In These Times

Okay, so in my quest for real news, I've turned to my favorite magazine, In These Times. I love this magazine and I highly recommend reading it. Kurt Vonnegut is associated with its origins. He's one of my heroes and I'm sure he's partly responsible for the thinker I am today (read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Breakfast of Champions).

Anyway, this magazine has wonderfully written articles about very current issues. When I went to the website the other day, an article about my great state of Maryland was featured. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of news I like reading. The title is "Equating Stillbirths with Murders." It's about Maryland's Viable Fetus Act. Apparently, our lawmakers thought they were doing a noble thing by making the death of a fetus a crime equal to murder. The lawmakers were hopefully thinking of pregnant women who are abused, or worse, murdered and the abuse results in the death of the unborn baby. But right-to-lifers are using it to punish women whose fetuses die for one reason or another.

A woman in Ocean City was arrested because her child was delivered stillborn, which happens for any variety of reasons. In Maryland, mothers are supposed to be exempt from prosecution under this law, but other states include mothers. I'm sure you can imagine the consequences to these laws combined with the irrationality of right-to-lifers. How far will they go to punish women whose babies aren't carried to term? Will every miscarriage be considered a crime scene? The last seven years of unchecked Republican rule has created a creepy society that is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. We really have to be vigilant with our local politicians because they really affect the law of the land.

Something has just occurred to me. I'm watching The View, post Rosie, and their guest host is a gay man, Ross "The Intern" Matthews. Last week, they had another gay male guest host, Mario Cantone. It would appear that Barbara Walters believes gay men are equal substitutes for women. Just a thought.

Here's a suggestion for those who can't stomach a full blown iced latte in this heat. Try iced espresso with a splash of half and half.