Lindsay is a Hot Geek: New Wallstrip

Wallstrip is the Next Generation

My latest wallstrip script

Wallstrip Loves Kittens

I love the disgusting kitten pictures they found. Nice touch.

A Little More Venting on the Post Below

Here's a nice breakdown on the same subject from Broadsheet:

Judge bans the word "rape" from sexual assault trial.
Nebraska District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront granted a request by the defense team to ban the words "rape," "sexual assault," "victim," "assailant" and "sexual assault kit" from the courtroom, reports Dahlia Lithwick. Oh, and jurors won't even be told about the banned words. "You needn't be a radical legal feminist to cringe at the idea of judges ordering rape complainants to obliterate from their testimony any language that signifies an assault," writes Lithwick. "At worst, that judge is ordering her to lie. At best, he is asking her to play at being a human thesaurus: thinking up coded ways to describe to the jury what she believes to have happened."

Thanks for summing it up well, Broadsheet. Might I add - this is America.

I can't leave this one alone

Here are some highlights from the JournalStar.com article:

Banned words debated in sex assault case
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star

Tory Bowen says she knows what happened to her on the morning of Oct. 31, 2004.But she won’t be able tell her story to jurors — at least not in a way that’s truthful to her, she says — because a judge’s order bars witnesses from using words like “rape” and “sexual assault” in the trial of Pamir Safi, who is accused of sexually assaulting Bowen.

Safi

“In my mind, what happened to me was rape,” said Bowen, 24. “I want the freedom to be able to point (to Safi) in court and say, ‘That man raped me.’”

Last month, Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront denied a motion by prosecutors that would have prohibited Safi’s attorneys from using words like “sex” and “intercourse” when describing the encounter between Safi and Bowen.

The Lancaster County Attorney’s Office had argued the words would imply Bowen consented to have sex.Cheuvront also has sustained an earlier motion by defense attorneys barring the words “rape” and “sexual assault kit.”

In Bowen’s opinion, Cheuvront’s ruling means she will have to lie on the witness stand.“The word ‘sex’ implies consent,” she said. “I never once would describe (what happened) as sex. He’s making me commit perjury.”

Clarence Mock, one of Safi’s attorneys, said Cheuvront made the rulings to keep the trial fair.

The word “rape,” is not a legal term, he said. “Sexual assault” is, but whether a defendant committed that crime is a question for a jury to answer based on evidence at trial, Mock said.

“Under the rules of evidence, witnesses can’t reach legal conclusions,” he said.

“Trials are competing narratives of what happened,” Mock continued. “They should not turn on politicized hyperbole. They should turn on the facts.

“... Using words like ‘rape’ creates unfair prejudices for defendants and invades the (duties) of the jury.”

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Holy shit. I can't believe this is true.

Well, I have a moment, so why not...

Fox and CBS have refused to air this Trojan ad:



As this New York Times article points out, both networks are perfectly willing to air Trojan commercials focused on preventing STDs. In fact, in a letter to Trojan, Fox admitted that they would not air the ad because it focused on pregnancy prevention.

Yes, let's just ignore the very real problem of unwanted pregnancy. Scaring people with the promise of disease should do the trick. Maybe they'll prevent pregnancy and they won't even know it!

CBS would only say they did not find it appropriate for their audiences (audiences, as SaveRoe.com points out, that watch The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show).

This ad doesn't smell completely rosy. As Broadsheet points out, the depiction of all men as pigs is a little suspect. Though the argument could be made that all men on the prowl without a condom are swine. But the point that really gets me is the assumption that only men should have a condom conscience. Women should carry them, men should carry them, and, yes, pigs should carry them.

It's good to vent. Thanks.

Wallstrip

BCOO: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

Ah, it's about time. When there's actual work to do, it's hard to justify a blog entry. There's tons of shit happening politically right now, but I feel obligated to make this about my nasty reading habit. Yep, I got the monkey on my back and he's making hog's-head popsicle sticks. Did that track? Oh, brain is fried... Yeah, I really just want to get the book off of my desk.

Lord of the Flies...I enjoyed the journey into human instinct at its most basic level. I missed out on the book in high school, so I figured I should see what made my partner go "ooh." Well, I'm not a guy, so I think that cut the "ooh" down to an "oh." Plus, I'm not in high school.

