And you?
Open Thread
Hosted by a walrus.
[Image courtesy of Shutterstock.]
This week's Open Threads have been hosted by water mammals.
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!
"The damage done by dieting can no longer be totally ignored."
[Content Note: Food restricting; disordered eating.]
Sue Thomason:
I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open in shock. Good shock. All because I've read the report from the Body Image Inquiry. I knew it was released this week but I wasn't expecting much as truth is more often than not bypassed when profits are involved. But Reflections on Body Image, co-authored by MPs and the Central YMCA, is incredibly enlightened and if the recommendations made in the document are taken seriously this will be the biggest step forward in public health since the smoking ban.Every body is different, so different people certainly react differently to restricting food. For me, this just rings so true. I normally have a pretty small appetite, because I have a very slow metabolism. But if I start restricting food, and especially if I lose weight (for any reason, including illness), my appetite just becomes voracious. I am constantly hungry, not emotionally or psychologically hungry, and not "mouth-hungry," but physically hungry—an ungodly hunger accompanied by searing stomach pains if I don't eat. I can barely manage to keep it under control by eating a few almonds or a banana or some other snack nearly hourly. It is unbelievable. The physical desire to binge is overwhelming.
The report, published by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Body Image after a three-month public inquiry, makes some powerful recommendations and the biggest stride forward lies in the report's acknowledgement that overeating is as much an eating disorder as anorexia and that eating too much and its effects, including obesity, are not a lifestyle choice and overeating can be the result of dieting.
The Body Image report concludes:
* According to experts there is no evidence available that diets work in the long term.
* Girls who diet are 12 times more likely to binge eat (a direct acknowledgement that dieting is a contributor to obesity not a solution to it).
* More than 95% of dieters regain the weight they lost (a result of the binge eating I'd expect).
* Getting rid of dieting could wipe out 70% of eating disorders (including the binge eating mentioned above, a side effect of which is often obesity.)
So here they're saying getting rid of dieting could largely reduce obesity. If this is the case, then wouldn't it be rational to conclude also that dieting has been a big contributor towards obesity?
Isn't this amazing? To have this even nodded to in an official report is great news. The damage done by dieting can no longer be totally ignored.
And I don't experience anything like it except when I restrict food (because my guts are made of garbage, and sometimes I just can't tolerate much food) and/or lose weight.
When I went to college, I was so afraid of the "freshman 15," I started eating reduced portions. I did this for weeks, and I did lose weight, but I also couldn't sleep. I would lie awake at night in wretched agony, my body craving food desperately. Eventually, I gave up and went back to eating regular portions, and I did not have any problems with hunger until the next time I tried some ill-considered food restriction plan.
Not all bodies behave this way. I have thin friends who decide to lose 5 or 10 pounds, restrict food for a bit, and shed the weight with no problems and no experience of profound bodily hunger. Different bodies definitely do different things. (What a novel concept.)
[H/T to Shaker RedSonja.]
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Violence; misogyny.]
"Let's hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won't abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector."—Jay Townsend, Communications Director for Republican Representative Nan Hayworth (NY).
At Think Progress, Annie-Rose notes: "Acid throwing is not a joke. It is a serious and horrific form of gender-based violence. Seventy two percent of the time, victims of acid throwing are women. In fact, an attack occurred in Pakistan just four days ago—two women and one two year-old child were injured."
Let's get this straight: Both sides are, in fact, not "just as bad," when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric.
[H/T to everyone in the multiverse, and my thanks to each and every one of you.]
BushQuotes!
Chapter 4, page 47:
I spent much of my spare time with my fraternity brothers; they became life-long friends. One now works with me in the Governor's office, others have been business partners, and many are helping in my presidential campaign. Our DKE parties were known as some of the best on campus; we would hire bands and host big dances. My senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society, so secret I can't say anything more. It was a chance to make fourteen new friends.That is basically the whole page. Page 47 of Privilege and Balls and More Fucking Privilege.
I loved sports. Baseball is my favorite, but my talent never matched my enthusiasm; I was a mediocre pitcher on the Yale freshman team. In my junior year, I was introduced to rugby, and I worked my way onto the first team for my senior year. Rugby is a great game, a game of speed and hard knocks with a tradition of postgame camaraderie.
When I wasn't playing, I was an enthusiastic and spirited supporter of Yale's teams. I vividly remember our elation when the fighting Yale Bulldogs, led by Calvin Hall and Brian Dowling, upset Princeton to win the Ivy League football championship in my senior year. We charged onto the field to take the goal post. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the crossbar when campus security arrived. The police were not nearly as impressed with our victory as we were. We were escorted off the field and told to leave town. I have not been back since. In another not-so-proud moment that I later described as the infamous "Christmas wreath caper," some friends and I decided to liberate a Christmas wreath from a local hotel to dress up the DKE house for an upcoming party. We were apprehended for disorderly conduct; we apologized and the charges were dropped.
I know guys like this. They are terrible. And they are so mystified that anyone could think they are terrible when they're living the exact life that the kyriarchy tells them they should be living to be successful and adored.
