What's the frequency, Shakers?
Recommended Reading:
Rachel: In Response to Dangers of Domestic Violence Calls
Digby: Photo Finish
Cara: Rape as Weapon of War in Burma
Phil Barron: The GMA, looking out for you!
Lauredhel: Dismembered Summer Glau in Sarah Connor Chronicles Posters
Brownfemipower: Picking Strawberries
Dorothy Snarker: Tank Top Tuesday
Leave your links in comments.
Wednesday Blogaround
In Things I Keep Learning About Myself
That I've been a "vocal Hillary Clinton supporter" throughout this primary.
Also true: That I'm definitely going to vote for Obama. Oh, and that I'm definitely not going to vote for Obama.
I've been reading these things on the internetz today, including in comments threads at this blog. So they must be true.
Obama
Back in April, I posted this picture of the Obamas and noted: "Barack Obama would, if nominated and elected, be the first Illinois legislator to occupy the White House since Abraham Lincoln. That's some fucking bookends right there."
He's now the presumptive Democratic nominee. The first ever person of color in his position in the history of this nation, which, upon its founding, would not have acknowledged his freedom, his citizenship, or his very personhood.
And now he stands in a position where he is very likely to be this nation's next president.
Following on the heels (I originally mistyped that "hells," which is scarily accurate) of George W. Bush, the importance of the color of Barack Obama's skin, and everything that means in terms of shaping the soul and intellect that inhabits it, is all the more starkly drawn. The Bush administration has been homophobic, trying to codify LGBTQ second-class citizenship into the constitution, misogynist, attacking the bodily autonomy of women of every color, and racist, repeatedly invoking the stawman of "brown people" who don't want democracy and waging an immigration war that is both obliquely and overtly hostile to Latin@s.
And they have been catastrophically incompetent in every endeavor. Criminally incompetent. Fatally incompetent.
And the lingering images of this incompetence disproportionately include people of color.
Images from the victims of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are strewn with brown-skinned bodies. Images of our soldiers who have died in these wars include many faces of color—including Latin@s promised citizenship in exchange for going to war and Pfc. LaVena Johnson whose mysterious death still has not been fully investigated. And images from Katrina's aftermath—from NOLA's Lower 9th Ward, from the convention center, from the Superdome, from rooftops—the people in these images, the bodies floating in the water, were mostly black.
They didn't look like George Bush. They looked like Barack Obama.
That matters.
In a big fucking way.
Not just to people of color who are vulnerable, who were targeted or abandoned by the Bush administration, but to all people of color, the daughters and sons of wealth who are told they can be anything they want but have known it's not quite true. It matters to them. And it matters to white racists (though they don't know it yet, or care), and it matters to white allies of people of color, all of whom need and want to see a person of color leading this diverse nation at long last.
It matters to me.
I am awed and excited and moved to witness this history-making moment.
Senator Barack Obama, from the Land of Lincoln.
That's some fucking bookends right there.
I Write Letters
Dear Asshole Obama Supporters* Who Invaded the For the Record Thread:
That you can't allow one. fucking. post. to exist where feminists can mourn the misogyny that has gone on during this primary—a post in which, by the way, I said fuck all about Obama, except to refer to the "the breathtakingly awesome celebration of the first ever presumptive nominee of color, ZOMG"—without striding in like bullies, beating your chests, berating women, and generally acting like lousy shitheads, without a trace of fucking irony, and kept on even after I politely noted it was neither the time nor the place, is just gobsmackingly rude behavior.
And, beyond that, it's not even good for the candidate you purport to support so voraciously that you can't stop yourselves.
Who is now the presumptive Democratic candidate, which means that anyone who doesn't want to see McCain in the White House—which probably includes everyone at this blog, including those who won't personally vote for Obama—have all got an interest in what's good for him.
And, unless I'm mistaken, the foundation of Obama's candidacy is that he is a harbinger of hope and change who can bridge that which divides us.
