Breaking the Airwave Silence November 4, 2008

So, I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting as much. I kind of got election fatigue – thousands of posts a day about omg McCain said this and Obama did that and Palin is an idiot and Biden had a face lift can be really draining. However, today is the last (hopefully last?) day of all that, as by this time tomorrow we should know who is the next President-elect.

Should know. That is, if the countless reports of vote tampering, roll purging, defective machines, Bradley effects, long lines, Republican misinformation about polling dates, and the forces of Satan himself don’t come to fruition. But hey – I’m not worried. Don’t worry about me, as long as Obama wins. If he doesn’t, I may need to retreat to an undisclosed location for some time.

Of course, lots of things have happened since I last posted. Sarah Palin got punk’d, Obama put out a long infomercial, everybody and their sibling has been on SNL, Elizabeth Hasselbeck has been idioting it up over on The View, and conservatives at my school are whining because they feel underappreciated. If I even attempted to cover all that, it would be ridiculous (plus, you know, all the important things that I left out). So here’s what I’m going to do.

Links Round-Up! October 23, 2008

I don’t feel like typing a lot today, as I have a midterm to study for and a mouse bite on my finger to nurse (yes, for serious. Yes, it hurt quite a bit. Yes, I’m milking it for all it’s worth). So, here’s some recommendations on some of the topics being bandied about the blogosphere today:

• The incomparable David Sedaris on the election:
  

  To put [undecided voters] in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

  To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Post And A Half October 11, 2008

What’s new, cyber-denizens? I have about eleventy-50 articles and posts bookmarked for suitable blog posts, as I haven’t written anything substantive in days. However, I have several days of Fall Break ahead of me, with nothing to do but luxuriate in the awesomeness of home-cooked food and fuzzy puppies, so I expect to make up for lost time.

So, let’s see – the debate. A lot of people I’ve talked to agree that it was ridiculously boring, but lots of people also feel that McCain made a complete fool of himself, what with wandering around during Obama’s speeches, making faces, being overly condescending to the audience members, and the infamous “That one”. Most polls agree that Obama won, which is good – not that most debates have an objective winner, but if people think a certain candidate won, it’s because they like that one better, so that’s good. Alternet has, as with the first presidential debate, short essays by six different people on who won the debate and why.

It really is breathtaking to take in the magnitude of McCain’s lies – both in the debate and in other venues, like ads and rallies.

Miscellanea October 6, 2008

Sorry, peeps, but ’tis the midterm season again, so no insightful postage today. But as I can certainly identify with your (perhaps imagined on my part) near-constant pursuit of erudition and greater procrastination material, I will link to some more good articles from the past few days.

This is becoming a pattern, isn’t it? Ah well. Tomorrow I will, of course, be liveblogging the second presidential debate, in which McCain will probably just come right out and ask Obama if his SSN starts with 666, and I will cry.

No time for categories today! We shall post these links WILLY-NILLY, with NO REGARD for alphabetizing, subject matter-izing, or conveniencizing!

• Another study confirms the wage gap and unequal treatment given to men and women in the workplace, but in an interesting way: they interviewed transgendered people before and after transitioning, and catalogued the differences in the treatments. While I would be the last to argue that trans people don’t face discrimination (duh), it is interesting that merely transitioning produced at least some of the societal benefits or disadvantages inherent in each gender, in spite of previous socialization and any other bigotry directed towards them.

• This explains the vomitous speeches I’ve been hearing from McCain and Co. all day – cognizant of the fact that he cannot beat Obama on his policies, especially economy-wise, he has blatantly resolved to focus on “character attacks” – i.e. racism, xenophobia, and [insert your favorite type of bigotry here].The sad part is that this will undoubtedly be effective, at least for some people.

Feminist Book Review: The Mismeasure of Woman October 5, 2008

So, I just finished this book I’ve been reading for a while: The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not The Better Sex, The Inferior Sex, Or The Opposite Sex, by Carol Tavris.

The title is, I believe, a play on words as Stephen Jay Gould published a book called “The Mismeasure of Man”, a critique of the belief that all differences in society between different classes, races, sexes, etc. arose from purely biological factors. The allusion is apt, as Tavris’ book is largely concerned with debunking the biologically deterministic view that men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, or that women are gentle nurturers and men are fierce warriors, or [insert outdated and reductionist stereotype here].

Follow-Ups October 4, 2008

So, a day and a half after the Debate to End all Debates, the group consensus* seems to be that Palin did wonderfully in the eyes of conservatives (especially male ones who admitted to being a bit turned on by her performance; via), and not as awful as most liberals thought she would, as long as you don’t take things like facts into account. I think the flow chart below accurately summarizes the liberal viewpoint, though I wish it had incorporated “contrived folksiness” or “deliberate mentions of the word ‘nucular’ “:

Shameless Linkage October 2, 2008

So, this week’s crunch is over, to be followed by a slightly smaller crunch in the beginning of next week. But for now, I am scot-free! So expect bloggage out the wazoo – most notably tonight, where as last week Experience will debate The Fresh Face of Change.  Only this time, it’s reversed. It promises to be awesome.

Of course, while I have been neglecting my no-doubt faithful readers, many others in the blogosphere have not, so with your indulgence, I’d like to link to a bunch of posts from the past week or so that I’ve found very illuminating, insightful, surprising, or worthwhile, for your general edification. I realize that this is somewhat lazy on my part, and I will start writing my own things momentarily, but I really want to give props to some of the bloggers out there, and also point out these posts that some people will undoubtedly not have read.

Drumroll, please…

Debatage: Tell Me More! September 27, 2008

For perhaps a more balanced and erudite yet still liberal take, Alternet has a good article that has commentary from 6 different people on what they felt the different candidates’ strengths were, where they each screwed up, and ultimately (because it’s Alternet) how Obama won.

Greg Laden’s Blog discusses how polling results favor Obama as well .

(to be updated as/if I find more good links)