Hosted by a zamboni.
This week's Open Threads have been brought to you by the letter Z.
Question of the Day
What was your favorite class in school, and why did you enjoy it so much?
"I hated every single second of school ever" is, of course, a perfectly acceptable response.
Photo of the Day
Yes, that is a seal riding on a humpback whale's back! [Photo Credit: Robyn Malcolm/Diimex.com.]
This is THE BEST! "When a pod of whales tucked into a feeding frenzy on the [New South Wales, Australia] south coast there was plenty on the menu—even enough for a surprise guest. Amid the pod of humpback whales in waters out of Eden, an opportunistic fur seal wasted no time in finding the best seat for the fish feast. The odd pairing was captured by photographer Robyn Malcolm on a recent whale watching trip out of Eden. 'We'd seen some amazing whales coming out of the water, everything was happening so quickly. And it was when I went back through the photos that I realised I had actually captured the seal on top of the whale.'"
In the video at the link, an interviewer asks Malcolm how people can be sure she didn't photoshop the remarkable image, to which Malcolm responds: "I don't know how to use photoshop! And I do still have it on the camera, so I can prove it." Haha!
Just Tell Me I'm Fat and Relieve Us Both of This Obnoxious Charade
[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
So, one of the things about being a fat person who moves through a culture populated with aggressive fat haters is that there are times you are obliged to deal with thin people who just need to express to you that you are fat.
This is something different than the thin strangers who casually express that your being fat is wrong or disgusting or must be fixed. This is something more like Austin Powers [CN: video autoplays at link] being unable to stop himself shouting "MOLE!" at a man with a mole on his face.
Which itself is a commentary on the humans who can't seem to function with other humans who have some sort of physical difference, unless and until that physical difference is acknowledged.
If you're not a fat person, nor a person with any other physical difference on which any number of strangers feel obliged to comment, seemingly unable to breathe until the elephant difference in the room is addressed, it may be hard to understand what this experience is like. (Unless, perhaps, you're one of the people who forces this precise sort of discomfort on other people.)
But it is something I and many other fat folks are forced to navigate on a regular basis, this situation of interacting with a thin person who can't bear to leave unaddressed the very presence of our fat. They need us to know that they see we are fat, and they need us to acknowledge that we realize we are fat.
It's the only way to alleviate their discomfort with being around a fat person.
Earlier this week, we needed to have someone do some work at the house, and the man who arrived was an older thin white man. He was pleasant enough, for the most part, and chatted amiably with me about his own dogs, as Dudley and Zelda met him at the door.
But he was giving me That Look, the look that I have come to know, through a lifetime of experience, as the look of a person who feels awkward about my being all fat and stuff in their presence. It's distinct from explicit fat hatred, because it's not haughty. It's uncomfortable.
So I steeled myself for the painfully awkward hints at my fatness that I knew were imminent. I didn't have to wait long.
He started with comments about Dudley the Greyhound, and how thin he is. It's amazing (not amazing at all) how many conversations about my weight with strangers begin with observations about Dudley being so thin.
And then it went to Zelda, the gateway fatty in the house.
Dudley, the man observed, looks like he runs around an awful lot. Zelda, he then pronounced, looks as though she doesn't run around as much. Naturally, this was not a comment made to me, but at me, in the guise of speaking directly to Zelda: "You don't look like you run around as much!"
It was something for me to hear. Despite not being said to me.
The thing with Zelda is that she's got Cushing's Disease, one of the key (and most visible) identifiers of which is the appearance of a pot belly. I don't feel inclined to get into a discussion of my dog's healthcare with strangers, but it is constantly infuriating to me to face the implicit accusation that I don't take good care of my beloved Zelda when I spend inordinate amounts of time and money on her veterinary care, medication, and diet to keep her alive.
Especially because the comments usually aren't really about Zelda. They're about me.
The man made several other comments about Zelda's weight, before he met Olivia in the kitchen. She sat on the kitchen table, greeting him noisily with her happy mews. He reached out to pet her, saying, "Looks like you don't miss many meals, either. Your mom sure keeps all of you well fed."
Years ago, at this point, I would have been feeling bad. I would have been feeling defensive, and upset, and mortified. Now, I just reveled in standing by while he continued his running commentary, refusing to acknowledge any of it, letting him stew in his discomfort with my body.
Why not. It was his discomfort. Not mine. And I had not the slightest desire to relieve him of it.
I also know, from a lifetime of experience, that what I was meant to do, what I was supposed to do as a Good Fatty Who Cares Deeply About Not Making Thin People Uncomfortable with Her Existence, was make a self-effacing joke about how I guess we could all stand to lose a few pounds in this house haha, a joke that telegraphed my awareness, and my attendant shame, that I am fat.
I don't do that anymore.
If he really wanted to let the air out of the colossal zeppelin of awkwardness he'd created, he could have just done what he really wanted and needed, which is look me square in the eye and tell me, "You're fat!"
But that, of course, would have been rude.
Unlike his tremendously subtle attempts to yank it out of me with passive aggressive conversations with my pets.
[Related Reading: True Tales of Gender Essentialism at the Dog Park.]
Rage. Seethe. Boil.
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; images and descriptions of police violence at link.]
In Stockton, California, nine—nine—police officers violently arrested a black teenage boy for jaywalking, while one bystander filmed them and another shouted at them to leave him alone, repeatedly admonishing them, "He's a fucking kid!"
This incident is perfectly, terribly representative of a dynamic from which the vast majority of white USians are insulated, because white supremacy, racial privilege, and segregation explicitly act in service to insulate us from precisely this reality: The brutal policing of black USians for municipal violations, using minor infractions to generate fines and police records that have lasting impact on black lives and communities.
I will again recommend [CN: video autoplays at link] this segment by John Oliver on municipal violations, and again recommend this article by Brentin Mock on the history of jaywalking being used to redistribute ownership of the streets.
#BlackLivesMatter cannot be and is not just about ending police killings. It's also about ending the violent, discriminatory policing that is fundamentally incompatible with freedom, safety, and justice. It cannot be and is not just about preventing death, but about preventing torment and state-sanctioned oppression against the living.
Daily Dose of Cute
One of Zelly's favorite snuggling positions, granting max access to the zellybelly.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Earthquake; death] Oh dear: "Residents picked through the rubble of destroyed buildings in central Chile on Thursday after a magnitude 8.3 earthquake killed eight people and sent powerful waves barreling into coastal areas, forcing more than 1 million people from their homes. Violent aftershocks continued shaking the South American country on Thursday morning and locals said they feared another big quake, although the government lifted its tsunami warning. 'Everything is a mess. It was a disaster, a total loss. Bottles and glasses shattered and the pipes in the bathroom and kitchen burst,' said restaurant owner Melisa Pinones in the city of Illapel, near the epicenter of Wednesday's quake." Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave information about where to direct donations in comments.
[CN: Refugee crisis] The latest from Croatia: "The Croatian government has said that the country cannot take in any more [refugees], as riot police clashed with people entering the EU country from Serbia. Croatia's interior minister, Ranko Ostojić, said Croatia would provide [refugees] with safe passage to reception centres around the capital, Zagreb, but that those not seeking asylum would be considered illegal immigrants. With their path north from Serbia into Hungary—and the EU—blocked since Tuesday, many [refugees] have turned west to the Croatian frontier. Ostojić said 6,500 had entered in the last 24 hours. 'Croatia will not be able to receive more people,' Ostojić told reporters in the town of Tovarnik on Croatia's eastern border with Serbia, where thousands of people gathered on Thursday in and around the train station in blazing sunshine, waiting to board trains and buses. More than 100 riot police were deployed to control the growing crowds and keep them back from railway tracks. Clashes broke out as some people broke through police lines." Goddamn.
Ahmed Mohamed, the 9th grader who was punished for bringing his homemade clock to school, continues to receive lots of support: The White House "invited Ahmed to Astronomy Night at the White House on Oct. 19 to meet some astronauts and government scientists, said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield also invited Ahmed to a science show in Toronto next month. NASA astronaut Daniel Tani offered Ahmed the shirt off his back. 'Looks like Ahmed might need a new NASA shirt. I can give him one of mine—that flew in space!' And an anonymous donor has paid for him to attend space camp at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. ...In an interview on MSNBC, he called the Massachusetts Institute of Technology his 'dream school.' Host Chris Hayes had a surprise for him. MIT physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein joined the conversation live to invite him check out the school's astrophysics facility. 'I just want to say, you are my ideal student,' she said. 'A creative, independent thinker like you is the kind of person who should be becoming a physicist.'" Blub.
[CN: War on agency] Fuck fuck fuck: "On Wednesday, while most of the country was focused on the second Republican presidential debate, and the candidates' positions on the ongoing controversy swirling around Planned Parenthood, GOP lawmakers quietly made moves toward advancing one of their next major attacks on abortion rights: Cracking down on 'fetal dismemberment.' ...One of the most anti-abortion members of Congress, New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, officially introduced a bill on Wednesday seeking to 'prohibit dismemberment abortions.' While that bill won't necessarily go anywhere while Democrats maintain control of the White House, its introduction represents the next step in a larger effort to outlaw a specific medical procedure, enshrine junk science into law, and potentially provoke a Supreme Court challenge."
[CN: White privilege] Matt Damon is happy his shitty whitesplaining "started a conversation" on diversity lololol omg. I hope everyone appreciates white people for starting all the conversations on diversity! That reminds me: I've got to write Jonathan Franzen a thank-you note for starting a conversation about feminism. And another one to Nicole Arbour for starting a conversation about fat shaming. We need to institute a Day of Gratitude on which marginalized people thank privileged people for starting conversations with their bigotry. Ahem. It sure is cool how talking about one's oppression is "looking for things to get mad about," but enacting that oppression is "starting a conversation."
[CN: Clergy sex abuse; rape culture] Rage seethe boil: "The Catholic Church has allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children in the United States and Europe to relocate to poor parishes in South America, a yearlong GlobalPost investigation has found. Reporters confronted five accused priests in as many countries: Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Peru. One priest who relocated to a poor parish in Peru admitted on camera to molesting a 13-year-old boy while working in the Jackson, Mississippi diocese. Another is currently under investigation in Brazil after allegations arose that he abused disadvantaged children living in an orphanage he founded there. All five were able to continue working as priests, despite criminal investigations or cash payouts to alleged victims. All enjoyed the privilege, respect, and unfettered access to young people that comes with being clergy members."
[CN: White supremacy] I'm sure they'll be on the float next to Kim Davis in the Conservative Martyr Parade: "More than 20 students at a Virginia high school received a one-day suspension for wearing clothing displaying the Confederate flag. Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake told CBS affiliate WDBJ the clothing violated Christiansburg High School's dress code. Drake said that the students refused to comply with the dress code after they arrived at the school Thursday. They were given one-day in-school suspensions."
Fuck yeah Monica Bellucci: "Some people take offence at the term Bond girl. Do you? 'I can't say I'm a Bond girl because I'm too mature to be a Bond girl. I say Bond lady; Bond woman. But I'm proud to be a Bond lady, because actually, Bond is the most amazing man. You know why?' Why? 'Because he doesn't exist.'" LOL!
Perfection: "Alex Trebek Said 'Turd Ferguson' on Jeopardy! and People Went Wild."
[CN: Video autoplays at link] And finally! This video is a couple of years old, but I only saw it for the first time today, and it is TOO CUTE not to share: Wally the Squirrel hides his nut in the fur of Jax the Bernese Mountain Dog. Awwww lol!
Childfree 101: The "Women Are Designed to Love" Narrative
[Content Note: Reproductive coercion; misogyny.]
I really dig this piece for Harpers by Rebecca Solnit, "The Mother of All Questions," about the way childfree women's reproductive choices are publicly audited and policed. (Thanks to @LMegaparsec for passing it along.) One of the things I appreciate about it is that Solnit addresses the pervasive narrative that women who choose not to parent are selfishly denying themselves "the best way to fulfill your capacity to love."
People lock onto motherhood as a key to feminine identity in part from the belief that children are the best way to fulfill your capacity to love, even though the list of monstrous, ice-hearted mothers is extensive. But there are so many things to love besides one's own offspring, so many things that need love, so much other work love has to do in the world.I value this passage because it addresses an idea important to me, about which I've written before: This notion that we are meant to believe it is possible to "have it all," and that the only thing preventing us from "having it all" are social policies that make birthing and parenting (particularly for women) incompatible with career ambition and success.
While many people question the motives of the childless, who are taken to be selfish for refusing the sacrifices that come with parenthood, they often neglect to note that those who love their children intensely may have less love left for the rest of the world. Christina Lupton, a writer who is also a mother, recently described some of the things she relinquished when motherhood's consuming tasks had her in their grasp, including
all the ways of tending to the world that are less easily validated than parenting, but which are just as fundamentally necessary for children to flourish. I mean here the writing and inventing and the politics and the activism; the reading and the public speaking and the protesting and the teaching and the filmmaking. ... Most of the things I value most, and from which I trust any improvements in the human condition will come, are violently incompatible with the actual and imaginative work of childcare.
It is a real and true thing that are social policies around birthing and parenting are garbage, especially for working class women. But we rarely speak of the reality that, for most women, it is not truly possible to "have it all," if part of the "all" one wants includes parenting, even with the best possible social policy, because of our own finite capacity as human beings. The care of another human being is demanding work. It is time-consuming and it has an emotional and psychological cost. Something has to give somewhere to make room for those expenditures.
We rarely have honest public discussions about this reality. And I understand why: Because I cannot say things like "I would not have the time and energy to dedicate to [this other part of my life] if I were a parent" without immediate and aggressive pushback, as though implicit in my factual statement is a condemnation of parenthood. Or inherent criticism of the quality of paid work done by mothers.
But I am speaking only for and of myself. I know what my own capacity and limits are. Another woman's may look very different from mine, but we do no woman any favors by pretending that women have unlimited resources.
We certainly aren't creating meaningful choices around parenthood for women when we don't, or aren't allowed, to forthrightly discuss that many professional childfree women would simply not have been able, because of both social policy and personal capacity, to achieve what they had if they had chosen to parent.
There is enormous pressure, to the contrary, on women to believe that they are capable of everything. Of having it all and doing it all. With little regard for the taxation on the nurture and care of themselves.
Which brings me to the other reason I value the above quoted passage: Because it challenges the narrative of womanhood in which we are defined as creatures designed to love and care for other people.
In this definition of womanhood, our value is determined largely or exclusively by what we give—primarily to children and spouses. If leniency is granted so that what we give to our work may be included, it is not the actual work product we generate that has attached value, but what we give to our employers, to our coworkers, to our clients or patients.
When women are viewed as designed to love and care, childfree women are hardly women at all. Only if our work can define us as an ersatz mother, e.g. Mother Theresa, might we be given reprieve from the harshest of judgments.
Women are held to a standard in which we have value only if we demonstrate a constant outpouring of love and care for other people, which is harmful in a number of ways, not least of which is that, if it is true (as I believe) that empathy and concern for other people is part of the human condition, it is only one part, not the whole.
And sometimes the way we find to express empathy and concern for other people is incompatible with parenting. Because we only have so much. Because women are not, in fact, built to be naught but endless fonts of care.
As Solnit observes: "There are so many things to love besides one's own offspring, so many things that need love, so much other work love has to do in the world." Like, as Lupton says, "all the ways of tending to the world that are less easily validated than parenting, but which are just as fundamentally necessary for children to flourish."
There are women who make, as part of their decision-making around whether to parent, a calculation that what they want to do in other parts of their lives is incompatible with parenting.
That is a valid choice, and it is one we must talk about, to subvert the garbage rhetoric around women being able to "have it all," setting up women for feelings of failure when they find there simply isn't enough of themselves to go around.
Women are not uniquely designed to love, but as much as any human being has a capacity and desire to love and care for other people and things, to leave the world a little bit better than zie found it, any love (or variation thereof) offered is valuable.
And as definitional to oneself as parenting is expected to be, even when one chooses not to parent.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: White supremacy.]
"But when crime is really a proxy for talking about race, the threshold for conclusions to be seen as scientifically rigorous always shifts. Always. Were the issue actually crime, statistics would tell you that crime continues its longitudinal trend downward nationally. Were the issue criminality, science would tell you that civil unrest stems from very different social processes than those which produce criminals. Were the issue safety, public policy would protect black taxpayers from being indiscriminately murdered by the police. But the issue is race. There, the scientific threshold bows to the superiority of racial logic. Suddenly, crime waves exist in a vacuum and have arbitrary beginning and end points. The poor become at once both fragile and super predators. Blackness assumes the essential, biological, and irrefutable character of criminality."—Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom, in a must-read piece for The Atlantic, "Race Is Always the Issue."
Round Two
[Content Note: Misogyny; racism.]
So, last night was the second Republican primary debate, and I decided not to watch it, and I feel great about that decision! Here is a full transcript of the debate, if you would like to read one. And here is my Executive Summary: This field of Republican candidates is a bunch of really terrible, ignorant, aggressively cruel people.
I mean, here is something that actually happened in a presidential debate, because of the rock-bottom basement level of wretched garbage we're dealing with from these shitlords:
Moderator Jake Tapper: Ms. Fiorina, I do want to ask you about this: In an interview last week in Rolling Stone magazine, Donald Trump said the following about you. Quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Mr. Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. Please feel free to respond what you think about his persona.I mean. This is just some misogynist bullshit that does not have a place in presidential politics. But here we are.
[Audience laughter]
Carly Fiorina: You know, it's interesting to me: Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. [This refers to earlier in the debate when Trump took Jeb Bush to task for saying he "misspoke" when he said: "I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues."] I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.
[Audience applause]
Donald Trump: I think she's got a beautiful face, and I think she's a beautiful woman.
The entire debate was littered with rank racism, which is the guiding principle of the Republican Party's positions on immigration and foreign policy. And this absurdity, at the intersection of misogyny, racism, and sheer unfettered fuckery, came toward the end of the debate:
Moderator Jake Tapper: Welcome back to CNN's Republican Presidential Debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. We have a few last questions for you: Two of them a little lighthearted, the other one more serious. We'll start with one of the more light questions. Senator Paul, I'm going to start with you and we're just going to go down the line. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department announced that a woman will appear on the $10 bill. What woman would you like to see on the $10 bill?Insert a photoshop here of Wednesday Addams on a $10 bill.
Senator Rand Paul: Ooh, that's a tough one. You know, I'm big on—that we were—and I love what Carly said about women's suffrage. I think Susan B. Anthony might be a good choice.
Tapper: Governor Huckabee?
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: That's an easy one. I'd put my wife on there. [audience laughter] I've been married to her 41 years. She's fought cancer and lived through it. She's raised three kids, five great grandkids, and she's put up with me. I mean, who else could possibly be on that money other than my wife. And that way, she could spend her own money with her face. [audience laughter]
Tapper: Senator Paul.
Senator Marco Rubio: Senator Rubio, you mean?
Tapper: I'm sorry. Senator Rubio?
