The other day, Liss reported that Shaker Caitlin had managed to secure some time with Emma Thompson, with the goal of showing Ms. Thompson the petition she'd gathered several hundred signatures on. The petition expressed the signatories' outrage at so many celebrities jumping on board the Roman Polanski bandwagon, given that their object of support had been convicted of raping a child.
Today, the UK's The Independent newspaper has an article about their meeting, and about Ms. Thompson's decision to withdraw her name from the petition in support of Polanski.
Shaker Caitlin, you swing a mighty tablespoon, and are an inspiration for us all, and if I can add personally, I'm really proud to share a name with you.
Bravissima!
Tip of the CaitieCap to Shaker waywardtapper (who, I later find, is in fact the Wielder of Mighty Teaspoon herself, Caitlin!) for the heads-up.
How to Wield a Teaspoon: an Example from Life
More Polanski Fail
by Shaker Faywray.
Hi Shakers, this is faywray. Liss has offered to let me turn a rambling I'm-about-to-explode e-mail I sent her into a guest post.
[Trigger warnings apply, especially for the external links.]
I found this article by Bernard-Henri Lévy (the creator of the original "Free Polanski" petition) on a French site the other day, and I wanted to translate some of it for you. Turns out the HuffPo has already taken care of that. It sickens me that the man gets a platform for the bile he is spewing.
In this new pile of utter bullshit, Mr. Lévy once more tries to educate the simple-minded on why arresting Roman Polanski should be a moral no-no. He should know. After all, his own website describes him as "dedicated to all struggles for human dignity."
For those who can bear to do so, let's have a look at some of his arguments. The gist of his text is that the way everyone is behaving in the Polanski affair is just shameful. He keeps repeating this word, over and over again, like he invented the anaphore.
Since we're at this point, since time is passing and everyone seems to find nothing wrong with the situation, since Roman Polanski's supporters are losing faith and, sometimes, are even starting to doubt [yay!], since the pack of gossipers have even succeeded, it seems, in convincing the French minister of culture that he spoke too hastily, and under the influence of emotion, though he only did his duty, I want to say again, once more, why this affair is shameful. [...] It is shameful to see the regulars of the global Café du Commerce [the French equivalent of bar-room politics], whose Pavlovian anti-Americanism never leaves them at a loss for words when lambasting America on any and everything, are suddenly silent, become gentle as lambs and, when it comes to Polanski, just repeat: "Ah, that's America... better not mess with American law... dura lex sed lex (the law is harsh, but it is the law)..."Those people (who are they, anyway?) couldn't possibly have come to the conclusion that he should be extradited, could they? No, they are suddenly, inexplicably intimidated by America, that's it!
It is shameful to see the intellectuals, whose role should be to calm the frenzy and cool popular anger [elitism anyone?], ratchet up, like Michel Onfray in Libération, the moment when "the worst are full of passionate intensity" (Yeats) and to indulge, in the name of abused childhood, in the most obnoxious amalgams [Onfray had said that if you think a pedophile sex tourist should be punished, you simply cannot say otherwise about Polanski].Right. Because Maude help us if the intellectuals aren't there to think for the masses. Also: I feel passionately about this issue. Does that make me one of "the worst"? Ouch.
[W]hy don't we hear these intellectuals denounce with equal ardor, the limitless outrage that is the martyrdom of child soldiers in Africa, or child slaves in Asia, or the hundreds of millions of children dead of hunger, according to the estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for the last...32 years?You want to bash your peers for willful ignorance of other people's suffering? Go right ahead.
I have to ask though, what the FUCK has this got to do with Roman Polanski? Why is there something worse, something more important that punishing someone for something he did to another human being? Oh, that's because, like dignity and human rights, justice is only available in limited stock, and we can't be going around handing it out to just anyone, now, can we?
It is shameful to see Luc Besson rush to television, cloaked in ingenuous probity, inveigh against Polanski, like in the worst era of the McCarthyist witch hunts, and denounce his friend.As a reminder, Luc Besson, when asked, basically said "I like him, but the law's the law."
It is shameful to keep repeating, like some are doing, that justice should be "equal for all" while, if there is indeed an "inequality," if there is a double standard, it is to the detriment, not to the advantage, of Polanski. I've tested it. Last October 2, on the NPR show On the Point, I confronted Geraldine Ferraro's refrain, which she repeated ad nauseum: "Polanski has had a lovely life; now, he has to pay." I sent out a challenge to listeners: "Show me a case, a single one, of an anonymous person, guilty of the same crime, who was tracked down thirty years after the fact." To this day, no one has found a single one.Point utterly proven. People who haven't gotten caught are still free, so even those who are caught should go free.
One minor correction, though: If you have a look at the NPR's comment section for that show, there are actually several people on the first page who have found cases of a "nobody" being brought to justice 30 years later.
But if not for justice, why is Polanski being arrested now? According to Lévy:
[Y]ou had to be Polanski, you had to be an artist renown [sic] over the globe for an elected prosecutor, soon to embark on an electoral campaign and starved for publicity, to resurrect the case from oblivion, to which, even in the United States, popular wisdom relegates the very old case files of non-recidivist delinquents.Non-recidivist meaning, in this case, never caught before or after. "Dating" a 15-year old two years prior is clearly something completely different.
Note how there is now a good thing called popular wisdom. Compare to popular anger above.
It is strange -- shameful, and strange -- to see how the same people who, intoxicated by suspicion and seeing conspiracies everywhere, spend their time investigating the secret agendas of the States, but do not seem at all bothered by the timing that is, undoubtedly, extremely bizarre...'Cause the decent thing to do would be to uphold your prejudices against all logic. This reminds me of a comment he made on the above-mentioned radio show to a caller who said that he was wrong to say everybody had forgiven Polanski during the last 32 years - she for one had tried to "boycott" him. Lévy's reply: "At least she's consistent. My problem is those people who not only gave him awards...and who suddenly organize this man-hunt." We are allowed to believe a rapist should be arrested, but we have to prove that we had this opinion for 32 years for it to mean anything.
Because it is shameful, finally, that we can't, when we talk about his life, evoke his childhood in the ghetto, the death of his mother in Auschwitz, the murder of his young spouse, eviscerated along with the young child she was carrying, without the prayers [I disagree with this translation. The original said "braillards". French-speakers, correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds like howler, as in howler monkey, a very disrespectful description, but at least he is consistent in this.] of the new popular justice crying, "Blackmail!': even for the most abominable serial killer, the prevailing "culture of excuse" jumps to scrutinize the difficult childhood, the broken family, the traumas -- but Roman Polanski would be the only person in the world under judicial jurisdiction not to have the right to any kind of attenuating circumstance...Right, because people who mention his past suffering usually do so in an attempt to explain what "made him" rape a child.
Except they don't. They say he didn't, and besides, AUSCHWITZ. That is a very different line of argument, and Lévy fails to see the difference.
His closing statement:
I hardly know Roman Polanski. But I know that all those who, from close and from afar, join in this lynching will soon wake up, horrified by what they have done, ashamed.I've run out of words. Using the imagery of typically racially motivated mob-violence to describe not protesting the lawful arrest of a fugitive child rapist?!
I wonder if Mr. Lévy has felt shame lately. The kind that is physical, the pressure in your head, the lack of oxygen in your lungs, the lava in your bowels. I don't think he has. I think shame, much like morals, is an abstract concept to him that can be used in sophisticated arguments. His concern is not even really about Mr. Polanski, just about the "inconsistency" he perceives in the whole affair.
To Mr. Bernard-Henri Lévy, luminary, I'd like to repeat what caller Andy from Ft. Myers, FL had to say on the NPR show:
I have to say [...] I agree with Bernard in that I'm surprised he hasn't been brought into custody sooner. Beyond that, I'm sorry, Bernard, you may be an intellectual, I have to say I think you're an [asshole].Emphasis all mine.
This, too, is a real thing in the world.
Robert Pattertoningson eats corn.
Part of Vanity Fair's "Robert Pattinson: The Bruce Weber Portraits," from the December 2009 issue.
Another example of something that just made me LOL for its sheer absurdity. The vaguely nauseated look. The corn, dangling, not even being eaten in a cheekily phallic way. (Is it post-blowjob corn?) The lobster bib. The Rolling Rock bottle. The vague sense I'm meant to find it sexy, for some inexplicable reason.
When I showed it to Kenny Blogginz yesterday, he captioned it: "The dainty lord doth deign to masticate 'pon some maize with his precious porcelains." Which sent me into gales of laughter for, like, ten million years.
I Get Letters
My recent letter addressed to the Nation of Teabagia drew the ire of a certain individual who blasted my inbox with a truly wondrous screed. The highlights:
Space Cowboy,And now let's break this one down, shall we?
You're a stereotypical liberal, always wanting something for nothing, or something you didn't earn or work for, but glad to take from someone who did. ... Like most liberals, your [sic] condescending, self-righteous, pompous, a hypocrite. My guess is you don't pay any taxes (47% of Americans don't), so maybe you don't have a stake in the game. I do.
...Liberals claim to be the "tolerant". I say liberals are the most intolerant bunch of people I've ever known. Your [sic] referenced one person holding a sign you didn't like. So what. There were literally hundreds of signs. Who are you to say.
...You're a clown! PLEASE WAKE UP AND TELL OTHERS!!! I don't want Obama's HopeNChange, as a majority of Americans don't. Do you know what the unemployment rate is now nationally? 10.2%
Have a great Day!!!!
You're a stereotypical liberal, always wanting something for nothing, or something you didn't earn or work for, but glad to take from someone who didCategorically untrue. I paid good money for every Who and Floyd-related concert I've ever been to, and was damn happy about it.
My guess is you don't pay any taxes (47% of Americans don't), so maybe you don't have a stake in the game. I do.That's one hell of a leap. Too bad it's completely incorrect. According to my last paycheck and mortgage statement, tax has, in fact, been taken at every level. However, when I do figure out how to trick ADP into giving that withheld tax back to me, I'll be sure to let you know first, since you have a stake in the game.
But here's where I'm going to shock you. See, I am perfectly happy with my taxes going towards some form of publicly funded health care, because I feel that even a dipshit like you should have access to health care in this country as a fundamental right without your having to worry about how to pay for it or whether the really friendly profit-motivated insurance company will cover what you need.
Your [sic] referenced one person holding a sign you didn't like. So what. There were literally hundreds of signs. Who are you to say.Who am I? Who am I?! I'm Heeb Laureate of Shakesville, asshole!
By the way, there were plenty of people who didn't like that sign for the very plain reason I already stated: There is no valid comparison between a publicly funded health care system and the mass extermination of people. If you think that's a valid comparison, then there's not much I can do for you aside from suggesting you take a remedial history class.
You're a clown! PLEASE WAKE UP AND TELL OTHERS!!!You know, you got me there. In the right circumstances, I could be a right clown but I've never really admitted it to anyone before. I want to thank you for recognizing this so that now I can stand before all of Shakesville and declare, without fear:
I don't want Obama's HopeNChange, as a majority of Americans don't.Umm...actually a majority of Americans did. See, that's how Obama was elected President. I can see by that staggering number of people who showed up to your party (what was it? about 4,000?) how the majority are really worked up about things. I also found it interesting how willing some of those attendees were willing to accept true government health care from the Capitol's physician office. Why couldn't they stick to their principles and demand to only be cared for by private practitioners? Hypocrites!!
Do you know what the unemployment rate is now nationally? 10.2%Wow - you're a statistician too? That's great! (Maybe you can scan your credentials and send them to me.) Do you by any chance remember an economic crash that happened before Obama was even elected? Didn't think so.
