Stop by Mother Jones Magazine online and see who its premier hell raiser is? http://www.mojones.com/mojo_plugs/mojo_plugs.htm <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 116 ... August 13, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> In the last Catt's Claws we wrote about the lies the Centers for Disease Control, and the medical community as a whole have been foisting on American women regarding their deaths from pregnancy. We didn't analyze the figures ... and remember upwards of 75% of all women give birth. If one used the criteria used in France and other civilized countries instead of the false criteria of our CDC, the American death rate would be 23.5 per 100,000 births (not 10) - OR - in 1994, there were 935 deaths of women due to pregnancy - OR - 2.5 deaths of women due to pregnancy EVERY SINGLE day. Five women in the United States with its so-called great medical system die of pregnancy-related problems every two days! Over a ten-year period that comes to at least 9,350 women who have died of pregnancy-related problems (birth rates fluctuate. Now you tell me, Mr. Dole and Mr. Gingrich and Rev. Robertson, that childbirth and pregnancy are safe. I knew it was bad but had no idea how bad. I had written about the problem in my Women of Achievement and Herstory over the past several years and always got royally flamed for it. I knew something was wrong but didn't have the figures to go with it. Five women die every two days from something we women have been taught is as easy as a man having an orgasm But what is even MORE damning is that nearly 25% of all deliveries (actually deliveries) involve serious complications for the mother. That means: in 1994 (the latest figures available from the CDC) with its 3,979,000 live births, almost ONE MILLION women suffered serious medical problems because of birthing. WHY ??? ONE MILLION !!! Can you imagine ANYTHING that could happen to a man - including getting bald - that involved one million of them per year that wouldn't get millions upon millions of dollars worth of research per HOUR? Our deepest thanks to U.S.Representative Pat Schroeder (D-Colo) for commissioning the study that uncovered these terrible figures. Now, kiddies, do you think maybe someone in the feminist movement might get off their duff$ and start a fight for mother's lives? . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . In a recent column Art Buchwald pointed out that although some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's clients in Little Rock turned out to be scoundrels, he noted that "scoundrels is what pay a law firm's rent. As a lawyer, Mrs. Clinton had only one role, and that was to save her clients from going to jail." He said that she was being criticized for doing her lawyer's job. "Isn't that what lawyers get paid to do?" Then he paraphrased one of the oldest jokes in the world: "I doubt that there's a lawyer in American who could withstand the kind of scrutiny she has been subjected to concerning the defense of a client." The joke is about the old man who walks into a kosher meat market and asks for a chicken. He takes it from the butcher, saying, "I want to see if it's fresh." He lifts up a wing and sniffs the arm pit, lifts up the other wing and sniffs it, and does the same between the chicken's legs.. With disgust the butcher takes the chicken back and comments, "Could you pass the same examination?" . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . I am not familiar with Norman Solomon but someone sent me one of his columns the other day and I thought I'd share a few of his "Media Jeopardy!" answers: -- Today, many consider him to be the most influential commentator in America, and he enjoys a reputation for enlightened erudition - but few are aware that he was a speech writer for Jesse Helms during the early 1970s. (Who is George Will?) -- In 1957, he wrote that Southern whites should prevail politically even when outnumbered by blacks in a local area. "The white community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race," he declared - adding that "it is more important for any community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority." (Who is William F. Buckley?) -- These days, some of his fellow journalists are angry that he lied about not being `Anonymous.' But he has continued to escape criticism from colleagues for writing Newsweek columns that stereotype inner-city blacks as dishonest. (Who is Joe Klein who denied vehemently that he was the author of that scuzzy, unproven gossip book about the Clintons. If he lied about being the author, what else is he lying about????) . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . Loved the cartoon in the LA Times that shows a harried woman sewing away desperately inside a Nike sneaker. The commentary reads: "There is a young lady who lives in a shoe, the company makes millions, she only makes two." Remember when we didn't eat grapes to support the grape pickers' right to a fair wage????? Isn't it strange that a woman (Kathy G) is getting all that flack about slave wages when the basketball players (men) are squeaking around the court with their million-dollar feet encased in million dollar nikes and being admired for it by the same TV commentators who flayed Kathy G (who bores me to tears)??? Fempeemacho to them.* . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . Bowing to public pressure, a subsidiary of the giant Hyundai conglomerate announced it would pull out from cosponsoring Michael Jackson's concerts in South Korea. Some Korean groups had objected to Jackson's concert because of the child molestation allegations against the sleazy one. (Now we know why he wears white gloves!) According to AP there was a lengthy investigation of Jackson in 1993 when a 13-year-old boy claimed the pop star had sex with him. Jackson settled out of court, reportedly for $15 million to $20 million. What fascinates Catt's Claws is that pressure could be exerted against a Japanese conglomerate by a relatively small group of people in Korea, but the full weight of NOW hasn't phased the Mitsibushi motor company charged with flagrant sexual harassment against women. . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . Guillermo Borrero, 37, of Philadelphia confessed to taking five girls from their homes in the middle of the night, and is being charged with rape, kidnapping, burglary, and other things. In June and July, he entered homes in the area, sometimes by crawling through open windows, and took young girls, sometimes as adults slept nearby. He drove them around and, in three cases, sexually assaulted them, then dropped them off near their homes. He was captured when he claimed to be a witness of the latest abduction. . . . . . . . . . ccc . . . . . . . . . It'll be a cold day in the nursery before I buy another Playskool toy. The illustrious company has created a wonderful ad that shows five kids with their ambitions - the boyz shown wanting to be president or the owner of his own business. The girls are shown dreaming of decorating their homes and birthing (talk about encouraging children to have children!) Playskool is one of the greatest advocates of overly expensive plastic toys in pastels for girls and mannish colors for boyz ... color coding by genitals. Amazing how they make all that expensive chunky stuff for little fingers when those little fingers can open those itsy-bitsy child-proof caps better than adults ... . . . . . . . . . ccc . . . . . . . . . According to one of my readers, it is understood that the Republicans are considering changing their emblem from an elephant to a condom because a condom stands for inflation, halts production, encourages cooperation, protects a bunch of prick, and gives one a sense of security while screwing others. Of course (and I hate myself for writing this and KNOW I'll get a lot of flack, but as feminists are always told when they object: Hey, loosen up, it's joke ... Is it true that the elephant symbol of the Republican party is going to be replaced by pansies and whips? Come on, guyz - it's a joke. I believe his campaign manager. Campaign managers don't lie, do they Mr. Rollins ? (Yikes, have you read his book about the various campaigns he managed including woman impersonator Christine Whitman?) . . . . . . . ^ c^c^ . . . . . . . A reader sent us an email clipping from the Des Moines Register which was edited to a Pulitzer Prize a few years back by Geneva Overholser, sister of Duke University President Nannerl Overholser Keohane. However, Ms. Overholzer resigned over a personnel policy a couple of years back, as I understand it, and have not been able to find where she's gone to. Both spent most or some of their formative years in the same home town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, that President Bill did. (Dr. Keohane graduated from the same high school as the Prez.) Anyway, now that we've lulled you into complacency with boring trivia, read on ... Rekha Basu's wrote in her _Register_ column, Sunday, August 11, 1996: " You be the jury." The woman who founded the first Madison County battered women's support group is living a nightmare of official abuse. Her husband, with a string of prior domestic and sexual assault charges and at least one domestic abuse conviction within the year attacked her again, in spite of a restraining order. He ripped off her clothes, covered her mouth with duct tape and held her face into the soft cushions of the couch. He let her up and did the USUAL: oh I'm sorry, I won't do it again, and cries. Then he does it again, complete with crying and pleading for her not to call the police. Basu writes: " The ex-husband, David Thornburg Jr., is charged with two counts of domestic-abuse assault, but allowed to plead guilty to only one. He is not charged with violating the restraining order, which would carry a mandatory seven-day jail term. He gets a $40 fine, is ordered to pay $150 to a non-profit organization, and court costs -- even though for domestic-abuse assault the law requires a minimum of two days and 16 to 24 weeks of classes. (His June domestic-abuse assault conviction didn't get him a jail term, either.)" But here's the kicker, kids: "His victim, Christine Thornburg, however, is charged with aiding and abetting a violation of a restraining order for letting him into the house -- even though she insists he came uninvited. She pleads guilty and, in a sentence that came down last week, is given a suspended seven-day jail term, six months' probation and ordered to undergo victims' abuse counseling." The country prosecutor says the poor husband "probably" went to the home to visit his little children except the incidents happened at night when the children were asleep. BTW, the visitation place was not Christine's home. Christine Thornburg is living in fear but she doesn't dare get another restraining order because she is certain it will be used against her again. At one point when one of her children came down with an asthma attack and she took the child to the hospital, a policeman delivered the abusive husband to the hospital room and left him alone with his victims. There are indications that she was coerced into plead guilty to the violation of the restraining order to avoid spending seven-days in jail at which time her husband, against all common sense, would have taken custody of the children. Yes -- the same Madison county as in "The bridges of . . ." Such a romantic place ... {Sent to us from CC reader PICKLUM.} May the prosecutor and the legal patriarchy of Madison County be infested with chiggers in their nether hair follicles. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . To explain our use of pemacho or fempeemacho, we repeat: In a June 1996 column Molly Ivins wrote about enterprising Alaskans who are selling wolf pee to spray around a garden to keep out moose. Moose, as everyone knows, do just about what they want to do. They are so big and powerful, but they are scared silly of wolves. There is an analogy here. Molly says she would call her "free-range wolf pee, milked from wolves in the wild, so superior to mere domestic wolf pee. We're think of calling our free-range pee Moose-Away or perhaps Vamoose." Never one to miss borrowing an analogy, let Catt's Claws suggest using bitch wolf pee ... fempeemacho ... to scare and keep away others who are big and powerful and think they can do whatever they want to do ... granted it doesn't have the poetic succinctness of the "f" word, but then we all know that it takes women longer ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . 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. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . A cry for a health warning on the packages of birth control pills has been ignored by the FDA since 1989: Long term use of birth control pills may be a contributing factor in breast cancer in women younger than 45 years old. . . . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . . . Catt's Claws salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Catt's Claws through her listserv while our proofreaders seem to be on summer vacation. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . 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.<<<< ??