If you were asked to describe yourself using only one word, what word would you choose?
I think I'd go with irrepressible, which can be both complimentary and critical, depending on context, and each are certainly applicable when the context is me.
Question of the Day
Daily Highlights
Waveflux: A Retail Conversation
Shakes: For My Friend Sam, On His Birthday
Shakes: Congratulations, Mayor Daley
Shakes: The Extreme Silliness of the Silliest Subject of the Silly Season
Paul the Spud: Supporting the Troops
Shakes: We're Back
Waveflux: It's been that kind of a day
It's been that kind of a day
Apparently, I was so overwhelmed to see that Shakes was up and running again that I deleted both the Star Trek post I'd written earlier and the most likely (I didn't get to read them) very insightful comments that went along with it.
No, it doesn't make any sense at all. And yet it happened.
I'd like to blame Blogger for this, but I don't think I can.
Wednesday Blogwhoring
Better late than never.
Blue Gal's got the latest Carnival of the Liberals—in limerick form!
Richard Blair's got a great post about From Iraq and Back, which aired last night and shows ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff's recovery from the traumatic brain injury he got in Iraq last year, and then follows Woodruff talking to soldiers who have suffered the same injury and challenging the head of the VA about whether they're getting the best treatment.
I missed it last night, but watched the whole thing in six pieces on ABC's website: In an Instant: The IED Explosion, Bob Woodruff's 36-Day Coma, Wounded Warriors, Are We Ready for Our Injured?, The Human Cost of War, and Woodruff's Closing Thoughts. It's absolutely staggering, and I highly recommend it, with the warning that it is deeply upsetting, so be prepared. But it's a must-see. Truly.
We're Back
Sorry for silence today, Shakers.
Huge Stinking Turdz: The blog evidently got flagged by some sort of Blogger bot as a possible spam site and locked us all out until a human being could verify that the reason for all the links is because we're a BIG, BUSY BLOG WHOSE CONTRIBUTORS LIKE TO POST A LOT!!!
But we're back up now, and there are three new posts for your reading pleasure below that were waiting in the queue during lockdown. Onward, bitchez.
Supporting the Troops
Bad Soldier. No biscuit.
Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.Doubleplusgood. I suppose they should be grateful that they weren't simply sealed into blocks of lucite and taken to that warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden.
“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.
Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.
They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.
Meanwhile, it's time to add a new enemy to the Axis of Evil... Cavity Creeps! After all, they're the ones causing our soldiers to seek medical help, not mental disorders or physical problems! It's all about the choppers, and I don't mean helicopters.
Video at the first link, if you can stomach it. Forget those 73,000 veterans with mental disorders. Forget the 61,000 with diseases of the nervous system. It's all about the toofies. It's just "possible" that they're coming in because of problems associated with the war.Through the lens of his own personal recovery from a traumatic brain injury suffered in Iraq, ABC’s Bob Woodruff last night examined the plight of military families dealing with injuries to their loved ones.
While the Department of Defense reports that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff reported — through an internal VA document — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments.
When Woodruff confronted VA Secretary Jim Nicholson about the disparity in the administration’s figures, Nicholson responded that Americans are probably “surprised to know that 200,000 come to the VA for some kind of medical treatment. That’s probably more than they think.” But Nicholson quickly downplayed the high numbers, claiming a lot of veterans simply “come in for dental problems.”
The Extreme Silliness of the Silliest Subject of the Silly Season
The Silliest Subject, in case you're just tuning into this Silly Season, is Matching Parts Voting. Waveflux and I, having Matching Parts—respectively: he, skin; I, ovaries—to the two candidates bringing whole new parts to the Silly Season this year, have had a bit of fun discussing this phenomenon. And if there are any journos, pundits, or advisors reading who are curious whether it's offensive to assume that Matching Parts guarantees a vote, I've got several snarktastic email exchanges between Wave and I which I'd be happy to share.
Or, you could just read Wave's brilliantly titled post Obama's skin causes IQs to drop sharply, wankery to rise, and my note here in its comment thread: "And you know I'll be voting for Hillary, just because we both have vaginas! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!"
I guess the best you can do when so many people assume seeing Matching Parts makes (white?) women and black people (how do black women choose?!) lose all capacity for rational, critical thought, is laugh. And laugh I did as I grabbed this screen capture off Memeorandum earlier:
The problem now, you see, is that the media was saying for so long that Obama wasn't authentically black enough to explain why he wasn't as popular as Hillary with black voters, so now that he's gaining traction, it will look like all kinds of silliness as various news organizations get up to speed with the new meme at different times and try to explain why he's now, apparently, authentically black enough. It couldn't possibly be that Obama, first-term junior senator from Illinois, was simply an unknown quantity to most of America, and, as he becomes better known, more Americans of all races will embrace him. (How could they not?—he's so clean and articulate, right, Joe?) Honestly, the silliness is almost as astounding as the insult of treating entire demographic blocks like half-witted Pavlov's dogs who think they'll get a magical treat if they pull the lever for Matched Parts.
Jill notes that the trend appears to be "the longer Hillary's campaign goes on and the more arrogantly it behaves, the less people like her." Seems like there might be something to that—except my vagina keeps insisting she's The One…
Congratulations, Mayor Daley
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley cruised to victory for the sixth time last night, garnering over 70% of the vote.
A jubilant Daley walked into a ballroom of the Chicago Hilton & Towers to the strains of "Takin' Care of Business" and, in a speech that lasted just a few minutes, claimed victory before excited supporters.LOL—"Takin' Care of Business." That's so Daley.
Daley, 64, was first elected mayor in 1989. If he serves out his term, he will surpass his father's time in office on Dec. 26, 2010, when he hits 7,915 days as mayor.Last night, as Mr. Shakes and I were watching the returns, we were just laughing about how crazy it is for anyone to run against Daley. The dude doesn't even have to campaign—we saw maybe three campaign ads for him, and they were all during the last week.
"Who's goona voote against Daley?!" said Mr. Shakes.
"I know, right?" I replied. "The guy's an institution. It would be like voting against the Sears Tower."
[Mannion once posted my favorite picture ever of Richard J. Daley, the aforementioned record-holding father of Richard M. Daley.]
For My Friend Sam, On His Birthday
On hearing a thrush sing in his morning walk.
Sing on, sweet thrush, upon the leafless bough,
Sing on, sweet bird, I listen to thy strain,
See aged Winter, 'mid his surly reign,
At thy blythe carol, clears his furrowed brow.
So in lone Poverty's dominion drear,
Sits meek Content with light, unanxious heart;
Welcomes the rapid moments, bids them part,
Nor asks if they bring ought to hope or fear.
I thank thee, Author of this opening day!
Thou whose bright sun now gilds yon orient skies!
Riches denied, thy boon was purer joys—
What wealth could never give nor take away!
Yet come, thou child of poverty and care,
The mite high heav'n bestow'd, that mite with thee I'll share.
— Robert Burns
Btw, I have it on good authority that he penned
this sonnet by the light of a W.C. Fields lamp.
Happy Birthday, Sam.
