Chris Magazine

I'm sure this is offensive so I'm posting it to show my disgust.

Check This Out

To Alison, but also to my Grandmother. It's her birthday this weekend and I'm a little late getting the card off. She's getting on in years now and suffers from dementia and short term memory issues. This is the card I'm not getting her:

Sorry I forgot your birthday...


But I guess that makes two of us.

For those of you who are sticklers for details (and accuracy...

Click here

What kind of a world is it that we live in where a celebrity can't go to a semi-public party and strip for money and not have pictures show up on the internet? Not ours I tell you... not ours...

click here

What's sad is that I thought she was paid pretty well. Sadly she's since been "let go" by TLC.

This is from the NY Times.

Please, let's be honest. For anyone who's been in love, a straight jacket's a pretty apt analogy to what it can do to you. As far as being sensitive to loony people in straight jackets...first off, how often have you seen one? It's not like they let the paranoid schitzophrenics out of the ward wearing the damn things and frankly if they are to react violently to such an image, it's likely they shouldn't have been let out in the first place. Second, Why do we have to be so damn sensitive to everyone? Honestly, if they're really upset I'm sure Hallmark makes a "Sorry you're totally screwed in the and you felt like our bear made fun of you.... please forgive us" card. As for me, I'll buy the bear, but only because I think that jacket would fit my two year old and would aid me greatly when I have to change her diaper.

Toy's Message of Affection Draws Anger and Publicity

By PAM BELLUCK

HELBURNE, Vt., Jan. 20 - The Vermont Teddy Bear Company believed it had a winner of a Valentine gift: its "Crazy for You" teddy bear, a cuddly bundle of fur - with paws restrained by a straitjacket and the outfit accompanied by commitment papers.

But when the company, a nationally known retailer and tourist attraction much loved in Vermont, started selling the teddy bear this month, it created an uproar.

Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican who considers the company's president a friend, called the bear "very insensitive" at a news conference, saying: "Mental health is very serious. We should not stigmatize it further with these marketing efforts."

Pleas to stop selling the bear have come from state legislators, medical professionals and mental health advocates, who say they object not to the "crazy for you" sentiment but to the straitjacket and commitment papers because they represent such an extreme and painful image of mental illness.

The mother of a mentally ill teenager in Massachusetts started a petition drive, helped by students in local public schools.

And both the president and the chairman of Vermont's only teaching hospital, Fletcher Allen Health Care, criticized the company, significant because the president of Vermont Teddy Bear, Elisabeth Robert, sits on the hospital's board. Mental health advocates want Ms. Robert removed from her hospital position, and the board chairman, William Schubart, is considering the request.

"That kind of lighthearted depiction of illness is just not something I tolerate," Mr. Schubart said.

Vermont Teddy Bear said it would keep its original plan of selling the bear, which costs $69.95, in its stores and on its Web site through Valentine's Day, its busiest season. (In its Shelburne store, little straitjackets are also sold separately so customers can accessorize other bears.)

In a statement, the company said, "We recognize that this is a sensitive, human issue and sincerely apologize if we have offended anyone." It added, "This bear was created in the spirit of Valentine's Day" and "was designed to be a lighthearted depiction of the sentiment of love."

Company officials have agreed to meet with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Bob Carolla, an alliance spokesman, said the company first resisted meeting before Valentine's Day but then agreed to meet on Feb. 8. Mr. Carolla said that his group had fought the use of straitjackets in advertisements, but that this was the first straitjacketed product he could recall.

Ms. Robert (pronounced roh-BEAR) said in an interview that the company, based in Shelburne, made the 15-inch bear after a customer survey yielded "overwhelmingly positive feedback."

When complaints started, Ms. Robert said, she reflected on the matter "for virtually an entire day."

She said she talked to employees and the board of directors, and reviewed public feedback. "I listened to our customers - they were buying the bear," Ms. Robert said.

She concluded that "there were many business reasons not to pull the product off the market - profit wasn't the only one."

The bear has upset many Vermont residents because the company, like the ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's, is a Vermont mascot of sorts and has popular community programs like providing teddy bears for injured children. Also, Vermont is considered a state with progressive mental health laws.

"Vermont Teddy Bear has a reputation for being socially responsible and sensitive," Jason Gibbs, a spokesman for Governor Douglas, said. "And you would think that someone who sits on the board of trustees of Vermont's only academic medical center would have an exceeding degree of respect for the need to treat the mental health community with parity."

"We're also concerned about the reputation of this particular company," Mr. Gibbs said. "They are a valued employer; they are a tourist attraction."

Nicole L'Huillier, a company spokeswoman, said that despite making a product associated with children, Vermont Teddy Bear advertised to adults, often on radio shows like Howard Stern's. In addition to bears dressed as princesses and Superman, it also has a Playboy bear.

"The majority of our customers are men at Valentine's Day," Ms. L'Huillier said.

The company has received about 150 supportive e-mail messages and phone calls regarding its "Crazy for You" bear and about 400 in opposition, she said.

Fueled by the uproar, about 2,000 bears were sold last week, she said, a volume considered "very high," but sales have recently "leveled off."

Supporters of the company's decision to keep selling the bear say opponents are too politically correct.

Ken Schram, a commentator for KOMO-TV in Seattle, said on the air that "the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is bouncing around its round rubber boardroom." And Robert Paul Reyes, a columnist for The Lynchburg Ledger, a weekly newspaper in central Virginia, advised the head of the Vermont chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill chapter to "take a Valium, or better yet buy a 'Crazy for You Bear.' "

Some Vermont residents also dismiss the objections.

"It's a lovey, huggy little bear," said Al Bounds, 74, of Shelburne, which is a Burlington suburb. "Who cares what it's wearing?"

Mr. Bounds said he thought the controversy was "good for the company because it will put them on TV, so that will bring money into the community."

But others say a straitjacket on something as cute as a teddy bear trivializes a traumatic experience and reinforces a stereotype of mentally ill people as violent.

"If Vermont Teddy Bear had produced a bear with a noose around its neck saying, 'I'd love to hang with you,' and called it a Ku Klux Klan teddy bear, the response would be overwhelming disgust and horror," said Anne Donahue, a Republican state representative.

Flip Brown, a management consultant in Burlington, said that "I know that marketing departments need to be creative and even edgy, and you want products that grab attention," but that "if you buy this bear and you have a child who sees it and asks: 'What is that bear doing? Why can't it move its arms?' how do you answer that question?"

Maureen McNamara of Westboro, Mass., whose 13-year-old son has been committed to psychiatric hospitals and put in a straitjacket, started a petition drive against the bear. "You wouldn't have a bear in a wheelchair saying, 'I'm rolling over the hill in love with you,' " she said.

On Thursday, at the company's store here, Irene Brimicombe, 81, of Shelburne, looked at the prominently displayed bears and said, "They should take it off the market, so many people are against it."

But her friend, June Quinn, 76, who recently moved from Virginia, bought one. "I'm tired of being politically correct," Ms. Quinn said. "I'm tired of balancing what comes out of my mouth. And, he's cute as all get out."

Ms. Quinn also bought an American flag sweater for her bear.

"Well, he can't sit around all the time in this," she said, gesturing to the straitjacket.

"See," Ms. Brimicombe said, "that proves it isn't right."

P.S. I think the Klan bear is a great idea. For years I've been getting my Klan friends chocolates, which they wouldn't eat because they were "black", finally I could get them a nice white bear in a hood. No longer would they have to be excluded from Valentine's Day just because they're racist bastards.

Well, Bush officially started his second term in office today. Thrilling stuff as he proclaimed an end to tyranny around the world as we let freedom ring and things of that nature. I'm sure this means that we'll be taking a hard core stand against dictators such as President Musharoff (that is not spelled right) of Pakistan and what about the royal family of Saudi Arabia...that doesn't seem very democratic. I'm sure we'll be taking some harsh measures against Russia and Putin and his crackdown on the free press and businesses that offer support to his opposition.
I'm certain as well that when Bush speaks of unity he's calling on fundamentalist Christians in this country to reflect upon their rhetoric as being devisive as opposed to inclusive. I'm sure he's asking them to seek common grounds with their opposites as opposed to dogmatically proselitizing and trying to impose their value system on everyone they meet whether it fits or not.
I'm sure that Bush only had the best of intentions when he spoke about Republicans having to come together and compromise on passing his legislation. Because as we all know, compromise is all about making people who disagree with you suck it up quietly and do what you say.
Is there hope for the future of our country? Sure there is...but I think starting with a more frank discussion of what's actually going on in the world would be a good start. Also, if stupid people could stop pissing me off, I'd be a lot happier.

It is Martin Luther King Junior Day. A day we celebrate the slain civil rights leader by giving kids the day off from school and having 50-70% off most major items at the mall, just like he would have wanted it.

The loss of Dr. King was more than just the loss of a leader in the black community, it was the loss of our last real leader. This isn't to say that everyone liked King. Whites feared him and the changes he sought. Many blacks came to believe that King simply didn't go far enough. As for King himself, he wasn't satisfied. Not after the civil right's act of 1963, when even the liberal leaning New York Times begged for him to stop his crusade because he needed to give whites a chance to get used to the idea. Not when he finally got the voting rights act passed in 1965. Despite what some people think, Dr. King wasn't seeking black rights, he was seeking equal rights. Not just by law, but in social status as well.

