I will be eighty years old in May, have 8 children (plus gave birth to one stillborn and had several miscarriages), 13 granddaughters, and 15 great grandchildren.  No one cherishes life and progeny more than I.   BUT, for me, as an excited mother-to-be, there was no "baby" until there was life within the womb:  i.e., the quickening.  A study of history shows this has always been true for most women.  As for choosing to abort, the vast majority of women choose to do so prior to feeling life AND those who do so later do so for necessity of various types which are not for us to question or judge.  Describing what may occur during the process is, to me, akin to describing unsavory details of any medical procedure.  Such descriptions do not make me cry out for any specks of life form, but for the lack of good taste exhibited by the describer.  Every woman has her own story.  Abortion has existed for millions of years and will exist to the end of time.  People should be left to their privacy.

One of these fine days the citizens of this planet are going to experience a lightning bolt of clarity and realize it is pure hypocrisy and chauvinism to worship at the altar of anti-abortionism.

(1) This world is dangerously overpopulated and that overpopulation is KILLING us!  Now that is self-imposed.  Having all of these babies is making us sick as a planet, not doing us or the starving children any good!

(2) A woman’s body is HER body.  HER BODY!  Her very own;  no one else’s.  The stance of the Catholic church and the fundamentalists comes from a bunch of men who look upon women as baby-making machines without a brain in their pretty little heads.  In their beknighted opinions Of Course all seeds fertilized within these females must grow, and the women being Just machines should not have a power lever over that!  Heaven Forbid!  Women are not MEANT to have a life or control over their own bodies!

(3)  It is pure hypocrisy and total ignorance not to provide for the babies already here and to give women their freedom to decide their futures for themselves.  These ultra-religious men, who are making it up as they go along, are the ones creating the disaster approaching our Earth faster than the speed of light, and they are in total denial of it!

Children are not capitalistic market commodities. They are human beings. They are innocents They deserve better.

On Good Morning America yesterday they were very explicit that the fertility clinic had “implanted all 8 remaining embryos at once because the mother did not want any thrown out.”

She went to a clinic right there in California. I have never had a doctor ask me what my source of income is, but then, I have never been to an infertility clinic, either. It would be my expectation, unless they already require a lot of personal financial information, that the doctor involved would not have known she was single, may not have known of the 6 living children under the age of 7, and may not have known she is unemployed and poor. California should now make it law that they get this information prior to implanting. Social Services requires it before adoptions are approved! Why should adopted children have more breaks than natural ones? I think they need a law as to how many frozen embryos they implant at one time, too. The Civil Rights here are those of the prospective children: they deserve a chance to be born without being premature and possibly disabled in one or more ways.

The money for the sperm from the sperm bank came from an INSURANCE SETTLEMENT. I have not yet read or heard what the insurance settlement was all about, but we will read that somewhere eventually. I have heard that she is unemployed and has NO health insurance. The State of California is paying the bills. On top of their extreme prematurity, most if not all of these children are likely to have severe developmental problems and are likely to be an expense to us taxpayers all of their lives.

Why “except for the Duggers?” They are raising their children on the proceeds of exploiting them with their television shows. They pay no taxes because they (1) have so many dependents and (2) have church-related write-offs. So why are they an exception to the other cases?

She did get the sperm from a sperm bank donor. And I have no solutions. I am 80 years old, will die soon, and leave behind 15 (so far) great grandchildren who will have these problems to face. De does list some beginning things to do, but my emphasis is on the fact that these things MUST be faced! Once folk can agree there is a huge problem here, I am sure brilliant minds can sit down together and solve it. Whole nations are going to have to face it. I also point to the fact that we, as humans, do not want to look at the problem because my Life has proved this to me. I was in High School back in the early forties when I first began to read scientists and mathematicians writing warnings of run away population growth. They were not ideologists writing of their religious convictions, but were realists looking at the growth figures vis a vis what this one little planet can produce to maintain life.

I really think this situation makes everyone see once again the elephant in the room concerning “reproductive rights.” Will America still avert its eyes, because everyone wants to nourish and cherish their illusion that Life is actually the way they paint a picture of it being, or will these times of severe Recession across the nation and hundreds of thousands of families with 2 parents and just a few children, who have lost their jobs and their homes and are worried sick about food, shelter and medical care for those children, cause citizens to rear up and face facts about a need to change our priorities here? Men have for centuries been putting the emphasis on women having lots and lots of babies and no access to controling their productivity re family numbers. They have fought to the bitter end over our using contraceptives or abortion. We have won some battles re these issues, and caused a huge surge in fundamentalist religious activity in both the Christian and Islamic worlds as a result. Well, our children and our children’s children have to face vast over-population, poverty, Global Warming, and attendant deep problems. The one thing MOST needed is careful rationing of the number of children one person will produce. The Chinese have put a much criticized program in place out of desperation. The whole world is going to have to stop looking away and start thinking up solutions. These solutions are not going to work if they are just compromises. They will have the end result of making our species extinct or allowing us to continue and thrive. We must face our very real reproductive problems or DIE. It is truly that simple and is an absolute.

Chewing gum in public. Grosses me out! My great grandmother used to admonish me never to be guilty of this by telling me young ladies who chewed gum looked like cows in a pasture chewing their cud. To this very day, some 70 years since she lectured me on the subject, I still see all gum chewers as stupid cattle!

I have been watching Maddow since her first show, as well. Before that, caught her frequently on Countdown. No one has mentioned that if you cannot catch her nine o’clock show, it repeats at eleven. As for her being one-sided, nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the time, and only most of the time, she does let us know where she stands on a matter, but from where I sit, she does not toe the line for any political ideology and has been heard to voice support for conservative viewpoints. I have seen Pat Buchanan and many other far-right spokespeople on Rachel Maddow’s show, and she converses with each one with gracious courtesy. The drift I get is this talk-show host wants to put THE FACTS out there. All the facts, the true facts, and nothing but the truth. Let the chips fall where they may! If you are far right or far left, you are going to be astonished as she brings all public servants up to the bar and demands they offer dedicated and honest service to those paying their salaries and depending upon their intelligent, unbiased and unbribed working-out of this nation’s problems.

I know exactly what she means, and could not possibly have said it as well. Too many ignorant, uneducated Americans of today hold to a fervent belief that there are two sides, two sets of facts, regarding any issue. Now this is certainly true of many, indeed, probably most political matters, as well as matters of culture and taste. But it IS NOT TRUE of real facts; most especially scientific facts. We had a lady, a really nice lady, who argued on television that the planet Earth is, indeed, flat. Sorry, but this does not qualify as something to argue about. The lady in question was believing in this fake balance thing. Those who take their religious beliefs and attempt to put them out there in the public arena to argue for as “facts” are most guilty of this fake balance thing. It is a belief they cling to, but if they had the advantage of inquiring minds and solid educations, they would come to see how ridiculously specious this attitude is. Global Warming, AIDS being caused by a virus, Evolution, and our solar system revolving around the sun that sustains us are just a few facts that cannot be quibbled about as being untrue or unproven. We can, however, own differing opinions as to how to deal with their impact upon the well-being of our species. Go, Rachel!

Am hoping MILK will win.

Find myself amazed even ONE Gabor is still with us! I think they were Magda, Eva and Zsa Zsa. From Hungary? Eva was my favorite. They were each and all more beautiful than any woman should be. Well, I am sorry for EVERYone who got taken to the cleaners by Madoff, but most especially those who did not greedily buy in of their own accord; which I feel certain is the case with this nonagenarian.

Very well said. Have always had a deep well of affection for Caroline Kennedy, though let me hasten to say I know her not, nor have I ever met ANY Kennedy. It is just a wistful memory of being young and the days of Camelot. I wish her well and all good things, and hold on to a hope of seeing her in public service.