<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 107 ... June 6, 1996 ........... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> So-called feminist are viciously attacking the author of Catt's Claws for not opening her venues for NOW propaganda and discussion. My answer is simple: "Why the hell doesn't NOW obey the resolutions passed at its National Conferences - obey the rules set by its membership - and set up an email discussion list of its own." Is it possible the PRESENT National NOW board and officers do not want NOW members, local, and state chapters to discuss things among themselves ? Only want the National "leadership" to pass on edicts from on high? We originally started Catt's Claws late 1993 because NOW refused to obey a resolution PROPOSED BY ME and adopted unanimously by the body of the conference in July 1993. For a time we ran a mailing list to share news with and between NOW members and chapters nationwide until we got tired of being taken. It is time for a discussion list sponsored, paid for, and sweated over by NOW, not by me, or my friends, and sisters. Why doesn't National NOW trust its members to talk to each other? Many states have set up web sites, etc., but few have actually set up discussion list. There is software that keeps non-members from posting. As one who has marched ahead on the matter of Internet for the women's movement, Ms. Ireland, let me assure you, it is time. Actually, it may be too late. A lot of email and snail mail is flashing around the country planning for a slate of officers to REALLY challenge your sweetheart deal of passing the presidency from one pal to another. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Women of the Wall are angry. Nearly seven years after first petitioning Israel's Supreme Court for an order that would allow women to pray aloud as a group at the Western Wall with a Torah and ritual garments, the group is still waiting. The court has granted yet another extension, this time until July 29 to hear from a governmental ministerial commission and representatives of women's groups. Quoting from an article from Michele Chabin in the _Hebrew Watchman_ newspaper: "The government's position relies on the halachic prohibition against `kol isha' - the sound of a woman's voice - because it can sexually arouse male worshipers. "In the first order it issued after the Women of the Wall filed a petition in 1989, the Supreme Court wrote in a temporary order that the group many not pray out loud at the Wall because 'the voice of the woman is lewd.'" Phyllis Chessler a director of the International Committee for Women of the Wall recently commented on a compromise proposal that would put the women at a location outside the Old City of Jerusalem, in an area of the Arabs' eastern Jerusalem. The area is "unfit for prayer and probably unfit for Jews,"`Chessler said., adding, "They're not offering us any bullet-proof tallises, either."` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, California, is fighting for welfare mothers and it has WON cases. Also check the web site for information about housing and women's rights and child custody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is for you young 'uns who should have a heart-to-heart with your parents and grands about vitamins. Only a couple of years back, doctors (those from the same cloth of those who encouraged my generation to smoke cigarettes) said taking vitamins was a waste of money - in fact such a waste of money that they were trying to limit the distribution of vitamins to doctor written prescriptions. Lately, however (could it be that women have taken over some important research positions) the use of vitamin supplements is being encouraged, especially by older folks. Dr. Marguerite Kay recently published her findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: "We have actually a sensible molecular base to show that (vitamin E) is in fact doing a number of good things. Now we have clinical proof." Vitamin E slows the march of debilitating diseases. So, please, do your mamas a favor and tell them ... And any of youse out there who work under fluorescent lights (getting zits???) or work long hours before a computer screen should be taking Vitamin A with a Vitamin D supplement. Women need MORE Vitamin D than men. Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption ... without calcium along comes osteoporosis ... Hey it's your body and the medical establishment sill isn't paying good attention to women's bodies ... ALTHOUGH WOMEN ARE THE MAJORITY, the medical field still treats women as "the other" although in reality, it is men who are the strange creatures. Look at fetuses if you don't believe me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just once we had like to see our computer say: "File not found - want me to fake it?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Recently a British judge told a woman who had killed her husband, "I am prepared to accept, from what I have heard today, that you endured a long history of violent abuse at the hands of your husband." He said sending her to prison would serve no useful purpose. Instead he put her on probation for 18 months. The woman had been treated at an emergency clinic for numerous injuries including a fractured wrist, stitches to a head wound, facial injuries, fractured ribs, and a broken nose. The husband had been ordered to take part in a program aimed at men who were violent to women but he "just laughed at it." A woman in the UK saving her own life is put on probation, in the US she goes to prison for life while a husband who kills his wife for things like wanting a divorce gets out in 3-6 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Survivor Connections Inc. is compiling a nationwide database of information on False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) members. Adult children of FMSF members are encouraged to share information, such as names, addresses and phone numbers of FMSF groups. No one knows more about the true nature of FMSF members than their own sons and daughters. Information about lawyers and expert witnesses used by FMSF is also helpful in bringing to light their tactics. If both parties wish, Survivor Connections can link survivor to survivor to discuss the effect of the FMSF in their lives. To participate in this project, contact Survivor Connections, Inc., 52 Lyndon Road, Cranston, RI 02905-1121. (401) 941-2548. All calls are confidential. The FMSF, as you may recall, is the group formed by men and their wives whom their children have accused of rape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A spate of anti-Irene Stuber stuff on the various father's rights and men's list because of our continued efforts of publicizing legal inequities, etc., have been brought to our attention. Pardon while I will take this opportunity to correct some GROSS errors in their hate-filled posts (not that I am sure they know how to absorb anything that may diffuse their "don't confuse me with the facts," mindset): 1. I do not live in the Ozarks. I semi-retired to an area well south of the Ozarks. Learn your geography, guyz. I am not a native Arkansan. In fact, I'm a northerner. 