From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day for 4 July 2014: An inquisitive squirrel was spotted taking time to smell the daisies in this photo taken by Austrian photographer, Julian Ghahreman-Rad, 23, in a wine growing region near Vienna. [Julian Ghahreman-Rad/Caters News]Awwwwwwwwwww! ♥
[Content Note: War on agency; limited abortion access.]
"Are DIY abortions becoming the procedure of choice in the Gulf? It would appear so, and that will only grow if the states' TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws are allowed to go into effect causing more clinics to shut down. The less clinics, the bigger the overflow and the longer the wait as providers are unable to keep up with patients, leaving many seeking out other remedies even if they would prefer to do it in a clinic setting, knowing that what they really want is simply to not be pregnant as soon as possible."—Robin Marty, in "Gulf Residents Are Already Turning to DIY Abortions."
The whole point, as Robin notes, is to try to cause delays that will result in pregnant people just giving up and staying pregnant. Which of course works in some cases, insomuch as forcing a person into unwanted parenthood is something that "works."
But most people who desperately don't want to be pregnant will figure out a way to not be pregnant. This is a lesson that anti-choicers refuse to learn. And people will die because of their willful ignorance, and the government's eminent willingness to indulge it.
Scientist Explains Why He Bothered to Prove Humans Don't Like Sitting Alone for 15 Minutes Doing Nothing.
I like sitting alone doing nothing, for about 10-20 minutes, and just letting my mind wander. It's not exactly meditating, but it has a similarly relaxing quality for me.
Waiting rooms in doctor's offices or at the DMV or the auto shop or wherever are places I tend to want to just sit and stare off into space, making myself "alone" with my thoughts, as opposed to reading a magazine or paying attention to whatever daytime travesty is on the TV.
But I tend to absentmindedly flip through a magazine or look at my phone instead, because just sitting and minding your own business is often met with some confused and often unhappy looks, lol.
This blogaround brought to you by pineapples.
Recommended Reading:
Soraya: [Content Note: Rape culture] Why Rape Euphemisms and Myths Are Dangerous
Sydette: [CN: Racism; misogyny; appropriation; abuse] More Than the Message: Media, Safety, and Attribution in Online Activism
Ragen: [CN: Fat bias; dehumanization] Yes, Obesity Is Okay
Emi: [CN: Abuse of people in the sex trade; infantilization; carcerality] Operation Cross Country VIII: Roundup and Comments
Mike: [CN: War on agency; misogyny] The 'Scalito Five' Are Right: Contraception Is Different from Most Healthcare
Jake: [CN: Homophobia] Study: Children Raised by Same-Sex Couples Healthier and Happier
Smriti: [CN: Misogyny] Albert Einstein's Reply to a Young Female Fan
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
[Content Note: Spoilers for the latest episode of The Leftovers. Violence; sexual assault; racist stereotypes; cultism.]
When last we left our merry band of leftovers, they were definitely pretty freaked out about 2% of the world's population having mysteriously disappeared three years earlier. Also: DOGS.
This week, we pick up with federal agents, who are sitting in an office discussing the investigation of "Wayne Henry Gilchrest, Jr., also known as Holy Wayne," the black guru who claims to be able to suck the pain out of people at his secret ranch, which is home to a bunch of teenage Asian girls. We find out he was wanted on statutory rape charges before he disappeared. Cut to a SWAT team raiding his ranch and just shooting and/or arresting everyone they see.
Police Chief Kevin Garvey's son, who is inexplicably not named Carl, shoots an agent in the throat and runs away with the teen girl he fancies. "I'm sorry, but she's important," he says. Okay.
They make an escape and later meet up with Holy Wayne at an abandoned gas station whose proprietor has been murdered. Police Chief Kevin Garvey Jr. finds Holy Wayne making out with the dead guy (i.e. sucking out his pain, or whatever), and Holy Wayne tells him, "He never would have let me do this when he was alive." Um.
They have a terrific conversation about how Police Chief Kevin Garvey Jr. is a real mystery, because he won't let Holy Wayne, who is a literal magic negro and apparently a distant relative of John Coffee, suck his pain out. Holy Wayne tasks him with protecting Christina, the teen girl, to whom he refers as "our girl," breaks Police Chief Kevin Garvey Jr.'s phone in half, and then drives off.
Police Chief Kevin Garvey Jr. has an angry outburst, but Christina assures him everything will be okay because Holy Wayne says so.
We catch up with Police Chief Kevin Garvey in bed, clearly dreaming, and his teenage daughter's best friend comes to him and leads him into the woods, where the dog-shooting guy is shooting at what looks to be Garvey's wife, who's joined the smoking cult. His feet are on fire. Neat dream. He wakes up to discover his neighbor has accidentally set his fence on fire by burning his disappeared brother's stuff.
Then we follow Police Chief Kevin Garvey to therapy, where his therapist just doesn't get it, man.
Later, the Mayor visits Police Chief Kevin Garvey and tells him to stop shooting dogs. Good advice, Ms. Mayor!
Also, his bagel disappears and it makes him super mad.
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Human rights violations] Detroit's decision to turn off water to residents in arrears, at a rate of 3,000 residents per week, in the middle of summer is a human rights violation. It doesn't take the United Nations weighing in to recognize that, but they have. And now the Council of Canadians is stepping in to fight the turnoffs, because "our water is their water." This is an absolute fucking disgrace. The US is an absurdly wealthy country, and no one should have to go without water. No one.
[CN: Racism] A float featuring an outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" won an award in a Fourth of July parade in Norfolk, Nebraska, over the weekend. Parade committee member Rick Konopasek defended the float and wants to know: "So should we deny the 95% of those that liked it their rights just for the 5% of people who are upset?" 1. Yes. 2. There is no guaranteed "right" to enjoy racist parade floats, dipshit.
[CN: Guns; violence] Chicago had another weekend of alarming gun violence, during which "at least 11 people were killed and 60 others wounded citywide." I strongly recommend checking out @Karnythia's TL for important commentary on violence (and the surrounding politics) in Chicago.
[CN: Terrorism; violence] Nigeria's military has claimed it killed "53 fighters from the armed group Boko Haram when it repelled an attack on a military base in the northeast Nigerian town of Damboa. A statement from defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade added that five soldiers and a senior military officer had also been killed in an exchange of fire Friday night. The military often reports high casualty figures for the rebels and relatively low ones on its own side. It is usually not possible to verify these reports independently." This ongoing battle with Boko Haram is just devastating for the region. In related news, the 200+ abducted girls still remain in Boko Haram's possession.
[CN: War on agency; misogyny] Dreading this big time: "The US Supreme Court will decide next term whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) requires an employer to provide workplace accommodations to pregnant employees if that employer also provides comparable accommodations to non-pregnant employees who become temporarily unable to perform their jobs without the accommodation."
[CN: Clergy abuse] Pope Francis met with survivors of Catholic clergy sex abuse in order to ask for forgiveness and promise accountability. Some survivors groups are rightly questioning whether this is just another publicity stunt from the Pope who, mere months ago, was still defensively quantifying how few priests have committed sex abuse.
[CN: Fat bias; misogyny] Andi Zeisler's review of Melissa McCarthy's new film Tammy is terrific: "Tammy Is Not a Great Film—But It Is a Radical One." I haven't seen the film yet, but I find it very interesting, ahem, that the complaints McCarthy is doing "the same character" have only arisen now that she's doing that character as a co-lead with an older and further aged woman (Susan Sarandon), instead of a beautiful thin woman (Sandra Bullock in The Heat) or a handsome thin man (Jason Bateman in Identity Thief). It's like suddenly time to criticize her when she's saying LOOK RIGHT AT ME. That's no coincidence.
Ten percent of USians are totally disengaged from politics: "Overall, 10% of Americans are what we call Bystanders, or the politically disengaged, according to Pew Research Center's Political Typology report. None of this cohort say they're registered to vote, and none say they follow government and public affairs most of the time (this compares with 48% of Americans overall). Virtually all of this group (96%) say they've never contributed money to a candidate running for public office." One part of me feels like how can anyone be so disengaged from politics when politics affects everything, and one part of me feels like I can't fucking blame them, lolsob.
Pink Floyd will be releasing its first album in 20 years later this year. Neat!
[CN: Fire; injury] Firefighter Major Kyle Durham adopted a badly injured puppy he rescued from a fire. All the blubs forever.
And finally: This USB Keyboard Will Bring Back the Nostalgic Clicks of a Vintage Typewriter. WANT!!!
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
In Politico today, David Nather searches for Hillary Clinton's Big Idea:
Here’s one thing you won’t find in Hillary Clinton's book: a clear reason to run for president again.We've heard this routine before, back when Clinton was Secretary of State and was changed with lacking a unifying vision. Which was a charge that only someone without the capacity or will to connect these dots could make: Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot...
The "Hard Choices" book tour has had all the trappings of a warm-up for 2016, and even though Clinton insists she hasn't decided yet, she keeps dropping hints that she has ideas for the future of the country. "You've got to ask people who want to run for anything, but particularly president, what's your vision? What is your vision for our country, and do you think you can lead us there?" Clinton said at a CNN "town hall" forum.
But if Clinton has a big idea for 2016, the book — all 596 pages of it — is not the place to look for it. ...But any campaign has to have a big idea it's wrapped around, and that means Clinton still has to spell one out — assuming she has one in mind.
Policy experts in the Clinton orbit say that's not the right way to read the former first lady's latest tome — it's mostly a foreign policy memoir, and any hints of other themes, like the advancement of women and climate change, are there to wrap up the issues she has already worked on throughout her career.I love the idea that climate change and women's advancement aren't big ideas. And ideas that any sensible wannabe president will wrap up before she heads to the Oval Office.
[Content Note: War on agency; Christian Supremacy; misogyny.]
Last week, the US Supreme Court made its supremely garbage decision in the Hobby Lobby "religious freedom" case, followed immediately by religious organizations trying to exploit the ruling by asking for an exemption from a forthcoming executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people, as well as a SCOTUS clarification that the ruling applies to companies which oppose all contraception, not just the forms covered by the Hobby Lobby case.
Then, on Thursday evening: The Supreme Court majority issued an emergency stay on behalf of Wheaton College, an evangelical institution in Illinois, which objects to the accommodation the Department of Health and Human Services offered religious non-profits which don't want to pay for any contraception coverage at all. That accommodation would require Wheaton College and other institutions to fill out a form certifying the objection, and then the insurer would provide the coverage directly, without the objecting organization having to pay for contraception.
Wheaton College claims even that is a violation of their religious liberties. That is, they don't want their female (and other) employees to have access to contraception at all, in any way affiliated with their employment.
So the Court issued an injunction while that issue is appealed. So much for the limited nature of the Hobby Lobby ruling.
The three female justices—Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Justice Elena Kagan—issued a scathing dissent in response to the stay, authored by Sotomayor and signed by Ginsburg and Kagan. (Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented with them in Hobby Lobby, did not sign.)
The fierce disagreements dividing the Supreme Court over this week's Hobby Lobby decision were laid bare Thursday in a searing dissent [authored by] Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the justices' decision in a separate contraceptive case "undermines confidence in this institution." The dissent was signed by all three female justices.And yet here we are.
"Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word," wrote Sotomayor. "Not so today."
The dissent was in an order to grant an emergency request from Wheaton College, an evangelical college in Illinois, on a temporary basis until its appeal goes forward. At issue is the "accommodation" the Obama administration worked out for religiously-identified non-profits: Sign a form certifying your objection, and the insurer will provide the coverage directly, without the objecting organization having to pay. As of now, 122 non-profits have sued, claiming that signing the opt-out form for someone to get contraception violates their religious liberty. (An attorney for the plaintiffs has repeatedly referred to it as a "permission slip for abortion," even though it does not actually cover abortion.)
In fact, that accommodation was one of the reasons Justice Samuel Alito cited to justify his Hobby Lobby decision – words Sotomayor threw back at him in the dissent. Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government has to show it has pursued the least restrictive means to accomplish its goal. Alito claimed that because the nonprofit accommodation exists, that means the government has other ways to get women access to contraception that respects religious liberty. Yet only a few days later, he ruled that the nonprofit accommodation – again, signing a form – is also a violation of religious liberty.
"Let me be absolutely clear: I do not doubt that Wheaton genuinely believes that signing the self-certification form is contrary to its religious beliefs," Sotomayor wrote. "But thinking one's religious beliefs are substantially burdened … does not make it so." She added, "Not every sincerely felt 'burden' is a 'substantial' one, and it is for courts, not litigants, to identify which are."
...Sotomayor also pointed out that the facts of the case hardly met the Court's high standard for such an emergency injunction.
Jessica Luther, one of my favorite people on the planet, was just profiled by David J. Leonard at The Feminist Wire as part of their "Feminists We Love" series and IT IS SO GOOD. Here she is being typically smart and profoundly decent on a whole variety of fascinating topics. Yayayayay!
And, listen, I already knew that Jess is awesome, but major kudos to David Leonard for asking just great and varied questions to give her the opportunity to speak to so many different aspects of her interests and work and life. GOOD JOB, EVERYONE!!!
I long for the day when "some of my best friends are X" is only and ever followed by "which has really helped me be a more empathetic person!"
by Shaker The Great Indoors
[Content Note: Racism.]
I assume, like all Patriotic Americans, you'll be attending your local premiere of conservative Dinesh D'Souza's newest blockbuster documentary, America, in which he will address "leftist critiques" of our Great Country, such as "we stole this land from the Native Americans" and "we stole labor from enslaved African Americans," which aren't so much "critiques" as "observations."
Every once in awhile, I get a request for a thread in which Shakers can connect with other Shakers on Twitter. So, here is a(nother) thread for just that purpose! If you're on Twitter, and want to connect with other Shakers, drop your Twitter handle into comments.
Even if you've shared your handle before, please feel welcome and encouraged to share it again, in case there are new participants who didn't see your handle the last time.
I am @shakestweetz, and the quickest way to follow me is by clicking the "follow" button at the top of the Twitter widget in the righthand sidebar. -->
