Shakesville

Hey, Remember the Dudecession?

If I recall correctly (I recall correctly), when the US economy tanked, the media here spent a wee bit of time ruing the existence of a very real and totally not-merely-a-shitty-description-of-how-rich-white-dudes-feared-losing-privilege "mancession." One or two folks put this forward as proof of how we were all living in post-feminist times, with the shepocalypse to undoubtedly follow. Fun times.

Anyhow....

Since hitting its job-loss "bottom" in February 2010, the nation has recovered 3.2 million jobs. But women only got 23 percent of them.

Oh noes! Malecovery!

There are a few explanations for this. Many women have uteri, which is definitely a negative:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission fielded 5,587 pregnancy discrimination complaints in 2007. After the recession started, filings spiked over 6,300 and haven't fallen to pre-recession levels yet. Agency officials suspect "this is the tip of the iceberg," and that victims fear retribution in a brutal job market if they complain, said spokeswoman Christine Nazer.

(And don't you go asking for birth control, ladies!)

And of course, men have a wife and kids back home:

"We're getting consistent reports of a woman being told that a man got a promotion over her because he has a family to support," said Joan Williams, a law professor running the Center for Worklife Law at the University of California.

Even if you focus on the retail and public sectors, the news doesn't get any better.

I can't wait to hear what the Republican gubernatorial candidates presently fouling the Illinois prairie and President Barack "Hey Remember That Lilly Ledbetter Thing" Obama have to say about this.

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by the 1990s.

Recommended Reading:

Eesha: Women Dems Push for Violence Against Women Act

Ashon: The Love of Black Mothers and the Care of Black Children [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of violence, racism, and misogyny.]

Ira: Retracting "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory"

Brandon: Indiana Legislature Gets Its Way; LGBT Youth Group Will No Longer Sell License Plates

andreana: Heavy On My Mind: Bayard Rustin and Black Queer Lives [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of racism, homophobia, and transphobia.]

Fannie: Dreams [Content Note: The post at this link contains symbols and narratives of the rape culture.]

Holly: Catcalls Are Not Compliments: Challenging Street Harassment Worldwide

blue milk: I Love This Father

Finally: Would you like to read a funny thing about James Franco's brother Dave Franco? Sure you would, because Francos! So here it is. Enjoy!

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

Primarily Dreadful

Mitt Romney stands onstage in front of a bunch of a people, none of whom look the least bit engaged, holding up two fingers. I have added text reading: 'With your help, I can come in SECOND this November!'

LOOK AT THE EXCITEMENT IN THAT CROWD! Are you looking?! That one guy looks sooooo passionate! That other guy looks sooooo thrilled! And that other other guy looks dead! If there's one word you can definitely use to describe Mitt Romney, it's SCINTILLATING! He's like a one-man production machine of DAZZLING PATRIOTISM! Mitt Romney, tell your team to get working on securing the rights to "Moves Like Jagger" as your campaign song STAT, because you have ALL the moves like ALL the Jaggers!

In more good news for Mitt Romney, besides the daily good news about how AWESOME he is, he was also declared the least barfiest of all the candidates by Puerto Rico this weekend! GOOD JOB, MITT ROMNEY!

In not-so-good news, Mitt Romney is very unpopular. Ha ha really?! "To defeat Barack Obama in November, Mitt Romney would have to make history by overcoming a larger favorability deficit than any other modern presidential candidate." lol your favorability deficit!

But the insignificant concern that very few people really like him as he's facing the biggest popularity contest in the world is not phasing Mitt Romney! Nossiree! He is CONFIDENT in his ability to come in AT LEAST second in November, which is definitely a pretty good finish just ask John McCain, and so he's telling the other candidates to GTFO and let him start cruising to non-victory.

"That is not God's plan."—Rick Santorum

"Fuck youuuuuuuuuuu!"—Newt Gingrich

"Is my eyebrow falling off?"—Ron Paul

Speaking of candidates still trying desperately to make themselves relevant, Newt Gingrich says that President Barack Obama attacks the Catholic Church, crushes Christianity and Judaism, and appeases radical Islam. No, really:

After a speech at Barrington High School in which he urged students to follow their dreams, Gingrich courted Christian voters at Judson University on the banks of the Fox River in Elgin.

