Abortion Party!

In less than a month I am going to turn 43. With every year that passes I assess the things I have yet to achieve in my life. When I was turning 40 my daughter treated me to a Buckeye game and that took care of the #1 item on my bucket list. Last year I was focused on the length of my bucket list and determined to narrow it a bit and put the Louvre at the top. Thanks to Marco Rubio, this year it occurs to me that the Louvre should not be at the top of my list. There will be time for travel later.

As much as I have always really wanted to have an abortion, I have never had the chance. I realize now what a missed opportunity I had when I was 19 and decided to give birth to my daughter. But who would have figured that would be my last chance in life? I was young and it seemed I had my whole life ahead of me. (Besides, I would have missed that Buckeye game). But now my time is surely running out. Sooner or later my parts are going to stop working and I won't even be able to get pregnant.

Help Me Get My Shirt!!!

The immediacy of my situation leaves me with only one solution: Abortion Party!

I am going to start really keeping track of my cycle and have men come visit me every day of the weeks I am fertile until I get the plus sign on that stick! Please sign up below. My requirements are few: able bodied men (at least able where it counts - wink), must provide your own transportation, must offer written doctor's proof of being disease-free, must be willing to leave immediately upon completion. That's it! If you are interested please let me know. I will begin inviting suitors next month. I look forward to meeting you all!!!

Party On!!!

As Marco Rubio was good enough to point out for us this week, abortions are something we all look forward to in life. There are some dreams that all little girls hold on to well into adulthood and, obviously, having an abortion is one of them. I have been with a loved one when she got to have an abortion. It seemed to be a terrible time for her because she was making herself sick over her it. I couldn't understand why she was torturing herself over something all women should celebrate, but she was very emotional and I made it my responsibility to care for her as best as I could. I figured it must have been the hormones pregnant women often experience.

When we went into the clinic to have the procedure there were a lot of very angry people outside screaming the most vile things at her. I am defensive of absolute strangers when they are being harassed, one can only imagine the rage that came over me as I was trying to understand and comfort her and protect her from their words, but my body and mind were compelled to commit violence in a way that was, frankly, foreign to me. I couldn't understand. Why were these people so angry? I could only conclude that these people are the ones who stand outside of weddings and harry the brides and grooms when they come out of their houses of worship after having been married. Some people will not allow the rest of us to enjoy anything in our lives!

Once we were inside, the waiting room was filled with women who were also having abortions because the clinic only performed them on Mondays. (I think on Tuesdays they do face lifts). Again, the joy one would expect to find on their faces and the excitement of being able to get this procedure in their lives seemed to be lost on them. Those women all seemed to be in a silent state of solemn contemplation that looked like sadness. Some of them were crying. It must've been a reflection only a woman can have if she has been able to be in their shoes and what I was seeing was really pride. Or euphoria. The tears must have been tears of joy. I suppose that since I have never had such a fulfilling experience it looked foreign to me and what I assumed was sadness or pain had to have been a misunderstanding on my part. Obviously.

Every woman there was accompanied by a loved one: a friend, sister, mother, husband, boyfriend. None of them seemed to be happy to be there, either. It was as if they were sad or lost. I wondered if I looked that way, too. I wondered if anyone looking at me would misunderstand me to seem distressed when what I was feeling was pure jealousy. Now that I look back at it, I'll bet that is what all of the loved ones in the waiting room were feeling. They were jealous, too. They had never been able to get this procedure done and go back to their daily lives to brag to all of their friends and co-workers or classmates about their big accomplishment.

Although it really was a somber morning with very few words spoken in the room beyond the nurse coming out to get a patient and take them to see the doctor, it felt like we all had an unspoken bond together in the silence. We were all there because we loved someone who found themselves in a situation they could not face alone. Of course, they could not face it alone because they couldn't drive afterward due to the anesthesia. So we all faced it together and prepared for the next phase in our lives where we would get in our cars and drive home. And then we would all continue this random Monday watching Ellen at 4pm, making dinner and playing a little Candy Crush before bed.

That was a really beautiful day for the both of us, I believe. We both grew and became stronger women for having had the experience. She is now a complete woman after reaching a milestone most of us strive toward. And I was offered genuine reflection about my own life's ambitions.

I need to get back to that time and put my priorities in order. I hope many of you will sign up and come visit me soon or refer friends to this site who might want to help me reach my goals.

Thank you in advance.

