Kansas City: hundreds counter-protest Phelps clan February 6, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, bigotry, wingnuts.1 comment so far
If the lessons were tolerance and peaceful political action, it was clear Thursday that hundreds of people had signed up for the course outside Shawnee Mission East High School.
Upon learning that members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church planned to protest at the school, students acted quickly — and on their own — to mount a counterprotest showing their disdain for the church’s anti-gay message.
The students, along with like-minded parents and other adults, gathered at 75th Street and Mission Road, swelling onto three corners of the Prairie Village intersection. The Phelps group was confined to the fourth corner.
Students held signs reading, “God is love,” “God does not hate” and “No hate in P.V.”
Westboro members believe that God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality. They have drawn harsh criticism across the nation for picketing at the funerals of servicemen and servicewomen.
Some welcome news to start your weekend!
Thursday Music Thread February 5, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, music.add a comment
Still no politics here (unless you count deep thoughts, and obviously I don’t). So, instead, ZEP!
Damn Straight, Onion:
Consider this an open thread, although anti-Zep comments are strictly forbidden.
Deep Thought February 5, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, sex, wingnuts.add a comment
Despite fairly successful attempts by self-described “gay” activists to equate behaviorally driven “gayness” to immutable and neutrally defined qualities such as race and gender, the reality is that being “gay” has absolutely nothing to do with what someone is, and has everything to do with what someone does.
ZOMG! If Barber is right, that means we must get rid of abstinence only education immediately, since kids won’t be “straight” until they’ve fucked a member of the opposite sex!
[h/t]
Oakland Raider’s new coach: hating them will be as easy as ever February 4, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Things I Hate, sports.add a comment
Per my previous declaration, no politics posts for a while. Instead, you have to put up with me ranting about sports. Or not–I mean, all three of the readers of this blog can wander on if they’re not interested in sports. Those that are, more below the fold:
I’ve had it February 4, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, News and politics.add a comment
I have really, honestly had it. I’m deeply frightened over what I’m seeing: two weeks into the Obama administration, we have the media parroting the narrative that we need a more “bipartisan” stimulus bill, while Republicans claim the government can’t create jobs, demand more tax cuts (as they do for any given economic and political situation), and Democrats are effectively pinned in by Blue Dogs who are demanding god-knows-what. Meanwhile, the economy continues its slide towards a truly brutal recession–or worse. Two wars continue overseas with no end in sight. The country is hurting, bad, and we’re getting our talking points from talk radio while the Dems are AWOL from the media debate. Paul Krugman battles valiantly for sanity, but he is a lone voice in a crowd.
And worst of all, the MSM has already forgotten that the Republicans spent the past eight years proudly setting the world ablaze just to watch it burn. The same idiots who got us into this mess are ensuring we remain in it as a cynical political ploy to attempt to regain power. On their watch they attempted to prove wise their ideological hatred for government by ensuring government doesn’t work, and now they’re claiming to be the responsible ones, and those who control the narrative are buying it.
And still the world burns.
Others have covered this better than I could hope to, as my readers know. I’m so fucking pissed off–though not surprised–that we’ve responded to a great moment of hope and national pride by resorting to the very worst things about ourselves.
You won’t find any political posts around here for a while, at least until I cool down.
Wake me when there’s a hint of sanity in the discourse. Assuming I haven’t already said “screw ‘em all,” and hauled my ass to Canada.
I’m fucking done with it.
Arguing about race: confirming one’s biases edition February 4, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, Science, bigotry, race.add a comment
What Greg Laden said.[His post is too good to excerpt. Go read it. Now. I'll wait!]
As I’ve pointed out before, our social conceptions of race do not match any biological categories. Race-as-deme-equivalent might make biological sense,* but it does not correspond to what we mean when we talk about “races” of humans. It might be different if somehow what we meant by “Black,” for example, corresponded to “at increased risk to sickle-cell anaemia due to the presence of a combination of alleles.” Such a distinction would at least have the advantage of being focused enough to be useful. But we don’t do that. We say someone is “Black” or “White” or whatever based on how they fit into our arbitrary understandings of such things.
