Kitty Wells: "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"
Today in Mitt Romney Is Terrible
Here is the cover of the book No Apology, penned by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has spent the last few days seeking an apology from President Barack Obama for being a big meany poopypants about Mitt Romney's confusing employment history and stubborn unwillingness to release his tax returns.
In other Mitt Romney news, Mitt Romney is reportedly close to picking a running mate! I still have $5 on Tim Pawlenty, which I put down fully 200 years ago, back when $5 could still buy a golden boat mansion on the moon.
I'm sure Mitt Romney is definitely taking this pick very seriously, and not at all just figuring out how to coordinate the timing of announcing whoever they finish vetting first so that they can capture the next media cycle and kill the Bain story. As we know, Republicans always take veep-picking very seriously.
Cue Mitt Romney's tax returns being dumped into the Friday news hole followed by the announcement of his running mate on Monday morning.
Nope
[Content Note: Rape culture; rape jokes; misogyny. If you watch the segment, there are also anti-Semitic "jokes," which I have not included here.]
So, Louis CK was on The Daily Show last night, and he talked about Toshgate, and his "misunderstood" tweet, which he says was a totally unrelated tweet he sent just about how he enjoys Tosh's show while watching it on vacation, not even knowing what was going on. So, to be clear: He was ONLY sending rape enforcer Daniel Tosh who features actual acts of sexual violence on his show as comedy a tweet about how great his show is, he was not defending Daniel Tosh's rape jokes and rape incitement.
Anyway.
There's a lot of buzz this morning about how Louis CK said on The Daily Show that he's not going to tell rape jokes anymore, sort of a second act to his promise not to use gay slurs anymore. Except: He never said that.
I watched the segment this morning, and what I heard was:
* Louis CK calling feminists humorless.
* Louis CK saying that feminists and comedians are "natural enemies," thus disappearing all feminist comedians.
* Louis CK calling bloggers and comedians "uneducated" fonts of "hyperbole and garbage."
* Louis CK saying that comedians can't take criticism, which makes them "big pussies."
* Louis CK saying: "For me, any joke about anything bad is great. That's how I feel. Any joke about rape, the Holocaust, the Mets ahhhhhh! whatever. Any joke about something bad is a positive thing."
* Jon Stewart and Louis CK eating cookies about how Louis CK has "evolved" and grown "as an individual."
* Louis CK say some gender essentialist reductive shit about men and women, which included telling women to shut the fuck up: "The women are saying, 'That's how I FEEL about this,' but they're also saying, 'My feelings should be everyone's primary concern.' The men are making this mistake: The men are saying, 'You're feelings don't matter; your feelings are wrong and your feelings are stupid,' and if you've ever lived with a woman, you can't step in shit worse than that, than to tell a woman that her feelings don't matter. So, to the men I say: Listen, listen to what the women are saying about this. To the women I say: Now that we've heard you, you know, shut the fuck up for a minute."
* Jon Stewart joke about how Louis CK would have to get airlifted outta there, because feminists are so scary and violent, of course.
I also heard, which seems to be the piece that is getting construed as a promise to not tell rape jokes anymore:
I've read some blogs during this whole thing that have enlightened me to things I didn't know. This woman said how rape is something that polices women's lives—that they have a narrow corridor. They can't go out late, they can't go to certain neighborhoods, they can't dress a certain way, because they might get— Now that's part of me that wasn't there before, and I can still enjoy a good rape joke.I did not hear any promise to not tell rape jokes. I did, however, hear a promise to keep finding them funny.
Because, shit, nothing could be worse than being humorless about rape jokes.
Ahem.
It appears to me that Louis CK is being given credit for something he didn't actually say, at the expense of ignoring what he did say, which is a heaping fuckload of misogyny punctuated by his continued fondness for rape jokes.
UPDATE: I also want to quickly address the argument I'm seeing a lot that Louis CK should be given "credit," or some variation thereof, for either "evolving" on rape culture and/or speaking about rape culture on a national platform, despite the rest of his objectionable shtick.
First of all, contemplating rape culture for the first time as a 44-year-old man with two daughters, and patting oneself on the back for it instead of framing it as the profoundly regrettable evidence of privilege that is is, isn't something that ought to be praised—and praising it breathes life into the terrible idea that rape culture is difficult for "men" to understand. That is not accurate. It's not difficult for lots of male survivors; it's not difficult for lots of trans* men; it's not difficult for lots of gay men; it's not difficult for lots of men who have been incarcerated; it's not difficult for lots of men who are vulnerable by virtue of physical disability; it's not difficult for lots of highly privileged men who simply have the willingness to listen to women.
Let us not confuse "difficult to understand" for "easy to ignore by virtue of privilege."
Secondly, it is problematic, to put it politely, that the person being given the national platform to talk about rape culture is a guy who's had his first thoughts about it within the last week, after a career of telling and defending rape jokes. And, let's be honest, the platform was mostly offered so he could defend himself. I don't see his using that platform as some great piece of progress; I see his being given that platform as just another example of how the people who are most knowledgeable and sensitive about the gravity of sexual violence are the ones least likely to be given the opportunity to speak about it.
Finally, compartmentalizing Louis CK's "evolution" and misogynist jokes into two separate pieces, in order to praise the former, elides the fact that misogyny underwrites rape culture. He didn't say that he realizes rape culture exists in a void; he said it in a segment in which he used a classic feminist silencing trope, a misogynist slur, gender essentialist humor, and told women to "shut the fuck up for a minute." Extricating his "evolution" from that context is to fail to acknowledge that treating women as less than is a key feature of rape culture.
What he did isn't progress. It's ass-covering.
Bane of His Existence
This is just cracking my shit right the hell up this morning:
This summer's much-anticipated Hollywood blockbuster, "The Dark Knight Rises," is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, "Venom" gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney's former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.LOLOLOL! Well, when you put it THAT way...
"Bane" is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president's assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.
"It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood," said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. "Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society," he added.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker kiwi_a: "What's a taste/scent that instantly gives you a feeling of warm/fuzzy nostalgia?"
Mulberries.
Photo of the Day
U.S. President Barack Obama is pictured during a heavy rain storm at a campaign stop in Glen Allen, Virginia, on Saturday, July 14, 2012. [Reuters Pictures]And what was Mitt Romney doing on the same day? This.
Headline of the Day
Perfect. That is obviously just a perfect headline that really encapsulates an important truth. Good job, Team Limbaugh!
In case you're wondering what, exactly, it was that caused Rush Limbaugh to proclaim that the President of the United States hates the United States, it was his saying this during a campaign appearance in Virginia last week:
If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own! I'm always struck by people who think, "Well, it must be 'cause I was just so smart!" There are a lot of smart people out there! "It must be because I worked harder than everybody else." Let me tell you something: There are a whole bunch of hardworkin' people out there! If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help!How dare he. This is why Mitt Romney is going to pick a pair of bootstraps as his running mate, to remind REAL AMERICA that nobody who's anybody ever got any help from somebody! Or something!
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Child abuse.]
Three: The percentage increase in "the rate of child abuse requiring hospital admission" for every 1% increase in the 90-day mortgage delinquency rate. In other words, the threat of foreclosure translates, via the sort of sustained stress that subverts patience and impulse control, people are more likely to abuse their kids and/or more likely to abuse them more seriously.
Researchers collected data from from about 40 U.S. hospitals and connected the information to unemployment, foreclosure, and mortgage delinquency figures in each hospital's geographic region.Trickle-down economics has always been bullshit. But trickle-down abuse is not. Left unchecked, it carries through families generation after generation like a fondness for granny's biscuits. And it is a cycle exponentially more difficult to break when there is not a meaningful social safety net that provides education, healthcare, means to recovery, and stability.
The study's lead researcher, Dr. Joanne Wood, said she started the study because her colleagues were seeing an increase in cases of child abuse requiring hospitalization. Wood discovered that children whose families had a more insecure housing situation were far more likely to be abused.
Wood's findings come at a time when many states are attempting to pass foreclosure reforms and homeowner protection measures, but are being met with fierce opposition from banks.
Abusers are individually responsible for the harm they do, but we are all accountable for the culture we build and its capacity to facilitate or subvert abuse.
