The Avengers

Someone took one of our urns sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Pres Man went out and checked down the street and lo and behold, there it was. Probably some kid thought it would be funny to play musical urns.

Anyway, he brought it home and here it has stayed since. Darned kids. Stay off my lawn. lol

We saw The Avengers and it was good. It started a little slow for me, but part of that might be that we had to see the 3D version since the 2D version we wanted to see was sold out even though Pres Man went to get our tickets early. So our viewing was a little dark. But still good. Captain America is now my favorite Avenger.

We had the best seats in the house, too. We were the first people into the theater! We never do that. The people right behind us in line turned out to be the husband and roommate of one of my Knitting friends, so we passed the time by talking to them.

I also saw another knitter while I was waiting in line. The girl who always wants to meet at Varsity Donuts came through going to an earlier showing.

We saw a couple of little kids in our showing who had Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer. That was so cute.

We also had some college-looking guys show up in Batman, Robin, and Superman shirts (kind of costumes but not really, mainly t-shirts sometimes with the addition of a cape). And there was a Punisher who looked decent. I did not even attempt a costume. I could not pull off Black Widow at this point. lol

We missed some of the dialogue because all of us were laughing or groaning or gasping at the same time. The audience was really into it. I am excited to see it again in 2D with subtitles so I can find out what I missed.

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This is an extremely inappropriate for work video.

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Yesterday we got a certified letter from the city saying our grass was too tall. The letter came after we had mowed the yard, so yay tax dollars at work. Also, you guys, it rained like every day! Hrmphf.

Today I planted my white geraniums in the urns and I planted three of the phlox that I had. Then I ran out of steam. I'm still trying to work up to going back out and planting the remaining three phlox. Digging is hard. Digging in our yard is especially hard.

We are catsitting this week. We've been over twice and the first time he was obviously holding us responsible for his owner's absence. Today was better; he wanted some cat pats and was less accusatory. Perhaps he has decided to charm his owner's location out of us. lol

I think I might be recovering from a sinus infection. For three days I could not completely bite down on the left side of my mouth. It was not a hurting tooth, it was my jaw that was the problem. I thought maybe I slept with my teeth clenched or something and that it was a pulled muscle. But yesterday I could finally close my mouth again and my sinuses on that side started going crazy. I still have some pain when I try to bring my back teeth together, but I am able to do it.

It's supposed to storm here tonight. I think it will probably hit us since I so diligently watered all my new plantings in. I need to make sure to water those hostas once a week. They are okay, but I think they could be super happy if I would give them a drink more often.

Oh, and I finally planted the pumpkin seeds today. Late, but maybe we'll get a pumpkin or two anyway.

I'm so tired.

House Substitute for Senate Bill 313

So there is this thing you can do in the legislature that I just learned about. It's known as a "Gut and Go," and the way it works is you take a bill that already passed the other house of congress, you cut all of the contents of that bill out, you paste in a completely new bill, and then you send it back as amended for the other house of congress to give an up or down vote.

In this way, the Kansas House of Representatives inserted House Bill 2598 into Senate Bill 313 and passed it. Now the Senate has to say "Sure, those changes are okay with us," and then it's going to be a law because Governor Brownback has said he'll sign any pro-life legislation that comes to his desk.

I have spent a lot of time reformatting the damned thing so I can make sense of it, and now I'm going to read through it a couple of times and write to the Senators, pointing out the worst parts of the bill.

I'll probably be posting those pieces here, too, since the last time I did that it came in really handy, more than once.

Also, it rained here again, so it's a good thing we got the darned yard mowed.

House Substitute for Senate Bill 313

Okay. Here are the parts that bother me the most. There is a lot of tax code in there that I'm having trouble keeping straight, but I think they have also included an exception to any abortion-related services, making them non-tax-deductible under medical expenses. I'm not sure how that works for women who suffer a miscarriage and then have to have D&C.

Anyway, I'm not sure about that part, so I have not included it. If I can parse it, I'll update later.


"Section 2:

(d) no health care services provided by any state agency, or any employee of a state agency while acting within the scope of such employee's employment, shall include abortion. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent a physician enrolled in a residency program and employed by the university of Kansas medical center from receiving experience with induced abortions{,} conducted at facilities other than those owned, leased or operated by the university of Kansas hospital authority or any other state entity.{: Provided however, that} for purposes of this act {subsection} only, such physicians shall be considered as acting outside the scope of their {such physician's} official employment in such actions. This provision regarding physicians enrolled in a residency program shall remain in effect through June 30, 2013."

Does this mean that after June 30th, 2013, that residents will no longer be able to receive experience with induced abortions at alternate facilities? I think it does, because of this article where Lance Kinzer (someone who makes me almost literally ill) derides KU Med Center for reneging on their compromise.

"New Sec. 8. 

(a) No school district, employee or volunteer thereof, or educational service provider contracting with such school district shall provide abortion services. No school district shall permit any person or entity to offer, sponsor or otherwise furnish in any manner any course materials or instruction relating to human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases if such person or entity is an abortion services provider."

I think this means that if Planned Parenthood wants to give out free birth control at high schools, they’ll be barred from doing so. This is admittedly not huge on my list of issues, but then again, teens are using better birth control now, which is resulting in lower pregnancy rates, so maybe we should do what we can to keep that happening.

"New Sec. 9. 

(a) No civil action may be commenced in any court for a claim of wrongful life or wrongful birth, and no damages may be recovered in any civil action for any physical condition of a minor that existed at the time of such minor's birth if the damages sought arise out of a claim that a person's action, or omission, contributed to such minor's mother not obtaining an abortion."

Here’s the part where the doctor doesn’t have to tell the pregnant woman what is going on with her pregnancy, and she cannot sue later for being lied to. Also, consider that an OB could use this excuse if they made a mistake. "But I thought if I told her that she'd get an abortion!" "Oh, okay then, totally not malpractice."

"Section 11

(c) As used in this section, "unborn child" means a living individual organism of the species homo sapiens, in utero, at any stage of gestation from fertilization to birth."

Helllloooooo Personhood

"Section 12

(h)(i) "Pregnant" or "pregnancy" means that female reproductive condition of having an unborn child in the mother's body."

Combined with the fertilization piece in Section 11, I believe this means you are considered to be pregnant from the moment the egg gets fertilized. This is the part that may have the effect of criminalizing the birth control pill, the patch, IUDs, vaginal rings, and the morning after pill. Probably other things, but I'm not really up on my contraception methods.

"Section 13

(c)
(1) Except in the case of a medical emergency, prior to performing or inducing, or attempting to perform or induce an abortion upon a woman, the physician shall determine the gestational age of the unborn child according to accepted obstetrical and neonatal practice and standards applied by physicians in the same or similar circumstances."

They don’t spell it out, but if you’re in the very early stages of pregnancy, this is where they bring in the ultrasound wand.

"Section 14
(a)
(3) a description of risks related to the proposed abortion method, including risk of premature birth in future pregnancies, risk of breast cancer and risks to the woman's reproductive health and alternatives to the abortion that a reasonable patient would consider material to the decision of whether or not to undergo the abortion;"

The risk of breast cancer studies were flawed and debunked. There is no link. They are legislating a lie and hoping it will scare women into doing The Right Thing. Arrrg.