Boys get to save the world, and girls get to stand there and say, I knew you could do it. How did they know he could do it? Maybe because they watched every other movie ever made?From Peter Sagal's Gender Inequity in 'Whoville' for NPR. Go read/listen to the whole thing.
Why? "[F]or making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco which was sponsored by an Air America affiliate station."
Those "inappropriate statements" would be repeatedly calling Hillary Clinton "a big fucking whore" as well as a "bitch."
I have some wacky notions about sex.
You know -- like . . . . The person who you are having sex should want to have sex with you.
Like . . . . . the whole time you're having sex.
Go ahead, call me crazy. I'm asking for a lot, I know.
Luckily, Australian MP Ann Bressington has got a solution for dealing with edgy sexual radicals such as myself:
In a response to proposed laws making it an offence to continue a sex act with a person who changes their mind about consent, Bressington suggested to Parliament that men should carry a sex contract to prevent being accused of rape. (emphasis mine)Some of you may remember that I've brought up this notion of enthusiastic consent before, after a commenter at Shakesville said:
. . . The proposed contract would also include details of the woman’s marital status, whether she has children and whether she consents to being taken to another location to engage in sexual activity.“Perhaps this parliament could devise a contract which men could carry around in their pocket, next to their condoms,” News.com.au quoted her, as saying during a speech to Parliament.
“There could be a waiver should a man meet up with a woman who has had a couple of drinks before they engage in sexual intercourse.
“The contract may contain the name and address of the women, with her driver’s license number, so that the man can see the signatures match, clauses that state that the woman has or has not been drinking or taking drugs licit or illicit and that she consents to foreplay,” she added.
"unless a woman is chanting "Yes' over and over for hours without interruption . . . . any woman can then claim withdrawal of consent.To which I replied:
"See, I've never really thought of it as a problem if my lover was chanting (or screaming) YES! YES! YES! "over and over for hours without interruption" during sex. ("Don't Stop!" and "Keep doing whatever it is you're doing!" also do not disturb me in the slightest.)"But seriously -- why is it that whenever legislation comes up that might ameliorate the appallingly low rate of rape convictions, the first thing we hear is "But what about false allegations?!?!?"
There were 272,350 sexual assaults (64,080 were completed rapes) reported in 2006, according to the DOJ National Crime Victimization Survey (these numbers do not include victims 12 years or younger).And in South Australia, the statistics are even worse:60% of rapes/sexual assaults not reported to the police.If a rape is reported, there is a 50.8% chance of an arrest.
If an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution
If there is a prosecution, there is a 58% chance of conviction
If there is a felony coviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will spend time in jail.
So, even in the 39% of attacks that are reported to the police, there is a 16.3% chance the rapist will end up in prison.
Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail -- 15 of 16 walk free.~ www.rainn.org
Reporting Rate, 2002: Estimated at best at 31.3% (at worst, 8.9%)Apparently, however, in the face of all this inconvenient "factiness", Bressington is worried about false allegations, rather than, you know . . . . . actually putting rapists in jail.
Reported rapes in 2002: 628
Resulting Convictions: 11
Conviction Rate: 1.75% [Source]
Mom lets 9-year-old take subway home alone:
[New York Sun columnist Lenore Skenazy] recently left her 9-year-old son, Izzy [who "had been nagging his mother for a long time to let him ride home alone"], at Bloomingdale's in midtown Manhattan with a Metrocard for the subway, a subway map, $20, and told him she'd see him when he got back home.Discuss. Also: How would reactions to this story differ if Skenazy's 9-year-old had been a daughter, instead of a son?
…"Half the people I've told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It's not. It's debilitating—for us and for them."
…"It's safe to go on the subway," Skenazy replied. [Recent federal statistics show New York to be one of the safest cities in the nation—right up there with Provo, Utah, in fact.] "It's safe to be a kid. It's safe to ride your bike on the streets. We're like brainwashed because of all the stories we hear that it isn't safe. But those are the exceptions. That's why they make it to the news. This is like, 'Boy boils egg.' He did something that any 9-year-old could do."
