Quickie: NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorses Obama

. . . and so does John Edwards! This is very exciting news.

Damn You, Bill O'Reilly (or: Election Musings- West Virginia Edition)

I haven't written anything about the election for a while- and by election I do of course mean the democratic primary. In short, I'm getting kind of sick of it. You probably are too. Admit it. And the worst thing is we all have six more months of the longest presidential election in American history before the fate of our nation is decided. Now don't get me wrong; I am not trying to negate the importance of this contest. I am just 1) getting impatient waiting for this ass hat to leave, and 2) kind of bored. Not much new is being said (with this notable exception)- I feel like we are in a stale mate. And the longer it continues, the more we lose focus on what should be everyone's main goal- beating McCain. But enough of this self-indulgent rant.

Hillary won West Virginia, meaning we have who knows how much longer of this bickering, which is only weakening the party. Total bummer, in other words. This swing-state, electoral college crap seems so nonsensical at times. Why can't we just rely on the popular vote? And that ends my two cents on the latest in primary happenings.

At Least They're Not Trying To Ban Harry Potter

This is a great news piece. Apparently a high school in Texas wants to ban a German text book because there are some naked ladies in the background of one photo. Heaven forbid we teach our kids about other cultures that don't have an eerily repressive view of sexuality!

There was so much uproar from parents who are upset that their kids saw a tiny image of... what? a nipple? maybe the mons pubis? that the school board is considering banning the book. If they decide to keep the German texts in circulation, they plan on covering the offending photos with stickers in order to censor the naughty bits. Seriously.

There are so many problems with this bizarre little piece, I don't even know where to begin! A few thoughts:

1. If any of these Texan high school students haven't seen a picture of a naked woman (at least in pictures), we should be worried. The human body is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about- especially naked women.
2. What kind of message is this sending to female students? That their bodies are dirty and should be hidden. There's a healthy message for today's young women!
3. Do parents and school officials really believe that this tiny little text book photo is going to inspire their teens to go out and have lots of unprotected sex? I think the repercussions of censoring this image are far less healthy than allowing teen-aged people to see some side boob.
4. When a class of German students discovered the image in class, they began giggling uncomfortably. Methinks the school board should be worrying more about health class (read: comprehensive sex education) and less about German class.

Geez, only in Texas, right? This story brings to mind an absolutely classic David Cross bit (the only bald man I'll ever love) about former attorney general John Ashcroft. When Ashcroft was in the justice department, he insisted on covering up the supple, stone breasts of a naked Lady Justice. "Dirty titties! You should be ashamed of those things- put cloth on them!"

Via Jezebel.

Quickie: Bush vs. McCain- can YOU tell the difference?

I only scored two out of five correct. Test your knowledge here!

Do Me a Favor

. . . and check out the creepy comment under the post titled "An Open Letter to Johnny Vegas." Pulling up a woman's skirt and touching her underneath after she repeatedly tells you not to is NOT sexual assault? I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from someone who considers the stunt funny. Mick's creepy comment is just another example of the prevalence of the rape culture, and the persistent need for feminism.

Like what you read? Digg it!

In an effort to increase traffic to the blog, I've been trying to add links to share posts on different media. First up? Digg it! If you like what you read, go on and digg it!

PS- If anyone knows how to make the button smaller, leave tips on comments. I'm still learning how to navigate all this tech stuff.

Quicky: Small Cars Growing in Popularity

This story in today's NY Times is promising. However, we are still not doing enough as a nation to curb emissions. Let's take the necessary next step and outlaw SUVs and other cars with terrible fuel standards!

An Open Letter To Johnny Vegas

Yeah, I have never heard of him either. But this story caught my eye, and I became outraged. So outraged, in fact, that I decided to write him a letter and tell him that I think he's a disgusting human being. What drives me to have such an extreme hatred of some second rate British comedian of whom I have never heard, you might ask. Apparently "Vegas" sexually assaulted a nineteen-year-old woman on stag- and called it a joke. Here's a link to the Guardian post where it was first reported (Wikipedia credits it as such, for what that's worth).

Anyways, back to this letter: Five minutes of google and MySpace searching yielded no address or website to which I could send Johnny Vegas my thoughts about his little joke. Not wanting to waste any more time on it, I decided that posting it here would suffice. Here goes:

Mr. Vegas;

Today, I read about your recent comedy act, where you had six audience members carry a young woman (barely legal, at eighteen or nineteen) on to the stage, where you fondled her breasts, pulled up her skirt, and fingered her through her underwear. Mr. Vegas, you are a rapist and it is a travesty on part of the British legal system that you are not being prosecuted. I am disturbed beyond words that anyone would consider the public sexual assault of a young woman to be comedic. You should be black-balled for life- for the good of the public (actually, you should spend some time in jail). I think you are scum.

Sincerely,
EW