Monday Monday

-Obama tells TN Greedy Old Pricks to lay off his wife

-Note to self: Do not buy a TV at Best Buy. Hey, maybe they're right, maybe the FCC doesn't have the legal authority. I'm sure that will get sorted out in court. But the part where they've been selling mislabeled TVs and apparently don't know what they have in inventory doesn't exactly give a consumer a ton of confidence.

-Speculators may be contributing to the rise in food prices. (This is not the first place I've read this. Hey, they had to do something once the real estate/credit mess hit the fan.) Unsurprisingly, the speculators claim otherwise.

-Use medical marijuana, be ineligible for life saving organ transplants. One more reason to support the War on Drugs!

-But Senator Webb, you act like the President should care what happens to the troops!

-No cell phones for the preggers- now they're bad for the babies too. *rolls eyes*
Any bets on how long before people are as sanctimonious about pregnant vessels using cell phones as they about them having the occasional glass of wine?

-Cuba's government blames US for internet restrictions. Unfortunately, he just might have a point if we're refusing to let them use underseas cables. Look, this is Stupid. Yes, with a capital S. We fought a bloody, nasty war with Vietnam, but we still do business with them. So why is Cuba special? Why are we NOT doing business with Cuba? Oh, right, I forgot. A bunch of whiners in Florida who expect to own the island when the Castro government falls. And have been waiting for forty years. Cause following their lead has worked out beautifully so far...

And something funny to finish: 14 tons of Oreos spilled on IL highway. Sadly, there are no pictures. ETA No pictures, but there's video! (Thanks, cheekybaby!)

Hey, at least it's not in the Style section

On the heels of yesterday's Style article about how the ladies are paid less in the science and tech sector, the Boston Globe says there are so few women in hard science and tech cause the girls just aren't interested.

And then fails utterly to examine both societal conditioning and the abysmal attitudes of the male of the species that might feed that "lack of interest". But there I go with the crazy talk again. I mean, why would a girl who actually likes science or tech NOT want to go into a field where every damn day is a fight to be taken seriously, you constantly wonder if you're being treated fairly (and I mean a whole lot more than just the pay), work/life balance is set and determined by the guys- and largely driven by the basement dwelling subset who are willing to work round the clock fuelled by Jolt and takeout.

Basically, there's a vicious sexist undercurrent in the science/tech sector. But as we're seeing in the primary campaign, overt sexism is still accepted as normal in society in a way racism isn't*, which means that fighting subtle sexism is correspondingly more difficult. I say all this as a girl who is interested, but is starting to think that I should do something else. I'm smart enough that I can probably get paid well to do something that would involve a lot less battle on my part. And fighting that battle is just exhausting.

*I'm not playing Oppression Olympics here. Both are still alive and kicking, and given what I've heard when a certain type of person assumes they're among "their own", I know darn well that racism is as nasty as ever. But we're to the point where overt racism isn't acceptable in polite society, whereas all too often, overt sexism is, and God help you if you say anything about it, you humorless feminist bitch. If you can't even fight the overt stuff, you're screwed when it comes to the subtle version.

Whistling more than "Dixie"

Majikthise has an excellent post on McCain throwing out dog whistles to the right wing fringe regarding judicial appointments. But she doesn't go far enough. McCain isn't dogwhistling Roe-which would mean abortion. McCain specifically dogwhistled Griswold-contraception. For those who live in ignorance, that's what the real objective of the so-called "pro-life" movement-which actually not for life, but against choice. They want to outlaw contraception too. They want to go back to a time when biology was destiny, and every sex act carried with it the risk of ruining or ending a woman's life, and many children were not wanted children, but punishments their mothers could not escape. That's their goal. This isn't about life, it's about control.

edit Darn it, while I was writing this post up, Lindsay edited her post, and changed the direction of it considerably. It's still worth reading, but it now largely ignores the Griswold/Roe issue.

No depth too low to sink to...

Oh. My. God.

Nope, no need for regulation or oversight. And we'll no doubt be appalled at the "unforeseen consequences" which will be explained as the actions of "a few bad apples". Hey, as long as we don't believe in regulation, why not just eliminate drug trials altogether? We'll just let the pharma companies write up press releases.

The sick part is, I'm sure the people involved in this think they're good people. The people who will run these tests and willfully let people suffer and die will tell themselves it's for the greater good.

P365r2, Day 9

I am the fear that frightens me
Originally uploaded by grundy12

I'm not entirely clear on what species of stinging wasp like insect this is. I got close enough to take the picture. Which is more than I normally do.