Romney Picks Paul Ryan as Running Mate

So, Mitt Romney has made his selection, and the paperclip he picked is Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republicans' budgeteer, who believes in trickle-down economics, deficit reduction, bootstraps, and gutting domestic discretionary spending. Basically, he's a total garbage nightmare, so it's no wonder Mitt Romney likes him.

Also: Last night, GoldFishy, The Captain, Iain, and I were sitting around talking politics (surprise!), and I put my money on Paul Ryan as Romney's veep pick. (Pay up, universe!) I said, "Not only is he sufficiently terrible, but he sort of looks like a young Mitt Romney. Romney's just arrogant enough I can imagine him looking at Ryan and thinking, 'There's just something appealing about that guy I can't quite put my finger on...'" He's like the sixth Romney son.


"Look, he's a perfect stand-in for Ben when Ben's at his bowling league."
As an additional benefit, Romney may fool some dumbasses into thinking he picked Ron Paul. "I guess we don't have to protest at the convention then! Pass the apple bong, dude."

Anyway. Congratulations to Paul Ryan. Good luck in your debate with Senator Vice-President O'Biden. I can't wait to not vote for you!

UPDATE 1: Ahhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahahaha! At the official announcement, Romney introduced Ryan thusly: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States—Paul Ryan!" Whooooooooooops! He then had to make a correction that Ryan would not, in fact, be the next President of the United States. OMG. LOL FOREVER.

UPDATE 2: @PeterHambyCNN: "another mistake: Romney just teed up ad featuring his arm around Ryan saying 'every now and then I make a mistake'." OMG.

UPDATE 3: Ryan then comes on and calls Romney the "right man for this moment" (LADIES), and then says they'll "restore America's greatness." Hear that, America? Team RomneyRyan thinks you're garbage!

Yiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. Worst running mate roll-out ever.

UPDATE 4: Igor Volsky: 12 Things You Should Know about Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan.

UPDATE 5: An image of the Dystopian Duo from the actual event this morning:


"Every now and then I make a mistake. But I can tell you I did not make a mistake with this guy!"
Yeesh. Photo via Richard Adams, whose coverage is, as usual, recommended reading.

UPDATE 6: Eastsidekate volunteered to be the one to sign up for Mitt's Awesome App so she could get the veep announcement five seconds before everyone else. And here's what you missed:

Meet AMERICA'S COMEBACK TEAM.

I'm proud to announce Paul Ryan as my VP! Together we will offer a plan to restore American greatness and help build a stronger middle class. Stand with America's Comeback Team.

America's Comeback Team? LOL! That is HORRIBLE. That is the worst slogan I've heard since "Nixon '68: Less Sweaty!"

Anyway, I'd rather stand with AMERCIA's Comeback Team, thankyouverymuch.

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

XLR8: "I Love You Girl"

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Blog Note

A couple of friends, better known in these parts as GoldFishy and The Captain, are coming to visit, so I will be taking the day off.

If, as has been hinted, Mitt Romney announces his running mate today, I will be sure to post whichever goat or paperclip he chooses.

If not, I'll see you Monday!

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

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Question of the Day

What is your least favorite thing about Mitt Romney?

[Please note the commenting policy still applies, so comments citing his policies, political positions, professional record, and/or public behavior are on-topic, and comments mocking his appearance, religion, family, etc. are not.]

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Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Religious supremacy; homophobia; anti-single parent bullshit.]

"I believe that people of faith by and large have a great interest in the institution of family and that a family is a great place to learn leadership skills. I'm sure I benefited by having a Mom and Dad, both of whom were actively involved in the community and in various enterprises."—Republican presidential candidate and world-class jerk Mitt Romney, in response to a question about why he thinks Mormonism produces such a disproportionate number of political and business leaders. (Which, for the record, is a stupid question.)

What I like, ahem, about his response is how he manages to take a passive-aggressive swipe at same-sex and single parents, while also denigrating atheists as anti-family. COOL. Cool candidate, Republicans.

Not for nothing, Mr. Romney, but a lot of female people who grow up in "families of faith" are explicitly taught not to be leaders. Not that they are part of this conversation, or any conservation you have, ever.

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Sure

[Content Note: Fat bias; evo psych.]

Stress makes men appreciate larger women. A perfect article about a perfect study. Hooray for everyone.

My friend Miller sent the link to me with no commentary, aside from the subject line of her email: "Here's a gem."

LOL FOREVER.

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Top Five

Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Ways to Pass a Single Hour. 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.

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Today in Mitt Romney Blah Blah Whatever

"Do these come in solid gold?"

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Intentions

by Aunt B., who can be found regularly blogging at her place, Tiny Cat Pants.

[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual harassment.]

I've been following the seemingly bizarre ouster of Marc Smirnoff from the Southern literary magazine, The Oxford American, since the first reports of him being mysteriously locked out of the OA's offices surfaced. The OA has had a long history of money difficulties and I assumed this story would end up being about some kind of financial malfeasance. You know, good, entertaining gossip.

But as the story began to emerge, it became clear that this wasn't about financial issues, but about male privilege and rape culture and, more specifically, how creepy men in our rape culture trade on male privilege in order to behave the ways they do. And, surprisingly enough, this also seems to be a story about what happens when people stop granting a man that privilege.

Smirnoff's story (which I'll get to in a minute) comes at the same time as this post and discussion over at Captain Awkward's about the phenomenon of the Creepy Dude and it gets into how women are socialized to just accept and smooth over hurt feelings resulting from the Creepy Dude because otherwise, it would be awkward–as if his behavior isn't already making things awkward. You should read the whole thing, but here's how it ends.

It's really fucking sad and unfair. Welcome to our culture, where it's always this sad and unfair whenever women's safety is on the line.

This is how far Rape Culture skews our vision. Being sexually harassed and assaulted is seen as something that you should be cool (i.e. quiet) about. But GOD FORBID you break up the weekly games night with the temerity to be a victim of such a crime! Don't you know that your harasser has the best table for playing Settlers of Cataan?

I don't know how we fix it, but one step has to be to stop tolerating it when it happens to us and when it happens to people we love. Making our social circles and spaces safe means making them AWKWARD AS HELL and UNSAFE for creeps and predators. It means constantly reframing the conversation away from the dominant narrative, so when stuff like the situations in these letters comes up we can say "That's called sexual assault and it's a crime. So I need you to stop talking to me about his feelings and pressuring me to invite him to parties."

But then, a commenter tells this awesome story in the comments about her husband having to protect a girl from a creepster and how, even as he knew something was wrong, and he kind of saw that the creepster was ruining the girl's weekend, his wife had to point out to him that the creepster was obviously looking to harm the girl, and the husband just missed it.

With all that in the background, we can now turn to this flabbergasting article in the New York Times about Marc Smirnoff's abrupt departure from The Oxford American (seriously, if there ever were a story to waste on of your freebies on, this is it). I don't even know where to start to quote from it. Let's go with this:

The next morning he berated the female intern in front of the other staff members when she refused to help clean up a mess in the kitchen. Then, after insisting that the intern ride back to Conway with him, he asked her if she wanted to hold hands. She declined, he said, saying she'd rather "hold hands with a dead dog." Still, he told her he wanted to take her to his favorite make-out spot.

Mr. Smirnoff's account matched the description the intern provided the magazine's board. The intern said she was repeatedly humiliated, sexually harassed and intimidated by Mr. Smirnoff on that occasion and others, according to a written statement from her that was obtained by The New York Times.

During a conversation with the same intern earlier that week, Mr. Smirnoff said, he hugged her and kissed her on top of the head.

None of those things constitute harassment, he insisted.