But you know what? Don't feel bitter about all this. I understand you're scared of any kind of change that makes us equivalent in any way to European countries. It'll be ok. Really.
And you have a nice day too now!
This is a real thing in the world.
[Click to embiggen.]
Maybe I've just reached the point of maniacal slap-happiness on a troubled Friday afternoon, but I'm pretty sure this is genius.
Everything about it is making me weep with laughter. The fact that this story is an "exclusive." Jon says "namaste!" The yoga expert weighing in on what his form means. The related content, especially "Report: Jon Gosselin Avoided Jon Gosselin Lookalikes on Halloween." The baby back ribs ad. And the photo. Oh Maude, the beautiful, glorious photo. It's a fucking picture of Jon Gosselin doing yoga! OMG.
Even better? This exclusive photo gallery is linked from: "EXCLUSIVE: Jon Gosselin Does Yoga!"—a story which informs us that "The latest stop on his quest for inner peace was a yoga studio at a Los Angeles hotel Nov. 5," and quotes the yoga expert gravely noting, "I'm sure with all that has been going on in Jon's life, things are out of whack. He's got to let go of external distractions and tap into his spirituality."
Totes. Megatotes.
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[In case it's not evident, I'm not making fun of Jon Gosselin; I'm making fun of the media coverage. This is not an invitation to wantonly mock Jon Gosselin, or ridicule Kate Gosselin, or pass judgment on their reproductive choices.]
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of the Unbreakable TeaspoonTM!
(I'm switching it up today with) Recommended Action Items:
Shaker Michelle emails a request to support her yearbook students: "I am teaching yearbook for the first time this year. When I arrived I found many old cameras in the closet and a few digital cameras. Almost all of the digital cameras are broken. ...I know it seems frivolous to some people, but yearbook is very important for my students, and they are sad that they can't get any good pictures." I don't guess I need to elucidate for this crowd why providing funding to a feminist teacher who's teaching the next generation of potential journalists is, apart from just being generous, a wise investment!
Our friends at First Draft are having their annual fundraising drive.
Philippa recommends participating in the Amnesty International Greeting Cards Campaign: "Our Greetings Card Campaign brings people across the world in touch with each other in a simple way - by sending a card with a friendly greeting or message of solidarity to someone who is in danger or unjustly imprisoned. Below are 32 stories about people around the world who have suffered human rights abuses and would benefit from a card with a friendly greeting or message of support."
And (another) Melissa's got some ideas, too: Act On It.
Leave your links in comments...
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, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63. 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.
Another Shooting in Orlando
[Trigger warning.]
Orlando office building gunman on the loose:
Officials said at least eight people were hurt in a shooting at a downtown office building Friday and a gunman was on the loose.Police believe it is a single shooter. I will update the post as/when more information becomes available.
People streamed out of the high-rise building around lunchtime and some told local television stations they had barricaded themselves inside their offices.
Orlando Fire Department District Chief Michael Droege said an unknown number of people were still in the building and could be injured. He said the SWAT team was still trying to pull people out.
"The building is not secure now," he said. "It's still unfolding."
UPDATE: MSNBC reports that at least one person has been killed and at least 7 injured. (Elsewhere I'm seeing reports that two people have died.) "Police Sgt. Barbara Jones identified the suspect as Jason Rodriguez, 40, a former employee in the building who she said was believed to be at large and armed."
Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning.]
Rape culture is CNN anchor Rick Sanchez and a guest on his show discussing Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland man who raped and murdered at least ten women, and Sanchez saying:
I gotta tell you, you and I talked about this the other day but I'm still convinced. As a dad, I've got a little girl, and uh, I just keep thinking about people like this. Look, there's a difference, okay, between, um, date rape as we know it today, or sexual offenders, in some cases where you look at their cases, and go "uhhhh, okay" [makes a face and waves hands around], and a guy like this who's just a nasty human being. This is a back-alley rapist and what appears to be the worst variety.[H/T to Shaker Kira, who provided the transcript.]
