Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a landmark speech on LGBT rights yesterday, in which she reasserted that LGBT rights are human rights and cemented the fight against discrimination toward LGBT people as a plank of US foreign policy, pledging to use diplomacy and dedicating $3 million in foreign aid to help expand LGBT rights globally.
It is a remarkable and moving (if imperfect) speech, and I can't even begin to choose what I would excerpt (I encourage you to watch/read the whole thing), but this is pretty good: "When any part of humanity is sidelined, the rest of us cannot sit on the sidelines. ... When we see denials and abuses of human rights and fail to act, that sends the message to those deniers and abusers that they won't suffer any consequences for their actions, and so they carry on. But when we do act, we send a powerful moral message. ... To people of all nations, I say supporting human rights is your responsibility too. ... The actions you take, the ideals that you advocate, can determine whether human rights flourish where you are."
So much blub.
In an email, which I am quoting with his permission, Shaker GoldFishy said: "THIS is the speech that Obama needs to give. THIS is the speech that my governor needs to give. THIS is the speech that any fair-minded leader with a platform should give. THIS is the speech that can change the world. A failure to lead doesn't mean that leadership doesn't happen—it just happens at the hands of someone else, probably with less than ideal goals."
Secretary Clinton reminds us we all have the ability to lead.
I'm having intermittent power outages today due to the Never-Ending Construction Project on my street, so, until I am able to be online for more than five nanoseconds at a time, please enjoy this picture of my mailbox on my lawn.
Back in September, I linked in a blogaround to a piece about mysterious paper sculptures that were showing up in libraries around Scotland. Shaker Laurakeet forwarded this NPR article that has a neat follow-up on the ongoing mystery:
By this fall, these mysterious sculptures had become a hot story. Reporters checked the newest teacup and cupcake, then the little fellow hiding in a forest for some sign of authorship... [W]ho is the real perpetrator, asked the BBC, Scotland TV, The Guardian. And what is he? She? They? trying to tell us? Everyone wanted to know.
Just as the news cycle was about to hit boil, The Edinburgh Evening News announced it had cracked the case. It turns out, they said, their own former music librarian, a Mr. Garry Gale, had figured it out. [But instead] of having Mr. Gale immediately identify the perpetrator, the Evening News decided to take a poll: Do you really want to know, it asked its readers, who made these gorgeous teacups and dragons and magnifying glasses, or would you rather honor the artist, and let him/her remain anonymous?
...The readers wrote in. And according to Central Station, a Scottish website, "the general view is that We Don't Want To Know." Presumably a significant number of respondents said they would rather not learn the identity of the sculptor and it would be best if those who know just not tell.
Has the paper published the perpetrator's name?
It hasn't.
Love.
[Note: There are places discussing the identity of the sculptor, including the comments section at NPR. If you are curious about the sculptor's identity, I kindly request you participate in that investigative work elsewhere. This thread is for lovers of mystery—and all mystery-related enthusiasm is on-topic.]
Reno-Tahoe International Airport baggage handler Lynn Jones refused to load an evidently abused and neglected hunting dog onto an airplane, believing that the dog would not survive the flight. For her compassion, she was fired.
Her (former) employer, Airport Terminal Services Inc., is, per a statement on its website, "reviewing the actions of all employees involved to determine if the appropriate action was taken."
Mega-grumble.
As for Jones, she says: "I wouldn't have traded that job for anything. I wouldn't have risked it for anything. But I just couldn't turn my back on that dog ... My supervisor said it wasn't my concern, but animal abuse is everyone's concern who sees it."
Awesome, right? It's got all your favourite Ring characters! (Unless that character is a lady. Whoops.) I looove how the Hobbit dispensers are shorter than the others. Because Hobbits, obviously! Get yours today!
"It presents her as a professional woman writer; there are pens on the table, a sheaf of paper. She seems to be a woman very confident in her own skin, very happy to be presented as a professional woman writer and a novelist, which does fly in the face of the cutesy, heritage spinster view."—Jane Austen scholar Dr. Paula Byrne, who may have discovered a lost portrait of Austen. The image, done in graphite on vellum, undermines the traditional narratives of Austen that cast her as a one-dimensional irascible spinster, and instead "shows a writer at the height of her powers and a woman comfortable in her own skin."
[H/T to Iain, whom I love even more now than I did in the moment before he passed this along with a note about how much I'd like it.]
