The Rabid Grammarian

It's Marriage Equality week at the Supreme Court. The Justices will decide the fate of Marriage equality twice this week. People have been camped out at the Court for 5 days (despite snow) in hopes to to hear the arguments today and tomorrow.

Here's hoping that the Court will do the right thing and decide in favor of equality, especially striking down DOMA, which if anyone had read the Act (and I have) you know it's unconstitutional.

Today, March 26, 2013, the Court will determine the legality of California Prop 8, that limits marriage to opposite sex couples.
Tomorrow, March 27, 2013, the Court will address DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton (aw Bubba, how could you?) that he now says was a mistake to have ever signed. DOMA limits the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples (and yet in something like 20+ states you can marry your 13 year old first cousin.)

Although I'm pretty sure we don't have a chance with Scalia or Thomas, here's hoping the rest of the judges aren't so addled they do the right thing and uphold Marriage Equality on both fronts.

Today, I've been trying to call the White House since the lines opened at 9 AM EST. I'm trying to let President Obama know that I want him to veto  HR 933, the short term spending bill due to the inclusion of a dangerous rider by Congress, The Monsanto Protection Act,that is harmful to our environment, family farmers and citizens.
I have yet to get through, but I'll continue to call until the lines close at 5PM EST.

Because I wanted to get my opinion to the White House, I also filled out a contact the White House form. Contrary to some "news" outlets, the Obama Administration is the most transparent and most available administration ever. I'm grateful that this administration provides multiple methods for Americans to express their opinions.

I'm getting my voice heard. You should as well!

You can use the form above or try calling the White House at 202-456-1111.

Sexy People Reading-Raquel Welch.

Ever since the birth of our child, I've been focused on making improvements. Improvements in myself, our home, our lifestyle. It's totally normal to want to make such improvements to provide a better life for your child.
One of my biggest bugaboos is a healthy eating lifestyle. More than 50% of the US population is considered obese, and I'm pretty sure that despite BMI being an absolute junk measure of overall health, that statistic would still be accurate without using BMI as a measure. This generation of children will be the first who will not live longer than their parents due to health related conditions such as diabetes, coronary artery disease and cancer. Many researchers believe that this is directly related to the Standard American Diet (which ironically abbreviates to "SAD.") I want my kid to have a long, healthy life. I don't want my kid to suffer physically or emotionally (because fat kids are targeted for ridicule and usually have low self esteem) because of a completely preventable condition.  So I decided now, while he's young, before it becomes an issue, to be proactive and change the way my family eats.

Thankfully, my husband is not a meat & potatoes only kind of guy, he'll eat pretty much anything I put in front of him, so making these changes are fairly easy as I'm not met with much resistance. First, we cut out nearly all processed products. We still have a few items, DH seems resistant to give up cereal and tortilla chips, but we buy organic, non-GMO ones that have less than 5 ingredients. I also still purchase canned beans and tomatoes, tofu and such. Technically, anything in the grocery store that isn't fresh produce has been processed, even minimally, but the aim is to eat as close to whole foods as possible.
The next step was to buy all only organic (except when utterly unavailable.) We're lucky we can do this, because our grocery bill did jump quite a bit. We also decided to eat only pasture raised, grass-fed meat (beef/chicken) and only wild-caught fish. This is probably the priciest item, so because of the increase in price, we matched it to a decrease in consumption. Americans eat far too much meat in general. It used to be a treat, or used only for flavor, rather as the main event.  Our consumption of meat averages to about once a week.  So, we're mostly lacto-ovo vegetarian/plant based at this point.

This is great, it's better for our health (I've lost about 20 pounds just from diet change, even without exercise) and better for the environment (commercial meat production is one of the most destructive elements on the environment) and my kid is growing up with healthy views of food as fuel. But, I want to go further. I want to go mostly vegan.

And there's the rub "mostly" vegan. I have issues with veganism in specific. First, I truly believe that to be 100% vegan or vegetarian you really do need a lot of knowledge, practically a degree in nutrition to do it right. I was vegetarian in the past. Except I didn't really eat vegetables. I ate a lot of cheese, pasta, bread, beans, rice and meat substitutes. I wasn't a vegetarian, I just didn't eat meat. I was a carbotarian. I was probably pretty nutrient deficient in some areas. So, even though I'm much more versed in nutrition now, I'm still not confident about going 100% vegan.
Second, I hate the term "vegan." It brings to mind all the raging vegans who would judge me for my food choices and who would spring graphic images of animal cruelty on me while I was eating a cheeseburger. They are the dietary equivalent of pro-lifers who force images of fetuses on people against their will. Hey Vegenazis, people don't like preachy and invasive. It does your cause no service. Subtle revolution will work better for you to earn the hearts and minds of the populace. Cows are bred for food. They are 100% domesticated animals. There is no such thing as a wild cow (to my knowledge) roaming the wild lands. However, we are eating too much meat and in that process, we are falling into inhumane practices to support consumption.
Third, many of the vegan recipes I find are reliant on heavily processed vegan "butter" and "cheese." My family tries to eat a whole food diet and these just don't really fit. Organic butter from pasture raised cows is a better choice in my opinion. It's closer to a whole food and yet consciously obtained.

I have no issues with an omnivorous diet, provided it's done consciously. Our society does consume too much dairy and meat, which leads to poor human and poor environmental health. We need to reduce consumption, focus on a plant based diet using meat and dairy as a flavoring rather than a main event, and make sure that the meat and dairy we do use are sustainably and pasture raised, fed on a natural diet (which is grass for cows, not grain) and free of antibiotics and other unhealthy additives. Our society is overfed and yet starving (nutritionally) to death.

And don't give me that "but without Big Ag/Big Food we can't feed the world" sh*t. The truth is we aren't feeding the world. People are starving despite all these so called innovations in food production. Cattle & commercially raised chickens get more than 50% of the antibiotics made, and now we have antibiotic resistant super bugs and people are dying of disease that could be cured with those drugs. Feedlot cattle eat something like 5 pounds of grain (corn) to produce one pound of meat (which in the US may turn into one person's meat consumption for one meal). If that grain were given to people instead, it could solve the hunger crisis in this world.

So there it is, the lifestyle change tangent (which will probably be one of many.) For my and my family's health and to reduce environmental impact we're trying to be weekday vegans and omnivore weekenders (though still mostly vegetarian.)

If this lifestyle change is something you have been interested in pursuing, I encourage you to watch the following films: Hungry For Change (also a great book), Forks Over Knives (also a book and cookbook) Food, Inc, and Vegucated. Good books are Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food.

I'll be cobbling together a cookbook & plant-based blogs post soon.

Today is the official first day of Spring. I have a love-hate relationship with Spring. I love that Spring beings with it the promise of warmer weather and life in bloom. I hate that Spring beings with it pollen and differing air pressure. I personally have no issue with pollen. My husband, on the other hand makes all sorts of fun loud sounds at all hours which is not so fun for either of us. In addition, this Spring has brought in a pressure system that has been interfering with my system, resulting in chronic vertigo for quite some time now.
If I thought getting anything done with a small child was difficult before, it is now combined with the feeling like I am always spinning. Add to this that my child is now increasingly mobile and it's a recipe for disaster.
Basically, I have been utterly useless for most things with the exception of getting dinner on the table most nights and watching the entirety of Battlestar Gallactica on Netflix. But I wanted to pop in and make a post, hopefully I'll get back to posting regularly soon.