A North Dakota legislator advocates not only drug-testing welfare applicants but making them pay for it themselves. As I’ve noted before, conservatives have to punish the poor because the poor are evil.
•As I and many others have noted, Republicans are having trouble adjusting to losing the White House again and the need for a course correction. Digby spots a couple of reasons in a Politico article: The fact some Repubs don’t want to moderate their positions and ““many groups on the hard right that depend on direct mail fundraising that requires a high degree of audacity, and borderline shrillness.” Which is not surprising.
•Four years ago, Sean Hannity said he’d undergo waterboarding to prove it’s not torture. Booman News is still waiting.
•In response to pundit insistence that Americans must sacrifice by slashing benefits, Digby points out that lots of Americans prefer to keep benefits and raise taxes, even on themselves.
•How different cultures can see the Bible through different eyes.
•William Saletan of Slate explains in a recent column how CIA torturers and torture authorizers assured him that torture—er, enhanced interrogation—was really valuable, so there, that proves it. Digby rips into him and links to another takedown by Lindsay Beyerstein.
As they point out, if everything was so legal and there were good internal controls, why are they shredding all those interrogation videotapes? Remember, these were the years when according to a few million conservatives, people who have nothing to fear have nothing to hide.
Digby’s quote: “To my mind, torture apologists should be treated like Holocaust deniers. Torture is that bad and anyone who defends it should be subjected to the most extreme skepticism and frankly, derision. There are some things that are beyond the pale. Or should be.”
•Saletan is wrong, but sounds coherent. This Guardian piece doesn’t even manage that. The writer gives lip service to approving the British House of Commons’ vote for gay marriage asserts that “the true test of tolerance lies in its treatment of intolerance—and we failed that test.” He goes on to say that “The real breakthrough [in gay rights]may come only when gay people cease to demand the exceptionalism of a “victimised” group, when they can shrug off the intolerance of a few, having won the acceptance of the many.”
Nowhere in the piece does he actually site some example of gays treating the intolerant unfairly or trying to outlaw them. So maybe it’s another fantasy about oppression like Charles Coulson’s (also see here for more discussion of “tolerant people are really intolerant.”). And here alicublog catches various right-wingers discussing how Obama is making them martyrs.
•Virginia proposes minting its own state currency.
•If Russian intelligence discovered Obama’s anti-gun plot, why would it tell conservatives?
•William F. Buckley was a textbook example of the bigot who sounds reasonable but is just as extreme as the rabid haters. As Slacktivist has pointed out, that’s a common belief among bigots who don’t want to be called bigoted—they’re not as openly nasty, they shouldn’t be judged as harshly.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Of all the links of tongue and pen
Filed under Politics
What happened 30 years ago is still kind of cutting edge
As I’ve mentioned in the past, movies (and other media) have a bad habit of assuming that women’s careers are just what they do until they meet the right guy. Which makes Superman Family #200 a pleasant surprise.
(Cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano; all rights reserved to current copyright holder)
Superman Family was an anthology book that combined Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane (other series were added over time) when DC decided that their ties to Superman counted more for sales than the individual characters (so the new book highlight’s Superman’s name in the title). This issue was set on the day of Lois and Clark’s anniversary in the year 2000 (as a story of a future that might come to pass but wasn’t guaranteed).
Different story threads involve the Kents’ 16 year old daughter realizing she was developing powers, Superwoman finding the perfect gift (traveling through time to catch key moments of the relationship on film) and Jimmy Olsen (now the Planet’s editor) exposing a crime ring that stole his gift. But two particular aspects jumped out at me.
•Superwoman admits that her love life sucks. She’s both a super-heroine and (as her alter ego Linda Danvers) the governor of Florida (not a random choice: As I once mentioned, she was a guidance counselor at a school in Florida during this period in the real timeline). That puts a lot of stress on her time and she hasn’t had a relationship last more than a year. She regrets it—but not so much that she’d change.
After seeing so many movie heroines who can’t wait to ditch their jobs when they find Him (see the first link for discussion), that’s so refreshing.