Part Wev in the ongoing series loosely known as The End is Nigh Watch.
President Mondo Fucko is keeping himself pretty busy these days, what with playing with giant bunnies and searching for unicorns on Mars and all, which leaves him very little time for the silly obligations of presidenting, like paying attention to the enormous economic clusterfucktastrophe bearing down on the nation like Sayid Jarrah with an axe to grind.
The New York Times reports Bush's awolery under the wry headline "In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage," which, given his contributions to said drama, is certainly an undisguised blessing. As ever, though, it is relentlessly infuriating how blithely unaffected Mr. Joyful Britches is by the whole thing: "The first hint that President Bush might be detached from the nation's economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline." The MBA president also continues to warn against "massive government intervention," even as his administration broke from their love affair with social Darwinism to bail out Bear Stearns, and his party scrambles alongside the Democrats in Congress "to produce a bill to help struggling homeowners." He is, to the end, steadfastly clueless.
Nonetheless, former Reagan chief of staff Kenneth M. Duberstein is exhorting Bush to "get back in the public conversation again" so people can talk about "What's George Bush thinking? What's George Bush going to do?" As if we give a flying shit. Meanwhile, White House Spokesjerk Tony Farto swears that Bush "is very much in touch with the economy. He is out in the country a lot. He is talking about the economy very, very regularly."
Of course, for Bush, that likely means telling a woman who works three jobs that it's "fantastic" and "uniquely American."
292 days.
A new movement on the west coast is underway to pay a more fitting tribute to Mr. Bush by renaming the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility to the "George Bush Sewage Plant."
The local grassroots movement, helmed by "Wayne Pickering," is proposing an ordinance initiative for the November 2008 San Francisco ballot in order to get the poop/pee/vomit plant's title changed. Why? To honor our current leader of the free world with an "appropriate and enduring legacy, for no other president in modern American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.Forget the library, people. This is memorial gold!
The Republican-dominated Florida House has voted through a bill to require an ultrasound before any abortion is performed. Meanwhile, they're still working on a bill that would define a fertilized egg as a person.
This is yet another reminder that the Republicans truly are the party of personal responsibility and freedom from government interference in the lives of the citizens...unless you're gay, poor, or a woman.
(Cross-posted.)
The press is already getting bored with their "Take Your Boobs and Go Home, Hillary" meme, and they've started to remember how fun it is to treat all Democratic candidates like total shit. So here we go: Obama Has Testy Exchange In Philadelphia.
[Part Ten in an ongoing series. Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine.]
Kudos to Jack Goff (via Erinberry) for catching another great one from Reuters News:
Ah, the wonders of the internets--this recipe comes from when I reconnected with someone I went to high school with. She writes: "I had a freezer bag full of chipotle chiles in adobo leftover from another recipe; I had two cans of chickpeas and a languishing lime. From these meager beginnings, I made perhaps one of the most addictive snacks ever to find its way out of my Cuisinart. This isn't really a hummous, more of a chickpea spread that doubles easily as a dip. I have a sick love for both chickpeas and spice, which could be easily construed as an addiction, and this stuff really feeds my need."
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email your recipes (and blog link, if you have one!) to me at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.comChipotle-Chickpea Spread
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2-4 canned chipotle peppers (depending on your preferred level of spice)
1 T. adobo sauce
Juice from 1/2 lime
Salt
3 T. olive oil
Low-fat yogurt, as needed
Combine chickpeas, chipotle, adobo, lime juice, and olive oil in a food processor. Process until pureed. Season with salt to taste, add yogurt or olive oil as needed to reach desired consistency. Allow flavors to meld in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.
The feisty maverick who brags about how he challenges the Beltway status quo and goes against the GOP grain when it's the right thing to do has taken a bold stance on his party's platform on abortion and gay rights: "Whatever you say, guys!"
Advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential bid say he will not try to "soften" the Republican party's platform on abortion and same-sex marriage to appeal to more voters.Yeah, why would anyone think that McCain might want to change the platform? I mean, sure, McCain once said that the GOP-sponsored Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex marriage was "antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans…[and] usurps from the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and imposes a federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts them," but that was back when being a maverick meant challenging Bush-Republican orthodoxy, not gently making sweet, sweet love to it in a sustained public peep show for all the conservatives who like watching war heroes fuck their integrity, but don't like thinking about boys kissing.
McCain associates told The Washington Times that his operatives are not going to work behind the scenes to eliminate the party's calls for constitutional bans on abortion and homosexual marriage before the GOP convention in September.
…[A McCain camp adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said], "Do you think we are crazy? Why would we want to change the platform?"
There's a new must-read article out in Vanity Fair, by Professor Phillippe Sands, which might very well blow the lid off of the administration's stance of passing the torture buck. Through quite a bit of research and interviewing, Sands is able to trace the administration's embrace of torture up to the most senior level advisers during their discussions of how to deal with prisoners at Guantanamo, some of which included "perfect" legal loopholes to completely ignore any and all aspects of the Geneva Conventions.
What particularly stood out for me was the following recollection from someone who attended interrogation brainstorming sessions at Guantanamo:
Sands reports that [Lt. Colonel Diane] Beaver, who was charged with writing a document providing legal authority for harsh interrogation, confirms new details of the crucial meeting that took place at Guantánamo, and she tells Sands she “kept minutes” at other brainstorming sessions in which new techniques were discussed. The younger men would get particularly excited, she says: “You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas.” Beaver also notes that ideas arose from other sources, such as the television show 24. Jack Bauer, the main character, had many friends at Guantánamo, says Beaver: “He gave people lots of ideas.” It was clear to Sands that Beaver believed that Washington was directly involved in the interrogations, and her account confirms what others tell Sands—that Washington’s views were being fed into the process by people physically present at Guantánamo.Another knee-slappingly proud moment in our nation's history, for sure. Given that Bush's folks have maintained the position all along of the buck stopping further down the chain, I dare say that this article could certainly throw war crimes firmly onto the table.
Whitty just sent me the link to a press release from my old friend Bill "Catholic League" Donohue, pouting that Leno apologized to Teh Gayz but won't apologize to him:
Jay Leno apologized yesterday for asking actor Ryan Phillippe to give his “gayest look” during a recent show. The actor was quite uncomfortable with Leno’s quip and the late-night host came under fire by gay rights groups for his remarks.Boo hoo! Can somebody explain to Mr. Donohue that being ethnically Jewish and being gay are intrinsic characteristics and being Catholic is a choice? That doesn't mean I support wanton Catholic-bashing, but it's really time to stop pretending that Catholicism is in the same class as being gay, Jewish, a woman, etc. One can stop being a Catholic if one decides to, which is not an insignificant difference.
Commenting today is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
“We have a fat file on Leno’s anti-Catholic comments, and with the lone exception of his phone call to me apologizing for his Catholic-bashing rant on February 7, 1997, we haven’t heard a word from him regarding our many complaints. Just last July we issued a news release calling him to task for bashing priests and the pope six times in five weeks. And he was at it again on February 18 of this year, leading me to ask the show’s executive producer Debbie Vickers the following question: ‘It is not likely that all of Leno’s writers are bigots, so could you please identify the person who is obsessed with bashing the Catholic Church?’
“…So what conclusion are we to draw? The same one we’ve drawn before: Gays and Jews are protected classes in Hollywood, but Catholics are not.
Normally, I don't watch Letterman any more than I watch Leno, but I was tuned in last night, because John McCain was going to be a guest. (He was, predictably, scarily unassuming and reasonable-sounding.) And the Top 10 list was about Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who became pregnant through artificial insemination when his wife was unable to conceive. Now, my reaction when I first read this story was: "Cool."
David Letterman's (and his ignorant writers') reaction was to call Beatie an "androgynous freak show."
