Good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly.
Tax Breaks For Gays and Lesbians
If they don't get full rights (including the rights that come to heteros through marriage); if they're getting, say, half the rights everybody else is -- why shouldn't they have to pay only 50% of their tax bills?
And, how should heterosexuals react to the prohibitions against equal rights for gays and lesbians? Here's a suggestion, in a few excerpts from an essay by Eric Rofes, in the book, From ACT UP to the WTO -- urban protest and community building in the era of globalization:
Heterosexuals getting married is analogous to Christians joining a club that excludes Jews, men working as partners in a law firm that has no female partners, or whites supporting the flying of the Confederate flag over public buildings intended to serve people of all races. No matter how one wishes to frame them, such choices are inherently ethical choices: participation in rituals and institutions that exclude sectors of society puts you on the side of discrimination and oppression.During the Civil Rights Movement, a number of white people repulsed by the injustices of racism declined to participate in key institutions of segregation. They refused to utilize white-only public facilities, ride on buses which forced Blacks to the back seats, and sit at segregated lunch counters. Likewise, there have been men who resigned from clubs that excluded Jews, women, and people of color, and people with inherited wealth who have given away their legacies to organizations in poor communities in this battle against heterosexism.
It may be time not only for true heterosexual allies to say no to marriage until all people have equal access, but also for all principled people to engage in public education around their refusal to accept privilege.
Recognize that it used to seem "normal" to hate and discriminate against blacks, Jews, and the Chinese, too (among others). Of course, for some, it still is. In one of this week's pleasant moments, I got a copy of my printed column (about a gay guy who wanted to know whether to tell a guy he'd dated that he was prematurely head over heels with him) with the words "SICK = PURE GARBAGE, JEW ADVICE, SICK SICK" scrawled all over it in red marker.
Hmmm...no matter how much you bore people who read your blog with stuff about being a Bright, and not believing in god, and being post-Jewish -- it seems you never stop being Jewish to the people who hate Jews.
The Right To Lie For Your Country
Yale University students and professors have filed suit against the military, reports Fox News' Rick Leventhal, protesting the "don't ask, don't tell policy."
"These are talented people ... our students are very smart,î Yale professor Robert Burt said. ìThey're good lawyers, and their sexual preference, who they choose to sleep with or fall in love with, has nothing to do with their fitness for the job."
There's no gag order on heteros in the military; why should there be a gag order on gays?
Who's Yer Daddy?
According to a story in the Australian newspaper, The Age, an unnamed Australian man was tricked into a believing he was the biological father of his partner's baby; now an eight-year-old child:
He did not want a baby, but he raised his child with love. When the man's marriage ended, he paid thousands of dollars in child support.The man is seeking repayment of $75,000 in school fees and child support in the Federal Magistrates Court after learning in 2002 that he was not the child's biological father.
...the woman had also been sexually involved with another man, in early 1995. She now admits that the second man was the child's natural father but says she did not know that at the time.
A former friend of the child's mother told the court the woman had confided to her early in the pregnancy that she would tell the man he was the father because he had "more of a future" than the biological father.
The court was told the man had not wanted to become a father and had asked the woman to terminate the pregnancy.
Shouldn't a man get a refund on his child support if it turns out he wasn't the biological father of a baby? And, beyond that, why, in 2003, are men still expected to pay for children they made it clear they did not want to have?
Say there's a woman who wants a child, but can't afford to raise it, or would prefer to have somebody else pay to raise it. Say the man in her life (or the one she snags out of a club some night) isn't up for financing her dreams of mommyhood. Shouldn't it be up to her to take steps (and backup steps) to avoid becoming pregnant -- and/or be prepared to get an abortion or give up the baby after it's born? Why, so many ways for a woman to opt out of becoming a parent, are we still forcing men into "fatherhood" -- another name for our only societally-accepted form of paying protection money?
(The Age story via ifeminists.net)
survivor pics that Jenna and Heidi be looking pretty!.
No Good Deed Goes Uncriminalized
Here's a story, by Wendy McElroy, of a good Samaritan who nearly got what wasn't coming to him -- jail time, a criminal record, and maybe a place on the list of registered sex offenders -- when he made just TWO attempts to return a woman's lost college ID. Now maybe his female accuser was just nuts, or maybe she's partially right to feel like a victim -- because she sounds a lot like a typical victim of the victim-industrial complex, also known as the Women's Studies department.
No matter what the issue -- if a woman misplaces her bus pass, or it looks like rain, or they're serving lime jello in the school cafeteria -- of course, it's gotta be THE PATRIARCHY that's to blame. Hello? Is this tired, or what? Men aren't the enemy. Big, angry, rat-haired radical feminists who promote the hatred of men are the enemy. Why can't everybody go shave their legs and their mustaches (this is optional for the men) and go play nicely together?
Is The Religious Right Un-Christian?
