Temporary homeless in U.S. face tough choices. Right now, there's not a single housing market in the United States in which a one-bedroom apartment is affordable on the federal minimum wage. How many temporary homeless people do you think are able to get jobs paying significantly more than the minimum wage?
A more accurate headline would be "Temporary homeless in US face left with no choices at all."
Your Kickass Economy at Work
Crikey
So, apparently, a popular Halloween costume this year is Steve Irwin, otherwise known as The Crocodile Hunter. Of course, the point isn’t to go as Irwin the man, but Irwin the victim of a tragic death. Here, Bill Maher demonstrates the idea at a Halloween party (via):
You know, I’ve got a pretty gallows sense of humor, but this is just ridiculously rude. I’ve seen people at Halloween parties who were supposed to be JFK, made up to look like they had holes blown in their heads, and I found that distasteful, too. It’s one thing to dress up as a nonspecific victim of some type of violent death (“guy with knife sticking out of head”), but when you start mocking the deaths of real people, who lived real lives that meant something, and died tragically—for real—it just seems to contribute to a sense of human disposability. Maybe I’m just the oversensitive prude here, but there’s got to be some middle ground in between the “All life is precious” bullshit spewed by the anti-choice and anti-science brigade and the “Fuck you—nothing’s off-limits” attitude affected by costumes like the one pictured above. There are too many places on this planet where life really is disposable, which is why dressing up like a starving Sudanese man or a mangled dead Chinese baby girl aren't funny costumes.
I’m all for irreverence, but that picture just makes me sad.
'My ideal woman is a man. Sorry, mother.'
They Call Me Naughty Lola is a new book collecting the most “witty and eccentric lonely hearts ads from the London Review of Books… It features some of the most brilliant and often absurd ads from what's been billed as the world's funniest—and most erudite—lonely-hearts column.”
At the link are some examples from the book. My favorite, aside from the one serving as the title of this post, is: “'Bald, short, fat and ugly male, 53, seeks short-sighted woman with tremendous sexual appetite.” Ha.
I’ve never actually placed a personal ad, although Mr. Shakes and I met online (just not at a dating site), and I was always impressed that he was willing to chat up a girl whose handle was “sarcasticunt.”
And Then What?
Ditto LeMew (still the smartest French kitten in all the land). I, too, don’t understand how, exactly, Democrats should "reach out to disaffected evangelicals,” beyond what they’re already doing, including, not least of which, being an almost exclusively Christian party. If evangelicals still aren’t willing to get on board with the Democrats at this point, it’s either because they’re still held in the thrall of a spin machine that turns grand fictions like “liberals want to criminalize Christmas” into conventional wisdom, a situation over which Democrats have very little control, or because they don’t care for the particular brand of Christianity practiced by most Democrats, which isn’t something the Democrats can do much to change, either. Are they supposed to visit the home of every disaffected evangelical and reeducate them on the fundamentals of Christianity? “See here, Jim—Christians are actually meant to give a shit about the poor!”
At some point, people like Amy Sullivan are just going to have to face the fact that there are a lot of evangelicals who are fucked off with the Republican Party because they’re not conservatively Christian enough—and there’s no way in hell the Democrats are going to appeal to those people who are constantly whinging about the marginalization of Christians. And why should they try? Those people are barking lunatics.
We’ve got a Christian president with an almost unanimously Christian administration who relentlessly pander to conservative Christians, including nominating three openly Christian justices to the Supreme Court (two of whom made it to the bench), an almost entirely Christian Congress who start each session with a prayer, guaranteed freedom of religion, money that says “In God We Trust,” a pledge of allegiance that describes us as “one nation under God,” television networks who will accept advertising from conservative religious groups but not liberal political groups, schools who are incorporating a religious belief into science classes, gays being denied marriage in order to protect its “sanctity,” conscience clauses for pharmacists and healthcare providers, religion-based residential communities being built, Museums of Creationism springing up, laws still on the books that respect Christians’ holy day (like in Indiana, where you still can’t shop for a car or buy booze on a Sunday), churches not required to pay taxes, Christmas recognized as a national holiday, and on…and on…and on. Anyone who looks at the American landscape and sees a problem for Christians is delusional.
Meanwhile, you couldn’t get elected to national office as an atheist or pagan, but I don’t see any hand-wringing about how the Democrats (or Republicans) need to reach out to them—probably because atheists and pagans don’t give a shit what box you check on a form as long you share their policy views. Neither, as it happens, does any Christian (or Jew, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or Hindu, or Sikh, or agnostic, or Pastafarian) who doesn’t want to legislate their religious beliefs.