Rubio: I know we all look alike. [audience laughter]
Tapper: Just the senators.
Rubio: The—Rosa Parks, an everyday American that changed the course of history.
Tapper: Senator Cruz?
Senator Ted Cruz: Well, I wouldn't change the $10 bill, I'd change the $20. I'd take Jackson off and I'd leave Alexander Hamilton right where he is as one of our Founding Fathers. [audience applause] And I very much agree with Marco that it should be Rosa Parks. She was a principled pioneer that helped change this country, helped remedy racial injustice, and that would be an honor that would be entirely appropriate.
Tapper: Dr. Carson?
Dr. Ben Carson: I'd put my mother on there. You know, she was one of 24 children, got married at age 13, had only a third grade education, had to raise two sons by herself, refused to be a victim. Wouldn't let us be victims, and has been an inspiration to many people. [audience applause]
Tapper: Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump: Well, because she's been sitting for three hours, I think my daughter, Ivanka, who's right here. [audience applause] Other than that, we'll go with Rosa Parks. I like that.
Tapper: Governor Bush.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush: I would go with Ronald Reagan's partner, Margaret Thatcher. Probably illegal, but what the heck? [audience applause] Since it's not going to happen. A strong leader is what we need in the White House, and she certainly was a strong leader that restored the United Kingdom into greatness.
Tapper: Governor Walker.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: First of all, I got to say to Carson, Huckabee, thanks a lot for making the rest of us look like chumps up here, but, I'd pick Clara Barton. I once worked for the American Red Cross, she was a great founder of the Red Cross.
Tapper: Mrs. Fiorina.
Corporate power-failure Carly Fiorina: I wouldn't change the $10 bill, or the $20 bill. I think, honestly, it's a gesture. I don't think it helps to change our history. What I would think is that we ought to recognize that women are not a special interest group. Women are the majority of this nation. We are half the potential of this nation, and this nation will be better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses. [audience applause]
Tapper: Governor Kasich.
Ohio Governor John Kasich: Well, it's probably not, maybe, legal, but, I would pick Mother Theresa, the lady that I had a chance to meet, a woman who lived a life so much bigger than her own. An inspiration to everyone when we think about our responsibility to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Tapper: Governor Christie.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: I think the Adams family has been shorted in the currency business. Our country wouldn't be here without John Adams, and he would not have been able to do it without Abigal Adams, so, I'd put Abigail Adams on the bill.
First of all, the fact that Jake Tapper framed this question, posed to a field of eleventy-seven men and one woman, about visible female representation as a "lighthearted" question pretty much says everything one needs to know about the state of presidential politics in the US and the media's concern with equitable female participation.
Secondly, that a bunch of men who, by way of massive understatement, don't exactly show robust support for the Black Lives Matter movement would suggest putting Rosa Parks on our currency just shows what an ahistorical understanding they have of who Rosa Parks was and what she did.
Thirdly, Margaret Thatcher and Mother Theresa aren't even American women. If you are running for the president of the United States and you can't even name a single one of your own countrywomen who deserves to be recognized, FUCK YOU.
And the same goes for the assholes who chose their wife or mom or daughter, too. Talk about men who exceptionalize the women over whom they perceive themselves to have ownership. "The only women deserving enough are the women related to me!" Jesus Jones.
Finally, of course Fiorina, the only woman on the stage, punted and had to play the Exceptional Woman who doesn't even care about women's visibility on national currency. Yes, Fiorina, we sure will be "better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses," and part of the way we get there is by visibly including women in every space and institution.
Good grief. Keep all of these people away from the Oval Office. Forever.
In summation: I hate this field of Republicans with the fiery passion of ten thousand suns. The end.
Question of the Day
What's for dinner? Or whatever the next meal of the day is in your part of the world.
I've got beef stew slow-cooking away in the crockpot, and, in welcome evidence that I am actually finally for real getting better, I can smell it! And it smells DELICIOUS!
