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!
And don't forget to tip your bartender!
What Are the Rest of Us Doing With Our Lives?!
What—did you think James Franco wasn't going to take time off from doing every single other thing ever, all of them, ALL OF THE THINGS, to direct a short film (which is definitely a commercial, but fancier) for shoe designer Stuart Weitzman? You're so weird.
Of course he is.
Actor James Franco has taken another twist in his unconventional career — directing a short film for shoe designer Stuart Weitzman.The entire film won't be available until Oct. 26, but here is the first installment, because James Franco.
Four vignettes, which will debut on the brand's Facebook page, follow model Petra Nemcova as she takes what the company describes as "a midnight fantasy stroll."
The inspiration came from the 1988 underground club-scene movie "Mondo New York," and Nemcova struts to an updated version of the Patsy Cline song, "Walking After Midnight."
Video: Petra Nemcova, a tall, thin, white, young woman, walks down an urban sidewalk at night, wearing hot shoes. She walks into a gallery. She runs. Cuts of her feet, upper body, inside, outside, walking, running are spliced together. The end.
Genius. Give it all the CLIOs. Or at least let James Franco host the CLIOs with Anne Hathaway. That's the least we can do for James Franco AS A SOCIETY.
Photo of the Day
Surrounded by four of his five sons, Romney makes a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Denver. [Melina Mara/The Washington Post]This just totally sums up the Romney campaign for me—Mitt Romney with four doppelgangers standing around telling him how awesome he is. It's no wonder Mitt Romney thinks the whole world is exactly like him.
Friday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Star Wars action figures.
Recommended Reading:
Aura: Chipotle Agrees to Respect Farmworkers
Michelle: About That Video [Content Note: Fat bias.]
George: Behold the Tomb of Lady K'abel
Rebecca: Are You Kidding Me Right Now? Woman Didn't Get Job Because "Lead Actor Hates Female Directors"
Indian Homemaker: Do you think Indian parents who do not want to have daughters would make good parents of sons? [Content Note: Violent misogyny.]
Mike: Securitization of Mortgages Worked So Well, Why Not Securitization of Rents
Andy: Baltimore Ravens Center Matt Birk Appears in Heinous Ad Opposing Marriage Equality in Maryland
Jody: Youth Rising [Content Note: Oppression; ableism; racism.]
Angry Asian Man: Red Dawn Clip: The Evil Asians Are Coming to Get Ya
Echidne: Today's Funny Picture [Content Note: Misogyny.]
Vanessa: Wonder Woman Should Be President
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Happy Blogiversary to Us!
Today is Shakesville's eighth blogiversary. Eight years! In blog years, that's like A MILLION!
This morning, I read this interview with Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook having acquired a billion users, and he said something I found quite moving: "It feels like an honor. We get the honor of building things that a billion people use. I mean, there's no core need. It isn't a core human need to use Facebook. It's a core human need to stay connected with the people you care about. The need to open up and connect is such a deep part of what makes us human. Being in a position where we are the company—or one of the companies—that can play a role in delivering that service is just this … it's an honor."
I relate to that, on a comparatively miniscule scale. There are other places to get news, better places. There are other feminist blogs, other LGBTQI news blogs, other fat acceptance blogs, other places that cover elections. A lot of blogs have come and gone in the eight years I've been doing this now, and it's remarkable to me that I am still here, with so many people who have joined me along the way. I feel really happy, really grateful, that Shakesville, the blog and/or the community here, means something to so many people.
Meaning something is actually the hardest part of this thing for me, to be honest. Partly because it is hard to see Shakesville from a perspective other than my own; partly because I'm frightened that if I truly understood what this space means to people who love it, the pressure of it would crush me. At a dinner with a bunch of old friends last week, someone joked that they were the most hated person at the table, and someone else exclaimed, "No one is more hated than Melissa! There are like millions of people who hate her!" And everyone laughed, including me. It's easier to deal with being hated.
But not long ago, I got an email from a young woman who'd just graduated from college. She told me she'd been reading Shakesville every day since she'd found her way here at age 16, and thanked me for being an important part of her journey to adulthood. I can't even wrap my head around that, but I'm really trying. It's a part of sticking around that you don't envision, when you start out and hope to be around awhile.
I'm honored to mean something to you.
This is the hardest and best job I've ever done. I am a better person than I was when I started. I know more about myself, both the good things and the things that need changing. I've made great friends, the greatest, and had expansively generous teachers, from whom I've learned more in this space than I ever could have imagined. I am forever changed because of Shakesville, and the people who visit or come to stay.
Onward to nine.
Did Romney Cheat at the Debate?
Just the other day, Constant Comment and I were talking in comments about the infamous "Was George W. Bush wearing a wire at the debates?" scandal of 2004. Now it is being alleged that Mitt Romney pulled some shenanigans, too: Shaker Jewel sent the link to this video clip that shows Mitt Romney surreptitiously pulling something out of his jacket and putting it on the podium at the beginning of the debate, despite the fact that the rules prohibit the use of prepared notes.
Below are two stills I've pulled from the clip:
On the left, Romney can be seen reaching into his front pants pocket as he walks behind the podium. On the right, he has pulled out what appears to be a folded paper and is setting it on the podium.
Team Romney insists it was just a handkerchief.
Obviously, I have no idea what it really is, although I'll say it wouldn't surprise me if it were prepared notes (or a handkerchief with prepared notes tucked inside, heh), and not just because Romney's evidently an unscrupulous d-bag who believes the rules don't apply to him. I noticed during the debate that he seemed to be delivering parts of his answers in a way that suggested prepared notes. He was glancing down a lot, and his delivery sounded less extemporaneous than at other times. But I was so busy clicking between Shakesville and Twitter and my email and texts on my phone that I was missing details of the debate, and my good faith assumption was that I'd simply missed Romney taking extensive notes.
But when I watched parts of the debate back the next day, I noted that he was looking at Obama with that awful sneer-grin most of the time, so I couldn't figure out when he'd written such precise copy.
Ha ha maybe that's because he hadn't!
Or maybe he just has allergies and mad debate skillz. Either way, he's a jerk.
The Parks and Rec Open Thread
I don't know if this episode actually had a slow start, or if it was just residual grump from last week, or a little of both, but mid-way through this episode, I felt like we were back on track. (With the exception of the Ben and April DC storyline, which continues to NOT WORK for me.) Anyway! Here are some things I enjoyed!
