June 16, 2005
Panda-porn!
I am all aflutter. Reader aeonsomnia alerts me that Dawn Eden did not like it very much when I mocked her for acting like penises and vaginas are The Icky. I feel sorta bad--maybe on a certain level, I was trying to help Dawn. She's a walking example that the old feminist theory that being penetrated is somehow more profound than other sexual experiences isn't the bullshit I used to think it was. Really, her blog makes me reconsider my feelings on this subject.
Anyway, she gave us a name that I don't really feel worthy of.
I'm not worthy of that label. Nothing I write is remotely pornographic. I blog about my cats and my garden more than I do my exciting sex life, which is probably more exciting in your imagination than it is in the reality of blogging whilst my boyfriend plays guitar and falling asleep during "The Daily Show". But I have touched a penis. A number of times. Into the thousands, if I want to be frank. Yes, I know. But unfortunately for Dawn and friends, my hand has never caught fire and fallen off and frankly, I think it's been a grand old time.
Continue reading "Panda-porn!"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:25 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Bewitched, or Why wouldn't you want your wife to be a witch?
Oh Nicole, why do you hurt me so? You're a good actress and unlike so many cookie-cutter types in Hollywood, you're a genuinely lovely woman, the closest thing Hollywood has now to Venus. As such, I don't know why the sudden fervor to remake dated stories about the power struggle between men and women. First it was a wretched remake of the camp classic The Stepford Wives, which some feminists read as a cautionary tale to women not to get out of line or we'll get killed but I read as a tale that accuses men who want subservience from their wives of symbolically killing them. I didn't see the new version of The Stepford Wives--I heard about the wretched ending to quell people's discomfort at anything smacking of a feminist theme and that kind of weak compromising pisses me off.
Continue reading "Bewitched, or Why wouldn't you want your wife to be a witch?"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 09:39 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)
Random thought on another class difference
All social classes get some kind of government assistance, but our experiences are different.
If you're poor, government assistance has all sorts of stipulations--you can't make money but you have to have a job. You're told to get married but if they find that you have a boyfriend staying over, they revoke your benefits. You wait in long lines and you get judged mercilessly.
If you're middle class and you want an FHA loan to pay for your house or federal financial aid to pay for college, you fill out a simple application and it gets rubber-stamped through. You may have to divulge private information, but certainly nothing about your sex life or anything like that.
If you're wealthy and you want government subsidies to boost your business and make you even richer, you negotiate it directly with politicians over drinks, food, music and various other entertainments. You don't have to divulge shit, not even to the public at large who is paying for you. In fact, you may even get Dick Cheney protecting your ass all the way to the Supreme Court.
Just a thought.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (3)
Keep on flogging the Downing Street Memo
Jake's take on the whole thing is dead on, but I would like to point out something about the smoking gun effect. It's human nature to focus in on one damning detail in things like this. Don't know why, but that's how it goes. You can look at the historical record day in and out and come up with a solid case not only that BushCo was looking for an excuse to invade Iraq but was fixing the intelligence.
But you aren't going to get better than the Downing Street Memo, where everything you need to know is right there in the document. The intelligence was fixed. Repeat it until it sinks in. Flaunt it until people get it. The intelligence was fixed.
Blogs to read to get the whole story: Shakespeare's Sister, Norbizness, the Heretik, and the Big Brass Alliance. And American Street gives credit to the bloggers.
This is worse than Watergate. Thanks to those who aren't turning the heat down until this is treated as worse than Watergate.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:27 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Smoking Gun Doggy Bag
In case you haven't noticed, Jesse's a bit under the weather today. So here's a guest post from Jake at Lying Media Bastards.
A number of activist folks are proclaiming that the Downing Street Memo is a "smoking gun" which finally proves that the Bush administration had decided to wage war on Iraq back in April of 2002.
But this USA Today article from November 2002, that I've linked to numerous times, reported that Bush "decided that Saddam must go more than 10 months ago." Which would mean that the White House made the decision to invade Iraq as early as December 2001.
It is entirely possible that this article is incorrect, but the paper's insistence that they "interviewed officials at the White House, State Department, Pentagon, intelligence agencies, Congress and elsewhere" for their info is fairly compelling. It also fits the timeline; if Bushdenounced Iraq as part of the "Axis of Evil" for the first time in January 2002, it makes sense that he may have decided to oust Hussein the previous month.
So while the Downing Street memo is pretty damning stuff, it might not
correctly portray how long ago the White House formalized their plans.
And, it also looks as though we had some ignored pistol haze almost twoand a half years ago.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is for the men who expressed real frustration
Don't think I'm ignoring the hopelessness that well-meaning men feel about the subject of rape. So this one's for you, where you can offer up ideas and insights. Thanks to everyone for keeping it mostly civil--no talk about sluts who asked for it, really, and no sexual swaggering and outright offensivenes. If you weren't such a swell group of people, I wouldn't be comfortable writing this. (BTW, sexual swaggering and bragging are fine in their place. And as long as women get their shot at swaggering, too.)
There were those in the thread who didn't like me lashing out at Steve Gilliard for laying blame a (probable) rape victim for her own rape. And subsequently any women who make the mistake of trusting the wrong guy. Steve's practical points about how women should protect ourselves were not the issue--his condescending tone that implies that women don't already know the never-ending danger we are in was grating, but still not the issue. The issue is what he didn't write, which was something useful. Like how we can work together as a society to make it so that women can go out and have fun like men and not be in constant danger of being raped or even murdered.
Continue reading "This is for the men who expressed real frustration"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:37 PM | Comments (51) | TrackBack (1)
Feels Like Hell Ass
Sorry I haven't been around all day - my stomach feels like I drank a battery acid smoothie, which has made it a bit hard to focus on whether or not comparing prisoner torture to prisoner torture is beyond the pale or any such thing.
Because honestly, I'd rather deal with crippling bodily pain than have to read another goddamn blog post on how Dick Durbin hates America because he dared point out that countries doing bad shit is bad. It's all liberal moral relativism, you know, failing to excuse our misdeeds because we aren't them. The terrorist generator keeps on churning (churning!), and for that, I say thank you Dick Durbin.
I too, hate America enough that I want to see it stop destroying its own credibility. (I'm reflexively hateful, but I'm also not that bright, being on the left and all.)
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 04:05 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
David Brooks demonstrates that he can't grasp the concept of "irony"
The self-appointed chronicler of the wonders of mass-produced, generic culture and the moral purity of those who enjoy it has an essay in the NY Times today where he wonders where middlebrow culture went.
The magazines would devote pages to the work of theologians like Abraham Joshua Heschel or Reinhold Niebuhr. They devoted as much space to opera as to movies because an educated person was expected to know something about opera, even if that person had no prospect of actually seeing one.
Of course, we do have people who preen and aspire to be taken for someone more special and cultured than they are and I'm sure that Brooks was praising them when he named the "Bobos". I'm sure of it.
Of course he blames elitist liberals, the nefarious cabal, for the lack of articles on Abstract Expressionism and opera in magazines today, stuffed with the self-assurance that the current zeitgeist where "elitist" intellectualism is eschewed must be because of an elitist plot and has nothing whatsoever to do with writers like him who write books and articles implying that any kind of intellectualism in the middle class can be equated with moral degeneracy.
But I agree with Brooks. We need to raise the level of discourse in middlebrow publications. I say we start by dumping idiots like him from the NY Times and getting op-ed writers who know how to write.
The truth is that middlebrow culture didn't go anywhere and in fact is thriving. The Food Network and Martha Stewart Living is there for people who aspire to entertain beyond beanie weenies and Miller High Life. Same with the rise of speciality grocery stores. The music of the striving class is jazz, not opera, and we are all better for it. And of course, for the younger middlebrow set, refined taste in rock music has become its own cultural marker. More people than ever are going to college and the highbrow stuff that you learn there is percolating through the classes. And it's pretty ridiculous to say that art is on the decline when so many art museums have sprung up since the 50s and 60s--even Austin has not one, but two modern art museums that are priced for students and other middlebrow customers. As for the idea that there's not popular middlebrow writing--has David Brooks heard of McSweeney's?
I am beginning to suspect that Brooks, despite his wild claims otherwise, doesn't actually leave the house and instead sits huddled up in his basement and watches nothing but sitcoms and reality TV shows. It's true on TV you don't see people reading, listening to good music, or learning about art very much, so I guess you can safely conclude that's how the rest of the country is living.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:08 AM | Comments (37) | TrackBack (2)
June 15, 2005
Ode to snotty teenage English brats
Now that I've depressed everyone, time to talk fun stuff. The book I'm reading right now is called Cinderella's Big Score, an ode to certain in-your-face female punk rockers from Patti Smith on. It's really a fantastic, page-turning read. The writer Maria Raha has a really good ear for what stories these women tell will catch the reader's attention.
She covers two of my favorite punk singers, Ari Up of The Slits and Poly Styrene of The X-Ray Spex. Both them are loud, in-your-face, and obnoxious with really appealing voices--both are bands I throw on at parties to really put people in a good mood. In a lot of ways, they aren't alike--Ari Up posed half-naked on the cover of her first album and Poly Styrene resisted having her image sexualized to the point that she shaved her head. But I tend to mentally link them, since they have more in common than not. Both were teenagers when they got into their bands--Ari Up helped start The Slits at only 14 years of age.
Continue reading "Ode to snotty teenage English brats"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:53 PM | Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
Public service announcement
Apparently, even something this simple is hard to understand lately. Steve Gilliard has a post where he takes Atrios to task for pointing out that the common narrative after a woman is raped or even murdered is to analyze what she did to deserve it. Atrios is right, of course, and Steve verges very close to offense when describing how everyone in the situation from girls to parents to chaperones, etc. was to blame. But he knows to remind everyone that rape is ultimately a crime committed by, you know, someone not the victim. Unfortunately, the comments section is an exercise in how women are to blame for pretty much everything, even our own sexual assaults. Commenter Roast Beef:
Continue reading "Public service announcement"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:55 PM | Comments (149) | TrackBack (5)
More bad news for the anti-choicers
There's really no pleasant way to address the entire Terri Schiavo mess. She was latched onto by rabid anti-choicers in a pathetic bid to bolster their case that they are "pro-life" when what they are is pro-control, mostly of women's bodies and sexuality. She was the perfect victim--they could sell the idea to their followers that she was a Sleeping Beauty of sorts, locked in her mind, and that they needed to save her from her wicked husband. Her autopsy report was released today, but the right wing spin to dull the impact of finding out that she wasn't going to recover, her husband didn't abuse her, and her brain was pretty much mush is already underway, as Jesus' General reports.
I don't think the spin machine has much of a chance, though, after reading the MSNBC story that came straight off the AP Wire, because there's a telling detail in there that exposes the delusions of the Schindlers that their daughter was responding to them.
A seemingly small thing that seems sort of intuitive if you know anything at all about brain injuries, but I guarantee that unless the media buries that detail, it will be the one that sticks in people's brains. Why? Because the Schindlers over and over and over again made their case that Terri was still a conscious, thinking person because she responded to them when she saw them. And people were somewhat persuaded by it--I know I had moments of hesistation where I thought that if she really does look at her mother when she comes into the room, that might be an indication that there was was a light on in there. But she didn't look at her mother, becaues she couldn't see. I don't think the wingnuts are going to spin their way out of that with those who had sympathies with their cause, even if they disagreed with them. It indicates that even if the Schindlers weren't be deceitful but delusional, their lawyers and doctors and supporters probably were being deceitful and allowing the Schindlers to interpret non-response as response.
Lindsay has an example of exactly this kind of deceitfulness coming from Dr. Bill Frist.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:05 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (1)
Shape up their attitudes!
Ever have a teacher or coach in high school who thought everything was an "attitude problem"? Being as I am from 1957 (i.e., a small town West Texas), that was pretty much the mantra from principal to peon--if you didn't want to do something that was utterly unpleasant and had no redeeming value that you could see, you were told that you had an attitude problem. It was the catchall, meaningless phrase for, "Fuck reality, just do as you're told."
When I read conservatives like Gary Bauer talk about the military's recruitment problems, I am reminded of being kids being barked at to shape up their attitudes when they refuse to admit that 2+2=5.
The media has an attitude problem, as it were, and refuses to ignore bad news and turn itself into one long "Army of One" advertisement. Bauer is almost surely one of those men who always barks at women, "Smile!" without stopping to think that maybe, just maybe, the reality of their internal thoughts should have bearing on their facial expressions. War sucks, Gary. And it's not the media's job to pretend otherwise. (Via Big Brass Blog.)
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Running out of excuses to delay the wedding.....
Okay, I need to quit drifting over to Dawn Eden's blog, but I can't help it. Pretty much every single time I go over there, she's gnawing on her obsession of how filthy and disturbing sex is. Today is no different.
Yep, nothing grosser than penises and vaginas. I just shudder to think about them myself, albeit for probably an entirely different and more pleasant reason than Dawn. The animation she's referring to is actually pretty cute, though yeah, it's not safe for work.
