Aquileo | Images Photos: commentary

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Showing posts with label commentary. Show all posts

Showing posts with label commentary. Show all posts

Food & Fashion

Take a good look at this fashion model. No really - take a long look and form an opinion of her physique.

Got it?

OK, I googled "skinny model" and this was the first image I found that I felt I could post where the line between fashion and slimness was well made on both sides of the equation. The photos I rejected screamed concentration camp, cancer or starvation. Don't look if your dreams are easily influenced into nightmares.

Sure we all know these celery consuming anorexics are poisoning the psyches of children and young adults. But what can we do about it. Well the Israel parliament is trying something, which troubles my feelings about life, liberty and free will but I wonder...

A new law passed by Israel lawmakers on Monday requires that male and female models in Israel must have a body mass index (or BMI, a measure of weight proportionate to height) of no less than 18.5—a standard used by the World Health Organization before they can be hired for a modeling job. A six-foot-tall model, for example, must weigh no less than 136.5 pounds.

Lawmakers are hoping the measure encourages a healthier body image among teens and fights the spread of eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.

"Beautiful is not underweight," Rachel Adato, one of the lawmakers who voted for the bill. "Beautiful should not be anorexic."

Adi Barkan, a top modeling agent in Israel who helped Adato craft the law, described underweight models favored by the fashion industry a bit more bluntly.

"They look like dead girls," Barkan told the AP.

So how do we feel about the government regulating body mass when tied to employment? Remember weight restrictions for flight attendants.

Political Signage

With the ability to post a picture on Facebook available to anyone with an internet connection there is a lot of political commentary that crawls through the photoshop process before leaking out into the collective unconscious of the cyber cesspool. Most of the messages are silly or mean; partisan and generally wrong. I tend to rate them on a scale from flat-out stupid to deliciously devious.

But every once in a great while one comes along that I just can't dismiss. I mean when politicians get so outrageous that they make both sides of their own inane argument, you just gotta marvel at what we produce in the way of political candidates. He is a brilliant example thus just defies rebuttal.

Rush Limbaugh & Mike Doonesbury

So are you a "Dump Rush" but a "Keep Doonesbury" liberal. Or perhaps a "Burn Doonesbury" and "Liberate Limbaugh" conservative. Or might you be a independent free-thinker who can go both ways?

It seems Garry Trudeau has gone too far with this coming week's strips and has, as one editor put it - "created content that is inappropriate alongside Garfield and The Duplex." I don't know what The Duplex is, but I certainly don't want the existential insight of a big orange cartoon cat sullied by Trudeau's pinko political observations. Oh wait, I do want that!

You will have to excuse me but the 124 republican primary debates have got my political priorities so turned around that I just can't think straight. And if women seeking reproductive services are as confused as I am, well perhaps a 72 waiting period is not long enough. Heavens knows women tend to me more easily upset by these things than us men and look how confused all of this debate has gotten me. I mean a panel of thoughtful middle-aged Texas men might be the best way to make decisions about war, taxes and those sensitive vaginal issues.

On the other hand if what you want is to either shut Rush up or stop the Doonesbury strips from running in your local paper - You, my friend, are engaging in censorship. Cut it any way you like perhaps the free market reacting to Rush's stupidity and pulling advertising from his show. Or the newspaper editor protecting his readers from social commentary on the comic pages. Right, left, extremist, patriot, fundamentalist, parent, christian, liberal, social conservative - use any label you like - you are advocating censorship.

You may not be able to shout "Fire" in a crowded theatre but saying "slut" on the radio or mentioning a "transvaginal exam" in the funny papers, these are not utterances worth sacrificing the First Amendment. You all remember that amendment right, it's why I can write what I want in this blog and citizens of North Korea, Iran and Syria are murdered by their governments for even attempting something as subversive as free speech.

Make It a Clown Parade

I am going to guess that some of my readers were slightly insulted by my post yesterday in which I referred to the four remaining republican candidates as clowns.

I just wanted to set the record straight today for those who have forgotten my opinion of the current occupant of the oval office.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

Apologies for taking those lyrics so far out of context, as compensation here is Judy Collins singing them correctly.

