Caged Boy

This is why it is obscene and immoral to fill the universe with unwanted children.

White House Stones Afghan Women: "Gender Issues" = Pet Rocks

Yes, the liberal Democrats in Washington DC are throwing Afghan women under the bus, because gender issues are just pet rocks, see, and there's this a big fat effin' bus, see, and somebody's gotta get thrown under it, and that would be you, sweetie.

A senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy said changes to the land program . . . stem from a desire at the top levels of the Obama administration to triage the war and focus on the overriding goal of ending the conflict.

"Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities," said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations. "There's no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down."

The changes come at a time of growing concern among rights advocates that the modest gains Afghan women have achieved since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 are being rolled back.

New rules being drafted by President Hamid Karzai's government would bar private safe houses for women who are fleeing abuse and place new rules on those seeking refuge in the country's 14 public shelters, including forcing women to submit to medical examinations and evicting them if their families want them back. The proposed rules would also bring the shelters - funded by international organizations, Western governments and private donors - under the direct control of the Afghan government.

Even the Soviets and the Shah were better on the great pet rock of gender equity, were they not?

But hey, ladies, don't get your panties in a twist.

No biggie.

Well, If You Can Ban a Peacemaker from a Conference on Peace, Why Not Bring A Rape-Victim-Blamer to Rape Victim Fundraiser?

I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will be happy to tell them it's all their fault. They should just have been wearing burqas the little sluts.

Of course, if the group has no funds, isn't it their own damn fault?

From NewsHounds:

Bill O’Reilly, however, has shown his total disregard for rape victims in the following statement made on his radio show: “Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway . . .

Walking by herself? In a mini-skirt? Without an escort? Without a burqa?

What would the Saudis think?

[hat tip to Jesus' General.]

Technorati Tags: c

Step-Dad Who Incested 9-year-old Girl NOT Excommunicated by Catholic Church

Well, why would raping and knocking up one's 9-year-old stepkid be some big deal, anyhow?

Failing to force one's 9-year-old raped child to give birth?

That'll throw ya outa the church.


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Prior coverage here.

Our Friends the Saudis Punish 75-year-old Lady With Forty Lashes for "Mingling"

"Mingling"? Yeah, I hate it when them broads mingle. So uppity. So annoying.

Ok, so it's a day after the UN Day of Women. Enough already. Don't get your panties in a twist. Sure, we're gonna keep on trading with the Saudis. Look how much all this trade has helped their human rights situation so far! Wowee! Note the abaya in picture, left. Ring a bell, does it?

It's not like it's Cuba. Heck, we sure don't wanna trade with them Cubans. Saudi? Si! Cuba? No!

It's not like its apartheid or something, is it?

Trading for profit with a vile oppressor of the basic rights of half the Saudi population? I mean, why not? We trade with China, don't we?




Saudi Arabia sexism theocracy women's rights Islamist wahabi torture

TV Exec Hubby Beheads Wife

Of course honor killings count as domestic violence. Duh.

Look at this stupid frame: "Are honor killings simply domestic violence?"

"Simply domestic violence?"

[coughchokechough]

<--- spits.

Go look at the US stats for DV murder, why don'tcha?

Then stick your vile misogynist minimizing where the sun don't shine.

Riding the (Cotton) Unity Pony (Periodically)

Yo, sweeties. What's wrong with these pictures?

Nothing! So--don't get your panties in a twist like ho's who bitch about a guy calling a girly-dog a girly-dog.

Just STFU.

It's all kewl!! We're so POST-sexism! It's just a cardboard cut-out! Re-lax!! Chill! Sniggering frat-boy sexism is so who cares? Feeling up a cardboard titty iz just high-spirited blogger-type boyz having boyz-y fun! RE-lax!


Sexism is like bad weather -- and rape. As long as it's inevitable, why not lie back and enjoy it??



No Laughing Matter.
Favreau

Another Reason Why One Loves Robin Morgan

Sarah Palin a feminist? Palin being supported by feminists?

Oh, puh-leeese.

It's as laughable as Elizabeth Hasselbeck using the word "sexist" in a sentence (coughchokecough) recently. Yuh, and Limbaugh's a feminist, too. Yikes.

"Spalinists traipse around with their candidate, grinning and applauding her, sometimes getting paraded out to take a bow at a rally. They sound off about how she’s the target of sexism. (She is. D’uh. But being a victim of misogyny does not necessarily a feminist make—or we’d never have had Liddy Dole. Or Britney Spears.)"

Robin Morgan.

Yep, what she says.

Moving Right Along: Dirty Bush Backs Anti-Choice Rule

New Bush rule: Doctors can refuse to give women abortions

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections. . . .

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

The proposed rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

Abortion foes called it a victory for the First Amendment, but abortion rights supporters said they feared the rule could stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, and served notice that they intend to challenge the administration.

"Women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

Abortion rights groups had complained that earlier drafts contained vague language that might block access to birth control, and they said the latest version has not addressed all of their concerns."

Yes, such a problem these days in America, doctors and nurses being forced at gunpoint to perform abortions against their will. All-pervasive. Unlike child abuse in America. Just ask James Dobson.









More here.

Netroots Nation In Second Life

It's free.

It's fun.

And you can dance your little political hearts out.
Don't miss Netroots Nation in Second Life.


Come on down, fractured little Democratic Party, come on down to Netroots Nation in SL, listen, talk, interact.

Nice big virtual tent, grounded in civil political passion. Please come -- I'm especially extending an invitation to my sublime fellow pumatopians. Let's work on things out while we tango and swing, virtually speaking. Because why not, eh?



READ THIS PIECE BY MELISSA McEWAN ALL THE WAY TO THE END PLEASE OR THE DEMIURGE WILL KILL OFF UNITY PONY.

My favorite paragraph includes her pointing out that

nothing is quite so effective as using Roe v. Wade as This Issue, thusly reframing the argument from "Vote for the Democrat to get what you want" to "Vote for the Democrat to not lose what you've got."

It's a nasty little bit of blackmail, which fails utterly to take into consideration that the veiled threat of losing legal abortion because of one's uncompromising belief in one's own equality and autonomy is so bitterly ironic that it would be laughable if it were not so profoundly sad.

Instead of demonstrations of commitment to protecting Roe as one among many commitments to the basic feminist principle of women's equality, we are meant instead to be motivated by menace and intimidation.

We're supposed to gleefully hop on board with people who ominously warn that failure to do so will evoke tragedy by our own hands -- and, if we succumb, we find that even asking for basic respect, for sexist words and images and behaviors to not be used, is considered too much, an impertinence.

Yes. What she said.


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(Previously at NBFH: BLUDGEON ME NOT WITH ROVE V. WADE)

Obama & the Equal Rights Amendment

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.



I had almost forgotten about the ERA, first proposed in 1923. I knew it hadn't been added as an Amendment to the Constitution, but somehow it had slipped out of sight.

Turns out that 38 states need to approve the Equal Rights Amendment.

35 States have already done so.

That means there are only 3 states to go, from among these 15: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Surely Florida is ready to ratify. And Illinois. Arkansas is close.

Maybe it's time for Obama to put his money where his mouth is -- and pledge to get the ERA ratified.

That would be a good place to start, if we're still trying to save poor lil' Unity Pony with her big round sad eyes and two broken ankles, lying in ICU on a respirator, struggling, wheezing with COPD. She might have a bit of Ebola, too, I'm thinking that's blood there, not glitter, on her cute cotton-candy pink mane.

(Here, up and out of the ashes, is the phoenix-like, spontaneously-arisen Sweetie Rebellion section of blogtopia, via Reclusive Leftist.)

The Hillary Clinton Conversion Syndrome

As is perfectly clear, I'm waaaay to the left of Senator Clinton. And I want to smack the blood-on-their-hands Naderites upside the head. Possibly on a permanent basis. (Metaphor, metaphor).

You heard me complaining below about all media whore media's continuing sexist coverage of the Senator, and it's still going on today.

My spies in Limbaugh-land say that he's ranting on about "single women" and how they're going to decide the election. As if there's something wrong with that? Who cares?

And I've read some columns, oddly, where other right-wingers are going all nutty on "single women" (who comprise a quarter of the population -- and I'd guess the other 25% of the 50% female population would be -- married women?) and calling them "slutty"?

As if calling women "slutty" will keep them from casting their vote? Ee-ew. How Anita Hill swiftboaty.

Now we have Charles Krauthammer, who apparently doesn't know any better, putting a metaphoric pubic hair on our public coke can.

His argument against Hillary Clinton is: don't vote for her because she's married to Bill Clinton, and presidents shouldn't be married to former presidents.

I kid you not. That's his frickin' beef.

Well, Charlie, that's pretty dumb of you. You on the rag, or something?

It's idiotic on its face.

Plus, you know, a lot of people LIKED having a surplus, and not being involved in big-time foreign wars, and not killing a lot of our troops and other people's civilians, trying to expand health care for all, and protecting the environment, and not pissing money away on mercenaries, and working on energy independence, and having a FEMA that worked, and improving our infrastructure, taking the Al Qaeda threat seriously, and upholding the rule of law, and generally having a professional and competent government.

So again, I am waaay to the left of Hillary Clinton, but I thought I'd let all my fearless readers know that columns and comments by right-wingers like Krauthammer are really starting to get to me.

I read that column, "Americans reject a co-presidency," with something like shock and awe.

This wild vile sexist swiftboat spin is creating in me and in many of us something like a Hillary Conversion Syndrome.

I just sent her money. Stop these sexist rants, reichwingers, or I swear, I'll send again.



.Hillary Clinton
Clinton and sexism
gender controversy (sic)

None Dare Call It Sexist

Here's a fine sexist slam-down of Clinton brought to you by the New York Times. They're so enlightened. Really.

And for a walk down memory lane, here's an earlier article about a fine sexist slam down of Clinton, brought to you by the Washington Post. It's all about cleavage. And remember, WaPo is so enlightened. Really.

And here's Taylor Marsh, pointing out the fine sexist slam-down of Clinton by "neutral" media whore Tim Russert. He's so enlightened. Really.

The Daily Howler's coverage of the frat boy pile-on was right on point:

(Liveblogger Garance) FRANKE-RUTA: OK, this is now everybody—and I do mean everybody—against Clinton. It makes her look brave for just standing there, this small determined woman being attacked by three men on either side of her, two male moderators, and the entire male Republican field. Each of the critics on his own would be more effective, but taken as whole, the optics of this are uncomfortable.

You know, it really doesn't matter that she gets peppered with snide question set-ups about having been merely a President's wifie, though that happened some years back (can you believe Timmeh taking up time on national TV to mention that the Senator is a "wonderful woman" with "a great husband"?) and trivializes her completely, which is of course, the point.

What a load of crap.

Clinton regularly gets blamed for being AT ONE TIME too weak AND too strong (oh, and the NY Times publishes a whole article about this, whilst merrily swiftboating Clinton sexistly on its front page!).

Useless jealous Heather spinster semi-femi MoDo trashes Clinton in every way for every stupid reason -- like giving away a cat (hunh?) -- all the frickin' time, but the blood on the torturing hands of illiterate sadist Bubble Boy, former enthusiastic Toad-exploder, don't really bother that MoDo much. Just get fix her up with that other stupid NYT columnist, Tierney, who worries 24/7 about who will educated women marry. (Answer: not you.). And bemoans the fact that more women than men are going to college (but didn't give a shit when the figures were reversed. Hmm. )

But it's ok to call Senator Hillary Clinton a nappy-headed ho, see? Just don't say it like that! Sure, all her supporters are really Anita Hill nutty/slutties! And that's ok! Because we don't give a crap about them anyhow, they're just a buncha frickin' broads!


I love how the boys love to play the gender card in national politics, do not you?

It works like this: if you're a gurrrl, and you complain about sexism, that's you being sexist, because you're a gurrrrl.

You can't even mention sexism, because that would be playing the gender card, which you can't do, because you're a gurrrl.

It's the perfect double bind!

Therefore, the only way you can criticize sexism and not play the gender card, is to just shut up about it, bitch.

And isn't shutting up uppity bitches what it's all about in the first place?

Duh.




Hillary Clinton
Clinton and sexism
sexist

NEW-BOUGHT RUPERT PAPER RUNS SEXIST FRONT-PAGE ARTICLE ON SENATOR CLINTON & CLEAVAGE ( or, "Rupie Murdoch Is a Nappy-headed Ho")

Mr. No Blood for Hubris and I have been vacationing happily on sunny global-warmingly humid Cape Cod.