"DDS doesn't stand for dumb-dumb-stupid!" "When the Ann's away, the mice get perms." "The bill is dead, the porpoises are doomed, and democracy is over!" "I'm a princess!" "I'm a mermaid!" "I'm the Director of Parks and Recreation. I'm here to fix that hole." "I'm not eating a racist's salad!" "Mmm…I can taste the ignorance." "It's pronounced anchovies." LUCY LAWLESS!!! "That large boy is my colleague." "He shoots down a very helpful bill because he doesn't get to poop wherever he wants?! No!" "Or does it require…two princesses?" "My whole life is a giant mess, and I love it!" "I'm a middle-school vice-principal—I don't screw around. Does that freak you out?" "No, to the contrary." Of course 911 got rerouted to Jerry's phone. OF COURSE.Discuss.
In The News
[Content note: racism, war, homophobia]
Something to Fill Up Your Friday News Hole:
Over the past few weeks, there have been reports of bleach-filled water balloons thrown at University Of Texas at Austin. The attacks appear to be racially motivated. (Just FYI: Chlorine was used as chemical weapon during WWI.)
The anti-equality group Minnesota for Marriage is having some sort of dildobrained pumpkin carving contest. Most homophobic Jack-o-Lantern wins a prize!
Meanwhile, another rightwing dildobrain obsessed with LGBT people claims that gays control the FBI and CIA and are using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act to crack down on bigoted douchebags. If only.
Lambda Legal is surveying individuals and organizations to learn about the discrimination LGBT people and people living with HIV experience when dealing with police, school security, courts and the prison system.
Pending across-the-board cuts to federal programs could lead to over 12,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States losing access to drugs and programs.
A bisexual girl in Queens says her right to free speech was violated when she got booted from her high school after her bi pride T-shirt was deemed a distraction.
Sacha Baron Cohen is developing a film tentatively titled The Lesbian inspired by the a Hong Kong billionaire who recently offered $65 million to any man who wooed and married his lesbian daughter. Should be a great film! Thoughtful! Like Bruno!
Why I never buy Boy Scout cookies: 17-year-old Ryan Andresen was denied a major award and booted out of the BSA because of his sexual orientation. Seriously, Boys Scouts of America, you are the worst.
Here are some tips on how to make the music in your car sound better.
The incompetence continues: The live stream of the Atlas Shrugged: First Blood Part II premier Tuesday failed to actually stream. Whoops! [No link, since this was only announced via an email.]
Just FYI: Trick or Treat, starring Skippy Handelman, is Liss' favourite 1980s horror movie. So you should check out this awesome clip from the film featuring Ozzy Osbourne.
Headline of the Day
Romney: "47 Percent" Remarks Were "Completely Wrong." No shit, Sherlock Pandering Opportunistic Windbag Who Will Say Anything to Get Elected.
"My life has shown that I care about 100 percent, and that's been demonstrated throughout my life," Romney told conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Fox News. "And this whole campaign is about the 100 percent."Okay, player.
Skyfall: The Single
I posted a leaked snippet of this on Tuesday, and the whole track was finally released in its entirety last night. Within ten hours of its release, it had already shot to #1 on the UK charts. For good reason. OMG.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Most Nostalgic Foods for You. 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.
Question of the Day
What is the best song you've heard for the first time recently? Could be a newly released song, or could be an old song you'd just never heard before.
Photo of the Day
From a World Food Program USA event yesterday, at which Christina Aguilera and Hillary Clinton were both honorees. Aguilera was honored for her "significant contributions in the global effort to solve hunger," and Clinton was recognized for her "legacy of leadership in advancing food security and nutrition."
Two of my favoritest ladies. Neat.
[Content Note: Misogyny; objectification.] Because the world is garbage, this amazing meeting of two great women is being reported everywhere else as "HILLARY CLINTON STARES AT CHRISTINA AGUILERA'S BOOBS!!!" because of an image in which it appears Clinton is glancing at Aguilera's cleavage.
The Opposite of Bullying
I love this. I love it because it's a perfect example of the positive possibilities of social media, because it invites us to expect more from a technology the frequent indecency of which is considered an immutable feature. I love it because it is a moving story of friendship and teamspersonship. I love it because Daniel Cui.
Map with text onscreen: Hillsborough, California, United States.Maude knows I've got my problems with Facebook, but that's a damn cool story.
Voiceover, a young white man, over montage of soccer play: The varsity soccer team had played ten or eleven games and lost every single one of them, by really embarrassing margins. Our goalkeeper, Daniel Cui—he was taking a lot of criticism, even though he was only a freshman playing varsity goalkeeper. We thought we were on the road to our first game that wouldn't be a loss. At the last minute, everything changed. Their star player, with a minute left, cracked this shot, and, unfortunately, Cui wasn't able to stop it; it was in the back of the net. And the next thing we knew, the ref was blowing the final whistle.
Voiceover, Daniel Cui, a young Asian American man, over an image of him failing to make a save in the net: It's horrible, I guess, uh, because, as the goalie, that little one mistake, you know, is a goal. And a goal in soccer is huge. [now onscreen] This guy said, "Oh, I'm gonna make a great photo album, with a bunch of pictures of you making great saves." The photos went up [images of photos of Facebook in which Cui's been tagged], and I was just shocked. [name of photo album: Worst Goalie Ever] It was just, you know, horrible. [images of Cui at home] After those photos were posted, there was a lot of tension. And I didn't want to go to school. I felt like taking time off. I didn't want that attention; I didn't want that negativity.
Young white man onscreen: We decided we had to do something. And eventually we found this great picture of Cui making a save [over image, and montage of turning image into FB profile pictures] and the three or four of us at about 7pm made it our profile picture. I came back about an hour later, and my newsfeed—it had exploded. It started with the soccer team making it our profile pictures, and the girls' soccer team made it their profile pictures, but then the whole school got involved. Over 100 people had either liked it, commented on it, tagged themselves in it, made it their profile pictures—and it was like my entire newsfeed was covered in Daniel Cui stories. [over video of Daniel Cui walking with a backpack] He came to school the next day like he was ten feet tall. [over soccer montage of Cui] Once he had that confidence, he was just going for it—throwing himself out there like a ragdoll. And the next season, one game they were just hammering shot after shot after shot, and Cui makes the best save of his life. He was parallel to the ground; he did a superman dive; and the ref blew the whistle and we won the game. And he punted the ball up into the sky, and I started running...
Cui, onscreen: I was like, "Wow—best moment of my life." Great change from the freshman kid to Daniel Cui the beast goalkeeper. [grins]
Young white man, over Cui being congratulated: The whole school had stood up, for someone who needed it. He was a normal kid, just like us. [over video of Cui doing homework] We all have our highs and our lows—and that's when we realized that we were all Daniel Cui.
[Via TDW.]
An Observation
No one who has ever said "life is too short" to me has ever meant, "What can I do to make amends for having hurt you and restore trust between us as quickly as possible?"
