Pretty freakin' sweet.My holidays were not very enjoyable, due to my in-laws staying with us and their cat. I'm having a little trouble coming to terms with the fact that I'm never going to have a fun Christmas or Thanksgiving ever again. I know I should suck it up for my wife's sake, but I can't help resenting her family for spoiling all my holidays from now till eternity. Apparently, I'm not as much of a grown-up as I should be at this point in my life. Oh well.
I'm just tired. I wanted to crank out an outraged post about Times & Seasons new guest-blogger, Dr. I-don't-prescribe-birth-control, but I don't have the energy. If you want to make your blog a joke, go ahead. It's embarrassing that the most prominent Mormon blog has so many contributors with such reactionary views, but what can I do? I can only watch as I become less and less Mormon each day. These aren't your people, Ned.
Don't get me wrong, I know that there are a lot of Mormons out there that agree with me. And that is encouraging. It's just that I recognize that it's now their fight, not mine.
Anyway, this wasn't a very fun post. I'm going to go read some of the books I got for Christmas, and start cheering up.
33 comments:
My holidays were not very enjoyable, due to my in-laws staying with us and their cat. I'm having a little trouble coming to terms with the fact that I'm never going to have a fun Christmas or Thanksgiving ever again. I know I should suck it up for my wife's sake, but I can't help resenting her family for spoiling all my holidays from now till eternity.
There has got to be a work around.
Drop me a line.
Y'know, I would normally agree with you about the guest poster, but as long as you don't really CARE how many kids you have, I think NFP is probably just fine. It's only when you want some real say in the matter that other alternatives become preferable.
Chin up, my man. Twelfth Night is coming; the first day to buy King Cake. Mona Lisa and Moon Pie is rolling in mid-February, when they will walk around Old Town throwing Moon Pies instead of beads. It's 65 degrees and sunny outside.
Whoops, that's me. Sorry. Don't mean to brag.
Enjoy your books. DH got Rough Stone Rolling and socks for Christmas. Good times!
Thanks, Stephen. My ideal would be to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with just me and my wife, with a brief visit to the in-laws. This is incomprehensible to Maude. I may as well be advocating spending the holidays at the monkey house at the zoo.
Ann-- I have no beef with NFP (though I suspect many of its advocates are simply trying to increase the number of children born), as long as it's presented as one of several options. Dr. IDPBC advocates it as the only right option, which I find annoying and offensive (not to mention embarrassingly backward).
It also bothers me when doctors and pharmacists refuse to do their jobs. Why don't you save us all a lot of time and go into something else?
Ned, I'll take your cat and raise you one 8 month old nephew with an inordinately healthy pair of lungs.
Happy Holidays!
P.S. Count me in the camp of those who are not looking forward to the impending natural contraception discussions. I mean, do we really want to have the image of Mr. So-and-So blogger's sperm swimming around Mrs. So-and-So blogger's uterus waiting for the opportune time to strike? I think not.
P.P.S. AWESOME boxers, Ned! You should have some fun with those.
I find it funny that your favorite gift was a boxers with Peter Griffin on them, and my favorite was a Spongebob pillow.
I love my Spongebob pillow.
Here's the secret to not spending holidays with extended family: move far, far away. Worked for me.
I also think it means something that you're more upset about that guy at T&S than I am...I hadn't read his post or anything about him cuz it sounded boring to me. But I just don't get worked up about much of anything. Something must be wrong with me. I guess now I'll go read it, anyway.
Spongebob makes me happy, though!
This is what amazed me:
Part of that course included several hours of hard-core pornographic films...In considering whether I should attend this seminar, I prayed and counseled with my church leaders
He probably could have asked the deacon who handed him the sacrament about the issue and gotten a decent answer. So it would seem that his motives in asking weren't simply an inability to discern the matters involved.
I don't envy you, Tess. A baby would have been a lot worse. I've got to lighten up.
Also, I had the same TMI moment on that T&S thread.
Susan-- I saw your Spongebob pillow on your site. Looks comfy. However, I must inform you that Spongebob promotes unrighteous attitudes toward birth control. Please start watching Natural Rhythm Method Larry instead.
I think it's incredibly rude of people to bring their pets when they come to visit. I'm on your side.
I'd be grouchy, too.
That guy may be a Mormon, but he's not typical (not anymore, anyway). I don't consider this a fight by any means. People can make their own choices and they can even have an opinion about my choices - who cares?
