I love this bit so I am putting it here for reference since I can never find it on the internet anywhere else..
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I knew Christina Aguilera could sing and all, but … damn?
UPDATE: Sidenote: notice how much better and hotter she is than in the actual performance at the grammys
Before, courtesy of google’s new archive of Life photographs:
And after, courtesy of ME:
I would go try to take a picture of approximately the same angle, but it’s 28F out and 10:35PM. I sure do have a lot of pictures of that bridge but none quite from that angle, except maybe this one, which I think was taken with expired film and had a bad scan, or something, because yegods is it terrible.
Via the CBPP, news that food insecurity is up again this year — even before this latest economic implosion:
Even before the current economic downturn, some 13 million households, containing 36.2 million people, lacked access to adequate food at some point in 2007 because they didn’t have enough money for groceries, according to today’s release. These figures are a slight increase over the findings for 2006, but given the dramatic weakening of the economy in recent months, the number of “food insecure” households has likely grown considerably in 2008.
Food stamp caseloads — an indicator of those struggling to afford a basic diet — grew by nearly 2 million people between January and August 2008 (the most recent month for which we have data). The economic downturn also has coincided with a sharp increase in food prices, both of which have undoubtedly exacerbated hardship for many low-income families.
None of this data accounts for homeless individuals or families, either.
To follow up on this post, here’s Julian Sanchez discussing the types and politics of “wealth restribution”, with a little more insight and thoughtfulness than I bothered with.
Homeless people across the city will have access to primary health care thanks to a nearly $1.2 million federal grant and the plans of one Nashville nonprofit to expand care.
United Neighborhood Health Services will use the money to provide medical, dental and behavioral health care to the city’s homeless in a network of walk-in clinics across the city. With the new funds, organization officials say, every homeless person in the city stands to receive free medical care if they want it.
They expect to serve more than 5,000 homeless people a year. The grant is renewable annually if all the service requirements are met.
An interesting article in the NYT about Obama’s transition into office including basically being wrenched forcibly off the internet. Can you imagine taking a job where it was actually a legal and security challenge to allow you to communicate freely with the outside world? I guess this means twitter is just right out, then.
I love reading Reason — both the magazine and their blog, Hit & Run. Both are usually chock full of well-reasoned (ha ha) and intelligent commentary. They have a few writers, though, that basically never fail to annoy me. Cathy Young is one of those. In a recently article, she contemplates whether Palin’s candicacy was a Good Thing for feminism or not. Contained therein, we encounter this passage:
Palin’s rise enraged many liberal and left-wing feminists. At HuffingtonPost.com, novelist Jane Smiley branded her “a woman who reinforces patriarchal power rather than challenges it.” (The notion that “patriarchal power” exists in the United States in 2008 is only slightly less delusional than the belief, erroneously attributed to Palin, that God created the dinosaurs 5000 years ago.)
Uh.. What? Was there a big announcement that we finally fixed sexism? Maybe it was right after we also fixed racism, which, as Cathy Young will tell you, is entirely black people’s fault these days too. Ugh. Incidentally, if Cathy Young believes patriarchal power no longer exists, what, exactly, is feminism, and what would constitute a “step forward” for it? Why is she even writing about it? It’s like she has this knee-jerk inability to admit that any institutional forces exist, and that to admit they do would be admitting some sort of personal weakness or something. It’s okay, Cathy! Institutions exist! It’s not your fault!
That said, I mostly agree with her answer to the question of whether or not Palin’s candicacy was a good thing for women’s progress:
Unfortunately, Palin’s feminist star was dimmed by a few things, especially the mounting evidence that she was less than qualified for the spot. (Her supporters derided such concerns as “elitism.”) The shielding of Palin from the media, and the McCain campaign’s request for a less challenging format for her debate with Joseph Biden, would have been embarrassing for any candidate – but especially for the first woman on the Republican ticket. Palin went from Xena, Warrior Princess to damsel in distress, and her candidacy began to smack a particularly pernicious form of faux feminism: gender-based promotion of the less competent.
It goes without saying that I think “less than qualified” is the understatement of the year. I suppose the fact that she was able to do as well as she did while being a woman in theory is some sort of vague victory, but it’s vastly overshadowed by the fact that by all measures she was extremely ignorant and vastly unprepared for any position in office. Unfortunately this will probably do far more to reinforce existing stereotypes about women than the fact that she was on the stage at all could undo.
I think the much more interesting feminist issue unfolding on the national stage will be the first-lady-ification of Michelle Obama.
Great, just what we need: more people in PRISON:
Middle Tennessee’s top federal prosecutor says he’s stepping up cases against illegal immigrants who are deported and return to the U.S., hoping prison sentences will deter offenders next time.
Beginning in March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement started asking U.S. attorneys around the country to prosecute immigrants who repeatedly enter the country illegally. The charges can carry a prison sentence from two to 20 years.
…
“These are the worst of the worst that we are talking about here and people for whom we can see that deportation will not keep them out,” said Ed Yarborough, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. “It’s probably too early to tell if there’s been a deterrent effect. But we think we might, over time, see fewer … returning to Nashville.”
Yes, the “worst of the worst” — people that like our country so much that they really want to be here. Those bastards. Immigration law and public opinion in this country is so fucked sometimes I wonder if we can ever recover to something sensible.
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