Stupor Tuesday

Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Idaho and Wyoming to the sad, humorless clown;

Oklahoma, North Dakota and Tennessee to the bozo who loves barefoot, pregnant, mute women;

Georgia to the oft divorced pudgy clown;

and bunch of convention votes to the libertarian floppy footed booby;

which taken all together still means what most reasonable folks have known for several months - Romney vs. Obama in November.

But it also means that the four clowns will continue to entertain awhile longer.

Chocolate

Researchers at Cambridge University have published results in the British Medical Journal that confirm what I have ~~known~~ prayed for my entire life.

"Based on observational evidence, levels of chocolate consumption seem to be associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of cardiometabolic disorders."

Chocolate is good for your heart, metabolism in general, lower incidents of stroke and coronary heart disease. Chocolate ingestion is also associated with the reduction or prevention of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions. Dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate at achieving these benefits and there are some minor caveats about the amount you consume, something about binge eating and mass consumption; but other than that - Great News!

Half Right

Eenie Meenie Chili Beanie.

Back on January 7th I made this prediction:

Feb. 28 Arizona & Michigan - Romney wins both; everyone else quits.

I guess you could say I was half right and a week off. It will take until next Tuesday for everyone else to quit. Unless, of course, the republican faithful decide that reality politics is more fun than having a chance to actually win the fall election. But I am going with a Romney near sweep next week and everyone but Ron Paul turning out the lights.

UPDATE: My good friend and right-wing advisor tells me that: "Santorum will never quit!" He went on to suggest that the same zealotry that drove the former senator to shoot himself in his Michigan foot with JFK insults and attacks on women, that same devotion to destruction will keep him in the race long after the numbers make the Romney nomination a fact.

Therefore I will slightly modify my prediction: Ahem!

Super Tuesday March 6th: Romney in a near sweep tonight. All reasonable, rational other republican candidates (Ron Paul has already been exempted from this category) but all other such candidates will demonstrate they really do want to win the white house and will withdraw from the race to bolster the chances that their nominee will win in November.

I should add now that anyone attempting a third party candidacy from the right is:
a) too late because of draconian state election laws;
b) doing more to hurt the party than staying in the race would;
c) making the summer a hell of a lot more interesting - Go for It!

Now let's turn to what Americans Elect is all about.

Because . . .

This is wrong!

The church says so.

The republicans say so.

Even the bible says so, you can find it in Noah 1:13.

Eight Articles of Interest

A far flung smorgasbord of information today. I'll bet even my L.A. friends can find something they will enjoy.

#1 (Goodbye Japan?)

We may yet lose Tokyo. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant continues to discharge radiation into the air and the ocean. Recent (very quiet) announcements suggested that it would take ten years to fully contain the disaster and encapsulate the radiation effects to the plant site.

#2 (Some Facts About Entitlements)

You may already know this but here is a soundly written analysis of just who collects on all the government entitlements. Contrary to all the political rhetoric, the wealthiest members of the U.S. society benefit more from government handouts than do the bottom of the economic pile. Of course the high-end giveaways generally show up as tax breaks and not silly gifts like food, medicine or child care.

#3 (A Real Second Party)

The country is starved for a grown-up debate. This NYTimes Op-Ed slams the republicans pretty hard but I ran it by my favorite right-winger and he said: "Those pinkos at the Times are my arch-enemies but this time they aren't wrong." The piece is called: We Need a Second Party

#4 (Economic Non-Truths)

Three Great Economic Misconceptions from the Motley Fool, which of these statements are true?

"China is the biggest holder of U.S. debt."

"The U.S. is oil dependent on the Middle East."

"Consumers spend most of their money on junk made in China and other Far East countries."

Think you know?

#5 (It Appears We Do Know What We Want)

For those naysayers, fools, idiots and elitists who ask: "What do those people in tents want?" How about an SEC comment letter. Yep, those dirty hippies not only can write, some of them are exceptionally well educated.

