What's your favorite online game?
Right now I'm adoring "Crush the Castle." Not only is it ripping fun, but the controls are extremely simple (just a click of the mouse!), and I can sit and play it at work while I'm waiting on hold to speak to someone at Public Aid, or at Social Security, or wev.
I spend a lot of time on hold.
It's a great little game. However, if cartoonish video game violence isn't your cup of tea, you might want to avoid this one. The blood really flies.
Question of the Day
Breaking News
Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera are terrible, terrible people.
Wait, did I say breaking news? Sorry. I meant not news. Not at all.
Don't cross the streams!
I'm sure I heard that advice somewhere. Don't cross the streams, right?
Well, Governor Sanford is admitting that, yes, he in fact crossed a stream or two (I know, I know, not the same kind of stream, poetic licence has been applied for and is awaiting bureaucratic approval, ok?), with some women.
As usual, when the rock gets turned over off these guys, you just never know what's going to crawl out. In this case:
He said that during the encounters with other women he "let his guard down" with some physical contact but "didn't cross the sex line." He wouldn't go into detail.Chapur would be Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentinean woman with whom he spent a five-day "lost weekend" in Buenos Aires last week.
Sanford said the casual encounters happened outside the U.S. while he was married but before he met Chapur, on trips to "blow off steam" with male friends.
So let me get this (ahem*) straight: last week, his infidelity was supposed to be sort of excusable because it was with his soulmate. In fact, the word is used in this very article. But to be clear, he's also had a number of casual encounters while (ahem again) "blowing off steam" with male friends outside the US.
Cue all sorts of giddy speculation in various media about what, exactly, it means to have crossed lines, but not crossed the sex line. I trust we can be above that here? On the principle that the activities of a person in their love life should be None Of Our Damned Business.
See...it's all kinds of gleeful for us, that Governor Sanford was so shrill about former President Clinton's sexual behaviours, and is now measuring his own Procrustean bed. But if we're to remain true to our principles, which say that a person's sex life should have no bearing on their fitness for office, then I'd contend it remains none of our business, even though he was a hypocrite about it.
I think it's reasonable to say it's bad for him to be hypocritical, in declaring himself politically in favour of certain values, while betraying them privately. It's reasonable - in fact, I'd say mandatory - that he be held to account for using state funds for his personal ends, and that he be held to account for abdicating his responsibility as Governor of South Carolina by disappearing and remaining incommunicado for five days.
I do not think it's reasonable for us to say or imply he's a bad Governor because his dereliction of duty included Father's Day. I do not think it's reasonable to criticize him for having sex outside of his marriage. I do not think it's reasonable to criticize his wife for her choices on what to do about their marriage.
Why? Because as a queer, polyamourous person, I don't want to be denied the right to run for public office because of my sexuality or behaviours; it behooves me, then, to be certain I don't criticize others for those things, or it's me being the hypocrite, and that makes me a lot less reliable narrator in trying to bring opinion pieces before the public. How can I make the claim with a clear conscience that I should be allowed that freedom, if I won't respect someone else's freedom to their own sexuality and behaviours?
So yes, have at him about the hypocrisy of espousing a set of values he clearly doesn't hold himself to. About the hypocrisy, mind! Have at him over the allegedly misappropriated funds. Have at him over the abdication of responsibility in not respecting his succession, when he took off for his lost weekend.
But we don't need to know who, or when, or why or how often, except insofar as it relates to the above issues. We don't actually need to know what it means to cross some lines, including some physicality, and not others.
And yes, the Republicans are scrambling to say how we should forgive him, and they, too, are being big hypocrites, which I think it's perfectly reasonable to address. And yes, that means they're "getting away with it" in a way they won't let Democrats.
But if we're to be true to who we proclaim ourselves to be, and what we claim to believe in, we need to focus on the political issues, and governance issues, rather than who did what with whom in what hotel when.
* I wish we had a different idiomatic word for "clear" than "straight": I want to say, "Let's just keep this appopriately bent:..."
Quote of the Day
"The Supreme Court has made its decision and I will abide by the results."—Former GOP Senator Norm Coleman, who has, at long fucking last, conceded to Al Franken the November election for the Minnesota senate seat Coleman once held.
Another sister attacked
(Possible trigger warning - linked article includes a description of the object used to attack, and of her injuries)
You wonder why I make some efforts to preserve my anonymity? This is why.
I bring you the sad news that yet another of my sisters has been brutally assaulted, this time in Queens. Two men accosted her as she walked home from a nightclub, at 2:30am on the 19th. Shouting "faggot" in Spanish at her, they beat her until a passing motorist stopped to threaten to call police. Police found her nearly naked, and bleeding on the sidewalk. The object used to assault her was found nearby.
The two men continued their night of astounding bravery by running away, but were arrested by police shortly after, and charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon, and released on their own recognizance.
Despite shouting anti-gay slurs at her in Spanish while they attacked her, the assailants have not been charged with any hate crime, as the Queens Co. DA has declined to even investigate it as such.
There are a whole bunch of things I could point out about this: that it's just about the most obviously hate-based crime I've heard of in a while, that calling it only assault leaves out that they were only stopped from killing her by the passerby - why isn't it attempted murder, exactly? - that there was no bail set for two men who tried to kill a random stranger on the street.
That people will be saying it was her fault for walking alone on the street late at night, or that she'd been drinking, or blah blah victim-blaming blah.
On average, at least one transgender person is killed in the US each month. It seems only by the intervention of "good fortune" that Ms. Mora didn't join so many of our sisters and brothers already listed at the Transgender Day of Remembrance site.
Please, if you have the time, consider writing a polite but firm e-mail to the Queens Co. DA's office, reminding them that hate crime laws are only as effective as the prosecutors' willingness to use them when appropriate.
I'm sure I can safely speak for the rest of Shakesville in saying we hope that Ms. Mora returns to full health soon, and that she sees justice for this appalling hate crime.
Check Under Your Bed for Sarah Palin
So, there's this significant profile of Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair, and it's comparatively good for the most part, sticking mostly to relevant issues and giving time to both Palin's strengths and flaws as a politician—which are frequently the same thing, as in her willingness to fly fast and loose with the facts (an electoral strength; a governing flaw).
Calling it "comparatively good," given the grim material critiqued in the Palin Sexism Watch during the campaign, might reasonably be read as damning the article with faint praise—and I won't discourage that interpretation. Aside from its obviously problematic imagery, which conflates Palin with a candidate's wife, a habitual misrepresentation in the mainstream media leading up to the election, there are problems with the piece.
