The right to a healthy body. The right to equality.

Everyone has heard about Rush Limbaugh’s slut remark towards Sandra Fluke… It’s been big news for a while now… but almost everyone who has heard about it has only heard either Rush’s outburst or the news companies/politicians who have a negative and, arguably, radical viewpoint on the situation. My question to the people who are angry at Fluke: Did you watch her 10 minute opening statement to Congress and actually know what it is she was asking for, or have you solely been going off what the media has portrayed? If you answered “no” to watching her opening statement… why are you casting stones at her? You obviously missed the point and here’s why.

1)   At no point in Fluke’s appeal did she say insurance companies need to cover contraceptive medicine for pregnancy prevention.

2)   She was asking for UNSUBSIDIZED PRIVATE companies to cover contraceptives, not federally funded companies. This means taxpayers are not “paying for women to have sex”…so that card the media has been trying to play is unwarranted and untrue.

Now I’m not saying, if you are mad at her, that your are stupid if you have only seen what the media has portrayed. The news is supposed to be unbiased and show the viewers the truth and going off what they say shouldn’t need to be scrutinized… Unfortunately that is not the case and, in this instant involving Fluke, I blame people like Rush Limbaugh. Because of his comment toward Sandra Fluke, the whole point of the message she was trying to send to Congress was lost. The media portrayed it as “Rush apologizes for calling female law student a slut because of proposal to have contraceptive medicine covered for sex’… Everyone’s reaction because of this, understandably, was to assume she was pushing for contraceptives to be covered to prevent pregnancy because that’s what contraceptives do.

This is a logical fallacy known as the Straw Man. Miss Fluke was trying to have contraceptives covered by insurance for the purpose of treating women medical problems such as ovarian cysts, crippling cramps, and heavy bleeding which can lead to anemia. Rush comes along and says, and I quote, “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Femi-Nazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it… and I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch”… Does this sound ANYTHING remotely like what Miss Fluke was asking Congress? The fact that Rush somehow misconstrued what Miss Fluke said (and that’s assuming he watched her opening statement in the first place to KNOW what she said) and turned it into “she wants us to pay for her to have sex” is a Straw Man argument. He took, with or without knowing, what Miss Fluke intended and brought up a completely unrelated and untrue accusation. And, as much as I hate to admit it, Rush is influential and has power over the media.

This comment destroyed Fluke’s heroism that was her going to Congress and her message was lost in the turmoil. The proof is what is happening now: When you see conservative news stations and politicians talk about this “scandal”, it’s not about Rush twisting the words of Fluke’s intent, but about his “poor word usage” and how he was right to say that we should not allow contraceptives to be covered by insurance for the purpose to stop unplanned pregnancy. They are arguing and protecting a point that Rush made up and upholding it as fact! IF, and this is a BIG if, they were to have watched her statement to Congress they would know what they are arguing about is false. But they don’t… they continue to fuel this inaccurate and illogical idea Rush made up.

I know “they” is a very vague term and someone will ask whom “they” are who believe and uphold what Rush said…. So, here are some direct quotes from political figures and newscasters who are on the Slut Rush Bandwagon.

“I am astonished at the desperation of the Elite media (…) to decide that Rush Limbaugh is the great national crisis of this week.” –Newt Gingritch-

“You know he’s being absurd, but entertainers can be absurd.’ –Rick Santorum-

“It’s not the language I would have used.” –Mitt Romney-

“You want me to give you my hard earned money so you can have sex?” –Bill O’Reily

“It’s not a right under the Constitution to have sex.” –Monica Crowley-

“Students have the right to have all the sex they want. But do they have the right to play the victim when all of their birth control isn’t covered?” –Megyn Kelly-

All of these statements were made after Rush’s radio broadcast. None of these people came forward and said, or even knew, that Rush’s statement was false, illogical or a fallacy. The only thing they seem to believe was wrong was his word choice, or semantics; not his way of thinking or reasoning behind WHY Fluke went to Congress in the first place. They are supporting an idea that was made up, intentionally or unintentionally, and are attacking Fluke for it…. It doesn’t make sense to me.

