It's too easy, but so hard not to

Have you seen this? It's this shit from Esquire (a magazine directed at upper-middle class, misogynist/homophobic businessmen -- you know, the kind who wears a three piece suit to a bar on a Saturday; have you met this guy? who the fuck does he think he is, anyway?) definitively defining the definition of manliness and manhood with uh... definition. Anyway, it's a puff piece about absolutely nothing.

"A man carries cash. A man looks out for those around him -- woman, friend, stranger. A man can cook eggs. A man can always find something good to watch on television."

A man doesn't give change to homeless people. A man makes sure that those around him are aware of how he is truly the fist of Chuck Norris. A man can't keep himself from changing the channel on the teevee, and/or is just dumb enough than any drivel even This Old House will placate him ("hey, I like This Old House", no you don't, no one likes that show). A man can write short little sentences describing nothing and then ramble on about how cool he is for 250 words.

"Know-how survives him"? What does that even mean?

"A man can speak to dogs." But a woman can get them to respond.

"A man listens, and that's how he argues. He crafts opinions. He can pound the table, take the floor. It's not that he must. It's that he can."

This is where it starts to get ugly. A. Man has the ability to make other people feel insecure. It's not that he must, it's that he can. A. Man is an asshole.

"A man can look you up and down and figure some things out. Before you say a word, he makes you. From your suitcase, from your watch, from your posture. A man infers."

A. Man is capable of deductive reasoning! Congratulations on figuring that one out Esquire! Good lord, it's like reading an essay by a 3rd grader.

"A man can tell you he was wrong. That he did wrong. That he planned to. He can tell you when he is lost. He can apologize, even if sometimes it's just to put an end to the bickering."

But again, let's not confuse "can" with "will". And remember ladies, it's usually your fault in the first place.

"A man loves the human body, the revelation of nakedness. He loves the sight of the pale bosom, the physics of the human skeleton, the alternating current of the flesh. He is thrilled by the wrist and the sight of a bare shoulder. He likes the crease of a bent knee."

Wow, A. Man is starting to sound less like James Bond and more like Richard from Ally McBeal. And what the hell is different about the physics of the human skeleton than the physics of the rest of the goddamn universe? Is "kinesthesiology" to big a word for A. Man?

This one's my favorite:

"Maybe he never has, and maybe he never will, but a man figures he can knock
someone, somewhere, on his bottom."

(Emphasis mine) This is why.

"He understands the basic mechanics of the planet. Or he can close one eye, look up at the sun, and tell you what time of day it is. Or where north is. He can tell you where you might find something to eat or where the fish run..."

Which is why he is never lost; no, he can't; no, he can't; the grocery store and the river, respectively.

"A miter saw, incidentally, is the kind that sits on a table, has a circular blade, and is used for cutting at precise angles. Very satisfying saw."

This bit I just found odd. First, because I have a degree in sculpture that has enabled me on at least one subject and that is the subject of power tools, and I'm pretty sure I didn't sprout a penis my sophomore year of college. Second, because miter saws are expensive and redundant for two reasons: the regular old table saw (for lengths of wood), and the chop saw (now there is a fucking satisfying saw) both of which are versetile enough to enable the more practical, useful and easier to manage 90 degree angled cuts as well as the fancy I-learned-to-make-this-on-This-Old-House "precise" angled cuts that most people don't use because a miter joint is less stable than a butt joint and harder to work with. Don't believe me? Look around your house. How many miter joints do you see? They aren't even used in door frames anymore cause they're so fucking ridiculous.

"Or he stands watch. He interrupts trouble. This is the state policeman. This is the poet. Men, both of them."

Well, except for the ones that are... you know... not.

And, the coupe de gras:

"A man watches. Sometimes he goes and sits at an auction knowing he won't spend a dime, witnessing the temptation and the maneuvering of others. Sometimes he stands on the street corner watching stuff. This is not about quietude so much as collection. It is not about meditation so much as considering. A man refracts his vision and gains acuity. This serves him in every way. No one taught him this -- to be quiet, to cipher, to watch. In this way, in these moments, the man is like a zoo animal: both captive and free. You cannot take your eyes off a man when he is like that. You shouldn't. Who knows what he is thinking, who he is, or what he will do next."

(Emphasis mine) A. Man will make idle threats just to keep everyone else in line. And that, my friends, is what the patriarcy is for.

