{"id":2021,"date":"2005-12-21T18:00:18","date_gmt":"2005-12-22T01:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2021"},"modified":"2005-12-21T18:00:18","modified_gmt":"2005-12-22T01:00:18","slug":"various-links-and-open-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2021","title":{"rendered":"Various Links and Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’ve been reading lately…. Please leave comments about, well, anything. And as always, feel free to post links, to your own stuff or to other folks’ stuff.\n\n

The Fifth Carnival of Feminists Is Up!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How Magazine Covers Are Retouched<\/strong><\/a>
\nThis enjoyable site graphically demonstrates, with bef0re-and-after clicking, how much the cover photos of fashion magazines are retouched. It’s pretty impressive – the breast makeover is particularly ridiculous looking. Curtsy: The F-Word<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Anti-Prostitution Bill Targets Johns<\/strong><\/a>
\nInteresting article in the Washington Post<\/em> about a new federal anti-prostitution bill, which is aimed at reducing demand. “…In addition to funding shelters for ex-prostitutes and sponsoring a statistical survey of prostitution, it would authorize $25 million a year to law enforcement to reduce demand. Techniques would include using female decoys, posting pictures of johns on the Internet and establishing “john schools” to reeducate sex clients.”<\/p>\n

Harold Pinter Speech On American Wrongdoing<\/strong><\/a>
\nHistorical Conflict posts excerpts from a recent Harold Pinter speech, which (at least in the bits quoted) concentrates on the ills the US has done in Central America, and on the seemingly infinite American capacity to ignore and forget any harms done by the US.<\/p>\n

Statistics I Used In An Earlier Post Under Question<\/strong>
\nThe excellent Doctor Science<\/a> brings up some statistics contrary to the ones I cited in this post about the “Boy Crisis.”<\/a> The good Doctor also provides a link to this report from the American Council on Education (.pdf link<\/a>), which is where the stats I used apparently came from (the report concludes that race and class, more than sex, is where the most crucial educational disparities lie). For a discussion of the statistics, read the comments at Rachels Tavern<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teen Pregnancy Down<\/a><\/strong>
\nGruntled Center reports that teen pregnancy rates are dropping. He also cites a study which found that half the drop is because of better birth control; a quarter because of increased abstinence; and a quarter because non-abstinent teens are having sex less often than they used to.<\/p>\n

The Grossest Pet Story Ever<\/strong><\/a>
\nScroll down about a screen and you can read it. But it’s really gross. Curtsy: Grand Mental Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UMASS Student Questioned by Federal Agents For Studying Mao Tse-Tung<\/strong><\/a>
\nFrom the article:<\/em> “I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book,” Professor Pontbriand said. “Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that’s what triggered the visit, as I understand it.”<\/strike>
\nUPDATE: Turns out this story is a hoax<\/a> – the student made it up.<\/p>\n

Professor Files Complaint Against A Muslim Printer Repair Guy Who Wrote A Homophobic Email<\/strong><\/a>
\nI hate homophobia, but homophobes should still have free speech rights – including the right to respond negatively to an unsolicited pro-queer email. This professor (who is, I cringe upon reading, the head of the Women’s Studies Department) showed appallingly bad judgement in filing charges.<\/p>\n

Darwin Wins In Dover<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Susan Faludi is Cool<\/strong><\/a>
\n“My goal is to be accused of being strident.” – Susan Faludi.<\/p>\n

Pentagon Threatened By Queer Kissing<\/strong><\/a>
\nFrom the article:<\/em> Several groups are criticizing the Pentagon after press reports claimed it has been spying on civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel. […] A “don’t ask, don’t tell” protest at the University of California at Santa Cruz that featured a gay kiss-in was labeled by the Pentagon as a “credible threat” of terrorism. (Hat tip: Shakespeare’s Sister<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Patriarchy Shaken in Small Croatian Village<\/strong><\/a>
\nFrom the article:<\/em> Women in a Croatian village have seized power from their lazy menfolk in local elections.<\/p>\n

After their success, the women of Lozisca on the island of Brac vowed “to let the men back into our beds, but never back into politics”.<\/p>\n

They won all seven seats on the local council after deciding they were sick of seeing the village men doing nothing for the community. (Curtsy: Shakespeare’s Sister<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Video of Shirtless Jocks Lip Synching “Turn Around, Bright Eyes”<\/strong><\/a>
\nI find it strangely compelling. Be sure to watch their version of Love Lifts<\/a>, as well. Hat tip: Robert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fat Phobia In Small Children – What’s a Liberal Mom To Do?<\/strong>
\nTwo interesting posts from LA Mom (here <\/a>and here<\/a>) about the disturbing emergence of anti-fat bigotry in her son.<\/p>\n

Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers and Walt Disney<\/strong><\/a>
\nReally interesting article about how the creator of Mary Poppins agreed to let Disney make the movie – even though Disney, of course, made changes she found appalling. Also, it turns out the end of the movie was intended by Disney to be anti-suffragette – I had no idea.<\/p>\n

Middle-Ground Proposals To Reduce Abortion<\/strong>
\nGruntled Center has two proposals that he thinks both pro-lifers and pro-choicers can support: The “95-10” plan<\/a>, which attempts to reduce abortion by reducing the demand in non-coercive ways, such as providing more on-campus resources<\/a> (such as daycare) for college students with children.<\/p>\n

From Gruntled Center:<\/em> The 95-10 proposal<\/a> has the ambitious aim to reduce the number of abortions by 95% in ten years. The program starts with better education about birth prevention, the pregnancy support that is already available, the extent of the national abortion rate, and counseling and daycare on campus, an issue I wrote about recently. The act would then make existing adoption tax credits permanent, ban jacking up insurance rates for the “pre-existing condition”\u009d of pregnancy (as if it were a disease), and increase funding against domestic violence, as murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women. The 95-10 proposal does not end with the child’s birth, though; the act would fully fund the Women, Infants, and Children program, and require the successful State Child Health Insurance Programs to include pregnant women and their babies.<\/p>\n

Tilda Swanson is Awesome<\/strong><\/a>
\nI saw The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe<\/em>, and liked it – it was a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel. But I can’t say I loved it; it was loads of fun, but nonetheless felt uninspired. The best thing in it was Tilda Swanson’s astounding, scary performance as The White Witch. I’m not sure if it passes The Mo Movie Measure<\/a> or not; it depends on whether or not discussing a deceased male God counts as discussing a man.<\/p>\n

Lose Weight Or You’ll Be Forced To Date Black Men!<\/strong><\/a>
\nBack in August, Kim posted<\/a> about the anti-fat diatribes of Dr. Terry Bennett. Now it turns out his standard speech also includes a racial component:<\/p>\n

In the obesity complaint, Bennett is quoted as saying: “If your husband were to die tomorrow -who would want you? . . . Well, men might want you, but not the types that you want to want you -Might even be a black guy!”<\/div>\n

Bennett explains that only a racist would find that racist. Via Pinko Feminist Hellcat<\/a> and Echidne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Lab Cat!<\/strong><\/a>
\n…Who has had a short story nominated for a Ray Bradbury award.\n<\/pracut>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’ve been reading lately…. Please leave comments about, well, anything. And as always, feel free to post links, to your own stuff or to other folks’ stuff. The Fifth Carnival of Feminists Is Up! How Magazine Covers Are Retouched … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,30,40,50,62,93,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics","category-fat-fat-and-more-fat","category-international-issues","category-link-farms","category-popular-and-unpopular-culture","category-race-racism-and-related-issues","category-sex-work-porn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}