Last night, while watching Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the upcoming J.J. Abrams-helmed Star Trek film, being interviewed by Letterman…
Liss: He's very dry. I like his sense of humor.
Iain: Aye. He's gooing tae be very famous soomeday. Well, I s'poose he already is, because oov "Heroos." [pause; scratches Matilda's head] Why am'nt I famous yet?
Liss: Never done anything. Never tried anything.
Iain: [laughs loudly] Ye wereny s'poosed tae answer that! [looks at Matilda] Yer mum's a right arse'ole.
[Possibly the funniest thing about this conversation is that if Iain actually ever were to inexplicably become famous, he'd probably implode with panic in approximately 3.7 seconds. Which, btw, I say with all due admiration, because I'd last less than 2.]
News from Shakes Manor
Maddy
[M]y two children and my wife and I were sitting around the kitchen table, eating dinner. I was mid-transition. My older son, Zach, gave me a look.Go read the whole thing. And maybe keep a tissue handy.
"What," I said. He was 7.
"We can't keep calling you 'Daddy'," he said. "If you're going to be a girl. It's too weird."
..."Well," I said to my sons. "My new name is Jenny. You could call me Jenny."
Zach laughed derisively. "Jenny? That's the name you'd give a lady mule."
I tried not to be hurt. "O.K., fine. What do you want to call me?"
"The important thing, boys," Deedie said, "is that you pick something you're comfortable with."
Zach thought this over. He was pretty good at naming things. For a while we'd had a hermit crab named Grabber. Later on, we'd owned a snake named Biter.
"I know," he said. "Let's call you Maddy. That's like, half Mommy, and half Daddy. And anyhow, I know a girl at school named Maddy. She's pretty nice."
[H/T to Shaker j0lt.]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of Shakesville: The Blog for People Smart Enough to Scroll.
Recommended Reading:
Jess: Female Journalists Expected to Humiliate Themselves for Column Inches
Mannion: A Party Held Together with Spit, Chewing Gum, Baling Wire, and Duct Tape
John: Obama on Science
Jenn: Secret Identities: Parry Shen Unmasked
Andy: Nothing Gay in Star Wars, Game Company Insists
Lauredhel: Actual Feminist Cookies
Leave your links in comments...
More Non-Cat Blogging
Since my previous posts about cats cause "problems" and my posts about the dogs have gone unnoticed, I'm answering the call in comments for more inclusive-to-wants posts: babies.
Never say we don't take you seriously here at Shakesville.
I'm not able to link in comments, so I'll answer up here (because I can because I have the power! muwhahahahaha!). On the top is kiddo#1, Easter 2004 & just turned four. On the bottom is kiddo#4, a few months ago, so 3.5 yrs. Same sweater!
And We Have A Scapegoat!
Well, this is probably going to get interesting:
The government has identified Édgar as the first person in Mexico to have become infected with a virulent strain of swine flu, a notoriety that could raise questions about how Mexican officials reacted — or failed to react — to the early stages of what might become a global epidemic.Of course, as always, it's probably not that easy of an answer:
Édgar was one of hundreds of people in La Gloria who came down with flulike symptoms in an outbreak that federal officials say began March 9.
La Gloria may not, in the end, be found to be the source of anything. The village has many immigrants in the United States. Mexican epidemiologists say one theory is that someone who had been in the United States brought the virus back to the community.But why should we let any of this stop us from our obsessive need to find a single person to blame? "From a Mexican Boy with the Flu, Coughs Heard Around the World." Wow.
Before Édgar fell ill, another person in San Diego may have been affected, said Dr. Miguel Ángel Lezana, Mexico’s chief government epidemiologist.
Even now, Édgar’s mother, María del Carmen Hernández, said she received conflicting accounts of the exact illness that kept her son in bed for three days. No one has explained what she should be doing to keep him and the rest of the family healthy, she said, signs that Mexico’s response effort may be spotty, especially in rural areas.
“Some people are saying my boy is to blame for everyone else in the country getting sick,” said Mrs. Hernández, 34, a blank stare on her face as she recounted the family’s ordeal. “I don’t believe that. I don’t know what to think.”
I expect Michelle Malkin will be hiding in the bushes outside his house any day now.
Review and Open Thread: Trouble the Water
Above is the trailer for Trouble the Water, Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at last year's Sundance Film Festival, which premieres this month on HBO and is available for rental at Netflix.
