Questions answered and various stuff

After story submissions, kudos and the occasional anti flame, the most frequent INS e-mails are about various anti-choice laws that are being proposed in various states. The senders, always good-intentioned, are usually disappointed that I don’t immediately OMGWTFBBQ over them. This is because these are only proposals.

Any legislative body gets tons of proposals for new laws. How many of them actually go through? Not many. Few even get to the point to be seriously considered. While it’s always good to be aware of which batshit-crazy legislators are wasting time, it’s equally good to be aware of the progress of the proposal and judge how likely it is to pass. For example, I’ve been getting e-mail for a while about a proposed license plate theme in Virginia (where we already have WAY too many themes, seriously–name the school, cause or disease and Virginia probably has a license plate for it) which echoes the one that a couple of states already have–CHOOSE LIFE. The cherry on the WTF sundae is that the profits from these plates will go to crisis pregnancy centers. On this one the worst is happening–Governor Tim Kaine, who is one of those “well, I hate abortion but I’ll condone choice” guys, is getting ready to sign off on this one. Not many of the unwashed are aware of where the profits will go, and despite my facepalm I want to see how many will get these plates. I’ve made two trips to Florida in the past few months and have been on the roads and have seen their CHOOSE LIFE plate … once. Yes, I did give the car the finger. So maybe there’s hope and the abortion preventors crisis pregnancy centers will have to get funds elsewhere.

As I’ve stated in the past, I read a lot of blogs relating to various topics. There was one, a personal blog, where I liked the guy’s writing enough to overlook the fact that if I knew him in real life I’d probably dislike him. He’d been through some pretty heinous personal stuff but was still able to have a successful career. About two years ago he wrote a long entry raving about his wife … which ended with a rather poetic version of “we’re splitting.” He got floods of sympathy, but subsequent entries made me think that it wasn’t quite as bad as he was making it out to be. Sure enough, they got back together. Someone I know who also read the blog e-mailed me after the reconcilation post. “I’ll bet you right now they’re going to have a baby,” he wrote. Literally a month after that? “We’re pregnant!”

(Pause for a personal note–one of my pet peeves is when a couple announces “we’re pregnant!” SHE’S pregnant. He’s not. Yes, I like when a man plans to be really involved in his child’s life as he should be. If you say “we’re expecting” that’s the truth and conveys the message just as well. /rant)

Back to our erstwhile New York hipster blogger, who after the pregnancy was announced swore that his blog wouldn’t be filled with baby stuff. But … you guessed it, he started filling the pages with ultrasound pictures and, after the baby was born, baby pictures. And they named the kid after a character on a TV show to boot (I won’t repeat my baby name rant but seriously, give the creative names to pets, mmkay?). But the “Baby As Marriage Patch” scheme backfired, for he re-posted the “my wife is so wonderful but we’re splitting” post.

Unfortunately, this happens a lot because people honestly believe that the act of giving birth is some sort of magic panacea that will wake people up and kick their asses into improving their lives or their relationships. It rarely if ever does, and who takes the brunt of the fall-out? The child. And I get tired of seeing it, even if it’s only on a blog entry. I get tired of reading/hearing “but I thought he/she would change after the baby came.” For every one that actually does–and I won’t deny the possibility exists–there’s ten thousand who don’t. And chances are you’re one of the thousands.