Guys, it's time to man up and do what's right

Guilty. I'm a guy. In fact I once told my Daughter a tale of my youth and fast cars. She looked at me, shook her head, and said, "Dad you are such a guy.".


Come here boys, we need to talk. I know some of you have parochial, pre nineteenth century views of women, their intelligence and their roles in civilized society. You are excused. I know I am not rhetorically skillful enough to influence your belief system. One can't dislodge those views with a 2x4 to the head. So, later. Pound down a PBR for me.

Ok. For the rest of you I have a call to arms.


I don't care about color, ideology, sexual orientation. I only care that you are a rational, caring human being.
There is something happening here in The United States that should outrage all of us.


I treat it as a given that we men can do stupid and do it exceptionally well. We all are guilty of some form of misogyny. Looking at her bust line rather than looking her in the eyes. Visual appraisal as she walks by. Stupid, sexist jokes and comments. No matter how evolved we think we are we all do it. I'm unsure if it's cultural or hardwired. Testosterone make us , on the whole, bigger, stronger and more aggressive.Perhaps that hormone colors our perception of women. Does it cause us to reduce women to simply objects of desire, something to dominate? This attitude crosses and is present in most cultures.


Or rather is it something passed from father to son like shade tree mechanics? I'll leave the nurture v. nature argument to the biologists and the social sciences. Lets talk about things we are able to change and influence.
William F. Buckley, the father of modern American Conservative thought,would be appalled, aghast and angry by what so-called Conservative ideology has morphed into. It is not Conservatism, it is a reactionary rejection of the modern world.


Buckley pushed the American Nazi Party, The John Birch Society and the KKK out of the Conservative movement in the fifties. He rightly recognized their ideas were counter to American ideals and UnAmerican to the core.Now the John Birch Society is one of the sponsors of CPAC, the annual Conservative Woodstock.


Buckley's school of thought enabled the rise of Senator Barry Goldwater(R-Ariz).While I disagree with most of his positions at least they were reasoned, thoughtful responses to the issues facing America. He was an intellectual counter weight to The Dixiecrats. The flip side of the coin that was Strom Thurmond. Goldwater was also prescient in his warnings about the influence of the religious right. He knew how the Senate and Federal Government worked. Compromise was not an obscenity or heresy.


Now we have the Tea Party, The Pauls (Ron and Rand), Perry, Palin, Bachmann, Santorum, Huckabee, Beck and Limbaugh driving the rhetoric and outlook of the rabid Right.


Guys, that was a small overview of the evolution to now. Thanks for being polite enough not to snore.


Emerging from the ashes of rationality we are seeing something unprecedented in American political thought.
A group of Citizens are being stripped of basic human and Civil rights under the banner of an affront to God and morality.That's right Women. Our wives, daughters and mothers are being made officially second class citizens.


Some seem to think it is only the Old Confederacy. Wrong. It is not a regional issue it is a widespread ideological issue.


Texas has received a ton of press recently and rightfully so. But, there is Ohio, Michigan,Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas going after women. What do they have in common? Not Southern States.


This reminds me of the Weather Underground and anti war movement in the sixties. Get that look off your face. See, the campus protests were seen as an elitist phenomenon of the East and West coasts. The home of the pointy headed intellectual and nattering nabobs of negativity. Thank you Vice President Agnew.So the left's idea was to rally the heartland. To show that opposition was National. They succeeded. In late April and early May of '70 as college campus' across the country exploded in protest.


The protest at Ohio State(Then the Nation's largest single campus University) was massive and violent. And there was Kent State. The support of the Vietnam war was shown to be a losing proposition.


The Right's strategy has been similar. As long as it's narrow view was confined to more culturally conservative regions it was dismissed as an blip on the political radar. In once moderate States like Ohio they were more committed, more organized and better funded than the Dems. We were caught with our pants down because we believed in the inherent sanity of the American voter. Well we were wrong. An underlying strain of intolerance was identified, nurtured and empowered by demagogues.


