So, Iceland (my knowledge about which begins and ends with Bjork) is tops on the UNDP’s Human Development Index ranking. Which is pretty cool, except you would have to live in Iceland (this is also the problem with Sweden…suicide, anyone?). But hey, check out this awesomeness: nine months of paid maternity leave to be split between the mom and dad as they choose. YES! Standing O, Iceland!! (Although, granted, it might not be the most workable thing to give Americans nine paid months off every time they successfully knock each other up.)
Another great deal along these lines: Zappos offers its new employees $1,000 to quit on their first day!
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According to James Frey, he never reads what he writes. Explains a lot. Hey, speaking of fad books, can someone tell me why everybody in NYC is currently reading Middlesex? Is this just an amazing example of the collective groupmind at work, or did some cultural icon recently recommend it on a talk show? (Not that anyone listens to me, but if you’re currently working on it, I would suggest you spare yourself and put it down now – especially if it’s the only book you’ll be reading this year.)
Speaking of doing just as others do, let’s all talk about SITC: here, an impressionable young girl first becomes a ho like Samantha, and then a Mormon like her (the girl’s) husband. Hey, whatever’s in front of you…
Related, are civilization and culture in opposition to each other?
The problem is that civilisation needs culture even if it feels superior to it. Its own political authority will not operate unless it can bed itself down in a specific way of life. Men and women do not easily submit to a power that does not weave itself into the texture of their daily existence – one reason why culture remains so politically vital. Civilisation cannot get on with culture, and it cannot get on without it.
(via 3 Quarks Daily)
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Eric Alterman responds to Brink Lindsey’s commentary (which I quoted yesterday):
I feel that libertarianism, as I understand it, is overly concerned with theoretical liberty at the expense of its actual practice. The freedom to starve, to see one’s labor unfairly exploited, to drink polluted water or breath polluted air, are not freedoms I strongly value. And to battle these and others like them, society requires collective institutional action and in many cases, government (or labor union) protection. I’m no fan of “big government” per se–and neither was Dewey. It’s merely that powerful forces like global corporations require powerful forces to balance them.
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Lately, everyone seems to be saying that, while Clinton’s candidacy may have revealed a huge undercurrent of misogyny in our society, it did not actually suffer from this misogyny. That’s as it may be; however, speaking for myself at least, that revealed misogyny is exactly what has surprised and upset me throughout the primaries. I’m very disappointed by all of the openly hostile and condescendingly dismissive talk about Clinton’s campaign, both by men in the media and by guys I know in my own, personal life. I can say the same thing for racism laid bare by Obama’s campaign. Before this primary season, I naively thought that people (in my set, at any rate) had overcome at least the more overt racist and sexist thinking. Turns out, everyone has continued holding all the same racist and sexist opinions all this time – they’ve just learned to mostly keep their mouths shut about it.
Also, according to one of McCain’s advisers, calling Clinton a bitch isn’t misogynist, because, you see, Clinton really is a bitch.
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Negotiating this week: Israel and Syria, Lebanon and Hezbollah…and Pakistan and the Taliban:
Pakistan will pull its troops out of the Swat valley in its Northwest Frontier Province according to an agreement signed today by government negotiators and local Taliban leaders. Local authorities also agreed to enforce Sharia law so long as girls are allowed to attend school and militants do not carry weapons in public.
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Finally, last night I saw Eric Bogosian do a benefit reading for Labyrinth Theater Company of some of his less frequently performed monologues. Eric Bogosian is one of my theatre heroes (I love all monologists, since my dream career involves me talking endlessly to myself, while crowds of people I never have to interact with face-to-face applaud thunderously somewhere out beyond the blaring lights), but I’ve never seen him perform – I’ve just watched whatever DVDs of his solo shows are available, and I’ve read all his stuff. In fact, just recently, I was randomly reading The Essential Bogosian, which includes several of the pieces he performed last night. This is one reason why living in NYC is actually cool – you can actually go see the people you like do the things you like (if you can rip yourself away from your laptop long enough).
