Wednesday Reads: The King Who Wanted To Be Queen?
Posted: August 29, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, birth control, child sexual abuse, children, GLBT Rights, morning reads, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, Religious Conscience, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, Republican presidential politics, the GOP, The Right Wing, U.S. Politics, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: archaeology, elephants, foot and mouth, Richard III, Yellowstone 45 Comments »
Good Morning
Hope everyone is staying dry, and plugged in…by that I mean your electricity is still on and strong!
I could not bring myself to watch the show last night. Even though it looks as if there was plenty to make fun of, and the speeches probably would have got me all fired up…you know, pissed off.
I could not even force myself to read the various pundit’s views on the evening. (Although this one here by Charlie Pierce is supposed to be a good one.) Safe to say this morning’s reads will touch on things that you may have missed the last few days.
This first link is for Dakinikat, I know how fascinated she is with the archaeology of ancient graves: Archaeologists begin dig to uncover grave of Richard III in Leicester
The son of a descendant of Richard III’s eldest sister was on site today as what is believed to be the first ever search for the lost grave of an anointed King of England began in a city centre car park.
Canadian-born Michael Ibsen watched as archaeological experts from the University of Leicester used ground penetrating radar equipment to find the best spots to begin their search today at the car park off Greyfriars in Leicester.
[...]
Richard III was brought to Leicester where he was buried in the church of the Franciscan Friary, known as Greyfriars, after he fell in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
But the exact whereabouts of the church have become lost over time.
While hopes are high at finding the site, which is currently being used as a car park for council offices, the experts are less confident about finding the monarch’s remains during the two-week search.
Rumours say the monarch’s bones could have been thrown into the River Soar after the dissolution of the monasteries.
Philippa Langley, from the Richard III Society which has been involved with the project, said: “We know he was buried here but the church disappeared after the dissolution of the monasteries as did his grave so today we begin the search for Richard.
“We know his body was led into Leicester and put on display for three days by Henry Tudor before he was buried.
“I hope we do find him because I want to give him a proper resting place and also to explode a lot of myths around Richard III.”
Myths? I wonder…
For more on the dig, you can take a look at these articles:
- Canadian family holds genetic key to Richard III puzzle
- Could England’s King Richard III lie under a car park?
As for the myths…when I think of Richard III, I think of Shakespeare…Richard III:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Which makes me think of the movie The Goodbye Girl…specifically the scene where Richard Dreyfus is playing the King who wanted to be Queen…
Goodbye Girl, The — (Movie Clip) Don’t Give Me Bette Midler
The first rehearsal of the Off-Broadway Richard III, director Mark (Paul Benedict) offering his unorthodox theory, Chicago actor Elliott (Richard Dreyfuss), cast in the lead, expressing concern, in Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, 1977.
I’ve tried to embed the video below, so if it does not work correctly, please be sure to give that link a click and watch the scene. Too funny!
Assistant Director: Act one scene one…
Elliot Garfield: Uh, excuse me. Sorry. Just how far off the diving board do you want me to jump?
Mark: Well, don’t give me Bette Midler, but let’s not be afraid to be bold.
Elliot Garfield: Bold.
Mark: Bold.
Assistant Director: Act one, scene one, enter Richard Duke of Glochester.
Elliot Garfield: Now is the winter of our discontent… Sorry, one minute. Now is the winter…
Elliot Garfield: [Very effeminate] Now ith the winter of our dithcontent… may I have a 5 minute break please?
Mark: Five minutes.
Okay, so Richard, complete with club foot, twisted hand and pink polish on his nails. What a sight that would be…which leads me to our next link. New strain of hand, foot and mouth virus worries parents, pediatricians
Bernard Cohen, M.D., director of pediatric dermatology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and colleague Kate Puttgen, M.D., have seen or consulted on close to 50 such cases in the last few months and have received countless phone calls from scared parents and concerned physicians. Cohen believes this number may be just the tip of the iceberg with primary care pediatricians seeing the bulk of new cases.
Cohen and Puttgen want to reassure parents that most cases of the disease are benign and that nearly all patients recover in seven to 10 days without treatment and without serious complications.
“What we are seeing is relatively common viral illness called hand-foot-and-mouth disease but with a new twist,” Cohen says.
The culprit is an unusual strain of the common coxsackie virus that usually causes the disease. The new strain, coxsackie A6, previously found only in Africa and Asia, is now cropping up all over the United States.
[...]
The new strain, however, behaves somewhat differently from its homegrown cousin, Cohen says. It carries a slightly higher risk for more serious illness and more widespread rash that can involve the arms, legs, face and diaper area. The new strain also seems to affect older as well as younger children.
I wonder if my kids and husband had this strain of the virus, it may not be a club foot, but for some reason the thing with Richard’s illnesses seemed like a pathetic segue into this foot and mouth article. Yeah, I am reaching…I know. 
I have yet another laughable connection to the foot and mouth link, this one about a virus that is transmitted by vermin. (Oh, not that the virus is laughable, but that my attempt at making some kind of themed post this morning. Now that is laughable.) Second Yosemite National Park visitor dies of rodent-borne illness
A second person has died of a rare, rodent-borne disease after visiting Yosemite National Park earlier this summer and park officials warned past visitors to be aware of some flu-like aches and symptoms.
Health officials learned this weekend of the second hantavirus death, which killed a person who visited the park in June, spokesman Scott Gediman said in a statement.
There is one other confirmed case of the illness, and a fourth is being investigated.
Yosemite officials said Monday that the four visitors might have been exposed while vacationing at the park’s Curry Village, and are warning those who stayed in the village’s tent cabins from mid-June through the end of August to beware of any symptoms of hantavirus, which can include fever, aches, dizziness and chills. An outreach effort is under way to contact visitors from that period who stayed in “Signature Tent Cabins,” which have more insulation and amenities than other tent cabins.
Federal health officials say symptoms may develop up to 5 weeks after exposure to urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents, and Yosemite advised visitors to watch for symptoms for up to six weeks.
Of the 587 documented US cases since the virus was identified in 1993, about one-third proved fatal. There is no specific treatment for the virus.
Geez, scary stuff innit?
Moving away from the deformed body of a closet queen, and various viruses…I come to an article that shows the twisted irony involved with the religious right…or should that be better phrased as the fucked up hypocrisy that parades around as the anti-gay right wing? Anti-LGBT Prop 8 activist confesses to molesting young boys
A Yucca Valley, California man associated with the anti-LGBT ballot initiative Proposition 8 has confessed to the molestation of multiple young boys over the course of decades. According to the Wisconsin Gazette, Caleb Edward Hesse, 52, a first grade teacher and youth volunteer, has been arraigned on 4 felony counts of lewd conduct upon a child. The San Bernadino District Attorney’s office has said that more charges are pending as the case develops and more victims come forward.
“The crimes are believed to have occurred between the early 1980s and as recently as one week ago,” reads a report from the San Bernadino County Sheriff’s Office. ”Some of the victims may now be 30 (to) 40 years old.”
Hesse allegedly molested the boys on “countless overnight outings that took place throughout California” and were sponsored by the church where he volunteered, Yucca Valley’s Evangelical Free Church. Hesse has been a first grade teacher at Friendly Hills Elementary School since 1987.
The Gazette has found that Hesse donated in 2008 to the campaign supporting the anti-LGBT ballot initiative Proposition 8. He was also the owner of ProtectMarriage.com, a now-defunct Prop 8 fundraising site, according to LGBT news service Gayopolis.
You just can’t make this shit up!!!
And speaking of the twisted right…I have a couple of articles to share with you on the Republican Party.
Lawrence Wittner: The Republican “Small Government” Fraud - This one deals with the kind of hypocrisy we have talked about so many times on the blog.
One of the most widely-advertised but falsest claims in American politics is that the modern Republican Party stands for “small government.”
In the distant past, leading Republicans were sharp critics of statism. And, even today, a few marginal party activists, like U.S. Representative Ron Paul, have championed limited government — even libertarian — policies. But this is not at all the norm for the contemporary GOP.
For example, the modern Republican Party has stood up with remarkable consistency for the post-9/11 U.S. government policies of widespread surveillance, indefinite detention without trial, torture, and extraordinary rendition. It has also supported government subsidies for religious institutions, government restrictions on immigration and free passage across international boundaries, government denial of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, government attacks on public use of public space (for example, the violent police assaults on the Occupy movement), and government interference with women’s right to abortion and doctors’ right to perform it.
And this barely scratches the surface of the Republican Party’s “big government” policies. The GOP has rallied fervently around government interference with the right of same-sex couples to marry, government provision of extraordinarily lengthy imprisonment for drug possession (for example, in the “war on drugs”) and numerous other nonviolent offenses, government curbing of voting rights (for example, “voter suppression” laws), and government restrictions on freedom of information. Where, one wonders, is the Republican outrage at the U.S. government’s crackdown on people like Bradley Manning who expose government misconduct, or on whistle-blowing operations like Wikileaks and its leading light, Julian Assange?
Oh yeah…preach it baby!
If the Republican Party were a zealous defender of civil liberties, as it claims to be, it would laud civil liberties organizations. But, in fact, the GOP has adopted a very hostile attitude toward them. During the 1988 presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush, the Republican presidential candidate, publicly and repeatedly ridiculed his Democratic opponent as a “card-carrying member of the ACLU.”
Of course, the biggest arena of U.S. government action is the military. Here is where 57 percent of U.S. tax dollars currently go, thereby creating the most powerful national military machine in world history. A Republican Party that wanted to limit government would be eager to cut funding for this bloated giant. But the reality is that the modern GOP has consistently supported a vast U.S. military buildup. Today, its presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, assails his Democratic competitor for military weakness and champions a $2 trillion increase in U.S. military spending over the next decade.
Moreover, the Republican Party is an avid proponent of the most violent, abusive, and intrusive kind of government action — war. In recent decades, as U.S. military intervention or outright war raged in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other nations, the GOP was a leading source of flag-waving jingoism, as it is today in the U.S. government’s confrontation with Iran. This is not a prescription for creating limited government. As the journalist Randolph Bourne remarked in the midst of U.S. government mobilization for World War I: “War is the health of the State.”
Read the rest at the link…
Then we have this, a sort of logistical view of the exception rules for abortion…COLUMN: How would a woman prove rape to qualify for Romney’s abortion exception?
In the wake of the Todd Akin firestorm, Mitt Romney and a flip-flopping Paul Ryan have emphasized that their anti-choice stance excludes rape. In a Romney administration, abortions would be outlawed except in the case of women who have been raped, the Republican ticket has promised.
So here’s an idea, first suggested by my daughter and one of her friends: Who’s going to be the first reporter to ask Romney or Ryan how that would work? How would they implement that exception?
Would a woman’s rapist have to be convicted in court? How would that work, given that in most criminal cases it takes longer than nine months from when the crime is committed to catch the criminal (assuming the criminal is caught), prepare charges and reach a verdict. In fact, the window would be significantly less than nine months; it would start from when the pregnancy is discovered and end somewhere around the 16 to 20 weeks left during which abortions can be performed most safely.
I won’t even go into the way these exceptions could become a disgusting bureaucratic mess that makes the woman jump through so many hoops, getting that abortion becomes impossible…all in the name of pro-life fanaticism.
And that brings me to this last article for you, in a world where women are having to fight for their basic rights…elephants are getting birth control for free! And that ain’t the GOP Elephants…we are talking African Elephants. South Africa goes big on birth control for elephants
A South African province home to thousands of elephants is planning a birth control campaign for the pachyderms to prevent a population explosion that could threaten plants and wildlife.
Unlike other parts of Africa where elephant stocks have dwindled to dangerously low levels due to poaching and a loss of habitat, South Africa has seen its populations steadily grow through conservation, with the country pressed for room to house the massive animals with hefty diets.
KwaZulu-Natal province, in the southeast, is looking to expand a project running for more than a decade where elephants populations have been controlled by injecting cows with a vaccine that triggers an immune system response to block sperm reception.
Yup, I say it again, you just can’t make this shit up!
