Shipwrecked & Comatose

Because I can't just post dumb things that pop into my head on FB anymore. What is the deal with designers making winter coats with no zippers or buttons?  How can a coat keep you warm if you can't close it?  Don't put so much effort into making sure you are happy after you die that you forget to live. It appears the tax cuts have made their way to my paycheck.  I'm not immune to feeling happy to seeing an extra $30 in there, but I have to wonder what the country is sacrificing for that:  Roads and bridges? Transportation?  A living wage for military families and benefits for veterans? Education?  Support for the disabled?  Support for the elderly?  Support for children?  I'm scared.  (This is what it means to be a liberal, folks.  I actually care about other people rather than just caring about what's in it for me.) What's up with people calling themselves "Bible-believing Christians?"  Is this to separate themselves f...

 I published this years ago on my old MySpace blog (clearly prior to 2008 when you look at my comment on Presidents' Day).  I wanted to save it for the archives when I shut that blog down.  I realized I never reposted it.  The time is now. So today I read an interesting bulletin about racism from one of my MySpace friends. The gist of the piece was how unfair it is to use words like "hillbilly" or "cracker" or "gringo" regarding white people with no repercussions, but it's racist to use the n-word. The piece dares to ask why it's not wrong to have black student unions and black history month and display black pride, but why it's racist to have white student unions or say that you're proud of being white. I'll answer that bulletin first by defining racism. A great definition I learned in Sociology 101 was that Racism=Prejudice+Power. Prejudice is the exclusion or stereotyping or classifying by people's color or religion. ...

The fitness industry comes under heavy criticism for the way it feeds off women's insecurities. The fitness media machine makes women feel inadequate as if there is something defective about their bodies that needs to be fixed.  It preys on the way women tie their self esteem to how they look. It sets up and reinforces and impossible beauty standards.  We know all of this. I have another beef with the fitness industry.  I don't like the way it hits women in the wallet.  Fitness program marketers set up expectations for what women can do about their bodies.  Then it finds a hundred new ways to make them pay for it. Let's imagine a woman, just an ordinary American woman, whom I'll call Sally. Sally needs a lifestyle update.  She has become a couch potato.  She orders takeout for dinner most nights and it's not the kind of takeout that provides optimal nutrition.  She notices she has been gaining weight lately, but isn't motivated to do too muc...