Open Thread

image of a trumpet

Hosted by a trumpet.

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The Virtual Pub Is Open

image of a pub Photoshopped to be named 'The Shakesville Arms'
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

TFIF, Shakers!

Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!

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Daily Dose of Cute

image of Olivia the White Farm Cat sitting in a basket of laundry; behind her, between a bunch of stacked pillows, Sophie the Torbie Cat's wee ears are just visible
LOL CATS.

Meanwhile, this is what's going on in Dudley's life:

series of four images of Dudley the Greyhound sleeping in various positions with his tongue hanging out

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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The Friday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by leaves.

Recommended Reading:

John: [Content Note: Misogyny; harassment] An Anti-Feminist Walks into a Bar: A Play in Five Acts

BYP: [CN: Racism; misogyny] People Magazine Offends with Mammy Tweet about Viola Davis

Drew: [CN: Homophobia; Islamophobia; xenophobia; violent rhetoric] Some Things Never Change: The Values Voter Summit and the Dubious 'Rebranding' of the GOP

Julianna: [CN: Anti-immigrationism; racism] Ongoing Deportations Inspire Revival of Sanctuary Movement

Ragen: [CN: Fat bias] Cool Story Bro

Digby: [CN: War] Maybe we can cut some more unemployment insurance and meals on wheels to pay for this shockingly expensive war.

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime



Melissa Manchester: "Midnight Blue"

This week's TMNS brought to you by the hits of 1975.

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Here is the text of President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly, laying out the rationale and plan for dealing with IS.

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death] After Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson apologized yesterday (YESTERDAY!) to the family of Michael Brown for his death (ON AUGUST 9!) and subsequent police handling of the case, there was a scuffle between police and protesters, and several protesters were arrested.

[CN: Terrorism; violence; misogyny] One of the hundreds of Nigerian girls and young women kidnapped by Boko Haram has been found: "It was not clear if the 20-year-old had escaped or been released by the militants after she was found 'heavily traumatized and not very stable' wandering in the bush in a remote region of the country near the town of Mubi in Adamawa state." I grieve for her, for what she has suffered, and I am angry for her.

In good news: "Workers at big hotels in Los Angeles have won one of the highest minimum wages in the United States after a campaign by unions and civil rights groups. The city council voted on Wednesday night to establish a minimum hourly wage of $15.37 for employees of hotels with more than 125 rooms, a decision expected to boost campaigns for better wages in other industries and cities."

[CN: Sexual violence; child abuse] In Oregon, a youth coach has been charged with sexual abuse of the members of the teams he coached. Rage. Seethe. Boil.

[CN: Misogyny; exploitation] This fucking guy: "Evan Thornley, an Australian tech executive and former politician, told a technology startup conference that when he ran a previous company, he was able to get talented women who were 'relatively cheap' because of the gender wage gap. ...'Call me opportunistic, I just thought I could get better people with less competition because we were willing to understand the skills and capabilities that many of these women had,' he said. ...He also drew blowback for including a slide that sarcastically said: 'Women: Like men, only cheaper.'" Wow.

In his final game for the Yankees, Derek Jeter continued to be awesome, one last time. Because of course he did.

And finally! I may just spend the rest of the day watching this gif of a brave(ish) baby elephant, lol.

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Mitt 2016!

[Content Note: Disablist language at link.]

In case you're wondering why on earth Republicans are talking about Mitt Romney losing running for a third time, and not even in revolted tones, Ross Douthat explains it all in his latest column, helpfully headlined "Why We're Talking About Mitt Romney."

Spoiler Alert: It's because Mitt Romney has the magical combination of garbage that ties together retrofuck social conservatives and soulless robber barons.

Since Ross is himself a conservative, he doesn't mention this, but it's also because the Republicans are a horrendo nightmare party with very few nationally viable candidates at all.

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Good Morning! Or Whatever!

This is just a terrific campaign reminding all of us that Republicans are people, too. Sure, they are people who don't think (other) people are entitled to food, but they're people otherwise just like you and me! PROOF:

Wacky music. Text onscreen: "Did you know?"

Image of thin white middle-aged man in glasses standing next to a Prius. Text onscreen: "Republicans drive Priuses. #ImARepublican" (Most of the subsequent images, aside from the ones about race and a few others, include this hashtag.)

Image of a blue recycling bin. Text onscreen: "Republicans recycle."

Image of a thin young white (or possible Latino) man wearing sunglasses and listening to music on large headphones. Text onscreen: "Republicans listen to Spotify."

Image of a different thin white middle-aged man putting together some furniture. Text onscreen: "Republicans put together Ikea furniture."

Image of a thin white middle-aged woman with short brown hair and glasses. Text onscreen: "Republicans are white."

Image of a thin black woman with short hair and glasses. Text onscreen: "Republicans are black."

Image of a thin Latina with long dark hair. Text onscreen: "Republicans are Hispanic."

Image of an in-betweenie older Asian woman with short graying hair. Text onscreen: "Republicans are Asian."

At this point, you get the drift. It's some totally obvious image with some text next to it. The rest of it (mostly with images of thin white people) is: "Republicans read the New York Times. In public. Republicans use Macs. Republicans are grandmas, daughters, moms. Republicans are left-handed. Republicans are doctors. Welders. Teachers. Republicans donate to charity. Republicans enjoy gourmet cooking. Republicans shop at Trader Joe's. Republicans like dogs. And cats. But probably dogs a little more than cats. Republicans have tattoos. And beards. Republicans have feelings. Republicans are people who care. Republicans are people, too. RepublicansArePeopleToo.com. Tell us your story."
Case closed, your honor! Republicans are definitely people!

You know, for people whose party spends an awful lot of time pursuing policy and using rhetoric that dehumanizes people, they sure are sensitive about having their own humanity recognized. "Republicans are hypocrites!"

The genius behind this campaign, Vinny Minchillo, whose background includes making stupendous ads for Mitt Romney's last campaign, says he launched Republicans Are People, Too because:
It's become socially acceptable to talk about Republicans in the most evil terms possible and that doesn't seem right. We wanted to do this to really remind people that Republicans are friends, neighbors and do things that maybe you wouldn't expect them to do.

People, I'm afraid, think that Republicans spend their days huddling over a boiling cauldron throwing in locks of Ronald Reagan's hair. ...We thought, let's get out there and show who Republicans really are: regular folks interested in making the world a better place.
I am reminded of the time my Uncle Bill, who was a man of few words, was obliged to behold a precocious two-year-old child recite the names of elements from the Periodic Table, prompted by his parents shouting random atomic numbers. After a good five minutes of this interminable party trick, my uncle removed himself from the room, muttering under his breath: "I'd be more impressed if he could feed himself and stop shitting his pants."

This campaign is the equivalent of a toddler being forced to be an obnoxious dancing monkey by his terrible parents, when all we really want, Republicans, is for you to use a fork and the toilet.

Like people do.

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Open Thread

image of colored blocks from the video game Tetris

Hosted by Tetris.

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Question of the Day

We've done variations on this one before, but not for awhile: What did you want to do for a living when you were a kid? Did it change throughout your childhood, or was it always the same thing? Are you doing that thing now?

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Perfect

[Content Note: War; terrorism. Video may begin playing automatically at link.]

Cristina Alesci and Kate Trafecante at CNN Money: "One cost of war: U.S. blowing up its own Humvees."

The United States is spending millions of dollars to destroy U.S. equipment in Iraq and Syria — gear the U.S. gave the Iraqi military that was later captured by IS forces.

The U.S has hit 41 Humvees since attacks began in August, according to data from United States Central Command.

The U.S. is sending $30,000-bombs to eliminate these armored vehicles, which cost about a quarter of a million dollars each depending what it is equipped with, according to Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The U.S. Defense Department confirmed the targets to CNN. "In some cases, we have seen instances of ISIL capturing and employing U.S.-made equipment," said a spokesperson. "When we've seen these terrorists employing this equipment, we've sought to eliminate that threat."

