Who’d a thunk it? November 29, 2005

OK, so I’m working on a more comprehensive of noteworthy quotations from The Mouse That Roared, but this one was too good to pass up.

Anybody know of any other place that sounds like this?

“It seems that Disney wanted a particular type of student to attend, as indicated in the detailed dress codes it provided for both men and women. The men were to wear a suite with a color-coordinated shirt; the suit fabric was to be one ‘traditionally accepted for business.’ No necklaces, bracelets, or earrings were allowed, nor were male [college] students permitted to have a mustache, beard, or hair ‘beyond or covering any part of the ears.’ No one was to show up with an ‘extreme look, including shaving the head or eyebrows’…Women were to wear a suit, a dress, or a pants outfit…No more than two necklaces could be worn, and these were not to exceed thrity inches in length. And in case these young women missed the point, they were not to wear more than one ring per hand.”

But wait, folks, that’s not all.

“Pedagogically, employees are given written quizzes on Disney rules. One pedagogical strategy includes exposing workers to an endless chant of inane Disney mottos such as “We work while others play!” “We never say no because we know the answers.” And “We smile that extra jmile.”

And best of all…

“‘Supervisors in Tomorrowland are…famous for…hiding in the bushes above the submarine caves, timing the arrivals and departures of the supposedly fully loaded boats making the 8 1/2 minute cruise under the polar icecaps…In short, supervisors…are regarded by ride operatos as sneaks and tricksters out toget them and representative of the dark side of park life.’”

All right, so it’s not entirely parallel, but the similarities are striking.

The Mouse That Roared November 29, 2005

That’s the title of one of the books I’m purusing. It’s about Disney and kids and culture, and so far, I’m hooked. His basic premise runs like this: “It would be reductionist not to recognize that there is also some excellent programming that is provided to audiences, but by and large much of what is produced on television and in the big Hollywood studios panders to the lowest common denominator, defines freedom as consumer choice, and debases public discourse by reducing it to spectacle.”

Now, anything that takes popular media to task for debasing public discourse makes my ears perk up, and so far, Giroux (the author) seems to be very balanced in his approach. He’s recognized that Disney is not “engaged in a conspiracy to undermine American youth or deomcracy around the world,” and that everbody will interpret the messages from Disney differently–”there are no passive dupes in this script.” So his book is shaping up to be a good one. We’ll see…

Anybody else ever run into this guy?

Who’d a thunk it? November 29, 2005

OK, so I’m working on a more comprehensive of noteworthy quotations from The Mouse That Roared, but this one was too good to pass up.

Anybody know of any other place that sounds like this?

“It seems that Disney wanted a particular type of student to attend, as indicated in the detailed dress codes it provided for both men and women. The men were to wear a suite with a color-coordinated shirt; the suit fabric was to be one ‘traditionally accepted for business.’ No necklaces, bracelets, or earrings were allowed, nor were male [college] students permitted to have a mustache, beard, or hair ‘beyond or covering any part of the ears.’ No one was to show up with an ‘extreme look, including shaving the head or eyebrows’…Women were to wear a suit, a dress, or a pants outfit…No more than two necklaces could be worn, and these were not to exceed thrity inches in length. And in case these young women missed the point, they were not to wear more than one ring per hand.”

But wait, folks, that’s not all.

“Pedagogically, employees are given written quizzes on Disney rules. One pedagogical strategy includes exposing workers to an endless chant of inane Disney mottos such as “We work while others play!” “We never say no because we know the answers.” And “We smile that extra jmile.”

And best of all…

“‘Supervisors in Tomorrowland are…famous for…hiding in the bushes above the submarine caves, timing the arrivals and departures of the supposedly fully loaded boats making the 8 1/2 minute cruise under the polar icecaps…In short, supervisors…are regarded by ride operatos as sneaks and tricksters out toget them and representative of the dark side of park life.’”

All right, so it’s not entirely parallel, but the similarities are striking.

The Mouse That Roared November 29, 2005

That’s the title of one of the books I’m purusing. It’s about Disney and kids and culture, and so far, I’m hooked. His basic premise runs like this: “It would be reductionist not to recognize that there is also some excellent programming that is provided to audiences, but by and large much of what is produced on television and in the big Hollywood studios panders to the lowest common denominator, defines freedom as consumer choice, and debases public discourse by reducing it to spectacle.”

Now, anything that takes popular media to task for debasing public discourse makes my ears perk up, and so far, Giroux (the author) seems to be very balanced in his approach. He’s recognized that Disney is not “engaged in a conspiracy to undermine American youth or deomcracy around the world,” and that everbody will interpret the messages from Disney differently–”there are no passive dupes in this script.” So his book is shaping up to be a good one. We’ll see…

Anybody else ever run into this guy?

Cruel and Unusual? November 23, 2005

All right, my legal friends. Is this kind of sentencing allowed?

I mean, I’m all for not being unnecessarily cruel to animals, and I really despise people that are nasty to their pets. But there’s something about this that makes me uneasy. Maybe it’s the idea that dumping her in the woods the way she dumped the cats in the woods makes her life of no more value than theirs.

Cruel and Unusual? November 23, 2005

All right, my legal friends. Is this kind of sentencing allowed?

I mean, I’m all for not being unnecessarily cruel to animals, and I really despise people that are nasty to their pets. But there’s something about this that makes me uneasy. Maybe it’s the idea that dumping her in the woods the way she dumped the cats in the woods makes her life of no more value than theirs.

Action and Inaction November 22, 2005

OK, here’s the starter post. Since this wasn’t originally my question, I’ll just play host and yield to David if he wants to reframe what I put here.

I think the question (although specific in the original to birth control) was beginning to broaden out to encompass all actions, so I’ll try to phrase this a couple of different ways as I understand it.

How shall we define action in relation to sin? Are sins only actions, or may motives also be sins? This references a deeper question: what is sin exatly? Given any particular action/motive, how do we figure out if it’s sin or not? Are there grey things? How do we figure those out?

All right. Game’s in play.

Will this never end? November 22, 2005

Article on Padilla

So now what? I mean, really, how do we sort this kind of stuff out? I don’t believe for a moment that the announcement of this indictment was to side step the Supreme Court, and despite Mr. Gonzales’ protestations to the contrary, I’m just cynical enough (yes, David, you’ve worn off on me) to be absolutely sure that he’s lying through his teeth.

But what’s the deal with this guy? Did the Bush admin wait until the last second, realize that they didn’t have a prayer of winning in the SC and decide to go for broke on actually charging him?

And if you broaden it out to all the people that we’ve picked up and are just holding, letting them rot, what do we do with them? They’re basically enemy soldiers, even though they don’t follow one particular enemy in the traditional sense, but they’re not necessarily going to be tried as war criminals, but we can’t very well just let them out. In an indefinite war, do we just hold them indefinitely? Besides the fact that it really stinks for them to be locked up forever, if we’re paying to feed and house them, it’s going to get pretty darn expensive pretty soon here.

So many variables…it makes my head hurt just thinking about them all…

Action and Inaction November 22, 2005

OK, here’s the starter post. Since this wasn’t originally my question, I’ll just play host and yield to David if he wants to reframe what I put here.

I think the question (although specific in the original to birth control) was beginning to broaden out to encompass all actions, so I’ll try to phrase this a couple of different ways as I understand it.

How shall we define action in relation to sin? Are sins only actions, or may motives also be sins? This references a deeper question: what is sin exatly? Given any particular action/motive, how do we figure out if it’s sin or not? Are there grey things? How do we figure those out?

All right. Game’s in play.

Turkey Funnies November 22, 2005

In light of the upcoming holiday, I thought I would post some interestingly random bits and pieces relating to Thanksgiving.

I think I had heard this one before, but it turns out that the President pardons a turkey every year only moments before it is sent off to meet the chef. Here’s the link for info on this year’s turkey and his alternate, you know, in case he gets car sick or something.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Turkey-Pardon.html

This seemed like a great spot to inset some choice commentary on what one person called the Chief Turkey, but since this is meant to be a happy post, I’ll refrain.

Of course, no recounting of hilarity would be complete without a contribution from the esteemed Mr. Barry. Be warned–reading the following article may cause you to break out into uncontrollabel spasms of laughter, and if you’re reading this during a class, you may call undue attention to yourself if you fall on the floor and stop breathing.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2004/nov/21/thanksgiving_traditions_spur/

Just in case you don’t yet have a recipe to use for your turkey, I submit this for your review.

http://www.happywomanmagazine.com/Holiday/Turkey101.html

And last but not at all least, if your family’s Thanksgiving dinner is just a little bit dull, try this suggestion from http://www.butlerwebs.com/holidays/thanksgiving.html

“At the Thanksgiving dinner table when everyone goes around to say what they are thankful for, say, ‘I’m thankful I didn’t get caught’ and refuse to say anything more.”

Happy Thanksgiving!