Is anyone else watching Top Chef this season? Without giving away any spoilers in the main post, I am SO EXCITED about the finalists this season! It's basically my favorite season ever.
When the finalists were holding hands and jumping up and down in a circle at the end of last night's episode, I wanted to be jumping with them! Yayayayay!
[Spoilers will be stirring the pot in comments.]
Top Chef
Fat Hatred at the Psychiatrist
by Shaker BigDots
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
Last week I went to my psychiatrist for a regularly scheduled check-up, at which we discuss my anti-depressant medications and whether we should change anything. Because my psychiatrist is a resident, I consult with her for about 20 minutes, then she brings in the supervising doctor, who reiterates everything we went over. I've gone through this process several times over the past few years and had no problems.
This time around, though, was different.
My psychiatrist and I chatted about my medicine, which is working well and doesn't need to be changed. I mentioned to her that I've changed some of my eating habits to include more vegetables and that I've significantly reduced my caffeine intake—actions I've taken, as I told her, to be healthier.
She agreed, then took my blood pressure, a standard procedure, and remarked that it was good. I bristled a bit, because doctors tend to assume I'll have high blood pressure because I'm fat. But my blood pressure and cholesterol are fine. I actually have no health problems related to my fatness.
Anyway, after the blood pressure check, she left to get the supervising doctor, who came in a few minutes later. The doctor discussed my medicine and confirmed that it was working well for me. Then she said, "I hear you are concerned about your weight."
I stared at her. I said, "I didn't say that."
The resident spoke up and said, "Well, being healthy. You talked about being healthier."
I said, "Yes, but that is not the same thing as being concerned about my weight." Being healthy does not (necessarily) equal weight loss.
The supervising doctor retreated from her original remarks, but without apologizing. We discussed my healthier choices. I mentioned my good blood pressure and cholesterol readings. She asked if I was getting regular exercise. I replied that I was.
She then said that we might think about reducing Medicine A in the future, because it can cause weight gain. I said I was perfectly happy with the current dosage and did not want to reduce it.
We exchanged a few more words and then the appointment was over.
I walked out of there stunned. I've been fortunate that I haven't encountered such rank fat hatred from doctors before. It ruined my day. It makes me want to not return to that resident or that supervising doctor. I don't know what I'll do in three months, when I'm due for another appointment. My psychiatrist is supposed to help relieve mental anguish, not cause it.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: War on agency] Today is the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. And Republicans in Congress are celebrating it by trying to push through an anti-abortion bill so extreme that female members of their own caucus have forced them to pull it (for now). And, in case you missed it the first time I linked it, this Guttmacher piece on the state of abortion rights in the US paints a grim but clear picture of how anti-choicers have endeavored to render Roe an empty statute.
[CN: Police brutality; racism; death] And again: "Jerame C. Reid was unarmed and had his hands in the air when he was shot and killed by city police officers the evening of Dec. 30, police video shows. Video taken by a Bridgeton police cruiser's dashboard camera also shows Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley shooting at Reid several times after an apparently unarmed Reid got out of the car in which he was a passenger." This happened in New Jersey.
[CN: State violence; torture; religious intolerance] This is so fucking awful: "Saudi Arabia has postponed the flogging of blogger Raif Badawi for the second week running, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Amnesty said the decision was made after doctors advised against this week's 50 lashes on health grounds. Mr. Badawi was sentenced last May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for 'insulting Islam' and disobedience. He was due to receive the lashes over 20 weeks and was given the first round on 9 January." He's not healthy enough to be flogged, so the next session has been postponed to let him regain his strength, not because flogging is cruel and indecent. "Earlier this week, the BBC learned that Mr. Badawi's case had been referred to the Supreme Court by the king's office." Let us fervently hope that the decision is made to end this reprehensible torture.
[CN: Racism] Dr. Brittney Cooper takes on Maureen Dowd's latest garbage column about Selma and Ava DuVernay's "artful falsehood" against LBJ. I love how many of the arguments defending LBJ are predicated on acting as though he sprang from the womb fully supportive of black people's civil rights. If you agree that he probably had to do some learning on the issue at some point in his life, what difference does it make if he's shown to do that learning in the White House? So many white people are pissed about this because they think it's shameful to have to examine your white privilege (instead of the truth: that it's shameful not to examine it), and that is very revealing. Anyway, go read Professor Crunk, because she is awesome.
