then we have to have public option NOW.

And we need the public option for the exact reason that insurance companies are afraid of. If people have the option of choosing a non-profit based, government run system where merit is measured by health outcomes rather than profit margins, then they will choose the public option just as soon as they can. And insurance companies will fail.

And I think that is a good thing.

I’ve spent the last 24 hours feverishly writing, discarding, rewriting, and finally finishing 3 sample pieces for some actual paying freelance work. Sample pieces are currently with the lovely Ms. J for editing. Then they shall be sent off into the blogosphere where hopefully my (much dampened) dazzling wit and clever insights will win me some pay.

And my brain is hurty now.

So friends, bloggers, country-people, lend me your links. I need entertainment and to not be required to string comprehensive sentences together.

Consider this and open thread. Lurkers, please feel free to de-lurk and say hello. I promise I won’t bite.

We don’t value work.

We value money. That’s not the same thing. We disdain those who make less than us and worship those who make more than us, but we don’t value the actual labor of people.

We value investment, which is not work. We value finance, which is not work. We value interest, also not work. We value the people who does these kinds of jobs, the pushing of money from one place to another, not because of the work but because of the money. If those same men were pushing something less important around, like a broom on a dirty floor, they would not be valued so highly.

So here’s a little econ 101 lesson for you. There are 3 segments of society: business, government, and the rest of us who are both consumers and laborers. Economists will tell you that all three are inter-dependent, (well libertarians will tell you that government is superfluous, but they are idiots so we will ignore them) and that you need all three sections for a society to work.

But they are wrong.

Both government and business need us, the laboring consumers. Without us nothing gets made or bought, no taxes get paid or votes get cast. Armies don’t exist, business meetings aren’t made. When we don’t work, the economy fails and governments tumble. When we can’t buy, the economy fails and businesses falter.

But we still exist. Even unemployed and broke. We are the thing that the entire system is dependent on. We can, and have lived, without trade, without rulers. We need them less than they need us.

That is what Labor day should be about.

People have died to prove that point. We don’t remember, and we are not taught in school, but neither business or government has ever gone gently into labor reform. People usually have to die first. They died so that we aren’t locked into unsafe buildings. They died so that we could work only 40 hours a week instead of 72. Children died (and still do) doing horrible tasks for tiny pay that no adult would ever agree to.

Our labor is important. And there is no reason why a full days work shouldn’t be enough to provide for the basics, when a full days labor now provides 20% more productivity than it did 30 years ago.

We did that. But wages don’t keep up and when times are hard we pay the price. We are not the ones being bailed out with massive government funds and getting bonuses for failed ideas. We get pink slips. We can’t get our government to provide for the basic health and safety of us laboring consumers by instituting single payer healthcare. We are asked to make the sacrifices of our time, our health, our families, but we do not reap the benefits of those sacrifices. That is for the business class alone.

Ruth says that I am unusually sensitive to stalker like behaviors (she didn’t mean it in a bad way). I would never leave repeat voicemails or send multiple emails without getting a response (with one exception, which I won’t go into but no one who heard the details would think it’s weird). I would never read the blogs of people who don’t like me (shit- i didn’t even read the trash at Jill Staneck’s place, apparently being trashed by Staneck gives me feminist blogger rock star cred- who knew?) or even of people I don’t like. Life is too short to be worried about people who don’t wish you well, and I’ve never really cared about other people’s opinions of me. I would never troll a blog (except that one time that OD made me do it to explain privilege to a clueless white dude, but even then I felt super icky about it for days). I don’t google ex-boyfriends or friends to see what they’re up to. These things, to me, seem like the height of rudeness and intrusion.

Actually, I am way more likely to never call or send an email unless one has been sent to me first. This has been a bone of contention with romantic interests and friends in the past. My big response is- meh.

So when people do those things to me (and there will be more a few reading this blog post and wondering if I mean them- and I probably do mean them) I feel both icky and pissed. Seriously, what part of banning, refusing to answer emails, telling you I have no interest in further conversation by using the time honored classic “fuck off” is unclear? Why would you, stalker types, want to hang around a place where you are unwanted, or get the attention of a person who thinks that a vacation to the green zone in Iraq would be more pleasant than being your facebook friend? What is so broken in you that a relationship founded on disgust and harassment sounds swell?

I do not understand this behavior. And worse, I really don’t want to understand it. I really just want the stalker types to get a clue and move on, preferably to a desert island with no internet access.

But you know, I’m sensitive that way.

With so many arguments about what people choose to do with their own bodies, it always seems to come down to a choice between one side or the other and neither side being the optimal decision.

Abortion is one example. Our dear foes on the side of forced pregnancy never want to do anything that might actually give a woman a reason to choose motherhood, like say making parenting while poor easier. They just want to ban abortion, full stop, no additional measures needed. I don’t think anyone should be forced to be pregnant against their will, but I also think we should make it easier for women who want to be mothers but can’t because of money or education or whatever, to choose motherhood.

The other one is the right to die. Now I come under a bit of fire on this one, because people who I dearly love would be the first ones into the soylent green lines. Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town has done some really good writing about how if PWD were given the tools and access they really need to have a good life, then they might be less likely to want to die. But instead they are left to wallow in filth while we ignore them. But I still want the right, if all else fails, to choose my own ending. I don’t think it should be better care for PWD or the right to die, I think it should be both.

I think that

Cause she is still stranded.

Though if she were stranded with him?

Is in fact a bleeding heart, pinko, commie anarchist at heart.

But that is not all my fair readers. I’m morally all pink and squishy too

So take a test or two and tell me how you fared.

h/t to JJ, who reminded of this test.

How the fuck did it get to be Friday? I think I lost an entire day somewhere, probably Thursday.

In Niger, where if I recall correctly the number one risk factor for HIV is being a married woman, because you can be pretty sure that your husband will be sleeping around. Niger has a complete ban on all abortions, and will not sell contraceptives to unmarried people.

In Nicaragua and El Salvador, where abortion is completely banned, even to save the life of the mother.

How about Chile- another forced birther paradise.

These are all places with complete bans on abortion. What about the “liberal” places that allow them to save a woman’s life?

Afghanistan, frequently used as an example of why us western feminists should STFU because we don’t have it as bad as Afghan women do.

Iraq, Iran, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Syria, also not places known to be good for women.

And then there is Ireland, both the Republic and Northern Ireland ban abortion except to preserve the life of the mother. This is tragic, but fortunately Ireland is part of the EU, and operates like any state in the US where where abortion is difficult to come by. The women who can afford it go to England, and unless you’re a 17 year old girl in foster care, the state can’t do a damn thing to stop you.

What should be noted is that in all of the above mentioned places (except Ireland) poverty is crushing, honor killings are real, so is forced marriage and child marriage. The lives of women and children are considered expendable. That is not an accident, that is the result of refusing to allow women the full status of human beings.

That is what the forced birthers in this country want for us.

And I say no.