It's simply not possible to have a stable home under the constant threat of loss. That isn't to suggest every person in an unstable home is going to harm others or themselves. It is simply to acknowledge this truth: Instability abets or intensifies abuse, where it has already cast its shadow.
This is just one of many reasons to support policies that privilege people over profits.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Films with a Female Director. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by wagging tails.
Recommended Reading:
Vivian: Superhuman Strength [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of misogyny in gaming.]
Jesse: Lackland Rape Scandal Shines Spotlight on Military Failure [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of sexual violence and rape apologia in the US military.]
Brandon: How a Mormon Bishop Became an LGBT Ally (with an Assist from Carson Kressley) [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of homophobia and violent threats.]
Mary: Funny how it's always the other guys who are responsible for the bad decisions of the organizations Mitt heads.
Shankar: How Stereotypes Can Drive Women to Quit Science [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of misogyny and victim-blaming.]
Rachel: In Praise of Old Friends
Finally: Is this [CN: violence] the best review of a Chris Brown album ever?
UPDATE: Also! Sign the petition: Texas Health and Human Services Commission: Do not enact new abortion reporting requirements.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Quote of the Day
"No, we will not apologize. Mr. Romney claims he's Mr. Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience."—President Barack Obama, on his campaign's political attack on Mitt Romney's conflicting accounts of his tenure with Bain Capital.
This was the unyielding assault on Republican shenanigans I wanted to see last election. Please keep it up, Obama campaign. Keep. It. Up.
Even (and maybe especially) if you are, like me, routinely disappointed by President Obama's failure to be progressive enough on a variety of issues, campaign messaging that criticizes conservative economic ideology and corporatism is important to highlight and support. It is way the hell more valuable to the national dialogue than the milquetoast genuflections to bipartisanship including exhortations to axiomatically respect Republicans' ideas, no matter how garbage they are, that have been a hallmark of Obama's style in years past.
Daily Dose of Cute
Today is the one-year anniversary of Zelda's adoption. I can't believe our little American Adorbzhound has been with us a year already, and, in the way that such contemplation of passing time always makes inevitable, I can't believe she's only been here a year.
She is a wonderful dog, loved even by friends who say they aren't especially fond of dogs. She is a voracious cuddle monster, and a loyal companion who wants nothing more in this world to make us happy. The feeling is mutual.
In the year since she joined us, she has been nothing but a delight. She's now great on the leash and is a pleasure to walk. She's still fussy about letting us trim her nails, but she lets Matilda's groomer do it, which is a compromise with which we both can live. And she's still scared of other dogs when she and/or they are off-leash, but if we introduce her in a structured way that lets her know she's safe, she's fine. I don't know that we'll ever totally undo whatever made her terrified of every other dog in the world (besides, inexplicably, Dudley), but there has been marked improvement.
And because even the animals of Shakes Manor carry teaspoons, she has been an excellent ambassador for shelter dogs and mixed-breed dogs. Those funny little Dorito ears have started a lot of conversations about where she came from, and she sits patiently, grinning, while I tell the story again of finding her at the pound, of looking into those big brown eyes for the first time and knowing down to my bones that she was my dog.
So, in honor of Zelda's first year with us, here is a little video celebrating her happy life in her forever home and showing what abundant joy rescuing a shelter dog can be.
Set to Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me."
Text Onscreen: On July 16, 2011, we walked into the local Humane Society, and we saw a little black dog who didn't even have a name… [image of Zelda curled up on a blanket] We decided to give her a name. [image of Zelda grinning with "Zelda" in text beside her] And a forever home.