[From George Bush's A Charge to Keep, gifted to me by Deeky, because he hates me. In the US, all people who plan to run for president write a shitty book. (Some are less shitty than others, by which I mean the Democrats' books.) A Charge to Keep was George W. Bush's shitty I-wanna-be-president book, published in 1999. I am blogging one random quote per page every day until I have either made my way through the book or lost it behind a couch.]
The High Price of Privilege
[Content Note: This post contains references to rape and sexual abuse, to homophobia and misogyny, and to institutional privilege upholding the same.]
$20,000 a priest.
That, apparently, is the price for remaining a deeply privileged institution with the power to make accused rapists in your employ go away quietly:
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”
But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
If Dolan's name looks familiar to you, there's a reason. As head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he has been leading the charge for the Catholic Church to become an unoffical arm of the Republican party. Among other things, the USCCB has called for two weeks of prayer and "action" in support of the Church's attempts to overturn the law and deny reproductive health services coverage for their uteri-bearing employees. They have also launched an investigation of the Girl Scouts and cracked down on American nuns for being insufficiently homophobic and misogynist. Dolan also strongly condemned Obama's support for same-sex marriage claiming that "The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better."
Yes, Cardinal Dolan. Our children definitely deserve better. They deserve better than to have a powerful societal institution quietly paying large sums of money to men who have raped the children entrusted to their care.
There will, predictably, be all kinds of justifications for this behavior; in the article a spokesperson claims it was a "cheaper" and "faster" solution to laicizing priests. But the fact remains: Cardinal Dolan, you paid off accused serial rapists. Yet you also oh-so-piously claim Catholic universities can't pay for birth control because that is "material cooperation with evil." You could see your way to an "act of charity" for serial child rapists. Yet you can't see loving same-sex parents as anything but threats to society. You censure nuns and Scout leaders for allegedly paying too much attention to the rights of women and LGBT*QI persons and girls and other vulnerable people in our society, but you have no problem keeping "unassignable priests" (suspected rapists) on salary.
I'm sure there will be plenty of pontificating (ha!) in defense of this particular "material cooperation" with evil, but let's face it: this horrific, self-serving hypocrisy is the stuff that fuels Reformations, schisms, and revolutions. Already, Catholic faithful are engaging in peaceful protest in support of the nuns you've rebuked. There are parishes rejecting the bishops' homophobia, because they know their leaders are in the wrong. Oh, I know that the Bishops will continue to enjoy the support of many US Catholics, but for those with doubts, this news will only reinforce the conclusion that something has gone seriously wrong with their leadership. Caring more for position and privilege than for the safety and well-being of children? Doesn't exactly sound like what Jesus would do.
Make no mistake: $20,000 was the price of the Church's payoff to abusive priests. But the true cost has not been paid in dollars, nor has it been paid by the Church. It has been paid in the pain and the suffering of the survivors of these crimes.
[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.]
Trayvon Martin Updates
Seminole County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. has revoked bond for George Zimmerman and ordered Zimmerman to surrender within 48 hours, as a result of Zimmerman having lied to the court about having a second passport and about his assets. Specifically, he did not report any of the funds raised via the website he launched to share "the fact" and solicit donations.
Ugh, this guy. Ugh.
My Intertubes! They Are Clogged!
My internet has been sporadically going out for five or ten minutes at a time, randomly but increasingly frequently, for the past three weeks or so. A very nice dude from Comcast just came out to fix it (hopefully!), and I've now got a nice new modem and a fancy box on the back of my house to protect the wires from, presumably, hailstones, terrorist squirrels, and the appearance of having no idea what's causing the problem.
Anyway! Sorry for the unexpected several-hour interruption in service. Back up and running now. Keep your fingers crossed!
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda
Olivia
Sophie
Dudley
Zelda
Number of the Day
69,000: The number of jobs added nationally in the US in May, less than half of the 150,000 jobs which were predicted and expected by economists. Whooooops.
The official unemployment rate rose back to 8.2%, and the underemployment rate rose to 14.8%.
The US government needs to borrow and tax and spend. But the Republicans have turned those things into dirty words (unless it's to fund wars, of course), and the Democrats are spineless. We are in real trouble.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by eggrolls.
Recommended Reading:
Jodi: PRENDA Dies in House as GOP Continues to Divert Attention From Real Problems by Instead Attacking Women
Maya: Where Are the Women? 2012 Election Coverage Edition
Brendan: Quit Pretending There Isn't a Videogame Rape Culture [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion and imagery of misogyny, violence, and rape culture.]
Mike: A Case Study in How the Poor Are Prosecuted for Being Poor
Letters of Note: The Most Beautiful Work of All
Mónica: How to Do Right By Yourself While Busy Saving the World
Atrios: Miserable Failures
Megan: Quote of the Day: Scarlett Johansson Is Tired of Sexist Diet Questions
Arturo: Study Confirms White Male Privilege Will Be Televised–And Kids Are Still Watching
Andy: Green Lantern Alan Scott Is Officially Gay
Angry Asian Man: Nickelodeon Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month [video]
EpicPonyz: Gaming Couple
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Krugman on Newsnight
Paul Krugman takes on austerity advocates on the BBC's Newsnight, to amusing result. I love when he's told that economics is "simple math." Oh is it? Well, then. Give all of us who can add a Nobel Prize!
