Lots of Stuff to Piss Me Off Today

So here, I'll put them all out there and you all vote on which one is the worst.

1. Arizona just passed a bill that requires minors to "prove by clear and convincing evidence that she is mature enough to get an abortion without her parents' consent". So, if the minor can't prove she's mature enough to have an abortion, then she's forced to have the baby, even though she's too immature to have an abortion...
   
   
2. The Washington Post runs an op-ed by a misogynist woman about how dumb women are. The Post later says the piece was "tongue in cheek", which the author denied in an online chat yesterday.
   
   
3. Chicago sex therapist Laura Berman advises couples to "Try traditional gender roles: Men may become more sexually assertive if they feel more in control, and women may feel more desire for a mate with newfound machismo. "You don't have to get his slippers," explains Berman. "You just have to give him some control." She suggests a date where the man chooses everything -- her clothes, the restaurant, the food -- as a starting point." Yet she doesn't say what the woman should do about the involuntary vomiting that may begin immediately after reading that craptastic advice.
   
   
4. The NY Times runs an article about what huge fucking liars women are. No mention of men.

How Does He Dress Himself Every Day?

If he is THIS STUPID???

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception..."

Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.”

This went on for a few more moments until a reporter from the Chicago Tribune broke in and asked Mr. McCain about the weight of a pig that he saw at the Iowa State Fair last year.

Well, I suppose someone had to change the subject. Me, I would have let him twist in the wind and made sure the entire thing was videotaped.

Finally!

My doctor called me back this morning about the Nuva Ring. I told her what happened, and she said that was very unusual. I guess the majority of women who use the Nuva Ring don't have problems with it sliding down, but if you look at the online reviews, there are women who have that problem.

Anyway, she said she would be fine with doing a tubal ligation for me, but she wanted me to wait 3 months (which is better than the 6 months she previously said!) and then come in and talk to her about getting it done. In the meantime I'm thinking of using the sponge. My doctor said I should use it with a condom. Hmmm. Well, it's only for three months!

Dumb Question of the Week

So I called my OBGYN's office to let her know that NuvaRing dod not work for me, since it wouldn't stay in place. The receptionist took a message. When I told her I couldn't use NuvaRing because it would not stay in place, she asked "And you're sure you're putting it in right?"

Okay, keep in mind that when I talked to my doctor about the NuvaRing on Tuesday, I had said I would worry about having it in right, and she said "There is no one right way."

So, does the receptionist think I'm some kind of imbecile? I mean, look at the Nuva Ring. You have to hold the sides together so that you can get it up there, and then you push it as far back as you can. Yeah, I'm too stupid to do that correctly.

So I firmly replied "YES." and she said "Okay...I'll give her the message."

Let Freedom Ring? Not So Much...

Well, the NuvaRing just didn't work out for me. I did have some minor pain/tenderness in that area after inserting it, but I thought that would go away. But, it didn't. But the big issue was that it wouldn't stay in place. You are supposed to push it as far back as you possibly can. Well, I did. But...it didn't stay there. It kept sliding down. Not out, but down. Sometimes I was freakin' walking around the office at work and I could feel the thing sliding down. Not pleasant. This morning I was washing in the shower and I could feel the stupid ring poking out. Um, that would DEFINETELY be a mood killer in the bedroom. And the fact that it wouldn't stay in place and kept sliding down did not instill confidence in me that it was a reliable method of birth control. So I did a Google search on Nuva Ring reviews, and it's a little scary. After 2 days of pushing it as far back as I possibly could, I realized it's not staying in place, so I just threw it out. Ugh.

In reading the reviews it sounds like a fair number of women had the same issue. I wonder why on earth they don't have different sizes? I mean, off the bat, I'd think that women that have had kids might need bigger ones, and young women who haven't had kids may need smaller ones. And hey, people's bodies vary. It's not a one size fits all situation, obviously. Oh well. The birth control search continues.

The Quandary of Endorsements and Affiliations

John McCain has been endorsed by Pastor John Hagee who believes, among other things, that there is no such thing as a good Muslim, that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for a gay pride parade in New Orleans, and that it is the duty of the President to hasten Armageddon in order to further the Second Coming. As Glenn Greenwald notes, not only does Sen. McCain not "denounce" and "reject" this support from this hate-monger, he is "very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support."



Also today, Obama has just been endorsed by Louis Farrakhan. Obama also came under criticism because the church he is a member of, last year gave Farrakhan an award for "epitomizing greatness". To most people, the hate that Farrakhan preaches about whites, Jews and his view of women as second class raises some red flags.

The column caught the attention of the Anti-Defamation League, which was preparing to publicly press Obama to distance himself from the award and from Farrakhan. But Obama's campaign, before the ADL could act, put out a statement doing just that.

"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan," Obama said in a statement released by his aides. "I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL's national director, welcomed Obama's words.

"Issues of racism and anti-Semitism must be beyond the bounds of politics," Foxman said in a statement. "When someone close to a political figure shows sympathy and support for an individual who makes his name espousing bigotry, that political figure needs to distance himself from that decision. Senator Obama has done just that."

This isn't the first time Obama's church, and his minister, have created a hiccup for his campaign. In February, Obama disinvited Wright from giving the invocation at his campaign kickoff in Springfield, Ill., apparently fearing controversy from Wright's Afrocentric teachings.

"Afrocentric teachings"? Look at the church's web site and click on "About Us". How would people react if "black" were replaced with "white"? Obama is actually multiracial, not just "black". But he attends a church that honored Farrakhan and whose head pastor favors "afrocentric" teachings?



Aaaaaand...begin uncontrollale vomiting...NOW!

So Cool!

So the NuvaRing welcome kit comes with a little timer. You start it when you put the NuvaRing in, and it beeps when it's time to put in the new one. But the REALLY cool thing, which really appeals to the techie geek in me, si that you can download a NuvaTime app to your computer!