Nerd News: Linguistic Fun as "Refudiate" is Named Word of the Year

The Sarah Palinism "refudiate" -- an apparent portmanteau of "refute" and "repudiate" -- is the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year for 2010.  Take a look also at the runners-up. (Yes, "vuvuzela" is on the list.)

This One's For the Girls: Women in Politics and the Feminist Angle (Plus a Rant!)

Read this! (OK, now I wrote that blog title, I have that Martina McBride song stuck in my head.)

Also: How dare you, Ms. Hirshman. How dare you impose asinine, arbitrary "litmus tests" on any woman to see if she "qualifies" for your august approval?

This is the sort of behavior that is properly labeled "femisogyny." Yep, attacking and beating down women in the name of "feminism." Even better are arguments that some successful women (the biggest lightning rod is of course Sarah Palin) are bad for women in general, especially if the ladies in question have ideas different from the self-proclaimed feminist banner-carriers' pet policies. Pfffffft. I have no patience for this sort of "commentary." It's the burbling of the self-involved and intolerant, of idiots and scoundrels. Oh, and idiots and scoundrels who happen to be women are still -- guess what -- idiots and scoundrels. Hirshman, by the way, is a retired professor. Of philosophy. I am -- somehow -- not surprised.

Guess what, self-proclaimed guarantors of the "purity" of feminism. There's no such thing. Not if your definition of feminism means letting women make free and independent choices about everything concerning their lives. Sometimes, they'll choose things you won't like -- like choosing to oppose ObamaCare or choosing to join the tea party movement. That does not make them any less women than you are, and if you can't see the difference, then I'm nothing left to say to you. The point to feminism should NOT be the idea that women should all think the same (and vote the same, heh) just because they all happen to have ovaries and uteri.

Look, the contemporary leftist feminists' hand-wringing moaning, obsessive "analysis," and general angst about the increasing public visibility and success of conservative and libertarian women is itself indicative of their own intellectual bankruptcy. Their angst is, I dare say, existential angst. And somewhere kicking around is that awful, terrifying thought that there are ladies out there who can be successful without ever having anything to do with them or needing their sanction or aid.

Nerd Journal: Twice in Two Weeks, "Glee" Delivers a Sucker Punch

Really, "Glee"? REALLY? Last week it was a gratuitous and unfunny swipe at Sarah Palin. This time it was a slap at Ann Coulter not 10 minutes into the new episode.

I'll probably wait in vain for the show to take a stupid potshot at some well-known left-leaning woman. But it did take shots at Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan -- though that's like shooting fish in a barrel -- and then putting Coulter in their company.

I'm not a huge Ann Coulter fan (she's obnoxious in her role as provocateur), but I sat on my couch and rolled my eyes at the sucker punch.

Come on, "Glee." I watch you because you're fun and bubbly, but these unnecessary barbs burst the bubble of an hour of lovely TV.

Also: I'm simply not impressed by the idea of Madonna being some kind of role model. Or by the idea that the overt and ever-more flamboyant public sexualization of girls and women is the most obvious way for them to gain social "power." I thought that for all these eons, women were oppressed by being treated as OBJECTS. So now if they present themselves of their own accord as purely sexual objects, that's OK? What the ... ?

UPDATE: Aaaaaaaaand 40 minutes into it, everybody's singing "Like A Virgin" and jumping into the sack. I had called it earlier today to La Parisienne. Ugh. OK, let me get this straight. A show that last season featured the trials and tribulations and troubles of a pregnant teenage girl now has two sets of putative high schoolers rushing to do exactly the same thing that had so clearly resulted in misery before for one of their fellow singers. Really smart, people. Blah. The fact that nothing actually HAPPENED isn't the point as much as the showcasing of the idea as a goal.

For the record, I *hate* "Like A Virgin." But not quite as much as I hate "Imagine." There's almost no song I hate as much as that.

UPDATE: I kinda hate that Jesse character too, but I guess I'm just a big hater all the way around tonight!

Nerd Journal: Triumphantly Returning "Glee" Rocks ... And One Discordant Note

I've been looking forward to the return of "Glee," and tonight's show was so much fun!

