Shitty sexist advertising of the week





Besides apparently not getting you drunk enough to have sex with a fatty fatty fat-a-lot, 2.9% alcohol beer is a travesty.

On the road again

I'm leaving Tuesday to work at CTY in upstate New York, where I shall be sans internet for about 2 months. My snail mail address is on a note on my facebook. See yaa.

The speaker for the National Right to Life Committee's election-year convention...

(drumroll please)

...

...

Karl Rove! That is all.

Rape: "if it's inevitable, lie back and enjoy it"

I understand I hardly need more evidence of McCain sleaziness, but I couldn't resist reposting this

Clayton Williams was to host a campaign fundraiser for McCain, but when this video surfaced the McCain camp called it off.
They kept, however, his $300K donation.

blunk drogging

I'd like to take a moment to promote my dear friend, surfthechannel.com, where one can stream nearly episode of nearly every popular television series. For those evenings when you have no plans. I have worked my way through every episode of The Office and am now all about The L-Word and Big Love. Chris and I are also marathoning Weeds. It is the perfect gift for anyone who lacks pay-for-cable.

I'm in love with Sarah Haskins

She needs to make Target Women its own separate webshow or something.

In a part of this country very close to where I was last week,

"pro-life" pharmacies-- that is, pharmacies that refuse to sell any kind of contraceptive (including condoms and Plan B). There is a dilemma here. We feel constitutionally obligated to protect the right of these pharmacists not to act in a way they consider immoral. But where do we draw the line? A pharmacy might be a private business, but it's health care, and health care institutions have sensitive expectations held of them. But what about when contraceptive is a time-sensitive thing (as in the case of emergency contraception)? This just becomes, for me, another argument in favor of universal health care.
And, of course, you can't ignore the fact that for many of these pharmacists who refuse to fill BC prescriptions, their argument is based upon fallacy. Birth control (and emergency contraception, which is just a double dose of birth control) does not terminate a pregnancy; it merely prevents one from occurring. No egg is fertilized.

Basically, we have 3 groups of these refusal-pharmacists:
A. Those who simply misunderstand the science of birth control, or those who are prone to sway to the opinions of people/neighborhoods/customers that misunderstand it;
B. Those who understand the science of birth control but still oppose it on the grounds that sex should be solely for reproduction; and
C. Those who understand the science of birth control but believe that, despite all medical evidence proving the contrary, there remains a slim chance that the egg of a woman using hormonal contraceptive could still become fertilized. Because of the hormonal effects of BC, so the claim goes, this egg might then be unable to implant in the uterus. No one has ever proven that this has ever occurred. It is just maybe possible, and God Forbid we grant woman an incredibly beneficial pharmaceutical with a one in sex trillion chance of ending a life that is 1, arguably not a life at all, and 2, clearly not wanted.

Geez!

I can't even tell who should be more offended.

I have nothing against abstinence, but this actual quote from the Human Life Alliance's "Just for Girls" magazine, which is a sort of handbook to the complex art of not boning, is so utterly ridiculous. But I honestly have no idea whether or not it's more offensive to women or men. What do you think?

"Girls, next time you do your final mirror check in the morning-- check this out! Dressing modestly is a crucial element in staying abstinent until marriage. Dressing modestly is important if you desire to protect and assist the guys in your life who wish to remain abstinent as well. You might think that it's "their problem," but guys are wired differently from girls in what turns them on. Guys are visual, so when a girl is dressing to show off (wearing tight pants, low cut shirts, etc...) it is hard for guys because they are stimulated by what they see...Start respecting yourself and your guy friends by dressing modestly!"

P.S., I'm currently watching a show on the Eternal Word Television Network called "Defending Life." Why do I fish for furious indignation so? It's also basically just a slide show of ultrasound photos and aborted fetus pictures set to a (male) priest citing Biblical passages. Can we note, for a moment, that while the pro-choice movement tends to lean more to the pragmatic (as opposed to moralist) end of the argument spectrum, the anti-choicers tend to use lots of scary pictures and shock tactics.
Also, instead of commercials, there are just PSAs featuring women who claim to have had abortions and sunk into a depression/weren't able to conceive/went crazy afterwards...funny, considering that the idea of a post-abortion syndrome has been dismissed by pretty much the entire medical community.

Clinton loyalists turned McCain supporters

Katie Halper published this funny yet sad "loyalty oath" for the Hillary supporters who refuse to get behind Obama. Honestly, as a Hillary supporter myself, it's truly not a transformation I can understand.

home!

You know folks, only some really intense love could make me endure a thirteen hour Amtrak ride to get to a red state. It was a lovely vacation, even with conservative undertones. At one point, we got a flat tire and had to pull into the parking lot of a crisis pregnancy center to change it. In 108 degree heat. I had never seen one before-- which is not to say that in these more northern liberal regions they are merely lore; I know I've seen ads for them on the subway. Always headed with something like "PREGNANT?" in big, contrasting text. Always featuring a young woman of color. The horror stories you hear about these places are so incredibly screwed up.
I'm currently reading Cristina Page's "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America", which makes the hard-to-refute claim that the right-to-life movement is more interested in changing the way we think about sex than the way we think about babies or life. Not a single supposedly anti-abortion organization in this country publicly supports the usage of contraception (other than natural family planning), and many are outwardly opposed to it. The enthusiasm for this movement is perpetuated by a fantastic amount of misinformation (birth control pills actually cause abortions, rather than prevent pregnancy-- the same patently untrue claim that kept [and keeps] emergency contraception on a hard to reach shelf) and snarky moralism (sex should be purely pro-creative; leave the number of children you have in God's hands).
The same could be said about these Crisis Centers, of which there are allegedly twice as many in the U.S. as abortion-performing clinics. It is based upon a moral agenda fueled by fervent sexual conservatism, and it is held so passionately by so many that the health and wellbeing of woman is manipulated and jeopardized.

Gone to North Carolina to see the boyf. Keep it real, Northeast.

blunk drogging

Okay, so my candidate of choice didn't get the nod. It was close-- according to the NYTimes, 1750 to 1624.5-- but in all honesty, okay, whatever. I intend to dedicate myself 100% to supporting the Democratic candidate, because what I ultimately believe is that we cannot possibly tolerate another 4 years of a Republican White House. Reproductive justice CANNOT stand up to another 4 years of a Republican White House. We need a pro-choice President in there to clean up this mess, to repeal the global gag rule, to undo the Bush-era repro rights disaster. ASAP!

The internet is for morons.

I found an interesting facebook group today. Some favorite quotes:

Glad to join, what started out as equal rights and rightfully giving women a voice, has been like a fire that people let burn and then poured petrol on.

Nearly every 'feminist' I have met has never actually been, THEMSELVES, any target of a males oppression.

Women DO have all opportunities men have, including positions of power.

Some people's ignorance and intimidation is staggering. I am so weary of the stigma associated with feminism, because it seems to so apparently not come from a universal viciousness of the feminist movement or the irrationality of its claims, but rather from a refusal to acknowledge blatant instances of gender preferential treatment (even in so apparent a form as legislation or court precedents) and disparity. And, of course, while many will foam at the mouth with their fervent desire to deny this, an innate fear of female power.
People who oppose feminism on the grounds that gender equality is undeserved are one thing. People who oppose feminism because they refuse to acknowledge that we do, in fact, live in a gender unequal society are another entirely. This is bold to say, I know, but I would venture to guess that many of the latter might re-examine themselves and realize they are, in fact, the former.

Sharon Stone is an idiot.

Just what we needed: a YouTube clip of an attractive high-profile blonde woman making herself sound completely vapid, uninformed, and dumb.