test 6

Lest you think the sort of reactionary bigotry seen in my last two posts is confined to wingnut media, here's an example from the floor of the Tennessee State Senate. If you can't view the clip right now, here's what State Senator Douglas Henry is saying, courtesy of Feministing . "Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it's simply, 'Let's don't go forward with this act.'" At the Feministing post, a few commenters are lamely trying to defend this. Henry is pro-choice, so that makes it ok? When he was a young man, rape was thought of this way, so that makes it ok? And of course, there's always "taken out of context". Oy. Thanks to Allan and James, as always, for the material for the last few posts.

"M-Fer, I want more iced tea." If you don't know what that means, first go here (scroll down to second half of post), then to see it live and in person, go here . So you're back? We'll move on. From Media Matters : On the February 13 edition of her nationally syndicated radio show, discussing the February 12 Black History Month event at the White House, host Laura Ingraham noted that "[President Bush] welcomed [Rev.] Al Sharpton to the White House," and added: "I hope they nailed down all the valuables." Ingraham then aired an audio clip of a portion of Bush's comments at the event and remarked, referring to Sharpton: "I can't believe they let him through the front door there at Black History Month." On another Fox radio show, host Tom Sullivan compared speeches by Barack Obama and... Adolf Hitler . Hitler. Barack Obama. He compared these. Then he denied doing so. You can check out the Media Matters stories and see what you...

Remember Jamie Leigh Jones, the Texas woman who was gang-raped by her KBR co-workers in Baghdad? Through the foundation she set up , thirty-eight women have come forward to report similar stories of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Because of clauses in their employment contracts, Jones and these other women (and many more like them, who we'll never know about) are prevented from seeking justice in court or from speaking publicly about their experiences. Their only recourse is arbitration, which in this case is a euphemism for "making it go away". In arbitration, there is no public record or transcript of the case, no judge, no jury, and no criminal charges filed. The arbitrator who hears the case is hired by the corporation . More than two years since her attack, no criminal charges have been brought in the matter, and legal experts say that it is highly unlikely that Jones' alleged assailants will ever face a judge and jury. Jones says that the arbitration cl...

I hope you all have heard about Gareth Henry, the Jamaican gay rights activist who is seeking refuge in Canada . Thirteen - thirteen - of Henry's friends have been murdered because they were gay in the past four years. After years of living in fear, Henry has finally decided that he must fight this battle from outside his country's borders. I'll use this as another opportunity to direct you to Slap Upside The Head , my favourite gay activist blogger. Slap Upside gives you the scoop, plus a perspective on Canada's record on gay people seeking asylum. In brief: it stinks. If this is going to change, Canadians need to raise a stink themselves, by contacting their MPs, writing letters to the editor and raising the issue every way they can. Slap also mentions perhaps the only leverage that can make a difference in Jamaica itself: tourism. If Canada (and other liberal countries) issued warnings about travel to Jamaica, and travel to Jamaica dropped off, someone in that Carib...

More awards! My most sincere thanks to whoever nominated wmtc for a Canadian F-word Blog Award, highlighting the best of the Canadian feminist blogosphere. I don't know that wmtc deserves these laurels, but if you'd like to vote, wmtc was nominated for: Best Canadian Feminist Blog Best Activist Blog and Best Political Blog The full list of nominations is here . Enjoy.

Sara Robinson , perhaps best known from the blog Orcinus , has written an excellent piece on Campaign for America's Future , debunking myths about the Canadian health care system. Sara has taken the time for something few people in this debate ever bother with: nuance. It's well worth reading. The comments - along with Sara's responses - are worthwhile, too, sometimes for facts, and sometimes for fallacies. 2008 is shaping up to be the election year that we finally get to have the Great American Healthcare Debate again. Harry and Louise are back with a vengeance. Conservatives are rumbling around the talk show circuit bellowing about the socialist threat to the (literal) American body politic. And, as usual, Canada is once again getting dragged into the fracas, shoved around by both sides as either an exemplar or a warning -- and, along the way, getting coated with the obfuscating dust of so many willful misconceptions that the actual facts about How Canada Does It are com...

Today is the sixth Iraq Moratorium . Please consider what you can do to make your opposition to the US's occupation of Iraq visible to the public. Wear a peace button. Write "NO WAR" on a piece of paper and hang it in your cubicle at work. Put a peace sign in your window, or your windshield. Join a lunch-time vigil. Write a letter to your local newspaper. Tape a "US OUT OF IRAQ" sign on a park bench. Write your US representative. Write out a campaign contribution cheque to one of the candidates - then write VOID UNTIL WAR STOPS across it. Actions start small, and they grow. On the third Friday of January, a few churches in New England rang their bells at noon. This month more churches have joined them. In October, people in Hobart, Indiana organized "Mall Walks" - they walked around malls wearing t-shirts protesting the war. Last month, six other groups around the country did the same. This month... who knows. For ideas, encouragement, support and soli...