Ready, break!

I am bad at taking a break but I decided to take a full 3 days off with no studying or anything school related. It's now expanded into day 5. I may even take tomorrow off as well! Kapow!

In the meantime, things spiral ever on around here with the girls getting too big. My computer is ill and I'm giving it a winter break too so I'm sorry for not commenting. It's really hard to comment from the spouse's computer and so I'm very far behind but I am reading and thinking happy thoughts for everyone.

Here's what I've been pondering lately that might turn into whole posts if I'm willing to spend more time at the computer:

The new healthcare law: it frustrates me to no end that my county healthcare employees have no idea what's going on with it (and I live where medicaid is expanding so it isn't like this is some surprise taking employees by storm, it's been in the works for years). We've been getting the run around from them for almost 8 weeks now and I'm about ready to throw something at them. Maybe I should try cookies. I bet cookies would get better results. Bureaucratic nonsense just maddens me and that we have a huge bureaucracy built up to support the weird insurance patchwork that exists in America bugs me. Lots.

Giant leaps and bounds in Little Monster growth. She says things sometimes, including KITTY! and dada and mama and meeee! (which seems to mean MILK! or HOLD ME!). Yesterday she said "in der" in reference to a bowl she was looking into. She climbs low stairs like it's no big thing at all. She has 3 teeth and a few more should turn up soon. Standing for up to a minute with bending down to grab a thing to shake happens. Whoa.

The personhood of businesses and whether they are entitled to a faith or not. I personally avoid patronizing businesses that advertise their religious connection  because I think it's downright immoral to give businesses person-like rights to donate money to political campaigns and nonprofits. I am choosing rotations to avoid pharmacies that advertise for "crisis pregnancy centers" because I think those are a travesty and should be defunded ASAP. It's complicated but in short, no more personhood for anyone who isn't a person. Should animals be protected under the law? Sure but not as if they are people because they are not. Defining "people" and "person" more broadly than those of us living, breathing, humans is a very dangerous slippery slope.

Personhood laws are also on my hate list. My opinion is that, as there's no evidence to the contrary based in science, we cannot give the unborn the rights of a person. Note above where I pointed out that a person should be narrowly defined as a living and breathing human. Can't live or breathe on your own? Not a person and not entitled to the rights and protections of a person, therefore pregnant people ought to retain their rights and not have them superseded by "rights of the fetus." Embryos aren't people so they shouldn't get rights like a person. Should they be protected? Yes. Should they be used for any old science research? Probably not without a lot of supervision and careful ethical consideration, but it shouldn't be prevented on the grounds that "embryos are people." Definition of a person needs limiting to an actual, living, breathing person.

I am so ready to be done with school. And pumping. Maybe not nursing but pumping. Gag. I think my feelings have shifted on the subject and I have things to say but probably at length. For now I am excited that I'm not getting bitten.