•Lois, jubilant at going back to full-time journalism now that their daughter is 16, discovers she’s pregnant. She tells Clark that as he’s the one who wants more kids, it’s up to him to step up to the plate and be primary caregiver if Lois is to go through with the pregnancy. And that requires giving up his job—she can see him being Superman and a full-time father, but not if he throws “reporter” into the mix as well.
That one still startles me. Not that stay-at-home dads are unknown in fiction now, but they’re not common (even conceding that Superman is obviously not going to just stay at home). And doing it with a major, established character is even rarer.
And while they don’t spell it out, it’s hard not to see Lois as saying she’ll get an abortion if Clark isn’t willing to be the caregiver. And that you’d never see today, I think—even though lots of American women make that call, you rarely see abortion for any reason in TV or movies (or comics). This may reflect how much more heated the debate is now compared to 1980; as noted here and here, evangelicals were only just ramping up against abortion by then.
The story was by Gerry Conway, and those little bits still impress me.
Filed under Comics, Politics, Uncategorized, Undead sexist cliches
Things that make me want to go “Shaddup!”
First, we have an evolutionary psychologist who equates questioning her theories of gender differences to attacking evolutionary theory itself (this links to quotes and a dissection—I lost the link to the piece itself).
Not hardly. Believing in evolution doesn’t require believing in any specific evolutionary theory. Countless theories have been proposed and discarded (Lamarckianism, lysenkoism, mutationism) or proposed and debated (Stephen Jay Gould’s belief in “punctuated equilibrium”) without dislodging evolution itself. Even within evolutionary psychology, not everyone agrees on what the facts are (as the book Adapting Minds points out).
Second, the scientist in question scoffs at the possibility women in science are discriminated against when it’s clearly due to innate gender differences. (“The science-free policy that this generates is epitomised by the ‘women into science’ lobby, which is posited on a ‘bias and barriers’ assumption and an a priori rejection of—yes, the science of sex differences.”). As I noted here, this is a popular argument with right-wingers: If women are innately inferior in some field (or all fields) then obviously there is no discrimination in that field (I dispatch this bullshit at the link).
•In response to a profile of a slightly pathetic gun advocate (the kind of oh-so-tough-guy who’s constantly prepared for a blazing firefight, even though he’s never had to use his gun), we get this section from the original article, regarding a discussion of suicide by gun: “Why should society be organized to stop those suicides?” he says. “Do we as a society intervene to prevent people from hurting themselves? Freedom isn’t free. People are going to die. People die all the time.”
This, again, sounds familiar. When I pointed out in columns that we’d lost more troops in Iraq than we lost Americans on 9/11, commenters would inform me that it wasn’t even as much as we lose in traffic deaths in a year (and these are people who shriek about supporting the troops …). By that logic, why the hell did we make a fuss about all the 9/11 deaths?
As to the specific responses—People are going to die? Freedom isn’t free? What we’re talking about is people who are in many cases depressed, mentally ill, maybe PTSDed. This is not someone asserting right-to-die, these are people in pain who need help. Which this gentleman apparently thinks is irrelevant next to his desire to possess guns and fantasize about his action-movie future.
Not that it’s a unique viewpoint to gun lovers. Not long after River Phoenix died of a drug overdose, I had to listen to an Ayn Rand fan bitch about how dare we even think about taking away Phoenix’ right to decide whether lived or died. As I pointed out, it was not a decision, it was a drug overdose. That is a tragic thing, regardless who it happens to, regardless of drug policy, regardless of anything. Infusing it with nobility like it was some old movie (“I cannot pay my debts. I must take the honorable way out.”) is moronic.
•As pointed out here, the Post Office isn’t ending Saturday service because FedEx and UPS and the Internet have conquered it. It’s happening because under Bush II, the Post Office has to have funding now for retiree health benefits for the next 75 years. Yep, people who aren’t even hired, let alone retired, have to be paid for. Because making government work worse is what Republicans do.
In other links:
•The AR-15 is actually a lousy hunting rifle, but it does make a greatsubstitute penis.
•A cable company caps customers’ data use then quite coincidentally suggests that they use the company’s on-demand movie service instead of streaming Netflix.
•A couple more links on Obama’s assassination policy.
To the end, I will grapple with him, the virus said!
Which is to say I don’t seem quite as up to snuff as I should be today. But I got my work done today and yesterday and I’m making a writing group meeting tonight. Couldn’t have managed that at the end of last week.
