Summer › Comments

From the page: As the event got underway, the online conversation quickly turned into an online battlefield. The company's Twitter channel was so inundated with anti-Nestle messages, and nasty accusations aimed at the attendees, that it was essentially shut down. The company, caught off guard, let the parents field questions aimed at executives until finally stepping into the fray. Afterward, thousands of people joined Facebook groups dedicated to boycotting the company, according to critics of the company. "I do think they should have done a bit of due diligence in researching the company before choosing to be associated with them and to accept a free trip from them," said Annie Urban, author of the PhD in Parenting blog and the person credited with kicking off the Nestle brouhaha. - Summer

From the page: "We help growing families to obtain permanent residency in Costa Rica by having a baby here." - Summer

From the page: When you say that kids need to act like adults to be acceptable in the public eye, you're in league with those who say the LGBT community should just "act straight" and not be out in public forcing people to acknowledge their existence. When you get annoyed that kids being around impacts your ability to have the quiet adults-only experience you wanted, you are acting very similarly to those who complain that fat people walking around in bathing suits like they have the nerve to be ok with their bodies makes a day at the beach unpleasant. - Summer

"This is an actual photo of me when I was around 2. Take a close look at the mouth. Closer. A little closer. Come on, just a little closer." - Summer from Bookmarklet

From the page: "The holidays are supposed to be â€oethe most wonderful time of the year,” yet for many people they might as well be known as â€oethe most stressful time of the year.” We often think of stress as something that only affects adults, but it can play a significant role in the lives of children as well, especially around the holidays. There are a lot of changes to childrenâ€s routines during the holidays, from visits from unfamiliar relatives to traveling, from an influx of sweets to over-scheduled days and late bedtimes. All of these things can take a toll on the wee ones." - Summer

From the page: You know what I don't want to hear right now about the Stupak-Pitts amendment banning abortion coverage from federally subsidized health insurance policies? That it's the price of reform, and prochoice women should shut up and take one for the team. "If you want to rebuild the American welfare state," Peter Beinart writes in the Daily Beast, "there is no alternative" than for Democrats to abandon "cultural" issues like gender and racial equality. Hey, Peter, Representative Stupak and your sixty-four Democratic supporters, Jim Wallis and other antichoice "progressive" Christians, men: why don't you take one for the team for a change and see how you like it? - Summer

From the page: This is the culture we live in folks. It's the culture we work in every day trying to normalize breastfeeding and support breastfeeding mothers. It's a culture where women are hood ornaments, and breasts are put to work selling beer, vodka, and other alcoholic beverages, as well as magazines, rock-and-roll (or more magazines as the case may be), computers and of all things - pudding. We've even managed to sexualize breast cancer. Are we good at this or what? - Summer

Great round up of info on unschooling - Summer

From the page: "What if we slowed down and learned to be happy with what we have? Do you think you could learn to be happy and someday happier with less?" - Summer

From the page: "Do you feel frustrated by the commercialism, screaming for ever bigger and more expensive gifts -- "Have you done your holiday shopping yet?" as if the holidays were only about spending money? As if it were almost your duty to run up impossible charges? Does your heart sink at the thought of the credit card bills that are part and parcel of today's holidays?" - Summer

"what total, unmitigated horseshit President Obama's contention that the House bill with the Stupak Amendment "[isn't] an abortion bill" is. Certainly, what he means is that it's not a bill that supports abortion (because that would be terrible!), but the fact is that it is an anti-choice bill, and that makes it an abortion bill as far as I'm fucking concerned, in the same way that the assault weapons ban is considered "gun legislation" by both its supporters and its opponents." - Summer from Bookmarklet

Whatâ€s the problem with BPA? Itâ€s a synthetic estrogen (an endocrine disruptor) and has been linked to everything from childhood behavioral problems and breast cancer to obesity, infertility, and genital abnormalities, and possibly diabetes and heart disease as well. In other words, itâ€s a chemical you likely donâ€t want in your or your childrenâ€s bodies, yet â€oemore than 92 percent of Americans have BPA in their urine.” - Summer

