Bullying. Dogma. Well-raised boys and girls. It all puts me in mind of The Smiths' "Barbarism Begins at Home," lyrics by a gentlemen who happens to share my belief that this shit doesn't happen in a void…
(Not-So-) Random YouTubery
The Giant Sucking Sound...
Another Republican has had to supplicate to Rush Limbaugh.
Last week in an interview with the Kansas City Star editorial board, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) risked alienating thousands of ditto-heads by giving his honest opinion of whether Rush Limbaugh was the "de facto leader of the GOP." "No, no, he's just an entertainer," Tiahrt said.According to Steve Benen, that makes five -- that we know of -- members of the GOP that have had to grovel before the Man in the Glass Booth.
According to the Wichita Eagle (via Kansas Jackass), Tiahrt's office is now also rushing to apologize:Asked about the episode and resulting Web buzz, Tiahrt spokesman Sam Sackett said Tiahrt was not speaking negatively about Limbaugh but was trying to defend him against the suggestion that Limbaugh could be blamed for the GOP’s woes. "The congressman believes Rush is a great leader of the conservative movement in America -- not a party leader responsible for election losses," Sackett told The Eagle editorial board. "Nothing the congressman said diminished the role Rush has played and continues to play in the conservative movement."
And the latest Republican meme is that President Obama is weak and kowtows to bullies. Huh.
Crossposted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Quote of the Day
"He's a great kid. I can't believe what's going on. He's a very bright, intelligent, articulate guy. I just keep thinking there must be some mistake."—The former stepfather of Philip Markoff, aka "the Craigslist Killer," a "preppy medical student" who has been charged with murdering one woman and kidnapping and assaulting another, both of whom he met on Craigslist.
Because Markoff is straight, white, handsome, smart, and in his second year of medical school, everyone around him is naturally expressing surprise that he could do something horrible, including his fiancée, who insists he is "a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!"
Maybe so. Or maybe he's like a lot of other misogynist attackers, rapists, and killers, who are also straight, white, handsome, smart guys.
Countdown to "he's a good Christian" in 5...4...3...2...
Cool
Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet:
In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place.Kevin Costner had no comment.
European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.
"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.
An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."
Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.
Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."
Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.
He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.
Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.
"It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.
Obama Now Open to Theoretical Torture Investigations
As long as they're bipartisan! (lolsob)
Mr. Obama, who has been saying that the nation should look ahead rather than focusing on the past, said he is "not suggesting" that a commission [to investigate the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects] be established.Let me just take a moment here to point out that the Republican Party has no credibility with the public on the issue of torture at the moment, so the general public—last seen voting in a Democratic Congressional majority and Democratic President with a sweeping mandate—doesn't give a shit about a bipartisan investigation. The only people who will raise a fuss about it are idiot conservatives, who would immediately renounce as a "real conservative" and denounce as a traitor any Republican who agrees to participate in such an investigation, anyway. So, yet again, we're back to bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake, and I say once more: Fuck 'em.
But in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, he said, "if and when there needs to be a further accounting," he hoped that Congress would examine ways to obtain one "in a bipartisan fashion," from people who are independent and therefore can build credibility with the public.
Mr. Obama said once again that he does not favor prosecuting C.I.A. operatives who used interrogation techniques that he has since banned. But as for lawyers or others who drew up the former policies allowing such techniques, he said it would be up to his attorney general to decide what to do, adding, "I don't want to prejudge that."You know, that's a funny thing, because I seem to recall a presidential candidate named Barack Obama who took a pretty strong stand against torture and vowed to hold accountable the people who engaged in it. But I guess "taking an ethical position" is just something in which one can't afford to recklessly engage once one becomes president, lest he be accused of prejudice.
Against war criminals.
In Things That Make Me Feel Old
The Cure's Robert Smith is 50 years old today.
Happy Birthday, Bob! In his honor, here's one of my favorite Cure songs, "Just Like Heaven," the lyrics for which can be found here: Spinning on that dizzy edge / I kissed her face and kissed her head / And dreamed of all the different ways I had / To make her glow...
Related: FYI.
Miss Anti-Gay USA
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's CifA about the Miss USA contestant who answered a question about same-sex marriage by saying "in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman," and is blaming her subsequent loss on her unwillingness to compromise her values.
