Various Links and Open Thread
| December 21st, 2005What I’ve been reading lately…. Please leave comments about, well, anything. And as always, feel free to post links, to your own stuff or to other folks’ stuff.
The Fifth Carnival of Feminists Is Up!
How Magazine Covers Are Retouched
This enjoyable site graphically demonstrates, with bef0re-and-after clicking, how much the cover photos of fashion magazines are retouched. It’s pretty impressive - the breast makeover is particularly ridiculous looking. Curtsy: The F-Word.
New Anti-Prostitution Bill Targets Johns
Interesting article in the Washington Post about a new federal anti-prostitution bill, which is aimed at reducing demand. “…In addition to funding shelters for ex-prostitutes and sponsoring a statistical survey of prostitution, it would authorize $25 million a year to law enforcement to reduce demand. Techniques would include using female decoys, posting pictures of johns on the Internet and establishing “john schools” to reeducate sex clients.”
Harold Pinter Speech On American Wrongdoing
Historical Conflict posts excerpts from a recent Harold Pinter speech, which (at least in the bits quoted) concentrates on the ills the US has done in Central America, and on the seemingly infinite American capacity to ignore and forget any harms done by the US.
Statistics I Used In An Earlier Post Under Question
The excellent Doctor Science brings up some statistics contrary to the ones I cited in this post about the “Boy Crisis.” The good Doctor also provides a link to this report from the American Council on Education (.pdf link), which is where the stats I used apparently came from (the report concludes that race and class, more than sex, is where the most crucial educational disparities lie). For a discussion of the statistics, read the comments at Rachels Tavern.
Teen Pregnancy Down
Gruntled Center reports that teen pregnancy rates are dropping. He also cites a study which found that half the drop is because of better birth control; a quarter because of increased abstinence; and a quarter because non-abstinent teens are having sex less often than they used to.
The Grossest Pet Story Ever
Scroll down about a screen and you can read it. But it’s really gross. Curtsy: Grand Mental Station.
UMASS Student Questioned by Federal Agents For Studying Mao Tse-Tung
From the article: “I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book,” Professor Pontbriand said. “Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that’s what triggered the visit, as I understand it.”
UPDATE: Turns out this story is a hoax - the student made it up.
Professor Files Complaint Against A Muslim Printer Repair Guy Who Wrote A Homophobic Email
I hate homophobia, but homophobes should still have free speech rights - including the right to respond negatively to an unsolicited pro-queer email. This professor (who is, I cringe upon reading, the head of the Women’s Studies Department) showed appallingly bad judgement in filing charges.
Susan Faludi is Cool
“My goal is to be accused of being strident.” - Susan Faludi.
Pentagon Threatened By Queer Kissing
From the article: Several groups are criticizing the Pentagon after press reports claimed it has been spying on civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel. [...] A “don’t ask, don’t tell” protest at the University of California at Santa Cruz that featured a gay kiss-in was labeled by the Pentagon as a “credible threat” of terrorism. (Hat tip: Shakespeare’s Sister).
Patriarchy Shaken in Small Croatian Village
From the article: Women in a Croatian village have seized power from their lazy menfolk in local elections.
After their success, the women of Lozisca on the island of Brac vowed “to let the men back into our beds, but never back into politics”.
They won all seven seats on the local council after deciding they were sick of seeing the village men doing nothing for the community. (Curtsy: Shakespeare’s Sister.)
Video of Shirtless Jocks Lip Synching “Turn Around, Bright Eyes”
I find it strangely compelling. Be sure to watch their version of Love Lifts, as well. Hat tip: Robert.
Fat Phobia In Small Children - What’s a Liberal Mom To Do?
Two interesting posts from LA Mom (here and here) about the disturbing emergence of anti-fat bigotry in her son.
Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers and Walt Disney
Really interesting article about how the creator of Mary Poppins agreed to let Disney make the movie - even though Disney, of course, made changes she found appalling. Also, it turns out the end of the movie was intended by Disney to be anti-suffragette - I had no idea.
Middle-Ground Proposals To Reduce Abortion
Gruntled Center has two proposals that he thinks both pro-lifers and pro-choicers can support: The “95-10″ plan, which attempts to reduce abortion by reducing the demand in non-coercive ways, such as providing more on-campus resources (such as daycare) for college students with children.
From Gruntled Center: The 95-10 proposal has the ambitious aim to reduce the number of abortions by 95% in ten years. The program starts with better education about birth prevention, the pregnancy support that is already available, the extent of the national abortion rate, and counseling and daycare on campus, an issue I wrote about recently. The act would then make existing adoption tax credits permanent, ban jacking up insurance rates for the “pre-existing condition” of pregnancy (as if it were a disease), and increase funding against domestic violence, as murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women. The 95-10 proposal does not end with the child’s birth, though; the act would fully fund the Women, Infants, and Children program, and require the successful State Child Health Insurance Programs to include pregnant women and their babies.
Tilda Swanson is Awesome
I saw The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and liked it - it was a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel. But I can’t say I loved it; it was loads of fun, but nonetheless felt uninspired. The best thing in it was Tilda Swanson’s astounding, scary performance as The White Witch. I’m not sure if it passes The Mo Movie Measure or not; it depends on whether or not discussing a deceased male God counts as discussing a man.
Lose Weight Or You’ll Be Forced To Date Black Men!
Back in August, Kim posted about the anti-fat diatribes of Dr. Terry Bennett. Now it turns out his standard speech also includes a racial component:
Bennett explains that only a racist would find that racist. Via Pinko Feminist Hellcat and Echidne.
Congratulations to Lab Cat!
…Who has had a short story nominated for a Ray Bradbury award.
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:20 am
Some Self-serving Links of interest…
Ohh, CAnada!
