Snow makes everything pretty

And it’s been known to cut down on crime, as well.

And thanks, Bro. Jay, for the link.

Put down that cancer stick, Mr. President.

The White House has released the results from Pres. Obama’s routine health exam, and it includes this (among other recommendations):

“Continue smoking cessation efforts.”

Thanks, Gawker, for the link. And kids! Don’t smoke. And stay in school.

I say this with love:

But when Team USA (riding Night Train) won the gold for 4-man bobsled yesterday  in the Winter Olympics, I smiled.

Steve Holcomb, the driver, does not look like my vision of an Olympic athlete. Then again, neither do I. Holcomb, by comparison to his teammates, looks a tinge paunchy (that’s him on the right, above). In fact, rather than an Olympic god, he looks like someone you’d call to help move your couch, and yet there he stood on the top-most rung of the medal podium. Yeah, I know this doesn’t mean there’s hope for the likes of me, but it makes me smile.

Just a bit more on girl-movies…

…perhaps I’m slow, but I was wandering around Feministe and came across this, the Bechdel Test, made popular in the comic strip, “Dykes to Watch Out For.”

According to the test, any movie worth watching must:

1. Have at least two women in it,

2. Who talk to each other,

3. About something besides a man.

The test has its own blog if you want to explore further.

I can certainly watch a movie with an all-male cast, but when a woman is involved, why does her character so often devolve into someone like — as reported by Sis. Cynical — Meryl Streep’s character in “It’s Complicated.” Because real-life depictions of women aren’t that complicated and you lose women like me who tire of seeing the girl being attacked and not fighting back, or the girl serving as love-slave, or the girl basically blending into the background. No, not every movie is like that but too many of them are and I’m saving my money for something more fabulous in the way of entertainment.

As an aside, go rent “The Lemon Tree,” and see how strong women can be portrayed onscreen with grace and humor and dignity.

Class? Can we take a vote?

Kickable asks: Did PETA go too far in linking the American Kennel Club with the Ku Klux Klan?

Kickable votes yes. Me, too. You?

Please, Baby Jesus, make ‘em stop hyping the weather?

This, from Bro. Jay, calls out weather-guessers who use “snowcalypse,” “snomaggedon” (my favorite), or any other snowmenclature that promises a big dump that doesn’t deliver.

Obviously, some of you have been hammered with record snow this winter, but most of us haven’t. Please can we take our eyes off ratings and readership and just call it as it is? Thank you, she sniffed.

Say goodbye to your federal benefits extension

And on your way down the economic ladder, be sure to thank Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Outer Colony.

Today was the deadline for Congress to vote to extend the benefits — up to 73 weeks of unemployment, and the COBRA health insurance subsidy — but Sen. Bunning kept saying no – with the tacit support of the Republican leadership.

This will affect more than a million Americans. So thanks, Sen. Bunning — who says he’s just getting started saying no, with the tacit support of the Republican leadership.

We await Sen. Bunning’s solution to the Great Recession. Meanwhile, the short-term solution is, I suppose, for people to go hungry while Sen. Bunning finds money in the budget to feed them. That, or they all take a bus ride to Sen. Bunning’s home and ask for a sandwich.

Heroes of the recession

From the Foreclosure Angel to the shero in running shoes, Beliefnet has a list.

If you’re on Facebook

And you don’t participate in Mafia Wars or Farmville or any of the other goofy little games on the social networking site, can you at least appreciate people who do?

And thanks, Digg, for the link.

Rather than start the Utah representatives’ day with prayer

State Rep. Christine Johnson read this poem recently, though when reading to her colleagues she dropped one line: ”anarchist dancing with a republican.”

Go ahead, Rep. Johnson. Here’s more on Andrea Gibson. And thanks, Bro. Jay for the link.