They have always and only ever meant, "Your boundaries are stupid, and I am super impatient with your attempts to make me respect them, so here is some emotional manipulation to try to coerce you into letting me continue to treat you like shit without consequences."
What I'm saying is: I really hate the expression "life is too short."
Number of the Day
[Content Note: Hostility to autonomy; reproductive rights; injury; death. NB: Not only women need access to abortion and contraception.]
47,000: The number of women globally who die from unsafe abortions every year. "Millions more are injured, some seriously and permanently. These deaths and injuries are almost entirely preventable."
[Transcript available here.]
Quote of the Day
"I've got a different view about how we create jobs and prosperity. This country doesn't succeed when we only see the rich getting richer. We succeed when the middle class gets bigger. We grow our economy not from the top down, but from the middle out. We don't believe that anybody's entitled to success in this country, but we do believe in something called opportunity. We believe in a country where hard work pays off and where responsibility is rewarded and everybody's getting a fair shot and everybody's doing their fair share and everybody plays by the same rules. That's the country we believe in. That's what I'm fighting for, that's why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States, and that's why I want your vote."—President Barack Obama, at a campaign event in Colorado today.
I'm not posting this because I want to convince you to vote for Barack Obama. I'm not in the business of trying to convince people how to vote. I'm posting it because, fuck, that is something very different than Mitt Romney believes, and it makes me sad that this premise—this fundamental idea that we must first and foremost be a community, not a collection of individuals playing at some zero-sum game of greed—is a political position, and a controversial one at that, rather than a basic agreement of all decent people.
It makes me sad that the people who most ruthlessly exploit our tenuous social contract have nothing but sneering contempt for it, and endeavor to dismantle it in their vile wake.
OBAMA: Now, the reason I was in Denver obviously is to see all of you, and it's always pretty, but we also had our first debate last night. And when I got on to the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney. [laughter; Obama chuckles] But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that. [laughter] The real Mitt Romney said we don't need any more teachers in our classrooms, [audience boos] but—don't boo, vote!—[audience cheers; Obama chuckles] but the fellow on stage last night, he loves teachers, can't get enough of them.
The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were called pioneers of outsourcing jobs to other countries, but the guy on stage last night, he said that he doesn't even know that there are such laws that encourage outsourcing. He's never heard of them! Never heard of them. Never heard of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He said that if it's true, he must need a new accountant. [laughter] Now, we know for sure it was not the real Mitt Romney because he seems to be doing just fine with his current accountant. [laughter]
So you see, the man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year and that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year. [applause] So Governor Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth. [cheers and applause]
So here's the truth: Governor Romney cannot pay for his $5 trillion tax plan without blowing up the deficit or sticking it to the middle class. That's the math. We can't afford to go down that road again. We can't afford another round of budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy. We can't afford to gut out investments in education, or clean energy, or research and technology. We can't afford to roll back regulations on Wall Street, or on big oil companies, or insurance companies. We cannot afford to double down on the same top-down economic policies that got us into this mess. That is not a plan to create jobs; that is not a plan to grow the economy; that is not change; that is a relapse. We don't want to go back there. We've tried it, it didn't work and we are not going back, we are going forward! [cheers and applause]
Now, I've got a different view about how we create jobs and prosperity. This country doesn't succeed when we only see the rich getting richer. We succeed when the middle class gets bigger. We grow our economy not from the top down, but from the middle out. We don't believe that anybody's entitled to success in this country, but we do believe in something called opportunity. We believe in a country where hard work pays off and where responsibility is rewarded and everybody's getting a fair shot and everybody's doing their fair share and everybody plays by the same rules! That's the country we believe in! That's what I'm fighting for, that's why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States, and that's why I want your vote! [cheers and applause]
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
OBAMA: What I talked about last night was a new economic patriotism—a patriotism that's rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving middle class. That means we export more jobs and we outsource—export more products and we outsource fewer jobs.
You know, over the last three years we came together to reinvent a dying auto industry that's back on top of the world. [applause] We've created more than half a million new manufacturing jobs. And so now you've got a choice. We can keep giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas [audience shouts "No!"], or we can start rewarding companies that are opening new plants and training new workers and creating jobs right here in the United States of America. [applause] That's what we're looking for. We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports and create a million new manufacturing jobs over the next four years. You can make that happen.
I want to control more of our own energy. You know, after 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, your cars and trucks will be going twice as far on a gallon of gas. [applause] We've doubled the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. [applause] The United States of America today is less dependent on foreign oil than any time in nearly two decades. [applause] So now you've got a choice between a plant that reverses this progress or one that builds on it.
You know, last night my opponent says he refuses to close the loophole that gives big oil companies $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies every year. Now, we've got a better plan where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal and the good jobs that come with them, where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and our trucks, where construction workers are retrofitting homes and factories so they waste less energy, and we can develop a hundred-year supply of natural gas that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and, by the way, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020. That will be good for our economy, that will be good for our environment, that will be good for Colorado, that will be good for America. [applause]
That's what we're fighting for—that's why I am running for a second term as President of the United States. [cheers and applause]
WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: We believe in you!
In The News
[Content note: homophobia, rape, war]
All The News In Fits and Spurts:
Turkey fired on Syrian government targets in response to the shelling of a Turkish border town in which five civilians were killed.
There is a poster for the new Twilight film (left). The internet loves it!
Paul Ryan has pledged to Focus on the Family president Jim Daly that the Romney-Ryan administration will fight against equality.
Also: Paul Ryan says he hasn't asked Sarah Palin for advice on his upcoming debate against Vice President Biden. LOLOL!! LOLOLOL! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! LOLOLOL!! LOL!!! LOLOLOL!! LOLOL!!!!
Drivers in Los Angeles kill pedestrians and bicyclists at a significantly higher rate than drivers nationally.
The world's biggest douchebag: A Chicago man faked an impending plane crash before asking his girlfriend to marry him.
The world's biggest pumpkin: Giant pumpkin shatters world record.
Related: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has checked in on the Mars using Foursquare. Space.com notes this is "the first-ever such check-in from the surface of another world." Thanks for clarifying that, Space.com!
Boxer news: Featherweight boxer Orlando Cruz has become the first openly gay man in the sport's history, describing himself as a "proud gay man."
Convicted rapist Mike Tyson has been barred from New Zealand by government ministers who revoked an entry permit for his forthcoming speaking tour. He could face a similar problem entering Australia.
Just FYI: The four-song opening salvo (Stereotypes, Country House, Best Days, Charmless Man) of Blur's The Great Escape may be the finest thing in pop music.
Corey Haim: Me, Myself and I: The lost classic is now on YouTube.
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Zelda the Black-and-Tan Mutt stands at attention in the garden. She looks into the thicket. Satisfied it's clear of nefarious threats, she saunters over to me and resumes guard position at my side. She looks around; her Dorito ears twitch. I pan right to find Dudley the Greyhound lying on the grass in a patch of sun. He lifts his head to dislodge a fly from his nose. Fin.
"Hmm what is down there? Oh, it's my feet!"
"Cuddles. Treats. Snuggling. Dinner. Ear noms. Bones. Cuddles. Treats."
This is the video I was hoping someone would make.
Mitt Romney is a bully. And he was a bully during the debate last night. And here is the evidence, care of the DNC.
Clip of David Brooks in post-debate analysis saying, "I do think Romney looked aggressive—maybe a little over-aggressive..."
Clip from debate of Mitt Romney arguing with moderator Jim Lehrer: "Jim, let me just come back on that, on that point, which is—" [crosstalk as Lehrer tries to stop him and Romney plows on]
Clip of Chris Matthews in post-debate analysis saying, "Romney didn't just take on the President; he also went after the moderator."
Clip from debate of Romney talking over Lehrer as Lehrer futilely tries to stop him: "Let's get back to Medicare."
Brooks: "...just a bulldozer, just kept going..."
Clip from debate of Romney bickering with Lehrer again, and insisting, "No, no I have to respond to that!"
Brooks: "...kept going, kept going..."
Clip of Lehrer saying, "We're way over our first 15 minutes," and Romney saying, "It's fun, isn't it?"
Brooks: "...just kept going..."
Clip of Obama looking exhausted while Romney argues with Lehrer: "The President began this segment, so I think I get the last word."
Text Onscreen: Mitt Romney. What a guy.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Cooking or Food-Related Shows. 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.
Fun with Site Meter
[Content Note: Body policing.]
The top searches bringing people to Shakesville during the debate last night:
A snapshot of America.
P.S. My two favorite current search terms are "women having fun" and "big fatty ladies." You have come to the right place!
[Previously in Fun with Site Meter: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight.]
Sober Reflections
[Content Note: Addiction.]
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of my decision to stop drinking.
On that day, October 4, 1992, my partner went into rehab at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan. He had been on a downward spiral for several weeks, and Friday, October 1, he hit bottom. We made it through what we later called "The Lost Weekend" and on Monday he went in for a thirty-day residential program. It was then that I knew I had to support him in any way I could, and giving up the occasional beer or glass of wine with my parents was my first step. That night I went to my first Al-Anon meeting.
He came out of rehab a better person, and as long as we were together – another six and a half years – neither of us touched alcohol. I have not since.
I'm making no judgments about anyone else's choice to drink, smoke, or whatever. I just know that I'm content with my decision and that the affirmation I made that day is something that has been good for me.
Post-Debate Wrap-Up
This image, in which Mitt Romney is gesturing aggressively, and dismissively, at the President, without even looking at him, while the President regards him stoically and Jim Lehrer sits idly by, pretty much sums up last night's debate for me. Romney's a bully; Obama—hamstrung both by racist narratives ready to frame assertiveness as anger and by trying to debate an opponent who will outright lie without hesitation—is feckless; Lehrer is a non-entity, held in thrall by Romney's bombast.
This debate format is garbage even when both candidates are reasonably truthful and the moderator actually moderates. Suffice it to say, last night's "debate" was a farce.
There are plenty of fact-checking pieces about (here is one! and here's a good video!), so I'm not going to duplicate efforts. My assessment is that President Obama was not completely honest, but more honest than most politicians campaigning for election, and that Mitt Romney was remarkably, extraordinarily dishonest. He was a much more brazen liar than I have ever seen in the same venue—neither John McCain nor George W. Bush were so bold. I expected Romney to evade and dissemble; I did not anticipate that virtually nothing out of his mouth would exist in the same galaxy as the truth.
While acknowledging the aforementioned issues that unjustly limited Obama's range of response, the President did miss some pretty significant opportunities last night:
* In a year where reproductive rights are the biggest wedge issue, he did not even mention reproductive rights. That was a failure to reach out to one of his key demographic supports, and it was a failure to make Mitt Romney stand on the stage and confess that he will be no kind of ally at all to women (and men) who want to control their reproduction.
* The President did not mention Bain Capital. He did not mention the 47% speech. He did not mention Romney's 14% tax rate, or his unwillingness to disclose his tax returns beyond last year.
* The President did not re-affirm his personal support for same-sex marriage, nor highlight any of his administration's policies that have expanded LGBTQI rights.
He did some things right, though, too. There was much cheering at Shakes Manor when the President said he likes the term "Obamacare." It is an imperfect health insurance reform law, as far as I'm concerned, but it's 72 million times better than anything Mitt Romney is proposing, and I'm glad to see the President owning it.
I don't think the President's performance was as terrible as lots of other people seem to think. Overall, I thought the biggest loser of the night were US voters, thanks to the garbage format of the debate.
This was the domestic policy debate, and there was no meaningful discussion of environmental policy, climate change, increasing food prices, infrastructure issues, scientific funding, homelessness, hunger, immigration, bankruptcies, foreclosures, the Violence Against Women Act. The only domestic policy that seems to matter now is taxes. Issues like education and healthcare and Social Security only matter insomuch as how they relate to taxation.
And the biggest takeaways for me, the things that I will remember, were two truly terrible things that Mitt Romney said, both of which were almost certainly among his practiced zingers.
1. Romney at minute 21: "...I know that you and your running mate keep saying that [I will not increase taxes on the wealthy] and I know it's a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it's just not the case. Look, I've got five boys. I'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I'll believe it."
Wow. "My sons are liars, so I ain't falling for your shenanigans!"—Father of the Year Mitt Romney, conflating the sitting US President, an African American, with his "boys." That is fucked up on so many levels, but, honestly, no one ought to be more contemptuous of that bullshit than Mitt Romney's own sons.
2. Romney at minute 22: "Mr. President— Mr. President, you're entitled as the president to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts."
My tweeted response may be the most retweeted thing in my entire Twitter history. So far, it's been RTed 1,150 times.
Uh, Mitt Romney, the White House and Air Force One belong to The People. YOU'RE the one with the privately owned mansion and jet.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 4, 2012
I don't think it's that my response was super brilliant; it's more just that I responded to it at all. It sort of slid by without much notice, but, for me, that was one of the most illustrative comments of the night. Mitt Romney, son of a governor, corporate raiding multimillionaire, he of the car elevator and boat mansion, who constantly engages in racist "entitlement" rhetoric, turned to President Barack Obama, the African American son of a single mother, on a national stage and condescendingly sneered at him about to what he's "entitled."
