A trigger to pull?

Turns out that Congress can enforce its own subpoenas. A radical move, but the Democratic leaders have shown some gumption in pulling up little-used parliamentary rights, and this would certainly be the time...

Chick schtick

I was going to blog this depressing bit about how the recent Supreme Court ruling will make doctors afraid to treat pregnant women in any meaningful way other than as a Consecrated Incubator (my framing, not the author's), let alone with health of their own. Instead, I've decided to celebrate Twisty's rant about the indignity of finding "decent" swimwear in the absence of anything that might "need" covering up.

“Mastectomy swimwear,” see, doesn’t mean “no-boobs swimwear.” It means “swimwear that maintains, for the comfort of the entire community, the illusion that you never had a socially awkward deadly cancer, and could still turn dudes on if you weren’t so old and pruney.”

Let's just call it a day to Shake Fists at the Patriarchy and then get on with the week. Fight each fight as best you can, and enjoy the eloquence along the way...

Update: Oh, what the heck, why not get a full Twisty Overload and go read her rant about the inherent oppression of porn. That's always good for some outraged blow-back (and consequent readerly amusement)!

A woman is a member of the sex class whether she “chooses” it or not. This pre-existing condition forms the backdrop to any fun feminist’s conclusion that her compliance with the patriarchal sexbot mandate is voluntary. She may believe otherwise, but her belief does not alter the fact that patriarchy — a social order predicated on an oppression to which she is already subject — is real and in effect and entirely beyond any unrestricted control she may wish to exert and only too glad to welcome her as a team player and sign her up for the rewards program.

The fun feminist confuses “empowerment” with the decision to acquiesce. This is understandable; it’s the one actual choice she has in this game: surrender, or stand and fight. She doesn’t have to be Candida Royalle to recognize that if she chooses the latter all she’ll get for her trouble is ridicule, hostility, suspicion, and the threat of bodily harm.

(The wording of this argument necessarily brings to mind this classic mind-bending cartoon...)

What it takes to get by

Local blogger pal Above Average Jane had a good piece this weekend on how much it costs to eat, thinking about whether she or someone in her community could make do on the tiny amount allotted by foodstamps. She details her imagined solutions, but also comes to realize that even those minimalist meals depend on many structural resources in her life -- from choice of grocery stores to up-front cash to buy the supersizes -- that are unavailable to those who actually must live on so little. An illuminating reflection.

Jon Stewart rocks

His interview with McCain last week was powerful precisely because Jon had been enjoying the mavericky silliness of the previous McCain incarnation, and thus dealt a double blow by being unwilling to accept talking points this time. Anyway, the interview on Bill Moyers show (30-min video or transcript at link) was great. Stewart doesn't want to accept too much credit as a revolutionary voice (after all, the Daily Show has a good dose of fart jokes and the like), but he speaks well to the frustration of watching the press and the White House play set roles, or of Congress and the President talking past each other on issues that are critically in need of serious discussion.

Nobody is saying, "We don't have a problem." Nobody is saying that, "9/11 didn't happen." What they're saying is, "We're not a fragile country, trust us to have this conversation, so that we can do this in the right way, in a more effective way."

It gets better and better -- worth finding the lunch hour to watch it, whether you watch the Daily Show or know little about it.

(thanks, Mom!)

Update: also linked from the same page (part of the same episode?) is a great interview with Josh Marshall, which lays out the story of the US Attorneys -- how "the bloggers" uncovered it, how the pieces fit together, why it matters. A good background for those who find the coverage a bit hard to unravel (and pleasantly framed like a mystery hunt).

Making us safer!

Yes, folks, our leaders, undermining our ability to respond to a pandemic (by politicizing the appointment process until a huge number of posts are left empty) and overlooking food safety issues until pets start dying (and then trying to keep quiet the degree to which the human food chain might also be contaminated). That ever-smaller government is really dedicated to keeping the American people safe!

-- sound of head hitting desk --

Quote of the day (+)

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.

- Archibald MacLeish,
poet and librarian (1892-1982)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Big fat racist

I already thought that Rush Limbaugh was a jerk and a liar, but this is really astounding. And we wonder how the values of the patriarchy come to be reinforced . . .

(via Atrios)

So tie-tie

This has been a long week for me, so I relate to this tiny kitty -- just wish *I* could flop down where I am and nap for a while. Instead, I have a backlog of work looking up from my desk.... sigh.

What we're really fighting about

Josh Marshall has an important post about "winning in Iraq" -- what it meant originally, what, if anything, it means now. I think he's onto something fundamental (emphasis mine):

It's often been noted that we've had a difficult time explaining or figuring out just who we're fighting in Iraq. Is it the Sunni irreconcilables? Or is it Iran and its Shi'a proxies? Or is it al Qaida? The confusion is not incidental but fundamental. We can't explain who we're fighting because this isn't a war, like most, where the existence of a particular enemy or specific danger dictates your need to fight. We're occupying Iraq because continuing to do so allows us to pretend that the initial plan wasn't completely misguided and a mistake.

He argues that any talk of "winning" or "losing" is meaningless, although I would counter that "losing" is just shorthand for "have nothing further productive to gain," and that most Americans understand it that way. Anyway, he goes on to say,

The reality though is that the disaster has already happened. Admitting that isn't a mistake or something to be feared. It's the first step to repairing the damage. What the president has had the country in for four years is a very bloody and costly holding action. And the president has forced it on the country to avoid admitting the magnitude of his errors.

This is the critical truth, and I think it's precisely the way that the Democrats should be explaining this. Unfortunately, we have two more years of Bush at the top, and it's clear that appearances (esp. admitting no mistakes) are much more important to him than realities (such as coming up with any Plan B for ending this mess). Too bad for those still on the front lines...

Three quick bits from local sources

Started my day in the local news section, and caught these three quick bits that are of more general interest:

• An Inquirer piece looks at the post-lightbulb future, in which offices may have lighting systems that adjust for incoming sunlight, use low-energy LED technology, and generally beat the pants off even the usual office fluorescents on both cost and efficiency fronts. They cite DOE statistics that 30% of home and business energy costs go to lighting, so that could add up to a lot of savings.
  
  
• Tony Auth offers a pithy visual condemnation of the double standard that the Bush Administration applies to political use of the war and related concerns.
  
  
• Daddy Democrat, a Pennsylvania blogger, notes a key point from Bill Moyers' recent coverage of media failings in the run-up to the Iraq war: even when some wire reporters (at Knight-Ridder) did ask the right questions, local paper editors often chose not to run those stories, choosing, perhaps, less "controversial" but more misleading options. Don't let up on your local publications!
  
  

Yeah, how red are *our* faces!

Tom Tomorrow holds the pundits accountable. If only somebody with a bigger megaphone would...

(via Atrios)

Thursday signs of spring

We went from a snowy Easter weekend to shorts weather within a fortnight. Not stabilized of course, but happy to see that the warmth has lured new leaves onto my frost-bitten pyracantha, flowers are opening on the dogwood, and a host of buds threaten to turn my little lilac bush into an obscene purple cloud sometime soon. The patio furniture covers are off, and I insist on its being spring from now on!



Somehow this photo by Dooce put me back in my grandmother's kitchen
(even though we had a pretty popular birdfeeder of our own).
She always loved images like this of regular visitors . . .

A different way to appreciate books

A range of artists make books into sculptures and other art -- striking, but makes me a little pained for the ruined texts . . .

(via GirlHacker)

Total disregard

Evidence mounts for what was previously speculation, including use of all arms of government to advance partisan goals, even where it's strictly illegal (you know, "how can we oversee government properties in a way that helps elect more Republicans next fall?" and other absurdities). And you'd think that the threat of hearings and subpoenas would strike some fear, but they just blow it off. I'm not just angry about how the Bush Administration has abused this country and its institutions; I'm actively frightened that there is no longer any rule of law here. Their arrogance is astounding, and appears unresponsive to any check.

Two things, unrelated

Because apparently giving them separate posts is Just Too Much. or something.

• VoteVets, who had some powerful ads during the fall elections, have a new project called Videovets, which involves filming veterans and their family members talking about how easy it is to support the troops and oppose the war. Some touching tributes to those still over there, some not coming back, some home for good. I'd seen one or another linked from various blogs, but they have a whole array of testimonials at their site. A great idea and probably a gift to all involved.
  (via dailyKos)
  
  
• On the lighter side, A4 papercut is an amazing array of artistic creations made by cutting shapes out of a standard sheet of paper, and folding the removed parts into 3-D forms -- the resulting shapes (animals, buildings, etc.) and the negative space they leave behind (often more than structural) create amazing resonances. I could look at these all day.
  (via Medley)

Incremental progress

Here in Philadelphia, we're fighting to make our leaders care about recycling. Meanwhile, around the nation (most notably in California), innovative leaders and governments are trying to make the whole idea of "trash" a thing of the past through comprehensive recycling and repurposing, from the factory to the consumer.

They want industry to mimic biology, where one species' excrement is another's food. "We're not talking here about eliminating waste," McDonough explains. "We're talking about eliminating the entire concept of waste."

Very exciting stuff here, if usually behind the scenes -- I recommend reading the whole thing for a little optimism buzz for the day.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

That pesky pay gap

Everybody knows there's a gap between when men and women get paid, but I was still struck by the notion that it starts right out of college and widens steadily over the decades -- and that the difference holds up when you control for marital and family status and a lot of other factors. Yes, each life decision (colored by societal expectation) can set a woman back a bit more, but the fact of the matter is that the deck is already stacked against her, and age only makes the pay ratio (like all other responses to women) worse.

But, you know, the need for feminism is over. Pesky humorless shrills.

(via Medley)

Inspired goof

A vision of how Gilbert & Sullivan might cover Sir Mix-a-lot:

Baby Got Back

(via boing boing)

Look who's giving up now!

Harry Reid created a bit of a kerfluffle last week by stating the obvious expressing the common perception that "Iraq is no longer winnable" (and he perhaps chose his words to spur debate). Turns out, not only do most Americans agree, but even such a stalwart of Endless Conflicts as Henry Kissinger agrees that military victory is now beyond us...

Quote of the day

The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.

from "Poems and Other Prevarications" by Quell
quoted in "Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan