The Three Degrees: "When Will I See You Again"
Blog Note
Hey, Shakers. I am a glaikit fool who's hurt her back doing some shit no person with a bad back should be doing, so I'm taking the day off and will hopefully be better tomorrow. If not, I'll let you know. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Meganology: Do you like any unusual combinations of foods/flavors? If so, what?
The only thing that comes to mind is that I sometimes used to eat white rice with ketchup as a kid, and, once every couple years, I get a nostalgic craving for it. It's a very particular taste, and it sounds gross even to me (!), but apparently there's no accounting even for my own taste. Shrug.
lol your awful article about dudes and dogs
This is literally one of the stupidest things I've ever read, which is really saying something.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
[Trigger warning for fat hatred and body policing.]
Salon's Susannah Gora asks the question humankind has been asking since time immemorial: "Are comedians funnier when they're fat?"
HA HA GREAT QUESTION. Well done, Ms. Cool Question!
In case you were wondering if the "comedians" in question are actually fat white straight male comedians, the answer is yes. Yes, of course, they are actually fat white straight male comedians. No one is suggesting that Jerry Seinfeld would be funnier if he were to get fat, ha ha, heavens no. It's just that if a comedian starts out fat, part of what we're laughing at, according to some critic named Glenn Kenny, a highly-credentialed expert on fat and comedy I'm sure, is their gluttony! And is someone like John Goodman really funny without his gluttony? NOPE!
You know an article is a good one when Tom Arnold is interviewed and pontificates about the health of other people whose bodies are not his, but it's EXTRA GOOD when he shares delightful anecdotes like how a director wanted him to remain fat for a role as Maggie Gyllenhaal's love interest because "it would add more pathos if I did not lose weight, and would make people feel more sorry for [Gyllenhaal's character]."
So true. There's nothing more pitiable than someone who loves a fat person.
Oh, except fat people. Obviously.
Holy Shit
Above is a picture of Sherry Vargson, of Granville Summit, PA, lighting her tap water on fire, which she is able to do because it has been contaminated by fracking.
Not only does The Market not, in fact, solve everything, but wanton deregulation to allow the Invisible Hand to conduct a symphony of corporate chaos actually tends to create a whole lot of pretty spectacular problems for people like Sherry Vargson. And me. And probably you.
I am reminded of a post Mannion published approximately one hundred years ago (get off my lawn), in which he wrote:
Americans have a habit of talking about politics as something apart from the normal doings of our lives. Kind of strange of us, considering that the normal doings of our lives are only possible because of politics. Turning on the tap to get a drink of water is a political act if only because the water flows and is relatively clean because of decisions made by politicians who owe their jobs to political decisions made by us.And when we turn on the tap to demonstrate that our water is flammable, that is most certainly a political act, too.
Ultimately, this picture is less about fracking—although it's damn sure about that, too—than it is about the evident failure of the people elected to represent their constituents' interests to remember exactly who their constituents actually are.
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: All the animals have to sit as close to on top of me as possible at all times. Olivia sits on the back of the couch right next to my head; Zelda sleeps on my left side, with her head on my leg; Matilda sits on my right side, purring away; and Dudley sleeps on the loveseat, with his head angled toward me. As I pan across, I see Sophie walking into the kitchen and say, "Sophs, whatcha doin'?" She immediately hops up on the piano behind me. As soon as I turned off the camera, she went over the loveseat right next to Dudz.
We have a small house. It wouldn't matter if it were even smaller, or twelve times as big: The behbehs would still be up my ass 24/7, figuratively speaking. All of them are the snuggliest little lovebugs, for which I am appreciative, even in moments when if they all don't GET OFF ME FOR TWO FUCKING SECONDS I will lose it, lol.
Nadler & Co. Continue Fight for Immigration Equality
For years, Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has been pursuing an issue that's personally very important to me: Immigration equality for same-sex couples.
The fight for immigration equality continues this week as Nadler and some of his fellow House Dems penned twin letters to the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, seeking assurances "that new immigration policy will enable foreign nationals to stay in the United States if they're in same-sex relationships with American citizens."
