Odds and Sods - Snowed-in edition

We've got snow in South Carolina! It happens about once a year, and everybody goes crazy. Sitting here watching THE VIEW and wasting some time. They are talking about Michelle Obama's official portrait, which is stunningly lovely!

Tell me again, how did we get stuck with Elisabeth Hasselbeck? Oh yeah, she was on Survivor. Why does that make her qualified to talk about politics (or anything else)? Does anyone know? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

I remember she campaigned for Sarah Palin, which gave me unsettling Stepford Wives flashbacks when I saw them onstage together.

BTW, has anyone seen The Stepford Husbands? (Highly recommended for rank hilarity, if you should feature a "bad movie night" at one of your parties!)

Recommended random reading:

Marion talks about her sweet doggies developing cabin fever and related canine oddities up there in the Great White North. I had no idea dogs could be as neurotic as cats--another animal stereotype destroyed. The vast majority of dogs I have known (with the exception of my mother's neurotic inbred schnauzer, mentioned on the linked post) have been far healthier mentally than their owners! In addition, I've always heard that "big dogs" were free of neurosis.

Definitely a post for the dog people!

Meowser (from dogs to cats!) writes a bang-on post about one of my big worries... mammograms, false positives, false negatives, and all of that hairy-assed shit. If you have boobs, go over there and READ, right now!

Check out the lovely photo of Renegade Evolution being just so reasonable, as befits her reputation in some stubborn feminist circles.

The caption is "How do we boost morale?" and the photograph offers one helpful solution!

Me and the good Comrade PhysioProf and his atheist friends, discuss why atheists have to be so insulting, calling religious people wackaloons, and suchlike. BONUS: Barefoot Bum, ex-Kerista denizen who once worshiped a goddess so he could have multiple wives, informs me "Atheists don’t hate religious believers, at least not most of them, we have contempt and disdain for their stupidity and credulity." (Well, that IS a comfort.)

BACKGROUND: Barefoot Bum was a KERISTAN, and once belonged to what was possibly the flakiest (certainly, the most well-known) group-marriage cult on the West Coast, outside of the Manson Family. They had a highly-developed pagan theology, with multiple rituals to go with it. I guess believing in weird shit was acceptable back then, as long as he was given a different woman to sleep with every night, as reward. EVERY ATHEIST HAS THEIR PRICE, right, Barefoot Bum? You've all heard of "no atheists in the foxholes"--apparently, there are no atheists in group-marriage cults, either, baby. ;)

The argument is still in progress, so feel free to jump in!

Should Dubya be indicted for war crimes? Check out Peace Arena's Ramsey Clark: Why Indictment is a Must

And in case you needed still another reason to love Aunt B! A post about abortion, titled, Why I'm Flip:

I’m flip about abortion because most anti-abortion folks in this state aren’t themselves serious about ending abortion. They always make it like if pro-choice people were just sorrier, if we just threw ourselves on the ground crying about what a great tragedy abortion is and how it’s always wrong, wrong, wrong, but sometimes we need it, pretty please, they could be moved to maybe let us have abortions when our own lives are at risk (with them getting to determine what “at risk” is) or when we’ve been raped (with them getting to decide if we’ve been “raped” enough). But that’s not true. There isn’t sorry enough.

And if there isn’t sorry enough, I refuse to be sorry at all.

Amen, amen! (Isn't she just so great?)

And finally, my DEAD FROM THE CUTE link for this session, comes from Fruit Femme... will you just look at those little angels!?!?!

(((gurgly grandma noises, in extremis)))

And now, I go try to start my car, which is in minor shock from snow.

Should polygamy be illegal?

Left: The cast of BIG LOVE, photo from HBO

Yes, yes, you are thinking Daisy has lost her mind, or at least misplaced her feminism. Nope, actually, I am watching the trial of sleazy Warren Jeffs, and considering his defense that this is a case of religious persecution. Is it? Well, duh, I'd say so, if polygamy is a tenet of his faith, and he is regarded as The Prophet. Polygamy is an undeniable, integral article of faith for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However, this is also about a minor girl marrying her cousin, under Jeffs' direction, without her consent. That is to say, this case is about rape.

If there were no abuses of minors, no coercion (and it's unclear how we might enforce this, of course), what exactly would be the problem? I would be rabid about the government NOT supporting all of these children, as in the case of Tom Green, who should have gone to jail for welfare fraud, in addition to his crime of marrying children.

But say the guy could afford it? Many can, particularly if the women start working also, as some apparently do. And let's say that everyone is of consenting age? What is the harm, exactly?

If we believe in separation of church and state, why are we legislating rules out of the Bible?

Let me make it clear that I think Jeffs is a scumbag, and no charmer like Bill Paxton on the popular HBO series about a polygamous family, BIG LOVE. However, polyamory in general has always interested me. What about a woman who wants several husbands? It could happen!

What about group marriages of several men and women (or gay/lesbian group marriage), as the legendary Kerista Commune attempted in the 70s and 80s? When we make equality of women a prerequisite, as the Keristans attempted to do (whether they were completely successful in this endeavor is another matter), polyamory (Keristans preferred the term polyfidelity, which I like better) might actually be an equalizer of men and women.

In the end, I just don't think the government should be telling people what to do in their personal lives, period. If they want 80 wives, not my call. If one of them is 14, well then, it is.

What do you think?