Some Like It Hot: July 2005

This place sucks

"THIS WEEK, the Senate votes on the Energy Bill, and the possibility of a seismic survey of the U.S. coastline. At decibel levels of 260, seismic blasts have a devastating impact on whales, dolphins and other marine mammals that rely on their sense of hearing to survive. In fact, they can lead to permanent hearing loss, brain hemorrhaging and even cause entire pods of whales and dolphins to beach."

We can only hope they don't pass this shit bill. Oil companies will get tax breaks (like they need them) and not have to abide by the clean water act. The bill would promote larger production of ethanol, which would in fact increase air polution and use more energy to produce. Oh yes, and more nuclear power plants are on the agenda.

The Bush administration wants to pretend that they are doing something about energy conservation and the environment. Really it is designed to make sure the oil companies don't lose any money, and in fact continue to make huge profits.

And from the NARAL people:

"It's official: Americans can no longer take prescription birth control for granted. Yesterday, Monday, July 25, anti-choice representatives in the U.S. House made it clear that they support pharmacies that refuse to fill birth-control prescriptions - and that women have no right to birth control.

The radical right's campaign to stop birth control
The House Small Business Committee held a hearing on whether pharmacies should be allowed to refuse to fill women's prescriptions. Anti-choice Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a witness, who had been denied birth control and emergency contraception by her pharmacist, that she had no "right" to her prescriptions - she only believed she did. Anti-choice Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) told a witness whose prescription had also been rejected by a hostile pharmacist, that her "minor inconvenience" - that is, risking an unintended pregnancy - was nothing compared to the "conscience" of a pharmacist.

The right's anti-birth control campaign doesn't stop in Washington, DC. Across the country, the radical right has engaged pharmacies in its campaign to block women's access to birth control. Women like Julee Lacey, a 32-year-old married mother of two and first-grade teacher from Texas, are being turned away by vigilante pharmacists who think it's their job to dispense morals instead of medicine.

Now, as many as 20 states officially protect pharmacists like Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, who says she'd lecture women customers to get off the pill. Other states are pursuing an even more aggressive strategy. Just last month Wisconsin passed a bill to block state universities from filling birth control prescriptions."

I wonder if these anti-contraception people also wouldn't sell condoms.

Also in the news:

Urgent: Ask Your Representative to Say ‘No’ to CAFTA

Sometime in the next two days, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on DR-CAFTA (the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement). If this bill passes, it will be a disaster for farmed animals. All the major front groups for the meat, egg, and dairy industries, including the National Chicken Council, the American Meat Institute, the National Pork Producers Council, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, are aggressively lobbying in support of DR-CAFTA. Why do these industries, which profit from the suffering of animals, support this trade agreement? Because DR-CAFTA will open the doors for enormous animal-abusing corporations like Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Smithfield to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into building new factory farms in Central America. As more and more Americans turn toward vegetarianism, these industries are desperate to find new markets for their unhealthy, inhumane products. DR-CAFTA will make it much easier for these corporations to peddle flesh, eggs, and dairy in Central America.
Millions of farmed animals will suffer on factory farms if DR-CAFTA passes. While the meat industry doles out contributions to politicians on Capitol Hill, it’s vital that everyone who cares about animals make their voices heard. Please immediately call (it’s too late for letters) your representative and ask him or her to stop DR-CAFTA in its tracks.

Visit Congress.org to find your representative’s phone number.

The best way you can stop factory farming is by joining the growing ranks of vegetarians around the world. For a free vegetarian starter kit, full of delicious recipes and a free DVD, visit VegetarianStarterKit.com.

Monday again....

I am not in the mood to go through this week.
It is going to be hotter than hell today and very humid. So I am going to hit the gym and workout in the AC, then work all day after that, fun fun.
I haven't been to the beach yet this year, which is a bit depressing. One of these days I am going to get up and start driving east (well south east, I need to be at least in Virginia) until I hit water. Sometimes you just need to say fuck it and get out of town.

More shit to piss me off.