The narrator gave me the most pause. He/she/it brought me out of the world by switching mindset. The narrator would alternate between a boy's intelligence and consciousness and an adult's. There's probably some great reason for this that I missed. I admittedly did not spend much time thinking about the book. If anyone would care to enlighten me, it would be welcome.

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy is next. It will be awhile before I'll post about that. I'll probably be a New Yorker by then. Hopefully, I'll get in a couple posts in the meantime. So much to rant about, so little time!

Wii Love Wallstrip

Why? Why couldn't I just let go of the pun? Anyway, here's my latest wallstrip.

Hi, I'm wallstrip

This one was a lot of fun to write.



Though I have friends who DESPISE Blackboard (teachers), the company is doing really well on the stock market. Probably because it's the only one of it's kind that's getting anywhere globally.

I love Joss Whedon

Yes, the creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Toy Story 2 has done it again. This morning, not only did I receive a writing tip e-mail about the first episode of Buffy and all of its greatness, I was greeted with this on my RSS reader. I don't normally post whole articles on this page, but Broadsheet wrapped up Whedon's blog so well...

"What is wrong with women?"

If you ask almighty geek/feminist icon Joss Whedon, you don't need to seek out exports from Kurdistan -- the ghastly cellphone videos of Dua Khalil's savage public execution, that is -- to see brutal misogyny up close. We've got Hollywood right here. "The trailer [for the controversial movie "Captivity"] resembles nothing so much as the CNN story on Dua Khalil," he writes at Whedonesque (a blog about him and his work where he occasionally posts). "Pretty much all you learn is that Elisha Cuthbert is beautiful, then kidnapped, inventively, repeatedly and horrifically tortured, and that the first thing she screams is 'I'm sorry.'"

Whedon does, of course, know the difference between fact and fiction. But in this passionate, moving, positively reeling -- and ultimately inspiring -- response to Dua Khalil's murder, he makes a strong, strong case for that Hollywood-Iraq continuum. "What is wrong with women?" he writes. "I mean wrong. Physically. Spiritually. Something unnatural, something destructive, something that needs to be corrected. How did more than half the people in the world come out incorrectly? ... I have yet to find a culture that doesn't buy into it. Women's inferiority -- in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they're sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished ... And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable."

Go read the rest. (Here's dessert.)

-- Lynn Harris

----

How can you not adore this talented, witty, socially-conscious feminist man? For those who are Whedon-ignorant, stop laughing at the name Buffy and get on it. High school as setting for personal as well as literal hell? How can you not adore it?

BCOO: Story Time

Oh, Meggin, I'm so sorry if you're reading this.

I did not like this book. Maybe I wasn't in the correct mindset for a young adult book, maybe I'm too cynical, but I wanted nothing more than to get through to the end. I didn't like the writing, I thought the story was disjointed, I thought the dialogue was forced.

That being said, the idea was certainly creative. A gothic library building houses a magnet school which teaches TBC: test-based curriculum (the setting for a pretty blatant condemnation of teaching to the test - while I agree with the sentiment, the execution was poor). Not only is the school located in the basement, it's haunted. By...uh...book people? It was never completely explained who was doing the haunting and why.

I don't want to spend too long on a book I don't like. I'm going for young again in my next book: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.

New wallstrip - Molson Coors Brewing Company (mmm...beer)

Homer said it best.

BCOO: Bait and Switch and Brave New World

Oops. I got a little behind.

Bait and Switch, by Ehrenreich was a really interesting read. I fell in love with her after reading Nickel and Dimed, where she attempts to live on minimum wage as a waitress, a Wal-Mart employee, and a maid.

Bait and Switch did not disappoint. In this one, Ehrenreich goes undercover into the white collar world, discovering a new way to (not) get by in America. It's fascinating and entertaining.

And I finally read Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

Wow. I loved it, as I fully expected to. Everyone should read this (read 1984 first, though).

Not too much detail here, because I'm tired and it's been a little while since I've finished these. I'm reading a book now called Story Time by Edward Bloor. It's a young adult novel recommended by a friend. Should be good enough to tide me over before the next Harry Potter.

wallstrip: CYNO

The guy in the interview is hilarious. Adam and I went back and forth a bit on the interview script, and it looks like it turned out well. Of course, the casting didn't hurt - the guy made me laugh out loud at something I've read at least ten times.

Veto Man!

He uses his powers for evil, but he believes he is doing good. Is there anything more dangerous??? Find out, next week!

Bush warned Congress he would veto the Iraq spending bill and he did, no shocker there. But now he has a taste for it. He's veto-thirsty. Thursday, he let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that he would veto ... well, basically anything that ensured women's rights to control their own bodies.

Bush wrote a two-page letter to the speaker and majority leader, threatening a veto against anything that (I'm not making this up) "allow[ed] taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life.” (my emphasis)
I think I'm just gonna let that sit there. Okay, I can't resist a little list of Bush's life destruction. Guantanamo prisoners, the Iraqis, illegal immigrants, Abu Ghraib prisoners (and other not-so-public camps that I'm sure exist), Joe Wilson and his wife, abstinence-educated children, creationism-educated children, UNeducated children, and, hey, what about those unwanted children and resentful women pushed into motherhood? They'll be flooding the streets if Bush has anything to do with it.

Can Veto Man get away with his hypocrisy? Will he keep telling women they can't make educated decisions by themselves regarding their own bodies? Will his evil spread to other countries when he vetoes a pending bill that would end a ban on DISCUSSING abortion at family planning clinics in developing nations? Keep your eyes on the skies. Wherever women are in need, Veto Man will be nearby to keep them that way.

BCOO: The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Loved it! I'd forgotten what a great writer Kurt Vonnegut is. I'm going to have to go back and re-read some of his other stuff.

Though The Sirens of Titan is deeply rooted in science fiction, like all Vonnegut novels, it includes intelligent commentary on society that still resonates today. Vonnegut addresses religion, capitalism, philosophy, temptation, and guilt. For an ostensibly simple, short novel that plays with time, that's pretty damn good.

Next: Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich. I loved Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich's novel about her undercover stint as a blue collar worker. In Bait and Switch she does the same for white collar workers. Her writing style is entertaining and her social commentary is thought-provoking. Sounds good to me.

BCOO preempted for bizarro abortion world

I spent last week with no internet, so I'm a little late and rushed in my posting. Sorry.

Women can't be trusted to make their own decisions. On the 18th, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the federal abortion ban passed by Congress in 2003. It will criminalize abortions in the second trimester (called partial birth abortion by anti-choice groups). There is no exception for the health and safety of the mother. No exceptions, period. The ban if on a procedure called dilation and extraction or D & X. D & X is one of the least common late-term abortion procedures.

Even so, this sets a ridiculously dangerous precedent. The government had taken away one of the options for pregnant women. The fact that it's a federal ban is even more terrifying. It takes away state's rights to decide whether abortion should be legal. Yikes. If you're upset about this, there are many ways to help. Planned Parenthood has a petition you can sign here And you can donate money to them here.

Wal-Mart, on the other hand, has changed their policy regarding emergency contraception. EC must now be dispensed without discrimination or delay. It makes me feel better for shopping their when it's absolutely necessary. Target has no such policy. What's the problem, Target? You're supposed to be the good guys.

All the Names, by Jose Saramago, was very good. Not as good as Blindness, but still wonderful.

Wallstrip: Kellogg Co.

I'm a little late on this one. They posted it Thursday.



Again, head to wallstrip.com for more great shows.

BCOO: The Cider House Rules, John Irving

Sometimes I long for the days when I loved Irving. I threw myself into his long, meandering stories and enjoyed almost every page.

I didn't hate The Cider House Rules, but I didn't love it either. Anyone who knows the story can probably guess that I was happy with the politics. One of the main characters in the story is an abortionist before legal abortion.

The more I read Irving, the more I feel like he doesn't trust me to make the connections, to really read his work. He lays things out too plainly and it gets on my nerves. It feels condescending, patronizing. I like the modern feel of his stories, the modern sentiment and politics, but I hate feeling like he thinks I'm stupid.

I think that's all I want to say. I wish I could enjoy him more.

Next: All the Names, Jose Saramago