Pandagon

I think Bob Beckel is supposed to be the "liberal" on The Five on Fox News, though their idea of "liberal" on that channel seems to be "someone who thinks perhaps, in some cases, bosses shouldn't be allowed to hold your children hostage in order to compel you to work late without pay". Not that it matters much one way or another, but just a little context for this moment that Media Matters captured:

This item is a little old, but I wanted to flag it because it really gets to the heart of the debate about what sexual consent is. Feminists are increasingly clamoring for an affirmative consent standard, where someone has to indicate, through language or body language, an actual desire to have sex. I call it the "only kiss people who are kissing you back" standard. Anti-feminists disagree, arguing that feminists are trying to label all men rapists or police sex or some other horseshit. Here's a piece I wrote kind of detailing out my problems with that argument, mostly that it's a strawman and that assuming someone is automatically in a state of consent unless they phrase their refusals just so is not held for any other intimate behavior, such as allowing people in your home or allowing people to watch your children, and just for sex. Which is to say anti-feminists are actually arguing that the barrier for someone barging into your house should be higher than for them barging into your body. (And considering how most of them are anti-abortion, it follows that they believe the barrier for to force someone to have a baby should be lower than to force yourself into their house to sit on their couch.) Which is fucked up, to say the least.

You only get medical care if you stand very still and never do anything beyond the bare minimum to survive, said no doctor ever.

Another brave American, who is totally brave because guns make you big and brave and manly through osmosis, has taken another life:

From the Dallas Observer and Talking Points Memo it appears that some of the "open carry" extremists are little worried we don't get the implication when they scream about how the Democratic President is illegitimate and all their lip-flapping about how they need guns for some fantasized-about revolution. So, just in case we aren't getting the hint, this group called Come and Take It Dallas went to Dealey Plaza to have an open carry demonstration. Yes, that's where President John Kennedy was shot. Yes, I think we get the message.

What if I told you some women actually wanted to have sex for non-baby reasons?

The California drought is highlighting a number of serious problems that our country has let fester for decades, including global warming and casual disregard for the limits of our resources. This story in particular just really demonstrates how this kind of catastrophe was inevitable, a product of a culture that has made a virtue out of exploiting the environment and doesn't know how to change course now that the piper is demanding payment.

Damn bspencer at LGM for drawing my attention to this long form "kids these days" rant about modern art. John C. Wright is mad at the lefty kids these days because their P.C. bullshit means art cannot be beautiful anymore blah blah blah. You've probably heard it before, but one relevant quote: "Have you, dear reader, read anything discussing beauty, putting forth a coherent theory of beauty, or even extolling beauty’s central importance of the human soul in a year? In 10 years? Ever? This may be the only essay you will read on the topic this decade, and yet the topic is one of paramount importance."

Cut it out, Jesus. You're making your followers look bad.

I have to imagine most of you, except of course our right wing trolls, are as appalled and even depressed at the display of raw racist hatred that has been emanating from the right in recent weeks with regards to the exploding number of unaccompanied minors migrating to the U.S., usually to escape severe poverty or violent persecution in Mexico and Central and South America. To hear conservative pundits and politicians tell of it, migrant children are only here because they want to rape white women and give diseases to white men while cackling evilly at how they tricked us all by being, you know, children. I'll leave it to the more academically minded to parse out all the various sociological research about the reactionary approach to youth, race and ethnicity, etc. that is feeding into this disgusting display of pure inhumanity towards these extremely vulnerable young people.

In response to a Rolling Stone profile of Larry Pratt, the head of Gun Owners of America, Media Matters asks an important question: Why is Pratt being treated like an expert guest on cable news? This is not an idle question, as Pratt has been on cable news networks, most notably CNN, a total of 13 times since the Sandy Hook shooting. This is alarming, because Pratt is the fringe-iest of the fringe, as Media Matters summarizes.

Stop talking about equality! You're making us all look bad!