With State Legislatures now dominated by reactionary theocratic, anti science and anti history true believers we should have seen this coming. State after State have launched a massive attack on women disguised as protection and education. Women have been denigrated as too emotional and not rational enough to make basic reproductive and healthcare decisions. Many lament that the rise of women empowered to make reproductive decisions about their bodies and future is a primary reason for the decline of "Christian" American values. So, there's always a woman to blame?


I am going to use Ohio as an example since I live here and am more aware of the laws.


The State Legislature here, with a huge Majority in both Houses, shoved what may be the Nation's most restrictive Abortion laws into effect.


The waiting period was doubled. Doctors are required to perform a medically unneeded ultrasound, at the woman's expense. There is a mandated narrative describing the fetus, it's potential to be carried to full term and ability to feel pain(not a medical consensus). MD's are also required to tell a woman abortion increases the risk of Breast Cancer even though the American Cancer Society says there is NO correlation. A State mandated lie.


Ohio, knowing more than the AMA and scientists redefined pregnancy. It now starts at conception rather than the medically accepted implantation. This raises intended or maybe unintended consequences. Any form of birth control that prevents implantation is now a de facto abortion. So the pill, Plan B and IUD's will require the waiting period, ultrasound and lecture.


The idea here is since a woman uses abortion as a casual form of birth control she must be shown the consequences of her actions. If she can be shamed and humiliated all the better. She will learn. Thanks to Federal privacy laws protecting medical information this shaming and humiliation isn't public. Though listening to some of the rhetoric there may be a few who would like to publish names. Create modern day Hesters.


The Ohio laws are extensive. Google it. I get too upset.


The gist is, Guys, that women are too irrational,not intelligent, casually uncaring,people driven only by emotion and self.


Is this how we view women?  Remember these are sisters, mothers, daughters, Think of your family. Could you love someone so casually uncaring about life? Someone too stupid to make important health decisions as you trust them with raising your child? Are they genetically destined to be inferior? Can you possibly believe that?


I know a lot of women. Most of the smartest people I know are women. And sorry to say most of the dumbest people I know are men. Just saying.


So boys we have a choice. One that will profoundly affect the future.


Do we stand with women and say No? Enough is enough is enough. No farther? Or do we stand on the sidelines letting our silence condone the behavior? Doing that I fear will validate every negative stereotype concerning men.


It's time to show what we are made of. That we are quality partners in life and society. That we aren't Feudal Lord and Master wanna be's. That we value women for their contributions to our lives.


Do we stand with women, our daughters, wives, sisters and mothers? Or Not.
The time to choose is now, The time to act and show our true colors is now. We need to make them proud to have us.  Stand and say No. We will not tolerate this behavior. We stand united with women for a better future. A better America. A better life.

Down these mean streets.. Raymond Chandler "wrote like a slumming angel." (REVISED)

Summer in Ohio. Warm. Muggy. Overcast. The air was humid and thick as a politician's skin. Oppressive as my past

Sorry. I've been reading Chandler and seem to have gone full Noir.

Why am I reading a crime novelist who died over a half century ago? One whose last major work dates from the early Fifties? Well, because I love how the English language works in the hands of a master. Raymond Chandler was a master if nothing else.

Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler took the crime novel out of Christie's English Country Estates where the corpse was served up with tea and crumpets and put it back in the gritty, dark corrupt urban environs where it belonged. No gimmick like a detective who works from bed or never leaves the house. Spade and Marlowe were men. Human. Damaged guys with a sense that law and justice were at times not even nodding acquaintances. Men with situational ethics long before the phrase.

Chandler is a long standing favorite of mine. An early influence. Hell I read "The Little Sister" when I was eleven or twelve, poolside during rest periods. There was something there that engaged my developing love of a well written novel. The use of language the way an artist wields a brush. Literary landscapes. Prose portraits .A world as far removed from Sixties Columbus as modern Britain is from The Shire unfolded in my imagination.

Chandler, more than anyone, perfected a uniquely American genre. The hard boiled Private Eye with the tough exterior and thoughtful, compassionate center. A man alone but undaunted. A man that walks in the shadows and still sees the stars.