[And I still have no idea how old Sam actually is.]
A retail conversation
M's new guardian angels at the officeA recent conversation with staffers at a nearby Hallmark store:
Male sales associate: Hello, Hallmark Gold Crown at ___________, can I help you?
Waveflux: Hi! I called to see if you guys stocked any of the Hoops & Yoyo dolls.
Male sales associate: [silent]
Waveflux: [silent]
Male sales associate (warily): ...Hoops and who?
Waveflux: Uh, Hoops & Yoyo....they're characters that Hallmark made into dolls. They're very popular.
Male sales associate: Um...I don't know what that is. Hoops?
Waveflux: And Yoyo, yes. They're featured on the Hallmark website. The dolls are sold through the website. I thought I'd see if I could pick them up from a store.
Male sales associate: I'm gonna put somebody else on. She might know.
Waveflux: Okay.
(murmuring on other end of line)
Female sales associate: Hello, how may I help you?
Waveflux: Hello. I was looking for...are you familiar with the Hallmark characters Hoops & Yoyo?
Female sales associate: Hoops and...Yoyo? (laughs) No, no I'm not, sir.
Waveflux: They're characters on the Hallmark website, little cartoon characters. There are video clips of them on the site, they sell dolls and t-shirts of them...
Female sales associate: Are you talking about Webkinz?
Waveflux: Webkinz? No, I don't think - no, I've never heard of Webkinz.
Female sales associate: Because we do sell those.
Waveflux: Hoops & Yoyo are two different animals. Hoops is a bunny - no, I'm sorry, Hoops is the cat, a pink cat, and Yoyo is a green bunny...I think they're fairly popular.
Female sales associate: I'm afraid I'm not familiar with them, sir. Unless they might be Webkinz.
Waveflux: I don't think they are. It doesn't sound as if you carry them...I was going to come by and buy them from the store rather than order them from the website, but I'll just go ahead and order them.
Female sales associate: Okay.
Waveflux: If you get a chance, you might want to look up "Hoops & Yoyo" on the web. Just Google it and you'll see what I mean.
Female sales associate (laughs): Okay.
Waveflux: Okay, thanks very much.
Female sales associate: Goodbye.
##########
So what I'm thinking is that Hallmark may not have the whole clicks and mortar concept balanced out just yet. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
(Cross-posted.)
Question of the Day
Shaker Aram emailed me with the following: "I've been particularly taken recently with the Peter Gabriel/Youssou N'Dour song Shaking The Tree (lyrics here). What's strange to me is that I can't immediately think of any other songs by male artists that are so explicitly feminist. … I'm sure that if you put the question to your readers, they'll immediately come up with a dozen that will have me slapping my head, but for the moment, I'm stumped."
I thought this was an interesting question, particularly in light of how often we talk about how important allies are generally, and, more specifically, how many times Shaker fans of Joss Whedon have mentioned admiringly how well he writes female characters (something about which you can see him talking here).
So…whatcha got?
Daily Round-up
Litbrit: On the Move!
Waveflux: Action Items re: Pfc. LaVena Johnson
Shakes: A Tale of Two Stories
Shakes: High Drudgeon
Shakes: A Tale of Two Posts
Shakes: HOFF!
Shakes: I'm Not Worried
Litbrit: To the Pigheaded, Everything Looks Like Pork
Misty: Mary Sighting on a Pizza Pan
Shakes: My Sisters
Misty: Shaker Gourmet
Paul the Spud: Best Use of Björk Evah!
Paul the Spud: No One Reports the Good Things in Iraq
Shakes: Happy Birthday, Misty!
Shakes: One of Them
Shakes: More on Laura
Shakes: Caption This Photo
The Heretik: Brand Romney
Shakes: How about a little good news?
How about a little good news?
To be filed under Not All Religious People Hate Gays…
Gay bishop says no to ultimatum: "The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, whose consecration has brought the world's Anglicans to the brink of schism, said Tuesday that the Episcopal Church should not give in to demands that it roll back its acceptance of gays. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson said in a statement … 'Now is the time for courage, not fear'." Right on, brother. Err, father. Whatever.
To be filed under Not All States Are Trying to Fight SSM…
Hawaii Civil Union Bill Heads To Committee: "Legislation to legalize civil unions will receive its first public hearing in the Hawaii legislature on Tuesday evening. The House Judiciary Committee will hear from people on both sides of the issue. If passed the bill would grant the equal rights and responsibilities of marriage, while stopping short of being defined as marriage … [and] Hawaii would join Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey in allowing civil unions."
Gay Relationship Bill Introduced In Oregon: "Legislation that would recognize same-sex couples was introduced in the Oregon legislature on Monday. Called the Family Fairness Act it would provide many of the state rights of marriage on gay couples. Oregon has a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage and the Fairness Act carefully avoids using the terms civil unions or domestic partnerships. But many LGBT activists who pushed for the bill are calling it civil union legislation."
I know that the proposed legislation in Hawaii and Oregon is not the same as marriage; in other words, not good enough. But the point is just to remember that there is forward momentum, slow though it may be. It's easy to get discouraged, but we should celebrate even the smallest steps that bring us closer to the day when we are all truly equal under the law.
Brand Romney
Mitt Romney's handlers agree the "electorate is not where it needs to be for us to succeed." So if the electorate won't come to Mitt, is the strategy for Mitt to come to the electorate? Yes, and no. A perfect Romney answer. Romney is coming hard to the right to win over Republican voters at the same time he is charging right past the great majority of Americans.
You have to love a Romney campaign document with a page titled "Primal Code for Brand Romney." Romney will define others perhaps to avoid others defining Romney. Whichever Romney shows up today will probably look different from yesterday, but his hair won't.
Brand Romney? And brand those others losers.
McCain is described as a war hero and maverick with a compelling narrative and a reputation for wit, authenticity, and straight talk. But he's also seen as "too Washington," "too close to [Democratic] Left," an "uncertain, erratic, unreliable leader in uncertain times." "Does he fit The Big Chair?" the document asks. The plan calls McCain, 70, a "mature brand" and raises questions about whether he could handle the rigors of leading the free world.As the political winds blow, Romney's positions change as much as his hair doesn't. One worry for staffers? Mitt's hair is too perfect. That may explain the reverse Grecian Formula effect on the silvered side burns. Can we expect new wrinkles of age and experience soon?
Giuliani is called an outside-the-Beltway rock star and truth teller who earned the nation's trust for his leadership of New York City's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But he is described as a one-dimensional Lone Ranger whose social views -- he supports abortion rights and civil unions for gay couples -- could destroy the "GOP brand." "We can't disqualify Dems like Hillary on social issues ever again" if Giuliani is the nominee, the document states.
Plus it's not personal, it's business. A flip is not a flop
Romney's behavior—and the fact that he doesn't think his obvious flip-flopping should arouse suspicions—suggests that he may be the first real CEO/MBA candidate. Sure, President George W. Bush is the first president to have an MBA, and he made noises about running the country like a company. (Insert Enron joke here.) But in contrast to Bush, Romney was a real businessman before getting into politics.All of this makes sense if you accept politics is a business. The best job in a business for a Republican is to be the owner.
