Latest on twitter:
"If you happen to be a rich dweeb who went to the right schools and hung around with the same group of people your whole life, and those people actually run the world, well, then, you’re in the very happy position of having your own bullshit adolescent belief system become self-reinforcing. You think that reality coincides with your beliefs because your beliefs are true, whereas in truth it’s because you spend all your time with people who believe the same nonsense you do, and generations of your cultural ancestors just happen to have built very high walls all around you fools to keep reality from getting in and spoiling things.
Nothing else explains people like Alan Greenspan and Megan McArdle and all those other idiotic Ayn Rand devotees, big and small, who continually go out there in public and flog pseudo-religious beliefs about the self-correcting free-market as a cure-all for anything and everything, even as evidence to the contrary rains down from the sky like volcanic ash. These people actually believe this shit and they believe it with the imbecilic ferocity of teenagers, even the ones who are 190 years old like Greenspan (who incidentally finally conceded a “flaw” in his thinking, but only after the entire world exploded and even all the reality-proof friendly data sources he had relied upon for his whole life told him his ideas were fucked), and it’s nearly impossible to get them to let so much as a sliver of their belief systems go."
thedisgruntledgradstudent:haguenite:
Twenty years ago today (well, okay, technically yesterday, but whatever), I was six years old. It was night, and I was quietly slumbering in my bed. I still shared a room with my sister, who is 3 years older. My mom was pregnant with my little sis.
Suddenly, our sleep was disturbed. Our parents pulled us out of bed, carried us downstairs and put us down in front of the TV. I had no idea what was going on. I asked my mom why we were watching TV.
“This is a historical moment. You see those people? Some of those people haven’t seen their mommies for a very long time. That big wall was keeping them away. But now, they’re tearing it down. They can see their mommies again.”“But why didn’t they go to their mommies when they wanted to?”
“If they tried, bad people came and put them in jail.”
I think this is when I fell asleep again. But I’m still grateful to my parents for dragging us out of bed so we could witness history.
That’s what I remember, too, H, as does Sparklepants (per her answer to my question the other day). Only it was morning here. I was in my parents bedroom, with that horrible old wallpaper, and the tv that sat in the shelf where the closet is, now. And my Dad was getting dressed for work. There’s no forgetting.
I vaguely remember watching coverage of this in my living room at our old house with my mom. I remember being impressed by the amount of graffiti.
"Nobody talks more of free enterprise and competition and of the best man winning than the man who inherited his father’s store or farm."
"
Over the decades, while engaging in a campaign of intimidation, harassment and murder, the anti-abortion movement has managed, nibble by nibble, to get ever-more restrictive legislation into place. Ultimately, the right of affluent women to obtain an abortion hasn’t been much affected - except in the case of late-term procedures. But affluent women always had options even when abortion was illegal in every state. They could fly to Puerto Rico or Japan and get a safe abortion there without having to risk potentially lethal chemicals or abortions at the hands of unlicensed doctors or other providers operating on somebody’s kitchen table in less than sterile conditions.
Thanks to Hyde, low-income women in most states are still at a disadvantage when it comes to getting an abortion. Stupak-Pitts, if it survives the conference process, will not only reinforce this classist attack on women, it will also broaden it.
Being ferociously opposed to it is, therefore, not irrational or hypersensitive or over-reactive. It’s called standing up for progressive values.
[snip]
For those who might suggest this is one of those damned “social issues” that gets the Democrats in trouble on election day, let’s not forget that it’s at its core a class war, as Stupak-Pitts makes quite clear. Affluent women will always find a way to find a safe and legal abortion. Insurance or no insurance.
Stupak-Pitts may only be another nibble, but it is the cumulative effect that matters. Eventually, lots of little nibbles equal the entire pie. Those who say our vigorous, uncompromising opposition to it is an irrational overreaction ought to be ashamed of themselves.
"Daily Kos: What’s Really Pissing Me Off
Class warfare at its finest. Oh wait, lots of well-meaning liberals don’t give a fuck about that any more than they do about abortion rights.
(via champagnecandy)
"When we graduated from college, we were under this illusion that the world was ours, that employers would be scrambling to hire and promote us, that we’d be doing important and there-by glamorous work, and generally saving the world in our new grown-up Banana Republic suits. While that lie was a painful one for me to face last year, I am still shocked by how many of my amazingly capable and intelligent friends are still unemployed, while many of the rest of us languish in less-than-stellar situations because the market is frankly terrifying.
When I visited home this summer I had a great chat with an old high school comrade. Another inspiring, strong, fiercely intelligent college grad who I’d always admired. How surprising, or not surprising actually, to hear her talk about her restaurant night job which supplements her substitute teaching gig, and actually provides most of her financial security. She hit it right on the head when she said that while people like us don’t have the experience on our resumes, the truth is that we could go into just about any position and learn it quickly and do it well. But how do you score a chance to do that, when everyone else’s cover letter is claiming the same work ethic and quickness? How can we get our foot in the door and leave behind the coffee shop for that dream job we’d thought we’d be waltzing so gracefully into?
Is this just our generation’s problem? Is it just us girls? I’ve heard that one should have six months of rent saved when embarking on a job hunt-will it really take this long? Who among us imagined, when we were stars of the classroom and officials in our clubs, that we’d be struggling so much to make ends meet, let alone keep our self-esteem in tact?"
Let Us Go Then, You and I: Smart Young Women Feel the Crunch
This is from over a year ago. *siiigh*
"As a peacekeeper, my goal is to enable women to enter a reproductive health clinic in dignity and without fear of being physically assaulted… I take this opportunity to urge those demonstrating against women who are patients at the Hinsdale Clinic, whom I have seen emotionally as well as physically threaten women, to cease those activities. I would never have had to serve as a peacekeeper had not they created a war against women."
Sister Donna Quinn, a nun who escorts women into clinics that provide abortions (via)
"Plenty of people in the feminist blogosphere have attempted to clarify the distinction between guys who are actually nice — whom many women, as it happens, really do dig — and “Nice Guys,” who, as Amanda Marcotte puts it, “are angry at women, at least the ones they will admit are women because they are the only ones they find sexually attractive, who refrain from giving out sex despite the fact that said Nice Guys® feel they’ve put in the requisite work of putting forth kind behavior, whether phony or at least somewhat sincere.” But to disciples of the R. Don Steeles of the world, it never gets through. What gets through is: Women tell me I’m nice when they reject me, and my laydee-getting guru tells me women don’t like nice guys, and I have a kneejerk dislike of the guys I see dating women I’m attracted to, ergo, all women hate nice guys and love jerks.
We don’t have to wonder why professional Pickup Artists keep banging the “women don’t like nice guys” drum: It makes them a hell of a lot of money, by reaffirming what their customers already, self-servingly, believe. So maybe a better question is: Why are so many women reinforcing the idea that insecure, manipulative jerks who feel entitled to 20-year-old booty if they put on a clean shirt and refrain from saying “whore” out loud are nice guys? How is it that so many guys like Sodini — the kind who routinely refer to women as “hoes” (sic) and “bitches,” and act disgusted by the thought of women having sex with any other men — have heard, “You’re really nice, but…” again and again in the course of being rejected?"
"Telling a guy the real reasons you’re not interested — you don’t find him attractive, he’s way too old for you, you get a distinctly creepy vibe off him, whatever — or offering no explanation at all, because you just met this guy and owe him nothing, would be “rude.” And thanks to the conditioning Harriet describes, exhibiting the slightest hint of “rudeness” to any stranger who approaches you with sex on his mind makes you feel not like a normal human being with healthy boundaries, but a mean, frigid, stuck-up bitch. Worse yet, sometimes, the same man who called you beautiful and offered to buy you a drink ten seconds ago will turn aggressive when you say you’re not interested; he’ll tell you flat out you’re a bitch, or a whore, or less printable things. He’ll reject your rejection by getting in your face and losing his temper. So really, it’s a lot safer and simpler to say, “Look, you’re a nice guy, but no thanks/I have a boyfriend/I can’t."
No more Mr. Nice Guy
A good introduction to the issue of why women should not be socialized to apologize for the right to personal space, and instead be taught to firmly assert that right.
(via ponymalta)
I had a guy ask me why I didn’t just tell this really annoying sleazy guy to blatantly fuck off, why I kept being “nice,” and I told him “because I don’t want to be assaulted.”
(via andeventhis)(via faithandbegorrah)(via katoleary)(via lfar)
I can’t help but be reminded of this, particularly the closing lines. How are guys not aware that this is what some men are like?
"Police officers giving drivers $204 tickets for not speaking English? It sounds like a rejected Monty Python sketch. Except the grim reality is that it has happened at least 39 times in Dallas since January 2007, according to The Dallas Morning News. At least six officers in several different patrol divisions wrote the tickets, each time citing a driver for violating a law that does not exist. All but one of the drivers were Hispanic."
"Those who insist that any notions of God be left out of public policy and that public values not be based in one’s views about God have left themselves no reason to oppose policies with which they disagree. Oh, atheists and “practical” atheists (including Christians who don’t believe God is relevant to politics) can oppose anything they want, but who is to “say” that their position is the truly right one? Yes, they can argue their position is the most reasonable, but who is to say that reason or “reasonableness” should be the means by which we make decisions?"
Family Action Council of Tennessee - Marriage - The More the Marry-er
Once again, I’m dumbfounded by Christian “logic.” Not only is there a complete absence of understanding that they might have to give a reason for their belief in the Bible, which many of us view as utter hooey, before they offer it up as the only reason they need give in justifying or explaining their political beliefs, but there is also so little credit given to the ability to think for yourself that it just blows my mind.
For an additional dose of absurdity, this little pearl of wisdom comes under the heading “If Gay Unions, Why Not Polygamy, Too?” Indeed. Why not polygamy? After all, it appears to be a perfectly permissible form of marriage in your favorite book, the Bible. Maybe you kids are doing a little more thinking for yourself than you were aware of…
