If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

On a typical day, I am coming back at around 1:15 PM to work from lunch at my house and College Avenue is swamped with oblivious students with no regard for traffic or crosswalks: "Pedestrian right of way means I never have to stop walking! Look both ways? Pshaw!" I have even started across the intersection of College and 6th only to have a young lady step onto the crosswalk directly in front of me, forcing me to quickly halt in the middle of the intersection, blocking any other car from proceeding. Needless to say, I am not amused by this behavior.
So, today, I managed to leave the house earlier than usual and started cruising up College a bit before 1:05 PM. There were much fewer random Froggers, jumping out behind parked cars and bushes into my path, and the Intersection of Annoyance and Idiocy seemed rather clear as I approached. But wait, what's this---oh my god! It's a huge sandwich board with photos of aborted fetuses! Shit! They're on every corner!
"Choice is Abortion"
I don't know what the particular views of any of my readers are but this is my site for my opinions. I do not believe in any soul or spirit. I believe that all people should have the choice to do with his or her body as he or she chooses. I particularly believe that women should have the choice to birth a child or not. I do not believe that any women treat abortion lightly or treat it as some casual birth control. An abortion is a physically and emotionally destructive experience, I would assume, but can still be a preferable alternative to raising a child.
These apparent pro-life activists could be accomplishing much more in society by supporting women in these difficulties and working on programs to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It would be wonderful if no woman ever had to have an abortion but taking away her choice to do so is a inconscionable infringement on her freedom and her life. Realize that our common goal should be the safety and freedom of all members of society and support our fellow citizens in reaching that goal.
I don't think that my delving into personal beliefs on relative values of human lives, or lack thereof, is going to accomplish anything with anyone. So I will not. I suppose these corner activists were also hard to deal with in light of the first chapter of The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, which I had just read. Suffice it to say that my lunch of roasted vegetable soup was delicious.

• 2 small sweet potatoes
• 1 small white potato, thin skin
• 3 carrots
• 2 onions
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 can black beans, undrained
• salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes
• olive oil

Bake the potatoes at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.
Quarter the onions, chop off the ends of the carrots and skin the garlic.
Remove the potatoes and quarter them. Remove the skin from the sweet potatoes.
Arrange all the vegetables in a baking or roasting pan, grouped together but not piled up.
Lightly coat the vegetable with olive oil. Sprinkle on salt and black pepper.
Roast the vegetables, uncovered, in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes. Try to brown the vegetables without burning them. Adjust heat or use broiler as necessary. Flip the vegetables over after 15 minutes.
Remove the vegetables from the oven and place them into a blender with a little bit of water. Blend the vegetables until it looks like lumpy oatmeal, adding a little bit of water as necessary to smooth it.
Simmer the vegetable puree with the black beans over low heat until hot. Stir in salt and red pepper flakes to taste during cooking.