Also, on the page, she has one direct and one indirect reference to eating fetuses. Which is, in fact, extraoridinarily gross. Though, to make a cheap potshot, Dawn doesn't describe fetus-eating with anywhere near the gross-out language that she reserves for sexual intercourse.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:25 PM | Comments (23) | TrackBack (1)
Badges
A correction to this post: God did create clothes for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:21 (Prager e-mailed me rather tersely about this). I do, however, have one major exegetical beef with this interpretation.
Here's what Prager said:
I'm gonna bring in the ultimate resource on this one: God.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
20 Adam [c] named his wife Eve, [d] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Clothing wasn't a gift of holiness - it was a part of a series of punishments for daring to eat from the tree of life. Clothing is actually a badge of God's anger, which explains the existence of Tommy Hilfiger.
Prager wins the battle, loses the war.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 12:36 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
You Know What We Need Now? Giraffes
I don't think I've ever read a single column which manages to so irrelevantly approach a highly relevant topic.
Senator Joe Biden said that while we should close Gitmo and release the occupants, we should also “keep those we have reason to keep.” Huh? This is the logical equivalent of Solomon saying, “Hey, let’s cut the baby in half after all.” Imagine if, instead of Gitmo, the issue was the death penalty. “The death penalty should be abolished, but let’s execute the folks there’s a reason to execute.”
Or, say, if the issue were completely inane comparisons. "Completely inane comparisons should be done away with, except for this one, because it's useful."
Wow, I almost out-meta'd myself.
There's nothing particularly difficult about Biden's statement. We keep the prisoners we have a legitimate reason to detain, and find a way to fix the widespread pattern of detaining people for little or no reason. I understand that Jonah's delicate mind thinks that Gitmo is Oz with slightly more brown people, but Gitmo is a symbol of locking up a hell of a lot more people than we need to for no particular reason and denying them due process.
I hate to tell this to such an accomplished and rigorous writer, but things mean things. Stop being a dumbass for a second, just one second, and let non-bullshit seep in, however hard that may be. Please?
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:21 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (1)
Lynch Mob
A special pro-lynching version of Cheneyfire for you today.
Reminder: at least one irrelevant personal attack, and one outright lie. And channel the spirit of the pro-lynching Gang of Fifteen.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:59 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
The True Benefit Of Think Tanks
Having problems with data that says one thing? The Heritage Foundation will make it say something else.
The reliance on self-reporting is a very nice touch - particularly as those likely to take a virginity pledge are less likely to admit to any sexual activity coming out of that background.
I must take issue with two things about this article, on top of the fact that it takes any Heritage "study" seriously. One, the headline:
In the most common use of the word, the report was not "rebutted". It was challenged. It wasn't disproven...because the study isn't done properly. It's an argument, not a conclusion.
Second:
Hrm...maybe because it's not that much of a scientific report? Here's the Heritage summary, which basically assures you that they're absolutely correct so long you want to believe they are. And honestly, isn't that the first rule of sex - as long as you're enjoying it, everything's all right?
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:44 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (1)
Insurance Is For Teh Los3rz
John "Mustachio Fats" Stossel tries to make a point about healthcare and our insane expectations that it actually help with routine medical costs.
Government insurance is the first problem. Insurance was designed to protect us from the unexpected: floods, fire, severe illness, catastrophes that cost more than most of us can pay.
But today, people expect insurance to cover everything, even routine things like eyeglasses and dental treatment. This is a terrible idea. Insurance is a lousy way to pay for anything.
Once some faceless stranger is paying for what you do, you don't have an incentive to control costs. On the contrary, you have an incentive to get as much as you can and leave the other person with the bill. Doctors also have an incentive to run up the bills. Patients rarely complain, but they might complain if the doctor skips a test. Insurance companies know this, of course; hence the torturous bureaucracy: the paperwork, the phone calls where you beg them to pay, the times they refuse to pay for what you thought was covered.
I can't blame them. They're just trying to protect themselves from fraud and hoping to have enough money left over to stay in business.
Government insurance is worse than private insurance. A private insurer has an incentive to cut costs; every dollar wasted comes out of profit or must be recovered by raising prices, which drives customers away. Government just raises taxes or increases debt.
This, of course, explains why countries with universal health insurance spend less on health care and services per capita than we do...
Let's look at this healthcare dynamic, which I've seen recycled by many an HSA proponent. The purpose of insurance, they say, should be to cover catastrophic health needs, with the rest taken care of by savings.
Continue reading "Insurance Is For Teh Los3rz"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:55 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (0)
Still Tippin'
Team Left? Hey, hey guys? We need to sit down and talk about Iraq, because Tom Friedman figured us out - we say nothing about it.
He's finally figured out the secret - "Iraq" is actually a codeword for the Kansas City Royals. "Another suicide bombing in Iraq" is code for "another Royals loss", and "Iraq is going to hell" is code for "Royals lose the series".
The Downing Street Memo is actually a long, convoluted-ass commentary on the pitching staff, and it would take way too long to explain it.
Shorter Friedman: Iraqis are more worried about getting blowed up than blowing up like blimps (and/or pimps, depending on what the Iraqi street has decided its preferred method of anecdotal economic success is).
Oh, and Iraqis are on the tipping point...again. Is the "tipping point" on the "corner"?
Continue reading "Still Tippin'"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:08 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (2)
Someone introduce Kathleen Parker to S&M;
I'm sick and tired of her trotting out her fantasies of being dominated out in her column space. At least buy her husband a riding crop and teach him to bark commands at her with a German accent.
Real men show the proper contempt for women's unique body functions, n'ect-ce pas? I'm guessing then Parker's husband can't beat her with a riding crop for fear of setting off one of those ultra-feminine 60 second wall-kicking orgasms lest he not be showing the proper manly contempt for her body.
While Rambo quakes and Utero Man dreams of maternity smocks, normal people warily search for signs of sanity in the checkout line.
Continue reading "Someone introduce Kathleen Parker to S&M;"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:50 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
June 14, 2005
The morning after is too late to reject the man
A pharmacist is raising a stink about his right to tell the dirty sluts that they have to live with the consequences, i.e. children, of their having sex and all those other vile things bad girls do.
Generally we think of rights as something that individuals hold over themselves, but that was before sexual politics came into this. We are nasty hosebeast feminists for sure, who think that a man doesn't have right over the bodies of women he doesn't even know. Don't we know what the word patriarchy means? My god, he's already forsaken the right to sit in the windows of women he doesn't know and bark orders and now we want to take away his god-given right to tell women when and where they should not get pregnant?
Of course, he defines "pregnant" unlike Earth people.
“The risk is that it is going to take a human life, and I don’t think an individual should be allowed by law to draw me in to that activity,” Vander Bleek said.
One is tempted to speculate about his strong disdain for getting wrapped up into the "activities" of your average couple, but I wont. I will point out that a man who rapes a woman has a best friend in a pharmacist who doesn't get involved by assisting the rapist on the enforced pregnancy. But the one and only sin that pharmacists shouldn't assist is the sin of women who want their rights to have sex without going through hell. Real doctors define pregnancy as the time that the fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining; women's bodies don't register as pregnant until then. Once again, science has failed the conservative patriarchy by adhering to unpleasant facts, like that it takes a woman's body to make a baby instead of falling lockstep into received wisdom that a man, not a woman, makes a baby by shooting his load and taking a nap. That 9-month period after that where she gets fat and goes through pain and all that is a mere side effect of his tremendous Man Effort. The rest is gravy.
Honestly, the way feminists carry on, you'd think women had something to do with childbirth or something.
Suffice it to say, once the seed is spilled, it's a baby as sure as if it were suckling on that teat of that creature (woman, right?). Man's done his part; what's the argument? Sure, plenty of fertilized eggs never implant and are sloughed off with regular menstrual cycles, but those are the result of men who are pussies, wouldn't you agree? Real men always impregnate properly the first time and no bitch is going to interfere with the results of his hard work.
Moral of the story: People who stand up for the right of pharmacists to decide who does and doesn't get pregnant are riffing on some version of the former male dominated codes. Treat them as such.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:23 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (1)
The Senators who won't stand against lynching
Read all about it at Pam's House Blend. Naturally two of them are from Texas as part of the Great Republican Conspiracy to Make Everyone Hate Us. Lindsay has more names. I wouldn't go so far as to say that these Senators are pro-lynching; odds are they know that anti-lynching laws are the precursor to modern hate crime legislation that, like anti-lynching laws, increases the penalties of crimes that are committed in order to intimidate a larger community. The connection between anti-lynching laws and hate crime laws is one the Freepers picked up on immediately, as Pam points out.
"It's seems to me that this lady [Doria Johnson, whose great-great grandfather was lynched in South Carolina], as well as the rest of us, should be more concerned about the days we live in, rather than dwelling on stuff that happened 150 yrs ago."
"The apology pisses me off on so many levels. All the people who are mentioned in this past event are dead. There were laws against murder in 1916 so the senate did not need to have a special lynch law. Do not apologize for me because I refuse to acknowledge it. The senate is speaking on behalf of the American people because that is what they do. I was not hear nor was even one of my ancestors. Do not speak of apologies to anyone unless you are the one perpetrating the event."
"She is a serial liar like all the rest of these race hustlers. She was brought up to hate white people. I thought only white people could be bigots."
"Lynching is murder...it is already illegal and, IMHO, there is no need to apologize for not creating redundant laws that would further clog up our legal system."
The argument against lynching laws that this Freeper busts out is the exact same one against hate crime laws, because anti-lynching laws are hate crime laws. These Senators surely don't support the vigilante "justice" of crowds descending on black people and hanging them in order to spread terror throughout the black community. But they know that they have to look the other way from modern vigilantes who want to enact "justice" by kicking the shit out of a gay man for flirting with a straight man, for instance, or the myriad of other hate crimes that their voters tacitly support by not wanting to make laws specifically addressing them.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:49 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack (2)
From one Southern woman to another--yeah right
By request, here's a really odious MSN column on how to woo men by adopting the stance of a Southern belle.
Outright invitations like, "Hey sailor, wanna date?" work pretty well, I hear, and have the benefit of one-step simplicity. Of course, that doesn't fill column space, so she's got all these steps.
Translation: Self-esteem comes from nit-picking at yourself until you have every flaw, real or perceived, zoned in on and "worked on", by surgery if need be. In our new modern era, "self-esteem" is indistinguishable from self-hatred.
Continue reading "From one Southern woman to another--yeah right"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:58 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)
The secret Marxist plot of the patriarchs
The article that Jesse referenced today on polygamy really struck my interest--maybe now that young men are getting kicked out of their homes in order not to be competition for the scarce vaginal resources, the problem of these child abusing cults can be addressed. Of course, as Jesse pointed out, polygamy is as old as the hills and certainly not the result of the free-wheeling liberal attitudes.
It's natural that polygamists in Utah have managed to secure political power like this--their religious "values" and those of other conservative Christians in this country are fundamentally the same--they value male dominance and the free market. Full stop. In the patriarchal tradition, men have automatic power over women and treat them like property and men also compete with each other for power and prestige. This system, taken to its logical conclusion, will lead to polygamy as acquiring multiple wives/concubines as one collects cars, summer homes and other properties is just too damn attractive.
Continue reading "The secret Marxist plot of the patriarchs"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:49 PM | Comments (25) | TrackBack (0)
I Am As Far Above You As You Are Above The Squirrel
Okay, so immorality is like a God-square, and unholiness is like a God-rectangle?
Here's one teensy question - part of what makes a particular religion holy is the particular body of beliefs that make you distinctly faithful to that doctrine. Prager says as much himself - it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
So, then, how can you have a combined Judeo-Christian system when both halves deny the holiness of the other, and the only reason it's more valuable than a secular system is the shared sense of holiness? How can Judaism and Christianity share a model of holiness when Jews don't so much like the Christians' chosen messiah and the Christians don't so much like their not liking it?
Continue reading "I Am As Far Above You As You Are Above The Squirrel"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:40 AM | Comments (36) | TrackBack (0)
We All Know Who To Blame
Just a reminder of what will happen if we let gaydom take over the world: polygamists will treat kids like crap.
Authorities say the teens aren't really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives.
"It's a mathematical thing. If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the boys?" said Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff, who has had boys in his office crying to see their mothers. "People have said to me: 'Why don't you prosecute the parents?' But the kids don't want their parents prosecuted; they want us to get the No. 1 bad guy — Warren Jeffs. He is chiefly responsible for kicking out these boys."
The 49-year-old Jeffs is the prophet, or leader, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS, as it is known, controls Hildale and Colorado City.
Honestly, it's the gays' fault. You spend years trying to be in a long-term monogamous relationship, and us heteros have to go back and retroactively create super-monagamy just to screw with them.
Tricksy, they are.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:09 AM | Comments (39) | TrackBack (8)
And That's A Fact
Oh, John Tierney. You're David Brooks without the inspiration.
Is it possible that people this age are still physically capable of putting in a full day's work at the office?
Yeah, and a 22-year-old can run a 4.3 40, a 20-year-old can jump high enough to hit his crotch on the rim, and a 21-year-old can hurl a softball fast enough to break bones. You know what relevance any of this has to your average early 20-something?
None.
Hold on...groups of people...fight for higher benefits...for themselves? Sweet Lord, did the Founding Fathers know about this when they instituted a system of representative democracy?
62 is middle-aged? The average American life expectancy is 75 years - "middle" is being used *very* loosely here.
Continue reading "And That's A Fact"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:28 AM | Comments (21) | TrackBack (3)
I Don't Know What You Heard About Me
But I'm a part of the motherfuckin' GOP.
And let's get one thing straight: they're not here to run the copying machine.
The summer interns of the Heritage Foundation have arrived, forming an elite corps inside the capital's premier conservative research group. The 64 interns are each paid a 10-week stipend of $2,500, and about half are housed in a subsidized dorm at the group's headquarters, complete with a fitness room.
Unusual in its size (and in its walk-in closets), the program, on which Heritage spends $570,000 a year, is both a coveted spot on the young conservative circuit and an example of the care the movement takes to cultivate its young.
Yep, it's yet another niche in the young conservative movement.
To be honest, even though this is essentially training the next generation of uber-pricks, I can't begrudge them this. The Democratic Party and liberal groups are almost criminally negligent of young Dems in their party (the sole exception I know of being the Center for American Progress), to the point where your major reward for dedicating valuable Tony Hawk time becomes rare invitations to large political conferences where you sort of wander around and hope to get some face time with some important person's circle of people, who then turn around and promptly attempt to get some face time with someone more important in someone else's circle, because they have an actual job to do.
Anyway, enough of my experience at the past couple of Ohio Dem dinners...
Continue reading "I Don't Know What You Heard About Me"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 08:46 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack (7)
Gates wanders into the sights of the radical right yet again
Actually, we have some good news here. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $7 million to the WHO to help distribute the upcoming HPV vaccination to poor countries where women might not otherwise get it. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that is incredibly common and it is linked to the majority of cervical cancer cases, a disease which kills a quarter million women a year around the world.
A vaccine that prevents a deadly cancer shouldn't be seen as something that has a downside, but of course, that was before the wingnuts got wind of this and immediately interpreted it as the big meanie scientists taking away one of their cherished biological punishments for women who have The Sex. I've referenced this article before, but there's no time like the present to remind people how low the Christian right is willing to go.
"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.
Of course, in the U.S., cervical cancer isn't the problem that it is in poorer countries because women here have access to things like Pap smears. So this attitude that disease can be prevented with a wedding ring and a wish is going to help kill off women in poorer countries at a greater rate than here. Of course, this shouldn't be a shocker, since the Christian right has been touting the ring and a wish method of preventing HIV transmission in Africa over anything useful like condoms for a long time now.
Between the "just don't fuck" attitude and the seeming affection for high death tolls from preventable sex-related diseases, I am beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the wingnuts of this country don't see a downside to disease wiping out a large numbers of people in third world countries.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:48 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
June 13, 2005
I can't wait until he comes clean
My new theory is that Mike S. Adams is a performance artist who's pulling a Jesus' General routine, but due to his willingness to never, ever break character and never let the good people his pisses off know what he's doing, he's been able to pass on enemy territory like Town Hall without getting noticed. How else can you explain this bit of blatant sublimation he wrote up today?
Quoting the article is a huge waste of time. Suffice it to say, Adams smokes a cigar after every "conquest" real or perceived.
Of course, if he's serious, I am a bit worried about potentially making him realize that his phallic obsessions are laughably obvious. I don't want him to quit his relatively harmless habit of taking a good, long smoke on a big, fat cigar after a debate and instead whipping out his dick and pissing on his opponent or running over and humping his leg in a show of dog-like dominance.
Still, I am hoping that Dr. Adams lives alone. I hate to imagine the suffering of anyone who lives with him and watches his method of dominating a toilet clog or a broken lightbulb.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:25 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Supreme Court acknowledges that the death penalty isn't being dished out fairly
I have no idea how this is going to spin out, but it's very good news indeed.
Of course, Clarence Thomas, who seems to think the only act of racism ever was when he was accused of sexual harassment by a black woman, dissented.
Suffice it to say, racism in criminal trials in Texas is a major problem that this decision probably isn't going to do much to fix. Unfortunately, the Texas criminal justice system is fixed against defendents in a number of ways. Court-appointed attorneys have problems giving a shit about clients a lot of the time. On top of that, because our judges are elected, we can count on prosecuters using death penalty trials to demonstrate that they are "tough on crime", and if they can make sure that the faces of those they get slapped onto death row are black, all the better for their future campaigns. And of course, the rampant racism in this part of the country is going to be reflected in the jury selection system.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 09:34 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Can we please call them fascists yet?
I'm like Pam--my first reaction to this was a simple, "Holy shit."
"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports," Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition told the Mid Hudson News.
There is a real good reason that this is beyond the pale. And this is it. One has to wonder if this guy is really stupid or if this is some kind of really nefarious dog whistle politics.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:34 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (4)
This one's for the ladies
And of course, my gay male readers, too. First straight guy who whines gets a pie in the face. Keeping with the theme, I'll be sticking to nice, safe 50s stuff*.
Continue reading "This one's for the ladies"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:50 PM | Comments (106) | TrackBack (1)
F4J is self-imploding
A late entry for the blog-a-thon that's too good to pass up from Trish Wilson. Fathers 4 Justice is a "fathers' rights" group in England that has taken to protesting their inability to maintain control over their ex-wives or cut off child support by doing things like breaking into Buckingham Palace.
A friend sent this to me. Fathers 4 Justice has very publicly imploded. I've reported before on a previous example of infighting at F4J. Now it seems the group is in danger of being destroyed by its own members. Sounds good to me. Given the kind of men who would join a group like this, I'm not surprised at the way things are turning out. These guys own controlling and egocentric behavior brought them down. Note the accusation against two of the better-known members for conning a pensioner out of £500. It looks like the people of London will no longer have to worry about traffic jams when some cretin dressed in a superhero costume scales a building. Good for them!
This isn't just a matter of garden-variety infighting. All organizations sometimes experience infighting. There are serious problems, including accusations of conning a petitioner out of his hard-earned money. F4J founder Matt O'Conner said that "theft and deception at branch level has become endemic, violence has been visited by member on member, anarchy and mob rule has replaced order, self destruction has replaced construction, disrespect has replaced respect for our aims, objectives, methods and strategy. We have been consumed by a culture of poison and malice where gossip and half truths are peddled as fact and where infiltrators and agitators operate with impunity and without challenge. Worse there are those who promote the patronising deceit that they only seek to relieve our burden and help F4J whilst at the same time ripping up the agreements they signed and were bound by and then conspiring to work against us by failing to attend meetings they agreed to attend, issuing demands, failing to supply information when asked and betraying confidences and loyalties."
Continue reading "F4J is self-imploding"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:39 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Wingers Just Don't Understand
Guys? Why not take a look at the culture of idiocy you promote, rather than simply putting on the blinders and attempting to prove that you've gained a conscience?
This is getting a lot of right-wing play, with most conservative commentators using it to stand up bravely and declare that no, maybe we shouldn't play up the rape allegations. But keep in mind that the author here is a former Newsweek and NYT Magazine editor, Vanity Fair and New York Daily News contributor. For all the "MSM" haters out there, the ones who declare that the media is incontrovertibly anti-Bush and a virtual mouthpiece of the DNC, this guy is "MSM" central.
I never fail to be continually and increasingly surprised at the inability of conservatives to remember the fact that during the '90s, the media wasn't just on their side - in many cases, the media constituted their side. The major background on Clinton faux-scandals doesn't come from Scaife fever-swamps, but those oh-so-hated media outlets like the NYT and CNN that spent months breathlessly covering anyone who dared lash out at Clinton - the only real difference between now and then is that far too many reporters and editors were willing to put the imperiled white women in the White House rather than keep them in two separate spheres.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 12:07 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Waaaay Too Excited
OMG! You got a nationally distributed collector's item in a town that has SOMETHING TO DO WITH A DEMOCRAT!
Excuse me while I shower the surprise-triggered fecal explosion off of my buttocks.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Fly That Banner Proudly
Wingnuts are attempting to create a Christian American flag.
"Our nation was based on Judeo-Christian principles," Eldreth said. "Blessed is the country whose God is Lord."
She was sitting in her Cecil County kitchen here the other day, sharing the story of how she came to design and arrange for manufacturing and selling a national Christian flag that since last year has gained national attention on The 700 Club, a religious news magazine television show hosted by, among others, the Rev. Pat Robertson. The taped segment is scheduled to appear on the program for a second time Tuesday, Flag Day.
Here's the flag (warning: lame background music). Remember, folks: Jesus healed the lame, meaning he should be laying hands on this flag any second now.
Besides the utter ahistoricity of it all, the lack of perspective involved in the drawing (that cross is not only poorly built and the blood in the wrong places, but way too large for that eagle to carry), and the fact that the colors are off (the red's too dark, man), I'm really, really intrigued by the fact that the thing looks a lot like a beer label.
Continue reading "Fly That Banner Proudly"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:57 AM | Comments (42) | TrackBack (6)
You's The Straininest Lookin' Fool...
I'm sure you remember Cal Thomas' goofy assertion that modern-day education should be more like it was for Wordsworth, with the critically tight focus on Latin, Greek, Math and, for good measure, Lady-Treating.
Although the American educational system has never taken this surefire path to cultural englightenment (third rule of education: kids don't know anything useful, they can't challenge the social order), Jeff Jacoby reaches back to find proof that America used to be possessed of a widespread education consensus.
Unfortunately, most of that consensus involved a large proportion of kids not even getting to secondary education, and segregated schools, but winners don't ask questions, they just win.
Continue reading "You's The Straininest Lookin' Fool..."
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:20 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
Make Your Own Dick Cheney Gaffe!
Given that Dick Cheney is back on the Dick Express, insulting people's relationships with their mamas and proving that his mastery of the political landscape is mega-magic awesome, I have a little contest I thought up.
I'm going to choose a random person who probably wouldn't like Dick Cheney. Your job is to pretend you're Dick Cheney in an exclusive Fox News interview, responding to a criticism of theirs. Rules:
1.) You must get personal.
2.) You must lie pointlessly at least once.
Other than that, have away!
First competition:
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:18 AM | Comments (23) | TrackBack (0)
Torture by Christina Aguilera?
The Drudge Report has got the first glimpse of a secret 84-page interrogation log that Time Magazine has obtained from Gitmo. The details are suitably odd.
Continue reading "Torture by Christina Aguilera?"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:15 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Why, I do declare!
My day started off in its usual exquisitely lovely way--after waking around 10:00 AM to the sounds of songbirds chirping outside my window, I began my standard beauty routine, a long leisurely bath with a few bon-bons (naughty, I know!) to accompany my exfoliating, shaving, conditioning, and moisturizing. After wrapping myself in my silk robe with a fur collar and settling down to write a love letter on my signature pink stationary scented with my favorite perfume (No, I'm not telling you what it is--a lady must have her secrets), I decided to check a few favorite blogs to see what the latest news and commentary is. I know, it's a tad unladylike to care about politics, buy my mother always told me that I should have some kind of opinion on dates or men might be just a little embarrassed for me.
Continue reading "Why, I do declare!"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:33 AM | Comments (28) | TrackBack (7)
June 12, 2005
Women in Iran stand up for their rights
The protest was the first public display of dissent by women since the 1979 revolution, when the new regime enforced obligatory veiling. "We are women, we are the children of this land, but we have no rights," they chanted. More than 250 marched outside Tehran University, and about 200 others demonstrated two blocks away after hundreds of riot police swarmed in and barred them from joining the main protest....
Iranian women have turned out in great numbers in elections over the past two decades, often strongly supporting candidates who have promised more rights. But many advocates now say that they have given up hopes that any president could change their status under the current constitution. And women are signaling that they are tired of being courted with promises of improved status that are quickly forgotten once the election is over.
No surprises there.
Continue reading "Women in Iran stand up for their rights"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 03:38 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (2)
Okay, I have a house to clean
UPDATE: A reader has pointed out that this young man is a vulnerable position and for his safety, it would be best not to publicize his blog. I will be taking down identifying information. Seeing as he is a minor, I am uncomfortable exposing him this way. For anyone who's blog is de-linked, please don't take it personally.
The original post was about a young man who is getting sent to a fundie Christian summer camp to "fix" his homosexuality. I won't be putting up identifying information, but here are the rules from the camp the young man managed to get a hold of.
3. All photographs will be taken for the purpose of sobering re-evaluation. Clients may request to have pictures returned to them via C.O.C.
4. Refuge clients will not be allowed to use personally owned computers during the program, whether on campus or at home/in temporary lodging. Computer stations are normally available on campus when clients need to type something.
5. Clients should report all FI's (with discretion), whether their own or another's, to staff.
The rule I bolded should make it obvious what's going to happen to these kids. Can you imagine having a photo taken of yourself for a "sobering re-evaluation" by a fundie, sex-and-homophobic wingnut?
The group is called Love in Action. Their rules preventing their "clients" from talking to their parents about what actually happens behind their doors should be enough to raise alarm.
