What is this “protection” of which you speak?

“Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.” I have this insane urge to email Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA)and say “Duh!” This is old old news, but every few years someone rediscovers the reality that rapists join the military and we get a bunch of op-eds and exhortations for the military to [...]

The Strong Woman* & Emasculated Man

Posted by: Naamen Gobert Tilahun
The nicknames are endless, bitch, ballbuster, battleaxe, ballcutter, … all of these are used in reference to a strong woman. When confronted with a woman who exudes strength the automatic reaction of some men is to fall into the whole “woe is me, she emasculated me” line of thought. The introduction [...]

On the passing of Ike Turner

Ike Turner is gone. Predictably, people can’t stop talking about That Movie and about Tina. One thing I keep hearing is that, though Ike was a great musician and pioneer, all people can talk about is his abusive nature and drug habit. What a shame that is, these voices say.
I am about [...]

Irrational Men

Recently a friend of mine, writer Jay Lake, pointed to this article:
Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes
A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes - more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative…
In [...]

No, we’re not gonna take it

In the October 15th issue of Newsweek I read a little sidebar piece on Race & Gender titled “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.
At no small personal cost, Anucha Browne-Sanders stood up and demanded an end to the kind of abuse African-American women regularly tolerate from some black men. We are not “bitches” or “ho’s” [...]

How Prejudice and Bias works

One of the things that always crops up in vast discussions of racism, sexism, or prejudice of most kinds is the argument that businesses would never engage in biased, bigoted actions because it would be bad for the profit margin. The recent flare up in the Geico Caveman post sparked my thinking on this, [...]

Why I’m Angry - Guns in the Hands of Madmen

Wanna know what makes me angry? I’ll tell you. Hours after a guy walks on to a college campus and kills upwards of 30 people and wounds around 30 more using a gun and several rounds of ammo there is an NRA person on the TV spouting bullshit about how guns don’t kill [...]

Politicians Are Stupid and Racist - Early April Edition

More of a link roundup than anything else. I don’t have much to say about these news items beyond the title of this post.
Karl Rove Raps

There are few things more pathetic than old white men rapping, dancing, and aping ‘ghetto’ black people. One of the things that is more pathetic: old black men who [...]

How do these people find me?

So, over in the comment thread on the Billy Ray post there’s a commenter named Anthony who stumbled upon my little blog while Googling on Billy Ray’s name. At first, Anthony seems like a pretty upstanding guy. He expresses outrage that such terrible things can happen and even goes so far as to [...]

Link Roundup and Open Thread

My folder of links to share with you all is getting rather full. I guess that means it’s time for a link roundup. It’s a little long, so I put it under a jump.