• Politico reports that what may be the first statue of Barack Obama is set to go up in his old hometown of Jakarta. The 2-meter high statue will depict the President as a 10-year-old, and will be placed in Obama's old neighborhood at a corner of a playground. • Arlington, Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman has apologized for writing on his Facebook page that President Obama is a Muslim, and timed his speech on Afghanistan to block the Peanuts Christmas Special. Wiseman called it a "poor attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor amongst friends." • A Maryland woman reportedly kidnapped a pregnant homeless woman and attempted to cut out her baby using box cutters and a razor blade. The victim was held hostage for five days, during which time her attacker cut into her abdomen, exposing her placenta and intestines. The woman has since been hospitalized, and is expected to make a full recovery. Her newborn daughter is also in good condition. • The parents of Jessica Logan, who committed suicide last year, are suing several of Logan's classmates for circulating a nude picture of their daughter. They argue that Logan suffered from severe emotional distress after her peers sent around an explicit picture she took on her cellphone for her then-boyfriend. Further evidence that nude photos are not something every boy should receive. • A Muslim woman claims she was abused by a Christian hotelier because of her Islamic clothing. She says the British hotel-owners called her husband a "warlord," argued that her outfit - consisting of a hijab and gown - was a form of "bondage." •  Newsweek delves into the possible causes for the declining birth rate in Taiwan. Apparently, selfish women are to blame (aren't we always?). Too many Taiwanese ladies are focusing on their careers, pushing back marriage, and choosing not to spend all their money on having babies. • For the second year in a row, Boise, Idaho firefighters had to rescue a child who got his tongue stuck to a metal pole. The 10-year-old boy's tongue was bleeding a little after firefighters used a glass of warm water to free him, but at least he didn't shoot his eye out with a BB gun. •

It's not terribly surprising to see, after Vogue Paris's noble flag-bearing effort to make blackface directional, the white model, black makeup look become a trend worth imitating. In this case, the online magazine Tangent chose to one-up Carine Roitfeld and Steven Klein by opting not just for a blackface fashion spread, but a blackface cover. The cover image has apparently leaked ahead of its publication date, because Tangent's website still features Issue 1's cover. But this picture was shot by the magazine and intended for use.

Does Harry Connick, Jr., need to come explain it to you again, Australia?

Meanwhile, there is a near-complete absence of any actual Asian people acting the Asian roles in Karl Lagerfeld's just-released movie, Paris-Shanghai. The film relates a journey Coco Chanel takes around China: visiting workers in the 1960s, dropping in on Marlene Dietrich in the 1940s, gambling with Wallis Simpson in the 1920s, being received by the Empress Dowager and her adopted son, presumably sometime before 1898, when she put him under house arrest. And then Coco wakes up and it was all a dream. Actually, it's worse than that, because you see her falling asleep on her office couch after the conclusion of the interminable opening scene, so you know even going into it that it's going to be one of those just-a-dream endings. There, I just saved you 23 minutes.

The plotting is trite, the acting atrocious — Edita Vilkeviciute, as young Coco Chanel, seemingly makes no attempt to hide her thick Lithuanian accent, and Heidi Mount, as Dietrich, gets peevish and sulks like a bored American teenager — and between the tedious pacing and Lagerfeld's failure to indicate what exactly is going on whenever something minorly climactic does occur, it's a hard film to get through. (Turns out Lagerfeld's genius reaches its limit where the task of making beautiful and effective moving images begins.)

What unfolds is a classic orientalist narrative that treats China as the interesting backdrop to an intrigue motivated by and created for white Europeans. No mention is made of the various upheavals that were actually going on in China during the early part of the 20th Century — like, uh, the end of the monarchy, the struggle for unification, and the Civil War — or of the 1960s, the period of the Cultural Revolution. In 1923, Sun Yat-Sen proclaimed the Three Principles of the People as the basis of the modern Chinese state, and Mikhail Borodin arranged the first Soviet arms deals with China — but the year is represented in the film by a craps table back-and-forth about palm reading between Chanel and Simpson. Lagerfeld told Women's Wear Daily his film "is about the idea of China, not the reality. It has the spirit of, and is inspired by, but is unrelated to China." Far easier indeed to investigate your own "idea" of a country than to contend with the reality of it as a place in itself.

But what is most worthy of note is Lagerfeld's consistent choice of European actors to play Chinese roles. This is obviously intentional. "It is an homage to Europeans trying to look Chinese," says Lagerfeld. "Like in The Good Earth, the people in the movie liked the idea that they had to look like Chinese. Or like actors in Madame Butterfly. People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities."

WWD calls it like it is: yellow face. The Empress Dowager is played by Lagerfeld's longtime muse, the Briton Amanda Harlech. Her son is played by Lagerfeld's latest boy-toy, Baptiste Giabiconi, an Italian. Giabiconi, in an earlier scene, plays a Chinese peasant alongside the Dane Freja Beha Erichsen. Erichsen then pops up in the gambling scene, as the "Chinese Courtesan":

There are a handful of Asian actors who warrant small roles. Tao Okamoto, a model who is, incidentally, Japanese, gets about two minutes of screen time as Anna May Wong, the actress who played opposite Dietrich in Shanghai Express. Some of the men in background scenes, and the train conductor, are Asian. But what the sight of Erichsen and Giabiconi in their various Chinese roles conjures most for me is this:

Image of Mr. Yunioshi via Hokubei

Will Tangent Be Left Red-Faced By 'Blackface' Cover? [Imelda]
Karl Lagerfeld Talks Shanghai And Fashion [WWD]
Chanel Paris-Shanghai Part I [YouTube]
Chanel Paris-Shanghai Part II [YouTube]
Chanel Paris-Shanghai Part III [YouTube]

Why? Because comments about how it's not just black people who are not represented by Barbie, but Asians, Greeks, Irish, Russians, brown-eyed girls, brunettes, the near-sighted, etc. are not the point. In fact, comments like these miss the point entirely. These experiences/issues are, of course, valid, and have a place in the world, but not on a post about black issues. Comments like, "Where is the freckled Barbie?" have nothing to do with the issue at hand, which is the historic and systemic racism against a specific ethnic group in this country. The marginalization of African-American people from the mainstream culture. We have seen lots of these kind of comments persist on stories about race — and race as it pertains to hair — and not only are they off-topic, they're insulting, insensitive and dismissive. Why? Because what they do is:

— Insinuate that it's a personal issue, when, in fact, it is cultural, societal and global.
— Diminish racism to lookism or oversight
— Undermine the original post
— Degrade and disrespect the struggle of black Americans

We have a strong commenting community, but many of the comments on posts about race are, quite frankly, embarrassing. In a post I wrote about the politics of Michelle Obama's hair, there were many comments along the lines of "I'm [not black], but my hair is curly, and I wear it straight because I like to." Again: The topic is not so much a personal issue as it is one with cultural and racial implications. The politics surrounding a black woman who is also the First Lady straightening her hair and a some other woman straightening her hair are very different, as are the intricacies of Mattel creating and designing a black Barbie, as opposed to one who looks Irish.

The writers on this site have a job to do, which is post commentary on stories in the media, and, where appropriate, insert opinion/personal experiences. Though these posts welcome comments, commenters should realize that inserting their opinions or experiences is not always furthering the discussion. A post about the issues with the black Barbie is not a call for everyone to write about how Barbie makes them feel. And as Latoya wrote in long, thoughtful and yes, frustrated comment on her own post late last night, "People keep deliberately inserting their experiences into a narrative that does not fit. It's not the same experience." Please keep this in mind.

Earlier: Keeping Michelle's Hair In Perspective
Black Barbies: A Question Of Representation

•  Last night John McCain told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren that he thinks people are being too hard on Sarah Palin, even if he does find it kinda funny. "I'm entertained and sometimes a little angry when I see this constant, vicious attacks by people on the left. I've never seen anything like it," he said. • According to a recent poll, 86% of men in Canada would rather be a driver than a passenger in bad weather. Unfortunately, 50% of men also claimed that they don't slow down in the snow, which makes things a little more dangerous for the rest of you up north. •  Researchers have found that a particular type of fertility treatment, ICSI, may produce more baby girls than boys. Even though few babies are born through this method, the authors conclude: "because our findings suggest that ICSI may reduce the sex ratio, we recommend that ICSI only be done if medically necessary, in an effort to prevent this potential side effect." •  19-year-old pimp DeShawn "Cash Money" Clark has become the first person to be convicted of human trafficking in Washington state. Clark faces up to 18 years in prison for his crimes. •  Years after doctors told her she was infertile, Sarah Wilkinson took an emergency trip to the hospital because she felt some pain in her stomach. Turns out, she was having a baby. She says she feels "fantastic" now, even though the pregnancy was a huge shock. • Did you know that there have been women in the Scotland Yard for 90 years now? Women first started working as officers in 1919, when they were introduced in order to help deal with prostitutes and suicidal women. Plus: here are some of their spiffy outfits. •  Vicki Kennedy told Oprah today that she has absolutely no interest in running for the senate seat left empty by her late husband, Edward Kennedy. She also told Oprah about the last days of her husband's life, including his determination to survive to see Obama elected president. •  Two teenage girls from New Zealand have been convicted of the murder of a retired school teacher. The girls, aged 18 and 15, broke into his house and beat him to death with his own walking stick before trashing the place and leaving with his wallet. •  Three lacrosse players from Sacred Heart University have been accused of conspiring to sexually assault a female student in a dorm room. The victim was engaging in consensual sex with one of the boys when his two friends crept in "as a prank," but their lawyers claim they had no contact with the woman. •  Lobna Abdelrehim used to work at a Wall Street publishing firm, until she got fed up with the rampant racism and sexism. She says she was constantly mocked for her faith and her looks, and has brought a lawsuit against the company. •  Michele Bachmann admitted to the St. Cloud Times that she sometimes says stupid shit: "I wish I could be more artful in the way I say things. But she went on add some qualifying statement about "bias in the mainstream media" and so on. • In other Bachmann news, she's headed to Nashville to join Sarah Palin for a Tea Party. Sadly, not the fun kind. •  A new study from the UK confirms that police often don't believe rape victims due to prejudices about their background, class, and "behavior." Officers were also found to be inadequately trained for dealing with rape, which can result in police that would rather "do nothing at all" than risk doing something wrong. • 

