Michele Bachmann Eyes

There’s some discussion in another thread about how to describe Michele Bachmann’s eyes. I had to repost this.

I just…I couldn’t disappoint all the Googlers. Apologies to Jackie DeShannon, Donna Weiss, Kim Carnes and Betty Davis.

Her ire is getting old,
Her lips filled with lies
Her heart is always cold
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes
She’ll turn bigotry on
You won’t have to think twice
She’s bright as New York snow
She got Michele Bachmann eyes

And she’ll hate you
She’ll berate you
All the while segregate you
She’s caught on tape
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro gape
She sees Sarah Palin’s senseless rise,
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes

She’ll let your bridges fall
It whets her appetite
She thinks you’re all in thrall
She got Michele Bachmann eyes
She’ll say a prayer for you
Pretend she’s playing nice
She hopes you have no clue
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes

She’ll evict you
And afflict you
Help a bad government restrict you
She’s in a scrape
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro gape
Everyone thinks she’s so high,
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes

And she’ll hate you
She’ll berate you
All the while segregate you
She’s caught on tape
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro gape
Everyone thinks she’s so high,
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes

And she’ll hate you
She’ll berate you
Segregate you
She’s got Michele Bachmann eyes

She’ll evict you
And afflict you

Okay, apologies to everyone else, too. Blame the margarita. I do.

Michele Bachmann Eyes
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Science Museum Is Not All-Ages

The Science Museum of Minnesota recently started a great new program–child-free programming. By child-free, I mean no one under the age of 21 and featuring science aimed at adults. Tonight, we’re talking brewing.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
7 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Eat, drink and be nerdy. Explore the science of beer brewing and wine making, and roam the museum during a special adult-only evening. Enjoy music, games, live demonstrations and more, and of course all our galleries are open for you to explore.

Prices are cheap for a museum event, and all the cool geeks (what?) are going to be there, my husband and I included. Come hang out!

Science Museum Is Not All-Ages

“Consent Is Hard”

There’s some interesting conversation going on in the comments on my post, “An MRA Speaks on Rape.” It’s interesting not for how it starts–which is the typical fretting about potential edge cases in consent–but because of where it goes from there.

It started with the standard misdirection:

Wel I have some reservations against calling “having sex with an intoxicated person” rape. Does that mean that if both persons were intoxicated they raped each other?

I pointed out that that wasn’t what was being discussed. It is, after all, a very different thing to say that one may be too intoxicated to effectively give or withhold consent (as federal definitions of rape do) and that no one who is intoxicated can consent to sex. Someone else wasn’t keen on me keeping the thread on topic, however:

Continue reading ““Consent Is Hard””

“Consent Is Hard”

Pseudonymous Service

I am fascinated that the pseudonymous are fit to solve scientific conundrums:

Video-game players have solved a molecular puzzle that stumped scientists for years, and those scientists say the accomplishment could point the way to crowdsourced cures for AIDS and other diseases.

[…]

The final decisive move in the Foldit Contender Group’s solution to the monkey-virus puzzle involved twisting around that floppy loop, or “flap,” in the structure of the enzyme. The paper published today notes that one of the Contenders, nicknamed “mimi,” built upon the work done by other gamers to make that move.

[…]

“I would be grateful if you could refer to me as ‘mimi’ rather than using my full name.”

That they may take on risks to fight crime that law enforcement will not (trigger warning for violent details):

Continue reading “Pseudonymous Service”

Pseudonymous Service

Gay Students’ Civil Rights “Not a Federal Issue”

A little over a year ago, Justin Aaberg killed himself after being bullied at school because he was gay.

Just weeks after finishing his freshman year at Anoka High, Justin killed himself in his bedroom. His mother and his two brothers found him.

“I touched him — because I just couldn’t believe it,” Tammy Aaberg said. “I thought I was in a nightmare — and he was so cold and I just screamed and ran out and called 911.”

Tammy Aaberg had known her son was gay for a year and feared for his safety. After he died, she started hearing from other students about how Justin was harassed and bullied.

“He probably hated himself, and thought that no one would like him even though he had tons of friends,” she said.

Aaberg said there was probably not one thing that pushed Justin to suicide, but she’s focusing her grief now on trying to get the Anoka-Hennepin school district to clarify its policies regarding gay students.

She doesn’t specifically blame the bullying, but she wants it to stop before more students die. Four teenagers are thought to have killed themselves recently over issue relating to their sexual orientation, two because of bullying at school. Five more are suing over bullying. So far, the Anoka-Hennepin school district has turned down offers by an LGBT group to put on anti-bullying training as well as requests to change their policy that says that staff must be neutral on sexual orientation “in the course of their professional duties”–a policy which, in practice, means that anything other than heterosexuality is not mentioned in the school.

Last week, Justin’s mother delivered a petition with 140,000 signatures on it to Michele Bachmann, asking her to do what she can to stop the harassment that is happening in her district. Today, she sort of gave her answer.

Continue reading “Gay Students’ Civil Rights “Not a Federal Issue””

Gay Students’ Civil Rights “Not a Federal Issue”

Rape Myth #1: She’s Probably Lying

The following is a repost that was originally published here. Not only is it relevant to my recent discussion with an MRA, but it’s time for me to get back into blogging about rape myths.

ResearchBlogging.org
Tawana Brawley. Duke University men’s lacrosse team.

If you see a rape allegation in the news, those words aren’t far behind. They are talismans, touchstones for the idea that we must never, ever forget that women lie about rape. These women lied; therefore, women lie.

The truth is, of course, that some women do lie about having been raped. That shouldn’t surprise us. People make false accusations about every type of crime, even murder, where it is excruciatingly difficult to do. If no woman ever lied about being raped, the gender might have some collective claim to sainthood.

The difference with rape is the reminder. Name someone who gave an acquaintance a gift then accused them of robbery. Find me a blog post about a robbery where one of these people is mentioned. Name someone who is used to demonstrate that insurance fraud occurs–every time a large insurance payout for theft makes the papers. Name one of those audacious people who tried to frame someone for a murder that never happened, even in fiction, then show me how their name comes up every time a body isn’t found.

It doesn’t happen. We’re not told that people lie about these things. We’re told that women lie about rape.

The implication in the “women lie” narrative is that we must be particularly on our guard against false accusations of rape, that any particular accusation is unlikely to be true. But is it?

The Rate of False Report
The standard figure passed around by victim advocates suggests a rate of false reports of 8% based on FBI crime statistics from 1997. This is comparable to rates for other crimes. However, citations can be found for rates as low as 1.5% and as high as 90%. In other words, huh? How do we deal with a range that big?

Continue reading “Rape Myth #1: She’s Probably Lying”

Rape Myth #1: She’s Probably Lying

An MRA Speaks on Rape

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a Title IX requirement that the civil rights of accusers and accused be balanced in educational situations involving allegations of sexual violence. Unsurprisingly, this attracted the Google alert attention of a men’s rights advocate. Eventually, I got him off the topic of cherry-picking feminist quotes (or made up feminist quotes) and onto the topic at hand.

This is when we discovered what he actually thinks counts as rape and whose fault it is. First off, you have to know that–despite me presenting him with scientific evidence on the topic–rape is mostly made up.

Continue reading “An MRA Speaks on Rape”

An MRA Speaks on Rape

Saturday Storytime: Volume PAA-PYX

My introduction to Fred Saberhagen was the Dracula book An Old Friend of the Family. I was hooked. I’ve read everything of his I could get my hands on, even his Berserkers series, which normally isn’t my sort of thing. The one thing I missed out on, though, was some of his stand-alone stories, published in magazines or anthologies before I was born and hard to find since. With the internet, however, that sort of thing has become less of a problem.

Watching his own eyes in the half-mirror of the window, the director told himself: Someone must govern, and the worldwide Party does better than the old systems did. There are no wars. There is no corruption, and no real struggle for power among Party members, because there is practically no disobedience in the carefully chosen ranks. The mass of the citizens seem content with their bread and circuses. There is only the Underground, and maybe some kind of Underground is necessary in any society.

“Lazar.”

“Sir?”

“How do we do it? How do we attain such perfection of power that the essence of power is enough, that we have no need to constantly threaten or stupefy the citizens?”

The gay and active city below was brightening itself against the gathering night. No giant signs proclaimed the glories of the Party. No monolithic statues deified the World Directors, past or present. The Party was invisible.

Lazar seemed a bit shocked at the question. “The selfless obedience of each individual is the life and strength of the Party, sir.” A phrase from the catechism.

“Of course . . . but look, Lazar. That Citizens Policeman directing traffic down there. He wears a stun pistol, because of nonpolitical criminals he must sometimes deal with; but if one of your PolPol agents were to walk up to him and arrest him, the odds are he would offer no resistance. Now why? The Citizens Police are as well armed and I think more numerous than your men.”

Lazar studied the traffic cop below through narrowed eyes. “I can’t remember when we’ve had to arrest a Citizens Policeman.”

“Neither can I. The point is—how do we do it?”

“Superior dedication and discipline will prevail, sir.”

“Yes.” But the parroted phrases were no real answer. The Citizens Police were presumably disciplined and dedicated too. Lazar was unwilling or unable to really discuss the subject.

Such questions had not occurred to Ahlgren himself until quite recently. He could not remember ever seriously considering the possibility of himself opposing the Party in any way, even before that day five years ago when he had been accepted as a member.

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: Volume PAA-PYX

After You Say “No”

“All she had to do was say, ‘No.'”

Ah, Elevatorgate, Rebeccapocalypse, Insert-Your-Favorite-Name-Here. It’s only fitting that USA Today writes a story about you well after you are news to any of us. You are timeless, eternal. You are, in fact, iconic. You contain all the elements of every interaction of this type. This is why, almost three months later, so many people are still trying to say you never happened or didn’t happen the way Rebecca claimed or…uh…squirrels! Over there! (Word to the wise, guys: calling “squirrel” months later, when everybody else has gotten back to work is not a distraction.)

Another of these iconic interactions just happened. This time, however, instead of a video, we have screen captures of the whole thing.

Continue reading “After You Say “No””

After You Say “No”