"Pet me. Pehhhhhhhhhhhhht meeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Daily Dose of Cute
"Pet me. Pehhhhhhhhhhhhht meeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Random Nerd Nostalgia: The Awkwardness of Infinite Earths
[Image Description: A middle-aged Steve Trevor grins as he hugs, on one hand, Earth-1 Wonder Woman (who has the "WW" uniform and black hair" and her Earth-2 counterpart, who is rendered TOTES OLD by a single gray streak in her fabulous locks. And the old eagle emblem. Steve is saying to Younger Wondy: "See why I fell in love with her the instant I laid eyes on her back in '41? No actually it'll be twenty years in a few weeks." Older Wondy: "I said I'd never marry him until all evil was vanquished from the world--" (ed:HA HA HA yeah we've all heard *that* line!!!)]
Alternate Caption: "That Existentially Awkward Moment When You're Hugging Two Different Versions of Your Wife."
Scanned From Wonder Woman #300, February 1983.
The Parks and Rec Open Thread
"I love you and I like you."
(Spoilers are getting so totally married herein.)
Okay, so there were two episodes of Parks and Rec last night, and I've only had the chance to watch the first one, which was the conclusion of last week's cliffhanger, i.e. LESLIE AND BEN'S WEDDING YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! But please feel free to discuss both episodes in this thread, even though I'm only covering the first one.
Which was pretty much a perfect episode, though which I blubbed nearly the whole time. I LIT-ERALLY CRIED LIKE CHRIS TRAEGER!
Chris' gift to Ben! Ann's dress for Leslie! Ron's gift to EVERYONE when he punched Jamm in the face! Leslie's dress! Donna singing! Did I mention Leslie's dress yet? LESLIE'S DRESS!
Way to go with that dress, Ann. (And whoever actually made it in real life. Amazing.)
Now you know I was going to be a soppy mess at this episode anyway, but here is something from my real life which I share with you in order for you to understand the exact level of soppymessitude I achieved during Leslie and Ben's wedding: When Iain and I were married by Judge Diane Winter at the Waukegan court house almost 11 years ago, the thing I said to Iain was this: "I love you and I like you." And he said, "I love you and I like you, too." And it's something we've said to each other ever since. So...yeah.
Here are other things I loved!
"Oh, wait, before we get married, there is something we need to discuss, I mean, we've never talked about it, but I really want you to take my last name? It's just really important to me symbolically that Leslie Knope disappears and becomes Leslie Wyatt, or Councilwoman Mrs. Ben Wyatt, that's fine, too. It's a dealbreaker." "Wait, are you messing with me?" "Yeah." "Did you just pee your pants?" "Just a dab." "Turtledove?" "Falcon?" "Oh thank you so much! You have got an amazing house and a really cool nightgown and seem to be super good at dating." "Yeah, so, can we adopt you as our grandma?" "Fine." "Okay, love you, Grandma!" "We love you, Grandma!" "You better make sure my aunt gets her megaphone back!" "You are a wonderful person, your friendship means a lot to me, and you look very beautiful." "Okay, weirdo. Let's go." "Close only counts in horse grenades." "When you're in love, everything seems like a sign."Discuss!
In The News
[Content note: Misogyny, terrorism, homophobia]
Centaxday News:
Democratic leaders in the New Jersey Legislature will try to override Chris Christie's marriage equality veto. Go, Dems!
U.S. drone strikes are up sharply in Afghanistan. Of course.
Lindsey Graham estimated that the United States has killed 4,700 people in drone strikes. He counts that as a positive.
This is what a Home Depot looks like on Google maps. Obviously.
If you count up all the significant female characters who appear in the original Star Wars trilogy, the list reads as follows ... Princess Leia.
Related: Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Han Solo in the next installment of the franchise.
And: Mark Hamill is in talks to appear as Luke Skywalker.
Ladies and gentlemen: The 2013 Liberty in Film Awards. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!
In Case You'd Forgotten for Two Seconds, John McCain Is Terrible
[Content Note: Guns.]
Crowd Cheers After McCain Tells Aurora Victim's Mother She Needs "Straight Talk":
Constituents at a town hall hosted by Sen. John McCain Wednesday in Phoenix cheered after the Arizona Republican told the mother of an Aurora, Colo. shooting victim that an assault weapons ban could not get through Congress.Cool party you've got there, Republicans.
"My 24-year-old son, Alex, was murdered in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.," Caren Teves said. "These assault rifles allow the shooter to fire many rounds without having to reload. These weapons to do not belong on our streets."
"I can tell you right now you need some straight talk. That assault weapons ban will not pass the Congress of the United States," McCain responded. The video, posted Thursday by Phoenix's KTVK, showed the line drawing applause and cheers from the crowd.
Discussion Thread: Bad Habits
What are your bad habits? Just to be clear, this thread is for confessing our own bad habits, not complaining about other people's, or making general statements about things we regard as bad habits.
I gnaw at my cuticles. I also have chronic laundry disorganization. That is not a complete list, lol.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Guns; Islamophobia.]
"[The Second Amendment] is for our protection and the founders' quotes make that very, very clear and including against a government that would run amok. We've got some people who think Sharia Law should be the law of the land, forget the Constitution. But the guns are there, that Second Amendment is there, to make sure all of the rest of the Amendments are followed."—Tea Party Star and Republican Congressman from Texas Louie Gohmert, who, as usual, has no idea what the fuck he is talking about, because he lives in some sinister fantasyland where there's apparently a threat greater than zero of the US government adopting Sharia Law.
Another perfect example of someone who feels afraid, but is in fact in absolute no actual danger as a result of his invented fear.
Happy Birthday, Aphra Behn!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a radical Girrrrrrrrl Scouuuuuuuut!
And you smell like one, tooooooooooooo!
Mmm...Samoas!
I love you, lady!
Question of the Day
It's that time again: What would you like to see (re)asked as a future Question of the Day?
Welp, Here's a Picture We All Need to Experience
Blog Note
It's not just you: Comments are glitchy again. Comments appear to post to the page, then disappear and reappear, or there's a big lag in their posting to the page. I've notified Disqus, and hopefully it will be resolved soon. In the meantime, please be assured we're not deleting comments (except where there are serious violations of the commenting policy, natch). I apologize for the inconvenience.
More News from the Conservative Legislation Lab
[Content Note: War on agency.]
When you want to know what screwball scheme to make people's lives a misery the Republicans are about to roll out across the nation, look no further than the Indiana State legislature, where the state senate advanced a bill yesterday that would "require women to undergo an ultrasound procedure both before and after having a medication-induced abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy." That would be one mandatory vaginal ultrasound before the abortion, and one mandatory vaginal ultrasound after the abortion.
The bill, introduced by state Sen. Travis Holdman (R), imposes heavy regulations on clinics and physicians that offer medication abortions, which are generally used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks from a woman's last period. It would require women to be presented with the sound and image of the fetal heartbeat before the abortion and to return for a follow-up ultrasound to ensure that she is no longer pregnant and has stopped bleeding.Nevertheless, the Health and Provider Services Committee in the Republican-controlled state senate passed the bill out of committee 7-5, so it's going up for a full vote in the state senate.
Dr. Anne Davis, the consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health, said the requirement would place an undue burden on women seeking to end their pregnancies. "She can do a blood test at any local facility after an abortion to show that the hormone levels are going down as they should, there's no medical reason to make her drive back to the abortion clinic and go through another ultrasound," she said. "This is yet another onerous, medically unnecessary barrier."
Both ultrasounds, abortion physicians explain, would likely have to be performed with a transvaginal probe, since medication abortions usually occur too early in the pregnancy for the external "jelly-on-the-belly" procedure to provide a clear image. Davis said that transvaginal ultrasounds are the "standard procedure" used for first-trimester abortions and that they can be "physically or emotionally uncomfortable." Requiring two of these ultrasounds, she said, would be medically unnecessary, and would make abortion access more difficult for poor and rural women who cannot get time off work, need to make childcare arrangements and have long distances to drive.
But don't go thinking that Indiana Republicans are just trying to discourage and punish women and other people with uteri from exercising their reproductive rights! OH HEAVENS NO! Our old friend Sue Swayze, legislative director of Indiana Right to Life, explained on local radio that the "goal of the bill is to protect women's safety and hold abortion clinics to higher health standards." See? Don't you feel better? They're just looking out for us.
Swazye also took a moment to explain why she does not find compelling our silly arguments about consent vs. coercion:
She said she does not understand why it would be a problem to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds.That would be fucking hilarious if it weren't one of the grossest things I've ever heard. I guess I can't object to anything ever entering my vagina again, since I've consented to a penis being in there!
"I got pregnant vaginally," she said. "Something else could come in my vagina for a medical test that wouldn't be that intrusive to me. So I find that argument a little ridiculous."
Fucking hell.
[H/T to Jordan.]
There Speaks a True Ally
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
Laura Bush wants to be removed from pro-gay marriage ad:
Former first lady Laura Bush has asked the Respect for Marriage Coalition to remove her from an advertisement that uses politicians from both parties to push for the legalization of gay marriage.It's quite unusual that a political figure would object to their publicly stated policies being used fairly in an ad campaign like this one. Nonetheless, the Respect for Marriage Coalition has honored her request and removed her from the ad.
