Abortion ban

The US Supreme Court has voted to uphold the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The decision is "the first in which the court has upheld a ban on a specific method of abortion".

The decision is pretty, well, stupid for many different reasons, not least of which is that Justice Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, "said that pregnant women or their doctors could assert an individual need for a health exception by going to court to challenge the law as it applied to them." Because when you're gravely ill and need a termination, you definitely time to wait around for the Supreme Court to make up its mind. Norma Leah McCorvey, more famously known as the 'Roe' in Roe v. Wade, waited three years for her case to go before the Court. In the meantime, she of course had given birth - bit hard to get access to an abortion when your daughter is 3 years old. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsurg quite rightly points out, this is unrealistic and "gravely mistaken".

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion is incredible (and yes, I have enough time on my hands now to read dissenting Supreme Court opinions - you too can experience the fun here; the dissenting opinion starts on page 49 of the pdf). She methodically goes through all of her objections to the Court's ruling, labelling the justifications used to avoid including any exception to protect a woman's health "flimsy and transparent". As she so rightly points out,

The law saves not a single fetus from destruction, for it targets only a method of performing abortion...the procedures deemed acceptable might put a woman's health at greater risk.

She goes on to say that

Eliminating or reducing women's reproductive choices is manifestly not a means of protecting them. When safe abortion procedures cease to be an option, many women seek other means to end unwanted or coerced pregnancies.

She's particularly hard on the sections of the majority opinion that seek to 'protect' women and their 'fragile states' from any emotional pain because of the "bond of love the mother has for her child." As she says,

This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women's place in the family and under the Constitution - ideas that have long since been discredited.

She quotes some past Supreme Court decisions that make this evolution in beliefs clear. I particularly liked this one, from the 1873 decision Bradwell v. State:

Man is, or should be, woman's protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life...The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil[l] the noble and benign offices of wife and mother.

I could go on quoting her opinion for a very long time, but instead I'll just leave you with this, her final paragraph:

In sum, the notion that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act furthers any legitimate governmental interest is, quite simply, irrational. The Court's defense of the statute provides no saving explanation. In candor, the Act, and the Court's defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives.

Cakes made of awesome

Threadcakes! Threadless t-shirt designs on cakes! Awesome!

A few things have happened recently...

So yes. I dropped out of uni. Maybe some very belated explanations are in order?

It's just for this semester, and I fully intend to go back in semester 2. I already had a little tiny neurosis about the fact that I was going to be almost 24 by the time I graduated; dealing with the fact that I will now be almost 25 when I finally finish my bloody undergrad degree has been, well... challenging. But! The decision is made, the forms are in (although, funny story: looks like the uni has actually lost my form, which should be fun), and I've moved on. Pretty much.

Of course, the decision was made a lot easier by the fact that it would have been pretty much impossible for me to finish this semester. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that so far 2007 has been pretty crap. I mentioned a while ago (February 23 to be exact) that my back has been giving me a bit of trouble. Yeah, I'm still having a few problems - problems which mean that have seen my visit the physio 8 times in the last 7 weeks. At the moment I'm going twice a week, as well as half an hour of exercises twice a day. There was about a week there in the middle when I pretty much could not move; standing up for more than 5 minutes was excruciating, and sitting was completely out of the question unless I had very large amounts of strapping tape covering my lower back. I missed a bit of class because of that, as you might imagine.

And then my mum had a massive stroke.

The stroke happened on the evening of March 20, but my dad didn't call me or my brother until the next day at around 6am; it was the stereotypical early morning call, where your first thought is "no-one calls at this hour with good news." Which was true. I was on a flight at 9.15am (as an aside, I think I deserve some crazy respect for my high level of organisational ability that morning!), and made it to Hobart just after 12pm - mum had been transferred from Launceston by air-ambulance because apparently they don't have a neurology ward at the LGH. Who knew.

Anyway, the next week or so was as crap as you can probably imagine. There was brain surgery and ICU and then HDU and living out of a suitcase and only two visitors at a time and... well yeah. Not a fabulous time.

