Gabby Glaser of Luscious Jackson at Lilith Fair, 1999. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
In March, two of the biggest musical stars in the world, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé Knowles, released the much-anticipated music video for Gaga's song "Telephone." The video, which debuted on the E! Channel and online on a Thursday at 11:30 P.M., had 500,000 views in its first 12 hours. (It also pushed Lady Gaga to the fore of Internet video viewing -- "Telephone," coupled with her two previous hits, "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face," made her the first musical artist to reach 1 billion video views online.) The buzz around the video was a reminder of how much times have changed for women artists. The "Telephone" hype focused on the budget, the fashion, the cameos, and the sets. That the song and video featured two women artists was the least remarkable part.
In Atlanta, Georgia, a billboard campaign that started this month proclaims that "black children are an endangered species." On the campaign's Web site, TooManyAborted.com, the Radiance Foundation alludes to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's support of eugenics and cites the disproportionately high number of unintended pregnancies and abortions among black women. The campaign is part of a new push by anti-choice advocates to exploit unequal access for reproductive-health services and black-genocide conspiracy theories (including the problematic history of Sanger) to further their agenda.
This has been a fun, challenging, educational week, and I want to thank you all for reading my posts. And of course, I appreciate The Prospect letting me write about everything from paid sick leave to Rupert Murdoch to chocolate milk.
I'm sending special shout-outs to Adam, Phoebe, and most especially Alexandra (whose kidnapping I've been planning since mid-week) for her helpful editing. I'd try to get her to come back with me to PostBourgie legally, but we only pay ingrape drink.
...it would be a shame if anything happened to it.
That's basically what the Catholic Church is telling the D.C. city council, in an effort to get them to drop an anti-discrimination clause in the same-sex marriage bill that's going to a vote soon. The Church's social services division currently serves 68,000 Washingtonians, including a third of the homeless who use the city's facilities run by the Church. According to the Washington Post, "fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city."
Yesterday's big righteous-anger-for-progressives moment came when Politico reported that the Republican National Committee has been covering elective abortions through its Cigna health-care plan since 1991.
But, says RNC chairman Michael Steele, this will not continue!
"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."
