Monthly Archives: February 2015

The arc of the universe sometimes does tend toward justice, as in this story of a black woman in the 1950s who sued a racist pastor (he informed her he didn’t want blacks on “his” sidewalk) and won.

•A writer at Glen Beck’s website argues that the pill is bad for women because it violates their fundamental nature and allows men to have free sex (an old Undead Sexist Cliche). More surprisingly, Rick Santorum says if government provided birth control free, then no business wold be forced to over it by insurance. Easy to say when you’re not in a position of authority, of course, but still noteworthy.

•Some conservatives also hate the fact that insurance has to provide maternity coverage under the Affordable Care Act. As Echidne points out, one of the reasons is that non-employer based insurance (i.e., individual policies) are much less likely to offer maternity coverage. One of the arguments against mandatory coverage is that “having children is a choice” which is an odd argument since the same wing of the Republicans seems determined to give women as little choice as possible in the matter, other than saying virgin (or, as someone once joked, going down on your partner, the original oral contraceptive). Still more here.

•Obama exposes his Muslim, Christian-hating heart by mentioning the inquisition and the Crusades at the National Prayer Breakfast. Me, I say good for Obama (and once again, I suspect he’s thinking he has nothing to lose for the next two years). Hullabaloo adds some discussion. Alternet notes that burning people alive is hardly something ISIS came up with. Digby adds more, including some links.

•It shows the arbitrariness of our government’s supposed determination to fight tyranny everywhere that while Washington worries about ISIS, it’s not moving to help Zimbabwe or investigate Saudis.

•An interview with a men’s rights activist.

•Digby points out that even extremists are voters with the right to support the candidate of their choice against an incumbent. Which is something elected officials really resent. One politician fighting for a gerrymandered district said that he’d been promised he would never have to face a serious challenge from the other party ever again; Sen. Joe Lieberman’s attorney once described an attempt to unseat the senator in the primaries as akin to terrorism. Speaking of which, an Oklahoma politician wants to ban district attorneys from prosecuting elected officials.

•A look at what happens as the 1 percent become visitors at Burning Man.

•Some Republicans still think that rape is a beautiful way for God to give women a baby.

•A politician proposed adding a Latin motto to Vermont’s English motto. OMG, some people are outraged … because they thought Latin meant Latino. Why don’t they learn to speak English? Don’t Latinos realize that when in Rome, you do as the Romans do (yes, this was an actual comment).

•Red Bull argues that a drink called Old Ox is infringing on its trademark because oxen and bulls are too much alike.

•The bad news about digitally wired cars? No protection against hackers.

Conservative Christian sexists (not that the religious right or Christianity has a lock on this) that they’re not about sexism, they’re about complementarianism: Women have rights and roles and men have to respect them and vice-versa. Only as Echidne points out, that doesn’t mean any sort of equality: secular and religious conservatives alike have insisted that women’s special role is the home and not the workplace, politics or the military (or even the voting booth). Which is bad for women (or men) who don’t fit the box they’re “supposed” to belong in. Worse somewhere like Saudi Arabia where even driving is considered outside women’s sphere. I have a past post on the topic here.

And of course, women don’t get much say in what their chosen sphere should be. It’s something decided by a small coterie of men. So it’s no surprise that men end up getting the choicest cuts of the steak.

•In response to the current flap over vaccinations, Rand Paul says that since parents “own” their kids, government can’t mandate vaccinations. Of course as Digby points out at the link, that ownership is reversed when abortion is the topic and suddenly the child owns the mother and has 100 percent of the rights. Unfortunately he’s not the only politician willing to curry favor with anti-vaccination activists. As Digby says at the second link, most of the parents are probably sincerely trying to do what’s best for their kids, but there’s no excuse for the pols.

•A new theme for the anti-gay movement: Gay parents have to adopt, which rips a child away from its parents, which is wrong! And requires declaring that some women are unfit mothers, whose babies should be taken away and given to some smug gay couple. While I don’t dispute there are issues with surrogate motherhood and adoption, those are hardly because gay couples will steal straight women’s babies—they apply just as much in straight cases. So either the author (it’s not a direct link) is pulling a fast one and hoping we don’t notice or she’s generally anti-adoption (the idea Only Biological Parents Are Worthy has cropped up now and again on the right, particularly anywhere gays have legal rights to adopt).

•How to fix the transportation budget? Don’t raise gas taxes, cut funds for pedestrians and bikes so we have more for the almighty car! I’m not entirely surprised—any transportation solution that deviates from cars, cars, cars tends to freak people out. Even private walkable developments sometimes trigger outrage as if the developers had suggested the government swoop in and confiscate everyone’s vehicles. And our local paper back in Fla. used to complain whenever government suggested spending money on anything but more roads for more cars because, tourism! Development! (While nominally libertarian, the Daily News’ was always enthusiastic with government money going to development).

•After an argument, a TSA agent allegedly lies about a passenger making bomb threats, then has him arrested.

•Bud Roth, a Franklin County, Va. wedding officiant—an official county position—first informs a couple that he won’t marry them at the courthouse, only at his church. Then he refuses to marry them at all because they’re an agnostic and an atheist.

First point: You work for the state, you don’t get to deliver services based on what you think God wants. Second: Insisting they use his church (and pay for it, apparently) seems like a little small-town scam.

One of the staples of warhawk commentary is that everything they insisted was hard, realistic fact in the Cold War, they now take back because it’s inconvenient to the war on terror. In the Cold War, the only way to restrain Russia and China was by having so many more nukes we could annihilate them. When it’s Iraq or Iran at issue, our nuclear superiority is irrelevant. The rulers are crazy! Suicidal! They might nuke us even knowing it’s their own death (undoubtedly laughing wildly like the Joker).

Case in point, Charles Krauthammer (the WaPo columnist who once claimed that a reunited Germany would be Europe’s worst nightmare), declares that being religious, the Iranians have much less regard for human life than those atheist Commies did. As noted at the link, the Cold War cliche was that being atheist meant “the Reds” would have no respect for human life, as they were incapable of having moral values. The rationale changes, the conclusion (war!) never does.

•An interesting analysis of American Sniper. Another view from Roy Edroso.

•A revenge-porn site operator who also charged victims for getting their photos off the site has been busted by the feds.

•The FCC makes 25 MBps the new definition of broadband. Which adds another argument against the Comcast/TWC merger as Comcast will have a harder time claiming there’s lots of high-speed broadband competition.

•In this CNN piece about unvaccinated kids, a doctor explains that his kids are “pure” and he refuses to contaminate them with vaccines. And the parents the article is focused on should realize their daughter’s cancer was caused by vaccines, so there, that proves it (he’s very big on natural healing, according to his website). Which is the kind of thinking that explains why measles and whooping cough are resurgent.

•The Senate’s Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee is now just the Subcommittee on the Constitution. And the big Constitutional issue? Obama!

•No, being a cop is not the most high-risk occupation.

•A right-wing pastor denounces birth control as turning women into whores and getting them out from under their husband’s dominion.

•As a matter of fact, Muslims have condemned the Muslim terrorist attack in Paris. JK Rowling, meanwhile, apologizes for the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.

•I’m not really surprised that identifying and tracking us by our supposedly “anonymous” credit-card transactions is easy.

•I’m aware some members of the religious right are down on masturbation. But this Defeating the Dragons post covers some arguments I’d never heard before. Like marriages symbolize the union of Church and Christ, so doing without a partner is like saying you can do without Jesus.

•The Nation is less than impressed with the “sharing economy” promoted by Uber, Airnb and similar companies.

•A blogger reminds us that a century ago, Turkey tried genocide on the Armenians.

A worker recently won an employment dispute guaranteeing his right not to clock in and out with a bar scanner, as it would have been the mark of the beast. As Slacktivist points out at the link, Big Government, the supposed tool of Antichrist, actually defended his right not to take the mark.

•The FCC chair says the FCC should prevent states from preventing cities from launching their own municipal broadband.

•Marissa Alexander is facing stiff sentencing for firing a warning shot at her abused husband. Despite Florida having a stand-your-ground law, the trial judge ruled that she should have run instead of using the gun.

I’m not the least surprised. Florida is a very conservative state in many areas. I’m quite sure lots of people think an abused woman shooting at her husband, even without trying to hit him, is way worse than what George Zimmerman did to Trayvon Martin.

•Echidne of the Snakes breaks down some arguments over rape statistics.