And then of course there was the unnecessary stress of trying to work out what I do about my courses, with the HECS census date fast approaching. So I came back to Canberra the next week on the Wednesday before the census date, met with various people, including all my lecturers, my physio, and faculty advisors, and decided to drop out. I'd promised one of my lecturers (who was absolutely wonderful, by the way - went far far beyond the call of duty in helping me out, and I'm not sure I would have made it through that week without his help) that I wouldn't make my final decision until Friday afternoon, and I didn't: the form was handed in at 4.50pm, so no-one can accuse me of rushing into the decision!

I'd originally planned to move back down to Tassie until July, but after talking to even more people etc. I've decided to stay up here and work full-time, which will hopefully earn me enough money to do the travelling I'm desperate for, and to take some of the 'financial burden' off my parents' shoulders. My boss up here has been absolutely fantastic throughout this entire debacle, and while she couldn't offer my a full-time job, she made sure that she found me someone who could, which means that as of today I have gainful full-time employment until classes go back in July!

So yeah. That's what has been happening in the life of me. There are a whole lot of other issues both related and unrelated to all of this which have been going on and for various reasons I don't particularly feel like airing on a public blog. As I said before, life has been generally crappy the last few months, but things are looking better. My mum's doing well; she's been transferred back up to the LGH, which makes it easier for everyone. She can talk and write and speak and everything like that - it turns out if you're going to have a massive stroke, my mum did it pretty well. She's still fully paralysed down her left side, so she's got months and months of rehab ahead of her (side note: many hilarious conversations can be had with the phrase "my mum's in rehab"!) - I don't think anyone was expecting me not to take out the 'most physio in 2007' award for my family, but looks like I might just be beaten by my mother...

But yesterday she wiggled her toes and today she bent her knee. So right now, things could be a hell of a lot worse.

Um, yeah

So I just submitted a form to drop out of uni for a semester. Discuss (while I have a minor freak out).

Super stunt

The Super Stunt: this story is bloody incredible. A group of guys managed to get two vanloads of 'party lights' through ridiculous levels of security at the last Super Bowl, that they then gave out to the audience to spell out a secret message at half-time. Crazy stuff. Make sure you also check out the Michael Jackson credit card prank as well...

High five to the internets!

For all you high five fans out there, this gem from Overheard in New York:

Guy #1: Dude, are you rolling on E, man? High five!
Guy #2, slowly with eyes closed: High five my face.

Just tell me what's going on!

Interesting article in the Washington Post about how universities are struggling to keep in contact with their students. Even though they all have mobile phones and laptops, and obsessively check their email, getting important messages out there to all students (the example given is one from Virginia Tech, where there was a gunman loose on campus and they wanted to tell students to keep inside!) is incredibly difficult. When you've got to filter through crap emails from everyone from the careers centre to student admin on a regular basis, it's pretty easy for actually important information to slip through unnoticed.

My uni had an emergency of its own last week, and I must say was absolutely woeful in keeping everyone updated. Because I'm on the staff list I got an email telling me the campus was closed at 10.45am, but they didn't send out a similar one to students until 4.28pm! Information was posted throughout the day on the billboard, but it was pretty fragmentary and useless. Announcements went out on local radio, but how many uni students actually listen to local commercial radio every morning? If your house wasn't really affected by the storm (like ours) you wouldn't think to listen obsessively to see whether uni was open or not; just wouldn't cross your mind. The only reason that we listened was that one of our housemates had tried to go to the gym early in the morning and had run into just a few problems (i.e. flooding and ice!).

I get that it was a pretty unique situation, and understandably there were some computing issues on campus at the time that made getting in contact with people a bit difficult. But really, these are the kinds of situations where you need procedures like that to work the best.

Classic McSweeney's

Some Other Zapruder Films: Ricky Zapruder's Birthday Party.

Everything goes smoothly until, in the last 33 seconds of the film, Richard Nixon appears in the background, ambling up to the sliding door and pressing his face against the glass. His hands are covered in blood, and he appears to be holding a pitchfork. His eyes dart nervously as he tries to see what's happening inside.

