Dudley, just sitting around with his tongue peeking out. Like ya do.
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
Dudley, just sitting around with his tongue peeking out. Like ya do.
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
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam: "Head to Toe"
This week's TMNS has been brought to you by bands with repeating names.
[Previously: Toto, Talk Talk, The The, and Duran Duran.]
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of the world's foremost climate change experts, has said in a new report it is "unequivocal" that "the dominant cause [of climate change] has been human actions in pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere." Which I predict will change the mind of exactly no one who didn't already believe that to be true.
Texas State Senator Wendy Davis is reportedly going to announce next week her intention to run for Texas Governor. Some progressive Texans are very excited about this! And some are very concerned about what it will mean for her career if she loses. I understand both points, that's for sure. But I will say that losing didn't stop Sarah Palin, which is because she has SO MANY WEIRD FANS, so, if Wendy Davis runs and loses, let's just be her weird fans and make her a national star anyway!
President Obama has nominated Diane J. Humetewa to the US District Court of Arizona. "If she is confirmed, Humetewa—a member of the Hopi tribe in eastern Arizona—will be the only active member of a Native American tribe to serve as a federal judge and the first Native American woman to do so." Neat! Congratulations, Judge Humetewa!
Recovery is for rich folks: "More than four years since the economy shifted from recession to recovery, 36 percent of US workers always or usually live paycheck to paycheck according to a survey released Wednesday by CareerBuilder.com. Another 40 percent say they sometimes do."
[Content Note: Homophobia] The Republicans' anti-gay bigotry is hurting them with young voters. Oh noes! I'm so scared for your future, Republicans! HA HA JUST KIDDING NO I'M NOT. YOUR ENTIRE GARBAGE IDEOLOGY SHOULD BE PUT INTO A CANNON AND FIRED INTO THE SUN. (Ironically, Congressional Republicans defunded my giant cannon project.)
[CN: Homophobia] UK retailer Tesco has pulled "an inflatable 'gay best friend' doll from its website." Maybe stick to tea, Tesco!
Elinor Otto is 93 years old, was one of the original Rosie the Riveters, and is still working as a riveter at a Boeing plant in Long Beach, California. "I'm a working person, I guess. I like to work. I like to be around people that work. I like to get up, get out of the house, get something accomplished during the day." How awesome is this woman?! SO AWESOME.
FX is making a television series out of the movie Fargo. Does that sound like something you would watch? What if I told you that Martin Freeman was playing the lead—would that change your mind? It doesn't change mine, even though I like Fargo and I like Martin Freeman. The answer is still coming up NO THANK YOU! Sorry, FX. Good try, though. You definitely put together two things I like!
Quote of the Day
"Breaking Bad has just taken it to a different level; for me it is all downhill and that is not a bad thing. I know how fortunate I am to be part of Breaking Bad and I know it is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I'm just happy that it happened."—Aaron Paul, who plays Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, a role for which he's won two Emmys.
He is very funny and adorable. And I cannot wait for the Breaking Bad series finale, which is THIS SUNDAY WOOT!
Discussion Thread: Anthropomorphizing Inanimate Things
Do you ever emotionally anthropomorphize (attribute human attributes to) inanimate objects, even though you know it's silly?
I have a habit of feeling like I want to apologize to anything that gets wasted. Like, the little bit of toothpaste I can't eke out of the tube, or the bit of deodorant left behind in its container. "I'm sorry you have to get thrown away without serving your only purpose!"
I don't actually believe these things are sentient, and I don't actually apologize to them, but I sure get the urge, no matter how goofy it is, lol.
Humans!
Welp
At least the New York Times editorial board is not going along with the Republicans' cruel and absurd strategy to hold the country hostage to their despicable whims:
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew sent the House a very serious warning that, for the first time, the United States would be unable to pay its bills beginning on Oct. 17 if the debt ceiling is not lifted. House leaders responded on Thursday with one of the least serious negotiating proposals in modern Congressional history: a jaw-dropping list of ransom demands containing more than a dozen discredited Republican policy fantasies.Indeed.
