Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

Bears on the prowl in Russia

Apparently bears in Russia are so hungry that they have on occasion, "gained access" to bodies in graves.  Gross. According to the article, they are teaching each other how to get into coffins.  I am envisioning the bear conversation going on as this training occurs.  Maybe Stephen Colbert's fear of bears isn't so misplaced....

Rand Paul supporter wants apology from protester

Rand Paul supporter wants apology from protester

Hey lady. I really think you should apologize to me since I stomped on your head!

What????

We saw Bill Maher recently, and a section of his show discussed the idea that patriotism has morphed into this nearly delusional idea that admitting anything is wrong with the United States is unpatriotic.  As Bill says often, we shouldn't want our country "back", but we should want it "forward."  He raises a good point: why does Obama get criticized when he is honest about something that the US has not done well or was wrong in as being weak?  Ridiculous.

Anyway, back to this guy who stomped on a 23-year-old woman's head: man up, apologize, you dumb brute.  But that's probably expecting too much.

Death won't halt rhino breeding program

Complements of the Cincinnati Enquirer: Death won't halt rhino breeding program

Whew. I was really worried about this. Thank you Enquirer for putting that fear to rest.

SERIOUSLY?! Am I a terrible person? Hundreds of people posting sympathy messages on Facebook? People will Facebook sympathy anything.

On a side note, I did find it fascinating that rhinos have a 480 day gestation. Holy frozen sperm, that is a long time!

Alligator eats boy's pet turtle at aquarium

I'm not sure why this article amused/bemused me so much when I saw it a few weeks ago.  It might be the unfortunate coincidence that the boy happened to be at the aquarium the very day his poor turtle was devoured.  Or the quote, "Oh no alligator, let it go!"  Or the fact that the aquarium apologized to the family for what appears to be a solid lesson of, well, nature, and thinking that the kid would be consoled by a dolphin meet and greet.  Ah the traumas of childhood.

Hiccup Girl in Serious Trouble

 'Hiccup Girl' charged with murder after allegedly uring (sic) man into trap

1. CNN, you might want to check your spelling on that title.  I do not know what uring is.
2. This is very unfortunate, and a weird reverse on "To Catch a Predator"- wonder if that's where the kids got the idea.
3. Not only is this sad for a 19 year old and the victim, it's also unfortunate that her reputation apparently proceeds her as the "Hiccup Girl."  I must have missed that particular internet sensation.

*probably shouldn't make fun of CNN when I have typos too!

Strange Phenonmenon: Making Ignorance Chic

I love this opinion article in the NYT: Making Ignorance Chic, by Maureen Dowd.  It's so sad but true- and I fear that we as a country have fallen prey to "Sarah's America."  Our country was founded by thinkers, deep thinkers.  Once upon a time, it was, as Dowd points out, "it was cool to be smart."  The mind boggling trend the past decade has been to favor the "common sense" folks with "American" values over the "intellectual elites."  Here's what I wish I understood better: where did we depart from the marriage between intellectualism and common sense?  The two aren't mutually exclusive and I don't know where the idea of the intellectuals versus... the ??? came from. 

Kurt Vonnegut's Look at the Birdie, published posthumously, has a haunting short story called "The Petrified Ants" where some anthropologists are looking at an ant civilization that has been found petrified in stone.  They observe this progression of the ants from intellectuals to being taken over by violent brutes.  Sound familiar?  Good read.

In large part, this recent rash of racist "patriotism" and intellectual hatred has to be racially based.  Why else would there be this insinuation of suspicion... or blatant outcry against well-educated people (a.k.a. Barack Obama).  Let's face it: the Republicans (as in the vocal party, I won't speak for everyone obviously) hate the idea of a black man being president.  They hate the idea that our country has become so diverse.  And they have capitalized on that hatred by reigning in uneducated bigots to do the dirty work for them.  I recently heard Michelle Alexander speak on her new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  Her premise is fascinating, and perhaps at first glance, a little strong.  But the more I think about it, the more I think this is true and that this permeates the climate in our country.  Without so many words, there is a rebellion going on- an attempt at regaining control and a perception that the majority has "lost control" of the country to the minorities. 

And what can we do about it?  Are the remaining sane people in the country too tired, too fed-up, too disdainful to stand up against this snowball of bigoted craziness?  We can't give in, we can't get disenchanted and stop being involved.  I am guilty of this- I change the channel because I can't stand the reality of this happening in the news, I ignore politics.  I'm going to stop doing that though, because we have to fight the erosion...

Letter to the Media

Dear Cincinnati Enquirer:

I believe this screen shot explains my previous letter:

Sincerely,

A Seriously Crimed-out Reader

Women to Dread

When Sarah Palin made her political debut, she rocked my world in a very bad way.  With every vacuous and ignorant remark she made, I would cringe.  I swore that if she got into office I would leave the country.  I had never been this incensed about a politician in my lifetime.  This is not how I imagined women taking leadership in politics would be.  Shrill soundbites, meaningless phrases... all purporting feminism.

Ladies, this is not feminism.  It is the opposite!  The Republican Party/Conservatives have created a monster breed of unintelligent female political candidates.  It's sheer evil genius to try to trick the less than educated conservatives into... I don't know, thinking they are somehow progressive?  I'm not even sure if that's the draw.  But since then, all intelligent women can shake their heads with dread and agony...  the Palin minions have multiplied!

In no particular order:

Linda McMahon- The telling response in a NYT article:  I asked her, for instance, whether she was in favor of reforming entitlement programs that, along with military outlays, represent the principal forces driving spending levels ever higher. “We’re going to have to look at them,” she said, “but I can tell you that that has got to be done in the legislative arena, with open debate, with people on both sides really tackling this and talking about it. We’ve got to strengthen our entitlement programs. We’ve got to make sure that our contract with seniors is maintained and upheld.” But, she added: “I’ve made a specific point of saying I’m not going to go into that on the campaign trail, because I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think the appropriate arena is the legislative arena.”  In other words, she doesn't know how to answer that question.  She's never thought about it. 

Christine O'Donnell- All the stupidity of Palin without the weirdly endearing qualities.  I could have sworn in her closing remarks that she read "we will defeat our enemies and see triumph over freedom.  The LA times had a transcript (Christine O'Donnell-Chris Coons debate: Full transcript) and filled it in for her: "We will cut spending. We will reform our government, and we will defeat our enemies and see triumph of (ph) our (ph) freedom again."  Hopefully for her it was just a weird accent thing and not a misread.  That wasn't the worst of it, obviously.  She interrupted, she deflected real questions, she couldn't think of a Supreme Court case...

KARIBJANIAN:  Well, we've talked about the Supreme Court, and obviously a United States senator has the opportunity to determine in a way the make-up of that court.  So what opinions of late that have come from our high court do you most object to?
O'DONNELL:  Oh, gosh.  Give me a specific one, I'm sorry.
KARIBJANIAN:  Actually, I can't, because I need you to tell me which ones you object to.
O'DONNELL:  I'm very sorry.  Right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot, but I'll put it up on my Web site, I promise you.

Good Lord, woman, you don't even have the case down that your party eats for dinner.

Sharron Angle- Told a bunch of Latino students they looked Asian.  For lack of a better expression, WTF?

Where have all the smart women gone?  Or does this just prove that women really still are hitting a glass wall unless being exploited as "women" in politics?  Sigh.

Teenage Dream

Is anyone else baffled by the mainstream acceptance of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream?  Here's a sampling of the lyrics:

You make me
Feel like
I'm living a Teenage Dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's runaway
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back

Fine, I know, most pop music is not exactly popular for brilliant lyrics.  What is more offensive about this song is the following:

1. The background music sounds exactly like California Girls, that has been a defeatingly catchy hit that even I can't deny.  The only difference is the lyrics are sung in half-time.
2. The chorus, as already referenced above, is painfully, horribly, tortuously slow.
3. The lyrics.... living the teenage dream?  What does that even mean?  Other moments of lyrical horror: I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece, I am complete.... I might get your heart racing in my skin tight jeans be your teenage dream tonight.  It's really almost creepy.

Letter to the Media

Dear Cincinnati Enquirer,

I thought that someone should point out to you that not every single crime and car accident that occurs is actually newsworthy.  In fact, you may want to think over your news story choices.  Here are some pointers:

• Drunk driving incidents and car accidents do not need to be reported daily.  We get that it happens.  Maybe sometimes when it's extra outrageous, sure, report it.  But when it's just a run of the mill, no accident occurrence, please don't tell us about it.
• No one cares how many showers Nick Lachey and his girlfriend take together: Nick Lachey and girlfriend keep it really clean.
• Perhaps you should not warn people that the Covington diocese is going door to door to see what churches people are going to in order to determine where to build churches.  Not only is that a terribly annoying thing to to, but now that you've tipped everyone off, we know how to avoid!
• It is not necessary to report a minimum of one child abuse case each week.  It also offends me that 99% of the time, the article shows a terrible booking photo of some unfortunate African-American women.  Get the gist?

Sincerely,

One of your readers

Good Deed of the Month: Just Love Coffee

My good friend Lauren Loboda has been working to adopt a boy from Honduras who was born with HIV for years.  She and her husband are raising funds to bring him home.  Part of their fundraising is through Just Love Coffee store, where supporters can purchase coffee products, which in turn will use the proceeds to help Lauren and Mark bring their boy home.

Help Lauren and Mark