[Content Note: Homophobia; misogyny; racism; classism; Christian Supremacy; antisemitism; violence.]
Here are a few headlines I've seen this morning, just in the course of my usual news rounds:
Republican Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert Uses House Hearing to Debate Whether Non-Christians 'Go to Hell'.
Republican Indiana State House Candidate John Johnston: "No One Has the Guts" to Let Poor People "Wither and Die".
Republican Tea Party Oklahoma State House Candidate Scott Esk Supports Stoning Gay People to Death.
Republican Tea Party Virginia House Candidate David Brat: Embrace Christian Capitalism, or Hitler Will Come Back.
David Brat's Campaign Manager Scrubs Facebook Page After Election; Compared George Zimmerman's Shooting of Unarmed Black Teenager Trayvon Martin to Abortion.
In San Francisco, Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry Compares Homosexuality to Alcoholism.
Republican Iowa Senate Candidate Joni Ernst 'Appalled' by Husband's Inappropriate Facebook Posts.
(Not only did Gail Ernst call Hillary Clinton a hag; he posted "jokes" on his Facebook page such as: "What do you do if you see your ex running around in your front yard screaming and bloody? Stay calm. Reload. And try again." Neat guy. And a central part of Ernst's campaign, not just her spouse.)
Listen, I am no great fan of Democrats, but at least their members don't generally sound indistinguishable from a hate group. Both sides are not just as bad. Members of the Republican Party routinely engage in violent, eliminationist rhetoric about people from marginalized populations. This is one morning of headlines.
The Republican Party is full of vile purveyors of absolute filth. And every time I point this out, Republicans respond by calling me fat. Because that's how much they care about their party being eliminationist scum.
Your Modern Republican Party
Question of the Day
First suggested by Shaker themiddlevoice in April 2010: What moment has changed your life—either good or bad?
I can pinpoint two moments that fundamentally changed my life for the better: 1. Thirteen years ago on March 15, 2001, I sent a private message to a random stranger in Scotland about an Oscar Wilde quote in his profile. 2. On October 5, 2004, at 12:54 PM, I posted the very first post at this blog.
There are moments that ostensibly changed my life for the worse, several of them well-known to readers in this space, but I don't feel inclined to talk about them at the moment—in part because I'm not actually certain they changed my life for the worse. I'm still working that out.
Make lemonade, and all that.
Photo of the Day
A 25-foot-high sea creature resembling Richard Branson emerges from the sea on Bournemouth Beach (UK) carrying a TV, laptop, phone, and mobile to celebrate the launch of Virgin Media's Big Kahuna quad-play bundle. [via]I don't even know. LOL.
YES!
[Content Note: Fat shaming.]
I have mentioned a couple times now that I've been loving the FX series Fargo, particularly because of Allison Tolman, who plays Deputy Molly Solverson.
I honestly cannot say enough how much I love the character, and how much I love the way Allison Tolman plays her. She is the best the end.
And here she is, in real life, pushing back against against fat hatred and body shaming on Twitter: "The explicit use of a weight related adjective to describe a female (fictitious or otherwise) is really troubling. It furthers the notion that a woman's most important contribution to the world is her appearance, and that women deemed insufficiently fuckable by societal standards are somehow lacking."
Rock. The fuck. On.
I mean, obviously, I couldn't be less thrilled that she was obliged to address someone shaming her. But, given that contemptible obligation, I commend her gumption in pushing back.
Love her.
[H/T to Shaker Aeryl.]
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by raisins. It's got raisins in it. You like raisins.
Recommended Reading:
Demian: [Content Note: Anti-immigrant sentiment; racism; abuse] Exiled: The Obama Administration's Horrifying Deportation Record
Andy: Wisconsin Begins Processing Gay Marriage Certificates; Attorney General Wants Quick Ruling
Dianna: [CN: Sexual assault; rape culture; rape apologia] On How the Church Discusses Abuse: Denying the Endorsement
Imara: [CN: Unemployment; class warfare; racism] Why Don't We Raise More Hell About Unemployment?
BYP: Homeless Teen Graduates at Top of Class, Earns Full Ride to Georgetown
While the above story is shared to celebrate Rashema Melson's extraordinary accomplishment, in order to not even tacitly give support to some bootstraps bullshit, please read this terrific Storify (in response to this shit) by one of my favorite Twitter pals, CreativeAspie: About Having Been Homeless in London, UK.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Shaker Gourmet
One of the most frequent requests I get as a general topic is for recipe-sharing threads. So here's a revival of the Shaker Gourmet series, which Misty used to run as time permitted, which I'll run periodically. Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
* * *
During the summer, we eat salads like they're going out of style, because neither of us has much of a palate for hot food in warm temperatures. One of my favorite summer salads to make is:
Sliced cherry tomatoes (I get red, yellow, and purple, if possible)
Sweet corn
Frisée
Crumbled goat cheese
White balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice
Mint
Salt & pepper
Sometimes I'll throw in some diced cucumber or avocado, depending on what I've got in the house. And often I'll top it with some steamed salmon, which my steamer makes super easy.
