Oh Happy Day!
Colin Sings, Annamaria SwoonsJubilation! That's the only word I can use to describe last night—Jubilation!
First up, Kerri was my lovely date for the Decemberists show at Clutch Cargo's; terrible venue but fan-fucking-tastic show. Everyone on stage was lovely, and the audience much younger that I anticipated—I know that I'm approaching 30, but I really shouldn't be amongst the older members of the crowd yet, should I? In deference to the kiddies in the room, the show was a non-smoking event...Kerri and I audibly groaned when we saw the signs posted asking us to step outside to smoke. Here's something I've never understood—you're at a bar, presumably imbibing spirits, you're at a rock show, presumably listening to the devil's music, and smoking offends people's sensibilities? We're already going to Hell, why not light up on the way down? And before I get the “second hand smoke kills” lecture, so does drinking and driving (more and quicker!) but I've yet attend a dry concert aimed to prevent drunks from killing themselves and others. Fuck, listening to music at exceptionally loud volumes will fuck up your hearing but good—is the sound booth going to account for that, too?
/rant.
Besides the non-smoking thing (felt like I was in LA again!), the show was amazing. Really good mix of old and new, though I would have loved to hear When the War Came or Summersong live. I think I might be the only person that actually likes those songs, though! I was pretty excited to hear July, July! which was, to me, the biggest surprise on the set list. The Perfect Crime No. 2, hands-down my favorite track on the new album (indie-rock purists be damned! I like my Decemberists sounding like Steely Dan...and I hate Steely Dan!), was so good live I might never be able to listen to the studio version again. I noticed the arms-crossed-over-their-chests and imperceptible-head-bob-used-to-approximate-dancing hipsters even shook their asses a bit during that number.
Hurdy Gurdy Man
The highlight of the evening, and I think it's safe to assume that I speak for all Michiganders here (and it is Michiganders, Colin, not Michiganians), was not only ending the show with A Cautionary Song but having Chris, Lisa and John parade through the crowd with drums, tambourines and cymbals, which finally culminated in a reenactment of the beheading of Anne Boleyn. I'm so not making this up.
Oddly, all those paper lanterns were red, even the
one that appears to be white in this picture.
After the show, I figured nothing in the world could make me a happier girl...and then as I was driving home listening to the election results on NPR* I discovered that Rick Santorum lost his Senate seat. I don't know that I've ever felt such peace and joy.
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*Thanks to Carina for sending me text message updates on the election results during the show, solidifying my nerd status once again.
I'm officially done
I kept up the pretense of having my own blog for a while, but I'm too lazy to update on two different sites, so take a trip over here and join Jen and I on our quest for global domination.
Lifesite makes me angry
I’d like to thank Jen for introducing me to the veritable goldmine of fundie thought known as lifesite.net. Today, Lifesite highlights a survey by Canadian researchers showing a high correlative link between domestic violence and abortion. Let’s take a look, shall we?
1127 women completed a 65-item questionnaire at a hospital abortion facility in London, Ontario. The results showed that overall 20% had experienced physical abuse by a male partner, and 27% had a history of sexual abuse.
Similar research in the US has shown that 31% of women seeking an abortion have experienced physical or sexual abuse at some time in their lives and, of these, more than half have witnessed domestic violence as children. The British study showed that the risk of domestic violence more than doubled during pregnancy. The authors of the Canadian research suggest that a motive for some women who abort in a situation of violence do so to out of a misguided desire to protect future children from living in the disrupted or violent environments that they themselves face.
Well, they started out telling the truth, but apparently the fundie predilection for lying was just insurmountable toward the end there. What the
study actually said was this:
“The authors of this research suggest that a history of victimization should be considered a risk factor for being abused when pregnant and imply that previous abuse has a demoralizing effect that increases susceptibility to further violence. There may also be some truth to the idea that women "trapped" in more traditional, passive feminine roles are less able to assert control over themselves and their lives. […] Perhaps, given this, we should understand both a mother's desire not to saddle her child with the risks she faces and the decisive behaviour that the act of seeking a termination implies.”
Yes, a misguided desire indeed. The leading cause of death of pregnant women in the United States is homicide, usually at the hands of the men who claim to love them. And research shows that a woman is more susceptible to domestic violence when pregnant—meaning that an abused women can look forward to more abuse if she carries her pregnancy to term. For these women, abortion is a way to save themselves from an escalation of violence, and also a means to protect future children who might be abused themselves. As a society, we tend to blame women who stay in abusive relationship, even more so when they have children who are being abused. Now the fundies are blaming abused women to failing to give birth to their abusers’ children—I’m sensing that we just can’t win here.
The study also revealed that a significant percentage of the women who were seeking second or repeated abortions were using artificial contraception at the time they became pregnant. 90% of women seeking repeat abortions had used contraception sometime in their lives and at the time of the current conception 60% were using condoms and 40% were using an oral contraceptive.
Wait…women who didn’t want to have children (thus, terminating their pregnancies) are more likely to use contraception?? You mean they actually tried to prevent the pregnancies that they didn’t want? Obviously, this means that all you whores on the pill are going to get abortions. After all, there
must be a causal relationship between contraception and abortions.
Pro-life activists have for many years pointed out the danger of widespread chemical contraceptive use and its relation to high incidences of abortion. Their argument is that a woman engaging in sexual relations and using the pill is more disposed to using abortion as a 'back-up' form of birth control should it fail.
Yes, “pro-life” activists
would say that. Unfortunately, researchers say otherwise. According to the Canadian study,
“Fisher and colleagues show that, in comparison with women seeking a first abortion, those requesting second or third procedures are more likely to be using contraception. They are not psychologically maladjusted and are not using therapeutic abortion as ‘birth control.’” Do these people even read the articles they are reviewing?
The British survey cited above also found that despite the high incidence of abuse only 2% of the women seeking abortion were pregnant as a result of rape. This is despite the fact that the so-called 'rape exception' is often cited as a justification for legal abortion-on-demand.
Well, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, so-called “partial birth abortions” only account for about 0.03–0.05% of all abortions, and y’all didn’t seem to have a problem focusing on those, did you? In fact, according to Nevada Life, “(the) rate of incidence of partial birth abortion is not what makes it wrong.” Funny, I would argue that the rate of incidence of forcing women to give birth to their rapist’s child is irrelevant—simply doing so is wrong.
The effect of the widespread use of contraception in creating what is called the 'contraceptive mentality' and the evidence that such a mentality leads to abortion has been documented more than once by the medical community.
Where? What medical community are you talking about? The “pro-life” ob-gyns who lie to their patients? The Canadian study shows only a correlation between contraception use and abortion—but that makes sense given that women who do not want to have children are likely to use birth control to prevent pregnancy. I worked in an abortion clinic all through college, and I cannot recall a single women who walked in there with a blasé attitude.
Articles like should serve as a reminder that it isn’t just abortion they’re after—they want your birth control, too. Because they simply cannot abide by women maintaining control over their lives. After all, the Canadian study shows that anywhere from 20 – 55% of women have been in an abusive relationship at some point in their lives, which the leading researcher, Dr. Fisher, defined as an epidemic of victimization. Funny how in all the attempts to rain scorn and shame on women who seek abortions, their abusers were conveniently ignored.
Friday Random Ten
You know the rules—and if you don’t you can find them
here—so, my Friday Random Ten:
- Laid - James
- Golden Touch - Razorlight
- Our Lips Are Sealed - The GoGo's
- Into the Dark - Ben Lee
- Career Opportunities - The Clash
- Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde
- I Love a Man in a Uniform - Gang of Four
- Short Skirts - Felix Da Housecat
- Killing Moon - Echo & The Bunnymen
- Joan Jett of Arc - Clem Snide
Your turn!
This has been the month of absent co-workers, and apparently, I am the only person in my office who is capable of being cross-trained, so guess who got stuck with all the work? Hence, the complete and total lack of blogging. I apologize, unreservedly.
I did manage to get my City of Pontiac income tax refund yesterday...from 2003. Seems they finally got around to sending me my $2.00. And it's a good thing I got it, because for a while there, I felt the like the paperboy from "Better Off Dead."
Friday Random Ten
You know the rules—and if you don’t you can find them
here—so, my Friday Random Ten, Look How Fucked Up My Music Collection Is Edition:
- DUI - Har Mar Superstar
- Grand Canyon - Magnetic Fields
- Modern Day Emma Goldman - Pretty Girls Make Graves
- Across 110th Street - Bobby Womack
- Good Girls Don't - The Knack
- Busting Up a Starbux - Doughty
- Joey - Concrete Blonde
- Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
- Finding Out True Love is Blind - Louis XIV
- It's Tricky - Run DMC
Your turn!
One more reason not to keep a loaded gun in your house
Michigan man shot when cat knocks gun onto floor
BATES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- An Upper Peninsula man cooking in his kitchen was shot after one of his cats knocked his 9mm handgun onto the floor, discharging the weapon, Michigan State Police said.
Joseph Stanton, 29, of Bates Township in Iron County, was shot in his lower torso around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the state police post in Iron River reported. He was transported to Iron County Community Hospital.
This post could also be titled "Further proof that Yoopers are a breed unto themselves."
