http://www.aisfor.org/an-appeal-to-rep-todd-akin/

The woman who wrote this blog was a victim of rape, who made the choice to carry her fetus to term.

It is not a happy story...but I found her reply to Akin and his ilk powerful.

Women stand to lose a LOT if that dipshit duo are elected.

If you read what the man said, you would be appalled not only by his lack of logic, but his apparent lack of basic information about HOW pregnancy happens...

I am generally NOT anti-immunization.

I appreciate that Polio was gotten under control using the Salk vaccine, and is now virtually unknown in most parts of our country, and Europe. I think people who break the immunization chain based on now proven bullshit from a doctor who can no longer practice medicine in the UK are both stupid, and selfish...because they put other people's kids at risk.

But when Gardasil came out, it bothered me.

Overnight, every doctor my daughter saw was pushing it.

So, I did my research.

What I discovered bothered me mightily.

Facts...not opinion, or fiction.

1. There are more than a dozen strains of HPV that they think can cause cancer. Gardasil protects against two. This makes me think we are giving our daughters a false sense of security.

2. The "protection" wears off at age 25...and there is no booster.

3. They suggested it initially for girls ONLY...leaving boys to become infected carriers...and THAT is garbage medicine. How are you supposed to get a sexually transmitted disease under control by treating just ONE gender?

4. They assume early sexual activity...which is why they want it in girls as young as 12. I acknowledge that kids are having sex younger these days...but 12?

5. Young men are ambivalent about HPV...figuring it is not THEIR problem. Great foresight guys. I know you may have FWB's, at the moment...but someday you just might pick a lady you like a lot. I'm pretty sure that if or when that happens, you won't want to give her cervical cancer. And now they say that infected males have a larger risk of acquiring throat cancer...but hey...don't let THAT worry you.

So...short form. I think it's stupid to only immunize half the population.

I think Gardasil is questionable protection.  And I believe out attitudes about sex are completely screwed up. Thoughts?

Wow...I always suspected the GOP would try to throw this race...but RYAN?

That should hand Florida to Obama...along with any other state with with a large elderly population.

Gotta love it.

Ryan would ax Welfare and Social Security...but he COLLECTED SS to get through college...making him a hypocrite, and the PERFECT foil for Romney's lack of anything.

Nothing like a Fascist to perk up the negative ratings, Mittens...

One of my cousins got locked out of the house by accident.

Her husband had closed all the doors, and was a heavy sleeper.  She was stuck on her back porch with an Ipad...no cell phone.

Only funny if it's NOT happening to you.

So I noticed the post, and suggested she message me with the home phone.

It took half a dozen tries, but he finally answered the phone.

She's now indoors....but once it was over, it occurred to me that this was a legitimate USEFUL benefit to FB.

Always an interesting moment!

When posters who constantly allude to biblical interpretation, then try to use LOGIC.

SORRY KIDS... logic is not based in religion.

NO religion is "logical" by definition.

You can possess logic.

You can embrace a religious notion...but you can't use religion to support logic.

When Desi was very young, we had gone through most of the kid's classics pretty quickly.

Harry Potter was not yet in America, so at bed time, I would tell her stories about a character I invented just for her...that I  called Rainbow Princess. No...she wasn't Rainbow Brite...closer to Xena in personality, she had interesting friends like wizards, and dragons...and I made up all sorts of stuff to challenge her...based on real life situations I knew Desi would encounter. I never wrote a single one down...and to my shock, she remembers them as her FAVORITE bed time stories.

A few things...Desi grew up believing that women (and yes girls) can be brilliant, strong, and resourceful, and that only a real LOSER waits to be rescued. She writes about women who care heroes in their own right...and yes, she will be a teacher one day. Somewhere, I have a pic of her at 5...Dressed as her FAVORITE character for Halloween. She looks gorgeous...and proud, and strong.  I raised her with a LOT of stuff in her life...but I also let her choose. Her "Barbie" stage lasted 15 minutes. Then she took to dressing the Orc Dolls from her LOTR's set in Barbie clothes...to humiliate them.

Sigh.

I freaking LOVE being her mom...WORD!

I've been reading other blogs for a while now, and I find some of the posts about sex to be either funny as all hell, or pathetically sad...depending on the day, or author. This is not intended as a call out, so people can insult me by trying to rate how bed-able I might be. The opinion of most of the planet on that issue means nothing to me...but I found myself thinking about sex, and sexual attitudes this morning.

I was born in 1960....just before the "free love" nonsense began.

Women were still expected to 'hold out" for marriage...A rather appalling game where guys tried, and girls were supposed to say "no". There were harsh penalties for the girls who didn't....including pregnancy, and abandonment. If a guy did have sex with his steady, it was "proof" that she was not wife and mother material, and he could actually DROP her for it. Some "did the right thing", and married their sullied flowers...but it was always looked back on as a point of shame.

The ideal was that you had a romance, fell in love, got engaged, got married, and THEN you had sex.

