Disqus - Friends of zimmett

Re: Iceland has a new Prime Minister

Vanshar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:04:51 -0000

Wow...a female national leader who can get away with showing cleavage? I remember when Hillary Clinton got blasted for, as far as I could tell, admitting that she did in fact have breasts. Somewhere. At least when she was younger. *rolls eyes* Why do we have a media controlled by mental 12-year-olds?

Re: When They Were Curvy*

Vanshar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:26:45 -0000

All more significant effects to the side for a moment, indulge me as I mourn this change, for I am personally rather fond of curves.
NOOOOOO!
Ok, I'm done.

Re: Impossibly Beautiful

Vanshar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:34:25 -0000

It's a frequent misconception that the model has ANY control over these photos. The copyrights belong to the photographer, the model signs away any rights to them before they are even modified. She could just say NO, as in, not participate in the shoot AT ALL, but being on the cover of Glamour is a huge career boost, and the unfortunate fact is, models only have so much time to make their big bang before they are relegated to Mom roles at the ancient age of, oh, 30. It's sickening, but they want desperately to play a game where they don't make any of the rules, effectively. "Taking a stand" is easy when it's not your career, based already almost entirely on the vagaries and whims of fashion magazine as it is! She says no once, gets a reputation for being "difficult," and that's IT. Game over.

Re: Question of the Day

Vanshar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:34:37 -0000

I'd have to go with (and the irony of this on a feminist blog does not escape me, lol) my beard. It curls defiantly no matter what I do to it, tickles my wife when I kiss her, bristles with indignation when the occasion calls for it, and is a source of endless delight for my nieces. Anything those girls like to play with that much has to be beautiful.

Re: Tool Academics and Their Plaintive Cry for Feminism (Even If They Don't Know It)

Vanshar — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:55:46 -0000

Brilliant analysis, Melissa! You hit the nail on the head. It's ironic that the men most damaged by standard patriarchal indoctrination are the men who are most "successful" in it. Everything in a man's life in this culture is driven by conflict and competition. The kind of posturing you see between those idiots disappears entirely in meaningful interactions amongst men who truly love and respect one another, and it saddens me beyond words how many men miss out on the bonds of brotherhood because they are convinced that those bonds are "queer." And the fact that these men can't resolve their behaviors around women and other men is made all the more tragically ironic, because it is hammered into our brains as boys again and again that the only way a woman will ever love us is if we are the "top dawg." I came through childhood relatively unscathed, and it still took me years to be able to hug another man in public unashamedly. Walled off from one another, taught that women are objects or prizes in an endless quest for dominance, is it any wonder that we are lonely, confused, and fucked up? Yes, indeed, men are victims of the patriarchy in their own subtle, insidious ways.

Re: Question of the Day

Vanshar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:43:08 -0000

"Vanshar, as someone who is totally in love with male facial hair and utterly sad that, at least in my immediate peer group it seems to be going out of fashion, I'm vastly excited some men still like having face-fluff. It is my dream to one day meet a wonderful fellow who loves me for exactly who and what I am, and either likes to have a mustache (especially if combined with a short beard or one of those little chin-beards, eee!) or at least is not bothered by humoring me in the form of sporting one. ^_^"

Thanks, SugarLeigh! I've had it so long, I feel totally naked without it. I've had to shave it off precisely twice since I was 16, and both times it was for job interviews. I have since sworn that any job that requires that I shave or cut my hair can do without me.

Re: Do I Hear Four Million?

Vanshar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:53:14 -0000

I highly doubt anything about this--her seriousness, the bids, any of it--is legit, but if it is, more power to her. This is essentially prostitution we're talking about here, and I cahlk that up with all the other vice crimes that aren't really crimes at all. I don't think prostitution in and of itself is necessarily bad (although I can name maybe two cases that I know of where it hasn't been exploitative), so as long as she's calling the shots...*shrug*

Re: In Things That Make Me LOL

Vanshar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:09:15 -0000

What amazes me, is that he was touted as some kind of salt of the earth, hometown hero plumber who took a break from quietly laboring with his own hands to show-up that silly elitist fop Obama, yet now we see him as he really is: an opportunistic attention-seeker, who apparently wasn't so salt of the earth that he couldn't immediately abandon his down-home, honest trade to pursue fame as an arm-chair economist. Nice.

