The Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show, 3/15/12

Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:18 am by Bob Cesca

Dow Closes Above 13,000; Why the Stock Market is Good for Everyone; Pennsylvania Governor’s Misogyny; Crazy New Arizona Anti-Choice Law; Free States and Anti-Woman States; Hillary Clinton and Extremists; Sarah Palin and Game Change; Bill Maher’s Mississippi Interviews; and much more! Brought to you by Bubble Genius!

CORRECTION: Urge Overkill just released an album in 2011 — their first in 16 years.

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Bubble Genius

UPDATE: Here’s the Mississippi video from Real Time:

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  • ranger11

    Holy Shit…Urge Overkill, that brings back younger and more vigorous days. Didn’t they do that Tarantino movie song? Sixteen years; that’s one way to beat the sophomore slump or one-hit wonder jinx.

  • muselet

    It is indeed astonishing that we’re re-fighting this, but conservative men do not trust women—when I’m cranky, I can easily be convinced that conservative men hate women. Certainly they don’t care about women. That’s why the Rs picked a fight against contraception and abortion: they think that the concerns of ~52% of the population can be ignored, dismissed as irrelevant. I’m more than half-convinced that they would have chosen to take a stand on this on principle, even if they didn’t think it was an electoral winner. (Now I think about it, they don’t care if it’s an electoral winner or not. What they really want is to give the current Supreme Court a shot at overturning Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut, maybe even Brown v. Board of Education and Dred Scott while they’re at it. Anything to turn back the clock.)

    Bluntly, when Righties talk about freedom, they mean economic freedom (for the 1%) exclusively. Personal freedom is meaningless to them, in large part because they think it’s fit that they have the power to control others. Tom Corbett—who deserves to lose body parts, not just his re-election bid—apparently believes the wimmenfolk shouldn’t be bothered by Pennsylvania’s revolting ultrasound law and, if they are, that it doesn’t matter. (“And he says, ‘You just have to close your eyes.’ Those are the words of a date-rapist.” Couldn’t agree more, Chez.) A President Mitt Romney wouldn’t just sign a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, he’d arrange to have a huge signing ceremony; hell, he’d hire bleedin’ FedEx Field if he needed to, so all the Republican politicians and fetus fetishists who’d want to attend could witness the big event. (A President Rick Santorum—now there’s a terrifying thought—would do all that and issue an executive order declaring the President of the United States to be Slut Shamer In Chief.)

    How any woman can vote for a R is beyond me.

    I was a little surprised by the story at TPM, too. Benjy Sarlin usually does a better job than that. However, unless this sort of nonsense becomes a habit, I’m willing to give TPM a pass. We all have off days.

    Bob, you write those books, I’ll buy them. I can’t guarantee I’d read them (family history of high blood pressure and stroke), but I’d buy them.

    “Rocktober.” Oh dear lord. I hadn’t thought of that since the ’70s, when I listened to KLOS and KMET (both stations long dead and buried). I misremember which used that idiotic portmanteau word. Jeez, stop making me feel old, you two!

    –alopecia

    • ranger11

      “Rocktober” was also used on the NY radio stations back in the early eighties. I don’t remember which ones. It seemed to be a good thing the way the deejays talked about it. I couldn’t tell the difference.

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

      Hell, alopecia, I agree with 99.9% of what you said, but I have to defer on Benjy Sarlin.

      Sarlin is a right winger if I’ve ever seen one, and that damn article was nothing that you couldn’t have found on pajamas media or drudge. And in fact, both of those sites, and a large number of other prominent RW sites, were writing about and linking to, Sarlin’s piece of shit article.

      I like TPM, but I will cease to link to them or visit them if I see just one more piece such as that.

      Adding……..Disclosure: I wrote a piece yesterday bashing Sarlin’s piece. http://www.politicalruminations.com/2012/03/tpms-obama-mangles-history-in-energy-speech-is-grasping-at-straws.html

      • muselet

        I’ve read Sarlin’s TPM pieces and they all seemed solid until yesterday. However, it seemed to me he was trying to be a bit too clever, nothing more. As I said, unless stories like this start being published regularly, I’m willing to dismiss this one as an anomaly.

        –alopecia

        • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

          The article wasn’t as bad as the title itself. But the picture he used, the title and the seriousness he imparted to the piece, were enough to make me gag.

          I hope this will be the last time he does it……..he sure got a lot of pushback from readers.

  • theronware

    This is simply more proof that the Republican Party has become a cult.

  • Emily333

    Bob, I totally agree about the Tom Corbett thing and all that, so don’t get me wrong. But isn’t it worth discussing… what is, exactly, the supposed *purpose* of the ultrasound? Isn’t it so that the woman is sort of “forced” to look at the little heartbeat on the ultrasound before she goes through with it? If so, then isn’t that what he’s referring to when he says “close your eyes”? On the other hand, if you are allowed to close your eyes or whatever, why make women submit to the ultrasound in the first place? I don’t get it. I really don’t. I thought the whole point was to make the woman realize it’s actually a little life in there, or whatever, in hopes she will change her mind about aborting. But if she doesn’t have to look …. what’s the point?

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

      The point is simply to force her to make that choice (to look or not), and in addition to shame her.

      The truth is that in the beginning, there is very little to see. Zygotes are not people.

      • Emily333

        Maybe I should’ve said, “What do THEY say the reason for it is?” Obviously they don’t say, “We’re going to do this to shame her.” But yes, I can see how just forcing her to make the choice of looking or not looking is grotesque enough. After six weeks, you can generally see a heartbeat if there is one. (I’m a mother of 3 but not an expert)

        • muselet

          The title of the bill is “The Women’s Right to Know Act,” so there’s the excuse—oops, rationale.

          Laura Bassett reported yesterday:

          Even if the woman opts to “close [her] eyes,” as Corbett suggests, the doctor will have to turn the ultrasound image toward her face, give her two signed copies of the printed image, describe the number of heartbeats per minute and tell her if that’s normal or not for a fetus of that age. She then has to wait 24 hours and bring all the signed paperwork and both ultrasound images to her abortion doctor in order to have the procedure legally, and the doctor has to repeat to her the age of the fetus.

          So, as you can see, it’s all about giving a woman information, not slut-shaming. *rolls eyes*

          –alopecia

        • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

          Really? Personally I don’t give a rat’s ass what they give as a reason. The reason itself is damn clear. The purpose is shaming. Period.

  • Emily333

    Just to be clear, I agree that the current efforts of lawmakers to control women and their bodies is repugnant. But I also think that the history of male dominating behavior is fascinating from a scientific perspective. There are anthropological reasons why men feel compelled to control women. It has something to do with the fact that only women can get pregnant and reproduce the species, but I have forgotten exactly how the explanation goes. Dominating behavior in males is hardwired in our species, presumably with some biological explanation. As our species evolved, there were all sorts of power/politics issues which were added to the biological ones as explanation for the existence of the behavior. In just the same way politics/power was so central to the evolution of Christianity (and all religions) and religion continues to be a powerful cultural influence even though the power dynamic that brought it to its current state has drastically changed ; male dominating behavior still keeps popping up in our culture over and over even though the reasons for it are no longer terribly relevant to us as a species in either the biological or anthropological sense. I don’t see it stopping, in the same way I don’t see peace on Earth happening, at least until we become a much, much more advanced race.

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

      Are you actually trying to excuse the misogynistic behavior of the right wing trolls?

      This is 2012, not 1000BC or whatever.

      • Emily333

        Hmmm. Guess you missed my first sentence. Wasn’t making excuses for anyone, and would never make any for these types. Just sayin’ … human beings are going to keep killing each other in wars, and men are going to continue to try to dominate women for some time to come. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call them on it when we see it.

        • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

          No, I didn’t miss them. But then I read “But I also think…”

          Yes, men were innately dominant in the, uh, early days of our species. And yes, that is still somewhat of a factor.

          However, humans are able to think and to determine right from wrong.

          I give men NO passes for behavior which harms women.

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

    An eye-opening overview for anyone who doesn’t understand who has abortions in the US.

    http://www.guttmacher.org/media/presskits/abortion-US/index.html

    Restricting reproductive rights, i.e., abortion, hurts families.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/XHSFQRABZ3ZJGHEGGZOLJMLS6A TracyD

    Just watched that Real Time video from Mississippi. I live in Alabama and not everybody in Mississippi is toothless rednecks like those people. There are plenty of them, yes, but it looked like she found the most redneck people she could. We have plenty of people like that in Alabama too, but the whole state isn’t like that.