Our Windowsill

loving this.

2011-06-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

follow-up

2011-02-17T13:12:00.000-08:00

this is just incredible.

maybe after midterms i'll write something substantive and not just links, but i can't really articulate all the rage that is happening lately around this legislation.

south dakota politicians: still crazy

2011-02-16T09:05:00.001-08:00

you may have already seen this, but someone posted it on facebook yesterday and i literally couldn't believe it was happening.

even though the dude who put the bill on the table says that it wasn't his intent to encourage the murder of abortion providers, it sure as hell seems like that's exactly what this bill is trying to do. there's other nasty stuff that could come out of this too, so keep tabs.

tabs kept: it's over. thankfully.

things i hate

2010-12-19T14:18:00.000-08:00

happy sunday, this is hilarious.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

this should explain why i haven't been mouthing off more about wikileaks

2010-12-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Jaclyn Friedman speaks her/my mind.

Additionally, zomg Naomi Wolf. What.

i've decided this is newsworthy because it is hilarious to me

2010-12-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

drugs + justin bieber

i wonder if he painted it himself?

global health, all 3d and shit

2010-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

data visualization is apparently my thing this week, and so is this guy.

information isn't always so beautiful

2010-12-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

oh, christ.

Restitution (a legal remedy for unjust enrichment)

2010-12-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

"President Obama has signed into law a pair of multi-billion-dollar settlements resolving longstanding lawsuits over the mismanagement of Native American land trusts and discrimination against African-American farmers. Under the Cobell settlement, $3.4 billion will be paid out to more than 300,000 Native Americans to settle claims over unpaid royalties on seized lands. African-American farmers will receive just more than $1.1 billion under the Pigford II settlement for having been systemically denied aid and loans by the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

-DN

2010-12-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

SCOTUSblog has some interesting takes on the Prop 8 case, that give a little history I didn't know about.
(here's where they're currently at, procedurally, by the way)

also, Glen Greenwald breaks it down today on Democracy now about Assange's detainment, INTERPOL's involvement with the whole thing, and just general shenanigans that are accompanying this whole wikileaks circus. i am particularly nervous about Sweden detaining Assange long enough for the U.S. legal team to draft an espionage charge against him (because I have no doubts Sweden would agree to extradite him, considering their behavior thus far). I'm not particularly sure of my investment in his personal welfare, but I'm worried about the tactics that are being used to silence proponents of open government.

finally, please let's have a collective dance party in hopes that the positive energy will somehow make its way to new york and get me through finals. my god.

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Uploaded by aquanote. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

i'm fairly positive that playing this song on repeat on my walk from the train to my house during my first NYC snow flurry was one of the best moments of the semester.

"Let them eat bagels!"

2010-12-02T05:18:00.000-08:00

This is so awesome.

A group of protesters dressed as bagels shut down the Grand Army Plaza here in NYC to protest what they see as the mayor's shallow treatment of folks living with AIDS.

I have more research to do, but at first blush it kind of looks like Bloomberg's policy is, "let's spend money to find out who is infected, but let's not give them enough money to treat it."

on one hand, it makes sense to make attempts to stop the spread of infection, but then to not follow through by providing proper care (apparently he cut funding to the city's HIV/AIDS service organization, HASA) is silly.

i think the true test will be to find out what the results are from this rash of new testing, and see if that gives him any impetus to restore funding to HASA.

sidenote: i eat so many more bagels now that i live here. true story.

but which one is a terrorist?

2010-12-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

oh hey, look. there's a dude in oregon who might want to bomb stuff.

oh what?

there are two?

"one of these things is not like the other..."

(that first link is to an NYtimes article about entrapment being used in the Mohamud case, so even if you've heard about the allegations, it's worth a read)

HOLY RACISM, BATMAN!

2010-11-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

seriously?

PSA

2010-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

i thought i would take a break from my dance party for this important message:

now you can learn about STDs with catchy rhymes n' beats!

cities

2010-11-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

"And two things happen as soon as you require the importation of resources. One is that your way of living can never be sustainable, because if you require the importation of resources, it means you denuded the land base of that particular resource, and as your city grows, you’ll need an ever larger area. And the other thing it means is that your way of life must be based on violence, because if you require the importation of resources, trade will never be sufficiently reliable, because if you require the importation of resources and the people in the next watershed over aren’t going to trade you for it, you’re going to take it. And one of the problems with this whole system is that destroying your land base gives you a competitive advantage over the other cultures who don’t. The forests of North Africa went down to make the Phoenician and Egyptian navies. And if you destroy your land base, if you don’t care about the future, you can turn this into immediate power and then use it to conquer, and which is something you have to do, because you’ve destroyed your own land base. And as time goes on, you have to keep expanding. And that’s not a very good idea on a finite planet."

((Derrick Jensen))

The Crunch

2010-11-26T23:09:00.001-08:00

too much too little

too fat
too thin
or nobody.

laughter or
tears

haters
lovers

strangers with faces like
the backs of
thumb tacks

armies running through
streets of blood
waving winebottles
bayoneting and fucking
virgins.

an old guy in a cheap room
with a photograph of M. Monroe.

there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock

people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.

people just are not good to each other
one on one.

the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.

we are afraid.

our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners

it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.

or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone

untouched
unspoken to

watering a plant.

people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.

I suppose they never will be.
I don't ask them to be.

but sometimes I think about
it.

the beads will swing
the clouds will cloud
and the killer will behead the child
like taking a bite out of an ice cream cone.

too much
too little

too fat
too thin
or nobody

more haters than lovers.

people are not good to each other.
perhaps if they were
our deaths would not be so sad.

meanwhile I look at young girls
stems
flowers of chance.

there must be a way.

surely there must be a way that we have not yet
though of.

who put this brain inside of me?

it cries
it demands
it says that there is a chance.

it will not say
"no."

- by chuckie bukowski

ok, this is just weird.

2010-11-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

you guys.

I'm sorry if I'm being utterly ridiculous, and maybe it's a common name. But is the Deepak Chopra who is the CEO of Rapiscan* technologies' parent company (OSI Systems) the same Deepak Chopra who has written like fifty books on alternative/ayurvedic medicine?

What the what?

*Rapiscan makes full-body scanners, so it's all tied in with the TSA crazy that's happening as of late.

much ado about male prostitutes

2010-11-22T01:26:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, I thought that was funny.

This is what happens when senile Nazi's are demagogues: They spout off about homosexuals spreading disease and undermine international humanitarian work in Africa, while aiding and abetting pedophiles.

edit: cnn thinks it's necessary to remove the specification "male" prostitute without mentioning the change.

oh, and PS TSA

2010-11-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

...is getting crazier.

Some folks are suggesting you rebel like dis.

Thinkaboutit.

immigration equality in ireland; injustice in the 5th circuit

2010-11-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

Good news first:

You may have already been aware that, at least in most countries that I know of, heterosexual couples can petition for their partners (who are citizens of other countries) to receive a VISA to come live with them. Gay couples in many countries do not share this right, but Ireland just ruled that they do!
Here's a cool organization that focuses exclusively on Immigration Equality in the US, if you're interested.

Bad news second:

I posted on my FB a few weeks ago about a cheerleader bringing a lawsuit saying that she shouldn't be required to cheer for her alleged rapist. The case went up to the notoriously conservative 5th circuit Court of Appeals, and guess what? They said she is required to. Surprise.

Also, I hope the two of you who still read this are delighted to hear that we're going to start including non-news awesomeness from time to time (or hey, maybe every day)...because we wantz to.

James Blunt saved the world

2010-11-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

not through music

An especially hilarious and scary moment in history.

Ray Kurzweil explains the coming grey goo ecophagy.

2010-11-15T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not techno-savvy at all, and generally avoid science. Maybe that explains why The Singularity intrigues me. The Singularity is a hypothetical point where technological progression becomes unpredictable or counter-intuitive... something like that. I first became aware of this spin on sci-fi while reading a Rolling Stone article about Ray Kurzweil and his kooky ideas like longevity supplements, resurrecting his dead father, and peace on earth.

...better than that 2012 bullshit anyway.

Aung San Suu Kyi is free today

2010-11-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

The world just got a little brighter.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/video-of-a-free-aung-san-suu-kyi/

WTFS

2010-11-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

READ THIS.
NOW.

Details of the police brutality that happened to peaceful protesters at the Oscar Grant memorial/Mehserle sentencing protest march on Friday.

It is one of the most sickening and detailed accounts of peaceful protester mistreatment I've read yet.

further reducing the possibility of a fair shake

2010-11-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

an interesting study on how weight affects paychecks for both men and women.

Canada says "oh hai i guess it's okay that you wear that if you tell us why"

2010-10-25T13:22:00.001-07:00

This is fucking outrageous. A Canadian court recently ruled that a Muslim woman should be allowed to wear her niqab (face veil that covers all but the eyes) during a sexual abuse trial, but that on remand (when her case goes back to the other court) she must explain to the judge why her religion means she must wear a niqab. In other words, she has to convince the judge that her reasons for wearing a niqab are "good enough".

Anyway, read the post. Cara from The Curvature does an excellent job of explaining why IT TOTALLY SUCKS.

