Where my historians at?

I took a break from packing (to move out of state for grad school in history) to find this post by Jon Schaff at SDP on history education. I'll be engaging in history education (of undergraduates - I think Jon Schaff is mostly talking about K-12 education) starting this fall, so I thought I'd take the time to respond.

I agree with points one and two. I am on board with teaching American history as a story, and teaching names and dates when appropriate (which is most of the time). With regard to his comments on social/multicultural history, I actually said aloud "he's not serious..." but on second thought, he probably is. I think it is a disservice to students to focus entirely upon political history at the expense of "multicultural history" and vice versa. They're both important and both of them tell important stories. It would also be a disservice to students, I think, to ignore the crappy things this country has done in the past (Yes, hello, uh, slavery? treatment of Native people? Treatment of immigrants? Women? Poor people? Hello?) to teach students "the greatness of their history." There are amazing things in our history. There are shameful things in our history. But I am one of those bra-burning, hairy legged women's libbers, so I obviously "bring in a load of political baggage" and "hate America" (with a hyperlink to Howard Zinn, even) when I approach my work - whereas political conservatives in academia or political historians are...100% super objective at all times?

I would also take issue with political history being 'big picture' history and social history being 'small picture' history - since essentially social historians say the everyday people of an era influenced the actions of the big political players, whereas political historians seem to assume the opposite. Social historians generally study small groups of people doing specific things at specific times in the past, but that's not all of "social history." I also think that this "political history" vs. "multicultural history" dichotomy that Schaff is setting up is kind of fake - obviously diverse groups of people were involved in politics/political agitation from the beginning of our history as a country.

For that matter, if you want to do something big for K-12 history education, get some history teachers in the high schools, as opposed to dudes who were basically hired to be football coaches, but who teach a little history and government on the side. I gave less than two shits about history in high school because the football coach had us playing Trivial Pursuit three days a week (seriously!). I had no idea what history was even about until I got to college and it changed my life forever. Dorky but true!

Country club theft

This is a pretty messed up scam, particularly for a woman who seems to have access to fairly significant amounts of money anyway.

Here's one of the ways Nancy Frerichs stole from Westward Ho (haha!) Country Club.

Former Westward Ho server Jenny Halbur does not lead as extravagant of a lifestyle as her former boss Nancy Frerichs.

"A lot of people have mentioned her going on vacations and buying new vehicles," she says. "You know, I live in an apartment with two kids."

Every paycheck matters, which is why it was a big deal when she started to notice her Westward Ho paychecks were missing various amounts of money.

"The $98. And then there was $86. One other paycheck was $30," she says. "I went and talked to the ladies in the office and they said it was my mistake."

Members of the country club charge their meals, then pay for them when they receive their monthly statements. Some former servers suspect Frerichs was charging those members for extra meals.

"The members would call in and say, 'Hey, I didn't order this.' Or, 'I wasn't there that day,'" Halbur says.

The servers say Frerichs would then blame the servers.

"They said that we punched in the wrong member number, and we have to pay for it," Halbur says. "Whoever server's name is on the ticket, it would get taken out of their paycheck."

When she saw Frerichs was charged with grand theft, things started to make sense.

"We're like oh gee, that's probably why we've never gotten a raise," Halbur says. "And that's probably why all this money is getting taken out of our paychecks."

One would hope the servers would receive some sort of restitution through this process, and I defintely hope Nancy Frerichs does some jail time for this. She's apparently repaid over $400,000 to the club already, but I hope that's not all they take into account when considering her sentence. Stealing from waitresses with kids...classy. You know if Nancy was a store clerk who snuck $100 from her till, she'd already be in jail.

Immigration

Ken Blanchard discusses immigation.

Just two things: amnesty may be unpopular but it seems to me to be the only option we have. Otherwise, we either 1. kick tens of millions of people out of the country (doing what with whatever children these people have who have been born here and are citizens, by the way?) or 2. keep everything as-is, which means that we continue to live with a situation in the US where millions of people work and pay some amount of taxes but have no rights and no voice in the society. These people are essentially serfs, and in this country in 2007, that's not an acceptable situation.

I also think we 100% abandon the current family reunification system of immigration (in favor of admitting only high-skilled immigrants) at our peril. Some of my "scholarly" (in quotes) work has been on post-World War II immigrants, and I was personally surprised to discover how many of the immigrants either already had relatives here, or who eventually had adult siblings and parents join them in the United States (this type of immigration would be cut to almost nothing under the new immigration scheme). Parents and adult siblings generally provide needed additional incomes, and assistance in caring for children. They are a necessary part of the life of any family - immigrant or otherwise. Making it nearly impossible for these family members to come to the US legally seems silly to me.

This n' that.

The "touching" tributes on the local blogosphere about Chris Benoit are annoying me a little. Guys, can we remember - he murdered his wife and son before killing himself. A little perspective is in order here, I think. It does seem that these posts were written before it was widely known that this was a murder-suicide situation (though, frankly, that was the first thing to come to my mind when I heard about the deaths - unfortunately, this kind of thing happens quite a lot), so I will refrain from ragging on them too much.

There's a long and interesting article in the New York Magazine called "The Science of Gaydar," about scientists who are currently engaged in studies that indicate gay men and heterosexual women (and, in turn, heterosexual men and lesbians) tend to have some similar physical traits. While this would point to a biological basis for homosexuality, these studies are causing a great deal of debate among gay and lesbian people and their allies, as well as right wingers who have traditionally argued that gay people are, I dunno, not parented well or whatever. I'm not going to get into that.

Once you get to about page six of the article, some pretty questionable theories about women's sexuality in general are proposed by J. Michael Bailey:

In many other studies, though, lesbians have appeared less unique than gay men, leading some people to wonder if their sexual orientation is innate. Michael Bailey—who, as a heterosexual researcher, is a minority in this field—even doubts the existence of female sexual orientation, if by orientation we mean a fundamental drive that defies our conscious choices. He bases this provocative gambit on a sexual-arousal study he and his students conducted. When shown pornographic videos, men have an undeniable response either to gay or straight images but not both, according to sensitive gauges attached to their genitals—it’s that binary. Female sexual response is more democratic, opaque, and unpredictable: Arousal itself is harder to track, and there is evidence that it defies easy categorization. “I don’t yet understand female partner choices very well, and neither does anyone else,” Bailey wrote me in an e-mail.

.....

Bailey stops short of saying that lesbianism is a myth (although he has notoriously declared that true male bisexuality doesn’t exist and dismissed many transgender people as peculiar sexual fetishists, drawing lasting enmity from gay and trans groups). But it may be less hard-wired. And it appears to have separate triggers and correlates that haven’t been identified yet.

I have no real issue with pornography, but it seems to me that basing a pretty provocative statement ("Women do not seem to have an innate sexual orientation") from the fact that women's reactions to porn aren't the same as men's seems pretty shaky to me. Obvious question: what if the women weren't shown very good porn? "We can't locate how this happens so it doesn't happen" is what he seems to be saying.

Hate crimes, part one zillion.

Some disturbing news from Philadelphia regarding a young transsexual woman who was murdered in a hit and run after being thrown out of a car in March:

Erika Keels lost her life on March 22nd after someone pushed the trans woman from their car, backed up and proceeded to run her down four times. Horrified witnesses reported the incident to the Philadelphia police. Though police identified the alleged perpetrator, they’ve done nothing to seek justice, according to Philadelphia’s KYW Radio News.

When Ms. Keels’ friends, who are themselves trans, questioned police officials about the classification of her death as an accident, they were asked to disclose their “birth” names and told they were “trying to make something out of nothing.”

The driver/perpetrator is not just a "someone" - he was identified, questioned, and has not been charged with a crime since the death was ruled an "accident." The police apparently stated that the driver was "speeding" and not wearing his glasses, which is how he...what, didn't realize he was backing up and running over this person four times?

It amazes me that stuff like this happens on a weekly basis but we still have people (I'm looking at you, Ellis, Schaff, Sibson) piddling around about how these issues should be left up to this body or that body, or that GLBT people aren't really ever discriminated against anyway so laws are unnecessary, blah blah blah blah. Get your heads together.

How I have missed Jon Schaff.

Ladies don't like sports and if you think they do, you must be one of those hairy legged women's libbers. Just in case you were wondering.

One would think that a few generations' worth of girls and women involved in basketball, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, softball, track and field, wrestling, volleyball, bowling, equestrian events, hockey, cheerleading, skiing, rowing, skating, football, weightlifting, and dozens of other sports would put that argument to rest. "One would have to be blinded by ideology," indeed.

To add to KeepAskingWhy's post below about the state of women's sports prior to Title IX, my mother often talked about the fact that my father (who went to the same high school as her) took advantage of the opportunity to participate in football, basketball, and track as a student, while she was a drum majorette because there were no opportunities for girls to play sports at their small, rural South Dakota high school. While my sisters and I were involved in sports as younger children (basketball, softball, etc), I think she was somewhat disappointed that her kids decided instead to be involved in band, choir, debate, oral interp, and the science fair. But at least we had the option. She wasn't granted that.

June 25, 2007 in the News

Some recent articles of interest:
Divorce on the decline-Counseling, cohabitation both credited with lower rate: A Sioux Falls Argus Leader story on the positive stats.

Rapid City man claims discrimination in topless casino firing: Read the Rapid City Journal story for more info.

It's time to make state an abortion-free zone: Rapid City Journal article about abortion, health insurance, sex ed and STDs.

On a personal note, I'm on vacation for the next week with limited access to the internet in case you don't hear from me for awhile. Will blog when I return!

Title IX Celebrates 35 Years

A few articles and columns from the weekend regarding the 35th anniversary of the passage of Title IX and its impact on women/girls:

• Wonderful Grand Forks Herald column titled "A Father's View of Title IX: It Works". However, gives some troubling stats about the lack of enforcement of violations in the Bush Adminstration (what's new).
• Rapid City Journal article titled "Rapid City women recall promise, successes of Title IX".
• Rapid City Journal article titled "35 years later, schools still adjusting to Title IX". (More discussion about the lack of enforcement.)

As a girl whose grade school years were in the 1970s, I never understood the impact of Title IX until I was much, much older. That's because for me, sports were always there as an option. I remember my mother talking about only having cheerleading as a sports option for her as she grew up in the 1950s-1960s in rural North Dakota. However, having been born in 1969, I came along into grade school just after passage and reaped the benefits of playing basketball and softball and running track in equal capacities to the guys in my class. (In fact, our girls' high school basketball team far outdrew the boys' in attendance.) Us girls in those days never realized that less than 10 years prior we would not have had those opportunities.

I realize that not every girl wants to play sports, but she has the option to play or not to play and that is needed. In my case, playing basketball in particular, taught me strong leadership skills and an interest in athletics and staying fit. It kept me from picking up smoking and drug use, excessive drinking and staying out past curfew in those impressionable teen years. I wasn't alone. As our basketball team made title runs, none of us girls wanted to do anything to get us kicked off the team. It also helped create a competitive drive and confidence in my abilities which would serve me well in non-sports fields.

Thank you, Title IX.

Tea is going straight to hell.

According to a local pastor.
The store creating the uproar and pearl clutching appears to be a store geared more at couples than some sinister demographic. The stores public statements are that they carry sex toys, adult movies and have movie viewing booths. The interesting points of this debate are that the city has no jurisdiction because the business is outside the city limits and that the complainers have not cited any real legal issue.

Complaints ranged from a fear it will bring truckers off the interstate, think of the children and perverts will hang out there. There appears to be no truck parking and the store so far has done no interstate advertising. If they were looking for trucker traffic, one of the vacant buildings immediately off the interstate would have been a more likely location. Children would have to make a mighty hike to get to the building since there are no sidewalks, residential roads or pedestrian means to get there. According to the demographics of the sister store Annibelle's the "perverts" are mostly 50+ married conservative couples.

Ironically not a single mention of the impact on women of adult media content. There has also not been any outrage over the frequently held male strip shows or lingerie shows held at the local sports bar in Tea.

Another letter

Dear Oglala Sioux Tribe:

Our 400 million dollar pediatric health care system was intended for WHITE children, actually. Sorriez!!

xoxo,
Sanford Health

Seriously, it would take so little for Sanford to do SO MUCH for children who desperately need the assistance, but they won't make the effort because they are so concerned with the almighty dollar. The article says that the clinics hope to serve "diverse patient populations" in "far-flung" areas, and it's like, why far-flung? The diverse patient populations are RIGHT HERE, ALL UP IN YOUR FACE. Losers.

Pride.

This weekend, a lot of my friends are at various gay pride celebrations all over the US. I thought I would pull a Junecleaversdoppleganger and post a bunch of pictures from the good old days, when women stayed at home and the gays knew their place.


Pioneer Gay rights activist Barbara Gittings at the first homosexual rights demonstration, Philadelphia, July 4, 1965. (credit Kay Tobin Lahusen)















Oh, and p.s.: You're an unpatriotic, anti-American so and so if you think flags should be lowered to half-staff when a soldier dies in Iraq.

I love a simple question.

Ken and I are at it again. You know the drill.

Anna, do you think that a simple accusation, absent any physical evidence or corroborating witnesses, made months or years after the fact, should be enough to send a man to prison?

If the person is guilty of the crime, yes. Easy!

Should we simply discard the presumption of innocence and require the accused to prove that he is innocent?

No, and your belief that this is how the justice system actually treats the vast majority of rape cases is kind of touching. You've posted a LOT about this recently and I'd like to point out that I believe sexual assault is prosecuted less and has a lower conviction rate than most crimes, though I am in kind of a rush and will find out if the specific stats back up my vague recollection later.

