"It's a day!"
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
"It's a day!"
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
Here is some stuff in the news today!
The first inductees to the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame include 21 individuals, three organizations, one sports team, and one corporation. Congratulations, everyone!
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus is throwing a tantrum about CNN planning to air a documentary and NBC planning to air a miniseries about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "I think it's just about time that our party stands up and protects the party and candidates from networks that are not in the business of promoting our party, not in the business of promoting our candidates, not in the business of doing anything but promoting the Democratic party." HA HA HA THAT IS SO FUNNY FOR SO MANY REASONS. Not least of which is his assumption that the projects about Clinton will be favorable toward her!
Meanwhile, the real reason behind this shit-fit is that the RNC wants an excuse to "boycott" Republican debates next election, since they believe that the intense debate schedule hurt their electoral chances, by, you know, showing the country over and over what a heap of garbage their platform is and what bozos their candidates are.
Federal legislation has been introduced to include LGBT protections within the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act. The legislation, if approved during the RHYA's reauthorization, would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender by shelters receiving federal funding.
[Content Note: Self-harm; malicious prosecution] Indiana State Attorneys have reached a plea deal with Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese immigrant charged with murder and attempted feticide following a suicide attempt. Under the deal, she will not have to serve any more jail time, thank Maude. Background on the case here.
[CN: Rape culture; victim blaming] Jennifer Stephens, an armed forces veteran and battalion commander in the Ohio National Guard who works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is calling foul on a poster found in the women's bathroom titled "Preventing Sexual Assault Is Everyone's Duty!" and offering women hot advice like "Pay attention to your surroundings" and "Be prepared to get yourself home." Might I suggest they hang this in the men's bathroom instead?
Claudette Wilson works 14 hours a day, has no benefits, and makes less than $15,000 a year.
These single-stroke paintings are neat!
Groundhog Foreign Policy
[Content Note: Drones; war.]
I feel like I am living in the movie Groundhog Day, except instead of watching Bill Murray step off the curb into an icy puddle over and over, I'm reading the same horrible fucking stories about the US' horrible fucking foreign policy with the same horrible fucking justifications.
During the Bush administration, so many strikes on alleged insurgents were justified by reports that we'd taken out "Al Qaeda's second in command" that it became a tragic punchline. Late-night chat show hosts would talk about having killed another #2 in their monologues; websites compiled lists of all the #2s we'd killed; The Onion reported: "Eighty Percent Of Al-Qaeda No. 2s Now Dead."
It wasn't funny; it was absurd. And when George W. Bush left office, we expected a new chapter. We expected something more—we were promised something more.
But that hasn't happened.
This morning:
A pair of suspected U.S. drone strikes killed four al Qaeda militants in Yemen as the United States maintained a heightened security alert in the country and urged all Americans to leave immediately.Here we go again.
Security sources told CNN about the strikes but didn't offer additional details. A Yemeni official said four drone strikes have been carried out in the past 10 days.
None of those killed on Tuesday were among the 25 names on the country's most-wanted list, security officials said.
It is unclear whether the strikes were related to the added security alert in the country after U.S. officials intercepted a message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to operatives in Yemen telling them to "do something." The message was sent to Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group's Yemeni affiliate. U.S. intelligence believes al-Wuhayshi has recently been appointed the overall terror organization's No. 2 leader.
Maybe don't stay the course.
The Amazon Bugle
Amazon.com overlord Jeff Bezos has purchased the Washington Post for $250 million cash. Like ya do. And then he wrote a letter to the WaPo's employees, assuring them nothing would change except for all the stuff that will change.
So, let me start with something critical. The values of The Post do not need changing.Ha ha you sure about that?
There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years. That's essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there.Scout troops? Oof.
Good luck, employees of the Washington Post, and good luck to America.
No No No No No Forever
[Content Note: Police brutality; elder abuse; violence; death.]
What in the everloving fuck:
When John Wrana was a young man, fit and strong and fighting in World War II with the U.S. Army Air Corps, did he ever think he'd end this way?The police claim that Wrana was brandishing a knife, which neither staff nor Wrana's family had ever seen in his possession.
Just a few weeks shy of his 96th birthday, in need of a walker to move about, cops coming through the door of his retirement home with a Taser and a shotgun.
The old man, described by a family member as "wobbly" on his feet, had refused medical attention. The paramedics were called. They brought in the Park Forest police.
First they tased him, but that didn't work. So they fired a shotgun, hitting him in the stomach with a bean-bag round. Wrana was struck with such force that he bled to death internally, according to the Cook County medical examiner.
