"I want to punch Hillary the person in the face"

I don't think I've ever said this before, and I actually don't have an intense urge to punch Hillary in the face, but I sort of instinctively disagree with part of this opinion. Actually, I agree you cannot divorce Hillary from her womanhood, but I don't think saying you want to punch Hillary in the face is actually carrying the baggage Melissa seems to think it implies. I want to punch Bush in the face as well. In fact, there is a whole meme of "in the face." Like "I want to shoot you in the face", "I want to stab myself in the face", etc.

"In the face" is just sort of the throwaway, slightly comical additive to a statement. And to say you want to punch Hillary in the face basically just means you want to punch her and she sucks. Cause she kind of does. Melissa says:

It's something of which I must be conscious, too—I am reluctant to use violent imagery generally, but extremely averse to using it when discussing women I don't like. Despite the distinct unlikelihood that anyone would mistake misogyny as my motivation, even a (metaphorical) attack within a culture in which women—particularly strong, opinionated women—have historically been silenced with threatened or actual violence borrows and legitimizes misogynist strategies. I don't have to like Hillary Clinton's voice (although, for the record, I do), or her policies or her sense of humor or her decision to stay in the race, and neither does anyone else—but, regardless of intent, the public declaration of a desire to punch her in response summons an ugly history of physically silencing uppity women. And, no, a threat to punch a man doesn't work quite the same way—care of the double standard brought to you daily by the patriarchy.

Yes, it does bring up some history of uppity women being put in their place if you automatically relate FEMALE + VIOLENT THOUGHT = PATRIARCHY! But it's also a general reaction of people who conceive of being powerless to a negative force. I want to punch Bush because I feel powerless to stop him. When I hear his voice, I know that he is there, beyond my control, and it enrages me. I want to punch him to shut him up and make him stop.

I can easily see how this parallels people who want to punch Hillary in the face. She at this points represents negativity and a power the we cannot seem to stop against Obama. To claim that this somehow invokes a history of violence to women, well I disagree. If anything invokes a history of people being powerless against their leaders and acting out against them in one of the few ways they can which includes humorous language and statements like "I want to punch them in the face."

Call It a Ritual

Quiet screaming as I play this new Wolf Parade song from stereogum over and over.   One caveat, I don't think I like this song that much.

New Wolf Parade Details

Finally! Wolf Parade has announced when their new album will come out and Pitchfork has the tracklist. I'm so excited! Their first album is one of the best I've heard in years and all of the off shoot products of the band (Sunset Rubswon, Frog Eyes, Handsome Furs). I highly recommend the first album and will be obsessively reloading mininova till I find this new one.

Eat Dirt

Okay, well I'm going to bitch less about my Kashi being more expensive:

News of the Weird has a depressing economics story this week about food prices in the poorer sections of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which is perhaps the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The price of rice, the staple product, has doubled in the last year. This increase naturally has residents looking for substitutes for rice.

Apparently in the past they have baked “dirt cookies,” using salt and vegetable shortening along with clay from a nearby area. The clay has some nutrients in it, so it is not entirely filler. The problem, though, is that the supply curve of clay is not horizontal; so with this increased demand for the clay, its price has risen too — by 40 percent during the same period. One might say that the dirt is no longer dirt-cheap!

From Freakonomics blog

One of the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980's

I've been making my way through the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980's. I've been tackling it at about 100 songs a week and I'm almost done. The weird thing about this collection is that it is definitely not from America. I have no idea where it's from really, but my European friend recognizes all of the pop songs which leads me to believe whoever compiled this list is from Europe (and I think they are dutch). Also, the person who compiled this has an extremely loose understanding of the term "80's." I'd say two-thirds of songs are from the 80's and one third are from the 90's and 70's.

There are a few amazing classic gems in this collection. I mean, a vast majority of it is horrible 80's crap. Like bad, no name teeny-bop syth pop songs or mid-tempo adult cotemp ballads. But when I stumble onto something new and unexpected, it's totally worth it. Here is one of the first songs I want to pick out from this collection. It's "Hey You" by the group Rock Stead Crew. From Wikipedia "Rock Steady Crew is a breakdancing crew and hip hop group that was established in the Bronx borough of New York City in 1977. The New York Times calls the Rock Steady Crew 'the foremost breakdancing group in the world today'" This song is amazing and I just stumbled across the video today:

Fucking Obama

This one is fantastic. And you know, it is true, she really is fucking over Obama who will be the Democratic nominee this year.