NOW President asks Alan Simpson to Step Down

Here is a copy of NOW's press release:

NOW President Terry O'Neill delivered on a promise when she presented Fiscal Commission Co-Chair Alan Simpson with 1,500 baby bottle tops this morning and promptly asked him to step down from the commission.

After Simpson insulted those who depend on Social Security -- many of them older women, children and people with disabilities -- by referring to the program as "a milk cow with 310 million tits," NOW came up with its "Tits for an Ass" campaign. The organization put out a call to its supporters, and they responded enthusiastically with donations to help buy baby bottle nipples in bulk to give to Simpson.

"We needed to send him this message in person, and we wanted to make it memorable," said O'Neill. "We can't have someone with obvious animosity toward women and seniors making important decisions on Social Security. This commission is supposed to be developing ways to reduce the national debt, which, by the way, has nothing to do with Social Security. But Mr. Simpson is bent on weakening a federal program that prevents many women retirees from living in deep poverty."

Women make up the largest group of elderly who live in poverty, and a cut in Social Security or raising the retirement age will only make things worse. Throughout their lives, women on average are paid less then men; in addition, they often work at part-time jobs or take extended leave from the workforce to raise children. As a result, women are less likely to have pensions, investments or life savings, making them extremely vulnerable in retirement.

"A cut to Social Security is a cut to the middle class. Mr. Simpson should know that the middle class is in a precarious position in this country, with millions in danger of falling into poverty," said O'Neill. "Asking women -- heck, asking anyone! -- to accept a cut in their Social Security benefits or to continue working into their 70s is no way to reduce the national debt, and it certainly is not the answer to strengthening the system."

O'Neill concluded: "Since it is clear that Mr. Simpson does not intend to step down from the Fiscal Commission, NOW will continue to urge President Obama to remove the Social Security foe from his influential position. And we will continue to educate women's rights and economic justice supporters about the threats to Social Security and what is at stake."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows how feminism is done ... Again

As if anyone needed another reason to admire Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dahlia Lithwick provides it in this excellent article.

Anyone who didn't already believe Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be fashioned of pure steel was reminded of the fact Friday night as she delivered a speech to a group of lawyers and judges that was meant to have been delivered by her husband. Martin Ginsburg had been invited to deliver his remarks at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' conference in Colorado Springs, Colo., but he died in late June of metastatic cancer. As Ginsburg explained Friday evening, "He had his speech all written out." And so she read it—with a handful of interpolations—in its entirety to several hundred rapt listeners.

The speech, "How the Tenth Circuit Got My Wife Her Good Job," described the only case the Ginsburgs ever worked on together—a 1972 tax case called Moritz v. Commissioner, challenging the denial of a dependent-care deduction allowed to women, widowers, or divorced men but denied to a single man who was caring for his ailing mother. According to Martin Ginsburg, as read by his widow, in the 1960s, while he worked as a New York tax lawyer, she toiled as a law professor at Rutgers. And when he entered her adjoining study in their apartment one night—"her room was bigger"—with a report on the Moritz case and the excited suggestion that she might represent the pro se litigant on appeal, his bride apparently retorted, "I don't read tax cases." She read it, and they took the case.

My favorite sentence in the article has to be where Lithwick says:

"Those who like to believe they have
picked themselves up by the bootstraps
sometimes forget that they wouldn't
even have boots were it not for the
women who came before."

When I first came to Washington, it was to work at the headquarters of the National Organization for Women. We would sometimes get calls from right-wing women, questioning our work. I would often say to them: "Most of the rights you take for grated today are due to the hard work of feminists -- like the one's in NOW -- who fought for them on your behalf. And while you may not appreciated it, you still benefit from their struggle."

Thank you Justice Ginsburg, for paving the way.

Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women

I actually like my title better: "Why I Love Jimmy Carter!"

