Open Thread
This week's open threads have been brought to you by turtles.
Away I Go
As mentioned fully 100 years ago in May, I will be at the Forging Justice Conference in Detroit tonight through Saturday, where I will be presenting a workshop with Jessica Luther and participating in the closing plenary panel with Alexandria Goddard, the tenacious Steubenville blogger; Ashon Crawley of one of my favorite blogs, the Crunk Feminist Collective; and Heather Corinna, founder of the amazing sex ed resource for teens Scarleteen.
It's not too late to register if you want to attend!
The plenary sessions will be recorded and livestreamed; you'll be able to watch live here.
Since I'll be away, we will just have moderated open threads tomorrow and Friday. See you Monday!
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Detroit Rock City.
Recommended Reading:
18MR: Honoring the victims of Oak Creek [Content Note: Racism, violence, terrorism]
Rachel: The Medical (and Political) Problem with 20-Week Abortion Bans
Su: We Think He Might Be a Boy [Content Note: Transphobia, gender policing]
Andy: Olympic Committee May Send Athletes Home if They Publicly Support Gay Rights at Sochi [Content Note: Homophobia]
Mandisa: Blackout Secular Rally Draws Non-Believers of Color Nationwide
Helaine: The Great American Do-It-Yourself Retirement Fraud, Brought to You by Big Finance & Co.
Jamilah: NBA's Rookie of the Year Knew Oscar Grant, Touched by "Fruitvale Station" [Content Note: Racism; violence]
sourcedumal: Retta Being Awesome; Audience Being Racist
Trudy: So, we probably have to discuss how this is EVERYTHING…
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
Upside-down Sophs.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Phil Collins: "Don't Lose My Number
(Filling in for deeky as he is a workin' man.)
This week's music brought to you by 80s videos paying homage to movies. Deeky's whereabouts by East Coast music classics.
Hillary Sexism Watch, #115
[Content Note: Violent misogyny.]
During the 2008 election, in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was a primary candidate, we ran a Hillary Sexism Watch, which, by the end of 2008, had 114 entries.
Clinton hasn't even announced plans to run for the presidency in 2016, and nonetheless here comes the onslaught of misogynist bullshit in expectation that she might run. Exhibit A: Republican PAC The Hillary Project's promotion of the "Slap Hillary" video game, which allows players to slap Clinton across the face.
Screen cap of game.
Katie's got more here, and wryly notes: "If this seems especially brazen and incriminating, just remember, this is the party that almost did NOT bring you the Violence Against Women Act."
In The News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
[Content Note: Sexual harassment] Another day; two more women have come forward with allegations that Democratic San Diego Mayor Bob Filner sexually harassed them. How has this guy not resigned yet?
[CN: Racism] In case you were wondering (I bet you weren't!), Rand Paul is still a huge jackass, and still saying "there is no greater defender, truly, of minority rights if you include minorities to be color of your skin or the color of your ideology than myself."
[CN: Ageism, hostility to consent] Guess who is also still a huge jackass? Anthony Weiner! Who has no respect for anyone's consent, apparently, and reportedly said to a 69-year-old man who asked Weiner not to touch him: "What are you going to do about it, grandpa?" This fucking guy.
[CN: Sexting, presumably consensual] An Australian MP, who is head of the ethics committee, has stepped down after it was made public "that he sent a number of explicit sexts and images to his mistress, including a selfie of his penis in a glass of red wine." Whoops!
I'm sure there are other stories of straight white male politicians behaving like dirtbags, but that's probably enough for today!
[CN: Violent language] Bayou Corne, Louisiana, is disappearing into a sinkhole after a salt cavern injection-mined by the petrochemical company Texas Brine collapsed.
[CN: Kidnapping, abuse] The Cleveland home of Ariel Castro, where he held three women for more than a decade before they escaped with help from a neighbor in May, has been demolished. "The longest-held captive, Michelle Knight, arrived at the site with a bunch of yellow balloons and watched as the home of her tormentor was torn to the ground." Blub.
[CN: Guns; violence] Three people are dead and three injured after a gunman opened fire during a town hall meeting in northeastern Pennsylvania. The shooter is apparently an aggrieved hoarder whose property had recently been seized by the county sheriff.