They are the usual problems with pieces about Palin—oblique or overt classism ("the surprise pregnancies, the two-bit blood feuds, the tawdry in-laws and common-law kin caught selling drugs or poaching game [make] Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, and Roger Clinton seem like avatars of circumspection")—and the usual problems with pieces about women—a feisty woman is little more than an animal in need of domestication ("campaign aides cast about for someone who could serve as a calming presence: Palin's horse whisperer") or in need of meds for a case of the crazy ("Polar Disorder," "there were ominous signs—indications of an erratic nature," "More than once in my travels in Alaska, people … told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of 'narcissistic personality disorder' in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders").
That said, even the (relatively few) passages examining Palin's being "at once the sexiest and the riskiest brand in the Republican Party," even if still insufferably sigh-eliciting ("fertile female," really?), are better than the usual fare, giving time to the reality that Palin's appearance is a double-edged weapon:Another aspect of the Palin phenomenon bears examination, even if the mere act of raising it invites intimations of sexism: she is by far the best-looking woman ever to rise to such heights in national politics, the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs. This pheromonal reality has been a blessing and a curse. It has captivated people who would never have given someone with Palin's record a second glance if Palin had looked like Susan Boyle. And it has made others reluctant to give her a second chance because she looks like a beauty queen.
But here's the thing (there's always a "thing" about these things, heh): Despite the article's being one of the fairer and comprehensive pieces I've seen written about Palin—or any female public figure, for that matter (more faint praise)—it's nonetheless given the B-movie monster headline: "It Came from Wasilla."
Nearly 10,000 words, done in by four. Never mind the author's almost-realized attempt to draw an inclusive portrait of a complex person and her immediate environment. Instead, remember this: She is a monster.
(In case you didn't get the message, it is later reinforced, when an entire section is labeled "Little Shop of Horrors," the nickname reportedly given to Palin on the campaign trail by an anonymous "longtime McCain friend.")
It's particularly frustrating to see this sort of thing in a piece that spends the vast majority of its time clearly detailing why Palin was a flawed candidate, and what's wrong with her still, and what her future (and ours) may hold: In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin's supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this.
Not an unimportant point.Palin has shown herself to have remarkable gut instincts about raw politics, and she has seen openings where others did not. And she has the good fortune to have traction within a political party that is bereft of strong leadership, and whose rank and file often demands qualities other than knowledge, experience, and an understanding that facts are, as John Adams said, stubborn things. It is, at the moment, a party in which the loudest and most singular voices, not burdened by responsibility, wield disproportionate power. She may decide that she does not need office in order to have great influence—any more than Rush Limbaugh does.
Also not an unimportant point.
There are, it happens, lots and lots of very good points about Palin made in the piece.
And all of them risk being lost beneath the crushing weight of the lazy implication that she is a monster.
Worse yet, dismissing her as a monster, as a wild animal, as crazy, is tacit encouragement to pay her no real attention at all. She's not even serious enough to warrant your time.
They said that about another Republican once.
Just sayin'.
[Standard disclaimer: I defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because I endorse her or her politics, but because that's how feminism works.]
Franken to Senate at Long Last?
MSNBC is reporting that the Minnesota Supreme Court has paved the way for Democrat Al Franken to fill the still-vacant Senate seat over which he and Republican Norm Coleman have been jousting since November, and, Mr. Petulant emails that on the teevee they're saying that the court has certified Franken as the winner.
If It's Tuesday, It's Boehlert!
How ABC News debunked the Obama "honeymoon" myth:
Poor Jake Tapper.Read the whole thing here.
The ABC News senior White House correspondent was scheduled to appear on Good Morning America on June 23 to discuss the latest results from the network's polling division. The Beltway press had been buzzing for days about President Obama's lagging job approval ratings. Actually, Obama's ratings remained high, in the upper 50s and even into the 60s. In spite of that, the press had shifted the emphasis and announced that the real problem was that Obama's policies were not as popular as Obama the president.
...So what was Tapper to do on GMA? Would he buck the Beltway's beloved narrative about Obama's supposed waning popularity and simply report the news of the ABC poll: a 65 percent job approval rating? Or would Tapper spin away and emphasize that trouble loomed for the Democrat in the White House?
You guessed it: Tapper spun hard and stuck with the Beltway's preferred "yes, but" story line: Yes, Obama is (very) popular, but people have some doubts about his policies. Tapper simply refused to allow Obama's nearly unprecedented job approval numbers to get in the way of the story he wanted to tell about Obama's "sinking numbers," which, believe it or not, was part of the on-screen text that appeared during Tapper's report on GMA. ("Make or Break? President Sees Sinking Numbers," to be exact.) Yes, sinking numbers for a report on Obama's approval rating, which hovered at 65 percent, a mark his immediate predecessor could have only dreamed of five months into his first term. And, of course, an approval rating that nearly doubled Bush's when he limped out of office in January.
But as Media Matters' Jamison Foser recently noted, a White House approval rating in the mid-60s is suddenly a bad thing from the press' perspective.
News, According to the Politico
Some dude griping about a First Lady who has the shameless gall to make use of her position.
And not just any old griping, but the sort of griping that warrants a headline like "Queen Michelle the First?" and an accompanying image of First Lady Michelle Obama caught applauding while wearing an expression in which could be read vague haughtiness, by those who want to find it:
[Click to embiggen.]
And the sort of griping that has to include retroactive snipes at (yawn) former First Lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
Washington insiders haven't seen a first lady this ambitious since Hillary Clinton, without question the most powerful holder of that unofficial office.Yes, the thing that was really missing from the healthcare debate back in the '90s was more criticism of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton put herself in charge of her husband's plans to radically reform health care, and the nation is still paying the price for her mistakes.
While the failure of the Clinton administration's health care agenda had many causes, she made some missteps that a more experienced Washington policymaker would not have made. And because she was the spouse of the president, it was very tough for anyone to tell her husband that things were going badly.
And because the author—Jeremy Mayer, whose credentials are given as "director of George Mason University's master's program in public policy," which I'm not certain is relevant expertise regarding what the First Lady's role ought to be; silly me, I thought that was for the First Lady to decide for herself—just wasn't content with his diminishment of Hillary Clinton as lady-remora, he moved on to further yawn-inducing slams against Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney.
How not to show you don't have an agenda while talking about Michelle Obama's role as First Lady: Shame other women who had the temerity to refuse to exist solely as their husbands' accessories.
Truly abysmal.
[H/T to Shaker SamanthaB.]
The Gay Recession
Today's entry for the piñata of asshattery comes from the great state of Oklahoma, where State Rep. Sally Kern (R, naturally) is working to get the state to issue a proclamation blaming the gays for the current economic crisis.
WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; andYou get the idea. Wall Street had nothing to do with it; the crappy economy that started to tank under President Bush is really the fault of President Obama because God can see into the future and knew that he would be elected and that Iowa, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut would allow same-sex marriage. He timed the sub-prime mortgage crisis just in time as punishment for Pride Month. Got it.
WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and
WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and
WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and
WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;
If she's lumping in divorce with debauchery, then she's just called Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Rush Limbaugh debauchees. For sex trafficking, she's got Sen. David Vitter, Republican of Lousiana, by the short ones. Meanwhile, her target, President Obama, is still married to his one and only wife, as is former President Bill Clinton. And while it's hard to imagine how she can link gays with the debauchery of divorce since the only way a gay marriage can disrupt a straight one is if one of the partners has been getting a little down low on the side, in which case their "traditional" marriage was pretty much a lie to begin with, to a homophobe just the very existence of a gay man or lesbian is a threat. After all, homophobia has been described as an irrational insecurity about one's heterosexuality.
Only a really eye-twirling religious fanatic could finesse a recession into a theocratic screed, but then, Ms. Kern has been down this road before, so she's had some practice. It makes you wonder if the wind that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote about in Oklahoma! ("where the wind comes sweeping down the plain") isn't whistling through her ears.
Cross-posted.
OMGWTFLOL WHAT?
So, yesterday in the East Room of the White House, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, Obama gave a speech, which I'm going to call his "Please Don't Be Mad at Me, You Hysterical, Impatient Queers" speech, and asked that he be judged "not by promises I've made but by the promises that my administration keeps."
Once I stopped laughing, I tried parsing that in any way other than a synonym for "Take the crumbs you're given and stop expecting me to do what I said I was going to do for you when I wanted your votes," but it just didn't happen.
It gets better.
"I know that many in this room don't believe progress has come fast enough, and I understand that," Mr. Obama said. "It's not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago.Shorter Obama: It's not for me to tell you to be patient, but BE PATIENT!
"We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
Obama has, of course, many foot soldiers in the left-leaning blogosphere, who are also admonishing queers and their allies to settle down and give the man some time geez gosh golly settle the fuck down. But the point is this: If the queer community is still being all but ignored while making this much noise, imagine if they were silent.
Impatience, and anger, are the stuff of progress. Exhorting patience and silence is, quite literally, counter-progressive.
One might even say it's downright conservative.
Sanford Won't Budge
Calls are mounting for disgraced South Carolina Governor King David Mark Sanford to resign, mostly from his own party members, but Sanford is making like a New Kid and hangin' tough, because staying governor is all part of God's plan for him.
[I]n the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes - but that if my spirit wasn't right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders.So, his larger sin was the sin of pride—and he's going to atone for that by exhibiting a real spirit of humility, exemplified by bragging about having the right political positions on issues most damaging to the sorts of people to whom the man central to his religion most passionately ministered: the poor, the starving, the ill. In other words, he knows better than Jesus. But humbly so!
Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one - and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.
This guy's a trainwreck.
And, worse than that, a bully. He invokes his god as a battering ram with which to swipe at those who would levy legitimate criticisms. "God wants me here!" he insists. "Would you question God?" Because he knows there are people who won't.
[Standard Disclaimer: Just to be clear, I don't think that anyone axiomatically needs to resign from public office over an infidelity. I do, however, think that someone who goes AWOL from his post for a week and charges taxpayers for international trips to get laid does. Sanford has a few more problems than a guy who gets caught with his pants down but does the job he was hired to do.]
They're Celebrating in Iraq
Because we're leaving (sorta):
Iraq declared a public holiday Tuesday to celebrate the official withdrawal of American troops from the country's cities and towns, emptying the streets as many people stayed home because they feared violence.Even though they had to tell everyone to stay home today because they fear violence they can't control. Sigh. What a mess we've made there.
As Iraqi officials' celebrations went on, the American military announced the death of four soldiers on Monday from combat operations in Baghdad, a reminder of the continuing vulnerability of soldiers as they wrap up operations in the field.
In the past few weeks, nationalist sentiments have spread within the Iraqi government and military, with officials all but boasting that Iraq is ready to handle the security situation on its own.
Many ordinary Iraqis said that a day they long doubted would come seemed to have arrived. Although some worried that the security forces may not be able to control the insurgency, they were also relieved to have the Americans out of sight. Some said they believed that the American presence had given insurgents a pretext to stage attacks.Maude help them.
The American presence here is associated with better security in some places, but it is despised in others for detention techniques that are sometimes heavy-handed, for creating traffic jams and for generally reminding Iraqis that they are not in control.
"It really is a sovereignty day," said Balqis Eidan, a 30-year-old state employee. "I agreed with [Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki]. It is a very important day in our history. But we are still worried about security. We hope that our forces will be able to handle security. The way will be a long one."
American troops are withdrawing cautiously, with soldiers ordered "to remain in garrison for the next few days to give the Iraqis a chance to demonstrate that they are in control," and the Iraqi government has requested that "a handful of urban outposts in Baghdad...remain open" indefinitely. But the "vast majority" of American troops have already shuttered their urban bases and relocated to "large forward operating bases."
Undoubtedly, if the insurgency surges again, American troops will be asked to step back in, but, for the moment, Iraq is being given at long last an opportunity to test its fledgling security forces. And Maliki is issuing a little preemptive blame if the insurgency should surge and overwhelm them:
Mr. Maliki said the news media would encourage insurgent attacks if they questioned the ability of the security forces to handle the job. The Iraqi government has periodically tried to muzzle news organizations perceived as supporting insurgents.While only a couple of outlets have been prevented from covering the country, the message has been clear.Looks like Bush was successful in spreading his brand of democracy to Iraq. Awesome.
What The Hell?
Shaker katecontinued
What the hell is all that, a corsage or a shrub? What the hell is with those haircuts?? What the hell is with that coat you're wearing??? What the hell????
[See also: Deeky, Liss, and evilsciencechick.]
Question of the Day
What's the klutziest thing you've ever done?
I'm gonna have to go with the situation I described in today's Quote of the Day thread:
I'm about 15. I've got my first Walkman, which I bought with the proceeds of my first job, cold-calling homeowners about some insulation thing or other. CDN$2.15/hour.
Anyway, I'm 15, so of course I'm both thoroughly invincible, and too cool for words. So when I ride my bike, I ride it no-hands. Cause that's what the cool kids do.
I'm also wearing my new Walkman, with the AWESOME auto-reverse feature. English Beat are skanking away in my headphones (NOT earbuds, let's be clear, those won't happen for a couple of years yet), and I've got The Two Towers in my hand, reading the fabulous Battle of Helm's Deep yet again. While I'm riding. And listening to music, in the wild suburbs of Toronto (Scarberia, specifically: in the time of which I speak, Toronto pretty much ended at McNicoll, between Finch and Steeles - there were farms beyond Steeles).
And rode my bike beautifully into the back bumper of a parked AMC Pacer (that help place it in time for you?), launching myself, book, Walkman and all, over the handlebars and onto the car.
Now, you might well have thought that I'd take this lesson to heart, and stop riding no-hands, or maybe stop reading while riding.
But in proof that wisdom comes late in life to some, this was not so. Nor (not coincidentally) was it the last time I'd see my handlebars go by below me.
Now: what's yours?
You Go, Grrl: Giorgia Boscolo
Giorgia Boscolo, Venice's first female gondolier
After nine centuries of keeping women on dry land, Venice has broken with tradition by approving its first female gondolier.I guess that means it's actually not a man's job then, dunnit?
Giorgia Boscolo, 23, a mother of two, came through a grueling course, which included 400 hours of instruction, to enter an all-male club that has resisted admitting women. ... She denied that she would not have the physical strength to manoeuvre gondolas, saying: "Childbirth is much more difficult."
Ms Boscolo's father, Dante, also a gondolier, said he still had reservations about his daughter ferrying tourists up the Grand Canal. "I still think being a gondolier is a man's job, but I am sure that with experience Giorgia will be able to do it easily," he said.
Congratulations, Giorgia!
[Via.]
All The Proof You Need
Last year Jack Cashill, a blogger at American Thinker, presented iron-clad proof that former Weatherman and Obama ally William Ayers actually ghost-wrote Barack Obama's book Dreams of My Father. His proof? There are a lot of similar words in that book and in books written by commie-pinko-DFH Ayers.
Although there are only the briefest of literal sea experiences in Dreams, the following words appear in both Dreams and in Ayers' work: fog, mist, ships, seas, boats, oceans, calms, captains, charts, first mates, storms, streams, wind, waves, anchors, barges, horizons, ports, panoramas, moorings, tides, currents, and things howling, fluttering, knotted, ragged, tangled, and murky.There's also the shared use of the words "a", "and", and "the".
Now Mr. Cashill has more evidence.
Ayers is fixated with faces, especially eyes. He writes of "sparkling" eyes, "shining" eyes, "laughing" eyes, "twinkling" eyes, eyes "like ice," and people who are "wide-eyed" and "dark-eyed."The smoking gun, however, is that both Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers misquote Carl Sandburg's poem, "Chicago":
As it happens, Obama is also fixated with faces, especially eyes. He also writes of "sparkling" eyes, "shining" eyes, "laughing" eyes, "twinkling" eyes, and uses the phrases "wide-eyed" and "dark-eyed." Obama adds "smoldering eyes," "smoldering" being a word that he and Ayers inject repeatedly. Obama also uses the highly distinctive phrase "like ice," in his case to describe the glinting of the stars.
From Dreams:Well, whaddaya know; that's how I thought the poem started, too, even though I memorized it for my eighth grade English class in 1967. I guess that's proof that the terrorist Weathermen were already infiltrating the depths of our society, going so far as to reach their tendrils into the minds of middle-school students in Toledo, Ohio, and pervert their learning of a great poem by a great American. Oh, the perfidy.He poured himself more hot water. "What do you know about Chicago anyway?"From Parent [Ayers' book]:
I thought a moment. "Hog butcher to the world," I said finally."At the turn of the century, Chicago had a population of a million people and was a young and muscular city - hub of commerce and industry, the first skyscraper city, home of the famous world exposition, "hog butcher to the world" - bursting with energy."This I would call a B-level match. What raises it up a notch to an A-level match is the fact that both misquote "Chicago," and they do so in exactly the same way. The poem actually opens, "Hog butcher for the world."
On the other hand, it's fine with me that folks like Mr. Cashill are obsessed with trivial crap such as this rather than care about anything that might actually matter.
HT to Hilzoy.
Cross-posted.
Exposing Promoting Hatred
Sacha Baron Cohen was on The Tonight Show last week, promoting his new film Brüno, in which he plays a "flamboyant" gay reporter with the ostensible objective of exposing homophobia. But just like every other promotional appearance for the film, SBC arrived in character and made Brüno's sexuality and gender expression the continuous punchline throughout the interview. The only homophobia being exposed that I could see was SBC's.
In addition to the overt and pervasive homophobia, the misogyny, and the rape apologia I've already discussed in association with this film's promotional materials, there appears to be a hefty dose of racism, too: The segment includes an extended clip (staring at 7:13) of a scene featured in the film's trailers, in which Brüno appears on a Jerry Springer-like show in front of a largely black audience, and brings with him a black baby (wearing a shirt reading "Gayby") who he introduces as his adopted African son. He tells the audience he "swapped" an iPod for the baby.
Naturally, the audience members react with outrage (as any decent person would), because they don't realize it's all bullshit. (And gee, isn't it just hilarious for we viewers "in the know" to watch a white person piquing a predominantly black audience with a total fabrication about an African parent trading away an African child for material goods? Haw haw—the painful history of slavery is such a comedy goldmine!) But because the professed premise of the movie is exposing homophobia, we're evidently meant to tsk-tsk at the aggrieved audience's homophobia—as if there is not another legitimate reason for their indignation—and it's all too easy to do because of the pernicious narratives, real and imagined, about the incidence of homophobia among black Americans.
Those narratives exist because of institutional homophobia. That Sacha Baron Cohen relies on them for his dubious humor is not exposing homophobia; it's exploiting it.
[Previously on Brüno: One, Two, Three, Four.]
Radio Shakesville
Women Who Dare To Make Noise*, Part 2, is now available. You can pick it up here. Or click the player embedded below. (Not sure how well that actually works, by the way, but I thought it was worth trying.) If you're a subscriber, the RSS feed is making its way across the toobz as we speak, expect a download soon. Same for iTunes users. This ep's playlist is here. Enjoy!
Radio Shakesville
* Thanks to Kevin Wolf for giving this series a decent name.
Ft. Worth Police Celebrate Stonewall Anniversary With Raid On Gay Bar
A raid by Ft. Worth police on a gay bar Saturday night, the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall, lead to several arrests and left one person hospitalized.
[S]even people were arrested in the raid although witnesses at the scene said many more people were handcuffed with zip ties and taken out of the bar. One man, identified by his sister as Chad Gibson, was in the intensive care unit at Fort Worth’s JPS Hospital with bleeding in his brain after officers threw him to the ground and used zip-ties to handcuff him.(The story played out here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here over the weekend.)
To sum up briefly, the cops arrived with a police van and zip-tie handcuffs, under what may be rather flimsy pretenses and carted off several allegedly intoxicated patrons of Ft. Worth's newest gay bar. Some arrestees were charged with groping arresting officers. One man received a head injury when police threw him to the ground. He is now in critical condition.
