97: The percentage of Republicans in the House who "will still be receiving insurance through the Federal Employees' Health Benefits Plan—a federal exchange which offers subsidized coverage to federal government workers, including members of Congress. According to a ThinkProgress analysis, seven, or just three percent of all the Republicans in the House have agreed to give up their insurance while they vote to repeal coverage for some 32 million Americans."
Only Good Things Will Come of This!
Comcast-NBC Deal Wins Federal Approval:
The proposed combination of Comcast and NBC Universal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department on Tuesday, smoothing the way for the deal to close by the end of January.Come on! Who doesn't love monopolies? This guy knows what I'm talking about:
As expected, the approvals came with significant conditions attached. The combination of Comcast's cable systems and NBC Universal's channels will create a media powerhouse, and it will represent the first time that a cable company will control a major broadcast network.
"This is a proud and exciting day for Comcast," Brian L. Roberts, the Comcast chief executive, said in a statement that thanked the government agencies for their hard work.
"Right this way to your corporatocracy!"
[H/T to Shaker SamanthaB.]
What I'm Listening To
[Lyrics available here.]
If only the Vatican had access to 20th century technology*
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse]
Whoooops! Next time y'all at the Vatican conspire to circumvent international standards of law and decency, try a conference call-- it doesn't [TW] leave a paper trail.
--
*And/or cared about sexual abuse
Quote of the Day
[TW for Christian supremacy.]
"If you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister. Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister."—Republican Governor-Elect of Alabama Robert Bentley, in a speech at a Baptist church yesterday afternoon.
He also noted during the speech, "You know, [for] a lot of people, it's hard to trust a Republican governor." Yeah. Wonder why.
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Olivia is sitting on my lap, and I'm scratching the middle of her back, which makes her lick my sweater and then chomp on my belly. I say, "Ow!" and laugh, and Iain says, "Get her, Livs!" LOL.
There's another area, at the base of her tail, which makes her lick and bite the air (like a lot of cats) when I scratch her there. But the middle of her back is the secret button that turns her into Lady Chompington.
Let's Have This Discussion
Actual screencap of "Latest News" headlines on the front page of CNN.
Actual Headline at Time: Does the Death of 200 Cows in Wisconsin Confirm Biblical Prophecy?
Fair enough. It's been a long time since I was at church, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading something about that in the Second Book of Cheese.
"There's something biblically going on with the signs of the second coming of Christ," [online theologian Paul Begley in Indiana] says on his YouTube channel. His message could creep out believers and non-believers alike. But don't expect the second coming any time soon. He adds that "we still need seven years of tribulation" and "the rise of the anti-Christ" for that to happen.You'd think an "online theologian" would have caught wind of the Bush years. *rimshot*
*Sad Trombone*
The Supreme Court has declined to spend their time listening to DC's homobigots whine about their super-special relationships losing the shimmering, golden glow that only denying equality to same-sex couples conveys upon their gloriously gilded unions:
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opponents of same-sex marriage who want to overturn the District of Columbia's gay marriage law.The court did not comment...but I still hear the reverberating echo of "Get lost, bozos!" nonetheless.
The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who are trying to get a measure on the ballot to allow Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
60 Minutes, Tucson, and Stereotypes of Mental Illness
[Trigger warning for violence and ableism.]
by Shaker LG6
I used to think that 60 Minutes was high-quality broadcast journalism. I'm not sure which one of us has changed.
Sunday night, I had the misfortune to watch a segment of 60 Minutes entitled "Tucson: Descent into Madness", which focused on anecdotes about and speculation on Jared Lee Loughner's behavior leading up to the Tucson shootings on January 8. Several friends and acquaintances of Mr. Loughner's were interviewed, and the story attempted to set his behavior in a broader context by interviewing people who have worked with the Secret Service on profiling potential assassins.
