Friday Evening Three-Line Movie Review

As I sat and watched the documentary RBJ about the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I couldn't help but think about the dead journalists, the babies in cages, the piles of black bodies dead or in prison, the tainted water of Flint, Michigan, the taxes in the form of tariffs, and, of course, the reproductive rights of women, particularly those who are poor or minorities. The movie demonstrates with startling clarity how far "we've" come, because of this woman and her fight for equality, and it also underscores how much is at stake and how far backward we're moving with the despot on the throne and the same old white men calling the shots. The movie is worth going to, though, if you're in need of some galvanizing, if you want to see a fierce woman fight for everything that is good, partnered with a man who supported her every step of the way, and you wonder how the hell we're going to carry on her legacy with so much against us, because WE ARE, we have done it before and we will do so again, and we owe it to her for helping us.









More 3-Line Movie Reviews

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Learning to Drive
Love and Mercy
Not a Three Line Movie Review
While We're Young
Ida
Force Majeur 
Gone Girl
Saint Vincent
Get on Up
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day 
Philomena

August: Osage County

Her

American Hustle

Another Episode of

Gosh, dang. It's been ages since I've done a Smells like Bullshit post and got everyone all riled up. The truth is that I don't feel too riled up anymore -- maybe all the meditation is working or maybe I've grown cynical and hopeless or maybe I just don't give a damn. I do read the papers or, at the very least, skim the headlines and I've noticed that there's a whole lot of bullshit going around. Like today I read that you can't buy a Glock pistol at a Starbucks in Nevada, but you can carry one. Those Nevadans sure are taking steps to keep themselves safe and free. I also saw that North Carolina, that most beloved of states where I spent four blissful years in college and then two afterward, is now controlled by an all-Republican Congress and Governor -- for the first time since Reconstruction! When I exclaimed over that, even Henry said, Mom! That means since the Civil War! I guess his public education here in Sodom and Gomorrah taught him history, if not values. And speaking of values, the fine folks in North Carolina running the show are quickly shaping the state up to rival even Mississippi in its strict control of women who might dare to own their reproductive freedom. There's apparently a fever in Conservative Land of one-upmanship as the grand state of Texas is evidently poised this very moment to pass some of the strictest laws in the country against baby killers like ourselves. That freedom-loving bombshell of a woman, Sarah Palin, is going to run for office again, I read somewhere. Oh, and my home state -- Georgia -- is fixing to kill a "mentally retarded man" any moment, now.

I don't know about you, but the only solution to the smell of bullshit is a nice shot of frozen vodka.

The day after the day I rested

I dragged myself out to Pasadena this morning and began the proceedings to formally divest Sophie of her rights as a self-determined individual and become her guardian. I am, evidently, a "self-represented litigant" in this process and had the great fortune to be referred to a wonderful organization that will help me along the way. I filled out the beginning paperwork this morning while coughing discreetly into my upper arm and felt almost grateful for not feeling fully up to snuff. Had I been my usual feisty and iconoclastic self, I might have had reason to see irony in every sign that crossed my path and every box that I checked. Should I check YES or NO as answer to the question Does conservatee wander and get lost? Or how about Is conservatee confused and forgetful? We won't even get into Is conservatee able to make decisions about his or her sexuality? I thought for a split second about the women in North Dakota and Mississippi, and how their rights to reproductive freedom are not just being chipped away but, rather, hacked at the roots, while an hours old embryo is perhaps going to be considered a person there. Way to go Mississippi and North Dakota -- so very advanced of you. Such is the way my mind generally wanders and it might have been for more than a second if I hadn't felt so run-down from this dang virus. In any case, I finished my appointment and then drove back home where I walked around in circles in my house for a few minutes and even attempted to reach Medi-Cal for direction regarding Sophie's Drug Acquirement Troubles. If you can believe it, when your identification number has a LETTER in the string of numbers, instead of just pressing the corresponding number on the phone you have to do this convoluted thing where you press STAR and then the corresponding number and then STAR again and then a number that says which number the LETTER comes on that button. I'm not kidding you. That's what the lovely Medi-Cal voice tells you to do, and you know what? I couldn't figure it out. I started to cry a little and then giggle a little and then I realized that I need to get back into bed and watch some more episodes of House of Cards. So that's what I'm doing.

Passion, Nuts and Wise Words

I gestate humans, you do not. I know how it feels to be pregnant. You do not. I know what happens to a fetus in a womb. You do not. I have carried three fetuses to term. You have not. What I experience when I am pregnant is not empathy. It is permeability. The fetus is me. And the state is you, apparently. But, no matter what you say or do I have fundamental human rights. What makes you think that you, who cannot have this fully human experience, can tell me anything about gestation or how I experience it? Especially when you compare my existence and experience to that of brutish animals. 



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This is not about freedom of religion. If it were, we would, for example, allow Christian Scientists to refuse to pay for coverage of life-saving blood transfusions for employees. Religious freedom means I get to choose whether or not to be religious and if so, how. It does not mean that I get to impose my religion on others. Paying for insurance is part of the way we compensate employees, even when they use their insurance in ways we don't agree with and are in contravention of our own personal beliefs. I think that it is stupid, dangerous and immoral to chain smoke, especially around children whose lungs it irreparably harms. But, I still have to pay for an employee to have access to lung scans, nicotine patches and oxygen tanks. I do not get to say that my religious beliefs, which include keeping bodies as healthy as possible, make it possible for me to withhold payment of this employee's insurance. Guaranteed coverage of contraception and reproductive health care has overwhelming benefits for society, including reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions. By inserting your religious beliefs so egregiously into government legislation and my life, you are imposing your religious beliefs on me. You don't like mandated insurance coverage for basic reproductive health humans with two X chromosomes? I don't like being bred by state compulsion like Mr. England's farm animals. I have a MORAL OBJECTION to being treated like an animal and not a human. You do not have to use contraception, you do not have to use birth control. But, that does not mean you have any right to tell me that I cannot if I choose. That is my right. 




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In an 1851 speech in which she argued for equal rights for women, Sojourner Truth said the following: "The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and don't know what to do. Why children, if you have woman's rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they won't be so much trouble." 

--Soraya Chemaly, from 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. is Nuts