Matttbastard has a good round-up of the latest news, including some suggestions about where donations can go: "Even though aid flights have been (hopefully only temporarily) suspended, you can still make a secure donation to the World Food Programme's Myanmar relief fund here. Donations can also be made to Red Cross/Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF's fund for the immediate and long-term response to children in Myanmar."
Go read the whole thing.
Myanmar Death Toll Reaches 70,000; Still Climbing
Quote of the Day
I was waiting for the universe to dispense some justice, but sometimes the universe is just too damn slow. The effects of putting Nair in someone's styling gel, however, only take a few minutes. - Murphy Brown
Friday Blogaround
BLOG! in the name of love, before you break my heart.
Recommended Reading:
Christina: The Personal Is Political
Erica: Women in Politics: The Same As It Ever Was
Evil Bender: Announcing the Winner of the 2nd Phyllis Schlafly Award
Jack: Sign Away Your Soul
Zuska: Read This Comment!
Leave your links in comments.
Republican Pride
The current minority party residents in the House continue to set the bar to a whole new level as they revel in their unequivocal mastery of asshattery:
On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.Just wait - it gets even more ridiculous. From the actual transcript, we get further information as to why Rep. Tiahrt wanted to reconsider the vote:
"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded vote because I’m sure every member wants their mother to know that they have supported the goals of Mother’s Day.And yet, this very person who requested to be on record in support of Mother's Day actually went on record to not support it.
KansasYes, ladies and gentlemen, the "party of morals" in all its glory and stupidity, the party that apparently holds Christmas and the Christian faith in higher regard than their own mothers.
Nay KS-1 Moran, Jerry [R]
Aye KS-2 Boyda, Nancy [D]
Aye KS-3 Moore, Dennis [D]
Nay KS-4 Tiahrt, Todd [R]
The party that only a mother could love.
[H/T to ThinkProgress]
Caption This Photo
It was ultimately not Rusty's insistence on wearing a jaunty neckscarf, but Keith's refusal to adhere to the agreed-upon monochromatic theme, that broke up the Marty Mullens Quartet in the summer of '73.
McCain Scoffs at the Notion He's Got Anger Issues; Publicly Poops on Baby for Spite
McCain jokes about reputation for temper:
Republican John McCain pretended to snarl when asked about his temper Wednesday.What a cut-up!
"How dare you ask that question!" McCain said, chuckling.
McCain, whose temper has earned him the nickname "Senator Hothead" by more than one publication, said he does get angry — about corruption and runaway spending in Washington. "You know something, the American people are angry, too, and they're not going to take it anymore," he said.Too true. That's the best endorsement I've heard for the Democratic nominee yet!
McCain then reminded reporters once again that they should dutifully print that he is not angry, before storming off to a quick baby seal clubbing session at the Angry Old White Gentlemen's Club.
John McCain: At least he never punched anyone.
[Tip o' the hap to Shaker Limes for the headline.]
I Write Letters
[Sexual assault trigger warning.]
Dear AP and Yahoo News:
I'm not sure which one of you two fine bastions of journalistic excellence came up with the extraordinary headline 'Best Santa ever' arrested in N.J. on child sex charges...
...for a story about Wayne Nelson Corliss, a "small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as 'the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen'," at least until his appearance "in dozens of raw child porn images" led to his arrest for raping three boys in Thailand, aged 6 to 10, but there is no such thing as "child sex." Please make a note.
There is also, for the record, no such thing as "sex charges," if the construction for which you were shooting was not child sex...charges, but child...sex charges. I understand that "sex charges" is a favorite of journamalisimos everywhere, given its lurid draw, but criminal acts related to sex are typically, with exceptions like prostitution, not about the consensual act of sex, but non-consensual acts like rape, harassment, and non-penetrative assaults such as exposure. The correct terminology in this case is "child rape charges." Please make a note.
Also, the grotesque Corliss did not "ha[ve] sex with three boys," but rape three boys. Please make a note.
Further, Corliss having waxed nostalgic about the "euphoric" experience of raping three children in Thailand, along with telling authorities one of the pairs of boys' underpants found in his apartment was "a souvenir" from his rapecation, there's really no goddamned need to politely suggest he "is believed to have sexually abused at least three boys," as opposed to stating he has reportedly confessed to sexually assaulting at least three boys. Please make a note.
Sincerely,
Melissa McEwan
cc. The entire rest of the world.
Wrong
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton was quoted citing an AP article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me." (To be clear, that's Clinton's quote, her categorization of the AP article.)
Now, I'm not particularly interested in discussing the veracity of the argument that white, working class voters' preference for Clinton makes her a stronger candidate—though, for whatever it's worth, I quite honestly believe that the vast majority of left-leaning voters are going to get behind whoever is the nominee, and the bigots who wouldn't support Obama solely because of his race are a wash with the bigots who wouldn't support Clinton solely because of her sex. That said, I know there are people who legitimately disagree, and fine, wev.
