Thank you all so much. I did fall asleep, with the laptop actually in my lap. I am sorry that I didn't participate more.

I didn't participate, but I know everyone is glad to help and be there for you in any way we can.

How are you feeling this morning Maria?

Eh. I feel very alone.

{{{Maria}}} Please don't apologize for anything.

Do you need more distracting?

Dunno what it is they got against women's health and reproductive rights.

AHAHAHAHA. If this was not stated sarcastically, I shall respond: Misogynist men in power do not think women are capable of making their own decisions, or in fact much else besides birthing and raising babies. The thought of women having control over their bodies gives them the hives. The thought of women being sexual beings on their own terms makes their tiny cocks shrivel up and threaten to fall off.

One thing is clear and now we are at the point where they aren't even TRYING to hide it: women are to only exist as defined through men. PERIOD. End of story. This shit is NO JOKE anymore. Or, I'm just a humorless feminist, which I don't care about so much. I am scared. My own personhood is constantly up for debate and I am really starting to freak out.

I cannot tell you how pissed I am that Obama is letting this happen on his watch.

(ooh, a nice juicy rant really gets my blood going in the morning, which I desperately needed. Am at the airport and have another hour till I board.)

I feel like, if they win this, they are going to try and chip away at more stuff and keep framing it about how it's not about women it's about (whatever smoke screen they throw up). And people will believe it.

In Cat News - Penny has taken to being bratty to Dean. This morning after I gave up on sleep and started reading Dean came over and got in my lap. I was all happy, he doesn't do this as much. After awhile Penny jumped on the bed and climbed on my lap too.

She started licking Dean's ears and head and I thought "oh, how sweet she's giving him a bath!" and then she started biting him and swatted him with her paw until he got up and jumped down. And then she curled up where he had been. I tossed her off the bed for her behavior. This is not the first time she's done this and I'm not very happy with her behavior.

But then she does something adorable, like batting a little wooden ball all around the floor and then gets distracted by her tail.

sigh ... we have a couple things going on in the area that feel like the ongoing attitude towards women. One - the local CBS affiliate did a series on underage drinking. The reporter, a woman, interviewed kids who'd been seriously injured in car crashes; she also filmed a specific liquor store that not only doesn't card anyone, sells to the obviously underage. She's been getting threats from the kids because she's ruined their fun. Her kids were threatened. She had a police car stationed outside her house and she's handed over the on-air reporting to another anchor (a man). It sounds so much like the trolling that any woman on the internet can be subjected to, along with some kids who are angry that they can't get unlimited booze any more.

The other is a murder case. In May of 2010 a young woman, a senior at Virginia Tech, was found dead. The autopsy said she died of blunt force trauma. Her on-again/off-again boyfriend, also a senior there, had a history of drinking and violence. He's been charged with murder and/or felony murder (he took her laptop when he left). He's saying that he shook her and her head hit the wall, that they wrestled and fell off the bed. It's gone to trial and the defense is saying that she died because of either an interaction between alcohol (she had been drinking) and her prescription Adderall or that she'd been lying facedown on the bed, bleeding, and that she'd suffocated from trying to breathe through the wet bedding, and/or that the brain injuries were from attempts at CPR.

And what makes me sad is he's probably going to walk.

as apparently gotten the wee sister into bondage. But when i asked her about a safe word she had no idea what i was talking about. so clearly HE is into BDSM but without any safety precautions, and is not teaching her and she's refusing to seek out information. Any rec's on a basic into to BDSM that would be appropriate for a very very naive 15 year old who has gotten in way past her maturity level?

erin, I wanted to say one more thing now that I'm awake and caffeinated. I don't know this dude, and he doesn't sound like an awesome fellow, BUT -- (and I realize that since I don't know him I could very well be wrong about what I'm going to say) -- since he's only 19 himself, there's a very good possibility that *he* doesn't know dick about safewords or other safety concerns when it comes to kinky stuff. It's definitely not uncommon for someone to just think "Hell yeah, I'm getting FREAKY LAID!!!" and not know a damn thing about what they're doing, and not give a shit about whether it's safe.

So he might not be deliberately trying to put your sister in harm's way; he might just be ignorant. The end result could be the same, though, so send her to Scarletteen.com. And *maybe* if he's just uneducated, if she reads up on it, he might be open to a little education. (Of course, if he really is just a dangerous jackass, rather than just ignorant, all bets are off.)

So, just my .02 on the matter. Either way, encourage her to do a little reading herself.