Big Apple Dreaming

What really irks me is that I'm three blocks from a Walgreens and have walked over there many times to shop. Now I have to drive down the road to get to a RiteAid that doesn't discriminate against women like the Walgreens with their idiotic corporate policy. I've been piggybacking errands lately though so I don't waste gas driving all over too often.

Hey, are you coming to the Pagan Picnic on Sunday? The picnic is probably going to be one of the bigger gatherings of local Pagans since the old days of the Goddess Conference. We've got a group from Chalmette (out in da Parish, d'awlin'), CPWC, the Gardnerians, a Voudon or two and some of the ones left adrift from the train wreck called Balarmond. We've decided to be more cross-pollinating where possible to keep any other conmen from preying on the community and to cut down on the witch wars. You should come. There are other LiveJournal users coming. I'll introduce you around. Many also who have geeky tendencies and will be chatting about computer things.

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they are within walking distance of my house, too, and they're open 24/7. Even though they've dropped Amex (or maybe Amex dropped them because of their parochial practices? If so, props to Amex). The next closest is a CVS (and I don't know about their prescription policies, either). I don't even know where the nearest Rite Aid is.

I wish I could make it to your Pagan Picnic... Our coven is hosting one

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mysticknyght.livejournal.com

ew, bad weekend for me, because we're going to boston week-after-next, but I'll see what happens...thanks for the invite :-)

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but they should be required *by law* to have at least one pharmacist on duty who will fill all prescriptions. Now, I bet it's fairly typical, especially in small town pharmacies, to only have one pharmacist on duty...

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That's precisely why it's not OK with me. If you've got one pharmacist and he/she decides to be a shithead, then the customer is stuck holding the empty bag. They're not going to put up with being required by law to have an alternative pharmacist on staff. I'm with the other logical types who proclaim that working in a butcher shop isn't appropriate work for a vegan and you shouldn't work at a vet or kennel if you're afraid of animals.

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I would expect those non-prescription-filling pharmacists to have a harder time getting work, and to be virtually unemployable in smaller pharmacies. The law wouldn't forbid their hire, so they wouldn't be discriminated against, it would just guarantee the right of the customers to have prescriptions for legal drugs filled. How would they not put up with it? A law requiring that pharmacies must fill all prescriptions, rather than any particular pharmacist, would be an end run around their wails of victimization on their "personal beliefs", and would be most likely seen as necessary and proper consumer protection.

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They WANT to be seen as victims. They WANT to impose their personal beliefs on others. They WANT the majority faith to trump all others in legislation. They don't believe in the separation of church and state. They are desperately in need of a kerosene enema and a BIC lighter. "To the moon, Alice!"

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But would mr. Cooper WANT to ride such a shitty rocket?

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You're too young and British to remember "The Honeymooners". That was Ralph Kramden's favorite expression when he got mad at his wife, Alice. I haven't seen the movie version with Cedric the Entertainer, but I hear they tried to parallel the spirit of the original series as much as possible.

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birth control pills and morning after prescriptions will also refuse to fill Viagra prescriptions, too... After all, if Jesus wanted that old man to beget a baby, he'd let him get hard all on his own, right? Right?

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The geezers on Viagra aren't using it to beget babies. It's a purely recreational thing for most of them. Do you think that Bob Dole's wife, Elizabeth, isn't post-menopausal? She ain't havin' no babies no more. And that's precisely why things are fucked up. As soon as Viagra and Cialis hit the market, they were covered by health plans all over the place whereas it has taken decades for women to lobby to have health plans cover birth control. It's all about keeping uppity women in their place as second-class citizens and mere gestational vessels.

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or am I getting the dogma wrong? Or is it just evil for people who aren't Grand High Poobahs of The Most Glorious Republic Please Send Your Money To The Sacred Post Office Box To Be Guaranteed A Place In Heaven?

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They're not even smart enough to be ashamed of their hypocracies.

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The fundies take the story of Abraham to ~~penis~~ heart. Abraham was a mere 100 years old when Sarah gave birth (after the handmaid did the dirty with Abraham, but that's another story). Viagra is for the man, who is still procreating lo these many years unto old age, and therefore a-okay, especially if he's dumped his wife for some sweet young thang.

Birth control on the other hand is the devil's attempt to keep the Pope from having enough Catholics to send into the holy war... or some such. ;)

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They have viagra for women too... Though wouldn't the religious die hard that believe sex is purely for babies be utter hypocrites having "enhancing" things if they are past age of conception?

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but they are a minority, and a tiny, though loud-mouthed, one at that. Anything that would thwart one of their aims without letting them effectively play the victim card would be a positive. There's got to be a way to say "do whatever you want, but it can't harm anybody else" that would get prescriptions filled and gain them no support or sympathy. The problem is *they've* been allowed to frame the issues, and they've framed it as one of personal "moral" rights. We can frame it as an issue of consumer protection, but unless we can deny that their rights are being abridged, they'll make hay with it. I think requiring that pharmacies fill a prescriptions, while allowing pharmacists to choose not to, would make sure people get medicines they need while not giving the "moral minority" a leg to stand on. I do think it would lead to some of them losing their jobs, but it would be because they were redundant rather than personally victimized.

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Accomplished either by a state law or a licensing rule for the pharmacy issued by the State Board. Now that the question has been framed by the "moral ones," it will be much harder to get such passed.

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It would be easier than a law requiring that all licenced pharmacists dispense all legal drugs or risk losing their license. While that would be perfectly just in my opinion, it would serve to garner sympathy for our dainty moralizers. I think a law requiring all secular, non-private(e.g. Catholic hospital pharmacies would be exempted) pharmacies to make sure all prescriptions are somehow filled as an issue of consumer rights would be hard to argue against from their side. Nobody would be forcing any specific pharmacist to dispense any specific medicine, so their personal "rights" would be in no way curbed, but *somebody* who wasn't so squeamish would have to be on hand to do so.

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How good are you at drafting legislation? The bellweather states (which except for Florida and Texas are strangely enough all blue) might be willing to pass something like that, especially if the AMA gets behind it.

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Hear hear on the chick flicks and people who are idiotic breeders who let their kids run wild like chimps! And while I don't go for those recipe or fashion mags either I'd not object if a good recipe creeped in sci am or something. ;) I also hate to shop but I feel more comfy in some tech store doing it. I totally hated reciently buying cloths. Particularly for my son. I mean some look so pansy that Queer Eye for the Straight Guy(Fab 5) would utterly cringe.(yes on rare occasions I watch that because the people they deal with are so funny) Is it just me or are the cloths for men but ugly and girly(bit too floral) and for women look like they'll fall off you or it's some bad rip off of I dream Of Jeannies genie outfit? I use a backpack not a purse btw. Heels bite but then so do some of the flats(utterly uncomfortable). Though ok I think hip boots look cool but not sure they would on me and they must feel like hell to wear. My fashion statement is to have nearly all black pants, shirts from the 80's that aren't retro(yes I never gave them to chairty though did give away alot of cloths over the years), and to wear runners though they irritatingly seem to be some brittney endorsed product I got them because they were mostly black and slipon comfy.(ended up they periodically give me blisters... Dam that Brittney spears!)

You go girl on telling off politicians. I tend to as well which reminds me that one twit who believes church and state should be combined, hates gays, and is vocal that he's a knight of columbus I need to email the paper about and say exactly why he'll never ever have my vote. Btw that Anne what's er name. I hear it and don't know much about her but the name invokes a vision of a hair stylist or that canadian conservative mp whose a millionaire who defected to the liberals because they gave her a cabinet job.

I'd not make for a heartless bitch because I don't have the thick skin to handle criticism well. When I get hurt feelings they really are hurt... I do also tend to watch that I don't hurt most people I know. Though if they are jackasses and push me enough I do speak up.

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What passes for "fashion" usually is majorly silly. There are nine-year-old girls decked out like hookers cruising the malls. The guys look stupid with their pants creeping down their butts and those goofy damned boxer shorts they wear make the godawful patterned shirts from the '70s look tame.

I could scream in frustration at the idiocy in my country. We are dumping the "land of the free and home of the brave" for the "Homeland of Security and the fearful chickenshits". What's even more frustrating is that twerps like DR66 claim to admire personal freedom and responsibility all the while supporting the assholes who are trying to take away personal freedom and responsibility. Ah well, their hamsters don't quite make it through the Habitrail^TM.