"It was acceptable to her in that moment," he said, saying that she did not object to his behavior at the time. "My take of it was that we were trying to see if we could revive our relationship, professional and personal."

A woman tells Marc Smirnoff that she would rather "hold hands with a dead dog" than hold hands with him, and he still claims that his behavior was "acceptable to her in that moment"?! Holy shit! I kind of want to drive to Arkansas just so I can laugh in his face. Forget "What part of ‘no' don't you understand?" What part of "I'd rather have putrid decaying flesh in my hand than your hand?" makes you think your advances are cool?

This isn't "he said, she said" because he's literally admitting to the things she said he did as a part of his defense. He's literally (and I'm sorry to keep using that word, but it is exactly right in this case) claiming that, in spite of her hostility as reported by him, since he intended no harm, she had no problem with his behavior. And he's trying to talk the motherfucking New York Times into accepting that, if his heart is pure, she must have been okay with it at the moment.

Forget that I don't believe for a second that his intentions were good. And forget for a second how laughable it is to believe that a man as smart as Smirnoff envisions himself as some kind of bumbling, but well-intentioned fool who just doesn't understand the implications of what he does. Just focus on the idea that he believes, if he can just convince someone that he didn't mean anything by it, the damning facts which he himself presents should resolve themselves into something that leaves him with the moral high ground.

This is how the creepster gets by. It's uncomfortable for people to confront them and they get used to being able to use any old excuse to garner sympathy and get people to continue to make room for them. Smirnoff's story is so illuminating because he's so obviously angry and confused that asking people to consider his feelings and his intentions is not working this time. Which would seem to indicate that it's worked before.

On so many levels, this blows my mind.

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Daily Dose of Cute

Oh, you want to sit on the couch? TOO BAD!

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“Because I want to be who I am!”

Last Thursday morning, at summer camp drop-off for youngest child

Fellow cabin member, little boy age 5, pointing at my kiddo's water bottle: "Your bottle has pink! Why do you want a bottle with pink! You're a boy!"

My kiddo, a bit taken aback: "It has lots of colors."

Little kid: "But...."

Me (firmly): "Pink is just a color, like any other."

My kiddo: "Yeah. And this isn't my water bottle, it's my dad's."

Little kid (confused): "Oh."

***

Yesterday Liss forwarded me this article in the NYT Magazine: What's So Bad About A Boy Who Wants to Wear A Dress?. I clicked with some trepidation (as Liss didn't mention if it sucked or was great, lol) and 8 pages later, I was all teary (and not because it sucked!).

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On NPR's Very White Best Young Adult Books List

by Shaker Laurie, a Reading and English teacher in Minneapolis, escaped academic, spouse, and mom to the feistiest three-year-old on the block.

[Content Note: Racism.]

Earlier this week, National Public Radio published its "100 Best-Ever Teen Novels" list. Voted on by NPR readers/listeners from a list of 1200 nominations, also audience-submitted, the list is loaded with amazing writing—amazing writing about white protagonists. Only two—yes, two—books on the list are written about main characters of color: House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

As a teacher of reading and English in schools with large populations of students of color, young adult fiction about characters of color is high on my radar. Many of my students don't see themselves as readers when they walk into my classroom. Reader identity and engagement are a huge component of the work we do as we address student reading problems, and when students are handed books full of characters that are unlike them racially, culturally, and socio-economically, the chasm between their picture of themselves and their idea of books and who books are for only widens.

The problem is not that amazing books about teens of color don't exist. They do. My kids latch obsessively onto books about teens like them and read them voraciously because adolescents in all their self-involved glory enjoy reading texts that remind them of, well, themselves. Sherman Alexie and Sandra Cisneros certainly deserve their received accolades: The House on Mango Street is a beautifully poetic account of a Latina's coming of age, and Absolutely True Diary poignantly tells the story of a boy who struggles with life on a reservation and his desire for a strong education. Judith Ortiz Cofer, Walter Dean Myers, Linda Sue Park, and Matt de la Peña's work also comes to mind, so when NPR comes along and declares 100 books the "Best-Ever" and leaves nearly every single young adult title written about people of color off the list without caveat or mention, damage is done.

Clearly, audience-selected "Best Ever" lists are dangerous and problematic, but the absence of any indication of NPR's awareness of the glaring neglect on their list is also troubling. A list of "Best-Ever" books that declares only two books about teens of color worthy keeps all of these amazing stories in the margins, and arguably marginalizes them even further. When the world of reading remains so predominantly white, children and teens of color receive the clear message that they don't belong. It sends a message directly from readers as well as NPR that writing about people of color is not valuable or valued, that their stories aren't as important as the trials and tribulations of Edward and Bella; the Twilight series ranks #27.

Such an exclusive list isn't just problematic for teens of color; when white teens are told that the "good" books are all about white people, it normalizes the white experience and bolsters white privilege. For me, growing up in a community that was 99% white, reading was one of the first ways I was able to interact with narratives of people of color. Books lay a foundation on which kids can reflect on social justice and understand that the lives, conflicts, and struggles of people of color are important—that people of color are equal actors in the world. Yes, kids want to read about themselves, and that is important, but it is also critical for kids living with privilege to read about people living without those privileges, not just for some requisite "exposure to diversity," but because, if we want them to be committed to changing the world, they have to understand it needs to change.

The walls of my classroom are covered in photos of my students—90% of whom are of color—reading books. For most of them, the visual of themselves with books is new and exciting. For most kids, reading is not inherently boring; it is a world of escape and imagination. Kids want to see themselves as smart and successful, and reading comes along with that image, so it is inexcusable that NPR publish material that screams, "Good reading=whiteness." Those who champion literacy fight daily against the cultural message that reading is for white people, and according to NPR and its audience, it is.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Modà: "Come Un Pittore"

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This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

Stephen Marche for Esquire: "The Contempt of Women." Actual subtitle: "The rise of men. And the whining of girls."

There's a lot wrong with this article, starting with the basic problem that Marche cannot (or will not) distinguish between contempt for men and contempt for expressions of patriarchy-compliant masculinity. That's not a semantic difference (unless you're an evo-psych gender essentialist, in which case you're just wrong). I am a tenured Professor of Contempt at Fuck U, and the first lesson in my 101 class is that contempt for people and contempt for their behavior are very different things.

The second lesson is that privileged people who don't want to be held accountable for their behavior like to accuse the marginalized people contemptuous of that behavior of being, instead, contemptuous of their personhood.

To deflect accountability, "men" becomes inextricable from "male privilege" (carefully aided by disappearing or dismissing all men who do not exhibit and/or share undiluted male privilege: gay/bi men, trans* men, feminist-allied men), and it is not the oppressive expressions and subjugating practices of male privilege for which women have understandable contempt, but men themselves.

Thus, we are terrible "misandrists," not critics of systemic oppression and the acts which facilitate it.

Of course, there are also some individual men whom some women hold in contempt, for legitimate reasons, but when your examples of "self-deprecating" male comics are Louis CK and Daniel Tosh, I don't guess legitimate contempt is a concept that exists in your paradigm.

(NB: Men who do rape humor are not "sharing in" women's alleged contempt for men. They are expressing profound contempt for women.)

I'm not going to spend a lot more time deconstructing the towering inferno of fuck that is this article (I'll leave that to you in comments), but I do want to note one other thing: The story about First Lady Michelle Obama "humiliating" President Barack Obama by saying, "He's a gifted man, but he's just a man," so often cited by male writers as evidence of what a bitch/ball-buster/bitch she is, is not about her contempt for him. (And you have to be a real asshole to image that any half of this couple has contempt for the other.) In fact, I don't think it's really about Barack Obama at all.

