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By tigtog on February 7, 2007
I’ve added a couple of new functions for comments.
1. HTML quicktags – for easy text-formatting and link insertion. Highlight the text you want formatted/linked and click on the appropriate tag-button.
2. Email subscription to comments – you can subscribe with or without commenting, and unsubscribe when you get bored.
Enjoy.
PS. I also got rid of the borders and different backgrounds for the comments, because although it looked lovely in Firefox it looked fugly as hell in IE (silly non-compliant software).
Posted in Meta |
By tigtog on February 7, 2007
Sometimes following links that turn up in sitemeter is a joy rather than the usual ennui of seeing how many pervs are finding a link to this blog in a search engine. I like to think the pervs get a jolt when they don’t find what they expect, but maybe they get off on feminist analysis of upskirting, who knows?
This morning I followed a particular sitemeter referral link because I was curious regarding other pages the searcher might have found as they examined the results for why are some many feminists against wearing high heels, and where whatever Hoyden post came in those results. I don’t know where Hoyden ranked, because on the second page I found a page with the title “Molly Ivins”, and I didn’t go any further.
Molly Ivins, Texas hellraising op-ed columnist, died last week of recurring cancer. Without my online friends in the States I would never have heard of her until I started reading American lefty blogs where she is a staple kickarse icon, but luckily for me I have been reading her columns intermittently for about six years now. In Australian terms, she was a classic larrikin stirrer, and thus either loved or hated by the usual suspects.
Continue reading “Any search string that leads to Molly Ivins is a good search string”
Posted in Culture, gender & feminism | Tagged books & writing, hoydens |
By tigtog on February 6, 2007
The fabulous picture above was done by Olduvai George a few years ago, portraying Chris Clarke and his dog Zeke in the Pleistocene Death Valley. (hat-tip, Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony)
A few days ago I found out through my blogfeed subscriptions that Zeke sadly had to be put down, after a long period of failing health. This was not a surprise: Chris blogged his heartbreak over Zeke’s decline just as he had blogged his loving companionship with Zeke for years, and his readers’ hearts broke with him.
I haven’t been able to comment over there since Zeke’s death, because I find myself reliving a trauma from not quite a year ago. Chris was able to hold Zeke while he was put down, so that the last face Zeke saw was his trusted human, and I so envy him the comfort of that. I am so envious that I am shaking, although most of that is continued rage.
Continue reading “Grieving again”
Posted in ethics & philosophy, relationships | Tagged pets, relationships |
By tigtog on February 6, 2007
Cut and pasted from a comment I left over at my LP post on bloggers joining political campaigns in the US (related to this Hoyden post from last week):
Ha. The predicted conservative blogger meltdown about Amanda Marcotte joining the Edwards campaign has been going strong.
Because she’s opinionated and cusses frequently for rhetorical effect on her own blog, they think she couldn’t possibly rein in the polemic to do the job she’s going to be paid for i.e. simply be an effective blogmaster and communicator of the Edwards electioneering platform. There are even calls for Edwards to disavow some of her opinions, as if she’s a senior policy advisor or something (and not one of them is mentioning the ex-President of NARAL, who is in fact a senior Edwards policy advisor).
Disproportionate much? I’m glad that a couple of politically engaged progressive bloggers are getting paid to be deeply involved in a presidential campaign, it’s a positive trend, but these positions are very much entry-level stuff as far as political staffing positions go. Melissa and Amanda probably both have long term ambitions to rise to more influential positions in progressive politics over future electoral cycles, but what they’re doing now is an apprenticeship: they’re simply not there yet. Asking Edwards to disavow strong opinions from his junior staffers, who are there to do nuts-and-bolts campaign work and learn while they work, is simply ridiculous.
The pearl-clutching over her being “foulmouthed” and “viscious (sic)” is hilarious (follow the various links in the Feministing post). Auguste at Pandagon debunks Michelle Malkin‘s anti-Amanda claims with practised ease.
Bonus: Thanks to LP commentor Christine Keeler, I now know that Malkin has made a stilted v-log, wearing a Mao cap and pigtails to look all lefty-college-kid, attempting to show how deranged that foulmouthed Amanda’s writing is (Youtube video over the fold). SadlyNo! points out that she really needs to take a few more acting classes if she’s going to attempt satirical performances, otherwise they backfire.
Continue reading “Conservative bloggers channel Jan Brady: Marcotte! Marcotte! Marcotte!”
Posted in culture wars, Politics, Sociology | Tagged conservatism, elections, interblog, peeves, social change, vitriol
By tigtog on February 6, 2007
Regular readers, I’m talking up the Astronomy Picture of the Day site again.
This was taken in Perth on Australia Day (yes, it’s a panorama made from separate shots). The faint streak in the sky just left of centre is Comet McNaught.
Posted in arts & entertainment, Science | Tagged apod, astronomy, astronomy picture of the day, astrophotography, photography |
By tigtog on February 5, 2007
Todays SMH: Sex, lies and advertising: DJs sues over child exploitation claims
IN WHAT is believed to be a world first, David Jones begins a legal case tomorrow in which it is suing the left-leaning think tank the Australia Institute and its executive director, Clive Hamilton, over claims the giant retailer’s advertising eroticised and sexually exploited children.
The case, in the Federal Court in Sydney, is thought to be the first time a court will consider the sexualisation of children in advertising.
The retailer is suing under the Trade Practices Act, claiming the institute engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. The avenue of suing for defamation was closed to big companies after the introduction of uniform defamation laws in January 2006.
Continue reading “DJs sues thinktank over report on sexualised images of children in advertising”
Posted in culture wars, gender & feminism, law & order | Tagged capitalism, consumerism, corporatism, exploitation, law |
By tigtog on February 4, 2007
So, mr tog and I decided, on our return from abroad, that we really should keep up this walking-around-with-the-kids habit we’d developed over the 4 weeks of sightseeing. Instead of just lounging around the house on Saturdays, we should get out the door bright and early and go somewhere for a walk.
As we are in Sydney, walking near the water seems a most attractive idea, and there are plenty of harbour/coastal walks. We can also combine trips on buses and trains and ferries so that we’re training the kids in how to get around for when they’re older and out on their own. It also means we get a few precious hours with the kids away from the electronic miasma that surrounds us all at home – TV, computer, videogames, MP3-players etc.
So far we’ve done two walks. Last weekend we went to Cremorne Point and walked around the shore into Mosman Bay, then caught the ferry back to our starting point.
Cremorne Point/Mosman Bay: originally uploaded by tigitogs
It was briskly windy when we started, and by the time we finished the southerly had fully hit, making the ferry ride quite fascinating as the pilot jockeyed back and forth through the heavy chop in order to tie up at various wharves.
Yesterday we went to La Perouse Continue reading “Weekend walking”
Posted in arts & entertainment, relationships | Tagged blogging, family, photoblog, photography, relationships |
By tigtog on February 4, 2007
What does this very well-muscled young man have to do with an exciting innovation in nanotechnology?
Very little, but apparently because the new nanotech engine is similiar in size to our bodies’ own “engines” that make our muscles contract, BBC News decided to show muscles to illustrate it. Of course, because it was about muscles, this meant for once that a bare torso illustrating a news story belonged to a man rather than a woman.
I know that one picture of this sort is not a big deal. It’s the drip, drip, drip of always having our news media use any excuse to parade sexy flesh, especially female flesh, but also always having such illustrations oh-so-safely gendered, that is the problem.
Posted in gender & feminism, Science
By tigtog on February 3, 2007
From the second half of my holiday time in Norway, when we were touring through the fjords and mountains between Oslo and Bergen:
Originally uploaded to Flickr by tigitogs in the Norway set.
This was taken the day after the first big snowfall of winter (there was plenty of snow by Oz standards, but the Norwegians were complaining about not having had a really big dump yet – this fall ended up covering right to the seaside by Oslo according to my Norsk friend in Oslo).
I’ve got to hook up the laptop to my desktop to download then upload the rest of the Norway photos (plus London and Paris), and will get around to it shortly.
Posted in arts & entertainment | Tagged blogging, photoblog, photography, travel |
By tigtog on February 3, 2007
Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi has been released!
Nazanin is a young Iranian woman who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death after she stabbed a would-be rapist in self-defence. [old tigtogblog post].
The international awareness raised by the Save Nazanin campaign eventually ended in the overturning of her death sentence and her return to her family from prison.
One of the most important contributors to her release has been a former Miss Canada who shares the name Nazanin. Nazanin Afshin-Jam started her own site to support her namesake and has raised money, generated petitions and spoken all over the world against all executions and particularly this death sentence.
“I spoke with Nazanin Fatehi this morning. She’s in good spirits and wanted me to pass on the message of how thankful she is for everyone’s support,” Nazanin Afshin-Jam said. “We’re thrilled that she is free and reunited with her family. We must not forget the 23 other juveniles currently on death row in Iran. Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and also the Charter of the Rights of the Child, which forbid the execution of persons under the age of 18, although Iran continues to do so. We must get to the root of the problem and put pressure on the Iranian officials to change the laws once and for all.”
via Feministing
Addendum: Twisty, while just as happy as I that Nazanin is free, makes some contrarian points about how this activism has been spun with almost no reference to the actual rape, both to Iranian authorities and to the world press.
Posted in gender & feminism, law & order | Tagged activism/charity, law
By tigtog on February 2, 2007
Commentor Sniper, who sadly appears to not have a blog, over at Pandagon in the thread to new contributor Sheelzebub’s first post, an evisceration of lazy sexist stereotyping of men as clueless slobs that women are obliged to rescue.
OK, Purcell isn’t very funny, but he IS clearly labeled as “humor”, and frankly, the tone of the article strikes me as pretty tongue-in-cheek.
Excellent. I’m going to write “taut” on a sticker and put it on my ass.
Sheelzebub (Pinko Feminist Hellcat) has joined the Pandagon crew along with a posse of progressive wordsmiths: Chris Clarke (Creek Running North), Auguste Pollak (oops) (The Guns of Auguste), Roxanne (Vox Populi) and Ilyka Damen. They’ve joined the Pandagon crew to help pad out the writing roster now that the ultra-prolific Amanda Marcotte has been tapped by the John Edwards presidential campaign as Blogmaster (in a further display of excellent taste, the Edwards campaign has also nabbed Melissa McEwan aka Shakespeare’s Sister as Netroots Coordinator).
Continue reading “Some people certainly have a way with words”
Posted in culture wars, gender & feminism, Politics | Tagged interblog, social change |
By tigtog on February 1, 2007
“During the course of my relationship with my husband I have not given space to conjugal conflict, even when his behaviour has been such as to merit it”
“Now that my daughters have reached adulthood, the example of a woman who is able to protect her own dignity in relationships with men assumes even more importance”
“I feel the defence of my dignity . . . may be of help to my son, so that he may never forget the fundamental value of respect towards women”
That’s from an open letter to a newspaper by Veronica Berlusconi, where she demanded a public apology from former Prime Minister husband Silvio for his many public flirtations where he tells other women, often on national television, that he’d rather be with them than his wife.
Having originally been Belusconi’s mistress before she became his second wife, I think Veronica understands his roving eye all too well and may even accept his dalliances in principle, as the couple are said to lead mostly separate lives. Continued public humiliation by one’s husband’s big mouth about his roving eye is another thing entirely, and good on her for turning the tables on him after all these years.
Mr Berlusconi gave his wife the requested public apology the next day.
Posted in culture wars, Life, Sociology | Tagged branding, capitalism, celebritism, consumerism, corporatism
By tigtog on January 30, 2007
Lauredhel, on Pondering power and resistance in response to attacks on the utility of feminist blogdom:
Speech isn’t pointless. Speech isn’t inherently inferior to action. Speech doesn’t preclude action, and, what’s more, in the case of embedded often-impalpable power structures , speech IS action. Speech is the stripping of the fluffy coat to expose the festering sores; the powdering of the doorknob fingerprints to reveal the culprits; the laser beam revealing the toxic dust; the warm embrace of the lacerated resistor who thought she was all alone in the world.
Sing it.
Posted in gender & feminism | Tagged activism/charity, race & racism
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