Its subject is loosely Hurricane Katrina, but the film is really about a group of people who survived the hurricane, without any help from the government—and frequently despite the government's intervention against them. One of the main protagonists of the film, Kimberly Rivers Roberts, shot footage of waiting out the storm in the Ninth Ward and of their journey to survive in the aftermath. The documentary intersperses her footage with that shot by the filmmakers, and the result is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.
I watched the film last night; it is difficult to watch even as a distant observer of events because it is so upsetting, keenly evoking the feelings of rage and impotence and sadness and despair first experienced during those days and weeks immediately following the hurricane, and exposing an intimate view of the experience to which a distant observer never had access in the same way. We are in the attic with Kim and Scott and Brian and their family and friends. It is terrifying to watch, partly because one knows the horror that will follow.
And yet—there are things I had never heard. Terrible things. A Navy base with empty rooms turning away victims of the hurricane at gunpoint; our then-president awarding the base for averting a potentially violent confrontation. With the citizens the Navy is meant to protect! When you think you can never be shocked again, there is more, always more.
In the end, almost unimaginably, the film is incredibly inspiring. The people at the center of the film are just, at every turn, emblematic of what makes America great, even as America has withheld so much of what it has to offer from them. I won't say anything more of the film, lest I rob of its impact. All I will say is this: I urge you to see it.
If you have seen it, share your thoughts in comments.
Reiteration and Exasperation
Quixote rightfully suggested that I do an update to this post to (re)emphasize "it's the relatively wealthy and legal *air travelers* who are vectors" for swine flu. As Rana commented a few days ago on Quixote's post linked above:
[M]ost of the vectors into the United States have been U.S. citizens with the money and time to travel to Mexico. Some poor dude who is infected with swine flu is not going to be healthy enough to make his way across the desert to infect you. It's your wealthy globe-trotting neighbors who are more likely to be a problem.So I wanted to reiterate that.
At this point however, I'm not sure it makes a damn bit of difference to the "Ooh, blame Mexico!" crowd:
Via Renee, and see her whole takedown of this bullshit.
Random Non-Cat YouTubery: John Cleese and His Beloved Lemurs
As we know, we need to try harder around here to cater to the needs of manly men who are feeling emasculated by all the cat pictures. There seems to be some debate at Shakesville over whether lemurs are acceptable creatures about which to blog, or are merely "creepy". The following video illustrates where I stand on the matter. So, please enjoy a manly man cuddling manly creatures!
John Cleese, like SKM, is a lemur nut
I don't have time right now to transcribe a 7.5-minute video, but the voice-over is Cleese describing a project he helped to fund that released captive-born black and white ruffed lemurs back into the forests of Madagascar. The show aired on PBS about 10 years ago and the description is here, including details of the project.
Feeling Good
Last night was another completely absurd night on American Idol as the theme was "Rat Pack Standards" (way to pick a genre that has no women in it, AI!) and the professional mentor was Jaime Foxx. And, as every week, Adam Lambert came out and gave a spectacular middle finger to the show's preposterous, self-important wankery. I couldn't have loved this any more if he'd just walked out and took a crap on the stage and said, "lol your tiny little talent competition."
As usual, I don't think you have to love his performance to appreciate his ability to crush AI in his evil wee hands. He really camped it up this week, which, in the midst of such a frequently small-minded, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic show, really amounts to a sort of confident swagger that I can't help but shamelessly adore. I often watch the show to hate it: Adam Lambert makes he watch the show to love him.
Simon: I love Randy talking about you being theatrical. It's like complaining that a cow moos. … I'll tell you what I love about this competition this year, is that normally every year we have people bleating on about how winning isn't important, et cetera, et cetera, but winning is important. And what I get from you … is the feeling that you want to win, and you want to prove a point every week and you want to entertain.Simon is totally one of those people who only really respects people after they've told him to go to hell. And Adam is happy to oblige him week after week.
Adam nods sagely.
Wednesday Non-Cat Blogging
In honor of the men who are sick of all the cats around here, I've snapped a few photos of my exceedingly non-feline piscatorial friends:
Reg peeks out from behind some plantlife. Tetra5 and Tetra-Four swim by.
RedTetra1 and 3Tetra as seen through the belly of the Buddha.
The red-tailed shark, who has yet to divulge its name, runs for cover. (Update: Otto attaches himself to leaf, far right. Sneaky devil!)
Ron, my other Bala shark, gazes at his reflection. Tetra-Four (again) and Tetra2 are a blur of speedy tetraness.
BADD Reminder
As I said a couple of weeks ago, May 1st is Blogging Against Disablism Day. That's this Friday, folks. All are welcome to participate. You can read more and sign up at Diary of a Goldfish.
People who may be hesitant to blog about ablism/disablism because they don't feel "qualified" or are afraid of using the "wrong" language shouldn't let that stop them. BADD has a language amnesty, so don't worry too much about whether "person with disabilities" or "differently-abled person" is the more acceptable phrase, for example. Your readers will cut you some slack--it's BADD policy.
That said, here are a few good links relevant to discussing disablism and talking with people who experience it:
Diary of a Goldfish: The Language of Disability
AmandaW: Open floor: What is the opposite of "disabled"?
Ricky Buchanan: An Open Letter to Those Without Invisible Disability or Chronic Illness
Lauredhel: 101: A note to able-bodied readers
See you on Friday!
We're So Winning
Those are the national numbers from a new CBS News/New York Times poll.
That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage.Which illustrates something about which I've written before: Social progress has a point at which it becomes contagious, simply because there are lots of people whose views are shaped by not wanting to be different. As same-sex marriage is legalized in more places, and more people vocally, publicly support it, more people will say they agree with it just because that's the trend. We may be reaching that point.
Note that if support for full marriage equality and civil unions are combined, the total (67%) is nearly 2.5 times the total of people who favor no legal recognition for same-sex couples. That's quickly becoming a radical position—and sheep don't do radical.
*terrorist fist-bumps each and every Feminazi Cooter Cultist*
Won't Someone Please Think of the Grandmas?!
Liberty Counsel, a group comprised entirely of talking points (Restoring the Culture One Case at a Time by Advancing Religious Freedom, the Sanctity of Human Life and the Traditional Family), much to no one's surprise unleashes a press release decrying "so-called 'hate crimes' legislation," which also much to no one's surprise is full of lies, deceit and hate-mongering. Beside the usual anti-gay bigotry, what is the Counsel (ha! clever they) up in arms about? This bill includes no protection for veterans or the elderly! Seriously.
Last I checked, veterans and the elderly weren't groups commonly victims of hate crimes.
But what really gets their ire is that the law is just a way to protect pedophiles (emphasis mine):
H.R. 1913 (Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009) is not about stopping crime but is designed to give "actual or perceived" sexual preference or "gender identity" (which is still classified as a mental disorder) the same legal status as race. The DSM IVR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by psychologists and psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders) lists more than 30 "sexual orientations" and "Gender Identity Disorders," including pedophilia. The hate crimes bill does not limit "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" and, thus, includes all these disorders and fetishes. The use of "actual or perceived" includes those with disorders or deviant sexual preferences and those who do not have such disorders or fetishes, so long as it is alleged that the person charged allegedly "thought" the other person had such disorder or fetish.Which is, of course, bullshit.
I'm gonna tell you something I hardly tell anyone, but since we're friends, and no one really reads this blog, I figure it's no big deal: I keep a copy of the DSM IV under my bed. I like a little light reading before I wander off to dreamland. Plus I'm trying to memorize all the codes because A) it's central to the plot of my as-yet-completed novel and B) I believe it will someday come in handy should I appear on Win Ben Stein's Money. Anyway, my point being is that pedophilia is not listed as a sexual orientation or a gender identity in the DSM IV. In fact, the DSM IV doesn't include a list of sexual orientations at all.
The closest this comes to truth is that the DSM IV contains a section titled Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. This is broken down into two smaller groups, the paraphilias (wherein pedophilia resides) and the separate gender identity disorders (which would, presumably, be covered under the proposed statute) and are really only still considered mental health disorders so that trans people with insurance can get their treatment covered. It's only by applying a judicious dollop of mendacity that one can contend that the new Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a way for the government to protect "pedophilia and every imaginable deviant fetish" and promote "coercive pro-homosexual propaganda". (For those who don't keep their own copy, you can peek at relevant section of the DSM IV here.)
All of which is to say the Liberty Counsel are a bunch of lying, deceitful shitstains. A bunch of lying, deceitful shitstains using fear and bigotry to attack a group of people who desperately need protection. To wit:
Sexual orientation and gender identity include pedophilia and every imaginable deviant fetish. Cross-dressers and pedophiles find refuge in this so-called hate crimes bill, while veterans and grandmas are left to fend for themselves.If there is an ounce of truth anywhere in that statement I'll not only eat my hat, but I'll show up for communion on Sunday and eat that too.
