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A variety of political thoughts
1) Thinking on abortion. So many people can argue it in the abstract. This is what kills me about men with an opinion beyond "none of my business." They'll never know what it feels like to cramp for two weeks after a D&C. They have no point of contact with the reality of it.
What bothers me is a whole generation of Ob-gyns not knowing HOW to do abortions. What are they going to do when one of their patients miscarries, as about 25% of pregnant women do? They'll send her home to bleed out, sure. But what happens when it goes bad and she needs the D&C to clean out the rotting fragments of placenta? Where does she go then? I had the option of the clean-out within 24 hours of the miscarriage beginning. My daughters may not.
What worries me more is the attitude that women are either stupid or evil. The way the anti-choicers talk about late-term abortion--as if a woman makes a decision to end a wanted, well-advanced pregnancy the same way she decides to change her hairstyle--tells me they think women are cruel, vicious monsters, willing to slaughter their own children on an evil whim. Gods forbid THEIR child is diagnosed hydrocephalic. (in extreme cases of that, the only option is intact D&X, or letting both mother and child die)
Hearing McCain so blithely dismiss "health" of the mother with air quotes and a sneer wracked me.
Let me explain:
If I catch pregnant at this late date, I will abort.
I will have no choice since it will be ectopic.
I would prefer to do this while it's still a matter of my health and not a matter of life and death when my fallopian tube ruptures.
2) In a related tangent, Health Care:
"While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider."
What the McCain site is not telling you is that the tax credit is paid for by taxing health benefits as income. Or that the average health care plan is $12,000/year. Or that insurance will still not cover pre-existing conditions or people with BMIs that are too high. So much for "vigorous competition."
Let me explain what that means.
Jonner had surgery this summer. It cost about $15,000. Our share came to about a grand. The insurance covered $14,000 of that.
McCain's plan would tax that $14,000 as part of my annual income.
Right now, we're in a 25% tax bracket.
Jonner's surgery being covered by itself (not counting endless meds, an MRI, my six month paps, etc) would push us into the 28% bracket.
Instead of owing $18,000 in federal taxes, we'd owe $21,000. Three thousand more dollars because our son had surgery and our insurance covered it.
3) Obama and Biden STILL suck on talking about GLBT rights. But at least the platform is inclusive.
4) Had an interesting conversation with an older man. He spewed every lie about Obama. I finally got to use my "Because I went to a Mennonite school during that same period, does that make me a Mennonite?" analogy. When he used "nigger" I knew the real reason. He may or may not believe the other stuff, but by God, he is a white southern man and he is still better than a coloured any day. I called him on his usage and his presumption of shared attitude based on skin color.
5) The debate was so boring Jonner and I both fell asleep.
6) Let me tell you about Joe the Plumber. Good man. Served in Korea. Came home, married, had two daughters. He had a good job and good insurance, until his wife got cancer in the 80s. He ended up selling everything--house, all his life-savings, everything--to pay for her treatment. She died anyway.
He spent the 90s working as a plumber, until arthritis and general age took his agility. In the early 00s, he worked at Harrah's casino and plumbed on the side. When he left Harrah's, he worked as a Wal-Mart greeter. Until prostate cancer came for him. The VA falsified records, lost records and failed to treat him when his blood count was 300 (10 is indicative of a need for chemo).
He spent the last six months of his life at home, in a rented house, heavily addicted to morphine, living on his pension and his second wife's nursing paychecks. He died in a borrowed hospital bed in his own living room, attended by his wife and a pallative care nurse. He left nothing behind.
Mom's having an estate sale this weekend to raise the money to move. Joe made her very happy for four years and very sad for one that they had together.
Hard work is no guarantee of success.
What bothers me is a whole generation of Ob-gyns not knowing HOW to do abortions. What are they going to do when one of their patients miscarries, as about 25% of pregnant women do? They'll send her home to bleed out, sure. But what happens when it goes bad and she needs the D&C to clean out the rotting fragments of placenta? Where does she go then? I had the option of the clean-out within 24 hours of the miscarriage beginning. My daughters may not.
What worries me more is the attitude that women are either stupid or evil. The way the anti-choicers talk about late-term abortion--as if a woman makes a decision to end a wanted, well-advanced pregnancy the same way she decides to change her hairstyle--tells me they think women are cruel, vicious monsters, willing to slaughter their own children on an evil whim. Gods forbid THEIR child is diagnosed hydrocephalic. (in extreme cases of that, the only option is intact D&X, or letting both mother and child die)
Hearing McCain so blithely dismiss "health" of the mother with air quotes and a sneer wracked me.
Let me explain:
If I catch pregnant at this late date, I will abort.
I will have no choice since it will be ectopic.
I would prefer to do this while it's still a matter of my health and not a matter of life and death when my fallopian tube ruptures.
2) In a related tangent, Health Care:
"While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider."
What the McCain site is not telling you is that the tax credit is paid for by taxing health benefits as income. Or that the average health care plan is $12,000/year. Or that insurance will still not cover pre-existing conditions or people with BMIs that are too high. So much for "vigorous competition."
Let me explain what that means.
Jonner had surgery this summer. It cost about $15,000. Our share came to about a grand. The insurance covered $14,000 of that.
McCain's plan would tax that $14,000 as part of my annual income.
Right now, we're in a 25% tax bracket.
Jonner's surgery being covered by itself (not counting endless meds, an MRI, my six month paps, etc) would push us into the 28% bracket.
Instead of owing $18,000 in federal taxes, we'd owe $21,000. Three thousand more dollars because our son had surgery and our insurance covered it.
3) Obama and Biden STILL suck on talking about GLBT rights. But at least the platform is inclusive.
4) Had an interesting conversation with an older man. He spewed every lie about Obama. I finally got to use my "Because I went to a Mennonite school during that same period, does that make me a Mennonite?" analogy. When he used "nigger" I knew the real reason. He may or may not believe the other stuff, but by God, he is a white southern man and he is still better than a coloured any day. I called him on his usage and his presumption of shared attitude based on skin color.
5) The debate was so boring Jonner and I both fell asleep.
6) Let me tell you about Joe the Plumber. Good man. Served in Korea. Came home, married, had two daughters. He had a good job and good insurance, until his wife got cancer in the 80s. He ended up selling everything--house, all his life-savings, everything--to pay for her treatment. She died anyway.
He spent the 90s working as a plumber, until arthritis and general age took his agility. In the early 00s, he worked at Harrah's casino and plumbed on the side. When he left Harrah's, he worked as a Wal-Mart greeter. Until prostate cancer came for him. The VA falsified records, lost records and failed to treat him when his blood count was 300 (10 is indicative of a need for chemo).
He spent the last six months of his life at home, in a rented house, heavily addicted to morphine, living on his pension and his second wife's nursing paychecks. He died in a borrowed hospital bed in his own living room, attended by his wife and a pallative care nurse. He left nothing behind.
Mom's having an estate sale this weekend to raise the money to move. Joe made her very happy for four years and very sad for one that they had together.
Hard work is no guarantee of success.
no subject
He said that a.) spouses of same or different sex people will be afforded exactly the same legal rights. And b.) "Marriage" shall remain a term to be used within the religious aspects of the bond only.
If the Catholic church doesn't want to "marry" two same sex people, they are within their rights to refuse to do so. However on a legal level, those same people can receive a government issued license that would be identical to the ones received by 'straight' couples and they would get all the legal rights the current definition of 'marriage' entail.
That totally works for me as I think all religion and legal matters should be kept as far away from each other as is conceivably possible.
I'd love for them to be more articulate than this: I had to read between the lines to get there, but it beats the current plan or any 'faith based' alternative we might get from McSame.
no subject
He makes over 200,000 a year and whines about having to pay taxes.
HE MAKES OVER 200,000 A YEAR AND DOESNT WANT TO PAY TAXES!!!!
FUCK Joe the fucking republican'YeaI live here and enjoy America but let the poor fuckers pay for it,'Plumber!!
What on earth makes McCain think "We The People" give a fuck about his poor rich plumber? Because he thinks that everyone worth a shit makes 200,000 dollars a year.
GAHHHHHH, Swear to God if that old dumbass wins I AM moving to Canada!