Sanchez is right that there are different kinds of rapists, but they are not distinguished by where they commit rapes. Back-alley or bedroom, a sadistic rapist is a sadistic rapist, for whom the sadism of rape is not a bug but a feature.
To imply, however, that we might be able to distinguish between sadistic rapists and opportunistic rapists (whose acts are just as heinous but aren't compulsive, and thus might be deterred in a culture that promotes enthusiastic consent) by the location of their crimes, or the cost of their wardrobe, or whether they're good students or model employees, is utter balderdash.
As is Sanchez's qualification that one sort of rapist is "the worst variety." That is the sort of distinction which is lost on rape victims.
Regarding the deplorable appearance of seemingly suggesting there's a certain type of rape that would be "acceptable" for his daughter, I suspect (and hope) he's talking about statutory rape in which one teenager is just over the age of consent and hir partner just below. Note to Sanchez: That isn't "date rape." Date rape, better just called rape, denotes a lack of consent. And if you don't want to be rightly regarded as a total fuckneck, you'll keep any mentions of your daughter and "date rape" well away from each other during your loathsome rape apologia in future.
Meanwhile, Shaker Jha points to this story about two Chinese police officers getting lenient sentences because they committed "temporary rape."
Then this forum post by netizen (辽河鱼) with the title "Temporary Rape, the birth of new vocabulary" ("临时性强奸"，又一新名词诞生了) appeared on Netease. It was soon copied and reposed onto every BBS possible. According to Netease this post already had over 870,000 views, and 6,700 comments.I guess as long as cops are off the clock, it's totally cool to rape someone. Just a "temporary rape." Yeesh.Two police associates form Nanxun, Zhejiang province raped a woman while she was drunk and passed out in a hotel. Nanxun court considered the crime facts, taking into accounts that the two temporarily committed crime, with no prior planning, also turned themselves in willingly afterwards, and was forgiven by the victim, therefore giving lighter sentences of three years in prison. (China News Net)...According the crime facts Nanxun Criminal court determined the two rapists "temporarily committed the crime". I am confused, what does it mean? Searched all over the internet, I still could not find the term basis and the origin of "temporary committing a crime". "Temporary" means actions that are not official and in short-term. Can rape be differentiated by "unofficial" and short-termed? This "temporary committing the crime" should be a new vocabulary, filling up the gap of our country's judicial system creatively, indeed gratifying.
"I have to help my friend and I don’t know how."
[Trigger warning.]
Renee of Womanist Musings (who requested I blog about this) got a call from a close friend last night who had been raped in her own home. Renee, a sexual assault survivor herself, is struggling with how to help and seeking advice.
One thing that having been raped oneself doesn't do is magically imbue a person with the skills to be a rape counselor. Sometimes, being a survivor can help. Sometimes, it can make it even harder, as such counsel can be triggering.
I encourage you, if you have any words of advice, strength, or commiseration, to visit Renee and drop her a note.
What I advise, for the edification of anyone who will ever find themselves in a similar situation to Renee, tasked with counseling a friend who has been raped, is to listen. Listen hard. Let that person speak, long and at length, about everything they are feeling. Affirm what they are feeling. Make sure that reassuring them they aren't to blame and shouldn't feel shame about what happened doesn't come at the cost of silencing them.
"It is totally understandable that you feel that way" are some of the most important words any survivor of rape can hear, and they are almost never said.
It can be uncomfortable to listen to a rape survivor express feelings that we might viscerally respond to by thinking, "Zie shouldn't be feeling that!" There is a lifetime of living in a rape culture with which to contend, and it's very easy to inadvertently imply that the natural responses of someone conditioned to self-blame and shame are wrong.
It's not wrong to feel those things; there is no right or wrong about what to feel about being raped. That's why an ally must be gentle. "It is totally understandable that you feel that way. I understand why you are blaming yourself and feeling ashamed. You don't have to. It wasn't your fault, and you are are safe with me." Provide the room for a survivor to get past those feelings at hir own pace.
One of the worst things even the best-intentioned among us do is send those feelings underground, where they fester and linger. We so want to heal the hurt, but we can't.
The best way to help is to listen.
Shooting in Ft. Hood Open Thread
A place to talk about the shooting in Ft. Hood yesterday, share news reports, express frustration with racism and xenophobia you're seeing elsewhere, grieve, rage, whatever. The thread will be heavily moderated to maintain as safe a space as possible.
The biggest recent news is that the shooter, Major Hasan, is still alive. Most of the day yesterday, the media were reporting that he had died. My thought is that they were originally told the shooter was dead by the Army, because the Army wanted to be able to move him for medical care without anyone trying to seek some vigilante justice in the process.
The most disgraceful politicization of the event so far goes to conservative pundit Linda Chavez over at Commentary, who wrote yesterday:
We still don't know what was behind the killings at Fort Hood this afternoon, in which 11 soldiers and the killer died, but President Obama's rushed press conference was surprising in its flippancy nonetheless. Before he got to the issue on everyone's mind — namely the deaths of Americans in uniform — the president gave a "shout-out" to government bureaucrats gathered for a previously scheduled conference at the Interior Department, complete with appreciative chuckles. He treated the event like a pep rally rather than a tragic occasion with a wider audience than those gathered in the room. I wonder how many media outlets will compare Obama's performance to President Bush's "Pet Goat" moment on 9/11. I won't hold my breath.Good idea. Since the two are, y'know, nothing alike. When President Bush was told of the ongoing situation on the morning of 9/11, he was told the country was under attack and didn't move. President Obama, on the other hand, was yesterday told of a situation that was effectively already contained, and he immediately took the appropriate action, which was to make a statement to the nation.
Now, he may not have delivered it in the way Chavez would have liked (KennyBlogginz and I happened to be watching it together and both actually cringed at the "shout-out," too, and commented on the flippancy of it), but that doesn't make it a "Pet Goat" moment. Not at all. Not on this planet.
What The Hell? Halloween Edition
Deeks and sparkletoes
Misty, as a pear (not asparagus), 1985
Carleigh the Riveter
RachelB as a black widow spider
Silvas: The Death of Rats
FilthyGrandeur: King Rat
Temeraire as Christopher Molti-zombie
Orangelion03, the Gypsy/pirate
GoldFishy (right) and Apollo as SNL cheerleaders
sunflwrmoonbeam and child
Pmsrhino: Tank Girl
Lindsay as Lucille Ball
Jill (left) from Feministe as a viriginity pledger (and yes, she's posing with a pregnant Snow White)
Radelica = Medusa
Deeky (left), the Great Grape Ape, circa 1975
shadysexysadie as Hedwig!
Zombified laurenm and her father
The Lady Eve, ca. 1984
Skywind's son as Dr. Who (complete with sonic screwdriver)
Mama Shakes as... I dunno what
If you've an image of yourself all bedecked in a snazzy Halloween costume, email it to me at shakerwhatthehell_at_yahoo_dot_com. I'll add them to this thread. And please don't forget to include the name you comment under in your email.
Happy Birthday, Iain!!!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You muckle flaheed ginger Scooootsmaaaaan,
I love you through and throuuuuuuuuuuugh!
Happy Birthday, my partner, my ally, my best friend.
I love you!
Question of the Day
What joke, scene, or moment from a movie or television show always makes you laugh yourself to tears, no matter how many times you see it?
There's this throwaway gag in Blazing Saddles that never fails to get me: When Mongo and his gang invade Rock Ridge and are wreaking havoc, there is a man that gets his foot caught in the stirrups on a horse. The horse takes off running, dragging the man through the mud and dirt in the road. The man says, matter-of-factly, "Well, that's the end of this suit." Slays me.
