I shudder to think about what Marcel Proust might have done if he’d had access to a camera phone that shoots HD video and unlimited hard drive space.
I Can’t Believe I Agree With Sarah Palin
November 17, 2009 by ianheath653I can’t believe it. I’m actually finding myself sort-of agreeing with Sarah Palin about something. Newsweek’s new cover is, at best, deeply weird. Some might argue that since Palin posed for that photo in the first place, she shouldn’t be calling its use by Newsweek sexist.
The problem is the use of that photo, ripped out of its context of an interview with Runner’s World and plopped onto the cover of a hard news magazine, is odd, to say the least. I completely fail to see how it passes editor Jon Meacham’s test of conveying the message the magazine is trying to send. How does a picture of Palin posing in running gear that appeared in Runner’s World (which, incidentally, is a completely normal kind of image that you would see of any famous person in that magazine’s “I’m a Runner” series) in conjunction with an article about running in any way convey or reinforce the message that she is bad news for for both the Republican Party and the country as a whole? By the way, that message is one I wholeheartedly agree with, lest you think I’m defending Palin here.
Maybe Newsweek is trying to make some connection between her willingness to do such a magazine interview and photo shoot with the evils of populism, but I can’t see how that connection can be realistically made. It’s incredibly tenuous at best. She was photographed in running gear that, being a sub-four-hour marathoner, she presumably uses regularly while discussing running in a magazine about running. While I agree with the basic and necessarily brutal assessment of Sarah Palin that she’s essentially the Second Coming of William Jennings Bryan minus any sense of economic justice, that cover doesn’t help make that point.
Think about it this way: we all know George W. Bush is an avid distance runner and that John Kerry is a world-class windsurfer for his age group. We all know that there are plenty of photographs of Bush in running gear and of Kerry in windsurfing attire, some of which have appeared in magazines devoted to their respective sports. Have any of those ever been put onto the cover of a hard news magazine to make some kind of point about someone’s impact on our political process? I’ve never seen this done with a male politician, so why is it okay to do with a female one?
I wouldn’t go so far as Palin in saying that Newsweek’s cover is “oh-so-expected” of the magazine’s coverage or perspective. I will agree, though, that the decision to use it is “out-of-context” and, if not consciously sexist, at least rooted in some level of unconscious sexism.
I believe some of the failure to notice this arises from “the boy who cried wolf” syndrome. Here we have a politician who has always been despicably quick to falsely claim unfair treatment and cynically play the victim to boost her political career. As a result, the first time something genuinely strange in media coverage does pop up, we’re slow to see it.
I Can Has Confoozun, Eh
November 13, 2009 by ianheath653Newsflash: Thatcher is dead.
No, not the former British Prime Minister. The Canadian Transport Minister’s cat.
Unfortunately, Minister John Baird forgot to specify that he meant the feline Thatcher when he sent a message about it. Hijinks promptly ensued within the Canadian government.
Mythbusting Time
November 12, 2009 by ianheath653It’s time for a preemptive strike, since I’ve already seen this latest load of B.S. beginning to make the rounds on Facebook. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the annual “War on Christmas” rite of hyperventilation kicks in, and when it does some will start shouting to the hills that the Obama White House has renamed the White House Christmas Tree and is now calling it the White House Holiday Tree instead.
The problem is it isn’t true. Anyone who says it is has fallen for an Internet hoax. That’s right, it’s totally made up. It is still, in fact, being called a Christmas Tree, and there has been no attempt to rename it.
Actually, if you want to get technical and insist on calling things by their proper names, Christmas trees, such as the one at the White House, really ought to be called Yule trees instead, but I really don’t see that catching on in any truly widespread fashion anytime soon. Personally, I’d love to see the White House rename it the “Hanukkah Bush,” or something really obscure like “Ygdrasil,” but I don’t see those happening anytime soon, either.
Maybe this fake renaming of the White House Christmas tree flap isn’t such a bad thing. Just think of the possibilities that could come of renaming the tree. It could help make a small dent in the deficit if we sold the naming rights to the tree. After all, that’s a very American thing to do. Imagine: “Weyerhaeuser Presents The Glidden White Maxwell House Christmas Tree Hill,” or the “Stihl Chainsaws White House Ygdrasil.” You could so thoroughly decorate it in the corporate logos of paying sponsors that you could enter the tree in a NASCAR race and nobody would notice. Think of all the money it could raise. Isn’t that what the season’s all about for most of us anyway?
Weird Search Terms
November 8, 2009 by ianheath653One search engine query that directed someone to this blog two days ago was “cat eating.” I’m not sure whether the person in question was looking for cats eating things, or the eating of cats. Either way, it’s somewhat squirm-inducing.
A search term leading here yesterday was “infant hair removal.” I really don’t want to know.
“Snowball with batteries cowboys” was another term from the past week. I can’t even begin to picture what the searcher envisioned by that.
“Victorian insane asylums,” or some variation thereof, is a frequent denizen of the search terms that lead readers here. Apparently a lot of people out there are really into Victorian insane asylums.
Another person this week was looking for a “slogan for america.” How about this one: “America. . . Two continents for the price of one!”
“Funk do chupa cabra” was another recent search query directing here. This one gives me an idea: maybe somebody should invent a dance called the “Funky Chupacabra.” It would be like the funky chicken, only somehow involving buckets of blood. Now that I think about it, having just written “buckets of blood” here probably opens this site up to even weirder Internet searches in the future.
Why Aren’t There More Like This Guy?
November 8, 2009 by ianheath653“I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people. My vote tonight was based on my priority of doing what is best for my constituents.”
So said Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-LA) the sole Republican member of the House of Representatives to vote in favor of health care reform, thereby making minority whip Eric Cantor’s bragging that his party would stand unified against the bill look silly and putting the lie to his party’s efforts to block reform. Cao said, in essence, that he voted for it because it was simply the right thing to do.
It’s especially telling that he submitted his “yes” vote well before time expired, meaning that he planned to stick his neck out no matter whether the finally tally looked like it would be close, a sure winner, or a sure loser.
Unfortunately for Republicans (and unfortunately for the country as a whole), Cao is less representative of their party these days than the people in the video of House debate below. The exchange beginning at around 35 seconds in is particularly exemplary: the Democratic representative is saying she supports reform that “ensures no mother will ever have her child’s care denied because of a pre-existing condition.” Meanwhile, the Republican representative is repeating “I object,” over her words ad nauseum.
“Paranormal Investigators” Run Amok
October 30, 2009 by ianheath653And now, just in time for Halloween: Stupidest. Thing. Ever.
Here’s a closeup of the photographic “evidence” of a ghost.
Tell me how that isn’t just a perfectly normal picture of a guy walking into a room.
Quote of the Day
October 25, 2009 by ianheath653“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.”
— Eric Hoffer
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
October 23, 2009 by ianheath653I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this without my head exploding as a result.
Back-to-Back NL Champions. The universe has lost its marbles.
The Philadelphia Phillies won the National League title a grand total of five times in 125 seasons from 1883 to 2007. In fact, they only did it twice in 97 seasons from 1883 to 1979. They have lost more games than any other professional sports team in American history. Rooting for the Phillies, I grew up accustomed to long stretches of futility occasionally punctuated one randomly good year and quickly followed by more futility.
The other night, they won the National League title for the second year in a row, making the Phillies only the eighth team to win back-to-back NL pennants since the beginning of the 20th century. I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, and then I have to push against my ears to keep my brain from oozing out of my head if I think about it.
