Sexist Pigs

Larry Summers

Good, well written and venemous take-down of Larry Summers comments on women. And let's not even talk about his past idea of shipping toxic waste to third world countries since life is less valuable there.

Steven Pinker
I guess Steven Pinker claims there has been no gender research based on garbage evidence. Instead of "Blank Slate" it should have been called "My Beautiful Head of Hair filled with Preconceived Notions".

FWIW, one time I saw the Pinkster running in shorty-shorts while wearing those giant headphones from the 80s. He was also singing and shaking his head to the music. What made him behave like such a clown? Nature? Nurture? Regardless, my children laughed at the sight of him as did I.

Funny, sick and the truth

You know, I’d like to see someone throw a telethon to benefit the women and children we haven’t killed yet in Iraq. THAT would take some balls. I wonder how it would go....

From Neal Pollack. Go read the whole thing.

Piss the Republicans Off

Laugh in Their Faces

Lend no credence to their crackpot theories by debating them. Instead treat the right wing as the mad hatters they are. Just laugh when they say something, followed by "you are really funny".

This is serious fun. Refuse to move to the right ("I can see where you are coming from") and refuse to let them define the message. Doing either makes them stronger. Laugh them away. Stop watching debate programs. Write approving letters to the editor. ("I think George Will's hilarious commentary is a good replacement for the retiring Dave Barry").

Make 'Em Pay for Abortions

From Femisting.com.

Are you wondering how to protest Inauguration Day (January 20)? Here's a way to make a powerful political point and also help women in need: "honor" George Bush, the most anti-choice President since Roe v Wade, by making a donation to the National Network of Abortion Funds. You know how pro-choice groups sometimes counter anti-choice demonstrations by asking people to Pledge a Picketer (give a small sum per demonstrator)? Think of this as Pledge a President!

NNAF, an umbrella for 102 local abortion funds around the country, helps poor girls and women with unwanted pregnancies pay for their abortions. Last year the member funds of NNAF donated $2 million to help nearly 20,000 poor women across the country—but the need is so much greater. By making a contribution to this important work you not only help women, you send a message to anti-choice Republicans—and their Democratic friends—that safe, legal and AFFORDABLE abortion matters to you and that you are not willing to have women's wombs turned into a political football to placate religious extremists.

To donate by credit card, go to http://www.nnaf.org and click the “Donate Now” button. Checks made out to NNAF can be mailed to NNAF, c/o Hampshire College, 893 West Street, Amherst MA 01002-3359. So that we can keep track of special Inaugural donations, please be sure to write "abortions—Inaugural protest" in the designation box or memo line. Bonus for on-line donors: If you dedicate your contribution to George W. Bush, you can send an e-card from the donation page (address it president@whitehouse.gov) and let the White House know that you celebrated the inauguration by supporting access to safe abortion.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could raise enough money so that no woman in our rich country had to continue a crisis pregnancy for lack of a few hundred dollars? Small donations quickly add up, so whatever you would like to give, NNAF will be thrilled and grateful to receive it.

Please forward this e-mail to your friends and post it in your lists!

Katha Pollitt and Jennifer Baumgardner

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let's not forget the eloquent man who inspired a nation. It's not just another day off. It's a day of social justice.

Some of his speeches make me weep, even to this day, because of their power. Like this excerpt from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (April 16, 1963).

For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never."

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your 6-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a 5-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.

!!!!! Ohio Electoral Votes Challenged !!!!!!

Thank you, thank you Barbara Boxer. Unlike in 2000 Barbara Boxer and a Congresswoman from Ohio did join together and sign an objection which automatically launches an investigation.

Because every vote should count. That is what democracy is.

The End of the World As We Know It

Another interesting new book by Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel) on why societies fail. He points to a disregard for the environment, strict values and failure to note and change behavior. I found this excerpt from the NYTimes Op-Ed particularly chilling:

History also teaches us two deeper lessons about what separates successful societies from those heading toward failure. A society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions. That's why Maya kings, Norse Greenlanders and Easter Island chiefs made choices that eventually undermined their societies. They themselves did not begin to feel deprived until they had irreversibly destroyed their landscape.

Could this happen in the United States? It's a thought that often occurs to me here in Los Angeles, when I drive by gated communities, guarded by private security patrols, and filled with people who drink bottled water, depend on private pensions, and send their children to private schools. By doing these things, they lose the motivation to support the police force, the municipal water supply, Social Security and public schools. If conditions deteriorate too much for poorer people, gates will not keep the rioters out. Rioters eventually burned the palaces of Maya kings and tore down the statues of Easter Island chiefs; they have also already threatened wealthy districts in Los Angeles twice in recent decades.

Of course, another sign that the elite are out of touch (and are sick bastards) could be noted by the fact that the "Land of Liberty" is building permanant prisons at Guantanamo to hold people without trial indefinitely.

Happy New Year

Go Left!
A sensible platform with popular support that the left should adopt. Unless you're against food, health care, work, education and rewarding excellence.

Real Life Indian Lassie.
How great is this heartwarming tale about a dog who saved the little boy from the Tsunami?

Sangeeta grabbed her youngest two and ran -- figuring the oldest, 7-year-old Dinakaran, had the best chance of outrunning the tsunami churning toward their home.

But Dinakaran headed for the safest place he knew, the small family hut just 40 yards from the seashore.

Sangeeta thought she would never see him again, but the family dog saw to it that she did.

While water lapped at Sangeeta's heels as she rushed up the hill, the scruffy, yellow dog named Selvakumar ducked into the hut. Nipping and nudging, he harried the boy up the hill.