The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay. maybe a vestment.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
The Terrible Bargain We Have Regretfully Struck
I am republishing this piece because, damn, I know a lot of people who are feeling the weight of terrible bargains in their lives right now.
[Content Note: Misogyny; rape culture; bullying.]
Despite feminists' reputation, and contra my own individual reputation cultivated over five years of public opinion-making, I am not a man-hater.
If I played by misogynists' rules, specifically the one that dictates it only takes one woman doing one Mean or Duplicitous or Disrespectful or Unlawful or otherwise Bad Thing to justify hatred of all women, I would have plenty of justification for hating men, if I were inclined to do that sort of thing.
Most of my threatening hate mail comes from men. The most unrelentingly trouble-making trolls have always been men. I've been cat-called and cow-called from moving vehicles countless times, and subjected to other forms of street harassment, and sexually harassed at work, always by men. I have been sexually assaulted—if one includes rape, attempted rape, unsolicited touching of breasts, buttocks, and/or genitals, nonconsensual frottage on public transportation, and flashing—by dozens of people during my lifetime, some known to me, some strangers, all men.
But I don't hate men, because I play by different rules. In fact, there are men in this world whom I love quite a lot.
There are also individual men in this world I would say I probably hate, or something close, men who I hold in unfathomable contempt, but it is not because they are men.
No, I don't hate men.
It would, however, be fair to say that I don't easily trust them.
My mistrust is not, as one might expect, primarily a result of the violent acts done on my body, nor the vicious humiliations done to my dignity. It is, instead, born of the multitude of mundane betrayals that mark my every relationship with a man—the casual rape joke, the use of a female slur, the careless demonization of the feminine in everyday conversation, the accusations of overreaction, the eyerolling and exasperated sighs in response to polite requests to please not use misogynist epithets in my presence or to please use non-gendered language ("humankind").
There are the insidious assumptions guiding our interactions—the supposition that I will regard being exceptionalized as a compliment ("you're not like those other women"), and the presumption that I am an ally against certain kinds of women. Surely, we're all in agreement that Britney Spears is a dirty slut who deserves nothing but a steady stream of misogynist vitriol whenever her name is mentioned, right? Always the subtle pressure to abandon my principles to trash this woman or that woman, as if I'll never twig to the reality that there's always a justification for unleashing the misogyny, for hating a woman in ways reserved only for women. I am exhorted to join in the cruel revelry, and when I refuse, suddenly the target is on my back. And so it goes.
There are the jokes about women, about wives, about mothers, about raising daughters, about female bosses. They are told in my presence by men who are meant to care about me, just to get a rise out of me, as though I am meant to find funny a reminder of my second-class status. I am meant to ignore that this is a bullying tactic, that the men telling these jokes derive their amusement specifically from knowing they upset me, piss me off, hurt me. They tell them and I can laugh, and they can thus feel superior, or I can not laugh, and they can thus feel superior. Heads they win, tails I lose. I am used as a prop in an ongoing game of patriarchal posturing, and then I am meant to believe it is true when some of the men who enjoy this sport, in which I am their pawn, tell me, "I love you." I love you, my daughter. I love you, my niece. I love you, my friend. I am meant to trust these words.
There are the occasions that men—intellectual men, clever men, engaged men—insist on playing devil's advocate, desirous of a debate on some aspect of feminist theory or reproductive rights or some other subject generally filed under the heading: Women's Issues. These intellectual, clever, engaged men want to endlessly probe my argument for weaknesses, want to wrestle over details, want to argue just for fun—and they wonder, these intellectual, clever, engaged men, why my voice keeps raising and why my face is flushed and why, after an hour of fighting my corner, hot tears burn the corners of my eyes. Why do you have to take this stuff so personally? ask the intellectual, clever, and engaged men, who have never considered that the content of the abstract exercise that's so much fun for them is the stuff of my life.
There is the perplexity at my fury that my life experience is not considered more relevant than the opinionated pronouncements of men who make a pastime of informal observation, like womanhood is an exotic locale which provides magnificent fodder for the amateur ethnographer. And there is the haughty dismissal of my assertion that being on the outside looking in doesn't make one more objective; it merely provides a different perspective.
There are the persistent, tiresome pronouncements of similitude between men's and women's experiences, the belligerent insistence that handsome men are objectified by women, too! that women pinch men's butts sometimes, too! that men are expected to look a certain way at work, too! that women rape, too! and other equivalencies that conveniently and stupidly ignore institutional inequities that mean X rarely equals Y. And there are the long-suffering groans that meet any attempt to contextualize sexism and refute the idea that such indignities, though grim they all may be, are not necessarily equally oppressive.
There are the stereotypes—oh, the abundant stereotypes!—about women, not me, of course, but other women, those women with their bad driving and their relentless shopping habits and their PMS and their disgusting vanity and their inability to stop talking and their disinterest in Important Things and their trying to trap men and their getting pregnant on purpose and their false rape accusations and their being bitches sluts whores cunts... And I am expected to nod in agreement, and I am nudged and admonished to agree. I am expected to say these things are not true of me, but are true of women (am I seceding from the union?); I am expected to put my stamp of token approval on the stereotypes. Yes, it's true. Between you and me, it's all true. That's what is wanted from me. Abdication of my principles and pride, in service to a patriarchal system that will only use my collusion to further subjugate me. This is a thing that is asked of me by men who purport to care for me.
There is the unwillingness to listen, a ferociously stubborn not getting it on so many things, so many important things. And the obdurate refusal to believe, to internalize, that my outrage is not manufactured and my injure not make-believe—an inflexible rejection of the possibility that my pain is authentic, in favor of the consolatory belief that I am angry because I'm a feminist (rather than the truth: that I'm a feminist because I'm angry).
And there is the denial about engaging in misogyny, even when it's evident, even when it's pointed out gently, softly, indulgently, carefully, with goodwill and the presumption that it was not intentional. There is the firm, fixed, unyielding denial—because it is better and easier to imply that I'm stupid or crazy, that I have imagined being insulted by someone about whom I care (just for the fun of it!), than it is to just admit a bloody mistake. Rather I am implied to be a hysteric than to say, simply, I'm sorry.
Not every man does all of these things, or even most of them, and certainly not all the time. But it only takes one, randomly and occasionally, exploding in a shower of cartoon stars like an unexpected punch in the nose, to send me staggering sideways, wondering what just happened.
Well. I certainly didn't see that coming...
These things, they are not the habits of deliberately, connivingly cruel men. They are, in fact, the habits of the men in this world I love quite a lot.
All of whom have given me reason to mistrust them, to use my distrust as a self-protection mechanism, as an essential tool to get through every day, because I never know when I might next get knocked off-kilter with something that puts me in the position, once again, of choosing between my dignity and the serenity of our relationship.
Swallow shit, or ruin the entire afternoon?
It can come out of nowhere, and usually does. Which leaves me mistrustful by both necessity and design. Not fearful; just resigned—and on my guard. More vulnerability than that allows for the possibility of wounds that do not heal. Wounds to our relationship, the sort of irreparable damage that leaves one unable to look in the eye someone that you loved once upon a time.
This, then, is the terrible bargain we have regretfully struck: Men are allowed the easy comfort of their unexamined privilege, but my regard will always be shot through with a steely, anxious bolt of caution.
A shitty bargain all around, really. But there it is.
There are men who will read this post and think, huffily, dismissively, that a person of color could write a post very much like this one about white people, about me. That's absolutely right. So could a lesbian, a gay man, a bisexual, an asexual. So could a trans or intersex person (which hardly makes a comprehensive list). I'm okay with that. I don't feel hated. I feel mistrusted—and I understand it; I respect it. It means, for me, I must be vigilant, must make myself trustworthy. Every day.
I hope those men will hear me when I say, again, I do not hate you. I mistrust you. You can tell yourselves that's a problem with me, some inherent flaw, some evidence that I am fucked up and broken and weird; you can choose to believe that the women in your lives are nothing like me.
Or you can be vigilant, can make yourselves trustworthy. Every day.
Just in case they're more like me than you think.
[This post was originally published August 14, 2009.]
Photo of the Day
From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day for 17 October 2013: An eleven-day-old newborn giraffe calf stands beside his mother named Mimi in their enclosure at Himeji Central Park in Himeji, Japan. [Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images]Adorbz.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Drones.]
"While the fact that civilians have been killed or injured does not necessarily point to a violation of international humanitarian law, it undoubtedly raises issues of accountability and transparency." — Ben Emmerson QC, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, in a report examining 33 drone strikes, in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, and Gaza, which "have resulted in civilian casualties and may have violated international humanitarian law."
Emmerson criticises the CIA's involvement in US drone strikes for creating "an almost insurmountable obstacle to transparency". He adds: "One consequence is that the United States has to date failed to reveal its own data on the level of civilian casualties inflicted through the use of remotely piloted aircraft in classified operations conducted in Pakistan and elsewhere."Yes. Not that the US government will listen.
...The special rapporteur concludes by urging: "the United States to further clarify its position on the legal and factual issues … to declassify, to the maximum extent possible, information relevant to its lethal extraterritorial counter-terrorism operations; and to release its own data on the level of civilian casualties inflicted through the use of remotely piloted aircraft, together with information on the evaluation methodology used."
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Hill Street Blues
This week's TMNS brought to you by television theme songs I love.
The Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by coupons.
Recommended Reading:
David: [Content Note: Sexual violence; victim-blaming; rape apologia] Fox News 'Expert' Blames Missouri Teen: 'I'm Not Saying She Deserved to Be Raped But...'
Fannie: [CN: Misogyny; threats; harassment] ABC Story on MRA Aggression Sparks MRA Bias in Comments
Jamilah: [CN: Slavery; racism; violence] Chiwetel Ejiofor Talks 12 Years a Slave
Libby Anne: [CN: Sexual violence; clergy abuse] Evangelicals Have a Child Sexual Abuse Problem, But Some of Them Don't Want to Admit That
Noelle: [CN: Harassment; objectification] Female Cosplayers Share Their Creeper Stories Through Photos
Robert: A Stunning View of Saturn
And finally: If you love Scandal, you should definitely be reading Trudy's writing about Scandal, because it is brilliant. [Spoilers] Here is her latest about last night's episode, and you can find her entire Scandal archive here.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
This is a real thing in the world.
Charles Krauthammer is a conservative pundit who writes for a column for the Washington Post, and, if you're not familiar with his work, today's execrable column [content note: racism] is a pretty terrific example of the magnitude of his aggressive indecency.
Anyway. He has a new book coming out next week! And it is called Things That Matter. THINGS! THAT! MATTER! Ahhhhhahahahaha! Can you even imagine writing a book called Things That Matter?! "This is a book that I have written, and I only write about Things That Matter, so." OMG!
The publisher describes it as "the long-awaited collection of Charles Krauthammer's essential, timeless writings," which is EVEN BETTER.
"Hi, I am an adult human being, and this is my book, Things That Matter, which is a collection of my essential and timeless writings." Just LOL FOREVER.
Maybe this isn't as funny if you haven't been reading for decades the noxious swill Krauthammer regularly disgorges into the pages of the Washington Post. Or if you're a person who can imagine writing a book, on any subject, no less a book just regurgitating your previously published garbage thoughts, and titling it Things That Matter.
I hope you will enjoy my forthcoming book, All the Important Things, and Nothing Else: These Are the Only Subjects That Matter, and Here Are All My Essential and Timeless Words About Them. With a foreword by Jesus Christ. In bookstores soon!
[H/T to my pal Norbizness.]
On the Telly
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Last night, Iain and I saw a few adverts for different sitcoms we don't watch, and every single one of the clips contained a joke about how a straight man hated his female partner and/or was trying to avoid having to spend time with her.
I'm presuming that most of these sitcoms also feature the tiresome trope of the wife/girlfriend thinking her male partner is a stupid, crude, useless, embarrassing jackass, which is also garbage.
But one of the things that makes that particular trope so appalling is the fact that, despite finding their male partners to be stupid, crude, useless, embarrassing jackasses, these sitcom ladies still clearly love them dearly. I mean, who hasn't seen an episode of Everybody Loves the King of Home Improvement According to Mike O'Malley and not thought: "Why does she even care about this reprehensible heapshit?"
These terrible men are deeply loved.
Their female partners, on the other hand, are reviled. Even and especially by their own partners. The worst punishment in the world for a sitcom husband is to have to spend time with his sitcom wife.
As I've previously observed: It ain't women who are the primary gatekeepers of that bullshit. It's other men. About the last place on earth you'll find active feminists is in the executive offices of mainstream studios.
This is the Patriarchy played for laughs: Men are terrible, but deserving of love. Women are even worse, and deserve naught but seething hatred.
[Related Reading: Today in Backlash Broadcasting.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Happy Dog is happy.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Futures Formidable and Vast
I dream of futures formidable and vast.
I dream of them when I am sleeping, and when I am wide awake. Behind each blink of my eyes is an audacious vision, urging me.
My dreams are vivid with abstract images of times and spaces where equality is not a promise but a fact.
In my dreams, we look each other in the eyes and hold each other's gazes without swallowing down fear. We want to know one another and want to be known. Because it is safe.
It turns out there is enough humanity for us all. Plenty to go around.
In my dreams, I do not fly. I float. I float in a cool sea of collective fulfillment. Here, cradled in the embrace of these sparkling, reverberant waves, I realize this true thing: Contentment is better than joy.
In my dreams, the world is full of girls who are more than the incandescently happy we're meant to regard as a finite goal. In my dreams, they are safe. In my dreams, they are valued. Because being safe and valued makes unhappiness survivable and happiness possible. Because both are parts of the complex humanity denied by defining happiness an objective.
In my dreams, the haunting feeling doesn't exist—I don't feel like I will never be enough of any of the things I am expected to be.
In my dreams, there are no more terrible bargains.
Even in my dreams, I expect more. Because I don't know how to expect anything else.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
Oregon's Chief Operating Officer and Director of Administrative Services Michael Jordan issued a memo to state agencies earlier this week directing them to recognize legal same-sex marriages performed in other states "for the purposes of administering state programs." Legal same-sex marriage is still not offered in Oregon itself, "although a lawsuit filed this week aims to overturn the constitutional amendment that bans such marriages."
[Content Note: Death; end-of-life decisions] This is a really amazing article about why US physicians generally make different end-of-life choices for themselves than their patients do.
There are definitely some questions that the administration needs to answer about the spending on the flawed technology that has compromised the Obamacare roll-out.
[CN: Classism] The Myth of Bootstraps: "A new report by the Southern Education Foundation reveals that for the first time in 40 years, a majority of public school students throughout the Southern and Western United States are low-income."
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, released research earlier this week revealing its finding that "outdoor air pollution has been definitively linked to cancer and is officially classified as a carcinogen."
A month after the flooding in Colorado, small towns are still struggling to recover, while the nation's attention has been turned to the fuckery in DC.
[CN: Sexual assault] A US federal air marshal "has been arrested and accused of taking cellphone photographs underneath women's skirts as they boarded a plane at Nashville International Airport." I have a special reservoir of sulfur-scented contempt for men tasked with protecting people who exploit and harm women.
Do you like Kristen Bell and/or Dax Shepard? Then maybe you will be interested in the news that they got married! I don't know much about either of them, but something something Veronica Mars and lots of ladies in my life swooning at the mere mention of Kristen Bell's name!
If you were hoping there would be a Calvin & Hobbes movie someday, too bad because there ain't gonna be one! So I am sorry, if you wanted that! I did not want that, even though I love Calvin & Hobbes very much, but I can see why someone might!
