What's the best film older than 10 years that you've seen for the first time recently?
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround is brought to you by Your Thing. Your Thing--this is it!
Jill: Allowing death row inmates to donate organs.
Donna Cooper: Infographic: Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts
Andrea (AJ) Plaid: My Black Genitals Are Not Public Enemy #1
penny for Scientopia: Smithsonian’s Women in Science uploads, pt. 2
Mo: Artificial nerve grafts made from spider silk
samedifference1 at Disability Voices: New Broken Of Britain Campaign: Left Out In The Cold
Bridget Crawford: [TW sexual assault; violence against women] When Will Equality Be “Sexy”?
Bitch Magazine: Douchebag Decree: "Gentlemen" Hijack Women's History Month
gunthera1 at The Border House: Trenched – for men, manly men! (no girls allowed)
BurdaStyle blog: BurdaStyle Goes to Austin!
Finally, a couple of design challenges, if you like that sort of thing:
AmyT: ANNOUNCING: The 2011 DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge – Open for Entries Now! The competition is open for entries until Friday, April 29, 2011.
PLoS Blog: Call for Designs: The PLoS Computational Biology 2011 T-shirt. Submit your designs by March 22.
Leave your links in comments!
Out My Window
A robin redbreast perched outside my window next to icicles lit by the sun, his downy winter feathers blowing in the wind.
Krugman
The New York Times pays two columnists to regularly write for its Monday edition. One of them frequently makes a lot of sense. [Spoiler alert: It's not Russ Douthat.]
Paul Krugman:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill... But what everyone knows is wrong.
The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands. Some years ago, however, the economists David Autor, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argued that this was the wrong way to think about it.
The notion that putting more kids through college can restore the middle-class society we used to have is wishful thinking. It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.
I spend my days (and frequently, nights) educating people, mostly "non-traditional" students. I love teaching so much it hurts. Yes, I can (and do) work with people to help them learn, not just how to make widgets, but also to look at the world from new, critical perspectives. As far as I can tell, my students tend to really appreciate this.
What my students don't seem to appreciate is sitting it my office, watching salvage companies deconstruct the factory where they used to work. This is not something I, or any other educator can change. Education is vital on any number of levels, but as Krugman points out, awarding more college degrees is but a part of the work that needs to be done.
Blog Note
I've got some personal business to attend to today, which will take up a good part of the day, so posting will be light from me.
Please remember that when I'm not around, we're down one moderator, so take extra care in commenting, and be patient with and respectful of the other mods who will be picking up my slack.
Open Thread
Hosted by Sarah Jane Smith.
This week's open threads have been hosted by the women of classic Doctor Who.
Saturday YouTubery
I found this earlier this week and have watched it at least twice a day since.
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!
Daily Dose of Cute
Various scenes of cuteness around Shakes Manor (and one clip from the dog park). Starring Sophie, Olivia, Matilda, and Dudley—with special guest star Sam. Set to Dustin O'Halloran's "Opus 36."
An Observation
From the fuckery of garbage nightmare governors in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and elsewhere, to the brazen and relentless attack on reproductive rights, to the total abdication of every last shred of concern for US workers, and beyond, I literally cannot believe what is going on in US politics right now.
Even given my professional-grade cynicism, the GOP is managing to shock (and awe) me.
The Overton Window: Chapter Forty-One
Oh my fucking god! Chapter forty-one! Finally! Something happens! Woo hoo!
As I recall, the last time something happened was back in chapter twelve with the mêlée at the teabagger bar. There was a gunshot and Hollis got tazed (where is Hollis anyway?) and Noah got bonked on the head. He's sort of been groggy since. I think we all have, really. So, now, nearly thirty chapters later, something else happens. Good thing too, as we're about forty pages from the end.
Their model bomb wasn't that heavy, maybe eighty or one hundred pounds, but it was unwieldy to carry between them. When they came within sight of the men they were here to meet—and like last time, there were only four of them, not the expected five—one of them motioned to a spot on the ground to show where they should leave their burden. When they got to that spot, they put it down.
"When they got to that spot, they put it down." Yes, more quality exposition. And model bomb? It's still a model bomb? At this point no one is confused about the functionality of the nuke, are they? It's too fucking late to introduce some other plot device into this story. So let's stop pretending this thing is a mystery.
The men have automatic weapons and one has "brand-new-looking satchel at his feet, a bag of the sort that might be holding their twenty thousand dollars for the exchange." What they don't have is names. Or even descriptions. There's some exposition about their demeanor coming up, but they are hardly even characters. Just props. Cardboard cutouts just guiding the story along its course.
The armed man to the left held his gun like he'd been born with it in his hands. The other one didn't seem at all at ease, either with his weapon or his assigned enforcer's role. His hands were deep in his pockets and his rifle hung haphazardly by its sling over his shoulder, as though it had been put there against his will and he had no desire to deal with it.
Good clichés, both of those.
Upon their arrival Kearns had made a bit of small talk with each member of the group, and soon all agreed it was time to do the deal they'd come to do.
"Here's your money," said the man on the end. He'd introduced himself as Randy at their meeting the previous night.
Who is writing this? A child? No offense to children. I love children. I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside, give them a sense of pride to make it easier. Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be. And maybe they won't grow up to be conservative douchebags or hack ghostwriters.
And hey, at least one of the guys has a name now. Which Kearns learned last night but wasn't mentioned then because later saying "he'd introduced himself as Randy at their meeting the previous night" just reads so much better. Randy has the two other guys load up the bomb into their cargo truck. Danny peeks inside as they do.
Down the center, on a welded-together, waist-high metal rack, was what appeared to be a long, silvery torpedo. Not really, though; the nose was too blunt and flat and its far end was tapered and ringed by large aerodynamic fins. It looked like something from a war museum, an overbuilt piece of heavy-duty air-dropped ordnance from a bygone era of the Cold War.
That wasn't all. Tucked back in the corner, away from the light, some thing was wrapped up and bound in a black plastic tarp on the floor. It could have been a lot of things, but to Danny's current frame of mind, what it looked like most was an occupied body bag.
From a bygone era of the Cold War? I thought the Cold War was a bygone era. Why can't the author just say what he means, instead of trying to fluff everything up? At least avoid using confusing and vague notions to describe things. If the bomb looks like it's from the Fifties, just say the bomb looks like it's from the Fifties, not "from a long since-passed epoch in humankind's seeming eternal history of civilization" or whatever.
A loud ringtone from the phone on the belt of the man named Randy broke the silence. He held up a polite index finger, as if to say, Sorry, I've got to take this, turned, took a half step away, and answered.
Ringtones. Yes. Everyone says that now. "Pardon me, but your phone is ringtoning. Did you hear your phone ringtone? Give me a call, I'll be listening for the ringtone." Very natural. And thanks for explaining that the ringtoning came "from the phone on the belt of the man named Randy." I guess it was too much to just say "Randy's phone rang" or whatever. Quality exposition.
Randy, the one still on the phone, looked back over his shoulder.
He was listening intently, not talking; his eyes went first to Stuart Kearns, and then over to Danny, and then he turned back around, with his back to them, as he'd been before. A few more seconds passed, and still facing away, Randy's free hand came up slowly and touched the shoulder of the man to his right, the mouthy guy who looked like he just couldn't wait for the lead to start flying.
And that was it.
Here's where something happens. Something happens! Oh, the excitement!
When you've practiced enough it gets to look like one fluid motion, but there are four distinct parts to a quick draw, at least to the one that Molly had taught him. In the beginning the count is slow and you stop between the steps so your teacher can make sure you've got them right. After a few months and several thousand repeats, though, it starts to go so fast that if you blink, you might miss it.