"intent! it's fucking magic!"

2010-10-25T08:31:00.001-07:00

This post says everything I always want to say to people when they make racist/ableist/sexist/bla bla bla JOKEZ. they are always like "ohhhh but i didn't MEAN it like that i MEANT..."

yeah.

you meant.

and i felt.

i've gotten into soooo many fights about this, i can't even count them all.

and no, i'm not saying i don't recognize the use of humor as a tool to deconstruct oppression.

but. there. are. lines. and they are fuzzy. so to be safe? don't say it. just keeeeep it to yourself. and then maybe think about why you thought it would be funny to make that kind of a joke. or put forth that kind of a generalization or perpetuate a stereotype.

intent is not magical. but pain is real. and so is the fact that even making jokes about rape or AIDS or race or whatever...still often contributes to perpetuating the sense that it's 'okay' to do that thing, regardless of how you FEEL or what you MEAN.

think about it.

Stay of DADT decision until Monday?

2010-10-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

EDIT: first comment much more substantive than original post!

wtf.
"Acting on a request from the Obama administration, a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday lifted a judge's order that had halted enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy"
Why does a stay have to be issued so the Justice Department can appeal? Lauren, please stop what you're doing and explain this to me.

weed will be legal soon so this counts as a political post

2010-10-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

seriously, burn one, then check this out

AEROPORT 2010 from the macula on Vimeo.

awesome stuff, and just to (kinda) prove it's real: The 600th anniversary show for Prague's Astrological Clock, eight days ago.

The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.

It's a troubling moment, but watching these ads might make you feel better. Even the serious add is funny... to me...

2010-10-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

Judge repeals "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

2010-10-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

AWESOME.

cool things, news, and things that induce vomiting

2010-09-30T10:25:00.001-07:00

ok, this is fucking cool. women in france make beards for themselves and infiltrate things like shareholder meetings, posing as sexist men.

Also: Modern-day McCarthyism strikes again in a calculated infiltration and search of the homes of prominent activists in Chicago and Minneapolis (I'm sure more cities are on the hit list for the next round). The federal government continues to use the patriot act to intimidate and attempt to prosecute activists who work for peace and human rights.
Democracy Now! (what I link to above) will hopefully provide continued coverage of this bullshit. Unrelatedly, today they're talking about one of my go-to issues: women and the war in Afghanistan. Check it out.

Additionally, I went to a really disturbing event last night about racism in the NYPD and New York City's "Stop and Frisk" policy. More on this soon. It's going to make you want to puke. (get excited!)

2010-09-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Homosexuals can adopt children in Florida now. Awwww, Florida grew up a little.

castro takes responsibility for persecution of LGBTQ folks in Cuba

2010-09-03T08:24:00.001-07:00

...but not really.

here's an article that talks about/reprints the interview.

I've copy/pasted below in full a comment (also from Blabbeando) that I think is particular pertinent to keep in mind as we continue to read articles from teh newz media being all surprised about castro's record and (*gasp*) trying to stir the pot by saying that maybe he's better than obama as far as lgbtq folks go.

Andrés Duque said...

Thank you, Larry.

On other sites I have seen people go as far as to say that Fidel Castro has more of a backbone that United States President Barack Obama for admitting persecuting gays in Cuba was wrong. It riles me up because 1) In the interview, Castro first tries to get away with saying he has no homophobic sentiments himself, then 2) Takes responsibility only when pushed on the issue and only as it relates to the years when the Cuban Revolution took place, and 3) Doesn't address all those gays his government sent to hard labor camps throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's.

It wasn't an isolated incident from the 1960's. It was the unofficial policy of the Cuban government through the 1960's and beyond.

And to those who would say Castro is better on LGBT issues than Barack Obama? Tell that to all the gays (and people with HIV/AIDS) who died in those hard labor camps and prisons.

It IS a groundbreaking moment, and I am grateful for Castro's words this late in the game. I also believe that his words will matter when it comes to improving the lives of LGBT people in Cuba. But it does not erase the suffering and death he was directly responsible for as the Cuban leader while he was on top.

what the what

2010-09-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

11 cities where [young] women are out-earning men:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/women-outearn-men_n_703503.html

this is so weird. men still out-earn women nationally, but the pay-gap is reputed to be larger with older women/older men, and smaller with younger folks. does this mean slow progress? they're saying it's due to more women college grads. i'm waiting for a counter-study, and i haven't done any research on the controls they used here, just passin' the word along.

also, why can't things ever be equalz?!

Bradley Manning is a fucking patriot

2010-07-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Make sure and look at the New York Times or Guardian today.

rape by deception + race card

2010-07-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

So the reason I initially took notice of this is because of the disturbing issues of race this incident stirs up. A Married Arab man has sex with a Jewish woman who believes he is Jewish. She finds out that he is Arab and accuses him of rape by deception for which a precedent exists in Israel. After two years of house arrest with his wife and children(awkward) he is sentenced to 18 months in prison.

I can probably guess what any readers we may have left think about the racial aspect but am very curious to hear anyone's thoughts on the concept of rape by deception. Shouldn't such a law be a little more nuanced? Are Israeli courts treating sex as a commodity to be exchanged by allowing fraud charges to be brought against someone who misrepresents themselves or promises monetary rewards in exchange for sex? Maybe this is an acceptable counterbalance in a region of the world with such a poor record on women's rights.

I know I disagree with the conviction of Sabbar Kashur, but beyond that I'm not sure. I think it's obvious such a law would have no chance of being adopted in the states, but can't decide if that's a good thing. Help me out people.

future employment opportunity? (it's on my mind of late)

2010-07-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

fuck yeah. (UN creates UN Women, and organization focusing on women and girls)

also, hi.

breaking economic news!

2010-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

DOH!

understatement of the week

2010-06-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

"Definitely we made mistakes and in retrospect anything would have been better – including letting the boats reach Gaza," -Alon Liel (former Israeli ambassador to Turkey)

2010-05-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

CNN repeated a claim made by Michael Dixon (head of the pro-Israel advocacy group Stand With Us) that the Free Gaza Flotilla refused to carry a letter to POW Gilad Shalit from his father. Free Gaza vehemently denies this claim on their website. Shalit has been incarcerated in Gaza for 3 years, ever since the escalation at the onset of Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah that displaced a million Lebanese and 350,000-500,000 Israeli's although the latter mostly had homes to return to and killed 1,191 Lebanese civilians compared to 44 Israeli civilians. Four UN officials were killed by an Israeli bunker buster despite persistent pleas via radio for mercy. Kofi Annan famously described the attack as "apparently deliberate".

privileged belligerents

2010-05-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

The U.N. is on the verge of politely suggesting that the C.I.A cease their campaign of drone attacks in Pakistan. The suggestion has been made that although the bombings don't fit the U.N.'s definition of war crimes, the drone pilots themselves may be subject to prosecution in Pakistan if they ever stop playing Call Of Duty long enough to visit Pakistan. Oh wait! Not even then.

"Those who think we strike at terrorists over the objections of the Pakistani government are mistaken. This is a common fight against those who menace both our countries. That fact alone renders absurd the notion that U.S. officials might be tried in a Pakistani court for counterterrorism operations."

-Unnamed U.S. Official

Oh Unnamed U.S. Official, you've provided me and your journalist contacts with so many great quotes over the years. Your so much cooler than Confidential Informant! Thanks for once again pointing out the truth at the heart of another non-story, despite your embarrassingly over-reaching definition of terrorists.

happy anniversary

2010-05-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since deepwater horizon exploded killing eleven workers and spewing a constant flow of life-crippling crude into the gulf of Mexico. Despite government and corporate rhetoric, the hemorrhage continues and has reached the Loop Current which could take it to the gulf stream, Florida, and points beyond. Attempts to salvage the oil have been portrayed as attempts to stop the oil from flowing as officials scramble to manage public perception instead of environmental and economic impact.

2010-05-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky denied entry to West Bank.

President of Can't

2010-05-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

is a blistering analysis of The Obama Administration's foreign policy (written by British Pakistani Historian, Tariq Ali) mostly in relation to Israel, Iran, Iraq, & "AFPAK", it's superfluous distinctions from previous administrations, and it's preponderance of similarities to them.

Anyway, it's hella long so here's some quotes if you don't have time. Four links were added by me and two annotations by the author included in different quotes:

in relation to Israel

"On December 27, 2008, the idf launched an all-out air and ground assault on the population of Gaza. Bombing, burning, killing continued without interruption for twenty-two days, during which time the President-Elect uttered not a syllable of reproof. By pre-arrangement, Tel Aviv called off its blitz a few hours before his inauguration on January 20, 2009, not to spoil the party."

