Salon.com > Mary Elizabeth Williams http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:27:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 No one wants to see your C-section! http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/meet_2013s_first_internet_star/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/meet_2013s_first_internet_star/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13161058 It's only fitting that the first viral star of the new year should be a newcomer. On Dec. 26, Arizona photographer Alicia Atkins posted an arresting image on her business Facebook page. But it wasn't a photo she had taken.

"I can FINALLY share this!" she wrote. "This was 10 weeks ago when I was having my C-section. Dr. Sawyer broke my water and my daughter reached up out of my stomach and grabbed the doctor's finger and my hubby caught this special moment. Truly amazing."

It is indeed a special moment. In the black-and-white photo, you can see an attending hand pushing Atkins' belly up as a small hand reaches past an umbilical cord and around the wet finger of the delivery doctor. It's an arresting image, one that captures baby Neveah – that's "heaven" spelled backward -- at precisely the instant she made her Oct. 9 entrance into the world. Her first human touch.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/meet_2013s_first_internet_star/feed/ 17 The ever-changing ideologies of Jane Roe http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/the_ever_changing_ideologies_of_jane_roe/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/the_ever_changing_ideologies_of_jane_roe/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13160756 Four decades ago, she was known as Jane Roe. She was already a mother, and when she became pregnant again she fought, all the way to the Supreme Court, for the right to terminate. And though that eventual decision came too late for her to act upon it, it changed reproductive freedom in this country -- and has been hotly fought over ever since. But Norma McCorvey has long made it clear she isn't the patron saint of abortion. And in a new profile in Vanity Fair to mark the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, she emerges as the most contradictory of figures, a woman who has built a career around disavowing her role in a history-making case.

McCorvey wasn't interviewed for Joshua Prager's profile. "I almost forgot i have a one thousand dollar fee," she texted him when he requested to speak to her. And when he declined to pay, she replied, "Then we wont speak." Why should she, when being Jane Roe has been her job? It's a job that has exasperated pro-choice activists and been exploited by the far right. Just last summer, "legitimate rape" expert Todd Akin erroneously cited her example as "false claims like those made in Roe v. Wade."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/the_ever_changing_ideologies_of_jane_roe/feed/ 10 The Catholic Church’s new gay insult http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/the_catholic_church_continues_their_anti_gay_campaign/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/the_catholic_church_continues_their_anti_gay_campaign/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159843 It's been a busy past few weeks for the Catholic Church and its muckety-mucks. There was the pope's holiday message insisting that gay marriage is a threat to world peace and an "attack" on the family. Then, Ireland's Cardinal Sean Brady used the death of a pregnant woman in a Galway hospital – and subsequent galvanizing outcry — as an excuse to urge his nation's Catholics to insist on the preservation of rights for the "innocent." And finally, in one last little outburst of vituperation before the year ran out, Italian priest Piero Corsi posted a rant on a bulletin board of his church, blaming women for "provoking the worst instincts, which then turn into violence and sexual abuse," adding, "The core of the problem is in the fact that women are more and more provocative, they yield to arrogance, they believe they can do everything themselves and they end up exacerbating tensions." But lest you think the men in black now intend to ease off on the crazy talk for the winter, it looks instead like they're just getting warmed up.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/the_catholic_church_continues_their_anti_gay_campaign/feed/ 67 Dying to take a celebrity photo http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/dying_to_take_a_celebrity_photo/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/dying_to_take_a_celebrity_photo/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159587 In what immediately qualifies as the worst way to die of the new year thus far, a Los Angeles paparazzo was killed Tuesday while trying to obtain photographs … of Justin Bieber's car.