The reader who sent me this email and warning included information from the Queer Action Coalition and this is what they had to say about the case:
Sorry about the inconvenience, but the young man's safety comes first. Some of these "rehab" programs for minors have had problems with abuse, assault and sexual assault, and it's best not to share actual names for the young man's protection.
During the blog-a-thon I amassed a bunch of emails from people who have issues they wanted to have addressed in the context of a human rights blog-a-thon. I'm sorry I was unable to get to all of them, but eventually most will be posted up during the week.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 01:15 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (3)
Hackdom
This just pisses me off.
Shorter Michael Kinsley: the Downing Street Memo says exactly what its critics say it says, but it doesn't provide enough specifics for me to say it says what I agree the paranoids say it says.
By the way, does it strike anyone as incredibly specious to cite other news sources declaring that going into Iraq preordained as a fault of the memo? Maybe all the prescient geniuses at those papers could have spent a scant bit more time focusing on the evidence that was being made to fit the preordained policies rather than planning out who was going to get the prime embedding spot, or continual (and endless) debates over whether or not we needed to go to war in Iraq. If a president is pursuing war knwing full well that it doesn't matter what the facts on the ground are, THAT REQUIRES INVESTIGATION.
I'm not sure what douche Kinsley's decided to emulate, but this line takes the cake:
No, you don't. And rather than citing lines from articles not a single fucking person reporting on Iraq managed to bring back around when push came to shove, why not look at the aluminum tubes? Powell's presentation to the U.N.? "Saddam can launch in 45 minutes upon invasion"?
I understand that the first instinct whenever you see the left actually concerned about something is to belittle whatever it is to the point of obscurity, regardless of veracity, but I thought Kinsley was better than that. Apparently, I thought wrong.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 12:29 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
And that's a wrap!
Well, I promised earlier that Jesse would make good on Olaf at Inaudible Cities' suggestion that he sing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the end of the blog-a-thon with the requisite tears and over-emoting, but unfortunately he came up with a sudden and totally inexplicable case of laryngitis. So you're stuck with me and I can't sing.
Twenty-four hours and 56 posts later, we raised over $2,000 for Amnesty International during this blog-a-thon, and the button will be up there for a couple more days for stragglers. But more than just raising money for a good cause, I think we learned something. Like that sleep is a good thing and something I won't be taking for granted in the future. We also learned how to round up feral cats, how to be mean and get away with it, and what a "gooch" is.
Many thanks to the guest bloggers who contributed posts so that Jesse and I had a moment or two this past 24 hours to sleep and/or get some beer and tacos. Thanks to all the bloggers who linked to us and implored their readers to support the blog-a-thon. Thanks to Max and Katy for sitting by my side this entire time when lesser beings (aka, humans) would have given up out of boredom. And thanks especially to everyone who donated to Amnesty International and made all of this worthwhile
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (3)
Catfight Secrets - Revealed!
Catfights? I'll explain them.
You see, whenever two women get together and rip and claw at each other, there's an increased likelihood of three outcomes.
1.) Clothes get ripped off.
2.) They fall in a large body of water and keep fighting, clothes clinging to them.
3.) Their passions overcome them and they start making out, confused yet aroused.
That's about it!
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 07:30 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Don't lose sight of the Downing Street Memo
Frank Rich jumps into the fray.
I don't have much to say on this except to congratulate those bloggers who have ridden this and hard and have not given up hope. Keep on trucking, guys!
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Why I Can't Hate Nick Kristoff Indefinitely
Guest blog from the fabulous Lindsay, returning to Pandagon to help us with the blog-a-thon.
Sure, Kristoff buys Thai prostitutes for self-promotional purposes, but he also made this multi-media presentation for the New York Times: The Illiterate Surgeon.
I think this might interest Pandagon readers. It's appropriate for the AI drive because it dramatizes a few of the connections between development, women's health, and human rights. It's the story of a
woman named Mamitu, a onetime victim of an obstetrical injury known as vesico-vaginal fistula whose condition was surgically corrected at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.
As the segment explains, fistula is a complication of childbirth that afflicts approximately 2 million women in the developing world. Most fistulas occur in teenage girls during their first labour. Because their pelvises are small, the baby's head can become trapped under the pelvic bone. If the pressure isn't relieved in time, the baby will die and the mother's perineum will be ripped in two, causing urine and/or feces to leak through the vagina. Women who suffer fistulas are typically abandoned by their husbands and banished by their communities. Sometimes they are simply left to die.
After Mamitu was cured, she stayed on at the hospital as an informal apprentice. Today she's one of the world's leading fistula surgeons. She trains doctors from all over the world to perform this procedure. Now a successful middle aged woman, Mamitu is also completing her primary school education in night school.
Kudos to Kristoff for not being too squeamish to talk about vaginas in a voiceover. I didn't know he had the balls, so to speak.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:33 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)
Rape is a weapon
Feministing posts on the continuing suffering in Rwanda as a result of the genocide 11 years ago. The widespread use of rape as a weapon in the genocide means that the victims are still suffering and dying from HIV.
Now, 11 years later, many of the women who survived are dying of AIDS. For them, the genocide continues, murder on the installment plan.
Murder is the major tool of genocide, but rape is a close second. The use of rape as a weapon in wartime is the sort of thing that is so disconcerting that most of us prefer to ignore it. Luckily, organizations like Amnesty International are out there working hard to make sure that these war crimes won't be swept under the rug.
Fundraising marathons, we are repetitive. Button, money, charity. Have at it.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 06:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Teach your daughter about risk management
This post is from Charlie Killian at Shades of Grey.
I'm going to say something that may very well be unpopular, but it needs to be said. You've no doubt heard the phrase, "But what would you think if that were your daughter?" Regardless of what the argument has been about up to this point, and it's usually about sex, there's something about this phrase that is supposed to stop people in their tracks and make them think, my God, how wrong I've been. Perhaps the strangest part is that it often works. You can see people's faces fall as they think, No, I wouldn't want my daughter doing that. I've seen several discussions turn on this rhetorical device.
So I'll tell you what. Go ahead and ask me. But what would you think of it if it were your daughter? Here, I'll tell you. But be warned, you might not like it: I wouldn't really give a damn. Multiple sex partners before she's married? I hope she finds them. Experiment with drugs and alcohol? Be smart about it and you can be my guest. Abortion? It's her choice, not mine, and I'm happy to support her in any decision she makes. Prostitution? As long as she's doing it because she wants to, then who am I to judge her?
Continue reading "Teach your daughter about risk management"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 05:30 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Whither cat-fighting?
Lance Mannion addressed all sorts of important issues with the Ginger vs. Mary Ann post, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek way, but this quote is one that got me to thinking.
Frankly, I don't get it either. Usually I'm pretty capable of understanding the meaning underlying your standard het male fantasies--hint: they're mostly about getting unqualified adoration from a woman--but I don't really get the catfight. Someone in Lance's comments suggested it was just more "they gotta have it" type stuff, but that would mean that the catfight has to be contextualized somehow as being over a man pretty much every single time. And from what I can tell, it's usually not. In fact, a lot of catfight media fantasies have very little to do with sex or men.
My take on the catfight is that it's "proof" somehow that women don't like each other and simply can't get along. That's generally an end in and of itself in our sexist culture, but it also goes a long way to explaining why it's a sexual fantasy. After all, if women can't be friends with each other, and of course, women can't be friends with men (a la When Harry Met Sally), then the het male fantasy is that there's no competition for a woman's affections from her friends. That probably goes a long way towards explaining why this particular sex fantasy makes women really uncomfortable, too.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 05:00 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
Why anxious masculinity isn't cute or harmless
Witnesses rushed to help Dwan Prince as he lay bleeding outside his building on E. 94th St. and Kings Highway in Brownsville - but they could not stop one of the attackers from rushing back and kicking the 32-year-old again in his head....
The violence - which is being investigated by cops as an anti-gay hate crime - began shortly before midnight when Prince exchanged words with a man walking by his home, police said.
Investigators did not detail the content of the exchange, but Prince's neighbors said he made a flirtatious joke.
When feminists and other people who study gender issues point out that anxious masculinity is deeply problematic, we're as likely as not to get people's defenses up. Well, too bad. "Being a man", aka, not being a woman, not being a sex object, not being vulnerable or sensitive, etc. is a stupid thing to pride yourself on. How out of your mind do you have to be to kick the shit out of someone for saying something to you? These guys are scared someone's gonna think they're "faggots". Well, they only managed to convince everyone that they are a bunch of assholes who don't deserve to participate in normal society.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 04:32 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (2)
Guest-blogging
This post is from Shannon McCormick, who I actually met in real life at a party and who is my neighbor, and who flattered me shamelessly by telling me that he had read both Mouse Words and Pandagon before.
Hey, many thanks to Amanda, my neighbor up the street for asking me to pitch in for the Amnesty Blogathon. I'm humbled to be invited to speak to the Pandagon community, especially considering the other guest bloggers actually write stuff. On their own blog. So thanks Amanda for the kick in the pants to actually write. Feel free to look around, but there's not much here right now.
OK, enough throat clearing. I'll be writing today about hip-hop. I have no idea how many regular Panadagon readers listen to it, although I guess more than listen to contemporary country. If you do like rap, let me steer you in the direction of the album that's been on constant rotation chez moi recently, Edan's Beauty and the Beat. If you like silver-era new school hip-hop (say 1988-1993), this album will slay you like it's been slaying me recently. Crackly, oblique beats and jazz samples, outer space sound effects, and shout outs to rap's founding fathers both known (Melly Mel, Kool Moe Dee, Ultramagnetic MCs) and unknown (Percee P, and the Threacherous Three MCs) make this the sweetest and most retro-innovative album I've heard in a while. His reverance earlier music makes him something like the Wynton Marsalis of hip-hop, if Wynton Marsalis were a white dude from Boston who looks like Jimmy Page, and if being the Wytnon Marsalis of any genre weren't inherently a douchey title to hold. Give it a listen.
Continue reading "Guest-blogging"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 04:09 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Getting to know your blogger--gooch-free edition
This post is inspired by the choice of the producers of Pop Nation to come to Austin in search of people who obsessively collect pop cultural artifacts. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. Still, I have a bunch of random shit around my house you might enjoy looking at.
Continue reading "Getting to know your blogger--gooch-free edition"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 04:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
No Fun With Analogies: Human Rights Edition
This is a guest post from Norbizness. Enjoy it while I make some coffee.
And here's the question. Be sure to fill in your answer circle completely...
The Amnesty International report on human rights abuses by the United States is to liberties granted to the Administration due to their absolute and complete focus on the word "gulag" being used in a press release, but not in the body of the report itself as
(1) “I can’t believe it, Johnny. You smeared paint all over the walls, hit your little sister, took a dump in the sink, and shaved the cat. You’re as bad as that Damien kid in The Omen! Go to your room and stay there!” is to “But Damien was the Anti-christ in that picture! Are you saying that I’m the spawn of Satan, Mom? Fuck it, I ain’t goin’ anywhere! In fact, you owe me an apology and double allowance for the next three months!"
(2) "We've concluded the results of your physical exam, Mrs. Johnson. Apparently, your fat-rich diet and sedentary lifestyle have contributed to your having a cholesterol count of 400. You're at very serious risk for coronary disease. Please follow these guidelines, or you might end up like Mama Cass." is to "Are you kidding me, doctor? Mama Cass was 33 when she died! I'm already 41, and weigh at least 50 pounds less than she did! Fuck it, I'm going to the Golden Corral and then watching a Gregory Harrison-themed Lifetime Movie marathon on the beanbag!"
(3) "To open our show, we review Bustin' Out, a remake of Stalag 17, directed by Michael Bay and starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Howie Mandel. Roger, I gotta tell you... the sheer awfulness of this movie stunned me. The acting is ham-laden, thedialogue sounds like it was written by a drunken 5-year-old, there are tons of completely unnecessary slo-mo explosions, and it seems to have been edited together by a Doberman Pinscher with ADD. This is bad. This is Gigli-bad. Thumbs down." is to "Well, Richard, I was going to agree with you totally, but then you had to drag Gigli into it. I personally cannot trust the judgment of a reviewer who would callously fling that about. In protest, I am putting it in my top 10 films of the year and recommending a long-overdue Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Mr. Mandel."
I'm tired. You can come up with some other potential answers in the comments, or read more reasoned and erudit takes from Ted at Crooked Timber or The Poor Man.
Amnesty International is an organization dedicated to protecting human rights, contrary to BushCo hints that they are simply an anti-Bush organization. Please help them in their task by donating at the button below or in the sidebar.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 03:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Patriot Act And Its Discontents
Guest post via Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged who, I am told, is also parent of a fucking cute child.
Our Fearless Leader wants Congress to make the Patriot Act permanent. So, apparently, do target="_blank">the Republicans in Congress assembled.
After repeated Democratic criticism of the Bush administration, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday gaveled a hearing to a close and walked out while Democrats continued to testify -- but with their microphones shut off.The hearing's announced topic was the USA Patriot Act, which granted broad new powers to federal law enforcement after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Republicans presented several witnesses who supported the administration's call for reauthorizing the legislation. But when four witnesses handpicked by the Democrats launched into a broad denunciations of President Bush's war on terror and the condition of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., showed his pique.