And not only that: Mitt Romney, conservative anti-taxer, holder of offshore accounts, he of the 14.1% tax rate, who constantly asserts that taxes need to be lowered so the government doesn't "waste" people's money, wrongly stated that the White House and Air Force One are the property of the US President, not the property of the US People, whose tax dollars bought and maintains that house and that plane.
This is not a man who is fit to hold the office of the presidency of a diverse nation. Send his ass back to a corporate boardroom, where it belongs.
And with that, I am officially debated out. Discuss.
Question of the Day
If you had the chance to ask President Obama and Mitt Romney one question—same question to both of them—what would it be?
Pre-Debate Thread
There will be an Open Thread for the debate tonight, but in advance of tonight's HOT DEBATE ACTION, I want to share some resources and thoughts...
You will be able to access livestreaming debate coverage at barackobama.com/debate. After the debate, Vice President Joe Biden will be delivering a message at that channel, too.
Speaking of Veep Joe, he (or someone who works for him who is blessed with a thought filter and functional self-censoring mechanism) will be livetweeting the debate: @JoeBiden.
Also on Twitter from Team Obama: @TruthTeam2012 for livetweeting and factchecking; and @Obama2012 for analysis.
As always, I'll be on Twitter, too: @shakestweetz.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to recommend your own or other Twitter feeds, and additional resources, that will be covering, discussing, or providing analysis of the debate.
* * *
Tonight is the first of three debates, and the major media meme is that Romney is the underdog. His team is selling that story hard, in the hopes that underselling him will mean that even the merest appearance of competency will subsequently be declared a win.
But, like everything else that emanates from the Romney campaign, that's total bullshit. Romney was an eminently competent debater in the fully two million Republican Primary Debates (remember those? all two million of them?), and the thought that he's the underdog while he spent a year debating whether he believes in evolution and whether the Republican Party should be allowed to live in the nation's uteri rent-free with his reprehensible compatriots, President Obama was busy running the country and hasn't debated anyone in our silly debate format since John McCain.
MEMORIES!
I'm not mentioning this to try to argue that President Obama is an underdog, either—I believe they're on fairly equal footing. I'm mentioning it only to show how the Romney campaign is thoroughly mendacious about literally every. single. thing.
That is, when they're not being totally evasive. Speaking of which: Let's all pay attention to the number of times Mitt Romney deflects, obfuscates, and straight-up refuses to answer questions during the debate tonight! Every time Mitt Romney gives a non-answer, refuses to provide policy details, or changes the subject, let us DRINK! But don't drink alcohol, for the love of Maude. I don't want you to get alcohol poisoning. I LIKE YOU.
I also expect Romney—in addition to avoiding facts like the plague, because if voters knew the actual details of his garbage policies, this election would already be over—to try to use this debate to
And then there's this: Mitt Romney would love for this election to be decided exclusively as a referendum on President Obama, because Mitt Romney looks a lot better as "not President Obama" than he does as "Mitt Romney."
ANYWAY! Discuss. I'll close this thread once the Open Thread is posted later tonight.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Poems. 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.
Rescued Ducks Swim for the First Time
Below, an amazing video of ducks who were rescued from a hoarding situation experiencing water for the first time at a farm sanctuary. Yay!
Video Description: A badelynge of ducks comes waddling and quacking into a penned-in pond area, followed by humans who are gently herding them. Text Onscreen: "These ducks came from a hoarding case and had never spent time in the water. With clean 'bills' of health we were finally able to integrate them with the rest of our flock." The ducks are herded toward the water but scurry away from its edge. "Getting them into the water was not as easy as you would think!" The ducks charge back and forth, every which way, but they won't venture into the water. Finally, the humans are able to corral them into the pond. The ducks splash into the water then immediately run out. Finally, the humans begin picking them up one by one and putting them into the water. One duck rushes back to land. Another floats on the water's surface, then ducks hir head below the surface. Suddenly, zie begins diving under again and again joyfully. "Hey, that's kind of nice..." And then, as more ducks are put into the pond, the love of the water becomes contagious. All the ducks dive and splash and chatter and swim. They don't look scared anymore. They look happy. Logo: Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.
[H/T to RIT.]
Tweet of the Day
Twenty years ago today, I married the love of my life and my best friend. Happy anniversary, Michelle. -bo
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 3, 2012
"...And I Am In Love With Canada."
Last night Justin Trudeau made it official: he is running for the leadership of the Liberal Party. And he launched his run with a doozy of a speech.
You can see the full speech-- en francais and in English-- here. The full English transcript is available at Trudeau's website, here. En francais, ici.
I would be lying if I didn't say it gave me goosebumps and that I am officially glad he's in the running. So much about this speech seems right to me. The acknowledgement of national accomplishments in terms of the social safety net, the economy, and multiculturalism. The acknowledgement of shortcomings, especially in regards to First Nations Canadians. The invocation of trust and community as basic Canadian values. The determination to restore faith in government as an agent of positive change.
I'd also be lying if I wasn't made profoundly uncomfortable by aspects of this speech. The invocation of the Canadian middle class seemed heavy-handed to me; I understand the Liberal Party's traditional appeal to wide swaths of the middle class, but shutting out working class voters doesn't seem like a win. The attacks on the NDP seemed awkward and nonsensical ("stoking resentment" and "blaming the successful"? Uh, no, Justin, I don't think that's a fair critique of the NDP's positions. Fail.)
Much better, I thought, was the repudiation of Liberal arrogance as the party that "built" Canada. Emphasizing the accomplishments of all Canadians strikes me as a much better way of attracting those same Canadians into the Liberal Party, rather than, explicitly or implicitly, defining the Liberal Party's constituency by class.
Still, it was an absolutely well-done, and genuinely moving speech from someone who, I am prepared to believe, is absolutely genuine in his desire to serve his country. Most of the values he invoked are also me at the heart of what I also love about Canada, and I suspect I am not alone in his audience. It has been a very long time since the Liberals had a leader who could wield genuine empathy and charisma alongside intellect and political skill. It's been a long time since I saw a Liberal who could outline a dream and make me want to come along with him on the journey of achieving it. Put simply, the speech moved and inspired me. I wish Mr. Trudeau luck in re-invigorating the Liberal leadership race.
(Again, full text is available at Justin.ca, Trudeau's website.)
Favourite quotes below:
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by waiting rooms.
Recommended Reading:
Jamilah: Why Consumers of Color Should Care About T-Mobile's MetroPCS Merger
Arturo: Fox News Sounds the Dog Whistle One More Time [Content Note: Racism.]
Sara: Fried Chicken for Every Family and Other Myths of Southern Food
Dan: Why Todd Akin Warned of Doctors Who Perform Abortions on Women Who Aren't Even Pregnant
Ari: A Look at Where We Are with the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the Courts
Pam: Chick-Fil-A's Cathy: "We Support Biblical Families" [Content Note: Homophobia.]
Ana: Attractive Women [Content Note: Misogyny; body policing.]
Spencer: Not From the Onion: Army Says 'Social Network' Use Is a Sign of Radicalism
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Today in Paul Ryan Is Terrible
In case you've just awoken from a coma and your first priority was to check Shakesville to see what's going on in the political news (excellent priorities, by the way; good for you!), last month, an old tape surfaced (care of Mother Jones) of Mitt Romney saying that 47% of USians are garbage (that's a paraphrase, but a fair one).
Now some similar remarks of Paul Ryan's have been unearthed, although Romney has an even dimmer view (by 17%) of USians than his running mate:
"Seventy percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want the welfare state," Ryan said. "Before too long, we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers."Everything about this is terrible and gross.
The thing I find most extraordinary about this Us vs. Them stuff about which the two shitbirds on the Republican ticket keep yapping is how it ignores the reality that a hell of a lot of USians do not view opportunities to pursue and achieve success and a robust safety net as mutually exclusive objectives. The best case scenario for most of us is lots of opportunity to try, and lots of support if we fail.
But fuckos like Romney and Ryan, with their undiluted privilege and illusions of what "working hard" really means, at least for most of the people in this country, don't understand and/or don't care that "the American Dream" is not achievable exclusively through hard work. Not for everyone. Because not all jobs/skills are valued in the same way.
You can become a millionaire many times over "harvesting" failing companies for profit, but not so much if, say, you work for one of the non-profit charities that people like Romney and Ryan think should replace government welfare programs. Most non-profit workers will work long and hard and diligently for entire careers without ever getting rich—sometimes without healthcare benefits; sometimes without even a livable wage.
In the Romney/Ryan paradigm of Us vs. Them, the Takers vs. the Makers, the concept of "the working poor" does not exist. These dudes—whose lives have been dictated by inherent privilege and family connections, which we're not meant to note while admiring their shiny bootstraps—believe quite firmly, and without seemingly a trace of irony or compunction, that one gets what one deserves in life. And if you don't have enough, it's just because you're not working hard enough.
Now, I don't feel inclined to get into a whole Marxist discussion about the means of production here, but what these insufferable, vainglorious, classist captains of self-aggrandizing bullshit seem never to grasp, or possibly just acknowledge, is that if you want to live in a capitalist society that gives you the opportunity to get nasty rich, then we can't all be wealthy. And if you want to be the kind of person who doesn't pump your own gas, or make your own sandwiches, or clean your own house, or manicure your own fingernails, or drain your own dog's anal glands, or build your own car elevator, then there are going to have to be people who fill all those jobs.
And most of those professional, hard-working people will put in at least 40 hours a week, or more, and even still, many of them won't be given healthcare benefits, and many of them won't earn enough money to feed a family, and many of them won't be able to save as much as they'll need for their retirement.
People who honorably dedicate their time, energy, and talents to jobs that might not pay well are indeed entitled to something—to not work their whole lives only to find themselves poverty-stricken, or hungry, or homeless after one small (or not small) medical crisis. And if we're not going to ensure that every job comes with a livable wage, access to affordable healthcare, and retirement benefits, then we've got to provide a robust and well-funded social safety net.
I don't think that's asking for much, in exchange for a lifetime of providing service to their chosen vocation.
Though I grant it's certainly easier to sneer and scream BOOTSTRAPS! and carelessly assert that people who don't have everything they need are just lazy. Takers. People who don't take personal responsibility, who don't care for their lives. That's so much easier than empathy, and certainly easier than accountability—easier, and less uncomfortable, than reflecting upon how maybe it wasn't just hard work that catapulted you within steps of the Oval Office, that maybe there are people who actually work harder, but still can't afford a bus ticket to D.C.
Funny how the Grand Advocates of Hard Work are always the ones making the easy arguments.
Daily Dose of Cute
Getting a picture of this very active kitten can be a challenge! Often they end up like this:
But eventually she will go to sleep in the cutest, silliest positions:
I woke up the other day with her laying like that in the crook of my arm.
She has met all the other household members:
In The News
[Content note: racism, gun violence, misogyny, terrorism, homophobia]
All The News In Fits and Spurts:
The Drudge Report released their much-touted October Surprise yesterday. Turns out it was an old video of Barack Obama speaking at Hampton University in Virginia. The video was covered in the last election by everyone (including Fox News where the tape was aired last night) and has been on YouTube since 2007. It also turns out that President Obama might be black, which concerns some conservative pundits.
It's debate night! I hope there are lots of zingers! If not, you can always get some Zingers here.
The Los Angeles City Council voted to repeal the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries it approved just a few months ago.
Unknown assailants killed at least 25 people at a polytechnic school in northeastern Nigeria.
Iran's currency plummeted at least 17 percent in trading on Monday. US officials said the decline was evidence of the success of the international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Brad Staats, a Republican running for Congress in Tennessee, posted a picture of a semi-automatic pistol on his Facebook page. Underneath it he wrote: "Welcome to Tennessee Mr. Obama." Good lord.
Speaking of Republicans: Todd Akin has been really terrible for a very long time.
Know who's not terrible, but in fact totally fucking awesome? Jessica Luther of scATX.com. Check out this great poster featuring a quote from her.
Legal victory: Transgender woman wins insurance coverage for sex reassignment surgery. Woot!
Citing security concerns, Serbia's Gay Pride parade planned for this weekend in Belgrade has been canceled as have all activities related to it.
Attention Fans of Lorries and Crisps: Downtown Abbey is on out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week. Cheerio!
HIV treatment is now officially free for all who need it in England, including undocumented migrants and non-United Kingdom citizens. Hail Britannia!
Blog Note
I have another doctor's appointment this morning, and it's going to take quite awhile. So posting will be light from me for most of the day. If I'm not back sooner, I do want to note that I'll be live-blogging the debate tonight, so get ready for some HOT DEBATE ACTION!
Please remember that when I'm not around, we're down one moderator, so take extra care in commenting, and be patient with and respectful of the other mods who will be picking up my slack.
Today in Fat Hatred—And Fighting Back
[Content Note: Fat hatred; bullying.]
I have gotten more emails about the below video than any other thing in eight years. It's a video of Jennifer Livingston, a news anchor for WKBT in Wisconsin, reading on-air a letter from a man who wrote to tell her she is fat and thus a bad role model, and then responding. So, by overwhelming demand...
