We regret that Mary Melchoir (and Pat Ireland who signed her paychecks for all these many years) found it necessary to obtain an unauthorized copy of SOME of Catt's Claws mailing list - hacking - spamming - as a means to object to our of our Freedom of Speech. We do not object to Ms. Melchoir and Ms. Ireland's reply but merely the dishonest method used. Mary Melchoir certainly has a right to her opinion and has a right to defend her employer's actions. Had they asked we would have printed their reply as we did the last time Ms. Ireland objected to what we wrote. Y'all didn't have to steal. And we also regret - with tears in our throats - that the National Organization for Women has come to this condition. I have ALWAYS sent a copy of Catt's Claws to Pat Ireland through the NOW email address - all 138 issues over a two-year period. Melchoir/Ireland did not have the courtesy to send me a copy of their "reply." (Clawers have deluged me with copies - enuff already.) That National NOW felt it necessary to steal the Catt's Claws mailing list instead of using its own contacts may show, more than anything else, how effective the present administration of NOW is. Jennifer, it wasn't your fault. The fault is with the thief not the victim. <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 138 ... December 18, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber ............ send comments to istuber@direclynx.net <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> One of the great absurdities of life: A "Nutrition Facts/Informations Nutritives" information sheet that comes in every box of Godiva chocolates... Yeah, I'm worried about nutrition when I ... It's like keeping track of how many calories I burn when I ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Just got through talking with the Superintendent of the Hot Springs National Park about a first we experienced Monday evening traveling a U.S. highway through the park: we almost hit a doe (assumed a doe since the deer had no antlers) who ran across the road in front of us. This is the first deer sighting in many, many years within the park which is probably the most urban of all national parks. What a gift! She was scared but so beautiful. May she stay safe. What has this got to do with feminism? Mother Earth has many children. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . This will be the last Catt's Claws until 1997. In January we will resume posting Catt's Claws as well as Women of Achievement and Herstory. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . The number of "hits" noted by the National NOW officers in its hacking - spamming - is pretty impressive EXCEPT it doesn't reflect CONTENT or EFFECTIVENESS or FOLLOWUP. Hell, look up Irene Stuber in an Excite or Info Search - even I can't go through it all. And my GAWD, don't use a full text search because that gets ridiculous. But that's the nature of computer searches. The bottom line, my dears, is how *effective* National NOW is. It is amazing to me that National NOW should have the ability to hack into a mailing list but claims it doesn't have the ability to form its own listserv so that members of NOW can DIRECTLY communicate with each other. (Remember the resolution of *mine* that was passed in San Antonio???????) Why are the officers of National NOW so afraid of free speech? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Earlier this year I discovered a new author, Laurie R. King who is writing two very different mystery series. One is about Kate Martinelli who lives and works in modern San Francisco and the subject of her first book _A Grave Talent_ which won the Edgar prize for best new author. The other (starting with _Beekeeper's Apprentice_) about Mary Russell and her friendship with Sherlock Holmes was a bit disappointing after the intellectual probings of the Martinelli books. However, her second book about Mary Russell has produced that same level of intellectual questioning. Women mystery writers are tackling subjects that are generally ignored in male fiction. I have not finished her newest book _A Monstrous Regiment of Women_ but by page 59 I was doing handsprings: Beginning on page 36, "Why does he want me to keep silent in church? What would be so terrible to let me, a woman talk? ... What is this man afraid of? ... Can he imagine I'm going to say something that might make him look a fool? OR ... it was too sad. This man is working with God, thinking about God, living with God, every day, and still he does not trust God. Deep down, he doesn't feel one hundred percent certain that his God can stand up to criticism, can deal with this uppity woman and her uncomfortable questions; he does not *know* that his God is big enough to welcome in ...every person ... believers or seekers, men or women." But the best comes on page 56 ... "And blatant mistranslation, and deliberate obliteration of the original meaning ... Deuteronomy 32, verse 18," (Mary Russell said). (The woman she was speaking with recited:) "Of the Rock that begot thee, thou are unmindful, and thou has forgotten God that formed thee." Mary Russell goes on to correct her: "That's not what it says... it's what the Authorised translations say, but it not what the original says ... the verb used is *hul*, which means `to twist." Elsewhere, it is used of the movement in a dance, or, as it is here, in childbirth. The verse ought to be translated, `You have forgotten the Rock that begot you; you have forgotten the God who writhed in the effort of giving birth to you.' The purpose of the verse is to remind the people of the intimacy of God's parenthood, using both male and female forms." "But that's .... That means ..." "Yes ... that means that an entire vocabulary of imagery relating to the maternal side of God has been deliberately obscured ... God the Mother, hidden for centuries." (And there is considerably more of this sort of thing in the bible, says Mary.) But don't think Laurie R. King's books are overly heavy. They aren't. They're good reads as well. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Laurie R. King is an author to read and to keep an eye on. Her next Martinelli book "_With Child_" is coming soon. Her next Mary Russell book, _ Letter of Mary_ is based on a letter which appears to be from a Mary who is an apostle of Joshua or Jesus and is addressed to her sister in ... Magdala. It will be out in 1997 also. Yes, you read right: APOSTLE - which would put a completely different light on the whole leadership role of women in early Christianity before the woman-hating Paul redirected things. Just imagine what life would be for women without Paul's diatribes ... Just imagine what life would be for YOU if it were admitted that it was originally GAWD, the mother ... We wonder why female theologians don't do more about all this ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . And of course there is the translation of "and a virgin shall bring forth," which, as we understand it, should read, "and an unmarried woman shall bring forth ..." which is a different thing altogether. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Brenda Seals sent us a note about the women of a small Brazilian town who are on a sex strike. The women are refusing to have sex with their boyfriends or husbands until the men are declared clean in an HIV test! The strike was prompted when an HIV positive man was found to have had unprotected sex with several woman. Brenda writes, "Oh, if American women would try this!" No, Brenda, won't happen. All the propaganda and money in the U.S. is still directed at the poor male victim - even to the extent of developing expensive ways for the man to have children with the HIV lasered out of the sperm - than to educating women to say NO sex for those who might have HIV. HE is the victim and the wife is supposed to feel sorry for him - and die. Or stay ignorant, and die. I receive several angry notes every week from women who have been betrayed by our AIDS health system. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . The family of one of the women attending The Citadel has stated that their daughter is "tough" but she is being terrorized through unregulated sexual harassment. The leadership of The Citadel from its president to its board and to the Governor COULD stop it - if they wanted to. Disgusting! Did you read the release that stated a woman at the Citadel had her "clothing set on fire," in a beautifully worded euphemism which neglected to mention that she was INSIDE that clothing so that, in reality, SHE was set on fire. Joan of Arc knew the difference. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . A member of ACT UP is trying desperately to prove that my words are actually those of Rush Limbaugh because I pointed out the amount of time and money that was being wasted on the cause of gay marriages - an issue that will be decided in the courts, not in street demonstrations. So many of the "make work" organizations delude people into thinking they are doing something when they parade and shout and insult. Years ago, demonstrations meant something, caused reactions. Today, even newspaper reporters find them boring. Let me make my position clear on the expenditure of money and time and effort by a major FEMINIST organization in the direction of demonstrations of the ACT UP nature (mock weddings of same-sex couples on the courthouse steps). A mother has $100 to feed her five children. What kind of a mother spends $75 of the $100 for food for one child who is also getting food in other places - and divides the paltry left-over $25 to feed the other four children who have *no* other way to obtain more food. A piss-poor mother, that's who. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . At least five VERY well publicized studies state that an abortion increases the risk of breast cancer risk according to figures from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. HOWEVER, six other studies found no such link and a seventh found that abortions *lower* the risk of breast cancer. Without accusing anyone of being dishonest in keeping with their anti- abortion stance, the Dutch group says that one of the reasons for the disparity is that women don't report their abortion histories correctly for fear of recrimination and even criminal prosecution. So much for the impartiality of science. Or the accuracy of studies. The fact is that any woman - ANY woman - who has intercourse with a man has probably had at LEAST one spontaneous abortion, cum miscarriage. Yeah, I know, the induced abortion doesn't give off some kind of hormonal safeguard or whatever that a spontaneous abortion does ... says who? Whom? It amazes me the number of studies about women's reproductive organs and orgasms that hit the newspapers and magazines. If such a blitz of articles were dependent on interest wouldn't they be filled to overflowing with articles about peni erection - getting and keeping? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . John M. Riddle writes, "Low doses of ferujol, a substance that occurs in the genus _Ferula_, to which silphium (a now believed extinct plant that was known to induce menstruation in ancient Greece) has been nearly 100 percent successful in preventing pregnancy in female rats up to three days after coitus." CC-->> The gestation period of a rat is brief compared to that of a human. And no one, to our knowledge, has looked for a modern-day silphium plant, although the seeds of the common weed Queen Anne's lace have been used as an effective folk remedy for unwanted pregnancies for the millennia - a teaspoon after sex to keep you regular. <--cc Riddle reported that a number of chemical tests from 1976 to 1986 showed that Queen Ann's Lace seeds were effective as postcoital antifertility agents. (Why weren't we told????) Pennyroyal is also a very effective birth-control agent but it is TOXIC and must be taken in precise amounts in tea. It evidentally contains pulegone that terminates pregnancies in humans and animals. We may be taken to task for writing about things that MIGHT be toxic, but how ridiculous can you get? (Do you have *any* idea of the folk remedies used by men to induce erection?) Listen up: we believe women have the common sense to do right even though men are constantly trying to convince us that ignorance about our bodies is for our own good. That's bullcrap, pure and simple - and we do mean BULL. If a woman is desperate enough to take a fatal dose of a home remedy without sufficient knowledge of its dosage, who or what is to blame but our educational/social system that keeps women ignorant or without the medical facilities that women want and NEED. To read more about ancient anti-fertility methods, get John M. Riddle's _Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to Renaissance_, and _The control of Late Ancient and Medieval Population_ by Josiah C. Russell. We recommend women buying copies of the books to be put away for the just-in-case future. Riddle's book is only $14.95. The religious right is gearing up for another fight for the Presidency, the Congress and full control of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001. ....................... * ........................ 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, email istuber@direclynx.net<<<< To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note We thank Jennifer Gagliardi for handling the madding subscription list through her listserv.