Yearly Archives: 2003

“Get thee to a nunnery!”

Film

From Miramax Films:

The Magdalene Sisters, an unflinching and compelling emotional drama, charting several years in the young lives of four “fallen women” who were rejected by their families and abandoned to the mercies of the Catholic Church in 1960s Ireland. While women’s liberation is sweeping the globe [I wish!], these women are stripped of their liberty and dignity and condemned to indefinite sentences of servitude in the Magdalene Launderies in order to atone for their “sins.” The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed in 1996, and only since has the true horror of conditions in these institutions begun to emerge.

Arr! What’s your pirate name?

Fun

As you can tell, I’m going through a Pirates of the Caribbean “thing” right now. It’s like my 11 year old self has taken over. Anyway, I found a rather fun quiz that asks you a bunch of questions then finds your pirate name for you. Here’s what I found out about me:

Your pirate name is:

Dirty Jenny Flint

You’re the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean — not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you’re hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you’re easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Proof of my sad sense of humor

Politics

So, Larry Flynt is going to run for governor of California, is he?

I find this funny because:

1. I’d LOVE to see cheap-labor conservative Issa’s face if his bid to oust Gray Davis led to Flynt coming into power…ha! ha!

and

2. I’ll be far away in Michigan the day of the election, celebrating my birthday and pretending I don’t know any of you weird Californians.

Cheap-labor Conservatives

Politics

Oooh, Deb’s going to love this one: Defeat the right in three minutes.

Be sure to read it all the way through. The argument may seem oversimplified, but it provides a lever to achieve some really astute observations. The author’s weblog takes the discussion further.

If you’ve ever found it difficult to understand the behavior of Cheap-Labor Conservatives (and I have), this may just shed some light.

Oh to live on “O” . . .

Literature

All hail Ursula K LeGuin, one of this (and last) century’s foremost writers. If you haven’t read any of her work yet, you should!

LeGuin’s (later*) work tells the truth with clever lies that strip western social norms to their roots in order to better shake the tree. You’ll never look at the world in the same way.

(*Interestingly enough LeGuin started as a fairly conservative Sci Fi writer.)

Then, when you’ve cut your teeth on that, you can move on to Octavia Butler . . .