ETA: Annnnnndddd….always read the fine print. I was taken in by a fake news story at a parody site. Mea culpa.
I’ll leave this up as (a) a warning to self not to be an idiot, and (b) as a reminder of how hard it is (at least for me), in this election year of our discontent, to tell the difference between what should be obvious parody, and what is.
***************
I’ll start by saying that no state could withstand a characterization drawn only from its most batsh*t crazy denizens. So I apologize in advance for painting the great, diverse and fascinating state of Texas with a broad brush.
I’ll also note that it does matter a bit that so many of the most batsh*t insane Texans seem to end up in state government. What this says about the too many of their fellow citizens* who put them there I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.
Today’s Texan OMG S/HE SAID WUT???!!!! comes from TX state rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Planet Ten), who’s got a problem with the idea of one particular subset of her fellow double-X Americans doing their ladybusiness in public:
Rep. Debbie Riddle requested that the bill be modified to contain some conditions that not all mothers are going to like. Namely, the modified bill states, among other things, that “only women who possess the breast size C-cup or smaller shall be allowed to breastfeed in public areas.” Asked to comment on the discriminatory clause in the bill, Riddle simply stated, “Nature knows what it’s doing.”
I have to say that I really hope that this is somehow a hoax, that Riddle really didn’t say what she’s reported to said. Because here’s where she is described as going next:
She also added, “It’s for the greater good. We already have more than enough distractions when walking the streets, and we don’t need this one as well.”
You know that old line, “when you hit bottom, stop digging?” Riddle apparently does not:
“…everybody knows what happens when a woman with a D-cup size breasts starts breastfeeding her child in the park or on the street. Everybody immediately stops and starts staring.
Riddle also added that“studies have shown that women with bigger breasts are not commonly associated with modest behavior.”
Alright. If the Texan legislator really did say all that (and more! — check out the link!) I got nuthin. Or perhaps, as our legal beagle friends might say, res ipsa loquitur.
Ladles and Jellyspoons, have at it. For me, I despair of the Republic. Or at least that part of it that gave us the Honorable Riddle.
*Somewhere Rousseau — and Jefferson — are weeping.
Image: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Virgin Giving Suck c. 1515
schrodinger's cat
Were Republicans always this stupid?
jacy
I am not commonly associated with modest behavior. Make of that what you will.
kindness
Molly Ivins would have had several years worth of Field Days with the Republicans from her state.
God how I miss her.
Ella in New Mexico
How will the police enforce this?
For years, I wore the wrong bra size. I thought I needed a 38 B, but in actuality, I should have been wearing a 34 C. So I went up a size, but I kinda didn’t like being so bosemly so I later went back to the B Cup for comfort.
Will we now have to hire professional bra fitters to patrol the streets in case some woman is trying to get away with feeding her baby in public under false pretenses?
By the way, it shouldn’t be hard to find these detectives of deceit: I’ve heard a lot of men comment that they’d like to apply for that job. :-)
Big R
What passes for a rational basis for a classification to Republicans will never cease to fascinate me.
A smart AG’s office would decline to defend the statute. Who thinks that Texas will not only defend but appeal the adverse ruling to the Fifth Circuit then seek certiorari?
OzarkHillbilly
What Molly would do with this.
oldster
Riddle also added that“studies have shown that women with bigger breasts are not commonly associated with modest behavior.”
citation from?
Do Republicans know that Maxim is not a peer-reviewed journal?
Alabama Blue Dot
Although I am normally a C cup, when I was nursing babies I was a lot bigger. I imagine most nursing moms are the same, so realistically no one would be able to nurse in public. (Also I would whop it out anytime my baby was hungry but this was back in the 20th century when times were simpler.)
Luthe
Well, it looks like the fine Rep. Riddle has no fear of being considered immodest. My question is, is she talking about one’s original cup size or one’s enhanced cup size? Pregnancy and breastfeeding do result in an increased bosom. And what about women who have had surgical enhancement? Which cup size should they be judged on?
Shantanu Saha
@Big R:
This is Texas we’re talking about. Little chance of that happening.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Why, oh why did nobody hand Joseph a rock while whispering “does she think you’re stupid enough to buy that line of horseshit about being impregnated by God” into his ear.
The USSR was correct in its handling of religion via militant atheism.
Peale
So what is the status of breastfeeding in Texas now? Is it legal and they’re trying to restrict it or is it illegal and they’re trying to make it a somewhat legal?
Feudalism Now!
So the cop issuing a ticket would, what, measure said breast? I can’t even follow this down the rabbit hole too far because it is so stupid I may have sprained something.
Marc
They should use the one on their birth certificate, of course.
bemused
This has to be a parody site. God, I hope so.
father pussbucket
You need to click the “Show Facts” button.
JGabriel
Politicops via Tom Levenson @ Top:
Debbie sounds a little insecure about size. Does she have a gun?
JGabriel
@schrodinger’s cat:
No, but Conservative always were. Republicans just really stepped it up when they went conservative.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@jacy:
Neither am I.
JPL
Wikipedia tells me that In 2016, however, Riddle was unseated in the Republican primary by Valoree Hanson Swanson (born c. 1957) of Houston, who led a four-candidate field with 12,143 votes (52.5 percent). Riddle trailed with 9,176 votes (39.6 percent). Two other contenders held the remaining 7.87 percent of the ballots cast.[2]
I assume Debbie wasn’t conservative enough.
In fairness to Debbie, she was against breastfeeding in public, no matter the size.
OzarkHillbilly
First they came for the ‘D’ cups, then…..
MaryRC
I believe this is actually a joke. Debbie Riddle did have some things to say a few years ago on the subject of breastfeeding in public (it wasn’t “modest”, apparently) but she is no longer a member of the Texas House of Representatives and the site that you quote seems to be one of those fake news parody sites.
Jager
I just sent Mrs. J a text, “Honey, under Texas law with your boobs are illegal.” I got back, “Huh?”
As the nice young lady at Victoria’s Secret said to me the last time I purchased a bra for Mrs. J, “My goodness you’ve been blessed.”
OzarkHillbilly
@JGabriel: No, but she does have small hands.
Hungry Joe
Many, many, MANY years ago a guy dressed as Columbus appeared on local TV news in San Francisco to complain about Native Americans who were protesting a Columbus Day parade. “Why,” he said, “before white people got here, Indians didn’t even know the name of this country!”
My college roommate and I, after a brief discussion, agreed that this would likely be the dumbest statement we’d ever hear.
Ah, youth.
Marc
@MaryRC: She also claimed that crafty Muslims were coming here to have babies and raise them as US citizen terrorists. Long-term planning and mind control!
hamletta
I think that site gave my laptop herpes.
Tom Levenson
@MaryRC: I do hope so. Happy to be taken in
MaryRC
@Marc: That’s right — she was one-half of the Terror Babies duo! Louie Gohmert was the other half. Oh, they were a wild and crazy couple.
Big R
@father pussbucket: Poe’s law in operation claims another victim. Actually quite a few of us, apparently (including me).
bemused
@MaryRC:
It’s not easy to discern parody about republicans from actual Republican lunatics these days. I just read about a Republican from my state who wrote anti transgender bathroom bill and said homosexuals need therapy because they have a mental disorder. Of course, he also said he has homosexual friends and friends who used to be homosexual.
Peale
@Feudalism Now!: Being gay, I haven’t really had much reason to focus on the undergarments of the fairer sex. Is there a tag? Or A BIN number etched inside that can be run against a database to see if the bra was involved in a crime?
maurinsky
I have DD cups and I breastfed both of my kids in public, and no one ever noticed. And I was paying attention, because I was prepared in case someone wanted to challenge my right to feed my baby.
father pussbucket
Pro-life ur doin’ it wrong
JPL
@maurinsky: When we moved to the Atlanta area decades ago, I was in the mall with a son and mentioned that they had a nursing room. I had never seen one of those. He might have been eleven or twelve at the time. He asked where I nursed him, and then realization occurred and he was horrified. lol
raven
My wife is the head of the Community Breastfeeding Coalition, I just emailed it to her!!!
gene108
@Ella in New Mexico:
Men might want to apply, but all actuality men know very little about bras other than trying to get them out of the way ;-)
JPL
@MaryRC: She was against all breastfeeding in public.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
SEE? This is how ridiculous they’ve become. It was totally plausible. Satire is a homicide victim and the most promising suspects are current GOP politicians at all levels.
Barney
As father pussbucket said, but I can’t see much sign of people listening so far: click the ‘Show Facts’ button. This is what ‘newslo.com’ does – embroider a true story with satire.
Benw
So the outcome of such a law would be a bunch of well-endowed, immodest women behind bars together? because I could be okay with that.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Hungry Joe: It was a reasonable belief at the time. But, youth.
Speaking of, I have a downloaded sample of a kids book (alleged) if you want some hilarious reading. By the same author of Elvis Left.
MomSense
@Alabama Blue Dot:
I was going to say that size varied throughout the day depending on the length of time between feedings. The first time my baby slept through the night I woke up looking like Dolly Parton.
Gin & Tonic
@Benw: Wasn’t there a movie like that? I thought I had maybe heard something about it.
Poopyman
@raven:
It takes a village to breast-feed a child?
cokane
This is the same issue you had with that Tim Hunt “sexist” joke, your desire to morally preen overcame your ability to put words in their proper context.
Gin & Tonic
@Poopyman: I don’t know if everyone is aware of it, but these days donating breast milk is actually A Thing. My daughter, who feeds her own child, also produces quite a bit of surplus, which she freezes and donates.
That also means you need to be careful when visiting her and going to get something to eat out of the freezer.
Punchy
@Benw: Throw in a few dozen pillows and cheap underwear, and you can make me Honorary Warden.
raven
Apparently there are secret words in the article about the effort here so it won’t post.
Persuading African-American women to breastfeed proves challenging
JaneE
It may be satire, but with the lunacy coming out of today’s GOP, it is hard to tell. If it is not really hurtful, blatantly untrue, or especially vicious, it is probably satire.
Benw
@Gin & Tonic: if you remember the name, can you let me know? Asking for a friend.
@Punchy: that’s the kind of out of the box thinking that we need to help reform America’s horrible prison situation!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I wonder if part of that is cultural memory handed down through generations that breastfeeding was what poor folk did. Of course now, the marker is in the other direction.
piratedan
@JaneE: and if you replace “or” with “and”, it’s more likely to be reality I fear.
Gin & Tonic
@Benw: I’m thinking that Googling for that reference from a work-owned computer might not be in my best interests. Your, um, friend might have to wait.
Peale
The fact that it could be true is the real scandal (I’m channelling my inner Cokie Roberts here).
Starfish
My favorite version of the image in this post is this animated one.
Frosty in Dalls
As a resident of Texas
it isn’t beyond the pale of the batshit contingent…
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
There’s a breast milk cookbook. You may want to prevent your daughter from finding that out unless you want visits to be horrifyingly squicky.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: I’m just going to put that in the “Things I Didn’t Need to Know” file.
Starfish
@Gin & Tonic: There are various forms of breast milk donation. The legitimate breast milk donation process where you donate to a hospital is really complicated. You have to keep a food journal and keep track of what time of day you pumped and all of that. Most working women who go to donate their spare breast milk after their first year of pumping learn that their milk has not been sufficiently documented to go this route so they have to throw it all away.
There have been donations by some less official methods, and that is worrisome because medications moms are taking, diseases, and allergens can all be passed through the breast milk.
Mnemosyne
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also poor education and poor support. There was a really sad case a few years ago where a young mother was prosecuted for murder because she was trying to breastfeed and not producing enough milk, and she couldn’t get Medicaid appointments for the baby. When stuff like that happens, formula is going to sound a hell of a lot safer for everyone.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat: No, but about 50 years ago a rot set in and it has utterly destroyed them. They are now a conglomeration of racists, bigots, god-botherers, greedheads, and generally stupid people who have no fucking clue how anything works, have no fucking clue about their own long term self interest, and are basically nihilists in the face of people who do know how things work and are interested in everyone’s long term self interest.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
OT, but if you’re still on your WWI kick, there’s a Kindle book called “The Sleepwalkers” that’s $3.99 until Thursday (tomorrow).
Villago Delenda Est
Tom, this is classic Poe’s Law in action. The Rethugs have become so stupid that it’s close to impossible to differentiate parody from reality.
