Here is some stuff in the news today...
Hey, in case you hadn't heard, the Rosetta mission was successful! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!
Good news: United States District Court Judge Richard Mark Gergel in Charleston, South Carolina, has struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, ruling that the ban "is a violation of individual rights to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment." Woot!
[Content Note: War on agency] Bad news: Following the passage of Tennessee's restrictive anti-abortion Amendment 1, "the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature will move forward with anti-choice laws as soon as possible, a state GOP lawmaker said. Republican Beth Harwell, speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, said last week that she will use a successful anti-choice ballot initiative as the impetus to back three new anti-choice bills, including one related to waiting periods, one centered around mandatory counseling, and one TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) law creating new abortion facility regulations that have proven medically unnecessary in other states dominated by anti-choice legislators." Goddammit.
[CN: Sexual harassment] First the National Forest Service, and now the National Park Service: "Federal investigators are looking into allegations of discrimination, retaliation and a sexually hostile work environment in the Grand Canyon’s river corridor. A group of 13 former and current Grand Canyon employees sent a letter to the Interior Department in September, alleging at least 15 years of abuses and prompting an investigation by the agency's office of inspector general."
Gallup has found that, following the midterm elections, the Democratic Party has a record low unfavorable rating from the US public. "A record-low 36% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the party, down six percentage points from before the elections. The Republican Party's favorable rating, at 42%, is essentially unchanged from 40%. This marks the first time since September 2011 that the Republican Party has had a higher favorability rating than the Democratic Party." How's being Republican Lite working out for you, (a huge percentage of the) Democratic Party?
Meanwhile, Pew has found that "more than 90 percent of Americans feel they've lost control over how their personal information is collected and used by companies, particularly for advertising purposes." Welp.
[CN: Misogyny; fat hatred] Old Navy is using the old "fat lady fabrics cost more!" chestnut, to try to explain why they upcharge women for plus size clothes, but not men. This, after Old Navy took plus size women's clothing out of their stories altogether, making it available exclusively online, lest we fatties sully their precious stores with our monstrous bodies.
A Lebowski themed wedding! Because why not?!
Here is a video of a dog who spent her life in a metal cage at a puppy mill experiencing a soft bed for the first time. OMG.
And finally! All the blubs forever: "The Capital Area Humane Society in Hilliard, Ohio, is pleased that they are now saving the lives of many more cats than before and says more than 500 cats have been spared from euthanasia in the past two months and its live outcome rates for healthy, adoptable cats are now at 93%. Under the new policy, animals brought to the shelter receive an exam, vaccinations, and necessary medications for a nominal fee, which can be waived if the person dropping off the animal can't pay. The person bringing in the animal is then offered support supplies, including food and litter, and is asked if they would consider fostering or keeping the animal. When the adoption floor is full-up with cats, people are asked if they would keep the cat they're dropping off until space opens up. The new police not only saves the lives of cats, it allows people who felt forced to give up their pet due to financial hardship to keep and continue to care for the pet." ♥
In the News
Second Quote of the Day (Hey, It's a Big Day!)
"Philae can now get on with its important task of conducting scientific investigations. We are hoping for nothing more, nothing less, than to find out more about the formation of our solar system."—Germany's Aerospace Coordinator Brigitte Zypries, in a message immediately after the successful landing of the Rosetta spacecraft's lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Quote of the Day
"This is a big step for human civilization, and because this is science, scientists, knowledge, and that this is certainly terrestrial intelligence, that makes a difference. I would like at this stage to repeat what I say after each success: The biggest problem of success is that it looks easy. ...And when you know the sum of expertise, the sum of dedication, the sum of teamworking, between twenty nationalities of member states of Europe, plus cooperation with international partners, when you know that, you know that this type of success is not coming the sky. It comes from hard work, and from expertise, because the only way to reconcile risk and success is the expertise."—ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, in a speech immediately after the successful landing of the Rosetta spacecraft's lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Rosetta!
