Abortion Legislation from California

 California legislation prevents the prosecution of abortionists who allow babies born alive to die between the 20th week of gestation and 28 days after birth.

"As we’ve informed you, AB 2223* is a pro-abortion California bill that contains language that would restrict the investigation and reporting of certain kinds of infant deaths, and could effectively legalize infanticide.

It has been clear from the beginning that the purpose of AB 2223 is to shield individuals, especially abortion providers, from civil or criminal liability when a baby is born alive after a botched abortion – and then left to die. In order to achieve this goal, the bill prohibits coroners’ reports related to the deaths of infants in the “perinatal” period from being used to bring civil or criminal charges against anyone.

As we have explained extensively, the term “perinatal” refers to a period of time generally encompassing the 20th to 28th week of gestation up until 28 days after birth. And, the bill – as originally written – could be interpreted as protecting both a woman (and any person assisting a woman) from civil and criminal liability related to the death of an infant in the perinatal period for “any reason"."

This doesn't mean that the law will be interpreted to mean an infant up to age 28 days does not have to be kept alive in order to avoid prosecution. But it could be. That makes this law unacceptable to me.

Please link me to abortion legislation, pro or con, that you find disturbing. I want the facts on abortion legislation. That means I need a link to the law.

*https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2223

A couple of school days-in-the-teaching-life

These are from my other blog.  I only started it so that I could access my daughter's blog more easily.  I am not a good blogger.  But you knew that.

Day 1      Day 2

Republicans deliver again-you're welcome, Hillary and co.*

So I should have written this post eight years ago.  You'll have to take my word that I have been saying this for that long.

Republicans have opted out of presidential election campaigns.  They have systematically abandoned the issues that would have gained them a foothold in the quadrennial process to select the commander-in-chief.  I would even go so far as to say that the Republicans have become the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats.

In 2008, the GOP could have made great strides in promoting their excellent candidate, John McCain.  The Obama campaign was surging based on the excitement around electing an African-American president for the first time.  I admit I was a little moved by that myself.  But BHO was NOT a good candidate.  He was inexperienced, and he associated with very questionable extremists.  The Republicans left these major issues completely alone.  Perhaps they were rising above personal attacks, but lots of people had concerns about these issues and would have welcomed some exposure of the facts.  As people had time to discover Obama's far left ideology, John McCain's poll numbers began to rise, and his campaign took off.  Too little, too late.  Another sixty days of campaigning, I dare say, would have made the difference.  I feel Republican strategists owe McCain a huge apology.  What a waste of his time, energy, and brilliance.

In 2012, the GOP nominated the least appealing candidate since John Kerry.  Even Mitt Romney was not excited about his campaign.  Republicans ho-hummed their way to the polls, waiting for the inevitable.  Dems probably sent flowers to the RNC for their help in turning a losing proposition into an Obama legacy.

But wait, the silver platter was still in the closet!  In 2016, the conservative party self-destructed as we all watched the pop-fizzle on live television.  Hilary Clinton was the mandated Democratic candidate, having suffered a humiliating loss to BHO eight years before.  But she was under fire for several scandals, and Bernie Sanders had the greater appeal to constituents.  HRC called in favors, and the media created a cozy cushion of protection around her.  Republican strategists could have had a field day with this, but were too preoccupied with - the horror- the meteoric rise of Donald Trump's actual campaign,   They were too stunned by his party nomination even to notice the struggle among the Democrats, much less to take advantage of it and grab the momentum for their own side.  Day after day, Democrats watch with concern as Hillary's character gets shakier and shakier.  Day after day, the Republicans save her campaign by their fumbling, bumbling ways.  Do they even know what their platform is?  Are they so bent on self-destruction that they can't form a sentence?

I can't wait for the concession call from Donald to Hillary.  If she will accept his call.  I'll be watching the classic biopic of American politics, aka "The Keystone Cops".

*Disclaimer of personal agenda:  I haven't been a registered party member of either side since the '80s.

postscript March 18, 2017:  well, shut my mouth, Clinton managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  RNC still in disarray, unsalvageable, but now Democratic Party is in the same pitiful condition.  In the immortal words of Richard Pryor portraying someone on LSD, "What's...happening...to...(us)?"

My Daughter's Blog

I'm putting this link in because I can't find the widget that adds blogs to my home page.

Susan Sylvester

End of Year Blues

The last day of school is eleven days away, a week from this Friday.  I used to get blue, knowing I had just a few precious days left with my wonderful classes.  I would miss them so!  They weren't as diligent as usual by the time the last few weeks arrived, but they still learned and we had fun.

That was then, this is now.  We are in the fourth week of testing, including end-of-instruction tests and AP.  After spring break, we no longer had a tutorial for a break between the second and third hours.  Classes last an additional five minutes.  Students and teachers drooped from the start of Daylight Savings Time in combination with longer classes and fewer breaks.  It's too much.  Fully one-sixth of the school year, the last six weeks, is a drudgery without relief.

Then, just when heads arise momentarily from the weight of so much testing, bam! It's time for graduation, and the last few days are blighted by the brain-death coma that seniors enter in anticipation of commencement before May has even gotten underway.  The bulk of the testing has been over for a week, but there's no conception that anything can be accomplished in the dozen days remaining.

