Comic of the Day: Family Values

That about says it all.

Blackwater Ordered Out of Iraq

Well then...

Iraq has ordered former employees of the private military contractor once known as Blackwater to leave the country, its interior minister announced Wednesday.

Contractors who once worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe, have seven days to leave Iraq, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the state television network al-Iraqiya. The move follows a January declaration by Iraq's government that former Blackwater employees were no longer welcome in the country.

Not only do they want them out of the country they don't want former employees working for another company within the borders.

Roeder: Guilty of 1st Degree Murder

Friday awesome has been revised:

It took jurors 37 minutes on Friday to convict Scott Roeder, an abortion opponent, of first-degree murder in the death of George R. Tiller

Furthermore:

Judge Wilbert ruled that he would not instruct the jury to consider a lesser charge when they begin deliberations on Friday. Mr. Roeder pleaded not guilty to murder, but defense lawyers had argued that his beliefs about abortion might warrant a voluntary manslaughter conviction if jurors concluded that Mr. Roeder possessed, as Kansas law defines it, “an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.”

The Justice Department's investigation into whether or not other people or groups were involved is "open and ongoing." Now, can we start referring to him as Dr. Tiller instead of "abortion doctor"?

Thanks to Ms. Caitlin for the heads up.

School District Bans the Dictionary

No, you read that right.

A school district - in CALIFORNIA - has banned Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary because it includes the term "oral sex" which is age-inappropriate.

And - AAAAAAAAANDDDD!!! - they have formed a committee to review ALL dictionaries to "determine the extent to which the challenged material supports curriculum, the educational appropriateness of the material and its suitability to the age level of the students."

Okay, when I was a kid they tried to ban The Bean Trees from the 9th grad curriculum because it had the word "penis" in it. And people are banning other books left and right. But, the banning the dictionary has officially ushered in the era Newspeak.

Via Shakesville.

Oh, America

FYI: "Fairness" and "straight-talk" are not policies. But, oh yeah...taxes are so annoying with all those roads, schools, and medicare that they create...



Thanks, Republican Party for giving us the gun-totting, wolf killing, Alaskan version of a sparkly vampire celebrity created through Orwellian double-speak. But, I guess it doesn't really matter since if the Red Dawn Russian/Arab terrorist a-bomb doesn't get us before 2012 those feminists and immigrants will...

Cartoons Get Sexier - Except for Tinkerbell Who is a Lesbian

The sexification of the cartoon characters of my childhood is nothing new. Of course in the world of creepy marketing, by sexification I mean smaller torso's, giant heads, and inappropriate posturing...

First it was My Little Pony - that's right, ponies. Imaginary ponies, made sexier by raising the butt and giving them a come hither look:

Then it was Strawberry Shortcake. Somehow making her skirt longer made her creepy. Oh wait, I know it's that over the shoulder boudoir photo shoot vibe...

And then it was Rainbow Brite and her entourage, who hit puberty and became the primary colored lolitas:

Which is why I was actually excited when I saw the new version of Tinkerbell. Oh sure, she is still super skinny, blonde and suffering from lollipop syndrome, but what was once the most creepily sexual (and mute) cartoon character ever has had a reverse makeover. The only body modification she has undergone is having feet that are a bit larger so that she can walk now and has actually been given an outfit that won't flash her fairy bits.

But, Oh Noes! That means she is a lesbian. Yep, if your kid puts leggings and boots on under that mini dress, she is gonna grow up to like the ladies. But, hey, at least she won't be freezing her faerie ass off.

Tinkerbell image from Alas! A Blog, My Little Pony images from Celebrate Your Naughtiness (though not when it comes to ponies), Strawberry Shortcake from Annie.in.MN, Rainbow Brite from Jezebel.

Banned Books Week

The last week of September isn't just the last week of my 20's (it's okay, really) it is also Banned Books Week.

In high school I remember a few very loud parents flipping out about The Bean Trees. Frankly, as a freshman I thought the book was fantastic and not just because of the illicit mention of a penis. After the eighth grade reading list, I was just damn happy it wasn't another book about a boy and his dog - or a boy and his pig.

This year's most challenged books include:

And Tango Makes Three - Not gay penguins! I wonder if they reconsidered after it turned out the penguins were bisexual...

Gossip Girl series - Turns out it was books before it was a television show. I'm never one to accuse a book of what it's TV adaptation does, so I'll refrain from comment.

TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R series - I couldn't quite bring myself to read a book full of texting, but I betcha a whole bunch of teens love it. Also, it doesn't look like any books about teenage boys claiming their sexuality are the list...strange...

Uncle Bobby's Wedding - Oh noes! Its the gays again! Showing an example of a loving family to boot, how dare they? One librarian had a pretty awesome response.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

There is a list of ways that you and your local library or book store can support Banned Books Week. One of them is to "include a Banned Books Week feature in your organization's newsletter or on your blog." Since I am a nerd and always do what (radical) librarians tell me to do...done!

They have also put together a map of all of the known challenges across the country, including one just through the tunnel in Concord, California:

"Lois Lowry's The Giver was challenged by two parents at the Mount Diablo School District who objected to its descriptions of adolescent pill use, suicide and lethal injections given to babies and the elderly."

