Mr. & Mrs. Smith Sucks & Other Tales
November 30, 2005
A few snippets from my brain today:
- I love Angelina Jolie for many reasons, most of which are enumerated here. But the movie that brought her together with her lesser half (a.k.a. Brad “little penis, ugly face” Pitt) is an absolute disaster.
- Did anyone else notice how none of the networks picked up President Bush’s speech at Annapolis today? It wasn’t even front page news on CNN.com for more than an hour, because he doesn’t have anything new to say. And those posters behind him! Those were so standard Bush administration. It’s like nobody in the White House knows what to do when their usual tactics stop working because they’ve gotten rid of anyone who ever had an original idea.
- My eyebrows really need to be waxed and I want a massage.
- I miss my girlies.
- Aeon Flux comes out on Friday. And its star, Charlize Theron supports gay marriage. Yes!
- The New York Times: Forced to Marry Before Puberty, African Girls Pay Lasting Price - Throughout the Northern regions of SubSaharan Africa, many girls - sometimes as young as 11 - are forced to marry in order to pay back the debts of their fathers. They are condemned to lifetimes of misery and oppression.
- NPR: Iraq and the Murtha Plan: Stay or Go? - Mike Heidingsfield - trainer of Iraqi Security Forces - reacts to Representative Murtha’s plan to bring the troops home.
- The New York Times: As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation - They mentioned my company, The Blog Business Summit.
- The New York Times>: Poor Grades Aside, Athletes Get Into College on a $399 Diploma - Athletes have been using an easy-as-pie correspondence school to get past NCAA scholarship restrictions about high school GPA and SAT scores.
Oral Fixation Vol. 2 is Singular, Warm and Incredible
November 29, 2005
Fijación Oral Vol. 1 was comforting; a beautiful, well-written and amazingly put together album. I grew up listening to Shakira in Spanish. So after 2001’s Laundry Service, listening to her in Spanish again was like slipping into a warm bath.
Laundry Service was also an incredible album, but it made me uncomfortable. There was something fundamentally wrong about that rich, wailing voice belting out English lyrics. But this time around, Shakira singing in English feels almost as warm and familiar as her Spanish albums.
And since the unfamiliarity of language has been set aside, I can truly appreciate the genius of this album. My personal favorite is the ostensible second single, “Animal City.” The song is a rollicking ride, full of rich, percussive guitar riffs and the mournful howls of wolves. If you’re going to snag one song from this album, “Animal City” is the one.
Self-perception and Success
November 28, 2005
Both of my parents have an intense work ethic, which I seem to have inherited. I was so determined to get into a good college that in high school, I hooked my GPA directly to my self-esteem and worked like a dog. I’d get to school at 5:30 in the morning and I wouldn’t leave until 7:00 many nights. With choir, musicals, and all the AP classes I took - I didn’t really have much of a life outside of textbooks and rehearsals.
Then in college I gave myself a bit of a break. Yes, I’d still beat myself up if I missed class or turned in a sloppy assignment, but I figured that I’d worked hard in high school to enjoy a good college. So I did. And now I’m out in the working world and I feel like I’ve got to regain all the self-discipline I had in high school but lost in college.
And of course, I never give myself enough credit. Because I’m pretty sure I’m doing fine on most counts. But there’s something about making sure I’ve clocked that 40th (or 50th) hour each week that reminds me of the days when I would set up algebra equations to calculate the score I’d have to get on my final exam to keep my “A” in the class.
And until I manage to take over my car insurance payments from my dad and my cell phone bills from my mom, I won’t feel like a self-supporting adult. Even if I am paying my own rent, health insurance, internet and utilities and putting food in the fridge. I know this is a transitional period and it takes a while after college for a person to function independently - but it feels like I’m waiting interminably to get my life off the ground.
By the way, Verizon sucks! When my term of service is up, I’m switching to Comcast.
Hiring Cheerleaders to Sell Pharmeceuticals: Sexism or Mere Sales Acumen?
November 27, 2005
The New York Times recently reported that pharmaceutical companies have been recruiting the nation’s female college cheerleaders to rep their brands to doctors, who are still mostly male.
According to the article, sexual harassment is rampant in doctor/pharm rep relationships - to the point where it’s becoming something of a cliché. Regardless of the fact that most of these women know the drugs they’re selling inside and out, they’re primarily being hired to sell things with sex.
You probably expect me to have a problem with this - being a feminist and all. But I don’t have a special problem with this, at least not above and beyond the problems I’ve already expressed with our culture. Models sell cars and clothes with their good looks. Sex sells, and pharmaceuticals are no exception. When a doctor misbehaves, obviously the problem needs to be looked into. But you’ll never find an ugly salesperson in any other field, why not pharmaceuticals?