#6 (Occupy Reading List)

If you are an Occupy supporter or think you might want to be. Here is an Occupy Book Reading List. It's not perfect but an interesting look at why the Occupy movement started and why it's not going away anytime soon.

#7 (Your Cat is Making You Crazy)

Not just for cat lovers or even cat haters, but a really profound look at cross-species parasitic transfer leading to behavioral modification. Your pet's bugs may be making you change your behavior. No really! A fun article that will make you think and maybe itch a bit too.

#8 (Who is Voting in the Primaries)

A Blunt but Bias Analysis of who exactly is voting in the presidential primary races.

"There is no other way to put this without resorting to demographic bluntness: the small fraction of Americans who are trying to pick the Republican nominee are old, white, uniformly Christian and unrepresentative of the nation at large."

Unfortunately this article stretches the numbers to make most of it's strangled points. Take for instance this statement: "In Florida, 84 percent of the state’s total registered voters did not participate in the Republican contest." A shocking number if you didn't know that Florida holds a closed primary, so democrats and independents were not eligible to vote in the republican contest. Only 36% of registered voters in Florida self designate as republican, so factually an honest reporting would have said mentioned that 16% of the potential 36% republican vote turned out; not 16% of 100%.

Information Overload

Yes information overload is real.

Yes we contribute to it by surfing mindlessly from website to website.

I delete dozens of URLs from my history every month, you know all those sites you were going to get to tomorrow. I even found what should have been a great article about info-overload called Gluttony Gone Viral. But it was so completely over the top, my only thought after reading it was - no one has ever written about the overflowing of the internet while delivering such an absurd example of those exact excesses. It still is worth a quick read as a perfect exemplar of what we need to avoid.

Then I ran across another meme for this internet disease - data fog.

Too much of anything, too much of everything; eventually we hear (read) nothing doesn't get lost in the fog. I feel those creeping tendrils everyday. I devise tricks to avoid the seduction of the web. But of most concern for me is my own contribution to the fog - this blog.

I took some time at the end of last year to ponder and rethink what I am doing here - I admit to finding no real solutions and locating no conclusions. I could excise all political content, I know that would make several of my readers very happy. And it's not like there aren't plenty of pundits out there doing exactly what I do. Possible answers:

Hiatus?

Apolitical Only??

Complete Abandonment???

Still reflecting, more of something to follow.

Pretty good, not bad, can't complain. Thanks for asking.

Top Six plus One Articles of the Recent Past

"Be careful who sieves your access to information,

it might be me or it could be Rupert Murdock."

#1 (Dead or Alive?)

I really enjoy having a widely accepted "truth" crushed under the weight of cold, hard facts. Makes my little academic heart go all a-flutter. Have you heard from the population doomsayers that there are more people alive today than there have been on earth since the beginning of humans. True or False? And just how close are the numbers?

#2 (On Writing)

I purport here in my late middle age to be a writer. I prefer to be a writer of fiction though here in my blog I tend to hang-out on the other side of the equation, particularly around politics. But I prefer fiction because it is so much easier to convey truth in fiction. Here is an interesting series of observations by some famous authors on the topic of truth disguised as fiction.

#3 (Money & Media)

Here is an opportunity by petition to tell the local media outlets, particularly television stations that they need to be more open about who is buying their advertising time. In this political election year, bought and paid for by secretive Super-PACs, we have to demand that local newspapers, radio and television providers do more to bring shed light on the dirty political game the Supreme Court has given us for now.

#4 (A Compelling Twofer)

I have a wonderful literary friend, Arlene Goldbard. Not only does she write beautifully but she expresses many of my thoughts in clear and forceful prose. I recommend two of her recent pieces. First, I tend to ignore the Obama loyalists because I want them to see the light and leave the two party system but Arlene makes the argument for sticking with him for one more election in her article that begins: "I'm not planning to break up with President Obama, but he is definitely giving me flashbacks to relationship dysfunctionality."

My second recommendation from Arlene's pen might well be the best analysis I have seen on Occupy, activism and the pitfalls of populist movements in our times. For everyone who has sympathy with Occupy Wall Street but with some reservations this is a must read. I don't care what your concerns are or how you articulate your objections; spend five minutes reading this article and then face up to whatever our heart tells you.

