Boobs You Can Use

An amazing online pictorial display of sixty-five household objects designed to look like female breastseses. Cocktail glasses, cooking ware, even mounted trophies, and the mouse above. Money quote:

Mouse1 I can, quite genuinely, understand why people look at one—or maybe even two, or three—of these items and dismiss them as "just a joke." If I wrote a post about just a frying pan that turns eggs into boobs, I’m certain even some truly feminist women and men would defend it as just a bit of harmless kitsch. It’s just a joke; what’s the big deal? I get that; I really do.

Which is why I went for critical mass.

Hilzoy writes:

I don’t know about you, but I think that anyone who uses this might as well put up a large sign saying: I don’t expect to have women over to my house, ever, for the rest of my natural life.

It’s just men, bloggers. They can’t help themselves. Ask Derb.

Leave Clinton Alone!

A reader begs:

If you can just relax a little on the Hillary-is-Satan crusade, I can stop grinding my teeth when I read your blog.  She’s probably my least likely choice for the nomination, but if I have to read any more about tips or plants, while FEMA is holding a press conference with itself, and the whole squad isn’t immediately fired for doing so, I may have to vote for her just for good old spite.

Perspective, priorities, eye on the ball. This current crowd can do a lot more damage before they leave office, and it’s all many orders of magnitude worse than anything that any administration has done at any time in the past, in my humble opinion.  These are your side’s renegades, so they’re your side’s special responsibility.  That’s your first job.  It’s not good enough to mention their horrendous transgressions and then go back to pantsuit fashion reviews.  You’ve got to clean your own yard first, and you’ve got to finish the job before you look over the fence.

Kirchick and Sieradski: Factually Wrong On Ron Paul

JTA Washington Bureau Chief, Ron Kampeas, writes:

This is kind of sensitive for me. My colleague, Daniel Sieradski, posted the "takes money from Nazis, won’t take calls from Jews" comment on his personal blog. On the other hand, he describes his exchanges with the Paul campaign in his capacity as a JTA staffer.

The problem with all this, is that the Paul campaign WAS responsive, giving my intern here, Beth Young, an exclusive statement on where Paul stands on Israel for a story we posted yesterday (the day Dan posted his blog item.) (I have no idea why Dan was pursuing his own story when he should have known DC was pursuing a story, but that’s a boring internal JTA matter.)

I pointed this out to my boss, asking her the best way to address the anomaly; she suggested (and I think this is wisest), that I simply point out that Dan’s blog posting is wrong, Paul does talk to the JTA – and point out Beth’s story.

Which is what I’m doing.

Turn-Around In Iraq

My optimistic military emailer from yesterday, it needs to be said, added this vital caveat:

Of course, all of this still means nothing if there is no political accommodation. There is not and has never been a military solution to Iraq.  The best we can do is keep chaos and fear from preventing a solution.

And the news on that front remains as dire as ever. That’s why I find Glenn Reynolds’ view of what’s happening in Iraq to be more than typically glib. Let’s hope he doesn’t unfurl a banner over his blog. It seems to me that we should all be thrilled at the sharp decline in violence in Iraq, alongside 160,000 US troops with a serious counter-insurgency strategy. I certainly didn’t think we could achieve that with that number of troops, and I’m still not entirely clear what the precise factors are behind it. But, despite this unexpected progress in bringing Iraq back from a hot civil war, I see no serious reason to believe that the potential for such a war re-booting is in any way "over". We still have no indication of the kind of national reconciliation that the surge was designed to engineer, and the president himself said was the sole criterion of success. That is the only meaningful rubric by which to judge the current strategy; and currently, it’s still failing – not because of the troops, but because of the Iraqi "leadership".

Sure, we could just use the short-term calm to get the hell out and hope for the best – but I thought that was the Democrats’ strategy, not Bush’s. (It’s basically my preferred strategy as well, at this point.) We have no idea what will happen when the surge ends, as it must, next spring. We have, thanks to Petraeus and exhausted troops, a once-only window of opportunity to rescue something from the wreckage. But that window closes soon – and only the Iraqi political leadership can take advantage of it. What reason do we have for believing they are now ready to sink their differences? Surely that’s the only basis to argue that the war is heading to a "successful close" rather than a permanent occupation. Or are they the same thing in the neocon mindset?

China, The U.S. And HIV

This must count as a moment for national shame:

China will relax a long-standing rule that bars foreigners with HIV from entering the country, a health official said. The law will be revised but a date has not yet been set, said Mao Qun’an, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, according to a transcript of a news conference posted on the ministry’s Web site late Monday.

Under a 1994 law, foreigners applying for a residency permit in China must take an HIV test. Visitors to the country are asked to declare whether they have the virus — and can be refused entry or deported if they do. The law also affects those with other sexually transmitted diseases or tuberculosis.

But Mao said China’s attitudes have changed. "At present, we are considering, and we are changing the present regulation that stops foreigners with HIV and AIDS from entering the country, and this job is under way," he said. He did not give any details on how the law would be revised.

But the U.S. still has such a ban – making America a leading proponent of HIV-discrimination and stigmatization. There was no reason but hysteria to equate HIV with malaria and TB when Jesse Helms added HIV to blanket bans on HIV-positive tourists, visitors and immigrants decades ago. All this time later, treating this disease as worthy of panicked pariah-status is absurdly anachronistic – and deeply stigmatizing to people living with an illness that cannot be spread like malaria or TB. The Bush administration’s own commission on HIV wants the immigration and travel ban lifted. So why is the US now behind China in sane, civilized standards on this matter?

Hillary Milhous Clinton

Obsessive secrecy; contempt for the press; planted questions; choreographed events; and brutal payback for any reporters daring to ask tough questions – these are some of the patterns that the press has come to know, from long experience, about the Clinton machine. Crowley explains:

Even seasoned political journalists describe reporting on Hillary as a torturous experience. Though few dare offer specifics for the record–"They’re too smart," one furtively confides. "They’ll figure out who I am"–privately, they recount excruciating battles to secure basic facts. Innocent queries are met with deep suspicion. Only surgically precise questioning yields relevant answers.

If Dish readers wonder why I’ve been so relentless in trying to highlight these unsavory facets of the Democratic front-runner, it is partly because so many in the MSM have been cowed by her and partly because the GOP is happy to let her coast to victory. It is also because I fear that the re-constituted presidency, engineered by Bush and Cheney would likely exacerbate all her worst qualities. Yes, I worry about abuse of power in her hands. I bet you that plenty of Republicans will feel the same way when the law-free executive branch they have supported these past few years turns its attention on them.