‘Right to work’ for less.

The HuffPo author states that this is unlikely to happen in other states, attributing this setback to political factors unique to Indiana; but I’m not nearly so optimistic.

Oklahoma was the most recent ‘right-to-work’ state, in 2001. More on that, from the Indianapolis Star.

While Morgan said Indiana should follow his state’s lead and adopt the law, saying it has spurred job creation, the union members told a different story.

“There is no doubt that the law has resulted in job loss and lower wages,” said Jesse Isbell, who worked for 36 years at the Bridgestone-Firestone tire plant in Oklahoma City.

That plant closed in 2006, and he and 1,400 others lost their jobs, he said, even though proponents had said the legislation was what was needed to keep jobs from leaving the state.

I feel so old.

Does anyone even know what ‘queer anti-assimilationist politics‘ refers to anymore? I’ve seen the phrase used to refer to everything from opposition to what I’ll call ‘liberal reformism’ (i.e. the idea that having more people who fit underneath the ‘LGBT’ umbrella as military members, cops, and corporate CEOs is a laudable goal) to support for more-radical-than-thou snobbery that occasionally dips over into nasty territory with classism (e.g. the assumption that working class queer people considering the financial security that military service would provide are really doing so just to be ‘mainstream’; or that a queer man who wants to marry his terminally ill partner to share health insurance gives a shit about impressing straight people with his whatevernormativity) and unexamined misogyny (e.g. ‘Families [and by extension, the largely female people tasked with maintaining them in a caregiver role] are conservative and repressive and yucky!’).

It’s something I probably would’ve felt more positively about a few years ago, but not anymore. I feel pretty thoroughly alienated from ‘the queer community’. Not from individual queer people, but from what’s usually recognized as the public face of ‘the queer community’ – pierced &/or tattooed white ‘college-queers’ under age 25 who all look & act like cookie-cutter versions of each other. Given the fact that I’m at a different life stage than these people, I don’t feel much connection with that; and most of them probably see me & think that they’re looking at a straight person to whom their totally radical shiny-awesome politics don’t apply. At one point, that might’ve made me feel sad; but now, I really just don’t care that much.

The Cult of ‘Persynality’

My present relationship with the feminist movement is akin to one’s begrudging love for their loud old aunt Mildred who has too many cats and a nasty habit of getting drunk and telling offensive jokes at family reunions – she’s often a pain in the ass; but she’s your dear old pain in the ass. So, I’m at once cognizant of the fact that most self-described feminists are middle-class white people with gross, reformist politics and that my own ideological roots are in the feminist community – this is why I’m still willing to defend feminism from attacks by whiny outsiders¹, in much the same way that you might feel OK mentioning the fact that Aunt Mildred kinda smells like mothballs & Dr. Scholl’s foot pads; but hearing random strangers who aren’t family members laugh about it sets your blood to boiling. Yes, she’s weird and rude and smells like the bottom of her bedroom closet; but she’s my weird, smelly aunt and I love her despite her flaws, so back off.

Upon meeting large numbers of feminists in meatspace during my mid to late teens and onward, I encountered a likable enough community. Yes, there was no shortage of smug, middle-class white liberals and infighting about irrelevant crap; but generally, even online discourse was what I’ll call ‘outwardly-focused’ – talking about and/or planning on-the-ground activism, heated debates on how certain business practices and government policies impact different women, anecdotes from our daily lives, and so on.

..and then, like a careless chef dropping a head of lettuce behind the fridge and promptly forgetting about it, I was completely uninvolved with the feminist community for a couple of years. Upon my return, I encountered a big old rotting mess.

Time for a ‘GayWalk’, perhaps?

From the London Evening Standard; emphases mine.:

Schoolchildren bullied over their sexuality are being advised by teachers to act “less gay,” it emerged today.

The shocking claim has been made by pupils in a report on bullying in schools in Essex.

Teenagers who are picked on for their appearance told how they were advised to wear their hair differently if they wanted to avoid being teased.

The document also reveals teachers are insensitive to the needs of bullied youngsters and claims some educators had received “very little” training in dealing with the challenges they face.

The “Anti-Bullying Work” report, based on evidence gathered from more than 250 teachers and pupils, has been compiled by Essex County Council.

The author of the report, Julie Keating, stated there was “anecdotal evidence of students being told to act less gay or to wear their hair differently as teachers felt they were making themselves a target for bullies“.

Way cooler than a ‘sexy Care Bear’ costume.

..or whatever else the corporate hacks are peddling to us these days. There’s a seemingly endless parade of ‘sexy’ Halloween costumes marketed to women – sexy fishmonger! sexy polar bear! sexy beekeeper! sexy sexbot!

Which isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with sexy Halloween costumes. There isn’t; I’m just annoyed by the uninspired, gender-normative (i.e. you’ll probably never see any ads for a ‘sexy’ Charlie Chaplin costume) selections fobbed off on women around Halloween.

This is cooler!

Plenty of the costume ideas are also hotter than any of the interchangeable “Sexy ___” selections in stores.

Josephine Baker  (costume looks simple enough, though one might have trouble finding the leopard.):

 

Some of the costume ideas almost tempt me to dress up for Halloween this year, something I never really got to do as a child.

Red Triangle Technology Collective

“What is the Red Triangle Technology Collective? More than anything else, it’s a means by which we can become independent from corporate and state-controlled communications mediums. From Facebook to Google, Verisign to Yahoo, relying on entities which are sympathetic to the ruling class for our entire network is a strategy for fail.

We need our own solutions – by us, for us, with our needs and principles in heart and mind. That’s what RTTC is.”

- Matt D. Harris, founder

In a nutshell, the purpose of the Red Triangle Technology Collective is to provide a no-cost hosting solution for radical projects and websites. This way, people who can’t afford (or would like to avoid) a commercial provider can still start developing their ideas on the web! 

Our team is worker-managed – we democratically (via consensus when possible; via voting when not) make the majority of non-technical decisions regarding the management of the co-op. This includes things like projects to provide services for, criteria for services, memberships in the co-op, and potential future expansions into new areas. Technical decisions are made by the engineering team on a consensus basis.

Red Triangle Technology Collective

Via GonzoTimes; emphases mine:

The Red Triangle Technology Collective has officially begun operating today, moving towards implementing phase 1 of the plan!  We’re currently focusing on getting our websites designed and implemented, getting a logo, and fundraising to be able to implement phase 1. We announced several weeks ago our intent to launch right here at Gonzo Times, and outlined some core principles and goals.  With the formal plan, released yesterday, we’ve refined these ideas and made public our tentative budget for phases 1, 2, and 3.

..