PROP 73 (My Vote: NO)

WAITING PERIOD AND PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BEFORE TERMINATION OF MINOR'S PREGNANCY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
• Amends California Constitution, prohibiting abortion for unemancipated minor until 48 hours after physician notifies minor's parent/legal guardian, except in medical emergency or with parental waiver.
• Defines abortion as causing "death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born."
• Permits minor to obtain court order waiving notice based on clear, convincing evidence of minor's maturity or best interests.
• Mandates various reporting requirements.
• Authorizes monetary damages against physicians for violation.
• Requires minor's consent to abortion, with certain exceptions.
• Permits judicial relief if minor's consent coerced.
The argument that a 13 year old needs parental consent to get a flu-shot yet doesn’t need consent for an abortion is irrelevant to the argument if a minor should have to have parental notification for an abortion. That’s like saying, you need a license to hunt and a license to fish, but you don’t need a license to be a Father, how does that make sense? This proposition, both Yes and NO votes are to protect the children. It just depends on which stance you believe is correct. My opinion is this. Not all Teenagers have excellent relationships with their parents. Most do not have open relationships enough to tell them they drink, or were drunk at a party etc. How many have open enough relationships to go to their mom or dad and say, “Mom, I messed up. I got pregnant. I need an abortion”? I would say very few (my opinion). Let’s say PROP 73 goes through, and Doctors need to notify Parents 48 hours before the procedure. How many Daughters are going to “face the music”, let the Doctor inform their parents, when they will have the option to go through the same abortion at an illegal (and not as safe) clinic without having to face their Parents? I would rather my Daughter go somewhere safe, sanitary and legal rather than have to go somewhere dirty, because she didn’t want to have to tell me. The #1 priority is for her to be safe. Not for me to know what is going on. While I wish both were true/possible, I would choose the former, rather than the latter.

I’ll give you a somewhat relevant situation in the form of Underage Drinking. What did you do, since you couldn’t drink until you were 21? When you were 15 you went down to 7th and Alvarado (not the safest place) to get a fake ID (also not the safest thing to do since you are dealing with criminals and illegal activity yourself). Once you had this Fake ID, you had to drive to shady areas of town that would accept it (like Altadena Liquor). Now if you didn’t have a fake, you had to go to even shadier places to get booze. Did the fact that you had to be 21 to drink, deter you from drinking? Only in the sense that it made it harder to get, so you have to resort to other means of getting it. Not in the sense that it made you not drink. Is parental notification going to deter Daughters under the age of 18 from having abortions without telling their parents? Only in the sense that it is going to make it difficult to find those places that are willing to not notify. It’s not going to deter them from having abortions or premarital sex.

November 3rd

Since there has been no new LOST episodes, I've had to think about other things to write about. Like, I KNOW that I am not gay, but there are a couple things about me that might lead people to believe otherwise (Aside from the obvious gayness that I would be labeled if I ever made out with Jeter or Leinart). The biggest one is that I actually like and listen to both the Dixie Chicks and Justin Timberlake (and some *NSYNC stuff). Anyhow, I felt the need to let you guys know about it, since it has been bothering me all morning (while I was listening to Dixie Chicks’s rendition of Landslide----a double wammie).

Can you get any side-effects from having too many Halls cough drops? I've had upwards of 30 the last 3 days. And I can't really taste food anymore. I guess that would be a side-effect, huh?

This girl I have been seeing over here, on-and-off has a birthday coming up. So I decide to do the cool think and have 3 dozen pink roses delivered to her dorm (yes dorm, shut up). Only I wanted it to be a day early so I had them delivered on the 3rd of November instead of the 4th. Feeling I have already gone overboard in the sentiment category I only have the note say “Happy Birthday, Kid. From Benzhu” (benzhu is Chinese for stupid pig, a “cute” nickname she calls me. Go figure). Everything goes as planned and she calls and is very excited about the flowers. She loves them, blah blah blah. I said, “Yeah, I wanted you to get them a day early, since I didn’t know if you’d be home on Friday”. She says, “A day early? My Birthday is on the 14th”…ZING!

Only, looking back, as I explained to Dell, this is AWESOME! Because A) I showed some sort of compassion, since I remembered her birthday (kinda) and got her sweet flowers (GOOD). It shows B) either I’m sort of an idiot or I don’t overly care THAT much (BOTH GOOD). And C) I was the first one to give her a B-day present which will be the only one she has for like 10 days until her real B-Day (VERY GOOD). So, if you are in a new relationship, I highly recommend this strategy for the first birthday, and only if it falls in the middle of the Month. November 4th and November 14th are pretty close. October 1st and September 21st will make you look like a retard.

I highly recommend reading Jamie Whyte’s “Crimes Against Logic”. I’m only about 30 pages in, and I love it. It really makes you think about how we debate, look at information, discuss topics and how we THINK about things. I guess you could say it is like Howard Zinn’s People’s History of The United States, but toward general information gathering instead of facts. It also brings up some interesting points that both attacks and parallels Crichton’s argument against Politicized Science (though not directly). Good read, and it’s only 150 pages. It will make Dell think twice about saying, “You may be right, I’m just saying”.