feckin’ hell!

Now lollapalooza was the shit, back in the early 90’s. those of us old enough to attend when it was actually cool (rollins band, nirvana, NIN, jane’s addiction, rage, primus) are now edging into the mid 30s. however towards the late 90s, it was pretty much a teen-fest worthy of/subject to much derision (A perfect circle?!?!). You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone who got pierced at lollapalooza. last year, it collapsed due to lack of interest.

but this year, it’s back with a fucking bang – it looks like they’ve gone back to their core audience (y’know, the 30 somethings with cash). the lineup includes:

pixies
weezer
dinosaur jr
cake
dashboard confessional
death cab for cutie
liz phair
g.love and special sauce
and you will know us by the trail of dead
widespread panic
the arcade fire

i’d give my left nut to be there (okay, fair enough, i don’t actually *have* nuts… but i’d donate something pretty important. a spleen perhaps?)

on a less amusing note: republicans once again making life difficult for girls. In this farcically shortsighted episode, they take aim at teen girls crossing state lines to get abortions without parental consent. it never occurs to this misogynistic group of white numbnut baldies that if a girl is ready to trek across the border to get an abortion, there must be some pretty hefty reasons she can’t do it at home. parental abuse/incest, religious fanaticism, fear of being kicked out, etc. whatever the reason, if a girl is willing to go to those lengths to avoid telling her parents, it’s generally because doing so is a *more horrific* option than going through the incredible fear/deception/expense of having an abortion alone in a strange state. so instead, the alternative is to basically force girls to endure whatever abuse or consequences telling their parents brings, and, if their parents refuse to consent, to carry the pregnanancy to full term, then a) giving the baby up (where the vast majority of children then spend 18 years in foster care being bounced around the system like stray dogs, then turned loose without any family, home, or resources, often leading to crime/drug abuse/homelessness**see below), or likely dropping out of school (so the mother has few employment options, is often dependent on benefits or living below the poverty level, is much more likely to end up in abusive relationships, and has less maturity and experience to bring up a child she didn’t want in the first place). *these* are seen as preferable options?!?!?

sometimes i feel like just walking around washington with a big 2×4 and smashing every morally superior white male i see. if men could get pregnant, there would be no abortion debate, and that’s a fact, jack.

that is why i will always vociferously, staunchly, passionately, ragefully fight for abortion rights.

**tangentially…to all these fucking pro-life crazies: adoption is not the answer.

these statistics make me so mad, i am shaking:

– There are approximately 520,000 children currently in foster care in the United States. Of these, 117,000 are eligible for adoption. (US HHS, 2000)

– After aging out of foster care, 27% of males and 10% of females were incarcerated within 12 to 18 months. 50% were unemployed, 37% had not finished high school, 33% received public assistance, and 19% of females had given birth to children. Before leaving care, 47 percent were receiving some kind of counseling or medication for mental health problems; that number dropped to 21% after leaving care. (Courtney and Piliavin, 1998)

in other words, we fuck up these children’s lives, scar them permanently, and then wonder why they get pregnant/addicted/incarcerated. do you see the circle!!!??

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