Goodbye To All That

Kind of like Poe and Anabelle Lee, I love Molly Ivor's writing with a love that is more than love. She's smart and incisive and kind and she writes from the place that we all want to believe that we have within us where genius and learning come together with smarts and wisecracking and a great love of life, and I could read her dissertations upon the phone book, if that's what struck her fancy for writing.

Today, however, she turns her gifts to explaining how many women are feeling on the eve of what I hope is not, but fear may be, the end of Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. Readers of this blog know that I'm a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton. I like her a lot. She invented smart. She keeps getting back up from the shitty things that life hands her and somehow goes on with a generous spirit bent on doing good. She digs down into the details and really learns what's going on. She gave a world-changing speech equating women's rights with human rights. She's got great ideas about how to fix our energy mess and she's always been a huge promoter of women. Whatever happens tomorrow, or at the Democratic convention, or in November, we haven't seen the last of Hillary Clinton. She's blazed a trail for future women to follow and she's done it with grace and humor and strength.

Supporting Hillary on liberal blogs for the past year or so has been an interesting experience. Lots of folks who somehow managed to get right behind John Kerry, his "I was for the war before I was against it" and his vote for the war notwithstanding, started off this primary season full of screaming hatred for Clinton because she voted to authorize the war. To be clear, she was wrong to vote that way, just as Obama has been wrong to vote to continue funding the war every time that vote has come up since he's been in the Senate. But there's been, IMHO, a different tone, a demand that she, far more than Kerry or Obama or Edwards or anyone else, should somehow crawl through broken glass with ashes on her forehead and that nothing she said was somehow "enough."

I've watched people who insisted that they were for Edwards because he was more progressive than Clinton (fair enough) switch directly to Obama when Edwards dropped out of the race (not so fair). Obama is less progressive, and far more willing to adopt the kind of shit-on-the-liberal tactics that many liberal bloggers used to disparage, than Clinton. Forgive me for perceiving a different organizing principle behind the behavior.

And so we who look at this primary season as another example of systemic prejudice often have reasons for doing so. Dismiss them as personal or petty if you like, but don't pretend that we are emotional and you the disinterested arbiters of what is and is not fair game. I have been accused of everything from willful stupidity to “vaginal solidarity” over these last weeks. It's insulting and demeaning, and intended to be so, as much as major opinion pieces on how dumb girls are and how Hillary should just climb on the Obandwagon. I've always said that it's not the sexists who get to define what kind of speech and behavior is sexist, what kind of office behavior is harassment.

I'm going to try to only say this once. I've got concerns about Obama. The notion that we're "one America" is bullshit. The idea that there's some grand level of compromise between me and the people who want to turn this country into a theocracy is bullshit. The notion that you can "reach across the aisle" to people like Grover Norquist and John Boehner is bullshit. They've explained as clearly as they possibly can that they view bipartisanship as date rape and that they intend to be the rapist, not the rapee. The notion that the details of policy don't matter as much as just getting a bunch of people excited about "change" is bullshit. The notion that "we worship a mighty God in the blue states" and that I'm supposed to want to vote for yet another candidate who puts out campaign literature saying that he's "called to serve" against a sacristy background is bullshit. And, as a proud member of the "anti-war left," I'd like to invite Mr. Obama to bite my ass.

I hope that I'm wrong. I'll be as quick to say I was wrong, come the Obama presidency, as I will be to say, "I told you so." But I'm tired of reading on liberal blogs that Obama is engaged in some form of Matrix-like ju jutisu whenever he adopts Republican talking points and concedes the battle ahead of time to the Republicans, while Clinton is bullheaded and dumb for not just giving in. It would help if those same liberal blogs hadn't spent years beating (correctly, IMHO) on vichy Dems. The level of nastiness and glee at Clinton's demise can have, IMHO, only one explanation. I'd be lot more impressed if the Obama supporters that I know spent more (aka almost any) time explaining which of his positions they like and less time shitting on Hillary Clinton.

