Cotton Mather and Protestantism in general is pretty chill. As a result, the United States is finally a post-religious, post-racial, post-feminist meritocracy, as evidenced by Elena Kagan and the Ivy League. It's like how Branch Rickey signaled the end of racism by signing Jackie Robinson, only even more magical. So the next time you're not being discriminated against, thank Pat Robertson. So insinuates some white Harvard law professor who went to Oxford, Cambridge and Yale, and presumably got a gig writing occasional op-ed pieces for the Times on account of merit.
Okay, I'm being sarcastic. To tone it down just a bit, as far as I can tell, Noah Feldman is saying that things these days are better for (certain) Jews and Catholics (which is an oddly Blues Brothers-ish approach to religious diversity in the US, if you ask me), as evidenced by the composition of the Supreme Court. He then goes on to argue that this is a BFD (I'm happy for them? And for the nation?).
Feldman then goes on to give Protestantism the credit for select good things about colonial America, which aside from being the rhetorical equivalent of giving Catholicism the credit for select good things about the Vatican, and water the credit for select good things about the ocean, tends to erase Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other constitutionally crafty types.
Protestantism FTW!
Away He Goes
I went to the dog park this weekend determined to get some decent still shots of Dudz doing his greyhound thing, not merely because I love the challenge of trying to photograph him in motion, but because a handful of Shakers have requested still shots of his running. So, armed with my trusty camera and steely resolve, I got a few decent snaps of a gleefully accommodating dog.
The pictures taken of him from the back really show the mechanics of his running. I absolutely love this picture of him mid-flight; one could almost imagine his feet were in the grass, were it not for the shadow beneath him.
Meanwhile, the pictures taken of him from the front and sides reveal the sheer love of running he has. He is a grin on four legs.
Below are two short slideshows (8 and 9 pix, respectively) of my best mechanical pix from the back and best überjoy pix from the front.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Dudley's Running Shoes, for people and dogs who like to run fast.
Recommended Reading:
Bree: Fat Hatin' from C. Everett Koop
Deborah: Justice Is Only for White People
SleepyDumpling: You Just Can't Know
Mar: Me and Samuel Beckett and Homophobia in the Caribbean
Kyle: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Outbreed 'Em
Mo Pie: Harry Potter Ride Turns Away Fat Riders
Andy: [video] Illinois Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias on Equality (Key Quote: "We are going to look back at this issue and be embarrassed and disgusted at the fact that we didn't let two people who love each other get married. It's as simple as that, folks.")
Leave your links in comments...
Texting! With Liss and Deeky!
Spudsy:
[Image of Ghostbuster key covers.]
Deeky: How many of those did you buy?
Spudsy: Just one. I don't think they;ll fit on my keys, LOL. I tried sending you that pic this weekend, did you get it?
Deeky: Yes, I have two copies now
Spudsy: It's worth two. Two copies of AWESOME.
Deeky: LOL! Which one did you buy?
Spudsy: Both are included on the card, the No Ghosts logo and Stay Puft.
Deeky: Oh, I see.
Spudsy: Bustin' makes me feel good.
Deeky: LOL! Speaking of which, is that new Ghostbusters game any good?
Spudsy: Do you even need to ask? YES.
Deeky: Yes, I need to ask! What platform do you have? Besides your shoes, Elton.
Spudsy: PS3. Like all cool people.
Deeky: But you're not cool!
Spudsy: I'm totally fucking cool. Just no one will admit it.
Deeky: Maybe they would if you laid off the bow ties a little.
Spudsy: Bow ties are cool.
Deeky: Okay, Pee-wee.
Swell
In a ruling more in keeping with the slow construction of a conservative utopia where all your problems can be solved by an invisible hand holding a gun, SCOTUS also ruled this morning that Chicago's handgun law is unconstitutional because, according to the Court's majority, "It is clear that the Framers…counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty."
And that's still relevant 200 years later, despite the fact that the Framers, as ingenuous as they were, did not envision a country of 300 million+ people where almost everyone is literate and almost every adult can vote. Nor did they imagine handguns, which didn't fucking exist.
