Re: BabyTea's arrival - cool! Wishing the parents a good delivery...

erikaj, great blog. I'll comment with a link to mine.

it's totally obvious that I don't have a disability studies background but learned it on the streets.

Oh yeah, me too. Ten years later, I went to uni to study it. This still causes some conflict. Especially when I start yelling about how we're all full of crap and should be out doing things to change the world, not talking about it. I do not do this in every class.

BABYTEA!!! So exciting!

Knowing contraceptives aren't 100% safe is almost enough to make me wanna abstain from sex, forever.

I feel that way, intellectually (er, I guess that should be "I *think* that way"), but then the actual sex gets in the way of the whole abstaining thing.

Thanks, glad you like it...a lot of times I feel like the Chuckles the Clown of the disability rights movement, but trying to match up to what I thought serious researchers would do didn't work well for me.

I don't have any disability, but I can somehow relate to that feeling, Seska. I'm aiming for peace and conflict studies, mostly want to grad in a research study for rehabilitation of postwar societies.

This is also Memorial Day in Israel: I don't know how much you know about it, but it's a hard and emotional day here, a day before Independence Day (so we'll remember the price).

And days like this, and life like I'm having keeps me hoping that with that sort of knowledge, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to make a very small change.

the actual sex gets in the way of the whole abstaining thing

Teh sex, she's evil. And apparently, also so fucking good.

I have my doubts about my mom's old fave, takin' it to the streets, as well, Seska. I've spent my share of time chanting and rallying on the state capitol steps, and while I felt covered in radical chic afterward(and make no mistake, telling you this is making me feel irretievably cool) I'm not sure we changed a damn thing. they're expecting us, now.

Yay for baby!!!!!!!!

Sending good birth vibes to babytea and family.

I'm not sure we changed a damn thing.

Oh, yeah - I can relate to that, too, to some degree. I don't know about the US, but in the UK the disability rights movement is pretty fragmented and unproductive at the moment. My little disability rights group still goes out on the street, but these days we're stopping traffic outside government offices for exactly three minutes at a time, and nothing changes. Twenty years ago they were chaining wheelchairs to buses and seeing the same buses made wheelchair-accessible within months. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it's a big part of why I wanted to study the subject. I want to do research that's useful to political causes, rather than oppressive. I think academics and campaigners need to be working together in taking things forward.

You see? I warned you about getting me started on this. I talk too much and my head is full of crap. (Which I really ought to be putting into my essay...)

and make no mistake, telling you this is making me feel irretievably cool

Heh. Cool is right. I'd love to go to the States and hang out with a group like ADAPT. American campaigners don't seem to do anything by halves.