Really? That offended you?

A New Low, Even for Burger King

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the Burger King ad campaigns... the Whopper Jr. and his friend the flaming chicken thing, the exceedingly creepy King... whoever does the ad-storming for Burger King are clearly a bunch of morons who eat too much fast food. At least, until we get the parody of "Baby Got Back" that merges the cultural stalwart with Spongebob Squarepants. This is actually a sign of improvement.

"Yes, because nothing sells fast food to children better than provocatively-dressed women shaking their asses to a remix of Sir-Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back.""

says Feministing blogger Richaro. And while I could get us all bogged down in the correction of music industry lingo (it's not a remix, the mix is exactly the same, right down to Sir Mix doing the new lyrics), I prefer to address the sarcasm that is essentially the only commentary on the commercial.

Guess what. Kids don't have money. They aren't trying to sell to children, they're selling to parents, and while the presence of Spongebob and his square pants (in their various forms) is made to catch the attention of the children so they squeal until mom and dad pay attention.

The other thing is, no asses are being shaken. People don't actually have square butts, that's a piece of foam in those short-shorts and the only thing which is being shaken (you'll notice no titties jiggle, even in the full version), moreover, it's not the dancers who are being exploited but Spongebob himself who, as a cartoon character actually has no agency to violate or exploit.

Speaking of the full version, when you watch it, you can see that it is truly a parody of "Baby Got Back", the video for which, humorous as it was, did exploit women. The only thongs in this video are on Spongebob.

This is one of those instances where we feminists need to have a sense of humor.

Don't mind if I do...

Dear Mr. Beck,
If it didn't contribute to the suffering of humanity (by virtue of you being human and all - at least I assume that you are), I would. But because it would cause suffering, I won't set you on fire. Lucky for you, most people out there think the way I do on this one... but there might be some who don't, so don't go around asking to be punched in the face.

Friday Feminist Fuck You: The word is "vagina"

The word is VAGINA. Say it with me male comedians VA-GIN-A. Not *whistling noise*. You are perfectly capable of saying the word "penis" on cable television, I know this cause you just said it. So, unless you're afraid of them, the word is VAGINA. And if you're afraid of a little VAGINA you need to be in therapy not a comedy club in New York City, especially since you are straight-identified.

RIGHT THERE! You just said "penis" again! And now you're talking about sketching someone's balls, yet instead of saying "vagina" you whistle? What the fuck? You're on Comedy Central, douche nozzle, not fucking Sesame Street.

The worst part is, this guy isn't even funny. I'm just wasting time until the Daily Show is on. I'll be Jon Stewart can say the word "vagina" out loud rather than whistling. That's cause Jon is a real comedian. You know, the kind who is funny.

Oh and the joke about punching Jeff Dunham in the face (cause really, how many ventriloquists are there anymore?) was not funny for two reasons: 1) you are not funny, 2) Jeff Dunham is funny. Even if some of his puppets are assholes.

Wrasslemania! YAH!

Considering that masculinity in our culture is generally defined as being "not gay", how is a bunch of oiled up guys running around in speedos supposed to be manly?

Or is it that manliness in our culture is really such a non sequitur that if you put on enough of a show to make yourself seem macho, you are by default manly regardless of how oiled up and mostly naked you are?

Which also prompts a question: that "ultimate fighting" stuff usually has two guys, within mere seconds of the fight beginning, wrapped around each other with one guy's face in the other guys ass or crotch. However, because they're beating the crap out of each other, it's not really "gay" it's "macho". So, does that mean that gay men who are into rough/violent (consensual) sexual activity are not really gay because they're beating each other up?

Am I just missing something here?

I am so blessed

I was talking to my BFF-since-junior-high today and at one point she said, "You're doing really well with this Mary Kay thing, and I'm really proud of you."

There is a reason this woman is my BFF. Her saying that and giving me that encouragement really touched my heart. And I realized, I am so blessed to have the wonderful and supportive friends and family. So, I want to thank those people for all they do for me. You are the key to my success.

My capitalist dream isn't based in capitalism

Mary Kay Ash started Mary Kay Cosmetics with one thing in mind: the Golden Rule.

