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Gross Hypocrisy: Laura Ingraham, the Code Red Rally & Holocaust Poetry

December 18, 2009 By 4 Comments

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Press ImageAs most of you know, I am a big fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It might even be the thing that keeps me sane as our Democratic congressional majority gets sucked into a quagmire of conservative politics over health care reform, world leaders struggle to come to any sort of agreement on Climate Change in Copenhagen and the U.S. announces plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan–one of which is likely to be my husband, many more friends of ours.

So like many of you, I watched the December 16 episode hoping for some comic relief. And I got it. For sure. He is so good at pointing out idiocies on the national political stage that, even when I am appalled, I laugh. That was true during this episode too. But there was one story…a bit he included in his coverage of a Tea Party rally…that floored me. Not his take on it (which I love), but that someone, anyone–even a right wing ass bag like Laura Ingraham–would dare. [Read more...]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Impossibilty of Tiger Woods’ Racial Identity

December 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I couldn’t help but notice yet another news story about Tiger Woods and his recent “…low speed, zero casualty, minimal injury car crash in front of his own house.” This time, though, the author made an attempt to address, if from another angle, the racist undertones that are so foundational to this story.

Jesse Washington makes several important points about the way(s) that Tiger’s racial identity have impacted this story–from the perspective of the Black community’s reaction to the scandal. For him, the only area of the blogosphere discussing the racist undertones of this story is the black community and then only in terms of their belief that Tiger is both an outsider (not “really black”) and a traitor (a black man who likes white women).

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Filed Under: Feminist Theory Tagged With: , , ,

Predatory Media, Race and Tiger-Gate

December 4, 2009 By 4 Comments

I am certainly not the first person to say that there is something WEIRD happening with the media and Tiger Woods’s low speed crash. Even as they obsess over it, mainstream media outlets/commentators ask, “Is it really our business?” or “Should we even be covering this?”. For me, the answer is a pretty simple NO!

But the question I find much more interesting is this: WHY is the media all over this like my dogs on rawhide chews? At first, I was hesitant to even write anything about it. Because I think it really should be a private matter between Tiger and Erin. That was, until, I flipped off of CBS’s Early Show –where I had hoped to get a quick weather update but was, instead confronted with more on Tiger’s burgeoning scandal–and to the Weather Channel *gasp* hoping for the aforementioned weather update and where, of course, they were about to talk about the “storm of a different variety” that was “brewing” at Tiger’s home in Florida.

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Filed Under: Feminist Theory Tagged With: , ,

Military Familes & the New Afghanistan Surge

December 2, 2009 By 2 Comments

Half my heart
Like most political topics, the U.S. offensive in Afghanistan is a complicated issue, despite attempts on all sides to reduce its complexity so that the situation can best be spun to suit a given ideology. As much as I would like for it to be as simple as “get us the hell out of there,” I’m just not sure that’s realistic or even possible any more than “lets kick some ass over there so we don’t have to fight them here” is.

The fact of the matter is that the world is a mess. Granted, much of the trouble has been caused and is being perpetuated by flawed U.S. foreign policy. But it is a mess, nonetheless. I have to be extra clear here: I was not in favor of the original invasion of Afghanistan or that of Iraq. In fact, invading Afghanistan after 9/11 made about as much sense to me as bombing Michigan would have after Oklahoma City.

Unfortunately, my friends, that ship has sailed. And we have not, even by getting rid of W, managed to instigate any large scale strategic shifts on the part of the U.S. government, at least as far as Afghanistan is concerned (Iraq is another matter, for another day). So. Fact number 2–for good or ill, Afghanistan is our problem and that problem is getting bigger by the moment.

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Filed Under: International Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

Conflicted Feminist Roots for Team Edward

November 23, 2009 By 7 Comments

Edward Cullen
I have a confession to make. For me its probably Feminist Confession Number 484. But that’s beside the point. Here goes nothing. Rabid Radical feminist that I am, I have a major crush on Edward Cullen. Yep. The Edward Cullen–dark hero of the Twilight Saga.

This past Saturday, I joined throngs of people and lined up to see New Moon, advance ticket in hand. I loved it, honestly. Just as I did the first movie–Twilight. I will most likely even pay good money to see it again, in the theater. And, no doubt, I will rush out to buy the DVD the moment it hits store shelves.

All this, despite the fact that the radical feminist activist that normally occupies the dominant part of my brain has to be tied, gagged and shut up in a closet somewhere in the dark recesses of my consciousness in order for any Twilight associated joy to be remotely possible. Which brings me to the reason I feel the need to discuss, analyze, confess it here, for all the world to see.

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Filed Under: Feminist Theory Tagged With: ,

Thanks Will!: ‘An atypical act of juvenile delinquency’

November 20, 2009 By 4 Comments

You may have heard about 10 year old Will Phillips–the Arkansas 5th grader who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless and until the U.S. is truly a place that ensures ‘liberty and justice for all.’ If not, check out the original story as it was reported in the Arkansas Times.

You can also watch video of his interview with CNN. The news article is a little more detailed, but the CNN interview is absolutely priceless!

As I watched the video the first time, I thought, “What a great kid,” and not much beyond that. But towards the end, I really started to cheer for him. It occurred to me that, particularly for a 10 year-old-boy in a very conservative area, his willingness to stand up for the rights of others is truly an act of bravery.

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Filed Under: Activism Tagged With: , , , ,

Federal Taxes and GOP Hypocrisy

November 13, 2009 By 3 Comments

So this isn’t really the high road as far as opinions go, but here it is: the GOP is really pissing me off! Thankfully, I take blood pressure meds, so I haven’t had a stroke or anything. But they really, really, really make me mad! Of course, they have for a while. Lately, though, there has been a huge spike on the Mrs. Pissed o’ Meter.

It really started with the Stupak amendment. I won’t belabor the point, you all know what I’m talking about. Days of reading and listening to commentary on the subject haven’t helped. Especially hearing anti-choice congress people whine about forcing the taxpayers to pay for something the majority of us don’t agree with.

Well, assbag, here’s the problem with that: My tax dollars go to all sorts of things I don’t agree with. Its kind of part of paying taxes. I don’t know about you, but I have NEVER met anyone who pays taxes and doesn’t know of something they wish their money weren’t going towards. Period. Its part of living in a democracy.

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Filed Under: Abortion Tagged With: , ,

Americans, Stress & Violence

November 6, 2009 By 4 Comments

shoe

The list of things I really wanted to talk about this week is long. But, in light of the events of the last couple of days, I feel like there is one thing that is more pressing to say. And it goes like this:

We Americans really need to CHILL OUT. We are stressed beyond belief and we really need to take a step back and reevaluate our priorities and some of our long-held cultural assumptions about a lot of things. In short, the pressure of our lives is killing us, in more ways than one.

By now everyone has heard about the shooting at Ft. Hood, TX. Of course, we don’t know all of the details of why, and its possible that we never will. Today, there was an another shooting at an office building in Orlando, FL. The news is already calling it the act of disgruntled former employee. Like the case in Ft. Hood, we may never really know for sure what drove the shooter to attack his former co-workers.

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Filed Under: Women's Health

Ask 20 Feminists Their Opinion & Get 20 Different Answers

October 23, 2009 By 11 Comments

women veteransI just have to rant for a second. Hang in there, OK?

“Feminism” does not exist as a singular ideology that always looks at any given subject in any particular way. Rather than reduce an analysis down to a universal conclusion, by and large, feminists hope to inject topics with larger perspectives that may be lost in dominant ideologies.

The beauty (and bane, on occasion) of feminism is that we are thinkers. We are generally people who think through things and who like to analyze situations/questions in ways that include perspectives that are normally left out of the mainstream–considerations for women, certainly, for people of color or LGBT people, or LGBT people of color, or people with disabilities or poor people, etc. Essentially, our aim is to expand the ways that people think of things to include more than just the concerns of wealthy, heterosexual, white men.

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Filed Under: Abortion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Its Embryonic Personhood, People: The Real Reason Behind Oklahoma HB 1595

October 16, 2009 By 8 Comments

IN OKLAHOMA IM A REAL PERSON.

IN OKLAHOMA IM A REAL PERSON.


As you know, FFC has been up in arms over Oklahoma’s Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act–an unprecedented, unbelievably ridiculous invasion of female privacy, as well as a bureaucratic nightmare for providers.

I fear, however, that much of the hullabaloo over this bill is off base. Worse, I am fairly certain that the provisions of the bill that have received most of the attention are red-herrings. Yes, the bill mandates that providers ask women invasive questions and that the data they collect be submitted to the Oklahoma Department of Health Services. Yes, this creates an undue burden on providers and is just plain rude. Especially since there is no place on the form for women to say, “I am having an abortion because I want to and because you don’t get to tell me what to do with my uterus!”

BUT. Contrary to much of the uproar, the data collected will not be made available to the public via the web. In fact, the text of the bill specifically says that the site must be secure enough to ensure that only certain people have access to it. Given that the state will likely argue for a compelling research interest in collecting the data, my guess is that HIPPA challenges to the bill will fail.
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Filed Under: Legislative Watch Tagged With: , , ,
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