"the un Fact Finding Mission set up to look at the invasion of Gaza reported that the idf had not always acted by the book, though naturally rocket-attacks by Hamas had provoked it. Chaired by one of the most notorious time-servers of ‘international justice’, the South African judge Richard Goldstone, a prosecutor at the pre-orchestrated Hague Tribunal on Yugoslavia and self-professed Zionist, the Mission’s complaints against Israel could hardly have been feebler, in startling contrast to the testimony they heard in Gaza and which was made available on their website. But unaccustomed to Establishment criticism of any kind, Tel Aviv reacted with dudgeon, and so Washington instructed its client at the head of the plo, Mahmoud Abbas, that he must oppose any consideration of it at the un. This was too much even for Abbas’s followers and amid the ensuing uproar he had to retract, discrediting himself even further. The episode confirmed that aipac’s grip on Washington remains as strong as ever—contrary to delusions on the us left that the Israel lobby of old, never really much of a force, was now being superseded by a more enlightened brand of American Zionism. "

in relation to Iraq

"In 2002, on his way up the political ladder as a low-profile state senator in Illinois, Obama opposed the attack on Iraq; it was politically inexpensive to do so. By the time he was elected President, American forces had occupied the country for six years, and his first act was to maintain Bush’s Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, long-time cia functionary and veteran of the Iran–Contra affair, in the Pentagon. A cruder and more demonstrative signal of political continuity could hardly have been conceived."

"Obama promised a withdrawal of all us ‘combat’ troops from Iraq within sixteen months of his taking office, i.e. by May 2010—adorned with a safety clause that this pledge could be ‘refined’ in the light of events. It promptly was, with the February 2009 announcement that combat troops would now leave Iraq by September 2010, while the ‘residual’ 50,000 forces could also engage in combat operations to ‘protect our ongoing civilian and military efforts’."

"The slaughter and devastation wreaked on Iraq by the United States and its allies, chiefly Britain, are now well known: the destruction of the country’s cultural patrimony, the brutal dismembering of its social infrastructure, the theft of its natural resources, the sundering of its mixed neighbourhoods, and above all the death or displacement of countless of its citizens—over a million dead; three million refugees; five million orphans, according to government figures."

"Washington has put down markers in the modern equivalents—vastly larger and more hideous—of the Crusader fortresses of old. The Balad military base, within easy bomber reach of Baghdad, is a small-town American city-state. Containing an airport that is reportedly the busiest in the world after Heathrow, it can house over 30,000 us soldiers and auxiliaries—an immigrant labour force composed largely of South Asian workers who clean homes, cook food and staff Subway sandwich bars; drug-dealers are never in short supply, while mobile Eastern European prostitutes serve Balad’s other needs. Fifteen bus routes complement the airport, but commuting remains a problem for some of the service staff. Another thirteen military and air-force bases are scattered throughout the country, among them Camp Renegade near Kirkuk, to guard the oil-wells, Badraj on the Iranian border, for espionage in the Islamic Republic, and a British base dating back to the 1930s at Nasiriyah, upgraded to serve American appetites. In Baghdad itself, meanwhile, the us proconsul can now enjoy the largest and most expensive embassy in the world—it is the size of the Vatican City—in the fortified enclave of the Green Zone."

Iran

"For American elites, Iran has long posed a conundrum: an ‘Islamic Republic’ publicly breathing fire against the Great Satan while quietly extending assistance to it wherever most needed, be it collusion with counter-revolution in Nicaragua, invasion of Afghanistan or occupation of Iraq."

"Factional struggles in the clerical establishment escalated over the presidential election in June 2009, when a bid by its most openly pro-Western wing to take power on a wave of (mostly) middle-class protest was suppressed by an incumbent counter-strike that combined electoral fraud and militia violence. For Obama, the opportunity for ideological posturing was too great to resist. In a peerless display of sanctimony, he lamented with moist-eyed grief the death of a demonstrator killed in Tehran on the same day his drones wiped out sixty villagers, most of them women and children, in Pakistan. With the Western media in full cry behind the President, the thwarted candidate in the Iranian contest—historically one of the worst butchers of the regime, responsible for mass executions in the 80s—was converted into another icon of the Free World."

"Israel and its lobbyists may be the prime movers in ongoing agitation against Iran, but they are not alone. The Saudi monarchy, a sui generis confessional dictatorship, remains fearful that a Tehran–Baghdad combination might destabilize the Peninsula: Shia constitute a large majority in Bahrain and the oil-producing region of the Saudi state itself. But the Saudis are also aware that any direct attack on Tehran could pose an even bigger threat to their rule, provoking Shia uprisings that might engulf them. For Riyadh, an alternative route under review in Washington is preferable—inserting Turkey into the regional equation as a Sunni–nato detachment of the empire, buttressing the Saudi petrodollars offered to Syria to break with Iran. This would serve as a counter-thrust against any future Tehran–Baghdad axis and cut off Hezbollah from Damascus, softening it up for another assault by the idf."

Afghanistan

"The mass of the Afghan poor have received little or nothing from the new foreign-imposed order except increased risk to life and limb, as the re-organized neo-Taliban hit back at the occupation and nato bombs rain so indiscriminately on villages that even Karzai has repeatedly been forced to protest. [14] Most recently on 27 December when a us black-ops unit killed 10 civilians on the same day as Ahmadinejad’s militias killed 5 demonstrators in Tehran."

on the recent Afghan elections:

"American diplomatic and military functionaries publicly contradicted each other, quarrelling over how far the pretence of democratic elections staged by Karzai should be upheld or rejected. In the event, after vehement denunciations of fraud by the highest functionary in Washington, and a pro forma second round of voting, Obama consummated the farce by congratulating Karzai on a victory more blatantly rigged even than Ahmadinejad’s two months earlier, on which—in top Uriah Heep form—the us President had spared no stern words. Unlike the regime in Tehran, which retains an indigenous base in society, however diminished, what passes for government in Kabul is a Western implant that would disintegrate overnight without the nato praetorians dispatched to protect it."

Pakistan

From the start of his administration, it was announced that Pakistan and Afghanistan would henceforward be treated as an integrated war-zone: ‘Afpak’. A stream of emissaries poured into Islamabad to man up the Pakistani state to the repressive tasks it was being called upon to perform.[16] Inter-Risk, the Pakistani subsidiary of us defence contractor DynCorp, was recently raided by local police, who seized ‘illegal and sophisticated weaponry’. The company’s boss, a retired Captain Ali Jaffar Zaidi, informed reporters that us officials in Islamabad had ordered the import of prohibited weapons ‘in Inter-Risk’s name’, promising that payment would be made by the us embassy. Anwar Abbasi, ‘Why the us security company was raided’, The News, 20 September 2009."

"In April 2009, Zardari ordered the Army to occupy the Swat district in the North-West Frontier Province, taken over by the ttp two months earlier. An all-out military assault drove the ttp back into the hills, and 2 million refugees out of their homes. Emboldened by this humanitarian success, Obama pressed Zardari into sending the Army into fata proper in October, to flush out Taliban fighters—it no longer mattered much whether Afghan or Pakistani—from South Waziristan and Bajaur. Hundreds of thousands more tribespeople were displaced, us bombers roaring overhead as they scattered to the winds."

"How far domestic ethnic cleansing of this sort can be taken, and what kind of results it is likely to produce, have yet to be seen. What is clear is that in forcing the Pakistani Army to turn its guns on its own tribes, with whom it used to be on fairly good terms, Obama is de-stabilizing yet another society in the interests of the American empire."

emulating Wilson

"After lying enough to voters—promising peace and delivering war—Wilson was re-elected to a second term, though it did not end well for him. In more combative times, Johnson was forced to step down in ignominy for his warmongering, without being able to gull the electors again. Twelve years later, a debacle in Tehran helped sink Carter. If the recent setbacks for Democrats in West Virginia and New Jersey—where Democratic voters stayed at home—become a pattern, Obama could be a third one-term President, abandoned by his supporters and mocked by those he tries so hard to conciliate."

deepshitwater

2010-05-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Despite Ken Salazar's warm welcome upon taking office at the Department of The Interior, and reform-minded lip-service in the wake of the 2008 sex/drug/bribery scandal(orgy) at the Minerals Management Service (an agency second only to the IRS in terms of government revenue collected) the insane, disingenuous Policy of issuing "categorical exclusions" to energy companies from having to complete environmental assessments of off shore oil rigs continued as it did under the previous administration.

originally reported in The Washington Post three days ago

band's discuss how to appeal to Arizonans

2010-05-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

In response to Stars announcing they wouldn't be playing shows in Arizona due to the state's recent series of racially charged legislative decisions, Fucked Up publicly disagreed, thereby initiating a brief non-feud that ultimately yielded a very decent op-ed by Fucked Up member, Pink Eyes.

emptiness prevails

2010-05-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Sea Turtles. Halliburton. (sigh)

^ v ^v^v^v^v^v^ v ^v^v^v^v^v^ v ^

You may not have a thick accent and teach English in Arizona now, thank you. While we're at it, how about no more ethnic studies that meet the following criteria:

"Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:

Ø Promote the overthrow of the United States government.

Ø Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.

Ø Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.

Ø Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.
"
So ethnic solidarity is no good? Gotcha. Also out are courses or classes designed primarily for a particular ethnic group. Oh well, it's not like bilingual education ever helped anybody, right? At least we have some stringently coherent and meticulously defined guidelines to protect ourselves from Mexican terrorism. Arizona Superintendent For Public Instruction Bob Horne instructs us on ethnic chauvinism,

"Traditionally, the American public school system has brought together students from different backgrounds and taught them to be Americans and to treat each other as individuals, and not on the basis of their ethnic backgrounds," Horne said. "This is consistent with the fundamental American value that we are all individuals, not exemplars of whatever ethnic groups we were born into. Ethnic studies programs teach the opposite, and are designed to promote ethnic chauvinism."