That's what seminary president Joe Hough seems to be saying:
If Tom Delay is acting out of his Born Again Christian convictions in pushing legislation that disadvantages the poor every time he opens his mouth, I'm not saying he's not a Born Again Christian, but as a the Lord's humble fruit inspector, it sure looks suspicious to me. And anybody who claims in the name of God they're gonna run over people of other nations, and just willy-nilly, by your own free will, reshape the world in your own image, and claim that you're acting on behalf of God, that sounds a lot like Caesar to me.
(via Metafilter)
How About A War On Dumb?
Tommy Chong's in jail for selling glass pipes to pot smokers, writes Deroy Murdock:
Prosecutors were not impressed that his Nice Dreams Enterprises marketed a morally neutral product. Chong's pipes, after all, could be used with loose-leaf tobacco, just as any stoner in an Armani suit can smoke pot in a lawful Dunhill meerschaum.In fact, as the Los Angeles Times reported October 10, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Houghton's court pleadings sought Chong's harsh punishment because he got rich "glamorizing the illegal distribution and use of marijuana" in films that "trivialize law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking and use."
Chong must have wondered when such activities became criminal. Perhaps the FBI now will arrest Sean Penn for hilariously smoking grass in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Then they can handcuff Denzel Washington for portraying a crooked narcotics officer in "Training Day."
As Murdock writes at the end of his piece, "An honest, national debate on the War on Drugs in general ñ and its uniquely idiotic marijuana phobia in particular ñ - would be a welcome development in the sad history of this national fiasco."
Why Terri Should Be Allowed To Die
Because she ceased to be Terri -- or anything but live meat in a bed -- 13 years ago. Finally, the article I've been waiting for, by Reason's Ronald Bailey. Her family has posted some "short, ambiguous video clips" online, which seem "to fit an AMA's report of how PVS patients can respond to environmental cues without being aware." Bailey explains why her family and others have false hopes, describing what a "persistent vegetative state" means:
Movements are largely confined to reflex withdrawals or posturing in response to noxious or other external stimuli. Since neither visual nor auditory signals require cortical integrity to stimulate brief orienting reflexes, some vegetative patients may turn the head or dart the eyes toward a noise or moving objects. However, PVS patients neither fixate upon nor consistently follow moving objects with the eyes, nor do they show other than startle responses to loud stimuli. They blink when air movements stimulate the cornea but not in the presence of visual threats per se."
"So," asks Bailey, "Is Terri Schiavo still alive? The odds are way against it. It's time that her long-suffering parents and the grandstanding politicians let her go in peace."
Yeah. What he said.
Stress Mismanagement
Maybe remembering a horrible event isn't such a good thing. According to an article by David Glenn:
At least two controlled studies suggest that debriefing may delay some people's recovery from trauma --Ýperhaps because it promotes the habit of ruminating over painful images and memories before a wounded psyche is ready to do so. In 2001, Britain's National Health Service listed stress debriefing as "contraindicated."
Maybe the ability to forget is a sort of mental anaesthetic. A friend's husband had his life spared on 9/11 because she had a early-morning meeting. He took their kids to to school -- making him just late enough to his job at the World Trade Center. Almost all of his coworkers were killed. Afterward, his company sent him to a shrink for stress debriefing, which, according to his wife, was very painful for him -- and probably impeded his emotional recovery. What was it supposed to tell him that he didn't already know? That his colleagues died horrible and senseless deaths? That life was random and unfair? Maybe the healthy thing is being allowed to forget -- which is difficult enough after witnessing or experiencing something horrible.
(Glenn piece via Arts & Letters Daily)
Life As A Human Turnip
If you don't want to end up in Terri Schiavo's position, here's the link you need to draw up and register (free!) a living will.
Will Your Congressman Be Removing Your Appendix?
Terrific analysis of the so-called "partial-birth" abortion bill on the blog A Well-Timed Period.
UPDATE: William Saletan also explains on Slate that it really isn't birth they're talking about:
This procedure doesn't take place anywhere near the appointed hour of birth. If you paid close attention to the Senate debate, you might have noticed the part where Santorum said the procedure was performed "at least 20 weeks, and in many cases, 21, 22, 23, 24 weeks [into pregnancy], and in rarer cases, beyond that." He didn't clarify how many of these abortions took place past the 20th week. A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks. In 1992, the Supreme Court mentioned that viability could "sometimes" occur at 23 or 24 weeks. Santorum described a 1-pound fetus as "a fully formed baby," noting that while it was only at 20 weeks gestation, it had a complete set of features and extremities. But according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the survival rate for babies born weighing 500 grams or lessóthat's 1 pound, 1 ounce or lessóis 14 percent.
In other words, what we're really talking about is partial-truth legislation.
survivor pics that Jenna and Heidi be looking pretty!.
Religious Fever
Confirming my notion that the wild-eyed nuts on the subway often speak the truth, Bush's "Jihad General," Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, asks the money question, writes Farai Chideya:
"Why is this man [President Bush] in the White House?" he said. "The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."
