Indiana Blogs

Phabulous

Shakespeare's Sister - 2 hours 27 min ago
So I was skimming the new Google themes for gmail. I saw the one called "phantasea" and thought, at first, that it was "placenta".

< double take >

But, hey, who doesn't want a a placenta as their background image?
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Courts - More on recommendation for Marion County Superior Court Judge Grant W. Hawkins removal

The Indiana Law Blog - 4 hours 29 min ago
On Nov. 7 the ILB posted the 70-page "Master's Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Recommendations to the Supreme Court." Today the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications, by counsel, and with the Chief Justice and Commission member John Trimble...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

The Muses Are Heard

Shakespeare's Sister - 5 hours 26 min ago
As you may or may not know, Liss and I are good friends. I mention this in part to make you jealous, but also to let you know that our friendship does have its price. For example, when Liss can't sleep, and gets all loopy, she kills time in the wee hours of the morn Photoshopping pictures, superimposing my mug into a weird little fantasy world she's created for me. A world kind of like Planet Unicorn, but gayer. A world where I am, apparently, Olivia Newton-John:



And, as is typical of our friendship, I responded to this image thusly: "You know, if you're gonna go through all that work to Photoshop my ass into that picture, couldn't you have at least done something about my eyebrows?"

And with that, I wish you all a happy weekend.
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Madame Secretary

Shakespeare's Sister - 5 hours 29 min ago
Clinton confidantes say that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will accept the position as the next US Secretary of State.

I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments for Clinton to stay in the Senate, and I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments against Clinton as SoS.

I even agree with many of them.

But I still can't help feeling giddy at the thought of the woman who stood in front of the United Nation's 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing and said, "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all," being my Secretary of State.

And having recently, while running for president, resolved to make global gay rights an active "part of American foreign policy" ain't too shabby, either.

[H/T to Shaker Broce.]
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Shaker Gourmet: Weary Outrage Biscuits

Shakespeare's Sister - 6 hours 3 min ago
Our recipe this week comes from Shaker Keori:
Weary Outrage Biscuits
Makes 9-12 biscuits depending on size of cutter

2 cups all purposes flour (or go 1 cup all-purpose, 1 cup wheat)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
5-6 tbsp cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces
3/4 cup of milk
1 cup parmesan cheese flakes
1 cup cheddar cheese crumbles
2 tbsp minced garlic, more or less as desired
1-2 tbsp rubbed sage (optional, to tase)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add butter, in pieces, to flour mix. Do not allow butter to melt. Mix butter into flour mix with fork until mix is dry and crumbly.

Add cheeses and sage, mix well. Add milk, mix well.

Add minced garlic. Do not add garlic to dry mix, or it will be quickly coated by flour and you will not see whether or not it is evenly distributed!

Mix dough until garlic and cheese is spread evenly throughout. Add flour with a coated hand until dough become elastic and can be removed from bowl. Move dough to floured surface, knead and roll out. Cut biscuits with a glass or biscuit cutter, place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 9-11 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Serve as an alternative to Pathetic Anger Bread or use in your next Nietzschean bake sale.

If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me (include a blog link!) at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Courts - Supreme Court on improper use of subpoena

The Indiana Law Blog - 6 hours 4 min ago
In In re Anonymous, a disciplinary case, the Supreme Court writes in a 4-page per curiam opinion: We approve the parties' agreement that Respondent engaged in attorney mis- conduct by improperly using subpoenas before the commencement of litigation and...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Daily Kitteh

Shakespeare's Sister - 6 hours 22 min ago
Where in the world is Sophie Moon?



Anybody seen Sophs?



Livsy, have you seen Sophs?



"Did somebody say catnip?"


Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Courts - Allen County Judge Scheibenberger to be suspended for three days

The Indiana Law Blog - 6 hours 41 min ago
Updating this long list of ILB entries, including the most recent from Sept. 10th headed "Panel to rule on Allen judge's outburst," the "parties have agreed that the appropriate sanction in this matter is a three-day suspension from office without...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Wooly Bully

Shakespeare's Sister - 6 hours 55 min ago
I was reading a NYT article about a group of scientists speculating about resurrecting an extinct mammoth, à la Jurassic Park III. I found the article interesting for a couple of reasons. There are the sciency aspects of the story, and being the nerd I am, that type of thing fascinates me. I also got a kick out of the way the scientists seemed to throw out (seemingly arbitrary) monetary figures about how much such a project would cost. Like these guys were contractors you've called up to get an estimate on that new deck you're installing. "Sure we could build ya a wolly mammoth. It ain't gonna be cheap. That'll run ya about, say, ten million, give or take." Scientists also speculated that if one could clone a mammoth, a Neanderthal couldn't be too difficult either.

It was a geniunely fascinating article. Until i got to end, where I read this bit:"Catholic teaching opposes all human cloning, and all production of human beings in the laboratory, so I do not see how any of this could be ethically acceptable in humans," said Richard Doerflinger, an official with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.What is that quote even doing in a science article? You never read a story about a church bake sale being interrupted with an interview from some Nietzschean saying "God is dead, cookies are pointless and futile." And, you know, it's not like the Church has this great track record when it comes to science, what with all that flat earth, center of the universe, burn the witches type stuff in their cannon.

So quit spoiling my science articles with b.s. about whatever some schmoe from some church thinks about atoms, or black holes or cryogenics or anything.
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Quote of the Day

Shakespeare's Sister - 7 hours 13 min ago
"I really opened myself up in JCVD. I peeled back the skin of the fruit, cut the pulp and then took that very hard seed. In this film I cut that hard seed, and inside that seed was a kind of liquid cream substance of the man I am, or the woman you are."Jean-Claude Van Damme, in an interview with Newsweek about his new autobiographical film, JCVD.

Sounds awesome. Can't wait to see it.

…I bet it's not as good as Breakin', though.

Categories: Indiana Blogs

Friday Blogaround

Shakespeare's Sister - 8 hours 9 min ago
hey your gay blogaround

Recommended Reading:

Echidne: Quality and Quantity

Renee: What Do The Homeless Deserve?

John: Fox is Classy, As Usual

Avedon: Everything Old is New Again

InfamousQBert: Bobby

Shayera: So Very Close

Jon: Creating the future: Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2009

Leave your links in comments...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Rape isn't Hilarious

Shakespeare's Sister - 8 hours 55 min ago
[Trigger warning.]

Yesterday, Shaker Pranamama emailed me the link to this piece at Jezebel, in which Megan asks: "Is a rape joke ever funny?"—a query that strikes me as soliciting serious exploration about as much as "Is Dane Cook a douche?" I mean, some questions just don't warrant our time.

Suffice it to say, Megan concludes that rape jokes can be funny, in no small part, it appears, because she wants to justify using humor to deal with her own sexual assault.

Except, here's the thing: Public rape jokes have fuck-all to do with sexual assault survivors using humor to deal with their own sexual assaults.

Megan's argument lacks some critical distinctions and exceptions: Public jokes and private jokes are not equivalent. Jokes for laughs and jokes for catharsis are very different animals. Jokes about rape made by men, who have a significantly lower chance of being raped, are not the same as jokes made by women, whose lives are qualitatively different from men's because of their heightened chance of being raped. Jokes that minimize the severity and ubiquity of rape (e.g. prison rape jokes) perpetuate the rape culture; jokes that underline the severity and ubiquity of rape (e.g. Wanda Sykes' detachable vagina bit) challenge the rape culture.

And even still, all rape jokes run the very real risk of triggering survivors who aren't expecting rape jokes in their escapist entertainment. (Go figure.) Which underscores the inherent deficiency of the question "Is a rape joke ever funny?" It's incomplete without a discussion of audience, intended or otherwise—and the audience for any rape joke potentially includes survivors who may not only find the joke decidedly unfunny, but also triggering.