Chandler's Mother, after her divorce, took Raymond home to Ireland where they lived with her Mother.Chandler's Father had married "Lace Curtain Irish".After the family relocated to England, He attended upscale British public schools.There he excelled in the classics and learned a code of honor he never lost. After graduation he wrote essay's, poetry and critiques.

Wanting to write, Chandler took a job in the civil service thinking it would provide stability and time.. Unable to deal with the rigid environment he went back to the States.

Ray settled in L.A. He was an educated man for the time and held various white collar jobs. When WW1 started he Joined The Canadian Expeditionary Force. Serving with distinction in fierce engagements he was wounded and was the sole survivor of his unit. He was decorated and discharged.

Raymond returned to Los Angeles. Prior to the war he had fallen in love with a woman eighteen years his senior. Following the war she divorced. Chandler put her up in an apartment in Hermosa Beach near where he lived. His mother was living with him at the time. Following her death he married the love of his life, Cissy Pascal.

He took a position with an Oil Syndicate in L.A. The oil business there was rather wild west. Chandler met all sort of characters. The rich and obscenely rich. Pickpockets, crooked politicians, corrupt cops and others that would surface later in his work.

Chandler was drinking heavily as he would off and on for the rest of hos life. He was fired. He wandered up and down the Pacific coast. As he did so he started reading pulps. This was the peak of the pulp industry. Reading "Black mask" he decided he could do the crime genre, learn to really write as he did it and make a little money while he was at it.With his Classical education Chandler thought he could bring something new and unique to these stories.

He set his fiction in Los Angeles. The City Of Angels had exploded in population with the rise of the Film industry. With the explosive growth came money, power, vices of every description, crime and corruption. A perfect back drop straight out of a studio lot.

He sold his first story to "Black Mask". At one cent a word. He soon got a raise to a nickle a word. He wrote slowly and meticulously crafting these tales of L.A.'s seamy underside. Thus his output was never high.  Especially when compared to prolific writers like Cain, MacDonald and Stout. Chandler was correct though. He was learning to really write.

Chandler had developed an uniquely Southern Californian voice. The hot dry Santa Ana winds drove the narrative at times. That wind pushed the characters over their moral boundaries. The unthinkable became logical. Desirable. Needed, His characters wandered up and down the coast. Venice Beach. Santa Monica. Into the desert. The harsh unrelenting sunshine exposed things best left in shadow. Los Angeles was the major recurring character in his work. The Dame. The Seductress. The nemesis pulling all the strings.

Knowing if he were to make any money he needed to write a novel he cannibalized and reworked three short stories into "The Big Sleep". Here we meet Phillip Marlowe and the mature writer Raymond Chandler.

Chandler had perfected his use of dialogue to drive the narrative,  Subtle wordplay. Wry humor. Smartass interactions. This was layered over a cynicism that veiled a hopeful Marlowe. One who had seen the worst of humanity and did not despair. He still believed. In justice and people. He was a knight errant saving the village from the dragon and losing innocence along the way. The heroic sacrifice.

Chandler's and Marlowe's vision of right and wrong wasn't weighted by black and white. He embraced shades of grey as Marlowe embraced a femme fatale. Ray's use description created the Noir world of the Los Angeles not promoted by Studio flacks.

Chandler's use of devices like simile and metaphor was poetry in prose form. You feel the dry hot air moving through the Los Angeles basin. You recognize the venality of the wealthy. Unlike film and novels of the time Chandler didn't aggrandize the rich. He showed them as they are. Powerful, entitled, spoiled and demanding feudal Lords. He showed us the rich are different. He did it with a word, A well turned scathing phrase and an egalitarian point of view.

Chandler showed the corruption of our ideals. The American Dream as nightmare.

Raymond Chandler wrote more novels and had a love hate relationship with the Hollywood Studios. They adapted his novels to varying degrees of success. He received two Oscar nominations for screenplays. Billy Wilder allowed him to write drunk.He realized a loaded Chandler wrote better than most sober screenwriters.

In 1953 "The Long Goodbye" was published. Chandler put everything he had learned as a writer into that novel. As a result he changed the genre once again. He gave us the socially conscious Private Investigator.

