Friday, August 31, 2012

Political


I feel like I've been screaming at the top of my lungs, but no one is hearing me.

Why haven't we acknowledged that Republicans stopped talking about abortion a long time ago, escaping the tricky question of the relationship of rights between a *zygote* and the woman in whose body it resides. That's what people actually disagree on.

We aren't even talking about when the "baby" has full personhood. The sanctity of life act makes it very clear that a zygote has as many rights as a child, so there is no need to discuss blastocysts or embryos or fetuses.

Abortion is what happens, either spontaneously or medically, to terminate a pregnancy. The term's definition hasn't changed.

Why are we now talking about criminal law? Why are we getting distracted with how much at fault a person has to be in order to have a crime perpetrated against her?

Why are we talking about how, as is quite strongly insinuated, that most women lie about enduring this particular crime?

Why are we arguing points of medicine and biology? When someone uses a clause like "shuts that whole thing down," why don't we just let it stand in its own stupidity.

Instead, we are talking about when a person has the right to *withdraw* consent. We presume that she has given consent by having two X chromosomes.

(Let's not get caught up in whether she has breasts. Or ovaries. Or a uterus. Or a vagina. Or even just a vulva. We're not going to get in to a woman's medical history here. And anyway-- can't boys or men be raped?)

Hypothetically, we have to start this dissection presuming that the person in question is not lying. Let's all take a moment to let that sink in.The first step in defining rape is determining whether the survivor is capable of telling the truth.

The term made popular recently is "legitimate," which is described more precisely as "forcibly." Now we have to define force, which means we have to decide on questions of law regarding violence, intimidation, intoxication (college girls better not take any roofies!), age, mental capacity-- all in light of how much the victim did to bring this crime upon herself.

Let's break this down.
The zygote indelibly has full rights of personhood that should never be compromised.

Some politicians are willing to sacrifice those rights ONLY IF the woman in question:
1. is not lying;
2  did nothing to invite the assault (e.g.:was wearing appropriate clothing, sober, walking in a well-lighted area or during the day, sound of mind and body, adult, etc.);
3. refused allowing a man to have sex with her for good reason;
4. and could not physically prevent the act from happening.

The only reason I can think of that people are getting distracted by how much we are giving the zygote without question is because we are so insanely incredulous that anyone could believe these things.



Ten years ago we were talking about heartbeats and brainwaves and first breath. The question used to be at what point is that collection of cells turns into an individual capable of living on its own. Now the question is whether the hunk of meat holding it should breastfeed.



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Time and Temperature

I unloaded a glaze fire this morning.

IMAG0285
yarn holder bobbin bowls

IMAG0286
mason stain and new glazes

IMAG0287
credit card acceptance signs that I never actually intended to sell

IMAG0288
tiles and a plate

IMAG0289
mugs and another yarn holder bobbin bowl

In talking with other ceramists both locally and on-line (the people at Election Cone 6 & Other Ways with Clay are great), I've heard that my process is anywhere between unusual and wrong. Looking at the glazes in this firing, I can see quite clearly that my glazes sit on top of the clay and are not absorbed.  In the coming weeks, I plan to run a low-fire bisque for my stoneware to see how I feel about the difference. My kiln is small enough that I've had to extend to two bisque and two glaze firings each month, and it is easy enough to make those separate stoneware and porcelain batches.

Always learning and growing!

my shop: The Delicion

Saturday, February 11, 2012

adventures in making wood out of mud

It was an accident. I wanted to make pinwheel buttons. I make pinwheel cookies-- my favorite ever.



I made some changes for reasons that were quite stupid-- largely because I apparently have to make things more complicated than previously considered possible. ANYWAY

Cutting vertically like you would for pinwheels made a gross mess. The lines were not even and pinwheely. The lines looked more like the inside of a tree. Hm.... so how about cutting horizontally?

an experiment_2012 01 24_0055_edited-1.jpg

an experiment_2012 01 24_0056_edited-1.jpg

How would it look fired?

glaze_2012 02 08_0050_edited-1.png

AWESOME.

so the next project is a bit of a tower

glaze_2012 02 08_0051.ARW

fun!