While the laws in place now certainly do fulfill the legal part, the social status issue is a tough one. We're seeing a growing gap between the haves and have-nots in this country and so maybe the future fight won't be simply black and white, but rich and poor. Don't think for a second that this is a fight that Dr. King would have shied away from. He was the last of the leaders in this country.

His words alone would wrap around the listener, raising you from your seat and guiding you to the righteous cause. We lack such a leader today. Perhaps as a society we're too intent on bringing everyone down. Picking at our potential leader's every fault until they bleed out, unwilling to go further. King was not a perfect man, he had many affairs on Corretta, but his cause was always bigger. Perhaps we wouldn't allow for such a thing today. Maybe he'd be cut down where he stood, by the press, long before an assassins’ bullet could reach him.

It's time for a new leader to emerge. We need another call to arms. To fight for those who cannot rise up themselves. To fight for a change. To fight for a chance at a better tomorrow. Where is that leader? When will they come? Do we wait in vain? Maybe it's time we sucked up our own cowardice and take up the mantle ourselves? But who amongst us has the courage to stand up against those that will attack with little regard for right and only to injure? Who will put themselves on the line for a change that may not see fruition til long after they have passed? Who among us has the courage?

If you know such a person, let me know. We need to talk.

I've got a good post coming on this, but the issue still isn't resovled so I'm waiting to have an ending before I tell the story. It's been fun, I can tell you that much.

I haven't written bunches about the tragedy. I will, but for now... I did watch much of the NBC special tonight. I hope everyone has given in whatever way you can. That said, it was clear that everyone was singing live. It seems for some people there is a lot to be said for over-dubbing. Also, when did Roger Waters die? And who smacked around Annie Lennox.... "why?" seemed like a very appropriate question during her song.
And hey, John Mayer, nice guitar face. Seriously dude, I looked up and almost spit my drink out. You were really feeling it. I respect that.

Library officials in two southern Mississippi counties have banned Jon Stewart's best-selling "America (The Book)" over the satirical textbook's nude depictions of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices.

"I've been a librarian for 40 years and this is the only book I've objected to so strongly that I wouldn't allow it to circulate," said Robert Willits, director of the Jackson-George Regional Library System of eight libraries in Jackson and George counties. "Well except for some selected works by those black folk, but that's different."

"We're not an adult bookstore. Our entire collection is open to the entire public," Willits said. "If they had published the book without that one picture, that one page, we'd have the book."

Wal-Mart has declined to stock the book because of the page, which features the faces of the nine Supreme Court justices superimposed over naked bodies. The facing page has cutouts of the justices' robes, complete with a caption asking readers to "restore their dignity by matching each justice with his or her respective robe."

The book by Stewart and the writers of "The Daily Show," the Comedy Central fake-news program he hosts, was released in September. It has spent 15 weeks on The New York Times best seller list for hardcover nonfiction, and was named Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, the industry trade magazine.

Former English teacher Tara Skelton of Ocean Springs said the libraries shouldn't decide what is in poor taste.

"It just really seemed kind of silly to me," she said. "I don't think the Supreme Court justices have filed any defamation of character or libel suits. It's humor."

Came up with this a couple of days ago...nothing like bad poetry to flush the soul of meaningless things...

In life we are give many choices
sometimes the options are good
sometimes they are not
but a decision is always made
if not by us
then for us
with each decision comes consequence
a consequence we must live with
sometimes these are large decisions
life changing decisions
often they are small decisions
piddling little choices made
in the course of a day
but though those decisions
they may not immediately
and measurably affect
one should keep in mind
that over the course of a life
we make so very few large decisions
so few decisions that impact
our world like a meteor
throwing us from our axis
it is these small decisions
the every day decisions
in the end
these are the decisions
that define us
these are the choices
that make us
who we are

It's been a while. It seems I'm growing lazy in my old age. Been hanging out on one of the top morning shows in town all week. That's always interesting.
More interesting is the reaction of people here in Portland when the threat of snow is upon us. First thing that happens is that everyone heads to the tire stores to get snow and studded tires on their cars. Then they head to the supermarkets and buy out everything, because who knows whether or not you'll need pledge during the impending disaster. Finally the panic grows to the point where the cacophony of sound about the storm becomes mind-numbing...people smother their pets to save them from the long, cold death ahead...they pre-emptively abandon their cars on hills...they write letters to loved ones saying goodbye...oh wait...it's only rain...morons.

Well, once again we've stumbled into the New Year. Funny thing I noticed while watching the various coverage of New Year celebrations here in the states... While occasionally I heard about how muted some celebrations abroad were in some places because of the recent tsunami tragedy, you have to respect the fact that just because we're in the middle of a war we didn't let that stop us from pushing it aside and acting as if it wasn't happening at all. Good on us for that one.Happy New Year everyone!