To Have and Have Not (1944 ) 9/10
Fishing boat captain Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) and pickpocket Marie (Lauren Bacall) are reluctantly involved in helping the French Resistance. Directed by Howard Hawks.
When people say “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore” they mean To Have and Have Not. » Read more..
I’ve been having an interesting exchange with Ben in the comments section of another post. One issue that came up is the idea of blaming men for the patriarchy. Ben said:
Or to put it another way, that may be your experience of men, sweetheart, but I’m sick of getting blamed for the bad apples. Do I blame all women for Jessica Simpson?
I figured out I can put a more link in posts, so as to decrease the length of posts on the front page.
This may not thrill you, but it certainly twisted my stilts.
Per Amy, this strange story about the Alito nomination.
Falwell Backs Alito
The AP reports:The Reverend Jerry Falwell says he’s backing Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because he trusts that President Bush picked someone who opposes abortion.
But the Lynchburg minister and Liberty University chancellor says that senators shouldn’t ask Alito whether he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
So, it’s okay for Falwell to have a litmus test, and it’s okay to say that Alito passes that litmus test, but it’s not okay for the Senate to ask about the litmus test? ::wocka-wocka-wocka:: (That’s my sound effect for the Lewis Black cheek-shaking thing.)
And let’s not overlook the remark about ‘trusting Bush.’ Falwell wants you to think that there’s nothing specific Alito has said to him or anyone else, because he knows a specific statement could tank the nomination. So he wants you to think he believes Alito passes the litmus test based only on his deep faith in Bush. You know—the same faith he and other Christian Conservative wingnuts exhibited during the nomination of Harriet Meiers.
Oberon Zell-Ravenheart invited me to contribute to his forthcoming book, Creating Circles & Ceremonies. He’s looking for contributions of invocations, chants, and other ritual bits. So I wrote up a little something, and since I’m not giving him exclusive rights, I thought i’d share it here.
Invocation to Mother Earth
In The Elements of Ritual I suggest that every invocation should have six components: Specificity, descriptiveness, praise, need, invitation, and greeting. Whenever I write an invocation, I make sure to include each of these. When invoking Mother Earth, I specify Who I am invoking, I describe Her, praise Her, and explain why I need Her to come. I invite her to come, and, acknowledging that my invocation has been successful, I greet Her.
Usually Pat Robertson’s declarations on politics are evil, wrong-headed, or hilarious, in some combination. But his latest is just completely muddled.
Sharon had a stroke as punishment for “dividing God’s land?” You know that weird sound that Lewis Black makes when he’s so confused that his cheeks shake back and forth? I’m making that sound right now.
Let’s set aside the part where Robertson sees God’s hand in selected situations, but not in other situations that don’t make his evil, wrong-headed, hilarious point. Let’s forget that all manner of overweight, overworked, stressed-out 77 year-olds have strokes, even if Robertson isn’t directing God’s wrath towards them. Let’s just, y’know, skip all that.
Dividing God’s land? WTF? (Dear Lady of the Stars, Robertson has made me use the despised “WTF”—I must truly be losing it.) Does Robertson not know that Israel has already been divided many, many times? That Israel today is smaller than Biblical Israel? That after the Six-Day War, the land was redivided? That it was redivided again after the Yom Kippur War? Were there lots of strokes and TIAs during that period?
But what’s really bothering me is the very notion of “dividing God’s land.” Is it less God’s if it’s not occupied by Israel? Are Palestinians not God’s people? Don’t Christians like Robertson believe that all humanity is born of Adam and Eve? If so, aren’t Palestinians included in that?
It must be hard to sleep at night when your theology is so twisted. I think it must twist up the bedsheets too, or something.
The Gang of Two Join the WWFE
Fanty gets the upper hand
Attack!
Ew. Strep throat. I never get sick. Really. I’m laid up all the time from stupid injuries, so maybe it isn’t obvious, but “sick” doesn’t much enter my reality. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been the only person at work or some event because everyone else has a cold. I don’t “catch” stuff.
Except, I guess, strep.
Not so bad in a lot of ways. No congestion, no stuffy head, no fever. Minimal coughing and blowing of nose. But I can’t swallow. Turns out this is a problem. Okay, this is gross maybe, but I guess when you lie on your back little bits of saliva or whatever run down your throat, and you swallow them. So sleeping presents a problem, because attempting to swallow while lying down is so painful it wakes me up. I’ve been sleeping propped up. Thank the gods for my humongous pillow collection.
Yesterday I went to McD’s and got a milk shake for lunch. Then my sainted ex-husband brought me chicken broth, mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach from Boston Market for dinner. Beats an IV I guess.
I am on those killer 5-day antibiotics, so I look forward to chewing sometime soon.
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You Are 50% Boyish and 50% Girlish |
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You are pretty evenly split down the middle – a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don’t actively fight them. You’re just you. You don’t try to be what people expect you to be. |
Over at I Blame the Patriarchy, Twisty is twisting over The Pill. In part, she says
It is the duty of the patriarchy-blamer–particularly one who supports zero-population growth– to cast a jaundiced eye on any research that impugns contraception, but you know what? Fuck the Pill. As liberating as it has been for straight women, it is not without its vile misogynist elements. While it leaves men footloose and fancy-free to roam the earth pronging at will, it consigns women to shoulder the entire burden of contraception, and it does this while making us fat and giving us heart attacks, strokes, and, depending on who you talk to, breast cancer.
That’s a strong statement. Yeah, I get that the Pill is a product of the patriarchy. What isn’t? It’s like saying cars are products of the automobile industry (which, y’know, sucks). That doesn’t mean that the choice between a Hummer and a Prius is meaningless.
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