Hosted by Witchiepoo.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker BlueJean: With a hat tip to Woody Allen, if you could bring one fictional character into reality, who would it be? And why?
I am sorely tempted to be a mordant asshole and make my answer "the President Obama created in the wildest fantasies of his most fervent supporters and in some of his less honest campaign rhetoric, so we could get some real progressive shit done," but instead I'll sail on to gentler waters and answer instead Poppy, because I think we'd make great friends.
I Really Look Forward...
...to the Winter Olympics when this conversation is no longer relevant, because the misogysaurs of the International Ski Federation and the International Olympic Committee finally realize that women won't damage their delicate ladybits by fucking ski jumping.
[H/T to Shaker koach.]
Daily Kitteh
This is Sophie's Most Favoritest Game in the World. If I were willing to rattle that bag with my foot for eighteen hours a day, she'd play Cat-in-a-Bag for eighteen hours a day.
Texting! With Liss and Deeky!
Liss: Why the fuck do I have 8,000 channels but the best thing on is Goonies?
Deeks: You love Goonies.
Liss: I love One-Eyed Willie.
Deeks: LOL! Hey, you know what? There is a bar in town called the Backdoor Lounge that is somehow NOT a gay bar.
Liss: LOL!
Deeks: Also, I just finished reading "The Mystery of the Flying Skeleton" which featured exactly zero flying skeletons. What is this world coming to?
Liss: The mystery was obviously "Where the fuck was the flying skeleton?"
Deeks: The Mystery of the Missing Mystery.
Liss: The Mysterious Mystery of the Mysteriously Missing Mystery.
Deeks: LOL!
Liss: I just saw a Vaseline commercial. Do they really still need to advertise? "Vaseline: For all your dry feet and buttfucking needs."
Deeky: LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! "But mostly for dry feet. Because choosy fags choose KY."
Liss: They should hire us.
Later…
Deeks: Now I'm watching Goonies. Is Corey wearing a Members Only jacket AND parachute pants?
Liss: Uh huh, lol. And btw his name is Mouth, okay? Sheesh!
Deeks: LOL. And now they just knocked the dick off the statue. LOL! I don't remember any of this. "Heroin"? "Torture devices"? This is a kids movie?
Liss: The 80s were totally the best time to be a kid. No one gave the slightest shit what we were looking at, lol.
Deeks: God bless the Reagan years.
Liss: Totes. Our parents were all, "Who gives a shit what they're watching. It won't matter when we all die in a nuclear holocaust."
Deeks: LOLOLOL!! Totes. Whatever happened to Martha Plimpton?
Liss: She's been a stage actress for about a decade.
Deeks: That's good. I always liked her.
Liss: Me too. I saw her in a play in Chicago a few years ago.
Deeks: Very cool.
Later…
Deeks: I can't believe I sat through all of The Goonies just now. Now Princess Bride is on. Wesley is wrestling a giant nutria.
Liss: LOL! We're watching that, too. Honest to Maude, nothing worth watching has been made since 1997, except Lost.
Deeks: Just you wait for Ghostbusters 3.
Liss: I ain't fraida no ghosts.
Deeks: Are too! Scared ass!
Liss: Wevs. I totes fucked Slimer like 6 times.
Deeks: LOL! Did you use Vaseline?
Liss: Are you stupid or something? He's like a blob of ectoplasmic lube.
Deeks: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! "Are you stupid or something?"
Liss: LOL! "What are you—hard of thinking?"
Deeks: LOL! Off to bed. Nite nite!
Liss: Me too! We're so pyrotechnic. Nite!
Today in Fail.
Courtesy of Webmd.
First the image that caught my attention:
I'll give you a clue as to how excellent the article is:
"Indeed, if we always ate only when we were really hungry and stopped when we were full, there would be no obesity epidemic."
My reaction, essentially, as I emailed to Liss: ORLYWTFSTFU. Way to go Webmd for essentially calling that model fat and thus reinforcing some utterly unrealistic bullshit beauty standard. Wooo. Not to mention all your "eat smaller portions on smaller plates and don't go the buffet! because that's why you're fat, buffet-eater" awesomeness. Awesomeness of Crapitude.