Once the U.S. destroys the equipment, it might have to re-supply the Iraqi military.

"If we want them [the Iraqi military] to be able to secure their own borders in the long run, we're going to have to re-equip them," said Harrison. "So we'll be buying another Humvee and sending it back to the Iraqi military."
What a fortuitous loop of total fuckery for war profiteers.

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Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Racism.]

"He ran the DOJ much like the Black Panthers would. That is a fact."—Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, on the air today, discussing the legacy of departing Attorney General Eric Holder.

Conservatives sure do love invoking the Black Panthers these days.

Btw, here is the Black Panthers' Ten Point Program, in case you've never read it. It's obviously terrifying.

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O RLY?

[Content Note: Fat bias.]

Here's just a swell story about an experiment in which a thin actress wore a fat suit to test whether (thin?) people eat more when dining with a fat person. And of course the answer is YES!

To understand how people influenced each other's eating habits, Cornell University Food and Brand Lab researchers asked 82 undergraduate students to eat lunch, which included spaghetti and a salad, with an actress. The researchers randomly assigned the students to one of four conditions:

* In one situation, the actress wore a fat suit but served herself more salad than pasta.
* In the second, she wore a fat suit and served herself more pasta than salad.
* In the third, she appeared without the fat suit and served herself more salad than pasta.
* In the fourth, she appeared without the fat suit and served herself more pasta than salad.

Then the researchers looked at how much the students ate. It wasn't a case of "I'll have what she's having." Even when the overweight person ate salad, her meal companions loaded up.

"When they are eating with overweight eating companions, regardless of what she serves herself, participants ate more pasta," [said Mitsuru Shimizu, one of the authors of the paper], who is now an assistant professor of psychology at Southern Illinois University. "They ate less salad even if the overweight person ate more [salad]."
A video at the link shows that, despite what this description of the experiment might suggest, participants did not sit down to dine with a fat person person in a fat suit, but followed her through a buffet line. The actress leads the line, and asks the "buffet line monitor" if she should take a second plate to separate her pasta and salad, to which the monitor replies yes, then instructs everyone else to do the same.

As I don't have access to the finished paper, I have no idea whether there were any controls to ensure it was not the instruction to fill two separate plates that might have encouraged greater consumption, rather than the mere presence of a fat person, with whom no one else is even interacting.

For some reason, I'm just dubious about the findings of MAGICAL FAT.

Naturally, the conclusion is not that fat is magical, ha ha no: "No matter how the actress served herself, people ate more pasta and less salad if she were wearing the fat suit. The reason? The researchers posit that when people are with someone who is overweight, they feel less motivated to be healthy."

Of course the researchers posit that. OF COURSE THEY DO.
"We have kind of healthy eating standards," says Shimizu. "That goal is unconsciously … less activated when we are eating with an overweight person."

The research isn't intended to fat-shame or pass the blame for our overeating. Instead, by understanding how environment and the people around us affects our eating habits, we can be more mindful of how much we're consuming.

"If we are eating with an overweight person, we are eating more," says Shimizu.
Ha ha heavens no! The research isn't intended to fat-shame or blame fat people! It's just to suggest that fat people are axiomatically unhealthy pigs whose grotesque disregard for their own bodies is HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS. We just need to get this information out there so thin people can make good choices—like avoiding fat people!

If it is true that people eat more at the mere sight of a fatty, because of narratives that fat people are unhealthy gluttons, then, once again, I will note that the problem is not fat people. The problem is fat hatred.

That is not an insignificant distinction.

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Recommended Reading

[Content Note: Gun violence; stalking; disablist language.]

Brian Beutler: "Gabby Giffords' Gun-Control Ads Are Being Criticized Because They're Working."

I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the whole thing.

And then let's talk about how aggressively contemptible her critics are. Because OMG.

[H/T to Jess.]

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Daily Dose of Cute

Sophie the Torbie Cat curled up on a pillow
Wee Sophs.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime



Janis Ian: "At Seventeen"

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

United States Attorney General Eric Holder will announce his resignation today: "Holder, 63, intends to leave the Justice Department as soon as his successor is confirmed, a process that could run through 2014 and even into next year. A former U.S. government official says Holder has been increasingly 'adamant' about his desire to leave soon for fear that he otherwise could be locked in to stay for much of the rest of President Obama's second term. Holder already is one of the longest-serving members of the Obama Cabinet and ranks as the fourth-longest tenured AG in history."

[Content Note: Police brutality; death; racism] Louisiana State Police are investigating after a Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's deputy fatally shot a 14-year-old boy named Cameron Tillman. Police will not confirm the number of times he was shot, but his family says he was shot "four or five times in the back." Police also say a weapon was found "in close proximity" to Tillman's body, but his brother says he was not holding a weapon. Are you angry yet at the repetitiveness with which these stories follow the same goddamn pattern?

[CN: Police brutality; injury; racism; description of shooting] Meanwhile, in South Carolina: "South Carolina state trooper Sean Groubert was arrested on Wednesday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature after a video emerged of him shooting a driver named Levar Jones that he pulled over for a seat belt violation. In the video, Groubert's vehicle is seen pulling up to a black man exiting a white SUV, and Groubert is heard telling Jones 'can I see your license please?' When Jones turns around to recover his license from the vehicle, however, Groubert immediately begins screaming 'get out of the car! get out of the car!' and firing his gun at the unarmed man. ...Mr. Jones, the man that Groubert shot, was struck in the hip at least once. He is now out of the hospital and is recuperating." Fucking hell.

[CN: Police brutality; death; racism] Meanwhile, in Missouri: "An Instagram photo posted by MediaBlackOutUSA appears to show a 'I Am Darren Wilson' bracelet worn by police at a demonstration for Michael Brown on Tuesday night in Ferguson, Missouri. Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson acknowledged the bracelets during a press conference on Wednesday. 'I think that was not a statement of law enforcement. I think wearing that was an individual statement,' Johnson said." For fuck's sake.

[CN: Terrorism] A woman named Isis Martinez has asked media to change the way they ID the terrorist organization the Islamic State, which has until now been known as ISIS. The group itself now identifies as simply the Islamic State, and I don't give two shits about them, but I can respect not wanting to further associate the name ISIS with these fuckos, so I will hereafter refer to them as IS. (And this will be the last time I use the ISIS tag, so this note is included in that archive.)

[CN: Terrorism; war; death] Speaking of IS: "US air strikes target Islamic State oil infrastructure: A third night of US air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets inside Syria focused on oil infrastructure controlled by the militant group, observer groups say, in an apparent attempt to cut off its funding supply. The attacks on a series of oil installations around the town of Mayadeen, in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, reportedly killed 19 people, including five civilians, believed to be women and children related to the 14 militants who died, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activist groups." Civilians are being killed in the "precision strikes" but the headline is about oil infrastructure. That about sums it up.

[CN: War; surveillance; war profiteering] Relatedly: "Who profits from our new war?" Spoiler alert! It's private contractors.

[CN: Misogyny; sexual abuse and harassment] Female firefighters employed by the US Forest Service have filed a lawsuit alleging "alleging they faced sexual abuse, harassment, and job discrimination from their male coworkers. The complaint, filed with the Department of Agriculture on behalf of hundreds of women in the Forest Service's Region 5 in California, claims officials did not do enough to stop harassment and abuse. Seven women are heading the complaint." One of the complainants describes the Forest Service as a "frat boy atmosphere" where the remote work often leaves women imperiled. Among her allegations is that her supervisor put her in a chokehold and tried to rape her, and that she once found fliers on the floor of the fire station calling her a whore. It is utterly appalling that in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fourteen women are being treated like this on the job and that their only recourse to literally make a federal case out of it. Christ.

