Pandagon

Jamaican MP: concerned that 'violent gays' are allowed gun licenses

Well, damn. Gays need to arm themselves in a country that has a government that condones violence against them. Seriously, Jamaica is a hellhole of homophobia, so when elected officials open their mouths, it's not a surprise when deranged anti-gay hysteria spills out.

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Reimagining the news

Here's a fundamental difference between the right wing blogosphere that's fading in influence and the liberal blogosphere that's gaining---we feel completely different about the profession of journalism, even if many people in that profession don't necessarily see it. I realized yesterday that I've been in this world for five years now, which means that I was around when we liberal bloggers felt like a small group of outrageous dissenters pushing back against the insanely huge and disturbed right wing blogosphere, which means that I had to witness all their bloviating about how they were "citizen journalists" who would topple the evil liberal media by blogging a lot about how awesome and manly they were sitting behind their computers wearing camouflage pajamas to "support" the troops. Real soldiers were going to take down Saddam Hussein, and the 101st Fighting Keyboardists would take down the "liberal" media that did them the favor of helping them get their war, but would occasionally publish pieces that weren't Dubya blow jobs, and therefore the "liberal" media had to go. But that's okay; right wing bloggers would publish all the news you need to know, because they can reprint White House press releases, too.

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New carnival

Thanks to Renee at Womanist Musings for alerting me to the Women of Color Carnival. Lots of good reading over there, so check it out.

Outraged or just disgusted?

The hits keep on coming with octuplet mother Nadya Suleman, who published photos of her disturbingly distended pregnant belly, provoking another round of ill-placed outrage and half-hearted feminist defenses like this one. It is indeed fascinating how people are stuck in moral outrage mode over Suleman, when it seems to me the proper response is compassion for her not even remotely hidden mental health issues that her poor family can't cope with. But it does draw up something I've thought about a lot, which is how our moral responses are conflated with feelings of disgust, and indeed many people have a lot of trouble telling the difference from feeling disgusted with something and feeling morally outraged about it.

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WV: Fake 'gay sniper' video targeting families, spreads paranoid, hate-filled victim meme

This is sick, and it shows the desperation of the Right to begin its 2010 campaign in West Virginia on the backs of LGBTs. They can't run on the economy, the war or just about anything else, so it's back to the homo strawman. This is the stellar work of wv4marriage.com. Christy Hardin Smith at FDL and WVBlue:

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The partisan nature of bipartisanship

I want to add to some things Jesse said about this huge concern for consensus that's sprung up in the media under the pretense that they've always been all about bipartisanship. Agreed with Jesse across the board---seeking consensus is a juvenile, naive tactic that just exposes you to obstructionism, as we've seen these past few weeks.

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A Conversation With Myself

"Self," I said to myself, "what's something you haven't done recently?"

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Rebranding won't help: bloody Blackwater is now 'Xe'

With a record in Iraq of uncontrolled violence as a U.S. security contractor, NC-based Blackwater Worldwide decided it needed a facelift, as if a name-change would wash away its record. Bzzzzzt.

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Fundie wear

Yesterday I received this image from reader Kyle in Nashville, who said:

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Get Your Geek On

Don't forget that Sunday is Game With Bloggers Day for Xbox 360, specifically play Rock Band 2 with myself and Nicholas from Donkeylicious. Festivities start at 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific. I usually play guitar in the game, but if enough people are clamoring for guitar, I'll be happy to just sing, so let me know a) if you're going to play and b) what instrument in comments, so I can decide what I need to do.

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Saturday Battlestar Galactica blogging: Kids, it's exposition time!

As usual, mega-spoilers.

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