Nope
[Content Note: Christian Supremacy. Emails shared with permission.]
Aphra_Behn: Did you see this? [Link goes to story about an irreligious woman who was required by the court to attend counseling sessions to retain custody of her children, and the counselor turned out to be an aggressive Christian.] This is why I really hate all of these Christian conversion programs across the country getting treated by the media like they're some kind of actual therapy. It just legitimizes this oppressive shit. If Josh Duggar wants to check himself into Jesus camp for his asshole problem "pr0n addiction," that's fine, but the state has no business mandating that crap as "therapy."
Liss: Omg FUCK THIS. Even as jaded as I am, it's difficult to believe this shit happens in this country in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen.
Aphra_Behn: Well, it's all right. I've alerted Mike Huckabee. I'm sure he'll be standing up for the patient's right to freedom FROM religion, AHEM.
Liss: Haha I'm sure he'll get RIGHT ON THAT!
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by a cool breeze.
Recommended Reading:
Amy: [Content Note: Misogyny] Poem: "A Girl's Guide"
Sydnee: [CN: Gender policing; sexual objectification] Defining Your Gender as a Black Queer Femme Is Revolutionary—Don't Take That Away
Sara: [CN: Sexual assault; misogyny; heterocentrism; racism] Everybody Hurts: Content for Kindness
Andy: [CN: Transphobia] Many Trans People Still Are Denied Healthcare Because of Their Identity
Angus: [CN: Christian Supremacy] Jonathan Chait Doesn't Care About Free Speech People
Lance: [CN: Christian Supremacy] Religious Liberty for Me But Not for Thee
Sameer: [CN: Racism; violence] Hate Crime Charge Added in Case of Assault Against Sikh Man
Sofia: [CN: Rape culture] Advocates Urge White House to Implement Rape Kit Law
Squinky: [CN: Appropriation] Two Non-Offensive Alternatives to the Term "Spirit Animal"
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Class warfare.]
Zero: The number of counties in the entirety of the United States in which "a minimum wage earner can support a family."
[T]here isn't a single county in which a minimum wage can match the local cost of living [for a household with one parent supporting a non-working spouse and two-children]. In some counties, such as Marin County near San Francisco or Prince Williams County in Virginia, the breadwinner of this household would have to bring in upwards of $20 more per hour to support his or her family.Only in parts of Washington state is it possible for a single adult to make slightly more than the cost of living.
Things are tough for a single parent with one child, too. The living wage is higher than the minimum wage in every state.
This is what class warfare looks like.
Daily Dose of Cute
Sink squatter.
She waits for me to come into the bathroom and then whines for me to put on the tap for her, natch.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Refugee crisis; violence] Goddammit: "Hungarian riot police in the border town of Röszke have used water cannon and teargas against refugees wanting to enter the country from Serbia. The refugees were on the other side of a razor-wire fence built by Hungary's rightwing government and completed in tandem with the introduction of tough new laws on Tuesday aiming to keep refugees out. Hungarian police issued a statement accusing 'aggressive' migrants of breaking through the fence, but a United Nations official at the scene said the barrier did not appear to have been breached. A Reuters reporter in Röszke said hundreds of riot police, backed by special anti-terrorist units with armoured vehicles and water cannon, advanced towards a crowd of refugees. A spokesman for the Hungarian government said the migrants were 'armed with pipes and sticks.' Television pictures showed people in Horgoš, on the Serbian side, throwing plastic water bottles at rows of helmeted riot police and chanting demands that the border be reopened." Does this sound familiar? It should, since it follows almost exactly the same narrative as militarized police interactions with protesters in the US.
[CN: Flooding; death] Awful: "Flash flooding in Utah has claimed the lives of 16 people, including 12 who died after vehicles packed with families who had gone to watch torrential waters ran into a 'wall of water' filled with debris on Monday. Four Zion National Park visitors also died in the flooding, and another three people who were at the park are still missing, park spokeswoman Aly Baltrus told the Salt Lake Tribune." I hope the missing will be rescued. My condolences to those who lost family, friends, or colleagues in the flooding.