We'll refrain from deliberately sabotaging the global economy, Speaker John Boehner and the other leaders said, if President Obama allows more oil drilling on federal lands. And drops regulations on greenhouse gases. And builds the Keystone XL oil pipeline. And stops paying for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And makes it harder to sue for medical malpractice. And, of course, halts health care reform for a year.
The list would be laughable if the threat were not so serious...
But the absurdity of the list shows just how important it is that Mr. Obama ignore every demand and force the House extremists to decide whether they really want to be responsible for an economic catastrophe. He made a mistake by negotiating in 2011, hoping to reach a grand bargain; that produced the corrosive sequester cuts.
To prevent the House from making every debt-ceiling increase an opportunity to issue extortionist demands for rejected policies they can achieve in no other way, the president has to put an end to the routine creation of emergencies once and for all by simply saying no.
Question of the Day
Following up on yesterday's QotD: What television show currently airing is way the hell overdue for cancellation?
I Write Letters
[Content Note: Homophobia; misogyny.]
Dear Barilla Pasta:
Go fuck yourself.
Love,
Liss
P.S. Gay ladies exist. FYI.
GOOP 2.0
As everyone knows, I am a HUGE FAN of Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle newsletter, GOOP. (Ha ha I am not a huge fan.) So I'm sure you can only imagine the excitement with which I met the news that also-privileged, also-white, also-thin, also-straight-and-married-to-a-famous-white-dude, also-wealthy, also-from-an-acting-family Blake Lively is also-launching her own very GOOP-esque lifestyle project:
"It's something that will be launching in a few months and that I'm really, really thrilled about. The main element of it is that it's about storytelling and it's about living a very one-of-a-kind, curated life, and how to achieve that. There's nothing like it out there - it's without a genre," Lively told us. "I have so many passions outside of acting and things that I grew up being good at and that I don't utilise when acting. Acting was something that my family did so I just kind of got into it by default, but there was so much that I cultivated, thinking that I wouldn't be an actor."Terrific! Just terrific.
I can't wait to be one of millions (?) (fingers crossed!) people who follow all of Lively's suggestions for living a one-of-a-kind life! We will all be living the coolest one-of-a-kind life together!
Because I'm sure we can all agree that: 1. There can't be too many privileged white ladies telling us how to live "curated lives." 2. If there is anyone who is qualified to tell you how to live a one-of-a-kind life, it's someone who is literally copying someone else's garbage lifestyle project for the aspirationally wealthy and tells you it's so unique that it transcends genre. Sign me the fuck up.
[H/T to Shaker MMC.]
Quote of the Day
"The grab bag of demands Republicans intend to make this time [in exchange for raising the debt limit] is almost comically extensive and off point, and as such, should be enough to get folks to recognize the basic absurdity of what's happening here. I say 'should' because you'd think the basic absurdity of demanding multiple concessions in exchange for not destroying the economy would be apparent enough on its face. But thus far, it's been mostly treated as business as usual. Hopefully the outsized and buffoonish nature of this round of GOP demands will change that. Hopefully."—Greg Sargent, being remarkably optimistic!
The "amazing array of concessions" Republicans want Democrats to make in exchange for getting Republicans to do their goddamn jobs are thus:
House Republicans plan to demand major perks for coal companies and Wall Street banks, alongside healthcare and social service cuts and a one-year delay in the implementation of Obamacare, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling until the end of 2014, according to a source close to the House GOP leadership.Neat! What a terrific proposal from an excellent party that is almost TOO FULL of decency and integrity!
...The Republican plan, which would also constitute a significant overhaul of the environmental and financial regulatory system, would cut pensions for Federal employees and raise taxes on immigrant families with parents who do not have a Social Security number…The plan would increase Medicare means testing, and would eliminate social service block grants and a fund for preventative healthcare in the Affordable Care Act that conservatives have characterized as a "slush fund."
