Teaser for Michael Moore’s new film, Capitalism: A Love Story (title announced yesterday).

According The Guardian:

“The film reportedly sets itself up as a spoof of the grand Hollywood romance, using the genre’s hallmarks to examine the causes of the global economic recession. ‘It will be the perfect date movie,’ Moore said in a statement. ‘It’s got it all – lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It’s a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let’s just say it: it’s capitalism.’”

“(E)ight out of the 10 fattest states are in the South. The region famous for its biscuits, barbecue and pecan pies has been struggling with its weight for years — but then again, so has the rest of the country. Wisconsin loves cheese, New Yorkers scarf pizza, and New Englanders have been known to enjoy a crab cake or two. So why is the South so portly?”

I’m blogging a direct link to this article for a number of reasons.  Growing up in the south, I was fed a steady diet of chicken fried steak, fried okra, pulled pork barbecue beef, and biscuits and gravy - washed down with a heaping helping of sweet tea.  Thankfully I left before adolescence set in, and before the lifestyle had a chance to leave a significant impact upon the way I view food.

The article is brief, but hits on the lesser-regarded reasons the South, more than the rest of the nation, is overweight.  Definitely worth a read.

1. Is this thing on?

2. Today is exciting.  Really.

3. I JUST GOT MY CAFFEINE BUZZ.

4. Cubicle calithenics.

5. Monkey face.

6. ‘k back to work…

89/11

“Did you know that a whopping 89 percent of Americans know that President Barack Obama is not a Muslim? That is correct!  That is a vast majority!

Do you know what this means? This means that a very large and dominant segment of the populace understands that the president does not, in fact, worship Allah or secretly kneel to Mecca 500 times a day behind his desk in the Oval Office while wearing a kufi and a rainbow-colored disha dasha, and therefore all those times he’s been in Christian church and talked up his admiration of Jesus have not been bizarre conspiracy-theory falsehoods designed to confound Bill O’Reilly and make paranoid militant Coors drinkers buy more large caliber handguns.

Is that not heartening? Are you not reassured by this?  What’s that you say? Well, yes, I suppose you could put on your bleak glasses of dour negativity and read that news in reverse, if you absolutely must.

Because it’s true that it also means that fully 11 percent of walking talking voting Americans actually believe their president is a Muslim, even today, even now…”

-Mark Moford, SFGate

jasencomstock:   9 of 14.

sds: THISISSEXISTANDMISOGYNISTICICANTBELIEVEYOUREPEDDLING-THISSTUFF

My score - 13/14. Sadly, I’ve never tried to change my own oil (weird, I know).  It’s now my goal to do it.  This weekend.

But it appears to me that there are several curious ommissions from the list.  Some additions I’d propose:

• The ability to pick-out and tie a tie,
• The requisite knowledge to select a decent bottle of wine or scotch,
• The ability to cook at least one dish from scratch, and without the help of a microwave,
• The propensity to discern between a “Philips-head” and “Straight” Screw-head at a moment’s glance,
• The skill to catch and clean a fish, if not for the sole purpose of being able to teach the skill to your future son),
• The patience to deal courteously with a woman in the act of shopping,
• A good handshake.  If you’re still giving out the limp fish, you will inevitably fail at life.