[	Tags	|	idiocy, religion	]
[	mood	|	bitchy	]
[	music	|	I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits	]

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite," says the new Archbishop of Belgium.

Archbishop Léonard's comments were made in an interview with a Belgian television station. He added that he would "never call anorexia patients abnormal."

A few years ago, when he was serving as Bishop of Namen, he caused a storm of controversy when he said that homosexuality was abnormal. Last week Pope Benedict XVI named him as the successor to Archbishop Daniels. Archbishop Léonard is also a well-known critic of abortion and stem cell research.

[	Tags	|	america, capitalism, politics	]
[	mood	|	cold	]
[	music	|	Ever Blazin' - Sean Paul	]

This belief has two factors: campaign finance and special interests, also includes government ownership.

First, corporations provide financial support to competing political parties and major political party candidates. This allows the corporations to hedge their bets on the outcome of an election so that they are assured to have a winner who is en-debted to them. As politicians are increasingly dependent on campaign contributions to become elected, their objectiveness on issues which concern corporate interests is compromised.

Second, in many cases former corporate executives are appointed as powerful decision makers within government institutions. They are often charged with the regulation of their former or future employers. Government employees who collude with corporations often accept high ranking positions within corporations once they have demonstrated their commitment to serve the corporate interest. These lucrative offers provide incentive for government employees to serve special interests as well as provides their new employers with access to governmental decision makers. This is known as the "revolving door" between corporations and the institutions established to regulate their behavior; and can lead to regulatory capture.

[	Tags	|	capitalism	]
[	mood	|	sad	]
[	music	|	Poker Face - Lady Gaga	]

LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kraft Foods sealed a friendly deal to buy British candy maker Cadbury for about $19.6 billion (11.9 billion pounds) after frantic last-minute talks broke an impasse over price.

[	Tags	|	blathering, gender	]
[	mood	|	discontent	]
[	music	|	Rhythm is a Dancer - Snap!	]

If adult femininity (which is what these kids are trying to mimic) came naturally, then adult women wouldn’t need these strategies. But they do, even going so far as to get veneers and hair extensions. The fact that these kids can use the same strategies as adult women (with stunning/horrifying success) reveals the extent to which adult women are, no less than those kids, performing femininity.

So, if it’s troubling when girls do it (and, for that matter, also troubling to many when men do it), then why isn’t it troubling when women do it? (Anyone watch the Golden Globes this past weekend?)

[	Tags	|	idiocy, immigration, politics	]
[	mood	|	annoyed	]
[	music	|	Click click click of the keyboard	]

In the new book we learn that she surprised herself by meeting a man worth settling down with, a Brazilian living in Indonesia. So they became a couple and settled near Philadelphia, with Jose Nunes regularly leaving the country to renew his visitor’s visa.

But then came a legal shock:

She was in the early stages of research for that book when Nunes was detained, after a visa-renewing jaunt out of the country, by Homeland Security Department officials at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Popping in and out of the country as he’d been doing was not legal, Nunes was told, and if he wanted to stay permanently they would have to marry.