Do the ways you’re screwed up get worse as you get older or will they eventually start to mellow?
I had a bad bit this afternoon, then drank too much to recuperate, and I still feel weird about it.
This whole heights thing has for sure gotten worse as I’ve gotten older and it interferes with my life in ways that deeply trouble me.
Campfield says that the current discussion about abortion boils down to “Who should make the laws about abortion? Should it be the state legislature or should it be the courts.”
Hobbs says it’s about “abortion-on-demand and public funding of the slaughter.”
But really, it’s about who owns Tennessee’s women. Do we have the right to decide for ourselves what happens to our bodies or are we just walking condos, with the State acting as mostly-absentee landlords.
Katie Granju and Rachel both direct our attention to these frightening facts.
•According to data from the CDC, maternal mortality in Tennessee is especially high.
•12 percent of pregnant women [in Nashville] receive late or inadequate prenatal care. That’s the 4th worst score in our survey, compared to an average of 5 percent.
•Nashville-Davidson has only 3 licensed home day cares for every 1,000 children under 4 years, the 3rd lowest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 13.
•Nashville-Davidson’s violent crime rate is 49 percent higher than average, the 9th highest in our survey, in fact.
•According to data from the CDC, maternal mortality in Tennessee is especially high.
•The CDC reports very high infant mortality rates for Tennessee.
•Memphis babies are 34 percent more likely than average to be born with low birth weight.
•20 percent of pregnant women here receive late or inadequate prenatal care. That’s the 1st worst score in our survey, compared to an average of 5 percent.
•There are no state laws requiring day care workers to undergo special SIDS prevention training. Many other states mandate such training.
•Memphis’s violent crime rate is 94 percent higher than average, the 3rd highest in our survey, in fact.
•Memphis has a 51 percent higher property crime rate than average, the 3rd highest in our survey.
•Babies here are 25 percent more likely than average to be born prematurely.
To put it frankly, women who are pregnant or might become pregnant in this state should be terrified. This state might as well just put pregnant women in a pit, throw some leaves on them, a couple of boxes of Twinkies in after them and say “Fend for yourselves.”
But rather than deal with these real problems, which are all a consideration when a woman is deciding whether to bring a pregnancy to term, the Senate is just strutting and preening around talking, yet again, about protecting unborn children from evil, evil women.
We know what works to lower abortion rates. Shoot, we have here a list of stuff we can get started on. Add to that teaching comprehensive sex ed in schools and making birth control available and its use wide-spread and we’d see abortion rates sink without having to hurt women or compromise their citizenship.
Voters, I hope you remember that, that these legislators have options available to them that would have a positive effect on women and reduce abortions without stepping on anyone’s rights and they’d rather do this shit.
I’m trying to follow diligently this talk of a tax rebate. I’m still not sure how much money we’re talking. Will we get $300? Will we get $800? I’m hoping for $800, only because I’d like to put it towards my medical debt, which will stimulate the economy by… um… okay, I’ll put some towards my medical debt and blow some at Amazon.
Or on yarn, for the TCP afghan*.
But, if it’s $300, I’ll buy groceries and gas and that will probably be the end of it.
Anyway, so, yeah, here are a couple of people saying smarter stuff about it than me:
Say Uncle–“So, here’s the question: If the government can stimulate the economy and that is allegedly good for the economy, why don’t they do it every day?”
Jackson Miller–“This country is like a bunch of crack addicts chasing a high that we will never attain until we let our supply build back up.”
And one saying much stupider stuff:
John Aravosis–“The Republicans want to help the big pharmaceuticals and the big business hospitals, while the Democrats want to help uninsured poor people and kids. […] The Republicans ONLY want to help the rich, and the Democrats ONLY want to help the poor. Screw everybody else. I am so sick of these people.”
*Yes, I get it. No one is as excited about this as I am.
I’ve only got fifteen more tiny squares to go and I have decided to do them only with the variegated yarn because otherwise I’d be stuck with like nineteen squares with orange circles in the middle and frankly, I’m not that big a fan of orange.
I like how it’s looking and I have some ideas for my next afghan, which will be given away right here on Tiny Cat Pants in a contest I haven’t yet thought up, but which is sure to be biased and unfair and riddled with corruption. What can I tell you? I was raised an Illinois democrat.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if you want the afghan, you’d better get some dead people to be ready to vote for you right now.
Not that the contest will have voting.
I don’t know what the contest will have. But hey, a contest with a blue afghan at the end of it. So, that will be fun, right?
Tiny Cat Pants 