The [Romney] plan concedes that, with McCain and Giuliani in the race, Romney is unlikely to be the top pick for those voters looking for a "war/strong leader." His goal appears to be establishing himself as a credible second choice for those voters, but the first pick for voters looking for an energetic, optimistic, and innovative chief executive. (A page titled "Own the future" dubs McCain the past, Giuliani the present, and Romney the future. )Warning: look what we got the last time voters chose energetic, optimistic, and innovative.
Caption This Photo
Betty Heath from Mississauga, Ontario stands next to Clyde Hymel from Laplace, La., on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras in New Orleans Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
More on Laura
All day, something else about Laura Bush's much-discussed comment—"[M]any parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."—has been niggling at the back of my mind, and I finally figured out what it is, after Shaker Carovee said in comments, "Can you imagine what the headlines would be like here … if there was ONE bombing a day?!"
Yes, I can. And not only that, I can imagine that if there were one day in which four airplanes were used as missiles, the entire country would plummet into a profound, grief-stricken shock from the depths of which we still wouldn't have fully recovered almost six years later.
That the scale of the average bombing in Iraq is not remotely the same as what happened here on 9/11 is not the point—the grotesque beauty of terror is that intimate attacks can be equally as effective at terrorizing, if not at killing, as those writ large.
This country was stunned by 9/11. We were wounded. We were discombobulated. We were, according to plan, terrorized. In other words, we reacted as humans react to such things. Given time, humans heal, too. But George Bush prevented America from healing, from emerging out from under the weight of terror. Our collective fear, the pliant submission it yielded, was blissfully useful for a president with pretensions of tyranny and a yen to dismantle that pesky Constitution. Where Bin Laden left off, Dubya took over—and he's been screaming panic-inducing reminders from the top of that pile of rubble ever since. Remember 9/11.
Few people should know better the intensity of the fear after 9/11, should know better the power of continually exploiting the fear of terrorized people, should know better their inability to heal if terror never ends, should know better that one bombing a day is enough to do more than discourage people than the First Lady. How can she pretend she doesn't understand the significance, the fear, the pain, of one bombing a day, when her husband's entire presidency has been built around one day of bombing?
What bothers me is the undercurrent of her comment that those of us who despair at the loss of innocent life in Iraq—which now far exceeds the American blood spilled on 9/11 and the number of troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq—are wrong to care about the people we were supposedly liberating, that their pain is not equal to ours, that, while one day of bombing here fundamentally changed this country and anyone who disagreed was a traitor, one bombing a day there is deserving neither of our attention nor our anguish.
One of Them
The Right are notoriously forgiving in practice. It doesn't matter if their champion of family values is a lifelong "bachelor" or a divorcee or a compulsive philanderer or all three. It doesn't matter to them if their warrior hero kings are draft-dodgers. It doesn't matter to them if their anti-choice, anti-gay marriage candidate was once pro-choice and pro gay rights and may still be and is lying to them about it. It doesn't matter to them if their "Christian" candidate goes to their church, a church, or even truly believes.Similar to the thoughts I was having here and here earlier today, except way better and shit. Go read the whole thing; it's good.
All that matters is that the candidate proves he is one of them.
There are two important steps in becoming one of them. First you have to be able to pay repeated and flattering lip service to them, to their goodness, to their wisdom, to what they believe. The second, and this is the one that makes it impossible for even the most "Christian" Democrat to convince them he is one of them, you have to hate who they hate with the same red hot passion.
The hating is crucial because who they hate is everybody who is not them, and everybody who is not them, is on the side of the devil.
UPDATE: Fred Clark's got some similar thoughts, too. I also like "people of good will," btw.
Happy Birthday, Misty!
I baked you your very own Barbie birthday cake!
May it bring you this much joy—and more!
Holy Crap
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday near a park popular with young soccer players, killing at least 18 boys in a city west of Baghdad known as a center of the Sunni insurgency, police said. The attack occurred just three days after more than 50 people were killed outside a mosque in a nearby village where the imam had spoken out against the group al-Qaida in Iraq — pointing to an increasingly bloody attempts to silence its opponents. But the deaths of the boys, aged 10 to 15, left authorities grasping for a possible motive.And yet, we're still hearing the "no one reports on the good things in Iraq" meme.
The bomb-rigged car blew apart late Tuesday afternoon while the boys were playing in central Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad. Both local police and state television said 18 boys died.
The Interior Ministry did not immediately return calls for further details of the attack. U.S. Marines are stationed near Ramadi.
[...]
In July 2005, a suicide bombing in Baghdad killed 27 people, including 18 children and an American soldier. A moment of silence across Iraq was later held.But now, the violence has become so frequent and numbing that it's possible the boys' death will pass without any special note. At least 10 people were killed in bombings in Baghdad, where a security operation was launched earlier this month targeting militant factions and sectarian death squads that have ruled Baghdad's streets.
I don't want to hear any more of this "liberals/democrats/anti-war protesters want us to lose" bullshit. This war is fucking lost. Will we "win" when every citizen in Iraq sits huddled in their home, afraid to open the door lest they get blown to pieces?
Cue the "blame Islam" shrieking from the Right.
YouTube- The Busy Blogger's Best Friend
I've been swamped with work and school annoyances this week... completely AWOL from the blog yesterday; writer's block today... what's a blogger to do?
Why, post YouTube clips of course!
Best use of Bjork evah!
Shaker Gourmet
Today's recipe comes from...me! It's my birthday, so I'm putting my own stuff in today. Mwahahahahaha, I have the power. :-)
This really is excellent, if I do say so myself. You should try it!Tastes Like Chicken…Pot Pie
* 1 rotisserie chicken
* 1 cup sliced frozen carrots
* 3/4 cup frozen green peas
* 1/3 cup butter
* 1/3 cup chopped onion
* 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
* dash thyme
* 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
* 2/3 cup milk
* 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
* egg white
—Preheat oven to 425
—Pick all the chicken off (at least) half of the rotisserie chicken, shred it by hand. (Take the rest of the meat off and use for another recipe). Place one crust in pie plate, form to plate, and bake for 5 minutes. Take out of oven when done and let cool.
—Pour chicken broth in small pot w/lid. Boil carrots, covered, in broth for appx 10 minutes. Put peas in pot in last 4 minutes. Drain and keep broth! Set veggies aside.
—Cook onion in butter and all spices until onion is translucent. Add flour and mix. Slowly stir in broth and milk. Simmer and stir over med-low heat until thickened and smooth.
—Retrieve pre-baked crust. Layer chicken on bottom, then veggies on top. Pour sauce over top. Add top crust. Be sure to cut a few slits on top to let steam out. Brush thin layer of egg white over top crust.
—Cook for 35 minutes and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Bonus recipe:
I actually make this with bananas. The key is to have ripe bananas, as one would for banana bread. I slice the bananas fairly thin and layer them on the brown sugar. "Banana Cake" is a family favorite breakfast treat!Upside-Down Cake
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup shortening
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup milk
* fruit—2 peeled & sliced apples; can crushed pineapple, sliced peaches, etc
(whatever you want)
—Heat oven to 350 degrees.
