President Obama at Planned Parenthood

Why Isn't There More Media Coverage of the West Explosion?

Discussion Thread: Favorite School Subjects

Todd Akin Breaks His Legendary Silence on What a Heinous Rape-Apologist Shithead He Is

In The News

This Fucking Guy

Silence & Military Sexual Assault: A Survivor Story

Daily Dose of Cute

The Parks and Rec Open Thread

This household is terrible. Apparently.[Content Note: Rape culture rape jokes bullying.]I do not guess I have to let you know how excited I had been to possess two instances of Parks and Entertainment awaiting me in the finish of a week ago. And That I don't guess I have to let you know, either, which i want above all else to have the ability to write an with excitement happy publish about how exactly much I loved both episodes.But, regrettably, I can not do this.1. Since the first episode conspicuously featured Patton Oswalt, who's keen on rape jokes. He's tweeted such gems as:"Uh-oh, Spaghettios..." -- Pelican Bay inmate before he's raped by his cellmate, "Spaghettios" DiCenzo—and his comedy special, Comics of Comedy, incorporated a long sequence by which he assumes the persona of the killer and rapist, speaking towards the camera/audience as though to his victim. Because comedy.The above sequence happens in a vacation cabin only made the whole P&R arc where he and Leslie live in a cabin even more heinous that i can watch.2. And since the 2nd episode was possibly the worst Jerry-disliking episode ever. And not simply a whole episode built around everybody disliking Jerry, but about how exactly, if Jerry is taken away in the group, everybody immediately activates Tom, because "almost always there is a Jerry." I love Jerry, and I'd rather not see him cajolled. I'd rather not watch other figures bully him, making me nothing like them a lot. And That I sure as shit don't wish to see yet another scene of Leslie and Ben perplexedly trying to puzzle out why Gayle want Jerry or find him attractive.Treating Jerry happens to be the show's poorest place, and that i seem like the authors are attempting to counter critique by doubling-lower onto it. As though subjecting us to more contempt for Jerry is in some way likely to like magic allow it to be funny. It does not work. And even when it were not mean-spirited garbage, it does not even appear consistent inside the show's established characterizations. Even Chris, who's nice to Everybody and also expresses his anxiety about harming others, has become passive-strongly mocking Jerry to be able to win a wager with Ron? Not a chance. Not a chance.I'm disappointed, Parks & Rec. I expect more.

Daily Dose of Cute

For anybody who's requiring snuggles today, Zelda the Virtual Therapy Dog has you:And when you are very likely toward cat snuggles, Sophie the Virtual Therapy Cat has you:

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Tears For Fears: "Everyone Really Wants To Rule The PlanetInch