This is just a really great story about a dog who saved the life of his elderly neighbor. What a good dog!
You should probably make your cat a USS Enterprise cat tree. Your cat deserves it!
Would you like a 6-inch figurine of yourself that is uncannily realistic? Well, if you've got $300, you can get one!
The Tonight Show, with President Barack Obama
So, last night, President Obama visited Jay Leno at The Tonight Show, and they talked about a whole bunch of stuff (like how terrible Russia's anti-gay policies are, by which Leno is outraged, despite the fact that he is himself a homophobic bigot who makes fun of gay men every chance he gets), but it was the part of the interview where the President addressed revelations about domestic spying and whistleblowing that I found particularly interesting. That part is below, but Slade's got the entire appearance with complete transcript here, if you want to check it out.
Leno: It's safe to say that we learned about these threats [to US embassies] through the NSA intelligence program? Is that a fair assessment?"We don't have a domestic spying program." Ha ha whut. Even more incredible is listening to the President talk about "whistleblower protection" while his administration is busily waging war on whistleblowers. [CN: Violent language at link.] This is just deeply dishonest.
Obama: Well, this intelligence-gathering that we do is a critical component of counterterrorism. And obviously, with Mr. Snowden and the disclosures of classified information, this raised a lot of questions for people. But what I said as soon as it happened I continue to believe in, which is a lot of these programs were put in place before I came in. I had some skepticism, and I think we should have a healthy skepticism about what government is doing. I had the programs reviewed. We put in some additional safeguards to make sure that there's federal court oversight as well as congressional oversight, that there is no spying on Americans.
We don't have a domestic spying program. What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat. And that information is useful. But what I've said before I want to make sure I repeat, and that is we should be skeptical about the potential encroachments on privacy. None of the revelations show that government has actually abused these powers, but they're pretty significant powers.
And I've been talking to Congress and civil libertarians and others about are there additional ways that we can make sure that people know nobody is listening to your phone call, but we do want to make sure that after a Boston bombing, for example, we've got the phone numbers of those two brothers — we want to be able to make sure did they call anybody else? Are there networks in New York, are there networks elsewhere that we have to roll up? And if we can make sure that there's confidence on the part of the American people that there's oversight, then I think we can make sure that we're properly balancing our liberty and our security.
Leno: When we come back, I want to ask you about Russia and Snowden. I hit on something in the monologue which just seems incredible to me, and I want to get your thoughts on that.
More with the President when we come back. (Applause.)
* * *
Leno: Welcome back to our discussion with President Barack Obama. (Applause.) Let me ask you about this — the NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Some call him a whistleblower. What do you call him?
Obama: Well, we don't know yet exactly what he did, other than what he's said on the Internet, and it's important for me not to prejudge something.
Leno: Got you.
Obama: Hopefully, at some point he'll go to trial and he will have a lawyer and due process, and we can make those decisions.
I can tell you that there are ways, if you think that the government is abusing a program, of coming forward. In fact, I, through executive order, signed whistleblower protection for intelligence officers or people who are involved in the intelligence industry. So you don't have to break the law. You don't have to divulge information that could compromise American security. You can come forward, come to the appropriate individuals and say, look, I've got a problem with what's going on here, I'm not sure whether it's being done properly.
If, in fact, the allegations are true, then he didn't do that. And that is a huge problem because a lot of what we do depends on terrorists networks not knowing that, in fact, we may be able to access their information.
Leno: Let me add — now, he was a contracted employee.
Obama: Yes.
Leno: And it seems the government has a lot of these. I remember when I was coming up my brother was in ROTC, and in those days, they would take college students, you go into the Army, the Army would train you. This guy is being paid money by an outside firm, living in Hawaii, got the stripper girlfriend. All of a sudden you're all upset with what the government is doing, and you go to another country. I mean, in my era, Daniel Ellsberg stood in the town square and said, "I've got this," got arrested, The New York Times — I mean, should we go back to not using so many — whether it's Blackwater or any of these contract — these people who are Hessians, they get paid?