Also in our email conversation about it, Liss made a good point that "...she's essentially a headless fatty; way to go HEALTH SITE for dehumanizing fat people. Christ.".
Diagnosis: FAIL.
[Commenting Guidelines] Please reserve the critique to Webmd and not examining/picking apart the model herself.
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, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120. 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.
Quote of the Day
The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest. - Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) speaking last Thursday at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood.
HT to Think Progress.
Blog Note
Hey, Shakers. Space Cowboy and I have finally finished the new template, and I'm going to be making the switch this afternoon. As with any update, there will be some glitches and bumps—you'll see some things getting republished (like the Contributors page), and there may be some interruptions in your ability to comment—so please bear with us.
But once we get everything on track, we will have author pix again, and I've finally finished the Shaxicon, which will be linkable from the navbar, as will a new and improved Comments Policy and a freshly updated Feminism 101 page.
As always, we have Space Cowboy to thank for doing all the coding and trouble-shooting to make this happen. Thanks, Space Cowboy!!!
UPDATE: We know comments aren't showing up. We're working on it.
UPDATE 2: A word on the new design: The header image, which is a collection of vintage typewriter keys, references a couple of things. The obvious is the metaphor for new media and technologies. The other is that I simply have a peculiar little adoration for old typewriter keys—my keychain is an old "M" key—and, much to friends' amusement, I have a habit of referring to any keyboard as a "typewriter." When Iain got a new phone recently, KBlogz and I were checking it out, and I sniffed, "I like the typewriter on mine better," sending Iain and KBlogz into gales of laughter.
UPDATE 3: Comments should be working now. And the number of comments is once again showing in IE. Woot!
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround is brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Shark-Fu's Marzipan Crab Cake Toppers: makes any cake into a chewy undersea fantasy. Coming soon: Marzipan Remoras!
Recommended reading:
Some links about the devastating floods on Madeira:
--BBC News: Madeira flood rescuers search streets and houses
--News24: Madeira in mourning after flood
--The Guardian: Ronaldo to play in charity match for Madeira
--The Rare Wine Co. Blog: Update on Madeira Flood
Sepia Mutiny: Bollywood on Ice
Thea Lim: Race in the Carnival and Mardi Gras Colour Face
Geelong Visual Diary: Trying to dance like an Aborigine!!!
Jeralyn at Talk Left: New Credit Card Rules: The Good and the Bad
Amy at Extreme Biology (a blog written by high school biology students): Fungi: A New Revolution in Violin Making.
despoke: Crafts Council Launches a New Way to Experience Contemporary Craft With Craftcube:
The first CraftCube:Research is developed in partnership with the Culture Lab, University of Newcastle, and will focus on the work of Research Fellow Dr Jayne Wallace. Her recent research into memory and memory loss with the Alzheimer’s Society has resulted in jewellery that uses digital technology not as a design tool but as a way to reflect the complexities of memory loss. Visitors will be able to interact with the objects on display giving them the opportunity to discover the important roles jewellery and technology can play in the lives of people living with this condition.
Sam Fromartz at The Fresh Loaf reverse engineers Jim Lahey's Pizza Patate from "My Bread"
Doc's Tavern: Making Malt/Beer Vinegar
Gorgeous Things: Pattern Review - Vogue 8593. A sewing pattern review and construction notes on Vogue Patterns' homage to the dress Michelle Obama wore on her first visit to the White House.
Primate Diaries: How To Prove Evolution is Fake - The Peanut Butter Test
Really?
Really, New York Times? You really found it appropriate to headline an article about a prominent lactation consultant "The Breast Whisperer"?
Because I—like most people, I imagine—associate that phrase with "The Horse Whisperer" and "The Dog Whisperer." (And maybe "The Ghost Whisperer.") Last time I checked, my breasts were not animals. (Nor were they imaginary phantoms.) In fact, they weren't actually a separate entity from me of any kind at all.
Breasts are not independent, sentient beings. They are part of the human anatomy. Lactating breasts are (generally) part of the female human anatomy only, but that doesn't mean that they are the sum total of a female human.
