NEWS FLASH
Michelle Obama Marks Anniversary Of ‘Joining Forces’ Military Employment Program On Colbert | Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama announced that as part of the Obama administration’s “Joining Forces” program, companies pledged to provide more than 15,000 jobs for military spouses. Last night, she went on the Colbert Report to mark the first anniversary of the program. “We have seen people hiring our veterans and finding wonderful flexible opportunities for spouses,” she said. In part two of the interview, Obama said that meeting military families on the campaign trail in 2008 “inspired” her, along with Dr. Jill Biden, to start the program. “I said on the campaign trail that…I would try to be their voice and tell their stories because I think that most Americans are like me and like you, we are not apart of the military community so we don’t understand that sacrifice,” Obama said. Watch the clip of part one:
The bridge is yours.
-It’s too bad New Girl‘s ratings have cratered as the show’s gotten much more fun to watch.
-Which science fiction scenario is most likely to happen in the (reasonably) near future?
-I’d actually like Michelle Obama even more than I already do if I thought she was reading Mommy porn.
-Time traveling Aubrey Plaza!
NEWS FLASH
Michelle Obama: Supreme Court Could Protect Same-Sex Couples | At campaign fundraisers for her husband’s re-election yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama emphasized that the Supreme Court justices the President could appoint in a second term could help protect the equal rights of LGBT people:
MICHELLE OBAMA: [L]et us not forget about what it meant when my husband appointed those two magnificent Supreme Court justices. And for the first time in history, our daughters and our sons watched three women take their seat on our nation’s highest court. And let us not forget what their decisions — the impact those decisions will have on our lives for decades to come -– on our privacy and security, on whether we can speak freely, worship openly, and, yes, love whomever we choose. But that’s what’s at stake. That’s the choice that we face.
With numerous challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act advancing, as well as the challenge to Proposition 8, it is quite possible the Supreme Court will rule on marriage equality in the next few years.
If you’re not watching Key & Peele, the half-hour sketch-and-standup show that airs on Comedy Central at 10:30PM on Tuesdays, you’re doing yourself a disservice—particularly if you find yourself missing Chapelle’s Show, Dave Chapelle’s short-lived but legendary exploration of race in America. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, both biracial themselves, have nailed comedy for the age of Obama. It’s not just that Peele has the best Obama impression in the business. In their exploration of code-switching, whether it’s in conversations between black people and white people, men and woman, or people of different classes, Key and Peele have identified an essential element of our changing American landscape. I spoke with both men last week. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
One of the things I’ve found interesting about many of your jokes is the way they explore code-switching. It’s not just that you find the humor in the way that people of color adapt to white society, but a lot of these sketches suggest that white people need to learn to switch codes, too.
Keegan; It’s funny, we were just talking about that recently. I think that this climate we’re in nowadays, code-switching can be thought of as a positive. Being a hybrid is not necessarily something to hide, but something to celebrate. Code-switching, depending on the code, is something that happens in humanity. We shine a light on it in African-American culture more than anything else. But we have Caucasian friends who are from Arkansas or Alabama, and all of sudden, there was a twang explosion. And it’s a phenomenon that exist in the human condition…It’s very Pauline in a way. I’m a big fan of Paul in that regard. It doesn’t matter if you’re Sippian, or Greek, or Hebrew, I’m giong to speak to you where you’re at without judgement…One of our executive producers, he always says, we spend our existence as organisms trying to stay comfortable. And I thought that was very astute…The hardest thing in the world is to step out of our box or let our unique light shine.
You mentioned that you’re a fan of Paul. What are your religious backgrounds?
Keegan: I’m actually quite a spiritual Christian. I’m fascinated by spiritual thought across the board. I was raised a Christian, and I studied a little Buddhism and maybe a dash of Hinduism, but i’m fascinated by Hebraic culture, and how our culture has been informed by Hebraic culture. I’m fascinated by the fact that we practice a Near-Eastern religion in a super-Western society, and how our faith has changed. There are volumes of books written about how if you met a Christian from first-century Palestine, you’d say, um, that’s not a Christian. I was raised Catholic, and then I spent a good deal of time in the Charismatic church, and now I’m in the Disciples of Christ.
Jordan: I am not [religious]. I feel just very devoted to comedy. And I believe that is the way that I’m meant to take in the world, and that’s the way I’m meant to affect the world as well.
Keegan: Do you think that your gift is something that is divine? Or do you think it’s something that just through life and evolution you’ve become the being you are through nurture.
Jordan: I think that when somebody laughs, genuinely laughs, that something is happening within them that is special. I think it’s a revelatory thing. If you can laugh despite yourself, you can get into a giggling fit at a funeral of a loved one for some reason. It’s something that needs to happen for our minds, or our souls, emotionally, it’s a release. it forges the conversation. When something happens in comedy that sort of strikes a chord, [people] talk about it. I’m a big fan of discussion. I think it’s the best thing that we have for ourselves. I think comedy is just a special, special thing. It’s our favorite thing to do in the world.
