Representative Ron Paul, Texas Republican and author of "End the Fed," will take control of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve.
House Financial Services chairman-elect Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican, selected Paul, 75, to lead the panel's domestic monetary policy subcommittee when their party takes the House majority next month, the committee chairman said today.
...Paul, who has introduced legislation to abolish the Fed, became nationally known during his 2008 presidential campaign. His campaign to audit the Fed picked up steam as the central bank deployed trillions of dollars in emergency loans in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Federal Reserve could undoubtedly use some reform. Do I think Ron "End the Fed" Paul is the guy to do it? No.
No more than I think any member of the party who hates government should be tasked with trying to save it.
Spudsy and I were just on the phone, reading this thread to each other, laughing so hard that we were gasping for air and wiping tears from our eyes. Why both of us find the word "butt" so irrepressibly giggle-inducing, I cannot tell you. Nor would I want to. Mystery is part of silly's charm.
"You don't want to be [white] because if you're white or you're an American citizen or a white American citizen, you're pretty much toast."—Glenn Beck, Oppressed Person.
Video Description: Dudley has no interest in going for a walk in sub-zero temperatures. He'd rather stay snugly curled up in his chaise upstairs in the loft.
Dudley has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks
to Manni before he robs a supermarket. Run, Dudz, run.
It is absolutely ludicrous that we cannot get DADT repealed in the year two thousand and bloody ten:
The Senate on Thursday dealt a severe blow to the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" law, dimming the chances for the Clinton-era ban to be scrapped this year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) failed to garner the necessary 60 votes for a procedural motion to start considering the 2011 defense authorization bill, which contains a provision to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. The final vote was 57-40.
Most Republicans stuck to their pledge to block any bills until a deal is reached on the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and government spending for 2011 is resolved.
Support the troops. Unless they're gay. Or you've got rich people to pander to.
In other Republican hijinks: "Senate Republicans on Thursday morning filibustered legislation to monitor and treat first responders and emergency workers who suffered illnesses related to 9/11." The bill would have provided healthcare funding to treat "first responders, construction and cleanup workers and residents who inhaled toxic particles after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers." Remember 9/11. Unless it's politically expedient not to.
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.]
Katie Goldman's universe extends from her home to her first-grade classroom. She is a big sister to Annie Rose and Cleo, a piano player, a Spanish student, a wearer of glasses. She loathes the patch she has to wear for one lazy eye. She loves magic and princesses and "Star Wars," an obsession she picked up from her dad.
The 7-year-old carried a "Star Wars" water bottle to school in Evanston, Illinois, every day, at least until a few weeks ago, when Katie suddenly asked to take an old pink one instead. The request surprised Katie's mom, Carrie Goldman. It didn't make any sense. Why would her little sci-fi fan make such a quick turn?
Goldman kept pressing for an answer. She wasn't expecting Katie's tears. Kids at school insisted that "Star Wars" was only for boys, her daughter wailed.
..."Is this how it starts?" Goldman wrote in her blog, Portrait of an Adoption. "Do kids find someone who does something differently and start to beat it out of her, first with words and sneers? Must my daughter conform to be accepted?"
Oof, the pangs. I was a Katie. (Let's be honest: I am a Katie.) I got my first pair of glasses at age 8. I had my own Darth Vader helmet carrying case for all my Star Wars action figures. I was the only girl who played Ewoks on the playground during recess. I begged my mom to pull my long hair into Princess Leia buns.
It wasn't always easy being That Kid. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home with a mother who fixed things and a dad who did laundry; when someone would tell me something I did was "only for boys," my first thought, from a very young age, was, "Obviously not." But that still didn't make it easy. Just easier than it might otherwise have been.
Some people who read about Katie's story decided to make it easier than it might otherwise be for her.
Back in Evanston, Carrie Goldman was feeling good. Since she had written about the water bottle incident, other parents at Katie's school had talked to their kids. School leaders were supportive, and working on an anti-bullying program.
Something else was happening, too: Traffic on Goldman's blog was exploding.