What I don’t like is the idea that the drug companies are exploiting these women by not being supportive when a doc gets out of line, or by asking them to exploit their personal relationships with doctors to sell more product as was the case with one rep interviewed for the article. Sales reps should be judged on their sales. They should be asked to do only what they’re comfortable with and no more.
The larger problem is obvious, and it’s been discussed ad nauseam for a long time. Our culture still values women’s bodies over our minds. Many of the problems we have with sexism stem from this root cause. Until we get at the root, we have no hope of eradicating the symptoms. So doctors, start recognizing that while your pharm rep may have a beautiful face, amazing breasts and legs that go for miles - she’s got something much more important: the information you need to figure out whether your patients can use the drug she’s selling. Flirt appropriately if you must - you’re human after all - but if you prescribe drugs based on how well they’re represented and your best judgment as a physician, you make the whole problem moot.
Roundup of Interesting News
November 27, 2005
I’ve been enjoying a nice long stretch of weekend with my fiancé in town, so forgive me for not posting sooner. He’s leaving later this afternoon :(, so just for today, I’m going to be a news aggregator and post a few stories I found interesting and why. I’ll be back to normal blogging tomorrow.
Enjoy the articles, back to ranting about the state of the universe tomorrow.
Thanksgiving at a Gas Station
November 24, 2005
We were on our way to my family’s Thanksgiving feast when I pulled off to buy some gasoline. I was filling up the car, and I thought the pump was off when I pulled it out of my gas tank only to be sprayed head to toe with gas. My beautiful clothes: Ann Taylor cashmere turtleneck, Bebe jeans, Kenneth Cole python ankle boots and my Nicole Miller grey suede trench coat were all soaked with petrochemical fuel.
And when I went into the station crying, the attendant just laughed at me.
I would recommend that you don’t buy your gas at the Houghton Shell station in Kirkland unless absolutely necessary. And I hope that attendant gets replaced by a robot in short order.
Anyone know the best dry cleaner in the greater Seattle metro area? I’m going to need his or her number.
Growing Pains at the Pump: Capitalism will Finally Drive Conservation
November 23, 2005
The economy vs. conservation is an age-old debate. But according to Wired.com’s Spencer Reiss, all these high gas prices are going to drive alternative fuel innovation. The oil barons may be getting rich by hiking prices now, but let’s see the looks on their faces when synthetic diesel or corn oil becomes the next big thing in energy.
It almost makes me feel better about paying $30 for a tank of gas. Almost.
Even the Iraqis Want U.S. Out
November 22, 2005
Despite weeks of sectarian violence in Iraq, the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are able to agree on one thing: they want the United States out of their country as soon as possible. And despite American military leaders’ protestations - they want it on a timetable. This was the encouraging message at the end of a recent Arab League meeting designed to broker discussion between the three sects, whose diverse interests threaten to plunge the fledgeling democracy into civil war. [The New York Times].
Iraq is recognizing that the American military presence is doing more harm than good because we are attracting terrorists to their country. They even expressed some tacit understanding for the resistance saying in their joint statement at the resolution of the conference that “national resistance is a legitimate right of all nations.”
State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said today that, “the coalition remains committed to helping the Iraqi people achieve security and stability as they rebuild their country. We will stay as long as it takes to achieve those goals and no longer.” And if this month’s Atlantic is to be believed, that won’t be for a long time. According to the December cover story, Iraq’s military is woefully unprepared to take over when the U.S. pulls out - and the Bush administration has never taken that problem seriously.
Why? Because the Bush administration never intends to leave Iraq. We don’t have an exit strategy because if this administration has its way - we’ll never exit. Instead, we’ll create a dependent Iraq. A client state that relies on us to maintain their stability in exchange for control of the oil. It’s just one more sign that this war was never about liberation or democracy, but about control of the fossil fuel reserves that run deep beneath Iraq’s sands.
What remains to be seen is how the Bush administration will respond to the Iraqis demands that their sovereignty be respected. Watch their next move, folks. If they find excuses to continue the occupation against the Iraqi government’s wishes, it will reveal a great deal about their true intentions. But with the growing dissent here at home and the Iraqi government’s expressed wish to see us withdraw on a timetable they may be shit out of luck. It looks an awful lot like Bush just lost control of his own war.
Image by David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
CIA Prisons & Flights: United States Will Face Legitimacy Problems in Europe
November 20, 2005
In a report from the European Union this week, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports that recent stories in the European media of secret CIA activities inside Europe have sparked outrage from all quarters. Secret prisons in Eastern Europe, covert flights carrying prisoners from Spanish airports and the kidnapping and torture of a radical Muslim cleric from Milan are just some of the allegations against the CIA.
