For my oft-mentioned girlfriend Miller, who is far away from me at the moment, but is always in my heart:
Michael "Savage" Weiner is at it again, slinging his hate and ignorance at another defenseless group. Who's his target this time? Kids. Not just any kids. Sick kids. Autistic kids. According to Weiner, autistic children don't suffer a complex neurobiological disorder, they're just "brats":
"I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.'"Not content to be just an offensive, repugnant asshole, Weiner needs to be offensive, repugnant, sexist, racist asshole:
"[I]f I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, 'Don't behave like a fool.' The worst thing he said -- 'Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry.' That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have."And…
"[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."Remind me again why this guy is still on the air?
A lot of people have been asking after Iain since he had his toof out on Monday, so I just wanted to say thank you and give a quick update.
Unfortunately, he's had a really difficult recovery; the infection that necessitated the tooth extraction in the first place has spread, despite his being on antibiotics, and, by this afternoon, he could barely open his mouth at all, could hardly talk, and couldn't eat. His jaw is just not moving, and his ear and throat have gotten badly infected, too. As you can probably imagine, he is also in excruciating pain.
So I took him to the emergency room, since there weren't any doctors in our area that were open who accept our insurance, and now he's got a stronger antibiotic, which will hopefully knock this thing out at long last. I'll be on Jell-O duty for the duration, so forgive me if I continue to be not around as much as usual.
In the meantime, send healing thoughts our way. He could use 'em.
UPDATE: The super-antibiotics seem to be helping. This morning, Iain's voice sounded normal for the first time in a week, and he was able to turn his head to the side a little bit, which he hasn't been able to do in days. (He's been having to turn his whole upper body, which of course I've been mocking mercilessly, deeming him "Robot Iain," about the only thing that's given him a good laugh.) So a little progress. Iain says he's pretty sure it's all the good thoughts being sent his way... :-)
Back in April, I wrote about an article about research that suggested a birth mother's diet prior to pregnancy may influence a baby's sex. My concern was mainly with the framing of the article, which was disproportionately focused on whether it was possible to "raise the odds of having a boy."
I was particularly struck by one quote used to set the article's departing tone:
The last line of the article is a quote from Dr. Michael Lu, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and public health at UCLA, who sums up the science thusly: "The bottom line is, we still don't know how to advise patients in how to make boys."This morning, I got an email from Dr. Lu, explaining his quote, and, with his permission, I'm posting it—because it's enlightening to see how the fix was in, as it were, right from the interview stage, because it's encouraging (as I told Dr. Lu, we rarely get responses as thoughtful as his; they're generally of the "dumm bith" variety), and because, as he told me, "Rarely in life do we get to say something over again after we said something wrong."
It's not like they do know how to advise patients in how to make girls. But what kind of asshole would want to deliberately make a girl, right?
Dear Ms McEwan,Thanks very much for writing to me, Dr. Lu—and for letting me share your note and for being someone who thinks about this stuff. Welcome to our Teaspoon Brigade. I hope you'll stick around.
I came across your blog tonight and found my quote the subject of your article On Boys and Girls. I would like to explain my quote.
I was asked by the reporter: "So Dr Lu, if a couple comes to your office and ask you how they can make a boy, what would you tell them?" I was answering her question directly when I told her that we still don't know how to make boys.
I should've said we still don't know how to make boys or girls (which we don't). I wish I did. I am still learning how to talk to reporters.
As father of two daughters, I really appreciate the story about your father. I feel the same way about my girls, and wish someday they will remember me the same way as you do about your father.
Anyway, please accept my apology for what I said, and for all the unintended consequences of what I didn't mean to say. And thank you for what you are trying to do with your article and with your blog.
Most Sincerely,
Michael
A local woman has been arrested after she was accused of killing her unborn child by cutting the umbilical cord, authorities said Monday. Jennifer Darlene Johnson, 30, of 1796 Lauderdale 7, Florence, has been charged with manslaughter, authorities said.Leaving aside all the issues around the use of the term "unborn child" and charging someone with manslaughter for killing a fetus, does anyone else wonder how it's even possible for a woman to cut an umbilical cord while it's still in her uterus?
Florence police detective Capt. Ron Tyler said Johnson was seven months into her pregnancy when she was taken to Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield on Friday night, where her baby was delivered. Tyler said the baby was dead at birth. … He said medical personnel at Keller Hospital, during the course of the baby's delivery, discovered the umbilical cord had been "severed while still inside the mother's uterus." (Link.)
