Shakesville

What habit can you just not break?

It doesn't necessarily have to be a "bad" habit; just something you can't break even though you'd like to, or couldn't break even if you wanted to.

Picking and gnawing at my cuticles. I used to be much worse about it; for years they were bloody messes all the time. Now I can go months without worrying them, not even consciously trying to avoid it, but then I'll just get a bug up my ass and go at them like trucknutz. Shrug.

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Seen

Outside my office window: A big, fat, beautiful cardinal.

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Rape Is Hilarious, Part 46

[Trigger warning.]

Shaker Selasphorus emails (which I'm publishing with her permission):

Someone just posted a link to [a website which isn't getting a link from Shakesville] in my journal and asked what I thought of it. It's a satire site calling attention to the thirty Republicans opposing Senator Franken's amendment that calls itself "Republicans For Rape." Massive trigger warning on this thing.

The language of the site is pretty sickening to me. It has decided that rape must be a Republican value based on the Republicans that voted against the amendment, and is now talking about the "best kinds of rape" and making all sorts of other rape jokes. Yes, such cutting satire! Certainly this will draw attention to the Republicans who voted against ensuring justice for rape victims, and this will certainly...change minds? Yeah, I don't know, I think it's just one giant triggery mess.

Shades of the anti-Glenn Beck site that uses rape as the centerpiece of its allegedly incisive satire.

Trenchant as hell, man!

Naturally, I am too daft to understand the fine nuances of this sophisticated and edgy comedy. What can I say? My appreciation for rape humor must have gotten knocked right out of me as my rapist bashed my skull against a stone fireplace.

Btw, the bottom of the page notes: "This website is (mostly) satire. Its creators do not endorse rape nor do they oppose anti-rape legislation." No, of course they don't endorse rape. They just perpetuate the rape culture with hilarious rape satire and dismiss actual rape victims who object as overwrought hysterics who aren't hip enough to appreciate their totes trenchant humor.

And I'm sure they'd be completely mollified if the Republicans who voted against the Franken amendment issued a statement reading: "Our votes were (mostly) not pro-rape. We do not endorse rape nor do we create websites that satirically minimize the gravity of rape."

Oh, I know, it's supposed to be so different. But it isn't. Republicans are just trying to protect their corporate sponsors, and if victims of rape are a casualty, so be it. The "Republicans for Rape" creators just hate Republicans, and if victims of rape are a casualty of hitting back at Republicans, so be it. What they share in common is that neither one of gives a fuck about rape survivors.

And you can't claim to be anti-rape if you don't give a fuck about rape survivors. It's really just. that. simple.

[Rape is Hilarious: 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.]

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Quote of the Day

"Thank God most of the workforce isn't unionized."—Bill Kristol, professional idiot and Lifetime Appointee to the City Council of Wrongitywrongville, discussing the NFL players' union opposition to Rush Limbaugh's bid to buy the St. Louis Rams franchise.

Think Progress notes:

Kristol's attack on unionization ignores the fact that unions are good for the American economy since unions help workers secure higher wages and greater benefits. Additionally, the collective bargaining of unions give workers the ability to shape the conditions of their employment, as the NFL players union successfully demonstrated.

According to Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for Sports and Society at Northeastern University, the NFL has 78 percent African-American players. Because the players' union has leverage, that means the players won't have to work for someone who said just two years ago, "the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

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Daily Kitteh

Matilda: Cleaning Time

"O hai. I gots a squinchy devil eye!"

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Soaking In It

[Trigger warning.]

The rape culture is entering a store at the mall, specializing in board games for all ages, and running smack into a floor display of the "prison-themed board game" Don't Drop the Soap—a game, according to the box, "Where no one playing enters through the front door!"

Fight your way through 6 different exciting locations in hopes of being granted parole. Escape prison riots in The Yard, slip glass into a mob boss' lasagna in the Cafeteria, steal painkillers from the nurse's desk in the Infirmary, avoid being cornered by the Aryans in the Shower Room, fight off Latin Kings in Gang War, and try not to smoke your entire stash in The Hole.

Don't Drop the Soap was developed by John Sebelius, son of Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. She is "very proud" of him.

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Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"

Strips One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49. In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman and a biracial queerbait telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.

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Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, seeding in solidarity with female farmers the world over since 2004.

Recommended Reading:

Denise: Maria Lucia Lopes de Oliveira wins Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life

Cara: Judge Refers to Convicted Rapist's Actions as "Rough Play"

Andy: 'Balloon Boy' and Brothers Celebrate Stoning a 'F----t' in Rap Video (the video has been removed but is viewable here)

Resistance: The Halloween "Fun"

Kevin: People Act Like This Is Surprising?

Steve: Following Through on a Sane Drug Policy

Jill: Amish Wife Accused of Not Reporting Sex Abuse

Leave your links in comments...

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Problem Solved

RNC Chairman Michael Steele on how to resolve the immigration issue:

Basically what we should be saying is that there are rules that you need to get into the country, go the right door, fill out the right form, have some apple pie, hum a few bars of the star spangle banner and get to work, God bless you, and I think that that begins to set us on the right road to dealing with this issue.

He said this on Univision (transcript via Latina Lista).

I think the word you're looking for is "gobsmacked."

HT to TPM.

Crossposted.

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Shaker Gourmet: Pumpkin Pie Cake

You know what I love? Pumpkin--in baked goods: pumpkin spice bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies... My experiment taste-testers gave me some excellent feedback when I came up with this a few weeks ago and this is the final tweaked recipe. It tastes like hand-held slices of pumpkin pie (without the mess of holding pie!).

Pumpkin Pie Cake

2.5 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 + 1/8 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Just under 1 3/4 cups pumpkin (about 90% of a 15 oz can of Libby's pumpkin [NOT pumpkin pie filling!])

1. Heat oven to 325. Generously butter and then flour a Bundt pan. Tip the pan upside down over the sink and tap the bottom and all the excess flour will come right out. Set aside.

2. In med bowl, whisk together flour, allspice, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.

3. In small bowl, mix together the buttermilk and baking soda. Set aside.

4. Cut the butter up into 1 inch or so pieces and put in the bowl of a stand mixer w/paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until smooth. Add granulated sugar, 1 - 2 tablespoons at a time (taking about 3 minutes). Then add the brown sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Scrape down the side of the bowl.

5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Then blend in the pumpkin and vanilla. (It'll look strange...almost curdled but it's fine!)

6. Reduce mixing speed to low and add the flour mix alternating with the buttermilk mix. Mix until just blended after each addition.

7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth top before putting in oven. Bake for 1 hour, 15 - 20 minutes. When done baking, move to cooling rack--in the pan!--for 20 minutes.

8. While cake is standing, make the glaze (recipe below!). When ready to glaze, invert the cake onto a cooling rack and gently lift off the bundt pan. Stick a paper towel or foil under the cake & rack.

9. Glaze the warm cake by drizzling it back and forth over the cake with a fork. Once glaze is hard, remove the cake to a plate.

GLAZE

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp very hot water
1.5 tsp light corn syrup
1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
couple drops lemon juice
tiny pinch salt

Mix it all together in a bowl. Work quickly with it, as it hardens quickly.

Although I did it with my stand mixer (and thus it's written with one in mind), it shouldn't be difficult to make it with a hand mixer.

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Today in the Economy

Meanwhile, over on Wall Street...

WaPo—Top aides to Obama upbraid Wall St.:

Top Obama administration officials sharply criticized Wall Street firms planning to pay big bonuses, pointedly contrasting the soaring profits some financial companies have recorded in recent days with continuing high jobless rates across the country.

The firms are benefiting from government efforts, some initiated by the Obama administration, to stabilize and restore confidence to the capital markets after a global financial crisis that began last year. With their fortunes rebounding, the Wall Street firms plan to pay tens of billions of dollars to executives.

"The bonuses are offensive," Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC's "This Week," adding that banks must do more to support lending across the country and should stop their lobbying efforts aimed at blocking the passage of new financial regulations that are being prepared in Congress.

"They ought to think through what they are doing, and they ought to understand that a year ago a lot of these institutions were teetering on the brink, and the United States government and taxpayers came to their defense," Axelrod said. "They have responsibilities, and they ought to meet those responsibilities."

LOL! No one could have predicted that wantonly irresponsible, ethics-challenged, morally reprehensible, profit-driven institutions wouldn't spontaneously begin to Do the Right Thing when handed gazillions of dollars in cash!

Gee, it's almost like the millions of Americans who suggested less bailing out; more legislating tighter regulations were fuckin' right!

Krugman—The Banks Are Not Alright [sic]: "Administration officials are furious at the way the financial industry, just months after receiving a gigantic taxpayer bailout, is lobbying fiercely against serious reform. But you have to wonder what they expected to happen. They followed a softly, softly policy, providing aid with few strings, back when all of Wall Street was on the ropes; this left them with very little leverage over firms like Goldman that are now, once again, making a lot of money."

New York Times—Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters: "Only three years ago, foreclosure was rarely a factor in how people became homeless. But among the homeless people that social service agencies have helped over the last year, an average of 10 percent lost homes to foreclosure, according to 'Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009,' a survey produced by the National Coalition for the Homeless and six other advocacy groups. In the Midwest, foreclosure played a role for 15 percent of newly homeless people, according to the survey."

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Today in Healthcare

WaPo—White House aides reaffirm public option is not mandatory:

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in two television appearances [this weekend], noted that the public option could provide much-needed competition, but that "it's not the defining piece of health care."

Liberal lawmakers such as Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who is involved in the negotiations, said they will push for the government option to be included in the bill that goes to the Senate floor. "I haven't given up on this," Dodd said on NBC.

...Obama aides conceded that they may not have the votes in the Senate for the provision.

"There are people in the Senate -- Republicans and Democrats -- who have objections to that," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week."

And in case anyone's forgotten why the Obama administration never should have cared what Republicans think in the first place...

Roll Call—GOP Launches Strategy to Trip Up Health Bill: "Senate Republicans, acknowledging they lack the votes to block a health care reform bill outright, have implemented a comprehensive political strategy to delay, define and derail."

Of course they have.

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Female Farmers

On Friday, I posted about an op-ed written by Secretary Clinton about food security, at which there was pleasant surprise expressed at her use of "she" to describe a hypothetical farmer.

QLH: I loved reading this: "Consider the world's typical small farmer. She..." SHE. Such a small word, such a powerful one.

Liss: Indeed. And as the article later notes, women "are the majority of the world's farmers," so it is not only a small word and a powerful word, but the most appropriate one.

Deeky: Wow. How strange it is that when the image of farmers is presented it is almost exclusively men.

And so, here's a little teaspoon, on behalf of the world's female farmers, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe...