Mosquitoes' Toes and Wampfish Roes, Most Delicately Fried

One of my favorite bloggers, Yarn Harlot, mentioned in her annual Canada Day post, that one of the things that made her proud about her country is that same-sex marriages are legal.
I'm going to give my opinion here, with the rider that I welcome thoughtful comments (with citations, please) but not flames. Click if you wish to proceed.
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Dear Residents,
Welcome to the University residence halls. We hope you will enjoy your stay. Please allow me to address a few issues that will help you have a happier living environment.
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Welcome to On-Campus Housing!
Signed,
One of the Desk assistants
(who is here at 3:30 am, because all the desks are required to be staffed 24 hours, 7 days a week)

So I was walking back from chem lab and I saw the anti-choice "Abortion is genocide" display, complete with pictures of aborted fetuses. What a load of bullshit. I disagree with their display as much as I do their position. Allow me to enumerate why (especially since I should be studying right now):
Webster's Dictionary defines "genocide" as the systematic killing of, or a program of action intended to destroy, a whole national or ethnic group. Abortion, because it is not associated with any race or nation, therefore cannot be genocide, according to the definition of that term. Comparing a woman's choice not to bring a baby into the world to horrific events such as the Holocaust or the Rwanda's Tutsi massacres is demeaning to the survivors of those events.
Displaying graphic picture in an open area is not conducive to a "family friendly" atmosphere. No one wants to be forced into viewing these graphic pictures. Little children who see these images will either: not understand and may ask their parents/guardians about it, which may bring about sex education much sooner than the parents felt ready to discuss it; or if they already understand may be aghast at the gory pictures-not because they are of "beings with rights" (which the law does not even give children the right to decide where they want to live in custody cases or in the case of foster homes) but because the pictures are bloody and are intentionally chosen for shock value. Isn't that a heartwarming thing, to give little Sue nightmares about blood and guts.
Proponents of anti-abortion/anti-choice (who like to call themselves pro-life because it sounds better) claim that women who become pregnant should be able to deal with the responsibilities of their choices. They are. Abortion is a choice. The women who choose this don't want to bring their child into the world for some reason. Perhaps they feel that they would not make good parents and that there are so many children in orphanages and foster homes who already need a home. Maybe they feel that the child would never have any quality of life due to their own previous mistakes (disease, drugs), or perhaps the pregnancy is the result of a forced encounter that the woman would not ever have chosen. There exists the possibility that, for them, to attempt to bring a life in to the world would very likely destroy theirs-or even kill them.
For those who say women should be celibate if they don't want children, I have to inquire if they themselves remained celibate until marriage. If this position is based on biblical reasoning, I ask them to read some of the passages in context of the times. Mary, Jesus's mother, would have been probably 15 at the time of the annunciation. Girls generally married soon after their menstrual cycles began, which started later than most girls do today (today's median age of menarche is about 13). So theoretically by the time most girls were in a position to be physically attractive and attracted, they would already be married. If a married couple decided (for whatever reason) that they would not be parents, they're allowed to have intercourse-that's one of the prerogatives of marriage. The Bible doesn't say that God will punish couples who don't have children, whether by choice or by nature. If that is the decision they have made, they should be allowed to dictate what occurs in their household. (Additionally, there was an article on AOL news that showed that in states that required parental notification in the event of a minor's pregnancy, the parents actually encouraged their daughters to have an abortion, even when the daughters were uncertain about having the procedure. So much for preventing abortions.)
Since the passing of Roe v. Wade, there have been less abortions, and less botched (illegal) abortions. Abortion itself is not a "newfangled liberal hypocrite" invention; it has been around hundreds of years. Medieval women would use concoctions of tansy to abort a fetus, and victorian prostitutes would use a harsh alum solution as a douche to prevent pregnancy. If women want to terminate their pregnancy, they're going to do so. It's in the best interest of the woman and the country to allow her to have an abortion in a sanitary environment by a trained professional, instead of a back alley with a coat hanger. It is demeaning to tell women they are nothing more than breeding machines whose own feelings are irrelevant because the government (read: uber-conservatives) thinks a parasitic piece of tissue is more important than a living human being. As this issue is largely trumpeted by the "moral right", I feel that I, as an American citizen, should not be forced to follow the morals of the party in power's religion. The Bill of Rights prohibits the government from choosing a religion; therefore, the government shouldn't be allowed to impose morals of a religion on its citizens, insomuch as the citizens' actions are not harmful to other living people and do not destroy public order. I don't think of a fetus, or a zygote, or an embryo, as a person. After all, pregnant women say "I'm going to have a baby" not "I have a baby". So a baby doesn't exist until it is born by coming out of a woman's body. If it isn't a baby and therefore a person, it has no rights to any sort of protection, any more than a uterine tumor has.
Also, pregnancy isn't easy. It is difficult and can cause changes that never reverse themselves (such as diabetes and hypertension). Anyone who feels that women shouldn't be allowed to have abortions should have to assume all the pains of the pregnancy they want to continue. Once the baby is delivered, there's no guarantee that the government will help the mother to provide for it. Our school system is one of the worst among all industrialized nations, minimum wage can't support a mother and child, childcare is expensive, and there are many children who wait in orphanages or foster homes because they were abandoned or their mother is unable to care for them. If people are going to advocate against abortion, then they should also be advocating for more children and family services, especially for single mothers. But they don't.
I'd like to extend the invitation to all anti-abortion activists to now remove their heads from between women's legs and to find a new cause to champion. How about SUVs that pose a threat to other, living, people?