Some 1,200 people had left messages there for Katie. Readers were coming from Yates' blog, where more than 3,000 more comments stacked up. There were links from "Star Wars" message boards, parenting blogs, tech sites. A Twitter hashtag, #maytheforcebewithkatie, streaked across social media.
Guys and gals of all ages wrote about how they'd been bullied, and how life had gotten so much better since then. They shared that they loved "Star Wars," that they wore glasses, that they were adopted -- just like Luke, just like Leia, just like Katie.
ThinkGeek, a nerdy online retailer, sent Katie a lightsaber. Artist Scott Zirkel sent a cartoon of Katie as a Jedi, glasses and all. A first-grade class in California sent letters to Katie as a show of support.
Taber and the rest of the cast of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," sent "Star Wars" merch. Ashley Eckstein, who voices the female Jedi Ahsoka Tano, sent Her Universe clothes tailored for girls. Tom Kane, who voices Yoda, escorted the Goldmans to a screening near their home.
The thousands of comments left online will be bound into a book for Katie to read whenever she needs it.
Blub.
Sometimes it's not so much that the world gets better; it's just that your own world gets bigger, and you find out you're not as alone as you once thought.
Defying President Obama, House Democrats voted Thursday not to bring up the tax package that he negotiated with Republicans in its current form.
"This message today is very simple: That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus. It's as simple as that," said Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen.
"We will continue to try and work with the White House and our Republican colleagues to try and make sure we do something right for the economy and right for jobs, and a balanced package as we go forward," he said.
...Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon said: "They said take it or leave it. We left it."
Dayum!
The caucus resolution is non-binding, but it's unlikely that Speaker Pelosi will ignore the wishes of her caucus. In fact, The Hill is reporting that Pelosi is promising to secure changes to the bill to make it palatable to her caucus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a brief statement after the vote indicating that lower-chamber Democrats will fight to alter the bill.
"We will continue discussions with the President and our Democratic and Republican colleagues in the days ahead to improve the proposal before it comes to the House floor for a vote," Pelosi said.
"Democratic priorities remain clear: to provide a tax cut for working families, to create jobs and economic growth, to assist millions of our fellow Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and to do this in a fiscally sound way."
From an email I received after a mod banned (for comments in this thread) yet another Super Special Dude Who Figures the Commenting Policy (Which Explicitly Prohibits Rape Apologia) Doesn't Apply to Him:
I think it's unfortunate that someone who points out the evils inherent in one person forcibly removing power from another person who deserves equal rites [sic] so quickly violates the basic truths they believe everyone should operate under. I believe that the points I made are valid and worth defending, however by disabling my comments, you have taken away my power to defend myself from the attacks of others. It's ironic, almost, that in the context of a [sic] DeVito's character being sexually assaulted by groups of men at a time, you've created a situation in which my comments, the embodiment of my ideas and beliefs, are forcefully made vulnerable to the simultaneous assault of numerous people.
Those who's [sic] opinions differ from the most popular one deserve to be heard and deserve to actively defend their positions. As a feminist, I would think that you could have at least avoided perpetrating such an act of hypocrisy.
I can't decide which part I like better: The implication that his inability to continue to comment here is akin to being gang-raped, or his assertion that rape apologists are an oppressed minority.
My correspondent's "valid and worth defending" comment (which remains in the thread for all to admire) ends thus: "People like you are so afraid of a person being offended or hurt that they take all the fun out of life. There are plenty of issues out there that deserve your attention, plenty of evil people who actually do things that hurt others. Get of your high-horse about what is and isn't politically correct or offensive and get upset about something that actually matters. Christ."
This, in response to my saying that I don't find rape jokes funny.
It is my obligation, you see, to stop being so sensitive and STFU so that people who like rape jokes can enjoy them without their amusement being dampened by knowing there exist people on planet who don't share their good humor, or something.
Yeah, I've heard that before. And I am struck, once again, by this thought: Even if complaining that survivors and their allies weren't "tough" enough were a legitimate argument, one would think that the champions of fairness and justice making it (such as my correspondent) would direct their ire in the right direction—at the fucking rapists who create survivors (and their triggers) in the first place.
You want to laugh at rape jokes without having to hear survivors complain about them...? Take it up with RAPISTS.
Oh, but that's the flaw in my position, isn't it? Rape jokes are only funny because rape exists.
Cheat Fair playing field Unfair advantage Distinct advantages against women in sports
Forced to have gender testing The concept makes precious little sense
DNA Height Strength 5-foot-11 200-pound Muscle mass Testosterone Male muscling Bone structure Intrinsic biology Strength of men Skeletal structure Masculine physiognomy Having both male and female sex chromosomes
Superior It’s believed
One-time man
She’s 57 57-year-old 57-year-old A transsexual Masters for aging duffers
Transgendered individuals
Postoperative Reassignment surgery Gender-reassignment surgery Switching anatomy if not human atoms Some among us recreate their very identity
Entitlement privileges Conundrum of applying broad civil rights Privileges that she feels she is now entitled to
Even Dr. Renee Richards Male-to-female tennis player Mixed transgendered doubles at Wimbledon
Not created equal The measure of a man Remains that of a man The measure of a woman Female but transgendered to male The two can’t be conjoined into one
Born and raised a female Though never officially confirmed A female, too, both legally and in her own mind
Core reality has been blurred
-- These are but a few of the words in today's Toronto Star.
[Image from last night's episode: A cheftestant welds two cookies together as part of the Dinosaurs Are Awesome challenge, or whatever it was. Liss: "What is this -- TOP MAD SCIENTIST?!"]
Last night's episode will be precisely batonneted, so if you haven't seen it, and don't want any spoilers, pack your knives and go...
Aston Kutcher + Waxing Philosophical on Romance in the Digital Age + Gender Essentialism + Ashton Kutcher's Apparent Forgetfulness That He Routinely Tweets Pictures of His Wife's Ass = Barf.
Time is currently featuring a story about the rise of LGBTQI-owned large-scale luxury hotels catering to LGBTQI customers. It's a decent enough story, with less-than-average fail ("ghettoize"? seriously? still?); pretty boring for anyone with a passing familiarity with pink/lavender travel, but a good enough piece to introduce the concept to a general audience.
Except the headline is: Not Just Gay-Friendly: Here Come the Ultra-Gay Hotels.
So much wrong with so few words.
Yes, these hotels are billed as "hetero-friendly" (hee), because they cater specifically to a gay clientele. By my calculations, that just makes them gay hotels.
But by Time's reckoning, by the reckoning of a culture steeped in heterocentrism, heteronormativity, and straight privilege, that makes them ULTRA-GAY!
Which, apart from conjuring the image of a beautifully-designed hotel dressed in pink superhero tights and matching cape, implicitly suggests that even LGBTQI-owned and -serving hotels must primarily cater to straight people, or else they'll enter some sort of realm of the supergay.
Sort of like how a gay man who is "straight-acting" (i.e. has a gender presentation that hews closely to the stereotypes of traditional masculinity) is just plain old gay, but a gay man who is "gay-acting" (i.e. has a gender presentation that includes discernible aspects of the feminine) is said to be really gay.
And the problem with all this gay-ranking (especially done from outside the queer community looking in) is that it necessarily continues to center heterosexuality as the norm and the desirable objective—and not just any heterosexuality, but a version steeped in retrofuck gender roles. (Which further marginalizes the "really gay.")
Which is basically a long way of saying: Time's headline is total garbage which effectively reframes a thing merely catering primarily (and not even exclusively) to a gay clientele from gay to ultra-gay, effectively suggesting that a gay-centered space is extreme.
I can't wait for their article on gay-only establishments: "Here Come the Super Duper Mega Max Über Xxxtreme Gay Hotels!"
Or perhaps just: "AHHHH! The Gays Are Coming!"
Meanwhile, CNN (of course) helpfully linked the article right on their front page, reiterating the obnoxious headline:
That's your liberal media—treating perfectly legitimate and business-savvy gay-centric spaces with all the finesse and subtlety of an Ed Wood script.
[We've done this one before, but it's one of my favorites, so I'm doing it again…]
Who will play you in Shakesville: The Movie?
Looks-wise, the obvious choice is Dawn French, to whom I am nearly identical in height and weight, and probably not dissimilar in temperament. She's 17 years older than I, but I won't complain if she won't.
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
