Sorry for not sending out newsletters last week, I was in Italy and Spain (pix here). Posts here, here, and here.
I had a lovely time and can’t thank Warren Moore enough for making it possible for me. < 3
What happened in the world while I was gone? Well, my boyfriend speculated:
Call me paranoid, but Donald Trump has me seeing foreign agents everywhere I look. Case in point: Is it so crazy to think Cathy Reisenwitz is actually a Russian spy sent to infiltrate the liberty movement? The evidence is overwhelming:
– self-proclaimed anarchist and enemy of the state
– expert saboteur of right wing ideologies
– dad works in missile defense (Russians know about missiles)
– dated a guy “raised in the US” but has a Russian accent (??)
– dates a wealthy encryption expert who gives her tech support (???)
– looks and acts exactly like the Russian forest nymphs of Slavic folklore
– and is for some god-damn reason featured in the wikiHow for “How to Be a Communist” (?????) (HT Ash)
You can’t tell me with a straight face this is all a coincidence.
Yet even if Cathy really is a Russian spy, she’s my spy, literally the spy who shagged me, and I love her all the same <3
http://m.wikihow.com/Be-a-Communist
I found my new Fall show.
A Female Somali-American Activist Promising Police Reform Beat Minnesota’s Longest Serving State Lawmaker.
A Department of Justice investigation found that Baltimore cops “coerced sex in exchange for immunity from arrest,” specifically targeting “members of a vulnerable population.”
Romantic comedy star understands that romance doesn’t equal monogamy.
Speaking of, “There is nothing new about shagging around. I hear that it has been popular since at least 1963. What’s new is talking about it like grown-ups. It’s the conversations. It’s the texts with your girlfriend’s boyfriend about what to get her for her birthday. It’s sharing your Google Calendars to make sure nobody feels neglected.”
This and the part about poly being always and necessarily uncool.
My friends had a lively debate on Facebook about the extent to which a computer is a good analogy for the brain.
This was awesome:
Female cartoon villains define transgression. We look at thin-wristed shy-smiling nice-haired female protagonists and we see what’s expected of us: wait. Be patient. Be nice. Be happy with your lot, enjoy what you’re given, and don’t look for more. Make wishes, not plans. Have animal friends, never henchmen. No one should work for you, but everyone must love you. Look soft and small and breakable, and cry with your head flung into your arms so no one has to see your puffy eyes. Be afraid that no one will ever rescue you. Be afraid that you’ll have to live your whole life without adventure ever finding you.
“What is it about French secularism’s blindspot to its own racism and misogyny? The obsession to the point of fetishism with Muslim women’s mode of dress and covering curtails the most basic of human rights – that of self-determination and freedom of expression. As Arundhati Roy so eloquently put it, coercing a woman out of the burka instead of enabling her to choose is an act of violence, humiliation and cultural imperialism. Instead of extending the hand of fraternité, Mr Lisnard and his supporters are excluding Muslims, if not pushing them into the arms of radicalisers.”
To the extent this is true of western feminists it’s also true of western libertarians. You see it in the fact that so many libertarians will go to the mat to defend people who mock the prophet Muhammad, but not those who want to express their faith. You see it in the fact that so many libertarians will go to the mat to defend a clerk’s right to fail to do her job without consequence for her faith, but not a woman’s right to dress in accordance with her values. In case you need reminding, banning clothing isn’t feminist OR libertarian. The point of libertarianism is that you get to practice the religion you want as long as you aren’t violating anyone’s rights. You don’t have to like Islam. No one cares what you like or don’t like. You do have to let people practice it. That’s libertarianism.
You NEED to read this.
The best argument I know for secularist restrictions on wearing Muslim dress on beaches (or in schools, etc) is that it’s the only feasible way to liberate women from Muslim families who would like to disobey Muslim religious strictures, but fear violent reprisals from their families if they do so– if the law says they must disobey, that gives them some cover. It would be better if we could protect those women’s right to follow their own preferences in peace without infringing the liberty of those with different preferences, but in a world where “honor” killings are a common practice socially approved by a significant chunk of the population, that may not be practicable. Coercing a woman out of a burka is a lesser evil than coercing a woman into one.
This isn’t just about Islam or burkas. Suppose the US passed a law requiring all doctors to perform abortions on request, say up to some reasonable quota per month. That would clearly violate the liberty of those doctors morally opposed to abortion. But it could plausibly increase the liberty of the many doctors who would like to perform abortions, but justifiably fear reprisals from anti-abortion terrorists. And especially for a “thick” libertarian who recognizes that not all threats of systematic violence come from the state and believes secular humanist cultural values are an important underpinning of liberty, that could be a net win.