They were interviewed to establish points of commonality between Mr. Loughner's behavior and the profile of a "typical" assassin. None of these people was a qualified mental health professional who had had direct interaction with Mr. Loughner and could therefore comment knowledgeably on his mental state (and of course, it would be unethical for anyone in such a position to do so, which leads to the question of why we are witnessing this discourse in the first place).
I found this entire segment to be thoroughly irresponsible journalism, not only because of the use of inappropriate, inaccurate, and frankly sensational terminology to speculate on Mr. Loughner's mental state ("insanity", "madness", "irrational", etc.), but also because of the sheer amount of time spent discussing the behavior and mental patterns of "assassins", in a manner designed to inflame people's fears without any thoughtful exploration of the factors that might have led them down such a path and whether, and how, such situations might be dealt with more effectively.
In short, I felt that the story perpetuated the following stereotypes: that people who are mentally ill are monsters; that all mentally ill people are dangerous; and that assassins (despite supposedly being automatically both mentally ill and monsters) are worthy objects of the attention, fascination, and fetishization that they seek through their actions.
I am not in any way attempting to diminish the horrors of what happened on January 8 and the pain felt by those close to the victims nor to minimize the dangers faced by public figures (and those who interact with them) in a mainstream political climate that is frighteningly charged with violent rhetoric and polarized positions.
But the fact remains that, statistically speaking, the average United States citizen is highly unlikely to ever be in any danger from an assassin, particularly compared to the diffuse but very real threats to safety and security that huge numbers of people in the US do face on a daily basis: Loss or lack of income, job security, and gainful employment; loss or lack of access to food, shelter, and basic medical care; loss or lack of safety and dignity in homes, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces; and yes, loss or lack of capability in managing the vicissitudes of life which can be the result of serious mental illness.
Unfortunately it appears that the mainstream media lacks the creativity, perception, and energy to recognize and pursue the newsworthiness of these dramatic narratives, in favor of defaulting at every opportunity to the easy and lurid option.
Conservatives Are the New Social Justice Crusaders
[Trigger warning for violent rhetoric, appropriation.]
After appropriating Jewish victimization via "blood libel" and "pogrom" last week, this week it appears they've moved on to appropriating language associated with Black Civil Rights in the US.
Yesterday, Pat Buchanan, signaling his disinterest in cooling the incendiary rhetoric, described President Obama's speech last week as "a fairly stern admonition, especially to the far left in this country, which has been quite frankly conducting something of a lynch mob against Glenn Beck, against Sarah Palin, against Rush Limbaugh."
Then Sarah Palin gave an interview to Sean Hannity last night, where, it is being widely reported, she said that she won't be silenced: "I will continue to speak out. ... They're not going to shut me up."
At one point in the interview (which is viewable here), she also says: "They can't make us sit down and shut up."
"Sit down and shut up" is a common enough phrase, but her they can't make us construction is evocative of the language of social justice movements, and the Civil Rights Movement in particular. That Palin chose to use these words, in this way, on Martin Luther King Day, is no coincidence.
Even as she positions herself (and conservatives) as an oppressed minority, she sneers at the idea of real social justice. Buchanan, echoing the call to regard conservatives as victims of violent oppression, mocks the truly marginalized.
I don't guess I need to point out the gall of whining about being silenced during an interview broadcast internationally, without a trace of irony, nor the historical fact that victims of actual lynch mobs and people who were told, literally, to sit down and shut up were never granted a similar platform, and not just because Fox News didn't exist.
Good Morning! Time for a Pop Quiz!
Question: Which of the following things has fierce advocate President Barack Obama deemed worthy of an executive order?
A. Repealing DADT.
B. Repealing DOMA.
C. Enacting inclusive ENDA.
D. Requiring federal agencies tasked with designing regulations which protect our safety, health, and environment also promote economic growth.
If you guessed D, give yourself 1,000 points!
For extra credit, for which newspaper did President Barack Obama pen an op-ed announcing his pro-business executive order?
A. New York Times
B. Washington Post
C. Chicago Tribune
D. Wall Street Journal
If you guessed D, give yourself a gold star!
