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Daily Archive: 18/01/2015

Sunday

18

January 2015

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COMMENTS

Insults and Comebacks by Knock Knock Books

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One star

Insults

I’m known for being quite sarcastic. I know that some people find sarcasm to be the lowest form of communication; I’m okay with that. So it isn’t surprising that, as part of a trio of joke gifts (the other items being a screaming pickle and a Jesus refrigerator magnet set), my husband and I were gifted this book by our friends.

It is so bad. I don’t know what they were going for, but unless it was unoriginality, they missed the mark. I know that it is odd to call out a book about insults and comebacks as being too mean … but it is. It’s not clever, it’s extremely lazy. There are certainly things that people should be insulted for – cruelty, racism, bigotry – but that doesn’t really comprise any of the insults in this book. Instead, the authors go for the insults that uphold the status quo. There’s nothing subversive about mocking people who are fat, or ugly, or mentally ill. It doesn’t require any cleverness. I’m guessing that literally anyone reading this review can come up with a (completely unfunny) fat joke at the drop of a hat, because society thinks fat people should be mocked.

For a book of insults to be worth reading, I think it should include the type of insults that really cut to the bone. Figure out insults for the people who mock fat people. Come up with some comebacks to when someone marks on another person’s mental health status. If you’re wanting to joke about hygiene, do something better than offer “you must be a feminist” (like, what?).

You’ll notice this book is available on Amazon for $.01. Save your money – it’s not worth that.

Sunday

18

January 2015

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COMMENTS

Better by Atul Gawande

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Three Stars

better

This is the third of Dr. Gawande’s books I’ve read and reviewed for Cannonball Read, and it’s probably my least favorite. However, it’s still a decent book that I’m glad I read.

The book is ostensible about ‘how success is achieved in this complex and risk-filled profession,’ talking about medicine. And there are certainly many really compelling stories about medicine. But I wasn’t really able to follow any sort of coherent theme to the stories. I almost felt like I was reading a collection of interesting essays as opposed to a book that was seeking to make a strong point about how to improve the field of medicine (and, in turn, other field).

Dr. Gawande splits the stories into three sections: diligence, doing right, and ingenuity. There are three-five stories in each section that purport to demonstrate the benefits of diligence, doing right or ingenuity. I think the strongest, most interesting section for me is the Doing Right section, especially in areas such as the ethics of physicians participating in the death penalty. And as I said, all of the stories are interesting to read, but I don’t think Dr. Gawande does a great job connecting them or really telling the ready what point he’s looking to make.

The book ends with a few pages that seem to come out of nowhere but that I think could have been woven into the book to create that theme that I felt was missing. Dr. Gawande proposes five things to do to improve in your field: ask an unscripted question, don’t complain, count something, write something, and change. I can see applying these to my current work, and would have enjoyed reading more about them in relation to the stories he has told throughout the book.

Sunday

18

January 2015

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – January 18, 2015

Written by , Posted in What I'm Reading

Two things first: Happy Birthday Kevan and GO SEAHAWKS! Now, back to depressing shit…

Islamophobia

– “The 28-year-old attacker forced the front door of his neighbours’ house in the picturesque village of Beaucet near Avignon just after midnight on Wednesday shouting “I am your god, I am your Islam” before repeatedly stabbing Mohamed El Makouli, he National Observatory Against Islamophobia said Friday.” Moroccan man murdered in ‘Islamophobic’ attack in France (h/t @imraansiddiqi)

– “Emerson also claimed that “Muslim religious police” patrolled the streets of London, and beat everyone who didn’t dress in “Muslim attire.” That sparked a day of worldwide merciless parodying of the network under the hashtag #foxnewsfacts, most of which riffed off Emerson’s characterization.” Fox News’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend (h/t @TonyKaron)

– “Writers at Vox have indeed been bombarded with threats for our Charlie Hebdo coverage. But not one of those threats has come from a Muslim or in response to publishing anti-Islam cartoons. Revealingly, they have rather all come from non-Muslims furious at our articles criticizing Islamophobia.” Vox got no threats for posting Charlie Hebdo cartoons, dozens for covering Islamophobia (h/t @roqchams)

Racism

– “But the optics of this year’s slate are particularly egregious when you combine the surprising coolness towards Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma—nominated for Best Picture but missing in the Director, Actor, and Screenplay categories—with the fact that all 20 acting nominees this year are white, the first time such a thing has happened since the Oscars honoring the films of 1995.” The Oscars Haven’t Been This White in 19 Years (h/t @TKhatesyou)

Free Speech

– ‘But being offended certainly gives people the right to talk about the fact that they’re offended. If someone calls me, for example, an ugly terrorist bitch, I am not “censoring” them by offering a rebuke. I’m not even censoring them by deciding to block or otherwise not interact with them – free speech does not mean you have the right to a captive audience. In fact, free speech means that if I hear something I don’t like, I’m well within my rights to say, “This is garbage and I don’t want to listen to it, so I’m not going to.”’ How Much is That Free Speech in the Window? (via @jaythenerdkid)

