The Hackenblog

“ABORTION is a front, a shill issue, for those who are pushing a radical Evangelical Christian theocratic agenda. Those leading the charge against ABORTION are not interested in pragmatic policy options to that would bring about fewer abortions, they are interested in Christianizing American law, culture, and politics. Pragmatism is every bit as much an enemy to them as opposing ideology. It isn’t a question of helping women avoid unfortunate and undesired circumstances for them. ABORTION is the leading edge, the public face of their righteous crusade between absolute good and anyone who disagrees with them. They do not merely want to decrease the number of abortions, they want to make sure that unmarried people don’t have sex, they want to make sure that abortions are made illegal and punishable by law, they want their Dominionist worldview and the policies that they see as springing from it to be unassailably instantiated.

“Why use ABORTION for this? This requires understanding one of the most effective conservative rhetorical gambits of the last couple decades, what we can call the “cage and frame” strategy. Framing, as discussed by linguist George Lakoff, is the act of setting the parameters for discussion by choosing the language of the debate. What Lakoff shows is that words are not just “Hello, my name is” stickers that we put on things, they come with ways of seeing the world packed into them. Selecting certain words instead of others limits the discussion by putting certain topics on the table and others off the table. Both sides have done this in their choice of designators. ‘Pro-choice’ frames the issue in terms of liberty and who wants to oppose freedoms to choose? ‘Pro-life’ frames the issue in terms of the life or death of a fetus and who wants to be pro-death? The selection of the name is designed not only to designate which side one is on, but also to elevate (in a fallacious question-begging fashion) one part of the complex of inter-related moral issues in this incredibly difficult ethical question.

“But what we see is more than framing. We see another trick which I term ‘caging’ in which one takes a series of related issues that you do not want acted upon and then selects a small single issue to pull attention way from all the rest. Like magicians who will do something flamboyant and fascinating with their left hand to keep you from seeing what they are doing with their right hand, the idea is to make one insignificant issue the focus of all attention in order to make sure that all other related issues are ignored. As long as there is a raucous passionate debate around that issue and it is made to seem of paramount importance, then the assumption by most listeners is that a fair and open debate on all issues is taking place and no one will notice what you are doing with regard to the other issues.

“In this way, women’s rights have been caged by abortion. All the time, effort, and money that could be going into furthering women’s rights on a number of fronts are sucked into the abortion fight. Not only that, but how to cage the issue is determined by what issue is easiest to frame when let out of the cage. If conservatives chose to openly fight against voting rights or equal pay for equal work legislation, it would put them clearly on the side of immoral support of injustice and they would lose quickly and decisively. But by caging women’s rights and only letting abortion out of the cage, any possible advances on the women’s rights front are stopped in their tracks and pro-lifers can portray themselves as the defenders of families and innocent life, not the opponents of women’s rights.

“In the same way, civil rights issues have been caged with only affirmative action set outside the cage. We can bring the civil rights charge to a halt by focusing all attention only on hiring in a small set of cases. Again, this is made more effective when the caging is combined with framing — affirmative action is only to be addressed in terms of quotas. In this way, the advancement of civil rights legislation not only stops, but those stopping it do so by portraying themselves as opposing discrimination.

“Gay rights? Cage questions about hate crimes, workplace discrimination, housing discrimination,… only let out marriage. Then frame it in terms of “protecting the family.” Cage and frame.”
Why you can’t depoliticize abortion, Philosophers Playground, July 31, 2007

So we’re stuck, caged and framed, until… something.

I was recently accused of racism when I thought I was recognizing the continuing struggle of African-Americans to be seen as human beings. Of course this bothered me. I don’t mind being misunderstood, but the level of hatred surprised me. So it made me think, think about race and why a comment, a comparison and an observation on history touched off a firestorm.

(more…)

“It sounds like something out of a monster movie.

“A mysterious sea creature, up to 7 feet long, weighing up to 100 pounds. It hunts in packs of hundreds, flying through the water at 25 mph, changing color.

“With a parrot-like beak and arms covered with thousands of sharp barbs, it attacks and tries to eat nearly anything it sees, including fish, scuba divers, even its own kind.

“But it’s not a creature of Hollywood. It’s real. And it’s reached the Monterey Bay. The Humboldt squid, also known as the giant squid or jumbo squid, traditionally has lived in warm waters off South America and Mexico, where fishermen call it “diablo rojo,” or “red devil.”

“For reasons that still aren’t entirely clear, large numbers of the scrappy cephalopods have been steadily expanding their range north, first off San Diego and Los Angeles, where hundreds have washed up on beaches in recent years.”
Giant squid, pugnacious and hungry, invade Monterey Bay, by Paul Rogers, Mercury News, Article Launched: 07/23/2007 02:40:55 PM PDT (via KSJ Science Tracker that I’m totally hooked on.)

Oh. My. God! These men should be ashame- Oh wait, those are squids… sorry.

(via Drawn.ca, as usual)

Where the most foreclosures have been filed, CNN, July 19, 2007 (via Cookie @ Skippy)

So, how’s your state doing?

“Can you fund literacy, care for the environment, and get a fair price on the books you want?”

Check out BetterWorld.com.

The name says it all.

(And it’s the only reason my mother got a copy of the new Harry Potter book. Hat tip to GWOG.)

Mmmmmm, very cool stuff there.

(via Drawn.ca)

click for larger

“Intangible and invisible, but omnipresent: that combination of qualities used to describe only God (or the sense of dread left by His absence). Now it also applies to cyberspace. Any attempt to map the internet is bound to fall frustratingly short of its true complexity, or to be so complex as to be illegible.”
A Subway Map of Web Trends 2.0, Strange Maps, July 21, 2007

Any attempt to map the internet is bound to fall frustratingly short of its true complexity, or to be so complex as to be illegible.

Of course that never stopped anyone from trying.

“Join the group in four easy steps:

“1. Drop a bag of tea on an index card
“2. Allow to dry
“3. Finish drawing
“4. Scan and share on Flickr
“5. Drink tea”
Tea Sketches Group, via Drawn.ca, July 22, 2007

It must be very cool to be an artist sometimes.

This either proves or disproves the existence of God.

Fangirls, take a deeep breath, think positive, happy thoughts, and do a little reading here. A little time off LJ is a blessing.

What a subject!

Fei Lu

(via Start Drawing!)

“‘It was an important step to have autonomous ground vehicles that can navigate and drive across open and difficult terrain from city to city. But the next big leap will be an autonomous vehicle that can navigate and operate in traffic, a far more complex challenge for a ‘robotic’ driver. So this November we are very excited to be moving from the desert to the city with our Urban Challenge.’

“Dr. Tony Tether, Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, House Armed Services Committee, Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, on March 21, 2007.”
The DARPA Urban Challenge, their website, this year.

I’m not sure how I feel, DARPA gives me the creeps, but I’m sure robotic drivers everywhere feel safer.

“Mr. Sinegal begs to differ. He rejects Wall Street’s assumption that to succeed in discount retailing, companies must pay poorly and skimp on benefits, or must ratchet up prices to meet Wall Street’s profit demands.

“Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco’s customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers’ expense. ‘This is not altruistic,’ he said. ‘This is good business.’”

Mr. Sinegal is a good man. When his time comes, and that should not be too soon, he’s going to the best part of heaven.

“Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco’s workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent.

“‘He has been too benevolent,’ she said. ‘He’s right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden.’”

Ms. Kozloff is a monster and her way of thinking is everything that’s wrong in the world. She should rot in hell forever and ever and as soon as possible.

How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart, by Steven Greenhouse, NYT, July 17, (via Professor DeLovely, I mean DeLong)

In Los Angeles, Costco used to be Price Club and it’s always been a good place to shop. It’s the best $50/year I spend.

“Airplane Tickets
“When to buy: On a Wednesday, 21 days (or a couple of days earlier) before your flight.
Why: Airlines make major pricing changes (and run fare sales) every week, typically on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings. About 21 days out from your flight, you’ll see plenty of deals out there as airlines scramble to fill seats, says Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com, a consumer travel advice Web site. Don’t wait much longer, she cautions; prices jump significantly from 14 to seven days ahead of departure.”
The Best Time to Buy Everything, Smart Money, September 5, 2005 (via Rebecca Blood)

This is a keeper, more behind the jump.

(more…)

How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?, laist.com, July 15, 2007

Here’s the wakability gizmo to find out.

Hm, not telling you where I live, other than Lincoln Heights, but my walkability score was 85/100. Not bad, not bad at all. Actually, when I can, like on days off, I walk to the post office, the fabulous taco stand across from it (mmmm, grilled shrimp tacos are to die for), the library, the CVC, and the little markets to get milk and whatnot. Too bad I’ll have to move now that gentrification is taking root and prices are through the roof. It really is a cool neighborhood.

Why hasn’t someone like John Singleton remade Cabin in the Sky? I mean, Hell could be the music industry. It pretty much is anyway, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, really.

Ah well… Maybe it doesn’t need to be remade. It’s racist and nothing could ever top that song and dance (with Domino) Miss Waters does near the end. Nah, forget everything about it except those three minutes and all her other singing. Oh, and Lena Horne almost keeps up.

And this is not the best part. Too bad her “Honey in the Honeycomb” song isn’t on youtube, alas.

“We were in the ladies changing room, and I could see him eyeballing a somewhat Rubenesque lady who had just come out of the shower. Naked. He marches right up to her, and says in his loudest voice,

“‘Why are you SO FAT??’

“I of course wanted to die, but to her eternal credit this woman turned to my boy with great dignity and said ‘Because I eat too many little boys’ and swanked off. That sure shut him up.”
Contest Winner: Dubious Claim of Most Humiliating Child, One Good Thing, July 17, 2007

I could never be that cool. Fat women truly are the wave of the future.

“Q: What do the cigarette companies think of this?

“A: This bill was crafted with the full cooperation and support of Philip Morris (maker of Marlboro). Nonetheless, this has not prevented the supporters of this bill in the health community from claiming they are fighting big tobacco.

“That’s just mind boggling that the Cancer Society, the Heart Association, the AMA and … the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids can get away with this.

“Q: So why is it appealing to public health advocates and Philip Morris?

“A: This will satisfy the fixation of what I call natural born regulators, people who don’t like words such as light, ultra-light and low tar. And so there’s no question about it, the FDA will, in its infinite wisdom, ban the terms light, ultra-light, low-tar and ultra-low-tar because those don’t mean anything. All they do is create the false sense of safety on the part of consumers.

“Q: So why does Philip Morris support the bill?

“A: Another thing’s going to happen with this bill. There are going to be restrictions on marketing. And the most aggressive marketer of cigarettes today is R.J. Reynolds (maker of Winston, Doral, Camel and Kool cigarettes). They are trying very hard to compete with Marlboro.

“Philip Morris knows that this bill, which is bound to limit cigarette advertising, is going to, in effect, freeze people’s brands where they are.

“Q: So you end up with people who want to make cigarettes safer allied with a company that wants to sell more cigarettes?”
Expert Opinion: Dr. Alan Blum, director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and SocietyPlan for FDA to police tobacco ignites criticism, by Dave Parks, Birmingham News, July 16, 2007

Didn’t Philip Morris turn into Altira or something like that not so long ago? Are they back to being Philip Morris again? I’m just not paying enough attention.

(more…)

Ragni

I hope this doesn’t give anyone (else) nightmares.

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2007 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced a permanent prohibition on the slaughter of cattle that are unable to stand or walk (“downer” cattle) when presented for pre-slaughter inspection. The inability to stand or walk can be a clinical sign of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
FSIS Publishes Final Rule Prohibiting Processing of “Downer” Cattle, USDA, July 12, 2007 (via RebeccasPocket)

Finally.

“A recurrent story in recent years concerns the declining heights of Americans. US citizens are not only getting, on average, shorter than a generation ago, but many other nations have gone by. Japan has nearly closed the gap. Immigration and a changing mix of ancestries in the US seems not to explain it. Fast food rich in fat and protein but short on many nutrients is among suspects. Now AP’s Matt Crenson has done the story too, but with a fresh, politically-charged twist. His primary source speculates that one reason other countries, in Europe particularly, are doing better in cranial altitude is that they have better social safety nets including universal health care coverage.”
AP: Another reason Americans are coming up short – bad health-care system, KSJ Tracker, July 16, 2007

Yup, Universal Heathcare now or we can kiss the height race goodbye.

“State Rep. Mark Leno’s bill, AB 43, that would effectively permit marriages between two consenting adults, has passed the state Senate and now awaits the governor’s signature.

“The LA Times had a terrific front page story in Monday’s edition that described a gay couple, one American and one Australian, denied the opportunity to obtain a Green Card for the Australian Partner. This is one of the thousand or so differences between civil unions and marriage.

“I’ve said all along; allowing people to marry those they love is a fundamental human right. And no matter what Chuck DeVore says, there is no groundswell of fathers seeking to marry daughters or mothers marrying sons all to avoid the estate tax. I’m hoping the governor does the right thing and signs the bill into law.”
AB 43 passes the State Senate, Liberal OC, July 17, 2007

C’mon, Arnold, sign it. You’ll make some good history if you sign it. You vetoed another version of it a couple of years ago, that should be enough for your right-wing fundie nut supporters, I mean, your more socially conservative followers, um, fanatical types, y’know, people who vote for Tom McClintock or whatever his name is and the Prop 22 (outlawing something that isn’t even legal, i.e., gay marriage) loonies. As Liberal OC posts: The Sky Is Not Falling.

The 28th year of the traditional mooning Amtrak Trains on July 11. The organization even has a website.

Man, I got out of OC not a moment too soon. I can see doing this once for a free drink, but every year? For 28 years? And no free booze? Geeze, what’s wrong with these OC people?

