This blogaround brought to you by shoelaces.
Recommended Reading:
Pam: Moral Objections, Forced Confessions, and Senator Blunt's Amendment from Hell
Kevin: Trying to Catch His Breath With a Hole-Ridden Safety Net
New Black Woman: Diane Von Furstenberg: "All Women Should Have Children"
Resistance: "I Love You" [Content Note: The post at this link discusses the racism and xenophobia associated with English supremacy.]
Fannie: The Egocentrism of Anti-Autonomy [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of body policing and privilege.]
Scott: Keep Chuckin' Those Facts!
Letters of Note: I Love My Wife. My Wife Is Dead.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Wednesday Blogaround
More of This, Please!
Igor at Think Progress reports that Rep. Nancy Pelosi is "calling on the Democratic party to include marriage rights for gays and lesbians in its 2012 party platform."
Pelosi's backing comes in response to Freedom to Marry's new 'Say I Do' campaign, which is pushing Democrats to become the first major political party to adopt the policy:You know, this "evolution" bullshit was craven enough when Democrats had some reason to think that supporting marriage equality on principle might have undermined their electability, but a majority of USians now support marriage equality, and I find it extremely unlikely there are vast numbers of voters who will support President Obama only if he continues not to support marriage equality, or even enough voters whose abandonment wouldn't be more than made up for by the people who would get their asses to a voting booth for a candidate who took an unabashed stand for equality.
The proposed plank states: "We support the full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation, with equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law, including the freedom to marry. Government has no business putting barriers in the path of people seeking to care for their family members, particularly in challenging economic times. We support the Respect for Marriage Act and the overturning of the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and oppose discriminatory constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny the freedom to marry to loving and committed same-sex couples."The Democrats' 2008 platform opposed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the Obama administration is no longer defending in court, but took no position on marriage equality. Obama has said that he is still "evolving" on the issue, even as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers now support marriage.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tells Metro Weekly, "Leader Pelosi supports this language."
The Democrats might be pleasantly surprised if they stopped making policy via focus groups of likely voters, and instead gave currently unlikely voters a reason not to stay home.
The Wedding Dance
Piano and string music. Text Onscreen: A film by Elliot London.[Via Andy.]
Colorful round paper lanterns. A sign reading "Welcome / Bienvenidos / Jed & Fabi's / Wedding Reception." A little girl in a fancy dress runs up and grabs the hand of the cameraperson. "Hi, how are you! Come quick!" She leads the cameraperson down a path to the reception.
There are lots of people mingling in a brightly decorated courtyard. The cameraperson moves about, interviewing people. A young white man in a tuxedo says: "Jed, you're my best friend. You saved my life, and you helped me accept mine." An older white lady, seated beside another older white lady who is clearly her partner, says: "Your Aunt Sally and I have been together for twenty-two years." The other lady interrupts: "Twenty-three. If we can make it work, anybody can make it work!" They clink glasses.
Two young white women seated at a table speak into the camera. Says one, "So, Jed, after years of fighting over you, we're finally ready to accept that neither of us are your type." The other nods. At another table, a young woman with gothy styling and a lip ring says, "I've always felt like an outsider. But you [laughs] you accept me, and made me realize there is no outside." An opposite-sex Latin@ couple then appears before the camera; the woman says in Spanish: "You have shown us, Jed, that love is love and family is family." A young white man holding a gift says: "Your father practically raised me."
Cut to a white man wearing a boutineer, who appears to be the father of the groom, looking nervous, saying to a woman: "Is this okay, Jennifer?" She takes his hands and tells him: "Derek, calm down. Everything's going to be beautiful." He exhales nervously: "Right."
Cut to the same woman, standing with another white man wearing the same boutineer, then says to the camera: "Jed and Fabi, we are so happy you found each other." The man says: "I'm the proudest father."
Cut to the slicing of the wedding cake. The bride and groom are finally revealed. Fabi is a young Latina woman; Jed is a young white man. They feed each other cake and kiss. Cut to the sister of the bride giving a speech: "Fabi, you might be married, but you'll always be my baby sister. I love you, Fabiana." The sister turns to the crowd. "Before the lovely couple takes the first dance, Jed has an announcement he'd like to make."
