A Tim Allen promotional air freshener—a term I use loosely since it smells like a chemically-created facsimile of BBQ chicken—being used to market Allen's new show, Last Man Standing, which was originally titled Man Up when I first wrote about it.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "To capitalize on the Tim Allen comedy's 'manly man' theme, the network is handing out barbecue chicken-scented Allen air fresheners at hardware stores, gyms and auto-parts stores. Football games will host show-themed food trucks and 'man caves'." Of course they will.
President Obama's senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won't vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate.
..."The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers," Plouffe said, according to Bloomberg. "People won't vote based on the unemployment rate, they're going to vote based on: 'How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family?'"
Gallup: Thirty-nine percent of Americans in September name unemployment or jobs as the most important problem facing the country, up from 29% in August. Unemployment has now passed "the economy" as the most frequently mentioned issue.
Because the US entertainment industry's reservoir of creativity is deader than a dire wolf in the La Brea tar pits, CBS Television Studios is plundering my childhood yet again to reboot the late-80s panty-creamer Beauty and the Beast, which starred Linda Hamilton as feisty Assistant District Attorney Catherine Chandler and Ron Perlman as beastly humanoid sewer-dweller Vincent. (IMDb: "The adventures and romance of a sensitive and cultured lion-man and a crusading District Attorney assistant." LULZ.) It was your basic kick off your shoulderpads and crack open a bottle of Riunite furry cosplayer fairy tale for professional ladies.
Anyway! The reboot is coming soon (that's what she said):
Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that CBS Television Studios is developing a reboot of the ’80s cult classic Beauty and the Beast for The CW.
The original series, which ran on CBS from 1987 to 1990, starred Ron Perlman as the mythic man beast and Linda Hamilton as the object of his affection.
The new version will not only modernize and CW-up the love story but also add a procedural twist. Nice pedigree, too: Without a Trace vet Jennifer Levin and Brothers & Sisters' Sherri Cooper will pen the script and serve as executive producers.
Yay for women-helmed shows! Of course, the fact that this is being developed for the teen-catering CW, and is returning to air in the middle of a nasty feminist backlash permeating every corner of pop culture, does not suggest that the show is likely to end up on the ol' Shakes Manor DVR.
But hope sproings eternal! Sproingity sproing! It's not like there isn't a rich vein of patriarchy-deconstruction to be mined from a Beauty and the Beast retelling, by anyone who's inclined to go that intriguing route. Sproing!
Casting Predictions: An unknown Kristin Stewart-lookalike as Catherine. The Jonas Brothers as Vincent.
"[H]ealth care was one of those areas where even conservatives used to be willing to accept government intervention in the name of compassion, given the clear evidence that covering the uninsured would not, in fact, cost very much money. ... Now, however, compassion is out of fashion—indeed, lack of compassion has become a matter of principle, at least among the GOP's base. And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we've had for the past three generations—that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the 'common hazards of life' through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid."—Paul Krugman.
A key part of the Republican Establishment's cultivation of hatred has been the subversion of empathy. Othering is the foundation of hate-based scapegoating, and Othering can only happen in a void of empathy. Compassion is not merely out of fashion; its existence is an impediment to modern conservative politics.
That makes for colossally grim prospects for the survival of a democracy with any semblance of a functional social contract.
Which, of course, is not a bug of modern conservatism but a feature.
Six-year-old Emily Baldry unearthed a 130-pound, 40cm ammonite fossil with a seaside spade while "accompanying her father Jon on an archeological trip to Cotswold Water Park, Glos, last year." It has been restored by experts and will be put on display at a local visitors' center.
The fossil is officially known as a Rieneckia odysseus – but Emily, of Chippenham, Wilts, has affectionately dubbed it Spike.
She says: "I took him to school and all my friends think he's great."
Or, you know, maybe—in addition to using phrases like "they hate us for our freedom" which sets up "Muslims" and "Americans" as mutually exclusive groups—any resentment, suspicion, or disdain that actually does exist could have a little to do with shit like this:
Counterterrorism agents at the FBI's training center in Quantico, Virginia are being taught that "devout" Muslims are more likely to be "violent" and that American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers, according to training materials acquired by Wired's Spencer Ackerman. (In fact, mosques have been found to be a deterrent to the spread of terrorism.)