R.I.P. Rita MacNeil

[Content Note: body fat hate.] Rita MacNeil, folk singer and Cape Breton icon, has died at 68. Gifted having a beautiful voice, great stage presence, and just what appeared to become a truly warm personality, she overcome extreme shyness to become broadly-beloved estimate Canadian music:MacNeil was notoriously shy, but stated her parents assisted her overcome that trait by constantly telling her to think in herself."You may be shy," she stated. "You are able to sort out a myriad of struggle. But somewhere deep-down, you need belief or nothing's going to take place.Inch...MacNeil recorded 24 albums and offered countless records during the period of her career.She located a CBC-TV variety program, Rita and Buddies, which went from 1994 to 1997 and came regular audiences of a million audiences. MacNeil's Christmas variety shows came loyal audiences.MacNeil was part of an order of Canada and also the person receiving five honorary doctorates. In 1986, she opened up Rita’s Tea Room in her own home town of Large Pond, where she also gave performances.MacNeil's styles were frequently rooted within the encounters of impoverished Atlantic Canadians, but her sweet, chapel choir-like delivery gave her tunes an exceptional seem within the crowded area of Canadian folk music:Once she got onstage or behind a microphone within the recording studio, “she grew to become a pressure of character,” LeBlanc stated, her very-obvious alto sweetly delivering an frequently-anthemic mixture of hard facts and sentiment that may soften the very coldest heart.Yet as sweet as that voice was, “it had an incentive which was not only enjoyable, a bit extra,” stated lengthy-time Globe and Mail and CBC Radio music contributor Robert Harris. “What intrigues us within the pop world is ambiguity and contradiction … a couple of things that needs to be outside of one another but they are together.” So while a significant MacNeil song for example 1982’s Working Guy involved the challenging lives of Cape Breton coal miners, it “was presented within this angelic, chapel-choir voice … The seem she [was] making [was] so not the same as the encounters being referred to. That’s moving since the brain processes the 2.”And, obviously, there is your body shame and body fat hate lobbed at her, even by individuals who respected her music. This type of lovely voice...bad she's so body fat, etc. It has to have hurt greatly, but MacNeil persevered. I observe that, despite her dying the world and Mail tribute to her keeps mentioning that they wasn't attractive, a framework Rita herself declined:MacIntyre’s best memory of MacNeil, date unspecified, happened on CBC-TV’s the 5th estate once the late Eric Malling requested MacNeil “if she may have been more effective were she, um, beautiful. She responded without hesitation: ‘But, Eric, I'm beautiful.’ And from that moment on, otherwise before, she was.”Beautiful? Yes. She it was.[VIDEO: Rita MacNeil and Males from the Deep perform 'Working Guy,'to a slideshow of mining images.][Note: If you will find more negative items to be stated about MacNeil, they're excluded because I'm not conscious of them, not due to any need to cover them up. Don't hesitate to discuss the whole of her existence and operate in this thread.]

An Observation

Two findings, really:1. I'm glad each and every moment of each day that Mitt Romney isn't the US leader. However I am especially glad now.2. Last evening, because the news from the explosion in Texas broke, I figured about Leader Obama needing to understand this news. (And That I thought about that person who needed to function as the someone to simply tell him.) Lots of USians feel totally overcome right now—scared and sad and angry and psychologically spent. And That I cannot think of the weight of the on our Leader. I'm delivering him what strength I'm able to offer.Within the late hrs from the evening, watching grainy footage of triage inside a football area where greater than a hundred people needed medical assistance, because the latest from Boston and updates about ricin-laced letters and quotes from parents of Newtown sufferers perplexed and disappointed and furious concerning the Senate's failure to enact the most fundamental gun reform scrolled along the foot of the screen, I texted Jess: "I simply seem like the entire country needs care. Everybody requiring it everybody feeling empty. Exactly how should we fill one another support when we are all running on emotional fumes? ...We want a national group hug. With Leader Obama in the centre. Which image just helped me cry. I'm a mess lol."And that is virtually where I stand. And That I understand that aching from afar is really a comparative luxury.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Tom Johnson and Janis Joplin: "Lift Up Your Hands"

Pope Francis: Nuns Still Need to Shush About Feminism, Gay Rights

[Content note: misogyny, homophobia, anti-choice] Welp, appears like everything Popey-Changey stuff has produced us a lot of same: The Vatican stated inside a statement Monday that Francis had reaffirmed the doctrinal evaluation and critique of U.S. nuns made this past year through the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of ladies Religious, a company that signifies most U.S. female Catholic orders, of marketing "radical feminist styles" and disregarding the Vatican's hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion. ...Kenneth Briggs, the writer of the book concerning the Vatican's clash with U.S. nuns, stated Francis' backing from the Holy See's unyielding line was "a significant blow" to prospects for additional dialogue. "It appears such as the Vatican has place a more desirable salesperson responsible for the same kind of product," Briggs stated. You heard right ladies! It's New Coke Pope! Shiny new package, very same shit! I truly have no idea what to say of this. Father James Martin, a Jesuit supporter from the nuns, is cited within the article to be hopeful the nuns will get "a supportive hearing" from Francis, because, like a Jesuit, he's part of a spiritual order themself. Possibly. But could it be really an excessive amount of for part of a purchase using the greatest intellectual status not only to be supportive, but to intellectually build relationships the questions elevated by feminism? He could, rather than adding it towards the listing of the nun's sins, observe that feminism and feminist theory play a huge role in examining social justice concerns? That in helping poor people and desperate, an awareness from the systemic ways gender-based oppression plays into poverty and abuse is useful? And yeah, I understand: serious engagement with feminist theory will enhance the problem of truly improving women when they've doctrinally forbidden the greatest leadership roles (such as the greatest roles in determining and teaching doctrine) which require ordination. And that will be uncomfortable, especially considering the job that nuns do for that Chapel. But when any Catholic Pope has got the intellectual courage to understand more about that, I'd think it might be a Jesuit. As somebody who may be the product of the Catholic education, it saddens me to determine Chapel leadership progressively turn its collective back on intellectualism and particularly around the experience from the social sciences. It's as though the Curiae get their fingers stuck within their ears, eyes shut, yelling "I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALALAAAAAAAAA!" with every new bit of evidence. No, homosexuality isn't the reason for pedophilia. Reproductive privileges could be answer to women's economic and physical well-being. Families may take on a variety of forms but still raise perfectly happy children. Ad infinitum. This is not the Catholic intellectual tradition by which I had been trained, within the publish-Vatican II window where reason and experience shone new light on doctrine, tradition, and belief. Regrettably it is a window that, for the time being, Francis is keeping firmly shut. [Leaving comments Note]: Please be mindful in comments to tell apart between your actions of chapel leadership as well as other Catholics who might not support their leadership in the actions.