Every time we hear about how Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson met, we get the line about how she was his supervisor. She was ahead of him in her career. She, by all accounts, was the better student, more focused, more ambitious. And yet it's he who is the president. Maybe that comes down entirely to the fact that she didn't want it. But, after watching Hillary Clinton's campaign, can there be any doubt that, no matter how much she wanted it, it wouldn't have mattered?

Whether Michelle Obama wanted the presidency or not is really immaterial to her certain knowledge that she couldn't have had it, anyway. And when she says her husband is "a gifted man, but he's just a man," I don't only hear a wife humanizing her husband and keeping him humble in an affectionate way; I hear a woman who is herself extraordinarily gifted, but will always be considered "just a woman," fighting for equal space. As well she should.

That is not contempt for her husband. That is contempt for the opportunities she was not allowed to enjoy, the recognition she will never get.

Matthew: How about you? Is your life proving satisfactory? Apart from the great matter, of course.

Mary: Women like me don't have a life. We choose clothes and pick halls and work for charity and do the season. But, really, we're stuck in a waiting room until we marry.

Matthew: I've made you angry.

Mary: My life makes me angry. Not you.

Take note, Mr. Marche.

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Wow

Do you want to see the world's greatest human beatbox? Well, here she is:


Video Description: A young Japanese woman wearing a black-and-white patterned yukata says, "Hello. My name is Aibo. I'm Japanese. I will show you my beatbox." then does the most amazing human beatboxing I've ever seen/heard. According to her YouTube page, she's been beatboxing for two years.

[H/T to @allisonkilkenny, who got it from Sean Lennon.]

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So This Happened Last Night

[Content Note: Violence; guns; self-harm.]

Last night, a couple miles from our house, more gun violence:

One man is dead and three are in custody at the Lake County Jail after they fled a home invasion in Porter County, crashed their car and led police on a foot chase near the Hobart Walmart. The incident Wednesday forced police to close portions U.S. 30 and Colorado Street to traffic.

Porter County Police Lt. Larry LaFlower said the incident started when three men in a silver car robbed a house in the 100 block of South County Road 450W in Porter County around 5:04 p.m. They battered the 52-year-old homeowner, a woman, and stole an undetermined amount of cash and guns. She was treated at Porter hospital. The homeowner's neighbor, who was driving a navy blue GMC Sierra truck, pursued the men as they drove west on U.S. 30, and he kept police posted as to their location.

Around 5:18 p.m. Hobart Police Chief Jeff White said the four men took a sharp right turn onto Colorado Street at a high rate of speed and crashed into three vehicles, including an SUV driven by an FBI agent.

Whoops.

At that point, three men jumped out and ran, while the FBI took the fourth into custody. The victim's neighbor continued to pursue them in his truck, so they shot at him, "striking him in the hand and shattering the windshield and the back window." Police eventually apprehended two more of the men.

The third man ran across U.S. 30 toward B.C. Osaka restaurant, with another FBI agent in pursuit, and fired his weapon twice before turning it on himself.

He died at the scene.

Remember how I mentioned being momentarily frightened while at the movies last weekend? Before A, M, Iain, and I went to the movies, we had lunch at B.C. Osaka.

This incident won't even register in the national news, not even a blip. It's one of many like it all over the country, increasing in number. And, still, we refuse to have a serious conversation about gun reform.

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GOOD MORNING!

[Content Note: Fat hatred; misogyny.]

@shakestweetz The PS2 was the best console you fat fucking cunt.

— Sodlid Nogard Dab (@SodlidNogardDab) August 9, 2012

I got this tweet this morning. I wrote the Fat Princess post, to the post-script of which it is a response ("P.S. The PS2 sucked."), four years ago.

I still get emails about that post, too.

Which I find pretty hilarious considering that gamer dudez showed up in droves to tell me to "get over it" when I criticized the game.

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "I'm sorry I lied to you. But you lied to me, too. You told me that everyone was alike and deserved a fair break, but you meant everyone who was like you."

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Question of the Day

Suggested by Shakers Teaspoon and bekitty: What webcomics do you read, if any?

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Top Five

Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Places You've Visited. 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.

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HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!

Hank + NPR. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon.
[Image via NPR.]

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Texting! With Liss and Deeky!

Liss: Can you die of a smell? Because Tils just took a shit that I'm pretty sure is capable of killing me.

Deeks: LOLOLOL!!!

Liss: Really stinky dogshit is bad, but it's just bad in the way really stinky people shit is bad. Really stinky catshit is otherworldly. It's like their buttholes momentarily turn into wormholes delivering fecal evil from the bowels of another dimension.

Deeks: How does that happen? They eat the same fucking thing every day!

Liss: Right? What the fuck?

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Photo of the Day

From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day for 7 August 2012: A squirrel trapped in a streethole cover is seen in Isenhagen, northern Germany. Police managed to free the animal by using olive oil. [Police Hanover/AP]

Awwwww, poor wee fing, lol! Yay for olive oil.

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Yay for Things!

Transgender Discrimination Barred Under ACA:

In response to letters from LGBTQ health and advocacy groups, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in a letter made public yesterday that, under the Affordable Care Act, discrimination based on gender identity will not be tolerated. Leon Rodriguez, director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights, stated in a written response to the groups that federally-funded health care programs are barred from discriminating against transgender people. This inclusion does not, however, mean that trans-specific health care, such as transition-related procedures, will be included in coverage.

The National Center for Transgender Equality's executive director Mara Keisling notes that one in five transgender people report being turned away from a health care provider. "HHS affirms our position that these abuses are now clearly illegal," said Keisling. She remarked that this position will hopefully be a tool to get to the next step of covering trans-specific health care.

Trans and health care advocates assert that it is important for trans people to know their rights [pdf] regarding health care, and to contact HHS when they experience discrimination. The HHS Office of Civil Rights will soon release guidelines for how to respond to health care discrimination. Trans activist Jos Truitt writes, "a law specifically targeting [trans] discrimination would be a valuable next step, and showing that the need exists could help make this a reality."

So! After I saw this last night, I emailed Eastsidekate about it and we talked about it some, and I was all "LOL YER ENFORCEMENT?" and Kate was all, "THX FOR NOTHING!" and then we covered ourselves in ice cream and ate it off each other's heads.

Because today's HER BIRTHDAY!

Okay, in all seriousness, this is, as Kate aptly described it an one of her emails, "good-ish, but meaningless." Which means, by way of an inexact parallel, that it's sort of like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act—or, more specifically, the framing around the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which tends to overstate what it actually accomplished. Which was increasing the statute of limitations in which women who discover they are being paid unequally can sue, but not really ending unequal pay.

Similarly, this provision is good news in the sense that it provides recourse for trans* people who experience discrimination, but note the distinction between "guidelines for how to respond to health care discrimination" (which are forthcoming) and guidelines for preventing health care discrimination (which evidently are not).

What would be more meaningful is if the HHS barred discrimination and delineated good-faith practices for health practitioners, instead of barring discrimination and telling trans* people to report back if and when they're still denied healthcare.

As it stands, the policy is simply incomplete.

On Twitter last night, Kate drily noted: "My wife and I got a letter from NYS after I spent a night in my car while she was in the ER. Anti-discrimination rules aren't all bad. If that happened again because I'm trans, I'd be entitled to *two* letters."

Yeah.

I guess what it boils down to is this: As a start, it's a good one. As a best effort at a comprehensive policy, it's shit.

We'll have to wait and see what the HHS thinks it is.

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The Boundary Foundry

[Content Note: Boundaries; rape culture.]

