Tour dates for Gorillaz first ever world tour were announced today. Here are the North American dates:
October 3rd, Bell Centre, Montreal, QC October 5th, Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, CT October 6th, Agganis Arena, Boston, MA October 8th, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY October 10th, Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ October 11th, Patriot Center, Washington, DC October 13th, Fox Theatre, Detroit, MI October 14th, Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON October 16th, UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL October 17th, Target Center, Minneapolis, MN October 19th, Toyota Center, Houston, TX October 20th, Verizon Theatre, Dallas, TX October 22nd, Frank Erwin Center, Austin, TX October 24th, Wells Fargo Theatre, Denver, CO October 26th, Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ October 27th, Gibson Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA October 30th, Oracle Arena Oakland, CA November 2nd, Key Arena, Seattle, WA November 3rd, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
Worldwide tour dates and ticketing info here. See ya there, Shakers!
A 17-year-old girl reported to Berwyn police in 2003 that her doctor, Ricardo Arze, had pulled off her clothes and sexually assaulted her in his exam room, state records show.
Two years later, another patient reported to Berwyn police that Arze had placed his hands on her breasts, breathed heavily on her neck and tried to touch her genitals, claiming it would help treat depression, according to a police report.
Not until 2007 -- after at least four women had filed complaints -- did police launch the investigation that led to Arze being charged with sexually assaulting patients and having his license suspended, records show.
By that time, the family physician had allegedly assaulted at least 21 women and girls at his Arze Doctors Center in Berwyn, according to criminal and civil complaints that outline attacks stretching at least to 2000.
...That police had received allegations against Arze as early as 2003 came as a shock to one of the women who reported being abused by him in 2007.
"I am disgusted," she said of law enforcement. "They should investigate why they didn't do anything. They were accomplices."
The women said they continue to suffer trauma from the incidents. They cannot see male doctors. One has recurring dreams about her alleged attack.
Arze, who is scheduled to be in court Aug. 16, won't lose his medical license for good even if convicted of all the sexual assault and battery of patient charges.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has interpreted the state Medical Practice Act to mean that it cannot permanently revoke a physician's license unless a doctor has been twice convicted of felonies involving controlled substances or public aid offenses.
A Tribune review uncovered 16 convicted sex offenders who have held Illinois medical licenses within the past 15 years. Not one had his license permanently revoked. One doctor convicted of sexually abusing a patient was never disciplined by the state in any way.
This story is so blatantly horrible I can think of nothing insightful to say that would not already be manifestly evident to anyone with a functional conscience.
On the one hand, Republicans can't stop criticizing President Obama and the Democrats on the basis that they are not doing enough to quickly create more jobs, routinely calling the stimulus a failure in terms of job-creation.
On the other hand, Republicans don't mind ignoring their own rap to reflexively accuse US workers of being lazy shits in order to criticize the Dems for wanting to extend unemployment benefits.
Greg Sargent is keeping a running tally of what he calls the "Let Them Eat Want Ads" Caucus, and Think Progress notes that the latest promulgator of the "Lazy Shits" meme is Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Eprehensible), who is currently angling for the GOP nomination in Tennessee's gubernatorial race:
Wamp, speaking off the floor of the U.S. House in Washington where he had gone for key congressional votes today, said small business, the [National Federation of Independent Business] and he as governor "must resist… any more mandates to small business to help the unemployed -- that we have continued to extend on a federal level, I think, unemployment compensation so long that there's disincentives for people to actually re-enter the workforce or go out and look for a job.
"And this is creating a culture of dependence which we do not need. We want people out there scraping and clawing and looking for work and not just sitting back waiting. And so we've got to not allow any more mandates."
I won't even waste my time addressing at length the mendacious fuckery that is asserting unemployment payments to be a disincentive against finding permanent work. It's patent nonsense—and anyone who's ever been on unemployment, or knows anyone who has, understands that it's nonsense. Forget the fact that unemployment payments are a steep reduction in income, especially if they're being gobbled up by COBRA payments to retain healthcare coverage; they are also, even when extended, a finite source of income. I don't believe I've ever known a single person receiving unemployment compensation who sat back on hir laurels instead of proactively job-hunting.
But suppose for a moment that these (straw) people actually exist in vast numbers: Are there legions of employers with oodles of unfilled positions, desperate for a workforce that just refuses to apply for work because of their phat unemployment checks? No.
