Archive for Politics
Bridezilla shoes
My friend got married a couple of weeks ago, and today I was looking at the pictures on the web. You know those photographers that take twenty zillion pictures and put them all on the web and then you choose what to buy? Like that.
So, there are all the posed pictures (groom with best man, bride with mother, bride with father, groom with children from previous marriage…) and there are pictures of the ceremony, of the first dance, of the reception, and then there are pictures of…stuff.
There’s a close-up of the dress; just a big picture of some of the detail work on the buttons and beading. There’s a picture of the flower petals that were given out to throw at the couple instead of rice. A picture of a table setting, a picture of the cake. And at first I was thinking, these were nice memories, these were nice keepsakes. But it went on; more gown closeups, the veil, the tiara, and finally…the shoes.
Not with feet in them, mind you. Just the shoes. A full size, extra large shot of white satin shoes with rhinestone buckle. I believe you could read the brand name still embossed on the insole. This is when I understood.
It’s a fetish.
Katrina Grief
Today is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it is Katrina Blogswarm day as well. Here’s my contribution.
Political writers better-informed than I can talk about the horrendous incompetent evil political shit of Katrina. New Orleanians can talk about the devastation from ground-level. I think and write best when I make it personal, and what is personal to me about Katrina is grief and the absence of grief.
Where is the grief? I have asked before when we, as a culture, became so gorram harsh. As a companion to that, when did we become so numb? We aren’t we hurting?
I can point especially to the far right; the Limbaughs and O’Reillys and their evil minions who are okay with torture and okay with the death of children and okay with the drowning of a city. But has it infected the rest of us? Because what I don’t see is just the sadness, just the sense of loss. From that would arise outrage; from that would arise the will to change.
We have seen the destruction of an American city, and we have grieved for a couple of weeks, and then we’ve gone back to Project Runway. I grieve for New Orleans, and I grieve for us, who are so numb, as well.
The Nexus of Politics & Terror
I’ve been hearing about this Olbermann Countdown, and I’ve been trying to find a transcript, and thanks to Pandagon, here it is.
The gist of it is a fairly brilliant timeline showing the coincidence of political events unfavorable to the Republicans and terror alerts (generally two to four days later). This is a “top ten” that doesn’t even include last week’s little liquid crisis.
Here’s an excerpt, just to whet your appetite.
No. 9, July 29, 2004, at their party convention in Boston, the Democrats formally nominate John Kerry as their candidate for president. As in the wake of any convention the Democrats now dominate the media attention over the subsequent weekend.
August 1, 2004, Monday morning, three days later…
The department of Homeland Security raises the alert status for financial centers in New York, New Jersey, and Washington to orange. The evidence supporting the warning, reconnaissance data left in a home in Iraq. Later proves to be roughly four years old and largely out of date.
(Emphasis added.)
Read the whole thing. Seriously.
Former Ambassador’s Analysis of the Terror Plot
Via This Modern World, Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, asks what really happened.
None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn’t be a plane bomber for quite some time.
In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.
Let’s pick on the fat girl
Okay, I’m back on Saved! I want to talk about the way that this movie, supposedly a force for tolerance and acceptance, reinforces and supports looks-prejudice and fat-prejudice.
(Man, I made it sound fun, didn’t I?)
At one point in the movie, the trio of outcasts (a pregnant girl, a Jewish girl, and the brother of our Bitch Villainess) decide to strike back. The brother (Macaulay Culkin, whose character uses a wheelchair) reveals that Hillary Faye wasn’t always a beauty, and shows his friends a picture of her when she was *gasp* fat (and pimply and wore braces).
Now, Hillary Faye (played by Mandy Moore) is mean and domineering. She abuses people by being holier than thou, and using the Bible as a weapon (literally, in one scene). What she never does is mock or humiliate anyone on any issues other than religiosity or sinfulness. She never, in the course of the film, remarks on beauty or size (but there are, of course, no fat people) or race.
Team Connecticut
Joe Lieberman lost, lost, lost the Connecticut Democratic primary. In his non-concession speech, he said:
Now let me tell you how I see where we are now,” the senator continued, in a speech that was less of a concession than a confirmation that he would not back down. “I’m a sports fan, so I’m going to use a sports comparison, and as I see it in this campaign, we’ve just finished the first half and the Lamont team is ahead. But in the second half, our team — Team Connecticut — is going to surge forward to victory in November.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Team Connecticut just, uhhh, vote? And not for Lieberman? Just asking.
(I love the smell of cross-post in the morning.)
Jesus for School Girls
I was not impressed by Saved!. It was all the usual high school cliches transported to the context of an Evangelical high school. Mandy Moore plays the pretty bitch that every high school movie must have, and while I acknowledge that such girls exist, one of these days I simply must analyze the patriarchal underpinnings of making them the inevitable target of scorn.
Anyway. Moore plays a self-satisfied, clique-running, all-powerful high school diva. Only in this movie, she’s a Jesus-freak diva. Now, a bitch diva like this girl will use whatever the prevailing social structure is to have, hold, and abuse power. That’s her nature. So, in her particular culture, she uses Jesus and salvation as her bludgeon.
I wonder if anyone within the Evangelical community has asked themselves if that is what they really want. They create social pressure to be Christian because social pressure is an effective tool. But the cost is that anyone who wants to abuse power can do so in Jesus’s name. Are any of them asking if that equation is worthwhile? If having a “Christian culture” is worth the price of turning salvation into just one more way for bitches to bitch and abusers to abuse? Because that price is inevitable as long as your salvation is a matter of public discussion.
Where religion and faith are private, there is no social coin in being voted Most Likely to Resurrect. Where religion and faith are public and necessary, some people will have them simply to get elected prom queen.
(By coincidence, while I was writing this post in my head, this article appeared at Pandagon.)
(Cross-posts R Us.)
It’s “perverted” to criticize Mel?
Jewish comedian Jackie Mason says of those of us who are speaking out against Gibson’s anti-Semitism:
all these people are very sick; they’re getting a vicious, sick, perverted, sadistic thrill out of this whole thing.
Huh? Baby, I enjoy as many sick, perverted thrills as the next girl, but I assure you, Gibson’s tirades against the Jews don’t qualify.
Mason adds, about Gibson
the guy’s been a great crusader against anti-Semitism.
In what universe? Based on what evidence? Based on what public statements or actions or behaviors?
Mason also criticizes struggling actors who are “jealous” of Gibson. That’s nothing, kids, compared with has-been comics who are riding on his coattails.
Listen up, people. Plan B is NOT an abortion pill.
Today’s depressing news is from Feministing (again). It seems that
- Most women don’t know the difference between Plan B and RU-486
- Most women think Plan B is an abortion pill
- Most women don’t know the circumstances under which they should take Plan B
Geez, Louise, how many times do I have to tell you? Educate yourselves, educate your community. Plan B is contraception. Not abortion. It doesn’t end pregnancy, it prevents it.
Hey, I’m past childbearing. This is for your benefit, girls. If the condom breaks; if the contraceptive fails for any reason, you can take Plan B up to 3 days after intercourse and prevent pregnancy.