Merely a link, but I plan to add scandalous reminicences tomorrow. it also opens up some interesting thoughts on the meaning of Liberty.
George Bush cites Divine Right of Kings.
This comment was written by Bob King.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:41 am
other folks’ stuff. View contentHide content The Fifth Carnival of Feminists Is Up! How Magazine Covers Are Retouched This enjoyable site graphically demonstrates, with bef0re-and-after clicking, how much the cover photos of fashion magazines […]Continue reading at Alas, a blog … posted 8:00 pm at Alas, a blog
This comment was written by feminist blogs.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:00 am
Hi Amp,
I’ve also found and posted about another site that shows the difference between an ‘original’ and a retouched photo for publication.
This comment was written by TP.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:17 am
TP:
Here is your link (you left out a / between the “com” and the “2005″).
This comment was written by Glaivester.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:17 am
I would like to request that you consider adding Eric Lee to the single-issue blogroll. His LabourStart is one hell of a read:
http://www.labourstart.org/
This comment was written by alsis39.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:41 am
Here are two posts by Dennis Mangan and myself discussing a possible biological basis for at least part of the black-white health gap in the U.S.: namely, vitamin D deficiency. [It is harder for darker-skinned people to synthesize vitamin D from exposure to sunlight]. If we are correct, this nutritional deficiency should be easily correctable.
This comment was written by Glaivester.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:15 pm
I am dying to find an abortion-reduction plan that I, as a pro-choice person, can support. At first, I thought the 95-10 proposal was it - finally! Then I got to the part advocating national parental notification laws. No, no, no. Creating logistical roadblocks to providing prompt health care services for young women is not the answer. Back to the drawing board…sigh.
This comment was written by BantamBlonde.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 3:03 pm
the frat boys… kind of like a drag show without the drag.
This comment was written by trey.Report this comment to the moderators
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Done! Thanks for pointing that one out to me, it’s really good. I wouldn’t say it’s a good read, exactly, but it’s a hell of a good link collection.
This comment was written by Ampersand.Report this comment to the moderators
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:23 am
conflict between Travers and Disney, but Flanagan uses a lot of it to work in dig after dig at feminists and most women in general. No, I want to focus on what surprised Ampersand, who I got this from and what surprised me about this article–there’s a strong anti-suffragist theme in the movie Mary Poppins. Even with some of her typical Flanagan fudging to make her case, it’s pretty obvious that Mrs. Banks’ political activism in the movie is supposed to be a joke and mark her as a bad mother. When first we meet Mrs. Banks, she is dancing along the
This comment was written by Pandagon.Report this comment to the moderators
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:04 am
Thank you for these. I’m up with my stupid sinuses and now I have stuff to read.
This comment was written by Echidne of the snakes.Report this comment to the moderators
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:06 pm
So I’m just surfing the web, chasing links as you do, (don’t you just hate it when people say “as you do”), when I come across this truly bizarre story Anybody else heard of this before?
This comment was written by Daran.Report this comment to the moderators
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:37 pm
After all the acrimony here lately, I really found this story touching.
It’s a metafilter thread on the Not In Our Town protests in Billings, Montana, and it just blew me away. Made me cry twice.
—Myca
This comment was written by Myca.Report this comment to the moderators
July 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am
[...] MANY thanks to Ampersand of Alas, who totally made my [...]
This comment was written by Smite Me! [.net] » Blog Archive » Who says white boys got no rhythm?.Report this comment to the moderators
July 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Rant of the day:
I want to be good. Really, I do. I WANT to use my old laser printer.
But I can buy a new printer more cheaply than I can buy a enw toner and drum. In fact, a new toner and drum for my old (used) Brother 5040, which was never an ultra expensive printer, costs about $250 total. The same money will buy me an open box (never used) laser printer that also networks, is faster, has 16x the memory, handles better paper, runs for ages, is designed for a workgroup, and, oh yeah, prints color.
It’s freakin’ ridiculous, is what it is. I mean, there HAVE to be old Broter cartridges around, don’t there?
This comment was written by sailorman.Report this comment to the moderators
July 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
So buy the new one, and give the old one to Goodwill, where someone will refurb it.
This comment was written by Robert.Report this comment to the moderators
July 8th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
My local places won’t take electronics. Must be too many people trying to dump old printers… it’s not as if goodwill can’t buy new printer for the same cost I can ;) Hell, it’ll cost $35 to get rid of it, or thereabouts.
This comment was written by sailorman.Report this comment to the moderators
July 8th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
In that case, Craigslist or Freecycle. You can get rid of used tissues in the CL “free” category, so a mechanically working laser printer should go in about thirty seconds.
This comment was written by Robert.Report this comment to the moderators
July 9th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Here’s an interesting link on police misconduct in Seattle and what it’s like to blog on it.
Injustice in Seattle
This comment was written by Radfem.Report this comment to the moderators
July 9th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Good call: my new printer’s on order; I’ll set this one up as a freebie and see if anyone takes it.
This comment was written by sailorman.Report this comment to the moderators
July 9th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
You might as well or you’ll be spending all your time searching the ends of the globe for those elusive Brother products.
This comment was written by Radfem.Report this comment to the moderators
July 9th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
They’re not hard to find, just expensive. It’s those Broter items which are a bear to track down. ;)
More rnadom open-threadness:
Does anyone else have a terribly hard time, as they grow older, STOPPING saving small amounts of money? Or, more accurately, realize when saving isn’t saving?
The other day I had just spent 20 minutes to save myself $2 on a network cable, when I realized I lost ten times that in billables. I just can’t stand the thought of paying a couple of bucks more than I have to but I can never convince myself that it’s worth saving time over money sometimes.
Is this a problem for everyone? Or just me?
This comment was written by sailorman.Report this comment to the moderators