"In the hospital and estimated 25,000 women become pregnant each year after a rape. Yet only about half of women at risk were given emergency contraception in the ER, according to a 2002 study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Laws in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Washington require hospitals to offer EC in the ER, but do they? A report by the New York city council found nearly one in four public clinics were ignoring a similar rule. Worse, when U.S. Department of Justice officials issued guidelines for threatment of women who have been raped, they omitted any mention if emergency contraception."

There are 1,500 members in the Pharmacists for Life International organization. Meaning these people will not, based on their beliefs fill any type of prescription to prevent pregnancy. Personally I think these people are fucking idiots, but everyone is entitled to their own moral beliefs. (We don't want to go fucking with nature now by ensuring a woman can't get pregnant.) I want to know why are they pharmacists then? Are there other prescriptions these people won't fill based on personally beliefs? Go find a new job assholes.

Avoiding the office

"In a devastating move, George W. Bush has nominated John Roberts to replace Justice O'Connor's swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court. By nominating John Roberts, George Bush has issued a slap in the face to every American who values personal privacy and a woman's right to choose.

With Bush in the White House and Congress in the grip of anti-choice leadership -- a woman's right to choose cannot afford to have John Roberts on the Supreme Court. The worst news, John Roberts has actually argued before the Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade should be overruled."

"In the past weeks, Republicans and Democrats have called on President Bush to nominate a moderate for the Supreme Court—someone who would honor the legacy of independent Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But last night, President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts, a far-right lawyer and corporate lobbyist, to fill her post on the Supreme Court.

We've got to stop Roberts. He opposed clean air rules and worked to help coal companies strip-mine mountaintops. He worked with Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr), and tried to keep Congress from defending the Voting Rights Act. He wrote that Roe v. Wade should be "overruled," and as a lawyer argued (and won) the case that stopped some doctors from even discussing abortion."

I suppose it is not possible to nominate a judge who isn't bias, and can judge fairly and not on personal beliefs. Or is it? Hmmm.
Every pro-choice, GBLT group, environmentalist and democrat in the country can be opposed (and most will be) to Bush's nominees but really, he will eventually get one in.

Also nice to know:

"You may be shocked to learn that Ohio's hospitals don't routinely provide women with the morning-after pill when they need it. Our report, Access to Emergency Contraceptives in Ohio's Emergency Rooms, paints a grim picture for women in our state. Only two hospital ERs claim to give out the morning-after pill to women regardless of the reason they requested it. Only 31 percent of hospitals told us that they routinely give out the morning-after pill to rape survivors, but a shocking 24 percent of hospitals told us that they NEVER dispense it, not even to women who have been raped."

"What is the morning-after pill?
Also known as emergency contraception or EC, the morning-after pill is a high dose of the same hormones that are in birth control pills. A woman can take it to prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours following unprotected sex, contraceptive failure, or sexual assault. It is most effective when taken in the first 24 hours.

Is EC the same as Mifepristone or RU-486 (the abortion pill)?
No EC is totally different than the abortion pill. RU-486 or Mifepristone can be taken in the first 7 weeks of pregnancy to cause an abortion. EC must be taken in the first 72 hours after sex, and has no effect on an established pregnancy, it only works to prevent a new pregnancy from occurring."

Maybe people think that women want to be pregnant and have no choice. We should be able to prevent or terminate a pregnancy. If a woman doesn't desire to have a child, especially in the case of rape or incest, then she shouldn't have to.

Dan Savage, who has a column Savage Love recently had a man write in who was transing into a woman, and wanted to simulate having a period by sticking a tampon in his ass. So he could really feel like a woman. Why the hell anyone one would want to have a period is beyond me. Do any women enjoy it? Maybe this guy could take something to give him cramps. Maybe he wants to worry about getting pregnant and not having access to birth control or legal abortion.

Sunday Morning Funnies

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Yawn.....

My biorythmn

Il tuo bioritmo
A differenza dell'oroscopo, i nostri bioritmi non dipendono dall'influsso degli astri, ma sono regolati da altri fattori come ad esempio il ciclo lunare, e riflettono quindi il nostro "ciclo vitale", il nostro benessere.

