Involuntary fertility control...is it ever a good idea?

What would you say to someone who published a book that said that, in order to save the planet,

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.

I don't know about you but those ideas are fucking terrifying to me. The idea of our incredible country being turned into a draconian dictatorship like that is mind boggling to say the least. What would you say if that same person also said, "Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." The fact that this person thinks measures like this could possibly be legal under the Constitution is terrifying. And, what would you then say if I told you this man grew up to be John P. Holden, our new Science Czar?

Yes, our new Science Czar was co-author of a book called Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment that proposes all these ideas to control population growth that he believed was out of control. All of this was reported in an article in FrontPage magazine and was discounted because no one had proof and surely any ideas so bizarre must be being made up to discredit him. Well, someone got a hold of an intact copy of the book, scanned pages, and posted them for all of us to see. Go ahead...go check it out...I'll wait for you to come back. When Holden was questioned by Senator David Ritter, (paraphrasing here) Holden said that he no longer felt he could predict what a decent population level was so he didn't want to discuss it. Ummm...in my mind, that is nowhere close to disavowing the the ideas he proposed in that book. In fact, this man still lists Ecoscience as part of his Curriculum Vitae. That is a damn long way from disavowing the ideas he and the Ehrlich proposed back in 1977.

Women have fought long and hard to be recognized as equals in this society. Women have fought long and hard for the right to control our own body (ummm, Roe v. Wade...its all about controlling our own body). And, for all you prolifers out there, don't think this doesn't affect you. This man proposed forced abortions. This might be the one issue prochoice advocates and prolife advocates can agree on. This man, this scary man, at some point advocated measures that would remove almost all control of our bodies and our reproductive rights from us. This man has been given a position of power and importance in our government. It scares me that a man who publicly supported such ideas could influence government policy. It scares me that a president I had such high hopes for is willing to give a person like this an influential position. Stay aware, stay educated, and watch things closely. Be ready and willing to fight for our rights. And, push hard to get this man to STRONGLY and PUBLICLY disavow the ideas proposed in Ecoscience.

SHOW AND TELL: inspiration in the kitchen

As I've said before, I like to cook and I rarely cook from recipes. Today, I had actually planned ahead (ok, get over the shock y'all) and had the chicken for dinner thawed out early early in the day. I was getting tired of baked chicken or even chicken marinated and then baled. I wanted to make something different. I pulled out a cookbook and found a recipe...but it looked a little boring to me. So, I started pulling things out...

and, I turned 4lb of chicken thighs, 3 qts of water, 6 sm to med potatoes, an onion, two cans of mushroom, 2 cans of tomato paste, a little salt, 2 packets of Sazon, black pepper, garlic powder, 4 bay leaves, oregano, 2 cups of frozen green beans, and two cups of frozen corn into this...
The sauce thickened quite a bit as it cooked and I believe it will be excellent over rice.

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To see what everyone else in class is bringing to SHOW AND TELL, take a trip to visit the Miss Mel, Goddess of the Infertility Blogosphere.

The Great Swimsuit Giveaway

The most amazing FatChick is sponsoring a giveaway along with swimsuitsforall.com. If you win this contest, you get a $100 gift certificate to swimsuitsforall.com.

I went over to the site and browsed and they have an amazing selection and there are suits for everyone from a size 8 lovely to a size 34 Rubenesque beauty. If I am lucky enough to win, I will have to narrow down my selection because, right now, I am in love with these 4 suits...


So, head on over to FatChick's corner of the blogosphere and enter her contest.

The World According to Gabe

With Gabe, you honestly never know what he is going to do next. It makes life interesting and maybe a little bit scary.

I took this picture back on the 8th...

This was a formerly pristine Harry Potter lunch box that we had actually got from Australia (yay eBay). On the 8th, I went into the kitchen to get dinner ready and turned the the oven on to preheat it. A few minutes later, Gabe came into the kitchen and opened a hot oven. I shrieked at him to close the oven because it was hot and he looked at me and said, "Then get the cookies out of the oven." My first thought was "Oh shit" because like I said you never know what Gabe is going to do. I opened the oven and found the lunchbox inside. In the few minutes the lunch box was in the oven, the handle melted (and it stretched waaaaaaay out as I pulled it out of the oven) and whatever was stuck to the lid got charred. Luckily, I got it out before the handle was melted onto the floor of my oven. Need less to say, I had a long talk with Gabe about how dangerous that was. I hope he remembers. Today, he decided that handle made a good pretend tool. First, it was a pair of glasses and, then, it was a comb.

