There are just too many reasons not to. The American companies that now manufacture there cannot be held accountable. That's not even mentioning that Americans were left jobless so their CEOs and upper mgmt could pay, what, $1/day and fill their pockets even more with their cash?

In any case, I accidentally landed on this youtube from Stephen D Hammond. He ran into an interesting label. Here it is:

Clearly, knighting in France has just become one huge joke. With so many remarkable women in France, and this actress who has done nearly NOTHING gets KNIGHTED? No wonder the French are angry.

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Actress Salma Hayek gains French knighthood

Film actress Salma Hayek has been awarded one of France's top honours by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mexican-born Hayek will become a Knight of the Legion d'Honneur at a ceremony in Paris later this year.

The 45-year-old's businessman husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, is an associate of Mr Sarkozy, while his father was also honoured in the New Year's list.

Some readers of French newspaper L'Express have said honours should be awarded to worthier recipients.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16412686

I consider him one of THE BEST presidents we have ever had, and I'll argue anyone into the ground about that.

But aside from politics, here are some details of my visit.

The secret service was there, and frisked us, searched our purposes (lol), men's wallets, etc.
I sat in the front row, and he preached in a very interactive fashion. He asked us to tell where we were from.
He stands very straight and seems very fit.
He wore very sensible clothes, nothing at all flashy or expensive. Very plain man, like the town he is from (Plains, GA). lol
He has a memory that is astounding.
He used no cards to preach.
He is a lib through and through and made mention of some things that ordinary preachers might not, about poverty in this country and the world.
At the end, we were allowed to take 1 photo with him and his wife, if we desired (which everyone visiting did, as everyone visiting was ready with a camera)
His wife looks lovely.

Here's the Maranatha Church website, which has a photo of him preaching:

http://www.mbcplains.org/sschoolpix.html

While the fashion industry and media require women to look like 16-year-old anorexics, one Puerto Rican singer came out with a song that trashes all that bullshit and speaks of true beauty.

His name is Prince Royce, and he sings bachata. The song I'm referring to is called, Heart Without a Face.



Here are some of the lyrics, and I've translated them for you into English:

Y ya me contaron (They have told me)
Que te acomplejas (You're embarrassed)
de tu imagen (Of your looks)

Y mira (Look into)
el espejo (The mirror)
Que linda eres (See how lovely you are)
sin maquillaje (When you're not made up)

Y si eres gorda o flaca (And whether you are fat or skinny)
Todo eso no me importa a mí (Such things don't matter to me)
Y tampoco soy perfecto (I also am imperfect)
Sólo sé que te quiero así (I only know I love you)

Y el corazón no tiene cara (The heart has no face)
Y te prometo que lo nuestro (I promise what we have)
Nunca va a terminar (Is never going to end)
Y el amor vive en el alma (Love lives in the soul)

Ni con deseos sabes que nada de ti va a cambiar (And you know not even wishing, nothing about you is going to change)
Prende una vela, rézale a Dios (Light a candle, pray to God)
Y dale gracias que tenemos ese lindo corazón (And thank God that we have this beautiful heart)

Prende una vela, pide perdón (Light a candle; beg forgiveness)
Y por creer que tu eres fea te dedico esta canción (And for thinking that you're ugly, I dedicate this song to you)

(Repeat)

Every time my GP sees me walking into his office with high heeled shoes and high heeled boots, he always tells me the same thing: that I need to change shoes or I'm going to end up with big foot, leg, and spine problems.

I gotta admit I have a long-standing love affair with shoes, particularly high heeled ones. I'm not tall, and these make me taller. However, doing research on the Internet I found an x-ray of a woman's foot in a high heeled shoe and it scared the living daylights out of me, so I looked at the article. SCARY what we women do to our feet! I'm trying to come to terms with this and find the courage to wear better shoes, lower heeled shoes.

In any case, here's the article that scared some sense into me.

Are foot and ankle problems worse for women?
By Judith F. Baumhauer, MD, and Kathryn O’Connor, PT

... women’s feet are not just smaller versions of men’s feet.

A research study by Wunderlich and Cavanagh examining lower limb and foot measurements of approximately 300 men and 500 women in the U.S. Army concluded that biologic differences existed between male and female feet and legs. They noted significant differences in arch shape, size of the lateral side of the foot, great toe, and ball of the foot. Women, for example, had a wider forefoot, shorter arch length, and shorter metatarsals compared to men. This study was among the first to promote incorporating the structural differences between the female and male foot into the design and manufacturing of women’s shoes.

