This one's a call to action, you Ontario Shakers: the time is now to get on the blower to the MPP* and make your voice heard. This is a reform aimed at bringing shame-free education about bodily autonomy, to be taught at the earliest point possible, among other worthy changes.
Ontarians can find their MPP's address here. It's probably worth taking the time to make sure your subject header shows your clear support for the initiative, as we can expect our opponents to be pushing the same buttons, and if they get swamped, it's not inconceivable they may just do a subject-header-based count.
If you're outside the country and wish to express your opinion, I recommend polite e-mails or letters to the Canadian consulate and to Premier McGuinty's office directly, perhaps expressing your hope that Canada can continue in the role we want for ourselves, striding forward as a nation of progressives.
Teaspoons up, Shakers! ô,ôP
Tip of the CaitieCap to MzR for the link.
* MPP: Member of Provincial Parliament, in Ontario; in other provinces they may be known as MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) or député(e)s de l'assemblée nationale (deputies of the national assembly in Québec).
Ontario Premier McGuinty to Abandon Proposed Sex-Ed Reform
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Deeky's Surprisingly Small Finger Cymbals.
Recommended Reading:
Rachel: This is how we perpetuate a profound daily harm to women.
Andy: White House Indicates It Has No Intention of Repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' This Year
Adrienne: Cultural Appropriation Bingo
Kyle: Rick Santorum Is Still a Total Jackass
Bree: ABC Refuses to Air Lane Bryant Ad
And Happy Blogiversary to Renee!
Leave your links in comments...
Hopey Changey Totes Inclusivey
The White House will fight to preserve the National Day of Prayer after a federal judge declared the law unconstitutional last week.
Of course it will.
Of Course
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse.]
Wednesday: "Pope Promises to Confront Sexual Abuse Crisis."
Today: "Vatican says sex abuse suit lacks merit."
The Vatican said a lawsuit accusing it and Pope Benedict XVI of covering up sexual abuse by a priest at a Catholic school in the United States has no merit.Uh-huh. This is in response to the case in which "the effort to dismiss Father Murphy [who molested as many as 200 deaf boys] came to a sudden halt after the priest appealed to Cardinal Ratzinger for leniency."
"While legitimate lawsuits have been filed by abuse victims, this is not one of them," Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said Friday. "Instead, the lawsuit represents an attempt to use tragic events as a platform for a broader attack."
Two hundred children. And the Church's response is to claim the lawsuit is just a bit of opportunism by those survivors to launch an attack on them.
The profundity of my contempt is indescribable.
WTF CNN?
This video segment is currently posted at CNN with the label: "CNN's Carol Costello explores what could be the 'third wave' of feminism, and why that's troubling." Discuss.
[Transcript via CNN, below.]
Carol Costello, CNN Correspondent: There is what some call this curious social trend going on. And it involves women, young and not so young. You might call it a dirty girl culture, a celebration of being rude, crude and sometimes very, very drunk? So should mothers worry?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Costello (voice-over): Dirty girls, they're crude and sometimes violent, like a potty-mouth tween in the movie "Kick Ass." And the popular comedian Chelsea Handler –
Chelsea Handler: Same (EXPLETIVE DELETED) body for three years.
Costello: -- whose raunchy sex talk and love of alcohol has fueled three best sellers.
Anderson Cooper, CNN Correspondent: Finish the sentence. A day without vodka is –
Handler: Not a real day.
Costello: Just ask pop star Kesha whose hit song celebrates promiscuity and drinking until you pass out in a stranger's bathtub.
Ke$ha: With a bottle a day because when I leave for the night I ain't coming back.
Costello: While it may be just a catchy dance tune, a clever movie, and a funny shtick, is it something women need to worry about?
Susan Giles, Social Commentator: Now there seems to be this strange, it's like a hazing ritual or badge of honor. How drunk can you get? How bad can you behave? How close to the edge can you go? I don't get it.
Costello: Giles says it's as if girls are celebrating the worst of frat boy behavior as a way to female empowerment. And if you ask some young women, that's exactly it.
Unidentified Female: Yes, definitely. Yes, I think it's women trying to challenge men. For sure.
Costello: When it comes to binge drinking, experts say, sadly women are up to the challenge. According to Southern Illinois University, in 1996, 33 percent of women admitted to binge drinking or having five drinks in one sitting in the past two weeks. In 2008, that percentage shot up to nearly 41 percent.