I believe it was the Supreme Court, hon, that put him there, but thanks for asking!
Regarding Boykin's inflammatory "my god vs. your god" remarks about Iraq, the administration, through Donald Rumsfield, defends them on free speech grounds, saying, "We're a free people." Yes, we are, but most of us who are seeing things and babbling freely about them get institutionalized, not put in charge of a lot of people with dangerous weapons. P.S. I'm sure all our troops in Iraq really appreciate this guy mouthing off about his god being "bigger" in light off all the nuts on Iraqi soil who aren't exactly lacking in their own fundamentalist nutty reasons for taking potshots at Americans.
Say No To Smugs
On Reason's blog, Jeff A. Taylor knocks "preening" Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker for bragging, in the light of recent Rush revelations, about Newsweek's coverage of the spread of Oxycontin. Taylor explains:
...Oxy was portrayed as the scourge of the rural America, the "hillbilly heroin" that Newsweek had positively over-running the town of Hazard, Kentucky with its cheap, alluring high. Excepting the gullible souls who got hooked by accident -- they lack quality, affordable medical care or a basic understanding of body chemistry, you see -- Oxy helped blot out hard-scrabble blue-collar life.If that accurately explained Oxy abuse, then yes, there is absolutely no conceivable connection to a well-cared for, fabulously wealthy, immensely adored entertainer in Florida. But, of course, that 2001 scare story did not get the Oxy story right.
The truth is Oxy -- or any drug -- can be used and abused by a cross-section of the populace with a wide array of outcomes. If Oxy was getting people high in backwoods trailer-parks, then you can bet the folks in uptown penthouses were in on it too. The only real difference between the two groups would be the quality of their legal help.
My friend Cathy Seipp managed to have a bottle of Vicodin (a chemical kissing cousin of Oxy) in her bathroom without turning into an upper-middle-class junkie. As addiction treatment industry critics Stanton Peele and Archie Brodsky point out, drug abuse is not a disease, but a matter of priority and choice. "Reason's numerous deflations of the Oxy scare can be found here," advises Walker.
Lies The Government Tells Us
It isn't just the Fundamentalist States Government -- aka the United States Government -- passing off propaganda as science (by fudging data to support "abstinence-only" programs, for example). The Minnesota Department of Health is following suit, with a handbook that discusses (supposed) abortion risks, says this Star-Tribune editorial:
Here is what the health brochure says: "Findings from some studies suggest there is an increased risk of breast cancer among women who had an abortion, while findings from other studies suggest there is no increased risk." This implies an active debate on the issue, when in fact there is a consensus among eminent scientists that no link exists.Last February the National Cancer Institute brought together more than 100 of the world's leading experts on the subject to review all of the existing research. Their finding was unequivocal: "Induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk."
I don't know about you, but I'd like to get my science from the scientists, not the anti-abortion brochure writers. Because a faction of people would like to abolish abortion, and a woman's right to choose, doesn't mean they're entitled to present fiction as data in hopes of duping the public. Especially not when the public (with state and/or local taxes) is the publisher paying the advance on their fundamentalist fiction. Remember when the U.S. was a secular country, with separation of church and state? Yeah...it's a vague memory for me, too.
Danger In The Funny Pages!
Why The Washington Post didn't run Aaron McGruder's comic strip Boondocks last week.
(via Romenesko)
In France, Justice Is Not Only Blind
It probably has hairy palms. A French Judge was caught masturbating in open court. From the controversial MerdeInFrance, one of my favorite bilingual blogs.
Maim Difference
"People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs." --Rodney Lee
A Woman's Right To Contradict Herself
Seems feminists think women should have "the right to choose" -- but only to choose some things: Abortion, yes; breast implants, no. Steve Chapman writes, in the Chicago Tribune, about where feminists draw the line (at the male eyeline, apparently). Be sure to check out the comments on Reason's blog, where I spotted the link.
Accidents With A Knife
Celebrities who fell on a scalpel and got up Frankenstinian.
(via Metafilter)
First Amendment Dyslexia
Itís free speech, not far speech that weíre supposed to have a right to. But, according to this Salon article by Dave Lindorf, the Bush administration is ìkeeping dissent invisible" by herding protesters into remote areas so all the cameras on the president see are the cheering, waving ìGo Bushies." When retired steelworker Bill Neel tried to protest at Bushís Labor Day visit to Pittsburgh last year, he was told he'd have to go to a caged-off ìfree speech areaî:
"He pointed out a relatively remote baseball diamond that was enclosed in a chain-link fence," Neel recalled in an interview with Salon. "I could see these people behind the fence, with their faces up against it, and their hands on the wire." (The ACLU posted photos of the demonstrators and supporters at that event on its Web site. ) "It looked more like a concentration camp than a free speech area to me, so I said, 'I'm not going in there. I thought the whole country was a free speech area.'"
P.S. Donít kid yourself that this is about protecting the President. Neel has it right:
ìPutting protesters behind a fence isn't going to help, ... I mean, somebody who was going to attempt an assassination wouldn't be carrying a protest sign. He'd be carrying a sign saying 'I love George!'"
