http://www.amptoons.com/blog Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about. Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:27:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So previously, based on nothing but a nice trailer with cool music, I made a commitment to see Transformers. I am now being warned that that commitment might be a bad idea, due to my recently reached decision to sharply decrease toleration of gender and race and sexual orientation ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/04/the-%e2%80%9ctransformers-is-utter-shite-and-i-refuse-to-spend-10-to-acquire-an-elevated-blood-pressure%e2%80%9d-edition/ If you haven't taken the time to watch the Sarah Palin press conference from today, you really should. Take twenty minutes. I'll wait. (If for any reason you can't view the videos, there's a transcript here.) Palin was at her worst today: disjointed and rambling, contradicting herself -- she argued, for ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/03/the-train-wreck-from-wasilla/ I’m starting a new regular feature here on the ABW (and also on the Carl Brandon Society blog) wherein I list all of the SF/F/H short fiction by writers of color published each month. We used to do a similar thing on the SFBookswap blog for women writers (online only, though) ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/03/fictional-highlights/ I’m starting a new regular feature here on the ABW (and also on the Carl Brandon Society blog) wherein I list all of the SF/F/H short fiction by writers of color published each month. We used to do a similar thing on the SFBookswap blog for women writers (online only, though) ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/03/fictional-highlights-2/ My friend Elise Bryant wrote a play called The Zoo-zoo Chronicles about her life on the University of Michigan campus in the 1970s.  In the first scene, Elise’s stand-in moves into a four-bedroom dorm suite with three white women.  As an ice-breaker, one of the white women asks their new ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/03/my-favorite-beatle/ The History Channel’s “Life After People” is one of my favorite TV series, so I was amused to see this mention of an “Immortality Drive” that’s apparently in space at this very moment. The Immortality Drive is a kind of high-tech time capsule; put together by video game auteur ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/01/the-future-of-humanity-is-white-and-male-again/ Cathy Young argues that our current copyright system isn't working as originally intended: My argument: copyright law as it currently exists does the opposite of its original intent (as formulated in the U.S. Constitution, which allows Congress to legislate on copyright, and in the very first copyright statute enacted in 1790): ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/01/should-joe-and-mary-be-allowed-to-publish-their-harry-potter-rip-off/ I'd highly recommend reading "The Real Struggle In Iran," George Friedman's analysis the recent events in Iran. I have no way of knowing if Friedman's analysis is accurate or not; but it seems a good deal more plausible to me than the narrative I've seen from much of the major ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/07/01/the-real-struggle-in-iran/ Finally. I know that this could still keep going, you know, forever, but the smoke signals and tea leaves and bird guts all have pointed to Norm giving up. Given that this is a unanimous per curiam decision, it's hard for Norm to show that he was beaten down by ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/30/breaking-minn-supremes-declare-franken-winner/ July 30, 20097:00 pmto9:00 pmJoin science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors Linda D. Addison (Being Full of Light, Insubstantial), K. Tempest Bradford (Interfictions, Federations), N. K. Jemisin (forthcoming: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms), and Alaya Dawn Johnson (Racing the Dark) for a reading and discussion on women of color in speculative ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/30/nyc-reading-diaspora-of-the-fantastic-black-women-writers-of-science-fiction-fantasy-and-horror/ At the start of the month, Megan McArdle -- who is, I think, pro-choice -- wrote: But in this case, I think the analogy to slavery is important, for two reasons. First of all, it was the last time we had an extended, society-wide debate about personhood. [...] Listening to the ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/30/personhood-was-not-an-important-pro-slavery-argument/ In an effort to give you as many ways of reading our awesome blog as is possible, we’re now also publishing a Kindle edition. You can subscribe to The Angry Black Woman for $1.99/month and it will be delivered wirelessly to your fancy Amazon-branded eReader. Now you can read ABW ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/29/get-abw-on-your-kindle/ http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/29/good-cartoon-by-steve-greenberg/ Longtime "Alas" readers will recall a long-ago co-blogger, my friend and housemate Bean, who still posts a very occasional comment here, plus I often use Bean's photos for kid blogging. Sydney and Maddox were recently flower girls at the wedding of Bean to a lovely, quirky guy named Dan. Many more pictures ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/29/kid-blogging-flowergirls-at-beans-wedding/ As usual, use this thread to post or link whatever you'd like. Self-linking is entirely welcome. Raising a child to be neither girl nor boy, just "Pop." Unapologetically Female and Feministing both comment. It's like a sick Onion headline come to life: Texas police raid gay bar on 40th anniversary of Stonewall. ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/29/link-farm/ This moved me: "Stand by Me" - Andy, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora & FriendsUploaded by MyDamnChannel. - News videos from around the world. Here is the copy from the website: "Stand by Me" On June 24, Iranian Superstar Andy Madadian went into an LA recording studio with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/28/stand-by-me-in-persian-and-english/ So Steven Waldman of Beliefnet and Lord William Saletan went on Bloggingheads to discuss abortion, and how we can make the dirty tramps who have them stop. It's a natural topic of conversation for two people with zero ovaries, fallopian tubes, uteruses, and vaginas between them; since they'll never have ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/27/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/ I haven’t said anything about the situation in Iran, mostly because I don’t feel qualified to speak about it. I’m watching it, though, following the Twitter feeds obsessively and learning as much as I can about Iran’s history. I’ve been finding fellow blogger Richard Jeffrey Newman’s posts over ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/27/iran-and-american-imperialism/ So. Micheal Jackson is dead. I am having serious trouble processing that. I expected to hear this when I myself was much older. Not now. I wasn’t ready for now. Damn. *sigh* His songs were always there… I liked most of them, but these were my favs Stranger in Moscow ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/27/linkspam%e2%80%a6the-%e2%80%9ci-hate-death-dammit%e2%80%9d-edition/ Of course, by "Tyranny," I mean we passed a fairly weak cap-and-trade carbon emission bill through the House of Representatives that will, hopefully, mitigate the damage from what could be the worst environmental catastrophe since the last ice age. But while those of us in the reality-based community think that ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/06/27/america-chooses-tyranny/