|
|
This is literally true: the Right's reaction to yesterday's announcement -- we're too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country -- is the textbook definition of "surrendering to terrorists." It's the same fear they've been spewing for years. As always, the Right's tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it's hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.
What does this mean about our "accidental" rapists?
a) The vast majority of acquaintance rapes are committed by the same people;
b) These people don't see themselves as "rapists";
c) They are, however, able recognize that they regularly threat, force, and intoxicate women in order to have sex with them.
Oops! There's no "accident" here—these guys just deny, evade punishment, and repeat.
It's so unfair! Maybe 150 years ago, men were the only people allowed in college, and now they're not only forced to share, they're getting outstripped? Someone needs to do something! What could make those ladies stop submitting strong college applications and getting accepted? Quick, deploy a fashion magazine!
If one needs to reduce my point to a single sentence, one can try this: "if you constantly cheer on one war after the next that results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings and the extreme suffering of millions more (as Brooks has done -- beyond Iraq and Afghanistan -- and continues to do), then you can't coherently claim that the targets of your wars have a unique disregard for human life; that they -- but not you -- "don't see others as fully human"; that they -- but not you -- "cause incredible amounts of suffering"; and that they -- but not you -- "come to believe others can be blamelessly murdered and that, in fact, it is admirable to do so."
Humans tend to be frightened of other peoples' crazy uncles but to ignore our own. I think moderates in the Muslim world are way too tolerant of Muslim extremists, but you can say exactly the same thing about Christian and right-wing extremists in our culture. Flame throwers like Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachmann, etc. are weaving the narrative that there is virtue in using guns to enforce one's political agenda when elections go against you. Christian "Dominionists" also push the worldview that human history is a war between Christianity — or their version of it, anyway — and everyone else, with Christianity destined to triumph.
And isn't it interesting that no mention is made of Vargas' gender. She's just "another teenager with a conscience," as if it's incidental that the one teenager about whom we've heard in this mess who identified with the basic humanity of the survivor is also female.
I just love this rationale and the rage-inducing parsing contained within. He's not a TOTAL FUCKING HYPOCRITE, you see, because he's specifically pro innocent life, so Dr. Tiller doesn't count.
As long as we're all airing our half-baked theories about why rape happens, Kathryn Holmquist has got an idea: Rape happens because girls think they can say "no" whenever they want. According to Holmquist, the date rape problem begins with girls who want to get physical"”girls who deliberately drink, flirt, and engage in "deep kissing" in the club"”and then don't want to have sex.
This massive throng came with the usual clever signs comparing health care to the holocaust and calling for an investigation into President Obama's place of birth.
Christina Bellantoni reported for Talking Points Memo that ten teabaggers were arrested after they stormed into Congressional office buildings and behaved badly. The ten were charged with unlawful entry into legislative offices (they did not leave when asked to do so) and/or disorderly conduct.
Teabaggers who saw the ten being taken away by police were furious. Rumors quickly formed that the ten had been arrested for praying (they were not) or for ripping up pages of the Democratic health care bill (I told you paper was inherently evil). Some in the crowd began to rip up paper in defiance of the imagined paper ripping arrests, which must have baffled the police
Gosh, I wonder why there aren't any Big Name Child Actresses who are d/Deaf or blind (or both) and can thus play Helen Keller. Do you think it's because there aren't enough roles that are given to such actresses so they can develop a name for themselves? Do you think it's because any roles that could be given to a d/Deaf or blind actress are given to non-disabled actresses? Do you think there might be some sort of bias going on in casting decisions that might be impacting this at all?
Via The Sexist: the astute cultural analysts of The O'Reilly Factor (not Bill himself, but his sub, Laura Ingraham) know why feminists don't like Sarah Palin (because apparently it is mid-2008 again?): we are just totes jealous of her cute hubby and her cute little babies and her smokin' bod! Ingraham breaks it down with her guests, WaPo columnist Sally Quinn and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. See, it's simple: all feminists are ugly, barren spinsters who are also firmly supported by the old boys' network and who require you to have an abortion before they give you the time of day. (If you haven't yet had an abortion, you should go ahead and get knocked up right quick so you can get the mandatory abortion out of the way ASAP.)
Here's one big problem with insisting that it's never OK to appropriate: the result is segregation. And here's another: it's a cop-out. The anti-appropriation argument applies a simplistic solution to a complex and nuanced problem — doing a good job of depicting The Other in fictional representation. It can be done, but it requires hard work. Research, self-examination, strategy. Rather than come up with this strategy, however, the anti-appropriation argument is a punt. Let the PoC handle PoC, while the white people stick to white people. Problem solved, the Jim Crow way.
I'm sorry, Rachael, but this story you linked about Abby Johnson's sudden conversion from a Planned Parenthood director to an anti-choice fanatic has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese after being used for target practice. Johnson's story fits way too neatly into a bunch of easily disproven anti-choice myths, the main one being that all it takes is one glance at an ultrasound to cause someone to "realize" that hey! abortion removes a fetus from your uterus. Pro-choicers already know that. Johnson seems to be selling a story that's a tad too pat, too close to what anti-choicers want to hear.
Anyone would think the Mail is trying to imply Britain is over-run by criminal, benefit-scrounging immigrants and violent, would-be terrorist Muslims.
Oh wait...
Anyway, she wrote and said a lot more things along those lines over the years, but it didn't stop her from being nominated for a Journalist of the Year award by the UK organization Stonewall (yet more evidence that the "T" in GLBT is for decorative purposes only). Trans people and allies protested that nomination, and she's been whining ever since that trans folks--who mostly just want to be themselves, go to the bathroom, not get murdered, etc.--are *gasp* being mean to her! Won't somebody please think of the poor, poor transphobes?
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is taking a beating for saying he'd be willing to scuttle healthcare if the final plan has a public option. A Benedict Arnold, they call him, a traitor, and much, much worse. So I'd like to stick up for the senator because this, my friends, is a stand up guy.
Contact AT&T Directory Assistance. Confirm that the second company does not in point of fact exist anyplace in Florida. AT&T is slightly more dubious about the first company, giving three potential companies with similar names. AT&T directory assistance person confides that this is why she no longer works for health insurance companies. "You wouldn't believe it but honestly having people shout at me here is so much less stressful."
Feminists continually make choices that compromise their feminist principles, often for compelling personal reasons. Those compromises are not immune from critical analysis just because they are "my choice".
|