But since I’m wiped, just a few links:
•Digby says the response of some conservatives to the news abstinence only education doesn’t work is that it doesn’t matter: “The other spin I think is very important is not [program] effectiveness, but rather the values that are being taught,” Rector said. Whether or not these programs work is a “bogus issue,” Rector continued.”
•In a similar vein, a religious conservative argues that even if a woman can fight better than the man she’s with, letting her handle the fighting is wrong.
•Glenn Greenwald looks at Obama’s policy of assassinating accused (but not convicted) members of al Qaeda or related groups. Among other points, the codified policy would allow the White House to assassinate American citizens; there’s still no due process; the memo talks about using assassination to stop “imminent” attacks but doesn’t require an imminent attack; and it doesn’t limit Obama’s authority to the situations described, just uses them as examples of clearly legal authority.
And David Brin wonders why I’m suspicious of authority …
•An Arkansas right-to-life senator announces that “We’re going to take this country back for the Lord. We’re going to try to take this country back for conservatism. And we’re not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in!”
•A school insists that just because it bans swearing for girls (boys only have restrictions when around women), it isn’t applying a double standard. Um, yes, that’s what a double standard is.
Filed under Politics, Undead sexist cliches
And now, links!
Conservatives sniff out the hideous conspiracy behind Obama’s skeet-shooting.
•Conservatives continue walking over the cliff of insanity—two right-wing radio hosts discuss how Scientific Research proves women who take the pill end up with tiny dead fetuses embedded in their wombs! I’ve previously linked to these dudes’ deep insights here.
•Indian Muslims say the country can stop rape with sex-segregated schools. I’m sure the fact this would cut Indian women out of many advanced careers is seen as a feature, not a bug.
•Virginia’s governor proposes ending the gas tax and taxing electric and hybrid cars instead.
•Digby discusses why the Kill Social Security activists are hurting the younger generation the “greedy geezers” are supposedly leeching off. Among other things, because people who can’t afford to retire have to stay working, which means fewer jobs to go around.
Filed under economics, Politics, Undead sexist cliches
I think David Brin is wrong
Not in general, just in this post.
The gist of it is not without value: That to force protagonists to go it alone, storytellers create a world in which authority is automatically dysufnctional. Bureaucrats obstruct, police are ineffective, government is corrupt, or to sum it up, Society Never Works and Everyone Is Stupid (Brin’s summation).
Lord knows, that is a popular cliche. Dirty Harry and countless other loner cop stories hinge on the premise that cops are tied up by that stupid Bill of Rights shit, and only a Real Man who knows what can be done will save the day. And one of the things that I hated about the latter part of Chris Claremont’s X-Men run was that average humans were shown as utterly, irredeemably prejudiced toward mutants (except the few character Claremont approved of)—endless bigotry was all the team would ever see.
But I disagree that it’s a universal law of fiction. Just look at TV: The CSI, Law and Order and NCIS franchises, along with Bones and Castle, show heroes working within the system, as part of the system. James Bond is very much part of the British intelligence system, even though he’s often alone in the field. John LeCarre shows a British spy system that works—it gets the job done—but does it by morally questionable means and works through less than admirable people.
Which raises the question what exactly constitutes a working society or system? By what standard do we judge whether our police system is working, say? Lots of people get put in jail for crimes they commit. But people have also ended up in prison because someone falsified forensic evidence or lied on the witness stand. Sure, I’d call the cops in a crisis (which Brin claims is proof my suspicions of authority are groundless) but I’d be scared as hell if I were ever charged with anything serious, because I know damn well truth does not always win out.
What about the justice system? Brin mentions The Fugitive as an example of a story where the system works, but as Amnesty International pointed out when the film came out, Harrison Ford could still be put to death (courts are not required to hear appeals based on “I have fresh evidence!”). There are multiple cases where prosecutors have argued that yes, the convicted felon is actually innocent, but that’s no reason to let him out (I’m not kidding on this, though I wish I was).
We’ve had accounts of foreclosure firms that routinely falsify documents.Mortgage lenders approving mortgages they knew the homeowner couldn’t afford. CEOs routinely get mega bonuses even when they tank their companies. Our government has locked up several American citizens without trial—a very small percentage of the population, sure, but I do not consider that a sign of a working system.
