This blog is designed to be a place where ordinary people who also happen to be bloggers can post about issues that are important to them, and be heard by wider audiences. If you write for your own blog or for a group blog, you are more than welcome to crosspost those essays here, but we ask that you use that opportunity to tell your readers “this entry is crossposted at the Independent Bloggers’ Alliance. You are also encouraged to post links to stories written by other contributors here. The fact is, the more we get in the practice of linking to each other, the better it is for all of us.
As far as ideology, I expect that we will be something of a mix of moderate to liberal viewpoints, not necessarily loyal to a particular party. Nobody is their best self all the time, but I expect us to make a genuine effort to treat each other with respect, even when we disagree.
If you'd like to become a contributor, drop me a note at ohiorenee(at)gmail.com.
It's disgusting. No, not Paris Hilton. I'm almost feeling sorry for the besieged bony big-bucks blond bimbo, in spite of myself.
At worst, the spoiled-rotten, hard-partying Ms. Hilton is a boring irritant who can't plummet from the pop culture radar fast enough to suit me. But what I find disgusting is the obsessive Paris Hilton media frenzy that's hijacked TV, newspapers, magazines, and the blogsphere. For the past few weeks, Paris Hilton has found herself in an angry world full of impatient hands that can't wait to cast the first stone, and it needs to stop.
Paris Hilton isn't Public Enemy Number #1. Oh sure, Paris is rich, but this smirking, immature child isn't a part of the moneyed juggernaut that squeezes the lives of poor and middle-income people into ashes, if only because she's too damn lazy. Why should I be pissed off at Paris Hilton? She's not outsourcing jobs, or eliminating medical benefits. Paris goes to parties, gets drunk, and performs in hazy, dimly-lit pornographic videos that "accidently" wind up on the internet. However, it wasn't the silver-spooned heiress who, for example, ripped off the life savings of the loyal employees who worked for Enron, was it? It was the late Ken Lay, and the old dead crook didn't get a fraction of the media attention that Paris does on a daily basis.
Please, folks, let's have some perspective. I think it's important to know who our real enemies are, and not waste our time, energy, and oxygen on the wrong targets. Hopefully, the rabid talking heads of Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and other news media outlets will get the memo.
I think it is becoming harder and harder for Bush to find folks to do his dirty work. I can't keep track of the scandals nor the tangled web of indictments, subpoenas, convictions, appeals, hearings, charges, investigations and trials. With an approval rate of 28%, the Republicans in Congress are starting to see the anchor around their neck from the USS BushCo. Bullies tend not to maintain long-term friendships.
I fail to understand why the privileged still believe the law doesn't apply to them. I see Paris Hilton as how Bush probably was in his 20's - a whiny, white, rich brat expecting the rules and the law not to apply to them.
Artist Note: Every time I write a series, it tends to morph along the way because I always try to tie today's events into the storyline. I can be difficult at times since I usually will have written the story months before it is published. Today is such a morph. I can't believe Paris Hilton is begging her fans to ask the Governator for a reprieve. Good grief.
There are some rich people out there who have a huge savings account of undeserved good fortune. Now, they’re not always evil, stupid, vulgar or mean-spirited. But they are incredibly annoying. It's like you're being tormented by an itch you can't reach because you're tied up in a straitjacket.
For me, the latest itch that won't go away is the fake “actress” and tall blonde skinny corporate pimp Paris Hilton. Oh God, please make it go away.
Because life isn't fair, Ms. Hilton is a rich and famous celebrity whose ego happily spins in a narcissistic orbit around the planet “Paris”. I know she's a big Star because I keep seeing her on magazine covers, TV and movies. There she is, aggressively promoting a new perfume, movie cameo, DWI arrest, an upcoming appearance on Letterman, or a pornographic video of herself leaked on the internet.
As much as I hate to admit it, although it looks like Paris isn’t doing anything, she really is working very hard.
Do you know what Paris Hilton’s real job is?
No, it's not parading semi-naked in front of a camera with that hateful, “Yeah, I know you want to fuck me” smile on her face. What Hilton and the other empty-headed, toothpick aliens from Barbie World work hard at is making women who don't look like them feel bad. And it's a job they're very good at, too.
Hollywood is a funhouse mirror that reflects distorted images of the real world and the people who live in it. But, in the majority of the movies and television shows, there’s a cruel double standard where men aren’t defined as unrealistically as women are. In short, guys can get away with being slobs and still have a career.
John C. Reilly, Billy Bob Thornton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Paul Giamatti, and Steve Buscemi can get away with being regular-looking guys. Unfortunately, Hollywood’s idea of a “regular-looking” woman is to put Uma Thurman in raggedy jeans and an oversized sweater wearing Clark Kent’s glasses. For women, “average-looking” is code for “ugly”.
Too fat? Crooked teeth? Nappy hair? Big nose? What to do? Well, how about botox, yo-yo dieting, plastic surgery, humiliating boot camp exercise programs or shoving a finger down your throat to vomit up breakfast? Huh? You still don’t look like Paris Hilton? Jeez, what an ugly loser you are.
Is it any wonder comedian Margaret Cho, who powerfully dramatized her struggles with self-esteem in I’m The One That I Want, decided to save her life and stop listening to the toxic, soul-destroying propaganda ?
“I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me. And it has nothing to do with what I look like really, it is just that I gave myself the power to say that I am beautiful, and if I could do that, maybe there is hope for them too. And the great divide between the beautiful and the ugly will cease to be. Because we are all what we choose.”
I think the only thing left for women to do who aren’t anorexic freaks is just start whispering to that stranger in the mirror, “I‘m beautiful, damn it!” and get really pissed off at anybody who foolishly tries to tell you otherwise. Do you hear me, Paris? Or, as Miss Piggy so wonderfully put it, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.”
