http://www.amptoons.com/blog Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:40:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm having an exchange with a left-wing opponent of the Health Care Reform bill (aka Obamacare) here on BlueOregon. But for some reason, BlueOregon won't let me post. So I'm posting my response here instead. Barry Deutsch apparently is another of those low-information supporters so common in the NW who repeat ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/20/a-response-to-a-left-wing-critic-of-health-care-reform/ Taken from Balloon Juice comments: Whether or not you live in their districts, call the following Congresspeople (who are either undecided or are progressives who are considering opposing the legislation) and ask them to vote in favor of health care reform so that we can finally begin fixing our broken health ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/20/please-call-these-congresspeople-and-ask-them-to-vote-for-health-care-reform/ The Alpha Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Workshop for Young Writers provides a ten-day crash course in speculative fiction writing for students aged 14-19. The students write and revise a short story, receive critiques, and work with four professional authors--which have included big names like Tamora Pierce and Charles Coleman ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/19/alpha-workshop-for-young-writers-fund-drive/ When I was getting my master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), we learned about a study--I wish I could remember the details, but it's been more than 20 years, and I have forgotten--which measured the responses of people on a subway who spoke only English ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/19/the-politics-of-language/ The CBO has released their analysis of the Senate HCR bill combined with the "sidecar" reconciliation bill. You can read the CBO analysis here (pdf file), but the most important numbers are: Reduce deficits: $138 billion in the first ten years. ($1.2 trillion in the second decade, although that's not a ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/18/cbo-releases-health-care-reform-score-house-likely-to-vote-on-sunday/ In Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford she tells a story of the 1960s. I can't remember the details of the political trial - had the defendant's been accused of . But they were found not guilty, and in the party to celebrate the result a young man ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/17/and-the-best-thing-about-it-was-theyre-guilty/ So here's something I don't get: why is it that whenever people start talking about same-sex relations, members of the right instantly leap to bestiality? We all remember former Sen. Rick "Man On Dog" Santorum, R-Penn. Then there was Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and his box turtle lovin'. Now we ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/15/man-horse-love/ Gonzo: I'm going to Bombay, India, to become a movie star! Fozzie Bear: You don't go to Bombay to become a movie star. You go where we're going: Hollywood! Gonzo: Sure, if you want to do it the easy way! --The Muppet Movie ((Bombay seems like an odd choice for this joke. ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/15/transparency-versus-stained-glass-in-prose-and-in-comics/ I love this. Click to go to the original. The mouseover text is full of win, too. http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/14/xkcd-wins-the-internets/ Six: We're the children of humanity. That makes them our parents in a sense. Five: True, but parents have to die. It's the only way children can come into their own. --Battlestar Galactica, "Bastille Day" When first I wrote about Caprica, I said it was "the story of two grieving fathers." I was ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/12/are-you-awake/ Post what you want, when you want it. It's anarchy! I liked this post by John Corvino at the Indie Gay Forum, categorizing the "that's not the definition of marriage" argument against equal marriage rights into four categories. Howard Stern on Gabourey Sidibe: hard facts Ron Unz at The American Conservative (obviously a ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/12/open-thread-stripes-through-a-glass-edition/ Tony Judt, a well-known historian, has written an engaging essay called "Girls! Girls! Girls!" for NYRBlog, The New York Review of Books blog, about how our stance towards sexual behavior on (and, by implication, off) campus has changed over the years. I don't agree with everything he says--and he would ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/12/reader-i-married-her/ From ABC News: The killers showed no mercy: They didn't spare women and children, or even a 4-day-old baby, from their machetes. On Monday, Nigerian women wailed in the streets as a dump truck carried dozens of bodies past burned-out homes toward a mass grave. Rubber-gloved workers pulled ever-smaller bodies from the ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/09/500-massacred-in-nigeria-are-victims-of-religious-violence/ For me, this was the most exciting news all week. The Magnes Zionist describes the scene: Around five thousand demonstrators protested the eviction of Arab families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and the settlement there of rightwing Jewish extremists. It was the largest Sheikh Jarrah ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/09/thousands-of-israelis-protest-settlers-in-jerusalem/ Jeff VanderMeer's Booklife Now blog has two very exciting guest writers this week--Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward. Nisi and Cynthia are the authors of Writing the Other, a practical text aimed at helping authors write characters unlike them. The book is an excellent teaching tool, full of practical advice, and supplemented ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/08/nisi-shawl-cynthia-ward-guest-blogging-at-booklife-now/ Pro wrestling features athletes who are performers, and we all know that there are a lot of athletes and performers who are jerks. But Mick Foley isn't one of them. The veteran wrestler is now donating half the proceeds from his latest book to survivors of rape in Sierra Leone ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/08/mick-foley-gets-it/ I don't know about you, but I don't see anything beating this movie: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/07/are-you-ready-for-some-oscars/ Glenn Greenwald is right. This pro-Iraq War column by Marty Peretz is not only wrong, but it contains an unbelievably racist statement: There were moments--long moments--during the Iraq war when I had my doubts. Even deep doubts. Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially ... http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/06/bigotry-thy-name-is-marty-peretz/ I still have no idea who this guy is, but the made Steven Colbert happy, and he's Russian. Via Chris Bodenner http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/05/random-youtubery/ I already posted part of this page in progress, but I haven't posted the whole page before, and now you get to see it with Jake's colors. Enjoy! (Click on the image for a bigger size). http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/03/04/another-hereville-preview-the-school-cafeteria/