I’m still doing it, obviously, but it makes me uncomfortable. To be specific, the evolution of the coverage of her medical choice is making me uncomfortable.
This is not a critique of the media.
I know a lot of people were “outraged” because the media ran with his story at all, but come on, she made an announcement to the press. This was never meant to be private.
I’m uncomfortable about several things.
1. There have been a number of media sources who have done their level best to make it clear to the women watching that despite the fact that a famous actress had this medical test and, in response to the test results this surgery, other women should not just run into the doctor’s office demanding that their breasts be cut off.
Gee thanks, ya think? Because I know that I was thinking “if I cut off my chest someone like Brad Pitt will totes love me.” Or, you know, not.
The condescension makes me want to spit.
2. Anyone who has read the article and has basic comprehension skills will glean that she is planning on a hysterectomy as well.
I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.
But no one is mentioning that. The basic story second hand story can be boiled down to “ANGELINA CUT OFF HER BOOBS!”
I don’t know about anyone else but I think the issue is deeper than that. What Ms. Jolie wrote about was her decision to try to stay alive. What most other people seem to be writing about is her chest.
OK, so maybe this is a tiny media critique. Hey guys, it’s not really about the breasts so much as it is the fact that not having this procedure could have left her very, extremely dead.
3. Ms. Jolie’s own privilege.
Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.
The action that is worrying and waiting to die?
For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options.
No honey, lots of us don’t. I couldn’t afford to get a the test you got if my breasts actually told me out loud that they were about to get cancer.
A huge number of people in this country can’t afford it and those people die.
There are tests available right now that can tell people whether or not they are at higher risk for things like breast cancer, among other things and the single greatest obstacle that people face in getting those life saving test is money.
That’s the vital message that so many people are missing.
Three Fifths…If That
Just to drive the message home, just so everyone is perfectly clear, People of color don’t matter in America. I know that I’ve made this point multiple times in the past. I know that it’s a fact but it’s still hard to have that fact shoved up in your face.
Did you know there was a shooting at a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans? Nineteen people were injured, two of whom were 10-year-olds. One of those has been shot twice in the past year. I didn’t know about this, not until today. In fairness, part of the reason this has not been bigger news is that no one died and death sells better than injury. Having said that, there were no early reports of “breaking news,” on “a national tragedy,” in NOLA when it happened. Why? The victims were mostly black, the shooting happened in a black neighborhood of one of the blackest cities in the US. As such, the incident has pretty much been blown off by both national media and federal authorities. Don’t believe me?
FBI spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.
“It’s strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans,” she said. The southern city has one of the highest violent crime rates in the US
So, you know, the fact that nineteen people were injured in various way, on the street, during a gathering doesn’t matter that much. The FBI has more important things to do.
And it’s not just the media or the government who are overtly expressing their lack of concern. the response of everyone outlet that has bothered to speak about this event has been to point out the pervasive violence or the culture of violence in the city. Hey, guess what? That’s kind of bullshit.
no one is saying that NOLA doesn’t have violence. it very much does, but when it comes to lists of most dangerous or most violence cities, it generally doesn’t even make the Top Ten. According to the compiled FBI statistics on city violence, it doesn’t even make the Top 100.
So why do so many people repeat this false information and why do so many otherwise wise, savvy individuals accept such a flimsy excuse?
Because we’re taught to believe it. Because the pervasive narrative that all of us are exposed to by society is that PoC are more violent, thus the violent situations to which they are victim are less important because it’s just “in our nature,” or “we brought it on ourselves.” As I mentioned before, that’s not factual, but people still believe it and they still use that false belief to perpetuate the overall lack of shits given about the lives and safety of PoC in America.
Now is where I would normally go into a summation outlining the solution to this problem. But…um… I don’t have one. I don’t know the solution to this because it is so much bigger than me and has been going on for so long I don’t know how to fix it. All I know is that I’m going to keep shining the light in this and other dark places. Hopefully, someone smarter than me will take up the fixing part.
When The Federal Government Admits Error…
…you know somebody fucked up big time. Like, extra big, especially when it comes to a criminal case.
But in the case of Mr. Willie Manning, that’s exactly what happened. Manning, who is black, was convicted in 1994 for the 1992 murder of two white university students. He has maintained his innocence ever since, amid troublesome (and growing) questions about the accuracy and reliability of the evidence on which his conviction and death sentence are based. Mr. Manning’s long-ago trial was marked by racial bias in jury selection, which can’t be a big surprise given the area and the crime. All of the actual evidence against him was testimony. Further, one of the two witnesses, a cell block stoolie, has recanted. The second was a cousin of the defendant. “The cousin had accused two other men before Manning, however. More importantly, the Justice Department sent a letter saying one analyst’s testimony at trial “exceeded the limits of the science and was, therefore, invalid,” and another letter “backing away” from the hair and fiber evidence as well as the ballistics evidence. So, you know, all of it.
