Episode 171 – The One Where We Sell Shea’s Organs For Raw-Beer Money!

In This Week’s Show, episode 171, We get ready for Valentine’s Day by milking the Trump administration’s prison tampons.

Episode 171
The One Where We Sell Shea's Organs For Raw-Beer Money!
Episode 171 – The One Where We Sell Shea’s Organs For Raw-Beer Money!
Episode 171 – The One Where We Sell Shea’s Organs For Raw-Beer Money!

In This Week’s Show, episode 171, We get ready for Valentine’s Day by milking the Trump administration’s prison tampons.

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while Eros (the Greek god of love) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying his patience!

Shea’s Life Lesson

We all know the old adage “Happy Wife, happy life,” but this week I learned that there is a definite case to be made for “Slightly irritated wife, Amusing life,” theory as well.

Jenn’s Actual Lesson

Did you know that Eros was the son of Aphrodite?

He’s sort of the prototype of Cupid (who is actually his Roman counterpart) but was a hot dude with wings instead of a creepy baby.

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Fresh Squeezed IPA | Fresh Squeezed IPA

Deschutes

From: Heeby Jeebus

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2DTSq6d
  • BA Rating: 4.26/5
  • Style: American IPA
  • ABV: 6.4
  • Aaron: 2
  • Jenn: 10
  • Shea: 7
  • Steve: 6

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

Begins with a correction: in last week’s show we made a really dumb mistake and assumed the Pepsi Co CEO was a sexist dude-bro, when in fact she’s a sexist dude-chick! But you now what they say about making assumptions: it makes an ad out of her. She’s still an ass…

  • Thanks to everyone who let us know!
  • We need to wish a special happy birthday to Sherry of the Pussy Hats!
  • VM from Eli.
  • Jenn podcast recommendation about Dyatlov Pass.
  • Astonishing Legends – http://bit.ly/2o4qiny

Shelley Segal

Hi everyone!! I need your help. Youtube is changing its rules and I’m going to lose my ability to earn money from my videos unless I have 1000 hours watched in the next 12 days!!! http://bit.ly/2EyMLDq

Follow up

Flat-Earther rocket fails to blast off again… http://bit.ly/2od16uD

Headlines

HL1 – “Man”Stration Madness – http://bit.ly/2EvS3Qh

All-Male Committee Hears Arizona Bill On Feminine Hygiene Products In Prison

  • A sensitive women’s health issue came before the Committee on Military, Veterans and Regulatory Affairs on Monday: the price of pads and tampons in Arizona prisons. Not all the committee members were comfortable with the idea.
    • “In our prison system,” Rep. Athena Salman said, addressing nine of her male colleagues, “a 16-count of Always ultra-thin, long pads cost $3.20.”
    • “Rep. Salman, Can you keep your conversation to the bill itself? Please?” Rep. Jay Lawrence interrupted.
    • “Yes, Mr. Chairman,” Salman replied, and she went right on talking about tampons and pads. That was, after all, what House Bill 2222 — the bill she sponsored — is about.
  • Under current policy, women in Arizona prisons get 12 pads a month for their menstrual cycle. Additional pads cost more money. So do tampons. Salman’s bill would allocate $80,000 annually to the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) from the state general fund so that all women in state prisons have access to free, unlimited, feminine hygiene products.
  • “I am just a female that menstruates,” said Jennifer Jermaine of Chandler, who came to speak in favor of the bill. She thought the current allotment of pads for prisoners was equivalent to a human-rights violation. “I know what my personal usage is, and I know that 12 items would get me through about two days.”
  • It was unclear why Salman’s bill was assigned to Lawrence’s committee, but he wasn’t happy about it.
    • “I’m almost sorry I heard the bill,” Lawrence said. “I didn’t expect to hear pads and tampons and the problems of periods.”
    • The men on the committee heard other words too. Words like “menstruate” and “heavy flow.”

HL2 – Gay Lepers invade – http://bit.ly/2Ex8Qmc

Available now at http://patreon.com/w4w

  • You just know a tweet that asks, “Struggling with same-sex attraction?” with a link to a blog post is going to be chock-full of useful, encouraging, psychologically and scientifically accurate information.
  • Unless the blog post it titled “Modern Day ‘Lepers’ and the Christians Who Touch Them,”
  • Writing for the Christian Post, Ginny Mink says:
    • Lepers of the diseased and deformed variety still exist. We don’t see them in our churches, or on the edges of the city gates anymore. We don’t hear anyone shouting, “Unclean, unclean, unclean.” But, there are people in the midst of our congregations that feel like lepers.
    • I’m talking about people who struggle with same-sex attraction. There is such a stigma surrounding this particular struggle that it seems impossible to share it with anyone. There’s fear that the reaction will result in the necessity to shout “unclean, unclean, unclean.” Or, at the very least, people will avoid them with great intentionality.
    • In an effort to be more open and affirming, some denominations have sought to blur the lines of Scripture to accept an active same-sex lifestyle. This only makes leprosy worse, it furthers the “deformity” by allowing it to appear healthy.
  • Mink concludes her piece by revealing that she is an “ex-lesbian.”
  • But Christians like Mink, gay or not, still need to be held accountable for the language they use when talking about groups they claim to “love.” They push back with horror against the idea that they are bigots, but referring to gay people as “lepers” is hardly a convincing way to prove to their critics that their hearts are in the right place. Instead, they just reaffirmed how toxic their theology is, to the surprise of no one.

HL3 – Kidneys For Cash! – http://bit.ly/2C28hPC

Available now at http://patreon.com/w4w

Woman alleges husband stole her kidney to cover ‘unpaid’ dowry

  • An Indian woman’s husband and brother-in-law have been arrested after she told police they stole one of her kidneys in lieu of a dowry.
  • Local media report that the West Bengal woman’s husband arranged an appendicitis surgery when she was suffering stomach pain two years ago.
  • Late in 2017, two separate medical examinations revealed she was, in fact, missing one of her kidneys.
  • Rita Sarkar, said she had been the victim of domestic abuse over the dowry issue for many years.
    • The payment of dowries – traditionally paid from a bride’s family to a husband’s – has been banned in India since 1961.
  • “My husband took me to a private nursing home in Kolkata, where he and the medical staff told me that I would be fine after removing my inflamed appendix through surgery. My husband warned me not to disclose the surgery in Kolkata to anyone.”
  • Months later, she was feeling unwell and taken to a doctor by members of her family. Scans then revealed her right kidney was missing, she said. A second medical exam confirmed the diagnosis.
    • “He sold my kidney because my family couldn’t meet his demand for dowry.”

This Week’s Stories

Poisoning One’s-Self Is Trending Among The Stupid

  • http://bit.ly/2o3ZWSD
  • http://bit.ly/2Bwi8vN
  • http://bit.ly/2o3ZXpF
  • http://bit.ly/2Bwi92P

More and more people are getting on the raw milk bandwagon and as more states have made it legal to get raw milk, disease outbreaks related to said raw milk are up 4 times nationwide.

What is raw milk, you ask? Well, it’s milk that hasn’t been pasteurized, so basically it’s an excellent vector for bacterial infections, such as Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. Since it’s the pasteurization that kills the bacteria without harming the milk itself, drinking raw milk is a great way to make yourself really sick. Pasteurization is a simple process of heating the milk to 161°F for 15 seconds (called high-temperature, short-time) which kills most bacteria and makes the milk safe (with refrigeration) for up to about 3 weeks. This is the process through which all grocery store milk from the dairy section is treated. There is also ultra-pasteurization which is heating the milk to 284°F for four seconds, which actually sterilizes the milk, making it shelf-stable for several months. I say all this to explain just how simple it is to make our milk supply safe without hugely changing its positive properties.

While it illegal to distribute unpasteurized milk across state lines, individual states are free to regulate the milk within their borders. Most states don’t allow direct selling of raw milk but do allow so-called “herd-shares”, where a farm sells a share of a herd to people which are then part owners of the herd’s milk and can get it unprocessed. Recently, a dairy in Colorado was found to be the source for 12 confirmed cases and 5 more suspected cases of Campylobacter jejuni infections from raw milk. Campylobacter jejuni infections cause fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea, but the worst part of this is that the particular strain involved proved to be antibiotic resistant, and therefore harder to contain making the disease more severe. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had no authority to close the dangerous dairy which continued to distribute milk throughout the outbreak time.

All of this leads to why the fuck would one want to drink potentially dangerous milk? Well, it’s the rise of pseudoscience and the culture of credulity which surrounds things like raw diets, vegan diets, paleo diets, or any other number of fad eating trends, many of which are rooted in the idea that the more natural and unprocessed a food is, the better. The fact is that according to the CDC, raw milk is 150 times more likely to cause food-borne illness than pasteurized, and FDA research shows “no meaningful difference in the nutritional values of pasteurized and unpasteurized milk.”

Now, I want to wrap this up by saying, take care of yourself and don’t listen to quacks who recommend stupid diet advice. Do your own research and pay attention to those whose credentials show they actually know what the fuck they’re talking about.

Jenn’s Title Nein!

I’ll say one thing for the Trump administration, it’s consistent.

Out magazine, Trump reversal

Out Magazine Dept of Ed

Buzzfeed News

You may recall in the days when Nazis weren’t running our country that the Obama administration invoked Title IX to prevent sexual discrimination for transgender students. (As a refresher for Title IX: It was a 1972 federal civil rights law which reads: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”) so the guidelines set up by the Obama Administration argued that “a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.” Almost exactly a year ago (February 23, 2017), the new regime announced it would be rescinding these guidelines, citing “significant litigation regarding school restrooms and locker rooms” and the “ambiguous” use and application of the term “sex.” Months later, in June of 2017, the Education Department issued a memo saying it was “permissible” for its civil rights division to dismiss a trans student’s restroom case.

You may also remember when the previous administration announced the new guidelines it was met with much pearl-clutching and Bible Belt hysteria. Twenty-one states in total, led of course by Texas, sued in opposition. So I suppose none of us should have been or be surprised that the Orange Fuhrer revoked them almost immediately. Pandering to his base, y’know.

Well, not much has made the news lately regarding trans students in public schools, what with our attention being preoccupied with race riots, nuclear war-taunting insults with despots and other shenanigans. This has changed this week with an Education Department spokesperson, Liz Hill, telling Buzzfeed News in no uncertain terms it has better things to do while destroying the already limping educational system of our country than worry about a bunch of already at-risk young people. Pssh.

According to Buzzfeed News, they have been attempting for the past three weeks to get a direct response from the ED to clarify exactly what their position would be regarding trans students and any complaints or reports of restroom discrimination. Finally, on Thursday (Feb. 8th), Hill responded “yes, that’s what the law says” when asked again if the Education Department holds a current position that restroom complaints from transgender students are not covered by a 1972 federal civil rights law called Title IX.

Asked for a further explanation on the department’s position, Hill said Friday, “Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”

Directly from Buzzfeed: She added that certain types of transgender complaints may be investigated — but not bathroom complaints.

“Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX,” Hill said. “In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.”

Of course, any of you who have been following the wild and wacky ride since last January already know that erosions of already tenuous rights and protections for transgender Americans have been flying fast. Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew a policy protecting transgender workers, while he took the extra-shitty step of jumping into a private lawsuit arguing that anti-gay discrimination was permissible in employment under federal law. Sessions has also argued religious business owners can refuse service to gay customers, even when anti-gay discrimination is banned by state law, and of course Trump has attempted to ban transgender people from all military service.

So here we are, what exactly does this announcement from the ED mean? Hopefully, if our courts do what’s correct it won’t mean a lot.

From Buzzfeed News:

Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration, said the new school-restroom policy is legally dubious.

“Until now, the official position of the Department has been that Title IX protects all students and that they were evaluating how that protection applies to the issue of bathroom access,” she said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “This new categorical bar of civil rights protection for transgender children required to attend schools every day ignores the text of the law, courts’ interpretation of the law, the stated position of the Department to date, and human decency.”

The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts, which held that Title IX guarantees transgender students’ access to restrooms matching their gender identity. Lower courts have been divided on the matter.

Although Hill said “the law says” transgender student restroom complaints aren’t covered by Title IX, the law does not say that.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 says it bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in publicly funded education settings. Does that exclude transgender restroom disputes? The plain text of the law, as some federal judges have noted, does not answer the question. It’s ambiguous, they say. The term “sex” — including in the laws concerning separate restrooms — is not defined as referring to gender identity or a person’s sex as identified at birth.

But insofar as Title IX needs clarity, the highest courts in the United States to contemplate the law’s scope found it does, in fact, confer transgender students the right to use public school restrooms matching their gender identity. (emphasis mine – Jenn)

So…unless or until the Supreme Court decides to more narrowly define exactly what Title IX means by ‘sex’, courts throughout the country will be able to rule in favor of transgender students filing to use the restroom of their chosen gender. Unfortunately, as we all know, the SP is on shaky ground when it comes to civil rights and liberties for anyone, not a wealthy white Christian man. So let us all continue with thoughts and prayers, incense burning, animal sacrifices or whatever appeal you wish to the continued health and prosperity of RBG and the other voices of sanity on our highest court.

Patreon Story – Use HL4 pussy shiny

Next Week’s Beer

Grapefruit IPA – Unite

From Mr. Jenn

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2DWmRIR
  • BA Rating: 4/5
  • Style: American IPA
  • ABV: 7.3

Faith In Humanity Restored

$900,000 care package from Portland to Ukraine – http://bit.ly/2Ex8R9K

Volunteers and staff packed a container full of medical supplies destined for Ukraine in Tigard, OR Friday morning.

Medical Teams donated just over $900,000 worth of crutches, gauze, diapers, towels, diabetic needles, syringes, wheelchairs and more that will go to hospitals and clinics across Ukraine. The organization got the supplies from manufacturers, hospitals and individual donors.

Troutdale-based Ukrainian immigrant Valery Shkurinsky has for the third year organized the delivery in a partnership between Emmanuel Mercy Mission and Medical Teams International.

Ukraine is nearly the fourth year of an armed conflict with separatists in Eastern Ukraine who’ve proclaimed independent republics. That conflict has drained the country’s resources, Shkurinsky said, and already-impoverished areas are in serious need of basic medical supplies. That’s what prompted him, as president of Emmanuel Mercy Mission, to organize the first shipment three years ago.

The container’s next stop is Seattle’s port. From there it will head by sea to Shanghai, where it will switch ships and continue to Ukraine’s port city in the Black Sea, Odessa. It’s expected to arrive April 11. From there, Shkurinsky’s local contact will take over distributing supplies to Ukrainian hospitals.

Bonus Cat Video

 

Patrick Stewart talks about meeting Sting on the set of DUNE (Funny to the EXTREME) – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3v_Oytj-yg

PACIFIC RIM UPRISING – Exclusive IMAX Trailer – YouTube

Incredibles 2 – Olympics Sneak Peek – YouTube

READY PLAYER ONE – Come With Me – YouTube

“Batman Ninja” trailer (English language) – YouTube

RAMPAGE – OFFICIAL TRAILER 2 [HD] – YouTube

Hey Buddy, Can You Give Me a Hand? – YouTube

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