Here is a great quote from Al Gore’s speech that challenges McCain and Obama to end our addiction to fossil fuels: It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now. You can view the speech at Moveon.Org.

My Texas hometown, Splendora, is actually in Wikipedia. I don’t know what made me look, but I was quite shocked when I found it!

I can’t believe it’s been fifteen years since Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville.” I’ve been listening to the CD a lot lately for some reason and then FLOW posted a brief commentary on its impact fifteen years later. I really loved this album, but I didn’t find it as much of a feminist anthem as might have. But it’s fifteenth anniversary re-release reminds me that back in ’93 I was busy listening to Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge. There was a brief spike in popularity for women musicians in the late 90s with the Lilith Fair crew, but today the scene for me is bleak.Read More →

Here are some ofmy thoughts on Chapters 1 and 2: 1. Her writing – accessibility: I guess the first thing I want to reflect on is the quality of her writing. I was all prepared for a mind-busting read and I was surprised to find it quite accessible, almost beach reading. I don’t know why she chose to make it so “entry-level.” One thing people have griped about for years is her lack of accessibility, which is a big issue for me, since I always wonder (like many people) what’s the point of doing feminist work if no one can read it. For instance, IRead More →

Several people have asked me about “Shoot the Messenger”‘s interview with Jezebel.com‘s Moe and Tracie. Part of me doesn’t want to give this ‘tempest in a teapot’ any more of the blogosphere’s energy. But frankly, after enough people asked, I watched the train wreck of an interview, went to Jezebel.com, to Tracie “Slut Machine”‘s website, and even read Jezebel.com’s response post along with their reader comments to it. My first “profound” observation is I just don’t get it. I don’t get why anyone would see these two women as role models (which is what Shoot the Messenger claims), even in the most pedestrian sense. TheirRead More →

According to a new report from the government, teenage birthrates are rising. Bloomberg.com points out that this is the first increase in fifteen years. Although the article doesn’t make any sort of reference to sex education, I’m afraid that the information will be used to increase support for the Bush administration’s abstinence only programs, even though studies have shown that these programs are dismal failures. See, for instance, this Fox news article for a “fair and balanced” report. For a humorous look at this failure, see Susie Bright’s take on it. She ends her commentary with the following: Clearly, more needs to be done toRead More →

Henry Jenkin’s has a post over on his blog about the similarities between Obama and Spock, focusing mostly on both their mixed-race status. It’s a fun and interesting read, as is most of Jenkin’s stuff.

I’m reading Donna Haraway’s When Species Meet with a friend. We had a great discussion of the first chapter over breakfast this morning. The book is a solid choice for us to read because she’s a science-y person, and a dog person and I’m a Haraway person, so it’s a nice “collision” of our interests. I’m enjoying the book. The first chapter (and it appears to be true for the rest of the book) is almost light reading compared to Haraway’s other work. It’s still her typical methodology of hauling in everything and the kitchen sink into a cat’s cradle analysis of some interesting pointRead More →