Mr. Manning was sentenced to death on the basis of this evidence. He was set to be executed yesterday. He came within four hours of death.
Oh and just to make things even more ambiguous, there’s some DNA evidence that hasn’t been tested. It could be tested. The FBI has actually offered to do the testing on behalf of the state.
So to any rational set of human beings all of the above information would have cause a little hesitation i an appeals court. Not in Mississippi. In a 5-to-4 decision in April, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that there was “conclusive, overwhelming evidence of guilty” and that DNA tests would not “preclude his participation in the crimes,” according to the Times.
Let’s review. All of the evidence used in the trial is, at best, questionable and in some cases completely fabricated. The Federal government, admitted that the evidence was flawed. The sent letters to make sure that everyone knew the evidence was flawed.
In a frankly surprising, but very lucky turn of events, Mr. Manning’s execution was stayed by the same court that last month looked at the exact same evidence and felt it was totally rational and right to kill Mr. Manning. Why? i speculate that it had a hell of a lot to do with publicity. This story has gone quite viral today.
Big ups for the power of social media.
But it’s not enough, because now, all the state has to do is wait for the story to die down and then they can kill Mr. Manning.
According to the Innocence Project, 306 people have been exonerated since they started their work. That’s not the only 300 people who were on death row who were innocent. That’s just the number of people they were able to exonerate before the state killed them.
Right now there’s a man on death row in Texas, pretty much because he’s black. That’s actually not uncommon. There are huge racial, economic and regional disparities in how the death penalty is applied. When black people kill white people they are far, far more likely to be sentenced to death than if white people kill black people. As always, it’s about value. White lives are demonstrably more valuable from the point of view of the American legal system and pretty much society in general.
In case I haven’t made it clear, I’m against the death penalty. There are a lot of reasons for this and I’ll probably go into that one day, but the most important reason is, I don’t want anyone killing people they have designated as criminals in my name.
Keep in mind, I was in the military. I’m really fine with killing, given the right circumstances. I just don’t want the government killing people when it’s been shown so very many times that the concept of “guilty” is subject to any number of extralegal influences. Since I think we can all agree that the legal system is not in any way fair or impartial, killing people as a function of said legal system should just be off the table.
I Know, I Know, It’s Been A While
I’ve been busy and haven’t had much of interest to write about. Now I do. Let’s get to it.
As of this writing, today is Cinco de Mayo and I have a question.
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT?
I mean seriously? How is this OK?
Look, I get that this holiday has pretty much become St. Patrick’s Day with a slight wider color palate. You now, it’s an opportunity to get drunk and…no pretty much just that. This holiday is pretty much only celebrated in the US. It’s not that big a deal in actual Hispanic/Latin countries. it would be functionally akin to another nation celebrating VE Day. But people will take any excuse to get extremely drunk and show their asses in public, and you know who largely celebrates it? White people.
For real. Personally, I have rarely seen wide spread Hispanic celebration of this day. Again, because if you know the history, it’s not that big a deal and the history isn’t so much drinking as it is politics and history. That’s less interesting to people who aren’t me. Yep, I get that, but do we really have to be so blatantly racist about it?
No really. Do we have to?
Yes, yes, I know, Irish people were discriminated against to and most of the symbols of St Patrick’s Day are ridiculous Irish stereotypes, but don’t even pretend that those things are equivalent. Neither let us pretend that Meghan O’Shaughnessy and Milagro Reyes are dealing with the same level of damage because of those stereotypes. Red-haired and green-eyed is much less likely to have a negative affect on housing, employment or daily life than overall brown. So yeah. Not the same. Don’t even play.
I don’t know about others but if Caucasians suddenly decided Juneteenth was a day to get drunk in public while having themed parties that featured watermelon and fried chicken and black face, I would be mightily pissed off. Because, racist. Themed parties with sombreros and maracas and white people in Luchador masks ? ALSO FUCKING RACIST.
What the hell people?
Blerd Chick Stories: What Makes A Hero?
Look, I know everyone is still torn up and pissed about Boston. It’s understandable.
However, despite the heavy traffic my last post on the subject got, (hello new people) some individuals still aren’t getting the message, so I’m going to come at it from a nerd direction and hope that gets through.
When things get bad some nerds think of heroes, specifically superheroes.
Clearly this thought process is not uncommon. S0 yeah, thinking of heroes.
