Alone and without a leader!

Me loves John Mortimer and Rumpole. Clever, witty, engaging, and entertaining. Would that there were an endless supply of the stories so I would never run dry of the characters, their foibles, and of course, Chateau Thames Embankment.

Wow

Abortionist

Saw this story this morning - I find it impressive and tragic at the same time. It's not so sugarcoated as to be glorifying the myth of 'choice', but it's also shocking to read how glib people can be about destroying life. Choosing abortion to fit into a wedding dress is a bit less 'empowering' than the myth that women must abort to save their lives. A single mother having her second abortion in two years because she can't handle the thought of someone else raising her child - a child herself being told that she at best has an egg yolk in her womb - it's all so sad. But at least the women are given a drug to get them through without a memory of the abortion. Protect them from full awareness of the 'procedure'.

The abortionist in this case is unusual in that he acknowledges he is destroying life. He acknowledges fetal development is complete at nine weeks, yet will still abort until the end of the second trimester. It's mind boggling, but I do appreciate his honesty - it's much less frustrating than the usual rhetoric denying the child is a baby.

One in three women, one in four pregnancies. Staggering.

kyrie eleison

Holidaze

Thanksgiving has past and we are on to the Christmas Shopping Season, perhaps the most valued of all seasons here in the states. I admit I've paid some attention to the hype around the shopping, mainly because I find it interesting that we allow ourselves to be goaded into the frenzy by corporate and media interests. I could go on about the state of material greed in western culture but I won't - it's a bit tired right now and I'd only be preaching to myself as usual. :)

Plus, I want it known that there is turkey soup simmering on my stove. With actual turkey parts and skin and flesh and bones. In my soup pot. Alongside my beautiful veggies. I've not left the life, as it were, but I have suspended my meat-free policy for the weekend in order to make soup for my recovering-from-shoulder-surgery godmother. She is doing well in her recovery and I'm happy to help her with her request, even if it does give me the heebs.

The turkey looks gross - the skin is all bumpy and looking like it should still be on a bird with feathers attached. The bone is poking out and looks like it should still be attached to another on a bird that still has its muscle, skin, and breath. I don't like this.

I really didn't know what to do with the turkey and stock my mom gave me yesterday when I mentioned S's request for turkey soup - Moms had to spell it out for me. It's similar to making veggie soup, I guess, but not so easy because I can't taste it along the way. I thought about it but I just can't go that far. I've already been told that this gets me extra god-daughterly credit and I don't feel compelled to push for further points. Heh heh. We'll see when the rankings are published. :)

ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball

Further Annoyances!!!

Forgetting what you logged on to blogger to post about. Grrr. It was a really petty annoyance I wanted to whine about! Don't make me be mature and not whine!

Colds that knock down and drag out cold-ee, turning her into a mouth-breather. My poor, poor chapped lips!!!

Coworkers complaining about the stupidity of southern people when in fact said coworker is the one who lost the needed document and said southern persons are merely trying to help him out by sending him a new copy.

Okie, I remembered: people who leave their carts in random spots while shopping in the grocery store. This seems to be endemic at TJs. I watched a woman the other day who 'lost' her cart amidst three that had been abandoned. I had moved a couple since they were orphaned and in front of the foods I was trying to get at. She wasn't happy that hers had been moved, but oh well. At least I had not added groceries to her cart by mistake.

the pettification of rosie lee marvelous. muah!

Boycotts, for lack of a better term

Usually I do not prefer to be defined by what I am not but in this post, I will identify several places/things/people I do not support. Why? Dunno really, other than to get it all out of my head and onto one page.

I value the impact, slight though it is, of my dollars and therefore try to spend intentionally in ways that better the world around me and the quality of life I experience. It's about justice, it's about building a better world, it's not as much about being against certain places (though that *certainly* comes into play) as it is being about what is right.

Even so, here's my (partial) list of no-no's:

The Wal, of course. What self respecting urbanite does not have an ingrained opposition to the Bentonvillians? The whys are extensive - child and other sweatshop labor overseas, cheap plastic crap, overconsumption, mucking the life out of small communities (hail, St. Helens), poor employee relations and policies, monoculturalism, horrid environmental destruction, etc. And for being huge, ugly blights on the landscape. As TeeVee once said, I can't wait to play on grassy fields that were once Wal~Mart stores. I might be old, but I will always hope people abandon their affairs with the big boxes.

Monsanto. Awful, awful, awful. I will go ahead and pop the evil word on them. Not one I use lightly, either. Abusing small farmers, wreaking environmental havoc with their straying pesticides (some of us do NOT want pesticides on our foods and fibers!), multinational evils tramping on smaller less developed nations (no, you cannot patent basmati rice). Animal research, environmental destruction, etc. Gah. Would that they were not in bed with the USDA.

Meat. I'm veg*n. It's kind of the way I'm supposed to be. (And you are, too! Go Veg!)

Branding monoliths in general, e.g. Disney, Gap, Nike, etc. It depressed me recently to see Disney doors being sold - is there nothing that we can leave alone without a corporate stamp? I know kids who cannot make up a story (gah!) because they don't use their imaginations - it's all about the characters they know. Not that I'm rushing to squeeze out some pups (likely to foster down the road, though), but I know know know I will not allow that stuff in my home. Even having nieces to buy for, it's a difficult task to get them something worthwhile that is not stamped with four different brands. I'm not opposed to using well made brands or ethically produced products, but I will not have those I know to be produced unethically in my world if I can reasonably afford an alternative. Second hand products are not held to the same standard, but the obvious endorsement/branding situations are avoided.

Budweiser, Miller, etc. Crap beers have no place in my world. I'd rather sidle up to a silk lady or a pleasant african amber. :)

Chain stores - grocery, book, music, etc. I shop at a co-op, a locally owned nfs store, farmer's markets, locally based book and music shops, and Trader Joe's. I buy local when it's obvious and available. I'd rather stroll into my bookstore and have them order me a tome if it's not in stock than head into the warehouse style stores and give them my bucks to take back to the corporate offices. I'd rather buy used music from a small store, buy groceries from places with standards for their farmers and producers, buy organic from small farmers whose farms I could theoretically be at within a few hours if I chose to go. Trader Joe's is my exception to this rule. Is it hypocritical? Perhaps, but I appreciate the information they publish and their levels of disclosure to their customers. I know what cheeses have rennet and which are veg*n. Even though I don't buy their milk, I know they don't allow RBST in their supply. They are a model of a decent corporate model, from what I know of them. Don't tell anyone, but I occasionally like it when they run out of something for awhile. We can well learn to live without immediate gratification.

Republican and Democratic parties. Both are blights on this nation with hideous platforms and awful practices. I oppose the seemingly automatic association of faith and religion with either (any?) party. The one promotes the slaughter of innocents in the womb, the other promotes the slaughter of innocents outside the womb (along with the not so innocent). None shows mercy to the poor. None shows care for the indigent. Both show regard for their deity of choice, the dollar. I am a loner in the land of political leaning. Which is just fine with me. I can gripe about everything. (har)

Washington State University. Duh.

Diamonds. Not that I have much opportunity to shun them, but the trade is too bloody. I do not want a diamond - EVAR - save for the rings of my grandmothers that I think might be passed to me some day.

I wish I could add non-fair trade chocolate to the list. God help me, I know the injustices tied to cocoa production. God forgive me that my gluttonous belly overrides my care for the oppressed. With advent fast approaching, I will endeavor to add regular chocolate products to my list of no no's.

That's most of it - at least all I can remember right now.

be brave but show mercy whenever you can