—Pour melted butter into the bottom of an 8 inch square baking dish. Tilt the
dish so that it is evenly coated. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter. Arrange the fruit to cover the brown sugar, set aside.
—In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening, butter, and white sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Pour into the baking dish so that the fruit is completely covered.
—Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted, comes out clean. Immediately invert onto a serving plate.
My Sisters
I've been meaning to write something about the atrocious evictions from the DePauw chapter of Delta Zeta of 23 women who were overweight, non-white, geeky, and/or otherwise nonconforming to a stereotypically "sorority girl" archetype, but I just don't know what to say that hasn't already been said by Bitch, PhD, Grabapple, Jason, and others.
These are some of the gals that Delta Zeta thought weren't good enough
for them, and some of the girls who quit in protest of their sisters' eviction.
These are my sisters. No dues required.
if it's not grilled cheese or a door it must be...
Many Houstonians say they see something on a pizza pan that's nothing short of a miracle. And now, hundreds are flocking to an east Houston house on Leslie at Hahlo to get a peek.In the pizza pan they see an image of Mary. Now I've looked at the image several times and to me, it looks a bit like a gourd:
Apparently, they're serving something special at the cafeteria of Pugh Elementary. On Ash Wednesday, HISD employee Guadalupe Rodriguez was washing and scrubbing a sheet pan when she noticed something.
"On the third rinse I started watching it, trying to discover what it was," she recalled.
So moved by the discovery, Rodriguez took the pan to her manager, who saw the vision too.
What the women saw was an image that is unmistakable to them. It drew so much attention the pan was moved to a nearby home, where it has become the center of a shrine.
Or a Boobah...
Holy folks Gone Wild on doggy doors, ice, peanuts, x-rays, turtles, ultrasounds, chocolate, dying plants, sheet metal, trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, wardrobes, water stains, grilled cheese sandwiches, potato chips, plates of pasta, drywall, fish, and more fish.
To The Pigheaded, Everything Looks Like Pork
Despite what you may have read and heard for the past, oh, several decades, Phyllis Schlafly wants you to know that American women are actually doing fine--there's no violence perpetrated against them at all, so move along, nothing to see here:
The WHO report asserts that one in three of the world's women, in some countries as many as 70 percent, experience violence in their lifetime, usually from their own partner, which is the rationale for calling it domestic violence. I'm surprised feminists don't claim 100 percent, because "violence" is broadly defined to include nonphysical "psychological and economic" actions.Wow, Phyllis, paranoid much?
[.....]
You can bet that a primary purpose of International Violence Against Women Act money will be to lobby the U.S. Senate for ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women so that its U.N. monitoring committee can force U.S. compliance with feminist goals. That agenda includes everything from requiring unlimited abortion rights to rewriting schoolbooks to eliminate so-called "stereotypes" and gender-specific references.
Curious as to what the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women could possibly have to do with unlimited abortion rights and schoolbook rewritings--indeed, with the dreaded "forced compliance with feminist goals" (more radical agendas emanating from the famous Feminazi Cooter, I bet!)--I decided to go to the source and read for myself what the United Nations is going on about as it begins the 51st session of the UN’s women’s commission this week (my bolds):
Much work remains to be done before goals of gender equality – and their resulting positive impact on primary-school enrolment, maternal mortality rates and women’s economic independence – are reached, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General told the opening of the 51st session of the UN’s women’s commission today.No mention of altering schoolbooks and building rows of abortion clinics. There are, however, plenty of initiatives in the UN's proposals that deserve the support of every nation, including the United States.“Most egregiously, violence against women and girls remains pervasive – perpetrated by family members, strangers and agents of the State in all regions of the world, in the public and private spheres, in peacetime and during conflict,” warned Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, the highest-ranking woman in the Organization.
[.....]
“Let me…encourage the Commission to take bold steps to improve the lives of girls everywhere,” said Ms. Migiro, herself a mother of two girls. Several girls have been invited to share their experiences with the Commission during its session at UN Headquarters.In 2005, Member States found that, at the 10-year mark of the landmark 2005 Beijing Platform for Action, an extensive blueprint for promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls, the goal of fully protecting girls had not been realized. Girls remained at high risk of being sexually abused and sexually exploited and trafficked for commercial purposes.
[.....]
“Ending this pandemic will require our individual and collective commitment,” Ms. Migiro said, listing several possible ways to solve the problem. “It will require us to create an environment where such violence is not tolerated; to work for the full implementation of existing legal norms and policies; to make focused efforts to prosecute and punish perpetrators; to dedicate sufficient resources; and to fully involve men and boys in changing stereotypical attitudes and behaviour.”
Schlafly, like all good conservative talking-point-spewers, wants people to worry about all the money--feminist pork, as she terms it--that America will be pouring into this dreadful, heartless effort to improve the lives of women and girls all over the world. And she points out that many of the countries who are discussing it have--*gasp*--horrible women's rights records themselves, as though that should disqualify them from trying to work toward gender equality:
All these countries are eligible to sit on the convention's monitoring committee of 23 "experts" who monitor "progress" and order compliance. All U.N. projects to improve the lot of women follow the feminist model: Break up the family, force women into the work force, and send kids to day care.Again with the paranoia! This time, Schlafly invokes the dreaded break-up-the-family and force-women-to-work anti-feminism chestnuts. As if Schlafly herself were not a working woman. As if mothers all over the world were not, by definition, working like maniacs, whether it's in an office, a house, a field, or a battlefield.
Then, Schlafly's pièce de résistance (warning: swallow your coffee before reading):
U.S. women are the most privileged class of people on the face of the earth. That's because we are the beneficiaries of the Judeo-Christian civilization, including the requirement in the Ten Commandments to honor mothers and the Christian religion that honors the Virgin Mary and respects women.Ah, no. U.S. women may be among the luckiest women on earth, but they're certainly not the most privileged class of people to walk on its surface. According to the US Census Bureau, women in America are hampered by higher poverty rates and lower earnings than men. And, according to the National Organization for Women, women here are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by someone known to them, and young women, women who are separated, divorced or single, low-income women and African-American women are the victims of violence and sexual assault in even more disproportionate numbers, as are gay women and men.
And as for this "privilege" of American women having come about courtesy of the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of American culture (not, as Schlafly implies, law), I'd remind her that both religions, along with some other ones, too, were practiced in the country for quite a long while before American women were even afforded the same right to vote as men--in 1920--and that this came about not through theocratic mandate, but rather, because the nation's feminists fought, and fought hard, for it.
Just as the nation's feminists today will continue to fight, and fight hard, for the rights of women and girls both here and abroad. To sneeringly belittle such efforts--to call them feminist pork--when there are towering slaughterhousefuls of Republican-supplied pork currently filling the coffers of war profiteers and disappearing by the billions--by the ton!--in Iraq...well, I'd say such anti-woman nastiness was unbecoming of a lady, but I suppose one has to consider the source.
