Makes you wonder about McDonald's French Fries

I saw this video and the french fries were disturbing. I wonder if they coat them in plastic? By the way, I really enjoy Morgan Spurlock. Everything I have seen that he has done has been interesting and thought-provoking.

Hopeless hopeful

When I read articles like this one from The Sacramento Bee, it almost makes me think Hilary Clinton has a snowball's chance in Hades to become the next president. I would LOVE to see a woman in the oval office. It almost doesn't matter which woman it is. Clinton is smart, savvy, and after all the hubbub about her husband's fling...she still came out looking good. (Anyone hear the echoes of "Stand by your Man"...?)

But somehow I think if the candidate's looks play into this, and they seem to count...Mitt Romney looks like one of the most photogenic of them all. What about Edwards, though? Now that I think of it, I don't recall his name brought up once in the article. Strangely disturbing. No photo, either. Why not put him on as running mate for H.R. Clinton? A Clinton / Edwards ticket would be one I'd like to see. Or maybe Clinton / Obama? Or maybe not?

What candidate will come out of the woodwork for the Republicans? I don't like Romney's recent press mutterings, but he was gov of Massachusetts, which already gives him some punch, so to speak.

I guess I am just so depressed about the whole presidential race--as long as the candidate is not ultra-religious or ultra-weird, I guess I can live with it. I'm resigned. After all, have you seen who we have for P and VP right now? No wonder I am feeling hopeless.

Ad-nonsense?

Funny, I was looking at my site today and all the Google ads were showing links for Muslims, hijab, head scarves, etc. They must have picked up some choice words from my earlier post. I'm not Muslim. But you might thnk I was by virtue of Google's "Ad Sense"....perhaps I need to blog more about sex, food, books, Harry Potter? They call it Freedom of Speech, but I think advertising shapes the speech in conventional, popular directions.

Really.

Oh yeah, we saw the film Ratatouille this weekend. Lotta fun. Take the kids.

Sex sells, almost everything

Okay the video by Obama Girl is catchy, sexy, and a creative way to put Obama's name on the lips of every young teenage male between here and Poughkeepsie. But will it actually backfire?

I think it will do as much to mobilize the religious right who believe that putting a non-white person in the White House is like rebuilding Sodom and Gomorrah. Yeah, it's sexy. Yeah, it's appealing to youth.

But who goes out and votes these days, anyway? The decrepit conservatives who have been sitting in a fundamentalist church half their lives. If you think Obama Girl is going to shake up the election--it will, but for the other side.

I'm reasonably liberal, but I see it as bad planning / bad strategizing. What else is new for the Democratic Party these days?

Religious Freedom?

A Muslim woman has filed a discrimination suit against a national chain of jewelry stores, alleging that she was "enthusiastically" recruited to return to work at a Fairfield shop in 2006 but then turned away after managers saw she had begun to wear a head scarf. --The Bee

While I don't argue with the right of this woman to wear her scarf, I think it's within the employer's right to set a dress code. Whether it's right or wrong, there *is* a perception that a head scarf on a woman, whether it is a Muslim or a Pentecostal, signifies a fanatic. No one wants to do business with a fanatic, and rightfully so.

Fanatics bomb clinics, shoot doctors, blow up schools, take out innocent people in the name of whatever religion or creed they are infected with.

I might think twice about buying jewelry (which I rarely do anyway) from a woman in a head scarf, from a man with a huge crucifix hanging around his neck, from a person with a red tilaka on the forehead, and from a person wearing anything that might make me pause. I suppose that includes the fashions of today.

When a person is going in to buy jewelry, it usually involves a lot of money. Standard business attire (which traditionally doesn't include a burqa--at least not in the US) would be preferable when large sums of money cross hands.

You're asking for a buyer's trust when you work in sales. Unfortunately, cultural stereotypes are often automatic. The sale might be lost on a momentary lapse of trust.

I DO think the young woman has the right to wear her head scarf anywhere. But I also honor the right of the employer to think of his or her business needs. Jobs are not guaranteed. You're not entitled to a job just because you used to work there, etcetera. I think this young woman decided to make a point and become a mascot of sorts for ending the blatant stereotyping and discrimination that American Muslims have been subjected to historically.

Does it mean it's right? I think the court will have to sort this one out. Meanwhile, I, as a pretty open-minded person, am offended on some level that this has become such an issue. I must be getting more conservative and less idealistic.

Find a job where the public contact is not affected by traditional cultural or religious dress. Telemarketing, or somewhere else...? Certainly analytical jobs don't require specific appearance protocol. Just show up and use your head.