Inauguration

[Guest]

That's the way to celebrate 45 -48 million murdered babies on the anniversary of what allows those murders.

I liked the 150,000+ that marched to support life.

Murdered huh.....
Without 'choice' I would not be here... without the ability to make that horrifying and terrible decision I would have been dead in the summer of 2000.

Until you are a WOMAN and sitting there with that dreadful decision/choice to make do not preach to me about murdered babies.

Get MEN to stop raping... incest.... brutalizing woman... walking out after they have gotten a woman pregnant.... get the MEN to be MEN instead of humans walking around with a loaded dick... and we can have this conversation again.... until then shut it okay pumpkin

(note: I do not mean all men... I mean the ones that fit into that above category)

 

[Guest]

Try watching "The Silent Scream"

Abortion is another way of avoiding the consequences of what you do. The extremists don't want anyone held accountable for anything. You know the ones: "it's societies fault", "it's his environment", it's ...

Nobody should be held accountable for their own actions. The same folks behind the failed "pass em all" through school thing, where kids never learned to read.

Have you lost your flipping mind....????

I am "one of those women"... ya know one of those ones that you are enjoying vilifying. I had an abortion... TO SAVE MY LIFE. Let me try it again in little words to see if you get it:

I HAD AN ABORTION TO SAVE MY LIFE.

How dare you to make such horrible sweeping decisions. You have NO idea the thoughts and problems that go into making what could potentially be the HARDEST decision ever that a woman has to make.

I HOPE that no woman in your life actually has to make that decision... and if she does I HOPE that she doesn't turn to you for support.

 

[Guest]

Explain natural family planning to me.

How is it different than the rhythm method?

Oh I just had to find out.... Cloudy's post was spot on....
Let's all of us go back to the stone age....

Here is what I found:

What is natural family planning (NFP)?

* NFP is a way of following God’s plan for achieving and/or avoiding pregnancy. It consists of ways to achieve or to avoid pregnancy using the physical means that God has built into human nature.
* NFP consists of two distinct forms:
1. Ecological breastfeeding. This is a form of child care that normally spaces babies about two years apart on the average.
2. Systematic NFP. This is a system that uses a woman’s signs of fertility to determine the fertile and infertile times of her cycle.
* Couples seeking to avoid pregnancy practice chaste abstinence during the fertile time of her cycle.

I have no words on how UNEFFECTIVE this particular method is.... just on face value.... UGH

 

[Guest]

I notice you don't comment on the side effects.

And are you telling us that you have PERSONAL experience with taking birth control pills, taking the Depo shot, or having a IUD inserted..... by all means enlighten us... I am just DYING to hear this..... we are all ears

 

[Stella_Omega]

That's the way to celebrate 45 -48 million murdered babies on the anniversary of what allows those murders.

I liked the 150,000+ that marched to support life.

I don't like the 150,000+ that marched to deprive women of the rights to make their own decisions about what happens in their bodies. I am so glad that they still have no power over me or any other woman in this country.

I don't see too many of those life supporters going out of their way to adopt the mixed-race, un-blue-eyed babies that are waiting for adoption here in this country.

As for DP's natural Family planning, I can say that it kind of works-- if you are planning a family. As in, you have to nurse a child in order that the ovulation cycle stops-- and here's the kicker, DP, the mother has to nurse in the night, interrupting her sleep cycle. This worked with my first, and I did not ovulate for two and a half years. My second, however, began sleeping through the night by a year old. As soon as I began to get regular rest that my body could count on-- my cycles began, even though my child continued nursing for another year and a half.

Until my first pregnancy, however, I had to rely on medical style BC. I liked sex, you see. I liked to fuck around. There was no possible way that I could do what I wanted to do, with the rythm non-method (AKA "oh, fuck, I need an abortion") as my only source of control.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

But it's convenient for the guy.

Game. Set. Match.

 

[freshface]

Well, having used both systems, one to avoid pregnancy and one to predict pregnancy, I think I'm fairly qualified to discuss them.

Unlike you.


You do this for several months and you can get a fairly average idea of how your cycles run.

Of course, this does tend to limit the days in which you can have sex.

There's a solid week around possible ovulation that sex is cautionary or prohibited. Additionally, some women (or their partners) do not enjoy having sex while they are on their periods.

So - if you use this method, there are only about two weeks out of each month where it's possible to have vaginal sex.

The effectiveness, in theory, is in the low 90's. In practice it's in the low 80's.

Side effects? No hormones, and that's a good thing. But for the woman there is a great deal of paperwork, hassle, worry and sometimes abstaining from sex during the time that a woman is most aroused in her cycle.

But it's convenient for the guy.

Have I told you recently how much I love you?

There is a group of women especially unsuited for this method that you forgot to mention. We never have a regular cycle that would allow us to chart when we might be ovulating. My personal range is 17-39 days, with the occasional cycle skipped completely. The only thing that has ever made me regular is birth control pills. Without them, I cycle (or not) on my body's whim.

I must say that I'm baffled that the group most opposed to abortion is also most opposed to birth control by other means. Those in my own family who believe this say that you have the children that God intended for you. I just don't understand how they can find women to go along with this idea.

 

[Guest]

Game. Set. Match.

 

[Guest]

Have I told you recently how much I love you?

There is a group of women especially unsuited for this method that you forgot to mention. We never have a regular cycle that would allow us to chart when we might be ovulating. My personal range is 17-39 days, with the occasional cycle skipped completely. The only thing that has ever made me regular is birth control pills. Without them, I cycle (or not) on my body's whim.

I must say that I'm baffled that the group most opposed to abortion is also most opposed to birth control by other means. Those in my own family who believe this say that you have the children that God intended for you. I just don't understand how they can find women to go along with this idea.

The responsibility is always on the woman, of course. And yes, I remain baffled at that very thing, too.

Is it a means of control, of subjugation? I don't get it.

And I forgot to mention other benefits about the birth control pill. As freshface said, it can regulate unusual cycles.

Some men need to take a moment and think about this. If you do not know when you will be menstruating how in the hell can you plan anything?

All of the lovely little things that accompany that time of the month, from mood swings and bloating, to aching muscles and body cramps, to the discomfort of the actual bloodletting . . .

Planning a beach party? (Swim suit and tampax - neat.)
Dinner out (will that dress still fit if you're on your period???)
Planning a weekend with your husband (what if it comes early?)

The pill was a godsend. I actually counted the months to make certain our wedding would fall at the appropriate time in my cycle. Try that with natural family planning.

But the pill can do much more, of course. It can lesson severe acne, it can also ease horribly heavy periods and it can even cause endometriosis to go into remission.

One of my friends was told by her doctor to get pregnant to cure her endometriosis, by the way. She was trying to finish her graduate degree at the time. She changed doctors immediately.

Anyway. It is a shame that the benefits of the birth control pill are denied to so many women due to deliberate misinformation.

 

[cloudy]

The responsibility is always on the woman, of course. And yes, I remain baffled at that very thing, too.

Is it a means of control, of subjugation? I don't get it.

And I forgot to mention other benefits about the birth control pill. As freshface said, it can regulate unusual cycles.

Some men need to take a moment and think about this. If you do not know when you will be menstruating how in the hell can you plan anything?

All of the lovely little things that accompany that time of the month, from mood swings and bloating, to aching muscles and body cramps, to the discomfort of the actual bloodletting . . .

Planning a beach party? (Swim suit and tampax - neat.)
Dinner out (will that dress still fit if you're on your period???)
Planning a weekend with your husband (what if it comes early?)

The pill was a godsend. I actually counted the months to make certain our wedding would fall at the appropriate time in my cycle. Try that with natural family planning.

But the pill can do much more, of course. It can lesson severe acne, it can also ease horribly heavy periods and it can even cause endometriosis to go into remission.

One of my friends was told by her doctor to get pregnant to cure her endometriosis, by the way. She was trying to finish her graduate degree at the time. She changed doctors immediately.

Anyway. It is a shame that the benefits of the birth control pill are denied to so many women due to deliberate misinformation.

I think the fact that women are empowered to make decisions about their own bodies, and their own destinies scares some of the men here shitless. They don't like the shift in power. And that's really what it's all about, no matter how many times they scream "murdered babies!" They hate that it's no longer just a white man's world.

I hate it for 'em. They just need to get over that or find themselves in an increasingly smaller, and increasingly ridiculed, minority.

 

[Guest]

I think the fact that women are empowered to make decisions about their own bodies, and their own destinies scares some of the men here shitless. They don't like the shift in power. And that's really what it's all about, no matter how many times they scream "murdered babies!" They hate that it's no longer just a white man's world.

I hate it for 'em. They just need to get over that or find themselves in an increasingly smaller, and increasingly ridiculed, minority.

My husband was thrilled for me.

Not only because it made our sex life better and more spontaneous, but that my fears about becoming pregnant before we wished were almost nil, my hassles were few (though it still involved seeing a doctor and monthly prescriptions), my cycles were solidly regular for the first time in my life and I felt as if I had some control over the whims and vagaries of my own body.

Empowerment, indeed.

Strong men appreciate empowered women.

(And we appreciate them - oh so much.)

 

[cloudy]

My husband was thrilled for me.

Not only because it made our sex life better and more spontaneous, but that my fears about becoming pregnant before we wished were almost nil, my hassles were few (though it still involved seeing a doctor and monthly prescriptions), my cycles were solidly regular for the first time in my life and I felt as if I had some control over the whims and vagaries of my own body.

Empowerment, indeed.

Strong men appreciate empowered women.

(And we appreciate them - oh so much.)

Think about it, though: they can't keep us from working the same jobs they have anymore. They can't keep us out of government anymore. The only bit of control that is possible for them to have over women at this late date is by making abortion into murder. The last gasp of the good ol' boys club. They're dying, and they know it, and it scares the shit out of them

It should, because we are absolutely not going back to the way it was - EVER - no matter how many times they click their heels and say "There's no place like home."

It's represented here by strong men like Bel and Rob and Sal completely with us along the road to making people truly equal, and by those like Ami, Carney and DP screaming louder and louder, and making themselves look more and more ridiculous every day...those men who really don't want "equal," even though some may make the sounds. The truth comes out where it really matters: my body is my own, not for someone else to legislate.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Think about it, though: they can't keep us from working the same jobs they have anymore. They can't keep us out of government anymore. The only bit of control that is possible for them to have over women at this late date is by making abortion into murder. The last gasp of the good ol' boys club. They're dying, and they know it, and it scares the shit out of them

It should, because we are absolutely not going back to the way it was - EVER - no matter how many times they click their heels and say "There's no place like home."

It's represented here by strong men like Bel and Rob and Sal completely with us along the road to making people truly equal, and by those like Ami, Carney and DP screaming louder and louder, and making themselves look more and more ridiculous every day...those men who really don't want "equal," even though some may make the sounds. The truth comes out where it really matters: my body is my own, not for someone else to legislate.

Well carney, especially, represents the kid who has, by virtue of circumstance alone, one hundred pieces of candy, when everyone else has one piece. When the teacher tells him to pass along some of his candy to the others the way he was supposed to do, he doesn't see it as making things more equal; he sees it as taking his candy away.

 

[3113]

I think the fact that women are empowered to make decisions about their own bodies, and their own destinies scares some of the men here shitless. They don't like the shift in power. And that's really what it's all about, no matter how many times they scream "murdered babies!" They hate that it's no longer just a white man's world.

I agree that there is a streak of nostalgia in a lot of men and women screaming "murdered babies" (and we need to remember that there are women screaming as well as men). Most issues are issues of control, a feeling that going back in time offered more order, less chaos. Everyone in a place, everyone understanding the rules, everything black and white.

Obviously, this is stupid as the real world was never like that ever.

And certainly a lot of men hate the idea of a woman having the ability to decide on whether or not to have their child--and they not getting to make her pregnant when they want and her having to give birth to their baby, no matter her feelings about it. But, as said, there are women who feel similarly, and there is the belief in such instances that a human being should be regarded as the highest form of life and sacred from the minute sperm and egg connect. Also that babies are innocent and their lives more valuable as compared to adults--unless DP honestly believes in never killing anyone, not even in self-defense. It is a view that tries to make things very, very simple, and the one thing it never wants to do is view anyone as a human being with problems that make things "unsimple." So women who have abortions are murderers--simple--not human beings making a complicated choice for possibly very good reasons.

Like, for example, a woman with children to feed who can't afford more, who's husband won't let her use birth control. How can they support more children? They can't, but he insists that she keep producing them. And that she keep watching her children, babies included, suffer more and more as there is less and less ways to care for them. DP, I'm sure, considers himself a kind and moral human being as he wants all babies to live, yet putting any mother in such a position, in such a torturous dilemma without giving them the right to make their own moral decision, is, I would say, highly immoral not to mention cruel.

There is also no morality in wanting women to give birth to babies if you don't also actively work to make sure that those babies, while in the womb, are cared for (i.e. that these women can get free pre-natal care, good nutrition, off drugs, etc.) and once out are cared for. You cannot be a conservative who opposes welfare and such and also be against abortions. Why not? Well because taking away a woman's right to an abortion doesn't guarantee that women suddenly will become smart, chaste and careful when it comes to having sex and getting pregnant (not to mention being able to avoid rape). Taking away a woman's right to abortion and birth control just means you end up with a lot more unwanted children.

 

[trysail]

Abortion, like "fixing Social Security," is a lightning rod issue.

There are already far too many people and far too many uncared-for and unwanted children. The social cost is staggering. At age forty-eight, menopausal, with two children from a previous marriage and certain of her infertility, my late wife discovered she was pregnant. We, being the same age, well-aware of birth defects risk that accompanies late-age pregnancy and with no particular desire to have children, didn't hesitate for a minute. I have no regrets, whatsoever. My wife's premature death five years later has only served to reinforce the wisdom of the decision. The thought of me dealing with a six-year old is horrifying. The idea of serving as a parent to a sixteen-year old female teenager in my early/mid sixties sounds like a Stephen King story to me.

In all honesty, every time I hear a radical anti-abortionist, I can't help but remark sotto voce ( and, occasionally loudly ): before you shoot your mouth off, you need to send $600,000 to the parents ( my estimate of the cost of raising a child to adulthood ) of every unwanted child. After you do that, you've acquired a license to proselytize.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Someone needs to make a movie called "The audible scream," about the lives of unwanted children-- show some boyfriend swinging a baby against a wall by its feet, for instance. Or the mother punching it in the chest.

And show the lines of mothers waiting for WIC vouchers, and record what they say about the foods they can buy with those vouchers.

 

[CharleyH]

Someone needs to make a movie called "The audible scream," about the lives of unwanted children-- show some boyfriend swinging a baby against a wall by its feet, for instance. Or the mother punching it in the chest.

And show the lines of mothers waiting for WIC vouchers, and record what they say about the foods they can buy with those vouchers.

Obviously, I have missed a post or 20.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Obviously, I have missed a post or 20.

What's your excuse-- you got a life, or something?

 

[CharleyH]

What's your excuse-- you got a life, or something?

ROFLOL - Maybe

 

[trysail]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008661441_band23.html
Quartet including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman faked performance
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

It was not precisely lip-syncing, but pretty close.

The somber tones before President Obama's oath of office at the inauguration Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the National Mall and watching on television heard was a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.

The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme cold and wind Tuesday. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the president's swearing-in, which had problems of its own.

