I was inspired to write about something important to me today. Here you go. 

Had I Chosen Not to Care

by Bailey Connell

There is something great approaching

And I heed the unaware:

What would come of opposition

Had I chosen not to care.

I’ve a friend whose life and spirit

Brought me closer to the hope

That my country thrives on freedom;

Not on chains, nor noose of rope.

In concordance, there is something

I can work each day to prove

That perhaps our Founding Fathers

Left a Rock for none to move.

Thus, I focus all my passion

And the talents I can muster

Into shining up the dusty rock

For those blind to its luster.

Through my efforts I would aim

To change hearts of the complacent

Who feed off self-entitlement;

Assume the right to be impatient.

I would show them how a free man

Gains from things he earns himself

And even though he’s not entitled

He can fill his pantry shelf.

This lesson buried in the rock

Our Founding Fathers knew

Someday the selfish would ignore

And some would hold it true.

And true to it, my country, hold!

Or be prepared to bear

Your conscience under God

If you still choose not to care.

A short story

So, it's been awhile! School has been keeping me busy, and that is definitely my priority, and will be my priority for the next few weeks....Also, the past couple of writings I've done have been run on Misfit Politics' website instead of here, so my blog has seriously slowed down. My apologies.

But! I have a special treat for you today.  Last night, the awesome Justen Charters (@justencharters on twitter!), founder of Resistance 44, randomly decided to rope me into writing a story with him.   We took turns writing the story in sequence, and, well, things got weird. Slash awesome. Here's the story in its entirety (with some grammar and spelling editing...it was late last night, and we aren't perfect, okay!?). I added our names at the end of segments so you know who wrote which parts. Keep in mind, this was completely impromptu, and I'm pretty sure both of us were kind of loopy from the late hours.  That being said, brace yoself...

When Happy Feet Meets Mel Gibson's Ransom Meets Rambo

[Yes, that's the actual title. Reader disgression advised.]
by Justen Charters and Bailey Connell

"Once upon a time... there was a penguin named Bob (Justen). Bob had a family: a wife, a bunch of little baby penguins, as well as an adopted baby squirrel, which he took in as his own son.

[Side note: I have no idea how this squirrell is surviving in the arctic...] (Bailey). The squirrel was wearing a 40 below fur coat, which kept him warm. But, one day, a rabbit named Frankie--the mafia rabbit of the Tundra--decided to kidnap the baby squirrel, whose name was Mufasa (Justen). Mufasa was scared and alone. In the mean time, Bob and his little troop of penguin friends sent out a search party, and they searched high and low for Mufasa! Mostly low, though, cause they're penguins. They can't fly (Bailey).

As they were waddling to and fro they came across half a carrot. Bob remembered his days as a detective for the Bureau Of Icelandic Investigation....This must be a clue he thought (Justen).  So he put on his gloves, careful not to get his flipperprints on the evidence, and placed the carrot in a plastic baggie. After a long day of searching, he went home to feed his family. As he sat down to dinner, the phone rang. When he answered, he heard "Hey, ya big ugly bird! I want 5,000 carrots by midnight tomorrow, or the little furball GETS IT!" (Bailey).

Bob sighed. He did not have 5,000 carrots to give. Would Frankie Cottontail take some fish instead? He held the phone up to his beak. "Will you accept fish instead? We penguins do not eat vegetables." Frankie replied, "Well I guess you will just have to find a way to get the carrots or your squirrel will become a appetizer for the seals." The phone went dead. Bob waddled up to his basement and pulled out a old chest covered in cobwebs. Sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty, he thought (Justen).

He opened the chest, and there lay his old bow and arrow, handed down to him from his father. Also, a half eaten peanut butter sandwich, which he promptly ate. He hoped he would never have to use it (the bow and arrow, not the sandwich) but he knew the day had come. He knew what needed to be done (Bailey).

He picked up the bow and arrow. He did not want to alarm the family, so he waited until night fell and than quietly waddled out the door. Bob's mission was simple: take out Frankie Cottontails two bodyguards and then Frankie would surrender. But he wondered if an arrow was strong enough to go through a snow leopard. He would have to find out how to best use the element of surprise. Bob walked for what seemed miles, then he came upon the mailbox at the private drive of Frankie Cottontail (Justen). 

