hey your big fat gay blogaround got its chocolate in my peanut butter!
Recommended Reading:
Pam: Rape of Women in U.S. Armed Forces: Shame of a Nation
Frances: Vatican Official Challenges Excommunication in Brazil
Matttbastard: On "Expert" Panels
Cara: Observing and Reporting Rape Culture at Work
Kate: Bathing Suit Season
Jorge: Finally
Leave your links in comments...
Monday Blogaround
The Bad Economy is Good for Women!
All the proof you need that this dubitable contention is true can be found at MSNBC under the awesome headline "More women going from jobless to topless."
See, it turns out that "the tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler," and—hey, have you heard?—women can make fucktons of dosh at those jobs! And it's a win-win situation for the employers and consumers, who now have access to "a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things."
[Rick's Caberet spokesperson Allan Priaulx] said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.Aren't recessions grand?!
Rhode Island's Foxy Lady held a job fair Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club.
Now, I don't want to get into a huge discussion about being a sex worker by choice when you have other choices, and whether it can ever be a feminist decision to choose, despite other available avenues, to work in an industry in which many women who don't have other options are exploited. That's a valuable conversation, but it's not the one I want to have. I want to talk about women who don't have other choices, who view employment in the sex industry as the "desperate measure" referenced in the article.
In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.In a good economy, choosing to work in the sex industry as a last resort isn't nearly as acceptable as it is when the entire country is shit-toiling (except the men dropping thousands of dollars on strippers and porn). But now that the economy's in the toilet, it's acceptable for women to sell their bodies even if they don't really want to!
The transition to the nightclub scene isn't always a smooth one — from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.I love the careful, waffling framing here, as throughout the article. Sex work is fun and full of camaraderie! And it offers more control and flexibility than a stupid old cubicle—and please dutifully ignore that some of the women in question still wanted that stupid old cubicle as "their first career choice."
Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.
"It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked," [Rebecca Brown, a former bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain in Chicago], 29, said.
Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires "a thick skin."
…The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and "it's easy, it's fun and all of us girls ... look out for each other," Brown said.
…Stone, who has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master's in education.
And please don't look too closely to note that for "control and flexibility," which amounts to being able to work whatever hours they want (even though there are very specific times when the money is good) and be their own bosses (even though they can be fired and all that really means is "no benefits"), they've exchanged being able to get through a day's work without having to be intoxicated to deal with the abuse.
Never mind all that. It's fun and profitable—even if it is a desperate measure.
And even if it's hard on a few women, it's good for (straight) men. Who, I'm sure you've heard, are being hurt by the economic downturn way more than women. Those guys could use a little pick-me-up—like being able to ogle more beautiful women than ever before.
It's only fair.
[H/T to Elle and Mrs. O. Elle's a busy bee at the moment, so I grabbed the baton.]
Number of the Day
138. The number, in millions, JPMorgan Chase, which has received $25 billion in bail-out funding, plans to spend "to buy two new luxury corporate jets and build 'the premiere corporate aircraft hangar on the eastern seaboard' to house them, ABC News has learned."
As I was saying...
Matthews Gets Another Term
Matthews Renews Contract at MSNBC:
Chris Matthews, the usually garrulous host of "Hardball" on MSNBC, has quietly signed a new long-term contract to remain with the cable network through the next election...At last we agree. I can see in his face all the time that he revels in being a total asshole.
Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said the deal would guarantee that Mr. Matthews would "be around to cover the next presidential election." Mr. Matthews, known for his combative interviews, said he was happy to be staying on. "I love what I do," he said. "It's transparent. You can see it in my face."
Four more years of Hardballz, at least. Stupendous.
Economic Armageddon: Beyond Thunderdome
So Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has laid out a Public-Private Partnership Investment Program to deal with bad banks assets, which, he explains here, "will set up funds to provide a market for the legacy loans and securities that currently burden the financial system" by "purchas[ing] real-estate related loans from banks and securities from the broader markets," allowing banks to "sell pools of loans to dedicated funds" and investors to "participate in those funds and take advantage of the financing provided by the government."