Good: "The Obama administration has agreed to pay the Navajo Nation a record $554m to settle longstanding claims by the largest native American tribe that its funds and natural resources were mishandled for decades by the US government. The accord, resolving claims that date back as far as 50 years and marking the biggest US legal settlement with a single tribe, will be formally signed at a ceremony on Friday in Window Rock, Arizona, the capital of the sprawling Navajo reservation."

Actress Chloe Grace Moretz is a feminist. So there.

And finally! Here is just a really nice story about a senior living home where shelter pets get a second chance. Not only do I love that this company rescues shelter pets for the residents, but also that they allow residents to bring their pets with them to the facility. I wish more senior living homes would do that.

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TV Corner: Sleepy Hollow Recap S2E1

Sleepy Hollow Season 2 Episode 1: “This is War”

[CN: gun violence, kidnapping. Please note that this post contains spoilers.]

Were you excited about the season premiere of Sleepy Hollow? I know I was! So let’s get the important stuff out of the way:

John Cho was in this episode.

And now, let’s roll on downhill from there…

SLO-MO VOICEOVER RECAP. “My name is Ichabod Crane. Other than that, I bear almost no resemblance to anything Washington Irving ever wrote. But if you think of me as a time-displaced Benton Fraser/Buffy Summers hybrid who just happened to wander onto the set of the X-Files, we will get along fine. Also: I am trapped in a coffin. Let me bellow my trademark British pronunciation: LEFTENANT!!!!”

New scene! It is Lt. Abbie Mills of the Sleepy Hollow PD. HI ABBIE! She has a cupcake with a candle! She is wishing Ichabod a copyright-free happy birthday. Awwwwww!

Ichabod: [obligatory faux-complaint about modernity]

Abbie: [obligatory affectionate complaint about his stuffy attitude]

Ichabod blows out the candle and the then tunes the dialogue to station K-PLOT, so that he and Abbie can rehash he last season. She lost her sister, he lost his wife, it’s super awful, and the phone rings. It’s the historical society! A HISTORY PROFESSOR HAS BEEN KILLED. NATIONAL EMERGENCY!

… hahaha just kidding! The only response will be from one cop and her 200+ year old quirky sidekick! (Oh well. You know how this show feels about history professors!) They load up on +2 supernatural weapons and head into the historical society where a bust of Ben Franklin presides over a murder scene. The professor was an expert on Franklin! Ichabod is also an expert on Franklin! He was forced to be Franklin’s apprentice by his boss, George Washington! So he totally assisted with Franklin’s famous electrical experiments!

(….in the 1750s? Wait a fucking minute. So Ichabod was studying with Franklin 20 + years before the American Revolution? When he was like 10, but is portrayed as an adult? WHAT KIND OF SENSE DOES THAT MAKE URGHURGHARRRRRRRRGHLEBARGLE ……. this show is trying to kill off another history professor, but I RESIST. Turning brain off now.)

ANYWAY! Thank goodness for gunshots and shit! It’s a headless dude! Ichabod calls for the *consecrated* rounds of ammo! (I am trying to imagine the scene where they interrupted kindly Father Whatsit at the fish fry and got him to bless their ammunition, in case of freak horseman attack.) They shoot!

Abbie and Ichabod stand in front of a table with old paper sin a room of burning candles photo SHseason2ep1pr2_zps92d2a0c0.jpg

Then they are back at their archive, which is much better decorated than last season. It’s also lit by candles, which is super bad for old documents, but I digress. Harvard still exists! Ichabod finds that funny! Something something Ben Franklin was in the hellfire club, and Ichy has a flashback to Nekkid Ben Franklin ™ . NBF tells Ichy to stop being a prude and start studying The Key Which Cannot Be Destroyed! Um, yeah.

OH MY GOD FRANKLIN’S EXPERIMENT WASN’T ABOUT ELECTRICITY! It was about Moloch the Evil Horseman and his wacky 4 horsemen/ backup singers! The key cannot be destroyed! And it can get people out of purgatory! Time for Ichabod to say LEFTENANT! Moloch must not get this key!

(Honestly, I kind of zoned out here. So, for reference, take anything you ever learned about Purgatory and put it in a blender with your favourite 90s show, and I think you’ll get The One Where Ross and Rachel Buy Indulgences the gist of this dialogue.)

Anyway, Ichy and Abbie decide to visit Ichabod’s son Henry, aka The Guy From Fringe, aka the Horseman of War/Sin-Eater. He is very busy with his jobs! EVIL jobs, but at least he is employed!

Fringe Guy: Did you bring me precious plants? Precioussss….

Abbie: Ichabod, I have to talk to you.

Ichy: That key we’ve been talking about exists and it super important. Also, I have no memory of the last year.

Abbie: Me neither, but I thought it was the writing.

Ichy: Yeah it is the writing but also….well shit, man. There are plot holes and then there are PLOT HOLES, Leftenant! And oh my god I AM STILL BURIED IN A PLOT HOLE!!!! I’m not really here with you!!!!

Fringe Guy: Muah-hah-haaaaa! You have confirmed the key! MUAH HA HA HAAAAA! *tears off piece of scenery, eats it.*

Whooooooops your expectations, audience! It is not just that this show is confusing! This has all been an illusion to trick Abbie and Ichy into confirming the existence of Nekkid Ben Franklin’s Key! Which sounds way dirtier than I intended. In reality, Ichy’s still buried in his coffin, Abbie’s still in Purgatory and Fringe Guy is torturing Jenny in a warehouse by reciting more of last season’s plot to her!

So, in his coffin, Ichy decides to go all Uma Thurman and tries to punch a hole in the lid of the coffin. Then he tastes his fingers, like ya do. "Sulfur!" he says. Okay! I am sure that will be important!

Oh and his wife Katrina is still around, too. She is being held captive by a headless horseman/backup singer. But never mind, because the moment you’ve been waiting for is here…

It's JOHN CHO! He’s trying to help Abbie!

JC: This is Purgatory, not Hell. That means you can get out, but only if you listen to me. I mean, I have a role on a totally different show now! So there is hope for you.

Abbie: Awesome! Show me how!

But before that, let’s go back to Ichabod, still in the damn coffin. He is on the phone recording a heartfelt speech to Abbie but of course it doesn’t record, because unfulfilled sexual tension. Speaking of which, Ichy then MacGyvers up some gunpowder out of that sulfur (okay!) and lights a match and BOOM! A Very Big Explosion! Conveniently, this blows open a hole in the ground and not in Ichy. Good job, Ichy! Obligatory hand bursting out of grave shot.

Meanwhile, Jenny kicks some major ass while the bad guys are distracted by their phones. SILENCE YOUR PHONES, BAD GUYS. She is trapped on Route 9! Abbie’s trapped in Purgatory! I am trapped watching this show! I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO QUIT YOU, SLEEPY HOLLOW!

John Cho: In lieu of a Highway to Hell, we have a Path out of Purgatory. It is in this mirror.

Every Catholic school religion teacher ever: Whut.

Meanwhile Ichy steals an ambulance to rescue Jenny. Ichy is a shitty driver. *laugh track* He and Jenny go to the archives to find Nekkid Ben Franklin’s sketchbook, which contains a clue to the whereabouts of the Key and a lot of unicorn doodles. And code, lots of code. Which Ichy can read because Nekkid Ben Franklin forced him to learn it! Now they just have to find Nekkid Ben’s key! *laugh track*

Abbie is still in Purgatory. Or perhaps a Batman origin story, because bats! So many bats! Also, upside down star and candles. Now we switch to Ichabod, in the car with Jenny, looking in the rear view mirror. Cue Abbie looking back at him. They can see each other in the car mirror!

Abbie: (through mirror)I am in Moloch’s lair! Or maybe a Meatloaf video! The one with the car mirror and demon armies and Michael Bay!

Ichy (through mirror) No! You are in that movie where Daniel Day Lewis says he WILL FIND YOU! Leftenant, I DO NOT ACCEPT GOODBYE!

