domestic terrorism

So let me get this straight.

Palin has accused Obama of palling around with domestic terrorist(s). McCain has not backed off from that. They are also, in more or less the same breath as talking about some guy from Weather Underground who is sufficiently well-respected now to be on the Annenberg Board (where have I heard of that? Oh, wait, that'd be one of the groups that's constantly funding Arty Programs on PBS. No wonder the right wing hates them. They're elitists. Or something), acting like some organization called ACORN is Of the Devil. Now, as near as _I_ can tell, ACORN is a group (or possibly a group of groups -- I'm not too clear on this) of people who register voters who has some difficulty registering as voters (like, not having a stable address type of thing). In _my_ universe, this is A Good Thing.

But not, apparently, to the Bat Shit Crazy Followers of Palin and McCain, who have now vandalized ACORN offices in Boston and Seattle and phoned in death threats. Actions which I think constitute terrorism.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/730636.html

Me, I figured I'd have to bring women's clinics into the discussion to connect McCain and Palin to domestic terrorism. Apparently, I can leave them right out of it.

This is the point at which I toy with making a smart-ass remark about gun control laws being relaxed, and what would the bat shit crazy right wing mob think of their opposite numbers started exercising their second amendment rights. But now we all _know_ everything on the intartubes is being monitored, so maybe that little humorous expression should be minimized as much as possible.

_Consuming Motherhood_ (kindle) and _Hot Number_ (swapped paperback)

_Consuming Motherhood_, Janelle S. Taylor, Linda L. Layne, and Danielle F. Wozniak

I don't recall precisely what prompted me to buy this book. Presumably I was linking around on recommended stuff on Amazon. In any event, this is a collection of academic essays (some previously printed in one form or another elsewhere) about the commodification of babies/mothers/the dyad. There's ethnography, anthropology, etc. Almost all of it, rather than being about Some Culture in Africa, is about Some Cross-Section of Society in England, the US or some other western nation. There's stuff about transnational adoption, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, fostering, childbirth and how people buy stuff to Mark The Place of Their Baby in the world.

It's okay. I had really been hoping for excellent, but it's just okay. Even the Robbie Davis-Floyd essay was a little too close to one of her essays in _Mainstreaming Midwives_ so, while excellent, I'd more or less read it already (it's possible _that's_ how I tumbled to the existence of this book).

I kind of wanted a scholarly version of what I think _Parenting, Inc._ is. You know, someone dismantling trends in Baby Shit and documenting how people Mark the Place of Their Baby in Society by the crap they put on/do to their baby. Ideally, without being creepily judgmental (which is why I'm avoiding, less and less successfully by the day, _Parenting, Inc._).

Trust me, you can skip _Consuming Motherhood_.

_Hot Number_ is another in the Hot Zone series by Carly Phillips. If you're looking for a fast, entertaining but extremely fluffy romance novel set in teh World of Sports, you could do worse (I've mostly blocked out a really bad Deirdre Martin novel, for example -- altho to be fair, her more recent entries may have improved).

Since _Hot Item_ is sitting on the table next to me (funny how they just keep showing up every couple of days), I think I will just call a halt to this review in favor of reading a trashy novel (or, possibly, watching more Law and Order).

walking

We went down to the library today to introduce A. to the Wonderful World of Free Reading Material. Well, really to introduce her to some people who work there who I really like a lot and hadn't seen in a while. That was pleasant. Then we stopped at a neighbor's house who we hadn't seen yet to show her the baby. She has The Touch -- A. conked out in her arms. Wow. When R. and I attempted to transfer her to the car seat to go home, we had a little Error and her head got bonked which pissed her off. Now, A. is really a quiet baby -- most of the time. But when she is unhappy, she Lets Everyone Hear About It (my kinda kid, really). I walked her home rather than risk a second round with the car seat and possible permanent negative association.

This is the _next door neighbor_ north of us on the same side of the street and while we live in a rural area, the houses just aren't that far apart. But boy, I'm sure going to keep the walking to a minimum for at least another week. It's not so much that it was painful as I just felt sore by the time I got home. And it's only been 3 weeks since surgery so, really, why push it?