A bit of advice.
Never, never, never, NEVER subscribe to a magazine with your real name. If you don't know this already, they profile it and sell it. To anyone you might share an interest.
Now, frankly, I don't mind so much that the Register has sold our name. I just drop those solicitations for every Catholic charity with a postage meter in the trash can by the front door, situated expressly for that purpose.
And my Parenting mag has sold my pseudonym to the March of Dimes and St. Jude's. I like the address labels, so it's... okay, I guess.
The problem comes when one has a change of heart. See, once upon a time, I subscribed to Ms. magazine. (Really.) It was back in my heady single-woman days, when they were completely subscription-supported and advertisement-free. I liked the international aspect of the articles, the support for abused women (not abusing, be nice). This was where I first read of honor killings and acid burns or dowry deaths. Yeah, more than 10 years ago.
Anyway, they went out of print for a while, then started selling ads to come back. I couldn't take it. The pages were filled with Planned Parenthood, NARAL, etc. ads and it made me sick. I really wondered if one had to be pro-abortion to be pro-woman and it didn't seem so. I've since found these folks and that helps.
So I just let my subscription run out. It's been a few years now and the brochures for environmentally-aware telephone service and suchlike have dwindled.
Until tonight, when PP called me by name on the phone and wanted to share John McCain's "real record about women's health."
I was polite. I didn't even interrupt the caller. I just informed her, "You're barking up the wrong tree, and have a good night."
[This isn't the first time I've gotten such a call. A few years ago, I got one about whether prescription coverage should be required to mean BCPs since it covers that magic little blue pill et al. I imagine her head is still spinning from my reply: "Well, women choose to need artificial contraception, men don't choose to need Viagra. But yeah, since the Pill is used for more than just that..."]
Labels: commentary, miscellaneous
3 Comments:
I'm so glad we changed our phone number.
See, I get stuff like that too. I had to unsubscribe myself from Credo's e-mails, because I considered getting their phone service back when they were Working Assets. I guess they had my name. The funniest part was that they wrote back and said "Are you sure you want to unsubscribe? You know that Credo is really Working Assets, blah blah blah..." I wanted to write back and say "Yes, actually I did know that, and I regret the day that I ever considered signing up for your Planned Parenthood supporting a**."
I like to read Commentary magazine (published by the American Jewish Committee), so when our public library dropped its subscription a few years ago, I subscribed for one year. Commentary is a rather conservative magazine, and has both writers and subscribers who are pro-life. But a Jewish pro-choice outfit got hold of my name & address and sent me an appeal letter about those evil anti-choicers endangering our sacred "right to choose". I wrote "Abortion is not a Jewish value" across the donation slip, and enclosed it in the postage paid envelope provided. I figured they didn't need to know that I'm a Catholic, and anyway, Pope Pius XI said that Catholics are "spiritual semites". Besides, I bet the vast majority of Jews who have ever lived would agree with me.
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