Christmas will get better once you have kids. Christmas lost its shine for me sometime in high school and got worse and worse as I got older. Having children who love it brings that glow right back.
Glad your back and congratulations on the freakin' sweet gift.
We may all have to think about eggs and sperms. It turns out that our physicians might have skipped the seminar on human sexuality.
Ned, I went and read that and I can't see where he said he doesn't prescribe birth control. I think he's saying that sex carries with it an inherent responsibility should pregnancy occur. Which is a good message in today's world.
It's a given on TV that couples will sleep together if they really really like each other. The message about pregnancy is more mixed up. Do they get an abortion? Do they get married? I think it's a good message to say, "hey you want to screw around, take responsibility for the life you MIGHT create."
Sorry to disagree with you while you're still in PTSD from the cat and in-laws, but I didn't see your point.
Personally, I hate company. I tell them they can only stay two days. Sometimes I tell my friends to go home. I say it nicely, well in a nice tone, "could you go home, so I can have a rest?" The ones who know me well just go home.
But I definitely don't think you should suck it up for the rest of your life. That is not fair to you. Why the heck can't they get someone to take care of the cat?
Or you could get a big lurpy yellow lab retriever and take it next time you visit them. That'll show them.
Yeeps---I was responsible for the TMI moment! Sorry about that, guys---although I didn't take y'all for the squeamish types. After taking a little break from blogging, maybe I need to re-calibrate my disclosure settings... or resume the break...
Laura-- Good point. This guy is clearly outside of the Mormon mainstream. Which is perhaps why he bugs me so much.
Anne-- Thanks for the support about the cat. I can imagine what happens to people who overstay their welcome in the GB household. Ha!
In the original post on T&S, they linked to an article that this doctor had written about birth control. In it he stated that he refused to prescribe the birth control pill and "I have stuck with that decision throughout my training and practice, and it has opened the way for me to give much to my patients that otherwise I might never have been able to offer." Insert image of Ned rolling his eyes here.
Judging by the new comments on the introductory post, I think Dr. IDPBC will run into some serious opposition if he tries to argue his Birth Control is Bad schtick here. I feel better already.
Rosalynde-- Ha. You get points for using euphemisms. Someone did need to point out the failings of NFP.
Hmm. I can look at Ned's underwear, or I can read what sounds like an agonizing T&S post. Well, that's an easy choice--Ned, your underwear wins, hands down.
Hey, somebody called people who are disagreeing (or maybe just us NOM/less-active types) "Flanderites." Think we should rename the NOM board? Too funny...
Rosalynde - I very much enjoy reading your comments, even though it usually takes me a few reads to understand them. Which is probably why your comment on natural birth control caught me off guard - I understood it a bit TOO clearly on my very first try. :)
Ann writes:
"Hey, somebody called people who are disagreeing (or maybe just us NOM/less-active types)"
I think the sentence you're looking for is "Kaimi called certain squeamish TMI types . . ."
(See http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2800#comment-113729 ).
Not that I mind if the tag is appropriated for other purposes, but in its original context it's pretty clearly a Ned-TMI label, not a Ned-is-an-evil-Exmo label.
(If I didn't know better, Ann, that level of out-of-context-ness would make me wonder if you'd been hanging around the FAIR boards lately. :P ).
Tess,
If you understand Rosalynde's comments after only a few reads, you're far ahead of me. What's your secret? (Perhaps I should practice Fight Club avoidance too?)
Serenity,
I can't believe we're losing out to a cartoon character's underwear.
However, I take your opinion with a grain of salt, since you're married to a fruit.
Or is it a vegetable? What _is_ the proper classification of a tomato, anyway? I suppose there's no beter way to resolve the question than to ask a member of the tomato/valley family itself.
In any case, a grain of salt is definitely called for when dealing with a roasted tomato. Several grains of salt, in fact. And a moderate amount of cheese. Okay, scratch that last one. A large amount of cheese. Gruyere, perhaps. After all, there is no such thing as too much cheese.
Well, there are three of us up late at night.
Bookslinger, I was with ya till you said vagina. That late night nausea, I guess, or I am getting old and prudish. My daughter got married in December and boy, I wish we weren't as close as we have been. Way too much information.
Oh, I'm grossing myself out.
