What in the world are they up to out there?
From that link:
The Arizona House of Representatives recently approved a provision requiring President Barack Obama to prove that he is a natural-born citizen before the state agrees to place him on the ballot in 2012. He must have his birth certificate approved by the state's attorney general in order to run in the next election.Oh, Arizona...
A nasty scene indeed from the new frontline (the state level) in the war over reproductive choice:
The Oklahoma Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes of two abortion measures, one of which requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion.I eagerly await a statement from the President praising this exemplary display of "consensus and common ground." That is, if he can be arsed to tear himself away from being a superhero feminist long enough to make a fucking statement about it at all.
Though other states have passed similar measures requiring women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma's law goes further, mandating that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.
A second measure passed into law on Tuesday prevents women who have had a disabled baby from suing a doctor for withholding information about birth defects while the child was in the womb. Opponents argue that the law will protect doctors who purposely mislead a woman to keep her from choosing an abortion. But the bill's sponsors maintain that it merely prevents lawsuits by people who wish, in hindsight, that the doctor had counseled them to abort a disabled child.
Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, vetoed both bills last week. The ultrasound law, he said, was flawed because it did not exempt rape and incest victims and would allow an unconstitutional intrusion into a woman’s privacy. Of the other measure, Mr. Henry said, "It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform pregnant women in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on a patient."
The Republican majorities in both houses, however, saw things differently. On Monday, the House voted overwhelmingly to override the vetoes, and the Senate followed suit on Tuesday morning, making the two measures law.
Suggested by Shaker RachelB: If you had some say in the curriculum for students in high school / secondary school, what one book would everyone read as a teenager? (Presume, for the moment, that because everybody reads it, finding it in whatever language you want will not be a problem.)
Dear Arizona:
When Karl Fuckin' Rove and Jeb Fuckin' Bush have problems with your new immigration law, it's 10 past time to realize THAT IS ONE FUCKED-UP PIECE OF LEGISLATION.
Love,
Liss
Igor at Think Progress:
On Saturday, "at the Center for Arizona Policy Family dinner before 1600 guests," [Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who is running for her first full term in office this year] signed SB 1305, the first-in-the nation bill that would prohibit insurers in the state-run health care exchange "from providing coverage for abortions unless the coverage is offered as a separate optional rider for which an additional insurance premium is charged."But it's all okay, because Obama's Protecting Roe!
The new Arizona law is a radical mini Stupak. It prevents insurers from offering abortion services, except under the most extreme circumstances, even if only private money were used to pay for those services. Most if not all women in the exchange would only be able to purchase coverage through an impractical, separate abortion "rider" or leave the exchange entirely and find coverage in the shrinking individual health insurance market. Since it's unlikely that many insurers will offer abortion riders or that women will purchase them in anticipation of needing an abortion — in fact, "in the five states where abortion riders are currently required, no insurance company offers them" — the Arizona law will severely disadvantage poorer women who would likely have to pay out of pocket for abortion services.
Many other states are considering similar bans, but only Arizona has the distinction of leading the nation in adopting the most conservative social policies.
Action Item
[Trigger warning.]
Iranian actress appeals against UK Home Office deportation decision: "An openly-gay actress from Iran is campaigning against the Home Office's decision to refuse her asylum, this week, because she will face execution in her homeland. Kiana Firouz, 26, has sought residency in Britain on the grounds that her sexuality is considered illegal and immoral under Islamic law. According to legislation in Iran, the punishment for lesbian sex is 100 lashes. If the act is repeated three times and punishment is enforced each time, the death sentence will apply on the fourth occasion. But the Home Office refused her request for asylum earlier this month, despite acknowledging her appeal was legitimate."
Sign the petition to support Kiana Firouz here.
This follows on the heels of the news that Britain—along with Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—has been, according to Amnesty International, "forcibly repatriating Iraqis to 'extremely dangerous' parts of the country, in breach of United Nations guidelines." Many of the deportees are gay men, and women of any sexuality who have been accused of "un-Islamic" behavior.
Lend your voice to help save at least one woman from this fate. Support Kiana Firouz.
[H/T to CaitieCat.]
The first two Katrina and the Waves albums have been reissued. With bonus tracks. For some reason.
The world is officially useless now.
[Cross-posted.]
I had yet another freaking doctor's appointment today, because I've contracted some horrendous respiratory infection that won't go away and I sound like a one-woman tuberculosis ward. (I swear I caught it the last time I was at the doctor, because no one else I know has it!) One prescription for antibiotics later, I was on my way home when I saw the following church sign:
"God is perfect. Only man makes mistakes."
What comfort to survivors of natural disasters, disease, injury, and trauma, I thought.
[Trigger warning]
Here's a link to details on the initial report of rape by the victim.
The responding officer that night is quoted as saying, "We have a problem, this drunken [expletive], drunk off her ass, is accusing Ben of rape. ... There is no way it could have happened."
It's a pretty textbook case of why rape is so rarely reported, so rarely prosecuted, so rare to get a conviction.
Read the whole thing.
Meanwhile...
Roethlisberger issued this statement yesterday:
The Commissioner's decision to suspend me speaks clearly that more is expected of me. I am accountable for the consequences of my actions. Though I have committed no crime, I regret that I have fallen short of the values instilled in me by my family. I will not appeal the suspension and will comply with what is asked of me ─ and more.Emphasis mine.
Missing games will be devastating for me. I am sorry to let down my teammates and the entire Steelers fan base. I am disappointed that I have reached this point and will not put myself in this situation again.
I appreciate the opportunities that I have been given in my life and will make the necessary improvements.
"This is Alabama—we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it."—Tim James, Republican gubernatorial candidate in Alabama.
I'm Tim James. Why do our politicians make us give driver's license exams in twelve languages? This is Alabama—we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it. We're only giving that test in English, if I'm governor. Maybe it's the businessman in me, but we'll save money. And it make sense. [Three second pause.] Does it to you?Via Marc Ambinder, who notes: "Mr. James explains that exams in a multitude of language may endear people to the 'Rachel Maddow' crowd, but he's going to fight against political correctness. Besides, he says, it's a public safety issue because traffic signs are in English. There's a little wrinkle here: there's a reason why Alabama has its exams in many different languages, and if the governor changes the rules, the state could lose billions of dollars in federal transportation funding."
Dear English-Speaking World:
Pursuant to my earlier letter regarding the cessation of your use of the terms "man's man" and "ladies' man," I would also like to request that you jettison the following from your vocabularies: "He's all boy" and "She's all girl."
These terms are used to refer to children, anywhere from infancy to about 10 years of age, who are regarded as conforming nicely to the sex- and gender stereotypes prescribed by The PatriarchyTM. Sometimes, their use is only as pernicious as reinforcing an exclusionary narrative like all male humans like sports or all female humans like fashion.
"I see your son Joe there is playing with a ball."
"Yes, he's all boy!"
"I see Jane likes to carry around her mother's old purse."
"Yes, she's all girl!"
Sometimes, however, they are as nefarious as justifying and/or reinforcing negative behaviors typically associated with one sex.
"I see Jane stomps her feet and cries when she doesn't get what she wants."
"Yes, she loves to throw tantrums—she's all girl!"
"I see Joe often breaks his toys almost immediately after getting them out of the box."
"Yes, he's so rough and destructive—he's all boy!"
In either case, the terms (much like "man's man") create a tremendously limited definition of both sexes. To inextricably associate being "all boy" with toy trucks and tumult, and being "all girl" with dollies and diffidence, limits both the boys who like trucks and girls who like dollies and the boys and girls who don't, the latter of whom are not somehow "partially" girl and boy, or not girl and boy at all.
Our insistence on reducing children to these incomplete and hopelessly retrograde definitions of sex and gender does them no favors. And, besides that, it's about as sophisticated as believing girls really are made of sugar and spice and everything nice and boys of snakes and snails and puppy dogs' tails. Surely, we're cleverer than that.
That is not to suggest that, by some combination of nature and nurture, boys and girls are not different creatures, or to argue for androgynous silver unitards that bespeak the superfluity of sex and gender. This is not really a letter about the differences, or sameness, between girls and boys at all. (For that, you can go here.) This letter is about broadening the scope of what is acceptably female and what is acceptably male, by first and foremost not limiting those spectrums in the first place.
This letter is about the idea that a boy who loves his Easy-Bake Oven is boy, too. And about the idea that a girl who dresses up in her dad's clothes
—is girl, too.
It's also about not defining masculinity in contradistinction to femininity (and vice versa), which can have [trigger warning] disastrous consequences. And it's about having respect for people who loudly, proudly, aren't all boy or all girl, but a bit of each, by nature or design, whose bodies or minds or personal aesthetic reject the binary. It's about rejecting the idea that men are women are so different that we come from different planets, that we are so different we're practically different species, that we are separate and unequal.
This letter asks you to reject othering language.
All boy, after all, means no girl. And what could be more othering than saying you're no part of me, and I'm no part of you?
Thank you and have a nice day.
Love,
Liss
[Originally published November 25, 2008.]
