Category Archives: politics

nyt: how many deaths are enough?

I loved Bob Herbert’s op-ed in today’s NYT. Here’s an excerpt:

The slaughter of college students — or anyone else — has never served as a deterrent to the gun fetishists. They want guns on campuses, in bars and taverns and churches, in parks and in the workplace, in cars and in the home. Ammunition everywhere — the deadlier, the better. A couple of years ago, a state legislator in Arizona, Karen Johnson, argued that adults needed to be able to carry guns in all schools, from elementary on up. “I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks,” she said.

Can we get a grip?

The contention of those who would like college kids and just about everybody else to be armed to the teeth is that the good guys can shoot back whenever the bad guys show up to do harm. An important study published in 2009 by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimated that people in possession of a gun at the time of an assault were 4.5 times more likely to be shot during the assault than someone in a comparable situation without a gun.

“On average,” the researchers said, “guns did not seem to protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. Although successful defensive gun uses can and do occur, the findings of this study do not support the perception that such successes are likely.”

Now go read the whole thing.

[Posted by Mallory]

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i believe…we can be better.

One of the the portions of last night’s speech that had a huge impact on me:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

I am guilty of the bolded far more often than I’d like to admit.

Watch Obama’s speech or read the full transcript here.

[Posted by Mallory]

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today is a google holiday, hooray!

Today’s Google Holiday: 55th Anniversary: Rose Parks refuses to move. I love this one, although I find it disconcerting that on the same day this is a Google Holiday, there’s an NYT headline that reads, “Pentagon Sees Little Risk in Allowing Gay Men and Women to Serve Openly.” That this is a headline in 2010, 55 years after Rosa Parks stood up — or rather, sat down — for herself on that bus, makes me wonder if we’ve really come very far at all.

What I was Googling: blow dry. It’s a LivingSocial thing. Which is it, co-blogger Kathleen?!!?!

In other news, today is December 1 and it was almost 65 degrees in DC this morning. It was also raining, and I bonded with my cohorts at the bus stop as our umbrellas flipped inside out with every gust of wind. Then I got on the sweaty, sweaty bus and stood directly across from a girl I went to college with. We ignored each other. MATURITY.

[Posted by Mallory]

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Filed under adventures, history, news, politics, post-college depression

a hump day cry face remix?

So, this happened (at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, obviously):

…followed by this:

This, of course, has nothing to do with Cry Face, except in that it proves that I aim to never look attractive in public. (Speaking of which…read this blog.)

[Posted by Mallory]

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barbara bush’s guide to artful insults.

While filming a segment for Larry King, Barbara Bush delivered quite the artful insult to Sarah Palin (yes, this was reported a few days ago, but I JUST got my new Macbook power cord!). It’s the kind of thing you shiver from when reading, because it’s just so icy cold. I’m not condoning this behavior, but should you ever find yourself needing to tear someone down without calling them names, here is Barbara Bush’s guide to delivering a slap that really stings:

1. Show that you personally know your subject, giving whatever you are about to say some sort of validation.  (“I sat next to her once “)

2. Pay a flattering compliment, but one that doesn’t insinuate any real intelligence or skill.  (“She was beautiful”)

3. Remark upon something fairly insignificant, reminiscent of small talk.  (“I think she’s very happy in Alaska”)

4. Insert verbal dagger. Twist. And laugh lightly or smile, to make it appear more pleasant. (“And I hope she stays there”)

In the world of political mean girls (Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman, Sharron Angle, etc.), Barbara Bush just pulled a Regina George.

Perhaps the former FLOTUS got underneath Palin’s skin, but you know Sarah Barracuda. She doesn’t retreat, she reloads. It was reported today that she sent a team to Iowa to search for a 2012 campaign office. So about that whole staying in Alaska thing… probably not going to happen.

But did Barbara Bush win this round? You betcha.

[Posted by Kathleen]

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six words has a guest post!

Hey all! How about a Sunday evening guest post? Inspired by the category of people/things not to be trusted on our About Us page, they developed the following list of the most notable celebrities who are NOT to be trusted.

Celebrities Who Are Not To Be Trusted

There are certain celebrities who, quite frankly, leave me feeling a little uneasy. It may be that prolonged exposure to the limelight has had a deleterious effect on their sanity, or perhaps they’re just naturally odd. Whatever the reason for their bizarre behavior, one thing is certain: I woudn’t want to be put in a room with any of these seven nutjobs.

Joaquin Phoenix

Phoenix had a promising start as a young actor in films such as Parenthood and Gladiator, but ever since his bizarre appearance on the David Letterman show, sporting a hobo-esque beard and generally acting like a sociopath for most of the interview, Phoenix appears to have lost his grip on reality. His pseudo-documentary I’m Still Here solidified his status as certified creeper. The whole “am I going crazy or am I just pretending to go crazy” shtick didn’t fool anybody, and the movie was a deserved failure.

Katherine Heigl

Like many others, I was very impressed by Heigl’s performance in Knocked Up, and entertained hopes that she would pick up where Scarlett Johansson had left off in the sophisticated-and-beautiful-actress category. Unfortunately, it appears she is a complete diva on set and intolerable to work with. Beyond this, her habits of slandering and insulting the people who helped her get her career off the ground have made her quite a few enemies in Hollywood, and for good reason.

Tom Cruise

Little needs to be said about why Cruise made the list. His antics of the past decade include the infamous couch-jumping episode, his advocacy of Scientology, and above all, TomKat. The minute I heard that Katie wouldn’t be allowed to make a single unpleasant noise while in labor with her first child because of the Scientologist belief that it would cause psychological damage to the newborn, I knew my worst suspicions about Cruise were true.

John Mayer

It’s easy to be seduced by the sultry strains emanating from Mayer’s guitar, but it seems like every month there’s a new revelation about what a seedy character he is. Recent highlights include his interview with Playboy in which he famously uttered the n-word, claiming it was all right because he had a “hood pass”; in other words, that the white, affluent Mayer somehow had gangsta cred. To say about 50% of what comes from his mouth is offensive would be a conservative estimate.

Mel Gibson

Exceeding even John Mayer’s offensive capabilities is none other than Mel Gibson, whose controverisal film The Passion marked a turning point in his career from action movie hero to ultra-conservative anti-Semitic wacko. As if his depiction of Jews in The Passion wasn’t offensive enough, the recording of his anti-Semitic tirade while being arrested for drunk driving was the nail in the coffin.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina is the only member of this list I actually still have respect for, but that doesn’t mean I would trust her with my kids (if I had kids). Her romantic history includes a fling with Billy Bob Thorton that achieved record levels of creepiness, which were then completely destroyed by her confession of being romantically involved with her brother. That’s right, her brother.

Sarah Palin

I debated whether it would be right to add Sarah Palin to this list, but although ostensibly a “politician,” she’s really as much of a celebrity as everyone else on this list. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to go into the details of the hundreds of groan-inducing moments on the campaign trail running as vice presidential nominee in 2010. What’s remarkable is that she continues to hog the limelight two years after America decided they couldn’t bear the thought of her being a heartbeat away from the presidency.

K. Wallulis is a writer.

[Posted by Mallory]

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can’t turn back now, i’m haunted.

While I can’t support T.Swizzle’s song from the 2010 VMA’s for reasons explained here, I can’t help but love her new album. No, it’s nothing new, but I love it for the reasons I love all of her stuff: It’s fluffy and great to sing along to and lets me indulge my inner 11-year-old girl.

But is it just me, or does “Haunted” sound a lot like Avril Lavigne?:

RIGHT? RIGHT?

In other news, I totally suck at trivia…I mean, I didn’t get a freaking MIGHTY DUCKS question tonight. But our team name was John Boehner’s Spray Tan, so that was fun. The fact that Boehner will likely be the next Speaker of the House? Less fun. The fact that Christine O’Donnell managed to get 40% of Delaware voters to vote for her? Downright mind-boggling. But that’s why God invented Taylor Swift. Back to listening to cheesy music and not thinking about real things!

[Posted by Mallory]

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hump cay cry face: the fam.

Ladies and gentlemen, a family Cry Face (from a photo booth at a recent wedding):

We may not agree on how we feel about what happened yesterday, but Cry Face will always bring us together.

[Posted by Mallory]

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today is a google holiday, hooray!

Today’s Google Holiday: Happy Halloween (featuring Scooby Doo)!

What I was Googling: Thanks to Google’s new predict-y thing, I can’t get a good screen shot anymore, but I was Googling “Kamala Harris.” Interesting lady.

Hope you all had good Halloweens! Mine was excellent. Three costumes in 24 hours makes for an excellent Halloween, apparently. While I enjoyed both of my nighttime costumes, I think my rally costume — an XL adult onesie with a horse’s ass print on it — was my favorite. (Our signs said “Onesie Nation Under God.”) My friend took photos…I’ll try to get those up here on the blahg.

It was hard to hear things at the rally, but I really enjoyed the signs and the energy and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s amazingness. And I mean, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam live? HELLO?! Awesome. He played this:

A girl standing behind me shouted “Hey, this is the song from Remember the Titans!” when he began singing. Well, yes. Among other things.

Of course, Jon Stewart’s speech at the end made me all tingly inside and I kind of wanted to run up on stage and give him a hug and a high five. Unfortunately, at that time I was back inside eating pizza, so I kept doing that instead.

[Posted by Mallory]

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from the dnc: it gets better.

Okay, I know I already posted the YouTube clip of the day, but I can’t wait to post this. This makes me so, so proud to call myself a Democrat:

Nice work, DNC.

[Posted by Mallory]

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