Things I've learned from dating my boyfriend:
-Don't expect others to follow through on what they've agreed upon. Ever.
-Don't expect chivalrous behavior; chivalry is dead. No doors opened, no helping hand from the car.
-Common respect isn't common.
-Expect to give and give and give, money and time and effort. Don't expect anything in return. You provide everything.
-Having manners and being presentable supposedly keeps one from being "real". (real what?)
-No matter what, there's always an excuse.
-Who cares about other people? Consideration for other people's feelings and concerns isn't necessary.
-The only reason he's dating you is because no one else will think of him as boyfriend material.
-You're not pretty. He doesn't think you're beautiful either but he'll tell you that you are in hopes of getting some action.
-You're too weird for most people, so I guess that means you have to stay with him because no one else will take you.
-Yeah, you do look fat in that. And he wants to help you take it off.
-No one loves you the way you are. No one ever will.
-Anger, whining, and a pout will get most people sucking up to you.
-Work is for losers, you can always find someone to: do it for you, make it easier, or let you out of it altogether.
-No one cares about what you want. What he wants-and won't tell you- is of course vitally important.
-He thinks decisions that are not universally approved of are tantamount to death, so therefore he won't make any decisions.
-You should consider yourself lucky to have him.
-It's ok for him to criticize you for eating junk food after you've admitted you need to lose weight, but God forbid you criticize him about anything, especially his clothes that make him look like a 10 year old or his nonexistent table manners.
-Nothing is more important than the trinity of PC, Xbox, and PS2
-It's fine for him to ignore you but damnation upon you if you don't give him 29 hugs and kisses the instant you see him.