Here's a thought: how about you read the book. Not only is The Giver an all around amazing book, it is a dystopian novel. For those of you who don't like readin' stuff that means it takes place in a time period that is nor our own and is the opposite of a utopia. In other words, it is saying that those things that you are so ignorantly railing against are bad! Then again, I also wrote a graduate school paper on the entire series (yes, Lowry wrote two more recently) about how the book is also against anti-intellectualism and a lack of analytical curiosity and supports adolescent individualism and agency, but we wouldn't want you kids getting any ideas, would we?

I doubt that any the same folks that asked for these books to be pulled have asked the same of the text books that have been proven to have inaccurate information. Yeah...nope.


View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009 in a larger map

Thanks to Sociological Images for the heads up.

Your Friday Awesome

Lets face it. This this week has been chock full of asshats yelling about how they aren't racist and this country isn't racist while people are holding signs of the President of the United States made to look like every stereotype of those crazy people from Africa (its a country right?) that are not like "us" and are evil pinko communists...or fascists...or wait we are mixing our metaphors here...nevermind, look at that guy cause he is totally more racist than we are!

In other words, it has been a cringe-inducing, not awesome week of dealing with people who do not understand logic. So how do you engage people who renounce logic and critical thinking (because its what those commie pinko bastards do)? Well sometimes you don't. Instead you exploit idiots because you have just had enough.

That is what Heather Armstrong of Dooce did. Since she has had to deal with asshats of the internet, who actually might not be racist, but are sure as shit sexist, homophobic and just plain kooky, she created Monetizing the Hate, where all hateful comments go not to die, but to put some change in her kid's college and/or therapy and/or candy funds.

Of course, while the project is awesome, the comments are drivel, so here is your unicorn chaser:

Pitt: Thanks, But No F-ing Thanks

Evidently, the misogynist, creepy, a-hole responsible for the Pennsylvania fitness club shooting didn't have any friends, not just women. He left his entire estate ($225,000 worth) to the University of Pittsburgh.

Rightly so, the school declined the bequest:

"The university community continues to grieve about the tragic loss of lives. And we believe that any available funds should benefit Mr. Sodini's victims and members of their families. Our thoughts and prayers remain with them. We at Pitt will do what we can to assist them in receiving any funds that have been bequeathed to Pitt."

Is it just me, or does anyone else think it would have been kind of awesome for the school to accept the money and give it all to the Women's Studies Department?

A little final "fuck you" might have been nice.

Pwned!1! - Barney Frank Refuses to Engage the Crazies

Its about damn time. We need to see more members of Congress calling this out for what it is. It is not a conversation. It is not free speech. It should not be engaged.



Crazy: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has expressly supported this policy, why are you supporting it?

Barney Frank: When you ask me that question, I am gonna revert to my ethnic heritage, and answer your question with a question. On what planet do you spend most of your time?...You want me to answer the question? As you stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler, and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is as I said before, it is a tribute to the 1st Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table - I have no interest in doing it.

Thanks to Pandagon for the transcript.

Sit Down and Shut Up

With the end of the Bush administration, I had really hoped the days of just spouting outright lies and nonsensical streams of consciousness were over. I was wrong. The news about mobs for hire at health care Town Halls is everywhere now, but not surprisingly, Rachel Maddow has a really good run down of just what exactly is going on:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The 2000 election was the first presidential election I was able eligible to vote in. I was in college, and by the time my classes were done for the day, the election had already been called, so I dejectedly cast my ballot that would never be counted.

Then, in the 2004 campaign, I worked 17 hour days, seven days a week, for six months hoping that this time we would have an election decided by an informed electorate who had their ballots counted. Again, we did not. And again, it seemed no one really did anything about it.

But, to the point: I thought I was an informed citizen, I worked in electoral politics and in the progressive media, and yet, I never once heard about the mobs for hire that had stopped the Florida recount.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Make sure you watch the section where she identifies every single person in the "mob" as a Republican staffer. Strangely it makes me feel a little better to know that people didn't do that because they were idiots, but because they were paid to be idiotic.

It really is about time that we stop letting this crap slide. It is time that we started teaching people how to think rationally, and not allow for this kind of behavior. Not only is it ignorant, it is threatening to the people in attendance and members of Congress. It is time we take people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh an Bill O'Reilly off the air once and for all.

Lets Talk About Sex, Baby

Yep, in one post I managed to discuss withdrawal, semen and sex without a rubber on an award-winning website.

But, as part of the generation who was educated about sex after the outbreak of AIDS and before the insanity of abstinence-only sex-ed, all this talk of unprotected sex makes me nervous. Particularly, because of the existence of abstinence-only "educators" that will use any excuse to rail about the effectiveness of condoms.

I'm also not a big fan of evolutionary psychology, and using science to argue that there is only one right way to have sex.

(that's right...not one, but two, references to mid-90's lady groups)

Crap, They Figured Out Our Evil Plan...

Yes, we want to kill the old people and the fetuses in order to cut health care costs and that pesky overpopulation problem:



It is crap like this that makes me afraid to start conversations with strangers in the airport for fear that my only reaction to a completely illogical argument based on scare tactics created by people who use others' religious beliefs to increase their own wealth and privilege, will be a sincere desire to punch someone in the mouth.