Are you a bug crusher or a bug relocater?
When I find a bug indoors, I try to relocate to the Great Outdoors if at all possible—especially spiders and moths and daddy longlegs (longlegses?), which are our three most common visitors. Even bees and wasps and houseflies I'll try to usher gently out the door or window.
Two exceptions: Ants and mosquitoes, who get smashed without compunction.
We don't get cockroaches, but I suppose if we did, I'd be highly unlikely to enter them into the bug relocation program, too.
Question of the Day
Quote of the Day
"You must charge something for the lemonade. That's the whole point of a lemonade stand. You figure out your costs—how much the lemonade costs, and the cups—and then you charge a little more than what it costs you, so you can make money. Then you can buy more stuff, and make more lemonade, and sell it and make more money."—Chicago Sun-Times columnist and pitiable person Terry Savage, who was "really set off" by "three little girls sitting at a homemade lemonade stand," who were giving away the lemonade for free. After railing about these wee commies for fifteen paragraphs, she notes, "No wonder America is getting it all wrong when it comes to government, and taxes, and policy."
It's Quite Amazing...
...that this entire story could be written into existence with nary a single use of the word "privilege" in its entirety.
Did I say amazing? I meant typical.
Fireworks and Shit
Happy Belated Independence Day, you collection of tree-hugging limousine liberals, pinko Commies, dope fiends, queerbaits, ladyboys, fat chicks, feminazi castrators, and assorted freaks. I know I'm three days late and fifty cents short as usual, but I blew off the tip of my index finger again and it took like nine years to find it and get it sewn back on and shit.
Anyways, I love the 4th of July. It's the greatest thing this country ever invented. Besides fireworks. I'll light the fuck out of a roman candle any day of the year, but on the Fourth I don't have to worry that one of the Boys in Blue dropping by for weed or ammo will get all officious on me and shit. One week before the damn Fourth, and I had to give away all my Pamela Gorman bullets to that goddamn pig Lance Butz so's he wouldn't write me up. Just because I was shooting bottle rockets at the Cooter twins across the road at the Gas n' Sip. Whatever.
When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of cherry bombs and would blow shit up with them all the time. Once I put one in the refrigerator in the garage and totally destroyed all of the old man's Coors. He was pissed. Ha! Good times.
Nowadays I can't even look at a cherry bomb on account of the way they remind me of my ex, Cherry. I dated her between me and my ex-wife/fiancée Tammy's second and third engagement between our first and second marriage. You know those crazy bitches that real funny stand-up comedians always talk about…? Like, "Women try to trap men by getting pregnant and buy lots of shoes and nag your ass about stupid shit?" Or whatever. I'm not a joke-writer. Anyways, that was totally Cherry. Which is why I bought this for the holiday:
[Image of box of fireworks called "Psycho Girlfriend" featuring giant red-haired woman.]
Check that shit out! It was pretty awesome, except for how the box is misleading. Buyer beware: A giant woman doesn't shoot out of it and stomp the fuck out of everything, but whatever. It was still pretty cool.
I also picked up this one too:
[Image of box of fireworks called "Dream Machine" featuring blond woman on motorcycle.]
I had to give my bike to some reprobate last year because of some shit-ass deal that went bad. Fucking hippies. This lady kind of reminded me of Cherry, too, which was a bonus. I almost didn't light it off, the picture was so sweet. It would have looked so good on the headboard of my waterbed, but you only live once. Plus, I had all this extra beer for the festivities and it didn't seem right drinking it without the fireworks. Not on the Fourth.
I got one other thing:
[Image of box of fireworks called "Evil Empire" advertising "shoots flaming balls."]
I fucking hate Saddam bin Laden. I wish they'd catch his ass and bring our troops home from Somalia already. So this Evil Empire set was awesome. Colors weren't very patriotic, though. Green? Green fireworks suck. What is this—France? HIGH FIVES!
I was really excited about the "flaming balls," though.
Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot. My ex-wife/fiancée Tammy's niece was over for the weekend and if you got kids I recommend this shit:
[Image of pink backpack stuffed with fireworks, labeled "Girl's Backpack."]
It's perfect for girls because it's pink and shit. And all the fireworks were called "friendship flowers" and "hello pussies" and junk like that, which girls are into.
For boys, just get 'em the regular fireworks. Otherwise, they might go gay.
[Previously by Butch Pornstache: Happy Taxes and Teabags Day, I'm a Proud Teabagger and Real American, Men and Trucks and Shit, Cats and Shit, Books and Cupcakes and Shit, Ron Swanson Kicks Butt, Dale Peterson is a Great American, I'm a Man and I Enjoy Mancations. Pamela Gorman is a Great American.]
Discussion Thread: Superhero MMOs
With regard to the earlier thread on Blizzard's latest WoW Fail, I asked Shaker Norbizness, who mentioned in comments he was "trying out different superhero mmos" and finding "the levels of freedom and customization are much higher," if he would be interested in providing a brief review by way of introduction to a Discussion Thread. Norbiz replied (which I am publishing with his permission):
My superhero mmos are basically City of Heroes/City of Villains and its successor, Champions online. From any sort of feminist/disability/heteronormative perspective, it suffers superficially from the same tropes that plague pen-and-paper comics. The thing that partially redeems it is the unbelievable level of customization for your characters; literally trillions of combinations with all body types, species, colors, and even robotic. As a result, Cryptic Studios (I have no affiliation with them apart from not wanting the game to die because of the WoW monopoly) has made it that you can create characters that transcend whatever norm there is. I'm fairly certain that it's a minor game compared to the number of subscribers Warhammer, Star Trek Online, and especially WoW have.I know there are a lot of Shakers who play superhero mmos (including Spudsy, who loves playing a supervillain), so please feel free to make your recommendations and add your reviews in comments.
DC Universe Unlimited is coming out in November, and I've seen the screenshots. If you didn't like Power Girl's and Wonder Woman's outfits before, the game is certainly no different on the surface from your typical DC comic. I will probably try it out in beta in the next couple of months and can tell you whether it offers the same opportunities for customization and individual experience that are lacking in many of the fantasy games.
For those interested, DC is rolling out their product here, and Champions online is here.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Liss' Big Fat T-Shirts.
Recommended Reading:
Resistance has an excellent follow-up to the Joel Stein trainwreck in Time we discussed last week.
Matthew on The Today Show's Opposite-Sex Couples Only Marriage Contest: Here and Here.
Sady: And Now, a Word from The Daily Show
Mo Pie: Fat Hygiene
Renee: Happy Birthday Frida, I See Your Pain
Chris: I don't see how this could possibly end badly.
Macon: Quote of the Week, from Paul Mooney
Leave your links in comments...
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
[Background.]
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Just Like Jesus Wanted
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a bill that will allow people to bring guns into houses of worship.
[The "gun-in-church" bill] authorizes persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force.Um. Okay.
To defend against whom, I can't imagine. Especially since the last bit of gun violence inside a church in the US that I recall was the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and, before that, the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, both of which were about conservatives seeking out progressives whose political views/actions they didn't like. And it ain't progressives who were lobbying for this law.
Jindal also signed some stupid shit—like a law outlawing "synthetic marijuana-like incense products"—and chipped away at Roe by signing into law a bill "requiring women to get an obstetric ultrasound before an abortion," which makes the implicit invocation of Dr. Tiller by the other law somehow that much more painful.
[Via.]
Guess Who Hates You
[Trigger warning.]
If you said this guy, give yourself a cigar slice of watermelon:
Gallagher? Whut? Huh? The guy who used to smash produce with a sledgehammer back in the Eighties? Yes, him. Now he smashes other things. More symbolic things. At a recent show in Washington:
Gallagher gets a tin pie plate. He opens a giant can of fruit cocktail and pours it in. He opens a can of some Asian vegetable — water chestnuts, maybe — and pours that in, too. "This is the China people and queers!!!" he screams and takes his sledgehammer to the thing with a fury that is no fun at all.What the fuck? China people and queers? Okay. So, who else is on Gallagher's shit list? The President, for one. "You ain't black. I don't care what you say — you're a latte. You're half whole-milk. It could be goat milk — you could be a terrorist!" He continues, "If Obama was really black, he'd act like a black guy and get a white wife!" Wow.
And if you have a tattoo, Gallagher doesn't like that either: "That ink goes through to your soul — if you read your Bible, your body is a sacred temple, you dipshit." I'm not sure what the Bible says about calling people dipshits.
Gallagher also doesn't like lesbians (I think): "There's two types — the ugly ones and the pretty ones."
And he really doesn't like trans folk. Especially fat trans folk. "People like Cher's daughter — figure that out. She wants a penis, but she has a big belly. If you can't see your dick, you don't get one."
Gallagher on foreigners: "Look around — see any Mexicans? Nope. They'll be here later for the cleanup." And: "[The French] ruin our language with their faggy words." Yes, Gallagher really hates fags.
He leans into it with the borderline-nonsensical, icked-out, ignorant glee of a boy — or the protest-too-much vigor of a GOP senator. Gallagher delivers your Bible verse for the day: "Without God, we are nothing but dust. What is butt dust? Is that what you get if your homosexual isn't properly lubricated?" He relates a story about spilling mouthwash onto his crotch during a show: "Lucky for me, there was no homosexuals in the area — 'cause my balls was minty fresh."Christ.
Back in the Eighties, Gallagher was pretty-much harmless (assuming you weren't a watermelon), but he's now moved into very dangerous territory. (The author describes a moment when the show "veers creepily close to white-power rhetoric: 'We're descended from an Anglo-Saxon Viking tradition!') There is no joke in smashing a plate full of veggies and saying "this is China people and queers." That's just hatred. Rage and hatred: visceral, primal. And dangerous.
[Cross-posted.]
Today in Fat Hatred
[Trigger warning for fat hatred and discussion of disordered eating.]
Apple is offering a great new app for the iPhone charmingly called FatBooth. The app allows users to turn headshots of thin people into fat people! Because fat people are hilarious, amiright?!
Naturally, the app doesn't say it only turns thin people into fatties, because the description assumes it's speaking only to thin people—or, as we monstrous non-human fatties are meant to think of them, just "people."
Tired of diets?! Get fat instantly with FatBooth (by the creators of AgingBooth, #1 Top Paid App in more than 25 countries). What would you look like with a "few" extra pounds? And what about your friends? Find out with FatBooth, a fun way to instantly supersize faces on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Use FatBooth on family, friends or colleagues photos and share them via email, MMS, FaceBook, Twitter.Won't it just be hilarious to harass your family and friends (and colleagues?!) by showing pictures of them all fat and shit?! That's comedy gold, baby.
Apart from the evident fat hatred implicit in treating fat people as objects of ridicule, inherently laughable simply by virtue of their appearance, the exhortation to "fatten" other people and publicly post pictures of them is wildly irresponsible. There are millions of people in the US alone with eating disorders, most of which aren't self-evident and many of which could be triggered by the unexpected receipt of a "fattened" picture of oneself. What uproarious fun to trigger a slim person who battles every day against binge eating; what a riotous jest to trigger a slim person who battles every day against a body dysmorphic disorder that causes hir to see hirself as fat when zie isn't.
The app description also includes the "Warning" that "FatBooth is a funny application made for entertainment purposes only and does not guarantee resemblance to the real fattening process." Leaving aside the idea that the mockery of fat people is "entertainment," I'd like to note that there's actually no such thing as "the real fattening process," or no one process.
Naturally, the makers of FatBooth only intend to make fun of those fatties whose "fattening process" happened via stuffing their fat faces full of fatty foods all fat day—never mind that making fun of fat people who got fat by stuffing their fat faces full of fatty foods all fat day is an indefensible position anyway, if one has even a rudimentary belief in free will, autonomy, and individual agency—and that they don't intend to make fun of those fatties whose "fattening process" was a result of disease, or disability, or treatment of one of the above.
But such distinctions cannot be made. Some of us are fat because we are lazy overeaters. Some of us are fat because we are disabled and cannot get enough exercise. Some of us are fat because we are ill. Some of us are fat because we ruined our metabolisms yo-yo dieting at a much lesser weight. Some of us are fat because we are on medication that causes weight gain. Some of us are fat because we self-medicate with food. Some of us are fat because we are trauma survivors who subconsciously (or consciously) use fat as a self-defense mechanism. Some of us are fat because we like the way it looks. Some of us are fat because of genetics. Some of us are fat because we just had a baby. Some of us are fat because we are poor. Some of us are fat for reasons we haven't even identified ourselves.
And FatBooth makes fun of all of us.
And further to the dehumanization and derision of fat people, it treats us all as one giant blobby monolith, who all get fat in the same way. FatBooth happens to "fatten" people in a way that looks like me, but not every fat person gets a double-chin and widened nose. Of the many things wrong with FatBooth, its failure to "fatten" well may seem a minor complaint—but it's indicative of how the makers of the app regard fatties not like individual people, but as a collection of silly attributes worthy of scorn and contempt.
Shaker Dr. Jan Itor emailed me about the app, noting: "I actually discovered it through Facebook, where one of my friends uploaded an album. … The 'friend' on Facebook included comments on each picture she uploaded about the person 'letting hirself go' and it being the result of 'eating too much cake!' Hardy har har."
I'm sure her fat friends find that just hilarious.
For the pleasure of "fattening" your family, friends, and colleagues, and turning fat people into a punchline yet again, FatBooth will cost you ninety-nine cents.
What she said: Women are not broken edition
Two weeks ago, Camille Paglia made a bunch of stuff up about why I'm apparently not having enough sex, and for some reason, The New York Times printed it. Yawn. I figured the whole mess was none of your damn business. Besides, Echidne wrote a brilliant rebuttal:
There is no evidence whatsoever that there is some new sexual malaise that 'appears to have sunk over the country,' and Paglia gives us exactly zero evidence on such a giant change happening over time or in the recent past. Neither is there any evidence that the 'overachieving white upper middle class' is somehow behind the demands for female viagra.Anyhow, I bring this up not so much because I care what Camille Paglia thinks, or because I think you should read Echidne (although, yes, I think you should). I bring it up because I just read a bunch of letters to the Times' editors, and now have a headache.