The groom kisses the bride, who nods at him and smiles; he takes the stage. "To everyone, I want you to know that you're very special to me and Fabiana; you've enriched our lives and supported us, even when it wasn't always easy. But, uh, if you'll indulge me just a little here, I'd like to take a moment and give thanks to the couple that made me what I am today—my parents." He gestures out to the crowd, and the camera pans to the two men who were each standing with Jennifer earlier. They are holding hands. "Would you please honor me and celebrate our union by joining us for our very first dance?"
The men walk toward the couple. "Come here, Dad," says Fabiana, and kisses Dad Derek as he takes her in his arms to dance. Jed walks into his other dad's arms, and they begin to dance. "I always dreamed about dancing with you at your wedding," says the dad. Jed says, "I love you, Dad," and lies his head on his father's shoulder. They dance.
Fade to white. Credits.
Primarily Stupid
Someone get that baby away from Mitt Romney before he takes her for a ride on top of his car!
This primary continues to be so exciting (not exciting, not at all) that I can barely STAND IT! Between the horrendo bigotry, the class warfare, the support of state-sponsored terrorism in defense of an inherently violent ideology, and ALL THE RONALD REAGAN YOU CAN SHAKE A NUKE AT, this primary is like a roller coaster made of garbage farts! WHAT A RIDE!
Mitt Romney is struggling to maintain his spot on the leaderboard as Rick Santorum gains momentum, which is obviously very sad for Romney because he REALLY WANTS to be the guy who loses to President Obama in November. A new CNN/ORC International poll provides some insight into what's shaking up the race:
A large gender gap appears to be developing between supporters of GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, as well as a split between white collar and blue collar Republicans, according to a new national survey.Whoooooooooops Mitt Romney! Your failure to inspire passionate support from ANYONE might finally be catching up to you!
A CNN/ORC International poll also indicates that Santorum supporters are much more highly motivated than those backing Romney.
"The new numbers indicate a split in the Republican party that goes deeper than ideology, with signs of a gender gap and class warfare breaking out in the GOP ranks," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.OH GOD WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?! What it means is that we're going to end up with some rich white male conservative nightmare running against President Obama.
According to the survey, released Tuesday afternoon, Santorum and Romney are basically all tied up for the lead in the race for the GOP nomination. ... Santorum's newfound support may be coming from Republicans who backed candidates who are no longer in the race, like Texas Gov. Rick Perry. But the poll also indicates that Santorum's surge is also the product of a notable gender gap, with Santorum holding a 10-point edge among Republican men and Romney winning Republican women by nine points. And Republicans who describe themselves as blue collar are backing Santorum by 11 points over Romney. But among those who say they come from white collar families, Romney has a 10-point advantage.
..."According to the survey, Santorum Republicans are also much more highly motivated than Romney Republicans, with more than half of Santorum's voters saying they strongly support him, compared to less than four in ten Romney voters - and enthusiasm for Santorum as the eventual nominee is highest among the four remaining challengers," adds Holland.
Maybe it will be Mitt Romney. Or maybe it will be Rick Santorum, because he has the COURAGE to fight for America!
See?
Speaking of Rick Santorum and his COURAGE: Even though most USians support mandating contraception coverage, the highly brave Santorum wants to fight "the dangers of contraception." Perfect.
The thing about Rick Santorum is that he's like a full-tilt good idea making machine.
In other news,
Finally: Do you want to see an excellent campaign ad from Mitt Romney? Sure you do! I mean, this thing is just GREAT. Not only does it make a strong appeal to Michigan voters on the basis that Mitt Romney is soooooo Michigan and totes grew up there and what great memories and his dad was governor and it's almost like he's got motor oil running through his veins (which is not even an intentional robot joke!), but also it is definitely very honest about what has caused the complete decimation of the auto industry and turned Detroit into a ghost town:
Mitt Romney, over a montage of him driving in a car, old video footage of kids playing and vintage cars and people leaving the factory at the end of the day, a photo of him and his dad, a photo of him in an old car as a kid, a photo of him and his wife when they were young, modern skyscrapers, abandoned Detroit homes, and other trite and/or exploitative imagery: Now, when I grew up in Michigan, it was exciting to be here. I remember going to the Detroit Auto Show with my dad—that was a big deal. How in the world did an industry and its leaders and its unions get in such a fix that they lost jobs, that they lost their future? President Obama did all these things that liberals have wanted to do for years, so the fact that you've got millions of Americans out of work, home values collapsing, people here in Detroit in distress—I want to make Michigan stronger and better. Michigan's been my home, and this is personal. I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message.Yiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. You know, I'm sure there are people in Michigan, even in Detroit, who support Mitt Romney and will vote for him and hope he becomes the next president, but I'm pretty sure exactly ZERO of them actually believe that the reason the auto industry, the state, and Detroit are in the state they're in is exclusively (or even primarily) the fault of Barack Obama. NO ONE BELIEVES THAT. Not even diehard Republicans. That is a truly incredible claim. And no Republican in Michigan should vote for Mitt Romney, just because that ad imagines they are stupid enough to believe that shit.
Yuck, Mitt Romney. You're gross.
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Nope!
I am aware that the Animal Rights Group That Shall Not Be Named has launched another contemptible campaign that treats violence against women as a joke. I want to thank everyone who sent it to me, because I deeply appreciate getting tips from readers.
I am, however, not going to write about it. I am going to ignore it. Because to be outraged, to drive traffic, to reward their attention-seeking behavior with attention, is to justify their gross objective.
I'm not going to do that.
Photo of the Day
An English bull terrier named Petey stands with his owner Al Alvarez during a small protest by a group called Dogs Against Romney outside of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on February 14, 2012 in New York City. [Content Note: Animal cruelty.] The group is incensed that the GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney once confessed to placing his dog in a crate on top of the family car while driving to a vacation home. [Getty Images]More here.
Important Announcement
This is your irregularly scheduled reminder that women are strong, wise, self-possessed, resilient, mature adults whose unique capacity for nurture and empathy is matched in venerability only by their constitutions of inscrutable fortitude, who are tasked with the crucial responsibility of civilizing men, raising children, and building and maintaining the foundational social structures of community, but are also stupid infants who should never be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies.
Carry on.
Everything Is Better with "Take On Me"
Video Description: A cartoon butt-plug dances in front of a fixed backdrop photo of a beach to the opening riffs of A-Ha's "Take on Me." For six seconds.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Reproductive rights; racism.]
"The people on the pro-abortion side say, 'Trent you have a much bigger issue and a much bigger agenda here than just sex-selection and race-selection abortion,' and I think the honest thing for me to do is say yes that's true. I want someday for children of all sexes and all races to be protected and that's definitely an agenda for me and I think it should be for all people in the human family. But at least we can get together on this much, that it's wrong to abort a little child because it's the wrong sex or the wrong race, if we can't come together on that then I'm afraid that any hope of commonalty and unity in this country is lost forever."—US Representative from Arizona Trent Franks (R-Ancid), admitting "that his bill to ban abortions based on the race or sex of the fetus wasn't so much about stopping race or sex-based abortions but a ploy to criminalize abortion overall."
Another SHOCKING revelation from the antii-choice brigade.
The funny thing is that there was ever any pretense about the abject fuckery of this bill in the first place. I'm reminded of the bitterly humorous response of Loretta Ross, the national coordinator of Atlanta-based SisterSong, a reproductive justice organization for women of color: "It's kind of hard to find evidence that a black woman is going to have an abortion because she's surprised to find her baby is black. It just strains credulity to think that's a problem," she says with a hearty laugh. "I mean, she wakes up in the morning and says 'Oh my god! My baby's black?'"
For the record, I am definitely in agreement that little children should not be aborted, on whatever planet in whatever alien species little children exist in utero.
Film Corner!
OMG, y'all! Kirk Cameron, of Growing Pains and Left Behind fame, has a new movie coming out, which is GREAT NEWS for all of us who cannot get enough of his Christian ministrytainment! Although it is ostensibly a documentary, not a fun fairy story about the burning to death of infidels or whatever the fuck Left Behind is about, Monumental still retains all the key elements that make other Kirk Cameron projects great—namely: being totally fictional.
