Alas, a Blog | Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about.

Fugitive Child Rapist Arrested in Switzerland

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

Roman Polanski, a convicted child rapist who has been living in exile since fleeing punishment in 1978, was arrested on Saturday night in Zurich, Switzerland, on an international warrant. Polanski, 76, has been living in France since he pled guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. Polanski had made the plea deal in order to avoid the more serious charges of rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious acts upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor.

Polanski said in his defense at the time that the 13-year-old child was “sexually experienced,” and “consented,” thus arguing that somehow it would be okay for a 44-year-old to have sex with a 13-year-old in Jack Nicholson’s hot tub even if he hadn’t drugged her, which he had.

Polanski, who has directed a number of films, including Chinatown and The Pianist, had traveled to Zurich to accept an award for his filmmaking. The arrest outraged the government of France, which evidently doesn’t feel child rape is a serious crime. French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was “stunned” by the arrest, adding that he “profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life.” Mitterand did not comment on the fact that the ordeal was being “inflicted” on Polanski because he raped a girl, and avoided justice for three decades.

A number of people who’ve worked with Polanski and pretended not to be aware that he once raped a child also came to his defense, arguing that he raped a child a long time ago, and was a really charming guy, and rich and stuff, so he should be allowed to get away with rape and with fleeing punishment for rape.

It remains to be seen whether Polanski will ultimately be extradited to the United States. His attorneys have vowed to fight extradition, and Polanski, as a man of means, is able to hire expensive attorneys. Nevertheless, the arrest serves as a reminder that whatever his skill at directing or his ability to make small talk at cocktail parties, Roman Polanski is a man who drugged and raped a kid. And by his actions he is making sure we never forget it.

Posted in Rape, intimate violence, & related issues | 2 Comments

Stay Classy, Michele

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

So Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Shame, was down in St. Louis today, where she ignored Lincoln’s axiom on being thought a fool as per usual. But what is really impressive is this little sequence from her departure, as reported by the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel:

After the speech, Bachmann had only a few minutes to sign autographs and collect a stack of CDs and books from fans who’d followed her into the lobby. I caught up to her as she headed outside and asked if she had any response to the murder of a Kentucky census worker, having noticed that the Census, a constant target for Bachmann, did not figure into her speech. Bachmann recoiled a little at the question and turned to enter her limo.

“Thank you so much!” she said.

That’s…well, it’s pathetic, that’s what it is. It wouldn’t have taken Bachmann but a second to say, “Well obviously, I condemn violence, yadda yadda.”

Of course, someone who didn’t condemn this sort of violence would simply get into a limo and duck the question.

As for the murder of Bill Sparkman, the evidence coming out makes it quite apparent that he was, indeed, targeted for being a census worker:

One of the witnesses who found a part-time census worker’s body hanging in a Kentucky cemetery says the man was naked and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who discovered the body of Bill Sparkman on Sept. 12.

Sparkman was a substitute teacher who worked part-time for the census. Law enforcement officials have released very few details on his death, only saying he died from asphyxiation.

Weaver says the man also was gagged and had duct tape over his eyes and neck. He says something that looked like an identification tag was taped to the side of his neck.

Some on the right have suggested this might be a suicide, or possibly the work of drug dealers. Well, drug dealers generally don’t target census workers, and don’t ritualistically display those they kill. As for suicide, the details of Sparkman’s death pretty much eliminate any chance of that.

If they wanted to redeem their mortal souls, people like Bachmann and Glenn Beck, people who have been slagging on the census for months, could at the very least condemn this act of violence. I might even be willing to believe them. It’s possible they didn’t think their words had the power to motivate people. (They certainly fail to motivate me.) It’s possible they didn’t think through the consequences of what they were saying. It’s possible that they actually feel terrible about all this.

It’s possible. But the longer the silence goes on, the more clear it is that it’s pretty unlikely. I suspect Bachmann sleeps quite well at night. I suspect she isn’t bothered by this murder one bit. And I suspect that she’ll come out as a pro-choice, atheist, lesbian Democrat before she takes even the basic human step of saying that this sort of violence is wrong.