"Mrs. Bush did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement nor is she associated in any way with the group that made the ad," Anne MacDonald, a spokeswoman for the former first lady, wrote in a statement obtained Thursday by CNN. "When she became aware of the advertisement Tuesday night, we requested that the group remove her from it."
In the ad, Bush is shown saying she believes that "when couples are committed to each other and love each other then they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has."
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Hostility to agency.]
"Nothing can be done to your body without your permission. It'd be a violation of the constitutional right to privacy if that were to happen."—Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, accidentally endorsing Roe v. Wade while answering a question about the government's plan to microchipp children (sure) during a townhall in Chariton, Iowa, yesterday. Whoooooooops!
As Scott points out at Think Progress, Grassley has pro-choice score of zero from NARAL.
lol your principles
Daily Dose of Cute
Olivia still can't stop thinking about Tony. Wondering where he could be, who he is with, what is he thinking, is he thinking of her, and whether he'll ever return someday...
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Oh Top Chef. Why.
[Spoiler Warning: If you've not yet seen the latest episode of Top Chef, which was Part One of a two-part finale, you might want to skip this post.]
So, in last night's episode of Top Chef, the winner of Last Chance Kitchen came back into the competition and OMG YAY it was Kristen, who has been my favorite cheftestant all season. I also really love Brooke, and Sheldon is fine (though my opinion of him diminished considerably after his quips about how he couldn't parent his three daughters on his own the way his wife does and how the best MAN should win, emphasis on MAN; he made certain we understood the joke about how neither of the WOMEN should win), so it was pretty great to go into the finale with three cheftestants I like. I can't even remember the last time that happened.
Naturally, I was hoping, even before Sheldon's ha ha sexist jokes, that one of the women would win, because in the history of the show and its ten seasons (plus several Masters and All-Stars seasons), only one female chef, Stephanie Izard, has won.
And lo and behold, Sheldon was told to pack his knives and go, so we are left with two female finalists, thus ensuring a female victory on Top Chef. Huzzah!
Except.
When Stephanie Izard won, despite her having been a strong contender all season, runner-up Richard Blais was said to have "choked." The message on the show was that Richard would have (and should have) won, if only he hadn't "choked." This frame was further reinforced during the All-Stars season that he won, as the narrative throughout was that it was a chance for Richard to achieve "redemption," after virtually handing the win to Stephanie by "choking."
The only female chef to ever have won has been routinely undermined by this idea that she only won because Richard made a huge mistake, as opposed to having won because she's super awesome and, by the way, has one of the most popular eateries in Chicago because she is so super awesome.
On last night's episode, the show already seemed to be offering up a similar frame for Sheldon, who didn't cook "his food." He abandoned the style with which they were familiar, in his words to show his growth as a chef, but oh how the judges lamented that Sheldon didn't cook like Sheldon, the implication being that he choked at the finish line.
I don't think the intent of the show and its judges/producers is explicitly to undermine female chefs. Rather, I think there is an urge to offer redemption stories to male chefs who come so close, because of all the various reasons that urges to coddle male ego, even at the expense of female ego, exist throughout a culture that privileges maleness.
But the practical effect is nonetheless undermining female chefs.
This is a narrative problem of which the show must be aware, and to which it must be sensitive, if it really wants its audience to believe that it doesn't prefer male chefs to win.
A woman apparently can't win Top Chef outside the frame that a man fucked up. It's never that she outcooked him at the top of his game.
This is a problem.
Discussion Thread: Rape Culture in Rom-Coms
[Content Note: This thread will contain lots of discussion about stalking, hostility to consent, NiceGuyism, hostility to consent, and other facets of rape culture. Please assess your spoons carefully and proceed accordingly.]
I was talking to a friend recently about the 1982 Scott Baio film Zapped!, in which Baio's character acquires telekinetic powers during an experiment and uses them to, I shit you not, blow girls' clothes off. It put me in mind of this old post and the associated thread, in which we discussed how there's a rape in Sixteen Candles, just tucked in there at the end, like another hilarious twist in a teen rom-com, and the threads we've had about how the immensely popular Superbad is a film about two guys trying to get girls drunk enough to "have sex with" them, and this thread, and dozens of others like it, where we've talked about how crimes like stalking are frequently portrayed as romantic and/or a normal part of courtship.
So, here is a thread to compile all the many ways rape culture plays out in romantic comedies and serves to normalize hostility to consent and healthy relationship dynamics, even in films we may like and enjoy. I, for example, have an intractable fondness for Love, Actually, even though it is super problematic in so many ways specific to this thread.
What films can you think of that include stalking, spying, snooping, coercion, sexual assault, rape, etc. are played out as a totally noncontroversial part of courtship?
Photo of the Day
[Click to embiggen.]
The second-term official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, taken by Chuck Kennedy.