He urged witnesses to "wrap it up" and repeatedly told Democratic committee members that their time for questioning had expired.
"We ought to stick to the subject," the chairman scolded at the end. "The Patriot Act has nothing to do with Guantanamo Bay."
"Will the gentleman yield?" asked Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.
"No, I will not yield," replied Sensenbrenner. He completed his reproof of the witnesses and left the Rayburn House Office Building hearing room amid a cacophony of protests from Democrats seeking to be recognized.
Democrats charged that the episode was another example of Republicans abusing their control of Congress and trying to stifle dissent over Bush's approach to counterterrorism. At one point in the two-hour hearing, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., accused Amnesty International USA of endangering the lives of Americans in uniform by referring to the prison at Guantanamo Bays as a "gulag. " Sensenbrenner refused to allow the Amnesty representative, Chip Pitts, to respond until Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., raised a "point of decency."
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, speaking immediately after Sensenbrenner left, voiced dismay over the proceedings. "I'm troubled about what kind of lesson this gives" to the rest of the world, he told the Democrats remaining in the room.
But fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy. For unto us is born (or at least, conceived)
target="_blank">a civil liberties protection board.
President Bush, accused of dragging his feet in establishing a new board to protect Americans' civil liberties, on Friday tapped Houston lawyer Carol Dinkins to chair a panel created as part of the nation's post-Sept. 11 intelligence overhaul....
"We're happy that the president has finally nominated people to this very important board," said Lisa Graves, a senior counsel for legislative strategy with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The oversight board was created to ensure that the war on terrorism doesn't infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.
Bush, who traveled Thursday to Ohio to press for the Patriot Act's renewal, says there have been no abuses under the law. The ACLU and others have gone to court challenging some Patriot powers as unconstitutional.
Continue reading "The Patriot Act And Its Discontents"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 03:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Gulag Say What?
...Because the Downing Street Memo was pointless, more abject pointlessness.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.
This was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal US action.
“US plans assume, as a minimum, the use of British bases in Cyprus and Diego Garcia,” the briefing paper warned. This meant that issues of legality “would arise virtually whatever option ministers choose with regard to UK participation”.
You know, I have to say that I admire this course of action...in pursuit of a date. Getting your friends to manufacture a reason to talk to the cute guy/girl across the room? I'm all up in that like filling in a Twinkie.
But the war thing? Kinda not the same deal.
Why is it that those in charge thought they could get away with this? Better yet, why is it that all of us hairshirt liberals who were out screaming in the streets were being called anti-American for repeating what the government was telling itself.
Oh, and just to led everyone know - we hit $2000!
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 02:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Mo' Money...Disney Style!
The Acton Institute is celebrating the success of G-rated films in the marketplace, and hoping that this signals a sea change in Hollywood's attitudes towards family-friendly fare.
Well, I hate to be the bearer of R-rated news, but fuck fuck it's probably not. (Had to ensure that R rating!) This isn't because any of the facts or figures they provide are wrong, but because every year, G-rated films make a load of money, and every year, studios say they're going to make more, and every year, they release three or four G-rated films and a bunch more PG/PG-13/R films, and every year they find that of those G-rated films, the one they push the most to the moon makes the most money, and the rest tend to idle. It's not because there's not a market for G-rated films, but in much the same way that releasing four horror movies four weeks in a row tends to glut the market, the G-rated market in American film is so ghettoized that incredibly similar movies are released one after another. You like your spunky sidekick skinny or fat? Because that's the only choice you're going to get.
Also, keep in mind that the last R-rated film to end up in the top 5 for its year was...Passion of the Christ. Damn crazy Gibson...
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 01:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
You So Aren't Getting Wasted With Us
The yearly complaints from the buzzkills that they got left off the cool kids' list. And for the sixteenth straight year, proof positive that college kids really aren't fans of spending their graduation day getting harangued for existing. Imagine that.
(By the way...we're up to $1900!)
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 01:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Mean Like Me! Part 4
Part IV: Defense
Suppose you're being attacked for being mean, for being nasty. Guess what? Fuck 'em.
That's pretty much it. Oh, and remind yourself at all times: just because you're mean doesn't mean you don't have friends. In fact, it's your cover. Friends, in addition to having money, potential fame, and a sense of humor that includes tolerance of your venom, also provide a valuable non-sequitur smokescreen against any attack.
"You're mean!"
"I have friends!"
"Wha...? I...I can't answer that! You're so mean!"
"Friends, a-hole!"
"Foiled again!"
Just remember the two Fs (Friends and Fuck 'Em), and you'll have a lifetime of meanness untouched by pesky concerns of other people's feelings. Toodles, dipshits!
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 12:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Mean Like Me! Part 3
Part III: The Target
The choice of target is critical to meanness. A target too weak makes you mean...but the wrong kind of mean. It's funny to talk about a car crash, and sometimes car crashes are funny, but in general, you don't think that your car crash is funny. Meanness, true meanness, requires a challenge. How do you pick your mark?
Foremost is fertility of material. Y'see, a person who's an idiot every two weeks, even if spectacular at the time, just isn't good fodder. It makes you seem obsessive rather than simply mean, and ruins the joy of sheer, unadulterated, challenging meanness. Find someone who is themselves sharp-tongued, a nascent version of you. First, they provide fodder, second, it will help you continue the lineage of mean. As you are mean to a person with potential, they themselves respond with meanness; if they decide to get all high-minded and polite, then they weren't cut out for the lifestyle to begin with.
You've chosen your target. But you still need reaffirmation that you've chosen the right one. Work the meanness in gradually. If you go full-blast against a new target, you run the risk of cutting off the fount - it's like overwatering a plant, or finding a new friend to get drunk and then making him down a bottle of tequila the first night and then trying to dump him in front of the hospital because he has alcohol poisoning and getting caught by the cops, and then when you get caught by the cops say you found him on the street even though he's saying your name and has your phone number in his cell phone and then totally narcs on you after he gets detoxed.
Fuck you, Ben. Fuck you.
Tend to it. Pretend you are growing a bonsai tree of hostility. Seriously critique them...and then just slap them a little bit. "Universal health care is not only morally necessary, but logically impossible to oppose...unless you're a small-penised moron. Hi, Jim!"
(For the ladies, you can also use the small-penised insult, although it does take on a completely different meaning and is not generally advised.)
As the hostility inevitably ramps up, and various camps are mobilized against one another, it's time to start throwing bombs. Remember catchphrases from part one? One of your greatest tools as a mean person is to assign derogatory catchphrases to your targets. See, you cut out the pitfalls of catchphrases, and designate all of the negative potential to someone right out of the box! You can make an insult out of a nickname...but it's much harder to make something positive out of an insulting nickname.
With these tools, and a bit of luck, we wish you happy hunting!
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 12:26 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
June 11, 2005
Mean Like Me! Part 2
Part II: Profanity
It's possible (and preferable) to be devastatingly mean without profanity, but we live in a world of instantaneous mass communication, where a well-crafted insult could take valuable minutes that might find you falling prey to a prepared comeback that saps all the energy out of your witticism, and by the time you recover, you could have missed another two or three chances to stab your rhetorical shiv into their mental kidneys.
Thus, we have "profanity". Profanity comes from "profane", meaning contempt or irreverence for whatever is sacred. Chances are, the asshole you're yelling at thinks that whatever they're saying is virtually sacred, so by virtue of being mean, you're profaning their stupidity. Adding a "fuck" or a "bitch" in there isn't overkill - it's your duty!
There is no absolute method to injecting profanity, and I would do the art a disservice by pretending there is. Instead, understand this, if you listen to nothing else I say: profanity must never obscure the message. Many people are novices at profanity even having used it their entire life; the casual "damns" and "hells" they insert in their speech are done without respect, without craft. If you, like most people, are at this point, I recommend you stick to no more than two profanities per complete thought.
Novice Level
DO: "I can't fucking believe you said that, you asshole."
DON'T: "I can't goddamn fucking believe shit, you said that, fucking you asshole."
You see where DON'T goes wrong? Three additional cursewords, and the coherency of the sentence just breaks down. I don't even know where the target has gone wrong, and if I can't tell by reading, this provides ample opportunity for the person being cursed at to reply in a manner that totally decimates your weakness and leaves you a shambling mess. Don't do it, friends; don't curse beyond your boundaries.
As you explore, you'll find your own way, but remember: cursing, although empowering, cannot substitute for you own natural meanness. If you're talking about ponies and cursing, you're still talking about ponies.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:54 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Mean Like Me!
I've received lots of complaints recently that I am incredibly mean. I have been accused of at least three cases of singed eyebrows, and been compared to some sort of "Moon Bat", which I will assume is some sort of Batman variant. With this in mind, I figured I would do everyone a public service and reveal my heretofore secret Guide To Being Mean Like Me. Value these secrets closely, readers. For if you don't...I will go off on you like Mike Tyson on a token white guy.
That having been said, let us commence!
Part I: Catchphrases
One of the most important parts of meanness is the catchphrase. It's not that you need to repeat it; mean, unlike politics, speaks for itself without any handy advertising involved.
The thing about the catchphrase is that it demonstrates you revel in your meanness. It may not catch on. It may not even be remembered after the words exit your mouth, if you're mean enough. (Y'see, your chosen catchphrase will likely be surrounded by scathing insults and profanities if you're at the catchphrase point.)
There are two main types of catchphrases. The first are comparisons. "Meaner than (X)" is one particularly fertile brand, as is the indirect comparison: "like (something destructive) to (something that can be destroyed)" (see: Wilis, Oliver). The benefits to this are obvious, as rebranding yourself is simply a matter of a short brainstorming session, should your catchphrase become outdated for whatever reason. The most likely, of course, is that you become mean in a new way or towards a new target.
The second type of catchphrase is the nickname. While the benefits are potentially greater, the risks and pitfalls are also vastly increased (see: Hinderaker, John "Hindrocket", a.k.a. "Assrocket", "Assmissile", "Buttfire" and "Chet"). A great mean nickname gives you instant cachet - imagine being known as the "Undertaker" or "Gladiator". The major problem, as demonstrated with Hinderaker, is that your name is rife for parodic rhymes and substitutions. With the comparison/statement, the parallels are less obvious, so even if mocked, the mockery falls flat. Part of meanness, after all, is shutting off avenues for retaliatory meanness that outshine yours. Superiority through overwhelming self-preservation, that's you.
Decide your catchphrase carefully. An ill-placed hyphen, a word with just the wrong synonym...these (and more) are potentially deadly knives in the back to your hulking disdain for your fellow man. Caution is the watchword, my friends. Don't say I didn't warn you, Shitiator.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Round-up read from Feministe
Okay, keeping 'em coming fast and furious. This one is from Lauren at Feministe, since I just referenced her cat problem.
Feminism
Green Gabbro is “shocked! that people who call themselves liberals could be so eager to distance themselves from feminist arguments. I mean, no, wait, what the hell did you expect? That people would magically acknowledge the legitimacy of an argument that attacks the ethics of their income stream?” In another post, she suggests a feminist adoption of black tile grout in order to thwart Mr. Clean’s new marketing campaign.
Body and Soul picks up on the female/male commenting divide that I posted about here. The evolving discussion is quite telling. Shakespeare’s Sister jumps on this boat as well with some questions for her readers regarding their experiences as commenters on various kinds of sites.
Continue reading "Round-up read from Feministe"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Feral cat programs and how to handle strays that wander into your yard
Lauren at Feministe has a really common problem on her hands.
I lured her back outdoors with a can of cat food. I pet her while she ate and noticed that her nipples are engorged. She must have a litter somewhere nearby which means I can’t keep her indoors or call the Humane Society right away.
Goddammit.
I’m putting another bowl of food out. This kitty is way too skinny. In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions on how I should handle this?
Continue reading "Feral cat programs and how to handle strays that wander into your yard"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Things Every Progressive Should Know About Abortion
Sorry this one is late. It got accidentally deleted.
Human rights includes reproductive rights. Scott Lemieux is one of the better bloggers out there writing on this topic. Here's his donation to the blog-a-thon.
First of all, many thanks to Amanda and Jesse for inviting me to post. Make sure to kick a few bucks to AI!
Among the 4 or 5 regular readers of my blog, I am known for my interminable posts about abortion, a result of the fact that my academic research has focused on various aspects of abortion policy. I try to summarize some of these findings because I think that in many respects progressives--even those that are staunchly pro-choice concede far too much in the abortion debate. Almost every time a thread comes up on a blog, I see people unable to counter even the most specious of arguments, and a couple of points below have become virtually conventional wisdom even among people who favor reproductive rights. So, in short form (with links to some of the longer stuff if you're interested in the evidence), here are some things that it's important to know about abortion politics in the United States:
1. The Pro-Choice Position is not "Counter-Majoritarian.".It's common to hear people--often for ideological reasons--claim that the Democrats have been hurt badly by their abortion stance, often using the stratgey of collapsing abortion into a general category of "cultural" issues. This disregards the fact that the Democratic position on abortion is highly popular. The public supports Roe v. Wade by a 2-to-1 margin, and has consistently favored legal first trimester abortions since 1967. In addition, it's worth noting that Dems who make this argument generally focus on votes lost without considering votes gained. It is extremely unlikely that New York and California--which keep Presidential campaigns competitive for Democrats--would be solid blue states if the Democrats weren't pro-choice, as the ability of pro-choice Republicans to win state-wide office in these states makes clear.
Continue reading "Things Every Progressive Should Know About Abortion"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 10:13 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)
Reader question answered
Antigone has a question in the comments of my ill-advised "interview" with my boyfriend and co-cat-parent.
A gooch, otherwise known as the "taint", is a slang word for a man's perineum. That is, it's the piece of skin between his balls and his ass. Why it's called a "gooch", I can't say. But I do know that the reason some people call it a "taint" is because 'taint your balls and 'taint your ass.
I am not telling you what I censored because my feminist credentials would be yanked immediately for living with a man who makes irreverent jokes about certain pornographic scenes like that.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 09:27 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Human rights are not dispensable
From Avedon Carol, it seems like our friends across the pond have their share of politicians who use "security" as an excuse to curtail basic civil rights. Oh, and they're just as good feminizing, demonizing, and infantilizing those of us who don't think that human rights are dispensible.
Andrew Puddephat said they attacked government attempts to deal with crime without considering members of the public who the laws are trying to help.
He likened them to a three-year-old child who refuses all offers of food without saying what it wants.
The human rights group getting yelled at for doing their job in this case is called Liberty. Check out their site--their litany of problems with the government is eeriely familiar--national ID cards, attempts to curtail people's privacy rights, and even people being held indefinitely without writ of habeas corpus. Power-mongerers around the world show a certain lack of imagination, wouldn't you say?
We're raising money for Amnesty International as a show of support for their work in the field of human rights in the wake of the ugly smear campaign by BushCo that tried to paint concern for basic human rights and partisan pandering. Donate below or in the sidebar.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Poetry from the Heretik
I asked The Heretik to submit something for the blog-a-thon. In his usual awesome and heretical fashion, he submitted poetry. Because I am sitting in my garden to blog, taking in the warmth before it gets dark, and because the Heretik is a lover of gardens himself, I thought this would be a good time to post this.
FOR GRACE IN A TIME OF SUMMER
A Beauty Near Ineffable Exists in the Magic of the Wireless, in the Mere Click of a Mouse in These Most Effable and Catty Times.
Something in our wireless wondrous age brings us together and in that next page view we find ourselves in the outpourings of the tender and raging heart there. So much beauty and endless love flood by us and through us. We have a friend who has been wronged, a friend who battles on, and a friend who has lost another in body, but not in spirit. Even alone in this wireless world we are never lonely.
Continue reading "Poetry from the Heretik"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
On the subject of harassment
I stepped out of the house during this blog-a-thon a few minutes ago in order to perform the holy ritual of the Beer Run, which is a quick task since I live within walking distance of so many convienence stores. I rushed to the store and back, a distance of probably no more than a couple hundred yards, and as I got home I realized that this was one of those rare journeys where I was not sexually harassed by strangers hanging out car windows. That a quiet trip to the store and back is the exception and not the rule is just one of those small, generally unmentioned pieces of evidence that ours is a grossly sexist society.
As one can imagine, I spend a lot of time debating men and women both on the internet who don't think that ours is a sexist society, or, if they do, they think that it's somehow geared towards women's advantage. Men I think don't often have a real good understanding of the way that women's decisions are amended in a very real, day-to-day way of having to consider keeping ourselves safe from sexual assault at all times. Women who believe that ours is not a sexist society seem to have just internalized this fear and uncertainty and don't stop to question how deeply unfair it is or wonder how they might have made decisions differently in the past if they had something as simple as a man's right to move about freely without fear of being sexaully harrassed or assaulted. It blends into the fabric of our lives and we don't even stop to question it.
Of course, I stop to question it and I challenge everyone here to imagine how much better a society ours would be if women simply had the ability to leave our houses by ourselves with the reasonable assurance that we would be treated with dignity.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:23 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
School officials competing for the new low in "stupid"
Where would bloggers be if we didn't have the occasional flare-up at a high school between intelligent students and reactionary school officials to write about? Oh, I'm sure we would be okay, but the blogosphere would be a slightly darker place. The newest bonehead decision (via DED Space) comes to us from Howell, Michigan, where school officials decided to bar some students for spray-painting over some graffiti that said, "God Hates Fags" with the word "Love".
"We knew we had to paint over it," said Kamilar, an 18-year-old senior. "It had to happen."
Kamilar and her pals used 18 cans of spray paint to cover the rock and write the word LOVE dozens of times on school property. They got themselves accused of vandalism, suspended from class and barred from Saturday's graduation.
I would think that a Love Rock would be a boon to any community. Luckily, their community agrees, and has turned out to support the young pro-love faction by holding an alternate graduation as a show of support.
I doubt the school officials were angry that the hateful message was removed, of course. They just had a knee-jerk reaction that says that a kid with a bottle of spray paint in his/her hand is automatically a criminal. Still, it really does pay to take a moment to distinguish between good and bad graffiti, wouldn't you think?
This whole thing reminds me of an incident here in Austin where some asshole sprayed painted the words "White Power" on an underpass on Ben White Blvd. Someone else came in shortly thereafter and tacked the word "Ben" to the whole thing so that it read "Ben White Power". And they added a daisy for good effect. It took a lot of guts to do that, but it was the right thing to do and I am grateful for the anoymous spray-painter for it.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Killing puppies and banning rainbows is next
Reading Jesse's post on the subject of how Republicans are willing to attack Amnesty International and pretend the filibuster is a uniquely evil tool made me comment out loud to my boyfriend, "Is there anything good they don't want to destroy?" And then I realized that there isn't, considering that many hardcore conservatives are willing to dismantle the United Nations, even though that means bye-bye to things like UNICEF and the World Health Organization, the latter of which had a lot to do with squashing the SARS virus before it became a plague. All for ideology.
Oh yeah, and they've got Big Bird on the chopping block.
Don't trust people that would just as soon have you coughing up a lung in 140 degree heat with no Elmo to shut up your screaming kid rather than give an ounce on their wingnut beliefs will have a modicum for respect for international laws against torture. The only hope for the people of the world is that Americans raise our voices about the disturbing abuses of human rights being waged by our very own government.
The button:
Push the button. You know you want to.
In the meantime, it's been brought to my attention that the hosts of these things are supposed to wind them up by singing a melodramatic song like "You'll Never Walk Alone". Olaf at Inaudible Cities has volunteered Jesse for the task. He suggests another song from Carousel. I myself would love to hear "Maria" from West Side Story, though it has exactly no relevance to the subject at hand.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We Hate Our Daughters
Guest post by Guav, who is about to be related to the cutest fucking children in the fucking world.
I have an old friend. We've all been friends with him for a long time, but some time ago, it began to become apparent to all of us that he was gay (despite his endless gay jokes). Yes, he did have a short relationship with a female once, but for the most part, he's surrounded himself with males. He's also a photographer and a painter, and his subjects have always been overwhelmingly male, usually a bit younger. He has a website now, and on it, his portrait photography—male nudes. Most of them are friends of ours, but it's basically all younger male nudes shot from the waist up. They're tastefully done, but if I was gay, they'd turn me on. I've never seen him use a female as a subject.
We've never asked him if he's gay, and he's never said anything about it. We just assume he is, and don't care a bit—he's our dear friend; a part of our family. But some people I know have found the website and got really freaked out by it, and it's "young boy erotica" vibe. They've said some nasty things about him, and I was thinking about what a double standard is present here.
Not that this is some startling revelation, but if his website was pictures of young girls a la David Hamilton, we'd probably all be checking it regularly. Being attracted to younger girls is perfectly "acceptable." But when you're attracted to younger boys, you turn instantly into a "savage homosexual pedophile predator."
As far as we know, he's never fucked any of his male subjects, or engaged in any untoward activity with an anyone underage that we know of (I doubt the same could be said for all my straight friends). As soon as it's known that he thinks teenage boys are hot, he becomes a danger, or disgusting & perverted, even while the rest of us were sitting here drooling over Britney Spears' barely-legal ass on a little pink bike a few years ago (don't even get me started on her "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video).
To add some perspective, we have the Michael Jackson child molestation trial. While there are certainly many reasons to dislike Jackson (he is, after all, a bizarre freak), the thing that bothers us the most is that he admits to sleeping in bed with little boys, and possibly may have even touched their wee-wees or done other things. We don't KNOW that he's done it, but just the mere possibility gives us the heebie-jeebies. We don't want to buy his records, his career as noticeably taken a nosedive since the first allegations of impropriety years ago, and he's basically in a downward spiral into Howard Hughes-like eccentricity.
Then we have R. Kelly, who was arrested on over 20 counts of child pornography charges in two different states, was caught red-handed with child porn digital pictures (some of which he was in), caught starring on a video tape of him peeing on and fucking a 14 year old girl, and let's not forget, he secretly married Aliyah when she was 15 (we can only assume they consummated the marriage). And like Jackson, Kelly was previously accused of similar crimes, and settled various civil suits from underage women (one of whom he knocked up when she was 16).
The difference is that R. Kelly victimized little girls instead of little boys, so most of the charges have been dropped, he's bounced back with some of the most well-received music of his career, and his case has been effectively erased from the public's memory.
It's not so much that we hate our daughters, we just don't care about them as much as our sons. We expect them to become sex objects. But our sons should never become a sex object, and especially should not be admired by some faggot.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 07:12 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)
Jesus Is A Business, Just Like Any Other
NonProphet has a series of e-mails between an evangelical preacher and a member of his flock.
The thing is, this is the point. If these men (and they're almost all men) were newscasters or university presidents or, in fact, in any other profession in a leadership position, they'd be under constant assault, probably from the same people who now believe in them, for selling out everything they're supposed to sell for in order to make more money.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Singled Out
You know, much as I wonder sometimes about the anti-Amnesty crowd's continual lapses into moral ignorance ("How dare they point out that wagon is red! What about the white "Radio Flyer" painted on the side? WHAT ABOUT IT?"), I wonder even more about their anti-filibuster position.
I understand completely that the filibuster was used for immoral and racist ends for a long time in American history. To our nation's discredit, it can also join Constitution, the federal government, state and local executive and legislative offices, the Congress, law enforcement agencies, our media and the entire capitalist system. "The filibuster was used by racists" isn't the argument. Find me any appartus of government power that wasn't in our history, and then we can talk.
For all the pointlessly crusading invective, it becomes obvious that Ed and those in his camp really, really don't understand where they're going with this. This makes the Nation of Islam look rational and considered - by comparison, the right is asking us to destroy anything with the taint of racism in our history, even if it has a valid, non-racist purpose. The Dixiecrats who voted against the Civil Rights Act did something I consider immoral and disgusting - yet I don't recommend that we end voting, because I'm what they call "sane".
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 06:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Whole "Scale" Thing
You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I love a good "Who hated the president more?" fight. And Powerline sets it up oh-so-well.
His "sense". I suppose his PowerLine sense, while tingly, doesn't tend to pick up on the fact that most Nixon-hatred was justified (remember Watergate? The genocide? The anti-semitism?), or the fact that Reagan-hatred was nothing compared to Clinton-hatred. I suppose there are a lost body of rape accusations against Reagan, an impeachment or two on specious grounds that I'm forgetting about, but for the most part? 1992-2001 (and a little bit before, and to the present day) were basically fever swamps of Clinton-hatred that had nothing to do with him as a politician. Hey, after 1996, how could they? Clinton was so busy being impeached that he didn't really have time to pursue many policies.
It's a gigantic blind spot on the right, to a disturbing degree. Even they, for the most part, fail to realize just how crazy they've been about the Clintons. They openly deny the evidence in front of their face that Clinton-as-Satan outpaced Republican-as-Hitler like Jesse Owens running against Danny DeVito.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 05:40 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Next Up: Atlanta
I found out last night that my hometown is the seventh most dangerous city in America.
I remember the night that I started to hate Dayton. For those of you who've never been to Dayton, it's a city that's largely defined through its suburbs, the city itself being a sort of commercial and cultural black hole. There are black suburbs, mall suburbs, rich suburbs, middle-class suburbs - Dayton pretty much outsourced all responsibility for being a city to smaller suburbs, leaving the middle an essentially characterless mix of the poor black side of town and the poor white side of town, with various enclaves of lower-middle classdom interspersed like little sprinkles of hope every so often.
And with that description, you wonder, why would he ever leave this magical wonderland? It's slightly better than Compton!
During my senior year of high school, my best friend lived in Vandalia, a northern suburb of Dayton. It's small-townish in nature, big plots of land, but distinctly upper-middle class for the most part (although, as you get closer to Dayton...). One night he, another friend, and I were driving back to my house right in the heart of northwest Dayton. As we were driving down the street, we saw a dog in the middle of the street, bleeding - dying. We got out of the car, and not wanting to move the dog (he was snapping at us, for one thing), we went around the neighborhood asking people if they knew whose dog it was.