I’d love to be surprised, Rep. Bachmann. I’d love for you to prove me wrong. But I don’t think you’re going to.

Posted in Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 17 Comments

Alternative Housing: Otherwise known as “I want an Earthship!”

Posted on September 26, 2009 by unusualmusic

So I have the headache from hell, and I wasn’t able to finish the disabled women athletes post. I’ll try to get it up on Monday. In the meantime, environmentally friendly housing has been on my mind. These links are from two old posts I did last year:

Cob Houses
Pic from:Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development

Cob houses are made with a mixture of clay, straw, sand, earth and water. The ingredients are similar to an adobe brick home, but, unlike adobe homes, cob houses can be built in wet areas and areas prone to earthquakes. Because the earth walls of a cob home are typically more than 2ft thick, they are naturally energy-efficient. Meaning cob homes stay cool in the summer, and warm in the winter.

Cob homes also give home-owners more control over design and construction. They are owner-built, and the unique nature of the material gives the owner-builder the ability to create nearly any kind of design. With a little help from your friends and a few free weekends, you can build your own cob home for next to nothing, often from materials that are already on site.

Useful links

1.How to build a Cob House (with loads of pictures)

2.How to build a cob house, (another website)

3.The Hand-Sculpted House, A Practical and Philosophical Guide

4.Building with Cob, a step-by-step guide

5.Cob Works: Company that helps you build one

6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Building With Cob

7.Green Home Buildings:Cob Houses

8.Building in a cold climate

9.Tons. Of. Pics. Seriously. Its a HELL of a gallery

Earthships (GLEE!!!!! I want one of these!)

More Earthship Informational Videos on Youtube

Advantages and Disadvanatages of Earthships

Article in Wired that breaks down the concept

Books, Videos, History, Facts

dirt cheap builder: books, dvds available to teach you how to build homes cheaply and sustainably

Real estate listing of available earthships

Informative article in The Guardian:What a load of rubbish

Scotland’s first Earthship

Earthship Architectural Plans

Earthship:Brighton

John Kejr’s Earthship blog-get listings, ask questions find out how to make glass bottle bricks…

Container Homes

Container Homes in London

SG Blocks Container Homes in the US

SG Blocks Website

Informative Article with cool pics

And now a word from our sponsor…

Your ad could be here, right now.

Alternative Housing: Otherwise known as “I want an Earthship!”

Posted in Site and Admin Stuff, Syndicated feeds | 5 Comments

Last Drink Bird Head, an anthology for charity featuring Mandolin

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Ampersand

You can now pre-order Last Drink Bird Head, an anthology of flash fiction by science fiction and fantasy writers (“flash” means “very short”), including our own Mandolin, writing as “Rachel Swirsky.”

What Is Last Drink Bird Head? That’s the catalyst editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer provided to over 80 writers in creating this unique anthology, with all proceeds going to Proliteracy.org. All each writer got was an email with “Last Drink Bird Head” in the subject line and the directions “Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head? Under 500 words.” The result? Last Drink Bird Head is a blues musician, a performance artist, a type of alcohol, a town in Texas, and even a song sung by girl scouts in Antarctica. Famed designer John Coulthart did the interior, which features bobbing bird heads in the corners of the pages, so that the antho is also a flipbook.

In addition to Mandollin, contributors include Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brian Evenson, Henry Kaiser, Gene Wolfe, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Holly Phillips, Stephen R. Donaldson, K.J. Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Ellen Kushner, Daniel Abraham, Jay Lake, Liz Williams, Tanith Lee, Sarah Monette, Conrad Williams, Marly Youmans, Cat Rambo, and many others.

Posted in About the Bloggers, Mandolin's fiction & poems | 1 Comment

And so, the war begins once again… (Open letter to Obama)

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Ampersand

From a neurologist’s blog:

Dear President Obama,

I’m writing to you for the first time.

I don’t want this to be a political blog. There are plenty of other sites for that. But we now face a national crisis of such serious proportions that it dwarfs other issues, such as global warming, health care, and middle-east peace. It now threatens the very fabric of our society, and directly affects every citizen. And I can remain silent no longer.

