It will surprise few people who pay attention to American politics that Sarah Palin is a world-class hypocrite. But her recent foray into the politics of language and disability have proved that her hypocrisy is dyed in the wool, an amazing contradiction of terms: openly disingenuous, profoundly committed to shallowness. She’s taken one of the … Continue reading »
Filed under Politics …
Sartorial justice
Hey all, remember back in July when Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan mean-girled soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor for not dressing femme enough? It turns out those “1980s lady power broker” suits were chosen for her by “government officials.” There is not enough desk for my forehead right now.
Point blank: On insults and logic
Think Progress has a couple of posts up today about Republican politicians, when directly asked if they think President Obama is a socialist, admitting that he’s, you know, not. House Minority Leader John Boehner’s interview is especially telling: GREGORY: Do you really think the President is a socialist? BOEHNER: Listen, when you begin to look … Continue reading »
On death panels
You might have heard that people like everyone’s favorite anti-feminist, Sarah Palin, are spreading lies about the proposed US health care reform including mandatory “death panels” that encourage elderly people to just up and off themselves already to save all us youngsters some cash. You might have also heard that Sarah Palin is a lying … Continue reading »
What’s the point of judicial power if you don’t have Girl Power?
Here’s the thing about Robin Givhan, the WaPo‘s fashion journalist. She frequently writes about fashion in contexts that should make for fascinating readings: the images portrayed by women in power, and how their stylistic choices reflect (or, often, deflect) our expectations of femininity. Sounds right up our alley, no? But here’s the other thing about … Continue reading »
Now that’s what I call a surgeon general
It appears that Obama and his administration, while educating themselves admirably on health care issues as they’ve been doing for the past several months, have also clued in to the fact that there are doctors who aren’t on TV. Even before the inauguration, there were reports that Obama had asked Sanjay Gupta, a fatphobic blowhard … Continue reading »
The Obamas: Just like us!
Jezebel points us to a maddeningly obtuse series of recent articles about the Obamas’ eating habits. (There’s even an [unofficial] Obama food blog, for the truly obsessive.) Apparently the Obamas are baffling the pundit class by sometimes eating vegetables, and sometimes eating burgers. It’s true! Apparently this magical family is able to eat French freedom … Continue reading »
Read ‘Em
-Lauredhel: Fat acceptance and Oppression Olympics fail on The Gruen Transfer An excellent elaboration of Rule 11, among other things. The critique of the panellists completely fails to connect this one simple fact: That arguing “you wouldn’t tell racist or homophobic jokes, so why tell fat jokes?” misses the point that people do tell racist and homophobic … Continue reading »
1,000 calories a day: Officially not torture
Via Rachel at The-F-Word, the HuffPo is reporting that calorie restriction was a Bush-administration-approved torture technique, and the justification for its legality was that people do it voluntarily. We just call it “dieting” instead of “torture.” In a footnote to a May 10, 2005, memorandum from the Office of Legal Council, the Bush attorney general’s … Continue reading »
More Inauguration Goodness
Ms. Aretha Franklin sings “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” while wearing the best hat in the history of millinery.