Ichy and Jennie find the key. Katrina is talking to the now-shirtless headless dude, who apparently snagged a sweet deal modeling for romance covers. Turns out he’s Katrina’s old boyfriend. And the horseman of Death! He gives her a locket, which gives him his head back, and I am so not going there.

Meanwhile Ichy and Jenny are in the woods preparing to go into Purgatory. She reminds him not to eat or drink anything, because apparently Purgatory functions like that Greek myth about Persephone? (Catholic school religion teachers are just crying and crying and crying now.)

Ichabod says ritual words. Abbie sees him! She sobs like a Catholic school religion teacher. Ichy says “Drink this!” But then ANOTHER Ichy says “LEFTENANT! Don’t drink that! We just had exposition on that topic!”

Real Ichy and Fake Ichy fight. Which is which? OH THE DILEMMA!

Whichever Ichy: (to Abbie): Go! Quickly we have to go! We have to return to your sister, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOTENANT!

(Oh my god. Ichabod’s persistent Canadian British pronunciation has finally served An Actual Purpose: identifying Fake Ichabod! ) Abbie kills Fake Ichabod! Real Ichabod and Abbie share quips as a Horseman shows up on the horizon! It’s Moloch! Fortunately there is a fort constructed out of Lincoln Logs nearby, which offers them some zero protection against all of the ZOMBIES rising in Purgatory! And I do not feel so lonely now, because this show hates Catholic school religion teachers almost as much as history professors!

Anyway, Abbie and Ichy come flying out of Purgatory. Moloch missed the gate. MIND THE GAP, Moloch! Abbie, Ichy, and Jenny have a reunion. SRS BIZNESS AHEAD. Fringe Guy worships Moloch. EVIL BIZNESS AHEAD. This is war. Bible quotes. Melty lava. The end, the merciful end!

So what did you think? The season opener did a decent job tying up the super-convoluted plot from last season, but I can’t say any particular point really grabbed me. I sure do love seeing Abbie and Jenny working together, though! And John Noble seems to be having so much fun with this, lol. Hope the show picks up the pace some next week, without killing any more history professors in the process.

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Your Liberal Media

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

Chris Cillizza has written a piece for the Washington Post entitled: "The Clinton team is following reporters to the bathroom. Here's why that matters."

The piece starts with an anecdote about a reporter being accompanied to the restroom by a press aide at the Clinton Global Initiative, about which Cillizza writes: "Yes, this may be an extreme example." Indeed. It is also a single example. Which makes the headline implying that reporters being followed into bathrooms in multiple contexts deeply dishonest.

But it doesn't matter, anyway. Because Cillizza's piece is not about concern for a reporter whose privacy or freedom to report may have been compromised. It's about concern trolling Clinton over her distrust of the media, that faux concern masking what is a preemptive justification for the press' appalling treatment of potential candidate Hillary Clinton.

[T]he press strictures at the Clinton Global Initiative are the stuff of legend. But, the episode also reflects the dark and, frankly, paranoid view the Clintons have toward the national media. Put simply: Neither Hillary nor Bill Clinton likes the media or, increasingly, sees any positive use for them.
(Gee, I wonder why that might be.)
"If a policymaker is a political leader and is covered primarily by the political press, there is a craving that borders on addictive to have a storyline," Bill Clinton said in a speech at Georgetown University back in April. "And then once people settle on the storyline, there is a craving that borders on blindness to shoehorn every fact, every development, every thing that happens into the story line, even if it's not the story."

That view, according to a terrific story by Politico's Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman over the summer, informs and impacts the Clintons' thinking on a 2016 bid. Write the duo: "As much as anything else, her ambivalence about the race, [Clinton sources] told us, reflects her distaste for and apprehension of a rapacious, shallow and sometimes outright sexist national political press corps acting as enablers for her enemies on the right."

It also colors how the media is treated during the long runup to Clinton's now-expected bid. While Chozick's experience may be on the extreme end of the spectrum, reporters who have spent any amount of time on the trail with the Clintons -- including during their recent trip to Sen. Tom Harkin's Steak Fry -- describe a candidate and an operation that always assumes the worst of the press horde and acts accordingly.
Pout. They aren't nice to the media. And thus we get to the real point of this story: The Clintons had better start being nicer to the press, if they don't want the press to tank Hillary Clinton's candidacy before it even begins.
In theory, Clinton is, of course, a candidate -- assuming she is a candidate -- who needs the political press as little as any person seeking the presidency in modern memory. ...And yet, any objective analysis of the 2008 primary campaign would conclude that the remarkably adversarial relationship between the Clinton campaign and the media hurt her chances.

...Regardless of who was to blame, by the end of the campaign, reporters -- including me -- and the Clinton operation were at each others' throats daily and often more than daily.

...Clintonworld promised a different approach to the press in 2016. ...They understood, they insisted, that while Clinton was very well defined to most voters, there was an entire generation of younger people -- who, not for nothing, were a pillar of Obama's electoral success -- who knew little about the former Secretary of State other than her famous name and would use the media coverage of her to form their opinions. The early returns on those pledges don't look promising.

...[T]he Clintons have as dim a view of the political press as any modern politicians. So you can imagine what a Clinton 2016 campaign will think of those tasked with covering it.
There are a lot of reasons why US political and news media is garbage, but chief among them is that a number of Beltway journalists think it's okay to jettison accurate and fair journalism if a candidate doesn't sufficiently pander to them.

This story should be utterly appalling to all of us, in what it reveals about the people tasked with covering our elections. Cillizza openly acknowledges that a contentious relationship with the media—never mind if there are decades of justifiable reasons for that contention—will result in shitty coverage. "The remarkably adversarial relationship between the Clinton campaign and the media hurt her chances." Which might merely be a commentary on the flow of information, if it hadn't been preceded by asides about "how the media is treated" by people who assume "the worst of the press horde."

One of the perfect, bitter ironies of this piece is that is was penned by a man who once joked, in a professional capacity, that, if you were having a beer with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she'd be drinking "Mad Bitch" beer.

After complaints, the video series was axed, and Cillizza shared the lessons he'd learned:
What did I learn from doing Mouthpiece? That I am not funny on camera (this will not be a revelation to many of you), that name-calling is never the stuff of good comedy, and that the sort of straight, inside dope reporting I pride myself on made for a somewhat discordant marriage with the sort of satire Mouthpiece aimed to create.
Apparently, not engaging in rank misogyny against the Secretary of State of the United States was not among the wisdom he'd gleaned from the experience.

So I suppose we can expect more of that, when comes time for the revenge after Hillary Clinton fails to demonstrate sufficient deference to people who routinely treat her like a piece of shit.

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No Justice

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death.]

There will be no indictments in the August shooting of John Crawford, the 22-year-old black man who was killed by police in an Ohio Walmart, after another customer called 911 to report a man waving an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle at customers, though it was actually a BB/pellet rifle which is sold at the store. The grand jury considered charges of murder, reckless homicide, and negligent homicide, and failed to indict any officer of any of those charges.

A special prosecutor says a grand jury found officers' actions were justified in the fatal shooting of a man at an Ohio Wal-Mart.

Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said Wednesday the Greene County grand jury in Xenia opted not to issue any indictments in the Aug. 5 death of 22-year-old John Crawford III.

...Crawford's family says the shooting was not justified and wants federal authorities to investigate whether race was a factor. Crawford was black, the officers are white.
Late yesterday, it was announced that the Justice Department's civil rights division and the FBI "will carry out a 'thorough and independent review of the evidence' relating to the death of John Crawford III."

I'm glad the feds are stepping in, but I'm angry that they have to.

Video of the shooting has been released, and it looks just as it was described by Crawford's family. The video clearly shows that Crawford was not aiming or loading the weapon when he was shot. [CN: Description of shooting.]
The video, which tracks Crawford as he made his way throughout the store, first shows him walking around while talking on his cell phone and picking up the toy gun from the sporting goods aisle. The video then shows Crawford standing calmly at the end of an aisle, holding the toy gun — pointed at the floor — in his right hand. Occasionally, he swings the gun gently back and forth, but there's no point at which the gun's pointed at anything — let alone at any person.

