a little something to chew on

i saw it before i opened the door. and i wanted to cry.

my weekends are usually filled with at one day of cleaning, scrubbing and picking up after 2 big furkids and 1 human who really should know better. so as i walked in the door to find a week's worth of newspapers bound for the recycle bin shredded by one of the furkid's, well, you can sense my desperation.

she just needed a little something to chew on.

it's not her fault. chloe has some vendetta gets the printed word. it doesn't matter if it's the newspaper, a magazine, even ayn rand's "the fountainhead" --   she ain't having none of it in her house. like the religious right going after hustler, there's no stopping that bonfire once it's been started.

here's something else to chew on:

in reading today's inquirer on the train this morning, i came across an article that the supreme court of missouri will not halt an inmate's access to the abortion she is seeking. the governor and lower courts have tried to limit her access to one and have used the old rabble-rousing statement "the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it" to ignite the pro-life torches.

here's where their argument goes array: the inmate is paying for the abortion herself. the only fees to be billed to taxpayers is for transportation costs to and from the prison to the clinic and her security escorts... expected to total $350 for the roundtrip.

the 'taxpayers dollars and cents' argument can't cut it this time.

i'm not sure what healthcare system they have in missouri, but i'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the healthcare costs for a full-term pregnancy is going to be a hell of a lot more than that. the court costs alone to bring this to trial (the inmate sued the state after her earlier attempts to get an abortion were rejected) far outweigh these expenses.

the tired 'taxpayer' excuse can be used to justify any spending initiative that you don't personally agree with. deal with it.

it is no secret now that missouri has strict abortion laws and the republican governor has stated in action more so than in words, that he "ain't having none of it in his house either". his unwitted victim whose life he is trying to shred is an inmate. one who by her fate is determined not by her incarceration but strictly on the political wrangling of some men (there, I said it. happy, now?) who want to impose their viewpoints on someone else's life.

grrr.

although the state supreme court has overturned other stays by lesser courts, "jane roe" is fighting a timely battle. missouri state laws prohibit abortions after 22 weeks -- at around 16 weeks -- jane only has a few more weeks before the governor and the pro-lifers win. care to take a guess as to who is driving the van, folks?

thankfully, the ACLU is working on her case. and thankfully, the state supreme court's decided today to uphold the woman's right to privacy and privilege to end a pregnancy.

my desperation is at the slow attempts to decimate women's rights today. hard-fought rights can be swept away with political posturing, pervasive attacks on the "activist judges" who uphold the laws and those who know what's best for you (without even knowing you first).

it's a wake-up call, folks. i can see the desperation all around and i want to cry. the wolves are at the door, looking for a little something to chew on.