20 million. The number of people in need of shelter, food, and/or emergency care because of the flooding, in Pakistan alone. Four million people are now homeless.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the flooding as a "slow-motion tsunami" and notes that the number of people who have been displaced and/or need food or healthcare "is more than the entire population hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Kashmir earthquake, Cyclone Nargis, and the earthquake in Haiti—combined."
Donations are urgently needed. You can find out how to help here.
Number of the Day
lolsob
[Image description: Screen cap of headlines from CNN's front page, with "Poll: More think Obama is Muslim" juxtaposed with "White House: Obama not Muslim."]
"White House: Obama not Muslim" links to this story, headlined: "White House strikes back at 'Muslim' tag." Which includes this statement from Deputy White House Communications Director Jen Psaki:
"President Obama is a committed Christian, and his faith is an important part of his daily life. He prays every day, he seeks a small circle of Christian pastors to give him spiritual advice and counseling, he even receives a daily devotional that he uses each morning. The President's Christian faith is a part of who he is, but not a part of what the public or the media is focused on everyday."So...what you're telling me is that he's Jewish?
Psaki added that "the President's strong Christian faith is what guides him through the challenges – a recovering economy, bringing troops home from Iraq, putting healthcare and financial reform implementation in place - but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve."
Nope
Dear US:
I cannot begin to tell you what a terrible, terrible idea it would be to elect Mitch Daniels our president.
Sincerely (really, I mean it),
A Disgruntled Hoosier
Question of the Day
What's your favorite cover song? As in, "it's better than the original" in your opinion?
I have several, though this one is right at the very top of the list:
Other favorites: Foo Fighters' Band on the Run (Wings), Justin Timberlake & Charlie Sexton's Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), Cake's I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor), and Metallica's Turn the Page (Bob Seger).
Good Question
Eric Boehlert asks: When does Fox News' ugly Muslim bashing become the story?
I realize I'm repeating myself from last month when I asked why Fox News' proud race-baiting hadn't become the story, but honestly, when the most-watched cable news channel relentlessly depicts moderate Muslims as being part of a murderous cult, that's news. When it routinely provides a national forum for a hatemonger like Pam Geller who calls the president of the United States an anti-Semite and claims he's allied with Islamic terrorists, that's news.
And having the most-listened-to radio talk show host in America claim that Muslims want to worship at a house of prayer in downtown New York City so they can proclaim "victory" over victims of a terrorist attack, that's news too.
What Fox News, Limbaugh, and the rest of the GOP Noise Machine are doing today in terms of unapologetic Muslim-bashing is a disgrace. How the press is handling the unfolding story isn't much better.
Shaker Meet-Up: Muskegon, MI
by Shaker KathleenB
All I wanted to do was tell a cute story, I swear. A local theater held a Facebook contest, with a free screening for the winner. All you had to do was tell them the first movie you ever saw there, and, well, let's just say that I pestered the hell out of my dad to take me to Star Wars because I wanted to see Princess Leia, then made him take me home less than halfway through because the Jawas scared the hell out of me. Seriously, I never expected to actually WIN, because I never win anything. But I did, and now I've got a free screening for any movie I want. On any Saturday afternoon I want. For 120 (yes, one hundred twenty) people. And since I'm not sure I know that many people, or at least don't know 120 people I'd actually want to go to a movie with, I had an idea: This would make an awesome Shaker meetup! And, since this is a hell of an unexpected blessing, I want to do a little teaspooning at the same time.
So here's the deal: Any Shaker who wants to come to Muskegon, MI on September 4 to see Spirited Away and then come to... a restaurant or bar and hang out, eat, and drink (maybe not drink, I haven't ironed that bit out) is welcome. And if you can (ONLY if you can), donate what you'd spend on a night at the movies to Heifer International.
If you're interested, email me at shakerkathleenb - at - gmail - dot - com.
Sisterhood, Bitchez!
Emily's List, the organization which supports pro-choice women running for public office, put up this web site as part of their Sarah Doesn't Speak For Me campaign. Inveterate twit-terer Palin responded by tweeting,
Who hijacked term: "feminist"? A cackle of rads who want 2 crucify other women w/whom they disagree on a singular issue; it's ironic (& passé).It has been suggested that Palin was having trouble with her words again, and meant to call the women of Emily's List a "gaggle", which may be so (silly wimminz, like silly geese!). But I don't think it's an accident that she grabbed hold of a word which has so commonly been used to dismiss women as loud and unfeminine, and which has specifically been associated with witches, stereotyped as ugly, ungodly women who rebel against the natural order of things by cultivating illicit powers.
And for someone who professes Christian piety, she seems shockingly unclear on the nature of crucifixion. She seems to be under the impression that the extent of the damage done to her Savior by the Romans consisted of their running opposing candidates as the Messiah.
Quote of the Day
[Trigger warning for sexual violence.]
"Prison rape doesn't happen in a vacuum, but it's not inevitable, either. It's just another accepted reality in a system that dehumanizes people by design."—Michelle Chen at Colorlines, in a highly recommended article about prison rape. Earlier this week, "a coalition of civil liberties groups called on the Justice Department to finally enact structural reforms to hold attackers, and the institutions that create an abusive environment, accountable," as prison rape long ago reached epidemic proportions: "About one in every 20 people in prison were sexually assaulted last year, according to federal statistics. For juvenile inmates, the annual rate is about one in eight. The threat of sexual violence and coercion stems from both fellow inmates as well as staff, and women and girls especially are at risk of being exploited by the officers controlling their facilities."
This is disgusting.
About a year and a month ago, Shaker Alexmac guest posted about a church in Gainesville (FL) that put up a sign in its yard that proclaimed: "Islam is of the devil".
Recently the pastor of the same church declared that they were going to hold a good, old-fashioned book burning event and burn Qur'ans on September 11th. Yes, that's right.
Yesterday, however, the city denied the church a burn permit:
Gainesville officials denied a burn permit for a church that plans to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.That's good, right? Yes. However, sheer hatred cannot be that easily deterred:
In an e-mail sent out Wednesday, the church said, "City of Gainesville denies burn permit – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS."The fire chief said that the church will be fined if they go through with the burning--which is planned to be on the church's grounds.
Book burning. I'm sure Jesus would totally do that, amirite?
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
How Much Is Beauty Worth at Work?: "NEWSWEEK surveyed hiring managers and job seekers about the role of beauty in the workplace. The bottom line? It pays to be good-looking."
No fatties! Women can't win! And other fun reminders of the material benefits of privilege.
[H/T to Shaker lelumarie.]
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.]
Daily Dose o' Cute
Thus Spoke Matilda
Still pix of Tils peering down from her favorite perch, and of Livs and Sophs, below the fold...
I'm Sure This Will Be Fantastic and Not At All Exploitative
HBO working on a show about porn business:
Following in the risqué footsteps of HBO's "Hung" and Showtime's "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," HBO has a show in the works about the pornography business. "Entourage" and "Boardwalk Empire" executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson are working with controversial writer James Frey -- whose next book is titled "The Final Testament of the Holy Bible" -- on a one-hour drama that will use both legit actors and real porn performers. The plot will focus on a giant video company under siege from Internet competitors and a girl from the Midwest whose boyfriend convinces her to move to Los Angeles to become a star. Reached by Page Six, Frey, who's writing the pilot, said, "We're going to make a sprawling epic about the porn business in LA. We're going to tell the type of stories no one else has told before, and go places no one has gone before."I'm most encouraged by the fact that these trenchant-as-hell stories are going to be told by three straight white guys, especially when two of them are the sensitive masterminds behind "Entourage."
This Strikes Me as Odd
As we know, yesterday was the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I noticed that Google recognized the anniversary:
A screenshot of Google's homepage yesterday, with an acknowledgement of the 19th Amendment ("90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment") beside a pink-ribbon check mark beneath the search box.
What struck me about this page is not only that Google elected not to create a celebratory Google Doodle (which they are known for doing in honor of everything from Dilbert to Pi Day to Vivaldi's birthday), but that the graphic they did choose was a pink ribbon. True, it is in a check-mark shape instead of looped around like a breast-cancer-awareness ribbon, but it is a pink ribbon nonetheless.
I have seen the lack of a 19th Amendment Google Doodle described as "slightly odd" elsewhere. The choice of the pink ribbon in combination with no doodle could suggest, if not a lack of interest, a lack of ideas about how to represent women graphically. There has been a Google Doodle celebrating International Women's Day that used a "female symbol" in place of one of the "o"s. (I do not know where this doodle ran; I just found it in a gallery.) And this year Google Russia marked International Women's day with pink and pretty flowers. So those ideas are used up. Are "circle-and-cross" "pink flowers", "pink ribbon", and "hour-glass-shaped red dress" all the visual rhetoric we've got to represent women?
One discussion board to which I won't link suggested that Google should have made the "oo"s into boobs and the "l" into an ironing board. Perhaps it isn't just that we have a sparse visual rhetoric for women, but that we have a sparse visual rhetoric for women that is not demeaning.
Sure, it's a little thing, and I don't have any answers here; I just thought y'all might like to a place to discuss this small thing, and the larger concept of the visual rhetoric(s) we use to represent femininity and women.
Oh, McCain. LOL. Don't Ever Change!
So, the last US combat troops have left Iraq (which still leaves about 56,000 U.S. troops in the country), nearly eight years after the first convoy entered. And seven years and three months after former president Mondo Fucko declared Mission Accomplished.
Senator John McCain responded to the news with a brilliant tweet:
"Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory."
Absolutely. If it weren't for George W. Bush, we never would have been in Iraq in the first place! Give that man a cigar.
Today in Mystery Science Theater 3000 News
Attention B-movie nerds:
Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be riffing their way through Reefer Madness tonight. Live.
Yes, live!
Under the Rifftrax banner, Corbett, Murphy and Nelson, will be skewering the anti-weed gem in a special show broadcast to theaters nationwide. The show is tonight 8:00pm ET, 7:00pm CT, 6:00pm MT with an 8:00pm PT tape-delayed rerun.
Click here to see if it's playing near you.
[Cross-posted.]
Number of the Day
18. The percentage of Americans who believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.