The book was a quintessential American novel that happened to have a crime in it.He delved into social, racial,political, sexual and environmental issues as he weaved a spellbinding narrative. His use of language was subtly superb and breathtaking. Los Angeles was a living, breathing, oasis of decadence and desperate corruption. It may be his best work. It is an enduring snapshot of L.A.

After the death of his wife his work was sporadic and of uneven quality. He was drinking heavily. A full blown alcoholic. And still in that later work was flashes of genius. The man who shaped SoCal for the rest of us even today.

All PI's are the children of Marlowe. Rockford. Spenser. Any good person that will walk mean streets to put themselves in harm's way for a cause. A reason.

A brilliant, flawed man gave us an endearingly flawed character. One who endures the life he has to help others keep theirs. His voice was uniquely American.  Uniquely precise.  A Doctoral course on the power and beauty of the written word..

Less than twenty attended his funeral. Any of us that fancy ourselves a writer owe him a tremendous debt.

Growing up on Ohio. A long road to how the hell'd I get here?

    I was born, raised and lived the majority of my misspent life in Columbus Ohio.
I grew up in the late 50s and came of age in the turmoil of the late 60s. Like many of my Generation I embraced the values of all are equal, war is wrong and music is freeing to the soul. Unlike many I seem to have maintained my, what seems to be now,  naive and archaic worldview.
With the events of the last few weeks, writing this pressure relief valve, I have found myself becoming introspective.. How the hell did a white, blue collar suburban boy became whatever the hell I am now?
Think of it as a background briefing. What a long strange trip it's been.
I have talked with people I grew up with and can not believe we are contemporaries. The differences in beliefs and attitudes are staggering to me.
In the first half of the Twentieth Century there was a huge migration to the North by African Americans and poor agrarian Southern Whites. Both groups sought a better future in the Industrialized Northern States. Henry Ford was paying an unheard of eight dollars a day. Both groups wound up segregated.
The prejudice in the North was subtle and insidious.
Blacks had their neighborhood. The hillbillies had theirs. Both were expected to know their place.
The largest part of this migration, here in Columbus, came from Kentucky, West Virginia.and southeastern Ohio. Appalachia.
They were the butt of jokes. Stereotyped as ignorant, inbred hillbillies. It wasn't confined to Central  Ohio. Look at the original Mountain Dew label and marketing.  Li'l Abner. Hee Haw  The Beverly Hillbillies. (Here we knew they were from Arkansas)
African Americans? Our racism here was insidious and covert. That enabled us to preserve our moral superiority to the Old Confederacy. This was the mix and attitudes I grew up surrounded by.
I grew up in Whitehall, a blue collar, mostly white suburb of Columbus. A Cop I knew told me in Whitehall we don't even put blacktop down. In a class of 350+ there were three blacks. This is years after Little Rock.
I remember my Dad talking about an argument with a big Buck N****r. My Mom casually talking about that N****r Bitch. My Father in the mid-sixties told me, with a straight face, believing it, that the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was so smart was he was about half white. Looking back I find the casual racism in my environment appalling.
As to the Kentucky expats we joked about the three r's taught in school there. Readin, ritin, Route 23. Route 23 is a major highway connecting most of Ohio with Kentucky. The road to Columbus.
Somehow I rejected much of the ideas and attitudes I grew up with. Its my Parents and lilley white school system's fault.
I was instilled at a young age with a love of reading and learning by my parents. They always bought the encyclopedia volume of the week at the A & P. I fondly remember The Golden Book Encyclopedia. A slim twenty six volume set aimed at young readers. I read them like a collection of short stories.  Then there was Funk And Wagnalls. Made famous by Rowen and Martin on Laugh-In. Both were sold a volume a week as a promotion at A& P. My parents made sure there was a complete set of both in our house.  They purchased a collection of great books from a door to door salesmen. Before I was twelve I had read "Great Expectations", "Huckleberry Finn,","Tom Sawyer", and other seminal masterpieces of great literature.
