Last Saturday we ran one mile and my time was a dismal 15 minutes! Ack. But with consistent maintenance runs throughout the week I was able to pick up my pace for our two mile run this morning to a 13 minute mile.
I feel great. The really cool thing is the half marathon group seems to consist mostly of women! Wow!
The proceeds to the AIDS Marathon goes to support APLA which is great organization that provides much needed services to people living with AIDS/HIV in Los Angeles County. Go check out their site and then you can go here to help out!
I am not a big fan of hunting. I mean, if you are living off the land and your hungry and cold, then I get it. You will kill things for food and use the hides for clothing or shelter. But recreational hunting has always seemed weird to me. The whole idea of someone getting all fired up to stalk something which is minding its own damn business, chase it down and kill it seems barbaric when it isn’t necessary for survival.
Also, the way that hunters talk about it seems so cold and disrespectful. Almost like they are just going out for some soda at the local quickie mart. I always get the feeling that these folks are not that far away from taking this sport to the people, if you get my drift.
In case you haven’t heard, the Ann Coulter clone, Meme Roth (and wtf is up with her name? Me.Me. ? Ugh) for the Fight Against Obesity declared to Neil Cavuto that Jordin Sparks should not have won American Idol because she is obese.
In a response (albeit slightly delayed) to the Supreme Court decision banning late term abortions, FrancesKissling, former president of Catholics for Free Choice, has a lovely piece up at Salon.
She points out that by making this decision the justices have injected Catholic dogma doctrine into the law and that is in fact unconstitutional.
Apparently the five Supreme Court justices in the majority, all of whom are Catholic, agreed with the senators. […] The opinion, written by Anthony Kennedy, who is considered the least orthodox of the five, was devastating. Beyond outlawing a method of abortion it deemed only possibly needed by a few women, the decision injected orthodox Catholic teaching into the interpretation of constitutional rights. Kennedy’s opinion, which affirms “the government’s right to use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman” as it cavalierly dismisses the need a few specific women might have for this procedure, could easily have been written by the late Pope John Paul II or the current Benedict XVI. Women are invisible in this decision as they are invisible in the writings of recent — and not so recent — popes. Now it’s impossible for me to remain silent.
And this little tidbit really hit the nail on the head. Bold mine.
Moralizing about women’s lives is not, of course, an exclusively Catholic habit, but we Catholic feminists(*) tend to sniff it out and want to snuff it out. When we see it in a Supreme Court decision our fear of being considered irrational fades. At the risk of providing yet another opportunity for that pit bull of Catholic orthodoxy, William Donohue, to cry anti-Catholicism, one must stress another aspect of orthodox Catholicism that is the foundation of the majority opinion in this case — its tragic view of women as either victims or sluts.
Those are a couple of nice parts but the whole piece is great. Go read it yourself.
* Until pretty recently, I never knew such a thing existed.
I am finally going to get off my big ass and run a marathon. See, I have never run in a marathon before but it is something that I have always wanted to do. I just never felt strong enough, focused enough, whatever enough. But enough is enough. I am going to do it!
I need training. I have joined the National AIDS Marathon Training Program. I am training for the half marathon (13 miles) at Disneyland. I would love to do the full marathon in Italy, but first thing is first. Maybe next year.
The really cool thing is that this AIDS marathon raises money to support AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA). APLA is a Los Angeles based entity which offers support services designed to promote self sufficiency to people living with HIV/AIDS. Their services include tons of stuff ranging from the nation’s most comprehensive food bank program for people living with HIV/AIDS to dental services, counseling and residential services programs.
41 million people around the world are living with HIV. One million people in America are living with this disease and Los Angeles has the second highest number in the nation. The people living with and who are affected by AIDS are not limited to gay men. This group includes men, women and children.
APLA is a great program and is truly doing fantastic work.
Sounds great, right? Well, here is the rub. I need help. I have to raise $1,900 by July 13 in order to continue with the training program. All proceeds go to APLA and all donations are tax deductible, of course.
Every time I hear the term Stay At Home Mom, or SAHM, I get this weird squint in my right eye and I am sure my nostrils flare.
I could never quite figure out what it was that was bugging me about this term used to describe women (or men because you can also be a Stay At Home Dad or a SAHD -don’t even get me started on that acronym) who “opt out” (cough *bullshit*) and stay home to take care of their children. Then one day it just came to me, like a brick on the head. The whole term insinuates that I never actually leave the house. Because see, I am a Stay At Home Mom (a Stay At Home Parent or SAHP) . Then this brick of a term pounded home that same vision with terms like ‘bon-bons‘ and statements such as ‘Don’t bother me while I am watching my stories!‘
Speaking of women not getting paid for the work we do, I have noticed that a few articles have popped up in the last couple of days regarding compensation for family care givers (SAHM’s *cringe*) as well as the shameful wage gap between women and men who work outside the home. The current pay gap is 23-24 cents. It never ceases to shock women that women make 76-77 cents for every one dollar a man earns in the same job. Some men? Not so much the shock.
These articles may be motivated by Equal Pay Day on April 24. Good on them. Here is some stuff that I found interesting and particularly heart-breaking (see The Feminine Face of Poverty) but I recommend following the links to read them all.
This is cruel and unusual punishment of women in the most tragic of circumstances. The Right just continues to beat at women’s rights in any form and it is appalling to say the very, very least.
UPDATE: Broadsheet and Feministing have a good round up what other people have to say.
UPDATE 2: Lynn Harris has another nice piece up at Salon about this.
