But don't name your sports team after us!

I totally appreciate the idea of a beauty pageant that involves meat. I love that the Miss Navajo Nation pageant embraces a broader range of skills than a typical pageant, where rubbing Vaseline on your teeth, talking about the Iraq, and dodging pepper spray are de rigueur. What I don't get is how this fits into the "don't use us as an icon of strength and physical prowess" attitude that pervades the anti-mascot crowd. I get that "they" don't want to be reduced to a one-dimensional caricature, but can't a mascot represent a particular dimension of your culture? I don't hear this much fuss about mascots based on European characters. The Fighting Irish are a classic example - and the concept of the drunken, pugilistic Irishman is pervasive with or without the mascot.

Here's a little test: write down everything, positive and negative, that comes to mind when you hear "Sioux," and again when you hear "Irish." I'm willing to bet that both terms are loaded with connotations both positive and negative. And I also bet that what comes to mind is unaffected by mascots.

My Xmas wish list

It would be nice if people would take seriously the issue of consumption. Adbusters has been trying to publicize the issue for years, and one of their classic anti-events is coming up this Friday. Yes, it's Buy Nothing Day, the day you avoid crowded malls and hyped-up bullshit. Another proposed activity is Buy Nothing Christmas. The site tells us: "Buy Nothing Christmas is not really about refusing to spend a dime over the holiday season. It’s about taking a deep breath and deciding to opt out of the hype‚ the overcrowded malls‚ and the stressful to–do lists. It’s about reminding ourselves to really think about what we are buying‚ why we are buying it‚ and whether we really need it at all."

This is an idea that I completely support, for a couple of reasons. First, I hate the shopping. Second, I hate trying to come up with ideas for what other people should by for me. Third, I have so much stuff already. A lot of the stuff I have - whether received as a gift or purchased by myself, sits around and never is used. Yet at the time, I "needed" it. Hell, I still find myself "needing" stuff, or just wanting things enough to say, "Fuckit, I'm buyin' that."

Simultaneously, I'm a huge fan of the bounty that capitalism has produced in this country. Apparently, I contain multitudes.

Now, a lot of people out there will argue that anti-consumerism is akin to communism, or is illogical (if I literally consume nothing, I'll die, for example), or is it's own form of hyped-up bullshit and or hypocrisy. And I'm not going to engage that, because it would be pointless. I think the biggest argument I can make is that it's not about anti-consumerism, but rather mindful consumerism. Think about your consumption and its consequences. It's not easy, but if we start paying attention, and teaching our kids to pay attention, maybe in a couple of generations people will find it easier to consume less. Assuming they aren't too busy fighting each other over puddles of filthy water.

Random silliness and other updates

My lappy died last week. It's still under warranty for a few more months, but blah blah words, I'm replacing it. We'll ship it in & see if they can fix it, & if so, then Ben has a lappy too. Yay! The sad part is that despite my vehement exhortations that I would never buy another Windows box, I can't afford right now to (a) buy a Mac and (b) buy Mac versions of the software I need for school. So I'm trapped in Windows land again. This makes me grrr. But so what? How does this affect you, the reader? I'll have limited access to the Internets until my new lappy arrives, and so will not post as often. The result is that you will need to find another way to spend your hard-earned Internets time.

Random fun notes:
An issue of the Minnesota Daily last week included a story about a first-year student (18 or 19 yrs old) who last spring (1) went to a party, (2) was served alcohol by a 20-year-old student, (3) become very intoxicated (0.31% blood-alcohol level), (4) left the party, and (5) fell to his death from a parking structure. All tragic & shit, but my favorite part is the end of the story, where the UMPD's chief is quoted as saying, "A death like this can have life-changing effects."

In today's Daily, a front page story about sports injuries includes this gem from Jennifer Kearns, associate director of NCAA public relations: "It could be a temporary condition or it could be, in some cases, a permanent condition." Really. It could be either one of those. So, y'know.

Bizarro world

I just looked at Lady With A Hat in Internet Exploder. It hurts me to say this, but I actually like the appearance better in IE than in Firefox. There's just something about the way the font is rendered that is nicer. Here's a visual, to save you the trouble of loading the page in both browsers.

Firefox:


Interxploder:

Suck it Jesus

SuckItJesus.com was set up as a petition to prevent the censorship of Kathy Griffin's Emmy acceptance speech.

In her speech, Griffin said that "a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "Suck It, Jesus. This award is my god now!"

Needless to say, idiot Christians, unable to cope with the fact that not everyone agrees with them, are flipping out. This is the same type of bullshit that the Muslims pulled back when that Dutch newspaper printed cartoons they didn't like. While this event is unlikely to spark physical violence the way the cartoons did (face it, Islam, as practiced and as represented, is a more violent religion than Christianity - abortion clinic murders notwithstanding), the same sense of entitlement to respect drives both of these misguided systems (as they are currently practiced). Here's some advice for all you religious nutbags out there: GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELVES. First, "you" never seem to have trouble saying things that you know will annoy/frustrate/offend other people, and are eager to protect your freedom of religion and speech to say whatever you want about those people (the gays, for example - who, incidentally, constitute a large segment of Ms. Griffin's fanbase, and whom God hates, according to some). Second, your cows are "mighty good on a bun," and I'll eat them if I want to.

Anti-gay Republican something something

Seriously? Another one? (Adult language warning). Vocally anti-gay Republican senator Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested in the Minneapolis airport back in June for - you guessed it - soliciting sex in the men's room.

** UPDATE **
I'm bringing this one back to the top of the queue after reading a couple of great posts that need to be shared.

Well I didn't know that

According to Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., "If you know a bit about language, you know it's the consonants that matter, not the vowels."

Really? I had no idea. Tell me more! Let me guess: It's the nouns that matter, not the verbs. Et cetera. What about math? "If you know a bit about arithmetic, you know it's the numbers that matter, not the operations you perform on them." Or geography: "If you know a bit about geography, you know it's the states that matter, not the lakes." Ooh, or politics: "If you know a bit about politics, you know it's the executive branch that matters, not the legislative or judicial branches."

Mr. Johnson is a creationist who insists that Greek art proves the veracity of Biblical stories. He also rails against "name-calling" by those who accept the scientific validity of evolutionary theory. He dubs them "Slime-Snake-Monkey-People" and "mutant randomites."

Rabid anti-gay Republican turns out to be jizz-hungry cock-sucker

Let's see - we've had Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, ... wasn't there some "ex-gay" guy who "relapsed" a few years ago? Bob Allen, a state Representative in Florida, was busted by an undercover cop.

His explanation is priceless. To paraphrase: "There were a lot of scary black guys in the park, and he would to anything to get away from them."

This comment made me wet myself a little.

"Do as I say, not as I do"

I was thinking last night that I'm a big fan of that philosophy in most cases. While I totally understand the opposing viewpoint of "Physician, heal thyself," I don't necessarily think it's the most helpful in dealing with real-life issues. If a bum on the street approaches me and asks for a dollar so he can get food or booze or whatever, and he tells me, "You should be saving up for your retirement," does his poverty negate the value of the advice?

How to make a fundie's head explode

What if there was proof that being gay was strictly genetic, and you could test a fetus for gayness? Would it then be okay to either abort it or manipulate its genes to make it straight?