Poor mosquitoes? Poor the thousands of people who die from malaria ever year.

And Briannana is a perfect example of why movies like I Am Legend are so seriously dumb.

I've been outraged about it for years, Crosberg (the force feeding), and I frequently bring it up when people are poo-pooing the idea that our society has an unnatural fetish for thinness.

It's a perfect example of our subjective standards of beauty really are, and also how societies that privilege men will always find ways to repress women. It's telling that so many of the modifications done to women are done from an early age, when consent is really not something they can give. It's hard to be "aware" or social pressure, too, since it acts on you from the moment you're born. That raises interesting issues of consent in its own way.

I'm not suggesting that women who do elect to undergo FGM (I am aware that there are women who do this, since their lives are made more difficult socially if they don't) don't have agency. They do. They have rational reasons for undergoing the procedure. But it is still risky and often damaging. It's the result of a society that provides few opportunities for women (girls have it done to them/elect to do it to find husbands, and the women who perform the procedure are usually elderly widows using improvised tools).

I know it sounds unfair for Westerners to judge the practice, but it is by and large done to young girls who can't consent, and that should be universally frowned upon. Of course, simply banning the practice causes it to become less safe. The real solution is expanding opportunities to women where the procedure(s) are common-such as in Egypt, where up to 96% of girls and women have their genitals cut in some way or another.

I could have gone the rest of my life not knowing that. =__=

WAS it dumped from an aquarium? I mean... these animals did start somewhere. It's not like the fish minds being in a lake, and unless he's disrupting the local ecosystem, I don't see how it's an issue.

And my disgust comes merely from the lack of creativity in jokes about "sensitive vegetarians."

Guess who's tired of the "plants can't run" joke!?

Ugh... as a vegetarian, let me tell you, it has nothing to do with the ability of animals to feel things like pain. It has to do with the fact that Americans consume too much meat, and that means that we have to have these huge "factory farms" (a term I hate to use, but it's apt) that often pollute local waterways, destroying local ecosystems and making people sick.

That's why I'm a vegetarian. Meat is tasty, and great, but it's ridiculous that people think it needs to be the centerpiece of every meal.

WANT!

It is weird to drink milk from an animal, but have you paid attention to nature lately? That's really the least unusual kind of symbiosis I can think of.

The more I learn about these disorders the more I realize how much of our functionality we take for granted, and how painfully average I really am.

I'm not going to sing the praises of Lie to Me, but they did make one very good point on the show: even if you can tell that someone is lying, you don't necessarily know why.

Actual, incontrovertible evidence will always be preferable to interrogating human beings, who are notoriously bad at remembering things accurately.

Good riddance, indeed! Long live Movietime video! : D

Maybe they're not a barbershop quartet, but it's like four or so guys standing around singing. You can hear them for blocks, which is saying something, since there's a lot of traffic in that area.

I was going to say some panhandlers/street performers. Maybe a cellist? We have a barbershop quartet that performs at the MAX/streetcar intersection in Portland every day at a certain time.

My only gripe is that I would get claustrophobic in such spaces. =/

Ugh. Can we move on? The nineties were great and all, but do we have to keep living in them? MAKE SOMETHING NEW!

Mike Judge has incredible talent. I want to see him use it.