Orgasmic Birth - The Best Kept Secret

Hi all,

Just thought I'd let you know I'm passionate about womens' autonomy throughout pregnancy. There are many ways I demonstrate my passion for good births in my private life and helping my friend launch the Victorian screening of Orgasmic Birth is one of them.

Birth Attendants.info presents:

Orgasmic Birth - The Best Kept Secret
by filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro

A documentary that examines the intimate nature of birth and the powerful role it plays in womens’ lives when they are able to experience it fully.

A film to touch your heart and challenge your preconceptions of childbirth, this film is a must see for mothers-to-be and professionals who support birthing women. It encourages us to view the process of labour and birth as an event that can be ecstatic, a life highlight rather than a trauma to be endured.

In Orgasmic Birth, beautiful images of labouring women ripple through the professional commentary, revealing a phenomenon that is rare in public media today — a normal labour. Safely supported by sympathetic medical professionals, doulas and family, we see women giving birth who experience a monumentous life event that is both empowering and enlightening. Orgasmic Birth is a call to women everywhere: “Women of earth, take back your birth.”

Orgasmic Birth is an educational documentary and is exempt from classification. As it contains images of birthing women, we recommend viewing by Adults Only.

Screening at The Palace Como, located at the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, South Yarra (2 hours free parking in Centre).

Premiere screening on Friday 3rd October at 6:30pm ($28, includes light refreshements and features guest speakers Dr Sarah J Buckley & Rhea Dempsey)

Second screening Monday 6th October at 6:30pm ($22, light refreshments only)

Bookings Essential
Contact: http://www.birthattendants.info/orgasmic_birth.html

Tell the Truth Coalition are at it again with exaggerations and lies

There have been more than a few hits on this blog through google searches for the Tell the Truth coalition. Here's why. With the Abortion Law Reform Bill to be debated in parliament soon it looks like the leaflet drops have started again. This article says the new leaflets were distributed in Ballarat, and it indicated that these leaflets differed from the first lot in March, depicting graphic images of partial birth abortions.

*sigh*

They are now acting in direct contravention of the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau ruling. Maybe they've received legal advice? Maybe they think that foot-soldiers for god are above the law? At any rate, this warranted some investigation, so here goes:

I just visited the Tell the Truth Coalition website and it's new and improved with the rather confused message that decriminalising abortion will give you no rights.

Most interestingly, the new leaflet seems to be on their website and old Ron Van Wegen (readers from March will remember him as the guy who accused me of possessing many unsavory character traits) seems to have authorised it as well as written it. The mobile number they ask you to call for their media contact is the same as the one on the pamphlet I received in March.

I could not find any reference to Ron's Blog (which has not been updated since July) on the website. Perhaps he is afraid of the kind of response he received last time? In March, many, many people were able to use his site as reassurance that they were not alone in their outrage. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want a repeat of that kind of social solidarity.

Anyway, this new leaflet does not contain any photos that I would have thought were offensive or graphic, so they have probably not violated the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau ruling. The partial birth abortion is diagrammatic, with the usual depiction of the woman as merely a vessel for baby. In other words, there was no woman in the pictures. ("Heaven forbid we remind folks that there is a woman involved!!")

The leaflet does, however, contain the usual exaggerations and outright lies:

a) Ron does not mention that most of parliament seems to be considering Option B and says that the new laws will legalise "all abortions up until the moment of birth". This panicky statement made me laugh, birth does not occur in a "moment". Can you imagine a woman in labour deciding she needed an abortion NOW!?? Jeepers. A big red cross in the sanity stakes for use of dramatic language Ron. But seriously, he betrays a view of women as satanic harpies who would carry a baby for nine months then abort on a whim. It's so sad that he is not alone in this view.

b) "Punish medical staff who refuse to co-operate in an abortion." If anyone can find the bit in the legislation that says non-participation in an abortion will be a crime, please, point me to it. I have not heard of it. There HAS, however, been talk of the possibility of medical staff being discriminated against if they refuse to participate in abortions - discriminated against in the sense that they will not be employed by institutions who perform abortions. Ron is again, guilty of exaggeration to the point of falsehood.

c) "Deny legal protection to women being coerced into having an abortion." This one would be hilarious if it weren't for the gravity of the situation. Women have always had legal protection against coerced abortions, at least as far as the actual procedure is concerned. All she has to do is say she does not want one and the abortion becomes assault if it commences. Women who are coerced into unwanted abortions are made victims by their families or lovers way before they get to the clinic door. The new law will neither decrease nor increase their vulnerability.

d) "Allow violent offenders to end the life of an unborn child without murder or manslaughter charges." Do I really need to say anything here? To the best of my knowledge, the Child Destruction laws will remain mostly intact. So violent offenders who attack a woman with the intent of killing the foetus will still be prosecuted under that law. We also had laws against violence itself last I heard, it's not as though violent offenders will go unpunished.

e) As for "Do you want the Victorian Government to legalise Partial Birth Abortion?" Partial birth abortion has never been illegal here. The new bill will not affect the legality of partial birth abortions.

Seriously, I hope people DO write to their MPs saying "I heard you are going to legalise partial birth abortions!!!" and, "Now women who are being coerced into having abortions will have no legal protection at all!!!" Because they are going to sound like crazies who do not have the faintest idea about what is really going on.

Ron seems to have a loose grip on reality too. It's a shame he has enough funding to print leaflets. I note, however, that the Tell the Truth Coalition does not seem to have the numbers to fund or deliver leaflets Victoria-wide. This says a great deal about the number of crazies out there, that is, that there seem to be fewer crazies than sane people.

Those of you who have read this far might be interested in my other posts on the Tell the Truth Coalition, particularly this one on Pro-Life Lie Dissemination Tactics.

New Blog for my Family Stuff

I've done it. I've finally decided to cut the personal from this blog and stick it somewhere pink. Literally.

Blogger does not have a convenient tool to move posts from one blog to another so I am laboriously cutting and pasting. Progress will be slow. Since Blogger's failing means I will not be able to move posts and retain comments, I will not delete the few posts that have comments and redirect readers to them.

Because issues like birth and breast feeding are both personal and political, I may post some items on both blogs. I don't know how it will pan out yet.

I'm doing this because posts about taking your toddler into the disabled loo didn't gel well with posts about pro-life pollies. Also, I wanted to get my mother off Emervents and into a more family oriented blog. I want to write about her, then I see my most recent posts here and it feels all wrong.

Hopefully this will cure my writer's block re my mother, because I think some of the stuff I found out is useful, especially for anyone having to care for an alcoholic.

I don't know what to do about my Orgasmic Birth writer's block though... maybe I'll be able to get to it once I start my new job tomorrow... speaking of writing... I still haven't found any Jane Austin :-(

For Non-providers of Abortion - a Notice to Patients

Labour MP Christine Campbell wants to push for "amendments to protect women" whatever the result of the vote in Victorian Parliament on decriminalising abortion. More precisely, she wants this:

"mandatory counselling for women deciding to have an abortion; no career disadvantage for medical professionals who object to performing or assisting with abortions; and a requirement that those performing abortions have obstetric or gynaecological training" from The Age, August 21st 2008

Now, do ya think the last one might reduce the availability of abortions by reducing the number of people qualified to perform them? Hmmm, I don't see how restricting services for women with problem pregnancies protects women. And why should a reproductive health clinic that provides abortions hire a theatre nurse with religious objections to abortion? Methinks the moral objections held by said nurse would make said nurse unsuitable for the position, so, denying said nurse employment on those grounds is a perfectly acceptable form of discrimination practised by employers the world over. Giving said nurse inappropriate employment does not protect women, it endangers them. As for mandatory counseling? Just another way to treat us like moral infants. It's insulting.

I think, that if she truly wants to protect women, she will protect them from the humiliation of asking a medical professional for help who will refuse to assist her due to religious beliefs.

Thanks to the blog Abortion Clinic Days for this, a notice that doctors could place in their clinics to provide accurate and impartial information for women regarding their reproductive health care:

NOTICE TO PATIENTS

I follow my own religious beliefs ahead of your medical needs. Therefore, I will not support, offer, or approve any of the following checked off below.

__ I do not subscribe to a woman's right to make her own decisions about her reproductive healthcare.

__I do not believe that a woman has the right to choose her method of contraception and therefore will not sell prescription birth control.

__I do not believe in Emergency Contraception, even if you have been raped, and will therefore not give you Plan B to prevent pregnancy.

__ I do not believe in abortion and therefore will not provide an abortion nor will I offer a referral for an abortion elsewhere.


When this sign is posted in all healthcare institutions from doctor's offices to clinics to emergency rooms to pharmacies, then women will have true freedom of choice. Women will know before they make an appointment, spend money and time whether their healthcare provider offers the services they are seeking. We are informed of the contents of our food, our haircare products, our drinks. Why not which healthcare needs we will be denied before the humiliation!

Thanks also to Lauredhel for the link to Abortion Clinic Days. A truly interesting read.

Leslie Cannold always says it better - on men and the abortion debate

This is what I have been wanting to say about men's involvement in the abortion debate, but I lacked the time and probably the simple eloquence (I haven't got my "writing me" back from the Indonesian yet).

Leslie Cannold is a passionate advocate for our choices when confronted with problem pregnancies. If you wish to thank her, you can write here: admin@prochoicevic.org.au

If you also wish to thank Colleen Hartland for her moving story in the age on the 19th of August you can write here: colleen.hartland@parliament.vic.gov.au

Pregnancy Hotline Gravid with Hidden Costs

Can somebody tell me please, how 11 counsellors sitting by the phone costs us 15.1 MILLION dollars?

Are they housed all year in five star hotels? Are their headsets gold plated? Do they get a bonus every time they convince a woman to "choose life"?

*sigh* I was wrong. Tell The Truth is UP.

I forgot that it had changed its address and changed ownership. See this post for all the details...

Oh, and just in case anyone finds their website, the picture they say is of a foetus in the mother's womb is not in a womb. That foetus is dead. It is still impossible to get a picture of a live foetus with that kind of clarity.

Here is an interview with the guy who pioneered the techniques used for creating crystal clear images, Lennart Nilsson. He also pioneered the use of endoscopes to take pictures of live foetuses, however, the ones I've seen still lack the clarity obtainable when the foetus is removed from the mother.

I really need to sleep, I haven't slept properly for days... perhaps tonight is the night?

Tell The Truth is still down, so why am I depressed?

It's midnight, I've been running around all day on four hours sleep and now I'm trying to relax. Why then, am I reading the stuff that causes me the most depression? (The Victorian Abortion Bill coverage.) Possibly because I am depressed.

Why? Who knows? The two people who have read my thesis really like it, I've got a good offer for a Masters candidature investigating consciousness at the nexus of philosophy of mind and neuroscience (a huge dream come true), I've been head hunted by a malaria lab back in biochemistry (very flattering) and I've agreed to interim work with them that should knock our big debt on the head. Also, my Indonesian student got on a plane last week, so that particular irritation is gone, and I finally had a conversation with a woman who's been avoiding me for years for reasons I never quite understood so was able to show that I'm not scary really. My Aunts have kindly told me that they will worry about my mother for me, which is a huge relief, my kids are gorgeous, my husband is a hairs breadth from finishing his PhD, and, I'm having a week off. So why all the symptoms? Bursting into tears at random, sleeplessness, grumpiness and general apathy?

Maybe because I'm not having a week off? I'm now busying myself attempting to market a documentary film called "Orgasmic Birth" (blog post about it coming on Friday I reckon), helping out at my son's school and integrating my daughter into her new childcare room. Add hunting for second hand clothes to fit the new figure and that's my holiday over :-(

Apart from buying clothes, which is a necessity really, there's no me time in there, so I'm grabbing it late at night by blogging a little and adding to any discourse on abortion that crops up in the Victorian public sphere (or what passes for discourse, it's usually a lot of name calling). Here is my contribution to a commentary at the Herald Sun, most of you will have heard this one before I think...

I don't regret my abortion. I have never met anyone who has, and I talk about my abortion a lot, as I believe in reducing the stigma. Those who do regret tend to make the news though, don't they? They are over represented because the rest of us are getting on with our lives.

Most arguments from the pro-life camp, though they do not mention it, are arguments from POTENTIAL. "Give the baby a chance at life." "It's a separate person from the mother." That sort of plaintive mewing is based on the idea that the embryo or foetus has the potential to live a fulfilling life. My beautiful son was a potential life, I mean, he must have been, because he's here, right? But if I had carried my first pregnancy to term I would have been a single mother (I would never have considered the scarring experience of adoption for either of us). If I had been a single mother the father of my son would not have looked at me twice, thus, my son, in all his genetic uniqueness, would not have been born. Are you following this, pro-lifers? It's not terribly complex, you see, if I had continued the first pregnancy, my son would not have come to be. We already agree that he was a potential life, don't we? Because he's here and alive and all. So, by having the first child I would have snuffed out his potential for life. According to you I'm a murderer whether I had that abortion or not.

The upshot is, that if you force a girl to carry her first pregnancy to term, you are possibly preventing other babies from being born. Retrospective analysis of the idea of potential can be tricky for some people. Take your time pro-lifers.

That's it. Off to bed, perchance to sleep....

Tell the Truth Coalition - pamphlet update.

I'm sorry this took so long to post, I wanted to do it PROPERLY, which is BAD because it means that I put it off. So now I am going to do it ROUGHLY.

I received some feedback from one of the plethora of people I wrote to on that occasion (I don't know who because I'm not looking for the letter - that would be doing things PROPERLY). What I do know, is that they said that after the complaint was upheld by the Advertising Standards Bureau the matter was referred to the Victorian Police Crimes Theme Desk.

Now I have no idea what that desk does. Finding this out was part of doing it PROPERLY. However, if I wait until my desk is clear no one will know this at all. Perhaps, given that abortion is in the news again, some of my lurkers from the old days will come back for a squiz and they will know. I tried to find out using a cursory google search, and there are at least three theme desks, but none of them seem to be general, or in a category which would cover the Tell the Truth Coalition leaflet drop. It wouldn't come under organised crime or gambling, for example.

So, there it is, the latest. Sorry that it's not the pinnacle of informed perfection that I wanted it to be, but it's better than nothing! I dropped in on Ron's "Pro-Life Conference" blog the other day. He's all alone, barking at the moon. Just like me!

I like to think that I'm not quite as mad, but that's a matter of opinion.

I need you Jane Austin.

I hate Indlish, and tonight, just now, I hate non-native speakers. This is a tortuous way to make money, not only do I have to correct English so broken that it needs three passes before it’s respectable, the subject matter reminds me of all the old teachers I had and my negative frame of mind means that I’m thinking of teachers I hated with a passion.

I hate this kind of work, I can feel my written expression slowly drivelling down the plug hole of the stilted expression of a non-native speaker of English who comes from a low-context language. I need to read some Jane Austin, feminist writer's comfort food if there ever was any. Full of simpering idiots, but what well written idiocy! Written by a woman who truly had a room of her own…and I can’t find her. There’s some dickens I suppose, I haven’t read Barnaby Rudge yet and there’s always finishing the Pickwick Papers. But I want Jane Austin damn it. I want fluff - and well written fluff at that - to drive out the horrors that my writing brain has been exposed to over the past few weeks. I looked at a first year essay yesterday, it was brilliant compared to the drivel I am producing now. I used to be able to coin a phrase, now I couldn’t work a synonym slot machine. My writing style has been reduced to the basic and often erroneous grammar of a 7 year old by this pure shite I’m being asked to correct. I am NEVER doing this soul destroying work again.

Looking for Jane…. looking for Jane…. DAMN IT!! Why do my bookshelves have to be full of high felutin bullshit?!! I don’t WANT oliver sacks, or quatitative chemistry, or derrida for beginners, or freud, or the latest on the daliah lama, or an encyclopedia of witchcraft, or “what is mathematics really?” or anne summers or books on conspiracies, politics, history, brains, minds or religion. I want Jane, and my complete collection is nowhere to be seen.

I think I must have put her into storage. Why? Why did I ever put her in a box? Her books used to snuggle up next to my bed on the night stand, always there when the likes of Kate Atkinson and Tom Robbins drove me nuts by trying too hard or the latest SciAm mind or New Scientist just seemed too dry to swallow.

Now, at midnight, with two hours of academic shadow writing on a topic that bores me to tears ahead of me, I am taking her absence very hard indeed.

Argentina's Illegal Abortions

A short piece on illegal abortion in Argentina.

The picture of the coat hanger made me remember what it is we are trying to prevent here.

"Earn Your Right To Wear White" and ignorance on your wedding night.

Thanks to Feministing for this link. Check out the undies.

For those who don't want to bother chasing the links, the undies comprise of one white thong with ABSTAIN in big letters across the front and "Earn your right to wear white" in little red letters. What is this suppose to achieve I wonder?

Is it supposed to serve as a little reminder for horny teens getting it on at the drive-in? What's going to happen? Boy reads message and says, "What the...." and girl says, "Oh yeah, I forgot, I'm saving myself for marriage. Tee hee!" Or maybe it's more of a warning than a reminder: "Succumb to the evil carnal pleasures tonight and hell fire will await you, you slut!" Oooh yes, better keep those undies on Miss, God doesn't like you when you like it.

*sigh*

Seriously now. The thing that gets me about virgins being prized above those who have dared to brave the sweatier parts of coupledom, is that it's only a good thing for the bloke. Other than being prized for something she hasn't done, Little Miss Virgin loses big time.

First of all, here's why it's a good thing for the bloke:
1. Guarantee that no other seed has contaminated his breeding vessel.
2. Little Miss Virgin is going to have no idea how shit he is in the sack having no one to compare him to. It will be years before she figures this out, if ever, so he won't need to make any effort with regard to her satisfaction until then. Woohoo!

Lets see how little Miss Virgin fairs:
1. Her perceived "value" goes up which is fine and dandy as long as all she wanted to be was someone's breeding ground and house cleaner.
2. If she thinks that losing your virginity is going to be all Mills and Boon type milk and ambrosia she's in for a nasty shock. Personally I count losing my virginity as one of my all time sexual lows. Painful, bitterly disappointing (I'd read too much Mills and Boon), something I wanted to get over with, and compared to later sexual encounters with different people DEAD BORING.
3. If she never gets married she never gets to have sex. The only people who love God that much are nuns, and even they get their end away occasionally (see Emma Dickens, Immaculate Contraception).
4. If he turns out to be the kind of lazy douche bag who won't go down her and believes female orgasms are a myth she's stuck with him.

There are worse things than being a lazy douche bag in the sack though. How about blokes who have educated themselves via bad porn and thus, having never actually seen a girl have an real orgasm, think that all there is to women and their sexual enjoyment is a bit of a moan here and there. Or maybe he's the kind that thinks sex is just for procreation and that she should take it lying down like a good girl? What about blokes who seriously believe that the clitoris is "hard to find" and thus don't look too hard for it? (For any possessors of the Y chromosome who may have read this far, it's front and centre.) Also, if HE doesn't have sex before marriage he's going to have no idea on her wedding night, other than what he's read about or seen on the television. Those of us who are a bit better travelled in the sweaty arena can say unequivocally that IT'S NOT LIKE ON TV and that trying to make it so will lead to disappointment. The way I see it, to double the inexperience on the wedding night is to double the ignoramus disaster, and triple the pain for the girl.

I'd love to say more, but I've run out of time. I'll leave you lovely well-meaning Abstinence (Misery) Pushers with this:

Your God is not a fun God.

The only moral abortion is my abortion: When Pro-Lifers have to choose.

I came across this while chasing links (how else?) and while I prefer arguments to anecdotes these stories were illuminating. If blatant hypocrisy makes you angry, steer clear.

http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html

UPDATE: I have just been reading about belief systems, a guy I only know as "Green 1971" states that often belief systems exist as clusters that are only internally coherent. Contradictions in the overall belief system (between clusters) are rarely detected as the clusters are never set side by side and examined for inconsistency.

In the case of the Pro-Lifer who suddenly 'needs' an abortion we have an example of two belief clusters being set side by side for the first time.

Belief cluster 1: Abortion is always morally wrong and it should be illegal.
Belief cluster 2: I need to make choices that are best for my individual situation.

The result of being confronted with conflicting belief clusters in this case appears to be (if one believes all the anecdotes) passionate justification of one's own choice while remaining convinced that it is wrong in all other cases.

This is almost proof that religion teaches one not to examine one's belief system despite the intimate presence of a contradictory reality. If it weren't for the number of intelligent, articulate Christians I know, I would say that it is proof that religion cannot afford an intelligent population.