Because I love Melissa McCarthy, I have tried watching Mike & Molly, despite knowing it would be dismal. And it is. It's ostensibly a show about fat acceptance, which hates its fat characters. And yes, subjecting them to all manner of ridicule and abuse, to make the point that fat hatred exists, which its targets and purveyors already know, is hatred of its fat characters.
Spudsy and I were talking about this trainwreck this morning, and, observing that the other female characters (particularly Molly's mother and sister) are horrible, conniving, nasty people, classic sit-com bitches, Spudsy noted that it's like the show's writers don't imagine that a fat female character could be likeable unless she's surrounded by sinister harpies.
There are a lot of problems with the show, and yet its worst offense, IMO, is that which I noted after seeing the previews: This show acts as though Roseanne never existed. It so self-evidently pats itself on the back for being some kind of transgressive, progressive contribution to the television canon, but there existed a show 20 years ago with two fat leads who loved and fucked and lived their lives—and they didn't have to suffer the indignity of the constant juvenile moralizing that lies within every implicit reminder that "fat people are human, too!"
It's a step backwards. Melissa McCarthy deserves better. And so do we.
A look at what's going on with those rascally Republican rapscallions this morning...
In feminist news (lulz), Rep. Michele Bachmann has received the endorsement of arch conservative Phyllis Schlafly. How fun! An anti-feminist lady endorsing an anti-feminist lady—and womanhood, nor the particular attributes that being a strong woman in a misogynist culture both demands and reinforces, definitely has nothing to do with it FOR SURE, because that would be feminism, which is obviously garbage.
Speaking of strong ladies, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi knows Newt: "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff." I believe the technical term for that is "oppo-research-a-go-go."
Obviously, conservatives don't give a fuck if Newt Gingrich snorted payola off an organic goat's tenderloin, but GOP elites have to be nervous about whether independent voters will be so sanguine about Candidate Gingrich's unsavory past. And present. And certain future.
On that "we'll take Newt, whatever" note, as Gingrich emerges as the clear frontrunner in Iowa, Gallup finds that "Republicans See Gingrich, Romney as 'Acceptable' Nominees." And they are the only two candidates deemed acceptable by more than 50% of respondents. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Curb the enthusiasm there, Republicans!
Speaking of Mitt Romney: Did you know he's a flip-flopper? It's true! I know, I was shocked. And not only does he lack integrity, it turns out he's shady and dishonest, not to mention unethical, as well. What an absolute surprise! I had no idea. Ha ha just kidding. I had ALL the ideas.
Following up on Melissa's post of a big-ass bug, I remembered a picture I took back in July 2000 when I was living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We found a bug that nobody could identify except to say, "Whoa, holy shit; that is one big-ass bug!"
If there's someone out there who isn't averse to big-ass bugs and thinks they might be able to identify it, click here to see it.
For those of you who are not fans of big-ass bugs, I strongly advise against clicking that link.
To give a sense of scale, it's in a Tupperware sandwich container, which is probably 4" x 4" or so.
[Artist's rendering of the Earth-like planet known as Kepler-22b. (NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)]
NASA has found a new planet outside Earth's solar system that is eerily similar to Earth in important aspects.
Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet, known as Kepler-22b, is about a comfy 72 degrees (22 Celsius). Its star could almost be a twin of Earth's sun. It probably has water and land.
It was found in the middle of the habitable zone, making it the best potential target for life.
Let's go ruin it!
However, getting there would take some time: Kepler-22b is about 600 light years away.
"Is liberal Hollywood using class warfare to brainwash our kids?"—Fox News host Eric Bolling, discussing the "Communistic" new Muppet movie, the villain of which is a shady oil tycoon.
Please enjoy the resultant Twitter hashtag #GOPMuppetHearings here.
L-R: Chef Guarnaschelli, Chef Falkner, Chef Burrell.
One of my favorite things on television right now is the camaraderie between Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, Chef Elizabeth Falkner, and Chef Anne Burrell on this season of Next Iron Chef. I routinely despair at the lack of pop culture with stories about strong, talented, individual women who complement each other and aren't in competition for (male) attention—but here it is, on a reality food show, where the women are in actual competition and yet are clearly friends and colleagues with an enormous amount of respect for one another.
I love all of these women, and their individual styles. Their food always looks amazing, although sometimes I hardly notice, because I am so busy enjoying the opportunity to watch a group of women I admire, and lamenting the damnable rarity of such an event.
[Note: The results of last night's episode are off-topic for this thread, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. No spoilers!]
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