Just need to clarify this:

I recently saw a propaganda piece from Planned Parenthood, saying (basically) that the decision to use birth control shouldn't involve a woman's boss or congressman.  They are spreading fear that the lawsuits challenging the HHS mandate will cause women to lose all access to birth control.  My 10yo recently studied the "Appeal to Fear" in her logic class (Argumentum Interrorem in Latin, which I know because I'm raising little geniuses).  This is a classic example.

If the lawsuits succeed, that means an employer would not be required by law to provide health insurance that covers contraception with no out-of-pocket cost.  It has nothing to do with access.  Why is this somehow different than everything else in our lives, where the person who wants something is expected to pay for that thing?   Honestly, if you're asking your boss and your congressman to pay for something, they should have a say in whether you get it!  If you want privacy, don't ask someone else to fund whatever you want to keep private.  TINSTAFFL.

For many reasons that contraception is bad for women, bad for the planet, bad for relationships, and just plain wrong, look here.

Wind

It's windy outside today.  I like to listen to a windy day from inside, because it always reminds me how sturdy my house is: with all that going on out there, we don't feel any effects in here.  This house was built over 130 years ago, and has stood the test of time, and I'm thankful for the skill of the builders, and thankful that we are able to live here now.

Building is not the same now.  We're considering moving (don't really want to, but there are a few compelling reasons), and I don't really want to buy a house built after maybe 1960.  Nothing new is sturdy: we use inferior materials, and almost nobody has the kind of skill that went into building my current house.  Plus most new construction doesn't include a tower, and that's kind of sad.  I do have a tower now, not that we really use it for anything, but I really like having it.  There's a cool staircase going up to a trapdoor through the tower floor.

I have delusions of making it into a reading nook, but that would involve some serious cleaning and painting and I'm really too lazy.

Wind is not the same now either.  Those "wind farms" with the giant turbines are sucking the energy out of the sky.  I'm not talking in some new age way, either, but in a very physical, conservation of energy way.  If these machines are giving energy in the form of electricity, that energy has to be taken from somewhere - in this case, slowing down the wind as it passes over.  There's no way those things don't have an effect on our weather, but no one seems to be talking about it.  I blame them for last summer's drought, and there doesn't seem to be any science to disprove that, because as far as I can tell no one is bothering to look at the effect of these machines on the weather.  It could be that the media just doesn't mention it, because the average viewer doesn't care about science, or it could be that I don't notice it in the media because I really don't have a lot of exposure (no incoming TV channels here, and we only get the local weekly newspaper), or it could be that there is some kind of vast cover-up going on, but I don't think that's it either.  I think no one wants to find out the true cost of this "free" electricity.  Except that nothing is free.  Of course we're going to have to pay the cost of this electricity, and most people will be totally surprised by that.  Why don't we think things through before we do them?  Often unintended consequences were totally predictable (or maybe it just looks that way in hindsight).