Both my parents read. We subscribed to both Daily Papers here. I read Chandler,  Rex Stout, Erle Stanley Gardner and John MacDonald. Dashiell Hammett and Ross MacDonald also. I was exposed to the world. New ideas and points of view. My parents helped me escape my past never dreaming of where my mind would wander.
Whitehall City Schools aided me also. I  learned critical thinking. Amazing Social Studies teachers instilled a love of History. I learned who we are and why. A grasp of historical context that seems so rare in social conversation today.
Then there was the insanity that was the sixties.
Jack Kennedy was shot on my birthday. I was in sixth grade. On the news Walter Cronkite showed me Birmingham. Selma. Watts. George Wallace standing on the steps saying segregation now. Segregation forever.  James Meredith and Ole' Miss.  Viet Nam .  The Berlin wall. I saw Jack Ruby shoot Oswald, live. Martin, Bobby and Malcolm were murdered.
An uppity prize fighter changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali.
The College campus' across the country exploded in protest, anger and violence. Students were gunned down at Kent State. I was beaten and tear gassed at Ohio State more than once.
I talked and listened to the College students as I hung out as a High School student. I needed to understand. I embraced some positions. I rejected others. Hell, I met and talked with Bernadine Dohrn of the Weather Underground in an off campus apartment in Columbus in 1970.
I embraced the madness and change like a lover. My worldview was being radically altered. Eldridge Cleaver was asked what was the position of women in the Movement. His response was prone. I disagreed. I had developed a radical notion that people were equal. Equal meant equal.Color, religion and plumbing made no difference to me.
I asked my first wife how she could vote for Saint Ronnie in '80 with his views on women's issues. She looked at me like I was insane. We were divorced not long after.
I moved away from being politically active in the eighties. I just didn't have the passion anymore.  After Reagan and Bush the Elder my annoyance was powering. I was waking back up/ Attacking womens rights was becoming the norm .The demonization of the poor. The rise of the Religious right and their rejection of the Twentieth Century
I saw evangelicals trying to push into education their bible stories. I looked on in amazed despair as this virus spread never dreaming we would be where we are now. I  reengaged.  Volunteer work for Clinton. Gore. And 2000 reawakened the radical bomb throwing hippie of my youth.
Then came Twitter.
I found like minded people. I remembered how to think and express myself. I remembered how to make reasoned, cognitive arguments. I rediscovered I had a vocabulary as rusty and unused as it was.The friends I made there may have saved the shards of my sanity.For that I am lucky and grateful.
I seem to be color blind. I think women are people and equal. I really don't care who someone loves.
So I was talking to a friend of mine about the happenings of the last few weeks. He's gay. As we discussed things he saw my opinions and point of view. He told me I was a true progressive.  I  was flabbergasted. I really don't see myself that way. I feel I'm a reasonably smart guy. I feel I'm an understanding, basically nice guy.  One who understands how and why the world works the way it does. I know I understand historical context and perspective. I understand politics. I am a liberal. That's my idea of who I am. But a true progressive, Said like I was a fucking unicorn? I embrace that compliment. I will wear it as a badge of honor as if he were right.A goal to attain.
A long strange trip. Mistakes and regrets abound. On the whole though I like how I wound up. My evolution from a boy to a man. A liberal? Guilty.
A true progressive? I don't know. Jury is still out. I hope so. At least on the road. But I'll settle for being a  nice guy and a good father. What more does one need anyway?

