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Make it do

By ~LS~ On May 8, 2012 · 2 Comments · In Capitalism and tagged Tagged With: Baton Rouge, Capitalism, Consumption, Goals, Money, Politics

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Self-storage

By ~LS~ On May 2, 2012 · Add Comment · In Politics, This is my life? and tagged Tagged With: Capitalism, Consumption, Money, Politics

Usually when I pass the self-storage places in the strip malls as I drive to work, I ignore them. They are part of the mundane aspects of my daily life that blend in with the roadside trivia like payday loan shops, Payless shoes, the Mall, and Office Depot, McDonalds, the homeless panhandler, the gas station, and people waiting for the bus. None of these things stand out until I need them or they disrupt me. Selective perception, and all.

Lately I’ve observed the large amount of self-storage places all around me. I started tracking them during my trip to New York City, where they seemed out of place because the city has no strip malls. Given that space is a premium in the city, they make more sense there than in suburbia.

With occupy Wall Street dominating the discursive and political field, the need for somewhere to store our [...]

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Cut and paste for your troops

By ~LS~ On November 11, 2010 · Add Comment · In Politics and tagged Tagged With: Bush, Capitalism, Consumption, Facebook, Obama, Politics, Slacktivism, War

On this Veteran’s Day, stop fake support of your troops.

Today is Veteran’s Day, a day that spawns a number of cut and paste micro-memes on Facebook. After last month’s screed on pinkwashing, I feel compelled to repeat my rant pre-emptively as the first posts start to trickle in.

People see the “Support our Troops Cut and Paste” and they dutifully follow directions without taking a moment to honor the sentiment, and without admitting that they’ve accomplished absolutely nothing meaningful in any way.

I find flag waving “support your veteran” statuses on Facebook amusing. They’re pointless. I might as well cut and paste a status from a status generator app (they do exist) – that’s about how interesting and meaningful those memes are.

Last year when this sort of thing went around, a lot of posts falsely claimed that Obama was cutting Veterans’ benefits, giving more money to welfare, [...]

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Another reason to like Hillary

By ~LS~ On September 18, 2010 · Add Comment · In Feminism, Politics, Pop Culture and tagged Tagged With: Feminism, Gender, Generations, Hillary, Politics, Sexism, Speech, Television

Nonverbal communication expresses power and dominance. In public, professional settings, who gets to touch whom and the nature of that touch plays out and defines gender relations. Because it’s typically subtle, people are often unaware of this dynamic. When it’s more obvious, those who are in the “one down” position see it clearly and those in the position of power remain oblivious as part of their sense of entitlement. The stereotypical male boss/female secretary and male customer/female waitress interactions illustrate this over and over again. However, as gender roles change, the accompanying nonverbal behaviors change with them. Hillary is the perfect example.

This clip from Mad Men illustrates my point (see :40 – :50). Mad Men is a wonderful show to use for examples like this because it does such a good job of capturing the cultural milieu of the 50s and 60s [...]

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Black doll white doll

By ~LS~ On August 24, 2010 · Add Comment · In I have to work?, Pedagogy, Race and Racism and tagged Tagged With: Pedagogy, Politics, Race, Teaching, Teaching Activities

Today in class I showed a clip from A Girl Like Me, a documentary made by a 17 year old young woman who revisits the Black Doll White Doll test. The test asks black children to choose between a white doll and a black doll, asking questions such as “which doll is the prettiest” (they pick the white doll), “which doll is the nicest” (they pick the white doll), and “which doll is the most like you” (they flounder and then pick the black doll). Watching black children struggle with those questions is very sad. I show this video in class when we talk about the relationship between perception, the self, and communication.

What always amazes me about this video is the responses that it provokes. Sometimes students completely shut down and getting them to talk is impossible. Sometimes students [...]

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I heart Al Franken

By ~LS~ On June 30, 2010 · Add Comment · In Politics, Rhetoric and tagged Tagged With: Al Franken, Politics

I’m entirely jealous of the people of Minnesota on a daily basis. I have friended/liked Al Franken’s Facebook page and so I get posts about his work on several times a day. Jealous, jealous, jealous. He does so much good, progressive work, and he’s damned hard-nosed about it.

I get regular emails from Vitter, too, because I signed up for his newsletter for some stupid reason. They are nothing but grandstanding. I hit reply and respond with that statement on a regular basis. Vitter’s last email announcement praised his efforts to pressure “the administration” (by which I assume he means Obama) to send in the Fish and Wildlife folks and to increase the number of people assigned to the Louisiana gulf coast. Of course, in the mean time, Jindal is dicking around on calling in the National Guard.

Anyway, back to Franken. I have always liked Franken. I remember rolling [...]

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Make it do

Self-storage

Cut and paste for your troops

Another reason to like Hillary

Black doll white doll

I heart Al Franken

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Make it do

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Cut and paste for your troops

Another reason to like Hillary

Black doll white doll

I heart Al Franken

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