at long last...

photos from Google Images

When I was a young woman I bought and read Glamour Magazine every month. I poured over the fashion photos and read the articles and spent a fair amount of time dreaming about someday writing some of those articles. A male friend once berated me for how much I loved that magazine. He said it was a complete waste of my time and mind to read it. I pointed out that he spent at least much time perusing Playboy, Hustler, etc. I don't remember him being properly chagrined, but it did shut him up.

I haven't read Glamour in years, but it's still around. In the September issue (on the newsstands now), in an article on feeling comfortable in your skin, Glamour ran a photo, not of an actress or supermodel or of anyone whose idea of lunch is a can of Red Bull, but of 20 year old Lizzie Miller (above, left), a softball playing, belly-dancing young woman who's coincidentally 5'11" tall, 180 pounds, size 12-14, and BEAUTIFUL. One of things I love about her photo is that she's not afraid to show that like most of us, she does not have a belly off which one could bounce quarters.

Since this issue hit the stands, Glamour has been inundated with favorable letters to the editor about this pic. By modeling industry standards (there's an oxymoron for you) Lizzie Miller is a plus size model. Dove started the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004, in an attempt to make people realize that beauty comes in all shapes, ages, and sizes. Maybe the message is finally beginning to take.

So which model do you find more attractive?

cross posted at Talking to Myself

TRUTH OR FICTION?

“Our ancestors held that both Spirit and the universe are eternal, but in dark times, both may be overwhelmed by fire and water. As we have grown in understanding, so has mankind, like the Great Spirit, developed the power to destroy by fire and water. But, like the Great Spirit, we may use our power, not to destroy, but to create and sustain. I pray that Spirit grant us the wisdom to nourish and sustain our Mother, the Earth, as she nourishes and sustains us.


May we always sow more than we reap. May we always recognize our kinship with all of Earth’s beings: with the stone ones that define this circle. The green ones that give us food and medicine, the feathered ones who carry our prayers to the heavens, the furred ones who are our guardians and guides, the scaled ones who slide between the worlds-all who grow or walk upon the earth, who crawl beneath it or fly above it, all who swim in her rivers, lakes and oceans.


I swear the oath our ancestors swore: If we break our covenant with Mother Earth and the creatures that the Great Spirit has made, may the ground open up and swallow us, may the waters rise up and overwhelm us, and may the heavens fall and crush us. So let it be.”


The setting is the ending of a Samhein celebration at Avebury Henge from the novel Overshoot by Mona Clee published in 1998. The book may be a work of fiction but eleven years later we find ourselves closer and closer to the latest incarnation of God’s Little Acre: west of the rock of rising sea levels and west of rock of rising temperatures. With just as many naysayers now as there were over a decade ago. Unfortunately the modern day Druid’s curse may end up falling on all of us; not just the blind ones who still believe that we can do whatever we want to our wounded earth and keep avoiding the consequences.


This is a better than average book by the way. Ms. Clee has an absolutely wicked sense of humor even when she is writing about the possible end of the world. It’s one of those books where you find yourself laughing because the humor is so wicked; but you’re tempted to cry because the books’ plot is so horribly possible. The main character is an eighty plus old gal who leads up a sort of commune near Oakland for the geriatric set called Withering Heights by the residents. San Francisco is half drowned and the rest of the Bay Area is was baked to a turn by the mid 2020’s.


You might be able to find a copy in the paperback section of a library and Amazon has used copies.

Insightful Reading

A reasoned argument in the health care debate:

Health Reform: Throwing Good Money After Bad

Here are a few lines I couldn't help but quote:

Alone among advanced countries, we treat health care like a market commodity to
be distributed according to the ability to pay, not like a social service to be
distributed according to medical need.

Surely this is the root of the problem...the root that is so deep and so well protected that nothing much short of an atom bomb will dislodge it...

Dr. Angell concludes her piece with these two paragraphs.