Considering that beauty pageants have a 1950's Rosie-the-Rivetwho? sensibility about them, I suppose it shouldn't surprise anyone when a contestant holds political opinions from the same era. But such reasonable explanations would necessarily preclude a week's worth of Drama! and Scandal! and Recriminations! to turn the loser of a two-bit dog-and-pony show into the glamorous martyr of a sequin-drenched political circus.Read the whole thing here.
Miss California, having promptly lost the pageant to Miss North Carolina, nee Kristen Dalton, after her disastrously bigoted answer, is now taking to the airwaves (Wow — the Billy Bush Show? What a coincidence!) to claim her sweet Christian answer cost her the crown:It is a very touchy subject and [Perez Hilton] is a homosexual and I see where he was coming from and I see the audience would've wanted me to be more politically correct. But I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything.Including supporting basic equality for those darn touchy queers. 'Cuz that's not what God, who was testing her faith by having one of those darn touchy queers ask her the question, wants. The only reason God even makes gay people is to test the faith of sweet Christian heterosexuals; he doesn't put them here to live full lives of their own and fall in love and have families and get married. Duh!
The Storm! It's coming!
I'm sure we all recall that same old bullshit from NOM that Pet wrote about a couple weeks ago. Here is the latest star-studded parody of hilariousness:
Again.
Another 11-year-old child, Jaheem Herrera, has hanged himself "after enduring extreme daily bullying that included antigay taunts."
This is how his best friend described Jaheem's agony to Jaheem's mother:
He told me that he’s tired of everybody always messing with him in school. He is tired of telling the teachers and the staff, and they never do anything about the problems. So, the only way out is by killing himselfVia
(cross-posted)
Why is it always 11?
Because Mama Shakes hates me, she just emailed me the link to the Reader's Digest Spring Cartoons Collection: "11 cartoons from Reader's Digest that celebrate the silly side of spring."
Her accompanying note: "Once again, side-splitting cartoons provided for your hilarity, courtesy of Reader's Digest. You probably won't be able to blog for a while after reading these; you'll be laughing so hard. I just hope you don't literally split a side. That could be messy."
If possible, this collection is even worse than the "11 Funny Christmas Cartoons" she sent me.
I eagerly await RD's "11 Independence Day Cartoons that celebrate the enigmatic side of summer patriotism."
No, Seriously—Pain Is Real!
Yesterday I saw two commercials back-to-back that reflect chronic pain patients' perceived credibility gap.
1. Migraine
The first ad is a short spot for Excedrin Migraine, starring Elisabeth Moss:
If you have migraines, you know pain. These things are for real. So is Excedrin Migraine. It starts relieving migraine pain in half an hour. That's not all--it gets rid of sensitivity to light and sound. Everything.
Now, I do have migraines, although they are pretty well under control these days (unless a storm rolls in suddenly). My migraines sneer at Imitrex, let alone Excedrin Migraine, which is just plain old Excedrin Extra Strength with a different label. The ingredients are exactly the same: 250 mg acetaminophen, 250 mg aspirin and 65 mg caffeine*.
Fortunately for me (but not for him), the neurologist who diagnosed my migraines has migraines himself. And rheumatoid arthritis. He needs no convincing that pain is "real". But it is a common myth that migraine is not "real" and that people with migraines just "can't handle life", as the non-profit migraine awareness group MAGNUM puts it. If you have migraines, you had better hope your doctor takes your pain seriously: according to the journal Neurology's Multispecialty consensus on diagnosis and treatment of headache , only about half of migraine sufferers receive a medical diagnosis and only 28% are very satisfied with treatment.
Even when a doctor is thoroughly considering her patient's pain, the pervasive cultural idea that chronic pain is not "real" can combine with poor communication to leave the patient feeling dismissed. Dr. Dawn A. Marcus of the University of Pittsburgh's Multidisciplinary Headache Clinic says it well in her article Talking to Your Headache Doctor:
Often, what doctors say is very different from what patients hear. For example, a doctor trying to reassure a patient that her headaches aren’t caused by a serious problem might say, “You don’t have any serious medical problems.” In response, the patient might think, “Oh no! Everybody thinks I’m faking my headaches. I can’t even find a doctor who takes me seriously.”So even if your doctor is acting in good faith, poorly-worded attempts to reassure you that your life is not in immediate danger** can read as "it's just in your head". Doctors and patients alike need to be more aware of the way that cultural narratives follow us into the exam room.