For anyone who's interested, there is a livestream here of the attempt to drop a lander from the Rosetta spacecraft onto the surface of a comet this morning. I AM SO EXCITED!!! This is an amazing, historic moment in space exploration, and, if it succeeds, it's going to be extraordinary.
I mean, it already is extraordinary. It would just be even more so if the landing is a success.
"We already have the cake. The landing would be a cherry on top. And it is a very exciting cherry!" So said a man from the European Space Agency whose name I missed, but he is correct!
I just watched one of the discoverers of the comet, Klim Ivanovych Churyumov, talking about how space exploration is important because it helps us understand our place in the universe, and could one day be crucial to humankind's survival, and I was all choked up by the overwhelming scope and ambition and beauty of it all.
His co-discoverer, after whom the comet is also named, is a woman named Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko. A big day for women in the sciences, too!
The US and China Reach Climate Change Accord
In what Secretary of State John Kerry calls "a milestone in the United States-China relationship" and "the first step toward a world that is more prosperous and more secure," the United States and China, after months of negotiations, have reached a climate change agreement to reduce carbon emissions:
China and the United States made common cause on Wednesday against the threat of climate change, staking out an ambitious joint plan to curb carbon emissions as a way to spur nations around the world to make their own cuts in greenhouse gases.This is good news, especially if this agreement has a domino effect of encouraging other countries to follow suit.
The landmark agreement, jointly announced [in Beijing] by President Obama and President Xi Jinping, includes new targets for carbon emissions reductions by the United States and a first-ever commitment by China to stop its emissions from growing by 2030.
Administration officials said the agreement, which was worked out quietly between the United States and China over nine months and included a letter from Mr. Obama to Mr. Xi proposing a joint approach, could galvanize efforts to negotiate a new global climate agreement by 2015.
...A climate deal between China and the United States, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 carbon polluters, is viewed as essential to concluding a new global accord.
...As part of the agreement, Mr. Obama announced that the United States would emit 26 percent to 28 percent less carbon in 2025 than it did in 2005. That is double the pace of reduction it targeted for the period from 2005 to 2020.
China's pledge to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, if not sooner, is even more remarkable. To reach that goal, Mr. Xi pledged that so-called clean energy sources, like solar power and windmills, would account for 20 percent of China's total energy production by 2030.
I'm still pessimistic about climate change, though. For a lot of reasons, not least of which is this: "Administration officials acknowledged that Mr. Obama could face opposition to his plans from a Republican-controlled Congress."
Basically, there's a lot of "what's the point?" for the international community if the US doesn't do something meaningful about climate change. We have a chance to be a leader, and to at least stem the tide of climate change, if not reverse its course. But there's a serious chance the Republican majority will decide to prioritize profits over progress. Again.
Question of the Day
What piece of modern technology do you think would have most amazed you when you were a kid?
LOL FOREVER
Here is a splendid compilation of baby elephants being clumsy, silly, and/or goofy. BECAUSE BABY ELEPHANTS!
Video Description: A series of video clips of baby elephants set to Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk." A baby elephant stumbles over a bunch of tires in the grass. A baby elephant plays with a big red ball. A baby elephant walking alongside adult elephants falls over and splashes in a mud puddle. Two juvenile elephants playfully fight each other. A baby elephant carefully balances on a log. The baby elephant in the mud puddle gets up, then falls over again. A baby elephant flops gracelessly into a kiddie pool full of water. A juvenile elephant tries to crawl up on an adult's back. A baby elephant falls over into a kiddie pool. A baby elephant runs across a savannah and trips and falls over. A juvenile elephant crawls on an adult who's rolling in the grass. The previous juvenile elephant crawling on an adult makes it up onto the adult's back, then falls over. A baby elephant leans against a log, then topples over. A baby elephant leans against an upright piece of wood, then topples over. A baby elephant falls over a ridge into a ditch. More playing with the big red ball. A baby elephant rolls around in sawdust. A juvenile elephant falls into the water while traversing a narrow bit of land over a pond. More silly antics in a kiddie pool. Two adult elephants run over to rescue the baby elephant who fell into the ditch. A juvenile elephant plays with a long blue ribbon. A baby elephant runs out from some brush onto a dirt road and falls over. The two adult elephants right the baby who fell into the ditch. A baby elephant plays with its own trunk with its foot. A juvenile elephant waves its trunk at a ginger cat. A baby elephant stomps the sand like a tough guy. A baby elephant eats some vines. The juvenile elephant waves its back leg at the cat. A baby elephant plays with a garden hose. A baby elephant splashes around in a tub of water. More playing with tires. Kicking a soccer ball. Tough guy posturing, then running away. Hahaha.