Jaclyn Friedman, Editor, "Yes Means Yes": It's a really troubling message.
Costello: That's disturbing to feminist editor Jaclyn Friedman. She says women having fun or making stupid mistakes is one thing, but adopting destructive, raunchy behavior is scary.
Friedman: When it comes to sexual assault, most rapists use alcohol to facilitate sexual assault.
Costello: So do we need to worry, or is this just entertainment? Experts say that's something parents ought to ask their daughters about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Costello: That darn song is so catchy, tick tock, you just want to sing and dance to it—and most people don't really pay attention to the lyrics and that is the problem. Friedman says the real problem is a lack of reality-based role models in our popular culture. Women are either depicted as angelic as in Taylor Swift, or Snooki in "Jersey Shore." There's no one in the middle.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Chris Connelly**: "Stowaway"
** The Justin Bieber of industrial music.
Bonus Chris Connelly action:
Happy Wax Trax week.
This is a real thing in the world.
[Transcript below.]
Sure. Let's definitely do this. I can't think of a better way* to show glory to a deity than restoring Stephen Baldwin back to the pinnacle of his career as the thespian laureate of such significant works as Bio-Dome and Half Baked. It will be a great day for America—and for America's founder, Jesus.
Let's get this shit DONE, people.
--------------------------
*I can literally think of hundreds of better ways.
[H/T to Gabe.]
Male Voiceover [over black screen with orange text reiterating various ideas from voiceover]: Long ago in the land of Uz lived a man named Job. Job was the most influential man in the east—a man of great wealth who stood for righteousness and God. Through trials, he lost his children, his health, his home—and wealth. Yet Job stood in faithfulness to God, never turning his back on him. Because of this, he was instantly restored by "all who knew him." [Text onscreen cites Job 42:11.]
[Cut to image of a coffee cup on a table; camera pans to a fake-ass newspaper with a picture of three of the Baldwin brothers and two women. The fake-ass headline is "The Baldwin Brothers."]
Voiceover: Stephen Baldwin, of the famous Baldwin Brothers Hollywood Clan, is a veteran actor who has starred in over sixty films and TV shows. He's no stranger to the Hollywood life of glitz [picture segues into image of Stephen Baldwin wearing sunglasses, standing next to his brother Alec, who's wearing a tuxedo], glamor, and the public eye. In 2002, he had an experience that changed his life forever. [Fake-ass newspaper is replaced by another fake-ass newspaper with picture of Stephen Baldwin wearing a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses, raising his fist, and shouting into a microphone. The fake-ass headline is "Born Again Baldwin."] He became a born-again Christian, giving his life to Jesus Christ.
Over the next few years [picture segues into image of Stephen Baldwin speaking into microphone in front of the Capitol Building], he became very vocal about his faith, using his spotlight [there is some WACKY effect that look like Stephen Baldwin is getting hit by lightning? or something? and then he's still standing in front of the Capitol, but he's GLOWING and there are loads of people cheering for him—it's SO WEIRD] to boldly preach the Gospel to millions of people. [Frame pulls back to reveal the Washington Monument and part of a skyline that looks like Miami?! With PALM TREES?! And "millions" of people listening to Stephen Baldwin preaching in Washingmiami, D.C.] However, because of his convictions, it began to cost him the loss of several jobs—and, most recently, a highly publicized bankruptcy. [Fake-ass newspaper with picture of Stephen Baldwin, with fake-ass headline "Baldwin Files For Bankruptcy."]
He has been publicly ridiculed and insulted by people who think that he's been abandoned by God. A simple search through the internet will reveal that people not only mock Stephen [Text onscreen: "He's such a loser and it's sad"], but mock God, as well. [Text onscreen: "It seems like God isn't watching over him."]
[Cut to the image of a laptop showing the "Restore Stephen Baldwin" website.] In response to this, and with the permission of Stephen's ministry president Daniel Southern, we have established "Restore Stephen Baldwin Dot Org" [dramatic zoom onto laptop], a privately funded and managed website. [Cut to picture of paparazzi camera.] Our vision is to see Stephen Baldwin publicly restored in front of millions. [Cut to picture of Stephen Baldwin, looking all Stephen Baldwinny.] Stephen's platform will increase, allowing him to reach even more people with the Gospel. And God will get all of the glory—publicly.
[Cut to screen reading "THE RESTORATION OF STEPHEN BALDWIN."] Job was restored by the people, all who knew him. This website was created in the footprints of Job's restoration. If the people of God come together and each give a small token gift, we can see a massive restoration of a Christian public figure. And all the glory will go to God! [Text onscreen: Join the movement.] Join the movement. Visit "Restore Stephen Baldwin Dot Org."
Nero Fiddled (With Himself) While Rome Burned
Senior SEC Officials were spending their days surfing porn sites while the economy collapsed:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is the sheriff of the financial industry, looking for crimes such as Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, but a new government report obtained by ABC News has concluded that some senior employees spent hours on the agency's computers looking at sites such as naughty.com, skankwire and youporn as the financial crisis was unfolding.Other findings included an SEC account who used his work computer "to upload his own sexually explicit videos onto porn websites" and another who "attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month."
"These guys in the middle of a financial crisis are spending their time looking at prurient material on the Internet," said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland and former director of the Office of Economics at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
"It's reckless, and indicates a contempt for the taxpayer and the taxpayer's interest in monitoring financial markets," Morici said.
The investigation, which was conducted by the SEC's internal watchdog at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found 31 serious offenders during the past two and a half years. That's less than 1 percent of the agency's 3,500 employees but 17 of the alleged offenders were senior SEC officers whose salaries ranged from $100,000 to $222,000 per year.
...One senior attorney at SEC headquarters in Washington spent up to eight hours a day accessing Internet porn, according to the report, which has yet to be released. When he filled all the space on his government computer with pornographic images, he downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices.
I feel like I'm saying this a lot lately, but I just don't know what to say anymore.
Question of the Day
I was recently talking to a friend about songs on which we indiscriminately fixated during our childhood, and we ended up in gales of laughter remembering all the obscure (and frequently terrible) tracks that became temporary or long-term objects of obsession. So: What totally random song(s) captured your fancy and got played on a loop when you were a kid?
I was, for years, absolutely obsessed with Eddie Rabbit's "I Love a Rainy Night." I somehow got a copy of the 7" (Mama Shakes probably bought it for me), and I would listen to it over and over and over on my Scooby Doo record player, dancing and singing into a hairbrush—"I LOVE A RAINY NIGHT IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT I LOVE TO FEEL THE RAIN ON MY FACE TASTE THE RAIN ON MY LIPS!!!"— until I would collapse with exhaustion.
I still really love that song. And I don't think, to this day, I've ever actually heard another Eddie Rabbit song. There must have been a B-side, but if I ever played it, I obviously wasn't impressed enough to ever play it again.
Bad Faith
Two reasons it was a GREAT IDEA to do healthcare reform that centered the greedy, profit-driven interests of the public menace known as insurance companies:
1. Reuters:
One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. ... The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.Q: How do WellPoint's executives sleep at night? A: Soundly, on huge piles of cash.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.
Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information.
2. CNN:
According to Harvard Medical School researchers, 11 large companies that offer life, disability, or health insurance owned about $1.9 billion in stock in the five largest fast-food companies as of June 2009.Charge fat people more for their policies. Leave them with less money in a country where a salad costs more than a Big Mac. Make profits on increased premiums and collect dividends on fast food investments.
The fast-food companies included McDonald's, Burger King, and Yum! Brands (the parent company of KFC and Taco Bell). Companies from both North America and Europe were among the insurers, including the U.S.-based Massachusetts Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, and Prudential Financial.
…"The insurance industry cares about making money, and it doesn't really care how," says the senior author of the study, J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. "They will invest in products that contribute to significant morbidity and mortality if doing so is going to make money."
It's the American Dream.
[H/T to Elle and Shaker koach, respectively.]
But It's All Okay Because Obama's Protecting Roe
[Trigger warning for sexual assault.]
More heinous legislation at the state level, as anti-choicers chip away at abortion rights:
The Oklahoma Senate passed five abortion bills Monday night, which opponents have said will severely limit a woman's ability to get an abortion and would entail some of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country.I'm not even going to mince words on this one: Compelling a woman to undergo an unnecessary vaginal probe to acquire a legal medical procedure is fucking rape. There isn't anyone on the planet who can convince me that any women should have to exchange unrelated access to her vagina for any legal medical procedure, including abortion, which itself doesn't even require vaginal access in every case anymore.
One of the bills would force a woman to get an ultrasound at least one hour prior to an abortion and be shown the image and given a detailed explanation of it, even if she wishes otherwise. A vaginal probe would be used if it would provide a clearer image of the fetus, which no other state requires; three others do require ultrasounds, but none force the woman to listen to an explanation of it.
And frankly, any argument along the lines of "Well, a woman submitting her vagina for an abortion shouldn't complain about being compelled to submit it for a vaginal ultrasound probe" isn't materially different from the rape apologia that goes, "Well, any woman who consented to being fingered shouldn't complain about being compelled to have penis-in-vagina sex."
It's like the authors of this bill just figure that getting an abortion should equal permission to "root around in there" for any reason. It's. so. gross.
State Sen. Anthony Sykes (R-Moore), the bill's sponsor, said the measure was designed to provide women with additional information before having an abortion.I can't even deal with one more asinine male legislator proposing ultrasound legislation under the auspices of helping women make an informed decision. Seriously, women are not infants. They don't need your "help."
And I note that, once again, the ultrasound is a mandate, not an offer. It's not like women can turn down the opportunity to get "additional information." So, not so much "helping" as "forcing," then.
One last bill would require the woman to first answer a lengthy questionnaire and provide information such as her age, marital status, race, education and reason for seeking an abortion. The doctor would then report this information - without the patient's name attached, however - which would be compiled and put on a state web site and accessible only by certain government personnel.I just don't even know what to say anymore.
[H/T to Elle. Recent Related Reading: Chip, Chip, Chip; Have I Mentioned...; The Anti-Choice Whittling Strategy; How Could a Feminist Even CONSIDER Not Voting Democratic?!]
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[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 Write Letters
[Trigger warning]
Dear Jason Whitlock,
Do shut the fuck up.
Love,
Deeky
p.s. Thanks for putting "in proper perspective" the rape accusations against Ben Roethlisberger. I really love (where "love" equals "hate with all the contempt I can muster for a misogynist wankstain like yourself") how you said "Statements made by drunken sorority girls are not facts." Of course, what is unsaid here is your obvious belief that statments by drunken, bar-hopping athletes are facts.
p.p.s. I totes loved (see above) as well when you said "Statements made by sober sorority girls about an evening spent bar-hopping and drinking are not facts."
p.p.p.s. Next time, you know what would be easier? If you just came right out and said what you really mean: "Statements made by women are not facts."
[h/t to Shaker wisiti.]
Daily Kitteh
Sophie, still with the sitting on top of the monitor. Earlier today, she threw up on top of the monitor, then jumped down and bit Olivia in the ear, like it was her fault. Olivia just knocked her over then looked at me exasperatedly, as if to say, "Some people! Harrumph."
Shifting the Burden
**Trigger Warning**
So apparently, Oprah Winfrey had Mo'Nique's brother, Gerald Imes, who molested Mo'Nique beginning when she was seven, on her show Monday.
Why? I am asking seriously because I really can't think of a good reason.
And he apologized.
So?
I know it's not my place to be dismissive, but I don't understand what the apology is supposed to do. A few years ago, the uncle who molested me, apologized.
I pretended I didn't hear him.
I don't know the purpose beyond making him feel better. I didn't feel closure or any need to forgive. I just didn't care. I am not saying that I don't care about the abuse or the effects it has had on me and my life. About him, as a person and about any remorse he might be feeling, I don't care.
My father's brother mumbled an apology to me under a tree in someone's front yard with two witnesses who didn't care to hear, either. All of that facilitated my pretense, I suppose.
I am angry that Oprah gave Gerald Imes such a public, highly visible venue to make his apology. Though Mo'Nique has refused, understandably, to respond, he has created the impression that "the ball is in her court." It as if he has shifted a burden onto her because of the unspoken expectation that she do or say something. He hopes, he says, that they can "come back together as sister and brother," putting further pressure on her to negotiate some kind of relationship.
He gets to re-image himself as penitent and remorseful and as a victim in his own right. And in remaking himself, he tries to disrupt what Mo'nique said, ensuring that he has the final word if she keeps to her silence. According to his story, it's not that she's a liar... exactly. She's just wrong about the details.
From Liss, I learned that their parents were there. That they would join him in this very public forum made me angrier. Yes, I can understand that they don't want to abandon their son, or whatever.