#5 (America's War Machine)

A seering and painful analysis of how the military establishment has manipulated politicians and the American people to support the war in Afghanistan. A war with no real goals and no end in sight. You won't like what you read no matter which side of the terrorism issue you take.

#6 (Cows & Elephants)

Yes this video is nearly an hour long and yes the graphics are not up to the crisp PowerPoint quality we are all accustomed to, however, you will be blown away by just how many of your current notions on climate, cattle and environmental catastrophe are flat out wrong. It's truly enlightening to see just how entrenched our ideas of truth can be and how easily they can be demolished. Thanks Ron

All the News That's Fit to Slant

I am going to guess that most everyone who comes near this blog knows that the Main Stream Media slant the news. If you don't think that is true or think that only Fox does it but CNN doesn't or vica versa visa flip-flop then I have to question if you are really interesting in a serious debate about what is wrong in America these days.

So what has got me riled up about MSM reporting - well it's Occupy and Fox News. Two weekends ago there was another big dust-up at Occupy Oakland; the police were out of control (408 arrests, only 12 charged), many injuries. Yes, the anarchists were out as well; bottles were thrown etc. It was not a good situation for anyone, but one side has guns, tear gas, batons and no accountability. I was there. OPD attacked a peaceful march lead by several women with their children. A protest march with no violence, no blocking of traffic, no violations of law whatsoever.

The next day I was watching some of the local reporting and the Fox News local anchor said: "One has to wonder why Oakland still has these Occupy protests when the rest of the country has moved on." Call it spin, call it slanting the news or call it what it really is - lying to the public. Fox News wants Occupy to go away, so underreporting the truth about the protests is the Fox way to a "fair and balanced" delivery of their truth.

I actually drafted this post and then thought better of posting it. I mean who doesn't know that Fox and CNN and MSNBC etc. etc. all have their own agendas and are not simply reporting the news and events of the day, particularly when it comes to anything political. We know it and either we reject the MSM or we watch like sheep the programs and reports we blindly agree with.

But then the National Parks police came out in a show of force against the Occupy encampment in Washington D.C. and national Fox News reported: "One of the last dwindling Occupy encampments is being dismantled by the National Parks Service." The report went on to deride the Park Police for waiting so long to remove the illegal encampment and suggested they might be supporters of Occupy which would be a violation of the law in itself.

To be fair, I checked the other major MSM for "news" on the D.C. Occupy camp:

CBS - "one of the last remaining Occupy sites."

NBC - "Occupy DC is part of a larger activist movement that began last year in New York and quickly spread across the country."

ABC - "The D.C. encampment is one of the few camps still standing after the Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York City's Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17."

CNN - read the ABC post above which uses direct quotes from the CNN Wire report, which in itself is interesting because Disney owns ABC but Time-Warner owns CNN.

Should you like to hear the current news about the Occupy Movement slanted from the other side - read this article.

Upon Giving Up Professional Sports

In celebration of today's National Football League Super Brawl I offer this memoir of my personal disenchantment with professional sports at all levels. I was born and raised in the midwest. I played sports as a kid, not very well until my growth spurt in high school. Then I was All-League in football, an average basketball player and even tossed the shot put my senior year. All of my brothers were football players, each of us lettered in at least two sports every year. We all dutifully followed the Detroit professional sports teams and in the 50s & 60s there were some teams worth following back then: Bobby Layne, Gordie Howe, Al Kaline.

But sometime in the 60s I began to lose interest in professional sports. There were too many other things to follow with real world consequences and then came the escalation of sports salaries that began in the 70s. By then I was watching the Super Bowl only for the commercials and found the glacial pace of baseball to be somnia inducing. By 1975 I was living in L.A. which had the Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul Jabar Lakers and soon the Wayne Gretsky led L.A. Kings. I hung out at several local taverns with sports connections and got back into following some professional teams but I remember the moment it all ended.

