I had a long thing on free trade planned but it got scrapped due to travel, so instead it is, again, an open thread, with some last minute thoughts.
Enjoy!
So, let's start with…
Estonia
Estonia is worried that the Russians might pull a stunt in eastern Estonia similar to what they pulled in Ukraine. Sending special ops men to take the area by supporting local Russians. So they've announced that they will just shoot them.
Rolling Stone sued
Sabrina Erdely and Rolling Stone are being sued by a UVA Dean for portraying her in a way that even Jackie said was incorrect.
I hope the dean wins.
Are you a feminist?
The Guardian's resident feminist Jessica Valenti, who has previously complained about having to wrap presents for Christmas and said it was Rolling Stone's job, not Jackie's to get the facts of the alleged sexual assault correct, recently tweeted this: "The guy next to me on the subway was checking Twitter; he followed almost all the same people I did but NO WOMEN. Passive sexism is for real".
First, is it possible that since she just didn't see the women he was following as he was scrolling them, and second, why was she peeping on a random dude's phone?
Iowahawk put it well: "Reminder to vulnerable young men who ride public transportation: it's important to carry pepper spray"
She followed up this stupidity with, "It's like when you meet someone whose favorite authors, musicians, artists, etc are all RANDOMLY male. Suspect."
Now, I don't know about what kind of misogyny occurs in progressive but let's see if I pass her "sexist" test. From my iTunes library:
—Johnny Cash. Male
—The Beatles. 4 males.
—The Civil Wars. Man and Woman (a moment of silence in memory of their break-up)
—Charlie XCX's "Boom Clap". Female.
—A slew of songs by largely unknown violinist Taryn Habridge. Woman.
—Boston. A group of men.
—Idina Menzel's "Defying Gravity." Female.
—The awesome and beautiful Lindsey Stirling. Female. (Really, check her out!)
—Corb Lund's "Horse Soldier" and "I Wanna Be in the Cavalry." Male.
—2 Sinatra albums. Male
—2 Runaways albums. All-female rock band.
—Muddy Waters. Male.
—"Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Males. (Don't believe me? LINK
—A few Taylor Swift songs (so sue me). Female.
Now, I have some musicals and Disney movies which feature a mix of male and female singers and some movie scores which, alas, were mostly conducted by men. Also, I have no Bieber, who I am told counts as two, maybe three, women.
I have a few female authors I like, but given previous comments by feminists of her ilk, I'm not sure if Ms. Valenti would count them as "women": Camille Paglia and Claire Berlinski, and I read columns and essays by women such as Katherine Timpf, Christina Hoff Sommers, and Cathy Young. I also read Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson.
So I'm afraid I would not be considered a "male feminist" by her. That saddens me.
C. H. Sommers takes on Haters
A professor attacked dissident feminist Christina Hoff Sommers a "rape apologist." Her response on Facebook was, in modern lingo, epic.
Dad Bod
Hear about the Dad Bod? Yeah, its a slightly chubby look some guys have. Not overweight but not lean. Apparently, some women like the look, some are meh, many don't care. But a few women got their panties in a twist and are mad about it, tweeting photos of themselves.
Me? Eh, I react to twitter/instagram selfie fads like a hungover drunk who's just rolled out of bed, "Huh? What? Oh, Ok. I don't care and I don't want to see them. I don't like seeing anyone's half naked selfies. Now where's some damn advil?"
There is no God (Maybe)
The Hillary Clinton propaganda-piece Madame Secretary was renewed but Forever was not. I am beginning to seriously doubt the existence of God. Wars, famines, plagues, I can comprehend. But this might be too much.
On the other hand, Once Upon a Time, Agents of SHIELD, and Agent Carter are getting renewed. The latter two I plan to review later this summer, the former I have yet to watch all the way through this season.
Oh, and Obama is being attacked as sexist for his response to Elizabeth Warren's attack on the free trade deal. Pass the popcorn.
Have a nice weekend!
26 comments:
In the midst of all these world problems we must interject: BB King has passed away. I guess the Lord wanted to hear the blues. I grew up in Memphis, not real far from Beale St. Back in those days it was pawn shops, clothing stores like Lansky's and black bars, dives really, that had the best music. BB King was already a regional legend when I was little, the 60s made him a worldwide legend. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/king-of-the-blues-blues-legend-bb-king-dead-at-age-89
That Valenti tweet sure is something. Hmm... I wonder if I pass the sexist test?
Of the 130 entities I follow on Twitter, 68 are individuals (i.e. not brands). Of those 68, 18 are women.
A cursory glance at my iTunes collection reveals:
-Blondie (female lead singer/lyricist)
-Portishead (female singer/lyricist)
-several works by the late film composer Shirley Walker
-several Golden Age film score compilations, many from female-centric films
(Actually, this is what throws the curve, since 90% of my music collection = film scores, and 99% of those are by men.)
And a cursory glance at my bookshelf reveals:
-Star Trek novels by Una McCormack, S.D. Perry, and Britta Dennison
-Mary Roach's Packing for Mars
-several non-fiction Trek titles co-written by either Paula Block or Judith Reeves-Stevens
-a wonderful fact book titled The Order of Things by Barbara Ann Kipfer, Ph.D.
-Jennifer Bass' coffee table book about her father, the great designer Saul Bass
-Kate Ascher's interesting books on infrastructure: The Works, The Heights, and The Way to Go
You know what? Let's call it even. :-)
And Kit, I get the feeling you don't watch Madame Secretary, but I can't recommend HBO's Veep highly enough. It's NOT the partisan hit piece that some folks originally thought it was. It's central thesis simply seems to be: everyone in D.C. is terrible and out for themselves.
P.S. This guy appears to not have all his ducks in a row but, at the moment, he might be my favorite presidential candidate! ;-)
Scott,
I have enjoyed The Veep.
I second that recommendation of "Veep"! It's great and the only reason I signed up for HBO-Now.
I, alas, have only seen the first season and a half. But, again, what I've seen I've liked.
What impresses me is how they work with profanity. I've mentioned here elsewhere that the constant stream of F-words in the work of Apatow and Co. gets old after a while.
On the other hand, these guys take the art of cursing and pop culture references to new heights. But if you think Veep is profane, check out it's British TV predecessor, The Thick of It (and its movie spin-off In the Loop).
Scott,
I've seen some of The Thick of It. It makes The Veep seem PG.
I don't need to even bother looking at my Twitter, iTunes, Kindle or anything else to know that whatever female perspectives might have attempted to emerge there were preemptively subverted by oppressive patriarchal constructs such as "language," "rhythm" and "space" that force feminine expression into masculine modes of understanding. In other words, there are no feminists, because the patriarchal underpinnings of basic human interaction have precluded the very concept.
Whee! That was fun.
I'm with tryanmax. Seriously, if you want me to listen to your music, get a penis.
//looking at you Maroon 5.
Oh, and does K.D. Lang count as a man or woman? I'd feel really bad about mischaracterizing his/her/its gender.
On dad bods and the backlash, I wonder if science will ever find a way to explain to women that the impossible body standard they feel they must conform to are pressed upon them by other women. All a man desires of a woman's body is access.
"...explain to women that the impossible body standard they feel they must conform to are pressed upon them by other women. All a man desires of a woman's body is access."
LOL! True...well, except if you don't have any women on your Twitter feed then you don't know what the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks about anything...shut up you, Misogynistic Micro-Aggressor!!!! WE WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE "MANSPLAINING"!
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev gets the death penalty.
Men and women both seem to prefer a certain body type, with certain variances between individuals, but most people take more into account when picking a mate.
Also, the women complaining and posting selfless of themselves in "protest" all had an angry scowl ("Soviet Smile") that looks good on no one.
Seriously, the idea of the revenge selfie or the protest selfie is beyond pathetic. I can't even describe how nonsensical and pathetic that is.
Oh, another selfie from a man!!
I'm going down to MY safe room right now and take an angry SELFie to raise awareness of just how upset it makes ME that these men aren't paralyzed by self-doubt and feelings of self-loathing like I am. Me me me me... the world revolves around MY whackadoodle mental state.
Don't judge MEEEEEEE!!!!
The good news is that you are safe if you read my blog posts here. That means that you read stuff that women write. It's your "get out of jail free" card with the prying eyes of Feminazies! I will,vouch for you! Win-win...but only if you agree with me otherwise I will turn you in....;-D
These SJW types are not helping the cause. The struggle for womyn's rites continue.
Bev, you are obviously not a "real" womyn if you are a conservative leaning fem.
Boy, Patriot, ain't that the truth! Being "choice" feminist as we are now branded opens up a whole new avenue of hate-mongers. We womyn who believe in equality of ability are traitors to "the cause"...
Apparently, male Senators and Congressman are skittish about solo office meetings female staffers. It must be sexism! Never mind that such meetings could result in a whisper campaign by an angry employee accusing them of having an affair, even going to a newspaper, or a false sexual harassment charge by a disgruntled female employee, as Clarence Thomas learned.
No, it must be sexism on the Hill!
LINK
Also, notice how none of the male Congressman mentioned were Democrats.
Scott,
I have a weird feeling that The Veep is a far more accurate depiction of what goes on in Washington, D.C. than House of Cards.
Which might be why House of Cards gets more attention from Washington than The Veep; the average politician, no matter how experienced, is far closer to Selina Meyer than Frank Underwood.
Egypt's ex-president Morsi has been sentenced to death by an Egyptian court over a prison break in 2011.
LINK
I'm going to admit, though I am no big fan of Morsi, this does disturb me a bit.
On a bright note it is good to see that the vast mahority of Egyptians have no love for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Without seeing the evidence, it's difficult, to ascertain whether the death penalty is called for, in this case.
Were prison guards killed during the breakout?
I definitely won't take the word of the MB in this matter, or any matter, really.
Morsi did break his word about respecting the rights of all Egyptian citizens, and he and his MB thugs did hurt a lot of Egyptians before he was arrested, as they tried to impose Sharia law.
In any sense, Asissi is a surprisingly good leader who despises the jihadists.
Apparently, Morsi can appeal this decision too, but he also faces an espionage charge he hasn't been tried for yet, so regardless, it doesn't look good for him.
On another point on Egypt, Mubarek and his sons were sentenced to 3 years in prison for whatever they did when Morsi deposed him. Though their sentences may be deemed "time served".
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