Around the Internets

Late-night flotsam and jetsam:

Original Sin

Obama Is Wrong: Gerrymandering Isn’t to Blame for the GOP Fever

Has Obama Kept His Open-Government Pledge?

Neocons vs. Realists Is So 2008

Foucault’s Boomerang: The New Military Urbanism

Throwing Light on the Dark Side of Dorner’s Rampage

At Least 20 CIA Prisoners Still Missing

We’re All Terrorists Now

No, don’t skip the drone debate

The Art of Infinite War

Drone Wars: Tactics in Search of a Strategy

Keeping Drones in Context

Saudi Money Shaping U.S. Research

The girls are not alright

Suicide by self-immolation a rising trend in France

The Bulgarian Turn

Exit music:

 

Around the Internets

Hump Day Tuesday (oops) mega-link blowout:

How Idle No More Could Help Save Canadian Democracy

Mounties snooped on Occupy protesters in nation’s capital: documents

Police drones raise fears over personal privacy

Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs (h/t)

U.S. Memo Details Views on Killing Citizens in Al Qaeda

Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans

Human Rights First Calls Legal Justification for Targeted Killing Flawed

Noam Chomsky, Why It’s “Legal” When the U.S. Does It

CIA rendition: more than a quarter of countries ‘offered covert support’

Extraordinary Rendition And The Axis Of Evil, How ‘Enemy’ Nations Iran, Syria, Libya Cooperated With CIA

The Vertical Axis in U.S. Foreign Policy

Tehranimal Farm

Welfare fraud is a drop in the ocean compared to tax avoidance

Jonathan Kay Still Ignoring Women

Why Aaron died

Skeeters Bit by the Image of a President Who Opposes Violence—Not the Second Amendment

Nothing New Under the Wingnut Sun: ‘Survivalism’

Can watching a couple of Rihanna videos really turn a girl into a knicker-dropping strumpet?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Reviews ‘Girls,’ Calls Donald Glover Role ‘Some Jungle Fever Lover”

The Least Happy Jamaican: On Volkswagen’s Super Bowl Commercial

Could New Orleans Be the Labor Movement’s Next Frontier?

China’s People Problem

New Gas Extraction Methods Alter Global Balance of Power

The Legacy of Chattel Slavery: Private Prisons Blur the Line Between Real People and Real Estate With New IRS Property Gambit

The State of Anti-Austerity Struggles in Greece

First African Female Billionaire a Testament in Corruption Not Success

Exit music:

Around the Internets (Your Super Bowl Escape Hatch)

Definitely not the Super Bowl edition (sorry kids, matttbastard don’t do football — that said, go Ravens, because fuck these guys):

Boys

Christopher Hitchens, David Irving and the Holocaust

BDS, Brooklyn College, and the Daily News

The Torture Apologists Ignore the 4,000 Americans They Killed

Margaret Wente’s “Big Wind”: another error? (h/t)

The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It

Liberals, household chores and fickle TV program directors

Shell Wriggles Free Of Oil Spill Liability In Nigeria, But Case Is Far From Closed

The Future by Al Gore – review

The Sunday Cat on the recent attacks on cats

Men Go on “Guyets” Because Girls are Stupid

Around the Internets

The cream in your Sunday coffee, back where it belongs:

(h/t)

When the drones come home

‘Earthlings, there is no place to hide’ — drone strikes blur the laws of war

Mr. Kristof and His Hugs

If you repeat a lie often enough …

Jonathan Kay Explains Lying

It’s Time to “Reopen” the Abortion Debate

Why I Want to “Reopen the Abortion Debate”: Sixth Estate Responds to Critics

And the attacks on our rights continue…

Why Django Unchained dolls went a “bridge too far”

It’s All About Israel

Score one for transparency

National Review: Only A Monster Would Say The Nazis Didn’t Make Sense

Holiday Weekend Link Round-up (Or, Yes, I WAS too lazy to write something original. Deal.)

