The TMI Files. Let Them Eat Cake.
Magilla loves Astro Boy. No question about it - she has for years. For example, about 3 years ago at church during the kids' talk, the little tackers were asked who was their favourite person in the Bible.
She put her hand up and declared to all and sundry that Astro Boy is the best one in the Bible because he saves everyone.
Okay, now she's 7 and knows a bit more about the Bible and Astro's place in it (ie not.)
Anyway, for her birthday, I wanted to do an Astro Boy cake. Do you know how difficult it is to find any info about one? I'll throw a few links in at the end, so that you can see the dearth of cakes out there.
In the end, I just found a set of little figures and asked the Godmother to decorate at will. Since she's a whiz at cakes, especially for children, she did a fantastic job. The cake is a packet mix (White Wings chocolate on chocolate), with smarties and the Astro figures as decoration.
Damn it's a fine cake!
Or it was - there aren't even any crumbs left.
Link to other Astro cakes
here.
Email To The Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow.
Dear Sirs,
I'm sure you've been receiving a lot of
outraged email over your exhibition piece inviting people to write their way into the Bible. As someone who believes in God and His message in the Bible, I find your invitation offensive.
That said, ultimately God gave us the wondrous gift of free will, and then sent His Son to show us the way to live.
It's our choice to believe or disbelieve, even as children grow up to make their parents proud or disappoint them.
In this case, I have no desire to vilify you for your poor judgement.
I will ask, though, if there are any plans for a similar exercise being taken with the quran. The passages in that book could probably use some notes in the margins, and I would quite enjoy the opportunity to rewrite those verses that advocate the beating of women, for example.
Considering that the treatment of gays in present-day Iran is more harsh than gays receive in Western countries (unless you're living near a muslim enclave cf:Bruce Bawer), I think it might be a bit more in line with modern art's desire to engender outrage and get a reaction.
Kind regards and God be with you,
nilk
When All Else Fails, Blame The Patriarchy.
Tomecat, Palin was a popular Governor who is also wildly popular among conservatives, the very group that hates McCain and where he needed turnout in order to win. Picking her made all kinds of political sense–in fact, one of the major reasons that he lost may have been that conservatives perceived him as abandoning her and registered their displeasure. I don’t understand where the perception that he picked her to pander to Democratic women and laugh at us for falling for his scheme comes from, except from the idea that nobody would actually pick a woman for a good reason, despite how much she appears to bring to the table in his case.
If he did think he could win by having Palin draw female Democrats, anyone could have told him the chances against it were 10 billion to one.
This is probably the most insightful look into "lefty" minds I've seen in forever.
It doesn't matter that Sarah Palin is a woman who has apparently lived life on her own terms, has a successful marriage to an attractive man, and a brood of children who all appear to be well-adjusted.
It doesn't matter that she also reached the top position in her chosen field (Alaskan State politics).
It doesn't matter that feminists declare that they are all about women succeeding on their own terms.
It only matters that
she is not one of them.I've been reading
Reclusive Leftist's post on attempting to understand the Feminist anger and vitriol (hope that's not too redundant) towards Palin.
I heartily recommend taking the time to read the post and all the comments.
I understand that it's difficult to see the Other in compassionate terms, but this is what is happening here. The commenters are mainly women, and mainly self-identified feminists. Some are mothers, some aren't. Some commenters are men.
There are derogatory remarks made about christians (personally I don't like being called a "godbag" and get really tired of anti-christian insults), but as with the MRA sites, look below the surface and see what's
really going on.
Palin is a catalyst. She's everything a feminist believes she's entitled to, but she apparently did it without the sisterhood.
She doesn't subscribe to the patriarchy-bashing that is decreed the only path to success for women.
The biggest problem with that, however, is that we really don't live in a patriarchal world any more. Not in America, and not in Australia.
Violence Against Women Act? Of course we need one of those, because women get bashed up.
So do men, by women, but we're not supposed to talk about that concept.
Also, whatever happened to the usual laws on the books about assault and battery? Oh, that's right, they don't count in a domestic situation because when you smack someone out, it's worth more if it's a bloke hitting a woman in the home and therefore deserving of more legislation.
I'm digressing again, but I do that when it comes to women's rights as opposed to men's. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you I'm a tad obsessed.
Back to Sarah Palin and her impact upon modern feminism.
It's a
huge impact - she's effectively turned over the rock of the public perception of what women can accomplish, and exposed the ugly mess of
cultural marxism (ie political correctness/socialism/leftism) that lies beneath today.
Blaming the patriarchy that no longer exists in any strict sense is a smokescreen, even if those who do so are unaware of that fact.
With
several of the goals of the communists being realised, there's a whole lot more going on than just men keeping women down.
For those too lazy to click, here from 1963 are the
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.Those pieces so bolded (is that a word?) are just what I see from the other side of the pond that seem to be way on track.
Not a good look, and not exactly the "Patriarchy's" fault, I suspect.