Sadly, they are the people who are on the news. They are the people we turn to to tell us what is going and they are the ones passing along this false information to the rest of us and not checking their sources. So I understand why the viewers, readers, bloggers, etc would be outraged that a woman is trying to have the government pay for her birth control so she can have sex and not get pregnant… I would be outraged myself if this was true, but it’s not. Everyone who believes this and is upset or confused by Fluke is doing so based off faulty information.

This reminds me of the play called The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Short synopsis for those who never read it or don’t remember: People were brought to court, tried, and then hanged for witch craft during the Salem Witch Trails because of the false testimony of a group of teenage girls. The court cases themselves would have been sound… if any of the evidence, witnesses or stories were true or accurate. But they weren’t, and many people were killed and/or ostracized because of the false statements of the girls that everyone held up as truth… Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

To prove to your further that the conservative programming completely missed the point of Miss Fluke’s plea to congress; here is a summary and some quotes from that meeting because I actually WATCHED IT. How anyone could misconstrue her words as bad as Rush did is beyond me since she said absolutely NOTHING about contraceptives being used to prevent pregnancy.

In short, Fluke was advocating the coverage of contraceptives to help alleviate or stop medical issues that women face and the hardships they go through because institutes and insurance companies assume they only want it to stop pregnancy…

Side note: The fact that conservative programs pretty much did just that proves her point even more and saddens me that she called it… back on topic now.

Fluke went on to say that 65% of the women at her school were interrogated by university medical staff for the reason they wanted birth control and were called liars when they said it was for medical reasons. One of these women was a friend of Fluke. Her friend has polycystic ovarian syndrome and used contraceptives to stop cysts from forming. Even with written confirmation from her doctor about her health issue, the company denied her coverage multiple times. They told her they believed she was only using the contraceptive to stop unwanted pregnancy… They denied coverage even after she informed them she was gay and that unwanted pregnancy was not a feasible concern; it was strictly for medical reasons.

Fluke then stated that her friend could no longer afford the medication and stopped taking it. She then ended up in the ER because a tennis ball sized cyst on her ovary ruptured. Her friend had to have her ovary removed and is now facing the first stages of menopause… Her friend now faces not being able to have children through in vitro fertilization which she one day hoped to do… all because her PRIVATE, UNSUBSIDIZED insurance refused to cover her medication because they didn’t believe she would use it for medical reasons…

Fluke stated many other similar stories that women all over the country have faced because of the lack of coverage for contraceptives for MEDICAL purposes, not SEXUAL. One thing she said that struck home for me was after sharing a story of a woman who can’t afford contraceptives anymore. Fluke said “I sincerely pray we don’t have to wait until she loses an ovary or is diagnosed with cancer before her needs and the needs of all of these women are taken seriously”.

Does this sound like she was condoning premarital sex? Does this sound like she was demanding her birth control be covered so she could have worry free sex? No, it doesn’t because it isn’t. PERIOD. But what has the media been broadcasting? They have been broadcasting utter bullshit. I’m not saying they are doing it intentionally; I really do think that they believe what they are saying is true. That is what kills me the most. The fact that the media is feeding itself false information and running with it and then passing it on to their viewers hurts me.

Below is a link to the Congressional hearing with Fluke about covering contraceptives. If you have not seen it and have been going off of what the media has been saying… Do yourself a favor and watch so you can make a decision based on actual facts instead of the crock of crap the media has been spewing out. Listen to her words and see that she is not advocating what the media is accusing her of. Hold off on your speeches about ethics, taxes, personal responsibility and paying someone to have sex until after you see what she actually meant. Please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlRC0nsjtKQ

Too Much Info Tuesday

“Teepee” Fire

This is the most common fire and the majority of people have seen it. Basic idea is to lean pieces of wood together in the shape of a teepee with the kindle in the center. Light the kindle, it catches the wood over it aflame and, boom, you have a fire. Pros: This fire is quick. Cons: This fire is quick. What I mean by that is this: The fire is easy to set up and get some flames started. The problem is that it burns out and loses heat quickly. This happens because of the shape/layout of the wood. Since it is teepee shaped and the wood is leaning against each other, it has to be perfectly balanced. When the wood burns the shape collapses. You have to constantly rebuild the teepee, poke the embers, and add more wood. This is a time consuming and wasteful process that doesn’t give you a fire that lasts through the night. When you need to make food, setup your tent, etc. you don’t have time to waste on a crappy fire.

