I wish this were a joke—but, unfortunately, it's not. It is, according to the notes at YouTube, "the true tale of a father denied the right to share the custody of his daughter" and "the first film of Dickson, TN-based William Fain productions."
A Father's Rights is based on the life of William Fain. He battles each day to bring an end to laws that take away a child's right to both parents. He wrote and produced this movie in order to show the inequality between parents created by certain laws and to hopefully inspire others to take up that same fight.
Sounds awesome.
If you're unfamiliar with the patriarchal misogybag movement that functions under the innocuously-named "Fathers' Rights Movement," go visit The Countess for your 101, and then some. (Also swing by Sheelzebub's joint.) If you just want some quick hits about custody, this is your pitstop.
A word of warning to anyone considering the old "my cousin's best friend's brother's wife is a crazy bitch who won't let him see his kid and he's honestly a good guy I swear and his kid is dying to see him but she's totally a crazy bitch and did I mention she's a crazy bitch?" routine: Great. Good for him and shame on her, if it's true. But you don't need to educate anyone here that there are sometimes women who do bad things. The point is that there is an entire movement predicated on treating that as the norm, but reality does not bear that out. Not even close.
Michael "Savage" Weiner has lost two major advertisers since attacking autistic children. AFLAC Insurance and Home Depot have pulled ads from Weiner's show. The thing that suprises and saddens me most about this is that AFLAC and Home Depot were still sponsors up to this point. I guess it's okay to viciously attack people of color, or us queers, or women, but bullying kids is one step too far. Maybe we should just be happy that Home Depot took time to "think of the children." Wevs.
"What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"—One of the illegal questions asked of candidates seeking employment at the Justice Department by erstwhile counselor Monica Goodling. The Washington Postreports: "Former Justice Department counselor Monica M. Goodling and former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson routinely broke the law by conducting political litmus tests on candidates for jobs as immigration judges and line prosecutors, according to an inspector general's report released today."
[Background on Monica Goodling here and Kyle Sampson here.]
Urge Iranian authorities to "irrevocably reverse" the sentence of death by stoning on the charge of adultery levied against Kobra Najjar:
Equality Now has expressed concern on the fate of Kobra Najjar now that she had exhausted all legal remedies and her case files have been returned to Tabriz court from Tehran. She is detained in Tabriz prison in northwestern Iran.
'Equality Now' said Kobra, 45, was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroin addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra's "clients" who sympathized with her plight.
Kobra, it said, has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband's murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and is now free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery the prostitution her husband forced upon her.
She can be executed at any time—but international attention and pressure may help save her. Please go to the Women's Action Update for contact information and further details on how immediate action by the international feminist community may be a crucial element in saving Kobra Najjar's life.
Injured vets tell veep to go Cheney himself over unreasonable security demands:
Vice President Cheney's invitation to address wounded combat veterans next month has been yanked because the group felt his security demands were Draconian and unreasonable.
The veep had planned to speak to the Disabled American Veterans at 8:30 a.m. at its August convention in Las Vegas. His staff insisted the sick vets be sequestered for two hours before Cheney's arrival and couldn't leave until he'd finished talking, officials confirmed.
"Word got back to us ... that this would be a prerequisite," said the veterans executive director, David Gorman, who noted the meeting hall doesn't have any rest rooms. "We told them it just wasn't acceptable."
…Many of the vets are elderly and left pieces of themselves on foreign battlefields since World War II, and others were crippled by recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan. For health reasons, many can't be stuck in a room for hours.
And, because we live in a democracy where the vice president works for the American people, no one should have to be, for fuck's sake. Reasonable security measures can—and should—be taken without treating citizens like prisoners.
Reached for comment, Cheney's office said he had other priorities and didn't care about their stupid convention, anyway.
Over the weekend, Jim D. Adkisson, 58 (pictured at left), walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, TN with a shotgun and opened fire. He killed two people: Greg McKendry, 60, and Linda Kraeger, 61. Five more are in serious or critical condition.
There is no question that Adkisson did the shooting. He has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held on $1 million bail. Because the "use of force to interrupt practice of religion is a civil rights violation," the FBI will be working with the local "DA to decide if there will be federal charges."
The question authorities are still trying to answer is why. One witness reportedly said that Adkisson "was saying hateful things" before he starting shooting, and the FBI is "assisting in case the shooting turn[s] out be a hate crime."
Pam reports that the church, like many Unitarian Universalist churches, was gay-, civil-, and women's rights affirming, hosted a teen café for out teens and their allies, and had recently put up a sign welcoming LGBTQs to the congregation.
At a press conference this morning, Police Chief Sterling Owen revealed, among other items, that Adkisson cited as his motivation "Lack of being able to obtain job, frustration, stated hatred for the liberal movement." Adkisson also reportedly admitted that he had been planning the attack for at least a week and "chose this church intentionally," because "he was targeting liberals in general, and gays."
One wonders if conservatives will start finding stuff like this any less funny. One doubts that they will.
I've read dozens of stories about this incident this morning, in local, national, and international press, and nowhere has Adkisson been called a terrorist, despite his tactic and motives being the textbook definition. The Bush administration's record of no terrorist attacks on American soil—despite anthrax and copycat mailings, bombings, beatings, church fires, and attacks on women's health clinics—continues unabated.
But, hey, if you want eel soda, check this out: New, from Japan, comes Surging Eel, the taste sensation that's sweeping the nation. Or not. The mouth-watering beverage is described as a "fizzy, yellow-colored drink contains extracts from the head and bones of eel," which is, I think, the same description used for Mt. Dew. Look for it at fine retailers near you.
"Well, certainly."—Former White House spokesbot Scott McClellan, when asked by Chris Matthews if the Bush administration used Fox commentators as spokespeople by feeding them talking points.
Anyone who's been paying attention knows that Fox News is the propaganda arm of the Bush White House, but it's nice to have such blunt confirmation.
Me: Yep. Some people are even triplets! Did you know that people can be twins and not look the same? It just depends on how they were made.
E: I don't really understand how people grow inside when they're made.
Me: Well, you know the sperm and the egg part right? (E nods) Those are two special kinds of cells that pair together and then they keep making more and more cells. Those cells grow into making a person.
E: I saw a picture of that once in a book we have.
Me: If you want we can look at the book again and talk about it.
E: But I don't know where the book is. Maybe it's on the bookshelf*.
Me: Actually, I think that book is on one of the shelves in my room where we keep the special books like that one.
E: Ooh. So you and dad can remember how to make babies?
*It could have been in any of three places where kid books are located, so "on the bookshelf" isn't as obvious as it may seem.
I've got a new piece, A Gay Old Time, up at The Guardian's Comment is free America about the homobigot goofball who testified in front of Congress re: DADT (and about whom Mustang Bobby blogged yesterday), Elaine Donnelly:
Elaine Donnelly, the president of the Centre for Military Readiness, whose primary qualification as an "expert" on gay military issues appears to be a pathological fear of being photographed naked by a lesbian, actually created more sympathy for gay service members as she stumbled through the questioning during a House Armed Services personnel subcommittee hearing this week, in which the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy on homosexuality was being revisited.
…On behalf of soldiers "'who do have religious convictions," she argued they would be alienated by the "sexualized atmosphere" if forced to serve with gays and suffer their "introducing erotic factors" to the military.
She also raised the ominous specter of LGBTQI soldiers spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks, in what one can only assume is a nefarious plot involving bare-backing members of Up with People.
"She was enormous, and now she's foxy."—Meg Ryan, on her character in the upcoming movie My Mom's Hot Boyfriend, in which Ryan dons a fat suit for part of the film. (The part without the boyfriend, natch.)
Says Shaker Jenn, who sent along the article: "WTF?! Way to suck even more, MR! Is this her way of finally stepping outside of her tired-ass, 'quirky girl in need of saving' role? Pathetic."