But what does their appearance, as he was giving his apology, mean/say to their daughter? To me it says, "We have forgiven him." What it doesn't say, but seems to imply, is--"You should, too." That's how that sort of pressure works. I don't think I'm far off in my assertion; Mo'Nique's own parents seem to have a "Let's put this behind us" attitude:The Imeses told Oprah they thought the matter had been addressed when they temporarily asked Gerald to leave the family home after Mo’Nique told them her older brother had “tried to lay on top of me” when she was 15.
I don't think Mo'Nique's hurt is the primary concern here, especially since she is the one being portrayed as betraying the family bonds.
(snip)
Imes now regrets not revisiting the sexual assault with her daughter after banished Gerald returned to the family home - but she was hurt when Mo’Nique decided to go public with the family’s secret on national TV.
She added, ..." ‘As a family such as we were, this is something I felt that should have been discussed first privately within the family. Now, if you wanna tell the world, but give us a chance (sic).'
(snip)
“I only hope, with doing this, this can cleanse her hurt.”
I am viewing this through the lens of someone who has been disheartened by the way many communities rally around men who abuse--that in itself is not a racially specific thing.*
But the pressure on women of color not to tell, because men of color already have a difficult time having to deal with a racist/kyriarchal system is well-documented.
As if we don't exist, and as women (!), under that same system.
There may be survivors to whom the apology means something. Mo'Nique and I are both in situations in which, while the abusers weren't prosecuted, our stories were believed/verified. If an abuser was denying the abuse or walking around as if zie had done nothing and people were doubting or disparaging the survivor, maybe the apology would mean something. Or maybe there are people, in circumstances like mine, to whom the apology means something. I don't know.
I really want to understand why Oprah had him on.
What is that apology supposed to mean or do? Especially, if it is true that Gerald Imes is seeking to make money off the "story."
_______________________________
*Now, that is the one thing I will raise hell about when my uncle's name is brought up in some complimentary way. Do not come in my face with that bullshit; my family got that message pretty quickly.
Earth Day
People, ants, elephants, trees,
lizards, lichen, turtles, bees.
We all share the same big home."
A bit of a break with tradition--I don't usually add anything else in these posts--but PBS recently aired "Earth Days", which is an interesting documentary in how Earth Day came about and about the modern environmental movement. I watched Monday night and it's good--informative & thought-provoking. You can view it online here.
(excerpt from: Our Big Home, An Earth Poem by Linda Glaser)
Quote of the Day
"All men are dogs, the way I look at it."—Robert Donald, the only person to contribute to disgraced Republican Senator John Ensign's reelection campaign this year. Donald made two contributions for $25 apiece.
No, really, it's not funny.
[Trigger warning for violence.]
Sometimes Facebook is reminiscent of YouTube comments, such as with this group that's making the rounds (spelling original):
DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.CNN asked Facebook about it:
Similar imprecations were circulating online last year. But Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said that "while it may be considered distasteful and objectionable to some," the page doesn't violate the company's content policies.I suppose they don't consider it an "actionable threat of violence" since the people want their deity to cause Obama to die.
"We're sensitive to content that includes pornography, bullying, hate speech, and actionable threats of violence, and we react quickly to remove content that violates our policies when it is reported to us," Noyes said in a written statement.
"Facebook is highly self-regulating and leverages its more than 400 million users to keep an eye out for offensive content," he added. "We encourage users to report such content, and we have a large team of professional reviewers who evaluate these reports and take action per our policies."
Anyway. It's not funny. I don't care how many people are all "it's just a joke, come on!" or "chill out" or insert your favorite "you're just a humorless killjoy" sentiment _(here)_. Violence isn't funny.
It's yet another example of what is so very wrong with our society: that "jokes" about wishing for (praying for, wev) the death of someone--anyone--is seen as funny and normal and people who take issue with the inherent violence of it are seen as the ones with a problem. That people who are concerned about violence being entertainment and funny (which jokes are supposed to be, are they not?) are the ones who should be shamed into silence for being "not fun" or "killjoys".
I loathed George W. Bush. I wanted little more than to see him resign (ok, never take office but...), take his whole poisonous administration and their policies and go live on pseudo-ranches far from any government decision making. That's MUCH DIFFERENT than wishing for him to die, even as a "joke". The fact that some people cannot, really, will not make this distinction and continue to find humor in wishing death upon people they disagree with is more than unfortunate. It's disgusting.
Violence is not funny. Full stop.
Oh, and, FYI to that group--it's "Swayze" and "Farrah".