Crossposted at litbrit's place.
I'm Not Worried
Mike the Mad Biologist explains his worry about why political pandering to creationists matters:
In March, there's going to be a report released about antibiotic resistance in bacteria. A major finding of the report: roughly 40,000 people die every year from hospital-acquired antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.One's answer to that question is predicated on whether one believes the person doing the pandering actually believes their own bullshit. See, I imagine that if one of the dopes currently pandering to creationists, in spite of having shown a vague respect for science and reason in the past, actually became president, an evolutionary biology-related health crisis of unspeakable proportions would be no more (or less) likely than if a non-panderer became president. Guys like McCain and Giuliani are full of shit and desperate to get elected, but they're not stupid.
The problem of antibiotic resistance is, fundamentally, a problem of evolutionary biology. Species of bacteria which had very few resistant strains (or none at all) now contain high frequencies of resistance strains (e.g., methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA). In other words, populations of bacteria have undergone genetic change—evolution—which has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. How can one expect any administration which has to pander to creationists to take this evolutionary problem seriously?
It's not the panderers about whom we have to worry. It's the jerkoffs who actually believe this shit. But, frankly, even then, in the face of an imminent and unavoidable calamity, I imagine the relationship between their allergy to evolutionary biology and their aversion to aiding and abetting a plague would look eerily similar to the relationship between Bush's rhetoric about a culture of life and Bush's foreign policy. The thing to always keep in mind is that these people are first and foremost disingenuous tossers without a speck of integrity or consistency.
That said, I wouldn't, with any confidence, put it past any of them to let half of America succumb to rogue bacteria—but if they did, it wouldn't be because they're creationists. It would be because they couldn't find a way to profit from stopping it, or because their corporate masters found a way to profit from not stopping it, or because they're generally evil shits with a penchant for social Darwinism (the irony). In any case, it's probably safer not to assume you can predict anything based on the stated principles of modern movement conservatives.
HOFF!
This is a game of skill and precision.
Click on the Hoff to play.
[Via Radmila. Sometimes, directly after a post that makes me so mad I barely know what to do with myself, I think the best thing for all of us is a little silliness.]
A Tale of Two Posts
By the fate of an alphabetized Bloglines list, I just read these two posts back-to-back…
Mustang Bobby:
Question of the Day: When was the last time you put something—i.e. a job—on the line in order to stand up for your principles?Bil Browning, writing about his life after last week's protest at the Indiana Statehouse against SJR-7, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage:
The day after the rally, my phone rang off the hook with folks calling to support me after the brouhaha. However, what is disturbing (since my cell phone number isn't published!) is how many phone calls I got from people telling me I was going to burn in hell, I was a sinner, I should be run out of town, etc.I can't even begin to express how furious and deeply concerned I am that Bil and his family are being subjected to this shit. Bil is a friend of mine, along with being a fellow Hoosier blogger. What are the odds that two people who know each other, both bloggers, who live in the same state, would be threatened and harassed by rightwing nutjobs within weeks of one another? Pretty fucking good, I guess, considering that the common theme is that we're both vociferous supporters of same-sex marriage equality. Nearly every last post of mine that was cited as evidence of my alleged bigotry had been written in support of SSM.
The politics of personal destruction have begun in earnest and it seems that my family and I are taking the brunt this time.
For example, the window on my car was busted out last night. It was parked on the street since it's the old car that we don't use as much. The car was obviously searched, but nothing was taken—not even the spare change. Footsteps in the snow lead directly up to our car and then back away. No other car on the street was touched—and ours is the ugliest, oldest car parked on the block. The police don't think robbery was the motive, obviously, but instead have asked who we've pissed off lately.
And that's just the stuff that I feel comfortable talking about.
Meanwhile, the epidemic of hatred against the LGBT community continues with another heinous week in which a 21-year-old woman was left severely injured after being attacked for identifying herself as a lesbian, and a 72-year-old man was left dead after being attacked for being presumed gay. And where is the national outrage? Where is the anger that people are being attacked and killed for being gay, that people are being threatened and having their property destroyed for protesting their state-sanctioned inequality? Where are our national leaders? Where are the Democrats, who are meant to champion equality and progress? Where are the Republicans, who are meant to champion keeping the government out of our personal lives? Where are all the religious people who supposedly hate the sin but love the sinner?
To reference Bobby's question again, there are people regularly putting their lives on the line for something in this country—but nobody seems to notice. It's a national disgrace.
Be safe, Bil.
High Drudgeon
Drudge is all in a dither trying to promulgate—again—the story that Al Gore isn't really green, a claim predicated on the erroneous presumption that it's easy being green. But, as any singing frog worth his salt will tell you, it isn't easy being green, and it isn't always obvious how big energy-users make themselves green. Gore, for instance, couldn't possibly travel the world giving talks about global warming without using carbon-based fuels, so he buys carbon offsets. It's not the least bit complicated to understand, but it's so much fun to scream about how Gore's a hypocrite.
Or, as August so perfectly put it, Shocking report reveals Al Gore uses electricity, says popular idiot.
The number of times I've now seen some rightwinger or other declaring Gore's energy use "his inconvenient truth"—ho ho ho!—has now got to be approaching triple digits. And aside from the fact that the accusation is patently inaccurate on its bloody face, evidencing yet again the widespread contempt for truth and void of integrity plaguing the rightwing, it's just tiring to see people who vociferously support an administration led by two incredibly wealthy oilmen demand that liberals live like goddamned monks. Gore is a big old hypocrite, just like John Edwards, who has the temerity to be rich while advocating on behalf of the poor, just like John Kerry, who couldn't possibly have cared about real people because he married an extremely wealthy woman, etc.
And it’s the same bullshit about every issue: Gore's and Kerry's voluntary service in Vietnam was questionable, and Gore was only a journalist and Kerry probably shot himself and they both hate the troops squawwwwwk screeeeeeech cawwwww! But Bush's pathetic showing in a service position wrangled by Daddy and Cheney having "other priorities" during the war that warranted his four deferments are unassailable evidence that they're the ones with honor and the guts to protect this country.
On and and on and on ad infinitum. Because it's such a fun game to play, and that's the only thing that matters, besides winning, truth be damned.
A Tale of Two Stories
Laura Bush, First Propagandist, said yesterday on Larry King Live: "[M]any parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody." This is, of course, total horseshit; as Think Progress notes, "According to the latest Brookings Institution Iraq Index, as of November 2006, there were approximately 185 insurgent and militia attacks every day."
But let's pretend she's right as we move to the next story, shall we?
Bagram, Afghanistan, today: "A suicide bomber killed 19 people and wounded 11 outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target."
Cheney's fine, btw. And has apparently asked Laura Bush to go hunting with him to show his appreciation for her thoughtful comments the day before his ass was nearly blown up.
Action items re: Pfc. LaVena Johnson
As the blogosphere awakens to the story of Pfc. LaVena Johnson's death, it's important to remember that this story is much larger than Blogville. Weblogs obviously have their importance in comminicating this story, but you don't have to be a blogger to be concerned over the anguish of LaVena's family and the inflexibility of the Army in refusing to reopen its investigation of her death. And you don't have to be a blogger to act on that concern.