Here are a few photos and a story from the ACLU Web site. The Salon article is free if you click through an annoying commercial.
Grandma Knows Her G-Spots
Meet my favorite sex-ed lady, the unintentionally hilarious Sue Johanson, in this profile by Steve Lichtman on Slate.
See Sue on Oxygen network's Talk Sex (Sundays, 11 p.m. ET) and Sunday Night Sex Show (Monday through Thursday, midnight ET).
I've Been Had -- What Fun!
I've been had by one of the best -- who happens to be Cathy Seipp's 14-year-old daughter and my good friend Cecile DuBois. Cecile wrote to me as Randy, the semi-employed garage-band boy who was supposedly being shoved into marriage after having (gasp!) premarital sex with a Mormon girl.
Now, I'm usually pretty good at catching the phony letters, and especially if there's any sort of extended e-mail exchange (and there was, in this case), but Cecile had me absolutely convinced. She was a little worried I'd be mad when I found out, but as a prankster, I love getting pranked -- especially when the prankster is successful. Here's Randy's true identity exposed, along with a bit of my initial answer, dashed off via e-mail to Cecile/"Randy":
Excuse me, it's the 21st century and you're worried about "supporting" a woman? What does she do? Why can't she support herself? Is she just going to be the baby machine and you're going to pay for her? That makes for a reallly fascinating woman. Right now, your hormones are all a-go-go -- but what about a year from now when she's a big fat housewife and you can't afford a can of beans for her -- and she can't get off her pregnant ass to help pay for one.
Here's what it became in my column:
My fiancee's parents are radical Mormons who say I must marry her immediately to end the disgrace I've brought on the family by having premarital sex with her. I don't feel ready for marriage, but the wedding date has been moved up (from not even set to three weeks away). I'm in a band, and I don't make much money, so I have no idea how I'll support my future wife. What should I do? --The Bad Guy"Because her parents are fundamentalists" is a good reason to avoid inviting them to hear your favorite Satanic metal band, not to gallop to the altar with their daughter. Yes, it might be hard for them to read their family name under that big black mark they think you put on it, but in time, they'll manage. You're likely to lose your fiancee if you don't follow their orders, but in time, you'll manage. Probably much better than you would paying rent to her parents so you can live in wedded bliss in the doghouse behind their house -- the perfect place for you to be trained to respond to all their commands: "Roll over!...Fetch!...Play dead!" Of course, that last one shouldn't be necessary.
Grope And Vainglory
LA Times Editor John Carroll wishy-washily tells "The Story Behind The Story" on LAT's anonymously-sourced Schwarzen-groper piece, knocking Jill Stewart, Bill Bradley, and Mickey Kaus in the process -- without mentioning their names. Jill Stewart knocks back with a few choice Stories Behind "The Story Behind The Story," and Jay Rosen and Patterico referee. (Click Reason and LAObserved links below to read more comments).
(via LAObserved and Reason's blog)
Let Them Eat Steak!
Science says low-carb diets are working. It gets better. According to this AP report by Daniel Q. Haney, it seems that people on low-carb, high fat diets can eat more without gaining weight:
(A) study, directed by Penelope Greene of the Harvard School of Public Health and presented at a meeting here this week of the American Association for the Study of Obesity, found that people eating an extra 300 calories a day on a very low-carb regimen lost just as much during a 12-week study as those on a standard lowfat diet.
Pass the butter! Hold the bread!
They Love Me Not, They Love Me Not
I like letters from people who like my column, but I looove letters from people who loathe it:
10/5/2003Dear Miss Alkaline Amy,
It pleases me that you so enjoy your ready-made platform to spew vitriol, -and of your obvious talent for it there is no doubt. We picture you in a subsidized housing environment, killing roaches, and shooting daggers at any unfortunate neighbors you meet on the stairwells.
When one develops a rancid and humungous boil, the preferred treatment is to lance it, and follow-up with antibiotics, if indicated. We fear yours has taken a nasty turn and burst inward, -hence the pus that permeates your spittle amidst your weekly printed rants.
Obviously you think highly of yourself, and believe you have found your niche. Too bad it is so angry, arrogant, and dead.
Why does your anger rule you? You may now burn this.
-Anonymous: Spokane, WA
UPDATE: Hilariously, before I even posted this on the site, I stuffed the letter into my "Amy's Favorite Hate Mail" folder, and noticed that the handwriting was the same as the handwriting on another recent letter -- a letter the sender remembered to sign before sending! Here's my blog post about it:
A Big Fan Of My "Fleeting Whiffs Of Compassion"
From the early June mail pile, a letter from somebody who likes her advice a little more Dear Abby:6/06/03
Hey, Alkali Amy,
Hope you get your bitter rocks off in your column, at least incrementally (sic) weak by week -- so you can sometime look forward to a more likable you. The acidity that bleeds out of your offal is ultimately more sad than anything. Because once in a while you slip and give off a fleeting whiff of compassion.