What I am keenly interested in is Clinton's having either intentionally or unintentionally equated "hard-working Americans" with "white Americans." Because, you know, on one hand, it's a cynical and ugly dog whistle to racists who equate brown-skinned people with laziness—and, on the other hand, it sounds exactly like a cynical and ugly dog whistle to racists who equate brown-skinned people with laziness. Even giving her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't intend to imply that non-white Americans aren't hard-working, the effect is the same.
And, since the best-case scenario is the one generally used to avoid apologies, I'm going with that only to show why she still needs to apologize, anyway.
Because that's where the whole "owning the context" thing comes into play. Let's revisit a statement about sexism and make it about racism:Let me quickly stipulate and clarify that one can unintentionally express
In that way, Clinton, by invoking whether intentionally or not the well-established slur against people of color that they are not as hard-working as whites, has transmitted the slur. Whether it was a gaffe, or a "misspeak," or whatthefuckev doesn't actually matter in terms of whether that pernicious falsity was perpetuated.sexism racism. That innocent intent, or ignorance of the history of how women people of color have been marginalized, does not, however, in any way change the quality of what was being expressed. Something can still be expressed sexism racism even if the speaker's intent was not to oppress women people of color. And particularly if it does fit neatly into a historical pattern, it necessarily conjures that pattern of sexism racism, intentionally or not.
So: Toss out the idea that intent determines sexism racism. And the idea that any of us, or any of the things we say or do, can exist in a void.
What we're then left with is the idea that if something fits into a historical pattern of sexism racism, unavoidably invokes such a pattern, and/or can be overtly quantified as marginalizing women people of color, it is an expression of sexism racism.
What she needs to do at this point is acknowledge it was problematic for that reason, irrespective of her intent, and apologize for it. Unequivocally. "I am sorry that I conflated hard-working and white. I don't believe that." And then she needs to be vigilant about not making the same mistake again, especially if she wants us to believe it was a mistake in the first place.
People of privilege are often resistant to apologize for something if they genuinely didn't mean it or can reasonably get away with arguing they didn't mean it. But an apology after a blunder is not about the intent; it's about the result. It's about making amends for the transmission of marginalizing language (or behavior, etc.) and acknowledging its indecency.
"I didn't mean it" isn't an excuse for not having to apologize. When I step on someone's foot unintentionally, I still say "I'm sorry."
So should Clinton.
Question of the Day
As you may have noticed, I had a birthday recently, so questions from the husband and family eventually came around to stuff. "What do you want for your birthday?" they ask. Apparently, they've all decided (against my protestations) that I own enough tiki mugs, therefore my requests for everything that Tiki Farm makes have been ignored. Ignored, I say!
It is a difficult question, though. What do I want for my birthday? I don't necessarily need anything right now, and we've been trying to relieve the clutter in our home, so more stuff isn't really necessary. Finally, it hit me; I have an antique pocket watch that belonged to my grandfather. Unfortunately, something is wrong with the works, and it no longer runs. Fixing the watch would be a great gift, yes?
According to the information I have found online,* it was manufactured sometime between 1877 and 1927. That kind of blew me away. I mean, if I got the watch fixed, I would want to use it, you know? And I'd probably be so terrified of something happening to it that I'd put it in a safe place, never using it, so fixing it seems a little weird at this point.
Anyway: What's the oldest thing you own?
*(I think if you squint you can see Benjamin H. Grumbles working on a winding mechanism somewhere in the back of that photo.)
Successful Tits
Give That Man a Medal
Josef Fritzl, the disgusting piece of human refuse who imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter for 24 years, whom the media have taken to calling, infuriatingly, "Incest Father," wants the world to know that he is not a monster. And in his defense, he offers the eminently reasonable argument that he can't be a monster, because, hey, he could have killed them and no one ever would have known! But he didn't, now, did he?
"I am not a monster," Austrian daily Oesterreich quoted Fritzl as saying in comments relayed by his lawyer Rudolf Mayer. Fritzl also criticized media coverage of his case as "totally one-sided."Gee, I never thought about it that way. He's practically a fucking hero.
…"I could have killed all of them -- then nothing would have happened. No one would have ever known about it."
[H/T Shaker Kathleen.]
From the Mailbag…
Remember Abortion Man, the Damon Wayans-created "superhero" about which Tigtog blogged (in a post to which I linked) last month? Rachel Faulk over at Giving by Design has found an extremely upsetting (and possibly triggering) example of life imitating art.
Shaker Scott sends this post from Nicole at C&L about the GOP using an incident of voter disenfranchisement in Indiana as, naturally, a pattern for how to do more of the same.
Incertus grabbed this screenshot of the Sun-Sentinel's equivalent to the "odd news" section, "Strange But True." Which one of these things doesn't belong?
Shaker Skywind forwards this article, "Tampa Man Had Consensual Sex With Minor, Police Say," that has the stunning intro, "A Tampa man had consensual sex with a 12-year-old girl several times in recent months, Tampa police say." The Tampa police say that, do they? Well, someone send the Tampa police a memo that there's no such thing as consensual sex with a 12-year-old. That's called rape.