It was billed as a "Hispanic Town Hall Meeting with Newt and Calista," but only a handful of Hispanics were among the 300 mostly white Christian college students and retirees who jammed a campus chapel to hear Gingrich and his wife. The crowd applauded when Gingrich slammed what he called "Obama's attack on the Catholic Church and other right-to-life institutions."

...Contrasting [the administration's birth control mandate] with Obama's apology to Muslims after reports that copies of the Quran were burned, Gingrich said, "Appeasing radical Islam whole while crushing Christianity and Judaism strikes me as exactly what's wrong in America today."

The chapel erupted in applause.

Of course it did.

At the same event, Gingrich also said: "I'm staying in the race because I think Proverbs was right when it said that 'Without vision people will perish.' This is also part of the reason I've decided to stay in the race: I think we need a visionary leader."

image of Newt Gingrich talking out the side of his mouth, to which I have added text reading: 'Humblebraggin' is a sucker's game, yo.'

image of Newt Gingrich talking out the side of his mouth, to which I have added text reading: 'Humblebraggin' is a sucker's game, yo.'

Blah blah Santorum. He's super Christy and a petulant douchebag. Water is wet, etc.

Finally! Guess who said this?

"I think there is a perception out there [that there is a Republican war on women] because of the way this whole contraception issue played out—we need to get off of that issue in my view. I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear—and get back onto what the American people really care about: jobs and the economy."

If you said JOHN MCCAIN, give yourself ONE MILLION POINTS because you are RIGHT!

Yes, that's right—John fucking McCain now sounds like a bloody liberal in comparison to the rest of the Republican Party. Yiiiiiiiiiiikes.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

Healthcare Schmealthcare

Does it seem to you like fewer people than ever before have healthcare coverage through their employers? You are not imagining that trend: Employer-sponsored health insurance is down more than 16% just since 2001.

Two thoughts:

1. That is largely a function of the erosion of workers' rights generally, which has led to an increase in contracted, part-time, freelance, and self-employed work, in combination with the outsourcing of our manufacturing base, replacing those unionized jobs with livable wages and full benefits packages with retail and service jobs which are mostly non-unionized, minimum wage, and without benefits of any kind below management. Allowing US corporations to move their bases of operations offshore so they could increase profits by employing exploitable work forces has made US workers a more exploitable work force.

(Which, of course, is exactly what the dirty hippies predicted would happen when everyone in Washington was getting boners about NAFTA.)

2. This is what it looks like when a nation considers access to healthcare a privilege, instead of a basic human right.

(Gross.)

Open Thread

Hosted by Fanny Brice.

Sunday Shuffle

AWOLNATION, Jump On My Shoulders

You?

Open Thread

Hosted by a very 70's Mystery Date.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by awesome games.

Fix for Comments Not Appearing

I have heard from many of you in the UK and Canada that you're having the same problem as readers in Australia, New Zealand, and India, now that Blogger is adding country-specific suffixes to the blog's URL.

This causes a compatibility failure with Disqus, our third-party commenting system. For comments to load correctly, one must be viewing the blog at blogspot.com.

To access comments, replace the '.ca' or '.co.uk' or your specific country's extension at the end of the URL with '/ncr' and press enter. (If that doesn't work, try blogspot.com/ncr.) If you then right-click on post titles from that page and select 'open link in new window,' the page in the new tab will allow you to view and post comments.

There's more information here. (Thanks to Shaker Teaspoon for passing that along.)

I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, and I am looking into alternatives so this won't be a permanent problem. Unfortunately, as many long-term readers will recall, trying to exist on our own server was a never-ending nightmare because of determined anti-feminist hackers, so we're pretty dependent on the safety of Google's firewall. I will, however, try to figure something out.

Open Thread

Hosted by Sorry! The game that will cause screaming and hurt feelings.

The Virtual Pub Is Open

image of a pub photoshopped to be named 'The Filthy Brute Saloon'

[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]

TFIF, Shakers!

Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!

Quote of the Day

"Don't lie you'd b doing that anyway u filthy brute."—Rebekah Phelps-Davis, one of the Westboro Baptist clan, on Twitter, in response to Deeky's tweet that he would "spend the weekend taking it up the ass" in their honor.

They are truly a magical bunch.