Linky linky

Just a couple of links:

For those of you (like me), who are just a tad addicted to a little website called facebook, you might want to have a look at this article, about how what you do on social networking sites can make you lose a job, get you into trouble with university administration, and scare off potential employers. Equal parts bizarre and scary (make sure you read the linked story from a few months ago, too).

And from Overheard in New York, it's funny because it's true.

Little boy #1: I wish dinosaurs lived in Central Park.
Little boy #2: Dinosaurs aren't real -- they're from the TV.
Little boy #3: Dinosaurs are real, they just live on other planets.
Little boy #2: Like Pluto!
Little boy #1: Pluto isn't a planet anymore. The scientists blowed it up.

I know how you feel, kid. When I was his age...

Storm madness!

Last night Canberra was hit by a 'supercell' storm, that dumped an enormous amount of hail and rain on the city in a short amount of time. Luckily our house (and neighbouring streets) escaped any damage, but the ANU? Absolutely totalled, it would seem. The campus isn't just closed for today, but for the rest of the week. It's like a snow day! The entire thing is just really bizarre. There are some great photos on flickr, as well as the ABC.

It's really weird to just be at home in the middle of the week. Of course, 90% of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday so I'm not actually missing out on much at all... but still, very weird!

Overheard at university

One philosophy lecturer turns to another and says, "you know what I always found hilarious about Orthodox Judaism?"

Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch the punchline, but the mere fact that I overheard it all certainly brightened my day. Not exactly a phrase you hear on a regular basis...

Just some things

Random thoughts and happenings from this week:

I've somehow managed to 'do my back in' again, which, as you may be able to appreciate, is terribly exciting for me. Sitting is the biggest issue, which is a bit of a problem considering that uni started this week and I have several 3 hour blocks of classes. Bleurgh.

I had three meetings on Wednesday, and I got stood up for all three of them. What ever happened to common courtesy?! To the "sorry, I can't make the meeting this afternoon, can we do it another time?" phone call. Double bleurgh.

As mentioned above, uni started back this week. Two of my subjects look fantastic, but the other two are so excruciatingly boring that they effectively cancel out any enjoyment I may derive from this semester. Triple bleurgh. Also bleurgh to my IT subject, which can't seem to organise seemingly important things like timetables and lab registrations with any level of adequacy.

Bleurgh. Some good news is needed... hooray for finally having net access at home! Very very exciting. I was getting a little tired of structuring my life around only being able to read my email between the hours of 9am and 5pm on weekdays. And yes, my life does depend, to a large amount, on when I can read my email :)

Random fact: did you know that there used to be a bar in the Pauline Griffin Building? The Union used to be in there, as well as the staff lounge. Strange but true. Well maybe not that strange, but still vaguely interesting. Well, maybe not vaguely interesting...

I've had the song 'This Land is Mine' by Dido in my head all week. Yeah, I have no idea why, either.

Also hooray for finally getting a dining table in our house. Literally eating off the floor gets a little boring after the first two months or so.

Hooray for still getting birthday presents over a week after my birthday. I absolutely love birthdays that are spread out over weeks (or even months, like my 21st). Although I'm not entirely sure about this whole 'being 22' thing; I feel really rather old, especially considering (1) there are far too many 17 year olds running around the campus, and (2) I now have to tick the 'fourth year' box when I fill in forms for the university, which makes me feel like I've been around forever. The gap between being 20 and being 21 didn't feel like much at all. The gap between 21 and 22, however... chasm.

And to end on an amusing note... a McSweeney's List: Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages. "Happy Easter! May the blood of Jesus, spilled for you, splatter your holiday with warm crimson cheer."

Damn kids!

Meh. It's only the second day of uni and I'm already over it. When did university students get so bloody young?! The campus has been wonderfully quiet all summer, and then BAM! yesterday it was invaded by 17 year olds, wandering around looking lost and confused. I know I should feel sympathy or empathy or something like that, but mostly I just want them to go away. Bah.

I saw it somewhere...

I've been pretty low on actual content recently, so to make up here's a very long list of...

What I've been watching! Hooray!

