I can't, folks, I just can't even with this guy. Link is here:

Daniel Tosh: Sorry for the Rape Joke

( Cut for article text, mind-boggling stupidity, rape triggers )

What happens when the EU aims for female empowerment and misses so spectacularly that it would take the Hubble array to see female empowerment from where they landed?

This is what happens!

Seems someone over in the EU decided there weren't enough girls studying science, and they needed to change that. Excellent aim! But then, something went wrong. I'm guessing it's because a committee was appointed to look into the matter. That's enough to screw anything up. According to my imagination, the conversation looked like this:

( Warning: Failure Ahead )

This comes with the usual "read comments at your own peril" caveat; aside from the linked Reddit comment, I don't intend to read any of them myself.

A man at a California bar teased an off-duty cop "Aw, you suck at darts". The cop responded by saying he can do what he wants, pulling out his gun and executing the man.

( Text of InformationLiberation article )

( Reddit comment from reporter who broke the story )

Suspected domestic abusers go free as Topeka city and county officials bicker about money

Short version: The county says that its budget cuts mean it can't prosecute any of the city of Topeka, KS's misdemeanors, including domestic violence. The city says it can't afford to fund the prosecutions itself. Therefore, the city is considering decriminalizing domestic violence in order to force the county to take on the prosecutions again. Meanwhile, don't bother calling the police when your domestic partner beats you up, because no one will prosecute them.

Long version: ( For the linkphobic )

"Audience at tea party debate cheers leaving uninsured to die."

( WTF?! )

Orson Scott Card has rewritten Hamlet to demonstrate the evils of gayness. (Also to make the story "instantly comprehensible" by sucking all drama and complexity out of it.)

Just...follow the link. There is nothing I could say that the reviewer hasn't said perfectly already.

As of 9/12/2011, Card has responded, insisting that there are no homosexual characters in Hamlet's Father at all, only a pedophile. (Thank you, disdainful_soul, for the link!)

***

ETA: scott_lynch has come up with a brilliant rendition of TOTALLY NOT GAY AND NOT WRITTEN WITH BIG WORDS version of Henry V, as written by Card.

Subterranean Press, who is publishing this novella, has gotten enough complaints about it to post a response on their website.

***

ETA2: Freethoughtblogs.com has a review as well. Their verdict? "Boring in its execution and blatantly false in its premises, it’s hard to imagine why the publisher thought it was worth printing."

Publishers Weekly delivers a cutting review and an essay called The Offensiveness Grenade.

IO9 has a story about Card's version and the protests.

NowPublic.com says that Card "apparently looked to The Room for dialogue cues" and also notes the web outrage.

The UK newspaper the Guardian has picked up the story as well.

***

ETA3:The Stranger.com has an article about this

IO9 has another article: The REAL Reason I'm Disappointed in Orson Scott Card.

NRC.nl, a Dutch site, has an article that translates to Outcry [about] Homophobic Writer.

Elbakin.net reports in French that Orson Scott Card “révise” Hamlet…

Actualitté.com writes Hamlet: Son père était homosexuel et pédophile!

***

ETA4:

Daily Kos brings up Card's book in an open thread.

The Advocate has some harsh words for Card.

Oregon's LGBTQ magazine, Just Out, mostly quotes but points out that such critical response to Card's writing is unusual.

***

And don't forget the #buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday.

***

P.S. Card seems to have had the last laugh, though. The limited edition published by Subterreanean Press? SOLD OUT.

In another way, it's just pathetic, and doubly so because the "children" in question's father is the lawyer who brought the suit against his ex-wife:

Adult children's 'bad mothering' lawsuit dismissed

( The text )

***

My heart just bleeds for these entitled asses. Doesn't yours? I think I'll go sue my mom for making me clean my room.

Most of us are keenly aware of the shortcomings of justice system. People are freed after 5, 10, 15, 20 years and longer in prison after new evidence comes to light and exonerates them. Victims of crimes, particularly sexual assault victims, are blamed for the crimes. They are told they were asking for it — that they are responsible because of that. No amount of money can make up for the lost years. Nothing can make up for the emotional trauma of being told you are the one responsible, and not the person who actually committed those offenses.

( Rape and abuse triggers behind the cut )

Daily Kos has the rest of the story.

From an email sent by Change.org:

A.J. Nelson was just four years old when he was killed in a hit-and-run by an intoxicated driver in Atlanta. Now his own mother, Raquel Nelson -- who was also hit by the car while trying to save her son -- faces up to three years in prison for A.J.'s death.

Grist has the story in When design kills: The criminalization of walking.

Change.org has a petition: Cobb County GA: Release Grieving Mother of Hit-and-Run & Install a Crosswalk.

I have the text of the Change.org email along with my commentary at A petition against the criminalization of walking.

Here's a story I've been following on my blog since July 30th, when I posted Oak Park Woman plants vegetable garden; city objects. In it, I summarized the situation.

the Bass family of Oak Park lost their lawn when the sewer line running under their front yard was replaced. Instead of replacing it with a lawn, they replaced it with a vegetable garden. Their neighbors complained to the city and the city has cited them with a criminal violation of city ordinances. The Basses and the city have a court date on July 26th.
...
Mrs. Bass posted a more complete summary after I wrote (and she read) the above. Please read it.

( As someone familiar with the area, I'm not surprised this is happening in Oak Park. )

Beginning Friday, July 8th, the number of hits on that post began climbing dramatically. When I investigated how that happened, I found out that Drudge happened.

A couple of days ago, Matt Drudge placed a link to The Agitator's post on his front page with the headline "Woman faces 93 days in jail for planting garden in front yard..." Since then, the story has spread like wildfire. Here is a list of the media sources I've found covering this story with links to their articles (Hat/tip to April Alexander at Urban Homestead Diaries for compiling most of these).

Grist: Michigan woman could face jail time for growing a garden

Treehugger: Michigan Woman Faces 93 Days in Jail for Planting a Vegetable Garden

Huffington Post: Woman Could Be Jailed For Vegetable Garden

Washington Post: Julie Bass may face jail time for planting vegetables

Look at that progression. Not only are the environmental publications and the avowedly liberal Huffington Post on board, one of the two national papers of record, The Washington Post, is now covering this story. The issue has even attracted attention from overseas.

The Daily Mail (UK): Woman faces jail for growing vegetables in her front yard

A check of Google News shows 66 results for "Julie Bass", all of which are about this story and are all from July 8th or later.

As for how Drudge was indirectly responsible, he drove traffic to The Agitator, which drove traffic Julie Bass's blog OakParkHateVeggies, where she has a link to my post. Even from three steps away, Drudge increased my readership. Behold the power of Drudge.

In case you're wondering what you can do about it, there is a petition. 4,400 people signed it by Friday, less than a week after it was put up.

UPDATE: The charge against Julie Bass for her garden has been dropped. That's the good news. The bad news is that it has been dropped without prejudice, which means that it could be reinstated at any time. The worse news is that the city is now after her for her dogs. To read more, check out MyFoxDETROIT.com, the Detroit News, and the Detroit Free Press. Julie Bass herself has comments on her blog here and here. Finally my tl;dr comments along with a larger version of the Fox 2 Detroit video are at Good, bad, and ugly news in Oak Park's "War on Veggies".

Even if you take Michele Bachmann out of the equation, and take politics out of it as a whole, this whole "pledge" thing is so rife with unfunny that I just... I don't even.... wut?

(this isn't what I'd call socially conservative. It's socially restrictive!) Copypasta'd under the cut in full, in case the Washington Post article has IP blockages or whatever (some people on my FLists can't view their stuff)

( Bachmann signs socially conservative pledge on homosexuality, marriage )

Honestly, I had no idea anyone could out-stupid Sarah Palin when it comes to presidential campaigning. But Michele Bachmann seems to be pulling out all the stops.

I'd advise everyone to be careful reading the comments. I read a few that were interesting and thought provoking, and then a lot of them that were just so polarized that I back-buttoned so hard my browser got a headache.

I've been watching this story unfold with some interest since it broke in the U.S.; folks who know more than I do are welcome to correct any mistakes I've made and contribute more info. The basic rundown from what I've read so far is that reporters working for the British tabloid paper News of the World have been accused of hacking into peoples' cell phones.

At first, it was alleged that they did it to celebrities and politicians, but it has recently come to light that they may have hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a teen from Surrey who disappeared and was murdered in 2002. Milly Dowler's relatives were calling her phone and leaving voicemails during the period she was missing, and the reporters are accused of listening to and deleting these voicemails to make room for more, giving her parents false hope that she was still alive and checking her phone.

Graham Foulkes, whose son was killed in the 2005 terrorist bombings on the Underground, was also recently told by police that his phone number and address were found in a News of the World reporter's files, implying that his son's phone, too, may have been hacked.

( CNN article link and text )

---

( BBC News link and article text )

I grew up literally a few miles from this community, just over the TN/GA state line. This doesn't surprise me as I recall a lot of racist asshats among my peers when I was in high school but it still makes me want to drive back home and start punching people in the face.

I mean, when I was growing up, everyone on that side of the county there was white (Benton is a little more diverse, but the turtletown/ducktown/copperhill area and the adjacent GA communities were not, and, frankly, everyone was everyone's cousin except me since my family moved there when I was 11 or so, and no they didn't like me because even though I was white and Southeastern I was still wern't from around hyear) and now that there's more non-white people moving into the area, I think these rednecks just don't even know what to do with their idiot selves.

You'd think they could just, you know, act like human beings, but I guess that is too difficult. Of course the fact that polk county's useless-ass police won't do squat about it is also no surprise, they never do anything but hand out speeding tickets. They have a track record of ignoring domestic disputes, rape, meth labs and all other kinds of things that shouldn't be ignored so this is pretty much their modus operandi.

I'm going to shut up now because this is too close to home for me and I could get very judgemental and offensive about this toward certain people in some ways, so yea, here's the article and I'm gonna go curl up under my desk and swear loudly for a while.

ETA: Should go without saying at this point, but just as a reminder, it's probably a bad idea to read the comments on the linked article unless you just really like asshats.

