SUBSCRIBE »
Feb
10
The Late Edition of Feminism at its Finest
As some may have noticed, Feminism at its Finest was missing last week due to me moving and having my computer packed away for a few days. However, this week we’re back and with some awesome posts!
Christine presents High School, Hair Color and Choices saying:
“Allow our girls to be themselves, especially in the face of bigotry and small-mindedness.”
Posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
Tina Su presents Train Your Eyes to See Color, Again, a post on how to remain positive in life through the hard times. This is posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive..
Sage presents Teen Sexual Pleasure saying:
“Exploring the idea that so many women are unaware of their own means towards sexual pleasure until later in life.”
Posted at Persephone’s Box.
Not too many posts, but there haven’t been an abundance of posts since we started this carnival, so that’s okay! Although, due to the way this carnival has been barely hanging on and the amount of carnivals that have been backdated, missed and late I am going to feature Feminism at its Finest once a month. The carnival will be posted here on the last day of every month starting February 29.
If you can, please promote the carnival and submit your posts for the next edition!
Feb
9
Eight Points of Randomness
Carol of Can’t Holder Tongue has tagged me for the ‘Eight Random Things About Me’ meme. I would firstly like to thank her for tagging me, out of everyone in the whole blog-wide-world that she reads, I was one of her two picks and I’m quite happy about that. Second of all, I would also like to apologize for it taking me a few days to get this up.
Eight Random Things About Me
- I have been blogging and doing web design for eight years.
- I have had more domain and sub domain names than I can recall.
- I live with (and refuse to say suffer from) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, social anxiety and clinical depression.
- I am a survivor of childhood sexual assault and child abuse that lasted six years–by my mother.
- At the age of 20 I began working from home as a Virtual Assistant and professional web designer which led to my current launching of Holly Ord Media.
- I am a major caffeine addict. I easily drink 5-8 cups of coffee daily.
- My poetry has been published in a nationally-distributed book put out by my high school creative writing class–I still count it as being published. I still need to get my writing back up on this site.
- I am not patriotic.
And there we have it. Most people may have already known these points about me, but if not, now you do!
To stay true to the meme I am now going to tag Karol and my good friend Milo who is still getting his blog off the ground, so this should help!
Feb
9
Pro-Lifers Waving the Free Speech Card Again
Anti-abortion activists, as we know all too well by now, will stop at nothing to get their way and make sure they have the opportunity to brainwash and force their religion-driven opinions on as many people as they can. This is yet another demonstration of pure absurdity!
A South Dakota anti-abortion group, Citizens for Life led by Allen Carlson, filed a law suit against Rapid City School District because they refused to let Citizens for Life use their auditorium to host an anti-abortion event with guest speaker Joe Scheidler, director of the Pro-Life Action League. Carlson and Citizens for Life are claiming that they have been repeatedly refused the space because of their “message” and is suing under discrimination and violation of free speech.
Suing for violation of free speech is laughable since that is the first card all anti-abortion protesters, groups and activists pull out and wave in the faces of those who may disagree with their harsh tactics of protesting and shoving pictures of aborted fetuses in the faces of people walking anywhere near them. Whenever someone says something to them about what they are doing, they reach into their coat pockets and start waving the first amendment around while screaming “No, I’m practicing free speech, I can say whatever I want and there’s no law that says I can’t hold my five foot poster of aborted fetuses and the words ‘Abortion is Murder’ strewn all over it while your young child is walking with you.” To claim that they are being discriminated against when most of South Dakota, as we had seen with the abortion ban and flocks of pro-life protesters, is surely not the state in which you can easily get away with pulling the discrimination card.
The real reason why Citizens for Life were repeatedly denied the middle school auditorium space for their events and speakers is because the school district does not allow their facilities to be used for any sort of event with a political message. That, in my opinion, is admirable of the school district, since the two hottest topics and what we kill each other the most over are indeed politics and religion.
Another thing that bothers me each and every single time I read a news story like this one are the names of the people who run these groups; in this case, Allen Carlson and Joe Scheidler. I wonder how many times the two of them have been pregnant.
Feb
7
What the Religious Right Wants, the Religious Right Gets
There’s a little surprise waiting for all of the coin collectors come 2009.
According to AlterNet, The 2009 new coin series, which will honor past US presidents, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor, will not have “In God We Trust” just along the edge of the coin. Instead of just around the edge, which I thought was bad enough to have on any coin in a country where the first amendment physically states “freedom of religion”, but “In God We Trust will be moved to the direct front or back of the coin instead of more dramatic portraits and better art elements, which the cleared space provided the room for.
This change is due to the fact that many religious fanatics with way too much time on their hands complained profusely about how the words on the coin were hard to read and that over time, the words would wear off. And here I thought that the main point of money was to exchange them for goods or services, not to parade what religion a country is trying to shove down the throats of its citizens or what religion a country has fought every war in history over; but perhaps I’m just a little more logical than “Oh no, over time the word ‘God’ is going to wear off, it must be on the direct front or back of the coin–Screw the art!”