The distinct possibility of someone experiencing anxiety, panic, or some other distress associated with re-experiencing one's sexual assault after hearing a rape joke sort of renders irrelevant the question of whether the joke is "funny," you know?

Certainly, there are those who would play the old "hysteria" card, diminishing the gravity of post-traumatic stress disorder as the same "oversensitivity" with which feminists or people of color or LGBTQIs or disability activists or some other marginalized group are branded for objecting to demeaning "jokes"—although I can't really imagine a more pathetic and cruel argument than dismissing PTSD sufferers as "oversensitive" to justify continuing to make rape jokes.

And now we're back to that critical distinction between public rape jokes that treat rape as a joke and sexual assault survivors using humor to deal with their own history. Only one of those is triggering by design.

Failing to deconstruct both the difference in authority and intent, and the wholly separate culture meanings and effects, of dudez making rape jokes in a widely-watched cartoon and a just-raped woman making jokes about her circumstances just to get through to the next minute without breaking down, effectively casts those two scenarios as equivalent. They are not. And any of us who can understand why the n-word has a totally different meaning in the mouth of a black man with his mates and in the mouth of a white supremacist with his, can surely understand why not all rape jokes are equal.

Context, especially for such a delicate subject, is everything.

I don't begrudge Megan her dark humor; I hang on quite firmly to my own gallows humor about such things myself. But I don't use the humor of the hangman to justify it. The hangman can go fuck himself.

[Rape is Hilarious: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six.]
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Read These Now Because I am Clumsy

Shakespeare's Sister - 9 hours 8 min ago
I am medicated at the moment because I am a clumsy fool and fell down the stairs the other day. Normally I fall UP stairs, but this time, completely sober, I fell down the stairs. Thankfully, nothing is broken, just pulled muscles throughout my torso, back and my already fucked (bursitis) shoulder. The readings are short and light today because I need another muscle relaxer. I haven't googled it yet, but perhaps I might form Clumsy Anonymous without deities. Sometimes I wonder if the only time I can walk a straight line is with a couple of cocktails.

Gee... Ya Think? Employees who are sexually harassed experience less job satisfaction and lower job performance.

Glaciers on Mars

Stress Hinders Rats' Decision-making Abilities.

Mysterious fireball lights up western Canadian sky. (CTV)

10 Unconventional Winter Holiday Movies. (Wired)

Otto von Busch – Swedish, Hacktivist and Engaged Fashion Designer.

Topics to Avoid at Thanksgiving Dinner

How lame is a lame-duck president?

400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope

If anyone has the cash, Amazon has Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the complete series set for $69.99.

Two shows I really liked are canceled: Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.

dasparkhotel. Most of the site is in German but how often can one stay in a converted drainpipe. It is only open in the summer for obvious reasons.
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Double-ew Tee Eff

Shakespeare's Sister - 9 hours 30 min ago
Okay, ready for the most bizarre thing you'll see all week? I don't think you are.

I'll put it below the fold because it's pretty gruesome, but here's the long and short of it: You know how Politicians love to "pardon" a turkey at Thanksgiving in order to squeeze in a dumbass photo op, leading to crowd-pleasing stupid photos like this one?



Well, Sarah Palin apparently thought it would be a dandy idea to also get in a photo op "pardoning" a turkey and gave an interview to a local Wasilla TV station...

WHILE TURKEYS ARE BEING SLAUGHTERED IN THE BACKGROUND.

I shit you not.




Okay, I realize that turkeys have to be killed before they're eaten, and I'm not suggesting Palin had that going on behind her on purpose, but... but...

Seriously. What the fuck?

(Confused energy dome tip.)
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Bigger Than Jesus

Shakespeare's Sister - 9 hours 41 min ago
Hillary Clinton is Bigger than Jesus. By more than 200 votes. At least according to voters in Jacksonville FLA. Clinton pulled in 234 write-in votes to Jesus's mere 23 in Duval County on election day. Jesus tied (for fourth) with None of the Above, and beat out His Number One Fan, Mike "I Hate Queers" Huckabee by two. God got six votes, so, I think, Catholically speaking, you could add those to Jesus's votes to suggest He actually took third place. Though, that still puts Him behind Ron Paul.

