Having just “celebrated” banned books week in America, I started thinking about the importance of reading, the beauty of stories and how much books enrich all of our lives. And most of my thoughts came back to one single theme:

W.T.Eff?

Banning books? Seriously? First Obama gets attacked from those crazy moms who think he’s out to brainwash children by giving them talks on the importance of education and now reading is bad for children, too?

The whole thing is just absurd. Have people even read the books they’re trying to ban? How can a story about a pooh named Winnie who likes to eat honey and play in the woods with his other anthropomorphic friends possibly be bad? It seems like a book that is deemed “good” and “appropriate” these days is a book that will not inform your child of the existence of sex, racism, violence, homosexuality, the devil, bad language, and any other concept that will cause children to ask you awkward questions. The whole banned books thing will probably cause my AP Literature class to be renamed AP Literature That Will Morally Damage Your Soul.

Does this mean we should ban Pokemon as well, since the little animals “evolve,” which therefore enforces the idea of evolution and is therefore anti-Christian and therefore is Satanic? Winnie the Pooh may be the poster child for the obesity epidemic, his friend Eeyore for depression, and Kanga for single moms everywhere, but that doesn’t mean our younger siblings can’t read about them. I happen to like Tigger, even if he does have ADHD. And although Harry Potter may have “witchcraft and wizardry” and whatnot, it’s still one of the most significant contributions to literature in our lives, and as such, should be available to anyone who wants to read it.

So let’s take the attention and money away from banning books and focus on some more important things that should be eradicated from this planet. Because in 2009 there are so many things worse than kids in capes flying around on broomsticks or finding a lion in your closet. Read More »

I just found out about this website, and I can’t tell if it’s the worst thing ever or the best thing since sliced, carb-free bread.

The Skinny Website.

A site dedicated to our obsession with celebrities and their weight. All things “skinny” – what celebs are eating, how much of a cow they look like and many, many blogs that keep track of how much weight our favorite famous gals are putting off and taking on.

Yea, sure, it’s a COMPLETELY superficial website, COMPLETELY representative of everything wrong with our image-consumed society, but for some reason, I’m excited about this discovery. I mean, I can go anywhere to see Ashlee Simpson post-shopping, (boring) but now I can get the “skinny” on what she’s digesting! Read More »

Women get naked on magazine covers for several reasons:

1) To look hot and to get guys to buy them.

2) To send a political message and generate controversy.

3) To show off their pregnant selves.

4) To not look hot, generate controversy, and show off their bigger body – not because of pregnancy, but because it’s simply how a woman is built sometimes. Crazy, huh?!?

Whatever the case may be, naked magazine covers sell, and Beth Ditto of the band The Gossip definitely sells on the cover of NME, a British music and gossip magazine.

It’s been getting tons of attention, from Americans especially, (because for most Americans, this is blasphemy!) and it’s being passed around the blogosphere for obvious reasons. Beth Ditto does not have the stereotypical body you’d necessarily want to see unclothed before your eyes, and she knows this. The cool thing is, and the cool thing about her is, she doesn’t give a flying f*ck! Read More »