Pious Bigots

My eldest daughter, 37, mother of three, a doula and aspiring midwife told me today that she is literally sick to her stomach over the attack on women’s health issues by the Republicans.  To hear them attack Planned Parenthood as if it were the destruction of the world as we know it, is mind-boggling and to single out women’s health for attack is, yes, sickening.  Any woman who supports these bigots is doing a disservice to all women.

But, we know what they are really up to—use women’s rights as a social wedge so they can continue the policies that will make them and their “money men” richer and more powerful.

I hope and pray that they can’t pull this off again!!  This political strategy  gave up a second Bush term and the crazies that were elected in the 2010 midterms.

Come on middle class conservative voters, you are being used by your political party to vote against your own economic interests. Morality is personal and each person is responsible for their own—don’t let republican politicians fool you—for them it’s about power for the wealthy and the corporations.  And that’s all.

Until the 1980s, heart disease was largely considered a male problem, and many studies that focused only on men drew a narrow picture of the typical signs of heart attack: chest pain, shortness of breath and radiating pain in the neck, back, jaw and arms. But more inclusive research since then has shown that while female heart patients may exhibit these symptoms, they are also more likely to show symptoms that are less typically associated with heart attacks, like sleep disturbances and severe unexplained fatigue in the days and weeks prior, as well as cold sweats, weakness and dizziness during the attack.

No one knows precisely why heart attack symptoms differ between men and women, but Dr. Canto speculated that many factors may be involved, including hormones. Many women who take birth control pills, for example, tend to have “stickier” blood vessels and arteries than men, he said.

“Men are quick to rush to see a physician,” said Dr. Garcia, who was not involved in the study. “Women worry more about their husbands than themselves.”

Factors such as pregnancy, childbirth, aging, being overweight, and abdominal surgery such as cesarean section, often result in the weakening of the pelvic muscles. Kegel exercises are useful in regaining pelvic floor muscle strength in such cases. They also help prevent incontinence.

Though most commonly used by women, men can also use Kegel exercises. Kegel exercises are employed to strengthen the pubococcygeal muscle and other muscles of the pelvic diaphragm.  The objective of this may be similar to that of the exercise in women with weakened pelvic floor: to increase bladder and bowel control and sexual function. 

Rutu Modan NYT

This picture in the NYT on Sunday struck a chord with me—it’s heartbreaking.  There are 3 million children being medicated for Attention Deficit Disorder in the United States today.  The long term effect of ritalin is not known.  And the short term benefits are questionable. Medicating children is too easy today and intuitively it seems wrong.  Children act out and sometimes the most distracted child is the most creative.  As parents, it is our responsibility to research and exhaust all avenues before we give a child a mind altering drug.

The Art of Distraction…that of drift and dream; of looking out for interest; of following this or that because it seems alive — Ritalin and other forms of enforcement and psychological policing are the contemporary equivalent of the old practice of tying up children’s hands in bed, so they won’t touch their genitals. The parent stupefies the child for the parent’s good. There is more to this than keeping out the interesting: there is the fantasy and terror that someone here will become pleasure’s victim, disappearing into a spiral of enjoyment from which he or she will not return.

In 1953, Allen Gant, Sr., of Glen Raven Knitting Mills developed  hose that he named “Panti-Legs”, but these were not brought to the open market until about 1959.  Just in time for the MINI SKIRT!

A Red Sea Of Men

Men rule (with an iron hand) the Catholic Church, this can not be healthy or even moral.

The original—Good Rockin’ Tonight written in 1948 by Roy Brown for Wynonie Harris.  Covered by Elvis in 1954.

The original—Hound Dog Recorded by Big Mama Thornton  in 1952.  Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.  Covered by Elvis in 1956.

A panel of MEN at a GOP hearing regarding contraception for women! The Chairman of the Committee, Darrell Issa, would not allow women to testify—-he is definitely both a bully and a chicken.

Striking symbols of American engineering prowess, Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam stand in testimony to the U.S. spirit of growth and prosperity. But the 28.5 million acre Lake Mead is shrinking, as an ever-thirsty nation sprawls across the desert and consumes the waters of the Colorado in an increasingly unsustainable way.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly online report produced by the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, shows that severe drought still grips much of the American Southeast, is spreading east from California across the Rocky Mountains, and has also settled in the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma and Colorado.

IN ORDER TO DEAL WITH WATER SHORTAGES SOME MUNICIPALITIES ARE TURNING WASTEWATER INTO TAP WATER!

SAN DIEGO:  Almost hidden in the northern hills, the pilot water treatment plant here does not seem a harbinger of revolution. It cost $13 million, uses long-established technologies and produces a million gallons a day.

First, wastewater is filtered through string-like microfibers with holes smaller than bacteria and protozoa. Then it goes through reverse osmosis, an energy-intensive process forcing the water through plastic membranes that remove most molecules that are not water. Finally, it is dosed with hydrogen peroxide and exposed to ultraviolet light, a double-disinfectant process. The result is roughly equivalent to distilled water, Orange County officials say.

Some people are still put off. Virginia Soderberg, 91, president of the Convair Garden Club in San Diego, called reclaimed water “the end of the world. I wouldn’t even want my cat to drink it.”

But a 2011 poll by the utility showed that local opposition to reuse had dropped to 25 percent.  NYT