"Truly, weather just made it impossible," Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said Thursday.

"No one's trying to fool anybody. This isn't a matter of Milli Vanilli," she added, referring to the pop band that was stripped of a 1989 Grammy because band members did not sing on their album and lip-synced in concerts.

Florman said that the use of a recording was not disclosed beforehand but that the NBC producers handling the TV pool were told of its likelihood the day before.

Network officials said the network sent a note to pool members saying the use of recordings in the musical numbers was possible. Inaugural musical performances are routinely recorded ahead of time for just such an eventuality, Florman said.

The Marine Band and choruses, which performed throughout the ceremony, did not use a recording, she said.

"It's not something we would announce, but it's not something we would try to hide," Florman said.

Anthony McGill, a principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera, and the pianist Gabriela Montero joined Ma and Perlman in "Air and Simple Gifts," a piece written for the occasion by John Williams. While not all music critics agreed about the quality of the piece, a number took note of the frigid circumstances for the performers. And the classical-music world was heartened by the prominent place given to its field.

Perlman said the recording, made Sunday at the Marine Barracks in Washington, was used as a last resort. "It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way," he said in a telephone interview Thursday. "This occasion's got to be perfect." The musicians wore earpieces to hear the playback.

Performing along to recordings of oneself is a venerable practice, and it is usually accompanied by a whiff of critical disapproval.

Famous practitioners since the Milli Vanilli affair include Ashlee Simpson, caught doing it on "Saturday Night Live," and Luciano Pavarotti, discovered lip-syncing during a concert in Modena, Italy. More recently, Chinese organizers superimposed the voice of a sweeter-singing girl on that of a 9-year-old performer featured at the opening ceremony of last summer's Olympic Games.

For the inauguration, the musicians argued that the magnitude of the occasion and the harsh weather made the dubbing necessary and there was no shame in it.

"I really wanted to do something that was absolutely physically and emotionally and, timingwise, genuine," Ma said. "We also knew we couldn't have any technical or instrumental malfunction on that occasion. A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."

Along with admiration for the musicians' work in the cold, questions had swirled in the classical-music world about whether Ma and Perlman would use their valuable cello and violin in the subfreezing temperature.

Both used modern instruments. Ma said he also had considered using a hardy carbon-fiber cello, but he rejected the idea to avoid distracting viewers with its unorthodox appearance. "What we were there for was to really serve the moment," he said.

As for Aretha Franklin, she told talk-show host Larry King the cold weather hurt her performance of "My Country 'Tis of Thee," saying, "Mother Nature was not very kind to me. I'm going to deal with her when I get home."

 

[cloudy]

As for Aretha Franklin, she told talk-show host Larry King the cold weather hurt her performance of "My Country 'Tis of Thee," saying, "Mother Nature was not very kind to me. I'm going to deal with her when I get home."

I just love Aretha.

 

[Guest]

I'd wondered, actually, about the tuning in that temperature.

And I instruct my students to never take instruments outside in that sort of weather, never leave them in the car, never expose them to the elements like that.

Fine wood easily cracks.

And strings do break.

I'm glad they found a way to make it work.

 

[Guest]

I just love Aretha.

She does rock.

 

[cpk50]

I doubt the laws on abortion will ever be changed. Women of means would still have them, there’d go to Canada or Europe. However the day after some young poor female was injured at an illegal clinic, there would be such an outcry, politicians would put things back. It’s like the banking crisis. Wall Street was greedy and made some bad bets. However Washington couldn’t let millions of Americans go homeless, so they gave the banks even more money.

 

[cloudy]

I doubt the laws on abortion will ever be changed. Women of means would still have them, there’d go to Canada or Europe. However the day after some young poor female was injured at an illegal clinic, there would be such an outcry, politicians would put things back. It’s like the banking crisis. Wall Street was greedy and made some bad bets. However Washington couldn’t let millions of Americans go homeless, so they gave the banks even more money.

The abortion issue isn't even vaguely related to the banking issue.