A Knight's Tale
I don't care what people say about his movie, I love it. So much fun! I've seen it so many times, but it's that kind of movie where you can just whack it in the DVD player, skip to any spot, and just sit back and enjoy it. Of course, it would have been pretty much absolute crap without the wonder that is Paul Bettany as Geoffery Chaucer. He actually won awards for that performance.

Logan's Run
This movie can be pretty much summed up with the statement "hilarious 70s sci-fi soft porn". Which, you know, is not necessarily a bad thing. The idea itself is really intriguing - society in the future that keeps its population under control by 'renewing' all its citizens at the age of 30 - and one that pops up pretty regularly in science fiction (I saw it most recently in an episode of Stargate Atlantis). But the execution is so hilariously bad that the message gets lost underneath crazy costumes and Farrah Faucett's hair.

Ocean's Eleven
One of my all-time favourite movies, and much like A Knight's Tale: complete and utter fun. It also has to be one of the greatest looking movies of all time, and not just because George Clooney and Brad Pitt are frequently in the same scenes, creating a critical mass of handsomeness so large that I'm surprised that screens don't spontaneously combust. Or something.

The Bourne Supremacy
Not as good as the first one, but some good moments. I watched the extras on the DVD though, and they kept on going on and on about how good the car chase was. My reaction to the car chase? Meh.

Old (new) Doctor Who episodes
Mostly I've been watching these to keep me going until the new episodes appear on Australian screens (Christmas has come and gone, ABC - when are we going to see the Christmas episode?!). This show is so incredibly fantastic; if you're not watching it, then you're obviously crazy. It's taken a lot of serious soul-searching, and it was a very difficult decision to make, but I think I prefer David Tennant over Christopher Eccelstone. Rose, of course, will always rock my world.

Lonelygirl15 videos
The definition of an internet sensation, these youtube videos became famous around the world a few months ago when it was revealed that, shock horror, Bree wasn't a real girl, and that she and all her friends were played by actors! You can find out the background story in this Wired story (Jessica Rose, the New Zealand actress who plays Bree, was on the front cover). I personally don't care at all whether the stories are real or not; they're just really good stories. There are drugs! And crazy cults! And secret codes! It's like Alias, but in 3 minute episodes, and with teenagers. You can kind of tell when the story broke that it wasn't real, because it's about then that 'The Creators' seemed to go "what the hell, now we can go all out with the completely unbelievable storylines!" I didn't have much else to do at work the last few weeks but watch youtube videos, so I went through and watched all of Bree's videos, plus those of the various associated characters - make sure you also check out those of danielBeast, jonastko and gemmers19. Of course, you can go really hard core and play the alternate reality game associated with the videos, called OpAphid. Find everything you could possibly want to know (and a lot more) about the game and the entire 'Bree-verse' at the LGPedia.

Foyle's War
It's back! One of my all-time favourite tv shows, the new series started on Sunday night on the ABC. And it was a ripper! There were brash Americans, illegal stills, and broken hearts - poor Sam. This show combines a whole heap of all my loves into one tv show: Britain during World War II, a good murder mystery, brooding detectives... seriously good stuff. Once again, I say that if you're not watching it, then you're obviously crazy.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking
This was repeated on ABC on Saturday night. I wrote a pretty lengthy review of it when it was first on tv back in 2004, and what I said back then still stands, but if possible I hated it even more the second time. The writers seemed to just take bits and pieces from all over the canon without any kind of eye to coherence and, well, common-sense, and so instead of producing a decent portrayal of the 'Great Detective', instead came up with a hideous charactiture. Yes, Sherlock Holmes used cocaine, but never during a case. Yes, he distrusted women, but he was not entirely immune to their 'charms' - the very first short story details his encounters with the woman, Irene Adler (read it for yourself here). And yes, he didn't like to leave England for fear that it caused an unhealthy level of excitement amongst the criminal classes, but let's not forget that he spent three years travelling the world whilst he was 'dead' - hardly the actions of a man who believes that travel narrows the mind. The writer is obviously a fan of the original stories, but in trying to remain faithful to the Canon, whilst incorporating a modern storyline of sexual perversion, he's created a hideous, unentertaining mish-mash.