Danny's right hand swept back to clear his clothing and found the pistol grip just where he'd left it; he pulled the weapon free and brought it forward, the barrel coming parallel to the ground and his left hand joining the solid grasp; he extended toward center-mass of his target with the iron sight rising level to his eye; and at the end of the forward movement, as it all came together at his ideal firing position, without a pause he squeezed the trigger to its stop.
The boom of their first two shots was almost simultaneous, though Kearns had a much easier draw from his pocket. They'd chosen the same primary target, the man to whom Randy had given his too-obvious go-ahead, the guy who would have cut them in half with a hail of bullets if they'd given him half a chance to shoot first. As Kearns took off to his left, still firing, their designated executioner was crumpling backward, likely dead on his feet, but surely out of commission.
Kearns runs, fires, as does Bailey. "Danny dropped to the ground in a shallow gully he heard a tire explode and the windows shatter in their van just behind him." Woo! Just like the movies. Especially the bit where the "jagged line of bullet impacts stitched across the sand toward him." Does that really happen? I know it does on TV, but I'd think in real life that would mean your aim was way off.
By the end of things, "three of the men were lying motionless on the ground, and one was unaccounted for." (And no, I'm not sure if The Man Named Randy is one of the dead.) Whoever is alive starts up the cargo van, and speeds off. Kearns jumps in back and Bailey gives chase.
As the truck dropped into gear and started to roll Danny got to his feet and ran for it. The faster he ran the faster it went, and it had nearly accelerated to the point of no return when he caught up to the tailgate, stumbled forward to get a grasp on to Stuart Kearns' extended hand, and felt himself pulled up and in.
Oh my! Wasn't that exciting? What will happen next? I can't wait!
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Matilda, Olivia, and Sophie, because James Franco CAT.
Recommended Reading:
Andy: Navy Trying to Do an End-Run Around DADT Repeal?
Melissa: Review: Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera [TW for violence, exploitation, and racism]
Jolene: Interview on Arab Feminism with Professor Rabab al-Mahdi [TW for misogyny, xenophobia, exceptionalism, homophobia, violence, and body policing]
Richard: The Ugly Face of Islamophobia in Orange County, California [TW for xenophobia, violence, harassment]
Melissa: Emily Blunt and Matt Damon Are Cool
Frances: Queen Latifah as Ursula
Heads up San Francisco Shakers! Little Light: Upcoming Event: Girl Talk, A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue
Leave your links in comments...
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
[Trigger warning for racism.]
Actual Headline: Are whites racially oppressed?
(Note: It's not that the article itself is so terrible, although it's not great at teasing out central issues like privilege and projection. This is really a "worst thing" just because of the manifest absurdity of the idea of whites being racially oppressed.)
I could spend the next six hours talking about what complete bullshit this entire premise is, but instead I'm just going to make a few quick observations and then turn it over to you to discuss in comments.
— Sheer numbers will turn white people into a technical minority in the US long before white people actually lose the benefits that institutional racism grants them.
— The dispossession of poor whites is a legitimate class issue, which the GOP has endeavored to mendaciously reframe as a race issue, so that they might then summarily exploit white insecurity to support their classist agenda. This is the very crux of how the GOP has successfully convinced so many poor whites to vote against their own interests; exploiting this insecurity is the heart of the Southern Strategy.
— See also: The decimation of unions.
— Not only do working class and poor whites consistently pick the wrong allies, they misidentify their villains. Our president is black, but the standard-issue skin tone of the ruling elite, in the Beltway and on Wall Street, is still decidedly white.
— In my experience, there are two main reasons why (some) white people are afraid of becoming the minority: 1. They're afraid of losing their unearned privilege, and might have to find out exactly what it means to actually not have anything handed to you and actually never be given any meaningful help from your government and actually have nothing but proverbial bootstraps to navigate a world that disadvantages you; 2. They're afraid that the new majority will treat them like shit.
Yeah, well, Fraidy Whites, if you're scared of being treated exactly as you treat other people, maybe it's time to reassess your behavior.
Or, you know, whine about how you're oppressed like a bunch of pathetic babies with no agency. Whatever.
— I note, with bitter amusement, by the way, that this is yet another prime example of conservative projection, as Fraidy Whites are behaving precisely as they accuse actual racial minorities of behaving: Whining about being oppressed without cause, their complaint fueled primarily by resentment. And the Fraidy Whites would be the first people to tell you how "lazy" people of color are, but here they are shaking in their boots at the very prospect of having to achieve exclusively on the basis of hard work, without the undeserved boost that their white skin gives them.
GOPoop
That should be their new name. Some bits and pieces from the recent week:
Did you know that Bootstraps™ are actually bezoars? The GOP seems to think so, as they're nearly eliminating funding for poison control:
Eliminating nearly all the money for poison control centers would save $27 million — not even a rounding error when it comes to the deficit. Yet it is so foolish that it perfectly illustrates the thoughtlessness of the House Republican bill to cut $61 billion from the budget over the next seven months.Who needs poison control centers, right? /snort
The nation’s network of 57 poison control centers takes four million calls a year about people who may have been exposed to a toxic substance. In three-quarters of all cases, the centers are able to provide treatment advice that does not require a visit to a hospital or a doctor, saving tens of millions of dollars in medical costs.
[...]
The centers, which collect poison reports, can also act as an early warning system for pandemics or large toxic exposures, allowing a quick response.
The federal government pays about 20 percent of the cost of the centers, with states, cities and philanthropy picking up the rest. Many strapped state and local governments have cut back their financing, and experts say that the virtual elimination of federal money would force many centers to close and sharply damage the effectiveness of the national network.
The elimination of poison control funding is really, really fantastic when you also take in the news that the GOP has decided to drastically slash the EPA and gut programs that regulate air and water pollution and the enforcement of environmental laws:
The Environmental Protection Agency and global warming programs government-wide stand to lose big in the battle over the federal budget.Hey, who needs updated water and sewage systems, right? /snort Certainly not the GOPoop!
The House already passed its bill to fund the federal government for the rest of this year, and it doesn't just cut EPA programs — it also steamrolls the Obama administration's environmental policy.
The House bill would slash the EPA budget by nearly a third — more than any other agency. It would stop the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it would gut many other programs that prevent air and water pollution and enforce environmental laws.
Senate Democrats say the bill drafted by House Republicans would hobble the EPA.
"They have essentially unleashed war against the EPA, and in doing so, they are going to hurt the American people. And we have to stop it," says Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who heads the Senate Environment Committee.
[...]
It was one of a cascade of amendments to block EPA initiatives such as restoring the Chesapeake Bay and Florida Everglades, and cleaning up coal ash waste and mountaintop coal mining.
House Republicans also took aim at climate change programs across the government. Many new House Republicans deny what scientists widely accept: Climate change will have catastrophic consequences, and people are a significant cause of it because they burn fossil fuels.
[...]
Some of the biggest EPA reductions would come in projects to update water treatment and sewage systems. Rep. Donna Edwards, a Democrat from Maryland, tried but failed to talk colleagues out of these cuts.
"Just last month out in my district, in a cold winter morning not far from Capitol Hill, a 54-inch water main broke, created massive destruction, overturned cars, destroyed businesses and left residents like me without safe drinking water for days," Edwards said.