Gin & Tonic
@Starfish: I don’t know about the vetting/screening process, but she donates through a program called Human Milk 4 Human Babies. I know nothing about the program because it’s her business, not mine, but she is a careful and thoughtful mom, so I’m going to assume this is all on the up and up.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): It’s also the impact of the formula companies.
Here’s a UK view
How the billion pound formula industry hijacked breastfeeding
raven
@Mnemosyne: thx
rikyrah
He has to repair the damage done to his brand.
The only way to do that is to:
a) win the Nomination,
or
b) appear to have won the nomination and have it stolen from him with GOP Convention shenanigans.
Does Trump Want an Exit Ramp?
by BooMan
Wed Mar 30th, 2016 at 02:07:40 PM EST
When it comes to a classic narcissist like Donald Trump, it’s hard to say when (or if) he’ll begin to find the process of running for president so humiliating that he’s tempted to just drop out. He clearly doesn’t care that “respectable” people are routinely calling him a racist and comparing him to some of the most notorious fascist dictators of the 20th-Century. He doesn’t seem to care that the intelligentsia and the media elite are condemning his character and his intelligence. But he’s also obsessed with his image and he’s financially dependent on his brand. His campaign has already cost him business relationships and partnerships, yet that hasn’t tamed or dissuaded him so far.
But, let’s remember what happened to H. Ross Perot, who you might recall dropped out of the race in July 1992 only to reenter it in early October:
Like Trump, Perot was allergic to spending money: he believed that paid advertising was unnecessary as long as he could get on TV as often as he wished. For a time, it worked: He got away with many slip-ups, gaffes and misdeeds because they reinforced his outsider persona. Perot was adept at using the public’s disdain of the news media to deflect criticism. Repeatedly deemed a nut-bag by the press, Perot adopted an appropriate campaign song: the Patsy Cline tune, “Crazy.”
But Perot came to despise the scrutiny brought on by all the free media he sought, and he never truly embraced retail politics to the degree needed to win. Just as Trump has drawn criticism for phoning in his cable-news appearances from his bedroom, Perot preferred to campaign from his Dallas office rather than make personal appearances. And ultimately, his skin proved too thin for the race: When he withdrew in mid-July, he gave various official explanations for the decision. But the one his advisers gave to the New York Times was telling: “[C]ampaign insiders described Mr. Perot as a man obsessed with his image who began to lose interest in the contest when faced with a barrage of critical news reports.” Even when Perot dove back into the race in the fall, he was a busted candidate: in the final five weeks, he left Dallas only for debates and a handful of rallies. After his 1992 loss, Perot’s image never really recovered, and after one more flailing presidential run in 1996, he disappeared from the public eye almost entirely.
Trump’s already getting a little squirrelly. He’s under pressure after his campaign manager was indicted yesterday for battering a Breitbart reporter, and now he’s reneging on his pledge to support the eventual nominee because he feels the RNC has treated him shabbily and he can sense that the party elite are plotting to deny him the nomination at the convention. There’s increasing talk that he could cost the Republicans control of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate.
Sad_Dem
@bemused:
I want to take a camera to a cookout at this guy’s place, especially if the pool has one of those little cabanas like in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Starfish
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah, those people are not screening in any way.
Basically the lactivists went from encouraging breastfeeding (good!) to accusing parents of permanently scarring their children through formula (bad!)
People started sharing milk on Facebook and creating informal parental led sharing sites like the one you mentioned, and some people were selling their breast milk.
Though donating through your local community may be okay, samples that travel far in the mail may be contaminated. I found an article that was friendly towards donors and criticizing the study about contamination because I am a nice person.
boatboy_srq
@schrodinger’s cat: No. But they were always nearly this bigoted. And it’s easier to sell bigotry to the ignorant than to the intelligent.
boatboy_srq
@bemused:
Used to be? Is that anything like having friends who used to be black?
boatboy_srq
@Peale: IIRC there are tags when they’re made/sold. But they chafe (so Mum said) so they’re often removed by the buyer/wearer. I suspect a bra cup of the accepted maxim size would swiftly become standard law enforcement equipment: FSM help us if some overeager LEO were tempted to actually use it.
boatboy_srq
@Gin & Tonic: @Mnemosyne: Ditto on the “Did NOT Need To Know That.” Pass the brain bleach, please.
raven
@boatboy_srq: You don’t have anything better to worry about?
boatboy_srq
@JPL: One of Mum’s favorite stories was of traveling with me when I was a wee one. She was breastfeeding me in the ladies’ room somewhere (possibly Windermere or Kendal) and was accosted by another patron:
Passerby: That’s disgusting! You shouldn’t do that here.