BONUS ROUND!!! President Barack Obama sounds like the leader of which party?
A. The Democrats
B. The Republicans
C. The Republicans of the 1980s
If you guessed C, just go ahead and start sobbing, because you're right. And that's a terrible thing to be right about.
SPEED ROUND!!! (No whammies! No whammies!) On what basis did President Barack Obama say child labor laws were enacted?
A. Decency
B. Common Sense for a stronger market
1,000 points for B!
Whose "burdens" is President Barack Obama interested in easing, so "nothing stands in their way" in reaching professional success?
A. US workers
B. Businesses
1,000 points for B!
What is the example used by President Barack Obama to illustrate how "dumb" government regulations can be?
A. Something else
B. "For instance, the FDA has long considered saccharin, the artificial sweetener, safe for people to consume. Yet for years, the EPA made companies treat saccharin like other dangerous chemicals. Well, if it goes in your coffee, it is not hazardous waste. The EPA wisely eliminated this rule last month."
I'll take Mendacious Obfuscating Fuckery for $200, Alex!
Whoops, wrong game show. But, hey, since we're on the subject of Mendacious Obfuscating Fuckery anyway, I'd like to point out that example is some mendacious obfuscating fuckery, right there.
I'm no Dr. Saccharin, DDS, over here, so I don't know if saccharine really and genuinely isn't an environmental hazard in the large amounts for which EPA regulations are designed. Maybe it isn't. But you don't need an advanced degree in saccharinology to know that it is actually not true, no matter how well-rehearsed your president's "omigosh so SILLY these regulations!" spin is, that many chemicals safe to ingest in small amounts aren't toxic in large amounts.
"Well, if it goes in your coffee, it is not hazardous waste" is exactly the kind of bullshit lie that the Republicans tell all the time, a sleight of hand used to mask the obvious difference between someone using a spoonful of saccharine in hir coffee and a company dumping eighty metric biebers of saccharine into a local pond.
And, um, there's this other issue about how the EPA sometimes says things are safe to go in our bodies, and later it turns out they were wrong. Whooooooooops!
Look, if this ostensibly Democratic president wants to pander to Corporate America and hand them the gift of lax regulations as long as they can make a compelling case that regulations create undue burdens (example: "Waaaaaaahhh! Our profits aren't ginormous enough!"), then fine, but he should at least have the decency to be honest about it, instead of couching it in some garbage about how HIS ADMINISTRATION (that's the same administration that was going to change Washington, right, lol?) is going to be the one to find that perfect balance between regulations and profits.
Uh-huh. Meanwhile...
SPOILER ALERT! Corporate America still won't like you, Barry.
[H/T to Deeky.]
Question of the Day
We've done this one before, but not for over a year... What's the worst book you've ever read, so bad you couldn't believe it got published?
On Law & Order (Or Some Thoughts on the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail")
The emphasis on and call for "law and order" has often been synonymous with the suppression of social justice struggles in our society. Martin Luther King, Jr., realized that and spoke eloquently of it. Today, as some of us commemorate his birthday, I just want to mention some relevant passages on the issue of "law and order" from his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and the "Statement from Alabama Clergymen" that prompted the letter.
The Alabama clergymen had already written a statement called "An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense." They imagined themselves moderates, negotiating between southern segregationists and civil rights workers, each equally "extremist." See, there's a problem with proclaiming oneself a "racial moderate" or "neutral." Because the perspectives of dominant groups are normalized and regarded as the default, those perspectives are often viewed as “neutral.” In the case of social justice struggles in the United States, the so called “moderate” perspective, in reality, centers the feelings, thoughts, and ideologies of non-marginalized people.
King wrote, for example, that white moderates took the same paternalistic view of African Americans as white southerners who were more overtly racist. As a result, he had been ...gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate.