Same principle with people. Here, for instance, we have Egyptians uniting to protect rape victims. But there are also those large mobs doing the rape. And multiple cases, past and present, where the system covered up rapes (or other types of molestation as the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church did for years) or the community sided with the rapists and accused the victim of ruining good men.
I agree with the legal philosopher Edmund Burke that assuming everyone to be corrupt is an error, and says more about the person judging than human beings as a whole. But we have shown ourselves capable of great and tremendous depravity, so I don’t think cynicism is out of line.
Like I said, it’s hard to judge what Brin considers crossing the line from realism to cliché. But based on the content of his article, I don’t think we’d draw the line in the same place.
Filed under Politics, Uncategorized
Conservative culture wars and other links
Roy Edroso at alicublog has a plethora of posts on this topic, conservative outrage at pop culture (in this case the cable show Girls).
Pop culture is an interesting case of right-wing cognitive dissonance. They justify pretty much anything big business does by Freedom of the Market but they’re apparently horrified when that results in movies or TV shows that present the world with gays, independent women, sex or anything that runs counter to traditional values (actually sex and sexy activity is fine so long as they women aren’t too independent). When movies or TV do it, it’s pandering or broadcasting liberal propaganda! Something must be done! Thus in this link, the right-winger being spotlighted suggests using discussions of Girls in the office for “injecting and modeling the conservative ideas and values that we need to advance.” There’s also talk of how conservatives must change popular culture—which in most cases, amounts to calling for someone to make successful conservative sitcoms and shows.
Setting aside that they have a low bar for what constitutes liberal feminist propaganda, as Roy points out they don’t seem to have many ideas for shows—in fact they can’t seem to think of them as anything other than propaganda vehicles. Even Roger L. Simon, who at least is a writer, ends up telling a conservative audience they need to contribute money and someone needs to think of a new distribution system to get the message out.
The right-wing problem isn’t that Hollywood’s repressing conservatives. It’s not even against what conservatives think of as right-wing ideas (male dominance, monogamy, respect for the military—or have they never seen shows like NCIS?). It’s that anything that deviates from Party doctrine even slightly is suspect. As I’ve often thought, conservative pundits are closer to Stalinists than they realize.
•A town in Arkansas has announced that SWAT teams will be stopping anyone they see on the street and demanding ID to prove they’re not crooks.
The idea they won’t be stopping everyone and this is just a cover for some racial profiling is creepy. So is the idea they think they have the legal right to stop anyone and everyone.
•Historian David Barton likes to claim chunks of the Constitution are direct quotes from the Bible. He lies. Check out the relevant sections for yourself (I did).
•On Obama’s non-closure of Gitmo. This NYT article points out the administration is holding military tribunals to judge acts that aren’t considered war crimes.
•Ten cents a shirt to increase safety at overseas garment makers? Outrageous!
•Currently federal law provides more restrictions on guns used for duck hunting than for guns used to kill people. Also at the link, a pol who opposes reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act lectures us on how important it is to protect women from violence.
•There’s nothing more objectionable to America than meddling in the affairs of foreign nations … except when we do it, of course.
•Now here’s a new twist: Texas wants to offer a tax break to compensate any companies penalized by refusing to comply with the contraception-coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Obama has already proposed an alternative to get around the issue—but since it would still provide coverage, I imagine right-wingers and Hobby Lobby will still be up in arms (this profile shows Hobby Lobby’s devout faith doesn’t stop it from paying “pennies on the dollar” for some of their stock).
•Want to know what doctors and hospitals get paid by various drug companies? There’s a website for that.
•The political group Citizens United argues that the Fourteenth Amendment clearly doesn’t apply to the federal government, so it has the power to discriminate against gays. A win would also allow the government to discriminate against black Americans. LGM points out the absurdity of originalism here.
•A post from Bilgrimage about tribal instincts and religious identity.
Books
TITHE: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black has a teenage girl find that her changeling status makes her the chosen human sacrifice in a traditional faerie ritual, but her efforts to wriggle out of it are complicated by faerie friends who have their own agendas. Covers similar territory to War of the Oaks but being much darker, it’s much more effective—these fae are genuinely scary, even the nice ones (where reducing control of the Faerie Court is considered a definite good in Oaks, here it frees up a lot of fae to be very bad indeed.
