The Return To Innocence

I have this unending, intense thirst for knowledge and information, and I will go to all possible sources, regardless of who I agree and disagree with, because the worst thing I can do is act on information based on a bias or a personal opinion with no real fact. Everybody has something to say. But not everybody is an expert, or even well-informed, no matter how much they think they are. Therefore, I am always, always searching for answers.

There are a few people whom I trust completely when it comes to political views, fact-checking, and separating truth from opinion, rational thought from intense emotion. And those people posted things in their journals today that made me think hard. I want to thank them. They know who they are. I have already thanked them in their entries, but I need to do it again.
I now know several facts that I was honestly not aware of previously. My brain is thrilled. I now feel armed, in a way, because if someone tries to yell and complain and whine, I can give them such information without feeling uncertain or insecure.
I like to be proven wrong, especially when I really don't know the answer. Thinking I have an answer doesn't mean I actually have one. I hate arguing, because I don't know how to argue. I don't really know how to debate. All I know is how to present my own opinion and belief, and ask that those who want to debate do so calmly and rationally.
The friends I refer to have done so, and one in particular wins my heart. Granted, she already has for various reasons, so yes, I will admit a bias. But I also know that she and I are willing to call each other on bullshit, which is even better, because that is what sisters do.

So, thank you to B. for lots of things. Also, to K. for making me realize some very important things about one of my deepest personal beliefs and ideologies -- I still hold fast to that belief, but I can now look at it from all sorts of angles, without resorting to cliched phrases and declarations.

Also, I have no desire whatsoever anymore to get snarly and angry over any of the current Presidential candidates. Only the politics.

Yes, I am very naive. I'm working to remedy that.

http://naamah-darling.livejournal.com/352794.html?style=mine

Whatever your personal opinion about the subject is, this is something to think about.
Just saying.

http://naamah-darling.livejournal.com/339769.html
http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/6756601.html

"United States Department of Health and Human Services proposes classifying contraception as abortion."

Y'know... I'm just going to sit here and stare blankly for a while.

The sheer, unbound, rampant, screaming idiocy astounds me. But it doesn't surprise me.

I mean, this sort of thing has been raging on in debate classes for a long time, right?

I love Naamah's rant, but I'm not getting all worked up about it yet, because the moronic proposal might not go through; it's mostly a handful of wacky fundamentalist nutjobs who still don't think women have any basic rights to our bodies, etc etc and who obviously have no idea how contraception works.
But still. How many times can we say it? OUR BODIES. OUR WOMBS. OURS. NOT YOURS. YOU CANNOT HAS.

Whatever. It's stupidity at its finest and strongest, but the thing about stupidity is that it has a very high rate of fail.

That's all. Feel free to debate, but I might be quiet until tonight. I have a lot of work today.

Edited to add:
This is fantastic: http://ms-ntropy.livejournal.com/916343.html

Since Adam became an election judge, he had to be at the local elementary school -- where our neighborhood would vote -- by six this morning. I went with him, as there was a bus stop up the street that would go to the metro station. I sat and read my book as Adam and the other judges set up, and at ten to seven I waited in line outside the room, as people began filing in. I was the second person to cast a vote. I'm registered as a Democrat (though a Centrist/Libertarian in my heart), and I went through the process, put my vote in for Barack Obama, handed my card to the guy, blew a kiss to my husband, and headed out for the bus. It was phenomenally cold. My Raynaud's flared up instantly. It took about an hour for me to be able to feel my toes again.

On the partial-birth ban: I knew it would happen eventually. I did not even know about the prodedure until a few years ago, and I don't like the idea of a partial-birth abortion, but I'm pro-choice for a reason. One of my main annoyances concerning the abortion debate is when women use abortion as a form of birth control. But in the case of partial-birth abortion, this ban troubles me, because "Late-term abortions are only used under the most compelling of circumstances-- to protect a woman's health or life or because of grave fetal abnormality....nearly all abortions are performed in the first trimester." (NARAL President Kate Michelman wrote in a Scripps Howard News Service op ed published June 16, 1996).
I don't believe this move will set back abortion rights, but a lot of people who oppose abortion are having a field day. Sigh.

I'm seeing so many debates and arguments on LJ today about civil liberties and basic human rights. I have no desire to get involved in any of them. I'm just going to say this, and I am done: I'm pro-choice, pro-gun ownership, pro-death penalty, pro-cannabis. I don't want to explain why right now. I'm not a "member" of any political party, this is what I believe personally. There. That's it. Enough. I'm not even going to argue with comments should they be commented. Y'all can say anything you wish, it's your right and your opinion and your belief and good for you, seriously; and I won't debate it.

I'll post something happier shortly.

I never did like posting about politics. It makes me tired.

Politics, and the sickening "I'm better than you" games it plays:
http://todabrilla.livejournal.com/135213.html

http://www.gocomics.com/pricklycity/2006/11/08/

"Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people."
- James Russell Lowell

Non Sequitur
I had to bite my lip hard to keep from snickering.

This is why I'm libertarian and neutral. I am equally irritated by both extreme liberals and extreme conservatives. Extremist animal rights activists and extremist anti-abortionists are both really fucking annoying in my book. One side acts like bratty whiny children and the other side acts like cold-hearted stubborn seniors. Either way, good luck trying to mediate.

Okay, political stabbing over. Thank you.
(This is why I don't discuss politics in public. People usually don't like my views)