These sorts of things threaten our legitimacy the world over. When people hear that we’re accused of arresting people without a warrant and torturing them in foreign countries, they start to wonder if the picture the terrorists paint of us is more accurate than they’d like to believe. When they hear things like this, even those who disagree strongly with Al Quaeda’s violent methods and radical vision of an Islamofascist world begin to wonder whether maybe they’re right to hate us after all.
This is an issue totally separate from whether these allegations are true. Of course, I’m very concerned that they may be - as the implications for human rights are staggering. But in the true war on terror, the war of ideas, these allegations are devastating. For years, the United States has been a beacon of freedom and democracy that the world has looked to as a guiding light. But where the world once saw light, it now sees lies, conspiracies and coverups. And that’s a larger defeat than any we can see on the battlefield.
Because whether or not we succeed in eliminating Al Quaeda’s militarily capabilities, we will have lost the larger war if the world no longer answers our clarion call to equality, liberty, and justice for all.
In a Nutshell: Abstinence-Only Education Movement Aims to Keep Women in our Place
November 20, 2005
Sometimes a search result from Google or a tiny piece of information on a website can be worth a thousand words. Like this synopsis of Kay James’ book What I Wish I’d Known Before I Got Married from an abstinence-only website. It shows the link between the abstinence-only education movement and the anti-woman backlash.
The book emphasizes that, “the apostle Paul exhorted older women not to inspire or counsel younger women, but to teach them how to be wives to their husbands.” So it’s basically encouraging older women to mentor their younger counterparts only as wives, not to nurture them professionally or to help them grow as individuals.
Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Why Iraq is Bad for America
November 18, 2005
In the years since Vietnam made the draft unpopular, the United States has relied on a volunteer military. But a recent study showed that the all branches of our armed forces have signed up only a third of their targeted combat positions over the past year. The problem has become so bad that the armed forces have had to institute a backdoor draft - using a “stop loss” policy to prevent soldiers who have completed their tours of duty from returning home.
This is not happening because my generation is less patriotic or more yellow-bellied than those past. It’s because the vast majority of us no longer believe in our reasons for being in Iraq. We don’t see those reasons as worth dying for.
If this were 1941, you can bet we’d be signing up for the armed forces left and right. Hell, I’d even sign up, and I’m not exactly the military type. I don’t take orders well and I can’t handle the recoil on an AR-15 let alone an M-16. I ask a lot of questions and I look terrible in olive drab, but I would die to protect the world from Hitler. If this were 1941, nobody would be protesting in the streets or counting the death toll and pointing at the White House. That’s because in 1941, the war meant something.
I can hear all you conservatives now, protesting loudly, “but we were ATTACKED! Doesn’t 9/11 mean anything to you? Isn’t stopping terrorism worth your life?” Yes, we were attacked. Yes, 9/11 means something to me. And yes, stopping terrorism is worth my life. If I could rid the earth of the ideals that lead people to fly planes into buildings, I’d go to my death with a shit-eating grin on my face.
Read more
Another Example of Bush Administration’s Arrogance
November 17, 2005
Remember that week a while back when Miers withdrew on Thursday and Libby was indicted by Friday? Then on Monday morning Bush nominated Alito.
That was what we psychology types like to call deflection. It was a “look over here” defense mechanism that this administration arrogantly believed would press a “reset” button on all the national anger and legislative backlash over their foibles and failings. It’s just one more example of the irresponsible, arrogant, inflated bullshit that goes on in this White House. They actually believed that they could change the subject and go back to 70% approval ratings.
No, Mr. President, it’s more complicated than that. This national anger has been a long time coming, and it’s not going away. You’re going to have to deal with criticism and questioning, and calling it irresponsible isn’t going to make it go away. You’re the irresponsible one. It’s time you accepted some accountability for your decisions in office.
First Strippers, Now Freak Dancing. What’s Wrong with Seattle?
November 16, 2005
When the Seattle City Council passed a resolution establishing a mandatory four foot distance between strippers and patrons at all Seattle strip clubs - I was disgusted. Nobody goes to strip clubs just to watch. It’s all about the lap dances. That’s what makes money for the women who work at strip clubs. Without that money many of them turn to prostitution.
Often, policy makers create rules that are meant to enforce morality, and in the process they wind up hurting people more than they help them. Banning abortion hurts women, banning lap dances hurts sex workers - and now Seattle’s school districts are working to ban what’s called freak dancing because they say it encourages sex.
Like the tango, freaking is a vertical expression of a very horizontal desire. I freak danced a lot in high school. Like most girls my age I was curious about sex, but I knew I wasn’t ready. Freaking gave me a chance to be sexual with my boyfriend without us being alone together.