No, our understanding of race is based on a long and complicated history, one which includes such concepts as racial passing, and the one drop rule. Or one need only to look at how the definition of “white” changed over the course of the 20th century, or how many groups now considered “white” were at some point excluded from whiteness.
Until we get over the idea that “race” is a fixed biological idea, and not a social construction that is unstable and subject to constant reformation, we will continue to find it far too easily to Other those who we mark as members of a different race. As one of Laden’s commenters noted,
[M]y friends don’t seem to understand that using phrases like “driving while Asian” is racist!
They exhibit confirmation bias (a bad ‘white’ driver is a bad driver, a bad ‘asian’ driver is an ‘asian driver:: all asian drivers are bad’)!
When we confuse the presence of genetically similar populations with our own socially constructed ideas about race, we do no good, and as Laden points out, can do a great deal of harm: there is a heavy social cost for our misconceptions about race. And one of the clear lessons about the history of science is that we should be wary of those who would twist scientific fact to prop up their own ideologies: let’s be clear that “race,” as discussed in society at large, is in no way a biological reality.
*I’m not qualified to judge in what senses this would be true, so I’m happy to concede this point, especially since it’s irrelevant to the larger argument.
Andy Schlafly on Springsteen February 3, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, Schlafly, wingnuts.add a comment
Andy Schlafly, whose claims to fame are that his mother is a infamous misognyst and that he founded the hilariously stupid Conservapaedia, thinks he has insight into Bruce Springsteen’s Super Bowl set:
Springsteen sang nearly all his top hits … except there was one glaring omission. He did not sing “Born in the U.S.A.,” one of his most popular tunes of all.
Wonder why??? The Obama mind controllers would not have been happy if he sang that title! Obama still has not proven that he was born in the U.S.A
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why wingnut welfare is a bad idea. And keep in mind, these are the same people who oppose Affirmative Action on the grounds that it damages meritocracy.
[h/t]
A particularly fun anti-abortion comment February 1, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, reproductive rights, wingnuts.1 comment so far
I’ve moved this up to its own post because it is so freaking hilarious. I’ve approved “Thomas’”–who is quite likely rightdialogue under a different name–comment for two reasons: the first is that is references the hilarious font of poorly argued wingnuttery that is bighollywood, and second because the story is so transparently false. We have it all–a self-described “Lothario,” lots of reference to the narrator’s potency, his bevvy of girlfriends, the dangers of promiscuity that are somehow always titillating, evil abortion doctors, abortion as birth control (because who wouldn’t prefer to pay to have an invasive procedure instead of using contraceptives), a vaguely defined “spiritual awakening.” If it only included a reference to child-murder by secret cabals of Satanists, it would be the perfect wingnut fairy tale.
There’s even the obligatory Things Were Better in the Old Days With Forced Child Birth and Shotgun Weddings.
Thanks, Thomas, for bring to my attention a hilariously awful bit of wingnut fiction. I’ve got a strong case of the chuckles now!
Kansas Anti-Discrimination Bill might advance to full-Senate vote February 1, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, bigotry, wingnuts.add a comment
Activists are optimistic that a bill which extended anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and generder identity will advance to the full Kansas Senate this year. The bill died in committee last year.
Gay rights advocates Thursday renewed efforts to include sexual orientation and gender identity in state anti-discrimination laws.
State law now prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.“It’s clear that the time has come to extend the same protections from discrimination to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people that so many other Kansans already enjoy,” said Maggie Childs, of Lawrence, board chair of the Kansas Equality Coalition.
This bill will no doubt have a tough time in super-conservative Kansas. Hopefully Fred Phelps and his gang of bigots will scream bloody murder about it: nothing helps the cause of equality like people realizing they don’t want to be identified with Phelps’ odious views.
[h/t]