This video about Hope for Paws' rescue work in LA with homeless dogs made me blub my face off. In a good way!
Update: Police Attack First Nations Protestors in New Brunswick (UPDATED 5)
[Content Note: descriptions of violence against unarmed people, weapons, racism. Some of the links have images of burning cars and further confrontations between police and protestors.]
Note: There are further UPDATES at the bottom of the post and in comments.
Here are a few updates on the situation in Rexton. As reported yesterday, the RCMP showed up with dogs, snipers, armored vehicles, pepper spray and "bean bag" bullets to force a group of peaceful proetstors, First Nations peoples and their allies, to disperse. (Not surprisingly, the usual media suspects, such as the Washington Times --to which I will NOT link-- have shaped their narratives around the "violent" Mi'kmaq and other tribal protestors who set fire to police cars in response to this escalation, rather than on the decision to confront peaceful protestors/protectors with armed force.)
[Image description: a kneeling young woman holding an eagle feather aloft faces armed police. The top reads: "Protect Our Mother for Our Unborn Children." The bottom reads "Stop Fracking. Stop Drilling." Image credit: designed by Gregg Deal (@the_lame_sauce) from a photograph taken yesterday by Ossie Michelin (@Osmich).]
As of last night, as reported on the news and confirmed by Shaker CharleyPete (Mad Capper on Twitter @Spacklegeek), most of the police left around 7PM ADT, after arresting around 40 protestors, including Chief Arron Sock of Elsipogtog.
John Levi, a First Nations chief on the scene, had earlier spoken to RCMP officers — trying to reach an agreement on ending the standoff.It is not known what was said but, at the end of the conversation some 40 officers, who were wearing shields and helmets, left. About a dozen remained.
Levi later said that First Nations may have "lost the battle" referring to the fact that SWN Resources, the company at the centre of the conflict, has not agreed to stop shale gas seismic testing, as the protesters demand.
But "we have not lost the war," he added.
There have been solidarity rallies across Canada. According to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, more are planned for today. According to the Twitter feeds I'm watching (see below), there are many supporters showing up at the courthouse in Moncton this A.M. to provide solidarity for those arrested yesterday.
I don't have a great deal of commentary to add, only that I notice this: as this makes its way into international news, there's often an incomplete background given to these actions (and I don't just mean an ignorance of the larger history of treaty rights and land use in Canada, although there's that as well).
In regards to the specific situation at Rexton: Native Peoples and their allies did not just show up yesterday to clash with police. Nor has this only been a concern for the last few weeks as protestors/protectors have actively blocked the USian company from the contested Crown land. It stretches back beyond this summer's protests as well. As should be clear from the more complete news coverage, tribal leaders have been working for two years to engage NB Premier David Alward about the shale testing and proposed fracking:
In a news release, [Chief Gabriel] Atwin said the Assembly of First Nations in New Brunswick "strongly condemns the acts of aggression that have taken place today within the Mi'kmaq traditional territory near Elsipogtog. We urge all sides not to resort of violence as history has proven these tactics are not productive."Atwin noted, however, that for the past two years, First Nations in New Brunswick have tried to work within the confines of "a restrictive, compartmentalized consultation process" when it comes to seismic testing in the province.
He said the whole process is "completely unworkable because it runs counter to our customs and traditions."
In the same release Assembly Co-chair Chief George Ginnish said the consultation process should include "conversation on potential impacts to our constitutionally protected rights, and provide options to mitigate these dangers."
Ginnish has called on "an immediate end to the violence by all involved, to restart the process taking into account all perspectives in New Brunswick and the inalienable rights of aboriginals."
So yeah, there's that.
As mentioned yesterday, @IdleNoMore4 and @APTNNews have Twitter feeds with frequent updates on this situation. There are many individual news feeds that I've been watching; I especially recommend Savvy Simon (@MsNativeWarrior) and Mikmaq Mama (@MikmaqMama). There have also been good updates from stimulator (@stimulator).
This news is developing; if I can, I'll update during the day. Please feel free to leave your own links and updates in comments below. As ever, please respect that this is a safe space, and use content notes where appropriate.
UPDATE: Idle No more has a list of solidarity protests here. If you know of more, you may add them at the page. Also, APTNNews is reporting that Chief Arron Sock with meet with Premier David Alward this afternoon. I've also been posting some updates from inside the courtroom this morning, courtesy stimulator, in the comments below. I really appreciate and love this picture from the same feed, of Mi'kmaq Warriors Suzanne Patles and Hailey, taken outside the courtroom.
UPDATE 2: Former Chief Susan Levi Peters is quoted as saying: "It's Oka all over again." Yiiikes.
UPDATE 3: CBC is reporting that some protestors/protectors may be held in jail through the weekend. Also, SWN is seeking an indefinite injunction against anyone interfering with their shale exploration. Mmmm-hmmm.
Also, the NB energy minister says that negotiations were breaking down before the RCMP's action, the government tried to be reasonable, chiefs were unavailabe (WHUT), RCMP ensuring safety (sure) blah blah fart.
Meanwhile, the premier says "I'M A RACIST DOUCHEBAG":
Premier David Alward said Friday that "yesterday was a very concerning day." "Our communities are based on and built on the laws of the land," he said. "What took place yesterday touches every New Brunswicker and the violence that we witnesses. "Clearly, there are those who do not have the same values we share as New Brunswickers."Alward said he was not consulted on the RCMP's decision to take action against the protesters.
"What became clear to the RCMP is that encampment that was in Kent County was dangerous," he said. "It provided significant security issues for the people of New Brunswick."
Newsflash, asshat: most of the people at the site are New Brunswickers. They're concerned about "significant security issues" for New Brunswickers too. But in case we needed any more confirmation that you don't give a shit about First Nations people in New Brunswick or their non-Native allies, well, THERE WE GO.
UPDATE 4 [CN: descriptions of violent action]Halifax Media Co-Op reporter David Miles ETA: Miles Howe has a narrative up about what happened yesterday, including his arrest and the gradual decrease of charges against him before his eventual release. Sounds like somebody got worried that arresting a journalist might produce some bad publicity. he is certainly being quite blunt in his account, which makes it crystal clear who started the violence:
Again, one must wonder at the RCMP's pre-sunrise, decidedly violent, means of attempting to enforce an injunction against blocking SWN's equipment. Again, one must reiterate that neither members or the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society or anyone else was anywhere near the newly-unblocked compound gate. Nor were they at all capable of reforming any blockade style formation.Again, it must be reiterated that Lorraine Clair's van the main impediment to accessing the equipment had been removed the night before.
Instead, with guns drawn, the RCMP appeared intent on provoking a violent climax on the near three-week blockade.
I say in no uncertain terms that it is miraculous that no one was seriously injured yesterday, indeed killed. The RCMP arrived with pistols drawn, dogs snapping, assault rifles trained on various targets, and bus loads of RCMP waiting from across the province and beyond.
I also note with contempt that the very night before the RCMP had brought a gift of tobacco to signal peaceful intent in their negotiations, making the attack an even greater betrayal of good faith.
[CN: more extensive descriptions of violence]An interview with Susan Levi-Peters, former Elsipogtog chief, is up at Last Real Indians. In it, she explains that the camp which the RCMP raided was largely unarmed. Further, the Elsipogtog blockaders had announced their intentions to provide a rebuttal to the injunction on Oct 17, a rebuttal which was silenced by the raid, while the current Chief had issued a press release emphasizing continued talks with the NB government.