This is a series about forging boundaries.

But let me back up a bit.

* * *

In June, I read this great piece on boundaries by Jim Hines. I hope and imagine Jim won't be insulted if I note that his piece wasn't revolutionary for me (which doesn't make it any less meaningful); I've been writing about the rape culture myself for almost a decade now, and many people before both of us have made the point that we all have the right to say no. But it was reading his piece, specifically, that I first had the thought: Not only do we all have the right to say no; we all have the right to set boundaries.

That might seem like a semantic distinction, but before someone can acknowledge, no less exercise, hir right to say no, zie must first believe zie has the right to object in the first place.

It's good and important and necessary to tell people who object to being treated in a way they don't want to be treated that they have a right to voice that objection.

But what about those of us who are so inured to being mistreated, who have not only been discouraged from communicating any negative emotion about abuse but admonished that even having those feelings is bad, wrong, punishable?

You have the right to want to say no. You have the right to want to set boundaries. And you have the right to set them.

* * *

A 16-year-old Shaker from a small town in the US asks me if I could write more about boundaries. She doesn't know how to set them, or where. I ask her where her life feels bad. "Everywhere," she replies.

* * *

Part of my commitment to dismantling the rape culture has been setting boundaries, for myself and this community, even if it is a teaspoon in an ocean.

It turns out that you make a lot of people unhappy when you draw boundaries and defend them.

Which, of course, is a product of the rape culture, which encourages hostility to other people's boundaries, sexual or otherwise. It's all part of the same continuum, part of the same endemic hostility to the notions of consent, autonomy; hostility to individual boundaries, privacy, and dignity; hostility to people who demand those things for themselves and others.

It's so deep in all of us. Sometimes we don't even realize we do it. We're mad about someone drawing a line in a place we don't like, and we decide it is because they are mean, because they are unfair, because they are weak, because they are broken, because they are something that gives us an excuse to not have to examine our own failure to respect their communicated boundary.

I've been that mad person. And I have a lot of people mad at me a lot of the time for drawing lines in places they don't like.

I hate making people unhappy. But I hate upholding the rape culture even more.

And here's a funny thing about public boundaries-drawing: It's hard enough to say no when there aren't thousands of people willing to tell you how terrible you are for doing it. And yet it's easier to say no when there are thousands of people in addition to yourself who need you to do it.

There is something empowering about community, even around personal boundaries. We can do more empowering of that sort here. Has been a thought. Rattling around the lint trap.

* * *

Increasingly, I get emails from Shakers on the subject of boundaries. Sometimes the emailers are grateful, thanking me for a public example of setting and maintaining boundaries. Those messages are particularly meaningful to me. Setting and maintaining boundaries (and the consequences for failing to respect them), personally and professionally, privately and publicly, is something that was once very difficult for me to do—even in this space, as longtime readers can attest.

Mostly, the emailers are advice-seeking. I try to answer all of them. A lot of the same questions come up over and over. A lot of times, I think: "This needs to be a post."

* * *

So here we are. This is a series about defining, communicating, and holding firm boundaries. Sometimes I will just write on a general idea. But mostly I want to answer your questions and address issues around boundaries in your lives, with which you want help, back-up, the reinforcing strength of community. Email me.

Please let me know in your email how you'd like me to credit you (e.g. Disqus handle, first name, initials, topic-specific pseudonym).

Here we go.

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Today in Mitt Romney Mingles with the Commoners

"Coupon? Ha ha! What on EARTH is that?"

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Daily Dose of Cute

"Dude, I am sooooooo baked."
I do not even know how Zelly got into this odd position, nor how she sent all the couch cushions akimbo, but this is what she looked like when I found her waking up from her mid-morning snooze, lol.

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Wednesday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by candy.

Recommended Reading:

Mat: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

Pam: I Can't Speak, But That Doesn't Mean I Can't Hear or Think... [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of disablism.]

Jacquie: "I have my own urgent message for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and President Obama: Until my family stops being the target of your failed immigration enforcement programs, I will not send you a dime."

Fannie: Quote of the Day [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of homophobia.]

Resistance: RIP Dr. Donald Liu

Andy: Michigan Billionaire Gives $325K to Fight Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment in Minnesota

Steve: Blackwater's Paltry Punishment

MM: Fox's Gutfeld: Obama Is "Out of the Closet" and "Officially Gay for Class Warfare" [video]

BF: Hillary Clinton on the Dance Floor in South Africa [video]

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Mika: "Elle Me Dit"

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Because I Know How Much Liss Loves a Good Jesus on a Tortilla Story

[Click to glorify embiggen.]
Here's a true story: A mysterious angel delivers tacos to Ernesto Garza's table at a local restaurant and as he's about to kill a fly he notices that Jesus has put His face on one of his tortillas, in a sort of reverse transubstantiation type thing. Newspapers are notified. Pictures are taken. An entertainment reporter quips "The Lord works in mysterious, and sometimes delicious, ways." Deeky gives an entertainment reporter a dismissive look.

Speaking of dismissive, when I first looked at the burnt area of the tortilla, I thought it was an image of a bulldog, but then realized I was looking at the wrong part of the burn. I hate when that happens. Anyway, I think the face looks more like Charles Manson or maybe Roland Orzabal than Jesus. I hate when that happens.

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Quote of the Day

"We had a moment of silence in honor of the people who lost their lives at that sheik temple. I noted that it was a tragedy for many, many reasons. Among them are the fact that people, the sheik people, are among the most peaceable and loving individuals you can imagine, as is their faith."—Republican presidential candidate and undiluted fuckbrain Mitt Romney, at a fundraiser in Des Moines last night.

Don't worry, though: His spokesperson explained that Romney just "mispronounced similar sounding words" and wasn't trying to offend Sikhs.

Phew!

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This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.

[Content Note: Racism; misogyny.]

Sally Jenkins' latest column for the Washington Post is headlined: "Gabby Douglas needs to avoid letting others set her narrative for her."

There is, inexplicably, no subtitle reading: "But should definitely let Sally Jenkins publicly lecture her in a super condescending way."

Instead, there's just a giant photo of all-around champion Gabby Douglas falling off the balance beam, followed by garbage like this:

Douglas is black, her coach is Chinese. She's living with a white family in Iowa, and her captain on the USA gymnastics team is Jewish and danced to a gold medal in the floor exercise to Hava Nagila.

Douglas genuinely doesn't see color — it's not her first thought.

That is some amazing mind-reading, unless Jenkins is privy to information about Douglas' thoughts that the rest of us are not, since there's a funny dearth of quotes from Douglas herself about her alleged "colorblindness."

Granted, I've not read every interview Douglas has ever given, but, in recent days, when I have read Douglas speaking on or near the subject of race, it has not been to declare her indifference as much as it's been, "Are you kidding me? I just made history. And you're focusing on my hair?"

To fail to see that as a comment demonstrative of a young woman who has to think about race, is obliged to have her race be one of her first thoughts, is to be a insulated by privilege and/or to be so deeply invested in the narrative of "colorblindness" that one ignores all evidence to its contrary.

The article gets worse from there.

Jenkins sanctimoniously compliments Douglas for believing in herself despite the pervasive whiteness of her sport, as if what's really holding black gymnasts back is their own weakness, as if the fact that it took talent enormous enough to win the all-around title, major familial sacrifices, and profound personal strength to overcome institutional barriers to participation somehow proves that anyone can do it if only they really try, rather than underscoring that the system is broken.

But these are the narratives of black exceptionalism that white people love: The black athlete who overcame terrible odds to become a champion. Proof that all you need is bootstraps. Soothing reassurance that we never have to change. After all, not having white privilege didn't stop that one extraordinary person so that means everyone else can do it, too, if they really want to.

Finally, Jenkins appropriates quotes from African-American former gymnast Dominique Dawes in order to lecture Douglas on how to be a champion. I mean, obviously it would just be unseemly for Jenkins to lecture her herself, so she passive-aggressively utilizes Dawes, whose encouragements to Douglas to "be herself, be genuine, and not try to be what other people think America wants or will gravitate to," are given an entirely different (disingenuous) meaning following on Jenkins insistence that Douglas "doesn't see color."

Jenkins is literally using the words of Dawes, who wept with excitement and pride and joy at Douglas' achievement, to admonish Douglas to not let herself be defined as a woman of color in gymnastics.

Which is gross on a lot of different levels, but perhaps none so much as its implicit argument that being defined as a woman of color, in gymnastics or anything else, is undesirable.

[H/T to @graceishuman, whose just-published piece "The Media's Gabby Douglas Problem" is highly recommended reading.]

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Headline of the Day

CNN: New state polls: Voters divided in race for White House.

I know it's early, but I don't think we're going to find any headline more totally trenchant than that today.

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Happy Birthday, Eastsidekate!

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
I wish you a nonillion biebers of happiness on your birrrrrrthdaaaaaay!
And creepy ice cream on your head, toooooo!

Happy Birthday, lady! I love you!

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours; you don't go into mine. You gotta hold the frame."

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Question of the Day

What is the last subject that drove you into full-blown rant mode?

Doesn't have to be a serious subject. Sometimes it's the little things—LIKE THE GRODY CENTIPEDES IN THE GARAGE WHO REFUSE TO VACATE THE PREMISES DON'T GET ME STARTED!—that evoke the most passionate diatribes.

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Photo of the Day

The newly elected chairperson of the African Union Commission, South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (left), greets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (right) on August 7, 2012 at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria. Clinton is on an official visit to South Africa to consolidate existing bilateral political and economic relations between South Africa and the United States. [Getty Images]

When Clinton leaves the State Department, I am going to miss like whoa the images of her meeting with women all over the world. They always look so happy to see her (and she them).

I bet Larry Eagleburger never got that sort of reception.

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I See What You Did There

[Content Note: Rape culture; sexual harassment; police misconduct.]

So, there's this article by Wendy Ruderman in the New York Times today, about the particular concerns of women, mostly women of color, who are targeted by the NYPD's stop-and-frisk campaign.

I am very glad there is coverage of this issue in the New York Times.

But!

I do notice something, the responsibility for which may be Ruderman's or may be her editor/s', or a combination thereof. I notice the very careful framing that reports women feeling vulnerable, harassed, humiliated, violated; women feeling like something isn't right, like the three women frisked by male police officers ostensibly looking for a male rapist; women feeling that they are "being groped simply for the officer's sexual gratification."

The notion that the women feel that way because they have correctly assessed the situation, because some male police officers are exploiting their positions to molest women, is never entertained, even in passing, even as a wild hypothetical.

The frame is that the cops are only doing their jobs, and, well, hey, it makes some women feel uncomfortable, but officer safety is of the utmost importance when a lady could have a gun shoved down her pants.

The article implicitly treats as inconceivable the notion that there are male cops taking advantage of NYC's invasive stop-and-frisk policy, which has long lacked sufficient oversight or accountability.

In reality, it's inconceivable that there are not.

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Presumed Aurora Copycat Caught

[Content Note: Terrorism; violence.]

Fucking hell: Ohio Man Arrested for Carrying Weapons, Ammo into Showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

Police say a theater manager was suspicious of the man who was carrying a satchel when he walked into the 10 PM Saturday showing of TDKR. The manager and an off-duty police officer searched the bag and found a gun, ammunition and several knives, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The man was arrested without incident. The newspaper says police search the man's home last night, but it's not known what, if anything, was found.

Iain and I went with our friends A & M to see TDKR for a second time this past weekend. During the showing, the film stopped and someone came walking into the front of the theater. It was just a moment before the lights went up, revealing a theater employee who informed us there were electrical issues due to a terrible storm, but, in that moment, my heart skipped with panic.

That's the thing about terrorism. It leaves terror where none used to be.

We have a big problem. And no one in a position of power seems inclined to try to solve it.

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Number of the Day

$3,392.77 (and counting): The profit made as of Friday by 9-year-old Detroit resident Joshua Smith, who started a lemonade stand in order to raise money to help his ailing city.

The attention and accolades just haven't stopped coming to Joshua Smith, the 9-year-old Detroit boy who's trying to help the city emerge from a financial crisis by selling organic lemonade, fruit punch, water and popcorn -- sizes small, medium and BIG!

He has been attracting attention since Monday, when he set up his lemonade stand outside his home in the Russell Woods neighborhood on the city's west side.

Joshua set a $1,000 goal. By Wednesday, he topped it.

Then he set a $2,000 goal. By Thursday, he topped that, too -- gaining $2,175.64.

By the end of Friday, Joshua had made a $3,392.77 profit, and donations continued to come in Saturday, said his mom, Rhonda Smith.

Plus, the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation announced Friday that when Joshua graduates high school, it will give him a $2,000 scholarship, as long as he graduates with a grade point average of at least 2.5.

..."I'm just getting a lot of support, and that makes me feel good," Joshua said.

There was even more support: A caravan of tractor trailers from a volunteer group called the Detroit Mower Gang came into Joshua's neighborhood Friday and mowed the two parks closest to his home.

Tom Nardone, 42, of Birmingham started the group two years ago because he was looking for volunteer opportunities and heard about the city being unable to mow city parks.

There were more volunteers than ever for Joshua, he said: a dozen volunteers and eight tractors.

Joshua plans "to ask city officials to use the proceeds from his kiosk to maintain a park and playground near the family's home."


That is a young man who wields a mighty teaspoon.

[Via TDW.]

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Neat

Via Entertainment Weekly, the first official picture of Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming Steven Spielberg biopic, Lincoln.

As you may recall, we got an unofficial peek last December.

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Quote of the Day

"Obama represents everything bad about humanity and Romney pretty much all that is good. It is really that stark."—Ted Nugent, professional fucko.

[Content Note on source: Eliminationism; guns.]

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Daily Dose of Cute

So, the cats aren't allowed in the bedroom.

The reason for this is because Iain is a light sleeper and can't get a decent night's rest with cats crawling all over him. If all three of our cats were like Matilda, who just settles in beside you at night and sleeps soundly if she happens to sneak in, the cats would be allowed in the bedroom. But Olivia and Sophie are nocturnal terrors, who want to roam, investigate, knock shit off every surface, noisily lick anything plastic, and destroy the toilet paper roll in the adjoining bathroom.

Because it's a pain in the ass to try to wrangle them all out of there every night, we just try to keep them out altogether. As a result, trying to dart into the bedroom, aka Cat Narnia, every time we open the door has become Sophie's favorite pastime.

Now, it's not like she never gets time in the bedroom, because she does sneak in and spend THE ENTIRE DAY in there ("Heyyyyyyyy! Everybody! I'minnabedroom! Wooo!") about once a week, and it's not like she never gets nighttime cuddling opportunities, because I occasionally end up in the guest room when Iain's snoring is rattling my brain.

And normally, she's cool at night. But every once in awhile, she spends the whole freaking night scratching at the bedroom door and whining pitiably. And there's no use letting her in, because she doesn't want to cuddle; she wants to explore. LOUDLY.

What I'm saying is: Sophie woke me up at 4:30 in the morning. I am exhausted, and Sophie is an asshole.

"What?"

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Top Five

Here is your topic, suggested via email by Shaker ErinM: Top Five Favorite Things About Your Body. (Please note: Your answers do not have to be limited to aesthetics. "It feels nice in a pool" or "My legs are strong" or any variation on physical appreciation is as valid as "I love my eyelashes.") 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.

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That Sounds Fun!

CNN—Santorum, Bush, Paul to speak at GOP convention: "Rick Santorum, who emerged as Mitt Romney's fiercest competitor for the Republican presidential nomination, will speak at the Republican National Convention, a senior GOP official tells CNN. The former Pennsylvania senator is one of four Republicans including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, who will be announced Tuesday as primetime convention speakers."

I can't waaaaaaaait! It sounds awesoooooooome! HIGH FIVES! Best. Convention. Ever.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Ruslana: "Давай, Грай!"

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Seen

[Content Note: Christian Supremacy.]

On our always-fun local church sign over the weekend: "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil. It has no point."

That's a quote generally attributed to Billy Graham, I think, although I'm not sure if he coined it or just famously repeated it, or even if he ever actually said it at all.

Every time I walk the dogs, I walk past that church sign and am reminded that my life is considered pointless—just a friendly little bit of rank hostility, right in my neighborhood.

This morning, the church was getting ready for a rummage sale, and some of its members were out on the lawn, sorting through stuff. As I passed, they waved and smiled, and I waved and smiled back.

A pointless moment in the pointless life of a pointless person.

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Today in Mitt Romney Mingles with the Commoners

"Hello, sir. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to let me put my hardware stuff into your transit thing. I am about to board my gold-plated space jet, and the cargo hold is already full of all the fiduciary widgets I have liberated from the Cayman Islands."

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Here Is a Thing

[Content Note: Eliminationist violence; white supremacy.]

Wade Michael Page, who on Sunday walked into a Sikh temple and started shooting, killing six people and wounding others before he was killed by a police officer, is described, like others before him who committed similar crimes, as a lone gunman.

Which is true. And not true.

Page killed alone, and he is accountable for every pull of the trigger. But his crime doesn't exist in a void. It exists in a culture that fetishes violence; in a culture that prioritizes gun ownership over gun safety; in a culture that privileges whiteness; in a culture that privileges Christianity; in a culture which Others the community that he targeted for mass murder.

He was a lone gunman with plenty of accomplices.

It's impossible to know what would have prevented his specific crime, if anything. But we know that violent acts of racist murder don't exist in a void.

What prevention there can be requires comprehensive solutions. Serious gun reform. Meaningful diversity that decentralizes Christianity in the public sphere. White people treating expressions of eliminationist racism with the gravity they deserve.

"He would talk about the racial holy war, like he wanted it to come," [Christopher Robillard of Oregon, who described Page as "my closest friend" in the service more than a decade ago] said. "But to me, he didn't seem like the type of person to go out and hurt people."

Here, then, is a thing for all of us to understand: Privileged white men who talk desirously about racial holy wars are the type of person who might hurt people.

Just something to tuck away in the old brainpan.

That Page could be a person who spoke long and lustfully of a war in which white Christians would wantonly slaughter non-whites and non-Christians, for no other reason than white Christians merely having unassailable privilege is insufficient dominance to quell their restless insecurity, but nonetheless be viewed by his peers as a man who "didn't seem like the type of person to go out and hurt people," is incredible evidence of pervasive indifference to the fact of violent racism.

There are people who commit violent racist acts. If not the men who yearn for race wars, then who? Who seems like "the type" to hurt people?

That is an ignorance, an apathy, so cavernous that it engulfs the terrible lie of the lone gunman. Everyone who shrugged at his eliminationist fantasies, everyone who creates and maintains a culture in which eliminationist fantasies are so ubiquitous that they might be casually dismissed (and those who sound alarms deemed hysterics, rather than citizens), is complicit.

And we are all tasked with prevention. We are all tasked in imagining a culture in which violent fantasies of racial holy wars cannot be and are not considered an eccentric affectation, but a red flag—an unacceptable expression of an intolerable urge.

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "I carried a watermelon."

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Question of the Day

Paraphrased from a suggestion by Shaker ShaunaG: What is your favorite musical instrument to listen to and what is your favorite musical instrument to play (if you play one)?

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Oak Creek Shooting Updates

[Content Note: Eliminationist violence; racism.]

I definitely got the memo that we are Officially Not Caring about the mass murder at a Sikh temple yesterday, but I ripped up that memo and flushed the shreds down the toilet, so here are some late-day updates...

The "person of interest" mentioned in my earlier post has been identified by the FBI and ruled out as a suspect.

The names of the deceased have also been released: "Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, the temple president, was killed Sunday after attempting to tackle the gunman. Oak Creek Police identified the other victims Monday as Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; Prakash Singh, 39; Paramjit Kaur, 41; and Suveg Singh, 84."

My sincerest condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues.

Lt. Brian Murphy, 51, the officer who was shot by Wade Michael Page, remains in critical condition but is expected to survive. Two other wounded remain at Froedtert Hospital in critical condition. The officer who killed Page has been identified as Sam Lenda, a 32-year veteran of the force.

My thoughts are with all of them, too.

And, because he just can't pass up any opportunity to be one of the biggest jackasses on the planet, Pat Robertson has weighed in on the shooting and decided it's all because "atheists hate God." Obviously.

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Guns and Shit

[Content Note: Guns; gun affinity; gun violence; bullying.]

Hey, dipshits. It's me, Butch Pornstache, and I'm here as an official spokesman (or spokesWOMAN, ladies) of Straight White Conservative Maledom to talk some straight scoop at your asses on guns, gun ownership, and gun laws, because my stepmom Cheryl, who may as well be literally sipping latte when she insults America by drinking Corona Light (it's the "light" part I find offensive, not the Mexican part), is all ticked-off about America's love of totally legal high-powered assault weaponry in light of all these mass shootings, so I figured you'd be all ticked-off, too.

As usual, I find myself in the annoyifying position of having to choose between saying what I know is right and saying what I know will keep the dudes down at the gun range from pantsing the bejesus out of me—but, if there's one thing I've learned from my ex-wife/fiancée Tammy besides what a perfect mid-day snack string cheese is, it's that I really need to stop saying stupid shit I haven't thought about. If I'm gonna say stupid shit, it should be something I thought good and hard about and came to my own conclusions, not just repeating what I hear at swap meets and parking lot MMA fights.

Not that there's not a lot of good information at parking lot MMA fights. There is. But there's a lot of bullshit, too, man.

Anyways, I am literally a card-carrying member of the NRA, and I like guns a lot. Like, A LOT. I own a whole arsenal of them, which I keep in a secret locked-up hiding place that is not the rusty foot locker covered by a Star Wars sleeping bag behind my stepmom Cheryl's garage so don't even check there.

And as a card-carrying member of the NRA, I am very pro-NRA catch phrases, like: "The Second Amendment: America's Original Homeland Security" (HELL YEAH!) and: "NRA: Freedom's Frontline" (FUCK YEAH!) and "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" (actually, I'd probably just give you one of my guns before I'd die for it, because I have like a million).

The one slogan I don't really like, though, which is my best friend Dick Balzac's favorite, and he's always yelling it, as if people can't just READ IT on the bumpersticker of his minivan, is: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Ted Nugent would totally hold me down and fart directly in my mouth for saying this, but that slogan is bullshit, man. I am no Professor of Mathematics at Counting University, but I ain't no fucking dummy, either. Ain't no way that little pissant in Colorado or that d-bag in Wisconsin coulda killed so many people without guns. I have tried working it out every which way possible—slingshot, katana, portable mini-trebuchet—and the numbers just don't add up.

I guess what I'm saying is: People kill people, but they can kill a lot more of them if they've got guns.

And it makes me REAL MAD that next time I'm at the gun range, some dill-hole is gonna pee in my Mountain Dew when I'm not looking just because I said that. But IT'S TRUE. I don't even know why those fuckfaces even try to deny it, when the WHOLE REASON WE LOVE GUNS is because they are amazing kill machines!

I mean, have you ever even WATCHED Top Shot? The whole show is just a bunch of gun enthusiasts jizzing in their pants about how awesome guns are! (With the occasional super boring episode about bows and arrows. NO THANK YOU!)

All's I'm saying is that I have way more fire power than I need to kill a deer. And, honestly? I usually just buy hamburger meat at Dinky's Superstore, anyway.

I also have way more fire power than I need stop a home invasion, especially since it's usually just my brother Buck trying to steal my weed and I ain't gonna shoot him again. (Lay off—the first time was an accident!) You know I hate like hell when I accidentally LEARN SOMETHING from you femifarts, but I have noticed, if I'm perfectly honest, that the people who are most likely to get hurt in this country (and maybe even the whole world!?) are not the people who are obsessed with the idea of people trying to hurt them.

There's a lot of dumbasses buying guns because they're scared for no good reason, instead of for the right reason to buy guns like I do—because they're cool and shit.

So, in summation: Guns do, in fact, kill people. You heard it here first.

Pornstache: Out.

P.S. Does anyone want to buy any guns? I need to sell them to pay for Tammy's and my re-wedding.

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Seen

On a car parked next to us in a lot this weekend:


The saddest part about this decal, besides EVERYTHING, was that there was a toddler car seat in the back seat, surrounded by princess toys.

"Thanks a shitload for driving me around in your douchemobile, DAD!"

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Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by aggrieved puppies with personal space complaints.

Recommended Reading:

Eric: Second Fire in Five Weeks Burns Missouri Mosque

Anna: The White World of Sports: What Gabby Douglas' Vault into Olympic History Means [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism.]

Lisa: Photographic Coverage of Olympic Beach Volleyball [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion and images of misogynistic objectification.]

Andy: Man Sets General Mills' Lawn on Fire in Anti-Gay Cheerio Protest

Tiseme: Get Tested or Get Out: School Forces Pregnancy Tests on Girls, Kicks out Students Who Refuse or Are Pregnant

noir180: For Whites Who Consider Being Allies But Find It Much Too Tuff

Sean: Higgs Papers Out

Atrios: Deep Thought

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

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Daily Dose of Cute

Oh the humanity, etc.

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Shit Chick-Fil-A Supporters Say

Shaker Taylor sent along this video he co-wrote, and it made me laugh for about ten biebillion hours. Per a note at YouTube, please note no money was actually spent at Chick-Fil-A in the making of this video.

[Full transcript below.]

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Breaking Bad Open Thread

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!!!
Last night's episode will be discussed in spoileriffic detail, so if you don't want any spoilers, please put on your porkpie hat and take a dip in the pool.

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Top Five

Here is your topic: Top Five Jobs You'd Love to Try. 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.

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Ted Cruz: Intellectual Intellectual

[Content note: Islamophobia, homophobia]

You may have heard that Ted Cruz (who is horrible) recently won the GOP primary to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas in the Senate. You may also have heard of David Brooks (who is also horrible). Here are some things Cruz has said, juxtaposed with some things Brooks said last Friday on NPR.

Cruz: "Agenda 21 attempts to abolish 'unsustainable' environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads. It hopes to leave mother earth’s surface unscratched by mankind."

Brooks: "He will do and I think what a lot of these [recently elected Tea Party Congresspeople] will do, will put a very deep and pretty intellectually substantive and very Madisonian approach."

Cruz: "Sharia law is an enormous problem [in the United States]."

Brooks: "[These Tea Party Congresspeople] are going to be a very intellectually serious force with deep and firmly held sort of intellectual roots for a long time."

Cruz: "When the mayor of a city chooses twice to march in a parade celebrating gay pride, that's a statement. It's not a statement I believe in".

Brooks: "He's sort of a product of sort of the conservative, if you want to put it, Madisonian tradition, which is very, very small government, but a pretty deep intellectual tradition."

It's like James Madison said: "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Horatio."

I shit you not, were I not a regular Brooks watcher, I probably would have, in a state of shock and horror, driven my rusty 2002 Saturn into the Jell-O section of the local supermarket. Intellectual? For realz? That's when I decided to write this blog post.

A funny thing happened on my way to the Internet. I started doing some research (on the Internet, but that was a damn good line SO HUSH) on Ted Cruz. It turns out that pretty much everybody (by which I mean most conservative blowhards*) was proclaiming the, um, intellectualosity of Cruz's intellect.

Robert P. George, Cruz’s college advisor [AT PRINCETON] told the New York Times that the presumptative US Senator and budding conspiracy theorist was “intellectually and morally serious.” I grabbed this quote out of a NYT piece titled "A Republican Voice With Tea Party Mantle and Intellectual Heft."

I know you're wondering what Alan Dershowitz thinks. According to this National Review cover story, he recalls that “Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant.” Now you know.

I could go on, but nobody (and I mean nobody) wants to see me quote George Will.

In case you have a short attention span:

Cruz: "Sharia law is an enormous problem [in the United States]."

I don't really care if Cruz is "an intellectual" or not. He's a small-minded bigot. Of course, he could be a disingeous asshole who's only pretending to be a bigot in order to get elected and enact a disasterous agenda. That's certainly, um, impressive.

--
*It's still not Adam and Horatio.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Beast: "아름다운 밤이야"

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Quote of the Day

"Hardware stuff."—Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, when asked by reporters what he bought at a hardware store during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney carries his purchases in a bucket as he leaves Bradley's Hardware in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. [AP Photo]

Yikes.

[Via Amanda.]

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Boy Scouts Abetted Child Abuse

[Content Note: Sexual violence; rape culture.]

See if this doesn't remind you of some other rapist-abetting organization you know:

Internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America reveal more than 125 cases in which men suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators.

A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files from 1970 to 1991 found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after officials were first presented with sexual misconduct allegations.

Predators moved from troop to troop because of clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the blacklist, known as the "perversion files," the newspaper said.

In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again.

In other cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, letting offenders stay in the program until new allegations came to light, the Times reported.

One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Indiana. After being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting more than 100 boys, was convicted of the sexual assault of a Scout in 1989 and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, according to his file and court records.

In 1991, a Scout leader convicted of abusing a boy in Minnesota returned to his old troop shortly after getting out of jail.

In response to the Times' findings, the Scouts issued a statement that said in part:

"The Boy Scouts of America believes even a single instance of abuse is unacceptable, and we regret there have been times when the BSA's best efforts to protect children were insufficient. For that we are very sorry and extend our deepest sympathies to victims ... We are committed to the ongoing enhancement of our program, in line with evolving best practices for protecting youth."

Which naturally means continuing to reject gays and atheists. Ahem.

The Boy Scouts of America is another organization that relies on the dangerous, foolish, self-aggrandizing, and rape culture upholding axiom that men who self-identify as straight Christians are Good People: The thing about sexual predators is that they're very good at insinuating themselves into environments with lots of potential victims by whom they will be trusted. For pedophiles, the nature of most mainstream American Christianity, of which the Boy Scouts of America is an outgrowth, with all its logically flawed but intractably calculated "Christian axiomatically = good" equations, creates a practical heaven on earth for them—a space in which they can move freely, grooming their unwitting targets right in front of their parents' noses, more trusted and less scrutinized than they would be in any other part of society.

