WHO’S THE (reproduction) BOSS?

I watched in dread as the Personhood group tried to ram their sharia-like legislation down the throats of the Mississippi citizenry. Thankfully, there are enough sane people in Mississippi to vote down the proposal. Imagine a law that would allow the local government to control your reproductive status right down to the type of birth control you use! This is America! We don’t do things like that here! Or do we?

Years ago I became aware of just such a shocking law that was on the books of more than 30 states, including my own state of North Carolina where it stayed on the books until 1973.

I am talking about eugenics laws that many states and countries (most notably Germany) adopted in the 1920s and 1930s. The law allowed a board to approve the forced sterilization of any man, woman or child (some as young as 9 years old) deemed to be mentally deficient or overly promiscuous. In North Carolina alone nearly 8000 sterilizations took place.

In the beginning these sterilizations were aimed at poor white women but this would change after WWII when the focus was shifted to black citizens. Forced sterilization became the silent shame – victims didn’t want to disclose their mutilation for fear they would be branded retarded or slutty. Many signed the consent forms or had relatives who did without understanding exactly what they were signing or in response to threats of punishment.

Girls who were raped and victims of incest were frequent targets. The stories of their abuse at the hands of the state are shocking and heartbreaking and they suffered in silence for years. Many died taking their shameful secret to their graves.

But they are not all gone yet and some states including North Carolina are forming committees to find living victims who will hopefully get some compensation although they can never get back the lost years of parenthood they never knew or the self esteem and joy lost forever.

Many are finally giving voice to the horror committed against them. They are standing up and telling their stories with family and friends at their side, giving them the courage to finally speak. Janice Black is just one of many whose tragic stories are coming to light. You can read about her HERE. She was one of the last victims. And Elaine Riddick, HERE.

We women have long been targets of practices meant to marginalize our existence and take control of our bodies. We have defeated eugenics laws and anti abortion laws but each year it seems some supposedly well meaning group of folks (usually made up of religious fanatics and predominately men) try to take control of our bodies in some sick, sadistic way.

We owe it to Janice and Elaine and all the others whose names we will never know to keep fighting back and NEVER EVER allow any group, panel, state or country that much control over our bodies.

As a post script let me add that we need to remember our sisters in other countries who are being subjected to mutilations, rapes, slavery and other forms of torture and forced captivity. They need our voice to cry out for the justice they deserve but are unable to do so themselves for fear of reprisals against them and their children.

Welcome, "Rational" Nation!

If you've been reading our comment section, you've probably noticed that we have a new troll hanging around: the ironically-named Rational Nation. And I think we should all welcome new readers, even dissenting voices who might not have a particularly firm grasp on reality - maybe a dose of logic and kindness could bring him into the light. (Not likely, but, you now, keep a good thought...)

But anyone who knows me (a statistically insignificant number of people) will tell you that I'll give anybody a chance to make ignorant statements, if only because I'm more than happy to find new targets to point and laugh at.

After all, as I pointed out before:

You're just like all the other Birchers loving on Ron Paul. You're always out there looking for somebody to hate - the next Great Satan. Because if you can focus everybody's eyes on the bad guy over there, you can rob them blind over here.

Communists, Muslims - you don't care. And you don't mind if great evil is committed in the name of Good - as long as it matches your personal definition of "good," anyway.

It's actually sad, watching petty, insecure people make claim to a knowledge of "the Big Picture." You pretend to be rational and logical, but ignore truths when they're right in front of you.

Here, for example, you even used this link to bolster your claim that "6% of Muslims are extremist," while ignoring one important fact: you got it completely ass-backwards.

The statistic cited there only said that 6% of extremists are Muslim. The other 94% aren't, and the threat of Muslim terrorists is being overblown.

Go read it again. You were faced with the truth, and you either ignored it, lied about it, or just got it completely wrong. Just like you do with almost every other subject.

Like I said, your name must be meant ironically, right?

And of course, RatNat is a devout worshiper at the altar of Ayn Rand, who was a stunningly bad writer. I think Gore Vidal said it best, though.

This odd little woman is attempting to give a moral sanction to greed and self interest, and to pull it off she must at times indulge in purest Orwellian newspeak of the ‘freedom is slavery’ sort. What interests me most about her is not the absurdity of her ‘philosophy,’ but the size of her audience (in my campaign for the House she was the one writer people knew and talked about). She has a great attraction for simple people who are puzzled by organized society, who object to paying taxes, who dislike the ‘welfare’ state, who feel guilt at the thought of the suffering of others but who would like to harden their hearts. For them, she has an enticing prescription: altruism is the root of all evil, self-interest is the only good, and if you’re dumb or incompetent that’s your lookout.
[...]
Though Miss Rand’s grasp of logic is uncertain, she does realize that to make even a modicum of sense she must change all the terms. Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life a right action is consideration for the welfare of others. In the one case, through a state which was to wither away, in the other through the private exercise of the moral sense. Miss Rand now tells us that what we have thought was right is really wrong. The lesson should have read: One for one and none for all.

Ayn Rand’s "philosophy" is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous...

So, you're welcome to hang out, just don't muck up the carpet.

About Last Night

Here is a recap of last night’s election and referendum results:

Ohio - Voters overturned Governor Kasich’s bill that stripped public sector employees of their collective bargain rights. Margin: 61 to 39 percent.

Mississippi – Voters rejected a referendum that would have conferred legal personhood status to a fertilized egg at the moment of conception. Margin: 57 to 43 percent. In Mississippi, you will no longer order scrambled “unborn chicks” for breakfast or call senior citizens “undead corpses.”

Main – Voters reinstated the right to register on election day, thus giving Governor Paul LePage a resounding defeat. Margin: 60 to 40 percent.

Arizona – Voters recalled state Senate Leader Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law. Margin: 52.4 to 45.4 percent. After January, the former Senator will have more time to mow his own lawn and wash his own laundry.

Georgia – Voters struck down long-standing blue laws that banned Sunday alcohol sales. Henceforth and forevermore, the Bible Belters will have one more path for finding Jesus.

North Carolina – voters gave Democrats a clean sweep of mayoral races in Greensboro and Charlotte (the city that will host the 2012 Democratic National Convention). Voters also sent a clear message to the Wake County School Board, returning majority control to the Democrats. Last year, the Republican controlled school board scrapped a decade-old busing plan that kept the local schools desegregated. This was a high-profile election due to the influence of outside money from the Koch-funded PAC, Americans for Prosperity.

Do these election returns represent a swing of the political pendulum? Is the infatuation with fatuous fatheads finally over?  Hardly!  Not all news last night was good news.  In Virginia, the Democrats lost more ground.

An old Octopus Proverb:  Change does not come from hope.  Rather, as creatures of habit and complacency, human beings change only when motivated by excruciating pain. Virginians, it seems, have a higher pain threshold due in no small part to their proximity to Washington DC.

Update:  Voter turnouts were far higher last night compared to election cycle 2010 - double in some contests.  If there is one lesson to be learned from these results, high voter turnout marginalizes the lunatic fringe and makes a difference.  Never, never stay away from the polls - vote, vote, vote!

Elective Dictatorship or Leadership?

Ron Paul, I like you - I really do. I like it when you denounce our military adventurism and imperial urges. I share your distaste for prosecuting harmless, consensual acts and I don't think either of us like having a government dictate morality according to some chosen religious standards.

I couldn't agree more that we need to keep the governmental nose out of our personal choices that don't infringe on other people's rights. I think we have an inherent right to be left alone too, but when you assert that that same government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy I find it inconsistent. When you proclaim that President Obama is overstepping his presidential powers by taking action to end a dangerous drug shortage, I'm confused. I'm disappointed. Market forces alone aren't going to induce drug companies to make unprofitable products that some people need to stay alive and if they eventually do, it won't be soon enough for someone's mother or sister or child. There are times when the the noli me tangere market approach does not serve the public interest and times when human life is more important than the sanctity of inflexible doctrine.

Yes, I agree that our government was designed to move slowly, for inaction to be the default action as you said yesterday. I even agree that there is an invisible hand in the market, but I cannot understand how you can ignore the sometimes dire consequences of such slow moving or inert systems in a world that moves at a rate inconceivable in 1789.

Sure, eventually drug shortages will tend to rectify because of market forces. 'Tend to' and 'eventually' are expensive words however and the price is often paid in death and suffering. A car tends to steer itself in a straight line, but you know, sometimes someone has to grab the wheel if staying alive is a consideration.

I have to ask you how much needless death and suffering are you willing to force us all to endure to gild the vision of a withered and minimal state where things move only by themselves and the making of money is the only test of righteousness?

Dictatorship? Seriously? Isn't that a bit like calling the guy who pulls your kid out of a well a kidnapper because he didn't apply to Congress in advance through proper channels?

I believe in Democracy as much as you do and perhaps more. I mistrust radical change and I lean toward Libertarianism in many things, but unlike you, I do not belief in faith over fact. If there is a plague, if a dam breaks -- if that asteroid that passed close to us this morning had landed in Texas, I want someone to grab the steering wheel without having his hands tied by doctrines soaked in the tea of Utopian visions.

I have to ask "why now?" Were you as firm in protest of our previous president's extra-legal activities? The signing statements, the treaty breaking, the torture, the illegal search and seizure and surveillance? The wars that have killed hundreds of thousands, destroyed millions of lives and wasted trillions of dollars? Of course you didn't approve and neither did I, but there is a difference between an asteroid and a sand grain. Are we really confusing necessary course corrections with wanton disrespect for law, due process and freedom?

Why now? Or are you just jumping on the Obama Bashing Band Wagon because you're more of a loyal Republican and less interested in doing what needs to be done before too many people die than you'd like to admit?

All I Wanted Was to Catch Up On The News

When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling

My visit to the twilight zone started with a story in the Arts section of the Washington Post. A cleaning woman in Germany did a really good job scrubbing the discoloration off a rubber trough. However, there was a slight problem. The rubber trough was a part of a modern sculpture entitled "When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling." The sculpture, by deceased artist Martin Kippenberger, was worth $1.1 million. A reasonable price, after all the artist is dead. The dirt that she worked so hard to remove was actually a patina that had been carefully applied by hand.

I admit that I'm not bowled over by a lot of contemporary art. I can see why the cleaning woman thought that perhaps the trough was just an item needing cleaning. I have an old rubber pan that I use to store gardening hand tools. I'm thinking that I should paint it, surround it with a wooden frame, and offer it to the Guggenheim.

I progressed further into the twilight zone while watching ABC's Nightline after the 11:00 pm news. There was a segment on a sport with which I had no familiarity. It seems that there are parts of our country where mutton bustin' is a beloved family-oriented activity. The Nightline link to the story isn't available yet but wonder of wonders, when I searched the term mutton bustin', Google found 214,000 results in 0.15 seconds.

Take one child under the age of six and weighing less than 60 pounds, strap him or her into a child sized protective vest, add a helmet, then place the child on the back of a 180 pound sheep. Guess what? Sheep aren't naturally fond of playing horsey so they begin to run really fast and try to throw off the rider. The average rider lasts 6 to 8 seconds. 

On Nightline, some of the riders were as young as three-years-old. You may ask yourself why would a parent put their little darling on the back of a sheep for a wild ride that ends with said child falling off and eating a pile of dirt? The mothers and fathers explained that they wanted their children to be tough and it's a great precursor to bull riding. Perhaps you know a toddler with whom you would like to share this bonding activity.


I left the twilight zone and landed in the outer limits while watching the Jimmy Kimmel Show following Nightline. Herman Cain needs to hire some reliable handlers; his current crew may not have his best interests at heart. I'm no fan of Cain, but even I wouldn't have suggested that he accept Kimmel's invitation to be a guest on his show. Yep, that's right, the same Herman Cain whose fourth accuser had come out of the woodwork to declare that he stuck his hand up her dress and tried to push her face into his crotch. Kimmel began the show with the interview clip showing the alleged victim and her lawyer, the ubiquitous Gloria Allred. The Cain interview consisted of double entendres, suggestive jokes, bawdy laughter, and Kimmel encouraging Cain to be ever more outrageous. I did learn one useful thing--Cain's wife is a registered Democrat. Explains why she has been mostly absent from his campaign trail.