That resolution was not to be had. Instead, 200 RCMP in paramilitary tactical gear with assault rifles were in formation early yesterday morning, snipers flanked the perimeters, canines were eager to attack at their masters command, yelling filled the air, Armored Personnel Carriers (like those at Wounded Knee 1973) roamed about, the debilitating sting of tear gas was near, a grandmother was shot in the face with a rubber bullet (the same kind that killed an Occupy Oakland protester in 2011), more were shot, more were beaten, including an attorney for the Mik’mak, more were tazed, including an elderly woman who was praying with a rosary, more were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed, more were arrested, 40 in all including current Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock and some 4 members of the Council, most of which appear before a judge today (Friday, October 18). The RCMP attacked a peaceful camp that did not include the Mi’kMak warrior society’s main camp which was located opposite of the peaceful camp. Everyone in the blockade camp was unarmed, mostly women, children, and elders praying, drumming, smudging and letting their voice be heard as the RCMP shot, tazed, and tear-gassed people the peaceful demonstrators were pushed further back toward a line of RCMP vehicles which were set ablaze in response to the RCMP attacks; “at this point I was very concerned for our safety as the cars were prone to explosion” said Susan Levi Peters.
Good Morning! Or Whatever!
Would you like to read a story about how the Republican Party is imploding? And a story about how the Republicans will have to pursue strategies that will make the Tea Partiers even angrier and more inclined to implode the party? They are very fun to read!
Molly Ball: The Conservative War on the GOP.
Brian Beutler: The GOP's Huge Tea Party Mess Has Only Just Begun.
I don't think the Republican Party is actually going to implode anytime soon (unfortunately). But I am happy to see Republicans sweat it out. They have made millions of people in this country desperate and frightened and insecure and wracked with anxiety about their futures. I can't say I'm sorry to see the GOP experience a taste of their own garbage porridge.
Question of the Day
Originally posted by Paul the Spud in May 2008: What movie(s) changed your life?
His answer at that old link is really cool, btw.
Discussion Thread: Played-Out Film Genres
So, I recently watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because approximately eleventy trillion people had told me I had to watch it, and/or read the book on which it's based, because The Smiths! and Bowie! and Rocky Horror! Which are indeed all things I love, but I did not love that movie. There are a lot of problems with it, which I'm not going to detail, because they're (sorta) beside the point (of this post). Because the main reason I hated it was that I HAVE ALREADY SEEN PLENTY OF COMING-OF-AGE MOVIES ABOUT PRIVILEGED WHITE AMERICAN BOYS. And the broken girls who save them. And the terrible adult ladies who ruin them. And the awesome male English teachers who know they will be brilliant novelists someday.
Enough! This genre is officially played out! US Film Industry: Please cease and desist!
Anyway. I was thinking about how there are at least two dozen different film genres that fit the definition of "formulaic shit I never want to see again," and I bet I'm not alone, so here is a thread to discuss all of them! Go!
[Note: Please take care to use content notes and spoiler warnings as necessary.]
Welp.
[Content Note: Fat-shaming; body policing; bullying.]
This is definitely one of those articles about which, if I weren't on tour with the Twitching Digits, I would totally be writing a 2,000-word screed riddled with profanity. But I'll just quickly make two observations and then turn it over to you in comments for the shredding it deserves.
1. I'm particularly struck by the framing of the article—which is that it's people who react to the image who are the "bullies," but not the person who says "what's your excuse for not looking like me," as if every person is obliged to look like her and capable of doing so. (I'm sure there are people who actually did say nasty, indefensible things, but the framing here is that it's only dissenters, even those who took issue in good faith, who are "bullies.") Not everyone has the ability to look like her; not everyone has the desire to look like her; and no one is required to look like her. The implicit expectation that every fat person should have "an excuse" for not looking like her is hateful, eliminationist garbage. And if eliminationism doesn't count as "bullying," the word has lost all meaning.
2. I also love how it's just supposed to be taken as read that "I don't give a fuck, that's why" is definitely not considered a legit excuse for not looking like X. Which underlines how body policing and fat shaming is not really at all about the health (and certainly not the mental health) of the person being hated, but about the aesthetic preferences of the people doing the hating.
You Should Stop Telling Me To "Love My Body"
[Content note: Body talk, trans* issues]
Yesterday was the National Organization for Women's 16th annual Love Your Body Day.
Here's how NOW explains the day's purpose:
Every day, in so many ways, the beauty industry (and the media in general) tell women and girls that being admired, envied and desired based on their looks is a primary function of true womanhood. The beauty template women are expected to follow is extremely narrow, unrealistic and frequently hazardous to their health. The Love Your Body campaign challenges the message that a woman's value is best measured through her willingness and ability to embody current beauty standards.Right on.
1) Popular culture is saturated with some horribly misogynist (and racist, ableist, homophobic, fat-hating, trans* phobic et al.,) messages about bodies and lives, particularly when it comes to women.
2) Nobody should feel obliged to listen to other people's critiques of their body. This includes multi-national corporations shilling crap just as it does random assholes on the street.
To me, this is all pretty straight-forward. Smash patriarchy, etc., etc.,
However, folks (and in particular, I'm looking at the cis folks out there) have to decouple "don't let other people tell you what to think about your body" from "I think your body is super." If the kyriarchy isn't allowed to talk shit about my body, it shouldn't be pushing any views on my body just to make itself feel better about itself.
My body, my perspective.
Mine.
I sense that this is probably counter-intuitive to a lot of people. However, while I can't speak for other trans* people, I'm sick and tired of other people telling me that I should be cool with my body.
When I came out, people asked me why I had to go and change my body, because all bodies are beautiful.
When I complain to people about having to shave my beard once (or more) a day, people point out that lots of women have lots of facial hair, as if this is somehow relevant to how I feel about my facial hair.
This isn't just idle chatter. Activists have argued that the medical treatments that I (and countless trans* people) seek amount to the mutilation of our beautiful bodies. I don't recall asking them for their thoughts on my body.
I (and I'm not alone in this) don't have access to necessary medical care because other people have decided that it's "cosmetic."
In the end, I don't see a whole lot of difference between people who object to my transsexuality because I'm going against the word of God and people who object to my transsexuality out of my need to not listen to what the wrong people say about my body.
Nobody should be forced to wear cosmetics.
Nobody should be forced to have reconstructive surgery.
Nobody should be forced to be feminine.
And yet, some people wear cosmetics, have various appearance-altering surgeries and/or are women. We're not sell outs to some bullshit ideal (if I only had a vagina for every time I heard that garbage), we're just being ourselves.
I'm happy that lots of other people love their bodies. It'd be awesome if everyone loved their body, but that's not a call I get to make.
So while I applaud NOW for fighting on this one particular front (even if it's one that corporate feminists have been fighting on seemingly forever), I don't want to answer anyone's bullshit questions about why I love my body. I don't want people to act as if I've never considered loving my body.
Shit, I try to tolerate my body. I'm a strong person, but every single day in this body is a struggle. I'm not throwing that out there to elicit pity (HEY LET'S ALL GET ON THE INTERNET AND FEEL BAD ABOUT OUR BODIES). I'm just pretty jarred that so many cis people think telling other folks to love their own bodies isn't extraordinarily hostile. I get that the idea probably never occurred to a lot of you, but that's the precisely the problem.
Crossposted from A Cunt of One's Own
[See also: People with disabilities, some of whom also have complicated relationships with their bodies. Please feel welcome to speak about your own lived experiences with "love your body" campaigns feeling hostile, taking care to use "I" language and to avoid engaging in Oppression Olympics.]
Quote of the Day
Someone looks hella tired of Republican shenanigans.
[It's] not a surprise that the American people are completely fed up with Washington. At a moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs, more momentum, we've got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back. And for what? There was no economic rationale for all of this. Over the past four years, our economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs, and our deficits have been in half. We hear some members who pushed for the shutdown say they were doing it to save the American economy. But nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises.—President Obama, during his address this morning on the budget deal to end the shutdown and avoid default.
...[T]here's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly, despite our differences, without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis.
In fact, one of the things that I hope all of us have learned these past few weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is important. It matters. I think the American people, during the shutdown, had a chance to get some idea of all the things large and small that government does that make a difference in people's lives.
And we hear all the time about how government is the problem. Well, it turns out we rely on it in a whole lot of ways. Not only does it keep us strong through our military and our law enforcement, it plays a vital role in caring for our seniors and our veterans, educating our kids, making sure our workers are trained for the jobs that are being created, arming our businesses with the best science and technology so they can compete with companies from other countries. It plays a key role in keeping our food and our toys and our workplaces safe. It helps folks rebuild after a storm. It conserves our natural resources. It finances start-ups. It helps to sell our products overseas. It provides security to our diplomats abroad.
So let's work together to make government work better instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That's not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don't break it. Don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country's about.
Video of the address is here. The full transcript is here.
Police Attack Mi'kmaq Protesters in New Brunswick (Updated 2)
[Content note: violence, racism. Some of the links contain photographs of oppression and/or violence, and all contain more graphic descriptions than I have written here.]
In a developing story, the RCMP took action against Mi'kmaq and allied protestors in Rexton, New Brunswick today. The protestors have, for weeks, been blocking access to the site in protest against the NB government bringing in a USian shale gas company to explore fracking possibilities. In addition to the environmental concerns about fracking, the provincial government has ignored calls to involve Indigenous Peoples in decisions relating to Crown land.
The police have used pepper spray and there are reports of shots being fired. At least four cars are reported to be on fire, and the police have arrested Chief Arren Sock and some of his councillors from the Elsipogtog Band.
The police have also closed the roads around the protest (Route 134 and Highway 11)in order to "ensure public safety." Yeah,I'm sure the Mi'kmaq being harassed and attacked by the police feel super-safe. Particularly when one of the RCMP officers is reported to have shouted "Crown land belongs to the government, not fucking Natives." Very, very safe. Sure.
APTN National News and Idle No More have up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter.
Hat tip to The Mad Capper on Twitter.
Please feel free to use the comments for a safe-space discussion, especially bearing in mind the usual cautions for photographs of violence.
UPDATE: [CN: photo of armed police]Police in riot gear and armored transport are reported to have arrived on the scene. h/t Stimulator.
UPDATE 2: On Twitter,@Msnativewarrior is reporting that the Chief and his council have been released. She also says that Global News will be broadcasting live from the site.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dogs and cats! Napping together!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In The News
Here are some things in the news today!
[CN: misogyny] ABC news has discovered that women face a lot of misogynistic hate online! In other breaking news, how to use the < blink > tag in HTML and how to format your floppy disks.
[CN: slavery] The first-ever global slavery index reveals that 30 million people live in slavery worldwide; of those, 14 million live in India.
[CN: religious oppression, misogyny] Women in Saudia Arabia are gearing up for another important day to defy the driving ban on October 26.
[CN: disablism, racism, classism] In case you had any doubts, Stephen Harper's Conservatives are still garbage nightmares, as evidenced in yesterday's throne speech. I really am not sure what is my least favourite part, but this is way down there: "The government also says it will close loopholes that allow for the feeding of addiction under the guise of treatment,' a measure that is sure to be controversial. The Conservatives continue to oppose Vancouver's In-Site clinic, despite a wealth of scientific research showing it's effective in reducing harm." WHO NEEDS EVIDENCE, AMIRITE?
[CN: sexism] And if you are one of those people to whom evidence really does matter, it turns out there is a study confirming what most of my straight friends with kids already know: fathers average more leisure time than mothers! And mothers find that their leisure activities leave them more stressed. Huh. Which leaves me wondering: is there a similar gap for same-sex couples and others who do not evenly split along a gender binary? What about couples without kids? In short, SCIENCE.
[CN: violence] General Keith Alexander is is stepping down as head of the NSA. Also, it turns out the NSA's surveillance of emails and other information is playing a huge role in the U.S's drone strike program, according to material in the leaks from Edward Snowden. "I'm sure those two stories have nothing to do with one another, ahem."--Liss, in an email that I share with her permission. Me too, Liss! Sounds like 100% wacky random happenstance!
[CN: racism] Speaking of not-coincidences: a teenaged boy in Florida who is an orphan makes a heartfelt plea for someone to adopt him. This shit doesn't happen in a void. There are many barriers to adoption in the U.S. today, but the facts that he is Black and male are not incidental to his story.
[CN: cis-centric language] Last week, Luana, a six-year old Argentinian girl, became the first known trans* child to correct her gender on her birth certificate without a court order.
Do you live in California? Do you want a Snoopy license plate? You are in luck! Insert beagle dance of joy.
TV Corner: Agents of SHIELD
[Content Note: Discussions of violence; hostility to consent. Spoilers for the most recent episode of Agents of SHIELD.]
We rejoin the story in Sweden, where a bunch of dudes in matching suits and red face masks, each with a metal briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, get into a subway car. A young black woman sizes them up, then closes her eyes, and the train lights go out. Struggle struggle struggle. When the lights come back on, she's gone and they're dead. One of them has had his hand detached from his arm, and the briefcase once attached via handcuff is missing.
(It is at this point that Iain observes someone with a cuffed briefcase just lost his hand in an episode of The Blacklist, and we both resolve not to cuff briefcases to our wrists. Just in case.)
The woman exchanges the contents of the briefcase—a shit-ton of diamonds—with some sketchy dude in exchange for an access card which he assures her will get her where she needs to go.
Meanwhile, at SHIELD HQ, the team is reviewing footage of the robbery, in which Coulson has taken an interest because he believes the culprit may be a SHIELD agent. Ha ha jokes about how everything is on social media now and people are surveilling themselves. They find images of the robbery on Instagram, and Coulson recognizes the woman as a former SHIELD agent thought to have died in a mission gone bad. She is his former protégé, Akela Amador. Coulson says he may have pushed Amador too hard, to try to turn her into a team player.
Something something they go after Amador. Something something she gets away, but doesn't kill them. Something something they realize she is being controlled from an implant in her head. This last bit would have been a pretty neat reveal if the show hadn't already revealed it to us last week in scenes from the upcoming episode. When shows spoil themselves, it makes me grumpy. I'm looking at you, The Walking Dead.
Anyway. The thing in Amador's eye socket allows her unknown captors to see what she sees, gives her backscatter x-ray vision, transmits her mission info straight to her brainpan, and also obliges her compliance, because it contains a kill switch that will end her life if she tries to escape or deviate from their directives.
The team hacks into her vision feed so they can try to find out where she is. Melinda May takes the first watch—and while everyone else is asleep, she discovers where Amador is hiding and takes off to confront her. Fight fight fight. Coulson busts in and shoots Amador with a non-lethal weapon on which Fitz and Simmons have been working. When Amador wakes up at SHIELD HQ, she asks how it's possible she's still alive since she's off-mission, and they tell her that her captors believe she's still on-mission, thanks to TECHNOLOGY that has put on Chiseled White Hero's face. He is acting as her stand-in, and doing her mission, with Skye's tech help.
Luckily, the person who has been watching Amador is very stupid, and doesn't notice that her feed is suddenly about a foot taller, nor that her hands are now white and male. Also! He has revealed himself to be an Englishman, because he uses words like "lift" and "flat" and "cheerio" and "crumpet" and "wicked googly."
While CWH subs on Amador's latest mission, Amador goes under the knife back at SHIELD HQ so Fitz and Simmons can remove the implant. Simmons is reluctant to jab a needle to deliver local anesthetic directly into Amador's eyeball, so Amador grabs it and does it herself, because she is a BAMF, and I really hope that she is going to join the team!
Everything's going great for CWH, until he is directed to "seduce" a guard in the facility he's infiltrating. He does not seduce the guard, but instead knocks him the fuck out. He gets into the room he needs to access and takes a picture of a bunch of alien-looking maths on the wall. MISSION COMPLETE. But, on the way out, the guard's computer is gleep-glorping a warning, and CWH realizes he was supposed to seduce him to get his password. How Amador would have discerned this is a mystery, as is how she would have magically seduced a guard into giving over his password in like thirty seconds.
So CWH has to make a run for it and whooooooooops he just looked in a mirror, so he tells Fitz and Simmons to cut the wiring on Amador's implant ASAP, which they do. Phew. Skye shows up to rescue CWH, and they drive off. Phew. Coulson locates the Englishman who's been controlling Amador, who, upon seeing Coulson, is brain-bombed and dies. THE CONTROLLER WAS BEING CONTROLLED.
We are left with two mysteries: Who's the Big Boss controlling this whole operation, and what is that weirdo formula?
In the end, my hopes that Amador will join the team are dashed, as she is being held in a cell and Coulson is explaining to her that she'll get a fair trial. Um, WHUT. Who is taking her to trial after there's mountainous irrefutable evidence that she was being coerced under threat of death? Fuck that.
Skye uses the backscatter function on the special Amador-eyeball-feed-replicator glasses to check out CHW's naked bits under his clothes. This is, of course, played for a giggle. For real, Joss Whedon? Gross.
Shutdown Deal Thread
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate reached a compromise package regarding the shutdown which the House voted to accept, and Obama signed. So, the government is going back to work, until January 15 at least, and the government will be able to borrow, until February 7, at least. (As Liss noted yesterday, while this leaves the ACA basically intact, there were still some “compromises” that went along with the deal.) So, um, yay for the world’s economy not collapsing, even if the U.S. Republicans are still the Terrible Asshole Party?
A few items that caught my eye:
[CN: gender essentialism] It turns out that women Senators played a key role in getting this compromise worked out. John McCain even had nice things to say about them. Golly gee willikers, maybe we should get some more of those ladeeeez in government! (HAHAHAHAHA who am I kidding?)
Meanwhile, Chris Cilizza examines the idea that the Republicans are basically Batman villians now, as seen in Christopher Nolan’s movies. Perhaps they might consider going back to the Burgess Meredith and Caesar Romero days, instead, because at least those dudes were funny and horribly ineffectual and easy for Batman to thwart.
Speaking of supervillainy, have the GOP’s biggest shutdown fans learned a lesson from all of this? They certainly have! Only it is not the lesson that I would like them to have learned!
[CN: ableism] A House stenographer took to the microphone to shout about God and Freemasons during yesterday’s vote, and was taken away for psychiatric evaluation. This is being bandied about the news about with the usually hefty dose of ableism. If she is suffering from the effects of mental illness, I extend her my sympathy and wishes for improved health. I note, however, that the content of her reported remarks sounds pretty similar to things we might hear from conservative “commentators” on Fox News and right-wing radio, not to mention at Tea Party rallies, GOP "town meetings," from right-wing ministers and community leaders, etc. As if we needed any other reminder that “crazy” is a not a synonym for “right wing ideas” or “conservative assholery.”
Feel free to share your own links and thoughts in the comments below.
Cory Booker Wins NJ Senate Special Election
Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker has won the special election in the state of New Jersey held to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator Frank Lautenberg earlier this year.
The famous mayor, who has touted his ability to bring people together while growing his own social media presence and popularity, will head to a polarized Washington where he’s certain to be a rising star within the Democratic Party and another outsized presence in D.C.Senator-elect Booker is only the fourth black USian elected to the US Senate; five other black USians have served via appointment. Booker will bring the grand total of currently serving black Senators to two.
In his victory speech late on Wednesday, Booker thanked New Jersey voters, his campaign staff and the volunteers "who knocked on doors." The senator-elect also promised to be dogged and determined in Washington, where he said he will not get involved in "shallow politics," but would instead engage "in the kind of hard, humble service that reaches out to others."
"If you voted for me, I will make your proud. If you didn't vote for me, I will work every single day to earn your trust," Booker said.
Congratulations to Senator-elect Booker, and congratulations to New Jersey.
Question of the Day
Originally posted September 2012: What did you once think to be true about yourself, which you have discovered is not really true after all?
Blog Note
Just wanted to let you know I'm taking the rest of the day off. I'm on day five of some kind of cold or flu, which has triggered the weird symptoms of my (still unidentified) autoimmune disorder: Numbness, pain, dizziness, and twitching digits. (Twitching Digits! New band name! Called it!) So I need to go get some rest. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
Although I am always appreciative of well-wishing, there is no need at all to feel obliged; I just wanted to post something informational for the Shakers who tend to worry when I deviate from my routine.
Shutdown Update: The Deal Has Been Struck
The US Senate has reportedly struck a deal which will end the shutdown and temporarily raise the debt limit. Via the Guardian:
Here's a summary of the deal announced on the Senate floor. The bill would:There's no bill yet to be signed, so the government is still in shutdown at the moment. The next step:
• Reopen government and fund it through 15 January 2014.
• Push the debt ceiling deadline back to 7 February 2014 (but NOT abolish "emergency measures" the Treasury could use to protect against default past that date).
• Appoint members of a budget conference committee to join the House in trying to pass a budget and end the cycle of standoffs.
• Institute an anti-fraud provision in Obamacare requiring government to confirm financial need of the recipients of health subsidies.
Congress will now attempt to quickly advance the legislation through both the House and Senate throughout the day in hopes of avoiding default on the national debt and reopening the government, although the exact order of that process remains unclear.Gee, thanks.
Crucially, stalwart conservatives in the Senate – particularly Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – said they would not use procedural tactics to slow a vote on the legislation, brightening the prospects for a quick solution.
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie on top of her world.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by sleepiness.
Recommended Reading:
Alan: The Perpetual Budget Crises Have Already Cost 900,000 Jobs
BYP: [Content Note: Voter suppression] Indiana Judge Regrets Upholding Nation's First Voter ID Law
Lori: [CN: Sexual violence; rape apologia; victim-blaming] "Dear Prudence" Columnist Publishes Rape Denialism Manifesto Advising Women to "Stop Getting Drunk"
Foz: [CN: Misogyny; sexual objectification; dehumanization; harassment] This, Right Here, Is the Problem
TheGrio: [CN: Racism] Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Is Awful
Kristal: [CN: Sexual violence; exploitation; discussion of rape revenge films] Woman Seeks Revenge: What's the Purpose of the Rape/Revenge Horror Film?
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Comments
It's not just you. Comments are failing to load altogether or hanging for a really long time before loading. I've contacted Disqus, but have not heard back yet. My apologies. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today! (Your daily shutdown thread is here.)
The Freedom of the Press Foundation has launched an open-source submission platform for whistleblowers called SecureDrop, which will allow media organizations to "securely accept documents from whistleblowers, while better protecting their sources' anonymity."
The NSA is legally harvesting Facebook and Gmail data from offshore data centers: "The NSA takes advantage of offshore data centers to harvest from companies like Facebook and Google, who use those offshore centers to help distribute their traffic and data loads... These actions haven't been authorized by Congress...and don't need to be."
[Content Note: Harassment; sexual assault] Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment and battery: "Filner was charged with felony false imprisonment and two misdemeanor counts of battery for placing one woman in a headlock and kissing or groping two others, prosecutors said. Filner will serve three months of home confinement." Insufficient.
[CN: Misogyny] Longtime Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson says there are currently no black women on SNL because there aren't enough funny black women who are well-prepared for auditions. Yikes. Whoops. Nope.
[CN: Classism] A new report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the University of Illinois' Department of Urban and Regional Planning confirms what anyone paying the slightest bit of attention already knew: "A substantial number of workers who serve up your fast food aren’t making enough to get by. ...On average, 20 percent of front-line fast-food workers were living in households with incomes below the poverty line over the years that the researchers studied." This is why fast-food and retail workers have been striking across the country and demanding a livable wage.
