The XX Factor

Empty Nest: What Did You Do in That Limo?

2009-11-27T20:24:00Z

A post from DoubleX writer Mimi Swartz: A few weeks ago I got the following e-mail from my son Sam: “MOM,” it began, “GLENDA,* ALLISON* AND I JUST GOT PICKED UP IN A LIMO AND ARE BEING GIVEN A FREE TOUR OF NEW YORK. I LOVE THIS CITY. I am not drunk don't worry. Love you.” The e-mail was sent at 2 a.m. It was now 8 a.m. “Listen to this,” I called to my husband, John, who was getting ready for work in the next room. Halfway through my recitation, John came in half-dressed and launched into an anxious...(read more)

Can office gossip ever be good?

2009-11-27T20:22:00Z

A post from DoubleX Staff: It depends on the size of the workplace. At a small office where I once worked, the gossip was like family gossip. It was all viciously intimate but assumed a great amount of unspoken connection and affection. At a bigger office where I once worked, gossip seemed more like a management tool to organize individuals. Everyone had a reputation, a two-sentence summary of their personality and work habits. That characterization stuck no matter what. It was often not true and...(read more)

Racism In "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

2009-11-26T20:37:00Z

A post from DoubleX writer Lauren Bans: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s anti-fable is just as delightful as the critics say . Save for one part in which Wes Anderson’s oft-criticized “mishandling” of race peaks through . Mr. Fox, voiced by George Clooney, is an upper middle class fox, pretty much anthropomorphized as a white baby boomer liberal (at one point, the villain insinuates Mrs. Fox was a slut in her day and Mr. Fox launches into a very Abbie Hoffman-esque defense...(read more)

Americans Are Not Sick of Palin

2009-11-25T21:12:00Z

I'm suspicious of this new poll showing that Americans are tired of hearing about Palin , and that they follow the health care debate more closely than they follow the news about her. This is a classic in the category of virtuous self reporting, along with studies about diet and exercise. In the study, only 3 percent of Democrats say they paid attention to coverage of Palin's book tour. But there are two big problems with that statistic. One, paying attention to news about Palin's book tour is not...(read more)

Phil Carter Departs from Pentagon

2009-11-25T20:34:00Z

Phil Carter is a longtime contributor to Slate and a personal friend to many of us at the magazine. He also served in the Obama administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy, dealing chiefly with issues relating to the closure of Guantanamo Bay. It was reported last night that he has left that position for "personal and family reasons." Despite some speculation that this was a smokescreen for a break with the administration, we have heard from several sources that there...(read more)

NBC's "Biggest Loser" Exposes The Dieting Fraud

2009-11-25T16:20:00Z

A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte: One of the major arguments of the growing fat acceptance movement is that fear-mongering about "health" functions more as a tool to bash fat people than as a genuine expression of desire for a healthier populace. You couldn't ask for a better argument for that point of view than this article in the New York Times about the dangers posed to contestants on the reality show The Biggest Loser , though the very name of the show has always suggested to me that...(read more)

Mammogram Panic

2009-11-25T16:12:00Z

Emily B. maybe the government task force on mammography was actually a plot by radiologists to get more American women to insist on mammograms. This whole mess is partly the fault of the cancer establishment. Think how many times you've heard "one in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime” – a slogan that always makes me wonder how you pull off the trick of getting cancer after your lifetime. It turns out that statistic is not about actual incidence, but a projection of how many women...(read more)

The "Botax" Is Actually a Great Idea

2009-11-24T22:07:00Z

A post from DoubleX intern Jessica Dweck: With all due respect to Slate 's Christopher Beam, I don’t agree that the " botax " tucked into the Senate health care bill is a bad idea . Much as it pains me to swallow conventional wisdom, the obvious conclusion in this case—that taxing elective cosmetic surgery is a great way to raise revenue for health care reform—also happens to be the correct one ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX .)...(read more)

Forget the Cost, Give Us Our Mammograms

2009-11-24T20:53:00Z

Depressing poll numbers from Gallup and USA Today ( via Instapundit ): Seventy-six percent of women say they disagree or strongly disagree with the recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to delay mammograms to age 50. And 84 percent ages 35 to 49 say they plan to get the screenings anyway. Why? Because they're suspicious and confused: "Seventy-six percent of women said they believe that the panel based its conclusions on cost, even though the task force's report included only...(read more)

Sign of the Times in Baltimore

2009-11-24T20:10:00Z

The Baltimore City Council has passed legislation that would, if enacted, require crisis pregnancy centers to display signs saying that they don’t offer birth control or abortions. This measure is annoying on a number of levels, as the libertarian in me generally supports a business’ or charity’s prerogative to operate according to its own mission and guidelines and beliefs. I mean, it’s a bit like telling a Catholic church it must post a sign saying there are no Torahs or Qurans in the pews: Duh....(read more)