@DeekyMD Don't lie you'd b doing that anyway u filthy brute. Ur picture of brute beast made 2 b taken & destroyed #GodH8sU #NoHope4U #doomed
— Rebekah Phelps-Davis (@WBCBecky) March 16, 2012

"I can’t take any more pain."

[Content Note: Mandated ultrasound; termination of a wanted pregnancy; misogyny.]

Carolyn Jones writes in the Texas Observer about her painful decision to terminate a wanted pregnancy in Texas, and the experience of doing so, in the wake of Texas' anti-abortion legislation, including its recently-enacted mandatory ultrasound law.

I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the whole thing.

Daily Dose of Cute

Look at These Goddamn Adorable Beggars Edition:

Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt and Dudley the Greyhound sit politely and look at me plaintively to give them some of whatever I was eating

Zelda the Black and Tan Mutt and Dudley the Greyhound sit politely and look at me plaintively to give them some of whatever I was eating

"Give us things!"

Dudley looks at me plaintively with ears up

Dudley looks at me plaintively with ears up

"Give me things!"

Zelda looks at me plaintively with ears up

Zelda looks at me plaintively with ears up

"Give me things!"

Zelly stands half inside the kitchen (where Iain was) while Dudz stands at the door, but looking back at me in the living room

Zelly stands half inside the kitchen (where Iain was) while Dudz stands at the door, but looking back at me in the living room

"Is the Dadsy in the kitchen gonna give me things, or...?"

Zelly rests her chin on the edge of the couch pathetically

Zelly rests her chin on the edge of the couch pathetically

"Will you not give me things? Do you not see how cute I am?"

And SO MANY TREATS were given that day! (Which day? Any day.)

Actual Headline

[Content Note: Bullying; fat hatred.]

CNN: "Fat is the new ugly on the playground."

The sentiment is later repeated in the piece: "Fat is the new ugly on the school playground. Children as young as 3 worry about being fat. Four- and 5-year-olds know 'skinny' is good and 'fat' is bad. Children in elementary school are calling each other fat as a put-down."

I'm glad to see an article addressing fat hatred in bullying on CNN. What I am not glad to see is the treatment of fat-bullying as if it's a new thing, or, worse yet, as if fat-bullying is only problematic when kids who aren't actually fat are bullied.

It is indeed awful when children of different body shapes are bullied as "fat" when they're not fat, especially since adolescent girls who start puberty early are particular targets of this kind of fat-bullying. I was teased for being fat long before I was actually fat, just because I had boobs and hips by age 11.

But it's awful when fat children are teased for being fat, too.

Additionally, treating "fat" and "ugly" as mutually exclusive concepts misses what is central to much of fat-bullying, of both children and adults: The implicit notion that if you're fat, you are axiomatically ugly.

"Fat is the new ugly" obscures that, in addition to eliding a long history of fat-bullying on playgrounds.

Project Runway All-Stars: Open Thread

image of designer Austin Scarlett wrapped in white tulle

It is ridiculous how happy this picture makes me.
(Spoilers are making it work below.)

Let me start with a question: How the fuck crabby is Mondo? OMG. I would find that intolerable in a work environment, as Michael and Austin are, and it speaks to their fundamental decency (and probably Mondo's, too) that they're making considered, circumspect comments about how it seems like sometimes Mondo doesn't realize how much he affects other people with his negativity, instead of losing their rag with him.

Anyway! To the collections.

So far, it looks like Mondo's collection is shaping up to make him the winner. I'm basing that partly on the fact that Austin's looks incredibly ambitious, and he may fall victim to his own ambition again. (Loved Austin taking Anthony's notes. And loved Anthony's notes! "That lace looks like dead white lady." OMG LOL.) I'm also basing it on the fact that I find Michael's "tribal" collection to be barfy, by virtue of the fact that it's a "tribal" collection. Of course, that is a foolish assumption, because, time and time again, fashion shows us that racism and appropriation are always IN!

*headdesk*

So: Who's gonna win?

Friday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by searing analysis.

Recommended Reading:

Are you reading Richard Adams' coverage of the primaries? Because you should be! Richard is TOPS! Exhibit A: He quoted Deeks today.

Tami's running an awesome series about Writing While Marginalized. You should definitely read the whole thing!