"The recognition of LGBT family ties as a positive factor is a critical step forward in identifying key family and community ties to implement common-sense immigration enforcement," the letter states. "We ask that you ensure that this recognition is reflected in the work of DHS and DOJ employees and the newly-established working group in implementing your priorities for immigration enforcement."Codifying this immigration reform is not only a long overdue basic social justice issue, but it is a crucial component of authentic and meaningful marriage equality.
The letter is signed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), sponsor of the legislation known as the Uniting American Families, which would allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign partners for residency in the United States. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and 68 other Democrats — including gay Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) — make up the additional signatories of the letter.
Under current immigration code, gay Americans can't sponsor the foreign partners for residency in the United States because same-sex marriage isn't legal in many places in the country and because the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits federal recognition of these unions. Consequently, foreign nationals who are in committed relationships with gay Americans may have to leave the United States or face deportation.
In a June 17 memo, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement allows immigration officials to exercise prosecutorial discretion in cases they deem low priority for deportation, although this memo offers no explicit guidance on foreign nationals in same-sex relationships.
On Aug. 18, the Obama administration unveiled new policy based on this memo saying it would examine foreign nationals facing deportation on a case-by-case basis and take those who are low priority out of the pipeline.
Officials are set to weigh a person's ties and contributions to the community and family relationships as reasons to take potential deportee out of consideration. Administration officials have stated that being in a same-sex relationship will be considered in the context of community contributions and family relationships.
However, lawmakers in the letter seek additional assurances that bi-national same-sex couples won't be left out as part of this consideration.
Contact your representative here and ask them to support the Uniting American Families Act.
Quote of the Day
"Giving one of the most abusive industries in the U.S. free rein to inundate people with robo-calls to their cell phones is a terrible idea. ... Harassing people on their cell phones is just not going to help solve the federal deficit."—Margot Saunders (pdf), National Consumer Law Center, on President Obama's proposal, buried on page 28 of his deficit reduction plan, "to allow debt collectors 'to contact delinquent debtors via their cellular phones' when collecting debts owed to or guaranteed by the federal government."
Currently, debt collection calls to cell phones are limited because collectors must check their phone number lists against a list of known cell phones and cannot call those numbers unless the consumer has provided that number as a way of reaching them. Though the proposal is limited to debts owed or guaranteed by the federal government, millions of consumers will be affected, including graduates who can't pay their loans due to the terrible job market, homeowners who are behind in mortgages, and people who are in tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service. Families who have lost their homes to foreclosure could be exposed to cell phone calls for years if the delinquency on their mortgage is sold to debt buyers.Emphasis mine.
The Federal Trade Commission receives more complaints about the debt collection industry than any other industry─more than 140,000 complaints in 2010─and those complaints increase every year. "The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act badly needs updating but for the purposes of protecting consumers from widespread harassment and debt collector abuses, not for facilitating those abuses," Saunders noted.
[Thanks to Deeks for the heads-up.]
Photo of the Day
"Destroy society, get million$. Stand up for justice, get surrounded by police." After an initial attempt to occupy Wall Street over a week ago, protesters pushed back by New York City Police continued to protest in Liberty Park while across the street on Broadway, NYPD prepared their own strategy. [Demotix Images]
Open Thread: Terra Nova
[Click to embiggen.]
So, did anyone else watch the premiere of Terra Nova last night? I'm still searching for something to fill my Lost hole, and Terra Nova had the distinct ring of Lostiness to it, from at attempt at cast diversity to scary things in the jungle to mysterious symbols to a rogue band of "others" right down to its annoying patriarch
The central story is about a group of time-traveling pilgrims from a polluted, overpopulated, and dying Earth in the year 2149, who are sent through a one-way tear in the space-time continuum to a parallel timeline 85 million years ago, tasked with establishing and maintaining Terra Nova, a colony designed to build a new and sustainable human civilization.
But! There is conflict in paradise, and a rebel group has fractured away from the main encampment, with some nefarious and as-yet undefined plot which has something to do with the mysterious mathematical etchings in the rocks being done by the AWOL son of Terra Nova's benevolent dictator (OR IS HE?!) Nathaniel Taylor.
So, that's the main plot, and it was, to the writers' due credit, established rather compellingly with a minimum of clumsy exposition.
It's too early to make any definitive statements about the show's conformity to or subversion of kyriarchal tropes: Although the "good guys" are led by white dude Taylor, and the "bad guys" are led by black female rebel Mira, I get the feeling there's a distinct possibility that the "good" and "bad" groups are not exactly what they seem, so I'm tentatively withholding judgment on those casting choices.
I am not withholding judgment on casting the only Asian man as the head of agriculture. Boo. Particularly as the agricultural department duties were essentially maintaining a large and fast-growing exotic garden, which was more Asian than European or American in appearance, the conflation of "Asian" and "exotic" (or even "primitive") was unfortunate, to put it politely.
There are women of color in prominent roles: In addition to Mira, and the two Shannon daughters, mother Elizabeth Shannon is played by Shelley Conn, who is of Indian descent, and she was recruited for the pilgrimage to Terra Nova because she is a highly-respected doctor who's done social justice work. There is at least one (white/Latina) woman among Taylor's security team, and the oldest Shannon daughter, Maddy, is a math whiz. So there's potential for strong female characters, if they're given the space and attention to grow.
So far, however, there have been no visible LGBTQI characters.
Other random observations:
I don't know if this is a deliberate commentary being made by the show, or an inadvertent commentary being made by the show, but I found it amusing that the ability to wage war had been established in Terra Nova before the ability to manufacture medical supplies. (Supplies are still being sent from 2149.)
I am also deeply amused that, in 2149, annoying dudebro teens are still named Josh.
The special effects were pretty good for a television series. Not the best I've seen, but certainly not the worst.
What did you think?
Number of the Day
$10 billion: The estimated amount of annual revenue losses to the US Treasury care of the "check-the-box" rule, which "allows U.S. companies to strip profits from operations in high-tax countries simply by marking an Internal Revenue Service form that transforms subsidiaries into what the agency calls a 'disregarded entity.' Others have labeled them 'tax nothings.' Check-the-box allows companies to avoid the normal 35 percent U.S. corporate tax on certain types of income."
A simple rule meant to cut paperwork for U.S. companies has grown into one of the biggest multinational tax breaks around, costing the United States and other governments billions of dollars in lost taxes each year.Every time you hear a Republican talk about "class warfare," remember that it's a cynical obfuscation, to make sure that we keep bickering about individual tax rates and never pay attention to the plethora of corporate tax loopholes that subsidize the pillaging of the nation's resources and the exploitation of its people by multinational megacorps, who have no loyalty to the US and will move on to the next emergent empire as soon as they've bled this one dry.
It thrives thanks to determined business support, including a campaign two years ago that forced the Obama administration to retreat from altering it and tax professionals worldwide who exploit its benefits.
...[C]heck-the-box deals "are going like crazy," according to one prominent tax lawyer who helps structure such transactions. He declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing his job but added: "I can design these a thousand different ways."
Sexual Orientation Protections Added To New NFL Contract
I know next to nothing about sports.
And honestly, I don't much care. It's not my thing. That's not a judgment. If you like it, get on with your bad self. Different strokes and all that. It's just not something I enjoy. But, there is some good news coming out of the sports world (is that the right phrase?) today.
The NFL's new collective bargaining agreement (I think maybe there was a strike leading up to this) includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination clause. That's a pretty big deal. The 2006 agreement included no such protections.
From the contract:
No Discrimination: There will be no discrimination in any form against any player by the Management Council, any Club or by the NFLPA [NFL Players Association] because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or activity or lack of activity on behalf of the NFLPA.
So, that's cool. And while "there are no openly gay professional sports players in football, basketball, baseball or hockey," this could help change that.
"I think that the conditions are being created — certainly now by this anti-discrimination language, but also what the players are saying — for a gay player to come out. More and more Americans are coming out in their lives and their industries, so it's going to hit sports. It has to," said Brian Ellner, a senior strategist with the Human Rights Campaign.
Occupy Wall Street: News Round-Up
[Trigger warning for police brutality.]
