i think i've watched all the tv i can reasonably bear.

so...i am going to venture forth today. the sky is grey but it's still sunny and i want to be outside. i'll get a cup of coffee. maybe i'll sit in a dark theater for hours. or maybe i'll slowly walk around a mall and shop for holiday cards. or maybe i'll buy a book and find a bar to sit in and read for a few hours. who am i kidding? i'm going to go to the comic book store.

then i'll come back home and (gasp) write. yeah...write. i haven't written anything worthwhile in ages. well, at least it's a goal.

i love thanksgiving

but i'm in no shape to cook a whole freaking dinner. my solution? get someone else to cook it for me.

i cannot say enough about not cooking. (isn't that what being a feminist means during the holidays? the expectation NOT to cook?) why get all hot and sweaty and tired (and smell like stuffing) when you're about to have people over? i used to watch my mother ramp up into a fine resentful boil every thanksgiving afternoon so that, by the time guests arrived, she was completely off her rocker. it wasn't pretty so i decided early on to save myself all that hassle.

i love having friends over and feeding them - i just hate cooking. i hate the timing, the rush, the uncertainty, and the inability to snatch victory from the jaws of culinary defeat.

so i ordered a dinner for 6. the friends are bringing wine, dessert and side dishes, i'm 'doing' the rest.

thanks, fox & obel. you're the best.

(happy thanksgiving to everyone. don't pig out too hard.)

wow.

At Jets Game, a Halftime Ritual of Harassment - New York Times

unbelievably crass and tacky. hundreds of men line the ramp at Gate D and chant to women to expose their breasts.
stadium security thinks it's not their problem and the Jets don't think it's their problem.

is it a free speech issue or a threat to the safety of women?

When people describe Something (war, architecture or poverty) as a ‘scar across the landscape’, I don’t think they mean that Something (war, architecture or poverty) was black, scabby, bruised and held together with bloodstained strips of adhesive.

I’ve been looking at my scar, my wound, for the past three days. I take a little silver hand mirror and put it on the sink. Then I pull up my shirt, pull down my pants and, holding up my belly a little, I lightly touch the bruised skin above the scar. It looks like my skin has turned into a smashed plum. The scar slashes across my lower belly; it’s about 3 or 4 inches long. The scar is the ugliest, grossest thing I’ve ever seen on my body.
…
A few days before the surgery, I thought of the virginal way I think about my body. By ‘virginal’ I mean that I hold my body aggressively to myself. Thinking of my body as ‘virgin’ has nothing to do with sex or chastity. I don’t know how to explain it; I just think of my body as mine. It is inviolate; it is whole; it is the same as it has always been; it has all its original parts; it is not shared by anyone or anything. No flag has been planted on it, by marriage or motherhood.

But this surgery, as minor as it was, has changed my body’s landscape.
Where there was previously nothing, now there waves a tiny white flag with a red cross on it.

all is well; i've farted.

hello, from room 1471!
can you believe it? i can blog from my hospital bed! it's day three and i think this is the day i'll go home. they've been asking me if i've passed gas, yet, and finally i can tell them Yes, I have passed gas.

(apparently, when you've had your guts rearranged, farting is an important part of healing. so that's what i'm going to say from now on when i fart in public. "I'm healing.")

the surgery went well, i apparently sing while coming out of anasthesia, and i haven't had an appetite yet. that will change, though, i'm sure. my wound is terribly ugly but the hospital is gorgeous and i have my own room with a view of the lake and the little park by the contemporary art museum.

thanks to all the good wishes, the prayers and thoughtfulness. they are hugely appreciated. i wish i could send a big thank-you note.

tomorrow's the day - fibroid extraction day.

because i'm a (paranoid) modern girl, i've spent the morning getting my affairs in order: living will, power of attorney for healthcare, letter of final wishes in case i stroke out on the operating table, instructions to my friends about de-scandalizing my effects for my family and providing a list of favorite hymns.

i'll probably call my dad and sister tonight, you know, just for filial comfort.
i even went to church on sunday. all bases are covered, i think.

but all this to say that posting here is probably going to be non-existent for the next two weeks while i'm in the hospital and recovering at home for the first week.
LW, i'll be back in the middle of the month when the drugs have worn off!

more on rape and the military

Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » Sexual Assault and the Military

the folks at FLP have done the hard work for me. they've compiled some depressing stories tracing the (lack of) progress made re: rape in the military.

it's an interesting and sobering collection of stats and stories and forces me to ask my question again: Should women serve in the military with men when it's clear that women are in danger from their male cohort?

is that an unfeminist question to ask?

another asshat: tucker carlson

Media Matters - MSNBC's Carlson suggested women may be "so sensible, they don't want to get involved in something as stupid as politics"

you know, maybe black people shouldn't vote, either.

i mean, we're under stress because lynching is making a comeback, we die in prison, we die from violence and hip hop - it's no wonder we all die before we get old! clearly, we have some major issues to address before we can even start to think about voting. we're struggling for survival, people! what is voting compared to basic human survival??

and maybe other brown people should stay home, too. they have other things to deal with - not being deported and avoiding Gitmo and waterboarding. why do they want to vote? they have some serious legal issues to deal with.

and the gays - the gays should look the other way on election day, too. their fight to get married is so important they shouldn't even bother voting. they need to keep their eyes on the prize. certainly not on the white house.

you know who else shouldn't vote? poor people. poor people (sorta like black people) are too busy trying to find food. and shelter. or a job. voting is trivial.

in fact, voting is so trivial it should be reserved for smug, white, privileged, heterosexual men.

(fucking asshat.)

[h/t feministing]

they must really wanna win bad

Pat Loves Rudy - New York Times

who'da thought it?
i mean, giuliani! i knew the conservative right was varied (just as the progressive left is), but this is just weird.
what about values?
what about shared ideology? (beyond agreeing that torturing the hell out of middle easterners is good, i mean.)

james dobson must be having a stroke.