"The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it. The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you." —
Prince (AKA The Artist Formerly Known As Prince AKA The Artist AKA Unpronounceable Symbol), on why he closed his official website.
[
Cross-posted.]
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While Corporate America, owners of the Republican Party, conduct their delicate dance of funding and promoting the latest incarnation of the Know Nothings in the form of Tea Partiers, while continuing to support their own unfettered access to the labor of undocumented immigrants kept in a legal limbo which makes them easy to manipulate and mistreat, their takeover of the Democratic Party proceeds apace.
Paul Krugman (smart guy! they even gave him a prize for it) notes in his blog that George Stephanopoulos said today on Good Morning, America that an official of the Obama White House told him "what we need to get businesses investing is for business to know that the government has stopped".
In particular, Krugman interprets this to mean, stopped spending and stopped regulating business, which seems to cover everything beyond imprisoning people and fighting wars. In short, Rand Paul's lifelong wet dream *(as long as the government continues to regulate women's bodies, and who among us doubts they will?)
Krugman points out that this is "garbage", while also noting that administration economists know it's garbage. But apparently on the political side of the Obama White House are those who fully support the Corporate Republican position that President Obama's job is to make them happy, and that he must do so by using his control of the U.S. government to halt its functioning.
There may be one thing this administration has been spectacularly successful at — sucking all the meaning out of the words 'hope' and 'change'.
*Edited to note the one regulatory function which neither Paul nor the Obama White House seems willing to give up.
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Last weekend I was in Toronto for an *amazing* queer roller derby event, loosely affiliated with Toronto Pride. My teammates and our hosts put a lot of work into bout production, what with the 5-foot high vagina and everything.
There was one rough spot, though. We were expecting hundreds of unsuspecting people to come out to this queer, pride-affiliated event, and the dj desperately needed to know what music we could play to aid in our recruitment efforts. The Allman Brothers? Peaches? Kansas? Finding music that could prove a gateway-to-gayness was a lot of work.
Fortunately, one of our ringleaders found [Trigger Warning: Homophobia] an amazing resource. You should really check it out. It's quite insightful hilarious tragic hateful (ETA: and also made up).
Another teammate pointed out that the same site also has a [TW]"Powerful tool" that can aid in your quest to avoid the hellish hellfires of hell. Cyndi Lauper tops the list of purifying acts, something that proved, uh, convenient?
Reparative therapists: we're not even trying.
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ETA: As Deeky points out, Donnie Davies is totally a hoax, something that raises a bunch of questions that have undoubtedly already been discussed on the internet. Why is it that such a bizarre character resonates with some of us as an earnest person? Is someone out there making money off of this?
There were people saying things on the internet, and I wasn't told? Damn.
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Paul Krugman talks sense. David Brooks talks shite. Sky blue. Rain wet. World turns.
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Caster Semenya, the South African teenager who won the 800-meters at the world track championships so decisively last August that she was asked to undergo gender testing, and who was eventually allowed to keep her title and her gold medal, thus having rendered pointless the international invasion into her privacy and her very body, has been cleared by the International Association of Athletics Federations to return to competition, effective immediately.
The 19-year-old South African was sidelined for 11 months after undergoing gender tests following her 800-meter victory at the world championships last August.
The International Association of Athletics Federations said Tuesday it accepts the conclusion of a panel of medical experts that she can compete with "immediate effect."
The statement adds that medical details of her case remain confidential and the IAAF will have no further comment on the matter.
I am pleased that Semenya is being allowed to return to racing. I remain angry that she was ever required to stop in the first place.
I could spend the next two hours detailing the many outrages of the invasive, coercive, exploitative, and flatly
unnecessary gender-policing that went on in regard to Semenya, but instead I'm simply going to highlight
a brilliant and incisive comment Shaker Rhiain left in a previous thread that gets right to the heart of the matter (emphasis mine):
There has been quite a bit of speculation about just what elements of [Michael Phelps'] physiognomy allowed him to be such a fast swimmer, but even those folks who are saying "he's fast 'cause he's a freak" are saying it in a good way; lucky him that his body is "weird" in a way that allows him to be so awesome at the sport he loves.
He essentially won the genetic lottery, because male bodies are coded as functional in our society, and Phelps' body allows him to be extra-functional. Semenya, who also won the genetic lottery* in a way that allows her to be awesome at the sport she loves, has the misfortune to exist as a gender that is coded for ornamentality rather than functionality, and therefore extra functionality is seen as cheating.
*Of course, she has won a lottery that sure seems to have made her life up to this point difficult and, now, carries dangerous implications for her personal safety. I'm not really asserting that she's coming from a position of privilege here.
Which makes for this rather bitter irony: There is, perhaps, no better evidence of Semenya's womanhood than the fact a year has been spent hand-wringing over her womanhood.
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Know what goes great with diplomacy...? Riesling.
Monday, July 5, 2010: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toasts in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia. Hilary Clinton is on a Caucasian trip visiting post-Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Clinton has rebuked Russia for failing to live up to the cease-fire agreement it signed nearly two years ago to end the fighting in this small former Soviet state.
(I loooooove this picture.)
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Tom Colicchio already had me at kitchen feminism, and now he's just spoiling me:
More recently, my wife [filmmaker Lori Silverbush] started mentoring a young girl from Brooklyn and she would come to the house and she would eat and then she'd say "Oh, I'm full. Can I bring this home?" And we realized what she was doing; she was bringing it home for her siblings.
When food stamps run out halfway through the month, these kids are hungry. And they're fed sweetened juice water, just to put something in their stomach; it's not nice.
…We had a Major General who testified that forty percent of new recruits going into the service fail out because they're obese. It's not from overfeeding. This is what people don't understand: obesity is a symptom of poverty. It's not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not exercising. It's because kids - and this is the problem with school lunch right now - are getting sugar, fat, empty calories - lots of calories - but no nutrition.
…And they're hungry, they're eating more cheap food.
They're hungry.
In 2005, 12% of USians, 35 million people, were unable to put food on their tables for at least part of the year, and 11 million of them reported going hungry at times. It's only gotten worse, as joblessness has become more widespread and unemployment benefits run out. Access to nutrient-rich food
is a class issue even in the best of times, and these are not the best of times.
The "war on obesity" is largely a class war, and the more we uncritically repeat narratives about laziness and lifestyle and
pretend the primary
solution to all childhood obesity in particular is
increased activity, the more profoundly obscured is this simple fact:
They're hungry.
(Which is to say nothing of
the other issues we may be obscuring.)
Thanks to Chef Tom for the ray of light.
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What's your favorite food cooked outside, be it via an imu or lovo or hāngi or clambake or other earth oven, a tandoor, a grill or barbecue pit, a spit, a solar cooker, a kettle boil, a skewer over a campfire, or some other method altogether?
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Today's blogaround is brought to you by Matilda McEwan, maker of The Look. The Look: it says all that really needs to be said.
Historiann: Stars & Stripes Forever: Marla Miller’s Betsy Ross and the Making of America
GarlandGrey at Tiger Beatdown: Fond Memories of Vagina: Martin Amis’ The Pregnant Widow
Southern Fried Science: Bonehenge – Community action in science outreach
Neuroskeptic: XMRV and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Continued (Again)
Grant Jacobs: XMRV prompts media thought: ask for the “state of play” (Via Ed Yong)
BeckySharper at The Pursuit of Harpyness: Real American Art
Sujatha at Accidental Blogger: Freedom on the Fourth?
Michael Le: An Open Letter To Racebending.com Detractors. (Note: Le minimizes the problem of gender-based inequality in media when he writes, "In the states, we find it very easy to fight the gender stereotypes [kids] may be exposed to." However, he responds well to the issue in comments. So, read the comments!)
Susan Orlean: Hash
Laila Lalami: The Beautiful Game
Share your links in comments!
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(Taken from an actual conversation Deeky and I had yesterday...)
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 (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
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You may have heard that the Republicans are still *totes* concerned about budget deficits, the future, the children, wev...
Indeed: What. Ever.
I was a nerdy political kid in the 80s, and the biggest thing I heard over and over and over again was about how the US needed to invest bazillions of dollars in the disinterestedly-named Strategic Defense Initiative, which as far as I can tell was a bunch of cartoons lifted from sci-fi literature. (Seriously, the Wikipedia entry contains like, three potential Floyd album covers.)
And then there was Iraq. And then Iraq again. And also Afghanistan. And of course, our government's efforts in Latin America (and really, *everywhere*) that were the organic herb-infused Aïoli on the massively over-priced sandwich that's been American foreign policy since before I was born.
What I'm saying is this: Your newfound concern about the deficit? I'm not buying it.
Whenever it's time (and really, when isn't it time?) to provide social services to working Americans (including, interestingly enough, veterans), there's not enough money. Whenever multi-national corporations have interests that need defending, whenever there are resources in the Global South, it's loans ahoy!
The bigger question is: why is nobody with power calling the Republicans on this? It's hardly as if I've hit on some sort of super secret pattern here.
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Hulloo, Shakers far and near, I address myself particularly to those among us who are living in Portland (the West Coast one, in OR).
For the last four months, a friend of mine (I'll call her A) has been staying with me; she came to Canada from the US to be with her partner, but the partner turned out to have some interpersonal issues which made the relationship unsafe for her. She stayed in a shelter a bit, and then moved into my library/guestroom. She's got to go back to the US now, and has chosen Portland as her destination (she's from New England). As you might expect in the situation, she's not over-blessed with the dinero at the moment, for reasons I won't go into in a public post. Suffice to say, she's been working, but not at such a rate as to be able to save much.
She's already gotten onto the waiting list for a homeless shelter there, but it'll be anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months before the spot comes open (really, it should be a couple of weeks, based on the way the list has moved so far, but I want to be conservative in estimating, if in nothing else in my life).
The help she's requesting is that she needs somewhere to lay her head of an evening, as a bridge between arrival and getting through the waiting list at the shelter. She expects to find work fairly quickly after arrival, because she has a skillset which is generally in-demand all over the continent.
If anyone knows of where A might find shelter in this bridge period until the shelter spot opens up, you'd have my deep gratitude.
I can vouch for her personally; I've known her online and sometimes in person for several years, and found her to be completely trustworthy. Shaker Rikibeth also knows her quite well (for over 20 years, she tells me), as does Shaker differentdrummer (both shared a house with her some years ago) and possibly some others among you (my local friends).
A's a reader here, rather than a commenter, but she's definitely our kind of people. I can be reached at this e-mail, if you would like to respond privately to me.
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Do you know whose platform this is? Excerpts:
We shall ever build anew, that our children and their children, without distinction because of race, creed or color, may know the blessings of our free land.
We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.
We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.
[...]
We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations.
[...]
The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.
America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.
Government must have a heart as well as a head.
Courage in principle, cooperation in practice make freedom positive.
[...]
Business and Economic Policy
We shall continue to advocate the maintenance and expansion of a strong, efficient, privately-owned and operated and soundly financed system of transportation that will serve all of the needs of our Nation under Federal regulatory policies that will enable each carrier to realize its inherent economic advantages and its full competitive capabilities.
[...]
Labor
...[C]ontinue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:
Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers;
Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
...[P]rotect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy...
[...]
Have an idea yet? Some more clues:
Health, Education and Welfare
...[T]he physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the people is as important as their economic health. It will continue to support this conviction with vigorous action.
[...]
...[L]eadership has enlarged Federal assistance for construction of hospitals, emphasizing low-cost care of chronic diseases and the special problems of older persons, and increased Federal aid for medical care of the needy.
We have asked the largest increase in research funds ever sought in one year to intensify attacks on cancer, mental illness, heart disease and other dread diseases.
We demand once again, [...], Federal assistance to help build facilities to train more physicians and scientists.
We have encouraged a notable expansion and improvement of voluntary health insurance, and urge that reinsurance and pooling arrangements be authorized to speed this progress.
We have strengthened the Food and Drug Administration, and we have increased the vocational rehabilitation program to enable a larger number of the disabled to return to satisfying activity.
We have supported measures that have made more housing available than ever before in history, reduced urban slums in local-federal partnership, stimulated record home ownership, and authorized additional low-rent public housing.
We initiated the first flood insurance program in history under Government sponsorship in cooperation with private enterprise.
We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system.
[...]
Immigration
...[S]upports an immigration policy which is in keeping with the traditions of America in providing a haven for oppressed peoples, and which is based on equality of treatment, freedom from implications of discrimination between racial, nationality and religious groups, and flexible enough to conform to changing needs and conditions.
We believe that such a policy serves our self-interest, reflects our responsibility for world leadership and develops maximum cooperation with other nations in resolving problems in this area.
[...]
Recreation, parks and wildlife.
We favor a comprehensive study of the effect upon wildlife of the drainage of our wetlands.
We subscribe to the general objectives of groups seeking to guard the beauty of our land and to promote clean, attractive surroundings throughout America.
We recognize the need for maintaining isolated wilderness areas to provide opportunity for future generations...
If you guessed The Republican Party Platform of 1956, you are correct!
As a whole, it's certainly not a perfect/progressive platform (tax cuts! tax cuts! rah! rah! rah!), of course, but my, how things have changed, eh?
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