In good news, Shaker Kathleen passes on video of the awesome story of sportsmanship (sportswomanship? sportspersonship?) that we discussed last Friday. Big. Time. Blub.
Fat Bottomed Girls
I just bloody love this Reuters article about findings that a "type of fat that accumulates around the hips and bottom may actually offer some protection against diabetes," headlined, I shit you not, "Scientists find something good about a big bottom." But the best part is not the article itself; it's the picture chosen to accompany the article:
Do you mean to tell me, with the miles of file footage of "headless fatties"—you know, the fat men and women whose bodies are paraded across the screen with every news story about Teh ZOMG Obesity Crisis, with their heads politely cut off to
I would weep from the bitter irony, if only I weren't so busy laughing my own fat ass right off.
[H/T to Shaker Batocchio, via email.]
"I don't know how to draw a boy."
Shaker Deborah forwards this article at NPR (and recommends, for Shakers who can listen to it, the audio, which has more details) about two sets of parents dealing with young sons who have been diagnosed as transgender. Both stories made me blub—for totally different reasons.
Suffice it to say, I would take the approach of Jona's parents.
Tangentially, Iain and I recently got on the subject of intersex children, and I said if we ever had a kid who was born with what's generally called sex-indeterminate genitalia, I would never go the traditional route of forcible sex/gender assignment by surgery, but just give the kid a gender-neutral name and let them decide who they want to be on their own. And Iain was immediately in agreement. "Fook the binary." (I so love him for that.)
I can't even imagine forcing a kid to take piano lessons against her or his will, no less forcing a kid to adhere to a gender or sex role against her or his will, or biology, or whatthefuckever. We're all handed a freak flag at birth; I'd be damned before I'd be the one to tell my own kid they couldn't fly theirs.
I know that's easy to say when you're not a parent, but there are some things you just know about yourself.
I would make a terrible parent in lots of ways; that ain't one of 'em.
We Got A Mighty Convoy
You all know my love of crazy douchnozzles and their followers. I've a special Fondness for Ron Paul supporters, with their wanktastic Libertarian ethos, penchant For Random capitalization and bizarro grass-roots Campaign tactics.
Paulbots are a special breed with a weird knack for overdoing things. Take this pair of signs, for example, a couple miles outside of town:
They must be a good ten or fifteen feet high, and promise that Ron Paul "Will Work For Freedom!" That may be true so long as you're not a woman and your idea of freedom means the ability to mint your own money or not pay taxes or maybe privatize the fire department.
But, hey, if you're not sure he'll really "work for freedom," check out the little graphic in the middle:
"No Lying Lips Here!" Well, that's a relief. I wasn't sure he's been telling the truth, but now I can rest easy. Nothing says credibility like day-glo spray paint and a hand-made sign hanging near the interstate.
Go, Paulbots, go! Keep rockin' through the night!
Is that a screwdriver in your trousers, or are you just happy to see me?
by Mama Shakes: Writer, composer, retired teacher, responsible party for What the Poop?, and mother to Liss.
It will probably come as a shock to no one that Liss comes from a long line of independent-minded women. Her maternal great-grandmother, grandmother, and I all worked outside the home during at least some of our married years, and all exercised strong and (for the most part) equal voices within the families. As I reflect on it, I'm a bit surprised to realize how egalitarian my parents' and grandparents' marriages were, at a time in which that was definitely not the norm.
One of the ways in which my mother and grandmother differed from their peers was that, if something needed to be done around the house—painting or minor repairs—they tackled it themselves.
This developed, as my mother explained, as a form of aggravation avoidance. My grandfather did things in a slap-dash manner that left more clean-up than it was worth. My dad didn't like household repairs, so he would procrastinate until my mother was ready to pull her hair out. Both women discovered it was easier in the long run to do things themselves. (On the flip side, when my mother went back to work, my dad discovered he really loved cooking and took over the shopping and cooking chores.)
I married a wonderful man with many gifts, but home repair is not his forte either. We always joke that Papa Shakes is not a swearing man…until he has a tool in his hand. Then the air quickly turns blue. I, on the other hand, really like tools. I like wandering the aisles of a hardware store almost as much as the aisles of a bookstore. (Almost!!) I like the smell and the look and the heft of new tools and weird gadgets.
I was thinking about all this because of a discussion Liss and I were having yesterday about overt, covert, intentional, unconscious and other forms of sexism. She said, "You know what it's like: you're at a car dealership and you ask a question, and the salesman directs his answer to Dad. It's infuriating."
I said I hadn't experienced that so much, but I had faced it several times at the hardware store. I would go in to buy something, and the salesperson would ask what my husband was trying to do. When I would say that I was doing the repair, often the question would be rephrased as if I hadn't even spoken. What type of hammer does your husband want?
"Just because I don't have the right type of 'plumbing,' I guess they figure I wouldn't know how to use a wrench," I complained, causing Liss to laugh and suggest I write a post.
Years ago, my friend Jacki and I decided that the next time we needed to go to the hardware store, we would first stop at the screwdriver display and slip one down the front of our jeans, so we could be seen by the staff as someone with a brain.
Ooops, did that sound sexist?
