A Texas abortion doctor who can no longer do his job:
Slate: What do women do if they don’t have a passport?
Minto: They buy the drug at a flea market. This is bad and sad and wrong. They are going to be buying things on the street. You don’t even know if you are getting the real thing. But these goddamn politicians … Women are forced to crawl around like goddamn criminals. So I am here to help them.
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Anne Helen Petersen on why it’s okay to quit television shows:
Television viewing used to be characterized by its passive inertia: the ability of the network flow to glide you seamlessly from one show to the next. Why make a decision about what to watch when your favorite network has made it for you? A modicum of flow still remains (see, for example, the Netflix timed countdown from the end of one episode to the beginning of another) but most of us dictate our own media consumption diets. But we need to be economical: there’s too much out there to love, so why spend time watching what you don’t?
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Oh, girlfriend, don’t you understand what the Nice Guys of the Internet will say about this?
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Only acceptable reason to wear a bowtie other than being André 3000.
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Your chance to impress anyone on a first date is ruined.
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Why am I not on the list? I’m white, which exempts me from many forms of violence and discrimination. I’m employed full-time in a safe profession, so I can afford housing. I have trans-inclusive health insurance, which allows me to pay the medical expenses associated with my transition. I pass, which means that most people can’t tell that I’m transgender by sight. In a group of people who feel perpetually unsafe, I’m as safe as I can possibly be.
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In better people than you news.
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Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight fight fight, attempt to learn basic facts about America’s largest trading partner (I think Canada is still your largest trading partner? Maybe it’s China. It was Canada when I was a kid. Hm. Not part of the solution.):
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The turtlenecks of Love Actually, ranked.
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This is an article about Doctor Who.
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
“Slate: Why don’t you just get admitting privileges at a local hospital and comply with the new law?
Minto: They won’t have me. They are religiously affiliated. So you know, Jesus.”
Today in “laughing to keep from setting the entire Texas Republican contingent on fire”
Uncannily, my exact thought after reading that article was, “This shit makes me want to set Texas on fire.” So, hear, hear, EPWordsnatcher! Hear, hear.
Don’t set Texas on fire! You’ll burn up Wendy Davis and thousands of other Texan progressives who are fighting the good fight.
Not all the Texas! Just the bad bit. Governor, most legislators with an (R) after their name, etc.
Fingers crossed that by this time next year we will have a progressive in the governor’s mansion, so let’s not burn it down (again) until after election day.
Speaking of “because Jesus,” have you guys been keeping up with the whole “Focus on the Family infiltrating the US Air Force Academy” thing? Because oh my god.
WHAT THE FUCK
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY
It’s no coincidence that Focus on the Family and the AFA are located in the same town. I imagine there’s a lot of overlap.
Yeah, what’s causing alarm right now is that the guy now in charge of the counseling program there is a former ‘pray away the gay’ person.
What’s this “Xulon Press”? You sure this isn’t a Scientology thing?
Hah, I just pulled the first article about it that came up on Google in my fit of ‘omg people need to see this.’ There’s plenty more, though. Maddow’s been covering it the last few days as well.
Through my tears of rage reading that, I became very fond of the doctor being interviewed. what a firecracker. I hope he keeps fighting the good fight.
From the bowtie post, “It’s more sophisticated, it takes greater skill, and lesbihonest, it’s sexier. ”
Lesbihonest, you guys!
“I’ll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married,” she tells us. “When that will be, we don’t know. But I take it very seriously. Charlie is my husband. Charlie told me to tell you this. We haven’t told anybody about that.”
Manson, however, seems less convinced the impending nuptials are a reality, “Oh that,” he says. “That’s a bunch of garbage. You know that, man. That’s trash. We’re just playing that for public consumption.”
Oh. Honey. No.
Oh lord. Trainwreck approaching, must… not… rubberneck…
Do you think her annoyed friends sometimes try and talk her out of it and say ‘well he’s not a great guy but it’s not like he’s Charles Manson or anything. OH WAIT HE IS!’
Even if he werent Charles Manson, that right there is a flaming red flag.
We need the GIF with the t-rex shooting laser beams out of its eyeballs here.
I have a plaid flannel shirt with a self bow tie and it has never occurred to me before this moment (me being straight and all) but it is probably the queerest piece of clothing I own.
“Turtleneck of Humiliation.” Excellent.
I am pretty certain Buzzfeed cheated on this one–the How Long Have You Been In Love With Karl mock turtleneck is clearly the same as the I’m Considering Cheating On My Wife mock turtleneck.
“Yes, in Texas once a woman is vaginally hemorrhaging, it is legal for me to help her.”
Hahaha, yes, once she’s fucking HEMORRHAGING out of her VAGINA from taking dangerous unregulated drugs, THEN she can get the legal procedure she was so desperate to get that she was willing to take dangerous unregulated drugs in the first place! A legal procedure that would have been perfectly safe if done the right way, but no, let’s make her bleed uncontrollably first and put her life in jeopardy to punish her for her sluttiness or whatever!
Goddamn these assholes. Really, truly, fuck the hell off.
I loved that whole turtlenecks list, the last one actually made me chuckle. Also I never realized just how many people in that movie wear turtlenecks. My favorite, of course, is the girl in the Martin Freeman porn-stand-ins storyline, with her turtlenecks that match her coat and her rosy cheeks.
I rarely quit a show after I start it, because I am one of those people that gets so quickly attached to characters that I always want to see how it ends. I suffered through the horribleness of season 3 Veronica Mars, for frick’s sake. And season 5 Alias! But there are shows I have quit, and they include Glee, Heroes, and Once Upon a Time. I keep almost quitting Agents of SHIELD and then getting sucked back in.
And for those of you interested, the entire Warren Report is now online and digitized! Maddowblog has a direct link. Also some other neat material regarding the assassination of JFK, which was 50 years ago today. Doesn’t it feel weird to be commemmorating someone’s assassination? I feel weird about it. And Lady Bird Johnson’s audio diary from that day is so sad and she describes Jacqueline Kennedy as “I have never seen someone look so alone” and your heart just breaks.
The slow slow death of Heroes needs to be made in to a country ballad.
Heroes was the first show I loved that I intentionally quit (as opposed to not being able to see a show anymore because no cable, in the pre-everything’s online days) and it was a truly liberating experience. Since then I’ve quite Dexter, Mad Men, The Office, and True Blood. I figure I can always revisit them if I’m curious, but so far I’ve had absolutely no desire to.
My son’s at a high school state theatre festival/workshop think in Dallas right now – his text this morning: “Last night in the show there were some really poorly timed Kennedy jokes/monologue. People started booing it was so awkward.”
So – commemorating? okay I guess. Joking? not so okay.
Yeesh. I’m not sure joking about someone’s death is ever going to go over well, honestly… I mean, maybe Hitler’s.
Sometimes I’m slow to it, but mostly I’m okay with quitting shows. (Books, too, for the most part.) When there are so many other media out there to be consumed, why waste my time on something I’m not that into? (Which is exactly what AHP said and I’m essentially plagiarizing at this point.)
It took me a looong time to be OK with quitting books, but now I stop reading them left and right! Sometimes because it sucks sometimes because…something new comes along and eh, that one wasn’t really holding my attention anyway. I’m a much happy reader for doing so now!
I was all set to give up on Agents of SHIELD, and then there was the electric floating episode.
Guys, I just watched Love Actually on Tuesday night and I loved it so, so much.
Was this your first time seeing it? MAGICAL.
Yep! It was magical. I don’t know how I completely missed this movie until this year, but it was there on Netflix so I just casually started watching it by myself doing my nails. Then about 15 minutes in I was like, oh. OH. And stopped and made my husband come watch it with me.
Did you fall in love with Emma Thompson then, or had you already fallen in love with her before that?
Bowties on anyone, regardless of gender, is seriously one of my favorite things. Yay bowties and cute clothing for everyone!
I also like bow ties on puppies 🙂
Hey puppy! Hey little buddy! You’re so dressed up arent’ you? Awww!!! Yes you are! Yes you are!!
Hurl that spheroid down the field!
(Let’s not be rough, though!)
Impress them with our prowess, do.
Won’t it be peachy if we win the game?
But who’ll chime in with verse two?!
I am probably 90 percent straight. Most (if not all) of that remaining 10 percent is occupied by butch ladies in sharp bowties. hnnnggghhhhhh
“I want my girl to unwrap me like a goddamn present.”
I WANT TO UNWRAP SOMEONE LIKE A GODDAMN PRESENT. I mean, the rest of the post is great, too, but all we really need is that first sentence.
Really though! I stopped there and felt complete.
Holy crap, it turns out I know her girl- she’s one of my friends from college(I THOUGHT the author’s name sounded familiar!), and wow. I am now slightly jealous of my friend’s unwrapping privileges. Christ, this Toast world is getting smaller and smaller.
Bowties are a good mix of respectable and adorable on old people and professorly-types, and sexy as fuck with tuxedos. Everywhere else I find them nauseatingly twee.
I quit shows, well, not all the time, but I can’t say I have guilt or mixed feelings when I do. When I’m done, I’m just done.
I stop reading books too! Oh, there’s SO much other stuff to feel guilty about. Like not composting.
I glanced at the first link without closely reading it and thought “Yes! Nicole has finally commented on Doctor Who!” and was then kind of disappointed – I love me some Doctor Who and you’re one of the few blogs I read regularly that acknowledge it exists. Super excited for the special on Saturday, obviously.
Then I got to the last link, and am reassured The Toast will never let me down.
Not only does The hyphen Toast dot net acknowledge it exists, it does so in a way other than “Ugh, aren’t all the fangirls just awful?”
Respectfully, The Toast, you are wrong about the bowties. I submit:
– Janelle Monae
– tuxedos
– scientists who are snappy dressers but still need to keep their ties out of the Bunsen burner
– ditto violinists and cellists
– Fred Astaire
– nattily dressed dads, nannies, and pediatricians, who cleverly keep the babies from strangling them by opting for bow ties
– Winston Churchill
– BUCKAROO fuckin’ BANZAI, inexplicably depicted wearing a long tie on the movie’s cover art but actually wearing a bow tie.
I could go on, but I feel like the argument became unassailable at “Janelle Monae.”
(Am I the only person who would love to see “The New Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai” starring Janelle Monae? Also, it only just occurred to me that it’s “Banzai,” which is… problematic, and not “Bonsai,” which would be less so.)
Hot damn but Janelle Monae and the Hong Kong Cavaliers would tear the roof off. (I don’t care for bow ties, generally; too many DC douchewonks wear them to show preppical whimsy. But there are exceptions, as you say.)
Janelle Monae is an unknown quantity to me, but Fred Astaire won the argument right there for me.
What are you waiting for, that great gaping hole in your life to fill itself? MAKE HER A KNOWN QUANTITY ALREADY.
HOLY FUCK WHY AM I NOT WATCHING THAT VERSION OF THE MOVIE ALREADY.
(I know some people think Janelle Monae should have been the Twelfth Doctor, but she is already a Time Lady, so.)
Yeah, it does occur to me that Janelle Monae and the Cavaliers might be redundant. But I have rarely said of a great promised pleasure, “Mmm, no thanks, that seems redundant.”
okay if a city can support like 15 secret bars i am pretty sure that, as a city, it has jumped the shark.
The one I’ve been to isn’t even on there! (Apotheke, in Chinatown. No secret knocks, though, but a false storefront.)
I’ll admit I thought the modern speakeasy was a cute idea at first but then I very quickly got over the thrill because having to make a damn reservation to buy a $12 cocktail is bullshit.
Did anyone read the whole Manson profile in RS? It is straight-up insane. There is also a SHOCKING amount of people in the comments on the blurb linked here who think he shouldn’t be in jail. Argggggggggggghhhhhhh
The only dumb secret speakeasy worth visiting is Le Clan in Prague, preferably circa 2004.
I have been trying to figure out why your screen name is familiar! Prague, 2004!
uh oh! I’ve been found out!
AHP, I love you so! It’s like you were in my head and knew everything I’ve ever thought about in regard to TV shows. It’s difficult to quit but my guideline is when, after downloading the episode, I don’t want to watch it, I will most probably quit. Or when I don’t watch it before the next episode comes on.
I hate Love Actually but I love cozy turtlenecks, THIS IS TEARING ME APART
god Colin Firth looks cute in #9. scarves!!
I hate myself
There is no reason to hate yourself for drooling over Colin Firth. In fact, that is a fine and natural pastime. Carry on.
I usually hate movies where everyone has feelings, but Love, Actually is one I can do. Maybe it’s because they’re British feelings.
Also, Nolan on Revenge wears a bow tie amazingly well.
Hi, Nicole! The link to the letter from a murder victim’s sister you posted just goes to the article’s comments not the letter. I don’t think you think some of those commenters are better people than us. Because, based on their comments, they are not very good people. I love this link roundups.
FUCK THOSE PEOPLE, man. Switched the link so the letter is up top. She works with my friend at his pharmacy, and he says she is a freaking saint on earth, which does not surprise me.
Hahahah Harvard is dumb.
But why watch that video when you can watch the far superior Talking to Americans.
In a David Sedaris essay, someone refers to the bow tie as “the pierced eyebrow of the Republican party.” This has stuck with me enough to make me side eye anyone I see wearing a bow tie, unless it’s, say, Bill Nye.
ETA that this is probably Tucker Carlson’s fault.
Oh we are definitely not the US’s biggest trading partner (pretty sure). They’re still ours though! Hellllloooo NAFTA.
Wikipedia! Canada is the country the US exported the most to in 2012, and they are the country with whom total trade (imports plus exports) was highest. If you go by imports only, then it is China.
We need the GIF with the t-rex shooting laser beams out of its eyeballs here.
Did you fall in love with Emma Thompson then, or had you already fallen in love with her before that?
Won't it be peachy if we win the game?
What are you waiting for, that great gaping hole in your life to fill itself? MAKE HER A KNOWN QUANTITY ALREADY.
There is no reason to hate yourself for drooling over Colin Firth. In fact, that is a fine and natural pastime. Carry on.