I don't give a good shit about someone who needs pathetic demonstrations that the people for whom they’re voting are sufficiently religious. If you don’t believe that someone who doesn’t subscribe to an approved denomination can be moral, and do believe that someone who simply assures you he’s a Christian, even if he doesn’t act like it, must be moral, then you’re a fucking idiot, and the last thing we need in this country is another party who contorts itself into an unrecognizable shape to placate the obstinately idiotic.
Calling All Allies
Another horrible story about horrible parents:
Lisa Holland cried quietly as jurors found her guilty of first-degree felony murder and child abuse in the death last year of her adopted son Ricky. … Prosecutors said Holland struck the boy in the head [with a hammer] and then neglected to seek help as he slowly died of his injury.Once the 7-year-old had died, the father dumped his body in a game area, and the parents reported the boy missing. After a massive search, the father eventually confessed and led authorities to the body. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against his wife, who has now been found guilty of first-degree felony murder and child abuse.
What I find particularly horrifying about this story is that the father came home from military training a week before the boy died to find him “with a cut on his head, listless and unable to walk.” During that week, the mother, who had inflicted the injury, didn’t take him for help, but neither did the father. And his reason is just astounding:
He said he didn't take him to a doctor because he didn't want a confrontation with his wife and thought his son would get better.Protecting his masculinity was more important than protecting his son.
"I didn't want her to start pushing me around in front of the kids," Tim Holland said.
This goes back to a lot of stuff we’ve been talking about lately regarding redefining manhood, and highlights, so tragically, the pitfalls of a traditional model which defines the masculine in opposition to (and superiority over) the feminine. It wasn’t as important to this man to be good or ethical as it was to be dominant. He didn’t want to get “pushed around” by a woman in front of his children, and, though the cost of such appearance of strength was the death of his child, it was a price he was willing to pay.
Certainly, this is an extreme example, but the sacrifice of honor and decency to protect a dignity which originates from a subjugating and oppositional definition of manhood is not rare. At rape trials, male witnesses have said they didn’t step in to help a female victim because they were afraid of what the male rapists would think of them. At gay bashing trials, straight male witnesses have said they didn’t step in to help a gay male victim because they were afraid of being marginalized as queer themselves. So powerful is the urge to protect against the possibility of humiliation, of having one’s manhood undermined, that it can supercede even the associated corollary of traditional manhood that a man’s role is to protect women and children. In the true story of a gang rape, The Accused, men cheer each other on as they take turns raping a female victim in a bar, in full view of other men who do nothing to stop it—and they egg on a hesitant young man to participate, by questioning his manhood.
That we are still seeing such assertions of masculinity playing out with devastating consequences further underlines the need for a progressive men’s movement to begin redefining what it means to be a man, without rooting that definition in oppression of and opposition to The Other. It needs to be men who take up this cause in the form of a vibrant and organized movement, because, as evidenced by this case, misogynist men not only don’t want to listen to women; they actually find it emasculating, prompting an ugly backlash. They’re not going to learn anything from women, and certainly not feminist women. I understand the need, as suggested several times recently, for men to feel as though they can protect women (and children), and the best way to do that is to become our allies.
Random Annoyances
(Forgive my recent absence... I've been attending a conference for work and was away from the computer)
It's a beautiful day in Chicago today... 68 degrees and sunny, and yet, I'm irritable. Partially because my allergies have gone completely berserk, but also because I keep running into little things that are very annoying. For example:
Billboard seen off the Kennedy expressway yesterday:
Don't get it? Read it out loud.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering the venue, but jeez...
Speaking of objectifying women, why not start them out early with the Drama Queen Major Flirt Costume? It's in the top five, after all... and don't forget to slather on the makeup and lipstick.
Creepy.
Britain Hires Al Gore
“Unchecked global warming will devastate the global economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression, according to a major British report released Monday that seeks to quantify the costs and benefits of action as well as inaction. British Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report and who could very well become Britain's next prime minister when Tony Blair steps down next year, said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who has dedicated himself to warning about global warming, would advise the British government on climate change.”
Remember when we hired Gore?
Good thing the British don’t have the US Supreme Court to step in and get all Donald “You’re Fired!” Trump on their decision.
We're, uh, number one
St. Louisans flush with pride over their baseball team and its world championship have a more dubious distinction to their account today, one that probably doesn't warrant a parade down Market Street. The Gateway City tops the nation in crime, and here, as in baseball, we...uh, beat Detroit:
St. Louis named most dangerous U.S. cityA surge in violence made St. Louis the most dangerous city in the country, leading a trend of violent crimes rising much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to an annual list.
The city has long fared poorly in the rankings of the safest and most dangerous American cities compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent in St. Louis from 2004 to last year, when the rate of such crimes rose most dramatically in the Midwest, according to FBI figures released in June.
"It's just sad the way this city is," resident Sam Dawson said. "On the news you hear killings, someone's been shot."
The ranking, being released Monday, came as the city was still celebrating Friday's World Series victory at the new Busch Stadium. St. Louis has been spending millions of dollars on urban renewal even as the crime rate climbs.
Mayor Francis Slay did not return calls to his office seeking comment Sunday.
You bet your ass Slay didn't return any calls. He was probably too busy cheering Scott Spezio. Look for City Hall and the police department to issue strenuous objections to Morgan Quitno's methodology - the weighting of particular crimes measured, not including St. Louis County in the metro roundup, and so forth. That's been our standard response in the past. But it's an ill wind indeed that doesn't blow somebody some good news:
The bad news for St. Louis was good for Camden, New Jersey, which in 2005 was named the most dangerous city for the second year in a row.Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said Sunday she was thrilled to learn that her city no longer topped the most-dangerous list.
"You made my day!" said Faison, who has served since 2000. "There's a new hope and a new spirit."
Camden will doubtless throw its own parade shortly.
(Cross-posted from inside the panic room...)
Culture of Life
Let’s file this under faith-based conservation: If God really loved these animals and plants, he wouldn’t let them get all endangered and shit.
A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show.Awesome. To put this contempt for protecting Endangered Species into perspective, under the Bush administration, only 56 species have been listed as endangered—less than 10 a year. Under Clinton, 512 species, just over 60 a year, were listed, and under Daddy Bush, 234, just under 60 a year, were listed.
In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species.
…In several instances, MacDonald wrote sarcastic comments in the margins of the documents, questioning why scientists were portraying a species' condition as so bleak. When scientists raised the possibility that a proposed road might degrade the greater sage grouse's habitat, which is scattered through 11 Western states, MacDonald wrote: "Has nothing to do with sage grouse. This belongs in a treatise on 'Why roads are bad'?"
So we can add wildlife to the very long list of things that Bush Conservatives aren’t really interested in conserving.
Super Duper
Supposedly, Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) plans to announce today that he's considering a 2008 presidential run.
Hunter, a 13-term incumbent who represents the San Diego suburbs, is a strong conservative who's focused on supporting the military, particularly the country's troops, and on stopping illegal immigration. He's a stubborn advocate for those causes, pushing for completion of the western portion of a U.S.-Mexico border fence over objections from Democrats and environmentalists.Not only would Duncan Hunter make a fantabulous president, his presidency would have the added novelty of its officeholder’s name being a homonym for his policy against uppity feminazi enemy combatants like me.
America 2.0: The Military State
Not good:
Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."Read the whole thing.
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."
Ask a Stupid Question...
Here’s a question I’m so tired of hearing that each time a war supporter now utters it, I feel as though I may slip into a coma at any moment: “Do you want us to win in Iraq?”
In the past couple of days, Lynne Cheney has directed this question at Wolf Blitzer and Bill O’Reilly has directed it at David Letterman, two good little soldiers who have in their debate arsenals nothing but rejoinders issued straight from GOP Talking Points Headquarters. Any attempt to point out the question is ludicrous on its face is met with some variation on what O’Reilly lobbed back at Letterman: “It’s an easy question.” To his credit, Letterman didn’t back down, but instead replied, “It's not easy for me because I'm thoughtful.”
Amen, brother.
I despair that patriotism and pragmatism have become mutually exclusive. Before that “easy” question can be answered by anyone with two brain cells still knocking together, a few other question have to be answered, like What is the definition of winning? and Can we win it? and If so, how are we going to? You know, the kind of questions that certain people resistant to the hypnotic combination of flag-waving and fear-mongering were asking before the war, people who were dismissed as unpatriotic cuckoos. To continue to question whether a person with legitimate questions and concerns wants to win is to obfuscate the frustrating reality that those other questions still have not been answered, three years on.
The implication has been, since before we ever marched into Iraq, that people with “hard” questions never wanted us to win, and still don’t. But speaking as someone who has never viewed “Do you want us to win in Iraq?” a fair question under these circumstances, wanting us to win was never as important to me to understanding whether we could. I have never suffered from the misapprehension that my will and desire to win could magically overcome a lack of competence and ability to win. I never felt able to root for an illusion.
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
People were paying attention to the wrong fairy tale
Cardinal Nation hopes ESPN's Keith Law can get over the heartbreaking Redbird victory
It's no fun being the ogre in someone else's fairy tale. The St. Louis Cardinals did that in 2004 - losing to the Red Sox in four straight and having to watch Boston clinch in the middle of the old Busch Stadium.
This year - with another darling of destiny, the universally-favored Tigers, awaiting them - the Cardinals said something along the lines of "Screw that." It was entirely improbable, but not impossible...because, as FOX Sports kept telling us, you really can't script October.
The new Busch Stadium has been officially christened. There's your fairy tale ending.
And hey - it finally stopped raining in Mudville. Just in time for the parade.
(Cross-posted.)
