Thursday, April 9—tomorrow—is the last day of the public comment period on rescinding the Department of Health and Human Services rule change known as Bush's Healthcare Denial Rule. That means if you haven't already submitted your comment in support of rescinding the rule, you need to do it ASAP.
Go to the ACLU Action Center here, or visit Planned Parenthood's action page here, or Compassion & Choices' action page here, all of whom have made it incredibly easy to make your voice heard by the Obama administration.
It's up to us to encourage them to do the right thing. Work those teaspoons!
[Previously on on the HHS Rule Change: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten.]
Important Reminder
Daily Kitteh
Shot this yesterday while Moon and Feather were being generally cute. Sorry about the dark vid, but you can at least witness the marvel of Feather's eyeball, up close and personal.
Quote of the Day
"The incredible frequency of rape and sexual assault in our society means that many, many victims of rape will see [the movie], and the PTSD that often accompanies rape will mean that, for a joke, for some dipshit filmmaker's attempt at being edgy, they are going to experience all of the pain and psychological trauma associated with that experience, they are going to feel that rape all over again, there, in their seats, in the theater, and they are going to pay for the experience, and if they try to talk about what that filmmaker did to them it's probably going to get sidetracked into some conversation about the Sanctity of Art which is invariably given more consideration than their actual lives."—Sady, on the unmitigated clusterfuck that is the new Seth "Rape Apologist #1" Rogan's new film, Observe and Report, which includes a scene of Rogan's character "grinding away on top of an ostensibly unconscious alcohol-and-drug-addled, vomit-flecked" woman, and the trailer for which opens with a man running around flashing women.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Grumbles Moustache Wax, for all your handlebar grooming needs.
Recommended Reading:
Yennenga: Asian Women Carnival #1
Marcella: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 68
Shark-fu: Missouri Legislature: Coerced Pregnancy, Fine; Voluntary Abortion, No Way
Deborah: Adventures in Atheist Parenting
Tami: WaPo Laments Barack Obama's Blind Black Followers
Bill: Now That's a Lack of Privacy We Can Believe In
And Amy Poehler loves teh gayz!
Leave your links in comments...
Holy Shit
Just in case you needed actual, tangible proof that FOX is fucking evil:
Fox has ordered a “one-hour unscripted series that turns real-life company layoffs into a reality contest.” The show — titled “Someone’s Gotta Go” — will give company staffers access to internal information (budgets, HR files, and salaries) and the power to determine which of the company’s staffers is fired. The Hollywood Reporter notes, “It’s the anti-‘Apprentice’: Instead of contestants vying for a dream job, they’re fighting to keep the lousy one they already have.”Exploit the misery of people struggling to keep their jobs for profit and fucking entertainment. You have to "love" the sniggering about how "lousy" these jobs are; too bad these idiots didn't get into creating shitty television shows, amirite? I'm fucking appalled. Oh, and one more kick in the teeth:
Fox is also launching a new program called “More To Love,” a dating show for overweight contestants.Hell isn't hot enough.
You can let FOX know how you feel about their delightful programming choices here, if you're so inclined. I'd normally ask you to try and be polite, but fuck, I don't know if that's possible at this point.
(Also, if you're tempted to comment "What do you expect? It's FOX!", don't.)
Man vs. Mouse
Roger Ebert, film critic and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, defends his paper from the attacks of Bill O'Reilly and nails him with a deftness that can only be called pure genius.
I understand you believe one of the Sun-Times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that "very few" readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, "many more complained about Nancy." I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that "wow" was "mom" spelled upside-down.Here's the money quote:
Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?Snap. With cheese.
That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
"Whites Only"
Recently, when I asked my students an exam question about World War II and pre- and during war mobilization, I began with the statement, “During the first half of the 1940s, Americans found themselves confronted with the paradox of fighting racism abroad while sustaining a racially/ethnically stratified system at home.” Of course, that is a broad statement—you could argue, for example, that given the fact that the military was segregated, the U.S. sustained racism abroad during the war, as well.
And now, the BBC has found another way in which the U.S. “sustained racism abroad” during the war: Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.
Much of the Free French fighting force (65%) was African, and they had made tremendous sacrifices: By the time France fell in June 1940, 17,000 of its black, mainly West African colonial troops, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais, lay dead.
But the U.S. and the U.K. were dismissive of their service. When the liberation of Paris seemed possible in 1944 and Charles de Gaulle insisted that the French lead the liberation,
Many of them were simply shot where they stood soon after surrendering to German troops who often regarded them as sub-human savages. Allied High Command agreed, but only on one condition: De Gaulle's division must not contain any black soldiers.
To create the “whites only” illusion,
In January 1944 Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, was to write in a memo stamped, "confidential": "It is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel.” Allied Command insisted that all black soldiers be taken out and replaced by white ones from other units.
In a sense, this is not surprising for the U.S.—a nation that had always downplayed black military personnel’s service, that relegated black service people to menial duties, that until World War II, excluded them from certain branches of the military. The degradation of African Americans military service went so far that, in 1925, the Army War College issued a report detailing why African Americans were unfit for combat and could never be pilots.
When it became clear that there were not enough white soldiers to fill the gaps, soldiers from parts of North Africa and the Middle East were used instead.
But this seems somehow, particularly low, that in the midst of what was supposed to be a great triumph, the U.S. took the time to strengthen and assert policies that were supposed to be the very antithesis of what it was fighting for.
crossposted
Feel the Spreading Freedom
[Trigger warning.]
Iraq's Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder:
The relative freedom of a newly democratic Iraq and the recent improvement in security have allowed a gay subculture to flourish here. The response has been swift and deadly.But this shit doesn't happen in a void, and if indeed families are killing their own members in some kind of newfangled honor killing (like I just said in comments, misogyny and homophobia so frequently arrive hand-in-hand at the same parties), the "shame" used to justify that murderous hatred is fueled by religious leaders and by the police, even as they point their fingers at the families.
In the past two months, the bodies of as many as 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City, the police and friends of the dead say. Most have been shot, some multiple times. Several have been found with the word "pervert" in Arabic on notes attached to their bodies, the police said.
...The chief of a Sadr City police station, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to reporters, said family members had probably committed most of the Sadr City killings. He played down the role of death squads that had once been associated with the Mahdi Army, the militia that controlled Sadr City until American and Iraqi forces dislodged them last spring.
"Our investigation has found that these incidents are being committed by relatives of the gays — not just because of the militias," he said. "They are killing them because it is a shame on the family."
He said families typically refused to cooperate with the investigation or even to claim the bodies. No arrests have been made in the killings.
Clerics in Sadr City have urged followers to help root out homosexuality in Iraqi society, and the police have begun their own crackdown on gay men.America didn't import homophobia to Iraq, but here's the problem: Because we're still chockablock with institutional homophobia ourselves, we've barely got a moral leg on which to stand in order to bring diplomatic pressure to bear in the country we continue to occupy.
"Homosexuality is against the law," said Lt. Muthana Shaad, at a police station in the Karada district, a neighborhood that has become popular with gay men. "And it's disgusting."
For the past four months, he said, officers have been engaged in a "campaign to clean up the streets and get the beggars and homosexuals off them."
Still, I'd nonetheless like to see Secretary of State Clinton "be really vigilant and outspoken in our total repudiation of those kinds of actions and do everything we can, including using our leverage on matters such as aid, to change the behavior so we can try to prevent such atrocities from happening," as promised.
Contact the US State Department.I've Got a New Meme
Rush Limbaugh does not support or respect veterans.
A Republican veteran who served in the Army and Marine Corps slammed Limbarf, along with his cronies, on their endorsement and love of the US' use of torture. Since Rush cannot handle criticism very well, he resorts to painting a fellow Republican as not a "true" Republican (i.e. an enemy to the cause).
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Rush, listen, I voted Republican, and I didn't -- really didn't want to see Obama get in office. But, you know, Rush, you're one reason to blame for this election, for the Republicans losing.You should head over to County Fair for the full transcript. It's gold.
