This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Liss and Deeky's Lostfan Organic Sedatives. Note: This product has been recalled for poor performance.
Recommended Reading:
Marcella: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 87
Chally: The Thirteenth Carnival of Feminists
Resistance: Orphans, orphans, orphans!
Andy: Pope Benedict Precedes UK Visit with Bashing of Gays, Equality
Nura Iro Maaji: Early Marriage and the State of Adolescent Girls in Kano State, Nigeria, Part 1 [Part 2 will be up later today.]
Anna: Action Item (US): Ask your rep to co-sponsor the Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind
LeMew: Blaming the Victim
Melissa: Johnny. JOHNNY. WTF?!!
Leave your links in comments...
Monday Blogaround
This is a real thing in the world.
"Behind the Bell" (Hardcover) by Dustin Diamond
AKA Screech
Hollywood might represent another side of the American Dream, but to many it often embodies a true nightmare, especially for young actors. Dustin Diamond is best known for his character Samuel Screech Powers in the late '80s and '90s on the long-running American TV teen sitcom Saved by the Bell (SBTB). Diamond's new book gives readers the disheartening story of an ex-child star. Dustin faced serious challenges moving his career beyond his comic role as the smart, funny, and endearing nerd of Bayside High School on the show that made him an audience favourite. Through his eyes, we uncover Hollywood's myths and see what happens when the lights go out and career expectations are shattered. Dustin also reveals how working as a child actor on SBTB created emotional turmoil that hurt his life at home and his future. For the first-time, Diamond presents the inside story of the young cast from Saved by the Bell that the viewing public thought were so lucky...In hardcover.
Description from yours truly: Twenty-five bucks you could have spent on socks.
On Bindel's Bigotry
Our friend C.L. Minou has a great new piece up at The Guardian's Cif about Julie Bindel's dangerous transphobia (which we've previously discussed).
What is astonishing about Bindel's writing on transsexuals, which has been published in the Guardian, is how often it resembles the diatribes of anti-gay bigots: the disregard of our own voices, the disbelief that transness is anything but a degeneracy, and the general air of condescension and paternalism.Read the whole thing here.
Gays and lesbians have long known that such diatribes are not merely "offensive," but dangerous – as is transphobic writing like Bindel's, and for the same reason: they support social attitudes that have often proven deadly for trans people. According to the Transgender Day of Remembrance web site, 130 people were murdered in 2009 simply because they were transgendered – and those were only the deaths that were reported. Like gay and lesbian people, trans people face the very real threat of violence every day simply for being themselves. Very often, even in places where legal protection exists for gays and lesbians, no similar protection exists for trans people.
That Stonewall, an organisation named for riots that were led in part by a trans woman, Sylvia Rivera, should honour a writer with such disdain for the transgendered was a profound insult. Its action deserved protest, but protest is not censorship, as Campbell argued. Neither is the NUS applying its "no-platform" policy to Bindel nor other groups who no longer want her to appear at their functions. This is more a sign of an evolution of the modern feminist movement away from its historic transphobia towards an inclusive model; one that, as Laurie Penny puts it, "...holds that gender identity, rather than being written in our genes, is an emotional, personal and sexual state of being that can be expressed in myriad different ways that encompass and extend beyond the binary categories of 'man' and 'woman'".
Actual Headline
New York Times: Forces Pushing Obama on 'Don't Ask, Don’t Tell'.
Not the armed forces. Not the radicalized marching forces of the Gay Agenda's Sod Squad. Political forces:
It is undeniable that a variety of 21st-century forces — a new generation in the military, a change in climate at the top levels of the Pentagon, pressure on the president from a critical interest group, even Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand's anticipated Democratic primary battle in New York — converged to begin repeal of a 1993 law that has led to the discharge of more than 13,000 gay men and lesbians, including desperately needed Arabic translators.Awesome to see forces like "decency" and "fairness" and "equality" still not making the list. But those are silly words for babies, not concepts with which Important Grown-Ups Who Do Politics concern themselves.
And because the Republicans must always distinguish themselves by being worse than the Democrats, whose foot-dragging is pathetic enough, the GOP response to the president's vow to work on repealing DADT this year is just priceless.
"In the middle of two wars and in the middle of this giant security threat," Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Sunday on "Meet the Press" on NBC, "why would we want to get into this debate?"Good question. How about we just not debate it and repeal the ban tout de suite? No, no—Boehner's right. We should definitely wait until there are no more security threats in the world and then have the debate. As soon as there's World Peace, then we can talk about gays and lesbians joining the military!
I just love (where love = find utterly contemptible) the idea that being in two wars means that we should be holding onto a policy that diminishes the number of people who can serve. Genius. It's no wonder the Republicans are considered the party of national defense. They're fuckin' brilliant.
Antiques with Deeks: Lunchboxes
I saw some pretty intersting items up for grabs at the antique mall this weekend. I'm not sure there are rules for what does or doesn't qualify as "antique" but I'd hazard a guess some of these aren't "antique," so much as "old crap."
I snapped some images of a few antique lunchboxes. And by antique, I mean, beat to shit.
Okay, this one is cool. I'd have bought it if it wasn't beat to shit and I actually took my lunch to work. I wonder about the image though. That boy appears to be all of twelve years old. And his dancing partner looks easily two or three times his age. Maybe it's his mother. Who knows? But she's got awesome feathered hair.
Even better than the first one! Look at it! You've got Cornelius and Dr. Zaius. And General Ursus has two humans tied up. They must be Ponch and Jon. Neither of them look like Charleton Heston. Maybe it's Bo and Luke. Or Coy and Vance. I think maybe this was based on the TV show. In which case it can go to hell.
Why the fuck was this even made?
(Continued tomorrow.)
[Cross-posted.]
Comments Links Working Again
The comments links on the main page are working again.
The Disqus threads look kinda funky at the moment, but just bear with me, and I'll try to get that back to normal as soon as possible. I'm also aware that the number of comments isn't showing up in IE, and I'm trying to resolve that.
Thanks for your continued patience as we play with the template and try to get everything working and looking good again.
My profound thanks to Portly Dyke, who has been a serious rockstar this weekend trying to get this thing figured out and creating a workable template for us. And also to Iain, who is totes a champion and provider of reserve patience when mine wears out.
Update on Blog Fuckery
We're futzing around with the template a lot today, trying to figure out what's disabled Java in the main column of the main page, or figure out a workaround, so you may occasionally see the template looking different or comments temporarily disabled.
At the moment, clicking on the comments link below the post title takes you to Blogger commenting, which we don't use. So just ignore that link.
Disqus is still accessible via the individual post pages, so click on the post title to get to the post page, and then you'll be able to read and leave comments.
Again, my apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience.
Happy Birthday, SKM!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a purveyor of the radical feminazi agendaaaaaaa!
And you smell like one, too!
(Mmm, saffron!)
I wasn't sure I was going to be able to top last year's Very Special Cake, but how can anyone resist Chuck Norris personally announcing that it's Cake Time! on her birthday...?! Secret Ingredient: Fist.
Open Thread
Hosted by Qwip.
This week's open threads have been hosted by white, puffy, anthropomorphic characters: aesthetically pleasing Paul the Spud since 1971.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[For InfamousQBert. Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Just in Time for the Friday News Hole
Obama decides to get feisty with the GOP:
[Transcript here. Also viewable here.]
The background: "Republicans invited Obama to appear at their annual conference; the president accepted — and then surprised them by asking that cameras and reporters be allowed into the room. Republicans immediately agreed to the request, but they may be regretting it now. Again and again, Obama turned the Republicans questions against them — accusing them of obstructing legislation for political purposes and offering solutions that won't work."
Amanda, Steve, and Marc have more.
BTD notes: "If politics actually worked this way, Dems would win every time. And Obama would be our FDR. But it doesn't. Do not expect the GOP to ever make this mistake again."
Indeed.
Daily Kitteh
Dear Roland,
If you did not attack and nom my hand every time I went to pet you, you would get more scratches, you silly glaik.
love,
Auntie SKM.
P.S. Your blissed-out expression when I am able to scratch under your "armpits" is motivation enough for me to keep trying. As well you know.
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, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105. 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.
I Get Letters
I see hoe the Feminist mind works. It was bad to stop George Tiller from killing innocent babies, but Scott Roeder's life gets ruined and you say "Good." even though you deameaned celebrating Tiller's death, now your celebrating.Welcome to the psyche of the anti-choicer, folks. Can't see a difference between celebrating murder and expressing relief at the conviction of a murderer. Calls himself "pro-life," justifies murder, and accuses me of a double-standard. Still hasn't figured out how to use spellcheck. Forever and ever, amen.
