A Jury of One’s Peers?

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Leafblowers bad for the environment. Duh.

“According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1997), as people across the United States re-fuel their leaf
blowers and lawnmowers, they slop approximately 17 million gallons of gasoline onto the ground each summer, gas that seeps into the water we drink and evaporates into the air we breathe. To put that number in perspective, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 dumped 10.9 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude into Prince William Sound, Alaska (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 1989).

“On top of that, leaf blowers discharge a cocktail of contaminants into the air, from hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide*which combine with other greenhouse gases to form ozone*to the carcinogens benzene, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde. The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Resources Board (2000, 50, 3) estimates that the average commercial, gas-powered leaf blower manufactured in 1999 emits the same amount of hydrocarbons in one-half hour as a car traveling 7,700 miles at 30 miles per hour. Over that half hour, the same leaf blower pumps out as much carbon monoxide as a car driving 440 miles at 30 miles per hour.

“An inconvenient truth about leaf blowers is that it is not uncommon for people who use them to relocate leaves, dirt, and weeds into their neighbor’s yard or out onto the street for the city or municipality to deal with rather than
collecting, bagging, and disposing of the leaves themselves. This is not only an antisocial manifestation of out-of-sight-out-of-mind mental processes, but also an unequivocal passing of the social buck that relates to what social psychologists have called ‘‘diffusion of responsibility.’’ [That’s putting it mildly.] [I’d call it ‘I-don’t-give-a- FUCK-about-you-ness.’ Or ‘ME-ME-ME-ness.’] [Or ‘I’m-too-stupid-to-understand-the-long-term-consequences-of-my-behavior-ness.’]

from “The Leaf Blower, Capitalism, and the Atomization of Everyday Life,” Jules Boykoff

And they’re not cheaper to use than a rake, nor does it get the job done faster. So WTF? Men and noise? Men and power tools?

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Great scene from Shriver’s novel … disciplinary charges for threatening behavior…

An excerpt from Lionel Shriver’s The Motion of the Body through Space The whole tribunal, wherein an older white man is “hauled up on disciplinary charges for threatening behavior and racially and sexually aggravated assault”), indeed the whole chapter, is WELL WORTH the read. *** REMINGTON: Just because she felt threatened doesn’t mean she was threatened. TRINITY: I’m afraid it means exactly that.  You can’t argue with what people feel. … TRINITY: Our frame of reference is progressive contemporary mores …  Well, times have changed. REMINGTON:  What has not changed—what has always been the case with human beings—is that “feelings” are no more factually sacrosanct than any other form of testimony.  So you can “argue with what people feel.”  Because people lie about what they feel.  They exaggerate what they feel.  They describe what they feel poorly, sometimes out of sheer verbal inadequacy.  They mistake one feeling for another.  They often have no idea what they feel.  They will sometimes mischaracterize their emotions with an eye to an ulterior motive—such as to slander a man who does indeed “threaten” them, but only with his comparative professional competence. Share

re women-only spaces




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How to be Successful without Hurting Men’s Feelings, Sarah Cooper

A light fun read with a few great punches: – re the perfect voice pitch for women … too high and you’re shrill, too low and you’re gruff, just right “not yet achieved by any woman” – chap 2 – lots of ‘When a man says X, it’s Y, but when a woman says X, it’s Z’ – “Try to keep your pregnancy a secret until your child is at least eighteen years of age.” – How to say ‘yes’: I’d love to!  How to say ‘no’: Sure. – the illustration on p99 is excellent (about getting interrupted – how to respond in a threatening way, and in a non-threatening way) – chap 7 – really insightful – and I wonder how did men get so good at that?  esp if they’re supposedly so bad at communication?  Ah.  They’re bad at speaking the truth, but good at manipulation because they’ve been steeped in that culture all their lives.  So it’s not like they’re applying all the strategies they learned in The Art of War; it’s probably unconscious—they’re just saying the shit that all the guys they know and hang around with say. – another great chapter (Men’s Achievement Stickers) – and finally, p187: a comparison between a toddler and a CEO – I love it! Share

Archive of feminist activism 70s-90s

For those of you who weren’t born yet … Rise Up: a digital archive of feminist activism You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Share

When someone tells you transwomen aren’t really a problem…

A post by Namename over on Feminist Current: We have already seen men demand access to female prisons and be given it (several countries), and on at least one occasion that has led to female prisoners being assaulted. We have seen men insist on access to female rape shelters on several occasions (several countries), and be given it. We have seen a female rape shelter stripped of its government funding for insisting on remaining female only after a campaign by Mr Morgan Oger who is a man identifying as trans. When they were unable to terrorise them into closing, violent men launched a campaign of hate against it including nailing a rat to the door. We have seen men being called women in the media, repeatedly, including when being accused of a crime, this includes by the BBC. We have seen several high profile people state in public Men Are Women including Stephen King and Professor Alice Roberts, who’s an anthropologist by the way. We have seen men demand and be given access to women’s toilets and changing rooms, including in schools (several countries). We have seen a child who was subjected to years of hormone treatment taken to Thailand at the age of 16 to have his penis surgically removed. His mother, who organised all of this, joked and laughed about how difficult it was for the surgeon to remove it because it was so tiny due to the hormone treatments on national TV (UK I think). We have seen men insisting they be allowed to join lesbian groups (several countries). We have seen an I love JK Rowling poster taken down twice, and in Edinburgh the railway authority lied and said this was in response to complaints. There were no complaints. We have seen JK Rowling’s handprint in Edinburgh dowsed in blood and other public threats made against her including death and rape threats, for saying she supports trans people but biology is real. We have seen an infiltration on dating apps of men demanding lesbians have sex with their female penis (several countries). We have seen men stealing women’s trophies in sport, repeatedly (cycling and wrestling, probably others). We have seen women sacked because they called a man by the correct sex or said biology is real (UK I think, maybe also America). We have seen a woman’s officer job in UK Labour go to a young man who was deeply and aggressively offensive to any and all women who queried this, and who claimed to be a female on certain days of the week. We have seen laws changed in several countries to accommodate men who claim to be women. We have seen many politicians stand up and say they will give men women’s rights – Joe Biden USA, Mhairi Black & Nicola Sturgeon Scotland, Trudeau the PM of Canada. Obama, when he was in office. Many more. We have seen that any search of the term trans crimes comes up only with “crimes” such as “misgendering” despite men who identify as trans being guilty of many crimes against women. http://transcrimeuk.com/ – it becomes increasingly difficult to find any actual news no matter what terms you use because of the idealogical belief in “deadnaming” and “misgendering”. We have seen calling someone by the correct pronouns for their sex made into a hate crime (UK, maybe Canada too) We have seen people harassed at home by the police for “misgendering” (UK) We have seen many people kicked off Twitter and out of other circles for stating men aren’t women or sometimes just saying “he” (Meghan Murphy, Graham Linehan to name but two). We have seen academics silencing women at Universities for speaking up against transology. We have seen judges insist that women call their male attackers “she”. We have seen Waxmyballs take women to court, repeatedly, claiming his right to have his “female” penis and balls waxed supersedes their human right not to touch his genitals. Despite losing the last time he’s at it again. This is just off the top of my head. Literally, without even thinking about it, I was able to come up with all of these examples. There are lots more. One of us is certainly being very silly. But it’s not me. Not only are we going to lose if we don’t stop the trans juggernaut in its tracks, women have already been harmed by transology all over the world. We have been losing for years. And this also bears repeating. Gallus Mag was censored and censured for writing this list of the human rights of women that we stand to lose if the current transologist juggernaut is not stopped. And soon. Removing the legal right of women to organize politically against sex-based oppression by males Removing the legal right of women to assemble outside the presence of men Removing the legal right of women to educational programs created for women outside the presence of men Eliminating data collection of sex-based inequalities in areas where females are underrepresented Elimination of sex-based crime statistics Eliminating athletic programs and sports competition for women and girls Removing the legal right of women to be free from the presence of men in areas of public accommodation where nudity occurs Elimination of grants, scholarships, board and trustee designations, representative positions, and affirmative programs for women Removing the legal right of women to create reproductive clinics, rape crisis services, support groups, or any organizations for females Eliminating media and all public discourse specific to females Removal of the right of journalists to report the sex, and history, of subjects Eliminating the legal right of lesbians to congregate publicly Elimination of lesbian-specific organizations and advocacy groups Removing the legal right of women to free speech related to sex roles and gender Elimination of the legal right of women to protection from state-enforced sex-roles (appearance/behavior/thought) Elimination of the legal right of girls to protection from state-enforced sex-roles in public education Elimination of the patient right of dependent females to hospital/facility bed assignments separate from males Elimination of the right of dependent females to prefer female providers for their intimate personal care requirements Elimination of the human right of female prisoners under state confinement to be housed separately from male prisoners” (from here)” Share

excerpt from Pornography and Civil Rights, MacKinnon/Dworkin

Pornography [also] engenders sex discrimination. By making a public spectacle and a public celebration of the worthlessness of women, by valuing women as sluts, by defining women according to our availability for sexual use, pornography makes all women’s social worthlessness into a public standard. Do you think such a being is likely to become Chairman of the Board? Vice President of the United States? Would you hire a “cunt” to represent you? Perform surgery on you? Run your university? Edit your broadcast? (p.48, emphasis mine)

Worth repeating.


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Postscript to 13 Reasons Why

In case anyone’s still watching 13 Reasons Why (and see my lengthy post at https://www.hellyeahimafeminist.com/13-reasons-make-movie-maybe-write-novel-without-acknowledging-elephant-room/) … Tyler’s getting raped is presented as SO MUCH WORSE than either Jessica or Hannah getting raped. OF COURSE.


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Internet access inequality

Sent this letter to Rogers, don’t expect a reply, but thought it worth posting here .as well ..

 

Hello Rogers:

I have just discovered your Internet 25 plan whereby people can get 450GB/month for a mere $70.  I live three hours north of Toronto; the only plan available to me is 7GB/month for pretty much the same $70 ($60, actually).  I pay $20 for every additional 10GB, which is to say I’d pay almost $1000 for the same 450GB.  Not only that, my 7GB comes at a snail’s pace of 0.1-2.4mbps, compared to, probably, something closer to 50mbps.

I understand the difference in speed; I access through space, not fibre.  And I understand that due to the low population density where I live, fibre’s not gonna happen.  (Pity you can’t piggyback on the electrical or phone lines that already exist.)

What I don’t understand is the difference in GBage.  It doesn’t cost you any more whether I get/use 7GB or 100GB, does it?  The tower is the same; you don’t pay for more air for the GB to travel through.

So, could you please explain the rationale for this gross inequality of service?

 


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