in absentia

Apologies for the lack of posts. Will be leaving the good ole' US for several days so don't expect anything until Tuesday someday. Go somewhere else for fodder (but come back soon)!

Time to redecorate

Cause it's Friday, I can't be bothered to think and I'd rather go to the mini mall.

A Camel walked into a library . . .

The Camel Book Drive is a totally rad book donation/distribution program in Kenya. Traveling by camel, the library journeys through Kenya's northeastern province setting up temporary shop under trees. It brings books to a semi-nomadic people who live with drought, famine and chonic poverty. The books are spread out on grass mats beneath an acacia tree, and the library patrons, often barefoot, sometimes joined by goats or donkeys, gather with great excitement to choose their books until the next visit. The book drive is always accepting books and it only costs $23 to send a 5 lb. box of books to Kenya. You can send your donations to: Garissa Provincial Library For Camel Library Librarian in Charge, Rashid M. Farah P.O. Box 245 Garissa, Kenya To donate books or find out more check out The Camel Book Drive. Be sure to check out the video too! Via Galleycat.

To do: mediocre sex

A psychiatrist at the University of Virginia Health System has found that women tend to settle for unfulfilling and mediocre sex. “Whereas men, if they have trouble with sex, it’s a crisis. They run to the doctor and say ‘I need something for this.’ Women don’t do that. They just sort of stuff it down and push it further down on the [to do] list,” Clayton said. She attributes myriad reasons to the lackluster sex life of females, including un-met emotional needs, unhappiness with their bodies, and lack of communication about desires. The doctor offers up several suggestions for making better sex, but this is perhaps my favorite: And to make more time for sex, she said, men can help a girlfriend or wife with tasks around the house. Word.

A feminist ranch roundup

Blame it on the weather, but I've been a bit out of it. Here's a little roundup of some news that still might be news to you: -- Harvard gets a female President. And it only took 371 years! -- An illegally parked California cop stopped a motorist, whipped out his dick, and ejaculated on her. She pressed charges. He admitted to the act. She took him to court. Park's defense attorney claimed, “She [the motorist] got what she wanted . . . She’s an overtly sexual person.” The jury, one woman and 11 men, agreed. They found the officer not guilty on three felony charges. Confused? Disgusted? The Prosecution's closing arguments make the whole thing clear: “Park didn’t pick a housewife or a 17-year-old girl,” Kamiabipour said in her closing argument. “He picked a stripper. He picked the perfect victim.” Because victim blaming is still cool . . . --A wealthy Upper East Side landlord stabbed his wife to death and was found not guilty second-degree murder. And they say the campaign to end violence against women is irrelevant and offensive. In case you're still wondering how violence against women is normalized. And as an aside, does anyone else think that Maureen Dowd's column has gone down the tubes? It--content and style--is just such rubbish these days.

Feminist bloggers resign from Edwards campaign

In the event that no one has read any of this elsewhere (I've been a bit bogged for the last two days), feminist bloggers Amanda Marcotte of pandagon.net and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister have both resigned from the Edwards Campaign. What began as an exciting marriage of feminism and progressive Democratic politics--Presidential hopeful John Edwards hired Marcotte and McEwan to join his campaign staff--ended when Catholic psycho and head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Bill Donahue had a f*cking free for all, calling for the resignation of Marcotte and McEwan, "two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots." Edwards deliberated firing them. He didn't. Marcotte resigned yesterday. McEwan resigned today. Both ladies assure us that neither Edwards nor his camp forced the resignations, but that it was the highly-malicious and seemingly endless onslaught of bullshit that ushered their departure. The whole thing is a fucking mess initiated by a dude who heads a 501 (c) 3 which, as many have pointed out, is legally bound to stay out of political mongering. What a fucking mess, but I think that McEwan puts it best: There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O'Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation. This is a win for no one.

Vaginas back in Florida

Hoohah!! One young niece can finally have some answers. Say it with me Florida: V - A - G - I - N - A.

