Nina Simone: "Feeling Good"
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
Breaking News: "HealthCare.gov won't be perfect on Dec. 1, administration says."
More Breaking News: "Among American workers, poll finds unprecedented anxiety about jobs, economy."
[Content Note: Racism] Post-Racial America: "Four San Jose State University students have been charged with misdemeanor hate-crime and battery for committing hate crimes against their 17 year-old black roommate."
[CN: Guns; violence] Seven people were shot in a single incident in Oakland last night. No one died, thankfully, but two of the seven wounded men are in critical condition. This has barely made a blip in the news.
Same-sex couples are crossing the border from Oregon to Washington to get legally married. DOMA is (mostly) dead, but there is still no requirement for states to recognize same-sex couples legally married in another state, even though every state recognizes different-sex couple marriages performed in other states that don't meet their requirements. The double-standard is alive and well.
In Canada: "Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland cruised to victory in the Toronto Centre by-election Monday, handily defeating NDP candidate Linda McQuaig. Ms. Freeland will immediately enter the House of Commons with an important role in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's caucus. She has already been named co-chair of his council of economic advisers and is expected to become a prominent voice among Liberal MPs."
Scandal creator Shonda Rimes is writing a memoir! Neat!
Angelina Jolie supposedly bought Brad Pitt a heart-shaped island for his birthday. That makes me so mad, because I was saving up to buy Iain that heart-shaped island for his birthday one million years from now!
[CN: Animal cruelty] "She'll be fine, she'll be fine with me."—Crane operator Jason O'Donnell, who rescued a dog from a creek after spotting her on the job. He is now in the process of adopting her. Blub.
[CN: Danger; destruction] Courtney Smith is so grateful after being reunited with her cat whom she thought had been lost in last week's Chicagoland tornadoes. Blub.
Absconding With One's Fetus
[Content Note: Misogyny, Reproductive Rights, Child Custody]
A U.S. court actually ruled that a woman who left California, while pregnant, to attend an Ivy League college, after having been exhorted by her ex-boyfriend to abort the pregnancy, absconded with her own fetus:
Mr. Miller accused her of fleeing to find a sympathetic court, and a New York judge agreed, castigating Ms. McKenna for virtually absconding with her fetus. This allowed a California court to subsequently grant custody of the baby, a boy, to Mr. Miller and also set off alarm bells among advocates for women’s rights. [...]I don't really know what to say to this, except that this doesn't occur in a vacuum divorced from the context of, to name two examples, pressure to keep birth control from women (including hormonal birth control on insurance plans and Plan B emergency birth control in hospitals and granting pharmacists the 'right' to not dispense birth control unless they really want to) and movement to restrict the abortion rights of women.
While Ms. McKenna “did not ‘abduct’ the child,” the court said, “her appropriation of the child while in utero was irresponsible, reprehensible.”
The Family Court in San Diego proceeded to grant primary custody to Mr. Miller. On Sept. 4, as Ms. McKenna described it, choking up, Mr. Miller and his wife came to her apartment, “took the baby out of my arms, dropped it in a car seat and drove away.”
Ms. McKenna has seen him for a total of 10 days since the handover, said her lawyer, Naved Amed, and is scheduled to have him over Thanksgiving weekend.
If you can deny women the ability to prevent and/or end pregnancies, and if you can rule that pregnant women aren't allowed to move because it's abduction of, ooops, appropriation of a man's fetus, then you can reduce cis fertile women (which are not all women, but are still a shitload of people) to a socially immobile worker class -- unable to move out of abusive relationships, unable to move to a better support network, unable to move to a better education or a different job. Corporate dystopia and religious dystopia meet, as always, over the control of women's bodies.
Hat-tip to @DrJaneChi and @lakarune.
@DrJaneChi oh yeah she went AWOF. The old Absconding With One's Fetus maneuver.