One very important and helpful act: commend the reporter and television station that brought this new information about LaVena to light: Matt Sczesny (pronounced says-nee) of KMOV-TV in St. Louis. Please contact the KMOV newsroom at news@kmov.com. It would be helpful to mention the name of Lavena Johnson in the subject header. If you'd rather contact KMOV another way, here's the info:
KMOV-TV
One Memorial Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63102
Main Switchboard: 314-621-4444 (8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Monday - Friday)
News: 314-444-6333
Other steps you can take involve:
The media close at hand. LaVena's story is no more a local concern than the war in Iraq or the concern families have for their loved ones overseas. Share that concern in the letters column of your newspaper, or on open line discussion on that radio talk show you listen to.
The media far away. LaVena's story won't enter the minds of the professional opinion-makers unless it is brought to their attention. It could be a national-level print columnist (a Nick Kristoff, possibly), a television personality (a Keith Olbermann, perhaps), a talk show host (an Oprah Winfrey, maybe). If you feel that a particular media personality would be sympathetic to the story of Pfc. Johnson and her family, please share that story with him or her.
Those who have written or talked about LaVena before. Our attention span is narrow; we have to work to remember things, even important things. There are news outlets that have mentioned LaVena's death once and then moved on because that's the way of the world. Find out who they are (Google, Lexis Nexis, and the like). Help them remember. Remind them of LaVena.
Friends, family, plain old people. I look at the links that are bringing people to the posts on LaVena and see that several originated from emails. People are sharing the story. It takes just a moment to spread the word via your address book. Or over dinner.
Politicians. Frequent reader Bitty gave me the idea of contacting members of the Senate Armed Services (direct contact info at the bottom of that linked post). Both of Bitty's senators sit on that committee, as does one of mine (which reminds me: I haven't yet seen a response from Claire McCaskill's office). There's a corresponding committee in the House, however, and I would suggest that concerned constituents contact those members. I will post contact info for them on this blog tomorrow, time allowing. House member email addresses are now posted along with Senate member info.
Also: I have heard that a few politicians are running for president, and that they occasionally mention Iraq and the US troops stationed there. It would be useful to know (1) if they are can be helpful to Pfc. Johnson's family in this matter, and (2) if not, why not.
Those who have served. I saved soldiers for last here when they might easily have been first; I did so because I believe it's important to go away from this thinking primarily about the men and women who have served us in dangerous places. Our thoughts are with them and for them and their families, regardless of personal feelings about the current war. If you have a loved one or a friend who is is serving now or has served, share LaVena's story with that soldier.
The only thing I'd add right now is that even though feelings on this subject will run hot, it's important to be decent in your communications with people from whom you are asking help. After all, you're acting not in your name alone, but in someone else's.
Any suggestions that can be added here would be welcome.
Thanks very much for your attention, and your help.
(Cross-posted. Thanks very much to Melissa for the heads-up.)
Litbrit Has Moved!
Good Evening, fellow Shakers. Exactly one year ago, thanks in no small part to the encouragement of our hostess and other kind readers here, I decided to join the fun and settled into a little corner of the blogosphere, naming it after a character in one of my favorite poems, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.
Since then, I've written about almost everything but poetry (which is not to say I won't be writing about poetry in the future), and in the interests of representing myself more accurately as well as streamlining and simplifying one of the few things in my life that actually can be streamlined and simplified, I've decided to change my blog's title--The Last Duchess--to the nickname, litbrit, by which I am far better known. The blog's address (URL) is simplified, too. Please update your links and come and say hello--it's always great to hear from old friends, and it's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of new ones.
Here's the new URL: http://litbrit.blogspot.com/
Question of the Day
If you were an actor, whose career would you most want to have?
I'm not talking about the extraneous stuff, like an excessive amount of tabloid coverage, or even the personal stuff, like drug habits—just the résumé (and, presumably, the talent to match).
It's tempting to choose someone older, because I have a clearer picture of a total career, but I think I'd choose Kate Winslet (even though I blanche at having Titanic even on my hypothetical résumé). Yeah, probably Kate—who just edges Diane Keaton, because making out with Woody Allen actually seems worse than doing Titanic.
If I were a dude, no question: Johnny Depp.
Daily Highlights
And a couple from the weekend…
Shakes: In Which the Media Makes Me Defend Mitt Romney
Shakes: 2,000,000
Shakes: Iran Update
Shakes: Damn the Radical Limp-Wristed Flipper Agenda
Shakes: Congratulations, Al
Shakes: The Jokes…They Write Themselves
Shakes: I Can't Begin to Imagine
Shakes: Language Geekery
Shakes: Quotes of the Day
Shakes: Misogyny is so odd!
Shakes: Caption This Photo
Shakes: Some Thoughts
Caption This Photo
First Lady Laura Bush speaks to U.S. President George W. Bush
during a performance in honor of the Nation's Governors in the East
Room of the White House in Washington February 25, 2007.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES)
Who's Your Mommy?
Excellent post by Terrance on the lengths to which same-sex couples have to go to protect themselves in the absence of marriage equality, including some details of a particularly fascinating case in which one half of a lesbian couple adopted the other half, but then they broke up. Thing is, adoptions are generally considered permanent. Anyway, just go read the whole thing. It's very interesting.
Misogyny is so odd!
I love looking at what stories Yahoo News pulls for its Odd News section (or what stories are submitted; I don't know how it works), because, with alarming frequency, they are news stories, often international, about the mistreatment of women. Today's line-up, for example, includes these three stories:
Stand-in mistress sought to take wife's abuse: "A Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday."
Girl lost in poker game pleads for help: "A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative. Rasheeda, 17, said she has filed applications with the police and a local councillor asking them to prevent Lal Haider, 45, from taking her to his home."
Jealous husbands may face trial in court: "Mexican men who display extreme jealousy or avoid sex with their wives could be tried in court and punished under a new law, the special prosecutor for crimes against women told a local newspaper on Friday. Men who phone their wives every half hour to check up on them, constantly suspect them of infidelity or try to control the way they dress are committing the crime of jealousy, special prosecutor Alicia Elena Perez Duarte told Excelsior newspaper. … In Mexico, about 75 percent of all murdered women are killed by their husbands, Perez Duarte said."
In recent months, I've read under the heading of "Odd News" stories about a man branding his wife with a hot iron, a man coercing his wife into having plastic surgery to look like his deceased first wife, wives/girlfriends/exes being held against their will in various "odd" places including a coffin, women being traded for "odd" objects or offered as reparations for "odd" transgressions (along the same lines as the daughter lost in the poker game), and all other manner of outrageous indignity which is reported alongside such frivolous fare as online dating sites designed specifically for pet-owners (which itself gets in on the misogyny action by quoting the site founder asserting "there are more women than men who have several pets, as men tend to work full time and have less time for animals").
Aren't the travails of womanhood just so gosh-darn odd?