AFAICT, six of the seven authors seem to take it for granted that yes, female sexuality ain't what it used to be. After all, Paglia says so! In the Times! I shudder to think what these same letter writers think of David Brooks, who also says things. In the Times!
I had the pleasure of marching in the [video, audio may be NSFW] I Can't Believe It's Not A Dyke March! in Toronto this past weekend. I didn't have the chance pose the question "whatever happened to female sexuality" to the woman with the clown nose, duct tape covered nipples, and amazing (and huge!) "PERV" flag.* The same goes for the lady with the bikini made out of police tape. Or really, any of the fabulous women in attendance. It's just as well; I'm guessing since we're dykes, we don't really count.
Back to the matter at hand: humorless feminists. Hormones! OMFG hormones!!! Misplaced priorities. Death fat! Neglecting the role of fertility and reproduction in love making! (Again: Dyke March). Poooooooooorn!
In short, women, (and to a certain extent, *you* people) are DOIN IT RONG, just not necessarily for the reasons Paglia throws out there. Great. Just great.
Forget feminism 101, let's try some feminism 099. It's not credit-bearing, but the texts are cheap.
Women are people. People are individuals. Individuals vary. For example: not all women experience sexuality the same way. Not all the middle class white ones, not even all Latina and Black women. (Really, Camille Paglia, you thought you'd slip that in without 1 out of 7 letter writers calling you on it? Okay, that one letter is probably precisely why you slipped it in.)
Feminism? It's not the problem. Nor is having the wrong approach to sex. Indeed, last I checked, many feminists and womanists (the ones I agree with) posited that there's not a single correct approach to sex and sexuality. And our bodies? They're fucking fabulous. Fat or re/un/mis-hormoned, or whatever the fuck you're talking about. It could, indeed be, that some women are stressed and tired, and therefore experiencing some sort of sexual malaise, but gah! Please. Stop. Projecting.
Let me give a special shout out to the Times for making this all possible, because really, I only see three worthwhile responses to a column so willfully absurd. You could ignore the situation, you could quote Molly Ivins and refer to the column as compost, or you could write the Times to remind them that print is dead and column space is precious. None of these tactics is likely to get a letter printed in the gray lady. Thus, we're left with what appears to be serious debate on why women are broken. Again, thanks.
Remind me to save this post for the next time some pundit says something bizarre about what's wrong with women, and the public uses it as an excuse to discuss all of the other things that are really wrong with women. It should be happening in three, two, one...
--
*I am so going to get a little plastic version of this to put on the SUV that I'm going to buy just so I can drive around with my little flag on top.
Way To Go, Spidey
[Image of sign reading "No Feet On The Walls Please".]
Had to ruin it for everyone, didn't you?
(See also.)
Question of the Day
Nicked from the Wall Street Journal: Would you buy an electric car if you had ample access to charging stations?
Sure. Yes. Absolutely.
Titanic 3D Coming in April 2012:
Last we heard, James Cameron and Fox were targeting the "spring of 2012" to re-release Titanic in 3D. Thanks to Ministry of Gossip [via /Film], we now know that the spring month in question is April. The news was mentioned in a tribute to Gloria Stuart, who played "Old Rose" in the film and celebrated her 100th birthday on July 4th. April 2012 marks a centennial anniversary of its own, as the Rms Titanic attempted to traverse the Atlantic from April 12-14, 1912. In addition to the historical timing, the intended month of release (nearly two years away) gives Cameron and Co. plenty of time to perfect the finer details of the 3D conversion.Definitely. This. Lots of money for this.
New Suede Gigs Announced
After reforming earlier this year for a benefit show, the Founding Fathers of Britpop return with more shows this fall:
Smukfest, Skanderborg, Denmark, 7 August 2010See ya there!
Parkenfestivalen, Bodo, Norway, 21 August 2010
Elysee Montmartre, Paris, France, 28 November 2010
Cirque Royal, Brussels, Belgium, 29 November 2010
Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden, 1 December 2010
Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2 December 2010
Huxleys, Berlin, Germany, 3 December 2010
The O2 Arena, London, England, 7 December 2010
[Cross-posted.]
WoW Fail
by Shaker everstar
[Trigger warning for stalking/violation of privacy.]
One of my favorite pastimes is about to do something incredibly, incredibly stupid and dangerous.
Okay. I play World of Warcraft, and I enjoy it ridiculous amounts, and recently they implemented an in-game system where you can give out the address associated with your Warcraft account to other people and they can see your real name. Which not everyone is crazy about, but it's optional, so it's not an involuntary invasion of privacy. Also there are some benefits: You can talk to people when they're playing their opposing side characters, and also when they're on a different realm than you are. So there's a trade-off.
But today, Blizzard, the company that owns WoW, announced that they would implement this system, the RealID system, in their public forums. That means every post you make will have the name linked with your account published. On a public forum. Where everyone can see it. If you want to ask a question in their Customer Service forum, if you want to post a Bug Report, if you want to talk to other people in your realm, the name associated with your account will be displayed. And it's supposed to be your real name.
You can't turn it off. You can't opt out. You can't opt to have only your first name displayed, or a nickname. It's your real name.
There are people who've moved servers to get away from people who were stalking them on other servers. There are a lot of women players who hide behind male avatars to avoid being harassed. Where are they going to go?
They're even going to force this on their Game Masters, who are required to live in one of two cities to do their jobs. So now the Game Master on the forum who told you that thing you didn't like…? Google hir name around Irvine, CA or Austin, TX, and you just might find hir.
I hasten to clarify that this hasn't happened yet. It's supposed to happen around the time they roll out the new expansion, which rumor says will happen around October or so. So we've got time to get it through their heads that they should absolutely not do this. Shakers, let us work our teaspoons to spoon some sense into Blizzard.
Contact Blizzard Entertainment here.
Or contact via snail mail at:
Blizzard Entertainment
Attn: Mr. Mike Morhaine, CEO
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
On the Dutch Elections, Part Two
by Shaker Glauke
[Part One can be read here.]
On June the 9th, the Dutch elected their new parliament. The new MPs are officially installed. But more importantly: There are indications that the new government isn't going to be all that bad. Spoiler Alert: Geert Wilders' Freedom Party is out of the current round of negotiations.
Holland has a multi-party system. But because we have always had substantial minorities—in contrast to, for example, Denmark—we've never experimented with minority governments. Instead, we build coalitions, that make negotiate a "regeerakkoord" or governing agreement. It's not perfect, but it works. Well, it usually works.
