Hosted by Cruella DeVil. If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Bonus Cute
My friend Ari's chihuahua Chico, who fell asleep halfway out of his bed.
Photo by Ari (aka Ms. A). Posted with her permission.
Chico is impossibly tiny, even for a chihuahua. He is so little that when I pet him, I can't even pet his head without accidentally petting his eyeballs when he moves around excitedly. The first time I did it, I was horrified and told Ari I'd pet his eyes, and she said, "Yeah, that happens all the time!" LOL!
(Don't worry—his eyes are fine.)
He's nine years old; Ari rescued him about five years ago. When she got him, he was poorly socialized and thus unfriendly, but Ari was patient and dedicated to his socialization, and, today, he is the sweetest little dog. He greets you excitedly when you walk in the door and is a total cuddle-buns. He loves snuggling against boobs, so I am, with my colossal rack, his totes BFF.
Because I'm so used to big dogs, everything Chico does is hilarious to me. I don't even know how something so tiny can live in the world!
I can't even deal with watching him play with Iain. "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeco!" Iain growls at him, and Chico hops on Iain's lap and dances around excitedly, waiting for his eyeballs to be lovingly if inadvertently stroked.
Photos of the Day
I've seen all of these photos in the last 24 hours. I feel, I don't know, anxious and frustrated, though neither of those are precisely the right word, that I don't have the expertise to write about what's going on in the world right now, how to tease out what's "normal" from what isn't, and I'm not sure I'd know what to say even if I did. Anyway, I want to mark that this happening in some way; I want to document that people are struggling and succumbing and surviving. That's insufficient, I know, but it's all I've got.
A firefighter tackles a forest fire in Camacha, near Funchal, on the island of Madeira [EPA/Antonio Cotrim]
This picture taken on July 18, 2012 shows Somali women in a queue during a relief food distribution excercise at an IDP camp in Dollow, nothern Somalia. While famine was declared over in February, thousands have now fled to the Dollow region of southern Somalia, close to Ethiopia's border, a rare pocket of relative stability. However, many fear battles will intensify in coming months as African Union, Ethiopian and other pro-government troops push towards the last key bastion of the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents, the southern port city of Kismayo. [Getty Images]
Young people stand together to support themselves in anticipation of the coming bow wave from the oncoming bus, in deep water following heavy rain in Minsk, Belarus [AP/Sergei Grits]
Dry corn is pictured in a drought-distressed field near Edmond, Oklahoma, Friday, July 20, 2012. The nation's widest drought in decades is spreading. More than half of the continental U.S. is now in some stage of drought. [AP Photo]
Water flows under a collapsed bridge on the Akaishi River in Hita City, Oita prefecture on July 17, 2012. A typhoon skimmed past sodden southwestern Japan on July 18 dumping rain on an area already struggling to clean up after huge floods. [Getty Images]
Indian army personnel repair a dam damaged by flood waters at Milanmore village on the outskirts of Siliguri, northeastern India [AFP/Getty Images/Diptendu Dutta]
Rye grows on a farmer's field on July 16, 2012 near Diedersdorf, Germany. Analysts are predicting a drop in northern Germany grain production by 10-15% due to wet summer weather. Adverse weather, which many scientists attribute to global warming, is causing difficult conditions for grain farmers worldwide. [Getty Images]
Shooting at Denver Theater: Update
[Content Note: Gun violence; murder.]
My earlier post is here.
Authorities in Denver are reporting that shooter James Holmes' apartment is wired with an unknown number of explosive devices.
Police say that apartment of the suspect in an early morning movie theater shooting appears to be booby trapped with trip wires attached to plastic bottles that contain an unknown substance.There is more at the link.
Police Chief Dan Oates said the explosive devices were "pretty sophisticated."
"We could be here for days," he said.
Five buildings have been evacuated around the alleged shooter's apartment at1690 Paris St. in Aurora, and the bomb squad is preparing to send in a robot equipped with a camera, Aurora Deputy Fire Chief Chris Henderson said.
"We're not sure exactly where they connect to, but we can see several string-like contraptions," Henderson said.
Jim Yacone, special agent in charge of the Denver FBI, said they were working on "how to disarm the flammable or explosive material."
* * *
People has a profile on one of the victims, Jessica Ghawi, who was a blogger.
In the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik laments that "no one—really no one—anywhere on the political spectrum has the courage to speak out about the [destruction] of unleashed guns and what they do to American life."
Quoting Gopnik's piece, Digby adds: "We will mourn the casualties the way we mourn the deaths of those in hurricanes and tornadoes. Gun violence is now a 'natural' event in America, as unpredictable as the weather, and there's nothing we can do about it except gather together in the aftermath to help the victims. Indeed, the only enduring threat these events foretell is from those who would question a culture that deifies the gun as if it were a religious symbol rather than a lethal weapon."
Quote of the Day
"Save her. I don't care what it costs."—Arielle Tepper Madover, one of the producers of the Broadway revival of Annie, to animal trainer William Berloni, who showed her a picture of Sunny, a 2-year-old female terrier mix he subsequently rescued from a city pound in Houston, and who will star as Annie's faithful canine companion Sandy.
"The most talented animals are right there under your nose," said Berloni, who makes it a point of using shelter dogs in all his projects. "The message is: Animals in shelters are not damaged, just unfortunate."Love.
Sunny was only 24 hours away from being euthanized four months ago when Berloni spotted her photo online while conducting a nationwide search for Sandy. She had been mislabeled as male and given the name Bruno. Touched, he forwarded her photo to one of the show's producers, Arielle Tepper Madover, who wrote back, "Save her. I don't care what it costs."
"So I adopted her sight-unseen," said Berloni. "I didn't think she was a candidate for Sandy. Her description was so sweet and she looked very much like the original Sandy that we were just saving her to find her a home."
Sunny was shipped to New York and came muzzle-to-face with Berloni. "I met her and went, 'Wow, she could really be a candidate,'" he said. "She's going to be fantastic."
...Berloni, whose extensive Broadway credits include training animals for "Legally Blonde," ''Joe Turner's Come and Gone," ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," ''Awake and Sing" and "The Wizard of Oz," began working as an animal trainer when he plucked the original Sandy in "Annie" from a shelter in 1976 for $7 the day before it was to be euthanized.
He chuckles that his career has come full circle with the new "Annie" revival. "You hear of people ... being remembered for having a signature song?" he asks. "Well, I think I'm the only guy who has a signature dog."
The original Sandy, also a terrier mix, went on to play almost all 2,377 performances of "Annie" and Berloni supplied shelter dogs for all four national tours of the show, as well as the 10th, 20th and 30th anniversary productions. Sunny's understudy, Casey, was rescued from a shelter in Nashville, Tenn.
..."I always say anybody could have gone into a shelter and adopted any one of the animals that I've turned into Broadway stars the day before I did," he said. "And they would have been great dogs in someone's home. I just get the opportunity to show that they're great dogs onstage."
From left, Tony Award winning animal trainer William Berloni, Sunny, who will play the role of Sandy, and Lilla Crawford, who will play the role of Annie, in the new Broadway production of "Annie." Previews begin October 3 and opening night is November 8 at the Palace Theatre. [AP Photo/Boneau/Bryan-Brown][H/T to Shaker AC.]
Heads Up
Your grocery bill is probably about to go up. Again.
I fear the thing that will decide this election is rising food costs and increasing food insecurity. And the worst part about that possibility is that it will certainly throw the election to the guy who will endeavor to make things even worse.