They never explained how all the "no's" of a person's past..(.the thought that sex was dirty, until being sanctified by marriage) were somehow going to turn into a happy "YES!" I heard from my parents generation that "sex wasn't everything". They insisted you could have a perfectly happy relationship without it...but they were also the first ones to go for Viagra, even after learning that taking the little blue pill could kill them.  My parent's generation had their own myths. One was that once a woman was done having babies, sex was over.  That is patently stupid. I can certify that sex actually got better in my 30's, when I was long done with baby making. And the idea that men were supposed to accept celibacy once their wife was done having kids? SERIOUSLY?

No...sex is not everything...but it beats the hell out of card games, and remains a bonding point between men and women long after procreation is over.

Now, my generation was sexually screwed up in reverse. We expected to have sex, and then find an emotional connection after we had established "sexual compatibility." WOW...what a stupid notion. We discovered that people could be wonderful in bed...and total assholes out of it. We learned to not value ourselves enough to give love a chance, first. That was being all up tight, and square. You were supposed to be free and easy, and enjoy sex. Not a bad notion...but an awful lot of bait and switch went on. Guys of my generation were about getting laid...and used it against the girls of my day.

"God...it was JUST sex....why are you getting all hung up?"

"I hope you understand...this doesn't mean I am into you or anything."

"Wow...that was great...but I have a class (or a meeting, or an appointment) in the morning...would you mind letting yourself out?"

Now a girl did not have to have sex...but if she chose not to, she also was choosing to be alone, for the most part. It took a strong personality to want to wait---and the whole "How do you know it will work, until you try it?" logic was very persuasive. We weren't sluts...quite the contrary...we took relationships seriously...but the idea of being tied to someone we found repellent sexually was terrifying. So a lot of us played the cautious libertine, searching for our other half.  And there were RULES...let no one suggest otherwise. We had tossed the sex is for marriage rule book, and adopted the Playboy "why buy the cow" attitude. Women were supposed to be willing, and good in bed...but not sluts. (I know...that's a crazy standard, and no one actually knew WHERE the line was...until you crossed it.) They were supposed to take care of birth control on their own---or if they didn't and got knocked up, NOT BOTHER the Guy about it, because they CHOSE to have sex. (The guy also chose to have sex, but hey, he was the GUY. Double standard, of course) That meant you were perfectly free to have the brat, but don't think about child support. Or have an abortion....but you would pay for it yourself. Or put the kid up for adoption...whatever the hell you wanted...just DON'T bother the GUY. (Which is why I roll on the floor laughing when people talk about how "feminism" destroyed the American family. Bullshit.)

My point is that my generation is JUST as fucked up about sex as our parents were. And that was before AIDS and a dozen other social diseases showed up in the main stream. We've now raised a generation of kids who either are terrified to have sex, or figure they will die anyway---and take NO precautions, to prevent babies or disease. (If you are one of the exceptions, my apologies...and good on you...but you have to know you are NOT the norm.) So the whole "saving til marriage thing" did not work for a majority of people. Neither did the "If it feels good, do it." notions.  Making me wonder if there is a middle ground...where a person can honestly be respected for saying..."You know...I just don't want to screw. I'd like to love someone first." It would be lovely if sex wasn't a bargaining chip in relationships. It would be magnificent if we stuck to people who shared our values...rather than ranging off the ranch, "sowing our oats" then CLAIMING we are "traditional".

Sex is part of who we are. It doesn't make us less. But we have got to stop hanging it with expectations, or worse...hating ourselves for being who we are. Marriage is not magic...it doesn't fix things or people who are badly broken. I happen to believe in love...and I also believe that love can have a sexual connection. Sex almost NEVER has a loving connection, unless it was there in the first place. But you don't GET there instantly.

Thoughts?

But ,no one agrees on how much money it actually takes to be wealthy.

So here's my question.

"How much is "fuck you money"?

That means that you have enough cash, that no matter WHAT you are currently doing, you could walk away...and still be comfortable for the rest of you life. The question is not as simple as it sounds...and I'm sorry...a million dollars is very nice...but it's not FY  money in the least....

Thoughts?

And not even kiss you first?

I used to love my old bank...which was acquired by a different bank a few months ago. Not long after, I started noticing changes that made me unhappy. They used to debit an account the moment you made a purchase, and put the funds on hold. When you looked up the "available amount", it was already deducted. That happy practice made it almost impossible to overdraft (something I have NEVER done). Shortly after the take over,  they started PUSHING "over draft protection", at a fee, of course...and without mentioning it, CHANGED how the available amount worked. Now it shows the amount as "available", even after the "hold" goes in. Making it EASY to screw up. The first time I asked about it, I was assured that "nothing had changed".

Bullshit.

Today, i was checking my account. A large check has not yet cleared, though the company I paid lists it as being deposited on July 11th.  I called them today, and they said that the banks decide when to put the payments through....not them.

So why does it seem like they are trying to make me screw up?

NO check drawn in the US should take more than 48 hours to clear.  I believe there is even law to that effect. So why is the bank SITTING on those checks?

This is starting to piss me off.

http://screen.yahoo.com/bad-driver-sinks-friend-s-luxury-bmw-30011190.html

But consider...I live in NJ, which is chock-a-block with idiot drivers (of both genders) who drive SUV's without a clue about how to handle them.

Next...BMW drivers are usually morons.

WHY would you loan a friend a BRAND new car for that?

So...sue me...I'm evil.