Obama: Well, I think you're raising an important issue. We've been trying to reduce the reliance on contractors. Some of the contractors do a great job, and they're patriots and they're trying to support our mission. Sometimes they can do it more efficiently or effectively if they've got some specialized knowledge. But one of the things that I've asked our team to look at is, when it comes to intelligence, should we, in fact, be farming that much stuff out. And there are a lot of extraordinarily capable folks in our military and our government who can do this, and probably do it cheaper, and then benefit from the training that they get so that when they transfer — (applause) — they're in a better position.
Also: Jay Leno is such a jerk.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker skirt: "If you had one of those buttons that said 'Ask me about ______!' what would it say?"
Film Corner: The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer as Lord Lonoculous Q. Ranger and Johnny Depp as Racist Native American Caricature, was a huge flop, and may end up costing Disney $150 million. Ha ha awwwwww. Welp, it's a good thing "the only reason" Johnny Depp made this movie was to "right the wrongs committed in the past" and "represent the American Indians," which, as I'm sure we can all agree, he definitely accomplished (whooooooops), because he's sure not getting private island kind of money on the back-end of this one!
Anyway!
Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer and producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski have some terrific theories about why the movie was a flop, and—spoiler alert!—they don't think it's because the movie was derivative, racist, terrible garbage!
[Content Note: Violent metaphors.]
Text Onscreen: Yahoo! Movies UK & Ireland.Holy Maude everything about this is SO GREAT! I don't know what I love more—their astonishingly serious commitment to the idea that critics decided to hate their film because it went over budget; their talking about THE LONE RANGER as if he's an intriguing new character invented by Gore Verbinski; the insistence on pretending this is some kind of fucking art film and not a behemoth garbage disaster with a budget of $250 million (=1 Romney); the casual eliding of eleventy biebillion fucktons of legitimate criticism of the film's racism; or Hammer's gormless delivery as he reports how "critics" tried to tank World War Z but didn't succeed. HUH I WONDER WHY THAT COULD BE? Obviously, it can't be because audiences did not find World War Z to be a totally horrendous pile of shite being passed off as a "brave" summer blockbuster! That much is certain! Oh well, just another mystery lost to the sands of time, I guess!
Interviewer (a young white man with a British accent who blows smoke up their asses with yeahs and mm-hmms throughout): Johnny said at the premiere that he felt that some of the US-based critics kind of had it in for the movie kind of before they even kind of saw it. I was wondering kind of if you had an opinion about that.
Armie Hammer: Oh, I have a delightful opinion about that. [interviewer laughs] That she's [Hammer gestures to presumably his publicist, offscreen] going to get mad at me for sharing, but I'll tell ya. This is the deal with American critics. [publicist coughs; Armie grins; she coughs again; he laughs] They've been gunning for our movie since—since it was shut down the first time [for going over budget]. And I think that's probably when most of the critics wrote their initial reviews.
Johnny Depp [sitting beside a huge image of his ridiculous character from the film as he is identified by text onscreen as "Tonto"]: I think the reviews were probably written when they heard that Gore [Verbinski, the director] and Jerry [Bruckheimer, the producer] and I were gonna do The Lone Ranger. I think they started their opinion— [gestures vaguely] You know. And their expectations of it, you know, that it must be a blockbuster, this and that—I didn't have any expectations of that. Never do. Why would I?
Bruckheimer: I think that they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie. The audience doesn't care what the budget is; they pay the same amount to see the movie whether it costs a dollar or twenty million dollars. So I don't think that matters.
Interviewer: Yeah, it seems to be, it seems to be happening kind of—I don't know if it's happening more and more; it definitely feels like that now, that the kind of—that the backstory of a movie's production seems to become more and more of the—it kind of, it prejudices people, I guess, against projects.
Bruckheimer: Right. Sure, sure. Absolutely. And it's unfortunate, because—and the movie is a really terrific movie. It's a great epic film; it's got a lot of humor and a lot of— It's one of those movies that, whatever critics missed it this time, will review it in a few years and see that they made a mistake.
Depp: The expectations of the—you know, I mean, to round it out as a big group, the American press, the journalists or whatever—I think, yeah, I think the reviews were written seven, eight months, probably, before we even, you know, before we ever released the film.
