Out of Patience. Ditto Girlish Laughter.

If I see that ad with a 57/53 year old mom who looks 27/25 again today, I'm going to hit something. And the belly shrinking ads. Ugh. And where are the women in the streets, protesting the deluge of anti-women federal and state legislation? I'd write my congressman, but that just gets me back on his mailing list. And my father has given up using plates and utensils to eat. If I see one more piece of buttered toast on the arm of the couch... And I have lost my drawing skills as well as my writing chops. And who knew a baby car seat costs $189? And what is a Sprinter Go-Lightly Travel System? And who do I have to stomp on to get a shower that doesn't switch to boiling hot or freezing cold for no good reason? And why isn't there a decent sushi place in this town? Okay. Whew. I feel better. Maybe I need a walk or a nap. Maybe a walk and a nap.

The Birds & The Bees in Government

Rachel Maddow tried to explain where babies come from to the busybodies busy legislating women's bodies, illustrating down there lady parts in her Man Cave. Unfortunately, explaining women to men historically often results in men trying to control how women go about the world. Read some of the analyses of the good ol' days back 5,000 years ago when matriarchs ran the world, and you may find that it took about 2,500 years for men to sort out that the birds and bees thing was what delivered babies. Not prayer, a dance around the campfire, hunting things with clubs; oh, you mean, that. Precisely. And here we are 2,500 more years later, and - deja vu all over again - women have to explain how women work to men one more time. The 112th Congress and its minions at the state level are back trying to get a grip - not on their zippers and their thinking processes - but on women's bodies. And by all means, let's please drag the Catholic Church back into the discussion. And while we have a few months left in the 112th, let's reverse all those nasty property laws, get rid of credit scores for women, hell, let's get rid of money for women altogether. Bring back silencing, gaol, rewriting history, the stock in the public square, and perhaps, oh yes, those old stand-bys, the scaffold and the fire.

Justice for All Except Women

I may never understand what causes men to deny women freedom. The usual answer is denying women power, desire for domination. I think it's fear. Women do not take back their power because of fear, too. Men hold the governments, the religious leadership, the whip hand. I read an article by Laura Bassett today about the Catholic bishops and the lobbying to undo reproductive freedom, the church's minions using the ludicrous argument that allowing women birth control is an attack on freedom of religion. Tax the Catholic church. Lobbying against reproductive rights violates that tax-exempt status. Enough already. I'm watching Women War and Peace on PBS. Women are risking their lives to gain footholds in countries with horrific government-sanctioned and religious restrictions. Our country talks the talk, but do we walk with these women? U.N. Resolution 1325 was passed by the security council in 2000, resolving in a global body that women may not be excluded from peace negotiations. Are we holding any country accountable? Sanction governments that do not comply. Especially the bloody countries with our soldiers stationed in combat zones. While U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for global women's issues Melanne Verveer is working to get more women on peace counsels, our own legislatures are working overtime to deny women rights they are already guaranteed. I am mad as hell, and I want to do something that helps. I searched for an image of Justice, and was dismayed to find all passive images; a woman blindfolded, silently holding the supposed scales of justice, sword sheathed at her side, mute and powerless. Then I found this statue on a blog post from 2009. "...and Justice for All" by James N. Muir is installed at the St. Louis School of Law. Read the sculptor's thoughts about the statue. The law does not serve humanity, it serves power. Power can never allow itself to be subjugated to the individual. Holding space on my computer behind this magnificent statue is the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women, and delivered at the women's rights gathering at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. We have not achieved equal protection under the law of the United States, and we are under attack to remove those freedoms and rights we have secured. Muir's vision of Lady Justice is how I feel, my cells sing out a call to end the assault on women the world over. This is the time. We are the women. I claim my power, and celebrate other women who do in courageous and impactful harmony.

112th Congress Holds Women's Healthcare Hostage

Brinksmanship. Conservatives in the 112th Congress are playing roulette with women's health, and are willing to shut the government down in order to achieve their ideological goals. Women were held hostage in a cynical political ploy that we'll see more of in this 112th Congress, because it worked. Watching the video of the Republican women caucus in front of a microphone - for the first time - and fumble basic questions about what their party is up to might have been the low point of the gaming yesterday. I'm embarrassed for my gender, furious at the discussion being framed by everyone (including hosts and guests all night on msnbc) as Planned Parenthood when the trump card that will be used again and again by this Congress is Title X in toto. Putting the word abortion into discussion of basic health screenings and cancer treatment for poor women adds more lying mouths to the conservative mission. I am sick and tired of the idiotic speechifying about federal funding for abortion, when there is none. None. How many freaking times do we need to deal with liars who know this, but want us to not know it? Who are the fools in fact?

112th Congress and State Legislatures Repurposed

112th Congress has been busy, busy passing laws governing women's rights. The Indiana legislature just passed a law scripting doctors to lie to women. Abortion does not cause breast cancer, but what the hell? Florida has 18 pieces of legislation overseeing women's organs. I can't keep up with what the Michigan legislature is focused on, but I'm going to guess it's below my navel. Let's repurpose all this legislation, cut back on the paperwork, and streamline the legislative process. You've got a zipper, guys. Keep it zipped.

100 Years of International Women's Day

In 100 years, women in the United States have gained the right to vote, personal control of our bodies, positions in government, private enterprise and churches, advancement in education and fields of study. On this centennial, some of these advances are threatened. The 112th Congress with H.R.3, H.R.358, H.R.217 is working to take control of our choices about our own bodies. State legislatures, with the support, and often at the behest of, the governor in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska are taking safe health and reproductive choice from women. Some legislation is criminalizing miscarriage. Undoing history also are Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. The Senate in Michigan is wasting taxpayers' time and money with redundant SB 160 impacting women's safe health, too. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her anniversary speech said, "The United States continues to make women a cornerstone of our foreign policy." We need to keep women safe, secure sovereignty of our own bodies, reclaim our civil rights, and prioritize women in our domestic policy first. We have no right to counsel other countries when our government is busy eradicating women's access to safe health, violating our legislated freedom, and prosecuting women with ideological agendas.

112th Congress: Dangerous to Women

House voted to defund Planned Parenthood today. Pence and his cronies went at it a third time with H.R. 217 and in this hostile to women climate, it passed. Access to HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, mammography, family counseling - funding gone. Pence and his cronies denied healthcare access for women and girls. Denied. Treatment denied. Lest we forget: there is no federal funding for abortion. But the leadership of this Congress demands you not forget they own and control women's reproductive systems in toto. The 112th Congress representatives have created a more dangerous world for women. This defunding will not stop abortions or sexual activity. But it will further burden women with the consequences of activity that men engage in with women. Often against their will. It will place more women in danger. And that's fine with the oligarchy and its legislative triumvirate. Someone needs to step up and call this travesty what it is - a bill of attainder. Again I ask: where are the jobs? What about the economy? What's the plan, boys? Get your heads out of our reproductive system and back on solving our country's serious problems.

Silent Woman Speaks

I drew this long ago, was afraid to use it because it is not a pretty picture. The Silent Woman is a pub name still in use today. It is an ugly image. The rise of gender-based violence in the world is ugly. I am angry enough now to use the drawing. I'm going to use Silent Woman Speaks for posts that are shouting about gender-offensive behavior. Whenever I spot guybonics and tomfoolery. The idea of a woman who can't speak is referential in jokes, casual conversation, pop culture, and raises its headless form this year in the 112th Congress' legislative agenda. We need to speak. We need to stop being silent. I call on my matriarchal ancestors to help stop the madness of violence against women for all time.