Not exactly a slow news day
Okay folks, I’m just going to call this an open thread. There’s so much in the news:
1. TIME Magazine puts mutilated Afghan woman on the cover. I’m linking to the Jezebel article about it because Irin Carmon has the most thoughtful take I’ve seen.
2. Shirley Sherrod is going to sue Andrew Breitbart. Professor Hutchinson at Dissenting Justice argues that she would probably have a stronger legal case against the USDA.
3. Phyllis Schlafly still alive, still hates women. What’s really cool is that her hairstyle hasn’t changed since 1978 either.
4. “Tea Partiers Aren’t The Bigoted White Guys You Fear” claims the New York Press. It’s an interesting piece by Spencer Wilking, who apparently spent some time with the Tea Party in New York. It turns out that the Tea Partiers aren’t just deluded Fox-News-brainwashed white males; they’re also deluded Fox-News-brainwashed women, black men, immigrants—everybody! Actually this doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s clear that there is a lot of racism in the Tea Party, but that’s just because there is a lot of racism in rightwing propaganda. Fundamentally, the Tea Party is a creation of the rightwing noise machine: talk radio, Fox News, the whole Rush Limbaugh-Glenn Beck axis of evil. I don’t mean that the Tea Party doesn’t really exist; I mean that Tea Partiers are Tea Partiers because they’ve been listening to this wingnut garbage for years and they think it’s true. They think Democrats are socialists, that Obama is a communist, that we must cut taxes on the rich, and so forth. The Tea Party is what you get when you have an unbridled giant propaganda machine running 24/7 for 30 years.
5. Four out of five women on “The View” appear to be dressed uncomfortably. Yeah, I know that’s not really the lead story, but it’s what caught my attention. President Obama went on the show, yadeyadeyade, but at least he had on pants and comfortable shoes.
6. Last minute addition! Rare zedonk born in Georgia. She’s an adorable little thing:
I clicked over to the ScienceBlogs link to the story, since I thought a scientist might have some interesting points to offer. Alas, the “scientist” turned out to be Jason Goldman, whose post is noteworthy for its repeated references to the zedonk as male. Even as he’s quoting news stories that clearly refer to the animal as female (emphasis added):
I’m not going to create a new category for this creature, because I never expect to blog about these critters again. At least it’s clear that he’s a mammal.
A zedonk, an unusual cross between a donkey and a zebra, is attracting attention at Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in north Georgia after being born there about a week ago.
The animal, which has a zebra father and a donkey mother, has black stripes prominently displayed on her legs and face.
C.W. Wathen, the Dahlonega preserve’s founder and general manager, says the foal has a zebra’s instincts. Wathen says she sits up instead of lying on her side, as if she’s staying alert for predators…
…Donkeys and zebras don’t usually mate, but zedonks turn up occasionally. In 2005, a zebra gave birth to a zedonk in Barbados, according to the news website Science Daily. And in the 1970s, three zedonks were born at a European zoo to a donkey mother, according to the website of Britain’s Colchester Zoo. (via boston.com)
According to Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic:
Now, the zedonk can finally take its place in the menagerie of weird hybrid animals like ligers, wholphins, and camas (camel-llama mixes), all testaments to the power of “love” to transcend all obstacles, even speciation.
I just wonder what they’re gonna name the little guy.
Actually, they named her Pippi Longstocking. Seeing as she’s a girl and all.
So I’m reading this thing, wondering about this clown who is so saturated in the maleness-as-norm viewpoint that four feminine pronouns fail to impinge on his consciousness, and I thinks to myself, “Hang on! Could this possibly be the same guy who did that dude-centric Porn Is Good post Twisty wrote about?”
And whaddya know: same guy.
What’s hilarious is that Goldman describes himself as a “graduate student in Developmental Psychology at the University of Southern California,” with an interest in “the way that the environment interacts with biology in producing innate or skilled behavior, and the evolution of the mind.”
21 Responses to “Not exactly a slow news day”
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myiq2xu says:
Why do people insist on using “clown” as an epithet?
Except for a few sociopaths and serial killers, clowns are nice people.
July 30th, 2010 at 1:38 pm EST -
bluelyon says:
I see I wasn’t the only one who noticed the apparent dress code at The View.
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bluelyon says:
Will I go into moderation?
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Ciccina says:
Of course it would be *that* Jason Goldman, the poor dear. Perhaps he should study the ways innate aptitudes and environmental factors fail to produce skilled behaviors.
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Val says:
SHE’S an adorable zedonk jenny! And that’s all I’m gonna say ’bout that…
But myiq2xu, haven’t you read or seen any pop-culture references to the evil clowns amongst us?? (”It”, “Zombieland”, etc…)
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Violet Socks says:
Val, I thought you would enjoy that.
The ears on the donkey mom are truly spectacular, aren’t they? I mean, those are some ears.
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Adrienne in CA says:
Goldman has switched the pronouns to female, blaming his error on late-night “fuzzy brain.”
*****A
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Nessum says:
Heh, seeing pictures from Obama’s visit to The View, my initial reaction was: “That’s an awful lot of thigh showing!”
I much prefer the striped ones below. ;)
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tinfoil hattie says:
I’d be okay with the “uniform” if the women had opted to sit spread-legged, a la Elena Kagan!
HIDE the eeevvuuulll vagina! Hint at it by baring your legs! But hhiiiiiiddddde it from view by crossing them! Tantalize and shame all at once! I just loooooove the patriarchy!
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Topper Harley says:
@9 In the future could you preface remarks like that with some form of “spit take” tag? My keyboard doesn’t particularly like getting a coffee shower…
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sandra s. says:
Val, I think it’s awesome that you called her a Jenny. I just love that particular quirk of the English language.
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Grace says:
Well, actually Woopy Goldberg wears what it looks like loose pants and she seems comfortable. So, there are only 4 women who are dressing uncomfortably. Nevertheless, they all seem to catter to the Obama man and kiss his ass. His kissing the dames at the beginning, but especially his mentioning Michelle as watching the show, it sounds like something Nixon would have said about “first lady” Pat back in the 1960’s. The whole thing stinks!!
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Violet Socks says:
So, there are only 4 women who are dressing uncomfortably.
You know, I could swear that’s what I wrote.
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Grace says:
Violet: Sorry about the misunderstanding. You ‘re absolutely right. Perhaps it is because I ‘ve been under a lot of stress lately.
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Violet Socks says:
Oh, no apology. It made me laugh. If I allowed emoticons, which I don’t, I would have accompanied my comment with one of those semi-colon thingies.
The other day my aunt got in trouble because she couldn’t find her cell phone. She couldn’t find it because she was talking on it. And told the person she was talking to “I can’t find my cell phone!”
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Adrienne in CA says:
Some threads ago, Violet linked to a piece by Jim Hightower promoting worker co-ops as an alternative to corporate wage slavery, and I wondered aloud how the co-op movement is doing. Thriving, apparently. My favorite radio show devoted an hour to the topic today. Listen here, if you’re interested. Jim Hightower stops by the show, and will also be speaking at the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives 2010 Conference this weekend, Aug 6-8, at UC Berkeley.
*****A
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May says:
Jason knew full well that zedonk was a she and purposely used ‘he’ instead.
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Nessum says:
As this is an open thread: These three women not only look absolutely beautiful, but comfortable too. :D
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anna says:
I created the Facebook page “Women Don’t Need Guardians” to oppose the fact that in Saudi Arabia all adult women are required to have permission from a male guardian to do many things; for example to travel, study, work or even go to court to make a complaint about domestic violence. It would be awesome if you all would go over and click the Like button to help spread the word. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....086?ref=ts
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Gayle says:
Miss you, Violet Socks!! Hope all is well and you’re simply too busy to blog right now!
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Adrienne in CA says:
Second that, Gayle. Very weird for RL to suddenly go dark like this. If anyone knows that Violet is OK and busy doing her own thing, or maybe just sick of this blogging fad, let us know please.
*****A
