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crappy hour
Posts Tagged “
War
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crappy hour
crappy hour
"Maybe That's A Way Of Killing 'Em…"
So, despite "escalating tensions" between our country and The Iran, trade between the two nations is on the up and up, according to a new analysis that shows that, among other things, the Iranians have invested in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of American "aircraft launching gear" and "military rifles". (Also, bras. And bull semen.) But spinmaster John McCain is a whiskey glass half full sorta guy. Pointing to American cigarette exports to Iran, which have risen tenfold in recent years, he said the words in our headline, to which we can only say — given his party's historic tendency to deem the notion that cigarettes cause cancer to be just south of "astrology" on the credibility spectrum —You've Come A Long Way, Baby! The follow-up joke was even better though. That and Formula One sadomasochism, Bin Laden's teen heartthrob heir, the War Powers Act, Ashley Alexandra Dupre's switch from politics to reality television and that Real World guy who is running for congress, space sex and 92 other stories read listlessly by yours truly and the lovely Megan after the jump. More »
Many, many sad things can be said about the costs of the Iraq War to both the people of Iraq and those of us in America. One of those things was said by Andrea Bruce at the Washington Post today in her article about the group home for the deserted grandmothers of Baghdad: "Before the war, when the home was opened, there were only four women living here. Now there are 47." In another time, these women would've been cared for by their families; these days, blind widow Doris Yunan lived on the bench of a church for a year before she found the group home where she now lives and is cared for by volunteers. Her stepsons abandoned her to escape the war. As the occupying force there, the Ghandi quote "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members," is probably apt here, but mostly I think I'm going to skip the politically snarky ending and call my grandmother. [Washington Post]
Zimbabwe Recruiting Government Support By Raping Opposition
In a completely unsurprising and yet still intensely nauseating development in the ongoing civil strife in Zimbabwe, members of President Mugabe's ruling party's (ZANU-PF) youth militia are kidnapping and raping young women at torture camps near Mudzi, north of the capital, Harare. The camps have resulted in an "unprecendented" 16 teenage pregnancies reported at the local hospital and are expected to result in a significant rise in the rate of HIV infection, but statistically probably won't do anything to the 34-year life expectancy of women in the country (averages are stubborn like that). The militia men intend to made Mudzi a zone without opposition party (MDC) members, which is obviously what you accomplish by running torture camps and raping and impregnating young women — more recruits. In other news, Mugabe is still the President, he may have all the MDC members arrested when they show up to take their seats in Parliament and the U.S. is issuing press releases condemning the whole thing while likely preparing for a ground war in Iran. [The Times, U.S. Department of State]
Oldies But Goodies
In the era of the Vietnam War, boys didn't need too much motivation to not want to go to war; not getting killed seemed like a good enough reason! However, The Draft Resistance decided to give young men even more reason to not want to fulfill their draft duties by dangling a bunch of super hot, leggy hippie chicks in fashionable hats in front of them and saying, basically, "these girls will have sex with you if you avoid the draft." Sex sells, of course, but is using hot girls to sell the idea of avoiding war hippie sexism or just a cheeky way to promote a good cause? (Click the picture to see the full poster) [Vintage Ads]
crappy hour
World Mourns Tim Russert, Oil Prices
It was a bittersweet Father's Day, what with the untimely death of Tim Russert, who always reminded me of my own dad, who incidentally attended the War College, where one John McCain penned a thesis in 1974 that was just unearthed and scrutinized by the New York Times to remind us how this rabid ideologue once had some interesting ideas, if the tendency to mess with the facts, and in that vein Barack Obama told black men of the world to stop watching SportsCenter since the games are all fixed anyway, and the Saudis agreed to do a little more to ease mass starvation and global chaos and George Bush promised he would get that Bin Laden guy for finally. But if seven years of waterboarding and sham trials and upending the justice department didn't do it, what will??? That and Condi in Israel with me and Megan and my hangover after the jump. More »
No Bones About It
Scientists have begun separating neolithic skeletons found in a mass grave in Talheim, Germany in the 1980s by their geographic origin and have found that there are no "local" adult female skeletons in the group. This has led them to believe that the "local" women were seen as special to the attacking/non-local group and were probably captured and taken back to the attacking group's land. Of course, a quick read ofThe Iliad will confirm that women were used as spoils of war, but the curious thing about this mass grave is that there were non-local adult females in the mass grave. [Telegraph]
crappy hour
Paging Jeremiah Wright: There's A White Guy Stealing Your Show!!!
And in the end, it was a white Catholic guy who drove Barack Obama to quit his radical, black Muslim separatist Church of Latter-Day Erstwhile Standup Comedians. Anyway, meet Father Michael Pfleger. He doesn't even preach at Trinity Church, he's just a regular on their "You Can't Do That On The Vatican" open mic nights, and dude. Here's the clip of Father mocking Hillary's sense of white entitlement climaxing with a showy display of a handkerchief and a plaintive wail of: "THERE'S A BLACK GUY STEALING MY SHOWWW." Now, a lot of you are going to be offended by Pfleger, and I would be too, if I hadn't watched it directly after checking out his fellow YouTube sensation and Hillary-turned-McCain supporter Harriet Christian whoa-viating about Obama being an "inadequate black male." Anyway, the Christian-Catholic showdown continues after the jump, where I Nexis Pfleger to learn about of his white-hating ways and briefly digress on Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Tatum O'Neal, Geraldine, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and more, with Megan after the jump. More »
leftovers
Neo-Nazis Beat Up Swedish Feminists • Disco Queen Alienates The Gays
Swedish neo-Nazis attack feminists at rally with metal pipes. • Desperate Afghan women are turning to prostitution to make ends meet. • New Lincoln biography attempts to portray both sides of his rocky marriage. • Two Belgian "beer fans" invent a 2-person peeing video game for urinals. • Speaking of video games, Gears of War 2 is being made more "girlfriend friendly" with easier settings and flatter-chested female characters. Whatever. • Born-again disco queen Gloria Gaynor gives up weed, alcohol, and gay fan base. • Author says that hypermasculinity surrounding guns scares off some women from gun culture. • Nerds have a love of hierarchies, rules, but not irony (sorry hipster geeks!). • Non-Arabic-speaking, New Jersey mom becomes a activist blogger focusing on political issues and free speech in Yemen. • Breadwinning wives resent their husbands who don't pitch in around the house. • The $599 Hello Kitty cell phone: to be coveted by little girls and immature adults everywhere!
fine lines
Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself: Springtime for Hitler, Part II
Welcome to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. This week, writer / reviewer / blogger Lizzie Skurnick rereads 'Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself', Judy Blume's 1977 story of Sally Freedman, who, following WWII, spends a year in Miami and triumphs over Hitler and Man O' Wars.
"Can I have another jelly sandwich?" Sally asked her grandmother, Ma Fanny. They were in the kitchen of the room house, sitting on opposite sides of the big wooden table.
"Such big eyes!" Ma Fanny said, laughing. "You still have half a sandwich left."
Fertile Crescents
You'd think that the occasion of Israel's 60th birthday would be enough to boost tourism, but you'd be wrong. In fact, the little country that could has taken to less-traditional means to raise awareness about how vacation-worthy it is: Participating in a sexy spread in American Maxim featuring women currently serving in the Israeli military. Women! Guns! Bikinis! (Is this why lobbyist groups are harping on Victoria's Secret model Bar Rafaeli to come back and fulfill her military service already?) Click on the picture to view a video about the story. [Reason]
fine lines
The Chocolate War: Life's Tough, Kid
Welcome to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. This week, New York Observer reporter, blogger and Postcards From Yo Momma co-creator Doree Shafrir rereads 'The Chocolate War,' Robert Cormier's 1974 novel about a 14-year-old boy who stands up to the bullies at his high school.
