Daily Dose of Cute

"Livs is photobombing me together with her ass, is not she?"

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

David Bowie: "The Heavens (Are Out Tonight)"

Open Thread

Located with a greyhound mouse pad.

Bi-Monthly Fundraising Reminder & Thank-You

This really is, for individuals who've asked for it, your bi-monthly indication to give to Shakesville and/in order to make certain to resume monthly subscriptions which have lapsed.It's also an essential fundraising event to help keep Shakesville going.Running this strictly-moderated and independent space on donations instead of content-produced advertising, that is incompatible with safe spaces, implies that my capability to ensure that it stays going is dependent in your support.I am unable to afford to get this done full-here we are at free, but, even when I possibly could, fundraiser can also be probably the most feminist functions I actually do here. I request to become taken care of my work because progressive feminist advocacy has value.Women's service work, be it mothering, elder care, volunteering, philanthropy, social work, employment in almost any "pink collar" profession, or social advocacy, is seriously devalued, frequently to the stage where it's delinquent work altogether. So, despite the fact that fundraiser isn't fun for me personally, not doing the work is detrimental towards the work we all do here every single day. It's antifeminist.This web site began like a hobby, a component-time interest into that we could put just as much or very little time when i wanted. It isn't a spare time activity any longer it is a job. And over it thus is really a feminist act.You are able to donate once by clicking the "Create a Donation" button within the righthand sidebar, or generate a monthly subscription while using "Subscribe" button just beneath it, with a dropdown menu of subscription options—or go to the Donation page, for more options.If you'd prefer the information and/or community within this space, are able to afford it, and wish to see Shakesville continue being handled like a safe space, please consider establishing a regular membership or creating a one-time contribution.For those who have lately appreciated getting distilled news about politics, reproductive privileges, along with other news products taking part on view thread throughout the Condition from the Union the Fatsronauts 101 series having the ability to discuss facets of the rape culture inside a space thinking about taking apart that culture discovering where you can direct your teaspoon meant for social justice or towards inequality, I think you'll will, if you can, lead to aid this space and make certain it is constantly on the flourish.I think you'll will even consider the need for other things you appreciate at Shakesville, be it the moderation, video transcripts, Film Corner, the city in Open Threads, the blogarounds, Butch Pornstache, the Daily Dose of Cute, your blogmistress' penchant for inventing new words, or other things you like.I additionally want express gratitude, so greatly, to you both who gives or has contributed, whether monthly or like a one-off. I'm profoundly grateful—and I do not have a single cent as a given. I have not what to convey the depth of my appreciation, besides these: This community could not exist without that support, truly. Thanks.My never-ending appreciation too to everybody who adds towards the space in different ways: Thanks to the regular contributing factors, our other staff, our guest contributing factors, to anybody that has provided a transcription, to individuals who've associated with, cited, Tweeted about, and otherwise supportively suggested this web site, and/or to folks who've taken time to transmit me the periodic note of support and encouragement. This community could not exist without you, either.[Please Be Aware: I'm not seeking suggestions regarding how to raise revenue I'm requesting donations in return for the job of supplying valued content in as safe and accessible an area as you possibly can. I should also reiterate that I'm not going anybody to feel obliged to lead financially, particularly if cash is tight. Apart from pricing feminist work, another objective of fundraiser is really Iain and I haven't got to struggle with respect to your blog, and I'm not going other people to struggle themselves as a swap. There's a large enough audience that neither must have to occur.

Getting Real

[Content Note: Bullying.]I have been taking into consideration the "real existence versus. internet existence" article about that we authored yesterday, that was chiefly about dating but incorporated general commentary underwriting stories about how exactly online associations are naturally inferior to individuals created in meatspace. It is a trope that I'm obliged to frequently engage, as it is used with regularity by apologists for Inappropriate Behavior, specially the harassment of social justice advocates, who're keen to teach me it's the web and demand to be aware what will i expect. (Spoiler Alert: More!)It is a problematic construction for any couple of reasons, most famously which, when i have seen formerly, would be that the internet isn't outside of culture, but an expression of culture. It requires a unique kind of cultivated lack of knowledge to think the anonymity from the internet produces the urges that underlie bullying, instead of basically strengthening bullies to become uglier, meaner, the much more bold than a number of them could be face-to-face.It isn't like no random dude ever known as us a body fat cunt before I began your blog.The excellence between "real existence" and "internet existence" is really a false one. Towns on the web, and associations created on the web, are just as real as individuals in meatspace, even when they're different.And often individuals variations are neutral. Sometimes they expose inadequacies, or benefits, either in in-person associations or (mainly or solely) online associations. Frequently, they've created matched up sets: Written communication lacks the nuance that in-person communication does in-person communication doesn't engage the extra filter that written communication can. Or: You will find indeed methods to trick people on the web that in-person interactions don't support online communications safeguard against some types of harm that social interactions don't. Etc.Every features its own restrictions and values, which are entirely subjective in line with the individual person(s) involved. While body gestures and facial expressions might be significant in my experience, they might not be of particular use to a person neuro-atypical who struggles to properly interpret them.For me personally, probably the most precious the best-selling internet is it keeps me connected. I do not mean the power to maintain the goings-on of old buddies and distant relations—although that, too. I am talking about it keeps me from vanishing.I disappear easily, disappearing from social interaction just like a retreating turtle into its shell—long stretches of preferred lonesomeness throughout that we am perfectly happy to be my only company. It isn't since i love my buddies less, or because I am depressed, or any Important Reason whatsoever, except that i'm who I'm, which is somebody that is extremely shy.I'm a "learned extrovert," as Molly Shannon's character referred to herself around the last (brilliant) episode of Enlightened, however the first 13 many years of my existence, I had been so shateringly shy which i never chuckled aloud in school, ever, that is hard for buddies made that point on to think, since i laugh noisally and simply and frequently now. I still remember the very first time I attempted an out-noisy laugh, hesitatingly and purposely, in Mr. Martz's social studies class, and Garth Burns checked out me in the next desk over and done with a manifestation one usually reserves for occasions like alien invasions and stated, "I have never heard you laugh before!" Bless him, I'd this type of crush on him, and when he'd stated it with less question and much more judgment, I would not have chuckled aloud again.That's who I'm, within the greatest roots of myself, the lady who needed to summon the gumption to laugh aloud at school. Which is the reason why it's all too easy and thus comfortable that i can disappear.And vanishing, as I've got a wont to complete, was different prior to the internet. It read, quite naturally, like avoidance, after i stopped inviting individuals to socialize and obtaining the telephone. Even throughout a disappearance, I would still accept invites and answer the telephone to talk, however i stop trying. Our braches and my mind and my small little triangular turtle tail get hidden within the spend. Also it is not kind to become a friend who vanishes without explanation, and so i explain, as well as "I'm a shy turtle girl at this time no it is not personal no I'm not depressed no there is nothing wrong I swear" could be described, which I have found is dependent a great deal how inclined to turtliness the listener hirself is.The web makes vanishing simpler, meaning which i don't totally disappear. I'm able to keep up with the necessary indulgence of my introvert character but still function as the one doing the trying. Sometimes, it's throughout a disappearance which i write probably the most significant emails, have the prettiest collapsing conversations via text, give my buddies the greatest laugh by posting some elaborate Photoshopped monstrosity of the favorite things on their own Facebook walls. Dispatches in the spend.That's a existence that feels real in my experience, and larger than my existence with no internet, that is a tool that can help me positively maintain associations with oh my gosh and deeply valued buddies, regardless of the social anxiety that constantly invites me to retreat.I've found less need how to attend occasions throughout periods when my shyness and anxiety conspire to engulf me I've less cases of sitting in the finish from the mattress, on the face determining things to put on, but really considering whether it's worth jeopardizing a anxiety attack inside a crowded space to be able to avoid needing to create a call to some friend who'd totally realize that I am not coming. Not vanishing completely helps me participate in self-care. Which would be to say nothing about all of the relationships I've made online, not really a couple of which are with those who are shy in the same manner I'm. I value beyond measure my extroverted buddies, however they can't totally connect with negligence me that will the vanishing act. It seamless comfort to become understood thoroughly, by individuals who disappear, too.It's a mixture of in-person an internet-based communication that allows me be who I'm really am.That, I recognize, it what will get under my skin concerning the diminishment of online communications and relationships as "a fantasyInch—because the web has assisted me become my realest self.[Related Reading through: The Seem of My Voice.]

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Scritti Politti: "Perfect Way"

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Heart, "Barracuda"

Photo of the Day

[Click to embiggen.]Chipsticks in the Obama Diary: "Brooks Kraft has won 'Political Photo from the Year' in the The Whitened House News Photography enthusiasts Association with this picture of Leader Obama speaking within the flowing rain throughout an offer rally in Glen Allen, Veterans administration."I published an execllent photo from that event last This summer.

Wednesday Blogaround

This blogaround introduced for you by the envelopes.Suggested Reading through:Resistance: RIP Keiko Fukuda, 1913-2013 [Longtime visitors may recall that Lauredhel shared a guest publish on Keiko Fukuda at Shakesville in November 2009.]Jessica: Practical Feminism with Nihal Saad Zaghloultressiemc: Rationalization of Greater Education: We are All Bureaucrats NowFMF News: Brown College Includes Transgender Students in Health PlanCora: A Minimum Of 20 CIA Criminals Still MissingJorge: [content note: violent racism] "Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit" Peel off stickers Offered in Colorado Gas StationsLaura: Meet Piper, the main one-Eyed Bulldog with a love for PaintingJay Smooth: [video] Haters Don't Die, They Multiply (Return from the Little Hater)And when you need to hear what Ted Nugent needed to say concerning the SOTU, Andy's got video here.Leave your links and proposals in comments...

I Just Don't Even

If you are a lady on social networking in a position to mock #tellafeministthankyou then you need to be saying thanks to a feminist for that luxury of the disdain.&mdash Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Feb 12, 2013@ashrahman Mister, who do you consider it had been that fought against for parity in education so female people might be literate &lifier tech-savvy?&mdash Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Feb 12, 2013First of, I really like that my mention of the social networking on Twitter will get construed as "a Facebook status." But even in addition to that, I really like the reflexive scoffing that use of social networking and also the education that allows utilizing has something related to feminism.This, incidentally, is among the wisest reactions I have become. It's, for instance, lightyears beyond: "I simply pooped."@shakestweetz i simply pooped.&mdash The King (@wonderbread21) Feb 12, 2013After I retweeted (without commentary) that response because Clearly, came this exchange:@wonderbread21 I did not say it's. Reading through is prime!&mdash Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Feb 12, 2013@wonderbread21 Excellent point. A minimum of you can handle one fundamental skill! Healthy for you!&mdash Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Feb 12, 2013So far, no response from either of my correspondents.

Daily Dose of Cute

Zelly Belly

Question of the Day

You've been assigned with casting a large-screen adaption/reboot from the classic sitcom Laverne & Shirley, and you've got to cast the roles of: Laverne, Shirley, Lenny, Squiggy, Mr. DeFazio, and Carmine. You aren't bound by gender, nor are you currently needed to cast them just like any particular race, age, physique, etc. The DeFazios may become the Nguyens or even the Joneses within the rewrite, for example. So: That do you cast?Laverne: Rachel Dratch.Shirley: Melissa McCarthy.Lenny: John Carroll Lynch.Squiggy: Ian Gomez.Mr. DeFazio: Gene Wilder.Carmine: Questlove.[Formerly: The Exorcist: Episode IV The Matrix.]

Daily Dose of Cute

Sophie: Snuggly little cuddle-bunny.

