See, the Western tradition of admiration for a beautiful woman is an ancient and wonderful thing. While the Mohammedans like to wrap their women up in black sacks, we glorify them. From the Vatican to the Louvre, we deck the halls with them. And if it’s OK with the pope, it’s OK with us.The Daily Caller’s Christopher Bedford, opining on the President Obama-Kamala Harris hoopla and, in the process, giving Reince Priebus yet another headache on the path to rebranding. source
What happened at PyCon has cast a spotlight on a range of deep issues and problems in the developer world. As ugly as this situation has become, all of these issues have reasonable, and, I think, easily reached solutions that will help us cast conflict aside and construct a more cohesive and welcoming professional environment based on respect, trust and open communication.Former SendGrid developer evangelist Adria Richards • Discussing how she’s trying to move on from “donglegate,” the incident that cost her (and an employee at another company) a job and led to the company she worked for getting DDOSed. Despite the incident, she’s not trying to dwell and is working to create something positive from what happened—which, considering she got death threats and sexist messages in the wake of the incident with people who disagree with the way she publicly outed a man making crude dongle jokes at a conference, sounds like the only way forward.
Hey, Belvedere, here’s a free marketing tip: Sex sells! Rape, on the other hand, doesn’t. Unless it’s the first half of a horror film, and it’s followed by the victim exacting sweet revenge on her assailants. Belvedere pulled the ad an hour after tweeting it, and promptly apologized, but still, we’re rather shocked this got past even the initial stages of consideration. source
After conservatives compared comments he made about Michelle Malkin & S.E. Cupp to Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” comment, Current TV host Keith Olbermann announced that he would be canceling the “Worst Persons in the World” segment of his show. He says it might even be permanent this time. While he continued to deny that his comments were sexist, the host did promise to apologize to both of the conservative women during his announcement video. source
» Why? Because of this, of course. Really, we’re surprised that any advertisers offended by this weren’t offended by anything else Limbaugh’s said over the last twenty years. Regardless, advertisers aren’t the only ones reacting negatively to Limbaugh’s comments.
Rush’s attempt to increase his ratings and get noticed again do hurt Republicans…beating up on a college student is not good optics.A senior Republican strategist • In response to Rush Limbaugh’s calling a pro-contraception college student a “slut” and a “prostitute” earlier this week. What we find interesting is that the speaker in question is identified by the Washington Post as “a senior party strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly out of wariness of crossing Limbaugh publicly.” This speaks not only to the enormous power Limbaugh wields amongst the Republican base, but also the sense of legitimacy that the GOP establishment continues to bestow upon him by refusing to denounce his statements publicly. To his credit, Rick Santorum, who’s as anti-contraception as anybody, called Limbaugh’s comments “absurd.” source (via • follow)
These are two really good, reasonable Tumblrs who aren’t afraid to make their opinions known. They posted one completely understandable (if not across-the-board supported) opinion, and suddenly their Ask boxes look like that. This is not what we like to see come out of Tumblr. Sigh. — Sincerely, disappointed.
Noted sleazeball Joe Francis is in trouble with the law again. This time, the “Girls Gone Wild” founder and accused rapist is charged with false imprisonment and assault, and could serve five years in jail if convicted (it wouldn’t be his first time). The allegation: Three women entered Francis’ limo, believing he was giving them a ride to their car. When it became clear that they were actually headed to Francis’ home, they tried to get out, but Francis’ bodyguard, posing as a sheriff, prevented them from leaving. Once they arrived at the gated compound, Francis tried to pull one women away from her friends; when she resisted, he grabbed her by the throat and started slamming her head against a tile floor. This seems to be Francis’ modus operandi; two years ago, he was caught on video grabbing a woman by the hair and dragging her through a night club after she accidentally spilled a drink on him. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) source
No kidding: Newsweek’s cover on Rep. Michele Bachmann, the 2012 presidential candidate, has caused quite a stir on the interwebs over the past couple of days. It’s even inspired a couple of memes, though it’s mostly inspired anger over the magazine’s approach. Example: Terry O’Brien, the president of the National Organization for Women, said that “‘Queen of Rage’ is something you apply to wrestlers or somebody who is crazy.” Was this photo the best choice for the magazine’s cover? Take a look at the magazine’s own outtakes and judge for yourself. source
» Just for the record, that’s a 17% difference between genders.
Un-ED-cceptable: MSNBC is giving Ed Schultz a one-week, unpaid timeout for calling Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” And good for them. Obviously, Laura Ingraham’s sex life is completely irrelevant to her political views, but more importantly, the use of the word “slut” as an insult implies that having many sexual partners is something bad, something to be ashamed of. This is exactly the kind of antiquated, 1950’s-era thinking that progressives have been trying to move past for the last fifty years, and for Schultz to resort to that kind of base rhetoric is not only offensive and inappropriate, it’s counterproductive to the cause he claims to champion. If anything, we say he got off easy. source