ADORBZ!!!
[Via Stacey.]
Shaker Gourmet
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.
* * *
Right now, I'm cooking dinner in the crockpot—a super simple recipe. Cubed chicken breast, diced onion, minced garlic, salt and pepper, a little red wine, and some herbed butter. Cook on low for about three hours. Done!
Sometimes I'll add some sliced mushrooms about a half hour before serving. If I want to change it up, I'll add a teaspoon of white miso. (But then exchange olive oil for the herbed butter.)
I usually serve it with some sort of simple vegetable on the side. Tonight, I'm going to roast some carrots. Yum!
Ferguson: The Latest
[Content Note: Police brutality and militarization; racism.]
The grand jury convened to investigate Officer Darren Wilson's shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown is expected to conclude this week. It is anticipated that they will not indict Wilson.
Democratic Missouri Governor Jay Nixon just held a press conference at which he announced that the National Guard "will be on standby to deal with any protests after a grand jury announces its decision. ...Officials and police around St Louis have been making extensive preparations for renewed protests. James Knowles, Ferguson's mayor, said this month that they would 'prepare for the worst.' He told a local television station: 'There are expectations that demonstrations probably will break out in several places.'"
They are "preparing for the worst," and yet refuse to work with protest leaders to ensure peaceful protests.
At the presser, Nixon reiterated that some police officers had been injured in previous interactions with protestors (with no mention of injured protestors, naturally) and said that every precaution would be made to protect officers while "portraying the appearance of appropriateness."
And, when asked about the militarization of police, and how that exacerbates the situation, he said, and I am not making this up, that no one has yet been injured by a riot helmet.
That is literally one of the most mendacious things I have ever heard a politician say. Which is really saying something.
And speaking of keeping up appearances, this is how the presser was staged:
Yeah. There ain't enough fuck you in the world for this shit.
The Worst
[Content Note: Misogyny; homophobia; domestic violence.]
Eminem continues to be a terrible person:
In a new cypher in support of the upcoming Shady Records compilation Shady XV, Eminem freestyles that he would "punch Lana Del Rey," and then makes a simile comparing the brutality to the recent Ray Rice controversy.Misogyny in music has a long history—and categorically not one that is exclusive to rap music. Which is why Eminem has been pulling this kind of shit for years, and it hasn't hurt his career at all.
...[T]he Lana Del Rey line comes less than a minute after a derogatory lyric about Anderson Cooper's sexuality. The full line about Del Rey is transcribed below:
But I may fight for gay rights, especially if they dyke is more of a knockout than Janay Rice/Play nice? Bitch I'll punch Lana Del Rey right in the face twice, like Ray Rice in broad daylight in the plain sight of the elevator surveillance/'Til her head is banging on the railing, then celebrate with the Ravens.
Eminem is referencing the February assault of Janay Rice by her then-fiancee, Ray Rice, a star running back of the Baltimore Ravens. Following the release of an elevator surveillance video of the assault by TMZ in September, Rice was suspended indefinitely by the NFL.
...Eminem is no stranger to taking potshots at female pop artists, having lyrically dismissed Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey many times over.
Let's be honest: If anything, talking/singing/rapping about harming women, especially if a man hides it behind a veneer of belligerent braggadocio and courageous "truth-telling," it only helps his career.
Hell, there have been plenty of male artists who have done more than talked/sang/rapped about harming women, who have actually harmed women, whose careers are just fine. They're heroes and gods.
How many among us have even heard the stories of male singers harming women, stories that get forgotten more quickly than they were ever in the news? How many of us have heard that rock idol Jimmy Page kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old girl, who he then essentially held hostage for three years to avoid prosecution? How many of us have heard that rock legend Chuck Berry was arrested for transporting a 14-year-old girl across state lines to rape her, and for videotaping a women's restroom? How many of us have heard that Tommy Lee severely beat his then-wife Pamela Anderson, which was only the most high profile of his multiple assaults on multiple women?
Eminem is not alone.
But Eminem always particularly infuriates me, because someone with such a vast talent for language using words to harm is utterly rage-making for me.
There is so much of which he's capable, so many directions in which he could use his truly enviable gift. All kinds of fucking privilege, that one, and instead of doing something productive with it, he chooses to wallow inside his own anger.
He could be a poet, and instead he settles for being a dog who's just discovered a puddle of rot.
An observation I make in order to make the point that misogyny, homophobia, hatred of any stripe is a choice. And he—and many other men in his industry—choose it again and again and again.
And we have a choice about whether we ignore it. I expect more.
Daily Dose of Cute
Who's got cute ears and rolled in something stinky? ^^^ This dog!
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Finish This Sentence
The handiest tool I have around my house is...
...my grippy stick! Because I'm short, it helps me reach high stuff, and, because I've got a garbage back, it helps me pick up low stuff on the days when my back is giving me guff. And always useful in "oh crap something just fell behind the washing machine" moments, too.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Guns; police brutality; racism. Video may autoplay at link.] In Ferguson, Missouri, protest leaders are trying to work with police to ensure peaceful protests after the grand jury decision, while a bunch of other people are buying guns. Swell.
[CN: Injury; death; class warfare; reproductive coercion; medical malfeasance] This is so awful: "Eight women have died in India and dozens more are in hospital, with 10 in a critical condition, after a state-run mass sterilisation campaign went tragically wrong. More than 80 women underwent surgery for laparoscopic tubectomies at a free government-run camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. Of these, about 60 fell ill shortly afterwards, officials in the state said. ...So-called 'sterilisation camps' are held in Chhattisgarh between October and February as part of a larger programme to control India's 1.26 billion population. Women who go through the surgery are given 1,400 rupees (£14) by the state. Local governments in India often offer incentives such as cars and electrical goods to women volunteering for sterilisation. ...Health advocates worry that paying women to undergo sterilisation at family planning camps is dangerous and, by default, limits their contraceptive choices. India's family planning programme has traditionally focused on women, and experts say that male sterilisation is still not accepted socially. 'The payment is a form of coercion, especially when you are dealing with marginalised communities,' said Kerry McBroom, director of the Reproductive Rights Initiative at the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi." There are so many issued tied up in this story: Classism, misogyny, reproductive freedom and meaningful choice, access to contraception and healthcare. Fuck.
[CN: Illness] Dr. Craig Spencer has now recovered from Ebola and is free to go home. This brings the number of cases of Ebola in the United States to zero. Two weeks ago, Republicans were declaring Ebola "Obama's Katrina." My friend Mannion sums it up: "Now they're reporting there's no Ebola epidemic in the US. Election's over. We don't need it anymore." Yup.
[CN: War on agency] The Supreme Court has declined to review "a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholding a New York City law that requires so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in New York City to inform patients that they do not have any medical professionals on staff. The Supreme Court's decision lets stand a portion of a New York City law that requires CPCs to post a 'status disclosure' in English and Spanish at the entrance to its facilities and in waiting rooms, informing patients whether or not a licensed medical professional works on-site at the facility." Good.