I'm too aggravated to write a thoughtful post about this decision, so I'm going to go ahead and direct you in Echidne's direction, where, as ever, the thoughtfulness flows like a river of flowy liquid thoughts.
"But haven't you heard—the law doesn't apply to us!"
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse.]
SCOTUS made surprisingly decent decision this morning:
The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia.In case you're understandably wondering how it could even be in question whether a US priest would stand trial in US courts for US crimes committed in the US against US residents, the Vatican was essentially arguing diplomatic immunity, claiming that priests are immune as Vatican state employees under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases.
The federal appeals court cited one of the exceptions to that Act, "ruling the lawsuit has sufficiently alleged that [accused priest Reverend Andrew Ronan] was an employee of the Vatican acting within the scope of his employment under Oregon law." SCOTUS agreed.
There is another lawsuit pending in Kentucky in which the Vatican claims US bishops are employees of the Holy See and thus immune from prosecution. Let us hope the SCOTUS is as similarly disinclined to make an exception for the bishops as they were for the priests.
Meanwhile, over in Europe where the history comes from [/izzard] , the Vatican is positively "indignant" that Belgian police investigating sex abuse allegations had the unmitigated temerity to, um, investigate.
Of particular concern is Belgian police having drilled small holes into the tombs of two Belgian cardinals at Mechelen cathedral, to send in cameras in search of hidden documents, a part of the investigation that was carried out "after someone mentioned [to investigators that] work had recently been carried out on the grave's exterior."
In a statement, the Vatican called the search—which also resulted in the seizure of "nearly 500 files and a computer from the offices of a Church commission investigating allegations of sex abuse"—a "violation" of both the graves and the "confidentiality of precisely those victims for whom the raids were carried out."
Somehow, I'm not feeling any sympathy that the Church feels "violated" by an investigation into a global sex abuse problem it conspired to conceal for more than a century.
And their affected concern for survivors is revolting. I would hope that no one yet suffers from the misapprehension that the Catholic Church is more concerned for protecting survivors' confidentiality than for protecting the anonymity of its abusive priests.
[H/Ts to Shakers Constant Comment and TehKenny.]
Florida Netroots Awards 2010
The voting is open for the Florida Netroots Awards. Go here to vote.
Bark Bark Woof Woof has been nominated in two areas: "Best National Blog -- Blogs written by Floridians that cover primarily national politics," and "Best Series" for "Question of the Day."
(There is no requirement that you have to live in Florida to be eligible to vote. Just ask my mom.)
I'm Mustang Bobby, and I approved this message.
A Confession
When I read stuff like this, there is always a part of my brain thinking, "But...this is all just a game we made up, right? If everyone around the world is getting fubared by this game, let's stop playing it and make up a new game with better rules!"—because even though I know it's not that simple, it is nonetheless weird to me when people, even very smart people, talk about the international economy like it's something that just exists without identifiable genesis or discernible reason or any ability to change it, like air or David Hasselhoff.
Funny, Heartbreaking and Provocative
That's fat people for ya!
Funny? 99.99% of the world's would-be comics can't be wrong, can they?
And heartbreaking — well, what a waste of potential! Especially if the fatty is a teenage girl; I mean, she has such a pretty face, amirite? It's a shame, when you consider that there surely is, for every fat girl with a pretty face, some sad young thing who fails to meet the prevailing standard of prettiness in her locale despite being virtuously slender. That girl could have put this otherwise wasted pretty face to good use — heartbreaking!
As for provocative — some of these fat folk fail to be properly ashamed of themselves! Some might even reject the notion that practitioners of Bodily Correctness, both public and private, appoint themselves to the task out of concern for the health of others — now there's a provocative notion!
Funny, heartbreaking and provocative is also how the ABC Family channel describes their new show Huge, which is based on a book of the same name by Sasha Paley. The show, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central, is about seven teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp called 'Victory'.
