There was a time when the Fourth of July was more than a Close-Out-Fire-Sale-Explosion-Spectacular, more than a $20 a head fireworks show, instead more of a family gathering, a picnic and some easily entertaining sparklers, flowers and a few bottle rockets.
Today every day is the Fourth of July. Monster Chevy Trucks with Huge American Flags festooned across the back window (presumably to obscure the well hung gun rack in the back); self-proclaimed "true Americans" participating in reality TV shows, shooting endangered wolves from helicopters and decrying the excesses of our Socialist government, who's apparently demanding we don't eat dessert anymore; Extreme politics is becoming extreme domestic terrorism in light of today's shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
A well-timed and expertly-executed take-down if I've ever seen one, complete with the promise of more.
Innocent Smith discusses Robert Wyman's lecture on the biology and history of abortion, and the circular nature of the debate itself.
Erin Matson on the tragedy of eating disorders, after the announcement of French model Isabelle Caro's death from anorexia.
imnotme on red vs. white wine:
Next, and less importantly is that I find a certain affinity with red over white wine that is something akin to gender bias. I won’t lie, drinking white wine or blushes has always seemed more of a feminine choice to me, even though I know that is ridiculous.
All right, the whole post isn't about gender bias and wine, but it's an interesting thought, anyway. Gender-based stereotypes about types of wine people drink? Can't we just have a fucking glass of wine without thinking about gender? It's interesting because no, we really can't, sometimes. And also, sometimes it's fun.
I sometimes go on these stretches where I just look for the most delicious-looking food on the internet and drool over it for a while. I recently found a few, and today I even made one. It turned out all right. I used both cream of chicken and cream of broccoli instead of just one can cream of chicken (it only wanted 1 can for 4 chicken breasts-- I used 3 chicken breasts and one can wasn't anywhere near enough) so the flavor may have been a little different. Canned cream of broccoli is never very satisfying.
Sady Doyle candidly discusses some of her reservations on maintaining a public space that includes details of her personal life that have been historically proven to put their publishers in danger.
My former employer's future isn't looking too good anymore, what with ongoing lawsuits, regulators, caps on profits, and poor people getting a small measure of justice in banking. I can't say I'm terribly sad about the news. I'll probably write more in-depth about this later.
We should really all just quit Facebook, immediately.
In the world's most (hopefully) obvious news ever, watching women cry doesn't give men erections.
In a moment of glaring hypocrisy, Keith Olbermann calls for Palin & Co. to accept responsibility for their part in the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. He falt-out ignored, refused, nearly scrubbed his "tangential" part of perpetuating rape apologism and victim-blaming during all of #mooreandme. Didn't mean to talk about this again, and hardly have an opinion on Olbermann, but this is just too overt and unchecked. You want transparency and accountability? That means you are subject to it, too! Why haven't you repudiated your brush-off of the charges against Assange? Moore had the decency to go on television and show his support, even if he didn't ultimately own up to what he did. Another way in which issues primarily affecting, or at least perceived to be only affecting, women are so often thrown under the bus, which means that they aren't taken seriously as human issues, but just as extras, ad then, only when politically convenient.