So maybe you'd like to try not undermining the rationale for his candidacy by fastidiously pouring lemon juice into open wounds wherever you see them. See, if he's trying to sell himself to the general public as a uniter, and many of his most vocal supporters are going around behaving like juvenile thugs, that's not going to help him.
It hasn't been helping him for awhile, but it's really not going to help him now that the national media is going to fix on him like a starving dog on its dinner. And they just went from being on Obama's side to destroy Clinton, to being on their golden boy McCain's side, to destroy Obama. Any crack in his armor, any vulnerability, will be exploited. And you bet your ass that a teeming mass of jerks who continually undermine his candidacy's raison d'être will be turned into a problem for him. You think I'm wrong? Obama just quit his church because of other people over whom he had no control.
The best thing you can do for Obama is stop being assholes.
And, just as a personal aside, being belligerent toward and dismissive of women who care about their inequality isn't hopeful—and it sure ain't change. That's as old as humankind.
Maybe it's time to try something new.
Contemptuously,
Liss
* To the Obama supporters who were not assholes, this isn't directed to you.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
Special Tuesday Night Pub, by request.
Because what the Shakers
want, the Shakers get.
Drink up, friends.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Betty Boondoggle: What trend made you realize you weren't a kid, or weren't hip, anymore?
iPods. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
For the Record
I'm not sad because Obama's the nominee.
I'm sad because there are women at this blog, in my personal life, across this nation, and—if my inbox is any indication—across the globe, women of all races and sexualities and socio-economic classes, many of whom weren't even Hillary Clinton supporters, many of whom voted for Obama in the primary, who have watched with horror the seething hatred directed at Hillary Clinton just because she is a woman.
(I'm not talking about legitimate criticisms of her campaign, which I have made myself. I'm not saying any criticism of Clinton is de facto sexist; it isn't. I'm talking specifically and only about misogynist attacks, which are always unjustified and smear not just the woman at whom they are directed, but all women.)
And these women have witnessed this despicable but spectacular marriage of aggressive misogyny and their long-presumed allies' casual indifference to it, and wondered what fucking planet they were on that dehumanizing eliminationist rhetoric, to which lefty bloggers used to object once upon a time, was now considered a legitimate campaign strategy, as long as it was aimed at a candidate those lefty bloggers didn't like.
And these women felt, quite rightly, like feminist principles were being thrown to the wolves in a fit of political expedience.
And these women felt personally abandoned. By people they had considered allies.
And while they struggled to understand just what was happening, while they were losing their way along well-traveled paths that no longer felt familiar or welcoming, they were admonished like children to stop taking things personally. They were sneered at for playing identity politics. They were demeaned as ridiculous, overwrought, hysterics. They were called bitches and cunts. They were bullied off blogs they'd called home for years.
(But don't take that personally.)
And now, at long last, even now, when Clinton cannot win, she is being pushed out, carelessly, rudely, with little regard for the implicit message in hustling a historic candidate off the stage and demanding her graciousness in defeat, despite offering her no graciousness in victory. Right to the end, there is a lack of respect that hurts to watch.
And I'm sad because I know there are women who are hurting. Not because their candidate lost. Clinton may not have even been their candidate. They're hurting because misogyny hurts all women, and because they have fewer allies than they once thought.
And unlike the people (including many of these women) who are feeling the same way with regard to racism in this campaign, who are licking wounds of racist attacks even as preparations begin for the breathtakingly awesome celebration of the first ever presumptive nominee of color, ZOMG, these women do not have an equivalent wonder to celebrate. They don't have a "despite it all." They don't have a step forward to point to, to say the pain was worth it.
They just have the pain.
And I'm sad because I see so little evidence of people who are willing to understand that.
Same-Sex Marriage Amendment Qualifies in California
The ignorant tight-asses just don't give up.An initiative that would again outlaw gay marriage in California has qualified for the November ballot, the Secretary of State announced Monday.
No, Mr. Prentice, what it means is that you were able to get the minimum number of dupes to sign your petition so it could go on the ballot. It doesn't indicate anything other than ProtectMarriage.com's ability to get a herd of like-minded bluenoses and busy-bodies to stand outside a MalWart in Fresno and hound people into signing up, probably doing it just to get them out of their face.