"The implication," says Ginia Bellafante, who reviewed the show for the NY Times, "is that no one has truly come here by choice — parents or the insidious culture of thinness at large have militaristically exerted their pressures." Although Bellafante maintains a careful tone throughout, one does detect the eye-rolling behind the I-don't-want-you-fat-people-emailing-me words.
Ms. Bellafante chooses to begin her review with several paragraphs on the subject of "gainer blogs", implying that people perversely directing their efforts to gaining rather than losing weight are the heart of the fat acceptance community, which she further mischaracterizes in order to bolster her dismissal of it as a "fringe movement", clearly unworthy of being part of the august social institution which is "hourlong dramatic television." Nevertheless, Ms. Bellafante believes, the show "stands in some sympathy with a rebellion mounted against so many hours of 'The Biggest Loser.' "
So here's your sympathy, fatties — now put down that snack and listen up! Yeah, we know you've got that hidden stash of candy, Will, why else would you be fat? And we know you're going to feed it to the other campers, the ones who are really trying, because you want them to stay fat, too!
"Will" is Willamina, played by Nikki Blonsky, whom Bellafante characterizes as "the apparent embodiment of the spirit of fat pride". Because that is what fat pride is about, campers! Sneaking candy! The show's website says that Will's "sardonic and rebellious nature make her a menace to some and revolutionary to others." Hey, one person fighting for the freedom to not hate her body is another person's candy-sneaking terrorist! Or something.
But as Ms. Bellafante points outin truth the series can go only so far because a real sanctioning of teenage obesity would feel like a renewed condoning of the subprime mortgage market.
Wow, that's deep.
So, supporting the idea that people should simply mind their own business about other people's bodies is equivalent to supporting elaborate financial schemes in which you induce people to invest every penny they can scrape together in the purchase of a home through an intricately structured contract which they don't understand but which you, as the professional, assure them they can afford, withholding from them the knowledge that once you have them roped in you will be bundling that mortgage with a bunch of others and selling it to some more suckers, while knowing that the basis for their accepting your counsel as to what they can afford is that they think you are the one they will owe their money to and that you will want it repaid and therefore would not mislead them about what they can afford.
My, yes, Ms. Bellafante, that is some deep shit, there.
Fortunately, the ABC Family Channel seems prepared to avoid this moral quagmire. A section of the show's website, under the heading "Live Huge" promises to provide "tips on how to eat nutritious snacks and meals, add exercise into your busy life, and build a stronger, more positive sense of self -- because living a healthy life means having healthy self-esteem too!"
Which could, wonderfully, be supportive of HAES, but sounds more like: Fattiez! We love you just the way you are! Come watch our show! Just as you are! Then we'll tell you how to not be that way! Or, we love you as you are because we know you can be different! Is there a more seductive message than that to a young person who does not love hirself as zie is?
In any case, one suspects Ms. Bellafante sees this as coddling, as well as something worse: The waste of an entire hour of her dramatic-television-watching time, which could otherwise be spent watching people Ms. Bellafante finds more attractive, and can watch without that painfully constricting girdle-of-verbal-repression she must don in fear of those prideful, vindictive fatties.
Forty-one years
This morning marks the forty-first anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion.
I was hoping to do some sort of long-assed post about intersectionality, civil rights, and Sylvia Rivera. Instead, I just want to point out that Rivera (and Marsha P. Johnson, and others) are the reason for the season, as all the kids like to say these days. Rivera has my undying admiration for (among other things) publicly admitting to throwing the second* Molotov cocktail at the Stonewall.
Because I love violent metaphors like Godzilla hates mass transit**, I assume the War On Pride and Queer Assimilation will be won by fabulous floats in the shape of bricks.
--
* I do have a source for this. I apologize for not being able to get a transcript together, but Rivera did a 25-minute 2001 interview on GenderTalk, where she talked about murder, transphobia, Stonewall, and activism in general.
** A simile, I know.
NY Archbishop Undermines Message of Gay-Friendly Parish
Oh, Catholic Church—you never cease to amaze.