Bieber was reportedly not even in his white Ferrari when it was pulled over by California Highway Patrol for speeding — a friend of the singer was behind the wheel while Bieber was elsewhere. But the car – and Bieber's vehicular comings and goings – are familiar to local lensmen. In November, Judge Thomas Rubinson dismissed a reckless driving charge against photographer Paul Raef, who in July was involved in a high-speed freeway chase in pursuit of Bieber. At the time, Raef's frantic driving, at speeds over 80 mph, prompted several 911 calls. But Robinson ruled that a 2010 law meant to curtail that kind of potentially dangerous behavior, "in pursuit of photos for commercial gain," could conflict with legitimate First Amendment-protected news gathering.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/dying_to_take_a_celebrity_photo/feed/ 12 Ermahgerd! The year in memes http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156154 To be honest, any year that doesn't have a Nyan cat in it is a bit of a comedown. But 2012 nevertheless provided its own special viral charms — some of which didn't even involve felines. So we say thanks to Ridiculously Photogenic Guy and Overly Attached Girlfriend, and to all those other viral stars we couldn't get out of our heads if we tried.

Shit Girls Say

It began as a Twitter feed in 2011, but it was in 2012 that Graydon Sheppard and Kyle Humphrey's devastating drag parody of feminine phrases truly took over the world. Though blowing the lid off the Twinsies!-peppered world of chick vernacular earned Sheppard and Humphrey their share of critics, it also inspired a treasure trove of witty imitations, notably Chesca Leigh's also-gone-viral Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls. It even went old school and became a book. Shut UP! 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/feed/ 6 Even this bleeding-heart liberal believes gun owners have a right to privacy http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/even_this_bleeding_heart_liberal_believes_gun_owners_have_a_right_to_privacy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/even_this_bleeding_heart_liberal_believes_gun_owners_have_a_right_to_privacy/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156544 In the two weeks since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, much has been written and said about our national obsession with guns – and what do about it. But a suburban New York newspaper's unorthodox take on the issue has created a brand-new controversy over guns, rights and privacy.

Earlier this week, the White Plains Journal News ran a story with the provocative title "The Gun Owner Next Door: What You Don't Know About the Weapons in Your Neighborhood." The story, written by Dwight R. Worley, made few bones about its slant, opening with the chilling details of the shooting murder of a Katona woman last spring.

But it wasn't the story that raised eyebrows. It was the revelation that after a Freedom of Information request, "Westchester provided the names and addresses of the county’s 16,616 active permit holders" to the paper. And, even worse, its online version featured an interactive map of all the "pistol permits registered with the Westchester County Clerk's Office," along with the invitation to "zoom in and out for more information and click on a dot to see details of a permit." The Journal did also mention, in an editor's note, that writer Dwight R. Worley owns a .357 Magnum. It didn't, however, include his New York City address.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/even_this_bleeding_heart_liberal_believes_gun_owners_have_a_right_to_privacy/feed/ 69 The 10 best (and worst) tweets of 2012 http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150073 You can learn a lot in 140 characters. Twitter, for all its tyrannical and inflexible brevity, unfailingly reveals the gamut of human nature, the wonders and horrors of the world. There are now a mind-boggling 200 million or more tweets going out every day. But these 10 represent our choices for the ones that, for better or worse, sum up the year 2012.

 

After years of playing coy, the dapper newsman Anderson Cooper finally officially came out of the closet in an open letter to Daily Beast writer Andrew Sullivan on July 2. But though it came as zero surprise, a few remained undeterred by the news.

When Aetna informed doctoral student Arijit Guha, just as he was in the midst of stage-4 colon cancer, that he'd reached his insurance coverage cap, the 31-year-old took his story to Twitter and found himself engaged in a public conversation with his insurer's CEO, Mark T. Bertolini. He wound up getting full coverage – and making the debate over health care intimate and urgent.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/feed/ 2 Go on, tweet from your seats! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155710 In a world where no meal can go un-Instagrammed, no departure from a plane unremarked upon with the phrase "wheels down" and no status un-updated, when the houselights go down, does an entertainment venue beat 'em or join 'em?

On Thursday, the Minneapolis Guthrie Theater is launching its first experiment in offering balcony-level Tweet Seats, "allowing social media users an opportunity to interact" during its production of "The Servant of Two Masters." Guthrie External Relations Director Trish Santini explains, "This cast is an incredible ensemble of comedians, and night after night they're riffing and improvising  — it's the kind of show that makes you ask, 'Did they just say that?' Usually they did — and tweeting should be a great way to talk about it."

