Surrender, Dorothy

Pay It Forward - Birdie's Ovaries

My friend Birdie recently wrote the first two parts of a three-part story over on BlogHer about her ovarian surgery and follow-up complications. In the course of storytelling, she admitted she does not have health insurance.  She's an Avon Lady and buys private health insurance for her children, but does not qualify for Medicaid.

There is something so seriously wrong with the healthcare system in this country.

Please read her story, leave her a comment, and if you want to pay forward anything nice that anyone's ever done for you when you had medical problems, make a donation to her via PayPal.  You can send money using her Beauty Dish account, for which the e-mail address is littlebirdie@mac.com.  You can also e-mail me and I can walk you through the process.  I have no idea how much ovarian surgery is running these days, but I'm guessing you've got to sell a lot of lip gloss to cover it.

Birdie doesn't know I am doing this and would probably kick me if I were in her vicinity, 'cause she don't take no charity.  But I think the universe owes Birdie.  And we make up that universe.

Have a great weekend, and give thanks for your health.

Bragging Rights

I've been reading all about whether or not to brag about your child.  And writing about it, too - check out BlogHer!

In Which Politics Makes Me Happy and Sad

It's been a while since we discussed politics here. And what better time to do it than after the Kansas City mayoral election?

First, I'm pissed. Remember Amendment Two?  When the good people of Missouri voted to allow stem cell research?  Apparently, the politicians in Jefferson City don't give a shit what the good people of Missouri think.  Yesterday, opponents of stem cell research threw a quickie vote into an unrelated committee meeting in an attempt to block the research.

Here's a direct quote from this article:

"The new proposal, House Joint Resolution 11, would allow the legislature to regulate or prohibit such research and would ban the cloning of human cells to search for medical treatments. If passed by the legislature, the resolution would go before voters in November 2008 as a proposed constitutional amendment. Amendment 2 already bans efforts to clone human cells that would initiate a pregnancy or produce an infant."

We should be outraged.  I intend to call my state politicians pronto and give them an earful.  The people have spoken - and it looks like we have to remind our representatives what the fuck we said.

In happier news, my pick for mayor won by a very slim margin.  Meet Mark Funkhouser, the man who won the mayor's office by only 1,010 votes in a city of half a million, the man with no campaign manager, the man who looks like Donald Sutherland.

Mark:

Donald:

Basically, Funkhouser promised to fix our potholes.  And if you've ever been to Kansas City, you know we've lost small children to our potholes.

Show me the stem cell research.  Show me the pothole fixing.  I want my politicians to show me the love.