links for 2010-05-16

But why is this a big deal? Doesn't Family Guy offend everyone? As Lisa at Questioning Transphobia points out, "That's bullshit. [MacFarlane's] humor is crafted for a cis, straight, able-bodied male audience. Everything you see on his shows is meant to affirm that perspective." But isn't it satire, isn't the Griffin family a bunch of bumbling buffoons? Really, is Family Guy's fan base (who, let's be honest, includes those far younger than the typical 18-34 male demographic) really "getting" that Lois and Peter are bigoted when they insist Quagmire's dad is gay? That Stewie is most definitely uninformed when he says Ida's genitals are like a "casserole of nonsense"? That when Ida suggests that Meg is also a trans woman that there are acceptable times to misgender another?

"But while Ms. Kagan, a former board member for the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, clearly relished the experience and admired the justice as a historic figure, she appears to have had a far more ambivalent attitude toward his jurisprudence, according to a review of his papers at the Library of Congress, her comments over the years about him and interviews with her fellow clerks and colleagues.

In analyzing why Justice Marshall was adamant about siding with the poor family in the busing fee case, for example, Ms. Kagan explained in her tribute that he “allowed his personal experiences, and the knowledge of suffering and deprivation gained from those experiences, to guide him.”

"But the van Sander case shows that the outlook is dire for couples already in the pipeline for a green card, said Eric E. Olson, an immigration lawyer who has followed the issue closely.

“It’s crazy,” he said, adding that it might provoke a public outcry, because “it’s going to affect a lot of white people, too, not just brown people.”"

"Proposing a budget that would eliminate the state's welfare-to-work program and most child care for the poor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday outlined a stark vision of a California that would sharply limit aid to some of its poorest and neediest citizens.

His $83.4-billion plan would also freeze funding for local schools, further cut state workers' pay and take away 60% of state money for local mental health programs. State parks and higher education are among the few areas the governor's proposal would spare."

"Falling to my knees to look my child in the eye, I asked why she thought straight hair was prettier than her own curls. She put her hands on her hips and flippantly alleged, “All the pretty girls on TV have straight hair. All the Barbie dolls have straight hair. All the ladies in our family have straight hair. Curly hair is ugly.” I placed my hands on her shoulders and rendered a long, loving soliloquy on how God designed her hair and He doesn’t make any junk. I told her that curly hair like hers was desirable by all and asked if she hadn’t noticed the constant compliments she received. My wise little angel shot back, “Yes. I know all of that, but you straighten your hair. Sooo…I guess you don’t really like what God gave you. I don’t like mine either and I want to change it. I want a perm.” Pow! I was stretched out on the mat with cartoon stars circling my head, TKO’d by the curly-headed, snaggle-toothed first grader."

"Wonder Woman is white. There’s a simple answer to this problem: Big Fat Who Cares? Wonder Woman’s creators don’t care, because they’re dead. Wonder Woman doesn’t care, because she’s not real. Speaking for all white people everywhere, I can affirm that we don’t care. And let’s be honest: Wonder Woman’s character history is so rife with reboots and retcons, hiring an African American to play her in a movie would be the least crazy change to make to the character."

"In the late 1950s, interning as a teacher at a prison near Stockton, he thought he could alter the thinking of a group of white supremacists by showing them unedited footage of Nazi gas chambers. "They howled with laughter through the whole film," he says. "It was the worst failure of my life. But I learned a lesson: Some people cannot be helped. They are simply too far gone.""