They want us to use the google page. It is really just spam. - Mark Horne

Edwin, that's awesome! I'd love to give it a try - I'll shoot you an email. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

"This is what conservatives have become, and yet, they try to compare health care reform to terrorism. We know who the terrorists are. Not health care reformers. Ideologues and demagogues peddling hate, fear, and violence on the steps of our nation's capitol." - Summer from Bookmarklet

From the page: "Let me tell you where they are. Nowhere. For all the conservative posturing about 'protecting the children', when it actually comes down to caring about those children, it's clear that it begins at conception and ends at birth. Last Saturday's health care debate was evidence of that. While women's bodies became the football tossed to conservatives in order to get health care reform through the House of Representatives, not ONE SINGLE pro-family anti-abortion Republican could be bothered to admit the immorality of denying access to health care to the women who carry and bear them. NOT ONE. " - Summer

"Thirteen-year-old Joe Kozal was impressed by a molten chocolate cake in a restaurant but thought he could do better. Instead of chocolate, Joe's cakes ooze melted marshmallow. If you don't have ramekins, you can use muffin pans (about 1/2-cup capacity). Don't substitute chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate for the chocolate chips." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

*drools* - Summer

Often undiscussed issues in diapering and elimination communication - Summer

"With this lesson in mind, pro-choice Democrats need to understand this: Contraception coverage is next. Make no mistake. Now they have a precedent of banning insurance companies from covering abortion, but this will not, of course, stop women from fucking. So contraception is next. And if you doubt me, remember what happened when the Democrats tried to include contraception access expansion in the stimulus bill. There was a full-blown sex panic, the fear that those Other Women would be fucking. They will try to harness that energy, and this precedent, all to force your insurance company to stop covering your pill, your IUD, and possibly any gynecological care associated with them. That Pap smear that you get before your prescription is refilled? Under anti-choice reasoning, prepare to hear that described as “abortion”." - Summer from Bookmarklet

Sadly, there seem to be even more Blue Dogs in the Senate who may not want to try to remove this horrid amendment. Those 16 named Dems need to be be targeted. - Anika

The fight is NOT over on this. It still has to go to the Senate yet...and we (everyone who supports EQUAL healthcare coverage for women) needs to fight that provision...because it will impact everyone otherwise. - ProsePetals (aka Denise)

From the page: "With this lesson in mind, pro-choice Democrats need to understand this: Contraception coverage is next. Make no mistake. Now they have a precedent of banning insurance companies from covering abortion, but this will not, of course, stop women from fucking. So contraception is next. And if you doubt me, remember what happened when the Democrats tried to include contraception access expansion in the stimulus bill. There was a full-blown sex panic, the fear that those Other Women would be fucking. They will try to harness that energy, and this precedent, all to force your insurance company to stop covering your pill, your IUD, and possibly any gynecological care associated with them. That Pap smear that you get before your prescription is refilled? Under anti-choice reasoning, prepare to hear that described as â€oeabortion”. " - Summer

From the page: "Christmas trees are a pretty big debate with environmentalist. Real trees have problems like filling up the landfill, harmful pesticides, poor farming practices, and other issues. Fake trees are almost always made with PVC which can contain lead, can't be recycled when no longer usable, and a host of other problems. But don't think this means you have to give up having a Christmas tree. There are many options. Here are just a few." - Summer

My Christmas has always been green and red - Alex Scrivener

From the page: "The problem is not that young bodies are beautiful, it is that, particularly in the case of young women, their bodies have been used to symbolise commodified pleasure, and when everything about you represents consumption you can be terribly vulnerable. The appreciation of youthful beauty would not be so troublesome were it not to come with the sense of entitlement that is the leering eye. In our culture young women are both sexualised and silenced â€" a terribly dangerous combination for them." - Summer

