It's exactly like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War Protests in that way.

No, it's not. The Vietnam war protests had a set of specific goals - end the draft, end the war. Civil Rights protests were designed with specific actions aimed at specific policies and/or laws. (Sit-ins, for example.)

The Occupy movement is moving in that direction, and will probably get there. But they're not there yet, and the reporting on ALL sides has been nothing but atrocious and unhelpful.

If she carries to term, she will have been pregnant with all the children combined a total of 15 years. I don't even know what to say to that.

The fact that she has not gone through menopause makes me deny the existence of a benevolent god.

Okay, I laughed hard enough that I hurt my portacath, so I hope you feel *really* bad. Because I read "licking random dicks and penises".

ita !, I didn’t mean to hurt you! But NO!! Was teacher. The good kind, not the creepy kind. EUCH!

But the immuno-suppressed kids GO to school anyway, so an immuno suppressed adult might not find it that bad.

That’s a good and valid point, Kat; I was anecdataing from my Year of Catching All The Ick.

It's cold and rainy here; I am so going to the store and making a pot o' spicy chili! YUM. Then working like a working thing.

I may even...attempt preemptive holiday house-cleaning. GASP.

The fact that she has not gone through menopause makes me deny the existence of a benevolent god.

When would she possibly have time?

The fact that she has not gone through menopause makes me deny the existence of a benevolent god.

She probably feels just the opposite.

The fact that she has not gone through menopause makes me deny the existence of a benevolent god.

If she's 45, she's edging up on perimenopause, but one can still be fertile at that time.

As for the Occupy folks, I do think that the message of OccupyOakland has gotten a bit muddled. It's about economic injustice, but it's also about public sector unions, and not cutting down trees, and police brutality, and racism (institutional and otherwise), and anti-capitalism, and general radical politics. While the police crackdown in Oakland helped get the movement broad national (and international) attention, Oakland isn't a particularly good exemplar, because the social & political context here is so fraught.

There are certainly people at OO who don't care much about middle-class homeowners getting foreclosed on--they think the entire capitalist system, and the idea of owning property and making money and having a retirement fund, is all bullshit. And there's more of them there than, I think, at the other Occupy protests, because of how the Oakland-Berkeley area is a center of gravity for radical politics. If Oakland leads the charge, the momomentum of the movement will get pissed away on sixty-three different agendas.

As it is, I still don't get why it was so important to shut down the Port of Oakland last week--a whole bunch of union members lost pay that day because they couldn't work.

Amy, you don't have to buy a ton of stuff there if you go when it's open to the public on a Saturday. It looks like dresses still only cost around $15, and that number drops the more you buy.

I wonder if the 15 years of pregnancy means that her ovaries are well-rested and have a remaining supply of fertile eggs.

BTW, the argument I avoided with the anti-vaxer was sparked off by the mutual friend talking about the appalling idea of Pox lollipops. Still making my head want to splodify.

As it is, I still don't get why it was so important to shut down the Port of Oakland last week--a whole bunch of union members lost pay that day because they couldn't work.

I can't remember the details, but my understanding it that it was in solidarity with another strike.

Pox lollipops

I don't think the virus would survive in the stomach. t /pedant