What I’m Reading, December 11, 2014

Posted on December 11, 2014 by wellsdc

Fox and Friends had a sad over the DOJ mentioning white privilege at Ferguson talk, Robyn Pennacchia, Death and Taxes, December 9, 2014

Co-host Brian Kilmeade felt that by even acknowledging the fact that white privilege exists, the Department of Justice was “taking sides,” when it was supposed to be neutral. And the neutral position is that white privilege does not exist. At least for the co-hosts of Fox and Friends. Who are all–by sheer coincidence, I’m sure–white people.

***

How is it taking sides to discuss the very real fact of white privilege? There are sides in this? How are there sides?

It’s like a small child closing their eyes and telling everyone “You can’t see me now! I’m invisible!”

You know, this, and the way they talk about “pulling the race card” and “race baiting”–it’s as though they’re thinking “We simply cannot let black people find out about racism, or they are gonna be so pissed.” or “Maybe if we pretend racism and white privilege don’t exist, all the black people will think they’re just imagining it, and then we can all pretend that everything is just fine.”

[Emphasis in original.]

One University Found a New, Awful Way to Talk About Jennifer Lawrence’s Nude Photo Leak, Jordan Valinsky, Mic, December 9, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, December 10, 2014

Posted on December 10, 2014 by wellsdc

The years of Obama-bashing have helped bring racism, sexism, and all the other “-isms” of hate out of the shadows, Ken, Down with Tyranny!, December 6, 2014

Last night I indicated that I meant to come back to Ian Welsh’s post yesterday, “In Light of Eric Garner,” in which he urged us: “Understand this, if you understand nothing else: the system is working as intended.” He argued that the Staten Island prosecutor case who succeeded in getting the grand jury to bring no indictment in Garner’s death —

made the decision that the system wants: police are almost never prosecuted for assault or murder and on those rare occasions that they are, they almost always get off.

Donovan did what the legal system wanted him to do.

As for the police in question, well, they did what the legal system wants them to do, as well.”

Where are several points here I wanted to come back to.

(1) THE PROPOSITION THAT “THE POLICE IN QUESTION
DID WHAT THE LEGAL SYSTEM WANTS THEM TO DO”

***

(2) THE FACT THAT PEOPLE “OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM”
REALLY NEED TO LEARN THE FUTILTY OF RESISTANCE

***

(3) THAT RACE ISN’T AN ACCIDENTAL COMPONENT OF THIS

[Emphasis, links in original.]

How to Talk to a Skeptic About Rape Culture, Rants and Rambles, March 29, 2013 Continue reading →

The Cat Shall Avenge You

Posted on November 22, 2014 by wellsdc

Time for a shout-out to a supremely awesome person, followed by a shout-out to a funny internet comment. First of all, Ben Schwartz of San Francisco may be one of the best people on Earth, and we can only wish that it hadn’t taken a near-fatal attack for the world to realize this (h/t Lynn). This could prove to be a superhero origin story, either for him or his cat.

Via Jezebel

That’s what Kinja user DarthPumpkin seems to think, anyway.

Others went further, even noting the similarities to Dex-Starr’s origins: Continue reading →

At Long Last, Guys Who Play Video Games Have a Voice!!!

Posted on October 24, 2014 by wellsdc

Lack of self-awareness at this level is just…….well, you can’t make this stuff up.

http://t.co/7l1aeMfI8D – this is fantastic! Male gamers of #GamerGate, let your voices be heard. You are: #NotYourScapeGoat!

— Cari (@serencadi) October 21, 2014

This is usually the part where most bloggers note that they haven’t written much about this GamerGate thing for one reason or another. I keep wanting to write about it, but then something new happens and it gets even stranger, and so far I’ve just ended up with an ever-growing list of links that I might one day make into an outline or history or something. The #NotYourScapegoat thing just seems too rich to pass up, though.

Here’s a bit of context, sort of:

GG have now developed #NotYourScapeGoat, so defenceless white men can stand up for themselves. Nothing can possibly go wrong with this plan.

— Daniel Oborne (@NinjaGoat212) October 22, 2014

Everybody? Today's new hilarious lack of self-awareness is called #NotYourScapeGoat – check it out and let the LOLZ begin

— Bob Chipman (@the_moviebob) October 22, 2014

Wow. #NotYourScapeGoat shows Gamergate has nothing do to with journalism. Its a reactionary movement against progressivism in general.

— Wezzuz (@Wezzuz) October 22, 2014

For additional bits of awesomeness, see this Clickhole piece:

Did we get this right? #GamerGate http://t.co/jjz0L0inQp pic.twitter.com/GP1Q67V5Xx

— ClickHole (@ClickHole) October 22, 2014

And this:

People With Gamergate Avs Tweeting The Clickhole Piece Is My New Jam https://t.co/a8IiqMfZGS https://t.co/eRxPVhytzN https://t.co/6sYYEbbiCJ

— Spooky Alex Hern (@alexhern) October 22, 2014

What I’m Reading, October 20, 2014

Posted on October 20, 2014 by wellsdc

Property Rights, Gin and Tacos, October 15, 2014

It’s equal parts intriguing and disturbing how often men treat women with respect – not invading their personal space or shouting things at them that they would prefer not to have shouted at them – not because they think women deserve to be treated with respect but because they are with a man. The inebriated young men didn’t refrain from making suggestive comments because they realized that it’s inappropriate; they refrained because I was next to her. Old creepers and “pickup artists” do not leave accompanied women alone at bars because they recognize that ignoring all the “please stop” signals is behavior that trends toward Rapey. They do it because the has a Sold tag on her and is already the property of some other man. And many men who would happily treat women with the utmost disrespect would recoil at the thought of disrespecting another man by hitting on his Property.

The right’s Lena Dunham delusion: Anger, misogyny and the dangers of business as usual, Katie McDonough, Salon, October 17, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, October 14, 2014

Posted on October 14, 2014 by wellsdc

Denied. Charles Vestal, Medium, October 10, 2014

The law itself says 20 weeks “from fertilization” (vs. “gestational age”), and we’re actually only 18 weeks from fertilization–my amazing wife tracked her cycle to a T. The hospital acknowledges it isn’t against the letter of the law, but it is a grey area their policies won’t let them touch. Too risky, too hot button a topic.

We are denied the opportunity to even make a humane and doctor sanctioned medical decision by a bill that we never thought would affect us. I was there at the capitol, fighting for the rights of women. It never crossed my mind I would be fighting for my own.

No, We Don’t Want Your Apologies (AKA You are not a very good ally if…), Feminace, October 8, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, October 13, 2014

Posted on October 13, 2014 by wellsdc

For Master Thieves, Legos Are the New Uncut Diamonds, Vocativ, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, August 20, 2014

While Legos aren’t exactly uncut diamonds (they’re not nearly as portable), as far as untraceable commodities go, they’re almost as good. Thieves can sell unopened Lego sets, which are very difficult to track, almost immediately online for as much or more than the retail price. And if they sit on them for a while, it gets even better, because many of the bigger sets rapidly appreciate in value—at a rate much faster than inflation. In other words, they’re money in the bank.

Last week’s back-to-back busts underscore what appears to be a growing awareness among criminals of Legos’ street value. Over the last couple of years, professional thieves and opportunists around the world have turned the Danish building blocks into fat stacks of Benjamins. They’ve included Silicon Valley executives, criminal masterminds in Florida, Oklahoma conmen and even drug dealers in Amsterdam, who have started accepting Lego toys as payment.

Some go for the toy stores, others rob the delivery trucks. Earlier this year, a suspected band of crooks in Australia brandished angle grinders and crowbars to pilfer at least $30,000 in Legos from four different retailers. In England, bandits in Watford Gap and West Yorkshire pulled off Lego truck heists to the tune of $87,000 and $67,000.

The Kraken Is Such A Big Meanie, The Kraken, The Gloomy Historian, October 9, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, October 10, 2014

Posted on October 10, 2014 by wellsdc

Men Have Depended on the Government for Centuries—So Why Shouldn’t Women Do the Same? Rebecca Traister, The New Republic, October 8, 2014 (h/t Echidne)

Where once American women were forced to depend on husbands for economic stability and social and sexual sanctification, they now rely, to some degree, on the American government to protect the rights and benefits that make independent citizenship possible.

But what too often goes unacknowledged is that women aren’t the only Americans who have relied on the government as a partner. Rather, it’s a model of support and dependence that has bolstered the fortunes of American men throughout the nation’s history.

It’s hard to remember that guys did not rise to the top of business and political worlds passively, by dint of their hard-wired inclinations and the gravitational pull of their penises alone. Men too, even the rich, white married ones who vote Republican as reliably as single women vote Democrat—in fact, especially those men—have benefitted terrifically from government policies and practices. Call it “The Wifey State,” and come to grips with the fact that white guys have been taking advantage of it since the founding.

Wal-Mart Advances ObamaCare, BooMan, Booman Tribune, October 9, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, October 7, 2014

Posted on October 7, 2014 by wellsdc

My day at the gun nuts’ confab: Blunt talk, high drama and mass paranoia, Alexander Zaitchik, Salon, October 7, 2014

Earlier that morning, a speaker had flattered the [Gun Rights Policy Conference] crowd by calling them “the most sophisticated gun-rights gathering in the country.” This is probably true. It’s also telling. All of the room’s combined political experience, intelligence and savvy still does not add up to the ability to grasp how America’s largely unregulated gun trade has become a public health crisis, or why background checks and other common-sense measures poll so well. The gun-rights movement continues to see background checks through the same paranoid prism it sees everything else: the threat of door-to-door gun confiscation.

Why I will no longer speak on all-male panels, Scott Gilmore, MacLean’s, October 4, 2014 Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, October 6, 2014

Posted on October 6, 2014 by wellsdc

Battered, Bereaved, and Behind Bars, Alex Campbell, BuzzFeed News, October 2, 2014

Lindley’s case exposes what many battered women’s advocates say is a grotesque injustice. As is common in families terrorized by a violent man, there were two victims in the Lindley-Turner home: mother and child. Both Lindley and Titches had suffered beatings for months. But in all but a handful of states, laws allow for one of the victims — the battered mother — to be treated as a perpetrator, guilty not of committing abuse herself but of failing to protect her children from her violent partner.

***

No one knows how many women have suffered a fate like Lindley’s, but looking back over the past decade, BuzzFeed News identified 28 mothers in 11 states sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to prevent their partners from harming their children. In every one of these cases, there was evidence the mother herself had been battered by the man.

***

These laws make parents responsible for what they did not do. Typically, people cannot be prosecuted for failing to thwart a murder; they had to have actually helped carry it out. But child abuse is an exception, and the logic behind these laws is simple: Parents and caregivers bear a solemn duty to protect their children.

Road Hazard: Recalled But Not Repaired, Rachel M. Cohen, The American Prospect, Fall 2014 Continue reading →

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