A professional lactation consultant is not a "breast whisperer." She is a resource for people. Female people. Who are more than the sum of their parts. And baby people. Who, as it happens, tend to be the ones who need the help.
Liberal Media Bias!!!1!!eleventy!!!
Digby on the awesome American national media:
Ron Fournier wrote in yesterday's WaPo about the lying rightwingers at CPAC and the equally dishonest liberal activists who hate them. His theme is that Real Americans are sick of all this lying by the partisans of both sides and just want the truth.Read the whole thing, as they say.
He then takes an example of each side's lies to illustrate this. The first is Mitt Romney, whom many people consider to be the front runner for the Republican nomination, at CPAC. He points out that Romney lied about the Democrats' policies on taxes, jobs, deficits, tort reform, and the treatment of terrorist suspects in his speech to the faithful. For the Democrats he used as an example an anonymous diarist at DKos who wrote that Dick Cheney was a "self-confessed war criminal," insisting that's a lie because Cheney has not been charged with a war crime, nor has he confessed to one.
Aside from the bizarre asymmetry of a top tier presidential candidate and an anonymous blogger being used as equal examples of bipartisan lying, he didn't even get it right. It's true that Cheney has never been formally charged with a war crime, but Dick Cheney did go on national television just a week ago and blithely admit, "I signed off on it; others did, as well, too."
I'm Shocked, Shocked, I Tell You
"A comprehensive new study on foreign militaries that have made transitions to allowing openly gay service members concludes that a speedy implementation of the change is not disruptive. The finding is in direct opposition to the stated views of Pentagon leaders, who say repealing a ban on openly gay men and women in the United States armed forces should take a year or more."
The report also found that allowing gay service members to serve openly did not undermine morale, did not cause widespread resignations, did not result in mass "comings out," did not provoke increased harassment, did not require "separate facilities for gay troops" or unique benefits for same-sex partners, and did not in any other way create significant disruption to the armed services.
It was not reported whether the final page of the report simply read: "Conclusion: You nincompoops at the Pentagon have literally no basis on which to justify the continuation of this ban besides your own tired bigotry."
And because we just can't get through any article on any major social justice issue without finding out what "the other side" thinks, the final paragraph reads: "Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, said that he continued to support 'don't ask, don't tell' because 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'."
That's privilege in a nutshell for ya: Heterosexual Tim Pawlenty is totally unable to even imagine that DADT is "broke" for gay and lesbian service members.
Huh?
I don't believe there's ever an age at which someone is "too old" to go back to school, so I'm not WTFing at the fact that this is a picture of an elderly fellow. I'm WTFing at the expression on his face! Does he look like a chappy who's excited about the prospect of going back to school? I vote no.
"Take your dagnabbit grant and get off my lawn!"
[Previously in user-generated ad picture fail: Huh? Huh?]
Healthcare Open Thread
Today's Big News: Obama to Urge Oversight of Insurers' Rate Increases.
President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation's health care system, White House officials said Sunday.Legislation that blocks excessive premium increases by healthcare companies would be a great thing. But that isn't actually what this legislation is designed to do.
...By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, a new element not included in either the House or Senate bills, Mr. Obama is seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California and moving to portray the Democrats' health overhaul as a way to protect Americans from profiteering insurers.
Congressional Republicans have long denounced the Democrats' legislation as a "government takeover" of health care. And while they are likely to resist any expansion of federal authority over existing state regulators, they will face a tough balancing act at the meeting with the president to avoid appearing as if they are willing to allow steep premium increases like those by Anthem.
...The president's bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review, and to block, premium increases by private insurers, potentially superseding state insurance regulators. The bill would create a new Health Insurance Rate Authority, made up of health industry experts that would issue an annual report setting the parameters for reasonable rate increases based on conditions in the market.
...The legislation would call on the secretary of health and human services to work with state regulators to develop an annual review of rate increases, and if increases are deemed "unjustified" the secretary or the state could block the increase, order the insurer to change it, or even issue a rebate to beneficiaries.
Happy Birthday, Shark-fu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You're our favorite Angry Black Biiii-iiiitch!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Open Thread
Hosted by Agent Dana Scully.
This weeks's open threads have been brought to you by fookin' kick-ass women of sci-fi.
