In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: August 2005

And When It Becomes Too Frustrating To Blog About The World, Blog About Music

As of this last week, I have rediscovered my long-time love for Nick Cave. Many years ago, someone gave me “Murder Ballads,” a fascinating concept album that reconfigures the folk tradition of tales of murder for a modern audience. The album includes interesting and unexpected duets and some rather shocking songs.

Two years ago, I blogged about Nick Cave and the search for Stagger Lee, the beginnings of the gangster persona in black neighborhoods of the Midwest coinciding with the rise of the blues, after reading a fascinating article on the history of the song.

Stagger Lee — “While he was waiting to record an album, Nick Cave was reading a book on urban black folklore and came across a version of the Stagolee toast. Cave decided to record it for two reasons. He was fascinated, in the first place, by the homosexuality of this particular version.”

Wild Rose — duet with Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue

Henry Lee — duet with Nick Cave and PJ Harvey

The Curse of Millhaven — whence came my only nickname, Loretta

Baby I Got You Bad — from the B-sides released this March; all other listed songs from “Murder Ballads”

For less provocative versions of “Stagger Lee,” see Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, and Dr. John.

Mission Accomplished II

I have not had much to say about the situation in Louisiana because I am floored at the footage I have been watching. Not having access to anything but the night’s half-hour of evening news, I was appalled at the destruction waged on New Orleans and Biloxi, the fact that the structures meant to keep the water out flood the city further, that this hurricane target was so unprepared for disaster, the people and pets hacking through their attics, waiting on rooftops to be saved from endless spans of water.

The damage will be long-lived: streets covered in mud and sand, houses coated in petroleum, a city overrun with mosquitos and disease, lives ruined, people dead and dying, a national landmark city leveled.

I read this story and cried for a long while, thinking of the horror of yet another Sophie’s Choice. The loss, real and imagined, is overwhelming.

And while the Gulf Coast drowned, Nero strummed his gee-tar.


How infuriatingly cavalier.

Only in the face of a national disaster did Bush cut short his five-week vacation, but not before a valuable photo-op.

via The Heretik

UPDATE: For many, many pictures of the situation in the Gulf, see Kathryn Cramer’s collection of pictures found about the internets.

UPDATE II: In other news, it’s not looting if you’re white. Also, a reader clues me in to the video footage noted above.

Girls Don’t Need Self-Esteem, They Need Husbands

I do declare!

The national Girls Scouts of America have invited “pro-abortion, pro-lesbian” speakers to their national convention. The Concerned Women for America are, well, concerned.

Some years ago, the Girls Scouts began purging materials of positive references to homemakers. Instead of being family-centered, the group now promotes “girl empowerment,” with programs that focus heavily on a narcissistic devotion to self, but then steered into collective action for liberal causes, such as environmentalism.

The last thing we want in America is little girls… RECYCLING!

The CWA is most concerned about the speakers that have been invited to the convention, one Dr. Johnnetta Cole, a woman with absolutely amazing credentials, mentorship, and leadership skills including fifty honorary degrees, and one Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, “which, among other things, promotes abortion and feminism.”

Ramdas has been pegged dangerous for her advocacy of women’s reproductive rights and sexual health. Dr. Cole has become a target because of a talk titled The Power of Diversity, in which she (I’m not kidding) “used the word ‘power or powerful’ 10 times.”

As far as I know, the Girls Scouts were never primarily about homemaking skills, but who needs self-esteem when you can score yourself a nice husband? Who worships the patriarchy? Cootchie-coo.

USDA Official Steps Down Due To Morning-After Pill Politics

Susan Wood, a senior member of the FDA and women’s health advocate, stepped down from her position because of the decision to delay the morning-after pill again despite being found safe for over the counter availability.

Her letter of resignation says in part:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I regret to tell you that I am leaving the FDA, and will no longer be serving as the Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health and Director of the FDA Office of Women’s Health. The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women’s access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women’s health. I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health policy decisions. I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled. I therefore have submitted my
resignation effective today.

I will greatly miss working with such an outstanding group of scientists, clinicians and support staff. FDA’s staff is of the highest caliber and it has been a privilege to work with you all. I hope to have future opportunities to work with you in a different capacity.

Had I been in her position I too would have been frustrated all to hell. The Bush administration record on scientific accuracy is poor at best. I only wish she hadn’t left. It appears we’ve lost a significant ally.

Leslie Crocker Snyder for DA!