– “Free speech and freedom of the press, like in the United States, are constitutionally protected rights. However, in France this typically comes with a few very important caveats. It is prohibited for an individual to publicly incite another to discriminate against individuals on grounds of ethnicity, nation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or handicap. However, the definition of “discrimination” remains intentionally murky and is frequently challenged in cases brought under these laws.” How France went from free-speech rallies to 54 hate-speech arrests in one week (via @FusionIsNews)

– “But as reporters have been pointing out, the lineup included traces of hypocrisy—Turkey, Egypt, and Russia aren’t exactly on the vanguard of robust and unshackled journalism. ” Walk Is Cheap: The “Circus of Hypocrisy” Among World Leaders at This Weekend’s Rally in Paris (via @strangerslog)

– “As pernicious as this arrest and related “crackdown” on some speech obviously is, it provides a critical value: namely, it underscores the utter scam that was this week’s celebration of free speech in the west.” Frank Arrests a Comedian for His Facebook Comments, Showing the Sham of the West’s ‘Free Speech’ Celebration

– One Student’s Epic Tweets Call Out the Biggest Hypocrites Marching for Free Speech in Paris

Government Surveillance

– “They — and not just the security services — will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications. That includes things like the pictures of your kids in your bath that you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to your co-workers. But this is just for starters. David Cameron doesn’t understand technology very well, so he doesn’t actually know what he’s asking for.” What David Cameron just proposed would endanger every Briton and destroy the IT industry (h/t @stavvers)

– “The known facts from this latest case seem to fit well within a now-familiar FBI pattern whereby the agency does not disrupt planned domestic terror attacks but rather creates them, then publicly praises itself for stopping its own plots.” Latest FBI Claim of Disrupted Terror Plot Deserves Much Scrutiny and Skepticism

Police Brutality

– “In every case, in spite of the clarity of the evidence, or the outrageousness of the chokehold, the NYPD completely rejected every single disciplinary recommendation given by the Civilian Review Board.” New York inspector general issues ‘alarming’ report on NYPD’s continued use of banned chokeholds (via @shaunking)

Willful Ignorance

– “Cruz has also spoken out against decades of science that indicate climate change, telling CNN last year that in “the last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming” to support “a so-called scientific theory”. His vociferous opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and his support of extreme budget cuts could spell trouble for Nasa’s less prominent programs, such as its own climate research and sophisticated supercomputers.” Republican senator Ted Cruz to oversee Nasa in Congress (h/t @WilWheaton)

– “Rich straight white guy telling the world he’d appreciate “less outrage”. This notion doesn’t sit well with those who daily face various forms of outrageous and awful kinds of oppression or marginalisation. How exactly should people of colour show “less outrage” while responding to racism? How should rape survivors and targets of sexual assault convey “less outrage”, while daily exposed to men who think they own women’s bodies? How should gay rights activists threatened with death convey “less outrage” in countries where their existence is a crime?” Patton Oswalt fans and how to outrage properly (h/t @tauriqmoosa)

Health Care

– “This conversation isn’t about death at all. “Death” is the word that confuses the conversation, that makes people too afraid, and too angry, and too frantic to keep talking. This conversation is really about autonomy. It is about what makes life worth living, and if, in keeping people alive for so long, we are consigning them to a fate worse than death.” How Americans’ refusal to talk about death hurts the elderly (h/t @elementalnw)

Misogyny

– “So you’re faced with what to do when you’ve been so badly abused it’s made international news. Do you go to the police or not? Well, if you don’t, they’ll claim that it wasn’t real because there’s no police report. They did so with Anita (who did have a police report, which was conveniently ignored). If you do enter the system, you have to accept that all of what I’ve already written is what you’re facing down, with little chance at actually seeing justice, be willing to sign up for the years-long process in the event that it actually goes to trial, and know you have little chance of a court order stopping your obsessive abuser any more than seeing people target and hurt your family and the families of those close to you ever did.” August Never Ends (h/t @thelindywest)

– “But it also reveals some truths that apply to all working women. There is a gender wage gap in nearly every kind of job, from high paying to low paying, and every industry. That gap doesn’t disappear even when taking into account career experience, which includes any breaks taken to raise children.” Charlize Theron Negotiates $10M Raise After Sony Hack Reveals Male Costar Was To Be Paid Millions More (via @ThinkProgress)

Death Penalty

– “If they truly want to honor me, then they will do away with the death penalty for him, and they will give him life in prison without the possiblity of parole,” Waller said in a video that was sent to the defendant’s lawyers.”When he dies, I want it to be because it’s his time, not because he’s been executed due to what happened to me and my child. I don’t want that on my hands. It makes me feel like I’m no different from him.” Mother Of Murdered Infant: ‘If They Truly Want To Honor Me’ They Won’t Execute The Killer (via @ThinkProgress)