Her Daily News

It’s been a few months since we last heard about the Mormon Polygamists in Utah and Texas in the news but there are a few books out right now that really give an amazingly heartbreaking and rather informative portrayal of life inside the cult of polygamy.

I am not talking here about the stray and random family who chooses to live in the modern world in a home with one man as husband and several women as “wives”. I am referring here to the large populations that live in a few specific towns on the Utah-Arizona border.

First off,Stolen Innocence is a personal account of Elissa Wall, a most brave and courageous woman who suffered unimaginable abuse of the mind and body for years. Wall writes openly and honestly about her life inside a polygamist family.

I read this book a few months ago as soon as it came out. I read all 500 pages in about three days. I didn’t sleep. It was that good.

Another warrior of a woman, Carolyn Jessop has also written a book about her life. Escape is the story of a mother of eight children, married to a man 32-years her senior when she was a mere 18-years old and her eventual escape in the middle of the night with her children. Neither woman has looked so much as looked back.

I have just started reading this book and just like Stolen Innocence, it is stunning and eloquently written.

Polygamy is illegal in The United States of America. The polygamist sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, is not part of the more common Mormon Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin has been woefully and shamefully absent from the media in this presidential election.

“MomsRising is working to bring together millions of people who share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America. Started in May of 2006, MomsRising has gained over 140,000 citizen members and is rapidly growing. More than 85 national and state organizations have signed on to be aligned with MomsRising.”

The group organized a petition of over 21,000 signatures, mostly mothers, to deliver this letter to Sarah Palin. The letter emphasizes that they are pleased that a woman, rather, a mother is on the forefront of this election and may very well become the next Vice President of this country. More to the point, this letter lays out specific issues of crisis level importance facing women, rather, mothers and children right now in this country. It asks Palin what she will do to support women and children. It doesn’t challenge her beliefs, her family or any of her personal or past issues. This letter asks Sarah Palin to list her goals for helping mothers and children.

MomsRising intended to hand deliver the petition of signatures asking that she read a letter, which was attached. Palin’s office wouldn’t accept the letter. They claimed that they had no process to receive letters like that and they were not able to accept it.

This story was written about on DC Metro Moms by Devra Renner who also writes here.

The story was also covered on the local evening news.

Canadian blogger and mother, Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mother, was asked to cover-up recently on a WestJet flight from Vancouver to Toronto as she breastfed her four month old son. Connors, not one to take things lying down and also outraged at the treatment of a nursing mother, blogged about it here, and then talked about it here on the CBC news. (skip to minute 16)

We need more women championing for those of us who nurse our children. While I’m not personally a fan of letting my tube-sock boobs flap freely in the breeze, nor would I encourage anyone to do that, the point I make is that it is natural and NORMAL to breastfeed a baby. Most women at least attempt to cover up and are vaguely discreet while simultaneously wrangling a loose boob and a baby.

Sorry guys, but the actual purpose of these boulders is for nursing, not your own entertainment. We’ve gotten far too lackadaisical by giving babies bottles, so much so that we balk and gasp at a nursing mother in public as if that is wrong. What if we chastised women for giving bottles of formula?? I don’t think that will ever happen. If the mother of a three month old wants to go a park or the mall or fly on an airplane she shouldn’t feel any more ashamed to open her blouse than another mom feels to shake-up a bottle of formula.

There are other breastfeeding bloggers out there who keep up posted about their situations and encounters with un-breast-friendly folks. And another one can be found here.

For a complete list of breastfeeding laws in your state, click here.

It doesn’t hurt to know this either. Child’s Right to Nurse Act.

Lucy Noland is a recent addition to the Houston, Texas number one news team at KHOU-11.  She normally co-anchors the 5PM and 11PM news but this past weekend she has reported NON-STOP on the effects of Hurricane Ike on Houston and Galveston.  And she doesn’t even look tired, yet!

Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas last night around 3am CST as a very strong Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Direct TV is airing a live feed of the NBC affiliate of KHOU-News 11.

I live in Maryland and I have been watching the Houston news since about nine o’clock on Friday evening. She was reporting then. And still going at two o’clock in the morning when I last saw the television before falling asleep. She was still going this morning at nine o’clock. And still, now, at almost midnight on Saturday.

Throughout this entire storm Noland has been respectful and professional while conveying as much information as possible to all people in the Houston area.  Her concern is as evident as her reporting talent and professional manner.

Noland was born in Saigon, Vietnam.  While attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks she reported on the college radio station and later made the jump to television where she covered an erupting volcano and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  She has also anchored in New York, San Francisco and Detroit.

Source: Wikipedia, KHOU-TV

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KHOU.COM has current and up-to-the-minute information for those in the path of this storm.  They are asking for person with information to call them and assist in spreading the word.

Two years ago Black Belt Mama wrote a very nice memorial to Ronald Tartaro and I vowed that I would make the same type of dedication to someone else when another September 11th rolled around.

Just this week on Twitter it was said that if we aren’t careful enough to remember it the right way we’ll start seeing 9/11 sales at the local big-box stores and that would be, unfortunate.

It was my final semester of college. I had just begun my senior year and the day was glorious really. I walked from my apartment in Rossyln to the Metro and then through the cool-morning-air-filled streets of Foggy Bottom to class and I remember looking at the sky and thinking that it was just a gorgeous day. I distinctly recall the simpleness of my feelings before it happened.

I was sitting in class when the token GW basketball player walked in and announced with dreadful casualness that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center; his mother lived in New York City and had just called him. That was his excuse for being late to class and really no one believed him. Over the course of the next half hour or so news spread and my teacher actually threw her hands into the air and said “I don’t know what is going on but I can’t teach with this happening,” and with that we left class. I went to my office on campus where I worked and soon learned the whole story.

I recall that it was a particularly frightening and lonely time.

I lived one mile from the Pentagon at the time.

Later that night a good friend of mine from High School who attended another nearby University called me and told me her much older half-sister had been on the plane that hit the Pentagon.

Lisa J. Raines was on American Airlines Flight 77.

I struggle to write this today not because of sadness or pain but because her family was private and they never wanted nation-wide recognition. It wasn’t their style. I fear I am doing them a disservice by writing this today, seven years later, but I doubt they will find it actually.

It is important that we not forget the people whose lives ended on this day seven years ago. I’m not one to say that they are all heros because my patriotism doesn’t extend in that way and none of those 2,996 people wanted to be a HERO on that day.

Project 2,996 strives to remember the lives of each individual and not the terrible, public way they were taken from us.

Lisa Raines was an incredibly dedicated pioneer in her field, working as a Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Genzyme, a biotechnology company. Her untimely death left an irreplaceable void in the lives of her husband, father, mother, two brothers and sister. Not everyone needs a verbose memorial and Lisa’s family would appreciate a brief tribute.

Thank you for taking the time to read this today and to remember one of the lives that ended too soon, seven years ago today.

The reason I don’t particularly like politics, (same goes for religion) is that it has a tendency to be rather DIVISIVE.

There is a blog I have read on and off for years and just today she wrote about Joy Bahar’s comments last night on Larry King Live. I was excited to read her comments but my excitment was short-lived when I saw that she had the exact opposite reaction that I did. I was all, “Oh! So you LIKE her!” and then I closed the window and wondered how I would ever relate to her again. I don’t need to have all like-minded friends, quite the opposite, I just want people to wise-up and realize that I am right. that not everyone is as they seem and perhaps they should inform themselves as voters, not just vote by party or by appearance.

Joy mentioned in a rather off-color way that perhaps Sarah Palin brought a certain sex-appeal to the Presidential election. Okay. Let’s take a step back and look at that. Sex-appeal + Presidential Election? Hum.

Marketing and media attention have taken a very unfortunate front seat in recent elections and it diverts out attention from the actual issues and actual debates of whether or not a candidate is qualified to really deliver and lead in office.

Back to my original point of Palin’s sex-appeal: Of course there’s sex appeal! Look back a mere two decades, Ronald Reagan? George Bush? Bill Clinton? George Bush again? Al Gore? None of those men are any more attractive than the other. Going bald. Going Grey. Physicalities just are not an issue for those men. But BAM! Throw a woman into the mix and suddenly appearance matters or at least, it get noticed. I think as a nation, as a species, we perceive men and women differently and we are much more apt to judge a woman and make comments about her appearance than we are a man. Right or wrong that is human nature.

But! We must move on. FAST. It doesn’t matter what side you are on or how you have voted in the past. While we are busy talking about Palin’s sexy-librarian-style we aren’t discussing how to end the war in Iraq and bring a lot of young men home. While we are discussing her decision to birth a baby with Down’s Syndrome we aren’t talking about how to provide affordable health care for Americans, equal and high quality education for children born in inner-cities, revamping the Social Security system so that it will be there for our children.

We are a nation saturated with media-sensations. It’s time to grow up and stop looking at the book’s cover and actually read the book.

More from Larry King last night:

For more reader opinions about Joy Bahar visit Watching The View.

My dollin’ readers, I apologize for the unannounced absence last week. Two things: I had some house work being done and my home was in total chaotic shambles and I still had to live in it with an eight-month-old-crawling-standing-eating-teething baby. And, the only news out there in regards to women was Sarah Palin and I just didn’t want to contribute any more to the (endless) debate on her record and lack thereof and also her personal life and how much it matters. I am however, writing my thoughts and feelings on my personal site, (as of publication I haven’t completed it yet, but feel free to check back) but I didn’t feel I could contribute anything newsworthy. So, here we are ! I am back!

I think this upcoming election is very important to women in America. I have visited each candidate’s website in search of a list of ISSUES that they feel are relevant to women. I wanted to discuss some of them here.

I make no secret about the fact that I am a Democrat and I will be voting for Obama. However, I’d like to bring to light each candidates stance on issues as they relate to WOMEN. For the sake of discussion and information-sharing.

On initial comparison, my first visit to each of these websites, Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin, Vote for Change versus Country First, what I found there was actually very telling in and of itself.

Obama’s website has a very well marked pull-down menu of ISSUES. One of those issues is WOMEN. Here you will find a brief description of Obama’s goals and concerns as they are related to women in this country. It includes health care, social security, reproductive rights, business issues, education and more.

Then I went to John McCain’s website hoping to find a similar set-up so that I could do a side-by-side comparison of the candidates. I can’t do that. Because McCain’s website not only doesn’t have a clear link to his stance on issues, but when you do find a link to the issues, it DOES NOT INCLUDE WOMEN AS AN ISSUE.

Hear me out ladies, John McCain’s website doesn’t specific any issues specific to women in this country. He isn’t interested in addresses the concerns of women, arguably the largest voting demographic in this nation.

On a slightly more annoying note, when you go to McCain’s website a video starts automatically playing showing McCain as a POW. When I went inside the website to several links once again, the video started automatically and I had to stop it in order to search for the information I wanted. To me this means he doesn’t have the information to back-up his plans and he isn’t interested in giving us (women) voters a sense of his politics.

Republican Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain has selected a female state governor as his running mate in the upcoming 2008 election. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has agreed to be his Vice President.

Palin is the mother of five children and most recently gave birth to her second son on April 18 of this year and returned to work three days later. … I have a problem with this. If nothing more than from the standpoint of a mother, why isn’t she home caring for herself and her newborn. When you choose to have children you commit yourself to them, commit to putting their needs ahead of your own, commit to being THERE. I am not saying that a mother needs to put her own needs, goals and aspirations in the deep freezer, but actually, sometimes you do have to shelve them temporarily. And one of those temporary times is when you have a newborn. You owe it to that baby to be there, not to pawn him off on his father or siblings or family members. It is possible to have a career and be a good mother but I think Palin has reached too far. It seems ironic to me that she would be accepted by the Republican party being such an ambitious woman.

When the mother of a newborn baby (4 months) leaves her family to go out on the presidential campaign trail she isn’t going to garner support from other women. Other women will say, “what are you thinking?” and “If you are THAT SUPER MOM then I cannot relate to you.”

It is particularly odd to me that a party (The Republicans) that believes women should not have the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy or that a war deserves more funding than education and that working class people should be taxed in a higher bracket than families making over $200,000 would choose a woman who has so clearly chosen to have a career at the disgrace and sacrifice of her family. She may have a working class background and her husband may be a commercial fisherman but that doesn’t mean she can relate to the greater population of soccer-moms nationwide. In fact, I find her to be untouchable, unreachable and most importantly, unrelatable.

I also have a problem with a WOMAN who is a LIFETIME member of the National Rifle Association. Just sayin’.

Source: Wikipedia
Photo Source: People Magazine

A recent article on CNN reports that Elizabeth Edwards is now being criticized for keeping her husband’s affair secret so that his political ambitions could continue and so that she could advance her own agenda.

Um. Wait. BACK UP. Did I read that right? The wife of a man with a wandering eye and hand (and … oh, nevermind, you know!) is now being put on the chopping block because when she found out about her husband’s indiscretions, she choose NOT to tell the media and the entire nation? Seriously!?

John Edwards may have had an affair and tried to hide it but where do we get off telling his wife, his cheated on wife that she did anything wrong? I get that they are political figures and that makes, by some crazy and quite arguable twist of fate, their lives public information. But I don’t buy into that.

Maybe I’m just a stupid old staunch liberal who doesn’t care who her President sleeps with at night. I prefer it be his or her spouse, but I could honestly care less if our political leaders are black or white or gay or straight. Call me old fashioned or stupid or lame but I really don’t care what my politicians do behind closed doors. I get that people think a man who will commit adultery is not strong enough and not valued enough to be our nation’s leader, but, I tend to see a larger picture, not forgiving the affair or the lack of values or moral judgment, but I guess, I just feel that a private life is just that, not really any of my business. And, it doesn’t really have any bearing on the ability to govern. Just sayin’.

I also feel pretty strongly that Elizabeth doesn’t deserve any crap from us. She was the wife who was cheated ON, she is managing terminal cancer (metastatic breast cancer), and she is a mother and a wife, she has plenty going on in her life and no doubt feels an immense amount of guilt over her husband’s poor choices and over the fact that her health is worsening (albeit slowly, but, she is terminal). I think she kept quiet on this because it was her PRIVATE life and she doesn’t deserve to be judged based on John’s actions and she certainly doesn’t deserve to be judged by us.

SOURCE: CNN

American Idol returns in January for its eighth season and Paula Abdul won’t be the only estrogen-based body on the judges panel anymore. Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul will be joined by Grammy-nominated songwriter Kara DioGuardi.

Dio Guardi is a songwriter who has written songs for Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Faith Hill.

American Idol was originally intended to have four judges so don’t expect the dynamic to be too different, just expect a larger table.

Dio Guardi was born in Scarsdale, New York in 1970. She has been a contributor to many international-hit songs since 1999. She also co-owns the publishing company Arthouse Entertainment.

She will undoubtedly provide a great new dynamic of music-industry advice, not to mention shake up the stale dynamic of Randy-Paula-Simon and refocus their energies back on the contestants rather than their own drama.

American Idol was created in 2002 by Simon Fuller and has become a national phenomena. The show is hosted by an even larger Idol-built-icon, 34-year oldRyan Seacrest.

Just today I was watching some CNN, mainly for weather, because, truth is, news depresses me sometimes. I saw a story about a 15-year old Iraqi girl taken into custody by Iraqi officials because she was found wearing a belt or vest, reports are conflicting, of explosives. You can read the original CNN article here.

Is she too young to be capable of making the decision to end her life as a suicide bomber? Was she at the mercy of older adults choosing for her to be a suicide bomber? Is she a victim or a malicious-intending ill-seeking suicide bomber? Will we really ever know for sure?

Reports say that she changed her story several times but did say that other people, parents, perhaps put the vest of explosives on her. If she is changing her story, would you, as a young teenager be shaken and uneasy when questioned by authorities and what effect has the intensely hateful regime that she lives within molded her thoughts or simply scared her into submission?

What should happen to her?

CNN reports that “U.S. intelligence on the psyche of female suicide bombers suggests the women have various motives; some have links to al Qaeda — sons, husbands, fathers killed in the fighting — and are seeking revenge.

The intelligence also suggests al Qaeda is seeking out women whose families are struggling financially, making cash promises to them but not paying out. Others are young widows or women who are deeply religious and swayed by the promise of heavenly rewards.”

Photo from CNN.Com

The Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital has a fabulous website. I have been a fan of it for years checking every few months or so for new links and information. I perused the site daily for a few weeks earlier this year just after my son was born when I was really having trouble shaking the depression and anxiety I was experiencing. I am familiar with depression and it shouldn’t have taken me so long to identify that I was experiencing PPD, Postpartum Depression. However, PPD is tricky like that, it masquerades as tiredness, irritability, hating your husband, hating the lady who comes to clean your house, hating your saggy still fat body, hating everything and yelling often, saying bad things about yourself, the signs and symptoms are as different as each person who experiences this. For the record I never had any negative feelings toward the baby at all, although many women think that PPD means you are mad at your baby. I was just really unhappy with myself. Also for the record, since I seem to be “recording” things here, I did not seek medical help, I did not take any psychiatric medication (although I should have) , and once I was able to join a local gym and get out of the house, alone, and get some exercise, along with other things, mentally at least things started to fall into a much better place for me. **It isn’t this simple for many others, however.

I’m sure a lot of women go straight to the doctor and ask for a prescription of an SSRI and they get better. There are also a lot of women who seek out a good therapist and the talking helps them get to a better place.

I was not either of those women.

I was and still am nursing my son who is eight months old at the time of this article. I recall being told by one nurse in one doctor’s office that if I were to experience PPD they would “stop my breastfeeding to allow my hormones to re-regulate and then evaluate the situation” and because of this I was absolutely scared out of my DD-nursing bra that if I even hinted to anyone that I was feeling a bit, oh, irritable? that I would be forced to give up my nursing. I love nursing. It works well for me with this baby and I enjoy it. I didn’t want to give it up, not at any cost. So I didn’t tell anyone.

Turns out that was bad information. And it did me a disservice. There are many options for women experiencing anything from mild to severe PPD. There are many medication options and many non-medication options. I didn’t feel like I had anyone to talk to about it and I fear that many many many other mothers feel the same way. Being a new mom is hard. Excruciatingly difficult, terrifyingly isolating, you feel like your body is permanently destroyed, you don’t have time to finish a sentence with your spouse and you feel like the world is going on and you are chained to a chair feeding and rocking a delicate ever-needy baby.

This article about breastfeeding and psychiatric medication gives a good overview of the basis for most medical decisions regarding PPD and nursing moms.

I feel strongly about helping other women get the information they need to have an easier postpartum experience. I will write more on this topic again soon and often.

Another great postpartum website is Postpartum.net

** I fear I am oversimplifing my situation and I don’t mean to do that. I will address this topic again soon with more honesty , clarity and useful information.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat died yesterday at the age of 58 from a brain aneurysm she suffered while driving in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Most recently she is known for her outspoken voice in Congress during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was one of only 11 Democrats who voted against the war in the 435-member House of Representatives. She also registered a complaint after the 2004 presidential election suspecting voting irregularities that cost John Kerry a win in her state of Ohio. She had a solidly liberal voting record.