About one minute and a half into the video, Crawford suddenly moves out of the aisle as police officers enter the store with their guns drawn and pointed. Crawford drops the pellet gun, then trip over it into the rear aisle of the store. The audio in the video, which is taken from a 911 call, suggests police fired almost immediately after they placed their sights on Crawford, but it's unconfirmed whether the audio is accurately synced to the video footage. (The prosecutor in the case said Crawford was shot before he dropped the gun.)

Crawford then moves back into the aisle toward them, then turns away again — at which point he drops to his knees as the cops continue to advance. He falls to his back and his legs splay out (the rest of his body is hidden from view).

The video doesn't show any of the behavior described in the 911 call that sent cops to the scene. The 911 call, placed by a man named Ronald Ritchie (who is white), said that Crawford was "pointing it at people" and "like loading [the gun] right now." The video shows Crawford wasn't doing anything like that when police shot him.
John Crawford is dead for no reason, and no one is being held accountable. That isn't justice.

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Open Thread

image of a carved wooden totem pole featuring a thunderbird, set against a blue sky

Hosted by a totem pole.

(The pictured totem is a Kwakwaka'wakw thunderbird totem located in Vancouver.)

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Open Thread (+ Programming Note)

image of the top of a brown bottle and a dropper with a drop of oil hovering above the open bottle top

Hosted by tea tree oil.

I've got another doctor's appointment this morning, and another appointment this afternoon, so I'll be taking today off, and I will see you tomorrow. It's not an emergency—just part of my ongoing health stuff—so if you're someone inclined toward worry, there's no need. :)

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Question of the Day

What classic activity of idealized childhood did you never do, whether because you never got a chance, or weren't allowed, or just simply never had any interest?

I don't think I ever flew a kite. If I did, it obviously wasn't very memorable, lol.

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Recommended Reading

[Content Note: War on agency; misogyny; homophobia; Christian Supremacy; classism.]

Sharona Coutts: "Sean Fieler, the Little-Known ATM of the Fundamentalist Christian, Anti-Choice Movement."

This is what deciding money is "free speech" looks like. One guy with a lot of, um, speech can buy the institutional oppression of his fellow citizens.

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Shaker Gourmet: Cookbook Edition

Normally, Shaker Gourmet is a recipe-sharing thread, but I thought, for a change, we'd do a cookbook recommendation variation.

So: What is your favorite cookbook(s)? It doesn't at all have to be a published book, if your favorite "cookbook" is actually a recipe collection from your church/civil group/favorite charity that was compiled as a fundraiser, or a collection of notecards handed down from your grandmother.

Also: If you're seeking recommendations for a good cookbook on a specific type of dish, or cooking style (e.g. I have a cookbook that's exclusively recipes for a steamer), solicit away!

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Important Unicorn News

image of the movie poster for the 1982 animated feature, The Last Unicorn.

Do you love the animated children's classic The Last Unicorn? Did you watch your shitty VHS copy that you taped off of HBO so may times that you'd memorized virtually every line of dialogue, but not so many times that the Red Bull didn't still scare the everloving shit out of you every time he appeared? Does the sound of Jeff Bridges' voice still sometimes make you think of Prince Lír?

Well, maybe that's just me, but if you did love The Last Unicorn when you were a kid, and/or love it now, you might be interested to read about (and check the dates for) the screening tour, with special guest Peter S. Beagle, aka the guy who wrote the book on which it was based, and also wrote the screenplay for the movie.

Scrolling down the page, you'll also find some fun tidbits like this:

image of two older white men with beards; one is holding a stuffed unicorn and one is holding a stuffed wolf, and they are poised as if the plush toys are about to fight one another; the picture is labeled: 'GEORGE R.R. MARTIN & PETER S. BEAGLE: THE DIRE WOLF & THE UNICORN COMING TO HOME VIDEO: A dramatic confrontation.'

Anyway! If you love the movie, or if you've never seen it but would love to see it on the big screen, I hope a screening will be coming to a theater near you!

[H/T to Shaker RedSonja.]

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Stand Your Ground. Unless You're Black.

[Content Note: Guns; death; racism; death penalty.]

At 5:30 in the morning on May 9 of this year, four men attempted to come through the windows in Marvin Louis Guy's home in Killeen, Texas. Thinking he was protecting himself and his wife from intruders, Guy opened fire, killing one of the men and injuring the other three.

Despite the fact that Texas has a Stand Your Ground law, as well as a Castle Doctrine law that includes one's home, vehicle, and place of business or employment, Guy has been indicted by a grand jury, charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case.

Why? Because:

1. The men breaching Guy's home were officers with the Killeen Police Department's Tactical Response Unit and the Bell County Organized Crime Unit, who were attempting to serve a "no-knock" narcotics search warrant.

2. Guy is black.

One might believe that anyone who shot police officers entering their residence—even on a "no-knock" warrant, where police officers are not required to alert a resident to their presence or announce themselves as police officers—would be indicted, but let me introduce you to Henry Goedrich Magee, a white Texan who shot and killed an officer who entered his home on a no-knock marijuana raid, and who was not indicted by a grand jury.

Huh.

At the Free Thought Project, Cassandra Rules notes the marked difference between the photos of Magee and Guy used in the press:

left: an image of a young white man playing with his young white daughter; right: an image of a black man in a mugshot
On the left: The unindicted Magee. On the right: The indicted Guy.

I have said many, many, many, many, many times that Stand Your Ground laws are dangerous for marginalized people because they are not equally applied; because they are used to allow white men to kill marginalized people with impunity and to allow prosecutors to ignore the law to prosecute marginalized people who defend themselves. And I'm hardly the only person making that point, over and over and over.

This is the problem, right here: The same law that one grand jury used to justify a white man's killing of a police officer serving a "no-knock" warrant has been ignored by another grand jury to criminalized a black man's killing of a police officer serving a "no-knock" warrant.

Both men were equally justified under the law. But only one of them was indicted. Only one of them faces trial, and possibly the death penalty.

Meanwhile, two police officers are dead because we live in a country in which people have a right to kill someone trying to enter their homes, and in which police have a right to enter people's homes without knocking or identifying themselves. Does this combination not seem like a bad idea to anyone else?

[Sources: KHD News; The Free Thought Project; Black Youth Project. H/T to Shaker JS.]

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Daily Dose of Cute

image of Matilda the Fuzzy Sealpoint Blue-Eyed Cat, lying on the ottoman under a blanket
Queen Matilda, under her royal blankie.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime



Gloria Gaynor: "Never Can Say Goodbye"

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: War; terrorism] After having launched nearly 200 strikes against ISIS in Iraq so far, the US has now begun a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, against both ISIS and a second group, a "little-known al Qaeda cell" known as the Khorasan Group. "While the United States is still 'assessing the effectiveness' of the bombing campaign against ISIS, which included up to 20 targets, the Pentagon believes 'that we were successful in hitting what we were aiming at,' Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. ...Many of the targets were in and around Raqqa, Syria, believed to be an ISIS stronghold, a defense official said Monday." Believed to be? Well, this is encouraging. We are bombing targets we believe to be part of an ISIS stronghold, and, while we're at it, bombing some other folks, too. Who wants to make two trips to the grocery store?

[CN: Misogyny; sexual assault; harassment] Immediately after giving a speech on feminism at the UN, Emma Watson has been threatened by 4¢hɐn: "Online perpetrators have created a website called Emma You Are Next with a countdown clock ticking down to something happening in about 4 days. While the message doesn't say what happens when time is up, it was posted on 4¢hɐn, the same image-sharing site that leaked nude celebrity photos on Saturday, and earlier this month. The words 'Never Forget, The Biggest To Come Thus Far' appear on the page below a picture of Watson apparently wiping away a tear." What heinous fuckers.

