pure science with a splash of black cat

wilwheaton:

laughterkey:

rachelinbrooklyn:

The bill contains provisions to prohibit tax deductions for abortion insurance coverage and abortion services; to provide for a sales tax on abortion; to establish a personhood stance for when life begins; to limit late-term abortions; to prohibit state employees from performing abortions during the workday; and to mandate that doctors tell women that abortion cause breast cancer along with other state-approved health issues.

The bill also allows doctors to withhold medical information from a woman if it might lead her to have an abortion. It prevents medical professionals from facing a medical malpractice suit in the event that withholding the information adversely affects the health of the mother or child. A wrongful death suit could be filed in the event of the mother’s death. (via Huff Post)

What the ACTUAL fuck?

Think about this for a second: the state of Kansas — a legislature that is not made up of medical professionals — just passed a law — a law! — forcing medical professionals to lie to their patients, even if that lie will lead to serious injury or death.

Doctors help people. Doctors go to school for years to learn how to best care for their patients. Doctors swear an oath to do just that… and these politicians have decided to pass a law forcing doctors to do exactly the opposite.

This is criminal. Every single one of those lawmakers should be immediately removed from office, and when the first woman or child dies because of this law, they should all be tried for murder.

What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. These. People.

I talk a lot about how I love Paul Desmond’s sound, Wayne Shorter’s sound, Bill Evans’s sound, this, that, and the other thing. Nobody, but nobody, in the history of recorded sound, has a sound as pure, clear, and still so versatile as Ella Fitzgerald does. And that Louis Armstrong impression! I love her, you guys.

Here’s a lesson in being a woman: this woman is built like a brick house, she’s sweating and unpologetically wiping her face, and she’s one of the most beautiful, wonderful, incredibly gifted, amazing creatures that we have ever had the privilege to know in the history of civilization. So you can have your fucked-up patriarchal view of the feminine ideal. The rest of us will be over here with the radiant and sublime Lady Ella and you can miss out like you deserve.

She was more than just a singer. She was a true, complete musician, and even though she’s almost twenty years gone now, her legacy is the reason that music is more whole than it ever would have been otherwise.

This is not about freedom of religion. If it were, we would, for example, allow Christian Scientists to refuse to pay for coverage of life-saving blood transfusions for employees. Religious freedom means I get to chose whether or not to be religious and if so, how. It does not mean that I get to impose my religion on others. Paying for insurance is part of the way we compensate employees, even when they use their insurance in ways we don’t agree with and are in contravention of our own personal beliefs. I think that it is stupid, dangerous and immoral to chain smoke, especially around children whose lungs it irreparably harms. But, I still have to pay for an employee to have access to lung scans, nicotine patches and oxygen tanks. I do not get to say that my religious beliefs, which include keeping bodies as healthy as possible, make it possible for me to withhold payment of this employee’s insurance. Guaranteed coverage of contraception and reproductive health care has overwhelming benefits for society, including reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions. By inserting your religious beliefs so egregiously into government legislation and my life, you are imposing your religious beliefs on me. You don’t like mandated insurance coverage for basic reproductive health humans with two X chromosomes? I don’t like being bred by state compulsion like Mr. England’s farm animals. I have a MORAL OBJECTION to being treated like an animal and not a human. You do not have to use contraception, you do not have to use birth control. But, that does not mean you have any right to tell me that I cannot if I chose. That is my right.

"From an early age, boys are fitted with emotional straight-jackets tailored by a restricted code of behavior that falsely defines masculinity. In the context of “stop crying,” “stop those emotions,” and “don’t be a sissy,” we define what it means to “Be a Man!” Adherence to this “boy code” leaves many men dissociated from their feelings and incapable of accessing, naming, sharing, or accepting many of their emotions. When men don’t understand their own emotions it becomes impossible to understand the feelings of another. This creates an “empathy-deficit disorder” that is foundational to America’s epidemic of bullying, dating abuse and gender violence. Boys are taught to be tough, independent, distrusting of other males, and at all cost to avoid anything considered feminine for fear of being associated with women. This leads many men to renounce their common humanity with women so as to experience an emotional disconnect from them. Women often become objects, used to either validate masculine insecurity or satisfy physical needs. When the validation and satisfaction ends, or is infused with anger, control or alcohol, gender violence is often the result."

Joe Ehrmann, former NFL player, from “Men Can Stop Rape” (via bibliofeminista)

I feel there is more truth in this than I am comfortable with. (via selfsamewoman)

Open recommendation to all and sundry: read Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble if you haven’t yet. I don’t care for the writing style, but her explication of gender vs. sex and how each is defined is spot-on, and it’s why we find ourselves in the position outlined in the quote.

(Source: epharoe, via elyseexplosion)

"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes."

Clare Boothe Luce (via jenerally)

(via feministic)