Clarity, Climate, and the Fort Hood Massacre

2009-11-24T19:12:00Z

Bill Bennett has a post up at National Review demanding that Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s murder of 13 people be deemed “terrorism .” Forty-nine percent of Americans apparently prefer the phrase “killing spree.” This, we are to understand, is the terminology of the morally unserious, the purveyors of “psycho-babble,” the “politically correct” masses who prefer the “language of mush.” Avoidance of the word “terrorism” is taken to be an avoidance of clarity. Whether you want to use the word terrorism...(read more)

Free-Range Parenting Movement

2009-11-23T19:53:00Z

KJ , I too was thrilled to read that Time had declared an end to overparenting . But the story proved the opposite, with many earnest and unintentionally hilarious examples of supposedly mellow parents. If you truly wanted to stop overparenting you would just cancel the Suzuki lessons, call off the therapist, stop spying on the playground, and watch Sponge Bob, right? But this new class of parents praised by Time are joining a movement ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX )....(read more)

Hot Global Warming Conspiracy

2009-11-23T16:55:00Z

A stolen cache of e-mails from climate scientists reveals a disturbing pattern of possible manipulation and destruction of data, as well as plans to destroy the careers of warming skeptics. Since 10 years of flat temperatures show the climate models are poor at prediction, this seems like a good time to question the science before we further remake the world's economies to save us from melting ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX )....(read more)

Stefanie Spielman, RIP

2009-11-23T16:42:00Z

Sad news out of Ohio: Funeral services will be held tomorrow for Stefanie Spielman, who died late last week at age 42 after a very long—and very public—struggle with breast cancer. Spielman might have been among the millions of women who face breast cancer quietly and privately if not for the gesture her husband, Chris, made upon her first diagnosis, at age 30 ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX )....(read more)

Know More, Screen Less

2009-11-20T19:58:00Z

Emily B , I agree with you that it’s really unfortunate that the conclusion that we don’t need to routinely do mammograms until 50, instead of aparking a national, rational discussion about the advisability of “screening and prevention,” has become the harbinger that we’re all going to live under British health care rationing. The debate over whether we benefit from searching for early cancers is not new, and no wonder the public is so confused. This is like the “no fat” to “no carbs” pendulum swings...(read more)

The Mammogram Mania

2009-11-20T17:17:00Z

I've been trying to understand the flap this week over the recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Task Force— a group ill-prepared to handle the controversy —to delay routine mammograms to age 50 for most women. And now, in a truly terrible coincidence of timing, we have a second round of commotion over the advice of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to push pap smears to screen for cervical cancer back to age 21 ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX .)...(read more)

Home for Thanksgiving

2009-11-20T16:55:00Z

A post from DoubleX Staff: I know what they say, that holidays are occasions to revisit family stress. Many a great novel and movie has been built on this premise. And in general, I would say it's true. The Jewish holidays are all about starving and yelling. Vacations involve too much childcare. But for me, Thanksgiving is the blissful exception. Maybe it's because I really like my in-laws. Maybe it's because turkey has a soporific effect. Or maybe it's because my mother-in-law bakes dozens of pies,...(read more)

Time Magazine Prematurely Applauds an End to Hover Parenting

2009-11-20T16:14:00Z

A post from DoubleX writer KJ Dell'Antonia: Time magazine's "Can These Parents Be Saved?" story offers a glorious rundown of the rampant possibilities for overparenting that have become available in recent years. From kid leashes ("Kinderkords") to fears about kindergarden "pencil-holding-deficiency," the opportunities for parental self-congratulation are plentiful—almost anyone can think "I may have hovered once in a while, but I was never that bad" ... (Read the rest of this article in D oubleX...(read more)

It's Time For Some Competition, Yoginis!

2009-11-20T15:40:00Z

sponsorship placeAd2(commercialNode,'120x90',false,'') A post from DoubleX writer Kerry Howley: Yoga is a meditative practice sometimes thought to help liberate the soul from all worldly suffering. The Olympics are a tribalistic sporting event in which nation states battle to produce impressive feats of human athleticism. Bikram Choudhury—a man who teaches yoga in a speedo and a diamond-studded Rolex, guards his trademarked pose sequences like a Rottweiler on meth, and likes to compare his balls...(read more)

Why Oprah Is Giving Up the Mic

2009-11-20T15:14:00Z

Oprah Winfrey is going to announce today that she will be leaving her eponymous talk show in 2011. The New York Times believes Winfrey is resigning from network TV in order to focus on the cable network she's working on, called OWN, which will feature shows from all of her favorite cronies, like Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, and Dr. Phil. While this might be the case, I think another reason Oprah is hanging up the mic is because she has destroyed the core of what made her so popular in the first place: She's...(read more)