Lindsay Beyerstein explains why require condom use in the porn industry. The FBI scores a couple of wins against anti-choice terrorism, and sexual harassment in the NFL creates an avalanche of victim-blaming.

Subscribe to RealityCast:
RealityCast iTunes subscription
RealityCast RSS feed

Links in this episode:

Stem cell ping pong

April arrest of anti-choice extremist making threats

Erlyndon Joseph Lo declared unfit to stand trial

Justin Moose arrested for threatening to bomb an abortion clinic

Moose caught after complaint was filed

Interview with Ines Sainz

Deadspin denounces sexual harassment

Beck mocks and blames the victim

Glenn Beck keeping the lie alive

On this episode of Reality Cast, Lindsay Beyerstein will be on to talk about OSHA, porn, and condom use.  Also, a report on the FBI’s approach to anti-choice terrorism, and a look at the apologists for sexual harassment in the wake of an NFL-related incident.

Stem cell research is being kicked back and forth in the federal courts, mostly because a single kind of wingnutty judge tried to block the funding.

• stem cell *

Let’s hope this resolves soon on the side of science.  The longer we delay getting the research into action, the farther off in the future any life or health saving benefits can be reaped.

*********

One of the issues that was of great concern when Barack Obama was elected President is that we would see a resurgence in right wing terrorism and violent revolt like we did when Bill Clinton was President.  And there’s good news and bad news on that front.  The bad news is that these fears are looking like they’re coming to pass, though most of the people grabbing headlines for being angry and saying violent things aren’t really acting on it.  But the really good news is that it seems much of the potential violence is being stopped before it happens.  This is particularly the case with anti-choice violence, which surged in the 90s, receded when Bush was President, and started back up again with the murder of Dr. George Tiller last year. 

But while it’s not getting a lot of coverage, there have been a couple incidents since the Tiller murder of anti-choice extremists being held accountable for threatening behavior.  Back in April, an anti-choice extremist was arrested in Plano. 

• terrorism 1 *

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of reading the comments on this video.  Suffice it to say, many people supported the idea of domestic terrorism in the name of forced childbirth. Though they probably didn’t think of it as “terrorism”, even though it fits the exact definition, since it’s individuals taking violent action to achieve political gains they aren’t getting through persuasion. 

The recent update on the story is that Lo has been declared mentally unsound and incompetent to stand trial.  This strikes me as a pretty good outcome for everyone involved, all things considered.  If Lo is mentally unbalanced, it’s good he’s getting help.  Meanwhile, it’s clear that he had fixated on a specific clinic, and so if he’s locked up in an institution, that offers the people who work in the clinic a measure of safety.  If you hear some of the stuff he put in his complaint, you can see why the court thought he’s incompetent. 

• terrorism 2 *

The notion that he’s going to be murdered is a big red flag, implying that he was threatening to have some kind of violent stand off with the police.  There’s a lot going on there besides just politicized misogyny.  The fact that he tipped off authorities so willingly also indicates that more was going on, but that doesn’t mean he was any less dangerous.

Incompetence doesn’t seem to be so much of an issue with a recent FBI arrest of Justin Moose. 

• terrorism 3 *

Moose indicated his affection for the Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, as well.  But even though he was super prolific on Facebook, he wasn’t doing anything like filling lawsuits at the courthouse that had threats of violence in them.  Or as far as the news reports go, he wasn’t doing anything like that.  He was arrested because the FBI got out there and did the legwork to put him away.

• terrorism 4 *

Well, let’s hope they did.  I’m glad the FBI picked this guy up and hope that this good work continues, especially in light of Moose’s threats about this being a bigger conspiracy.  Anti-choice terrorists have a long history of willingness to act, and so the FBI really better take this stuff seriously.  I’m glad to see that seems to be what’s happening. Of course, according to the Ms blog, this happened after Planned Parenthood alerted the authorities.  I really hope they’re not sitting around waiting for complaints from clinics.  They need to be taking the initiative on monitoring these would be terrorists.

**********

Insert interview

**********

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know that I’m a huge fan of the show “Mad Men”, which is an examination of the advertising industry in the golden age of the 1960s. The show is deeply interested in the changing gender roles of the time, which was the early days of the second wave of feminism.  And on a recent episode, they dealt with a problem that probably didn’t get its full day in the sun until the 90s, which is sexual harassment at work.  The office manager on the show is disliked by her much younger  male colleagues, and things come to a head between her and one in particular.

• harass 1 *

After this, things only get worse when he draws a pornographic cartoon of her and hangs it in her window to taunt her.  I bring this up, because it’s easy for those of us sitting at home to feel self-righteous about this.  We like to believe that we know better than those in the 60s, that we get that sexual harassment is bad.  We like to believe when it happens, we as a society are above suggesting that a woman deserves to have rape threats and pornographic cartoons aimed in her direction if she doesn’t dress like a nun.  But we haven’t progressed as far as we think, I realized. 

Take the open and shut case of the sexual harassment of a Mexican TV reporter named Ines Sainz.  Sainz was sent to cover a New York Jets practice, and for some reason, players and coaches thought it appropriate to harass her.

• harass 2 *

This should be a cut and dry situation.  She showed up to do a job, they treated her like crap, the NFL apologized, she accepted, that should be the end of it, right? But it never is when it comes to sexual harassment and violence, is it?  No, all of a sudden there’s this pointless discussion about whether or not she had it coming.  Even in the initial coverage, a point was made to obsess over her body and her clothes, as if it was some great scandal that a female TV personality is good-looking and wears clothes to show it off..  You get all these questions about whether she had it coming.

• harass 3 *

The implication flying around is that because Sainz didn’t prove that she belonged there the same way other female sports reporters do, she had it coming.  Luckily, there are people out there pointing out that this is crap.  The blog Deadspin they mentioned did spend way too much time giving space to this argument that tabloid journalists don’t deserve basic respect, but in the end, they said that it was wrong anyway. 

Needless to say, the old canard of what she was wearing came into play. 

• harass 4 *

Not that it matters, but she was wearing tight jeans and a white button up shirt.  But even if she was walking around in her underwear, she didn’t have it coming.  But of course, if the mainstream media is going to drop implications that she had it coming with their “questions” about what she was wearing, then you can bet the right wing media was going to turn those hints into straight allegations.

• harass 5 *

I want to draw your attention to the parallels between what Glenn Beck and his toady are saying and what the fictional harasser at the top of this segment was saying.  Which is, exactly the same thing.  What she’s wearing is immodest, she’s only in this for attention, practically insinuating that women should be thankful that they’re being harassed.  It’s about focusing on the victim, and blaming her, instead of asking if men should, you know, not harass women.  By the way, I suppose those are the Christian family values that Glenn Beck is always on about.  I hope he can point to the spot in the Bible that says that you should catcall and harass women if you think they’re not covered up with sufficient burlap before they leave the house.

**********

And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, not crazy but a liar edition.  I told you the “death panels” thing was here to stay, no matter how many facts you marshal against it.

• death panels *

Hey, I’m not saying that Glenn Beck is crazy to scream about “death panels”.  He’s crazy like a fox.  What he is is a liar.  He’s telling his largely elderly audience lies about how Obama is taking away their health care.  That’s not crazy.  It’s just factually incorrect, aka a lie.