Friday, November 30, 2007

Hostage Situation at Clinton Campaign Office

via CNN.

If I hear more, I'll be posting it.

**Update**

The two hostages have been freed, though CNN reports that the gunman is believed to remain in the building.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Like It Could Have Been Anything Else...

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful.
You show the world what culture really is.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Disgusting.



We've all seen the women-as-urinals, the headless, bolted-down woman as pencil sharpener, the breasts-as-hunting-trophy. Lusty Linda just might take the cake. She has a switch; you can turn her to "good mood" or "bad mood." When she's in a good mood and you insert your pen into her, she moans with pleasure. When you switch her to bad mood, she yells for help, cries for you to get out of her, and moans in pain. Besides the obvious misogyny in having a switch (I can just hear the stupid jokes now), there is no other way to interpret this item as anything other than something that promotes rape.

Cara, over at The Curvature, is much more eloquent than I.

I want to make something else, clear, too, and it’s something that could be highly unpopular:

This promotes rape.
If you buy one of these things, you are promoting rape. If you laugh at one of these things, you are promoting rape. If you don’t laugh but still think that it’s a harmless joke, you are promoting rape. If one of your friends has one, or thinks it’s funny, and you don’t say anything about it, you are promoting rape.



Check out her post. It gave me goosebumps.

Great Fires of Hestia!


Congratulations to Gail Simone! She has the honor of becoming the first woman to be an "ongoing writer" for the Wonder Woman. Ms. Simone coined the term "Women in Refrigerators," to describe the brutal treatment female characters receive in comic books.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Who's Your Daddy?

As reported by the New York Times, paternity tests are becoming available in drug stores. After reading the article, I have to admit that I'm confused. It seems like the kit is just cotton swabs and plastic jars, both of which you could purchase for less than the suggested retail price of $29.99. Besides which, the samples still need to be sent in to a private company for testing, which would cost around $119, and then you wait for five days for the results. Can someone let me know how that is different from how you would normally get a paternity test?

In any case, the OTC availability is controversial, due to the concern that most people would have trouble understanding the results of a test without a genetic counselor. I would understand that concern if one was testing for the gene mutation that causes breast cancer, but a paternity test seems like a straightforward yes-or-no sort of a thing. When I read the headline, I was much more concerned about the validity of results obtained outside of a lab, but since the samples must be sent to a lab anyway, I guess that resolves that issue. The company that makes the tests did note that the results would not be admissible in court.

Thoughts?

You Too Can Live the American Dream! (unless you're black.)

Or if you're parents are poor. And, if you're female. Probably. November 13, The Economic Mobility Project published a report detailing the rates at which people move along the economic ladder. As it turns out, if you're black or poor, you're chances of moving on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky are exceptionally slim. Women actually do pretty well for themselves, unless they fall into either (or both) of the aforementioned categories. Some fun* statistics:

  • "In every income group, blacks are less likely than whites to surpass their parents' family income and more likely to fall down the economic ladder."

  • "Only 31 percent of black children born to middle income parents make more than their parents' family income, compared to 68% of white children."

  • "Almost half (45%) of black children whose parents were solidly middle income end up falling to the bottom of the income distribution, compared to only 16% of white children."

  • "Forty-seven percent of daughters born to parents on the bottom rung stay on the bottom rung, compared to 35% of sons."

Thrilling.**

*By fun, I mean un-fun.
**And by thrilling, I mean completely disappointing.

Monday, November 19, 2007

First Day On The Blog

Well, it took some arm twisting, but I've finally created a blog. The final tip was that I'm moving to Arizona in about six weeks, and wanted a way to keep people in the loop, in case any of you care what I'll be up to out in Flagstaff. (Probably a lot of coffee making.) I also love to vent. So, there will be that.

At the moment, I'm terribly busy with trying to finish up the semester, my internship at the Julian Center, working full-time at Starbucks, and attempting to pack to leave. So...I probably won't have much up until around Christmas, but am hoping to keep this updated regularly after the move.

Let me know what you think!