[CN: Stalking; threats of violence] Last Friday, a 42-year-old former military sniper named Omar Gonzalez managed to get past the Secret Service and break into the White House with a knife. Yesterday, prosecutors disclosed that "a search of his nearby car uncovered 800 rounds of ammunition, a machete, and two hatchets." Something is deeply wrong with the Secret Service, y'all.

Dylan Scott at TPM: "If You Listen, Hillary Is Trying To Tell You What Her 2016 Message Will Be." Scott's piece is really terrific counterpoint to this garbage. Of course, expecting people to listen to a woman is always a radical proposition!

[CN: Rape culture; police brutality] What in the shit is wrong with this guy? "An Oklahoma Highway Patrol official reportedly told women that the best way not to get raped by an officer was to 'follow the law.' In recent months, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer and an Oklahoma City Police officer have been accused of repeatedly raping women, often during traffic stops." So Captain George Brown told Tulsa NBC News affiliate KJRH that "the best tip that he can give is to follow the law in the first place so you don't get pulled over." Not only do I love, ahem, the idea that it's women's responsibility to not get pulled over to avoid being raped by a police officer, rather than police officers' responsibility to not rape people, but I love, ahem, the idea that a rapist cop would never pull over a woman unless she's actually broken the law. What an asshole.

[CN: Guns] This is terrifying and I am so glad I am not a parent and I am sorry for those of you who are parents and have to navigate this horseshit with your kids: "Legally gun-owning adults are now allowed to carry guns in public schools in more than two dozen states, from kindergarten classrooms to high school hallways. Seven of those states specifically allow teachers and other school staff to carry guns in their schools. A News21 examination of open records laws in those states found that those who do choose to carry their firearm into their classrooms are not required to divulge the information to principals, other teachers, students or parents. Only five of those states have completely open access to concealed carry permit information through public records requests. Some states' laws completely seal off those records and others are silent on the issue. That means there is no way of telling how many teachers are taking advantage of the option to be armed. ...There is no record of who has a gun in any school in any state." Emphasis mine.

In better news: This David Bowie exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art sounds really neat!

Welp: "State Farm drops ad starring Rob Schneider over anti-vaccine views." An arguably even better reason to have dropped the ad is because Schneider is reprising his "Makin' Copies" character that's so old it still uses a rotary phone.

Did anyone watch the Sunday premiere of Madam Secretary, starring Téa Leoni? I finally watched it last night, and I liked it all right. This review by Tim Goodman is fairly reflective of my impressions. I liked how many of the other characters borrowed biographical details from real life folks—the president was a former CIA chief, like George H.W. Bush; Leoni's Secretary of State was a professor, like Condoleezza Rice; etc. I wasn't thrilled that the premiere episode centered on the new Secretary having to save two nice white American boys from the clutches of swarthy enemies. (Come on now.) I'll stick with it for awhile and see where it goes, because I really like Leoni.

And finally! Photos show a manatee appearing to keep a dog company while it struggles to get out of a river in Florida. Officers safely rescued the pup, and the manatee went on its way. ♥

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News from the Conservative Legislation Lab

[Content Note: Class warfare.]

As I've said many times before, if you want to know what garbage policies are coming down the conservative pipeline, look no further than Indiana, where we are used as guinea pigs to test out the latest and greatest in Republican governance theory.

This time, however, I'm not bringing you news of what's to come, but instead a follow-up on how one of these cool theories panned out for us.

As you may recall, our former Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, who is a genius, decided to privatize the toll road in Northwest Indiana, which connects us to Chicago. This was a bad idea, despite the fact Daniels routinely touted it as a huge success.

(In fact, many of Daniels' cutting-edge conservative policies were loudly touted as successes—by Daniels, by other members of his party, and by prominent members of the media—in spite of their having proven to be abject failures for Hoosiers.)

This is what Daniels' huge toll road privatization success looks like now: On Sunday, the company that operates the Indiana Toll Road, ITR Commission Co., a venture of the Spanish-Australian company Cintra-Macquarie, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The General Assembly narrowly voted for the lease, allowing then-Gov. Mitch Daniels to sign a contract with the company in 2006 to exchange a lump-sum payment of $3.8 billion for a 75-year lease of the road that runs between the Illinois and Ohio state lines.

But the toll revenue failed to meet the company's expectations, as traffic volume fell short of predictions.

Indiana Finance Authority Director Kendra York said in a statement ITR Commission Co. will continue to manage the Toll Road through the bankruptcy process. The Finance Authority must also approve any potential sale of the lease.

...Back in 2006, Daniels touted the deal as a win for Indiana, comparing the lease to selling Manhattan for beads.

He said Indiana gets to pocket $3.8 billion, but could take back the Toll Road if the operator failed to meet demands.
In fact, what Daniels said at the time was that the privatization plan would "trigger tremendous job growth using in large part a very handy tool: Other people's money." Ho ho ho. Because Northwest Indiana, which is part of suburban Chicago, is treated as if we are not part of the state of Indiana, but instead an ATM from which to draw funds to spend in the rest of the (more politically conservative) state.

Daniels absurdly claimed that "the increased tolls on the road would be mostly paid for by out-of-state motorists," even though the road is mostly used by people who drive to and from Chicago every day for work, because, once the mills collapsed, Hoosiers in NWI were left with precious few local jobs offering a livable wage.

We protested the privatization of the toll road. And we were ignored. And we started paying three times the tolls, at shitty automated booths from which operators were fired, on an increasingly poorly maintained road, while our governor went around declaring the scheme a success.

Now, we've no idea what's to come.
"This is a valuable asset that was really, really sold off at a discount when you consider the value the Toll Road could have had by gradually raising tolls," Shaw Friedman, an attorney in LaPorte County, said. "The problem is the $3.8 billion was gone in the first six or seven years. What do we do with the remaining 70 years?"

Politicians who opposed the lease in 2006 spoke out Monday.

"This is our worst fear come to fruition," said state Sen. John Broden, who voted against the lease.

..."A new investor will come in to make money, and how they make money is doing business as inexpensively as they can," [State Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend] said.

Joe Bock, who is running against [Republican U.S. Representative from Indiana's 2nd district Jackie Walorski], held a news conference Monday afternoon, and warned against the privatization of public assets.

Development of infrastructure is the "fundamental role of government," Bock said. "The idea to turn that over to a private consortium is one that ought to be questioned."
Yes, yes privatization ought to be questioned. And it ought to be deemed a colossal failure. And yet Republicans in the state are still continuing to defend it.

Walorski's deputy campaign manager made a statement yesterday that the Congresswoman stands by the lease and the decision to privatize, incredibly insisting that "the toll road will continue to operate normally, tolls will not increase, and drivers will not be impacted," and breathtakingly asserting it's "important to remember the state of Indiana specifically provided many safeguards into the lease to protect the interest of Hoosier taxpayers," even though it's Hoosier taxpayers who have been paying the increased tolls and repairs to cars damaged by a road in a state of disrepair through several horrendous winters.

Everything about this idea was a catastrophic failure. And these assholes are still trying to claim it's a success.

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Quote of the Day

"The only difference is that we just know it's legal and nobody can do anything about it. We've always been married in our hearts."—Vivian Boyack, 91, who legally married her partner of 72 years, Nonie Dubes, 90, earlier this month in Iowa. [Video at link may begin playing automatically.] I highly recommend reading their whole story. Bring a tissue.

[H/T to my pal Bill.]

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It Continues to Be a Real Mystery Why Republicans Aren't Connecting with a Majority of Female Voters

[Content Note: Misogyny; domestic abuse; racism; heterocentrism.]

In their continuing bid to win over female voters, the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (of which the Koch Brothers are key funders) has put together a 60-second spot currently airing on cable news channels, designed to convince women to abandon the Democrats for Republicans by playing on one of the most loathsome stereotypes about female voters—that we vote for male politicians we want to fuck.

A young, thin, dark-haired, olive-complected woman, wearing a pink collared shirt (get it?) and a string of pearls, looks directly into the camera and says: "In 2008, I fell in love. His online profile made him seem so perfect—smart, handsome, charming, articulate, all the right values. I trusted him. But by 2012, our relationship was in trouble. But I stuck with him, because he promised he'd be better. He's great at promises. He told me we'd be safe. Have you looked at the news? He's in my emails and text messages, spying on me but ignoring real threats. He said that we'd finally get on our feet financially. I'll never pay down what he's spent. He thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control, but he won't even let me keep my own doctor. [cut to laptop screen, on which is a picture of President Barack Obama; the woman closes the laptop] I know I'm stuck with Barack for two more years; I get that. But I'm not stuck with his friends. I'm looking for someone who gets that this isn't about him; it's about us."
I feel reasonably confident asserting that the number of ways this ad is fucked up is significantly higher than the number of female voters who will be swayed by it.

This is what conservatives think of (straight/bi?) women: That we vote based on who we think is the cutest boy; that we view our (male) political representatives as our boyfriends; that we are not offended by categorizing disappointment in a politician as an abusive relationship; that we think it's totally appropriate to suggest the President is stalking us like an intimate partner; that we don't hear or care about racist dog whistles like referring to the black President as "articulate"; that we don't find it wildly disrespectful to refer to the President as "Barack," especially to maintain the reprehensible illusion that he's our mean boyfriend; that we think caring about free birth control is frivolous; that we are stupid. Very, very stupid.

Message received loud and clear, assholes.

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Open Thread

image of four tiny baby turtles being held in a pair of white hands

Hosted by tiny turtles.

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Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker masculine_lady: "In honor of Banned Book Week, what's your favorite banned book? Or several."

You can find compiled information on frequently banned and/or challenged books here, if you need to take a peek at the list(s) to find your answer.

In 2013, the Top Ten challenged books "out of 307 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom" were:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey | Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison | Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie | Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James | Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins | Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone | Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green | Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky | Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya | Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith | Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

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Ink

This weekend, Iain went to see Lui (who's done most of my tattoos, and did Deeky's first tattoo) for the first session on a big arm piece. I went along and took some work with me, which I finished midway through his session, so I asked Jake, who did my scarab, and didn't have a client scheduled, if he felt like doing a piece on my leg for the cash I had on hand, and he did, so here is my latest tattoo.

series of four images showing a tattoo that wraps around my lower right calf, which looks like a river of black ink curling around, accompanied by colors that look like streaks and splatters of paint

Jake has been working on this abstract ink-and-paint technique, and I told him to do whatever he wanted to do. (About which he was really excited, and so was I!) He started by drawing on my leg with a light purple marker, then smeared the marker, and let it dry. He followed the outline of the marker with black ink, to create this effect of what looks like a ribbon of ink curling around my leg, and then he went through with various colors to create the splatters and brush strokes.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the result. The pictures don't even do it justice; the details are so beautiful.

It's really fun to know the person who's tattooing you, and be known by them, and just be able to trust in their talents and let them have all the freedom to create something beautiful.

This sort of abstract stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea, of course. But whatever your cuppa is, if you can find someone who excels at it and just let them go, it's totally the best.

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The End Game

[Content Note: War on agency.]

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress: "Religious Conservatives Finally Admit What They Really Want out of Hobby Lobby."

Spoiler Alert! They don't want anyone to have access to contraception ever.

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The Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by a cool autumn breeze.

Recommended Reading:

Anne: [Content Note: Misogyny] Feminism Killed All the Grownups

Suzanne: [CN: Misogyny; violence] Progress in the Face of Adversity: Activists Discuss Setbacks and Challenges for Women's Rights

phoenix hobbit: [CN: Transmisogyny; sexual harassment] The Boxtrolls Is Transmisogynist

Digby: [CN: Gun violence; racism] A Funny Kind of Hero

Kyler: [CN: Homophobia] STFU, Sarkozy

Carla: [CN: Police brutality; racism. VIDEO] This 11-Year-Old Is Already Smarter Than Every Republican in Congress

And finally: stavvers has a good round-up of a terrific stuff to read!

Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged.

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Emailing! With Aphra and Liss!

Aphra_Behn: Oh my god, this is rich. The GOP's big oppo research file on Hillary reveals—wait for it—SHE ACTS LIKE A REPUBLICAN SOMETIMES!

Liss: Good job, Republicans! You've really blown the lid off the case!

Aphra_Behn: I mean, really, how else would you sum up this shit that boils down to she's cozy with corporations and rich people, some of her staff make profit from their associations with her, etc. etc.? They have some fucking gall.

Liss: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL THEY ARE SHAMELESS.

Aphra_Behn: So, basically can we just refer the GOP back to their own document every time they claim she's an anti-capitalist Bolshevik revolutionary?

Liss: I can't stop laughing at "Clinton Confab Complications." Is this supposed to be a serious policy document (HA HA OF COURSE NOT) or a chapter of an Encyclopedia Jones mystery?

Aphra_Behn: LOLOLOL! Perfect. Also: "WELCOME TO CLINTON WORLD – A PLACE OF 'POLITICAL BENEFITS,' 'WEALTHY CELEBRITIES,' AND 'CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.'" Worst. Amusement Park. Ever.

Liss: I hate that amusement park. I got totally sick after riding the Misog-A-Whirl.

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ISIS

[Content Note: War; violence; death; displacement; terrorism.]

In the past few days, ISIS has captured around 60 villages in Syria. On Friday alone, they captured 39 villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

As they make their way through Syria, residents of the captured villages are fleeing to avoid being killed, and more than 130,000 Syrian Kurdish refugees have poured into Turkey seeking refuge, overwhelming Turkey and putting pressure on the government to join the fight against ISIS.

Meanwhile, ISIS leadership is also urging its members "to attack citizens of the United States, France and other countries which have joined a coalition to destroy the ultra-radical group."

The United States is building an international coalition to combat the extremist Sunni Muslim force, which has seized large expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate erasing borders in the heart of the Middle East.

[Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani] said the intervention by the U.S.-led coalition would be the "final campaign of the crusaders", according to SITE's English-language transcript of an audio recording in Arabic.

"It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated," Adnani said, according to the recording, which urged followers to attack U.S., French, Canadian, Australian and other nationals.
I don't even have words.

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Daily Dose of Cute

A couple pix of the dogs having fun at our friend's lake house this weekend:

image of Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt and Dudley the Greyhound standing next to Iain's legs on the sandy beach
On the beach. Where Dudley enjoys the water, and Zelda not so much, lol.

image of Zelda sitting on the floor inside the lake house, grinning
Zelda's more of a cottage girl, rather than a beach girl.

image of Dudley sitting on the couch inside the lake house, grinning
Dudley can get on board. Where there's a couch, he's happy.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime



Gary Wright: "Dream Weaver"

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Emma Watson, who is a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, gave a speech at the UN asking men and boys to join the fight for gender equality. The transcript of her address is here.

Pope Francis said over the weekend: "Let no one consider themselves to be the 'armor' of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression! May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all, the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom!" His comments "appear to be an indirect reference to the actions of groups such as" ISIS and also appear to have been said without a trace of irony. For the record: The Catholic Church has not changed its position on reproductive rights, gay rights, or trans* rights.

[CN: Gun violence; racism] In February, a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on the first-degree murder charge in the trial of Michael Dunn for killing unarmed black teenager Jordan Davis. A new trial begins this week. Let us fervently hope for a better result this time.

[CN: Police militarization] "Wyoming's Goshen County Sheriff's Office wants you to know they have a grenade launcher." All right then.