...Coal and oil companies would benefit from provisions to expand offshore drilling and drilling on federal lands. The proposal blocks the federal government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and coal ash, and would give Congress the power to veto any "major" regulation issued by a federal agency (because an affirmative vote would be required, Congress could void new rules simply through inaction).
Sargent wisely observes: "By laying out a truly insane list of demands, Republicans could perversely succeed in reframing this battle—at least in the eyes of some in the Beltway press—as a standard Washington confrontation in which both sides are making demands and the impasse is the result of each side's refusal to meet somewhere in the middle. You could easily see a scenario in which Republicans 'agree' to drop some of their demands and argue they are trying to compromise, with some commentators then wondering aloud why the White House is refusing to negotiate in kind."
Control the conversation; control the government. And the corporate coup being staged via Congressional Republicans continues right on track.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dogs and cats! Living together!
Sophie, on my lap; Matilda, just beyond her; and Zelda, lying on the chaise.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
'Splaining at Victims
[Content Note: Rape]
Richard Carrier has apparently gotten tired of rape victims (including myself) explaining that his no, really, this graphically eroticized description of a rape isn't rape because it's been graphically eroticized post is actually pure rape apologetics, and has decided that the best solution to this problem is to vomit forth a 4,700+ word follow-up post (which follows his original 7,400+ word post) in which he continues to maintain that his judgment of what is and isn't rape is totally his call to make on an Objective Platonic Universal Morality level, and that rape victims who disagree can all go suck eggs because we're all obviously emotional harpies who don't read his genius posts closely enough.
And if that description sounds just a wee bit uncharitable, it's probably because (a) I am a rape survivor who doesn't appreciate having her experiences audited by privileged white men, and (b) I am an anti-rape activist who doesn't appreciate having privileged white men 'splain how all the anti-rape activists are Doin' It Wrong for calling something which is rape rape on the grounds that the Privileged White Man doing the 'splaining thinks that that particular flavor of rape is too erotic to be rape. Which is what I'm getting from Carrier's two posts so far.
So here is a very brief run-down of some of the things wrong with Carrier's latest word salad on rape.
In The News
These are some things that are in the news!
[CN: classism] ”Something something Republicans Obamacare debt ceiling government shutdown blah blah fart." And while that is not a direct quote from John Boehner, it’s pretty close.
Things continue to be bad for Blackberry. That’s because its employees and products couldn’t compete in a free market, OBVIOUSLY. Because Free Marketz!(tm) always whittle the competition down to the best ideas and innovation! It definitely has nothing to do with executives who bought a jet when they were in financial trouble. Or who sold off stock just before announcing the layoffs. Or who arranged things so that they stand to make $80 million in severance pay if they lose their jobs after a sale. INVIZIBLE HAND 4EVA!
Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush served as an official witness for the marriage of two friends, Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen. It’s pretty neat to have a former president as your witness!
Michelle Obama is one of many people whose ID information was hacked from data brokers’ sites, an investigation reveals. Also targeted: “Bill Gates, Beyonce Knowles, Jay-Z, Ashton Kutcher and many others." I feel safe! Do you feel safe?
[CN: war-related atrocities]Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has lost his appeal and his 50 year sentence for war crimes has been upheld. Taylor has been convicted of facilitating atrocities in Sierra Leone during its civil war.
If you enjoyed Ming-Na Wen in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., then you might enjoy this article about her work in the show, where she talks about being a geek icon, her kids, and how the character became Asian-American. ICYMI, you might also enjoy co-star Chloe Bennet discussing (among other things) how cool it is to work on a show with two Asian-American women leads, which an Asian-American woman co-produces. (Spoiler: It’s cool!)
This might be a picture of Lincoln at Gettysburg! Or, maybe not. It is probably not a picture of Karl Marx at the Ice Capades. HISTORY! SCIENCE!
Chelsea Clinton is committed to addressing women’s and girls’ issues, and “this year, about two-thirds of all partnerships developed at CGI involve women and girls or gender issues.” Woot![CN: gender discrimination] An Indian company is opening an all-female business service center in Saudia Arabia. The company will focus on “back office” functions such as finance management, and provide job opportunities for professional Saudi women who are largely banned from working alongside men. Currently, Saudi women “account for about 57% of university graduates, but only 20% of those women are likely to enter the workforce.”
[CN: misogyny, racism, heterocentrism] Author, former CBC host, and University of Toronto instructor David Gilmour can’t understand why he’s getting criticism for teaching a literature course where the authors are “…guys.[*] Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth." He’s not biased, it’s just that he’s “not passionate about books by Chinese authors, or by female authors.” Ladies and Chinese folk! They are super boring to him! Especially Chinese lady-folk, I guess! No, I cannot imagine why that’s “struck a nerve,” sir. DO get back to me if you figure it out, Professor “Guy-Guy.”(P.S. Never mind! The Atlantic tells us Gilmour has it figured out! He's not sexist, because speaking French and Truman Capote! Also, ladyjournalists... amiritedooodz?)
[*And Virginia Woolf. Because whut?]
Good News: Marissa Alexander Will Get a New Trial
[Content Note: Domestic violence; guns; racism.]
Marissa Alexander, a black woman from Florida (the same state in which George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, under the same prosecutor) who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot into the ceiling when her abusive husband was trying to harm her, will get a new trial:
"We reject her contention that the trial court erred in declining to grant her immunity from prosecution under Florida's Stand Your Ground law," wrote Judge James H. Daniel, "but we remand for a new trial because the jury instructions on self-defense were erroneous."So, the good news is that Alexander will get a new trial. The bad news is that there is a possibility she will be wrongly (in my view) convicted once again.
...The jury [who took 12 minutes to convict Alexander] rejected her self-defense argument, and instead Alexander was sentenced under the "10-20-Life" law, which carries a series of mandatory minimum sentences related to gun crimes.
...The appeals court judge ruled that the lower court judge improperly put a burden on Alexander to prove that the firing was in self-defense. "The defendant's burden is only to raise a reasonable doubt concerning self-defense," Daniel wrote. "The defendant does not have the burden to prove the victim guilty of the aggression defended against beyond a reasonable doubt." He ordered a retrial. A separate proceeding would determine whether Alexander could be released on bail pending that trial.
What we can do to support her is keep the pressure on, keep her name in the news, keep saying over and over that, if there is to be a Stand Your Ground law in Florida, Marissa Alexander should have the right to invoke it just as much as anyone else.
And, the truth is, she shouldn't even have to invoke that shitty law. She is allowed to defend herself with a warning shot in her own home against someone threatening to kill her. I don't even know why this is in question.
Well. I do know. Racism and misogyny. But it shouldn't be.
[H/T to Alison.]
Today in Expecting More
[Content Note: Hostility to reproductive rights; homophobia; ableism.]
Early this year, marriage equality came to Minnesota, in large part because of the massive efforts of Minnesotans United for All Families and its affiliated PAC. It's now supporting pro-equality candidates.
The Star-Tribune [Minneapolis-Saint Paul]:
Republicans, including Sen. Branden Petersen and Rep. David FitzSimmons, returned home to blistering attacks from supporters and energized challengers eager to take them on. The National Organization for Marriage vowed to spend $500,000 to defeat any Republican who voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Minnesotans United formed a political-action group and vowed to defend them.Minnesotans United argues that this is all there is to the story. However, it turns out that a lot of the candidates it is supporting have poor records on reproductive healthcare. The Minnesota Chapter of the National Organization of Women is calling them on it:
Earlier this summer, MN United PAC released the "Minnesota 15" — a list of 15 legislators who voted in favor of gay marriage and could now be vulnerable in the next election. That includes five Republicans and 10 rural House Democrats. MN United PAC has been seeking donations to support their campaigns for reelection since session ended, but MN NOW said 11 out of those 15 legislators did not did not receive 100 percent ratings on a pro-choice voting report card.Some folks with ties to Minnesotans United have been not-so-subtle in their [CN: ableism] response to MN NOW. Which is definitely neat, in that as a woman in a same-sex marriage, I definitely love it when pro same-sex marriage supporters attack pro-woman groups.