Which guy is that? Both of them.
Because neither one of them has a meaningful plan to slow CO2 emissions at the rate they need to be slowed to prevent disaster.
Drill baby drill.
Today in Mitt Romney Looks at Something
Just a solid picture of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pretending to look interested in a piece of equipment used by the working people who he believes should subsidize the high-income low-tax lifestyle enjoyed by him and his fellow moon mansionites.
Speaking of shit-tons of money: "Less than four months until Election Day, the battle for the White House already has crossed the $1 billion mark—as the presidential candidates, political parties and the two super PACs closely aligned with President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney race to collect political cash."
Does it strike anyone else as TOTALLY FUCKING ABSURD the amount of money that is being spent on a presidential election either by people who hope to reelect someone because they think he will promote policies that help people in need of food or shelter or healthcare or education or other things money can buy, or by people who hope to elect someone because they think he will promote policies that allow them to keep more of their money?
This country. Yikes.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley
Matilda (and Livs, photobombing)
Olivia
Sophie
Zelda
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Pieces of Music. (Classical piece, pop song, hymn, jingle, whatever.) Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by historians and plesiosaurs.
Recommended Reading:
Jason: Obama, Romney, and Rick Warren's Religious Test [Content note: this piece discusses Christian supremacy and religious discrimination]
Livius: Lost Silent Film with All-Native American Cast Found [Content note: This post refers to systemic racism against First Nations people.]
Renee: Brandy Should Know It's OK To Judge Chris Brown [Content note: this post addresses intra-racial violence, misogyny and DV apologia.]
Samuel: Monday 20 July 1663
Sue: A Mother of a Post on Mothers and Daughters and Superhero Comics [Content note: This post includes discussion of misogynistic tropes.]
Randy: An Answer for Alzheimer's?
Sarah: The Talbot Shrewsbury Book Goes Online
Monica: Transgender People Are Patriots Too [Content note: This post refers to anti-trans* harassment.]
Rebecca: Japanese Women Fly Coach while Men Get Business Class [Content note: this post describes gender-based discrimination.]
Peter: Eyewitness Account of Plesiosaurus
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Ode to Joy
Shaker JeanneMK sent this video of a flash mob, contracted by Banco Sabadell and comprised of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l'Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs, performing "Ode to Joy" in Sabadell, Spain, which I am posting because it's beautiful, and, I don't know about you, but I need to gaze at something beautiful in the world right now. "Ode to Joy" is one of my favorite pieces of music, and I have a hard time hearing it any time without getting teary; this pretty much resulted in gale force blubbery.
Video Description: A bell chimes in a public square in Spain in which people are milling about. A male bassist stands in the square and begins to play. A little girl drops a coin into his hat. A female cellist joins him. As they start a duet of "Ode to Joy," people begin to gather and watch. Some people film them on their mobiles. A female bassoonist joins them. Then two male violinists show up. A group of violinists streams into the square. A man walks up and begins to conduct. Brass and percussion joins in. A group of spectators turns into a chorus. The music builds and swells. The square is full of music and spectators. Children conduct and dance. The music crescendos and reaches its dramatic conclusion, and the audience applauds.
Number of the Day
3.7 x 10-99: The odds of 327 consecutive months of the temperature of the entire globe exceeding the 20th-century average by chance.
From Bill McKibben's "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math" for Rolling Stone. I cannot recommend enough you read every single word of this piece.
Shooting at Denver Theater
[Content Note: Gun violence; murder.]
Last night, at a midnight screening of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, a gunman reportedly wearing a bullet-proof vest and riot mask opened fire on the audience with four guns, killing 12. (The police originally reported 14 deaths, but that number was revised this morning.) At least 20 people are still being treated at local hospitals. Let us hope the death toll does not rise.
The suspected shooter has been taken into custody and has been identified as a 24-year-old man named James Holmes. No motive has been released. When his mother, who lives in California, was contacted by ABC News, she had not yet been notified by authorities, but "immediately expressed concern that her son may have been involved."
"You have the right person," she said, apparently speaking on gut instinct. "I need to call the police...I need to fly out to Colorado."Which suggests that, once again, there were red flags about this potentiality. I suspect that we are going to be hearing a lot about how James Holmes is "crazy" today. I want to note, again, that even if he is mentally ill, that does not discharge us of collective responsibility. This, too, does not happen in a void.
I will update this post as/when information becomes available. In the meantime, here are news articles with further details about the shooting and/or related news:
Denver Post: 12 Killed, 50 Wounded at Aurora Movie Theater.
CNN: 12 Dead, 50 Wounded in Shooting at Colorado Theater.
ABC: Aurora 'Dark Knight' Shooting Suspect Identified.
AP: 14 Dead in Colorado Theater Shooting.
The Hill: Obama, Romney Offer Support to Victims of Colorado Shootings.
My sincerest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims. My sympathy and best wishes to those sitting vigil over the wounded.
UPDATE 1: I will also note that the FBI has stated Holmes is not known to be affiliated with any terrorist group, which is quickly turning into, "This isn't terrorism." Holmes is white, and thus in typical fashion is being treated as a "lone gunman," rather than a terrorist, despite having committed a terrorist act.
UPDATE 2: CBS Denver reports that a thirteenth person has died.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker startledoctopus: "What is your favorite self-soothing/self-nurturing activity?"
Honestly? Trichotillomania. I try not to do it, because I give myself bald patches, but it's an unconscious habit, and it is definitely my go-to self-soothing behavior.
When I consciously want to nurture myself, meditation. Outdoors with the dogs, if possible.
Quote of the Day
"He's a very generous person. We give 10% of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person that is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. ... We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life."—Ann Romney, on how Mitt Romney ain't releasing no stinking tax returns for you people.
[Video via TPM.]
Tweet of the Day
@mittromney -- You give me your tax returns, I give you who was shooting from the other outrigger.DM me.
— Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) July 19, 2012
Phone a Friend
This is the thing about Deeky's and my friendship: We never talk on the phone.
As has been well documented, we are obsessive texters and emailers, and we send each other ridiculous pictures, have ridiculous conversations, and watch garbage TV together regularly. We also have some very meaningful conversations about important things, but who the fuck cares, and, even if someone else besides us did, there are some things too precious to share.
But what we don't do is call each other.
There's no particular reason, apart from the fact that we're both socially awkward dorkbags. You'd think two people who spend inordinate amounts of time conspiring to make each other laugh would want to occasionally hear that laughter, but LOL 4 REALZ! seems to suffice.
So when I texted Deeks one night recently, "I need to call you," he answered his phone with alarm. "Are you okay? Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," I assured him. "This is the stupidest phone conversation you will ever have in your life."
He laughed, with mirth and relief. Deeky has a great laugh. "Okay," he said, knowing for sure that my prediction would be true. "What is it?"
"There's a piece of film stuck in my head and I can't place it," I told him. "You are my only hope." This, I need to tell you, is not hyperbole. We have a pop cultural frame of reference so similar and so vast that I can make virtually any obnoxiously obscure allusion and he immediately gets the joke. And vice versa. I can quote half a line of dialogue or half a song lyric that the writers of the words themselves don't remember, and Deeky will finish it without hesitation. If there's some bit of detritus stuck in the lint trap from which only identification will aid its extraction, no one else has the requisite psychological spelunking skills besides Deeks. "It's playing on a loop and I can't think what film it's from."
"You are such an asshole," Deeky said, laughing even harder. And of course getting curious. "What's the scene?"
