Note to readers: Today I’m launching a new feature in which most weekday mornings I will post my perspective, in a sentence or two, on the top news stories of the day. I’m tentatively calling the series “adVantage Points” — but I’ll take other creative ideas!! Post your name suggestion in the comments.
Dominque Strauss-Kahn Case “Falling Apart” - story
The only thing that’s falling apart is the legitimacy of the American legal system that continues to blame and demean alleged victims of rape and sexual assault. Is this really still happening in the 21st Century?
Federal Debt Default Still Looming, No Deal Yet – story
Oddly, the Grand Old Party has yet to grow up. Ideological terrorists in the Republican Party are willing to destroy the economic future of our nation to try and score some political points. The President is right: Republicans are acting like petulant children, not leaders.
Minnesota State Government Shuts Down – story
In tough times, leaders have to make tough choices. Conservative legislators in Minnesota had a choice — raise taxes on the richest of the rich or shut down the state government and stop paychecks to thousands of hardworking middle class state employees and end programs like child care assistance on which working Minnesotans rely. Rather than a pin prick in the pockets of those who are doing well in this economy, Republicans stuck a knife in the back of the middle class — which is already bleeding.
Ohio Allows Guns In Bars and More – story
I’m all for the right of law-abiding citizens to have non-assault weapon-style guns in their homes and in hunting spots. But bars? Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! Best part: Apparently the new law prohibits you from carrying a gun into a business if you’re already drunk, but you’re more than welcome to enter packing and sober — and then get blitzed. So much for “common sense” gun laws.
Based on a speech I gave at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on June 11, 2011, for the organization Code Pink, this narrated slideshow asks why women’s bodies are so regularly, flagrantly violated while the arguably fictitious borders of nations are fiercely defended. It’s an intellectual but pointed meditation on the ideas and ideals that are shaping all of our lives right this minute.
I’d love your reaction/response.
Yes, these men are bad apples. Rotten, really. But what we have to confront is that they’re not exceptions to the rule but examples of it. Sexual assault of women occurs every second in every corner of the globe, itself a heinous magnification of the sort of demeaning treatment to which most women are subtly or not so subtly subjected every day.
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