What you should be reading this holiday weekend, in lieu of spending quality time with your family/loved ones (like yrs truly will be a little later):

- Open ass, insert head: Dave, Cathie, Dawg, pale_, jj, Peggy, and Orwell’s Bastard, on the latest iteration of ‘Progressive Bloggers [sic] journey to the centre of their colons’ (solidarity w/ DAMMIT JANET!)

- Dave Weigel continues his superlative reporting from Sanford, Fla on the killing of Travyon Martin (and more)

- Re: John Derbyshire’s modest proposal that –wait for it–Libruls R teh Real Rayyyycists (let me show you how by being extremely racist – just like teh libruls!), what TNC said:

I’m sure Derb will say his piece was “satire” soon enough. But you don’t get to do satire when you actually believe black people are dumber.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisi) April 7, 2012

Also see Dawg, Elspeth Reeve, Josh Barro, John Holbo, Maureen O’Connor, Rob Farley, Scott Lemieux, Charles Johnson, and the readers of National Review who, contra Starburst Lowry, boldly declared en masse: ‘We are all Derbyshire‘ (doh!) Despite the strong show of solidarity from NRO’s lumpen commetariat, alas, Derb was a bit too airhorn to remain employed by an outlet where dogwhistles are industry standard. So long, and thanks for all the proud racism, rank misogyny, and generally icky douchetasticness, Derb.

- Speaking of apologists for racism (ok, so Derb is more of a cheerleader sans panties — yeesh, talk about naked enthusiasm), law prof Darren Hutchinson takes on Shelby Steele and other black conservative intellectuals who, over the years, have firmly established a cottage industry on the right flogging long-dead hobbyhorses re: civil rights and the not-so-subtle affirmation of white supremacy. No surprise said usual suspects are now concern-trolling Trayvon supporters. Also, this:

Hey MSM: folks want Zimmerman arrested because he SHOT AN UNARMED KID, not because he may or may not be racist is.gd/IFtJ9E#Trayvon

— Matthew Elliot (@matttbastard) April 6, 2012

-

- And finally, the less said about this, the better:

Happy holidays from bastard.logic.

Various Reads

by matttbastard

Today looks to be a busy one in the meatworld, so here’s are some recommended reads to keep you distracted until I can find some time to throw up something substantial:

James Carroll, What the pirates say, Boston Globe

Javier Marias, Déjà Vu All Over Again, The New Republic

Marie Cocco, Where Are the Female Arnold Schwarzeneggers?, WaPo Writers Group

Azadeh Dastyari, The detained refugees Obama will not free, The Age

Robert Weissman, The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008, Multinational Monitor

Charles P. Pierce, Torn Up, Boston Globe Magazine

James Surowiecki, The Perils of Efficiency, The New Yorker

Tamura Lomax, William R. Jones Revisited: Is God a Racist Misogynist?, Religion Dispatches

Michelle Goldberg, Proposition 8, The Mormon Coming Out Party, Religion Dispatches

John Harwood, Change Is Landing in Old Hands, New York Times

Gary Younge, Americans have never felt so excited, and yet so depressed, The Guardian

Elaine Scarry, Presidential Crimes, The Boston Review

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Sunday Blogbord

by matttbastard

Enjoy the following celebration of tasty links from a variety of textural chefs:

Daisy’s Dead Air: Dead Air Church: May 4, 1970

Elle, PhD: On Double Standards and Women Paying for Men’s Actions

cripchick: the terp from helllll

Hoyden About Town: Blogging Against Disablism: Mental Illness, Stigmatisation, Coming Out

Wheelchair Dancer: BADD: Disabled People Aren’t Human, Are They?

