by matttbastard
Cara of The Curvature and Feministe is participating in today’s Day of Blogs blogathon. RAINN is the very worthy organization that is benefiting from her tireless efforts. Go check it out–Cara will be updating every 30 minutes until 9am EDT Sunday morning.
(Full list of participants here.)
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
by matttbastard
So much for my day off. Somehow ended up agreeing to work the night shift. Sigh–hate going out in this blustery, blizzardy weather; love you all.
(There’s always a fire burning over @ Fuck Mountain.)
Lenin’s Tomb: Sartre’s Godless Philosophy (h/t Jack Stephens)
All About Race: Disney does Dumb
Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome: Mothering Mary
unrepentant old hippie: What’s the definition of “insanity” again?
Too Sense: Too Sense Sunday: The Jew In Hip-hop and Iowa Is So Far From Over
10 Zen Monkeys: The Open Source Party Proposal and The QuestionAuthority Proposal
Hoyden About Town: Unilever Ad Man Simon Clift Spells Out the “Joke” to Guerilla Cyber Feminists
a k8, a cat, a mission: December Scientiae Carnival!
Black Looks: Quick Links
A Creative Revolution: Hope You’re Sitting Down
The Galloping Beaver: Firefighters being trained as domestic spies
The Vanity Press: One More Crappy Idea
Feminist Peace Network: Guatemalan Shoe Company’s Macabre Ad Campaign
Slant Truth: 16 Days Of Action Against Gender Violence – Day 7
Red Jenny: Greg Palast on the anti-Chavez Hysteria
The Newshoggers: To Divide And Conquer The Unruly Province Of Iraq (h/t IOZ)
the life of pinky bear: Ti(RED): World AIDS Day and the Coporate Profit Machine (h/t misscripchick)
Feministe: What trans means to me (h/t Lisa)
The Cylinder: Taxi to the Dark Side
The Stormy Days of March: Awww! and Awww! Part 2
by matttbastard
Jeebus.
Are fetus-fetishizing conservatwits entirely allergic to irony? Much as I’m loathe to utilize the overused ‘fucking for virginity’ analogy, in this instance I think it fits perfectly. “Way twisted,” indeed.
h/t JJ Hippie
by matttbastard
Remind me to stop sacrificing sleep for obsessive late night blogging/research. Candle = burnt. Both ends; no wick nor wax remains.
Love, etc.
(Blah blah blah Melissa McEwan = teh r0x0r)
Feministe: What Color Are the Holes in Your Parachute? (La Lubu is a national treasure [h/t myca – so much for teh link embargo])
The Angry Black Woman: The Grass is Always Greener
The Silence of Our Friends: Bitter Laughter (h/t Donna Darko)
Creekside: Harper chooses gay superhero to be new symbol of Canada
Impolitical: Must…repeat…North…Star…:)
Shakesville: Shocking: Hate Peddlers Also Lying Douchebags
A Creative Revolution: Reality has a well known liberal bias……
Bene Diction Blogs On: Elections Canada – opps. 1 million voters not eligible (h/t April Reign)
AverageBro: The Gubb’ment Doesn’t Care About Your Nana’s Right To Vote
unrepentant old hippie: Code Pink activists detained
Women of Color Blog: “Hopelessly Deadlocked”
Cubically Challenged: Women, Belonging, Ownership
Slant Truth: The Blackface Files Return (oh for fucks sake)
Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome: Meet Beard-o
AngryBlackBitch: Bad Boy vodka?
Dymaxion World: Trying to lose
Birth Pangs: Girls and Women, Girls and Women, Girls and Women
April Reign: Anger, Resentment & Politics (PREACH!)
ex-lion tamer: why i like science fiction
Girl, Dislocated: As uneventful as it gets, part 1 and part 2
by matttbastard
There are no current representations of [union workers] in the mainstream media. We have long since fallen out of favor as subjects of photographs or other works of art. There are no interviews, roundtables or summits disseminated in the news media featuring the knowledge and opinions of our leaders, let alone that of the rank and file. Newspapers have long since eliminated their “labor beats.” There are no holidays in honor of our national heroes of labor; no day off for Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Asa Philip Randolph, Cesar Chavez. No chapters in our children’s schoolbooks that give recognition to our history, our struggles, our triumphs, or our defeats.
Making us faceless, makes us disposable.
Without our presence, media imagery of unions and union workers is distorted. This distortion serves to make our interests—and those of our unorganized brothers and sisters, unimportant. Whining, even. Aren’t we glad to just have a job?
[…]
Back in the day, [union workers] had our own forms of media. We published our own newspapers (in several languages), held rallies and night classes for our memberships. We did not rely on other to tell our truths. As corporate control of the media tightens, as our publically-owned analog airwaves are scheduled to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, I can’t help but wonder why we are not more active in pursuing our own interests in this realm. We need to do a better job of supporting the pro-labor media that exists, and create new forms of our own. Our survival, individually and collectively, depends on it. We will not hear from the mass media how the erosion of the eight-hour day contributes to rising injury and death rates at work. We will not hear how understaffing and doing more work with fewer people results in more illness, injury and repetitive-use injuries. We will not hear critiques of the repeal of the Illinois Scaffolding Act; we will not get answers to our question on why Illinois still does not have an Electrical Licensing Act. We may be informed that we have a new OSHA director and a new MSHA director, yet we won’t hear about their backgrounds or why they were chosen to lead these critical agencies. New OSHA director Edwin G. Foulke made his bones being the OSHA expert at Jackson Lewis, a huge law firm specializing in union busting. Richard Stickler, our new MSHA director, was the head of mine safety in Pennsylvania during the time of teh Quecreek mine near-disaster, where fortunately nine trapped miners were rescued. He was notable for presiding over mines wih an injury rate double the national average. Every year, we celebrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a giant who lived among us—and every year, during the retelling of the story of his assassination, the mass media neglects to mention that the sanitation workers’ strike that Dr. King went to Memphis to support, was in response to the deaths of two workers. Even here in Springfield, with the plethora of historical information offered to tourists, there is no mention of John L. Lewis, or that his house still stands near Washington Park. There is no plaque to identify it; it remains an unacknowleged part of our past.
