Please Pretend You're Straight Until College- A Texan Mom Blogger's Solution to Gay Bullying.

Where to start? Gawker's ingenious in many ways because it often turns its readership onto the blatant stupid that gets published in other parts of the bloggosphere.  I offer this link in a catastrophically sad case in point. TexasSparkle is mad as H-E double toothpicks about gay teen suicides...and she's got the following advice: Stay in the closet, because kids can be mean and it'd be easier to just not talk about it. Because, obviously you can't know who you're attracted to because you're just a kid.

 The above blogger misses the point by a country mile at best, when she decides that the answer to bullying is not say....the bullying and the social punishment that comes with the stigmas associated with being gay... and instead about kids who don't know anything being deciding to label themselves "gay" prematurely. Which is just stupidity personified. (Especially if one knows anything about "fag shaming"- one doesn't have to be out to be shamed or bullied for "unmasculine" behavior)

"Just Words" - Catwoman and Arkham City's "Bitchin" Problem

Comicsalliance has quickly become one of my favorite places to go for alternative takes on comic book news. It not only has some gorgeous art by indie artists, and clever re-interpretations of some of the more mindbogglingly dense comic book continuities.

 Lately, a writer (Laura Hudson, whom Ive developed a lot of respect for) has been raising the occasional question about gender/sexism and  the comic book industry. Valid questions about whether the depiction of female characters in popular culture as written by, drawn by, and consumed (presumably) men can come off as objects instead of characters...and proceeds to shed light on a lot of evidence why this might be.

An earlier commentary on Catwoman, who is often described as a woman who is "sex positive" and a "femme fatale"(I reference it here), debuted in a new DC comic where she spent numerous pages walking around in a bra being oggled by the p.o.v of the reader before we even see her face. Compartmentalization  and framed by her "t&a" before we get to finding out who we're talking about. Thats just one of the more popularized points of evidence indicating recent sexism in comics that've come out of the dialog.

Fast forward to October 20th, where CA posted an article referencing popular game blog Kotaku's noting that playing the new Batman game as Catwoman involved a whole new "game mechanic". And while it might not be as overt as some as the other above references, it speaks to some glaring problems with the way we deal with "slut shaming" and casual reinforcement of the status quo.

Bitter Harvests

Ala.: Inmates can replace Hispanic farmhands - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com:

In other words "They'll have their barely paid, possibly coerced labor system one way or another, damnit!!!" Be it chattel slavery, illegal immigration or this proposal of forcing prison inmates to work the fields...the imagery and the similarities overall seems entirely the norm for the deep south.

The latent functions and social fallout from this legislation seems to be having more sweeping real world  implications than the mavericks in Georgia and Alabama intended (not that any of that is surprising in and of itself).

What does it say about the local economies of areas like this that they cannot function without exploiting or compelling its workforce to do so for either pennies on the dollar and the threat of deportation or as a contingency of their punishment? Either way, they seem insistent on making sure brown people (especially given the sky high incarceration rates for black men in these states) line their fields one way or the other...
'via Blog this'

Its Like Watching a Morally Bankrupt, Dispicable Trainwreck...

There's something particularly troubling about how the press has been covering the tragedy in Oslo. When they're not blatantly diverting the subject back to their discomfort zones (Look, over there Muslim terrorists!) , or Beck's classicly horrifying "Those kids were practically hitler youth (so its not AS bad some nut killed them all)" they're pontificating on Breivik's methodically chilling manifesto and coming up with THIS disturbing assessment:

"As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right."(emphasis mine)

Its difficult to understand what anyone would have to gain from not uniformly denouncing someone who is capable of the cold blooded murder of innocents, and further an odd intersection between troubling and fascinating to watch some do this- all in the name of being loosely affiliated with the same (tremendously common) religion.

When involving Breivik, one hears pleas for nuance and understanding regarding what it is the writers and the villain share- belonging to an aggregate. The post Brayton showcases by Adam Serwer does a great job illuminating this position, especially given many of these same conservative writers eagerness to paint the "run of the mill" threat to America (tm) as being anti-American, Anti-Christian and most assuredly of the Muslim faith.

Sewer's article raises the serious concern with the tone of the argument here- not that they're writing and responding to a very real human tragedy...but they're responding with what a friend on the book of faces rightly categorized as a "No True Scotsman" logical fallacy (which the wiki-page helpfully provided Bill O'Riley's response to the Oslo massacre as an example). "Why, surely no one belonging to our group could be responsible for such awful things. But everybody from those OTHER groups they're monsters worthy of being suppressed and chased from this American life... but please, show some nuanced consideration for how intricately different we as Christians can be. Please excuse me while I demonize everyone practicing a religion I know little about."

Jon Stewart nails this bizzaro ideological contortion brilliantly.

Some days, I shudder for the universe. Oh what a world my parents gave me...

When We Say "Job Creation" What We Mean is...

I find it harder and harder still to find a Tea Party candidate who got into office on this "we're only interested in fiscal reform" platform actually doing much remotely concerned with the reviving the economy. When they're not hawkishly slashing prices? They're of course dutifully defunding NPR, waging wars against Planned Parenthood...which, according to Senator Kyl Falsely (which is a bit ironic when dealing with misleading statements THIS egregious) apparently is responsible for 90 percent of the abortions in the universe...or something. In short, its simply an out and out falsehood- there are even pie charts to underscore how overestimated this statement is (by 87% for those of you with math anxiety). But I suppose such a flagrant lack of concern with truth doesn't really concern most.

Beyond the increasingly obvious ruse of "create jobs and fix the budget" posturing lays one more "faith based" slight of hand after the next. I'm curious about the rationalizations that'll come about how this is relevant to either job creation or the budget... because as we've learned about "Tax Cuts for All" ...there's always a price to pay, and its usually on the backs of the ever-eroding middle class.

From Think Progress:

"Hey, here's a way to defend marriage, help all those unemployed spouses out there get a job. From AMERICAblog Gay we learn that the Republican chairing the hearing wants to impeach Obama (so what else is new?):

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), chair of the committee, has said President Obama could be impeached for his decision to drop his administration's defense of the Defense of Marriage Act in court, and the upcoming hearing would likely represent his views.

In a March interview with Think Progress, Franks said he supports defunding the Justice Department if it doesn’t defend DOMA and added he would “absolutely” favor impeaching Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder if support for doing so “could gain collective support.”

Well, he's going to have to impeach a lot of other presidents, including GW Bush, and Reagan posthumously, because they did the same thing Obama did. The lies these guys spin. Just amazing."

Also for your listening enjoyment, the ever cute and clever Foals "This Orient". It might sweeten our collective moods after swallowing that sour pill.