abortion

2022-Jul-04, Monday 09:08 am
mellowtigger: (flag handmaid's tale)
Today's "Moody Monday" post puts me at risk of a US$10,000 fine in Texas, maybe even prison.  I think incarceration applies only to abortion providers, not information providers, but I'm not certain.  Either way, it's a good reason to never set foot there.  (Reminder: Get out.)  Indeed, Facebook and Instagram are already censoring abortion information online.  Google says it will delete location history for abortion centers, but that may still not help people who search the topic.  You could search on computers at your local library, but safety depends on if your library follows recommended practice.  Eventually a VPN may be necessary to protect yourself and to access region-restricted websites.

Texas has already enacted legislation, known as SB 8, that enables any individual to sue a person or institution for facilitating access to abortion care. That includes sharing information online about managing the abortion process, obtaining an abortion pill, or finding a clinic that offers abortions.
- https://www.wired.com/story/section-230-is-a-last-line-of-defense-for-abortion-speech-online/

People are sharing their experiences in abortion care, both receiving and providing it.  They offer a lot to consider.  From the woman with a detached placenta to the doctors delaying life-saving care like this woman who miscarried but couldn't get medical help, also the 10-year-old rape victim whose young body is required by her current Ohio state law to carry to term the fetus of that criminal, and even the coroner stories of botched abortions before legalization in Canada.
I advocate letting people control their own bodies as they wish, however complex those decisions are for them.  One justification sometimes presented is the idea (more complicated than just a single variable) that allowing abortions nationwide with the Roe v. Wade court decision led to fewer "unwanted children" in high poverty populations, leading to a reduction in crime many years later.  Personally, I don't really need that justification for legalization.  I'm firmly in the camp that believes, as the meme says about baby Molly, that an embryo is simply not a person.  Similarly, I can't believe a fetus is a person until it's at least developed enough biologically to no longer remain a parasite, then we can start discussing the difficult definitions.  Plenty of mainstream religious traditions share this idea and allow abortion.  Even without abortion, some 40% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage naturally, which certainly doesn't make these women slaughterers for failing to deliver, as the new laws insist.  The idea is insanity and can actually prevent babies from being born to families who need IVF to conceive.  It's also already endangering non-abortion medical care by its sheer stupidity.

We tried a Christian society run by the rich. It was called the Dark Ages for a reason.Let's end this post, however, by noting the central hypocrisy (both Betty Bowers and George Carlin elaborate well on this topic) that got us here.

"The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated; unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor, they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn.  It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you.  You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone.  They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.

Prisoners?  Immigrants?  The sick?  The poor?  Widows?  Orphans?  All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible?  They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.


- Pastor Dave Barnhart, from Alabama
 
Welcome to Amurrika.  The line forms here for your pelvic exam.
mellowtigger: (cooperation)
I dive deep into topics, but I try to avoid sharing the worst of the spurious rabbit holes. I know not everyone has a tolerance for "doom and gloom". As sort of a counterbalance to my Good News tag, I'll try to limit my future-doom articles to a new Moody Monday concept.  In spite of the many (too many) trends toward disaster that I see in play at present, I want to reiterate that my same instincts ALSO see many good trends as well. I won't downplay the threat. The problems facing us are literal civilization-changing traumas.

But I still see reason for hope, in spite of the cost that we'll pay first.  Maybe it was always this way, with existence ever so precarious.  The only thing that really impressed me from the Popol Vuh was a line from their creation myth (paraphrased from memory), "... and so it was humans who were given memories, to bear time's burden."  We see the patterns of past, present, and future.  We are the sustainers, caring for the future waiting to rise.


Bookmark this song.  Buy it (I did) for constant replay.  These are strong lyrics for the coming days:
Don't give up when your heart is weary
Don't give up when your eyes are teary
Don't give up when your voice is trembling
When your life needs mendin'
Don't give up when the hurt is near you
Don't give up when the world seems to be broken
I'm still hopin'
With my heart open ayy ay
For a brighter day
...
Don't give up, you just keep on fightin'
Don't give up, you just keep on fightin'
Don't give up
Even when your eyes are cryin'
For a brighter day

That's what I see.  I don't know if I'll survive what I think is coming, but I still see good reason for hope.  Persist.

another neighbor gone

2021-Apr-03, Saturday 03:50 pm
mellowtigger: (ouroboros)
I was outside doing some afternoon gardening in the front yard today.  I noticed more than the usual number of people at the bus stop at the end of my block.  They seemed to be dressed up like they were going somewhere.  I forgot about them and continued on with my digging.

A while later, I heard drumming and native American singing.  I didn't put the two events together.  I locked up the house and walked towards the drumming.  There's both a small mini-park and a church about two blocks away where sometimes there are outdoor gatherings, so I wanted to learn what group was performing, if I could find them.

I didn't walk far, though.  I soon realized the drumming was coming from the back yard of the house at the bus stop.  That's when I figured it was some kind of private ceremony happening, so I turned around to walk back home.

Passing that intersection again on foot, I noticed a hearse stopped at the bus stop, the driver walking toward the front door of that house.  The drumming stopped soon afterwards.

I have no reason to think it was related to local violence or covid.  Maybe it was just the death of another local elder on the block.  But that's one of the cool things about this very diverse neighborhood.  A few years ago, I investigated sounds closer on my block.  I walked down the alley and found an old asian woman (probably Hmong, given the demographics here) chasing away evil spirits from the house.  I recognized the effort immediately, smiled at her, and walked back to my house without further interrupting her music.

Plenty of skin colors and religious faiths can be found here.  End the violence, and this place would be a wonderful home for an old tree hugger.

the days of the week

2021-Jan-04, Monday 10:40 pm
mellowtigger: (astronomy)
I already knew most of the explanation for our days of the week in English, but this YouTube video filled in some important details that I was missing.  Here's the short version of this history.

Humans long ago observed the stars and noted that some of them seemed fixed in the sky while others moved. The Greeks counted 7 heavenly bodies that moved, according to what they could see by naked eye in those days before light pollution. They called these objects the "wanderers", which in Greek is "planetes".

Assuming the Earth was the center of the universe, with the wanderers circling around us in their own spheres, the Greeks numbered those 7 bodies according to the duration of their cycle across the background of stars (also known as their sidereal period), from longest cycle to shortest.  Each of those wanderers was associated with a deity, whose names we'll list soon.
  1. Saturn
  2. Jupiter
  3. Mars
  4. Sun (1 year for it seemingly to circle back to its same position against the background of fixed stars)
  5. Venus
  6. Mercury
  7. Moon
Around 3rd century BCE, Greek astrologers writing horoscopes in Egypt mysteriously decided that those gods in the sky ruled only once per hour during each day. Those 7 hours do not evenly divide into other time periods. If, however, they repeated those turns of 7 names for each hour of every day, then after 7 whole days, they did get back to their original starting position again. For instance:

HourDay 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 8
1SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenussame as day 1
2JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury"
3MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon"
4SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn"
5VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter"
6MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars"
7MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun"
...........................
24MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon"

Presto. The 7-day "planetary" week is formed.  Keep in mind that these "planets" are Greek wanderers in the sky, not what we call planets in astronomy today.

Even more historically interesting, though, is that each day took the name of the deity associated with that day's first hour. As Romans spread their calendar throughout Europe, we ended up with our current day-names.  Christians of Rome renamed 2 of the days, which continued with the Romance languages.  Norse pagans preferred the names of their local gods (keeping similar concepts as the Roman gods) for 4 of the other days, which continued with English (a language made from a bizarre mixture of Latin and German).

DayDeity
(Greek)
Astronomy
(English)

Deity
(Roman)

Day
(Latin)
ChristianityDay
(Spanish)
Day
(French)
Deity
(Norse)
Day
(Old English)
Day
(English)
1KronosSaturnSaturnusDies Saturni"Sabbath"SabadoSamedi SaeturnesdaegSaturday
2HeliosSunSolisDies Solis"The Day of the Lord"DomingoDimanche SunnandaegSunday
3SeleneMoonLunaDies Lunae LunesLundi MonandaegMonday
4AresMarsMarsDies Martis MartesMardiTiw/TyrTiwesdaegTuesday
5HermesMercuryMercuriusDies Mercuri MiercolisMercrediWoden/OdinWodnesdaegWednesday
6ZeusJupiterIovis/IupiterDies Iovis JuevesJeudiThor/ThunderThunresdaegThursday
7AphroditeVenusVenusDies Veneris ViernesVendrediFriggeFrigedaegFriday

As the 7-day week moved eastward, the Hindi and Chinese named their 7 days in the same order as the Greeks.

I do still have a few remaining questions.  I'm curious if the Greeks stole some of their ideas from earlier Egyptian astronomy, or if this repeating 7-hour concept started with them.  Some quick websearching provided me no answer.  I'm also curious about different cultures choosing different days as the start of their week, rather than Saturday.  I find lots of information, but all of it is as clear as the proverbial mud.  Anyway...

Happy Moon Day.
mellowtigger: (roulette)
The dreaded day has arrived. If ever there was a birthday worth drinking heavily, my birthday today would be the one.

Instead, though, I have a thought that will persist regardless of this vote's outcome. There are great issues that remain, regardless of the team banner gracing the Oval Office. One of these issues is presented nicely in today's theme song from a talented queer folk musician, Joy Oladokun.


This review explains the song much better than I can.

On Friday, Oladokun released a new single called “I See America” that deftly examines the long-lasting harm that systemic racism does to Black communities, as well as the subtle and sinister cultural norms that hold it up. In the opening verse, she describes a young Black man she sees on the street, acknowledging his fundamental worth as a human being in ways that others don’t seem to have done. In the closing verse, she examines ways that racist attitudes are able to spread quietly when they go unchecked in the name of keeping peace in the family.

The song acknowledges two huge social and cultural issues that cause extraordinary and long-lasting suffering in our country. It's also a quietly powerful call for change, as Oladokun sings: "Violence and rumors in a Southern town / Will start with a whisper / But so does the difference."
- https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21144121/joy-oladokun-issues-a-firm-gentle-call-to-action-in-i-see-america

Such a remarkably peaceful sound for such a difficult time.

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