I'm no economic genius, and that didn't even sound to me like it's in the same galaxy as a good idea. But, not being an economic genius, I didn't want to rely on my dubious powers of evaluation, so I headed over to read Krugman's column, and I got as far as the headline before my fears were confirmed: "Financial Policy Despair."
Mr. Obama has apparently settled on a financial plan that, in essence, assumes that banks are fundamentally sound and that bankers know what they're doing.The administration's inexplicable unwavering belief that, as Krugman says, "the banks are fundamentally sound and that bankers know what they're doing," to which I'd also add and care about something beyond their own personal interests, reminds me of Obama's pathological insistence that bipartisanship is a valuable objective, despite every sign that the other party is not dealing in good faith.
It's as if the president were determined to confirm the growing perception that he and his economic team are out of touch, that their economic vision is clouded by excessively close ties to Wall Street. And by the time Mr. Obama realizes that he needs to change course, his political capital may be gone.
Obama quite obviously believes that all people are fundamentally decent and, if you expect them to behave decently, they will. It's a hopefulness and optimism I admire, and I quite genuinely believe it's a good starting point from which to begin negotiations with anyone on an individual basis. But it's a crackpot approach for dealing with intrinsically corrupt institutions who have repeatedly proven they are motivated by avarice and spite.
The entire premise on which this plan rests is inherently flawed. The big players in the financial system and the rest of the American people have utterly disparate motivations. The wildly tone-deaf disconnect exemplified over and over by the institutions now in need of rescue should, by now, have illustrated their intractable unwillingness to even get on the learning curve, no less start learning and curving.
And because they operate with no small amount of abject stupidity in addition to their greed and insolence, I cannot imagine on what basis, besides a totally unsubstantiated hopefulness, Obama and Geithner can argue they have a reasonable expectation that the banks will achieve the requisite alignment with the citizenry's needs for this scheme to work.
And, beyond what I consider the innate philosophical flaw, there are other problems with the plan, which the estimable Krugman lays out for us here and here.
Radio Shakesville
Okay, kids, Radio Shakesville's first podcast is done. You can listen to it here.
On this show: excerpts from Satanic Messages in Rock Music, Liss and I discuss what's showing at the movies (there be spoilers, fair warning), and I play music from The Pogues, Brian Eno, Patti Smith and more.
If possible, please subscribe to the podcast. Subscribing gives me a better idea how many people are actually listening to this thing.
I'm also taking requests for songs in future podcasts. Just call (641) 715-3900, extension: 44515. Note, all calls are recorded and may be used in future shows. So if you're shy or don't want your voice broadcast for all to hear, send your request via email.
So, listen up, and tell me what you think.
(A couple of technical notes: using the "Play Now" option has resulted in stuttery playback for some users. It's probably best to right-click and use the "save target as" or "save link as" option, depending on whichever browser you're using.
Saturday Night Youtubery
This has special meaning to those of us of a certain age...
Liza with a 'Z'
First broadcast on September 10, 1972, the entire Drama Department of the University of Miami gathered around to watch it ... in color! It has been lovingly restored, and it pops up on Showtime every so often. This is just a taste of the magic created by Liza Minnelli, Bob Fosse, John Kander, Fred Ebb and a lot of talented people.
Enjoy.
Daily Kitteh
Our (almost) 17 year old elder statesman, Moon, relaxing on his favorite spot on the sofa.
News from Shakes Manor
Watching TV; an OnDemand trailer comes on for The Great Buck Howard, which I had mentioned in some other context that I now can't recall...
Liss: Here's that movie I was talking about the other day.
Iain: Oh. [watches trailer for a moment] Look, it's got Tom Hanks' weird little cousin in it.
Liss: Babe, Colin Hanks is Tom Hanks' son, not his "weird little cousin."
Iain: Whatever!
The Virtual Pub Is Open
TFIF, Shakers.
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison.
Drinks are on Zombie Newt.
Daily Kitteh
Because the universe has handed many of us One of Those Days today, please enjoy the Cutest Picture in the History of Time, c/o Cute Overload:
Auntie SKM Just Reports What She's Told
Germy and Mrs. Rockstein Prepare for a Yeast Attack
Pictured above is Germy, my nephew N.'s trusted friend and ward. Germy is a plush cough germ (Bordetella pertussis). He is dressed in his Personal Protective Equipment, which consists of a silicone egg poacher and tea-ball goggles. This gear should protect him in the event of an attack by the yeast in the pizza dough my nephew and I are making. Pictured beside Germy is Germy's pet rock, Mrs. Rockstein, who is currently pregnant.
Why are y'all looking at me like that--I just report what I'm told.
Not THIS Guy Again
Newt Gingrich's career is like the stubbornest zombie in all the land. What will it take to kill this thing—a silver bullet? A stake? A machete? A Molotov cocktail to the undead head? Somebody just tell me, so we can kill his stumbling, blue-faced, boil-crusted, shredded clothes-wearing, incoherently gurgling, and BRAINS!-craving career once and for all and get on with our lives.
Anyway...
Gingrich has launched an organization devoted to bringing conservative evangelicals and Catholics into the political process and to strengthening the frayed alliance between economic and religious conservatives. Called Renewing American Leadership, the group is led by Gingrich's longtime communications director and includes some of the country's top conservative Christian activists on its board.Blah blah blah religious victims blah blah blah. Hilariously, USN&WR is currently running in the sidebar next to this story a public poll asking: "President Obama is opening many of his public events with prayers from local community leaders. Do you support this new White House tradition?" to which 59.86% of respondents have answered yes. Oh, the hostility!
..."In the last few years I've decided that we're in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans," Gingrich said in a phone interview on Thursday. "You've had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty."
Perspective: We've got a Christian president who's just as Christiany (even if it's a different flavor) as the last guy, who had an almost unanimously Christian administration which relentlessly pandered to conservative Christians, including nominating three openly Christian justices to the Supreme Court (two of whom made it to the bench), an almost entirely Christian Congress who start each session with a prayer, guaranteed freedom of religion, money that says "In God We Trust," a pledge of allegiance that describes us as "one nation under God," television networks who will accept advertising from conservative religious groups but not liberal political groups, schools who are incorporating a religious belief into science classes, gays being denied marriage in order to protect its "sanctity," conscience clauses for pharmacists and healthcare providers, religion-based residential communities being built, Museums of Creationism springing up, laws still on the books that respect Christians' holy day (like in Indiana, where you still can't shop for a car or buy booze on a Sunday), churches not required to pay taxes, Christmas recognized as a national holiday, and on and on and on.
Anyone who looks at the American landscape and sees "threats to religious liberty" is fucking delusional.
Fuck OFF, Gingrich—and take your manufactured martyr complex with you.
Asshole.
Quote of The Day
"God, all this love in the room and everything—I'm horny!"—Joe the Plumber Full-Tilt Dipshit, opening his speech at last night's Media Research Center DisHonors Awards ceremony, "an evening of roasting the 'most outrageously biased liberal reporting of the year'."
Broadway Dims Its Lights for Natasha Richardson
Voiceover: On Thursday night, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights to honor the death of one of its own, Tony Award-winning actress Natasha Richardson. She died Wednesday night from bleeding in her skull, caused by a fall she took on a ski slope.
Neighbor: I just feel very badly for the families. It's a terrible accident. They're wonderful people; he's a neighborhood person. He hangs out at all the neighborhood places, and supports them, and they're just regular people, and it's a very sad tragedy.
VO: Her mother, actress Vanessa Redgrave, and husband, actor Liam Neeson, were seen hugging and talking to well-wishers near the theaters. Her colleagues, celebrity couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, mourned alongside Richardson's family.
She descended from one of Britain's greatest acting dynasties; her father was director Tony Richardson, and her maternal grandfather was actor Michael Redgrave. Richardson was known for her work in the plays Cabaret, for which she won a Tony, and Anna Christie. She also appeared in the films Patty Hearst and The Handmaid's Tale.
Her family has yet to release any information about funeral arrangements; instead of flowers, they ask that donations be made to the amfAR foundation for AIDS research.
Myra Lopez, the Associated Press.