Back when teenagers still bought books that didn't feature a paranormal love interest, a school for wizards, or spoiled Upper East Side prep schoolers, there were books like Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, which featured an all-male, working-class cast of characters at a Catholic school in Massachusetts (as did most of Cormier's books; he grew up Catholic in Leominster, Mass.). In fact, when I suggested rereading The Chocolate War, I soon realized that I had had another one of Cormier's books in mind, the deeply weird, depressing I Am the Cheese, in which the reader slowly realizes that the narrator is, in fact, in a mental hospital and tried to kill himself. More »
rag trade
Supermodel Ana Beatriz Barros: The Face That Launched A Thousand Stupid Fashion Wars
- A Brazilian model I've never heard of left her new agency to go back to her old agency and now it's war. Here she is. Fuck, the Peloponnesian broke out over less, right? Or was that one about democracy and self-determination? Whatever; it's on between Elite and Next. [Page Six]
- The bitter battle over the rights to Project Runway, which is switching networks from NBC to Lifetime, is also approaching Total War. Can David Boies deliver Harvey Weinstein the victory he couldn't deliver Al Gore? Is it kind of funny that the Times is now referring to reality show "seasons" as "cycles"? [NYT]
- Anna Wintour has been sending little care packages to tennis star Roger Federer for many months now — in a motherly way? a cougarly way? are you really forcing me to think about that? — but last week when Federer was defeated by Andy Roddick, she abruptly canceled her trip to a tennis match. Oooh, nuclear Wintwar! Page Six]
midweek madness
This Week In Tabloids: Suri's Missing, LC's Been Stabbed, Jennifer Aniston Is Thin
Another Wednesday, another Midweek Madness! The best headline (and visual image) this week comes to us courtesy of Star: "Lindsay's Lesbian Tug-Of-War." But of the five weekly tabloid covers? The same old players are featured: Two for Jennifer Aniston; one for Brad and Angelina; one for Suri Cruise and one for Lauren Conrad. Maria-Mercedes Lara and I have a field day with the gossip inside of Life & Style, OK!, Us, In Touch and Star, after the jump. More »
The Beauty Of War
Lush is trying to start a revolution in the bath: They're calling their latest fizzing bath product a "ballistic," and have named the product Guantanamo Garden. "When immersed in water, each product releases a photograph of Sami Al Haj or Binyam Mohamed, who are prisoners at Guantanamo, and information on how to learn more about the human rights charity Reprieve," reports WWD. Which is, um, a little hardcore for bath time. [WWD, sub req'd]
Lush is trying to start a revolution in the bath: They're calling their latest fizzing bath product a "ballistic," and have named the product Guantanamo Garden. "When immersed in water, each product releases a photograph of Sami Al Haj or Binyam Mohamed, who are prisoners at Guantanamo, and information on how to learn more about the human rights charity Reprieve," reports WWD. Which is, um, a little hardcore for bath time. [WWD, sub req'd]
We were slow on the uptake, but we wanted to be sure to call out a fascinating obit that ran in the New York Times on Tuesday: Pearl Cornioley, who died in late February at the age of 93, was a top resistance fighter for the British and French during World War II and is believed to have been the inspiration for the book and subsequent movie Charlotte Grey. She "was 29 when she was sent to France in 1943, commanded troops who killed 1,000 German soldiers and wounded many more — while suffering only a tiny number of casualties themselves. She presided over the surrender of 18,000 German troops" and frequently "carr[ied] a case of cosmetics to pose as a traveling saleswoman" to avoid suspicion. When she was offered by the Queen to be made a civil, as opposed to military, Member of the British Empire, Cornioley turned down the offer, explaining via letter that her actions during World War II were anything but "civil." [NYT]
sephora spy
How I Conquered My Cystic Acne, In (Just!) 17 Painful Steps
Fighting acne is like fighting war. There is collateral damage. Things get worse before they get better. Whole villages of innocent, noncombatant pores stand in the line of our chemical weapons. And like war, fighting acne can be "controversial." Last week our Sephora Spy, Jasmine made an offhand comment about how acne can render a person "homeless," and some of you commenters declared mutiny. This week Jasmine is back to defend herself and what she feels is a just war on her adult onset cystic acne. It is, after all, her own experience with adult-onset cystic acne that launched her into the never-ending quest for a cosmetic cure and the accompanying lame retail job she works at to fund her, um, research. Because when it comes to the skin on your face, cysts aren't a shallow concern: They're deep. Really, really deep. (Which is pretty much also why they suck so hard.) More »
it takes a wahhabi village