Kiss Kiss.
Mean Progressive



** My most sincere thanks to Bram from the show Social Spitball with Bram Sarkowski and Barbara Dee for helping me get the video of Rubio's latest folly cut for this piece. Please check out their show and their Facebook community People for the Ethical Treatment of Voters. Great lefties need great support!!! ***

Please support Planned Parenthood by donating here so more women can meet their goals in life:

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Anchor Baby Agenda

With all of his bluster, the Regressive Party hardly knows which way to focus their attention in order to dismiss their front runner, Donald Trump. He is terrifying them in ways they could have never imagined and, quite frankly, he is wasting billions of dollars and countless hours invested by the Koch brothers and their ilk to redefine what history would call a 'democracy.' I have a feeling, however, that once they find time to take pause on Trumps recent immigration stance, they will be able to at least embrace his assertion that the 14th Amendment needs to be repealed. Please be ready when they change their minds. As with all of their 'revelations,' it will come out of nowhere and the contradictions and historical 'facts' will be mind-boggling. Prepare yourself now to understand its truths so the narrative coming from the right can be quickly and effectively dismantled.

The 14th Amendment was not exactly a reaction to immigration. It was a reaction to those who were forced to immigrate here and when, through the Civil War, they (the men, at least) finally found themselves living here freely, the Constitution was amended to allow them free reign of their own personhood where they had equal rights of citizenship and to the same protections as white men.

Without the 14th Amendment, we would still be living with segregation, too. Although we still have a handful of knuckle-draggers living among us who would like to revisit those days, most of us actually shudder at that idea.

This Amendment was also the guiding principle in the Roe V Wade decision finally allowing women to have ownership of their own bodies and in making their own healthcare decisions.

Just this year the 14th Amendment was cited repeatedly in the Obergefell V Hodges Supreme Court decision where the rights of LGBT citizens were recognized in their own capacity to determine who they can marry.

The 14th Amendment was the clincher in getting public schools to detach from religion, as well. The 1st Amendment guaranteed freedom from a state designation of religion the 14th, the Supreme Court decided, that all levels of the government were bound to the same guidelines.

Please do not forget, my brothers and sisters, not only has the 14th Amendment been necessary in defining those rights listed herein, but it will be necessary in the future to continue to win rights we are still demanding. The ERA, after nearly 100 years, has still not passed. A member of the LGBT community can still be denied a job or fired from a job if their employer condemns their 'lifestyle.' The many rights guaranteed to counter discrimination of minorities in voting, education and employment are still being debated and are repeatedly brought back to the courts for reversal. I also believe that the final nail in the coffin of the bullshit of whom you have to make a wedding cake for will also be determined by the 14th Amendment as it says all rights defined in the 1st Amendment are universal across all levels of government, including state.

It is inconceivable that we live in 2015 and are trying to compel other American's to embrace the lives of those who are new to our country and protect those who were born here. And I can not believe a single human being would insist that we need to get rid of the 14th Amendment.  Yet, here we are. We are still suffering those loudest voices (coming from the dimmest minds) in our society who condemn all of us to bear their hatred and intolerance. They don't seem to be going anywhere so it is our job to have louder voices and point them at the rational people in our society who really don't want to hear it. Each of our presently guaranteed rights which become threatened will convince more of them to start paying attention. Keep telling them until the selfish are finally provoked to see their own lives threatened. It is more important that they do wake up, than why, I suppose.

Do not be surprised when the leadership on the right finally realizes what a jackpot this idea of repealing the 14th Amendment would be to their collective agenda: rid the rights of those who fail to be Straight. White. Christian. Men. SHIT! That is their entire voting block. And be ready to explain what it REALLY means to all of those who believe it is a discussion regarding immigration. If they cannot be bothered to care about these babies, maybe they can care about how far-reaching the implications REALLY are.

New Talking Point

It's so funny. (Or not). I've come to know the new talking points from the right as soon as I hear absolute bullshit coming from a pundit that I have never heard anyone say before which really only seems to divert from the narrative against their platform and does nothing to support their assertions or diminish ours. Last week, I believe, was the first time I heard their latest distraction from the anti-choice discussion. My warning sirens went off immediately when they insinuated that the Regressives were the ones who really respect women because they believe that women are capable of thinking about more than just one issue, abortion. Curious, right? You believe we are capable of deep, critical analysis about things but we still should have no capacity to determine how to build our own families or make decisions about our bodies. Brilliant. Please, tell me more. I have now heard it several times and I do not believe the idea of the new talking point was well enough defined as to enable clear or coherent retellings by those who offer them to us.

This evening Chris Matthews had a new pundit on, KellyAnne Conway, who I have seen around lately. In a conversation tonight about the Regressive Party having such despicable ideas about immigration, KellyAnne offers us this little nugget. Either she is too ignorant to realize where their new talking point is appropriate or she is too green to understand only the Fox audience would miss its unnecessary insertion into the conversation. Somehow she managed to get this in to distract from the fact that their candidates (who always demand it is the job of those on the right to defend the Constitution) are now suggesting we need to get rid of the 14th Amendment. She tells us that the candidates on the right can think above the waist and, "its not about women's health - that's breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and the rest of it..." I don't know ... when discussing the genuine importance of women's health and compelling the viewers to believe that you are the ones who care deeply, does 'and the rest of it' really suffice?

So this is their latest talking point. Of course it is ridiculous. Sometimes I honestly believe that they give them to us to leave us dumbfounded and unable to reply at all. This new one sets your brain spinning with so many arguments that you can't catch your brain quickly enough to counter their bullshit. Of course abortions and contraception are about women's health. We do not go see our mechanic for those issues. Of course candidates on the left don't believe that is all we care about. That is why they also talk to us about the environment and schools and societal struggles and the economy and the myriad other things we care about that the right would like to find ways to ignore or ruin altogether.

We all need to be mindful of the talking points as they come out. We all need to be ready with the thoughtful counter punch to ideas coming from the right which are utterly unimaginable and usually laughable. Otherwise whomever offers the bullshit gets to walk away having convinced themselves and anyone else paying attention that they were right by virtue of having left you dumbstruck. Christ they're awful.

We also need to be mindful of where these talking points are coming from. Start noticing the job titles of their pundits. KellyAnne's job title is "Republican Pollster." It would seem that a pollster would be getting statistical data and disseminating necessary information to the party and the candidate(s) paying for her services. But this pollster is on different shows giving us talking points on every issue imaginable, completely devoid of statistics or support of data offered. What is the point of having a pollster on the show who doesn't offer you statistics? I have recently come to find out a lot about the pundits on the right which has offered profound pause. I hope to write about it soon. They are crazy. And we, as a society, are assholes for allowing them to even have a voice.

It Is Our Time

As mothers, we fight for the Black Lives Matter movement because they are all our babies and it is nonsense that anyone could think otherwise. As mothers, we fight for the LGBT community because they are all our babies and no one should dismiss them. We fight for everyone. We forget to fight for ourselves.

Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood. This is a VERY BIG deal. This is the womens movement. This is their attempt to get abortion on the agenda and to take away healthcare for American women. Last week Mike Huckabee suggested he would do anything he could to stop abortions and when asked if that meant using the FBI or federal troops to stop abortions, he said the use of troops to enforce was not out of the question. Abortion is legal. It has been legal for 40 years now. It is a right for women.

Is that what it would look like if a woman wanted to get an abortion in Mike Huckabee's world? Is this an acceptable idea? We have to speak out. We must demand that our rights are not disposable. I would never have an abortion. I had a choice when I had my daughter. Having been adopted and knowing how hard it is to grow up adopted, I knew I couldnt make that choice. Because of the way my brain works I knew I couldnt have and abortion. I knew that I would beat myself up for the rest of my life and focus on the "what ifs" until I made myself crazy. I chose to have a child. I CHOSE to allow the fetus inside of me to grow into a human being that I gave life to. THAT WAS MY CHOICE. No one can take any of the choices away from women. I will fight for the rest of my life to make sure that all women have the right to decide what is best for them and what to do with their own bodies.

Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood, their biggest target for their War on Women. They have threatened to shut down the government. They use Planned Parenthood as a boogey man. The monies that Planned Parenthood uses from the government goes toward cancer screenings, sex education, protection, and health care for women.   All of the things they provide enable women to make healthy choices about their bodies and their families. This is what the Regressive party wants to take away from us.

We are treated as children. We are the mothers of this country. We are the mothers of the politicians who demand we should not have a right to make our own choices with family planning. Today we have a right to our own bodies, it has been in question since we decided it was so and it became legal, but it is legal. And it is our right regardless of how other people see it. They simply must not be allowed to take our rights away.

Please do not confuse this as anything other than a very deliberate attack on womens rights. There are many things in the news this weekend that are interesting. Please do not let any of them distract you from the one issue that you can have a voice in. Demand that your Senator know your view. Demand that this issue is not about abortions but about womens rights. Demand that as a woman you will not accept anything other than a "Nay" vote which is the only way your Senator can actually represent their constituency. Planned Parenthood offers healthcare to millions of women. We are demanding that all Senators represent all women.

The best way we have is to fight by demanding the Senators actually think about the women they are supposed to be representing. Email, tweet or go on the Facebook page of your Senators. Let them know and all of the people who follow them that you demand your rights be protected. Give other people in their tweets or on their Facebook page something to think about. I also suggest contacting the big corporate donors who support Planned Parenthood and demanding that they compel the Senators represent women properly.

That is all that this is about. This is not about anyone wanting to 'save lives.' This is just another attempt to take away the rights of women. These are the same leaders who have yet to allow the ERA to pass. Please fight. Today. Compel others to do the same. Our rights must be part of the revolution we are finally seeing in America! We can fight for our babies of color and our babies in the LGBT community while we fight for ourselves, too. This is the chance. NOW is the time.