— Goldie Pwn (@lakarune) November 24, 2013Blog Note
It's not just you: Comments appear to be disappearing from the page after you post them. They're not being lost, I promise. What's happening is that comments are being registered in Disqus' system, but then there's a lag time in their being posted to the page.
It only looks like they're disappearing because they're visible to the author right after posting. They do, however, show up on the page once Disqus shoots them out of the database, and there's about a 15-minute lag time at the moment.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience. But be assured your comments are there! They're just taking a few minutes to post to the page. And I've let Disqus know we're having an issue, so hopefully it'll get fixed soon.
Sandy Hook Report: "No Clear Motive"
[Content Note: Guns; violence; disablism.]
The Office of the State's Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury, Connecticut, has released a 48-page summary [pdf] of the official investigation into the Sandy Hook school shooting in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into an elementary school and killed 20 children and six adults. The report includes a passage that indicates there is no clear motive for the mass shooting:
The obvious question that remains is: "Why did the shooter murder 26 people, including 20 children?" Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively, despite the collection of extensive background information on the shooter through a multitude of interviews and other sources.Thus, there are a flurry of articles today that do little more than just rehash all the possible motives that were put forward in the days following the shooting. This Guardian article is firing on all cylinders:
* Mental illness? Check.
But the report makes it clear that there was no evidence Lanza had received formal medical treatment for any mental-health issues he might have had. In 2005 he was given a diagnosis of Asperger's, a syndrome on the autism spectrum, and was described to investigators as "presenting with significant social impairments and extreme anxiety". But he declined to take any medication for his condition and would not engage in therapy. The report concludes: "It is important to note that it is unknown what contribution, if any, the shooter's mental health issues made to his attack … Those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior."* Video games? Check.
One aspect of the report that is likely to be pored over by both sides of the gun control debate is the evidence of Lanza's computer game obsessions that was discovered in his bedroom in the basement of his Newtown home. The investigation report lists 12 video games, found in the gaming area of the room, which had violent content, including popular titles such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Others included Left for Dead, Dead Rising, Vice City and Doom.* His mother? (Whom he also killed.) Check.
A computer game called School Shooting, which features a character controlled by the player who enters a school and shoots students, was also found.
The report also highlights the tragedy of Lanza's mother, Nancy, who he killed at the home he shared with her before setting off for Sandy Hook school. All the guns used in the incident – the Bushmaster, a Glock pistol which he used to kill himself, a Savage Mark II rifle with which he shot his mother in her bed, and others – were owned by Nancy Lanza.The report also details Lanza's fascination with school shootings. He "kept photocopies of newspaper articles on shootings of children dating back to 1891." Which suggests to me that perhaps his motive, or part of it, was as simple and gruesome as seeking infamy.
She took her son to shooting ranges, to learn how to use guns. She had also written out a check which she intended to give her son as a Christmas present – it would allow him to buy himself a CZ 83 pistol.
..."One witness indicated that Lanza did not have an emotional connection to his mother. Recently, when his mother had asked him if he would feel bad if anything happened to her, he had replied, 'No.'"
But if there's anything we want to speak of even less than gun reform, it's our cultural celebration of fame, even and sometimes especially the fame we grant to people who do harm.
We definitely can't talk about that. It implicates us all.
Don't Trouble Yourselves
The 113th US Congress is one of the least productive ever:
With only a handful of remaining legislative days on their calendar, this current Congress is on track to go down as one of the most unproductive in modern history.Pathetic?! Ha ha no way! It's just evidence that everything in the country is PERFECT! Everyone's doing great, right? No need for Congress, the people we pay to represent our interests, to get off their asses and do anything when everything is A-OK for everyone! If anything, everything is TOO PERFECT in the good ol' U S of A right now.
The paltry number of bills Congress has passed into law this year paints a vivid picture of just how bad the gridlock has been for lawmakers, whose single-digit approval rating illustrates that the public is hardly satisfied with their trickle of legislative activity.