The Guardian—Occupy Wall Street: 'Pepper-spray' officer named in Bush protest claim:
A senior New York police officer accused of pepper-spraying young women on the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations is the subject of a pending legal action over his conduct at another protest in the city.Boston Review—Why I Was Maced at the Wall Street Protests:
The Guardian has learned that the officer, named by activists as deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, stands accused of false arrest and civil rights violations in a claim brought by a protester involved in the 2004 demonstrations at the Republican national convention.
The white-shirted cops are shouting at us to get off the street as they corral us onto the sidewalk. One African American man gets on the curb but refuses to be pushed up against the wall of the building; they throw him into the street, and five cops tackle him. As he's being cuffed, a white kid with a video camera asks him "What's your name?! What's your name?!" One of the blue-shirted cops thinks he's too close and gives him a little shove. A white-shirt sees this, grabs the kid and without hesitation billy-clubs him in the stomach.WYNC—Protesters Dig in as Park Owner Seeks Their Eviction:
At this point, the crowd of twenty or so caught in the orange fence is shouting "Shame! Shame! Who are you protecting?! YOU are the 99 percent! You're fighting your own people!" A white-shirt, now known to be NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, comes from the left, walks straight up to the three young girls at the front of the crowd, and pepper-sprays them in the face for a few seconds, continuing as they scream "No! Why are you doing that?!"
The rest of us in the crowd turn away from the spray, but it's unavoidable. My left eye burns and goes blind and tears start streaming down my face. Frank grabs my arm and shoves us through the small gap between the orange fence and the brick wall while everyone stares in shock and horror at the two girls on the ground and two more doubled over screaming as their eyes ooze. In the street I shout for water to rinse my eyes or give to the girls on the ground, but no one responds. One of the blue-shirts, tall and bald, stares in disbelief and says, "I can't believe he just fuckin' maced her." And it becomes clear that the white-shirts are a different species. We need to get out of there.
Following 80 arrests over the weekend, organizers of an anti-Wall Street demonstration are now facing possible eviction from the Lower Manhattan park that has been their unofficial base of operations for the past 10 days.Star-Ledger—Occupy Wall Street demonstrators send message: Where are the jobs? "Occupy Wall Street, a protest against bank bailouts and corporate greed, is what the tea party should have been—probably would have been—if the movement hadn't been hijacked by savvy conservatives, bankrolled by billionaires and fictitiously portrayed as an everyman revolt."
Hundreds of members of the group Occupy Wall Street have protested in Zuccotti Park, a space on Broadway and Liberty streets owned real estate company, Brookfield Properties, which is hoping the protesters will move on.
"The park is intended for the use and enjoyment of the general public for passive recreation," a spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties, Melissa Coley, said in a statement.
"We are extremely concerned with the conditions that have been created by those currently occupying the park and are actively working with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose."
New rules were posted over the weekend forbidding the use of sleeping bags, lying down or storing personal property in the park. But protesters like Justin Wedes said they have no plans to move just yet.
"It seems like an attempt, a half-hearted attempt," Wedes said. "I almost want to say, to try to intimidate us to leave, but the reality is that we're deep into our work, and we're not planning to leave anytime soon."
David Weidner at MarketWatch—Wall Street elites enjoy police protection: "If you want to know how a nation supposedly by and for the people has become uprooted, one only needs to see how common young people, who are suffering so badly in this recession, were humiliated further by trying to exercise their given right to peacefully protest."
The LiveStream is here. Information hub here.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Kate A: What is your least favorite platitude or cliche?
"God works in mysterious ways." Or any variation thereof: I can't stand any trite reference to "God's plan" or "what God wanted" as explanation for horrible things, especially for mass injury/death caused by a natural disaster or for an unexpected death. When I hear someone say a child died because God wanted that child with Him, I become a quivering column of undiluted rage.
Number of the Day
4,800: The approximate number of messages in bottles Harold Hackett of Prince Edward Island has thrown into the Atlantic over the last two decades. "Every message asks for the finder to send a response back to Hackett, and since 1996 he has received over 3,100 responses from all over the world."
