The way Citizens United was decided offers extra proof that US conservatives are fully aware that they will not be able to convince the majority of citizens to vote for them and will now have to rely exclusively on buying the elections.

What the 2012 elections demonstrated is that even the power to invest unprecedented amounts of money into the elections will not make the ultra-conservative agenda attractive to the majority.

What we will see in the nearest future is the growing irrelevance of the ultra-conservative agenda and the attendant hysteria of characters like Limbaugh and Beck.

What we will see in a couple of decades is a society where being against reproductive rights, gay marriage or health insurance for all will be as unacceptable as it is to be pro-slavery today.

Thanks go to Rob F for bringing the linked article here.

I was not in the least surprised to read the following:

Actress Kate Winslet was actually so embarrassed about having a C-section for her first child that she lied about it:

When she celebrated the birth of her first baby, she hailed the joys of natural childbirth. But now, four years on, Kate Winslet has admitted she lied – her daughter Mia was delivered by emergency Caesarean section. The actress said she wanted to have her naturally and only lied because she believed she was a ‘failure’ for not being able to do so…

After Winslet’s very public drooling over a pedophile, it has become clear that she incapable of seeing children – including her own – as anything but objects that exist to entertain adults.

This post discusses how it is much easier to make a movie for men and about men. At the same time, since the XVIIIth century, it has been a lot easier to write a novel about women and for women.

Clarissa, Pamela, Evelina, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, La de Bringas, Fortunata and Jacinta, Madame Bovary, Eugenie Grandet, Gloria, Marianela, La Regenta, Nana, Doña Inés – the list could go on forever. Even the most trivial events in a woman’s life merit a great novel about them. Can you imagine a book called Mr. Dalloway where the protagonist goes out to buy flowers for his party and does pretty much nothing else during the entire novel?  The few novels that have male names as a title – Silas Marner, David Copperfield – are still very obviously addressed to a female audience. Many writers don’t even pretend that they are interested in talking to male readers and address their audience as “mis estimadas lectoras.” In English, the lack of grammatical differentiation of genders is substituted by the gendered “my fair readers.”

I wish people remembered this when they bellyached about how few movies about women there are. As the old saying goes, nature does not tolerate a vacuum. If there is one form of art that tends to exclude a certain audience, there will soon arise an alternative form of art that will talk to those who have been excluded. And since literature is true art and film, with very few exceptions, is a pretense at art, I believe that women have definitely gotten the better deal here. If you don’t agree, consider any of the novels I listed above and the movie referenced in the linked title. Which of these artistic products do you believe is likely to survive for the next 100 years? Given that Richardson’s Clarissa has been around for the last 265 years (and is still as fascinating as ever), I think the answer is obvious.

I think that George Gershwin’s “Summertime” is the most beautiful music in the world. I always sing it to myself and have done so for decades.

But it is only today that I have discovered that the lyrics of the song are not “Oh, Your mamma’s rich / And your daddy’s good lookin'”, as I always thought without ever analyzing it.

Speaking of  a Freudian mistake.

A daughter of one of US Presidents took courses in Spanish at the department where I later studied. This is a story her language instructor shared with us.

One of the assignments in the course was for each student to prepare a presentation on a country that the US had invaded (which I think is a very stupid kind of assignment, both intellectually and linguistically, but whatever.) The President’s daughter was assigned a small Caribbean country of Granada.

On the day of the presentation, she decorated the board with beautiful pictures and started narrating.

“Granada is a city in Andalucia, Spain, located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. . .”

“Wait,” the instructor said, “I understand that you are closer than I am to the place where the decisions to invade are made. As far as I know, though, Granada has never been invaded by the US. Unless there is

some news you want to break to us here. . .”

P.S. Whether the story is true or not, I want to mention that I think the instructor behaved like an asshole here. I would never treat a student this way, no matter how many grievances I might have against her parents.

P.P.S. I really want to travel to Grenada for the spices. They have the best nutmeg on the planet.

Does anybody know what this car is called? Because I really want it. Or rather, I want N to want it. For myself I want a Chrysler PT Cruiser.

This looks like a painting by XIXth-century Russian painters but it’s just a photo of nature by the restaurant where we came for lunch.

The word “frugal” would be the very last term I’d use to describe myself. It fits me worse even than such adjectives as “patient,” “soft-spoken,” and “tolerant.” After reading this article, however, I discovered that I’m a queen of frugality because I have been doing all these things for ages.

I hate the word “frugal”, though, and I hate cheap people who always pinch pennies. What is life for, if not to be enjoyed?

I now need to go buy something to convince myself I’m not really frugal.

P.S. Bought two jars of mulberry preserves, one jar of young walnut preserves, and one jar of white cherry preserves. Can’t think of anything more to buy at the moment.

Life was proceeding very peacefully. And then I discovered mulberry preserves from Armenia.

There are big, plump mulberries in the jar. They taste phenomenal over tvorog.

I need to leave for a meeting but I can’t tear myself away from this magical jar.

I thought Girl Scouts was a silly organization dedicated to fostering forced sociability and thinly disguised athletics, but now it seems like it’s a really cool club:

What I’ve learned over the last year tells me that the Girl Scouts organization has taken a very liberal feminist and pro-homosexual turn, and more disturbing, a sharp turn away from acknowledging God.

How cool is that? But wait, there is more:

At the 2008 Girl Scout National Council Session and Convention. . . the traditional flag ceremony was trashed, as was the playing of our National Anthem.  Flags of all nations were brought in bunched together to Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire tunes.

Wow! Very enlightened.

In grades 11 and 12, the curriculum is called “Your Voice, Your World: The Power of Advocacy.”  The most disturbing part is that at the bottom of each page is a “Voice for Good”  featuring women meant to be role models for the girls to follow.

Among these role models are Simone de Beauvoir and Bettie Friedan (whom the weird author of the article calls “Friedman.” This same weirdo then misspells the name of Audrey Lorde.)

But the best news of the article comes right at the end:

For this mom, it was an easy decision.  Girl Scouts simply isn’t the organization it once was, and it’s not compatible with my Catholic faith any longer.  Yeah, I know. I´ll miss the cookies a lot.  I´ve been known to eat an entire box of Thin Mints in one sitting, but not anymore.  My faith is more important.  My loyalty to Christ and His Church is more important, and my daughters´ hearts and minds are definitely more important.

This is really good to know. If all grievously uneducated bigots with horrible spelling skills remove themselves from any given organization, that organization has a chance to shine. And that is wonderful.