Dinkus-ness

She's been found not guilty, so drop it.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 1,393 Comments

I didn’t follow the Casey Anthony trial.

I read about the case about a month ago and it sounded like a horrible tragedy, similar to a handful of other horrible tragedies in recent news. Last week I happened to be in a place where they were showing a live broadcast of the judge reading the jury’s verdicts. There were seven separate charges, but the gist of it seemed to be not guilty on killing her daughter, guilty on lying to the cops.

The most disturbing thing about the broadcast was watching the “people on the street” interviews that happened immediately after the verdicts were announced. And by interviews I mean, the mob outside of the courthouse frothing at the mouth and screaming into the microphone when it came anywhere near them.  The “interviews” went on for quite a while, and more than a few crazed yahoos had a chance to yell threats about what they’d do to Casey Anthony if they met her in a dark alley, or proclaim that the justice system is broken, or lament the travesty of justice that had occured, or that you bet your ass they would have voted differently.

And this week, this happened. From News9.com: 

CHOUTEAU, Oklahoma — An apparent case of mistaken identity almost cost one Oklahoma woman her life. The Chouteau woman says someone tried to kill her because she looks like Casey Anthony, who, as of July 14, was still jailed halfway across the country in Florida.

The Casey Anthony trial was not a reality TV show, and the audience does not get to vote in the outcome. We have a set process with lawyers, aids, a judge and in this case, a twelve-person jury. And. We. Were. Not. A. Part. Of. It. We do not get to help decide this one, and we do not get to take justice into our own hands because the jury didn’t give us blood.

The jury members may or may not have thought that Casey Anthony killed her daughter. But whatever they thought of her guilt, the fact of it is we are innocent until proven guilty in this country, and the jury decided that there was not enough evidence to prove that Casey Anthony was guilty. That’s what is so wrong about the words, threats and actions of the crazed yahoos – they decided that what they *thought* was enough to justify a guilty verdict and evidence be damned.

As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t followed the story, and what I know about trial procedure (and pehaps the entire field of US  law) could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. So I couldn’t tell you if I believe that the jury made a good decision. We have to assume that they followed the regulations of current trial process and gave an honest decision based on the available evidence.

So that’s it. Drop it. Stop with the Dexter jokes, stop with the whispering about conspiracies, stop with the calls for vigilante justice. It’s disgusting, and it reflects poorly on all of us.

She's been found not guilty, so drop it.
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This is Glenn Beck’s Brain

Brianne Bilyeu, , 31 Comments

I first saw this on Street Anatomy, and I’ve linked the pic to it’s appearance in Stumble Upon. The art was created by MotherJones‘ Dave Gilsonand Steve Brodner. Have I mentioned how pleased as punch I am that Beck’s show was cancelled? It’s nice to know that advertisers and viewers alike are recognizing and holding Beck accountable for his hateful rhetoric and for perpetrating weird, paranoid conspiracy theories.

Beck's Brain Scan

This is Glenn Beck’s Brain

This is Glenn Beck's Brain

Brianne Bilyeu, , 38 Comments

I first saw this on Street Anatomy, and I’ve linked the pic to it’s appearance in Stumble Upon. The art was created by MotherJones‘ Dave Gilsonand Steve Brodner. Have I mentioned how pleased as punch I am that Beck’s show was cancelled? It’s nice to know that advertisers and viewers alike are recognizing and holding Beck accountable for his hateful rhetoric and for perpetrating weird, paranoid conspiracy theories.

Beck's Brain Scan

This is Glenn Beck's Brain

Anti-Vax Action Alert: VaxCBS

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 423 Comments

This advertisement by the Mercola and National Vaccine Information Center is set to run in New York City’s Time Square on the CBS Outdoor JumboTron on 42nd street.

Both of the groups behind this “PSA” are well-known for their anti-vaccination efforts. They want people to question the safety and efficacy of vaccines, to believe that it may be safer for your child to not vaccinate, that vaccines cause more injury than not vaccinating.

Forget that.

This is a dangerous advertisement, and while the ad might seem mild, what it implies is a lie that has been debunked time and time again by science-based medicine. What they want their viewers to believe has the potential to harm.

Elyse from Skepchick and Women Thinking Free Foundation is organizing an effort to make this ad not happen. From her post on skepchick.org:

Mercola and the NVIC are determined to convince Americans that vaccines are dangerous and optional, that more harm is done by administering vaccines than by letting infectious disease ravage a population.

And that message needs to be stopped. Especially right now.

Right now:

Right now we need to be promoting vaccines. Right now real people are at risk because of unfounded vaccine fears. Right now measles should be eradicated in the US.

If you feel that Mercola/NVIC’s deceptive advertisement should not air to hundreds of thousands of people on CBS’s JumboTron, here’s how you can make your voice heard:

As one commenter on change.org put it “This is not a case of two opposing but valid sides of a disagreement – this is a seriously damaging misinformation campaign that misrepresents established knowledge with speculation based on already-rejected nonsense masquerading as science.”

Let’s help make sure that we don’t give credence to this dinkus-ness, okay?

Anti-Vax Action Alert: VaxCBS

Quran Burning

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 883 Comments

So, a Christian extremist in Florida burned a Quran after “passing judgement” on it, and in response we have  the violent murder of 12 people by a mob of Muslim extremists in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif,  nine more dead in Kandahar, and violence and protests across Afghanistan.

My first response was, “Seriously? The lone actions of a backwater hick of a pastor from the United States didn’t respect a different religion’s holy book, and that justifies the storming of a UN-held building and the taking of human life in Afghanistan? And people wonder why I reject organized religion!”

But as was pointed out in Psychology Today and Salon.com, just writing this off as a spat between two different religious groups is simplistic; there are geopolitical, social, cultural and economic issues that, along with religious differences, probably contributed to the loss of life.

In fact, when some of these other factors are removed from the picture, that may be why moderate Muslims in the United States were able to have a more moderate response to this tragedy:

The Muslim community in the United States has declined to respond to such an act by Jones and his small group of followers.

“Terry Jones had his 15 minutes of fame and we’re not going to help him get another few minutes,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In the US we have the idea that you don’t get to tell me what to do with my Quran (if I owned one). This mass-produced item that I can pick up at any number of different bookstores is NOT holy; it is ink on paper which becomes my personal property when I purchase it. It is a replica of a holy item. I can dog ear it, highlight it, copy pages of it and throw those copies in the garbage when I’m done with them. And if my replica Quran gets water damaged or otherwise becomes unusable, I can throw it out or destroy it, run down to Barnes and Noble and pick up a new copy. Perhaps we –  and Terry Jones – see the burning of this Quran as a small symbolic gesture, that the Quran he burned was just one copy of millions out there. 

The angry Afgahni mobs probably didn’t go out and kill people just because Pastor Jones was a dick who destoryed a copy of the Quran – that would be ridiculous, right? We in the United States know that Terry Jones is a lone dinkus who doesn’t speak for the majority of us in Western World, but perhaps the Afghanis responsible for the rioting believe that enough of us in the Western world are complicit, that we as a whole – including our leaders – allowed this to Quran burning to happen because we are contemptuous of the Afghani people as a whole, and that we see their nation only as a resource to be exploited.

I don’t claim to understand what really drove one group of human beings to violently attack and brutally injure and slaughter other human beings in Afghanistan. I think it is right to be outraged and offended by the incitement to violence by Jones and the violence and loss of life by Afghani mobs. However, I don’t think the correct response is to simply write off the whole situation as a Christianity vs. Islam problem.

Regarding free speech aka “should we burn Jones at the stake for inciting this violence?”: The first amendment lets me be an asshole – I can burn an American flag, a Bible, a Quran or my bra and not be legally persecuted in this country for doing so. Don’t give me that “we’re in a war” crap. Go see Glenn Greenwald’s The most uncounted cost of Endless War and  Brendan O’Neill’s article Pastor Terry Jones is no more to blame for the Afghan violence than Martin Scorsese was for the shooting of Ronald Reagan for their thoughts on free speech in relation to this case.

Quran Burning

This Isn’t About Hate.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 447 Comments

Two weeks ago a Muslim American organization held a fundraiser in California for women’s shelters, homelessness relief and hunger relief. They were protested by a group of Americans waving flags and yelling through bullhorns. But don’t worry – as one protester clarified, “This is not about hate. We are not hate-mongers.”

Observe the language of…not-hate:

“Mohammad was a child molester. Mohammad was a pervert. Mohammad was a fraud. Mohammad was a false prophet.”

“…I know quite a few [U.S.] Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early…uh…meeting in paradise.” – Deborah Pauly (Rep.), Villa Park Councilwoman

“You’re a stupid terrorist. Go home! Go home! Go home! No Sharia! Do you beat up your wife, too? Are you a molester? You are, aren’t you? ‘Cuz you just sit there and you’re a coward. You beat your women. Why don’t you go beat up your wife, like you do every night? And then go and have sex with a nine year old and marry her.”

“One nation under God, not Allah! Get out of here! Never forget 9/11!”

“Go home – we don’t want your Sharia law! No Sharia law – US Constitution!”

“Take your Sharia and go home!

“You’re terrorist lovers! Your hands are bloody!

“You’re not welcome here – go home!”

“Terrorists!”

“Traitors!”

“A big part of the problem we face today is that our children have been taught in schools that every idea is right, that no one should criticize others’ positions, no matter how odious, that’s…and, and what do we call that? They call that ‘multiculturalism’, and it has paralyzed too many of our fellow citizens to make the critical judgement we need to prosper as a society.” – Congressman Ed Royce (Rep.)

Protip #1: Muslim does not equal terrorist.

Protip #2: When an elected official says “I don’t even care if you think I’m crazy any more.” as Deborah Pauly did, that’s when it’s time to vote for the other candidate. You know, the one who you don’t think is crazy.

I’m at a loss. How do we address this kind of hatred and ignorance in a productive manner? These are Americans who are screaming and jeering at other Americans based solely on the color of their skin and the clothes they are wearing. These are American who really think that Islam is a religion of hate, that all Muslims are terrorists, that you can’t be Muslim and a “real American”. How do we deal with that?

Wait – I know! Have a Muslim American organization get together to hold a fundraiser to support women’s shelters and alleviate homlessness and hunger in their community!

Nah…that would never work.

Video seen on @michelleinbklyn‘s twitterfeed.

This Isn’t About Hate.

This Isn't About Hate.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 592 Comments

Two weeks ago a Muslim American organization held a fundraiser in California for women’s shelters, homelessness relief and hunger relief. They were protested by a group of Americans waving flags and yelling through bullhorns. But don’t worry – as one protester clarified, “This is not about hate. We are not hate-mongers.”

Observe the language of…not-hate:

“Mohammad was a child molester. Mohammad was a pervert. Mohammad was a fraud. Mohammad was a false prophet.”

“…I know quite a few [U.S.] Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early…uh…meeting in paradise.” – Deborah Pauly (Rep.), Villa Park Councilwoman

“You’re a stupid terrorist. Go home! Go home! Go home! No Sharia! Do you beat up your wife, too? Are you a molester? You are, aren’t you? ‘Cuz you just sit there and you’re a coward. You beat your women. Why don’t you go beat up your wife, like you do every night? And then go and have sex with a nine year old and marry her.”

“One nation under God, not Allah! Get out of here! Never forget 9/11!”

“Go home – we don’t want your Sharia law! No Sharia law – US Constitution!”

“Take your Sharia and go home!

“You’re terrorist lovers! Your hands are bloody!

“You’re not welcome here – go home!”

“Terrorists!”

“Traitors!”

“A big part of the problem we face today is that our children have been taught in schools that every idea is right, that no one should criticize others’ positions, no matter how odious, that’s…and, and what do we call that? They call that ‘multiculturalism’, and it has paralyzed too many of our fellow citizens to make the critical judgement we need to prosper as a society.” – Congressman Ed Royce (Rep.)

Protip #1: Muslim does not equal terrorist.

Protip #2: When an elected official says “I don’t even care if you think I’m crazy any more.” as Deborah Pauly did, that’s when it’s time to vote for the other candidate. You know, the one who you don’t think is crazy.

I’m at a loss. How do we address this kind of hatred and ignorance in a productive manner? These are Americans who are screaming and jeering at other Americans based solely on the color of their skin and the clothes they are wearing. These are American who really think that Islam is a religion of hate, that all Muslims are terrorists, that you can’t be Muslim and a “real American”. How do we deal with that?

Wait – I know! Have a Muslim American organization get together to hold a fundraiser to support women’s shelters and alleviate homlessness and hunger in their community!

Nah…that would never work.

Video seen on @michelleinbklyn‘s twitterfeed.

This Isn't About Hate.

Taking Maternity Leave Doesn’t Make You Worthless

Brianne Bilyeu, , 1,005 Comments

I haven’t had a Dinkus of the Day in a while, but somehow I always find more.

Okla. official questions hiring pregnant woman

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A member of Oklahoma’s Board of Education drew heated reaction Thursday after saying a newly hired administrator would be “worthless” as a legislative liaison if she took immediate maternity leave.

Shortly after the board voted to hire Jessica Russell, who is due to give birth in April, former state Sen. Herb Rozell noted that she was pregnant and questioned whether she would be around for key days of the upcoming legislative session.

Russell was hired to represent the state Department of Education’s interests at the Capitol. The Oklahoma Legislature reconvenes Feb. 7 and must end its business by May 27.

“If she has that baby in April and takes off six weeks, she’s worthless to us,” Rozell said.

While there was some laughter in the room, state schools Superintendent Janet Barresi rebuked Rozell and ordered a 10-minute recess. Russell left the room in tears.

“Your comment is inappropriate and not worthy of this board and this department,” Barresi said.

After the meeting, Rozell said his words came out wrong.

“I didn’t mean to interfere. I was just hoping we could have her in April and May, because that’s when everything gets tied up,” he said.

Gov. Mary Fallin called Rozell’s remark “demeaning” and “disgusting,” while Sen. Clark Jolley and Sen. John Ford called for Rozell to resign. Jolley said Rozell’s comment was “archaic, misogynistic and deplorable.”

Rozell didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment about calls for his resignation.

Oklahoma has about 660,000 students in its public education system.

I’ve never had to take maternity leave, but I’ve worked with women who have. I’ve spoken with a few of them and asked if they ever had to worry about this kind of reaction. What sucks is that all of them expressed having some level of anxiety about notifying their boss that they were pregnant and would be taking leave, even at places that have track records of treating women and families with respect when it comes to maternity and paternity leave. Sen. Roznell’s attitude is why – women still don’t know if they’re going to run into this Dinkus in the workplace. Even if the boss gives you a perfectly PC response and congratulates you, is her or she really thinking “Great…now what am I going to do? How can she get pregnant now when I need her here? Should I put off promoting her if she’s planning to have a lot of kids?”

As if being pregnant isn’t challenging enough. 

Found on twitter via @miriamzperez

Taking Maternity Leave Doesn’t Make You Worthless