"Should" being the operative word. As Jezebel's Laura Beck ponders, the move will either "encourage friends and families to check out fresh-ass local theater," or "just lead to people compulsively checking Facebook and Instagramming the backs of people's heads." Because while you can invite the audience to participate in "an opportunity to interact" in the hopes of creating buzz, there's zero guarantee it won't instead just idly play Temple Run instead.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/feed/ 8 The Catholic Church’s angry Christmas http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/the_catholic_churchs_angry_christmas/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/the_catholic_churchs_angry_christmas/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:16:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13154874 For the holidays this year, the Catholic Church chose to give the world the gift of bizarre, alienating and utterly missing the point rhetoric. Oh, you shouldn't have! We already got one of those from the NRA! 

First, Pope Benedict XVI used his annual holiday message to the Vatican to denounce gay and lesbian progress as a "manipulation of nature" and an "attack" on the family. Now, Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of all Ireland, has used the galvanizing death of a pregnant woman in a Galway hospital as an excuse to double down on anti-abortion rhetoric. Guys, maybe next year you could ask Santa for a sense of timing and a pair of ears that aren't tone-deaf.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/the_catholic_churchs_angry_christmas/feed/ 28 Drake does not own YOLO http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155026 Drake is not a man who backs down from a dispute. Just ask Chris Brown. So watch your backs, Walgreens and Macy's.

On Christmas, the Billboard-chart-dominating star took to Instagram to vent his spleen against retailers with an image of a groaning shelf -- unironically designated "beauty" -- full of caps emblazoned with the acronym YOLO. "Walgreens....you gotta either chill or cut the cheque," he wrote in Canadian, adding a "Macy's...same goes for you" warning under a photo of a YOLO-themed Charlie Brown and Snoopy shirt. Coming soon: Morgan Freeman getting huffy every time someone mentions a bucket list, and Robert Carlyle issuing an injunction against all forms of Full Montyism.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/feed/ 5 When Hollywood breaks into song! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/when_hollywood_breaks_into_song/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/when_hollywood_breaks_into_song/#comments Mon, 24 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149907 There was a time, long ago, when Hollywood musicals were made with performers with genuine musical aptitude. It was the era of luminaries like Judy Garland and Julie Andrews. And when a big-budget extravaganza demanded a famous name who happened to have a lesser voice, they'd just film the star and let Marni Nixon or Andy Williams do the singing.

But ever since somewhere around the time Woody Allen studded his nostalgic 1996 romance "Everyone Says I Love You" with a bevy of decidedly unmusical A-listers, the movies have become a parade of less than triple- — or even double- — threat actors flaunting their show-tunes-loving sides. Sometimes it works – evidenced by the heady Oscar buzz for Anne Hathaway's going-for-broke performance in "Les Misérables," a role that basically boils down to one show-stopping "I Dreamed a Dream." But sometimes, right within the same film, well, Russell Crowe happens.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/when_hollywood_breaks_into_song/feed/ 17 Keep your guns out of my school! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/keep_your_guns_out_of_my_school/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/keep_your_guns_out_of_my_school/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13152423 It's not like I had any illusions that anything NRA executive vice-president and talking-head-in-chief Wayne LaPierre would say on Friday morning, one week after the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary that killed 20 children, would transform me from a crunchy liberal pacifist into some big-time assault weapons fan-girl. But I still didn't expect to be as horrified by his ludicrous words as I was. I didn't expect to be as chilled to the bone by his utterly inevitable suggestion that the solution to our national gun problem is more guns – nice and close to our kids. "With all the foreign aid, with all the money in the federal budget, we can’t afford to put a police officer in every school?" LaPierre said. "I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school — and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January."