Today is a Good Day
Today is a good day because it one of those beautiful, crisp, sunny autumn days where the breeze coming in the window is cool and smells of burning leaves on distant lawns. And it's a good day because I'm going to be spending time this evening with one Mr. Paul the Spud, whose charm and wit and profound decency, as evidenced within the pages of this blog, make richer the lives of everyone who knows him. And it's a good day because today I got tickets to see Morrissey at the Aragon Ballroom, which is not only one of my favorite venues in the city, but also the very first place I ever saw him perform.
We'll be together again soon, darling.
You may not realize that this makes it a good day for you, too. But it does. Because had I not gotten these tickets, there would have been hell to pay across the land. I would have sent plagues of locusts. I would have turned rivers into blood. I would have killed the firstborn of every family in America—except my parents', which would have meant suicide. Although, if I hadn't gotten tickets, that may have been in the cards, too.
Okay, maybe not. But I would have been really fucked off.
All devastation has, however, been averted. And my record of having not missed a single Morrissey show in Chicago for 15 years remains unbroken.
Letterman vs. O'Reilly
Crooks and Liars has the video.
What I love about this is that O'Reilly seems to think that he has something to tell Letterman about global politics because he's the host of a political talk show and Letterman's only the host of a variety show. The difference between them is not the content of their shows, but that Letterman knows he's only an entertainer and O'Reilly likes to pretend he isn't.
Menny the Menace
Love this post from Jennifer. I imagine parents especially will like it, but those of us who refuse to grow up will appreciate it, too.
Saved
Or In Which I Barely Manage to Stop Myself from Ruining Gospel Hour and Humiliating My Parents
Last night, Mr. Shakes and I did something best described as outside our typical social activities—we went to a gospel concert.
The reason we attended is because we love my mother, who is a member of what was the concert’s opening act, a local trio of three ladies who have been singing together at church for nearly 30 years. Mama Shakes is the soprano. And they were very good. They always are.
The 4th Annual Gospel Singing Celebration was held in the small auditorium of the high school and began at seven o’clock. Mr. Shakes and I arrived early, and exchanged our tickets for a program, introducing the acts and filled with local sponsors. The two-page center spread had been bought by the local GOP, whose candidates for the upcoming election were pictured and named, centered around a flag, the ubiquitous elephant logo, and, in large block lettering, “The Republican Lineup: When Family and Values Matter.”
Did I mention I really love my mom?
The show started promptly as the emcee, a gospel minister from Nashville, came out onstage. He began with a curious opening, telling the audience, approximately, “Don’t make fun of my voice now. It’s been this way all my life, and I’ve been called ma’am over the phone more times than I care to count.” The audience laughed. Mr. Shakes and I looked at each other. What was he talking about? His voice wasn’t particularly high. I listened to him speak a bit more. Ah—I get it. It’s not that his voice is high; it’s that it’s effeminate. Apparently, this is something that needs comment in front of a gospel crowd, lest anyone whisper that he “talks like a fag.”
He then introduced my mom’s group, and proceeded to forget my mom’s name. Idiot.
After her trio performed, Mr. Shakes and I considered sneaking out, like we usually do, rather than stay for the other acts—traveling groups also from Nashville. But we were seated close to the front, since I’d been positioned to take photos while Mama Shakes was onstage, so we decided to stay. My mom joined us and sat in front of me; I ran my fingers through her hair and lightly dragged my fingernails across her scalp, which she loves and relaxes her.
The emcee came back out onstage, and bantered while they took up a collection. He started talking about his wife, and then said, managing to be both snide and jovially smug, in the manner of the ingratiatingly self-righteous who assume the accord of their listeners, “We got married a long time ago, back before you had to tell people that marriage is between a man and a woman. Did you ever think you’d see the day?!”
I literally had to clench my fists and grind my teeth, putting every nerve in my body on full alert, to keep myself from acting on my immediate impulse, which was to scream “BIGOT!!!” at the top of my fucking lungs. Instead, I tersely said, “Right, that’s it. Time for us to go.” I kissed my mom, who understood, goodbye, and Mr. Shakes and I left—to the sounds of the audience laughing and applauding the emcee’s routine, which had segued into jokes about women commandeering the remote.
On the way home, Mr. Shakes and I fumed. Didn’t anyone ever mention to this guy that not everyone, not even all Christians, share his views on gay marriage? Peculiar public relations strategy. With evangelicals on the back foot trying to convince the country they’re not bigots, perhaps a good first step is to, you know, not be bigots. A perplexing outreach plan, as well; I imagine the organizers of a gospel concert don’t hope they’ll send people off feeling ill will.
But, then again, in that auditorium full of people who believe that you’re supposed to love everyone and treat them equally, it was only the godless duo from Shakes Manor who stood up and walked out as discrimination was celebrated.