THE BIBLE REPAIRMAN is a collection of shorts by Tim Powers, the title story including the delicious idea of a conman who purges Bibles of inconvenient verses (so that you can get a Bible that omits any criticism of adultery without altering its holiness in any other way). Other stories include a very good tale of ghostly possession, an almost-as-good tale of bodysnatching and a tale set in the same universe as The Stress of Her Regard. I think Powers does better at full-length, but this was still worth buying (plus I got it autographed at Illogicon).
EAST OF EDEN is John Steinbeck’s sprawling novel (the James Dean film only covers about 20 percent of it) chronicling the Trask family through three generations as they fall into sibling rivalry, move out West, meet the scheming socioapath Kate and bring various other characters into their orbit while working out Steinbeck’s theme that the struggle against our own Dark Sides is ultimately the only story there is. A thoroughly absorbing novel that shows the limits of any schema for writing fiction (much as I like Orson Scott Card’s breakdown of what stories are about, I don’t think it works here).
GIRL GENIUS: Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell by Phil and Kaja Foglio has Agatha finally getting her castle up and running again, Gil Wolfenbach and Agatha making out and a great many people (including the protagonists) trying to figure out what happens now. Very lively, and as always, solidly entertaining.
INCORRUPTIBLE Vol. 5 by Mark Waid and Marcio Takara has Max Damage struggling to restore order to Coalville but finding his way blocked by an influx of super-villains, scheming businessman Hayes Bellamy and Max’s own inability to figure out how normal people think (“But I saved a kid—doesn’t that make up for the one I killed?”). A very good use of Max’s dark and monstrous life.
THE LIFE STORY OF THE FLASH by Iris Allen by Mark Waid and multiple artists was a graphic novel retelling the Barry Allen Flash’s history (in the form of a memoir written by his wife)from troubled birth (though even given it would be a major plot point in some of Waid’s later work, Iris should have been clearer about what happened) through the freak accident that gave him speed, the meeting with Kid Flash and ultimately his death. This does a very good job handling Barry’s relationship with Iris (including such details as why he promised to reveal his identity when they married, then didn’t) though it suffers from the post-Crisis cliche that Barry’s foes were more lovable goofballs who never tried to hurt anyone than hardened crooks (suffice to say, that’s not how they were written originally). Overall, though, very good.
Movies and TV
ATRAGON (1963) is an excellent Japanese SF film in which the subsea empire of Mu decides to reclaim control of the world. The only possible defense is a super-submarine built by a Japanese Imperialist die-hard who’s been developing it as the ultimate weapon since the end of World War II and has no interest in using it for world peace instead of restoring the Japanese Empire. This conflict gives it more drama than many of the Japanese monster films of the era, though it has plenty of spectacle too; I do wonder what the Japanese made of this, or of the Mu Empress deciding death is better than living in defeat.“You are nothing by a knight in rusty armor!”
Peter Jackson’s pre-LOTR film THE FRIGHTENERS (1996) stars Michael J. Fox as a medium whose ghostbusting business is based on using friendly spooks to stage hauntings so that people have a reason to hire him. Then a ghostly serial killer begins attacking the town and Fox must try to stop him despite being the prime suspect. The good elements add up to less than the sum of their parts, unfortunately: Fox’s character’s multiple facets (con man, grieving widower, reluctant hero, selfish weasel) never mesh (I blame the script more than the actor) and Jeffrey Coombs as a manic FBI agent makes no sense as a character except that the film needs a marplot to stand in Fox’s way. Avoid. “The number 13 was carved in her forehead.”
THE ALPHABET KILLER (2008) stars Eliza Dushku as a stressed-out detective whose obsessive insistence a young girl’s murder is a serial killing eventually pushes her into full-blown schizophrenia, much to the distress of doctor Carl Lumbly and therapist Timothy Hutton. Given the number of crazy detectives in TV and movies these days, it’s nice to have a film consider that better detective work isn’t a good trade-off for insanity. Otherwise, stock and cliched, including the all-too-familiar-twist that The Man In The Wheelchair Can Really Walk!!!! “Don’t worry, you’re not my type.”