But, I agree, there is a sexist tone to what little I've understood. Some women do enjoy having babies, though, maybe she has tons, okay, I just can't talk about this.
I'm going to go watch PBS talk about Tsunamis and possible Tsunamis and clear my head.
Well, there are three of us up late at night.
Bookslinger, I was with ya till you said vagina. That late night nausea, I guess, or I am getting old and prudish. My daughter got married in December and boy, I wish we weren't as close as we have been. Way too much information.
Oh, I'm grossing myself out.
But, I agree, there is a sexist tone to what little I've understood. Some women do enjoy having babies, though, maybe she has tons, okay, I just can't talk about this.
I'm going to go watch PBS talk about Tsunamis and possible Tsunamis and clear my head.
Kaimi, I'm a notoriously shallow reader. I saw "Flanderites" and I thought of Ned's entire post, not just the TMI aspect of it, and I confess I only skim T&S. Sorry not to give credit where credit is due.
Good call about FAIR, dude. Cold day in hell, etc. My head would explode. Can't have that. It's the only one I have.
Yeah, I also saw the bizarre T&S post, started a post in response, then gave up (but I'll finish it tonight maybe). It's the Christmas doldrums, I think. Relatives, cats, tithing settlement ... the holidays can be such a chore.
Kaimi,
My understanding is that in general, tomatoes are considered a fruit, though nutritively speaking they are classified as vegetables. RT is (luckily for me) neither. However, you probably should take my opinions on this matter with more than a grain of salt. Gruyere would work, but I'm also fond of a nice Heirloom stuffed with tuna & olive salad.
The thing about T&S is that it just isn't salacious enough for me. If you posted about Underoos, I would be all over it.
Serenity,
We need more Underroos, because they're salacious? To each her own, I guess. We did have a mention of underroos several months back -- involving Nate Oman, no less -- but that's now well in the past.
Hmm, how about a post about sex?
http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2803
That has to be at least as salacious as underroos, no?
Okay, I substituted a more proper-sounding word.
annegb: It's in his 1999 article in which he said he doesn't prescribe any birth control whatsoever.
Now that the good doctor's wife is entering her early to mid 40's, and already has 7 kids, I'm wondering if the 2.5% failure rate of NFP is an acceptable risk to her.
I also sensed a condescending attitude towards women in the doctor's 1999 article. Fortunately, I've only _rarely_ encountered that attitude in the church. But in the times I have, it usually leads to divorce.
I think a proper rejoinder by such a man's wife, might be (to paraphrase) "I have the uterus, so I make the rules." Or "... so I'm in charge" in some versions.
I would not be surprised if the wife of such an egotist were get a tubal ligation without his knowledge.
With the church's emphasis on the mother being the at-home care-giver and primary nurturer, it follows that she would logically have the ultimate veto power on additional children. And the comments by General Authorities that I can remember, that dealt with family size, is to put the mother's health (physical and mental), capabilities, and desires foremost.
Granted, family size in the church has shrunk over the years, and perhaps for selfish reasons on the part of some parents. But having more children than you can handle is also a sin in my opinion.
A wife is more than a baby-factory, and a husband is more than a sperm donor.
But having more children than you can handle is also a sin in my opinion.
That's so true, Bookslinger. The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why is a great book on the topic. Too many children usually harms the middle children. First and last borns get enough attention. Kids in the middle get squeezed.
With respect to family size, times have changed. My great-grandparents all had help. They either hired maids or they a childless aunt move in.
The other thing is that our education takes so much longer and has gotten a lot more expensive. Add rampant health care and housing inflation and we find ourselves in an entirely different world than our parents and grandparents.
Kaimi,
No, sex just isn't nearly as salacious as Underoos, be they Nate's Underoos or Ned's Underoos.
I think it's ironic that I've become a codeword for anti-TMI-ness in a post that features a picture of my underwear.
On the other hand, I've always wanted Flanderites.
Serenity,
You'll be interested in checking out this old T&S post: http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=638 .
Not only does it feature underoos, it is also written by the wearer's mother. What could be better than that?
Me, too. They are still ranting over there. Not to be the pot calling the kettle black or anything.
Kaimi,
Well, that post may have been sufficiently salacious. It could have used illustrations, though.
For the founder of a liberation front, I think you need something a little more forceful than "Tomato-ite."
May I suggest Tomatista? Viven los Tomatistas!
Once you have your own country, we can be called Pomodorenos.
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