Frankly, I haven't heard a stupider idea since Donald Trump offered Obama $5 million for his college records. But let's put aside the ridiculous impracticality of implementing LaPierre's proposal to deploy a veritable army of gun-toting guards into every school in America to "blanket" our children. Let's just address the philosophical horse crap of it.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/keep_your_guns_out_of_my_school/feed/ 56 The pope’s hateful Christmas message http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/the_popes_hateful_christmas_message/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/the_popes_hateful_christmas_message/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:16:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13152137 In a stunning move, on Friday, Pope Benedict used his annual Christmas message to the Vatican to assert the dignity of gay men and women around the world, and to plead for universal tolerance. "People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being," he declared in a message aimed to end the shame and stigma of living in the closet and to abolish all forms of dangerous, destructive "conversion" therapy. Oh, wait. He was actually saying those things to once again marginalize and insult gay people. Carry on then, your holiness!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/the_popes_hateful_christmas_message/feed/ 55 Reality TV gives gun-themed shows a rest http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/reality_tv_gives_gun_themed_shows_a_rest/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/reality_tv_gives_gun_themed_shows_a_rest/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150855 Somehow, reality shows about weapons just aren't as much of a draw as they were only a week ago. In the wake of the devastating school massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, Discovery has canceled two gun-themed shows. Yet the network, hedging all its viewership bets, is cautiously not drawing any parallels between its programming decisions and current events. Stay brave, people who brought us "A Moonshiners Christmas," "Amish Mafia" and "Zombie Apocalypse."

On Monday, the network announced that "'American Guns' concluded earlier this year," adding, "Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show." Yet Deadline notes that Discovery is conspicuously not airing reruns of the show as well. The network is likewise bidding adieu to "Ted Nugent’s Gun Country," with a confirmation that Nugent will not be returning any time soon. His rootin' tootin' show aired as a special in the fall, but at the time, the "musician/hunter" told Armed America Radio that Discovery "want[s] to do it as a regular feature," and to "expect that there will be at least a dozen shows a year." Also, there's an Armed America Radio.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/reality_tv_gives_gun_themed_shows_a_rest/feed/ 8 “Love, Actually”: The worst Christmas movie ever http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/love_actually_the_worst_christmas_movie_ever/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/love_actually_the_worst_christmas_movie_ever/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149666 It's got an Anglophile's dream cast, a rousing version of "All I Want for Christmas" and an overstuffed romantic plot that takes place in the loveliest, coziest, most well-to-do version of London you've ever seen. Perhaps then it's no wonder "Love, Actually" has, in the nine years since its release, become something of a holiday classic. At this time of year it regularly crops up on cable and in Netflix queues. Slant calls it "the greatest modern Christmas movie," and Empire puts it in its top 10 "Best Christmas Movies Ever." Screw all that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/love_actually_the_worst_christmas_movie_ever/feed/ 94 Julie Brown says Earth Girls are still easy http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/julie_brown_says_earth_girls_are_still_easy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/julie_brown_says_earth_girls_are_still_easy/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:53:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148925 Nearly 24 years ago, a romantic musical comedy about a trio of space aliens who crash land in Southern California opened, boasting a real-life Hollywood golden couple, a Nile Rodgers score, a director who'd helmed "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle," an almost too-good-to-be-true supporting cast that included Michael McKean, Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey, and a bevy of over-the-top musical numbers. It was also adorably silly, utterly unique and full of surprising heart. Yet in a year when cinematic romance was defined by "When Harry Met Sally," a candy-colored pastiche about a lovestruck manicurist and an unlikely, furry Mr. Right never found its footing at the box office.

Over time, "Earth Girls Are Easy" has developed a cult status as one of the most beloved — and the most 1980s-esque — movies to come out of the eighties, a big-haired, B-52's soundtrack-infused film that to this day is what we talk about when we talk about ERMAHGERD.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/julie_brown_says_earth_girls_are_still_easy/feed/ 3 Can comfort dogs console the people of Newtown? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/can_a_group_of_comfort_dogs_console_newtown/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/can_a_group_of_comfort_dogs_console_newtown/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:23:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148588 Dogs are heroes. They work with law enforcement to search out missing persons and deadly explosives. They guard our homes and property. They guide the blind. And in the depths of grief, they give unconditional consolation.

