By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Woman tipped to replace DSK at IMF is a CBA


CBA – my sister’s initials, but also, a handy acronym for Complete Bad Ass.

The CBA in question is Christine Lagarde, the trailblazing French Minister of Economic Affairs. Lagarde, a lawyer by training, is the first woman to hold that post, and the first woman to helm a G8 economy. Before that, she was the first woman to serve as chairman of the renowned international law firm Baker and McKenzie, where she practiced international and anti-trust law. A few years ago, Forbes ranked her seventeenth among the world’s most powerful women.

She is also a former member of the French synchronized swimming team, but that probably won’t help her secure the post as the new head of the IMF. What might ...


CBA – my sister’s initials, but also, a handy acronym for Complete Bad Ass.

The CBA in question is Christine Lagarde, the trailblazing French Minister of Economic Affairs. Lagarde, a lawyer by training, is the first woman ...
By Vanessa • 13 years ago

FTW: Newt Gingrich gets glitterbombed by gay rights activist

Well sparkle me pretty, I think I’ve found my new hero.

Tuesday evening, former Speaker and anti-LGBT asshat Newt Gingrich was greeted with a bucket of sparkles over his head by a gay rights activist during a book-signing taking place before a fundraiser for the Minneapolis Family Council — an organization that is known for fighting against gay rights and marriage equality. The video is priceless:

Our boy Newt is well-known for his bigotry, most recently it being discovered that he secretly funneled $350,000 to anti-LGBT hate groups last year. Now he’s making a run for president.

While he poured bucket of glitter on Gingrich’s head, the protestor exclaimed, “Feel the rainbow, Newt. Stop the hate. Stop anti-gay politics. It’s ...

Well sparkle me pretty, I think I’ve found my new hero.

Tuesday evening, former Speaker and anti-LGBT asshat Newt Gingrich was greeted with a bucket of sparkles over his head by a gay rights activist during a book-signing ...
By Vanessa • 13 years ago

What We Missed

If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary. – Chicago Defender (November 28, 1962)

It’s Malcolm X’s birthday. He would have turned 86 if he were alive today.

Is Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill not dead after all?

Fox News had their transphobic expert doctor contend that Chaz Bono’s gender identity is a psychotic delusion — after an uproar, they removed the piece from the internets.

On Silent Choices, a film about black women’s experiences with abortion.

If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary. – Chicago Defender (November 28, 1962)

It’s Malcolm X’s birthday. He would have turned 86 if he were alive ...
By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

The rules for depicting abortion in Hollywood

At Ecosalon, Katherine Butler has written a funny, but ultimately rather sad column about the way abortion is depicted in movies and on TV. Butler observes that in pop culture, most representations adhere to a set of ten rules – commandments, if you will. For example:

If your character has an abortion, make sure she is impregnated by a really bad guy.
In The Godfather: Part II (1974), Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton) aborts a male heir to the Corleone crime family. Penny Johnsons’ aforementioned lover in Dirty Dancing is a shady rich boy who is sleeping with wealthy married women. In The Cider House Rules (1999), Rose Rose (Erykah Badu) is raped by her father. Who she then murders. Because ...

At Ecosalon, Katherine Butler has written a funny, but ultimately rather sad column about the way abortion is depicted in movies and on TV. Butler observes that in pop culture, most representations adhere to a set ...
By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Calls for British Justice Secretary’s resignation over “serious rape” comments


Image via

It all started with a proposal for a new sentencing procedure in rape trials. Earlier this week British Justice Secretary Ken Clarke proposed that would make it possible for convicted rapists to cut their sentences by up to 50% if they entered an early guilty plea – currently, the figure is 33%.

People reacted badly, and so Clarke tried to explain himself and, in the words of one UK columnist, made it worse every time he opened his mouth. The most egregious of his statements, and the one that has people calling for Prime Minister David Cameron to sack him, was this one:

Serious rape, I don’t think many judges give five years for a ...


Image via

It all started with a proposal for a new sentencing procedure in rape trials. Earlier this week British Justice Secretary Ken Clarke proposed that would make it possible for convicted rapists to ...
By Vanessa • 13 years ago

The Onion outs Planned Parenthood’s new pet project.

“Although we’ve traditionally dedicated 97 percent of our resources to other important services such as contraception distribution, cancer screening, and STD testing, this new complex allows us to devote our full attention to what has always been our true passion: abortion,” said [Cecile] Richards.

Awesome. How many bets some antis will try to take it literally?

“Although we’ve traditionally dedicated 97 percent of our resources to other important services such as contraception distribution, cancer screening, and STD testing, this new complex allows us to devote our full attention to ...
By Julia • 13 years ago

Feminist in the Pentagon, Part 1

Julia Gitis is on assignment at the Department of Defense.

“Women make crappy mentors.” Will our generation prove otherwise?

“Women make crappy mentors.” These four deflating words were said to me by Rose*, a senior policy advisor at the Pentagon. For two and a half months, I had tried repeatedly to schedule a meeting with her, until finally her assistant squeezed me into her schedule. When we met for half an hour in Rose’s mahogany office, the conversation took an odd turn.

Our meeting was going well as we discussed the projects we were working on. Then I mentioned that another senior officer had recommended I meet with her. I mentioned his name just to see if she would react positively to ...

Julia Gitis is on assignment at the Department of Defense.

“Women make crappy mentors.” Will our generation prove otherwise?

“Women make crappy mentors.” These four deflating words were said to me by Rose*, a senior policy advisor at ...
By Vanessa • 13 years ago

FTW: Newt Gingrich gets glitterbombed by gay rights activist

Well sparkle me pretty, I think I’ve found my new hero.

Tuesday evening, former Speaker and anti-LGBT asshat Newt Gingrich was greeted with a bucket of sparkles over his head by a gay rights activist during a book-signing taking place before a fundraiser for the Minneapolis Family Council — an organization that is known for fighting against gay rights and marriage equality. The video is priceless:

Our boy Newt is well-known for his bigotry, most recently it being discovered that he secretly funneled $350,000 to anti-LGBT hate groups last year. Now he’s making a run for president.

While he poured bucket of glitter on Gingrich’s head, the protestor exclaimed, “Feel the rainbow, Newt. Stop the hate. Stop anti-gay politics. It’s ...

Well sparkle me pretty, I think I’ve found my new hero.

Tuesday evening, former Speaker and anti-LGBT asshat Newt Gingrich was greeted with a bucket of sparkles over his head by a gay rights activist during a book-signing ...

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