My head may implode if I hear one more person say, half-jokingly or (holy shit) seriously, say, with regard to the twenty gerjillion biebers of snow that has fallen across the US in the past few weeks, some variation on: "Where's that global warming I've been hearing about?"
ARGH.
Important Announcement
Daily Dose o' Cute
An appearance by our furry family members, in descending age:
Out and Out
[TW for violence.]
The stereotype of conservatives being a collection of cranky white people reeking of patriarchy and privilege exists for a reason: Despite there being conservatives of color, conservative women who consider themselves to be feminists, conservatives who are young or poor or in some other way defy the stereotype, conservatism remains primarily a movement shaped, led, and populated by rich, white, older, straight, cis men. They know that's a problem, in a country that increasingly looks less and less like them, so they make loud sounds about having a big tent. But there's apparently one place where they draw the line: you can't be gay and be conservative.
Two of the nation's premier moral issues organizations, the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, are refusing to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in February because a homosexual activist group, GOProud, has been invited.As Steve Benen notes, perhaps they're afraid of gay cooties and that's why they're acting like a middle-school clique. But what I find more interesting is why there is such a thing as a group of gay people who are conservative in the first place.
"We've been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization's financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president for FRCAction.
Not all conservatives are anti-gay, of course; many of them supported the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell and there are a number of them, Theodore Olson most notably, who support the idea of marriage equality. But they are in the minority, and, ironically, it is those who are the most ardent followers of a philosophy that preaches "love thy neighbor" and "let all come unto me" who are the most vitriolic in their hatred.
Of course, people have a right to follow whatever political conviction they believe in regardless of their sexual orientation. But given the history of gay rights in this country and that it is the conservatives who have done everything they possibly can to demonize, criminalize, and even propose that people should be designated as unworthy of citizenship because of their sexual orientation, it boggles the mind that anyone who is openly gay would align themselves with the conservative movement. Lower taxes doesn't really mean a whole lot when your taxes go to pay for things you can't participate in such as filing joint returns or, as is the case in Florida, the adoption of children by gays or lesbians. "Smaller government and more freedom" rings hollow when you're talking about banning gay teachers from the classroom or taking your movement to Uganda where just being gay would become a crime punishable by death.
It says something about the odd priorities of those who would put their political beliefs ahead of their own rights as full participants in citizenship. To turn the Groucho Marx quote on its head, why would anyone want to belong to a group that doesn't want to have you as a member?
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud distributors of Deeky Brand Sailor Caps.
Recommended Reading:
Cara: California Inmates Receive Mental Health Care While Locked in Cages [TW for ableism, dehumanization]
Living ~400lbs: Things I Would Like to Not Care About [TW for fat hatred and diet talk]
Shark-Fu: Pondering Exceptionalism…
Joe: Texas' Racist Textbook Standards: Challenged by NAACP and LULAC [TW for racism]
Steve: Mecklenburg County Commissioner Reacts to DADT Repeal, Emails Colleagues: 'Homosexuals Are Sexual Predators' [TW for homophobia; rape narratives]
Susie: Looks Like Conservatives Are Just Big Scaredy Cats! and, at her own place: Call the Wahhhmbulance
RIP Alfred Kahn
Alfred Kahn, the man most strongly associated with airline deregulation in the US, has died.
I suspect that he and I would agree on the horrors of government-supported monopolies. Indeed, the high-cost to consumers of a system that guaranteed airlines profits (12 percent, to be exact) despite inefficiency was one of Kahn's motivations.
Where I suspect Kahn and I differ, is in the amount of whether we put faith in the market.
I look at the airline example, and think it'd be possible to lower ticket prices if airline profits were zero percent, even if we were just as inefficient. Moreover, it could be more efficient to just have the one government-run airline. More people could afford to fly, and the people who worked for the airline could continue to afford to feed themselves.
Anyhow, socialism (and social democracy, for that matter), is even less in vogue than usual these days, so I suppose starting that discussion isn't going to make me particularly popular in most quarters.
What I did want to point out (which, I, being born in 1978 and educated in the US wasn't aware of), is that airline deregulation happened on the watch of Jimmy Carter and with help from politicians to his left (including Ted Kennedy and Ralph Nader).
This isn't to say that Republicans haven't championed deregulation. As far as I'm concerned, they continue to make the Democrats look like rank amateurs. (IMO, they've got a habit of doing that.) However, when it comes to believing in government's ability to provide essential services (not merely air travel, but things like electricity, water, telecommunication services) for the citizenry in an affordable and efficient manner, I don't think it's safe to assume that many Democrats have been on board, past or present.
