Yeah I can’t seem to embed videos on wordpress.  I think something is wrong with me.  I’m only smart enough for Blogger I guess.  Check this link to see Red & Charles take on all the stupid questions that folks ask trans folks.

Congratulations, Justice Sonia Sotomayor!  Sotomayor was confirmed earlier today by a vote of 68 to 31-nine Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for her.

With the ascension of one “wise Latina” to the highest court in the land, I assume the rounding up and imprisoning of whites will begin any day now, so I’ll have to celebrate while I can.

Well, it turns out the birthers are right-Obama’s birth certificate is a fake.  They were just obsessing over the wrong one.

World Net Daily and various birthers* are very excited because finally, some brave soul has stepped up and anonymously-because he’s afraid for his life-sent in a photograph of Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate.  Or not.

Despite World Net Daily’s assertion that, “The new document… shows none of the obvious traits of a hoax,” many have found a couple hints.  Like the fact that the registration record is from 1964- three years after Obama was born.  Or the fact that Kenya was not officially the Republic of Kenya until nearly a year after this certificate was allegedly issued.  Or the fact that it is coincidentally record number “47,044″, and Obama became the 44th president at age 47.   Or the fact that Obama’s village is listed as being in the wrong district-and the district listed was not part of Kenya at that time.  Or the fact that his father’s age is wrong-unless all that about when and where his father was born is a lie, too.
Unmentioned is the most obvious reason this is a hoax, which is that Obama was born in Hawaii and is an American citizen.  I’m not sure where the birthers got the idea that Hawaii is in the habit of making copies of “short-form” birth certificates saying someone was born there for anyone who asks and reserves the “long-form for the real-deal, but his birth certificate was put out there.  I’m also not sure what they mean when they say they want his birth certificate “released.”  Is he supposed to personally mail a copy to every household in America?  Would that make them happy?  Somehow, I’m thinking not.

(h/t Shakes.)

*I was also going to link to Orly Taitz’ site here, but when I tried to go to it I got a “harmful site” warning.  And I’m apparently not the only one.  Don’t know what that means, but consider yourself also warned if you try to go to the source.

President Obama got it pretty much right the first time, before there had been a huge outcry about our President criticizing a police office.  Officer Crowley acted stupidly-and, might I add, wrongly-when arresting Professor Gates.

The important facts are these- Officer Crowley (white) responded to a potential breaking and entering complaint, found Professor Gates (black) in his own home, where had had id proving who he was and that this was his address, and, after not assaulting or in any other way posing a direct danger to Officer Crowley, was arrested for disorderly conduct, handcuffed, booked, brought to the police station, and spent a few hours in a jail cell before the charges were dropped.

That’s it.  That’s what counts.  The racial part may or may not be important.  Let’s be honest-we can assume, but no one knows for sure.*  That’s part of what makes combatting racism so difficult.  It’s like global warming.  You can’t say for sure that this hurricane was caused by global warming, you can just say that the increasing prevalence and strength of hurricanes is due to global warming.  Similarly, you can’t say that Officer Smith pulled over Mr. Jones because Mr. Jones is Latino or African-American and the white Officer Smith is racist.  But you can say that the fact that police are far, far more likely to pull over a Latino or African-American is due to a whole lotta racism.

But whether or not Officer Crowley was informed by any racial prejudices, the fact is, he acted wrongly.  Professor Gates may have as well.  Perhaps he yelled more than he should have.  Perhaps he made assumption that he should have.  Maybe he was mean.  But that doesn’t really matter.  Our media, always in love with balance, seems to be sticking with this narrative that Mistakes Were Made, and everyone was wrong.  Politicians, too.  And that may be true, but it still doesn’t excuse the actions of the police officer.  Police, with their increased power over us, need to be held to a higher standard in terms of fairness and temper, and it’s time we acknowledge that.

Obama said that Officer Crowley and Professor Gates both overreacted.  And that’s probably true.  But it’s irrelevant.  You know why?  Because when Gates overracted Crowley may have gotten some hurt feelings and been in a bad mood for the rest of the day.  When Crowley overreacted, Gates, an innocent, law-abiding, citizen got stuck in a police car, taken to a station, and put in a jail cell for four hours.  You don’t think that was a harrowing, humiliating experience?  And it could have been much, much worse.  After all, this is hardly the first instance of the police “overreacting” in the last few years.

Police don’t get to overreact.  It is a luxury that they don’t have.  They don’t get to overreact because when they do so, they are no longer protecting us, they are putting us all in danger.  If you have a gun, and a taser, and the power to throw someone in jail, you need to make sure that you don’t fly off the handle.  No matter how bad a day you’re having, no matter how pissed you get at someone, no matter how mouthy someone is.

Police officers, of course, deserve our respect.  All civil servants do.  But that doesn’t mean they’re always right.  In fact, making that assumption is downright dangerous.  It is important to question authority, and to police the police.  Officer Crowley is wrong.  And it’s not a crime to say it.

*Disclaimer aside, I find it very difficult to believe that race wasn’t involved somehow.

Well, close to the hometown since Fort Myers Beach is its own very small town that happens to be directly next to (and was formerly a part of) Fort Myers proper. Via Shakesville comes the story that one of the town’s managers was fired because his wife has a history in the adult entertainment industry.

Fort Myers Beach town council voted 5-0 to fire Scott Janke “without cause” after Mayor Larry Kiker called the Tuesday night meeting.

Kiker said he learned that afternoon that Janke’s wife is an adult film star, and the elected officials took the action a few hours later.

“At no time did we make a judgment call on the activities of Mr. Janke or his wife,” Kiker told The Associated Press. “It’s a matter of how effective he becomes after this situation. How much disruption there is.”

Adult Industry News recently reported that Janke’s wife, Anabela Mota Janke, goes by the stage name Jazella Moore.

Kiker said a clause in Janke’s contract permitted the council to fire him with a majority vote. He said he considers the Jankes friends.

“Our heads are held high,” Scott Janke said. “We have nothing to be embarrassed about. We’ve done nothing wrong.”

The ACLU of Florida thinks there may be a discrimination case here, as well there should be. Janke’s wife has nothing to do with his job, making her work history irrelevant. But firing him allows the others to kick their heels on the moral rocking horse and simultaneously shame his wife as being someone who shouldn’t be associated, even marginally, with serious affairs.

It is worth a mention that the article goes on to say that the island’s residents are mostly of the opinion that he shouldn’t have been fired and that his wife’s job doesn’t matter.

I don’t listen to much general pop- let alone dance pop- but Kim Petras is cuter than a basket of kittens, her voice is lovely and she amazingly launched her own career at the age of 15 by uploading to the internet videos she made of herself singing. The videos caught the attention of a producer in her native Germany and the two teamed up to release her first commercial single last fall. Her debut commercial album is forthcoming.

Petras has made the news some in the States because she was born a boy and began her M2F reassignment process at the age of 12. Petras was very open about her process. At age 13, she appeared on a national television show in Germany to discuss her hormone treatments. A year later, Petras appeared in a documentary and on another talk show to argue for her right to have gender reassignment surgery at the age of 16 (two years before Germany’s set legal age for such procedures). Petras was eventually granted permission to have the surgery at 16.

This video is one of her homemade ones so it is a bit endearingly amateur. Showing my age here, but it reminds me of early Debbie Gibson:

(Post edited for clarity because I was mangling sentences left and right. Ah, pre-6 am.)

“You can’t explain it in 30 seconds, so politicians just ignore it.”

-Rep. Bart Stupack, quoted in the Taibbi-penned Goldman Sachs article.

(Stupack, a member of the House energy committee, was specifically referring to the political misframing of the oil price bubble of last year. But that statement could apply to virtually any political action in the last twenty years.)

I know his style rubs some people the wrong way, but Matt Taibbi cracks me up and reminds me of a really clever friend you would debate economic policy with over shots of Jack Daniels. Taibbi’s fantastic piece (the opening paragraph alone is enough for a wordgasm) on Goldman Sachs is now up in full at the Rolling Stone website.

Moue has reverted to its previous, blog-like format (as was requested by Acallidryas).

I have been mulling over all day how I could continue to post at Moue and still have a life and have come up with a compromise. I won’t be posting any more “special features” like Indie Retailer of the Day (easy to throw together ones like Friday Night Fluff will stay). I also will not be committing to the 8 posts a day schedule I was trying to maintain for awhile. I will try my best to post at least once during weekdays, but I make no promises. I realize our regular audience consists of the Moue writers and a few friends, making this post a bit like speaking in the third person, but there you have it.

In more important news, I stop reading the blogs for a couple of weeks and Hilzoy fucking retires.

As you may have guessed by now, Moue Magazine as it has existed for the past year and a half is no more. It took a tremendous amount of time and energy for me to maintain the backroom stuff and a regular posting schedule and I simply don’t have the resources to devote to it anymore. The site will be staying active and it will likely revert back to a more traditional blog style format. Who will post what when is a bit up in the air.

I am not disappearing from the internetz. Consider this a break more than a breakup. The timing isn’t right at the moment but I’m sure, in the long run, the netz and  I will realize that we really do love each other and that this is worth fighting for. Or I’ll mess around behind its back with a satellite.