"(Ultimate Solution Of) Grace Quigley" with Katharine Hepburn and Nick Nolte.

I have been thinking about this movie the last few days, and specifically one scene. For those unfamiliar with this very dark comedy (think "Harold And Maude" on steroids!), Katharine is a very unhappy, unsuccessful suicide in NYC. She encounters a neurotic hitman, Nick Nolte (before he got to be such a jerk). She and a number of her friends are old, some sick, all tired of living. She comes up with a plan whereby Seymour will, with each person's permission, off them, in suitable and inventive ways. He is very much in demand, and he and Grace form an attachment. He calls her Ma, she calls him Sonny.

In the scene I am thinking about, Grace and Sonny are in a cab, with an extremely rude and obnoxious driver. Grace tells Sonny to "off" the driver. He protests, "But, Ma, that is murder!" She replies, as only Katharine can, "No, it is pest control."

This, and "A Woman Rebels", are seldom shown, which is a shame, as they are both excellent. Although Idid just see that "Grace Quigley" is available on amazon prime (I know!).

"Empathy is the most radical of human emotions." attributed to Gloria Steinem.

May each and every person have the life, and the death, they deserve.

Mass shooting Evergreen HS (CO). 3 kids critical. shooter at different

hospital.

That fucking bastard charlie kirk said gun deaths are accceptable in order to protect 2A.

There is NO such thing as "CHILD PROSTITUTES". That term implies

agency, choice. Those CHILDREN were RAPED, VIOLATED, ABUSED. Do not let anyone get away with implying or pretending otherwise.

A small, helpful tip about the bubbly we are storing for the Big Beautiful Day.

While we are chilling that bottle of the good stuff for the immediate news, we realize that a single bottle will not be sufficient. However, after toasting with The Widow, or whatever your choice is, one may go to something a bit more. .accessible. . .for the continuing celebration. For those lucky enough to have a Costco or Trader Joe's handy, they carry some very nice ones, including a 7.99 rose Prosecco at Costco. Your liquor stores no doubt carry some very nice ones as well.

Here's to The Celebration!!! The sooner, the better!!!

"Male Fantasies: Vol. 1: Women, Blood, Floods. Vol.. 2: Male Bodies" Klaus

Theweleit. I had been thinking about those books recently, about how the fascist mind views women. Then, just now, I saw the OP about kegsbreath and "warrior ideology" at the military academies. If he hasn't actually read the books, he still embodies the mindset Theweleit wrote about.

Vol 1 came out in 1977. I was horrified by the hatred and ugliness he described then, and even more horrified as I watch that mindset increasingly taking over again.

For the "thoughts and prayers" only crowd. .why is it that you pray to your "god"

AFTER every tragedy, every shooting, every earthquake, every fire, etc., etc. but not BEFORE? If your "god" is so caring, so loving, so understanding, so ALL-POWERFUL, why does he allow/create these situations in the first place? "Thank you for sparing my life, even though my town, my home, my friends, were all destroyed" does not seem reasonable to me. I do not understand the failure to connect the dots.

Day 27 of the month. Mass shootings* SO FAR: 34. Dead: 35. Wounded: 166.

mass shooting defined as 4 or more dead or wounded, including the gunman.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!!

Trump's Republican Trifecta Sets Up Massive Transfer of Tax Dollars from Reproductive Health Clinics to Unregulated Cris

(lengthy, extremely disturbing article about the misogynist, christofascist woman-hating attack on reproductive rights)


#####’s Republican Trifecta Sets Up Massive Transfer of Tax Dollars from Reproductive Health Clinics to Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics
PUBLISHED 8/18/2025 by Jenifer McKenna | UPDATED 8/21/2025 at 9:07 A.M. PT

Update Aug. 21, 2025: The effort to “defund” Planned Parenthood hit a major roadblock Tuesday, Aug. 19, when the 1st Circuit rejected the Trump administration’s request to enforce the Medicaid “defund” provision included in the reconciliation law while its appeal of the preliminary injunction proceeds. This means Planned Parenthood health centers can continue to seek Medicaid reimbursements for now, ensuring millions of patients are still able to access critical care. But the fight is far from over. Advocates warn that “defunding” Planned Parenthood is an unconstitutional attack that would devastate abortion access nationwide and jeopardize care for the 1.1 million Medicaid patients who rely on Planned Parenthood every year.
“The 1st Circuit made it clear: Patients and entire communities across the country will be harmed if this ‘defund’ provision is allowed to take effect,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, and other essential care from their trusted Planned Parenthood provider—that’s what is at stake in this case. We know the fight isn’t over, and we are prepared to see it through.”






Antiabortion activists march to the Planned Parenthood clinic Feb. 1, 2025, in New York City. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images)


#####, Republicans and antiabortion extremists are dismantling reproductive care for low-income women, funneling them into ideological clinics masquerading as health centers.

Within days of the 2024 election, antiabortion leaders were calling on the incoming ##### administration to “defund” Planned Parenthood and redirect federal funds to “pro-life” pregnancy centers. As of this summer, all three Republican-dominated branches of our federal government are working in tandem to realize this mission: to replace the infrastructure of publicly funded, evidence-based reproductive healthcare with a network of unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPC)—also known as crisis pregnancy centers—nationwide. Together, the ##### administration, 119th Congress and the John Roberts-led Supreme Court are engineering a massive repurposing of federal tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood and the Title X family planning program, while also boosting direct federal funding streams, to further bankroll the $2 billion UPC industry and position it to replace reproductive health clinics in all 50 states.

As Republicans aggressively move this project forward on multiple fronts—with Congress and the Court stripping Planned Parenthood of Medicaid reimbursement eligibility, and ##### stripping Planned Parenthood and other family planning providers of Title X grants—UPC industry leaders have been vigorously lobbying for those funds, to “replace that broken model with real life-affirming support for women.” The UPC industry has long maneuvered to “replace” Planned Parenthood. The Obria Group, for example, was founded in 1981 as a “medical model” crisis pregnancy center network, for the express purpose of drawing funding away from Planned Parenthood. In 2005, Texas created its UPC grant program—now the largest state funding program in the country—with the explicit intent to redirect public funds from Planned Parenthood to crisis pregnancy centers.
. . . .



President of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson speaks during a news conference on the budget reconciliation bill at the U.S. Capitol on May 14, 2025. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) held a news conference to urge Republicans not to cut Medicaid and defund Planned Parenthood. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

UPCs are largely religious nonprofits that pose as health clinics while operating free of the health, safety, licensing and patient privacy standards that govern Planned Parenthood health centers and other medical offices. Not only is this industry entirely ill-equipped to provide maternal or infant healthcare—UPCs do not come close to meeting American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) Level 1 requirements for Basic Maternal Care, as they provide no neonatal services—their very mission, to prevent people from accessing abortion, is in direct conflict with providing actual, even lifesaving, healthcare. In fact, shocking new revelations about UPC ultrasound and ectopic pregnancy practices show these antiabortion sites pose an urgent threat to pregnant people and the public health. New research from Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch documents that all three major UPC networks are training staff and volunteers not to scan women they suspect have ectopic pregnancies. Rather than prioritizing patient safety, UPC staff are instructed not to diagnose this life-threatening condition, not to follow up with at-risk women and, above all, not to assume liability.

. . .




U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) at the annual antiabortion March for Life rally on the National Mall on Jan. 19, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

. . . .






https://msmagazine.com/2025/08/18/trump-republicans-anti-abortion-unregulated-clinics-crisis-pregnancy-center-congress-medicaid-title-x-defund-planned-parenthood/