Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Prometheus, Where are the women?, Virginia is for Rapists[I read stuff]
Reply
Category Archives: News
Listen Up, Guys: If The Catholic Bishops Win, It’s The End of Sex As You Know It
Alternet/Sara Robinson/16 Feb 2012
One of the most stunning things about this whole contraception farce is the number of men who are still sitting this out, on the assumption that this is just another “women’s issue.” They don’t think they’ve got a dog in this fight; it’s got absolutely nothing to do with them.
Griswold v. Connecticut is nearly 50 years behind us, which means that three generations of American men have come of age under the sweet delusion that the not-getting-pregnant piece of their sex lives is handled by the same invisible fairies who clean the bathrooms. Since almost all of the top-shelf contraception methods are acquired and managed by women, men have apparently gotten very accustomed to not ever having to think about pregnancy at all. It\’s her issue, her body, her problem. And so the politics of contraception have nothing to do with them, either.
Listen up, guys. We need to talk. Because if you don’t think this is your problem, you are simply not paying attention.
Continue reading
Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control — And Why We’ll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now
Conservative bishops and Congressmen are fighting a rear-guard action against one of the most revolutionary changes in human history.
AlterNet/Sara Robinson/15 Feb 2012
What’s happening in Congress this week, as Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) bars any women from testifying at his so-called “religious freedom” hearings, is so familiar and expected that it hardly counts as news. The only thing surprising about it is the year: didn’t we all honestly think that by 2012, contraception would be a non-issue, and Congress wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving women out of conversations like this one?
Continue reading
Fast Six and Seven, Assorted Reproductive Rights Douchebaggery [I read stuff]
Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Dwayne Johnson Shares Updates On The Next Two Fast And The Furious Movies:
We knew that the sequel to Fast Five would be split into two films, and there was apparently talk of the movies being filmed back-to-back, however, from what Dwayne Johnson tells MTV, that’s not the case any more.
We were going to try that because it wouldn’t make sense to have the same crew and have everybody there in one place, but I think we’re dealing with some weather issues, so from what I know we’re going to shoot ‘Fast 6′ first and then worry about ‘Fast 7′ a little later.
…
As for the locations of Fast 6 and Fast 7, while Johnson wouldn’t reveal the specific locations for each movie, he did say they were going to be filming in the U.K. and Germany. He also said they’re going to start shooting in May.
[cinemablend/15 feb 2012]
Rethink The Shark, Virginia Personhood [I read stuff]
Smoking Man, Buffy, Assorted Fuckery on Reproductive Rights, and Separate and Unequal – Still [I read stuff]
Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Q & A with William B. Davis, The X-Files Cigarette Smoking Man:
In Where’s There’s Smoke: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, Davis offers readers an honest look at the acting life.
In his memoir Where There’s Smoke: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, Davis writes about his years on The X-Files, while offering an honest, lively rendering of his life prior to his worldwide stardom and since. I recently spoke with Davis about his book, his thoughts on his craft and, of course, The X-Files.
…
Cigarette Smoking Man was certainly an iconic character. How do you see him in hindsight?
Like all villains he, of course, didn’t believe he was a villain. He believed he was doing what he needed to do, while making the compromises that had to be made in the circumstances that he found himself. In some ways, while he was a strong, powerful presence, he was actually a compromiser. I think he’s idealistic. It’s interesting. I think I say in the book where we actually did an episode or part of an episode that we weren’t able to screen because it just didn’t look right. It was where we were all younger and we were idealistic and had a vision of what we were doing.
I think what is interesting about the character is the degree to which he was forced to compromise. And this is very common with many people. I think he gradually hollowed out inside. He just had to shut down this feeling and that feeling just in order to survive. And the smoking was all part of deadening the emotional nerve centers so he could cope.
[themortonreport/Mindy Peterman/11 feb 2012]
The Hobbit, Backlash Against Komen, more Right Wing Douchebaggery [I read stuff]
Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Billy Connolly Signs on for The Hobbit:
One final cast member has signed on for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. The Hollywood Reporter has word that Billy Connolly (The Boondock Saints, The X-Files: I Want to Believe) has signed on to play Dain Ironfoot.
Ironfoot is the Dwarf cousin of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and heeds the call to war during the Battle of the Five Armies. As such, he’s likely to appear in only the second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again unless his part is significantly expanded from what’s in the original book.
[Hollywood Reporter/8 feb 2012]
Every Sperm is Sacred, Duchovny on Zalman King, Bautista Joins Riddick, and a Release Date For Wolverine [I read stuff]
Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Dem state senator adds ‘Every sperm is sacred’ clause to ‘personhood’ bill:
A pro-choice Democratic legislator has taken a novel approach to fighting an Oklahoma “personhood” bill. According to the blog Jezebel, State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has introduced a measure that calls to mind the famous Monty Python “Every Sperm is Sacred” sketch from the 1983 film “The Meaning of Life.”
The concept of “personhood” defines human life as beginning at the moment of conception and, in the case of Oklahoma’s pending Senate Bill 1433, says that the resulting fetus “at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.” If Senate Bill 1433 were to become law, all forms of abortion and some forms of contraception would be considered murder and therefore illegal.
Sen. Johnson, who represents Oklahoma’s 48th District has introduced an amendment to the bill mandating that the same rights and benefits be granted to spermatozoa, writing, “However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”
This would outlaw masturbation by men, anal sex, sex with condoms, all forms of fellatio to completion, as well as numerous other acts. She later withdrew the measure, but stated that she had inserted it to highlight the absurdity and sexism inherent in the current bill.
[rawstory/David Ferguson/7 feb 2012]
Shark finners sue, Elevator Hijinx, Prop8, and Komen Brouhaha [I read stuff]
Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…
Group of shark fin suppliers sues state over ban:
A San Francisco-based association of shark fin suppliers has sued the state over the Legislature’s recently passed ban on the sale, distribution or use of fins, which are used to make shark fin soup.
The Asian American Rights Committee of California filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday, arguing the new law violates Congress’ authority to regulate interstate commerce.
“By outlawing the acquisition, possession, or sale of all shark fins in California, the shark fin ban not only burdens but entirely eliminates this interstate trade,” according to the lawsuit.
[sfgate.com/The Dorsal Fin/4 Feb 2012]
We are not objects
Aside
This was about values, not money:
This was a battle about values. Specifically, whether or not we value women as human beings or not. Anti-choicers are trying to marginalize comprehensive health care for women basically to put us in our place, to demote us from the status of people and return us to the status of objects. Saving breasts is all good and well—they are decorative, after all!—but health care for dirty sluts who go around having sex as if they have a right? I think, and said in my Alternet piece, that one reason this really hit home is anti-choice objectification of women had gotten to the point where they were pitting our own body parts against each other, creating a war between wholesome, all-American boobies and evil vaginas.
[pandagon/Amanda Marcotte/4 Feb 2012]