Thursday, March 8, 2012

It's a Madhouse

Madhouse, a British apparel company has apparently been putting more than just "vintage wear" into their jeans (read: trousers). Emma Barnett, a British journalist and popular blogger, was outraged when she went to wash her boyfriends pants and noticed an incendiary and misogynistic label below the care instructions for washing and drying. The label reads verbatim: "Or give it to your woman it's her job."

The company hasn't responded to public outcry yet and strangely hasn't issued a statement regarding the matter which begs a few questions: did they know the label was there or was it a rogue or former employee who placed it there?; did they think that no one would see the label and that they would get away with it?; or did they actually think that the label was just a bad joke that people would gloss over, or even show their friends, and this would allow the company to use their sexist remarks as a marketing tool?

The gauge on the internet shows a lot of anger and resentment toward this once-popular company, but searches on the company and the company's clothing are now being snatched up in droves.

Clever marketing tool or deplorable sexist comments?


NOTE:
Revised to show that CNN has now picked up the story and a link to it has been posted below; no new pictures to add besides the one tweeted. Are there more out there?

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07/u-k-pants-label-give-laundry-to-your-woman/?hpt=hp_c2

Cubicle Modifications

Highersalary.com has come out with a list of 40 hilarious alternatives to the mundane cubicle; some are pranks, some are designs, and some, like Google's, are definitely inspirational to workers. So for your weekly antidote to office ennui here's the link to the article:

http://www.highersalary.com/40-hilarious-and-provocative-cubicle-modifications/

9 Unique Places to Visit in the World

Looking across the web today I've found that several blogs and sites of interest have begun posting in regards to the same story from The World Geography in regards to 9 of the world's most Unique and Unusual Travel Destinations. It was picked up by, among others, CNN and the Presurfer.

Some seem interesting, others breathtaking, but the one that is the most intriguing is definitely the Ice Hotels, which, though they are only open for certain times during the year for obvious reasons, offer the longest among of "awe" out of most of the options. Others are short-lived

http://www.theworldgeography.com/2012/01/9-unique-unusual-travel-destinations.html

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Rush to get him off the air

Rush Limbaugh’s grotesque pandering to the under-educated, misogynistic and gullible must be stopped.

Recently Rush went on a rampage condemning Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke (FLUK) for testifying on the need for government-sponsored birth control. While the request seems simple, and is, at times, a necessity for many women across the country, Rush went on the offensive, declaring that any female who needs birth control this badly and “cannot afford her own” must be having “so much sex” that she doesn’t have the time for anything else. And while this doesn’t equate in the minds of most Americans, in Mr. Limbaugh’s, it sure does.

Let’s begin with the facts: birth control pills don’t come in a per-use collection by which those who are most promiscuous or insatiable are running up a steep pill tab; they are instead preventative and, in most cases, beneficial to those women who need a regulatory system in place to alleviate the unpredictability and discomfort that greets them one per month. Furthermore, Ms. Fluke was the only female to testify as part of an all-male panel discussing the need for government sponsorship of birth control and other contraceptives in healthcare mandates; this makes her more credible than anyone else there to at least 50% of the population. Rush’ demographic (overweight, white, male, wealthy) was well-represented, so of course, this being America, there needed to be another voice to resoundingly echo the vitriol with which Ms. Fluke was encountered.

But wait, she wasn’t. In fact, most members of congress not only listened intently to her testimony, but nodded their heads in approval as she delivered her testimony. There was no vituperative language hurled from congressional members, nor were there outcries from conservatives who deem birth control a “sin.” There was, at worst, quiet disagreement. So what, this blogger asks, is Mr. Limbaugh trying to accomplish? Does he really believe that he is the voice of a marginalized population of angry anti-birth control advocates bent on destroying the reputations of any women who opposes them? Or is he simply an uber-misogynistic sociopath who has the ability to slander and libel to any extent he wishes and then can retract any portion of his statements at any later date with little to no repercussion? If it is the latter then I beg of you, he must be taken down.

Not since Don Imus’ notorious “nappy-headed ho’s” comment in reference to the Rutgers women’s basketball team, has there been such an outrage over a radio or television personalities opinions. Imus issued a litany of apologies, both general and personal to individual players, completed services as a self-imposed “rehabilitation” which includes public service announcements and appearances free of charge, and was also immediately “removed” from his position. Why doesn’t Rush receive the same treatment? Is he infallible or untouchable? He certainly is no saint or pope nor is he created in the image of God.

My opinion is that since the need to pay for contraceptives are already endorsed by Obamacare, Rush’ insinuations are twice as lethal and twice as unnecessary. When one considers that he is essentially labeling every female currently taking birth control pills, who is benefiting from Obamacare’s mandate, a “slut,” there is no question that his comments are so out of line that there is no logical place for them in either written or spoken form. He is a dictator howling from a shielded radio cubicle trying to incite an angry mob to go overthrow and “kill the monster,” i.e. liberal women on birth control.

I know many women, and even young women, who are not promiscuous and most likely aren’t involved or indulging in these kinds of behaviors. So, is it fair to label them all with a sweeping generalization? Or is it ever morally responsible to broadcast this radical opinion to the masses, many of whom are probably misinformed about birth control pills?

AND Rush went so far as to request that there should be “videos” of the acts created and that they should be “posted online,” so that the American people could, theoretically, see where there money is going. He continued on by insinuating that Ms. Fluke should reveal who “bought her condoms in junior high” and that she has so many gentlemen callers that they are “lining up around the block.”

There is no place for this type of speech, behavior or condemnation in a progressive nation which prides itself on equality and opportunity. He is a cancerous contagion that needs to be eradicated figuratively or literally.

Rush’s point is that the “feminazi’s” are trying to overtake healthcare reform and are clearly trying to be rewarded for having sex. Since there is no truth to this there is therefore no truth to his words, and a man without truth to his words is a liar, a sin declared in the bible and in the moral laws of this country; furthermore, his vitriolic language and sweeping generalizations which don’t ever deserve the negative label of “stereotypes,” have already infected the ears of every listener both to his program and to any news organization which rebroadcast any portion of his verbal pollution. His pejoratives are intended to inflict moral harm, and while he wields this “moral” saber around, he takes no care to look at who he hits, who he harms and notices not the bridges that he has just sliced down.

Rush should (and I again have no idea why it hasn’t happened yet) find himself alone atop his self-imposed pillar with the world surrounding him, chanting for him to be brought down, dethroned, like an idol of a past dictator, a relic of an evil time long ago, and he should find this noose draped over his swelled neck, pulling him down into the bowels of a world he is so quick to condemn and forget he is a part of.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Cupcake Dispensing ATM?



Yes, please!

A new ATM in Beverly Hills, California, is offering patrons the opportunity to purchase a freshly baked cupcake at a walk-up ATM, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The idea came from the Sprinkles cupcake and ice cream company nestled in the heart of Beverly Hills.



Sounds both delicious than innovative; I'm just hoping that there's no way any rodents can find their way into that area during the wee hours of the morning when not many people will be interested in cupcakes...

Full article:
http://laist.com/2012/02/28/sprinkles_announces_24-hour-cupcake.php

Thursday, March 1, 2012

You know this looks hilarious...

A Snow Day...WHAT?!

North Attleboro currently looks like a winter wonderland. And by winter wonderland I mean the picturesque ideal winter wonderland in which the trees look like they have been sprayed with a glistening white decorative fluff, the roads are clear and wet, and the yard has been covered by a pristine white carpet.

Not pictured in this imagery are the shovels, snowblowers, plows, salt, sand, etc. that routinely comprise the cliche first morning after a New England snowstorm.

So I'm left begging the question: Why was there a snowday today when not even 30 miles south we don't even even have a half inch of anything outside, including rain.

Don't mistake this rant for complaining about having a much-needed snowday (see previous post about students' personalities and abilities on days that should/could have been snowdays), but as a rant instead bashing this winter for being very wussy. We had a wallop of a winter last year and this is the best this year can muster? I'm afraid of what it means for this spring or this summer.

Are there going to be squalls and small storms continuing into May? Is summer going to be a record-breaking scorcher with frequent storms and deadly lightning, or perhaps even another hurricane this year to make it back-to-back?

Gotye_ Somebody I Used To Know

The fact that he sounds so much like Sting when he goes into his high resister is awesome, but the catchiness of this song and the subtle nuances of the plucked notes and synthesized vibratos, I think, deserves some sort of accolade alone, without the sugar-pop induced popularity the song has attained already.

Stop Reincarnating!

China, in a swift decisive move to echo their totalitarian judgements, has condemned Buddhist monks for believing in and urging others to strive for reincarnation. The government insists that the opportunity to reincarnate is restricted under Chinese governmental law which controls such aspects of daily life such as opposition to popular thought and action as well as questioning approved methodology and ideology.

Now I know this is an extreme example of the lengths the Chinese government goes to in order to control their citizens, but if limiting your citizens' access to Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, etc. and then telling peaceful monks that they can no longer advocate reincarnation as a possibility without it being a government approved "activity," where will it end?

Political pundits like to bash President Obama and his so-called divergence into the territory occupied by the governments of China and Russia; they insinuate our beloved and liberated country will slip into the abyss of theocracy or dictatorship without really understanding the limits to which other governments "tell" their people versus how our government, no matter how liberal, still "listens" to their people.

SOPA had terrible connotations to it, and with that worry came protests, both silent and vocal, and then a nearly unanimous veto of the proposal, all because our citizens stood against something and our government listened. I don't ever think the Chinese government would do that, and I don't think that any "liberal" governmental system, whether in the United States of Europe would ever do this.

I do, however, and this is where we get into the thesis of this post, believe that an extremely conservative or radical governmental entity in the Unites States would be more likely, counter-intuitively to what many GOP party members insist, to regulate for and dictate to their citizens than any liberal party. The GOP has long insisted that any liberal government or movement gone unchecked will lead to socialism, communism and thereby will look like Europe, Russia and, at the extreme, China, right?

Our government seems to be loosening its reigns the more liberal it becomes, which is why I have never subscribed to the argument of the GOP in regards to personal liberties. I write this because whenever a speed bump appears in the road (SOPA, requiring hospitals to offer birth control and/or abortion, ruling for or against a particular religion or ideaology, etc.) there is always a protest which is "heard" or "seen;" this is especially true for those that are broadcast across our television stations, which many assert are STILL controlled by the government!

Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck at a circus and I'm wandering through the mirror funhouse. Beside me are children of varying ages, and together we're looking into these mirrors and seeing the distorted reflections of our own ideologies, reservations and liberties, as well as those discussed in the politics and punditry of this nation. I see us moving slowly back and forth watching the faces contort into new faces of differing colors and genders, or different beliefs and far-reaching goals, and I think about the possibility of such a nation surviving on such a quixotic idea when our foundations rest on a soil that has changed composition since we laid our framework.

Can we all still make the same comparisons and assertions regarding our founding and our future when the variables keep changing? Look into the mirror with me and tell me what you see.