Open thread and link farm (John Williams edition)

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Ampersand

This is it! The place! For what you want! How you want! Good linking! Self linking! Crap that’s been moved from other threads where it was off-topic! It’s all here! I’m so excited!

My vacation continues, by the way. It keeps on snowing and looking very pretty, but it isn’t sticking. But the fire is warm and I feel terribly relaxed. Unsurprisingly, there will be fewer links than usual in this link farm.

(Via Womanist Musings:)

  1. White people policing young white men who dress “too” “black”
  2. Damn, I miss Hilzoy. Read her response to the argument that it’s a good idea for the US to invade other countries to “liberate” the residents. “Saying that the problem is that we lack the wisdom and virtue to do this is like saying that the problem with the USSR in the 30s was that Stalin was not sufficiently wise and virtuous to really make totalitarianism work for the people of Russia.”
  3. Gender Presentation, Disability and Intersections
  4. A bit of perspective: July 1863 rioting in New York City.
  5. What’s wrong with saying that Donny Osmund is Blacker Than Michael Steele. (Click through to Global Comment to read the whole thing.)
  6. The increasing meaninglessness of the term “Anti-Israel”
  7. Why Huckabee can’t win the Republican primary — and why whoever beats him can’t win the general.
  8. On the subject of “useful” advice given to disabled people
  9. Reappropriate examines anti-Asian bias in college admissions: Part 1, Part 2. While you’re there, check out the spiffy new superhero-themed blog header.
  10. Is getting rid of lead paint empirically the most successful anti-crime policy of all time? (And see here, as well.)
  11. Fat people are underrepresented as governors. I liked the word “Flintstonian.”
  12. Schrodinger’s Rapist. “When you approach me in public, you are Schrödinger’s Rapist. You may or may not be a man who would commit rape.”
Posted in Link farms | 64 Comments

Beyond the justice system

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Maia

This is mainly a post addressing New Zealand domestic politics, but I think some of the points I make have a wider relevance. In 1972, New Zealanders gave up their right to sue for personal injury in exchange for a national system of accident compensation. This system has provided counselling for survivors of sexual violence.

**********

When writing about my analysis of sexual violence and prisons, one of the points I keep coming back to is how centred it is on the perpertrator. It’s not a new or original thought to point out that everything about the way a criminal law system deals with sexual violence is entirely focused on ‘the offender’. The follow-on from this is our society’s way of dealing with sexual violence revolves around the court system.

A few year ago, I wrote about a nursing student, who was raped by a fellow student, after a typical, ridiculous, defence, the rapist got off. She had to drop out of school, because the school wouldn’t do anything to ensure she wouldn’t have to see her rapist regularly. I think it’s important to understand how structural the problems within our justice system are. These systems are not designed to support survivors of sexual abuse, and therefore they will always fail at that task.

But…

But, in New Zealand, we do have a system that is set up to meet, to revolve around, what survivors of sexual violence need. There are many things it cannot provide – ACC will not help student find a way to continue to study without seeing her rapist. But it can provide counselling and income support.

I don’t have any personal experience, or depth of knowledge, of ACCs sensitive claims system. I am sure, as it currently operates, it has flaws, and some people fail to get the help that they need. But, at the moment, it can be centred around what a survivor needs, based on her relationship with her counsellor (or his).

If these changes go through, it will be much harder, maybe impossible for ACC to be survivor-centre. Currently, a survivor can have up to four sessions of counselling to disclose their abuse, but the changes will cut this down to one session (or maybe two, Peter Jensen, the person in charge of the proposal, was unclear on nine to noon).

At the moment a survivor can access up to 50 sessions with a counsellor before they have to obtain a psychological assessment. The changes will require psychological assessments much earlier in the process, and that process will be directed much more by clinicians. In order to get funded counselling, a survivor of sexual abuse will require a DSM IV diagnosis.

This is not a survivor-centred approach to sexual abuse; it is a clinician-centred approach.

ACC has already begun tightening the screws. And in doing so it has turned funded counselling into another area where a survivor has to prove her (or his) experience – maybe not beyond reasonable doubt, but close.

Dr Kim McGregor explained how ACC restricts access to counselling on an interview on 9 to Noon. ACC declined cover for a young boy who had been sexually abused as the behaviour described: mood swings, tearfulness, and sitting alone sucking his thumb, did not necessarily have a clinical link with sexual abuse. They said these behaviours could just as well have been caused by settling into school and a new environment rather than the sexual abuse events.

Imagine the difficulty of someone who has survived sexual abuse will have in proving that the difficulties she (or he) is experiencing are directly and only a result of the abuse. Those who had what insurance companies call ‘pre-existing conditions’, could find support denied – if they had previously been depressed, how can they know that depression after the sexual abuse is a result of that abuse? (not a question that could be asked by anyone who cared about the experiences of survivors of sexual abuse, but a question that is being asked by ACC). While those who do not seek help for a long time, will have to prove the effects the abuse has had on them, and the more complex their survival strategies in the intervening time, the harder it will be for them to access the support they need.

The parallels between the perfect victim of the court system and the perfect survivor of ACC are strong. In both cases the onus of proof falls on those have been abused to prove either that there was abuse, or that that abuse affected them. Just as previous sexual history is used against survivors in the court system, ACC can use previous mental health history against survivors.

My point is not just that the changes to ACC need to be fought (although they do – Monday is a national day of action – come along), but to show how important, and how fragile, a survivor centred approach to sexual violence there is.

As well as pushing against these threats to survivor support, I want us to push further. I want us to imagine what a response to sexual violence which prioritised survivors look like.

Posted in Rape, intimate violence, & related issues | 4 Comments

I Do Believe in Lesbians, I Do! IDo!

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

Debbie Schlussel is best known for her rabid hatred of anything that can even tangentially be connected to Islam, up to and including falafel. So it’s nice to see her branching out into some good old-fashioned hatred of other things.

What has made Debbie angry? Well, it seems Disney’s messing with a character. You’d think it would be their positive portrayal of Aladdin as essentially a surfer dude that would have Debbie upset, but no — it’s far worse.

Either Disney is trying to appease “modest” Muslims or they’ve gone the way of the rest of Hollywood and are trying to make their feminine characters more masculine.

Quelle horreur! Disney’s making their feminine characters more “masculine!” Snow White has taken up the chewing tobbaccy! Ariel is arm-wrestling Aurora! Disney princesses are acting like three-dimensional characters with thoughts and desires of their own!

But worst of all…the most nefarious act…the unkindest cut…is what they’ve done to Tinker Bell!

tinkcompare

Yes, that’s right! They’ve given Tinker Bell a different outfit to wear!

Now, you may look at that picture and say, “Wait — uh, isn’t Tinker Bell still pretty much dressed like, say, Tinker Bell might be if it was cold out? And mightn’t that be because in the new movie, it’s supposed to be fall?” Well, sure, those would be good points if you weren’t looking for proof that Hollywood is secretly trying to turn our children into the gay. But Debbie’s way ahead of you.

Yes, Disney claims that it’s new Tinker Bell release, “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” out on DVD on October 27th takes place in the fall when weather is cooler, but the weather has never affected Tinker Bell couture before. It’s a cartoon character, not a weather dependent human.

Yeah! She’s a cartoon character! Therefore, there’s no reason to try to make any attempt at a realistic portrayal of her. After all, if girls see that even fairies can get cold when it’s cold out, they might start questioning whether they too should put on tights with their skirt, maybe switch to boots when it’s slushy out, or put on a hat when the wind’s blowing. And it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump until they’re moving to Taxachusetts and marrying their girlfriends. Which the Muslims are, evidently, in favor of. Or something.

Now, you might be sitting there at your computer, banging your head against the keyboard, saying, “Jeff, I mean, not only is Tinker Bell not dressed like a linebacker, she isn’t even dressed in such a way that challenges conventional beauty norms! Far from being dressed like a lumberjack, she’s dressed…well, actually, still pretty scantily!” Well, sure, but Debbie thinks she’s not dressed scantily enough, and this will turn your daughter gay.

There’s nothing wrong with rebranding something to keep up with the times, but turning a charming, cute girly character into some masculine, butch action star is stupid. Unless your audience is strictly WNBA. And that’s called mass-market suicide.

See? Debbie doesn’t want your daughters becoming butch or masculine, and for that reason, we need to make sure that Tinker Bell is displayed in as sexy a way as possible, so that girls can see how hot she is. Because…that will keep girls from becoming fans of the WNBA, like those people.

If you’re a parent who thinks the new covered up version is a welcome change in a sexualized world, think again. Tinker Bell has been wearing a skimpy dress for decades (watch the slide show). That’s what nymphs who fly around with magic wands do.

Um…Debbie? Yeah…there aren’t actually nymphs. They’re mythical creatures. Also, even if nymphs did exist, that wouldn’t mean much, as Tinker Bell is a faerie. They are also mythical. Disney is telling a story about a character that they have nearly as much ownership of as J.M. Barrie; they can kinda, sorta depict her however they want to.

Oh, and I did view the slide show, and guess what? Even Disney worked through a number of different designs before settling on the Tinker Bell we know today. Not all were dressed in skimpy outfits, some were depicted as “tomboyish,” some as akin to the Blue Fairy, some almost alien. Not to mention that Disney was adapting her from Barrie’s characterization, in which she was portrayed as a tinker, hence the name. Funny, when thinking of traditionally “feminine” jobs, tinsmith is not the job that comes first to mind.

I can’t imagine Disney redoing the cast of “The Lion King” and dressing them for the North Pole.

You can’t? I can, if they were really going to do a “Lion King Meets Santa” Christmas special. Of course, they’d never do that, because they’re in the pocket of Big Islam.

This isn’t about putting your girls in a less sexually-saturated world. It’s about putting them in a more emasculated one, where the men are girls and the Tinker Bells are men.

And that’s never a good thing. As I always say, matriarchical societies die. They simply don’t have staying power. Butch Disney characters for girls is not a positive development.

Yes, Tinker Bell is a man, because she wears leggings. And men are totally women, because…well, we never got to that, but I’m sure it’s probably because now we can’t masturbate to our children’s videos anymore. Alas.

The fact is that Tinker Bell is a female character, and would be if she was wearing hockey gear. She would be if she cut her hair in a buzz cut. She would be if she took up a job as a truck driver. She would be if she were gay. None of those things affect her gender. They only affect our picture of what gender roles are supposed to be.

Well, to hell with gender roles, if they tell women that they can’t wear warm clothes when it’s cold out. To hell with gender roles if they tell women they can’t be adventurous, can’t be athletic, can’t be “tomboys,” because that will make them less female. To hell with gender roles if they say that men must always break the paths, and suffer in silence, because it’s not a man’s job to feel. To hell with gender roles if it says anyone has to behave or dress or think or feel a certain way to simply be the person they are.

Ironically, Debbie can’t help but throw anti-Muslim barbs into even this misogynist post. Ironic, because in truth, Debbie believes exactly what the most hardened adherent to Shari’a Law believes — that men and women are fundamentally different, and that straying outside the defined gender roles for either is something that must be proscribed. It makes me wonder why she fights so hard against those with whom she so clearly agrees.

(Via S,N!)

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Popular (and unpopular) culture | 34 Comments

Time Travel Movie Marathon

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Ampersand

Definites:

13 12 Monkeys.

Leading contenders:

Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Time Bandits

The “Future Echos” episode of Red Dwarf.

Groundhog Day

The “Time and Punishment” segment from Treehouse of Horror V

“Blink” from Dr. Who

Maybes:

Primer

Time Crimes

Peggy Sue Got Married

The Terminator (or maybe T2)

Back To The Future

The Prisoner of Azkiban

I’m interested in more suggestions. Eventually, I’ll whittle it down to 4-6 items.

Also, if you’re in Portland and interested in attending, let me know. :-)

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 31 Comments

Health care IS an anti-racist issue.

Posted on October 16, 2009 by nojojojo

health-care-is-an-anti-racist-issue

(And feminist, and anti-classist, and pro-GLBTQI, and anti-ablist, and so on. It’s a human right.)

Apologies for being so quiet lately, ya’ll. I’m up to my ears in writing books and writing grants to help me keep writing books and writing resumes to help me get the grants to help me keep writing books. But I’ve also been dealing with some bullshit.

See, I’m one of the 25 million Americans who are underinsured. I have health insurance — pay $350/month for it — as part of a new policy that I switched to back in January when I quit my 9 to 5 to become a freelancer/fulltime writer for awhile. I’m pretty healthy and only in my thirties, but I have a family history of fibroids (like 50% of black women). So every year when I get my annual physical, I also get an ultrasound to check for those. This year the test showed small fibroids — too small to worry about, really, not even requiring treatment, though I need to keep an eye on them in case they grow. No biggie, I thought; my doctor’s efforts at preventative care had done what they were supposed to do, and detected a potential problem early enough that I can fix it easily if necessary. Health care at its best.

Except, not. See, because I’ve been on my health insurance policy for less than a year, my fibroids are automatically considered a preexisting condition — even though I didn’t have them on the last ultrasound I got, less than a year before. It doesn’t matter if they actually are preexisting, see; what matters is that they were discovered before I’d paid 12 months’ worth of premiums. For some insurers, it’s 18 months. This is a common feature of health insurance policies; even if you’re paying your premiums during that time, even if you can prove you didn’t have the problem before the 12-month period, if you come up with anything worse than a head cold, you’re fucked. Which is why I’m now looking at a bill for $3000 for the preventative ultrasound.

Like I said, bullshit.

I’m fighting this, of course, and hopefully will succeed in getting them to cover my care. And I’m praying daily that the fibroids don’t grow and nothing else major goes wrong with any part of my body in the next few months. Because even though I’m paying through the nose for health care, I now know I’m not really covered.

Now, multiply my situation several million, because 25 million Americans are underinsured and I know full well I’m not the only brown one of those. Consider the number of us who are disproportionately affected by poverty, and compare that against the fact that health insurance premiums keep rising by as much as 150% per decade while wages remain essentially flat (note: PDF). Consider how little media attention, medical research, and government funding is accorded to health issues that primarily or disproportionately affect people of color, like sickle cell anemia. Consider also how the intersection of race with gender or other factors, and the lingering effects of colonialism, cause literal epidemics of poor health care, addiction and/or violence in some PoC communities, like ongoing rape and involuntary sterilization among American Indian women. (See also unusualmusic’s insightful linkspams on women in prison, intersexed women of color, and more.)

This is killing us. It is killing us. The current health care system of the US kills people across the board, yes. But it’s killing more of us. And it’s leaving a greater proportion of us in abject poverty or lifelong trauma if we survive.

So we, especially, need to fight back.

I just joined this group, which along with similar groups is trying to organize protests in support of a single-payer plan. They recently sponsored a series of protests in New York at the headquarters of several insurance companies. They’re using the techniques of the Civil Rights Movement — sit-ins, civil disobedience, etc. But I couldn’t help noticing that all of the protesters’ faces, as shown in videos , were white.

WTF? I don’t know if this was yet another case of a white-dominated progressive group neglecting to reach out to PoC or what — but fuck it, we need to be out there. Whether you’re for single payer or a public option or just some kind of reform that doesn’t suck, whether with the group I mentioned or any other, we need to be the ones storming the gates at Blue Cross and United Health. We need to be writing to our representatives and Senators, and even President Obama. We need to be in the fucking street. We are dying, and as usual, it’s up to us to save ourselves.

So do something. Join a group, donate some money, write some letters, march in protest. Seriously. Fight back.

And now a word from our sponsor…


Your ad could be here, right now.

Health care IS an anti-racist issue.

Posted in Syndicated feeds | 1 Comment

Prison Diaries…A short linkspam

Posted on October 15, 2009 by unusualmusic

To start off, a couple of booksThe Real Cost of Prison Project Comics that have been thoroughly researched dealing with the War on Drugs, the cost of Prison Towns and how prison affects women and children.

The Incarcerated Woman: Rehabilative Programming in Women’s Prisons (Paperback)

Resistance behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Lets take a short look at how disabled prisoners are treated in prison in a couple of developed countries:

USA Disablement, Prison, and Historical Segregation

The story of disablement and the prison industrial complex must begin with a trail of telling numbers: a disproportionate number of persons incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails are disabled. Though Census Bureau data suggest that disabled persons represent roughly one-fifth of the total population, prevalence of disability among prisoners is startlingly higher, for reasons we will examine later. While no reliable cross- disability demographics have been compiled nationwide, numerous studies now enable us to make educated estimates regarding the incidence of various disability categories among incarcerated persons. Hearing loss, for example, is estimated to occur in 30 percent of the prison population, while estimates of the prevalence of mental retardation among prisoners range from 3 to 9.5 percent.

Rates of learning disability are spectacularly high among prisoners; in studies conducted among incarcerated juveniles, learning disabilities have been estimated to occur in up to 55 percent of youth nationwide; in one single-state study, 70 percent of youth qualified for special education. As for mental disabilities, in California anywhere from one-sixth to one-fourth of prisoners are believed to have diagnosable “serious mental disorders.” Most stunning of all is a four-state study which examined juveniles imprisoned for capital offenses; virtually 100 percent of those studied were multiply disabled (neurological impairment, psychiatric illness, cognitive deficits), having suffered serious central nervous system injuries resulting from extreme physical and sexual abuse since early childhood.1

Why are so many prisoners in the United States disabled?MORE

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners

Editor’s Note: The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system, writes investigative journalist James Ridgeway. The following is a special report written for The Crime Report, a publication of the Center on Media, Crime, and Justice at John Jay College for Criminal Justice, City University of New York. It originally appeared in Ridgeway’s blog.

In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found himself at New York City’s Rikers Island jail facility for a couple of months on a disorderly conduct charge. The demonstrator, who happened to be a friend of mine, met a handful of young men from the Bronx in his unit who were deaf.

They were having trouble communicating with anyone but themselves. My friend knew a little sign language and, after a few conversations, discovered they were illiterate. With the idea of helping them improve their communication skills, he asked prison authorities for permission to order books on sign language from the publisher. The wardens refused, saying that they did not want anyone in that prison using a “language” they could not understand. (and the understanding of the deaf prisoners, of course, is completely unimportant, yes/yes?!)

Things may have changed a little for the better since then. But not by much.MORE

ENGLAND:7 March 2007 –

Lost, bullied and trapped: report on people with a learning disability in prison
New research by the Prison Reform Trust released today shows that people with a learning disability in prison are not being identified. They are also bullied, cut out of rehabilitation courses and prison staff are not given the training or resources to deal with them.
The report, based on an unprecedented survey of professionals within prisons in England and Wales, shows that some prisoners with a learning disability do not even know why they are in prison. The report also estimates that 16,000 – 24,000 prisoners in England and Wales, 20-30% of the population, have a learning disability or difficulty that interferes with their ability to cope. MORE

A quick look at how Women and Children are treated in the USA and the Phillipines.
The USA :In Labor and In Chains

We also have video from RH Reality Check showing the surreal story of Shawanna Nelson, who was forced into shackles when she went into labor while serving a jail sentence on a nonviolent offense. Nelson and her attorney recount her story, which ended with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that her shackling was unconstitutional–and that she can sue the guards who shackled her.

Witness – Hard Time: Philippines jail children – Part 1

Children locked up in adult jails in the Philippines dream of the day they’re released. But, for many, things are scarcely better on the outside. A heart-rending story told in a child prisoners own words.

Witness – Hard Time: Philippines jail children – Part 2

And there is a special hell reserved for Transgender inmates:

Cruel and Unusual

After arrest, no matter the crime, countless transgender women are incarcerated in men’s prisons across the United States. These transwomen are denied medical and psychological care as well as the hormone therapy that keeps their system regulated. While painfully struggling against sudden chemical deficiency, these women are often victims of heinous crimes committed by the general prison population and prison staff including assault, rape, and murder. CRUEL AND UNUSUAL is an often unsettling documentary that candidly presents the challenges and inhumane treatment faced by these women.

Prison is supposed to be a punishment and a deterrent to crime. But they don’t actually stop crime, as these videos and articles attest:

The USA: Witness – Omar – Trailer

One man’s story reveals the social and psychological barriers that so many low-income African-American men face in the context of prison and release .

URUGUAY: Prison Without Bars Offers True Rehabilitation

MONTEVIDEO, Oct 15 (IPS) – Fabián Rodríguez has two years to go on a long sentence for robbery. After spending time in three overcrowded maximum security prisons in Uruguay, he finally landed in a rehabilitation centre where work and respect are central pillars. Now he runs a bakery which supplies 200 inmates as well as the guards.

The National Rehabilitation Centre (CNR), which operates in an old psychiatric hospital, is a model prison practically without bars that has an extremely low recidivism rate among its former inmates.

Rodríguez spent time in the prison named Libertad – which paradoxically means “Freedom” – located 50 km from Montevideo, where the 1973-1985 military dictatorship kept hundreds of political prisoners. He was also held in the Santiago Vázquez Penitentiary Complex, the country’s largest prison, and in La Tablada, both of which are located on the outskirts of the Uruguayan capital.

The poor conditions in Uruguay’s prisons have come under scrutiny from international human rights organisations.