SHALL WE DANCE (1937) is the Astaire/Rogers film in which Fred’s attempts to romance Ginger go south thanks to the bungling intervention of Edward Everett Horton, leading to escalating levels of absurdity as they alternatively try to prove they are or aren’t really married. Memorable moments include the dance on roller skates, debating whether to say tomahto or tomato (“Let’s call the whole thing off.”) and Fred getting to dance with dozens of Gingers in the big finish. TYG liked it too, though she goggled at how much of the movie Astaire & Co. spend in formal dress (“It’s like they’re all vampires!”). “I’m incredibly lucky—the first time I’m on a boat with someone like you, it turns out to be you.”
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) holds up remarkably well as Dustin Hoffman tries to make French toast, Meryl Streep (lord does she look young!) leaves to find herself, Jobeth Williams meets the younger Kramer and Howard Duff warns Hoffman that the court fight will be dirty. One of TYG’s Netflix picks (she liked it), so it’s interesting to see it works for Gen X as well as a boomer like me. “Where will I keep my books?”
LOST IN AUSTEN was a British miniseries in which a 21st century woman finds a porthole into the world of Pride and Prejudice. Which would be cool except that Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) is now in our time and without her the plot of the novel is rapidly unraveling… Great fun, and I honestly didn’t see how they’d pull everything out at the end. “My employer worries about their—footprint.”
One of those weeks again
(Cover art by Billy Graham (no relation to the preacher); image owned by current copyright holders)
As I’ve mentioned before, this image has always struck me as being very much like life at times—just when you think everything’s under control, another giant with an axe shows up and takes you out from behind.
After last week’s mess, I thought everything would be back on track this week … but no. By Tuesday it was obvious I’d come down with a version of the virus that laid TYG low last week. Either I got a much weaker strain or my immune system kicks butt (which it does) because I’m already apparently on the mend (much faster than my wife recovered). Still, this didn’t exactly lend itself to productivity—today I just spent the day lying around recuperating.
I also missed my writing group once again this week. If it weren’t for all the hanging out at Illogicon, I think I’d have gone stir-crazy.
Needless to say, two weeks of medical problems meant I didn’t come near completing my writing goals for the month. That being said, I got a fair amount done this past week:
•I finished my rewrite of Leave the World to Darkness.
•I completed another draft of Affairs of Honor. I’ve definitely got the story shaped now, but it still needs refining and adjusting, of course. And it really is a downbeat ending—I just can’t get around it.
•I applied for four different freelance gigs (no results so far). I also checked on one overdue response on a short story (politely, of course) and one rather overdue payment for a project.
•Demand Media work was productive—I’m pleased I didn’t let that slide.
•Can Money Be Gifted From an IRA Without Penalty?
•Credit Card Usage Between Married People
•Inherited IRA Vs. Beneficiary IRA
•Does a Corporation Have to Issue a 1099 to a Restaurant for a Party?
•What Every Homeowner Needs to Know About Insurance & Liability
•Can I Make My Obese Employees to Go to the Doctor?
•Could the Owner of a House Be Held Liable for Renters?
•Is My Spouse Responsible for My Mortgage?
•My Tenant Is Parking in the Driveway Without Permission
•What Is Homeowners Liability Insurance?
•How to Tax the Sale of Art as an Investment or a Collectible
•How Long Can Interest Be Charged on Credit Card Debt?
•Are Health Insurance Benefits Considered Income by the IRS?
•What Is Tax Deductible in a Retail Store?
•Standard Deduction for Head of Household
•Is Life Insurance Taxable as Capital Gains?
•Mileage Tax Deduction Vs. Reimbursement for Automobile Expenses
•Are Negative Equity Home Loans Hard to Qualify For?
•Are IRAs Subject to Pretax Deductions From Payroll?
•Does Advertising Require a 1099?
•Taxation of an IRA Upon Death
•Tax Penalty for Moving a 401(k) to an IRA
•Tax Deductions for Charities
•What Does Replacement Homeowners Insurance Pay for in a Claim?
Filed under Nonfiction, Personal, Short Stories, Writing
