Woman hating of a strange new scale

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Last evening, very stupidly, I clicked on a Yahoo story called "The Best and Worst Summer Barbecue Foods. I'm not sure why I did this, but it's possible that I was lured in by the photo of a hot dog. It's also possible that I was temporarily inhabited by pod people....

It explained that hot dogs are better than burgers because there are fewer calories, and the portion size is predetermined for you. It should have been a warning when I came across the sentence "And if you're among the half of Americans who slather their hamburger buns with mayo..."Because apparently, mayonnaise is an evil super villain food that will kill you in your sleep.

Oh, but it gets worse. They continue to tell you to "eat this, not that." In fact, apparently the writer has a whole book with that title, devoted to telling you that you're a stupid, fat piece of shit, and only his book will save you from eternal damnation. Charming, ne?

The last paragraph starts off offensively enough with "If you absolutely must cave in and eat something sweet, choose an ice-cream sandwich." Ok, fair enough, I like ice-cream sandwiches, cuz, you know, who doesn't? But still, I wasn't aware that that was a personal failing.

The food that you absolutely must avoid, though, is apple pie. At this point I'll just quote, because it's so unbelievable.

Don’t be fooled by the wholesome association with "mom." Think "Eve," instead, and eternal damnation. The crust that holds those innocent apple slices is fashioned from lard and refined flour, and the fruit floats in a thick ooze of sugar sludge. Pie has more calories than an 8 oz sirloin and more sugar than most candy bars — and that’s not even counting that big scoop of vanilla ice cream you’re likely to flop next to the slice.

Um.....yeah.....

Eternal damnation from pie. Eating pie is akin to the acts of that terrible whore-ible creature Eve, whose feminine failing made us all fat.

Or something.

Also, what the hell kind of pie is this guy encountering?? Lard in a crust? I'm sure that somewhere that has happened, but who bakes with lard these days? I wouldn't even know where to buy lard if I had to!! Also, "thick ooze of sugary sludge"? I don't think I've ever eaten a pie filled with oozing sludge.

So, um, yeah, I'm wishing death on this "writer." The comment section is gross, with all sorts of people claiming to be enlightened by this shit, but one user gets the Kat stamp of approval. She or He says:

One more stupid article by the fat police. Get lost! I'll eat what I want. I'm 85 and nothing will hurt me much.

Thank you, anonymous Yahoo user. You are actually a reasonable human in a sea of stupidity.

User John, however, needs to be hit over the head with a roll of organic, locally made goat cheese made from the milk of grass fed goats, containing a zillion yummy, delicious calories:

Any article that shows food choices and their respective calories and fat is a good article. Americans need education about the foods they eat. The more they know about what they're eating, the easier it will be to make good food choices. Keep articles like this coming!

Um, education? How is comparing desert to original sin education? Moron.

I haven't found any way to contact the authors of the article, in order to lay on some criticisms.

I have more to say about body issues and such, and will do that shortly...
Happy Sunday! Eat some pie!

Template Changes

Friday, July 25, 2008

I'm messing around with templates and colors....Please let me know what you like and what you don't. In general, I really liked my old template, but it always bugged me that there were those huge, hot-pink stripes on the sides.

I'd love to have something interesting and creative, that doesn't look like the general Blogger templates.....thoughts?

bored.....

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Day three of sitting on my ass in the reception office of the school where I work......soooo bored....
There's construction going on in the office upstairs, which means lots of dust and noise, which means my throat, nose and head are unhappy. There's almost no one around, just a couple of administrators' underlings, and no actual work for me to do. Basically, I'm being paid to wait for the phone to ring.
If you're in the area, and are free around lunch time, come entertain me! Please?!

Update to this morning's post

Monday, July 21, 2008

Senator Hillary Clinton has written a petition against the Health and Human Services Department attempt to call birth control abortion. She's written an article about it, which you can read at Huffington Post and RH Reality Check.
Here's the petition:
http://www.hillpac.com/action/hhspetition/

They want to do what? How? Are you sure?

Friday, July 18, 2008

I've been trying to write about this for days, but I keep getting stuck because I don't know how to spell "ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHSSSSHHHTTTTTRRRRAAAAUUUGGHH!!!!!"...you know, that thing that Macauly Culkin did in Home Alone?

Because it seems that the Department of Health and Human services wants to change the labeling for contraceptives. They want to classify hormonal birth control as.....wait for it....wait for it....abortion!

Yes, the Bush administration's trained chimps, I mean minions, I mean idiots...oh well, I'll just go on...are trying to say that contraception is the same as abortion. "What thar fook?" You ask?
This same group, on its website today, released the results of study showing that the birth rate among teenagers is increasing. And yet they want to get rid of birth control.

I know, right, this sounds so ridiculous? Why on earth would they do such a thing?

The answer: So that they can remove contraception from the list of things that get federal funding. Among other things. Like making sure that pharmacists don't have to go against "their conciences" by allowing other people to live their lives the way they choose.

The other question is how. How on earth would they manage it?

The answer: By claiming that life begins at conception (fertilization) and therefore all fertilized eggs are people too.

Here's the thing. The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists both contend that pregnancy begins with implantation, that is, when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Basically, so does the rest of science. It's impossible to test when an egg has been fertilized, and not only that, but a large number of fertilized eggs never implant, whether or not contraception is involved. Something like 50% of all fertilized eggs never turn into pregnancies. Some studies say that as many as 80 % of all fertilized eggs never implant. Therefore, claiming that fertilization is the beginning of life is ridiculous, since in so many cases, fertilization doesn't lead to pregnancy.

That's kind of beside the point, though. The people supporting this argument don't care about science. The Bush administration has shown over and over that it doesn't care about science, and this is no different. It's something that affects so many of us, though, that we can't let it happen.

Here's the insult to add to the injury:
http://www.hhs.gov/faq/policies/civilrights/95.html
It's where the HHS tells you what to do if you think you've been discriminated against based on gender or sex!!! Um, you mean like your policy that screws over women and takes them back to the dark ages??

Here are a couple of links to letter writing campaigns against this decision:

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/17/tell-secretary-leavitt-block-new-hhs-regulations-contraception

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/newsroom/press-releases/proposed-hhs-rule-would-compromise-womens-health-21514.htm


Here are some more coherent, better researched write ups of this horrendous plan:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cristina-page/the-dog-whistlers-the-on_b_75995.html

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/15/hhs-moves-define-contraception-abortion

And some information on how pregnancy happens (heheh...not that kind of info, silly!)
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/04/how-pregnancy-happens/

More Beaker for your pleasure

Thursday, July 17, 2008

It seems that the most popular part of the Muppets 4th of July song was Beaker. Beaker rocks, so I'll further amuse you with more.

This time, Beaker takes a more serious, classical turn. Beethoven has never sounded so good:



Neither has Bizet:



Enjoy your Thursday, and thanks to Celeste for sending me these!!!

E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma.....update

Saturday, July 12, 2008

What I said on Saturday night:
Just back from Berkeley Opera's Tosca. Considering that I don't like Puccini, and can only barely stand Tosca, it was pretty awesome. Must go start on the review now....I'll be back in 36 hours, when I'm done!
Today: I managed to finish my article early, and under the maximum number or words, so yay! And it looks like the editing was done sparingly this time....sometimes the end result is very different from what I actually write....

If you're a Bay Area person, I recommend seeing Tosca. Despite her 1st act hairdo, which is totally horrible. I don't remember why I forgot to mention it in my piece....oh well. With the hat they made her wear, the hair probably didn't fit any other way...

Oh, and Ariodante was a bit uneven, but mostly fantastic. Susan Graham sang her despair aria while curled in a ball on the floor, facing away from the audience. She let out some of the most incredible singing I've ever heard......