This Shouldn't Need to be Said.

There is only one place in government where sick perverts who force doctors to rape their pregnant patients should be, and that's under the federal penitentiary.

The Valentine's Day Spyware Surprise

On Valentine's Day we found spyware on our computer. It was a huge, nasty, keystroke-collecting thing apparently installed year before last by hand when someone broke into our house looking for our medical insurance records (and audio-taped themselves doing it, the dorks) and set it to auto-download on V-day. We don't think it activated last V-day because we weren't doing much online then as we were still busy moving.

This is an infuriating, intolerable invasion of our privacy.

Sometimes the Gods Are TOO Helpful

Here I was wondering how to start a conversation with my preteen daughters on non-reproductive sex (They know where babies come from) when an obsolete and insulting attempt to hobble enslave devalue force women into a second-class status through taking away their contraceptives drops right into our laps. Hoo boy.

With all the poverty going around, you'd think they would concentrate on that issue, but nooo, they gotta find one that hits even closer to home, an issue that literally gets under the skin of every woman. This is evil work attempted by people who can't be bothered to care about the lives and well-being of the majority of the world's population. It will not succeed, of course. But that it was even attempted is a moral outrage.

Part of me wants to make the most of this wonderfully appropriate "teachable moment". The rest of me wants to do whatever it takes to make sure no such idiot-fueled "moments" ever happen again.

Spring is here already?

The South's native tiny purple violets have flowers about the size of the big end of a chopstick. They are the most conservative indicator of spring, never blooming until all danger of severe cold weather is past. Their flowers began covering my yard in the first week of February. This is ridiculous. It hasn't even gotten cold enough to knock the leaves off the bushes, which has played havoc with my pruning schedule.

More worrisome to Southerners is that it also hasn't gotten cold enough to kill most of the insect larva. Popular opinion is that we're going to be eaten alive next summer.

The other surefire indicator of changing weather has also surfaced. For some reason a warming trend tears my stomach up. This put a dent in my exercise schedule for a few days, but I'm trying to soldier on. More about that later.