Civic leaders are calling for an investigation. A rally was held last night in response.
(Sorry for dashing this off with no commentary, things have been busy here this afternoon, and I wanted to get word out.)
[H/T to InfamousQBert.]
Quote of the Day
"My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked."—Scott Campbell, 13 years old, who was invited by the BBC "to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week" and report the results.
Daily Kitteh
Shaker Lisa emails:
About a month ago I brought home my very first foster cat, who came with the name Speedy. He was quickly followed by a litter of six kittens who are just about ready to go to the adoption center so they can find homes. (Wah! I'm going to miss them!)
But Speedy? I can't let him go. I've officially adopted him and I am changing his name to Teaspoon.
He's the first teaspoon in what I hope will be a long line of teaspoons for kitties.
Reached for comment, the three adoptees of Shakes Manor say they "totes approve!"
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Mrs. Kulchawick's Organic Katanas.
Recommended Reading:
If you can, please donate to these women, including our own extraordinary Elle, who are making their ways to the Allied Media Conference.
Nancy: Stonewall's Unfinished Legacy
Janet: Rally in Canberra September 7: Homebirth: What's the Crime?
Resistance: Two Years (strong trigger warning)
Lisa: Resistance to Objectifying Advertising
mzbitca: FML Fail: Fatties Can't Have Orgasms
Send your support to Dan Choi before Tuesday's trial and help him fight "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Leave your links in comments...
On Brisenia Flores
When I was working on my dissertation, I had to read quite a bit of “immigration” literature for my last chapter. One of the books I remember most was John Higham’s Strangers in the Land, because so many others referenced his assertion that throughout U.S. history, nativism and xenophobia have ebbed and flowed.
I remember that, because as I’ve said before, I think we are caught in a peak period and it seems we have been for well over a decade now.
But having the historical perspective to see it as part of a pattern, to know that it might recede some day, does not make it any less painful to live through, especially as we bear witness to the beating deaths of Luis Ramirez and Jose Sucuzhañay, the disrespect shown to the memory and family of Ana Fernandez,
And the murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores.
I heard about Brisenia Flores a few weeks ago, from the Sanctuary, VivirLatino, and via Twitter. She and her father were murdered, and her mother was shot, in their home, in the middle of the night, by people "associated" with the Minuteman Project.
I have been unable to get the words together to write about this child, because of all the thoughts racing through my mind:
Racists still come to our homes and murder us in the middle of the night.
Still.
This reinforces for people of color how tenuous the safety of our children is.
Still.
We live in a white supremacist patriarchy that claims to value a certain family structure while violently disrupting that structure in families of color.
Still.
How long are people going to deny the violence that permeates so much right-wing extremism? What do we expect from people fed on a constant diet of "us vs. them" and "retain-our-privilege-at-all-cost?" Why aren’t more of us repulsed that it’s cloaked in the language of love for “God and country?”
Beyond all the symbolic things, a nine-year-old child and her father were killed because of hatred. Even then, we can’t talk about that without feeling the need to air the murderers’ opinion that Raul Flores, Jr., Brisenia’s father, sold drugs.*
As if the Minutemen need justification to act violently against a Latin@ family and community. As Maegan notes: The goal [of Shawna Forde and Gunny Bush] wasn’t to observe, document and report as Jim Gilchrist, the leader of the Minuteman Project, has said in trying to distance himself from his associates charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault. The goal was to use violence against a family viewed as expendable to help further their cause of using violence against those viewed as expendable.
(Crossposted)
__________________________________
*I have not read anything that backs the truth of that claim, and yet the NYT juxtaposes it with the local Sheriff’s observation that “there is ample drug activity between here and the border.” Now, he doesn’t say that Raul Flores, Jr., is connected to it, but that quote is somehow relevant when talking about the murder of a Latino man who lived near the border.
Madoff Sentenced
Let me be perfectly clear: I have no sympathy for Bernie Madoff, not a single, solitary, infinitesimal iota.
But surely I am not the only person who reads that he's been sentenced to 150 years in prison and sees the sort of ridiculously excessive sentence that's typically reserved for scapegoats.
Ah, the evil Madoff has been given 150 years—finally someone is being held responsible for the horrendous economic clusterfucktastrophe which has befallen us all! Now we can go back to not paying attention! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
It's just a little fucked up that the asshole who swindled rich people gets 150 years, but most of the assholes who swindled poor people haven't even lost their jobs. And that's to say nothing of the assholes staffed by the regulatory bodies whose enormous incompetence enabled Madoff's crimes, no less members of the administration under whose watch the economy collapsed.
I hope next time Former President Mondo Fucko is strolling around his yard, picking up dog shit, he thinks kindly on Mr. Madoff, strolling around the prison yard, serving a sentence on behalf of all the Great Swindlers.
The Trials and Travails of Transness: Dude Looks Like a Lady
by Shaker Alexmac, a transgender woman studying at the University of Florida.
[Part 2 in an ongoing series. Part 1 is here.]
In this post, mostly drawn from chapter six of Julia Serano's Whipping Girl, I am going to explore gender and sexual diversity and the concept of oppositional sexism. I need to first introduce a new and useful concept: subconscious sex. Serano describes this as the sex we unconsciously feel ourselves to be. Subconscious sex is not to be confused with gender identity, which is the gender that we identify as.
The best way I can describe it is before I realized I was trans, I identified as a male, but my subconscious sex was female. This created cognitive dissonance which caused me pain, but I did not know entirely why. As I came to realize I am trans, it has eased my pain somewhat, but my physical sex still conflicts with my subconscious sex and the only way to get rid of the dissonance is to try and match my physical sex with my subconscious sex. It would be very much harder to change my subconscious sex as it is hardwired in my brain and would involve brain surgery. When you wonder why people go through transition, realize that it is much easier to deal with hate and discrimination from others than to fight your own body.
To fully explore gender and sexual diversity, we must understand gender expression. Serano defines gender expression as whether our presentation, behaviors, interests, and/or affinities are considered masculine or feminine or some combination thereof. So, if a gay man wears eyeliner and doesn't like sports he would be considered to have a feminine gender expression or even worse, be a woman!
Since gender expression is the most outward aspect of gender, it is the part which Serano says "is the most widely commented on, critiqued and regulated aspect of gender." Since it is so highly regulated, some people have proposed that gender itself is entirely a social construct, which is a popular view among some branches of feminism. Unfortunately, this approach has the distinct disadvantage of disappearing trans folk, with trans men becoming confused butches and trans women becoming gender storm troopers (at least if you read The Transsexual Empire).