“Of course, if Al-Quaeda were really on the ball, they would bring the English-speaking world to a halt by bombing the Bloomsbury warehouse with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows still inside it….”
Untitled post, Roz Kaveney LJ, July 17, 2007

But laugh I will.

“That would be why so many employees are saying the plans that they are offered are unaffordable. With insurance continuing to rise in cost, we should expect the trend found in the UCLA study to continue, unless we pass legislation to reform the system. Working Californians are slipping further and further behind when it comes to health care. The time for change is now.”
Study: Job-based Health Insurance Declining, Working Californians, July 11, 2007

The time has come to offer Medicare to anyone who wants it. There is a system in place already, just use it. I know no one likes this idea, but I like even less the idea of 18K people a year dying because they didn’t have health insurance or being bankrupted by an accident. Do you?

You can’t say folks should just get a job to get health insurance, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Medicare for those who want it! People with private insurance, or employer insurance won’t switch until their employers cut them off. Medicare service will expand to cover whoever needs it. I’d rather pay taxes for that than fucking over Iraq and bushco’s continued destruction of my country.

And it’s not going to be optional for much longer. Heathlcare delivery costs are out of control and have been for a long time, that’s not going to change unless greed is somehow obliterated. If doctors and hospitals aren’t making enough money to satisfy themselves, then they should get the fuck into some other kind of business. I’m through being cool, goddammit. In a country like the U.S. the good health of its citizens is not a luxury, it’s a right. Universal Heathcare Now!

(And don’t fucking sit there with a smug look on your face and tell me we’re not going to get good heath care from universal Medicare: it’s better than nothing, which is what too many Americans have now, so shut the fuck up.)

The Port

I’m really hooked on this webcomic. I’ve no idea what’s going on, but it looks pretty good to me.

I like this one, too, but not as much.

“My advocacy for women’s entitlement to domination-free lives may sometimes look good on paper to liberal ‘feminist’ dudes, but they loudly demur when it comes time for them to acknowledge that they oppress women whether they like it or not, by virtue of their participation — whether it is a voluntary participation matters not a whit — in male dominant culture. When I explain why their position is untenable, that oppression is experienced by the oppressed as hate, it is interpreted as my crossing the boundaries of feminine propriety. This makes’em mad. And they get mean, e.g. ‘I don’t hate women, you stupid bitch!’

“These glittering examples of Western manhood appear not to grasp the irony of responding with hate to a men-hate-you argument. The justification for their subsequent personal attacks (one fellow human recently expressed his happy anticipation of my rapidly impending obituary) seems to be that I am just not obsequious enough. Insufficient obsequiosity apparently invalidates any argument made by a feminist, however shimmeringly astute it may otherwise be. As a cause, the fight against the oppression of half the human population is only supportable if it is presented with a solicitous head-tilt, a pert giggle, and an invitation to fuck you in the ass.”
Anal is the new ‘third base’, Twisty, July 15, 2007

Most dudes don’t seem to realize, or are too busy happily watching women get fucked over, that the customs dominant social group (aka, the patriarchy) is deforming them, too. The ones who suspect this and know there’s a better way to live, run for the hills (whether literally or metaphorically) as soon as they can because they also can see it’s a fight they don’t have the stomach to lose. The DSG terrorizes and kills whoever opposes it, gender notwithstanding. That’s why feminism is taking so long; each generation can only chip away at it. Much as I’d love a revolution, we’ll probably only get gay marriage and a woman president in my lifetime. And sorry, revolutionary sisters, but I’d trade both of those for universal healthcare, a strong clerical/service sector union, and accountable government. I’m funny that way.

“This is my problem with libertarianism in particular, and with much of what passes for conservatism. The idea that ‘I got mine, so fuck you’ is so prevalent in those circles that I can’t fathom how anyone takes it seriously as a political philosophy in a modern, urbanized culture. And frankly, it’s why the Republicans tend to head for the hills when confronted with the possibility of living and working near ‘other people,’ and why the hill-folk of America tend to vote Republican to begin with.”
Shamanic: The Newshoggers: Those Blue State Conservative Queers, Brad deLong, July 14, 2007

Weird, it was there a minute ago. Anyway, you know where to find me, Brad: (more…)

La Marsi-! Yeah, yeah, that, too.

No! It’s BlogSwarm for Impeachment!

Have you accepted GW Bush as your personal saviour? Have you sworn an oath to the president that you take very personally? No? Good!

BlogSwarm for Impeachment!

Be there or feel really bad for the next year and a half.

(via Sideshow)

“You ought to be beating your chest every morning. Ought to look in the mirror, suck in our bellies and say ‘Damn, we’re Americans,’ and smile.”

This video makes me feel like that quote up top.

Man, this is gonna be a looong election year.

In case you don’t remember, the identity of the quotester is after the jump. (more…)