Regressive Women's Health

Right. Go to Rand Paul's website and you will promptly be invited to donate to his campaign. This is the message he chose to send to Americans who want him to lead us all. It never surprises me when they flaunt their arrogance and their ignorance. It pisses me off, though. I, too, believe in the rights of men. However, I'm partial to this new fangled way of thinking where everyone should have an opportunity to the same rights.

I'm sure many in the Regressive Party will condemn me for playing semantics. True, it is beneath me. But that is the only weapon they seem to have. So I will gladly point out the fact that any noun at all could have filled that space. He could've used "American's," "Humans," "Everyone's," but he didn't.

Rand Paul uses only semantics here to explain his new position against choice. For any who are not sure what he is talking about, don't feel bad, he isn't either. You see, no woman will walk into a hospital the day before she is due to give birth and get an abortion. The Regressive Party has been using this nonsense to promote the miseducation of people who can't (won't) think for themselves. Again, critical thinking is a gift some of us are not born with. This talking point is meant to diminish a woman's right to choose an abortion after 20 weeks. They never allow the conversation to go beyond rhetoric, of course, because 20 weeks is about the time that technology can detect birth defects. And their argument also completely belies the fact that when a doctor determines a late-term abortion is necessary, it is to spare the woman's life or health. As much as we all enjoy our second class citizen status, maybe we could let up just a bit when it is actually talking about life and death?

Because their use of semantics is so pervasive in all of their talking points, it makes it too hard to point them out every day so I usually give them a pass. Today, however, Paul gets none. He is, at present, passionately compelling those in the Senate to vote for a bill he proposed to cut all funding for Planned Parenthood next month.

The videos which have been leaked lately are meant to be fantastical. They are only shocking to people who lack the capacity for reason and who are anti-choice. Those are the people who were already going to vote for Rand Paul. This will end up being another waste of his rhetoric and time in the Senate because it will not garner a single new vote. He may, however, be able to lose some. Every woman on the right who believes in choice will be given a chance to hear about these attempts every time we take the time to explain them. There are many on the right who believe in choice. The Regressives call them "RINOs" (Republican in Name Only) and don't really even consider them a part of their party.

Unfortunately, many of the RINOs don't pay enough attention to realize what has become of their party. They are traditional Republicans who have always walked into the voting booth, checked the Rs and gone home. They feel content having done their civic duty and will show up again in 4 years to do the same. Because they don't pay much attention, however, they don't realize that their party has been hijacked by the Regressives and they don't realize that the ideals which were once held as sincerely radical in their party are now those which define its platform.

If these RINOs only hear bits and pieces of what is going on in the country from people at work or at family functions, they might be horrified to hear the rumors about Planned Parenthood. Its pretty easy to set them straight and let them know that the tapes were profoundly altered and then ask them to think about what the actual takeaway from the hysteria is without any outside influence. Then remind these RINOs that Planned Parenthood is an essential need for many women throughout the nation who don't have access to family planning and gynecological care in rural areas. Remind them of the many resources they offer to millions of Americans. Finally, remind them that the Senate is voting to cut all of their federal funding because they oppose abortion. Don't forget to add in this discussion that #1 abortion is legal and #2 Planned Parenthood receives no federal funding for abortions #3 tissue donation should be a revolutionary way to create live-saving medical advancements, not create controversy. The RINOs are the ones on the right who aren't sheep. Thoughtful discourse is possible with them.

We have time to make sure they are aware. Each of us. One at a time. And we also have time to call our Senators and tell them what we plan to do. And tell them we will be making sure to keep track of how they vote on Planned Parenthood next month.

Don't be confused by their wordplay. There really is a genuine War on Women presently being waged by the Regressives. And it really is time that we fight back.

Yes, Virginia, There Is A War On Women

Please take a moment to watch the above. It is only one minute long. It is true. It is a fact. I wrote about this a couple of months ago and was shocked by how many people (many women) wanted to argue with me about their belief that it was a lie.

This is why the laws we have aren't enough. Again, it is just one minute. And it is SO Important.

Okay. So we are now all starting from the same place. I admit that I am a Mean Progressive, but I am lovely to all people with open minds and I sincerely hope that this message gets out to all women, regardless of party affiliation. It is time for us to put an end to this ridiculous patriarchy we have been dealing with since we got here. 

Last weekend, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a Regressive group, held a conference in Washington DC and, curiously, the only thing you can find about it in the news is a "reported" bomb threat. You know, because the Christians in this fine nation of ours are under constant threat by all who mean to persecute them. I promise the threat was one they created themselves so they could have a means of documenting their persecution just two days after they tried to tell America that a massacre in an historical southern black church was because of their faith.