An FBI spokesperson told Ackerman that the slides were no longer in use but dates on the slides would suggest that they were used at least until March 21.
The documents offer a violent interpretation of Islam in which "Any war against non-believers is justified" and a "moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah."
...The information in the slides is clearly Islamophobic and completely ignores the fact that Islamic extremism, while a national security concern worthy of sober discussion, is a limited problem within the United States and hardly a frequent phenomenon in Muslim communities. A recent Duke terrorism study showed that since 9/11, the U.S. has experienced only 33 deaths from Muslim terrorism while 150,000 murders have occurred during the same time.
...While the FBI is developing a track-record for giving pseudo-experts like Robert Spencer and William Gawthrop an opportunity to spread their Islamophobic views which demonize all Muslims, the truth is that Muslim communities have served as some of the most important allies for the FBI in their efforts to combat Muslim terrorists.
It is alarming, if not surprising, how much US defense and security policy is built on a foundation of fear and paranoia born of easily debunkable stereotypes. I do understand the need for, and usefulness of, rational fear and/or suspicion among people tasked with defending a nation, but there's just such an abundance of boogeymen in the US.
Imagine if we'd spent the last decade being as scared of economic collapse and its architects as we were of terrorism and Osama bin Laden.
In case there were still any doubt that Republicans actually hate democracy, they are now rewriting state election laws in ways that will favor their election chances, by making it more difficult for people who tend to vote Democrat to vote at all:
Looking to capitalize on their historic gains last year, Republican lawmakers in several states are rewriting their election laws in ways that could make it more difficult for Democrats to win.
They have curbed early voting, rolled back voting rights for ex-felons and passed stricter voter ID laws. Taken together, the measures could have a significant and negative effect on President Obama's reelection efforts if they keep young people and minorities away from the polls.
"It all hits at the groups that had higher turnout and higher registration in 2008," said Judith Browne-Dianis, a civil rights lawyer who co-directs the Advancement Project, which has been tracking the new regulations.
Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering the latest, and perhaps most potent, legislation, a measure that would divvy up electoral votes by congressional district rather than use the winner-takes-all approach. The change would almost ensure a net gain of 20 to 24 GOP electoral votes in the 2012 presidential election.
The only good thing to say about this is, to quote D-Day: "If the Pennsylvania GOP gambit leads to a real discussion about why the Electoral College ought to be abolished, they'll have done the nation a service." Too true.
Of course, serious discussions about things that strengthen (or weaken) our democracy are thin on the ground these days.
I could, relying on the ambiguity of the question, tell you that my first crush was Joey Bradford, over whom I mooned desperately in the fourth grade, but the truth, which I simply cannot deny, is that my real first crush, developed over re-runs during dinner at the dawn of my sentient memory, was totes Captain B.J. Hunnicutt.
Video Description: Dudley lies in the middle of the living room floor on his side; Zelda can be heard trotting down the hall. She comes into the room and sniffs at Dudley's face, then walks by. He gets up, tongue hanging out of his mouth like a glaikit. They wrestle around, Dudley on the floor, so that he's shorter than Zel and gives her a chance to be the Big Dog. Then he jumps up, and they spin around biting each other's faces and legs, snarfing and huffing at each other. Matilda, sitting next to me off-camera, can be heard hissing in the background. Zel sniffs at her, then goes back to playing with Dudz. I pan to Matilda, who is having none of it, and wanders away. Zelly play-bows and leaps at Dudz, and then they lick each other's mouths. Dudley flops back down, and Zelda trots away. (About 5 seconds later, after I'd turned off the camera, she came back, and dumped as many toys as she could carry on his head.)
Still pix of the whole Party of Five below the fold (on most browsers)…
Below is just a screen capture of what is an interactive infographic about national abortion restrictions in the US, by state and type of restriction. Click on the image (or here) to go to the interactive infographic.