In The News

Your family In News Reports correspondent, Deeky W. Gashlycrumb, MD., is off as they attends a Butt Convention in the Stethoscope Institute.[Content Note: Misogyny hostility to consent and reproductive agency.]Some dipshit introduces legislation in Idaho that will require "every Idaho senior high school student to see Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and pass an evaluation onto it to finish senior high school.Inch That's this type of perfect idea, it's almost TOO perfect.Fox News jackasses joke about Hillary Clinton's "facelift."SHOCKING NOOZ! Giving teens use of birth control decreases teen pregnancy rates. Who woulda thunk it?!Michigan becomes the most recent condition to think about legislation mandating transvaginal ultrasounds like a requirement to gain access to abortion. Gross.The United kingdom House of Commons advances marriage equality inside a bill that further features a provision which enables "transgender people to become legally acknowledged as their preferred gender without risking their unions."Disgraced Illinois politico Jesse Jackson, Junior. is prolly likely to jail.Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood states the united states is "one large pothole at this time,Inch due to our insufficient infrastructure investing.Nj Governor Chris Christie informs a physician who may never have examined him but is nevertheless certain concerning the condition of his health due to his weight to STFU.Along with a new new prime number has been seen as! It's 17 million numbers lengthy! YOWZA! That's lots of numbers!

In The News

Your family In News Reports correspondent, Deeky W. Gashlycrumb, MD., is off as they attends a Butt Convention in the Stethoscope Institute.[Content Note: Misogyny hostility to consent and reproductive agency.]Some dipshit introduces legislation in Idaho that will require "every Idaho senior high school student to see Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and pass an evaluation onto it to finish senior high school.Inch That's this type of perfect idea, it's almost TOO perfect.Fox News jackasses joke about Hillary Clinton's "facelift."SHOCKING NOOZ! Giving teens use of birth control decreases teen pregnancy rates. Who woulda thunk it?!Michigan becomes the most recent condition to think about legislation mandating transvaginal ultrasounds like a requirement to gain access to abortion. Gross.The United kingdom House of Commons advances marriage equality inside a bill that further features a provision which enables "transgender people to become legally acknowledged as their preferred gender without risking their unions."Disgraced Illinois politico Jesse Jackson, Junior. is prolly likely to jail.Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood states the united states is "one large pothole at this time,Inch due to our insufficient infrastructure investing.Nj Governor Chris Christie informs a physician who may never have examined him but is nevertheless certain concerning the condition of his health due to his weight to STFU.Along with a new new prime number has been seen as! It's 17 million numbers lengthy! YOWZA! That's lots of numbers!

Downton Abbey Open Thread

"I might not have the breeding and fortune of the the almighty, however i have Two times the sanctimony!"[Spoilers are telling secrets downstairs herein.]Oh the goings-on at Downton now! Lady Valium CAN'T EVEN Take a look at The almighty Whoops, while he declined to hear Physician Mustache about Sybil's eclampsia. Fortunately, The almighty Whoops, giant guy-child, includes a Mother to intervene on his stupid account. Which, within this situation, means bullying Physician Mustache into stretching the reality regarding how Sybil might have almost certainly died anyway, even when they'd taken his advice. Which transmits Lady Valium into The almighty Whoops' arms, and today they are able to grieve together.And The almighty Whoops never being attributed for anything pans out pretty much for everybody else, because he pitches a fit about Tom attempting to title his motherless daugher Sybil and lift her Catholic throws a outburst about Matthew's correct assessment of his garbage estate-management abilities and storms to Isobel's ladies' lunch to demand his womenfolk go back to Downton immediately lest they be tainted by prostitute soup.Exactly what a neat guy!A minimum of Lady Mary allows him possess a little whatfor when she informs him he's mad the world is not going his way any longer. OOH SNAP!Carson's condescending judgmentalism accumulates exactly where the Lord's leaves off, and that he provides a full-strength dose of haughtiness to Mrs. Hughes concerning the staff getting anything related to Ethyl after Mrs. Patmore given Ethyl her copy of Betty Crocker's Gruel for Idiot's. You're ready to ring Physician Mustache around the telephone machine, because Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore have sprained their eyeballs moving them at Carson. "Come rapidly, mister! Their eyes be stuck!"Lady Edith still has not taken the task in the newspaper. And that is all of the news for Lady Edith, because tragedy is going on with other people now. Lady Mary and Matthew possess a sweet moment where they promise never to ignore their passion for one another. ("Just hold back until you understand your husband's a complete dipshit!"—Lady Valium. Great advice, I believe we are able to all agree.) And Sybil continues to be dead because Jessica Brown Findlay wanted from her contract.Downstairs, Daisy will get a deal she thinks she may want to refuse from her sorta father-in-law. Go, DAISY! GO Survive THE FARM! Sure, preparing food for wealthy individuals who barely acknowledge your existence and fox-trotting with Alfred so he is able to attempt to leave with Rosy Cheekbones is certainly not but fun NOW, but could it be still likely to be fun when you are fully a century old? Consider IT.And also the conniving O'Brien informs Thomas to help keep wrongly touching Jimmy, who she assures him Certainly LIKES BEING HIT ON despite the fact that Jimmy informed her he hates it. "Exactly what a great subplot!"—All people, once we have to watch the only real freely gay character on the program turn more and more certainly right into a gross stereotype from the Predatory Gay.Meanwhile, at Gray Gaol, something something gaolmumble and shiv, and today Mean Lady decides in truth and Bates goes free! Huzzah! I will be a much more committed to this intrigue if I'd only understood a thing of anything stated within the seem production deadzone that's the Grey Gaol cobblestone wall set.I only hope that when Conniving Cellmate will get launched, he heads to Downtown to murder Bates and kills The almighty Whoops accidentally. THE Finish!Discuss.[Please go to discuss everything Downton Abbey, only with the fifth episode of Season 3. Do not share things from later within the season, despite a spoiler warning, because I have reached mod the thread, which requires reading through everything. So be kind, if you are elsewhere on the planet in which the whole season has broadcast.]