Her death will not alter the partisan balance of power in Congress because the Democrats hold a wide majority.

When she was first elected in 1998, Tubbs Jones headed the House Ethics Committee and was the first black woman to serve on the tax-writing Ways and Means committee.

A brain aneurysm is the abnormal bulging of a blood vessel in the brain. Sadly, they are most often discovered only after they rupture which causes bleeding into the brain or the space surrounding the brain. This type of hemorrhage leads to stroke, brain damage and death. Treatment functions to stop the bleeding, reduce permanent damage and reduce the risk of recurrence.

“The annual incidence of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in the U.S. exceeds 30,000 people. Ten to 15 percent of these patients will die before reaching the hospital and over 50 percent will die within the first thirty days after rupture. Of those who survive, about half suffer some permanent neurological deficit. Brain aneurysms can occur in people of all ages, but are most commonly detected in those ages 35 to 60. Women are actually more likely to get a brain aneurysm than men, with a ratio of 3:2.”
Find more information at Brain Aneurysm.com

You can read more about Tubbs Jones and her work as a Congreswomen by visiting her site.

Ellen DeGeneres, 50 and Portia de Rossi, 35 wed last Saturday evening at their home in LA. The couple exchanged handwritten wedding vows in an intimate home ceremony. Ellen announced their impending nuptials recently after the California Supreme Court ruled a previous ban on gay married was unconstitutional. Nineteen guests attended. Photos of their wedding are available in this week’s People Magazine. Sources also report the couple does talk about having children.

This past summer, Rossi sported a 3-carat diamond ring set on a pink pavé band, a gift from DeGeneres for their upcoming nuptials first noticed when the pair attended the Daytime Emmy Awards together.

In other domestic-type pop culture news, Jennifer Garner confirmed today that she and husband, Ben Affleck are expecting their second child. The couple claims that Violet, their toddler has given them a good idea of what having a baby around the house is like and that they are “excited”.

Glass of suds? Anyone? People Magazine reports Jessica Simpson is staring in a new beer campaign. This brew claims to have vitamins! Ladies … put down the Turbo Jam and drink up the vitamins! Seriously?? (WHAT!)

Heather Locklear just returned home after a brief stint in rehab for depression and anxiety. Her friends say she is looking great.

Finally, the United States women’s softball team lost their first game since September 2000 and will not be in the running for a gold medal, reports Sports Illustrated. They made two very uncharacteristic mistakes early in the game which allowed the Japanese team to take control of the game. The United States Olympic team has won three straight gold medals in women’s softball. This is quite an upset to the team and their fans.

Christina Applegate, best known for her 10-year roll on Fox’s Married with Children as Kelly Bundy and more recently as star of Samantha Who?, admitted this morning on Good Morning America that she had a double mastectomy just three weeks ago. She plans to undergo reconstructive surgery during the next year.

Diagnosed just this summer with breast cancer that was confined to one breast, she opted for the the more radical treatment of a double mastectomy. Applegate’s mother battled breast cancer and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation that has been linked to more severe forms of breast and ovarian cancer.

Since her diagnosis she has opted for a healthy diet including fish, grains and vegetables and taken a serious matter-of-fact approach in making decisions that will effect her health and the rest of her life.

“I’m going to have cute boobs till I’m 90, so there’s that,” she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. “I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table.”

Applegate appears to be taking things in stride although, without a doubt she is experiencing stress and anxiety on unprecedented levels.

In recent years she has stepped out of type-cast role as a dumb-blonde-bimbo and taken on some more serious and challenging rolls. Her Daily News hopes Applegate has a speedy recovery and quickly returns to the set.

This article on Newsday comments on the increase in women having preventative double mastectomies. Do you find this to be too radical? Or, do you think this is a wise decision when faced with the challenges of BRCA1-breast cancer?

Some other Breast Cancer Information Sites:

Breast Cancer Info

Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure

National Cancer Institute