"Okay," I began, my voice already cracking with laughter because I knew the true stupidity of what I was about to share. "It's this scene, of this guy, this actor, and I can't think of his name—I mean, I don't think I've ever known it—but he's like a character actor who's been in a few things, nothing I can name, and he's about our age, and he's got red hair and a sort of weepy face—"
"A weepy face!" Deeky laughed. "Ohmigod. Go on."
"Yeah, like a real weepy wehhhhh sort of weepy face," I laughed, "and in this scene, he's like wearing a robe or a cloak I think? And he's part of a male-centric group, like a priesthood or a boys' school, like there's a feeling in the scene like from Dead Poets Society, but it's definitely not from Dead Poets Society, and he's just done something cowardly—"
"The weepy face guy?"
"Yeah, he's just failed to act to save someone, or he's been a traitor, or something like that," I continue, "and the protagonist, whoever it is, maybe like pushes by him and kind of shoves him, and he collapses like his spine's made of jelly, and his weepy face is all wehhhhh as he falls over. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
Now after years and years of saying vague nonsense to each other and having the other know precisely what we mean, I half expected Deeky to come out with the name of a movie that placed this random image into its context and soothe my looping brain. But that did not happen.
"So, what you've got is a weepy-faced red-haired guy who might be wearing a cape—"
"Not a cape! A robe or a cloak! Maybe a vestment!"
"—wearing MAYBE A VESTMENT who falls over because he's a coward."
"Yep! What movie is that from? It's driving me up the wall that I can't place it!"
At this point, I was laughing so hard that tears were running down my cheeks. Deeky was laughing. Iain, listening to this exchange and showing me pictures of random red-haired actors, from Robert Redford to Carrot Top, was laughing.
"I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about!" Deeky informed me, crushing my hopes for getting the scene out of my head, where it runs on a loop still, like a fingerprint on a computer screen in a crime series, while millions of databased prints scan past, trying to find a match.
"I find that hard to believe," I replied, "given the quality of the information I gave you."
We LOLLED 4 REALZ some more, and then we hung up the phone, and texted each other about how we should really phone each other more often.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Board/Tabletop Games. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
So, George Zimmerman Granted an Interview to Sean Hannity…
by Shaker BrianWS, who may or may not become a full-time contributor someday based on the roll of a 20-sided die, the other 19 sides of which all inexplicably feature images of Robin Williams characters. What will happen if he rolls Mork? What will happen if he rolls Patch Adams? What will happen if he rolls Mrs. Doubtfire? NOBODY KNOWS!
[Content Note: Racism; eliminationist violence.]
Sometimes I can be thoughtful when I guest post, and sometimes I just need to RAGE. This is one of the latter times.
George Zimmerman, who murdered Trayvon Martin in late February, gave a disgusting, pathetic, and self-serving interview to Fox News' Sean Hannity last night, and, outside of sharing with us how killing Martin was all just part of "God's plan" (yeah, I'll come back to that), it was mostly Hannity asking leading, provocative questions, and Zimmerman doubling down and digging in on the racist fuckery. Not much groundbreaking material, but too gross to ignore.
Because I don't have a full eleven hours to detail every nuance of Zimmerman's contemptible self-pity and excuse-making, I'll just mention a few of the worst parts and leave it to Shakers to have at the rest of it in the comments. I mean, literally, every answer Zimmerman gives can be ripped to pieces.
1.) When asked by Hannity what made him think Trayvon Martin was suspicious, Zimmerman answered: "I felt he was suspicious because it was raining, um, he was in between houses, cutting in between houses...he was walking very leisurely for the weather. Um, it didn't look like he was a resident that went to check their mail and got caught in the rain and was hurrying back home. He didn't look like a fitness fanatic that would train in the rain."
Really? Let's make short work of this one.
Personal story time: To be honest, I like walking in the rain. I find the notion of it very romantic, even when I'm alone. I have been known to go for walks in the rain all by myself just because I want to. Because it makes me feel good and it calms me. Not to check the mail. Not to increase my fitness. Just because.
Yet, anyone who would suggest that Zimmerman would've called the police after seeing me leisurely walking through the rain that night is being disingenuous at best. People can walk through the rain for any infinite number of reasons, but the catch is that Martin was a young black man. In George Zimmerman's neighborhood.
2.) When asked what he would tell Trayvon Martin's parents: "I'm sorry. My wife and I don't have any children. I have nephews that I love more than life. I love them more than myself. And I know when they were born, it was a different unique bond and love that I have with them, and I love my children even though that they aren't born yet. I am sorry that they buried their child. I can't imagine what it must feel like. And I pray for them daily."
Look at how neatly he removes himself from responsibility for Martin's death: "I am sorry they buried their child." Listening to that, you wouldn't even know Zimmerman is the one who murdered that child. It's such a passive voice, bullshit answer, centering his feelings about his future fucking unborn children as some sort of comparison to the love that Martin's parents felt for their son, who was a living, breathing, existing person until George Zimmerman killed him.
3.) Then: "But I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn't have put me in the position where I had to take his life....(addresses camera head-on) I hate to think that because of this incident, because of my actions, it has polarized and divided America."
I can think of literally a thousand things that Zimmerman could've done that wouldn't have put him in the position to kill Trayvon Martin—but I think I only need one: How about not being a racist fuckhead who, because of Martin's "suspicious" blackness, stalked him, confronted him, and killed him? See how easy that was?
And note, too, that he hates to see that his actions polarized America. Not sorry that his actions ended the life of a teenager, but that the nation's racists were obliged to out themselves in his defense. "Sorry I blew your cover, Racist of America!" What a jerk.
4.) Last, but so very much not least, when asked by Hannity about whether he had any regrets (spoiler alert: Nope!): "I feel it was all God's plan."
Well, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU!
This whole interview made my skin crawl, with Hannity taking his Very Serious Issues tone of voice, and the two of them going back and forth looking like it was taking every bit of willpower they had to not interrupt the interview to high-five each other.
And I couldn't stop thinking about the exacerbating injustice of Zimmerman getting to tell the only side of the story there is to hear, owing to the fact that he murdered Trayvon Martin.
Have at it.
Random Nerd Nostalgia: Jerry Lewis and Wonder Woman. OF COURSE!
[Description: An advertisement for an issue of the Jerry Lewis comic book (ed--yes---THAT Jerry Lewis). The cover of the comic shows a red-haired, bearded white man clad in skins holding a sword and a club, smashing another sword in half--the sword held by skin-clad, sneaker-wearing Jerry Lewis. Wonder Woman, in a red and white classical chiton-looking outfit, stands behind Jerry and reassures him: "Don't worry, Jerry! I'll help!" Jerry responds: "So help me OUTTA here---FAST!" The byline reads "CAN YOU BELIEVE? Wonder Woman and Jerry Lewis--Together! On Sale Jan. 20]
No. No, in fact I cannot believe. And I feel much better for that decision.
Scanned from Wonder Woman # 187, April 1970.
Daily Dose of Cute
This is just a terrific video of Zelly using my iPad as a pillow while chilling out and watching a show about mammoths:
Video Description: Zelda the Black-and-Tan Mutt lies on the couch with her head on its arm, where my iPad is sitting. She blinks sleepily. As she breathes, her exhalations steam up the screen of the iPad.
It's hard to believe this didn't get nominated for ALL THE EMMYS.
"What? Don't act like you didn't know I'm a weird little dog!"
Veepstakes!