Alas, a Blog: On Making Argument: Disability and Language, by Wheelchair Dancer

Feline Formal Shorts: “Special Needs”

Dawg’s Blog: West Bank apartheid: 2008

A Creative Revolution: Fable of the Evangelicals

mirabile dictu: Regime Change in America and Dion Silent on Bill C-484

Birth Pangs: Anti-VAW Expert: ‘Pregnant women don’t need C-484′

unrepentant old hippie: Another non-answer to the question

A Womyn’s Ecdysis: Surveying the Damage: Part I (h/t Thomas)

WOC PhD: Feminist Reading Tools for Recognizing and Countering Racism

The Apostate: Withdrawing From The Third Wave and On objectification and how bikinis can be radically feminist

A Secret Chord: A Ramble Through Objectification and Why Anti-Sex Work is Objectifying

Renegade Evolution: !@#!?!

Muslimah Media Watch: ‘Chay’ is for What?

Jack @ Feministe: Feminism without fragmentation

Orcinus: Things Americans don’t like to talk about

AngryBlackBitch: By request – Debunking Acceptable Blackness through the second coming of the Rev. Wright drama…

the regina mom: MAYDAY! MAYDAY! Bills 5 & 6 are anti-woman!

zunguzungu: Some Uneducated Speculations on “The African Novel” in Tanzania

Burning Words: Why I could never join the Labor Party and The end of the line

Scriptoids: Working hard for the money

Saying Nothing Charmingly: Now Taking Donations

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Saturday Blogwhoring

by matttbastard

Ok, so I missed the midweek linkfarm–my apologies once again. Feel free to sock it to me one time in comments. Oh, and go show the one Melissa M. some love–that teaspoon don’t shine itself, dig?

Stageleft: Affirmative Action In Nunavut: Good, Bad, and Ugly

Saying Nothing Charmingly: Chelsea Clinton at UTA

A Creative Revolution: A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves

Reappropriate: War on Asians and War on Asians Leads to Diversity Training

A Secret Chord: Headscarf Trees in the Misogyny Forest

Alaya Dawn Johnson @ The Angry Black Woman: “The personal history of the author is tangential at best” (must read)

Racialicious: Not Woman Enough

All About Race: We is us.

Creekside: So stick another ribbon on your H-o-C…

Official Shrub.com Blog: The double standard: “Doesn’t that perpetuate sexism?”

The American Street: The Girls Knock at the Cyberglass ceiling (h/t The Queen)

brown rab fish girl: Words, Lentils, Dates, Pork

Unrepentant Old Hippie: Kosovo pisses off lifesite

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Saturday Blogwhoring

by matttbastard

47 Days into 2008 and I’ve yet to spread the <3. Mea culpa–shall post a more extensive link farm later this week.

Love always,

mb.

(Shakesville = WINville).

Natalia Antonova: Shorter danaseilhan: “Sexual assault and harrassment are bad things. Unless they happen to a mouthy stripper.”

A Secret Chord: Brazen Sex-Positivity (aka “Not Being an Asshole”)

Jon Swift: RAMs and SHEEP

A Creative Revolution: Honour.

Birth Pangs: “Unborn Victims” + political manipulation = Same Old Sexist Morality

Too Sense: McCain’s “Jew Counter”

A Woman’s Ecdysis: The State of Brownhood

Black Looks: Closing the gates on Black women in Britain

Automatic Preference: I Am Rude

AngryBlackBitch: Supercalafragilistic Fubardemocractus

ThePoliticalCat: Berkeley Protests at Marine Recruiting Center: REFOCUS

La Chola: Links and more

The Gimp Parade: Cop dumps quadriplegic man out of his wheechair

Muslimah Media Watch: Adventures in Muslim Dating

skdadl @ pogge: How to think and talk clearly about the Taliban

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

The Real Issues

by matttbastard

While I agree that most race and gender based personal attacks do not address real political issues, we should not forget that racial and gender issues are real issues. We should not forget that racism and sexism are still fundamental problems in the US.

[...]

I know many Americans are uncomfortable openly discussing how race and gender influence our political system, but this doesn’t mean that these issues are not “real.” Denial won’t erase social inequality. It’s a shame that many people would rather purge discussion of racism and sexism from the public discourse than actually work to give people an equal shot.

- Rachel @ Rachel’s Tavern, “Let’s Get Back to the Real Issues”

(more real issues after the fold)