All of a sudden, a wave of confidence flooded over him. He thought to himself, "I am a freaking PENGUIN...And I have a BOW AND ARROW! Nothing can stop me!" He then marched, point blank, right up to Snuggles the snow leopard, the body guard standing outside his Frankie's house. Knowing he wanted to save his single arrow for the true criminal, he did the first thing he thought of: He slapped Snuggles, right across the face with his bare flipper. Snuggles sat there in shock, while Bob waddled right past him into Frankie's home (Bailey). 

He opened up the door and then put on his penguin rocket propelled roller blades. If Snuggles came after him he would have a fighting chance now. He started down the hallway to a set of large open doors. It was then he saw it Mufasa in a bird cage. But Frankie he was no where to be seen (Justen).

Mufasa's eyes widened as he recognized his father enter the room, and his little claws clung to the bars of the birdcage as he cried, "DAD! RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" As Bob turned around, he saw (Bailey) Frankie Cottontail swing his sledge hammer. And Bob weaved and dodged the first swing. Again and again he dodged the hammer. Was he to do though? He needed a higher ground to fire the bow or some more time to prepare it and pull back the string. He looked high. He looked low.

There it was, the answer to it all (Justen). 

It was a CD labeled "Ron Paul speeches: throughout the years - 5 hrs. 25 minutes" Between Frankies swings of the sledge hammer, he managed to slip it in to the CD player and his play. The sound that eminated caused Frankie to immediately drop his sledge hammer and scream in what sounded like pure agony. He couldn't take it. He was completely immobilized....Bob now had his chance (Bailey).

Without hesitation Bob pulled out his bow, loaded his only arrow, aimed for in between Frankie's eyes and fired. He was never the best archer. The arrow missed by a mile. Luckily the Ron Paul cd was still playing. Bob would have to take him down hand to hand combat (Justen).

And as he raised his flipper to make the first strike, he saw the horror in Frankie's eyes. Bob had a change of heart. He then dragged Frankie by the neck over to the birds cage and thrust him in, while withdrawing Mufasa. He locked the cage, set the Ron Paul recording on repeat, and left the evil Frankie Cottontail there to rot (Bailey).

The End. "

From an Angry Catholic Woman

There are basically three things that you can do to earn yourself a permanent spot on my bad side:

1.       Tell me what I can and cannot do

2.       Make a mockery of my faith

3.       Step on my God-given rights, and the rights of my fellow Americans.

Mr. President—you’re three for three.

If you have been following the birth control mandate President Obama has been shoving down our throats, you may be aware that he caught Hell from the Catholic hierarchy (pun 100% intended).  For those who haven’t been following, let me give you the down low (the low down? The down load? Whatever, I’m just trying to be hip.):

 A few weeks ago, President Freebie decided that all hospitals and clinics, including Catholic Universities and Hospitals, must provide women with “free” birth control and emergency contraception.  Apparently, it’s preposterous to suggest that women buy their own birth control—or, Heaven forbid, close their legs!  Now, if you aren’t familiar with us caRAYzeh Catholics, we have a little *thing* about artificial birth control…. Basically, it’s a no-no. In response to this bold stomp on religious freedom, the bishops promptly sent out the message that “We will not comply.” Obama quickly altered his proposal to mandate that insurance companies cover birth control, instead; a “compromise” as he calls it.

So, the burden is off the backs of Catholics, right?!

Before we all suck in for that sigh of relief, let’s all take our reality pills:

*GULP*

Waaaaaiiit! Wait wait wait. So, if an employee of a Catholic institution demands free birth control drugs, and that institution’s insurance carrier is legally bound to cover these drugs, doesn’t that mean the Catholic institution is essentially subsidizing them anyway?!  HAH! You sneaky, sneaky president, you!  What a load of crap.

Want to know what especially ticks me off?  I am a single Catholic woman going to school to become a nurse. I am in no position to have a baby.  My birth control is a little thing called—wait for it—SELF control!  I know, I know…it’s a new concept.  Regardless, I am STILL going to have to pay a higher premium on my health insurance because it MUST cover birth control and abortion inducing drugs. 

Furthermore, let’s broaden the scope here: Since when does the president have the right to mandate that an insurance company cover ANYthing?  Come to think of it, when does the president have the right to demand that ANY company offer ANY product or service?!  This is a disgusting overstep of boundaries, and it’s been in the process for a long time. The progressive left has been sticking their dirty little paws into every aspect of our lives, from healthcare and education on down to our diets and how we raise our kids. 