I want to take a moment to address a situation that has become a talking point in this community over the past weekend especially on Facebook that centers around me.Rock the fuck on, sister.
On Friday I received the following email from a Lacross man with the subject line "Community Responsibility" and it reads as follows: "Hi Jennifer: It's unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn't improved for many years. Surely you don't consider yourself a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you'll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle."
Now, those of us in the media, we get a healthy dose of critiques from our viewers throughout the year, and we realize it comes with having a job in the public eye. But this email was more than that. While I tried my best to laugh off this very hurtful attack on my appearance, my colleagues could not do the same, especially my husband—our six and ten anchor Mike Thompson.
Mike posted this email on his WKBT Facebook page and what happened next has been truly inspiring. Hundreds and hundreds of people have taken the time out of their day to not only lift my spirits but take a stand that attacks like this are not okay—and we're going to have more on that in just a second—but first, the truth is, I am overweight. You could call me fat and yes, even obese, on a doctor's chart. But to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don't know that? That your cruel words are pointing out something that I don't see? You don't know me. You are not a friend of mine. You are not a part of my family and you have admitted that you don't watch this show so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside and I am much more than a number on a scale.
And here is where I want all of us to learn something from this. If you didn't already know, October is National Anti-Bullying Month, and this is a problem that is growing every day in our schools and on the internet. It is a major issue in the lives of young people today and as the mother of three young girls it scares me to death.
Now I am a grown women and luckily for me I have a very thick skin—literally, as that email pointed out—and otherwise. And that man's words mean nothing to me. But what really angers me is there are children who don't know better. Who get emails, as critical as the one I received or in many cases even worse, each and every day. The internet has become a weapon. Our schools have become a battleground. And this behavior is learned. It is passed down from people like the man who wrote me that email.
If you are at home and you are talking about the fat newslady—guess what? Your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat. We need to teach our children to be kind, not critical, and we need to do that by example. So many of you have come to my defense over the past four days I am literally overwhelmed by your words.
To my colleagues and my friends from today and years ago, my family, my amazing husband, and so many of you out there that I will probably never have the opportunity to meet, I will never be able to thank you enough for your words of support. And we are taking a stand against this bully. We are better than that email. We are better than the bullies that would try to take us down. And I leave you with this. To all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your weight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face. Listen to me right now. Do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience that the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many.
We'll be right back.
I don't guess that Livingston imagined when she did this extraordinary thing that it would go viral on the internet. It has probably meant exponential support, and exponential criticism. I ardently hope the former is so loud and so enthusiastic and so reverberating that the latter merely looks like the contemptible, joyless moans of the chronically cruel that it is.
* * *
My thanks to each and every person who sent the link. Transcript c/o Michael Leuchtenburg at Feministing.
American Football, Your Name It Is Strange.
More Flula. Since I first showed this to Iain last week, he's watched it like five times, and we laugh and laugh every single time.
Flula Borg, a young, thin, white, German man, sits in front of his computer with a set of headphones askance on his head. He speaks directly into the camera.Oh god. He is sooooo funny. It's not easy to be funny in a language other than your primary one, no less to have great comic timing. I remember the first time I made a pun in German that made my German teacher laugh—that was a big deal. And I remember my friend Miller writing about the first time she made a group of people laugh telling a joke in Portuguese while living in Brazil. And Flula is just non-stop funny all the freaking time. That's an enviable talent.
I do not understand this football name in America. You know, in Germany, we have fußball—fußball is football, yeah?—but this is, for you, soccer. [confused face] I don't understand. Fußball— Football— What is you using for your sport, in "soccer"? It's feet! Okay, so we call it this; we're calling it this—feet-ball!—let us use the feet and kicking the ball!
But with you, football— [exasperated face] How—how many of kicks is there in the football game? Six kicks? We have six kicks in like eight seconds! [uses fingers to indicate kicks in quick succession] Bop bop bop bop bop tor!
You, it is like [looks exhausted] kick run run run hold. Throw. Time out. Everybody— Oh, referee! Problems! [mimes refs looking into a hooded reply monitor] Hood! We look in the hood! What is the problem? What's their thing? [mimes throwing] Throwing some flags. More looking in the hood, looking in the hood. Commercials! Ba-da-bop! Chevrolet! Beep-beep! [throws up his hands in resignation] Oh, and then, you know, twenty-nine minute later: Oh, a kick! Oh, one kick!
Where's the foot?! This is it. You have like nine kicks-off! Where's the foot? But you are calling it foot—football. [shrugs contemptuously] Why? Call it something else! Carryball. Or carry-throw-ball-and-sometimes-foot-kick-ball. I don't know. Just something. I say change it. Change it. CHANGE IT! To something that is more accurate—accurate—having some accurate things. [nods sagely; pause] Or: I Throw the Flag or What.
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Animal Species With Which You've Interacted. Go!
Note: Interaction doesn't necessarily have to mean physical touch. Having a buffalo approach your car window at Yellowstone, for example, also counts.
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.
Two Facts
1. David Brooks is still being employed by the New York Times to write a garbage column.
2. That column gets more ridiculous by the week.
As always, there is much to love laugh at in Brooks' latest, in which he imagines what Mitt Romney's opening statement of tomorrow night's debate should be, but I think this is probably my favorite part:
I've tried to be on the level with you. This president was audacious in 2008, but, as you can see from his negligible agenda, he's now exhausted. I'm not an inspiring conviction politician, but I'll try anything to help us succeed. You make the choice.LOL OKAY! Decisions decisions. I choose the inspiring guy with conviction, rather than the guy who reeks of desperation and will "try anything."
Great argument for your cool candidate, Mr. Brooks! Solid as always.
Daily Dose of Cute
Mistress Elinor Gwynn approves of the flowers from her admiring public, and also of ye olde treat that I am holding.
Headline of the Day
Congressman Who Compared Cigarettes to Smoking Lettuce Becomes Lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds. Perfect.
Obviously, everything about this story is great, including its inherent commentary on how the US' representative democracy was replaced by a corporatocracy and no one seems to have noticed, but I particularly like this quote:
"To be an agent of change you can do it from the outside and attack tobacco manufacturers like many anti-tobacco organizations do or you can do it from the inside," [said Steve Buyer, former 18-year Republican member of Congress from Indiana]. "I have chosen to be an agent of change from the inside."He's basically a superhero.
Photo of the Day
From the Telegraph's Pictures of the Day for 1 October 2012: A boy reaches out to shake hands with US President Barack Obama at a campaign event at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. [Reuters/Kevin Lamarque]I love everything about this picture. Everything.
