07.31.05

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

“We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under.

“The first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public…The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes…Then there is the third category, the category of who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love…And finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present.”

– Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Via the comments on a Bitch Ph.D. post comes this must-read from The Nonist on “Blog Depression”:

I would say something like “it would be funny if it didn’t hit so close to home,” but the fact is that it’s funny because it hits so close to home.

I don’t know how non-bloggers will react to it, but I’m confident that it will strike a very deep chord in the neurotic brain center of every blogger who reads it. The spouses and partners of bloggers will probably laugh the hardest — once, that is, they’ve stopped yelling, “isn’t that what I’ve been trying to tell you for the last ten months?!”

Read the rest of this entry »

07.30.05

Caption This Photo #46

07.30.05

An Open Thread on Getting Over Bad Relationships

Two important people in my life — one a real-life friend, one a friend I met through blogging — are dealing with the fallout of relationships that ended badly.

To protect the privacy of my friends, I won’t go into details.

But I am interested in your advice. How have you gotten over bad relationships? What did you do in those moments when you felt that all was lost? How did you deal with your feelings of anger, loss, resentment, and regret?

And what did your friends do to help you get over those feelings? Is there anything, really, that a friend can do to help? What was the best advice you received, and what advice do you give others today?

Feel free to post your answers anonymously to protect your own privacy, and thanks for your help.

07.29.05

Latoyia Figueroa: The Search, and the Questions, Continue

Finding Latoyia: Your Actions Can Make a Difference

The blogswarm is having a noticeable effect: Latoyia’s picture was all over the place today. Please help us keep up the pressure.

The reward fund for Latoyia continues to grow, but it remains far short of the goal. If you’ve thought about giving, but haven’t done so yet, please consider doing so. Every contribution, no matter how small, will help.

If you’re a blogger, please consider putting one of the following ads on your site, and linking it to this ASZ post. (ad 1 | ad 2). Remember: our best chance for finding this young woman is to bring her image before as many eyes as possible. Please do your part.

A detail I’ve just read about, and that could be a good identifier, is that she has the word “Angel” tattooed on her wrist.

SpinDentist Drills Tucker Carlson

Even as he has received accolades for his role in pushing the MSM to cover Latoyia’s disappearance, Richard Cranium has received accusations of political bias. He deals with them effectively in this post:

. . . on an issue like Latoyia Figueroa’s disappearance, the lines of politics disappear completely. Latoyia could be any one of us, our children, or other family members. So, keep this in mind as you peruse articles on ASZ other than those relating to Latoyia.

Some people, unfortunately, refuse to hear that message. During an interview last night on MSNBC with All-Spin Zone’s own SpinDentist, Tucker Carlson had this to say:

Read the rest of this entry »

07.29.05

The Right-Wing War Against Gay Men With Headaches

This ridiculous story passed under my radar (so to speak) when it came out a few weeks ago, but Susie brings it to our attention. From GFN.com:

NGLCC co-founder Justin Nelson put the religious right on notice that the recent uproar surrounding the marketing of Tylenol PM to the LGBT community would backfire and that religious conservative interest groups have reached a new level of ignorance and intolerance. “I didn’t know headaches were only a straight thing,” Nelson said tongue-in-cheek about the latest tirade from the American Family Association (AFA).

Nelson’s comments came in response to a recent campaign launched by the AFA to pressure Johnson Johnson, makers of Tylenol PM, to stop advertising to and supporting the LGBT community. “Perhaps the weather is different on their planet, but here on Earth and in America, businesses exist to sell products and services to a wide variety of constituencies that will positively impact the bottom line of the company,” said Nelson.

Upon reading this news, you may wonder what, in God’s name, these religious wingnuts are so worked up about. Johnson & Johnson marketing Tylenol PM to gay men? Don’t we have more important things to be worried about, like the Global War on Terrorism Global War Against Violent Extremism?

[read on to see startling evidence of The Free Republic’s interest in buttpirate felching!]

Read the rest of this entry »

07.28.05

Gore?

Duncan posted today on the news that some pundits are floating Gore’s name for the 2008 election. Duncan says Call me a Gore Man.

I’m on the fence. As much as I like Gore, I worry that he — like Kerry, and like Clark — sometimes comes across as a highly intellectual brainiac.

And while I’d rather have an intellectual brainiac in the White House than a fascist dolt, a significant portion of U.S. voters (and/or Supreme Court justices) seems to disagree.

Read the rest of this entry »

07.28.05

Honesty is the Best Policy

At long last, Bush levels with the American people.

Boiled down to one obscene gesture, this is the central message of his Presidency.

(via Susie)

07.28.05

The Shield

King Kaufman on the NHL’s new logo:

We’ve been talking about what the league ought to do to bring fans back and win new ones following the disastrous lockout that wiped out last season, and yessirree, Bob, this is bound to be a smash.

The old shield logo was black with the orange letters “NHL” slanting down toward the lower right between parallel lines. The new one — get this — has silver instead of orange, and the letters slant up toward the upper right!

Lost in this new design is the clever element of the “L,” with its obtuse angle, looking like a hockey stick. But we must make sacrifices in the name of progress. The upward-slanting letters “project a vibrant, optimistic image,” according to the league.

Optimism is generally an admirable trait, but it’s also kind of the default when you’ve got no place to go but up.

I’m just surprised that they didn’t rename the league “The Global War on Ice.”

[ed. note: If you like King’s writing as much as I do, be sure to check out my two-part interview with him]

07.28.05

Caption This Photo #45

07.28.05

A Paper Divided Against Itself

In Judy Miller: Do We Want To Know Everything or Don’t We?, Arianna Huffington visits the smoky backrooms of The New York Times offices and emerges with a few cigar burns and a heck of a story to tell.

Huffington suggests that there are two warring camps within the Times building: “those who want to learn everything about this story, and those who want to learn everything as long as it doesn’t downgrade the heroic status of their ‘colleague’ Judy Miller.”

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