The “Upside down” Fire

This fire layout is the way to go. For the same amount of wood used in the Teepee fire, it will burn longer, you will have to mess with it less and it will give off more heat. The key is in the layout of the wood. The upside down name comes from how it burns. In the teepee fire, the kindle is on the ground in the middle and burns the wood from the ground up. In the upside down fire, the kindle is set on top and burns the fire from the top to the bottom; hence the upside down idea. The other big difference is the wood layout itself. In the teepee, the smaller wood is in the center near the kindling and the larger pieces are leaning against each other on the outside. In upside down fire; the biggest pieces are on the bottom and each crisscrossed “layer” of wood gets a little smaller and a little closer together until you get to the kindling and tinder on the top. The benefits of the kindle being on top, the layers coming together at the top and the bigger wood on bottom are huge.

Benefits of Upside Down Fire

1)   For the same amount of wood used in a teepee fire, the upside down fire burns longer, burns hotter, and holds it shape.

2)   Burning hotter means it burns cleaner. This means there is less smoke so your fire isn’t as noticeable during the day due to heavy black smoke associated with lower temperature fires.

3)   Since you don’t have to mess with it and add wood as often, you have a fire that will burn longer through the night and you won’t have to worry about banking your fire to make it last until the morning.

4)   The layers burn through each other stopping all the wood from burning at once. The reason the layers get closer together at the top is so when one layer collapses, it falls on the slightly bigger one below and ignites that wood. That layer burns away and the pattern continues. By the time you get to the bottom layer, you have a huge pile of hot embers that ignite the logs at the bottom, which eventually make even more hot embers. These hot embers make it easy to start a quick fire in the morning to cook food or warm up.

Here is a video of a guy showing a perfect example of an upside down fire and how long it lasts. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing I’ll give you the summary. 3 layers with kindle and tinder on top, burned through the night and he was able to add some more logs to the embers in the morning to start another small fire. 10+ hours later he made ANOTHER fire. That’s legit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjBfzyz-xM8&feature=related Skip forward to about 1:00 to see him start building the fire.

Heat Reflection

Last thing I want to go over is how to get the most heat out of your fire. This is especially important if the temperature drops at nighttime to freezing or below freezing. Quick lesson on heat from a fire: They emit IR or infrared waves. Those waves hit us and we feel heat. However, some of the IR waves only hit the side of us facing the fire and a lot miss us completely. Something you can do to warm your backside is to hang a heat reflection blanket behind you. Heat reflection blankets have a foil like side that reflects radiant energy (body heat) back to the person it is wrapped around. You can use this to reflect the radiant energy from the fire as well. You can do this by hanging it from a tree or mounting it between poles/tree branches. This will reflect all of the IR waves back that missed you and it will hit your backside. You are now being warmed from both sides. This will also block the light from your fire a little bit more keeping your campsite from being seen from a distance as easily. You can build up rocks on the other side of the fire to reflect heat on that side back to you and shield the light some more. http://www.rei.com/product/407106/space-all-weather-blanket

Thank you for making it through the first TMIT.  Like most things that are over looked while preparing, this is a simple and intuitive idea, but it will save your life. Surviving an emergency situation isn’t all about having badass guns or crazy armor; It’s about being prepared for anything, including Mother Nature. If you can’t stay warm or feed yourself out in the wild… how do you plan on doing anything else?

Be Prepared. Be Smart. Be Incognito.

                                                (8bit) Brandt