So easy, and sooooo delicious!
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda is very serious about destroying the fuck out of this string.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Community Note
FYI: Shakesville's Commenting Policy has been updated, with a section on Commenter Safety, which I've added to address some realities regarding online safety, harassment, and pushback.
I hope everyone will take a moment to read the new section and refamiliarize themselves with the Commenting Policy in its entirety. It's always good to get a refresher!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Rape apologia.]
"You have to start asking questions: Well, if evolution is true, and it's just all about the male propagating their DNA, we had to ask hard questions, like, well, is rape wrong?"—Creationist Darek Isaacs, "author of 'Dragons or Dinosaurs?'—which argues that ancient myths about dragons were based on human interactions with dinosaurs—and the founder of the Watchman 33 end times blog," during an episode of the "Creation Today" online broadcast.
He said marriage would be "anathema" in an evolutionary worldview because it would limit sexual relations to one man and one woman for life.There's so much to discuss about this quote, but I'll just make a couple of quick observations:
"According to the evolutionary worldview, [if] that male is strong enough and he had wonderful genes, he should propagate his DNA as much as possible so that the species can progress," Isaacs said. "So it redefines everything about our society."
1. "Marriage" and "rape" are not mutually exclusive concepts.
2. "Marriage" and "monogamy" are not synonymous.
3. "Rape" and "sexual promiscuity" are not the same thing.
4. The theory of evolution, which describes the evolutionary process, and evo psych, which seeks to explain why humans evolved in the way we did, are not the same thing. That the scientific identification of the existence of evolution is correct does not mean that subjective explanations of human sexuality (or any other behavior) are always correct.
5. Supposing it's true that human men evolved to "propagate their DNA," that has fuck-all to do with consent.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is being sued by consumer groups after advising pregnant women to eat more fish but failing to provide relevant indications on mercury content. "Without a labeling requirement, the draft advice issued Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency is unlikely to clear up confusion among shoppers about what seafood pregnant women, young children and other vulnerable groups should avoid. ...Consumer groups [say] the warnings over the last decade haven't been clear enough about what fish could pose a risk, and it's hard for people to remember what's good and what isn't. Those groups asked for labels on packages or at fish counters. For most people, accumulating mercury from eating seafood isn't a health risk. But for a decade, the FDA has warned that pregnant or breastfeeding women, those who may become pregnant, and young children avoid certain types of high-mercury fish because of concern that too much could harm a developing brain."
[Content Note: Police brutality; disablism] Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been the site of protests over the high number of police killings in the city, and now a judge has ruled that the city "must pay more than $6 million in connection with the wrongful death of a man with schizophrenia killed by Albuquerque police." Also, later this week, the Justice Department will release a draft "of a decree on how Albuquerque police must remedy what an April report called their excessive use of force, particularly against the mentally ill and people the report said posed a limited threat."
[CN: Misogyny] Here is a cool headline: "Hillary Clinton Explains Why She Might Not Run." Surprisingly, the entire text of the story is not: "Because she is a human being who is still weighing her options." Instead, it's the usual argle bargle she's obliged to give about living her life and becoming a grandmother, which I'm sure is true, but also it's just bullshit that we can't just leave it at whatever reasons she's got are legitimate. Including, for example, waiting to see how the midterms shake out. Which she could never admit publicly, because FATES FORFEND that a career politician actually admit that she's considering the politics of a huge political decision. THE RUTHLESSLY AMBITIOUS HARPY! etc.
This is an interesting piece on childhood athletics, and new research which has found that hyperspecialization (i.e. concentrating on one sport) can increase injury, whereas "kids who play a variety of sports before settling on one achieve higher levels of success and suffer fewer serious injuries."
[CN: Threats of violence] Everything about this story is so fucking disturbing: "Woman sets up fake Facebook account; learns that niece is planning her murder." Fuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh.
Here is just a terrific video of a woman proving that her cat definitely sits on her head every night when she brushes her teeth before bed.
And finally! I AM VERY VERY VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEWS: Oddworld is coming to Xbox One. YES!
74
[Content Note: Shooting; guns; death; self-harm.]
Yesterday in Oregon, there was another school shooting, in which one student was killed and a teacher grazed by a bullet before the shooter, another student, took his own life.
I am left with no words but these once again: My condolences to the friends, family, and classmates of the student who was killed. And to those of the shooter. I hope the students, faculty, and staff who survived this trauma have the support and resources they need.
Those are not empty words, no matter how many times I have to say them.
But I am saying them a lot.
This was the 74th school gun incident since Newtown. There were many more before Newtown, and there have been many other shootings across the nation outside of schools.
Each time, we're told: "Now is not the time to talk about gun control. Now is not the time for politics."
All I've got left is to ask in reply: Well, when the fuck is?
Because this cannot go on. This cannot go on.
This Is Good News
[Content Note: Transphobia.]