Mitt Romney still hasn't decided on a running mate yet, because it still isn't the Monday following the Friday news hole into which he's going to dump his tax returns, but in case you were fretting that he was going to pick some kind of LIBERAL, or even some kind of MODERATE, ha ha, don't worry he's not!
Mitt Romney welcomes all the distracting chatter about his potential VP pick, but he confirmed today what many have already concluded: He actually won't be making the announcement anytime soon. On Wednesday Ann Romney said he's "not quite there yet." Later on the campaign trail Mitt said, "I have not chosen the person who will be my vice-president," but assured a concerned tea partier, "That person will be a conservative. They will believe in conservative principles."PHEW! Are you relieved? I am so relieved!
Also! You know what that means! There is still hope for Deeky's wildest political dreams to come true!
FINGERS CROSSED!!!
[H/T to Shaker Brunocerous.]
This is a real thing in the world.
[Content Note: Ableism; dehumanization; appropriation.]
Advice columnist Dan Savage has branched (back) out into theater, writing and directing "gay-drag reworking/re-imagining of The Miracle Worker," the biographical play about Helen Keller, a blind and deaf feminist, anti-war, and workers' rights activist, and the teacher, Anne Sullivan, who facilitated Keller's communication skills.
Savage's "irreverent" camp version differs from the original in some key ways, like, for instance, the addition of "simulated sex acts" and "disgusting language," about which a posted sign outside the theater warns/entices. The play is also, as noted in this review, "awash in Keller jokes." Because if there's one bitch who needs to be taken down a peg, it's Helen Keller.
Director-writer Savage, noted author and gay activist, twists the saga of the untamed, disabled Keller and devoted teacher Annie Sullivan into the taming of a deaf, blind and mute drag prodigy, Helen Stellar (Jonathon Pyburn), by butch therapist Annie (a strong Hannah Victoria Franklin).Oh, well, as long as it's got a sentimental heart as it exploits Keller's life story and milks disablism for a laugh!
The more ludicrous gags, as when little Helen stumbles and bellows in her pathetic act, score big laughs — and big winces. And some bits (undescribable here) are just gross-outs.
But "Miracle!" can be less crudely amusing, and it has a sentimental heart. As dicey as the dexterous Pyburn's mocking of Helen's spastic pratfalls is, the show pulls for the kid's rehab.
Cue the accusations I just don't understand campy humor, I'm humorless, I don't get satire, blah blah yawn. Except that Chicago is an amazing theater town, and that includes amazing camp/drag theater. There are brilliant camp/drag companies in Chicago: I've been to countless performances and have known people who performed, sometimes for years, in camp and/or drag shows. A lot of their material was genuinely edgy and challenging and subversive. Some of it was problematic. But none of them ever had to mock a person with disabilities to get a laugh.
[H/T to Deeky.]
Today in Mitt Romney Stands in Front of Something
"Mitt Romney is sooooooo terrible and his policies are a garbage nightmare and you should definitely not vote for him!"—Erica.
Well, you heard the man! Believe Erica!
True Story: When I was a kid, and CHiPs was all the rage, I'd hear adults talking about its sexy, sexy star, Erik Estrada, and I thought they were talking about a lady named Erica Strada. I was always disappointed that the episodes I saw always had two dude cops and this Erica Strada was nowhere to be found.
ANYWAY!
Mitt Romney still hasn't released any of his tax returns because fuck you. There was some speculation that maybe part of the reason he's being such a d-bag about this is because there was a year when he paid no taxes at all, but his campaign refutes that possibility. Which means that he probably just paid an exceptionally low tax rate care of elaborate financial schemes that include offshore accounts, which all the highly-paid pundits of professional punditry say won't sit well with voters.
Except for how it's fucking July, and most voters are barely even paying attention to the election yet, and most of those who are will forget all about Romney's tax shenanigans by November, and, ha ha, Republican voters don't LIKE paying taxes and will probably think Romney's a goddamn hero for dodging them, plus, by the way, if you don't already think Romney's an unethical, self-interested, avaristic scoundrel, is his 2008 tax return going to fundamentally change your mind? I dunno.
But then again, I'm no Wolf Blitzer.
So I'm not sure why Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns, except for the obvious fact that he's a terrible candidate who is very bad at politics.
In other news: "President Obama and Mitt Romney are effectively tied in the race for the presidency, according to a new CBS News/New York Times survey." Of course they are.
Recommended Reading
[Content Note: War.]
The MoJo News Team: What's Happening in Syria Now. "The situation has grown increasingly dire since Assad's regime began a violent crackdown in March 2011, with many thousands killed."
A great primer on the situation in Syria, which continues to deteriorate.
Photo of the Day
Official White House photo from December of last year by White House photographer Pete Souza. This is just a very adorable reminder that our President is kind to his canine companion.
Unlike some other jerkos I could mention.
Episode VI: Return of the Douchebags
[Content Note: Rape culture; misogyny; objectification; victim-blaming.]
The other day, Courtney Stoker, who writes quite a lot on cosplay, called out Simon Pegg on Twitter for his obnoxious behavior regarding women who dressed as Leia-in-metal-bikini at Comic-Con. And what happened to Courtney was everything that always happens: "geek celeb" mocks critic, then sics horde of fans on critic, then horde inundates critic with abuse.
Yesterday someone tweeted at me (when I had made a general remark about incident):
If the Leia cosplayers want to be taken srsly, why do so many go 4 the metal bikini outfit? Leia wore much more in most of SW.Which I rolled my eyes at and ignored. However, today I thought I'd address the general concept that tweet was getting at: women who dress "like that" are "asking for it". The following is a series of tweets I made on that topic:
* Dude tweeted at me "if they wanted to be taken seriously, why did they dress like that"? RE: Pegg & Leias. (1)To which the person who had originally tweeted at me responded with:
* (2) So much wrong in that, it's hard to know where to start. Let's count the ways, shall we?
* (3) What women are wearing should not be the gauge for which they are "taken seriously", going with a general concept here.
* (4) What women are wearing should not be the gauge for which they are treated as public property for someone else's pleasure. #rapeculture
* (5) What a woman wears does not make her responsible for someone else's bullshit, sexist, and/or violent & criminal behavior.
Unless she wears it for that exact purpose. You don't think any women EVER dress like that to attract male attention?This person goes on to be insistent on if a woman chose to dress in the metal bikini costume and not any other Leia costume choice, she was obviously looking to be objectified. And that "male attention", like Pegg's commentary that reduced the women to objects for his consumption, is the normal default of what a woman is "asking for". This person rather obviously does not seem to get that "male attention" does not have to be sexist, gross, or violent behavior. Attention in the form of appreciation and respect can be flattering. But, anyway, I'd rather not get into questioning the motives of any woman who chooses the famous bikini costume, as as Wm. Caylee Hogg pointed out on Twitter:
so the thing that fascinates me is that allowing the "but she *wanted* the attention" excuse even *if* true in one case...The whole motive discussion is just a victim-blaming tactic and a wholesale distraction from the actual issue in the same vein of how Tosh's incitement of rape has become about how feminists are humorless hacks.
acts as a kind of back door to putting the burden on women for their motives, what was going on in their head at that moment
which, of course, is exactly the mechanism we see in place during prosecution of rape cases
I also noted:
* (6) "Slave Leia" being taken less seriously as "fully clothed Leia" (as suggested by dude) shows a failure of culture, not of the women.Which is part of the heart of this issue, one that Courtney was also getting at when she said:
* (7) Phenomenon of "Leia in gold bikini = sex fantasy for dudes" doesn't mean wmn shld be looked down on. Says more abt the dudes than wmn.
