Month of May , 2005

Let me be clear: I love MoveOn.org. I am thrilled at the ways they've found to mobilize people through the Internet. But somehow, when they mess with popular culture, they come off as just incredibly lame. The first time was when they suggested that we could use the awful movie The Day After Tomorrow as an opportunity to raise awareness about global warming. Why they'd even want to be associated with that piece of dreck is beyond me -- especially when the Right is doing its damnedest to discredit the science behind global warming. Why on (a rapidly warming) Earth would you interject Hollywood schlock-science into the debate?

Anyway, now MoveOn has come to us with a new hope: that Lucas' latest blockbuster (which I'm going to be seeing tomorrow) about a Senator who, "seduced by a dark vision", seizes power and transforms a democratic republic into a nightmare vision of fascism and unfriendly aesthetics. Their latest effort, Save the Republic, is a TV ad using familiar Star Wars imagery to present Sen. Frist as the Dark Emperor leading an army of robotic judges (which they call "clones" -- come on people, this isn't rocket science!) set on destroying the "fabled order" of peace and justice upheld and protected by our "fair judges".

Oy.

The project has a kind of geek charm, I suppose, but is this really going to galvanize anyone? Do we really want a movie which, if the last 2 (or, really, the last 5) are any indication of the quality of the new one, will be filled with stilted dialogue, shoddy science, and an incredibly unsubtle approach to politics (let alone the nature of evil) to be our entry in a debate which, however it ends up, will have lasting repercussions on the state of governance in the United States for decades to come? C'mon, MoveOn: changing the nomination process is Bad News, and demonstrably so -- is Lucas' fantasyland vision of politics really our best argument?!

There's an eye thing. Lauren at Feministe picked it up from Rana at Frogs and Ravens who caught it from jo(e) at jo(e)'s page. "Let's see your eyes," they all said. Well, here's an eye:

Interestingly, the real colour of my eyes (mostly green, but not the neon lime green you can make out in places in this picture) does not appear in this image. I took this with my new Canon Powershot A95 (well, it was new a couple months ago when I took the picture), a gift to myself and a commitment to get more serious about photography, which I seem (when I'm feeling especially generous to myself) to have some small talent in. You know the drill -- you get a new camera, it's all set up and ready to go, but it's 2 in the morning and what are you gonna photograph? Hmmm, wonder how good this macro function is? Let's just get that really close to my eye and *bang* whoa, let's try that again without the flash. OK, look at the screen... hmmm, that's boring. But boring pics is why the Powers That Very Likely Do Not Be gave us Photoshop! A little too much saturation here, a lot of desaturation there, burn that in, dodge that out, clone stamp a bit around this area, crop like so, and presto-chango -- the frightening, 1984-esque image above.

According to Google, this site is the #1 site on the web for one on one man to man sex. Suck on that, Rick Santorum!

And Mama always said I wouldn't amount to nuthin'!

Some weeks ago, the B-Log referenced some comments I'd made on the Anthro-L listserv in an excellent post on -->

I am now group blogging with the other Savage Minds over at Savage Minds. I'm not sure whether I will be cross-posting my posts to both blogs or what, so for now, keep an eye on both spaces. And be sure to check out the other Savages there with me!

Some time ago, Burningbird gave the -->