[Northwest Indiana, July 2010.]
There's an amusement park in Monticello, Indiana whose slogan, and jingle in the adverts they've run every summer since '85 or so, is: "There's more than corn in Indiana!" This is a True Fact. There are also soybeans.
Summer in Indiana
[Northwest Indiana, July 2010.]
There's an amusement park in Monticello, Indiana whose slogan, and jingle in the adverts they've run every summer since '85 or so, is: "There's more than corn in Indiana!" This is a True Fact. There are also soybeans.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
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.]
Priorities
Ezra:
In order to get less Medicaid and teacher funding than we actually need, we're cutting food stamps by $6.7 billion (and closing some foreign tax loopholes, rescinding some spending decisions and changing Medicaid's drug pricing).Current Department of Defense budget, including spending on "overseas contingency operations" for Fiscal Year 2010: $663.8 billion.
…Democrats needed to offset spending on two worthy, important programs. So they're cutting another important, worthy program [the cost of which, during the recession, has ballooned from an expected $20 billion to about $65 billion because the number of people who needed help skyrocketed to more than 40 million]. But you really can't think of a worse program to cut than SNAP. SNAP is an extraordinarily well-targeted stimulus. It goes to poor households, for something they need to buy. According to Mark Zandi's numbers, it's literally the most stimulative way to spend a dollar: Better than state and local aid, or unemployment insurance. You get more than $1.70 of economic activity for each buck you put in.
There's a part of me that wants to use this to knock down the canard that government is full of obvious waste and inefficiency. Democrats don't like to cut food stamps, and they'd avoid it if they thought they could. Budget rhetoric is full of easy choices, but budgets are about hard choices, and this is a hard, and ugly, choice.
But this is also a question of priorities, of what gets cut. Bernie Sanders put up an amendment last month to cut about $35 billion in oil and gas subsidies. It failed. Republicans are arguing to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich with no offsets, and they may well succeed. But food assistance for poor families? You can get the votes to slash those.
If defense-related expenditures budgeted by departments other than Defense are included, the US will spend, in total, between $800 billion and $1 trillion in FY2010 on defense.
And we're slashing the budget for food stamps.
Daily Dose o' Cute
Video Description: Dudley being silly and playful, doing the greyhound spin. He does this almost every day when Iain gets home, before they go on their evening walk, and occasionally before we head out to the dog park. He won't do it at the dog park—only in a small space, which apparently makes it much more fun!
Also more fun: When I march in a circle and hum. When I act like he's not even there (i.e. not looking at him, sans camera), he goes absolutely wild play-bowing and trying to get my attention. Loop-Chase with Iain is also a huge hit.
Olivia watches this all with great interest (from her perch in the background). Matilda usually strolls away disgusted by such a display of undignified buffoonery, and Sophie is still trying to figure out how to get involved in all the fun spinning!
Still pix of doggie-boy and the girls are below the fold.
"Welcome to my cat condo. May I offer you a mimosa?"
"What the fuck is he doing?"
"I have no idea."
Sophs and KBlogz confab about an important business venture.
"Hi!"
Emergency Care While Trans
[Strong trigger warning for transphobia]
A few days ago, Bilerico posted a [TW for discussions of transphobia in the post and problematic comments]disturbing interview with Erin Vaught, an Indiana woman who had the turpitude to go to the emergency room, on account of how she had "coughed up almost a cup of blood."
The woman in question is a trans woman, so her story takes a depressingly predictable turn:
On Sunday I coughed almost a cup of blood and decided to go to the E.R. The doc told me if I had to go to the E.R. to go to Muncie rather than New Castle, as they would be more tolerant being a bigger city and a university hospital.
Been there, done that. It our case, it's because the nearest hospital has repeatedly demonstrated its suckitude when it comes to treating lesbians (at least my partner and I) with health conditions. Thankfully, there are other options reasonably nearby. Such is the privilege of owning a car and living in a city of 150,000.
Sadly, going to Muncie didn't appear to help things for Ms. Vaught and her family. Believable but extraordinarily disturbing transphobia after the fold.
More from Ms. Vaught:
One nurse finally asked, "So is it a he or a she? Or a he-she?"
So my wife said to the nurse, "She is my wife, not an it."
To which the nurse replied with a chuckle, "Well, what do you want me to say? I can't tell. Until I know then he is an it. Now I know, and I know he is a he."
[The nurse later]...asked a series of bizarre questions. "Do you ever feel so angry you might lose control?" "Are you able to buy groceries every week?" "Do you ever feel overwhelmed?" "Have you ever thought about suicide?" We were confused and still are.
She said, "Well, we don't know how to go about treating someone with your condition."
I responded, "I don't even know my condition. That's why I'm here!"
She replied, "No. Your other condition. The transvestite thing."
Rage. Seethe. Smash.
If only this was a unique story. Robert Eads and Tyra Hunter are two trans people whose stories are widely told in trans circles, but only because they died as a result of transphobia. I pretty much expect medical providers [strong TW for transphobia and violence]to hesitate before giving me emergency treatment, should they discover I'm trans. It's something I'll try to block out of my mind tonight when I go to enjoy a dangerous hobby of mine in small town Upstate New York. Of course, it's something I always try to block out of my mind.
I really can't say anything else that hasn't been said a bazillion times before; it's just too tiring to keep addressing the issue of why people shouldn't kill my trans family. We don't have a choice on when and where we need medical care, and as long as incidents like this one are common, none of us is safe.
Via. Article from today's Muncie Star Press.
Today in Don't Give A Shit
Know what I don't care about? Chelsea Clinton's upcoming wedding (apparently tomorrow). Know what else I don't care about? How much it costs total and/or what every item they have for it costs.
I am, however, fairly sure that if the Clintons (and, really, it's only about the Clintons in this case isn't it?) did not choose to do/say/pay for whatever they are, they'd be raked over the coals for not doing it, too.
Friday Blogaround
(Strong trigger warning for violence on the first two links. Both posts show the same photo of a victim of vicious brutality, and the second briefly describes the violent acts against the woman pictured.)
Matthew Yglesias takes issue with the dubious premise of Time's cover story in Nobody is Helping Aisha.
Scatx of Speaker's Corner has further thoughts about both Time's handling of the cover, and the idea that the U.S. is conducting its war policy in Afghanistan with women's rights in mind: The Cover of TIME: What's Shocking?
While you're over at scatx's place, you might as well check this out: In Texas, Be a Man, because, um, no, thank you.
Ansel Herz at mediahacker has some advice for journalists who drop by Haiti for their earthquake aftermath story: How to Write about Haiti
Phil Cohen of Family Inequality points out two errors: treating the results of a statistical study as specifically applicable to all individuals, and depriving teens of the opportunity to hang out due to generalized fears that They Are Just Trouble Waiting to Happen: Police Your Teens, Or Else?
Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report reminds us — and specifically today's black political leaders — that the economic marginalization of communities of color which links violence at home and violence abroad must still be addressed: You Can't Stop the Violence in Ghetto Streets Without Stopping the Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Elsewhere.
Andy has the sweet and happy pix at towleroad. Congrats to José y Miguel, and to Ernesto y Alejandro! Photos: First Gay Couples Wed In Argentina Under New Law
Please share your links, to your own posts or others', in comments.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
From the Psychology Today blog "The View from Venus" (ugh), the tagline for which is "Beyond spanx and stilettos" (ugh), comes the delightful piece "Trading Roses for Weeds" (ugh), which is subtitled, I shit you not, "Figuring out what women really want may require ignoring what they actually say." UGH.
There is a metric fuckton of ugh-inducing ughery in this piece, but my favorite, ahem, sheerly by virtue of its serendipitous nature, is its author's curious (but not unusual) inability to discern the difference between romance and stalking.
[H/T to Shaker Somebodyoranother.]
Gorillaz North American Tour Dates
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!
[Cross-posted.]
Today in Rape Culture
[Trigger warning for descriptions of sexual assault.]
Submitted without comment:
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.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.
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.
[H/T to Shaker Loquamani.]
"Scraping and Clawing"
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.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.
"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."
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.
Everything Is Upside Down
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."
Yeesh.
Question of the Day
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.
[Lyrics here.]
Very Cool. Very Dude of You.
[Trigger warning for rape apologia.]
I'm thrilled to see Sports Illustrated getting in on Operation Rehabilitate Mike Tyson. Very cool. Very important project.
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.
It's Prophesied, Bitchez
[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."[Via Gabe.]
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.
"The End."
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
[Background.]
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.]
Quote of the Day
"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."
[H/T to Shaker Julie.]
