Whenever there is a Republican sex scandal, every media mention of it will be sure to specify "Republican Senator Blah Blah". However, the majority of the coverage of the Spitzer scandal neglects to label him as a Democrat. It might be tempting to point to the hypocrisy bias of sex scandal impact, but with his pride in his prostitution prosecutions as Attorney General of New York, his hypocrisy level in this is as high as any Republican that has been involved in a sex scandal. Republicans have been implicated in more sex scandals lately, so one could hardly argue that Democrats were the default. So, why obscure his party membership?

For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 adults in America is in jail or prison, according to a new report released Thursday. The report by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project said 2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails at the beginning of 2008, which is one out of every 99.1 adults. That's more than any other country in the world. ... One in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, according to recent U.S. Department of Justice data, which also shows that men are about 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than females. However, the data shows, the female population is expanding at a faster pace. ... The report said the United States leads the world in incarcerations, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. full story

That last part is the most telling. The United States has more people behind bars than China. Not just more people per capita, more people period. It's beyond shameful how many people in the "Land of the Free" aren't free.

I was in favor of the House resolution affirming that what happened to the Armenians in Turkey was genocide — however, I've changed my mind. The United States House of Representatives has never passed a resolution affirming that what happened to the Native Americans was a genocide. Awhile back congress did pass a resolution of apology in dealing with the Native American genocide, but that resolution carefully avoided using the term "genocide".

That congress would pass a resolution on the genocide of Armenians without dealing with the crimes perpetrated by the United States not too much further back, smacks of hypocricy. At this point I still support the Armenian genocide resolution, but only after a similar resolution is passed dealing with the genocide of the Native Americans. Perhaps, passing them at the same time would be even better. The outcry in Turkey would likely be blunted if we held ourselves to the same standards.

I've seen far too many threads that go something along these lines:

Person A: They're sheeple, follow the herd, can't think for themselves... Person B: +1 Person C: They obviously only want to be around people who agree with them. We are so superior. Person D: +1 Person E: LOL, sheeple. Person F: If they thought for themselves they'd think just like us. Person G: iawtc Person H: +1

This comment by Mary Sunshine to a rather sensationalized article by Anna Greer effectively illustrates why many women (and men) have given up on calling themselves feminist.

Well, yeah - but 99% of the other web-users are anti-feminist, either actively or passively. 99% of all women now would far rather be called bitches, sluts or hos than feminists. Extreme? Well, that’s what I get from my awareness that 99% of all females are of the “I’m a feminist BUT …” or “I’m not a feminist BUT …” or just plain old “I’m not a feminist” persuasion. And I’m not even counting all the women who say “I’m a FEMINIST !!! ” and then proceed to cheer wildly in favour of rape, porn, sadomasochism, etc.etc.

On one hand she laments that many women don't want to be called feminist and in the next breath denounces women who call themselves feminist but don't have the exact same views as her. While some people may resiliently stick to their guns and insist they are feminist and that no single ideology has a monopoly on the term, others will simply say "Oh, okay. I guess I'm not a feminist". I've known quite a few people who fall into the latter category. People who might otherwise have identified as feminists, now entirely estranged from the movement.

Why is cigarette smoking banned in most public places, while heavy perfume use remains completely acceptable? Most perfumes contain a mess of toxic chemicals known to cause a variety of health problems from weakening the immune system to cancer.

"Freedom of expression" isn't anymore valid with perfume than it is with smoking. Some people think smoking looks cool, some people think smoke smells good (I personally love the smell of tobacco smoke). So "personal expression" just doesn't cut it. The only difference I can see between air-choking perfume and second-hand smoke is political.

The Bush administration has decided it has too much credibility and is planning on listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization based on classified "irrefutable evidence" that they've been supplying the Taliban - the first time an organization controlled by a foreign government has been listed as such. The evidence is irrefutable, no one can refute it if they can't see it. Even so, it still seems unlikely that Iran would be supplying weapons to a group they've consistently and openly opposed throughout the 90's up to today. Even the U.S. backed Afghan government of Hamid Karzai rejects the idea that Iran is supplying the Taliban.

There is still the classified evidence that Iran is supplying the Iraqi insurgents. More irrefutable stuff no one can see. At the very least, Iran is interfering in Iraqi affairs and as Paul Wolfowitz stated so eloquently a few months after the fall of Baghdad, "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq". I guess Americans don't count as foreigners in Iraq.

In the United States, the Republicans often complain that sex scandals involving Democrats don't tend to have the same level of fallout as ones involving Republicans. In fact, sex scandals involving Democrats sometimes end up burning Republicans who make political hay out of it. Liberals, on the other hand, dislike the joy right wingers find in accusing the left of being intolerant of Christianity, even though many members of the right have no problem being intolerant of religions outside their own.

Pro-abstinence Republicans are more vulnerable to sexual misconduct scandals because it directly contradicts their message of morality, liberals are far more vulnerable to accusations of intolerance because it contradicts their message. For the most part, the hardline right makes little claim of tolerance and the hardline left makes little claim of sexual chastity. The double standard in both of those cases is due to a general dislike of hypocrisy throughout the political spectrum.

The message is: keep true to your message or adapt your message to what you really mean.

Nearly everyone regardless of what side they're on, regardless of what fight they're fighting, believes that they are on the side of good. And most people believe their opponents will use every dirty tactic and nasty trick in the book to win, after all they are evil. Too many use that as an excuse to do ill themselves – in the name of "good" or "freedom" or "justice" or whatever banner they're flying. The mentality is that it it's okay if "our side" does less than ethical things, because we are the "good guys" and it is important that we win. However, since everyone believes they are the "good guys" – if you make an exception for the "good guys", you're making an exception for everyone.

Last week, purpleglitter and I found that the landlord at her old place had murdered a nest of starlings, ripping apart the nest and throwing the babies down to the ground like they were worthless. Just getting their down in, eyes never opened. They never saw the sun. We buried them in the back.

Today, the tree cutters came to the back yard here. Supposedly just to cut the branches overhanging the neighbor's, they instead cut main branches which may have had one or two subbranches overhanging the neighbor's yard, but most of which were not over the fence at all. Renting, I have no real control over any of this.

I don't understand the reason people need heavily nitrogenated death-yards. "Kill everything but grass. A dandelion! Kill it! Kill it! No flowers here! Nature is just weeds. Throw on more chemicals on... pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer... everything! It surely won't run off anywhere. Must have that perfect patch of stale green nothing, because lord knows if anything wild and free grows it'll be anarchy! Nature is ugly and must be controlled, but oh yeah, save the rain forests — nature is only ugly if it's where I can see it."

More than 2,300 Hong Kong residents have lodged complaints about indecent and sexually explicit material in the Bible in a bizarre campaign to restrict sales of the Christian holy book. Hong Kong's publications watchdog has received an avalanche of complaints about tales of incest, rape, cannibalism and violence in the Bible since the website truthbible.net began urging people to file complaints. ... Now the website says it may raise the issue with Hong Kong's public ombudsman on the grounds that the "abnormal sex and violence" described in the Bible is at odds with the moral standards of people in the former British colony. If the campaign succeeds, the Bible could technically have its sales restricted in Hong Kong in the same way that pornographic magazines must be sold in sealed packages and to only those over age 18. The motive for the campaign is unclear. full article

I obviously don't believe the Bible should be censored, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. At the very least it might be a lesson to the pro-censorship faction of Christians that their own words and logic can be used against them.

British sailors and marines were blindfolded and kept in isolation from each other during most of their 13-day detention in Iran, members of the naval crew said Friday in their first public comments since being released. Six of the 15 captured crew held a news conference at Royal Marine Base Chivenor a day after they arrived back in Britain. "The pressures we were subjected to were quite diverse. It was mainly psychological and emotional," said Lieut. Felix Carman. "We were blindfolded at all times and kept in isolation from each other." ... Carman said when they first arrived at the Tehran prison, they were blindfolded and ordered to stand against a wall with their hands bound as "people were cocking weapons in the background." That experience was "an extremely nerve-racking occasion," said Carman. "There were lots of tactics like that that were employed." At one point, the lone female sailor, Faye Turney, was told the other 14 sailors and marines had been sent back to Britain and that she was left alone, they said. full article

The British sailors were treated badly in Iranian hands. But, they are lucky the weren't captured by the Bush regime and sent to Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. The ordeal these sailors endured was nothing compared to what the Bush administration has been promoting as standards of prisoner treatment and interrogation.

This sore of psychological and emotional abuse of prisoners is not acceptable, but Bush's long term unapologetic abuse of prisoners have made it virtually impossible for any United States ally to effectively speak out against this kind of mistreatment, and that goes doubly for the Bush's closest friend and enabler: Tony Blair.

Turner Broadcasting System has accepted full responsibility for the guerrilla marketing campaign that caused a security scare across Boston Wednesday. WBZ-TV's Dan Rea spoke with Mayor Thomas Menino Friday morning and Menino said that the company had agreed to pay about $250,000 for the costs created by the scare. Phil Kent, Turner's C-E-O, issued an apology in full-page ads in Boston newspapers Friday for "the confusion and inconvenience" caused as highways, bridges and river traffic were shut down. Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were released Thursday on $2,500 bail each after pleading not guilty pleas to charges of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. full article

If this is accurate, it changes my mind about the situation. Turner should not get off with a bribe. I still believe Berdovsky and Stevens deserve to face charges, but many others deserve to face charges as well. If the city of Boston is not going to prosecute the people at Turner and Interference who orchestrated the stunt, the city has no business persecuting the bottom-level guys who did their employer's dirty work.

I would like to note that this does not change my conviction that the police did a fine job. This is on Menino, not the police.

I've been very impressed by how many Boston area liberals have gained a sense of rebellion in recent days by rallying around mega corporation Turner and their corporate lackeys who planted the devices. It's almost surreal that commercial culture has taken such a grip that even rebellion against authority has a corporate edge. None of the myriad of REAL abuses of authority since 9/11 have garnered such a tremendous response. Fail to give a favored marketing firm free reign to do whatever they please in the city, especially if they're advertising an important cartoon network show, and you have a massive outcry.

President Bush likes to say that his health-care proposal would "level the playing field" between people who get health coverage through their job and those who buy it on their own. But experts said yesterday that it would tilt that field toward a kind of health insurance that Bush has long favored -- a high-deductible plan paired with a special tax-exempt health savings account, or HSA. ... Bush's proposal seeks to eliminate the long-standing tax break for job-based medical insurance, requiring that a worker's taxable income include any money his employer contributes to help pay the premiums. A new tax deduction -- $15,000 a year for families and $7,500 for individuals -- would help people pay the premiums, either through their job or on their own. The plan faces opposition from Democrats in Congress. ... Len Burman, director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, said that, in leveling the field, the White House should also seek to scrap the HSA tax break, whose purpose is to counter the tax code's current bias toward comprehensive and expensive employer-provided coverage. Under Bush's plan, it would be the only extra tax break for health insurance -- one that would most benefit wealthy people, who can best afford the financial risk of a high-deductible plan and to sock away a lot of money in an HSA. ... Burman said eliminating the HSA tax break would bring in billions of dollars that Bush could put toward the other initiative he proposed this week -- giving states special grants to fund innovative ways of covering the nation's 47 million uninsured. "This is not just free money just sitting there," he said. "There really is a big opportunity cost." full article

This is not a tax cut. Bush is proposing taxing employees where they were not taxed before. Adding new taxes is a tax increase.

Of course his new taxes will barely (if at all) touch the wealthy. Of course employers don't have to pay the new tax. And to offset the hardship the wealthy will experience at not having to pay this tax, he proposes a new tax break for the wealthy. Everyone else, go suck an egg.

I propose "Mr. Tax Cut" Bush be spanked spanked repeatedly with this proposal. I propose that "Bush is proposing a tax increase" be a talking point. He is repeating the lies of his father. Read my lips: "Trumpet it!"

swiped from dan4th:

another year I thought that the version of PhotoShop that came with Orac (the name I have given to the used computer purpleglitter recently bought me) was the scaled down version, unlike the professional version on Clementine. I woke up well this morning and was hoping for a very productive Project Schedule. Skye is egg bound with a soft shell egg. sometimes the only thing that makes death unappealing is that I do not believe it ends existence. dan4th took a couple pictures of me in the sunlight last weekend. Take also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it. I thought that I could not be any more disgusted by the Bush administration, but his response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon has proved me wrong. I've improved some of my old userpics. I had a great time this evening celebrating purpleglitter's birthday with zarthon, recoiling, and of course purpleglitter. The paste of purity has run its course and I have scrubbed it off the wall of corruption. Yesterday, President Bush told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, "This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."

I'm rethinking the rant I wrote about a month ago rejecting labeling myself "feminist". Perhaps it is not a label I should so hastily reject. This brings to mind the question: "Why is a feminist?".

Yes, I've heard the simplistic answer many times: "a feminist is someone who believes women are people too" or any variation on that theme. But that dissolves quickly when one starts talking issues. The abortion, the rabid warthog of issues, easily breaks the illusion. Many pro-choice feminists declare that pro-life feminism is an oxymoron, and that legal unqualified abortion is the only true path of feminism. This clearly is an affront to pro-life feminists, who will inevitably tell you that they believe unborn women are people too. Whether or not pro-life feminism is valid, this conflict alone shows that a simple definition is not going to suffice in defining what feminism is.

Perhaps asking "what is feminism" is a bit like asking "what is goth" on alt.gothic (is that still regularly asked?). Done over and over again, there is no real definition. It is a political orientation, the same way socialist and populist are. If it simply a political orientation, why should I reject it just because some fanatical organizations such as the MWMF claim it as well? Perhaps it is just a word, perhaps my gesture has no real meaning, but I might just call myself a feminist again.