Well, it’s been a busy exam week. And I’m still not done with my grading! While I’m firing up the grill here at the Hell’s Half-Acre Ranch this afternoon, here are a few links and treats to keep you busy while you’re avoiding your grading, or writing, or reading, or whatever work it is you’re trying desperately to avoid:
- Tenured Radical has some interesting thoughts on the politics (and rampant paternalism) of egg donation in the high-tech fertility industry, and the deep, deep concern that some bioethicists have for the medical procedures involved in egg harvests and, of course, for women being paid to hand over their ova. She notes how funny it is that no one expresses the same deep, deep concerns when women are injected, poked and prodded for their own eggs, which will be then used in fertility treatments in their own bodies: “When was the last time you saw a front page article about the long-term risks associated with thirty-something and forty-something women juicing up their ovaries with dangerous chemicals over a period of anywhere from one to five years? But that’s cool because they become mothers, as opposed to becoming unnatural, selfish women whose only goal is to pay for college and graduate school.”
- Roxie at Roxie’s World has been on fire about Elena Kagan and the question, is she or isn’t she? (A natural brunette, that is–what did you think I meant?) Tenured Radical addressed this last weekend, in case you missed it.
- Historiann wonders: when the hell is President Obama going to send in the Navy Seals, or the Army Corps of Engineers, or someone to clean up the ongoing environmental travesty happening in the Gulf of Mexico? Is it really the best policy to expect the irresponsible polluters to stop the pollution? If it’s true that the U.S. government and armed forces combined have zero expertise to stop the spewing of oil and natural gas from the ocean floor, then this looks to me to be a hair on fire lapse in national security! Could a terrorist have done worse than BP and Haliburton here?
- More bad news: Could Hello Kitty be discontinued? Oh noes! Or is this just a PR attempt to spur buyer interest by leaking the notion that HK might soon be “collectible?” Tread carefully, fans.
Have a great Saturday! I hope it’s warm and lovely wherever you are this weekend.
Historiann 
AHAHAHAHAHAH! PhysioWife is also all up in arms about Hello Kitty. Did you take a look at that fucked-up character that is currently #1 in Japan? It’s a fucking jam-filled pastry!
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It is. (warm and lovely). They’re also tanking “Law and Order,” which I’m given to understand is a tv crime show set in New York City, in favor of a version that will be set in LA. So the original will remain forever tied with “Gunsmoke” for the longest-running series in some thematic or analytical category. Agreed on the Gulf. The situation seems nuts and has descended to all-spin all the time among all parties. My geology teacher once said that the “next” Rocky Mountains are going to arise out of the Gulf of Mexico, by which time the Rockies will have been reduced to worn-down nubs, sort of like the Appalachians today (sorry, Historiann). But that we should probably not wait around to see this happen.
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I really don’t understand what the young lady in the illustration is up to with her skirts. Fanning the fire?
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I was confused by the skirt-lifting as well. I decided that maybe she was shielding her face from the smoke blowing her way? It’s hard to figure out!
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Doesn’t the need to fan bbq flames ever arise in your lives, girls? Or is it just me? Good thing I always have a short skirt handy. (Gil Elvgren found a surprising number of circumstances in everyday life in which skirts must be lifted. Much more so than the actual wearers of skirts ever find, I am sure.)
Indyanna–I’m sure you’re right that the Rockies will one day be worn down to nubbins, like the Appalachians. But none of us will be around to have to see that, I am sure!
And CPP: Let’s hope that neither your wife nor I ever have to face a day without the HK.
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That fucking jam-filled pastry dude is fucking fucked up.
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“Could a terrorist have done worse than BP and Haliburton here?”
No, and very good point.
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Why are we assuming the categories are mutually exclusive?
BP/Halliburton are doing what Enron did last decade — fuck up the works, show government as a failing concern, and profit from the fallout.
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