A few items nobody has posted about:
- After dragging their feet, hemming and hawing, scratching their heads, thinking it over, and generally stalling, TLC finally cancelled 19 Kids and Counting. The cherry on top is that TLC is going to air a commercial-free documentary about child abuse in partial atonement for their advancement of pedophilia. That will be an interesting change from the commercial-laden documentaries of child abuse that are normally featured on that channel.
- A recently published study shows that 95% of women who have had an abortion do not regret it. (Here’s the paper.) I’ll bet the number of parents who don’t regret having kids is somewhere south of 95%, but I have no science to back that up.
- Here’s some foreshadowing for the 401K generation in the US: the rate of elder crime is higher than the rate of teenage crime in Japan and South Korea. [Not really–read the story, but it makes a nice headline.] Yet another argument against cutting Social Security.
Open thread for the common man.
NotMax
Hyperbole generator redlining?
Baud
I wonder if men-only threads will become a BJ tradition.
ruemara
@Baud: probably not
Baud
@ruemara:
But I’ve already broken out the cigars and cognac.
gelfling545
It varies from day to day, I suspect.
Bobby B.
Will that commercial-free program be like the lonnnng commercial for animal charities, where the puppy is shown staring in slow motion?
Yukoner
Okay, here is a good news feel-good story from Vancouver.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/disabled-undercover-cop-waits-for-robbers-in-vancouver-but-only-finds-kindness
constitutional mistermix
@Baud: It’s like a fanfare, without orchestra.
dubo
Today I am pondering that there is a thinkpiece to be written relating the fact that the confederacy was an evil shithole that waged a remarkably unsuccessful and devastating war and is now remembered as great and noble only because of a rigorous rightwing campaign of revisionist history, to the fact that Reagan was an evil shithead that waged a remarkably unsuccessful and devastating presidency and is now remembered as great and noble only because of a rigorous rightwing campaign of revisionist history
sharl
Some days, the informal ad-hoc entity that self-identifies as Irony Twitter produces some fine content – at least for us irony-likers – such this series of linked tweets from Will Menaker (starts here):
He does this same shtick over at Medium. At both sites he has had many outraged critics. He apparently finds their tears delicious.
Tommy
@gelfling545: I just got off the phone with my parents. They are normally three hours away across the state. In town almost house/dog sitting for my brother. They are calling me like every hour asking me to do stuff with them. They are my parents and I love them loving me.
NonyNony
That’s a funny way to spell “pregnancy addiction”. Or “child abuse”.
“19 Kids and Counting” is all about trying to normalize the sexual kinks of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. I’m not generally down on people’s sexual kinks – whatever floats your boat – but I draw the line when your kinks start to damage other people. And a number of those 19 kids seem to have been damaged by Jim Bob and Michelle’s combination of pregnancy fetish and Leave It To Beaver cosplay. It’s fairly sick, and TLC really should do more than run a documentary to make up for it.
smintheus
This from the legislative aide to Republican my state Senator (Pat Browne, PA), whom I was pressing today for answers about the idiotic ‘Jerry Sandusky law’ he had supported. The law was passed before the last election when Republicans feared they’d be blamed for not arresting Sandusky sooner. It spread the blame around, specifically requiring college faculty to get multiple criminal background checks on a regular basis, just in case they’re tempted to abuse a 17-year-old student in their class. The aide couldn’t identify any actual cases of college faculty doing that in PA, or explain why some underage college students were exempted from the provision but others were not. So she finally just snapped at me, and added that Sen. Browne is all about protecting children.
Sen. Browne has been arrested multiple times for drunk driving, including a few months ago. So much for other people’s safety.
mai naem mobile
I know several women who’ve had early stage abortions. None regret it. Its even more so with the chemical.abortions. None of these women are promiscuous. Shit happens. Kids are expensive. You don’t expect the guy to stay with you. Your job not only doesn’t give you maternity leave but will try to find a way to fire you. Why don’t the right to lifers fix that?
Roger Moore
@dubo:
There may be such a thinkpiece to be written, but something tells me you’ll have a hard time finding a publisher.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
for the common man?
Tommy
@sharl: Many years ago, like 2005 I got a PPT deck emailed to me. Open it up and beautiful pics. Stunning really. Of an advanced society. Not backwards. A place I think I could feel comfortable in. It was only at the end it was noted it was Iran. I always think of this when I think of the nation and what we’re all saying.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
Because they don’t think those are problems. They think the problem is that women are allowed agency, and they want to do anything to stop it.
shortstop
TLC is doing no atoning; what it is doing is trying to have it both ways. That “documentary” features none other than the two married Duggar sisters — the ones who’ve been pulling the best ratings the last couple of years for that family freak show.
ThresherK (GPad)
“The number of parents who don’t regret having kids is south of 95%”…
I may be a bit waterlogged, but I am having trouble reading this. I take it to mean, % of parents who don’t regret having more children, when they’re acting crazy and rambunctious, because kids do that?
Heliopause
Wouldn’t matter if 95% did regret it, entirely beside the point.
shortstop
@ThresherK (GPad): It just means fewer than 95% of parents have zero regrets about choosing to have children at all.
Tommy
@Heliopause: I as a male am always stunned by abortion talk. At most levels it is none of my business. I bet a women I had sex with, and we always use protection, has had an abortion I didn’t know of. That makes me feel strange to say, but assume it is a fact. Women ought to be able to control their own bodies. Period!
shortstop
@Heliopause: It’s useful, though, to take down a currently hot talking point. The anti-choicers have been trotting out women in videos and on the speaking circuit to talk about how much they regret their abortions; the implication, and sometimes the baldly stated falsehood, is that most women who’ve had an abortion feel this way. I’m all for disarming the hydra-like memes, even if it doesn’t get to the heart of whether this should remain a legal right.
ThresherK (GPad)
@shortstop: Ahhh. Put that way it’s clear, thanx.
Me fail English? That’s unpossible!
AliceBlue
I count myself as one of the 95%–I had an abortion in 1976 and haven’t had one moment of regret. I was unemployed and getting out of a relationship with a man who was alcoholic and physically abusive–I didn’t want any connection to him.
shortstop
@efgoldman: That’s for sure. But, because right wingers tend to be unimaginative, they obediently repeat the choice talking points. Remember a few years back when they claimed that abortion raises the chances of getting breast cancer? After assiduous pushback from reasonable people armed with peer-reviewed science, they hardly ever bring that one up anymore.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m on the road — tonight in Albany, NY — and here are a couple of Postcards From the Road:
1. As I drove through NYState, I noticed a sign saying CATSKILL ANIMAL SANCTUARY. Gotta love Irony like that.
2. Am in the lounge of my hotel, recovering from a 400-mile drive today, and a guy at the bar asked the server to change the TV channel to FOX News. I shuddered and gritted my teeth, but said nothing because I didn’t wwant to get into a Thing. But yeeechh. Guy finally left, I asked the server if she kindly change TV to something, ANYTHING that wasn’t FOX News. To my surprise, a different guy at the bar thanked me profusely. Makes me wonder just how much of FNC’s much-vaunted “viewership” consists of people like me and Guy #2, who are too polite (or too timid) to make a fuss.
I should add — if I came in and saw that the TV was on FOX, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask if anybody minded changing the channel. But I was reluctant to confront the dude who specifically asked for it.
sharl
@dubo: There are some stories from the antebellum South that need greater exposure, and an account like that which you suggest would help serve that purpose.
The recent Charleston church terrorism, and some exchanges in Billmon’s twitter feed, inspired me to look up a dimly remembered account (from Ken Burns’ Civil War series) of what happened in Jones County, MS during that war. I found this fascinating account of the Free State of Jones and its leader Newton Knight. What happened there is that state and local official government and associated aristocracy starved and tortured into submission some small time farmers and workers who saw the Glorious Southern War Against Northern Aggression for the evil scam it was, particularly with respect of just which folks were actually sent to fight and die. I wonder how many other such ‘free states’ existed for some fleeting time before they were ruthlessly snuffed out?
It would also be good that slavery in the North got more attention. It died due to unfavorable economics ultimately, not because northerners were inherently more noble than southerners. Though before it died, it was largely slave labor that built early New York City. There are a number of other accounts of slavery in the north, but I guess it must be a rather uncomfortable narrative for those capable of amplifying the message, relative to what passes for conventional “wisdom”.
NonyNony
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have gotten into the habit of asking wait staff or bartenders to change channels to ESPN even though I’m not a huge sports fan. When someone asks to change it to news, they usually say “sorry, someone already asked for sports” and leave it alone. If it’s on ESPN when I get there, I’ve found that I can make an objection if they change it off (“Hey, I was watching that!”) and they’ll flip it back. Even if ESPN is showing something abysmally stupid like “Around the Horn”, it’s better than Fox News.
SiubhanDuinne
@NonyNony:
I agree. I just wasn’t in the mood to be confrontational so I let it be until the guy departed.
sharl
@SiubhanDuinne: Hey, I haven’t been around here much since we met on Tuesday – it was a real pleasure, and an enjoyable evening for my normally hermit-like self!
If it weren’t for exposure to FOX when I visit family back in Ohio, I would never know that Al Sharpton is King of the Black People. So, yanno, it must be some kind of educational network or sumpin’…
Drive safely!
David Koch
I hope you post more often. You are missed.
Perhaps you could do a write up a review on Obama’s plan for high speed internet for low income people.
NonyNony
@SiubhanDuinne:
I know what you’re saying, but I’ve found that so long as its sports nobody thinks you’re being confrontational if you ask them to change the channel/change it back. If its anything other than sports, Fox News viewers get defensive and confrontational about your desire to not listen to Bill O’Reilly spew garbage while you drink. But if its sports they back off and let sports trump Fox News (I suspect because 100% of the time the person asking for the channel to be changed is a guy and by making it about sports then if he is perceived as “not wanting to watch sports” it’s a challenge to his masculinity and so he doesn’t raise a fuss less he look insufficiently masculine. It took me longer to hit upon this scheme than it should have, but now I don’t hesitate to use it in every restaurant I walk into.)
Kathleen
@sharl: Jon Stewart interviewed an author of a book about resistance to the Confederacy in Mississippi.. I tried googling it without specific title or author (neither of which I remember) and had no luck. It sounds like a fascinating book.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: “Kill” is old Dutch for “river.”
shortstop
@efgoldman: I get it; fighting back is hard. Is your preferred alternative to just let all this go unchallenged? With the huge rollback of access to safe, legal abortion going on in so many states?
sharl
@Kathleen: You might find your book title at the end of the Wikipedia entry for Jones County MS (“Further Reading”). The one link I tried gave me a ‘404’ error – no such site found – so there may be some link rot going on elsewhere there. But at least the book titles are provided.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
@Gin & Tonic:
Oh, yes, there are plenty of them. Catskill, Fishkill, Peekskill, Wallkill, and many more in this (Old Dutch) part of the world.
rikyrah
@Tommy:
Enjoy them, Tommy.
Origuy
The BBC is showing a series about British slave owners. When slavery was abolished in 1833, 46,000 slave owners were paid for the loss of their property. The amount of 20 million pounds was paid out, about 70 billion pounds in today’s money. Not all were aristocrats; there were widows and clergymen who owned a slave or two that they’d never seen. At least one was the mixed-race son of a plantation owner who was educated in England and inherited his father’s plantation.
Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners
SiubhanDuinne
@NonyNony:
The thing is, the guy said “Hey, wouldja change the channel to FOX?” At which point, it would have been churlish at best, and foolhardy at worst, for me to suddenly pipe up and say “NO! Give me ESPN!”
I may be opinionated, but I’m not masochstic, let alone suicidal.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
That is cool. I miss both my parents.