First of all, we suggest you refrain from searching. The picture that comes up is not of Michelle Obama. To put it bluntly: It's a picture of a monkey with earrings. But even more disturbing than the image itself is the fact that it shows up as the first picture on a major search engine.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there is too much that Google can or will do. Last week, when the image first appeared on the search engine, they were able to remove the picture on the grounds that the website hosting the image was infected with malware. However, the image has been reposted on other websites that are virus-free and otherwise comply with Google's rules. It appears that the picture is the result of a Google bomb - an organized effort to change search results by linking repeatedly to a web page or image with certain key terms. Google has issued an apology. Sort of. Above the picture Google has used their adspace to run this message: "Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree. Read more." If you click on the link, you are directed to this message:

Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.

Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site's ranking in Google's search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query.

The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.

Google is sorry, but until the algorithms change, the picture will remain at the top of the image search.

Offensive Michelle Obama Image Returns, Google Buys Ad To Explain [Search Engine Land]
Google: Michelle Obama Pic Not Our Fault [CBS]
Google: An Explanation Of Our Search Results

Let's leave aside for the moment that no one could be bothered to find an Asian-American comedian to stand in for this sketch, because by the time the segment ends, that is the least of our worries. China Cold Open is just made of fail:

Angry Asian Man explains:

You've got a very Caucasian Will Forte as Chinese President Hu Jintao, doing some seriously godawful ching chong, alongside Nasim Pedrad, rocking an equally ass-awful accent as his "translator."

This alone is pretty painful. Whatever joke they're going for is completely sabotaged by the fact that everyone is thinking, "Hey, those two aren't Asian." (At least they didn't tape their eyes back.) But it goes on, with this tired, drawn-out joke about "do sex to me" and Hu literally bending over in front of "Obama."

I don't understand how this kind of racial mockery flies on national broadcast television. Is this not yellowface? No, they didn't use "Oriental" makeup, but there's no denying that the effect is there — insulting ching chong and all.

Combine that effect with Fred Armisen's already contentious Barack Obama impersonation and we have some major issues around race, representation and comedy.

Kate Rigg, a comedian herself and someone you may want to add to your predominantly white and male writers room, sums it best when she says:

I'm offended when I see comics get onstage going "…and then I went to the Laundromat. Ching-chong, ching-chong, ching-chong!" Then I'm fucking offended. When someone tells a joke about Asian people and there's no actual joke – the joke is the Asian people. The joke is [racist-comic voice] the funny way they talkie-talkie! "They don't use proper diction! Only verb and noun! Verb and noun!" I just heard a comic that I respect doing that fucking joke the other night. An Asian comic. And I was like, "Dude! Write a punch line or you're just being racist!"

Jokes about racial differences don't work if you are actually being racist. And this sketch, with a screaming, irrational Hu hollering "do sex to me" sits squarely in that camp.

Giving you the one finger salute,

Latoya

China Cold Open [SNL/Hulu]
Yellowface Ching Chong Nonsense On Saturday Night Live [Angry Asian Man]

Related: Did 'SNL' Go Beyond the Pale With Fauxbama? [Washington Post]
Quoted: Kate Rigg On Racism And Comedy [Racialicious]