"Interracial couple in Tennessee receives death threat"

( copied article text )

It's... interesting... to see this dark chapter in USA history being dealt with now (decades after the fact, as usual). This is not something taught in US history class in most schools anyhow and I don't think I was even really aware of the full scope of it until I was in college myself (because it's easier to point fingers at the Nazis and say how much better you are than them, than to face your own sins, I suppose.)

The fact that it was almost 6:1 female to male that were targeted, and mostly minorites, the poor and people with mental illness (perceived or real) is no surprise.

Sterilisation: North Carolina grapples with legacy

( text under cut )

Rape charge dropped after accuser commits suicide

( full text of article )

Wow. The easy way out of being convicted of rape? Kill your victim, or make the victim commit suicide!

What the hell is wrong with the legal system?

Paladino Laces Speech With Antigay Remarks

(note: NYTimes requires a free account to read the article, so I've copypasta'd it here for those who don't want to bother)

( Full text of article )

The commentary I've seen on the article have been surprisingly non-rage-inducing -- though a few of them are pretty bad.

Seriously, brainwashing? Homosexuality is not okay? FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE.


ETA: It gets better, trust me! Paladino would totally hire gays, guys! He can't hate them, cuz he'd hire them! (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

And Paladino has no regrets cuz what he believes is what he believes and it's totes not wrong! (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

ETA 2: Paladino apologizes in perhaps typical political fashion: "I'm sorry you were upset by my honest hate-speech poorly-chosen words." (if that link doesn't work, I copied the text to my JF here)

ETA 3: In a twist of fail that may even exceed Paladino's, the Jewish Orthodox church he had support from has withdrawn support of Paladino because they don't approve of his apology.

Also, it's been found that anti-abortion Paladino has leased an abortion clinic to Planned Parenthood. And apparently has owned a gay bar in the past. Does this man know anything about how to play politics?

ETA 4: Paladino considers his children to be off-limits for political games, but not his opponent's children! He lambastes Cuomo for marching with his daughters in a Gay Pride Parade.

ETA 5: (hat-tip to queencallipygos for suggesting this ETA) So Paladino is quite the email-troll. Zach Nikonovich-Kahn, a former political intern in NYC, angrily confronted Paladino in an email, and in a series of subsequent emails, Paladino basically trolled him by telling him to learn to read, to stop believing whatever he reads, to stop reading crap, and to take his "meeds" (Personally? I don't think what Zach did was very wise or professional, but Paladino's responses really do have to be seen to be believed, it is amazing how immature he is about it!)

This one is weird, unfunny, bizarre, strange, and altogether "Huh?"

The Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, Andrew Shirvell, really doesn't like the openly-gay U of M Student Body President, Chris Armstrong. Really, really doesn't like him. In fact, he's started stalking a blog to report on Armstrong's every move, accusing Armstrong of "promoting the radical homosexual agenda" and being, I kid you not, "Satan's representative on the Student Council." Oh, and he also joined the Westboro Baptist Church in protesting the lad. Gehayi on LJ has a nice set of links here and here. For the link-phobic, here's part of one of the first articles, courtesy of WXYZ:

( Bizarrity ahead! )

Roger Ebert also blogs about it here and here, including the interview with Anderson Cooper and a video Shirvell himself shot outside Armstrong's house.

I, personally, think Shirvell needs a hobby. Or a boyfriend.

Copying this directly from the diary at Daily Kos, which does as good a job of describing this bit of sexist and patronizing advertising as I ever could.

Hat/tip to puipui for this.

Want a raise? Wash your vagina.

by dhonig

Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 01:41:18 PM EDT

So, ladies, you say you want a raise? How should you go about getting it?
First, you have to figure out how to compete with the guy in the next cubicle. After all, he went to a school almost as good as yours. His grades were nearly as good as yours, too. He works hard. In fact, most mornings, he's the second person in the office. You know this, because you're always first. He is young, ruggedly good looking, and he washes his balls with a manly but fresh sandalwood soap.
What to do?
( Fortunately, the good folks at Women's Day and Summer's Eve have a few words of advice for you. )

Three thousand people have "liked" this diary on Facebook and there are already 756 comments and 528 recommendations. That makes it the second most recommended diary on Daily Kos today.

ETA: The diary ended up with 919 comments and 731 recommendations, the most recommended diary of the day on the site.

Also, Adweek picked up the story from Daily Kos.  In the comments, Summer's Eve brand manager Angela Bryant drops by to apologize.
 
"I would like to first of all apologize if this ad in anyway has offended anyone. We are taking immediate next steps to remove the ad from circulation. We want you to know that Fleet Laboratories and the Summer's Eve brand have the utmost respect for women. While we understand how some may come to an alternative conclusion regarding our recent ad, that was never our intention. Thank you."
 Hat/tip to nightingale0 on my LJ for the above.

List of alleged illegal immigrants mailed in Utah

By BROCK VERGAKIS
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A list containing the names and personal information of 1,300 people an anonymous group contends are illegal immigrants has been mailed around Utah, terrifying the state's Hispanic community.

( the rest of the article )

NOT. COOL.

What is WRONG with people?!