First of all, you kept harping about voting for Hillary. The second big issue is the -- was the torture issue. I'm a veteran. We're not supposed to be torturing these people. This is not Nazi Germany, Red China, or North Korea. There's other ways of interrogating people, and you kept harping about it -- "It's OK," or "It's not really torture." And it was just more than waterboarding. Some of these prisoners were killed under torture.
And it just -- it was crazy for you to keep going on and on like Levin and Hannity and Hewitt. It's like you're all brainwashed.
And my last comment is, no matter what Obama does, you will still criticize him because I believe you're brainwashed. You're just -- and I hate to say it -- but I think you're a brainwashed Nazi. Anyone who could believe in torture just has got to be - there's got to be something wrong with them. [...] And I know Bush wanted to keep us safe and all of that, but we're not supposed to be torturing these people. [...]
LIMBAUGH: Charles, Barack Obama is president of the United States today because of stupid, ignorant people who think like you do. You pose -- you and your ignorance are the most expensive commodity this country has. You think you know everything. You don't know diddly-squat.
You call me a Nazi? You call me somebody who supports torture and you want credibility on this program? You know, you're just plain embarrassing and ludicrous. But it doesn't surprise me that you're the kind of Republican that our last candidate attracted. Because you're no Republican at all based on what the hell you've said here.
In the meantime, remember to spread that new meme around.
[H/T to C&L]
Operation Lawn Chair: An Epistolary Post
In which I substitute a (slightly edited) email exchange between myself and Liss for an actual post, since people have been doing that lately. Oh, and this one has pictures!
Friday, March 27, 2009:
SKM: OK, so I must have Spring Fever, because these J. Crew stretch chinos (on eBay) look like they ought to be made of vinyl and cleaned with a damp sponge:
...and yet I kind of want them! What's WRONG with me?!
Liss: LOL! I don't know -- I'm pretty sure those cruise pretty comfortably right past ugly and back around to fuckin' cool.
They also look like a fine excuse to buy a gorgeous green stone necklace at Etsy -- you know, the kind that being a woman in her mid-30s finally grants one the maturity and carriage that one can wear them without looking like she's playing dress-up.
SKM: Thanks--now I want the deck chair pants AND a green stone necklace!
Liss: Do you know what's funny? I'm working on a post right now titled "The Best $6.95 I Ever Spent" about something I bought on Etsy a few days ago and just arrived in the mail.
I love it with the power of 10,000 suns.
SKM: I feel better about the world knowing that [your Golden Girls Scrabble tile pendant] exists.
Liss: I think the only thing that could make my post about my pendant any better is if it were followed up by a post about your (?) pants. :-)
The following morning, with the subject line "Operation Lawn Chair is Go!":
SKM: There was a showdown at the South Beach Corral last night, and I prevailed. Without raising my bid. I guess the other folks just didn't want to look like lawn chairs badly enough. But as my little sister pointed out, "wait, isn't lawn chair in? What about Nora on Project Runway, Season One?" It was actually made of lounge chairs!
To which I would add, Kenley did that too in the last season (and yes, those are dodge balls on the poor model's bosom):
Much of Kenley's other work, while not actually made of pool-side furniture, certainly looked to be reclaimed from loungers at a Days Inn in Florida:
I guess we'll see if I can Make It Work!
Liss: Btw, did you hear that Kenley was just arrested for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend with, among other things, their cat? Seriously.
And sure enough, gentle readers, my Crazy Spring Lawn Chair Pants arrived, just in time....for freezing weather and snow:
There was exactly one sunbeam in Pittsburgh yesterday, among all the snowflakes
I can hear Tim Gunn's voice telling me to "think about editing", but what the hell--it's been a long winter, people!
Assvertising
Today's installment is a two-parter, in which we check out how sex sells food and go international. But we'll start in the good old US of A, where the unholy union of Burger King, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and SpongeBob SquarePants are selling kids' meals with the irresistible allure of square butts:
Sir Mix-A-Lot as the Burger King, rapping: I like square butts and I cannot lie / Squid and Sea Star can't deny / When a sponge walks in / Four corners in his pants / Like he got phone book implants / The crowd shouts / All the ladies stare / Dang, those pants are square! / Swimming through the seaweed tangles / Is a butt with sharp right angles / Now, SpongeBob! / I wanna get witcha / 'Cuz you're making me richa / Burger King wants me to seal the deal / Ninety-nine cent, get a toy and a kid's meal!
Sir Mix-A-Lot, onscreen: Booty is booty.
This is just eight different shades of fucked-up. The thing is, the updated rap is clever and funny, and if the imagery had matched the lyrics, which were about SpongeBob's butt, that would have been one thing. But evidently that would have been "too gay" for Burger King (since everyone knows SpongeBob's a huge 'mo!) so adult women were inserted to be objectified and have their body parts measured by the Burger King.
As Shaker justmos, who sent the link, observed: "They are starting them early."
There is also an extended, 2.5-minute version in which the women's asses are observed by men through a telescope and a magnifying glass, and contains more explicit dancing, as well—even though the lyrics are "SpongeBob's got back."
And I guess I don't need to point out that this sexualized commercial for a kid's meal clearly presumes the kid in question is a straight male, so girls get to swallow their dignity along with their shitty food.
Starting them early indeed.
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And now over to Russia, where we've been sent by Shaker AF, to have a look at these creatives (which I'm not certain were actually used in an official campaign) for milk. And you thought the "Got Milk?" campaign was bad...
In case you missed it, not only is the milk cast as semen, but most of the women are cast as cows, bearing hair tied into "ears," chewing on greens, donned with spots, and/or sporting cowbells around their necks (this is not what "more cowbell" meant).
Shaker AF notes, hilariously: "This ad actually makes me more lactose intolerant, if that's even possible."
I don't even know what else to say. If you don't get why this campaign is problematic, to put it politely, you're probably at the wrong goddamn blog.
[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four.]
No Mas Macho
Kathleen Parker, in one of her more unguardedly loopy columns, chastises Barack Obama for not being a tough guy.
If George W. Bush was a cowboy, Obama is a group hug.To quote the immortal C.J. Cregg from The West Wing: "Wow, are you stupid."
He says we should show leadership by listening. That we should work in partnership with others. That we should show humility. This is, of course, pure porn for women. But unfortunately, women don't rule the world. Men still do. And we have to worry whether Obama will be viewed as weak and the U.S., therefore, vulnerable.
And because the world is thus, we are also necessarily concerned whether Obama will respond aggressively enough when appropriate. This is because Americans still don't really know Obama yet. At each turn since taking office, he reveals new aspects of himself.
We now know that he is without qualm when he finds it necessary to fire corporate chiefs. But will he be as bold when rogue nations strap on their Speedos and display their missilery, as North Korea just did?
Ms. Parker's sexism must be pathological; her comment about how appealing Obama must be to women because he's not a swaggering bully is just staggering, not to mention pathetic. And I don't even want to speculate why she went with a Speedo metaphor for North Korea's missile program.
To the larger point, as if the last eight years didn't already prove it, macho bullshit gets people killed. If it isn't by recklessly invading other countries to prove your toughness -- unless, however, you're picking on a country that had nothing to do with a previous attack but presented a tempting target -- it invites other people to attack you and kill innocent people in the process. Even if they don't respond with violence, it is not the way to win friends and influence people. No one should doubt America's resolve to defend ourselves from attack, but it's a lot harder to get people to take you seriously -- and a lot less likely to come to your defense -- when you act like a jerk.
Ms. Parker's assumption that the only way to get the rest of the world to respect us is to bully and intimidate everyone else with patently phony toughness is demonstrably false. What I think really gets under her skin is the fact that Barack Obama is wildly more popular among the people we have to share this planet with than her stuffed-sock-in-the-codpiece hero.
I know there are some people to whom machismo is a turn-on, but if they have any sense, they'll save it for their personal ads and keep it out of the foreign policy of the United States.
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
There Will Be Cake!
Folks are planning a big celebration today in Union Square in New York in honor of Vermont's passage of same-sex marriage in the Green Mountain State.
Come join Civil Rights Front, Marriage Equality New York, The Power, and The Wedding Party as we celebrate the victory in Vermont!!!!!Here's the where and when: Vermont Victory Rally, Union Square (south side), Wednesday, April 8th, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Vermont became the fourth state to approve same-sex marriages. And they were the first to do so through legislation!!!!!!!!!!