[CN: Police killing; racism] Darrien Hunt, the 22-year-old black man who was killed by police in Utah while carrying a replica samurai-style sword may have been cosplaying. "Attention was swiftly drawn online to Hunt's remarkable resemblance as he walked around on the morning of 10 September to Mugen, a swordsman character in the short-lived Japanese anime series Samurai Champloo. The Comic Con convention had also taken place in Salt Lake City, about 35 miles to the north, the weekend before the shooting. Hunt's aunt, Cindy Moss, previously told the Guardian that a witness to the confrontation with police had told the family that Hunt 'had his earbuds in, and was kind of doing spins and stuff, like pretending he's a samurai.'" Everything about this case is so fucking awful, but the possibility that he was cosplaying, just having fun in his own imagined fantasy world, when he was killed, is unbearable. Sob.

[CN: Misogyny; appropriation] Andrea Grimes: "Texas Republicans Attempt to Reach Women Voters by Appropriating Feminist Successes." Of course. OF COURSE.

This is hilarious: Alaska television reporter Charlo Greene "reported on the Alaska Cannabis Club during KTVA-TV's Sunday night broadcast but did not disclose her connection to the business until a live shot at the end of the packaged report. Then she surprised viewers and her colleagues by quitting in dramatic fashion, reported the Alaska Dispatch News. 'Now everything you've heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska,' Greene said. 'And as for this job, well—not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit.' Then she walked off camera as her stunned anchor apologized to viewers." LOL!

And finally! Tiny kitten and giant hand! Squeeeeeee.

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Today in Rape Apologia

[Content Note: Rape apologia; disablist language.]

I know it's early, but this is a strong contender [DoNotLink] for the worst thing you're going to read all day.

Actual Headline: "The Rape Epidemic Is a Fiction." Welp!

Kevin D. Williamson's case primarily rests in the discrepancies that have been found in the number of women who report sexual assault depending on how the questions are asked.

This is not unusual in surveys attempting to establish incidents of sexual assault, whether one is asking victims or perpetrators. For example: Perpetrators who will answer yes to a question like "Have you ever had sex with an unconscious partner?" will, even in the same survey, answer no to the question "Have you ever raped someone?"

This also speaks to the concern Williamson raises here:

It is probably the case that the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses is wildly exaggerated—not necessarily in absolute terms, but relative to the rate of sexual assault among college-aged women with similar demographic characteristics who are not attending institutions of higher learning. The DoJ hints at this in its criticism of survey questions, some of which define "sexual assault" so loosely as to include actions that "are not criminal." This might explain why so many women who answer survey questions in a way consistent with their being counted victims of sexual assault frequently display such a blasé attitude toward the events in question and so rarely report them. As the DoJ study puts it: "The most commonly reported response — offered by more than half the students — was that they did not think the incident was serious enough to report. More than 35 percent said they did not report the incident because they were unclear as to whether a crime was committed or that harm was intended."

If you are having a little trouble getting your head around a definition of "sexual assault" so liberal that it includes everything from forcible rape at gunpoint to acts that not only fail to constitute crimes under the law but leave the victims "unclear as to whether harm was intended," then you are, unlike much of our culture, still sane.
Sanity has nothing to do with it. Understanding that much of our culture has no idea—by design—about what constitutes sexual assault, or meaningful consent, is crucial.

That women are failing to report incidents of sexual assault not on the basis of their lack of consent, but on their assumptions about whether their assaulter intended to harm them, should be of grievous concern. It's not evidence of feminism gone wild; it's evidence of a cultural diminishment of women's agency so profound that women allow their rapists' presumed intent to define whether they were raped.

For that reason, women who may answer yes to a question like "Has anyone ever had sex with you while you were unconscious?" might also, even in the same survey, answer no to the question "Have you ever been raped?"

The horrible truth is that many women have a "blasé attitude toward the events in question and so rarely report them" because we are groomed by our culture to be compliant victims: Sexually objectified, denied agency, not empowered with the right of consent, entrained to be shamed by sexual exploitation, and experiencing sexual assault as so ubiquitous as to be utterly normalized and a routine part of womanhood.

The most objectionable part of Williamson's piece is not, however, that he is wrong about the most basic facts of his premise. It is that he accuses feminists of inventing this fiction as a political gambit:
The fictitious rape epidemic is necessary to support the fiction of "rape culture," by which feminists mean anything other than an actual rape culture, for example the culture of the Pakistani immigrant community in Rotherham in the United Kingdom. "Rape culture" simply means speech or thought that feminists disapprove of and wish to suppress... Feminism is about political power, and not the Susan B. Anthony ("positively voted the Republican ticket — straight") full-citizenship model of political power but rather one dominated by a very small band of narrow ideologues still operating under the daft influence of such theorists as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, each of whom in her way equated political opposition to feminism with rape.
I have not written, to date, the majority of the 710 entries in our Rape Culture archive (after starting to use labels only in '09), as a political game.

I care about people who are harmed. I remember them and carry them with me. I ache from knowing that I will be writing about victims of sexual violence for as long as I do this work.

This is not a goddamned game. Not to me.

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Two Americas

[Content Note: Class warfare; bootstraps rhetoric.]

Or what feels, truly, like two different planets, sometimes. The planet on which people live who understand the reality of being unemployed in the US, and the planet on which Republicans live. Paul Krugman:

Last week John Boehner, the speaker of the House, explained to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute what's holding back employment in America: laziness. People, he said, have "this idea" that "I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this. I think I'd rather just sit around." Holy 47 percent, Batman!

It's hardly the first time a prominent conservative has said something along these lines. Ever since a financial crisis plunged us into recession it has been a nonstop refrain on the right that the unemployed aren't trying hard enough, that they are taking it easy thanks to generous unemployment benefits, which are constantly characterized as "paying people not to work." And the urge to blame the victims of a depressed economy has proved impervious to logic and evidence.

But it's still amazing — and revealing — to hear this line being repeated now. For the blame-the-victim crowd has gotten everything it wanted: Benefits, especially for the long-term unemployed, have been slashed or eliminated.

...I don't know how many people realize just how successful the campaign against any kind of relief for those who can't find jobs has been. But it's a striking picture. ...[E]xtended benefits for the long-term unemployed have been eliminated — and in some states the duration of benefits has been slashed even further.

The result is that most of the unemployed have been cut off. Only 26 percent of jobless Americans are receiving any kind of unemployment benefit, the lowest level in many decades. The total value of unemployment benefits is less than 0.25 percent of G.D.P., half what it was in 2003, when the unemployment rate was roughly the same as it is now. It's not hyperbole to say that America has abandoned its out-of-work citizens.
I strongly recommend reading the whole thing.

The people who constantly bray this fairy tale of lazy moochers who cruise through life on government benefits are so out of touch with multiple realities—how difficult it is to secure long-term payments (e.g. disability); how difficult it is to live on government welfare; how many people who desperately need welfare aren't getting it because they don't qualify; how many people are desperate for work they can do; how many places in the US simply don't have enough jobs with livable wages to support the community anymore—that their ignorance, willful or otherwise, would be laughable if it weren't so unfathomably harmful.

And then there is this: Poverty is extremely difficult. It is stressful, demoralizing, exhausting. Poverty is not for lazy people. No one is getting rich, or even living a carefree life, on the paltry sums that constitute government benefits in the US.

The only lazy people in this discussion are the ones who repeat ad nauseam the reprehensible lie that unemployed people are shiftless takers, because that's a hell of a lot easier than just admitting their theory that making life difficult for unemployed people will force them to "get a job" is rank garbage.

Like the rest of their fantastical contentions underwriting their contemptible policies.

[Related Reading: $10.10.]

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Open Thread

image of the dog breeds in the terrier group

Hosted by terriers.

("Not a comprehensive list!"—Rory the Rat Terrier.

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Open Thread

image of a solved puzzle on Wheel of Fortune in the category 'Really Long Title'

Hosted by Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by the letter S.

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