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said a random check of signatures submitted by the measure's sponsors showed that they had gathered enough names for it to be put to voters.
The measure would amend the state constitution to "provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
If approved by a majority of voters on Nov. 4, the amendment would overturn the recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. It is similar to gay marriage bans that have been adopted in 26 other states.
"This signifies the fact that California voters really do favor and will come out to vote for the protection of historic marriage," said Ron Prentice, executive director of ProtectMarriage.com, a coalition of religious and social conservative groups behind the initiative.To qualify for the ballot, the measure needed 694,354 petition signatures, an amount equal to 8 percent of the votes cast during the last governor's race.
I'm pretty sure that a fair number of the signatures included Helena Handbasket, Mike Hunt, Hugh Jardon, and Bertha Vanation.
Proponents submitted 1,120,801 signatures in late April, and county clerks determined the measure qualified by verifying the validity of 3 percent of the signatures they received, according to Bowen.
Mr. Prentice refers to "the protection of historic marriage." I'd be interested in knowing what he means by that other than a focus-tested neutral term for a marriage between a man and a woman. But "historic"? How historic does he want to get? Biblical, where women were sold to families in payment of a debt and men could have more than one wife? What about the arranged marriages that have been a part of a number of cultures for centuries? What about royal marriages where marrying outside of your immediate family was considered to be anti-monarchist? Or is he referring to the more recent history of marriage where the divorce rate is around 50%, and noticeably higher in states that are considered, ironically, to be the Bible Belt?
I realize that it gets tiresome to repeat these arguments over and over again, but as long as they keep bringing them up, we need to keep batting them down. And a Field poll published in the Los Angeles Times found that 54% of registered voters opposed the measure, while 40% supported it.
Last month the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, and the righties howled about "activist judges" and claimed that the people had to vote on the measure. If the measure fails in November, how much would you like to bet that ProtectMarriage.com will file a lawsuit challenging the vote?
(Cross-posted.)
Carter to Endorse Obama
I'm just baffled by these Democrats who officially remained neutral all this time, only to endorse in the final stretch, especially when everyone's talking about all the reconciliation that needs to be done. Clinton's teetering on a precipice as it is; what in fuck makes Jimmy Carter want to look like the guy who gives her a swift kick over the edge? It positively reeks of disrespect and contempt, for her and the millions of people who voted for her, and it honestly breaks my heart.
It would be upsetting no matter who it was, for a real nail-biter to culminate with such unnecessary ignominy. That it's someone who would have been a historic candidate makes it ever so much worse.
I'm not even angry about it. I'm just desperately sad.
Blub.
Clinton Open to Veep Slot
In her further machinations to destroy the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton told participants on a conference call that she would be open to considering the veep slot if asked and if it makes for the strategically smartest, strongest ticket:
Hillary Rodham Clinton has told congressional colleagues she would be open to becoming Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee, saying she would consider it if it would help Democrats win the White House.Bitch.
...The senator's remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez who said she believed the best way for Obama to win over key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.
"I am open to it," Clinton replied, if it would help the party's prospects in November.
Charles Moskos Dies
His legacy? Helping to craft "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
CHICAGO - Sociologist Charles Moskos, an expert on the attitudes of servicemen and women who helped formulate the "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the military, has died.I'm not really shedding any tears, but I will send my condolences to his family. Perhaps it's time to put his policy to rest, as well. Ahem. I did get a chuckle out of this:
The retired Northwestern University professor died of cancer Saturday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., his family said. He was 74.
His surveys on military personnel issues, such as morale and recruitment trends, made him widely quoted in the news media. But he was best known for the advice to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that led to "don't ask, don't tell."
Under the policy, passed by Congress in 1993 in the early months of the Clinton administration, gays are allowed to serve in the military, but they are prohibited from engaging in homosexual activity or talking about their sexual orientation.
He acknowledged that the policy, which had critics on both sides of the debate, was imperfect.
