Fuck that shit!

Every year our insurance company has us take a health assessment so we can get a discount on our coverage.
I just completed mine.
I realize I am overweight. Obese, even. But the assessment just told me I need to lose sixty to NINETY pounds to be in the "healthy" range.
I haven't weighed NINETY pounds less than I do now since middle school. I was shorter, had much smaller breasts, had not given birth, was 27 years younger and people thought I was too skinny!
If I lost NINETY pounds at this point in my life, people would most definitely think I was terminally ill.
I wouldn't mind losing some weight; this is true. Due to certain health circumstances this would be difficult for me even if I was motivated and not moderately lazy and not in love with food (I don't eat a lot of food or much junk food at all, but I do eat what I like); but there is no way in HELL that I want to look like I would look if I lost NINETY pounds.
So...
Like the title says:
FUCK THAT SHIT!

A few thoughts about coverage of Elizabeth Edwards's impending death.

So yesterday we found out that Senator John Edwards's ex-wife is discontinuing cancer treatment. The news coverage I have seen since is driving me nuts for a few reasons.

1. They keep saying how "treasured" she is to the American people. I'm sure to some, yes, but to all of the American people? A bit hyperbolic, no?
2. They keep describing her as "resilient." If I were her, I'd be, like, "Really? The best you could do was the title of my freakin' book? Don't you even have a synonym for resiliency??"
3. They keep saying how she is teaching America about a new way to deal with end of life choices. Um, not really. Tons of people die at home under hospice care and surrounded by their family every day. Soooo...thanks for acknowledging those people and their families existence and all that...
4. They keep saying that John Edwards is at her side "for the kids." Nuh-uh. They were life partners, business partners, co-parents et cetera, for how long?? He's there for her. And probably for his conscience. Yes, a bit of atonement is good for your own soul.

MPT (Medical People Time)

So after more than two weeks for two blood tests (one of which was pointless as I'd just had it done) I finally called the gynecologist's office myself. His nurse just called me back and said everything is "normal." Bloodwork, ultrasound, etc. So I said, "Well, what's my next step? Because obviously everything is not normal in there." And she said she'd let the doctor know, but I should rest easy tonight knowing I don't have a tumor. Well, then, maybe they should have let me know that before two weeks plus had passed. And, also? DUH! Something is wrong they just don't know what it is yet...
ARGH!!!

Weepy Patriotism

These past few weeks, I have been feeling blinding anger about the new TSA procedures which include the "backscatter" machines and the "enhanced" pat downs. (Remember the last time we added the word "enhanced" to something in the "War on Terror?")
I've been fighting the good fight, so to speak, over on Facebook because, apparently, a lot of people don't mind giving up their rights for an illusion of safety.
So I've been pretty exhausted as far as writing anything here. But I do want to state one thing unequivocally here for posterity.
Over my lifetime, because of my über liberalism, I have been accused many times of being the antithesis of a patriot, literally called a "traitor." Yet I doubt many of those people (who usually call themselves patriots) would say what I'm about to say and feel the truth of the emotion behind the words.

I would rather die with my Constitutional rights intact than fly "safely" without them.

Mother Blood is Boiling

My mother blood is boiling.
Why?
Erica Jong's WSJ article.
She misunderstands so many of the points she is cutting down, and I was going to address them bit by bit, but then I read this sentence, "It's a prison for mothers, and it represents as much of a backlash against women's freedom as the right-to-life movement," and decided to stop reading. (Don't worry, I will revisit the article once I calm down.)
The second wavers who still espouse this crap make me ashamed to call myself a feminist and seem to want to make me ashamed of having made the choices that I made in my life. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother long before I had any idea of who I would end up with and regardless of the fact that my mother spent my childhood telling me about all of the cool things I could be when I grew up.
It was and still is my ideal career choice, whether or not 2nd wavers or the government consider it a career.
And if I wanted to cloth diaper, make my own baby food, co-sleep and wear my baby, that was my choice, too. When I was doing that stuff it was mostly considered weird at the time, so it was hardly a matter of being "imprisoned" by society or the patriarchy or whatever bullshit these people espouse it to be.
I'm so sick of this type of thinking from the 2nd wave that it is extremely difficult for me to be grateful for the work they did for and before the Third Wave. Just as they seemed to be ungrateful for the generation before them, but they don't like to talk about that, ahem...
I support and respect women who work for pay, whether they have children or not, so when will the unpaid work of women (and increasing numbers of men) be supported and respected as well?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE: I have to add that I also resent Jong's use of the term "right-to-life movement" instead of the anti-choice or anti-abortion movement.

Down with Socialism!

Government needs to keep it's nose out my healthcare, medicare, social security, roads, libraries, police departments, fire departments, education and schools, our stock exchange, our oil cleanups and disaster relief, our national and international protection, the prices we pay for milk and eggs and cigarettes and bread, air and water quality, public transportation, the railroads and ports by which all of our consumer goods reach us, the water treatment and sewers and trash disposal and, finally, our justice system. I just can't take anymore of their fucking interfering with everything.

Oh, Hollywood, you're so silly...

I was just reading an article in Entertainment Weekly about Angelina Jolie’s summer movie Salt. Originally the character was named Edwin Salt and was played by Tom Cruise, but he bailed and Jolie stepped into the role of Evelyn Salt. Here’s the quote that has me bothered:

“In the original script, there was a huge sequence where Edwin Salt saves his
wife, who’s in danger,“ says [director] Noyce. “And what we found was when
Evelyn Salt saved her husband in the new script, it seemed to castrate his
character a little. So we had to change the nature of that relationship.” In the
end, Salt’s husband, played by German actor August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds),
was made tough enough that he didn’t need saving, thank you very much…

What the fuck, Hollywood? When is the woman going to be “tough enough that [she doesn’t] need saving?" Why is there no feminized metaphorical equivalent to “castrate” in art or psychology? How can Hollywood create a movie with a main character who is a female action hero, and still not see the irony in worrying over the implications of a man being rescued?
I have nothing profound or poetic to add here, I just can’t believe in this day and age, directors still say things like this and do things like this. They had to rewrite much of the script to accommodate men’s egos, yet it never occurred to them women might not want to see a woman “being rescued” by a brainwashed little person asshole actor?

My Flu Rant

I've had some sort of virus for a handful of days. Looking at my symptoms, I'd guess a mild case of flu. Due to my chronic health problems, I'm lucky at how mild it has been, even if I haven't felt lucky. I've FELT like crap. I'm hoping, but didn't go to the doctor to be tested, that this was H1N1 and that now I am done with it. Although, I WILL still get flu shots this next few months just to be cautious. But I have heard SO MUCH misinformation, that I felt the need to post a few facts here. I hope that someone hears me and shares this and people listen. Because even if YOU don't get sick from the flu, your poor hygeine and lack of regard for others might kill somebody. You can pass a virus along without it making you ill. So cough all over some people on the bus, and you might pass it on without even knowing it. Please wash your freakin' hands. Use hand sanitizers if needed. If you get sick, stay home; if you have to leave the house for groceries or something: wear a mask so you don't pass it on. (In Asia, when you see people wearing masks, most of them are doing it out of consideration for others, not self interest.)
Some facts, as of yesterday:
The correct figures for U.S. H1N1 cases was over 9000 hospitalizations and 789 deaths, out of 49,214 confirmed and probable cases. The problem is that it is killing healthy, non-senior adults which "regular" flu does not do. Until now most kids have been home for the summer AND "normal" flu season hasn't hit yet. Disease models suggest more people will end up having H1N1 than had the 1918 H1N1 flu in the U.S. (Yes, it is the same strain.) And worldwide they expect twice as many deaths: 100 million according to WHO disease models. H1N1 has already been declared a global pandemic. Just as the 1918 pandemic started with mild cases in Spring, so has H1N1 and the viruses are genetically the same (H1N1). Not to mention viruses mutate rapidly, so we have no idea how bad this one will get, but even if it stays the same, it is already rather deadly.
Worldwide confirmed deaths from H1N1 stood at 3607 as of last week. Take into account most countries do not have the testing capabilites on a nationwide basis that we do and imagine how high that number probably really is. Before flu season.
Worldwide seasonal flu case fatality rate is less than half of a percent (<0.05%); H1N1 case fatality is currently over one and a half percent (1.6%).
So please stop saying things like:
"Way more people die from the regular flu every year."
"Only a couple/one people/person died from H1N1, so what's the big deal?"
"I'm really healthy, so I could care less."
"It's all hype meant to scare us. Doesn't the media have anything better to do?"
Because not only are you wrong, but you're risking others' lives, too.

Addendum via Vicki:
The WHO estimates that approx 2 billion people will be infected. That's 1/3 of the world population. Wash your hands, stay home if you're sick, get your shots--seasonal, and H1N1 if you're in one of the following population groups:

• pregnant women
• people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age
• healthcare and emergency medical services personnel,
• persons between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old
• people ages of 25 through 64 years of age who are at higher risk for 2009 H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.