Religious Right activists also insisted that a conspiracy was untangling (as they usually do) and began to voice their concerns that because of the motto being moved to the edge of the coin, they immediately assumed that the words would eventually be taken off of the coin–But of course we know that wouldn’t be too much of a possibility, since the word God has been placed on or in everything that symbolizes this country. However, in case there was actual speculation of the motto being removed, we can now all be secure in knowing that the Religious Right will not let that happen–and they always seem to get their way.
“I certainly can’t imagine growing up in a country and under a government that is atheistic and denies the existence and dependence upon God,” said Dave Stotts, who hosts a program for Focus on the Family called “Drive Thru History.”
I have a bit of a problem that can actually co-exist with Stotts concern. I also certainly can’t imagine growing up in a country and government where it is written in black and white that all people who live in the United States are promised freedom of religion yet in the same respect, the country and government does absolutely nothing to back that amendment up. I also find it hypocritical that while we live in a country with this amendment, the national motto, which was declared in 1956 being “In God We Trust”, suggests otherwise.
I wonder what would happen if Muslims, Pagans, Wiccans or even atheists came together and demanded that we and our religions (or lack thereof) be represented as well in this country as Christianity is. Stotts’ statement, as well as others that have been made several times by several people suggest that the people in this country who do not believe in the accepted “God” are something to be ashamed of; whose religious views are something that this country must lock away in the closet and pretend does not exist.
I don’t know how comfortable I am being an atheist living in a country that says while I have the freedom to reject religion, it is also going to tell me I’m a bad person because of it. After all, most people have been polled in saying that they would not vote for an atheist president.
Feb
6
Moving Tip: Avoid Moving in an Ice Storm
Menstrual Poetry Headquarters has officially been moved!
The boyfriend and I moved on February first, and it was definitely an exciting time for me. I have a great love of moving and new surroundings and the fact that being in the same place for two years was getting to me, not to mention he had been in our old apartment for nine years prior to my moving in with him, we probably shouldn’t have made the move in February. Our move was quite spontaneous; our old apartment’s roof was leaking in several spots and looked as if it were about to cave in at the next rain or snow fall and our landlord was completely disinterested in the entire fact that not only was our roof in horrible shape, but other things around the house that he had “fixed” were not indeed as fixed as he may have been under the impression they were. Within just a day of my incessant bitching about the state of the building that I believe needs to be condemned, we found a new place with a kick ass landlord and moved in as soon as possible.
February is by far the worst month weather-wise in Pennsylvania. February is when the extremely large snow falls happen, which I’ve been used to, living in the same area all my life, but little did we know, freak ice storms also happen to occur in February!
While moving the majority of our belongings from our old apartment and into the uHaul sitting outside, it looked as if it were raining. The steps were wet, but as I was carrying a heavy box down the two flights of very rickety steps outside to get to the front of our apartment building, I slid down one and then another and then, at 5am, all that could be heard was “Holy shit! Not rain, not rain.”
After a few hours, we finally had all of our stuff in the uHaul outside and we drove from our old, should be condemned apartment and an hour north of where we were, where the weather only got worse and the streets only got icier along with the porch of our new apartment completely covered in several sheets of ice.
12 hours later, we were completely moved in but the ice still wasn’t letting up. 6 days later, most of the boxes are unpacked, the apartment is looking great, and our office is gorgeous and much roomier than our last. Good choice to move, absolutely wonderful new apartment, never moving in February again.
Jan
28
Menstrual Poetry Headquarters is Moving!
The lack of updates, along with the missing week of Feminism at its Finest is due to packing up the last 2 years of material possessions I have accumulated along with the boyfriend’s past 9 years of accumulated junk into boxes and moving!
Moving is, of course, a very exciting (especially if you’re leaving Scranton, Pennsylvania, which I cannot even begin to stress how happy it makes me to say that I am) but also a very hectic time with very little else left in the day to do but eat and sleep. However, within a few days we shall be completely moved into our new place, internet will hopefully be set up soon after, and Menstrual Poetry will be back not only in full swing, but better (and more frequent) than before!
Dec
12
Menstrual Poetry is Back!
As many have noticed, Menstrual Poetry has been down for the last week or so due to a change in servers. Usually, a server change would mean a few hours of down time, however, things can never pan out as ordinary for me as they do for others.
It is officially safe to say that I work one job which easily equals two, or maybe even three regular full-time jobs. That, combined with those pesky human necessities such as food and sleep has made it increasingly hard for me to find time to write or even read up on current events. Luckily, those those 14 hour days of looking at code and treating my computer as a physical attachment to myself are letting up and I am again forwarding my attention to this website. The content is still down but I will be diligently working on getting everything back up and in a new, refreshed, and up to date manner.
Menstrual Poetry has officially re-launched!
Support
Support independent voices. Support feminist news and media. Support Menstrual Poetry. Advertise here.Show your support by putting a Menstrual Poetry banner on your website!