"It's like what Churchill said about democracy — it's the worst system possible, except for all the other ones," Moskos said in 2006. But he said allowing gays to serve openly would hurt the morale of the military rank-and-file and make many recruits uncomfortable.
He also was a strong advocate of military service for young people from all segments of society. He argued it would increase public support for the military.No!!
"Imagine if Jenna Bush were in Iraq today," he said in 2004. "We would be much more committed."
Clinton Conceding?
Is she? Isn't she? Will it be tonight? Tomorrow? Zuh? Wuh? Huh?
Superdelefragilisticexpialiwhatzis?
Lots of debate. No definitive answers at the moment.
Except, perhaps, that Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee. For reasons having much less to do with votes or superdelegates or rules or bylaws or any other tangible bits of the electoral process than one might think. For reasons that are not singularly her responsibility, nor ours, nor the Obama campaign's, nor the media's, nor the Democratic Party's; there is plenty of responsibility to go around, and there are no angels among us. That much seems pretty clear at the moment.
Also clear: That John McCain is still a belligerent, no-knowing, lobbied-up asshole who needs to be kept as far away from the White House as possible. And that President Obama's first order of Oval Office business should be sending McCain on a manned mission to Mars.
[Btw: It ought to go without saying, but doesn't so I'm saying it, that my dig at McCain should not be construed to suggest anything about how individual progressives should vote. It was merely intended to convey that I believe in an Obama-McCain match-up, Obama will win. And I will once again link these relevant pieces, which I hope all Shakers who do not yet have them memorized will take the time to read once again: My Vote. Mine. and Feminism 101: "Calling Out Fellow Progressives for Sexism Prevents Unity on the Left."]
I Done Good—Where's My Sexual Gratification?
The irritating adverts in which straight men are rewarded with "treats" for doing basic tasks like cleaning up after themselves are bad enough in their promulgation of sexist stereotypes of both sexes—but even worse is the persistent cultural meme that straight men should be rewarded with women by doing "the right thing," whatever that "thing" happens to be, whether it's buying Axe deodorant or going green:
Just in case you needed another reason to care about the environment: It turns out girls dig guys who dig environmental technology.And if that snippet isn't enough to make you vom, check out the presentation of the article:
Never mind about doing the right thing for your own personal satisfaction, or because decent people have a social conscience: Do it because you'll totally get laid, dood!!!
This kind of shit, treating women as a commodity that men purchase with good behavior, is why there are Nice GuysTM—men who think if they're nice to a woman, they're owed sex in return. They never learn how to just treat women well for the sake of treating women well, instead merely going through whatever motions of being a "nice guy" they think will get them sex, failing utterly to understand that conditional niceness isn't really very nice at all. (And that most women can spot the difference from a mile away.)
Worse yet, this shit reinforces to women that the only way they can show approbation to men is with sex; our intellect is so devalued that sex is considered more valuable by many straight men than hearing a woman tell him, "I'm proud of you."
That's all well and good, but I believe I was promised a blowjob.
Profoundly sad for both sexes.
[H/T to Shaker Asharpie1.]
Shaker Gourmet: Peanut Butter Pie
It's June! Summer is coming and for some of us, the weather is warming or pretty darn hot already (*ahem* not for me...come on now PNW weather gods...). This is a fabulous--and easy--dessert for the warm days to have at the end of a cookout. Or, you know, whenever you want to have a really, really rich dessert.
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me (include a blog link!) at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.comPeanut Butter Pie
* 1 prepared chocolate cookie pie crust
* 1 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use natural/sugar free...Jif all the way for this)
* 8 oz. cream cheese (at room temperature)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 4 1/2 cups (12 oz. container) cool whip, divided
* 1 11.75 oz. jar hot fudge topping, divided
Drizzle:
* 2 Tb hot fudge
* 2 Tb peanut butter
—In a medium bowl, beat together the peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar. Gently fold in 3 cups whipped topping. Spoon mixture into the pie shell. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.