Video clips: Zelda riding in the car, with Dudley peeking his nose over the backseat. Zelda sitting, wagging her tail, looking up into the camera, and grinning. Zelda greeting me at the front door, grinning and wagging her tail excitedly. Zelda and Dudley playing chase in the backyard last summer, seguing into digging and investigating together in the fall, seguing into chasing each other through the snow last winter. Zelda running toward me through the snow, grinning; I zoom in on her and she puffs frosty air, then runs off across the garden again. Zelda lies on her back on the couch with her belly exposed and legs in the air; I rub her special belly spot and her back leg kicks wildly. Zelda lies on the living room floor on her belly, back legs out behind her, chewing on a rawhide; she turns and grins then goes back to chewing. Zelly leaps and grabs her plushy raccoon; sits and grins and twists her Dorito ears in a funny shape; looks at me and wags her tail; greets me excitedly at the front door; brings Dudley a giant plushy duck; runs across the garden toward me, grinning; pulls a plushy lobster out of the toybox and lies down next to Dudley on his dog bed; lies beside Dudley in the grass; chases a ball in the garden; scans the garden alertly; runs wildly at the dog park.
Still pictures of Zelda lying on my legs; cuddled on the sofa next to Iain; napping between Dudley and Sophie; napping next to Matilda and Dudley; napping next to Olivia.
Text Onscreen: Shelter animals make great pets. Opt to adopt.
Image of Zelly looking regal and generally awesome.
Good Dog.
Monumentally Insensitive
by Garland Grey, who can be regularly found blogging at Tiger Beatdown.
[Content Note: Sexual violence; rape apologia.]
Yesterday reports started emerging that Penn State had decided to keep Joe Paterno's statue at Beaver Stadium, in deference to his defenders on campus and in the alumni rolls:
The trustees' reluctance to remove the statue is motivated, in part, by a desire not to offend alumni and students who adore the late coach despite the damning findings of his role in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse cover-up detailed in the Freeh report, the sources said. Some trustees also said in interviews they want to resist being pressured by the media into a sudden decision about such an emotionally charged issue.The Freeh report proved that Paterno was aware of the 1998 investigation into Jerry Sandusky's conduct with young boys, an investigation that found that Sandusky was engaging in behaviors consistent with grooming a child for sexual abuse. Paterno, despite claiming to Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post "nobody had any inkling of it," was interested and involved in the case. The opening paragraph of Jenkins' follow-up to that interview after the release of the Freeh report is scathing:
Joe Paterno was a liar, there's no doubt about that now. He was also a cover-up artist. If the Freeh report [pdf] is correct in its summary of the Penn State child molestation scandal, the public Paterno of the last few years was a work of fiction. In his place is a hubristic, indictable hypocrite.Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI and the head of an investigation into the role of senior Penn State officials in covering up Sandusky's crimes, stated quite plainly:
"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for fourteen years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."Paterno did nothing to prevent Sandusky from using his Second Mile charity to prey on children, other than no longer allowing him to abuse children ON THE PREMISES. He did not think raping a ten-year-old child in 2001 should disqualify Sandusky from operating a summer camp at a Penn State satellite campus in Erie for six years. He made every decision as if the football program were the highest possible good and he protected a child rapist.
Possibly because the earlier trial balloon drew justified criticism, Penn State released a statement clarifying it hadn't made a decision regarding the statue.
Contrary to various reports, neither the Board of Trustees nor University Administration has taken a vote or made a decision regarding the Joe Paterno statue at Beaver Stadium.Fucking cowards.
Considering the fact that there are people on this earth who were sexually abused and/or raped because of Joe Paterno's concern with his "legacy," with how his work and reputation would be affected by separating vulnerable children from a sexual predator, leaving the statue up is unthinkable. If you could put a statue in the stocks for eternity, if you could transform that image into a cautionary tale about hubris and those who would use human dignity as currency, then it might be acceptable. But leaving it as is is not an option.
To have the major image of Joe Paterno on campus be this folksy cast of him with a giant grin and his tie askew in the wind, a single index finger in the air as if someone had just asked him how many sexual predators he was currently keeping quiet for is a capitulation to the worst parts of the University's culture. It allows those who apologized for him, who rioted for him, who to this day will defend him on social media, those people who do not understand your odd moral code where football isn't the most important thing in the world, those who reside in a moral universe in which their University's team winning is totally worth what Sandusky did to mostly poor, most minority kids because they can hang onto a sliver of doubt or can put this monstrous choice into some sort of perspective where Paterno isn't this totally vile, cynical figure, it allows those people a place on campus to which they can make a pilgrimage, to engage in fellowship with other people who believe as they do that revering this man's legend is much more important than the children he ignored his responsibility to.
