budget cuts that hit the most vunerable?!

we realize that we have been focusing on women's issues lately, but hotstuff and hotpants are card-carrying feminists (and margaret was definitely going down that road too ;)), so it's hard not to, and you're gonna have to agree w/ me on this one:

WTF?! king county is cutting the domestic violence unit? serious WTF! quote from a kuow interview:
"SERGEANT JOHN URQUHART...CALLS THE CLOSURE OF THE COUNTY'S TEN–YEAR–OLD DOMESTIC VIOLENCE UNIT A MONUMENTAL CUTBACK TO A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM... 44% OF WOMEN IN KING COUNTY EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THEIR LIFE TIMES... IT IS ESTIMATED THAT APPROXIMATELY 80,000 KING COUNTY CHILDREN ARE EXPOSED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EVERY YEAR."

there are many reasons why someone may be abusive, but one of the reasons is not having a job ... ummm job loss... yeah... there seems to be some of that going around these days.

i'm not sure how to fight this, but if you have an idea, let us know.

link to the kuow interview transcript
CDC fact sheet on intimate partner violence
more info on domestic violence

designers in sheep's clothing????

One of the things that I look forward to every week is Slate Magazine's Political Gabfest Podcast. While some of the people on the show (ehem John Dickerson and sometimes David Plotz) are slightly annoying, the content is usually very good and well informed.

This week on top of talking about the many political in's and out's that have been happening with the Obama transition and terrorists attacks in India, they also very briefly touched on an article in Slate about the call by Women's Wear Daily for designers to design dresses for Michelle Obama. What is interesting about looking at these designs and what was pointed out by the author of the article is that for many of the designers it seems that they are incapable of drawing a stylish and sexy African-American women (some make her look mad, some make her look like Condoleezza Rice, and some even seriously make her like white). While we have come so far in terms of racism and sexism in this country, it is moments like this that make me wonder if what we've done is just push the tendencies below the surface to simmer. Does making sexism and racism less visible eventually lead to it actually going away?

Slate Political Gabfest

Article in Slate

Designs for Michelle Obama

thank god for Nina Simone

i am in one of those moods when i'm grateful for so much (friends, family, location, nature, nurture and luck), but if i had to narrow it down: thank good god almighty for nina simone.

she is the antidote to the last post. she was a strong, smart, talented and complex woman. she continues to inspire me every time i put her music on and she also connects me to some of my favorite people in the world. love to you nina. may your music live on and on.

wiki entry for nina

a great performance

my favorite track: in the morning


lyrics (say in the top right hand corner again nina!):
IN THE MORNING
(1966) Barry Gibb

In the morning when the moon is at its rest,
you will find me, at the time I love the best
watching rainbows play on sunlight;
pools of water ice cream cold light,in the morning.
yeah yeah yeah
its the morning of my life.

In the daytime I will meet you as before.
You will find me *waiting by the ocean floor,
building castles in the shifting sands
in a world that nobody understands,
In a morning.
it's* the morning of my life
'Tis the morning of my life

In the morning of my life
the minutes take so long to drift away
Please be patient with your life
It's only morning and you're still to live your day

In the ev'ning I will fly you to the moon
To the top right hand corner of
the ceiling in my room
Where we'll stay till the sun shines
Another day lay on clothes lines
I'll be yawning
It is the morning of my life
This is* the morning of my life

Sperm Wars???

When I was a mere college student I wrote this little thing I like to refer to as my thesis. Probably not surprisingly to many of you, I wrote it about a topic which integrated my love of psychology, feminist studies, science in society, and etymology. That thesis was about the gendered representations of sperm in both the scientific and popular literature on sperm competition theory.

For those unfamiliar with this theory, the basic premise is that there needs to be an evolutionary reason for the amount of deformed sperm in the ejaculate of mammals. So this theory was derived all about how females are inherently and biologically driven to be promiscuous (a loaded word if I have ever heard one) and men have to fight for their god given biological right to spread their seed, not only in attempting to mate with females, but also on a micro level in female reproductive systems. Females are portrayed as devious, thwarting, and promiscuous. Males are just trying their hardest to spawn given these evil, devious females they have to deal with.

Why I bring this up is that 6 years after writing my thesis and even publishing an article about it, sperm competition is back and as gendered as ever in a new episode of RadioLab (which if you haven't ever heard of, you are totally missing out). So take a moment, and listen to their representations of sperm competition theory and tell me, why do old white male evolutionary biologists always have to portray the female species as either completely passive receptacles or devious, mischievous, and promiscuous???

Listen or Download the RadioLab Episode

Not terribly accurate representation of Sperm Competition at Wikipedia

Review of one of the popular books on Sperm Competition

ouch in my mouth?

ug. canker sores. according to the internets:

"Anyone can get canker sores, but women and people in their teens and 20s get them more often. Canker sores may run in families, but they aren't contagious. Doctors don't know what causes canker sores, but they may be triggered by stress, poor nutrition, food allergies and menstrual periods."

well at least i know i didn't get them from one of you...

Tell us something we don't know!

So in an interview with Charlie Gibson our most fantastic President Bush finally admitted that he was not prepared for the war in Iraq, was sorry about the economic crisis, and thought that his presidency probably helped elect Barack Obama! I mean the final two of these seem pretty obvious. He should be sorry about the economic crisis, and hells yeah he probably helped to elect Obama (one of the only good things he has done in my opinion). But to say that he was unprepared for the war in Iraq now, after years of his "we need to stay the course" and "we are winning" rhetoric, WTF???? It is always good to be reflective of the deeds you have done, but couldn't he have reflected a bit earlier? Wouldn't a little reflection have potentially helped us deal with this insane war earlier?

Click here to see a transcript from this interview

why didn't i think of this scam?

check this out:
NYT article about genetic testing for sports ability

next it's gonna be will your child be a doctor, lawyer or teacher?