Wolves In Feminist Clothing

You’ve gotta hand it to abstinence-only proponents. They have really “feministed” up their pitch. I mean, who (except the athiests among us) could possibly disagree with any of this?

What i want is for young women to feel that they’re so special and important, they are a creature made by god. They do not have to be a commodity for boys. They are beautiful for who they are on the inside, not the outside.

Its like those polls where the response is crafted to read like Mom and apple pie – who could possibly argue against Mom and apple pie, right? Except there’s also cherry pie, pumpkin pie, you’ve got chicken pot pie…and some people really prefer cake to pie. There’s a huge part of the relevant universe that isn’t even referenced.

Of course no one wants girls to feel like they have to be a commodity for boys. But they paint it as if the only choices are:

1. Be a sexually-active commodity for boys with terrible self-esteem; or
2. Be abstinent until you are married

when in fact there are numerous choices that occupy the space between #1 and #2.

Scaring and shaming and manipulating girls into abstinence disrespects their humanity. But then, that’s really the whole point.

Song of the Day

This just popped up on my iTunes playlist. Love the bass, and the handclaps in the middle are a nice touch.

Camille – Au Port

Evil Conservatives

This seems so obviously a parody site. But if you read some of the comments, you start to wonder.

So either it is a parody and conservatives really don’t get humor, or it isn’t a parody and their sense of humor is completely twisted.

Or else even the comments are manufactured and I just missed it, thus calling my own sense of humor into question. Dang.

Love, Young and Old

Sandra Day O’Connor is my new hero.

Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has a romance with another woman, and the former justice is thrilled — even visits with the new couple while they hold hands on the porch swing — because it is a relief to see her husband of 55 years so content.

Someone in the article says young love is about wanting to be happy, and old love is about wanting someone else to be happy. I’m not sure its so cut and dried, but I do think there is something to that. While I can’t honestly say I am never selfish in my marriage, I can honestly say that my spouse’s happiness has grown increasingly important to me over time and I am more aware of the two of us as equally important parts of a whole. Another of the things in life that (at least in my experience) you know in your head but don’t really know until you’re well into it.

Anyway, I hope that when I have Alzheimer’s, my husband is selfless enough to hang out with me and my new boyfriend. OH – SNAP!

What is it with me and Alzheimer’s stuff today?

Music and the Brain

I love reading about the effects of music on the human brain. Totally fascinating. Today the NYT ran a review of a book about music and the brain focused on disorders or unusual processing.

…[M]usic can help orient and anchor patients with advanced dementia because “musical perception, musical sensibility, musical emotion and musical memory can survive long after other forms of memory have disappeared.”

My memory isn’t the greatest, but I do pretty well remembering lyrics and music to songs I hear alot. And if I initially forget the lyrics, humming the tune is usually all it takes to start remembering the words, even of songs that I haven’t heard in many years. I can’t wait to see how well I am able to recall songs when I am really old – and it will be interesting to see which ones I recall. I can just see it now…I will be the life of the nursing home…my Alzheimer’s in full effect, not even remembering my own name but belting out every word of “Ice Ice Baby” as I shuffle rhythmically down the corridor.

Back in Blog

A bit more than a year after Appalachia Alumni Association was shut down due to the server-crippling amount of spam the site was attracting (and my being too busy to find another webhost), I have finally decided to give blogging another go.
It remains to be seen whether I can do this regularly again. But at least this way, my friends will catch a break from all those pontificating or “hey look at this cool thing!” emails I tend to send when I don’t have a blog to absorb my musings.