Ladies and gentlemen, whether you are Catholic or not, I hope you recognize this birth control mandate for what it is; it is no longer the left tip-toeing their boundaries—rather, it is a mad grab for our religious freedom, and a door opener for them to snatch away any other Constitutional right they so choose.

Mr. President,
You are telling me what I must buy.
You have made a complete mockery of my faith.
And you are absolutely stomping on not only my rights; not only the rights of Catholic Americans; but the rights of every patriot in this country.

I have had quite enough. Now GET OUT.   

Pro-Life: not because the church told me to be, but because biology, ethics, and a little algebra led me there.

You know, it's hard being part of a stereotype. Ahh, the Catholic Irish girl; part of a big family, a "prude", rules rules rules, no hanky panky, yada yada yada...oh, and pro-life, of course.

Because of this, voicing my opinions often spawns eye-rolls and the proverbial pat-on-the-head kind of response from those who dissent. I know a lot of people--even friends I am relatively close to--don't understand the way I act and the views I hold. They laugh off a lot of the things I say because I just "do and believe whatever the church tells me."  Particularly, the abortion debate comes to mind.  

We've all seen the "keep your rosaries off my ovaries" sign-waving pro-choice women, and it annoys me to no end because it reminds me that we are making this WAY too easy for them.  So let's get to the point: I propose we take start taking religion OUT of the abortion debate. It's getting us nowhere, especially with those who aren't Christian. It's time we start laying down the cold, hard, sciency facty-facts to drive the pro-life message home.

(**DISCLAIMER** Before I proceed and my fellow pro-life Christians jump down my throat, I'd like to address the fact that I'm NOT discounting God's role in the pro-life movement.  As a Catholic, I believe abortion is a great evil, and to abolish it as a socially acceptable procedure will require prayers and God's assistance in order to change hearts. BUT. We need to lead people to this point of changing their hearts by making sure they understand logic and science. I don't think God has a problem with that. Holy crap. This is a long parenthetical disclaimer.)

I am now going to address the three angles I believe to be the best to use when confronted with the abortion debate: Biology, ethics, and algebra.

BIOLOGY:
I think the most teeth-clenchingly frustrating argument I hear from pro-choicers is that "we can't even say for sure when human life begins." First of all: this is false. And when you call them out on that, they will swear up and down that they are right. No. Any legitimate biology book and doctor will tell you that human life begins at conception. When the sperm penetrates the egg, new life is formed, which is an undeniable fact(y-fact). It's not alien life; it's not zebra life; and, thank sa-WEET baby Jesus--it's not polar bear life. Nothing can possibly come from that "blob of cells" besides a human. Ergo: human. life. period.  Once you finally pin them on this argument, they'll change the words "human life" to "personhood," which really is no good for them; they went from trying to defend abortion with a scientific term to defending it with a wishy-washy term that anyone can apply their own criteria to.  There are creep-o's out there who will argue that a 2 year old is not a "person." (Google that shiz, I'm serious.) Sorry, I'm not going there. If your pro-choice counter part is, good for them. Stop arguing with them, because they are so far gone you'd lose your mind trying to convince them of anything.

ETHICS:
Not morals, right? Heaven FORBID we use that term. I'm reminded every day by the left that we "cannot impose morals on others."  Well, actually, there are definitely morals that we, as a society, hold each other accountable to, which we tend to think of as ethical standards. The obvious one here is that it is morally wrong to kill innocent human life.  Of course, there are circumstances in life that require killing, such as war, but as a general rule the understanding is that killing is wrong (unless, of course, it is done to protect the innocent). As far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong, 'convenience' 'burden relief' and 'fairness' have never been socially acceptable excuses to take another human life.  We've already established that human life begins at conception, so why should we allow these excuses at any point afterward?

ALGEBRA KIND OF:

OK, so I'm not a math whiz by ANY standard. I can add in my head quickly? That's about it.

I'm really excited though because I finally found the word I've been looking for! (Thank you Google!) ASYMPTOTE! An asymptote is what I always picture in my head when people start talking about specific points in the pregnancy that they personally believe it is OK to kill a fetus.  Now, it's not a perfect analogy, but stay with me: 

This, is an asymptote. (Dear math geniuses, please avert your eyes while I attempt to explain this. It won't be pretty.) See how the curved line goes seems to slope down, but never quite touches the X-axis? Theoretically, this line will continue to slope downward infinitely, NEVER touching the X-axis. Now in my head, I think of the X-axis as the point of conception of human life. Pro-choicers tend to pick and choose different events that fall somewhere on this slope and say "THAT is the point where it is no longer OK to have an abortion."  The funny thing is, pro-choicers can't come to a consensus about what point that is; they all have a different spot they pick on the asymptote. And if they can agree that killing innocent human life is a really big deal, this makes it a big, dangerous gamble for them.....and you should tell them that!  Pro-lifers, on the other hand, can all agree that the asymptote will NEVER touch the X-axis, no matter how much pro-choicers want it to. You cannot undo conception.  Our solution? Don't draw the graph in the first place; i.e. don't get pregnant!

(Da-yeesh! I really hope that all made sense.....)

The points that I indicated on the graph obviously only represent a fraction of the amazing points of human  development that occur during a pregnancy.  In fact, doctors and biologist are constantly discovering more and more intricate details about human development that occur closer and closer to the moment of conception, including things about the nervous system and how the unborn experience pain. Now, doesn't this make us sound just a little naive when we use terms like "blob of cells"?

OK, I'm going to have to be done. Honestly, as I kept writing, I came up with about a hundred different angles to start arguing from....but I'd better stop. I hope at least one of these explanations/arguments will help you in your endeavors to pin down a pro-choicer in an argument. Then you could be like  "Ugh! Take THAT you stupid neo-feminist!" and they'll be like "Whaaa!!!! I just got facty-facted ::sad face::" and you'll be like "Yeah, the truth hurts, don't it, idiot?"  But you know, you really shouldn't be name calling. Also, that was completely improper English. Shame on you.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

For the first time, 100 per-cent brutally honest Bailey is coming out of her shell in blog form! Yaaaaaaaay?  Most of you have gotten nice, bite-sized chunks of what goes on in the mess that is my brain via Twitter--but here, I'm going to attempt organize it. Or something.

Let me answer a few questions that I imagine people who give two farts about what I think might have at this point.

Q: Why aren't you doing a VLOG? You do videos, right?

A: Yes, I do videos, but it's in your best interest to keep my videos to performing pre-written music and lyrics, where I don't have to speak off the top of my head.  As much I wish I were, I am not quick-witted; when I try to be, I tend to ...... er .....talk out of the wrong end.  If I wanted you to hear word-diarrhea, I'd refer you to a recording of one of Ron Paul's speeches.

Q: Whatchew finna blog about, gurrrrl? (<--I know I got some homies asking me questions, too. Just keeping it real.)
A: You can expect a fair amount of venting about political clowns, current events, and occasionally I might talk about what's going on with my music. I have lots of opinions and thinky-thoughts just DYING to get out! I'm always open to suggestions as well, so feel free to leave me comments or tweet me (@BaileyConnell) if there's a particular topic you'd like me to hit on. What NOT to expect from this blog: political correctness, and--uhm... well, that's about it! Everything else is pretty much up for grabs.

Q: What's your story?
A: Oh boy.

I'm the youngest of seven kids (let the Irish Catholic jokes commense!) and this is important for you to know; Being such, and as someone who feels compelled to get along with everyone, I've learned to hold my tongue. A lot. Everyone in my family has opinions, so there's never been much room to voice my own.  I moved to Iowa City to to attend the University of Iowa, where voicing any conservative opinion will earn you a verbal lashing from anyone within earshot. I spent 3 of my 4 years in that town with a "can't-we-all-just-get-along" attitude.

My senior year in 2010, I decided I'd spent enough time sitting down and shutting up. This was around the time the Tea Party started up, and Obamacare was being thrust upon us.  I started getting hacked off, and immersed myself in picking political facebook fights, the Drudge Report, protesting Planned Parenthood, and drunkenly peddling my views at bars on weekends.  Since then, I've never looked back. Having recently gained a decent Twitter following, I decided perhaps I might make a bigger    impact   dent  scratch(?) on the political sphere by starting a blog. Ergo...

Tah-dahhhh!??!

Q: Who's your GOP pick?
A: As far as I'm concerned, they ALL have something to prove to me yet before I start going all gung-ho with any endorsement.  Though I must admit, President Sweater-vest is looking pretttttty good to me at the moment.

OK one more question!

Q: Who the BALLS is  Buddy Roemer?!
A: Still: Nooooo clue.