Three seventh graders from Oakland hash out the Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick DNA science beef via rap battle. And it's awesome.
[CN: Domestic violence] California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill into law "that will ban employment discrimination against victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault." I am angry that a law preventing discrimination against survivors even needs to be a thing in the world, but, as long as it does, thanks to Governor Brown for making it so.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are going to host the Golden Globes for two more years. That is so many years. Who even knows where we'll all be in two years? No one can predict the future, but there's a strong likelihood I will still not be watching the Golden Globes, no matter who's hosting!
Whoops Your Movie
As you may recall—or may not, since I wrote about it fully one hundred years ago—Darren Aronofsky has been making a big-screen version of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark, starring Russell Crowe. (I know it sounds like I made that up, but I did not make that up.) There have been so many years of movie-making and the epic metaphor is almost complete, but now Aronofsky is fighting with the studio over the final edit, because of course he is. ("Too much water!"—Mr. Dreamworks T. Paramount. "Not enough water!"—Darren Aronofsky.) And previews have, ahh, not gone well, lol.
In recent weeks, the studio has held test screenings for key groups that might take a strong interest in the subject matter: in New York (for a largely Jewish audience), in Arizona (Christians) and in Orange County, Calif. (general public). All are said to have generated troubling reactions.Ha ha! Oh boy. I can't even believe that anyone could not LOVE this film, because it sounds terrific:
The use of visual effects has been so extensive that in some scenes, only an actor's face is in the final image. The film relies on effects to create the flood, of course, but in addition, Noah doesn't feature any real animals. Aronofsky said the creatures in the film are "slightly tweaked" versions of those that exist in nature, and there also are fantastical beings in the mix.I mean, really: Who is getting angry about a film that basically sounds like it's Russell Crowe with a major beard surveying flood damage from the back of a golden pegasus? If I'm angry about anything, it's that somehow Nicolas Cage is not also in this film. Boo.
Shutdown, Continued
Republicans still terrible. Government still shut down.
Senate leaders are reportedly close to a deal. We've heard that before! But as the default deadline looms, there's increasing pressure to just get this shit done already. So they're scrambling to put together a deal that would kick the can down the road to early next year, so we can go through this all over again.
Of course, that is no deterrent to the fuckery of House Republicans—who, if you can believe this (you can definitely believe this!), were trying to include in their DOA deal yesterday "a so-called 'conscience clause' that would exempt employers (citing religious objections) from having to provide coverage for birth control as part of the health care plans they offer employees. This idea has been on the Republican wish list for years—Obamacare already has this sort of exemption for churches, mosques, and other places of worship—and with Washington in full-on crisis mode, GOPers are looking to exploit current circumstances to win this long-running fight."
I say once again: My contempt for this shit cannot be measured on a scale fathomable by human intellect.
Mobile Commenting
A lot of people are emailing me about not being able to access comments via mobile devices. As I mentioned last night, we're working on trying to reestablish mobile access and comment integration. Please understand that much of this coding is beyond my capabilities, and Shakesville does not have a full-time tech person; Space Cowboy generously offers his time and expertise as he can—and, besides having a life with its own demands, sometimes he has to wait to hear back from Disqus before he can do anything. My thanks to Space Cowboy for his help.
I am genuinely sorry for the inconvenience. I appreciate your patience, and we'll get through what we can on our end as quickly as is possible.
Question of the Day
What's the last thing you reluctantly got rid of, because it was old or you didn't have room for it or you weren't using it and wanted to donate it to someone who could make use of it or whatever, even though you still loved it, but you knew getting rid of it was the best thing to do?
Disqus Upgrade Notes
I've gotten a bunch of emails from people using IE who are having a hard time logging in and/or loading comments. If you have an alternate browser to which you can switch, you may want to give that a try, as users who switch to Firefox or Chrome have had success. If you don't, however, I've contacted Disqus and I'm waiting to hear back if this is a known glitch and if there's a resolution forthcoming they recommend these tips for changing your browser settings (the top part of the page) to ensure compatibility.
In either case, my apologies for the inconvenience. I'm so sorry that people are having trouble accessing comments.
There are a couple of other little issues that our generous tech guru Space Cowboy will be looking into tonight, as time permits, which will hopefully increase readability and restore mobile access.
Most of the problems and concerns people have reported are, unfortunately, out of our control, but we'll do whatever we can on our end.
Thank you for your patience.
Quote of the Day
"Absolutely. Yeah, no hesitancy to say, for sure. Does that mean I will? I don't know. Does that mean I won't? I don't know. But am I thinking about it? Am I talking to people about it? Yeah, that would be fair to say."—Conservative nightmare Mike Huckabee, on whether he's considering running for president (again) in 2016.
I LOVE THIS ARTICLE THE END.
Nidhi Subbaraman, you are THE BEST: "Prehistoric cave prints show most early artists were women."
Alongside drawings of bison and horses, the first painters left clues to their identity on the stone walls of caves, blowing red-brown paint through rough tubes and stenciling outlines of their palms. New analysis of ancient handprints in France and Spain suggests that most of those early artists were women.That little italicized that is my favorite thing. It's possible that had something to do with it. *thatface* Love. Looooooooooooooove. Love.
This is a surprise, since most archaeologists have assumed it was men who had been making the cave art. One interpretation is that early humans painted animals to influence the presence and fate of real animals that they'd find on their hunt, and it's widely accepted that it was the men who found and killed dinner.
But a new study indicates that the majority of handprints found near cave art were made by women, based on their overall size and relative lengths of their fingers.
"The assumption that most people made was it had something to do with hunting magic," Penn State archaeologist Dean Snow, who has been scrutinizing hand prints for a decade, told NBC News. The new work challenges the theory that it was mostly men, who hunted, that made those first creative marks.
Another reason we thought it was men all along? Male archeologists from modern society where gender roles are rigid and well-defined — they found the art. "[M]ale archaeologists were doing the work," Snow said, and it's possible that "had something to do with it."
Anyway. I also love this article because of its subject, which is super cool, and because, once upon a time, I was an 18-year-old university student in an archeology class who asked her male professor: "Why are the handprints assumed to be male?" To which my male professor replied, after a stunned silence that quickly morphed into a seething resentment: "Because why would anyone assume they weren't?"
He taught me something very valuable that day. Not what he'd intended, I suspect.
Photo of the Day
The Aizhai Bridge on the G65 Baotou–Maoming Expressway near Jishou, Hunan, China.
Aizhai Bridge shrouded by clouds. The world's longest valley suspension bridge, opened in March and has a span of 1,176 meters and a maximum height of 330 meters. Photograph: Rex/Quirky China News. [via]So beautiful and dreamy. I absolutely love that photo.
An Observation
The US House of Representatives has always been a bit of an eccentrics' club, which is my polite attempt at acknowledging that there have always been people who weren't very smart and/or well-versed in government who could get elected to the House—like, say, someone who believes there are four branches of the US government. (Yikes.)
But up until my early adulthood, the US Senate was still generally a place for people who knew what the fuck was going on. Sure, Senator Richard Lugar and I might have disagreed on every single thing ever including the color of the very sky, but I never doubted that he was an intelligent person who knew how the government functioned. And believed that it should function.
And now that's just...gone. I have no faith that the Republican base will elect people, to either the House or the Senate, who aren't just ideological stomp-monsters without the faintest shred of interest in or understanding of how anything works. I listen to Republicans talk on the news, and a frightening number of them are essentially clueless about the business of governance.
The Republican Caucus is devoid of technocrats. They've all been replaced by rightwing protestors.
TV Corner: Sleepy Hollow Recap and Review
[Content Note: This post contains mentions of infectious disease, child endangerment, and child loss. There are also spoilers for episode "John Doe."]
