(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Quick clarification on the Virginia story: I read the whole spiel at Daily Kos, and apparently what they're trying to do is target women who abandon babies in dumpsters. The problem is that the PROPOSED LAW does not target them. It's like saying that if anyone, anywhere, dies for any reason (heart attack? well-documented terminal illness? old age?), it's got to be reported to the homicide squad. If they want to target baby-dumping, they need to DO THAT, rather than force every single woman who ever miscarries at any stage of gestation, anywhere, to account for herself. You know, with words like "abandoning" and "receptacles not intended for babies, such as dumpsters, or the occasional birdbath."

Also, I just got back from class, and the professor raffled off her "desk copies" of our texts by having us choose a number between 1 and 100. Guess who won a brand new copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin? WHEE.

Comments

[ferelwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah I read that. I have family in VA. I'm going to make it known to them.

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

You seem underwhelmed :p

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

Gee, you won a brand new copy of a book that you despise! Oh boy, the excitement is just emanating off of you. :)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know what the best part is? The professor loves it--she's very into popular 19th c. American lit and the social ramifications thereof, so I'm not saying it's a naive or uninformed love. It may be more of a love of teaching the book. But what I love was how she then asked who'd read it before, and I was the only person who had, and she's like, "Did you like it?," and I was all like, "UH."

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

"Did you like it?," and I was all like,
"Does it count if I admire the typeface & the binding of the book?"

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I think we need a state law about unwanted novel-dumping.

[anniesong.livejournal.com]

I think that may be a wise idea, but could we hold off petitioning the legislature about it until after I graduate? I fully intend to burn all my books and toast marshmallows over their flaming book-corpses. Then airlift the remains over the mansion that the president of my university lives in. And laugh. A lot.

But maybe that's just me.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

My friends and I burned my senior thesis in college over the dormitory quad barbecue pit, after having to write it once, get it REJECTED by advisor, and write it AGAIN on something completely different. Did I mention my major was SPANISH and I almost didn't graduate? Oh, the flames were high.

[anniesong.livejournal.com]

Oh, the flames were high.

As they should be. My plans used to be far more complex and ultimately destructive, however I decided to tone it down for sanity's sake. They used to involve such things as a rocket launcher, accelerant, and a skywriter... I'll leave the rest to the imagination.

I was only sad that I did not have a convenient chandelier to drop on anyone :(

[boldmarauder.livejournal.com]

Your restraint is admirable. Point of pride: I somehow sneaked through the entire North Carolina school curriculum and graduated from a Texas university without having to read "Uncle Tom's Cabin". I did try to wade through it on my own during one of my literary phases. Gak. *choking noise* Proceeded to major in Biology and remain blissfully illiterate.

[sarff-nodwydd.livejournal.com]

rather than force every single woman who ever miscarries at any stage of gestation, anywhere, to account for herself.

How are they going to enforce this? I have a friend who had two miscarriages last year. She wasn't even aware of the first one. It wasn't until she had the second one, that (with confirmation from her physician) that they realized that the earlier event had also been a miscarriage.

Many, many women have miscarriages very, very early in pregnancy and the embryo simply falls into the toilet or onto a pad and is gone with no one ever being the wiser.

I had a miscarriage in 1997. I had only just realized I was pregnant and pee'd on the stick. The next day, I started bleeding....and bleeding...and bleeding. I never bothered to report it. WHY would I?

Geez, some people really need to get their heads out of women's wombs.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

The baby-dumping excuse comes from the guy who started the bill, and it's SUCH bullshit. There's nothing in it about already-born infants.

If they want to target baby-dumping, they need to DO THAT

The commenters at Kos said that VA already HAS baby-dumping laws.

The commenters at Metafilter and some other places felt that this was A) an attempt to make a miscarriage the same as an infant death; B) track those 'miscarriages' produced by EC and RU-486; and C) prepare for a post-Roe US in which all fertile women and pregnancies are tracked, such as happened in Romania (http://www.prochoiceforum.org.uk/psy_ocr9.asp).

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

AHHH FASCIST BULLSHIT GAH.

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

Hey, Don't blame the Fascists, they don't like to have ANYONE sharing their secrets... And I'm being fairly serious about this since my BA is Political Science (Specialization? Policy/Foreign Policy). This sort of overwhelming involvement is seen more commonly in jingoistic Imperial systems... Or SEVERE Tyrannies, which share most of their policy traits with crazy Jingoistic Imerialisms... Isn't it nice that people are fighting SO hard to give America all the qualities of devoloping and/or tyrannical nations?

[squirrelgirl22.livejournal.com]

Here in Chicago, people are allowed to drop off unwanted babies who are under 3 days old at any police station or fire house without retribution. Perhaps instead of a law banning baby dumping, VA should give mothers a place to drop off unwanted newborns. You know, something positive instead of negative?

[thoughtcr1me.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm not positive and I can't check from work but I think they already do have baby dumping laws on the books. Will update if you want.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

Hell, even ALABAMA (I <3 my state) has a law like that. People are allowed to leave babies that are 2 days old (??) or less at a hospital without any repercussions.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

*Alabama fist bop*

[elbiesee.livejournal.com]

Hey, Oklahoma has one of those. Doesn't specify age, just 'newborn baby'. After a rash of infants left in dumpsters, they finally did something about it.

Now if they'd teach birth control along with abstinence... but I'm asking too much, I'm sure...

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

They don't quite catch on that the more you teach people about contraception and how to use it, the number of unwanted pregnancies will be lowered, and with it the number of abortions. But that's logic, which is of the devil.

[orange852.livejournal.com]

Yes, but if people have access to affordable, effective birth control, they can have sex without consequences.

Sex! For fun! :O

The end goal is that no one ever has sex with anyone other than their lawfully wedded, opposite-sex spouse, if and only if they are prepared to be parents. Not that there's any wrong with that, should it be one's cup of tea. But when anything else is just hedonistic and decadent and immoral and shameful, I for one have a problem with the concept.

It's also head-buried-in-sand impractical. People fornicate and commit adultery at times and in places when it means(meant) no-holds-barred, guaranteed, painful death. Women have and do terminate pregnancies even when the risks to their own lives far outweigh the possibility of surviving the procedure. As far as I know, outlawing this stuff has never, ever worked.

I wish people would take all that "thou shalt not" energy and apply it to making the world a place where unplanned pregnancy doesn't end life as women know it. One where a woman's identity and choices in life don't just disappear into "you're someone's mother now, you can't...you must...you should..."

I agree with the person who once told me that raising a child is the most important and meaningful thing a woman can take on, but I don't agree that taking it on should render every other endeavor prohibitively difficult, impossible or meaningless. As long as it does, women need to be in control of when or if it happens.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

California has such a law too. I'm not familiar of the specifics though, I'm just reminded that it exists by the yellow and black sign of a pair hands holding a baby that I see everytime I go visit the doctor.

[la-sonnambula.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, Uncle Tom's Cabin is like an annoying ex-boyfriend who wouldn't leave you alone.

[pistolharris.livejournal.com]

Wait... was it... hang on... I'll get this...

While I'm pondering that one, I'll just register my disgust at that misarriage law thing. It's not only morally wrong, it's just insane. Like death taxes, only like a thousand times worse.

AHA! IT WAS YOU! *end*

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Second prize is two copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

[br0k3nsoul.livejournal.com]

That law is just outrageously insane and offensive. Miscarriages are very, very hard to track. Many of them happen before the mother even knows that she had conceived. While I am morally against abortion, legally I think everybody needs to keep their hands off my damn uterus. Especially when it comes to something as tragic as a miscarriage!

[pistolharris.livejournal.com]

'The Onion' actually did an article titled 'US Out Of My Uterus!'. It was supposed to be a joke, but... well.. this is eerie.

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

I read a comment on this in another community saying we should send the guy our used "feminine products" because...hey, you never know.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that. I'll go get a box. What's the address? ; )

[edda.livejournal.com]

OMG WE SHOULD.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Was this on mefi? Because I recall one poster talking about a protest in which a large group of women show up at his office dangling used tampons, and well, you can imagine...

[girlalmighty]

Oh my god. I have American Lit: 1845 to the Present next semester. The little list of authors in the course description didn't say anything about Stowe, but it's such a classic they'll probably thrust it on us anyhow. I really hope not, though. o_0 I've escaped reading it so far, and I hope to keep on Not Reading It.

Maybe you can just write the cleolinda-version of SparkNotes for Uncle Tom's Cabin and save some of the rest of us the trouble. ;) Though I imagine that by now you're like "If I have to read this AGAIN, they can read it too."

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm actually kind of leery of doing something like that, because in my head the parody involves a lot of Jar-Jar style "Weesa gonna die! Weesa gonna be sold!," just because I HATED the dialect overkill. Except that, if you haven't read it... that's not going to come off very well. The things about the book that I'd want to parody are still kind of sensitive.