In economic terms, health care is a highly successful industry -- profitable,
growing, and virtually recession-proof -- but it's a massive burden on the rest
of the economy. I'm aware that phasing out private insurers would mean a loss of
jobs. But I believe the job loss in that sector would be more than offset by job
gains in the rest of the economy, which would no longer be saddled with the
exorbitant costs of an industry that offers very little of value to justify its
existence. (Emphasis mine.)

One thing is certain: We need a complete overhaul of our health system.
Tinkering at the edges won't do it. Expanding coverage through government
subsidies and mandates, as advocated by the president, won't either. Besides
being a windfall for insurers and drug companies, that approach will just add to
our soaring costs and be a temporary fix, at best. In my opinion, it makes no
sense to throw good money after bad.

Is there a way to amplify this informed, reasonable voice loud enough to drown out the dittoheads?

but I would not be convicted, by a jury, of my peers...

I spent the day at the Crowley Building being eliminated as a juror in a criminal case. I found it incredibly frustrating. Voir dire went on all afternoon. The purpose of voir dire is to enable the parties to select an impartial panel, but of the final 12 people who were chosen from our panel of 76 potential jurors, not one had uttered a single word during voir dire. One of them, a guy in his 50’s, did speak to me in the hall outside the courtroom while we we were waiting to hear who was picked. And what did this man who made the final cut he have to say? “Well, if this “victim” is a 13 year old girl, all I’ve got to say is, 13 year old girls LIE…” He was picked over the SMU professor who had asked for clarification between individual and corporate deterrents when sentencing was being discussed, and over the business man who said, in response to a question from the prosecutor, that yes, there is a difference between innocence and being found not guilty. During voir dire, the lawyers succeeded in eliminating many people who clearly could not participate fairly in this case; however, they also appeared to eliminate anyone who appeared to be a thinking, intelligent person. The experience did not leave me feeling confident about the state of the jury system.

cross posted at Talking to Myself

toot, toot, tootsie...

Reading the NY Times style section, I came across an article on feet. Apparently, a majority of women in the US hate their feet. Huh?

I remember in the 60's there was an ad for an exfoliant foot cream that showed a woman, apparently nude, sitting with her arms and legs crossed strategically, that read: What's the ugliest part of your body? Whoa, I found the ad on Google images; you can see for yourself:

The first time I saw that ad, I have to admit, "feet" did not come to mind...

According to the article, so many women hate their feet that there are apparently "I hate feet" groups on Facebook! Sheesh! I'm not sure why, but I've always liked my feet, and I've always taken better care of them than I have of my hands. Admittedly I now spend 9 months of the year in open toed sandals, but even when I lived in the frozen north and wore socks for 9 months a year, I gave myself regular pedicures. I read the comments posted on the NY Times article, and there were the usual killjoys, upset and critical that anyone would spend time or money having a pedicure, yada yada yada, whining that feet are purely functional. Yeah, but so are teeth, and yet most of us brush and floss daily and see a dentist a couple of times a year. Years ago I had a neighbor who loved to harass me about the fact that I colored my hair, while she'd allowed herself to go grey. One day I'd had enough and pointed out that she permed her hair on a regular basis, so really, although we were doing different things to achieve it, both of us were changing what nature had given us, in an attempt to improve our appearance. Having well groomed feet is more than just a matter of personal style, though. Ask any diabetic, or anyone caring for a diabetic, about the importance of taking care of their feet.

I've always liked my feet, and at 59, I still like 'em!

YESSSSSS!

We've been hit with a few days of really hot weather: the cats have been reduced to puddles of drowsy fur. Bandit has been laying in front of the other fans and when I put this one up on the chair in the gray a.m. to take advantage of the cool outside air I think it took her about two minutes to realize that yes, there was room for her up there too.

There Oughtta be Another Law...

So, we have a health care "reform" plan that is largely going to consist of forcing every citizen to purchase health insurance. The insurance companies assure us that the reason so many people cannot afford health insurance is that there are so many uninsured. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking the exact opposite is true--there are so many uninsured because nobody can afford health insurance. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Ah, the lobbies. Someone is spending a great deal of money somewhere to make people act on an assumption as obviously STUPID as what they want us to believe. I wish someone would do some research into how much money the Health Insurance lobby is spending to influence Congress...

Meanwhile, someone HAS done some research on how much money a different lobby is spending to make sure anything coming out of Congress is slanted in its favor... Anyone who thinks health care reform is getting any kind of a fare review by Congress, read this:

DRUG FIRMS POUR $40 MILLION INTO HEALTH CARE DEBATE

A commenter on this article mentioned that no significant legislation of any kind is going to make it through our Congress until "lobbying reform" happens...

When, exactly, is hell going to freeze over?

There Oughtta Be a Law...

...against adding bullshit special interest perks to important bills working their way through Congress.

I'm told it's "politics." I'm told it's the only way our Congress ever gets anything done. In order to get enough votes on board for any given bill, you have to "sweeten the pot" for legislators on the other side of the aisle.

But there are special interest groups out there poised to take every advatage of this convoluted "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" way of doing business.

Special interest groups like the NRA.

Which managed to attach a clause to a credit card bill, allowing people to carry concealed weapons in National Parks. WTF??!?!?

At least there was some good news today. Though it was a narrow squeak, the Senate chose to reject attaching a rider to a defense bill that would allow people to carry concealed weapons across state lines.

Sometimes I really despair over our system of government...

But if there's a better one around, we have yet to find it. Fact is, I don't think we're particularly interested...

Sigh!

Wise Words from the Best of the Best…

"I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor — not a commentator or analyst. I feel no compulsion to be a pundit." ~~ Walter Cronkite, in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1973.

Is there a person alive today, with even the remotest connection to any incarnation of our illustrious national media, who could or would make this statement?

Surely, if there were, our country would be in a whole lot better shape than it is now.

A couple more wise words from "Uncle Walter:"

"The nation whose population depends on the explosively compressed headline service of television news can expect to be exploited by the demagogues and dictators who prey upon the semi-informed."~~ From his 1996 memoir, "A Reporter's Life."

"The misfortune with broadcasting today is that all -- even including your network, which is dedicated to the news -- do not take enough time to give us all of the facts and the background." ~~From a 2005 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer

We will miss you more than we can possibly know, Mr. Cronkite.

And that's the way it is…

OUT THE DOOR

Please follow the link to the article.

Finally fed up with trying to change the Southern Baptists from within, Jimmy Carter formally leaves the Southern Baptist church. Actually it sounds as though the church left him, not the other way around.

Photo(s) Friday

Been awhile since anyone has taken advantage of "Photo Friday." So, this week, I have two...

Here's number 1:




And why, you ask, is Lucy the Wonder Dog jumping at the husband's face, mouth open and fangs bared?

Because, the husband is... (as I hope you can see in this picture:)



...blowing bubbles.

It's one of her favorite games. She will chase them all over the yard, but she is most fond of them when they are but milliseconds off the bubble wand. To the point where one fears for one's lips (eyes, nose, hands...life) when one is eye-to-eye with an airborn dog, snapping jaws of death inches from the point of origin of the object of her obsession.

Yeah....she's nuts.

Observation

This morning, I had an interesting realization. As my life is becoming more active, my private leisure time is becoming more fixated on death. It sounds a lot sicker than it is (I hope.) I'm not a big TV viewer. I gave up cable over a year ago, and most of what I watch is on the Internet or on DVD. For weeks now, I've been watching old Buffy The Vampire Slayer episodes, and its spin-off, Angel. In finding interesting shows on the net to watch, I rediscovered Dead Like Me. A fan of Charlaine Harris, I've also gotten into the HBO series inspired by the novels, True Blood. My reading time has also been spent with other vamp queens like Laurell K. Hamilton and Katie McAllister.

I spent months mourning and dealing with the hard consequences of real death. Now for just enjoyment, I now spend my time with characters who are undead -- dead, but walking around, seeing friends, making wisecracks, acute observations and having some pretty hot sex, if they're not dealing with some crisis that might involve their "real" death in the fictional world. All of the stuff the real dead aren't doing.

For once, I'm not going to over analyze this, just note that moving on with life can take curious forms.