Friday Reads
Posted: December 6, 2013 Filed under: morning reads 34 Comments
Good Morning!
I have to admit I’m a bit tired of all the mansplaining. I’ve been on the receiving end of it quite a bit this week. They’re even training them to do more of it in the ranks of the Republican Party. Just wait until you read what they’re training the good ol’ white christian men to say if they’re running against some one with those unholy lady parts.
Boehner urged his colleagues Thursday in response to this POLITICO story to “be a little more sensitive” when running against women.
“Some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be,” Boehner said.
Boehner (R-Ohio) said bluntly that “when you look around the Congress, there are a lot more females in the Democrat caucus than there are in the Republican caucus.”
Republicans are trying to avoid a 2012 repeat. Akin dropped the phrase “legitimate rape” during the 2012 Missouri Senate race, costing himself a good shot at winning his own race and touching off Democratic charges of a GOP “War on Women” that dogged Republicans in campaigns across the country.
In the 2014 cycle, there will be at least 10 races where House GOP male incumbents face Democratic women challengers. More races could crop up as the cycle unfolds.
Some of the highest profile fights will take place in states like New York, Illinois, Florida and Virginia — the last where GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli was defeated recently due in part to being perceived as anti-woman.
Individual Republicans have continued to give Democrats plenty of ammunition about being insensitive to women’s issues. From Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) talking about rape and pregnancy at a Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this year, to House Republicans passing a 20-week abortion ban in June, to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) blaming military sexual assault on “hormones,” there have been repeated instances where GOP lawmakers have come off as tone-deaf to female voters.
Yup, it has nothing to do with their obsession with vaginas, defunding planned parenthod, and telling women they really don’t understand what it means to have an abortion. Meanwhile, they still need to learn how to be more sensitive about Hispanics and blacks and now it seems 
they’re back to dissing Catholics. Fox’s Adam Shaw manage to assault all three in this piece: “Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s Obama – God help us”. What’s weird is that Shaw’s a Catholic. But wait, he seems to be one of those ones that never got over Vatican 2 and probably still wants his mass in the ultimate language of dead white men.
Much is being made of his ‘compassion’ and ‘humility,’ but kissing babies and hugging the sick is nothing new. Every pope in recent memory has done the same, yet only now are the media paying attention. Benedict XVI and John Paul II refused to kowtow to the liberal agenda, and so such displays of tenderness were under-covered.
But Francis is beating a retreat for the Catholic Church, and making sure its controversial doctrines are whispered, not yelled – no wonder the New York Times is in love.
Just like President Obama loved apologizing for America, Pope Francis likes to apologize for the Catholic Church, thinking that the Church is at its best when it is passive and not offending anyone’s sensibilities.
In his interviews with those in the left-wing media he seeks to impress, Francis has said that the Church needs to stop being ‘obsessed’ with abortion and gay marriage, and instead of seeking to convert people, “we need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.”
This softly-softly approach of not making a fuss has been tried before, and failed. The Second Vatican Council of the 1960’s aimed to “open the windows” of the Church to the modern world by doing just this.
The result was the Catholic version of New Coke. Across the West where the effects were felt, seminaries and convents emptied, church attendance plummeted, and adherence to Church doctrine diminished.
John Paul II and Benedict XVI worked hard to turn this trend around, but now Pope Francis wants the bad old days to resume.
Meanwhile, notable Texas asshole Senator Ted Cruz tells ALEC to “Stand your Ground”.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s advice for a conservative group facing criticism and hardship: “Stand your ground.”
The choice of words appeared to be a reference to a string of negative press the American Legislative Exchange Council – a group made up of conservative legislators and corporate members – received for backing laws similar to the controversial “Stand your ground” self-defense law that made national headlines in 2012 and 2013.
“I will tell you this, my advice to ALEC is very, very simple: Stand your ground,” Cruz said to applause and a cheer of “hear, hear” from the audience at ALEC’s winter meeting in Washington.
ALEC Spokesman Bill Meierling said he thought Cruz was referring to the controversial law and the criticism the group had received for backing similar proposals.
“I believe that he used that as a rhetorical device because it is a phrase that everyone in this room recognizes because of the challenges of the past two years,” said Bill Meierling, ALEC’s senior director of communication. “Every single person also knows that we no longer have any model policy on that issue, or any firearms issues for that matter.”
Some one got a little something extra at a Wendy’s in Georgia.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “burger joint” — TMZ has learned, a Wendy’s employee was arrested last month in
Georgia … after allegedly making a cheeseburger with one crazy off-the-menu ingredient … marijuana.
According to the Lovejoy Police Department, 32-year-old Amy Seiber was busted during her shift on November 1 … after a customer called 911, complaining she had found a half-smoked blunt in her cheeseburger.
The customer met with police at the Wendy’s location where she ordered the burger, and cops claim Seiber immediately admitted the blunt was hers.According to police, Seiber said she had been smoking pot on the job and conveniently “misplaced” the blunt inside the customer’s burger … right on top of the pickle.
Joe Biden has announced that the US will not recognize China’s supposed air defense zone.
Speaking in Seoul on Friday, following his meeting with Chinese leadership, Joe Biden said that the United States would not recognize Chinese jurisdiction over an air defense zone they established in the East China Sea.
Biden told reporters in a speech:
I was absolutely clear on behalf of my president: We do not recognize the zone. It will have no effect on American operations. None. Zero.
Biden’s remarks echo the declaration made by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney earlier in the day, when he said, “We, the United States, do not recognize and we do not accept it, and will not change the way the United States conducts military operations in the region.”
That’s it for me this morning. What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Does Boehner actually believe that advising the GOP candidates to tone down their anti female rhetoric is going to gain them more women voters? Really?
Every 4 years the GOP platform includes language that is anti women fro the “get go” just as the Catholic Church outlines the subsidiary role of women without apology. And each wonders why women shy away from these entities that only promise to harness them even more.
Redefining rape and calling for a ban on contraception is not going to gain you a whole lot of newcomers willing to sign up for another round of “institutionalized slavery” by pushing out a baby every 9 months.
The GOP and the church are each naive enough to believe that a “softening” of the language is going to work in their favor.
Most women today are quite able to see through the subtrafuge of combining religion with public policy and are not interested.
Better they both work on behalf of women rather than planning against their independence if the goal is to seek approval that would set them back into the Dark Ages when control of their own bodies was viewed as “sinful”.
What do wimmenz wantz anyway? Beatings will persist until the morale improves.
Maybe the GOP has a death wish? I have one for them. 🙂
lol!!
Somehow I doubt that the brainwashed wife of a GOP nutwing thinks “full fabric of community” should cover autonomy over your own body, keeping religion out of medical care, and equal pay for equal work.
Ah, Jim Thompson, king of the hard-boiled thriller writers.
Yeah. I love all that old pulp fiction and the cover art. I’m a total sap for the stuff.
That was notable, Lovejoy, Ga……………….Wendy’s best damn cheeseburger in the country, offering up a healthy lifestyle.
Fannie, what else do you expect here in the peanut state? Georgia Senate Seat Race Obamacare – Georgia Loses Its Mind – Esquire
Good one JJ
Here’s one from banjoland for ya!
Georgia Republican Who Made ‘Callous’ Pre-Existing Condition Remark Has One Of His Own
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/ralph-hudgens-pre-existing-condition_n_4395825.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
and no, being mean and ignorant is not the preexisting condition
I also liked the speech and what U’ve heard since.
Krugman: Obama ‘Finally Sounding Like The Progressive’ Supporters Backed In ’08
I saw employment numbers are out.
And then I saw this: » Susie Madrak: Blog Archive » One in three bank tellers need public assistance
Damn banksters!
Does not surprise me a bit. My first job out of college was as a bank teller. We got paid 25 cents/hour above minimum wage. I didn’t last long. Management realized early on that I was trouble with a capital T when the bank locked us in even though it was after closing/quitting time and we were off the clock. Unfortunately, some poor teller’s drawer didn’t balance and they fucking locked the doors and nobody could leave until the “lost” money was found. Even then, we were not allowed to leave until the branch Vice President lambasted all of us for being careless and irresponsible. Again, one person in the branch made a tiny mistake and we all had to be dressed down for it. At one point Floyd, the VP said, “…you girls make a pretty good buck…” and I shit you not, I burst out laughing. I honestly thought he was making a joke. I was new, it was my first week on the job, and I naturally assumed this surreal tableau was all in jest. I had no idea that you could be held against your will by your employer, without being paid, because someone else made a tiny mistake.
Like I said, I didn’t last long at that job but I do know that bank tellers are the most egregiously underpaid full-time employees on the planet. For 25 cents an hour over minimum wage (a pretty good buck) we were expected to be friendly and polite while we handled and counted thousands of dollars every day and carefully scrutinized every single customer and transaction, making sure we followed every single bank procedure to the letter, but absolutely did not delay any “regular” customers all the while we were to aggressively sell customers on new accounts and products. I’ve had a bunch of different jobs over the past 3 or 4 decades, but my four months as a bank teller will always stand out as the worst job I have ever had.
Good for you for laughing at that arrogant bastard!
You and me both. I worked about the same period of time and it was awful. Of course, Lincoln Nebraska is not a bastion of enlightenment at all.
Yeah, see how much Wells Fargo pays, and they ripped thousands of us off. Not to mention how we bailed them out, pisses me off.
They should be made to buy every one a house that they fleeced out of their homes.
Raw Story: Jon Stewart roasts Stu Varney: The Pope doesn’t ‘slap Jamie Dimon’s d*ck out of your mouth’
Very funny!
That’s priceless!!!
Very unkind truth …
The Worst Reactions to Nelson Mandela’s Death
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/12/nelson-mandela-death-worst-reactions-santorum-nikki-finke
What makes people so deliberately stupid?
Poor old Frothy Mix, still trying to find a way to be relevant.
LOL!
Did you know that Newt Gingrich was the first republican congressman to join the black caucus and call for sanctions? He even went before most of the spineless middle of the road Dems. He couldn’t get away with that kind of thing this day and age.
Does anyone know anything about Adam Shaw’s educational background which would qualify him to criticize the theological interpretations of a Jesuit?
Just reading that article I know everything about Shaw that I need to know. Anyone who pines for the pre-Vatican II catholic church (which was the church I grew up in) is screwed in the head. The only reason there is still a catholic church in America is they quit delivering anti-contraception sermons from the pulpit and they found a way to re-open the church door to divorcees via papal marriage annulment.
Wikipedia says Fox’s Adam Shaw is a business reporter who was educated at a “comprehensive” (whatever that means) school in London. In other words, it’s not even clear if Shaw has the equivalent of a high-school diploma. Yup, that all sure qualifies him to debate theology with a Jesuit pope. Where does Fox find these people?
Under rocks would be my guess. Maybe floating on the top of filthy ponds?
Pond scum sounds about right
Maybe orbitting Stuart Varney, who may be the most heartless asshat on TV these days.
Shaw usually writes about video games for Fox News! But on his Twitter account, he claims he has a BA in theology and is working on a book about Pope Paul VI.
I’ve never heard of Shaw before but he certainly has made a name for himself now. Maybe he and Varney can team up for a primetime show: “Asshat and Pond Scum”.
“Asshat and Pond Scum” would probably get the whiniest racist audience. A lot of Fox viewership.