In the 1983 NBA finals the Lakers met the Philadelphia 76ers. Someone scored tickets to game four at the L.A. Forum, it turned out to be the final game of a Philadelphia sweep of the Lakers. The lady I was dating was friends with the Forum's public address announcer who sat court side at the scorer's table and made all the the player introductions and game announcements. We walked down to see him after the game, he was devastated. I had never seen a non-participant in a game that upset over a loss. I'm sure he had a bundle bet on the game but it was after all just a game of basketball and wasn't real, they made it all up to entertain and distract; not to mention to make money. Well paid gladiators and their plutocrat owners.

Periodically I am reminded why I don't follow and don't care about professional sports. The latest reinforcer was this past fall when the NBA player's representative said that in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations the owners were "treating the players like slaves." Yep, slaves! Slaves who make an average of $5.2 million dollars a year.

Nevermind that sports franchises routinely holdup city, county and state governments for huge subsidies to build new stadiums. Studies have shown over decades that professional sports stadiums cost local governments tens of millions of dollars in bond costs and loss revenue while returning to the community income as few as eights days a year in the case of an NFL team.

To be honest, I do have one very positive comment on professional sports - on any given Sunday restaurants, theaters, museums and hiking trails are nearly empty during the "big game." I think a movie for me this afternoon, Go Bears!

I'm Just Sayin'

Is it me or are some organizations actually beginning to pay attention? First SOPA and now this, before you know it someone will run for president and not lie every time they open their mouth.

A Fine Way to Pick a President

Just to bring you up to date on how the citizens of ~~America~~ Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida have gone about picking a republican to run against the current president.

Total Republican Votes in Iowa - 123,000
Total Republican Votes in N.H. - 248,000
Total Republican Votes in S.C. - 604,000
Votes for just Romney in Florida - 772,000

Mitt Romney 'won' the Florida primary with 46% of the vote. He 'won' with less than a majority but got all the delegates from Florida. He got more votes in Florida than all the votes cast for him in the three previous primaries. He ran some of the foulest ads that anyone has ever seen in political primaries. He still has less than 100 delegates with over 1400 needed to win the nomination, but we are now being told by the talking heads that the race is over.

Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina - this is how we pick presidents? Why don't we run the nominating process like American Idol and let everyone text their choice? I would have suggested voting them off the island a la Survivor but seeing Santorum with a torch would make it just too easy for the political cartoonists.

Motivated Avoidance

"Research suggests the feeling that an issue is 'above one's head' leads people to feel dependent on the government, and this dependence is managed by trusting the government more to deal with an issue, and this is managed by avoiding the issue. This is psychologically easier than taking a significant amount of time to learn about an issue, all the while confronting unpleasant information about it."

Those findings come from research that looked at issues like the economic downturn or global warming and how people deal (or don't deal) with the troublesome aspects of such facts of life. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology uses terms like "Motivated Avoidance" or more strongly "Motivated Ignorance" to report their findings.

The study found that when problems were presented with complex information and data, people were more likely to defer to some higher authority like government or scientists. When issues were presented in more simple terms with real world references, people were less likely to head for the avoidance behaviors.

All of which implies that when presented with life real complexity, we tend to act like a Monty Python character.

The Olde Middle

"On everything but the size of government, Tea Party supporters are increasingly out of step with most Americans, even many Republicans. Indeed, at the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, today’s Tea Party parallels the anti-Vietnam War movement which rallied behind George S. McGovern in 1972. The McGovernite activists brought energy, but also stridency, to the Democratic Party — repelling moderate voters and damaging the Democratic brand for a generation. By embracing the Tea Party, Republicans risk repeating history."
-David E. Campbell & Robert N. Putnam
NYTimes Commentary Aug. 2011

I've been saving that quotation in my blog queue since last August. Campbell & Putnam wrote a book - American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, the New York Times commentary piece was the beginning of their promotional tour. I considered reading the book after running into a number of other promo lectures and appearances last fall but the quote above kept bothering me.

I have thought about what it was exactly and today I hit on it. They have managed in a few sentences to insult and condemn anyone who seeks to stand against the status quo of the two party system. Too far right or too far left and you just repel the moderates and damage the party for years.