The coalition-building is done in two phases—the information and the formation. In the information phase, the party leaders discuss their preferences, and perhaps their "absolutely not" with the informateur. There is no real translation for informateur, but he is appointed by the queen as a go-between for the parties. When there is an agreement, one or more formateur(s) is or are appointed to look for the ministers and junior ministers to form the government.
Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of developments.
First of all, the VVD and Freedom Party seemed to want to form a government. That required a third party, so they looked to the Christian Democrats (CDA). CDA members are deeply divided over the question whether they should govern with the Freedom Party, for all the obvious reasons.* Additionally, CDA has lost almost half their votes, so they're not very eager to join the government. Thirdly, even if Freedom Party and the VVD agree on immigration (against), development cooperation (against), more police in the streets (in favor), and fewer civil servants (in favor), they differ hugely on socio-economic issues.
So, CDA MP Maxime Verhagen decided it would be better if VVD and the Freedom Party work out their differences before CDA joins the negotiations. Weird, from a team-building & negotiations perspective. Geert Wilders didn't want to start negotiations without CDA. Net result is a right-wing coalition is off the table.
Which means that Purple Plus is back on! Purple Plus is code for Purple (VVD, Social Democrats and D'66—the LibDems Dutch cousins if that helps) Plus GreenLeft. Which hurts like hell for VVD, because they have to work with more progressive and more left wing parties. I'm really not sure how it will work out for the Greens. I mean, we've casually tossed the notion of governing with the VVD having drinks after a party convention, but actually doing it... feels... weird.
Monday, the queen has appointed two informers, one Labour, one VVD. They have started negotiations today. Without the Freedom Party. It's not a done deal, but it seems this country is not going down the drain just yet.
Also: The Dutch football squad beat Brazil 2-1 and is playing Uruguay tonight.
---------------------------------
* Most importantly, the Freedom Party is racist, and wants out of the EU. But the Christian Democrats may also have their doubts about the governing skills of the Freedom Party: There is no internal party democracy, so there are no obvious candidates for the ministerial positions outside of the MP candidates list. Finally, it has been argued that because of these things, governing with the Freedom Party violates the party's basic principles.
Daily Dose o' Cute
By request, here is some video of Dudz at the dog park—with some bits from home, too—over the holiday weekend. Set to Blur's "Song 2." For those who can't view the video, there are a pair of still shots below the fold, at the end of the post.
By way of update on Dudley's progress, he is getting increasingly playful both at the dog park and at home, evidence of which you'll see in this video, if you've been following his story. He almost gets tennis balls now, at least for chewing on, but still greets our throwing them with a quizzical look cut with a cold streak of indifference, as if to say, "Call me when you can throw it at 50 miles an hour."
When Iain comes home from work at night, Dudz gets so excited he can't contain himself. When Iain goes upstairs to change clothes, Dudz runs around in a circle in the living room and I say, "Oh, Dudz! You're gonna be in big trouble!" and I slap my knees with my hands and he falls to the ground in a spring-loaded crouch. I jump toward him, and he leapfrogs from one side to the other, still in a crouch, which makes me laugh uproariously. At which point he runs around in a circle again. "Oh, Dudz! You're gonna get it, you bad boy!" Back to the crouch. And on and on until we are both panting, and Dudley's tail is wagging furiously and I am a heap of giggles.
He's also become a ridiculous snugglepuss, leaning on me whenever he wants attention, and rubbing his face and the length of his body along my legs like a giant cat. He frequently lies on our feet, and he loves kisses on his velvety head (but not as much as TREATS!!!eleventy!). A couple of times a day, I get on the floor with him for a cuddle, and he twists himself around and flips onto his back, putting his big, pink belly in the air for scratches.
He was just at the vet on Friday for a booster shot and a check-up, and he's gained seven pounds, and now weighs a respectable and healthy 75. His hip bones don't show anymore, and he's less muscle-bound and more flexible, able to turn in tight spaces much more easily than he could when he first came to us.
And he's increasingly independent in the house. The first few days he was here, he liked to nap inside his crate; it was his safe space, and we left the door open for him, so he could retreat there whenever he felt overwhelmed with his new circumstances. Then, for a good month, he liked to nap wherever I was. Now, he spends some time with me, and some time up in the loft with the girls, where the sunshine streams in through the skylights. Right now, all four of them are up there together, dozing away, each with an ear open for the distinctive rustle of a treat bag.
Shaker Gourmet: Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeños
There are about 35,671 versions of these on teh internets. They are so good, even just as a concept, that it's probably worth it to try all of them.
Yesterday we hosted a shindig and I made these. It's a good thing everyone arrived when they did or else I may have eaten the whole platter before anyone else had a chance! Anyway, this is how I made them:
They're delicious and I'm craving more. LOLBacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeños
A dozen fresh, medium sized jalapeño peppers
one & a half pkgs of cream cheese
one clove elephant garlic (or about 4 regular cloves)
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
thin sliced bacon
latex or plastic gloves
-- Wear latex or plastic gloves when handling all these peppers and their insides. Halve, lengthwise, the peppers and de-seed/de-rib them (if you like it HOTTT, leave in some seeds). If you don't like it HOTTT much at all, you can soak the halved peppers in cold milk for about 10 minutes OR drop them into boiling water for a couple minutes. Drain, dry (and/or cool) before stuffing. Both methods are supposed to reduce the heat factor (though I have not done either).
--Cut the cream cheese into smaller blocks. Put in bowl of food processor. Cut the garlic into chunks and also put in with cream cheese. Add a bit of the salt & pepper (about 1/2 tsp salt). Process until the garlic is totally minced into teeny bits and worked into the cream cheese. If the cream cheese mix is very soft (more like "saucy"), then put it in the fridge for 10 - 15 minutes to harden up a bit.
--Cut the package of bacon in half, down the middle (so you're cutting all the bacon in half). Put on some new gloves. Spoon some of the cream cheese mix into each pepper half, filling it nice and full but not overflowing. Wrap a halved piece of bacon around each one. Secure with tooth pick, if necessary.
--Grill over medium heat until bacon is crispy. OR bake at 375 for about 25 minutes. If baking, put peppers on a rack inside the pan so the bacon grease will drip down. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.
I did make a vegan version for a guest that was very similar--just used Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese and mixed it with garlic, salt, & pepper. No bacon, of course. Very easy and also turned out tasty!
Quote of the Day
"The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it. The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you." — Prince (AKA The Artist Formerly Known As Prince AKA The Artist AKA Unpronounceable Symbol), on why he closed his official website.
[Cross-posted.]
More From Krugman — He's Just That Good
While Corporate America, owners of the Republican Party, conduct their delicate dance of funding and promoting the latest incarnation of the Know Nothings in the form of Tea Partiers, while continuing to support their own unfettered access to the labor of undocumented immigrants kept in a legal limbo which makes them easy to manipulate and mistreat, their takeover of the Democratic Party proceeds apace.
Paul Krugman (smart guy! they even gave him a prize for it) notes in his blog that George Stephanopoulos said today on Good Morning, America that an official of the Obama White House told him "what we need to get businesses investing is for business to know that the government has stopped".
In particular, Krugman interprets this to mean, stopped spending and stopped regulating business, which seems to cover everything beyond imprisoning people and fighting wars. In short, Rand Paul's lifelong wet dream *(as long as the government continues to regulate women's bodies, and who among us doubts they will?)
Krugman points out that this is "garbage", while also noting that administration economists know it's garbage. But apparently on the political side of the Obama White House are those who fully support the Corporate Republican position that President Obama's job is to make them happy, and that he must do so by using his control of the U.S. government to halt its functioning.
There may be one thing this administration has been spectacularly successful at — sucking all the meaning out of the words 'hope' and 'change'.
*Edited to note the one regulatory function which neither Paul nor the Obama White House seems willing to give up.
lolsob
Last weekend I was in Toronto for an *amazing* queer roller derby event, loosely affiliated with Toronto Pride. My teammates and our hosts put a lot of work into bout production, what with the 5-foot high vagina and everything.
There was one rough spot, though. We were expecting hundreds of unsuspecting people to come out to this queer, pride-affiliated event, and the dj desperately needed to know what music we could play to aid in our recruitment efforts. The Allman Brothers? Peaches? Kansas? Finding music that could prove a gateway-to-gayness was a lot of work.
Fortunately, one of our ringleaders found [Trigger Warning: Homophobia] an amazing resource. You should really check it out. It's quite insightful hilarious tragic hateful (ETA: and also made up).
Another teammate pointed out that the same site also has a [TW]"Powerful tool" that can aid in your quest to avoid the hellish hellfires of hell. Cyndi Lauper tops the list of purifying acts, something that proved, uh, convenient?Reparative therapists: we're not even trying.
---
ETA: As Deeky points out, Donnie Davies is totally a hoax, something that raises a bunch of questions that have undoubtedly already been discussed on the internet. Why is it that such a bizarre character resonates with some of us as an earnest person? Is someone out there making money off of this?
There were people saying things on the internet, and I wasn't told? Damn.
Caster Semenya to Return to Racing
Caster Semenya, the South African teenager who won the 800-meters at the world track championships so decisively last August that she was asked to undergo gender testing, and who was eventually allowed to keep her title and her gold medal, thus having rendered pointless the international invasion into her privacy and her very body, has been cleared by the International Association of Athletics Federations to return to competition, effective immediately.
The 19-year-old South African was sidelined for 11 months after undergoing gender tests following her 800-meter victory at the world championships last August.I am pleased that Semenya is being allowed to return to racing. I remain angry that she was ever required to stop in the first place.
The International Association of Athletics Federations said Tuesday it accepts the conclusion of a panel of medical experts that she can compete with "immediate effect."
The statement adds that medical details of her case remain confidential and the IAAF will have no further comment on the matter.
I could spend the next two hours detailing the many outrages of the invasive, coercive, exploitative, and flatly unnecessary gender-policing that went on in regard to Semenya, but instead I'm simply going to highlight a brilliant and incisive comment Shaker Rhiain left in a previous thread that gets right to the heart of the matter (emphasis mine):
There has been quite a bit of speculation about just what elements of [Michael Phelps'] physiognomy allowed him to be such a fast swimmer, but even those folks who are saying "he's fast 'cause he's a freak" are saying it in a good way; lucky him that his body is "weird" in a way that allows him to be so awesome at the sport he loves.Which makes for this rather bitter irony: There is, perhaps, no better evidence of Semenya's womanhood than the fact a year has been spent hand-wringing over her womanhood.
He essentially won the genetic lottery, because male bodies are coded as functional in our society, and Phelps' body allows him to be extra-functional. Semenya, who also won the genetic lottery* in a way that allows her to be awesome at the sport she loves, has the misfortune to exist as a gender that is coded for ornamentality rather than functionality, and therefore extra functionality is seen as cheating.
*Of course, she has won a lottery that sure seems to have made her life up to this point difficult and, now, carries dangerous implications for her personal safety. I'm not really asserting that she's coming from a position of privilege here.
Photo of the Day
Monday, July 5, 2010: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toasts in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia. Hilary Clinton is on a Caucasian trip visiting post-Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Clinton has rebuked Russia for failing to live up to the cease-fire agreement it signed nearly two years ago to end the fighting in this small former Soviet state.(I loooooove this picture.)
They're Hungry
Tom Colicchio already had me at kitchen feminism, and now he's just spoiling me:
More recently, my wife [filmmaker Lori Silverbush] started mentoring a young girl from Brooklyn and she would come to the house and she would eat and then she'd say "Oh, I'm full. Can I bring this home?" And we realized what she was doing; she was bringing it home for her siblings.They're hungry.
When food stamps run out halfway through the month, these kids are hungry. And they're fed sweetened juice water, just to put something in their stomach; it's not nice.
…We had a Major General who testified that forty percent of new recruits going into the service fail out because they're obese. It's not from overfeeding. This is what people don't understand: obesity is a symptom of poverty. It's not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not exercising. It's because kids - and this is the problem with school lunch right now - are getting sugar, fat, empty calories - lots of calories - but no nutrition.
…And they're hungry, they're eating more cheap food.
In 2005, 12% of USians, 35 million people, were unable to put food on their tables for at least part of the year, and 11 million of them reported going hungry at times. It's only gotten worse, as joblessness has become more widespread and unemployment benefits run out. Access to nutrient-rich food is a class issue even in the best of times, and these are not the best of times.
The "war on obesity" is largely a class war, and the more we uncritically repeat narratives about laziness and lifestyle and pretend the primary solution to all childhood obesity in particular is increased activity, the more profoundly obscured is this simple fact: They're hungry.
(Which is to say nothing of the other issues we may be obscuring.)
Thanks to Chef Tom for the ray of light.
Question of the Day
What's your favorite food cooked outside, be it via an imu or lovo or hāngi or clambake or other earth oven, a tandoor, a grill or barbecue pit, a spit, a solar cooker, a kettle boil, a skewer over a campfire, or some other method altogether?
Daily Dose o' Cute
Dudley
Sophie
Olivia
Matilda
Monday Blogaround
Today's blogaround is brought to you by Matilda McEwan, maker of The Look. The Look: it says all that really needs to be said.
Historiann: Stars & Stripes Forever: Marla Miller’s Betsy Ross and the Making of America
GarlandGrey at Tiger Beatdown: Fond Memories of Vagina: Martin Amis’ The Pregnant Widow
Southern Fried Science: Bonehenge – Community action in science outreach
Neuroskeptic: XMRV and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Continued (Again)
Grant Jacobs: XMRV prompts media thought: ask for the “state of play” (Via Ed Yong)
BeckySharper at The Pursuit of Harpyness: Real American Art
Sujatha at Accidental Blogger: Freedom on the Fourth?
Michael Le: An Open Letter To Racebending.com Detractors. (Note: Le minimizes the problem of gender-based inequality in media when he writes, "In the states, we find it very easy to fight the gender stereotypes [kids] may be exposed to." However, he responds well to the issue in comments. So, read the comments!)
Susan Orlean: Hash
Laila Lalami: The Beautiful Game
Share your links in comments!
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
(Taken from an actual conversation Deeky and I had yesterday...)
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Today in no, not really
You may have heard that the Republicans are still *totes* concerned about budget deficits, the future, the children, wev...
Indeed: What. Ever.
I was a nerdy political kid in the 80s, and the biggest thing I heard over and over and over again was about how the US needed to invest bazillions of dollars in the disinterestedly-named Strategic Defense Initiative, which as far as I can tell was a bunch of cartoons lifted from sci-fi literature. (Seriously, the Wikipedia entry contains like, three potential Floyd album covers.)
And then there was Iraq. And then Iraq again. And also Afghanistan. And of course, our government's efforts in Latin America (and really, *everywhere*) that were the organic herb-infused Aïoli on the massively over-priced sandwich that's been American foreign policy since before I was born.
What I'm saying is this: Your newfound concern about the deficit? I'm not buying it.
Whenever it's time (and really, when isn't it time?) to provide social services to working Americans (including, interestingly enough, veterans), there's not enough money. Whenever multi-national corporations have interests that need defending, whenever there are resources in the Global South, it's loans ahoy!
The bigger question is: why is nobody with power calling the Republicans on this? It's hardly as if I've hit on some sort of super secret pattern here.
Shaker Help Request
Hulloo, Shakers far and near, I address myself particularly to those among us who are living in Portland (the West Coast one, in OR).
For the last four months, a friend of mine (I'll call her A) has been staying with me; she came to Canada from the US to be with her partner, but the partner turned out to have some interpersonal issues which made the relationship unsafe for her. She stayed in a shelter a bit, and then moved into my library/guestroom. She's got to go back to the US now, and has chosen Portland as her destination (she's from New England). As you might expect in the situation, she's not over-blessed with the dinero at the moment, for reasons I won't go into in a public post. Suffice to say, she's been working, but not at such a rate as to be able to save much.
She's already gotten onto the waiting list for a homeless shelter there, but it'll be anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months before the spot comes open (really, it should be a couple of weeks, based on the way the list has moved so far, but I want to be conservative in estimating, if in nothing else in my life).
The help she's requesting is that she needs somewhere to lay her head of an evening, as a bridge between arrival and getting through the waiting list at the shelter. She expects to find work fairly quickly after arrival, because she has a skillset which is generally in-demand all over the continent.
If anyone knows of where A might find shelter in this bridge period until the shelter spot opens up, you'd have my deep gratitude.
I can vouch for her personally; I've known her online and sometimes in person for several years, and found her to be completely trustworthy. Shaker Rikibeth also knows her quite well (for over 20 years, she tells me), as does Shaker differentdrummer (both shared a house with her some years ago) and possibly some others among you (my local friends).
A's a reader here, rather than a commenter, but she's definitely our kind of people. I can be reached at this e-mail, if you would like to respond privately to me.
Guess Who
Do you know whose platform this is? Excerpts:
We shall ever build anew, that our children and their children, without distinction because of race, creed or color, may know the blessings of our free land.Have an idea yet? Some more clues:
We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.
We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.
[...]
We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations.
[...]
The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.
America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.
Government must have a heart as well as a head.
Courage in principle, cooperation in practice make freedom positive.
[...]
Business and Economic Policy
We shall continue to advocate the maintenance and expansion of a strong, efficient, privately-owned and operated and soundly financed system of transportation that will serve all of the needs of our Nation under Federal regulatory policies that will enable each carrier to realize its inherent economic advantages and its full competitive capabilities.
[...]
Labor
...[C]ontinue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:
Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers;
Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
...[P]rotect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy...
[...]
Health, Education and WelfareIf you guessed The Republican Party Platform of 1956, you are correct!
...[T]he physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the people is as important as their economic health. It will continue to support this conviction with vigorous action.
[...]
...[L]eadership has enlarged Federal assistance for construction of hospitals, emphasizing low-cost care of chronic diseases and the special problems of older persons, and increased Federal aid for medical care of the needy.
We have asked the largest increase in research funds ever sought in one year to intensify attacks on cancer, mental illness, heart disease and other dread diseases.
We demand once again, [...], Federal assistance to help build facilities to train more physicians and scientists.
We have encouraged a notable expansion and improvement of voluntary health insurance, and urge that reinsurance and pooling arrangements be authorized to speed this progress.
We have strengthened the Food and Drug Administration, and we have increased the vocational rehabilitation program to enable a larger number of the disabled to return to satisfying activity.
We have supported measures that have made more housing available than ever before in history, reduced urban slums in local-federal partnership, stimulated record home ownership, and authorized additional low-rent public housing.
We initiated the first flood insurance program in history under Government sponsorship in cooperation with private enterprise.
We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system.
[...]
Immigration
...[S]upports an immigration policy which is in keeping with the traditions of America in providing a haven for oppressed peoples, and which is based on equality of treatment, freedom from implications of discrimination between racial, nationality and religious groups, and flexible enough to conform to changing needs and conditions.
We believe that such a policy serves our self-interest, reflects our responsibility for world leadership and develops maximum cooperation with other nations in resolving problems in this area.
[...]
Recreation, parks and wildlife.
We favor a comprehensive study of the effect upon wildlife of the drainage of our wetlands.
We subscribe to the general objectives of groups seeking to guard the beauty of our land and to promote clean, attractive surroundings throughout America.
We recognize the need for maintaining isolated wilderness areas to provide opportunity for future generations...
As a whole, it's certainly not a perfect/progressive platform (tax cuts! tax cuts! rah! rah! rah!), of course, but my, how things have changed, eh?
Open Thread
Hosted by a Sigg water bottle.
This weeks' open threads have been brought to you by people and things I chose completely at random.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Breaking News
RNC Chair Michael Steele is still a complete dodo.
[The Afghanistan War] was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in. ... It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.For the record, the war in Afghanistan started in 2001, when Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois.
Decent Vizzini impression, though.
Daily Dose o' Cute
"Are we going to dog park? CAN we go to the dog park? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE?
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG PAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!!!"
Random YouTubery for the Losties
(Not That You Have to Be a Lostie to Enjoy It!)
I made it to "Sun and Jin's Theme" before I started blubbing all over the place.
Elena Kagan and Flagg 2.0
Ret. Army Capt. Flagg Youngblood (namesake of this guy?) was invited by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan yesterday. He had a bitter tale to tell.
A tale of discrimination, of being treated as less than, of being deemed "not worthy to do so much as to gather up the crumbs under Harvard’s table", of being permitted to participate in the bounty that is this nation, or at least Harvard, only if he stayed in the kitchen, in his place by the back door — "by the garbage."
Who imposed this despicable treatment on Capt. Youngblood? Well, ok, not on him exactly. But though Youngblood was not himself the victim of the shameful treatment he described, as military outreach director for Young America's Foundation, he feels the pain of those who were: members of the U.S. military — in a time of war!