To better ways and better days,
L.C., Spokane, WA
The acidity that bleeds out of your offal? "I think there's an ointment for that," says Treacher.
Since I had the anonymous writer's full name from this previous letter (although I felt sorry for her and only printed her initials), I googled her e-mail address and sent her a thank you for "the hilarious letter." Serial hate mail! It means so much to me when they despise me enough to go to all that repeated effort.
The Crack Epidemic The Drug Warriors Can't Touch
The butt-crack epidemic.
(spotted in Treacher-land)
Who Says Religion Doesn't Kill?
Is The Catholic Church guilty of murder -- with spreading their ideology the motive? Probably, if the claims of a program screened Sunday on BBC One are true. The Panorama program, called "Sex And The Holy City," accuses The Vatican of telling people in countries rife with AIDS that condoms don't protect against the virus. According to this BBC News report:
...One of the Vatican's most senior cardinals Alfonso Lopez Trujillo suggested HIV could even pass through condoms."The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom," he says.
The cardinal, who is president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, suggests that governments should urge people not to use condoms.The Archbishop of Nairobi Raphael Ndingi Nzeki told Panaroma that condoms were helping to spread the virus.
"Aids...has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms," he said.
In Kenya, one in five people are HIV positive.
Gordon Wambi, director of an Aids testing programme in Lwak, near Lake Victoria, told the programme that he could not distribute condoms because of opposition from the Catholic Church.
"Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids," he said.
According to Panaroma, the claims about condoms are repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America.
Just think of it as The New Crusade -- a crusade against science and reason, and for dying a horrible and unnecessary death. Of course, it's brought to us by the same people who gave us The Spanish Inquisition and a lot of other fine examples of tolerance, sweetness, and light.
(also spotted in Treacher-land)
The UnStepford Wives
Just as Hollywood is "preparing a new version of the 1975 feminist cult classic 'The Stepford Wives,'" Andrew Sullivan is preparing us for a new breed of political wife, the ragingly independent woman. John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, and Howard Dean's wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg, are two who don't just break, but explode, the Stepford first lady mold:
She has always gone by Teresa Heinz, but for the purposes of the campaign, she recently agreed to be called Teresa Heinz Kerry. This was a stretch in itself, but when asked by Elle magazine how she felt about it, she didn't exactly smoothe it over: "Now, politically, it's going to be Teresa Heinz Kerry, but I don't give a shit, you know? There are other things to worry about." Not since Barbara Bush opined of vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro that she was something that rhymed with "rich," has a prominent political spouse been so forthcoming about her true feelings. The Washington Post clucked that Heinz-Kerry was "ungaggable." In the same interview, she remarked, in respect to Pat Nixon, that "Well, we know Richard Nixon wasn't too much in contact with how women should be." The New York Times subsequently tutted that she had managed the rare feat of "casually insulting a dead president and first lady." Heinz has also spoken openly of her enthusiasm for plastic surgery, her use of Botox and her firm belief that, in matters of marriage, "you've got to have a pre-nup." With half a billion at stake, you can see her point. But such insistence is not exactly designed to win over the lower-middle-class voters of, say, Oklahoma.Judith Steinberg represents another kind of Blue America: not the lefty plutocrats who now run the Democratic Party, but the earnest Northeastern career professionals who tend to vote for it. Steinberg is a doctor married to Howard Dean, and has kept her maiden name in her own practice, which she once shared with her husband. She has a starkly refreshing approach to the role of First Lady, which is to say, she would essentially abolish it. She has refused to go to almost any social functions with her husband as the wife of the governor of Vermont; and has said that if he won the presidency, she would simply move her medical practice to Washington and leave the White House alone. It doesn't seem to have dawned on her yet that the Secret Service detail required to vet and screen every patient would not exactly be conducive to a regular practice.
Not to worry, Dr. Steinberg. In the heartland, it's the glassy-eyed automatons who get their husbands elected.
Healthy Harlots
Sorry, puritannical people, but according to this rather entertaining Forbes piece by Alan Farnham, "having regular and enthusiastic sex ... confers a host of measurable physiological advantages," including reduced risk of heart disease and depression, less frequent colds and flu, better bladder control...and even better teeth!
(via Instapundit)
Hiring The Mentally Handicapped
The TSA test for airport screeners is very...inclusive. According to an AP article by Leslie Miller, not only were screeners spoon-fed the answers in advance of the test, the answers were to ridiculously easy multiple-choice questions like this:
One question asked ''How do threats get aboard an aircraft?'' The possible answers were (a) In carry-on bags; (b) In checked-in bags; (c) In another person's bag; and (d) All of the above.
Of course, the correct answer is (d). Of course, if you can sound out the words in this blog posting, you're probably clever enough to figure that out without hours and hours of training. But are the TSA screeners hired via this test clever enough to find a bomb in somebody's luggage? Well, it probably helps if the terrorists put a big sign on the outside of the bag that says "bomb inside."