And just to show how much they hate the environment (and Nancy Pelosi), the GOP has decided to bring back Styrofoam:
Four years after our nation's esteemed governing body decided to stop using one of the most destructive, ungreen materials in existence, our lawmakers have decided it's time to cancel the program that supported biodegradable packaging, and to bring Styrofoam back.An anonymous congressional staffer sent in pictures, which you can check out here. They also canceled the composting program, so it all heads to landfills.
Congress switched to biodegradable packaging, along with a number of other green initiatives like composting, as part of its Green the Capital program. But the program was lead by Nancy Pelosi, whom, you may have heard, is unliked in certain conservative circles. So John Boehner -- the new Speaker of the House -- and company dismantled her program, largely as a political jab.
They literally are a total garbage nightmare.
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning for violence, exploitation, and misogyny.]
"Objectification and abuse, it follows, is not only an accepted occupational hazard for certain women, but something that men like Mr. Sheen have earned the right to indulge in. (Mr. Sheen reportedly once said that he didn't pay prostitutes for the sex; he paid them "to leave.") … On reality television, gratuitous violence and explicit sexuality are not only entertainment but a means to an end. These enthusiastically documented humiliations are positioned as necessities in the service of some final prize or larger benefit—a marriage proposal, a modeling contract, $1 million. But they also make assault and abasement seem commonplace, acceptable behavior, tolerated by women and encouraged in men."—Anna Holmes, in a must-read piece for the New York Times, "The Disposable Woman."
Polymaths for $200
This hot young Hollywood icon is no mere heartthrob; he is true Renaissance Man that the New York Times describes as "a self-promoting—and often self-mocking—polymath who is a film director, screenwriter, painter, author, performance artist and actor, with several film projects under way," currently getting a master's in film from NYU and a PhD in English from Yale, and co-teaching a course on film editing at Columbia College Hollywood called "Master Class: Editing James Franco—With James Franco."
Wrong again, Wolf Blitzer. Wrong again.
[Btw, I love this bit from the article: "Still, Mr. Franco is clearly not your average graduate student. Last semester, when he and Dr. Warner needed time to discuss a paper, Mr. Franco's personal assistant helped arrange an unusual solution. 'The only time we could find time to talk was during a train ride from New York to New Haven,' said Dr. Warner, who splits his time between the two. 'So I met him on Metro-North.'" LOL! Of course. Because James Franco.]
Open Thread: WTF Wisconsin
There's a lot going on. Here's what I've been reading this morning; as always, feel free to drop your own links into comments.
CNN—Wisconsin governor tells absent senators: Return or 1,500 get laid off:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday warned 14 absent lawmakers trying to stall his controversial budget bill to return to the state Capitol immediately to vote on the measure, or layoff notices will be sent to 1,500 public employees before the weekend.Also see the Journal-Sentinel for more on this story.
"Unfortunately, if we don't have action by tomorrow we have a legal and moral obligation to start forewarning people," Walker said a Thursday night press conference.
...Meanwhile, a Dane County judge on Thursday issued an order barring demonstrators from the state Capitol after business hours. During protests, some demonstrators have been sleeping inside the building. The order from Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge John Albert gave the state Department of Administration the authority to forcibly remove anyone who refuses.
Greg Sargent in the WaPo—Police union chief says Wisconsin GOP's proposal to detain missing Dems may be unconstitutional: "The chief of a major Wisconsin police union tells me this proposal may itself be unconstitutional under state law. 'It's unclear to me on what constitutional authority Senate Republicans think law enforcement officers can take state lawmakers who have not committed a crime into custody,' James Palmer, the head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, told me by phone moments ago."
ABC: Wisconsin Protesters Ordered Out of Capitol After Gov. Scott Walker Threatens Layoffs. [Please note a video automatically begins to play at this link.]
TPM—Rasmussen Poll: Majority of Wisconsinites Side With Unions on Collective Bargaining: "A majority of those polled said they sided with the public employee unions rather than Gov. Walker in the showdown that has deadlocked the state government for more than two weeks. And while a plurality favor a plan to make state employees pay more toward their benefit plans—something the unions have already agreed to do—a majority oppose the most contentious proposal put forward by Walker: the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for state employee unions."
Also at TPM: AWOL Wisconsin Dem Beats the System; Gets His Paycheck Mailed to Him.
David Dayen at FDL—Wisconsin Recall Efforts Off to Strong Start: "The Wisconsin recall effort is only a day old, but it's going strong. The state Democratic Party has launched a website called Recall the Republican 8 to coordinate events. They have volunteer and contribution pages. There's also a separate ActBlue page set up for the recall. A separate effort to air a powerful TV ad from the PCCC and DFA, filmed on the day of the 100,000-plus protests last Saturday, has already raised over $225,000."
Oh, Mike Huckabee, Do Shut Up
Two of my least favorite Mikes, Huckabee and Medved, both privileged white conservative men (who, it should be noted, oppose the sorts of policies that both prevent unwanted pregnancies and make single parenthood easier) got together to pontificate on the EEEEEEEEVILLLLLLS of single parenthood. Whoooooops! Did I say single parenthood? Ha ha—silly me! Of course I mean single motherhood.
[Transcript below.]
So women should DEFINITELY get married. Unless, of course, they want to marry another woman. And then they should definitely NOT get married. Okay. Got it.
Other messages I'm getting lately: Mike Huckabee is a racist. Oh wait, ha ha, I already knew that.
Oh, and he's also a liar: It is not true, as he contends, that "most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care." Single mothers do indeed have higher rates of unemployment (and underemployment) than the rest of the population, and single mothers also experience higher rates of poverty, but it is flatly false that "most," or anything even close to half, of single mothers are unemployed and totally dependent on the government to keep their children alive.
Anyway, I'm glad these two sincere gentlemen are so concerned about single mothers. I look forward to their vociferous support for woman/parent-friendly workplace policies and the funding of a comprehensive safety net for all US workers.
MEDVED: Governor, I know you probably are out on book tour right now, you probably didn't have a chance to watch the Academy Awards last night?
HUCKABEE: I'm very happy to say that I missed it because usually it's about the most boring waste of several hours that I've ever experienced.
MEDVED: Well this was a - this was a low audience. However, there was - there was one moment where a very brilliant and admirable actress named Natalie Portman won Best Actress, and she won for a movie which I loathed called Black Swan. But in any event, she got up, she was very visibly pregnant, and it's really it's a problem because she's about seven months pregnant, it's her first pregnancy, and she and the baby's father aren't married, and before two billion people, Natalie Portman says, 'Oh I want to thank my love and he's given me the most wonderful gift.' He didn't give her the most wonderful gift, which would be a wedding ring! [Huckabee laughs.] And it just seems to me that sending that kind of message is problematic.
HUCKABEE: You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.
You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering.
MEDVED: It's tremendously staggering.
Everything Looks Fine From Where They're Sitting
Chris Hayes has written a great piece called "Why Washington Doesn't Care About Jobs." An excerpt:
This disconnect between the jobs crisis in the country and the blithe dismissal thereof in Washington is the most incomprehensible aspect of the political moment. But I think there are two numbers that go a long way toward explaining it.Definitely read the whole thing.
The first is 4.2. That's the percentage of Americans with a four-year college degree who are unemployed. It's less than half the official unemployment rate of 9 percent for the labor force as a whole and one-fourth the underemployment rate (which counts those who have given up looking for work or are working part time but want full-time work) of 16.1 percent. So while the overall economy continues to suffer through the worst labor market since the Great Depression, the elite centers of power have recovered. For those of us fortunate enough to have graduated from college—and to have escaped foreclosure or an underwater mortgage—normalcy has returned.