You want to know what depths society has sunk to? how 'bout suing two teenagers for over $900 because they left you some homemade cookies? Not a joke, my friends. I just can't believe that not only was the woman so ill-mannered as to refuse the girls' apologies and offers to pay he medical costs, but the judge actually sided with this rude presumptuous jerk!
Now, for those of you who would like to find this: the girls, Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Jo Zellitti delivered the cookies in the town of Durango, Colorado to several neighbors including Wanita Renea Young, who sued the girls after they delivered the cookies at 10:30 pm. The girls delivered only to houses with lights on inside. They had begun baking after chores were finished at dusk, approximately 9 pm. The judge who handed down the [asinine] ruling was Judge Doug Walker.
Incidentally in some of the googled sites I found, one of the girls is on her high school basketball team and raises livestock.
Sounds like a real hell-raiser to me.
--even better! I found this on InTheBullpen.com- (copied directly from the source-no changes made by me)
"If this frivolous judicial mishap bothers anyone reading this commment as much as it does me, write a letter to the following address(the office which appointes the judge) expressing your concerns and desire that the (inept, incompetent, immoral, unprincipled) judge in this case be stripped of his positon. The precedent this ruling represents is completely inconsistent with the moral values and ideal of samaritanship that we should be instilling in our children.
"Judicial Performance Commission c/o Steven W. Brittain, District Administrator Sixth Judicial District La Plata County Courthouse 1060 2nd Avenue Room #106 Durango, Colorado 81302
"Apparently, you can send the girls a donation via the address listed in this thread:
"or contact one of the local news agencies in that area, I's sure they can forward the donation."

Another year of school has begun. Whoopee. More torture. The teachers are (mostly) nice , it's the administration that "irks my tater" as one of my friends puts it. Today we wasted over 30 minutes in what one teacher described as a "Thou-shalt-not" assembly. As in: "Thou shalt not wear midriff baring shirts, thou shalt not wear spaghetti straps, thou shalt not leave campus early unless thou hast first wasted a lot of time in the morning trying to get through the (dubiously named) student services, an (my least favorite) Thou shalt not show affection for thine fellow human beings. And by the way, you are not alone, we are here to help you." Pardon me whilst I laugh my ample ass off at that last sentence. The administration is lying. They are not here to help us, they are here to keep us in our federally subsidized cells and herd us from cell to cell, yelling occasionally just to keep things fresh, you know. I told Scott I wanted to get an orange jumpsuit and put my student number on it. I do so thoroughly despise the administration, most especially the principal.
School obviously is major suckitude, not excepting the band which I am not marching in this year. I miss it some, but I really don't want to have to deal with Mr. "Unpronounceable Conglomeration of Letters who is a pain in the arse" any more than I absolutely have to. I wish I could sing instead, or even draw. But no, I promised my parents I'd take one more year of band. Boy am I regretting that. My parents are reaching new lows, even for them. Even the youth minister at church thought some of their attitudes were abnormal. Hey, I have to agree- who else plans their kid's birth around the University of Florida football schedule and then has the nerve to tell them that? He suggested I could write them a letter telling them how I feel. It's a good idea that would work fine with normal-scope parents, but seriously, I doubt that IF I took the time to write a letter and IF they got it, I doubt they would ever take the time to read it and even if they did that there would be any sort of favorable result. What would probably happen is that one would read it, get hyperoffended, tell the other one to read it, and they get offended, and then both of them gang up on me and scream and yell and cuss at me and follow me when I try to get away from the barrage for a minute. Yes, I am a sensitive person who doesn't take criticism well. Blame my parents who concentrated on Doogie for 20 frickin years. They still help out "poor wittle samwy" beacuse he's a chronic driftless moocher. He gets confused about where he's going in life for a couple of months, and they fix him up with happy pills and send him lots of nice cash. I go around for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS in a dark cloud (which only started to dissipate within the last few months) and I'm told to "Shut up, I don't want to hear about how unhappy you are, you have a roof over your head and food to eat, that's more than my schoolkids have, I don't want to hear you say stupid things like you want to kill yourself and waste my time with that bullshit, blah blah ad infinitum." Yeah, I just love the equality in this house. It makes me all warm and fuzzy... like the feeling you get before you vomit violently from food poisoning. I never like coming to this house in the afternoons. You walk in and the very walls are institutional and oppressive. Every thing is the color of regurgitated milk and oatmeal-beige. Beige walls, carpet, ceiling, baseboards, tile, everything except the wood, which would take too much time to paint. If the house itself isn't bad enough, remember I also have to deal with my parents. And they wonder why I spend so much time either away physically or on the internet.