All of the Regressive hopefuls for the presidency were there and pandered to their base. The jaw-dropping revelation was that one of their noted speakers was Phyllis Schlafly. She is like 90 something. Not kidding. Apparently it has not yet occurred to those in the GOP that when your esteemed speaker on women's issues has to be helped on the stage and needs to use a walker to get to the podium, it may be time to consider condemnations about your attempts to take women back to the 50's. Not only is she the physical embodiment of that truth, as she dons a dress which was certainly fashionable then, but she narrates it quite gloriously, too.

Schlafly literally opened her speech by bragging that the very room they were standing in was the one she was in when they were able to bury the ERA in 1982. When I watched it I caught myself before I let "Bitch!" come out as I recognized she is elderly. But then I realized she is also a bitch. And I let it go! She went on to tout the glories of conservatism and the needs to maintain their views. She sincerely believes that it is a bad idea for women to make as much money as men because they will find themselves unable to land a man as their egos will be bruised. The entire purpose of being a woman, according to Schlafly, is to be a wife and a mother. She publicly denounces income equality often. She even said, "The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap." And do not misunderstand me, she said this last year.

(Here is a link if you want to see her speech, she comes on at 1:08:00. The entire thing is 4 hours)

It is telling that this was the conservative leader who was invited to speak last weekend. This was the voice the Regressive Party wanted to offer to the women of their party. These were the reminders the leaders of their party believed they needed to hear. In 2015.

At this convention all of the Regressive wannabes took the stage, one after another, demanding the right for women to control their own bodies be taken away. We were reminded of proud cuts to Planned Parenthood, successful attempts to shut down various abortion clinics, passing partial birth abortion bans, etc. And the crowd cheered for them all. This was the message they wanted to hear. In 2015.

Of course this is a group who apparently only have two things on their agenda: #1 Demand our nation allow absolutely anyone to build an arsenal without a 3 day cooling off period. #2 Demand a woman have very little opportunity to choose what to do with her own body but if she can find her way to the resources needed, she needs a 3 day cooling off period.

How has it been nearly 100 years and the ERA has been unable to be ratified in 2/3 of these United States? I don't know? We are mothers. Maybe it is in our nature to worry about taking care of everyone else's needs and that has allowed the movement to go unheard. But, as mothers, it is time to recognize what society we are building for our daughters. It is not selfish to demand equality for ourselves. And it certainly isn't selfish to fight for the generations of women who will follow us. We are sharing this country and not sharing the same rights to it. And that's bullshit.

Presently the Regressive Party War on Women is moving along quite well. Of course, they have Mike Huckabee trying to explain that it is a War for Women. But, Mike, you see, a war for women doesn't assume that we don't have the capacity for reasoned judgment to determine what we can do with our own bodies or families. A war for women doesn't tell my employer that they are entitled to religious objections to my family planning choices. A war for women does not allow for funds directed to DNA testing of rape kits to be misappropriated and ensure the rapists freedom while endangering more women and perpetuating my fear. A war for women doesn't give us statistical proof of our earning a fraction of what men earn and tell us we are overreacting to demand better. And a war for women certainly doesn't champion the work of the woman who battled tirelessly to kill the Equal Rights Amendment.

So, Thanks Mike, but we will take it from here. We will carry the mantle you have managed to drop, kick and set ablaze. It is our work. It is our responsibility to inform all women that they are not remotely entitled to the freedoms they think they are. And it is important to do that while pointing out the myriad rights which are presently being taken away.

Let us not wait for the 100th anniversary of the first attempt to raise our voices.

These are my ideas to start:

You can start by going here to sign a new change.org petition.

You can go to the ERA website to find answers to whatever questions you have running through your head.

You can go here to find your Senator and here to find your Congressperson  and send them an email or a fax NOW. Save their phone number in your phone. Set your phone to remind you to call them during their office hours and DO IT. The reason the right has such an amazing field game is they have organized their crazies to do this daily. And that is why their base is so strong.

Make a list of 5 (or more) women you know who will be pissed to realize that the ERA has never passed. And insist they do the same.

Woody Allen Deserves No Quarter

Last night Bill Maher was quick to support Woody Allen when they were discussing the Bill Cosby rape allegations. Maher said that he would offer 'quarter' to Allen and insinuated that his accuser (Mia Farrow) had a personal reason to make accusations and that it was different. I make few distinctions between rapists and child molesters. It is hard for me to believe that any thoughtful person could with what we do know about Allen, regardless of whether or not he was ever found guilty.

It always disgusts me to hear Woody Allen celebrated. Do we not have enough off-beat comedic talents that we can't spare just one? The fact that he has maintained his career and continues to draw the biggest celebrities to be in his movies is, frankly, disturbing. The charges of molestation against his own adopted daughter, Dylan, were never filed in 1992 by the prosecutor who cited that there was potential for instability during a trial due to the child accusers instability. Their having gone unfiled had nothing to do with credibility or evidence. I don't need those charges to be true to loathe him, however. I find his lacking morality cause enough to believe the child and find him repulsive.

