Well, it looks like I have to add another link to my blog roll

My husband took a new gig. WHICH I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT BEFORE-HAND.

I think, actually, I approve.

WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN EASIER IF I'D KNOWN BEFORE-HAND.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime...

I've been hearing a lot lately about "Liberty and Justice for All, Born and Unborn."

It is not justice to force a pregnant person into involuntary servitude for 9 months, risking her life and health. With no trial. No judge. No jury.

It is not justice to declare that the life and health of a living person is worth less than the fetus she carries. With no trial. No judge. No jury.

It is not justice to withhold life-saving surgery from a living person due to concern for the fetus she carries. With no trial. No judge. No jury.

It is PARTICULARLY not justice to do so when you are also working to allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control.

It is PARTICULARLY not justice to do so when you are also working to prevent accurate sex education.

It is PARTICULARLY not justice to do so when you are working to cut funds to social services, day care, foster care.

...If we truly valued children, we would do everything in our power not to traumatize, deprive, or neglect them...

Until I see this, I won’t believe that “pro-lifers” care about life at all. I won’t believe that “family values” proponents care about families. And I won’t believe that those who seek to “protect” children care about children.

Matt Kailey at Womanist Musings

Oh! And in case you thought Choice is only about Abortion, here's a post that will better inform you.

And if you're interested in empowering young people to make reproductive choices that work for them, why not donate to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation (the second button, it's tax deductible!) and help with their mission in Petersburg, VA.
(crossposted at Loudoun Progress)

Roads cost money

This is a basic fact. Roads are a subsidy government gives to drivers. To pay for roads - for the materials and for the road crews, governments use either bonds or tax money.

And if you're going to say that you want the government to stop borrowing money, cut taxes, AND BUILD ROADS, then I'm wondering where you think the money's going to come from. The Easter Bunny's been and gone this year.

So, I'm asking Shawn Williams, where are you expecting to get the money to pay for the roads you want built?

On Language

Originally posted in January of 2010. Posting it again, because it's become current again.

A good explanation of why thinking about the words we use can be complicated and useful.

And another one.
And one more.

There are words I have never used outside of a discussion about why one doesn't use those words.

Here are some words I no longer use because I have been the one who began the discussion by using them:

• Crazy (I'm working on not using this one, it's been hard to scrub from my vocab).
• Insane (same)
• Lame

So my commonly used phrases, "Things are crazy busy here" and "Things have been insane around here" are being slowly changed to "Things are really very busy around here" or "Things have been a whirlwind around here"

And, "that's so lame!" has become "MEDICARE FOR EVERYBODY!!! WHAT'S SO HARD ABOUT THAT??"


If you have words you no longer use because a discussion about why you shouldn't use them began when you did? Please add them in the comments, along with an alternative sentence that expresses the same concept.

Comments that ask what ever happened to freedom of speech* will be deleted from the comments thread, but I will keep a tally of them and will post a total later.

Comments that use offensive words just to use offensive words and not to offer up non-offensive alternatives will be deleted. Repeat offenders on this front will be banned.


*Freedom of Speech is your ability to create your own blog and say what you like there.

Thinking of Jimmy Dugan

A high school friend of mine went missing last week, when a dock he was on collapsed, and now they think they've found his body.

He was a person who was full of life, made friends easily, and will be sorely missed.

So I had a post planned for today, talking about how women's rights are being stripped away state-by-state, but I'm not going to post it. Instead, I'm going to send you to Shakesville.

And I will sit here, mourning Jimmy, and mourning our friend Chris, who died in a fire 14 years ago and who I'm missing very much right now.

Dear Anonymous

The answer to your question is, "No."

No, I will not primary Andrea McGimsey. I truly understand the anger and frustration behind the question, but I believe that she has been a very good supervisor, this one decision notwithstanding. Disagreement on one issue isn't a good enough reason to primary an incumbent, when she's done a good job on so many other issues.

I do wish she would change her mind on this one topic (and I wish she took a stronger position on Choice, but that's just me), but I will not run for her seat (or any other) this year.

There is still time for her to change her mind on the districts, see Stevens's blog for more info about that.

Expanding on my comments

Paradox13 put up a post about the redistricting over at Loudoun Progress. And I made a couple of comments there, which I'm going to expand on here.

Stevens disagrees with me on a lot of what I'm about to say, but this is my blog, my opinion, and here it goes.

I don't care one iota if there is one Western district or two. I think having an HOA or a town kept entirely in one district is a fine desire, but not something that ends up mattering a whole lot on election day. I do think that it matters if a district is contiguous. I do think it matters if you have to leave the district to reach another part of it, but ultimately, I think that there are many ways to split up Loudoun relatively equitably and Miller 5 (unamended) and HOA 4 were two of them.

I've said before that I am partisan only inasmuch as the Democratic party is the party that has, as part of its platform, a pledge (among other things) to protect the rights of women, minorities, LGBT, and people with disabilities.

In this county, we have an elected official whose day job it is to fight against the right of people who are gay.

There was one and only one partisan piece of redistricting that was included in both Miller 5 (unamended) and HOA 4. That piece was including MY precinct, Oak Grove, with Delgaudio's district.

And Sally Kurtz amended it into Andrea McGimsey's district.

Which is so phenomenally stupid that I am flabbergasted that Mike Turner is crowing about it.


Oak Grove has a net 100 reliable Democrats. Delgaudio won last time by 200 votes. Oak Grove was the keystone in the plan to get Delgaudio booted out this November. And the beauty of it was, it wasn't gerrymandering, because Oak Grove BELONGS in Sterling. It is otherwise isolated from the rest of the county. There was no way for Delgaudio to complain about it. It was natural to join it in. OF COURSE it should be joined in.


Now, instead of making the demise of Delgaudio's Board tenure a sure thing, Oak Grove is merely there to increase McGimsey's win margin, in an obvious bit of gerrymandering to pull us into her district.

I really like Andrea. I think she's been a good Supervisor. But if this bit of redistricting sends Delgaudio back to the Board next year (especially if he wins by less than 100 votes), I will never forget that it was she, and Mike Turner, and Sally Kurtz, and Kelly Burk, and Susan Buckley, and Jim Burton who made this happen.

And I will make sure that everyone, everywhere, who has ever heard of Delgaudio knows EXACTLY whose fault it is if he wins.

Blogrolls and earworms

Stevens wrote a post and now I've got this song in my head:

An Invitation

Go see Black and Queer in America on Friday!

My vote for most misleading headline ever

A Shot in the Dark: Researchers Advise Flu Vaccine for Unborn Babies


Actually, researchers suggest flu shots for pregnant MOTHERS. Because, not only do the shots protect the mother, but they also continue to protect the NEWBORN for up to 6 months.

Seriously. The way the headline, and the article itself, is written, you'd think that the researchers were advocating injecting flu vaccine through the uterine wall to the fetus.

I'm all for keeping newborns healthy, let's just remember that the best way to do that is to FIRST keep the mother healthy. Not the "unborn baby". The mother.

<Gasp!> Rational Debate Erupts in the Loudoun Blogosphere!

John Stevens and my own Stevens (Miller, that is) have an interesting set of posts up. Read John's first at Our Loudoun Schools, and then read Stevens's response at Without Supervision.

Logic! Reason! SCIENCE! Well, maybe not science.

I am excited to see something that is rarely seen in the Loudoun blogosphere, a calm rational substantive debate based on thoughtful interpretations of the facts.

WHAT THE HELL?

[Sounds of me banging my head on the keyboard]. THIS IS WHY WE'RE HAVING AN ENTHUSIASM GAP! Dammit! Equality is in the National fucking Platform for crying out loud.

I hear Danny Glover shouting in my head.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

BitchPhD is going dark. I am so sad about this. That blog has been enormously influential to me. Not least because the lead writer taught me how to get my bras properly fitted. I hate it when blogs I love go dark. I hate it worse when they take down the site entirely. I really hope that doesn't happen with Bitch PhD.

I'll miss you and your co-bloggers, Dr. Bitch. Please come back.

Stevens has a blog!

Read about his thoughts on Boehner's visit to Loudoun!

Back to School Nights!

The weather outside is delightful. Sunsets, balmy breezes, that slight rustle from leaves preparing to change. And that happy refrain, "Hi! I'm Liz Miller! My friend Jeff Barnett is running for Congress!"

From the Inbox

A Worst Case Scenario: It Could Happen Here

Dear Liz,

Using lawn care standards to limit access to reproductive health care? They’ve done it before.

In recent years, anti-choice lawmakers in states such as South Carolina have used strategic laws to attack abortion providers and restrict women’s abortion access. These laws include everything from mandates that facilities have hallways wide enough for two gurneys to pass side-by-side (something not required of similar outpatient doctor’s offices) to regulations on the type of grass that can be out front of a clinic!

Now Virginia is poised to follow.

We can’t let the Cuccinelli-McDonnell anti-choice team close down abortion providers in our state. Call on the governor to oppose this move.

Last week, we told you that Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli declared that the state’s Board of Health has the authority to impose strict and medically unnecessary regulations on abortion providers that could potentially force the majority of our state’s providers to close their doors.

Rather than standing up for women’s health, Governor McDonnell supports Cuccinelli’s position.

We must keep the pressure on the governor. So far, nearly 700 of you asked Governor McDonnell not to allow the Board of Health to issue the same kind of restrictions on abortion providers that the legislature has refused to approve for the past eight years.

Help us reach our goal of 1,000 emails by Friday. If you haven’t yet contacted the governor, please email him today to make your voice heard. If you have, forward this message to your friends and family.

A recent article in The Virginian-Pilot reported that the kinds of anti-choice restrictions on abortion providers called for by Cuccinelli are similar to the laws in states such as South Carolina.

After failing to pass these types of attacks on abortion providers through the General Assembly in the past, the McDonnell-Cuccinelli team is sidestepping the legislature and is pushing this anti-choice and anti-woman agenda through the state Board of Health.

The consequences could be serious. After the measure took place in South Carolina, several providers were forced to close their doors. In Virginia, 17 of our 21 providers could be forced to close, leaving women without access to reproductive care.

We need to keep the pressure up and let the governor and attorney general know that Virginians won’t stand for their use of the Board of Health to play politics with women’s rights and health.

For choice,

Tarina Keene
Executive Director

I've sent a letter asking Governor McDonnell not to put barriers in the way of women seeking needed healthcare that he would not put in the way of anyone seeking a colonoscopy.

Cesarean rates rising

I have, myself, had a c-section. Knowing what I know now, I'd have held off getting pitocin...oh well.

In any case, read the article on it from AP.

The Washington Post has another article on the rates, which does a lovely bit of putting the blame on moms. Let me tell you, one reason I didn't push (ha!) for vaginal childbirth is because my employer automatically gives 8 weeks off if you get a c-section, and only 6 weeks if you have vaginal.

Doctors tend to prefer c-sections because they get reimbursed at higher rates.

So let's all accept that there is more going on with this than "convenience" and "scheduling".

Just Read It

Reproductive Justice is for Everyone, Even People You Don't Like.

Denial of reproductive rights to people with disabilities is ableism. Denial of our needs in the reproductive justice discussion is also ableism. Telling us we don’t belong at the table is ableism. We deserve reproductive justice too, and we have needs that are not being addressed by the current reproductive rights movement.

If Equal Rights doesn't apply to everybody, you soon find it doesn't apply to anybody. Reproductive justice doesn't just apply to the right NOT to have children. It applies to the right TO have them if you want them. That is a right that is all too frequently denied people. No-one should be forced to have a baby...and no-one should be forced to not have one.

For the folks who are agin anyone building a mosque on "hallowed ground"

Via my friend, Peter Rothberg, Instructive photos of places the same distance from the World Trade Center as the “Ground Zero Mosque.”

And a song.

The article's out!

I'm happy so many local bloggers got interviewed for it! And doubly happy that I found a new blog through it: Life in Loudoun County. The more voices blogging about local issues, the better, in my opinion.

For those who would like to link through to the sites mentioned in the article:

Too Conservative
Loudoun Progress
Equality Loudoun
In Through the Out Door
Leesburg Tomorrow
Suburban Fizz
Hooda Thunk
Nova Town Hall
Living in Loco
The Casey Group
and Life in Loudoun County