[Trigger warning for bigotry]
Have I mentioned lately that my local newspaper blows chunks? :Beevis Laugh: I stole that from the first comment on a thread at the Syracuse Post Standard's website.
Last October [TW: violence, including sexual assault] I wrote them a letter about how I thought it was kinda uncool to allow public, largely unmoderated comments on articles about criminal acts. They basically told me that if I wanted to spend 24 hours a day helping them moderate their website, they'd be willing to listen. I passed, BTW.
Now they've got this new-ish feature where they highlight a selected edgy quote of the day, giving it prominent placement on the paper's website.
Some of the latest hits include:
Russian people like vodka ha ha ha..
Gay marriage is pointless because I hate my wife or some such nonsense.
Global warming is a hoax blah blah blah
You're only pointing out homophobia because you're a bunch of queers.
The Tea Party people are not Whack O's[sic]
It's like that one USDA lady that might eat white children, I guess, in that it's all debatable. Huge platforms for everybody! Free speech, equality, and freedom pie for all! Oppression for none! Except maybe for those whiny queers and drunk Russians, amirite?
I understand that "my" paper highlights all sorts of opinions, including ooga-booga librul ones. That's not my point.
My point is that I'm a tired, tired, intellectual. Call me an elitist, but I really do think that some ideas are better than others. Like, there are observations, from which one can infer (debatable) facts, which, in conjunction with logic one can use to put forth and defend a position. It doesn't even need to be a position I agree with, it just has to follow some sort of internally-consistent logic based on some small aspect of pseudoreality.
Maybe it's the professor in me, but I'm pretty sure anyone can just make up random hateful shit that has no basis in anything (aside from, perhaps, other equally irrational and hateful shit). It takes skill to take and defend a worthwhile position. It takes effort, even practice.
Guess whose job it is to distinguish between making shit up and making a good faith effort? Among others, teachers and journalists (say, newspapery-types). If folks in these professions don't actually examine arguments, then those professions become meaningless.
There are massive consequences to not recognizing that there's a difference between those two types of rhetoric. Guess who bears the brunt of blurring the lines between unhinged hate speech and semi-reasoned debate? Me and every other underprivileged person in society. But really, what do you think?
Speaking of constructive debate in the media
Give this guy a Nobel Prize!
Oh, right.
In his latest column, Paul Krugman is on to this wacky idea that US conservatives are making shit up, and rather than challenging them, major media outlets are largely hailing these liars as geniuses.
I know, I know, but hear him out:
[US Representative Paul Ryan, R-youkiddingme?]’s plan calls for steep cuts in both spending and taxes. He’d have you believe that the combined effect would be much lower budget deficits, and, according to that Washington Post report, he speaks about deficits “in apocalyptic terms.” And The Post also tells us that his plan would, indeed, sharply reduce the flow of red ink: “The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan would cut the budget deficit in half by 2020.”
But the budget office has done no such thing. At Mr. Ryan’s request, it produced an estimate of the budget effects of his proposed spending cuts — period. It didn’t address the revenue losses from his tax cuts.
[Ryan's plan] wouldn’t reduce the deficit. All it would do is cut benefits for the middle class while slashing taxes on the rich.
And I do mean slash. The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population.
Good times. Damn good times. I remember the 80s, when the music had hair and the right was telling original lies. Now those were the days.
Friday Blogaround
Leave your links in comments, folks!
Renee: Death in the Family We Need Your Help
On Thursday August 05, I received a phone call to inform me that my 20 year old nephew had died. His name was Jesse James Cox and he was known as the gentle giant. He was 6'5 240 lbs. He was much loved by his mother, father, two brothers and extended family. Jesse always had time for everyone and a bear hug for everyone that needed it. As a family, we are absolutely devastated by his loss and this is magnified by the fact that we are unable to pay for his funeral. At the side bar you will find a donation box which I have placed to ask for help.
Grrlscientist: Foldit: Innovative Biology for Gamers
Guessing how a protein will fold up based on its DNA sequence is often too complex for even the most powerful computer programs. Now biochemists and computer scientists at my alma mater, the University of Washington, have collaborated to create Foldit, a free online computer game where online gamers do the work.
Arturo R. García: Race + Comics: How Open is Marvel's Runaways Casting Call?
Skeptifem: most dangerous jobs
John McKay: The First Trilobite
In their early days, scientific journals were much more generous than they are today about publishing letters from experimenters and collectors in all walks of life. The hard wall between scientists and amateurs had not yet been built and all literate people were, in theory, entitled to participate in the discussion.
Ladysquires: Grad Student Employment and Institutional Batshittery
If other graduate students are willing to do this sort of work for free and just be “thankful,” STOP. The truth is that if I hadn’t appealed to all of these people, if I had just sucked it up and worked essentially for free, it would be sending the message that universities can get away with this sort of thing. NO. STOP.
Sociological Images: Romanticizing Ancient Chinese Wisdom and BP's Oil Leak and Perceptions of Risk
HBO's fall documentary lineup includes an adaptation of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, Spike Lee's If God Is Willing & Da Creek Don't Rise, and Martin Scorsese's Fran Lebowitz doc Public Speaking (Via)
Ideas in food: Ice Spheres and Aromatic Eggplant
Flickr Blog: Ninja Cat
Blog Note
Just an FYI, Liss is taking a personal day today. She should be back here Monday.
In the meantime, posting may be a little light. And, as always, remember, with her gone we're down a moderator, so take a little extra care when commenting. Thanks!
This is a real thing in the world.
Poster for upcoming Yogi Bear 3D movie, featuring a beaming Yogi behind an ecstatic Boo Boo, and the lone line of copy: "Great things come in bears." Click to embiggen, if you're into that type of thing.
[Cross-posted.]
Dramatic Lit
For you theatre fans, I've been posting reviews of the plays I've been seeing while I'm at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, at my literary blog, Bobby Cramer.
So far we've seen The Tempest, Dangerous Liaisons, and Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris. Tonight we'll see Evita.
Like my annual trip to the William Inge Festival, this is one of the few times that I get to assume my secret identity as a theatre scholar.
[TW on Dangerous Liaisons for rape and brutality allusions.]
Question of the Day
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.
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.