Mum: Where would you have me go? The men’s room?
boatboy_srq
@raven: Besides loving that McAuliffe vetoed the religulous libertee bill here in VA and that NC is upt to its racist eyeballs in bad press, terrified that Trump and Cruz are garnering more support than is healthy for the republic, and squirming that I’m still interviewing for work and rent is due in a week? No, not really, no.
raven
@boatboy_srq: @boatboy_srq: see
superpredators4hillary
This blog has jumped the goldfish. Band-aids for everyone.
Mart
The TX woman is absolutely right. Years ago reading a map on a Detroit area exit ramp, going 70, I looked up, slammed on the brakes and narrowly avoided a bad wreck. As we came around the corner, a worker had sweated thru her wife beater T, with little left to imagine. Apparently, this was the cause of the slowdown. Just think if she was breastfeeding.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
The tv show Friends had it right. It tastes like cantaloupe juice.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
HA! You must be a leg man.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: Thank you very much, I got it for $1.99 on Kindle!
Mnemosyne
@Starfish:
Lactivists would be better off pressuring workplaces to make it easier for women to pump at work if they need to, making insurance companies pay for coaches, and getting public places (like malls) to have facilities for women who need to breastfeed while they’re out and about. But, frankly, most of the horror stories I’ve heard have been about the freelance jerks who want to proselytize to other people in public, though I’ve heard a few hospital room ones, too.
raven
@WereBear: I was gonna say. . .
WereBear
ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease
Gravenstone
@Benw:
Sounds like the beginning of a movie pitch.
Gravenstone
@Gin & Tonic: Get outta my head! Or maybe I just need faster thoughts.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
Even better! The email just said it was on the $3.99 or less list, so I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up if it wasn’t lower.
raven
@Mnemosyne: Yea, I was pleasantly surprised!
Gravenstone
@boatboy_srq: Pray Away the Gay, don’tchano?
J R in WV
Tom, don’t feel bad, as many other have said already, when you are dealing with people who are certifiable, you can’t predict what they may decide to do.
By the same token, you can’t tell how they will justify the crazy things they decide to do while being crazy – Republicans have done so many things that are not logical or based upon reality or true facts by now that telling fact from fiction is . . . . well, impossible, really.
Cutting taxes will increase revenue. Oh Nos, our revenue is down, let’s cut taxes again!!!
If you or I did this, we would be bankrupt and look stupid. Brownback/Walker/Jindal do this and are cutting edge experimental economists. And their states are bankrupt, and look stupid. Almost as stupid as the Republicans in charge.
This is a great post, even though there is a fraudulent humor piece in the foundation, it proves the point that when Republicans are being crazy, no one can predict what they will do next. In which case, we should not give them the “football” containing the nuclear codes.
Anyone going to disagree with that point here? Thought not!
rikyrah
Once again, I ask what is the POLICY difference between what Trump is saying and what the GOP is doing on the state level when it comes to reproductive rights?
I will continue to ask this…because nobody has shown me any difference.
…………
Shomari Stone
@shomaristone
Trump Calls for Abortion Ban, PUNISHMENT for Women.
boatboy_srq
@Gravenstone: Works as well as Pray Away the Blah, donchano…
boatboy_srq
@raven: A breast milk cookbook is a few rungs on the acceptance ladder above “Faux Painting with Santorum“. I’ll give it that.
SoupCatcher
@boatboy_srq:
In a world in which placenta encapsulation exists, a breast milk cookbook seems downright quaint.
MaryRC
@Tom Levenson: She was quite extreme, shall we say, in many of her views, so it’s not hard to believe that she would come up with something like this.
Mike G
@oldster:
It has a closer relationship to truth than any other media they consume.