The other number is 5.7 percent. That's the unemployment rate for the Washington/Arlington/Alexandria metro area and just so happens to be lowest among large metropolitan areas in the entire country. In 2010 the DC metro area added 57,000 jobs, more than any in the nation, and now boasts the hottest market for commercial office space. In other words: DC is booming. You can see it in the restaurants opening all over North West, the high prices that condos fetch in the real estate market and the general placid sense of bourgeois comfort that suffuses the affluent upper- and upper-middle-class pockets of the region.
What these two numbers add up to is a governing elite that is profoundly alienated from the lived experiences of the millions of Americans who are barely surviving the ravages of the Great Recession.
The fundamental problem we face in stemming the tide is that our politics is now ruled by money. Neither party has any interest in governing in a way that addresses the needs of desperate people, because desperate people have no money, and funding a robust social safety net would necessitate passing legislation that their corporate masters wouldn't like.
We are in a new Gilded Age of robber barons and paupers, and a fighting a new civil war in which we are divided by class, but, even if there were some superhero combo of FDR and Abraham Lincoln on the horizon who gives a fuck about restoring some sort of equilibrium, who gives a fuck about reuniting the Two Americas, zie couldn't get elected because who's gonna subsidize that shit?
Grim stuff.
They are looking at our raised teaspoons, and they are telling us to use them to eat cake. And that is a bad calculation. For all of us.
Question of the Day
The inevitable follow-up to yesterday's QoTD...
What is your least favorite topic of casual conversation?
I've inserted the qualifier "casual" here, because I don't want people to feel obliged to determine precisely the worst thing they've ever had to talk about, when that might be triggering. We can keep it lighter than that (although you are welcome to be more serious, too; just be sure to insert trigger warnings as necessary).
Number of the Day
Less than 2000: The number of abortion providers left in the United States.
This, and other facts, as well as some really amazing commentary on becoming an abortion provider, can be found here.
[H/T to Shaker Tamara.]
What I'm Listening To
[A note about the song who haven't heard it, and might not be familiar with Minnelli's particular sensibilities: The song is about the reportedly true story of couple who met and fell in love on vacation in Europe and turned out to be next door neighbors in NYC. And because the woman in the song wants to fall in love and get married, it might be easy to mistake this as a suggestion that "women" "should" get married, but the message is really just about making things happen to get what you want, whatever that is.]
This clip is from the Bob Fosse-directed Broadway show Liza with a Z, which I could seriously watch on a loop from here to eternity and back again. I remember seeing this on television when I was a kid and being utterly spellbound by the awesomeness that is Liza Minnelli. She was not only talented, and witty, and beautiful—but there she was onstage, sweating and taking up space and being powerful in a way I'd not really seen a woman be before. Revolutionary.
I fell deeply in crush with Liza Minnelli on that day, and, no kidding, I must have watched Arthur nine biebillion times. (I have a dog named Dudley, you might have noticed.) Her voice still gives me chills, even if I've listened to her sing the same song a thousand times.
Recently, Liza was on Jimmy Fallon's show, and he asked her if she had, across her outstanding career on Broadway, a favorite show. "The next one," she replied.
Ring them bells, lady.
"From that moment on, I was next of kin."
The next time someone asks you why marriage equality matters, just send them this article.
My condolences to Mr. Ketterson, who did indeed blaze a trail, even if he didn't intend to.
[Via Andy.]
Don't Fuck With Franco
Last weekend, a writer for the Yale Daily News wrote a piece (to which I'm not linking directly because there's a stalking joke and ableist language) called "Franco, #getittogether," criticizing James Franco for his substandard Twitter feed: "I would usually never berate someone for tweeting inadequately, because that would be hypocritical — but James Franco is not just some rando on Twitter. He's a Celebrity Tweeter, which deserves all caps and necessitates a higher quality of meaningless, incessant electronic communication."
She went on to note that his tweets were too random-picture heavy and weren't nearly offensive enough, and he was going to have to try a lot harder if he wanted to be a stand-out celebrity tweeter like Kanye West.
Naturally, James Franco responded by tweeting a picture of himself looking every bit the self-important celebrity, upon which he'd scrawled "Fuck the Yale Daily News," because James Franco.
LULZ
To which the writer posted this follow-up: "[H]is visual/performance/Twitter art response was perfect. I said he should Tweet fewer random pictures and instead be more like the Twitter-ranting Kanye. James Franco, in turn, ranted in the form of a random picture. #wellplayedsir."
What—did you think James Franco wasn't a cheeky monkey who cares more about having fun with writers for the Yale Daily News (and also making a commentary about how he's Not That Guy) than jousting with all the Very Important Critics who trashed his Oscars hosting? You're so weird.
An Observation
Two observations, really.
1. I am a garbage-brained glutton for punishment for continuing to watch American Idol. That is not a judgment on anyone else who watches it, but a solid assessment of myself based on my own constantly infuriated reactions to it.
2. It really seems like the top 12 "boys" were explicitly encouraged to be as individual and quirky as possible, while the top 12 "girls" were encouraged to conform both in style and song choice to some weird amalgam of a high school talent show contestant and a pageant entrant. Which is not to say that none of the girls were quirky or talented or whatever, but only that the spectrum of acceptable quirkiness for the girls seems a lot narrower than it is for the boys.
I know. No doy. It's American Idol. But it's way more obvious than usual, even.
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Iain lies on the couch, asleep. Sophie hops up onto his chest and slowly circles around, then curls up into a little ball under his chin. He stirs and mumbles hi to her, then scratches her head. The nap commences.
The Overton Window: Chapter Forty
Chapter forty! The home stretch! Yes, we're on our way, something is bound to happen soon! No, it won't be in this chapter, but we're getting there. We are! I promise. No, I don't promise. I never promise. Because I am shit at keeping promises.
To sum up what happens in this chapter: Bailey and Kearns get out of the van.
That's it.
Scratch chapter forty off your bucket list, because it's done!
There's not even anything very snark-worthy in the text. I mean, it's all snark-worthy. But no more than usual. In a book full of phoned-in chapters, even this one seems phoned-in.
As they got close the scene became clearer. Danny saw the rear ends of two vehicles, a car and a midsize, unmarked yellow cargo truck, both of which were parked behind a square, gray, one-story building.
"Building" was an overstatement, actually; the simple ten-foot-high enclosure appeared to be made of nothing but cinder blocks and dark mortar. There was an open arched doorway but no roof overhead. About a stone's throw away from the main structure, in a perfectly spaced circle surrounding the building on all sides, were a number of bizarre, freestanding walls and angled edifices jutting up out of the sand. Some looked like backstops from a playground handball court, one like the black alien monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The layout reminded him a little of Stonehenge, but only if Stonehenge had been built over one hurried weekend by an amateur bricklayer on acid.
"What the hell is this place?" Danny asked.
Maybe an old part of a nuclear test site suggests Kearns. Who knows? Who cares? Kearns tells Bailey to pull himself together, and after they do their deal, he'll buy him a beer and take him to the airport. Oh, okay, that seems a perfectly normal thing for an undercover agent to do.
He'd stopped talking because something had caught his attention out the front windshield. One of the men they were meeting had appeared by the corner of the main cinder-block building, and with a broad gesture he beckoned them to come on over. Another of the men was behind the first, standing there with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Okay, then," Danny sighed, "let's rock."
Yes, Danny, let's rock. He takes one of Kearns' guns and shoves it in his waist. "The pistol went snugly into Danny's belt in back, not in the middle but closer to the right side." Oh, okay. I guess that means something? Then he tells Kearns to take his pistol out of his ankle holster and put it someplace more accessible. Bailey also pockets the sat phone as he steps out of the van. I guess that means something too.