One spent a particularly lovely evening in cyber-reality dancing at Jesus' General's party at Cafe Wellstone last night. (One was the one in a lent lavender gown with non-matching but satisfyingly sparkly stilettos).

Returning to cold reality this morning, one read the front page of the Cape Cod Times, that odd very Republican paper, Dow-owned, and now, of course, Murdoch-owned.

That front-page article is called "Peeks and Valleys."

It features three blue Barbie-doll-boobed pictures (an eye-catching 12-column-inches), and manages to mention the name HILLARY CLINTON, and the word CLEAVAGE in its entire two inches of text.

Raise your hands if you think the appearance of a FRONT PAGE, illustrated, 14-column-inch article mentioning HILLARY CLINTON, and CLEAVAGE is the work of just some little local copy editor gone berserk.

(Here's a link, but the online version doesn't do justice to the story's actual presentation, lacking the striking Barbie-doll boob blueprints showing various degrees of cleavage styles, the middle one being marked as "potential U.S. prez" and the rightmost one being marked "va-va-voom." )

Sex objects, anyone?

It's more Hillary-bashing. (And remember, one is well to the left of the Senator).

And it's unabashedly misogynist to boot.

And it's Rupert at work.

One is almost ready to start writing about Rupert's own bag of nuts.

In fact, one just did. (Ee-ew.)


.
Hillary Clinton
Murdoch
sexist cleavage coverage

Oh, Lookie! More Sexist WaPo Coverage of Senator Clinton! (Or, Howie Kurtz and Robin Givhan are Nappy Headed-ho's!)

We covered it before, and now we're covering it again.

The "nappy-headed ho" of all media whore media "nappy-headed ho"s is apparently the Washington Post, which just can't get enough of publishing wildly sexist articles about Senator Clinton, who, by the way is running for President.

But really, let's talk about Mitt Romney's choice of neckties, and whether his donger shows in his pants. Senator Vitter's pants-load, on the other hand, is not really sexual, not in the normal sense, anyway, so that doesn't count.

I guess the closest thing would be for the media whore media to keep talking about Bubble Boy's fake codpiece bulge.

So have at it.


Update: Here's Howard Kurtz's sexist defense of the indefensible: do note his charming sexist title! How witty! He calls it: "Cleavage and Clinton's Campaign Chest"


Hillary Clinton
Clinton cleavage
sexist Washington Post

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Huzzah! Bubble Boy Brings Back Burqas!

Bubble Boy Wastes Blood and Treasure to Install Medievalist Islamic Theocracy: Mainstream Media Mum

No Veteran Not Left Behind

We Can't Care for the Children We Already Have

Child Abuse Prevention Month

America, America: Torture for Fun

Catholic Church vs. Amnesty International: Forced Maternity More Important than Torture --

First things first, eh?

The Roman Catholic Church, that kind gentle Jesus-centered bullying harassing supposedly non-political tax-exempt religious organization, is telling its Catholics not to donate to Amnesty International. More here and here.

Why?

Because -- protecting a rapist's right to breed is way more important than torture, or human rights, or slavery, or anything, pretty much.

And because they're never been very interested in womens' rights, have they?


Roman Catholic Church
Amnesty International
forced maternity

Holocaust Denier Ahmadinejad Oppresses Females 'Cause "National Security" Made Him Do It: Prefers His Babes In Black Burqas

It's the medievalism, stupid!

WOMEN BEAR BRUNT OF IRAN CRACKDOWN.

(WaPo here.)

Scared you'll be tempted by goodies? Throw a big blanket over them cupcakes!

Scared you'll be tempted by gurlz? Throw a big black bag over that babe!

Or, like, whatever. Get all paranoid about Western influences. Get more attached to power than you already are. Ah well. What a clown is Ahmadinejad.

Iran's constitution dictates that a woman's life is worth half a man's. Women in Iran are second-class citizens, officially segregated from men in many aspects of public life.

Women are required to use a separate and dramatically inferior hospital system. State security officers forcibly remove female spectators from soccer games.

For a young Iranian woman caught at a co-ed party can mean arrest and possibly worse. Women are regularly hanged in public for "acts incompatible with chastity." Those accused of adultery are buried up to their necks and stoned to death.

In January of this year, a teenager was sentenced to death for killing a man who was trying to rape her. The campaign against women in so many aspects of life has had a profound social impact - in a recent survey 25% of Iranian women admit to being unhappy with their gender.

What a medievalist mentality.

Hmm. "Medievalist mentality." Shari'a Law. Not so far from the vaunted Dominionist "Mosaic Law." Fundamentalist Muslims, fundamentalist Talibangelicals. Much of a muchness, no?

At a Purity Ball, Ahmadinejad would fit right in! In fact, that's what he's running.

Medievalist Muslim Iran -- just one big fat overblown Purity Ball.


Ahmadinejad
worst Iran president ever
misogyny
Medievalist Muslim

Slipping Through the Cracks in the System

It's hard to get someone hospitalized against his will.

It's hard to keep him hospitalized. No one wants to foot the bill, even in this "rich" country.

It's not as if people hadn't noticed VT shooter Cho's sexually harassing behaviors -- taking pictures with his cellphone of women's legs from under his desk, stalking one woman, sending harassing messages to another -- they were noticed. They were reported.

The night [Cho spent involuntarily] at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief.

Cho had been sent to the hospital, and got out again. He didn't meet the criteria of "imminent danger." Hospitals these days are hard to get into, and easy to leave.

. . . Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

The offense seemed "too minor"?

Some bloggers think that way, as well. You know what wussies women are, eh?

Teachers and fellow students at Virginia Tech lived in fear of Cho Seung-Hui in the 18 months before he struck, it was revealed this afternoon.

. . .at one stage students were so scared of his behaviour that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition.

A lecturer was so frightened by Cho's violent fantasies that she made up a secret codeword so that she could alert security without him knowing.

A pattern had emerged around Cho, a pattern that had been noticed in terms of sexual harrassment, total absence of personal boundaries, and violent fantasies, a pattern that was alarming to many.

These people had alerted the system, the system did what it could -- a single involuntary hospitalization.

The same system is in place today.

So what are we going to do about it?

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism

Violence and Virginia Tech: It's All About Exerting Power and Control

"No one imagined what he would do."

But someone was scared of him.

Two grown women were scared of him.

In the end, of course, he pointed out that it was all her fault. His first victim's fault. The Virginia Tech massacre shooter thought "his" girl was going out with someone else?

She can't do that. She's "his."

So he shot her.

Like shooting your own dog, is it not? It's yours. You can do what you want with it.

You can do what you want.

He was possessive, obsessive.

There have been suggestions he was obsessed with his first victim, Emily Hilscher, an 18-year-old veterinary sciences student.

Vivacious and popular, Ms Hilscher was shot with a 9mm Glock pistol bought by Cho last month.

It is said he had become "infatuated" with her although there is no indication she even knew him and, it appears, never mentioned him to any close friends.

He'd stalked women before, taken cellphone pics aimed at them from under his desk, sexually harassed them.

Like some rappers, making music that exploits and degrades women. Like some purveyers of porn, making flicks that aren't erotic, just sadistic, making a buck off feeding sick fantasies of cruelty and revenge.

Like some Dominionists, seeking to have women become the actual property of their fathers until they are married off, to become the property of their husbands. Like some "full-quiver" crackpot Talibangelicals who promote thoughtless, random parenthood to fill the world with the unwanted. Like taking a public pervy interest in your child's sexuality (for very religious reasons! it's not about commodity/virginity, really!) if she's female.

Like some radio hosts, shooting off their mouths, calling women "nappy-headed ho's" and "feminazis."

Like some writers who minimized the incident as a "lover's tiff," a "love row," like some VT security people who failed to follow through after the first shootings because it was just a "domestic dispute."

Like some bloggers, demeaning women who object to being objectified and insulted. Bloggers who think being scared of someone is cowardice, not intelligence, especially when it's a grown woman who says she's scared. (Rondo back to sentence 3).

(Oh, say, does this at all remind us of VT females who reported that they felt threatened by this guy, reported it to authorities, but the authorities considered it too trivial to follow up?)

Ask Markos how this sits with him these days:

The night at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over disturbing e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief. The student declined to press charges, and Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

It's a continuum.

On a very slippery-slidey slope.

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism