monday!

There's actually a lot of coded sexism inherent in this Rush Limbaugh rant against vegetables (See also: the Salad episode of Seinfeld). It hit me, while contemplating how vegetables/vegetarianism are coded feminine and meat is coded male (presumably this is a "caveman" narrative, with the men hunting and the women gathering roots and berries....?), that the very meditation I was in the midst of is a perfect example of why Feminism is dysfunctional, or at least, why it's so difficult to fight what we're up against.

To wit: in order to assume a Feminist worldview, you must accept the fundamental premise that a patriarchy/patriarchal culture exists, and that both men and women are complicit in sustaining it. With me so far? (If not, please please please argue with me on this one, I like where this argument is going and I want to develop it further.) But here's the problem: when you accept the fundamental premise of the patriarchy and you actually start viewing the world through a Feminist lens, you start seeing how deeply ingrained patriarchal values, misogyny and so forth are in our culture, and when you try to talk to someone who's not the same page with you yet about how Rush Limbaugh is heteronormatively biased against salads, you're generally regarded as a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist.

It reminded me of the scene from last season's Mad Men where Peggy is talking to the beatnik journalist about civil rights vs. womens' rights, and he laughs off the notion that people would show up for a Feminist civil rights march--in a sense, it IS laughable to contemplate a march or rally in support of women. We are more than half the population, literally the majority! There are so many of us, how could we possibly allow ourselves to be oppressed? Don't you see women everywhere doing all kinds of things? Etc.

/sermon

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Some related bonus linkage on the connection between abortion and buttsecks, omg! Also: THIS

We are so fzcking stupid. More here.

What exactly the fzck is going on in Egypt: one, two, three, four

The awesome state of Arizona's Medicaid program. More here.

The #DearJohn Twitter initiative gears up.

Dan Lipinski is a Blue Dog piece of sh1t.

Sinister...?

Here's my new wallpaper. And related.

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This needs to be a real thing.

Games! I really like the Chiromagica one.

I'm going to make one of these for Tom.

I can only assume by your negative attitude that you have yet to partake in the wonderment that is the StarCrunch.

Watching this was like reliving some of Guthrie's finer kitten moments.

I want to give this kid one million hugs.

Joe Biden continues to be my homeboy.