Well, now. Didn’t expect they would do it. I seriously thought that Limbaugh was entrenched and nothing short of him murdering someone would they cut the strings. I’m happy that they are cutting off the hate-filled blather. Who are they going to get now to bang the drum for the rightwingers…?
I just hope they aren’t replaced with more hate-filled blather by someone even worse than Limbaugh and Hannity.
This post has got to be one of the worst I’ve read in a looong time. The misogyny coming from someone claiming to be a feminist (well, actually, she doesn’t claim it, but the insinuation is there) is something to behold.
As I said in my comment, the vitriol here against women who make the choice to stay home is one of the reasons I no longer call myself a feminist, even though I very much believe in equality.
The feminists in the 70s railed against women staying home…I understand the historical context–their mothers were forced to stay home after WWII, and forcing anyone to do anything will inevitably result in resentment…especially when staying home is characterized as “doing nothing” and “contributing nothing to society…”
Not only that, but the stance that abortions should be allowed at any time–even at the eighth month–are the reasons that feminists lost many women who were against that but believed in equality.
And sadly, that is still true today. Women who believe in equality but are against abortion or want to stay home are marginalized by feminists such as nonny mouse.
It seems to miss the point that it’s not the staying home part, but how culture values it. Our culture doesn’t value much of what women do…whether it is at home or in the corporate world. It’s the culture that needs changing, and that’s not going to happen by minimizing women’s role at home.
As I posted previously, other cultures, such as in Europe, provide support to women. They try to prevent abortions by preventing pregnancy in the first place–the ideal, for me. And guess what–they don’t have mothers having baby after baby (as the repubs and some dems like to argue.)
Many of those arguments are tenuous at best, but it is the continued reference to European abortion laws that most represent a convenient cherry-picking of facts to support the rollback of women’s rights. Many European countries do indeed regulate abortion with gestational limits, but what SB1 supporters conveniently ignore is that those laws are entrenched in progressive public health systems that provide quality, affordable (sometimes free) health care to all individuals and prioritize the sexual and reproductive health of their citizens. Most SB1 advocates would scoff at the very programs and policies that are credited with Europe’s low unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.
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More here on the women’s right to decide how she will give birth. I love this–midwives have been targets of a well-run campaign against them since medieval times when they have as good a record of healthy childbirth as physicians.
This will give one moment to pause…when you look at the statistics for the U.S. at the bottom– the maternal death rate in this country is 1 in 2,100. The article states it’s typically 1 in 7,600.
Pretty sobering in a country that likes to think of itself as such a beacon of healthcare.
Faith Ringgold has used art to express her feelings during the 60s Civil Rights protests/riots. I love the storytelling aspect of quilts and especially the artsy ones, such as Ringgold’s.
Quilts were ingeniously used in the underground railroad to help slaves escape. …or so I thought…now historians are disputing that. Here is a blog on the controversy. It is kind of weird talking about yourself in the third person in this way–why not just explain who you are and why you wrote this book? Anyway, he does have good points about the stories behind quilts. A commenter said that crazy quilts–quilts that are put together using cloth scraps–were not around when the underground railroad was in force. But I question that because slaves would have had to use scraps to put together quilts–they would not have had the funds to purchase new cloth to sew with, so it makes sense to me that crazy quilts would have been in use.
More here on the controversy. A really good page on the history….and if anyone had any doubts that history is subjective, this page will remove that doubt.
These times were steeped in storytelling, so it would not surprise me to learn that quilters wove stories into their quilts. And then some may not–artistic expression is highly individualistic–different mediums for different folks.
Anyway, I learned something today. Hope you did, too.
(hat tip to Diane Ravitch)
Well, now, teachers may be the nation’s punching bag right now….but this one isn’t down with this predator’s actions. As she said, she would have lost her job if she had done what Weiner did. Not only that, she would be in jail.
Well, folks, the Bush family just keeps on giving and giving….
…what exactly they’re giving (perhaps the word is *taking*) is open to debate…
Diane Ravitch has a blog up on the Jeb Bush Miracle . *cough*
Florida school grades released today are “worse than useless measures of educational quality,” according to a local expert on assessment. Bob Schaeffer, Pubic Education Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), explained, “Based largely on scores from the low quality FCAT exam, state officials change the grading formula each year to serve their political agendas.”
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National Center for Fair and Open Testing
Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773
cell (239) 699-0468~~~~~~~~
And more here on those Lazy Teachers. Really? And how many hours have you spent in a classroom? Or with your own children reading to them or playing with them or asking them about the lessons they learned in school that day….? Methinks thou art a phony…
Thomas at Yes Means Yes! has a blog up on the criminal activity of Anthony Weiner that is not being prosecuted. As someone says in the comments (on Melissa McEwen’s blog)–if Weiner had exposed himself to someone on the subway, he would be charged with a crime. And this happened after his first mea culpa–after begging forgiveness and of course, people wanting to give him a second chance…
…but this is Anthony Weiner, I’m-special-because-I’m-a-politician who has a likable personality….so he will skate by the city jail.
