womb to tomb

according to NPR the US birth rate, which was at its lowest in 2002, is now increasing.

so that's why i've been so busy at work.

also according to NPR, the teen birth rate in the US spiked in 2007.

i wonder if it will increase exponentially after the whole "juno" craze. i heard two girls in a coffee shop in danville saying it was "like the best movie ever."

so i'm wondering why this is. not why juno's like the best movie, but why the birth rate's increasing.

is it that we're healthier than we used to be? nah.
is it because people are like, "if britney can do it, i can do it better"? hmm...
is it because we have better childcare, schools, husbands, houses, benefits? definitely not.

it must be all the cute maternity clothes.

i've been thinking about one of mao's slogans for communist china:
"more people, more power!"

so, think about the ban on birth control education in schools. think about the abstinence myth. think about the attack on legal abortion. are these really moral issues or a strategic investments in the future?

the more bodies we have, the easier it will be to take over iraq/iran/oil-land...


"halliburton. what else do i have to say?"

cake...or death?

this is apparently the 50th anniversary of the lego.

if you lo-oved the video that made me cry in this post, maybe to celebrate you'll love all the eddie izzard lego videos.

you have to worship a heterosexual transvestite. gender-bending, busting down all stereotypes, while remaining distinctly executive. and so quotable.

plus, he has released stuff on anti records, a small, indy record company with artists like tom waits, jolie holland, neko case, mavis staples, the weakerthans, merle haggard, solomon burke, billy bragg, and blackalicious on it. he must be good.


so, i'd prefer cake. unless it was a cake shaped like a tank made for the u.s. army, like on the ace of cakes right now. i might choose death in that case. or death by cake.

blog-fusion

i'm having trouble coming up with a direction for this thing.

i've discovered that the blogs i really love are all about something. they have a theme.

i don't feel like i necessarily have the focus to maintain more than one blog, but i don't know if i can commit to having a specified theme.

i want to reach people with a blog. i want to make folks think about stuff they might not otherwise, but how do folks find a blog if it's not about anything really?

blogs i'd like to do:

• pastry
• pig
• game meat
• traditional nutrition
• ice cream
• birth
• star wars
• radical parenting
• native fruits
• pro-omnivore
• radical feminist
• radical anti-white supremacy
• radical anti-capitalist-imperialist
• radical anti-homophobia
• native plants
• herbalism
• homesteading
• appalachian culture/activism
• fashionista-ism
• mario batali tribute

i couldn't think of any funny blogs really. something must be wrong with this picture.

suggestions, anyone?

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way...

i wanted to blog about so many things tonight. instead i searched the web for star wars t-shirts and i found this. it made me cry. with laughter.

or if you have been on a moon somewhere a few light years from the dagoba system, here's a condensed version with bunnies...

or various parodies:
monty python star wars
harry potter star wars

and we must not forget the ever-moving theme song
on bagpipes
or the banjo. your pick.

star wars has become my personal mythology. i've heard myself saying things like, "it's just like that time on the planet of tatooine..."

or not really, but i've come close.

it's like i need something to hold sacred. and at least it teaches the kids about the force and encourages taking deep breaths and looking within, right?

for real, though. at least the kids have found something to get into that i can subscribe to. no "white power" rangers or unrealistic muscle-men idols.

nope. it's just us rebels in our all-righteous fight against the empire.
like matt syas, "no wonder we turned out to be anarchists."

many colors of patience

i love minority midwifery student's blog. she is so sassy, sweet, and powerful. she makes me want to read a bell hooks book. right now. and it makes me want to make all the people i went to nursing school with (and the teachers) read one. now.

come to think of it, it makes me want to make everyone i know read a bell hooks book RIGHT NOW.

finally someone is talking about all that shit i talked to my partner about during nursing school:

why do we learn about the fact that patients of color are worse off in a hospital, but not learn

a) why that is and
b) what we can do about it as healthcare providers?

why are we made to study and be tested on ridiculous cultural and racial stereotypes?

and then, why do we wonder why these stereotypes persist and ultimately perpetuate the problems people of color have in the world of healthcare?

i don't have any of the answers. maybe bell hooks does. i'd love to talk to her about these things.

i remember some friends of mine talking about hanging out with a black family and commenting on how when their children played they would threaten, "i'm going to send you to the hospital!" that was their best threat. i'm thinking about that and i'm realizing how for people of color, that is a real threat. being stuck in a hospital is an even more dangerous place to be if you're skin isn't white or pink.

what can we do about this as compassionate healthcare providers?

12 hours

So far on this shift I have:

• jogged a mile via videotape
• posted 2 comments on Empowering Birth's blog
• watched "the sweetest thing" while my coworkers studied phlebotomy or snoozed
• watched at least 5 unassisted births on youtube
• cried at all of them
• turned down the sound so no one down the hall would think i was watching porn
• munched on a whole bag of chile-coated mango
• drank a quart of homemade strawberry soda (made from our springwater and organic strawberry nectar)
• made copies for the "Kitchen First-Aid" class i'm going to be facilitating on wednesday at the learning co-op
• changed clothes twice

it's almost four. better do some yoga.