June 7, 2013

In Defense of Raised Voices

In Defense of Raised Voices
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Friday 07 June 2013

(snip)

Hecklers have been loud in the news of late, which is somewhat charming in a way. In this age of instant online howling via Twitter and Facebook, someone heckling a speaker in person seems almost analog, a quaint throwback, and yet the act still has impact. Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK - a woman I am honored to call a friend, one of my most deeply-loved personal heroes, whose towering efforts deserve their own Brobdingnagian monument - managed to discombobulate President Obama's I-hate-drones-but-we're-gonna-keep-using-drones-probably-more-than-ever speech at the National Defense University by heckling him about the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo.

More recently, Ellen Sturtz of the LGBT rights group GetEQUAL shouted down Michelle Obama, demanding that her husband draft and sign an executive order barring sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination by federal contractors. Sturtz did this at a DNC fundraising event, which means, presumably, she paid $500 for the ability to hoot this at the First Lady during her speech before getting shuffled out the door.

For anyone who has ever spoken in public, having a heckler is like having someone put a live electrical wire to your leg in mid-sentence. You're there under the lights, you're already geeked up because you're speaking to a crowd, but you know your speech and you're in your cadence and you're doing fine, and then...gah, what? Where? Why? I was doing so well, and now I have to think on my feet?

Yup. Exactly.

Sure, one can argue that being disruptive does nothing to serve your cause. Sure, one can argue that a president's wife is not an elected official, and so should be off limits to the raised voices of dissidents in the crowd.

To which I would reply:

1. In this depleted age of canned speeches, by-rote debates, processed news and "approved" information, one raised voice in some politician's polite parlor informs the millions who hear it that they are, in fact, not crazy, and not alone in the belief that it is time to start yelling about what is wrong. As a man wisely said, big clouds condense around small particles;

2. No one, but no one, is immune to the First Amendment, especially someone who headlines cash-happy campaign fundraising events. If you speak at events to raise money for a political party or campaign, if you actively campaign, you lose the right to hide behind the argument that you should be above and beyond such petty things as politics. You are politics.

And finally, this: in America, those in power who speak from on high are not untouchable, above and beyond the petty annoyances of those they rule. Abraham Lincoln spent most of his White House time glad-handing office-seekers and folks who just wanted to meet him. Those quaint days are long lost, but this is still America. If you're going to step to a microphone or stand upon a stage to espouse a position, you'd better be prepared to hear from the people, whether you want to or not.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16827-in-defense-of-raised-voices

June 7, 2013

I don't think George W. Bush will get much painting done today.

His phone will be ringing off the hook with calls from friends and allies telling him, "Congratulations, President Obama has vindicated you."

“Drone strikes. Wiretaps. Gitmo. Renditions. Military commissions. Obama is carrying out Bush’s fourth term, yet he attacked Bush for violating the Constitution,” Ari Fleischer told Politico yesterday. “He’s helping keep the nation safe, vindicating President Bush, all while putting a bipartisan stamp on how to fight terror.”

With friends like these...

June 5, 2013

Squee.

June 4, 2013

You Mean Pizza.

June 4, 2013

Fuck the High Road: The Upside of Sinking to Their (Misogynist) Level

Fuck the High Road: The Upside of Sinking to Their Level
By Jessica Valenti
The Nation

June 3 2013

Don’t feed the trolls: it’s probably the most common refrain in online discussions, especially when dealing with misogynists in feminists conversations. The idea is that the best way to deal with sexists is to starve of them of the attention they’re so clearly desperate for. Besides, we think, why sink to their level?

But the high road is overrated. It requires silence in the face of violent misogyny, and a turn-the-other cheek mentality that society has long demanded of women. A vibrant feminist movement has ensured women don’t take injustices laying down offline—so why would we acquiesce on the Internet?

(snip)

For Lindy West, staff writer at Jezebel, engaging with hateful detractors is not just important as a way to bring attention to misogyny—“A lot of those attitudes are poisoning our culture, and it’s too easy to write them off as some fringe opinion,” she says—but also because it can be cathartic. Recently, West has been taking on sexists on Twitter over rape jokes and their cultural consequences. “If talking back to some random idiot makes me feel better—if it’s fortifying for my mental health—then I don’t care if I give some dumbass with thirteen followers the flash-in-the-pan attention he’s been craving.”

(snip)

The truth is—despite stereotypes that paint feminists as forever negative—doing feminist work requires boundless optimism. It means believing that people have the ability to be better, that culture can change, and maybe even that people who hate can learn to love. It’s exhausting. Sometimes reminding ourselves how hilariously stupid the opposition can be is a necessary break from the burden of idealism.

The rest: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174624/fuck-high-road-upside-sinking-their-level

June 1, 2013

Apparently, I scared the shit out of Glenn Beck on Thursday.

"These guys are so damn evil, man."

He sounds pretty freaked out to me.

Good.



P.S. Please forgive the commentary at the link. This was posted by one of my more prodigious stalkers. He's special.