Another Tuesday come and gone.

Today was Snuggle Bug's birthday. We didn't have cake and presents because we'll be doing a combined party for him and Cuddle Bear in about a week and a half. Still, I sent him into preschool with a fistful of lollipops to share with his friends and teachers. He was told happy birthday by everybody in the house and given lots of hugs. Snuggle Bug was his usual cheerful and mischievous self. I don't think the lack of cake and presents made too huge of a impression on him.

The boys decided to be contrary this afternoon. It was a difficult afternoon for me. I am trying to adapt my parenting approach from one based in behaviorism to one that is closer to being child lead. Today was day one of this transition. The boys seemed to be of the opinion that this made everything free reign. Their favorite activity was jumping on the couch. I firmly told them that they were not allowed to do it because it was unsafe and it damages the couch. This turned into the boys jumping on the couch and then stopping to tell me that they shouldn't do it because it was bad for the couch.

I am apprehensive over how the next few weeks of this are going to go. I decided to transition to a more child lead approach because the behaviorism one just wasn't getting any real progress. I'm not saying that the boys are poorly behaved. When we're out in public or they are around unfamiliar people, they behave very well. I've had quite a few people comment favorably on this. But things like spankings for potentially dangerous misbehavior and time-out are not working out that well for me.

I thing out of the three of us, I was the one who had the hardest time this afternoon. It was exhausting to keep redirecting them. When it was time to clean up, Snuggle Bug had a melt down and lay on the couch screaming for a few minutes. He was absolutely furious that I wasn't letting him play while his brother and I were picking up. I confess, I did try bribing the boys to cooperate.

It did nothing to motivate them. I think that I need to make clean up a daily activity rather then a weekly one. I am wondering if I made the afternoon more structured for the boys that I would have less problems with melt downs and misbehavior. Currently, it is pretty unstructured. Every thing that I have been reading, it seems that kids with autism benefit from structured activities.

I have about a month before school starts. Between now and then, I am going to reintroduce the 3:00 snack time followed by 'homework' time. Right now, I think I'm just going to have the boys work on coloring pages and maybe have Cuddle Bear do some reading. My thinking is if we have that hour set up as time to sit at the table and work on things, then perhaps it will make homework an easier thing.

Aside from this stuff, I am pleased to report that I finished my plying. All that I have left to do is wet it and set the twist. Then I can use it to finish up the crochet Wingspan shawl I am making. Which I will then over-dye with green so that the different yarns are at least in the same color family. The merino-bamboo fiber that my MiL gave me a few weeks ago has been sitting on the back deck in jars with dye. I'm attempting to solar dye the stuff.

I figure it has been enough time for the colors to seep in. Now I am going to wash the fiber and dry it. Hopefully, the colors set and I will be able to spin up some lush and lofty yarns. One jar has red dye. One jar has a mixture of orange and yellow dye. The third jar has blue. Of the three colors, I am most interested in seeing how the blue and the red come out. I figure if the dye doesn't take for these, I can always spin up the fiber and dye the skein with a bottle of Rit dye. I'm hoping that I don't have to do that, however. We'll see, I suppose.

Fine weather for ducks.

From Here

It rained hard today. So hard that the end of my street by the fire department was flooded. It made walking to Cheergirl's tutoring session an adventure that Cuddle Bear loved. Cheergirl (this may be a new moniker for her, because I don't remember if I had one before or what it was) has been a friend of Cuddle Bear's since he was in the Head Start program a few years ago. Her little brother, Hot Rod, and Snuggle Bug go to Head Start together and will be starting Kindergarten this fall. It looks like they're not going to be in the same class room but I think that is to the benefit of the teaching staff to be honest.

Put Hot Rod and Snuggle Bug in the same room and mischief ensues. They're thick as thieves, as my Grandma K. would say. The boys were off at Head Start today and Cuddle Bear and I were off to Cheergirl's house for her tutoring session. As I tutor Cheergirl in math and english, Cuddle Bear usually plays with her family's cats or is busily showing off for Lily (Cheergirl and Hot Rod's mom) what he can do on the playground, when the weather is nice. During the last few weeks, Cuddle Bear got to play with Cheergirl's half brother, D. and he was real pleased with that.

But, I digress, Cuddle Bear and I were on our way down to do our tutoring/play session. We do this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over the last month now. (I can't believe it has been a whole month already. Where has this summer gone to?) At first Cuddle Bear was really excited by the fact that he got to carry an umbrella just for himself. Then we crossed the street and he noticed the water running in the ditch.

He decided that was awesome and proceeded to tell me all the reasons why he loved the water. By this time, we had reached the parking lot of the railroad line/lumber yard. There was a LOT of standing water. I foolishly thought it was just a series of really big puddles and that it wouldn't be so bad. Oh, how wrong I was! We splashed through water up to our ankles to the train tracks. Then, as we crossed the tracks, the water came up about an inch higher.

Much to my dismay, what I thought was a series of big puddles was a large flooded swath of the road. It went from the edge of the treeline of the property by the rail line down to across from the firehouse. It was close to 50 yards wide from east to west and around 25 yards wide at its widest point from north to south. We started to traverse this and the water kept getting deeper and deeper. As we were walking, I noticed that there was a bit of a current to everything.

Deciding that we were a quarter of the way to Cheergirl's house, I continued on but did my level best to remain at the edges of the surprise pond. We carefully wound up on the street for a few yards (fortunately with no traffic in sight for a good long ways). It was as we were making our way back to the sidewalk where it emerged from the muddy water that I stepped into a low spot and had water up to my right knee. Cold water and shorts does not mix well. The fates were in my favor, however, because Cuddle Bear was in the ankle deep water

The rest of our walk to Cheergirl's house wasn't as bad. It was a bit breezy, however, and I think I felt every puff. It was when we were going past the runoff ditch that went behind Cheergirl's apartment complex that things got a bit interesting again. The water was again ankle deep and moving at a pretty good clip. I had Cuddle Bear keep a firm hold on me and I kept a firm hold on his wrist when we crossed it. The street was pretty well flooded. When we got to Cheergirl's townhouse, the property groundskeeper was going around telling people to move their valuables up from their basements because basements had started flooding.

I guess we got about a dozen math flashcards down before the guy got to their place. Then tutoring was put on hold to emergency move stuff up out of their basement. I was happy to help because I didn't want Lily to sprain her ankle again. She sprained it pretty bad about two months ago and only recently been declared healthy. It was then that I discovered that I am a pretender to the crown of doll collecting. Helping Lily and Cheergirl move boxes, I found that Lily has a fantastic collection of porcelain dolls. I am not ashamed to say that I envied a few of them, especially the one in the lavender Victorian dress. It was a really splendid doll and even had the box still.

As we were winding down from the fast bit of cardio (and I was quietly thanking the gods that my knees weren't complaining too badly from the stairs), Lily looked up how the weather was effecting the area. That was when we learned about the next town over having a section of road washed out due to the flooding and a good portion of the western part of town (ironically beside the same rail line that starts down the road from me) was getting evacuated because of it. I was impressed with this and decided that perhaps a tactical retreat homeward was the best option.

Cue the mile trudge back home through the same conditions. Cuddle Bear was six kinds of excited and happy with the whole walk. I was a bit more cranky because I was cold and concerned that the flooding might prompt Head Start to send the kids home early. We got home, changed into dry clothes, and ate lunch. Then I tried to call Head Start's transportation office to make arrangements for Snuggle Bug to get dropped off at home rather then at Lily's place. I was curtly informed that such arrangements needed to be made a day in advance, at minimum, and then the woman I was talking to hung up on me. I get that she was probably having a rough day with the weather being what it was. I wasn't exactly impressed (and honestly a bit annoyed) with her lack of customer service skills, however.

So, we make the trek back to Lily's place a bit later. It was a huge relief to find that the massive pool had diminished to a series of large puddles that were a quarter of an inch to an inch deep. We still had to go around one very large pool, where the poor guy living by the lumber yard had his whole lawn flooded and about a hundred feet of sidewalk submerged as well. We were most of the way to Lily's place when we came by the spot that the runoff ditch was spilling into the street.

I was honestly surprised to find a fish laying on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure if it was alive at first when Cuddle Bear pointed it out. Then I leaned down and saw the poor thing's gills flapping. As I didn't know where the nearest body of water was, aside from the lake that was a quarter of a mile away, I felt a bit bad leaving the fish there on the sidewalk. When I saw Lily I mentioned the fish and asked if there was a pond nearby. She stated that there were two. One was at the western end of the runoff ditch on a bit of a rise and then there was one on the eastern end, across the street.

We walked back and I picked up the fish. It was so stunned and unwell that it didn't do anything other then flap its gills when I picked it up. I tossed it into the pond across the street. It made a pretty hefty splash. I couldn't tell what became of the fish after it hit the water. I'd like to think that it recovered because I didn't see it on the surface of the water when we passed by later after Snuggle Bug and Hot Rod's bus had dropped them off.

Snuggle Bug and Cuddle Bear had lots of fun jumping in the small puddles on the way home. We did a little bit of listening to random music on the internet before I set the boys up with some videos on Youtube while I did some dishes and made dinner. We had hamburgers, cheese crackers, and salad for dinner. Cuddle Bear just about had a meltdown when I put the salad on his plate. I told him, however, that he had to eat at least one bite of it before he could get more crackers. To his credit, he didn't take a single piece of lettuce and declare that is one bite.

Snuggle Bug surprised me and ate all of his salad, cheering after each bite that he loved salad. I think I am going to have to hang onto this particular variety of salad dressing because the salad wasn't any different from the ones I have made before. The dressing was Kraft's Red Bell Pepper Italian dressing. I think I am going to have to stock that in my cupboard now. I wasn't terribly impressed with the pretzel rolls that I had gotten when I went grocery shopping at Aldi's last Saturday. I didn't think they were bad but they didn't go well with the burger or the grilled portobello mushroom. I had planned on saving the mushroom for my lunch tomorrow but I was too hungry to pass it up.

Fortunately, I have more of those big, tasty mushrooms in the fridge. I can still zap one in the microwave and have it tomorrow for lunch. I haven't been posting pictures of the salads that I would have been making for myself of late because of two things. One: the software to upload the pictures from the camera to the computer hasn't been installed yet. Two: I have been eating sandwiches and soup rather then salads. I'm still doing alright for keeping breakfast meat free. My lunches, however, have been featuring more cold cuts then I want. Today, though, I manged to go vegan until dinner time. I'm not planning to do the vegan thing every day but once in a while isn't too bad of an idea.

Today, I walked 4 miles. Tomorrow, Snuggle Bug gets dropped off at home. I think it will be an inside day again. I am going to try to get some exercise in by way of housework tomorrow. My living room is literally a train wreck. The boys set up a monstrously huge train track through out the living room and it is in pieces now. Between that and matchbox cars, I don't think I need to fear any ninjas breaking into my home. We have lots and lots of caltrops for them to step on. Thank goodness the legos are regulated to being table toys.

Gardening, kids, and nonsense.

From Here

I am pleased to report that my strawberry bush has produced more very sweet strawberries. I have learned what variety of strawberry that I am growing here. It is an alpine strawberry plant. Apparently it is supposed to have diminutive berries. I have to say, out of all the strawberries that I have had over the years, these are the sweetest.

I am torn between mild disappointment that the plant isn't producing enough to make strawberry tarts with it and sheer joy that I have strawberries that I've grown myself. I'm trending towards joy, just so you know. Amusingly, the boys will not touch them. They view the plant with great suspicion because the fruit looks very little like what we get from the store.

My Mother in law gave me some southernwood cuttings when I saw her recently. She was watching Cuddle Bear for me as I had some appointments to attend to. When I got back from seeing my psychiatrist, she had some cuttings for me. I have planted them in some soil and gave them a good long drink. I also planted the geranium cutting she gave me. She has this wonderful geranium that has blooms that are such a dark red that they are almost purple. I've been lusting after the plant for a few months now.

Tutoring today went fairly well. I wasn't able to locate a dictionary for the girl, but we didn't need it today. I am going to dig through my old pile of books to see if I happen to have one kicking around. If I have a paperback dictionary just sitting on the shelf, I'm going to give it to her. I have an unabridged dictionary sitting on the shelf right now. If I need to look anything up (or murder someone) I have a very effective tool for that with out even needing to go online. I brought down the math flashcard that Cuddle Bear isn't quite ready for. We did some work with them. I'm going to let them borrow the cards until school starts. According to theory, if she works on those flashcards, she will get a bit stronger with her mathematics and have an easier time with the other stuff.

It's been really interesting and rather confusing how she is so hit or miss with her mathematics skills. Some things she does well with repeatedly. Others, she really struggles and needs to be coached through the problems. My friend (the girl's mom) is talking about getting her tested to see what learning disorders she might be dealing with. When she asked me what I thought, I said that I could only see good things coming from the testing. Because they've got really good health insurance through the state, I know that a full battery of tests would be covered, as this is showing up in other areas and has my friend concerned that there is some kind of developmental or other problem at play. I really hope that they can get it figured out and a plan for how to work with it all.

Snuggle Bug has adjusted well to the new summer schedule at Headstart. He apparently has been telling his teachers quite excitedly about how he gets to play at his friends' house often. They've written a note asking who it is that he is talking about. I'll be letting them know in a note tomorrow. I am just amused that Snuggle Bug is having such a wonderful time with it all. It seems to have made it easier for him to get into the swing of things after having almost two weeks off.

Cuddle Bear has been having a lot of fun playing with his friend when she is done with our tutoring sessions. His big thing right now has been the pole on the playground at her apartment complex. Cuddle Bug has been talking about this thing non-stop since last Wednesday. Wednesday was when he figured out how to use it. Now he wants to bring down a fireman's hat and pretend that he is Fireman Sam. I'm happy that he is enjoying it and even more so that he has developed the upper body strength to use it. Last summer, he wouldn't have been able to do so. It makes me optimistic that he is continuing to make good progress on strengthening his body through play.

I made the mistake of looking at the other mommy blogger's posts. For a few minutes, I felt poorly about my blog's lack of pictures and its rather unprofessional lay out. Then I took a mental step back and considered the situation. I am investing my efforts into things like making yule gifts and managing my disability. I am very busy with two autistic boys who are very full of energy. While these other mommy bloggers may have blogs that look professional and polished, they are not exactly dealing with the workload that I am. Perhaps when school starts up again, I may tweak the lay out of the blog and who knows, maybe I'll manage to get some more pictures up on here.

I don't need to be doing the same thing that these women are. My home and family has different needs. It is more important that I focus my efforts on meeting those needs then trying to make my blog look as shiny and pretty as those other mommy bloggers have theirs looking. I'm not out there doing a boatload of DIY crafts and stuff to make my home look pretty or follow the latest trends. And, now that I think about it, I am rather happy not following trends. It is better to pursue my own authentic vision of life then that which is out there for the trendy people. It's not that I've got anything against following trends, but I'm far more healthy when I consult my inner sense of things compared to when I am trying to keep up with trends.

I may just swear off looking at those mommy blogs. Or start looking for the mommy blogs that are more like my own. Where the biggest triumphs of the day are things like mastering a new crochet technique (Today I'm learning how to make a sock from the cuff down. I'm working on turning the heel right now, it doesn't look quite right but I'm trying.) or keeping the kids from having massive meltdowns because they wanted to go get ice cream when we didn't have the funds for it. I'm going to try to update this thing more often.

After all, there may be another mommy looking for a realistic mommy blogger just like me.

Celebrating Independence day is optional.

It has been a few years now since I have felt the pull to celebrate the 4th of July. It is less a matter of not enjoying fireworks and barbecues and more that I feel a deep sense of disconnect with the folks around me who get whipped up into a patriotic fervor. It's not that I don't love my country. It's not that I'm not proud of the good that we have done as a nation. And it is most definitely that I don't appreciate the sacrifices that have been made so that we might live in relative freedom compared to the rest of the world.

I appreciate all of these things. I enjoy a good fireworks show as much, if not a little bit more, then the next gal. Family barbecues are often the highlights of the summer. My problem, however, is that I can't blithely celebrate all of these things while there is so much that is very, very wrong in this country. Celebrating our 'freedom' while our nation has one of the highest incarcaration rates in the world strikes me as a sick irony. We're tied with Seychelles for the number one position on that list. When people cheer about USA being number one at something, I highly doubt this is what they have in mind.

I can not in good conscience celebrate the military when the military does such a poor job of taking care of veterans. The VA is infamous for the poor quality of their hospitals and of their poor quality of service to the veterans. When there are veterans dying as they are waiting for assistance from the hospital and that this is reported in news story, after news story, after news story, there is something terribly wrong with this picture. This is not something to celebrate. This is something to get angry over and demand to be fixed.

I can not in good conscience celebrate the 'freedom' of the nation when rulings are made that strip liberties away from the people and encourage discriminatory practices by the Supreme Court. Rulings like the most recent one on the Hobby Lobby case, the one a few years back regarding eminent domain, or the other one from recent past wherein portions of the restrictions on how spending was used in an election were struck down. I can not look at these things and say that my nation respects my freedom and rights with these kinds of decisions.

The Hobby Lobby case has established that one's employer may pressure their employees against medical treatments that the employer finds distasteful. One might say that I am blowing this out of proportion because it is merely telling them that they can choose not to consume health insurance options that permit contraceptives (in this specific case) but they have always had that option. The case establishes that it is in principle tolerable and legal to discriminate against women who use contraceptives, regardless of the cause and medical need for said use. I said something about this a few days ago. You may want to take a peek at it to get my full opinion on the implications of that ruling.

The eminent domain ruling has essentially ended private property ownership, when it comes to land. It has created a situation where a business can, on the promise of creating more tax revenue for the municipality, take your property under color of law. It may not be the business itself taking the land, but the end result is just that. There's a reason why many people hate Walmart. It is because since this ruling, Walmart has been utilizing this legal process of ejecting people from their property on a regular basis. The only reason why no one has really heard much about it in the news is because the business is big and brings in a considerable amount of money, compared to the private property owners who are getting shafted. Also, the law hasn't been used to force people out of their houses, for the most part.

No, people losing their homes have been a result of financial bubbles collapsing and shady business practices in the banking world. Another thing that I can not say makes the 4th worth celebrating. The 'American Dream' is to own your own home, have a vehicle, and a reasonably secure job that you can retire from once you've become old enough that you're not particularly apt at it any more. That dream is not a reality for most of the nation. Most of us are going to be working until we're well into our 'Golden Years' and I don't expect Social Security to provide much of a safety net.

According to theory, on paper, my family is middle class. Functionally, we're at the bottom of the middle class spectrum. We have health insurance through charity programs because we can't afford it otherwise. We've used up most of our savings on medication to manage my health problems. We are mired in debt because we did what we were encouraged to when we finished high school: went to college. There are people who have college degrees who are working multiple minimum wage jobs to keep a roof over their head. Why? Because the jobs that we were promised before we went to college aren't there.

The nation is living paycheck to paycheck. In some cases, they're hanging in the best they can until they get their benefits check at the beginning of the month. I can not celebrate this. I don't celebrate Independence Day because there's too many things wrong with this country. I don't feel that I or the rest of us have the right to rest on the laurels collected by others and perform in public rituals of mental masturbation, ignoring the work that needs done.

Between the unjust wars that we have entered into and the plight of the nation becoming clear to me, I simply can not celebrate the nation in that unanimous orgy of fireworks, hot dogs, and beer that so many of my countrymen do. It is the same as spitting in the face of my neighbors who count themselves lucky if they can afford those hot dogs this week. I refuse to do that.

The Hobby Lobby Fiasco

As I am sure most of you are aware, we are on the verge of Independence day here in the good ol' US of A. It is darkly ironic that there is less liberty in this nation this week then there was before it. Now, some of you are going to tell me that the Supreme Court decision with respect to the Hobby Lobby case doesn't strip anyone of their rights, but rather grants liberties. If you honestly believe that poppycock, I think you need to stop reading my blog right now.

Seriously, we are at entirely different cultural mindsets and you're going to find yourself majorly vexed by what I post along any sort of cultural, political, or social topics. You might find Ann Coulter more to your liking. Follow that link and enjoy, because I promise you what I am about to say is going to send you in to an apoplectic fit.

Several people with law degrees and who make a living of studying the law and writing about it have said things that I don't have the verbage to. I don't have a law degree. I have a slightly better understanding of Constitutional law then your average lay person because it was a hobby of Beloved's for several years (the better part of a decade, wherein he seriously considered if he wanted to go to law school). I'm going to apply that bit of knowledge and a keen sense of historical trends to what I am witnessing here.

Part one: Granting corporate 'persons' religious exemptions from existing laws because of 'sincerely held beliefs.'

I have had a problem with corporations being regarded as 'persons' ever since junior high school, where I first encountered the concept. Extending to these businesses rights and privileges that have been the purview of individuals is wrong. It is a blatant act to disregard the anti-trust legislation on the books and should not be permitted to continue. Additionally, the religious exemption sets up a condition where this new legal loophole can be exploited to undermine all of the civil rights work that has been done in this country.

