And By Opposing End Them

I am all over the map today. Pack a bag and join me!

1. I wanted to do a list of 10 movies based on collective bargaining/union/fighting the man issues. Even using this list I came up a little short. These were the ones I felt most strongly about, though: Norma Rae (natch), Silkwood, Erin Brokovich, Triangle: Remembering the Fire,  Brassed Off!, Cradle Will Rock, October Sky, and 9 to 5. Do you have any to add? (Also, huh, guess I was closer than I thought.)

2. Last night Kath made me delicious dinner and then photographed a few of Eddie's tricks. Also me teaching Bobby how to crawl. High comedy. I don't have them yet but I thought you should have something to look forward to. I recounted those fun time to NDP at 7 this morning while we were walking dogs. After pumping me for tips she went right home and taught Tim ( German Shepherd whose shoulder comes up to my hip) to crawl, then called me chuckling with follow up questions. Guess they're all dressing up as commandos for Halloween.

3. I love good, frank discussion about death and dying and Aiming Low just posted the first part of a two parter by Kim Trimble. I think I'm going to like her. A lot.

4. If you're sick of hearing me blather about reproductive rights and anti-choice being anti-woman then there is one way to stop it. Protect every woman's right to choose. I promise, as soon as you sew that up I'll shut my trap. In the mean time check out some stats on what's going to happen if/when catastrophic budget cuts hit family planning entities. Hint: The number of abortions changes. It doesn't get lower. Oh no indeed.

5. On a similar note have we checked in about the woman in Indiana who was so depressed that she attempted suicide and now she's being prosecuted? See, she was pregnant and the fetus died so they're charging her with feticide. Because a severely depressed woman would be so much better off in jail/as a mom/drugged beyond recognition than she would be if supported in her recovery. Oh, Indiana, you always know the right thing to do.

6. I want to sincerely thank Angela at Fluid Pudding for just posting a regular post about how to make cake balls. I have known of the existence of cake balls for a year or so. I've wanted to make them. But every time I've seen them mentioned there's always been a "on my food blog," "click this recipe," "I'll tell you next month" situation attached and I never click through. I always assume that the click through means a recipe that's too rich for my blood. It's not! I can do this and I can't wait! Angela, if you ever need me to come to your house and touch food with my bare hands for you I totally owe you that. Happy to help. Doesn't bother me at all. (I also get the irony of being too afeared to click on a link and mentioning it in a post where I am providing a list of links that I know it's unlikely anyone will click. I guess I'm OK with the paradox.)

7. Sueb0b went to Costa Rica and she's been chronicling the trip on her blog. I especially enjoyed this post where she went into the country's commitment to green living and recycling and the like. It's a place I'd like to go. I just have to get a sense of how likely I am to be confronted with snakes.

8. This Blogher post is killing me. After the time I spent at the Women's Colony I know that a lot of people think this way about fidelity but it still just ties me up in knots of aggravated disbelief. I think there is a deep, deep distrust of your partner if little interactions make you so upset. I also think that if you distrust a person you've pledged your life to that much that it might behoove you to look at why you made the pledge. Why would you condemn yourself to a life of standing on the edge of being (figuratively) bludgeoned? Why would you think yourself only worthy of someone who had so little respect for you? Doesn't all that constant, terrified fence maintenance leave you exhausted?

9. While I'm hammering away at this here's another story about a woman who very much wanted a child and made a choice based on genetic testing during her pregnancy. She did not make this lightly. Who among us would condemn her to life without that choice? If any one of you raises your hand then I'm not shutting up about this.

10. And here I am continuing not to shut up. I was going to try and make the last one about something else but I can't. I kept scrolling the starred file and the relevant posts to choose from were all about...choice. Feministing's Maya recently got tossed an editorial choice (heh, choice choice choice choice choice choice, just gonna keep saying it) between three article subjects. All were anti choice advocates. She, like so many before her, did not take her choice lightly, she agonized over it, wanting to feel certain she was doing the right thing not only for her but for the web site and the readers. After much contemplation she needed help. She reached out to her pro choice community and asked them to decide between a US Senator comparing reproductive choice to consumer choice (fetuses to light bulbs, who exactly is diminishing the importance of the decision?), a member of the House of Representatives who asserted that all women must carry to term all babies because any baby might grow up to be president (no mention of how she feels about Barack Obama's mother's reproductive choices but if I were in a less forgiving mood I might speculate), and a Montana State Representative that compare women to cows (in all seriousness [note to that rep: Get someone to proof your speeches. Not someone who has Palin on his resume.]). Honestly, I couldn't choose. Still can't. Still want each and every one of them to be forced, Clockwork Orange Style, to watch video pleas for help from starving children around the world. But I hear that's not an option.

Bonus Item: Fill in the blanks - We are ______ weeks into this Republican majority Congress and ___ jobs have been created as their campaigns promised.