a little bit self-centered

sarahchristine: motherjones: Once more, for the afternoon...

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:40:33 -0400

motherjones:

Once more, for the afternoon crowd: Actual quotes from Georgia Senate candidates set to photos of adorable animals. (This one’s from Rep. Phil Gingrey, with an assist from one Stephen Colbert.)

Well home state, this is what we’ve come to. The only way Gingrey/Broun et al. will ever be palatable I guess.

Don’t read these while drinking coffee, because you’ll spit it all over your keyboard and be embarrassed in front of the cute new IT guy for TWO separate behaviors instead of the usual one.

This .gif is probably a huge part of the reason that I tell...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:19:00 -0400

This .gif is probably a huge part of the reason that I tell people at work who name their baby Mason (omg there are like a hundred) that I have a friend who named her baby the same thing.

Why "Feticide" Charges Are More Complicated Than They Seem

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:17:00 -0400

Why "Feticide" Charges Are More Complicated Than They Seem:

Charging Ariel Castro with murder for allegedly causing his captives to miscarry their pregnancies sets a dangerous precedent, says Michelle Goldberg.

Michelle Goldberg argues against the murder charge at The Daily Beast:

But if he is convicted of capital murder, it will ultimately be an injustice—not to him, but to the rest of us. That’s because it will mean that legally, ending a pregnancy is a greater crime than keeping three human beings locked in a squalid dungeon for a decade. Such a precedent will have implications beyond this terrible case.

Charges of feticide seem to ignore, or at least diminish, that in the end, Mr. Castro’s heinous, terrifying crimes were committed against women. Women are are still alive. Forcing Michelle Knight to become pregnant multiple times, and then forcing her to miscarry, is torture. To focus on charges for the murders of the fetuses is to forget that there was always a living victim. It’s to assume that terminating a forced pregnancy in the end is a greater crime than the crime that caused the termination - the repeated torture of a living woman, and the continual disregard for her life.

More at Mother Jones.

Why isn't New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting a 'national tragedy'?

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:51:43 -0400

Why isn't New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting a 'national tragedy'?:

Unfortunately, though, I’ve learned to redefine what constitutes an American tragedy. American tragedies occur where middle America frequents every day: airplanes, business offices, marathons. Where there persists a tangible fear that this could happen to any of us. And rightfully so. Deaths and mayhem anywhere are tragic. That should always be the case. The story here is where American tragedies don’t occur.

American tragedies don’t occur on the southside of Chicago or the New Orleans 9th Ward. They don’t occur where inner city high school kids shoot into school buses or someone shoots at a 10-year old’s birthday party in New Orleans. Or Gary, Indiana. Or Compton. Or Newport News. These are where the forgotten tragedies happen and the cities are left to persevere on their own.

20 people were wounded by gunshots at a public event in the middle of the city of New Orleans. But the shooter and the majority of the victims were not white, so no big deal, apparently.

This is a PSA: These Matt Bernson laser cut Waverly flats are...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:14:00 -0400

This is a PSA:

These Matt Bernson laser cut Waverly flats are available, in these three spring colors, for $59.99 at Victoria’s Secret, with this discount code. I would have never expected Victoria’s Secret to be the first result as I was unsuspectingly Googling deals on a sturdy summer flat, but I’ll take a nearly $100 discount wherever I can get it, thanks. Especially if it’s for the only flat that doesn’t hurt my feet more than a four-inch heel and holds up on my mile-long walk to work. Even if it means opening the Victoria’s Secret website on my work computer.

I ordered the neon yellow, and I’m seriously considering going back for mint green.

iinventedeverything: more to the point. i don’t want to cut off my breasts to make sure i don’t get...

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:36:00 -0400

iinventedeverything:

more to the point. i don’t want to cut off my breasts to make sure i don’t get cancer. i will if i have to, but i don’t want to.

i want to clean up the bajillion pounds of heavy toxins all over the industrial corridor and flying off of the freeways up and down the I75 corridor. i want to clean up the water, i want to stop fracking, i want to plant sunflowers everywhere so that all the dioxins in the soil are cleaned up. i want to eat food that isn’t going to give me cancer, and i want all children everywhere to breath clean fresh air at all times and never smell the burn of industrial acid on their noses.

cleaning up the environment is one of the number one fucking ways to prevent cancer.

but one of these preventative measures makes sense and gets support—and the other one is roundly mocked, ignored or gets your ass thrown in jail as a terrorist.

i think it’s essential we interrogate that reality.

I was thinking about how as mastectomies become (somewhat) more common, they are literally becoming a form of adaptation to this environment that we’ve created and refuse to control. We have finally reached a point where we are unintentionally mandating that people change their bodies in order to adapt to a problem we refuse to solve. What Angelina Jolie and many, many other women have done is brave and admirable and sometimes very necessary, but it’s also scary.

OKAY FINE, you guys. I will read those books.

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:31:00 -0400

OKAY FINE, you guys. I will read those books.

thehairpin: katieheaney: (now with a cover.) KATIE! Oh wait,...

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:54:44 -0400

thehairpin:

katieheaney:

(now with a cover.)

KATIE!

Oh wait, this is actually the story of my life. Why must I wait until 2014 to read the story of possibly the only other human who has lived 25 years without a single serious boyfriend?

This photo of Nicki Minaj is basically the only way I ever...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:20:14 -0400

This photo of Nicki Minaj is basically the only way I ever wanted to look.

via teenvogue

"But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features create? For the..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:13:40 -0400

“But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features create? For the twenty-first century, if you want to conjure that odd tug in your gut – that longing to dance too late and drink too much, to kiss a stranger and pretend the rest of your life doesn’t exist – you’re going to need something with a little more bass, a little more electronic flair, a little more snarly rapping in the lyrics. Like it or not, the Great Anti-American Dream Novel is as conflicted as a Jay-Z rap song, both celebrating a culture of excess and deploring the emptiness such a culture creates. Which is why I remain firmly convinced that having Jay-Z produce the soundtrack was an inspired move. Jay-Z is a present day artist who, like Jay Gatsby or F. Scott Fitzgerald himself, has to comment on the benefits or pitfalls of the good life while he’s living knee deep in it. He too is a celebrity that the nation watches, envying his excess, greedy for more details about what he does with the life so many of us secretly long to have. And like Fitzgerald, though unlike Gatsby, Jay-Z both revels in and questions the good life. What was Watch the Throne other than a dizzying oscillation between political critique and celebratory decadence?”

- Melissa Sexton - on Jay-Z and the Gatsby soundtrack

Seriously, what is Watch the Throne if not a modern day homage to The Great Gatsby? I am sure that all [okay, most - I think I can safely hypothesize that it’s 99.9%] of the criticisms of this soundtrack reveal a scant, embarrassing knowledge of hip-hop and completely deny its cultural influence, but I’d also argue that they reveal a thin, superficial reading of The Great Gatsby. The novel, as this article astutely points out, is more than an earnest rejection of the American Dream. To assume that critique is only relevant when absorbed as a period piece is to completely dismantle it, to strip it of its importance. All art, including Luhrmann’s (best) films, and hip-hop, and classic literature, all provide a cultural critique that remains timeless - when you put it against any backdrop, it still resonates.

The Great Gatsby describes a timeless struggle against the American Dream and the pain that comes from aspiring to the unattainable, while glorifying the spoils of the resulting lifestyle and the strength it takes for men to live within the confines of an unforgiving society. That’s, like, exactly what hip-hop does. Haters.

Mother's Day Lessons From a Vampire Weekend Mom

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:44:32 -0400

Mother's Day Lessons From a Vampire Weekend Mom:

This sounds like a wonderful family.

After talking with Najmieh Batmanglij, and later with Zal and Rostam, it seemed to me that some of the attitudes she and her husband, Mohammad, held about family life were inspiring enough to be distilled into a little list.

I haven’t seen any pictures of Nicki Minaj from last night...

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:10:00 -0400

I haven’t seen any pictures of Nicki Minaj from last night on my dashboard yet, so I want to go on the record and say that this is the only acceptable way I’ve seen to wear Tommy Hilfiger since like, 1997. Tommy Hilfiger (the person) filled a table full of other guests whom he also dressed. One of them was Zooey Deschanel, and she looked vanilla as hell.

Some boring white model would have worn this dress with straight beige hair and a nude lip. But Nicki Minaj can wear the shit out of anything, and if she doesn’t get invited to the Met Gala every year so I can watch her get dressed, I’ll be infinitely disappointed.

I’m not going to fault Mindy Kaling for looking like...

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:43:51 -0400

I’m not going to fault Mindy Kaling for looking like she’s so excited that she’s about to lose it every time she does a stereotypically famous person thing.

I never expected to get everything I ever wanted. Baby’s...

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:17:16 -0400

I never expected to get everything I ever wanted.

Baby’s first Met Gala certainly seems like it was a smashing success.

Mitch McConnell’s team has started a tumblr...

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:19:35 -0400

Mitch McConnell’s team has started a tumblr (ObamaDrink.tumblr.com) asking his fans to submit a photo of themselves drinking alone in order to win a drink with Mitch.

Curmudgeonly Elspeth Reeve at the Atlantic thinks it proves why no one actually wants to have a drink with Mitch O’Connell - because he’s not funny and he’s awkward. I mean, those things are no doubt true, and I can also think of several other reasons why I would rather not have a drink with Mitch O’Connell, but this tumblr is funny, both in the way it’s supposed to be funny and the way it is NOT supposed to be funny.

We can probably all agree that Obama supporters could take way more intentionally funny photos of themselves drinking alone than these guys, right? Because let’s face it, they’re all guys (there are a couple girls). And they’re all the kind of guys who probably do know the sting of drinking alone, right?

Except for this guy. This guy is awesome. But something gives me the feeling he’s actually an undercover liberal. He’s the doing clueless conservative in boat shoes pose way too well, right? I mean, look how tiny his beer glass is.

Good morning! Last night I literally cut the month of April off...

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:12:00 -0400

Good morning! Last night I literally cut the month of April off of my head. This morning I took a thousand pictures of my not-amused face, because May better not suck.

FDA says morning-after pill to move over-the-counter - The Boston Globe

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:43:54 -0400

FDA says morning-after pill to move over-the-counter - The Boston Globe:

Honestly, this is such a step in the right direction, and I’m really overjoyed beyond belief that the FDA is making such a wise choice to reduce the number of abortions in America. But I am still such a selfish, terrible person that I cannot help but be happy along with being so, so angry and also curious about how critical for me this would have been six or seven years ago. If I could have walked to Walgreens and bought this without the shame, without the pharmacist consultation, without them putting my name in a database and reminding me how many times I’d already bought it that year, without waiting 72 hours until Monday morning when the campus health center opened, would I have been in a healthy, adult relationship by now? Would I still be such a callous, cynical, angry person? Would I be living in a city I liked, unafraid of making it on my own and not terrified to fail? Who knows, right? I am a jealous person to my core, but I just hope this means that fewer and fewer young women will have to waste so many hours wondering, what if?

"Boca Raton, Florida (June 17) I actually saw it happen. A bird falling from the roof of a building...."

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:18:07 -0400

“Boca Raton, Florida (June 17)

I actually saw it happen. A bird falling from the roof of a building. The bird let out a little cry as it dropped—one story, two—then, just as if it had hit something solid in the air, it bounced into flight. Hardly back on the roof, it was falling again, and falling, letting out that cry. But were the falls failed attempts at flight? The bird seemed to be throwing itself off the roof—falling on purpose. Out of the plunge perfected, flight pushed up as necessity. There was thrust behind it—the fear of falling. And with each practice fall, the cry lasted longer until the cry became a run of notes, a flutter along the avifaunal scale. Out of the fall, the cry shivered up and down, the natural embodiment of thrill. Suddenly, I understood. The bird wasn’t practicing flight. It knew how to fly. The bird was teaching itself to sing.”

- Susan Mitchell, “Notes Toward a History of Scaffolding” (published in The Next American Essay)

Interesting wildlife getting off at my bus stop this morning. ...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:34:54 -0400

Interesting wildlife getting off at my bus stop this morning. When you start seeing more than two unrelated people you once knew on the bus, you know it’s time for a new city. (at HY Connect)

This website is a punch in the gut. It opens with images of the...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:00:25 -0400

This website is a punch in the gut.

It opens with images of the six teachers who died protecting students in the Newton shootings, and immediately through continuous scrolling functionality, cuts to photos of the 45 senators who blocked universal background checks. Then, it continuously moves through images of the 45 senators paired with photos of 45 young victims of gun violence. The senators’ smarmy photo-mugging gets tougher and tougher to look at as the photos of equally innocent, adorable, cheerful kids, posing with the same big smiles they’ve been taught to use in photos, keep sliding across the screen 45 times in a row.

But honestly, I’ll never stop being embarrassed to live in a culture where one kid isn’t too many.