Power To The Small Penis People!
Yes, this is an actual workshop being offered by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York:
Monday, October 20, 2003, Sexuality Series: What is Small Anyway? Tonightís discussion, Shame & Getting Over It, provides a space where men can talk about small penises.Ý Everyone is welcome ó those who have them, those who love them, and those who are curious about them. Hosted by Robert Woodworth. Socializing; light refreshments. $6 members, $10 nonmembers. 7PM.
The Powerlessness Of Prayer
If you pray, and your four-year-old daughter dies anyway, of some horrible disease, does that mean (A), The Big Guy was watching that morning you left a rather stinky tip at the diner, and it's payback time? Or, is it because (B), The Big Guy is a bigtime jerk and thinks he'll snuff a few four-year-olds today, and yours happened to be one of them? Or could it be because (C), there is no Big Guy (there certainly is no evidence he exists) and the world is a totally random place in which sweet, darling four-year-olds get terribly sick and die painfully?
Now, I know it's going to be hard for some of you more entrenched god afficionados, but try to forget that some guy in a long funny robe told you (and me) there is a Big Guy, and maybe even said (based on zero evidence) that you'd fry till the end of time if you didn't believe in said Big Guy. How about you just be really, really honest and pick the only answer here which makes any sense: C! There is no evidence of the existence of god, heaven, or hell, and we've all got a very short time on this planet in which to make a real difference, so we'd all better drag our big, lardy asses out of our houses and "houses of worship" and do something!
This brings me to an article in Sunday's LA Times by K. Connie Kang, about "The Presidential Prayer Team," which "uses the Internet to alert 3 million people a week to appeal to God on behalf of soldiers, officials and others." In other words, lots of religious people across America are thinking lots of nice thoughts in behalf of the troops:
Someone had registered the names of Todd and Trevor Harris with the Adopt Our Troops campaign of the Presidential Prayer Team, a nondenominational Christian prayer group on the Internet. Soon, hundreds of thousands of strangers across the country were praying for the brothers.
Too bad all the praying people aren't putting their wishful thinking time into something that really matters -- such as petitioning the Pentagon to give the troops modern bullet-proof vests that actually have a prayer of stopping a modern bullet. Far too many of the troops have, in the words of Jonathan Turley, "Vietnam-era flak jacket that cannot stop the type of weapons used today." According to Turley, "parents across the country are now purchasers of body armor because of the failure of the military to supply soldiers with modern vests." Turley tells how one soldier's schoolteacher mother spent more than a week's salary buying her son the ceramic plates needed to stop bullets so he can tape them to his Pentagon-issued, antique bullet-useless vest. (Excuse me, but is this soccer practice or a war? Because if it's a war, maybe mommy shouldn't have to supply the uniform.)
While the naive praying millions certainly "have their heart in the right place"; if they really want to help the troops (instead of simply thinking they're helping the troops), they need to get off their knees, march to the Pentagon and make an ungodly amount of noise about this issue. An Internet "Presidential Take Action! Team" in place of the "Presidential Prayer Team" would be a start.
NOTE: Something small, but perhaps meaningful, you can do (as I did last night) -- write to your Senator (click "Senator" to get their address). It doesn't matter if you're particularly eloquent, just that they get a volume of mail on a particular issue. Here's my letter that I sent to Feinstein and Boxer:
In the words of of columnist Jonathan Turley, our troops in Iraq have a "Vietnam-era flak jacket that cannot stop the type of weapons used today." According to Turley, "parents across the country are now purchasers of body armor because of the failure of the military to supply soldiers with modern vests." This is sick. Our troops need our support -- rapidly, desperately -- so they aren't pigeons to be picked off in Iraq. Please petition the President and the Senate on this issue. --Amy Alkon
(Internet prayer chain article via Luke Ford, who got it from Heather MacDonald)
Controversy Alert!
Is Amy Alkon a racist meanie? There's been a bit of a brouhaha about my Barbies For Muslim Fundamentalists posting. Here's the whole story over at Eugene Volokh's place. And be sure to check out the comments section at Eric Muller's IsThatLegal?, where it appears everybody gets the spirit of my posting -- well, everybody but him.
Where's My Faithless-Based Initiative?
When will politicians start pandering to Brights like me -- people who don't believe in god? Math prof John Allen Paulos wonders about that, on ABCNews.com:
...Since we're now at the beginning of a presidential campaign, it's reasonable to ask not only President Bush, but also each of the ten contenders for the Democratic nomination to state their attitude toward Brights (designated by whatever term they choose).We might also speculate about which of these candidates might be closet Brights? Which would evince anything like the free-thinking of Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln? Which would put forward a Bright Supreme Court nominee? Which would support self-avowed Brights in positions of authority over children?