The prequel to George W. Bush's first term didn't work out too well, either.
--
Can you imagine if the blogosphere existed during the Carter administration? That's just scary.
Case Closed
One of the arguments from the right about the tax cuts was that the rich should not be subject to more taxes because they're "job creators", even though unemployment numbers would argue otherwise. As it turns out, they are, in fact, job creators (just not domestically):
Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn't anyone hiring?Job creators my arse. And still there are plenty of people who fall for this horseshit when it's blatantly obvious that corporations are not in the business of helping the US economy.
Actually, many American companies are – just maybe not in your town. They're hiring overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat.
More than half of the 15,000 people that Caterpillar Inc. has hired this year were outside the U.S. UPS is also hiring at a faster clip overseas. For both companies, sales in international markets are growing at least twice as fast as domestically.
Ironically, I was reminded of this the other day when CNBC aired a documentary on what happened at Enron, another wonderful company that excelled at "job creation."
The Pope's Creative New Defense of Institutional Abuse
[Trigger warning for sexual violence, clergy abuse, and rape apologia.]
The Pope used the occasion of his Christmas address (there's no time like the holidays!) to present a new defense of the widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy:
"In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said.Um. I'm no fucking Professor Seven Sacraments over here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not accurate that Catholics, nor the rest of the population, generally viewed pedophilia as "normal" in the 1970s.
"It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself."
And if I were one of the millions of clergy members who'd been serving the church in the '70s, who didn't abuse children, I'd be mighty pissed at the Pope's suggestion that I was incapable of discerning the morality of pedophilia.
(Aside: I guess that whole ephebophilia defense never caught on, eh?)
Having once again defended predator priests, the Pope naturally went on to talk about how horrible all this sexual violence is...for the church.
The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached "an unimaginable dimension" which brought "humiliation" on the Church.Yes, "a better presentation of the Christian message" than child rape would be awesome.
Asking how abuse exploded within the Church, the Pontiff called on senior clerics "to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred" and to help victims heal through a better presentation of the Christian message.
Like any good rock star, the Pope likes to mix in some new material with his Greatest Hits, so following the classics "Rape Apologia" and "Waaaahhh the Church Has Suffered," he introduced his new single, "Blame It on Child Porn."
"We cannot remain silent about the context of these times in which these events have come to light," he said, citing the growth of child pornography "that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society" he said.The Pope and I are both deeply concerned about pedophilia and child porn. The difference is that I'm not using their ghastly ubiquity to defend and contextualize the crimes of rapists.
[H/T to Spudsy. Commenting Guidelines: Please take the time to make sure your criticisms are clearly directed at the Catholic Church leadership and not at "Catholics," many of whom are themselves critical of the failures of Church leadership.]
Open Thread: WTF Chris Christie?!
So, while New Jersey (and much of the rest of the northeast coast) is buried under eighty billion metric biebers of snow, Governor Chris Christie is on holiday in sunny Florida. And the Lieutenant Governor is on holiday, too!
New Jersey Copes With Blizzard Without the Governor—or His Backup.
Eric Boehlert's been tweeting the fuck out of this, if you're looking for more info.
Apparently Mayor Bloomberg hasn't exactly covered himself in glory, either.
Discuss.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker shiftydiscogirl in comments: What people/quotes/scenes would you like to see on your country's currency?
You know who'd make a great running mate...
...for Mitch Daniels? This guy.
What a character!
[H/t to my mom.]
Two Facts
1. Jonah Goldberg loves sarcasm quotes ("transgressive," "free love," "subversive") as much as he hates facts and sense.
2. Jonah Goldberg has a ball of old shoelaces where his brains should be.
Nope
Have I mentioned in the last five minutes that my garbage nightmare of a governor shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the presidency...?
No?
Well, he shouldn't.
Seriously.
No.
If you're still not convinced, having heard me kvetch about how he's privatized everything from welfare to highways, have a look at him telling progressives to settle down with their equality business while the grown-ups fix America.
Ma < 3 Koidula
I wanted to take a moment to note the passing of the Estonian kroon into the annals of currency. On January 1, Estonia will become the 17th nation to adopt the Euro.
This is actually an important story in and of itself, but I want to focus on the necessary evil attached to adopting the Euro-- getting rid of the kroon.
Part of the reason for my writing lies in fond memories of my travels in Estonia, but another is that I think currency design can tell you a lot about a nation and the things that those in power value (or at the very least, feel have symbolic value). I think thoughtful currency has worth beyond its monetary value.
The front of the 100 kroon note features the 19th-century poet, dramatist, and nationalist activist Lydia Koidula, while the reverse contains a scene from Estonia's northern coast scene and :gasp: actual poetry. IMO, it's also a beautiful bill:
I suppose it takes an American to be impressed by a bluestocking on a banknote.
For the record, the other Estonian notes feature a painter, a naturalist, a chess grandmaster, a linguist and folklorist, a novelist, a composer, and another nationalist writer (all men). Most of these bills are also in colors not suitable for camouflaging tanks.
I'm not sure any of this is unusual. Many nations deem women of enough symbolic worth to place them on currency. Two of five denominations of Swedish krona banknotes feature women. Intentional or not, the last series of Deutsche Mark banknotes alternated women and men.
With a few exceptions, those bills didn't feature politicians (and there's no rule that paper money has to have people on it). Even Canada, which puts influential Prime Ministers (or Queen Elizabeth II) on the front of dollar notes, puts some sort of prose on the reverse of every note, including an excerpt from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the back of the fifty.
This brings me back to the US. According to our banknotes, my country values dead politicians, has a marble fetish and is so masculine (and insecure) that it won't be caught dead using queer/lady things like color. Yep, that's my empire. Well, I live here, at least. Oh, and the US is also unfriendly to people with disabilities. Different sizes for different denominations? Not here.
I guess there's something to be said for truth in advertising. :shrug:
Nerdz
An actual exchange I just had with my friend Todd, with whom I just saw Tron: Legacy on Saturday night:
Liss: "It's bio-digital jazz, man."
Todd: The dude cyber-abides.
Liss: That grid really tied the digital frontier together.
FYI
[Previous FYI: Rick Astley; Eddie Murphy; The Eurythmics; Eddie Rabbit; Sinéad O'Connor; Was (Not Was); Bon Jovi; Kenny Rogers; Bobby McFerrin; Starship; Dead or Alive; Right Said Fred; Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians; Salt n Pepa; Nelson; The Cure; The Soup Dragons; Europe/BushCo; Elton John; Eddie Money; Human League; Glenn Frey, Van Halen, Alanis Morissette, Depeche Mode. Hint: They're better if you click 'em!]
Daily Dose of Cute
With Lord Alfred taking up a lot of attention these days, Feather has obviously been getting short shrift. So, it's only fitting that after spending the whole day with her working from home yesterday, I pay homage to my little girl who always knows when and how to strike the perfect pose.
Oh, Anti-Choicers, How You Never Change
So, MTV has this show called "16 and Pregnant," which features teenage girls who are pregnant and carrying the pregnancy to term, most of whom also go on to parent the children themselves once they're born. Across several seasons, rarely has abortion even been discussed, and only two girls (that I know of) have chosen adoption, one of whom surrendered the baby to her aunt and uncle. The show has spawned a spin-off series, "Teen Mom," which has had two seasons, and a "Teen Mom 2," featuring new teen mothers originally featured on "16 and Pregnant" is set to begin after the new year.
The shows are all about Having Babies.
A young mother featured on the most recent season of "16 and Pregnant" is now the star of a follow-up stand-alone feature called "No Easy Decisions," in which she terminates a second pregnancy. Naturally, because one show about an abortion exists in association with seasons upon seasons of footage of young women carrying pregnancies to term, giving birth, and raising their babies, anti-choicers are OUTRAGED about how MTV is "promoting abortion."
Markai Durham, who was first seen last month on "16 and Pregnant," discovers she is expecting again and must decide whether to have the baby.So not only is this a single incident of a pregnant teenager choosing abortion among seasons of teenagers not choosing to terminate, but MTV is airing the show as a separate episode, broadcasting it at a later time, and generally treating abortion like a fucking scandal, yet still this is somehow "promoting abortion."
Her decision to terminate the pregnancy is the centerpiece of "No Easy Decision" and has pro-lifers up in arms.
The show is so unusual, MTV scheduled it to air at 11:30 p.m. -- well past the bedtimes of the network's youngest fans.
MTV did not make the show available to the media before it airs and has forbidden Markai to give interviews about the subject.
In recent months, MTV has promised to tackle "all sides" of the hot-button teen pregnancy issue.Just LOL. Yeah, birthing babies has really been buried beneath the weight of MTV's unwavering support of abortion. Yeesh.
But pro-life blogger Jill Stanek says she expects a one-sided portrayal.
"This apparently means the pro-life perspective will simply get tackled," she writes.