According to THOMAS, the legislative tracking service, this Congress has passed just 52 public laws since it gaveled into session in January.
If that sounds like a small number, it is.
Politico's Mike Allen explains how Democrats and Republicans will handle the problems associated with Obamacare in the new year.
At this point in George W. Bush's second term as president, for example, 113 bills had been enacted into law, according to numbers crunched by Pew Research Center's Drew DeSilver.
...Of course, some of the legislation that has reached the president's desk this year has involved some hard-fought and highly publicized issues like reverse mortgage rules, high interest rates for students and reopening the government after the lengthy shutdown. ...But the list of Washington's accomplishments gets plenty of padding every year from bridge namings, post office honors and various awards.
So far this year, the president has signed legislation to specify the size of commemorative coins for the Baseball Hall of Fame, to name a subsection of IRS code after former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and to honor baseball great Stan Musial with a namesake Midwestern bridge.
With the ceremonial measures excluded, according to DeSilver's calculations, Congress has enacted just 44 "substantive" laws so far this year.
That's well below the average of about 70 substantive bills passed in the equivalent time period between 1999 and 2012.
"The major urgent areas of concern in the country just have not been addressed," says Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert at the American Enterprise Institute. "It's pretty pathetic."
Take it easy, Congress. We're all doing great.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Clawfoot: "What would you call your autobiography, if you wrote one?"
The obvious and only reply is: I'm Not Offended; I'm Contemptuous. And Other Observations of a Fat Feminist.
Photo of the Day
From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Week: Photographer Scott Rinckenberger wanted to capture a picture of himself and a friend on their last night of camping in the California wilderness. But when Scott set the timer on his camera and scurried back to his camping stool he had no idea that a meteor would explode at exactly the right time and in the correct place in his picture. [Scott Rinckenberger/REX]Wow.
TV Corner: The Good Wife
So, I recently started binge-watching The Good Wife, a show for which I've had many requests to do recaps, but which I haven't been able to accommodate, because I'd never seen the show.
I started watching a few weeks ago, and I just finished Season Three last night. It's like a good book I can't put down! Why didn't anyone tell me this show is very good?! (HA HA JUST KIDDING EVERYONE IN THE MULTIVERSE TOLD ME IT WAS VERY GOOD.)
Anyway. I give zero fucks about Peter OR Will. Fuck both those guys. I am, however, totally invested in Alicia's & Kalinda's friendship. I LOVE THEM!
The times The Good Wife makes me cry is always, ALWAYS, about Alicia and Kalinda. And sometimes Diane.
Diane's dirty laugh is a national treasure. And I want ALL of Kalinda's coats.
That is all.
Recipe Corner: Your Favorite Stew
It's getting coooooooooold for lots of us (she types, as she notices snow flurries out her office window), which means that it's a perfect time for hot soups and stews. So: Bring it on, Shakers! What's your favorite soup or stew recipe?
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by ribbons.
Recommended Reading:
Jane: [Content Note: Fat bias] @DrJaneChi Lays Out Some Facts about Plan B Weight Limitations
Angry Asian Man: [CN: Racism; appropriation] Katy Perry Gets Her Geisha on at the American Music Awards
Aura: Five Things to Celebrate About Indian Country
Andy: [CN: Homophobia] Scott Walker Says Gay Marriage Ban is Part of 'a Healthy Balance' of Anti-Bias Laws in Wisconsin
Trudy: [CN: Rape culture; sexuality policing; racism; misogyny; heterocentrism] For Me, Sex Positivity Involves the Word "NO"
Sandra: [CN: War; injury; disablism; misogyny] War and Disability
Maggie [CN: Cissexism; gender binary; misogyny] Revealing the Gendered Reveal
Gloria: [CN: Choice policing] Shame From All Angles: Why Doesn't Anyone Seem to Respect Teen Parents?
Veronica: Call for Abstracts: Roundtable on Latina Feminism
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Today Is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
[Content Note: Violence.]
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which begins the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, ending on December 10, Human Rights Day.
In 2007, I wrote this, which was the first time I wrote about working my teaspoon:
Today is the final day of the 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence, during which I suppose I have blogged exactly as often as always about violence against women, in America and abroad. Sometimes it feels like it's all I ever write about; sometimes it feels like I can't possibly write about it enough to do the issue justice; often, those feelings exist within me simultaneously. All I ever do is try to empty the sea with this teaspoon; all I can do is keep trying to empty the sea with this teaspoon.That doesn't feel like enough to say, and yet it is all I can say. I am committed to advocating against violence on all days.
...Gender violence is still a problem, every day.
So really, the best thing—indeed, the only thing—I can do to honor International Human Rights Day and the conclusion of the 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence is this: I promise to keep working my teaspoon, even when my arms are tired.
Every day.
Steubenville Cover-Up: Four Adults Arrested
[Content Note: Sexual violence; rape culture.]
A grand jury has been investigating the cover-up surrounding the Steubenville rape case, in which a teenage girl who was exploited and sexually assaulted by members of a high school football team, who dragged her unconscious body to multiple parties where multiple people saw her being assaulted, took pictures of her, and failed to intervene in any way, crimes for which two young men were found guilty.
Tara Culp-Ressler notes at Think Progress that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today the grand jury "has charged four adults in the community for allegedly helping to cover up the crime that made national headlines last spring."
That includes the school district's superintendent, who is the only one to face felony charges.An indictment does not mean, of course, that there will be a prosecution or a plea deal. In fact, there's a real possibility the indictment will be regarded as some sort of symbolic "compromise" between those demanding meaningful justice and the reprehensible rape apologists who just want "closure" for the long-suffering community, members of whom tried to cover up the crime and fiercely defended the rapists while blaming the victim.
The aftermath of the Steubenville rape case, which involved several high school football players assaulting an unconscious victim, has stretched on for months. After two teens were found guilty of rape in March, a grand jury was convened to investigate whether any adults knew about the assault and attempted to keep it quiet. The grand jury made its first arrest last month, jailing a Steubenville school official who was accused of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.
In a news conference on Monday morning, DeWine explained that four additional adults are now facing similar charges. In addition to the superintendent, an elementary school principal, a wrestling coach, and a volunteer football coach were also charged — the first two for failing to report child abuse, and the last for facilitating the underage drinking and delinquency of a minor. The high school's beloved head coach, who was accused of telling football players that he would protect the two rapists from any repercussions, is not facing any consequences from the grand jury.
DeWine...did indicate that he hopes the four new arrests will allow the community to feel a sense of closure.Not a word about the survivor. Of course. It's closure for the town.
"This community has suffered a great deal. I know they desperately need to be able to put this matter behind them. All of us, no matter where we live, owe it to each other to be better neighbors, classmates, friends, citizens. We must treat rape and sexual assault as the serious crime of violence that is," DeWine noted. "When it's investigated, everyone has an obligation to help find the truth — not hide the truth, not tamper with the truth, not obstruct the trust, and not destroy the truth."
"It's time to let Steubenville move on," the attorney general concluded.
Daily Dose of Cute
EARSIES!!!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Walking Thread
[Content Note: Violence. Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein.]
Ohhhhhhh noooooo. An entire SECOND episode about Governor Cyclops?! HOLY SHIT THIS SHOW. I didn't need one episode catching up with this fucking guy, no less another one!
When last we left Governor Cyclops, aka Governor Brian Heriot, aka One-Eye Bri, aka Captain Murder, he was in a zombie pit with his new replacement daughter Megan, and Megan's mom, SpaghettiOs Sister, was helping her sister and Megan's aunt, Fistbump Sister, limp away from a bunch of zombies, and the whole gang had been greeted by Captain Murder's old lieutenant, Martinez, who has started his own woodland trailer park community.
