What food could you not abide as a child, but can't get enough of now?
My five-year-old niece M. J. made tomato soup with me yesterday, and her only stipulation was that she not have to touch the raw tomatoes; I gathered them into a bowl for her to dump in the pot. She loves tomato soup, mind you, and pizza sauce, spaghetti, and ketchup. But she politely declines even to touch a raw tomato.
When I was a kid, I couldn't stand the slime of a raw tomato either. Now, give me a bushel of fresh in-season tomatoes and some sea salt and pepper, and watch me go.
Question of the Day
Today in Religious Bigotry
News out of Sudan that after last year's floggings of women arrested for wearing trousers, 19 young Muslim men have been publicly flogged after being arrested "dressed in women's clothes".
I haven't called it Today in Transphobia only because we can't tell from the article whether the victims of this "justice" identify themselves as trans people or not, though it's fairly clear that the implications of this for trans people in the Sudan are...not positive*. In any case, it's another instance of religious beliefs being privileged over people's rights to identity and, y'know, not being fucking flogged for being yourself.
As usual, I recommend letters to the Sudanese embassy near you, politely reminding them that the world is watching. I recommend politeness because embassies will basically ignore, or report to the police, any threatening or profanity-filled letters.
You could also consider your country's ministry of foreign affairs, or whatever they call the people who do your country's diplomacy.
* FSV of "not positive" to mean "completely fucking appalling".
Tip of the CaitieCap to MzR.
Senate Confirmed Elena Kagan
The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, giving President Barack Obama his second appointment to the high court in two years while leaving its ideological balance unchanged.Congrats to Justice Kagan!
The vote of 63-37 today was largely along party lines, with five Republicans supporting the nominee and one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, opposing her.
Kagan, 50, a former Harvard Law School dean, will be the nation’s 112th justice, fourth woman and just the sixth member of the court who isn’t a white male. For the first time, the nine-member court will have three women as she joins Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s first appointee, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Related: Elena Kagan and Flagg 2.0; Swell; Speaking of Bipartipoop...; Quote of the Day; OFFS; Elena Kagan is Obama's SCOTUS Nominee
You Can Not Make This Shit Up
Fortunately, you don't have to. The TeePee'ers will do it for you.
I remember when the only vehicles the U.S.'s suspiciously right-wing were afeared of were black helicopters. But the menace is spreading. Now we must fear . . . bicycles. Shared bicycles. Bicycles themselves may be benign, of course. You could buy one for your kid, and no harm done.
But sharing? It is the bête noire of the right wing in the U.S. It . . . it's so communal!
First, they socialized our medicine, and I said nothing, because I wanted a free government hand-out. Then, they began to establish municipal bike-sharing programs, and still I said nothing, because, um, good exercise, cheap, environmentally-friendly, maintenance-free transportation? But
that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.Dun-dun-DUN!!!
Target CEO Apologizes
From The Associated Press:
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wrote employees to say the discount retailer was "genuinely sorry" over the way a $150,000 contribution to MN Forward donation played out. Steinhafel said Target would set up a review process for future political donations.
"While I firmly believe that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future, I realize our decision affected many of you in a way I did not anticipate, and for that I am genuinely sorry," Steinhafel wrote.
I'd still like to see Target make a matching contribution to The Matthew Shepard Foundation or someplace similar to make up for it. But an apology is a start.
(See also here and here.)
Multisource Fail
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (yes, him again! sorry, Minnesotans), in a little chat with reporters this week, described why he feels immigration enforcement is so necessary:
It's analogous in some ways to what was happening in New York not long ago. If you allow people to pee on the sidewalks, next they're snatching purses.See, those scary brown people believed to be pouring across the border are hitting our country like streams of pee hitting the sidewalks of New York. If you don't put a stop to it, you're just encouraging the S.B.P. to start snatching stuff! And you know those people don't need any encouragement!
U.S. News and World Report's Paul Bedard seemed to find Pawlenty's remarks a bit distasteful. Oh, not the part where he invoked the image of people who travel far from home in a desperate search for work as peeing on our country before snatching our stuff — nothing objectionable there! But, Pawlenty wants to be President, and . . . he said pee! And suck! Street talk, U.S. News calls it.
It's because he's one of this younger generation of politicians, Bedard tells us. (Dang twittersnappers!) Pawlenty's but a lad of 49. We can only hope that as he matures, he'll learn to serve his casual, callous disparagement of those people — whoever they may most conveniently be at the moment — with a bit more dignity.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
From the archives.
[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.]
Today in !!Free Markets!!
Remember that net neutrality bullshit that Liss et al., have been prattling on about since forever?
The end is near.
Rumor has it that Verizon and Google have just signed (or will in the near future... it's all super-secret and free-markety ATM) an agreement over giving certain material preferential treatment on the internet. The Times reports that this would only apply to the wireless portion of the interwebs, so it's only a gradual erosion of the fundamental character of the web. Also, it only applies to content associated with Google (more to come I'm sure, but again the negotiations are all dark and free-markety), which is mostly totally worthless stuff like YouTube videos of skateboarding cats and blogs that advocate against rape culture and fat hatred.
We're right around the corner from powerful corporations controlling the cost of accessing and making accessible specific types of information on the internet. The digital divide is very real, but it's about to get far, far worse.
Want to access your favorite social justice blog? You may have to pay extra if you want to get it to load in a reasonable amount of time (especially if you're already prone to a slow connection). How about online support and information of the kind that saved my life? That may soon cost you extra, too. Alternatively, it may cost you more if you want anyone to actually be able to load your radical feminazi blog.
One imagines a basic internet package consisting solely of Wal-Mart presents re-runs of Family Guy sponsored by Target. We're not there yet, but once we decide to let corporations sign agreements on how they'll run the internet, all bets are off.
As Liss said, it's either net neutrality or it isn't. This Google-Verizon deal isn't.
Today in Transphobia
[Trigger warning: Transphobia]
In a charming interview with Seth MacFarlane in this month's Details, the rag asks the Family Guy creator why he thinks the queer community didn't take kindly to his "very sympathetic portrayal of a transsexual character" (his words) in a recent episode.
The interviewer suggests "Maybe the fact that Brian barfs his guts out when he realizes he's had sex with a transsexual" was the problem.
MacFarlane responded: "If I found out that I had slept with a transsexual, I might throw up in the same way that a gay guy looks at a vagina and goes, 'Oh, my God, that's disgusting.' It's just the way we're biologically wired."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
As a gay guy, let me state emphatically, I've never looked at a vagina and said "Oh, my God, that's disgusting." Regardless of how I may be biologically wired. In fact, I find them quite fetching. I've even gone down on a few (two, if you're keeping count) in my time.
So, as for the talk of biological wiring and vomiting when sleeping with one of those tricksy transsexuals, well, let me just say, Seth MacFartlane, you're an asshole and a douchebag.
[Via.]
Quote of the Day
"The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control." — David Axelrod, senior adviser to the president , in an interview published today in The Hill.
Two Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Twisted Sister: "We're Not Gonna Take It"
Starring Liss' new boyfriend, Dee Snider, he of the heavy metal taint.
Top Chef Open Thread
[Image from last night's show: Chefjudicator Tom Colicchio gives Cheftestant Ed his best what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you look.]
Last night's episode will be delicately brunoised, so if you haven't seen it, and don't want any spoilers, pack your knives and go...
More Equal
I got back from the theatre last night just in time to hear Maggie Gallagher from the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-marriage equality group, say on CNN that the ruling yesterday by Judge Vaughn Walker in the California Prop 8 case was (paraphrasing here) "granting a whole new right" in the Constitution for gays and lesbians to get married. This voice added to the chorus of other conservatives who accused the judge of "extreme judicial activism" and "judicial tyranny" in finding that the ban on same-sex marriage in California denied gays and lesbians equal protection under the law and due process, and that the proponents of the ban could not make the case for the ban on fact.
This is the kind of reaction that I expected from the anti-gay-marriage contingent if the court had ruled the way it did. They are not responding at all to the ruling itself and the facts that were presented when both sides had their chance to make their case. The proponents of the ban were given ample opportunity to prove that same-sex marriage is bad for California or harms straight people. Beyond voicing disapproval of gay people in general and basically saying that they're icky, the proponents could not cite a single case in which it could prove that granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples was harmful and therefore the state had the right to single them out for exclusion. Judge Walker wrote, "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gays and lesbians for denial of a marriage license."
That's the whole argument right there. Since they cannot make the case based on fact, they are going for the emotional and bigoted approach, claiming that gays and lesbians want "special rights." Brian Brown, another spokesperson for NOM, told Kathryn Lopez of the National Review: "You know what real equality is? One man with one woman, that’s equality." Gays and lesbians are not, in his view, equal to straight citizens under the Constitution of the United States. Therefore they are not worthy of its protection. Gays and lesbians can be singled out for discrimination in employment, in housing, in adopting children, in receiving spousal benefits, and the idea of allowing them access to such fundamental rights would disrupt the entire social fabric of America. The fact that neither Mr. Brown, Ms. Gallagher, or the proponents in the trial before Judge Walker could cite any evidence of this is irrelevant. Gays and lesbians are second class citizens. What Judge Walker found is exactly the opposite: gays and lesbians are entitled to all the same rights and responsibilities as every other citizen under the law and that fundamental rights are not subject to the whim of the electorate.
Seeing as how the gay and lesbian community has been denied equal rights in the matter of marriage, granting them the same rights as everyone else is not a "special right." It is bringing them up to equality with everyone else.
Crossposted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Blog Note
I'm dealing with some family medical issues (not Iain), so I won't be around for most of the day again today.
Please remember that when I'm not around, we're down one moderator, so take extra care in commenting, and be patient with and respectful of the other mods who will be picking up my slack.
See you soon.
Happy Birthday, Maud!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a purveyor of the radical feminazi cooter agendaaaaaaa!
And you smell like one, too!
(patchouli)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAUD!
Question of the Day
It's Shark Week. That's, for those of you who don't know, is Discovery Channel's week-long tribute to the wily fish. It's been a thing of theirs for, oh, I dunno, like 9000 years. (In ancient Egypt, Shark Week was on papyrus.) Anyway, it's a week of all-things-shark. It's cool, if you like sharks.
But suppose you don't.
If you had your druthers, what other animal would you rather had its own week?
I pick nutria.
Another Possibility
With respect to Liss' suggestion, I think I've a good candidate too for the worst thing you'll read today, if you live in or travel to the US and have any privacy concerns.
My Google-fu is weak today, so I can't find the link, but I'm pretty sure I wrote about this before, with particular attention to the problems of this technology for trans-identified people, as well as for the public in general. For trans people, this software could lead to a dangerous "outing" in a place where the person cannot avoid it, and with the person unable to even determine whether information has been kept, let alone by whom or for what purpose.
Combine it with the part where trans people are not infrequently killed* after being outed...yeah.
I wonder how much more evidence we need that the "rituals of security" atmosphere in the US has become corrosive of rights to dignity and privacy. And note this isn't just airports: this tech is being used in government buildings, courthouses, all sorts of places that the average public - and disproportionately with courthouses, POC, due to the racism of the justice system - need regular access to.
* Reinforcing the importance of intersectionality, my siblings who die in this way are highly disproportionately POC living with poverty.