* (8) Re: #7. Says more abt the dudes who look down on/"not take seriously" women who are their sexual fantasies (culturally or in reality).
This kind of attitude [of Pegg's] is really common and really destructive. It reduces cosplayers down to objects, and suggests that they are NOT fellow geeks, but actually decoration. They are only there to serve as fantasy fodder for male geeks.Exactly.
Have you seen the Comic Con documentary? At the end (during credits, I think...I saw it months ago), Kevin Smith talks about the chances of dudes getting laid at Comic Con and that the fourteen year old cosplayers? Well, "in five years they'll be sluts".
Geekdom, we have a problem and it's not the women cosplayers in metal bikini costumes.
Living History
by Jessica Luther, aka scatx, who can also be found at her own blog, Speaker's Corner in the ATX, and blazing trails of righteous fury on Twitter.
[Content Note: Rape culture; rape apologia and abetting.]
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an op-ed piece today for the New York Times in which he argues that the statue of Joe Paterno outside of the Penn State football stadium should stay. His piece is in reaction to calls that the statue be taken down after the recently-released Freeh report makes it clear that the beloved JoePa sheltered a child rapist for over a decade.
Here is how Garland Grey, in a post here at Shakesville on Monday in which he argued persuasively that the statue needs to go, describes this statue:
To have the major image of Joe Paterno on campus be this folksy cast of him with a giant grin and his tie askew in the wind, a single index finger in the air as if someone had just asked him how many sexual predators he was currently keeping quiet for is a capitulation to the worst parts of the University's culture.He went on to say:
It allows those who apologized for him, who rioted for him, who to this day will defend him on social media, those people who do not understand your odd moral code where football isn't the most important thing in the world, those who reside in a moral universe in which their University's team winning is totally worth what Sandusky did to mostly poor, most minority kids because they can hang onto a sliver of doubt or can put this monstrous choice into some sort of perspective where Paterno isn't this totally vile, cynical figure, it allows those people a place on campus to which they can make a pilgrimage, to engage in fellowship with other people who believe as they do that revering this man's legend is much more important than the children he ignored his responsibility to.I'd like to juxtapose this with how Coates argues for keeping the statue. Coates writes:
The problem here is not that Paterno shamed Happy Valley, but that Happy Valley, through its broad blindness, has shamed itself. Last week an artist who'd once painted Paterno with a halo altered his mural by removing it. This effort has less to do with the better rendering of Paterno and more to do with escaping the shame of hasty canonization.I'd like to unpack this a bit.
Arguing for the statue's removal, the legendary coach Bobby Bowden said he wouldn't want Sandusky's crimes “brought up every time I walked out on the field.” That's the point. Sandusky's crimes should never be forgotten, nor should the crimes of the broader community. It is shameful to deify men who put nationalist ritual before children. But it is more shameful to pretend that this elevation was achieved by Joe Paterno's singular hand.
Removing the Paterno statue allows Happy Valley to forget its own compliance in a national crime, to expunge its own culpability in its ruthless pursuit of glory. The statue should remain, and beneath it there should be a full explanation of Sandusky's crimes, Paterno's role and some warning to all of us who would turn a pastime into a god and elect a mortal man as its avatar.
First, though the title of the piece suggests it, Coates does not just think that PSU should leave the statue as a remembrance. The final paragraph shows that he thinks it is not okay as is and that there needs to be change. I am not sure that leaving a somehow-altered version of the statue is even something being discussed in Happy Valley but we agree that the statue—as is—is problematic.
Second, this entire piece is built around the belief that without the statue, a memory of the cover-up and the blatant disregard for the child victims of Sandusky will somehow be lessened. It will not remain as visceral, it will not haunt the campus as much, it will not serve as the warning that it should. I do not buy this idea. If memory and remembrance and warning is the goal, as Kristin Lindsley said to me on Twitter today, "*IF* that is the goal (explanation/education) there is a museum on campus—relocate statue plus context and criticism of what happened."
This leads to my third point. This argument that the statue should stand does not take into account what it might mean to the victims of Sandusky that the grinning JoePa remains an image on campus in any capacity. One of the great frustrations of media coverage when it comes to the Sandusky trial has been the focus on how everyone else outside of the victims themselves will cope with what has happened. How will Penn State football move on? What will the Penn State community do to heal? Not that those aren't legitimate questions. Yet when they take precedence in any capacity over the most direct victims (some of them still children) of Sandusky's crimes, we are doing it wrong.
No, I don't know what each victim would say about this statue. Survivors, even victims of the same predator, are not a monolith. Some may be okay with it staying, or want it to stay. Some may agree with Coates that it can stay with modification. Some will certainly not want Paterno's statue to remain, because its looming presence stands to trigger a visceral, incapacitating anxiety. In deference to the safety that was previously denied them, it should go. Full stop.
And here's the rub. The culture that Paterno created, that he exploited, that made him rich and powerful, that led to people creating an aw-shucks-isn't-he-the-best statue, THAT culture is the exact one that makes it so that we will never know the extent of Sandusky's abuse. We will never know all the victims. We can't. He abused and raped boys across decades. And so, we will never know how they all feel about this statue or what we should do with it. The group who should have a say cannot possibly ever have one, not in its entirety.
Coates compares the Paterno statue to another:
The need to clean history so that the record might reflect our current values, and not our sordid past, is broad. In Columbia, S.C., there stands a statue of Ben Tillman, the populist South Carolina senator who helped found Clemson University and, in his spare time, defended lynching from his august national offices. For years there have been calls to remove Tillman's statue, emanating from those who think it a shame to continue to honor him. But in a democracy, memorial statues are not simply comments on their subjects, but comments on their makers. That Americans once saw fit to honor a man who defended terrorism from the Senate floor is a powerful statement about our identity and history.Tillman died in 1918. The people whom he hurt most directly with his words and actions may still be alive (and certainly things he did reverberate now). They may have still been alive when they made first calls to take the statue down. Odds are very low, though. Because Paterno turned his back when he could have instead called the police, for all we know, Sandusky was abusing children in the weeks or days leading up to his arrest. Child victims of Sandusky may live in or near Happy Valley right now and they may live and work there for decades. Because we cannot know how many people Sandusky abused we cannot know if one (or more) work on the campus. In this case, I'm going to guess odds are high that they do. Beyond that group, it is guaranteed—GUARANTEED—that every single day on that campus multiple victims of sexual violence walk past the statue.
Whereas Tillman's most spectacular sins were known at the time of his lionization, Paterno's only later came to light.
While the statue could potentially serve as a reminder to some of the abject failure at PSU in a way that might prevent another one, it will certainly remind at least some of the victims of the abuse that they endured while that smiling man did not do anything.
Fourth, I want to go back to Coates' phrase, "the need to clean history," which implies that the removal of the statue is primarily about erasing what has happened (he charges that this will lead to forgetting and expunging culpability). I think this, maybe more than anything in this piece, bothered me.
What Sandusky did and what Paterno covered up is not history.
There is a privilege here to be able to step back and see this statue as part of a history and not as part of the now, to try to see the value in it for posterity instead of the triggering damage it could do in the present and future to both the direct victims of Sandusky and sexual assault victims at large. We are not looking back on this series of events from the year 2112.
