The Common Ills: The Whines of Uninformed or Hypocritcal Men

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Whines of Uninformed or Hypocritcal Men

In yesterday's snapshot, I called out Murtaza Hussain and the sexism at The Intercept which allowed today's US military -- including those who died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- to be portrayed as male only. I noted:

And it's why the Intercept is such a lame venture.
It's a bunch of sexist jerks like Murtaza Hussain, Glenn Greenwald (if his sexism is news to you, where have you been the last decade), Jeremy Scahill and so many others.
And when you hire sexists, you get garbage like what Hussain's offering, garbage that renders the US female service members who've fought in the ongoing Iraq War -- and who've died in it -- invisible.
It is a complete, 100% tragedy that Sean Neal is dead. It is a huge loss. But Hussain makes an ass out of himself by reducing it to "men."
If the Intercept wants to have any future at all -- most likely it doesn't, Libertarians online have long been sexist -- it's going to have to accept the fact that half the world is female.
Shame on all the useless jerks (Dan Froomkin, that means you) who have treated Hussain's sexist rambles as manna from heaven. Shame on you.
Last May, The Daily Beast offered Kate Hoit's "The Names You Don't Hear: Nearly 200 Women Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan." Froomkin, who has made time to attack female artists, didn't really have time to give props to Hoit for that piece.
Too bad. The sexism needs to end and it needs to end now.
It is insulting to the women who have served -- and to the memory of the women who died -- to write such sexist nonsense as Hussain did. Hussain, The Intercept and every man who Tweeted that article without pointing its fatal and sexist flaw should issue an apology -- but they won't. The day will come when sexists are shunned in the same way that racists are. That day is in the future. When it does come, history will not be kind to the many men -- including those at Intercept -- who regularly engaged in sexism -- history will not be kind, nor should it be.

An e-mail from a knuckle dragger who addresses me as "little girl" throughout wants to insist that "like most feminists, you don't know the first thing you're talking about. No women died serving in Iraq because the US military didn't send any women to Iraq, not even nurses this go round. And, little girl, you need to stop confusing G.I. Jane and Demi Moore with the real world. There are no women in the Marines. Never will be. I will never cease to be amazed by how many stupid people show off their ignorance online."

Nor will I, Knuckle Dragger, nor will I.

In yesterday's snapshot, I noted the October death of Sean Neal and the presumed death of Jordan Spears and pointed out:

I have no idea about Sean Neal's unit, but the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Jordan Spears' unit, there are women in that unit -- I know that would shock Murtaza Hussain -- there are several women who are part of the current deployment of that unit.

Knuckle Draggers wants me to know that there are no women in the Marines, let alone in the unit Spears served in.

Well, goodness, if little old me doesn't feel embarrassed now.

Lying yesterday about women being Marines, let alone in Sparks unit.

I guess I just need to pack it in, having shamed myself with such lies, right?

Wait.

What are those photos?

Oh, yeah, those are photos you can find of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit at their Facebook page. (Here for the first one, here for the second.)

Oh, so I wasn't wrong?

So women are in the Marines and, specifically, they are in the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Those don't look like publicity stills from Demi's GI Jane film, so sorry, Knuckle Dragger.

Now we can't expect much from an idiot who e-mails what he thinks -- including his stupid and idiotic belief that no women have died serving in Iraq or Afghanistan -- and he shared this in response to yesterday's snapshot despite the fact that it noted Kate Hoit's "The Names You Don't Hear: Nearly 200 Women Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan." Maybe links are too hard for him?

Men like that idiot believe crap like the nonsense that was written published by The Intercept.

We all suffer from sexism. It's not cute, it's not sexy and it's really damaging.

As Knuckle Dragger pointed out, so many people flaunt their ignorance online. How sad that it's especially true of The Intercept -- supposed 'new media' that's taking old media's discrimination into a new technology.

In other stupidity, State of Law MP Abbas al-Bayati is whining that the budget has not been passed in Iraq, the 2014 budget.

He's concerned.

Now we express concern about that all the time, most recently in yesterday's snapshot.

But the difference here?

We've been calling out that failure to the 2014 budget for months and months now.

al-Bayati never said "boo" while Nouri al-Maliki was prime minister. The budget should have been submitted and passed October 1, 2013. Nouri was prime minister. Through July of this year, Nouri's been prime minister.

Never a word when Nouri, who heads al-Bayati's State of Law, was prime minister.

But now that a non-State of Law (though still Shi'ite and still Dawa) is prime minister? Now that it's Haider al-Abadi?

Suddenly, State of Law al-Bayati's concerned about the fact that the 2014 budget still hasn't passed.

The following community sites -- plus Susan's On the Edge and Jody Watley -- updated: