Up, Up and Away

The always-amazing Katha Pollitt discusses the ridiculous hyper-masculinity of our bullshit elections, and the mysterious absence of the other 52% of the population, in The Girlie Vote.

Matt Cheney's got a new discussion going on at the Mumpsimus about the bizarre articles department at Strange Horizons (I've tried to join in this discussion, but I've been having trouble getting the comments to work).

And, in case people think that I'm narrow-minded and *never* listen to political rants from conservative Republicans, well, put your fears to rest. I get hours of mindless entertainment out of such ranters here.

On a more serious note, though I don't like to tote abortion rights "merely" to protect the "life" of the mother (wow, it sounds infinitely sick to feel that I have to say that), here's a useful first-person account from a woman who's much-wanted potential child ceased growing and expired after 19 weeks gestation - and due to Bush's progressive ban:

"She walked around for a week, bleeding, with her dead baby inside of her, because the virulent political controversy around dilation and extraction meant that no one was willing to provide her with proper medical care. This could happen to me. This could happen to any woman."

Repeat after me: "Being a woman whose reproductive health is administered by men's laws and powers of vote and veto is FUN!!"

And, one more, because I can't end of the above story, as it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth: here's a list of the top blogs being accessed and linked to around the blogosphere, in case you're curious (I was quite happy to see that Cory Doctorow, Xeni Jardin et al over at boingboing are ranked at #2)