you
old broken sailors
POW pins & redwhiteblue
suspenders
pass Monday afternoon
and all the rest
talking shop talking war
talking rank talking
back when Calvin Coolidge
was a damn sight better
than that fool we got now
when i was little
sundress scraggly hair
scared of your liver spots
you asked me what my daddy does
and offered me tinned mints
now grown ass womyn
shaved head and flip flops
you ask me:
you a girl?
how 'bout i run into the Exchange
and buy you
some pretty silk socks?
Monday, May 28, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Verlossen Ons Zelf NIET!
HB 1055 passed the Missouri State Assembly today. Governor Blunt is expected to sign it into law. He has publicly stated his desire to shut down Planned Parenthood- and now he gets the chance. God(dess) bless the women who try to abort alone, unsafe and the children born into families unable to raise a child at the time.
In addition, we have received word that local pastors have formed a coalition to pressure city (and state) government to review local sex shops and video stores and "enforce obscenity laws."
In addition, we have received word that local pastors have formed a coalition to pressure city (and state) government to review local sex shops and video stores and "enforce obscenity laws."
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
No Dutch, Falwell Sucks
Yes. Reverend Falwell has passed. Perhaps this is not the most commonly queer-blogged sentiment, but... God damn it, Jerry! You could have at LEAST died at a more convenient time. I mean, really, you screw me over even in death. Only you, pal.
So, Hang in there folks. This is going to be a long post, but I implore you to keep going. I'm going to reveal some details for the sake of the story. If you are a creepy anti-choice aborted-fetus-poster-owner, please stop reading now. Thanks.
My local Planned Parenthood in Missouri hosted their annual spring fundraiser this evening: $100/ticket affair with Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards and Kansas State Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Now, for those unfamiliar our great country's heartland, Kansas is considered THE training ground for radical anti-choice activity. Operation Rescue and Army of God have sprung from the waving plains of Kansas. Op. Rescue called for a nation wide protest of our little fundraiser. There were 200 protester according to local media- The protesters conveniently took up all the public parking in the area. Thus, our supporters had no where to park. In addition, the protesters are within feet of the front door (public sidewalk) and have many children among their ranks. The full show here, folks. Dismembered late-term fetus posters. Red-X-ed mouths. This story has received prominent local news coverage, complete with live camera shots of dismembered fetuses.
To make matters even better here in our little corner of family values, tomorrow the Missouri State Senate is expected to vote and pass HB 1055, aka the "Omnibus Abortion Bill." This bill has far reaching affects beyond women's reproductive rights, but I shall highlight the three effects of the law most troubling the reproductive freedom movement.
1. HB 1055 requires that any clinic that preforms more than 5 medical (RU 486) abortions per month must receive state certification as an ambulatory surgery center. This requirement will shut down 2 of 3 abortion providers in Missouri. The only clinic will be located in St. Louis. Please take into consideration the Amendment proposed by Senator Jolie Justus- Senator Justus moved to amend that since the statistical medical risk of complications for vasectomies (among many other minor medical procedures) is greater than that for medical abortions, urologists who perform vasectomies should be subject to the same law. This amendment did not pass. But thanks, Jolie, for your ever brilliant and hysterical attempts at a firm reality check for anti-choice politicians.
2. HB 1055 will legally bar any group that provides abortions services from providing human sexuality education in public schools. Similarly, the public schools no longer have to conform to the comprehensive sex ed statute in MO, which makes abstinence only fair game. As a result, medically inaccurate sexuality education will be taught in public schools.
3. HB 1055 establishes a state funding source for "Crisis Pregnancy Centers." (There are those: Worried You Are Pregnant? Consider your choices! Free pregnancy test! places). The situate themselves next to abortion providers and Planned Parenthood clinics. They are not allowed (under law here in MO) to provide contraception AND they are not allowed to give referrals women to providers who can exams, prescriptions, and information about contraception.
In sum, we don't want you to have an abortion. But you can't have any sex ed. And you can't get birth control.
So, Hang in there folks. This is going to be a long post, but I implore you to keep going. I'm going to reveal some details for the sake of the story. If you are a creepy anti-choice aborted-fetus-poster-owner, please stop reading now. Thanks.
My local Planned Parenthood in Missouri hosted their annual spring fundraiser this evening: $100/ticket affair with Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards and Kansas State Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Now, for those unfamiliar our great country's heartland, Kansas is considered THE training ground for radical anti-choice activity. Operation Rescue and Army of God have sprung from the waving plains of Kansas. Op. Rescue called for a nation wide protest of our little fundraiser. There were 200 protester according to local media- The protesters conveniently took up all the public parking in the area. Thus, our supporters had no where to park. In addition, the protesters are within feet of the front door (public sidewalk) and have many children among their ranks. The full show here, folks. Dismembered late-term fetus posters. Red-X-ed mouths. This story has received prominent local news coverage, complete with live camera shots of dismembered fetuses.
To make matters even better here in our little corner of family values, tomorrow the Missouri State Senate is expected to vote and pass HB 1055, aka the "Omnibus Abortion Bill." This bill has far reaching affects beyond women's reproductive rights, but I shall highlight the three effects of the law most troubling the reproductive freedom movement.
