Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Getting Close!

My lovely and talented friend Jenny of Jenny Hanlon Photography did some fabulous "maternity" shots for Dave and I on campus at the University of Denver one stormy afternoon earlier this month... and I will forever love her for making me feel pretty for the first time this trimester...  Enjoy!


Monday, August 23, 2010

Hit Me Up, Doc

Oh NPR, even when I have no time to blog, no time to breathe... you come through and give me something worth pondering.  (Hat tip to Jen for the fabulously-disturbing link)

Just think if this stuff were being marketed to men.  Anyone guess how long it'd stay on the market then?  But we're so "progressed" as a society, right? 

Right?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129258505

Friday, August 13, 2010

7 Quick Takes On The Idiocy of Our Times

Well okay, there are only 5 today ... because it's almost 5:00 here in good ol' Denver, and I need to get on the road for some seriously enjoyable I-25 Friday-afternoon-commute-mania.  But first, I would like to briefly and bluntly share some stupendously asinine news bits from this week in history.  Enjoy your weekend!

1. Women who are pregnant, or suspect they are pregnant, should not use this product, the FDA said.  Riiiight.  So would sterile virgins be the intended market they're trying to reach here?

2. Marriage is fundamentally unconstitutional.  Read on for this and other brilliant conclusions being handed down from "impartial" benches 'round the nation. 

3. "Wow, you are getting HUGE."  Delivered with utter sincerity and a goofy smile by an unsuspecting male coworker/postal worker/sales clerk/random stranger.  Thank you, men of the world, for saying aloud what I have long been quietly fearing in the silence of my heart.

4. There is one full teaspoon of sugar in every tablespoon of ketchup.  Maybe this isn't as shocking to the rest of you as it was to me, but I feel positively violated.

5. According to a recent study by the NIH (National Institute of Health), the sexual habits of gay, underaged males are being tracked using online journaling technology to... oh wait, who the hell cares?  And why exactly are our tax dollars being spent to fund this ridiculous garbage?

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

At the Altar of Convenience

I was thinking about child sacrifice this weekend.  Specifically, of the god Moloch and the practice of ritual infant sacrifice by incineration, as practiced in ancient Carthage in order to ensure the "continuing prosperity and well-being of the community.  From Diane Karkosh's  article "Child Sacrifice: Nothing New Under the Sun:"

"When a mother, willingly or not, released her infant onto the out-stretched arms of Moloch’s bronze statue, the baby consequently rolled off the arms and fell headlong onto a fiery brazier pit."

Sounds familiar.

Admittedly, I've got babies on the brain of late, what with the little one inside of me constantly making his/her presence known through a series of kicks, punches, and jabs to the ribs.  And I've had plenty of opportunity to wonder at the inconvenience and the real sacrifice demanded in order to bring new life into this world.  But in spite of every ache and pain, the idea of ending this little one's life in order to continue with mine, uninterupted, has never occured to me.

But I can understand how it might.  And I can definitely see how our cultural preoccupation with pleasure, success, convenience and wealth has programmed us to intensely resent any hindrance to our daily lives, and to resist it mightily... even unto death.

Because it's convenience that we worship in our society, and there is nothing sacred when that's at stake.  Not even the life of an 'other'.

For 2,000 plus years of progress, we sure haven't come too far.  We may not be offering ritual sacrifice to ensure the success of our military campaigns or our harvests... but is the abortion industry really so different?  Aren't the promises of freedom, unhindered future prosperity and atonement for 'sin' one in the same?  And aren't we as women still being assigned the same, tired second-class citizenship.  It's frustrating as hell, particularly in light of the lies most of us have swallowed as the gospel truth.

A feminist whose thought I greatly admire stated it thus: “When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.” — Elizabeth Cady Stanton