"I thought you said you didn't know much about guns," Kearns said.
"That's not what I said. I said I wasn't an expert."
Expert wasn't a term to be bandied about among Danny's gun-savvy friends. An expert might be someone who could call their shot from ten yards and then, from a cold start, draw their pistol from concealment and put a bullet right where they said it would go, all in seven-tenths of a second or less. Molly Ross was one of those, and a few years back over one hot and memorable Tennessee summer, she'd taught him everything he knew. He'd been getting even more death threats than usual that year, and she'd wanted him to be safe. So, while he wasn't an expert, his draw was pretty fast—it was the part about hitting what he shot at that still left a lot to be desired.
Aaaand: Scene.
Yeah, that's it. Told you. Nothing happens. Seven more chapters to go. Something's got to happen soon, right? Right.
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning for rape culture.]
"On my account, as long as there is a lot of rape and not a lot of remedy, as long as there is slut-shaming and double-standards, as long as the denial of the technologies women [who have sex with men] need to mitigate the risks of unintended pregnancy and disease, then they're going to look askance at [men who have sex with women], and they're going to act like they have more risk and less to gain from sex with us, because in fact they do."—Thomas Macaulay Millar, in a must-read post about a new study which has found that het/bi women's infamous aversion to the Clark-Hatfield Sexual Proposal ("a broad-daylight, out-of-nowhere proposition for casual sex") is not, in fact, down to some gender essentialist, pop evo-psych, innately female antipathy toward casual sex, but is attributable to "women's perception that their risks are higher, and their likely enjoyment is lower from the proposer," which is a pretty reasonable risk/benefit analysis.
Rodney King, Twenty Years Later
[Trigger warning for violence, police brutality, racism.]
Today is the 20th anniversary of Rodney King's surviving a brutal beating by Los Angeles police officers, an incident that sparked an investigation, an absurd acquittal, riots, and a national conversation about race that exposed the deeply-entrenched privilege that allowed white USians to exist in the blissful ignorance and/or willful denial of police brutality against USians of color.
King had been drinking, and he had been speeding, and he evaded the police for several miles. And when he pulled over, he got out of the car and was ordered at gunpoint to get on the ground, which he did, and that's when he got the first kick delivered to his head. (The officers dispute that version of events; the videotape does not begin until after that point.) He believed if he stayed on the ground, he might be gravely injured, so he stood up, hands up, and tried to reason with the officers. They tased him twice, bringing him to the ground, where he was defenseless. When he tried to get up and defend himself, an officer bashed his head with his baton, which knocked King back to the ground, where he was hit multiple times with the baton.
King, in fear for his life, repeatedly tried to get up. The officers continued to beat him. In the end, he is hit 56 times with a baton and kicked half a dozen times. His cheek is broken. His ankle is broken. He has serious internal injures. While two dozen officers watch, he is handcuffed and cordcuffed on his arms and legs, and dragged across the road on his stomach, where he is left in the gutter to await the arrival of a rescue ambulance.
This is a vastly different story than was reported at the time, about a black convict hopped up on PCP who resisted arrest and overwhelmed police who were just trying to do their jobs. The myth that King was on narcotics was so widely reported that many people incorrectly recall that he was high during the beating. In fact, he tested negative for drugs.
I wish, twenty years later, I could be writing a post about how the Rodney King case completely changed our culture, how it spawned widespread reforms (it did spawn some) that resulted in fair and equal treatment by police irrespective of one's race, or, failing that, how it left an indelible imprint upon the thick armor of white privilege that never allowed another white USian to seriously entertain the idea that such parity exists when it does not.
But last year alone, I wrote about the grievous racial disparity in "stop-and-frisk" policing in New York City, and the white male police officer who punched a young black woman in the face in Seattle, the absurd conviction of the white police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant in San Francisco, and other stories of racial injustice perpetrated by law enforcement across the country.
And every fucking time I write about it, there are white people who show up to troll the post and blather about how the police were just doing their job blah blah blah, without any evidence of shame about their detestable pretense that this shit regularly happens to white people in the US.
Twenty years later, it's still the same victim-blaming I was hearing about Rodney King, even as he sat in a wheelchair convalescing from his physical injuries. (He has nightmares to this day, and, while currently sober, has struggled with alcoholism.) Twenty years later, same old shit.
But, twenty years on, I am a different person than I was then. Working through my privilege is an ongoing process—it always will be—but what happened to Rodney King was so much more difficult for me to understand and culturally contextualize then, and it's not just because I was a teenager; it's because I was a privileged white teenager who hadn't yet begun in any meaningful way to examine her privilege.
King has said that it gives meaning to what happened to him if people learned something from it. I did. It was an important moment for me at a time in my life when I was just learning what social justice meant. It is tragic that so much of our understanding of social justice comes from evidence of injustice—but I believe it would be more tragic still if we learn nothing from the injustice to which we bear witness.
Twenty years later, many groups are still actively working to fight racial injustice perpetrated by law enforcement in the US. One of the best among those groups is the Center for Constitutional Rights. I have made a donation today in Rodney King's name, and I hope, if you have the funds to spare, you will, too.
Oh, Ohio
So yesterday, the Ohio Senate passed the anti-union bill. Like with Wisconsin having the less-reported-on aspect of being able to fire-sale state assets, this bill has a little-known part: denying same sex couple equal rights.
Sec. 3101.01 of S.B. 5: … A marriage may only be entered into by one man and one woman. Any marriage between persons of the same sex is against the strong public policy of this state. Any marriage between persons of the same sex shall have no legal force or effect in this state and, if attempted to be entered into in this state, is void ab initio and shall not be recognized by this state. The recognition or extension by the state of the specific statutory benefits of a legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is against the strong public policy of this state. Any public act, record or judicial proceeding of this state, as defined in section 9.82 of the Revised Code, that extends the specific statutory benefits of legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is void.BTW, Ohio has already passed a gay marriage ban in 2004.
Project of the Moment
If you surf on over to http://wi.opencapitol.us/ or follow #opencapitol on Twitter, you'll see that someone in Madison had a pretty cool idea.
Here's how it works:
Place a post it note on the obvious physical symbol of whatever barrier, process, or action is clearly impeding your participation in your democracy, examples include:
Unreasonably locked doors
Barricades & ropes
Beside signs with silly rules
Access badges and tokens
Traffic routing equipment
Things that aren’t as they should be like disabled equipment or people not where they should be
For greatest impact, on the note we [at Open Capitol] suggest:
Your Name
Your Hometown
A peaceful civil message to your public servant(s)
http://OpenCapitol.us
Ooops We Went All Technicolor Luther On R Capitol
[h/t, photo credit to @legaleagle]
Top Chef Open Thread
Is it just me, or has this season just gone on foreeeeeever? The Neverending Season. I am sure they've eliminated 50 chefs by now, right? How long has Blaise been on? It seem like years. He's been on for years, right? It's been years.
Spoilers and whatnot below.
In Case You've Forgotten...
...since the last time we were obliged to pay attention to Mike Huckabee, he is still a jackass:
Mike Huckabee now says he knows President Obama wasn't born in Kenya and that he misspoke when he made that much-maligned comment earlier this week. But on social conservative Bryan Fischer's radio show on Wednesday, he agreed when the host offered that "there may be some fundamental anti-Americanism in this president."Leaving aside all the obvious birther-type fuckery in that comment, and the hilariously unsubtle reminder to paranoid Tea Partiers that Obama's a Top Secret Muslim, I'd just like to point out the inherent irony in the particular institutions chosen by Huckabee to ostensibly demonstrate the superiority of US culture.