Defending a Man Who Needs No Defense
So last night, Iain and I are watching The Tonight Show, because one of about maybe 5 people on the planet who can get us to tune into that dreck is a guest: President Obama. And everything's going pretty well, when Obama comes out with this mess:
THE PRESIDENT: I bowled a 129. (Laughter and applause.)At which point I said, "Wow. He's going to need to apologize for that one."
Leno: No, that's very good. Yes. That's very good, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: It's like—it was like Special Olympics, or something. (Laughter.)
And so he did. Even before the show aired, Obama called the chairperson of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, from Air Force One and apologized to him.
"He expressed his disappointment and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population," Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.Obviously, it would have been better if Obama had never said something so wildly insensitive in the first place, and it's terrible to know he holds the sort of prejudices that allows that sort of "joke" to even pop into his head (no less out of his mouth), but he did—and he had the decency to apologize for it as soon as it was pointed out to him and/or he realized that he'd made a serious mistake.
Still, Shriver said, "I think it's important to see that words hurt and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seem as humiliating or a put down to people with special needs do cause pain and they do result in stereotypes."
That has not, however, stopped fauxgressives leaping to the defense of a man who himself clearly sees no need for defense of his own admittedly indefensible action. As Shaker SamanthaB notes in comments: "[T]he thing that has me furious this morning with the fauxgressives are the justifications for Obama's Special Olympics last night. One of the most common arguments was that this was such a non-issue compared to the AIG stuff. Sure, it's just a one liner, but, Jeebus, they speak to the EXACT same thing, this BS Social Darwinism, where people who can play the game right are inherently more worthwhile than others. It ALL connects, and for 'progressives' not to get this is rather astonishing. Anytime you're suggesting that one person is more worthwhile than other, it has repercussions far and wide."
That about sums it up. And I can't help but bitterly laugh at the knee-jerk impulse to defend a man who said something he already admitted was wrong—which may actually be stupider than the idiot conservatives and their knee-jerk impulse to defend a man who was congenitally incapable of admitting he was wrong.
Something for which, if I recall correctly, progressives used to mock them. And deservedly so.
Random YouTubery: Extreme Sheepherding
As I watched this video, I was thinking, "These goofballs HAVE to be Welsh!" And then I looked at the names at the end: Jones, Davis, Llewellyn. Yup. Welshmen.
[H/T to Shaker rrp, who saw it here.]
Friday Blogaround
What's the frequency, Shakers?
Recommended Reading:
Little Light: Fair
Matttbastard: Kyle Payne: Douchebasket
Lisa: No Person is "Born to Rape"
Autumn: Blaming the Victim, Angie Zapata, for Her Own Death
Gwen: "Take Courage" Beer Ad
MaryAnn: I Love You, Man (review)
Leave your links in comments...
Inherit the Dumbassery
Submitted without comment, just the sound of my head hitting my desk:
A Texas legislator is waging a war of biblical proportions against the science and education communities in the Lone Star State as he fights for a bill that would allow a private school that teaches creationism to grant a Master of Science degree in the subject.(Article here)
State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) proposed House Bill 2800 when he learned that The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), a private institution that specializes in the education and research of biblical creationism, was not able to receive a certificate of authority from Texas' Higher Education Coordinating Board to grant Master of Science degrees.
Berman's bill would allow private, non-profit educational institutions to be exempt from the board’s authority.
“If you don’t take any federal funds, if you don’t take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding,” Berman says. “Why should you be regulated if you don’t take any state or federal funding?”
HB 2800 does not specifically name ICR; it would allow any institution that meets its criteria to be exempt from the board's authority. But Berman says ICR was the inspiration for the bill because he feels creationism is as scientific as evolution and should be granted equal weight in the educational community.
“I don’t believe I came from a salamander that crawled out of a swamp millions of years ago,” Berman told FOXNews.com. "I do believe in creationism. I do believe there are gaps in evolution.
"But when you ask someone who believes in evolution, if you ask one of the elitists who believes in evolution about the gaps, they’ll tell you that the debate is over, that there is no debate, evolution is the thing, it’s the only way to go.”
