feminist blogs

Uber-conservative online magazine Human Events Online has the Top 10 Most Harmful Books ever, and frankly, there are some surprises. The first, and this one is gonna hurt in Kansas, is that The Origin of the Species only got honorable mention, not even beating out John Maynard Keynes. The other big surprise is that the distinguished (as it can be with Phyllis Schlafly on it) panel didn't supress their worst urges and put The Communist Manifesto above Mein Kampf. You'd think these fuckers would be grateful to the Commmies for giving the news a reason to pretend that Reagan wasn't a mean old asshole who supported apartheid during the 5 year long funeral. But let us examine the list in all its glory.

1) Commies suck balls. We won't dignify this book by Marx and Engels by calling it by name. Suffice it to say, without it, David Horowitz wouldn't have his weird ass theories.

2) Mein Kampf Okay, we know it has to be on here. Gloat away, mofos, and you'll be sorry when it's not on here in 10 years.

3) Quotations from Chairman Mao. Now that we're over that hump, can we tell you how much we hate Commies?

4) The Kinsey Report Alright, a quote:

Before then, there was not everyone got away with having a normal, if frisky, sex life. You had to be the head of FBI to get away with kissing boys.

5) Democracy and Education by John Dewey. The Dewey Decimal system made it extremely easy for people to figure out libraries, exposing them to volumes upon volumes upon volumes of books. Over-reading is a threat to the right wing propaganda mill, a fact we don't really take great pains to hide. (Damn, this joke would be funnier if I were smarter. Thanks, mtraven. That's what happens to you when you're educated by Bible-thumpers, I guess.)

6)Das Kapital. Take our word for it--the most evil German was Karl Marx, not Hitler, despite the difference in body counts. The working classes would have never noticed the injustice of working themselves to death so others could live in luxury if Marx had never pointed it out, we're sure of it.

7) The Feminine Mystique.

Translation: Friedan was a slut who thought that people other than rich, white men should have rights. Clearly the worst kind of subversive.

8) The Course of Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte. Comte suggested that you can be moral and not believe in god. This philosophy has made it very difficult for us to convince people that they should ignore their moral systems in favor of doing immoral things we claim god instructed them to do. This is very inconvienent.

9)Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche was not a Nazi and the Nazis misinterpreted his writings to their own ends. The relation of Nazis to Nietzsche and fundies to the Bible is too close for comfort. Ban it!

10) General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes. Keynes is an elitist and we don't trust elitists that have any other theories about wealth other than they need more of it and the poor need less of it. Oh yeah, we pretend that running up deficits is something that only FDR did.

Honorable mentions:

*On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. We haven't read it, but "liberty" isn't the sort of word that's safe outside a meaningless speech by the Shrub.

*Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner. Apparently a book on psychology but sounds like Al Franken's next book on the right wing. Ban it!

*Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin. We wanted to put Issac Newton's book where he put forward the theory of gravity on here, but no one could remember what its name was.

*Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault. We don't know who this guy is, but someone told us he was French and died of AIDS. David Horowitz is working on a paper on why this means you shouldn't teach your kids to read.

*Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead. Missionaries don't have "positions" anyway. They reproduce through Bible reading.

*Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader. None of us got hurt roasting marshmellows over a burning Pinto. Nader is such an alarmist.

*Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. It says "sex" in the title and that name looks French. All you need to know. (Concerned Women for America memo arrives.) Ay dios mio! And we thought Friedan was evil!

*Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. Everything we need to know about human nature we learned from beating a dachsund. Named Siggie. Just a coincidence, of course.

Via Feministe.

Before I get called paranoid for doubting authority, I refer everyone to the authority of Amnesty International on the subject of the serial killer of Juarez and the guy they tossed into jail so they could call the case closed.

And now a 7-year-old and 10-year-old girl have been found raped and murdered and what the fuck does Vicente Fox have to say? Basically, "Hey, we threw someone in jail, so quit yer bitchin'."

For those who are defending torture in the Middle East, this is why scapegoating is such a bad idea. Tossing the wrong man in jail is not only unjust, it also ensures that the real bad guy or guys will continue their criminal sprees. It's stupid for the Mexican government to do it and it's stupid for our government to be invading Iraq and figuring that counts as much as getting Osama bin Laden. Unfoturnately, as long as the officials in Mexico treat worry over the murders in Juarez as so much whining, the rumors are merely going to intensify that they are covering up for a bunch of overly entitled rich kids who murder for fun.

Via Feministing.

There are many holy rituals in the Church of the Mouse and the Disco Ball. One is the Holy Beer Run to fetch Lone Star, Shiner, or the beer of your choice. One is to find a disco ball and dance under it or even just admire its beautiful glow. One is Rawk Out to the Ramones or to one of the anointed saintly bands/musicians. And of course, one is to cat blog in order to show the proper awe and fear of the Cat that can devour the Discoballmousians at will. Or make up a holy ritual of your own. The main aim of the Church of the Mouse and the Disco Ball is to be very open-ended so that we can recruit quickly and be bigger than the Mormons in no time with way less effort.

And now we have a new field we can get into--criminal justice! Yes, my followers, there is a judge in Kentucky (Home of the Spousal Ass Rape) who sentences people to church, um, "worship services". (There must be a conservative law school where the only lesson is, "Use a different term for the same thing and they can't catch you on it. I swear. Now let's hit the Pabst before happy hour is over.") Generally this would be a difficult decision for the sentenced criminals--church or jail? If it were a Southern Baptist church, I think that most of us would lean towards jail. But it's open-ended in a pathetic attempt to dodge 1st Amendment issues. And the Discoballmousians are here to help.

Come to our worship services, criminals of Kentucky! You don't even have to be a joiner--grab a Lone Star, pop in a Ramones CD and you are set. No need for jail or for getting thumped with a Bible. And if anyone challenges that this is indeed a "worship service", just say, "They got the word 'church' in the name, for fuck's sake! And a god! And a prophet! Damn, and a Holy Blog, which is the new wave in holy texts." It's true--holy books are so 1st century. Now we can provide you months of archives for followers to misinterpret for their own ends.

I don't see this as a lucrative field for us, but it is nice to know that we've got the chance to spare a few Kentucky criminals (bet none of them got busted for ass-raping their wives) the pain of being told to speak in tongues or even sing "Shall We Gather at the River?" Frankly, I think it's downright Christian of us to extend this service. Except better.

John Tierney, who seems to be the main reason that the NY Times will be concealing its editorial page behind a $50 entrance fee, has a huge backlog of anecdotal evidence that women are feeble-minded and he intends to waste huge amounts of paper sharing it with you.

Translation: I think women are born uncompetitive and to prove this I will engage in a little social shaming of competitive women in hopes that this will teach them to quit giving into the natural urge to act unnaturally unfeminine. I do not see the illogic in this, because I know I am logical, as is evidenced by my man-ness.

Because world class racers generally have to start very young in life in order to reach those levels, and young girls are pretty much never encouraged to go into racing, but Danica Patrick was. I'm sorry. Wrong answer. It's cause bitches are stupid.

He then goes on to tell a story I won't bore you with, but the basic gist of it is that when men began competing in Scrabble tournaments with women, they started kicking ass. The reason is that men are more competitive, is what Tierney says. But even his evidence doesn't really prove that.

The next two paragraphs, I swear to god, explain how you play Scrabble. Tierney may think women are a bit dim, but he must think anyone who reads him must be completely retarded. He might have a point there.

Really, I'm not scientist, but I hardly think a sampling of the top 50 Scrabble players in the whole world is really a good place to get hard scientific evidence that men are born more competitive. If in fact men are more likely to spend time memorizing words like "khat", that demonstrates to me that men probably just have more sitting around time to waste like that. Turns out that my theory, at least, has numbers to back it up.

That extra 11 hours a week of not doing housework might just translate to time to study Scrabble words for the lucky few. But unfortunately, my bullshit theory, despite making sense and easy to explain, just has no sex appeal. Unlike evolutionary psychology. Oh and my theory sort of suggests a way that women could have more time for goofy hobbies--cut back on the housework and get men to pick up more chores. Which comes dangerously close to asking that men relinquish privilege, which I am not supposed to do lest I get called a natural unnatural unfeminine hosebeast.

But the good news, guys, is that Scrabble can get you laid!

How much do you want to bet that Tierney likes Scrabble? I'm also beginning to wonder if Tierney doth protest too much--these "women are stupid" articles do make one wonder if he read all those bloggers and other writers wishing that a deserving woman had gotten his place instead of his sorry ass that was only promoted because they needed a Generic White Guy Conservative to avoid the piggy squeals of bias from the right.

Like Tierney, I offer further reading: Echidne, Stone Court, Feministing.

This is simply a test post using ecto. Please ignore.

Shakespeare's Sister, bless her activist soul, has set up the Big Brass Alliance, an alliance of lefty bloggers to support After Downing Street.

After Downing Street is a coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

The name is a reference to the Downing Street Memo, a British memo recently made public in the London Times, which contained the minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

After Downing Street reports:

John Bonifaz, a Boston attorney specializing in constitutional litigation, sent a memo to Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach President Bush. Bonifaz's memo, made available today at www.AfterDowningStreet.org, begins: "The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution."

Congressman Conyers is now seeking 100,000 signatures to sign a letter on the Downing Street Inquiry.

Sign the letter here. Write to your Congresspeople here.

Then, post about it, and go to Shakespeare's Sister to be included in the alliance.

Honestly. How stupid does George Bush think we are?

Apparently, very.

A human rights group's report about conditions at the U.S. military's prison at Guantanamo Bay is "absurd," President Bush told reporters Tuesday.

Here's why it's an absurd report:

"It's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world," Bush said of the report, which compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.

He said the Amnesty allegations were based on interviews with detainees, who hated America and were trained to lie.

Oh, okay. So because you say we promote and love freedom (coughSaudi Arabia), and because you say the detainees hate America, none of the allegations are true. Everyone else is lying, you see.

Even when FBI agents all reported abuse in Gitmo, it must not be true. Even if the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all investigated and found abusive treatment at Gitmo, it's not true because you say so, George.

Sorta like how it was true that Saddam had WMD's, huh?

Of course Danica Patrick's involvement in this past weekend's Indy 500 boosted ratings -- I watched my first Indy since, oh, ever. And so did millions more Americans -- many of them, I'm willing to bet, women who were eager to see Patrick take on the pack. The numbers, via Newsday:

ABC's coverage of the race, in which Patrick led with 10 laps to go before slipping to finish fourth, produced a 6.6 overnight rating, up 40 percent from last year and the highest preliminary rating for the race since a 7.4 in 1996. Sunday's final laps, in fact, from 4 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., earned an 8.8 rating and a 21 share of the viewing audience. Even the pre-race show from noon to 1 p.m. generated a 58-percent increase in ratings from last year. An overnight ratings point represents about 770,000 homes.

The line from Patrick I loved best (via The New York Times): "Asked if she had made the point that female drivers could compete against men, Patrick quickly said, 'I made a hell of a point for anybody, are you kidding me?'"

Selena Roberts might have overplayed the pop culture references in the introduction of her NYT column from Monday, but her bit about David Letterman understanding women better than George W. Bush is right on target:

As the proud part owner of the No. 16 car Patrick drives, Letterman has smartly poured his faith and money into the tenacity of a 23-year-old woman with mainstream appeal.

As the impish late-night host, he once put the United States women's World Cup soccer team into America's living room by promoting his favorite "soccer mommas" on television every night while the ladies went on to validate Title IX during a rapturous summer of 1999.

In his own odd way, Letterman has actually helped women to defy the weaker-sex myths and fueled estrogen momentum while the Bush administration would prefer to jam women's progress in reverse by slipping the ladies a Mickey.

Roberts then takes a serious turn, outlining the ridiculousness (and potential short-sightedness) of the Bush administration's Title IX tweaking:

In March, with no public notice, the United States Education Department handed public schools what was essentially an escape route from Title IX compliance by allowing an interest survey of girls to determine whether institutions were obeying the law in providing equal sports opportunities.

Two years, and one election, after the Bush administration was pressured by the public into leaving Title IX as it was, it has changed policy in what has been disingenuously mislabeled as a clarification by the Education Department.

"They are pointedly saying, 'Guess what? We're in power now,'" Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said in a telephone interview. "When it was on the table the last time, there was a public fight. They notified no one this time. So it's like fighting ghosts. It's mind-boggling."

So is the questionnaire methodology. Basically, males are not surveyed, and if a female does not respond, she is counted as uninterested in sports. The burden of proof is placed on the girls instead of the institution, with not a thought given to the socialization of the sexes.

"A girl may not say she is as interested in sports as readily as a boy, who feels he must say he is interested in sports or he is not a man," Lopiano said.

The survey is so flawed, it could deliciously backfire. What if women truly conformed to type and became positively manipulative when surveyed?

"Could a bunch of girls get together and say, 'Hey, let's ask the school for our own football team?'" Lopiano said. "Could they? Yes. The question becomes would a university be obligated to respond?"

Roberts writes that while it's unlikely that women could sabotage efforts to dilute Title IX, all of this does raise an interesting question: "What if women are more interested in sports than they've calculated? What if Danica Patrick is more the ever-growing trend and not an anomaly?"

What if, indeed. As sports columnist Christine Brennan writes:

There are still people in this country, some of them even in positions of power, who believe girls aren't as interested in sports as boys. If you see one of them, you might want to give him a shoulder to cry on, because this could end up being a pretty rough week.

It got off to a bad start last Sunday when a teenage female golfer became the youngest winner ever of a multi-round LPGA tournament.

Big deal, you're thinking - Michelle Wie finally won one.

It wasn't Michelle Wie. She wasn't in the tournament. It was Paula Creamer, an 18-year-old known as the Pink Panther because she wears pink in the final round the way you-know-who wears red. This teenager you never heard of is a better player than the 15-year-old Wie is right now. And she's not alone. There are other talented teenage girls out there too, waves of them, far more than you might expect from a sport that has contributed not only the men's grill to our culture, but Hootie Johnson.

Creamer won $187,500 last Sunday. She graduated from high school in Florida earlier this week. Now she can really begin to focus on her golf.

Isn't this what they always warned might happen if you let women on the golf course in the morning? Next thing you know, give them their own checking account and they'll want to start buying up sports teams.

As a matter of fact, that's exactly what Sheila Johnson did the other day. ...

Read the rest here.

As more women step up to play sports and to own sports team, what about women coaching men? The Chicago Tribune ran a story on that subject this weekend, under the lousy headline, "Women coaching men still light years away." You know, right up there with colonizing Mars.

OK, so it is going to be a huge deal when it happens. But the story could have gone a lot further than it did in pointing out the successes of female coaches and the barriers they still have to break.

"Whenever the men's basketball coaching position becomes vacant at Tennessee, the buzz in Knoxville is for the school to hire Summitt," writes Jonathan Okanes of the Contra Costa Times. He's referring, of course, to Tennessee women's basketball coach, Pat Summitt -- who has the best coaching record among men or women, reaching 16 Final Fours and winning six national championships. In fact, coaching the men's team would be a step down for Summitt, since through her incredible efforts women's college basketball at Tennessee and other select colleges has become the Big Game On Campus.

No mention was made of former Vanderbilt star Ashley McElhiney, who last year became the first female head coach of a men's professional basketball team, the ABA's Nashville Rhythm. Earlier this year, the team threw their support behind McElhiney when co-owner Sally Anthony fired her during an on-court dispute. McElhiney was later re-instated.

The first woman to coach on a men's pro basketball team was Stephanie Ready, who served as an assistant coach in the NBA Development League. Here's an interview with her about her career. Ready was with the Greenville (S.C.) Groove until it folded in 2003. She went on to coach in the WNBA and later became a game announcer.

Someday we'll get beyond marking these firsts because as more women enter the game, their participation will be less noteworthy. Until then, it's essential that we keep driving home the point that women and sports are a winning combination.