If you live in New York, get your ass out and vote for Leslie Crocker Snyder! I’ve been a big fan of this woman, ever since she came and spoke to College Democrats at NYU. She’s dynamic. She was the first woman ever to try homicide cases at the Manhattan DA’s office, and fought her way into that unit . When she first asked her boss if she could transfer to homicide, he turned her down. When she asked again, he said he’d consider it, under one condition — that she got her husband’s permission.

She didn’t, but made it into the unit anyway. She founded and let the Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau, and co-authored New York’s rape shield laws. She has spent decades trying to reform the racist and misguided Rockefeller Drug Laws. She’s a huge supporter of rehabiliation programs for non-violent offenders, and an advocate of community courts and instituting local legal resources in a variety of languages, to give as many disempowered people as possible access to the legal system.

Her one flaw is that she is technically in support of the death penalty. But when she spoke at NYU, a friend of mine asked her about her position, which she clarified, saying that she only supports the death penalty in the most extreme cases — for example, a terrorist who manages to blow up a building and kill hundreds of people, or a mass murderer. I still don’t agree, but the fact is that the death penalty isn’t really an issue in New York. Oh, and my anti-death-penalty friend who asked the question was so impressed with her that he now works for her campaign.

Even The New York Times has endorsed her. So get out and support Leslie!

What To Do About Statutory Rape

I sure as hell don’t know how such issues should be dealt with, but this story is indeed disturbing. Girl, 12, starts dating man, 20. At 14, she gets pregnant and they get married. She was in eighth grade. He was 24.

Now, will it do any good at this point to lock the guy up? No, it probably won’t. In fact, it’ll probably just make it harder on the 14-year-old child who is now at home with a newborn baby. But this relationship is obviously, um, problematic. I’m not trying to be judgmental here, but I’m pretty sure that when a 12-year-old and a 20-year-old are in a sexual relationship (or a business relationship, or any relationship), there’s going to be an inherent power differentiation, and a serious issue of judgment and maturity (on the 12-year-old’s part by simply being 12, and on the 20-year-old’s part for having sex with a child).

I’ve said before that I think it’s important to let women make their own decisions, and to let them be their own moral agents. I’ve also said that being of minor age should not strip someone of their right to their own body. I certainly stand by those statements. But where does statutory rape come in — particularly the more extreme kind, like this? Thoughts?

1.1 Million More Poor

The U.S. poverty rate has risen to 12.7 percent in the past year, adding more than 1.1 million more people to the ranks of those living in poverty — meaning that 37 million Americans are now in the poorest sector of society. Interestingly, the poorest areas of the nation are the south and the midwest. Why, may I ask, are these people still voting for Republicans who economically exploit them and sell their interests down the river in the name of big oil, war-mongering and half-cocked versions of “morality”?

Anyone else think it’s a coincidence that the last time the poverty rate fell was in 2000 — right before Our Great Leader took office?

Texas Law Could Mean Death Penalty For Doctors

Texas doctors who perform abortions without parental approval or after the third trimester could face capital murder charges because of a new law that takes effect this week, a prosecutors group says.

The Texas District and County Attorneys Association has outlined that scenario in its new book updating the Texas penal code and in public presentations around the state. The group says such charges could occur under the new law because of the 2003 fetal protection law.

Key legislators said Monday that wasn’t their intent.

Not your intent? Sorry, you’re just another cog in the spin wheel.

The fetal protection bill was designed to allow for prosecution of a person who harms or kills an embryo or fetus, supporters say. Exceptions were made for legal drug use, action taken by the mother or a “lawful medical procedure.”

But legislators this year defined two scenarios that would be “prohibited practice” in medicine: performing an abortion on an unmarried girl under age 18 without proper consent, and performing an abortion in the third trimester that isn’t covered by certain exceptions. The law takes effect Thursday.

If this were about the sanctity of human life we would a) not penalize doctors with the death penalty, and b) penalize the women who have abortions as well. If this were not about control of women’s sexuality the woman’s marital status would not be of concern.

In other news, see the Dawn Eden Guide On How To Handle Your Rape. Nope. It’s not about control.

via Bush v. Choice

That Music Thing

Okay, everyone’s doing it. If everyone else jumped off a bridge, I would too. Because the list accompanying the year of my high school graduation is so bad (I liked one solitary song) I’m completing the list, at Norbizness’ suggestion, from the year when I was thirteen.

If this doesn’t make me feel like a baby around you fogies I don’t know what will.

Songs liked in bold, songs hated crossed out. I can guarantee there will be a pattern to this awful list.

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