"Judge not lest ye be judged." There are, despite the misogyny and hypocrisy, some beautiful bits of wisdom in the bible. Sadly, the folk picketing outside abortion clinics, labeling women and doctors 'murderers', appear to feel they are exempt from this particular teaching. I'd listen to their justifications for it if I thought they'd make the slightest bit of sense.

Anyone can see me in my tit-sling, but only friends can see my Profile.

Is this kind of behaviour logically incoherent? Or am I becoming a fuddy-duddy in my old age?

I was procrastinating by chasing links in FaceBook when I came across a comment from a certain Naomi from the UK. In her photo she's either wearing a bikini or her knickers, it's hard to tell, but she's inside so I'm going for knickers. Normally this kind of thing wouldn't faze me, it's FaceBook after all, and Gen Y appear to have different ideas about how much flesh is too much to reveal to the public.

What fazed me is that this woman's breast bones were clearly visible to the point that it was ugly and off-putting. The only time I've seen bones like that is when women are starving themselves to fit the impossible ideal fed to them via a media dominated by the male gaze. I sent her a note to that effect which I now regret - none of my business really - but when doing that I found that only Naomi's friends could see her FaceBook Profile.

Get out.

The entire internet community can see you in your knickers but only friends can know the real you?

Did you want to perpetuate the idea that a woman's only value lies in being sexual eye-candy? One day valued as Sexual Object the next, valued as Domestic Goddess and Baby Machine. There's a fine line between advertising a great body (if a bit on the starved side) and aiding and abetting the patriarchy by implying that your body is the best thing you have to offer and the rest of you is not worth seeing.

Again, maybe I'm becoming prudish in my old age, it's not that I think women shouldn't be able to flaunt a gorgeous young body, it was the discrepancy that bothered me. The blatant advertising of the outside over the inside and the deep, sinister implications this can have for how women are viewed.

I don't want to be viewed solely in terms of my appearance, no women I know wants to be viewed that way. I wonder if Naomi does? I wonder if she's thought about it at all?

UPDATE: I would just like to add that Naomi responded to my message and has seen this post. She was a terrifically good sport about it considering my critical take on her choice of photo. She responded that she was proud of her body, and didn't care what people thought about it - a good thing in itself. However, she has now changed her FaceBook pic to a beautiful face shot. I think this far more complementary! Cheers mate.

A treat from Catherine Deveny

I am an unashamed fan of Catherine Deveny. Mostly because I knew her in a previous life when we were both flinging plates at high speed onto the tables of the upper crust at the Victorian Arts Centre. I was being paid $3.45 an hour for it because I was under 18 (that's about a quarter of the going rate my other waiter counterparts were receiving). Catherine found out, was incensed, marched into the manager's office and a week later I got a substantial pay rise. I've never forgotten it. Though, to be honest, Catherine is hard to forget just because she's Catherine - smart, irreverent and funny.

Read her piece on Youth Week here.

Pro-Life Adsense Adds

I'm not sure why I decided to use Google Adsense, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately since many of my posts use the word "Abortion" I am attracting adds from disreputable Pro-Life websites. Apparently there is a way to prevent this but it's a tad tedious so I haven't gotten around to it. Until then, I'm really sorry. Obviously the adds do not reflect my position.

Oh, and I do respect their right to advertise, I just think my right to block them from my pro-choice space trumps their right to express their views in said space. :-)

Leave Telstra Yey

Hey Peeps,

I've submitted and I'm back, sort of. A student of mine needs help with her PhD editing and her submission date is the 31st so I'll be very quiet until then :-(

However, I did write this small vent to a friend of mine who is a Telstra employee and he giggled himself silly so I thought I'd post it here.

Language warning folks!

The other day I spent an hour on the phone to the Telstra help desk trying to figure out why it was that I couldn't pay my bill online. I've been using online billing since it started and I've never had problems before. This note was my vent after dealing with no less than three phone pool idiots.

"The way I see it, if both firefox and safari give errors that say their web site is trying to redirect me to a page that doesn't exist, or that their website is trying to peer up its own bottom by redirecting me to a page I am already on, then it is nothing to do with my end.

Fucking fucktards.

Nothing personal. But seriously, it took me an hour to be put on to someone who new more about the internet than I did.

One woman was arguing with me about whether or not you could get onto the telstra website using .com.au. she insisted that my problem stemmed from putting in the .au suffix, that she'd been there for twenty years and it had always been .com (what the???) and had never heard of buying up multiple domain names and redirecting.

Again, I say fucktards. Imbecilic cocksucking fucktards.



So I'm still here, still annoyed, just up to my neck in jobs that don't allow for leisurely blogging :-( Back soon.

Internet Nutters make way for the Hedonist Nuts.

I really am working on my thesis! I was trying to verify the precise physiological reaction to pain under local anaesthetic when I came across this.

Apparently they want to free the world of physical and emotional pain through biotechnology. Wow. I have recommended that they read Paul Brand's The Gift of Pain. It includes some horrific descriptions of the kinds of pathologies that can ensue from a lack of pain sensation in humans. Here's one example before I get back to work...

We take it for granted, but the ability to sense that we are uncomfortable and shift our stance or posture prevents prolonged stress on our joints and reduces inflammation. Congenital analgesics (people born with an inability to sense pain) do not shift their weight, change posture or even roll over in their sleep and as a result they undergo repeat orthopedic operations to correct deformities in their knees, hips, and spine. Ick. And that's just what a lack of pain sensation will do to your bones. There's more, like being blissfully unaware that you are chewing off parts of your tongue or suffering severe burns because you didn't know your leg was up against a radiator. In general there is simply cutting, bruising or burning yourself without realising then adding insult to injury by using the affected body part as though it was not injured, leading to infection and delayed healing.

The lesson? Bodies without pain warning systems tend to end up twisted and deformed messes. I'll take my functioning alarm system over their twisted and deformed painless utopia any day.

Back to work Emma!

*grumble* *sigh* 10 days to go.

Gang dan it ProLifers have the ability to get me riled up!

Took some time out to add to the discussion on the I'm Not Sorry blog.

What follows is my tidbit, the rest can be found here.

Pro-lifers annoy me a bit, but pro-lifers who make misrepresentations about the foetus in the face of current scientific knowledge about foetal capacity make me see ripe ridliodin red.

I looked at the pics on your link. Could you please tell me why the 25 week old foetus hasn't yet got fully separated fingers? That should have been complete by week ten. Also, why is the 33 week old apparent 4D ULTRASOUND wrapped in a BLANKET???? That picture is clearly doctored.

This site isn't even guilty of using 25 week old foetuses and claiming that they are 7 weeks. It's just plain old sloppy lies. They don't care about accuracy, just about portraying the foetus as a thing that can be hurt and a person separate from its mother.

Here's some news sunshine, it is not a separate being from its mother. Take a 14 week old foetus away from its mother and no amount of praying will turn that lump of human meat into a baby. It has the same moral status as an amputated limb - unless it's reattached, it's dead.

No one knows what it is like to be aborted, not because no-one survives to tell it, but because for a foetus, there is nothing "it is like" to do anything. (Actually, there are a few abortion survivors and they can't tell you what it was like, why? They can't remember, they weren't laying down memories at that time.) At 14 weeks (98% of abortions performed in Australia are done before then), it may have little arms and legs and a head and face that would look better on an alien than a human being, but it does not have awareness or memory let alone consciousness. It might wriggle, but these wriggles are reflexes necessary for building functioning limbs. Adult worms wriggle, are you going to grant them the same moral status? Are you going to save the wittle wormies?

Of course you're not, because you are a Christian you think there is something special about human life. Your religion has far more to do with your views than you will admit.

If you want your views to be taken seriously (why else would you continue to post here?) try getting some medical information from a place that's not funded by Pro-Life groups.

Now Back to thesis!

Take Lisa off the air. Please Sign.

Hi folks,

Sorry no posts for a while, I'm actually thesisising. REALLY I am!!!

Someone sent me a petition re the 'Lisa' drunk rape add on FaceBook though, so I thought I'd spread the word.

To quote the email I received:

A member of the group has very kindly set up a petition calling on ALAC to take the Lisa ad off the air, on the grounds that rape is never a woman's fault, and that this idea is distressing to victims and makes it harder for them to report sexual violence to the police. Please sign and circulate the link widely.

If you haven't seen the so called 'Lisa' add already you can view it here.

Drunk women are in absolutely no danger of sexual violence unless there is a rapist in the vicinity. Drinking does not cause rape, rapists do. Amen.