Hammer: If you go back and read a lot of the negative reviews, ah, most of them don't actually have anything to do with the content of the movie, but more what's behind it. Uhhhh, and it's—it's gone to an unfortunate place with American critics where if you're not as smart as Plato, you're stupid. And that seems like a very sad way to have to live your life.
Depp: I think that Gore made a very brave film, 'cuz it's—it's got a kind of very absurdist, independent feel to it, but with just, you know, [gestures vaguely] incredible sort of special effects and, uhhhh, action, and, you know. I think he's made a very brave film.
Gore Verbinski: Our movie is not a sequel, and it doesn't have giant robots, and The Lone Ranger can't fly, um, you know, so we're—I think we're the— We're counterprogramming. So if you want to see something different, then come see the movie. It's odd to get, to be giving a, you know, lashing because of that, you know.
Interview: Yeah, it's weird, isn't it—I mean, in this day and age, like you say, big films are obviously superhero movies or franchise movies, ah— I think it's going to become increasingly difficult for movies of this scale to get made that aren't, that don't fall into those brackets.
Verbinski: Exactly. So it's like, well, why pick on this one?
Bruckheimer: That's right, I mean, the critics keep crying for original movies and you make one and they don't like it, and so [shrugs] what can I tell ya? [interviewer laughs]
Hammer: While we were making it, we kinda knew that people were gunning for it. I—I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky sort of terrain to jump on the bandwagon and try to bash it, you know. They tried to do the same thing to World War Z. It didn't work—the film was successful. They instead decided to slit the jugular on our movie.
Discussion Thread: Swimming
Recently, I've had so many awesome and terrible conversations with female friends about swimming. Partly because it's summer here, and those conversations tend to happen here, and partly because of this post, in which I wrote about decided to swim again, despite the cultural disincentives against it, because I love to swim so much.
So, here is a post, for anyone who wants to talk about swimming: How much you love it; how much you don't love it; how you have trouble finding a bathing suit; how you don't know what to do with your hair; how you don't care what people think of your body; how you care so much what people think of your body that it stops you from swimming; how you feel self-conscious about scars or hairy legs or a fat belly; how you got over being self-conscious; how wonderful it feels to float in the water; how you are taking swimming lessons; how you wish you had a pool; how you miss the smell of the ocean; how you found the best goggles ever; whatever.
The only requirement is this: Please don't offer advice to anyone who doesn't explicitly solicit it. Thanks!
This Is Terrorism
[Content Note: Anti-choice terrorism.]
In 2011, Ralph Lang was arrested in Madison, WI, after he accidentally discharged his gun in a hotel room and admitted he had come to town with the explicit intent to kill abortion providers.
Lang has been convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years behind bars and 10 years extended supervision.
Though the prison sentence will be reduced due to the time spent in jail since his arrest, once he is released Lang will be forced to stay a mile away from any abortion or reproductive health facility as well as within 50 miles of the town of Marshfield, Wisconsin. Lang could also face federal charges for using a fire arm to interfere with others using a federally-funded program and using a firearm in a crime of violence that were previously dropped. It is unclear at this time if the Department of Justice will reinstate the charges.This is terrorism. Ralph Lang is a terrorist.
Dane County Judge Nicholas McNamara handed down the sentence. "Your religious certainty is so superior you thought you have the right to kill your intended victims," he told Lang at the sentencing. "Instead, you've lost the right to be among us."
[Related Reading: I Write Letters.]
SCIENCE!
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
This is a real thing in the world:
A new study suggests that it is possible for children, particularly boys and those who are not severely obese, to use growth spurts to outgrow obesity without losing weight.LOL FOREVER. Contemptuous and bitter LOL, but still.
...The investigators found that growth spurts can serve as therapeutic windows during which children, usually boys aged between 11 and 16 years, can outgrow obesity without actually losing weight, just by becoming leaner and taller.
Yeah. Before the OBESITY EPIDEMIC that turned us all into fuckbrained fat-haters who policed any trace of fat on any body ever, this used to be a commonly discussed and accepted part of growing up: Adolescent Person is getting a little chubby—looks like a growth spurt is a-coming!
Now we need studies to confirm what used to be a known thing, because FAT PANIC has undermined all rational thought about body diversity and Things Bodies Do.