It’s still September, and every store near me ALREADY HAS THEIR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS UP!

I have nothing against the holidays, Mr. President. Peace on Earth and all that stuff. But moving them up as if they were being held in another time-zone or alternate universe is getting out-of-hand. As far as I know, Christmas hasn’t budged in my lifetime. And treating every day like it was Christmas (like the stores seem to want me to do) is not helping.

The well-respected Nick documentary program, The Fairly Oddparents, has carefully researched what would happen if Christmas were held every day (Episode 107, air date 12-12-01 I have kids, OKAY!). Their conclusion? It would be catastrophic.

More.

Posted in Whatever | 24 Comments

Because Men are Stupid and Shallow, That's Why

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jeff Fecke

Now, I’m a heterosexual man. And as such, I will freely confess that I like breasts. They’re definitely in my top five body parts human beings have, even though only about 50 percent of human beings have them. ((Some women don’t have them, some men do. Hence, roughly 50%.))

That said, the thing about breasts that I generally like the most is that they’re usually attached to living, breathing women, and I like women, because, you know, they’re people. Many of them are people I like, and consider friends. All of them are worth far more than the breasts attached to them; that should go without saying.

Because women have breasts, they can get breast cancer. That’s a bad thing. Happily, there are a number of organizations out there working to combat this disease, and that’s great, because finding treatments for breast cancer will keep women alive. And since I have a number of women who are friends and family of mine who I’d like to stay alive for as long as possible, I’m foursquare in favor of doing things to improve their health.

That concern, I should note, is completely distinct from whether I want there to be lots of cancer-free breasts for me to stare at. Because, you know, if breast cancer was a disease that simply deflated breasts and had no other effects whatsoever, I’d say it was a pretty meaningless thing to cure. Indeed, given that one of the more common cures for breast cancer is a radical mastectomy, current breast cancer treatments are properly focused on protecting women at the expense of their breasts. And I’m all for that, because the loss of a breast or two is infinitely less tragic than the loss of a human.

Evidently, though, I’m crazy to think this way. Really, the important thing is the breasts. Canada’s ReThink Breast Cancer says so, and who am I to argue?

Now, the dumbest thing about this ad — other than that it mysteriously features a group of stereotypically Soviet submariners from bad movies of yore — is that the focus of the ad is squarely on saving “boobs.” Because, you know, men (and women, I guess, but mostly men) like “boobs.”

Well, sorry, but I’m not so worried about that. Yes, if by happy accident breast cancer treatments manage to reduce the number of mastectomies, that’s great — but it’s great because mastectomies are painful, difficult surgeries that put women through a great deal of pain and suffering.

I don’t care about breasts. ((Using the word “boobs” makes you sound like an 11-year-old.)) Oh, I like them fine, but I’m not that worried about them. The women they’re attached to are what concern me, them and their friends and their families. Unlike the insinuation of the ad, I actually care about women beyond whether they’re attractive enough for me to ogle. And I daresay that this does not differentiate me from the vast majority of men in the world.

Believe it or not, but men are capable of empathy. We are capable of feelings other than lust and rage. And we are capable of realizing that the reason breast cancer research needs funding is because it will keep more women alive longer. And that is unquestionably a good thing.

I’m insulted by this ad. Because I don’t need to “rethink” my attitude toward breast cancer. Just as we don’t need an ad urging that we must save the penises by researching prostate cancer, we don’t need an ad telling us that curing breast cancer will save breasts. If it saves women, that’s quite enough, thanks.

(Via Judy Berman)

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Health Care and Related Issues, Sexism hurts men | 10 Comments

If you want population growth, support alternative families

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Ampersand

People who promote “traditional” marriage, and oppose official support for or recognition of other family forms, are often the same people who worry about the relatively low fertility rates in the US and other wealthy nations.

The blog Demography Matters quotes from a newspaper article, about attitudes towards motherhood in Germany — attitudes that too many cultural conservatives in the United States share.

Unbeknownst to most outsiders, Germany is the most difficult place in Western Europe to be a working mother, with a deeply ingrained culture of machismo that expects women to give up their lives once they have children.

The ideology itself was Ms. Hoffritz’s biggest barrier. When she talked about her frustrations, her friends and relatives openly denounced her as a rabenmutter – literally “raven mother,” a woman who abandons her children, like the mythic ravens throwing their chicks from the nest. It is a term routinely applied to working mothers in Germany.

“When I got pregnant, even though I’d had a career for 20 years, everyone expected me to drop my job forever, to take care of my son and not do anything else all day for the rest of my life, and they got angry when I said otherwise,” she says. “Friends just thought I should be a full-time mom.”

This attitude, unsurprisingly, discourages women from having children. A new study by Jean-Marie Le Goff compares higher-fertility France with lower-fertility Germany:

Women in France, Le Goff argues, have access to a whole variety of family structures, from the traditional nuclear marriage family to a family marked by cohabitation to single motherhood, with a relatively long tradition of recognizing the responsibilities of parents towards their children regardless of their legal status, with the idea of mothers working outside of the home not only being accepted but supported by any number subsidies to parents to affordable and accessible day care. In West Germany, social and policy norms tend to support traditional family structures. The result? In France, people are childbearing age are split between two sectors, one defined by marriage relationships and the other defined by cohabitation relationships. On the other side of the Rhine, people of childbearing age are split between people who have children and people who don’t. Katja Köppen’s Second Births in Western Germany and France (Demographic Research 14.14) further points out that whereas Frenchwomen seem to enjoy an institutional structure that encourages motherhood and there isn’t a contradiction between high levels of education–hence employment–and fertility, there is such a contradiction in western Germany, with government spending priorities in the latter country being directed towards the support of traditional families. It’s not too much of a surprise, then, that the German Federal Statistics Office reports that [the number] of childless women is rising, particularly in the former West Germany.

Personally, I don’t care if fertility in the US goes down or up; I suspect any deficit in our population caused by declining births can be made up for by increased immigration. But those who are concerned about fertility rates, should consider supporting, rather than denigrating, alternative family forms.

(Curtsy to Economic Woman.)

Posted in Families structures, divorce, etc | 4 Comments

"There never were any good old days": new communications tech is always feared

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Ampersand

I liked this interview with Dennis Baron, the author of A Better Pencil.

Historically, when the new communication device comes out, the reaction tends to be divided. Some people think it’s the best thing since sliced bread; other people fear it as the end of civilization as we know it. And most people take a wait and see attitude. And if it does something that they’re interested in, they pick up on it, if it doesn’t, they don’t buy into it.

I start with Plato’s critique of writing where he says that if we depend on writing, we will lose the ability to remember things. Our memory will become weak. And he also criticizes writing because the written text is not interactive in the way spoken communication is. He also says that written words are essentially shadows of the things they represent. They’re not the thing itself. Of course we remember all this because Plato wrote it down — the ultimate irony.

We hear a thousand objections of this sort throughout history: Thoreau objecting to the telegraph, because even though it speeds things up, people won’t have anything to say to one another. Then we have Samuel Morse, who invents the telegraph, objecting to the telephone because nothing important is ever going to be done over the telephone because there’s no way to preserve or record a phone conversation. There were complaints about typewriters making writing too mechanical, too distant — it disconnects the author from the words. That a pen and pencil connects you more directly with the page. And then with the computer, you have the whole range of “this is going to revolutionize everything” versus “this is going to destroy everything.”

So it’s always true that the new technology — whatever that new technology is — is going to destroy civilization, make kids into idiots, etc.. Fortunately, this never actually seems to be the case. (Not so far, anyway). If anything, scholars seem to be finding that the internet — by making people write much more — is making us into better writers.

P.S. By the way, it’s also not true that the current generation of kids knows less than past generations did. People have been saying that about young people since at least the 1800s, and it never seems to have been true.

Posted in Mind-blowing Miscellania and other Neat Stuff | 10 Comments