Sunday Musings. . .

From a film review of a film called Winter's Bone , this morning, by Dorothy Woodsend, from The Tyee.

Registered Democrats and Republicans, although ostensibly on opposite sides of the political fence, share many characteristics. It is the third group of unregistered and disenfranchised voters that are very different.

This third group is the largest and continuing to grow quickly.

Writes Adams: "According to our data, the values showing the most pronounced growth in the United States from 1992 to 2004 fell into three categories: risk-taking and thrill-seeking, Darwinism and exclusion, and consumption and status-seeking... The values of the average American also reveal a growing resignation to life in a world of dog-eat-dog competition: Americans increasingly register a Darwinist attitude toward both economic and social life, becoming more likely to reason that those who suffer misfortune in life deserve what they get and that others shouldn't worry too much about helping them."

From the abandoned ruins

It will be interesting or maybe terrifying to see what happens when this population outstrips the remaining two. Or maybe it's already in the process of happening, according to James Kunstler who has been patiently waiting for the imminent collapse of American society and writing furiously the entire time. "Our popular culture would embarrass a race of hebephrenics. We think that neck tattoos are cool. A lot of our pop music is overtly homicidal. Our richest citizens have managed to define a new banality of evil. Our middle classes are subject to humiliations so baroque that sadomasochism even fails to encompass the finer points... we're digging our national grave with a kind of antic glee, complete with all the lurid stagecraft that Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Madison Avenue can muster."

What type of films will emerge out of the ruins? Maybe no films at all, just UFC fighting, meth and porn. In the meantime, films such as Winter's Bone give us a glimpse into the chasm of class and economic difference in America. It's a pretty cold and harsh place, it would seem.

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The same Tyee also has a great post called Ideal Summer Reads and really I am posting it here so that I can come back to it, myself. Certainly west coast focused, ut a number of books sound fabulous. Appealing particularly to me :

C'Mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark by Ryan Knighton (Knopf Canada)

Bringing home a baby is an exciting and daunting experience for any new parent -- now imagine if you literally couldn't see the kid for whom you are responsible. Knighton started losing his sight when he was 18, and by the time he and his wife had their daughter Tess, he was almost completely blind. His memoir of those first years -- of trying to avoid poles on a busy street with a three-month-old strapped to his chest, of panicked moments, uncertain if his toddler was missing or asleep -- is funny, poignant, and illuminating.

When I was a midwifery student I was involved in the care of a blind couple, having their second baby. It was rather nerve wracking, and, particularly with small children, it seemed like it was going to take a lot of help for them to parent. You know, you cannot clean up the shit if you cannot see it. They were smart people, and loving and capable parents, and I think that the children, both sighted, were going to be looked after - but I have often thought of them over the years . . . You would need assistance to take your kids to the park, and the frustration of a toddler in your apartment refusing to answer you (they would quickly figure out that you could not see - and likely use it against you! I am a sucker for little kids - so they manipulate me, with apparently, no ill will. ) So I am looking forward tio reading about a parent in similar circumstances!
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Body Image perceptions - How the brain deals you a poor hand . . . .

From New Scientist - everyone sees their hand as bigger than it is. . . and the info that this might provide for others studying body image distortions -


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Controversial Pesticide Worries Scientists

by Amy Standen from the NPR website.

I only buy organic or local strawberries, but this story about the non-organic California Strawberries is worrying. They are using a new pesticide (since the old one, methyl bromide, hurts the ozone layer!) but the new one -methyl iodide - is considered toxic at much lower doses and is a huge problem especially for farm workers - so although if you only eat them once or twice a year the cheap ($5.99 for a kilo) California strawberries could be hurting workers who are exposed to large volumes. Demand that they use a different method and don't buy the berries from California. (not to mention the carbon, but I cannot throw too many stones as I do buy organic California strawberries occasionally.)

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