Prettier Than Napoleon

[Not emigrating]

Reading this made me curious: How do illegal immigrants get health care in Canada?

Posted by Amber at 9:05 AM

Gossip Girl

I had no idea who "Jon and Kate" were until recently and still don't really know who "Spencer and Heidi" are, but I keep up with blogger romances in an almost unseemly way.

Posted by Amber at 9:03 PM

A dream deferred?

More blogfodder from Ta-Nehesi Coates's site, this time from the comments to his discussion of Steve McNair's death and the need for men to take more account of the risks of sexual and romantic activities:

The piece-on-the-side realized that she wasn't the ONLY piece-on-the-side.

I'm still waiting for them to reveal that she was pregnant.

Then again, maybe she was just a delusional 20 year old who thought she had hit the jackpot, only to be told, "We're just having fun."

That "then again" sounds right, but I don't like the subtle misogyny of "hit the jackpot." After all, men will use an implied promise of a better life and material wealth as a way of getting sexual access, then renege when they get bored/are done. At 20, you aren't delusional - you're just naive. ...

I have an open question for readers: the person who broke your hearts the hardest, whom it took you the longest to get over, were they higher on social and economic ladders than you? Or were they lower?

Part of the trauma of losing a relationship is the trauma of losing the imagined future with that person. One can mourn that miscarried future, and whatever security it might have brought, without reducing the beloved to a meal ticket or a leg up the social ladder. Does this reflect your experiences?

Posted by Amber at 7:39 AM

God is not a fiscal conservative, apparently.

Why did we ever have Air Force jet flyovers of piddling local festivals? What is the cost of fielding a bunch of fighter jets, and why would anyone want to incur that cost to taxpayers for something so self-evidently unrelated to military readiness as this? The benefit to recruiting from these exercises cannot possibly justify the expenditure.

Posted by Amber at 7:30 PM

Commonplace genius and white supremacy

One of the best posts I've read lately.

Obama doesn't work as Mr. Smith because Obama is not just your local boy scouts leader from next door. Obama is a brilliant man. His talent can't give me faith that my neighbor is making good decisions in the voting booth because Obama is much smarter than my neighbor.

That's why Obama's triumph isn't a victory for the "democratic ideal".

I think this is a pretty solid argument. But it makes assumptions about the American experience that some of us simply don't share. More to the point this "democratic ideal" is really a euphemism for white populism, and from a black perspective, even white tyranny.

The history is helpful, here. For most of this country's history, being black and brilliant was not something that set you a part from other black people--it was something that could get you killed by white people. A study of this country's history reveals to not be hyperbole. This notion that white people of medium talents could rise to rule the world was not simply "the democratic ideal," it was the tyranny of our lives--with depressing, disastrous effects. The idea that mediocre white people could rise to incredible levels of power was not so much an ideal for us--it was the whole point of white supremacy.

We obviously live in a different era. But still, one of the most depressing things about being black and "making it" is the incredible randomness of it all. To the extent that intelligence is measurable, I sat in classrooms with people who were smarter than me, worked harder than me, and studied longer than me. ...

When you're black, and likely when you're Latino, and likely when you're a kind of white, you see brilliant people all the time--and they get taken out in the most horrific ways. They have kids too soon. They get shot on the way home from school. They get hooked on crack. They go to jail. And then there is that one kid who makes it, who despite the wages of race in this country, goes on and does something big. To many black people, that person is Barack Obama.

Perhaps if you are white, Barack Obama represents the end of the idea that your next door neighbor could be president. But you should consider that just because Barack Obama isn't your next door neighbor, doesn't mean he isn't mine.

I often like to tell the story of how I got into Harvard because of a cement-truck accident. Imposter syndrome, or just wry acceptance of the randomness underlying the alleged meritocratic ideal? We all know those kids---old friends, maybe---who were sharp and intelligent and somehow derailed. There but for the grace &c. And in their place, the privileged and marginally competent?

Posted by Amber at 8:07 PM

more than one membership to more than one club

Trans folk hate forms. The real question, perhaps, is why any forms (except medical ones) should have an M/F box in the first place.

Posted by Amber at 9:17 PM

Plague Books

Have you ever disposed of "a book so bad [you were] reluctant to put it on [your] shelves, lest some of the suck leak out and infect nearby books [you] knew to be good"? I sold From Hell, but out of fear it would psychically contaminate my dreams, not because it would infect other books.

Posted by Amber at 7:48 AM

Kiss Kiss

Today is International Kissing Day. You still have a few hours to make the most of it.

Posted by Amber at 8:10 PM

Random Roundup

Zubon on Samuel Delany.

Greatest headline ever?

Blogger wedding.

Posted by Amber at 7:50 AM

Money can't buy me love

What are the ten most expensive things you have paid for? What are the ten things you have bought that made you happiest? Is there overlap? On both my lists:

International travel: Belize, Western Europe, and Japan especially.
Designer clothes: Because I am vain and it gives me great pleasure to look stylish. And because I like beautiful, well-made things with high uses to dollars ratios.
Furnishings for my current house: This is the first place that I have really made my own through choice of decor and furniture. I don't know why anyone would have a home with white walls in every room anymore.
My car: Not having your own car really sucks! And hand-me-down cars are fine, but it's great to be able to pick something out on your own, so that it meets your needs and wants.
Books: I try to go to the library but I've probably spent thousands on books despite my cheapskate intentions.

Basically, it looks like my best expenditures have been either experiential (reading, traveling) or expressive (clothes, furnishings, picking my car). You?

Posted by Amber at 10:11 AM

Hands off my uterus legs

William Saletan: Bodily sovereignty is for suckers! Should I be reassured that he's also a paternalist when it comes to things other than abortion?

Posted by Amber at 7:50 AM

It's for science!

I can't believe that I missed out on the chance to be part of the Kissing Experiment.

Posted by Amber at 10:53 PM

What is this weed?

And why is it in my yard?

Posted by Amber at 7:09 AM

Random Roundup

First world problems: Texas sucks because "in a true mark of backwater-ness, there was like 1 non-Starbucks coffeeshop with wireless, and no vegetarian food restaurants that were halfway decent."

Swedish couple won't disclose their child's sex ... even the kid doesn't know!

Monticello is pretty awesome.

"My own nightmares had two reoccurring themes, one concerned standing on the beach at Weston Super Mare, my home town, when the tide suddenly goes out very fast and returns as a huge tidal wave that is about to engulf me," Parker said. "The other dream includes a dinosaur roaming the streets at night and looking in at my window. I wondered if my experience was common amongst women."

Posted by Amber at 10:23 PM