What I'll never forget about that night is the fear that was on those people's faces when someone came to their door after sunset. There were so many hands behind doors, clutching phones or bats or guns, I don't know which, but people who viewed their homes as barricades against the outside world rather than havens, rather than their particular landmark in a neighborhood they could be proud of. I remember going into my house, and realizing for the first time that the house across the street didn't have so many cars outside because they knew so many people - it was a crack house. Police didn't come around my neighborhood because they were policing. They weren't there to prevent crime, they were coming to arrest someone, and otherwise leaving us to our own designs.
In many ways, I'm a product of that night, and unapologetically so. Time's coming up, so I'm going to post this, but I'll be back around this topic later.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 05:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Fundraising Update
You guys are kicking ass! Nine hours in, and we just passed the $1150 mark.
I'm thinking we can make $2000, no problem.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 04:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Mr. And Mrs. Smith
I already know there's a sequel on the way, but as long as there's no Baby Smith, I have no problem offering this film up as a passable timewaster...after the blogathon's over, yo.
During my break, I got to run to the theater to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith (I can't remember what punctuation the film used, and I don't want to bother looking it up, as I'm under a time constraint). There were approximately zero surprises, both because of the trailer and because it's a pretty threadbare script. The movie just sort of happens, with the nod-nod wink-wink to the audience that they know how this is going to play out - just sit back and enjoy the jokes along the way. It's Bond without the sort of particularly cloying self-awareness that the series has taken on, and there are even a few very cute interactions between Pitt and Jolie that make the film move from known point one to known point two.
It's a great example of a mid-level summer blockbuster, sort of a XXX without the Diesel-power behind (thank ye, Jesus) or a Van Helsing without the toxically high levels of suck. You'll see it, you'll enjoy it, three hours later, I'd be impressed if you remembered you saw it. Wait for it to get to the good cheap theater, and then take an afternoon off to relax in the air conditioning.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 04:26 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (1)
Preguntar
This post was donated by Jake at Lying Media Bastards.
On The Daily Show the other night, Jon Stewart interviewed Colin Powell and actually got into some sensitive questions about the Iraq war. While many of us would have preferred that he go all George Galloway on his ass, Stewart managed to ask some tough questions while still remaining very respectful. If this country worked the way that I'd always been taught that it did--with lots of democracy, and honesty, and a minimum of corruption and bloodthirst--this is how I'd want all my interviews with politicians to go. Rather than try to for a "gotcha" moment, or get rebuttals to endless lists of quotes from the opposition, Stewart had a few "what do you say about X? Because I was always uncomfortable with the administration's stance on X". Just two people getting to the heart of the issue and giving real answers.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 04:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
I always knew Big Bird was a commie
In a move to demonstrate to the unbelievers that Republicans aren't Evil Lite, but in fact the real thing, a House subcommittee voted Thursday to eliminate the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. My guess is that public broadcasting is just such a positive force for people it has to go. If Congress actually manages to kill PBS and Sesame Street, people stuck at home all day with small children are particularly going to suffer without the daily dose of peace and quiet brought to you by Big Bird and the letter S.
How did the Democrats lose again? All you "family values" sorts who voted for Republicans this last election--are you gonna tell the truth to your kids if they actually manage to get rid of Sesame Street? "Sorry about losing Elmo and Big Bird, kids, but no price is too high to pay to keep the gay guys down the street from getting their own Target wedding registry."
Via Catch, where you'll find some extremely funny comments.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 03:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Is the beating that BushCo is giving Amnesty International backfiring?
Bill at Liberal Oasis argues that BushCo and their apologists shot themselves in the foot by whining about the word "gulag".
It’s been two weeks now since Amnesty called for Bush to shut down the Gitmo gulag.
Not only are people still talking about it.
Not only are more and more echoing Amnesty’s call.
But now the Bushies are feeling enough pressure that they suddenly opened the door to shutting it down.
He cites as evidence the fact that Bush is starting to hedge on the issue of shutting down Guantanamo instead of sticking to the former party line that Gitmo is heaven on earth and detainees should be grateful to have their freedom taken away without due process.
More on this flare-up at Majikthise.
Of course, I don't think that BushCo is going to shut down Gitmo without a fight--which is where you, the Pandagon readers, come in. You know what to do.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 03:30 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
The Great Conversation (the one we aren't having)
Post donated by Dylan from Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane.
(Author's note: I wrote this last Christmas, but I find myself going back to it, especially as the culture war rages on. I'm interested to read your comments)
Yesterday, after family festivities, I went over to Chance's parents to see he and his family on Christmas. I've been friends with Chance for 13 years or so now, and his family is, in some way, sort of like my second family.
During my time there, conversations devolved, as is so often the case, into a strange mix of religion and politics. Nancy, Chance's mom, and I have had some notorious knockdown drag-outs over the years, and it can be maddening to talk to her. She is a very right wing, very religious person. The best way that I can put it is that, during our conversation yesterday, it came out that she thinks Jerry Falwell is a great man with important things to say.
Other high points is when I was told that what I said was wrong and that such statements come from the pits of hell.
Continue reading "The Great Conversation (the one we aren't having)"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 03:00 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Flea takes on the sex toy ban in Alabama
Flea's entry today is all helpful advice on sex and various other topics from her mailbag. If you are in love with a foot fetishist, this particular entry is extremely useful. But I loved it mostly for her take on the discussion between the judges in Alabama that upheld the ban on sex toys.
Women: Are you ready to stop being sexist douchebags about this?
Woman Judge: God, yes.
Male Judges: Ewwwwwwwww! Vaginas are gross! Girls are icky! Ewwwwwwww!
As flea points out, porn and Jergen's lotion is still quite legal in Alabama. Read the rest of the post--it's hysterical.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Getting to know your blogger
No time like the present, I say. This is the first in a series of blog-a-thon posts that drift towards the hardcore navel-gazing--Get to Know Your Blogger. (I have a feeling when Jesse comes back, he'll be doing much of the same.)
Occasionally I get emails and comments asking about the lurking presence in the background of cat blog pictures and cracking jokes that make their way into my posts. When better than a blog-a-thon to introduce the audience to the man who puts up with the Mouse and even (occasionally) makes her coffee? So, some questions for and answers from the mysterious Man of Mouse.
So, what's your opinion on Barry White vs. Teddy Pendergrass?
Fuck Barry White! The only reason Barry White became more popular is because he was better-looking. The ladies really went for that.
Continue reading "Getting to know your blogger"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 02:10 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Support the VAWA
The Violence Against Women Act was reintroduced to the Senate. It needs to be reauthorized this summer or it will expire. The VAWA shouldn't be controversial in the slightest--violence against women is an ongoing problem in this country that needs to be specifically targeted, but of course there's always the nimrods and "men's rights activists" who are so concerned about maintaining male dominance that even having the government address rape and domestic violence is treated like women are getting away with murder. Rape and domestic violence are the creepy crawlies under the rock of patriarchy, the natural result of male dominance. It's true that in the long run we will have to abolish male dominance in order to really fix the problems of rape and domestic violence, but in the meantime, the VAWA is an important stopgap measure to minimize the damage. For more information, please visit VAWA2005.org.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 01:41 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Instead of telling us to sit down and shut up, you should be kissing our ass
Just a reminder from Shakespeare's Sister--if the Democrats want to win elections, all they have to do is start getting single women to turn out to vote in higher numbers. As Business Week noted:
The prospect of shaping Sideline Singles into a voting bloc has liberal activist groups in a lather. After all, says Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, if unmarried women had voted in the same proportions as their wedded sisters in 2000, some 6 million more voters would have gone to the polls -- and most would have punched the chad for Al Gore…
Hey Democrats! Want to win the next election? Quit telling women our concerns aren't important.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 01:28 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Ode to the breakfast taco
One reason Austin is the Finest City in the US of A is our diversity. There's a little something for everyone here. If you like the wild nightlife, we got that, but we also have parks and playgrounds galore for more family-oriented types. Vegetarians love it here because of the wide variety of vegetarian restaurants, but carnivores can rhapsodize for hours about our BBQ. One thing that draws us all together, regardless of race, religion, affinity for meat-eating and love/hatred of Pat Green is our collective love for the delicacy known as the breakfast taco.
When I got my new house in central Austin, I knew there were many great things about the neighborhood--quiet, diverse, clean and with a strange streak of Bohemia that isn't noticeable at first glance. Little did I know that I had moved in across the street from the restaurant that serves what are perhaps the greatest breakfast tacos in Christendom--Amaya's Taco Village. Amaya's is the definition of an unassuming Mexican restaurant--built into a shopping center with a Target and a Walgreen's, no atmosphere to speak of, loud and noisy when the after-church crowd hits it--and yet they have become a mainstay of my life here in central Austin. I have their phone number on speed dial. My quick jaunt across the street to fetch my little paper bag full of breakfast tacos has become so frequent that they know me and my boyfriend by name there.
It's the salsa--fresh, spicy, perfect. It's also the homemade tortillas. And most of all, it's the potatoes--instead of having grated hash browns like nearly every other place in town, Amaya's has sliced potatoes on their tacos. And for the bacon lovers out there, they have actual slices of bacon on their tacos--no Baco-Bits to be seen anywhere. It's a tiny slice of heaven and it's right across the street from me. I swear to you here and now that I am never going to move from this house right here.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 01:11 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
1st guest post of the day will be about human rights
This is from Roxanne at Rox Populi.
She's afraid to rebel because she heard that her master had once killed a slave. "Some days I look for something to hit my master with but I'm afraid he'll turn around and might even kill me," she said.
I hardly ever watch ABC's Nightline any more, mostly because I think Koppel's been "phoning it in" lately. But the other night, I happened to catch his report on Niger, where there are more than 800,000 people --7% of that country's population-- living in slavery. If you missed the show, you should read the transcript. But I warn you. If you have any humanity at all, it'll break your heart.
Technically, legally, Ruiz is not a slave. He's just one of the many Mexican immigrants who toils annually under Steinbeck's blistering summer sun so that we may enjoy an affordable caesar salad at the Beverly Hills Cheesecake Factory.
The difference between a slave in Nigeria and a migrant farm worker in California is the farm worker still has a hope, however miniscule and misguided, for the future. Both live in squalor. Both do work I doubt anyone reading this post would do for any amount of money. Both need our help.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 12:40 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Oh, I need a big, strong man to help me figure out this keyboard
I'm not entirely sure why Townhall felt the need to join the "where are the women bloggers" fray. They almost surely could have successfully avoided the entire issue without batting an eyelash, but the editors at Townhall are not about to lose a single opportunity to blame women ourselves for the results of sexism, especially if they can get a lowly woman to do the dirty work for them. Which they did, in the person of one Lorie Byrd. Byrd argues that sexism wouldn't be a problem if female bloggers would just be more feminine.
Like many southern women, instead of complaining that my gender is limiting me in any area, I choose to look at the ways my gender can be used to my advantage. While I don’t go as far as my mother, who once faked tears when pulled over for speeding, to avoid getting a ticket, I am tickled to death to accept any good will that may come my way as a result of being a woman.
The solution to your blogging woes, ladies, it to trick out your blog with pink ribbons and stand helplessly by your keyboard, hoping a big, strong man will volunteer to help you type. Grab the smelling salts--prominent female bloggers don't jump into the fray but instead act faint at the first mention of conflict. Well, conflict with a man. With another woman, jump in and start tearing at each others' clothes! In a ladylike fashion, of course.
They are also perfectly capable of accusing Planned Parenthood of housing pedophiles, pretending that in another place and time they would be saucy, and posting pictures of their breasts in the comments at Pandagon.
And after they take my shock collar off, I'll even be allowed to cross the street! That's when the real investigative reporting for the "pajama media" begins.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 12:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
And I blog, I blog all night and day.....
Up and moving, folks. And remembering why it is that I should write down my lists of ideas instead of just assume that I'll just remember that stuff. Anyway, the next 20 hours will be a treat--pictures, interviews, random digressions and most importantly, guest bloggers! In the meantime, I'm starting the coffee and leaving you with this point of discussion--is there something wrong with me that I can't even remember what two teams made it to the NBA finals?
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 12:10 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Revisiting Chick
I have a soft spot in my heart for Chick tracts. They remind me of the awful late-50s and 70s comics that I grew up on - Superman fears RAINBOW KRYPTONITE! They have a sort of sparseness of plot and characterization that would be refreshing, if not for the insanely mean outlook on everyone that's not a fundamentalist evangelical. Combined with the overt racism, the utter lack of theological knowledge, and the art style that shows no signs of improving or changing despite two decades worth of practice (most recent tracts keep recycling Matchhead Jesus, the "Ida Know" of Chick tracts).
The newest one is "The Wall", a story of a time-traveling moonshine boy, his arch-rival, and the Asian temptress who would destory THEM ALL.