Even more than the quote, I love the screen cap from the film:
LOLOLOL! Yes, that's how all of us fat chicks spend our days—slumped despondently against a wall, our hair a mess, surrounded by fast food, and clad in ill-fitting sweats.
Note to Meg Ryan, cc'ed to the rest of Hollywood: Fat and foxy are not mutually exclusive concepts. Also, there are stylish clothes made to suit our bodies, which many of us wear. We even comb our hair and everything!
Some of us even have hot boyfriends. Or girlfriends. Or both.
I read about Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq (Hussain) a few months ago. Not only is she the only Olympic athlete actually training in Iraq, she is or would have been the first woman representing Iraq in the Olympics.
In an interview with NPR All Things Considered (May 1st) she said:
"I'm very ambitious, despite all the challenges I face in the streets," she says. "If the street is blocked or there's shooting, I'll take a different road, because I want to reach new goals and move forward."
Unfortunately, she will not have the chance to reach new goals or fulfill her dream.
Because the Iraqi government for some reason disbanded their Olympic Committee, which is a no no, the IOC has banned Dana and the other first-time Olympians—two rowers, a disc thrower, and a judoka—from competing in Beijing.
Her reaction broke my heart:
"She hasn't stopped [crying]. It's like finding out that a close relative has died," said her coach, Yousif Abdul Rahman.
Abdul Rahman attempted to console Hussain by assuring her that she could compete in the 2012 Olympics.
"In this horrible situation," she said, "who can say I'll even be alive in 2012?"
I get it that the IOC needs to have rules that all countries abide by and they need to do what they need to do. But this sucks and is NOT in the spirit of the Olympics and the individual athlete's competition and personal excellence.
I truly believe that the IOC should have some way to allow individual, un-sponsored athletes to compete while still sanctioning or penalizing the country.
Dana isn't sponsored by the government, she trains on her own, and is financing her own way. In an interview with Islam Online she says:
"All of us come from poor families and cannot afford high expenses," she said.
"The government isn’t investing in us," she fumed.
"They are much worried about political issues and forgot that sport also is a good way to make people open their minds and join forces," stressed the sprinter.
I adore the Olympics. I especially love watching the athletes from small countries competing even when some don't have a chance of winning against the sports machines of large countries. Their stories of courage, endurance, and over coming obstacles that we can't even imagine, inspire me, reminds me of our shared human consciousness and our world community.
This young woman has avoided sniper fire, bombs, and other life-threatening dangers, just to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. Dana Abdul-Razzaq is the highest example of what Olympic competition is all about.
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." (part of the Olympic Creed)
Well she has struggled horribly and she has fought fucking phenomenally:
"But now this dream could end any time if for one second I lose my concentration and a bullet comes across my body, fired by groups that don't really understand the importance of this."
Razzaq has been reluctant to talk to the media after a couple of recent interviews with international newspapers resulted in increased threats to her.
Iraqi athletes, especially women, have increasingly been targeted by militant groups.
And now that she has overcome her "struggles" and now that she has SURVIVED! Some bureaucratic bullshit has endedr her dream.
She is a living casualty of this war. My heart is breaking for her.
As she said, "If I leave this sport, I think life will stop."
· AOL has a poll on the draft HHS regulation, asking, "Should birth control be equated with abortion?" Go vote.
· US News has a similar poll, asking, "Should doctors have the right to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions based on personal objections?" Go vote.
Anxious to counter the blanket media coverage that has followed Sen. Barack Obama on his overseas journey, Sen. John McCain is weighing whether to announce his running mate in the coming weeks before the spotlight shifts to China and the opening of the Olympic Games next month. (Link)
Please let it be Willard, please let it be Willard, please let it be Willard…
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Action Item: Help Kobra Najjar
Over the weekend, Jim D. Adkisson, 58 (pictured at left), walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, TN with a shotgun and 
I read about Iraqi sprinter 