I know I posted Random YouTubery earlier, but as resident Cute Overlord of Shakesville, I insist that you watch the following video immediately.
It's one of our fancy internet traditionz!
Recommended Reading:
Mannion: Writer to Writer
Coturnix: Darwinist
Nojojojo: Classic Hipster Racism
Melissa: Mamma Mia—Feminist Creative Power on Film
And I'm sad to say so long to DBK.
Leave your links in comments...
I'm sure Nancy Pelosi will catch a lot of flack (mostly along the lines of "Oh, yeah? So's your old man") for calling President Bush a "total failure," but in all seriousness, I'd like someone to name one policy or initiative put forth by the Bush administration that has been a proven success. It doesn't have to be 100%, either; I'll accept a "gentlemen's C." After all, if that was good enough for Mr. Bush at Yale, it's got to count for something now.
So, go on, name one.
(Cross-posted.)
What the everloving fuck is this article doing in The Nation? "The Editors" claim it's the inaugural entry in "Carnal Knowledge, a regular feature devoted to the subject of sex," but it reads more like an excuse to engage in a fun little bit of misogyny, with a generous side order of racism.
The piece begins with the line: "In politics as in pop, legions of little girls jumping out of their panties can't be wrong. That's the vital lesson so far of Election '08." And it doesn't get any better from there.
I watched a throng of them in November 2006, teenagers in their short skirts and breathlessness, jumping and jittering, hands to cheeks, screaming for Barack Obama.Seriously? I mean, seriously? Does The Nation really not have any editors who see a problem with suggesting that men who are passionate about another man are behaving like panty-wetting girls?
…By '07 even the boys were Obama Girls, and their parents were borne along on the energy, feeling young and hip and a little damp in the drawers themselves.
If politically he now appears to be not substantively different from any other neoliberal, as a sex symbol he is the new man. New, most plainly, because in his mingled blood those born since 1980 or so can see their future lovers and children, if they don't already see themselves.Mingled blood?! Again, I'm wondering who the hell is editing this shit that they don't know that "race mingling" is a politically and culturally supercharged term that makes the use of a phrase like "mingled blood" here decidedly inappropriate. It conjures "race mingling" even further, as it's immediately followed by a reference to Obama's parents and the "historically combustible idea of a black man and a white woman in bed together."
So, the New York Time does a story (not filed under news or politics, of course, but under "Arts," subcategory "Television) about Rachel Maddow crashing the gates at MSNBC, and the photos chosen to accompany the article are like a Freudian blueprint in fear and hatred of women. This is the photo they chose to top the piece:
What was your first experience with racism?
Because I'm white, I've almost never been a target of racism (on one of the rare occasions I was, I was called a racial epithet used for Asian people, despite the fact that I almost couldn't look less Asian, which typifies the erudition of racists), and I also grew up in a home where racism was not expressed by anyone in my family—not my immediate family nor extended family. I literally don't recall a single one of my relatives ever using a racial epithet or telling a racist joke or making a sweeping generalization about an entire race or ethnic group in my entire life. (Or about LGBTQs or the disabled or anyone else, for that matter.)
That said, my parents (both teachers) made sure I understood that racism existed and talked to me about it, but, still, the first time I heard someone singled out as somehow "different" because of his or her race, it shocked the fuck out of me.
I was 14 and dating a really super guy, my first holding-hands-in-the-hallway-at-school boyfriend, and one day a friend of mine said to me sort of wistfully how her mother would never let her date him. When I asked why, she replied, "Because he's a spic." So matter-of-fact.
It was the moment I became aware of racism as a practice, rather than just an abstract concept about which I'd heard, and really, the first time I ever thought about what "race" really meant. Until that point, it was if "blonde" and "black" had approximately the same connotation to me—neutral descriptors about what someone looked like. (Talk about privilege.)
It was scary to me to realize all at once how nefarious and present racism really was—and how close to me. It was like waking up in a swimming pool. I remember my breath sort of whooshing out of me like I'd been hit and feeling my face flush with embarrassment. Not for me, and certainly not on my boyfriend's behalf, but for my friend—for having a racist mom.