...I wasn't at the scene, and maybe the police have a good explanation. But common sense tells me that cops don't need a Taser or a shotgun to subdue a 95-year-old man.
Everything about this story is fucking terrible, and it starts with the cultural hostility we have toward individual agency. Why on earth should paramedics and police be called to force an old man to accept a medical intervention he doesn't want?
Naturally, Illinois has a Stand Your Ground ("in defense of person") law, and here again we see that such laws are only designed to be used by privileged people, while a vulnerable person does not have the right to stand his ground against unwanted care.
I don't guess I need to point out the breathtaking irony of killing a man in the process of trying to force him to undergo healthcare services he doesn't want.
[H/T to Amadi.]
AMC's The Killing Season Finale Open Thread
OMG THE FINALE WRECKED MY SHIT. Wrecked it! I am wrecked! I will not spoil anything in the main page post, because even the little spoilers are BIG SPOILERS. So, seriously, don't look at comments if you don't want to know, because we will be discussing ALL OF THE THINGS there. Also, don't read this interview with Mireille Enos if you haven't seen the episode yet, but definitely DO read it, if you have! AHH! THIS SHOW!
Zooey
First of all, I'm happy to report that since I began my enthusiastic campaign of liking Zooey Deschanel out of spite, we are now best friends and we totally play the most epic games of lasertag with the feral kittens in the Unicorn Forest every Thursday. I know you are way too busy to be jealous, because you're spending all your time having coffee with the guest lecturer at your university, Professor James Franco, so everything is great for all of us.
Zooey Deschanel, actress, singer, activist, and not at all my friend,
but definitely a human being who seems pretty neato and not in a sarcastic way.
Anyway! Actress Zooey Deschanel did a new interview with Marie Claire magazine, and I really kind of hate the way the article is framed—the way it starts with a description of a younger, chubbier Zooey Deschanel getting bullied, which is the way lots of stories about her start, and the ubiquity of this frame begins to suggest to me it's a way of magazines almost apologizing for or justifying interviewing Deschanel, despite the fact she is a super popular actress in a very popular show, because there's all this backlash about how she is SO TERRIBLE because she has bangs and likes cute things.
Which makes it kind of ironic that the reason I am recommending the interview is because of the smart things Zooey Deschanel says about that very backlash:
Out there, too, is the mini backlash that once briefly threatened her. TV critics mocked her "adorableness" in the blogosphere. Then in 2011, she was hanging out with actor Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) and her business partner, Sophia Rossi, with whom she cofounded a TV production company and a humor website for girls, HelloGiggles.com [where snark, gossip, and cursing are not allowed]. Deschanel was a Twitter neophyte (she has 4.5 million followers now) when she noticed that cutesy things like a kitten hugging a baby were what got the most retweets. She bet Schwartz and Rossi that if she tweeted "I wish everyone looked like a kitten," she would get 100 retweets in 10 minutes. "I did, and then a lot of people were like, 'What the fuck! Who said that? How stupid you are.'" Comedian Julie Klausner denounced the tweet on Tumblr, declaring that Deschanel's girlish image was bad for women. (Klausner later toned down her remarks.)Women who have "girlish images" (and that's not how I'd describe Deschanel, but okay) are not "bad for women." People who are hostile to women with "girlish images" because they reflexively associate girlishness and/or traditional femininity with a humanity that is inherently less than are bad for women.
"My theory is that people in this day and age want to dismiss things. So they want to be able to dismiss you," Deschanel says. "They say, 'You don't belong, you don't deserve this because here's why, and let me find an intellectual argument for why you wearing pink or cuff sleeves or a bow makes you not worthy of your accomplishments. Everything you've done doesn't matter because you wore the wrong thing or you speak in a way that's feminine or you identify yourself as feminine.' And I just think that's bullshit. And smart people are doing it, and that's surprising to me. I'll give them being smart, but they're being very shortsighted.
"It's just attacking who I am," she continues. "A lot of times it doesn't have to do with what I get paid to do. It has to do with, 'Oh, you stupid person.'" Part of the reason she started her website was to create a positive place online for girls. "Even I get slammed and overwhelmed by how negative the Internet can get, and I'm an adult."
Also, I like this:
Is having children on her priority list? "I'm not going to answer that question. I'm not mad at you for asking that question, but I've said it before: I don't think people ask men those questions."Boom. She's in fine company with that one.
Ends. Means. Whatever.
I don't even know what to say anymore:
A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.Just to be clear, a former DEA agent is comparing this law enforcement practice to laundering money, which is a criminal enterprise. LOL. Neat!
...The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.
"I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.
"It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations."
...A spokesman with the Department of Justice, which oversees the DEA, declined to comment.
But two senior DEA officials defended the program, and said trying to "recreate" an investigative trail is not only legal but a technique that is used almost daily.
A former federal agent in the northeastern United States who received such tips from SOD described the process. "You'd be told only, 'Be at a certain truck stop at a certain time and look for a certain vehicle.' And so we'd alert the state police to find an excuse to stop that vehicle, and then have a drug dog search it," the agent said.
After an arrest was made, agents then pretended that their investigation began with the traffic stop, not with the SOD tip, the former agent said. The training document reviewed by Reuters refers to this process as "parallel construction."
The two senior DEA officials, who spoke on behalf of the agency but only on condition of anonymity, said the process is kept secret to protect sources and investigative methods. "Parallel construction is a law enforcement technique we use every day," one official said. "It's decades old, a bedrock concept."
A dozen current or former federal agents interviewed by Reuters confirmed they had used parallel construction during their careers. Most defended the practice; some said they understood why those outside law enforcement might be concerned.
"It's just like laundering money - you work it backwards to make it clean," said Finn Selander, a DEA agent from 1991 to 2008 and now a member of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which advocates legalizing and regulating narcotics.
There is much, much more at the link.
Daily Dose of Cute
Over the weekend, Sophie was lying on the ottoman next to me while I was reading, and Dudley came up to her to say hi. Every time they interact, it's hilarious and adorable just by virtue of his being a ginormous dog-horse and her being a titchy cat-mouse, but when this happens it is just THE BEST:
1. Dudley sniffs Sophie's head.
2. Sophis marks Dudley's impossibly long muzzle with her impossibly tiny cheek.
3. Dudley grooms Sophie's head.
And then everyone in the house squeeeeeeeeeeeees ten million times and falls over from TOO MUCH CUTE!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Halifax's birthday.
Heather: A Closer Look at the Boy Scouts of America [CN:Christian dominionism, fat hatred, homophobia]
Arturo: Dr. Who Moves Backwards in Time [CN: misogyny, racism, ageism]
Laila: My Fictional Grandparents [CN: family separation, adoption]
Darren: Tales from the Cryptozoologicon: The Yeti
Andy: SD County Clerk Withdraws Petition to Halt Same Sex Marriage [CN: homophobia]
Jason: Lacking Compensation for War Vets (CN: discrimination against PWD]
Rosemary: Amazing Grace: Deep Histories of Black Freedom in the U.S. [CN: racism, slavery]
Monica: Trans POC Speakers Need to be Seen, Heard, and Paid at TBLG Events [CN: cis-sexism, racism]
Elizabeth: This is What Leaving Earth Behind Actually Looks Like
Christine: Exploring Vancouver's Fast Food Past
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
The Value of Decency
Here is a thing about me: I have never worked in retail or customer service or foodservice, and I don't think I'd be very good at a job like that, and I have enormous respect for the people who do it.
I say please and thank-you to people helping me, I am a generous tipper, I tell random people being assholes to polite service workers to knock it off, and if I am really fucking annoyed at being jerked around by an insurance company or a utility company or whatever kind of company and some very nice and professional customer service person has to deal with my really fucking annoyed ass, I tell them, "I am really annoyed at the moment, and I am so sorry, because I don't want to make your day miserable, especially since I am not annoyed at you, so I'm sorry if I sound annoyed and I'm really going to try not to."
And I am a champion recommender.
I like getting recommendations from people who have used a service or been to a store and had a good experience. They're useful! And I like giving recommendations (when solicited), too, because I want to be good back to a business that's been good to me.
Are you looking for a plumber? Let me tell you about our awesome plumber who is SO GREAT! Are you looking for a special dessert? Let me tell you about this local baker whose pies are THE BEST PIES you will ever eat! Are you looking for a cat groomer? Let me tell you about this awesome groomer who will COME TO YOUR HOUSE so you don't even need to stress out your cat! Are you looking for a new restaurant? Let me tell you about our favorite places which is owned by this AMAZING FAMILY and they are all so nice and the food is so good and this one time they did this special thing for us just because we go there all the time and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH and you should definitely go there. Etc.
The point is, if someone asks me if I know of a guy or a gal or a place, I probably do, and I will be VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about recommending people who have been good to me.
By "good to me," I don't mean kissing my ass or treating me like I'm important or whatever asshole things people sometimes mean by that. I mean giving me a fair price and doing good work and talking to me like I'm a human being.
Which isn't something I always get, that last one, being a fat woman.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that we have an awesome mechanic, where they do excellent work for a fair price and have a ridiculously adorable office dog and never do work without asking you first and are always honest about what can wait. I was there this morning, just for an oil change and to have them check the brakes on my car, and I noticed, again, how every guy in that place looks me in the eye and talks to me like I am an intelligent person, which is HA HA NOT HOW EVERY DUDE TREATS LADIES IN CAR SHOPS.
I have never taken my car anywhere else. I have probably recommended them dozens of times, and many of the people to whom I've recommended them have reported back with the same experience, and then recommended them to people they know.
I am a loyal customer and a great recommender, because they are good to me. It costs them nothing. That's a pretty good investment.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Chicago: "Along Comes a Woman"
(Filling in for deeky while he fishes off Cape St. Mary's.)
Quote of the Day
"It's curious how comforting [Republicans] find the idea of denying health care to millions of Americans."—Paul Krugman, after House Republicans voted for the 40th time to repeal Obamacare.
In The News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
[Content Note: Sexual harassment] Another day, another woman accusing Democratic San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment. That makes ten. This case is such a powerful example of how silence abets abuse, and what it means when victims see that their stories will be taken seriously.
[CN: Sexual violence] This article about the failure of police in Cleveland regarding sex crimes investigations is awful to read, and I suspect that it could be written about most major US cities. Because, among other issues, what most police don't understand about rapists, and what most police don't understand about victims, is a lot.
[CN: Homophobia] Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is still being a total d-bag about same-sex marriage in New Jersey. I don't know how this guy got a national reputation for being socially liberal, because he isn't. He's terrible. Just because he took a picture with President Obama once doesn't mean he's not cut from the same reprehensible cloth as the rest of his homophobic, misogynist, racist party.
Shinji Kinjo, head of Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force, says that highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear plant has created an emergency situation. Yiiiiiiikes.
[CN: Fat bias at link] Would you eat a burger made from meat grown in a lab? I would give it a try! Why not?!
There's a new Doctor Who and GUESS WHAT it's another white guy! I already don't watch or care about Doctor Who, but, if I did, I would be quitting the fuck out of that show because at this point it's like they're just laughing at fans who are begging for diversity in casting the Doctor!
[Spoilers from previous seasons of Breaking Bad at link] Do you want to read Bryan Cranston talking about Walter White and how Walt is totally the wooooooorst? HE IS SO TERRIBLE! Walt, you are the worst, and I can't wait until Hank puts you in jail. I'm sure it won't be any more dramatic than that! The season will definitely begin with Hank wiping his butt, arresting Walt, taking him to jail, and the rest of the episodes will be a super boring trial with zero explosions or heads mounted on turtles. I bet.
Do you want to watch a baby elephant splashing around in a pool? I don't see why you wouldn't!
Santorum | Paperclip 2016
On Meet the Press this weekend, Rick Santorum said, "I'm open to looking into a presidential race in 2016." Which isn't really news, because, as we know, his carefully selected cadre of impartial advisers has recommended that he definitely run for president again. And when the Santorum Brain Trust recommends a course of action, you take it. If you're Rick Santorum.
So anyway. Rick Santorum will probably run for president again. Which will be fun for all of us who like to watch him lose. It's just too bad that comes at the cost of a terrible person saying terrible things on a national platform for months on end. But as long as Republicans insist on running, I will mock the shit out of them! Because they are terrible and their political ideology is a garbage nightmare!
"Here I come!"—Rick Santorum.
"Me too!"—Me.
Seen
Good morning! Or whatever! This is just another excellent church sign currently being featured at our local neighborhood church. Iain snapped a picture while he was out walking the dogs this weekend.
The sign this one replaced read: "A stranger is just a friend you haven't yet met." Maybe. Or maybe a stranger is a person who wants to harm you.
"Just trust everyone and don't ask any questions!" Solid advice.
Sunday Shuffle
"Poison & Wine is a musical snapshot about the dichotomy of love. JP and I are both married have been for several years now - and we got to talking one day about what a tug and pull our individual relationships can be. The longer you know someone - and the longer you allow someone to know you - the more the light and shadows inside each person become more vivid. This song was our attempt at being as brutally honest about the dangerous and beautiful process of knowing and being known." -Joy Williams, The Civil Wars
And you?