Shhhh, girls, the men are talking. Ohio. Again.

     I had hoped not to have to write this. I should be used to dashed and decimated hopes by now.
     Gov.John Kasich ( R-OH) had the chance to show Ohio is a sane, reasonable place to live. Instead he chose to show Ohio as a reactionary, theocratic, anti-women, anti-science State where Conservative men know more than Doctors on how to treat a pregnant woman.
    The provisions in this abhorrent Budget have purpose. To shame and intimidate women. The rules come from the idea that the girls are incapable of making decisions on their reproductive health, their future and rights as a human being and citizen  With the redefinition of pregnancy (AMA be damned) certain contraceptives may be defined as abortifacients since they prevent implantation to the uterine wall. Ultra sound and lectures for the pill or IUD?
     Any contraception restriction seems to be intended to strip women of viable alternatives to sex for other than  procreative purposes. If you have sex simply because you enjoy it (SLUT) be prepared for the consequences. You may need to rely on barrier or rhythm methods.       Or the RWNJ favorite, abstinence. See, sexually active women with alternatives and reproductive control are a major reason for the decline of our "Christian" nation's moral values. Harlots!! There seems to be a longing by these rat bastards for a return to a woman being pregnant for most of her reproductive years.
     Let's not forget there is no exclusion for rape or incest. The only exclusion is for saving the life of the mother. Period. That's it.
     The GOP in Ohio used to be reasonable and wary of overreach. No longer. They feel they have a mandate from God. A divine right to impose their narrow, hateful vision and moral judgements on the people of Ohio.
     The "Pro Life" lobby is ecstatic. Women are so incapable of making these decisions about their lives. Men are so much smarter and must act to protect them from themselves.
     Kasich in response to abysmal poll numbers has flirted with trying to appear pragmatic and reasonable. There have been occasional dashes to the center. Always short lived and seen as blatant political posturing.  
     Thus in Ohio there was the feeling he realized these provisions were a mistake and extremist over reach. He would use the line item veto on them. Instead he decided to play to the rabid right base to position himself for reelection in '14 and a possible Presidential run as a Conservative Pro Life champion in '16. He seems to have forgotten his Presidential flirtation with the GOP  in 2000 collapsed under massive indifference.
     I have always tried to avoid pissing off women as a rule. I have found angering women is unwise and dangerous.  These guys seem to relish it.
     So, options
     The best remedy I believe will be the courts. The danger there is these budget provisions seem to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. A challenge that winds it's way to the Supreme Court (GOP AG DeWine would surely keep appealing any losses up the food chain) could,in this court result in overturning that landmark decision. We've seen their disdain for precedent and what in normally considered settled law.
     A major pushback by concerned and outraged women is very likely. However there is no Recall in Ohio.
     Budget provisions, I believe, can't  be overturned via ballot repeal. I need to research that but even if, deadlines for Nov. loom.
      The GOP can expect a push for defeat by righteously, outraged Ohio women and men.
     Our primary recourse is the ballot box to remove these people from office next year. Due to gerrymandering it will be a challenge. A challenge accepted. As a free people that value equality we can not let this abomination stand.
     We have an obligation to our daughters to stop this now. To stand and say NO! No Farther.
     Apathy and complacency will doom women to a return to the 19th century. Dangerous herbal concoctions to induce adbortion and miscarriages.
     Again back alley abortion resulting in death and sterilization of women due to sepsis. The return of the wire coat hanger as a surgical instrument.
     Not again!

Rogues. Scoundrels.Scalawags. And me.