Goosebumptastic Gauge: 5/5
Historical Facepalm Level: 3/5
Awesome Abbie-ness Rating: 3/5
Intriguing Ichabod-ery Rating: 5/5
Mytharc Meter: 3/5
This week in scary openings: A young African-American girl dressed in a short white dress is walking in the forest. A white boy dressed in a puffy short and breeches is watching as she picks random stuff. Because poison ivy is fun, kids! As the children start playing, a Horseperson wearing either a feathered or horned hemet appears. I guess zie’s supposed to be Vercingetorix? Or maybe Suenaga. Wevs! It’s scary and the boy runs. There is dramatic horn music. And then boy runs onto a modern highway with cars! POOF! The Horned (feathered?) Horseperson disappears.
Commercial time!
After the fabric softener advertisement, we find the Bickersons Abbie and Ichabod, entering Sherrif Kindly’s abandoned cabin with groceries. Ichabod prefers to stay here rather than his motel. He has a different definition of “old” than Abbie. *imaginary laughtrack* He is confused by spackle and plastic. *imaginary laughtrack* He looks in a mirror and wonders if he looks out of place. Abbie tells him he looks good for 200 years but a change of clothes would be good. *imaginary laughtack*
Just as the dialogue threatens to go full-tilt 1950s sitcom, Abbie gets an emergency call. They leave the cabin, where it is daytime. At the emergency scene, it is night. (Because in Sleepy Hollow, like Narnia, time runs differently, see?) It is Breeches Boy from the opening! Detective Vaguely Douchey is there.
Abbie: Was he alone?
Detective Vaguely Douchey: He was unaccompanied. Wish I could say the same for you, in order to establish my continuing hostility towards Ichabod!
Ichabod: Your continuing hostility is duly noted. LEFTENANT (obligatory), has anyone else noticed this kid is dressed in the style of another time and place and covered in black veins?
(No-one has noticed.)
Boy: Something something archaic language!
Abbie: wtf was that?
Ichy: It is MIDDLE English. Spoken in the MIDDLE Ages. Thus the term MIDDLE. I studied it at Oxford, ya know. Something something LANGUAGE OF CHAUCER. The kid said, (and I quote), “Something something EVIL.” Also, MIDDLE MIDDLE MIDDLE.
Abbie: We get the extremely weird idea.
Abbie, Ichy, and Captain “Grumpy” Orlando Jones are discussing the kid. Detective Vaguely Douchey is still hostile towards Ichabod.Detective Vaguely Douchey: There’s been a lot of talk. He was a suspect. Now he’s a consultant. I am not only establishing my hostility, I’ve decided to expand on it, maybe build a hostile sunroom with a special hostility deck where I can throw hostility parties.
Captain Grumpy: You remain a douchebag who is jealous because you and Abbie broke up. I remain the one who calls the shots, and I call Ichabod as useful. You remain an asshat who should probably slink away now.
Detective Vaguely Douchey: (slinks)
Then Captain Orlando Jones stops looking grumpy and looks…. Furtive? Whatever it is, it is definitely not-Grumpy! Surely, This Will Be Significant. ANYWAY! The CDC arrives, quarantines the place, Ichabod continues to be baffled by plastic. But not, apparently, germ theory, which he doesn’t even ask about. (Ooookay!)The kid is in quarantine but hooked up to a video link. The CDC dude asks Ichabod to help them find out more.
CDC Dude: I’m going to keep calling the kid “the vector” in order to underline that I am a soulless bureaucrat. Because Republicans know we definitely should all be hostile towards the CDfrigginC.
Ichabod: He’s a CHILD. One who speaks CHAUCER. A Chaucerchild, as it were.
Chaucerchild: Something something Middle English.
Ichabod: (translating) His name is Thomas, he’s sorry he followed the EVIL GIRL into the woods, he left home, he’s from Roanoke. Not THAT Roanoke, probably the colonial one from 1588. Something something, Virginia Dare, AND THIS TOTALLY EXPLAINS THE MIDDLE ENGLISH.
(Now, if you are thinking to yourself, “Uh, shouldn’t that be more like the language of Shakespeare then and not the language of Chaucer? YOUR EXPLANATION IS FULL OF FAIL,” then you win a prize. I’m not sure what prize—the Orb of Obviousness, perhaps?—but you do win a prize. I’ll send it to you some time after my teeth stop grinding, which will be around the 24th century. When we’re all speaking STAR TREK ENGLISH.)
Captain Grumpy: The disease is spreading. Outbreak!
Ichabod: Plague! Apocalypse!
Infected Guy in Bed: It’s the Horned Horseperson!
Daily Dose of Cute
Olivia: What are you thinking about, Tilsy?
Matilda: I still can't stop thinking about Tony. Wondering where he could be, who he is with, what is he thinking, is he thinking of me, and whether he'll ever return someday...
* * *
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Liss and Ana Talk About Elementary
I love this: Breakfast and slippers.
Ana: Lady, I seriously think the writers are trolling me at this point, lol. I have so many conflicted feels about last Thursday's episode.
Liss: Ha ha! Go on then. You start.
Ana: To start, and I meant to mention this last week, but last week after we turned off, Husband said to me, "Remember when the cases were just good instead of easy ripped-from-the-headlines stuff?" I mean, I know this is a YMMV thing, but I feel like we're watching CSI now or something. We've had 3D printing and P versus NP and now this week we get to have Edward Snowden / Julian Assange with a thinly disguised Anonymous. NEAT! Remember when we actually had victims who were people and we cared about them? The writers don't!
Liss: Yeah. And, I have to say, I always find the thin veil stuff really distracting because of its inevitable silliness. "Everyone" instead of "Anonymous," etc. It just doesn't work for me. It comes across as cutesy, even if it's not meant that way.
Ana: Moving into the actual episode, I was almost ready to give up when Sherlock was all "gee, I wonder why he only used single-source journalism since that's usually not a good way to leak secrets" and Joan was all "oh, hey, the reporter is hawt, so." Really?! That's what we're going with? Our SUPER AMAZING DECTECTIVE LOGIC has boiled down to the delightfully misogynistic opinion that no one would deal with a lady reporter if they don't have a boner for that lady reporter. Thanks, Elementary! It's not like that's an actual accusation that gets leveled at lady professionals all the time, that we only get ahead because of Boner Magic.
House GOP Offers Garbage Deal; Obama Rejects It
Congressional Republicans have offered a plan to end the shutdown—which the White House has already rejected, on the basis that it contains unacceptable reforms to the Affordable Care Act.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has also rejected the plan, saying it will never pass the Senate. And he doesn't mince words: "This bill is doomed to failure, and it's so awful, awful, awful for our country."
Can't wait to see what terrific proposal seeps out next from GOP HQ.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today! (Your daily shutdown thread is here.)
Happy Ada Lovelace Day!
Here's what happens when the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Acts: States start making plans to disenfranchise voters. Specifically, states with Republican legislatures start trying to find ways to disenfranchise people who disproportionately vote Democratic.
[Sexual violence; victim-blaming; self-harm; arson] This is rape culture. I may have something to say about this case in a later post; I may not. It is a difficult story for me, as any story about a teenage girl being raped by a high school athlete who gets away with it is. There are lots of those stories.
The NSA is reportedly harvesting "hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden." I just basically assume the NSA has access to every part of my digital life, at this point.
There have been serious problems with the Obamacare roll-out. Not good.
[CN: Racism; othering] This is an interesting headline: "'Very anxious': Is America scared of diversity?" Because who, exactly, is "America" in that construction? Maybe the people who are "scared of diversity" are that way because they are routinely told in overt and implicit ways that they are "America" and the people who constitute "diversity" are somehow not "America." Just a thought.
Sir Anthony Hopkins wrote to Bryan Cranston about how much he loved Breaking Bad. HE LOVED IT SO MUCH! Here is his gushing fan letter.
