some miscellanea:
an update on the sex slave thing from the NYTimes magazine on Sunday. Apparently people have been outraged by it. Not outraged by the idea of sex slaves per se, but outraged at the author of the article, Peter Landesman. Various commentators are accusing him of making some of it up ala Stephen Glass. I will admit that the article left me angry and frustrated and wondering why the author offered no suggestions for improving this dire situation he so vividly portrays. But at no point did I wonder whether it could actually be true. Of course his numbers might be wrong, how accurately can the illegal importation of sex slaves be tracked? But even if the problem exists on a much smaller scale than this article claims, it is still hideous and reprehensible and deserving of our attention. Yet the critical response has been mostly to attack the journalistic integrity of the author. Some of the criticisms are fair and made me realize that the piece did in fact have an exploitive edge to it (especially the cover of the mag). But no one seems to want to address the larger issues raised by the article, perhaps because they are simply too depressing and disproving some of Landesman's larger, possibly unfounded, claims may serve to let us off the hook collectively. I suspect that were it an article about even a single middle class American girl being kept as a sex slave the response would be quite different ala the public fascination with Elizabeth Smart and Jon Benet Ramsey. Here's the most recent Slate column; tell me if I'm wrong.
On a more amusing note:
I bring you the Dixie Chicks With Dicks. They don't seem to have a homepage yet, but I look forward to their first tour.
Also, "imaginary girlfriends" are now all the rage on Ebay. Prices range from ten bucks to upwards of four hundred. "Blonde with hot hooters" is at $202.50 at the moment. Someone please offer me some sociological insight on this. Or, if you prefer, design your own imaginary girlfriend, or boyfriend, for our mutual amusement. I'll try, but it may make me cry.
Finally, some politics: this is an interesting little animated thing featuring the guy from Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream using Oreos to explain the national budget and how it could be changed in small ways to make our country and the world better and more just. It's from the folks at true majority. Their site is worth checking out.