Inexplicably, given that he has seen Captain Murder gun down his own people in a fit of crazy-rage, Martinez invites Captain Murder and his new replacement family back to Shady Pines to join their crew. Everything is looking pretty good for everyone! Picnic and beer and lesbian love matches for all!
Captain Murder has a terrific conversation with Megan about whether he is good, and whether she is good, and whether bad things happen to good people, and how to make friends and influence people, and who moved my cheese. There are chess metaphors, and, in typical The Walking Dead fashion, those metaphors are VERY GOOD. (Ha ha j/k. They are terrible.)
Everyone has to pull their weight at Shady Pines, so Captain Murder joins Martinez, his lieutenant Officer Cuteypants, and Officer Cuteypants' brother Private Surlypants on supply run. During this little jaunt through the woods, they find a headless body strapped to a tree trunk around the neck of which has been hung a hand-written sign reading LIAR. They then find a second headless body strapped into a lawn chair, this time labeled RAPIST. And finally, on the porch of a cabin, they find the body of a man who appears to have killed himself, with a sign around his neck reading MURDERER. He has a picture of his family, himself with his wife and their daughter, who are still zombie-alive inside, and there is a spot of blood on the picture on his head, precisely where he shot himself.
Everything about this scene is the worst. THIS FUCKING SHOW. No, someone did not take the time to write Se7en-esque signage about the sins of the people he murdered and hang them 'round their necks! Nope. No way. And LOL at the meaningful spot of blood on the photo. Come on! And the goddamn insulting heavy-handedness of delivering Captain Murder to the cabin of this doppelgänger, so he can stare at his own ghost or whatever. Fuck this show!
And we're only getting started!
Captain Murder joins Martinez on the top of a trailer while Martinez hits golf balls off the roof and Captain Murder plays caddy. Sure. They have some garbage conversation about coming back from bad days blah blah fart and Martinez promises Captain Murder he can keep Shady Pines safe. I guess Captain Murder doesn't believe him, because he WHACKS HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH A GOLF CLUB AND THEN THROWS HIM IN A ZOMBIE PIT! The fuck?! RIP Martinez.
Captain Murder tells everyone that Martinez was drunk and fell in, and they believe him because that definitely makes sense.
Later, Captain Murder, Officer Cuteypants, and Private Surlypants go on a hunting expedition in the forest. They pass a tent settlement, which is somehow secured from zombies by three strings of barbed wire even though zombies are literally tearing down the reinforced gates at Grimes Jail, and Private Surlypants wants to kill all the people and take their shit, but Officer Cuteypants, who has assumed leadership of Shady Pines, overrules him.
They move on, and their hunt yields only three squirrels, and Officer Surlypants is super pissed. Especially when they pass back by the camp and it's been raided by other human beings, who have killed all the people and taken their shit, just like Officer Surlypants wanted to do. YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE.
There are meaningful close-ups on Captain Murder's face. Uh-oh.
Captain Murder wants to GTFO, and tells his replacement wife to pack up their shit, because they're outy. But, because, unlike the Grimes Jail timeline, where nothing ever happens for interminable lengths of time, in the Captain Murder timeline, they are settled in and she has started a nursing station and Fistbump Sister and her girlfriend are totes in love and this is their home and they've never felt so safe IN LIKE TWO DAYS, so SpaghettiOs Sister doesn't want to leave. But she's in love with him, so they get in a car and hit the road. Until they come to a quicksand puddle of gross zombies, and then they turn back. Only one road outta Shady Pines, I guess!
Captain Murder sees only one alternative: He must murder Officer Cuteypants WITH HIS STUPID ETHICS and assume control of Shady Pines. So he does. He stabs-strangles Officer Cuteypants and throws him into a local pond, where he zombie-swims forever beneath the surface. It's the ZOMBIEQUARIUM from Unpleasantville all over again! GET IT?! DO YOU GET IT?!