Great phrase, Bob.

2010-05-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

“If you have come to help me, you are
wasting your time. But if you have
come because your liberation is
bound up with mine, then let us walk
together…”

-Lila Watson

stop rape now.

2010-05-01T11:09:00.001-07:00

no one pays enough attention to rape as a weapon of war. there's a letter you can download on the website for this cause. i hope you choose to send it to your elected officials, folks.

my thoughts on boobquake

2010-04-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

edit #1: i totally first posted this using the term "islamic women". wtf. i know that's wrong (islam is the religion, muslim is the religious person). i have been watching too much fox news. sorry, all.

disclaimer #1:
god, there's so much to say about all of this in explanations and such, but i can't teach a class in one blog post. i feel like i'm giving short shrift to some of these issues, so please forgive me and comment if you need more info or want me to point you in the direction of any research/differing opinions. the things I don't address include:
-inclusiveness (trans and religious women)
-feminist policing and how i hatez it
-access (to social media, to the right to show boobs)
-the video and photo response to boobquake (oh dear. just...oh dear. that is not what i had expected to happen)
sorry. i got tired. i'll talk about them if you really want me too, but this blog post is long enough already.

disclaimer #2:
i am not a feminist scholar. i am not the authority on "the feminist viewpoint" (newsflash: it doesn't exist; we're different, nuanced people with different, nuanced views). I haven't taken very many women's studies classes. this is what i know, feel, read about, deduce, and think about. i am open to changing my mind (and i am allowed to). everyone has a lot to offer to this conversation. i would love for it to continue in the comments.

*deep breath*

okay.

so, in case you shun social media and anything viral on the internet, you'll have learned about this. Boobquake, a response to a comment made by an Iranian cleric:

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader.

When I first read about the event, my initial response went something like this:
dismay (at the comments by the cleric)
laughter (at the thought of showing cleavage as protest)
brief consideration (of the implications of using my body to make a point)
excited resolve (in deciding to participate)
giddy sharing of the link (with one of my similarly endowed friends)

So, I didn't think about it *too* too long before deciding I wanted to go ahead and join the group...and then was a bit surprised (though in retrospect, I shouldn't have been) at the subsequent response by fellow feminist friends on FB and the larger feminist media.

There have been various interpretations of Boobquake. Here are a few:

-using cleavage to fight the oppression of muslim women
-using cleavage to show that cleavage doesn't cause earthquakes
-using cleavage to make feminism 'fun' and 'male-friendly'
-using cleavage to fight oppression (note how this is much broader than the first one)
-using cleavage to empower and unite women
-using cleavage to reclaim cleavage (from men, since in this interpretation it is 'owned' by them and 'for their pleasure')

there are more, and these are obviously (very) simplified and condensed versions of them, but just to give you an idea. some folks interpreted boobquake as simply one of these, others interpreted it as a combination of things. i'll talk about my interpretation throughout this post.

So, the way I think I'll do this is by addressing the arguments against Boobquake one by one. I'll probably miss one, but these were the ones that I saw the most:

Argument #1: It's like fighting sexism with sexism.
This argument encompasses a lot of things. I think it's mostly responding to what it sees as the co-opting of women's bodies for a 'cause', e.g. showing boobies is going to put us further behind, not ahead. Why? Because showing boobies is bound/designed* to be "men-friendly" feminism, and/or to provoke a straight male response. Some would also argue that women are exploiting themselves by showing cleavage---and some members of this camp also belong to the (hotly contested) area of feminism that does not believe sexual acts for money (stripping, sex work/prostitution, escort services, etc) can ever be seen as feminist or as empowering for women. For more on this argument as it is specific to boobquake, see this article by Salon, "Why I won't be joining the 'Boobquake'".

My thoughts on this: So, there are several instances of progressive (and sometimes regressive) causes using women's bodies to promote their agenda. PETA is the most egregious offender here. For some examples of their awesomeness (/sarcasm), see here. No, I don't think that using women's bodies in a sexual way just to get people's attention is the way to go about things. Does it get attention? Yes. Is it positive attention (e.g. does it really create converts)? I doubt it, but really I have no idea. I have no idea if nearly-naked women would get (straight) men to consider eating less meat. I have no idea if the men who commented on boobquake's facebook page have any sort of increased investment in women's rights now. I would suppose not, and I would argue that using women's bodies to promote a cause can potentially mean that we are (once again) reducing women to beings with one type of power: sexual power. Even that power is not real because it is bestowed. Men get to decide what's beautiful, sexy, and allowable (I'm looking at you Maxim...and Pat Robertson). When we reduce women to sexual objects, it stands to reason that we see them as less than. They are no longer multi-faceted. I'm not really sure how reducing one type of being (female human) to an object (e.g. having less value, less/no right to an autonomous life, and less identifiable as a member of the same species) will get us to see other beings (animals) in a different way (e.g. having more value, more right to an autonomous life, as members of the same planet). But I digress. The point is...sex isn't the way to sell things. Yeah, it works sometimes, but it's taking us backward.

So then the question follows...does Boobquake fall into that category? Many feminists I respect are saying yes. But I'm going to go ahead and say no. I should explain then, why I hate PETA's tactics, but decided to support Boobquake. For me, the main difference comes down to this: target audience. For PETA, their display of nude or nearly nude female bodies is meant to attract attention from EVERYONE, but obviously their marketing team must be aware that it is attracting mainly straight dudes (men make up only 1/3 of vegetarians). Moreover, PETA uses something not normally seen (public displays of nudity or near-nudity) in their campaign. Moreover moreover (can I say that?), the PETA campaign is highly sexualized, and very openly so. They are using sex, specifically women as sexual objects, to attract attention to their campaign.

Now.

Boobquake, conversely, had a different target audience: women. Specifically, women who were pissed at what Sedhigi (the cleric) said. Furthermore, the purpose of Boobquake was tongue-in-cheek. Jen McCreight had no intention of using the action as a large-scale public protest. In fact, she never expected it to grow beyond her friend and reader circle. Boobquake was not for everyone, it was not trying to convince anyone of anything, it was simply a silly action women could take to (on a personal level) express a little outrage. I happen to find small, personal protests empowering. Cleavage is not an abnormal thing to see in our culture. If I had a little, no one on the street would stop me to ask why. But I could smirk to myself that I and a few other women were doing this today, just to say, "see? my breasts are not causing natural disasters, and it's perfectly ridiculous that you would think so". There's also something to be said for women participating in actions as a collective. I like when that happens. I think it creates solidarity.

Now.

The unfortunate result of Boobquake going viral was that the misinformed straight male response also went viral. All over Boobquake's wall. Some of the comments are obscene. This is that "men-friendly" feminism the "you can't fight sexism with sexism" feminists were afraid of. As in, I saw several men weighing in and encouraging women to "empower themselves"...because it was with boobs. Which would also please them.

But.

I am not going to let the patriarchy stop me from wearing a low-cut shirt. I will not be dictated to. That doesn't mean it doesn't SUCK, majorly, that I can't wear a low-cut shirt and be proud of my body without some random dude thinking it's okay for him to tell me how good he thinks i look. in the creepiest, most sexual way possible. but without using any sexual words, so that when i shout back he can feel justified in calling me a bitch. it also doesn't mean that someone who doesn't have cleavage can't participate in this activity, although our mainstream culture would have them believe they can't (there was body shame all over that facebook wall as well, "i don't have anything to show!" "i'm only a B cup" etc). McCreight made it clear that women could show to whatever comfort level they had, and that it didn't have to be boobs. The main point was to be 'indecent'. As far as I can tell, McCreight chose boobs because she's got 'em, and because "boobquake" is funny and catchy. Not to please men, not to be 'feminism lite', and not to use sex to promote a cause.

THIS PROTEST WAS FOR WOMEN. Women cannot let the male response tell us what type of actions are and aren't okay for us to participate in. We can let our comfort level tell us that, and we can take the expected male response into consideration when we think about what our comfort level looks like. But not participating in Boobquake because we don't want men to "take it the wrong way" is some bullshit. It's for us, not them. My roommate just danced in a burlesque show tonight. There were some straight guys in the audience. Were all of them there because they were happy she was doing this as an empowering action for herself, because she wanted to own and be more comfortable with and love her body? Um, probs not. But does that mean she shouldn't have danced? Definitely not. Like I said...that's some bullshit. Women have long had to consider men in every action they take...both in the positive and negative. Will it hurt them? Will it entice them? Will it be an excuse they use for their violence?

Don't put yourself in situations that make you feel uncomfortable or unsafe because you think you should be able to wear "that skirt" or "that shirt"...but if you do feel comfortable/safe, fucking wear them if you want to.

Argument #2: This is another example of Western women (WW) fighting for (what they see as) poor, oppressed Muslim women (MW). There are various reasons why some feminists do not believe WW should be championing causes that primarily concern MW. The main one is that we (WW) should be fighting our own battles, and empowering the MW to fight theirs. We as WW have no idea of the experience of MW and therefore cannot possibly lead the fight against what WW see as the oppression of MW. They get to define their own oppression, and define what they want their fight to look like. If they then ask us to be allies, then we can step up/step in. Variation/continuation: WW participating in causes like these creates/reinforces a dichotomy between poor oppressed MW and liberated, bikini-wearing WW (to paraphrase my brilliant friend, maeve), e.g. are MW truly oppressed by clothing or by ideologies, and are WW truly liberated by being 'allowed' to reveal more (who gets to say what we do? oh right, men are still in charge)?

For a really good combination of arguments #1 and #2, see "Brainquake", or more succinctly, this article on "Brainquake": http://www.rferl.org/content/From_Boobquake_to_Brainquake/2023949.html

My thoughts on this: This premise, this premise I am totally down with. WW do not get to define MW's oppression. This action, though, wasn't about the oppression of Muslim women. It was about some women being pissed that a dude was trying to police women's bodies collectively by telling them showing skin causes disasters.

But.

It was taken that way, by some. This is where I had to step back. This is the part I didn't think through all the way. Although personally, I was doing this based on my own outrage...some folks thought I was doing it *on behalf of* another group. Far from it. But is the potential damage dangerous? Yep. Okay, so how is that different from the potential damage of men being in support of a cleavage-based action? Know what? I don't know. Please feel free to enlighten me. All I know is that I feel much more comfortable saying "fuck you" to some dudes' collective electronic leering than I do to someone who says, "yes, let's save those poor Muslim women!". I think it's because in the second case, folks are coming from a good place. But a much more dangerous place. Sexism? I can see that easy enough. It's pretty clear to me in a lot of ways. Xenophobia, Othering, Western-is-the-Best(ern) Cultural Relativism? That's not as clear. It's cloaked in good will and puppies. As a privileged person, I know it's easy to forget that not everyone thinks like me or wants what I want. So I recognize and understand why some folks in the feminist and women's rights camps get upset at things like the burqa. From the outside looking in, it seems like women are being forced to wear it, that even when they're wearing it by choice it's a brainwashed choice, and that the culture openly discriminates against women. And maybe some of those things are all or partly true. But the important thing is, we don't get to decide what someone else's oppression looks like. at least, not in the form of fighting for it over here in the west (for them...and what the hell is that really going to do, anyway?). if the majority of muslim women called me up and were like, "omgosh, lauren, you have to call your government and tell them men are making us wear this thing and we all hate it"...i'd totally mobilize. and i do, when i know an organization i'm supporting is working closely with the population that's affected by its cause. i'm also going to continue fighting for the rights of women here, because the liberation of women in one part of the world will have ripple effects. point is, though...argument #2 is a little bit right. no, i didn't do this because i felt like i was fighting for poor, oppressed Muslim women. but some people may have. and some other people may have interpreted the whole action that way. I'm much more worried about that than i am about some guys getting excited over cleavage. I still don't regret I participated, but I regret that the whole action didn't more clearly outline that this is *not* what Boobquake was.

Argument #3: This is stupid because the cleric won't see it. More specifically, it's not going to create any change/change any minds.

My thoughts on this: Protests, no matter how small, are never stupid. They may be ineffective in creating large scale change, but if they empower even one person (the protestor), I think they're worth the effort. Not every protest needs to be about creating change. Sometimes, protests can be a personal expression. I like to talk about my righteous indignation. I don't always tell people how I'm feeling. Sometimes it's because I can't (like when I flip off my computer screen), sometimes it's because I don't want to (like when I've had a long day arguing with teenagers about rape/sexism and I just don't have it in me to fight with "that guy in the bar"), and sometimes it's because i'm not sure how to articulate it. That doesn't make my feelings less valid. That doesn't mean that I can't choose when and where and how I express them. And no one gets to tell me what to do with my body, not feminists, not republicans, not iranian clerics, not ANYONE. y punto. I'm saying that from a place of extreme privilege, and also a place of rationalism. As in, no one gets to tell me what to do with my body because I live in a society where (at least in name) I'm in charge of it. Women's collective bodies may still belong to the patriarchy, but my personal body is mine. Mine. But I also understand that I can't use my body to hurt others, and I can't use my body in ways that are disruptive or rude or what have you. No, my personal version of "rude" and "disruptive" may not be the same as someone else's, but I think there is a reasonable standard of modesty that exists, and it differs in every culture. I'll follow mine. If I don't like it, I'll work to change it. I'm not going to go in and try and work to change someone else's culture unless they ask me to, though. That's important.

So...in all...it was fun. I liked it. I was initially disappointed at the feminist response. But in retrospect, it's good that people were really engaged in discussions about the repercussions of actions such as these. I certainly learned something. Did you?

See also: The Science(!) of Boobquake

Jen's response to Boobquake

The comments are the interesting part of this one

A well-written feminist response that I agree with parts of

*some folks have been implying Jen McCreight (author of blaghag and creator of Boobquake) created the event specifically to cater to one version of feminism, one that would be acceptable to (straight) men. this version of feminism generally involves using one facet of sexual liberation (that facet being sex-positivity and body-positivity in the form of encouraging showing more skin, being more sexual, having more sex [with straight men or with femme women in front of straight men], etc) to promote a cause. Other examples would be the many faces of the "Save the boobies" campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness and many, many PETA campaigns.

this is what democracy looks like.

2010-04-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

in this little skit, FL stands for Florida Legislators, and ACOD stands for Anti-Choice Oklahoma Doctor.

act 1

FL: No one should be forced to purchase health services!
grumble, brumble, pass law
FL: Women who want abortions should have to purchase an ultrasound!
huff, puff, pass law

me: but legislators, isn't that a health service?

FL:
turns into scary bear monster
RAWR NO ABORTION IS AN ELECTIVE PROCEDURE AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALTH CARE!
turns back into even scarier paternalistic lawmaker
Besides, we are permitting an exception for victims of domestic violence, rape, and incest. But...they have to prove it.

me: oh, okay. so how do you prove you're a victim of domestic violence or rape?

FL: Easy. You'll have obvious bruises or scars. You'll have a restraining order. You'll have left the relationship or reported the rape to the authorities.

me: oh, got it. anything else you'd like to say?

FL: Yes, Lauren. We get to decide what you do with your body, and we're going to make you pay, literally, if we think you should make a different decision.

me: crying

FL: Hush, now. We know what's best.

Intermission

(more info)

act 2

pregnant woman sitting in a waiting room, waiting for results of a fetal health test

ACOD: Well, everything looks fine.

woman: oh, i'm so relieved! that's wonderful.

ACOD: Yes, well.

woman: wait...so...how do i know you're telling me the truth?

ACOD: Pardon?

woman: well, the state of Oklahoma just passed a law that says you can lie to me or mislead me or withhold information about the health of my baby if you think it might cause me to have an abortion.

ACOD: Ah, yes. I am aware of that law.

woman: so...are you lying?

ACOD: No.

woman: but, how do i know you're not lying when you say "no", which would mean you're really lying?

ACOD: You don't.

woman: i don't.

Fin

look...

i want a tshirt that says "WWNCD"

2010-04-27T23:16:00.001-07:00

you should really read this. if chomsky is scared, we're in trouble.

reverse racism

2010-04-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

is the funniest phrase ever.

It's like, if you're racist toward a white person it's in a class all it's own. Kind of like white slavery. Why specify, you know? Because it's super-duper special when this stuff happens to whites? Of course it is. Anyway...

I've heard the name Tim Wise before but I'm pretty sure this is the first thing I've read by him. It's a black white role-reversal editorial sort of in the vein of something Lauren posted a while back only applied to the things some tea-partiers and conservatives get away with instead of beauty standards.

Also, here's a piece from The Nation lambasting Nightline for their Why Can't a Successful Black Woman Find a Husband special.

As always, sorry for grammatical and/or punctuation errors and run-on sentances (LAZY R PEOPLE TOO!!)

this makes me vomit.

2010-04-14T11:50:00.001-07:00

drilling future generations

2010-04-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Obama just opened up off-shore drilling all along the east coast, gulf, and Alaska.

He also nominated a former pesticide executive, Islam Siddiqui as chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the US Trade Representative. While Siddiqui was at at Croplife, he is said to have taken part in closed-door negotiations with the EPA in furtherance of testing pesticides on children.

great moments in revisionism

2010-03-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

thank a white why don't ya

nobody likes negatives

Democratic Constitutionalist Society

2010-03-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck managed to insult Christians across a wide denominational swath by advising parishioners to run if they hear the phrase "social justice" from their minister or what-have-you.

Meanwhile in Texas, a couple of shit kickers are re-writing history for the whole country.

Virginia (Ginni) Thomas' organization Liberty Central Inc. is shaping up to be a huge player in the Tea-Party movement. Because of it's non-profit status it can raise unlimited amounts of corporate cash and due to recent Supreme Court decisions, spend freely to praise or smear candidates. Every member of the nation's highest court voted against Citizens United's challenge to disclosure rules with the exception of Virginia's husband Clarence.

feel like co-opting the joy of others

2010-03-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

Lauren's going to CUNY and Tyler's back from Iraq! Last week was pretty cool.

criminal miscarriage continued

2010-03-12T23:55:00.000-08:00

Being that national coverage of this story has triggered a windfall of disdain, Utah appears to be dialing back the medieval slightly by supposedly restricting the bills language so as to apply only to "intentional" acts of miscarriage which would result in a felony under the law.

