Did you notice the Irony? (8) FEMEN vs. Barbie

I didn’t even know that this ugly Barbie doll was still alive, but now she apparently got a big house in Berlin, probably financed by prostitution her sugardaddies. If you need an overdose of bad taste and pink you can visit her for only 49 € for a family ticket. I don’t know why anybody would want to do that, but then people also have been buying these skinny dolls for decades. (My parents never allowed my sister to have a Barbie doll, which tells you what kind of family I grew up in.)

The “Barbie Dreamhouse Experience Berlin” opened today. Guess who showed up for opening day? Exactly: FEMEN, the women who give feminism a good name. They criticised that Mattell, the company behind Barbie, has “turned a piece of plastic into a god for millions of girls from all over the world who now seek only to imitate plastic shapes and stupidity and absurdity of conduct” and protested with a Barbiecue (FEMEN’s pun, not mine).

But, FEMEN, isn’t it ironic to protest against the image that girls have to be thin, pretty and pink by sending a thin, half-naked girl in a short pink skirt? In any case, we like your sense for irony and are looking forward to more of your actions!

(Source: FEMEN) 

“The Life of Pie”

In my house, The Life of Pie is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”, as Thomas Hobbes would have put it.

Well, this was definitely better than the film which had no pie in it at all.

Child Safety in America

A nice campaign by Moms demand Action for Gun Sense in America:

Having grown up in Germany, I had Little Red Riding Hood (or rather “Rotkäppchen”), dodgeball and of course Kinder surprise eggs in my childhood. I didn’t have any assault rifles, sadly. But maybe that’s why I could walk to school alone, there were no fences or guards around the school, and if I ever came home half a day late, my parents weren’t overly worried. Also, I was never worried about one of my classmates overreacting and blowing me to pieces.

Easily Confused (26) Feminism

Feminism, as seen by women:

Feminism, as seen by academics:

Feminism, as seen by men:

UN: Eat more Insects to fight World Hunger

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) writes that eating more insects could help fight world hunger.

I am doing that already:

UN, FAO and world hunger, you are welcome for my help!

Easily Confused (25) Castro Brothers

Castro brothers (innocent):

Onil and Pedro Castro, brothers of Ariel Castro

Castro brothers (not innocent):

Fidel and Raul Castro, dictators

Did you notice the Irony? (7) Guantanamo

When it comes to the future of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, I always wonder why those who are against it are running a campaign called “Close Guantanamo”.

I looks to me like Guantanamo is already rather closed with all its fences and cells and guards and barbed wire and lack of access and communication. In fact it is so closed that even those whom the US government deems innocent aren’t released. How much more do people want to close it? And why?

It gets more confusing when those who approve of this eternal detention without due process rally around the cry of “Keep Guantanamo open”.

As I pointed out, Guantanamo is not open. It is the most closed off place in the Western hemisphere. When I read the arguments of the “Keep Guantanamo open” people, it seems that they don’t want to open up Guantanamo in the least bit, they rather want to keep it as closed as it ever has been.

This mix-up of words confuses me terribly in all these debates.

My proposal? “Open Guantanamo” for all prisoners who have not been charged and who won’t be tried in a court. Let them go. If you think that they might be dangerous, put some surveillance on them.