Who is the villain who wielded her power in this iron-fisted way to diminish, humiliate and lessen the opportunities of her fellow citizens? Elena Kagan, that's who. While Dean at Harvard Law School, Kagan denied military recruiters access to the school's career services office, for a time, in keeping with established University policy, while nevertheless permitting them complete freedom to recruit among the School's students.
The policy did not actually single out the military for discriminatory treatment. It prohibits only helping in their recruiting efforts any employer which discriminates on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or other factors. The military is such an employer by virtue of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law.
So — technically — Kagan was acting in support of non-discrimination. But that's no excuse, as far as Youngblood is concerned. Illustrating the hardship military recruiters had been put to in not having the use of the career services office as they freely went about their recruitment efforts on campus, Youngblood invoked the plight of African-Americans in the days of legal segregation.
"Imagine Dean Kagan on a lunch counter," he said. Oh, damn. Wait . . imagine what? Well, never mind that. The essential point, as Youngblood pointed out, is this:Separate but equal is, quite simply, not equal.
And when you deprive military recruiters of the fundamental human right to use the Harvard Law School's career services office, for no better reason than the fact that you "abhor the military's discriminatory recruitment policy" believing it to be "a profound wrong — a moral injustice of the first order", you violate that basic, well-established principle.
Why is that so hard for someone like Elena Kagan to understand?
Perhaps because some who don't respect members of the military as full members of society are willing to overlook her discriminatory ways. People like Capt. Kurt White, head of the Harvard Law Armed Forces Association, who was a veteran and a student at Harvard while Kagan was Dean. White testified Kagan had been supportive of student vets at the school, and in doing so had "made a big difference in the lives of the small group of us veterans."
White's appreciation of the importance of equality for all may be suspect in some quarters, however, as he was testifying at the invitation of Democratic members of the committee. Another such invitee was Lilly Ledbetter.
Said Ms. Ledbetter of her own struggle for equal treatment, "I learned who is on the Supreme Court makes all the difference."
I Guess I Didn't Get the Memo
...that bashing Indians is now not only acceptable but THE BEST! humor for mainstream publication (or broadcast).
Seriously, Time? This is pathetic. Everyone knows (or should know) by now that Joel Stein is a useless jerk whose useless jerkitude is evident in every syllable of the hackneyed humor that doesn't even begin to convincingly obscure his childish biases.
You know, I just love how the media is positively insistent on airing "both sides" of every issue when the issue is marginalized people asserting their rights or demanding their rightful equality.
But some dipshit with Z-list name recognition wants to write a "satirical" column that's nothing but a string of stereotypes and a lament about how [insert a group of marginalized people here] are ruining [the country, a cultural institution, some dying tradition that privileged white dudes hold dear, and/or the town in which some useless jerk grew up], and suddenly there's not a voice from "the other side" to be heard for a thousand miles.
In the interest of fairness and balance, I suggest Time contract Irrfan Khan to write a piece about why Joel Stein is a jerk.
[H/T to Shaker RedSonja.]
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Two Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Scissor Sisters: "Filthy/Gorgeous"
Headline of the Day
"Should BP Nuke Its Leaking Well?" Oh, why the hell not? How much worse could that make everything?
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, producers of the new Benjamin H. Grumbles hit single, "Unhand My Monocle, Man!"
Recommended Reading:
Marcella: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 96 [TW]
Andy: Ireland Passes Civil Partnership Bill
Resistance: Good News! The R-Word Has Lost Its Edge.
Echidne: Where the Republicans Are
Arturo: M. Night vs. The Internet: The Airbender Mash-Up
Angry Asian Man: Coming to a Theater Near You: Asians!
Bree: 80's Hair Band Rockers Pay Tribute to "Fat Chicks"
Leave your links in comments...
Quote of the Day
"I don't really understand it, but I like what they stand for. They just support everything I'm looking for—lower taxes, less government. All the good things, you know."—Terry Rushing, 63, of Greensburg, Louisiana, on why he considers himself a supporter of the Tea Party movement.
ACLU Issues Travel Alerts for Arizona
American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in at least 30 U.S. states are issuing 'travel alerts' for the 4th of July weekend, informing those who will be on the road in the Southwest of their legal rights if they are stopped in the state of Arizona.
A recently enacted law in that state, SB 1070, requires law enforcement agents to demand proof of being in the U.S. legally from anyone who they suspect may not be. What might cause an officer of the law to suspect that you are the sort of person they should demand papers of?
Well, we're all comfortable leaving that up to each officer's personal judgment, aren't we? But it is totes not going to be based on racial profiling. We've had Arizona governor Jan Brewer's word for that. Said Brewer:
It wouldn't matter if you are Latino or Hispanic or Norwegian. If you didn't have proof of citizenship and the police officer had reasonable suspicion, he would ask and verify your citizenship. I mean, that's the way that it is.Got that, Norwegians? You are not off the hook.
The law does not take effect until July 29, but the ACLU is concerned that some law enforcement officers may be honing their reasonable suspicion in order to have it razor-sharp on the big day. The ACLU notes there is a history in Arizona of widespread racial profiling, particularly in Maricopa County, the fiefdom of self-worshipping Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Then, too, the Fourth of July is a celebration of independence, and some folks can't fully enjoy their freedom without a twist of coercion.
How better to intensify the savor of freedom for patriotic Arizonans than by confining any who can be suspected — reasonably! — of not being entitled to enjoy it? And by doing it boldly, warrantlessly, without evidence of their having committed a crime, or even of a crime having been committed — other than the crime of suspicious paperlessness. Ah, that's a spicy freedom-stew fit for a celebration!
The ACLU has available for download (.pdf) a card which can be folded and carried in your wallet, with instructions in both English and Spanish on dealing with vehicle stops and questioning by police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, or the F.B.I. The information is applicable to dealing with law enforcement in any U.S. state.
More information about the ACLU’s campaign against SB 1070, including a lawsuit they have filed with other civil rights organizations challenging the law's constitutionality, can be found here.
Material informing individuals of their rights when stopped by law enforcement, optimized for mobile devices, is available here: in English and en Español.
Happy Independence Day, U.S. Shakers!
(Independence may be celebrated each and every day here at Shakesville. Documentation not required. Residency in the U.S. not required. Willingness to support and celebrate others' independence as well as your own required.)
Of Red Spots and Rape Narratives
[Trigger warning for sexual assault.]
Yes, this is a brilliant tool and we should definitely use it to determine if someone is a rapist or not (that was sarcasm):
An acupuncturist who claims she can detect a man's virginity based on a small dot on the ear has become a minor celebrity in Vietnam, where she is credited with helping to free three convicted rapists from prison.Oh, well, as long as she's convinced, then that's all that matters.
Traditional medicine practitioner Pham Thi Hong started lobbying for the men's release, pleading their case all the way to the president, because she believes all three men are virgins and therefore could not be guilty of rape.
"They all had small red spots on the back of their ears," said Hong, 54. "The spots should have disappeared if they had had sex. My many years of experience told me that these men did not have sex before."