The removal of the statue from campus is not about how or if people fifty years from now will remember Paterno, the conspiracy, the crimes. It is about making PSU and Happy Valley a safer, less-triggering space for any and all potential Sandusky victims right at this very moment and in the decades to come.
In the end, I am not in disagreement with Coates. That statue cannot remain exactly how it is now. There is no lesson in that. Also, I think remembering is important and necessary. But those things cannot eclipse our consideration for what that image means to those hurt the most.
As @graceishuman wrote today (and echoing EVERYTHING Garland Grey wrote on Monday):
Seems to me Ta-Nehisi's argument is about forcing people who aren't survivors to deal with it which is not accomplished at all by triggering survivors. Want to force people to deal with the reality of abuse? Make them listen to survivors. Don't leave up monuments to abuse.[Note: Coates has, in the past, handled the topic of the triggering of sexual assault victims problematically.]
For the Record
I don't give a fuck if Daniel Tosh or Louis CK thinks I lack a sense of humor.
I don't give a fuck if fans of Daniel Tosh or Louis CK think I lack a sense of humor.
I don't give a fuck if any teller and/or defender of rape jokes that uphold the rape culture, or any other kind of comedy that makes fun of survivors of any trauma, vulnerable people, marginalized people, powerless people, thinks I lack of sense of humor.
I can spend all day not scanning my comedy credentials.
Everyone who's anyone already knows I'm the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, anyway.
Quote of the Day
"That's not a term I would use."—Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, earlier today, responding to a questioner at a campaign event who described President Barack Obama as a "monster."
Such an interesting turn of phrase, that. That's not a term I would use, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. Is what it means.
[Via @philipaklein.]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by twitching whiskers.
Recommended Reading:
Rinku: Why Our Vision of America's Future Must Count People of Color's Needs [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism and white privilege.]
Jeremy: With Latest Comments, Chick-Fil-A Can No Longer Deny Anti-LGBT Policy [Content Note: The post at this link contains homophobic rhetoric and discussion of homophobia.]
Pam: Boy Scouts of America Recommits to Official Anti-Gay Bigotry: 'It Is Absolutely the Best Policy' [Content Note: he post at this link contains heterocentric rhetoric and discussion of homophobia.]
Bill: The Right-to-Life Convention: Why They Hate Birth Control and Love Mitt Romney
Miriam: Is It Safe? Asking the Wrong Question in the Home Birth Debate [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of infant/parent mortality.]
Mike: Frustrations of an Asian American Whedonite [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussions of racism and cultural appropriation.]
Renee: Alleged Jaywalking Leads to Taser Incident in Florida [Content Note: The post at this link contains imagery and descriptions of police misconduct.]
Andy: Lesbian Soldier with Cancer Fights for Her Life, Family's Equality [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of homophobia.]
Tigtog: Deleting Blog Comments: Exercise of Property Rights vs Free Speech
Resistance: Bus Driver Catches Falling 7-Year-Old
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
An Observation
[Content Note: Sexual violence.]
I really love, ahem, how Daniel Tosh inciting rape against an audience member has turned into a referendum on whether feminists have a sense of humor.
Today in Mitt Romney Stands in Front of Something
The other possibility is that he DOES NOT LIKE the way the economy is being managed under President Obama, which would, I confess, explain the upside-down part. In which case: I AGREE! The economy IS very upside-down, in that very rich people with gold-plated moon mansions like Mitt Romney pay no taxes while self-employed entrepreneurs sometimes pay an almost 50% tax rate! BOOOOO! Boo that terrible economy and BOO MITT ROMNEY! WHERE ARE HIS TAX RETURNS, ANYWAY?!
What I'm saying is that Mitt Romney is a master of messaging. You should totally vote for him lulz.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Video Games. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Considering the Rape Culture
[Content Note: Rape culture; rape apologia.]
All day yesterday, I saw responses to Louis CK's appearance on The Daily Show, some of those responses in direct tweets and emails to me, that are some variation of: Men so rarely consider rape culture at all that what Louis CK did was remarkable.
A lot of them stated plainly: Men never think about the rape culture.
Implicit in those responses is the idea that Louis CK was not feigning awareness in a contrived bit of ass-covering because he doesn't want to be known as a rape apologist, but instead genuinely had some sort of epiphany leading to a heightened sensitivity to rape culture, which I do not believe. (Frank Lee has some thoughts about what authentic reflection might have looked like.) But I'm going to set that aside for now in order to address the notion that men rarely or never consider rape culture.
Because I am calling bullshit so hard on that conventional wisdom.
I previously noted that the broad use of "men" in this convention excludes a lot of men who have had, by necessity or choice, occasion to consider rape culture. "Men," as it is being used when men are said not to consider rape culture, generally means privileged straight cis men who have never been victimized by sexual violence. Already, this notion stands on wobbly legs.
But let us consider, then, the alleged failure to consider rape culture of those privileged straight cis men who have never been victimized by sexual violence.
If those men never consider the rape culture, then how is it that virtually all of them know its tropes and narratives? How is it that virtually every male person is, by the time he hits puberty, capable of sophisticated victim-blaming, armed with a full arsenal of rape culture memes and stereotypes? How are they all so perfectly versed in the language of rape culture that tasks women with "crying" rape and "claiming" to have been raped, rather than reporting it? How is it that I have heard male children talking about how women lie about rape? And why it is that so many privileged straight cis men complain about being "profiled" or "made to feel like rapists" by women doing the quickening step in front of them, or giving them an anxious side-eye in an otherwise abandoned space?
For people who never consider the rape culture, they sure have an amazing working knowledge of it.
And what of the 4% of men who are serial rapists? Do the one out of every twenty-five men who have raped multiple people never consider rape culture, do you suppose?
Those legs are a-wobbling, they are.
Iain has noted before that no cis straight man is really as disconnected from rape culture as so many of them assert themselves to be, that most men have experienced a lone woman quickening her pace on a sidewalk ahead. Some men use that as an opportunity to empathize with the woman. And some of them use that as an opportunity to get angry with her for "treating me like a rapist."
All of us live in the rape culture. All of us are presented with opportunities to consider it.
That we are exhorted to identify with its various purveyors of contempt for consent, rather than with its primary targets and survivors, is another self-perpetuating trick of the rape culture. But a failure of empathy is not a failure of consideration.
It's not that privileged straight cis men who have never been victimized by sexual violence don't "think about" rape culture. It's that they don't think about it from the perspective of a potential victim.
And I'm really goddamn tired of being obliged to pretend that's the same thing.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Phoenix_in_ash: "Which historical figure would you like to see a movie made about?"
Shirley Chisholm.
I remember reading awhile ago that Regina King, whom I love, was maybe going to play Chisholm in a movie, but there's nothing on her IMDb page about it. There's a great documentary about Chisholm made a few years ago, but a feature film would be pretty damn cool.
There Are More Things I Have to Say
Ugh. So many shitty responses to the Louis CK thing. I am working on a follow-up. I will post it tomorrow morning.
I have spent what feels like half the day sitting here just staring at my computer screen, trying to figure out how to write something through a sausage casing of contempt.
Photo of the Day
National Geographic: During a particularly intense solar storm—triggered by titanic eruptions on the sun Friday—a kaleidoscope of auroral colors paints the sky over Crater Lake, Oregon, early Sunday. [Photograph by Brad Goldpaint]
Important George W. Bush News!
1. George W. Bush is still SUCH a jerk!
In case there was any doubt, George W. Bush made it abundantly clear in a recent interview that although it was "awesome" being president for eight years, he doesn't miss life in political office.He is the worst. He is like a worst thing made out of worsts with lots of little worsty bits all over it.