Read more
NEWS FLASH
Study: Pictures Of Vegtables Encourage Kids To Eat More Vegetables | A research letter released by the Journal of the American Medial Association says that placing photographs of vegetables on the lunch trays of elementary-school students significantly increases not only the number of children who consume vegetables, but also the quantity of vegetables they’re likely to consume. The pictures, which featured images of green beans and carrots, were placed in two separate lunch tray compartments. The number of children who took green beans jumped from 6.3 percent to 14.8 percent, while the percentage of kids who ate carrots spiked from 11.6 percent to 36.8 percent. Researchers believe the experiment worked because the pictures played on kids’ sensitivity to societal norms, as “seeing the photos in the compartments gives kids the impression that “this must be where everyone puts their vegetables,” and that everyone is eating them[.]” As part of new USDA rules recently unveiled by First Lady Michelle Obama, schools are obligated to offer students more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as part of their lunches. — Fatima Najiy
It may not be the first time French fashion magazines have shown some bizarre racial attitudes — anyone remember the time Carine Roitfeld had Lara Stone do an editorial in blackface for French Vogue? But French Elle apparently decided it wasn’t totally over the line to publish a piece (since pulled) about how Michelle Obama has finally, at long last, turned black women into French-acceptable style icons. In the name of educating them, here are 10 black women with incredible high style, who were around long before FLOTUS made the national scene, elevating everyone from Jason Wu to White House Black Market:
1. Josephine Baker: The toast of Paris, Baker may have been more famous for the clothes she didn’t wear during some of her most famous performances, but she wore designer clothes off-stage, popularized a hairstyle and a hat style, and did it all while aiding the French resistance and aiding 12 adoptive children.
2. Billie Holiday: The flowers in her hair. The big necklaces and earrings. The comfort with her curves.
3. Coretta Scott King: In the midst of the civil rights movement, Mrs. King and her husband brought classic style to the fight for justice, including fashionable hats, mixed textures in the fabrics of her clothing, flower-shaped stud earrings, and classic silhouettes. One of the reasons French Elle’s article is so stupid is that it ignores the role that style’s played in the fight against racism in an attempt to assert dignity and poise in the face of white hate.
4. Diana Ross: She’s rocked everything from the conservative fashions of early Motown to an Afro. And while she’s worn designers ranging from Halston to Bob Mackie, Ross’s interest in fashion was initially professional. She’d wanted to be a designer, but ended up helping establish international trends instead.
5. Kathleen Cleaver: The former Black Panther was one of the radical women who helped popularize the Afro, and with her gorgeous earrings and signature sunglasses, she stood for the idea that you could be involved in the struggle for black liberation without playing by conservative and respectable style rules.
6. Alek Wek and Iman: Elle appears to have missed the fact that black women don’t just buy fashionable clothes, they represent the way they should be worn to the whole world. Both Wek and Iman were born in Africa and have become international style icons, walking for and inspiring everyone from Alexander McQueen to Yves Saint Laurent — and both do enormous amounts of charity work.
7. Condoleezza Rice: No matter how you feel about her politics or her tenure as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, Rice wore great jackets, killer boots, and turned pearls into an assertion of power rather than a representation of fustiness. And she could pose in a gown at the piano she loves to play, too.
8. Beyonce and Solange Knowles: High fashion and hipster queen, the Knowles sisters have very different senses of styles that compliment their music and personalities. Elle should know that black women aren’t just confined to street fashion, to one label, or to one set of trends.
Politics
Picture in email titled "Twins separated at birth?"
O’Neal had initially tried to defend his actions, but relented yesterday and apologized to the First Lady:
The email, first reported today by the Lawrence Journal-World, has pictures comparing Mrs. Obama to the Grinch because of their similarly wind-blown hair.
“Sorry, just had to forward this latest holiday message,” O’Neal wrote. “I’ve had worse hair days, but this is pretty funny.”
The forwarded email goes on to state: “I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacaton — at our expense, of course,” the Journal-World reported this afternoon.
A spokeswoman for O’Neal confirmed the email message, saying it was sent from his personal email account to a “select few” members of the House.
In their statement originally justifying the message his office said, “Political cartoons are a part of American culture.” Yesterday O’Neal apologized in tepid terms, saying, “To those I have offended, I am sorry. That was not at all my intent.”
The incident comes just weeks after Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) apologized to the First Lady for saying she had “big butt.”
It seems that Sony is sufficiently concerned about whether Kathryn Bigelow’s much-more-hotly-anticipated-as-of-April movie Kill bin Laden could swing the 2012 election that they’re considering moving its release date as far back as 2013. This strikes me as somewhat silly. Whether or not there is a Hollywood movie about it, or many Hollywood movies about it, as the case may be, released in any proximity to the election, the fact remains that President Obama gave the order to have Osama bin Laden killed. I’m reasonably certain we will be reminded of that fact through other media, perhaps including paid campaign advertisements.
NEWS FLASH
South Carolina Tea Party Chair Posts Joke About Killing The Obamas On Facebook | Shery Lanford Smith, the chairwoman of Sumter Tea Party in South Carolina is under fire after posting a joke about killing President and First Lady Obama on her Facebook profile last Thursday. In the joke, the Obamas’ helicopter pilot says to his co-pilot, “I could throw both of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy!” Smith continued, “If you’re one of [the] 256 million, pass it on,” which implies “she herself would be happy to see the Obamas killed.” The joke has been circulating for years in various forms and “have included the names of multiple political figures.” Smith defended the post, “It’s just a joke…I had no idea it would be an issue.” Smith removed the post after the Sumter Item asked for comment, but the Item took a screen shot of the post:
Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) suggested First Lady Michelle Obama supported same-sex marriage during an appearance on CNN last night, a surprising revelation given her silence on the issue:
ELIOT SPITZER (HOST): How about President Obama? Are you disappointed in the hesitancy that he has shown to go beyond where he is?
MCGREEVEY: If he could only listen to Michelle more often. I think the president is moving and you know for many elected officials they started in the same place, you know, marriage is between a man and a woman, but they understand that they’re moving inevitably, catching up to the American public.
Watch it:
The segment was also notable for bringing McGreevey and Spitzer together, two former governors from neighboring states who both had to resign in the midst of sex scandals.
The First Lady’s Office responded to McGreevey’s comments today, stating, “Mrs. Obama has never made any public statements about same-sex marriage.”
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