Oppositional sexism, or gender essentialism, seeks to reduce the diversity of sexuality and gender into two immutable groups: "Men" and "Women," where "Men" are aggressive, immature, attracted to women, and "Women" are emotional, calculating, and attracted to men. Oppositional sexism is a system where men and women are positioned as opposites. Oppositional sexism is more commonly known as the binary gender system. It is why queers are lumped into a group, because we break the system of binaries. Gay men are men who are attracted to men, trans women are women born physically male who seek to fix the problem, butch lesbians act in "masculine" ways. This all ruptures the artificial barrier between the two categories of "man" and "woman." People who violate this system set themselves up for a ton of abuse and ostracism.
Why would people voluntarily set themselves up for abuse? Not everyone is a rebel trying to bring down the system of oppositional sexism; I know I did not choose to be transgender, but as I said earlier, I can't fight against my brain. Social constructionists and gender essentialists can agree on one thing—that transgender people are the kink in their theory and need to be erased.
So, where can trans people fit in? Serano uses the phrase "inclination" to describe these feelings, as a persistent desire, affinity, or urge that predisposes us to a particular gender and sexuality. She then proposes a nifty model called the intrinsic inclination model where subconscious sex, gender expression, and sexual orientation are independently determined inclinations. These inclinations are intrinsic, because they occur mostly subconsciously and remain intact despite social factors that try and change them. These inclinations happen on a continuous range—there aren't two classes ("men" and "women"), but many. The last part is that these inclinations roughly correspond to physical sex and form a series of two overlapping bell curves, so while a majority of men have a typically masculine gender expression, there are also men with feminine gender expression and vice versa. People who differ from the average of these inclinations are just an example of human variation and not freaks or deviants.
I really like this theory; it allows for a large variety of gender and sexual diversity. The biggest problem I can see from it is the biological basis for gender expression. Serano notes this concern in episode 66 of the Transponder podcast. She compares the biological basis of specific gender expression inclination to identical twins. While they are genetically identical, they have different life experiences, preferences in music, and love interests. The exact same biological inclinations can have extremely different results. Humans are incredibly complex and socialization can have a strong influence on how a person turns out. Her model suggests that there are certain inclinations we can't socialize against. The incredibly high incidence of military veterans among male to female trans women, for example, shows how even trans women going through male socialization and pursuing a stereotypically male job, still have a female subconscious sex. They eventually can't fight the gender dissonance any longer and transition into the women they were born as.
Her theory works to breakdown the gender binary, not through denying gender, but recognizing the vast diversity of gender and sexuality, saying that it is all okay. From the woman who loves romance novels and painting her nails to…the man who loves romance novels and painting his nails. We are an incredibly diverse species and should appreciate our diversity. The problem comes from people forcing others to live the way they think is correct—that "women" aren't good at sports, so they shouldn't be allowed to play. This idea should form the core of feminist belief: that people are different—men, women, trans, cis, white, black, able-bodied or disabled—and we are all equal, no one of the infinite options being better or worse than the others (unless that option involves oppressing others).
In my next post, I will address the main thrust of Julia Serano's book, the dismissal of femininity in our culture and what it means for trans women and feminism in general.
SCOTUS Rules on Ricci
Justices Rule for White Firefighters in Bias Case:
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.A very disappointing, if unsurprising, ruling. Typically, it was Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas in the majority, with Ginsburg, Breyer, Souter, and Stevens dissenting. Ginsburg authored the dissent and noted, that the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.
They had no vested right to promotion is pretty much the crux of the whole case, as far as I'm concerned. Seven words that say a hell of a lot about entitlement and privilege.
Related reading: CNN Poll: Two-thirds think firefighters were discriminated against.
Also see: Steve and LeMew.
Hitman Returns: The Anticipationing
Hey, assholes! It's Kenny Blogginz here with another one of my infamous movie anticipation threads! I was just informed by my good friends at aintitcoolnews.com that Hollywood big-wigs are currently in the initial stages of creating a sequel to the smash hit video-game-to-film adaptation Hitman.
Everyone knows that Hitman was a film years ahead of its time, and a sequel can only be better. I believe I once read somewhere that little Timmy Olyphant was the first white male to dual-wield automatic pistols on screen, which is a real achievement as far as I'm concerned.
And remember that one part where all the Hit-mans threw down their guns in order to have a katana fight? That was probably one of the defining moments of modern cinema, like that one part from Bloodrayne, or that part from Bloodrayne II. Not since Underworld III: Rise of the Lycans has there been such a cinematic undertaking.
Hopefully the Hitman team will take a page out of Underworld III's book and include some werewolf-on-vampire action this time around. Who wouldn't love to see Agent 47 look up at the full moon (CGI) and utter a catchphrase like "HERE WE GO AGAIN"? Nobody, that's who. And here's a twist for the ages: Agent 47 is a werewolf THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME!!!!!
You know that when the last of Agent 47's humanity slips away, there's only one man who can take him out: Sheiae LaBeoufeaux. Don't even pretend like that doesn't make perfect sense.
You guys aren't even going to believe my choice for Head Werewolf: Bruce God-Damn Willis.
I think we all know about Michael Bay's high standards, but wouldn't it just blow your mind if he were to be the director for Hitman II? Forget about it! Only under Bay's sage direction could Olyphant finally reach the levels of master thespians like John Turturro or Bumblebee Jefferson.
You know what? Fuck it. I'm writing the screenplay for this masterpiece. This could finally be my well-deserved breakthrough hit that takes me from art-house flicks to the exalted realm of the Summer Blockbuster.
India To Decriminalize Homosexuality
Homomentum on the Subcontinent:
The Indian government is considering rewriting a law drafted more than 100 years ago that criminalises homosexuality. The news emerged as the capital, Delhi, held its second gay rights march yesterday and other cities across the nation played host to similar parades.Details here.
"This [law] is an absurdity in today's world," a government source said. "The government will certainly move to repeal it."
[H/T to InfamousQBert.]
Coup in Honduras
Over the weekend, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup, after "months of tensions over his efforts to lift presidential term limits":
In the first military coup in Central America since the end of the cold war, soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, early in the morning, disarming the presidential guard, waking Mr. Zelaya and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica.So this is a rather interesting situation in that Zelaya was making part of his citizenry angry by attempting to change part their established democratic process (possibly illegally; in any case an overreach), so to stop him, the entire democratic process was subverted. A dubious victory, to say the least.
Mr. Zelaya, a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, angrily denounced the coup as illegal. "I am the president of Honduras," he insisted at the airport in San José, Costa Rica, still wearing his pajamas.
Later Sunday the Honduran Congress voted him out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.