So, what are you reading about today? Feel the urge to rant about the GOP crapfest? Well…by all means…please do.
Sima
ecocatwoman
fiscalliberal
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Here are a few links from this morning, take them for what they are worth:
Opening Night in Tampa: Love or Respect for Romney? | Mother Jones
ECHIDNE of the snakes
A Troubling Chant on the Convention Floor—By Jack Hitt (Harper’s Magazine)
Well, what do you expect from the same folks who shouted “let them die” when RonPaul was talking about healthcare…
Race-baiting hooks 2012 campaign – John F. Harris and Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com
This one I won’t even quote from…so…there it is.
Thanks for all these links, JJ. I’m pretty tired after last night too. It was a real hatefest and hard to watch and listen to. To be honest, I had to use the mute button at times. I hope you’re beginning to feel better.
Oh, and one more thing…here is the RNC topic threads from Charlie Pierce: Daily Politics Blog – Charles P. Pierce – Political Blogging – Esquire
Ugh, I am glad I missed this: Janine Turner at RNC: Men can take away your rights | The Raw Story
Update on Isaac: Officials: Hurricane Isaac’s storm surge overtops levee, sends 12-foot flood into La. homes – U.S. News
What in world is Jindal thinking………………he’s asking for reimbursment for all cost related to the hurricane. Hello, Mr. Jindal, this is the Broke federal government calling, this is not a welfare program, and we recommend that you go through some type of counseling for your dependency problems, you are simply out of your tree.
Thank you for the morning reads, JJ. I hope you are feeling better and I hope Dak is okay.
I’m too tired to rant after last night’s crapfest, so here’s a song by John Prine that sums up the way I’m feeling:
You were great last night, Beata. I love your sense of humor. Get some rest today if you can.
Thanks, BB. I’m really wiped out this morning. I have a doctor’s appt. today and I need to do some things for my mother. Then I’ll rest.
You did a great job last night. I admire your stamina.
I’m hoping Kat will have internet tonight. I don’t think I can do it again. Watching Paul Ryan might do me in.
Ditto, luv you Beata, and your selection of music.
The only speech I caught was Chris Christie’s that sounded more or less like a campaign speech for himself.
“I did this, I did that, I balanced NJ’s budget, I took on the teacher’s union, blah, blah, blah.”
Rachel declared it the “most selfish, self serving speech” she had heard while Matthews declared it a “barn burner”. What I heard was a whole lot of hot air with a bare reference to Mittens toward the end.
What stood out was his insistence that “we must say No” and coming from a guy who looks like he swallowed an entire bakery you can’t help but question the optics involved.
John Boehner says Mitt Romney is unpopular because he’s “shy” and “humble.”
Try “asshole”.
Boehner was probably drunk at the time.
Ann Romney’s job was to soothe the women voters and “humanize” her stilted spouse who seems unable to achieve that on his own. She has been given “high marks” for her speech last night. Good for her.
However, coming from a party whose primary focus is in denying women their rightful place while withholding their basic rights, frankly, who cares at this point?
It also becomes apparent that Mrs. Romney’s speech is the one getting the most coverage. Could it be that the present GOP has become too radical in its approach that nothing of actual substance was forthcoming?
It would appear that from the words being said by other speakers the objective seems to be “you can’t hate government enough to satisfy us”. Government is the “enemy”, standing in the way of our rights and job creation and not “god’s” intended plan when he “conferred” those rights on America and must be restored.
This is “gobbledeegook” territory. As each speaker made his/her way to that podium to bash the hell out of government itself, it is probably safe to say that most of them have made their advance through life with some form of aid and assistance from government.
Even Stuffed Face Christie admitted that his father, upon returning form WW2, was able to take advantage of the GI Bill, get a college education, and bring his family into the middle class from which he himself sprung. Where does he think the GI Bill came from if not government?
The ideology of this party is absurd. A hall littered with the “haves” proscribing to the “have nots” that “austerity” is in their future, just leave the decision making to them.
Charlie Pierce also pointed out that the military is a “government program,” and the salaries are paid for by taxpayers. It’s so ridiculous to watch “government employees” like Christie talk about how the rest of us should be “free” of any government assistance of any kind. The times they are so nostalgic for were times of “big government” and big deficits too after WWII. And high taxes for the rich and corporations, BTW.
