sundries

[rm]

LfT: The Country of Yes. (Please, if you wish to comment on that, please do it there if you can (open ID works!); other comments here).

I have such a great collection of stuff coming for this Friday's trash day.

My SJA DVDs arrived!

I have actually reached, for only the second point in my life, the point where I have to turn off the news (the first time was during Katrina). It's good that I almost never reach this point, because the news is central to one of the things I do. But then Palin said "blood libel" and now I've gone and lost my last shreds of rationality.

Heating oil achieved!

There really are no cabs at 4pm. I didn't even know anyone thought this was an urban legend. Of course it's true!

My neighborhood has lost one of its greats: Bobby Robinson was 93.

Haiti: One Year Later.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan isn't white. And she's rightfully furious that Elle decided she should be. I hope she sues the fuckers. Meanwhile, there's a petition.

Maybe the real danger in US politics right now isn't the violent rhetoric, but the othering. As someone who doesn't get to be human a lot of the time, there's a lot of interesting in this.

Comments

[threewalls]

The "cabs at 4am" link appears to go to the "heating oil" link.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Fixed. Thanks!

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Palin said what?

[rm.livejournal.com]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/palin-calls-criticism-blood-libel

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm not often offended by things "as a Jew," but as a Jew? That's fucking ENRAGING to me.

I hope the ADL goes after her for that.

[rm.livejournal.com]

THIS.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

AGREED. I know every time Palin opens her mouth Inigo Montoya appears and says, "I do not think that means what you think it means," but this is far beyond her usual egregiousness.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Yes, THIS.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just wow.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

The Aishwarya Rai whitening is especially awful because she's been pretty progressive on this issue. I remember seeing her on a cover of a local desi magazine in Atlanta (August 2007) where she'd given full permission for her face to be darkened as a visual argument that not only light skin was beautiful.

I signed the petition and hope Elle apologizes as soon as possible.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's pretty cool. I think when I signed the petition yesterday they had like 3,500 signatures and were going for 5K -- now it's up to almost 35K.

This isn't the first time Elle's done this (there was the Gabourey Sidibe cover. I imagine there may be others as well). I damn well hope it's the last.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The Rai cover was for Elle India; the Sidibe cover was for Elle US.

Given what I know about how the various Elles are connected (they're not, particularly; Elle US is published by Hachette, whereas Elle India is published by Ogaan, an Indian publisher--the various Elles are licensed from Lagardere Group, but Lagardere Group has zero editorial input channels other than the potential of yanking a license) it seems pretty clear that the whitewashing of Sidibe and Rai are because of endemic racism and colorism in both the US and India, not because of the corporate links between the two magazines.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

Just to note - the "no cabs" link is just a repeat of the "yay heating oil!" link.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's already been fixed

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

-- people didn't think the no-cabs thing was true?

That's so odd. Of course it's true!

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

At long last Governor, have you no sense of decency?

She was merely criticized for being irresponsible. Last time I checked, she wasn't the one lying in a hospital bed with a whole clean through her skull.

How does this woman sleep at night?

Really, how?

Even Lady Macbeth realized what she did was wrong....

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also to invoke "blood libel" pretty much adds anti-semitism to the list of hideous crap going on in this situation.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Remember: Giffords is Jewish!

Nicely fumbled there, Palin. *facepalm*

[rm.livejournal.com]

I suspect "blood libel" may need to be explained very very slowly to the American public as a whole. I know that sounds absurd, but I suspect more and more people have heard various phrases and not grokked their origins.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

We should teach "The Merchant of Venice" with the frequency of "Romeo & Juliet" and "Midsummer Night's Dream."

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Although the more direct explanation of "blood libel" through classic literature is in the Prioress's Tale, in Chaucer.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

B-b-but only self-loathing elitists read history books!

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

I think this was a very carefully chosen phrase for precisely this reason--most Americas, and certainly most Palin-followers, don't really know what it means (I am well-educated and well-read and I had to look it up this morning because I'd only heard the term in passing), but are going to parrot it, and it's going to become part of the national discourse (insofar as people parroting Palin can be called "discourse"), which is going to both hurt and infuriate the people who do know what it means (the people it's intended to hurt) and make the term lose some of its meaning and weight, making it easier and easier to throw around inaccurately but still damagingly.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

thing is, she very likely has no idea of the root of that phrase. When The Passion of the Christ came out, I got the impression that most folks think ant-semitism was just a case of everyone in Germany waking up one morning in 1933 thinking that genocide was a reasonable approach.

In the course of getting my degree in art history, and looking at Medieval European art in particular, the condesencion-at-best-homicidal-rage-at-worst attitude is really hard to ignore. "Ecclesia vs. Synagoga" art, accusations of desecrating host, and all sorts of other toxic nonsense...

That, and I read "Constantine's Sword", it was a pretty exhaustive survey, and I found that I really clicked both with the book and the author, a fellow lapsed and doubting sort....

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

meanwhile, despite my fascination for all things medieval, I will never be able to bring myself to see an Obergammerau Passion Play, for the knowledge of what was done to me and mine every year after its performance.

Yes, me and mine, even though I was born here and before 1888 my family was in Russia, approximately, just as in every generation you must tell it as if you personally came out of Egypt. The principle applies.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

change that to "hole clean through her skull."

I'm so ticked I'm spewing homophones....

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I think I've about hit my limit as well, and the only other time I actually turned off the news was during the days after September 11th when they were still searching for survivors. I felt physically ill when I saw Palin's comments this morning.

[sqwook.livejournal.com]

A. Please continue to link to your LfT posts, it is very helpful, because left to my own devices I would probably forget to check there for posts.

B. I am about ready to give up on media-consumption too, or I should, for my emotional health. The event itself nearly brought me to tears, for all of us. And the upside-down-world fuckery of the right (How dare you criticize us! That will lead to violence! ?!?!?!) is making my brain explode with sorrow, anger, and a dreadful feeling of helplessness. Like the only way to stay sane is to shut it out and forget about it completely, and then they have totally won. Not in a good head-space about this and dont' know how to fix it.

[natf.livejournal.com]

A. You could subscribe to lettersfrmtitan (i.e. add it to your LJFriends). Hope that helps!

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Good for Aish.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

That Elle cover baffles me. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is paler than I am post touch-up, and I tend to cultivate a pretty fierce monitor tan.

As for Sarah Palin, this is one of those "passing go, moving directly to GO FUCK YOURSELF" moments. How hard is it to simply say, "Our imagery was unfortunate in light of this tragedy and we're sorry" instead of lying and then crying victim? Adding in a megadose of wildy offensive appropriation? Yeah, no.