Please Welcome the New Republican Congressman from South Dakota

It's Borat! He ran a really great campaign, going door to door talking about his policies. When explaining the role women should play in society, Borat claims the social order should be "God, man, horse, dog, then woman." Of course, he ran as a Republican. God and men are pretty much all they care about, except if they're poor, non-Christian, or part of the TLGB community. Plus, at least as far as access to birth control goes, horses have more of a right to it than women. The only state where poor old Borat would even stand a chance is South Dakota. They subjugate women to the status of baby-making slave more than any other state. In fact, they tried twice to push abortion bans in the state, while still allowing people to shoot someone to death for steal or vandalize their property. I'm sure Borat thinks your wheel barrow lands somewhere before women on his social ladder. And now that South Dakota is considering a law that could justify the murder of abortion doctors, perhaps Borat would fit right in this state that has reckless disregard for everyone but zygotes. Congratulations on your win, Borat! I'm sure you'll do great work!

Kristen Schaal on Redefining Rape Law

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If you follow me on Twitter, you would have noticed that I've spent the better part of a week tweeting about the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a law that seeks to deny abortion rights to any woman with a health insurance policy in which any amount of the premiums can be written off on a tax return, unless that woman can pay for the procedure out of pocket. Right now, the vast majority of health insurance policies cover abortion, and a percentage of those premiums can be written off by the individual or business who purchases the policy. House Republicans and conservative Democrats who have signed on to this bill equate the tax write-off with abortion being federally subsidized. Of course, tax breaks for the wealthy aren't considered federal spending, but tax breaks for Americans with health insurance that covers abortion is. Basically, this law further screws over low and middle income women who wish to use the perfectly legal medical service called abortion. Essentially, such women must pay a tax on their policy (in that their policy is taxable income), even if they never have an abortion. The law would also deny abortion coverage on any private policy that is included in the health insurance exchanges in the new healthcare law.

Most egregious of all, the law also redefined rape as "forcible rape." The qualifier "forcible" implied that some rape isn't forced, but merely coerced or maybe implied. Women who were unconscious, drugged, or mentally handicapped were excluded from the definition. The language was then taken out, thanks to Sady Doyle's #DearJohn campaign on Twitter and the above video from The Daily Show. The combination of anger and satire woke the anti-choice morons who cosigned this disgusting bill to the fact that ALL rape is forcible. Duh.

Although it's nice that they stripped the word "forcible" from the bill, this bill is still terrible and needs to be defeated. This law will deny millions of women abortion coverage. Incest is also redefined, in that it excludes women who became pregnant by a family member after they turned 18. It allows the government to interfere in personal decisions and private business, and it increases taxes. The new Republican party, everyone!

So Not Funny, Saturday Night Live!

I could stop with just that title and follow with a randomly selected clip, since Saturday Night Live hasn't been funny in about 15 years. But not only is this skit not funny, it's downright offensive. It's a mock commercial for hormone replacement therapy aimed at M to F transgender people. It shows several of the male cast members in varying stages of transition. The punch line is basically, "Get it? Trans women! Ha-ha!" I guess cissexist knuckle draggers find this hilarious, but mocking the experience of trans women is not a joke. Looks like NBC might have new ownership, but it has the same tired transphobic stereotypes that pretty much every other comedy has.

GLAAD has a petition that you can sign, demanding that NBC apologize for this disgusting sketch and remove it from future airings.

Blog for Choice: Am I Concerned About Choice in 2011?

Despite my home state electing a governor who didn't quite campaign on defunding Planned Parenthood (although, I knew that just from looking at his campaign website for 3 seconds), but did exactly that like on Day One, I think we New Jerseyans can fist-pump our way out of this. Having a pro-choice legislature really helps, and they are currently working their damnedest to override Chris Christie's veto of funding women's healthcare. I think New Jersey realizes that defunding Planned Parenthood doesn't do anything but drastically reduce the capacity with which healthcare professionals can serve jobless, impoverished, and working poor women. That's because only 3 Planned Parenthoods out of 29 in New Jersey actually provide abortion services in their facilities (which didn't stop conservative websites from proclaiming "Chris Christie closes abortion clinics!" Really, just Google "Chris Christie defunding Planned Parenthood"). The rest provide preventative care. Defunding them defunds thousands of women's only access to affordable treatment. Pro-life indeed.

To answer the question posed by NARAL Pro-Choice America on this 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, yes, I am concerned about choice in 2011, because attacking reproductive freedom goes FAR beyond controlling women's reproductive capacities. It also controls where poor women get their primary healthcare. It is unfathomable that a so-called pro-life governor (one with "Christ" in both his first and last name, at that!), legislature, or constituency would sacrifice the basic healthcare of thousands of women to not even prevent a single abortion. Then again, misogyny tends to cloud judgment, so it's not all that unbelievable.

Another extremely deadly consequence of restricting abortion access is evidenced in the recent indictment of "Doctor" Gosnell, who performed countless illegal late-term abortions on mostly poor immigrant women in a filthy clinic. And when I say "illegal," I mean pretty much every thing that took place in his facility was illegal. Consider this.

1. Mr. Gosnell isn't an OB/GYN, so he should not have been performing any abortions at all.

2. Abortion after 23 weeks is illegal in Pennsylvania.

3. Mr. Gosnell induced birth of live infants and split their spinal cords with scissors, which is no more an abortion than if someone did that to me.

4. Like I said before, his clinic was unsanitary, with cat urine, body parts, and dirty medical tools scattered all over the place.

Basically, Mr. Gosnell performs back alley abortions, the kind that caused the deaths and serious injuries of countless women in pre-Roe days. And as you saw in my last post, people can't set aside their woman-hate for a second to consider that maybe women dying isn't a good thing. In fact, some were downright gleeful. The deaths of the woman and infants that Mr. Gosnell have been charged with (and any others we don't know about) make me wonder if this would have been allowed in a society that a) respected poor women, b) respected immigrants, and c) respected pregnant women, and trusted the decisions of such women to the point where the only restriction to a woman's access to a late-term abortion was her own judgment. Instead, we live in a society that restricts abortion based on socioeconomic status and gestation of the fetus, even if the woman's health is at risk or if the fetus is dead inside of her. Certainly, the women's health was at risk the second they entered Mr. Gosnell's clinic. Perhaps if they had somewhere else to go, they would have. There's a reason pro-choicers want abortion to be safe and legal. Again, I'm concerned about choice in 2011, since if anti-choicers have their way, we'll have over a million women seeking abortions from greedy predators like Gosnell.

WTF: Anti-Choice Deraliers

I usually read the comments on abortion blog posts in safe places, like those that mostly pro-choicers frequent, to spare myself from the idiotic anti-woman rhetoric espoused by anti-choicers. But there are just some really strange reactions to really no-brainer situations, such as the recent indictment of an illegal late-term abortion provider in Pennsylvania. The reports about the incident are horrific (I'll talk more about it tomorrow in my Blog for Choice post). In short, the "doctor" performed illegal late-term abortions on mostly poor immigrant women. He is charged with 7 murders of babies that he delivered alive and then severed their spinal cords with scissors, and one murder of a woman who overdosed on painkillers while waiting to have an abortion. I read some of the comments left in this Care2 post about it, and they just blew my mind.

The people that went to the clinic for late term abortions agreeing to have this done should be charged with murder. If you are six, seven or eight months along and change your mind about having a baby, you need to stick it out and give the baby up for adoption. Killing it to avoid the inconvenience of carrying it for another month or two should not be an option. The women that died doing this deserved it.

Pro-life, indeed! Isn't it great when a poor pregnant immigrant woman who is probably uneducated and doesn't speak English gets painkillers shoved down her throat to the point where she dies? That'll show that whore! I'm sure glad that my mother didn't abort me, or else I'd never be able to pass judgment on women so desperate to end their pregnancies that they'd get a back alley abortion. It's the best part of living.

Late term abortion is murder. Period. I am very liberal but i have absolutely NO pity for a woman who would allow her infant to be slaughtered. Infanticide should never ever ever be legal and i think the women who died getting an abortion at 8 months deserved what they got. There is ALWAYS another option. And even if they felt there wasn't, what's to stop them having an abortion at 8 wks or 12 wks before their child IS A VIABLE INFANT WHO HAS MORE OF A RIGHT TO LIVE than its mother.

Did you know that? Did you know that viable fetuses have more of a right to live than the pregnant women they're inside of? I didn't know that, but someone on the Internet screamed it at me in ALL CAPS, so it must be true. Yes, the only thing this person is "very liberal" with is their use of misogynistic rhetoric.

To save the mother's life a late term abortion I can understand, I don't understand waiting up to the very end to decide on abortion if the women is not at risk. One would imagine this guy could make more money being a baby broker for parents wanting to adopt a black market baby, and split the cost with the birth mother.

What? What??? Seriously, this lady has to be fucking shitting me. Who reacts to a story about women and infants dying from an unlicensed abortion provider performing illegal abortions, that aren't even performed by licensed providers, with such nonsense? What this person is basically saying, without realizing it because she's too busy demonizing pregnant poor women of color, is that these babies could have been even more money in the bank for a sex trafficker or slave trader, and everyone would be better off that way. Financially speaking. And she would understand that better than poor women seeking later-term abortions in a country where they're illegal. Seriously. What the fuck. Selling babies to pedophiles -- good. Late-term abortions -- very, very bad, according to this lady.

I shouldn't say that only anti-choicers totally derailed that conversation. The vast majority of the comments I saw didn't mention the "doctor" that was indicted and used the comments section as a forum to debate whether or not abortion is a moral choice, the personhood of fetuses, and the reasonableness of late-term abortion. Of course, the proper reaction would have been to hope for justice for the women and babies who were allegedly murdered by this guy, no matter what your stance on abortion. But anti-choicers simply cannot get past their deeply held hatred of women to even respond appropriately to these murders. Their first instinct when they see an article about women dying from an illegal abortion is to blame the women first.

Anonymous Misogynist Strikes Again!

With each passing day, it becomes funnier and funnier when somebody tries to post a comment on the old blog, since no one has updated it in more than two years. This guy, who, in all fairness, identified himself as Ralph and did not remain anonymous, really wants to let me know that it just pains him to be a sexist douche, but he just can't help it.

Well I love my girlfriend and I WANT to treat women as equals, but nature built us different.

Translation: It's not MY fault that I'm a sexist douche. I'm just built that way. Blame MOTHER nature. SHE made me this way.

Women are good at somethings, and men at some things. End of the day a man is just built stronger and better at engineering/math/innovation, women better at history and literature and innovation always pays more.

And stereotypes about abilities based in gender have nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with what the jobs that require those abilities pay. Nothing at all. It's just a coincidence that men are believed to be better at innovation in math and engineering and those careers pay more than innovation in fields that women dominate. Big coincidence.

So you could say, women are getting as much as they are capable off. Their limitations created these issues in the first place.

Is this guy deliberately misspelling things to prove his point that men such at expressing language? And did he just blame his sexism on mother nature while blaming women for "their limitations" that are supposedly gifts from mother nature? Yes, and yes.

They're better at emotions than men though.

What does this mean? Seriously, what does it mean to be "better at emotions?" Emotions are things that everyone has, and they are automatic responses. It's not something someone is good or bad at, or is that the point he's making.

I'm an engineer myself, the few women engineers there are in my workplace, are really not upto the mark. Sometimes even when they work 4 times as hard as a male, their output quality is much lower.

Four times? And this is quantifiable how? And this guy, being the Grand Hucken Muckus of All Engineers, can make such judgments. Because he's a big smart man. Asshole.

Michelle Malkin Warns of Retaliation by Bow and Arrow Wielding Liberals

This morning in Tucson, Arizona, Democratic United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head from point blank range at an outdoor town hall type of event in her district. Early reports stated that she was murdered, but thankfully, she is recovering from emergency surgery. However, Federal Judge John Roll, a 9-year-old girl, and 4 other people were shot to death (click here for news results). Representative Giffords was one of 20 Congresspeople targeted with crosshairs on this infamous map from SarahPAC, Sarah Palin's political action committee, in response to their votes to support healthcare reform.



A day or two after Ms. Palin posted that image on her Facebook page, Rep. Giffords' office was vandalized. She talked about the crosshairs placed on her district in light of the vandalism:

We really need to realize, the rhetoric and firing people up, and even things, for example, we're on Sarah Palin's 'targeted list.' But the thing is, the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. And when people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action.

It's really a sad day for Tucson, Arizona, and the United States. In attempt to make us all laugh in light of this tragedy, right wing media darling Michelle Malkin tried to point the finger at liberals for being equally violent, or at least violent-minded. Her first example: Comments made by a regular person who blogs on Daily Kos. She posted a screen shot of a post entitled My CongressWOMAN Voted Against Nancy Pelosi! And is Now DEAD to Me!, which is a rant against the Congresswoman by someone who raised money and donated to her campaign and was disappointed by her decision not to vote for Pelosi for Minority Leader. That user has since deleted the post and stated the following:

i now am FULL of guilt after writing this diary.

I kind of feel bad that this person feels guilty about what they said, especially when this person isn't and never was an elected official, prevalent voice in any national political movement, or potential presidential candidate. But even they can own up to something unsavory that they said about a Congresswoman. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas used the term "bulls eye" in the following quote in a post he authored over 2 years ago about FISA (and as we know, nobody vandalized Rep. Giffords' office -- or anyone else's -- within 48 hours -- or 30 months -- of that vote):

Not all of these people will get or even deserve primaries, but this vote certainly puts a bulls eye on their district. If we can field enough serious challengers, and if we repeat the Donna Edwards and Joe Lieberman stories a few more times, well then, our elected officials might have no choice but to be more responsive. Because if we show them that their AT&T lobbyist buddies can't save their jobs, they'll pay more attention to those who can.

Any reasonable individual reading this quote wouldn't seriously believe that Mr. Moulitsas is suggesting that Rep. Giffords, or the other 100+ Democrats on that list, be targeted for violence. He's talking about voting lukewarm Democrats out of office, and specifically states that he doesn't support saving their JOBS, whereas the crosshairs picture makes no mention of voting people out, and depicts blood red crosshairs to symbolize Representatives whose political careers are over (you might say "dead").

Lastly, Ms. Malkin compares the crosshairs image to one used by the Democratic Leadership Council in 2004.

And, with my powerful ability to remember the past 6 years, not a single conservative elected government official from any of those states was a target of violence by radicals, liberal or otherwise. Furthermore, nobody was mentioned by name in that map, unlike in Sarah Palin's crosshairs map. However, Michelle Malkin believes that those targets somehow advocated or still advocate violence against conservative office holders in America, even though Barack Obama won 7 out of 9 of those states in 2008 (without a single progressive shooting a single congressperson! We're either really great terrorists, or the threat doesn't exist).

I find such comparisons to be disingenuous and hilariously absurd. The target used in the DLC map is one that people shoot arrows at. Crosshairs aren't targets. Crosshairs are used to get a kill shot on a specific target. What does Malkin think? Bow and arrow toting progressives are going to shoot conservatives? We're going to advocate a constitutional amendment to our right to bear bows and arrows? Are we going to petition governments to open carry our bows and arrows at political events? Are we going to support measures that allow us to carry a concealed bow and arrow without a permit (Good luck with that, liberals! Bows and arrows are bulky!)? Why does she think the Native Americans lost? Because bows and arrows are no match for guns!

Shorter Allstate: We'll Pay for Your Negligence

Particularly if some woman dares to look good while running past your car.

BTW, this is my 350th post!

Age-Appropriate Sex Ed: A Comparison

Remember this advertisement during the presidential campaign in 2008? John McCain attacked Barack Obama's stance on age-appropriate sex education for all children, including Kindergartners.



Basically, Barack Obama supports age-appropriate sex-ed. In Kindergarten, that's teaching young children "good touch/bad touch" and ways that kids can protect themselves from pedophiles, like not talking to strangers, not going into a car of anyone they don't know, and telling a trusted adult if they've been touched inappropriately. It turned out that the bill wasn't even passed during Obama's time in the Illinois State Senate, and he wasn't even a co-sponsor, so it blew over and Barack Obama won the election.

Let's fast forward to 2011. Kind of a lot has changed in less than 3 years, but there haven't been such radical changes taking place from where conservatives have kittens over someone somewhere suggesting that 5-year-olds know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching to where talking to those same kids about abortion is a-OK. But apparently it has, in this second wind of hippie free love, I guess.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) admitted that he talks to children of all grade levels, including Kindergartners, about abortion. He said:

I often go into a high school auditorium or meet with people at even the K-through-12 level in their entirety, and I will tell them: “You will be asked to answer one of the most profound moral questions of our age and that is where do you stand on the abortion issue. And you need to only ask and answer two questions. The first question is do you believe that human life is sacred in all of its forms. Is the person sitting to your left and to your right and everyone in this room, is their life sacred?” And they’ll nod their heads.

Yes, which would mean they're pro-choice. Anti-choicers certainly don't see the life of the pregnant woman as sacred, since they see her death in childbirth or suicide as no great loss to humanity. Needless to say, that's not age-appropriate. It's also a stupid argument to make, and it's why I hate it when men and self-righteous teens are asked about this very profound moral question. Men in particular can have a really nice philosophical debate about abortion, because they don't experience abortion in the slightest, and they never will. Men might like to think that they experience it in the same way that women do, but that's because they're really stupid assholes who believe their superior man-brains and powerful imaginations can make them feel that way. The point is, the only person who can answer that question honestly is the woman experiencing the pregnancy and making the decision herself. It's really easy to say "I believe all life is sacred," or even, "Abortion is a morally acceptable decision all the time," and all of that philosophy flies out the window once she sees a plus sign on the pregnancy test. Oops. So to even pose that question to students who are too young to experience pregnancy or make a moral judgment is totally age-inappropriate and a bit brain-washy.

Spanky Would Have Called It the "She-Male Palin-Hating Club"

Some pastor from Florida named Doug Giles made a video stating why it is feminists don't like Sarah Palin. It's not because she wants government to be about as big as the distance between one's ovaries and vaginal opening. And it's not because she is as dumb as a pair of dookie stained granny panties. It's because we're all a bunch of "she-males" who are jealous of her looks. In case you haven't heard that before, I've posted the video. Additionally, I will henceforth be referring to Pastor Giles as Spanky, because he is a childish little rascal. Seriously, Spanky. I'd like to welcome you to the year 2010. Feminists have been hearing this bullshit since before Sarah Palin's father shot her out of his nutsack.



And because I like correcting people so much, I'd like to let Spanky know that Sarah Palin did consider having an abortion when she was pregnant with Trig. Luckily, she lives in a country where she had the choice to have all 5 of her children, instead of being forced into motherhood by a so-called small government. Spanky chooses to believe the lie, or else she wouldn't be his proper definition of a woman. And that would make his ass hurt.

And lastly but not leastly, this video is filled with disgusting transphobic hate speech. Simple proof that trans people are always seen as a simple scapegoat for assholes. If Spanky was truly confident in his beliefs, he wouldn't be threatened by metrosexuals or Chaz Bono or trans women or anybody else who doesn't fit the strict gender binary that he worships every day. It's old fucking news, and I believe, as a wise young woman once said, has been around since way before Sarah Palin's father shot her out of his nutsack. I have a feeling this man sleeps with one eye open and both hands holding his dick for dear life. It's pitiful.

Sarah Palin Tells Some Knock Knock Jokes

I made a video of Sarah Palin telling knock knock jokes on Larry King Live using Xtranormal. I would have embedded it, but the code doesn't work, so just follow the link. It's my holiday gift to you. Hope you enjoy!

You Tell Those Rape Victims, Blag Hag

Blag Hag had the following to say about women complainants of rape in a blog post titled This Needed to be Said About Rape Allegations

This is just one of the many reasons why I think it's so important to get more women to be skeptical thinkers. Questioning does not make us a "tool of the patriarchy" - questioning is empowering.

You tell 'em, Blag Hag. Those dirty rape victims are so needy, aren't they? Needy of our attention. Needy of our trust. Needy of justice. Fuck them, preferably without their consent. I agree with her on one thing. Questioning the veracity of a rape victim's claim is empowering, sort of like jumping a Kindergartner on the playground and stealing her prescription shoes during your lunch break.

Victims of sexual assault are already at the mercy of bystanders, family, police, the justice system, and society at large if they ever want to get their lives back. The people who they need to confide in are in a position of privilege. Without their trust, rape victims are victimized again and again, until they give up on fighting and join the patriarchy lock-step or commit suicide. So it's really big of Blag Hag and other rape apologists to be skeptical, isn't it? It's so much easier to do nothing than to show a shred of humanity and at least pretend to give a shit. This isn't being skeptical about global warming or the existence of God. We're talking about women and children all over the world who are already vulnerable, because they are in a position in society in which they are not to be believed.

My Favorite Thing That I Missed

I missed blogging about the midterm elections, which means I missed so much: Sharon Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Marco Rubio, Carl Paladino, and the other right-wing nutjobs who ran for election in 2010. But my favorite part of the midterms was this ad from SarahPAC, Sarah Palin's political action committee that supports ultra conservative candidates (read: right-wing nutjobs). It's not so much a commercial for Sarah Palin's buddies as it is a look inside what Sarah Palin sees when she's tripping on X. While watching it, see if you can count to two Mississippis before another image pops onto the screen. It's a fun game.

Feminist to the Rescue is Back!

A few weeks ago, the awesome feminist woman with whom I shared a blog a few years ago, started a new blog, Feminist to the Rescue! It's very exciting indeed, and I encourage everybody to check out the commentary, funny, and feminist superhero art. Yay!

Has It Been Three and a Half Months Already?

Finally, my apprenticeship teaching experience is over and I can finally blog again. Hooray! It was a serious doozy. The kids were cute, but they drove me crazy (as kids tend to do), and several of the teachers with whom I interacted were truly unpleasant. At times, they were downright hateful.

One of the teachers, who was actually an effective teacher and classroom manager, was a classhole, a word I just made up which means "classist asshole." Every time she came into the classroom for a team meeting or for lunch, she would ask who sat in a seat. If the child lived in the trailer park, she'd go, "Ew" and move to the seat of a student she deemed acceptable. On another occasion, she came into the classroom (thankfully while the children were out of the room in one of their special classes) and made fun of the size of the head of one of my students. Less than a week before that, I ripped a third grader a new one for making fun of the same girl because of her looks. I can't even tell you what that third grader looks like, because he was hanging his head in shame the entire time I scolded him. Needless to say, I don't think he'll be making fun of any kids any time soon, at least not in the hallway next to the faculty bathroom. I just think it's amazing how a grown woman with children who is an experienced teacher could be so cruel. I wish I were in a position where I could tell her the same thing I told that third grader.

The worst part of both of these people making fun of this girl is that I'm pretty sure this girl is developmentally delayed. I wouldn't expect a third grader to know some of the physical and emotional signs of an uncategorized developmental delay, but a teacher should. This poor girl reminded me a lot of the mothers at my job whose children were taken away from them, because they will never be developmentally capable of taking care of kids. They are women who are mentally around the age of 10 and were either taken advantage of by jerky men or had kids with guys who were just as developmentally delayed or mentally ill. I have a strong feeling that her delays will become more apparent as she gets older. Of course, teachers shouldn't make fun of kids anyway, whether it's in front of the kid or behind the kid's back. But to talk like that about a kid who is most likely developmentally delayed, that's just plain wrong. I suppose she could be called an ablebitch, a word I just made up which means "ableist bitch." I usually object to that word, but not this time.

Anywho, now that I'm done with student teaching, I should be updating much more frequently. There were a couple of things that I missed that I would like to post about over the next couple days or so. I'm happy to get back into blogging after this long hiatus. Whoo-hoo!

Hi-larious Hiatus

Okay, so I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. That's a while. I've been really busy with student teaching, so I'm going to go on a hiatus until the winter, when student teaching is over. For now, you can catch me on Twitter, which takes a lot less time to post stuff. Plus, I can do it from my iPod Touch. So you'll still get your funny feminist nuggets every day. I'll be back before you know it!

Linda McMahon's BFF Believes Linda McMahon Would Be a BSF

BSF. That's Best Senator Forever! Totes cute, right?

Come on. I bet my best friends would tell me I'd make a great Senator. I think they might have. But I'm not gonna take them up on it. Sorry! I'm all for women running for public office, of course. But I think women politicians need to make sure that they're really taken seriously. You can't even put your best friend down as a reference on an application to work at Taco Bell. So why would you do it in a campaign ad? It reads too much as a human interest story and not enough as a serious attempt to garner my support. Well, not my support, since I don't live in Connecticut. I'm not quite sure why I even see any of Linda McMahon's ads, to be honest with you.

Not only am I not from Connecticut, I'm not a Republican. Not by a long shot. These sorts of fluffy political ads don't make me like a candidate. I want to know where somebody stands on important issues that affect me and the people I care about. Maybe conservatives prefer a woman politician who doesn't cross the line of proper feminine gender expectations.

Take Action Monday

Today is Labor Day. If you are lucky, you either had the day off or got paid extra for working. If you're like most people, you don't belong to a union and have no right to! Today, remember the people who are either out of work due to the bad economy or do very hard work so that we can have the things we want and need.

Help farm workers who are victims of worker's rights violations.

Urge your Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Tell Congress to strengthen your privacy rights online.

WTF: Uncle Flow.

Here's something stupid that I kept forgetting to talk about. It's a machine that men can wear around their tummies that simulates some of the physical symptoms of menstruation. There's fake blood and everything! Robin Marty at Care2 explains the usefulness of this product:

Would bleeding and cramping make a man a little more sympathetic to some of the everyday struggles of women? Couldn't hurt, right? So what would one do with a Menstruation Machine if it were actually released on the market? Maybe strap one on the male students in high school health class? Or make the pledges wear it as a stunt to get into college fraternities? The possibilities really are endless. I can't wait until they create a machine that will replicate childbirth for men. Maybe then we could actually get some maternity leave laws passed.

Um, no. It really shouldn't take actually experiencing menstruation or childbirth to understand that it's painful and a giant inconvenience. Case in point. When I was a little girl, there was this very annoying boy who would keep flirting with me. His name was Nick, and he was this short pudgy kid with curly brown hair. He bothered me, so I kicked him in the balls. A lot. Sometimes I wonder what ever happened to that poor boy and his balls.

But, how could I possibly have known that getting kicked in the balls would hurt, since I don't have balls and therefore was never kicked there and never felt the pain of being kicked there? Maybe it's because getting kicked anywhere hurts. Likewise, if something is called "menstrual cramps," one could bet, no matter what their sex or gender, that they would hurt. You know, because cramps are painful. And everyone has bled from their nose or from a cut, and everybody knows that it's not an enjoyable experience.

So when men downplay the pain in the ass that is menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth, they're not doing it because they're just simply ignorant of these feelings. They're doing it because they're privileged little assholes. Period.

Random Thought About "Ground Zero" Mosque

I haven't updated in a while. And when I go a while without updating you should be worried, because that means I've been thinking a lot. For the past week or so, I've been thinking about the community center and Mosque being built in lower Manhattan. I've tweeted about it a lot, and if you follow my tweets, you know that I support their right to build the community center and Mosque there. I haven't even thought about "should they build there," because it doesn't make any difference to me. I think the most important thing is for the United States to uphold the Constitution and everyone's rights to freedom of religion and freedom to own property.

But a lot of people don't see it that way. Most people do support the right of the Mosque to be built, but most people don't think it should be built there. People have called the abandoned Burlington Coat Factory that was bought by Imam Rauf to build this community center "hallowed ground." I love a bargain as much as the next person, but "hallowed ground?" This building is two blocks away from Ground Zero, it's been abandoned for 8 years, and it's about time that area of the city be rebuilt to foster a feeling of community and at least try to bring it back to the bustling neighborhood it was before September 11, 2001. People like Newt Gingrich and other opposers of the Mosque are comparing Muslims to Nazis. Muslims all over the country who wish to build Mosques and Muslim prayer centers are being denied permits, as local governments are wiping their assess with the Constitution in order to please some racist jerks. And all of these thoughts naturally lead me to wonder this:

Did Glenn Beck face this much red tape from the government when he was planning his demonstration at the site of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech this Saturday? Oh yeah. None. None at all. In fact, this was something he's been talking about for a year.

Think about it. Protesters of the Mosque in lower Manhattan are saying that because the 9/11 hijackers were Muslim, Muslims building on private property there would be in poor taste and would be a slap in the face to everyone who lost loved ones on September 11. Let's apply this logic be applied to Glenn Beck's demonstration. After all, a White person murdered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Therefore, White people shouldn't be allowed to demonstrate on the site where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. It's sacred ground for African Americans who fought and died for equal rights. If you think I'm going too far with this, please read on.

One of the other major objections to a Muslim community and prayer center being built two blocks from Ground Zero is that this 13-story building is a symbol of Muslim's desire to convert everybody and change their most cherished beliefs and values. Fancy this quote.

This is going to be an image for the history books. If you come, I believe this may -- maybe in 100 years from now or 200 years from now -- I believe this will be remembered as a moment America turned the corner.

This is going to be an iconic event . . . This is a moment quite honestly, that I think we will reclaim the civil rights movement. It has been so distorted and so turned upside down. It's an abomination . . . We will take that movement because we were the people that did it in the first place.

Gee, who said that? Imam Rauf? No. It was Glenn Beck. It looks like Glenn Beck is the one who is trying to change history and our value system. Projection much?