My op-ed about Josh Hawley's book cancellation and the First Amendment

For NBC News THINK, I wrote about Senator Josh Hawley's book cancellation the First Amendment. It's my first op-ed of 2021, but hopefully not the last!

Get the scoop on the new comic book about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Over at Forbes online, I wrote about the forthcoming Devil's Due comic book about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez titled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: New Party Who Dis? I interviewed the founder of Devil's Due and two contributors and even have an exclusive sneak peek at the comic! Hope you'll check it out, and if you want to read seven articles a month from me about book publishing news and trends, follow me at Forbes (make an account at Forbes.com and then click that link and the "Follow" button under my name and select your preferred frequency.

Cory Booker's Tweets with a stripper (yes, I'm voting for him)

My latest Medium piece is titled "I Don’t Care That Cory Booker Tweeted With a Stripper, I’m Still Voting for Him" - that pretty much says it all, though there is a bit in there about a job offer for stripper Lynsie Lee I found interesting. If you like it, I once again ask that you click "recommend" at the bottom - I'm a huge fan of the site and want to keep writing for them! You can also leave notes on the piece, whether you agree or disagree with me. Thanks.

Bloggers wanted for Best Sex Writing 2013 virtual book tour

Want a free copy of Best Sex Writing 2013 and to join the conversation about sexuality and culture? Sign up to be part of the virtual book tour. Your blog can be about anything, as long as you agree to post on your assigned date about the book. You'll get a copy (print or ebook) and I'll link back to you. Interested? Email bestsexwriting2013 at gmail.com with "Tour" in the subject line and your URL and name and mailing address (for print copy) or that you want an ebook copy and Cleis Press will be in touch about your date and posting instructions. For those who just want to read the book, it's for sale right now on Kindle and Nook and will be in print very soon.



Foreword Carol Queen
Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When on Fire Island… A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck: The Fourth-and-Long Virgin Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Submissive: A Personal Manifesto Madison Young
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neal Gabler

Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

As editor of the Best Sex Writing series, and a writer about sex in both fiction and nonfiction forms, I’m privileged to hear from lots of people about sexuality, whether asking for advice or wanting to talk about the big issues of the day, whether that means attacks on birth control or Fifty Shades of Grey. The biggest thing I’ve learned, though, is pretty basic: we are all always learning. You can indeed get a PhD in sexology, like foreword author and contributor Carol Queen did, but that doesn’t mean you simply give up and assume you know everything about the wide world of sexuality and sexual variation. You can’t; it’s impossible.

Part of why sex writing is so vital is because we all have things to learn—about ourselves, and about others. While this book will not teach you how to have sex, you will learn about what motivates others in their sexual desires, whether to engage in multiple relationships, perform sex work, come out as bisexual, build increasingly advanced vibrators, or more.

I think it’s safe to say that whether this is the first book about sex you’ve ever read or the thousandth, you will learn something about what makes people tick, about sexual desire and sexual community. The latter is as important to me as the former, because it’s within the community of sex writers, educators and activists that I’ve carved out a place for myself as a bisexual, feminist, kinky sex writer. Lori Selke writes in her open letter, “Dear John,” about feeling disillusioned by the judgments being passed around her local leather community. “See, my kinky leather identity grew firmly out of my queerness and my feminism. All three of those elements are important and in some ways inseparable. It’s important to me to pursue the sort of social justice that ensures that our consensual relationships are someday entered into from a place of roughly equal societal power. Without that aim, we’re simply perpetuating oppression.” I suspect many people aren’t aware of just how committed to their ideals those in the kink and leather communities are. To assume it’s all about whips, chains, bondage and spanking is to miss the point—of course it’s about those things, but it’s also about much more.

The educational lessons here are often much more personal. When Conner Habib opens his essay “Rest Stop Confidential” with, “I was fifteen the first time I found out that men have sex in public,” I must admit that, at thirty-seven, I have only seen men having sex in public at parties specifically designed for sex. The first of many firsts Julia Serano details in “Cherry Picking” begins, “The first time I learned about sex was in fifth grade.” We are all both capable of learning more, and impacted by what we did—or didn’t—learn about sex at a young age.

Some of what you’re about to read is sad or scary or disheartening; I cannot promise you a book of shiny happy sex bouncing off every page, because that is not the world we live in. There are laws to fight against, AIDS plaguing the gay community, internalized oppression, questions that may have no answers, or multiple answers. I didn’t select these essays and articles because they purport to have all the answers.

Last year’s guest judge, the noted sexual commentator Susie Bright, when asked about The Guardian’s Bad Sex award, responded, “There is no art without sex.” I think the same could be said for the news; sex is not a topic squirreled away on the back page of the paper; it’s on the front page, in the sports section, the business section, the editorials. It’s covered in fashion magazines and newsweeklies. In Best Sex Writing 2013, hot topics include New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow’s virginity and the laws governing condom use in porn.

Sex education remains at the forefront of the news and continues to be “controversial,” though, like birth control, another political battleground of late in the United States, I would think it would be a no-brainer. Yet I can still read articles like one in Time about the Mississippi county, Tunica, with the highest teen pregnancy that is only recently getting on board with sex ed, via a law mandating it do so. “During the four years Ashley McKay attended Rosa Fort High School in Tunica, Miss., her sex education consisted mainly of an instructor listing different sexually transmitted diseases. ‘There was no curriculum,’ she says. ‘The teacher, an older gentleman who was also the football coach, would tell us, “If you get AIDS, you’re gonna die. Pick out your casket, because you’re gonna die.”’”

We should not be reading articles like this any longer, but we are, and it’s not just youths who are in dire need of sex education. Just today, I received an email from an acquaintance asking if I could chat because, “I have found a wonderful woman with whom i have begun to explore areas of my sexuality i really have never followed through on or even verbally fantasized about.” He has questions. So do many people, but they don’t know where to turn.

This book doesn’t purport to have all the answers, and is likely to raise many discussions and propose multiple answers to questions about open relationships, prostitution, sexual orientation and other topics. It cannot take the place of talking about sex—with your lovers, friends, parents, children, neighbors and coworkers. Those shouldn’t be the same conversations, but they can exist, and by making sex a topic we don’t shy away from, we start to educate ourselves about what others are thinking, feeling and doing. So I hope that you won’t read this book and keep it tucked away on your bookshelf (or e-reader); while you are more than welcome to do so, I hope you will introduce some part of what you’ve read into a conversation, take it off the page and into real life. You will very likely learn something, and that is a process that can easily snowball; there’s never an end, because it’s a lifelong process, one that I look forward to every day.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

I wrote about The Wire cast Obama fundraiser on Martha's Vineyard

In addition to my Jawsfest writeup, I covered the Martha's Vineyard Obama fundraiser featuring the cast of The Wire for Daily Intel.

My Mitt Romney David Koch Hamptons fundraiser protest article

On Sunday, I was in the Hamptons covering the Mitt Romney David Koch fundraiser protest for The New York Observer. If you like the piece, please pass it on. It's my third article for them, and the first that's not about sex in some way. It was HOT out but now I can say I've walked barefoot on the beach for a story! There's also a slideshow of photos I took.

What readers are saying about Best Sex Writing 2012

The reviews are in and I figured I'd let you take their word for what's inside Best Sex Writing 2012 (click to read my introduction), aka the book of mine I'm most proud of and think is, ahem, the best. I know that's totally subject but I'm just super excited about this book and the readings we're planning - so far on tap are readings in Portland, Oregon and Seattle and San Francisco and NYC. Also stay tuned for more contributor videos (I'm working on those) and in non-Best Sex Writing news, I'll be in Milwaukee doing an erotic writing workshop February 9th.

And thanks to everyone who participated in the BOGO offer! Stay tuned for more special offers.

But what I wanted to share were these reviews, which I think get at the heart of what the book's all about:

Five Stars - Fascinating, Engaging, Thorough, January 6, 2012
By mjims
This review is from: Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture (Paperback) The 2012 edition of "Best Sex Writing" is one of the most thorough compilations of journalistic writing I have ever encountered. Rachel Kramer Bussel and Susie Bright have done an excellent job of selecting pieces that address the year's most newsworthy events, as well as issues that I knew nothing about until I read this collection. Pieces that I was surprised to find in this collection (and are well worth reading) in particular were: a discussion of a ballot initiative to ban circumcision in San Francisco; a thorough examination of the John Ensign sex scandal, and the involvement of current presidential candidate Rick Santorum therein; an article comparing and seeking out the correct definitions of `premature ejaculation'; a fascination explanation of conflicting age of consent and child pornography laws. The list goes on and on. Also included are a large number of personal essays, both humorous and profound. Among them are an open letter to butch lesbians from the point of view of a femme, a touching treatment of sex at 66 years old, and a user's manual for a particularly complicated penis.

This collection is essential reading for anyone interested in the current state of the American sexual landscape. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is worth reading cover to cover; every piece in this book has something to offer for the curious and open-minded.

Provacative, bold, and well-curated, January 5, 2012
By Victoria Bloom
This review is from: Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture (Paperback) Erotic writer and anthology megaeditor Rachel Bussel and smart-ass sex activist Susie Bright have pulled together an intelligent, spirited, and thought-provoking collection of political and personal essays about sex in America today that makes you want to read in a private place. Not because you are embarrassed to read a sex book in public or because you're going to be aroused, but because you're going to want to talk back out loud to the strong-voiced authors of these no holds barred commentaries, either to yell "Hell, yeah" (for me, that was Camille Dodero's "Guys Who Like Fat Chicks"), argue back with the author (Marty Klein's "Criminalizing Circumcision"), cry a little (Joan Price's "Grief, Resilience, and my 66th Birthday Gift"), or just giggle outrageously (Susie Bright's "Why Lying About Monogamy Matters"). Tough topics like rape, sex work, queerness, STIs, sex and the military, and statutory rape get unapologetic coverage here, and though you won't agree with everything you read here, you'll certainly find that each and every essayist has been eloquent about saying their piece. Overall, an excellent collection, and worthy of the title "Best Sex Writing". I'll follow this series in the future!

Intelligent and Satisfying Writing about Sex (At Last!), January 4, 2012
By Donna G. Storey "writer and Japan scholar"
It seems every headline you see online or in the grocery store is a sexual come-on, promising the top ten secrets for superstud bedroom techniques or the inside scoop on the latest Hollywood nanny sex scandal. Invariably these articles fail to deliver anything but shallow clichés, leaving me to wonder why I wasted my time. Best Sex Writing 2012 is different. I could barely put the book down, and its power still lingers. The articles always made me think and often brought me to tears. Just as promised, the editors' wide variety of offerings--from humorous to poignant to fiery truth-telling--brilliantly reflect the complexity of sexuality today. And like all the best writing, these articles allowed me to empathize with people whose experiences are different from my own, yet also realize that these issues directly impact me. Joan Price's powerful memoir about the vitality of sex in our later years should be an inspiration to us all as we grow older. Hugo Schwyzer's unforgettable piece on the male desire to be wanted brought a new understanding of how both sexes are deprived of full personhood in our current sexual climate--and resulted in a very touching conversation with my husband. The fascinating variety of male desire, the dangers of shoddy journalism, the horrifying injustice around sexuality in our legal system, it's all here. I could go on and on with examples, but I'll conclude by saying I was very, very glad I read this book and would recommend it highly to anyone craving a thoughtful, provocative treatment of sexuality in our time.

sexy, powerful, hilarious & thought-provoking, January 3, 2012
By J. Kelley (Macon, Georgia)
I could not get enough of this book: exceptional writing, intimate conversations, and mind-expanding viewpoints on familiar controversial topics. A lot of sex scandals break all the time ... we're used to them by now. But these stories explain how the emotional hype and judgment over sex scandals keeps everyone from exploring sexuality safely and pleasurably. And in between serious stories about political cover-ups, careless and criminal language used in reporting, and criminalizing teen sexuality, there are stories that make you laugh, smile, feel sexy and dream about how great sex can be. Adrian Colesberry's piece is NOT to be missed. And "Love Grenade" by Lidia Yuknavitch was probably the hottest story I've read all year.

This anthology opens the door for more honest discussions around sexuality -- if we could talk more about the emotions, laws & the gray areas of sexuality, it wouldn't be so easy to judge & criminalize any part of sex that scares people.

Impressive collection of the year's best, December 31, 2011
By Robert T Bakie
Typically, I'm much more of reader of stories of sex (erotica anthologies) than stories about sex, but I've really enjoyed Best Sex Writing 2012 as evidenced by last night's speed read through it.

I guess I like to focus on the happy side of sex, without worrying about how someone's hang-ups somewhere are making someone's else's life miserable and so on. That's a pretty short-sighted view, I'll admit, and this book has plenty of content that doesn't fit that view at all. From the funny and honest "Adrian's Penis: Care and Handling by Adrian Colesberry" to Rachel Kramer Bussel's story on Sexting, it covers a lot of ground. Some stuff I'd caught as the year went on and some I'd missed out entirely.

Basically, it's a great book if you're any kind of sex geek, which, apparently, I am. :)

Eye-catching, informative, funny, entertaining, and sexy...best writing indeed, December 29, 2011
By Sam Chupp "sambearpoet"
This review is from: Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture (Paperback) I tend to read collections such as this in a non-linear format, thumbing through the book until something catches my eye. Well, every piece featured in this book edited by Rachel Kramer Bussell and selected by Susie Bright has its own eye-catching hook. My empathy was aroused reading Amber Dawn's butch/femme memoir in "To All The Butches I Loved Between 1995 and 2005: An Open Letter about Selling Sex, Selling Out, and Soldiering On," realizing that I have heard similar regrets from vanilla, straight folk. The cold terror of a pre-Don't Ask, Don't Tell Navy was made clear in "An Unfortunate Discharge Early in my Naval Career" by Tim Elhajj - which just makes me even more glad for DADT's repeal. There are humorous pieces as well: Love Grenade by Lidia Yuknavitch made me laugh at its sheer honesty and ebuillience about young lesbian road trips, Adrian's Penis: Care and Handling by Adrian Colesberry was gentle and sweet and funny in a sympathetic manner. There are topical pieces, explications of complex subjects like elder sex and child pornography and writings of slices of life in the Latina Drag community and the New York Meat Packing District gay leather community.

I enjoyed reading the work of so many curated for my attention and I am now left wishing it were 2012 and I could start to read the best of 2013.

A sexy, cute and thoroughly engaging read!, December 29, 2011
By Patrick M. Whitehurst "Whitehurst"
This review is from: Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture (Paperback) Rachel Kramer Bussel gauges hot blood with the accuracy of a thermometer. She's edited more sexy anthologies than almost anyone in the erotic literary scene. And she proves herself a true queen of the sexual word with her non-fiction effort - a smart collaboration with famed erotic author and "sex politician" Susie Bright. Bright chose the journalistic stories collected in the volume and penned a laugh out loud introduction that helps set the tone of the book. "Best Sex Writing 2012" counts as a marker in the world's sexual evolution, indicating the flavor and tempo of the planet's lustful ambitions at this particular point in history. Containing a number of non-fiction stories, some humorous, some sad, many sexy, the book ramps up society's sexual discourse to a new level, beginning with Amanda Marcotte's take on the SlutWalk and ending with Kevin Sampsell's hilarious "Pottymouth," the collection covers everything from transgender latinas, political sex scandals, religion and sex, dating with STDs and much more. I thought it would take me at least a week, with a rum and Coke in hand, to read the book. Instead it took only two nights. Lots of hot fun here.



Order Best Sex Writing 2012:

Amazon

Kindle (out January 10th - pre-order now)

BN.com

Nook (out January 17th - pre-order now)

Powell's

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore

Cleis Press

I'm thankful for Billy Bragg

I must admit I'm more of a sucker for Billy Bragg's love songs (check out Mary Lou Lord's gorgeous cover of "Ontario, Quebec and Me," which always gives me chills), and he picks some amazing collaborators (Wilco, Kirsty MacColl, etc.), but I truly love that he doesn't make a distinction. Well, maybe that's not quite right, but more that there are his political songs and his love songs and his brain and heart and talent all are there, in all of them (see "Sexuality, below"). And there's something so deceptively simple, or maybe just simple, about a man and a guitar.

Via Wikipedia:

I would then say that I am Mr. Love and Justice, and to check out the love songs. That’s how I capture people. People do say to me, “I love your songs, but I just can’t stand your politics.” And I say, “Well, Republicans are always welcome. Come on over!” I would hate to stand at the door, saying to people, “Do you agree with these positions? If not, you can’t come in.”

Visit his website for the lyrics to this new version of "Waiting for The Great Leap Forwards."



Here he is talking about writing political songwriting (description via YouTube):

Visited London occupation to run a workshop on song writing. The Bank of Ideas is situated on Sun Street, Hackney in an abandoned office block purchased several years ago by the bank UBS. It is an enormous space complete with a 500-seater lecture hall. It has been opened to the public for the non-monetary trade of ideas to help solve the pressing economic, social and environmental problems of our time.

New documentary: The Promise of New York

Official blurb:

A blogger turned stand-up comic, an obsessive political gadfly and a high-school math teacher compete against each other and arch rival incumbent Michael Bloomberg for the post of New York City mayor. As these ordinary citizens take politics into their own hands, The Promise of New York explores the meaning of democracy and the identity of a city with hilarious irreverence and thought-provoking sensitivity.

See more at www.thepromiseofnewyork.com

And, um, full disclosure...I'm dating one of the stars of this movie! Which is how I found out about it.

The official bumpter sticker of Tasting Him

At least I have something to amuse me while I'm in editing hell mode, where I'm too tired to do...much of anything. I cannot wait to be done. Really, really can't.

So glad it's Friday, seriously. This is totes the official bumper sticker of my book Tasting Him: Oral Sex Stories. From the brilliant, twisted mind of Alex Balk, who I watched the 2004 election with at Marion's (feels like SO long ago), at Radar.

Sexualizing Sarah Palin

Since I'm poised to do just that (soon! I promise, just working out the technical kinks), I read these pieces very eagerly, both very smart critiques:

Violet Blue's latest San Francisco Chronicle column is called "No More Palin Porn, Please:"

But the unending tide of Palin porn seems to me to be much more than pointing at a candidate and saying, heh, I saw her play flute in a bikini. Sexist? Too simple an answer -- Palin's platforms are sex-negative, and they were made for walking all over your rape kits, gay marriage and science-based sex education in public schools. She hunts and makes a lot of babies; this bitch is a fertile dominatrix. She's a powerful woman because of her virility, so you can't take it away by making her more sexual. The porning of Palin is more than attempts to strip a female politician of power by sexualizing her; in fact, it's had the opposite effect and her party hasn't backed away from the oozing MILFiness, something we noticed when watching the debates at The
Hat Factory and everyone remarked that Palin was indeed showing some cleavage for the first time as a nominee. I think, perhaps, that we are a nation as depressed as our economy. Everyone knows that in chronic depression, one of the first things to go is the sex drive. We must not let it destroy us. As Americans, we deserve better porn. If a MILF shall lead us, it will be to the dry desert of celibacy. Trust me. I've seen Palin porn.

And she links to something I have no idea how I missed:

Susie Bright on "Why Palin's Sex Life Matters:"

We simply haven't had an overtly fecund, butch, straight-woman sex symbol in so long. She's like Annie Oakley with her six-shooters and her polar bears, her caribou dressing and her moose stew. She's got five kids hanging off of her, and you're like "Hells bells, that woman can fuck in the morning, go out for a long hike on the Arctic tundra, take down a polar bear or two, and be back in time to pass some new creationist legislation." She just kicks ass. I mean, she's just so — mmm. So like a powerful woman. It's exciting, isn't it? I think for every woman who's been appalled at her politics and the platform she's been running on — and this certainly includes me — well, there's this little part of me that's thinking "Oh, If only she was on my side. If only I could kidnap Sarah Palin and just lick her pussy for a few hours, I think we could just work this whole thing out." Do you know how many lesbians are discussing this? My friend Marga Gomez, who's a fantastic dyke comedian, has this line where she says "Sarah Palin? She's having my baby. And we've already named her Drill." If only we could move her political viewpoint around just a little.

image via Violet Blue on Flickr

"FIRE! FIRE! FIRE" - brilliant Sarah Palin spoof

Simply brilliant!



"FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" by Eliza Jane Schneider and Eric Schwartz (who did the brilliant "Clinton Got a Blowjob" song/video).

Hack the Election

Well, kinda. But do go read Jackson's How to Maximize Your Influence in the Election.

Also, all his other posts at Lifehacker, where is now writer, even though he's a self-professed slacker.

Watch the debate and see political art by Molly Crabapple!

CLik here for more details.

Alaska Woman Reject Palin rally

A bunch of photos were forwarded to me via Barbara L. Franklin from an Alaska Women Reject Palin rally last weekend. I need to track down the name of the woman who passed these on, but her note was included at the end:

[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you've been doing the math yes, The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.

Sara Benincasa as Sarah Palin

The awesome Sara Benincasa (co-host of Cosmo Radio's Get in Bed show, which I was on last night) as Sarah Palin, the first of many vlogs, which were recently featured in Newsweek. Also check out her blog and her comedy show Family Hour with Auntie Sara. I did it and have been in the audience; it's a one-of-a-kind comedy show because it's not just comedy, it's for all kinds of family stories.



EVERY SATURDAY @ 9:00 PM
Ochi's Lounge - Downstairs at Comix
353 W. 14th Street
www.comixny.com | 212.524.2500

Sarah Palin cupcake

See more political (and other kinds) cupcakes at Cupcakes Take the Cake

Sarah Palin cupcake by The Haphazard Gourmet Girls

Possibly the best cupcake quote ever

I just loved this quote from my interview with the owners of Chicago's Swirlz Cupcakes:

“My fantasy catering event – Barack Obama being inaugurated as president,” says Margot.

I'm actually still undecided - more on the crazy fucked up bordering-on-most-offensive-"feminist"-thing-I've-ever-read NOW-NYC memo soon (you'll never think of the phrase "psychological gang bang" in the same away again; thanks Jezebel for the excellent post alerting me to it). I will say that Hillary joked that every year on her birthday, everyone would get a cupcake, on Letterman (click here to watch video).

Racialicious on Gloria Steinem, pitting race against gender

Racialicious on Gloria Steinem, pitting sex against gender (via Funky Brown Chick on Twitter)

But the contradictions on how to consider Senator Clinton’s gender seem to run deeper – all the way to the Senator’s campaign. Senator Clinton repeatedly cites the change that will be affected by electing a female president, but then dismisses the charge that she is playing the “gender card”. (By contrast, not once has Obama said that he should be elected because he would be the first Black president). Senator Clinton claims to be the candidate of feminists (indeed, Steinem herself basically questions the gender authenticity of young women for daring to choose a male candidate over Senator Clinton – going so far as to suggest that “women are the one group that grows more radical with age”) and yet Clinton expected to ride the wave of her husband’s accomplishments all the way to the White House. And in case we found out that she actually had very little to do with those accomplishments, she and her husband have carefully chosen to exclude White House documents pertaining to the First Lady’s role during the Clinton years from the public eye.

Ultimately, however, Steinem’s piece (intentionally or unintentionally) draws a line in the sand between people of colour and women, essentially disregarding the everyday racism faced by Black and Brown people, and claiming the Oppression Olympics gold medal for women. Further, by casting the debate as between Black men and White women (despite her imperfect creation of Achola Obama), Steinem renders the woman of colour invisible, reaffirms the binary Black-White paradigm of race, and demands we take a side in the epic battle between race and gender. Is it no wonder, then, that women of colour have long felt alienated by feminists like Steinem? Where do we fit when we’re being asked to choose between Obama and Clinton as a metaphor for race versus gender? And how are we supposed to react when an incorrect choice labels us as “less radical”?

Political - strike, war, abstinence, SF mayoral election

Amy Sohn on the WGA Strike:

Despite the media’s stereotyping of us, half of the WGA members are unemployed at any given time. This means they don’t make the minimum for health benefits and many of them are hence uninsured. Many of them have families, which means their kids aren’t insured. We are not a rich union. We are a middle-class union. This was actually the point that children’s TV writer Sarah Durkin was trying to say when Carr interviewed her at 30 Rock...

Marc Cherry, whom I interviewed for the Desperate Housewives tie-in book I wrote, lived off residuals from “The Golden Girls” for years before he created what went on to be a bonanza for ABC. As described eloquently on “The Brian Lehrer Show” last week by screenwriter Adam Brooks, residuals are an investment in the future of a writer, an acknowledgment that the money that tides us over between projects will allow us to write things that may be more successful than anything we have written before. One of the AMPTP’s first proposals was to eliminate residuals. A horrifying rollback.

Vince Beiser interviews writer/director Paul Haggis for The Progressive about the strike, the war, and his new film, In the Valley of Elah:

Q: Let’s talk about In the Valley of Elah. You started trying to make it in 2003 and had a hard time.

Haggis: Right after we invaded Iraq, I put a sign on my lawn that said “War is not the answer.” That sign was either defaced, ripped up, or stolen every week. I had to replace that sign twelve times. When I ran out, I put up a sign that said “We support our troops, bring them home now.” That one disappeared about ten times. And that’s in Santa Monica, one of the most liberal communities in America!

Even here at that time, every second car had the American flag on it, every second car had a bumper sticker that said “Support Our Troops.” None of those bumper stickers meant “support our troops.” They meant, “support the war.” It was stunning to see how thin the veneer of progressiveness is in this community. When we’re threatened, it’s very easy to appeal to our basic natures.

The radical rightwing pegs Hollywood as a leftist town, which is completely wrong. There are a lot of actors, writers, and directors who talk a liberal agenda of some sort . . . but all the studio bosses, for as long as there have been studios, have all been as far rightwing as you can possibly imagine. And now all the studios are owned by multinational corporations, which are not usually bastions of the left. So all the actors, writers, and directors—or at least a great majority of them—live in fear because we’re all insecure, we all want that next job, we all want to be loved, and we don’t want to piss off some studio chief who won’t hire us for the next movie. That’s why you hear this story that we’re all on the left, but when there’s a demonstration, you count how many actors actually come out. If there’s a half dozen, that would be a big day.

Here's the preview, and there's more on YouTube:



"Still a Puritan Nation? Most '08 Candidates Support Abstinence Education," Alison Bowen, Alternet

An end to abstinence-only sex education was at the top of the list when 600 self-described feminists met in New York recently to rally their ranks and craft a platform for U.S. presidential lobbying.

Abstinence-only -- for which President Bush proposes a 2008 budget of $204 million -- has avid supporters and wary detractors, who want to find a more comprehensive way to present sex education.

In March, three members of Congress introduced a bill to authorize federal funds for states' comprehensive sex education that offers menu of options from abstinence to contraception and abortion. The Responsible Education About Life Act -- or the REAL Act as the bill is known -- was sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Annalee Newitz on why she voted for Josh Wolf in the San Francisco mayoral election:

There were the sure-to-fail futures represented by good candidates
with no hope of winning, and then there was the dark future of creepy
joke candidates like Chicken, whose mockery of the voting process was
probably part of why so few people turned out for the election. Why
vote when running for mayor had been turned into a joke?

So I voted for the best possible future I could find, the future in
which, eventually, smart young people who care about freedom of
expression online become mature politicians who understand new
technologies and the socioeconomic conditions associated with them.

Maybe Wolf won't grow into that politician, but somebody like him
will. And that person will probably understand things like how to
organize Internet access for low-income city residents and why
entertainment companies shouldn't be allowed to sue people for
hundreds of thousands of dollars because they've been file-sharing.
That person will also understand how easy it is to violate people's
privacy online and will push for regulations that prevent companies
and governments from dipping into private digital data supplies.