[Guest post by DRJ]
Democratic health care: What could possibly go wrong?
— DRJ
[Guest post by DRJ]
According to some Swedish sixth graders and the European Advertising Standards Alliance, Toys ‘R Us doesn’t have a clue what kids want:
“A class at Gustavslund school in south central Sweden spent more than two years studying gender roles before setting sights on the 2008 Toys “R” Us Christmas catalog. When they did, they were more than prepared to recognize the sexist crud inside. “Small girls in princess stuff … and here are boys dressed as super heroes,” 13-year-old Hannes Psajd told a local newspaper while flipping through the catalog. “It’s obvious that you get affected by this.”
***
The class filed a complaint with Swedish regulatory agency Reklamombudsmannen, which is a member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance, arguing that the catalog modeled restrictive sex stereotypes. The agency reviewed the complaint and found that, indeed, boys are shown “playing in action filled environments,” while girls “are shown sitting or standing in passive poses,” the agency said in a statement. As a whole, “the catalogue portrays children’s games and choice of toys in a narrow-minded way, and this exclusion of boys and girls from different types of toys is, in itself, degrading to both genders,” the organization said.
Ultimately, the agency issued an official rebuke this week of Toys “R” Us, arguing that it “discriminates based on gender and counteracts positive social behaviour, lifestyles, and attitudes.”
Clearly these sixth graders deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.
— DRJ
Do you know any “professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology” with a conservative bent and a sense of humor?
If so, I need to speak with them — so they can nominate me for a Nobel Peace Prize. Those are the people who qualify to make a nomination.
I mentioned this a while back in connection with the Tookie Williams thing. I even hit up a blogger who is a law professor but he took the process too seriously. Then I hit up another blogger who is a professor. He agreed in principle, but never followed through and then became a leftist blogger and a little bit of an asshole.
So I’m still searching.
I think I’d be a great candidate. I may get subtracted points for not having killed anyone — like Arafat or Tookie did — but I am all kinds of hopeful and in the last two weeks I have done many services for humanity.
Any ideas?
As earlier, I am not kidding:
“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize – an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride – unless of course you are the Republican Party.”
No, it’s something to laugh at.
It seems like I’m kidding, doesn’t it? But I’m not. Even his sycophants in Big Media are taken aback by the decision:
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
The Nobel Peace Prize is now officially a joke.
Wait, this just in: it already was.
I give this decision an A-.
P.S. Lech Walesa is less than impressed. He is quoted in the linked article as saying: “So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far.”
Yasser Arafat could not be reached for comment, but presumably would complain that Obama hasn’t killed enough people yet to qualify.
P.P.S. What is it, two months before we get to go through this again? You know, when TIME inevitably makes Obama “Man of the Year”?