... Studies have shown that differences in the structure and size of the foot bones (specifically by measurements of metatarsal, phalangeal, calcaneal, and talar bones) have allowed for forensic identification of sex. ... Although the initial purpose of the study was not to identify sex differences, statistically significant disparities were noted. For instance, the study showed that women had a 20 percent to 25 percent lower volume and surface area in the subtalar, talonavicular, and ankle joints and up to 16 percent thinner cartilage. ...Women and men also have significant differences in gait. Studies by both Kerrigan and associates and Sepic and associates have shown that plantar flexion and range of motion of the ankle are greater in women, possibly due to greater laxity in female ligaments.

... the typical, more fashionable high-heeled shoe with a narrow toe box causes increased plantar pressure and toe crowding, which can cause bunions (hallux valgus), bunionettes, hammer toe, and even neuromas. ...Studies show that 88 percent of women wear shoes too small for their feet and 70 percent were noted to have associated hallux valgus deformity. ... hammer toe is four to five times more common in women. ...Shoes with a heel of 1.5" or higher increase knee torque with walking, which may be associated with the increase of knee osteoarthritis.


More at the link:
http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/mar08/clinical2.asp

I notice everything around me, and, having lived abroad, I noticed a huge difference in the work rules between Europe and the U.S.

For example:
Cashiers at stores and supermarkets in Europe are allowed to sit as they work;
Workers have a month (or longer) of vacation, and many, many holidays;
Cafeterias inside corporate buildings offer wine, and workers have wine during lunch (and return to lunch feeling quite good lol);

This, without even mentioning that they have unions, get paid more, and don't have to depend on jobs to have health care, which is socialized.

I think there's a treadmill attitude toward work here, the worker seen as the hamster, which does not exist in Europe.

I recall hearing someone tell how at her customer service job here in the U.S. (answering phones), the phones were very unbusy that day, and she had stood up to stretch and talk to the person in the next booth (who was also not busy). Suddenly, the manager approached her and said, "You can't just 'stand around' like that. You have to DO something. If you're not busy, sign off and go get a broom or something, sweep, we're not paying you to talk to your friends!"

There's a completely enslaving attitude about work in the U.S., the worker seen as the lazy bum, stealing money. And yet, recently I've been hearing how the American workplace is actually LESS productive than workplaces abroad.

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Why Germans Have Longer Vacation Times and More Productivity

It seems many Americans are born hard-wired with the belief that productivity requires time. There are no shortcuts for a good, Puritan work ethic. It's the American Way, after all. We love stories of companies who started with nothing and worked like dogs to become massive successes. The Sam Waltons, the Bill Gates—these are true American heroes.

Self-sacrifice has almost always gone hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship and small businesses. We're capitalists, and he who works the most makes the most money at the end of the day. Or so it would seem.

Yet Europeans have always seemed to have taken a different route when it comes to the work/life balance. Germans on average work around 1,436 hours per year, versus the 1,804 hours Americans work. With those numbers it would be easy to conclude that Americans do more and would be more productive in the workforce. But we don't. Studies show that Germans get roughly the same amount of stuff done in fewer hours each week, and with more vacation time.

More at the link:
http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article/why-germans-have-longer-vacation-times-and-more-productivity-glen-stansberry

Study Finds Marked Rise in Intensely Sexualized Images of Women, not Men

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A study by University at Buffalo sociologists has found that the portrayal of women in the popular media over the last several decades has become increasingly sexualized, even "pornified." The same is not true of the portrayal of men.

After analyzing more than 1,000 images of men and women on Rolling Stone covers over the course of 43 years, the authors came to several conclusions. First, representations of both women and men have indeed become more sexualized over time; and, second, women continue to be more frequently sexualized than men. Their most striking finding, however, was the CHANGE in how intensely sexualized images of women -- but not men -- have become.

In the 1960s they found that 11 percent of men and 44 percent of women on the covers of Rolling Stone were sexualized. In the 2000s, 17 percent of men were sexualized (an increase of 55 percent from the 1960s), and 83 percent of women were sexualized (an increase of 89 percent). Among those images that were sexualized, 2 percent of men and 61 percent of women were hypersexualized. "In the 2000s," Hatton says, "there were 10 TIMES more HYPERSEXUALIZED IMAGES OF WOMEN than men, and 11 TIMES MORE NON-SEXUALIZED IMAGES OF MEN than of women."

More at link: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/12769

My goodness, I never cease to be amazed at how some parents think their kids are God's answer to the planet. This applies mostly (I'd say almost exclusively) to the parents that have the brattiest kids on the planet.

Yesterday I had to spend some time with one of these kids because the mother felt that her child is so delightful, that surely all adults WANTED to have her child in their midst interrupting everything the adults said, and trying to break everything in the house and filthy it up. The adults wanted to make a run for it. That kid was loud, boisterous, not particularly bright, and (as if all the rest were not enough), NOT fascinating in the least. What the mom felt was grown up behavior on her child's part was merely a tremendous capacity for being obnoxious and unpleasant.

However, this mom was oohing and aahing about her kid (heck, who else was going to ooh and aah for this walking, talking obnoxia?), and trying to elicit our oohs and aahs, which were not forthcoming. I plastered what I refer to as, 'the look of the insane' smile on my face and pretended I was a robot. No oohs and aahs would come from me.

Why do parents (GENERALLY MOMS) inflict this on other adults? These moms behave as if they wanted to be your friend, but then by golly, they're HELL-BENT on you loving their bratty, spoiled kid. I think these moms don't really want to have friends. They just want to have an AUDIENCE for their bratty kids.

Since I'm on a rant about adults that do this, here's a tiny list of these adults that aggravate me. Let me know if any of you out there agree with me on this:

-Parents that include their kids in everything, adult conversations, bring kids to your dinner that you’ve made very clear is a grown ups dinner, etc.

-Parents that allow their kids to interrupt conversations between them and another adult

-Parents that allow the kids to run and answer the phone every time and waste your time talking trash, when the reason you called is to talk to the adult, not entertain the kid

-Parents that allow their kids to sit and listen to adult conversations

-Parents that bring their kids into the office and don’t keep them from bugging the heck out of you

-Parents that stop a whole huge line at the supermarket or anywhere at all because they want their child to talk to the employee taking orders or checking out

-Parents that bring kids to your house and let them make a frikkin’ mess everywhere and touch every single thing, even BREAK your things.

-Parents that insist on their kids performing for you, and are seeking for you to applaud like a trained seal no matter how horrific the performance was

-Parents that go on for endless hours about their kids’ accomplishments

-Parents that side with their kids against teachers and, well, just about everybody

-Parents that let their kids behave and run like animals through stores

-Parents that behave as if their kid were God's answer to the world, and insist you acknowledge that

WAKE UP, PARENTS! STOP TRYING TO GET ME TO ADORE YOUR KIDS!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, all I want to add is that I think treating kids like some sort of perfect beings, or royalty, and putting them first 24/7 is the perfect recipe for creating narcissistic and perhaps sociopathic adults.

http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/bah-humbug-rich-slower-to-show-empathy/

A study published in the journal Emotion finds that individuals in the upper-middle and upper classes are less able to detect and respond to the distress signals of others. Overall, the results indicate that socioeconomic status correlates with the level of empathy and compassion that people show in the face of emotionally charged situations.

“It’s not that the upper classes are coldhearted,” says lead author Jennifer Stellar, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “They may just not be as adept at recognizing the cues and signals of suffering because they haven’t had to deal with as many obstacles in their lives.”

(the rest of the article is at the link above)

Liz Jones, former editor of Marie Claire, says this about the models the fashion industry uses, and why they use these, and how these force magazines to choose the same. More at the link below. (Even a J.K. Rowling quote about the cadaverous models).

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"Unless they promote women as toothpicks, they will lose their chauffeur-driven jobs and front-row seats at fashion shows," she wrote. "[Designers] want you to believe that you are not beautiful enough or young enough or thin enough, and they do that by draping CADAVEROUS 16-YEAR-OLDS across double-page spreads so you will feel so wretched that you will have to buy their products to make yourself feel better."

There is a very real problem with the abundance of skinny imagery that abounds in popular media. I challenge any person who denies such a thing: just look over a single days worth of comments on this very site (www.diet-blog.com). There are so many troubled girls - and so many of them mention the thin models they see. No I'm not talking about people diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa - I'm talking about the thousands upon thousands of young women spend half their waking hours burning with self-hate - fueled in part by the abundant obsession with skinny models.

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http://weightloss.infodox.net/article/4210-skinny-models-telling-it-like-it-is.html