Which of them would even include Brights in inclusive platitudes about Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims? Doing so might be good politics. Although unorganized and relatively invisible, Brights constitute a large group to whom politicians almost never appeal. Moreover, it would be interesting to see and hear the squirming responses of the candidates to the above questions.
In reason we trust! Well, not all of us, but more of us than you think.
Barbies For Fundamentalists
Saudi Arabia's religious police proclaimed Barbie dolls a "Jewish" toy (apparently, nobody told them that if there were a prototypical shiksa goddess, it would be Barbie), and deemed Barbie's revealing clothes a threat to Islam. Good thing there's now a full line of dolls that should get a pass with the Saudi Arabian police:
With her long-sleeved dresses, hijab or Muslim head scarf and, by her creator Ammar Saadeh's own admission, a less-than-flattering bust-line, Razanne is all about modesty and piety.But Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries likely would be attracted to Praying Razanne, who comes complete with a long hijab and modest prayer gown.
So much better for covering up suicide bomb packs than that scantily clad Malibu Barbie!
Rush Limbaugh: Big Fat Drug War Casualty?
Matthew Briggs, of the Drug Policy Alliance, says, "hero or big fat idiot, Rush Limbaugh should not face prison" if he did, indeed, buy and take tankloads of painkillers:
I hope, in fact, that this experience further opens Mr. Limbaugh's eyes to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders behind bars in this country. I would be happy to welcome him to the growing national movement for drug policy reform. We need all the help we can get.But first and foremost, I hope Mr. Limbaugh's life isn't destroyed by unjust, unscientific and uncompassionate drug laws. No one deserves that, friend or foe.
I'm with him. And I still don't know (and perhaps some fine legal mind who's dropped in here can explain it) how The Constitution gives anyone any right to tell anyone in this country what they can and can't put in their bodies (as long as their consumption isn't hurting anybody else).
Join The Mickey Kaus Club!
Blogger Mickey Kaus tells why he voted for Schwarzenegger (scroll down to October 7 entry). I voted for Schwarzie, too -- despite the efforts of several entrenched lefty friends who tried to perform numerous "interventions" by e-mail and telephone message. Well, I guess I'll have a few fewer dinner parties to go to this fall! Finally, here are a few choice words from Mickey on what's in store:
Bruce Cain, the overquoted Berkeley professor, was just on television sneering that the recall doesn't get California any closer to solving its problems. What an idiot. Schwarzenegger as governor will have weapons Davis doesn't have, the most important of which is the ability to go over the heads of the legislature and rally public support--behind a ballot initiative, if necessary. He might even be able to threaten to go into legislators' districts and campaign against them (although the state is so heavily gerrymandered there may be no unsafe "swing" districts left). You want to amend the state Constitution to get rid of the paralyzing requirement that two-thirds of the legislature approve any budget? Schwarzenegger is the man who can do it. You want a tax increase if cutting the budget isn't enough to close the deficit? Schwarzenegger's the man for that too. As a nominal Republican, he is in a position to attract at least some Republican votes for a budget package that includes both taxes and cuts. And if even an anti-tax candidate like Schwarzenegger tells the voters some increases are needed, they're more likely to accept it from him than from a Democrat whose first instinct is to pay whatever it takes to avoid public employee layoffs.
Mickey also picks up on another important point: That "Schwarzenegger's flaws are the very things that might actually help him perform better in office. Maybe a governor who is manipulative and mean is just the man to subdue the unions, the casino tribes and entrenched, free-spending legislators." We can only hope.
Broken Facts Machine
That would be the LA Times, which printed unattributed dirt on Arnold, but "forgot" to mention the dirt on Gray. Luckily, the L.A. Daily News, like The New York Times, sees fit to print Jill Stewart, who sets the record straight.
UPDATE: Here's a captioned photo of one of Arnold's accusers, Rhonda Miller, who "alleged the actor had groped, photographed and nibbled her breasts on the set of Terminator 2." According to the blog Fresh Potatoes (linked below):
Her allegations of sex harassment have been directly contradicted (on KFI AM) by the hair stylist who claims that he actually took the photograph that Rhonda Miller accused Arnold of taking. Said hair stylist said that Arnold was not in the trailer at the time, and that Miller wanted to have her picture taken, and then laughed about it when her picture was taped to the ceiling of the trailer.
Harlem: It's A Jungle Up There
Downtown, the nutbags each have 26 cats. Uptown, they like to consolidate.
Death Begunks Her
Despite the fact that there's zero evidence of the existence of either heaven or hell (although sitting on a plane for six hours in front of a caterwauling baby can make even the most rational human being believe they've been transported to the latter), people cling to the fairy tales religion feeds them about The Great Beyond. As a Bright (a person who doesn't believe in unproven mystical crap), I favor the empirical approach to life endings, stated rather succinctly by physicist Tom Morse:
"What happens to you when you die? You go from a highly organized state to a highly mushy one."
And no, because we don't have a "fer-sure fer sure" explanation for how it all began doesn't mean we can say, based on zero evidence, "Oh, god did it." By the way, for any homo haters out there who justify their hatred and discrimination against gays with a convenient couple of lines in The Bible; as a biblical literalist, if you've ever cheated on your spouse, does that mean we get to stone you?
For Whom The Belle Tolls
"You could find any feature of a beauty queen in our cafÈs, but they were all on different girls. A girl who was beautiful all over would pick a better neighborhood." --A.J. Liebling, "Between Meals -- An Appetite For Paris"
Will Your Congressman Deliver Your Baby?
If you're a woman in Michigan, and you need medical attention, try a novel approach: consult your local legislator instead of your doctor. The Detroit News' Laura Berman makes a great case for why legislators have no business trying to ban partial-birth abortion, or abortion of any other kind:
The procedure that's said to be the target of the law -- intact dilation and extraction -- is so rarely used in Michigan that even Michigan Right to Life fails to document a single case of it in the organization's exhaustive 2003 analysis of state abortion statistics....The absurdly worded Legal Birth Definition Act sitting on the governor's desk could easily pit the life of a newly-coined perinate up against the health of a woman who might be your daughter, sister, wife, best friend or just plain you.
If the governor signs this bill into law, the sight of a tiny toe will create peculiar dilemmas for doctors, who will have to decide whether to intervene on behalf of a pregnant patient or avoid criminal prosecution by trying harder to save a dying fetus.Dr. Timothy Johnson, who heads the University of Michigan's obstetrics department, says fetal parts are often visible during late miscarriages. Providing proper care, he has written, would often result "in the death of the nonviable fetus."
Now, I find abortion troubling, and partial birth abortion certainly sounds creepy, but I still maintain that women must not be forced to be baby pods against their will, and that whether to perform or not to perform any medical procedure should be between a woman and her doctor.
Who Should Pay For Your Health Insurance?
Hmm, there's a toughie. Should it be your next-door neighbor? Ozzie Osborne? Regis Philbin? Jacques Chirac? Or maybe...and here's a radical one...you?
For decades, people have expected their health care costs, and those of their families, to be paid by the big companies they worked for for a lifetime. Because American working life doesn't work like that anymore, Ronald Bailey suggests, in Reason, that breaking "the link between a job and a health insurance policy" could increase the number of insured Americans:
The fact is that fewer and fewer Americans are following the career paths of their parents and grandparentsói.e., graduating from high school, going to work for one big company that provides health insurance for the worker's family, and retiring at 65 with a company pension. In the 2lst century, workers change jobs more frequently, more people are working for smaller companies that offer fewer benefits, and one in 12 Americans will start her own business. What is needed is a more flexible health insurance system to meet the needs of the modern world. So why not let workers decide how to handle their own health insurance needs?
Indeed. I pay for my own health insurance. Why shouldn't everyone? It's especially unfair that childless employees at a company subsidize the health care costs of breeder employees and their wives and five children. Also, according to Bailey's piece, those who are self-employed pay their health care costs with after-tax dollars; employees' health care benefits aren't taxed. Not fair. You burp out a passel of kids, how about you pay for their health care, and yours and your spouse's?...and with the same after-tax dollars self-employed people like me use to pay for ours, instead of with a cushy little subsidy from Uncle Sam.
Fatty, Fatty, Two-By-Four, Canít Fit Through The Taurus Door
An opinion piece in a British paper attributed SUV popularity in America, in part, to the fact that many Americans are "large" people, as in...BIG FAT, OVEREATING PIGS!!...who canít fit their enormous pantloads into a normal passenger car:
A recent study estimates that more than half of Americans are clinically obese. You can take a moral position on that finding, but I wouldn't recommend it sitting next to an average American in the back of an average European runabout.
After reading this piece, I came up with an idea for a new anti-SUV card. (I tuck insulting messages printed on business cards under the windshield wipers of USS Nimitz-sized new SUVs; the notion being, if you can afford to drive this, you can afford to drive something that doesnít endanger the rest of us, blah, blah, blah.) Here's the rough draft of my next card:
WIDE LOAD ALERT! Sorry that your ass is so fat you canít squeeze it into a normal car, but why not drag it to the gym so you donít have to smog up the planet for the rest of us?
Which do you prefer, that or my current anti-SUV card?
ROAD-HOGGING, GAS-GUZZLING, AIR-FOULING VULGARIAN! Clearly you have an extremely small penis, or you wouldn't drive such a monstrosity. For the adequately endowed, there are hybrids or electrics.
Or maybe youíd like to suggest one of your own. Please do.
P.S. Those of you who were in New York in the 1980s, and/or read Spy magazine, will note my appropriation of the fabulous word "vulgarian," which was frequently used to describe Donald Trump, to whom they referred as the "short-fingered vulgarian." I'm sure SUV drivers are notably short of finger as well, but you can only fit so many words on a two by three-inch card!
Call Waiting And Waiting
What does it mean when this girl hears the sound of her phone not ringing? I'll be waiting by the computer to read your comments on this column I just posted.