—Reserving 2 tablespoons of hot fudge, place remaining hot fudge into microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup. Microwave for 1 minute.Stir. Spread hot fudge over pie to cover the peanut butter layer.
—Refrigerate until serving time.
—Just before serving, spread the remaining whipped topping (1 1/2 cups), over hot fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.
—Place the 2 tb of fudge in a small baggie and knead for a few seconds. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and drizzle over pie. Do the same with 2 Tb of peanut butter.
*Sorry if this is a repeat, I searched but didn't see it though I'm still not sure if I've done this one already in the past...
Richard Cohen: Concern Troll
Richard Cohen, the poor dear, loathes things. He loathes, in order: the campaign, the resurgence of racism (Richard, your privilege is showing; resurgent my butt), "what has happened to Hillary Clinton," including what she "has done to herself," "what has happened to Bill Clinton," "what has happened to the press," as well as the "incessant blogging and commenting and talking and yapping and hype" (he liked it better when it was only Very Important People doing the yapping, I guess), what becomes clear with hindsight, and some other junk.
And while he is busily wringing his hands about where we've all gone so terribly, terribly wrong, he also helpfully tells us:
[This primary] has highlighted the reality that racism still runs deep and that misogyny, although more imagined than real, is not yet a wholly spent force.Silly girls. It's all in our heads.
Loathsome.
[H/T to Shakers Mr. Bill and JMonkey.]
Go, Speed Racer, Go!
Four Word Movie Review: Best film this year.
Now, I haven't seen every film this year. But of the ones I have seen, Speed Racer blows 'em all out of the water. By, like, a long shot.
Iain and I just saw this movie (in IMAX!!!11!)—his having never seen the Speed Racer cartoon as a deprived kid in Scotland, and my having adored Speed Racer when I was younger—and both of us fell hard for this film. And neither of us could figure out why the heck it got such terrible reviews—because it was, and I quote, "tootally fooking brill!"
[Minor spoilers below.]
Unlike Ironman and Indiana Jones, both of which we've been anxiously anticipating for what feels like forever, we probably never would have seen Speed Racer if Todd and Kenny Blogginz hadn't dragged our asses there. And also unlike Ironman and Indiana Jones, both of which left us decidedly unimpressed, we were practically peeing our pants with excitement while we watched Speed Racer and couldn't stop babbling about its awesomeness once it was over.
It's got the coolest female characters out of all three films by far; Christina Ricci's Trixie gets in there with the boys—flying her copter, working on the cars, and driving them—Susan Sarandon's Mom Racer is just an absurdly wonderful mom character, and Yu Nan's Horuko Togokahn is great as a sassy schemer who helps the family she wishes were her own.
As in The Matrix trilogy, The Wachowskis create a world rich with faces of different colors, where women keep up with the men and borders are meaningless, except for the sharp demarcation between right and wrong. That world is, of course, visually stunning, rich with heretofore unseen effects, dynamic editing, and cleverly choreographed fight scenes. I dig their aesthetic immensely.
And, ya know, it's a popcorn movie...but it's a good popcorn movie with a decent story (and, I might add, compellingly progressive in its anti-corporate, anti-corruption, anti-bully, pro-indy, pro-rebellion message), characters you care about, and well above-average blockbuster acting.
The only disappointment is its poor showing at the box office, which means that we probably won't get a second installment.
I'm not sure why the critics decided to hate this movie, but, at Metacritic, where the critic reviews average an abysmal 37 out of 100, the user reviews give it an 8 out of 10—a big disparity even for Metacritic—and IMDb's users give it a respectable 6.6 out of 10.
So listen to the wo/men on the street and ignore the critics big time on this one, and go see Speed Racer, preferably in IMAX, if you've got one nearby. It's the most fun we've had at the movies all year.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Good thing she had all those men to protect her!
RIP Bo Diddley
Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies at age 79: "Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive 'shave and a haircut, two bits' rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79. ... The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. ... Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings 'stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century'."
Every time Mama Shakes comes over, she knocks on the front door using Bo Diddley's "signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp."
