Archive for 2019
May 16, 2019
[Andrea] Dworkin is best known as a fierce campaigner against pornography, which she accused of complicity in the oppression of women. Along with Catharine Mackinnon, a lawyer, she worked tirelessly to discredit and ban pornography—by which they meant any sexual depiction of women, portrayed in any medium. Dworkin, Mackinnon, and their followers (the “Macdworkinites”) ruffled feathers on the Left by forming alliances against pornography with the Christian Right and the Reagan administration, at the very moment feminists were uniting to defend Roe v Wade from these same powers. This political realignment catalysed a damaging internecine split in the feminist movement into its “anti-sex” and “sex-positive” tendencies.
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The Macdworkinites opposed obscenity laws, which were based on a community standard they considered too permissive. They instead opted for a “civil rights” approach to censorship, arguing that displays of sexual expression were themselves harmful to women. They drafted a pro-forma law, the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance, which they encouraged city and state legislatures to adopt. This was far more draconian than obscenity law, because it defined pornography so broadly and subjectively as to include any potentially sexual expression, and because it handed the power of censorship to any “concerned citizen.” Any woman, using the law, could claim to have been harmed, and then take legal action: against a producer of pornography, a television company, or a bookshop. Their law was adopted in parts of the United States, but was later struck down under the First Amendment. However, their initiative enjoyed greater success in Canada, where it was adopted as a part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. As if to demonstrate the unintended hazards to which the slippery-slope of censorship can lead, two of Dworkin’s own books were banned in Canada in 1994, under the very law she had helped to create.
Read the whole thing.
HEAVY METAL: Gene Simmons of Kiss visits the Pentagon. “’I’m a proud son of a concentration camp survivor of Nazi Germany. My mother was 14 when she was in the camps,’ he said. She died recently at the age of 93. Simmons was promoting military service as part of the Pentagon’s public relations push #Knowyourmil, which seeks to expand public knowledge of the Defense Department’s mission and potential military career paths. It is a top priority as the number of people eligible to serve continues to fall, due to weight, fitness, behavioral or other issues.”
RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Feel the Excitement: Bill de Blasio Is Running for President Too.
THE BABY BUST CONTINUES: Birth rates hit record low for women in teens and 20s: ‘That’s a lot of empty kindergarten rooms.’
Until the 1960s, pretty much every successful society actively pressured people to have kids, and rewarded them for it. Since then, we’ve reversed the incentives. It’s not clear that this has made people happier. One of my colleagues, who has a bunch of kids, said that when he and his wife were first married they asked a lot of older couples what they liked and didn’t like after years of marriage. Nearly all of them said their biggest regret was not having more kids.
Related: The Parent Trap.
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OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: Christian Student Forced to Write Islamic Conversion Creed Appeals Case to Supreme Court.
THEY MEAN TO, THEY JUST KEEP FORGETTING: Most older adults don’t ask doctors about dementia, survey says.
SPACE X: Parachute Issues Will Further Delay First Commercial Crew Missions.
Recent parachute test issues SpaceX’s Dragon program — as well as, in some media reports, Boeing’s Starliner — will likely delay the launch of the first commercial crew missions to the International Space Station, an analyst for Forecast International Inc. said.
“In broad stokes, these anomalies will delay both programs,” said Forecast’s Carter Palmer in an e-mail interview. “Boeing, for example, is putting further tests on hold until the issue is identified. SpaceX may have to redesign the parachute in the future.”
Of the two reported failed tests, it is SpaceX’s that received the most media attention — including testimony by NASA’s Bill Gerstenmaier at a May 8 hearing concerning NASA’s deep space and lunar exploration plans. The SpaceX test (which included a test sled instead of a test capsule) simulated a failed main parachute, which was using only three of the included four parachutes; however, the company did complete five similar tests before this failure.
Boeing has also experienced recent parachute test issues, said Gerstenmaier — head of NASA’s human spaceflight program — in an interview with Spaceflight Now.
If this stuff were easy, everyone would be doing it.
CHINA: North Korea women in China trapped in sex trade. “Chinese police are often complicit with the exploitation of refugees.”
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE SCIENCE: It Turns Out Crushed Bananas Make Terrible Motor Oil.
PHILIPPINES COAST GUARD AND U.S. COAST GUARD CONDUCT SEARCH AND RESCUE TRAINING: From Seapower Magazine, a look at joint exercises in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) and vessels from the Philippine coast guard conducted joint search-and-rescue exercises May 14 in the South China Sea west of Manila, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.
The Bertholf, a 418-foot national security cutter based in Alameda, California, worked together with the Philippine coast guard vessels Batangas and Kalanggaman on small-boat search-and-rescue tactics to conduct the mock rescue of a person in the water. The Bertholf is in the midst of a Western Pacific deployment under the tactical control of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.
In training with and learning alongside partners in the Philippines on search and rescue, maritime law enforcement and small-boat tactics, Bertholf’s crew enjoys the benefits of the strong, often personal ties between the countries, the release said.
Note maritime law enforcement. Sounds relatively peaceful, except when confronting China’s “cabbage strategy” and naval militia swarm tactics.
RELATED: Latest Philippines situation update. It’s two weeks old but it provides a useful sketch of how China employs its economic power to bully its neighbors (yes, trade power) and how Beijing uses its “naval militia” fishing boats as weapons against the Filipinos in the Pagasa Island crisis. The update also illustrates why Manila desperately wants American backup.
VERY RELATED: StrategyTalk’s latest podcast looks at the Philippines domestic political situation and its long-term struggle with China. Also consider subscribing to StrategyTalk.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: “The Unirule Institute of Economics in Beijing, called ‘China’s most prominent free-market think tank’ by Bloomberg News, is a target of harassment from the Chinese government. Its economists are considered dissidents by President Xi Jinping’s regime. The story reminds us of the treatment the Obama WhiteHouse gave to Tea Party groups that dared challenge the administration.”
SNOWFALLS ARE A THING OF THE PAST AND/OR MID-MAY: California braces for feet of snow from storms; ‘significant severe weather event’ to impact Plains.
BECAUSE WE’RE STILL SPENDING TOO MUCH, AND NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE: Revenues Are Up 6% After Trump Tax Cuts, So Why Is The Deficit Surging?
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CAMPAIGN KICKOFF: New York to de Blasio: Drop Dead!
I REMEMBER WHEN TRUMP WAS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF THE GOP: RNC records another record fundraising haul in April, $35 million in bank.
DOES THIS MEAN THEY’VE FINALLY FOUND A USE FOR THE THING? Stealthy USS Zumwalt Destroyer to Fire New Missiles, Laser Weapons.
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