Salon.com Life | “We sing the body electric…”: It finally happened at 30my body left its confinesafter years of spinning turbinesthe cigarettes and wine glassesof twentysomething dating classes.The butt that never gained a thinga lure for men, a giggling thingthat danced all night in gowns once wornby tiny 20s movie stars.But now a meal lasts a great deal longerthan lingering eyes over wine and pastaand goes to my thighs like white on rice.Hey Mom – I’ve discovered cellulite!How now begins this epic battle?Will esteem drop with hips that waddle?I’ve heard the elders mutter bitterof tits that sag, how men must gagand that one day I’ll understand.But this precious territoryis sadly, only temporaryAnd it’s the only one I’ve gotfor life’s in motion, life is notthe perfect frozen laundry listthe measure of the men you’ve kissed,so let me die an onanist!– Zoe Greenberg, New York, N.Y.
1 CommentCategory: Politics
Map & Graph: Countries by Crime: Prisoners: Per capita :A wonderful website for comparing countries. I don’t have much time to do an extended comparison now but some numbers just jumped out at me.First – the number of prisoners per capita.
2 CommentsThe US has more people in prison, no universal medical plan, lousyMore interesting to me is the difference in employment costs between Austria and France…. I know almost no one who is European employment costs:Chart 3 highlights a major challenge facing Europe over the next 20 to 40 years: the serious financing difficulties of “pay-as-you-go” systems and the possible resultant damage to the global competitiveness of European countries.Overall, the EU is approximately 15% dearer than the US. However, when only the original 15 EU member states are considered, the US is cheaper by approximately 23%.
4 CommentsWhat actually happens is no sales to us or the stores.)NARAS and RIAA are moaning about the little mom & pop stores being shoved out of business; no one worked harder to shove them out than our own industry, which greeted every new Tower or mega-music store with glee, and offered steep discounts to Target and WalMart et al for stocking CDs…. As an alternative to encrypting everything, and tying up money for years (potentially decades) fighting consumer suits demanding their first amendment rights be protected (which have always gone to the consumer, as witness the availability of blank and unencrypted VHS tapes and casettes), why not take a tip from book publishers and writers?
Leave a CommentThe American shenanigans with Social Security are mind boggling. Almost out of this world. Spending more on a system that provides less benefits.
The clearest and most amusing look at the Social Security debate comes from Tom Tomorrow.
His archive of cartoons is well worth a look. A persistent skewering of political nonsense – more of which is coming from the right at present than the left.
On a similar note, Billmon is back in 2005. (Without comments, thank heavens. The comment section was too overwhelming. Eventually it became too repetitive. Sadly without trackback. The trackbacks often led out to interesting sites.)
Billmon has shared his unique take on social security twice. There is an hilarious take on Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality. If Lincoln was gay that will pose a great dilemma to republicans many of whom would have to repudiate the statesman as a matter of principle. There is a frightening look at the false science at the US Department of Natural Resources under the Bush administration.
In any case, Billmon is back and in fine form. The entries are shorter this year and made up more often of contrasting exhibits, like this one between Hitler and Bush’s policies in relation to torture.
Leave a CommentFrance is not doing very well these days. Prices have rocketed sky-high despite wages staying more or less in the same place. One of the problems is the 35 hour work week. On my trip to Basque country I rode the train with a woman who works in a large Belgian bank as upper middle management. She can’t get her whole staff together for a meeting anymore as there is always someone who is not at work. The 35 hours week legislation even allows workers to set their own hours! Frankly, thirty-five hours is not enough time to do a full-time job, especially on the clock. Between arriving and leaving and lunching and coffee, there isn’t much time left to work.
Leave a CommentThey just “want to die”.So when Yusuf Sweitat, who had no prior connection with Palestinian militants, drove to the Israeli town of Hadera on 28 October 2001, and shot dead four Israeli women at a bus stop before being gunned down himself by Israeli police, that was nothing to do with the fact that ten days earlier he had watched twelve-year-old Riham Ward bleed to death in his arms after being struck by an IDF tank shell as she sat at her school desk at the Ibrahimiya Elementary School in Jenin…. And it was entirely coincidental that seven days after the IDF shot dead 15-year-old stone-thrower Amjad Al-Masri, and six days after the IDF fired upon Amjad’s funeral procession, killing his cousin Mohammed, Amjad’s 17-year-old brother Iyad blew himself up in Ginsafut near Qalqilya.It is increasingly hard to see the difference in kind between the Nazi regime and what is practiced in Israel today. Expropriation. Misuse of the laws and power organs of the state to oppress a group on racial and religious grounds. What has to happen to end this persecution and our endorsement, both tacit and explicit of it? The weblog from which this excerpt is taken is an incredibly detailed and informed look at the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The resource list alone is especially useful, as it is both comprehensive and well-annotated. The more you know, the worse it becomes:
Leave a CommentInvited and welcomed into Portugal, Spain, England and Russia through the ages, the Jews failed to take advantage of the opportunity to integrate into their new societies and work for the national benefit…. Most recently in Russia, after the Oligarchs grabbed the national assets of Russia for a song, as a group Jews find themselves ostracised and condemned and their wealth confiscated.
2 Comments