Watch out, Utah! "Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are set to meet in Utah this week for a meeting that Bush scheduled before Romney announced this month that he's seriously considering a third presidential run. ...[The meeting] was requested by Bush as a gesture of respect for Romney's leadership role in the party... And now? 'Well obviously Governor Romney has changed the dynamics,' the source said." LOL!
This definitely doesn't sound like a trainwreck: "Nicolas Cage to Star in Osama Bin Laden Satire From Borat Director."
And finally! GOOD DOGS: "Two dogs saved two different families alerting them to fires in their homes in the early morning hours." Human rescue, y'all.
Fatsronauts 101: Choosing to Be Fat Is Okay
[Content Note: Fat hatred; disordered eating.]
Something that comes up a lot in conversations about privilege and marginalization is that marginalized people don't have a choice over their identities, either by virtue of birth or circumstance. This is a crucial step beyond the rhetoric of bootstraps, in which marginalized people are expected to will their way to privilege by hard work and conformity.
But it is also important to move beyond the idea of not having a choice, because it tends to suggest if marginalized people could choose to magically manifest the privileged characteristic, they should or would definitely want to. And also because, in some cases, marginalized people do have a choice, which they are not obliged to make.
This is extremely relevant to discussions of fat people.
It is absolutely a true thing that some fat people have no control over being fat, either because that's how our bodies work, or because of environmental factors, or because of a medicine we take for a medical issue, or whatever.
But I also want to note that fat people don't owe being thin to anyone else.
It has to be okay for people to choose to be fat, even if we do have control over it.
I know it's tremendously difficult for lots of thin people (and even many fat people) to understand, but some fat people want to be fat.
Among the wide spectrum of humanity, there are people who simply prefer the way their bodies look when they are fat. There are women who like being fat because they are left alone by men more. There are actors who aren't handsome enough to play leads and get more work if they're fat. There are all sorts of reasons that some people actively want to be fat.
And there are plenty of fat people who just don't want to be thin. (Which may or may not coexist with actively wanting to be fat.) People for whom losing weight would reactivate disordered eating. People for whom losing weight would disassociate them from an identity very tied to their being fat. People who simply can't afford to buy a whole new goddamn wardrobe if they lose weight.
I have no interest in losing weight at this point in my life. Coming to love my body has been hard fucking won, and I do love it. I don't want to change it. I don't want to even contemplate having to love a whole new body all over again—and, contrary to popular belief, that my body would immediately be lovable to me if it were a thin body is not accurate.
My body would change. I would probably have loose skin and I would l look older and my breasts would change and there are parts of my body I wouldn't even recognize. That would be a whole new body, and it would demand a whole new process of coming to love the things that my culture tells me are imperfect and ugly and wrong.
I have no interest in that, when I am perfectly content as I am.
I have two female friends who have lost a significant amount of weight, and both of them have talked to me about what a mind-fuck it is, to have people be nice to them, who never would have been nice to them before. People who were never nice to them. It makes one see the world differently. I don't have any interest in processing that shit, just to be thin.
I don't want to lose weight, even if I could. And I need for that to be okay. With my doctors and with everyone else.
Submitted Without Comment
[Content Note: Guns; racism.]
Raw Story: "White 'vigilante' puts 62-year-old black man in chokehold for legally carrying gun in Florida Walmart."
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has asked vigilantes to please be careful about which gun owners they choose to attack after a black concealed carry permit holder was wrongly assaulted at a Florida Walmart.Whoops.
According to the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, 62-year-old Clarence Daniels was entering Walmart with his legally concealed firearm to buy coffee creamer on Tuesday when he was spotted by 43-year-old vigilante Michael Foster.
Foster, who is white, had observed Daniels conceal the weapon under his coat before he came into the store. When Daniels crossed the threshold, Foster tackled him and placed him in a chokehold, Hillsborough Sheriff's Office spokesperson Larry McKinnon explained.
"He's got a gun!" Foster reportedly exclaimed.
"I have a permit!" Daniels repeatedly shouted back.
After a struggle, the men were separated. Deputies later arrived and Foster was charged with battery.
"Unfortunately he tackled a guy that was a law-abiding citizen," McKinnon noted. "We understand it's alarming for people to see other people with guns, but Florida has a large population of concealed weapons permit holders."
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Alison Rose: "What was the story of your first pet—what animal was he or she, from where did you get him or her, how old were you, how long did you have the pet, etc? If you've never had a pet, would you like to have one, and what would it be?"
On the Latest in Fat Eliminationism & Healthcare
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
In today's blogaround, I linked to a piece by Ragen Chastain about proposed medical guidelines that exhort physicians to "treat the weight first" in fat patients, i.e. literally deny fat people healthcare unless we lose weight first.
This already happens unofficially all the time: Fat patients are routinely told by many doctors that they must lose weight before they will be approved for certain surgeries, e.g. knee or hip replacements, using bullshit rationales about safety and fat surgical patients, never mind the fact that these same patients would be ushered into bariatric surgery with no questions asked.
Anyway. I've been doing some tweeting this afternoon about these guidelines, about the silence of allies, and about what caring about fat people's health really looks like.
For those who aren't on Twitter, I've Storified my tweets.
If you'd like to find more smart and decent people saying smart and decent things on this subject, you can check out my timeline. I didn't include their tweets in my Storify, because I didn't have a chance to seek their consent for inclusion.
Have at it in comments. And please remember that fat people's right to healthcare is not up for debate in this space.
Report: No Federal Charges for Darren Wilson
[Content Note: Racism; police brutality.]
This is not surprising, but it is incredibly disappointing and infuriating:
The Justice Department has begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., who killed an unarmed black teenager in August, law enforcement officials said.No official decision has been made, but it doesn't look good.
That would close the politically charged case in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, the officials said.
...The state authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown's death in November and similarly recommended no charges.
There is a high legal bar for bringing federal civil rights charges, and federal investigators had for months signaled that they were unlikely to do so. The Justice Department plans to release a report explaining its decision, though it is not clear when.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has said that he plans to have it done before leaving office, probably in the next month or two if his successor is confirmed.
Black lives matter. Black lives have to matter to people in positions of power, to people empowered with making decisions about which lives matter under the law.
Love This
Do you remember last year around this time when a picture of two black dads getting their daughters ready for school went viral (plus the predictable backlash yawn)? Well, Shaker Erin M sent me the heads-up that the couple, Kordale and Kaleb, who are now engaged to be married, are featured in a commercial as part of Nikon's "I Am Generation Image" campaign, and it is amazing.
Over video of the family—both dads and their three kids—standing in front of their home together posing for pictures, Kordale says in voiceover: "We just want people to know that, hey, we're normal. And you can't judge people on their normal. You really can't."And no one should even try to tell them different in the first place. What a great video. So much love for all of them. ♥
Cut to Kordale, a young, thin, tattooed, dark-skinned black man with locced hair, standing on his own: "Hi, my name is Kordale." Cut to Kaleb, a young, thin, tattooed, light-skinned black man with a bald head, standing on his own: "And my name is Kaleb, and we live in Atlanta, Georgia."
A picture of their three children is laid on a table: "These are our three babies: Desmiree, Malia, and Kordale—eight, seven, and six."
Over images of the family making food, eating, getting ready for school, and generally living life together, Kordale says in voiceover: "You know, the routine basically is: We get up at 5:30, and they eat breakfast, and then we do our daughters' hair. Parents that can get up at 5:30 and do their daughters' hair, no matter who they are, that's a family. We pick out their clothes for them, and then we kiss them goodbye, and that's typically what we do in the morning."
Cut to Kordale and Kaleb sitting on a couch together. Kordale says (as video cuts to the image that went viral, of the two dads, shirtless, doing their daughters' hair in the bathroom mirror): "What happened was, we were in the bathroom; we were doing the girls' hair, and I said, 'Oh, let me take a picture.'"
Kaleb continues: "In the picture, we captioned, you know, this is us every day, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, and getting our daughters ready for school. And it was a simple innocent picture, and Kordale was just like, 'I'm just letting y'all know what I have to deal with.' And next thing you know, it went viral, and I'm still amazed today, like, okay, why'd this picture go viral?"
Kordale continues, in voiceover, over video of the kids arriving home from school and Kaleb opening a package from Nikon, which contains a nice camera: "The comments were a trip. It didn't make me feel any way, because I know they don't know what we go through. I know that they don't know our children. I know they don't know our lifestyles; they don't know how we live."
Kaleb continues, over video of the kids playing at the playground: "A picture is so much more than a thousand words. I think that this camera, as we grow and as the kids grow—we'll be able to better explain to anybody the type of family we are, with the pictures and the things that we've done and how we raise them."
Kordale continues, over video of the family visiting grandma's house: "We, as parents, bring kids into the world, and we have to guide them to be better people than we are." Kaleb: "And we want them to be better people than we are. And we want them to succeed and do things that we weren't able to do."
Kaleb continues, over video of the dads and kids back at home, wrestling around on the floor together, laughing, and then the dads kissing each kids' cheeks: "And those kids have our heart. And I can't sit here and explain to you in words why we feel the way that we feel for our children, but those are our kids, and no one else can tell us anything different."
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by pepper.
Recommended Reading:
Ragen: [Content Note: Fat hatred] Horrible New Medical Guidelines for Fat Patients
Emma: [CN: Fat hatred] Why There's No Point Telling Me to Lose Weight
Minerva: [CN: Rape culture; description of assault] How to Support Each Other When Rape Looks Different from What We're Taught
Aunt B: Memories
Fannie: 2014 Book Experiment: The Results Are In!
Sean: Chilean House of Representatives Approves Civil Unions Bill
Aura: The Spanish Language Version of the SOTU Is Unbelievably Bad
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda in all her fuzzy splendor. And Olivia photobombing, of course.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Parks & Rec: The Final Season
[Spoilers are working through friendship issues herein.]
So, the last season of Parks & Rec premiered last week. It is a show I once loved very much, and for which I slowly lost enthusiasm, almost entirely because of the continued bullying of Gary (Jerry/Terry). And, despite my issues with the show, I feel like it deserves better than the truncated, two-episodes-at-a-time rush off the air on Tuesday nights that NBC has given it.
The last season, which takes place three years in the future (gleep glorp!), got off to a pretty rocky start last week. I really wasn't feeling it at all. Leslie and Ron had become mortal enemies for reasons as-yet unexplained, and they were set in a head-to-head battle over a piece of land, with Leslie wanting to turn it into a national park and Ron wanting to use it for commercial development.
This week's episode was much better, and the scene of Leslie annoying Ron by dancing and singing to "We Didn't Start the Fire," making up her own lyrics, was so damn funny—and reminded me of what I loved about the show in the first place.
If you want to watch just that scene, skip ahead to 4:14:
"Harry Truman was a guy, America, Red China, all the countries, other people, everyone is fun / Joe Mantegna, Ian McKellan, I have to buy a new toaster, this is awesome, you're so stupid, jumping up and down / Woo! / Freddie Kreuger, pots and pans, Oprah has a turtle farm, Peter Piper, pee-pee, poo-poo, Daddy ate a squirrel!" LOLOLOL!
Anyway. I thought we might want a thread to discuss the show, whether you love it or hate it or a little of both, as it prepares for its farewell.
A Smart Man Saying Smart Things
As we all know, Mitt Romney is a genius, so it's no surprise that his response to the President's State of the Union address is as wise as we've come to expect from one of the great thinkers of our day:
A couple of things:
* "Politics" and "leadership" are not mutually exclusive, especially when one is the President of the United States.
* "More intent on winning elections." Oh, maybe you haven't heard, Mr. Romney, but President Obama won both of his elections.
"I have no more campaigns to run. I know 'cuz I won both of 'em."
The first time, President Obama beat John McCain. I can't remember who was the second dude he trounced, but, being the smart guy that he is, I'm sure Mitt Romney remembers.
* "Rather than bridging the gap between the parties." Literally, the President spent a huge chunk of his speech on trying to do precisely that. Which, by the time Republicans were being interviewed on cable news shows post-address, had already been reinterpreted to mean that the President had better capitulate to the GOP if he wants to end the gridlock.
* "He makes 'bridge to nowhere' proposals." Well, invoking one of your own party's most absurd failures is one way to criticize the President, I guess.
* "The best way to lower the tax burden blah blah fart." I really love this new Populist Romney, who believes that "all American families" need a lower tax burden. Cool theory, Mr. Millionaire.
This fucking guy.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Misogynist terrorism] Shanley Kane, a tech culture critic who is founder and CEO of the terrific site Model View Culture, recently made some criticisms of the Linux community, and, in an all too familiar pattern, has now become the target of vicious retaliation. Her statement on what has been happening is here. We stand in solidarity with Shanley.
[CN: Class warfare] Charles M. Blow has a terrific piece on "How Expensive It Is to Be Poor." This is a good one for bookmarking, when you need a quick rejoinder to bullshit about how easy lazy government moochers have it.
[CN: Rape culture; descriptions of sexual assault; violent victim-blaming] Woven throughout this story about female survivors of sexual violence in Nepal increasingly raising their voices for justice, despite strong cultural disincentives, is the personal story of a remarkable 17-year-old girl named Pooja Bohara, who is taking her case all the way to the nation's Supreme Court. "The incident has totally affected my life. It was a turning point in my life. I want to study law and become a judge so I can seek justice for victims like myself." Blub.
[CN: Racism; class warfare] Goddammit: "For four years, civil rights advocates have struggled to keep the Supreme Court from eliminating a key prong of federal fair housing law. This year, their luck is probably going to run out. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, a case that could leave many victims of housing discrimination unable to win their case in court. Based on the justices' unusual eagerness to hear the issue presented by Inclusive Communities, their decision is likely to end badly for civil rights." Fuck fuck fuck.
[CN: War on agency] Katie Klabusich calls blue-staters to action in the fight against legislation that erodes abortion access. "And for those of us in progressives areas, our rallying cry must not simply be, 'Please don't let those restrictions creep across our state's border!' It's not just unconscionable for us blue-staters to breathe sighs of relief, confident that our access to safe, legal abortion care will hold as we watch it crumble for our neighbors in red and purple states; blue state access has been slowly and quietly eroded as well. If you've been one of those people waiting for restrictions to affect you before engaging, consider this your call to enlist: Your state is not safe, and your rights are not guaranteed."
[CN: Sexual assault; rape jokes] Samantha Allen discusses the concept of separating art from the artist and recalls that Woody Allen used to joke about his ex-wife being sexually assaulted.
Something about ballsport cheating? Under-inflated footballs.
Wowwwwwww: "Scientists at the University of Rochester have created a metal that is so extremely hydrophobic that the water bounces on it as if it were repelled by a magic force field. ...The applications can be revolutionary: From the construction of airplane surfaces—which will avoid water freezing of the fuselage—to non-stick pans to phones to computers to TVs to cars to whatever you can imagine made of metal."
And finally! Here is a sweet story about a man who rescued a dog from the side of the road, and ended up adopting her. A happy ending!
So the President Gave a Speech Last Night
So, last night was President Obama's sixth State of the Union address. Full video of the speech is here, and a transcript of his remarks as prepared for delivery is here. There were some highlights and lowlights, as always.
Highlights:
* President Obama used three words which have never before been used by a United States President in a State of the Union address: Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. "As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we're threatened... That's why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they are the right thing to do, but because ultimately they will make us safer."
* Obama announced he would be proposing new legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave for every worker: "Today, we're the only advanced country on Earth that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave. Forty-three million. Think about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home. So I'll be taking new action to help states adopt paid leave laws of their own. And since paid sick leave won where it was on the ballot last November, let's put it to a vote right here in Washington. Send me a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It's the right thing to do."
* He exhorted Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing equal pay for women, overtime pay, and a higher federal minimum wage: "Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. That's why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It's 2015. It's time. We still need to make sure employees get the overtime they've earned. And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise."
* He introduced his plan to offer free community college: "By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher education. Two in three. And yet, we still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are priced out of the education they need. It's not fair to them, and it's not smart for our future. That's why I am sending this Congress a bold new plan to lower the cost of community college—to zero. ...And I want to work with this Congress, to make sure Americans already burdened with student loans can reduce their monthly payments, so that student debt doesn't derail anyone's dreams."
* He advocated for a robust infrastructure plan: "21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure—modern ports, stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. So let's set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let's pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than thirty times as many jobs per year, and make this country stronger for decades to come."
* He called out the bullshit partisan gridlock making Washington, D.C. utterly ineffective:
You know, just over a decade ago, I gave a speech in Boston where I said there wasn't a liberal America, or a conservative America; a black America or a white America—but a United States of America. ...Over the past six years, the pundits have pointed out more than once that my presidency hasn't delivered on this vision. How ironic, they say, that our politics seems more divided than ever. It's held up as proof not just of my own flaws—of which there are many—but also as proof that the vision itself is misguided, and naïve, and that there are too many people in this town who actually benefit from partisanship and gridlock for us to ever do anything about it.This section of the speech also contained a terrific unscripted moment: The Shade Heard 'Round the World.
I know how tempting such cynicism may be. But I still think the cynics are wrong. I still believe that we are one people. I still believe that together, we can do great things, even when the odds are long. ...Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns. Imagine if we did something different. ...A better politics is one where we appeal to each other's basic decency instead of our basest fears. ...If we're going to have arguments, let's have arguments—but let's make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country.
Over the past six years, the pundits have pointed out more than once that my presidency hasn't delivered on this vision. How ironic, they say, that our politics seems more divided than ever. [edit] I know how tempting such cynicism may be. But I still think the cynics are wrong. I still believe that we are one people. I still believe that together, we can do great things, even when the odds are long. [applause] I believe this because over and over in my six years in office, I have seen America at its best. [edit] I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda— [sarcastic cheers and applause from Republicans; the President smiles knowingly] I know 'cuz I won both of 'em. [laughter and cheers and applause; the President smiles and winks]Hahaha YES.
Lowlights:
* The President had an opportunity to say Black Lives Matter, and he didn't take it: "We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can't walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won't rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift. ...I want our actions to tell every child, in every neighborhood: your life matters, and we are as committed to improving your life chances as we are for our own kids."
* Warrrrrrrr! WAR! War war war! War.
* Lots and lots of economic talk centered on "middle-class economics." Which is great—if you're already in the middle-class. And, theoretically, "middle-class economics" is supposed to help eradicate poverty by giving people opportunities to "lift themselves" out of poverty, but that's honestly just not enough. "Middle-class economics" has never been enough. To meaningfully address entrenched poverty, we need to talk about poverty, not just about "strengthening the middle class" and telling people in poverty to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and reach for the middle-class stars.
* Following immediately after one of the best parts of his speech—"If we're going to have arguments, let's have arguments—but let's make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country."—came this total bummer: "We still may not agree on a woman's right to choose, but surely we can agree it's a good thing that teen pregnancies and abortions are nearing all-time lows, and that every woman should have access to the health care she needs." No, actually—we can't agree that "every woman should have access to the healthcare she needs" if we don't agree on a woman's right to choose [NB: Not only women need access to abortion], because abortion is healthcare.
During a time when abortion rights are being rolled back in state legislatures across the country, "disagreement" over abortion access should not even have been invoked as something on which we can all agree to disagree. Abortion should not have been used as an example here, but, if it had to be, what the President should have said is: "We might not all have the same personal views on abortion, but surely we can all agree that women have the right to make their own choices."
For abortion to be referenced in the State of the Union by an ostensibly pro-choice president as something on which people of good faith can have disagreements is just dreadful. Fail.
Anyway! What did you like? What did you not like? Have at it comments!
Question of the Day
How did you learn how to cook? Or, if you don't know how to cook, why is it that you've never learned?
Between home economics class and my mom, I left home with the ability to follow a recipe and cook some simple stuff, but it's really been watching cooking shows that I learned the specifics of cooking—the difference between roasting and broiling and braising, which tools to use for which tasks, that sort of thing. And it was through experimenting with cooking for years that I became a decent cook, able to devise my own recipes and understand flavor combinations.
So thanks, Food Network! Basically.