Something Awful has some further information regarding Utah.

Everyone should also note the name and face of the bill's sponsor. Carl D. Wimmer, ladies and gentlemen.

A real Wimmer! I was going to make some kind of Wimbag joke but it's not even necessary.

nobody's business but the Turks

2010-03-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

The president and secretary of state are freaking the fuck out trying to rebuke the house for attempting to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide because it could possibly piss off Turkey enough to deny us access to staging bases for the Iraq war, pull troops from Afghanistan, generally fuck us in the mid-east. I think that even if the resolution gets passed they won't follow through on their threats but I want to go on record as saying I wish they would. It might hurt their economy a little but at least they wouldn't be helping us stage pointlessly amoral and disastrous wars in their own backyard.

also: Barack Obama's reticence to use the word 'genocide' post-inauguration is kind of low on my list of broken campaign pledges but still disturbingly auspicious.

criminal miscarriage!?

2010-03-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm sure most people that read this blog know about this already but I thought I'd put it up just in case. Really pretty speechless... among other things, this bill would leave women who stay with an abusive partner and lose a pregnancy as a result of the abuse vulnerable to a homicide prosecution.

Fuck you, Utah.

peak phosphorus

2010-02-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

we are running out of EVERYTHING. a look at 'peak phosphorus' and what it may mean for agriculture (hint: it's one of the 3 major nutrients plants need to grow):
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/33164

more on DADT

2010-02-16T23:19:00.000-08:00

okay so this is really interesting. i hadn't yet heard the take that DADT is a tool of sexual harassment. or thought about what Obama's life (and all straight military personnel's lives) would be like if he(they) had to follow DADT.

saudis are on peak oil bandwagon

2010-02-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

oh whoa, whoa, whoa.

peak oil liek totally exists u guyz! it's official now!

blackwater employee writes off sex as job expense

2010-02-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

oh, awesome. so now my tax dollars are paying for blackwater (xe) employees to hire sex workers. it's good for morale, apparently. sweet, now i'm paying for war AND the exploitation of women on the daily.

go, go, government!

ps
before you get all uppity (like women! /sarcasm) about the 'exploitation of women' bit, i am all for women empowering themselves through whatever means, including sex work. however, i hope i'm not being culturally insensitive by saying that i'm pretty sure a phillipina sex worker has a lot less agency than some friends of mine who have engaged in sex work because they wanted to (not because it was the only way they thought they could survive/because they were trafficked/sold into it). i'm not saying it's not possible that she feels empowered through her work, but i'm saying it's *really not likely*.

Cheney endorses DADT repeal

2010-02-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

What is this, reverse psychology?

I suppose it's like when Grandpa grudgingly says, " I guess black people are ok..." on his deathbed, to his black nurse. WAY TO GO GRANDPA!

happy heteronormativity day, everyone!

2010-02-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

oh wait.

that's every day.

a friend of mine recently went to a conference about creating change in the queer community. she said that there were zillions of queer people there and she found herself walking down a hallway suddenly thinking,

"whoa! i wonder if this is what it feels like to be straight!"

NSA's in teh google, lookin' at ma searchez

2010-02-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

so apparently google and the NSA are working on a deal. i guess this means i'm probably going to get taken down within the next few years for googling "how to overthrow the government in 30 days".

seriously? come on. what is the NSA going to do with this information except for try and royally fuck over concerned citizenry?

at the risk of sounding like an angry anarchist, police state much?

EDIT: you can tell google what you think here. personally, i'm pretty disappointed that after taking steps AWAY from the Chinese government regarding censorship, now they're going to be engaged in a much more sinister form of that with our very own administration. awe.some.

i see your true colors, shinin' through.

2010-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Et tu, Johnny Depp?

ask the audience

2010-02-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

does anybody know if either Clinton or Obama have actually said, OUT LOUD, that the bill being discussed in the Ugandan parliament is designed to MAKING IT A MORTAL CRIME TO BE GLBTQ? Have we said out loud that they are trying to kill people for not being straight??! I hope so. please post links if you have them.
I'm glad the administration is taking a stand against the bill, but if we keep referring to it so diplomatically I'm just not sure it's going to hit home.

holy moly.

2010-02-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

i think my cynicism is saved. i had no idea republicans felt this way about the president:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35209799

also, just for fun, Michelle Bachman on gangsta government:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35209883

DADT

2010-02-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Melissa Harris-Lacewell at The Nation on Don't Ask, Don't Tell:

Let's end DADT during Black History Month. President Obama's presence in the White House was made possible by the broken bodies of black soldiers who believed and sacrificed for a country that shackled and segregated them. They willingly bled for this country and with that blood they bought for all of us a country where a black man could be president.

Today gay soldiers fight and die with the same hope. They too believe in America even though our country does not protect them in Civil Rights legislation, even though our country withholds marriage equality, even though our country is marred by anti-gay violence: still they believe. It is an astonishing kind of hope. It is the kind of inspiring hope that has made every great American success possible.

I know there are African Americans who bristle at the inclusion of LGBT equality as part of the long Civil Rights struggle. I've frequently heard black activists argue that gay identity is not like racial identity, because sexual identity can be hidden. This is a foolish argument.

The closet is not a privilege. Nothing reminds us of this more than DADT.

i am wondering if the pentagon is talking about DADT now because they're feeling desperate for soldiers. i truly hope it's because the tide is shifting. my cynicism knows no bounds lately, folks.

2010-02-02T18:21:00.001-08:00

Obama to meet with the Lama.

Is it a power play? Is he a pawn? Or is it genuine outreach? My cynicism tells me it's the former, but as usual in politics, I hope I'm wrong.

on a personal side note, there are more tibetan freedom flags on the SE side of portland than anywhere else in the continental US, i'd reckon. yes, i just reckoned.

2010-01-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I've added SCOTUS and VBS.TV to our links. SCOTUS is more a reminder to myself to try and get to a place where I can better understand judicial jargon and basically not put my foot in my mouth while bemoaning Thursday's supreme court travesty. VBS.TV is another new one for me and I have to caution sensitive patrons that it's recent series of video reports from Liberia are nothing less than soul shattering, but it's stuff people should be aware of none-the-less. Thank you to Zach S and John-Paul for making me aware of these resources.

the King of love is dead

2010-01-18T16:32:00.001-08:00

2010-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a an article from the missouri record presenting gay marriage as a potential boon to state economies.

" Although many conservatives and independents espouse a libertarian perspective on fiscal matters, when it comes to social issues, the opposite appears to be occurring. "

so what turns a doctor into a suicide bomber

2010-01-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

Is it the moral outrage that comes with witnessing a foreign power kill civilians when they happen to be at the same funeral or marketplace as a high ranking Taliban leader mixed with a mandatory dose of religious fanaticism?

I find it hard to believe it coincidence that this attack took place at a major staging ground for illegal US drone attacks and I'm sure jsoc, the cia, and "blackwater select"( What is it? Fried Chicken?)agree. EDIT , DOUBLE EDIT

It's very easy to call a suicide bomber a coward because of course almost everyone that chooses to take a life is a coward, but can't the concept of scale be applied to cowardice? Is remote control mass murder nobler than mass murder/suicide?

this. is. INFURIATING.

2009-12-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

the Right's use of the rape metaphor.
i wouldn't recommend listening to the whole thing. it's just a bunch of stupid nonsense. but it begs a lot of questions.

why do these pundits feel they can use a word that defies experience to define what they deem political misconduct? a word that has such personal connotations for so many, many women and men so as to make it inextricable from the subjective?

i've said it before, and i'll say it again:

WTF RIGHT WING
QUIT IT

should not shall

2009-12-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

"The most progressive U.S. President in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speakerphone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that might challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life. And so the nation which put a man on the moon can’t summon the collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken on the mantel of a religion.
Then a Chinese Premier who is in the process of converting his Communist nation to that new faith (high-carbon consumer capitalism) takes such umbrage at Obama’s speech that he refuses to meet – refuses, in fact, to do much of anything beyond sulking in his hotel room, as if this were a teenager’s house party instead of a final effort to stave off the breakdown of our biosphere.
Late in the evening the two men meet and cobble together a collection of paragraphs which they call a ‘deal’, although in reality it has all the meaning and authority of a bus ticket, not that it stops them affixing their signatures to it with great solemnity. Obama’s team then briefs the travelling White House press pack – most of whom, it seems, understand about as much about global climate politics as our own lobby hacks know about baseball – and before we know it the New York Times and CNN are declaring the birth of a ‘meaningful’ accord.
Meanwhile a friend on an African delegation emails to say that he and many fellow members of the G77 block of developing countries are streaming into the corridors after a long discussion about the perilous state of the talks, only to see Obama on the television announcing that the world has a deal. It’s the first they’ve heard about it, and a few minutes later, as they examine the text, they realise very quickly that it effectively condemns their continent to a century of devastating temperature rises.
By now the European leaders – who know this thing is a farce but have to present it to their publics as progress – have their aides phoning the directors of civil society organisations spinning that the talks have been a success. A success? This deal crosses so many of the red lines laid out by Europe before this summit started that there are scarlet skid marks across the floor of the Bella Centre, and one honest European diplomat tells us this is a ‘shitty shitty deal.’
Quite.
This deal is beyond bad. It contains no legally binding targets and no indication of when or how they’ll come about. There isn’t even a declaration that the world will aim to keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees C – instead leaders merely ‘recognise the science’ behind that vital threshold, as if that were enough to prevent us crossing it. The only part of this deal anyone sane came close to welcoming was the $100bn global climate fund, but it’s now becoming apparent that even that’s largely made up of existing budgets, with no indication of how new money will be raised and distributed so poorer countries can go green and adapt to climate change.
Not all of our politicians deserve the opprobrium of a dismayed world. Our own Ed Miliband fought hard on no sleep for a better outcome, while President Lula of Brazil offered to financially assist other developing countries to cope with climate change and put a relatively bold carbon target on the table. But the EU didn’t move on its own commitment (one so weak we’d actually have to work hard not to meet it) while the United States offered nothing and China stood firm.
Before the talks began I was of the opinion that we would only know Copenhagen was a success when plans for new coal-fired power stations across the developed world were dropped. If the giant utilities saw in the outcome of Copenhagen an unmistakable sign that governments were now determined to act, and that coal plants this century would be too expensive to run under the regime agreed at this meeting, then this summit would have succeeded. Instead, as the details of the agreement emerged last night we received reports of Japanese opposition MPs popping champagne corks as they savoured the possible collapse of their new government’s carbon targets. It’s not just that we haven’t got to where we needed to be, we’ve actually ceded huge ground. There is nothing in this deal – nothing – that would persuade an energy utility that the era of dirty coal is over. And the implications for humanity of that simple fact are profound.
I know we greens are partial to hyperbole. We use language as a bludgeon to direct attention to the crisis we’re facing, and you’ll hear much more of it in the coming days and weeks. But really, it’s no exaggeration to describe the outcome of Copenhagen as an historic failure that will live in infamy. In a single day, in a single space, a spectacle was played out in front of a disbelieving audience of people who have read and understood the stark warnings of humanity’s greatest scientific minds - and what they witnessed was nothing less than the very worst instincts of our species articulated by the most powerful men who ever lived.
I will leave the last word to the late Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who would have given voice to the insanity of Copenhagen better than I ever could, and whose poem Requiem is perhaps appropriate at this moment: ‘When the last living thing, has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up, perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon, “It is done. People did not like it here”.’

-Ben Stewart (Greenpeace)

Vietnow plus christian mercenaries

2009-12-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

So this allegation by senior intelligence officials that the head of the Taliban is being hidden in the Pakistani city of Karachi is pretty outrageous. ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service that created the Taliban in the 90's to excorcise tighter control in rural areas, is being accused of hiding Mullah Omar in a densely populated urban area to keep him safe from U.S. drone attacks. The Times of India reports

about the drone attacks:

" Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. "Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes." The Pentagon has stated bluntly, "There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan."

"It's Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC," said the source. When civilians are killed, "people go, 'Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.' Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC [hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works."

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. "Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that," he says. "Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and there's thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That's the mentality." He added, "They're not accountable to anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?" "

Hasn't anyone ever heard of hearts and minds? Fuck!

taken from The Nation

for more on Blackwater ( or Xe pronounced " zi " ) check out independant journalist Jeremy Scahill's site

I saw that Tariq Ali was on Democracy Now today ( or was that yesterday ). Anyway, look that shit up. He's the master of historical perspective.

ok, p.s. here's a Vanity Fair article where Blackwater founder and Churched up rich boy Erik Prince reveals sensitive information about his work as a " spy ". I am so sick of this guy I think it gave me strep throat. He seems to be grey-mailing the Government in a potentially successful attempt to avoid prosecution after being implicated in (among other things) the murder of federal witnesses and the smuggling of weapons abroad.
Oh but none of this would have been possible without some asshole on the lower rungs of his company named FUCKING SHREK getting four of his co-workers killed and mutilated in Fallujah and as a direct result Blackwater skyrockets to lucrative prominance and Fallujah is razed and cursed with plagues of infant cancer for years to come because guess who else loves chemical weapons? The fuckwits that gave them to Sadaam in the first place.

more on afghanistan

2009-12-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

progressives vs feminists (who are generally also progressives)! the daily beast had a pretty good article analyzing this particular aspect of the surge. you can find it here.

key points:

"...aid workers describe themselves as reliant upon troops for their security. The administration hasn’t directly addressed the question of which of these civilian programs will be long-term. In his speech, the president was vague when it came to civilian efforts: “We will work with our partners, the United Nations, and the Afghan people to pursue a more effective civilian strategy, so that the government can take advantage of improved security,” he said."

"Other progressives, though, say the women’s rights activists are naïve, and have failed to grapple with the fact that feminism was never more than a rhetorical ploy in debates about the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, whose real goal has always been to root out al Qaeda. They also point to the occupation’s high cost in dollar terms, as well as the American public’s limited tolerance for foreign wars. A recent Pew poll found that isolationist sentiment is at a four-decade high."

“Girls’school attendance has started to decline again” because of the violence, says the National Security Network's Hurlburt, citing Afghan parents’ fears that their daughters will be targeted by kidnappers or victimized by bombings. “There’s a sense that we haven’t quantified how the drift of the past few years has been particularly harmful for women.”

also note: Karzai, the Afghan leader, is nooooooot particularly 'on it' when it comes to women's rights. and i'm not talking about women's right to wear whatever they want, i'm more referring to their right to not be raped or abused.

h/t Ann at Feministing for posting the article in the news round-up.

EDIT: here's a look at what the "liberation" of Iraq has done for women there.

2009-12-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

It is our responsibility to remember tragedy, so that we may perhaps preclude it.
Lessons of the Montreal Massacre

had you heard of that before? i hadn't. why?

the surge, take 2

2009-12-02T11:48:00.001-08:00

so i've been trying to put into words how i feel about afghanistan and this whole mess and i've been having trouble with it. and then i read a comment on an NYT article and it really resonated. here's the original link, and here's the comment itself:

I don't understand why we cannot just back out peacefully, with plans to assist rebuilding not related to military, like the U.S. has done in various wars of WWII, Vietnam. Japan, Germany and Vietnam are all better off than they were while wars were going on. The Afghan war never should have begun and it is time to exit. Let the Afghan people rebuild their own culture - new life always happens one way or another whether fast or slow and no occupier can do it better than the people who are living there. Another 3 years there means an 11 year war. Who is to gain? Nobody. No matter how persuasive Obama is hundreds of years of recorded history shows that war will never bring peace.

I honestly thought that tonight we would hear an intelligent, creative and swift plan to end the misery by our hands of the people of Afghanistan (and Pakistan).

Where is the courage? Where is the decisive action?

naive? perhaps. i recognize that we can't stand by and watch as militias ravage populations. but it seems very odd to me that we've been doing that regarding africa for years now (rwanda, darfur, the congo, and on and on and on), and no one in the government makes much more than the occasional 'peep' about it. so i'm ready to be done. i have read numerous accounts from afghan women who say that the US needs to stay for them to be free, so it feels hard, almost callous for me to say that I disagree with them. i feel we can be there in a capacity that is not war-related, as we have done in the past, and still help rebuild the nation as it is wanted and asked for.
i suppose the difference, though, between now and the places the commenter cites above, is that we are led to believe that the taliban still stands ready to take over the country should we so much as take one step backwards. how does that change the game? i'm not a war analyst, i'm not sure how fair it is to compare our past efforts with this one, which seems, all in all, like a completely different story.
what i do know is that things don't seem to be getting better, and that war leaves the strong, and not necessarily the 'right', standing.

is it unfeeling to say that i think our resources can be better used elsewhere?

2009-11-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

US Special Forces in Afghanistan have started imbedding with " anti-Taliban " militias and providing support via a military fund said to contain 1.3 billion. The special forces troops are reporting directly to the US general leading NATO forces in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal and details of the plan entitled Community Defense Initiative (CDR) are being kept from non-US Alliance members. Although General McChrystal is head of the international NATO mission in Afghanistan, the newly created special forces group is reportedly outside NATO's authority?

Meanwhile in Fallujah, birth defects and cancer are conspicuosly increasing in children.
A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, have asked the UN general assembly to task an independent committee to fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over from decades of war.

The US Government has admitted to using the chemical weapon White Phospherous during a 2004 battle in retaliation for the deaths of four Blackwater employees in Fallujah.

"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."

WAKE UP

2009-11-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

silencing tactics

2009-11-11T08:25:00.001-08:00

who cares about nigeriens?

2009-11-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

here's a two-minute video on why Shell gasoline sucks. hint: extraction in the niger delta is both a health and environmental shitstorm.

where do you buy gas, if you have a car?

ok, pissed.

2009-11-08T13:06:00.001-08:00

abortion isn't covered in the new health care bill. there's a huge, huge conversation going on at feministing about viewing abortion as an "elective procedure" and about how a few feminists who claim the pro-choice moniker keep parroting the right-wing idea that only rape and a danger to the life of the woman should mean the big A gets covered.

where do we compromise? i am sure the dems who voted for this bill will say it's the only way they could get it passed. and i agree, the Right has been trying to kill health care by bringing in the abortion debate for YEARS. (see the hyde amendment.)

i want health care reform as much as the next person, but i'm frankly pissed that we still don't see abortion as a human right, and can't agree to the fact that a woman's right to control her own body is the single greatest thing contributing to the movement for gender equality. i won't even go into how much this amendment affects poor women disproportionately. there are so many things wrong with it, and yet i find myself thinking that maybe it was for the best, just to get something passed. but then i remember what this means and i do NOT think it was for the best. i loved obama's attitude of compromise when he was campaigning. i thought it would be good for our country to learn how to cooperate and get along. and since then i have realized that i don't WANT to compromise with people who want to deny rights to me and the people that i love. i am having a very hard time balancing my compassion and my rage.
i definitely understand why people are against abortion. i definitely understand why that means they don't want anyone to have one.

i just don't want to concede to them anymore.

question blog, v1.0

2009-11-02T00:58:00.001-08:00

i am interested, dear readers, in what news sources you use and how often you use them. i strive to get news from different places, about a variety of topics, and i try to do this every day. it doesn't always happen. sometimes all i end up with is 10 minutes of democracy now headlines in the morning and maybe a feministing article or two during the day. my email inbox piles up with headlines and pleas from activist organizations and soon i find myself deleting whole messes of emails simply because i know i don't have time to read and respond to all of them. what news sources and/or activist organizations do you prioritize?

other questions:

-how important is it to you to know what's going on in the world? in the country? in your state? in your county?

-does being informed matter to you even if you know you won't use that information?

-what things do you hate or love about the news?

-and, one that has felt particularly relevant of late:
how do you make time for news and politics when emotions run high?

i feel like when i have personal stuff going on i often shut out my regular news sources and find it hard to get fired up about my usual issues because i'm bogged down in a morass of [insert emotion here].

does anyone have any methods? dudes are supposed to be better at compartmentalizing their brains (and yes, i realize this is not true for all dudes), so maybe XY readers of this blog can tell me something about how that works?

anyway, question blog go! answers plz k thx.

in other news...

2009-10-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

sweden is STILL awesome. they are going to start putting emissions labels on their foods so that consumers can see what the level of emissions is for each thing they buy. here's a cool graph (you know i love teh graphs):
food science yay

maybe a little annoying, because i know i would be one of those people who is like..."oh shit, which of these candies is best for the planet?!" and then spend 10 minutes stressing over the fact that i really want some chocolate but sour patch kids emit less global warming gases during their production.
ugggghhhhhhhhh privileged choices. :)

rape culture

2009-10-13T18:02:00.001-07:00

have you heard of it?
rape culture, in short, means all the strange shit that goes down in our society that means that people who rape other people mostly go unpunished and sometimes are exalted in the face of accusation (i'm looking at you, kobe bryant).
it means i avoid walking alone at night as much as possible, even though night walks are my favorite kind of walks. i tried it, for funsies (no, it was actually an accident, it got dark very quickly), a few weeks ago. i was followed most of the way home by a man yelling things at me. i am probably not going to feel like i want to do it again for a long time.
it means YES I HAVE TAKEN SELF DEFENSE and i'm still scared, so please don't tell me that's what i *should* do in order to feel okay about it.
it means nice guys who get all upset because i won't talk to them on the bus. and yeah, they really are nice. but they don't get it. (read this for a better run-down of why rapists mean that cute girl at the library/coffee shop/bus stop may not and does not have to give you the time of day).

rape culture means i can't hitchhike, even though i have always wanted to.
it means i don't look strange men in the eye when i'm speaking to them (or, sometimes, it means i don't look people i'm dating in the eye when i'm speaking to them), or smile back at men who smile at me. (eye contact and/or smiling means an invitation, right? amirite? this is what i have experienced, anyway)

it means i got really creeped out when last week this man pulled up in his car beside mine and said,
"you know, i just have to tell you, you've got really great legs"
and my friend laurel and i had to have a conversation about why that felt weird and yucky instead of complimentary. (fyi, it's partly because i don't know him and i don't know why he felt he needed to make his first statement to me about one part of my body) (double fyi, it's because i have no idea what his intentions were with that. he could have been a "nice guy" for all i know. doubtful, as he was much older and very leery and had looked down at my legs as he passed by my car, which i was sitting in, minding my own business. i love how the moment i step out my door at home i am somehow opened up to whatever onslaught of comments men feel necessary to bestow upon me. yes there are some women who like it. i'm not one of them. if i know you, and you want to tell me i'm pretty, awesome. if i don't know you, please don't make that your opener.)

it means that i am scared to write posts like these that might alienate some of my friends because they think it means i hate men or that i think all men are rapists or silly stereotypey things like that.

let me be clear. i hate rape culture. men who don't buy into it are not only super cool, they achieve hero status, because men in this movement are few and far between, and i get really excited when i see a dude standing up against the normalization of sexual violence (against anyone, not just women).

i was inspired to write this post by a similarly-formatted post on Shakesville about rape culture. You can find that here. I would recommend it, just as I would recommend the "Schrodinger's rapist: or a guy's guide to how to approach strange women without getting maced" (i don't agree with the tone she takes as much as i agree with her points about boundary assertion and paying attention to non-verbal communication). for a male's response to the article, go here, to the yes means yes blog.

wow

2009-10-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

" H.B 1595 is a new provision on Oklahoma abortion laws that now requires, among other restrictions and requirements, an official record and reporting system of all abortions occuring within the state. This report will be available for anyone in the world to view, as it will be made public on a website as of March 1st. The Dept of Health, who among others has supported these new provisions, has declared that since the name and “personal information” will not be reported, there is no cause for concern or protest in regards to privacy issues. However, in reviewing the actual text of the law, the first 8 questions that will be asked and reported could easily be used to identify any member of a smaller community.

1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
Live Births
Miscarriages
Induced Abortions "

you can't twitter dat, it's a violation of pennsylvania law

2009-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

this is fascinating. a man is arrested for tweeting about police dispersal. i am so glad they talk about the difference between the media covering the use of twitter during the iranian election protests and now, during the G20 protests. it's astonishing. i guess it shouldn't be, considering. but it really, really is.

put down that burger before it shuts down your nervous system!

2009-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

article in the times about our "food safety" regulations.
a minnesota dance teacher was paralyzed after eating a hamburger. talk about shit luck.

let's talk about

2009-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

brief history of college sex columns

At its core, the sex column phenomenon is a radical progressive movement in the sense of pushing against traditional silence and the status quo, which is a source of concern for many administrators, parents and even students. Challenges to the columns stem from a conservative mindset--whether that be political, religious or cultural. Given that the Republican Party has become increasingly dominated by the religious right and the issues of the conservative culture wars, with sex smack at the forefront, these columns become politicized in a way the columnists themselves don't necessarily intend. With abortion, abstinence programs and same-sex marriage making up three of the right's key issues, the statement that "sex is OK" becomes even more politically charged when the sex in question is generally unmarried and occasionally queer.

Heather Strack asserts in the (Dartmouth)Free Press, "A sex column is a significant statement of female rights. Not only am I a female columnist, but I am writing about a topic considered taboo and improper for a woman." Women are the main target of abstinence/purity movements; thus, even if most columnists do not state this as unambiguously as Strack, the campus sex column is not only about students seizing control but about hearing underrepresented voices. Though men are readers in equal numbers, the sex columnist is a (straight and queer) female-dominated profession, with a small minority of queer men.

(ok so they say queer a lot, but good points are made)

Sex columns vary widely and don't always include feminist motivations; some focus on love and relationships, while others have more casual concerns. They can promote exploration of gender and sexuality, or reinforce a heteronormative mentality. However, by and large, student sex columnists have higher standards for inclusive, woman-positive sex journalism--and better access to a venue willing to publish this material--than their off-campus counterparts. Isabel Murray, feminist columnist for the Free Press, takes Cosmopolitan to task for its heteronormative, male-pleasure-oriented approach, while pointing out that it and similar women's magazines are nonetheless the only noncampus media addressing female sexuality (explaining why until recently it was the most read magazine among college women).

also (deep sigh)

A Senate committee voted Tuesday night to restore $50 million a year in federal funding for abstinence-only education that President Barack Obama has pushed to eliminate.

The 12-11 vote by the Senate Finance Committee came over objections from its chairman, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Two Democrats – Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas – joined all 10 committee Republicans in voting "yes" on the measure by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

The measure would still have to pass the full House and Senate.

this is probably more appropriate for nick's science blog, but i can't help myself

2009-09-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

i love autotune even more now...

Caster Semenya

2009-09-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

"If it is the goal of the media and IAAF to destroy the life of a young, talented female athlete by outing her as potentially intersex then they are not simply pitiless; they are socially repugnant."

from the nation

i have no words.

2009-09-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

racial profiling, coming to you via our friendly forest service

Happy Anniversary

2009-09-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Tariq Ali owns