Ria Misra, at Politics Daily, writes:

After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision "unavoidable" after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be "subservient to their husbands." Said Carter in an essay in The Age:

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

And, later:

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

After watching everyone from philandering politicians to Iran's president taking a sudden look heavenwards when the roof starts to come down on them, it's refreshing to see Carter calling out the role of religion in the mistreatment of women.

President Jimmy Carter deserves our praise for speaking out. Now, when are other men of faith going to follow suit?

The Great License Plate Debate

The last time the Supremes debated license plates it was to decide if New Hampshire could force George Maynard to drive around with plates containing the state's "Live Free or Die" motto.

Usually when we think of courts and license plates it's about the Court deciding whether someone will have to MAKE license plates, so I guess this was a good thing ... or was it?

Proponents of "Choose Life" license plates, often accused of making everything a 'federal case', are taking their case to the Supreme Court.

No one is forced to use the plates, which are available in 19 states and seem intended to appeal to those who oppose abortion rights. They are so-called specialty plates, which are available for an extra fee to people who want to express themselves through their license plates.

Florida started the trend in 1987, when it sold a specialty plate to honor the astronauts who had died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster the year before. It raised millions of dollars for a memorial, and these days the Web site of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles offers many other options, including license plates celebrating Nascar, various sports (“Play Tennis!”) and parents who “make a difference.”

It also sells, for $20 extra, a bright yellow plate with the cartoonish faces of two smiling children and the words “Choose Life.” The state says it raised more than $33 million from specialty plates in the 2007 fiscal year and turned most of the money over to private groups.

The “Choose Life” plate generated about $800,000 that year. A state law requires that the money raised from those plates, after administrative expenses are deducted, be given to adoption agencies. The law forbids sharing the money with groups offering “counseling for or referrals to abortion clinics.”

Now this is where I have a problem with these plates. If a state wants to offer speciality plates as a way to increase revenue, then so be it. I'm not crazy about it, but I could maybe live with it if the money were being used to pay for school books or computers, feed or shelter the homeless, or for the general well being of a community -- you know, for things like roads and stuff.

But I draw the line at making a state agency -- in this case the Department of Motor Vehicles -- merely a funding stream for causes I don't necessarily agree with. I think domestic terrorist groups like the "right to life" organizations proposing these plates need to find some other way to fund their fake agencies/clinics -- or close their doors.

It has been a long trip from “Live Free or Die” to “Choose Life.” The old case involved the question of what the government may force people to say. The new one asks what it must allow people to say.

I think it's more than just about what people are allowed to say. I think it's also about using the government as a funding vehicle (all puns intended) for organizations that would like nothing more than to drive some women over a cliff.

12-year-old Girl Throws Perfect Game Against Boys

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

You go grrl! Let's start the weekend with some good news!

Mackenzie Brown is the first girl in Bayonne Little League history to throw a perfect game. She retired all 18 boys she faced on Tuesday.

There are no official records of how many perfect games are thrown per season. Little League Baseball in Williamsport, Pa., estimates only 50 to 60 occur each year. No one knows how many have been thrown by girls.

Brown says she knew she had something special going in the fourth inning and just tried not to mess up.

She'll get to throw out the first pitch at Citi Field on Saturday when the New York Mets host the Washington Nationals.

Violence: Connecting the Dots

Francie Billotti-Wood and her three children are dead. So is her husband, Christopher Wood. This is a tragedy that never should have happened.

Despondent over excessive debts, Christopher Wood shot and then nearly decapitated his family before turning a gun on himself.

The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.

In one of six notes he left scattered about the rented house in Middletown, Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings. [...]

At a news conference, authorities released a raft of details about the killings, describing a scene more ghastly than what had been known since the bodies were discovered Saturday morning.

According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once.

After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun. [...]

Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.

"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.

Regular readers know that when tragedies like this happen I often suggest the man simply kill himself and leave his family alone. If a man is so unhappy (for whatever reason) and he sees no way out, why does his family have to pay such a high price?

The particulars of this case point to the need for change in at least three areas:

1) We MUST have affordable and readily available mental health care in this country. People under this much stress need help.

2) We MUST change our culture to embrace feminism. Rigidly defined roles contributed to why Christopher Wood must have felt he could not admit to his family his "failure" to provide for them.

3) We MUST change the culture of greed that fueled our current economic meltdown. Greed on the part of CEO's, bankers, and Wall Street investors whose actions have this country on the brink of another great depression.

This may seem oversimplified, but we must start somewhere to end violence against women and children.

Bill Bennett and Rick Davis on: What Liberal Feminist Think

Taylor Marsh had this to say:

What liberal feminists like me think about Sarah Palin is that she would not only set our civil rights back a century if she had her way to enact policy, but that she's not up to the standards for which we've fought for two centuries. One word: equality. This means that we're treated equal to men, paid equal to men, not because we're "attractive... confident... or happy," but because we earn it through our skill sets and preparedness.

Go Taylor!

.

How Feminism Works

Melissa McEwan has an excellent post "How Feminism Works" at Shakesville. A must read.

Must Read Posts from the Blogosphere

Important Announcement
by Melissa at Shakesville

It's Right There in the Name
by Kate Harding at Shakesville

I Am Shakespeare's Sister
by Melissa at Shakesville

What you don't know CAN hurt you
by PortlyDyke at Shakesville

Today's Zen Moment in Misogyny
by chicago dyke at Corrente

Hillary Supporter Elton John Condemns U.S. Misogyny
by egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women

Actually, the entire home page is excellent.

Egalia asks the question: "Where is the feminist leadership?"

I think it's an excellent question. Where is NOW, the Feminist Majority, and other national feminist organizations? Why are they not organizing protests of MSNBC and other media outlets? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Celebrating Susan B. Anthony Day

Okay, everyone else has the day off to celebrate "Presidents Day" -- but at Yikes we are celebrating Susan B. Anthony Day instead! For those unfamiliar with Susan B., Wikipedia offers a nice overview of this amazing woman's life:

Susan Brownell Anthony (February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to secure women's suffrage in the United States. She traveled the United States and Europe, and gave 75 to 100 speeches per year on women's rights for some 45 years. Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, New York in her house at 17 Madison Street on March 13, 1906, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Anthony traveled so extensively on behalf of women's rights that she had the train schedule for the entire country committed to memory.

In 1851, on a street in Seneca Falls, Anthony was introduced to Elizabeth Cady Stanton by mutual acquaintance, as well as fellow feminist Amelia Bloomer. Anthony joined with Stanton in organizing the first women's state temperance society in America after being refused admission to a previous convention on account of her sex in 1851. Stanton remained a close friend and colleague of Anthony's for the remainder of their lives, but Stanton longed for a broader, more radical women's rights platform. Together, the two women traversed the United States giving speeches and attempting to persuade the government that society should treat men and women equally.

After the first American women's rights convention took place on July 19 and July 20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York, Anthony took the opportunity to attend and support the women's rights convention held in Syracuse, New York, in 1852. It was around this time that Anthony began to gain widespread notoriety as a powerful public advocate of women's rights and as a new and stirring voice for change. [...]

In 1869, long time friends Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony found themselves, for the first time, on opposing sides of a debate. The Equal Rights Association, which had originally fought for both blacks’ and women’s right to suffrage, voted to support the 15th Amendment to the Constitution granting suffrage to black men, but not women. Anthony questioned why women should support this amendment when black men were not continuing to show support for women’s voting rights. Partially as a result of the decision by the Equal Rights Association, Anthony soon thereafter devoted herself almost exclusively to the agitation for women's rights.

Sadly, Anthony died 14 years, 5 months and 5 days before passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Women today owe a debt of gratitude to Susan B. Anthony, and to all the women who literally worked their entire adult lives to secure our right to vote. Thank you Susan B.!