Deadbeats

Story here

What the Hell is this?

It's Sunday, so it seems like the appropriate time to consider the concept of hell. The fundies like to bring it up all the time: "you don't agree with us, you're going to burn," usually leaving the postscript, "...and I'm going to enjoy it," unstated.

Now, the Hebrews (you know, the guys with the Old Testament) didn't go in for the idea of hell much. In Daniel 12:2, you get something vaguely similar to the traditional Christian idea, but not quite.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So, not a lot of torment, but there's guilt (an emotion some might call the foundation of Judaism).

If the ancient Jews talked about it at all, they usually referred to Sheol, which is the place where all the dead, good and bad, hung out.

However, they did give us one other word: Gehenna, which is derived from the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, or "the Valley of Hinnom." It was a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. There was always a fire there, because you burned your garbage, and it was also referred to a few times (2 Chron. 28:3, for instance) as a place where some various pagan types sacrificed children.

If you go to the original Greek, the New Testament describes Hell with three words:

• Hades (taken from the Greek god of the same name), which was pretty much like the Jewish idea of Sheol


• Gehenna was sometimes used as a place to toss the bodies who "died in sin" for a quick cremation. So the term Gehenna in the New Testament became a metaphor for the final place of punishment for the wicked after they died (or, more technically, after the Resurrection of Jesus, which they've been promising for 2 millenia now).


• Tartarus is used once, in II Peter 2:4 - Pete stole the idea from the Greeks, where it was the place where their gods put the titans after they rebelled. So Pete grabbed that idea and ran with it.

  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment

In 1999, Pope John Paul II tried to go back to the friendlier idea of the ancient Hebrews, and said that "more than a physical place, hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."

Unfortunately for the pope's attempt to make Christianity all warm and fuzzy, the New Testament is littered with descriptions of the dead being toasted: the potentially drug-induced Revelations, for example, gives us this.

...and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelations 20:12-15)

John the Revelator also gave us the most boring version of an afterlife ever - following Jesus around to sing about how great he is. Apparently, Jesus is too lazy to stick his own affirmations everywhere on Post-it notes like normal people.

(And incidentally, that description of heaven, found in Revelations 14:1-5, is where the Jehovah's Witnesses get the idea that only 144,000 people are going to Heaven. In case you were wondering.)

Christianity needs Hell, despite how counterintuitive the idea is with a religion that claims to have a loving god. Because, when you can't actually torture and kill people who don't believe in your personal flavor of religion (although god knows they've tried that, too), you need to have some kind of punishment to hold over their heads. And the fear of a place where no witnesses have ever returned is an easy fix for them.

(OK, admittedly there are some people who claim to have been to have been there, but they never seem to visit the gift shop and bring back souvenirs.)

Octopi Wall Street!

h/t/ Pharyngula

Kudos to our favorite eight-armed cephalapod!

Shame on Cain

That's right, Mr. Cain, you're a victim, but I doubt we can agree about what you're the victim of. If you bumble and fumble and contradict yourself about political stances in some strange pantomime of someone who might have reasonable solutions to real problems rather than doggy treats thrown to the barking mob: if you elected to join the minstrel show hoping to win over the racists and rednecks with a little soft shoe and a big grin: if you thought slashing jobs at a pizza chain made you eligible to tell us how to run the world, why sure, you're your own victim but most of us are too tired of it to be saintly and forgive you.

But a "high tech lynching?" Don't make me laugh, and besides Clarance Thomas made that trope a dopey joke a long time ago. You're just the rude, crude and blatantly phoney burlesque of a candidate to dress up accusations of sexual harassment in stylish credibility and denying things we know that you know or breaking into a song isn't going to convince mama that those porn mags under your mattress belonged to someone else. Talking about lynching in this context is like digging up all the real victims and lynching them again.

Comcast is a criminal enterprise: Octopus is off grid