Granted, it is hard for women to confront someone whom has crossed boundaries….we aren’t raised that way. And, the point was raised that someone in a position of power, be it political or business, can make serious trouble for a woman who stands up for herself.
**edited to correct ADD moment of attributing quote to Lisa Weiss that was the teacher Nobles. Sorry. Chelating…so ADD is worse…
Diane Ravitch has this and this up on the continued invasion of privacy…only this time, it’s your kid they are gathering information on. This critical information gathered by a Foundation that now owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto, .
…and what about Rupert Murdoch getting hold of your family’s records? Especially since the newspaper he owned invaded people’s privacy already…even after a warning about his dealings went unheeded.
From the first Guardian article:
When the high court last summer ordered the News of the World to pay damages to Max Mosley for secretly filming him with prostitutes, the paper was furious. In an angry leader column, it insisted that public figures must maintain standards. “It is not for the powerful and the influential to run to the courts to gag newspapers from publishing stories that are TRUE,” it said. “This is all about the public’s right to know.”
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Does anyone else see the irony of a paper that is invading innocent people’s privacy complaining about maintaining standards….apparently lying and invasion of privacy are not standards someone should uphold…?
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One of the commenters here called the absence of real oppositional parties the “Uniparty”. …yep.
See…the Dems really believe in the Fourth Amendment and the rights of the American public to be let alone…
bwhahahahaha *snort* bwahahahaha…
Don’t blame me. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. The first time in all the years that I had been voting that I wrote a candidate’s name on the ballet. Of course, now Indiana has changed to the computerized system so a voter wouldn’t be able to just write in a candidate. Supposedly, they have paper ballots at each voting station, but this voter was not told there were paper ballots available, not even when I voted early, nor were there any paper ballots visible so that one could ask for it.
They changed the law so that one had to have 2% of the general votes cast for the Secretary of State in the previous election. Note the deadlines were repeatedly pushed back in order to diminish the ability to gather signatures during summer events where crowds gather…
I found this page absolutely fascinating. I had no idea that we had other candidates to choose from, as the write in candidates were not on the electronic ballot. And being without access to media (no TV antenna in the community room at the time), nor did I have more than an hour per time from the library’s internet computers…so information was limited, as are most poor. And I would venture a guess that even with cable TV, many middle class were also ignorant of this–funny how the nooz just doesn’t seem to get around to covering important issues like this….they’d rather scare you into getting a vaccine that will likely cause as much harm to your body as any good or tell you not to take Vitamin E because some bogus *study* says it’s bad for you…pfft.
Diane Ravitch has this up on the President’s “I could have been Trayvon” speech yesterday. Lots of passion on both sides about his thoughts. Of course, educators are up in arms that he does not address education in raising up poor black boys (and girls), and that the destruction of public schools going on will do more damage than good.
I, myself, am a jumble of feelings about it.
I understand the educator’s feelings. I also know that just because someone is better educated, doesn’t necessarily mean they will not resort to violence to get their way. Look at all the world leaders who are educated and still promote and advocate violence….
I also understand, as best I can as a white woman, President Obama’s passionate response. He has been the target of racial profiling. He knows what Trayvon Martin was experiencing in those moments of being followed by George Zimmerman. He was innocently walking home, doing nothing wrong….and yet, here was this guy, who for all Trayvon knew, was going to rob him.
But I would argue with President Obama’s assumption that white folks don’t know what it’s like to be profiled….as my recent experience in FW has proven. It’s not criminal profiling, but the effect is still the same.
Racism, by either side, is wrong. Like I said, I felt hopeless. Despair. I had treated folks as I wish to be treated. I was respectful to the elders, addressing them as “Miss” or “Mr.”, as I would my white elders. If I didn’t particularly care for someone, I wasn’t disrespectful…but I also didn’t have anything to do with them. It had nothing to do with the color of their skin, but everything to do with their personality.
You know, someone gave me some advice once that resonates here–I had been the subject of bullying after my divorce. The viciousness is really something someone has to experience in order to understand it. After being a victim, you tend to take on the victim persona and see yourself in that light. You begin to believe what others say about you.
The advice I was given was this: There is no doubt that you were victimized. But you need to break away from the victim mindset.
In other words: don’t let others define who you are. Only you get to do that. Don’t let others’ actions define your actions–rise above it and be the person you wish to be, not the person they are trying to make you out to be.
Again,speaking as a white woman, it seems to me that black folks have adopted the victim mindset and sometimes think people are being racist when a) they’re just ignorant ; or b) they don’t like someone not because they’re black, but because they’re being a jerk.
I hope this makes some sense–like I said, I’m a jumble of emotions this morning. Why is it so hard for us to cut each other some slack and try to see each other’s point of view and try to find some common ground?
Eagle 
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