@netfe: Never occurred to me to get regular checkups. I'm of Scots decent, so this is the kind of advice I really need! Thank you, and I hope you're okay.
"This has been on my mind all day. I am a white male. And even I understand that the reason a magazine such as Essence, or Jet, or Ebony still exists today is because there is a need for it. If the world were truly post-racial, the magazines would close up because there would be broad representation across various media that was inclusive of all tastes and cultures and niche points of view.
These magazines came to fruition to start with because the media excluded black people, and especially black women, from the mainstream dialogue. They were excluded from fashion, from politics, from television representation. Things are not as they were in 1960, thankfully. But the media hasn't even remotely come close to making any sort of attempt at understanding with nuance the experience of black women, and representing that as part of the American experience. That is why Essence (even in its less than exemplary state, as many have mentioned) still merits existence. And that's why it needs women of color at the helm. When the "mainstream" (white-tailored) fashion magazines start hiring in a color-blind status, Essence can do the same, and when that day comes they will more than likely fold up into obscurity.
A magazine for a particular cultural subset exists because that subset is still excluded on a broad level across all media. America isn't there yet. Vogue is not aiming at black women, even when it puts a black woman on the cover. That is the difference, and that's why I think this is a very poor decision. Essence shouldn't be taking the lead on post-racial blind-hiring. Their purpose is to make up for the lack of such diversity at the "mainstream" white normative fashion magazines. And sadly, they've just shot themselves in the foot. "
Hillary Clinton herself, has greenlighted Diana Nyad's Dream Swim, 102 miles from Cuba to Key West. This is SO incredidbly inspirational as a woman and an athlete. Until a year ago, Diana had not swim a single stroke in THIRTY ONE years. She is now attempting her dream at the age of 60.
There had been a lot of red tape surrounding Nyad's entry into Cuba to begin her swim, but Clinton has made the call.
Not that people dealing with death have already have enough on their plate, but let's go ahead and keep their death benefits for ourselves and make money off of them in the meantime. Oh, and they're not insured so if we fail, no big deal says Prudential and MetLife.
Perhaps I'm not in the know and all ya'll are familiar with this already, but here's a mashup of Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" and Katy Perry's "California Gurls"... and gosh do they sound ridiculously similar. [www.youtube.com]
And please know that I didn't enjoy typing that dollar sign nor that 'u'.
@Titania, reine des fees: Yes, there are. There are also women who will mock guys that drink "girly" drinks. It's a sad, sad situation when a guy can't drink his cosmo in peace.
@token_liberal: I'm leary of any man who clings to beer like it's a lifepreserver of heterosexuality. Ditto for the women who make fun of men with good enough taste to drink the delicious mixed drinks I just made them.
@LazyHippo: They also need to just own up and realize their main consumers are 17 year old high school kids getting drunk at graduation parties, not women chasing dude-bro man children.
@SpartanLady: It's the Sun... Their reason for existence for for conservative blather and bile bringing. My only problem is that non- Canadians might not realize that the Sun, TheNational Post etc. are uber-conservative and not that great at hiding it.
@Dalek-it-like-that: That was my first thought, but it didn't look like the poll was done for them (unless QMI is their parent company? I have no idea who owns them). And yes, it's an internet poll, which has all kinds of selection bias issues. But I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't that far off the mark.
@SpartanLady: I've gotten jumped on before for here for criticizing Canada's restrictions on free speech, but I think this is a consequence of them. Once you have the idea that "bad" expression can be restricted, well, bad is very subjective.
I think the the only reason America bucks the trend of the rest of the "Western" world by having a majority not in favor of such a ban is because of the extensive indoctrination we try and give people that free speech and the exercise of religion are absolute, not conditional, rights.
@LazyHippo: The U.S. may not have targeted the burka yet, but the current rash of "you can't build a mosque in our community" incidents suggests that absolute speech and religious exercise rights aren't doing any better at preventing these attitudes.
I can appreciate American speech laws given the country's values and unique constitutional structure, but I much prefer to live under the regime that Canada has. I think a lot of people vastly overestimate the reach of hate speech laws, which target a very small amount of speech.
I also think it's a little misleading to say America believes speech and religion are absolute rights. There are a multitude of restrictions on speech and religious exercise in the U.S., and to some extent the fact that American constitutional law tries to work in absolutes actually reduces the amount of freedom. If you say "absolute freedom of speech", for example, you then have to make exemptions for categories of speech - commercial, sexually explicit, political (though less and less on that one!), and so on. Then the whole category gets less protection as a matter of course. Countries using balancing tests can evaluate things in a more nuanced way, so that less overall speech/religion is impacted.
Take, for example, the case Canada had a few years ago about a Sikh student who wanted to carry his ceremonial dagger - a requirement of his faith - in public school. Instead of saying "absolute freedom of religion, but not where it conflicts with a neutral law of general applicability", the courts here balanced the importance of that religious expression against the importance of school security and the magnitude of the potential threat. Because no one had ever been hurt in schools with that type of religious symbol, and because there were means of reducing the harm (keeping it wrapped in cloth under his clothes), the student won. I cannot imagine that case having the same result in the U.S.
Obviously, balancing rights has it's own problems, and it does open up the system to potential abuse in a significant way because you are making more granular decisions. But in the tradeoff between the two, I prefer Canada's system.
(I hope this doesn't sound hostile/like I'm jumping on you. I've had the free speech debate with a number of friends, both Canadian and American, and I see the other side of it. I just personally fall on this side.)
Some more Danish politics. The foreign minister Lene Espersen is in trouble after not going to a bigger meeting for the second time because of family holidays (and it wasn't good for her either that she didn't make that meeting in Kabul last week - even though that wasn't her fault). Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Prime Minister) also was in trouble, when he went on holiday instead of attending a bigger meeting.
"Several local Conservative chairmen have been expressing their dismay over a decision by Party Leader, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Lene Espersen to stay away from Monday’s EU foreign minister meeting and go on a family holiday to Italy instead, according to Ekstra Bladet."
@inessita: I think that there are times that a human being cannot win, no matter what they do.
I think that as a leader (whether it is of a dept/ministry, a company, or as a parent) one is forced to make difficult decisions. Often those decisions cannot please every stakeholder.
Being that political appointments and positions are usually by their nature of a finite time, I do think that top politicians have a duty to their country to work on its behalf, often to the exclusion of personal priorities. That being said, no one can do that all the time.
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