[Content note: Racism, gun violence, homophobia]
Tuesday News, Entertainment, and Weather:
Trayvon Martin's family is marking the one-year anniversary of his shooting death with a candlelight vigil in New York City.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop died.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank, is cutting 19,000 jobs.
The Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word "Negro" to describe black Americans in surveys.
The NFL wants to know if Manti Te'o is gay. Obviously.
Hey, you know who is gay? Obama. Obviously. Some conservative douche has proof. Obviously.
The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, is now funding anti-LGBT work in Brazil. Just like Jesus would do!
Speaking of: Pat Robertson says demons may attach themselves to sweaters from Goodwill Shops. Neat!
Just FYI, if you do get demon in your sweater, Febreze takes it right out.
In The News
Blog Note
Liss has been dealing with some health issues yesterday and last night, so she'll be taking today off. I'm sure we all wish her a very restful, and very healing, time.
I am personally sending her the amazingly soothing sound of beagle-y snoring:
Question of the Day
Suggested by Mustang Bobby: "What do you like the most about the place where you live?"
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by books.
Recommended Reading:
Digby: "Highly Sensitive" Secrets [Content Note: Discussion of drones.]
Pam: If You Can Drive...
Jorge: Oscars "In Memoriam" Snubs Lupe Ontiveros, Twice
Jessica: Trusting Women Is Good Policy for Texas [Content Note: Discussion of reproductive rights.]
FMF News: First Woman President of South Korea Sworn In
Fannie: On the "Bright" Side
Flyover Feminism: Practical Feminism with Sunny Clifford
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
"What?" "What?"
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In The News
[Content note: Misogyny, homophobia, violence]
Monday News:
Anti-gay Cardinal Keith O'Brien has resigned after complaints surfaced that he's made sexual advances toward some of his priests. Oof.
The Onion called Quvenzhané Wallis a cunt last night, because satire.
Here is an antidote for the above nonsense: Quvenzhané Wallis basically just being adorbz.
Former BBC designer Ray Cusick, the man who created the Dalek, died in his sleep last week.
Damon Harris, a former member of the Motown group The Temptations, died after a long bout with cancer.
Harris can be seen singing here on Papa Was A Rolling Stone.
Ted Cruz (R-McCarthytown) claims he has a list of Communists who have infiltrated Harvard Law School. LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Whut?
I guess what Tic Tic is now suggesting is that we use their mints rectally.
A go-go dancer helped subdue an ax-wielding man in a gay club in Phoenix. I love go-go boys.
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 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.
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
[Content Note: Guns.]
This weekend, Melissa Harris-Perry did a segment on how "guns are the only recurring theme in all shootings." (Video and transcript at link.) It is a great segment, and I encourage you to watch/read it, if you have the opportunity.
One of the observations MHP made, given that tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of George Zimmerman having killed Trayvon Martin, is that if George Zimmerman had not been carrying a gun, Trayon Martin would probably still be alive.
Gun proponents like to say things like "guns don't kill people" and make specious arguments about how people would just carry knives if guns were taken away, but these are deeply dishonest claims.
The truth is, guns empower lots of people to do violence they wouldn't otherwise do. George Zimmerman was not going to get out of his car and stalk Trayvon Martin with a pocketknife. We need to be honest about that.
Gun proponents know damn well that guns and knives are not the same, and not just for the damage they are capable of doing. "Guns aren't the problem!" they bellow. "If you take away guns, people will just use knives!" As if there isn't something different, something special, about guns.
But of course there is. No one knows that better than they do. That's why they fight so determinedly not to give them up.
Take Your Boobs to the White House Watch
Jonathan Martin at Politico: Dems 2016: Will Hillary Clinton clear the field?
The ranks of Democratic governors are filled with ambitious politicians boasting records that would probably play well with primary voters in 2016.Broad recognition. Har har. See what he did there?
But even as they eye a move from the statehouse to the White House, there's broad recognition among the chief executives that the next generation of Democrats may have to wait longer than four more years to take their place as President Barack Obama's heir.
It's an unprecedented scenario, noted some of the governors: a first lady-turned-senator-turned-presidential candidate-turned Secretary of State with 100-percent name ID and deep popularity who would, oh yes, make history as the nation's first female president.How generous of Governor Nixon to concede that Clinton is "entitled to her time of analysis." But make it snappy, wouldja, Hilz? There are MEN waiting to make decisions!
..."It's just a very unique situation in which an extremely qualified candidate with a long history of public service who has been fully vetted is considering running for the presidency," noted [Democratic Governor of Missouri Jay Nixon], who easily won reelection last year to his second term in conservative-leaning Missouri. "She's entitled to her time of analysis. It does, I think, in many ways freeze the field until she more clearly states what she wants to do with the rest of her life."
The Oscars Open Thread
Daniel Day-Lewis drank everyone's milkshake. Again.
Welp, Seth MacFarlane did precisely as contemptible a job hosting the Oscars as I imagined he would, opening the show with a domestic violence joke, a song about seeing actresses' boobs in movies, and a gay joke. That's the point at which I started fast-forwarding through any appearance of his face onscreen. And then I fell asleep just before Quentin Tarantino won for writing, which was awesome. The falling asleep, I mean, not his winning. And I woke up just in time to see Ang Lee win for directing, which was well-deserved: Life of Pi was definitely one of my favorite films of the year.
Other things: Adele was great. Daniel Day-Lewis is very charming. Michelle Obama! The end.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
Belly up to the bar,
and be in this space together.
Sequesterfuck
I've been reading all about THE GREAT SEQUESTER SHOWDOWN OF THE YEAR OF OUR LORD JESUS JONES TWO THOUSAND AND THIRTEEN, and I don't even know what to say about it besides ugh and yeesh and good grief.
Luckily, Paul Krugman exists in the world. And you should definitely go read his latest, "Sequester of Fools."
I Am Not a Political Football
[Content Note: Privilege; misogyny; hostility to agency.]
Here is something I've written: There are the occasions that men—intellectual men, clever men, engaged men—insist on playing devil's advocate, desirous of a debate on some aspect of feminist theory or reproductive rights or some other subject generally filed under the heading: Women's Issues. These intellectual, clever, engaged men want to endlessly probe my argument for weaknesses, want to wrestle over details, want to argue just for fun—and they wonder, these intellectual, clever, engaged men, why my voice keeps raising and why my face is flushed and why, after an hour of fighting my corner, hot tears burn the corners of my eyes. Why do you have to take this stuff so personally? ask the intellectual, clever, and engaged men, who have never considered that the content of the abstract exercise that's so much fun for them is the stuff of my life.
Here is another thing I've written: It is unfair to ask a woman to leave aside her personal experience and discuss feminist issues in the abstract. You are discussing the stuff of her life. Asking her to "not make it personal" is to ask her to wrench her womanhood from her personhood. Don't play Devil's advocate. Seriously. Just don't.
There are a lot of men (and this is not just a thing that men do to women, but a thing that privileged people do to people who do not share their privilege) who do not understand what The Big Deal is with talking to women about various things that fall under the umbrella of Women's Issues, especially reproductive rights, in ways that treat politics as nothing more than a game.
This morning, after I tweeted a link to my piece on the Indiana state senate's latest attack in the war on agency, this happened:
@shakestweetz I think that sort of thing is good news, in a way, because it shows Republicans aren't very good at politics.
— Miguel Canabosis (@MiguelCanabosis) February 22, 2013
@shakestweetz Not good news, but I don't think they'll win, and by attempting this they damage themselves politically.
— Miguel Canabosis (@MiguelCanabosis) February 22, 2013
I don't want to appear to be picking on @MiguelCanabosis individually and exclusively, because this is pretty typical of a lot of exchanges I have on Twitter. It's just one example, and it just happened to be the most recent example on the day that I decided I wanted to say something about this sort of interaction.
The thing is, this shit is exhausting.
And I want to state very clearly that not all women feel the same way about this (or anything else, because we are not a monolith; also, not only women and not all women have uteri). There are some women who think of reproductive rights legislation in a strictly dispassionate, analytical, and impersonal way. There are some women who don't think about reproductive rights legislation at all.
But for those of us who do think about it, and who further think about it, either exclusively or in addition to analytically, in a passionate, intimate, and highly personal way, the quips and observations about whether the Republicans' continued attacks on our bodily autonomy, agency, and right of consent is good or bad politics is really fucking gross.
Not only does it elide the fact that conservatives have won a lot of goddamn battles, and constantly oblige reproductive rights advocates to fight and fight and fight against the onslaught of agency-denying horseshit, which is why there are currently 202 entries in Shakesville's Chipping Away at Roe label alone, but the flippancy of the "their overreach in trying to make your body state property will eventually work against them" premise is aggressively indifferent to the actual emotional toll it takes on lots of women to feel like we do not have the right of self-determination, to feel like we are not fully human, to feel like our country fucking hates us.
Being a real ally means centering the humanity of the people on whose behalf you intend to leverage your privilege, not letting your privilege insulate you from the ugly realities of the harm done by their marginalization.
If you seriously think it's a "good idea" to make millions of women feel this way, because politics is just a game to be a won, I strongly urge you to reconsider.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by dice.
Recommended Reading:
Chloe: Pistorius Granted Bail [Content Note: Violence.]
Seth: A Week's Worth of Troubling Immigration Revelations
Naima: "We" Only Do "Diversity" When We Want To: Atheist Silence & the Day of Solidarity for Black Non-believers
Celeste: Detroit Can't Recover Economically with Lead-Poisoned Children
Jess: Practical Feminism with Fatemeh Fakhraie
Jamelle: Extremist Republicans Don't Want to be Attacked for Extremism: Perhaps They Should Try Not-Extremism?
Rebecca: Nielsen Changes Its Definition of "TV Watching" to Reflect How People Actually Watch TV
Echidne: A Simple Proposal: Have Elections on Weekends
Andy: Ann Coulter Tells Roomful of Booing Students that Gays Can Marry—'a Person of the Opposite Sex'
Angry Asian Man: File Under Badass: 101-Year-Old Marathon Runner Races for Women's Rights
Living ~400lbs: Who Cares What Ina Garten Weighs?
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
