Have at it.
[If you're going to discuss voting, please familiarize yourself first with Shakesville's policy on voting discussions. You are welcome to discuss how you voted, or didn't vote, but evangelizing is unwelcome.]
Open Election Thread
Question of the Day
From a conversation that KBlogz, Iain, and I had last night...
With whom would you least like to be stuck in an elevator for three hours?
After quite a bit of discussion, I eventually settled on Bill O'Reilly. Ugh. Not only is he a professional font of diarrheic invective who disgorges a continual torrent of contemptible rightwing rhetoric, nor is he merely a loathsome sexual harasser and despicable, unconscionable victim-blamer, nor just an unapologetic racist, but I strongly suspect that he is, at all times, a belligerent jackass to everyone around him, too (in a way that, say, the weepier and vocationally theatrical Glenn Beck probably isn't), an authentically disagreeable and aggressively entitled shithead whose company would be more unpleasant than even my darkest fears could conjure.
Ugh
To Pay for Mortgage and Health Care, Woman Forced to Sell Handwritten Letter from Obama Saying 'Things Will Get Better.'
Autograph dealer Gary Zimet, who is giving Jennifer Cline $7,000 for the letter, says: "The letter is a historical document, and it is very hard for her to part with it. It's very timely considering the elections. But I don't think she's disillusioned with Obama—this is just about surviving and practicality."
Sadface.
Congratulations, Brazil!
On electing your first female president, continuing a growing trend in Latin America.
What's notable about President Dilma Rousseff's victory, is that she is a leftist, socialist, populist politician. Women who break the glass ceiling on national or state leadership in Europe and North America are frequently more conservative than their average countrywomen at the time of their election (see: Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel, as examples). Rousseff, however, bucked that convention. Cool.
Which has not stopped her opponents (and some of her allies intending to be complimentary) from dubbing her the Iron Lady for her "somewhat brusque manner and reputed short temper." Of course.
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.]
Quote of the Day
"It is in taking [the line that what women were experiencing as a 'downturn' was a 'catastrophe' for men] that the myth of the 'mancession' most clearly links up to a larger narrative that, in its starkest expressions, presents a story of female ascendancy and male decline. Indeed, news reports of the mancession almost invariably come wrapped up in a bundle of statistics suggesting that women are outdoing men in all sorts of other 'historic' and 'unprecedented' ways, from higher numbers of college and post-graduate degrees to larger shares of consumer spending and growing importance, if not yet outright leadership, as breadwinners in the household economy. Men, in the zero-sum logic that underlies the larger narrative, are losing out, not just in terms of relative economic position, but in the sense of authority and, well, manliness that once anchored their sense of identity."—Alice O’Connor, in a great piece for AlterNet titled "The Recession's Hit Women Hard, but the Myth of the 'Mancession' Won't Die."
[H/T to Shaker Abra.]
Action Item
So. The Washington Post is having a contest to search for "America's Next Great Pundit." And it's down to the final three, one of whom is my friend (and former colleague) Nancy Goldstein.
You can read all three of the finalists' sample op-eds here, and I can say in all honesty that Nancy was absolutely the most deserving of my vote. I believe you'll find she's most deserving of your vote, too.
Tough times and election cycles intensify the desire for heroes and villains, good and evil - for simple story lines, quick resolutions and vengeance. And actors all along the political spectrum have eagerly fed that desire, at a price that once looked reasonable but is turning out to be too high. Nothing good can come to a democracy whose alleged defenders are seeing democracy's founding concepts as nuisances - mere obstacles to be overcome or sidestepped. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell ferociously defends her electorate from "government interference," which she has famously located in the First Amendment. She thinks it stinks that church-state separation forbids public school boards from giving the green light to teaching creationism: Why can't majority rule be the law of the land? For Paul's minions, free speech is the right of the mob to silence dissent by force.Go, Nancy!
Clearly what the Tea Party really wants to "Take America Back" from is silly concepts such as equal protection, or the minority's right to be free from the will of the majority.
It is no less frightening or dangerous that President Obama is undermining the balance between democracy and presidential power in the name of national security. As a constitutional law professor, he ran against his predecessor's record of preventive detention, military commissions and extraordinary rendition. As president, he has held tight to every scrap of executive power the Cheney gang claimed for President George W. Bush.
People do strange things when they are scared, want to win elections or are desperate for results. Shove past the minority. Revert to force. Set the Constitution aside - just this one time - in the name of the greater good. But when political figures, whether by exhortation or example, encourage a frightened, frustrated public to think of fundamental constitutional or governmental principles as impediments rather than the foundation of our democracy, their victories are built on earth that they have dug out from beneath our feet.
Vote here.
Today in Depressing Headlines
Gallup: Republicans Appear Poised to Win Big on Tuesday.
FiveThirtyEight: 5 Reasons Republicans Could Do Even Better Than Expected.
MSNBC: Poll suggests Dems will face 'hurricane winds'.
Many of the people voting Republican will be voting not affirmatively for the GOP's vision, but as a repudiation of Obama's (socialist, anti-American, secret Muslim) agenda. Many of the people voting Democrat will be voting not affirmatively for the Democrats' recent record, but as a defensive measure to try to keep the GOP out of power.
This is what we've come to: A nation voting against what we perceive to be the worse of two terrible options.
Or maybe that's what we've always been.
But it feels terrible and futile to me in a way it hasn't quite before.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by eighty-seven metric fucktons of leftover Halloween candy.
Recommended Reading:
Maria: Another Ad Attacking Latino Immigrants: Senator Vitter Appeals to White Racism [Trigger warning for racism and anti-immigrant sentiments]
Tami: The Hair Up There
Alicia: Ableism and the Language of Suffering
Jess: Oh, Stephen Fry
Andy: Lawyers For Students Who Broadcast Tyler Clementi's Intimate Encounter Claim No Sexual Contact On Webcam Video [Trigger warning for suicide, sexual assault, and homophobia]
Cara: Media Employ Tabloid Tactics to Report on Rape Allegations Against Candidate [Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence, rape apologism, and homophobia]
Leave your links in comments...
This Makes TOO Much Sense
Bury this news immediately!
Alcohol ranks "most harmful" among a list of 20 drugs -- beating out crack and heroin -- according to study results released by a British medical journal.Auto fatalities are more likely when drivers use alcohol. There are more hunting accidents when hunters have used alcohol. Domestic abuse against partners and children increase with the use of alcohol. Despite the preponderance of articles exhorting women not to drink, men who rape acquaintances in particular have frequently been drinking. There's a reason the term "barfight" exists and the term "cinemafight" or the term "restaurantfight" doesn't.
A panel of experts weighed the physical, psychological and social problems caused by the drugs and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall, according to an article on the study released by The Lancet Sunday.
Using a new scale to evaluate harms to individual users and others, alcohol received a score of 72 on a scale of 1 to 100, the study says.
That makes it almost three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco, according to the article, which is slated to be published on The Lancet's website Monday and in an upcoming print edition of the journal.
Of course alcohol is a serious drug. And, like any other serious drug, it is safe in moderation. But we've got a culture instead built around actively encouraging its use in excess, despite the evidence that its excessive use can have devastating consequences, for oneself and for others.
Judgment Day
[Trigger warning for body policing.]
So, Iain and I are at the grocery store yesterday, and we're parked in an aisle with our cart, strategizing about who's going to go where to find the last couple of things on our list so we can get the heck outta there. It was one of those "Shit, we're out of everything!" weeks, and it felt like we'd already been shopping for nine hours.
As we're talking, a woman walks by, pushing her cart in the opposite direction. She's dressed in yellow, head-to-toe: A yellow hat, yellow shirt, yellow tracksuit, and yellow sneakers. Even yellow eyeshadow. It could have been for Halloween, or it could have been because she's A Character. I couldn't tell.
Anyway, as she passes, she leans toward me and says: "I never want to see you again because your boobs are sexier than mine!" Then just keeps walking.
Iain and I just looked at each other, like, "WTF? Did that just happen?"
It was one of those "I hate you" comments that was meant to be (sort of) a compliment...? But I felt rather less complimented than totally discombobulated.
And immediately, unshakably, body-conscious in a way I had not been moments before.
* * *
Walking down another aisle, I heard a father tell his son, who wanted to buy a box of some kind of individually-wrapped sweet cakes, the sort that lots of kids get in their lunchboxes: "Put that back. Only bad people eat that shit."
* * *
Standing in the checkout line, there was a woman in front of me. I don't make it a habit to pay attention to what other people are buying, because, frankly, I've no interest or inclination to judge other people's choices and I don't give a shit. So when she said, "This isn't all for me," my response was, "Pardon me?"
She held up two huge packages of ground beef. "This isn't all for me," she said. "I'm not going to eat all of it myself. I've got four boys at home."
"Oh," I said. "Okay." She was still looking at me, rather anxiously. "That sounds like a lot of work," I offered.
She nodded. "It is. And they eat a lot."
"I bet," I replied. I smiled at her.
Iain joined me in the line then, and she turned back around, this tiny woman who felt obliged to assure me she wasn't going to eat 10 pounds of ground beef on her own. Maybe because she really was, and maybe because she really wasn't. As if it were any of my business either way.
* * *
I just wanted to grab the nearest intercom: "Attention Shoppers: This is now a judgment-free zone. We're all going to get through grocery shopping without its being a series of mini-morality plays. Buy what you want. Let everyone else buy what they want. Keep your eyes on your own cart. Experience the joy of shame-free shopping! Thank you and have a nice day."
On the "Restore Sanity/Fear" Rally
So, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a rally yesterday. (More here.) And Jon Stewart closed the event with a serious monologue urging cooperation, which I suppose was supposed to be profound, but is, frankly, utterly meaningless in the context he created of "both sides are just as bad."
Both sides are not just as bad, and both sides are not equally responsible for the antagonism that has led to the extreme political polarization which currently prevents cooperation.
It's evident in a Democratic president who's alienating his own base in order to work with the opposition—and an opposition who overly promise gridlock and talk about blood oaths to shut down the government if they don't get their way.
It's evident in a civil rights movement in which people want the basic rights to serve their country openly and marry whom they love, the equality guaranteed them by the Constitution—and their ideological opponents shutting down debate with lies and fearmongering and hatred mendaciously cloaked in religion, so they can claim a right to religious freedom, even as their religious beliefs oppress others.
It's evident in a debate about a legal medical procedure in which the people with the pro-choice position are said to be restricting freedom, though no one is forced to submit to the procedure under their paradigm; in which the people who support giving access to women to a life-saving procedure are the ones who are said to be murderers. People with the "pro-life" position harass patients and murder doctors.
The positions and strategies "both sides" of these issues—as on many others—are not equivalent.
The pro-choice position does not force anyone to get an abortion who does not want one; the anti-choice position, however, prevents women who want abortions from getting them. The pro-marriage equality position does not force anyone to marry a person of the same sex, nor require that any churches perform same-sex marriage ceremonies; the anti-marriage equality position, however, prevents same-sex couples who want to get married from doing so and prevents churches who want to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies from doing so.
The progressive position treats women and LGBTQIs as autonomous, rights-bearing human beings deserving of full equality; the conservative position treats women's bodies as state property and LGBTQIs as second-class citizens.
There isn't room for "compromise" there. There is only a fervent belief in the consent, autonomy, respect, and dignity of marginalized people—and a shameless, unapologetic movement to protect undeserved privilege at the expense of the same.
The progressive position allows for individual choice; the conservative position does not. The progressive position expands collective freedom; the conservative position limits it. Over and over and over.
Affirmative action. Immigration reform. Gun laws. Funding the social safety net. Rendition. Torture. Eavesdropping. War v. diplomacy. Pick any issue. It's always the same.
Because that's the nature of conservatism: To preserve privilege.
And lecturing "both sides" about cooperation when one side is about advancing opportunity and expanding access, and the other is about preventing both, is bullshit. The end.
Vintage Shaker Gourmet Holiday
How about something warm & orangish for supper? I posted this a couple years ago but I thought it'd be nice to re-post:
This recipe comes from one of my favorite books: Celebrating the Great Mother: A Handbook of Earth-Honoring Activities for Parents and Children.Samhain Sweet Potato Pumpkin Soup
2 sweet potatoes (or yams), peeled or scrubbed, and diced
1 medium onion
1 -2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter or olive oil
4 - 6 cups vegetable stock or broth
1/3 cup canned or fresh cooked pumpkin
Freshly grated nutmeg and ginger, to taste
Salt to taste
1/2 cup light cream
Cook potatoes, onion, and garlic in the butter or olive oil for several minutes until slightly golden. Add stock (or broth) to cover vegetables and bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are soft, about 25 minutes.
Add pumpkin, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and puree this mixture in batches in a blender or food processor. Add in the cream and return mixture to the saucepan. Heat, thin with more stock/broth if necessary, to make a creamy soup. Serve in small hollowed-out pumpkins (festive!), with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.
Happy Halloween!
This is very good, btw (and from the same book).Spicy Autumn Apple Bread
2.5 cups grated (peeled & cored) apple
2 cups raisins
1.5 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons oil
1 cup + 2 tablespoons honey
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 tsp. allspice
1.5 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1.5 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Place apples and raisins in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Pour oil on top and allow to soak for 10 minutes. Add honey, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and cloves and allow to cool. In another bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Combine with fruit mixture and stir in walnuts. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for approximately one hour.
(And, yes, that's one of our pumpkins this year...it took quite a while to carve!)
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