Ruckus
@mai naem mobile:
Because then women wouldn’t have to suffer as much for being the evil half of humanity.
/religious moron
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Not to forget what was the largest landfill (and at one point the largest man-made thing ever made), Fresh Kills, on Staten Island.
FlipYrWhig
@SiubhanDuinne: don’t forget the pride of Philly, the Schuylkill River! I think that’s how it’s spelled…
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
So you were in the same room as DougJ?
;)
Kathleen
@sharl: Thank you, sharl!
SiubhanDuinne
@sharl:
Nor have I! Busy/lazy yesterday, and dinner with friends last evening, and on the road for ~400 miles today.
I didn’t get a whiff of hermithood from you, but it was lovely to meet you and all the other Juicers who came out to play. Elizabelle and I have reviewed the photos and have selected a few to forward to Anne Laurie, who will (we hope) put them up soon so that everyone else can Ooh and Ahh and be all jealous.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
:-)
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Since it is closed, all the trash is now shipped to South Carolina. Can’t think of a better place, frankly.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
@FlipYrWhig:
Or the Pride of Alabama, the Mockingbirdkill.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@sharl:
Actually, what ended slavery in the North was activist judges:
https://www.masshist.org/endofslavery/index.php
The fact that it was ultimately unviable economically helped, but it was a series of court cases by slaves suing for their freedom that caused slavery to be outlawed in free states.
shortstop
@efgoldman: Peer-reviewed science was but a small part of what’s been mentioned and roundly pooh-poohed by you in this thread. You’re kind of giving Eeyore a run for his money tonight. That’s not like you, so that’s why I’m asking.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Fixed that for ya, efg.
SWMBO
If you need a feel good or happy ending video today, there’s this:
http://www.stemcellsafari.com/stem-cell-safari-blog.html
sharl
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Point taken, although – as the Cherokee tribe discovered – a favorable court decision, even if it is the Supreme Court, needs someone who will actually act on that decision. And if more powerful constituencies feel that their financial oxes would be gored, so to speak, then a swell fella like Andrew Jackson might just be there to help them by ignoring such a pesky verdict.
Your link looks interesting, and I’m going to go through it. But in addition to looking for discussion of social and cultural components that would have distinguished Massachusetts from the South of that time, and contributed to this course of events, I hope I’ll find a discussion of the economic component as well.
History is complex and multifaceted thang.
shortstop
@efgoldman:
Yes, ef, I know that. I give up. Good night and here’s to better communication tomorrow.
Tommy
@shortstop: Hate you are in a bar in a small town. Can I suggest you go outside and walk around. Might be some nice stuff around.
Tommy
@shortstop: My mom and dad. Heck my grandparents. They all had PhDs after their names. I wasn’t allowed to say stupid shit. If you and the person you are debating the Science Method with were in my house as kids we’d have some fun. Actually some fun today we still debate the world around us.
shortstop
@Tommy: That’s Siubhan. I’m outside in a big city walking a hound who’s incredibly interested in some rabbit warren-looking holes in the neighbors’ yard.
@efgoldman: Now that was funny. G’night for real (not Waiting for Godot real) this time. Sweet dreams to all.
Steeplejack
@Tommy:
Not sure this is the best advice for an unescorted woman, and I believe it’s SiubhanDuinne who was commenting from the lounge of her hotel.
ms_canadada
@dubo: I think you’re correct.
Tommy
@Steeplejack: Well two things. I responded to the wrong person. My bad.
Second I never thought for a second that a women shouldn’t walk around town.
Steeplejack
@Tommy:
Late at night, in a strange town, outside a bar? Maybe not the best strategy. Women have safety concerns that we as men often forget.
Lee
FYI about that 95% number. There is some selection bias with that number. Only 37% responded of those 37%, 95% did not regret it.
So the only ones that chose to respond might be the ones that didn’t regret it.
Nutella
@Lee:
On the other hand, there may have been selection bias that caused a higher percentage who did regret it to answer.
Hard to say which way it falls without doing a controlled study.