They want to “privatize” the military as well.
Schools, prisons, fires, police, you name it. What I have yet to figure out is how this is accomplished.
I still have visions in my head of a fire that took place a few years back where the firemen stood back and allowed the structure to burn to the ground because the homeowner had failed to pay the premium in a rural district that had adopted this form of response. It was not only heartless, but dangerous in that there could have easily been people still inside who would not have been rescued because someone owed money.
Does your kid get kicked out of school if you fail to pay up? Or the police fail to respond if your dues aren’t paid? We know medical treatment can be withheld if you are uncovered so why not enforce the privatization contract to its fullest?
Insane reasoning.
Pat, the privatization of public schools has already begun. When I went to public school, my parents had to buy pencils, pens, a pencil case if you wanted to be fancy because it wasn’t required, a tablet and maybe a few notebooks. They didn’t even have to buy crayons because they were supplied by the school. Today, schools’ budgets have been slashed to the bone so that the list of required supplies sometimes runs as long as two pages and includes things like white board markers and erasers for the teacher to use, and tissues and paper towels for use in the classroom! And where are we supposed to go to buy all of the stuff? Why Walmart, Target or Staples of course.
So instead of a school system being able to buy supplies in bulk directly from the manufacturers or distributors at negotiated prices, parents have to drive from store to store, burning fossil fuels, and buy the supplies themselves with the added bonus of paying for the profits of the private enterprises.
And here’s the really rich part. Now charities have been set up so that people with the means to do it, can take the supply list of a needy child and buy all of the stuff at Walmart. To make it easier for people, they have a bus that they park right outside of Walmart so that you can drop the stuff off right after you buy it from Walmart!
janicen: I was one of those who filled a backpack here locally for those kids unable to afford school supplies. It was my pleasure because kids look forward so much to that on opening day.
My next door neighbor is a teacher and she spends a lot of her own money for supplies the schools can no longer afford due to cuts.
It’s a vicious cycle that goes deeper than what they explain by way of “austerity”.
Pat I did it too. I started to cry (and I’m really not a delicate flower, in case there was any doubt) while I was shopping because I was reminded of the insidious harm that comes from poverty. Here I was so proud of myself, helping out those less fortunate, when I remembered that my own daughter LIVED for back-to-school shopping. She would search the internet two days after school let out for the summer, looking for next year’s supply list because she loved, loved, loved picking out her stuff. That poor second grade boy whose backpack I selected and was filling, would not have the experience of picking out his stuff. He got some really good stuff because the longer I shopped and the sadder I felt, the more I spent, but he missed out on one of the joys of childhood all because of circumstances over which he had no control. This almost feudal system of the moneyed class deigning to provide for the poor, strips the poor of their dignity.
I just heard from Kat. She lost her power last night, so we may not hear from her until tomorrow at least. She’s safe anyway.
That’s a relief at least. Just watching it on t.v. is frightening.
She has some leaks in her house, and she can’t open the doors or windows or the water comes in. But her street isn’t flooded and her car is OK. Luckily she is on higher ground. Her house didn’t flood badly during Katrina.
I don’t imagine there are many homes in the area that don’t have leaks when the rain is horizontal and the winds are 60+mph and kicking up shingles, siding, door and window encasements. I’m just glad to hear she is in a safe spot.
Thanks for the update. I’ve been thinking about her and hoping she’s ok.
That is a relief, I see they are evacuating folks now in NOLA.
Great links, J.J., thank you. I especially liked the MoJo article referring to Ann Romney as “…Mitt Romney’s emissary to the human race.”
What I found shocking was the attempt to shout down the woman from Puerto Rico. Some were chanting USA, but you can read the one guy’s lips, he’s chanting “Keep them out”. About Puerto Rico?!?!!? WTF? Are these ignoramuses so blinded by their prejudice that they don’t know that Puerto Rico is in the USA? Keep them out? For me this is proof positive, as if any more proof is needed, that their concerns about immigration having nothing to do with protecting jobs in America or reducing strain on our social infrastructure, it’s all about keeping the Latinos out. Not the Canadians nor the French, Italians, or Russians, just keep the Latinos out at all costs. Jeebus we have to win this election and keep those lunatics out of power or we are all doomed.
By the way, Pierce was brilliant as well.
I have heard about people yelling to deport Puerto Ricans…HEAD DESK! If they would only pay attention in school…argh. I missed the above situation though.
It’s in J.J.’s link above, from Harper’s, about the “Disturbing Chant…”
Juan Williams was sent to the Fox News doghouse because he dared to say that Ann Romney “looked like a corporate wife” whose husband had taken care of her.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80330.html?hp=l7
Just what you would expect from Fox.
Good for Williams – I hope he keeps pissing them off wherever he goes. LOL
Good morning. Glenn Kessler awards the RNC Four Pinocchios:
Fact checking the GOP Convention’s opening night
He wasn’t handed success? His father was the f&cking governor of Michigan, a CEO, and a presidential cabinet member! His father got him out of the draft, and when Mitt caused a fatal car accident, his dad sent powerful government officials to help him out. I seriously doubt if Romney paid for his college or grad school tuition. Good grief!
I love this, it’s emblematic.
I just put a link up about that in the new post…it is from lawyers guns and money…
I don’t have a link but I believe Ann Romney divulged the fact that they were living off Mitten’s trust fund or some such right after they married and were both still in college.
First they taunted a female speaker who had a spanish accent with “USA, USA”, then they did this?
“Two RNC Attendees Removed After Throwing Nuts At Black CNN Camerawoman”
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/cnn-rnc-convention-camerawoman.php?ref=fpb
What a bunch of butt-wipes.
Another report on the people chanting “USA, USA” and “get them out” during the speech of a woman with a Spanish accent:
“When Ms. Fonalledas began to speak, her Spanish accent prompted simultaneous chants to burst forth of “USA, USA!” and then, “Get them out!” Some of the biggest offenders were those in the Texas delegation. It was obvious from the Lone Star button-down shirts and straw cowboy hats the Hank Williams Jr. wannabes sported. They shouted her down vigorously for nearly a full minute as she stood in shocked silence. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus had to come to the microphone and scold the offending delegates.”
http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981594849
Bunch of high school bullies who know nothing about anything except hate.
Matt Taibbi with Rolling Stone’s cover story on Rmoney. I wish everyone in America would read this!
Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
Re: that 2nd paragraph in the excerpt. I’ve driven across country 3 times, every time via Interstate 80, so I can only speak to the States in which I stopped. I found all of the States interesting, with their food, accents, dress – so different from NJ and California – but the thought never entered my mind that these States were NOT part of America.
When I got to Utah, it was a totally different feeling – I felt like I was on some movie set with character actors. None of the people felt real to me. There seemed to be some vague secrecy going on, like a silent alarm had been sounded that there were “visitors from another place” in the area. I can’t really describe it. I knew very little about Mormons at that time other than it was difficult to get a glass of wine with my meal and that they used to be polygamists. The feeling that I had during my stop overs was that Utah was a Mormon place, first and foremost, that just happened to reside in America – and the citizens were Mormon first and then American; their allegiance was to their church first and country second.
That feeling is one of the things that alarms me about Romney – that and a host of other things, including his being a liar, a cheat, a misogynist, an archipelago man with no ethics and a host of many others that have been discussed here. If the plutocrats/corporatists do push him on us, they won’t care about whether his theocratic policies get instituted – they’ll only care about their power and the money that they’ll take in.
Yes Utah is very different. In the spring we were there for a few weeks — before heading home to Washington State. The scenery is fantastic — but the people not so much.
The people are nice enough — on the surface. But Utah is not like any other state — and I’ve either visited or lived in 49 states (the joy of being a Navy brat.)
For a couple of weeks we were in the area where all the polygamist cults are protected and flourish. So many of the women look like they are taking something for their “nerves”. Non Mormon clerks have to watch their behavior at all times — or they are reported to the corporate office for religious prejudice.
I don’t think that we will return to Utah any time soon.