Monthly Archives: February 2012

A Word Does Not a Mandate Make

As an uproar was sounded across the nation over “transvaginal” and ultrasounds performed in that fashion, we are now getting reports that mandated transvaginal ultrasounds are no longer a part of mandatory ultrasound before abortion bills in Alabama and potentially Virginia.

Be wary.

So long as the bills still mandate either:
- a detailed description of the anatomy of the embryo/fetus made during ultrasound
- a gestational age determined by ultrasound

Then they’re still mandating transvaginal ultrasounds, even of that word isn’t in the bill, even if the bill says abdominal ultrasound can be used IF the required information can be provided that way. In the first trimester of pregnancy it’s very rarely possible to ascertain the level of detail demanded by these bills abdominally, because the embryo/fetus is simply too small.

Be aware. Be wary. Don’t trust that the outrage will actually make a difference to those whose only real objective is creating barriers to abortion access.

Studenting: I’m Doing It Wrong

Animated gif from The Big Bang Theory - description in body text

I’m deeply worried that this is my current status as a student this semester. Woe. I have a quiz that I must take in the next 25 hours and I haven’t completed the reading for it. I have another class that has only 3 tests over the semester, with 8+ chapters of reading (over 3-4 weeks time each) for each, and I’m behind on that reading too. I’m just not digging in. Meanwhile, I said I was going to drop down to 1/4 time with my paid work, billing out no more than 20 hours a month. I’m already at 21 hours, and it’s only the 9th. Oops.

I gotta get it together.

(Thank you @elizabertsays for this image.)

[Image description: Sheldon from the television program "The Big Bang Theory," a tall, somewhat gangly white, brunet man, takes a handful of papers and tosses them up in the air, causing them to cascade around him and down the floor. He has a lackadaisical expression on his face. The caption added is "look at all the fucks I give."]

HANDS CLEAN IS SUCH AN AMAZING SONG.

garlandgrey:

Point of honor, will fight somebody, etc.

If it weren’t for your maturity none of this would have happened
If you weren’t so wise beyond your years I would’ve been able to control myself
If it weren’t for my attention you wouldn’t have been successful and
If it weren’t for me you would never have amounted to very much

Ooh this could be messy
But you don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime

We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

You’re essentially an employee and I like you having to depend on me
You’re a kind of my protégé and one day you’ll say you learned all you know from me
I know you depend on me like a young thing would to a guardian
I know you sexualize me like a young thing would but I think I like it

Ooh this could get messy
But you don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime

We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
I’ve more than honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

What part of our history’s reinvented and under rug swept?
What part of your memory is selective and tends to forget?
What with this distance it seems so obvious?

Just make sure you don’t tell on me especially to members of your family
We best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse
I wish I could tell the world cause you’re such a pretty thing when you’re done up properly
I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body

Ooh this could be messy and
Ooh I don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime

We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have than honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

[TW: Homophobia, Assholery] Dan Savage Fails Again, Still Gets Fellated By Fans

Read Dan’s devastatingly bad advice in a protracted exchange with a young lesbian in Ireland.

So let me get this right.

Dan Savage:

  • tells this girl a flat out gender essentialist lie about women’s sexuality being more fluid than men’s.
  • says that he knows this lie to be true from his experience, which translates to “I know some women who said they were lesbians but they married men.” Never mind that this isn’t his experience, never mind that identifying as a lesbian has nothing to do with who you marry. (I know three lesbians who are/have been married to cis men. It doesn’t change the fact that they are lesbians.)
  • tells this girl who is already in a Catholic convent school being taught by nuns to just tough it out if her parents force her into reparative therapy, as if it’s nothing more than a challenging chemistry course or an exercise boot camp and not an emotionally and spiritually abusive and debilitating horror which has driven who knows how many kids (and adults) to self-doubt, self-harm and even suicide, which he should know as the alleged font of all (cis white male) gay knowledge.
  • fails, even after learning this girl’s location, to even try to suggest even one actual resource for her, anywhere that she could turn to find help to avoid being forced into abusive “counseling” or even just someone she could talk to. Apparently his Google was broken.
  • publishes all of this massive failure.
  • lets commenters do the work and come through with queer support resources in the girl’s location, rather than leaving her with the glib suggestion to tough it out and hang on because… Oh, right, because “it gets better.”
  • and the pig still get lauded and praised and tweeted about as a hero. As if he did something. As if he helped. As if he didn’t lie to the girl. As if he didn’t give her potentially fatal advice to just grin and bear her homophobic parents’ abuse.

A hero.

What the hell does this man have to do for people to recognize him for the dangerous asshole that he is? Burn someone’s house down? Send a hurting, scared kid a weapon? Just go ahead and counsel self harm because the endorphin rush provides “relief?” What?

I really need to know.