1. HB 1055 requires that any clinic that preforms more than 5 medical (RU 486) abortions per month must receive state certification as an ambulatory surgery center. This requirement will shut down 2 of 3 abortion providers in Missouri. The only clinic will be located in St. Louis. Please take into consideration the Amendment proposed by Senator Jolie Justus- Senator Justus moved to amend that since the statistical medical risk of complications for vasectomies (among many other minor medical procedures) is greater than that for medical abortions, urologists who perform vasectomies should be subject to the same law. This amendment did not pass. But thanks, Jolie, for your ever brilliant and hysterical attempts at a firm reality check for anti-choice politicians.
2. HB 1055 will legally bar any group that provides abortions services from providing human sexuality education in public schools. Similarly, the public schools no longer have to conform to the comprehensive sex ed statute in MO, which makes abstinence only fair game. As a result, medically inaccurate sexuality education will be taught in public schools.
3. HB 1055 establishes a state funding source for "Crisis Pregnancy Centers." (There are those: Worried You Are Pregnant? Consider your choices! Free pregnancy test! places). The situate themselves next to abortion providers and Planned Parenthood clinics. They are not allowed (under law here in MO) to provide contraception AND they are not allowed to give referrals women to providers who can exams, prescriptions, and information about contraception.
In sum, we don't want you to have an abortion. But you can't have any sex ed. And you can't get birth control.
Missouri is Voting in Favor of State Mandated Childbirth.
Reverend Jerry Falwell- The women of Missouri (and Kansas) say Thank You. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued support of justice, freedom, democracy, and common sense.
Bedgenoot
I have often wanted for, as the Dutch would say, een bedgenoot, a bed companion. I would like to think the Dutch have captured the meaning of someone’s lungs to rise and fall rhythmic, comforting beside me in the dark. I long to sleep in another’s warm presence- letting me know that, in those most vulnerable hours of the night, I am not alone. I want to fall asleep drifting slowly out of intimate, loving connection to another and wake emerging into the same. It's not that I do not like a solitary bed. Certainly, there is a particular self-awareness that comes with starting and ending the day in the delicate ruminations of my own mind. Yet there is still the allure of body cradling body, a hand within reach, and a wakefulness that begins in the eyes of een begenoot. I wonder what it is like to live this night after night.
But want for the nightly presence of a women’s certain curves, I have taken to sleeping with books in my bed. Tangled among eiderdown, the sharp corners of cover and spine punctuate my sleepy curls and sprawls. A book is not a warm heartbeat. Nor does a book reach out to me for reassurance in the night. Still, the books have been some comfort in the absence of my lost-lover sleeping beside me. At the end of the day, I settle into bed and read until I am too tired to keep track of the plot. With a humanly impossible insight into what was, what has been, and the reflective thoughts in a novel, I come to a profound knowing of another, albeit often fictional, being. It is not the real that is so important, but the way a book tries to capture a reality that does not exist. The books in my bed comfort me expanding and contracting the possibilities of humanity. Maybe the Dutch need a new word, “een boekgenoot.”
But want for the nightly presence of a women’s certain curves, I have taken to sleeping with books in my bed. Tangled among eiderdown, the sharp corners of cover and spine punctuate my sleepy curls and sprawls. A book is not a warm heartbeat. Nor does a book reach out to me for reassurance in the night. Still, the books have been some comfort in the absence of my lost-lover sleeping beside me. At the end of the day, I settle into bed and read until I am too tired to keep track of the plot. With a humanly impossible insight into what was, what has been, and the reflective thoughts in a novel, I come to a profound knowing of another, albeit often fictional, being. It is not the real that is so important, but the way a book tries to capture a reality that does not exist. The books in my bed comfort me expanding and contracting the possibilities of humanity. Maybe the Dutch need a new word, “een boekgenoot.”
Monday, May 14, 2007
Ik bloog
I'm quite sure the Dutch use the word "blog" like the rest of the computer enabled world. Another amerikan export. However, I'm also quite sure they have adapted the word into a Dutch verb form. It is probably defined and conjugated in the present tense as:
blogen - "to blog"
ik bloog (i blog)
je/u bloogt (you blog)
zij/hij bloogt (he/she blogs)
jullie blogen (y'all blog), etc.
I have resisted blogen for many moons, and if given a round of RU-486 for every time I have been asked if I had a blog, my name and address would be listed on http://www.christiangallery.com/atrocity/aborts.html. I suppose I have resisted The Blog because I like letters and phone calls. The Blog seems impersonal and distant, yet another way the Information Super Highway opens borders but closes arms. The Ex says my resistance to technology is hypocritical and antithetical to feminism and progressive politics. Perhaps she is right/write.
So, dit is mijn blog. Ik ga over mijn leven en de wereld blogen.
blogen - "to blog"
ik bloog (i blog)
je/u bloogt (you blog)
zij/hij bloogt (he/she blogs)
jullie blogen (y'all blog), etc.
I have resisted blogen for many moons, and if given a round of RU-486 for every time I have been asked if I had a blog, my name and address would be listed on http://www.christiangallery.com/atrocity/aborts.html. I suppose I have resisted The Blog because I like letters and phone calls. The Blog seems impersonal and distant, yet another way the Information Super Highway opens borders but closes arms. The Ex says my resistance to technology is hypocritical and antithetical to feminism and progressive politics. Perhaps she is right/write.
So, dit is mijn blog. Ik ga over mijn leven en de wereld blogen.
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