[girlalmighty]

Ugh, dialect. It gets so tiresome. I was pretty much joking anyway. It would be nice, but I'd imagine you're way too busy to be helping me with my homework anyhow, dear.

Right now my knowledge of the book consists of a scrap of lyric from Stephen Sondheim ("so why watch me die like Eliza on the ice?"), my APUSH teacher's urging us to read it, and the King & I version ("The little house of Uncle Thomas"). Hopefully I just won't need to find out more.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It would be nice, but I'd imagine you're way too busy to be helping me with my homework anyhow, dear.

Hee. Well, I mean, I did like a one-paragraph bit on Samson Agonistes. That kind of thing wouldn't have been out of the question. Except for the jarjarative qualities.

[girlalmighty]

I promise not to report you to the NAACP. ;) Anyway, I don't yet know what we're required to read from that class aside from Steinbeck and Dickinson and Twain. I like Twain well enough and I love Emily Dickinson, and I suppose I may as well give Steinbeck a chance. It's the Faulkner I'm not looking forward to. We read The Sound and the Fury for AP English senior year. Oh. My. Goodness. I liked the characters; I wanted to know what happened to the characters; I had no idea what was going on period. Stream-of-consciousness is all well and good, but . . . that hurt my brain.

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

Ok- Steinbeck has a great deal of love in my heart; The first "adult" books I was assigned in the 6th grade were the Red Pony and The Pearl-I highly reccomend them BOTH. Also enjoyed Of Mice and Men it is the only work that I've ever seen make my father cry, but I loathe The Grapes of Wrath for the sheer fact that it is so verbose.

Also read The Sound and the Fury for AP-had the same feelings. I consider myself well read, but I JUST NOW started reading Catch-22 for the first time and I swear I have never taken this long to read a book... 6 days thus far and I'm only half way through. The craziness-she hurts my brain.

[elbales]

Ever tried The Light and the Dark? I was so lost. :P (Or--even better--Sons and Lovers!)

I don't remember a damned thing about either book.

craziness

[ayn-rand-fan-13.livejournal.com]

I read Catch-22 last year, and I could like, literally hear the whistling noises as it went straight over my head. I'm really into order, so it was like no! stop with the crazy! I NEED PLOT!!

Re: craziness

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

I'm going to sound like a total weirdo, but when I was growing up I saw LOADS of M*A*S*H reruns, and really I see SO many similarities between M*A*S*H and Catch-22 that I'm like OMGWTFDUNSTEEL (YAY) to the Mash producers... but it REALLY has been mildly upsetting because of the military history in my Family.

[sihleira.livejournal.com]

Woe, need to finish le beauteous Catch-22. Started it last summer, had to return it to the library before I got a chance to finish it...

And also, the miscarriage thing? How are they planning to enforce it? If you had a miscarriage in your own home, they could hardly find out about it.

[elbales]

Thanks for the link and info on the Virginia thing. I posted in my journal, and a friend ganked my post for her journal. So word's really really spreading.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but... I'm quite possibly missing something about miscarriages, but if you have a miscarriage, it's not like there's a dead baby that comes out of your uterus, is there? Unless you're pretty far along, but in that case you'd have to go to the doctor, so... I don't know. The whole thing is stupid.

At least you don't have to, like, pay for a copy.

[elbales]

Well, there's a dead embryo, or a dead fetus, depending on how far along the woman is. So yes, there is a dead baby. And yes, the whole thing is incredibly stupid and offensive. Grar.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Oh, I had ignored that link because I was sure it would be to this (http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/01/010405vaLicense.htm)... What IS up with VA?

[bitterbert.livejournal.com]

It's a hell of a good book if you've never read it.
I completely agree that this law misses it's intended goal by a mile. When we stage our coups I'll be sure that the vassalage of virginia has good relations with the Queendom of Alabama.

Sorry if this makes no sense, the insomniac dumb assedness of the entire day has caught up with me and I am behaving eccentricly.

Hi

[ailehtac03.livejournal.com]

Dunno if you've heard yet, or if Emerson or someone emailed you, but ... POA in 15 minutes is now in the Movie Spoofs section on MuggleNet!

It's about 6 months roo late, but oh well.

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

I meant to mention- This is crazy too but most states have laws that say that any death not in the company of a licensed physician (even terminal illness etc) MUST have an autopsy and investigation to make sure that it wasn't a homicide... Nevada's is particularly strict and unusual if I recall, effectively being EXACTLY what you said... STUPID lawmakers....