Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Odds 'N Ends

1) Why I'm a "Socialist"

An awesome take on our wonderful private health care system

2) Women Get Aroused Sometimes Too!


Oh my gawdess, you guys, women have sexual desires too! My favorite part of this article from CNN regarding the Surprisingly High numbers of women who enjoy porn was this:

"Even more compelling were the results of a 2004 study at Northwestern University that also assessed the effect of porn on genital arousal....[W]hen the researchers showed gay, lesbian, and straight porn to heterosexual and homosexual women and men, they found that while the men responded more intensely to porn that mirrored their particular gender orientation, the women tended to like it all. Or at least their bodies did."


You would never know this, of course, if you only listened to the dominate narrative on sex, which demands heterosexual women to forego their own sexual pleasure and play gatekeeper to men's naturally Very High Sex Drives.


3) The Birfers

I have shied away from talking about the manufactured conspiracy theory that is the Obama Birth Certificate "Controversy." By rebutting it and reporting on it, the media and bloggers always run the risk of giving waste-of-time wack-a-loon theories a shred of legitimacy.

Nonetheless, a part of me remains intrigued by the phenomenon of movements of people who believe in "obscure, discredited theories," as Ben Smith writing for Politico calls them. Don't get me wrong, I am all for questioning Official Truth. I think it would be irresponsible not to do so, in fact.

But, whether people remain convinced that 9/11 was an inside job or that Barack Obama is a Secret Muslim Non-Citizen, why people display an irrational distrust of the Official Truth in spite of a lack of credible evidence for their skepticism, to me, is always far more interesting than the actual alleged conspiracy. In the case of the 9/11 Truthers, I think many people were perhaps over-reacting to a very real inability to trust the Bush Administration. In this case, I think the Birthers are perhaps over-reacting to the angst they are still feeling about the fact that Barack Obama, a black Democrat with a funny name, won the 2008 election. Being mired in conservatism, it is only natural for the birthers to couch their conspiracy theory in a faux Concern That We Haven't Complied With the Constitution. Yet, at heart, I think they are, to put it simply, unpatriotic sore losers who are demanding that we put resources into their asinine theory instead of into more important issues that actually matter.

I think it's time for some people to get over it, re-group after their loss, and start thinking of valid criticisms to make of our President.

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