Let's have a party in Union Square and show some love to one of our border states!!!!!
We are wanting to create a chain of green mountains, a symbol of Vermont, to show our love. But below are a few other fun suggestions for things you can bring to this celebration
Things you can bring to show Vermont love:
1. Green Paper/signs in the shape of mountains (represents the green mountains of Vermont) You can write something like "Vermont Believes in Civil Rights" on the mountains.
2. Pint of Ben and Jerrys (not only is it delicious, but it comes from Vermont)
3. Chunk of Cheddar Cheese (another Vermont staple)
4. Picture of a cow (Vermont loves them some cows)
5. Maple syrup (who doesn't love syrup? Right?)
Invite everyone you know and let's celebrate this victory!!! THERE IS GOING TO BE CAKE!!!!!!!
Much Love,
Civil Rights Front
Adam on Idol
Okay, so there was a total clusterfuck on American Idol tonight and the show ran 5 minutes long, which meant that a lot of people on the East Coast and in the Central Time Zone didn't get to see Adam perform and/or if they recorded it, the recording cut off.
Iain and I were among them, screaming at the TV and considering smashing things until we remembered that the internet existed. So, in case anyone else missed it (and for as long as it's up), here's Adam singing "Mad World"—and subsequently getting, I shit you not, a standing ovation from one Mr. Simon Cowell:
UPDATE: Btw, Bill O'Reilly is a hilariously pathetic idiot. He actually thinks he's breaking the news that Adam's queer. Congratulations, Sherlock! You've broken the case of the Totally Not Closeted Gay Dude wide open!
Also well done on proving how enlightened and gay-positive you are by treating pictures of two guys kissing like they're porn and describing them as "embarrassing."
Wow.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Graham: What lyrics have you misheard, and possibly mis-sung for years before realizing your mistake?
Undermine the Sanctity of Who to the What Now?
Blub Warning: Shaker JMonkey sent me the link to this video of Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal's speech on the State Senate floor, explaining why he will not support an effort to amend the state's constitution to reverse the recent unanimous ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Iowa.
One of my daughters was in the workplace one day, and, in her particular workplace at that moment in time, there were a whole bunch of conservative, older men. And those guys were talking about gay marriage—they were talking about discussions going on across the country—and my daughter Kate, after listening to it for about 20 minutes, said to them: "You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care."
I think I learned something from my daughter that day, when she said that. And I've talked with other people about it, and that's what I see, Senator McKinley. I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other and want state law to recognize that.
Is that so wrong? I don't think that's so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife—you know, I've been married for 37 years—I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other.
No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you.
Okay, Seriously,
When the fuck is someone from the Republican Party going to step up and condemn this type of crap?
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says she fears the Obama administration will create “re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.”While wingnuts like Michelle Malkin are enjoying playing victim and whining that the left is "blaming them" for recent tragedies such as the Pittsburgh shootings, this type of hysterical, eliminationist crap obviously is fanning the flames. This is completely irresponsible, and feeding violent, reactionary paranoia. It's time the Republicans realized the real-world implications of these goddamn lies and stepped forward to condemn Bachmann and others that are doing nothing but creating more fear and violence.
More at C&L and FactCheck.org. Tip of the energy dome to everyone on the planet.
In "I'd Rather Be Doing Anything Else" News...
...I'm working on my taxes today.
I just emailed a friend: "Merely figuring out the exact amount I've made this year between donations, freelancing, and ad revenue took me all morning.* Plus, because we live in Indiana but Iain works in Illinois, we have two state returns to do. The whole thing is a giant mess every year. We may just move to the closest country without an extradition treaty instead."
But, jokes aside, the truth is that I've spent the day feeling pretty grateful—to The Guardian for giving me a paying gig, to the advertisers who purchased space at Shakesville, and to every Shaker who made a donation/s last year.
And so I just wanted to interrupt myself for a moment to say: Thank you.
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* And because I'm so going to be the last one out of The Matrix, I have to count every last penny, or else I would never sleep again.