When I finally did lose my virginity, I was well into my college years and I was in love. It happened on my terms. I’m not saying that freak dancing saved me from having sex at a younger age - but I know it acted like a pressure valve.
When you ban things in the hopes of curtailing sex, you just drive the behaviors underground. No policy you can create will stop people from doing what they’re already going to do.
Women will get pregnant with babies they don’t want to keep. They will have abortions, legal or not. If the abortions are not safe, they will die.
When you ban lap dances, you drive strippers to prostitution. Now instead of dancing for customers in relatively safe clubs with bouncers and security guards, they’ll be having sex for money in seedy motels where they can be raped, murdered or otherwise brutalized.
And teenagers who are no longer allowed to freak dance at school dances won’t stop being sexual with each other. They’ll just seek out more private situations in which to explore their developing sexuality. And that leads to premature sex to a much greater degree then any amount of sweaty, horny grinding on a dance floor.
I say, let the kids have their fun.
Arrest FOX, Not Arrested Development!
November 14, 2005
I don’t watch much TV. The only shows I’ve ever viewed religiously have something to do with Star Trek. I now follow ABC’s Commander in Chief because (a) I hate our real CinC, (b) a woman should be president, and (c) Geena Davis is hot.
But even I am outraged by the catastrophe that is the cancellation of FOX’s Arrested Development. FOX seems to have a history of cancelling shows that are incredibly well put together simply because their ratings in the first few seasons don’t perform the way they’d hoped. Take Firefly and Family Guy for examples. Both incredible series were canceled because FOX couldn’t see their genius until the DVD sales became so cultishly huge that they were forced to bring one back and make a movie out of the other.
Is it going to take huge cult DVD sales to show FOX that Arrested Development is worth saving?
Alito’s Alma Mater Doesn’t Want Him on the Supreme Court
November 13, 2005
Yale Law School has a history of sending controversial nominees to the Supreme Court. Among Samuel Alito’s predecessors in the hot seat are failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and now associate justice Clarence Thomas.
According to this New York Times Thomas, who was confirmed by a vote of only 52 to 48 in the full Senate, severed ties with his Alma Mater after its students vociferously opposed his nomination. Bork has a similarly frosty relationship with the school - whose leanings are decidedly progressive.
According to the Times:
The mood [at Yale Law] appeared to be cautiously hostile. A few students who supported Judge Alito tended to make strategic or structural arguments. Some said, for example, that ideology alone should not derail a candidate who was otherwise qualified.
But the dominant view, based on a day of interviews at the law school, appeared to be that Judge Alito’s jurisprudence represented a betrayal of the law school’s liberal values.
What does it tell us that students at his own law school - a school whose students have previously rallied in opposition to two highly problematic nominees - oppose Alito’s nomination?
It may not be enough to hold up in the Senate Judiciary hearings, but it’s one more reason why we should be working to defeat Sam Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court
Bush’s Speech Won’t Turn the Tide
November 12, 2005
President Bush’s speech yesterday criticizing opponents of the Iraq war is a sign that the maelstrom is only just beginning. This administration obviously feels threatened by allegations that it knowlingly used false intelligenge to take the country to war. So threatened that the President pulled out every one of his old rhetorical tricks - and a few new ones - to criticize the war’s detractors on Veterans’ Day.
But the detractors are not going away. Our criticisms will only grow stronger because they’re based on truth. What’s more, the American people have begun to ask questions about the reasons for this war.
Progressives have learned the hard way that the truth alone will not set us free. It must be accompanied by a clear platform based on values that Americans relate to. But in the case of this war, the truth is enough to crack the facade of infalibility that the Bush administration has cultivated so well thus far.
It’s a start.
Iraqis Behind Jordan Bombings, Anyone Surprised?
November 11, 2005
It’s being widely reported on the news that the recent hotel bombings in Amman were committed by four Iraqi terrorists. At first, I was surprised. If my memory serves me correctly the perpetrators of Islamofascist terrorist attacks are usually found to be Saudi or Egyptian. This is the first time in recent memory that Iraqis have been implicated.
Why is this significant? Because Iraq under Saddam was not producing terrorists. But under the new US-backed occupational government, it is. It’s increasingly clear: George W. Bush’s claim that we’re "fightin ‘em over there so we don’t hafta fight ‘em over here," doesn’t really hold much water. It would be more appropriate to say that we’re creating them over there so they can attack us over here.
The US-led invasion of Iraq - an action based on lies and manipulation - has delivered a generation of Iraqi men and women into the hands of Al Quaeda. Anyone still think it’s making us safer?
