Judge Removes Art About Domestic Violence So It Won’t Prevent Seeing Both Sides Of The Issue

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Mar 252008
 

Thanks to Ben Atherton Zeman for passing this along:

Court art removed after complaint

Photo collages on the walls of the Thurston County Family and Juvenile Court
building were taken down Monday after an Olympia resident complained they
discriminated against men.

“When you go into that court, you’re in a very vulnerable state,” Jamie Powell
said after he raised the issue Monday at the Thurston County commissioners’
public meeting. “When you go in there and see that kind of thing, how does that make you feel about your chances of being treated fairly?”

The five wood-framed collages included photos and writings about domestic
violence and wife abuse, along with a national domestic violence help-line
number at the bottom of each one. They had been on display for four years.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham said Monday he received the collages from a state official at a domestic violence summit four years ago. Wickham said he put the artwork aside because he did not feel comfortable displaying the pieces.

“I would not have put them up myself for exactly those reasons,” Wickham said, referring to concerns such as Powell’s. “We try very hard not to present the appearance of favoring one side or the other.”

Memo to the judge–are you suggesting there is a pro and con to domestic violence???

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 Posted by on March 25, 2008

FDA Bases Safe Levels of BPA (Bisphenol A) For Infants On Studies Sponsored By Makers Of (Wait For It) BPA

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Mar 242008
 

Mindboggling–If I were to knowingly feed my children toxics in this manner, I’d be writing this from somewhere within the bowels of the U.S. prison system. There simply aren’t any words for this concept that it is perfectly acceptable national policy to poison our children in order that chemical companies may profit. There is a special place in the darkest corner of hell for these people.

Press release from the Environmental Working Group:

“In response to a congressional inquiry, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admitted that it based its determination that current levels of BPA (Bisphenol A) exposure pose no health risks on two studies sponsored by the American Plastics Council (APC), the trade group that represents BPA manufacturers. One of these studies has been found to be deeply flawed by BPA experts and the other study has not been published nor has its results been made public. FDA chose to ignore data from almost 100 independent, peer-reviewed, and published animal studies that show that this chemical is toxic at very low levels of exposure. Many of these studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health. BPA is chemical component used in a number of different plastic products, including baby bottles and the lining in canned food.

“I’m not sure what’s worse — that FDA ignored almost 100 independent peer-reviewed studies expressing concerns over low-level BPA exposure or that they relied instead on 2 studies financed by the plastics lobby,” said Dr. Anila Jacob. This shows again how the industry works to influence regulators to water down the health risks posed by BPA.

An analysis by EWG Senior Scientists, Dr. Anila Jacob, MD, MPH of the FDA¹s findings can be found at http://www.ewg.org/node/26201.”

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 Posted by on March 24, 2008

Feminism Has Fought No Wars

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Mar 242008
 

As many of you well know from painful experience, one of the all-time greatest ways to create an awkward silence in almost any social situation is to walk into a room and confidently proclaim, “I’m a feminist.”  Jaws drop, people scrounge around for an appropriate reply, your date says, “I’ll call you.”  While they are standing there squirming, you might point out to them that,

“Feminism has fought no wars.  It has killed no opponents.  It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties.

Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions…for safety on the streets…for child care, for social welfare…for rape crisis centers, women’s refuges, reforms in the law.

If someone says, “Oh, I’m not a feminist,”  I ask, “Why, what’s your problem?”"

The above quote is from Dale Spender, an Australian Sociolinguist and Technology Theorist and was passed along by the wonderful women at the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

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 Posted by on March 24, 2008

IWD in Brussels

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Mar 242008
 
Reprinted with kind permission by Revolution:

March 8, 2008, International Women’s Day march in Brussels. [Photo: www.8mars.com]

More than 1,000 people, the vast majority of them women, took part in a march in the streets of Brussels on Saturday, March 8, to celebrate International Women’s Day. Women and men from Belgium, Iran, Turkey, Kurdistan and Afghanistan, as well as Nepal, Iraq, North Africa and other European countries, joined together to protest the oppression of women in all its forms, from the denial of basic rights under Islamic regimes and in other countries where women are punished for behavior not permitted by religion, to the Western countries where women have gained legal equality, to one degree or another, but are still oppressed by the system and culture of capitalism.

This march was organized by the Iranian group Karzar (Women’s Campaign for the Abolition of all Misogynist and Gender-Based Legislation and Islamic Punitive Laws against Women in Iran), in cooperation with the Belgian Left Socialist Party. It was also supported by a Kurdish group from Turkey, which joined the demonstration.

Continue reading »

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 Posted by on March 24, 2008

Uganda: The Power Of Nudity

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Mar 242008
 

From All Africa:

“Just after Matheniko MP, Abura Piriir threatened to strip naked in the House when the Land Bill is passed, the shall-strip-naked-bug now seems to have caught the women.

Addressing a press conference at Parliament on Tuesday, Pader Woman MP Judith Franca Akello threatened to mobilise Acholi women to demonstrate half-naked if the Government does not protect them from Karimojong cattle rustlers. “In Acholi culture, if a woman gets angry and exposes her breasts, it is a curse and spells doom,” she threatened.”

Sounds like an effective organizing tactic to me.

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 Posted by on March 24, 2008
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