Captain Murder hasn't changed at all, y'all!
I'm so pleased we had this two episode arc to go in a complete circle, in order that we might all come to understand the totally trenchant observation that some people never change.
Anyway! Something something Officer Surlypants is the new second in command, because he was tough enough to want to murder people and take their shit. SMOKE A CIGARETTE, OFFICER SURLYPANTS, GODDAMMIT! LISTEN TO MY STORY ABOUT MY MEAN DAD! Something something Captain Murder looks at a map for a better spot, even though there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of reason to leave, based on how they have fun picnics and seem to be managing zombie invasions with pits better than Grimes Jail with its elaborate gate system. Something something Megan gets grabbed by a zombie, but Captain Murder rescues her. Something something SpaghettiOs Sister is completely unaware that Captain Murder is a terrible nightmare monster, and strokes his face and tells him he can't do it alone yawn.
In the final scene, Captain Murder drives a truck through the woods and arrives at Grimes Jail. He sees Grimes and Carl the Hat gardening (TWO PEAS IN A POD!) and then sees Hershel and Michonne jerking around with the corpsemobile. He aims his gun at Michonne. OH NO!
Scenes from next week show that there will be a big showdown at Grimes Jail, and Daryl is fighting with everyone, so we know that he's not out looking for Carol. If Grimes even has a chance to tell Daryl about Carol, or if Captain Murder's appearance is a way of delaying that event even more. Will Carol redeem herself by flanking the Captain Murder gang and somehow killing all of them?!
All's I know is that either Grimes or Captain Murder had better die in this battle. Preferably both.
All of Teh Internetz in One Site
So, dating. Online dating. Internet dating. It's A Thing™ and about eleventy-billion articles have been written about it. Here's eleventy-billion and one!
I have an online dating profile/acct. Some people would be totally embarrassed to admit this and I assume it's because of that old attitude about "people from the internet". But, quite honestly, I like it. In a time when there are so many busy-making life variables, it's pretty convenient. Plus, I do so much online anyway, it just feels normal to me, really. Though I do admit that occasionally I can't shake the feeling of "people shopping"--which entirely may be just me.
From 'Single' to 'Available'
When I first joined the site, my status was "single" because, well, I was single. Being single didn't change the fact that I am poly-inclined but I wasn't seeing anyone (and being listed as 'single' means being poly wasn't basically pointed out right up there with my username). After a while, I met some really (really) fantastic people and I updated my status to go from "single" to "available" because that more accurately reflects my overall life status (not to mention rather explicitly laying out what this means in my profile).
When I was single, these are a tiny sample of the sorts of messages I'd get--all from different people and all without any previous contact (or follow up contact--I never interacted with any of these people). I've c&p'd them in all their original, respective 'glory' because I am a luddite who has no idea how to blur names:
I just wanted to say your profile caught my attention (and my eye) and wanted to see if you'd be interested in chatting it up.These are a small sampling of what has happened after changing my status to "available":
you caught my eye, plus you're ez on eye's so i had 2say hi!
Wow.... Glorious.
Your eyes are really beautiful & great look.
Its nice to see U.
I hope I'm not being too forward, but I have to say, you are a very beautiful woman. I would love to get to know you
Morning Darlin. I'd love to chat, see where things go ;-) Oh and I give one hell of a massage...I am open to get together as well :-)
hmm..I think you have soulful eyes... and incredibly kissable lips :-) just saying...These are the SFW ones. The assumption that "poly = will fuck anyone" became glaringly obvious as the tone of some of the messages changed from being more-or-less complimentary to not-so-veiled propositions. SMDH.
You are a very beautiful woman. I would love to have some adult fun with you. ;)
Hey good looking. I'm conducting a national survey, how about some sex?