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

This socialistical* mantra is the basis for the most successful cosmetics companies, (and the number 3 brand overall) in the country. This free market, capitalistic, every-man-for-himself country. That a company like Mary Kay Cosmetics was even able to get off the ground amazed a lot of people; that it controls a full 10% of the market today speaks very highly of this socialistical ideal.

What's funny about this ideal though is that it levels out the playing field. Everyone starts at the same place with the same thing: a starter kit and many resources from the company (including what to say, how to say it, and lots of other education about the products) that help consultants to book classes, sell product, and share the opportunity with others. Now, the playing field isn't completely level from the start because everyone has different gifts -- some are good at talking and turning on the charm, some have more money for inventory, some have more motivation -- but because we all treat each other the way we would like to be treated, everyone is as successful as they want to be.

So weird that people whose careers are based in such utterly liberalistic*, socialistical nonsense could actually be successful. My god, it's like capitalism with manner! And we all know there's no room for manners in capitalism! It's every-man-for-himself! Only I am entitled to that profit!

Only I am entitled to that profit... that's what most companies are based on. Strangely, people who think like this also decry what they like to call "entitlement programs" like Social Security and Food Stamps which help people who have retired, or hey, haven't managed to yet pull themselves up by their bootstraps (usually because they don't even have feet let alone shoes!); yet they continually scream about how corporations are entitled to make profit. When you think about it, that's what this whole Wall Street bailout garbage is. People didn't do the work necessary, they did the wrong things; they put their own needs first and they didn't abide by the Golden Rule so that by the end of it for every dollar in capital they "owned" there was $30 in debt. Now, if one of these executives at one of these Wall Street firms had known Mary Kay Ash and thought "well, I sure as hell wouldn't want someone dicking around with my money like this, maybe I shouldn't do it to someone else" or "gee, I wouldn't want some lender to trick me into getting a loan that I couldn't afford on my salary even if I worked 100 hour weeks, maybe I shouldn't do that to someone else" instead of chanting this mantra about being entitled to profit and huge golden parachutes given for driving a company into the ground; we wouldn't be in this situation.

If more companies were run according to how Mary Kay Ash set things down when she started Mary Kay Cosmetics, our economy would be doing a lot better. As it is, Mary Kay Cosmetics (and the huge independent sales force) have proved over and over again that cosmetics and skin care are recession-proof, but the basis of this company makes it even stronger. We strive to make people feel special, and it's that "Go-Give" (as opposed to "Go Get") spirit that sets us apart. Yes the products are fantastic, but when your consultant will drive to your house and hand deliver your product, with a thank-you note, and then sit down with you and help you make a wish-list for an up-coming vacation -- are you really ever going to use another brand again? Unlikely.

But, you know what I love most about being a Mary Kay consultant? I can go as far as I want as fast as I want, and the only thing determining my success is me. I can live the capitalist American dream as a consultant (and someday a director) and there's no one to stop me; there's no one to tell me that someone else has to get that car before I can have a turn with it. There's no one to tell me that someone else has to go on that trip before I can take it. There's no one to tell me that someone has to die or retire before I can move up -- all because the structure of this very successful capitalist venture is not based in capitalism. It's based in community. Greed doesn't propel me up the Ladder of Success, leadership does. Greed isn't going to put me in a pink cadilac, leadership will.

In order to be rich, you have to enrich the lives of others. That's another mantra we have in this business -- this capitalist venture that isn't even remotely based on capitalism. In the rest of America, if you want to be rich you have to fight. I don't have to fight, all I have to do is make people feel good about themselves -- and you know what, all of those people who say "making people feel good about themselves doesn't pay the bills" don't know what they're talking about. I haven't seen a cent of my unemployment insurance, but I've still been paying my bills. While making other people feel special and valued.

Even still, people look for a catch. For some reason, certain people want to believe that the Go-Give Spirit is just all talk and no action. It's not possible for everyone to abide by the Golden Rule, they think, and that may be true, but we do it. People in Mary Kay do it because the people who initially exposed us to the company and the culture treated us the way they would want to be treated themselves, everyone who joins pays that forward. If you don't, you won't be very successful at this business. It would be nice if people couldn't be successful in business at all if they didn't live by the Golden Rule, this thing that seems to be so against the rules of capitalism.

