February 21, 2021

A lot of little things

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Blue. Working it in green.

This cold has been lingering inside of me for over a week, and this morning it decided to blossom, or bud, depending on which word you choose to use. I love using the term "budding" every once in a while because it reminds me of my pediatric doctor who upon reaching my teens explained to me that my breasts would eventually bud. I couldn't stop thinking of having flower bud nipples, I usually thought they looked like little rosebuds, and it's a visual that every so often haunts my imagination.

It's been a weekend of activity. J. celebrated his 31st birthday on Sunday, yes, I'm the "older woman" in the relationship, and we went to see Brokeback Mountain. Quick review: Liked it a lot, but don't think there's a rush to see it on the big screen, unless of course you want to see lots of pretty mountains on a large movie screen. I'm not totally down with the hype about it being a gay cowboy love story, because even though it's obvious that the characters have deep, unexplainable feelings for each other, they also screw women. This makes them bisexual, not gay, but that's too hard for a lot of people to digest. I'm not going to rant on right now, because I did so this morning, when I recorded my 12th Playgirl's Sexpod.

Then yesterday it was time to party like a man - and no, I have no idea what that means but I hadn't been to an east coast bar mitzvah since I think my sister was bat mitzvahed in 1992 (bar is for boys, bat is for girls). My how they've changed. If you're parents are willing to spend some major bling bling, you're affair will be full of bling bling. As this one was. And after a few vodka soda waters, my preferred drink of choice, I think I'm sick, as in I have a head cold, this afternoon. It was a bar(t) mitzvah (his theme was "The Simpsons," because yes, bar mitzvah's often have themes - mine was monopoly), and that's why today I'm not planning on really leaving the house. But that's neither here nor there - a phrase I just felt in the mood to throw out.

Moving right along...a friend sent me this article recently, and I must say that I think I'm in love with Larry Flynt. Looks can only get you so far, and no, he doesn't have those, but as far as brains and balls go, he's definitely packing.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

WASHINGTON - The porn magazine arrives every month at your congressman's office. Tucked in a conservative-looking manila envelope, the latest edition of Hustler goes to all 535 members of Congress. Free of charge. Not that most members want it. It usually gets thrown in the circular file marked “trash.” But like clockwork, it keeps coming, despite efforts to have it stop.

The spokesman for Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, recently tried to halt the mailing. Nope. Several members of Congress have sued to make it stop, only to lose. Something about the public being able to seek redress from Congress means they have to take it, apparently. But that doesn't mean they have to be happy about it.

“It's a disgusting abuse of the system,” Cannon says. “It's a nasty, tricky little thing to do by a person with no conscience.” The magazines have been coming for more than a decade at least. Publisher Larry Flynt says he started sending them as soon as his magazine began publication in 1974, but an Associated Press story from 1983 has Flynt initiating the mailings that year.

Either way, he's not going to stop mailing Congress.

“I felt that they should be informed with what's going on in the rest of the world,” Flynt says, deadpanning during an interview: “Some of them didn't appreciate it much.” But, “I haven't had any plans to quit.” It doesn't surprise him much that some members don't want the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based publication, which he describes as a “humor magazine” and one that deals with “a lot of political and social satire.”

“I would never force a subscription on someone who didn't want it,” Flynt says, except for members of Congress who are public servants. And he doesn't feel bad that the ones who are actually opening the envelopes aren't the members of congress but young interns.

“I'm sure the interns are over 18,” Flynt says. “Those guys need some help getting through puberty anyway.” Interns for Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, are trained to distinguish the nudie magazine's envelope from the other mail and throw it away, says Chief of Staff Scott Parker. “So every time we happen to get one, it ends up in the trash pretty instantly,” Parker says. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, says it is offensive that his staffers have to see the publication when opening the mail. “It's immediately deposited in an outside trash bin, so no one else has to be offended by it,” Matheson says. “It's insulting behavior on the part of the publisher, but not surprising.”

Daniel Weiss, a senior analyst for media and sexuality for the conservative religious group Focus on the Family, says that members of Congress who don't want the mailings should work with the Postal Service to make them stop. And if that doesn't work, they should ask the Justice Department to investigate whether the magazine is obscene and have it blocked.

“It seems like Flynt's trying to stick it to Congress,” Weiss said. “I don't know what I'd call it. Childish, perhaps.” Others in the sexually oriented business industry, though, think it's a good idea. “I have to respect his tenacity,” says Tom Hymes, a spokesman for the adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition. “This is vintage Larry Flynt. And he certainly has a flair for publicity.” Plus, Hymes - whose group has sued Utah over an anti-spam child registry law - says that Congress needs to have a mature discussion on sexual issues, such as pornography.

“Members of Congress should in fact open [Hustler magazine] and shield their eyes from the pictures and read some more of the commentary because it's not a two-way dialogue going on right now,” Hymes said. For now, it's a standoff: Flynt will dutifully continue to mail the magazine to Congress, and Congress will dutifully continue to trash it.
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Now, I haven't read the book yet, but I plan on reading it, and have met the author, and really connected with her, and I find what she's saying fascinating and devastating, and I'm not going to continue with this runon sentence any longer, so here's a juicy tidbit straight out of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America by Cristina Page.

And it's not just pro-choice women who seek abortions, and it never has been. Most people would be startled to learn that even today, when battle lines are drawn, 40 percent of women who have abortions in the United States are Evangelical Christian or Catholic. They are your average morality voter, your above-average churchgoer. In all likelihood, they call themselves pro-life. Even though the great wish of pro-lifers is to cast those seeking abortions as irresponsible daters, the actual statistics are more forgiving. The majority of women in the United States (61 percent) having abortions are already moms.

You can read a bit more here.

Such a screwed up society we live in. Like politicians aren't secretly taking Hustler into the bathroom to read it and jerk off to it. Like sex is a dirtier word than politics. Like anti-choicers (formerly pro-lifers, but who isn't for life?) aren't sending their mistresses off for high paid abortions because they don't believe in contraception. Get a life people. And fess up to enjoying sex for the love of your own personal Jesus. Please.

Posted by jamye at February 21, 2021 03:01 PM