     I was born and raised in Columbus Ohio. I am an unabashed Big 10 fan. I'd like nothing better than to watch Ohio State clock an SEC school. Just to shut them the fuck up about slow Northern Teams. We play Football in football weather. The SEC plays football in beach volleyball weather. Sundresses and heels are not proper football attire.
That said, I have a major affection for the South. I am a card carrying Liberal. I don't care.The sublime, sweet,serene, sensual, Southern siren song has me as rapt as Odysseus. How?
How indeed?
It's complicated. Famous last words.
I first saw the South as a twelve year old boy on a family driving vacation. We visited family in Memphis. Drove south to New Orleans.I saw spanish moss on trees lining the two lane.In N'Awlins we wandered the Quarter.
Even then there was a gothic sensibility in the French Quarter that tugged at my soul. The ancient buildings. Courtyards.Balconies. The sunlight. The shadows The dark, Delta jewel beckoning, smiling softly..As a suburban boy from Ohio I was amazed and awed by the history.Walking in the footsteps of Lafitte,, Williams. Faulkner.Jackson. I had never experienced anything like this.The smells, sounds and music moved my heart and nestled somewhere in my soul waiting to reemerge in my adulthood. To catch me by surprise.
We moved along the Gulf coast. My younger brother and I launched bottle rockets into the Gulf of Mexico from a beach in Gulfport Mississippi.
We travelled along the Redneck Riviera.Got salt and sand in my swim trunks in Ft. Walton Beach Florida.
Up the East Coast through Savannah, Charleston. We ate well. It was on this trip I developed a lifelong disdain for grits. I have since been informed I may have to reevaluate that attitude.
I walked the decks and marveled at the big guns on the Battleship USS North Carolina.
On to Washington DC. Mount Vernon. Williamsburg. In the summer. In the South. The seeds were sown.
As an adult I spent time in Nashville and discovered I pick up accents easily and quickly. I found a different way of life. An appealing attitude.An intrigueing world.
 I also developed a soft spot for Southern women. Similar to my genetic, Irish fascination with red heads.Both turn my head and steal my reason, only for me to discover I'm far out of my depth. I turn befuddled into the arms of strong Yankee women and am comforted there. I understand them. As well as I understand any woman. .
I later spent time in Maryland.
Then came my return to New Orleans.
She stole my heart. Captured my soul. The ambience. The music. The food. The people. The deep South called to me with it's genteel charm. The flower scented breezes. The sensual dance of life. It's hard not to love the South.
I am at best eccentric. At worst functionally crazy. A bit of a rogue. A scoundrel with an astounding lack of propriety. Eccentrics, scoundrels and rogues have a storied tradition in Southern life. We aren't avoided and condemned as in the staid puritanical North. And many of us are Irish. Imagine that.
I realize the South is conservative. Well so is most of Ohio.  I simply feel lost and out of place in the North. I have a Southern sensibility pulling at me. Calling me. Confusing the hell out of me. Though a dear Southern friend told me I understand the charm and foibles of Dixie better than most Yanks. I would fit in.
I know moving is not a panacea. However I feel if I'm going to be alone and miserable I can do it just as well, if not better someplace I'd actually like. After all these years I can say with certainty that Ohio sucks. Not in a good way.
So it seems to be time for an exodus. Time to become an expat Buckeye. Time to live not exist. I'm overdue to embrace the the sultry seductress that is the South. It could be a mistake. I could get burned. But as Buffett once said,"the pleasure is worth all the pain". It'll be one hell of a ride.

What has happened to Ohio?? Budget tells women to shut up and take it.

      I remember when Ohio was a moderate, reasonable State.
John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum were the US Senators.The two parties actually worked together to make Ohio a better place to live. Political agendas were not aggressively pursued and imposed on a reasonable populace. That was then. This is now.
In 2006, following Gov. Robert Taft's pathetic two terms Ohio elected a moderate, pragmatic Governor. Ted Strickland.
Ken Blackwell, the poster child for voter suppression in 2004 was kicked to the curb as he got his ass handed to him in the Governor's race. Democrats swept every State wide office and had a majority in the State Senate. Ohio was a moderately progressive state where compromise was required to govern.
Well, fast forward to 2010.
The rise of the Tea party challenge from the right and the Unicorn Wing of the Democratic Party sitting at home on their hands in a pique, forgetting elections have consequences saw the rout of reasonable pols. The reactionary right seized control of State Government. They Gerrymandered the State to create safe districts and ensure one party rule for the next decade. There was attempted voter suppression beat back by the courts.Still Ohio is not the red state the Tea Party/GOP say it is. PBO carried Ohio in a decisive victory. Twice.
This is simply apologetic background to show Ohio doesn't have a long history of insanity.
Now comes the two year budget passed by the reactionary Legislature, steamrolling the Democratic minority. Into this budget they inserted the "Pro Life" shopping list and in places took it farther. Let's peer under the rock at the squirmy little fucks.
This budget:
Redefines pregnancy as starting at conception contrary to what the AMA says.
Reworks funding to put Planned parenthood at the end of the funding line behind Pregnancy Crisis Centers. (Anti abortion groups) One Senator said no funding for any organization that supports abortion as an option.
Doctors must perform a medically unneeded ultra sound at the woman's expense.The MD is required to describe the fetus and tell the chances of it reaching viability and full term. Fetal pain must be mentioned.
Doctors are required to tell women abortion increases the possibility of breast cancer even though the American Cancer Society says there is no evidence of a correlation.
If Doctors don't lie to their patient and jump through the hoops they could be convicted of a felony and a million dollar fine can be imposed..
Abortion providers can not have transfer agreements with public hospitals. In Ohio most private hospitals have religious affiliations This could make transfer agreements problematic.
Doubles the waiting time to forty eight hours.
If a fetal heartbeat is found during the ultra sound the woman must be notified in writing.
The GOP says these regulations are necessary to inform a woman of risks and options. To increase safety. Another solution in search of a problem.
This is needed to reduce the number of procedures in Ohio. OK. in 1982 45,000 abortions were performed here. 2012? 25,000. The number seems to be decreasing without this intervention by the State.
There were protests as the vote progressed. State Senator Nina Turner(D-Cleveland) said,"Texas lit the fuse." Indeed, This legislation is an abomination. It makes me ashamed to be an Ohioan.
Gov. John Kasich(Already mentioned by Politico as a strong Presidential primary contender in 2016) in a five minute answer to a question about the abortion regs mentioned several times he was pro life. So, a line item veto of these heinous regulations is unlikely
So, options? A court challenge on multiple provisions seems likely.
An organized pushback by women is also likely.
Kasich is up for reelection in 2014. The best way to derail his Presidential ambitions is to make him a one term Governor and restore sanity to budget making here. For those who don't remember Kasich had an aborted Presidential; Primary campaign in 2000 which collapsed under lack of support. He also worked at Fox News.
WE need more sane voices in the Legislature
WE need to retake the State wide offices.
Ohioans must stand and say NO!! Ohio has to show the Nation we are not in favor of women being chattel with no input on their health, rights and future.
Equal means equal.
Stand up Ohio! Just say NO! Loud and proud.

