"[Changing the underlying values that govern our society] is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it's also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult. That is what I see happening in this square. In the way you are feeding each other, keeping each other warm, sharing information freely and proving health care, meditation classes and empowerment training. My favorite sign here says, 'I care about you.' In a culture that trains people to avoid each other's gaze, to say, 'Let them die,' that is a deeply radical statement."—Naomi Klein, in her speech to Occupy Wall Street.
Of Course
Abortion-funding battle to heat up again this week:
After months of focusing on economic rather than social issues, the House this week is poised to take up a measure that will bring the abortion-rights debate back to the floor for the first time since May.Since there is virtually nothing I can say that I haven't already said nine thousand time before about how gross and contemptible and misogynist and body policing the Republicans and their inherently violent anti-choice ideology are, I will just note that, while it is correct to say that reproductive rights is a "social issue," it is incorrect to say that reproductive rights are not also an economic issue.
On Friday, the House will consider H.R. 358, the "Protect Life Act." The measure, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), would prohibit federal funds from going toward any health care plan that covers abortion services; it also would block funding from being withheld from institutions that are opposed to providing abortions.
...Friday's vote on H.R. 358 will likely mark the beginning of a new round in the abortion-rights fight on Capitol Hill: when both parties do battle over the next two months on the budget for the remainder of the 2012 fiscal year, social issues will again be in the spotlight.
According to this Guttmacher study (pdf), "Can't afford a baby now" was cited by 73% of women who terminated pregnancies as a reason for seeking an abortion.
In the qualitative sample, of women who stated that they could not afford to have a child now, the majority had children already. Financial difficulties included the absence of support from the father of either the current pregnancy or the woman's other children, anticipating not being able to continue working or to find work while pregnant or caring for a newborn, not having the resources to support a child whose conception was not planned and lacking health insurance.Additionally, Guttmacher has found that "almost one out of every three American women will have an abortion by age 45," and, of those women, "three out of four [of them] describe themselves as religiously affiliated." Which means that abortion is, in fact, not as much a "social issue" to the women seeking abortions as it is to the people trying to prevent them from getting abortions.
To continue to define abortion as a social issue primarily, and mutually exclusive from economic issues, is to define the reproductive rights debate on the terms of anti-choicers.
Abortion is a social issue and an economic issue. Indeed, it is a very important economic issue to most of the people who get abortions.
Of course, most social justice issues are.
[H/T to LaFeminista, via Ann Rose.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie spots a fly. Or something.
Yesterday evening, one of the last flies that will sneak its way into the house this year was zipping around the living area, sending all the animals into a fly-chasing frenzy. The cats were interested for about five minutes, then left the fly to its own devices while they returned to their naps. Dudz and Zelly, meanwhile, spent about two hours running after the thing, chasing it upstairs into the loft, then back down to the living room, over and over, as the incessant sound of snapping dog jaws filled the air.
At one point, as Zelda bashed her muzzle against the glass in the front window in pursuit of the buzzing menace, Sophie stood next to me on the arm of the sofa, watching, then looked at me as if to say, "What is wrong with them?"
Important Announcement
I hate this AT&T commercial SO MUCH. I hate it with the fiery passion of ten thousand suns. I hate it like ants hate shoes. I hate it I hate it I hate it.
Middle-Aged White Man, excitedly, to his wife, a Middle-Aged White Woman, who is gardening in her greenhouse: You ready for this? I just signed the whole family up for unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes.Seriously, AT&T? Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes.
Wife: You're kidding!
Husband, still excited and grinning: No!
Wife, turning back to her gardening and not even looking at him, with snide voice: Where's that money coming from, Steve? Did it even cross your mind to ask your wife before signing us up for something so expensive? [Husband's expression falls; he looks crestfallen. Wife continues, muttering.] My mother was right. I should have married John Clark.
Husband, defiantly, swallowing back his hurt feelings: They were free. [Wife stops and looks at him, a look of rueful shock on her face.] I got them when I signed us up for unlimited messaging.
Male Voiceover: Get more value from AT&T. Buy an unlimited messaging plan and call any US mobile phone free. AT&T.
I was actually considering switching to AT&T before I saw this commercial a billion times. Now, they're off the list of possible options. I'll find a carrier who doesn't try to woo new customers with 30-second morality plays about castrating harpy wives and the brave nebbishy* husbands who triumphantly stand up to them in defense of their mobile service provider.