But even in the middle of all the fun and music (AC/DC!) , something happened that happens a lot in entertainment, but I still find it annoying. It bursts the bubble. Randomly, in the middle of the scene, the script writers took a gratuitous potshot at Sarah Palin and basically called her stupid. *Sigh.*

I love movies and TV and pop culture and entertainment and all that. But I am really getting tired of seeing them be a stage for unnecessary cheap shots. Everyone knows that the entertainment industry is famously hostile to conservatives and Republicans, but really? Can't they stop their personal political snarkiness and soapboxing for an hour? Don't they realize (or care) that gratuitously belittling conservatives/Republicans in the viewing audience isn't nice? Half the country is center-right.

Oh, well. "Glee" is back. Bring on the music! And isn't Finn (played by Canadian actor Cory Monteith) simply adorable in an apple-pie sort of way? Seriously, look at those DIMPLES! SQUEEEEEE!

Music hath charms ...
OH YES INDEED.

UPDATE: Is there an echo in the room? I just said that. At least I'm not the only one who's annoyed.

Nerdworld Soundtrack: 3 Doors Down for Defiant Citizens

I love 3 Doors Down, and I know I've posted this song of theirs before, but "Not My Time" seems really fitting right now.

You know, I don't think I've EVER been as disgusted with the DC swamp and its creepy-crawly denizens as I am right now. All the Pelosicrats' triumphalist cries of victory ring hollow because the entire mess was forcibly foisted, in the most obviously corrupt and disgraceful ways (Louisiana Purchase, anyone? Cornhusker Kickback, anyone?), on an unwilling public. Seriously, never before has such a huge measure been shoved through with not a single vote from the other party (and with some 30+ Dems voting No as well). Even the Medicare and Social Security had (actual, not putative!) bipartisan support when they passed decades ago. Oh, sure, the mini-despots in DC did make history -- but what a sordid history it is. The icing on the cake is the now-standard tactic of calling concerned citizen opponents "racists" and every other insult imaginable. It's so contemptible that it's not worth a rebuttal. The existence of the smear tactic says enough.

Look, I've never been a particularly POLITICAL person. I actually don't much like politics. I've never been to a protest. I'm not an activist. I really just want to blog about good books and interesting history and cute dresses and awesome shoes and movies and pop culture and recipes. I simply want to be left alone to live my life as I please without a bunch of meddling busybodies interfering with everything. But apparently this (very American, no?) desire makes me some kind of PROBLEM. I can't help wondering how many other people are like me in this way. The sheer aristocratic arrogance of the political class has galvanized opposition in ways that transcend party lines.

You know, when Crazy Uncle Joe Biden cluelessly said into a live mic that the health care issue was "a big f***ing deal," he was right -- in ways he can't possibly understand. I can't be the only taxpaying citizen who's sick of getting screwed. Do you know that I was so angry that I actually DREAMED last night that I had a tea party with (wait for it) Sarah Palin? I'm not saying that in real life I'm all for Sarah, but I think I identify with her in the fact that she's constantly been belittled, misrepresented, and subjected to every kind of abhorrent abuse by the leftist loons.

Whoops, I started to rant there. Let's listen to some good music and plan for November ballot box action, shall we? People who want to make a serf of me will find that I'm not going to go quietly. I still VOTE. So do you. As for all the poor saps who think that it's health-care Christmas and that they've gotten something for free, GROW UP. There's no such thing as a free lunch. The cost may not be in money, but there will be a cost. Geez, costs in mere money are at least measurable and even understandable; when the cost is in intangibles and abstracts like -- oh, freedom and choice and quality of care and such -- it's harder to quantify, but also harder to live with. It ends up being far more expensive than mere money. Are you happy that you sold your birthright for a mess of pottage? I won't even bother starting on how every med person I know is in full revolt.

Anyhoo, onto some 3 Doors Down!

I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had.
I'm in a world that tries to take them away.
Oh, but I'm taking them back.
'Cause all of this time I've just been too blind to understand
What should matter to me.
My friends this life we live, it’s not what we have
It’s what we believe in.

Cause it’s not my time I'm not going.
There's a fear in me but it’s not showing.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a will in me and now I know that.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
Oh, but I won’t go.
I won’t go.

There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see

But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a fear in me; it’s not showing.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a will in me and now it’s gonna show.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.

There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see.

The Cinema-Mad Sibling Recommends: the Palin and Shatner Beatnik Book Readings

The Sibling suggests the following hilarious clip:



It's nice to see people have a sense of humor. Hail the Shatner and Sarah!