A Future 911 Call

Humor in the Push Back Against the Right Wing Culture War on Women

Apparently we have returned to those glorious days of yesteryear, as old-timey radio used to say.

And we have George Carlin's riff on the War on Women, that right wing attempt to keep us barefoot, and pregnant, and in our place, the one that wants to weaken the description of rape, the one that wants to repeal equal pay for equal work laws, the one that wants to make it more difficult and costly to control our reproductive rights.

There is a great deal to be said for the push-back against right wing reactionary politics using humor.

We have the Virginia state senator, Janet Howell who tried to amend legislation that would force costly, non-medical procedures on a woman by linking a similar measure that would force men who wanted erectile dysfunction medication to get a rectal exam.  Actually, that makes sense, because of the typical age of men who actually need, rather than simply want for recreational purposes, that kind of medication and prostate cancer and other diseases.  Lets call out the hypocrisy of the pro-freedom from government intrusion crowd for what they are, liars and hypocrites for interfering with medical care and legal procedures to force their religious beliefs on the rest of us.

Now we have another female state senator who has beautifully used humor again in a similar way.  Constance Johnson, a state senator in the Oklahoma legislature, addressed the insanity of trying to give equal personhood to zygotes at the instant of conception.  As a point against the legislative attempt by the right to wrongly redefine personhood, I would point out that we don't and cannot ever determine the moment of conception.  I could write here at some length about the process known as spermatozoon activation or the acrosomal reaction, because I actually read about things like this extensively in pursuing my interest in theriogenology.  But this blog is about politics and current events (and anything else we feel like writing about) so I will save my other hobbies for a different niche.  The point is -we don't know, and with the exception of some very specific kinds of artificial insemination, NEVER know in the natural course of things, when the moment of conception occurs.  It takes us a while to be able to tell THAT it occurs, and that requires separate processes, including uterine implantation.  So on the face of it, the very premise of this legislation is poor.  But Howell does tie in to the obvious attempt to force on the rest of us, in a violation of church and state, one of the premises of the catholic church, that masturbation is a mortal sin.

I agree with my high school biology teacher, who gave us the most comprehensive sex ed classes imaginable; 95% of men admit to masturbation, and the other 5% are liars.  I would posit that the numbers for women are similar.

A Little Safecracking Fun for TS

If you are having problems with burglars making off with your locked up guns, here is a new and different direction to try for security! One wonders what they do with the safes they invent when the competiton is over - perhaps disgruntled gun owners might make offers?


High School Students Compete in Safe-Cracking... by

Woman Bites Dog, Brit Humor Looks at U.S. Politics

I've always liked British humor, although it can be far more scathing than what we are used to here in the U.S.; it has a delicious sharpness to the wit.

This struck me as insightful lampooning of American hypocrisy and folly on the topic of sex and sexuality, particularly given the homophobia on which Michele Bachmann made her political bones in MN, and nationwide, and from which she is now trying to backpedal - without alienating the right wing homophobes that have always been the foundation of her base.

I believe Michele Bachmann, who prides herself on 'being the tip of the spear in opposing the terrifying (to the religious right) so-called gay agenda', and who co-owns a 'pray the gay away' clinic, finds her own hypocrisy punctured like a balloon here on the sharp spear of British humor looking at American politics. 

Yes, it's rude.  It's very rude, particularly if you are offended by anything that suggests oral sex.

It's also funny.  Very funny, all the funnier for, if you'll pardon the pun, pricking her priggish hateful politics, and hypocrisy, since her husband Marcus is suspected of himself being gay, but still in the closet.  Too bad the photographer didn't catch a picture of Marcus taking that first bite....

I wonder if the right wing media will be giving Michele Bachmann as much grief over her use of mustard as they did when Obama was on the campaign trail and used mustard, but not ketchup on a hamburger.  Obama was accused of somehow being 'elitist' for preferring mustard.  Funny, how prejudicially the right looks at preferences of all kinds.

Bachmann went on to win the Iowa straw poll, which involves an astonishingly tiny number of votes, and which is indicative politically of absolutely nothing, in proportion to the hype accorded it.  Kinda like Bachmann herself, all hype, no substance.

From the UK media, the Telegraph:

Michele Bachmann tries out a local delicacy at the Iowa State Fair - a foot-long corn dog. Photo: Toby Harnden

On the eve of the Ames Straw Poll, the Republican candidates made a last push for votes at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines – a huge spectacle in which cattle, pigs and horses are on display as well as politicians and Iowans queue to for fairground rides and some of the most unhealthy food on the planet (I was going to try the Fried Twinkies but the queue was,alas, too long).
Sarah Palin, who is not on the Straw Poll ballot, made a high-profile appearance, as is her wont every time it seems she’s slipping out of the limelight, and was duly mobbed by the press. “There is still plenty of room for a common sense conservative,” she said, deliberately fuelling yet another round of speculation that she might after all enter the 2012 fray.
A characteristically avid and vocal band of Ron Paul supporters surged around their hero and his son Senator Rand Paul as they held forth beside an adjustable mattress booth. Paul, an uncompromisingly anti-war libertarian, is a highly improbable Republican nominee but Palin, amongst others, reckon he could finish top in the Straw Poll, which was won in 2008 by Mitt Romney, who is not competing this time around.
Tim Pawlenty, who has put more money and organisational planning into Iowa than any other candidate, attacked Bachmann and Romney at the Ames debate on Thursday night but today, his cowboy-booted foot resting on a hay bale, he sought to single out President Barack Obama. “Tell Barack Obama he has had his chance and it isn’t working,” he told the crowd.
Michele Bachmann, Iowa born and the favourite to win the Straw Poll, arrived half an hour late for her slot and then spoke for just over two minutes, saying that Iowans were “going to send the signal” to the rest of America just as they had in 2008.  “This is where Barack Obama got his start. This is where he’s going to come to his end, in Iowa.”
She beat a hasty retreat after being aggressively heckled by a young man who shouted that she believed homosexuals were “second-class citizens” and that she should not try to “pray away the gay”.
Driving away on a golf cart with her husband Marcus beside her, Mrs Bachmann stopped to buy a foot-long corn dog – a chicken and beef sausage in deep-fried batter. After applying mustard and allowing Mr Bachmann to take the first bite, she chomped into it with gusto.