The Parks and Rec Open Thread

"It's correct I'm enthusiastic about animals—because I'm half wolf."(Spoilers aren't considering just how much it itches herein.)Y'all, I am just gonna come out by using it: I totes blubbed when April saved the say within the most clever way ever, and also at the feel of beaming pride on Leslie's face. This Type Of GREAT MOMENT! Yay! However! OMG! When Leslie handed April her new nameplate, with "Deputy Director" onto it, and April requested how she managed to get so quick, and Leslie states, "I'd it made the first week here. I understood you would be going places, and so i thought about being prepared."—all the blubs forever! THIS SHOW.Dwyer shower! Lower to clown! Hey, wild stallions! Let us scent up! Saw dust ear! Show these garbage people out! Dirt and bloodstream bath! Retro-jammed! Ron eating a blueberry! Are you aware who Bill Gates is? Would you? He resides in Dallas and wears glasses. FYI. Other activities! "OWW! You are fired! You are fired! The entire department is fired! OWW THIS Affects! It was certainly one of my running ft!" "Ron, you have been sweating in here all day long! Are you currently consuming any liquids?" "Yes, plenty." *flows Scotch* "The guy is the owner of a Rolexus. It is a Lexus full of Rolexes." "What's the purpose of that?" "To Be! That they does." "This complete place operates on dibs." "Would you exercise?" "Yes, lovemaking and woodworking." "Have you got any good reputation for mental illness inside your family?" "I've an uncle who yoga." "Allergic reactions?" "Cowardice and weak-willed men—and hazelnuts!" "Sexual history?" "Epic. And.Inch "' ' ' '. Ahhh, he's disgusting, but I wish to take his money and create it for desperate people, so I am just gonna continue smiiiiiliiiiing! Yayyyy!" RESUME: Orin. "I believe you have a number of options. They are all terrible, however, you ask them to.Inch "I believe that guy really wants to search me!" "Donna?!" "Gentlemen." "Have you got any knowledge about creatures?" "A softball bat arrived on my small face once." "Even when I needed the task, I do not wanna perform the stupid confirmation hearing, okay? Stupid councilmen asking me stupid questions regarding my stupid existence. It appears stupid." "No, it is easy! They'll just request a couple of questions! Let us practice: What's your title?" "Batman. See? I unsuccessful." "What's cholesterol?"Discuss!

Open Thread

Peanut butter

Today in Things We Don't Call Terrorism

[Content Note: Anti-choice terrorism.]Today in Bloomington, IN, a guy was arrested after extensively vandalizing an organized Being a parent facility by having an ax and red-colored fresh paint:Police arrested Benjamin D. Curell, 27, Ellettsville, stated Capt. Joe Qualters from the Bloomington Police Department."The suspect made claims showing the ability was specific because of abortions being carried out there," Qualters stated. "He mentioned his intent ended up being to damage your building simply because they 'kill' and 'murder' babies. He credited his actions to his religious values."Planned Being a parent works abortions in the facility, the organization's site states, among other services.The incident happened shortly before 4 a.m., Qualters stated inside a release. Reacting to reviews of the guy attempting to enter your building at 421 S. College Ave., police found Currell already inside once they showed up. He was transporting an ax, Qualters stated."Extensive damage have been completed to your building and equipment for your office using the ax," Qualters stated. "There is also red-colored fresh paint that were decorated to the building. Curell was taken into custody of the children without incident."Curell has been doing a minimum of $2,500 price of harm to your building, front office, and equipment, and faces "preliminary charges of burglary and criminal mischief, Class D criminal offence." I certainly hope individuals won't be the only real charges he faces, since his explicit confessed intent wasn't burglary but religiously motivated terrorism.An Organized Being a parent official stated today the incident "won't deter us from ongoing our mission." If you'd like to create a donation towards the Planned Being a parent Bloomington Heath Center, to aid them in ongoing their mission, visit here.[H/T to Amadi.]

Friday Blogaround

This blogaround introduced for you with a sasquatch. Suggested Reading through:Grace's and Jess' Let us Discuss Names series now features its own Tumblr, where all of the previous records are compiles, and new records is going to be added. Yay!And listed here are the most recent for the reason that series: Trudy and Kristin.Another ideas on #femfuture at BitchMedia.Guttmacher: Condition Policy Trends 2013: Abortion Restrictions Proceed to the ForeIgor: Customer Advocates Tears into Federal Government bodies for Shielding Large Banksrboylorn: On Being Known as Out My Title [Content Note: The publish only at that link includes discussion of racism and misogyny and ageism.]Jorge: 'Stop Telling Women to Smile' Exhibit Opens in BrooklynSusie: We Can Not Allow Them To Pull off ThisAngus: Raise Hell Not Tuition: Around the Indiana College StrikeRebecca: Girl Gamer Informs Guy to Shove His 'Fake Geek Girl' Garbage within the Most Epic Way ImaginableLeave your links and proposals in comments...

Quote of the Day

"I'd explain that individuals much like me who support hydrocarbon development don't deny the weather conditions are altering. I believe you could have a genuine difference of opinion of what is leading to that change without instantly being either all-in that's all due to mankind or it's all regulated just natural. I believe there is a divergence of evidence. I'd explain when you are a believer within the Bible, one would need to the Great Ton is a good example of global warming, which certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."—Republican Congressman from Texas Joe Barton, throughout present day Subcommittee on Energy and Energy hearing around the Northern Route Approval Act, legislation which may authorize Congress to approve the Keystone pipeline.Divergence of evidence. Yup.

Open Thread

A People Only jacket

In The News

[Content note: Gun violence, gun culture, homophobia, misogyny, animal mistreatment]All Of The News. Everything!A 4-year-old boy snapped up a loaded gun in a family cookout and accidentally shot and wiped out the wife of the Tennessee sheriff's deputy.A minimum of three everyone was wiped out inside a effective earthquake that struck southern Iran.Annette Funicello died from complications of ms. She was 70.Cory L. Richards, who championed the development of contraception and abortion access, died following a fight with pancreatic cancer. WTF: A Redditor confessed to murder within an image macro. Mitch McConnell: Still a douche.Research finds that heteros will easily notice who's the very best and who's the underside in gay couples. Welp.Steroid-enhanced ferrets are now being offered as poodles. Okay.

Open Thread

The Disneyland monorail

Happy Birthday, Space Cowboy!

Happy Birthday, Space Cowboy! You're this type of dear friend in my experience, and also to Iain. We like you. I am so glad I made individuals note cards.And, despite the fact that not everybody realizes it, this complete community is with debt for you for the tech work you have done behind the curtain through the years. Thanks. You rock aloud.(P.S. Space Cowboy will most likely 't be acknowledging these birthday wishes today, while he does something SUPERFUN for his birthday. But don't allow that to prevent you! He'll discover their whereabouts eventually!)

In The News

[Content note: Guns, gun violence, gun culture, homophobia]YOLO:A federal judge has ruled the U . s . States government must result in the morning-after pill available over-the-counter for any age.Chinese government bodies have wiped out a lot more than 20,000 wild birds from the live-chicken buying and selling focus Shanghai after a unique strain of bird flu which has to date wiped out six people.In the vaults: Roger Ebert talks about North on Siskel & Ebert's 1994 year-finish show.Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed a brand new gun control law that restrictions some weapons and also the purchase or acquisition of high-capacity magazines.The U.S. Navy is creating a giant robot jellyfish! The U.S. Navy is creating a giant robot jellyfish!One, two, three more senators (all Dems) introduced their support of marriage equality.

Tom Hardy and a Puppy Visit Machu Piccu

The pup states the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu is his favorite place they have visited to date.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

[Content Note: Misogyny and rape culture.]Among the common criticisms I just read about myself and anybody who's involved in social justice work, whether via a feminist/womanist lens or else, is that we're upset by, or angry about, everything. Frequently, the critique is equalized because the exasperated rhetorical question: "Can there be something that does not get this to [chick, bitch, feminazi, etc.] mad?!"It's, clearly, a well-recognized method of progressing the tedious control of being oversensitive, hysterical, easily upset, the Angry Feminist. Which, of course, misses the purpose about being oversensitive versus. not sensitive enough, and misses the distinctions between being angry and being dissatisfied, and being upset and being contemptuous.Which would be to say nothing to the fact that if a person is angry, well, maybe that is because there is lots about which to become angry.But framework this space (and a lot of others enjoy it) like a seething hotbed of reactionaries tossing red-colored fresh paint in the walls can also be determined by disregarding everything which are written here about stuff we like. I write with abundant enthusiasm about people I admire (I've got a label for "Great Broads," as only one example), about films and shows and music and artists and authors I enjoy, about my wonderful buddies and brilliant co-workers (not mutually exclusive groups), about other writers whom I'm not sure personally but whose work delights and inspires me, about my lovely pets and animal save tales that warm the very coldest of black hearts, about Tom Sturdy kissing a puppy's muzzle! I publish pictures of lovely things and videos of tunes I love and share tales of Iain saying funny things and Deeky delivering me silly I Am Talking About AMAZING packages within the mail. There's lots of content here that's straight-up about Stuff I Really Like.Other contributing factors talk about stuff they love, too. And you will find lots of gushing comments about personal achievements, great documentaries to recommend, the very best new tasty factor you should attempt, and each other imaginable variation on "I really like this factor!"It's funny that those who accuse me of searching for items to get mad about appear only to discover hate and anger inside a space so full of love.After which there's this: People do social justice work with a great deal of reasons, but, in most cases, it is not simply because they hate the planet or even the individuals it.After I write a publish about, say, the rape culture, cloaked in vibrating anger, it is not since i hate the rape culture (although I certainly do) it is because I truly love people, typically, and I'm not going anybody, anybody, to become wronged by sexual violence, ever.Yes, I wish to dismantle the rape culture, and when it were just a little box put into my hands, I'd throw it down and smash it right into a million bits and grinding individuals bits into dust with my fists until I had been pulled away. But that's not the one thing that inspires me to create concerning the rape culture, or other intersecting system of oppression, every single day, at no small cost to myself, until Personally i think sometimes like I am swimming inside a ocean of shit which has no shoreline. What inspires use is love. Passion for safety. Passion for agency. Passion for justice. Passion for people."Is not there anything this lady likes?" request my incredulous experts.Yes. A lot more than I'm able to say. It's there to locate, if you are really searching.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Marty Robbins: "Feleena (From El Paso)"

Open Thread

The Ambassadors by Hendes Holbein the More youthful

Elementary

It's surprising there is no new Elementary again now. How will you do that in my experience, CBS? Not realize that I am unable to wait (I'd Rather Not WAIT!) until April 4 for any new episode? This really is terrible. Your deeply unfulfilling schedule is leading to me to create this face:That's all.[This is a thread to discuss Everything Elementary for just about any Shakers who miss it, who just began watching it, who got swept up, etc. Enjoy!]