Pam thanks the President for opposing Amendment One in North Carolina. Thank you, Mr. President! Good job on the evolving!

Michelle rips apart the study underlying the super scary news that eating any amount of red meat ever is bad for you.

Jessie examines the role of whiteness in the Kony 2012 phenomenon. If you're wondering why I haven't written about Kony 2012, despite having covered the US' deployment of combat teams to address the threat posed by Kony and LRA, this is why.

Crunktastic writes about the murder of Trayvon Martin and the "Don't Re-Nig in 2012" bumper sticker. This shit doesn't happen in a void.

Andy covers the conviction of Dharun Ravi for bias intimidation and invasion of privacy in association with the death of Tyler Clementi.

And last but certainly not least, over at Wired, James Bamford informs us that the NSA is building the country's biggest spy center. Swell.

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

But Antibiotics Don't Make Any Money! Boo!

Last month, I wrote about the Centers for Disease Control's warning that untreatable gonorrhea was in our future, because of its ability to quickly evolve into antibiotic-resistant strains—and because of the lack of institutional investment in developing new classes of antibiotics, since "antibiotics are difficult to produce and are less profitable than other drugs."

Now Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, is warning of "a global crisis in antibiotics caused by rapidly evolving resistance among microbes responsible for common infections that threaten to turn them into untreatable diseases."

Addressing a meeting of infectious disease experts in Copenhagen, she said that every antibiotic ever developed was at risk of becoming useless.

"A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child's scratched knee could once again kill."

..."We are losing our first-line antimicrobials. Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units. ... Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake."

...Dr Chan continued: "In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry. The cupboard is nearly bare."

Obviously I'm a dirty, bleeding-heart, socialist radical, but it seems to me that failure to vigorously pursue new classes of antibiotics because they won't yield a strong return on investment is a little short-sighted when the downside is "an end to modern medicine as we know it."

Maybe it's okay to reinvest some of those boner pill profits into something that won't rake in cash hand over fist but will keep alive the people who want to enjoy all those rock hard dicks. (As well as the people who don't.)

Chan also notes that part of the problem is the irresponsible use of antibiotics, highlighting, for example, the fact that, worldwide, "greater quantities of antibiotics are used in healthy animals than in unhealthy humans." Yikes. Chan politely called this unfettered use of antibiotics in food production "a cause for great concern."

She called for measures to tackle the threat by doctors prescribing antibiotics appropriately, patients following their treatment, and restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animals.

But she said attention was "still sporadic" and actions "inadequate".

"At a time of multiple calamities in the world, we cannot allow the loss of essential antimicrobials, essential cures for many millions of people, to become the next global crisis," she said.

The perfect storm is on the horizon: Impoverished people whose immune systems are compromised by malnourishment and disease living in areas vulnerable to extreme weather caused by global climate change, increased events of which (e.g. tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes) often leave people without clean water and smashed into temporary housing in high concentrations, where simple infections now immune to anitbiotics are deadly.

And we'll just sit back and let it happen, because antibiotics ain't making anyone rich.

[H/T to @mouselink.]

Westboro Baptist Church Preparing Ad for Limbaugh Show

[Content note for: misogyny]

Never missing an opportunity to ride on someone else's hateful, bigotted coattails, Westboro Baptist Church announced yesterday they would throw their hat (a pus-filled, hate-infested hat, no doubt) into Rush Limbaugh's ring and begin filling the void left by the show's lack of advertisers by prepping some jingles and whatnot of their own.

Whoops!

"The ad's message will be that America is doomed because Americans have cast aside the standards of God, and won't quit their proud sinning."

I guess that's pretty much on-message for the WBC. So, good for them, I guess? Seems a little nice, though. By WBC standards.

"That lady [Sandra Fluke] basically believes she wants the government to pay to kill her babies. That implies a certain level of promiscuity. She wants to fornicate her brains out, but she doesn't want a child. Sounds like a slut to me, and God hates sluts."

Oh, okay. I stand corrected.

Premiere Networks has said any ads from WBC would be rejected. Whoops again. Is that censorship? Sounds like censorship to me. (It doesn't.) Censorship! (It isn't.)

Anyway, you know, the internet is a weird place, isn't it? A few (bazillion) people tweet Limbaugh's advertisers and next thing you know he's broadcasting dead air.

Also weird: I posted about this story yesterday on Twitter, and it was retweed by Margie Phelps, Rebekah Phelps-Roper, Fred Phelps Jr, Rebekah Phelps-Davis, and Abigail Phelps. Phelps-Roper even noted "It's going to be Biblical."

To which I could only reply:

In honor of the WBC members that RTed me, I'll spend the wkend taking it up the ass.@MargieJPhelps @WBCVideo @WBCFredJr @WBCBecky @AbiWBC
— Deeky (Official) (@DeekyMD) March 16, 2012

Reproductive Rights Update: Kansas

Last year I answered Thomas Frank's question, What's the matter with Kansas?, with: the politicians. That hasn't changed.

Back in February I first posted about the gigantic--sixty-nine pages--abortion bill Kansas was considering. By a tax committee. Just the other day I posted a bit of an update on that bill, as Kansas University's accreditation is being called into question because of language in the bill. So the tax committee revived looking at it.

Last night the tax committee passed the bill. It will go to the House, where it is expected to pass. To recap a bit about the bill (not a comprehensive list):

Exempt doctors from malpractice suits for withholding information to prevent an abortion

Yes, that's right. Doctors who "withhold information to prevent an abortion" cannot be sued. A doctor who does not tell people that the fetus has severe issues, who does not give them the ability to make the choice themselves to go forward with a pregnancy or not, who does not give them the ability to prepare to parent a potentially medically-fragile/special needs child, cannot be sued for doing so.

Also, a person would not be able to sue a doctor for malpractice if they end up maimed or otherwise harmed by continuing a pregnancy. The only recourse is a civil suit if a person dies because of the pregnancy.

Eliminate tax credits for abortion providers
Eliminate tax deductions for the purchase of abortion-related health insurance

Both of these measures--which is ostensibly why a fucking tax committee was even considering this legislation--effectively create a tax on abortion services. It creates a(nother) economic hurdle.

Require women be told about scientifically questionable link between abortion and breast cancer

"Scientifically questionable" is a euphemism for "complete and utter lie" in this case. There is no link between abortion and breast cancer.

One requirement that a person be forced to listen to a fetal heartbeat, assuming there even is one, has been demoted to "optional". The aspect that concerned KU is a part that states "no state employee" can perform an abortion. Residency students at KU are considered state employees. Allegedly they are trying to write in some sort of workaround so the university doesn't lose accreditation over it.

As of last December, the state spent nearly $400K on private attorneys over six months to defend itself in court from where it (also last year) defunded Planned Parenthood (and other small clinics) and enacted TRAP laws that shut down clinics. In regards to those TRAP laws: in Kansas, there are two separate offices that oversee licensing and regulation of hospitals and clinics. The Health Dept. oversees hospitals and surgical centers (which Planned Parenthood falls under). The state Board of Healing Arts, however, oversees other clinics. The Board is also what licenses doctors. Sam Brownback appointed Rick Macias, an attorney who has been affiliated with Operation Rescue, to head the Board. In the same legislation, it also required that "all records shall be available at the facility for inspection" by health dept. officials. All records.

Governor Brownback has stated that, just as in 2011, he will sign any anti-abortion legislation that comes to his desk.

Saying Kansas is an extremely hostile state would be an understatement. Kansas is the state other anti-autonomy states hope to be.

Contraception and Equal Pay for Equal Work

If you're in need of a talking point in the current wars over contraception, here's one to consider:

Failing to cover prescription contraception means that women are effectively paid less than their male counterparts.

Health insurance is a part of an employee's compensation package. When women are denied coverage for something that is a predictable part of their health care needs, while men's predictable health care needs are covered, there is discrimination.

That's exactly why so many states have laws requiring birth control coverage.

It's true, of course, that not all women will need prescription contraception in their health care, and some men might need it too (trans* men with uteri, for example). It's also impossible to predict exactly how any individual employee will need/use health insurance. But I'm talking about broader patterns of what coverage employees, on average, are predictably likely to need.

And in that light, it is simply undeniable that health insurance is worth less to female employees when contraception isn't covered.

Equal compensation for equal work. What a novel idea.

[This post is expanded from a comment at Liss's request.]