2. Fibromyalgia
The second commercial promotes Lyrica for the treatment of fibromyalgia. I cannot find a video or transcript anywhere, but the advert shows a woman carrying a big platter of food to a crowd of waiting guests. She says she has fibromyalgia and adds, "the pain is real, but I'm not the kind of person to lie down and quit". Later in the ad, the woman cheerfully informs us, "and, Lyrica is not an anti-depressant!".
This Lyrica commercial is a disaster on several fronts. We not only see the woman having to assert that her pain is "real", but also that she isn't one to lie down and quit, as though other fibromyalgia patients are. Furthermore, the advert shows Lyrica giving the patient enough energy to host a whole yardful of hungry guests, with the implication that if you do not, then you're a quitter. Finally, there is an oblique stigmatizing of mental illness when the woman asserts that Lyrica is "not an anti-depressant!". She doesn't clarify what the implied advantage really is—fewer side effects, perhaps. This vagueness, combined with the "I'm no quitter" framing, makes the assertion read as "you won't have to take those drugs—you know, the ones for mopey old quitters."
I do not have fibromyalgia and have no personal experience with it. But the cultural stigma attached to fibromyalgia is obvious even to an outsider like me when such mainstream sources as The New York Times and The Journal of Rheumatology are still wringing their hands over the "reality" of fibromyalgia nearly twenty years after the American College of Rheumatology established diagnostic criteria.
The Excedrin and Lyrica commercials reflect the cultural stereotype that chronic pain is not "real" by asserting that it is, but in so doing they also reinforce that stereotype. The commercials could have simply said that their products address the severe recurrent pain of migraine or the chronic widespread pain of fibromyalgia. Those phrases recognize the reality of the pain. By insisting that the pain is "real", the adverts invoke the idea that people with chronic pain are fakers.
N.B.: these two commercials are American, but the United States is hardly the only culture that has a problem acknowledging chronic pain as real.
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* Everyone is different, so I'm not saying Excedrin Migraine won't work for anyone—perhaps those whose headaches respond well to caffeine would like it. But slapping "Migraine" on the label and implying that it's specially formulated is disingenuous.
** In the case of migraines, bear in mind that the risk of stroke goes up. Your doctor should discuss stroke risk with you, so be sure to ask.
Sebelius Goes to Senate for Full Vote
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has won approval from the Senate Finance Committee for a final, full-Senate vote on her nomination as health and human services secretary.
"Gov. Sebelius strongly shares the president's commitment to high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans and if confirmed, will work to bring down the crippling cost of health care and expand coverage," White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said after the vote. "We are pleased that she was confirmed by the Finance Committee this morning and look forward to a vote before the full Senate."When Tom Daschle (who later withdrew) was first nominated, I said, "To be perfectly blunt, because there are so many long-ignored issues surrounding healthcare access, research, and treatment specific to women, racial minorities, and/or LGBTQIs, this is the one cabinet position where I really wanted to see a woman of color, preferably queer, with a relevant background." Sebelius still doesn't meet that bill, but she's definitely a step in the right direction.
Teaspoons-a-Go-Go
National service bill to get Obama's signature:
The AmeriCorps program started by President Bill Clinton will triple in size over the next eight years, and tens of thousands of other Americans will soon see new opportunities to give back to their communities.The signing ceremony is set to be held at the SEED School of Washington, "a public boarding school that serves inner-city students facing problems in both the classroom and at home," and will be attended by the ailing Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who has championed the legislation, which also bears his name.
It's all part of a $5.7 billion national service bill President Barack Obama is scheduled to sign Tuesday to foster and fulfill people's desire to make a difference, such as by mentoring children, cleaning up parks or building and weatherizing homes for the poor.
Bolstering voluntary public service programs has been a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer in his early 20s for giving him direction in life.
The White House said Monday that the president "will call on people across the country to serve their communities and work together to tackle the nation's tough challenges."
...The legislation provides for gradually increasing the size of AmeriCorps to 250,000 enrollees from its current 75,000. It outlines five broad categories where people can direct their service: helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting veterans.
Cheney Needs to STFU
This guy's like someone who got fired but keeps coming back to the job to tell you that you're not doing it right:
Former vice president Dick Cheney continued his one-man assault on President Obama, issuing a broad condemnation of the White House — from its handling of the CIA interrogation memos to the handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — during an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity last night.Keep talking, dipshit. Obama's got an approval rating 50 points higher than you had in the Good Days, so I'm sure you're really endearing the Republican opposition to the American people by insisting on being their most public critic of the popular new president.
Cheney, never one to shy away from a political fistfight, called it "a little bit disturbing" that the Obama administration had released some of the CIA memos "but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort." ... On Obama's handshake with Chavez, Cheney said he "didn't think much of it" but added, more broadly, that he was "concerned with the way that we've been represented overseas."
"I think you have to be very careful. The world outside there — both our friends and our foes — will be quick to advantage of a situation if they think they're dealing with a weak president or one who's not going to stand up and aggressively defend America's interests.He's effectively calling Obama a traitor. He's not going to "aggressively defend America's interests" and he's cavorting with the "bad guys." It's the same rhetoric the Bush administration used against their opposition, and it's the same rhetoric the McCain campaign used against Obama during the election. Democrats/liberals/progressives are traitors and terrorist-appeasers. Rinse. Repeat.
"The United States provides much of the leadership in the world. We have for a long time. I don't think we've got much to apologize for."
Just days after Obama shook hands and received a gift from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Cheney called the images of the encounter "not helpful." "I think it sets the wrong standard," Cheney added.
"The president's got to provide leadership and I don't want to be in a position where you don't interact with your adversaries. I think you do need to do that but I think it's got to be done properly. It's got to be done under the right conditions. And it's got to be made clear that you do distinguish between good guys and bad guys, between those who believe in democracy, who are friends and allies of the United States and those who don't."
Old as petrified shit, and just as ugly.
Question of the Day
In honor of the Edies: What is your favorite documentary film?
I am a huge nerd for documentaries, and will watch a documentary film on just about any subject imaginable, though people-centered docs are generally my favorites.
My all-time favorite is probably the 1992 Ron Fricke (with Mark Magidson) film Baraka, which I believe is even better than his possibly more well-known Koyaanisqatsi. Fricke invented a camera specifically to make the film, which was shot across 24 countries in 14 months and was one of the last films shot in the TODD-AO 70mm format.
Baraka, which takes its name from an ancient Sufi word translated as "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence, of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds" (and is also the root of our president's first name), is the story of our planet, and its breathtaking beauty, and its amazing people, and the things we have created, and the destruction we have wrought. It has no dialogue; its soundtrack is music and song and natural sounds, and it is as close a thing to hymns as music gets for someone like me—the hum of the world and the people in it.
I first saw in the theater almost fifteen years ago now; I walked in not knowing what to expect of a film which was described by friends who recommended it as stunning, poetic, life-changing. It was all of those things.
If you've never seen it, do.
(The CD soundtrack is also awesome.)
Grey Gardens Open Thread
So, when I first heard that HBO was making a film of Grey Gardens, based on the iconic Maysles' documentary of the same name, I was dubious. When I heard Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore were playing Big Edie and Little Edie, I was less dubious, but still dubious all the same.
I love Grey Gardens, for all the reasons that anyone loves it—because it is endlessly fascinating, because the Edies are mad and dramatic and wonderful and perplexing and captivating, because there is a touch of the Edie in me. I love that it makes me want to declare anything that happens to me "the worst thing to happen in the history of America."
And I love it because it breaks my heart. The two staunch characters with artistic ambitions at its center are products of an aristocratic patriarchy that offered them no support or cultural infrastructure for anything except becoming a wife. It is an implicitly feminist film; criticism of the social structure that denied them both vocational opportunities and the chance to realize themselves as full human beings is embedded in every beautiful and tragic frame, even if unintentionally so.
Ergo, it was with some trepidation that I watched the HBO film this weekend, which sought to contextualize the years just before and during the making of Grey Gardens, to answer the question: How did they arrive there, in their dilapidated estate, surrounded by cats and raccoons and pâté, combining bath towels and heirloom jewelry into a weird sort of fashion, the singing and dancing stars of their own show? And what happened to Little Edie's hair?
Even as it was obvious that the two staunch characters were so determined to live their lives on their own terms that they'd sooner live in squalor than in any circumstances dictated by someone else, the details were a mystery—and the mystery was part of the magic.
I certainly didn't expect to adore a film that had the potential to undermine that magic, to make excuses or explanations that turned the Edies into caricatures, or rendered them knowable and typical and small. But I did. Because it did not do a disservice to the Big Edie and Little Edie; it neither canonized them nor mocked them. It loved them as much as I do.
And Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore were fantastic. They made me cry.