No....It's not a Southern problem. Really

     As a Liberal Ohioan I am tired.
Very tired.
I am tired of we Northern Liberals being so denigrating and dismissive of the South.We fall back on stereotypes which we decry when they are used on those we support. However we have no problem dismissing Southerners as backward, barefoot, bumpkins and bozos.
We somehow forget the Bill Clintons and Jimmy Carters remembering only the Mike Huckabees and Rick Perrys.
I realize the South is conservative.I also think this may be more a lack of engagement on the part of Democrats and Progressives. We've been known to bitch and moan as we sit on our hands.Take Arkansas. A very RED State Government. I have been told by a friend who lives there that local Government tends to be civilized and Democratic. Control of local politics will eventually give you the State.
The view that women are not real citizens with equal rights, the attack on women's reproductive health, rights and options is not an Old Confederacy issue. It's not a regional issue. It's a Republican issue.
OK. Arkansas passed a very restrictive abortion law earlier this year. Bad hillbillies. Today, The Great State of Ohio, a bastion of The Union during The Civil War is poised to pass the most restrictive abortion legislation since Roe v.Wade became the legal standard re; abortion rights. A Doctor MUST inform a woman a fetal heartbeat is detected before an abortion, IN WRITING.I can't summarize this bill without my head exploding. Google the fuck out of it. Here in Ohio a fetus testified in committee hearings via sonogram as opponents were denied a chance to speak. A Personhood State Constitutional Amendment is raising it's ugly head in a petition drive for a ballot issue.
In Kansas a woman on Medicaid who needs a medically necessary abortion must have it approved personally by the Governor.
Indiana? Restrictive laws.
Pennsylvania? Looking at restrictions.
Michigan? You can't say vagina on the House floor. And restrictive
Anybody else see a pattern here?
What do all these states have in common? Not a part of the Old Confederacy. Not a Southern state. A State Government controlled by a reactionary Republican Party determined to foist their warped "Christian" morality on all of us in contravention of The Establishment clause. They truly believe they have a God given right and duty to codify their "Christian" ideals.
So how do we Northern Liberals climb on our high horse and gallop over the South? How can we justify our dismissive attitudes? How can we ignore the sane voices of Southerners with a vision of what the South can be. We condemn their Dems as Blue Dogs and DINO. Like the RWNJ's we've been known to bankroll a Primary challenge handing the Seat to the GOP. (See Arkansas)
We Liberals seem to seek Unicorns that fart rainbows.
So as Liberals we all need to stand together to stop this return to the theocratic Middle Ages.
The operative words are STAND TOGETHER.
Make it so.