2. You call me a strange old lady. (Well... I guess you have a REAL problem with older women, more so that your HUGE problem with women in general.) 3. Catt's Claws is not a collection of items collected from the tabloid press. I don't read the tabloid press although I look at the headlines while in the grocery checkout line. - and obviously they don't either or they'd know that the tabloid press isn't into feminism. 4. Catt's Claws does NOT subscribe to the "pity me - I'm only a woman" philosophy. Catt's Claws subscribes to action, bringing out the problems regarding women's legal rights, etc., and calling for things to be done. Women are being beaten, murdered, and raped in horrible fashion simply because they are women by sick, sick, sick men, and horribly, many of the men's rights groups are encouraging and protecting them. BTW, along with my "Remember Nicole" button, I also wear a "Anyone can be Lorena Babbitt" button. PS - No, I don't and won't reveal the source of the information from the men's rights lists that I get. There are several men who keep me informed of that closed circle's actions and they tell me that anyone who is found to break the code of silence is "punished." Whew --- Siege Heil (the Freeman siege mentality combined with Nazism). One of the worst of the lot is run on a listserv from TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Incidentally, in our last Catt's Claws we took real exception to the way Dr. Richard J. Gelles conducted a domestic abuse listserv that was finally shut down because men were grossing it out with really repulsive sexual and abusive posts. It turns out that we were wrong. Dr. Gelles, perhaps in keeping with his "authoritative study" of domestic violence that have been shown time and time again to be faulty, added another little "you don't say," to his veracity. Although keeping his name on the list, he evidently left the country and left the list in the keeping of a graduate student without informing anyone on the list. That appears to be when the really bad stuff began, including flaming women who protested the filth. Shame. Catt's Claws readers are invited to write the President of The University of Rhode Island to asks for Dr. Gelles' apology for what he allowed to happen on the INTVIO-L email list. No one wants his job as a tenured professor, but we would like to see him own up to what he allowed to happen. One of the writers to these men's rights list wrote about his ten-month old daughter's genitals being attractive and how she was growing womanly hips. With all the publicity about child porno on the WEB, can we not assume the FBI looking into these lists that appear to advocate child rape? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lest we forget in the midst of this election bullcrap: "If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days because they get infections and they don't have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn't matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis-class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets, a female may be again dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes." -- Adjunct Professor Newt Gingrich, Reinhardt College, January 7, 1995, "Renewing American Civilization." Mr. Piglet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The California Supreme Court in an unexpected move has agreed to reconsider its April 4, 1996 ruling upholding the state's parental consent law for minors' abortions, the Associated Press reported. Since the 4-3 vote, two of the ruling majority have resigned and their replacements were chosen by pro-choice California Gov. Pete Wilson. Legal observers say the court seldom agrees to reconsider its rulings but occasionally does so when a new justice is appointed before the ruling becomes final. Usually, the second ruling differs from the first. The case is American Academy of Pediatrics vs. Lungren, S041459. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Condoms, which are sold under the brand names Pamitex, Magic, Black Jack, Maxi, and Ginza should NOT be used. Made in Malaysia by the Dongkuk Techno Rubber Industries they may not be constructed for adequate protection against disease and pregnancy according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Catt's Claws has also warned that many foreign latex products are not adequately "cleaned" and may - MAY - caused latex rash. American latex condoms are usually safe and any man who claims he can't use them because of latex rash should be tested by a recognized physician. Sex without a latex condom should be refused until he's proven latex allergic. Most of the claims are just guyz who are too "macho " (that's spelled s-t-u-p-i-d) to use a condom even when the woman (sensibly) provides one SHE KNOWs is safe. In fact, think seriously about refusing any man who won't use a latex condom for ANY reason. No other condom is an effective AIDS/HIV barrier. Hey, it's your life - if you want to die for love - but we thought that went out with the Victorian romances in which women died for love and the men went on to marry a rich heiress (virgin, of course). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An experimental technique explained in the latest _Nature_ magazine is being jumped on with extreme vigor by those who wave "ethics" like a battle cry. This time it's genetic redundancy for men that is in question. Seems that scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have successfully transplanted sperm-producing cells from rats into the testes of mice. The process would allow mice to be turned into factories to grow human male sperm in perpetuity because "anything that works in a mouse will work in a man - it is just a matter of adjustment and the question of whether it should be used," the lead scientist said. A mouse could also be used to mix DNA from several different men to infinity by using several sperm "stems." One mouse could easily provide different sperm for thousands of women. The process and its ramifications is worth an extra effort to find the magazine. In its desperate voice crying for a steel jockstrap, the article never mentions the hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on trying to develop reproductive processes that eliminate women. These processes include cloning, the lasering out of the genetic material of a woman's egg so that the "child" would be all the male's, the harvesting the ovaries of