Nubian representatives say that the line compares black Egyptians to monkeys, and are suing the singer, her record label, and the songwriter. • The man charged with the kidnapping of Shaniya Davis has also been accused of raping and asphyxiating the 5-year-old South Carolina girl. Mario McNeill is being charged with first-degree murder and rape of a child. • Amanda Knox broke down in tears today in court as the prosecution closed their case against her, saying she "harboured hatred" for Meredith Kercher and "killed her to take revenge." • Amanda Knox's parents are so confident she'll be acquitted that they've already bought her a plane ticket home to Seattle. •  The British man charged with strangling his own wife on a camping trip was found not guilty on account of a rare disorder, which caused him to murder Christine Thomas in his sleep. "You are a decent man and a devoted husband. I strongly suspect that, not withstanding the circumstances here, you may well be feeling a sense of guilt about what happened that night. In the eyes of the law, you bear no responsibility," said the judge. •  Reporter Michael Crowley sat down in a restaurant the other night and found himself sitting two tables away from Sonia Sotomayor. Naturally, he sent out a Tweet, which read: "She left her purse on a chair; stern-faced security guys came back for it about 30 min later." •  Soldiers in Sweden are fighting for flame-retardant underwear. The Swedish Conscription Council claims that the female soldiers were promised appropriate bras and panties years ago, but the armed forces has failed to deliver. • Selma Aliye Kavaf, Turkey's minister for women's affairs, says, "The mentality change regarding women's participation in business or political life would take time. Legislation or laws are not enough for women to become active in business life." • A dad from Minnesota claims that during the first three years of his son's life, he spoke to him only in Klingon. The dad says it was part of an experiment, to see whether his kid would pick up the fictional language. He says he stopped when it became clear his son, now 15, preferred English. •  Warning: This story is disgusting and highly disturbing. Short version: a gang in Peru has been accused of murdering people in order to collect their fat, which is then sold on the black market for cosmetics. • The highest court in New York has rejected an attempt to throw out two government orders to recognize the rights of same-sex couples married in other states. While this is good news, the ruling was based on a technicality, and did not address the broader human rights issue at stake. • A team of researchers have made headway in understanding how the body metabolizes date rape drugs. They hope that the breakthrough "may provide new clues on how to counteract the drug's effects, or to enhance its metabolism and decrease toxicity for chronic abusers or victims of sexual assault." • A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found a woman's risk of developing multiple sclerosis during her lifetime is doubled if she was obese at age 18. This is the first time MS risk has been linked to obesity. The research was based on the Nurses' Health study, but doctors say "There's no reason to believe that the biological mechanisms would be different." • Ohio State University researchers found that alcoholics over the age of 60 have more than 40 alcoholic drinks a week on average, compared to between 25 and 35 drinks a week on average for younger alcoholics. The findings suggest older alcoholics have developed a tolerance and need to drink even more to get drunk. • A North Carolina doctor could lose his medical license for allegedly poking a patient's thigh and calling her fat and irresponsible for being unemployed and using taxpayer's money to pay for another pregnancy. The doctor admitted he told her that her fat thighs and diabetes could make her go blind. • Could "real" America's love affair with Sarah Palin be coming to a close? In this video an angry mob boos her and calls her a quitter after left a an event in Noblesville, Indiana without signing the books of about 300 families who had been waiting for more than three hours. • A few Indian travel agents are pushing "divorce tourism," package deals designed to help couples salvage their relationship. Viresh Hirjee, chief executive of a Mumbai travel agency, has been sending customers of vacation along with marriage counselors. "We are trying our best to bring the couple together," he said, but warned, "We are not destiny changers." • School officials in Orange County, California warned kids that if they skip school today to see New Moon they'll be marked truant. • The business information analysis firm IBISWorld says that the growing popularity of online dating sites is responsible for Australia's sex industry losing $67.6 million in the past year. "The rapid growth in online services means it has never been easier for like-minded individuals to organize casual liaisons for little or no cost," said IBISWorld analyst Edward Butler. • Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Democratic candidate for attorney general in Texas, says a clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages accidentally banned all marriages in the state. The clause reads: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Backers of the ban say she's reading too much into the clause for political reasons. • The city of Auckland, New Zealand paid $74,000 to give a 66-foot fiberglass Santa statue a facelift. One of his mechanical eyes had been drooping and people were worried it would scare children. His face has been bandaged and the repairs will be unveiled on Sunday. •

The only good I can see coming from Sarah Palin's media march is that any possibility of her running for President in 2012 will, most likely, be shot to smithereens.

First, she's on Newsmax, calling Fox News comedian Glenn Beck "effective":

Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he's so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he's very, very, very effective."

Of course you think he's a hoot - what he does is comedy! Well, unless it's a disgusting metaphor that he used incorrectly. Melissa over at Shakesville bravely decided to wade into Beck's world and create a transcript:

America has spoken clearly, consistently-we don't want [government-paid healthcare]. And for the first time in history, we don't think it's the government's place to give it to us. We're kind of reading this [holds up unidentified piece of paper] from time to time now. We are-excuse this analogy, but I feel like it's true-we're the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] "No, no-help me!" [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we're all gonna be cowering in France. [A few more moments of babbling about "unfunded liabilities" before the video cuts out.]

Melissa says: "Universal healthcare = rape. Awesome."

I say: Can this asshole even get a goddamn joke right? If the government is Roman Polanski, then they would be cowering in France, not us. And doesn't France have womb-to-tomb care, which is what we're apparently protesting against? Fail! Fail! Fail! If Jon Stewart kept botching jokes like this, Comedy Central would have fired his ass.

Palin's love of Beck's inane sputtering seems even more strange when you consider he just won the Anti-Defamation League's title of "Fearmonger-in-chief:"

The Influence of the Mainstream Media

Though much of the impetus for anti-government sentiment has come from a variety of grass-roots and extremist groups, segments of the mainstream media have played a surprisingly active role in generating such segment. Though a number of media figures and commentators have taken part, the media personality who has played the most active role has been radio and television host Glenn Beck, who along with many of his guests have made a habit of demonizing the Obama administration and promoting conspiracy theories about it. Beck has acted as a "fearmonger-in-chief," raising anxiety about and distrust towards the government.

Please note the headline the ADL gave Glenn Beck: Mainstream Media.

But back to Sarah.

The tragedy at Fort Hood on November 5, which resulted in the deaths of thirteen people and injuries to dozens of others, has been co-opted by those who would seek to further their own agendas. The Republicans are already on the move:

House and Senate Republicans, emerging from the most detailed briefings given to Congress since the Nov. 5 attack killed 13 at the central Texas Army post, said delaying investigations would put off legislative efforts to give military officials the tools to prevent similar tragedies in the future. They said such an effort would not interfere with the criminal investigation of shooting suspect Nidal M. Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

"Congress also needs to move forward to make sure we do our work to get to the right conclusions," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.

Catch that? We need to get to the right conclusions. Wonder what those would be?

Sarah Palin knows. Here's an assessment that she shared with the Weekly Standard yesterday:

She commented on the trail of evidence linking the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to militant Islam. "There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed," she said. "This terrorist, even having business cards" that identified him as an "SoA" or soldier of Allah. Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that "prevented — I'm going to say it — profiling" of someone with Hasan's extremist ideology. "I say, profile away," Palin said. Such political correctness, she continued, "could be our downfall."

Interesting. Because obviously, racial profiling worked so well before. In fact, due to the government's racist actions in World War Two, many Japanese Americans lost their homes, their lives, everything they had - and for what? Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park fame) cut a track for his solo project that explored his family's history in the internment camps. A student on YouTube spliced the song with images and facts from the era:

The U.S. government ultimately paid close to $1.6 billion dollars in reparations for their insistence on profiling.

Now Palin and company want to repeat history, as those who don't learn from it so often do.

Palin-Beck 2012 [Politico]
Glenn Beck: Asshole [Shakesville]
Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies [ADL]
Republicans criticize Obama's Call To Delay Hill Inquiries On Fort Hood [Washington Post]
Palin On Nidal Hasan: "Profile Away" [Weekly Standard]
Exploring Japanese American Internment [Asian American Media]
Official Site [Densho]

Related: Casting Out: Exploring the Racialization of Muslims [Racialicious]
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness" [Zuky]

• On Sunday, Michelle Wie won her first LPGA tour title. This was her 65th LPGA tour event, and while she had finished second six times, she had never managed a win. ''Wowww-w-w ...... never thought this would feel THIS great!!!!" she said on Twitter. • President Obama told - not asked - Burma's junta to free pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi at a recent summit with the Burmese prime minister. •  A Zambian reporter has been acquitted of pornography charges, which could have held a five year sentence if she had been convicted. The so-called porn possessed by Chansa Kabwela was actually photographs of a mother giving birth in a car park, which Kabwela did not publish but instead sent out to women's rights groups. • The suburban swim club outside Philadelphia that was accused of discrimination earlier this year has announced plans to declare bankruptcy. The club reportedly asked several children not to return because of "racial animus" expressed by a member. But the swim club's president denies that their closing has anything to do with the legal proceedings. •  A bushfire on the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve has turned the area into an "animal graveyard." Some blame Terri Irwin for improperly managing the property, but Irwin blames it on pig hunters, who she claims were probably trying to clear the land. •  A recent study published in the British Medical Journal found that current policies to reduce teen pregnancies are simply not working. The study also linked certain factors to teen pregnancy, including dislike of school, poverty, unhappy childhoods and low expectations for the future. •  For the first time in decades, the U.S. skating team has no clear-cut Olympic medal contender. "In the past, we've had Michelle Kwan, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill year after year, and every time we felt that they were going to win the gold medal," said David Ruth, executive director of US Figure Skating. "But when Michael Jordan left the N.B.A, they were looking for a new star, and we're looking for a new star." • Researchers have found that texting may be linked to neck pain, caused primarily by the hunched-over body position favored by serial texters. • Doctors are hopeful that a vaccine for chlamydia isn't far away. However, previous research has shown that injections don't work very well, so a vaccine may come in the form of a vaginal cream or spray. •  Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has pissed off some 200 Italian women after he placed an ad recruiting "attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old" for an "event." While most expected a party, the event turned out to be a two hour lesson intended to convert them to Islam. •  A recent report touts the benefits of distributing contraceptives in Uganda. The report estimates that meeting just half of Ugandan women's unmet needs for contraceptives would yield dramatic health benefits, including an expected 21% decline in maternal deaths. • Angie Young's film The Coat Hanger Project tells the story of how abortions have actually become increasingly less accessible in the decades since Roe vs. Wade. One good example: the Stupak amendment. You can take action against the pro-choice Democrats who supported the amendment by signing a petition to send them a coat hanger. • The Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales has proposed a domestic violence register to track an estimated 25,000 serial abusers. The register would allow people to look up a man's history including convictions and unproven allegations. The Association is also pushing for the creation of a "course of conduct" offense to make it easier to go after serial offenders, even if there isn't enough evidence to prosecute each individual case. • Janet Clark went to a British hospital because she believed she'd gone into labor in her 25th week of pregnancy, but a doctor and four midwives told her to go home. The next day she went back and was told to go home again, and then started giving birth on the toilet. "A pregnant woman shouldn't have to plead with medical staff," said Clark, who had a healthy baby boy. • In a study 54 Caucasian subjects were asked to manipulate the skin color of male and female faces on a computer screen to make them appear as healthy as possible. Most increased the rosiness, yellowness, and brightness of the skin. "In the West we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the color of your skin," said researcher Dr. Ian Stephen, "But our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better." The study didn't address what makes non-white faces appear healthier and attractive. • Researchers found that in business, gender is a factor in measuring a team's performance, but but not the leaders themselves. In industries in which most leadership positions are held by men, people will expect more of teams led by men, but expectations of the leaders themselves are not influenced by gender. • In an interview on CBS' Early Show Mary Lou Quinlan, author of What She's Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It, says women tell "half truths" about "anything with a number in it. Their age, their weight, how many drinks they had." • In a new interview with CBS News, Laura Bush said Texas feels like it's a million miles away from Washington. "...Not that I ever felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, or that George did when I lived there — but when it was gone, I could notice it," she said. "There's a great feeling of freedom." •

• The Ad Standards ruling also said that the imagery is "dream-like," which makes it somewhat removed from reality, and thus inoffensive. • The Louisiana judge who refused to marry an interracial couple has announced his resignation. Keith Bardwell admitted that this was not the first time he had discriminated against couples based on race, and that he routinely recused himself from marrying couples that he felt would create an unhealthy environment for children. •  New research shows that kissing may help boost the immunity system of pregnant women. Doctors believe that if a couple smooches for six months during the pregnancy, the mother builds up protection against a certain virus that could harm her fetus. •  Three college students that went missing in North Dakota on Sunday have been found dead. Their bodies were found trapped in a car at the bottom of a stock pond. Authorities say they do not suspect foul play, and believe it was most likely a tragic accident. •  The defense team for Casey Anthony is arguing that the charges brought against Anthony are too vague, and should be dropped. "Instead of starting with the crime and figuring out who did it, the state has essentially started with who did it and is now trying to figure out what crime she might have committed," read the motion filed Tuesday. • A new law in Australia may raise the salaries of women working in homeless and domestic violence shelters by as much as 30%. The Fair Work Act would increase compensation for "feminized" work so that it more closely matches pay for similar "male occupations." • A new study has found that eating quickly makes it more likely that you will overeat, and thus achieve the dreaded food baby stage. Speed eating slows the release of hormones that signal fullness, so scarfing down multiple burgers in a ten minute span is not actually the great idea it might seem. • A 13-year-old cat in Iowa has become the first feline to be diagnosed with swine flu. But the Iowa Department of Health says that this is "not completely unexpected," and that other flu strains have been found in cats in the past. • A portrait of a disabled swimmer has won photographer Paul Floyd Blake a $19,000 prize from the National Portrait Gallery. "She had just swum a personal best in her event and I think that's why she has such a confident, self-assured look in the portrait," said Blake. Blake's 13-year-old swimmer says she hopes to go on to compete in the Paralympics. • Former Silicon Valley executive Carly Fiorina announced today that she is running for Senate against Barbara Boxer, a three-term Democrat. She depicted Boxer as a do-nothing who just writes novels while Californians face real problems and said, "What do you say that come next year, we give Barbara Boxer the chance to become a full-time novelist?" • According to resent research from Florida State University, discrimination is a major threat to the mental health of African American women. Women who reported experiencing discrimination were more prone to depression and less psychologically resilient than those who felt more "in control" of their lives. • Though abortion is only legal under very limited circumstances in Pakistan, a study by the National Committee for Maternal and Neonatal Health estimate that 890,000 abortions were performed there in 2002. Most of these abortions took place in clandestine and unsafe conditions and as a result, many of the women who sought them out suffered health complications or death. • Israeli researchers studied 2,700 twin pregnancies and found that the risk of premature delivery was highest when both twins are male and lowest when they are both female. The findings support the theory that the "male factor" raises the odds of pregnancy complications. • Photos of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Whitney Isleib wearing blackface for her Lil Wayne Halloween costume were posted on the Gawker blog Deadspin and later removed. "We are aware of the images and we are handling it internally," said Brett Daniels, a spokesman for the team. • 18-year-old Tiffany M. Wallace has plead guilty to ramming her pickup into another car, then throwing ranch dressing at the car. She was arrested in Idaho after a man said she cut him off, then threw coins and plastic containers of dressing at him. • At the end of a speech at a Wisconsin middle school today , President Obama told an anecdote about his daughter Malia. "These aren't in my prepared remarks, but I think it's important to note, kids slack off... And part of our job as parents is not to just tell our kids what to do but to start instilling in them the sense that they want to do it themselves..." Recently Malia came home with a 73 on a test and told explained to her dad "what she planned to do about it." When she came home with a 95 yesterday she told him, "I just like having knowledge." •

In early October, the Wall Street Journal published the list of 45 artworks destined for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It included several bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas, eleven paints by American painter George Catlin, a piece by Louise Nevelson, a Rothko, and for the East Wing, Watusi (Hard Edge).

Naturally, political and art bloggers examined the entire list, searching for cues about the Obama's personal taste. Art News reports that there was a conscious effort to assemble a collection with "wall power" - art that packs a punch. As Robin Cembalest reports, there was also an emphasis on showing the best of American art:

"The overarching theme was trying to offer the president and Mrs. Obama the best of America," Smith told me in a telephone interview, describing the First Couple as "unbelievably curious and interested in a lot of types of art." It was a lengthy back and forth. Works by well-known artists on some early wish lists, including Edward Hopper, Charles Burchfield, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Romare Bearden, Brice Marden, and Agnes Martin, fell by the wayside, either for conservation reasons, or because they were currently on view or promised for loan in the next four years. So did works on paper, photography, and video art.

The New Yorker deemed the entire collection "upper-middlebrow in an O.K. way." Obviously, Michelle Malkin had some much harsher words. She, along with several other bloggers, felt that the inclusion of Watusi was a telling example of Obama's general cluelessness. In a way, Alma Thomas, who spent most of her life teaching children and later became the first black artist to show at the Whitney Museum, seems a perfect artist for the First Family to support. However, the composition of Watusi is very, very similar to that of a late Matisse, which Thomas openly admits was the inspiration for her painting. Despite the fact that Thomas has clearly reworked and remade L'escargot in such a way that while it may resemble the original, it is a lot more than a mere copy, some still view Thomas as a thief and a fraud. Malkin ended her blog post on the whole matter with this charming comment: "I know, I know. Cries of "RAAAAACIST" in 3, 2, 1…" Others accused the Obamas of being too clueless to notice the influence, or "turning a blind eye because the artist was black."

Originally Watusi was supposedly going to hang in Michelle Obama's office, but sometime in late October, it was removed from the list. It's been confirmed that the painting was sent back, but Art News was unable to find out why. However, Cembalist does conclude that "the story behind this painting may also presage the cultural politics of the Obama administration." Considering the comments on Politco's post - which range from "Leave the painting - its emblematic of this phony, deceitful administration" to "The right wing hates this president so much they criticize some paintings? Really?" - this seems rather likely.

Critics Nix Obamas' Pix Mix [Art News]
White House Ditches Painting [Politico]

Over at CNN, Ruben Navarrette Jr. says to "Take food racism with a grain of salt" :

This week, I was on a talk radio show when the host — a white male conservative (what are the odds?) — asked me if Americans are so sensitive that we now have to worry about "food racism." [...]

ESPN broadcaster Bob Griese has been suspended for one week for a stereotypical crack he made about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya. During a recent ESPN broadcast, a graphic appeared listing the top drivers in a NASCAR competition. When fellow analyst Chris Spielman asked where was Montoya, Griese replied he was "out having a taco."

Griese has twice apologized on air for the remark, which — according to ESPN — he now realizes was "inappropriate." Montoya, who is Colombian, has taken the high road. Asked about the comment, the driver said: "Somebody mentioned it to me. I don't really care to tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't. I could say that I spent the last three hours eating tacos, but I was actually driving a car."

We're not going to debate whether or not the remark is racist.

We're not going to talk about the other issues raised in the article, particularly around the presidential primary.

We're not going to talk about the issues inherent in ranking acts of racism.

We'll just say this: it is always fascinating to see what the media deems an interesting conversation about race.

Take Talk Of Food Racism With A Grain Of Salt [CNN]

• After being passed over for a promotion at McDonald's because of her pregnancy, Rhonda Floyd started a support group of sorts to benefit women in the hospitality industry. "McDonald's is very male-dominated," she said, as are many businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector. • British cops recently caught three woman and a man who were trying to pimp six girls aged 14-23 at a West London hotel. They were also offering a 12-year-old virgin for up to £50,000. All four have been arrested and are facing criminal charges. • According to Nicola Pease, the very same laws designed to protect women in the workplace are actually holding us back. Pease says there is no more sexism in the finance sector, except that which the ladies bring upon themselves by having babies and demanding maternity leave and other unreasonable things. • Author and women's activist Malalai Joya on Obama: "He must criticize how the United States helped turn Afghanistan into a safe haven for fundamentalist terrorists and now helps prop up a corrupt regime and a powerful drug mafia... If I ever do have the chance to meet President Obama, I will try to convey to him these points and tell him very clearly that U.S governments have betrayed the Afghan people enough." • Ximena Hartstock is the acting director of D.C.'s Department of Parks and Recreation, but she may be forced out because of her race and gender. She claims that at a recent city council meeting, Councilmember Marion Barry raised questions as to whether Hartstock could relate to African Americans or if she could do the job as well as a man. •  Kim Ng may become the first female General Manager in baseball. She was spotted having lunch with Padres owner Jeff Moorad, and has previously interviewed for GM positions with the Dodgers and the Mariners. •  As part of a charity event a group of men from New York state put on some pumps and walked a mile in women's shoes. The money raised by the walk has been donated to Alternatives for Battered Women, which operates a shelter for victims of domestic violence. •  A television show/internet competition that has been described as a "cross between Sports Illustrated and Next Top Model" has come under attack from feminists, who think the bathing suit-based contest is sexist. • Researchers have found that new mothers spend 20% more time awake than they did before giving birth. The resulting "postnatal insomnia" can often lead to depression and anxiety problems for stressed parents. Doctors advise that women suffering from postnatal insomnia seek help as soon as possible. • Quinceañeras — lavish parties given by Latino families to celebrate a girl's 15th birthday and transition into womanhood — are gaining popularity in America. Michele Salcedo, author of a book on the practice, says, "It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos. It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here.'" • In a speech at Morehead State University, author bell hooks said, "God is a feminist because if we accept that God is a god of love then we know that God fully intends for females and males to be self-actualized, self-empowered and full of self esteem." • Just one of many problems for working moms is the fact that many of them continue to see child care as coming out of their paycheck alone, not their family's overall income. Nora Bredes, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, says, "Our belief as a society is that mothers are responsible for the care of children, not the couple. We give lip service on how it's a family priority, but it really is all on her." • Québec's fashion industry has adopted a charter to help promote healthy body image, including resolutions to "encourage healthy eating and weight-control habits" and "discourage excessive weight-control practices or appearance modification." • The success of New York police and prosecutors in using DNA to catch rapists in cold cases has lead to a greater push to use DNA evidence in the investigation of other crimes. "It is a tremendously powerful tool that allows us to protect the rights of victims," said California District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. • 

Mannequins have been around since the 18th century, mainly in the form of the dress-maker's dummy, but it was not until the 20th century that fashion houses began showing their wares on the "static salespeople." In recent years, there has been a growing demand within the U.S. for mannequins that better reflect the customer base. "Black and Asian models have been doing fine for a long time in the US, and we have customers in Britain. But in France, Germany and Austria, forget it!" said Lacroix, who manages the Paris-based mannequin manufacturer Cofrad. Cofrad also owns Patina-V in Los Angeles, a firm that specializes in ethnically diverse dummies (the image at left was taken at their L.A. warehouse). While different types of mannequins grace American store windows, European clients do not want their brand represented by darker—or larger—dolls.

Surprisingly, Asian companies also tend to buy mostly white mannequins. Lacroix claims they "prefer European-looking mannequins as they have a more universal appeal" to global labels and consumers alike. However, most couture clients want mannequins without heads or any identifying signifiers. More upscale companies do not want life-like mannequins, but rather skinny, faceless clothes hangers.

Lacroix does not seem to believe that anyone, in Europe or America, wants to buy mannequins that reflect actual sizing. The standard mannequin is about the same size as most models, and falls between a two and a four. In 2007, Spain initiated a push toward featuring mannequins that better represented the average woman. In order to do this, they scanned the bodies of woman from around the country in laser-equipped booths. But Lacroix believes that this movement never truly caught on. "As for body shapes, every time we try different sizes, it fails. It's not relevant," he adds, "a mannequin has to have personality and has to sell the clothes." Apparently, fat mannequins - and we must assume, larger women - lack personality by the sheer virtue of their size. It almost sounds like someone has been reading too much Tucker Max.

Mannequins Hit By Discrimination—And Loss Of Face [BreitBart]

Earlier: Mannequins For The Masses