"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful," Bush told the Hoover Institute's Peter Robinson. "But I have no desire for fame and power anymore. … I crawled out of the swamp and I'm not crawling back in."
2. Whooooooooooooooooooooooooops!
And thus was the unceremonious end to BushQuotes. I was just about to pick it back up where I left off before the July 4 holiday, and then I read the above quote about his eight "awesome" years of being famous and powerful, and once I was done ragebarfing, I realized I would be thinking about that glib fucker treating the presidency like a stint on The Bachelor every single day from now on, and just no. The End.
But if anyone's got a copy of No Apology lying around...
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
"Pretty girls aren't usually funny."—Joseph Gordon-Levitt at Comic-Con, evidently trying to compliment Emily Blunt, who reportedly "bristled" at the comment.
I really just can't get enough of having profound truths about women laid on me by dudes this week.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Places You'd Like to Have a Picnic. (Not necessarily places where it's appropriate to have a picnic, lol, although those are fine answers, too.) Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Random Nerd Nostalgia: The Agony and Ecstasy of Young Love
[Description: A picture of a comic book cover, titled "THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF YOUNG LOVE." Above the cover is the title "9 of the Greatest Love Stories Ever!" (ed: EVAH!!!!) "Plus: Many other Special Features! SPECIAL CONTEST PRIZES ANNOUNCED! Paul answers your letters!" (ed: Who is Paul? I do not know!) "100 romantic pages for only 50c!" On the cover of the comic book: " Buy Love--Buy Heartbreak!" accompanied by a picture of a white man and woman embracing, with the woman saying "You must tell her!" A crying white woman observes the couple. Four other stories are featured in the bottom frame.]
Scanned from November 1973 Lois Lane #135.
Today in Mitt Romney Is Terrible
Here is the cover of the book No Apology, penned by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has spent the last few days seeking an apology from President Barack Obama for being a big meany poopypants about Mitt Romney's confusing employment history and stubborn unwillingness to release his tax returns.
In other Mitt Romney news, Mitt Romney is reportedly close to picking a running mate! I still have $5 on Tim Pawlenty, which I put down fully 200 years ago, back when $5 could still buy a golden boat mansion on the moon.
I'm sure Mitt Romney is definitely taking this pick very seriously, and not at all just figuring out how to coordinate the timing of announcing whoever they finish vetting first so that they can capture the next media cycle and kill the Bain story. As we know, Republicans always take veep-picking very seriously.
Cue Mitt Romney's tax returns being dumped into the Friday news hole followed by the announcement of his running mate on Monday morning.
Nope
[Content Note: Rape culture; rape jokes; misogyny. If you watch the segment, there are also anti-Semitic "jokes," which I have not included here.]
So, Louis CK was on The Daily Show last night, and he talked about Toshgate, and his "misunderstood" tweet, which he says was a totally unrelated tweet he sent just about how he enjoys Tosh's show while watching it on vacation, not even knowing what was going on. So, to be clear: He was ONLY sending rape enforcer Daniel Tosh who features actual acts of sexual violence on his show as comedy a tweet about how great his show is, he was not defending Daniel Tosh's rape jokes and rape incitement.
Anyway.
There's a lot of buzz this morning about how Louis CK said on The Daily Show that he's not going to tell rape jokes anymore, sort of a second act to his promise not to use gay slurs anymore. Except: He never said that.
I watched the segment this morning, and what I heard was:
* Louis CK calling feminists humorless.
* Louis CK saying that feminists and comedians are "natural enemies," thus disappearing all feminist comedians.
* Louis CK calling bloggers and comedians "uneducated" fonts of "hyperbole and garbage."
* Louis CK saying that comedians can't take criticism, which makes them "big pussies."
* Louis CK saying: "For me, any joke about anything bad is great. That's how I feel. Any joke about rape, the Holocaust, the Mets ahhhhhh! whatever. Any joke about something bad is a positive thing."
* Jon Stewart and Louis CK eating cookies about how Louis CK has "evolved" and grown "as an individual."
* Louis CK say some gender essentialist reductive shit about men and women, which included telling women to shut the fuck up: "The women are saying, 'That's how I FEEL about this,' but they're also saying, 'My feelings should be everyone's primary concern.' The men are making this mistake: The men are saying, 'You're feelings don't matter; your feelings are wrong and your feelings are stupid,' and if you've ever lived with a woman, you can't step in shit worse than that, than to tell a woman that her feelings don't matter. So, to the men I say: Listen, listen to what the women are saying about this. To the women I say: Now that we've heard you, you know, shut the fuck up for a minute."
* Jon Stewart joke about how Louis CK would have to get airlifted outta there, because feminists are so scary and violent, of course.
I also heard, which seems to be the piece that is getting construed as a promise to not tell rape jokes anymore:
I've read some blogs during this whole thing that have enlightened me to things I didn't know. This woman said how rape is something that polices women's lives—that they have a narrow corridor. They can't go out late, they can't go to certain neighborhoods, they can't dress a certain way, because they might get— Now that's part of me that wasn't there before, and I can still enjoy a good rape joke.I did not hear any promise to not tell rape jokes. I did, however, hear a promise to keep finding them funny.
Because, shit, nothing could be worse than being humorless about rape jokes.
Ahem.
It appears to me that Louis CK is being given credit for something he didn't actually say, at the expense of ignoring what he did say, which is a heaping fuckload of misogyny punctuated by his continued fondness for rape jokes.
UPDATE: I also want to quickly address the argument I'm seeing a lot that Louis CK should be given "credit," or some variation thereof, for either "evolving" on rape culture and/or speaking about rape culture on a national platform, despite the rest of his objectionable shtick.
First of all, contemplating rape culture for the first time as a 44-year-old man with two daughters, and patting oneself on the back for it instead of framing it as the profoundly regrettable evidence of privilege that is is, isn't something that ought to be praised—and praising it breathes life into the terrible idea that rape culture is difficult for "men" to understand. That is not accurate. It's not difficult for lots of male survivors; it's not difficult for lots of trans* men; it's not difficult for lots of gay men; it's not difficult for lots of men who have been incarcerated; it's not difficult for lots of men who are vulnerable by virtue of physical disability; it's not difficult for lots of highly privileged men who simply have the willingness to listen to women.
Let us not confuse "difficult to understand" for "easy to ignore by virtue of privilege."
Secondly, it is problematic, to put it politely, that the person being given the national platform to talk about rape culture is a guy who's had his first thoughts about it within the last week, after a career of telling and defending rape jokes. And, let's be honest, the platform was mostly offered so he could defend himself. I don't see his using that platform as some great piece of progress; I see his being given that platform as just another example of how the people who are most knowledgeable and sensitive about the gravity of sexual violence are the ones least likely to be given the opportunity to speak about it.
Finally, compartmentalizing Louis CK's "evolution" and misogynist jokes into two separate pieces, in order to praise the former, elides the fact that misogyny underwrites rape culture. He didn't say that he realizes rape culture exists in a void; he said it in a segment in which he used a classic feminist silencing trope, a misogynist slur, gender essentialist humor, and told women to "shut the fuck up for a minute." Extricating his "evolution" from that context is to fail to acknowledge that treating women as less than is a key feature of rape culture.
What he did isn't progress. It's ass-covering.
