Obsidian Wings

Pizza and Italians

by janiem

1. One weekend, years before I moved here, I was driving around the back roads of Maine with some friends. We came to an intersection, and I gazed out the window of the car as we paused to decide which way to turn. Right next to us was one of those little general stores that anchor a lot of out-of-the-way villages here in Vacationland, stores that typically look like they might fall down in a big wind, even though they've probably been here forever and will go on providing necessities and frivolities to local people for decades to come. (For the apotheosis of the genre, see Hussey's General Store in Windsor. Be sure to let the pictures scroll if you want to get the full flavor.)

This particular store's marquee said, in big letters, "PIZZA AND ITALIANS."

As an Italian of sorts myself, I was more than a little taken aback; I had never been somewhere where Italians were bought and sold at the corner store. It didn't take me long to work out that in this state, "Italians" is shorthand for "Italian sandwiches," which are otherwise known as subs, submarine sandwiches, hoagies, grinders, heros, you name it – depending, of course, on what part of the country you're from.

Honestly, though, I was kind of offended, even though I didn't then and don't now think that this usage comes from the same place that derogatory names for groups of people come from. There are so few Italian(-American)s in Maine that there's probably no need for a derogatory name; if it had been the Franco-Americans, it might be a different story. Nevertheless, the usage still bemuses me decades later.

2. [I'm sure I've told this story before, but I want to place it in a particular context this time.] Even longer ago, on my first trip to Ireland as an innocent abroad, I said in a pub one night that I was "Italian." The Irish people I was hanging out with laughed at me and said, "You're not Italian, you're American, anyone can tell that a mile away."

Indeed, after a couple of weeks in Ireland I myself could tell an American a mile away.

Anyhow, that's not the only way in which I'm not really Italian. Yes, the word was standard usage in small-town 1950s America where I grew up, but even then I was only half Italian – my mother came from old English stock, with who knows what other strands mixed in after ten generations on this continent.

An extension of the ethnic mongrelism was the religious: I was raised Catholic, and in that sense I belonged more with my Italian relatives. But I adored my rural Baptist maternal grandmother and felt equally at home at her place in the country, playing with her Sunday school model of Solomon's Temple.

To complexify the picture, I was a tomboy math nerd and a voracious reader. Having worn out a dictionary the summer I was twelve and taught myself algebra II and trig between midnight and four a.m. of the summer nights leading up to eleventh grade, I got great SATs and ended up as the first person on either side of my family to go to college: at MIT.

I didn't have a clue.

To complexify the picture even more, after a couple of years away from home I discovered that I was gay.

3. Years later, but still fairly long ago, I did a medicine walk, a day-long, solitary, fasting walk in (in my case) the woods along the NH-Vermont border. Sparrow Hart was my guide.

Sparrow met with me for a long talk the night before my walk, took me to the trailhead before dawn the next morning, and met me back there at sundown. When we got back to a place where we could get a meal and talk some more, one of the first things he said was, "I'm going to ask you the same question I ask people when they finish a vision quest: 'What gifts do you have for your people?'"

If I'd had my wits about me, which I most certainly did not, I would have replied, "To answer that, I'd have to know who my people are..."

*****

Circles of community: family, friends, people of the same ethnicity or sexual orientation or religion or political persuasion, people who like the same kind of music you do, or pursue the same hobby.

Do you know who your people are?

As for me, I'm still wondering.

Heard any good jokes lately open thread

by liberal japonicus

Cooler heads than mine have moved a previous thread to one asking for good jokes. Thread-jacking that we can all get behind. I lift the ones that aren't insider content (nothing wrong with them, go back to see them if you want) up to the front page and invite more.

From BrettB, bobbyp, NV, Sapient, McManus,and Donald walked into a bar. Countme-in, the bartender, asked, "How could any of you have not seen that bar? Was it set too low for you?"

From Ugh:

Have you seen that new pirate movie? The one that's rated Arrrr!

From TonyP

World's shortest joke:

"Beautiful clean coal."

Have at it.

Anti-Gay Employment Discrimination Already Illegal Under Federal Law

by Ugh

So this is something I can support:

On Monday, Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrote that anti-gay employment discrimination is almost certainly prohibited under existing federal law. Katzmann urged the 2nd Circuit to reconsider precedent holding that employees cannot sue for sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, citing recent legal developments that support an expansive interpretation of “sex discrimination.”

This seems to be a relatively simple matter.  Did the drafters of Title VII think they were prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination when they barred employment discrimination “because of sex”?  Likely not (although there is usually a surprise or two when the historical record is closely examined).  But the article notes that SCOTUS recently held (in the words of the article) "sex discrimination encompasses “sex stereotyping”—mistreating employees because they do not conform to gender norms."

From that decision it seems the only logical conclusion that "sex stereotyping" can only include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as not conforming to "traditional" gender norms. Indeed, even without the sex stereotyping decision, and as the judge notes in the cited decision, discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation "treats otherwise similarly‐situated people differently solely because of their sex."  And is for that simple reason sex discrimination.  

In my mind that is enough, full stop, and this is clearly covered by Title VII.  Of course, the 11th Circuit thinks differently because... it does.  No really, the 11th Circuit cited a previous case that said simply "discharge for homosexuality is not prohibited by Title VII."  Full stop.  Not even "because reasons".  Just because.  Truly those judges have dizzying intellects.

Ultimately, I have to guess that this will be taken up by SCOTUS, where I would guess there are at least 5 votes for the view that Title VII covers sexual orientation discrimination.  As Justice Scalia said about Title VII when an employer that it didn't cover male-on-male sexual harassment:  "Statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed."

Update:  I meant to add that, ISTM, this is a perfectly fine, logical, and respectful of the "rule of law" way for the common law to expand a statute beyond the "intention" of Congress (or the intention of the mythical gigantic prescient perfect demigods of yore we sometimes refer to as "the Framers").  Indeed, I don't know how else this is supposed to work - applying a vague and general statute to specific and sometimes unanticipated situations.  I would guess that if you asked the drafters of Title VII what they meant by "discrimination because of sex" they would say something like - you can't fire or discriminate against a woman because she is a woman.  But that only gets you so far as you need to ask what does discriminate against means and then what does "because she is a woman" mean.  This question is answered above - treating otherwise similarly-situated people differently solely because of sex.  Very simple, and yet leads you to places where the drafters would not have gone - and indeed may have explicitly said they were not going had you asked them (and in fact they may have said this).  

But, we have a common law system, and this ISTM is the way it's supposed to work.  Lazy (or even non-lazy) labeling of this approach as "activist judges" will not suffice.

Update the Seconding:  And the 7th Circuit reaches the only logical conclusion.  And Judge Posner endorses my view set forth above:

I would prefer to see us acknowledge openly that today we, who are judges rather than members of Congress, are imposing on a half-century-old statute a meaning of “sex discrimination” that the Congress that enacted it would not have accepted. This is something courts do fairly frequently to avoid statutory obsolescence and concomitantly to avoid placing the entire burden of updating old statutes on the legislative branch. We should not leave the impression that we are merely the obedient servants of the 88th Congress (1963– 1965), carrying out their wishes. We are not. We are taking advantage of what the last half century has taught.

Quite right, if I do say so my damn self.

ACA, AHCA, DBCFT, Showdown Throwdown

by Ugh

So here we are, 7 years and one day after the ACA was signed into law by B. Hussein O. and after eleventybillion prior votes to repeal the law when it didn't matter, the House might finally vote on an ACA "replacement" bill via a process that actually involves all the mythical process horrors the GOP likes to claim went on during passage of the ACA itself.  As always, it's projection with the GOP.  Meanwhile President of the United States and poor man's Roger Goodell Donald Trump has laid down the Art of the Deal^TM and declared that either the GOP passes this horrible monstrosity of a bill or he will move on to more important things because this whole healthcare business is boring and stupid and who cares anyway?  Wah. 

What's going to happen?  I'm still worried that the AHCA will pass, the Senate then modifies it in a way to move it from absolute horrible monstrosity to just horrible monstrosity, and it eventually makes it's way to Donald's desk for signature.  Hopefully not.  

Meanwhile, whatever happens here the next small item on the agenda is... tax reform!  Easy!  Actually, my guess is that if the AHCA goes down in flames, Trump will tell Ryan to piss-off on the destination based cash flow tax (DBCFT) pipe dream and move to a more "traditional" approach to tax reform because there will be a need for a "win"!  And any significant tax bill that passes, no matter how un-reform like it is, will be declared a glorious victory and shut up.

But hey, maybe 24 million people will lose their insurance and they can declare that glorious too.  

Meanwhile, the flailing about would be amusing if it wasn't so potentially deadly.  Honestly, I'd trade tax cuts for the rich for leaving the ACA alone in a heartbeat (if such a trade could be made to stick, which it can't).  What say y'all?

Update:  Should have noted that the vote is scheduled for 3:30.  Don't know if they will keep it open for hours and hours or what.  If it fails expect Trump to lay all the blame at Paul Ryan's feet.  "He's in charge of the House and he couldn't even get a bill through.  Weak. Sad!"  It will also let Trump take the lead on "tax reform."

Who's next open thread

by liberal japonicus

Regular commenter hairshirthedonist asks:

Also, too, isn't it kind of weird that Chuck Berry and Chuck Barris would die within such a short time of each other?

Why yes, yes it is. I may watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind tonite and 2016 was a banner year for famous people going off to the great beyond. Is 2017 going to match it? Or was Trump getting elected enough pain?

Whither Soft Power?

by wj

I had thought that there were two views about "soft power" -- influencing foreigners (individually or collectively) with persuasion rather than force or the threat of force. First, that it was an important and useful part of our foreign policy arsenal. This view has governed US foreign policy since WW II, and is still widely held amongst the US military.

Or, alternatively, that soft power was basically useless, and so there is no reason to waste money and energy on it. This latter being, I thought, that of the current administration. As reflected in the slashing of the foreign aid budget in the current proposed budget.

But I was wrong. (Or, at least, overly simplistic.) It appears that there is a third view: that it is actually a negative. And that view is impacting people today.

Consider, an annual conference at USC on African and global economy and development normally ends up with about 40% of would-be delegates from outside the US being unable to get visas. But this year, the number of African delegates able to get visas was . . . zero. Yup, apparently nobody, even businessmen and academics who have been coming for years, was acceptable.

Then there's this: The White House as announced that foreign nationals who want to tour the White House need to see their embassy to arrange to do so. Just one thing -- the embassies have been told by the State Department that the process is on hold. Result, even Britons are discovering that they cannot get in. Tour the Capitol? No problem -- you don't even need a passport or other ID. Tour the Pentagon even? Still no problem. Just not the White House.

Well, at least the knowledge that they can visit other parts of the government may help them see that the paranoia is localized, rather than general to the entire US government.

Comings and Goings

by janie m

Blog communities are like "real life" communities in some ways, and not like them in others. In my experience there are very few real life groups where a departure wouldn't be noticed or commented on, but with blogs someone can just not comment one day, and no one notices, because well, people do get busy, and then another day goes by and another and another, and finally you have the stalwart, faithful dozens (plus lurkers : - )) at the Obsidian Wings of 2017 where there were the hundreds (maybe thousands) in 2008, which is when I first came here to read Andy Olmsted's last post. Andy's departure may seem to contradict my premise, but I would argue that the loss of a front-pager is different from that of a commenter, and Andy's circumstances were of course special in ways far beyond that.

I can't say it better than I did in a Flickr discussion thread a few years back:

Ever since I started reading blogs about ten years ago, I’ve been fascinated by the total voluntariness of commenting communities. People come, people go, occasionally people are banned (depending on the site), but far more often commenters arrive without fanfare and disappear without notice, and they also comment in widely varying amounts and rhythms when they’re around. It would be fascinating to see a study of this flow of people in and out, and of the mix of dominant and occasional “voices” – if anyone in Eszter’s world is working on it, I’d love to read the articles. (Hint, hint.)

That passage was from my introduction to the theme of the week – "Flow" – in the Flickr photo group p5214, the second year of a project started by Eszter Hargittai of Crooked Timber in late 2012. Having completed four years of picture-taking together, the dwindling group dissolved at the end of 2016.

The group was a lot of fun. I miss the people and I miss the inspiration to take a picture every week and share it with some internet friends. We never talked politics, we never argued or got testy with each other (maybe those two facts are connected!). We just shared pictures and comments and enjoyed getting little glimpses of how other people saw the world through the lens of a camera.

The Flickr group was much like a blog in the sense that people came, people went, and sometimes people who felt like friends disappeared one day without a trace, never to be heard from again. I disappeared a couple of times myself, though I did come back last December in time to post a last picture or two to p5216, and to say thanks and bye.

Besides Eszter and Chris Bertram (another Timberite), the original p5213 group included one other handle I recognized, that of the commenter known as Baskaborr here at Obsidian Wings. At the end of that first year Baskaborr told us a story:

In one of her comments JanieMaine said she joined on a whim. I think my decision to join was mostly an act of defiance. I have stage 4 colon cancer. This time last year I was digesting bad news. After spending a little over two years on chemo the cancer sites in my liver, lung and lymphatic system were growing again. Both my oncologists agreed that I was unlikely to survive another year. When I saw an item about this project on Crooked Timber, it seemed tailor made. I've loved photography since I was a kid. One year was a good goal. So I decided I would join and I would, come hell or high water, complete the project.

Baskaborr posted his last photo to the group in May of 2016. Given his story, it was an ominous absence that followed. On the other hand, as I keep pointing out, people come and go from blogs – and photo groups – and most of the time you never know why.

With Steve, in the end I found out why. His wife wrote to me in January via Flickrmail that Steve had died on December 7.

I'm sad; I feel like I've lost a friend in that peculiar way of online connections. But part of Steve isn't gone; the internet being what it is, he left a legacy that can be searched, for anyone who's interested.

He wrote about and took pictures of horses, and birds, and cancer, and gardening, and politics, and life. My favorite picture of his – in fact, one of my favorite pictures of all time – is this beautiful and perhaps a bit sly commentary on modern life.

It's easy to go to Flickr and look through Steve's photostream; you can even find pictures of the man himself. As for blog comments, I had the best luck when I typed "Baskaborr obsidianwings.blogs.com" in a Google search box. "Baskaborr" alone yields comments he made elsewhere, too.

I could say a lot more about the dynamics of blog comments, but maybe we can do that together...in the comments.

A report from Georgia’s 6th

by chmatl

Hello, Obsidian Wingers! This is chmatl. LJ very graciously asked if I’d like to write a post on the upcoming special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to replace Tom Price. I thought I’d fill you all in on the situation on the ground moving toward the election.

A little background – the 6th Congressional district comprises parts of Cobb, Fulton, and Dekalb counties. These are suburban Atlanta counties and mostly middle to upper middle class, especially Cobb and Fulton. GA-06 is considered a Red district, and has been represented by Tom Price since 2005. Tom Price won his re-election bid by 24%. Interestingly, however, Donald Trump won the district by only 1.5% points due to a large number of Republican crossover votes for Clinton in the presidential race. Trump’s slim margin of victory has made Democrats here somewhat optimistic that they can capture Price’s seat. The hope is to turn the race into a referendum on the Trump presidency, and it is considered by many Democrats around the country to be a test case for the #Resist movement.

