The political thing I hinted at in my first blog entry is over for now. The signatures have been safely delivered to Bismarck. Anyway, here it is, the North Dakota Shared Parenting Initiative, at http://ndspi.org. I'm intentionally not putting a direct link. I have to confess I was worried. After all this talk of car bombs and shootings and government roadblocks as possible measures that could be taken to keep this thing from getting on the ballot, I was truly scared that something would happen. My husband and his brother were along for the ride to deliver the signatures, and no, a helicopter did not descend from the sky to block their progress. (Though a helicopter *did* in fact land on the road in front of me on my way to Darrell's family's 4th of July party, for reasons I do not know). I couldn't go on the trip to Bismarck, as I have a regular job. Anyway there are two things I can't really understand about this thing: 1. Why it is considered so controversial, and 2. Why so much of the responsibility for getting it on the ballot has fallen on Darrell and Darrin (and me, if only in a monetary sense). We don't have any children. There are so many men with children who want custody who could have helped more. Oh well. Now we just have to wait and see if it does in fact get on the ballot. There are 17,000 signatures and we only need 13,000, so it should, but you never know.

Men's rights is a pretty touchy subject to a lot of people. Perhaps I'm seen as a traitor to womankind because I don't see the problem with almost anything that people like Warren Farrell are saying. I've never felt oppressed. If anything I'm somewhat embarrassed by the fact that my university felt the need to offer me special summer jobs because I was a "woman or minority" in a scientific field. I could go on, but I've already said more political and controversial things than I really am comfortable with. Sorry to be so scatterbrained.


Two Replies to The Political Thing

Jackie Mason | August 17, 2006
[hidden by author request]

Denise Sawicki | August 17, 2006
No, it would default to joint custody only if 1. Both parents want custody and 2. Both parents are deemed fit


Prayer for the Paranoid

Denise Sawicki posts whatever she feels able to post without serious consequences Read more »

Weather - the most boring conversational topic?!?

Well, perhaps not if you live in ND, I dunno. There's snow on the ground *and* dandelions in the lawn right now. That's a first, at least in my memory. Go »

Halloween

We got some pretty scary masks at KMart. Darrin went as a "Crypt Creature" and Darrell went as a werewolf. That is actually me in the skeleton mask but you'd never guess from this picture. Go »

Chair

Over the weekend we went to Mills Fleet Farm to pick up the specific present my dad wanted for his birthday. I doubt you have the Fleet Farm in the more "civilized" parts of the world but it is a bit like a Walmart with the addition of things like calf medicine, saddles, fence posts, and a huge amount of hardware, machinery, building supplies, etc. I mostly stick to the more Walmart-like areas of the store, except for that one time when I built a fence :). Go »

My weekend

Hmm well I hope this post is appearing in my blog, maybe I am a bit confused by the changes. I was worried we would have a bad weekend, because we had no DVDs from Netflix or the library, and our AC isn't working and it's been really hot. But finally the weekend was saved by the ultra quick arrival on Saturday of Sims 2 which I ordered Thursday... Go »

Our dog is smart

Our sheltie, Philip, is really smart. Here is his latest Oscar-worthy film, where he shows off his ability to mimic Darrell doing the following actions: turn a circle, stretch, sneeze, lie down, roll over (partway), hop, and speak: link Philip also knows how to read a few words, kind of, though I think he gets bored with it :-). Currently he's in school for agility, which entails learning how to run around a course jumping hurdles and using tunnels and seesaws in a prescribed manner. Go »

D&D first impressions

So our books came yesterday and I've been reading the Dungeon Master's guide as scheduled while Darrell's been reading the Player's Handbook. It's quite obvious I am going to have to read the Player's Handbook too since there is not so much actual useful information in the DM guide. It has lots of pages about different playing styles, how to handle different personalities in your group, and weird stuff like how to write cryptograms, but not so much useful data on the actual rules. Go »