Re: Question of the Day

Vanshar — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:45:07 -0000

Worst: When I was a teenager, our septic system backed up because the house had settled, so we had to excavate the entire system and re-sink it. Since we were, to avoid putting too fine a point on it, dirt poor, we had to dig the thing out by hand. The stench was incredible, and we were at it for days. Much badness.

Best: Building garden boxes in the postage stamp-sized backyard at our apartment. It was the first home improvement project that my wife and I did together, and adding in the urban garden, food-not-lawns vibe made it extra awesome.

Re: Dreams of Someplace Else

Vanshar — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:46:21 -0000

Has this guy ever BEEN to Denver? You can hardly see the mountains from the city, the weather is horrible, the traffic is worse, and if I ever saw a pedestrian friendly neighborhood while I was living there, I'd eat my hat. He must have been thinking about Boulder, I guess, but then he'd be off the mark about the lack of a political alignment; Boulder leans so far left you have to put a phone book under that side to keep the town from sliding off the planet (I miss Boulder!).

Re: Good News!

Vanshar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:20:03 -0000

I've gotten so used to seeing our national policy makers come down on the side of injustice, I actually had to re-read that article to make sure I got it right. Justice riding once more under the American flag? I feel warm and fuzzy all of a sudden!

Re: It's Delightful, It's Delicious, It's De-Lovely...

Vanshar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:18:52 -0000

Loyal reader here for about a month. I piped up a little bit to start, but I rarely feel like I have anything to add, and I've never been one for posting "me too." I'm around, though, keep up the genius!

Re: Why We Need the Community Choice Act

Vanshar — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:51:14 -0000

Thanks for a great post! I forwarded it to my wife (a CNA) who works as an in home aide. She doesn't get much affirmation in her line of work, largely because people think it is some sort of servant's position and someone who helps somebody else shower of cook is somehow demeaning themselves. It doesn't, of course, and she got into it after watching her grandmother just...wither away, in a "home." I didn't even realize legislation like this was on the docket, and we've both contacted out reps about it!

Re: Question of the Day

Vanshar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:30:36 -0000

Seems kinda trivial compared to some of the heartfelt stuff I read here, but my friends think I'm a little loony for planning to build an Earthship. Building a house that independently provides its own power, water, and sanitation strikes them as a whole lot of work for nothing, and why should I bother to be sustainable if I can't force EVERYONE to be? Fortunately I found a mate who is totally on board with it, so I don't feel like I'm diverting family resources into some crackpot scheme!

Re: Question of The Day

Vanshar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:38:27 -0000

A memory foam pad for the bed. Haven't slept this well in years!

Re: Mmmm... Sciencey!

Vanshar — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:10:17 -0000

In defense if the first study, I would point out that sample sizes ~500 and delf-reported data are very standard practices in psychology. Such a sample size is reasonably robust, statistically (assuming you have a truly random sample set, which is another can of fish entirely, and not discussed in the article). And the self-reporting is because it is generally considered poor form to stalk people with binolculars and a clipboard to see what they ACTUALLY do. So I think their results are probably about right, but the interpretation is way off; and main effect that is that small with regard to the background (in this case, the total amount of shopping the subjects did in that period, which I'm sure exceeded 25 quid by a fair bit) would not attract any real attention from reviewers, no matter how significant it may be statistically. Calling that a spending spree is more than a stretch. But that's just my man-brain at work :D.

Re: At Least 12 Dead in NY Shooting

Vanshar — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:52:14 -0000

I'm guessing from context that someone under the name of Atlas Shrugged posted...something, but if zie did it's been deleted, I guess? I'm just wondering why, in this case, using a tragedy as a launching-off point for a rant about your political opinions is so horrible. It happens here a dozen times a day. A tragedy occurs, that would have been preventable/never happened if the world was different in accordance with our personal viewpoints, and we proceed to describe why we think this is so. It is, in a very real way, what blogging is all about. Now, you can disagree with someone's logic all you want; I happen to support concealed carry, albeit only for highly trained civilians on the same logic that cops are absolutely nothing more than highly trained civilians in a uniform, but I can understand why people disagree, and this can lead to a dialogue. But to attack someone merely for making a statement in the light of a tragedy is hypocritical in the extreme, I think.

Re: At Least 12 Dead in NY Shooting

Vanshar — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:37:14 -0000

I apologize for misunderstanding, I reread the post a number of times and somehow missed it. It was late and I was tired, and now embarrassed. I'm gratified that someone actually looked at my LJ, since I didn't realize that it is actually linked from here. Admittedly, a large part of my complaint (that a comment was deleted) turned out to be TOTALLY unfounded and I apologize, however, my main point, the hostility with which someone with another viewpoint is greeted, stands. Polishing my gun, indeed. I do try not to be contemptuous and dismissive in my interactions, I'd appreciate the same courtesy. All you really had to do was point out that I was in error, and I would have written a much shorter apology and we'd be done.

Re: At Least 12 Dead in NY Shooting

Vanshar — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:49:20 -0000

Space Cowboy: Thanks for that, I understand that things can get heated, and I am certainly guilty as well. I was not in any way accusing you of leveraging a tragedy, I was pointing out what I feel is the inconsistency of calling someone out for doing so when, well, anytime someone mentions a tragedy in the course of taking their stance of choice, they are doing just that; we have to condemn everyone, or no one, on those grounds. Attacking his logic is gravy, and I definitely see where you are coming from. But in the end I'm sorry if I upset anybody, it wasn't my intent to set off some kind of confrontation, it's not productive and I certainly didn't help.

Re: Quote of the Day

Vanshar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:38:50 -0000

So, lemme see if I have this straight: we invaded Afghanistan to eliminate an insane, misogynistic theocracy and replace it with...an insane, misogynistic theocracy? And we've accomplished what, exactly? Oh, right, THIS insane misogynistic theocracy is friendlier to our private, economic interests in the region. Not that we invaded for that reason, of course. Why, that would make the US Armed Forces into little more than thugs for wealthy corporations, and that way lies madness!

Re: Daily Kitteh

Vanshar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:38:35 -0000

Sympathy here, also. Companion animals are every bit as much part of a family as the human bits, and I know the hole they leave behind. I'm truly thankful her passing was quick.

Re: If It's Tuesday, It's Boehlert!

Vanshar — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:31:33 -0000

It never ceases to amaze me, the double speak that neo-cons are capable of. We spent eight years under an administration that curtailed civil liberties, rapidly and hugely expanded the power of the executive, and launched pre-emptive wars, all under the banner of national pride and jingoism...in short, the LITERAL FUCKING DEFINITION of fascism. And everything was fine, hunky-dory, huzzah ain't our president just such a GOOD FELLA? Not a peep from the media, until the very end, grudgingly, when the country started to figure things out despite the media, not because if it. And now?
We have a President using the powers of government in every way he can, as his mandate demanded, to patch things up. Is he screwing up? Abso-fracking-lutely, and it is the media's job to call him on that. But fascism? Communism? What the hell are these people smoking? This is a national emergency, a REAL one this time, and Obama, rather than grabbing the executive power stick and swinging it around, is actually trying to work WITHIN the law to fix things. Totalitarianism? If that were so, House Republicans would have gone the way of the Nazi SA weeks ago (The SA was the paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party, before being "replaced" with a group fanatically loyal to Hitler personally, the SS).

Boggles the mind!

Re: Question of the Day

Vanshar — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:45:20 -0000

"(It/they/he/she)'ll do that." My most common response these days. Example: a friend says "ah, man, they're throwing more money down the bail out pit!" - "They'll do that"; or "Do you ever stop reading blogs?" - "I'll do that." Kinda weird, don't know why I do it.

Re: Faith Losing

Vanshar — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:35:12 -0000

"A Christian photographer was forced by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission to pay $6,637 in attorney's costs after she refused to photograph a gay couple's commitment ceremony."

Shoot, really? I should have thought of that. When we got married last summer, our photographer agreed to the date and the payment and everything, then called THE DAY BEFORE the wedding to tell us that actually, her Christian beliefs wouldn't have allowed her to photograph a heathen (her word) wedding. It was a Wiccan ceremony. Most lame, and it didn't even occur to us to sue.
In the end, we got a bunch of disposable cameras and put them on the tables at the reception, asked our guests to do whatever they liked with them, and then we got them developed. Got some of the most personal, touching snapshots imaginable, so it worked out for the best!

Re: Faith Losing

Vanshar — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:21:35 -0000

Thanks for the heads up, Annie. I hadn't even made that connection, although it's obvious as hell when someone calls me on it. All part of purging my lexicon, and ongoing battle. :)