Obviously, this bill is not about the prevention of crime but is all about pushing a radical sexual anarchy. This bill will crush free speech and trample free exercise of religion.As for radical sexual anarchy? We should all be so lucky.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Happy 100 Days of Having a Real President Again, Shakers!
Question of the Day
We've done this one before, but not for over a year, and it's always fun… How did you find Shakesville? (Or, if you're a long-time Shaker, Shakespeare's Sister.)
Space Cowboy's got a wonderful and very detailed answer to this one, btw. He even remembers the exact post that brought him here, via a link at Crooks & Liars!
Since I can't really give an answer to that question, I'll instead just say thanks for being here, and I'm glad you found your way.
Cats and Shit
Why would any dude get his panties in a wad over pictures of pussy?
...What? Actual cats?
Oh yeah. Those do suck.
I Get More Letters
Petulant just emailed me:
I am a gay male progressive, who enjoys reading your blog, Shakesville.In the words of the man himself: HA!
I don't care for the personal posts that concern your conversations with your husband. They have nothing to do with the Progressive movement. These personal asides divert from the more substantive issues at hand. Not every reader cares that you're married to a haggis loving Scot. He may be entertaining in your world, but does nothing for the cause at hand.
Loose the Scot! And concentrate on what is important!
What the hell does Shaker Gourmet have to do but make everyone fatter. Most of those recipes are very unhealthy.
I would also like to note that when I told him I was posting it, he instructed me: "Just change 'lose' to 'loose' for a more dramatic effect!" LOL.
[Background. ETA: And, in case it's not clear, Petulant was being profoundly sarcastic just to make me laugh. Mission accomplished!]
UPDATE: This just in from Shaker RedSonja:
Dear Melissa,Serious, serious case of the giggles here, Shakers.
I am a fat straight woman who reads and enjoys Shakesville. Mostly. However, I am sick and tired of all the posts about MEN! I see men everyday and can go to any number of blogs to read about them. If you MUST write about men, please move it to a different site (might I suggest Wangsville?) so that I don't have to read it. I would prefer to limit discussion to MY wants and needs; namely alcohol, cute animals, and Harrison Ford. Oh, and assholes.
Sincerely,
RedSonja
Sebelius Confirmed
Not only has Kathleen Sebelius been confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, she has been confirmed by a 65-31 vote, which means that there are, even yet, some Senate Republicans with functioning brains. Huzzah.
I Get Letters
"Shakesville is a feminist blog, and a feminist's blog. It is a progressive blog. It is a safe space."Dear Correspondent:
Then why do every one of us have to deal with your kitty photos. Start another fucking blog with kitty photos. I am 1) male 2) progressive and 3) not interested in your cats.
Do you think there's others out there just like me? Dog persons? Give the cats a rest. Or I'm done seeking your opinion. The cats got in the way.
I've gotten well over 100 emails from people thanking me for the Daily Kitteh newsbreak and expressing affection for it, which is, quite frankly, one of the only reasons I continue to do it every day—not because I have an insatiable compulsion to post pictures of my cats. (This will explain the remainder of my rationale, which you might have seen if you'd spent less time poking around the FAQs and more time in the Feminism 101 section.) Yours is, in fact, the only email I've ever gotten expressing disdain for the Daily Kitteh, no less threatening to abandon the blog in its entirety because of it.
Naturally, I don't assume that you're the only one who doesn't like it or appreciate its purpose; I do, however, assume that most people who don't like it merely scroll right the hell past it like any other post they don't want to read, instead of demanding that the blog cater to their individual tastes.
I understand that my refusal to acquiesce to your ultimatum means you will no longer be seeking my opinion in future, so I will not waste your time by passing any judgment on you or your request, but I do hope you will allow me to extend you a polite invitation to kiss my ass.
Warmest Regards,
Liss
P.S. Although I suspect you did not appreciate the hilarious irony of your quoting of only the first line of this section in the FAQ, which subsequently notes, "We blog about domestic politics, foreign policy, high culture, pop culture, books, film, telly, food, the patriarchy, oppression, repression, religion, philosophy, parenting, not parenting, marriage, cats, why women's trousers have so many buttons, and anything else that we feel like discussing," I want to assure you that I did.