Continue reading "Revisiting Chick"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:52 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
The Bank Of My Soul Declares Insufficient Funds
This would be markedly funnier if the bank wasn't more than likely to just keep charging her overdraft fees. It's one of the major problems with snarky revenge against institutions built up around being professional assholes - rarely can you ever outshine them in that realm.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Chains Of Love
Hold the fuck on...Pat Boone is a columnist?
He writes about the separation of press and state, and uses the phrase "when it sleets in Hades", because Pat Boone rules the English language like he rules the charts.
I almost wrote a real response to this, and then the surreality of arguing with Pat Boone caused me to fall over giggling like a child.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Well, At Least He Didn't Spraypaint Any SUVs...
Klansman builds pipe bombs, wants to use them to blow up Haitians and Hispanics.
I'm cueing my inner Dave Neiwert here, and I went to Glenn Reynolds' site to find out if he (or anyone) had said anything about this or simliar stories. I searched "domestic terrorism", and found this old article of Glenn's, which says two things about him.
One: The most prominent rumor I hear about Glenn is that before September 11th, he was generally much saner and fairer. This, unfortunately, is bullshit.
Two: Even when right-wing militia movements threaten (and back then, at least, Glenn was willing to make that concession), the true extremists to learn from are on the left. It's true!
Can you imagine the Perfessor ever taking this attitude towards...well, towards any liberal group, no matter how mainstream? "Hey, militia guys! I understand, but you might want to think about forming a political party despite the fact that you're racist, hate America, and are ready for armed revolution at the drop of a hat."
Keep in mind this was written in January of 1995. The pipe-bomb builders and building exploders shouldn't stop because they're murderous extremists who lack any semblance of humanity or decency, but instead because college kids who buy t-shirts and posters and lodge protests (with mean signs!) gave Newt Gingrich Congress.
The only real difference between Reynolds then and Reynolds now is that he's likely to blame Robert Byrd for this one specifically.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:27 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Whereas Perfect Strangers Was Hilarious...
Okay, I know that the world of Senate proclamations is one that is sordid, complex, and generally devoid of any real merit...but we haven't even issued a pro forma apology for not passing anti-lynching legislation?
Couldn't we have, you know, slipped that in the Pledge resolution? Or the honoring of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers? I understand that Division I-AA needs love too, but damn.
Here's a sample list of mega-awesome resolutions while you're waiting for the next post.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)
Turkish Delight
71-year-old Turkish man detained for not serving in the army. 51 years ago.
A bit more on Turkey's criminal system, courtesy of Amnesty.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I'm As Closed Off To You As My Pores Are To Grime
Nutsack isn't a viable political system yet...but James Lileks is well on his way to being its Marx.
By whom? Is this a joint project between men and women, or have men unilaterally decided to project an aura of servility, errancy, femininity and weakness? (It’s certainly easier to live that way. Easier to curl up than stand up, to coin an annoyingly facile phrase.) These aren’t exactly qualities that women appreciate, despite all the nonsense we were told in the 60s and 70s. There are some women, no doubt, who want sunken-chested twits who embody the Dan Hill school of masculinity – you know, sometimes-when-we-touch-the-honesty’s-too-much-and-I-have-to-close-my-eyes-and-hide approach. Most don’t.
Better to be big-foreheaded brainpans who heterosexually collect kitsch and take their children to Target every time they're feeling uncomfortable about something in life. If you can meld that to an accusatory and pointless paranoia, you're well on your way to becoming the 21st century's John Wayne.
Arnold Schwarznegger and Sylvester Stallone are being replaced by the 21st-century man who "no longer wants to be the family super-hero", but instead has the guts to be himself, to test his own limits.
Children? You mean, raise them and support them? Icky icky! This will absolutely ruin my multiplicity. What do I look like, Rambo?
A question: has anyone's masculinity ever been determined by the catwalks? That right there should tell you something about this article (and wasn't Stallone huge in France until he became irrelevant and/or made The Specialist?). I do have to say that this is my favorite distinction between the hobbyhorses of the right and the left - the left gets pissed at things that eventually bubble up to the mouths of elected representatives and talking heads, words that actually come out of the mouths of people that matter, while we get assailed for podunk professors and some weird guy who thinks that high fashion determines masculinity. I could understand if John Edwards were to talk about this crap...but Jesus.
Continue reading "I'm As Closed Off To You As My Pores Are To Grime"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 09:09 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Reasons That I'm Glad 1995 Happened
Part of my "stay up for 24 hours" plan is to play through Final Fantasy VII. It was all going well until about 10 minutes in, when I realized that if this game were released today, SquareEnix would be fucking burned to the ground within days.
Does anyone else ever get the sense that we're essentially devolving on a cultural level from year to year? What used to be allowed as offensive and thought provoking is now a part of a series of historical oddities crushed in the eventual Salvation Revolution. Probably sometime tomorrow morning I'll be posting a series of intemperate critiques of a local wingnut's opus, but for now, I just want to stand in defense of offense as cultural progression. Nothing good ever happened by making everyone comfortable. Well, snuggles. But that's more on a person-by-person basis.
Incidentally, FF7 has some of my strongest memories ever tied to a video game. I still remember being 13 (13?) and playing to the point where I fell asleep with a controller in my hand, listening to Tupac during long periods of leveling up, finally finding the Ultimate Materia...
The top five games I have an emotional attachment to?
Continue reading "Reasons That I'm Glad 1995 Happened"
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 08:39 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack (1)
Amnesty International looks out for so many people all at once
I thought I'd start off the blog-a-thon by writing about Amnesty International and what an amazing organization they run. AI is relentless in documenting human rights abuses around the world and they are fearless when it comes to documenting human rights abuses in countries where the political system overwhelms their influence and the tide of public opinion is against them.
I remember the 1992 campaign season, when racist sentiment was pretty much required of the candidates after the L.A. riots. Bush was relentless; Clinton joined in by attacking Sister Souljah for comments that in retrospect were perfectly reasonable. We young people of America were completely confused and had no idea what was going on and if our country was going to burn to the ground. The ideas were flying about what happened in L.A.--conservatives said that it was a bunch of idiots burning their own community to the ground and liberals said it was an understandable reaction to the decades of oppression citizens of L.A. from Watts to Compton had suffered for decades.
In stepped Amnesty International, less interested in ideology than in actually improving the lives of the citizens of L.A.
Continue reading "Amnesty International looks out for so many people all at once"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (2)
Kickoff!
It's 8 A.M. E.S.T., and I'll be carrying you through the first four hours of our blogathon here at Pandagon. The donation button is at the right, and will pop up here throughout the day as well.
Let's start off with our favorite subject: chicks and blogging. How do we get more chicks more hits? There's the idea that we link to good female writers, or that they should found idiotic theme-group blogs and obsessively refer to their breasts every time they're criticized.
I believe the second is the more fruitful path, but request a more MySpaceish bent to the whole thing. The author here, Lorie Byrd, for example, succeeds mainly by virtue of the fact that the right's created one big cyclical mishmash of interlinking - here's fourteen different people commenting on the fact that this story even exists, and ladies do it just as well as men! But I realize that even though I've visited PoliPundit numerous (regrettable) times...I've never seen the girl's breasts. Not once.
Now, you might ask, what about Amanda? Whatever - she's liberal. We already know the only thing that's keeping her out of the crack orgies is the scant chance that her words here might convince a teenager to start blowing her dealer in the middle of the street. Liberal chicks are slutty by default. But all these nice conservative women are trying to convince us that their political positions don't amount to anti-woman stances by virtue of the fact that many of them recognize their femalehood (as it's impossible to both be anti-something and recognize its existence, as years of racism, sexism, and the ageless battle of Coke vs. Pepsi have taught us).
What are the benefits of my new Titty Offensive? First, it will confirm for us men what we've always suspected about women - it is all about the boobies. I was myself fooled by the contention that when women say or do things that I don't get, it was because I wasn't good enough at picking up nonverbal/emotional cues. Conservative women, however, are set to break open a whole new paradigm - I don't know what women are talking about because I'm not looking at their chests closely enough.
Time to saddle up the Maxim and Stuff subscriptions, folks. They'll help you stop hating...and start communicating.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 08:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)
And So It Begins...
We're off! Donation button's at right, real content is coming up in a few minutes.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 10, 2005
Final Reminder
8AM EST tomorrow morning, Jesse and I throw ourselves out here and post at least once every half hour to raise money for Amnesty International. Donate above or in the sidebar. Tell your friends. Announce it on your blog. Stand on the street corner with a tin can and a monkey. Whatever you do, please read along and give money--there is no cause more important than spreading the word around the world that every human being has basic dignity and rights that need to be respected. From the abuses in Guantanamo to the rape and genocide campaigns in Darfur, ours is a world full of people missing the mark by a wide mile.
Alright, one final treat on top of cat pictures and a discussion on whether or not Christians worry more about getting married to generate a thread this Friday night, as I'm not going to be blogging again until morning. I have my final song lists for the radio show I'm going to be on next weekend out of Urbana-Champaign called Under the Influence. It's Sunday night at 9PM CST, 10PM EST. Tell me you love it, you hate it, you thought I had better taste and you were fixing to propose marriage until you saw such claptrap in comments. Have a great Friday night!
Continue reading "Final Reminder"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:16 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)
Cats for Amnesty International
There's the button. It'll be on the sidebar from here until the end of the Panda-Blog-A-Thon. And here are some photos of my blog-a-thon companions, who are very interested in human rights, but more interested in dried anchovies.
Continue reading "Cats for Amnesty International"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 05:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Who makes marriage the end goal?
Took off early from work today to mentally prepare for the blog-a-thon. Please consider donating at the button on the right. And, so you don't go too long without some Panda-posting, here's a post on the article in Salon today about dating websites.
Rebecca Traister's interview with the founder of eHarmony in Salon today was interesting, as her articles usually are. She admits that he unnerved her a bit by not thumping her with the Bible as she expected and especially by really seeming to value the quality of matches over the quantity of them, even as the company advertises the number of marriages they've made. Still, she sees hints that the site is uber-Christian and not that great a place for non-Christians or people who just aren't very religious.
Continue reading "Who makes marriage the end goal?"
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 04:14 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (1)
Blogathon...!
Hey - it's a busy off-blog day for me. So instead of making an effort to post on a few token things and say almost nothing, I'm just going to remind you all that our 24-hour Blogathon for Amnesty International tomorrow...and that we're only at $163.00 right now. Donate here or at right, because remember - the better this goes, the more pissed off the 101st Fighting Keyboarders will be. And who doesn't love watching them get mad?
Posted by Jesse Taylor at 10:09 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Correction time
The story I referenced the other day about the young man who got a life sentence for stomping his pregnant girlfriend's belly and causing her to miscarry, at her request, has a kink in it, as Ampersand has discovered. It looks like there's a very good chance that this homemade abortion was the last incident in a string of abusive encounters. The boy admitted to hitting the girl in the past to keep her from berating him, and the hospital report indicates that she was hit on the face and had a huge bruise on her arm from someone grabbing her. This casts doubt on her story that she wanted to abort the pregnancy so much as it was lost after her boyfriend beat her. The girl had, after all, been keeping up her doctor's appointments.
From the affidavits, it looks like parental notification wasn't an issue.
This entire case is disturbing on a number of levels. First of all, it's disturbing that it was so widely reported as a simple issue of two teenagers getting caught doing a homemade abortion, when it's very likely that instead it was closer to the all-too-typical scenario of domestic violence escalating due to a pregnancy. But the prosecution carries a lot of the blame in that--instead of treating this incident for what it most likely was, which is a case of domestic violence leading to a miscarriage and prosecuting the young man for hurting his girlfriend, they grandstanded on the whole abortion bullshit instead of standing up for the young woman who was victimized in all this.
Read the entire Houston Press article--the total lack of regard for the actual victims of domestic abuse demonstrated by the "pro-lifers" who have leeched onto this case is appalling.
This hyper-focus on the fetus turns the entire national discussion on how to handle the fact that domestic violence often escalates during pregnancy into a joke. Anti-choicers who exhibit more interest in fetuses than women may not intend it, but their attitude tacitly condones treating women like objects that can be mishandled by their partners--grab her, hit her on the arm, hit her on the face, but if you dare injure her fetus, off to jail with you!
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 08:00 AM | Comments (50) | TrackBack (1)
Friday Random Ten--"Can't Get the Cat Pics to Upload" Edition
Ugh. The title says it all on my ability to figure out which USB port is the magical one that will make the camera work. Luckily, the media player took pity on me and coughed up one of my favorite Jackson 5 songs for the first one. Also, our leader has a badass new graphic for the FRT.
1) "Who's Loving' You"--Jackson 5
2) "It's Mighty Crazy"--The Cramps
3) "On the Dubble"--DJ Krush
4) "Lil' Red Riding Hood"--Jon Felice
5) "Feels Like Home"--Basement Jaxx
6) "No Return"--The Kinks
7) "They're Coming to Take Me Away"--Lard (This album is so wrong it's right.)
8) "Movie Star"--Stereo Totale
9) "The Blarney Stone"--Ween
10) "The Eton Rifles"--The Jam
Cat pics later.
Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 07:25 AM | Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)