Today, a business such as Hobby Lobby can state that they will not fund health insurance coverage that includes contraceptives and abortifacients due to 'sincerely held religious beliefs.' Tomorrow, a business will deny an African American person service for the same claimed reason. There will be people who are denied services on the basis of their appearance, creed, gender, and disability status all for the sake of 'sincerely held religious beliefs.' You may think I am painting an extreme secenario here but there are places in the United States where people believe that a person falling ill with cancer is a sign of (their) god's judgment against that person. There are places in this country where if you are anything other then Caucasian, you will get harassed just walking down the street. And let us not forget the numbers of people who deem that women who are 'immodestly' dressed are clearly deserving of sexual assault, with out any clear determination of what is appropriately 'modest' dress.

The granting of the religious exemption sets a dangerous precedent that opens up the complete unraveling of the gains of the civil rights movement. Sure, they're not making laws that are saying that women aren't allowed to vote or that 'colored' people should use separate bathroom facilities. They don't have to when such attitudes can be imposed by businesses with out fear of repercussions. All they need to do is cry that they were motivated by their religious beliefs. The precedent has now been established that this is a viable way to escape just punishment for denying the civil liberties of others.

Part two: Ruling on contraceptives and abortifacients while not establishing a position when a fetus becomes a person.

Shame on the Supreme Court on this one. It is as egregious if not more so then what I first addressed. They will claim that they can't make a judgment on when personhood begins in pregnancy but then make this kind of ruling, implying that personhood begins at conception. If they're going to reverse Roe V Wade, they should gird their loins and just do it already. Because they have already made their decision as to when personhood begins, they just haven't said it directly. And I think that is due to cowardice. It is my understanding that only a coward will hem, haw, and do their damndest to not say what they want to say, whilst implying it every step of the way. I'd have some shred of respect for the justices who supported this decision if they had the courage to say 'we believe that personhood begins at conception' rather then put that 'decision' in the hands of the corporations (and the plaintiff of this case most assuredly believes it begins at conception which leads one to believe that must be the Court's position as well).

Part three: Ruling on insurance coverage for valid medical procedures that treat an array of conditions afflicting only people who are biologically female, but socially and culturally affects all women.

This is even more of an outrage then the first two points. It makes me so angry that I feel physically ill. It has taken me some time to process this all and I still am so angry that I can hardly speak. Women are not second class citizens. We make up approximately half of the population. Persons who are born female are no less deserving of potentially LIFE SAVING treatment of their conditions.

People wave their hands and go 'it's only birth control' but these medications help women like myself manage their conditions that can have potentially lethal implications. A ruptured ovarian cyst can have fatal results. Menstrual irregularity is not something to joke about. It can result in a woman bleeding to death if something goes severely wrong. By the way, the medical procedure commonly known as abortion (dialition and cutterage) was what was used to stop my best friend from bleeding to death due to her menstrual problems.

To say that people who are not medical doctors or the patient (or the patient's legal representitive) have any kind of say in what sort of medical treatment they have is beyond the pale. There is irresponsible, reckless, and then this, for which my vast lexicon of insult fails me. Allowing someone who doesn't have any sort of stake in the patient's welfare to have even a remote influence on their treatment is disgusting. To give ground to people who are hostile against the patient on the basis of the treatment they are getting is dangerous and stupid.

There is a reason why back alley abortions had to be stopped. Women were dying. There is a reason why women who suffer from ectopic pregnancy stand a better chance of living today then they did during the 1800s. It's not just because we have better medication. It's also due to treatments like abortifacient medication and the abortion procedures. To declare that these lifesaving treatments are subject to public opinion is wrong.

A woman should be able to get medical treatment for conditions regarding her reproductive system with out any one batting a proverbial eyelash over it. We don't go around shunning people who get appendectomies. We don't shame people with high blood pressure. We certainly don't go around telling people with brain cancer that they're morally deficient. Any medical condition should be treated with the same kind of indifference that we give to broken bones and appendectomies, at the very least. At best, with the kind of compassion that we extend to the person with brain cancer.

And another thing, people who make decisions for women or female gendered persons on the basis of their appearance had better be doing it with that person's consent. Body autonomy is for all people, not just cis-men. The fact that this ruling allows a corporation like Hobby Lobby to pressure their female staff to approach their medical care in a certain fashion is morally reprehensible. A woman or a female gendered person should not be discriminated against on the basis of their body parts or appearance. This ruling allows that type of discrimination.

It is a bad precedent and a shameful ruling by the majority of the Supreme Court. I am deeply concerned as to how the nation will proceed forward. If this 'corporate theocracy' that some other bloggers I know of are talking about is truly forming, then I suspect that we, as a nation, are in a great deal of trouble.