...Project 515 executive director Ann Kaner-Roth, who is leading fundraising and campagin efforts for MN United PAC, said their coalition has always been "laser focused" on gay marriage.
Your organization is named Minnesotans United For All Families (with an implied emphasis on "All"). Whoops!
In case anyone out there needs any convincing of why it's a shitty idea to support anti-choice candidates, here's a few talking points:
• Plenty of LGBT folks need access to reproductive healthcare.
• There are a lot of folks that won't ever vote for anti-choice candidates (see above). I "get" the argument that all the options in rural areas, but a) we should expect more and b) BULLSHIT, maybe you folks don't leave Minneapolis much, but there are plenty of pro-choice folks in the suburbs and rural Minnesota. I used to be one.
• Coalition building is pretty important. It's going to be pretty awkward when gay and lesbian folks (I'm not sure how much Minnesotans United cares about bi and trans* people) have some non-marriage issue that they need allies on and you need NOW's help unseating the politicians you helped elect. Likewise, I've heard the argument that MN NOW didn't do much for marriage equality (and I believe it), but, um, why would they given that you don't give two shits about their agenda/a good portion of Minnesotans' bodily autonomy.
• You know how a lot of folks don't really like Dan Savage? That.
• I wonder (I actually don't wonder) if any of these candidates support policies that harm LGBT people and potential allies. Like, do any of them support racist and classist public school financing formulas? That might not be good for a lot of gay and lesbian students, or children of same-sex couples.
Feel free to use the comments to discuss these or any other reason for not financing the campaigns of anti-choice politicians.
In closing, let me just paraphrase Flavia Dzodan*: "My activism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit."
--
*You know Flavia's great, right? You should probably pay attention to some of the stuff she says above and beyond that oft-quoted remark.
The Rape Culture Is Not Immutable
[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual violence; misogyny; homophobia; exploitation; dehumanization; bullying; hazing.]
For background, please see Jessica Luther's piece "'We Felt Like We Were Above the Law': How the NCAA Endangers Women."
I was interviewed for this piece, and was asked to provide some prescriptive suggestions for what male collegiate sports can do to challenge the rape culture. My entire quote was not included, for totally understandable reasons, but I want to share it here in its entirety, because there is this idea that sexual violence, and the rape culture that abets it, are just fixed things in the world over which we have no collective influence.
Victim-blaming, and tasking potential victims with the exclusive responsibility for preventing sexual violence being done to them, are the natural outgrowth of this erroneous belief that we have to collective responsibility, and no collective ability, to change the rape culture and significantly diminish incidents of sexual violence. Throwing up our hands and putting the onus on potential victims to protect themselves from rapists (who we treat as innate monsters when it suits us, and as poor little misguided boys when it suits us) is the ultimate example of tasking individuals with finding solutions to systemic problems.
Male-dominated spheres are typically treated with this profound abandonment of social responsibility, because aggressive masculinity is regarded as natural, rather than socialized. (Note it is the rape apologists who consign male-dominated spheres to irreparably rape-infused spaces, which is a damn sight more "man-hating" than anti-rape advocates' view, which is that men are not inherently hostile to consent, but products of a culture that encourages predation and discourages respect for consent. Despite this, it is we who are called the man-haters.) Male sports programs are routinely treated by rape apologists as places where rape will just exist, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
But, in fact, there is. Here, then, were my suggestions for any male collegiate sports program that has the desire and willingness to meaningfully address rape culture:
Any solution to this problem starts with identifying how women are dehumanized within the culture of male collegiate sports and then taking steps to challenge that dehumanization.
Female students should never, ever, be treated by athletic programs as prizes to be handed out to male athletes. Every coach of every male team should start each season by delineating a zero tolerance policy on sexual assault, which includes information about seeking enthusiastic consent. Every locker room should have a zero tolerance policy on misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic language and imagery: No coaches calling the teammates "ladies," and no teammates calling each other "bitch" or "fag." No porn in lockers. Every team should establish a zero tolerance policy on sexual violence on and off the field, especially as part of team hazing: No slapping each other's asses with towels in the shower; no forcing the rookies to dress in women's garments or make-up to earn their stripes.
There is always resistance to these steps, are always complaints that it takes all the "fun" out of male sports. But this hostile environment already isn't fun for the male athletes who are obliged to affect misogyny to avoid bullying, who have to remain closeted to be safe—and it isn't fun for the victims of male athletes whose predation has been tacitly encouraged by a culture that treats women as a sex class to be consumed.
That is the most basic start that any NCAA program could take. It is certainly not a comprehensive list. My recommendations are first steps—and they are first steps that most programs have failed utterly to take.
"We Felt Like We Were Above the Law"
[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual violence; misogyny; exploitation; dehumanization.]
Jessica Luther has a great piece in The Atlantic today about misogyny, exploitation, and rape culture in college football. I'm not even going to excerpt it; just go read the whole thing.
(And by way of full disclosure, I'm quoted in it, but that is not the reason I'm recommending it. I'm recommending it because IT IS TERRIFIC!)
See also Jess' supplemental posts at her Power Forward blog on:
1. The Vanderbilt Football Rape Case.
2. The Naval Academy Football Rape Cases.
3. The Montana University and BYU Football Rape Cases.
4. A List of College Football Rape Cases.
One Month
[Content Note: Sexual violence; rape apologia; self-harm.]
Stacey Rambold, a former high school teacher in Montana who confessed raping his student, Cherice Moralez, who took her own life before Rambold went on trial, is free after a one-month sentence.
On Thursday, Stacey Rambold, an admitted rapist, will be released from incarceration after just 31 days. ...He won't be a free man exactly; he's on probation for the next 14 years, 11 months.He'll be free enough to rape someone else.
Prosecutors are appealing the sentence, and the Montana and Pennsylvania chapters of the National Organization for Women, in conjunction with UltraViolet, have filed a complaint with a judicial review board, delivering petitions with 140,000 signatures demanding real justice.
"(Judge G. Todd Baugh) made a mistake and I'm disappointed, (31) days, that's outrageous, but the Montana Supreme Court stepped in. Hopefully they'll make it right," said Auliea Hanlon, whose daughter, Cherice Moralez, committed suicide before Rambold went to trial.So, a rape apologist judge who doesn't even know the law and didn't even accidentally meet the paltry minimum sentence requirement during sentencing someone for raping a child who later killed herself, and hopes that this rapist will have learned his lesson after a month in prison, can't even be bothered to comment. There aren't words to describe the profound indecency of this guy.
...The case drew widespread attention when Baugh imposed a one-month sentence on Rambold and made controversial comments about the victim, saying she "seemed older than her chronological age" and she was "as much in control of the situation."
Rambold admitted raping the girl in 2008 while she was 14 and he was her teacher at her high school. Moralez took her life shortly before her 17th birthday.
The judge later apologized for his comments, and earlier this month tried to revisit his sentence. But the state Supreme Court barred him from a new ruling, saying he didn't have the legal standing to change a sentence.
Baugh said he didn't realize at first that the minimum sentence should have been two years.
Baugh's secretary said Wednesday the judge had no comment on Rambold's release.
Sign the petition to have Judge Baugh removed from the bench.
