Month: June 2011

Autumn Whitefield-Madrano avoided her reflection for a month:

There’s nothing wrong with looking in the mirror. There’s nothing wrong with sometimes looking to your reflection—even when it is impossibly subjective, and backward at that—for a breath of fortitude, centeredness, and assurance. I just want to see what life is like when I’m not using that image as my anchor; I want to see how it affects the way I move through the world, the way I regard myself and others. I want to know what it’s like to sever a primary tie to one of my greatest personal flaws—extraordinary self-consciousness—and I want to discover what will fill the space that the mirror has occupied until now.

In a follow-up post, she struggles with a stranger staring at her on a subway:

Not feeling like I had an accurate reading of whether that fellow was looking at me with approval, disdain, lust, curiosity, attraction, or repulsion left me feeling adrift. I had no anchor to hold onto, no private feeling of, “Well, I do look nice today” or “I wish he would stop staring at the enormous pimple on my chin.” Without having any idea what he might be seeing, I had no idea how I should feel about him looking at me.

(Photo by Flickr user Redskynight)

Stanley Greenberg focus-grouped the Democrats' talking points on the economy. Blumenthal summarizes:

The results show that backward-looking campaign messages about who is to blame for the recession or whether the recovery efforts are succeeding are doomed to failure. Instead Greenberg is urging Democrats to look forward, embrace the ongoing economic hardship and propose solutions that target perceived greed and unfairness.

Douthat, meanwhile, previews the GOP's economic attacks.

A reader perfectly captures our sentiments regarding the latest Hathos Alert:

I'm sure the artists in that "Freedom for Palestine" video mean well, but there's a paternalistic and even imperialist strain to music videos like this and its predecessors (Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas," USA for Africa's "We Are the World"), as if Palestinians require a bunch of Western pop stars (or non-stars) to articulate the Palestinian case for human rights, dignity, and an independent Palestinian state. Why listen to a bunch of Brits sing a bad pop song when we can listen to the music and lyrics of Palestinians themselves, who have found in hip-hop a powerful way of giving voice to their grievances? 

For instance, check out DAM and their songs "Who's the Terrorist?" and "Born Here" [embedded above].  And watch the documentary "Slingshop Hiphop" (trailer here) to learn more about Palestinian hip-hop, from both '48ers like DAM and '67ers in Gaza and the West Bank.  It's a window into the Palestinian experience, but also a look at how the music of the U.S. black inner-city has gone global, becoming the music of the oppressed worldwide.

Erica Grieder ignores Palinmania:

[I]f I was to take a super-dose of Nyquil and wake up in January 2012 to see President Palin on the television, I would still be sanguine. … I would guess that somehow Mrs Palin, during the course of her campaign, had managed to answer her critics on both sides of the aisle, to present a compelling policy platform, and to demonstrate the leadership qualities—magnanimity, steadiness, and optimism—which have heretofore eluded her as a national figure. …

The objections to Mrs Palin are about personality rather than policy. The fear is that she's too reckless, too divisive and too intemperate to be an effective president. If that's the case, there's no reason to think that voters will go for it.

Here's hoping. But my objections are not just about her clinical delusions or extreme narcissism or inability to engage reality. They are about policy. Given the massive debt, I think her prescription of more, big tax cuts is like giving an alcoholic a free jagermeister supply. Given the perilous instability and transformation in the Middle East, I think accelerating the colonization of the West Bank is insanely reckless, and striking Iran potentially catastrophic. An energy policy that focuses entirely on sustaining a carbon economy is terribly short-sighted. I suspect she would gladly bring back torture into the American government. Above all, I agree with George Will that someone this unstable, this disturbed and this delusional having access to the nuclear codes terrifies me. These concerns are not all about personality, although in her case, I think we have someone outside any conventional boundaries of responsibility. They are also about preventing America accelerating its decline.

A reader writes:

In the photo labeled, "Another dad picking up the kids after work" (in Amsterdam), you'll note that the kids are not wearing helmets, as would be required in this country. Meaning that Holland is less of a nanny state than the US.

According to Wikipedia:

The following countries have mandatory helmet laws, in at least one jurisdiction, for either minors only, or for all riders: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States. In the U.S. 37 states have mandatory helmet laws,[110] and nearly 9 in 10 adults support helmet laws for children.[111]

Although the link is not causal, it is observed that the countries with the best cycle safety records (Denmark and the Netherlands) have among the lowest levels of helmet use.[113] Their bicycle safety record is generally attributed to public awareness and understanding of cyclists, safety in numbers, education, and to some extent separation from motor traffic.

A reader points to an article that asks, "Can Cannabis Reduce HIV Disease Progression?"

"These results indicate that chronic [THC] does not increase viral load or aggravate morbidity and may actually ameliorate SIV [Simiam immunodeficiency virus] disease progression," the study authors concluded…. "We speculate that reduced levels of SIV, retention of body mass, and attenuation of inflammation are likely mechanisms for [THC]-mediated modulation of disease progression that warrant further study," they wrote.

Annie Lowrey says the recent economic "setbacks are hardly unexpected":

Most analyses of the kind of recession we are having—the kind that follows a massive financial crisis and an asset-price bubble that led to too much leverage throughout the economy—indicate that things should be pretty bad right now. They're correct. The IMF, for instance, warned as far back as 2009 that the "combination of financial crisis and a globally synchronized downturn is likely to result in an unusually severe and long-lasting recession." Economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, who have studied 800 years of recessions and panics, concur. "I would say we're right on track," Reinhart says. "Yes, the recovery looks long, but that's because we haven't had a financial crisis this severe since World War II."

Delorean's hit single "Stay Close" gets a longboard remix:

A reader writes:

I think the higher acceptance of polygamy makes sense if you take into account, for lack of a better term, the Dan Savage demographic where there is stark moral difference between people who are in open relationships and people who would be considered a CPOS (Cheating Piece of Shit). In other words, at least polygamists are honest. Cheating on your spouse involves an inherent act of deception.

Another writes:

I think these kind of surveys would be a lot more interesting if people were asked to rate each issue on a scale of 1 to 5.  The average of these ratings would be much more indicative of how people feel (and the intensity of their feelings) than the percentage of people who find each issue morally wrong.  I would wager that polygamy and adultery would switch positions in my schema.  Nearly everyone may think adultery is morally wrong but they probably don't feel so intensely about it as they do about polygamy.

Another:

More shocking is that 66% of Americans think pornography is morally wrong. This requires an astonishing amount of denial and hypocrisy. The majority of women have watched or watch porn, and the overwhelming majority of men watch porn. This means that most of the people who answered "morally wrong" do it. The same sort of hypocrisy is on display with the 36% who deem sex between unmarried adults as "morally wrong" despite the fact that statistics show that most of those people weren't virgins at the altar.

And I don't know what I think of a country that deems the death penalty more moral than an unmarried couple making love. Whatever it is, it's not good.

It's the little victories in life:

The Gilbert Gottfried impression is what clinches it. More kid inspiration here.

Update from a reader:

Here's the original video without the music, which is higher resolution quality.  It's a co-worker of mine's friend's kid – tough not to smile when watching it.

(Hat tip: Zach Klein)