This strikes me as one of those nuances of sexism that many men don't notice or understand. To have women's experiences like this trivialized as "Odd News" is just infuriating, and being obliged to think about someone chuckling over the hilarious oddity of a girl being used as a chip in a poker game by her father can make a gal angry as fuck, particularly as she recognizes that the constant positioning of humiliated women as the butt of jokes humiliates us all. This shit is important, and even as I say it, I know why it doesn't seem like it is, or should be.
The thing is, the real cost of sexism to women is not in our paying a single emotional penny here for this insult and a single emotional penny there for that disgrace, but in the cumulative negative balance it leaves inside each of us. Even if we let this thing or that thing roll off of the thickened skins of our backs, we pay another penny each time; letting it roll off your back is just another way of saying keep your complaints to yourself, but it doesn't change the reality that sexism takes its toll, whether one has the ill manners of mentioning the offense or not.
As I've said before, the word that comes to my mind when I try to explain how sexism affects me is history. And I don't mean history in an academic sense, as in the history of the feminist movement, but as in my own history—a thousand threads of experience that come together to weave the fabric that I regard as my life. That history contains lots of wonderful and not wonderful things, related and unrelated things. Little things, things like seeing so many stories about the mistreatment of women culled under the heading of "Odd News," prick at a particular thread as though it's a guitar string, but instead of producing sound, it produces memory, memory of all the other times I have seen women or their stories belittled for others' amusement, memory of all the times such degradation has been used to mask the need for helping women in real need of assistance, or even just in need of being regarded with some basic fucking dignity.
I don't carry these memories with me because I want to. I carry them with me because they have left indelible prints upon me, affected my understanding of who I am to other people. I don't want to be bothered when I notice things like the treatment of women in "Odd News" features. But it doesn't matter what I want. To protect myself against this reaction is to deny my experience, to deny part of myself.
I write posts like this in the hope that they will speak to a man who has never had to think about what it means to be a woman in the world, who doesn't understand what women are "still complaining about," or wonders why we can't just let pass without comment, without anger, a sexist t-shirt or a misogynist slur or our irritation at the way stories about women are presented in the news. But mostly, I write posts like this for other women, who see things like this every day, and feel it chipping away at them, and whose pain is assuaged only by knowing that other women share it. In other words, I write posts like this for me.
Quotes of the Day
"God our almighty Father has given married love, its faithfulness and its fruitfulness, a special significance in the history of salvation." — From the Prayer of the Faithful, a prayer read in parishes across New Jersey yesterday at the behest of the state's seven Roman Catholic bishops; "the prayer is intended to remind Catholics that the church opposes gay marriage, according to Patrick R. Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference."
"If you believe that married love is a gift from God imbued with special significance in the history of salvation, why would you see it denied of anyone?" — Shakespeare's Sister, a vulgar, trash-talking, anti-Catholic bigot, on her blog, just before pointing out that some Catholics wonder the same thing.
Language Geekery
I always find it fascinating when I read something about an English-language (or related) dialect that's about to die out. Over the years, I've read about the last, aging speakers of German-English or Swedish-English dialects, for example, in the US and Canada, but the ones that really capture my fancy (and always have, even pre-Mr. Shakes) are Scottish dialects, which are rather shockingly vast and varied considering what a small country it is—and are often given names ("tchucter") by other Scots that appear completely nonsensical to non-Scots.
In this case, the name makes perfect sense, anyway.
A rare dialect that is only spoken by two elderly brothers is to be recorded for posterity before it disappears.Some examples of Cromarty fisher dialect:
Bobby Hogg, 87, and his brother Gordon, 82, are believed to be the last fluent speakers of the "Cromarty fisher dialect". It is said to be the most threatened dialect in Scotland and is to be recorded for an internet-based cultural archive.
It evolved when local fishermen in the town of Cromarty, on the Black Isle north of Inverness, picked up words from English soldiers based in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries.
… Bobby Hogg said: "You hear the odd smattering of it in some of the things people from Cromarty say, but nobody speaks it fluently these days but for us two."
His wife Helen added: "My husband is fluent in the Cromarty fisher dialect. I understand it, but his brother is the only other person who can speak it."
A spokesman for Am Baile, a Highland internet archive, said it was important to capture a recording of the last two speakers. Robin McColl Miller of Aberdeen University's English department said the Cromarty fisher dialect was the most threatened in Scotland, and one of five different dialects once found in the same small area.
Thee're no talkin' licht: You are quite right.
Ut aboot a wee suppie for me: Can I have a drink too?
Thee nay'te big fiya sclaafert yet me boy: You are not too big for a slap, my boy.
Pit oot thy fire til I light mine: Please be quiet, and allow me to say something.
You can hear Bobby Hogg doing an interview about the dialect here, although it's not great sound quality on his end of the line. I'm looking forward to the online archive, which I presume will have better audio.
Monday Blogwhoring
Sock it to me, cats.
Jill's got two must-see videos of Craig Ferguson, whom I'm loving more and more, who makes the news by refusing to make fun of a celebrity clearly in need of help.
Andy: Lesbian Koalas! (Teh Gay is so unnatural!)
Drifty: It's a Small World…but This Small?!
Lesley: How old are we?
Steve: Giuliani Stands by His Man
Evan: Bush funneling money to Al Qaeda-related groups
And Happy Blogiversary to PoliTits!
Also…in case you missed it, we passed 2,000,000 this weekend. Woot!
I Can't Begin to Imagine
A boy stands in a street after a roadside bomb went off in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 26, 2007. The bomb targeted a U.S. army convoy, police said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
I can't begin to imagine what it's like to live like this, in constant fear of explosions, with thoughts of the future seeming a luxury:
Iraq's Shiite vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.And on Sunday, a suicide bombing at a predominantly Shiite business college killed at least 42 people.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi was bruised and hospitalized for medical exams, an aide said. Police initially blamed the attack on a bomb-rigged car, but later said the explosives were apparently planted inside the building.
The attack sent another message that suspected Sunni militants could strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across the capital.
… At least 10 people were killed and 18 injured in the blast, police said. An earlier explosion elsewhere in Baghdad killed at least three policemen.
I try to comprehend the destruction, the loss of life, what it's like to live in a country where dozens of people die at a time and the stark, grim reality of that circumstance seems to stretch endlessly into the future, no end in sight—and I just can't do it. I can't understand. I've never felt so hopeless as I imagine an average Iraqi to be right now; I've never lived in such turmoil. There are Americans who can better relate to living in a state of constant fear—amidst violent eruptions between warring factions, to whom crossfire has a literal and immediate meaning and isn't just the name of some silly show where a silly bow-tied manboy says silly things—but my suburban-raised self isn't one of them. And it doesn't really matter whether I can wrap my head around what life is like in Iraq, or even whether I bother to try. Nothing's going to change based on my willingness or ability to empathize. But still I do—I stare at pictures like the one above, and pictures of shattered buildings, and pictures of broken or tired or legless or faceless American troops, and pictures of broken or tired or legless or faceless Iraqis, and I try to make sense of it, try to understand what it must be like.
I recall a comment left here long ago on a post I wrote about the nightmare in Iraq, a comment from a conservative war supporter accusing me of "liberal guilt," the implication being that any sense of regret I feel about my privilege shielding me from dreadful realities is puerile and pathetic—which I suppose it may be, depending on one's perspective. But the guilt I feel is not just about being undeservedly protected from much of the ugliness the world has to offer; it's the guilt of a patriot whose country has done something for which she feels deep and abiding remorse. And because I am neither a cheerleader of the war, nor am I the rightwing's celebratory strawman, giddy with the horror of things going so terribly wrong, and because I am not a person of great influence, I have but two options: I can sink into apathy, or I can be arsed to bloody care. Because I choose the latter, I wonder what it's like to live like this, in constant fear of explosions, with thoughts of the future seeming a luxury… And I weep for the tragedy we've wrought.
The Jokes…They Write Themselves
WaPo:
Dozens of high-level officials joined in a White House drill yesterday to see how the government would respond if several cities were attacked simultaneously with bombs similar to those used against U.S. troops in Iraq.Via Jill.
White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend and the Homeland Security Council that she heads mapped out in advance a massive disaster involving improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The attack targeted 10 U.S. cities, both large and small, at the same time, said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Townsend presided over the three-hour exercise, which brought the government's top homeland security officials to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. All Cabinet agencies were represented by their secretaries or other high-ranking officials, with about 90 participants in all, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
[…]
President Bush went on a bike ride yesterday morning and did not take part in the test.
Congratulations, Al
Is president:
Sob.
Crooks and Liars has the video of Al's big, and much deserved, win.
And congratulations to Melissa Etheridge for winning Best Song
for the piece she wrote for An Inconvenient Truth, too!
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
For the Brits among us...
This was one of Mr. Shakes' favorite shows.
Damn the Radical Limp-Wristed Flipper Agenda
Egad, Townhall is such a honking sewer of shite. Just days after Medved disgorged a massive puddle of homophobic and misogynist bile onto its pages, Doug Giles has assumed the mantle for keeping that particular flame alive with I'm not Homophobic; I'm Chick-O-Centric.
The stupendously ingenious premise here is that Giles loves Teh Chickz so gosh-darn much that he just can't relate to guys who love Teh Dudez—a framing reminiscent of that used by "white pride" groups, who will insist publicly, despite their histories, that they don't hate people of color; they just want to celebrate being white, is all. Similarly, it's not that Giles hates gays; he just really loves being straight! So much so that he's hopelessly Chick-O-Centric!
Sigh.
Anyway, his column opens with the fateful words, "I think I speak for most heterosexual males…" which is always bad news—and it only gets worse from there.
I think I speak for most heterosexual males when I say I'm not homophobic but chick-o-centric. Let's keep it positive, okay? It's not that we dislike you, the gay guy; it's just that we really like girls. It seems no matter how long we compliantly spend in rehab undergoing the most stringent psychotherapy to rid ourselves of our knee-jerk to your mate choice, the simple fact is . . . heterosexual guys don't "get" gays. Period.So much bullshit, so little time. Disregarding its patent falsity, the idea that gay men want to be women nonetheless implies that gay men thusly "other" themselves, and in such a way as to make them incomprehensible to straight men, to make them not real men at all anymore. As Jill notes, "a lot of the conservative hatred for gay men seems to come from the idea that gay men are lowering themselves to the status of 'female,' and that is entirely unacceptable." Absolutely right—and, as an added bonus, this thought reveals Giles' misogyny and belies his assertion that he just loves women too much to understand gay men. At least, he doesn't love them as equals. (Shocking.)
Heck, we don't understand women. What makes you think we'll ever understand a man who doesn't like women yet wants to be a woman? You just rifled right over our heads. In addition, not only are most men incapable of comprehending what a man sees in another man, we also don't care to try to because football is on—so can we all just shut the hell up with the gay stuff and watch the game?!?
Giles might insist that he views woman and gay men as his equals, just different from him. Separate but equal, perhaps, ahem. But if some level of loathing for women/gay men isn't informing his opinion, then a sort of Groucho Marxian "I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member" self-loathing must be at work when Giles refers to his "knee-jerk to your mate choice," and, later in the piece, waxes confounded about enjoying his "fun, entertaining, and creative" gay friends as he enjoys dolphins, but being unable to understand "what they get out of eating mullet."
From the same seas as the Right Whale.
If Giles can't begin to comprehend what dolphins see in mullet, or—back in English—what gay men see in men, that seems to be a rather dire commentary on men, no? Then again, maybe Giles is just talking about being attracted to "men who want to be women," in which case, it's a rather dire commentary on the feminine. Either way, he needs a box of tissues for all those issues.
Past the illogical contortions he's making about loving women so much he can't understand men who want to be like them, or men who are attracted to men who want to be like them, or whatever lesson one is meant to extract from this mess of execrable swill, we arrive at Giles' real problem—it's still all about shoving Teh Gay in his face. But because he's a magnanimous sort of fella, he doesn't mind if you're a butch gay; it's only the girly men who get his
Now, let me help you, the gay constituency, to understand us girl lovers a tad. Most Chick-O-Centric males would not raise an unwaxed eye brow at a homosexual man if he would not shove his gayness in our faces. It's the flamers that freak out most heterosexuals. Case in point: Bobby Trendy and Jay Alexander. They seem like nice guys, but the pink hair, lip gloss, heavy eye liner, constant limp wrist and lisp is overkill. Why not, instead of emulating a TBN host, you follow Rob Halford's lead? That would make it much easier for us to have a beer with you. C'mon . . . work with us, we're trying to get along.What's that about loving women again? When the accoutrements of womanhood and the overt expression of femininity in men is what makes you despise them, there's just no way to argue that this is about loving women too much to understand gay men. Giles helpful "advice" is, essentially, to stop behaving like a woman; otherwise he can't be expected to tolerate you. You see, womanliness isn't to be respected; it's to be fucked. And if you queers were Chick-O-Centric like he is, you'd know that.
(Meanwhile, what self-respecting queer wants to have a beer with an asswipe like Doug Giles, anyway?!)
If it weren't clear before how commonsensical—and necessary—it is for straight feminists to be allied with the LGBT community before, this week has made it perfectly clear, from Medved's diatribe conflating gay men and fat chicks, to Glenn Beck's encapsulating use of "promiscuity"— which, as I mentioned, is a word that, for conservatives, draws a line straight from the genesis of women's lib through birth control, legal abortion, premarital sex, and casual sex, right on to sodomy and the Supreme Court, LGBT equality, and the catastrophic culmination of the hideous mess in same-sex marriage—to this idiocy from Giles. We are natural allies, because we are hated by the same people, for much the same reasons.
[H/T Jill.]
Sunday Blogwhoring
Just for a change…
RIP Andrew Anthos. Fuck.
Get well soon, Steve.
Read-Ems: Drifty. DCup. Kathy. Pam. Andy.
And I'm damn glad The Dark Wraith is on our side.