Hello pretty girl. I've been celibate for almost 2 years so I'm open to anything...I like u...I wanna meet u
Hi, you're realy very very beatiful! what that means poly ... lala?
One of the topics of conversation that always come up with people I actually do interact with from the site is about the site itself. Most likely because it's rather self-selecting, sample-wise, but we all tend to agree that it's one part fascinating, one part genuinely great people, and another part "where do these fucking weirdos COME FROM?!". What I've generally said is that it really seems to be, in my experience, a microcosm of the internet as a whole: there are some really awesome people and there are some really creepy-as-fuck people who have zero concept of boundaries or decency. This isn't exactly profound, I know, but it's been interesting to witness firsthand as someone who has experienced the "fantastic people/scary people" aspect of online interactions via more serious online spaces/topics.
How about you? Any thoughts/experiences from/about the world of "online dating" you'd like to share?
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today!
President Obama says he's "not a particularly ideological person." That is too bad, because frankly what we really need to lead the charge against the Republican Party is a fierce ideologue.
The United States ranks 26th in average lifespan. Whoops.
This sounds like a terrific idea: Police and sheriff's departments are getting leftover war vehicles. "Coming soon to your local sheriff: 18-ton, armor-protected military fighting vehicles with gun turrets and bulletproof glass that were once the U.S. answer to roadside bombs during the Iraq war. The hulking vehicles, built for about $500,000 each at the height of the war, are among the biggest pieces of equipment that the Defense Department is giving to law enforcement agencies under a national military surplus program."
[Content Note: Sexual violence; racism; disablism] In more police news, a San Antonio police officer is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman during a traffic stop, and a suburban Detroit police officer has admitted asking a black man with psychological disabilities to sing and "dance like a chimp."
News from the Conservative Legislation Lab: "The Indiana Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Monday in the legal battle over a $52 million judgment the state has been ordered to pay IBM over the failed attempt to privatize public welfare services under former Gov. Mitch Daniels. ...The state is appealing a Marion Superior Court judge's 2012 ruling awarding $52 million to IBM after the state canceled a contract Daniels had hailed in 2006 as the solution for fixing one of the nation's worst welfare systems. Instead, the project ended with the state firing IBM in 2009 after hundreds of millions of dollars were spent for a system that generated widespread complaints of delayed benefits and impersonal interactions. The dispute ended up in court, with the state trying to recoup more than $150 million of the $437 million it had paid IBM before scrapping the deal and IBM asking for $113 million for breach of contract." Gee, if only someone had mentioned that privatization is a bad idea. (HA HA EVERYONE MENTIONED THAT.)
[CN: Rape culture; rape apologia] This is an actual column in USA Today: "Sex drive blurs line surrounding assault." Whut. WHUT.
Following the international agreement in which Iran will halt its nuclear program, western states will likely begin to ease long-standing sanctions on the state.
[CN: Death] Terrible weather will affect lots of Thanksgiving holiday travelers, as a deadly winter storm "heaped up to a foot of snow on the mountains of Utah and Colorado and claimed 13 lives, including a 4-year-old girl who was killed in a rollover crash on an icy road in New Mexico. Now the weather pattern is picking up speed and heading for the Northeast, and the 43 million Americans who plan to travel for Thanksgiving are at risk. Rain and ice sweeping across the South will converge with a storm system pushing down from the Great Lakes." Be careful, everyone!
Here is an adorable video of The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus with his cat.
Filibuster Night Milestone Reached!
Ya'll, the first draft of the SB5 transcript (aka Filibuster Night) is done. You can read it in all its glory here.
It's going to the Professional Editor (may all the gods have mercy on her soul for having to listen to my grody Republican Senate members) so it's got a full round of corrections before it's ready for prime time, but in the meantime I'ma just going to print off a copy and roll around in it because I am that happy. Thank you, all of you, for helping make this happen.
(I'll put up more updates as we finish the other transcripts and then as we start putting this in formats other than Google Docs.)