female FETUSES for eggs that can be used for producing children without adult women ever coming into existence again, as well as the _Brave New World_ type of nurseries. Nobody except a few crazy feminists questioned this kind of technology since it was so good in making tomatoes that don't squish and better moo cows - and after all, it was making WOMEN redundant. But now it looks as if science is on its way to making the post-puberty MALE redundant. Ah - what a difference that makes!!! But the truth of the matter is that male and female are kind of nice to have around and keep each other company. One scientist said that he was glad he lived in a country where such things are so well regulated and this newest scientific breakthrough will be contained ... hey guy, narcotics, crack, cocaine, etc., are well regulated in the U.S. too. Sorry, but once the genie is out of the bottle ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And talking about advances, when are our esteemed legislators and attorneys going to come up with a change in our laws so PIMPS can be prosecuted? Pimps who often force the women into the life or hold them to it with threats of violence, and drugs are able to walk into open court, pay the fines for the sex workers and leave without the law saying one thing about their actions. It's like prosecuting users of cocaine and not punishing the pushers. Hasn't anyone figured out that there is something wrong in this picture? Why do the American male-oriented laws favor the male pimp with immunity? Madams who run houses of prostitution or run call girl operations like Heidi F., go to jail. Hang out in any city court room and watch the action as the pimps strut in (and are handled with great respect by many officials of the courts). Why is this allowed to happen? Why is prostitution the only "crime" that the pusher is not punished for? Why Senator Orin Hatch who is making such a to-do about child porno? Why U. S. Representative Newt Gingrich? Why New York Mayor Guilano? Why Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed? Why are you protecting pimps? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GAWD, I love it. Some (and I emphasize some - perhaps the same SOME who are Republicans) of those who claim leadership positions in the gay and lesbian community are running to the newspapers criticizing of President Clinton for his opposition to same-sex marriage. What the hell do you expect the man to do? Go out on a limb the way he did with gays in the military only to get smeared by Congress when the gay community took a walk and didn't stand behind him? Even John D'Emilio, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Policy Institute, while saying Clinton's record is mixed, said Clinton's record is still "better than any previous presidents'." (John, where was the gay support, letters, or massive Congressional lobbying when Clinton was being toasted for his stand for gays in the military? It seems to us that the gays are the ones who need to be apologizing to Clinton, not vice versa. The president has appointed more than 100 openly gay and lesbians to the administration, ended the ban on security clearances for homosexuals, appointed a White House liaison to the gay community, and endorsed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act pending in Congress. He has, said D'Emilio, fostered a tone of "inclusion and tolerance." (Why can't the gay and lesbian community foster tolerance' for Clinton?) Annise Parker, past president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus says, "Even though (Clinton) may disappoint us or take the wrong position on this particular (marriage) issue, there is no comparison between his record and Dole's record on gay and lesbian issues." Clinton defended defending his record on gay issues during a news conference: "Name me another president who has been so pilloried for standing up for the fact that we shouldn't discriminate against any group of Americans, including gay Americans, who are willing to work hard to pay their taxes, obey the law, and be good citizens," Clinton said. "Look at my record." The political and social naivete of the gay rights movement is only surpassed by that of the women's rights movement. There is a time for everything and this ain't the time for a political fight over same-sex marriage. Let the courts decide as they are doing in Hawaii. Let's be practical this election year. It just seems to Catt's Claws that this "marriage" talk would be better put aside and some effort put into forming legal domestic partnership agreements that would allow gay, lesbians, or "straights" or "whatevers" to join their fates together - and guarantee that such an arrangement would hold in a will. There are a lot of "straight" people living together in domestic partnership arrangements to save money, hold back lonliness, etc. Bring those people into your domestic partnership legal battles and you might stand a chance. If not, you might as well wait out this religious cycle the world is going through because it ain't gonna happen otherwise. BTW, "With Liberty and Justice for All" ain't the United States. Last March San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown presided over a civil ceremony for 150 homosexual couples. The city's ceremony was approved by the Board of Supervisors Jan. 29, 1996. New York City and Madison, Wis., also offer such ceremonies. San Francisco started allowing gay couples to register as domestic partners in 1991 and to date more than 3,000 couples have paid a $35 fee to sign up. Couples vow that they have "chosen to share each other's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring," according to the text of the standard domestic partnership ceremony drafted by the clerk-recorder's office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And WELCOME to the numerous Men's Rights, Father's Rights, and Religious Rights advocates who are new subscribers to Catt's Claws. We recognize a lot of your names (and aliases) as does the FBI, but we believe in diversity and choice so you are on our list. Mayhap you'll learn something. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When your pet bird sees you reading the newspaper, does he wonder why you're just sitting there, staring at carpeting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One in eight women in our country will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, compared to one in 20 a generation ago. And 46,000 American women will die of breast cancer this year. Time for your monthly breast exam - remember, the breast you examine is the one you want to keep. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed up to three times a week. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Copyright 1996, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<