Saturday, December 20, 2008 - Posts
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Obama hasn't banished anyone, Dahlia, and that's what's giving us such agita. (Well, not all of us; Sara has casually lumped pro-lifers like me in with the "anti-gay bigots'' that those who are on the side of tolerance and inclusion must guard against and try to get disinvited.) When Obama ran on bringing together all Americans, did you who are horrified that he's chosen Rick Warren to offer the inaugural benediction think he meant only the right-thinking, left-leaning people you would be perfectly comfortable around—and no figgy pudding for dissidents?
Obama nation is not going to work that way, and his inauguration won't be that kind of party. Warren is not my brand of (Godly) vodka, either, but so what? Noreen, Jim Wallis is my favorite evangelical, too. But when you wish that someone who cared more about poor people than Warren does had been picked instead, whom are you thinking of who "reverse tithes" as he does, keeping 10 percent of what he makes and giving 90 percent to those in need? Did you assume that because he's a conservative evangelical minister, he doesn't care about poor people?
Among those who see Warren as a hater is, of course, Christopher Hitchens, whose umpteenth diatribe hating on believers is thought perfectly fair and funny, just Hitchens being Hitchens hahaha. But directed at any other group of people, Slate wouldn't dream of running even one such screed. And if Obama makes all of us confront our biases, then that's just one more reason I thank God he got elected.
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Susannah, I so agree with you. If only the dismal economy really did persuade lots of women to forgo botox injections and plastic surgery and opt instead for more natural alternative beauty therapies. I have to admit that while I am all for going au naturale and aging gracefully, I never heard of, but am definitely intrigued by, cosmetic acupuncture and other therapies that don't require a sharp knife to the face. Imagine how a widespread rejection of the plastic surgery industrial complex could cripple an industry that trades on making women falsely believe that altering their noses, chins, eyelids, cheeks, ears, etc., will make them look, and feel, perfectly beautiful. Sadly, a botox boycott is not likely to happen anytime soon; plastic surgery is more affordable than it used to be, and American women are even going abroad to have work done for less. The whole thing is so darn "Unpretty."
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