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You know inside I scream "girl that just doesn't suit you" every time I see certain people wearing those belly showing nearly falling off your ass pants and skirts. I hate confrontation so I keep my mouth shut. By my gosh if it were my kid I'd not let them wear that. Some skinny people can't even carry it off and on certain age groups it's not cute it like "hello trying to attract attention of some sicko?" One girl I saw at the 7e was bigger than me, obviously shorter as she was only about 10, and wearing one of those let your big gut hang out and hope it doesn't fall off your ass micro minis. She looked like tv stereotype of "trailer trash" or hooker. She was walking their dog and in charge of some younger kids also getting treats.

Personally I wear what I'm comfortable with, I don't care if it's in fashion as long as it looks reasonable to me and it's durable. I like variety but frankly I find stores overkill. Not just for cloths but everything. I want to get in and get out instead of spending 20 min staring blankly at the shelf, rack or whatever trying to figure out which is the lesser evil. For my son I spent over an hour in the mens dept trying to get him something to wear for school leaving ceremonies. The pants weren't a biggie. Got him cargo mens dress pants. The shirt on the other hand... I had to try to find something that didn't look like it was attacked by hippies with miracle grow or that a cat didn't drag it's ass or puke on. Also disturbing were old women were shopping in mens for cloths because even they were horrified at the womans department. :P (yep it was walmart)

As for the US as a kid I'd of loved to of live there. I used to live there off and on visiting family in WA. But now I find it scary. I think many canadians do as we watch from the sidelines. Your country is breaking into two distinct halves and looks like it's being internally ripped appart by the two groups. The wanting to be safe is understandable but going to far to the point of alienating other countries because it's not so much what is done as how it is done. For canada we are having some like issues which is begining to tick us off. Small but powerful conservative group who have some backing of old thinking bible belt areas or old conservative people or bigots who hate so many non whites comming in... and we have the liberal half which doesn't seem to remember the bad aspects of unions or doesn't realize sitting there doing nothing will only make it worse. If conservatives ever took over here I'd want to move. Because my son being bi racial it wouldn't be good for him and as for myself I don't like gay bashing, throw their church(most often catholic and orthadox) in society at every turn, and race/minority group hate. They would gladly kill off all autistics, shove out all non whites or lower their role to keep each race "pure"... I don't want to live in a country with that. I've fought it but if not enough people fight it will infect us like some horrible illness causing all sorts of decay.

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kelli217.livejournal.com

I recently wrote a long email about this very topic...

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Well damn, woman, you can RANT!

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Oh, and I get pissed off about the expectation that I NOT carry a handbag. If I could find one sufficiently utilitarian, I'd tolerate all the homophobic asshattery, because I find that I have too much essential stuff for my trousers to look good. I need a handbag, or I look like I'm smuggling bricks in my pockets.

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...or are you just pleased to see me? If you need one, that's fine. I don't need one and I like the freedom of having both hands free. If I go to buy pants and they don't have sufficient pockets for my wallet, knife and keys, I don't buy them.

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I have a trick memory, but insufficient self-discipline to keep myself organised without the aid of a shiny thing that goes "feep". I therefore consider a PDA to be essential to me. The fact that it also plays games and has 802.11b capabilities is entirely irrelevant...

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is shaped like a back pack, and weighs at least 20 pounds. It's big enough to hold a water bottle and sneak food into the movies with. My wallet is the problem, though. Because I don't like to go out without my checkbook.

I think a utility vest like Niven's Pak wore would be more useful. And I could then carry one of my plethora of hammers with me at all times. (We have 15 of them at last count)

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I have to admit, I wore a bum-bag (known to much of America as a fanny pack, but I'm a Brit, so fanny does NOT mean the same) through most of my trip to LA, and found it pretty much essential. I also have a very retina-searing camera bag, that went with my hippy hair, before a spell as a corp-rat trainee forced a shearing (I suggested the barber give the New Zealand national TV a call, as it was about that time...). What I could really do with, though, is a Coat of Pockets - one of those wonderful trenchcoat-like affairs that have innumerable pockets, to the point that many of the pockets are over or inside other pockets, and the whole thing seems to turn spacetime into a kind of mush.

I used to have a sport jacket that had a pocket inside it large enough to completely conceal just about whatever I wanted in there. Up to and including the rough equivalent of the Sunday edition of the LA Times...

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when I played D&D... or I should say the character I roleplayed had one. She and I had difficulty separating both our personalities and our realities during that time.

I really want her broom though. It had more firepower than an F-16 (built in Fireball and Ligthning Bolt wands. And it was FAST)

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Sounds like fun.

Maybe my desire for that coat is just a desire to be the one person with EXACTLY the widget needed, no matter what...

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I have problems doing that in D&D too... it's hard for me to play characters that aren't very similar to my own personality. I just can't be in their face or dominant. So I usually chose bards.

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was in a college pick up game, and I didn't play the magic user for once, (I played a thief or maybe a Chaotic Neutral fighter, I forget exactly) I stabbed the magic user on the way back from the Cave of Spiders because he didn't use his sleep spell, and I was pissed because we had to fight our way out of the cave (and I got beat up badly). So I stabbed him. Unfortunately, he had really low hit points (hey! I didn't know!), so I killed him. Oops.

the fellow playing that character HATED me (me! IRL!) for the rest of the semester. Sheesh. He just rolled up the character, and we played for maybe 3 hours, max. I mean, don't get attached to your new characters, dude!

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I hate tiny wallets because I have cards, tons of change(due to canadian monitary system having coin $1 and $2), and bills... So those really tiny velcro like a mans wallets I hate. But I've got a small backpack purse thing that has two small exterior pockets. One has pads, other has business cards. It has a small interior one I stick meds in on occasion(like 2 pills say gravol and painkiller)... then the rest of the inside space I have my wallet, cheque book, some swedish candies, divol, cough candies, kleenex, nail file, lose change, etc... I can also stuff a bottle of pop in(355-500ml) or a novel and still have a little room. Due to my back stuff as it's a backpack it will stay on my back. Purses tend to fall off my shoulder and I don't know what it is but fanny packs aren't my thing.

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If you want a mens "purse" or handbag go to your local chinatown. They are very common in parts of asia. Some men here use fanny packs, book bags, or backpacks in purse form.

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I think I'll whine about it to Nola... On second thought...

I suppose it depends on whom you ask. I could call the people who used to be connected to the testicles that are now in a box in the basement and ask them what they think...

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That reminds me of my favorite Stephen King quote: "I have the heart of a little boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk."

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ex-theginge.livejournal.com

"Thank you for providing a place for us to shuck off our bras and swing our tits menacingly at a completely ratfucked society"

Rock. On. *thumbs up*

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Most excellent, Your Bitchiness! :)

Damn, I wish I could avoid Walgreens, but they're the only ones who carry some of the things MomCrowd needs. Have switched all her scrips over to someone else though, so maybe that helps....

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Even if you can't break totally free of them, depriving Walgreens and other pussy-assed pharmacies of any amount of revenue you would have otherwise spent there is valid protest. Maybe you could even enlist the help of the manager of the other pharmacy you go to. Tell him or her that you would prefer to spend your money at a store that doesn't have such a stupid corporate policy and ask if they can order the stuff that MomCrowd needs so that you can buy it there.

When I was talking to the regional manager at Rite Aid, he was extremely accomodating. He said that I could drop his name to store managers if necessary.

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Worth a try. We're using the hospital pharmacy (which I like very much); they don't carry much at all other than scrips and diabetic supplies. (They even have a hitching post out front, but I dare say, it's for the Amish and not for Wilford Brimley. )

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Weird I've not heard of hitching posts at most places. But reciently some tv show showed a walmart with hitching posts and buggy parking in amish country. I thought that intriguing. I didn't realize they shopped at regular stores as I figured they didn't like things made modern and perferred to make most of their own items.

Is a walgreens like a walmart or a grocery/dept store combo? If so then superstores are similar I guess... ours now has a womens exercise club in it too.

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Hitching posts are quite common anywhere there are Amish. And they shop everywhere everyone else does. They make a lot of their own items, but basic materials (think fencing, cloth, kerosene, etc) have to be purchased. Stores in Amish country tend to carry the things they need, as well as the usual wares we "English" need.

Walgreens are fairly typical US-type drugstores. They sell the gamut of products: prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and medical/health supplies, beauty and hygiene products, cleaning supplies, cards, candy and a smattering of groceries. Depending on the state, they'll carry a bit of beer and/or liquor too. Walmarts are much, much bigger.

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