manorexia and the "most vulnerable and helpless"...

manorexia is not a sickness...it is a life choice. at least that is what i have to tell myself once i realize how disgustingly fat i've gotten. besides, i'm not a very good manorexic...for me it usually means limiting it to one trip for fast food every other day. although i do take some pride in my pants beginning to fall down again (for awhile i didn't even need a belt...it was horrifying). so to all my fellow faux-manorexics (you know who you are...the ones that pretend like they take care of themselves and eat right and only eat a little bit...but really you are going home and eating an entire loaf of cinnamon raisin toast with butter and jelly every day. it's ok...i feel your pain...i've been there too) come out of the shadows and show some pride in your herion-addict/rockstar-like appearance. i need some support...

south dakota set up the challenge to roe...and it very well may be successful...afterall, this is a decision that had a weak constitutional foundation when it was decided...but in the meantime that foundation has been reinforced...so i wouldn't take it as a given just yet. and even if roe is overturned, remember...there are still legislative processes to protect abortion...which really was the long-term safer route to begin with...be careful what you ask for, you just might get it...and then, the backlash.

anyways, the governor said something interesting when he signed the bill..."in the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society..." while i partially agree...i think with the world "shrinking" it should be updated to include the most vulnerable and most helpless not only in their own society, but in other societies as well. and if that is the case...our civilization doesn't look so hot.

the most vulnerable and the most helpless...yes governor, they are the children...specifically the children of the poor. so i guess if condemning them to lives of poverty, heartache, the streets, drugs and crime with little hope to better their situation is noble, then we look great. i guess if taking funding away from those same children because we won't pay their teachers enough to do the second most important job in society (parenting being the first) and because the good ones refuse to simply teach them how to pass a test and actually try to educate them and prepare them for life is treating them well...then we look great. if leaving thousands to fend for themselves like animals after natural disasters is civilized, then we look great. if refusing to give the poor a fair shake in the criminal justice system because we refuse to transfer some of the tax money from building new roads for rich folks to ensuring their constitutional rights are guarded is a worthy cause, then we look great...if holding the mentally ill and retarded responsible as we would a healthy or fully developed mind so that we can get in our revenge killing is the work of a higher morality, then we look great...

and what about the treatment the most vulnerable and the most helpless overseas receive from our "civilisation"...perhaps we did some of them a favor by bombing them back into the dark ages with radioactive shells and left them to their frighteningly high cancer rates...and if we never actually call it genocide, then it isn't wrong that we don't step in to protect those vulnerable and helpless...and they need structure and order, so propping up repressive, murderous regimes really benefits them...and i suppose participating, either directly or through complacency, in holocaust after holocaust made the victim peoples stronger...and withholding medicine and food was the only way to protect them from the leader we let slaughter them after promises of assistance went broken...and to save them from communism, we had no choice but to burn their villages to the ground with chemical agents...

yes governor, the true test of a civilisation is indeed how it treats the "most vulnerable and most helpless"...problem is, our track record isn't very good. but hell, if now we will protect the unborn, undeveloped child so that it may be born into a life that very few of us would choose...then i for one am convinced that we are civilized.

as you dream your dreams you get to realize your fantasies...and that's what helps to keep you alive, and helps you to survive, and keep a youthful look in your eye as you try to get by and make something of your life.