Last week, the World Health Organization released a report "urging governing bodies to put an end to 'forced, coercive, and otherwise involuntary sterilization' of transgender individuals," and now the American Medical Association has followed suit:
The American Medical Association on Monday adopted a policy declaring that transgender individuals should not be required to undergo genital surgery in order to update legal identification documents, including birth certificates.This is really important for lots of reasons, but chiefly because not all trans* people want to get sex reassignment surgery. And not all trans* people who do can afford it.
Just days after New York became the sixth state to allow trans individuals to update birth certificates without proof of surgery, the AMA has amended its official policies to advocate for similar action nationwide.
"Birth certificates are primarily used for legal matters, not medical," the new AMA policy states. "Requiring sex-reassignment surgery places a burden on an already marginalized population."
The nation's preeminent medical authority supports the abolition of surgical requirements in an effort "to ensure accurate gender markers on birth certificates."
Historically, the AMA's policies regarding transgender health policy have often been more progressive than actual public policy as implemented by lawmakers and courts. The AMA currently supports the inclusion of transition-related healthcare in public and private insurance plans, which remains an ongoing struggle within the U.S. insurance system itself.
As the WHO noted in their report, requiring surgery as a prerequisite for obtaining legal documents is often a coerced sterilization: "Some groups, such as transgender and intersex persons, [have] a long history of discrimination and abuse related to sterilization, which continues to this day. Such violations are reflected, for example, in the various legal and medical requirements, including for sterilization, to which transgender and intersex persons have been subjected in order to obtain birth certificates and other legal documents that match their preferred gender."
No one should be forced to submit to sterilization, or even an unwanted surgery, as the cost of acquiring accurate legal documentation.
[Note: Although this is meaningful social progress, it does not translate into a legal right. That will be up to lawmakers, who will hopefully take the AMA's influential recommendation under advisement. And there is still a long way yet to go for people outside the gender binary altogether.]
Sad Trombone
[Content Note: Anti-immigration rhetoric.]
Yowza:
In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history, the [Republican] House majority leader, Eric Cantor, was soundly defeated on Tuesday by a Tea Party-backed economics professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative.Welp.
The result delivered a major jolt to the Republican Party — Mr. Cantor had widely been considered the top candidate to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner — and it has the potential to change both the debate in Washington on immigration and, possibly, the midterm elections.
With just over $200,000, David Brat, a professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., toppled Mr. Cantor, repeatedly criticizing him for being soft on immigration and contending that he supported what critics call amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally.
During a short concession speech late Tuesday, Mr. Cantor did not try to analyze his defeat or cast blame, saying only that he knew he had disappointed his supporters.
The Republican Party is a fucking mess. Moderates schmoderates. (And Cantor was no moderate.)
There are plenty of Republicans who will be wondering what happened to their party today, but we all know what happened to the Republican Party.
Lick it up, baby. Lick it up.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Nice_Shirt: "What cool new thing are you doing or learning to do?"
Photo of the Day
One of two high-powered X-class solar flares unleashed by the sun barely an hour apart early this morning:
Early Tuesday morning (June 10), an apparently hyperactive active region rotating around the sun's southwestern limb erupted with not one, but two X-class solar flares — the strongest type of flare, based on a letter-based classification system.The image was captured by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly.
The first flare occurred at 7:41 a.m. EDT (11:41 UT) and registered as an X2.2. Just over an hour later at 8:52 a.m. EDT an X1.5-class flare (pictured above) blazed from the same spot, a little less than half the strength of the first.
...Solar flares are driven by powerful magnetic fields rising up from deep within the sun. They occur around "active regions" — accompanied by sunspots — and blast large amounts of electromagnetic radiation out into space. If a flare happens to occur over an active region facing Earth (which this one is not… yet) it can trigger a geomagnetic storm, resulting in increased auroral activity and potential communication interference.
Neat!
Nope
[Content Note: Abuse.]
This piece of garbage in the Washington Post is doing my head in: "One way to end violence against women? Married dads."
This social media outpouring makes it clear that some men pose a real threat to the physical and psychic welfare of women and girls. But obscured in the public conversation about the violence against women is the fact that some other men are more likely to protect women, directly and indirectly, from the threat of male violence: married biological fathers. The bottom line is this: Married women are notably safer than their unmarried peers, and girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.I can't even write anything coherent in response to this bullshit. Suffice it to say, it is not my experience that being the daughter or wife of a man magically inoculates you against harm.
It's not just that some fathers and husbands fail to protect their daughters and wives, either. It's that some of them harm us.
[H/T to Karnythia.]
Priorities
[Content Note: Sexual violence; murder.]
Last week, I wrote about Ched Evans, the professional soccer player who was convicted two years ago of raping a 19-year-old woman and will be allowed to return to playing.
Jessica Luther has written a great piece about Evans, and others like him, and how such lenient treatment of violent athletes writes their victims out of their rehabilitation narrative. I urge you to go read the whole thing: "Left Out of the Narrative."
