Sensing the conservative zeitgeist that is creeping through America, South Dakota is taking the initiative to lead women’s health back into the deprivation of decades past.  South Dakota began its crusade early: in 1998, the state declared that a pharmacist may refuse to dispense emergency contraception to a woman, even if she carries a prescription for it: “No pharmacist may be required to dispense medication if there is reason to believe that the medication would be used to (1) cause an abortion; or (2) destroy an unborn child.”  Unsurprisingly, South Dakota has already banned all medical treatments related to or drawn from human cloning, in addition to banning human embryonic stem cell research.  

On March 6, 2006, South Dakota governor Mike Rounds signed a document banning almost all abortions in the state, making no exception for pregnancies that are results of incest or rape. The new law will be mired in the court systems and will be unlikely to take effect unless it is upheld by the Supreme Court. Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both conservative Justices and Bush appointees, have the potential to swing the Supreme Court into conservatism and to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973. The law is slated to be put into action on July 1st and carries a five-year prison sentence for any doctor who performs an illegal abortion.

Other states are following suit. Alan Nunnelee, a Mississippi state senator, declared, “Roe is the worst kind of law…I believe we can do better.”  He is moving to ban abortion in the state.  

Mimi Hanaoka

There’s a continuous argument in Left Blogistan about whether the Democrats should take up more religious rhetoric.  The idea is that this will make a political appeal to the white voters who have abandoned the party over the years.  Basically, this comes in three flavors.

Some say that it is a matter of saying God more, explaining political positions in terms of “values” and religious beliefs.  Voters will recognize that mainline (read moderate) Christianity is just as valid as conservative evangelicalism.  This was a widespread instant response to John Kerry losing to George W. Bush.

Others say that it should be sufficient for the left to more modestly point out that their political values are more in line with the teachings of Jesus (and other religions).  In other words, lefties are better at caring for the meek and the powerless.  The New Testament as a whole is clearly about this approach rather than a fire and brimstone moralism.

I would like to believe that one of these tactics would work.  We all admire the Catholic social worker, the Reform Jewish ACLU lawyer, and the Presbyterian activist for gay rights.  But they are not the face of activist religion in America today.

So, I have to agree with those who say that there is no point in really getting into this argument.  The people that are voting on religious grounds are not going to be swayed by a few more mentions of God and morals.  They are really supporting a conservative social order with its attendant opposition to gay rights, feminism, and the like.

Conservative Christian polemicist Thomas Reeves has it right here.  As a larger social trend, liberal religion is a first step towards no religion.  That is why these churches keep getting smaller while more moralistic brands are increasing in size and influence.

There’s no reason to attack the religious.  That would be both wrong and stupid.  But to believe that the left can co-opt this religious fervor is plain wrong.  For many years it seemed that modernity would lead to more liberal and less religious societies, and the American left imagined that Western Europe was our future.  Nobody can say whether that will still be true in the long run, but the engagement of religion in politics today is a reaction against liberalism.  It should be recognized for what it is.

Pete DeWan

On Saturday, March 4, 2006, the Bay Area community took part in the twelfth annual Urban Iditarod. The event is a lampoon celebration of the annual Alaskan iditarod, which also began on this day, where huskies and sleds are replaced by canine getups and shopping carts. Approximately twenty-five teams entered in to compete in an expedition across the San Francisco streets.

Nearly 1,000 people assembled in the Minna Street Alley some time after 10 a.m. Teams began rallying their spirits around shopping carts filled with beer, rum, vodka, and radios. Contingents distinguished themselves with creative canine identities. Other squads included the Brown Hornets, Jamaican Bobsled Team, and ESPN 8 Yocho. Shopping carts were led by a musher and powered by four pack animals. Racers utilized this vital preparation time to socialize and liquify their courage because, according to Ben Stein, a member of the Dog the Bounty Hunter Team, “There’s no ice in paradise.”

The event attracted a diverse crowd of international proportions. John Maris, a member of Dr. Hwang’s Korean National Dog Cloning Team, disembarked from Auckland, New Zealand to partake in the race. Other athletes came in from various parts of California from Sacramento to San Diego.

Hype and excitement brewed until high noon, when the Alpha Dog unleashed the teams onto Market Street’s jagged asphalt terrain. Competitors traversed perilous high-traffic intersections packed with confused shoppers and impatient drivers. Sidewalk bystanders cheered as the mob of turbulent challengers hurdled over trolley tracks and insidious potholes.

Through the eyes of the press however, the event was similar to the running of the Bulls in Pamplona.
        
After pausing in a back alley to recoup, the horde barreled through the China Town Gate heading north, howling along Grant Avenue until they reached Washington Square Park.
        
The course extended onto Powel Street in the North Beach area. Racers crossed the finish line at Fishermen’s Wharf, where all were treated to the open courtyard at Jack’s Cannery bar for parlay and praise. Amidst upscale floral arrangements in the quaint cafes along the perimeter, associates of the Iditarod raged until the spirits had been exercised.

ahodgdon

The 78th Academy Awards have come and gone and, as a show, it was okay but nothing to remember past March except that Crash derailed Brokeback Mountain to take the top prize.  Speaking of prizes, give a big round of applause to Kacie Seaman, winner of the Great Oscar Quiz and who only got two wrong answers out of the 15 regular questions.  If we could, we’d allow her to give an acceptance speech behind annoying music and then cut her off before she had time to thank her mother or agent or lawyer or dogsitter.

Anyway, here are the answers for all of those who were afraid, very afraid of trying to participate in the quiz.  Maybe next time you’ll give it a go and know that all the answers are somewhere on the Web.  You just have to dig.

The 2005 Great Oscar Quiz answers

1. What 2005 nominated actor appeared in a 1991 film that also featured an actor nominated in the same category?
ANSWER: In City Slickers, Jake Gyllenhaal played Billy Crystal’s son, and one-arm push-upper Jack Palance won Best Supporting Actor, playing a cowboy named Curly who was far from being gay though he liked redheads.  Carrot Top can be relieved both character and actor have passed on to the great movie range in the sky.

2. Which 1960 winner was Debbie Reynolds referring to when she said, “Hell, I even voted for her”?
ANSWER: Elizabeth Taylor, who won Best Actress for Butterfield 8 and who stole Reynolds’ ex-husband Eddie Fisher away from her.  Taylor would then leave Fisher for Richard Burton.

3. One of this year’s Best Picture nominees was filmed in black and white.  What was the last black and white film to win Best Picture?
ANSWER: Schindler’s List in 1993, winning a total of seven awards. The film did contain a little color — the girl in the red jacket, the ending march by Schindler’s grave —  but generally was considered a black & white film.  You have to go back to 1960 and Billy Wilder’s The Apartment for a film entirely in black & white.  Both answers would have been acceptable.

4. What star of NBC’s The West Wing performed a rendition of Proud Mary with Snow White (Eileen Bowman) on an Oscar telecast that came to epitomize the over-produced musical numbers that since have been curtailed, and what was the date on which the telecast took place?
ANSWER: Rob Lowe, March 29, 1989.

5. What 1975 winner was escorted to the ceremony by twin sons he or she had not seen since 1968?
ANSWER: Milos Forman, Best Director for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

6. What was the original category title for what is now Best Picture, used for the first three ceremonies beginning in 1927?
ANSWER: Production.  It was changed so members wouldn’t vote solely on size or logistics.

7. Walt Disney has the record for most nominations ever at 59, but what living individual (Oscar night categories only) has the most career nominations on his/her resume (45 and counting), including this year’s nominations?
ANSWER: Musical Score composer, John Williams, who failed to add another statuette this year, but I’m sure he’ll be back.

8. What presenter revealed to Joan Rivers on the red carpet before the 1994 awards that “I just got over excited in the car.”
ANSWER: Hugh Grant, escorted by his then girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley.

9. What 1946 Best Picture loser but now classic film was praised by a New York Daily News editorial saying, “It momentarily restored this reporter’s faith in human nature — quite some achievement after you’ve spent sometime in the newspaper game.”?
ANSWER: Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed.

10. What was the only television film to be adapted to the big screen and win Best Picture?
ANSWER: Marty, 1955.

11. Who is the only Oscar to win an Oscar?
ANSWER: Oscar Hammerstein II for Best Song, 1941 and 1945.

12. What film holds the record for the most nominations without a single loss?
ANSWER: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003 at 11.

13. Who was the first Best Actor nominee to be nominated for portraying another Best Actor nominee?
ANSWER: Robert Downey Jr., nominated for Chaplin, playing Charlie Chaplin.

14. Who are the only twins to win Oscars together and for what film?
ANSWER: Julius and Philip Epstein, winning Best Screenplay for Casablanca.

15. Which 2005 double-nominated individual began his/her career on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time?
ANSWER: Paul Haggis, nominated for Director and Screenwriter for Crash.  He won for Best Original Screenplay and shared the Best Picture Oscar as a producer for Crash as well.

Tie-Breaker Questions

What Oscar-winning actor, presenting at the 1994 awards ceremony, was brought to the stage by the announcer saying he is, “Unique. Original.  His nationality is Actor.”?
ANSWER: Jack Nicholson.

Who will win Best Live Action Short Film?
a) Ausreisser (The Runaway)  
b) Cashback  
c) The Last Farm  
d) Our Time Is Up  
e) Six Shooter
ANSWER: Six Shooter

Rich Burlingham

Are you sick of being told what it is that matters to you as a feminist? Do you feel moved to express your feminism and connect in a powerful way with feminists from around the world? Want to speak up and be heard?

FACING FEMINISM: FEMINISTS I KNOW is a project in which, through portrait art and words, the many different faces of feminism are visually demonstrated. The project is designed to make a statement in contradiction to the stereotype, the one-dimensional portrayal, of  feminists, that is dominant in the media. In addition to putting a more varied and representative “face” to feminism, and thus being a tool for education and advocacy, this project aims to enlarge the current dialogue about what it means to be a feminist and also to help feminists conceptualize a philosophy of feminism that works for them. It will help to de-demonize the concept of feminism.

Some feminists love wearing heels and perfume. Some don’t. Some have alternative lifestyles while some are stay-at-home mothers. Concomitant with the many things that distinguish feminists individually, there are the things that unite them: their strength and intelligence and their belief that they are entitled to equal opportunity in all spheres of life.

The project is hosted through the MNARTISTS.ORG website, distributed through the media via the magazine EMPOWERMENT4WOMEN, and curated by Annette Marie Hyder. For this series, each feminist is invited to submit a photo of her choosing and a text forum to express her feminism. Each statement is individual to each feminist, and so it shows how individual feminists interpret the freedoms that they want within their common bond.

Happy International Women’s Day!

The photoems can be viewed at EMPOWERMENT4WOMEN.ORG and at the MNARTISTS website.

Annette Marie Hyder

You have to admire Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.  His ability to make false statements without technically lying must make Bill Clinton green with envy.  Glenn Greenwald has the rundown on the NSA testimony.

Today, Gonzalez  says that that “We are aware of no other nation in history that has afforded such protection for enemy combatants.”  Now you might scratch your head at this one.  Haven’t other countries followed the Geneva Conventions?  Could it really be true that America is setting a newly humane standard for treatment of prisoners?

Well, no.  It depends on what the meaning of enemy combatant is.  The administration defined it in court filings as:

An individual who was part of or supporting the Taliban or al Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces.

We could have some fun with this.

For instance, I am aware of no other group of enemy combatants of such deeply virtuous character, with so glamorous a sense of style, so attractive in mind and body, and so dedicated to working for good in the world.

If only the U.S. is using this term and it applies only to this conflict, it’s all perfectly true.

Pete DeWan

South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds yesterday signed a document banning almost all abortions in the state, making no exception for pregnancies that are results of incest or rape. Although the measure will be an extremely restrictive one — permitting abortion only if the mother’s life is in danger — the new law will be mired in the court systems and will be unlikely to take effect unless it is upheld by the Supreme Court. Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both conservative Justices and Bush appointees, have the potential to swing the Supreme Court into conservatism and to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973. The law is, however, slated to be put into action on July 1st and carries a five-year prison sentence for any doctor who performs an illegal abortion.

For now, the 800 or so women who annually have abortions in South Dakota will be subject to the current law, itself stringent, which puts increasingly severe restrictions on abortions throughout the course of pregnancy. Abortions after the 24th week may currently only be performed to protect the mother’s health and safety.

Mimi Hanaoka