Florida's population flatlines

Well that's what happens when you're anti-vagina. Caving from a complaint, a theatre in Florida putting on "The Vagina Monologues" changed their signage replacing "Vagina" with the much more acceptable "Hoohaa". Atlantic Theatres in Atlantic Beach, Florida, received a complaint from a woman who'd seen the advertised title as she drove past with her niece. She said that it had made her niece ask her what a vagina was. Eeek gads!! Imagine children knowing from where they come! Or anything for that matter. Let's just keep them glued to that television that is free from sexually explicit messaging, body objectification and anything vagina related.

NoWHACK crazy, but questions persist

Lisa NoWHACK is definitely cocoa puffs, but the whole incident prompted a question that I apparently wasn't too crazy for thinking: can astronauts have sex in space? Slate's Explainer answers the critical question with skepticism: If astronauts have had space sex, it would have been very difficult. First off, there isn't much privacy up there. A regular shuttle is about as big as a 737, and the two main areas—the crew cabin and middeck—are each the size of a small office. ... The space station, on the other hand, has a little more room to operate. The three-person crew generally splits up for sleeping time: Two of them bed down in a pair of tiny crew cabins at one end of the station, and the third might jump in a sleeping bag at the other end, almost 200 feet away. (The panel-and-strap design of a space bed might not be that conducive to lovemaking.) Astronauts also have a demanding work schedule, leaving them with little time or energy for messing around. Space-station crews do get time off on weekends, though, when they can watch movies, read books, play games, "and generally have a good time." Obviously the Explainer has never tried to get dirty in a college dorm room. Or while staying in a hostel. Neither of which are too far off from the space shuttle/station. Astronaut sex must be out of this world! (Sorry, it was too easy.)

Sex v. Clothes: Women Decide

Wow. Cause there's nothing better going on, a giant corporation surveyed some women to figure out which they'd rather have: sex or clothes. Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 U.S. cities. I'll leave aside for the moment that 1,000 women hardly constitutes a legitimate sample size. Instead, let's hear what the expert has to say. "Some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him," fashion designer, stylist and TV personality Carson Kressley from the reality TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" said in a statement accompanying the poll. Well, that settles it now doesn't it?

A midday pickup

So dope . . . Check her out.

British not afraid of Al Gore

In striking contrast to one Washington school district, An Inconvenient Truth will be distributed for viewing to EVERY secondary school in England. "Children are the key to changing society's long-term attitudes to the environment," Johnson said. "Not only are they passionate about saving the planet, but children also have a big influence over their own families' lifestyles and behavior." The DVD will go to 3,385 secondary schools in England as part of a year-long environmental education campaign. Why is the US hell bent on paradox and ignorance? Ah! Because if we know too much, we might be compelled to change.

dream bigger in Harlem

Via reddit.

Global warming: not the Earth's fault

Thanks Captain Obvious.

Ikea or Toys in Babeland?

I really can't decide which company this commercial would better benefit, but I do hope that thing is clean. Don't forget to pick your chin up off the floor after watching! Via daddytypes.

The Dinner Party hosted in Brooklyn

Judy Chicago's 1970s groundbreaking work The Dinner Party has found a new host in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party will share the space with dozens of feminist art pieces celebrating women's contribution to the contemporary art across the globe. The Sackler Center for Feminist Art will open to the public on March 23 and will be a space to feature feminist art, expand notions of "what is art?", educate through interactive learning, and increase awareness of feminist art/ists throughout the world. The Sackler Center was developed in cooperation with The Feminist Art Project, a major nationwide campaign to celebrate feminist art and the women's impact on contemporary art. Learn more: The Feminist Art Project. Check out what's going on in your neck of the woods: The Feminist Art Calendar. Join me for the opening on March 23: Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

R.I.P. Molly Ivins

Fellow Texan and radical journalist, Molly Ivins, died today at the age of 62. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, Ivins fought the disease publicly and not without her signature humor. “First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you,” she wrote. “I have been on blind dates better than that.” She made fun of everything from her home state of Texas to Dubya, with whom she attended school. She found the NY Times "no fun" and left the paper to found her own, The Texas Monthly. On the paper’s 50th anniversary in 2004, she wrote: “This is where you can tell the truth without the bark on it, laugh at anyone who is ridiculous, and go after the bad guys with all the energy you have." You will be missed, Molly Ivins. Say hi to Ann Richards for us.