For 12 years, parishioners from the gay-friendly St. Francix Xavier Roman Catholic Church in NYC have marched in NYC's Gay Pride Parade with a banner and pamphlets advertising that their parish is welcoming of same-sex couples. But this year, they marched with a blank banner after Archbishop Timothy Dolan told the church's pastor, Reverend Joe Costantino, to keep the church's name out of it.
But it's not because the Catholic Church hates gay people! No, no no—it's because the good archbishop was merely "concerned the church might be seen as endorsing some elements of the gay pride march that may advocate a promiscuous lifestyle."
Parishioners decided to march with a blank banner and t-shirts bearing the church's name instead. The archbishop had no comment.
In all honesty, I don't understand being so culturally connected to Catholicism (or any religion, or any organization) that I would abide such contemptible treatment to stay affiliated with the agents of my marginalization. But I understand that there are people who are that connected, and I hope their admirably saucy insolence brings them some measure of satisfaction after what I imagine was another devastating blow in the fight against ostracization from one of the most intractably homophobic institutions on the planet.
Just like Jesus always wanted for Pride month.
Movies I Steadfastly Refuse to Netflix
I was desperately trying to find something to watch last night, and quite unexpectedly came across the least appealing opening clause of a film synopsis:
Jilted by his girlfriend....
Since I'm sure somewhere in the world, this is an actual Netflix category, permit me to break it down:
Jilted. Dumped?
By. Drat! A preposition. Moving on.....
His. Yay! Male perspective!
Girlfriend. Girlfriend? Maybe this guy's bi, but it's almost as if Hollywood is letting straight folks make movies about themselves. At least the jilted by their girlfriends segment. Yawn.
I swear on the "souls" of a thousand Seacrests that there's nothing the least bit unusual with the rest of the synopsis, either.
Hot Fun in the Summertime
[Image reads: Cornhole Tournament This Saturday 5:00 P.M.]
How's this work? Is it a round-robin type thing? Brackets? How is a winner determined? Are there different divisions for pitchers and catchers? Are you penalized for barebacking? And where do I sign up?
[Cross-posted.]
RIP Senator Robert Byrd
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia, the longest-serving member of the US Congress in history, who served 51 years in the Senate following 6 years in the House, has died at age 92.
Senator Byrd, who was known for his robust speech-making and vast institutional memory, leaves what I'll politely describe as a complicated legacy. He was essentially a Dixiecrat who never turned Republican; he was a member of the KKK when he started his political career in the 1940s, and he filibustered against the Civil Rights Act and other civil rights legislation, on the basis that such legislation infringed on States' Rights—the same bullshit that Democrats, Byrd himself among them, have used to justify failing to support LGBTQI rights in recent years. He supported the Vietnam War, and he was a fan of bipartisan compromise (i.e. acting like a Republican) literally before Barack Obama was even born.
In later years (which is still some 40 years ago—dude was around forever), he had a change of heart about civil rights legislation and began to throw his support behind it. He also changed his mind about interventionist warfare and was a critic of the Iraq War before it became fashionable in the Beltway.
I never got a good feel for Byrd; I can't say I ever really had a guess one way or another whether he was to be respected as a man who learned from his mistakes, or disdained as a man whose principles changed based on political expediency.
Maybe the truth is that there was a little bit of both the penitent and the opportunist to Senator Byrd.
West Virgina currently has a Democratic governor, but whether he appoints Byrd's replacement depends on when the seat vacancy is declared. If it before this Saturday, there will be a special election held to elect Byrd's replacement; if the declaration is made next week, Governor Joe Manchin will pick Byrd's successor. Reportedly, Manchin wants the seat himself, but will not appoint himself, so look for him to appoint a place-holder to keep the seat warm until the next election.
[Note: Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of Senator Byrd's work and life in this thread.]
Open Thread
Hosted by rocket skates.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by cartoon props.
Make Way for Ducklings
In a scene right out of Robert McCloskey's classic children's story, look who showed up in the backyard this morning.
I'm sure these are Muscovy ducks since there's a large population of them that hang around along the canal and are frequent feeders in my yard.
Crossposted.
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!