When you ask nerds what superhero they would most like to be, most of them are going to give you one of the big three, Superman, Batman, or Spiderman. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Batman isn’t a superhero, those are the most common answers.
I get that. I do. The desire to be any one of those men, the last of his kind, sent from a dying world to be our world’s paragon, the epitome of human training and mental ability, and the genius, kid who is a massive geek in is real life but can kick ass by sticking to walls and still gets the girl, makes perfect sense.
Most people, answer one of those three. I don’t. My answer?
Why? Because without those rings those guys are just guys. They aren’t the last sons of Krypton. They aren’t the result of insane vendettas and decades of training. They avoided the bite of the radioactive spider. (I guess that’s hard in comic book land. ) They were just guys. Kyle’s induction into the Lantern Corps was literally “you’ll do.” Their back stories expand on how they are pretty cool humans but still, just humans. They’re not even on a Batman level of special without their rings, at least at first.
What set them apart from the rest of humanity and got them those amazing rings in the first place? Some of you extra nerdy readers just thought “willpower.” That would make you wrong.
What set them apart was that they stepped up when they were called. They got involved when they were needed.
Those are the kind of people we want on our team. People like these. People who ran into fire to pull others out. People who opened their homes and used their skills and talents to help strangers. People who stepped up and said “yes,” when they were called to action.
That’s what you learn as a nerd. You don’t have to be The Big Blue Boyscout or The Dark Knight or The Websligner. You don’t even need a power ring and a badass oath. I mean, I have some, badass oaths, not power rings, just for personal use. They’re not like, a requirement. You just have to try. Also, don’t be a fuckwit. (Guy Gardener. I know. shut up. I’m making a point here.) That means stop it with the bullshit blame and speculation. it’s not helping anyone. It’s actually causing harm. We can’t do that. That’s not who we are.
My team? They look like this.
I know there are a lot of people who don’t get this. I know there are a lot of people who are just angry and spouting off. I don’t care how angry they are. It needs to stop.
Anyone who can’t or won’t stop; I don’t want those people on my team any more.
Why Everybody Needs To Shut Up About Boston
Not, you know, grieving and investigating. Those are normal, rational things to do. George Takei posted a really nice picture which spoke to me.
This is the right reaction; comfort, sorrow, confusion.
These reactions are not what I am seeing. Here’s what I’m seeing:
From the Right: OMG this has to be Muslims! This is why we need our guns! Blah blah paranoiafest.
From the Left: OMG it has to be right wing extremists! This is why no one should have guns! Blah blah the exact same fucking paranoiafest.
And you know what? That’s a shitty reaction.
Look, some of those things may be true. We may have been attacked by a foreign power. It is also possible that we were attacked by right wing extremists. It is statistically less likely but also possible that is was some other form of domestic extremist. I don’t know yet. Nobody knows yet and given that very simple fact people should really probably shut the fuck up in terms of their pet political agendas.
Yes, yes, I know. I have never hidden my personal political agendas, but this is different. This isn’t just people dying, this is almost total lack of information. The sum total of our knowledge right now is that two bombs exploded and some people were injured, two killed. The fucking end.
Speculation beyond that is just fucking tacky.
Stop it right the hell now.
Blerd Chick Stories: Breaking Up With The Doctor?
I’ve broken up with shows before; Glee, because it refused to care about continuity, Once Upon A Time, because it just because a show about more and more characters and not any interesting character development, Sons of Anarchy, because it stopped being a show about the interesting biker subculture and became a show about Kurt Sutter’s ego, and my break up with The Walking Dead was detailed rather a lot on this blog.
So breaking up with a show, while sad, is nothing new to me. I don’t hate watch and if I find myself doing so, I just stop. This is entirely Moffat’s fault. He appears to just be phoning his scripts in and attempting to cobble together as many references to previous episodes and incarnations of the Doctor as possible. You know what that’s called? Bad writing?
The latest episode was awful. Spoilers Ahoy!
I watched the two minisodes that led up to the new ep and they were kind of stupid. Stax fainted? He fainted? Really? Except we saw him die in A Good Man Goes to War and the Doctor said he died and was brought back in The Snowmen. If you’re going to show us a moment wherein a canonically dead character comes back to life you have better explain the hell out of it. I would have been fine with Jenny and Madame Vastra telling him that he fainted if the episode had indicated something else. But it didn’t. We’re just going with fainted? Bad. Writing.
And the minisode on the swings? You know, when 11 met Amy as a child and then went back for her as an adult, it was interesting. When River turned out to be Melody Pond whom the Doctor had met in the womb, it was a little weird, but acceptable. Now we have a third instance of the Doctor meeting a child and later going on to spend some serious time being flirted with by their adult self. It’s gotten to the point of creepy now and it needs to stop.
