Category Archives: Uncategorized

When there’s blood on the streets

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buy property, is the saying.

Or if you’re a completely amoral investment group*, put your money in the four horsemen (war, famine, pestilence and plague).

Kleptocrats be betting on our demise. Fuckers.

Note also that it is giant monoculture farming that turns long-held family farms into “subsistence” farmers at best and unemployed city-dwellers who no longer own their own means of production at worst.

* is there any other kind of investment group? They’re all economic vampires, even the “good” ones.

Link Farming! Vitamin V! Imperialist Holidays!

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It’s the cusp of the most patriotic of days here in the old USofA. Ugh. I’d be happier spending the weekend in another country (July 4th getting drunk in the alley behind the Pantheon was pretty damn awesome) but I have lovely friends and a hot boyfriend and a kick ass kid and vodka tonic makings. So (as a lovely friend once put it) let’s all celebrate Happy Inter-dependance Day!!!!

Sasha says “Fuck you” to uber-privileged feminists who say fuck you to low income women (full disclaimer, I briefly flirted the the New Agenda idea during the primary bull-shit, but there was a better choice than Palin in the election. Namely Cynthia McKinney, who I didn’t have to contort or subvert my beliefs to vote for).

Today marks the start of a mass hunger strike at California’s Pelican Bay prison over solitary confinement. Yes, we are still using that abysmal tactic. Yes it’s still torture. And it’s just as bad when it’s inflicted on (mostly) men of color as it is when it’s inflicted on Bradley Manning.

s.e. smith has a great post up at Tiger Beatdown on austerity in Greece vs. California. Part of me wonders if the urban planners of yesteryear specifically eliminated the town square from American life so that there would be less opportunity for mass protest. We don’t have a Tahrir Square here.

Social psychology is pretty damn cool, yo! Try reading these blogs for fun and entertainment. You Are Not So Smart and Tools for Changing the World

It’s Canada Day! Go give a Canadian a hard time about their lying meat. Canadian bacon- it’s really just ham. (Don’t really give Renee a hard time, she’s awesome.)

Now, since it is officially afternoon, I can drink a refreshing vodka tonic without being an alcoholic (though what is my excuse for drinking mimosas with brunch?)

Lenin to women: cease your infernal girlish prattle.

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The following gem was mined from my choice of in-flight entertainment, “Socialism: A Very Short Introduction” by Michael Newman*. It concerns an exchange between V.I. Lenin and Clara Zetkin, who was in charge of the Communist International Women’s Secretariat.

[S]oon after the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin admonished [Zetkin] for encouraging women members of the Communist Party to discuss sexual matters, rather than the fact that the ‘first state of proletarian dictatorship is battling with the counter-revolutionaries of the whole world.’ He thus told her, ‘I could not believe my ears’ when informed that ‘at the evenings arranged for reading and discussion with working women, sex and marriage problems came first.’

No matter what the movement, guess who gets to take a number and stand in the back of the line? You got it. If you answer “What have our male comrades ever done for us?” with “diddly fucking squat,” you win a coupon for your own liberation redeemable after the apocalypse.

To a man, they never get it. The vanishingly few who do (Arthur Silber comes to mind) have experienced marginalization, often in several dimensions, and have generalized from that experience, rather than concluding that Oppressions Can Be Ranked and Mine Comes First. The rest will bully, badger, nag, and blame you, but never treat your political aspirations as anything more than a girlish fit of pique.

________________

The book in question: Socialism: A Very Short Introduction

Please allow me to introduce myself

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as the newest Elizabitch of wealth and fame. As the mission of this blog is to provide a platform for Elizabeths to bitch, I should fit right in. I will bring you occasional updates on French politics as well as whatever brilliant insight strays into my mental crosshairs.
I am 48, white and have a son. My newest marriage is to my oldest friend. Politically I have been reverting to a feral leftist state; since 2008 I have made myself unwelcome in respectable liberal circles. I live in Paris (which is far less glamourous than it sounds, as evidenced by the pool of piss outside the office door this morning), am usually The Girl in whatever software shop employs me and, like millions of women, blend quietly into the background of patriarchy–until I open my mouth.
Thank you for allowing me to be a contributor. May you never have to call security on me.

TRIGGER WARNING: Another “false” rape claim, more open season on women

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It seems that the case against the former head of the IMF is about to fall apart because of credibility issues with the complainant. There are reports that she lied on her immigration paperwork about serious issues, such as being raped in her country or origin, and may have been involved with organized crime.

The comments on that article deserve a trigger warning. They’re horrible. The old tropes about ‘half of rape accusations are false’ and ‘women are all lying whores’ and all that.
Even though the FBI consistently pegs “unfounded” rape accusations at 8%. That “unfounded” category isn’t just “false,” but cases in which the evidence is inconclusive. Or police and prosecutors can’t make a winnable case.
With apologies to those police officers and prosecutors who truly care about justice for rape victims, there are too many of their colleagues who still harbor the prejudice that women invite rape or make up false claims and treat complainants thusly. When was the last time you heard of a cop berating a man for wearing an expensive watch or driving an expensive car, as though it were inviting people to steal it?
What all of this means for the two people most closely involved, I don’t know. I know what it means for the rest of us: better not have the misfortune to be in the presence of a rapist. No matter what happened, you made it up because that’s what us lying whores do.
When does it STOP being open season on women?
ETA: I should really correct the above. If you have the misfortune to be in the presence of a rapist, you’d better be perfect if you want justice. Never lied. Never sinned. Never flirted. Never had sex, or if you did, only in the missionary position with your husband/lord/master. Whether the maid in this case lied about the rape allegation or didn’t (and if the news reports are correct, she probably did), what the result means for the rest of us is that only those women who can meet the impossibly high Pure Woman Standard (TM) will be judged credible. The rest of us, who’ve led lives, stumbled, picked ourselves up again, flirted, dated, drank, made mistakes, and otherwise fully engaged the world around us, are screwed.

Evening song and NOOZ

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The Boyfriend is coming over (w00t w00t) so you all get a mushy song.

I blame Sylvie for making me like Band of Horses. Same with Miike Snow. Damn her.

Oh and in NOOZ- Timmy fucking Geithner is planning on leaving the Obama administration. I am way to hip and cynical to think Obama might try getting someone to take that position who doesn’t walk around with a brown nose and toilet paper holster courtesy of the financial vampires. Gawkerites think Jamie “the poors are so mean, they call me names when all I did was ruin their lives and their children’s lives” Dimon.

At this point I think the pubic hair on Clarence Thomas’ coke can has a better grasp of real economics. (Well it’s not so much that the douchenoodles don’t grasp economics, it’s that they don’t care if they burn down multitudes of communities as long as their friends get big fat bonus checks and pay no taxes).

I am now going to resume my good mood. Vodka tonics in 3…2…1