..."And I have said many times," [Huckabee said], "publicly, that I do think he has a different worldview and I think it's, in part, molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas."
[Trigger warning for a mentions of sexual abuse.]
The Boy Scouts of America only allow male members to fully participate, and disallow atheists, agnostics, and "known or avowed homosexuals" from membership. Sexual assault cases have been brought against scout leaders in all 50 states.
The Rotary Club only began to extend membership invitations to women in the 1980s, and only after they were sued. It wasn't until the 1990s that gay members were allowed, and, by virtue of its by-invitation-only membership practices, Rotary membership remains disproportionately white, male, and straight.
Both organizations, at least in the US, are strongly affiliated with conservative Christianity.
So. The usual criticisms of madrassas made by conservatives like Huckabee is that they're insular, xenophobic, male-centric, religiously fundamentalist institutions, which discourage diversity and enable the sexual abuse of children via child brides. Ahem.
Never mind the accuracy of those criticisms; that's why they claim to object to madrassas (as if they are monolithic, which they are not). And yet, as long as an institution which could be described in precisely the same terms props up privileged men in the US, it's irrefutable evidence of American Exceptionalism.
Okay, player.
Question of the Day
What is your absolute favorite topic of conversation?
Frivolous, serious, irrepressibly geeky, embarrassingly square, limited to a tiny audience, universally relatable...doesn't matter. Just the thing you most love to talk about.
Quote of the Day
"We're all about the business of Indiana and trying to move an agenda forward right now. That could well get in the way of any national participation. If it does, it does."—Mitch Daniels, Indiana Governor and presumed Republican candidate in 2012.
Gee. I feel so lucky to be Mitch Daniels' priority.
But, on the other hand, I don't wish him on the rest of the nation, so.
Barf.
Shame is right
The "heartbeat" hoopla wasn't the only bullshit happening in the Ohio legislature today:
A GOP-backed measure that would restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees squeaked through the state Senate on a 17-16 vote. Six Republicans sided with Democrats against the measure.Of course he does--back when he as gov-elect, he said he was going to outright dissolve Ted Strickland's (the former governor) executive orders that allowed two groups of workers (home health care and day care providers) to unionize. Kasich is as anti-union--and nearly as Koch-supported--as Walker.
Firefighters and teachers shouted "Shame!" in the chamber as the legislation was approved.
The bill would ban strikes by public workers and establish penalties for those who do participate in walkouts. Unionized workers could negotiate wages, hours and certain work conditions — but not health care, sick time or pension benefits.
The legislation would also set up a new process to settle worker disputes, giving elected officials the final say in contract disagreements. Binding arbitration, which police officers and firefighters use to resolve contract disputes as an alternative to strikes, would be eliminated.
[...]
he bill had passed a Senate committee after leadership replaced Seitz on the panel after he expressed disappointment in the bill, a move that secured the votes needed to get the legislation before the full Senate.
Extra chairs had to be brought in to accommodate the public attending the hearing. Prohibited from clapping, many wagged or waved their hands in response to pro-labor comments.
The bill now goes to the state House, where the GOP holds a 59-40 majority. If passed there, it would go to Republican Gov. John Kasich, who has said he supports the effort.
An Observation
The profundity of my fondness for actual "girl talk"—that is, conversations with other women about our lives, bodies, sexuality, relationships, jobs, whatever—is inversely proportional to my regard for the snidey, dismissive, superficial way the phrase "girl talk" is typically used in the mainstream media.
Photo of the Day
A Wisconsin Assemblyman (Rep. Fred Clark, perhaps?) talks with constituents outside the Capitol in Madison
I may have mentioned once or twice that people are having trouble getting into Wisconsin's Capitol. Sandy Cullen of The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that Democratic Assemblymen Fred Clark (Baraboo), Cory Mason (Racine), Nick Milroy (Superior), and Josh Zepnick (Milwaukee) have moved their desks to the lawn outside the Capitol in order to hold meetings with the public.
[Photo by @MissPronouncer, h/t @BlueCheddar1]
ETA: Ruth Conniff at The Progressive has a great write-up of the Assemblymembers and their staff climbing out the windows (with furniture!) to set up the offices. [h/t BlueRidge in comments]
Daily Dose of Cute
Last Friday, I posted a video compilation of Dudley running to my office with high value treats. Below, Dudley demonstrates the enthusiasm gap between low value treats and high value treats.
Dudley sits in the living room. Liss: "Who's a good boy? You are? You're a good boy?" She holds out a treat. Dudley sniffs at it, then takes it reluctantly. "Mmm, yummy." He drops the treat on the floor. "No? You don't like that one? How about this one?" She hands him another treat, identical to the first. Dudley takes it gingerly, then looks at her disappointedly. "Ehm. Not interested?" He turns and drops the treat on the floor, then eats it with what can only be described as a resigned dog-shrug. He then returns to the first treat, still lying on the floor, and eats it, leaving crumbs on the floor.
He looks at Liss, stretching leisurely. He sniffs at the crumbs, but leaves them; sniffs at his food and water disinterestedly. He comes to the doorway of the kitchen, in which Liss is standing, and nudges her with his nose, then looks in the direction of the treats drawer. "What is it? Do you want a better treat?" He looks at the treat drawer. "Okay." Liss goes to the treat drawer. Dudley stretches and follows her. "Let's see if we can find a better treat." She rummages in the treat drawer; Dudley turns and runs back into the living room.
When she walks back in, he's lying down like a good boy, awaiting her return. Liss laughs. "Oh-h-h! What a good boy!" She hands him the GOOD TREAT. "There we go." Dudley gently takes the treat from her hand then trots down the hall to her office. Sophie jumps around at the end of the hallway, trying to get him to chase her. [edit] Dudley lies on his giant pillow, slowly munching on the treat, which he has broken into pieces, with a look of contentment. He picks up and savors each piece, then carefully and thoroughly licks up all the crumbs. He looks up at Liss and licks his chops.
An Observation
Every time I hear someone tell an anecdote about a run-in with a possum, myself included, they insert some variation on the qualifier, "And, I dunno, it must have been ill or something, because it looked like it had the mange and acted rabid." Snarling expressions accompanied by hissing, tend to immediately follow.
It may be that only the most horrible of possums make their way into our anecdotes, but I'm beginning to suspect that humans may just overestimate the pleasantness of opossums' appearance and demeanor.
Chipping Away at Griswold
I've been rather coy about my thoughts on the actual contents of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's proposed budget, but sure, I'll bite on this one:
The Capital Times:
Gov. Scott Walker wants to again give insurance companies discretion over whether they will cover contraception.Uh, no.
His budget, released Tuesday, proposes the elimination of a recently passed law that requires insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to also include coverage for prescription birth control. Walker’s budget summary says the requirement is an “unacceptable government mandate on employers with moral objections to these services,” and that it “increases the cost of health insurance for all payers.”
Also, lolsob @ recently passed law upholding insured people's right to contraception.
Interestingly enough, I recall that the dearth of birth control options in our insurance plan's formulary was a topic that came up during collective bargaining. Imagine that.
Blog Note
UPDATE: Looks like it's working again now. If you're still having problems, fire me an(other) email.
It's not just you. Disqus is down: "Commenting is unavailable at the moment and we're getting it back up asap."
It's not something we can control on our end. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon. My apologies for the inconvenience.
