Public policy, social issues, gender politics, religion, civitas, and other taboo topics fall under the hammer of Shava's iconoclasmic force of natural philosophy.
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Cuz every girl crazy for a sharp-dressed man...
Thursday, August 28, 2003
12:34 PM
This article makes me realize I live on the edge of a genderfucked ghetto, and kind of like it that way... Metrosexuals count as gender bent? Um. I suppose.
And I suppose kids who pay designer prices for "pre-stressed" pseudopunk fashions, and comb-in-shampoo-out hair color gel count as punks, too...
This article is amusing and/or appalling in blurring of issues surrounding fashion/image, social expectations, sexual orientation, social status/class, and stereotypes!
No one in marketing seems to have noticed that being well groomed, well outfitted, and wearing cologne was a norm before the 60's in certain circles. This is the natural reaction to the erosion of "GQ Man" due to casual Fridays and laid back west coast business manners, not a gender liberation movement.
MARKETING FOCUS
Gender Blending
By Thomas Mucha
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,,51920,00.html
If sex sells, then so does metrosex. This summer's hottest
marketing buzzword, "metrosexual" defines any urban,
well-educated, affluent man who is in touch with his femininity.
Your average metrosexual wears Bruno Magli, reads Details
magazine, uses hair care products -- and is straight as an arrow.
"Metrosexuals are finding the courage to enter the female domain
without fear of losing their status as 'real' men," explains
Marian Salzman, chief strategy officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide, a
communications firm that just released a voluminous marketing
study on the trend. The implications are huge, although no one
can assess the nascent market's value. "There is room for a
metrosexual voice in every [product] classification pitching men
under 50," Salzman claims.
The signs are everywhere. Conde Nast Publications is launching a
shopping magazine for men. Axe deodorant body spray, which is
essentially male perfume disguised as deodorant, now rivals
uber-masculine Old Spice in market share. A variety of products
and trends -- Diesel Jeans, Mini Cooper, Vespa, even yoga and
wine bars -- thrive on the refined tastes and habits of
metrosexuals. And according to marketing consultant Cheryl
Swanson of Toniq, three highly successful products and brands --
Apple's iMac, the Volkswagen Beetle, and Nike's ubiquitous swoosh
-- work so well precisely because their elegant, curvaceous
designs appeal to softer sensibilities. "It's not masculine or
feminine," she argues. "It's a human aesthetic." (In fact,
Swanson prefers the broader term "gender blending" to describe
the trend.)
Read the whole thing, giggle and weep...!
To a friend quitting smoking
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
11:25 PM
First, I think folks should be proud of trying. Nicotine is fully as addictive as opiates, for some of the same reasons -- yet we don't make quitting smoking the heroic thing that kicking heroine would be. Jon you are a hero. You are moving mountains in your personal reality, and of course it's hard, but we know you can do it, and those of us who've been through it feel for you because it SUUUUUCKS! ;)
I started smoking in my early 20's, when my group at work would be in design meetings in a literally smoke-filled room for six hours a day. It was starting to make me insane. My best friend suggested that I buy a pack of cloves, light one up, and just leave it burning in the ashtray. Since most people don't like the smell, they'd have to either stop smoking, or put up with it.
I started just lighting it up, and then started to take a pull or two (second hand smoke is easier when you are smoking too). I only ever got up to about two cigs a day.
But then I realized I was addicted, and the bad things about cloves started coming out in the presses. I decided to quit.
Now, to me, nicotine urges are visceral. They are just as strong as real hunger, or real lust. So I said to myself, "Self, you have a pretty healthy libido. And in the spring when the boys come out with their spandex bike shorts and their bikes, you could just melt. Hell, you could just jump one of those puppies and wrestle him to the grass. But you don't. And it's all social conditioning. It's all personal discipline. So if you don't have to jump the next cute boy, you don't have to light up this next cancer stick. It's as simple as that."
And every time I feel like lighting up, I remember it's no more powerful that the urge for sex. I'm just nicotine celibate.
For years, because I knew I am still addicted, and I know I can (LITERALLY) stop any time, I would smoke every so often just socially when I was with other smokers. Or every so often when I was REALLY REALLY TENSE -- because Barb's right, its comforting, it goes straight to the limbic center in the brain.
But since my dad died last year of emphysema (essentially...) Joseph has asked me to please never smoke again. And I've promised him and stuck to it.
Good luck!
Ashcroft or McCarthy -- you decide...
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
2:17 AM
(Modified from this article on Ashcroft for illustrative purposes.)
Senator Joe McCarthy delivered a clarion defense of the McCarran Act (The Internal Security Act of 1950), calling the embattled law instrumental in fighting communism.
"While our job is not finished, we have used the tools provided in the McCarran Act to fulfill our first responsibility to protect the American people," McCarthy said in a speech that kicked off an effort to counter opposition to the law amid signs such opposition is gaining traction.
"We have used these tools to prevent communists from unleashing death and destruction on our soil. We have used these tools to save American lives. We have used these tools to provide the security that ensures liberty."
McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator, gave several examples of how he said the law had helped law enforcement officials prevent communist attacks in the United States.
He noted that the recently released congressional report on the Russian activities pointed to several problems in the country's anti-communist efforts, such as lack of cooperation and communication between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. He said the McCarran Act corrected the problems.
The law has also ensured that modern technology, such precise fingerprint matching, can be used to combat communism, McCarthy said.
"To abandon these tools would senselessly imperil American lives and American liberty, and ignore the lessons of the advances of the communist threat," Ashcroft said.
The law, hurriedly and overwhelmingly passed by Congress, has come under increasing criticism from those across the political spectrum who say it infringes on Americans' civil liberties and could hurt innocent people.
"The problem is this government has decided to allow the FBI to search our homes without telling us, to seize our library records even when it's not remotely related to criminal activity," said Roger Baldwin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office.
As long as McCarthy "surrounds himself with the horror and tragedy of the Russian bomb, and soldiers dying for liberty, he feels he insulates himself from legitimate criticism," Baldwin said.
McCarthy’s effort to defend the law will include similar speeches during a nationwide tour over the next several weeks. The Justice Department has asked all U.S. Attorneys to hold public meetings and write opinion pieces for local newspapers explaining why the law is necessary. And the Department unveiled a new pamphlet series designed to highlight the law's successes.
"We welcome the debate," said J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director. "But we want to make sure the American people....have all the facts. This is just to set the record straight."
In his speech, McCarthy said a recent poll showed Americans believe by a 2 to 1 majority that the McCarran Act is "a necessary and effective tool that protects liberty, because it targets communists." And, McCarthy said, the poll showed 91 percent of Americans say the law has not affected their civil rights or those of their families.
Nevertheless, the law appears to be losing support in Congress and across the country.
The House last month voted not to fund a portion of the McCarran Act that would have allowed federal agents to delay notification of searches of peoples' homes. In the Senate earlier this year, an effort by California Senator Richard Nixon to extend some provisions of the law set to expire in 1955 failed.
Several pieces of legislation are pending in Congress, with support from members of both parties, to roll back or limit aspects of the law. More than 150 communities, including three states, have passed resolutions decrying the McCarran Act.
Several prominent Democrats have condemned McCarthy and the McCarran Act, and Tuesday's speech added to their fodder.
Senator Adlai Stephenson said "(McCarthy) must not be allowed to compromise our freedoms any further" and called for a rollback of "anti-communist tactics that go far beyond protecting our country and erode the rights of average Americans."
Dean Acheson said McCarthy’s work with the House Un-American Activities Committee "has rolled over our rights for the last two years."
Concern about the law isn't limited to Democrats. Several conservative groups, including the Eagle Forum and the American Conservative Union, also have registered opposition to elements of the law, on civil liberties grounds. Vermont Senator Ralph Flanders, a Republican, told the Associated Press last week "there may come a time, and it may be next year, when we need to pull it back."
Hoover -- wearing a white tie that said "Freedom" in red letters across it -- dismissed criticism of the McCarran Act as the work of "a small, vocal minority" spreading misinformation.
McCarthy delivered his speech in a conference room at the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington think tank that is the intellectual home of much Eisenhower administration policy. He spoke before a blue backdrop bearing the words "Preserving Life and Liberty." He grounded the speech in key historical themes, quoting several times from President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and seeking throughout to tie anti-communism and the cold war to the grand battles of American history.
McCarthy ended the speech with an echo of the Gettysburg Address, saying "as long as there is an America, liberty must not, will not, shall not perish from the earth."
(for more historical comparisons see
http://huac.tripod.com/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAacheson.htm
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/mccarran-act-intro.html
http://www.multied.com/documents/McCarran.html )
Just a little too scary how easy that was to do...
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