That's Alex out there on the beach - next to the hot pink board thing. Take my word on it - it's him...
I dislike sand, so I'm a ways back from him - hence the bad pic! More later!!!
That's the Ugly Tuna Saloona I'm having a drink at! We landed in Ft. Lauderdale safely and are relaxing. More later....
It's sleeting and icing all over here in Mid-Mo. The pic attached is *before* the snow - that's a sheet of ice. I've heard anywhere from 4 to 18 inches are on the way. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...
The Porn Myth, an editorial in the New York Magazine, claims that the constant access to porn that we all know (and love) in our modern lives has eroded men's interest in "real life" sex. You can read the article to get the rest of the gist of the article, but that is pretty much the main thrust (pun intended) of the article. I'm not so sure I agree. I really don't agree with the idea that "non-traditional" sex was unheard of before the 80's video revolution occurred and I'm not so sure that men are rejecting real live girls as "bad porn" just because they aren't airbrushed and posed. What do you all think?
This is it! I have other blogs that I write in, but this is my only "personal" blog. You can see how often I post here...
I'm blogging from my phone - we'll see if this improves my Vox blogging frequency!
Forbes, the famous business magazine, published an article by some bozo claiming that men shouldn't marry career women. After a whole lot of outrage, the editors apologized and allowed another author a chance to rebut his claims. Elizabeth Corcoran did a fine job of tearing him into tiny little pieces. The reader response, linked from the point-counter point article page I linked to above, is worth a read as well. The original author messed up - and I'm so pleased to see him get what he deserves...
In the Washington Post yesterday, there was a story about a draft proposal for "special" military courts. I'll let you all read the article to get the details, but I wanted to point out a couple of proposals that, quite frankly, scare the shit out of me.
- allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction
- defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations
- They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors
- not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials (trial in absentia!!! WTF!???!!!??)
- To secure a death penalty under the draft legislation, at least five jurors must agree
So, the upshot is that ANY crime can be prosecuted under this special military tribunal, defendants would have their constitutional right stripped from them - completely - and there would only need to be 5 of the 12 jurors in agreement to confer the death penalty on a possibly absent defendant who had NO DUE PROCESS RIGHTS. Sorry about the yelling there, but the idea that this is being considered makes me completely insane. I can't even imagine the state that this country would have to be in to allow this sort of thing to happen - I can only hope that I'm not seeing America and Americans through rose-colored glasses and I'm not overlooking the seeds of that sort of facist "court" system being planted right now.
I ran across this story on Fark.com and just reading through the comments almost made me cry. No, there are no *serious* defenders of this sort of thing posting yet (though I've barely read 100 of the 800+ comments - there will likely be someone defending it before the end), but the confusion and the disbelief that this could be happening makes me nuts. As one Farker put it - Bush wasn't a stealth candidate - we all knew he was going to be a nut, but we allowed him to steal one election and then we allowed our fear to put him in office again.
What's one thing that you hope to do or accomplish before the end of this year?
Well, let's see. I'm doing pretty well professionally, so I'm going to have to look at my personal life for this one... One thing that I hope to do is to get back on my diet (the one that worked so well for me 2 years ago) and re-lose that 80 pounds that I put BACK on after I'd lost 100. The picture of me on my profile is at my skinniest point. I was wearing a size 10 skirt that day!! Anyway, over the course of the last couple of years, I've gained almost all of it back, and I want to get rid of it again AND KEEP IT OFF. Sorry about the yelling there, but my frustration got the better of me...
Last night I was driving around town, listening to NPR on the radio, when I heard an essay by a bookstore clerk/reporter bemoaning the state of women's reading - AKA chick lit. She started the essay (and I have to admit I didn't stick around to hear the whole thing - margaritas were calling) with an observation that many of the titles of this month's Harlequin romance-type books were along the lines of "Bought By A Greek Millionaire" and "Traded To A Sheik". She said that after years of trying to get people to realize we weren't someone's property, it was disheartening to her to see us "backslide" in our fantasies to become property.
As I said before, I didn't hear the end of the story, so I can't say what her conclusions were, but I can say what mine are!! It sounds to me like we (as women) are doing a fine job of being independent, successful people. So much so that we are now free to fantasize about some rich, hot, strapping man coming for us and taking us away from the drudgery that we've signed up for as independent, successful women. I think it's a positive thing that we are interested in that sort of fantasy. No one fantasizes about their real life - they fantasize about things that aren't part of their reality! This means we've succeeded!
You may disagree - you may feel that it's a betrayal of feminist ideals that women are willing to purchase books about being bought like cattle - but this seems to be a positive step to me. Besides, the whole point of feminisim was to get us to the point where we could decide to pick up chick-lit trash like Harlequin romances if we want - because we make our own money and we decide how we spend it!
