Open Thread Link Farm: Yo-Yo in Spaaaaaaace Edition

  1. Absentee ballots and undocumented citizenship A good post on the GOP’s likely-to-succeed attempts at voter suppression.
  2. Closing the Memory Hole: Remembering the Dance Marathons
  3. QUOTE: And if we were to recognize that self-righteous indignation is a bona fide drug high, and that yes, just like alcohol, some of us can engage in it on occasion — as a matter of fact, when I engage in it, I get into a real bender — but then say, “Enough.” —David Brin
  4. Regnerus study controversy guide
  5. Jimmy Fallon Sings The Reading Rainbow Theme Song in the Style of The Doors
  6. If you have a few bucks, please consider donating to the fund to rebuild the Joplin Mosque, which was destroyed by arson. “This is, of course, far from the only incident of its kind; to the contrary, in a trend largely ignored by the American media, hate crimes against American Muslims are at epidemic levels.”
  7. Reasons Given for Inaction of Men’s Rights Movements
  8. The Fiscal Cliff No One Is Talking About: Unemployment benefits will soon run out for many.
  9. Incredible New Sketchbook Illustrations from Mattias Adolfsson
  10. If poverty is caused by bad culture, what does that say about the conservative states?
  11. Jeannette wasn’t filled with hate. She simply didn’t know much about gays — just enough, in fact, to be completely wrong about us. … I didn’t find hate on that doorstep.”
  12. Exaggerating gender changes (stay at home dads are not the new normal)
  13. In the years since the collapse of 2008, the existence of mass unemployment has stopped being something the economic powers that be even pretend to regard as a crisis.”
  14. Nine takeaways on Romney’s tax plan.

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22 Responses to Open Thread Link Farm: Yo-Yo in Spaaaaaaace Edition

  1. RonF says:

    Joe Biden doesn’t know what century it is, he doesn’t know what state he’s in, and “he’s gonna put y’all in chains” is racist. Tell me again how he’s so much more fit to be President than Sarah Palin. And I’m no Palin fan, either.

  2. Tamen says:

    Stay at home dads are the new normal in the sense that they no longer are seen as abnormal. That’s at least what i got out of the full quote from the NY Times article:

    “Just a few years ago, I was usually the lone dad on the playground during the day,” … “The moms and nannies gawked at me like I was an exhibit at the zoo. Now, I’m the new normal.”

  3. Tamen says:

    Which only proves that Mark Lunsford Pryor was right.

  4. Grace Annam says:

    “Legitimate rape”.

    My mind boggles.

    From the article:

    “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in a clip posted to YouTube by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

    Hear that, ladies? If you don’t want to be pregnant, just “shut that whole thing down”. Your “female body” has “ways”, and if you can’t tap into them, well, maybe your body just wasn’t female enough.

    Grace

  5. Tamen says:

    What’s even more disturbing is that it can be read as an argument that pregnancy implies consent (if it really was rape then you wouldn’t have gotten pregnant).

  6. Radfem says:

    Another idiotic misogynist line of bull from the Republicans. I’m not a huge fan of the Democrats either but I think they at least only hate women slightly less than the Republicans appear to do.

    Atkins just said what more men in politics believe out loud so people could hear it. That’s all.

  7. Elusis says:

    @Tamen – it was pointed out archly by one of my friends that this could revolutionize the criminal justice system and save money in the process. Did the victim get pregnant? Case dismissed!

  8. RonF says:

    Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has been accused of sexual harassment and discrimination against male employees.

    … the suit, filed by James T. Hayes, a special agent of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (A DHS office) in New York City, alleges that under Secretary Napolitano’s direction female staffers were routinely promoted over males. Additionally, female officials under the DHS umbrella are accused of fostering caustic and “sexually offensive” workplaces for men.

    He also names Suzanne Barr, the current chief of staff for the ICE, and alleges she knowingly created a hostile environment for her male staffers.

    Among the complaints detailed in the suit: in May, 2009, Barr “moved the entire contents of the offices of three employees, including name plates, computers and telephones, to the men’s bathroom at ICE headquarters,” and once called a male employee and screamed at him using “sexually humiliating language” including saying she wanted his “c–k in the back of [her] throat.”Hayes also claims Barr once stole a male staffer’s Blackberry and sent emails to a high-ranking woman indicating he “had a crush on [her] and fantasized about her.”

    Pretty sensational. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this. It’ll also be interesting to see what treatment this gets from the media, whether they’ll play it up.

  9. RonF says:

    Update to article #1:

    1) Under “heavy criticism,” the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio has come out for uniform statewide early voting rules, so that there will be a “level playing field” from county to county in Ohio, rather than allowing more voting in the suburbs and less in the cities — a situation that made the game awfully obvious. However, the new uniform rule will involve no weekend voting anywhere. Guess which party that will help.

    Hm. Seems to me that no weekend voting will favor people who don’t work during the week. What party will that help?

  10. Robert says:

    Akin’s comment was contemptible. It seems foolish to me, however, to attempt to partisanize it. I’ve heard that comment, or similar ones, a number of times…this time, and then many previous times. The previous times were all in Mississippi, and the people making it were Democrats. It’s a quasi-common justification by people who are pro-life but who don’t want (or aren’t able) to deal with the genuine moral conflict produced when dealing with pregnancies that come as a result of rape.

    Pro-life Democrats have been told or trained to hush up, which is why you don’t hear much from them these days. But they’re still out there, and some of them are ignorant of reproductive science (willfully or otherwise) just like Mr. Akin.

  11. Jake Squid says:

    Seems to me that no weekend voting will favor people who don’t work during the week. What party will that help?

    That’s obvious. The GOP since so much of their voter base are retirees on Social Security and Medicare!

  12. Eytan Zweig says:

    Robert – were those pro-life democrats running for a national election?

    This isn’t just about the views held by the Republican base, it’s about who the party chooses to endorse for a role in government.

    (Just to be entirely clear – I mean that above as a genuine question, not a rhetorical one, I really don’t know what the opinions of Mississippi democratic politicians are)

  13. Robert says:

    Akin isn’t running for a national election. We only have one of those.

    I agree that who the parties endorse can be indicative of their priorities; I would disagree that there’s any reason for one party or the other to be especially embarassed vis a vis their competition. Selection bias allows us all to think the other group full of fools; I see both sides as having fools thick on the ground. The only variance is in what they tend to be dumbasses about.

  14. RonF says:

    This isn’t just about the views held by the Republican base, it’s about who the party chooses to endorse for a role in government.

    My guess would be that Rep. Akin’s theories on rape and pregnancy didn’t come up during Mississippi’s GOP Senate primary.

  15. nobody.really says:

    The poor shall always be with us. How can we help them? A new study suggests a possible intervention: Give’em money!

    Using tax-reform induced variation in the federal EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit], we examine the impact of the credit on infant health outcomes. We find that increased EITC income reduces the incidence of low birth weight and increases mean birth weight. For single low education (<= 12 years) mothers, a policy-induced treatment on the treated increase of $1000 in EITC income is associated with 6.7 to 10.8% reduction in the low birth weight rate, with larger impacts for births to African American mothers. These impacts are evident with difference-in-difference models and event study analyses. Our results suggest that part of the mechanism for this improvement in birth outcomes is the result of more prenatal care and less negative health behaviors (smoking).

    In short: Less poverty today means less health problems tomorrow. If we’re going to socialize health care costs (and we should), let’s pay to stop certain chronic health problems in the womb — literally and metaphorically.

  16. nobody.really says:

    Generally I have not been impressed with the thesis that people who oppose homosexuals are repressing their own latent homosexuality.

    But, as Pat Roberson observed, hurricanes are God’s punishment for homosexuality. (That, and disco era fashions.) So when we God-fearing Christians see Hurricane Izaak descending on Tampa just in time for the Republican Convention, what other conclusion can we draw?

  17. Elusis says:

    It’s funny that when the tornado leveled Joplin MO last year, and half the Midwest flooded, there was no religious explanation for that. Strange how fickle God apparently is about when He’s using natural disasters to make a point and when he isn’t.

  18. Robert says:

    No, that one was God too. Floods and tornadoes are for people who spawn-camp in online MMORPGs. It just didn’t get as much press, because EVERYBODY hates those corn-fed loot jackers.

  19. Elusis says:

    Robert – good to know! I get so easily confused about these things.

  20. Robert says:

    Well. obviously God isn’t going to waste time updating a female therapis on current policy. He’s seen the comments at your blog; he knows how you are.

  21. Elusis says:

    Well, well, well. The bishop of Oakland, future archbishop of San Francisco, Mister Prop 8 because gay marriage threatens families himself, was arrested for drunk driving over the weekend.

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