Stranger Than Fiction
Saw this on Tuesday at the wonderful new Dendy in the Canberra Centre. I really liked the movie - a bit like I Heart Huckabees, but actually comprehensible. Will Ferrell is obviously wasted in most of the stupid comedies he's been in, when he can do great work like this. Emma Thompson was, as usual, fabulous. My personal favourite was Dustin Hoffman, who did a very convincing over-worked and eccentric university professor.

The wonders of modern science

I can't stand wearing sunscreen - the smell, the greasiness, everything - which is not really a good thing, seeing as my skin burns at even the mention of sun. So I've decided that sunscreen mist is possibly the greatest thing ever invented. It's not greasy! It doesn't smell horrendous! You don't have to rub it in! It actually feels cool when you spray it! Hooray for innovation in sunscreen technology!

Don't you know who I am?!

Yesterday was one of those infinitely frustrating days, where you set out with a list of seemingly simple tasks to complete, that quickly turn into a never-ending nightmare. Simple things like getting a prescription filled turned into day-long dramas: the chemist had run out of the (very common) medication on my prescription, I had to go to two banks in order to retrieve my bank card which was eaten by an ATM on Saturday, the ACT government office seemingly disappeared from Civic, the Motor Registry would only accept a complete lease agreement as proof of residency, not the bond lodgment form I had with me... what should have taken a couple of hours all up took the entire day, and I had to go back to the Motor Registry this morning, this time with enough forms of identification to sink a ship. But! The day was saved from being a complete bust by lunch and dinner, which were shared with fabulous company. So that was good.

On a slightly related matter: the reason I had to go to the Motor Registry (twice) was to get a proof of age card. I haven't had any 'official' forms of photo ID for the last two months, because both my Tasmanian Learner's Driver Licence and my passport both expired in December. Do you know how hard it is to live without that kind of stuff?! I couldn't even join the video store on the weekend. And yet my bank let me withdraw money from my account yesterday with only my crummy student card. Which does worry me slightly...

Prepare yourself!

Bloglines has a marginally useful weather feed service, and I subscribe to the Canberra one, which gives you a 7-day forecast. I say marginally useful, because quite often the forecasts are a little off. For example, how seriously do you think I should take this one?:

Lunatics in history

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

This guy sounds like my kinda lunatic! Here's the bio that came with the results:

Born in England sometime in the second decade of the nineteenth century, you carved a notable business career, in South Africa and later San Francisco, until an entry into the rice market wiped out your fortune in 1854. After this, you became quite different. The first sign of this came on September 17, 1859, when you expressed your dissatisfaction with the political situation in America by declaring yourself Norton I, Emperor of the USA. You remained as such, unchallenged, for twenty-one years.

Within a month you had decreed the dissolution of Congress. When this was largely ignored, you summoned all interested parties to discuss the matter in a music hall, and then summoned the army to quell the rebellious leaders in Washington. This did not work. Magnanimously, you decreed (eventually) that Congress could remain for the time being. However, you disbanded both major political parties in 1869, as well as instituting a fine of $25 for using the abominable nickname "Frisco" for your home city.

Your days consisted of parading around your domain - the San Francisco streets - in a uniform of royal blue with gold epaulettes. This was set off by a beaver hat and umbrella. You dispensed philosophy and inspected the state of sidewalks and the police with equal aplomb. You were a great ally of the maligned Chinese of the city, and once dispersed a riot by standing between the Chinese and their would-be assailants and reciting the Lord's Prayer quietly, head bowed.

Once arrested, you were swiftly pardoned by the Police Chief with all apologies, after which all policemen were ordered to salute you on the street. Your renown grew. Proprietors of respectable establishments fixed brass plaques to their walls proclaiming your patronage; musical and theatrical performances invariably reserved seats for you and your two dogs. (As an aside, you were a good friend of Mark Twain, who wrote an epitaph for one of your faithful hounds, Bummer.) The Census of 1870 listed your occupation as "Emperor".

The Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, upon noticing the slightly delapidated state of your attire, replaced it at their own expense. You responded graciously by granting a patent of nobility to each member. Your death, collapsing on the street on January 8, 1880, made front page news under the headline "Le Roi est Mort". Aside from what you had on your person, your possessions amounted to a single sovereign, a collection of walking sticks, an old sabre, your correspondence with Queen Victoria and 1,098,235 shares of stock in a worthless gold mine. Your funeral cortege was of 30,000 people and over two miles long.

The burial was marked by a total eclipse of the sun.

Life-y kind of things

Some random thoughts:

I am completely (embarrassingly?) obsessed with the song 'I wish I was a punkrocker' by Sandi Thom. The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but I can't stop listening to the thing (you can watch the film clip yourself here). And yes, I know I'm about a zillion years behind the times when it comes to this song.

For some reason the sound on the computer that I'm using at the moment just drops out every 15 minutes or so, and doesn't start working until I log out and log back in. This is immensely annoying, and is severely interfering with my ability to watch Sandi Thom music clips.

Pandora is still one of the greatest things ever invented, but only when the sound on the computer you're using works consistently!

Mini-rant about university bureaucracy: for the last three years I have had to go through an incredible rigmarole just to enrol in courses that I need for my degree. This year is different only in the fact that the difficulty has actually increased. The last two days I've spent my lunch break trudging between faculty offices, as various people try to work out who needs to sign what and when. It's incredibly frustrating and just plain stupid - why oh why do I have to go through all this shit to do a course that I need?! A 2-second glance at my transcript would show these people that I have every right to do the course in question, but instead I have to have a form signed by three separate offices, before it is sent to a fourth for processing. Argh!

And the sound's gone on my computer again. Curses!

Some McSweeney's Lists:
Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them: "ceiling fang".
Things an Overbearing Mother Might Say to a Son Just Waking From a Coma: "Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to sit down."

I got two lovely emails today from separate people who I helped through my job last year, saying thank you etc. So that was nice. I rarely get any kind of sense as to how what I do (and no, I'm not going to go into any more detail about what my job is!) actually impacts upon people in the long-run, so once in a while it's nice to get these kinds of emails.

Sound still not there. Stupid computer. I want punkrocker goodness!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've recently become ever so addicted to threadless t-shirts, and my collection now numbers 5. So that's exciting. I tried to find links on the website to the ones I've got, but no luck. Sufficed to say that I've got 'The Communist Party' and 'The Loch Ness Imposter', and you probably don't. So there.

Hmmm. Ok, enough now.

It's a Tuesday, so that means...

Monday Madness!

1. Did you make any resolutions this year?
Not really; I vow to leave the country at least once in the next 12 months, but that's more out of desperation rather than a resolution kind of thing.

2. If so, which one do you think you'll really stick to? If not, is there something you're going to try harder to accomplish?
See above - if I don't leave the country, I'll be very upset!

3. Do you have a fear of any small rodents/insects/etc? If so, please share.
There are these beetles that practically infest my house in Tasmania over the summer months; we've always called them Christmas beetles, because that's when they start to appear, and a bit of googling seems to actually confirm that name (see here and here). These things are evil. They get in your hair, down your shirt, I've even had them crawl in my ear while I've been asleep. I don't fear these things as much as have a life-long vendetta against their very existence. Every few nights when I was at home I would go on a rampage with the fly spray against these little devils. Immensely satisfying.

4. Share something exciting that's going on in your life.
Not much of my life is all that exciting at the moment - just working 9 to 5, answering phones. I'm going to Wollongong on Friday for the long weekend to stay with a friend, which should be fun. Apart from that... maybe going to see a movie tonight? Honestly, I live an extremely boring and tame life; my main source of excitement is seeing what kind of crazy people catch my bus every night!

5. Did you wonder what happened to Monday Madness these past few weeks?
Only vaguely.

6. Do you have a favorite gameshow announcer?
Gameshow announcer?! Um, I saw Larry Emdur on Merrick and Rosso once, and he was absolutely hilarious. And very bitchy. I never actually liked The Price is Right much, but Larry's ok in my book.