This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, producers of OFFS: The Deeky W. Gashlycrumb Story.
Recommended Reading:
Marcella: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 94
Melissa: "A Life-Changing Amount of Money" [TW]
Resistance: We Are America
Lisa: Condoms for Kids (These would protect both boys and girls, methinks.)
Kevin: What About Teh Dad?
Andy: This Weekend's 'Great Global Kiss-In' [video]
Deeky: Seen
Leave your links in comments...
Monday Blogaround
All That Was Missing from the Polanski Story...
...was definitely: But what does Woody Allen think? [Trigger warning.]
The controversy surrounding fugitive film-maker Roman Polanski on Saturday drew strong words in his defence from fellow director Woody Allen after fresh allegations that he abused a minor.Oh, right. I forgot how the child rapist is a nice person, and how child rape doesn't matter if you're an artist. Forget it, Jake. It's Moralrelativismtown.
...Allen, 74, said Polanski, who is fighting extradition from Switzerland to the United States to face sentencing in a 1977 child sex case, had paid a high price for his actions and that it was time to draw a line under the case.
"It's something that happened many years ago... he has suffered.... He has paid his due," Allen told French radio station RTL.
"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it. They (his critics) are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad," he said.
"Enough is enough," he added.
As one of Polanski's "critics," I'll just note once again that Polanski did not, in fact, "pay his due," but skipped town specifically to avoid "paying his due," and, despite the absurd memes evidently floating around the entertainment industry that Polanski's been banned from the US by virtue of some exorbitant and extraordinary retributive gesture by the provincial and puritanical California government, the reason he's been "in exile" from the US is because he's a fucking fugitive.
I don't want him executed and his "paying for the rest of his life" would bring me no goddamn happiness. I would only like for the same justice that I would want to see in any case—and the reason this has gone on for 32 years is because Polanski himself has avoided that justice for all that time.
To turn his critics into insatiable witch-hunters is not merely spectacularly unfair, but an assertion predicated on ignoring Polanski's responsibility in this situation.
Which, granted, is hardly surprising from someone defending a child rapist.
Meanwhile, I love this:
Another of 76-year-old Polanski's prominent defenders, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, also spoke out, rejecting the new allegations by British actress Charlotte Lewis, while Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob said no one was above the law.Oh, well, if world champion child rape apologist Bernard-Henri Levy says the allegations are untrue, they must be!
Because, as everyone knows, in a rape culture, surviving rape renders you irrevocably compromised on the subject of rape, but defending rapists turns you into a goddamn bastion of objectivity.
Forget it, Jake. It's Rapeculturetown.
Hey, Senator Evan Bayh...
It's a big bag of shut up.
I hope it will help you keep your stupid fucking AIDS "jokes" to yourself.
So I'm walking through the airport and people were kinda being nice and making eye contact and a couple come up and say hello. This one person runs up all excited and I'm prepared to say "Hello," and he says, "Senator Bayh! Senator Bayh!"And that goes double for your pathetic justifications. No, voting "for AIDS funding and all sorts of things" and supporting "all sorts of things in terms of equality and lifestyle and that sort of thing" (which is a bullshit claim to make when you don't even support marriage equality) does not entitle you to make punny "jokes" about having AIDS/aides. Cripes.
I said, "Well, yes?" and he looked at me and said, "Do you have AIDS?" [nervous laughter and gasps from the audience] I said, "Huh?" He said, "Yeah. Do you have AIDS?" I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say. He said, "I've got a letter I want to give you, do you have someone I can hand this to? Do you have an aide with you?" [audience laughter] So you never know what people are going to say. [audience laughter]
Seriously, good riddance, you bozo.
Btw, a special shout-out of steely contempt to Indiana state Democratic party chair Dan Parker who said the Indiana Stonewall Democrats, who walked out of the dinner at which the joke was delivered, were "overreacting" and that any offense was "obviously unintentional."
Blog Note
I'm getting lots of emails about commenting again this morning, so I figured it was time for another update...
If comments aren't loading for you, or they're loading looking "weird" again, or if you're getting an error message when you try to leave a comment, you're not alone.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. It is, unfortunately, out of our hands.
And, as very soon as we are able, we will increase the text size of comments, which I know remains frustratingly small.
Just Seen on eBay
"We got 'em! All the Elvis Presley satin blanket bindings you need!"
What, you mean you're fresh out? 'Cause I think "none" is all I need. Or is it? Be right back--have blankets to make!
Oil Spill Update
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.Yes. That is alarming.
"There's a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water," said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. "There's a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column."
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. "If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months," she said Saturday. "That is alarming."
Estimates now top out at the possibility that 80,000 barrels a day (3,360,000 gallons a day) are leaking into the ocean. Sob.
International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia
Today is the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, which was "launched with the idea of creating a worldwide community of activists and committed people, sharing the ideal of a world without homophobia nor transphobia in which everyone can freely live their sexual orientation and the gender identity they wish to live in."
Like many days which mark the advocacy for social justice (International Human Rights Day, Blog Against Sexism Day, Blog for Choice Day, Day of Silence...), I feel the best way I can honor this day is to reaffirm my commitment to being an ally and working my teaspoon to contribute whatever I can not just on this day, but on every day.
Support for sex, gender, and sexual orientation equality is and has always been central to my feminism. It's not just because lesbians, bisexual women, and trans women are my sisters, but because the rights of gay men, bisexual men, trans men, and cis, trans, and intersex androgynes to live a life on their own terms, too, to define themselves and express their sexualities and do with their bodies whatever they want, is inextricable from my ideal of a fluid sex, gender, and sexuality spectrum along which all people might exist free from harassment, marginalization, and violence.
It's because ladies wearing trousers in my country was once a scandal, and still is in other places in the world. (Not to knock ladies who don't want to wear trousers, but damn it if every lady shouldn't have the right.) How one dresses one's body, or wears one's hair, or decorates one's skin, is intimately related to issues of equality, to freedoms denied, to lives lost, because of deeply entrenched prejudices about nonconformity.
What do a trouser ban and a Ugandan law criminalizing homosexuality with a death sentence have in common? Well, sort of everything.
We all must have the freedom to be who we are—who were we born, who we choose to be—and the freedom to express ourselves and live our lives without the menace of prejudice. And not the kind of freedom in patriotic hymns written and sung by the privileged, not the faux freedom reflexively invoked in rightwing rhetoric, but a real freedom—the kind of freedom that allows every person to walk down the street with dignity and without fear, the freedom to live big and live whole.
Autonomy. Consent. Choice. My rights end where yours begin.
These are not mere words and phrases, but the governing concepts of how I approach the world. And the people in it. Because of that, I cannot understand a feminism in which "sharing the ideal of a world without homophobia nor transphobia in which everyone can freely live their sexual orientation and the gender identity they wish to live in" isn't a central tenet. And so I'm gonna keep working my teaspoon.
All in.
Doctor Who Open Thread S5E05: Flesh and Stone
Alright, Shaker Whovians, don't blink - don't. even. blink.
Right? Right. No pictures of angels this week, I don't want them to spread. Heh.
This week's discussion will concern Season 5, Episode 5: Flesh and Stone. Note that the discussion will have spoilers for any and all Doctor Who up to and including that episode.
Please note also that spoilers for any episode beyond that point are off-topic, and will be edited by the mods as soon as possible. Reading is fundamental, my dears: the first two threads have had some spoilers brought in each time.
Please respect your fellow Shakers' desire not to have their viewing experience tarnished by foreknowledge; there are many, many places on the web in which you can discuss the show on a more urgent schedule. Though we are all aware that the BBC in the UK is showing the episodes about two weeks ahead of this, our Open Thread schedule was chosen to accommodate the greatest possible number of Shakers, and follows the schedule of BBC America in the US, and Space in Canada.
Dudz at the Dog Park
A montage of Dudley going wild at the dog park, set to "Weapon of Choice," by Fatboy Slim.
(Also at DailyMotion here.)
Open Thread
Hosted by Duck Soup.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by ducks.
Ducks: They're quacktastic!
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
And yes, I see I added an extra "o" in saloon. LOL. Wevs.
I'm too lazy to fix it now, so enjoy my knuckleheadery!
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Yep, Definitely
If Sarah Palin is guilty of anything, it is making TOO MUCH sense:
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin told a group of women who oppose abortion rights that they are responsible for an "emerging, conservative, feminist identity."So true. If there's one thing you can say about feminists, it's that they spend a lot of time telling women that they're not capable enough to manage multiple identities.
..."Our prominent woman sisterhood is telling these young women that they are strong enough to deal with this," Palin said. "They can give their child life, in addition to pursuing career and education and avocations. Society wants to tell these young women otherwise. These feminist groups want to tell these women that, 'No, you're not capable of doing both.' ... It's very hypocritical."
Why, just last weekend, I could barely slip off my bra to burn it because I was carrying a huge "Mother OR Career Woman: You Can't Be BOTH, Ladies" sign at the Forcible Abortion Rally.
[H/T to Shaker Ivyceltress.]
Oh My Aching Sides
[Trigger warning for violence.]
Maria at 2 Political Junkies just emailed me about a new political advert being run by the conservatively-funded 527 Rightchange. The ad is called "The Attack of the 50-Foot Pelosi" and it casts Nancy Pelosi as a monster who must be killed by Republican voters.
Voiceover (over animated images of a mad scientist's lab in which cartoon avatars of Barack Obama and Harry Reid are creating "the monster" by pulling levers marked "bailouts" and "healthcare" and "carbon tax"): Once, Nancy Pelosi was safely confined to LIBERAL San Francisco [the Nancy Pelosi avatar cackles wildly as she comes to life] but Harry Reid and Barack Obama had OTHER plans!Maria's analysis is spot-on; I encourage you to head over and read what she's got to say about the ad.
Obama avatar: Under my plan, the electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.
Voiceover (over images of the Pelosi avatar being shocked in the lab and growing into a 50-foot tall version of herself and stomping down streets and crushing homes): Now, gorged on our taxpayer dollars, Pelosi has grown into a power-hungry goliath, defying the will of the American people. Who has the power to stop her?! Who can save America?! [images of people holding up "Tim Burns" buttons; Burns is the Republican candidate in the special election race for the late Representative John Murtha's seat; electric bolts come out of the buttons and hit Pelosi, who begins to scream and writhe] You! The Pennsylvania voter! Vote May 18th, the day we fight back! Rightchange is responsible for the content of this message.
The only point I'd add, in addition to her critique of the violence against an elected official being depicted in this spot, is that the Monster Pelosi is also represented being the unholy creation of two men, which is a nifty little twist of demeaning misogyny. Nancy Pelosi did not become the first female Speaker because of Harry Reid and Barack Obama. For fuck's sake.
Domestic Violence and the San Diego Courts
by Shaker Maud
[Trigger warning for discussion of domestic violence.]
Via Sign On San Diego, the online presence of San Diego's daily paper, comes this story about a Superior Court judge, DeAnn Salcido, who has taken the extraordinary step of seeking a court order specifically instructing her supervising judge, Peter Deddeh, and her fellow justices, to impose all conditions of probation on domestic violence offenders which are required by California state law.
Because, according to Judge Salcido, they are not doing so.
There is a lot of important information in this story.
- A Superior Court justice alleges that other Superior Court judges are failing to impose all the conditions of probation which they are required to by law.
- Judges are waiving these legally-mandated probation conditions, she says, in regard to a specific type of offender: perpetrators of domestic violence.
- Judge Salcido further alleges that her own insistence on following the law has lead to harassment and retaliation from a supervising judge. She says that Judge "Deddeh became increasingly upset with her and retaliated by ordering her to get his permission before asking clerks to make copies of some court papers, which she said limited her ability to control her court calendar."
- The specific conditions of probation which other judges are failing to impose, including requiring probationers to take a one-year course on domestic violence, issuing orders into a statewide database intended to provide people with protection from perpetrators, and ordering defendants to relinquish any firearms they own. Judge Salcido says that defendants who are permitted to plead to charges other than specific domestic violence charges are being sentenced merely to twelve-hour courses and given no conditions related to protective orders or firearms.
- The nature of the disagreement between the justices as to what the law requires. In her court filing, Judge Salcido states that the law requires judges to consider whether the relationship between the defendant and the victim is one which is covered by the standards defined in domestic violence laws, i.e. co-habitant, former spouse, those who have been dating, etc . If so, Judge Salcido contends, then even if the defendant is allowed to plead to a charge other than domestic violence, such as disturbing the peace, all the conditions of probation in domestic violence cases must be imposed.
- That a "longtime defense attorney" says, "Defense attorneys will often negotiate plea agreements to avoid those probation conditions" and that some judges consider the underlying relationship between defendant and victim, and others limit their consideration to the specific charge pled to. Judge Salcido "is known as" one of the former.
- That while other judges are refusing to comment publicly on this specific matter, one Superior Court judge, Fredric Link, defended Judge Deddeh, against whom Judge Salcido's allegations of failure to follow the law, harassment and retaliation were lodged, saying Deddeh is "one of the court's best judges." The story does not make clear whether Judge Deddeh is also the supervisor of the judge who publicly praised him, or whether Link is himself one of the judges potentially affected by the court order Judge Salcido is requesting.
Also, according to this story, "several judges contacted Friday were stunned at Salcido's move and privately critical of it." Anonymously. Apparently it did not occur to the reporter to inquire of any of the judges whose opinion he solicited of Judge Salcido's action and Judge Deddeh's character what conditions of probation they themselves impose in such cases.
- That the judge making these allegations is running for re-election in June. Another candidate is running to replace her, and he has been endorsed by a "conservative group called BetterCourtsNow". Judge Salcido said at the news conference on the courthouse steps, at which she announced filing her order with the court, that her court challenge is not related to the election.
I have listed these pieces of information in the order of what seems to me their importance and natural relationship to one another. The writer/editor(s) of the SignOn San Diego story began with the same first point I do above - diverging immediately thereafter. They began the second sentence with the information that Judge Salcido is running for election this year. In a news story you want to get the important information up front; in the minds of those who published this article, apparently, the fact that the judge who filed this complaint is running for election is a more urgent piece of information than any which followed.
It is true that where there are elections there is politics, and we have certainly seen this in the case of judges running for office. Still, the placement of that bit of information suggests that the writer or editors of this article were awfully eager to raise the suggestion that Judge Salcido's allegations were meant to be in aid of her chances in the election. I also note that, while they chose to print Judge Link's statement praising Judge Deddeh, we are given no information as to what other judge's impressions are of Judge Salcido's work. Given that she has alleged that other justices are not following the law, such an appraisal might not be positive, but we simply don't know.
Also, while the writer notes Justice Salcido's upcoming election and apparently asked the candidate opposing her for his views of the matter (he refused to comment, citing a rule that prohibits candidates from criticizing a sitting judge), we are given no information as to the gender make-up of the court, and whether any of the judges whose anonymous criticism of Judge Salcido's action are also women. Also, as previously noted, there is no notice taken of the possibility that any of the judges whose opinions on the matter were quoted may themselves be affected by the court order Judge Salcido is requesting, nor of what their own practice is in the imposition of probation conditions in such cases.
Related reading: The story Liss blogged about here did not take place in the same county, so does not involve the same judges. It is but one recent example of judges not taking domestic violence, or its victims, seriously.
I want to say one word to you, just one word: Plastics.
Lazy fatties, caloriesincalaoriesout!, why don't you stop eating whole cakes in one sitting, et cetera:
Studies are showing increasing evidence there may be a link between certain chemicals and obesity. A new study found overweight young girls had significantly higher levels of phthalates than the general population of children. Phthalates are found in plastics and can be hormone disruptors.Plastic food wrappers, bags, and storage, nonstick pots and pans, and the lining in items like tin cans and microwave popcorn bags are all potential sources of the phthalates that may interfere with the metabolic process.
Nutritionist Keith Bishop of Oklahoma City says these disruptors can cause all sorts of problems, "The plastics attach to receptors on the cells. If it's a fat cell, it can stimulate that cell to grow and get bigger."
These plastics can also attach to the thyroid, according to Bishop, causing metabolism problems.
Quote of the Day
"Come on down here and play golf, enjoy the beach, catch a fish and pay a little sales tax while you're here."—Chair of the Republican Governors Association and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, downplaying (to put it charitably) the gravity of the oil spill in the Gulf.
Via Alex, who notes dryly: "[I]t may be hard to enjoy a beach covered in tar balls and dead fish."
