Best nerd joke ever, no doy.
I don't know what gold-plated genius is responsible for this masterpiece, but I saw it at Epic Ponyz.
Hells Yeah
Best nerd joke ever, no doy.
I don't know what gold-plated genius is responsible for this masterpiece, but I saw it at Epic Ponyz.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by mustache wax.
Recommended Reading:
Digby: "They need to understand who their constituency is."
Andy: OWS Protester and Marine Vet Sgt. Shamar Thomas Faces Down Police in Times Square
Pam: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy: Markup of DOMA Repeal in the Queue
Angry Asian Man: Lt. Dan Choi on the Cover of Gay in America
Tod: [TW for fat hatred] Young? Chest pain? Fat? It's your weight; it can't be your gallbladder (even if tests say otherwise).
rboylorn: 20 Things I Want to Say to My Twentysomething Self
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Today in Just Like Jesus Would Do
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse, sexual violence, kidnapping, Christian supremacy.]
It's another banner week for the Catholic Church, as the BBC prepares to air a documentary detailing that, over a five-decade period between 1939 and 1989, as many as 300,000 Spanish newborns were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption, and as a grand jury in Jackson County, Missouri, indicts Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for failing to report potential child abuse after the December 2010 discovery of child pornography on Rev. Shawn Ratigan's laptop.
The BBC documentary is based on a recent investigative report, which found that the babies "were trafficked by a secret network of doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in a widespread practice that began during General Franco's dictatorship. ... It began as a system for taking children away from families deemed politically dangerous to the regime of General Franco, which began in 1939. The system continued after the dictator's death in 1975 as the Catholic church continued to retain a powerful influence on public life, particularly in social services."
Hundreds of families who had babies taken from Spanish hospitals are now battling for an official government investigation into the scandal.Cases are being investigated on a case-by-case basis, ostensibly because "amnesty laws passed after Franco's death [mean that] crimes that took place during his regime are usually not examined," but, quite obviously, the fact that the Catholic Church is a highly influential institution that generally avoids rigorous scrutiny of its institutional crimes all over the globe has a little something to do with the lack of a national investigation, too.
Several mothers say they were told their first-born children had died during or soon after they gave birth.
But the women, often young and unmarried, were told they could not see the body of the infant or attend their burial. In reality, the babies were sold to childless couples whose devout beliefs and financial security meant that they were seen as more appropriate parents.
Official documents were forged so the adoptive parents' names were on the infants' birth certificates. In many cases it is believed they were unaware that the child they received had been stolen, as they were usually told the birth mother had given them up.
...The scandal came to light after two men, Antonio Barroso and Juan Luis Moreno, discovered they had been stolen as babies. ...When the pair made their case public, it prompted mothers all over the country to come forward with their own experiences of being told their babies had died, but never believing it. ...In some cases, babies' graves have been exhumed, revealing bones that belong to adults or animals. Some of the graves contained nothing at all.
...Many mothers who gave birth there claim that when they asked to see their child after being told it had died, they were shown a baby's corpse that appeared to be freezing cold. The BBC programme shows photographs taken in the Eighties of a dead baby kept in a freezer, allegedly to show grieving mothers.
That well-documented immunity from legal consequences is what makes the case in Missouri all the more remarkable:
"This is historic," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.It's a misdemeanor charge. With a maximum penalty of $5,000. And it's being discussed as "historic" and "significant." I would be hard-pressed to conceive of something that could more pointedly underline the appalling void of meaningful criminal consequences faced by the Catholic Church for its institutional abuse of children and systemic protection of child abusers and traffickers.
"In terms of the Catholic Church, this is an extraordinary move which is going to signal that the times have changed," said Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Neither people nor government are going to put up with any kind of activity that looks like a coverup."
The charges were announced Friday at a news conference by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
"This is a significant charge," Baker said. "To my knowledge, a charge like this has not been leveled before."
I would be equally hard-pressed to come up with a more perfect and horrifying argument for challenging Christian privilege and the reflexive presumption that anyone who self-identifies as Christian must be a good person.
Such fairy tales do not help anyone; least of all Christian children.
[Commenting Guidelines: Please take the time to make sure any 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.]
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
I know it's early, but I'm reasonably confident this will hold out: Food trends men hate.
The obvious flaw in this gender-essentialist garbage fart of an article is that I could easily find dozens of women to make the same food-specific complaints as the quoted men, and dozens of men to disagree with the quoted men. It's just that when a man says some critical shit about food trends, he's just HAW HAW being a dude, but when a woman says the same thing, she's a haughty fucking bitch. And only one of those stereotypes makes for a "fun" puff piece.
And it's so superfun to insert a little belligerent misogyny from patriarchy-steeped dudes who define their masculinity in contradistinction to the feminine:
CupcakesYiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes.