But here's something annoying...a personal anecdote in lieu of evidence! One of my co-workers came back to work off of jury duty, saying she'd been a part of a rape trial. She said "yeah, we found the guy not guilty. I mean, the girl was drinking with five guys and ended up passed out at one of their houses. What was she thinking?" I didn't get into it with her, and the accused man may very well have been not guilty of rape - but the fact that the woman 1. was in a room full of guys 2. got drunk 3. passed out at a man's house DOES NOT MEAN that she could not have been assaulted. I mean, I've been the only woman in a room full of men before and I fully expected not to be attacked, hello? I think a lot of juries view these he-said-she-said cases in that way. Blame the victim.

As a personal aside, Ken - this would be easier if you allowed comments at your site.

More about those lying women on SDP.

Ken Blanchard takes another swipe at those attention-seeking sluts who file rape charges.

He cites this article in Slate about former prosecutor Mike Nifong who (rightfully) faces disbarment due to his actions in the now-infamous "Duke rape case." I am a little annoyed by the following, from the Slate article:

Mike Nifong did what prosecutors almost always do when a complainant comes to them alleging a sexual assault: He took his complainant at her word and went full speed ahead with a prosecution. The fact is that few if any prosecutors wait for corroborating evidence or insist on more than one person's say so before initiating a sexual assault prosecution. Indeed, they'd be vilified if they did. The cardinal rule of sexual assault complaints is "believe the victim," and since anyone who complains is deemed a victim, even a semi-credible complainant can generate an arrest and prosecution in the absence of physical evidence, additional witnesses, or even a prompt accusation. This isn't just the case in Durham; it's true almost everywhere. The widespread support for this questionable practice is such that if the Duke case had gone to a jury and the defendants had been convicted, Nifong would not only still have his law license—he'd have been lionized for his dogged pursuit of rich white kids.

Ken, are you seriously quoting this section of the article without thinking about what the author is actually saying? Yeah, let's be sure a rape survivor who actually reports the crime to the police only get justice if there was a third party around to witness the assault, or she reports the crime within a timeframe established...by whom? No justice unless the survivor acts like A True Rape Victim Should Act. I mean, what the HELL. What a callous disregard of the trauma rape survivors deal with after their attacks, and what ignorance of how the justice system actually treats rape cases.

I love this comment at the end of the article:

I'm all for disbarring Nifong, and for making it widely known that the case against the Duke players was bogus.

But, isn't calling them "nice innocent boys" a bit much? The fact remains, these are the kind of "boys" who trade "jokes" about hiring paid sex workers and then murdering them. Not funny. Not nice. If they hadn't been living the stereotype of the debauched, drunken, thuggish jock, they wouldn't have gotten into the situation that launched the bogus prosecution.

Wait, what's that you say? We shouldn't disapprove of their legal behavior, shouldn't say that they in any way invited their persecution? Well, maybe now you understand how millions of women have felt when told that their "slutty" behavior invited rape...

In-DEED.

June 19, 2007 in the News

Here's a wrap up from the last couple of days:
Chaffee honored for work: Nice articles in the Fargo Forum and Grand Forks Herald regarding a recent honor as Woman of the Year for Ellen Chaffee and her women's rights work. Articles also have some interesting background as to what led Ms. Chaffee into activism including a biased Little Golden Book.

Tolerating mothers who nurse in public: Letter to the Editor in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader taking on a previous letter writer who felt that breast feeding in public was not acceptable, a way to show your breasts, etc. etc.

State to review social services job: Article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader about a possible Family Rights Act.

Knocked Up and talking about abortion.

An acquaintance of mine saw the movie Knocked Up when it came out a couple of weeks ago, and asked "Who wrote this, Operation Rescue?" when she told me about it.

For those of us who will never see the movie, this article in Slate addresses the way we talk about abortion in movies and on television, and how that has changed since the anti-abortion lobby has become influential. The author argues that the only character in Knocked Up to seriously mention abortion is portrayed as a heartless, evil person, and maybe that shouldn't be the only way modern films approach the subject:

The question is, from whose point of view is it that abortion is "a really horrible thing to do"? We have no idea from the film what the filmmaker's personal abortion politics are—I'd imagine that he votes pro-choice, whatever his reservations as an individual—but for the purposes of this discussion, it doesn't matter. Apatow's reticence on the subject seems to spring less from personal conviction than from the fear of offending his audience's sensibilities. This kind of Trojan horse moralism is maddeningly common in pop-culture representations of abortion, which seem muzzled, invisibly policed, by either the pro-life lobby or the fear of it.

It wasn't always thus, of course—Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dirty Dancing were just two of the '80s coming-of-age stories that used a character's abortion as an important plot point without fainting in horror at the notion. These days—and it's hard not to track "these days" in conjunction with the movement for a federal abortion ban—a fictional heroine has two choices, if she wants to maintain the audience's goodwill: carry the baby to term or have a convenient miscarriage.

As the mother of a 1-year-old daughter, I think I can say that if she turned up pregnant in her early 20s under exactly Alison's circumstances—single, barely acquainted with the father, financially dependent (she lives with her married sister), weeping miserably at her first sonogram—I would encourage her to at least consider the possibility of abortion, without in any way impugning the "realness" of the child should she decide to keep it. In that same hypothetical conversation (which I hope to forestall by lecturing her about birth control till she squirms), I would certainly tell my beloved girl that, like most of my close female friends (and like Barbara Ehrenreich–see her remarkable 2004 Times op-ed on this subject), I had an abortion myself around that age, and while it was far from the high point of the decade, it's a decision I look back on now with neither anguish nor regret.

Purity ball

From Feministing.

South Dakota's own Leslee Unruh continues to do us proud....



The dad in this story amazes me. He goes on dates with his daughters and has given them engagement rings? Is he this girl's dad or her boyfriend?

And the poor girl, saying she will ask the lord for forgiveness if she goes out with a boy and kisses him? Not a healthy way to look at relationships, just FYI.

From the news.

The Christian Reformed Church now allows women to serve as ministers, elders, or deacons. In the words of my friend who told me about this: "That was only a hundred years too late."

Girl hate.

I really enjoy this Gawker article about "indie girl mags" Bust and Bitch. I honestly can't stand either of them. I know that makes me a bad third-wave feminist, but there you have it.

I think Bust is kind of flighty and uninteresting and Bitch is full of poorly written pseudo-academic BS. I've seen better and more engaging work from undergraduate women's studies students, seriously. I've never read an issue of Bitch without rolling my eyes and throwing the magazine away in disgust. My subscription to that rag hasn't run out yet and I'm about thisclose to e-mailing them, saying "keep my money but PLEASE GOD STOP SENDING YOUR STUPID MAGAZINE!"

I just puked a little in my mouth.

Meet Sioux Falls' own baby Georgebush.

All politics aside: worst baby name ever.

June 12, 2007 in the News

Here are some quick updates on gender issues hitting North and South Dakota newspapers lately:
Congress should repair law’s pay-equity provisions: The Jamestown Sun publishes and endorses an editorial in support of the need for pay equity.

The odds do not favor men: Another Kathleen Parker column in the Fargo Forum, this time about what women need to do about the death disparity difference between men and women.

Women Warriors: Column in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader on a recent CBS News report which did not identify the contributions and losses of military women and appeared gender biased.

Abortion Debate: And the letters to the editor continue. Letter in the Grand Forks Herald (scroll down to 3rd letter) supporting the ban on so-called partial birth abortions and thanking President Bush, letter in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader stating that the "Freedom of Choice" Act should be defeated and a letter in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader by a "Dr. Allen Unruh" who states that it's time to end abortion (quite a long letter). I note these letters only to encourage those who read this blog in these communities to write letters if they disagree with these views (should they be so moved) and to see what gets published in the newspapers in our area.

A final point on those lying women.

A response here.

I suppose part of the problem here is an issue of semantics. I am confused why Ken equates a report of a crime to the police with someone in jail. ("But exactly the same kind of injuries are inflicted on a man falsely accused of rape, along with the years of prison. It's important for both of us to think about both things.") I mean, it's not like I could call the police this morning before work, accuse Ken of stealing the plastic pink flamingos from my front lawn, and assume he would be serving two years for larceny by the end of the day. One would hope that we have police officers, defense attorneys, and prosecutors in order to investigate crime reports and weed out as many of the false ones as we imperfect humans possibly can.

Shorter Ken Blanchard

Women sure do lie about being raped a lot.

Just a couple of points:

1. Linking to Fox News means you automatically lose this debate. Try an unbiased source please.

2. This article (which is fairly old) seems to indicate that the number of false reports is higher than 2%, probably higher than the 8% statistic reported by the FBI, and less than the 20-40% statistic Ken is floating. In fact the sociology professor who is the source of the 41% statistic specifically advised readers not to assume that his study of two college towns in the Midwest would produce similar results elsewhere. The reporter who wrote this article concludes: "Don't rely on one source. Talk to the local sexual assault counselors, talk to the local police, talk to the FBI, talk to the academics. Try to make some sense out of all the different numbers. And be careful." I think that's a pretty sensible admonition when dealing with this issue, and McElroy most certainly didn't follow it.

The above article also states that rape allegations that prove to be false are no longer creating a significant backlash that affects rape survivors. That's good news, and I think we can all agree on that.

3. I think it's also important for Ken and others to think about the effect this kind of thing has on survivors of rape who are contemplating whether or not to report the crime to the police. I had a dear friend who called me one Sunday morning about five years ago, telling me that the man she was seeing raped her early that morning, after they had consensual sex the previous night. When I urged her to report the crime, she refused, telling me that "like half" of women lie about being raped, so no one would believe her anyway. My friend is not the only woman, by a long shot, who won't report being raped.

It is pretty clear that reports of rape are false at a higher rate than other crimes. But making a point of exaggerating those numbers, as McElroy does (and making a point of reporting those exaggerations, as Ken does), is a truly harmful disservice to women.

Flandreau Indian School

Today's Argus Leader featured an article on the Flandreau Indian School, one of the few remaining BIA-operated boarding schools in the country. Federal government regulations regarding how student numbers are counted (and, therefore, the amount of money the school receives) have led to staff cutbacks and serious discussion about whether to remove the school from BIA control. This has a huge effect on the community of Flandreau, where many residents still work at the school in some capacity.

Wanda Two Bulls, a parent of FIS students and member of the FIS board, hit the nail on the head regarding government relations with the tribes:

"The talk of becoming a grant school, that's real. It's an ongoing discussion right now," Two Bulls said. "I think it could go either way. But still, the bureau has an obligation to provide an education. That's in the treaties."

I always get annoyed - beyond annoyed, actually - when I hear people in South Dakota complain about "the Indians" and how everything's provided to them. You hear this constantly in white South Dakota. Like, really? So you're giving up your $200,000 house in Rapid City and turning it over to the tribes, right? Oh, you're not? Then shut up. Obviously, there are problems on the reservations (there are also problems among whites in South Dakota, just FYI) but breaking the few treaty obligations we actually honor is really not the answer.

This is f'in crazy.

Did you know that a number of evangelical Christians believe Barack Obama is the Antichrist? This apparently has something to do with those Left Behind books people like so much. To paraphrase my friend Erin, who first alerted me to this phenomenon, I make a point not to read books endorsed by Kirk Cameron, so this passed me by completely.

According to the Wonkette post linked above, this apparently began way back in 2004 when Obama gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that earned him nationwide recognition. Here's what some of these wackos had to say at that time:

* People can think what they want about me, I could really give a hoot. People think that the AC is coming out of the mid-east. My personal belief is that the AC is going to rise right out of the UN, and with this guys popularity, charisma, and how he is climbing the ranks in government real fast!!!, He may be in the UN next.

* When I first heard of Barak, a few days ago, the first thing I heard is that he is a guy who came out of nowhere and now many flock to his side. When my wife and I heard this, we both thought the same thing, the anti-christ. Now I am not claiming him to be, just something that triggered that thought in both of us.

* My sister and I both feel something “spooky” about this guy, but can’t quite figure out what it is. It is odd that strangers come up to him on the street. Why would they do that, unless they were drawn to him.

* I don’t think we should directly label Obama as AC, but it is very interresting. While I was watching him, the VERY FIRST thought that came to my mind was asking the Lord if I was looking at the AC. I don’t have a big opinion either way, but man, that was pretty scary.

What on EARTH!

RCJ letter

I think Jay Davis makes a good point in today's Rapid City Journal.

One image promoted employment opportunities at a local calling center: “Did you make $30,000 last year? She did.” Clearly a job with $30,000 annual salary is still something to aspire to in Rapid. The next image was from a local Realtor, advertising a sullen stone mansion out at Red Rocks for the bargain price of $389,000.

Something’s wrong with our math. If she made $30,000 last year, she’s not living in Red Rocks, unless she’s married to a bank president. Omnipresent trophy houses, encroaching into the forest with more persistence than a bark beetle invasion, are for people who have earned their fortunes elsewhere. Local politicians pay lip service to affordable housing, while developers bulldoze modest single-family homes to make way for luxury apartments. Housing prices are soaring while wages are basically stagnant.

Do we need a new economic plan?

JAY DAVIS

Rapid City

I think a lot of the problems city government in Sioux Falls has had in recent years have much to do with the fact that the city's leaders can't imagine what it would even be like to live on the wage earned by the average Citibank/Hutchinson Technology/John Morrell's/Raven/School District worker. This state consists of a few haves and a bunch of have-nots who work two and three jobs to get by. I don't think the leaders in this state get that.

A question

Who would you rather leave your teenage daughter alone with in a hotel room?
Ted Klaudt
Gene Abdallah
Brock Greenfield
Roger Hunt
Gordon "women are like cattle" Howie
Bill "sodomized virgin" Napoli

My vote is for none of the above. How about you?

Friday Miscellania

Living while female edition.

18 year old Kelsey Smith was kidnapped from a Kansas Target store, forced into her car and later found murdered. The prime suspect is in custody and was seen on the security tapes at the Target store. Edwin R. Hall's myspace page included some disturbing statements. One was that one of his favorite movies was Strangeland. Authorities are putting together the details of the crime and many aspects fit into the plot line of Strangeland.

A Cat and Twenty has an amazing write up on the condition of living while female, how this news story ties into the constant terrorism inflicted on women on a daily basis. That subtle terrorism is so much part of life most people don't identify it as such. Just for the record I have no apologies for living while female.

A federal judge has reversed New Hampshire's parental notification law on abortion.

An actor in the videos at the Creation Museum likes to get his freak on, now the museum is gasp - offended.

A volunteer church organist was fired for selling sex toys. via Feministing.

Check out Birth Control Watch. Contraception without exception.
They have tips and resources for helping assure everyone has access to contraception.
Have you been denied contraception? Does your insurance refuse to cover it?

Brazilian model Gisele takes on the Pope over reproductive rights.

And finally, a photo.

1934 ad promising to add weight.

From Modern Mechanix.

A number of feminist-oriented blogs have been posting this old advertisement from a 1934 issue of "Physical Culture" magazine. Most of them see the ad as a reminder that our society has not always been obsessed with being thin - even a generation or two ago, the standard by which we judged attractiveness was quite different. To me, it looks like we've always told women there was something wrong with them - too large, too thin, whatever. The more things change...

Update on the News

Sorry I haven't been blogging much...been traveling quite a bit for my work and there just aren't enough hours after work for blogging!

Blues Reevaluate Cancer Screening: A Bismarck Tribune story notes that "officials of Blue Cross Blue Shield North Dakota say the insurer is convening an advisory panel to evaluate its policy on reimbursing screening procedures for breast cancer. Blue Cross Blue Shield's current policy does not reimburse an MRI of the breast for patients with dense breasts."

Parents play large role in teen sex ed: According to a Fargo Forum story, "When it comes to sex, what parents tell their kids makes a difference, a national speaker on abstinence said."

The Struggle of Poverty: A really great article in the Fargo Forum where a reporter tries to live on food stamps for a week. Worth a read.

Four tips for unmarried partners: The Grand Forks Herald has an article on some ideas for financial planning for unmarried couples.

Minimum wage increase

I'm loving the response on the minimum wage increase from a local business owner.

Bruce Bettmeng, owner of B&G Milkyway in Sioux Falls, said hardly anybody in South Dakota makes minimum wage unless they are younger than 16 years old “or are complete idiots.”

At B&G Milkyway, Bettmeng said most employees earn more than $5.15, though he has about 10 teenagers whom he pays minimum wage.

The government has no business telling him what to pay his workers because they have no idea how hard his employees work, Bettmeng said.

"I pay my employees minimum wage because I don't respect them," in other words.

I'll be getting my soft-serve at Zesto this summer, thank you very much.

Sen. Gene Abdallah on the page controversy

Shorter Gene Abdallah:

Those pages wouldn't get molested if they would stop dressing like sluts.

Good to know our Legislature is taking this seriously.

Spelling bee champ

I don't know how much anyone here reads some of the crazier right-wing blogs in SD, but at least a couple of them made a big toot about Evan O'Dorney, a homeschooled child who won the most recent national spelling bee. I guess because it proved homeschoolers are superior to us gutter trash who went to public school? Who knows. I don't know if this child has a medical issue (autism? Asperger's syndrome?) or if he is just remarkably unsocalized but, huh:

Overheard at work

Three other women waiting for the elevator were discussing the fact that their water bills were significantly higher, and their discussion quickly turned to rising prices everywhere. It went something like:

Woman 1: And then the price of food keeps going up.
Woman 2: Gas prices are hurting a lot of people.
Woman 3: The only thing that never gets higher is my wage. That's South Dakota for you.

All three women nodded in agreement. What always bugs a rabble rouser like me is trying to figure out how to engage women like this in political work that might improve their lives specifically and our state in general.

My final word on pay disparity

SDP response here.

One-quarter of the wage gap = 5% disparity in hard dollars. Sorry if that was unclear.

So if there's nothing anyone can do about this, what, do women get to start paying 5% less in college tuition? I mean, there's nothing anyone can do about the fact that employers don't value our work as much, even after getting those law degrees, or business degrees, or home economics degrees, or high school diplomas, or whatever, right? I see this in my own job, which I'll be quitting in August - I have been the top performer for the last two years, and have a college degree (which is a higher level of education than most of the people in the department) and I still make less than the average (male) employee in my department. Don't get me wrong, it's my own problem - I took the job knowing what they were going to pay me, but when your raises are based on X percent of your current salary it's hard to ever catch up to everyone else.

So I do have to take issue with being indirectly accused of playing the "victim card." Pointing out the fact that the discrimination is real, is right here, and is easy to prove does not equal playing the victim. People get to make their own choices about careers, but something needs to be done about the pay gap that exists based simply on whether you put 'M' or 'F' on your job application.

Only in Sioux Falls

People in the neighborhood of 41st St. and Sycamore are complaining about a proposed Goodwill in their neighborhood:

Some residents in the area oppose the measure, because they say the store will bring traffic and noise to the neighborhood. Last month the Planning Commission approved the permit, but with conditions.

Those conditions included restrictions on signage, and required that the loading and trash areas be enclosed with a masonry wall at least 6 feet high. The commission also asked that a public sidewalk be built and that two rows of evergreen trees be planted to provide a buffer.

(p.s...When they say "traffic and noise" they mean "poor people." Keep in mind, this is the city where a neighborhood organized to try to boot a SOUP KITCHEN out of town.)

Clearly it is outrageous to allow poor people to shop for ridiculous luxuries like secondhand clothing and furniture. They should be naked and live in shacks!

SDP & pay equity.

Ken Blanchard's post on pay equity and Linda Hirshman's Washington Post article to which he's referring, leave a lot of questions unanswered.

For example, why is it that men earn more than women who are working in the same field, with the same education and level of experience? It surprises me that Ken Blanchard would try to minimize the real issue of pay discrimination with a discussion about the types of work men and women choose to do. That's entirely beside the point. Real pay discrimination does exist and needs to be addressed. It obviously doesn't "punish itself," as Ken put it, because this discrimination has existed for as long as women have engaged in the same paid work as men, and it still exists today.

One-quarter of the wage gap is due to discrimination on the basis of gender.

From the AAUW press release:

According to a study done by National Association for Female Executives, women marketing and sales managers earned $46,696 in 2004, compared with $74,932 for men; women physicians and surgeons earned $50,856, compared with $97,448 for men; and women securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents earned $33,853, compared to $60,736 for their male counterparts.

News from South Dakota

The Argus Leader reported the Winner School District settled a lawsuit with the ACLU and parents who alleged the school district punished Native American students more harshly and more often than white students. While Native Americans are about 1/5th of the student body, they accounted for the majority of the school's disciplinary actions. Details will be released later.

And hey, we're getting an increase in the minimum wage! I am aware that paying employees $7.25/hour will cause all businesses in the state to shut down and leave, but you know. It seems like the right thing to do.

KELO is reporting on a lawsuit filed against the Gayville-Volin school district by a former student who claims the district ignored reports of misconduct and inappropriate sexual contact between the student and a former teacher. The victim states she was assaulted on multiple occasions by the teacher, after having been "groomed" for several years. The pdf of the district's response indicates that the teacher befriended the girl's family and gained the trust of her parents before the alleged assaults. The district claims the two had consensual sex and they responded appropriately when they became aware of the situation. We'll see.

Kabul Beauty School followup

The previous DW post about the "Kabul Beauty School" documentary.

Unfortunately, it looks like Debbie Rodriguez, the American hairdresser who traveled to Afghanistan to establish a beauty salon, sold her subjects out once Hollywood came calling.

But back in Afghanistan, the subjects of her book say Rodriguez and her newfound fame have put their lives in danger. They say they've seen none of the money or help to get them out of Afghanistan that Rodriguez promised them in exchange for having their stories appear in the book.

Tuesday, two Afghan women with a copy of the book arrived in an unmarked car with armed guards and burst into the beauty school. There, they threatened the girls, saying they would pay for defaming Afghanistan.

...

At least one of the girls from the school has made an escape plan. One, who is called "Topekai" in the book, says her husband, who read the book, is moving their family to Pakistan.

The others — whose husbands are unaware of the book — say they don't know what to do.

The woman called "Baseera" in Rodriguez's book says it may not matter. She is convinced someone will kill her.

Rodriguez apparently plans at some point in the future to give the women "a small part" of the book royalties, and 5% of the money from the movie being made, which will apparently star Sandra Bullock. Gee, how generous.