On the Subject of Violence

Congress continues to nitpick the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.  They apparently don't want to go overboard in protecting women.

On Sunday's Up with Chris (Hayes), there was a discussion about this Act and the nitpicking.  Sarah Deer, a tribal law specialist, explained that as the law currently stands, violence against women on a reservation can only be pursued and prosecuted by the tribal government if the accused is a member of the reservation.  And, unsurprisingly, when he is not a member of the reservation, federal prosecutors rarely follow up.  Or he gets what is known around here as a free pass.

Imagine the absurd logic:  if you invite someone into your home who happens to be from another state (or country) and he beats you up, your police force cannot arrest him, your prosecutors cannot try him, and his state of origin ignores the complaint.

Words fail me.

Who Says They Don't Listen to Us?

In response to attacks due to the fact that not one of the 113th House of Representatives committees chair appointments went to a woman, John Boehner made the bold move of changing his mind.

According to the Huffington Post, Boehner found his binderful of women, and after great thought and research, appointed Candace Miller to chair the House Administration Committee.  It looks like Representative Miller will hold the important task of chairing the committee responsible for such tasks as "statuary and pictures," "disposition of useless executive papers," and House food services and parking.  She had been looking at chairing the House Homeland Security Committee, but apparently Boehner didn't want to give the little lady more than she could handle.

I would like to let Jon Stewart take it from here:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

So it goes -- another small step for Republican women.

Congress Rears Its Ugly Head

The 113th US House of Representatives is not really notable in the fact that there was no woman appointed to chair a committee.  There is, of course, a scarcity of women on the Republican side of the House anyway.

This after all the hot air about the importance of women during the election season.

So is it hate?  Or do the men who continue to run the Republican Party just simply believe women have their place, supporting their men.  As do "their" women in the House of Representatives.

I don't think the men on that side of the aisle consider women enough to hate them.  For them, women have their place, as do the blacks and gays in the Republican Party.  They may indeed hate those on the Democratic side, but I don't think they really give too much of a fig about those who want to be a part of the party.

Which to my mind is even worse than being hated.  Because it is being irrelevant.

Tantrums

Yes, Penny, I believe it is about power.  And victimization.

Women give birth, which makes for an interesting relationship.  At once, it gives women a great deal of power, and also places them in a dependent role.

And I think that because of that, women are the compromisers.  She has learned to do whatever it takes to keep herself and her child safe, while she is not in a physical  position of physical dominance.

But over time, compromise becomes acquiescence, and acquiescence feeds a man's power, and that relationship becomes a vicious cycle of anger and victimization.

Such a huge question, isn't it?

Why do they hate us?

So...Agnes and Barbara...That's my question to you both:  Why do they hate us?

That was the the title of an article by Mona Eltahawy (http://www.foreignpolicy.com) and, of course, the "they" refers to men.

Her article focussed on women in Egypt and it quoted from the Egyptian writer Alifa Rifaat: "We have no freedoms because they hate us."

What a thing to have to write "Yes: They hate us. It must be said."

And it must be hate. It can't be love that demands a woman cover herself with a heavy blue burka.  It can't be respect that prohibits a woman from driving. It can't be admiration that denies a woman the right to make her own health decisions.

So why?  Is it because we have vaginas and they don't. Although I'm not sure why they would want one. Or maybe because we can give birth and they can't. Frankly I don't remember that as being much fun.

I suspect it has something to do with power.  Doesn't everything?

What do you all think?

Let Me Tell You About My Headache

Not that anyone wants to know.  But we've decided we're going to talk about what gives us headaches anyway.

We had a lot of headaches because we had to listen to jackasses like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock.  They were a lot like having a Jehovah's Witness for an in-law.  You thought you couldn't get rid of them, and then, voila! divorce, and they were gone.  And so was the headache.

There's a lot of bad stuff that we worry about, so you would have to call them worry headaches.  And I for one am looking forward to telling you all about them.  And I'm really glad my other friends with headaches are here, telling us what aggravates them.

Maybe we'll hear from other women with headaches along the way.  If we all talk about it long and hard enough I do believe we can get some attention.  You never know what men will do to get a woman to shut up, right?  I'm thinking maybe they'll stop telling us what we should be doing with our bodies, for one.

Just think.  It was only a few months ago.  There we were, binders full of us.  Being  banned from the House floor for saying the word "vagina."  Being ordered to have vaginal ultrasounds to keep us from having an abortion.  Watching a panel full of old white men telling Congress why we shouldn't have birth control.

Look at us now.  Elizabeth Warren is preparing to kick some Wall Street butt in the Senate.  Neither she nor Tammy Baldwin are going to let those old white guys get away with dictating our sexual values.

Keep it up, I'm feeling better already.

"Not tonight, darling, I have a headache."      

Or..."the baby's crying" or "dinner's burning" or "I have other things on my mind."

And that's us:  we have other things on our minds--all sorts of "headaches."