Bane of His Existence
This is just cracking my shit right the hell up this morning:
This summer's much-anticipated Hollywood blockbuster, "The Dark Knight Rises," is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, "Venom" gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney's former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.LOLOLOL! Well, when you put it THAT way...
"Bane" is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president's assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.
"It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood," said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. "Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society," he added.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker kiwi_a: "What's a taste/scent that instantly gives you a feeling of warm/fuzzy nostalgia?"
Mulberries.
Photo of the Day
U.S. President Barack Obama is pictured during a heavy rain storm at a campaign stop in Glen Allen, Virginia, on Saturday, July 14, 2012. [Reuters Pictures]And what was Mitt Romney doing on the same day? This.
Headline of the Day
Perfect. That is obviously just a perfect headline that really encapsulates an important truth. Good job, Team Limbaugh!
In case you're wondering what, exactly, it was that caused Rush Limbaugh to proclaim that the President of the United States hates the United States, it was his saying this during a campaign appearance in Virginia last week:
If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own! I'm always struck by people who think, "Well, it must be 'cause I was just so smart!" There are a lot of smart people out there! "It must be because I worked harder than everybody else." Let me tell you something: There are a whole bunch of hardworkin' people out there! If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help!How dare he. This is why Mitt Romney is going to pick a pair of bootstraps as his running mate, to remind REAL AMERICA that nobody who's anybody ever got any help from somebody! Or something!
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Child abuse.]
Three: The percentage increase in "the rate of child abuse requiring hospital admission" for every 1% increase in the 90-day mortgage delinquency rate. In other words, the threat of foreclosure translates, via the sort of sustained stress that subverts patience and impulse control, people are more likely to abuse their kids and/or more likely to abuse them more seriously.
Researchers collected data from from about 40 U.S. hospitals and connected the information to unemployment, foreclosure, and mortgage delinquency figures in each hospital's geographic region.Trickle-down economics has always been bullshit. But trickle-down abuse is not. Left unchecked, it carries through families generation after generation like a fondness for granny's biscuits. And it is a cycle exponentially more difficult to break when there is not a meaningful social safety net that provides education, healthcare, means to recovery, and stability.
The study's lead researcher, Dr. Joanne Wood, said she started the study because her colleagues were seeing an increase in cases of child abuse requiring hospitalization. Wood discovered that children whose families had a more insecure housing situation were far more likely to be abused.
Wood's findings come at a time when many states are attempting to pass foreclosure reforms and homeowner protection measures, but are being met with fierce opposition from banks.
Abusers are individually responsible for the harm they do, but we are all accountable for the culture we build and its capacity to facilitate or subvert abuse.
It's simply not possible to have a stable home under the constant threat of loss. That isn't to suggest every person in an unstable home is going to harm others or themselves. It is simply to acknowledge this truth: Instability abets or intensifies abuse, where it has already cast its shadow.
This is just one of many reasons to support policies that privilege people over profits.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Films with a Female Director. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by wagging tails.
Recommended Reading:
Vivian: Superhuman Strength [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of misogyny in gaming.]
Jesse: Lackland Rape Scandal Shines Spotlight on Military Failure [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of sexual violence and rape apologia in the US military.]
Brandon: How a Mormon Bishop Became an LGBT Ally (with an Assist from Carson Kressley) [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of homophobia and violent threats.]
Mary: Funny how it's always the other guys who are responsible for the bad decisions of the organizations Mitt heads.
Shankar: How Stereotypes Can Drive Women to Quit Science [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of misogyny and victim-blaming.]
Rachel: In Praise of Old Friends
Finally: Is this [CN: violence] the best review of a Chris Brown album ever?
UPDATE: Also! Sign the petition: Texas Health and Human Services Commission: Do not enact new abortion reporting requirements.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Quote of the Day
"No, we will not apologize. Mr. Romney claims he's Mr. Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience."—President Barack Obama, on his campaign's political attack on Mitt Romney's conflicting accounts of his tenure with Bain Capital.
This was the unyielding assault on Republican shenanigans I wanted to see last election. Please keep it up, Obama campaign. Keep. It. Up.
Even (and maybe especially) if you are, like me, routinely disappointed by President Obama's failure to be progressive enough on a variety of issues, campaign messaging that criticizes conservative economic ideology and corporatism is important to highlight and support. It is way the hell more valuable to the national dialogue than the milquetoast genuflections to bipartisanship including exhortations to axiomatically respect Republicans' ideas, no matter how garbage they are, that have been a hallmark of Obama's style in years past.
Daily Dose of Cute
Today is the one-year anniversary of Zelda's adoption. I can't believe our little American Adorbzhound has been with us a year already, and, in the way that such contemplation of passing time always makes inevitable, I can't believe she's only been here a year.
She is a wonderful dog, loved even by friends who say they aren't especially fond of dogs. She is a voracious cuddle monster, and a loyal companion who wants nothing more in this world to make us happy. The feeling is mutual.
In the year since she joined us, she has been nothing but a delight. She's now great on the leash and is a pleasure to walk. She's still fussy about letting us trim her nails, but she lets Matilda's groomer do it, which is a compromise with which we both can live. And she's still scared of other dogs when she and/or they are off-leash, but if we introduce her in a structured way that lets her know she's safe, she's fine. I don't know that we'll ever totally undo whatever made her terrified of every other dog in the world (besides, inexplicably, Dudley), but there has been marked improvement.
And because even the animals of Shakes Manor carry teaspoons, she has been an excellent ambassador for shelter dogs and mixed-breed dogs. Those funny little Dorito ears have started a lot of conversations about where she came from, and she sits patiently, grinning, while I tell the story again of finding her at the pound, of looking into those big brown eyes for the first time and knowing down to my bones that she was my dog.
So, in honor of Zelda's first year with us, here is a little video celebrating her happy life in her forever home and showing what abundant joy rescuing a shelter dog can be.
Set to Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me."
Text Onscreen: On July 16, 2011, we walked into the local Humane Society, and we saw a little black dog who didn't even have a name… [image of Zelda curled up on a blanket] We decided to give her a name. [image of Zelda grinning with "Zelda" in text beside her] And a forever home.
Video clips: Zelda riding in the car, with Dudley peeking his nose over the backseat. Zelda sitting, wagging her tail, looking up into the camera, and grinning. Zelda greeting me at the front door, grinning and wagging her tail excitedly. Zelda and Dudley playing chase in the backyard last summer, seguing into digging and investigating together in the fall, seguing into chasing each other through the snow last winter. Zelda running toward me through the snow, grinning; I zoom in on her and she puffs frosty air, then runs off across the garden again. Zelda lies on her back on the couch with her belly exposed and legs in the air; I rub her special belly spot and her back leg kicks wildly. Zelda lies on the living room floor on her belly, back legs out behind her, chewing on a rawhide; she turns and grins then goes back to chewing. Zelly leaps and grabs her plushy raccoon; sits and grins and twists her Dorito ears in a funny shape; looks at me and wags her tail; greets me excitedly at the front door; brings Dudley a giant plushy duck; runs across the garden toward me, grinning; pulls a plushy lobster out of the toybox and lies down next to Dudley on his dog bed; lies beside Dudley in the grass; chases a ball in the garden; scans the garden alertly; runs wildly at the dog park.
Still pictures of Zelda lying on my legs; cuddled on the sofa next to Iain; napping between Dudley and Sophie; napping next to Matilda and Dudley; napping next to Olivia.
Text Onscreen: Shelter animals make great pets. Opt to adopt.
Image of Zelly looking regal and generally awesome.
Good Dog.