--------------------
* Used advisedly, as there seems to be a thinly veiled "shaming Shiksa wife" thing happening in this advert, too, particularly embedded within that "my family wanted me to marry John Clark" throwaway. Or what would have been a throwaway, if the context weren't an advert that pulled from central casting a Martha Stewart type and a Woody Allen type to play the married couple between whom that dialogue is exchanged.
Breaking Bad Open Thread
Salamanca is not good at poker.
After last week's episode, I said: "If I were the director, producer, or writer of pretty much any movie that came out this year, or the last 10 years, I would be catastrophically mortified that Vince Gilligan & Co. can produce an hour of this quality of entertainment week after week, and all I could churn out with a $50 million budget and six months' production time is the twelve hundredth iteration of Boat Trip or wev."
After this week's episode, all I've got is:
Sunday's episode will be discussed in infinitesimal detail, so if you haven't seen it, and don't want any spoilers, ring your bell and move along...
Two Facts
1. This Suzanna Andrews Vanity Fair profile of Elizabeth Warren is very informative, both about Warren and her journey to consumer advocate and about the systemic problems that underlie her advocacy and the Occupy Wall Street movement. I especially liked this part:
Warren was not always a critic. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Elizabeth Herring spent most of her early life performing all the good-girl Stations of the Cross. She won the Betty Crocker competitions, married for the first time at 19, had two children before she was 30, and was once a registered Republican...2. This David Brooks New York Times garbage column is even more hilariously awful when read back-to-back with the above-linked piece. I especially "liked" this part:
It was in 1979 that Warren had her Damascene conversion—the experience that would lead her to become the nation's top authority on the economic pressures facing the American middle class, and trigger her passionate advocacy. In 1978, Congress had passed a law that made it easier for companies and individuals to declare bankruptcy. Warren decided to investigate the reasons why Americans were ending up in bankruptcy court. "I set out to prove they were all a bunch of cheaters," she said in a 2007 interview. "I was going to expose these people who were taking advantage of the rest of us." What she found, after conducting with two colleagues one of the most rigorous bankruptcy studies ever, shook her deeply. The vast majority of those in bankruptcy courts, she discovered, were from hardworking middle-class families, people who lost jobs or had "family breakups" or illnesses that wiped out their savings. "It changed my vision," she said.
From then on, Warren would focus her research on the economic forces bearing down on the American middle class.
If there is a core theme to the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is that the virtuous 99 percent of society is being cheated by the richest and greediest 1 percent.It's funny how much different things look from the ground, and from the top of an ivory tower, where one's imaginings about what it feels like to get one's hands dirty in the grassroots is no substitute for the actual feel of dirt under one's nails.
This is a theme that allows the people in the 99 percent to think very highly of themselves. All their problems are caused by the nefarious elite.
Have You Heard the One About the Two Portly Ladies and the Scotsman?
So, about six months ago (maybe longer), our roof started leaking. It was near a skylight, so maybe it was just a crack in the skylight seal, or maybe it was a problem in another part of the roof that was pooling at the skylight. This was A Concern.
Iain, who is afraid of heights, made a good attempt to get up on the roof, but the leak was at the very top of a two-level roof, and he couldn't get up to the second level. Nerve damage in my left foot makes me useless on a ladder, so I was no help. We had to call in a roofer.
I started making calls…and making calls…and making calls… No one would call me back. I got referrals and made more calls. No one would take the job. Too small. Oh, pardon me. I will call back when the leak has created a ten thousand dollar problem!
Coincidentally, Shakesville contributor Portly Dyke, a former contractor with roofing experience, was thinking about how she could get money together for a trip out to the Midwest. Though we've been friends for years, we've never met—and she hadn't visited her parents at their home in quite some time. One day, on our weekly Wednesday chat, I said jokingly, "I'm getting so desperate, I'm going to fly you out here to fix it!" Long story short, we flew Portly out here to fix it.
And, of course, so we could visit in person for the first time—which was OMG SO FUN!
Portly arrived on the 30th of September, and stayed until a week ago today. It was deeply unfortunate that I was couch-bound for pretty much the entirety of our visit because my back is made of garbage. It's not like we were planning to go out dancing, but, for our first visit, I would have liked to have been able to, you know, cook some nice meals, or walk, or sit upright, lol.