As cute and yummy as they are to the ladies, cupcakes are not so popular among the XY chromosome set.
"The ratio of frosting to cake is all off. And you look like a little girl eating them." --Richard, lawyer
Macarons (French macaroons)
"If eating cupcakes didn't make me look ridiculous enough, how am I supposed to walk around eating a macaron? I know — let's go shopping and while you are in the changing room, I'll hold your purse. At least that's more masculine then a macaron."--Joe, salon owner
And, as per usual, these profoundly insecure disgorgements of woman-hating are published under the general topic of "what all men think about something." Which makes me wonder, yet again, why it is that so many men think it's feminism that is their enemy, despite the fact that feminists do men the honor of treating them like individuals of whom we expect the capacity to reject and denounce the axiomatic attribution of misogynist tropes to all men.
[H/T to Shaker itsdanilove.]
Fracking is perfectly safe! Except for how it's not.
From the Guardian: Fracking caused earthquakes, researchers find. (Link updated after original source article appears to have been removed.)
And I thought flaming tap water was fracking's biggest problem. Whooooooooops!
[H/t to @PeterDaou.]
Occupy Wall Street: News Round-Up
Here's some of what I've been reading this morning...
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times—America's 'Primal Scream':
It's fascinating that many Americans intuitively understood the outrage and frustration that drove Egyptians to protest at Tahrir Square, but don't comprehend similar resentments that drive disgruntled fellow citizens to "occupy Wall Street."
There are differences, of course... Yet my interviews with protesters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park seemed to rhyme with my interviews in Tahrir earlier this year. There's a parallel sense that the political/economic system is tilted against the 99 percent. Al Gore, who supports the Wall Street protests, described them perfectly as a "primal scream of democracy."
The frustration in America isn't so much with inequality in the political and legal worlds, as it was in Arab countries, although those are concerns too. Here the critical issue is economic inequity. According to the C.I.A.'s own ranking of countries by income inequality, the United States is more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt.
Thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters rallied in New York's Times Square on Saturday, October 15, 2011, buoyed by a global day of demonstrations in support of their monthlong campaign against corporate greed. [Reuters Pictures]The Guardian's coverage of the march on Times Square is here.
Wall Street Journal—74 Arrested as Protesters 'Occupy' Times Square:
Thousands of anti-corporate protesters marched Saturday from New York City's Financial District to Times Square in a show of force that resulted in 74 arrests, authorities said.I could not agree more with the need to radically challenge the systemic injustice of the US economy. I could not agree less with the assertion that "debt is slavery." No. It's just really fucking not.
Holding signs reading "debt is slavery," "in a gentle way you can change the world," and "We are not anonymous," the protesters stopped traffic in busy Midtown Manhattan streets and provided a new spectacle for tourists and New Yorkers amid the bustle of iconic Times Square. It was one of the largest demonstrations yet from the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has camped out in a Lower Manhattan park since Sept. 17 to protest finance industry bailouts, unemployment and income inequality.
Meanwhile, in Chicago...
Chicago Tribune—175 Chicago protesters arrested after being told to leave Grant Park: "Chicago police arrested about 175 Occupy Chicago protestors in Congress Plaza just after 1 a.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after police issued their first warning that the group was violating municipal code. Police completed the last arrests and cleared the plaza of protesters at 3:30 am, more than two hours after arrests began. Officers individually approached protesters, who had formed a human chain and sat on the ground, to give them the option to leave the park voluntarily or be arrested. As of 1:30 a.m., at least 50 protesters had been hauled away, while about 150 others stood and continued their demonstrations from across the street on Michigan Avenue."
And elsewhere...
Reuters—Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome: "Anti-greed protesters rallied globally on Saturday, denouncing bankers and politicians over the international economic crisis, with violence rocking Rome where cars were torched and bank windows smashed. Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, protests began in New Zealand, touched parts of Asia, spread to Europe, and resumed at their starting point in New York with 5,000 marchers decrying corporate greed and economic inequality."
Washington Post—Occupy Wall Street protests go global: "Rallies were held in more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States, with some of the largest occurring in Europe. The demonstration in Rome turned violent, and more than 70 people were arrested in Manhattan on Saturday night, but crowds elsewhere were largely peaceful. 'What's exciting about what's happening is a sense of international solidarity,' said Ben Walker, 33, a university teacher from Norwich, England, who was carrying a tent and planning on camping overnight near the London Stock Exchange."
And in the White House...
Business Insider—White House Draws Closer to Occupy Wall Street, Says Obama Is Fighting for the Interests of the 99%:
In a call previewing Obama's upcoming bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama "will continue to acknowledge the frustration that he himself shares," about Washington's laggard response to the financial crisis.Great. I'm looking forward to that.
Earnest added that while on the trip, Obama will make it clear that he is fighting to make certain that the "interests of 99 percent of Americans are well represented" — the first time the White House has used the term to differentiate the vast majority of Americans from the wealthy.
Hey, one way to show that solidarity might be to tell the FBI to stop working with a rightwing hacker to monitor and discredit the movement. Just a thought!
Also see: Glenn Greenwald: What are those OWS people so angry about?
Open Thread
Hosted by a Y-Wing Fighter.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by Star Wars spacecraft (and a Sandcrawler).
So I Guess We're at Not-War in Africa Now, Too
We're officially at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're officially at not-war in Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen. And now we're officially at sorta-war in Africa, where President Obama has deployed a combat team "to go into Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, subject to approval from each of those countries," in order to assist in the fight against Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army.
Sure. Why not.
At the above link, David Dayen's commentary is pretty much bang-on what I'm feeling about this latest military operation care of the president who promised to reduce our military presence around the globe:
I'm sure Joseph Kony is a horrible person, among all the horrible people in the world. The question is whether it's worthwhile or wise for the United States to be constantly policing the world, sending out US troops and spending US money to do it. Second, this is really what was at stake with the Congressional debate over Libya. Some Constitutionalists argued that the President didn't have the unilateral right to commit the US military to action in Libya, and in fact the House never passed any resolution authorizing force even after the fact. But nobody took the next logical step to try to shut down the US contribution to the NATO mission.Of the people, by the oh whatever.
This furthers a long, slow decline whereby the President becomes a unitary executive in matters of foreign policy, even though Congress has explicit rights regarding war powers. If Congress fails to use them, it only emboldens the executive, who then feels free to inform Congressional leaders after the fact that he deployed troops to central Africa.
…to be clear, we have logistical military personnel in probably every country on Earth. The problem here, as I see it, is the degradation of war powers under the Constitution.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
[Originally published on Oct 5th & 15th, 2011]
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Domestic violence occurs within every class, age group, race, and religion. It happens within same and different sex partnerships. It happens whether people are married, living together, or dating. Approximately one in four women has been a victim of domestic violence. Too often society--like with rape--places the blame on the victim and not the perpetrator. We need to change that.
What is it?*
Physical Abuse It isn't "only" hitting, slapping, choking, shoving. It also is using the body to intimidate. Physical abuse is also causing fear and intimidation via punching holes in walls/doors and throwing objects. It is intentionally scaring a partner by driving unsafely. It is preventing a partner from leaving their home.
Sexual Abuse When a person submits to sexual acts out of fear or coercion, it is rape. Capitulation does not equal consent. If a partner must "give in" because of fear of the consequences of saying no: that is part of sexual abuse. Remember: You always, ALWAYS, have a right to say no. Married or not. "Been a long time" or not. Always and without fear.
Emotional Abuse It is real--not being hit or raped doesn't mean not being abused. Emotional abusers isolate their victims. Emotional abusers will use emotional blackmail, guilt, and shame to get victims to stay and may threaten suicide if they leave. They verbally assault their partners with name-calling, mockery, public & private humiliation, and threats. They may expect their partners to ask their "permission" to do things. Emotional abusers can also be ones who constantly "know what's best" and blows up/rages if their partner doesn't submit to their "advice" (control). Economic abuse is a sub-category of emotional abuse: abusers use the finances to exert control over their partners.
If you are in an abusive situation (physical or not) you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline (US & Canada): 1-800-799-SAFE or see their site (they have a great list of resources on their site, as well)
RAINN is a particular resource for those who are being sexually abused: 1.800.656.HOPE or see their site
*Not intended to be a comprehensive listing
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Infographic of the Day
Above, a map showing the locations of more than 200 Occupy Wall Street solidarity protests across Canada and in every US state, plus DC and Puerto Rico. Via Chris Bowers, who also has a complete list of events/locations and Facebook pages.
[H/T to Shaker Courtney.]
An Observation
It occasionally stuns me how little I care about the Republican primary, and, for awhile, I worried I was getting burned out on electoral politics altogether, but then I realized it's because, even more than usual, I find every potential Republican nominee to be virtually indistinguishable in both ideology and contemptlitude from the stingy, warmongering, kyriarchy-defending, bootstraps-blowharding garbage nightmare standing beside hir.
Nominate any one of these dirtbags. Who cares.
LULZ
North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Ightwingextremist) takes issue with people who claim that HR358, aka the "Let Women Die Act," is misogynist: "For my colleagues across the aisle who say this is a misogynist bill, nobody has ever fought more for the rights of women than I have."
Whoooooooooooooops: "As Raw Story notes, Foxx voted against women's health bills at least nine times in her congressional career, including a vote against funding for Planned Parenthood—an organization with the chief purpose of providing cancer screenings and sexually transmitted disease tests and treatment to low-income women. Along with lowering costs and free preventive care, the health care law also prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage women 'due to pre-existing conditions, such as cancer and having been pregnant.' Foxx, however, believes such health reforms pose a greater danger than 'any terrorist'."
Shelby County Undecided on Forcing Poor to Religious Organization For Care
Just about a month ago, I wrote about how Shelby County, TN, was considering severing its contract with local Planned Parenthood affiliate to provide family-planning services and instead going to opt for religiously-motivated Christ Community Health Services (CCHS).
On Wednesday the commission voted and ended up deadlocked, 5 - 5.
The Shelby County Commission deadlocked 5-5 Wednesday on a proposal to give Christ Community Health Services a contract to provide family planning services to poor people."[W]hile Planned Parenthood focuses heavily on reproductive and women's health"? Um.
The tie vote in committee leaves in doubt the outcome of Monday's scheduled final vote before the full commission.
[...]
Voting in favor of the Christ Community contract Wednesday were Democrat Walter Bailey and Republicans Wyatt Bunker, Terry Roland, Heidi Shafer and Chris Thomas. Voting against were Democrats Henri E. Brooks, Melvin Burgess, Sidney Chism, Justin Ford and Steve Mulroy.
Democrat James Harvey abstained and Republican Mike Ritz was absent.
Under normal circumstances, Bailey's support would suggest that the Christ Community contract would get the seven votes necessary to prevail, as long as six Republicans support the contract Monday.
But Commissioner Mike Carpenter, a Republican, recently resigned from the commission.
Commissioners are likely to select an interim replacement early in Monday's meeting, before the debate on the family planning contract takes place. The replacement could start voting immediately if Mayor Mark Luttrell signs paperwork fast, said Asst. County Atty. Christy Kinard. The mayor will probably sign the paperwork quickly, said the mayor's chief administrative officer, Harvey Kennedy, who added that he hadn't asked the mayor about it.
[...]
In the past, the state divided the Memphis share of federal Title X family planning money between Planned Parenthood and the county Health Department. But the state recently began giving money only to county health departments, which caused the amount of grant money flowing to Shelby County government for family planning to rise from $560,000 to more than $1.3 million.
The county sought a partner to handle some of the work, and contracted with Planned Parenthood while it sought a longer-term replacement. The administration says Christ Community outscored Planned Parenthood and Memphis Health Center in an evaluation process.
Health Department leader Yvonne Madlock cited two reasons: First, Christ Community will offer family planning services in more locations than Planned Parenthood has -- four rather than one. Second, Christ Community offers a wide range of other health care services, while Planned Parenthood focuses heavily on reproductive and women's health, she said.
Ok. Apparently Ms. Madlock, the Health Department leader, doesn't know what Title X is and is for. Perhaps she should get a refresher course. Or, you know, google it.
Dr. Rick Donlon, a founding physician at Christ Community, said last month that staffers will not direct patients to abortion clinics or make formal referrals to providers who terminate pregnancies.Federal rules mandate that all options be presented in a neutral manner and referrals given upon request.
"We really try to provide women with other options and make sure they have those possibilities," he said. "And if they at the end still want a pregnancy termination, we know they know where to go."
He said the locations of Memphis abortion clinics are widely advertised.
Christ Community CEO Burt Waller said Wednesday that the organization would comply with the federal rules. But he and the organization's Dr. David Pepperman said Christ Community wouldn't make a formal referral to an abortion provider.
As I said before, the Shelby Co. government should not compel its poor and un/under-insured residents to be a captive audience to a religious organization in order to access necessary medical care (and potentially suspect care at that given their position on abortion).
[Related Reading: Want Some Jesus With Your Birth Control?]
Daily Dose of Cute
"I am cute and fuzzy. Will you not pet me?"
"Oh, hello there. I was thinking you might like to join me for a walk."
"My own feets are the best toys ever!"
"This is just what I needed after a hard day of napping and eating."
"I hate this show. Put on a Golden Girls re-run."
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by the autumnal crunch of fallen leaves.
Recommended Reading:
Black Artemis: They're Going to Laugh at You: White Women, Betrayal and the N-Word
The Finicky Farmer: Finicky Farmer Supports Occupy Boston
The Heretik: A Tale of Two Cities
David: The New America: Home Demolition Rises as "Solution" to Housing Crisis
Andy: 50 Percent of New Hampshire Residents 'Strongly Oppose' Repealing Marriage Equality Law
Population Action International: Weathering Change: Stories About Climate and Family from Women Around the World (Access transcript by hovering over video and clicking link on left.)
Penny: Some Happy News
And my condolences to Jill, who lost her cat and companion, Percival, this week.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