You know who is being picky at the moment? Employers. Because they can be, because there are millions of people out of work, and that's an opportunity for them to find the best worker for the lowest rate.
It's also an opportunity for them to routinely turn applicants away on the basis of having too much experience, or on the suspicion that someone overqualified will jump ship as soon as the economy picks up again (as if that's likely to happen overnight).
And, best yet, it's an opportunity for them to require existing employees to absorb the work of vacated positions, instead of refilling the positions. With the constant threat of losing their jobs in a shitty economy hanging over the heads of workers, they'll work harder, longer, do more for less, just to retain their jobs. And lots of unscrupulous employers are exploiting this to the fullest, running their businesses on skeleton crews of people who don't dare complain lest they lose the terrible jobs they desperately hate and face the even worse fate of unemployment.
Employment is down, wages are down, but efficiency and profits are up.
But funny how Republicans aren't publicly lambasting employers for using a bad economy and endemic unemployment to maximize profits, for being deliberately stingy with job creation because it's actually in their financial interest to overload existing employees in a market that favors employers.
Did I say funny? I meant typical.
The temerity of a Republican saying that US workers need to "scrape and claw" for work, as if they don't do that even when they're working is beyond contempt. All US workers do is scrape and claw, while the corporations for which they work get richer and richer.
Wamp should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for suggesting that it is US workers who need to work yet harder. Of course, being ashamed of oneself requires a sense of decency, and I've seen precious little evidence of such a thing among Republicans for quite some time.
So. Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel has been brought up on ethics charges, and the House ethics committee, in the Democratically-controlled house, appear as though they are going to opt for a trial instead of accepting a settlement deal.
The opening paragraph in the New York Times' story reads:
In laying out 13 charges of ethical violations committed by Representative Charles B. Rangel, the House ethics committee set the stage for a rare public trial of the Democratic Congressman this fall, a potential embarrassment for the Democratic leadership during the election season.
Only in the Bizarro World that US politics has become could holding a trial to determine accountability for multiple alleged ethics violations by a member of one's own party be considered "a potential embarrassment."
Three years ago, after a long Republican Congressional majority, former majority leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was headed to prison, former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) was in prison, former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was in prison, former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff was in prison, and so many sitting representatives and senators were under investigation that Republican strategist Scott Reed lamented: "The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness. ... Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country."
Republicans were voted out and Democrats voted in to clean up the unprecedented level of ethics violations. And now that Democrats are doing precisely that, the media deems it "a potential embarrassment."
Inspired by Shaker BrianWS' evangelizing, and because I've been listening all day to "Closer to You" (which I note has the sort of lyrics that one might find meaningful if one is/has been in a long-distance relationship but could also be fairly catalogued under "creepy stalker anthems") by The Wallflowers, who I've always thought to be an underrated band, today's QotD is: What's your favorite band that deserves more attention?
Although I just mentioned The Wallflowers, my top nomination would be Shudder to Think, who are now disbanded but have long been a favorite of mine (thanks to my ex-husband, who was already a huge fan when we met). I have many fond memories of standing in small, smoky clubs swooning mightily as Craig Wedren's undulating vibrato rattled through my chest.
I especially love the title given to the interview with this convicted rapist: "Tyson reflects on sex, drugs, spirituality."
Love the subhead, too: "The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world looks back on a long, strange trip."
Very cool. Very way to minimize the fact that he is a person who served time for raping someone. Very way to recast him as some kind of sagacious icon whose wisdom was accrued through a lifetime of living hard and fast and wild.
Very lifetime-of-fuckery-turns-men-into-prophets. Very cool.
[Trigger warning for violent religious imagery, misogyny, and other objectionable stupidity.]
Hey! Remember our old friend William Tapley, aka the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse…? Sure you do! He was the kindly gentleman who informed all of us slutty naughtybitsies who use contraceptives that we won't be raptured—and thank Maude for his warning, because heaven knows I want nothing more than to spend ETERNITY with the likes of William Tapley.
Anyhoo, the Third Eagle is back! And this time with a song called "It's Prophesied (End Times Anthem)," which combines my two favorite musical features: Content about religion and parenthetical titles. What I like, ahem, most about this song is the glee with which Pappy Tapley sings its hideous lyrics. Enjoy!
Tapley, an older white man with a white beard stands at a keyboard next to a river, playing terrible music on what sounds like the organ setting, accompanied by a bosanova beat or some shit. Titles scroll by: "REVELATION UNRAVELED. William Tapley: Third Eagle of the Apocalypse. "It's Prophesied."
Tapley then begins to sing; the lyrics are subtitled across the bottom of the screen:
Your future's coming fast, my friend / You know we're nearly at the end / Your freedom's gone / Your friends are gone / But when I'm raptured / I'll be gone / It's prophesied, it's prophesied / You can run but you can't hide / Some will live, some will die / A few will go to meet His bride.
Tribulation will arrive / By Armageddon, few survive / You must get oil and trim your lamps / 'Cause you won't get a second chance/ It's prophesied, it's prophesied / When those four horsemen start their ride / There's pain and death on every side / When those four horsemen start their ride.
When Enoch and Elijah preach / Seven thunders fill their speech / They will call fire down from the sky / Until the people watch them die / It's prophesied, it's prophesied / Jerusalem is where they'll die / They'll do their best to save us all / But very few will hear their call.
America is Babylon / And her story's almost done / She rides a beast / The beast is sore / And now that beast / Will burn that whore / It's prophesied, it's prophesied / When Babylon the Whore gets fried / The merchants weep / The merchants cry / When Babylon the Whore gets fried.
Obama is beast number three / A leopard which comes from the sea / He's got four heads / He's got four wings / The Bible calls him the "leopard-king" / It's prophesied, it's prophesied / Obama's on the losing side / He'll start a war that he can't win / Obama is the "leopard-king."
The Antichrist is not your friend / The mark you take will mean your end / Yes, you can buy / And you will sell / But then your soul / Will burn in hell / It's prophesied, it's prophesied / You can run, but you can't hide / Some will live / Much more will die / A few will go to Paradise.
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.]
"Seventy percent of unmarried women voted for Obama. And this is because when you kick your husband out, you gotta have Big Brother government to be your provider."—Conservative firebrand, crusader against women's equality, and lady who is not me Phyllis Schlafly, during a speech last weekend at a fundraiser for Oakland County congressional candidate Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, who later said he was "taken aback by the comments, because they do not reflect my personal beliefs," but defended Schlafly's "right as an American to express her views."
In which Liss re-imagines masterpieces of modern cinema, making them a tween bit better by adding me (Deeky: The Zac Efron of the Eighties) to their classic posters. Today, a film based on a book about a guy in love with the ghost of a girl in a coma.
CNN is reporting that Shirley Sherrod is planning on suing Andrew Breitbart for knowingly misrepresenting a speech she made to a chapter of the NAACP.
The fun thing that you'll immediately notice upon reading the actual story (at least the version that's up at 1:45 U.S. Central Time) is that most of the article is taken up by a discussion of what "the other side" thinks about Sherrod, in this case, the bleatings of a retrofuck conservative who's on the board of the Catholic League.
Maybe existing evidence illustrates that Sherrod was quoted out of context by a bigot who wanted to take down the NAACP and defend his own political movement, maybe Sherrod's a racist who hates America and eats white children. I suppose we'll never know the real truth.
"As youth who have 'grown up' during the '80s and '90s, we are the product of a unique historic moment in which queer youth are increasingly visible and coming out at younger and younger ages. These days many of us have greater access to community and support. From gay-straight alliances to LGBT centers, from media visibility to the Internet, queer youth are finding and creating community all over the globe. Increased visibility, however, also means an increase in the attacks against us. And with youth coming out in larger numbers and from more disparate communities, it is all the more urgent that we talk about how our identities as young queers intersect with our cultural, racial, and economic backgrounds."
I ran across this book last winter, when I was browsing at a local bookstore. I snapped up the last copy, which was being remaindered. I strongly suspect that the main reason the bookstore was carrying it was that the book grew out of a project at Syracuse University, which is just up the street. This is really a shame, because I wish more, not less, people had access to this collection.
The book quickly became my winter companion. It's a small paperback comprised of around 70 poems, short stories, and works of art. As such, it's great for reading while riding a train with a fussy toddler on your lap, while waiting at the doctor's office, or really any other time you might have two or three minutes to get a quick fix of inspiring thought from young queer people.
But of course, this is precisely the problem.
As has been discussed in this place previously, some folks have *ahem* issues with queer people. Folks like Glenn Beck and Lisa Harvey, founder of [TW: homo/queerphobia] Mission:America.
Mission:America is opposed to "dangerous" groups like PFLAG, because they recommended books like Revolutionary Voices, which in turn encourage "bisexuality, fluid sexuality and sexual experimentation," "coming out" (which Harvey puts in quotes) and other self-evidentially bad things.
Here's one of the passages that [TW: homo/trans/queerphobia] Harvey singles out from Revolutionary Voices as problematic:
"I first began to come out when I was 11. In terms of my family, I was fortunate because my parents have always been accepting of my sexual identity....So at the age of 12 I came out to my entire elementary school, which included grades K-8...I was in sixth grade and attending a Catholic school in San Francisco when I came out to a small group of people...During this time I started attending LYRIC, the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, a wonderful program and hang-out space for LGBT youth in San Francisco....The next year I was in seventh grade..."
Apparently this is dangerous writing, because it might lead one to turn out like Gina de Vries, author of that passage, or like Alix Olson, whose work is also included in the anthology.
Interestingly enough, Harvey quoted about a quarter of de Vries' essay. The parts Harvey omitted primarily deal with two subjects: being bullied, and de Vries' feeling happy with being honest with the world about who she is. This is not a coincidence.
When I came out in my mid-20s (and around a decade after de Vries' coming out in the 90s), I was terrified. I was filled with fear, self-hatred, and emptiness. This goes a long way towards explaining the times I tried to take my own life. You know what helped me finally come out and feel better about myself? Books like Revolutionary Voices (actually, it was this one). That book, along with things like Lynn Conway and Andrea James' websites and GenderTalk saved my life. In that they stopped me from killing myself.
It's also not a coincidence that a lot of the contributors to Revolutionary Voices discuss racism, sexism, religious bigotry and problematic aspects of capitalism. These are precisely the sort of things that Glenn Beck, Mission:America, and their followers want suppressed.
This brings me back to porn, which coincidentally, I was e-mailing folks about yesterday (believe it or not, that's not an every day occurrence for me). So, there's no porn in Revolutionary Voices. There's no smut, either, or whatever word you choose to describe erotic literature.
In conjunction with yesterday's thread on The View, it never ceases to amaze me how some folks talk about queer people (or at least lesbians) by completely erasing sexuality, while other folks talk about queer people by erasing everything but sexuality, even when the sexuality isn't explicitly present. In either case, the message is that something's wrong with us, because we're not like normal (straight) people, who, you know, manage to be people and in many cases also have sex.
This is also one of those occasions where accusations of porn! really do serve as a way of silencing folks with identities, politics, and habits that the kyriarchy finds objectionable. This instance of book banning isn't about porn at all; it's about keeping queer youth from being happy and fulfilled, it's about withholding knowledge that could improve, and yes, save, lives. Of course, very few people are going to ban a book on those grounds. Thus, queer becomes porn. How horribly convenient.
So, can we talk about last night's episode of Work of Art? [Spoiler warning.]
It was truly the most abysmal episode since the [TW] "create something shocking" challenge, for plethoric reasons, not least of which was the scarred body of a fat man of color being insistently called a suitable palette upon which to build a representation of hell by a thin white woman.
The title of this episode is "Opposites Attract," and the challenge was "Opposing Themes." With six assholes contestants left, they were paired into three teams, who were tasked with creating individual works of "opposites."
The opposites were: Heaven and hell, chaos and control, and male and female.
Male and female are NOT FUCKING OPPOSITES—and defining them in contradistinction to one another is essentially the very thing that underlies the subjugation of anyone who isn't a straight cis alpha male. For a show that continually pats itself on the back for being "progressive" and "boundary-pushing," they would have been hard-pressed to find a more retrofuck, small-minded, oppressive set of "opposites" than the TOTES NOT-OPPOSITE male and female bookends of the regressive and repressive gender binary.
Don't even get me started on what those two dipshits actually produced for "male and female."
6,600. The number of graves at Arlington National Cemetery that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) believes may be unmarked or mislabeled on cemetery maps.
Army investigators estimate the number is a mere 211.
Among the alleged problems at Arlington: "cremated remains being buried in the wrong gravesites, missing burial records, unmarked graves and burial urns put in a spillage pile."
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