Over the weekend, a group of golden retrievers arrived in Newtown, Conn., to do exactly what they do best – to offer a little warmth and sweetness to a town shaken to its core with sorrow. The team of specially trained comfort dogs from Lutheran Church Charities traveled 800 miles to arrive at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where the funerals of two of the children killed in the massacre are being held. As Tim Hetzner, head of the organization, explained to the Chicago Tribune, "Dogs are non-judgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone. It creates the atmosphere for people to share." In just a short time, the animals have already put in their share of work. Hetzner told the Tribune, "You could tell which [townspeople] … were really struggling with their grief because they were quiet. They would pet the dog, and they would just be quiet … I asked [one man] how he is doing. He just kind of teared up and said: 'This year, I've lost five loved ones and now this happened.' The whole town is suffering."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/can_a_group_of_comfort_dogs_console_newtown/feed/ 6 One million kids can’t be wrong http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/send_our_kids_to_washington/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/send_our_kids_to_washington/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:49:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147590 On Monday, the teachers and counselors in my children's schools – and no doubt yours as well – talked with our kids about the atrocity that happened in Newtown, Conn., on Friday morning. They held town meetings and class discussions; they answered questions and offered hope. It was a continuation of the heartbreaking conversations we parents engaged in all weekend long with our sons and daughters, as we struggled to find words to explain the most unexplainable horror. But as the initial shock and sadness of the shooting begin to subside and we move forward, we're going to choose how the tragedy will inform our lives. And we have a chance to not just console and reassure our kids, but to empower them.

Inspired by other "millions" marches of the past, a movement to hold a One Million Child march on Washington in February to lobby for "sane" gun laws has sprouted up on Facebook. It's already garnered thousands of likes and RSVPs, because as the organizer, a father of two, asks, "Who could say no to a million kids? Not even Congress." Aside from the fact that Congress has a long and storied history of flipping the bird at kids, minorities, the elderly, the disabled — you get the point – the march has the potential to become a galvanizing moment not just in the debate over guns, but in the lives of thousands of families. It's an opportunity to teach kids the power of their voices, of their hope, of their love — and to show that power to the world.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/send_our_kids_to_washington/feed/ 9 Huckabee blames gays for the Newtown massacre http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/huckabee_blames_gays_for_the_newtown_massacre/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/huckabee_blames_gays_for_the_newtown_massacre/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147356 In the wake of the horrific massacre in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, it didn't take long for the gun apologist trolls to come out of the woodwork. Gun Owners of America's appropriately named Larry Pratt insisted that an unarmed school faculty was at fault, saying, "Gun control supporters have the blood of little children on their hands," and Texas congressman Louie Gohmert declared that "I wish to God [the principal] had had an M4 in her office." But it took former Arkansas governor and current Fox News windbag Mike Huckabee to really torpedo our national conversation to a whole new low. It was Huckabee who didn't just mouth off once, but kept mouthing off, clarifying his original vituperative inanity with ever more vituperative inanity from his apparently limitless supply.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/huckabee_blames_gays_for_the_newtown_massacre/feed/ 83 A judge shares Akin’s belief that women’s bodies “shut down” rape http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/a_judge_shares_akins_belief_that_womens_bodies_shut_down_rape/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/a_judge_shares_akins_belief_that_womens_bodies_shut_down_rape/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:42:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13124994 Oh, hello again, rape culture. Why, it's been like, HOURS since the last time we saw you. How've you been? Still putting up the good fight, so to speak, I see.

Hey, speaking of putting up a fight, how about that Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson? What a card! Back in 2008, the Orange County judge was handing down a sentence on Metin Gurel, who'd been convicted of "rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic battery, stalking and making threats against his former live-in girlfriend." Prosecutors, who'd asked for a 16-year term for the man, noted that on the day of the assault, he'd also threatened to mutilate the victim's genitals with a heated screwdriver. And what did Derek G. Johnson think of what Gurel had done? Not a whole heck of a lot.

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