There are 18 candidates running. Among these are 11 Republicans, including the now-infamous Karen Handel (the Susan G. Komen Foundation head who tried to revoke the foundation’s financial support for Planned Parenthood and essentially got fired), and Judson Hill, who is looking for a promotion from state Senator to U.S. Congressman; and five Democrats, among them Jon Ossoff, whose profile has risen considerably since he entered the race, and who is the leading Democratic candidate. There are also two Independents running, but their polling totals are negligible. They will likely have no effect on the outcome of the election. Hill has the endorsements of Newt Gingrich and Marco Rubio, while Ossoff has been endorsed by John Lewis, whom you know, and Hank Johnson, who represents Georgia’s 4th Congressional District (basically the parts of Atlanta that Lewis doesn’t represent).

The special election is non-partisan, which means there will be no Primary race, so all the candidates are running head-to-head. The threshold for winning without a run-off is 50% + 1. Common sense would tell you there’s a strong likelihood that no candidate in such a crowded field will cross that line.
Here’s a snapshot of the most recent polling:

March 2 – 3 (Trafalgar Group):
Ossoff (D) – 18.3%
Handel (R) – 17.98%
Bob Gray (R) – 13.42%
Judson Hill (R) – 7.98%
Also rans, with 2% or less.

February 17 – 18 (Clout Research):
Ossoff – 31.7%
Handel (R) – 24.9%
Gray (R) – 10.6%
Hill (R) – 9.2%
Also rans, again, with 2% or less.

The margins of error are +/-4.5% for the Trafalgar poll and +/-3.7% for Clout Research. Sample sizes are 450 and 694 respectively.

So that’s the current state of the race. You don’t need me to draw your inferences from this data. But I will say I’m thrilled that Judson Hill seems to have very little chance of making it through to the run-off. Anyone who gets an endorsement from Newt Gingrich is an SOB – if you need proof of that, just remember that Gingrich was on Team Trump during the presidential campaign.

A few observations about Democratic efforts to turn this red district blue:

First, Indivisible Georgia is heavily involved in public awareness and efforts to get out the vote. I got drawn in to canvassing because of a young woman who is my neighbor. She took the initiative to join Indivisible GA – 6th District and attend a training class on canvassing. Then she got out to actually do the work. She and I are part of a large army of regular folks who are involved in Indivisible Georgia’s work to give a liberal Democrat the best possible chance to win this upcoming election.

Second, Indivisible Georgia has done an outstanding job as a top-down organization. They do the initial training, generate the lists of “Leans Democrat/Strong Democrat” voters, which we use for canvassing/phone-banking, do follow-up training as needed, and direct a couple hundred volunteers’ efforts. They host candidate forums, provide publicity for direct action events (mostly through Facebook, Meetup and Slack) and town hall meetings, and are the face of the #Resist movement here in Georgia.

Third, and this is my personal story, I have been energized by being involved in the effort not just to elect a Democrat for Price’s old seat, but to build a real, sustainable, grassroots movement to turn GA-06 Blue. The Democratic Party in Cobb County (where I live) and more broadly the 6th district have been completely ineffectual for the entire time I’ve lived here (since 1992). New leadership and the disaster that is the Trump presidency have definitely changed that.

Immediately after the election I felt anger and hopelessness. Those intense feelings have abated, but I really needed a way to deal with my continuing frustration and fear that I could do nothing to change things. Working toward a worthwhile goal has been the perfect vehicle for getting me out of the funk I was in. The people I’ve met canvassing for the most part have been thrilled, just as I was, to have an actual DEMOCRAT show up at their door. Politics in this area have been so thoroughly dominated by conservative Republicans that it’s easy to feel like you’re alone if you’re a liberal Democrat.

I know many of you are involved in activism already. And I also know that many of you live in safely blue areas. But if you, like me, live in a place where your views – about politics generally and Trump in particular – are outside the mainstream, hook up with your local Indivisible group and hit the streets to make a difference. There’s a job for everybody, and I promise you’ll feel better working for change.

Last Minute Hugo Artist Nominations

by Doctor Science

Just a few hours to go! Don't forget you have to save each category individually! Check under your seat for any stray personal items!

---

Best Professional Artist

Kathleen Jennings

Her illustrations are good, but her papercuts are *outstanding*. This is from "Tremontaine, Season 2".

Victo Ngai

Cover of "Everfair" by Nisi Shawl.

John Picacio

"La Botella" from his important, ongoing Loteria series.

Simon Stålenhag

An image from "Things from the Flood", book published Nov 2016

Sana Takeda

cover for "Monstress #7"

---

Best Fan Artist

Euclase

"Pretty", Stranger Things fanart

Juo Gian aka breath-art aka breathing2004

"Song of Ether", part of the series Solar System

Megan Lara

"I Hate Everything", Addams family fanart

Vesa Lehtimäki

"The Annual Service Shop", Star Wars fanart

Likhain

cover for Zen Cho's self-published The Terracotta Bride

Last Minute Hugo Nominations

by Doctor Science

I really dropped the ball on Hugo nominations this year. Or, to be fair to myself, the time and energy I had expected to spend on the Hugos turned out to be needed for historic levels of political action (and anxiety). Nominations will close on 2017-03-18 06:59 UTC (at 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on 17 March).

Snow Goddess Stella gave me time to make up this list, but I then got Mr Dr Science's cold and my brain is now 20% mucous by volume, so I'm not going to do as much of a write-up as I'd hoped of my nominees for Novel, Best Dramatic Long Form, and Best Series. For all, I used the Hugo eligibility Google Doc to jog my memory.

Novel

Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
My review.

The Summer Dragon, by Todd Lockwood. Lockwood is a first-rate artist, but this is his first published novel. Of course, he did the cover and the interior illustrations. There are a LOT of similarities to Marie Brennan's "Lady Trent" series, for which Lockwood also does the covers and illustrations, but in a good way: they're both exploring the "sort-of-SFnal dragons" space pioneered by Anne McAffrey. I love this stuff.

Lockwood's heroine isn't an outsider who finds out about dragons, she's someone brought up to raise and understand dragons who is finding out about the world. It doesn't seem to be marketed as YA, though it could be (AFAICT). There are violent battles of various sorts, but no sexual violence (though the danger is discussed), and the aftermath of every battle involves dealing with mental/emotional trauma in a way I found unusually realistic. I confess that Lockwood is a better writer than I expected: he includes more descriptive details than most, though I could have used even more (because I love that sort of thing when Tolkien does it and it's rarely imitated).

It's a long book that I read at a breakneck pace, and finished with a bounce and a wish for the next in the series. Warning: though Lockwood hasn't said anything that I can see, I expect the series to be at least 4 volumes, one per season. I'll be there!

Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer. My review

Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff. My review.

Rosewater, by Tade Thompson. Set in a future Nigeria, there's an extra layer of distance (for me) because the characters keep referring to places, history, and food for which I have no clear mental picture. The protagonist keeps saying that he's not a hero, and he really isn't. It's an alien-invasion story, a telepathy story, a noir-ish detective-ish story that my currently-addled brain is having a hard time describing. But it's the best thing I read this year that didn't really have a hopeful ending--I'm at the point where fictional dystopias are unacceptable.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

For this category, I listed all the ones on the spreadsheet that I actually saw -- about 8 -- and whittled it down to 5. I haven't seen enough BDP Short Form to nominate.

• Arrival
• Hidden Figures
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Moana
• Rogue One

Best Series

Every Worldcon gets to add one "Special" category. This year's is Best Series:

A multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, which has appeared in at least three (3) volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the calendar year 2016, at least one of which was published in 2016.

This category takes a lot of strain off my "Best Novel" decisions.

The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone. 2016 book: Four Roads Cross

Temeraire by Naomi Novik. 2016: League of Dragons

The Expanse by James S. A. Corey. 2016: Babylon’s Ashes

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan. 2016: In the Labyrinth of Drakes

Thessaly by Jo Walton. 2016: Necessity

---

Now I'll go look at Artists.