Also garnering votes: Chuck Norris and Bill Nye with two each (I smell a cage match!), as did noted hater of Mexicans and CNN talking head Lou Dobbs; Donald Duck and T. Boone Pickens (what, no Yosemite Sam?) got three each. It also warms my cockles to see some folks still love Fred Thompson as much as I do. He got four votes.

In the single digits I was thrilled to see Tommy Chong; it's good to know stoners still vote. Also winning lone write-ins: Bill O'Riely (sic), Hilary Bush (yeah, tres clever, oh and sic, by the way), Weird Al Yancovic (sic; and what is it with people not being able to spell?) and Truman (presumably this one, not that one.)

Inexplicably, Obama got four write-in votes. I wonder if those are counted. Probably not.
Categories: Indiana Blogs

OFFS to the Quillionth Power

Shakespeare's Sister - 9 hours 58 min ago
Okay.

Okay.

*Takes a deep breath*

You all know how the manufactured "War on Christmas" crap drives me completely around the bend.

Well, I've just read something so mind-explodingly stupid that I'm having serious questions regarding my sanity. Daniel Henninger has written an Op-Ed in the WSJ stating...

I can't believe I'm about to type this.

The reason we are in our current financial crisis is because...

*Deep sigh*

Because we don't say "Merry Christmas."

No, seriously.

This year we celebrate the desacralized "holidays" amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin -- fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed. People wonder, What happened? One man's theory: A nation whose people can't say "Merry Christmas" is a nation capable of ruining its own economy.

[...]

It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.

The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.

Feel free: Banish Merry Christmas. Get ready for Mad Max.

Excuse me. I'm going to go bang my head against the wall for about twenty minutes.

Back. Whew, hey, look at all the pretty colors!

Yes, apparently you can't say "Merry Christmas," even if you want to. Apparently we're all wearing voice-activated shock collars or something. And somehow, because people "can't" say "Merry Christmas," we're all about to lose every cent we have and start wrestling sweatily in domes made out of scrapped SUV's while Tina Turner laughs like a maniac.

Okay, that's it. ENOUGH. It's over. THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS HAS OFFICIALLY JUMPED THE SHARK. This has gone beyond parody; it's officially now The Most Incredibly Fucking Stupid Idea On Earth. ENOUGH. I swear to Jebus, the next person that starts spouting this crap is going to find me hot-gluing a Christmas Sweater to their goddamn torso. CHRIST.

(Hand-shaking tip of the energy dome to digby.)
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Decisions - 7th Circuit decides one Indiana case

The Indiana Law Blog - 10 hours 4 min ago
In Dale v. Poston, et al (SD Ind., Judge Barker), a 17-page opinion, Judge Evans writes: Curtis Dale, a federal prisoner, filed this suit in 2002 against several prison employees claiming that they violated the Eighth Amendment by failing...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 0 today (and 2 NFP)

The Indiana Law Blog - 10 hours 12 min ago
For publication opinions today (0): NFP civil opinions today (0): NFP criminal opinions today (2): Lamar Owens v. State of Indiana (NFP) Wesley Ramirez v. State of Indiana (NFP)...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Law - "Maybe state is asking too much of license plates "

The Indiana Law Blog - 10 hours 17 min ago
That is the headline to a just-posted editorial today in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. The subhead: "God only knows what the next specialty-plate controversy will be. ." Here it is:The state of Indiana has lately gotten itself into a God-awful...
Categories: Indiana Blogs

Ind. Law - More on: Other mayors' races still at issue?

The Indiana Law Blog - 10 hours 32 min ago
On Nov. 19th the ILB posted this entry, asking whether the mayoral races in Anderson and Muncie were still at issue. I've received a response from Bill Groth, Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe, LLP, who writes:Marcia: Regarding your post...
Categories: Indiana Blogs
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