO!

Grrrr.

So, I get home at 2:30ish, having spent a lovely evening with an equally nocturnal friend.  We discussed all the important stuff: music, art, quilting, art, various composers, more quilting, good coffee, men, art and some more quilting/art/music.  All was exceptionally lovely.  I meandered on home, and nearly exploded upon walking in the door.

A knitting project that I've been working on for 6+ months was all over the hall and bedroom floors.  Cat litter was EVERYWHERE, as was...how to say this...litter-coated used cat food.  The cat food dish (previously laden with the expensive guaranteed-the-cats-won't-barf-this-up food) was empty.

My room mate let the #&$^# dog run all over the house without closing my bedroom door first.  This is a huge no-no, as this dog is the most hyperactive, destructive, mischievous animal I have ever met in my life.  Yet the room mate left the door open.  And so the dog ate the cat food, dragged my knitting all over the place, dug through the catbox and dragged cat excrement onto my carpet, and finished off by tearing the yarn into several pieces

I can't close the door all the time because the cat food/water/litter box is in here and must remain in here, and it isn't fair to the cats to lock them in here all day.  I can't stand this, however.  Ickickickickick!

I did not scream, yell, or generally behave in an unladylike manner.  I cleaned everything up.  The knitting is salvageable; I shall simply finish it within the next couple of days, and then wash it in warm/cold water (to set the colors and keep them from running) and then in warm/warm water with lots of soap (to kill all relevant germs).  The yarn will have to be untangled, rewound, and tied back together in various places.

I do not get angry often or easily.  This is the sort of thing that puts me absolutely over the edge.  It seems as though I'm always careful about her stuff--closing her door, supervising or kenneling the dog when it is in the house, vacuuming/dusting several times a week.  I would appreciate similar respect.

It isn't fair to assume that she did this on purpose, but she's had this blasted animal for years, and it has never been anything but destructive.  Why in the hell would it not occur to her to close my damn door?

(pardon the language; I'm tired and still more than a little ticked off)

(warning: MAJOR political-social rant ahead.  I had to write about this or it would be stewing with me all day.)

Oh yes, we said.  We need to have the Olympic games hosted in China.  Okay, so Chinese officials will imprison anyone for many years for the crime of owning a bible.  They force their women to have abortions rather than exceed the one-child limit in most districts.  They imprison Catholic bishops (ie, ones not appointed by the state) and beat and starve them for refusing to propagandize.  Their factories (thanks in no small part to our corporations who want a bigger profit!) have their workers work for slave wages.  When girls are adopted by non-Chinese parents from an orphanage, the girl who will be adopted is fattened up (while others in the home are deprived of food) lest the Westerners see exactly how bad it is.  (I have friends who adopted from China, and when they saw this happening, they actually took all four girls from the group home because they couldn't bear to see it go on.)  Disagree openly--even peacefully--with the government?  Prison time at best.  Or you may "disappear."  But hey, to suggest that they quit it already with the massive human rights violations would be, well, MEAN.  Or something.  Instead, let's give them a stamp of frickin' approval and host  the Olympics there.  (Just be sure the athletes don't try to bring a bible into the country.  Because doing so means that you are barred from entry FOREVER.)  Oh, how very multicultural we are!  Let's all pat ourselves on the back.  In the meantime, this is going on.  Don't click on that link unless you have a strong stomach and a box of tissues. 

Hello?  Olympic committee?  I really hope you feel that this multiculturalism stuff is worth these animals dying horrible deaths so that the city looks nice for the foreign visitors.  I'd argue that those responsible for that decision should be forced to go through what those cats are going through.  Lock the damn committee up in cages without so much as room to turn around, and let them die horrible deaths of horrible infections.  Oh, fear not; I wouldn't do that.  But there is a very special place in hell for those who make such decisions and then pretend ignorance of the results.  Bastards.

I have to go hug my cats now.  And I really need to stop reading/watching/listening to the news.

Warning: rant ahead!

True to the tradition of illogical thinking that has made this federal government so great, the TSA is making my life difficult.

In the musical 1776, John Adams prays (I paraphrase from memory) "a little flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere/ or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair/ but no, You sent us Congress.  Good God, Sir, was that fair?"  And he didn't even have to deal with the bureaucratic nincompoops who run a federal agency charged to cause as much hassle to the private citizen as poss-oh, wait, I mean to prevent another terrorist attack from occuring.

There is no doubt that airline security needed to be improved.  I remember flying a few months pre-9/11 and realizing this.  I had a lot of film with me from a vacation.  Upon reaching the security checkpoint, I handed the bag of film to a security guard, explaining that it contained film that should not be exposed to xrays but that she was more than welcome to inspect it by hand.  Instead, she merely held it while I walked through the metal detector and then handed it back to me without even opening it.  When I asked if she wanted to look in it, she responded (rather creepily, considering the events shortly thereafter) "Why?  It's not like anything's gonna happen."  Obviously, there was nothing but film in the bag, but as far as she knew I was carrying a bomb, a knife, a gun, heaven alone knows what onto my plane.  I had no problem with her checking my bag, and, frankly, was a little worried when she didn't because while I wouldn't do anything, someone less scrupulous could have caused a horrible tragedy thanks to that woman's stupidity.

However, most of these new security precautions are illogical at best.

I flew again about a year after 9/11.  I was fifteen.  I did look rather old for my age; I imagine I could have passed for twenty.  I look younger now than I did then.  When I went to board the plane, I was selected for a "random security screening," which meant that they made an absolute hash of my carryon without finding the pointed metal nail file (sharp and dense enough to use as a weapon) that my sister had so helpfully slipped in there (I found it while unpacking).  They also patted me down THOROUGHLY.  I would add that on that same flight were four men of middle-Eastern decent between 18 and 35 who sat scattered throughout the plane.  None of them were selected for a "random security screening."  Am I saying that any person matching the above description is a terrorist?  Certainly not.  But the fact is that the above description matches either all or nearly all of the 9/11 hijackers, down to sitting throughout the plane (the better to overpower passengers, etc).  Unfortunately, we live in a time in which a group of individuals who match the above description so hate us and our way of life that they'll gladly die (and take a few thousand innocents with them) in order to inflict as much pain on our country and people as possible.  I would really like to know when the last time was that a fifteen-year-old girl of Irish descent tried to overpower a plane full of people and fly it into a building.  Then slap the above description in the place of "fifteen year old girl" and reread that sentence.  Oh, wait a minute...

If doing "random security screenings" on fifteen-year-old girls of Irish descent would keep another 9/11 from happening, I'd submit to 'em every time with a smile on my face.

I'd also add that about a month ago a reporter wrote an interesting article in which she described her experiences in an airport while dressed in a burka-style garment which covered her face.  Despite the fact that she walked up to a service desk and requested a one-way ticket,  never removed her veil during the screening process to see if her ID matched her face (and there is no Muslim law against a woman doing so in the presence of, say, two female-only security personnel), set off a metal detector during the screening process (and then was patted down through the burka, and the security personnel did not ascertain what set off the metal detector or ask her to remove the burka in a private room in front of women), she was allowed to continue through security to her flight.  WTF?

The latest thing is that we can't carry extra lithium batteries on board the plane.  Not carrying lithium batteries on the plane period would make sense, as they make an excellent bomb component.  However, we can bring them on so long as they are in an electronic device.  For your information, oh mighty TSA, terrorists are capable of opening the electronic device and removing the battery in order to make a bomb.  Either ban them or don't,  but don't think that the average terrorist is incapable.  He isn't.  We learned that almost seven years ago.

Finally, there is this idiotic business about gels and liquids.  All carry-on gels and liquids must be in 3 oz or smaller containers and all the containers must fit into a quart-sized ziploc bag which must be closed.  But you can take this on board the aircraft.

First of all, my lipstick is not a national security hazard.  Neither is the aloe gel I use on my hair.

Second, assuming for the sake of argument that I just claim the gel in question is aloe gel but in reality it is a gel that contains some sort of horrible contagious disease or toxic agent, none of this keeps me from using it in the plane.  It will not keep that terrorist from spreading/mixing to form an explosive/whatevering the liquid or gelatinous contents of those bottles.  Memo to the TSA: even terrorists can open ziploc quart-sized plastic bags! And trust me, the size restriction of "three ounces or less" doesn't mean that something really impressively nasty can't be brought on board that plane within "three ounces or less." 

Grrr.

Off to fit three ounces or less of aloe gel, lip gloss, contact solution, lipstick, deoderant, toothpaste and bath gel into a quart sized ziploc bag. 

And while I go through security tomorrow, I shall imagine what the John Adams portrayed in 1776 would have thought about this insanity.  That will be most enjoyable. (evil grin)