Take Note, George Will
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
Here is another reason, though also related to his lack of empathy, that Mitt Romney is currently trailing in the polls: White women without a college degree are increasingly favorably disposed toward Obama in the battleground states.
Gee, it's almost as if staking out the position that women should have no control over their reproduction, and defending that position with narratives like "women are lying bitchez about rape, anyway," as if women are a dispensable voting bloc and not 52% of the population, is a bad idea. Huh. Who knew.
Banned Books Week 2012
Sunday marked the start of Banned Book Week for this year!
Bans and challenges happen every year at public libraries and in public school libraries and classrooms, including this recent one:
A novel one Nampa parent said had “an immense amount of pornography” has been removed from sophomore English classes at Nampa High School.Like Water For Chocolate is not on this year's Top Ten list--and perennial banning-favorite, And Tango Makes Three, didn't make the list, either.
Nampa School Board Chairman Scott Kido said he received 15 emails Sunday night complaining about the book “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel.
[...]
A parent emailed school board members about the book and wrote that “The families who have already refused to let their children read this vile piece of work were told to pick an alternate book, even though all class discussion and assignments will be directed toward (the book). Let’s not set kids up for failure because they have moral standards.”
The parent quoted 13 passages from the book in her email to demonstrate her point.
The book was chosen by last year’s English Department chair, Nampa Schools spokeswoman Allison Westfall said. Ninth grade curriculum includes world literature, which is why the book was chosen, she said.
The Top Ten for 2011 were:
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism
Related: Banned Books Week 2011, Banned Books Week 2010, Banned Books Week 2006, "No, God hates morons!"*, Harry Potter and the Half-Brained Dumbass, But What About My Needs?, A Novel Approach, and march of the dumbasses
Solid Reasoning from a Well-Known Genius
[Content Note: Racism.]
Professional grumpy conservative George Will uses his latest column to express his mystification that Mitt Romney is losing. President Obama, he observes, is a terrible president presiding over a terrible economy:
Romney and his advisers must be bewildered by this fact: In October 2011 they would have been serenely confident of victory if they had been told that 12 months later the following would be true.Not all of that is totally accurate or fair, but, in broad terms, I won't argue with the fact that President Obama hasn't been as aggressive enough in his economic policy. Of course, I think he hasn't been, and refuses to be, aggressively progressive enough, even leaving Republican obstructionism aside, but potato potahto. Point is, the economy still stinks.
That President Obama would be waist deep in muddy and contradictory descriptions and explanations of the terrorist (he now concedes) attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. That data just released for August 2012 showed that real disposable income had again declined. That Obama would actually celebrate the fact that, for the first month since he took office, there were more U.S. jobs than when he took office. That the most recent figures show a 13.2 percent decline in durable goods orders. That nearly 25 percent — the highest in three decades — of Americans between ages 25 and 55 are unemployed. That the second-quarter growth rate was adjusted down from an anemic 1.7 percent to the stall speed of 1.3 percent.
...Obama's administration is in shambles, yet he is prospering politically.
So why is it then, George Will wonders, that USians aren't willing to throw Obama out on his ass and vote in Mitt Romney? The evident answer is because no matter how bad one might think Obama is, anyone who isn't a free-market, no-tax, let-them-eat-bootstraps conservative readily acknowledges that Mitt Romney is even worse.
But George Will has a different theory:
A significant date in the nation's civil rights progress involved an African American baseball player named Robinson, but not Jackie. The date was Oct. 3, 1974, when Frank Robinson, one the greatest players in history, was hired by the Cleveland Indians as the major leagues' first black manager. But an even more important milestone of progress occurred June 19, 1977, when the Indians fired him. That was colorblind equality.I don't even know where to begin with that. I mean, in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and twelve, this guy still thinks "colorblind equality" is a laudable objective. (And still thinks wordplay like "darkly suggested" is clever.) So the context of this theory must include the decrepit brainpan of fetid ideas whence it emanated.
Managers get fired all the time. The fact that the Indians felt free to fire Robinson — who went on to have a distinguished career managing four other teams — showed that another racial barrier had fallen: Henceforth, African Americans, too, could enjoy the God-given right to be scapegoats for impatient team owners or incompetent team executives.
Perhaps a pleasant paradox defines this political season: That Obama is African American may be important, but in a way quite unlike that darkly suggested by, for example, MSNBC's excitable boys and girls who, with their (at most) one-track minds and exquisitely sensitive olfactory receptors, sniff racism in any criticism of their pin-up. Instead, the nation, which is generally reluctant to declare a president a failure — thereby admitting that it made a mistake in choosing him — seems especially reluctant to give up on the first African American president. If so, the 2012 election speaks well of the nation's heart, if not its head.
But this shit got published in the Washington Post. So its context is also one of credibility and presumed wisdom. Yikes.
Yikes—because what George Will is saying here is ugly and wrong. During the last election, liberals only voted for Obama because he is black and we wanted to make history, and now we are only voting for Obama because he is black so we're holding him to a lower standard.
Which would be a shitty assertion even if it were not easily seen to be demonstrably wrong. We are "especially reluctant to give up on" President Obama? Excuse me? As compared to what—the previous two-term president who, after his first term, was already known to be a wanton warmonger who cooked a case for war, had no exit strategies for either of the wars he started, demonized dissenters as traitors to their nation, supported torture, undermined the international rule of law, thumbed his nose at domestic law, expanded the powers of the executive branch in contravention of the people's will, oversaw a congressional majority rife with corruption and unchecked spending, eschewed any and all accountability, demonized marginalized peoples, and was a comprehensive failure in just about every aspect of his presidency, yet squeaked out a victory to get a second term?
Really, George Will? Compared to George W. Bush, the president no one in the party you support, including your current nominee, will name for fear of being tainted with the lingering odor of his catastrophic presidency, was someone USians were less reluctant to abandon after one term than Barack H. Obama, who inherited Bush's garbage economy and nightmare disaster foreign policy decisions, and whose biggest failure is failing to be sufficiently progressive to unhesitatingly consign his predecessor's every policy to the dustbin of American history?
Get a grip.
If the reason that President Obama is leading has anything to do with the color of his skin, it is this: Being a black man in the United States of America is to be part of a marginalized community, and to be part of a marginalized community generally necessitates and creates a level of empathy that being an undilutedly privileged person does not.
Lots of people, even people who support him, see in Mitt Romney something that tends to be described as "robotic" or "cold" or even "sociopathic." What they are seeing is a lack of empathy.
And in a nation where so many people are struggling, so many are hurting and desperate and disillusioned, feeling like their president gives a shit is not a small thing.