Monumental, as far as I can tell after watching the trailer, is a film about Kirk Cameron looking confused:
He is so confused! Why won't you help him?!
But, according to its YouTube page, Monumental is a "high-energy patriotic event [that] will unite audiences in a celebration of America's unique story of faith and freedom." SOUNDS PERFECT! If there's anyone who can prove ONCE AND FOR ALL that the Founding Fathers were totes Christians—and make all of us who actually know that they largely were not, in fact, Christians just STFU already—it's Kirk Cameron. TRUE FACT! Roll the video!
[Transcript/paraphrase/commentary below.]
Ominous music. Text Onscreen: KIRK CAMERON PRESENTS
In voiceover, from an old address, Ronald Reagan (YAY!) says (over images of US flags national monuments—subtle!—with engraved words like MORALITY and LIBERTY and TYRANNY): "There are those who would have us believe that the United States has reached the zenith of its power, that we're weak and fearful, reduced to bickering with each other I don't agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline."
This is an unintentionally perfect quote for which to start the trailer for this film, because, just like Reagan would invoke all kinds of threats to imply national weakness and engender individual fear, only to then be the reassuring savior figure who told people they didn't have to feel that way, Kirk Cameron is playing a naive, troubled, and confused (VERY CONFUSED!!! SO CONFUSED!!!) rube to appeal to ignorance, only to then go on "an adventure" on which he'll find the answers to viewers' questions. Reagan had an agenda; Cameron has an agenda. The only difference is that while Reagan was a masterful practitioner at the art of deceit, Cameron stinks at it.
That's right, Kirk Cameron! I just said Ronald fuckin' Reagan is a better actor than you are! HOW SAD FOR YOU!
Anyway! Back to the ominous music and insufferable, paper-thin ruse of consternation to justify the fake journey of fake enlightenment.
Kirk Cameron says in voiceover (over video of himself walking down a path—subtle!—and looking confused): "America is the richest, freest nation the world has ever seen. But, as a father of six, I look around and all signs tell me something is sick in the soul of our country. And history tells me that we're headed for disaster if we don't change our course now."
Video of monument engraved with FREEDOM ISN'T FREE. Subtle!
Cameron talks to an unidentified white dude who tells him: "The set of ideas that is being implemented and advanced in this Capitol, at this time, is terribly frightening to people who are students of history."
Cameron talks to another unidentified white dude who tells him: "If you look at the seventeen superpowers in history, every single one of them has called themselves 'exceptional'."
Cameron talks to an unidentified black dude who tells him: "When you look at the Roman Empire, the parallels to what is going on in America are absolutely frightening."
I'm going to guess that rather than, say, the endless war or the profound institutional corruption or the profligate wealth at the exploitation of a permanent underclass, he means all the terrible, terrible cocksucking.
Cameron talks to a third unidentified white dude who tells him: "And the question is whether we're going to go the right path ourselves, or are we going to continue down the wrong path that so many nations have fallen into?"
The premise thus having been established, the OMINOUS MUSIC is replaced by ADVENTURESOME ROCK GUITAR JOURNEYING MUSIC! Yay! Video of a plane taking off and flying past the Washington Monument—subtle!
Traveling montage. In voiceover, Cameron says: "I went on a journey to retrace the footsteps of our forefathers, to see if they left us some kind of a map that would guide us back to the foundation of America's success." Video of Cameron visiting historical sites and, I dunno, a library or some shit? Just imagine The Da Vinci Code meets National Treasure meets barf.
Cameron talks to an unidentified blond woman, telling her: "When I think of pilgrims, I think of what I was taught in history class." (On the set of a network sitcom. He fails to mention. Probably because it would undermine the image we're supposed to have of him languishing in an overcrowded public school class being taught fake history by a radical hippie.) "I think of pilgrims coming over in these funny black-and-white suits with big hats and belt buckles on their shoes." It is painfully evident he is making this up, for the benefit of his ignorant audience. ("Stupidity makes me relatable!"—Kirk Cameron. Give him all your money, social conservatives!) The woman puts her head in her hands right on cue and gives a wry grin, as if to say, oh dear, that nefarious free public school system for every US child strikes again.
Blah blah blah more of the same. Over and over. Kirk Cameron says he can "smell the history" by visiting these places. Not for nothing, but it isn't a liberal conspiracy that's keeping USians from visiting the historical sites of the nation's founding. Aside from "lack of personal interest," the biggest inhibitor to the sort of journey of discovery he's taking is conservative-supported corporate policies that leave US workers with the least vacation time in the industrialized world, most of which is eaten up by family emergencies and sick time, because we don't have paid sick leave, either, since that would be too fucking French or whatever.
Back to ominous music. Cameron says in voiceover (over video of him walking on a path by a monument—seriously): "What I discovered is that our history has not just been forgotten; it's been rewritten." HOLY SHIT! He then says, as he looks at some garbagey book: "I'm stunned. Just what's on this table. I mean, this alone would change everyone's perspective about what made America such a great nation."
Definitely. I'm sure it would totally change my perspective. It's a book about how George Washington was actually a WIZARD and Paul Revere was really riding a UNICORN, right? My mind is blown.
Praying. Children. Urgency. Standing in the driveway drinking coffee under a flag because THE TIME IS NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. Trite bullshit. Crumbling monument. (Subtle!) There is GOOD NEWS! Now Kirk Cameron looks happy. Yay! WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS?! Well, you'll just have to buy a goddamn ticket to find out.
[H/T to Shaker MMC.]
Reproductive Rights Updates: Virginia & West Virginia
Today the VA House is set to vote on "personhood" legislation. The House also voted not to provide an amendment to clarify that such legislation would not affect "lawful contraception". Of course they did!
The House advanced the legislation (HB 1) on a voice vote Monday, setting up a vote today on the bill's passage. Today is the final day for each house of the General Assembly to act on its own legislation and social issues have been major flash points in the first half of the legislative session.And what did Del. Marshall have to say about that?
[...]
"The claim that using birth control will get you in trouble with this statute is simply false," Marshall [Bob, R-Prince William County] said during the House floor debate on the bill. "The purpose of this is to provide a rule of construction for courts. The main legal effect of this is to allow recovery for wrongful death, although that's not the main purpose of the measure."
Marshall's bill expressly states that it "shall be interpreted as affecting lawful assisted conception."
But the House voted not to take up an amendment proposed by Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax County, to clarify that the bill would not apply to "lawful contraception." Watts raised concerns that the law could be interpreted as banning contraceptive methods that prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. Intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and birth-control pills can work in that manner.
Marshall said of the Democrats' objections: "They're imaginative but irrelevant."Oh those ladies! So imaginative and yet irrelevant in their objections--oh, I'm sorry, stories--regarding serious issues about access to medication and care. But you, Del. Marshall, you know. You're logical and factual and a cis man. So we should definitely listen to you!
"None of these stories that these ladies bring up about birth control being made illegal has ever happened."
Everything you wanted to know about how seriously some legislators take their women co-workers & peers, summed up right there.
If you recall, Virginia also recently passed mandatory ultrasound legislation in the House (and similar legislation is expected to pass the Senate). If you did not know, the House voted "no thanks" on an amendment proposed by Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria):
...[T]hat would have required a woman's written consent for an invasive ultrasound, which could be necessary to determine a fetus' gestation age for an early-term pregnancy. Englin noted that Byron's bill makes no distinction between surgical abortions and nonsurgical abortions that involve the use of medication to terminate a pregnancy.Of course they said no to that! Though no one called out Del. Englin for being "imaginative" with his "stories" on this. Funny, that.
"She's in there asking for that particular[nonsurgical] procedure because she doesn't want an invasive procedure on her body," Englin said. "But without this amendment, we're going to say, 'Sorry, in order to exercise your constitutional right, we have to let a doctor put a probe inside you.'"
The VA legislature was on full-tilt
***
In West Virginia, they've decided to try and ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation based on "legislative findings" that fetuses can feel pain at that time. As usual, ignoring anything & everything else that would go into a decision regarding terminating a pregnancy after 20 weeks.
A committee in the House of Delegates is the first stop for the proposed bill that would ban abortions in West Virginia 20 weeks after fertilization.Guess what it's called? If you said: "The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act", give yourself a meeeeellion dollars.
The bill would establish legislative findings that fetuses or unborn children feel pain at that time.
Alcatraz Open Thread
Did you watch Alcatraz last night? What did you think of it? Did you love it? I did! I LOVED IT. I love it more every week!
Here are the Top 5 things I loved about it (some minor spoilers):
1. I love Jorge Garcia! I love his character, Dr. Diego Soto, soooooooooo much! I continue to dig how the character serves as the reminder that violence is real and ugly and difficult to process. I love how Dr. Soto is respectful to women, and not in that shitty fake way that most male television characters meant to be respectful to women are "respectful"—that is, either by being totes patronizing and condescending and treating them like fragile dolls, or by being totes rude and gruff and treating them like shit as if that's how men treat each other—but in a meaningful way that shows him regarding women as his equals and respecting their expertise when it is not his forte (while never denigrating his own contributions).
2. I love Sarah Jones! I love her character, Det. Rebecca Madsen, soooooooooo much! I love that she is a GOOD COP. Sam Neill didn't know how to take down Petty without getting himself in the shit, but Det. Madsen did!
3. I love the set design! Every location is so perfect and creates such a spooky and intense ambiance. GOOD JOB!
4. I love the mystery. I love that the mystery is so mysterious that even the people who are part of the mystery don't even know what happened! I AM SO IN ON THIS VERY MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY! One of the things J.J. Abrams does really well, like maybe better than anyone else making television right now, is balance character and plot development. He invites me to be invested SO HARD and I am RSVPing YESSSSS!!!
5. Everything else!
Sex and Drugs
CDC Warns Untreatable Gonorrhea Is on the Way:
Gonorrhea, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States, is increasingly showing resistance to one of the last known effective antibiotic treatments, leading researchers from the Centers for Disease Control to "sound the alarm" about potentially untreatable forms of the disease.All I could think reading this story is the numbers of young people who contracted gonorrhea during this same period because condoms were not made available to them in the service of bullshit abstinence-only sex ed programs which are a humongo failure.
"During the past three years, the wily gonococcus has become less susceptible to our last line of antimicrobial defense, threatening our ability to cure gonorrhea," Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's sexually transmitted disease prevention program, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine last week.
According to the CDC, gonorrhea has a long history of developing immunity to antibiotics, but doctors have always had a stronger medicine up their sleeves to treat patients. Not anymore—about 1.7 percent of gonorrhea is now resistant to cephalosporins, the last line of defense against gonorrhea. That might not seem like much, but it's a 17-fold increase since 2006, when about one tenth of one percent of gonorrhea was believed to have resistance to cephalosporins.
Anyway, this issue highlights another important general healthcare issue:
"As far as gonorrhea goes, I'm not aware of any new drugs in the pipeline," says [Nicole Mahoney, senior officer of the antibiotics and innovation project at PEW Charitable Trusts]. "This is just one more example of a bigger problem—bacteria are developing resistance faster than we're inventing new medicines to fight them."We often hear the refrain that the US has the best healthcare system in the world!!!eleventy!—which, for a long time, might have actually been true for the people privileged enough to have access to it. But it's just not true anymore. Even people who have the means to pay for top-notch care in the US aren't getting cutting-edge care anymore: They're getting whatever care is most profitable within our for-profit system.
Mahoney says Congress and the Food and Drug Administration should encourage and reward pharmaceutical companies to devise new antibiotics. According to a PEW report, only two new classes of antibiotics have been introduced since 1968 because antibiotics are difficult to produce and are less profitable than other drugs.
In which the emphasis is increasingly on the profits rather than the care.
It wasn't always like this. It doesn't have to be like this.
Unfortunately, we've got no one with a prominent national platform who's willing to make the case that we've lost our way, that greed isn't good, that the market won't solve everything, and that our priorities have become very, very fucked up. Because they're all in a for-
The Walking Thread
This is how I feel.
The Walking Dead is back after a mid-season break and OMG I love and hate this show as much as ever! Although if I am honest, the scales may be tipping toward hate a little bit!
(Spoilers lurch undeadly herein.)
When last we left the gang, they were inching at a snail's pace toward something happening. Then something happened! Whoooooops your terrible reveal! And Lori was pregnant and was definitely a terrible person for having considered abortion.
We picked up right where we left off, and I was THRILLED (not thrilled) to see that we were returning to the same excruciating pace which would for realz tax the patience of a 60s kitchen sink drama.
Look BORED in Anger, more like, amirite?!
Aww, I KID the pacing of The Walking Dead! I kid because I hate the way it treats its female characters! Especially Lori!
1. The worst moment of the entire episode for me was Grimes telling Glenn, "You thought you were doing the right thing; it was just the wrong thing" about keeping Lori's confidence about her pregnancy. Uh, whut. Exqueeze me? I'm pretty sure prioritizing a woman's personal choices about disclosing facts of her own reproduction is the right thing, not prioritizing her husband's belief that her body is his property. Fuck you, Grimes.
2. I am going to be VERY ANGRY if Lori's utterly incomprehensible decision to go get Grimes and Glenn results in a miscarriage, thus communicating it's better to lose a pregnancy through stupidity and injury than by careful consideration and abortion.
Every time I talk to Spudsy after a new episode, he says, "This show COULD BE so good!" That about sums it up.
Discuss.
Primarily Gross
[Content Note: Animal cruelty.] Mitt Romney is having a BAD WEEK! Not only is he losing his national lead to Rick Santorum (and I'll come back to THAT mess in a moment), but the horrendo story about Romney strapping the family dog in his kennel to the top of their car to drive from Boston to Canada for a family vacation is back in the news. The dog shit all over itself, yet Mitt Romney insists the dog "enjoyed himself. ... It was where he was comfortable." Sure.
This is how he treats his beloved family pet, folks.
Dogs Against Romney will be highlighting this void of decency at the Westminster Dog Show today at noon. Heh heh heh. Go get 'm, pooches.
In other awesome Romney news, he thinks mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients is "an excellent idea." Sure it is. It's an implicitly racist and classist proposal which seeks to punish the people who need a social safety net the most and foolishly imagines that shame is an effective disincentive. Sounds like "an excellent idea" by Republican standards, all right.
Hey! If you're wondering why it is that the Republican Establishment likes Mitt Romney, and you haven't yet figured out it's because he is a vacant suit with no integrity, no principles, and no shame, who will do ANYTHING to get elected and stay in office, here is the charming Grover Norquist to make the case for Romney:
All we have to do is replace Obama. ... We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.Basically, if the Republican Establishment could install a robot in the Oval Office, they would. But they can't. So the next closest thing is Mitt Romney, who will at least allow himself to be programmed and not muck up the works with any independent thought or autonomous impulses. GOOD LUCK, MITT ROMNEY! THAT SOUNDS GREAT!
...Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
Which brings me back to the aforementioned mess: Rick Santorum is now the leading GOP candidate nationally. Whoooooooops, Republican Establishment! That would be funny if it weren't, almost inconceivably, an even bigger whoooooooops for us!
Speaking of which, here is an AWESOME Rick Santorum quote, which everyone has been sending me (thanks, everyone!), although I first saw it yesterday care of @nelsonpants:
This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don't think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn't get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn't get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.Yiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. Ha ha nervous laughter ha ha. That is very creepy! You are so gross, Rick Santorum! And you do not know what freedom means!
No—no, Ron Paul, that is not correct. Please have a seat.
In other Santorum news, protestors interrupted a Santorum campaign event yesterday, to which Santorum responded by saying, "I think it's really important for you to understand what this, what this radical element represents, because what they represent is true intolerance," after having the protestors hauled out by police.
FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE!!!
![Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif. [AP Photo]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/shakespeares_sister/shakes4/610x-22.jpg)
Inexplicable, but true!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