Still, it was nothing less than great to get to meet in person after knowing one another for so long online—and it was definitely one of those meetings where you feel like you've never not known each other in person. Luckily, I can still natter endlessly while lying on a couch covered in furry beasties. (Who, by the way, also all loved Portly to bits, natch.)
Portly Dyke and Skinny Dog
Iain and Portly thoroughly (and adorbzably) bonded over beer. Portly introduced us to West Wing, a rite of passage, and we introduced her to RockBand.
Video Description: Iain and Portly perform Electric Six's "Gay Bar" on Rock Band—Iain is singing (tragically, I just missed Iain belting out, "I've got something to put in you!") and Portly is playing guitar. Lots of beer has been drunk. At the end of the song, Portly expresses surprise that they still managed to get four stars, then asks if I took a picture of her. I tell her I was recording her performing "Gay Bar" with Iain McEwan, then giggle. She demands another song!
(Posted with both Iain's and Portly's permission. Portly: "Yes—definitely post it. Nothing like a fat drunken lesbian in a filthy shirt to brighten a Shaker's day!!!" Truer words, never spoken.)
Regrettably, neither of them thought to record my AWESOME rendition of the Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush," which has the stupendous lyric, "When the dogs begin to smell her / Will she smell alone?" Uggghhh.
On Monday afternoon, Portly and I hung out with Mama Shakes and we three funny portly ladies together watched funny portly lady Melissa McCarthy host Saturday Night Live while sharing some tasty sandwiches and sweet potato fries Mama Shakes had brought. It was the kind of Great Broads afternoon that I hope all women have in their lives, as often as possible.
The roof, as it turned out, took no time at all to fix (as an aside, Portly is Spider-Woman, just FYI)—and, despite the fact that there is no way I could have gotten a roofer out here for less than probably three times what Portly's tickets cost, and the relief from worry and further damage alone was worth more money than I will ever have, Portly, at her insistence, also took care of a few of those little projects that we could do ourselves, but never get around to doing. She tightened a bathroom faucet that needed tightening, replaced a hallway light fixture with a new one we've had sitting in the garage for five years (yiiiiiiiiiiiikes), replaced our front door lockset which had broken, fixed a fubared front porch lightswitch, and replaced a kitchen light fixture, too.
(Hilariously, the fixture Iain and I had bought for the kitchen turned out to be crap, and did not provide enough light for our kitchen. Portly offered to replace it with a second new one, and I was like, "Hell no—you're done!" But when she and Iain ran to the hardware store for some roofing supplies, they bought another fixture and she installed it without my knowledge, then called me into the kitchen. "You two assholes!" I exclaimed, as they laughed uproariously at having fooled me.)
Great new fixture photographed with shitty mobile camera.
I was sad when Portly left, because, fuck, we live really far apart and we're not going to get to see each other very often. I will miss being able to talk to her face to face, and break bread with her, and mush our big boobs together when we hug. But every time I turn on a light she replaced or hear raindrops tapping on the skylight, I will feel her in my home.
I don't believe that everything happens for a reason, but I do believe we can give reason to things that have happened. And so, as frustrating as it was that I could not get a local roofer to call me back, I ultimately couldn't be happier that they didn't.
National Coming Out Day
Here in the U.S. and other places it is National Coming Out Day. Yay for coming out! Boo for shame and bigotry!
Hugs all around for those who come out today. Coming out isn't easy for many folks. But it can be one of the most important things we, as queers*, can do. Only once the atmosphere or fear, shame, guilt, self-loathing, bigotry and hatred has been done away with, will coming out no longer be an act of courage.
Gentle hugs and understanding too, for all those who cannot come out. For those who would suffer real consequences, at home, at work, in service to our country. One day things will be different. That day, hopefully, will be here soon.
And thanks to allies everywhere, for the support, for being friends, for being partners, for being lovers, for being there on the behalf of equality and justice, for being there for us, when we need it, and even when we don't.
Happy National Coming Out Day.
*however you self-identify.
Occupy Wall Street: News Round-Up
As Occupy Wall Street has spread to other cities, so has police action in response to the protests. Last night in Boston, police got rough with Occupy Boston protesters:
At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway.Here is video of Veterans for Peace inserting themselves between police in riot gear (RIOT GEAR!) and the protesters. The veterans shout, "We are veterans of the United States of America!" as the police take them down. "Shame!" the protesters shout. "Shame!" Blub.
Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.
The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, "The people united will never be defeated," "This is a peaceful protest," and "The whole world is watching."
About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.
About 100 people were arrested, Davis said.
* * *
Amid reports that some protesters are being paid—reports which may be generated by rightwing agitators who are infiltrating the protests to discredit it—I'm sniffing evidence of more conservative projection: Protesters may or may not be getting paid (and, if they were, well, who cares—many are unemployed people in desperate need of financial help), but the white-shirted police at the Occupy Wall Street protests, who have been widely cited as being more aggressive and violent with protesters, may be part of the Paid Detail Unit, which "allows the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street corporations, including those repeatedly charged with crimes, to order up a flank of New York's finest with the ease of dialing the deli for a pastrami on rye. The corporations pay an average of $37 an hour (no medical, no pension benefit, no overtime pay) for a member of the NYPD, with gun, handcuffs and the ability to arrest. The officer is indemnified by the taxpayer, not the corporation."
* * *
Here's some of the other stuff I've been reading this morning...
Wall Street Journal—Bloomberg: Occupy Wall Street Can Stay Indefinitely:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday that he'll allow the Wall Street protesters to stay indefinitely, provided they abide by the law, marking his strongest statement to date on the city's willingness to let demonstrators occupy a park in Lower Manhattan.NY Daily News—Occupy Wall Street protesters plan 'Millionaires March' to Rupert Murdoch's, tycoons' NYC homes: "A 'Millionaires March' will visit the homes - or, more realistically, the gleaming marble lobbies - of five of the city's wealthiest residents, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and conservative billionaire David Koch. Marchers want to present the moguls with oversize checks to dramatize how much less they will pay when New York State's 2% tax on millionaires expires in December."
"The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we'll allow them to," said Bloomberg as he prepared to march in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. "If they break the laws, then, we're going to do what we're supposed to do: enforce the laws."
Bloomberg said he has "no idea" how much longer the Wall Street demonstration will last. "I think part of it has probably to do with the weather," he said.
New York Times—Protests Offer Help, and Risk, for Democrats: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party's powerful House fund-raising arm, is circulating a petition seeking 100,000 party supporters to declare that 'I stand with the Occupy Wall Street protests'."
WaPo—Conservatives launch 'We are the 53 percent' to criticize 99 percenters: "Conservative activists have created a Tumblr called 'We are the 53 percent' that's meant to be a counterpunch to the viral 'We are the 99 percent' site that's become a prominent symbol for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Tumblr is supposed to represent the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income taxes, and its assumption is that the Wall Street protesters are part of the 46 percent of the country who don't."
Honestly, I don't know which is more pathetic: The Congressional Democrats trying to co-opt Occupy Wall Street, or the conservatives trying to discredit it.
Oh, wait! We have a winner of the most pathetic contest:
"If you're concerned about Wall Street and our financial system, the president is standing on the side of consumers and the middle class and a lot of these Republicans are basically saying, you know what, let's go back to the same policies that led us to the great recession in the first place," said David Plouffe, who ran the president's 2008 campaign and now works in the White House.At this point Plouffe might as well just straight-up say: "The American people are fucking stupid and impotent, and we're pretty sure they'll vote for us because Republicans are worse," because pretending as if President Obama's cabinet and cadre of advisers isn't chock-full of Wall Street refugees and his policies aren't designed to maintain the status quo of "Wall Street and our financial system" is as condescending as it is galling.
I believe that President Obama genuinely does not want the US people to suffer because of our profoundly broken and corrupt and unjust economic system, but I also believe that he has no intention of (and "no appetite" for) pursuing solutions the efficacy of which depends on upsetting the Wall Street apple cart. He wants to (magically!) find a way to improve the 99 percent's situation without crimping the 1 percent's style.
And as long as protecting the privileges of the 1 percent is the priority (and it always will be, because his reelection depends on their cash), the assertion that "the president is standing on the side of consumers and the middle class" is manifest horseshit.
The end.
* * *
Other important links:
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Together
People of Color Occupy Wall Street
We Are the 99 Percent
Question of the Day
What's the best song you've heard for the first time in the last three months? It doesn't have to be a new song—just new to you.
I'm casting my vote for TV on the Radio's "Second Song."
[Lyrics here.]
An Observation
I love the smell of burning leaves, but burning leaves is illegal here, so I'm basically just reveling in the odoriferous evidence of my neighbors' disregard for the law.