RIP Ed Koch

Former Mayor of recent You are able to City Erectile dysfunction Koch has died from congestive heart failure at 88. His New You are able to Occasions obituary is here now.Koch would be a Democrat, after which he wasn't. He was a highly effective mayor somewhat, along with a failure in other people. He was polarizing sometimes while he was challenging things as they are inside a radical way, and often because his guidelines specified for to safeguard privilege. He wasn't always responsive to problems with race or gender. Nor was he generous about anybody who resided outdoors New You are able to City, apparently the only real place in america he considered worth residence. His third term was affected by corruption. His political career was marked by many people achievements.He was a symbol of recent You are able to, an item and reflection from the city in lots of ways, negative and positive. He would be a character.It had been, for a lot of his career, a wide open secret, or perhaps a rumor, that Koch was gay, questions regarding which Koch accustomed to evade until throughout just one interview in 1989 he stated he wasn't. He stock answer was it's no a person's business but their own. It had been used against him within the ugliest way, throughout the 1977 mayoral campaign, when signs reading through "Election for Cuomo, Not the Homo" were published round the city. Mr. Koch didn't respond at that time, but 12 years later, in the book "His Eminence and Hizzoner," he remembered, "Initially when i first saw individuals posters, I cringed, and that i wondered the way i would have the ability to bear it."An uncommon confession of vulnerability in the mayor who once described he wasn't the kind of individual who got stomach problems he was the kind of individual who gave others stomach problems. He was noted for saying what he thought, come what may. Like lots of people having a disabled filter, that gave him both convenience of charm and harm, in equal measure.RIP Mr. Mayor.[Note: If you will find less flattering items to be stated about Koch, they've been excluded since i am not aware of these, not because of any deliberate intent to whitewash his existence. Please feel thanks for visiting discuss the whole of his work and existence within this thread.]

Photo of the Day

[Click to embiggen.]In the Telegraph's Pictures during the day for 31 The month of january 2013: A nearly full-circle rainbow at Victoria Falls taken by Nicole Cambre around the Zambian side from the falls. [Nicole Cambre / Rex Features]Lovely.

In The News

Your family In News Reports correspondent, Deeky W. Gashlycrumb, MD., is off as they moves into his new evil lair apartment.[Content Note: Terrorism hostility to agency misogynistic violence.]Chuck Hagel wasn't super throughout his confirmation hearing. I suppose individuals are surprised at this? Has nobody met Chuck Hagel before?Two dead yet others wounded, some seriously, following a suicide bomber hits the united states embassy in Ankara, Poultry.Congress, probably the most ill-outfitted group in the united states to deal with technology issues, will fight over internet privacy in 2013. I am sure they'll make best wishes choices!The Department of Health insurance and Human Services is anticipated to announce today that religiously affiliated companies "will have the ability to opt from supplying their employees with insurance policy for birth control methods" within an exception towards the birth control mandate. Talking about good choices!Within an actual good decision, Congress passed a brand new law being an amendment towards the National Defense Authorization Act which "imposes an excellent along with a prison sentence as high as 5 years on individuals in prison for delivering women younger than 18 overseasInch for female genital cutting.Hawaii legislators, in the request of Aerosmith the almighty Steven Tyler, have suggested legislation "to safeguard celebs from paparazzi, giving famous faces energy to file a lawsuit over undesirable beach photos along with other pictures around the islands." It's strange in my experience that we should have laws and regulations to safeguard anybody from the undesirable photography! How come people so terrible?! Do not take pictures without permission, you knuckleheads!It is really an actual headline on the planet: Hillary Clinton Requires a Relaxation, How Strange Is The Fact That?Japoneses researchers have recorded the very first real-time video of ideas developing within the brain. Neat!Want. Wanty-want-want!

RIP Ed Koch

Former Mayor of recent You are able to City Erectile dysfunction Koch has died from congestive heart failure at 88. His New You are able to Occasions obituary is here now.Koch would be a Democrat, after which he wasn't. He was a highly effective mayor somewhat, along with a failure in other people. He was polarizing sometimes while he was challenging things as they are inside a radical way, and often because his guidelines specified for to safeguard privilege. He wasn't always responsive to problems with race or gender. Nor was he generous about anybody who resided outdoors New You are able to City, apparently the only real place in america he considered worth residence. His third term was affected by corruption. His political career was marked by many people achievements.He was a symbol of recent You are able to, an item and reflection from the city in lots of ways, negative and positive. He would be a character.It had been, for a lot of his career, a wide open secret, or perhaps a rumor, that Koch was gay, questions regarding which Koch accustomed to evade until throughout just one interview in 1989 he stated he wasn't. He stock answer was it's no a person's business but their own. It had been used against him within the ugliest way, throughout the 1977 mayoral campaign, when signs reading through "Election for Cuomo, Not the Homo" were published round the city. Mr. Koch didn't respond at that time, but 12 years later, in the book "His Eminence and Hizzoner," he remembered, "Initially when i first saw individuals posters, I cringed, and that i wondered the way i would have the ability to bear it."An uncommon confession of vulnerability in the mayor who once described he wasn't the kind of individual who got stomach problems he was the kind of individual who gave others stomach problems. He was noted for saying what he thought, come what may. Like lots of people having a disabled filter, that gave him both convenience of charm and harm, in equal measure.RIP Mr. Mayor.[Note: If you will find less flattering items to be stated about Koch, they've been excluded since i am not aware of these, not because of any deliberate intent to whitewash his existence. Please feel thanks for visiting discuss the whole of his work and existence within this thread.]

Quote of the Day

"Hillary has changed our understanding—no, our definition—of foreign matters. Diplomacy is no more just the ability of controlling relations along with other nations. The large issues—war and peace, terror, economic stability, etc.—remain, and she or he has handled all of them with firmness and authority, with poise and confidence, with good will, when appropriate. But it's not the praise of diplomats or dictators that'll be her legacy. She worked with plenipotentiaries, but her focus was on people. Foreign matters is not nearly treaties, she trained us, it comes down to the suffering and aspirations of individuals impacted by the treaties, made or unmade. First and foremost, diplomacy should refocus attention around the powerless. Obviously, Hillary wasn't the very first secretary of condition to advocate for human privileges or make use of the publish to boost understanding of abuses or negotiate humanitarian relief or pressure oppressors. But she was the first one to concentrate on empowerment, particularly of ladies and women."—Donna Brazile, Democratic strategist, author, professor, and commentator, on Hillary Clinton's legacy (or at best some of it) as Secretary of Condition.