When Allen started his affair with Soon-Yi, not only was he supposed to have been her father-figure, but he was in a relationship with her mother. Her mother discovered the affair by finding naked photos of her daughter taken by Allen. Obviously this discovery precipitated the end of their family. That is a lot of weight for any child, but especially an adoptee, to bear. And how long had the relationship been going on? His having had the affair and then advising her to keep their secret is not only a blatant disregard for the family of which they were both members, but overt evidence of grooming techniques attributed to pedophiles. He destroyed the security of Soon-Yi and all of her adopted brothers and sisters. Whatever role or bond that each of the family members was meant to have had was made irrelevant and completely destroyed. Imagine explaining to a child that their sister would now be having the relationship that their mother had had with the man who had been their father-figure, and actual father to one, Ronan. (but I'm still pulling for that Sinatra rumor to be true).

Of course, he reminds everyone that he was neither her legal father nor biological. Right. No, sure. That makes sense. Never mind the fact that you were the father-figure in her home from the age of 10; or that you knew her as a young, broken and vulnerable child acclimating to a new country, language, home and family. There is no rational way for that familial relationship to ever gravitate into a romantic one. It was your responsibility as a guardian to make her feel safe in her new life. Piece of shit.

If society can accept this behavior, adoption should be outlawed because every child's emotional development and stability are at risk. If these are the mindsets of those raising our adopted children, how are they supposed to grow up strong with self-respect; with a feeling of connectedness and security? As best I can tell, the only accessory that never goes out of style in Hollywood is the adopted child. But they line up to kiss his ass. Does no one look at their own family and question what type of monster Allen must be? I believe in the goodness of people. I believe everyone deserves a chance until they give you a reason to question their character. I believe Allen has more than gone out of his way to prove his own repulsive character. As long as Hollywood continues to revere him, they bare their own character, as well.

Dear Media: I Am Running for President!!

Dear Media:

I have decided to run for President and am inviting you to the kick-off announcement for my campaign. From what I gather in watching all of your coverage, it is a bad idea for a candidate from the left to have amassed any wealth. This is very encouraging for me. Not only am I not well off, but I live in a trailer park. I am hoping to kick my campaign off here this weekend. Although I do not ride a motorcycle like Scott Walker, the guy down the road, we call him Drunk Mike, has a motorcycle. I'll bet he would be glad to ride me through the park with a flag and maybe a bullhorn or something. Would you like to come cover that and ask the Americans who live here what they would like from a leader? Because you all spend so much time finding ways to discount positive economic news that comes out each month, I guess my neighborhood would be a true representation of an American community and its needs would be the perfect projection for your audience.

My neighbors have started a SuperPac to help me get started. They have already raised enough to pay for my internet through the election. I will be running the majority of my campaign online because I don't have a lot of money to pay for travel. You are all welcome to visit me here for interviews, though. Because my time and funds are so limited, however, I would like to get a few tips from you all before you come. I hope you don't mind taking the time to help me understand.

I guess its the campaigning itself that is confusing for me. I am a Democrat and I am a woman. I notice that all of the candidates on the right are men (aside from Fiorina who even you all don't seem to really be taking seriously) and are allowed to pretty much dictate which questions they answer. Will I be afforded that same courtesy? How does it work, exactly? It seems as if I just scowl and refuse to answer or change the subject you will back down. Or do I publicly condemn you for having a conservative bias and shame you into asking me the questions I want to answer? It seems kind of rude, honestly. I would really rather not have to do either. So if you could just stick with questions that are relevant to Americans, I think we would be fine.

Although the questions the candidates on the right seem to favor are those that they can turn into a tirade on Secretary Clinton, I would really rather you just focus on the issues I would like to tackle during my 4 or 8 years leading the country. I hope that you don't spend too much of our time together asking me to trash talk any of the other candidates. I could write you a book. Or a series of books, probably. Okay. I could actually write you a series of tomes, but the point is - if I have less than eighteen months to tell my fellow citizens how I envision our future, I would rather leave my diatribes for 2024.

I sincerely love my country. I guess that I am supposed to start there. From what you have reported to me, I am then supposed to tell America the reasons I love her. I should begin by defining my patriotism. Correct? Well, I do not believe in the idea of American Exceptionalism as those on the right keep defining it. I do hope that we can work toward being exceptional, however, and I have a lot of ideas about how to get us there. Frankly, it is hard to decide how to define my patriotism in a way that your audience will appreciate. It seems that everyone has been conditioned to believe that it is found in things I cannot understand. Please forgive my naivete if I do not come off patriotic. This is all new to me. So, this weekend you all reported that Secretary Clinton was condemned at a Joni Ernst fundraiser for having "Probably never ridden a John Deere," I have! So I am hoping you can report that to Americans for me. But, I am not sure if that experience is relevant as I have never walked to school in a downpour with Wonder Bread bags on my feet. Maybe we could get clarification before you report on that. I wouldn't want a cherished childhood memory of having steered the tractor from my granddady's lap to end up being maligned because my childhood had missed any other important milestones.

I believe that a lot of what Senator Sanders has been saying has been exactly what America needs to hear right now. The word 'socialist' has been bandied about, however, and that has been offered to us as a bad word. I certainly don't want any bad words attributed to me. Can we just stick with something like 'really really worried about taking care of all Americans' or something like that? It sounds a lot better, don't you think?

Of the many issues I am passionate about, the first that I would want to discuss is healthcare. People keep telling us that universal healthcare is a terrible thing. The only terrible things I would like to tell Americans are the horror stories of real people who are suffering because their state has decided to deny people coverage. I want them to know about how 850,000 Floridians have had their medical coverage taken away by their legislatures because they were deemed 'able bodied' even though the only way they can actually be so is by paying $4000/month to cover health costs to enable them to breathe. I am sure that, before Americans go to vote next year, they would want to know the very specific details about their candidates positions on this issue. Wouldn't you think so, as an American?

I am a proud feminist and would want to make women's issues a main focus of my campaign. I am concerned, however, because although I am aware of the rabid opinions those running on the right have espoused about women, I have never heard any in the media report on them. Are those the types of issues the media just doesn't like to cover? Unlike Mike Huckabee, I believe that women are quite capable of multi-tasking, even while on their periods. All of the candidates on the right have said they want to get rid of a woman's right to chose altogether. I would like to really have a discussion about that. Will you be willing to cover it? As yet, I have not heard the media cover any of their extreme ideas about women. It is hard to defend an argument when your audience hasn't even heard it. I hope you will understand this and start reporting on the things they say to their party so the rest of Americans can make an educated choice between my vision and theirs.

Like every other candidate on the left who has ever been interviewed, I believe that we should have laws to restrict gun use by those who have been deemed dangerous. Would you please make a point of specifically telling your audience that I am not interested in getting rid of the Second Amendment? In fact, I would even go a step farther and tell them that if they would stop the discourse about taking away the Constitutional rights of a woman to decide what to do with her own body, I would gladly see to it that they keep their Second Amendment. That seems fair. Then we could knock out two extreme conversations with one sentence and get back to things that the majority of Americans are actually concerned about.

I have been struggling to understand why there is so much coverage on Secretary Clinton in the media and so little on the many candidates on the right? Maybe because there are too many on the right you become overwhelmed and just focus on the left? I hope that my entry to the campaign doesn't create a field so large that it makes you decide to stop covering politics altogether. Information really is supposed to be the service that you give Americans and it would be a shame for you to give up before you even tried.

I lack the grace of President Obama and the experience of Secretary Clinton. I am easily frustrated and get quite defensive when I am dismissed or disrespected. I fear my campaign will end before it has a chance to really begin if you refuse to cover my campaign respectfully. You all are welcome to hours of commentary on what my platform is about. In fact, I would encourage that. Although my life will offer you more than enough truly tabloidesque moments to explore and exploit, I hope that you will keep that to a minimum. I think Americans would like to be able to discern my trustworthiness and intentions with little thought to whether or not I was a jackass as a teenager or took five years to get my two year college degree. My opinions are vastly different from those you have been offering to your audiences so I hope that will be enough to warrant your time and attention.

I'll see you this weekend!

Kiss kiss,

Mean Progressive

The GOP Platform Supports Choice. What's the Issue?

Choice. That's what it is. It is, in fact, a choice. It is, in fact, my body. A termination is, in fact, a medical procedure. Neither an embryo nor a fetus are, in fact, a baby.

I don't need to waste time with attempts to counter the "pro-life" narrative because it is all insincere and irrelevant. As detailed here, with the despicable actions of State Representative and proud Tea Partier, Justin Harris, the hypocrisy of their assertions affords their argument no merit. And furthermore, every discussion from their platform detracts from the only valid point: It's my body. It's my choice.

I could certainly empathize with a man if he wanted to have a child and the woman chose to terminate. There are many legal issues where both sides are understandable, however only one person can be victorious. It always has to be the woman in this instance even though it means pushing the fathers will aside. The alternative is unacceptable. The rights of the woman have to be what is guarded in this situation as a law can only protect and define one side exclusively.

Upon its founding, American women were deemed property. And, historically, their rights have been secondary, if considered at all. However, the idea of ownership of another persons body was outlawed with the 14th Amendment. This should, thus, negate any one persons claim to the rights of what another can do with their body. My uterus and anything inside of it are mine alone. A man may pass on some sperm or an HPV. Either could end up transforming and growing inside of me. I could end up with an embryo or I could end up with a tumor. Neither of those two things are a human being. Either growth is mine to contend with and its maintenance is solely my own.

Those of us who choose to filter fact from hype know the history of women's health in America. We know that as procedures become harder to obtain, the rates of death and infection increase profoundly because desperate women attempt to take care of them on their own. In 2015 there is no reason for a woman in America to receive substandard care because a bunch of politicians want to behave like spoiled children. How one politician can call themselves 'pro-life' and have a steadfast focus on sending a nation to war while, at the same time, demanding to define what rights I have to my own body is outrageous to me. Everyone should be outraged. It is time for all Americans to expect more from their "leaders." We can begin with a loud demand of those politicians who espouse a need for a smaller government and whose current party platform states "far greater emphasis has to be put upon personal responsibility for health maintenance."

Your "Pro-Life" Movement is Bullshit

I suppose my opinions about adoption are different from most and will be offensive to many. That's fine. They come from an understanding that is limited by my own experience from having been adopted.

I grew up knowing I was adopted. I don't remember ever having been told or not knowing, so it must have been relayed to me at a very early age. There was never a misunderstanding about what adoption meant, so the explanation must have been clear. Although I have met a handful of adoptees in my life, it still felt like a very singular and lonely circumstance. It certainly seemed unnatural. I was always aware that my people were not really my people. No one that I knew had the questions that I did. When we learned about genetics in middle school and people had to determine which of their traits they inherited from which of their parents, I was the only one who was allowed to just take an A for the project and not do it. Whenever someone would talk about their heritage having been one nationality or another, I had nothing to add. I had fantasies about what my history may have been, but I had no way of knowing where my ancestors came from. Every time I had to fill out paperwork regarding medical history I have just put a big "adopted" across the section asking questions about any diseases that may have been passed down. To be honest, though, these are all very generic explanations of how it felt to grow up having been adopted.

I grew up to be very detached from people. I explained it in depth in a blog called No, Thanks (read here). I was always aware of a bond that I was missing. I could see it. I could (not) feel it. Although less than 2% of American children are adoptees, more than 10% of Americans referred for therapy had been adopted. My detachment is not unique. From the outside it would seem that the adoptee should just be grateful to have a family. In contrast, however, I wonder what would have happened if my mother had had an abortion and my soul could have landed in the body of a child who was wanted.

Surely there are instances when adoption is the only alternative. But they should be rare. Very rare. Most unwanted fetuses don't need to be born. In a perfect America where we didn't have politicians trying desperately to create controversy out of things that are common sense and ignore things that are genuinely important, we would have the focus needed to have that revelation. The anti-choice leaders are so busy trying to excite their limited base with nonsense that neither they, nor their base, take the time to see their hypocrisy or edit their opinions accordingly. To be anti-choice, you need to have an alternative. They do not believe in sex education in schools. Apparently that is too icky. They do not believe in contraception or making it readily available to those who they have neglected to educate about sex and unwanted pregnancies. They do, however, believe in making sure every unwanted pregnancy creates a life. Please, do not spend time trying to convince me or yourself that you are "pro-life" when you refuse to care about that life once it breathes.

As we are being hindered in attempts to actually solve a problem before it happens, we are then left with far too many opportunities to solve the problem afterward. Of course, now the problem is a child. And now that child who was such a desperate concern for politicians has become a statistic that they care only about exploiting in attempts to garner votes by encouraging discrimination of the poor, uneducated and needy. They don't want to have to feed them or give them health care or fund their educations. Honestly, children don't vote so why pretend to give a shit? And, apparently the voters don't mind, because the same politicians in the same party have been pulling this shit forever and they still have jobs.

So we have now created children and evidenced we could care less about them. Fabulous.

Imagine how many more unwanted children there would be if abortion were illegal. Those desperate to get rid of Roe V Wade will tell you all about long waiting lists of people who want to adopt babies. Yep- Those lists exist. Yep- There are a lot of people who can't have children who are sitting on a waiting list to adopt a baby. Something very important is missing from their equation, though.

Our country has many hundreds of thousands of children in foster care waiting to be adopted. They exist. They are alive. They were not aborted. They do not have homes. Every year tens of thousands of these children reach adulthood having never made it out of foster care and never found a family. They are literally in this world with no one. Worldwide there are an estimated 150 million children who need to be adopted. They do not have families. They need homes. Why in the FUCK do we need to be creating more children when we cannot (or do not) take care of the ones we already have?

The irrelevance of these children in any part of a society which demands an anti-choice legislation is stunning to me. It should be stunning to everyone. But no one thinks about it. This is America, you know? We have managed to fucker up the lives of so many children in this country by forcing women to have babies they don't want but once here feel obligated to raise.

Until we can, as a country, find a way to care for and find homes for these children, not only should abortion be legal, but it should be encouraged.