March 29, 2007
Phyllis Schlafly: wrong again
Phyllis Schlafly was at Bates College in Maine last night to give a lecture entitled “Conservativism vs. Feminism: The Great Debate.” I think a couple of the commenters on the article on Sunjournal.com discussing the lecture had the right of it, stating that it’s a good thing that Schlafly is out there speaking, because she demonstrates the utter absurdity of the anti-feminist viewpoint. That said, I wanted to call attention to a couple of the points she made in her lecture. Read the rest of this entry »
March 28, 2007
Toby the wonder dog!
This is so cool:
Parkhurst said she was home alone with the dogs Friday afternoon when she decided to snack on an apple.
Suddenly, she said, a chunk of the fruit became wedged in her windpipe.
“It was lodged pretty tight because I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I tried to do the thing where you lean over a chair and give yourself the Heimlich, but it didn’t work.”
Parkhurst said she then began beating her chest, an action that might have attracted Toby’s attention.
“The next think I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders,” she recalled. “He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest.”
Toby’s jumping apparently managed to dislodge the apple from Parkhurst’s windpipe.
“As soon as I started breathing, he stopped and began licking my face, as if to keep me from passing out,” she said.
A friend soon arrived and, after witnessing the canine rescue, drove Parkhurst to the doctor’s office.
“I, literally, have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest,” Parkhurst said. “I’m still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I’m OK.”
Tiwa isn’t really impressed. “I could do that, mama!” she tells me. Here’s hoping I’ll never have to find out for sure.
[h/t to Shakes]
March 27, 2007
It happened again today…
First, a disclaimer: I don’t presume to speak for all women. If you’re a woman and you disagree with me, please feel free to speak up in the comments. (Of course, one should feel free to speak up in the comments in the first place, but you know what I mean.)
Next, a note to the straight men out there. I love you guys, I really do, but for the love of all that’s good, PLEASE STOP TRYING TO PICK ME UP IN THE GROCERY STORE. I’m there because I have to be, not because I want to be, and indeed, I’ve often quite simply run out of food, which means I haven’t eaten, which means I am very much not in the mood for small talk.
Furthermore, if you really must go for it–let’s say you’ve been struggling to find a woman who shares your vegetarian lifestyle, and you notice that I’m buying tofu–please, please pay attention to body language and other non-verbal cues. If I’m not acting particularly interested, if I’m subtly angling my body away from you and continuing to go about my business, then you’re probably not going to get anywhere and should probably just be on your merry way.
Thank you for your time.
“Girls shouldn’t read big books like that.”
This breaks my heart:
I work at a bookstore. I was cashiering today when a woman and her two kids (a boy and a girl, both somewhere between 13-15) came up to the register. The mom was buying 2 celeb gossip magazines, and the boy put down a book. The girl then walked up and set down the newest volume of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
The mom says “You can’t buy that.”
Girl: Why?
Mom: Because it’s too big.
Girl: [Brother] is buying a book that big. It’s not very expensive.
Mom: [Brother] is a boy. You’re a girl. And girls shouldn’t read big books like that. It’s too thick. Boys don’t like girls who read thick books. You want boys to like you, don’t you?The girl went and put the book away.
*Sigh.*
[h/t to PZ Myers]
Right-wing head-scratchers…
- “Political people are different than you and I.” –Rush Limbaugh [Since when is Rush apolitical?]
- “Each time I arrive home and our pet Bichon races to the door to meet me, I am reminded of my sin, that I, in Adam, sinned and ushered in the Fall.” –Creationist Ken Ham [I wonder if it occurs to him that the dog continues to race to the door to meet him, in spite of that attitude…]
- “GO BACK TO AFRICA AND DO YOUR GAY VOODOO LIMBO TANGO AND WANGO DANCE AND JUMP AROUND AND PRANCE AND RUN ALL OVER THE PLACE HALF NAKED THERE.” –U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Marcia Ramode [I have no words, except to point out that the recruiter sent this from her official U.S. Army e-mail address.]
- “Well, by charging this big lie about money laundering, liberals have finally joined the ranks of scoundrels like Hitler.” –Tom Delay [I’m sorry, I must have misunderstood that–on top of everything else, did Tom Delay just refer to Hitler as a “scoundrel”? Merely a “scoundrel”? Ohh, my head…]
- “None of the victims have claimed to have felt physical pain during the course of the sexual assaults which they described” –Bill Baumann, assistant U.S. attorney in U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s office, giving one explanation as to why Sutton and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decided not “to prosecute officers of the Texas Youth Commission after a Texas Ranger investigation documented that guards and administrators were sexually abusing the institution’s minor boy inmates.”
March 23, 2007
Thoughts on 300, art, and objectivity
Wednesday night I went to see 300. On one level, it was an entertaining flick that accomplished what it set out to do. I read a review somewhere (can’t recall where at present) that stated that seeing the movie was like watching a graphic novel in motion; that reviewer was right on the money. The movie was stylistically stunning, even in the thoroughly gratuitous moments (though, of course, having read plenty of graphic novels, I recognize that those moments were very much in keeping with the genre). The plot was entertaining, if somewhat predictable, and the characters were fairly well-drawn, albeit pulled from a fairly standard stock. There were moments in which I bit my knuckle (yeah, I totally do that), moments in which I grinned and muttered “hells yeah” under my breath. By and large it was exactly what I expected, and I enjoyed it. Read the rest of this entry »
March 19, 2007
Quote of the day: People on a plane edition
I was on a plane this morning before my brain was fully functioning, and so decided to flip through an issue of People someone had left behind, rather than my Stephen Jay Gould book or pedagogy text. In an article about Richard Hatch‘s alleged* tax evasion, I came across this gem of Hatch’s, in reference to the six months he spent in the Plymouth County [MA] Correctional Facility:
The conversation was inane beyond anything I could possibly describe, which is the mental torture of jail that most people don’t understand.
I almost don’t know what to say about this.
Almost. Read the rest of this entry »
March 16, 2007
“I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!”
I just couldn’t resist posting this:
Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti
Also figured I’d let anyone who’s interested know that I am, in fact, alive and kicking; I’ve just had a cold, and now I’m in snowy Boston, watching basketball in HD and preparing for hockey tonight. Mmm, hockey…
March 8, 2007
Blog Against Sexism Day!
Amanda Marcotte asked a couple of discussion-inspiring questions in recognition of Blog Against Sexism Day, and I thought I’d try my hand at answering the first (my answer is long-winded, so I figured I’d just stick with one question).
When did you become a feminist? Either when you embraced the word or when you realized that sexism is still a problem and that feminism is still necessary?
March 7, 2007
Hump day lit: vaginae edition
(Inspired by this story–and here is a video of the three young women reading “My Short Skirt”)
“My Short Skirt” from The Vagina Monologues, by Eve Ensler Read the rest of this entry »
I am the Lizard Queen! 