The whole monk thing? It was stupid too. If you’re a fan of old Who, you might have recognized that as a bit of a shout out to the early series character of The Meddling Monk, except it wasn’t him. We’re never going to see him again (because of the Time War) and what was the point of that other than wasting five minutes wherein we are not furthering the plot, adding a sexist visual gag (for the lulz, I guess?) and making sure we are all we aware that the mysterious Clara Osbourne is mysterious?
I guess having her randomly handed a phone number by “a woman in a shop,” wasn’t mysterious enough. The woman is going to turn out to be River. Just wait.
Full disclosure, I hate River. I didn’t used to hate her. I sort of just thought she was an annoying plot contrivance. I’ve never liked the whole “we’re destined to fall in love,” trope and I like “I can be reckless because you will always rescue me,” even less. Most of all I dislike the fact that Moffat never bothers to build a relationship between them. He just tells us over and over that it’s going to be there and then, because he’s decided it’s going to be there, it appears. Relationships in fiction are anywhere near as interesting unless we get to watch them grow. Just telling the viewer that a relationship has grown/is growing is lazy.
It’s clear to me that he was trying to build a temporal badass but he failed. Instead, River comes off as a creepy stalker chick . One of those people who contrive circumstances to interact with the object of their obsession over and over in escalating levels of weirdness.
You know, if she is just a creepy stalker chick who has been lying to herself and everyone else forever, in an attempt to build a family and relationships I would like her more. That would make her a significantly more interesting character. That;s not the case but fine, she had a built in expiration date so I dealt with it. Since the Doctor met River at birth in A Good Man Goes to War and at her current incarnation’s birth in Let’s Kill Hitler we should be done. But as of The Wedding of River Song, she’s back. OK fine, they did kind of have to wrap up that who River kills the Doctor thing. Great. Done now? Nope. The final Amy & Rory episodes just required her. Fine again. Now are we done? Nope. Moffat has stated she’s going to return in the back half of the new season.
Sigh. I’m getting the impression that they just trot her out when they feel they need some drama or mystery but they are sacrificing actual drama and mystery in that effort.
Great so we have “there’s something in the wi-fi’ which is remarkably similar to the plot device used in The Idiot’s Lantern and the TARDIS phone ringing which is yet another call back, this time to The Empty Child. Yep, got it. Fiftieth anniversary. Gotta bring in a lot of little tips of the hat. With you. But here’s the thing Steven, the way you do that well is to do it subtly. Otherwise it’s just bad writing.
The return of her catch phrase “Run you clever boy and remember,” is shoehorned in, in the most blatant way. It’s completely unnatural, which may have been the point but still. It’s clumsy. Further, the Doctor comes off like an incredibly creepy stalker dude throughout.
While I’m pointing out all the flaws, let me not forget the gigantic plot hole right in the beginning of the episode. WHERE THE HELL DID THAT SPOONHEAD COME FROM? Clara was alone in the house. The Doctor was in the TARDIS changing. Was it just hanging out up there the whole time waiting? Does it fold itself up when not in use and wait in a closet of something? It makes no kind of sense.
Bad writing.
Stuff with Clara, blah blah. The villain is The Great Intelligence, which anyone who saw the Christmas special already knew. Catch phrase, bow tie, blah blah some more. Anti-grav bike? Did I really just watch that? Anti-grav bike? What kind of gimmiky bullshit is that? Go home show. You are drunk. That thing underneath you is a shark. You are jumping it.
Eleven saves Clara which I would probably care about more if Moffat had given me any reason to like her. I liked her as a Dalek. I’m a little interested in how she keeps turning up and I love the fan theory that she is somehow CAL from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. The most logical explanation is that she is a Dalek cyborg as introduced in Asylum of the Daleks. But as far as why she keeps cropping up, I have little hope or real concern. My lack of these things stems largely from the fact that Moffat keeps throwing in random asides and idiocy that annoys and distracts me.
What would have been really interesting is if the show runners had figured out what they were going to do last year and had Jenna-Louise Coleman playing Lorna Bucket in A Good Man Goes to War. But they didn’t plan that far, which is really the problem.
Fans of Buffy and Angel saw this same thing happen when Joss Whedon went off to first Angel and then Firefly. The head writer guy gets distracted by his other show and the quality of the first show suffers. Moffat’s concentration is split between Doctor Who and Sherlock and the Doctor is suffering for it.
It’s really disappointing.
I don’t want to break up with this show and I will grant you that every show has its off episodes, Love & Monsters from Series 2 springs to mind. but you know what? If the quality of writing doesn’t improve drastically and with a quickness the Doctor and I are going to ave to see other people.