And, so, if, as it looks like tonight, the nominee is Obama, I'll vote for him, as, I believe, will Hillary Clinton. It's possible, although not likely, that he'll realize that he has fences to mend with the feminist community ("You're likable enough" is not something that I'm likely to easily forget when I'm being asked to open my checkbook. Just sayin') and that, by November, I'll be more enthusiastic than I am tonight. But, as Molly says:

Indeed, it seems that Senator Obama will be the candidate, not because of (or in spite of) my vagina, but because of his ground game. I respect that. But I also ask respect for my position, for my experiences. Win with grace, not with sneers at old ladies who have repeatedly been told that it wasn't their turn yet, only to be told that sorry, their turn has passed by. That's about as alienating as you can get. I don't think his followers are shallow—at least not most of them—but many are rudely dismissive and do not seem to know whose framing they're adopting.

My favorite episode of the Sopranos is the one where the psychologist tells Carmella, "Whatever you do, you can never say that no one told you."

You're Right; Not Xianity At All

Oddly, for once, I agree with Ratzi the Nazi:

I am, in fact, convinced that what feminism promotes in its radical form is no longer the Christianity that we know; it is another religion.

Ratzi, you have no idea. See you in DC.

Sacred Prostitute

Two v. brilliant women, one of whom, in particular, has shaped much of my thinking about modern Paganism, discuss the concept of the Sacred Prostitute. I believe that Christ may be misinterpreting the word "prostitute" as I understand it within the context of the Sacred Prostitute. I've always thought that, to the extent such activities were for money, they may have resulted in a donation to the temple. Beyond that, though, why is giving sexual pleasure so different from giving other kinds of sacred pleasure? If you massage someone, or play the harp for them, or cook for them, or recite poetry for them, or drum for them, or take them on a vision quest, that's ok, but giving them transcendence through sacred sex is somehow wrong? I think that notion only comes because we're viewing sex through modern, aka patriarchal, eyes.

Satanism In Suburban Virginia

Que the worried, protesting fundies in 5, 4, 3, 2, . . . .

May The Goddess Guard Her. May She Find Her Way To The Summerlands. May Her Friends And Family Know Peace.

The LAT reports that:

Barbara Seaman, a writer and health activist whose groundbreaking 1969 book that warned against the dangers of the birth control pill is widely credited with launching the modern women's health movement, has died. She was 72.

Seaman died of lung cancer Wednesday at her New York City home, said her son, Noah Seaman.

In her first book, "The Doctors' Case Against the Pill," Seaman exposed the serious and little-known side effects of the high-estrogen pill prescribed at the time. Women weren't warned that the pill could cause heart attacks, strokes, depression and a host of other ills.

Her investigative work prompted Senate hearings in 1970 that led to a warning label on the drug and the mandatory inclusion of patient-information inserts.

When women who had been harmed by the pill were barred from testifying at the hearings, they fought back by constantly interrupting, calling out questions such as "Why isn't there a pill for men?" and "Why are 10 million women being used as guinea pigs?" Seaman wrote 30 years later in the New York Times.

Those acts of "feminist disobedience," as Seaman called them, are often portrayed as ground zero of the women's health movement.

Judy Norsigian, an author of the pioneering women's health book "Our Bodies, Ourselves" (1973), told the Los Angeles Times last week that the protests were "the beginning of women's voices being heard in women's health."

First Flowers Of Spring

Hellebore bud, white crocus, purple crocus. I'm always threatening to pull out all the hellebores, but then they show up so early, when I'm really longing for a touch of Spring, and I forgive them for taking up so much space the rest of the year. I've got lots more crocus coming, but these two were the first. Since the crocus is the flower of friendship, I'm glad that they showed up together.

Great Guitar!

First Of The Month Bazooms Blogging

Ladies! Listen up! Catching breast cancer early is the key to surviving it! Breast Self Exams (BSEs) can help you to detect breast cancer in its earlier stages. So, on the first of every month, give yourself a breast self-exam. It's easy to do. Here's how. If you prefer to do your BSE at a particular time in your cycle, calendar it now. But, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

And, once a year, get yourself a mammogram. Mammograms cost between $150 and $300. If you have to take a temp job one weekend a year, if you have to sell something on e-Bay, if you have to go cash in all the change in various jars all over the house, if you have to work the holiday season wrapping gifts at Macy's, for the love of the Goddess, please go get a mammogram once a year.

Or: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pays all or some of the cost of breast cancer screening services through its National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. This program provides mammograms and breast exams by a health professional to low-income, underinsured, and underserved women in all 50 states, six U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and 14 American Indian/Alaska Native organizations. For more information, contact your state health department or call the Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER.

Send me an email after you get your mammogram and I will do an annual free tarot reading for you. Just, please, examine your own breasts once a month and get your sweet, round ass to a mammogram once a year.

Merci!

And, here's a video demonstration of a BSE:

Leap!

It's Leap Day, and, as Monica Hesse notes in today's WaPo:

It is here, in all its quadrennial springiness, like a cartoon Slinky boinging into the wall calendar.

Ah, Leap Day. It's so topsy-turvy, sounding too whimsical for its placement at the end of what everyone knows is the cruddiest month of the year. It's the day when, oh, anything can happen, like women proposing to men, like pirates turning 5 when they think they're turning 21 ( c'mon-- Gilbert and Sullivan! "Pirates of Penzance"! Whistle! Trill!).

It is a curly, twisty day hanging off the only month that divides neatly into four weeks, and it is there to tidy up time. . . .

As a sort of time out of time, it's also a great day to do magic. Bonne chance!


Art found here.

Not So Large

Wow

Wow. Just, wow.

To Whom Would Jesus Deny Mammograms?

WaPo explains that the Catholic church is now going after women with breast cancer.

The Diocese of Little Rock is urging its members not to donate to a breast cancer foundation known for its fundraising races across the globe because the group supports Planned Parenthood.

The diocese says the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which has invested about $1 billion in cancer outreach and research, gives money to Planned Parenthood to hold breast exams and offer education to women in its clinics.

Donors cannot control how an organization designates its funds," a diocese statement reads. "Therefore, money donated for a specific service ... directly frees up funds to support other areas of an organization's agenda."

Marianne Linane, director of the diocese's "respect life" office, said those other agendas includes abortions and contraceptive services. The Catholic church's policy is that abortion is wrong in every instance.

I am glad to see that she understands the basic reason why faith-based funding is actually unconstitutional: money is fungible. Money provided for a specific purpose frees up funds to support, oh, say prostelytizing against women with breast cancer.

I hate these fucking fucks.

Targeted As Witchcraft

Effing Memes

The lovely and literate Peg tagged me.

Here is the challenge:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Will this disturb the sleep /of a woman giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade.


These lines are from Wendell Berry in Earth Prayers from Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations Honoring the Earth, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, which I picked up off my coffee table.

I tag NTodd, Liz at CodePink, Aquila ka Hecate, Anne Johnson, Marcellina

Oddly Scandinavian

The Fifth Sacred Thing

The Fifth Sacred Thing detailed not only a multi-cultural, multi-faith community that works, but showed also some of the priciples behind why it works. And in the face of the kind of adversity that could wipe out a whole section of the population, the priciples of selflessness, true Oneness with the Earth and all its creatures, and the mentality that EVERYTHING is sacred saves this community. And many people feel these principles are not just fairy tales to tell children, but true and real goals we can aspire to. We could live in peace and joy and balance someday. And when I am feeling a little helpless and scared in the world we live in, I remember this novel of hope and once again put one foot in front of the other.

More here.

In Earnest

I'm just at one of those "good" periods right now. I'm moving forwards on goals, spending time with friends, getting things done at work. That's what the period between Imbolc and Eostara is all about for me.

On Wednesdays, I get together with some witches for ecstatic dance and a healthy potluck dinner. Tonight, my dear friend R. was talking about cleaning every inch of her house in preparation for Spring. I was thinking this morning about how in Spring, it's so tempting to abandon goals and just indulge in the sun and warmth and flowers and how in Summer it's so tempting to give in to the heat and just sit under the ceiling fan with a glass of iced tea. But in February, there's none of that. There are goals and there are ways to work on those goals. I'm blessed with friends who push and prod and help each other to achieve goals.

I had dinner last night w/ a friend who works harder than almost anyone I know at consciously creating his own life. It's such an inspiration for me.

I'm reminded of a poem w/ overtly xian connotations: Life is real/Life is earnest/And the grave is not its goal/Dust thou art to dust returneth/Was not written of the soul.

Now, between Imbolc and real warmth, my life is real and earnest and the grave is not its goal.

What do you need to do between now and Eostara?

Yes

bell hooks:

As all advocates of feminist politics know most people do not understand sexism or if they do they think it is not a problem. Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media.

Elders -- A New Series

And Where Is It Happening Now?