Once you put the Freeh report in the proper place in Paterno's biography, it proves that he was the sort of man who was able to make terrible moral bargains with himself while publicly holding himself to be a paragon of social responsibility. He was the righteous man, unwilling to exploit his players for their labor, interested in turning out educated athletes, pillar of the community. All of that was to glorify himself, and we know this because when offered the choice between replacing a member of his staff and coving up child rape, he chose football.
He chose a strong program; he chose to abdicate moral responsibility to protect his winning record and his dynasty and everything that statue represents. There is no question that Penn State is going to spend years defining itself by the series of decisions Joe Paterno made about Jerry Sandusky. And it is totally foreseeable that portions of the campus might form their own durable mythology of apologia about Paterno and his behavior, and they'll do this because Joe Paterno irrevocably damaged the reputation of their school. So they'll cling to the heroic image of him that much tighter. Those people don't deserve a place to worship him.
If Penn State now concerns itself with education in any form, it will recognize the importance of removing that man's face and name from campus, unless they are attached to a meaningful discussion of rape culture. Otherwise it looks like he made the right choice to look the other way.
I mean sure, his last days were lived in disgrace, but if he had reported child rape he might have lost a few football games. He had his dynasty to think about, his legacy.
Rewarding that decision posthumously is obscene.
Breaking Bad Open Thread
Better
Last night's episode will be discussed in spoileriffic detail, so if you don't want any spoilers, please take your bag of money and make a run for the border.
Take That, Monday!
Do you want to see fully one biebillion adorable pictures of President Obama interacting with children? Well, then you are IN LUCK!
President Obama and Kids.
That links to a Tumblr that Jessica Luther, aka scATX, with whom I share an inordinate love of pictures of President Obama and Kids, created over the weekend, because she is a national treasure.
[Commenting Note: I am aware, as are we all, that President Obama supports some policies that are actually not all that great for kids, especially when it comes to US foreign policy, which is an endless garbage nightmare. It's my estimation that celebrating positive interactions with children is central to the objective of humane policies; you may disagree, but this is not the thread for that discussion. If you would like to have that discussion, please feel free to pitch a guest post on the subject.]
More of This, Please!
What I like is when Democratic candidates fight tough and give me some indication that they hate Republican policies as much as I do. What I like is this new Obama campaign advert. I like it A LOT.
Video Description: Image of President Barack Obama walking in the walkway along the Rose Garden at the White House. He says in voiceover, "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message."WOW. Just wow. That is a very effective ad.
Cut to video of Mitt Romney singing "America the Beautiful" slightly offkey at a campaign appearance in Florida in January. While he continues to sing, we cut to the interior of an empty factory, over which text appears: "In business, Mitt Romney's firms shipped jobs to Mexico." Cut to the exterior of the factory. "And China." [Sources: SEC and Los Angeles Times.]
Cut to the interior of an empty office space. "As Governor, Romney outsourced jobs to India." [Source: The Boston Globe.] Cut to a Swiss flag billowing in the breeze. "He had millions in a Swiss bank account." [Source: ABC News.] Cut to palm trees at the edge of the ocean. "Tax havens like Bermuda..." [Source: Vanity Fair] Cut to a tropical beach. "And the Cayman Islands." [Source: ABC News]
All the while, Mitt Romney continues to sing "America the Beautiful" in the background.
Cut to a black screen with stark white text: "Mitt Romney's not the solution. He's the problem."
Well done, Team Obama. Well done indeed.
[H/T to Jessica.]
Today in the Cheese Stands Alone
Mitt Romney was back at his family's vacation mansion at Lake Winnipesaukee over the weekend. I'm glad he's getting so much down time, y'all. I'm sure it's exhausting having to pretend to relate to people who have to work for a living and trying to spin how your garbage policies to redistribute wealth upwards are in any way going to make their lives better.
Hey, remember how Mitt Romney kinda sorta maybe lied about when he actually left Bain Capital? And how lying about that whooooooops would have been a felony? Well, DON'T WORRY, everyone! It turns out that Romney "retired retroactively." HA HA THAT CLEARS IT UP!
Case closed.