Quote of the Day
"This is a tour de force. My colleague has brought out his full rhetorical arsenal to beat back a statement that he grants upfront is so obviously true that it cannot be gainsaid."—E.J. Dionne, amusingly and blisteringly schooling his colleague George Will, who used an entire column to argue that Elizabeth Warren is full of poop about something he simultaneously says is self-evidently right.
Daily Dose of Cute
"What can I do for you?"
This was pretty much the exact expression on Zelda's face the first time I laid eyes on her. She was sitting so still and stoic in her little cage, looking at me hopefully. "I'll do whatever you want to get out of this cage. What can I do for you?" It was that look that stopped me, that look that made me know in a single instant that she was my dog. It's not that I want a dog who will bring me my slippers; I just want a dog who's interested in having that conversation with me. I was, after all, wondering what I could do for her, too.
Most people think their dogs are smart—and most people are right. Dogs are, as a rule, pretty clever. Zelly is clever: She picks up tricks in about 10 minutes, and she's developed her own mode of letting us know she needs something by nudging us with her nose, then running backwards—"Follow me!" To the food dish! To the front door! To the HA HA FOOLED YOU I'M IN YOUR SEAT NOW!
But some dogs are more intuitive than others, and Zelly is revealing herself to be a very astute wee empath. Dudley can figure out what I'm going to do almost before I know I'm going to do it, but Zelda can figure out what I need almost before I realize I need it.
It's a beautiful, brisk fall day here today, and there was a chill in the air this morning when we got up. "I'm chillsy," I said to Iain, as he was getting ready to leave, not a complaint but an observation. The words had barely evaporated before Zelly was crawling in the space Iain had left behind him as he sat on the edge of the couch to put on his socks, so that she could snuggle up beside me. "I heard you were in need of a face-licking hot water bottle in a fur coat."
Why, yes. I was.
Mr. Dipshit Goes to Washington
Great news: Joe the Plumber is running for Congress. I always love it when someone who thinks government is the problem wants to be part of the problem. Good luck, Mr. Cool Ideas!
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by wev.
Recommended Reading:
Steph Herold says: "Columbus Day is bullshit. Let's talk about Native American women's activism instead." Excellent idea.
Sasha: An Open Letter to Urban Outfitters on Columbus Day
Renee: Thanksgiving Has Many Meanings
Amit: "Minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help. Please help get the word out any way you can. My life quite literally depends on it."
Janine: UNFPA Latest Victim of House Republican War on Women
Shark-fu: The Wrong Priorities Take Their Toll...
crunktastic: [TW for racism] I Saw the Sign but Did We Really Need a Sign?: SlutWalk and Racism [This was in Friday's blogaround, but I'm including it again for anyone who missed it, for obvious reasons.]
Helen: California Brings Two Transgender Rights Bills into Law
Andy: [TW for homophobia] Scottish Archbishop Warns if Gays Are Treated Equally, Christians Will Be Victims of 'Gross Discrimination'
Tami: Can there be too much compassion? On Steve Jobs and Fred Shuttlesworth.
TDW: Sweet Support of the Day
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Feminism 101: Listening
Not listening to women is a misogynist act.
If your first reaction upon reading that statement is a contrarian urge to point out that some women aren't worth listening to, or to aggressively question if I'm arguing that every woman is an expert on every subject, or in any other way in whatever variation try to find some exception to my statement, that is a misogynist impulse.
Because this is a statement of fact: Not listening to women is a misogynist act.
Actively tuning out women is a misogynist act. Passively failing to seek out women's perspectives is a misogynist act. Shouting down or talking over or reflexively contradicting women is a misogynist act. Treating women as though they are not experts on their own lives and experiences is a misogynist act. Appropriating women's ideas is a misogynist act. Tokenizing women in lieu of making room for meaningful participation is a misogynist act. Marginalizing women's voices, through systemic and deliberate exclusion or a careless failure to practice diversity, is a misogynist act.
Not listening takes many forms. That is hardly a comprehensive list. There are, unfortunately, many ways to not listen to women.
Women with intersectional identities are not listened to in specific ways. One woman's ethnicity makes her too loud to be listened to. Another woman's fatness renders her too invisible to be listened to. Another woman's disability... Another woman's age... Another woman's class...
This is not an argument that women are always right, or wise. It is an argument that, even if a woman is wrong, the wrongest that any wrong person could be, she still deserves to be heard, and her wrongness dismissed on its merits, which requires listening in the first place.
To be heard is to be valued.
This, then, is also a true thing: Listening to women is a feminist act.