Note that my state of residence, Indiana, tops the list.
As I have mentioned previously in comments, I feel decidedly less safe because of the anti-abortion legislation in Indiana, particularly the legislation dealing with "late term" abortions.
I am not desirous of getting pregnant, which makes me concerned about abortion restrictions since I am a sexually active fertile cis woman of childbearing age—but, if I were keen to have a child, I would be even more concerned about carrying a pregnancy to term in a state that values a fetus' life more than mine.
Which underlines one of many inherent flaws in "pro-life" rhetoric and policy: It actively discourages from becoming pregnant any woman who is not willing to potentially risk her life to have a baby.
That is, beyond the usual risks that advanced medicine is now mostly able to contend, in those places where it's allowed.
When I see that colorful display of anti-choice legislation across my state, all I see are barriers to informed, enthusiastic, safe, uncoerced reproduction. I'm certainly not the only one.
If you recall, a couple weeks ago I posted about the state of Virginia attempting Kansas-style regulatory shut downs of abortion-providing clinics. Today was the public meeting regarding the regulations and, thus, the chance to speak about them. So many people came that the board extended the public comment period from the 20 allotted minutes to more than an hour. Here are some highlights:
Supporters of the proposed regulations spoke in broad anti-abortion terms, citing out-of-state medical malpractice and the immorality of the practice. The first speaker, Frances Bouton, likened legal abortion to slavery. Del. Bob Marshall's wife, Cathy, spoke on his behalf, citing "ground-up babies" being flushed into the public water system. [ed: Say what now? Are you serious?! --Misty]
Those opposing the draft regulations included several doctors who noted that first-trimester abortion is one of the most common procedures in the United States and one of the safest.
Internist Wendy Klein, MD, noted that colonoscopies, also performed in doctor's offices, carry a 100 times greater risk than first-trimester abortions. Other speakers in opposition represented young college graduates, low-income women and African-American women, all unable to afford health insurance and basic medical care. The common plea to the Board -- with a couple of younger speakers noting its composition as primarily male and white -- was to consider medical and safety issues rather than their religious beliefs in their vote.
The vote is this afternoon, though I do not know at what time. According to the VA Dept of Health site, a resident can send public comment in these ways:
Members of the public wishing to submit written comments concerning the draft emergency regulations to the Board prior to the September 15 meeting may submit them via email to commissioner.remley@vdh.virginia.gov; via U.S. mail to Post Office Box 2448, Richmond, Virginia 23218; or by fax to (804) 864-7022.
Since it is still Sept 15th and they haven't yet voted--as far as I know--it couldn't hurt to have your voice heard via email or fax.
CCHS seems like a nice enough organization focused on service, employing competent people, and they believe all people deserve health care and services. All of which are good things, yes.
Now let's look at their mission statement:
Christ Community Health Services will provide high-quality health care to the underserved in the context of distinctively Christian service. We recognize that Jesus Christ is the true healer of individuals and their communities and the source of our ability to serve.
Comparatively here is the mission statement from Planned Parenthood Greater-Memphis:
Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region's mission is to ensure broad public access to reproductive and related health care through health center services, education, advocacy and community partnerships in serving 42 counties in West Tennessee, North Mississippi and East Arkansas.
and Memphis Health Center:
Memphis Health Center's mission is to provide safe, quality, affordable, effective and comprehensive health services to the citizens of Shelby and Fayette counties.
I'm fairly comfortable with saying that both PP and MHC are also nice organizations who believe in service to all people and employ competent care givers. So what makes CCHS different? I think it's pretty obvious in just the mission statements.
Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell said a six-person team that included health professionals and members of his administration evaluated proposals from Christ Community, Planned Parenthood and the Memphis Health Center. They gave Christ Community Health the highest cumulative score.
Uh-huh.
The low-income and under- or uninsured residents of Shelby County should not be forced to be a captive audience of a religious organization--even a competent medical one--in order to access necessary health care services.