This is pretty cool: "Elana Meyers Taylor, a silver medalist in the women's two-person bobsleigh at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, qualified on Saturday to race alongside men for the U.S. national team. Meyers Taylor announced her intention to try to qualify in October, just a month after the FIBT, the sport's international federation, changed its rules to open four-[person] bobsledding competitions to women, who had previously only competed in their own separate two-person version." Right on!
[CN: Ageism] Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is fixing to run for president, says Hillary Clinton is too old to be president. Hahaha President Barack Obama is too young, and Hillary Clinton is too old! And the magic number that is the perfect age for the US presidency is whatever age whatever Republican asshole is who's saying this shit at whatever time.
Something something Rick Perry something something considering running for president. "He said he 'learned some hard lessons' in 2011 and 2012, when his campaign flailed and ended early in the process." One of those lessons was not that he is terrible and the country hates him. Apparently.
And finally! Big cats like boxes, too! LOL FOREVER.
Veterans' Day
Today is Veterans' Day in the US.
Veterans' Day is a weird sort of day for me to recognize, because I don't feel like I'm honoring our servicemembers to treat them as a monolith with an easy catchphrase like, "I support the troops."
I remember seeing a segment on CNN, on Veterans' Day several years ago, about a young man getting the Medal of Honor, who said quite candidly that he was angry to be getting it, because it comes at such a cost. Some generic, feelgood, unqualified, blanket statement about supporting the troops doesn't get at that complicated reality; its vagueness feels like cowardice.
On the other hand, I don't feel like I'm particularly honoring them by pointing out that among the troops are war criminals and thieves and miscreants who harm their fellow soldiers, whose behavior I categorically do not want to support, or by using this day to talk about my objections to the multiple wars and not-wars we're currently fighting, even as I acknowledge the soldiers who honorably staff those wars don't have a choice where they're sent.
Which always leaves me not really knowing what to say.
So I'll just say this: Thank you to all the women and men who have served this country with decency in a military capacity, who have been willing to risk their lives to defend its borders, resources, and people.
And this: When I write about social justice issues every day, I'm advocating for veterans.
I'm advocating for veterans whose bodies and/or minds were changed by war when I write about disability and healthcare access. I'm advocating for veterans who were sexually assaulted when I write about the rape culture. I'm advocating for veterans who are not allowed to serve openly when I write about LGBTQI rights. I'm advocating for veterans who are denied opportunity and equal pay when I write about gender equality. I'm advocating for veterans when I write about visibility of people of color. I'm advocating for veterans who are not getting adequate healthcare, who are homeless, who are unemployed, when I write about funding a comprehensive social safety net. Whenever I'm writing about people in need in the US, I'm necessarily writing about veterans.
If we remember that, every day really is Veterans' Day.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to drop suggestions in comments for how to teaspoon on behalf of veterans today and every day.
I will suggest making a donation, if you can, to the Pets for Vets program, which trains and matches shelter animals with veterans, for companionship and/or service.
On Harassment and the Marking of Visible Womanhood
[Content Note: Misogyny; harassment; rape culture. With the recent discussions around street harassment, this piece has been linked a lot, and I've had a request to republish it, so here it is once more. Originally published July 28, 2011.]
So, previously we had this great thread about how telling people to "smile" is not merely impolite, but a gross disrespect of agency. As frequently happens in such threads, there was also discussion of other types of street harassment and getting hit on.
Often, we contributors/mods have our own private conversations about topics being discussed on the blog, especially when we want to chat about something tangential that would be a derail to the main point. Yesterday, in tandem with the aforementioned thread, we were talking about the truly fucked-up scenario in which women who deviate from traditional definitions of womanhood, or whose appearance is nonconforming to beauty standards, are excluded from such discussions by virtue of having rarely or never harassed in that way.
It's an important conversation, and it deserves its own thread.
It is a conversation I've had before with trans women, with fat cis women, women with noticeable physical disabilities, and with a women who has severe craniofacial deformities—the "I don't want to be treated like a piece of meat or an object or a possession, but because Visible Women are treated like pieces of meat and objects and possessions, the fact that I'm not makes me feel like I'm not even a woman" conversation.
The conversation about feeling excluded from the sisterhood, because you haven't been harassed in the way most women talk about being harassed.
None of the women with whom I've ever had this conversation want to be harassed, nor do they want other women to be harassed, either—and yet there is something akin to envy they feel, sheerly by virtue of being on the outside looking in.
Simultaneously, they feel guilty for feeling that way, because, to a harassed woman, there is nothing enviable about being harassed.
Except, of course, for how there is—because being harassed is a routine part of the Visible Woman's experience. And as long as women's value is determined by objectification, to not be objectified is to feel unvalued, even if to not be objectified is what you want.
This, of course, is not a commentary on women—objectified or not, feminist or not. This is a commentary on the Patriarchy, and how unfathomably fucked-up it is that a failure to be treated poorly—not in exchange for being treated well, but as an alternative to not being acknowledged at all—has the capacity to make women feel worthless.
What a choice: Acknowledged but harassed, or ignored and denied recognition of one's womanhood.
It's a terrible predicament, this place of horrible and shameful "envy," that most women (especially feminist women) probably experience at one time or another during their lives. An older woman finally free of being hit on and cat-called and told to smile may suddenly "miss" the harassment the despised, because its void is not born of a long-sought respect, but of a silent commentary on her diminished worth as a sex object per the Patriarchy's horseshit standards. Two female friends of different races might alternately "envy" each other for the unique forms of objectification by which they're respectively targeted: She gets harassed by people who ignore me because she looks like the Girl Next Door. She gets harassed by people who ignore me because she looks Exotic. Etc.
Knowing how fucked-up it is doesn't change that visceral feeling of alienation: We are all too keenly aware of the narratives used to marginalize us.
And this "envy" is not just about being recognized as a woman; it's also about getting access to the tables at which women sit.
I have had friends who have never been raped confess to me with wracking guilt that they "envy" my history, because to have survived rape is to have earned admission into what can be a very tight-knit group of survivors, not unlike a group of veterans who emerged from the trauma of war as "brothers," having experienced something outsiders cannot understand and sharing a bond outsiders cannot penetrate.
They needn't feel guilty: I understand what they are saying. They don't want me to have been raped. They are not minimizing it. They don't want to be raped themselves. They are simply acknowledging a feeling born of the reality that so many women are victimized by sexual violence that it can feel, to women who have not been, that a key part of what defines womanhood is missing from their histories.
We all view, if not consciously, sexual violence and harassment as a sort of rite of passage, a fire through which we must pass on our way to womanhood. To be denied that trial, even though we don't want it, is to be denied as Woman.
I can think of few things that more poignantly underline how truly and comprehensively woman-hating the Patriarchy is than its creation of an "envy" to be hurt, just to feel like a complete woman.
[Commenting Guidelines: Please note that if your immediate response to this is to assert that you've never experienced this "envy," that may well be a function of privilege. Visible Womanhood is an indicator of privilege—cis women tend to be more visible than trans women, straight women more visible than lesbians, white women more than women of color, able-bodied women more than women with disabilities, etc. I strongly encourage you, rather than reflexively challenging the concept, to listen to the experiences of less privileged women which will certainly be shared here.]
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker janeintexas: "You have a neon sign over your head—what does it say?"
"Correct me on my own lived experiences then get surprised when I am unhappy about that."
Apparently.
Yes, Please
Independent Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders: "When Congress returns here this week, I will introduce legislation to make Election Day a national holiday—call it Democracy Day—so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. This would by no means be a cure-all for increasing turnout, but it would mark one important step to increase participation and create the kind of political system that the world can look upon as an example, not a failure."
I love this idea, I have loved it for years, and I desperately hope this legislation will get a vote and become federal law.
Even with the obvious caveat that, like other national holidays, there will still be businesses that require people to work, wouldn't it be kind of terrific if the "holiday season" started with a day off for many people, in order that they might vote?