In La Tablada, nevertheless, Rodríguez was able to learn professional baking skills – “by watching and earning my stripes” – and he later formed part of a group of prisoners who founded a baking cooperative, the Cooperativa Panificadora de Apoyo Social.

It was then, he told IPS, that he applied for a transfer.

After he made it to the CNR, he and his fellow inmates established a new branch of the La Tablada cooperative, which opened in late July. But they hope to eventually have their own independent cooperative.MORE

And of course, prison can help to break you further.

No Escape: Prison Rape (A Documentary)

This is a short documentary I came across while researching a school project. It was made in 2001 and it tells the story of 17 year old Rodney Hullin, who committed suicide in a Texas prison after being physically and sexually assaulted several times. I hope it opens the eyes of many to the problems of abuse and violence in america’s prisons today. It is not a very good quality video, but it will do.

I do not own this film. It was produced by Gabriel Films with funding from the Human Rights Watch. It has been shown to lobby efforts in preventing prison rape, as well as to train incoming police and prison officers.

And now a word from our sponsor…


Your ad could be here, right now.

Prison Diaries…A short linkspam

Posted in Site and Admin Stuff, Syndicated feeds | 7 Comments

Brave Republicans Uncover Secret Muslim Plot to Lobby Congress

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

Let’s thank the Ceiling Cat tonight for four brave Republican U.S. Reps — John Shadegg of Arizona, Paul Broun of Georgia, Trent Franks of Arizona, and Sue Myrick of North Carolina. You see, they have uncovered the most terrormorfyingest Muslamofascist plot in the history of history. It seems that the Council on American Islamic Relations has engaged in a sinister plot to take over America by…well, it’s all too shocking:

Four Republican lawmakers have accused the most prominent Islamic advocacy group in Washington of trying to plant “spies” as interns on Capitol Hill.

[…]

In an unusual announcement this morning, four conservative Republicans — Reps. John Shadegg (Ariz.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Trent Franks (Ariz.) and Sue Myrick (N.C.) — formally asked the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the Center for American-Islamic Relations. They accused CAIR, a non profit group, of trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill with interns and staffers.

Shadegg said Wednesday that CAIR is an organization that “members of Congress should be aware of and that should be investigated by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service.”

[…]

The proclamation from the four Republicans came in advance of a book, entitled “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” which includes a forward by Myrick. The author of the book, Dave Gaubatz, an anti-Islam activist who wrote last year that “a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.”

The lawmakers also released a one page “strategy” document they said they obtained from CAIR.

Not just a strategy document. An evil strategy document! Why, just look at the terrifying things CAIR wanted to do! Things like, er, building a grass-roots lobbying network! And raising money! And studying the media! And blogging! And building a database! A database!

Yes, it turns out that CAIR plans to destroy America by working within the American political system to influence policy to favor the interests of their group’s members, interests like (I assume) not being denied access to flights simply because of one’s religion, or possibly the implementation of Shari’a Law. You never know.

Shockingly, as part of their plan, CAIR has encouraged young American Muslims to become Congressional staffers, doing so surreptitiously, utilizing secret Muslim communications methods such as press releases and Facebook pages.

It is a terrifying thought, but at least we’re only talking about staffers. It’s not like the International Monolithic Muslim Conspiracy has placed its dastardly saboteurs in Congress itself. Jeebus help us if that ever happens.

Posted in Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 7 Comments

Recoommendations, please!

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Mandolin

I’m looking for non-fiction about Mars, or possibly fiction that’s as educational as non-fiction. Please leave your suggestions!

Posted in Whatever | 4 Comments

You Down With G.O.P.? Yeah, You Know Me!

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

For the love of the Ceiling Cat, Michael Steele, really?

The long-in-the-planning beta launch of the new RNC website is being greeted with some predictable snark from liberal blogs — a lot of it directed at Chairman Michael Steele’s blog, “What Up?”

“What Up?” Really? Really‽ That’s like a 93-year-old white guy’s idea of how them colored kids speak.

I think it’s about time to dust this off.

Posted in Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 10 Comments

Bruce Jenner Has an Opinion

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

Bruce Jenner is terribly, terribly upset at Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. And for some reason, the Politico cares.

I think it’s only fair to run this trailer for the 1980 film Can’t Stop the Music, starring Bruce Jenner and The Village People.

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture, The Obama Administration | 2 Comments