Easy to judge, of course. Recently, Mama Shakes told me how much thinking she's done about her own internalized racism because of Shakesville. We're all swimming in that pool, whether we've woken up there yet or not.
by Matttbastard
[Trigger warning.]
Polly Jones of Marginal Notes puts it succinctly:
The message is loud and clear: don't drink or you can be raped without consequence.Think she's being facetious? Welcome to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, circa 2008:
And, it makes no difference if you're a 14-year-old girl who is assaulted by an adult male.
Having sex with a drunken 14-year-old he had plied with alcohol was not a criminal offence by former Calgary man, a judge ruled yesterday.Say what?! Hold on—it gets worse:
Justice Peter McIntyre said there was insufficient evidence the girl didn't consent to having sex with Trevor Byron Niebergall.
But McIntyre did find Niebergall guilty of sexual assault for placing his genitals on the girl's face after she passed out -- an act the offender captured on his cellphone camera and showed to co-workers.
McIntyre said the fact the teenage complainant didn't remember her sexual encounter with Niebergall at a December 2005 New Year's Eve party did not mean she hadn't consented.Yes, that's right—the fact that the victim blacked out due to intoxication shouldn't lead one to conclude that she was in no condition to consent to sexual intercourse. *blink*
He noted one witness said she appeared to have the capacity to consent when she and Niebergall went to a washroom in his brother's apartment, where they had sex. And the Queen's Bench judge said the girl willingly consumed large amounts of alcohol supplied by Niebergall even after he made lewd sexual comments.How dare she: What's next—truancy? Disrespecting her elders? Why, she's careening down the road to moral ruin without wearing a seatbelt!
…"The accused's lewd comments towards her did not compel her to leave," the judge said. "The complainant was not forced to consume alcohol -- she drank ... beer willingly and then switched to alcohol. It is not at all clear why she drank so heavily."
Niebergall, then 19, showed photographs of the teen, naked and passed out, to co-workers the following day, bragging he had had sex with her six times.Uh huh. Taking pictures of a 14 year old. Passed out. After raping her.
McIntyre said because the girl drank so heavily and had little recollection of events at the party, he could not accept her claim she didn't agree to have sex.Once again: The judge made his ruling because the victim couldn't prove a negative—that she hadn't consented to sex with Niebergall because she was too fucking wasted at the time to subsequently remember what happened. There's something utterly wrong with this picture. And utterly wrong with the following, too:
"Her evidence was not reliable after she started drinking," he said.
Crown prosecutor Susan Kennedy said a 45- to 60-day jail term is warranted for the incident which occurred after the teen passed out.45-to-60 days in jail for
uummm... This took place back in 2005. If memory serves, the age of consent wasn't raised from 14 to 16 until the spring of 2008. Back then it was completely legal for this pig to have sex with that little girl after getting her drunk.To repeat (and expand upon) the comments I left at Polly's place:
For that, you have to blame the [Liberal Party of Canada] and [New Democratic Party of Canada] because it was their opposition to a raise in the age of consent that had things held up for so long. Had the issue been addressed by the other parties, back in 1999, when it was brought up by Reform Party MP's, the subject of your post could have been charged and convicted with statutory rape instead of walking away with a simple slap on the wrist...
Blame the pig, yes, but save a little blame as well, for the left half of the political spectrum who thought that it was "OK" for the age of consent to remain at 14. Because of them, the pig was able to do what he did legally.
It would have been great if Kevin Cullen could have written his pro-same-sex marriage column for the Boston Globe without including a bunch of hacky "jokes" about how much being married to a woman suxxx for straight dudez like him.
I've always had an egalitarian view on this. I think it's unconstitutionally unfair that only heterosexuals are allowed to know what it feels like to get constantly nagged, be told your socks don't match, and find out your wallet has been emptied so your spouse could buy another pair of shoes that will lie unworn in a closet."The rest of us," of course, being the people who are "constantly nagged," told their socks don't match, and ripped off by shoe-whores—which totally could be either sex, because those aren't gendered stereotypes at all.
…I never understood how this became a liberal/conservative thing.
I thought gay marriage was something the religious right would try to foist on gay people. You know, so gay couples could be miserable like the rest of us.
So what are you thinking about the partnerships? I was thrilled when I found out Katee and Will were now paired together and, wow, did they ever deliver with the pas de deux last night (ignore the craptastic Archuleta cover--ugh):
