Coding Body Parts as Patriotic

So my professor for my Politics of Fashion class clued me into the following link - I admit it is pretty crass (rhymes with brass!).

The site American Brass Balls sells, well, brass replicas of testicles. But it is how they signify these metal testicles that interests me: "Having American Brass Balls means 'We've Got What It Takes' to: Defeat Terrorism and those who promote it; Defend our Homeland; Show Courage and Determination in the face of adversity."

The sentiment of having "balls" is cliche, but here it has been recoded (and commodified into a disturbingly realistic product) to address the fear of terrorism present in our culture over the past five years. While the site insists that brass balls are for both men and women, it seems to me the site and its shiny products are somehow unable to avoid masculinist associations.

It Takes All Kinds of Critters to Make Farmer Vincent's Fritters

So I'm watching Motel Hell right now - one of the only reasons I have actually loved owning a television with cable for the past year is the happy fortuity that is finding crappy movies you haven't seen for over a decade. It's no 1970s or early 80s, gorgeously taught DePalma flick P (as split screens from Sisters, Blow Out, and Dressed to Kill dance through my head)- this I will admit.

Made in 1980, the film cornily constructs a nexus of late 20th century anxieties about food production and consumption, police authority, and the decline of morals in our culture. Like most mainstream horror flicks, the film reinforces - in not so subtle ways - expectations of middle-class propriety. In other words, the aged swingers, the skanks that contract social diseases from ski instructors, and the nomadic, drugged-out rockers (including "Cliff Claven" - John Ratzenberger - as the drummer) are the ones who get chewed up (literally and figuratively) by the masses for straying too far from the herd. Soylent green is the people you say? Actually, they're just beef jerky. Makes you look twice at a Slim Jim, eh?

Scary Spam Proves Inextricability Between Sex and Death

Now I know that most spam is generated by non-human actors these days, but the message I received this morning was especially frightening, so I thought I would share. Most unsettling juxtaposition of lines? Recognizing when to pull the trigger because some kind of excellence is within reach. Was this spam generated by some sort of Mark David Chapman bot? Sheesh.

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Brunette Teen Fucked Anal Hardcore18yo Blue Eyed Beauty With Piercing Poses In Thong
Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.She poured a little social sewage into his ears.

http://--------------------------

Next in importance to having a good aim is to recognize when to pull the trigger.Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.
We fail far more often by timidity than by over-daring.There are two perfectly good men, one dead, and the other unborn.Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

I Can Be Serious Too... Sometimes? Okay, at least this once?

I suppose my entries up until now haven't revealed that I can actually take some things seriously. On August 31, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus newspaper, The Daily Illini (DI) published an editorial by John Bambenek, who argued (often illogically and mostly inflammatorily) labor unions are a relic of the past. He constructed an idealized, paternalistic relationship between the university and its employees to suggest the university knows what its employees need in terms of compensation and benefits. I wrote a reply and the DI actually published my response (in print and online):

In John Bambenek's column "Unions: A Relics of the past, taxpayer frustration" Bambenek makes several value judgments about what is "not a bad wage" for teaching assistants and how "difficult" or "hard" living should be expected while one is a graduate employee, since it is not "impossible" to live.

Acting much like large employers, Bambenek forgets a fundamental purpose for the existence of labor unions: it is not for one person - like John - or one side of labor - like the University - to determine the value of labor or what conditions and benefits employees can live on, either comfortably or difficultly. Labor unions like the Graduate Employee's Organization argue instead that employers and employees should be able to negotiate in a productive dialogue, with mutual respect on both sides of the table, what the conditions and benefits of employment should be. An employment contract that has been agreed upon by both sides ensures fairness and transparency of process to all those involved and it guarantees enforceability of the conditions laid out in the contract as well. Without such a contract, employers like the University will continue to make often uninformed and arbitrary one-sided value judgments about what its graduate employees need to be able to support themselves and their families.