UPDATE: Shaker Amavelle has kindly provided a transcript, available here.
[H/T to Iain; video via Echidne.]
Generally Gross
Shakers, I have seen some clunky, awkward, unsubtle, laughable cynical campaigning in the fully three hundred years I have walked this earth, but Mitt Romney's surprise presser outside Solyndra is truly the most audaciously terrible political stunt I do believe I've ever seen.
Good job, Mitt Romney! You have lowered a bar I did not believe could be lowered anymore, but sending James Cameron in his golden submarine to relocate the bar to the bottom of the Marianas Trench was definitely an idea only an esteemed laird with a jewel-encrusted hovercraft elevator in his platinum moon mansion could conceive. You are an intergalactic treasure, sir.
In the news today:
President Obama has been waging a cyberwar on Iran. That is a very interesting article about a part of the US national defense about which we generally don't see a lot of news, and which may be the sort of thing you want to know about how our President does things when you are thinking about voting in the upcoming election if you are a US voter, and also it is just very interesting, so you should definitely read it!
Asked what grade he would give the President, because we for sure need to know how Mitt Romney would relate to the President of the United States as a public schoolteacher, "Romney quickly responds: 'Oh, an F, no question about that,' adding that the grade applies 'across the board'." O RLY? Well, what if the board included "being terrible"? If you gave the President an F on being terrible, that means you think he's AWESOME! Didn't think about THAT, now, did you, Mitt Romney?!
Mitt Romney thinks Barack Obama is awesome. Pass it on.
Speaking of awesome, Mitt Romney has a new (previously) "Day One" advert out, and I guess I don't need to tell you that it is genius. Probably made by the same people who did The Expendables 2 trailer. Good thinking, Team Romney!
Male voiceover, over the most generic images you can imagine of people working in offices and factories, etc., spliced with video of Romney campaigning: What will be different about a Romney presidency? [Text Onscreen: Day 01.] From day one, President Romney focuses on the economy and the deficit, unleashes America's energy resources, and stands up to China on trade. President Romney's leadership puts jobs first. But there's something more than legislation or new policy: It's the feeling we'll have that our country's back—back on the right track. That's what will be different about a Romney presidency.That message being, in case you missed it ha ha nobody missed it, that Mitt Romney is white, and voting for him will make you feel like you've got your country back—back from the terrifying clutches of a black man.
Mitt Romney, in voiceover over black and white photograph of him holding hands with his wife: I'm Mitt Romney, and I approve this message.
Yiiiiiiiiiiiikes.
In good news, following up on an item from yesterday: Federal Judge Blocks Florida Voter Suppression Law. "A federal judge blocked much of Florida's year-old voter suppression law today as an unconstitutional infringement on speech and voting rights." GOOD. That is a very positive step in addressing the Republicans' disenfranchisement efforts.
And finally—a poll! Mitt Romney's favorability rebounds among women, while President Obama's slips. President Obama still leads among women by 9 points, but it should be more. Ah well. We can only hope that David Axelrod is busily strategizing how the President can be MORE SILENT on reproductive rights in order to win back the ladies!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
Photo of the Day
Former President George W. Bush stands next to his official portrait, Thursday, May 31, 2012, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. [AP Photo]LOL FOREVER. Remember when this guy was president? Oh boy. LOL.
The New York Times' coverage of the grand unveiling is here. I love this bit:
"Behave yourselves," a grinning Mr. Bush said to the audience, which included his longtime political guru Karl Rove and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Turning to President Obama with a look of mock chagrin, Mr. Bush said, "Thank you so much for inviting our rowdy friends to my hanging."I mean, it just takes a special sort of fuckery to pretend like you're the rabble when you're at the White House at your official presidential portrait unveiling, and in attendance is your father who is also a former president. Just a coupla Good Ol' Boys! Sure.
Question of the Day
What quirk or habit do you have about which you imagined you were the only person on the planet with it, until you found someone else who has/does it, too?
I could probably come up with dozens of these, lol, but the first one that came to mind is pulling (trichotillomania). For years, most of my adolescence, I thought I was the only person in the world who did this—such the secret shame, lol!—and was very relieved when I found out I was not.
Weirdness* loves company way more than misery, methinks.
* (which I use without implied negative connotation)
Aww
Fellow SNL cast member (and feminist ally) Andy Samberg on Kristen Wiig leaving the show:
"It's going to be a huge loss," Samberg exclusively told us last night at the MTV Sneak Peek of his new movie, That's My Boy. "She's one of the best that's ever done it without a doubt. She's also one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met and she's a great friend."Not only is that supersweet, but notice how he didn't feel obliged to say "she's one of the best women" who's ever done the show; just "one of the best," full-stop.
Getting through Wiig's much-talked about farewell was tough. "It was real sad," Samberg said. "We all love her so much."
It's terrible that's so remarkable that I noticed it. But yay Andy Samberg! You continue to make me jizz in my pants.
