Whatever Will We Call This Decade?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on December 10, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Help me out here, ’cause I got nothin’. Zero. Nil. Zilch. Nada. Nought.
Well, as the year and the decade come to a close, it’s time to start rounding up all those lists of the best of the….oh wait. Ten years have passed, and we still haven’t decided on a name for the friggin’ decade? The oughts? The noughts? The O’s? Nothing seems to quite work. Which is perhaps appropriate, the decade began with a bunch of nothing; the Y2K bug was a big no show, the first election of the decade was a zero sum game, and the biggest stars of the decade were genuine nobodies. Calling the decade the “oughts” won’t happen, but might be fitting for a few reasons. It’s a word that no-one knows, for a decade that has no identity, and it has two silent letters in it. Probably the only hope for naming these ten years is for someone to nail the character of the decade the way that some people refer to the 70′s as the “Me Decade”. And never mind the name, how will the decade be remembered? If the 70′s were disco, leisure suits, The Joy of Sex and Ford Pintos, the 80′s yuppies, Reagan, and Electropop, the 90′s infohighways, grunge, and school shootings, how will we characterize 2000-2009? It’s never what you think it will be. The seventies were probably most influenced by Nixon and the oil embargoes, but we remember disco balls and polyester. I think we’ll be surprised that everyone will forget the whole Bush-driven annihilation of privacy rights and wars of aggression, the bank bailouts and corruption (I bet you already forgot all about Enron, didn’t you!), and remember Susan Boyle
An End To The War On Drugs?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 9, 2009 by admin in Politics
The main casualties in the War On Drugs have been women and drug users, not the people who produce and sell them. Can this finally change?
 This soldier in the war on drugs doesn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight |
I’ve often said that I did my part as a soldier in the war on drugs, but they just kept coming, and I finally had to surrender and stop doing them. Which is part of why I was a little inspired to find out that the White House – although it will probably never end its war on terror – is allegedly ending its war on drugs. Yes, this is old news, but I think it kind of got buried what with that little global economic collapse and health plan business of the last few months. This NYT piece about A. Thomas McLellan, Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, seems to be getting a little traction the last couple of days though, and I find it inspiring that the current administration seems to be taking a radical new approach to the drug problem in America. You don’t have to be a genius (or a conspiracy theorist) to figure out that there are a lot of powerful people (including US intelligence services) who want the drug trade to thrive. So it makes sense that the current administration’s strategy is no more focused on stopping the drugs at the source than previous administrations, but is instead focused on dealing with the realities of the problems that drugs create once they’re here. It’s been widely acknowledged for some time that the biggest enemies of the war on drugs were American women (especially black women) and that filling jails with drug addicts is ultimately not a solution. This Drug Policy Alliance article for instance, points out that almost 80% of the US female prison population is serving time for drug-related offenses. If you’re interested in how the war on drugs has affected our culture and you haven’t seen PBS Frontlines’ Drug Wars, you should check it out, it’s fairly balanced in its approach. Maybe even too gentle, but who wants to end up like Gary Webb, right? Read the rest of this entry »
Oye To The World
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on December 8, 2009 by admin in Music
You may have heard dj BC’s Christmas mashups, but this year hebrews up a new mix that will help you feel like less of a menorah-ty. And to all you Christmas revelers who feel threatened: Chill. Your songs were all written by Jews anyway.
We’ve all gotten so used to the fact that the first songs you hear on the radio three minutes after midnight on Halloween are either “White Christmas” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” that we probably don’t even think about what it’s like to be Jewish around Christmas time. Sure, there’s Hanukkah, but it’s kind of a minor holiday, and historically didn’t have too many catchy pop tunes associated with it. Which frankly is a little odd, because a surprising number of songs that are considered Christmas classics were written by Jewish songwriters. Including the two just mentioned. Expanding on the list just linked to (and offering some free downloads), you might also check out Jewish You A Merry Christmas. But we’ve come a long way since the days when the only hip Jewish holiday songs out there were Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song and Sarah Silverman’s Give The Jew Girl Toys. We’ve mentioned dj BC’s Santastic Christmas mashups before, but this year hebrews up a new mix with Menorah Mashup, so if you are Jewish, maybe you won’t feel like such a menorah-ty this holiday season. And it has the added Jewish appeal that not only do you not pay retail, you pay nothing at all! It’s a free download. If this were a commercial release though, the obvious single would be “Challahback Girl”, a mashup of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and Frank Yankovick doing “Hava Nagila”. So dj BC has graciously provided an additional remix collection that includes both “Orthodox” and “Reform” mixes. That Menorah Mashup link above has the free download links, but if you want to preview the tunes, Exstatica.net has kindly provided the tunes as streams. Chappy Chanukah!
Rudolph: The Nightmare Before The Nightmare Before Christmas
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on December 7, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Is Hermey The Dentist Gay? Is Yukon Cornelius a bear? Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is more than a Christmas story, it’s a macabre exploration of congenital deformities, parental shame, ethnic and class-based employment issues, and loneliness.
If you’re old enough, the annual broadcast television airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
December Holidays: Pearl Harbor, Henry The Hand, And Human Rights
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 6, 2009 by admin in Holidays
After 51 weeks of filthy hands, finally some relief, and why I’d like to propose we combine Pearl Harbor Day and September 11 into a single holiday called Sway National Sentiment By Ignoring Intelligence Day.
December is – as we all know – probably the busiest month for holidays. Probably because in much of the capitalist world, it’s dark and gloomy about 18 hours out of every 24, so there’s nothing to do but try to make yourself feel better by eating, shopping, and stringing pretty lights and candles all over the place to ward off the depression. So we’ll get to the biggies like Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa next week, but before all the holiday cheer begins, let’s pause for a moment of somber reflection on Pearl Harbor Day, which has become an excellent time to remember the events of September 11, because, well, they probably came about in the same way. Of course, the average flag-waving American will probably want to wash their hands of any such talk immediately. This is convenient, because December 6th through 12th is National Handwashing Awareness Week. Which kind of leaves one wondering what the hell people do with them the other 51 weeks of the year. In any case, let Henry The Hand’s sniff test help you clean up your act and rid the world of the filth being spread by evil characters like his likely arch-nemesis, Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo. And much like the one week of clean hands a year, you’re also allowed human rights for a day on December 10. This seems to be a less-than-hot-topic for the UN; as of this writing their human rights home page makes no mention of the holiday, and the most recent item in the “news” section is from April. So just enjoy your silly human rights while you still have some. Like mom always used to say, “there are kids in [INSERT COUNTRY NAME] that are starving for human rights“. Okay, maybe I’m misquoting mom a bit. In any case, like we said, we’ll be back with thoughts on the “real” December holidays next week, but in the meantime we have several pages of shopping ideas for you. Oh, and don’t forget. Global Orgasm Day is coming. Read the rest of this entry »