*Sad Trombone*
FAIL:
Two young mothers were given ultrasounds in a packed room at the [Ohio] Statehouse as part of a House committee meeting Wednesday. The heartbeat of a fetus at 15 weeks gestation was easily detected. The heartbeat in a fetus of nine weeks gestation was difficult to detect.Whoooooooops. LULZ.
Ducia Hamm of Ashland Care Center said the unusual approach was needed to show the effect of the bill. She said a "picture is worth a thousand words."
[H/T to Andy, who got it from Kyle.]
Smart Lady Says Smart Things
I think this video by Anita Sarkeesian does a fantastic job of giving a compact, example-crammed discussion of how popular films reflect patriarchal focii. (Full transcript HERE)
As I watched it, I was also struck by the fact that these "most celebrated" films are also overwhelmingly focused on the stories of white, able-bodied, cisgender, straight people who tend to be middle class or above -- and how the few films that featured dis-enfranchised people nearly all rely on memes of the Magical Disadvantaged Person whose worth is directly related to the benefits they bring to the privileged (Magical Negro in Driving Miss Daisy, Magical Autistic Man in Rain Man, Magical Developmentally-Disabled Man in Forrest Gump, etc.), or boot-strapping underdogs whose triumph is inevitably measured according to kyriarchal standards (Slum Dog Millionaire).
This is one of those videos that I'm putting in my "Here -- watch this" tool bag for those annoying times when people insist that we are living in a post-sexist (or post-whatever) world.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of the upcoming unauthorized biography, James Franco, Because James Franco: What—Did You Think This Book Would Be About Someone Else? You're So Weird.
Recommended Reading:
The Chronicle Review: #JamesFrancoFacts [Thanks to each of the many Shakers who sent this in!]
Sarah: On Women, Bylines, and Bestsellers
Tami: Triggering, Tokenism, or Erasure
Brian: Satisfactioning Ourselves
kirbybits: Staying Alive in a Broken Reality [TW for sexual violence, disordered eating, and self-harm]
Resistance: Ida Keeling
And Happy One-Year Blogiversary to the Crunk Feminist Collective!
Leave your links in comments...
Good News!
[Trigger warning for rape, rape apologia, and victim blaming]
Last week, I [TW] wrote about Manitoba Justice Robert Dewar, who has an obvious problem with victim blaming.
The Winnipeg Free Press reports:
[Following the Free Press' previous coverage of the case,] politicians of all stripes joined student and feminist groups and those who work with sexual assault victims in decrying the comments. Many said they feared Dewar’s remarks - which included "sex was in the air" the night the woman was raped - would deter other victims from coming forward in the future.And now for the really good part:
By Friday afternoon, the judicial council, which has authority over more than 1,100 federally appointed judges, had already received "several" complaints about Dewar’s handling of the case, according to a spokeswoman. She said it is the council's policy not to disclose the names of complainants.
Earlier in the day, more than 100 women and men held a noisy protest outside the downtown Law Courts building. They chanted "yes means yes and no means no," and waved signs sporting an array of messages including, 'Clumsy, ignorant judge,' and 'FYI, Dewar, this is the 21st century.'
Many who attended the demonstration called on the judge to apologize for his remarks and to resign.
Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal issued a written statement Tuesday afternoon saying Justice Robert Dewar will continue sitting on the bench but with a limited caseload.
[Judge Dewar] will stop handling criminal cases "of a sexual nature" pending an ongoing federal review.
[H/t to @DoubleEmMartin]
"The Day the Movies Died"
This is a very interesting, occasionally infuriating, and very funny article about the film industry's creative bankruptcy. Here is an excerpt:
Inception was not a brand, which is why nobody with a marketing background is too eager to go find the next Inception—although ironically, any studio in town would eagerly green-light Inception 2. On the other hand, as you read this, the person who gave the go-ahead to Fast Five, the (I hate to prejudge, but...) utterly unnecessary fifth installment in the Vin Diesel–Paul Walker epic The Fast and the Furious, is sleeping soundly right now, possibly even at his desk. On June 10, 2011, he will bestow on several thousand screens a product that people have already purchased four times before. How can it miss?Now go read the whole thing.
Of course, it can miss; can't-miss movies miss all the time. But when a movie that everyone agrees is pre-sold falls on its face, the dullness of the idea itself never gets the blame. Because the idea that familiarity might actually work against a movie, were it to take hold in Hollywood, would be so annihilating to the studio ecosystem that it would have to be rebuilt from the ground up. Give the people what they don't know they want yet is a recipe for more terror than Hollywood can accommodate.
And while that bland assembly-line ethos hasn't affected the small handful of terrific American movies that reach screens every year, it's been absolutely devastating for the stuff in the middle—that whole tier of movies that used to reside in quality somewhere below, say, There Will Be Blood but well north of Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? It's your run-of-the-mill hey-what's-playing-tonight movie—the kind of film about which you should be able to say, "That was nothing special, but it was okay"—that has suffered most from Hollywood's collective inattention/indifference to the basic virtues of story development. If films like The Bounty Hunter and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time define the new "okay," then the system is, not to put too fine a point on it, in very deep shit.
[H/T to @JamilSmith.]
In case you missed it
You've probably heard about the protests in Wisconsin (and Ohio, and elsewhere). You may have heard that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker just announced his budget. There are people renting hotel rooms in Rockford, too! (Okay that wasn't fair. Thank you for Cheap Trick and for being the R in REO Speedwagon.) However, if you've been watching TV, you may have missed the other drama in Madison.
On Monday, Wisconsin effectively closed the state Capitol. This made it hard for folks to return to collect things they thought were safely in the hands of the handful of holdouts-- things like important medical supplies. It also made it difficult for journalists, Supreme Court justices, and Democratic Assemblymembers to get inside.
Lobbyists, on the other hand, didn't appear to face this difficulty. That's certainly interesting, considering that lobbyists are folks who get paid to represent the interests of people who are too busy (or lazy) to make it down to the Capitol themselves.
Yesterday, AFSCME succeeded in getting a restraining order against the new restrictions on access to the Capitol.
The state responded thusly:The Department of Administration today did receive a temporary injunction requiring the department to open the Wisconsin State Capitol to members of the public during business hours and when governmental matters, including hearings, are being conducted. The policies that DOA currently has in place are in compliance with this order. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. today at the Dane County Circuit Court, Branch 3, before Judge Albert.
In other words, Judge Albert was concerned enough about the new policy that he ordered the state to suspend it until he could rule on its legality. The state countered that since they felt their new policy was legal, they were going to ignore the restraining order. Interesting, that.
This announcement followed an even more fascinating pronouncement from the Capitol Police:The King Street entrance to the Capitol has become congested. Capitol police request the assistance of the people in the area. People in the area of King Street need to exit the immediate area so that we can facilitate the public entry into the building.
There is a court hearing at the Dane County Court House at 2:15 PM and after this hearing we hope to be able to clarify policies on entrance into the Capitol.
I don't like it when strangers on the internet use the term "Orwellian", but, uh, that announcement only makes sense if the word "public" has a brand new meaning.
At 4 pm (I still haven't figured out what happened at the 2:15 public hearing, not that it appeared to have mattered), Governor Walker gave his budget address to a gallery packed with supporters. Members of the public (or people, at least) that had been holding out in the Capitol for days were here.
Rumor has it that these supporters entered through the steam tunnels. This has been hard to confirm, given that the one reporter who followed up on the story was met with terse men who appeared to be protecting the tunnels.
