In vino veritas: Musings while drinking

It's Saturday night, and I've had a few glasses of wine.  I've been listening to some of my favorite music and reading the headlines.  It's amazing how one can be so antithetical to the other.

My playlist includes greatness of the 80s and early 90s, including The Cure, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Berlin, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pebbles (yes, I really am that eclectic).  I am a child of the 80s and a young woman of the 90s.  I grew up in an age where I was told that the world was my oyster.  The many, many women who trailblazed the path before me left me with the indelible belief that I could be anyone, any thing I wanted to be.  I was to be as assertive/aggressive as I wanted to be.  Fuck convention.  The doors were open, and I was going through it with shit-kicker heels.

Yes, the 80s and 90s were my decades.  And the men I encountered during that time were amazing.  They loved strong women; they loved our assertiveness.  It was almost as if it were a "thank you" to the passivity of women of days past, where there was a dependency upon men to be the sole bread winner, the sole supporter of family, there was almost a sense of relief, and a feeling of equality.

I share my experiences as a woman of the mid-adlantic, Philadelphia to be more exact.  I found the men I encountered were secure enough in their masculinity to go toe-to-toe with a woman of intelligence and strength, women who embraced their sexuality and didn't shy away from it.  It really was an amazing, liberating time.

Now, I see many men - simple, insecure, petty men - who hate women for their strength, their independence, their AUTONOMY.  Their only thought is to PUNISH them.  And sadly, it is women - simple, insecure, petty women - who are aiding and abetting them in this witch hunt.  Look at Texas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, to name a few.  Do you really think that any self-respecting woman in those states would have allowed such draconian legislation that has passed to have passed?  Hell to the NO!

A REAL MAN, YES I SAID IT, A REAL MAN, does not feel threatened by equal protection under the law for women.  A REAL MAN will hold women to the same standards and rights to which he is entitled to under the law.  A REAL MAN does not hold himself sovereign over a women; he welcomes her as his partner and equal.  A REAL MAN does not dominate, but looks to his partner for guidance.  A REAL MAN does not feel threatened when challenged intellectually.  Take a look at our current Congress.  How many fail the aforementioned criteria laid forth?

Bring it.  All comments welcome.

Congratulations, Texas! You have pushed this mom into action!

Holy fucking crank dancing christ on a cracker!  

I've been following the craziness that passes for governing in the Texas legislature, particularly the ongoing efforts to return women to the status of brood mares and chattel.  Thank jeebus for Wendy Davis, who with grit and determination, stood up to the neanderthals, both male and female, who were working to set women's health back 50 years.

Wendy Davis' efforts were noble, if somewhat quixotic.

Fast forward:  new legislation offered to restrict women's reproductive health choices and treatment.  Passed by said neanderthals in the Texas legislature.

Not being satisfied with the draconian legislation outlawing abortions after 20 weeks and effectively shutting down all but 5 women's health clinics that provide abortion services, three Texas refuckingpublicans have proffered the following:

Texas Legislators File Radical ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Bill To Ban Abortion After Just Six Weeks

I am so sick of these bastards.  They are not pro-life; they are anti-women forced-birthers who see women as nothing more than breeding vessels.  As Randi Rhodes says, they love the fetus and hate the child, and the mother for that matter.  They are using The Handmaid's Tale as a guidebook.

This goes beyond trying to impose their moral view of pregnancy and life begins at conception philosophy on the rest of Texas; they are interfering with the medical decisions that ultimately have to be made between a woman and her healthcare provider with regards to any pregnancy.  What will they demand next?  Will they get to dictate diet during pregnancy?  How many times a woman can pee in a day while pregnant?  Whether or not a woman can take a Tum's for heartburn or use Preparation H for the hemmoroids?  What about pre-eclampsia - can that be treated or is it "God's will" as well and shouldn't be interfered with?

These morally repugnant assholes are DANGEROUS to women's health and the independence and autonomy of the individual that they claim to love.  The people of Texas, both the women and the men who love and respect them, and the rest of us, need to get on this and get LOUD!