They know that "I'm a Christian" is the secret passcode to unlimited trust around children.

As long as the Boy Scouts continue to privilege people on the basis of their religious identity instead of their actual character, children will not be safe in their care. That is the way it always goes.

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Photos of the Day

The nerdz at NASA party hearty after the rover Curiosity makes its historic landing on Mars and begins beaming back photos from the planet's surface:

Congratulations!!! That is some truly, epically exciting stuff!

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Oak Creek Shooting Updates

[Content Note: Eliminationist violence; racism.]

My original post is here. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an excellent comprehensive report here. Additional recommended reading: Pam on how disturbingly good at this we're getting.

There is not a lot of news to share this morning. The police still have not released the name of the shooter, which I imagine (and hope) is because they are still trying to confirm his identity and contact his family, and not because they are inclined to protect a terrorist. The shooter has been identified as Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist who, according to the SPLC, had a "long involvement in the white-power music scene."

And the shooter is being considered a terrorist by the FBI. Although no "concrete link to a domestic terrorism group or hate group had been established" as of last night, there have been reports that the shooter has tattoos indicating he is a white supremacist. He also reportedly has a tattoo related to 9/11.

The shooter is described as a white male in his 40s who lives alone. He was also reportedly an Army veteran.

If indeed the shooter was an Army veteran and a white supremacist, the possibility of an incident exactly like this one has been a known concern for at least six years. Of course, when we as a nation are reluctant even to entertain the suggestion of reexamining our gun laws after a series of mass shootings, there's no way in hell we're ever going to have a meaningful referendum on how the US military's lax recruitment guidelines and culture of Christian Supremacy might be a goddamn problem.

The Sikh community wants and deserves to know how something like this could have happened. They deserve something better than another "lone crazy gunman" dismissal. We all deserve better than that. We are all part of the same nation, which is a nation clearly in serious crisis.

The son of the president of the temple, who died, was just interviewed on the Today Show, and, in response to a question from Matt Lauer, he said, which I'm paraphrasing from memory, "We are not Muslim, but I don't want even want to say that, because it is culturally insensitive. ... This is a melting pot, and we should all know more about one another, because we live together."

His grace and decency, and his urging people to expect more of each other and themselves, in response to this ignorant, violent ugliness, was truly extraordinary.

I'll update this post during the day if and when new information becomes available.

UPDATE 1: The suspect has been identified as Wade Michael Page. CBS reports: "According to sources in the U.S. Army, Page enlisted in April 1992 and given a less-than-honorable discharge in October 1998. He served at Fort Bliss, Texas, in the psychological operations unit in 1994, and was last stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, attached to the psychological operations unit. The details of his discharge were not immediately clear." He served in the US Army for approximately six years.

So, Page left the service even before guidelines around white supremacy were eased and white power groups were encouraging members to enlist. This might be a good time for Congress to start taking that issue seriously, because he's going to become a martyr and a hero to men like him, which is a recipe for another Timothy McVeigh.

UPDATE 2: Police are seeking a "person of interest" in connection with the shooting, who may or may not be involved. The Journal Sentinel has an image of the person, a white man with a 9/11 tattoo, who used his cell phone to take "video of media, friends and relatives gathered by police in a parking lot near the Sikh temple in Oak Creek."

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Open Thread

Hosted by: "Ga-gung. Ga-gung."

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Bonus Weekend Cute

Sleepy dog is sleepy.
(Is it just me, or does her sleep-inducing drippy lip make it look like she was drawn by Matt Groening for this picture?)

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Mass Shooting Reported at Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin

[Content Note: Eliminationist violence; racism.]

My friend Miller is in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this weekend, and heard a bunch of sirens awhile ago: A few blocks away, there has reportedly been a mass shooting at a Sikh temple.

Originally, this item was the only news I could find about it, and was reporting that 8 to 20 people had been shot. That number has since been revised to as many as 30 people, possibly including a police officer.

News is very sketchy at the moment, and I am desperately hoping it's not as bad as feared. There are no reports yet on fatalities, nor whether the shooter has been found.

According to this preliminary ABC News report, "a witness to the shooting told law enforcement the shooter was a white male, bald, with a heavy build."

Miller reports there may be a hostage situation, but she says they're getting lots of mixed reports in the area, too.

I am really sad, and I am really angry.

I'll update as soon as more information becomes available.

UPDATE 1: CNN reports "multiple bodies in the parking lot" visible from an aerial view. Again, I want to stress that there are no news of fatalities, so it may just be people who have been uncritically injured or are in shock. I'm hoping that is the case, and fearing that it is not.

UPDATE 2: CNN: "Two men have been admitted to Froedtert hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said. One is in critical condition in the surgical intensive care unit; the other has been sent to an operating room."

UPDATE 3: JSOnline confirms at least four people have been shot, including the president of the temple, Satwant Kaleka, who was taken to a hospital.

UPDATE 4: One of the witnesses being interviewed by WISN says the gunman tried to blow up the temple's kitchen. We Energies has shut off gas service to the building. There are still people inside the temple, including at least a dozen children. It is unclear whether they are being held hostage, or simply hiding because they aren't sure whether the gunman is still in the building.

UPDATE 5: WISN's live coverage can be viewed here.

UPDATE 6: There are several reports now that there may have been multiple shooters. Hostages are still being held inside the temple, by at least one shooter.

UPDATE 7: A temple member being interviewed by WISN says there were as many as four shooters carrying out a coordinated attack. Fire crew is on-scene as a fire is reported in the temple kitchen.

UPDATE 8: WISN: A police officer was shot multiple times, but is expected to survive. The shooter is "down," according to police, but it has not been confirmed whether that means the shooter is dead or just immobilized.

UPDATE 9: Froedtert Hospital has admitted at least three seriously injured shooting victims.

UPDATE 10: This temple has been victimized by crime previously, including recently. The temple president's son is talking about, with unbelievable amounts of poise and measure, how many Sikhs were targeted after 9/11, because they wear turbans and are thought to resemble people from Afghanistan. Sikhs were attacked in my community after 9/11, their businesses vandalized and, in one case, fire-bombed. Already, bigoted assholes on Twitter are conflating Sikhs and Muslims all over the place (as if Muslims deserve to be victimized by hate crimes, which is a whole other fucking terrible garbage nightmare). So fucking gross.

Meanwhile, Angus Johnston tweeted that on Fox News, an anchor just asked a local alderman: "To your knowledge there's been no unrest, ethnic or otherwise, that would relate to this Sikh temple?" Let the conservative victim-blaming begin.

UPDATE 11: The police briefing confirms that seven people are dead, including the gunman, now believed by police to have acted alone. Three people were killed inside the temple, and three people were killed outside the temple, plus the shooter. The spokesperson stresses this information may change, but that is the best information available right now. Sob.

UPDATE 12: NBC anchor Brian Williams: "The police in Oak Creek are treating this as an incident of domestic terrorism." As well they should.

UPDATE 13: Mitt Romney calls the shooting a "senseless act of violence," which, as I've previously noted, elides the fact that, in a frame of racist eliminationism, a crime like this absolutely "makes sense."

Unequivocally, the sensibilities by which such a crime not only "makes sense" but is considered eminently reasonable, or even heroic, is racist, violent, eliminationist, and vile. But we can't pretend that particular brand of sense-making doesn't exist.

The only people helped by calling this terrorism "senseless" are the ones who have a vested interest in pretending that crimes of the sort that this one is presumed to be have nothing to do with white privilege and Christian supremacy.

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