This is a news story. I know its popular in progressive circles to talk about things like Citizens United and access to government, but what's happened in Wisconsin this week takes things to a whole new level. The governor of Wisconsin appears to be using his power to commandeer law enforcement personnel to keep people he disagrees with from participating in government, while allowing his friends access-- and he's done so in violation of a court order.
I recall when President Clinton lied to Congress about oral sex. That was pretty much the main show on TV in 1998. Maybe it's just me, but I think what's going on in Madison is a tad more important, let alone interesting.
Feminism 101: Helpful Hints for Dudes, Part 3
by Shaker Time-Machine, a feminist, fat acceptance advocate, ginormous Doctor Who fan, film student, and terribly busy intern living in LA and trying feverishly to graduate.
[Trigger warning for rape culture and discussions of rape jokes. This post originally appeared in similar form as a comment at Shakesville.]
Following is a primer for men who are interested in learning more about the practical effects of rape humor. Most of the information in this piece is, as always, generally applicable, but this has been written to be most accessible for men in keeping with the objective of the series. Additionally, this post in particular is addressed to men, not because women don't rape and women don't make/laugh at rape jokes and not because men can't be raped, but because, by nature of the existing gender disparity, men are in a unique position to be taken seriously when they raise objections to casual language and humor regarding rape. Men are also in a unique position to prove to rapists and douchebags that not all men rape or take rape lightly by being able to embody living proof of that fact.
To all those men who don't think the rape jokes are a problem:
I get it—you're a decent guy. I can even believe it. You've never raped anybody. You would NEVER rape anybody. You're upset that all these feminists are trying to accuse you of doing something, or connect you to doing something, that, as far as you're concerned, you've never done and would never condone.
And they've told you about triggers, and PTSD, and how one in six women is a survivor, and you get it. You do. But you can't let every time someone gets all upset get in the way of you having a good time, right? Especially when it doesn't mean anything. Rape jokes have never made YOU go out and rape someone. They never would; they never could. You just don't see how it matters.
I'm going to tell you how it does matter. And I tell you this because I genuinely believe you mean it when you say you don't want to hurt anybody, and that it's important to you to do your best to be a decent and good person, and that you don't see the harm. And I genuinely believe you when you say you would never associate with a rapist and you think rape really is a very bad thing.
Here is why I refuse to take rape jokes sitting down…
Because 6% of college-aged men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word "rape" isn't used in the description of the act—and that's the conservative estimate. Other sources double that number (pdf).
A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That's not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?
Rapists do.
They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.
Virtually all rapists genuinely believe that all men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantly reaffirmed in their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like them by things like rape jokes, that dismiss and normalize the idea of rape.
If one in twenty guys (or more) is a real and true rapist, and you have any amount of social activity with other guys like yourself, then it is almost a statistical certainty that one time hanging out with friends and their friends, playing Halo with a bunch of guys online, in a WoW guild, in a pick-up game of basketball, at a bar, or elsewhere, you were talking to a rapist. Not your fault. You can't tell a rapist apart any better than anyone else can. It's not like they announce themselves.
But, here's the thing. It's very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another, someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn't mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed.
Or maybe you didn't laugh. Maybe it just wasn't a very funny joke. So maybe you just didn't say anything at all.
And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed? When you were silent?
That rapist who was in the group with you, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades.
You. The rapist's comrade.
And if that doesn't make you feel sick to your stomach, if that doesn't make you want to throw up, if that doesn't disturb you or bother you or make you feel like maybe you should at least consider not participating in that kind of humor anymore, not abiding it in your presence, not greeting it with silence...
Well, maybe you aren't as opposed to rapists as you claim.
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Note: A quick and simple rule for language and behavior if you want to be a decent person: Ask yourself, who is more likely to be made to feel comfortable around me based on whatever I'm about to say/do? Rape survivors? Or rapists? Who is more likely to be made to feel uncomfortable? If you're doing something that is more likely to make rapists feel comfortable and/or rape survivors feel uncomfortable, then don't do it!
Reading is for the dogs.
The cockles of my heart, they are warmed!
When children read to him, Danny does not criticise or correct their pronunciation. He just nods and pricks up an ear, although sometimes he closes his eyes and appears not to be listening.The picture at the link is adorable, and the caption slays me: "Some children show the dog the pictures as they read." And this: "When Danny goes to sleep I tell the children that he's dreaming about their story." OMG. DEAD OF CUTE.
Danny is a greyhound and a novel way of encouraging pupils at Oakhill primary school in Tamworth, Staffordshire, to read aloud. A "listening dog", he is part of a scheme that originated in the US called Reading Education Assistance Dogs (Read).
"It helps with their self-esteem in reading out loud because he is non-judgmental," says the dog's owner, Tony Nevett, who has a degree in animal-assisted therapy. "He doesn't judge them and he doesn't laugh at them."
Dudley and I have participated in a local READ program, and every time one of the kids shows the dogs pictures, it takes the entire strength of my will to hold together my molecular structure and not melt into a giant puddle.
[H/T to Shakers Katie and JulyBirthday.]
Double Trouble
Yesterday, I wrote about the circus sideshow legislative session in Ohio at which a fetus embryo was scheduled to "testify" on an abortion bill.
This morning, I see that, in fact, TWO embryos (or one embryo and one fetus) are scheduled to "testify."
Two fetuses will be presented as witnesses before an Ohio legislative committee that is hearing a bill to outlaw abortions after the first heartbeat can be detected inside a woman's womb.I know it's a losing battle to try to insert logic into this carnival of fuckery, but surely the fact that THE WOMEN "have agreed to be scanned," as opposed to the embryos, underlines exactly why this entire stunt is total bullshit.
The fetuses will appear live and in color before the committee on a video screen projecting ultrasound images taken from their pregnant mothers' bodies. Janet Folger Porter, head of Faith2Action, an anti-abortion group, said the fetuses will be the youngest witnesses to ever testify when they come in front of the House Health and Aging Committee Wednesday morning.
"Lawmakers are going to be able to see as well as hear the babies' heartbeats," said Porter. "We think this is going to do a lot to keep other babies' heartbeats going in Ohio." She said two Ohio women -- one nine weeks and the other 11 weeks pregnant -- have agreed to be scanned with ultrasound machines for the hearing.
Ohio already bans what critics of the procedure call partial birth abortions as well as requiring parental consent for minors in most cases and a 24-hour waiting period before abortions can be performed.This slow erosion of the right guaranteed by Roe is exactly what I was talking about during the last presidential election, when I was being harangued about how I couldn't see that Obama would PROTECT ROE!!!!eleventy! It's not incidental that he appointed two Supreme Court justices who will presumably defend Roe, but it's also not incidental that Roe is being rendered an empty statute on the state level across the country, and he can't be arsed to even issue a press release about it.
...The heartbeat bill is one of four bills restricting abortions in Ohio that will get hearings Wednesday before the House committee. The others would ban abortions after 20 weeks, make it more difficult for minors to get a judge's permission to get an abortion without parental consent and prohibit abortion coverage in health-care plans offered by the state under the new federal health-care law.
That the fundamental rights of more than half the population are being assailed, that their bodily autonomy and agency is being subverted, and our ostensibly pro-choice president doesn't think that warrants a speech, doesn't think he needs to champion the rights of HALF THE POPULATION, and that his failure is not considered an absolute scandal by progressives, is exactly why we're in the situation we're in now.
Porter calls this bill (which is unlikely to be upheld by the courts, even if it passes the Ohio state legislature) "an arrow in the heart of Roe vs. Wade." They're going for the kill; the Democratic leadership, meanwhile, is making calculated political decisions: Why stand up for women, when they've got nowhere else to go?