This morning, as always, I was shaving my face with one of your razors. I can't tell you the specific model, but I'm pretty sure you market it by alluding to the type of powerful jet aircraft that defends our freedom by dropping ordinance on unsuspecting foreigners. Actually, maybe it was one of the models that involves allusions to nuclear energy, lasers, or other hallmarks of masculine precision.
To be honest, I've been a shitty customer in the past. There was a point in my life where I thought I'd eventually quit shaving my face twice daily, and when I was really tired of slicing my face open with new razor blades. Consequently, I went through a period where I'd use the same cartridge for multiple years, wearing its space-age indicator strip down to the sort of insecurity inducing nub that your product is supposedly designed to compensate for.
Two months back, I had not only used the last of the cartridges, but had made such extensive use of my fifteen-year-old razor that its chrome had developed its own patina, and its very masculine essence was irreparably compromised. Since I didn't plan on using your products on my face forever, and given that you charge somewhere between $10 and $5000 for a new razor, I decided to scrimp by buying a sack of your entirely disposable models. You know, the one with the nondescript name that says nothing about the respect with which society should accord my tool.
I'm sure you know damn well how that worked out.
Since it was clear that I was living in your world, I decided I'd cowgirl up and play by your rules. I bought a new razor, the one I was using this morning. I paid $10 for it, which could have bought me either a week's worth of beans, rice, and ramen, or Leatherwolf's debut import cassette.
Now while I'm not the kind of lady who writes pointless five hundred word screeds decrying the sorry state of the latest consumables, when I buy a razor that's name suggests moves across my face with the speed of a bullet, I have expectations. These expectations do not include having the edges of the plastic cartridges snap off, making it impossible to attach it to my intimidatingly chromed-out death razor. Twice. In two weeks.
A lady more inventive than I would undoubtedly devise a means whereby duct tape could be used to attach expensive, yet broken, cartridge to lonely razor. It goes without saying that she would upload a video of said technique to the Internet, in order to demonstrate her rightful place in society. A lady more patient than I would simply grasp the cartridge in her bare hand, slicing off any and all offending hairs in the same way one imagines ancient women used crude hand tools to skin wild animals.
Alas, I am neither of these women. Thus, I regret to inform you that I am considering joining the good Dr. Benjamin Grumbles in purchasing a Merkur, the only razor suitable for a woman of my station.
As you may recall, Deeky is a closet hoarder who sends me his garbage treasures. Basically, the way this works is that Deeky saves useless garbage like we're beyond Thunderdome and useless garbage is now a form of currency and he's a garbageaire. Then, instead of throwing it away, he throws pieces of his collection of strange bits of paper and other detritus into an envelope and pays money to ship it to me—priority mail, so he can track his garbage treasure's path across the country—where it sits in my mailbox until he harangues me to collect it. Then, I empty the garbage contents of the garbage envelope, laugh at it with him until tears are rolling out of our eyes, and throw it away. I mean, put it a special garbage treasure reservoir for safe-keeping!
But not before taking a picture of it so that I can post it, obvs.
[Click to embiggen.]
Some of the contents of the latest package of Deeky's Garbage Treasures: A copy of Roald Dahl's The Witches, illustrated by Quentin Blake, a tag from a Michael Kors shirt, a "How to Use a Condom" guide in English and Spanish from LifeStyles Condoms, a "Jody Landers for Mayor of Baltimore City" flyer ("Together...we can - and we will make a difference."), a green bumper-sticker reading "Go Green Eat Pickles," an STD Facts pamphlet, the 23rd edition of the Baltimore Water Taxi Guide, good from March 2011 through March 2012, a green toothbrush reading "BRACES by DR. BONEBREAK," and a Justin Bieber action figure from the Mini Collection. It's "Red Carpet Justin," for all you curious collectors out there.
I have to admit, however, that the item which made me laugh until I was crying was actually a sealed envelope, addressed to Deeks in one of those fonts that's supposed to fool recipients into thinking it's a hand-written letter. In the same font was printed, "We Miss You." The cynicism of that plaintive marketing message combined with Deeky's undiluted contempt, picturing him dumping the thing unopened into the package destined for me, just sent me into gales of relentless laughter.
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