Fat, Unpleasant American Sex (I forgot the adjective stupid too)

The Huffington Post has an interesting article on how the Democrats should combat questions of privacy versus the ever-present fear of being called ‘unpatriotic’. Basically, Americans are too dumb to decipher patriotism against propoganda, so we need to dumb down the debate to ‘we aren’t at war, so our privacy shouldn’t be at stake’, instead of ‘our privacy and rights should never be at stake’.

In other news, Montenegro has voted for independence from Serbia. Also, there are protest babes (wait — are these protest babes, independence babes, or freedom babes?).

And on the topics of babes, Americans are apparently as bad at sex as they are at eating. Mr. Rapaille provides one of the better quotes of living in America instead of France: “Now, I choose to be American because I’d rather be part of an adolescent culture than a senile culture.” And an even better one about religion in America:

Religion in America is Disney World. We’re not really serious about it the way the Muslims are. We just want some rituals, we have so many different brands of religion. We like the stories about it and talking about what they say and don’t say. It’s little stories for children. When in Kansas they try to stop the teaching of evolution, it’s like at Disney World. If you are in the Mickey Mouse costume, the rule is that you never take off your mask. You’re not supposed to show in public that there is a real guy under the mask. That’s religion in America; let the people keep their illusions. Don’t show the reality.

Short & Made of Meat

Salon has an article about the image of women in media — specifically, being idiots.

“Some of the images currently being retailed to teens illuminate both how far young women have come, and how easy it still is to cling to, recycle and sell outmoded yet comfortable images of unthreatening femininity.”

And a couple of sentences later: “I chose “I Like It Like That,” mostly because the lipstick-application-cum-simulation-of-fellatio cover and a blurb promising “plenty of aprés-ski hot tub fun” Does this need any more explaining? These are the SEEDS YOU SOWED. The feminist movement went from hero to zero in approximately 40 years and there is no one to blame but females themselves.

A conservative talk show host printed an open letter apologizing for voting for George Bush. I’ll let him sum it up best:

Katrina, Harriet Myers, The Dubai Port Deal, skyrocketing gas prices, shrinking wages for working people, staggering debt, astronomical foreign debt, outsourcing, open borders, contempt for the opinion of the American people, the war on science, media manipulation, faith based initiatives, a cavalier attitude toward fundamental freedoms– this President has run the most arrogant and out-of-touch administration in my lifetime, perhaps, in any American’s lifetime.

News to Throw Your Views Askew

Blaine Harden at the WP writes an excellent expose on the socio-economic realities facing the post-Katrina rebuilding of New Orleans.

“I am not a conspiracy person,” said William Quigley, a professor at Loyola University Law School in New Orleans and director of its Gillis Long Poverty Law Center, “but it is pretty hard to argue with the facts on the ground. If you are black in the Lower Ninth and you don’t have electricity, water or a FEMA trailer and nobody is giving you a timeline when you will, that is a hell of a lot of conspiracy dots to connect.”

If there was a draft day for philosophers, Spinoza would make for an excellent late second round pick. Atheist in the 17th century? Good work. Salon has a review on a recent biography on him by Rebecca Goldstein. My response was great article (but); Has anyone picked up on the movement of orthodox and right-wing Jews in general to claim every “Jewish” figure as their own? Spinoza may have been born into a Jewish family, but it was birth not by choice. All of his thoughts were of an articulate, intelligent HUMAN, not some isolated credo that manifests itself in Jewish people only. And is it surprising that Rebecca Goldstein, someone raised obviously in an orthodox family, wants to elaborate on Spinoza as a ‘Jewish thinker’, as if it that differentiates him from the rest of the world in the most Oriental of ways.

My basic rational being: he’s a human, he was a philosopher, and he lived in Europe, don’t label his life as Jewish because of your trite 21st century perceptions. In the words of Daniel Johnston: Do yourself a favor, be your own savior.

Also, I am bibliophile. Does anyone want to make me an official Communist Party Member by the way?

News to Spit on Your Antiquated Views

BBCNews has an excellent report on what states are under the microscope for the 2006 midterm election. The one saving grace for the Republicans, associated with an unpopular war and an even more unpopular President, is that they get to run against Democrats, who are perennial experts at proving their incompetence at running campaign.

The UN has released a list of the top 10 most underreported stories concerning the world. In the ‘obvious’ section: “Every year, the U.N.’s Department of Public Information (DPI) unveils its list of the world’s 10 most under-reported stories, implying that politics, murder and sex scandals still take precedence over poverty, peace-building or economic developments.”

Coming Anarchy has a good post on the recent violence that has swept through San Paolo, Brazil, mainly from one of the world’s largest and best managed criminal organizations. Plus it references one of the best movies made in the past 25 years, City of God.

The Washington Post also has an article about the health concerns associated with teenage sex. The most telling quote:

“They tend to agree that the mixed message America sends to teens about sex — authorities say “don’t” while mass media screams “What are you waiting for?”– endanger our children.

The outcome? Levels of teen sexual activity look remarkably similar here and abroad, but U.S. rates of teen pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases are among the highest of all industrialized nations…”

In a less serious and spiteful tone, where else can you read “Ah, Adama, it’s the penis. The wooden penis. Once, I feared it. Now it calls to me in my dreams and tells me to carry it everywhere.” Only on Salon, which has a book review of a post-abroad white boy story. Also, from the same review, this sounds exactly like me: “Adama’s love life, it must be said, is much like that of the average American male in his 20s: flailing, contradictory and unconsidered. He is teased mercilessly by the local flirt, launches a formal courtship of a regal herdsman’s daughter (only to chicken out after he wins her hand) and falls in love with two women — one married, the other a prostitute — neither of whom is foolish enough to take him too seriously.

Today’s history lesson: it’s the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution in China. BBCNews has a collection of eye witness accounts from what became one of the biggest acts of genocide and mob-violence in human history.

Oh, and Bill O’Reilly is still a piece of shit.

News to Clean Your Shoes

You know when the shits hit the fan? When Joe Scarborough, someone who attempts to be more smeary and conservative then his Fox News FUHRERS, denounces the policies of the NSA and George Bush amid the recent NSA-spy-on-every-American scandal. It also doesn’t help if you are easy prey, with new polls showing less than 30% approval ratings and thousands have died in Baghdad alone in the pastmonth.

In similar affairs, Salon has an expose on ‘The Rise of Christian Nationalism’. For further evidence, John McCain, once a staunch opponent of the proposed federal ban on gay marriage, has been moving further to the right to pander to the ultra-right that did not back his 2000 nomination.

In other news, people at the United Nations still they think they are important. This includes Kofi Annan, who has called for a ‘Green Energy Revolution’. This does not include turning bodies of victims of the Rwandan or Darfur genocide into carbon-based fuel.

Ever felt that politics is just a bunch of bull shit? Ever wonder if things get accomplished behind closed doors? The answer is no. And the NYTimes proved it (or at least antedotally!).

In the funny link of the day: it’s the Super Mario Brother! I hope he wasn’t looking for E3 passes (Mmm gliven). Part two of funny link: the Mohammed hamster dance!