Now, maybe Mary Kay, Inc. is a fluke. Within a pluralistic society all things are possible, right? But think about it for a second, if we painted the world pink and everyone treated others the way they wanted to be treated and instead of retaliating when someone was less than nice, saying "well, maybe that person isn't having a very good day" or "maybe that person isn't feeling well"; wouldn't we all be just a little bit happier?

Don't you think we could all be a little richer (financially speaking) too? I do.

-----------------------------------

*"socialistical" is not a word, neither is "liberalistic"; for our purposes here today, however, these are the embodiment of everything feared by conservatives and right wing free-market asshole-lunatics who decry fairness in the market place and think that companies based on the Golden Rule can't work.

Monday doggie blogging

Stewie loves yoga. When I get out my mat, he'll sit on it while I do my asana. This past week, he decided that he was going to nest on the chair where our yoga mats were resting (you can probably guess which mat belongs to me, and which one is the Schmoogie's).

I got a crackberry

With an unlimited data plan (because that made the phone FREE). Those of us in the Mary Kay business can get free phones and various discounts (like 12% off your bill, for example) by using T-Mobile, so I finally went out and got a grown-up phone (that is, a phone that, when I call someone shows my name rather than my mother's) and a plan.

This means I have more bills. This means I have to work more. No problem. I just need to meet more people.

Monday doggy blogging

Stewie and Opus, his BFF.

Stewie did something very silly today. Since I had two classes this weekend, I had to go to the bank this morning (afternoon), so I started the dishwasher, put on my shoes, coat, scarf and hat (Springtime my ass), and headed out for the bus that would take me to my branch. Stewie was very upset that I was leaving without him, staring at me as though I was the worst person who ever lived.

When I returned he was sitting by the window next to our front door, as though he had gone there to watch me leave and anticipate my return with bated pug-breath. I opened the door and he went crazy (as dogs are want to do when mom or dad comes home)... at which point I noticed that the dishwasher was still running. I had been gone less than an hour, and he was acting like I had left him alone for a week. (Also, he's taken to screaming when I get home from a class... Schmoogie's had this dog for 8 years, and Stewie never screams for him. It's kind of sad.)

So, those are the adventures of Stewart. He is currently sleeping.

And now, a story about a horse.

"The New McCarthyism" is a lot funnier than the old one

I apologize for posting audio of Limbaugh, but this is too funny not to.

Check it out. He says:

"Then these people will be called up to testify before Chairman Frank's committee. And they will be asked questions like 'have you attended any pro-capitalist meetings during the course of your tenure at AIG?' 'How many of your friends are free-market capitalists? and what are their names? and where can we find them? and if you fail to answer you will be cited as being in contempt of congress.'"

Fucking hilarious right? I mean, who in their right mind would actually ask these questions? What's more, Rush, and those carrying his water, are simultaneously accusing Congressman Frank of being a McCarthyist as well as a communist. Not very apt students of history. Of course, these guys really love to pile on Barney Frank... I think it's partially because of the whole gay thing. Which I think is a weird thing for a bunch of supposedly totally het guys to do. Whatever.

Media Matters points out another gem of Limbaugh's.

LIMBAUGH: I'm very serious. You have a company -- let's take AIG out of this 'cause they're so emotionally charged. Let's say that the company being bailed out is the XYZ Widget Company.
CALLER: Right.
LIMBAUGH: We've determined that we need to bail out XYZ Widget. XYZ Widget has people who work there.
CALLER: Mm-hmm.
LIMBAUGH: We're going to bail XYZ Widget out because we need XYZ Widget to continue operating as an ongoing business.
CALLER: OK.
LIMBAUGH: We need them to manufacture widgets and sell widgets and so forth. So why in the world -- or how do you get to the point where you're going to bail out the company, but you don't want the employees to get paid?

There's a whole lot more of this at the link, but I picked this bit out for one reason: AIG doesn't make anything. Widgets or otherwise. All AIG did (and currently does) is move money around. The don't make anything. Now, let's substitute "XYZ Widget" for "General Motors". Can anyone who listens to Rush tell me whether he was in favor of making sure the employees of GM got paid? Or was he more interested in seeing the the "Big Three" go bankrupt so that the autoworkers union would fail?

Rush Limbaugh is more interested in seeing paychecks for executives and imaginary workers than he is in seeing paychecks for real workers. You know, like the people who listen to his show.

My god. No wonder he took 2,000 oxycontins a week. It would take that amount of narcotics to make any of these arguments even slightly cohesive.

Someone had some time on his hands...

Schmoogie and I did some math.

Since 1972, Samuel L. Jackson has been in 127 movies, or 3.4 per year.

William H. Macy has been in 115 movies since 1978. 3.7 movies per year.

Which means that William H. Macy is actually harder working than Samuel L. Jackson, and maintains my claim that Macy, rather than Jackson, has been in every movie ever made.

Check that -- Christopher Lee has been in 264 movies since 1948 (9 of which were Dracula movies -- and 6 of which are coming out in the next two years; we've begun to think that he really is Dracula), which is 4.3 movies per year. Making him the king, even though many of his roles have been kinda gimmicky.

(Edited to add...)

A propos of something

Behold my next goal.

















It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.

(Image from MaryKayInTouch.com)

Why I don't care about Bristol Palin and her baby-daddy

A message board on which I post has seen a flurry of nonsense about the Bristol and Levi break up. A friend of mine commented that she thought it was ironic, and a hand-full of people jumped on her for being judgmental of conservatives or some shit.

There are a number of reasons why I have not blogged about the media dust-up over Brisvi (see what I did there?) breaking up, chief among them being that I really don't give a flying moose. Sarah Palin is funny. She cracks me up (although, I really wish she would get some new material), and as a political figure who refuses to go away already, she's fair game. Her family, however, is of no interest to me not matter how fervently each member was paraded around the campaign trail when Gov. Palin was John McCain's running mate.

Yes, I see the irony. Ha ha, saw that one coming. My friend has a valid point: it is pretty ironic that they made such a huge point out of "Sarah Palin's knocked up daughter is engaged after all", and now that they've split the message is entirely lost, it's true. But Bristol Palin never should have been dragged onto the trail in the first place. Didn't those kids have to be at school? How much did we learn about John McCain's family? He was, after all, the top of the ticket for the Republican party -- if they wanted to push family values, they should have mentioned something about how John and Cindy adopted a baby girl from South East Asia when Cindy was there on a humanitarian mission. If they wanted to push het marriage as a value, they could have made a big deal about how John McCain has several children who are married with their own children.

But no. Bristol Palin, whose pregnancy was made public by the McCain campaign was the center of this idea -- this family values nonsense. And it's wrong. She was provided an extreme disservice by her mother who no doubt authorized this information becoming public. And I think I know why:

Sarah Palin was mortified when she found out Bristol was pregnant; to the point that Sarah wanted to kick Bristol out of the house (allegedly), but then she was tapped as VP for the Republican ticket. Well, can't kick the kid out, that would look bad; instead, embarrass her, air her dirty laundry on the national stage and make everyone in the country who neither knows her nor her circumstances snicker about how irresponsible she is. Sarah Palin made the information about her pregnant, unwed teenage daughter public in order to punish her.

The thing is though, their family business is none of our business. I don't care what it says about the "party of family values". Keeping your family business to yourself is a family value, and keeping your nose out of other people's vagina's is another. It's not important what the Republican party thinks about pregnant teenagers who aren't married and who decide that they aren't going to marry (for whatever reason, it's their business, remember). It's not even important that the daughter of the VP candidate for the Republican party has an unwed pregnant teen. Yes, it's ironic. Yes, it gives even more truth to the "keep your focus on your own damn family" saying that we have on the left.

However, Sarah Palin was wrong to punish her daughter by forcing her pregnancy into the public spot-light and everyone who keeps re-enforcing that punishment by continuing to talk about Bristol and Levi and their child is a bastard (myself included, I suppose). It's not our business, and I'd like to see the subject dropped entirely. The girl is 18 (I think), a new mom, a high school drop out blah blah blah. I know too much about her, and I really don't want to hear any more. What's next? Whether her mom made her wear a training bra stuffed with tissue before her breasts developed? Whether she pees in the shower?

No. No more. Enough with the goddamn over-share for the purpose of cheap political points. Bristol Palin is not a politician or public figure. So leave her the fuck alone already. That goes for you too, Governor Palin.

Edit: hehe, "unwed married teen" doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Fixed. Thanks JE.

Monday doggy blogging

Jessica at Feministing has been falling behind on her Monday Monty Blogging, so I'm gonna help out by posting pics of my dog, Stewie. So, don't send nasty emails to Jessica, just come here for cute pics of a cute doggie.

Edited to add: Stewie is currently having a running dream.

Whitehouse Council on Women and Girls

I don't think many people realize how huge this is. Here's President Obama's speech before signing the executive order. I told you he was a feminist.

Is an apple a vegetable? (My appologies to Anderson Cooper)

No. It's not. This question is kind of like asking "Is pornography adultery?" If you have no clue about botany or nutrition, sure you could make the argument that the tree-growing fructose-containing apple is, in fact a vegetable. Similarly, if you have no clue about relationships, sex, or performance art you could make the argument that someone who is alone with their computer watching people ze never has met and never will meet while engaging in the sexual act one performs upon one's self is actually committing adultery.

I hate this question. I hate this idea that masturbation and/or watching porn is "cheating". How is this cheating? Doesn't adultery have to involve another person, not just a picture of another person? What's more, if you think about someone else while having sex with your partner is that adultery? Well, if watching porn is, then thinking about someone else while you're having sex with your primary partner most certainly is as well!

However, it doesn't matter how fervently you argue that apples are vegetables and that watching porn or masturbating is the same as cheating; it's just not fucking true. It's not. I don't care how many degrees in botany or nutrition you have, apples aren't vegetables, and porn isn't adultery.

Here's why: infidelity involves another person. Whether it's an emotional affair or a physical one, someone else is involved. So, unless you've got Multiple Personality Disorder, masturbation regardless of what you watch while doing it, does not involve another person and is therefore not infidelity.

But people hate porn. Some people hate porn (some people hate apples too), and will do whatever the fuck they can to give it an even worse name than it already have. There's a whole lot of bullshit that people use to reason this view, but it basically boils down to an idea that masturbation is "wrong" (why?), and watching other people fuck is "wrong".

And yet, suppose that someone likes to watch CNN while masturbating -- does that mean that watching CNN constitutes adultery? No. It means that they really like to be informed about what's going on in the world. But none of these anti-porn assholes would even make that argument, they would just say that that person is "sick" and that it's "wrong" to beat or rub off while watching Anderson Cooper. I highly doubt that. Have you seen Anderson Cooper?

But the bottom line is, for these people, that masturbation is wrong, porn is wrong, and anything and everything even remotely associated with either of these things is wrong. Morally wrong, and a danger to your relationship because if your partner finds out that you've been masturbating while watching Anderson Cooper, ze is going to think one of twho things:

1. OMG! Ur so sikkkkk!!!
2. Hey, can I play?

And sex for recreation is also wrong.

Oh god, can you tell us when it's going to stop?

Yes. It's snowing again. For the moment it has ceased, but, and maybe it's just me and the weather hasn't noticed this yet -- it's fucking MARCH. The Spring Equinox is less than two weeks away and this part of the country rarely sees snow once in January let alone having it fall in fucking March! I'm so sick of this, I could plotz.

Who knows, I just might. (At which point I will get back to you and detail what is exactly involved in a "plotz", because even though I've used that word most of my life, even I don't entirely know what it's supposed to mean.

In the meantime, I think I know why Uncle Walt chose now to start his regrowth. He knew it was going to keep snowing. Today he went out into the yard and sat under that weird bush-tree thing for about three hours. He says this area of the world isn't the best for his colors since it's not the greatest camoflage, but it still works out pretty well. (He's more used to the blues and greens of arctic ice, rather than the brown of dirt and tree limbs.)

Point of order, re comments

I pretty much publish all comments, whether they agree with me or disagree with me. The only thing I ask of commenters is that you NOT USE ALL CAPS TO TRY TO MAKE YOUR POINT BY DOING THE EQUIVALENT OF YELLING. It's really, really annoying.

So, keep it civil, use proper capitalization, and, if it's not too much to ask, correct spelling and punctuation would be greatly appreciated too. (Although, correct spelling can't be universally enforced since I'm really not that good at it myself.)

Any and all comments which violate civility will be deleted. This includes threats, ad hominem attacks, comments written in ALL CAPS, divulging private information about someone other than yourself, and anything else I deem to be exceptionally rude (although, I will try not to have too thin of a skin on this one).

I want comments and discussion, but there are some things I just won't put up with. The internet equivalent of screaming is one of them.