...She says she was first taught how to determine if a man has ever had sex by feeling their pulse. She later developed the ear-spot method on her own. She says the spot will only disappear after heterosexual intercourse and is not affected by gay sex or masturbation.
..."I have never heard of this method before," said Nguyen Van Hao, 60, an acupuncturist who has practiced for 14 years. "From the medical point of view, it's impossible to determine whether a man has had sex or not by feeling the pulse or examining the red spot on their ears."
Hong, however, said she's convinced her method works after years of testing it on her students.
Listen, I don't want to get into a big debate about whether this could actually be a viable test for determining a man's "heterosexual virginity" or not (and that will be considered off-topic in comments), because, the truth is, it doesn't fucking matter. Even if it were a legitimate way of assessing whether a man had ever "had sex with" a woman before, that is not synonymous with assessing whether he is a rapist.
Penetrative rape can be committed with hands/fingers/tongue and it can be committed with a foreign object. The entire premise that a man who didn't penetrate a woman with his penis couldn't possibly have raped her is bullshit, so any "virginity test" is thoroughly irrelevant.
And if we are to imagine, for a moment, that it is possible to assess whether a man has lost his "heterosexual virginity" by examining his ear, why is it, I wonder, that are we to understand that rape is not one of the exceptions, along with homosexual sex and masturbation, which supposedly render the telltale spot unaffected.
The concept seems to be that only heterosexual intercourse changes that spot, but rape is, of course, not heterosexual intercourse—and diverges more widely and certainly from consensual heterosexual sex than consensual homosexual sex does.
To accept the premise that it is the nature of the sexual activity which changes that spot, one must accept a false equivalence between consensual sexual activity and rape.
An equivalence that necessarily suggests that both gay sex and masturbation are more deviant from consensual hetero sex than is rape.
If we are to believe that our bodies can reveal truths, my body has revealed to me the truth that consensual homosexual sexual activity is not fundamentally different from consensual heterosexual activity, that masturbation is different in both superficial and meaningful but obvious ways, and that rape doesn't even belong on the same goddamn page with any of the above.
This observation ought to be self-evident. But that's why this story is a perfect example of why challenging the myths and narratives of the rape culture is so important: Only in a culture where it is believed that demonstrable virginity is axiomatic proof of innocence of rape, and only in a culture where consensual sex can be viewed as not materially different from rape, could anyone believe for a moment in the value of examining the red spot behind a man's ear for evidence of his virginity, in relation to the commission of a rape.
[H/T to Shaker Brian G.]
Open Thread
Hosted by the greatest Kool-Aid flavor ever, Purplesaurus Rex.
It's super fruity! Just like Deeky.
Question of the Day
Given the below post, I thought I'd recycle this one from 2008, along with my then-answer (which remains my now-answer)...
What actor makes you refuse to see a film?
I can think of a lot of celebrities cum pseudo-actors (a la Paris Hilton) whose personas, despite my best attempts to always try to separate the artist from hir work, I find so obnoxious I wouldn't want to see any film in which they'd been cast, but they tend to make the type of shit I wouldn't want to see, anyway.
Of serious actors, I can't really think of anyone so objectionable I'd flatly refuse to watch any film that included them in the cast, although it would have to be an incredibly compelling project for me to spend money or time on anything featuring Mel Gibson.
Oh, Mel Gibson
[Trigger warning for sexual violence and racism.]
Given that he's a conservative Catholic, I'm sure there are a lot of things on which Mel Gibson and I would disagree.
Among them is our disagreement that the best way to follow-up his 2006 scandal—in which he got pulled over for a DUI, went on an anti-Semitic rant, and yelled at a female sergeant, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?"—was by imploding his marriage by having a baby with a woman other than his wife, and then reportedly physically abusing the mother of his new baby daughter and screaming at her delightful things like: "You look like a fucking pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n****rs, it will be your fault."
This Train Wreck: "At least I'm not Mel Gibson!"
Be patriotic. Or else.
[Trigger warning for violent imagery.]
A couple days ago FOX, that ever objective and factual news station, ran a story called:
"School Officials in Mass. Town Won't Let Students Recite Pledge of Allegiance"Guess what happened. I'll give you three but I'm sure you only need one:
Arlington police are investigating threatening messages sent to School Committee members yesterday in response to a controversy surrounding reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in school.Ah, yes. There's some patriotism for you. Or not.
Police Captain Robert Bongiorno would not specify which committee members received the messages, but he said some were anti-Semitic.
“The messages are offensive and hateful and potentially criminal,’’ Bongiorno said.
Police launched the investigation as school officials blasted what they said were incorrect reports by Fox News that the School Committee had banned the pledge in Arlington schools.
“It is unfortunate that the national media has chosen to distort this very serious debate in a manner which so badly misinforms the public,’’ committee chairman Joseph Curro said in a press release yesterday. “Recent reports have done little to present the facts . . . and have been seized upon by many people throughout the country to target our dedicated school leaders with unwarranted hate mail and threats.’’
As the Globe reported yesterday, controversy about reciting the pledge in Arlington schools began last week when Arlington High School senior Sean Harrington requested that the pledge be led each day at school. The Pledge of Allegiance has not been said at the high school for years, and the School Committee voted 3-to-3 on a motion that would have required a daily, but voluntary, recitation of the pledge to be led over the intercom. Because of the tie vote, the motion failed.
School Committee members said they would look into enacting a pledge policy this summer, and on Tuesday, Arlington High principal Charles Skidmore told the Globe he would lead the pledge in the school’s auditorium every morning for students who wished to say it. Harrington said he still wants the pledge broadcast into each classroom.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Curro said that since incorrect reports by Fox News that Arlington had banned the pledge, committee members have been receiving messages from “all over the country.’’
Curro said a couple of the messages sent to committee members included indirect threats and one said the members should go to North Korea, where their throats would be slit.
According to this RawStory article:
At a school committee meeting last week, Harrington delivered what a story in the Arlington Patch described as "an impassioned speech ... reminding the members that 'freedom is not free.'" The committee ultimately deadlocked, however, on a proposal for a voluntary recitation of the Pledge to be led each day over the intercom, with some members expressing concerns about infringing on the rights of students and teachers who did not wish to participate.Nice. I'm sure Mr. Harrington was duly upset about such actions from his supporters, right?
"The exchange that followed the vote became quite heated," the Patch reports, "with Harrington's supporters vocalizing their disapproval and shouting expletives at the Committee."
"They told us to go back to our own countries," Chairman Curro told the Globe.
"I was really heartbroken," Harrington said of the deadlocked vote. "It's hard to think that something so traditional in American society was turned down. ... It tells me that we've basically cast aside what our country is founded on."Well then. The tie vote on forcing people to listen to the pledge every day tells me that some people on the committee are reasonable. Harrington's statement, however, tells me that I'm right to be a bit concerned about his school's history program, though the drama program seems to have at least one star here.
And I don't have to imagine that Harrington and I do not see eye to eye on the pledge issue.