When I came in this morning, a Monday, I surveyed a cheerfully resigned group of students.  They bravely held up under the day's activities, which, I admit, included a new game that was able to engage them for today.  By the third hour, resignation had bloomed into apathy.  None of us wanted to do anything.  We kept going, with no love of it in our hearts.  Two periods later, no one is making eye contact with the teacher. In the last class of the day, competition for points is the only motivator, and the social drive drowns out any learning that is possibly happening.

So, this is my scream, my rant.  It doesn't have to be this way!!!  The end of the year should be a relaxed and happy time for us all to enjoy the fruits of a successful school year, not the time to ramp up restrictions and demands.  If the end of year activities could be scheduled at the end of the year, say the last two to three weeks, learning could continue pretty much as usual.  There is no way to recover from testing and arduous scheduling demands, when everything else(Prom, Awards, State Athletic Competitions, graduation, etc.) has to be completed by May 15.  There just isn't.  For the administration to expect teachers to come up with new and exciting learning experiences is beyond the realm of reason.  In what fantasy land can you wear me to a nub, and then expect me to pop up fresh as a daisy?  It's not happening.  Plan something yourself.  Whenever you can do those 60 interviews in two weeks, and then put on a song-and-dance show to pump me up, maybe I'll try for it.  Right now it's survival mode for everyone, and isn't that a shame?

Disastrous Stinking Torture(aka Daylight Saving Time)

Well, I made it through another installation of The Change:  springing forward, that is.  I didn't have a heart attack or a car accident on Monday, although the odds were against me.  I have dragged myself to work every day, in spite of a relentless sore throat and massive histamine activity in my poor body.

This whole Daylight Saving Time thing is a scam.  You don't save any daylight!!!  Daylight hours never alter, despite the eponymous name of this state mandate.  Your body knows that it's really 4:30 now when you have to get up.  Sure, you can get used to it, but why is that considered a good thing???  Why do we want our internal clocks to be wrong every single day for months on end?  The days will grow longer on their own; they don't need any boost to get them to do that sooner.

In short, there is every reason for us to stay on regular, non-DST time, and I can't think of one good reason to challenge our already over-stressed adrenal glands with this idiotic system of changing the time every year.


When I was a young mother, my babies were not good sleepers.  Getting them to go sleep an hour earlier than normal?  wasn't going to happen, leading to cranky parents.  But then we all had to get up that same hour earlier, leading to crankiness and distress on the part of the children.  The unhappiness and lack of serenity continued for at least a week.  And for what purpose?  So outdoor types could stay outside an extra hour? All I could articulate at the time was, "WHY?  W-H-Y?"

Now, as a teacher, I see stressed-out students who are suddenly too sleepy to stay awake in class.  Everyone is dragging.  Nowhere is there enthusiasm.  Don't take away our health!  Let the poor children stay in bed until 5:30 or 6 every morning-they need the rest!

My hat's off to the state of Arizona for maintaining the sanity and dignity of its citizens by not requiring them to observe(deceptively mild word) you-know-what.  Hang in there, Arizona state legislators, your young, your elderly, your families, your hardworking citizens need you!

Did I mention I hate daylight saving time?

Winter Weather

Terrific Throwback Thursday Tidings!

Last week I was listening to the news and weather.  How the anchors were groaning and moaning over the very cold days we were having!  I'm pretty sure it is still WINTER.  What kind of short attention span do you have that a few weeks of actually frigid temperatures have got you down in the dumps?  Most of the winter, Oklahoma is sunny.  I can only remember a handful of overcast days even with the colder-than-usual spells.  Are we really suffering that much?  I wear thick socks, a warm coat, and something on my head and hands.  It takes me an extra minute or two in the mornings to dress in weather-appropriate garb.  And I don't go to the grocery store quite as often as usual.  That's it.  I haven't lost power, and my house is as warm as I want it to be.  I haven't shoveled any snow, and I've only driven on slick streets twice:  once on the way to school, and once on the way home.  The car I drive warms up after just a few  minutes.  My school district is very quick to call off school if there are dangerous conditions of any kind.  I'm pretty sure most Oklahomans have somewhere around the same living conditions, since my wages are slightly below the average for the state.  Our area of the country has enjoyed several very mild winters, with the accompanying furnace-blast summers.  I welcome this cold winter in the hope that the summer will be just summery, and not the weeks and weeks of over 100 degree temperatures that we have had in recent memory.  Is it a human tendency to struggle against the seasons that makes us yearn for the relief of sunny days and warmer temperatures after a week or two of cold?  Or is it the cultural norm of instant gratification:  I'm cold, I want to feel warm.  Now.  Without changing anything I do.  I'm hot.  I want to feel cool.  Now.  Without making any personal adjustments.  CALM DOWN, NEWS AND WEATHER REPORTERS.  Just because the thermometer swings back and forth between high and low temperatures does not make seasonal weather a news event.  Try embracing the change of seasons instead of so much complaining.  You will get more people to watch your show that way, I'll bet!