Well boys you are talking about the "moderate middle" that doesn't exist anymore. As the "middle class" fell, so did the "political middle" and the "olde middle" ain't coming back, at least not quietly and not in the hip pocket of republicrats. About the only thing "the middle" is good for anymore is for finding political apologists like Campbell & Putnam and tossing them on the scrap heap of olde political wisdom.

The game has changed gentlemen and you are still reading from the rule book of the "olde middle."

The System That Couldn't Count

We hear these same platitudes each and every election cycle.

"Voting is your civic duty!"

"If you don't vote, don't complaint."

"Voting is our greatest right as free citizens!"

The problem is that "Your Vote Counts" are empty words if there is no one responsible enough to accurately and fairly count the votes. Once again we see, this time in Iowa, that addition is a really difficult task for some members of our society. And we seem to allow these math challenged people to run our elections.

Apparently Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus a couple of weeks ago but Mitt Romney got the boost going into New Hampshire when the counting in Iowa went less than perfectly. Now it seems that eight precincts in Iowa have completely lost their ballots so the republican party of Iowa is calling it a draw, a tie, a non-decision. But what we really have is an admission that there was no fair and legal vote in Iowa. Voters in 8 precincts have had their "greatest right" which they exercised as their "civic duty" - well for lack of a better word - 'lost' or perhaps 'taken away' or simply 'not counted.'

After all the sound and fury, after all the campaign noize and money spewed around Iowa for over a year, they couldn't count the damn votes. OK, so it was only Iowa. But need I remind you that we had a similar problem a few years ago in Florida, which led to the supreme court picking the president.

Now I am sure my liberal friends are waiting for me to go off on the current republican campaign to restrict voter access in the November election. Yes, of course, they are doing that - it's called politics. Need I remind you that the democrats feel you need only be breathing to vote, which of course leads to voter fraud on the other side of the shaky two-party scale. Sorry partisan folks, I just don't care. Why should I? Why should you? Have you not been paying attention - the vote is not fixed by who does or doesn't get to enter the sanctuary of the polling place; the vote is fixed by who does or doesn't do the counting.

It's all about the math and who is holding the abacus in a few key states. You trust this system? Really? Ask the voters in Iowa.

Closed for Today

Much of the internet is dark today to protest a grossly overreaching bill in the US Congress. While the bill purports to halt online piracy, it does so at the expense of free speech and gives unnamed and unknown government agencies the right to shut down any part of the net they feel threatens whatever they believe should not be threatened. Egypt, Libya, China and other countries have attempted to shutdown free speech over the internet when those fine examples of democracy felt that their citizens should not be speaking up about the restriction of human rights.

This is not a justified cause of governmental authority and needs to be stopped. Email your senators and tell them you oppose Protect IP Act in the senate and contact your house member as they consider the Stop Internet Piracy (SOPA) act in the house.

So You Believe This is a Free Country

I am reluctant to say it, but if you are shocked by this story you must still be living under the impression that the government is on your side and that the USA is a free country.

Early this week the space occupied by Global Revolution was raided by the NYPD. The group for months has been aggregating live streams from the Occupy Wall Street movement and putting them out on the web. They operated for several months under a tarp at Zuccotti Park and recently moved to an indoor space in Brooklyn. A space that had been occupied (lived in, paying rent) for the last year by one of the GR members.

Suddenly on Monday the premises became "imminently perilous to life" according to the notice posted. On Tuesday the NYPD raided the site and arrested the members of GR who ran the video operation. Now if you have been to Brooklyn in the last twenty years you know there clearly are spaces perilous to life, probably scores of them within a block or two of the raided studio, but none of them were deemed so dangerous as to provoke a NYPD raid.

Could it have been a coincidence that the Occupy Wall Street live streaming team was operating from that location? Surely they weren't targeted by the NYPD on orders from the mayor, the governor or homeland security. No that could never happen here in the land of the free.

Move along folks, nothing to see here; which is why the NYTimes has yet to report this story even though they have done pieces in the past on the video team from Global Revolution.

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