Il bioritmo si compone di tre cicli:
Ciclo fisico: forza, energia, potenza sessuale e fisica
Ciclo emotivo: sentimenti, emozioni
Ciclo intellettivo: facoltà mentali, logica, funzioni cerebrali

Eternal Summer Slacking

Well at least I am doing the shit on my To Do List. I might as well enjoy not doing much because my step-bro, who I work for doing loans, called me yesterday and is on a kick. So by the beginning of august if not sooner things may start to get ugly.
I would prefer to work as much as possible from home because I hate driving out to the office. It is 30 minutes from Mark's, and 20 min. from me. Not close. I don't mind driving for closings, because I am being paid to drive there. Otherwise driving to any job is a waste of time, unpaid waste of time. Working from home is the way to go.
But if I am going to save as much money as I would like, I guess I will have to work more :(
I only have to teach for 2 hours today b/c half my students are on vacation that come on wednesdays. So after work we are going to go on a bike ride, providing it doesn't rain, or at least isn't storming. Hopefully my knee won't be completely shot afterward.

Winning Bid

So I won my first bid on ebay. Now I have bought things before, but not bid. It was mildly exciting the last few minutes since earlier in the day I was out bid by 1 cent b/c I wasn't paying attention to the time running out. But it worked out b/c I got fairly good seats for less money. Mark is excited about seeing the Marlins play the Cubs. And now we definitely will be going to Chicago the last weekend of August.

Yawn...

I am feeling even more lazy this week than last.
So I am trying to buy tickets for a cubs game for the last weekend of august. I got out bid at the last minute on the ones I wanted. So I have a bid in for another pair. Hopefully I'll get them. When we go to Cincinnati to see a game getting tickets is easy since the Reds suck.

The weekend was good, I saw a lot of friends the past 4 days. Some I haven't seen in a while so that was fun. I ate and drank a lot all weekend, and generally had a good time.

Mark got me a ring for our one year anniversary, but it was too big. We went down to Cinci for the day saturday so he could golf, and his sister and I went to Tiffany & Co. to get the right sized ring.

Check it out:

Almost hump day.

Well I joined myspace since so many of my friends had. That shit is crazy. All kinds of people want to be your friend.
hhmmm.

Anyway. The weekend was pretty good. Sunday I accomplished very little, and Monday we hit the Doo Dah parade and then my parents house to eat. I am happy that this is a short week.
Hopefully tomorrow night we can get in a game of Bocce.
I have had to work a little less this week and last so that has been nice, but weird.

Poor Mark is still at work. He left a little early since he had to go back in at 7 this evening, but still he has worked over 11 hours today. I made dinner b/c he thought he would be done by 8:30 (it is almost midnight). I made Pad Thai and bought sushi. I still need to learn to make sushi, not that it exactly seems hard, but getting all of the ingrediants and what not would be necessary. The seaweed to make the rolls isn't too cheap, but rice, veggies and what not to be wrapped in there shouldn't be too costly. Making the pad thai was fairly easy, so I may need to make a larger quantity and have people over for dinner sometime. Maybe I'll make home made sushi too.

I stopped in the office for an hour today which was enough to remind me how much I don't feel like doing any work for a while. Jobs are annoying.

Ok off to do some reading.

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American Cities That Best Fit You:

65% Los Angeles

65% San Francisco

60% Honolulu

55% Chicago

55% Las Vegas

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

3 day weekend, whohoo!

So nice to know that we still have another day off.
Last night Mark and I went out for our 1 year anniversary. We had dinner and then hit the gallery hop. We walked all the way up to Starr, I haven't hit this part of High St. in a while. They have a really cool wine bar, and some new restaurants, and many new gallery's. I will definitely be hitting the wine bar again soon, like this week. But the close at 9pm on weekdays, so I will have to go immediately after work. I had a strawberry white zin. and a peach chardonnay. mmm good.
oh there is Robert on the phone now.