The military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law against "those who had publicly spoken out and acted against the Constitution's provisions."
Or would have been, if the issue was strictly about protecting Honduras' democracy, but that isn't the whole story: "[Zelaya] has the support of labor unions and the poor. But the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez's brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America's poorest."
Leaders across the hemisphere, however, denounced the coup, which American officials on Sunday said they had been working for several days to avert.Discuss.
President Obama said he was deeply concerned and in a statement called on Honduran officials "to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic charter.
"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference," he said.
...Obama administration officials said they were working with other members of the Organization of American States to ratchet up pressure on the Honduran military to end the coup and dismissed the prospect of outside military intervention in the matter.
"We think this can be resolved through dialogue," said the senior administration official. However, he admitted that the Honduran military was not responding to calls from the American government.
RIP Billy Mays
Famed TV pitchman Billy Mays, he of OxiClean fame, passed away Sunday at the age of fifty. Details are here. RIP, Billy. The world will be a little more dingy without you.
What The Hell?
Open Letter: To A Rectal Haberdasher
Dear Homophobic Asshat,
Hi? How are you? I'm queer as fuck.
I wanted to write to say thanks so much for your greeting when we arrived at Pride Day in Toronto yesterday. My girlfriend and I were so touched by your thoughtfulness in welcoming us to your city with the traditional, "If I had an Uzi, there'd be trouble here." I'll admit we weren't sure, initially, whether you were greeting us, or the young black woman walking past with her two beautiful kids. She and I shared a shrug, as we didn't know for whom your kind thoughts were intended: were you greeting her because you're just so loving of people with a different skin tone, or were you greeting us because you're just so loving of people who happen to be queer? Perhaps you might consider throwing some more specific slurs in, next time, so we know which of us should be proud of your attentions. We wouldn't want to miss a word of your intellectual grandeur.
But where it got really friendly was when you walked past us the second time, loudly hoping that we would have the pleasure of encountering a terrorist attack on our celebration day. It was nice to be able to pin down that yes, you were a homophobe, and not a racist. Or at least, not a racist today! I shouldn't assume you're monoodious, sorry about that - I'm sure you're capable of finding plenty of things to hate.
I'm sorry to disappoint, but in fact none of us filthy queers were killed by terrorists at Toronto Pride yesterday. But take heart, you're not the only one who believes the way you do. I'm sure you'll be able to find plenty of friends somewhere.
Anyway, that's all, just wanted to wave a cheery hello, and leave you with this thought:
We're here. We're queer. And we'll be back next year.
Good luck in your career as an anal milliner,
Caitiecat
Queer as Fuck and Proud as Hell
Wow
Governor Mark Sanford compares himself to King David (yes, that King David) in order to explain why he's not resigning, and then says the first step to "pick[ing] up the pieces" is humility—all without a trace of irony.
I've been doing a lot of soul searching on that front, and, um, what I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily; he fell in very, very significant ways, but then picked up the pieces and built from there. And it really began with…humility—humility toward others, humility in one's own spirit.lol your fat lack of perspective
[ETA: Just to be clear, I don't think that anyone axiomatically needs to resign from public office over an infidelity. I do, however, think that someone who goes AWOL from his post for a week and charges taxpayers for international trips to get laid does. Sanford has a few more problems than a guy who gets caught with his pants down but does the job he was hired to do.]
Facts Schmacts
The Republican members of the house give their colleague Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) a round of applause after he calls climate change a hoax and tells various lies about proposed climate change legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act:
Scientists all over this world say that the idea of human induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax. There is no scientific consensus.It's no wonder this country is fucked up when half the people running it are totally delusional.
But this is gonna kill jobs. It's gonna raise the cost of food. It's gonna raise the cost of medicines. It's gonna raise the cost of electricity and gasoline. Every good and service in this country is gonna go up.
And who's gonna be hurt most? The poor, the people on limited income, the retirees, the elderly, the people who can least afford to have their energy taxes raised by, MIT says, over $3100 per family.
This rule must be defeated. This bill must be defeated. We need to be good stewards of our environment, but this is not it; it's a hoax! I encourage people to vote against the rule and the bill.
From the Further Misadventures of a Fat Biker Bitch
[Thanks to Shaker Roramich for the title of this post. Background: I recently got a bike, and am having to re-learn to ride in a whole new way because of a back injury that left me with nerve damage in my left foot.]
It's been very, very hot here lately—the kind of hot that when you open the front door, the heat hits like you a puff of bad breath in your face. So the other day, I awoke early and decided to go for a short ride around 6:30am. I'm still re-learning, so I figured I would shoot for two miles, which wouldn't put me too far away from home if I had any trouble, and would get me home before it got unbearably hot.
It also meant I wouldn't have to carry a bag, since my bike came without a water bottle holder and I've not bought one yet. That did, however, leave me wondering what to do with my keys in pocketless pants, but, luckily, my keychain fob is big and flat, so I just tucked it down the back of my pants, letting the keys hang out, which worked just fine. And off I went.
It was an easy first mile, and I was really starting to feel like a bike-rider again. I felt rather good as I went into the turn at the top of my mile—and then promptly fell off my bike in another hilarious slo-mo tumble into the grass.
My injuries were more pathetic than serious, although I was left with a very impressive bruise:
What was more annoying than my devastating wounds was the fact that I'd fallen into long grass that was still dewy so early in the day. I hadn't really planned or desired to ride my second mile all wet, but such is the life of a Fat Biker Bitch.
My second mile went well, too, although I was a bit tired, a lot thirsty, and now a bit sore from the fall, by the time I got home. I pulled into the driveway and reached 'round for my keys.
No keys.
Well. There was nothing for it. No point in getting angry or upset; I just hopped back on my bike. The fates—with a little help from my own ineptitude—had decided I was going on a four-mile ride instead.
The last two were, blissfully, fall-free.
I'm totes getting a water bottle holder for my dang bike this weekend—and figuring out somewhere better to store my keys.
Foiler warning.
------------------------------
1. Upon seeing the Very Impressive Bruise, Iain exclaimed: "You've totally got to blog that!" LOL.
2. While relaying this story to my friend Mannion yesterday on the phone, he noted that at least this answers the question of whether I have a corporeal body. I told him: "Either that, or I am a brain in a jar who is also a compulsive liar." You be the judge!
Ahem.
Yesterday I wrote about white supremacist and right-wing pundit Hal Turner being arrested for advocating the murder of three judges. I wondered if Turner had been arrested because it's much less risky, publicity-wise, to arrest a white supremacist than, say, a national "conservative" figure.
Cue a big fucking blowhard:Conservatives in Wausau on Thursday decried President Barack Obama's economic policies at a gathering hosted by the conservative free-market group Americans for Prosperity.
Yeah, so Sam the Fake Plumber is flapping his piehole again... what's the big deal, right?
The event, called "Pints and Politics," brought to town Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, known during the 2008 presidential campaign as "Joe the Plumber."
"Obama right now is talking about, he can generate more revenue by taxing the top 2 to 3 percent of Americans," Wurzelbacher said. "Well, you know, that's immoral. Just because someone's worked hard, gotten ahead -- it's not your money."
Here's the big deal.Wurzelbacher has a reputation for being a blunt, politically incorrect speaker. Referring to Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., more than once, Wurzelbacher asked, "Why hasn't he been strung up?"
This is not "blunt."
This is not "politically incorrect."
Let's not mince words. This is calling for the lynching of a United States Senator. Several times.
Turner's words: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.”
Wurzelbacher's words: "Why hasn't he been strung up?"
Is there some reason Wurzelbacher is not behind bars? Go ahead, explain to me how it's all an "act," and he's just an "entertainer."
(Via.)
WWJS?
[Trigger warning for gun violence.]
If there's one question to which I've always longed for an answer, it's: Who Would Jesus Shoot?
Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church [in Louisville, KY], is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on "God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry." And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to "celebrate our rights as Americans!" as a promotional flier for the "open carry celebration" puts it.Louisville is less than four hours away from Knoxville, TN, where, less than a year ago, Jim Adkisson walked into a church and opened fire, killing two people and injuring six more, for which he is now serving life in prison. So maybe this whole God-'n'-Guns bravado is a wee bit, um, insensitive, apart from everything else wrong with it.
"God and guns were part of the foundation of this country," Mr. Pagano, 49, said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side walls. "I don't see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist."
…"When someone from within the church tells me that being a Christian and having firearms are contradictions, that they're incompatible with the Gospel—baloney," he said. "As soon as you start saying that it's not something that Christians do, well, guns are just the foil. The issue now is the Gospel. So in a sense, it does become a crusade. Now the Gospel is at stake."
Just sayin'.
I Didn't Know "Rest In Peace" Came with a Citizenship Requirement!
Do you ever just sit back and wonder who and what we are becoming?
When the DC metrorail crash occurred earlier this week, nine people lost their lives. When the list of the names of the dead was released, it contained the name of Ana Fernandez, a mother of six.
While the family has been "grateful for the genuine expressions of sympathy," they did not expect another effect.
Ana Fernandez's image and name have prompted hateful, harrassing calls from people demanding to know her immigration status.
My personal response was, "Does it matter?"
Have we really sunk so low that we comb through the details of tragedies, looking for things that make us feel "suspicious?"
Have brown skin and a Spanish surname become enough to arouse that suspicion and make us act in heartless, disturbingly inhuman ways? (That question is rhetorical, of course).
Ana Fernandez's family is having to balance their grief with this sudden demand to explain: Ana's sister said the accusations aren't true.
They're also having to defend themselves against the stereotypes of lazy immigrants who come here to "live off" others. Fernandez's sister said:
"Right now, the whole family is in pain. She was here legally, and all her children are legal. They were born here.""We all work, OK? And we're going to get through this."
And from one of her children: "She was always working -- working two jobs. She did whatever she had to to take care of us," said Evelyn Fernandez, her oldest daughter, who is enrolled in a GED program. "She was a strong woman. She never needed anyone to help her."
For the record, I'd like to repeat that Fernandez's family reports she did have legal status and all her children were born here.*
For the record, large numbers of people with Spanish surnames and brown skin have been in the United States for 160 years now and had been in places that would become part of the United States, for generations before--at some point, New Spain extended from one coast to another across the southern portion of what is now the United States.
Given that, inferring anything "suspicious" from the appearance and name of Ana Fernandez is not only desperate, it doesn't necessarily make sense.
Except, I guess, in a place fully ensconced and invested in its latest wave of nativism.
H/T Maegan
(crossposted)
________________________________
*I've gone back and forth about writing that, because what I'm trying to say is that the accusations are unfounded, but what I worry it sounds like is, "Because they've met this arbitrary citizenship standard, they have a right to grieve and be treated with respect." Her family should be allowed to grieve in peace and she should be treated with dignity in her death whatever her/their immigration status is.
Anyone Want to Place Bets…
…on how long it is before some dumbass state legislature introduces a bill that would require a woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy to hold a scale model of the fetus first?
Leaving that aside, it's a pretty amazing innovation, especially for visually impaired expectant parents.
Assvertising
[Transcript below.]
Holes and balls! Wink wink, nudge nudge, knowwhatImean, knowwhatImean? Vaginas and testicles! Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more!
Any further commentary, I feel, on this ridiculous faux-market-research advert for Hardee's Biscuit Holes, would be superfluous.
Hardee's Dude: We're introducing a new item at Hardee's called Biscuit Holes. Can you think of a better name for them?[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six", Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One,Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three,Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy.]
Woman 1: Goody Balls.
Hardude: [writing] Goody Balls.
Man 1: Creamy Sweet Holes.
Hardude: That's great.
Man 2: Sugar Nuts!
Man 3: Or Hole Munchers.
Man 4: Yay-Holes.
Woman 2: Tasty Nuts.
Woman 3: Melting Holes.
Man 5: Frosty Dippahz.
Woman 4: Sweet Balls.
Hardude: Yeah, eat with your mouth full.
Man 2: Dingleballs?
Woman 5: Puffy Nuts.
Woman 3: Iced B-Holes?
Hardude: [holding balls between fingers] What about Fisticles?
Man 6: Now what?
Voiceover: What would you call 'em? Introducing Biscuit Holes—with icing. They sound wrong, but taste so right. New, at Hardees.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proprietary distributors of Whispers Through My Whiskers: The Love Songs of Bruce Pornstache.
Recommended Reading:
Echidne: On Iran, Again
Andy: House Dems Hold Private Meeting to Map LGBT Strategy
Jill: I Think You're Confused as to the Meaning of "Child Support"
Christian: You're All Going to Jail: A Friendly Warning from Charles Colson to the Southern Baptist Convention
Tami: L'Oreal Guilty of Saying Non to Noir and Other Couleurs
Libby: My Last Link to the WaPo
Leave your links in comments...
Quote of the Day
"There is a very small chance any Republicans will vote for this healthcare plan. They were against Medicare and Medicaid [created in the 1960s]. They voted against children's health insurance. We have a moral choice. This is a classic case of the good guys versus the bad guys. I know it is not political for me to say that. But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good healthcare plan? That is the choice."—Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), on the necessity of a public healthcare plan and the futility of bipartisanship when it comes to doing the right thing.
[Via.]