– La Lubu, A Worker’s Memorial
Goddamn. La Lubu really, really needs to post more often.
Related: if you haven’t already, make sure to bookmark and/or subscribe to LabourStart, a pro-labour global media hub definitely worthy of attention, support, solidarity.
by matttbastard
Even when mired in the depths of illness and ennui, love reign o’er me! (Once again, Melissa McEwen gets the lion’s share of props. Rawr, etc.)
First Draft: ‘Not My Job’ and Those darn hurricanes are never there when you need them!
AngryBlackBitch: Lies beget lies beget lies beget drama…
Lenin’s Tomb: Which ones are the Nazis again?
Rox Populi: Attention MSM
at-Largely: This is what passes for journalism at the JPost these days…
Arms and influence: O captains, our captains
Dawg’s Blawg: The anthropology of blogging (1)
Montreal Simon: The Throne Speech: Is it Time to Leave Canada?
Renegade Evolution: Why we love Amber & Trinity, entitlement, and other assorted tales…
Nexy’s Cocoon: on mutilation & provocation
Daisy’s Dead Air: October 16, 1859
The Galloping Beaver: “What would be their specific need to see?”
Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome: Some Days it’s Hard to Think of a Title
Leftist Looney Lunchbox: DNA pioneer’s lecture cancelled after comments on race (“Me thinks they ought to revoke his nobel…” Ditto.)
Jack and Jill Politics: Tis the Season to Claim Black Inferiority and Dr. James Watson — Racist
Feministe: Why diversity is important, Why not illegalize it?, OMG Teh Hysterical Feminists Again! and Questionable statistics
Idolator: Is Indie Rock Black Enough? Presenting The Sasha Frere-Jones Score and The Sasha Frere-Jones Score: Emo Swings More Than Acoustic Guitars Do (via Racialicious)
Tiny Cat Pants: Who Does Kay Brooks Hate More–Men or Women? (via Feline Formal Shorts)
by matttbastard
x-posted @ Comments From Left Field
WaPo: Bush puts birth control opponent in charge of family planning office:
Susan Orr, most recently an associate commissioner in the Administration for Children and Families, was appointed Monday to be acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. She will oversee $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, counseling and preventive screenings.
In a 2001 article in The Washington Post, Orr applauded a Bush proposal to stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to cover a broad range of birth control. “We’re quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease,” said Orr, then an official with the Family Research Council.
Yes, that Family Research Council. Wait – it gets better (via Shakesville):
– At the 2001 Conservative Political Action Conference, Orr cheered Bush’s endorsement of Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy,” which required NGOs receiving federal funds to “neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.” Orr said that it was proof Bush was pro-life “in his heart.”
– In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Orr railed against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. “It’s not about choice,” said Orr. “It’s not about health care. It’s about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.”
– Orr authored a paper in 2000 titled, “Real Women Stay Married.” In it she wrote that women should “think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves, but upon the families we form through marriage.”
My oh my, I do believe we have ourselves a textbook fetus fetishist of the highest order here! Anyone who considers using sensible and, um, legal methods of birth control to be collaboration with “The Culture of Death™” (ZOMG!) totally deserves a complimentary 5 year subscription to Monthly Uterus Magazine. And while we’re at it, give one to acting Surgeon General Steve Galson and the new director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Janet Woodcock, too (Berlynn, I’m gonna singlehandedly put your ad rev through the motherfucking roof!)
Consider it penance for many, many years of death culture collaboration on my part, although I did somehow manage to avoid partaking in any teen sex cult activity (sigh).
Oh, and try not to think too hard about the low-income families and young women whose access to vital contraceptive services, preventative screenings for cervical cancer, and counseling has once again been placed in jeopardy by this latest ideologically-motivated appointment on the part of the Bush admin (hey, remember how well the last one worked out?) I’m sure The Decider™ had good reason to decisively assert his relevance (“unfinished business” indeed) by throwing the underprivileged under the bus, and wasn’t cynically pandering to an increasingly dissatisfied base GOP constituency.
As they say, “women and children first.” Although I always assumed that colloquialism meant “first to be saved,” not “first to be tossed overboard.”
More on Orr and the FRC from RH Reality Check and Jill @ Feministe (h/t Kyle), who also links to a Planned Parenthood petition calling on (reproductive) freedom-loving Americans to express their opposition to Orr’s appointment.
Related: As the increasingly-militant USian anti-choice lobby continues to escalate the war on regulated pregnancy by attacking access to contraception, Fern Hill examines the “lively tug-of-war going on between morality and merchandizing.” Gee, maybe free-market absolutists are onto something.
I said ‘maybe.’
Update: Deborah Lipp gets to the crux of the matter (emph in original):
It is absolutely true that if you want to prevent abortion and preserve life, then safe, legal abortion combined with safe, legal, accessible, inexpensive birth control is the way to make that happen. The fact that the “pro-life” (snort) movement doesn’t favor any of those things doesn’t mean it’s not true. It means they’re not pro-life.
Indeed.
bastard.logic 