On Sunday, I had to bungee cord shut all our backyard gates. Why pray tell would I have to bungee cord shut the gates? Because, Gabriel decided the grass needed mowing...IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S FRONT YARD. He had been out back playing with the dogs and I had checked on him a few times. Well, about 10 minutes had passed and I was getting ready to check on him again but, before I could, the doorbell rang. My neighbor came over to tell me that Gabe was in her front yard. OMG, he had opened the gate, closed it behind him so the dog couldn't get out, andwas out front with his toy lawn mower. I think that child is bound and determined to give me heart failure before he turns 5.

Today on the way back from the pool, Gabe was singing to us. First, he sang pat-a-cake. Then, he sang pat-a-cookie...then, pat-a-vacuum...then, pat-a-underwear. He wrapped it all up with the very special rendition of pat-a-doodoo. Ah, the wonderful minds of boys. I think I should be very, very scared that he is coming up with things like this at only 3 years old.

Heaven on Earth

Oh man...I reached nirvana last night and in the process I discovered that size really does matter. Yes folks, I got my Cherry Bombs from Frank's Big Ones. Frank's Big Ones is the etsy shop of that sexy hunk my dear friend Kym is married to. Cherry Bombs are described as being "every bit as dangerously sexy as it sounds. Premium, roughly-chopped dried cherries do the tango with crushed bits of Skor chocolate-covered hard toffee candy and solid chocolate chunks. Light the fuse on this one for an explosion of sweetness that's guaranteed to please." Look at this cookie...



After Gabe tasted the cookie, he started petitioning to have cookies for dinner. I guess you could say they were a hit. I have shared the cookies with my kids but I seriously considered hiding them and not sharing at all...LOL. Do yourself a favor and go order cookies from Frank's Big Ones.

You Are Beautiful

In today's world, it can be awfully hard for a woman to have a good image of herself. We are constantly surrounded by pictures of size 2 models strutting down a runway and gorgeous women like Jessica Simpson are called fat when they gain a few pounds. I don't know what you think but Ms. Simpson looks pretty damned marvelous to me. Hell, when Cosmo will airbrush inches off of someone like Cindy Crawford, there is something seriously fucked up with our countries standard of beauty.

When you are fighting infertility, fighting to get your body to do something it is suppose to do, it can become even harder to think positively about your body. First of all, your body is betraying you by not letting you achieve your very heart's desire. Secondly, it can be very easy to gain weight when you are pumping your body full of hormones and meds to hopefully, please god, have a baby. And, if you are really lucky (tongue in cheek sarcasm here folks), you'll complete the trifecta with depression which destroys body image and causes weight gain.

Well, you know what...fuck it all. Screw society and their love of near anorexic looking women. The people of *Operation Beautiful and I are here to tell you that you are beautiful just the way you are. What is Operation Beautiful you ask? Well, it's the brainchild of a wonderful woman named Caitlin and all you have to do to be a part of it is leave a note somewhere telling someone she is beautiful.

I joined in the fun today. I just finished reading a wonderful romance with a supernatural storyline. Its a brand new book with a long waiting list at the library so I know it will get checked out within a day or two. I left this note inside.

Its simple and to the point but I hope it will make someone smile and remember that they are beautiful.

People are having a lot of fun with this. One person put a note up saying that beauty is not defined by body size and left it in the diet food section of the supermarket. Some people are leaving notes on magazine covers or on bathroom mirrors. I went out and bought two packs of post it notes (hearts and butterflies) and left my first message today. I want to challenge you to join in. Not only will you feel good but you will make someone else smile. Who knows...it could be someone who really needs a smile.


* Thanks to my friend Tammy for bringing Operation Beautiful to my attention.

Stitching Post Saturday 7/11

Here are the two things that let me retain my sanity this week. Click on pics for close ups. I finished the tote bag Murgdan won ages ago in my giveaway.

And, I made a huge amount of progress on the star afghan. It's almost time to add the second set of points. I went from this...

to this...

Check out what everyone else has been up to... Stitching Post Saturday on MiPa's blog.