From the page: "If a fat woman, like you or I, gets on a plane, no one wants to sit next to us. Because they might be a bit put out that we take up some of their seat. It isn't our fault they make seats for thin people. Yeah, it sucks that the thin person might have to lose a little bit of their comfort. It isn't so great for us, either, spread across two seats. Especially when we have to put up with the glares and daggers. But if a thin person wrote an article about how how, to be fair, the thin person had a point, and the comments discussed how we should either lose the fat or not fly at all? I think you'd be up in arms. If I get on a plane with my two year old, no one wants to sit next to me. Because they might be a bit put out that my child is noisy with either excitement or upset. It isn't my fault they don't make flights particularly child-friendly, with, say, games, or in-flight movies (except in the posh bit of the plane, obviously, where I can't afford to go). It also isn't... - Summer

From the page: "Fact Conservatives donâ€t want big government. They suggest that big government infringes on the individual freedoms that built this country. Fact Conservatives have no problem infringing on individual freedoms if it means you would get to marry someone that you love or have to make a tough decision over what happens with your own body." - Summer

From the page: "If you or someone in your family has had H1N1 (either confirmed or suspected), please complete the H1N1 survey. It only takes a couple minutes." - Summer

From the page: "Why would the worldâ€s largest infant formula company want to help mothers breastfeed? Huge spoiler ahead. Ready? They donâ€t. Yes, Nestle runs a glossy US website called the Start Healthy Stay Healthy Resource Center which claims that it gives expert advice about infant nutrition. Yes, the websiteâ€s informational section on breastfeeding is actually larger than the corresponding section on formula feeding. And yes, of course, some of the advice is accurate. It has to be. If they gave nothing but blatantly bogus information that would look pretty bad and a certain level of credibility is essential. Instead, the advice is misleading and manipulative in subtle ways. The â€oewhy” part should go without saying; if they can turn a mother who plans to breastfeed (as the majority do these days) into a mother who feeds her baby Good Start, they have just earned thousands of dollars. Switzerland is not in fact neutral." - Summer

"Why would the world’s largest infant formula company want to help mothers breastfeed? Huge spoiler ahead. Ready? They don’t. Yes, Nestle runs a glossy US website called the Start Healthy Stay Healthy Resource Center which claims that it gives expert advice about infant nutrition. Yes, the website’s informational section on breastfeeding is actually larger than the corresponding section on formula feeding. And yes, of course, some of the advice is accurate. It has to be. If they gave nothing but blatantly bogus information that would look pretty bad and a certain level of credibility is essential. Instead, the advice is misleading and manipulative in subtle ways. The “why” part should go without saying; if they can turn a mother who plans to breastfeed (as the majority do these days) into a mother who feeds her baby Good Start, they have just earned thousands of dollars. Switzerland is not in fact neutral." - Summer from Bookmarklet

These are the same people who send out "breastfeeding support kits" of formula samples and coupons. - Rochelle

From the page: "Sometimes the stragglers at the tail end of this slow march of progress need a boot to get them moving forward. When the legislatures haven't provided it, it has been the judiciary's job to deliver it instead, as marginalised groups were never meant to have no recourse against discriminatory practices, even if the will of the majority is to extend the codified biases in perpetuity. Just because something is popular doesn't make it right. And so came the howling about "activist judges". But in Maine, it was not left to a judge to decide the fate of same-sex marriage, but instead to the state legislature. And then â€" what a surprise â€" that wasn't good enough, either. It still had to be brought before Maine's voters, so that every straight person in the state would be allowed to cast their own opinion on whether their gay neighbours should be allowed their rights, which is only fair. On some planet where "fair" means "deferential to the tyranny of the majority so... - Summer

From the page: "With the ridiculous and misleading claims that are made on the packaging of many foods, it can be difficult to differentiate the truth from devious marketing. This is important because the failure to make this distinction can have a significant impact on your health and wellbeing." - Summer

From the page: "Have you ever seen a picture of your blood plasma after you've eaten a meal from McDonald's or Burger King? It's not a pretty picture. It looks thick and cloudy. Fast foods are loaded with fat and sodium. They use white bread and rolls, which means they've used white processed flour, with very few nutrients in them. And how do you feel after a Big Mac and french fries? You need a nap, donâ€t you? All that fat will drag you down and make you feel sluggish." - Summer

From the page: "I'm sorry, Rachael, but this story you linked about Abby Johnson's sudden conversion from a Planned Parenthood director to an anti-choice fanatic has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese after being used for target practice." - Summer