King also pointed out how the moderates’ claim that the Birmingham protests were "unwise and untimely" revealed their privileged status as “white” in the racial hierarchy and their inability to fully understand African Americans’ perspective:Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
Unaffected by the "disease of segregation," the clergymen composed a statement that insisted on the importance of obeying the law. They implied that the legal system and the institution of law were logical and just and that justice would be the result if people use them. The clergymen acknowledged no distinction, King claimed, between just and unjust laws. Segregation laws were unjust, examples of "dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait."
So, why did the Alabama clergymen, who imagined themselves moderate and even sympathetic to African Americans insist on "law and order" and define civil rights demonstrations as representative of disorder that "incite[d] hatred and violence?" Why did they suggest that African Americans pursue their cause via the courts--a suggestion not rooted in any historical or social context, as African Americans had received little redress in southern courts--instead of "in the streets?"
Obviously, the people who will or do benefit from the system in place have a vested interest in maintaining and/or prolonging the status quo through the use of "law and order." And as I noted, whether they acknowledged it or not, the eight white Alabama clergymen who drafted the statement did benefit from the social order in the South. Thus, according to King, order was more important to them than any semblance of justice, despite their claims:[The moderate] ...constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; ...paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; ...lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
And, in the case of the "moderate" Alabama clergymen, King theorized they had a problematic definition of peace, that prioritized "a negative peace which is the absence of tension" over "a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
King called for moderates to shift their perspectives and to realize that the "calm" appearance of order often obscured the violence necessary to maintain it:Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.
Please keep thinking of justice and positive peace, not "order," as the foundation upon which we should build.
It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation.
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake.
Happy MLK Day!
Photos of the Day
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) paints on the walls with other volunteers as he and his family volunteer in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, at Stuart-Hobson Middle School on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 17, 2011. [Reuters Pictures]
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama (L) paints a cartoon apple as she and her family join volunteers in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, at Stuart-Hobson Middle School. [Reuters Pictures]
Michelle Obama is surprised by everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her as she arrived at the Stuart Hobson Middle School; today is her 47th birthday. They are joined by their daughters, Malia, 12, right, and Sasha, 9, embraced by the first lady. [AP Photo]
First Lady Michelle Obama smiles and grips the president's hand as everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to her. [Getty Images]
First Lady Michelle Obama high-fives her husband, President Barack Obama. [Getty Images]This venue probably wouldn't have been Ms. Obama's first choice if asked where she'd most love to spend her birthday, but First Families sacrifice a lot for their service. I think it's really cool that she still managed to have fun with her family, even while volunteering. And one of the things I love most about this First Family is that when they do activities like this, which are SO OBVIOUSLY just obligatory staged photo-ops for most presidents, the Obamas get into it. It looks meaningful when they volunteer, because it's authentically meaningful to them.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of the upcoming memoir on aging, I Shouldn't Have Wrinkles If I'm Still Getting Zits by Melissa McEwan.
Recommended Reading:
Arturo: Three Different Insults to the Legacy of Dr. King
Alex: After Promising to 'Repeal and Replace' Obama's Health Law, Republicans Have No Replacement
Angry Asian Man: Chinese Soccer Team Inducted into B.C. Sports Hall of Fame
Loryn: The Politics of Hailing a Cab
Fannie: Revelations [TW for MRA bullshit]
Andy: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Commits Herself to Nationwide Marriage Equality on 'The View'
Leave your links in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
This is Alfie playing with one of his favorite toys, the honking hedgehog. I remember when we first got him, he had no idea what to do with toys. Then one day, Space Cowgirl suggested I walk up to Alfie and show him the toy while squeaking it. That did the trick.
Keep in mind that after playing with the toy for about a minute, he has expended all his energy and needs to take a nap. :)
Quote of the Day
"Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show has been pretty good so far."—Robert Downey, Jr., at the Golden Globes last night, after host Ricky Gervais introduced him by listing many of Downey's films then adding, "But many of you in this room probably know him best from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail," which itself followed on the heels of other jokes mocking stars for things like age, weight, and addiction.
[Ricky Gervais, Nasty Trainwreck: One, Two, Three, Four, Five.]