[CN: Sexual harassment and assault] A good outcome to a terrible injustice: "In a landmark victory, a federal jury unanimously decided to award a $17 million settlement to five women farmworkers who were subjected to sexual harassment and intimidation. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, three male supervisors at Moreno Farms 'engaged in graphic acts of sexual harassment' within the Florida packing house that included rape, attempted rape, propositioning, and groping."
[CN: Racism; police misconduct] I suppose retirement means he gets to keep his pension: "Surf City Police Chief Mike Halstead has retired effective immediately following an emergency meeting called in reference to a Facebook post he made [in which he referred to #BlackLivesMatter as "nothing more than an American born terrorist group brought on by the lie of the hands up don't shoot during the criminal thug Michael Brown incident"]. Major Ron Shanahan will take over as interim chief. Town leaders and Halstead have agreed on severance pay following his decision to retire." Severance pay. For fuck's sake.
[CN: Racism] Tell 'em, Joe: "Vice President Joe Biden took aim at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday, blasting the real estate mogul for 'absolutely denigrating an entire group of people' [and] 'appealing to the baser side of human nature.'" He called Trump's message "xenophobic" and "sick." Facts!
[CN: Class warfare] YES! Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steve Cohen have introduced legislation that "would prohibit hiring managers from seeking credit information on potential employees unless state law requires a credit check or the job in question requires a security clearance." Cue state legislators introducing legislation to require credit checks, lolsob.
[CN: Environmental and animal harm] Damn: "The number of fish and other species in the sea has been almost halved since 1970, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Numbers dropped some 49% between 1970 and 2012, the report says, with global population sizes of the Scombridae family of food fish that includes tunas, mackerel, and bonitos falling by 74%. ...They identify overfishing as the main threat to ocean biodiversity, but also conclude that climate change is causing the ocean to change faster than it has for millions of years."
[CN: 9/11 and rape references] What the everloving shit? "Best known for playing Kevin on seven seasons of The League, [comedian Steve Rannazzisi] first told the story about leaving his office in the south tower just before the second plane hit in an interview with podcast host Marc Maron in 2009. Rannazzisi explained that the incident is what lead him to follow his acting dreams, a near-death experience narrative that seems all too familiar. But on Tuesday, as The New York Times reports, his publicist revealed in a statement that the comedian actually made the whole thing up. 'I was not at the Trade Center on that day. I don't know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry,' the statement read." Meanwhile: "At least one company he has a working relationship with, Buffalo Wild Wings (Rannazzisi has appeared in a string of commercials for the chain), has backpedaled on their association with him." He should have just raped a few women. Then no one would have cared.
Facebook is adding a "dislike" button. 
Neat! "We've known there is water on Enceladus for a while now, but NASA has just confirmed a more recent theory about the icy moon of Saturn: it has a subsurface ocean that spans the entire globe. ...Enceladus is not alone when it comes to subsurface oceans. Europa—one of Jupiter's moons—also contains a subsurface ocean, and is the target of one of NASA's next flagship science missions. And this past March, NASA confirmed that Ganymede, another moon of Jupiter's, also has a subsurface ocean. Evidence of water and water ice exists on many other moons and planets, too. It seems as if no matter where we look, we see water—even if it takes a while to find it."
Okay! "NBC is remaking the late '70s TV drama/romance Hart to Hart, which starred Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also happened to be amateur detectives and solved international crimes while enjoying their luxurious lifestyle. The remake revolves around a gay couple... 'by the book' attorney Jonathan Hart and free-spirited investigator Dan Hartman, who must balance the two sides of their life: action-packed crime-solving in the midst of newly found domesticity."
[CN: Video autoplays at link] And finally! A cat is totally freaked out when her doggy pal wears a zebra mask lol!
