Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 870

Obamacare Is Inextricable from Sex, to America's Glee and Horror

A waitress at an actual sausage festival in Texas. (AP)

Perhaps the last thing President Obama wants to talk about during the rollout of his signature health care law is sex. Too bad. Obamacare and sex are at this point inextricable.

For example. A video circulated on Wednesday showing a woman at an event at the University of Central Arkansas offering college students condoms. This is an event so unremarkable on a college campus as to be hardly worthy of filming. But what sets this video apart is that the event dealt with the Affordable Care Act. Literally nothing happens in the video besides that a woman pours a bunch of condoms on a desk. But that's enough for comments like this, from "kapnkd4" at Fox Nation: "Americans most certainly need them with OblowzoCare - We are in for a huge skrewing because of it!"

The comments also mention Sandra Fluke multiple times. Fluke, you'll remember, was the graduate student who testified before Congress in support of mandating coverage of birth control. Birth control and safe sexual behavior are a key part of sexual health, of course. But Fluke's argument quickly transformed into a Rush Limbaugh-led attack on her morals and outrage from conservatives at the idea that she would ask that her employer pay for this health need. Which quickly became anger at the Obama administration demanding taxpayers cover people's prophylactics and treating their sexual transmitted diseases. The former argument is strained; the latter, clear-cut.

#gotbrokencodom #gotherpes #gotpregnant #gotchildsupport pic.twitter.com/3vPOEP6WG0

— max read (@max_read) November 26, 2013

This isn't a tricky calculus. Young people don't have as many health needs as older people, so one pitch used to entice them is that their coverage will include birth control and treatments for sexual health issues. And the administration needs young people to sign up: their premiums (which absent a mandate likely wouldn't exist) help keep costs lower for everyone else since young people get sick less frequently. See the arrow? Need young people, so you talk about sex, and then watch as everything becomes about sex. Sex sex sex sex sex sex.

We had an example on Tuesday, when funny, funny jokes traversed the internet arguing that Obamacare would lead to more men getting STDs, as at left. And now, this video from Arkansas which all but proves the point. Obamacare is about facilitating free, crazy, immoral, diseased sex among young people. Here's "liberalwackos" on the Arkansas video.

I pray for my kids and grand children. The people and parents in control of this country are mentally deficient thanks to their drug usage in the 60's and 70's and taking God and the bible out of our lives. We have some really sick people in our government and educational systems.

Because a woman is offering condoms to college kids.

To be fair, the professional sex industry isn't running away from the topic. A local television station in California profiled a group of Nevada escorts who were pleased because they'd been unable to get health coverage pre-Obamacare. For many people, this is a good thing, the idea that women in a possibly higher-risk profession would be able to get the healthcare that they need — and since they probably make above the minimum income requirements to qualify for subsidized coverage, precisely none of that coverage will be paid for by the government. "Hookers For Obama" was their offered mantra, but, really, it could have been "Hookers Subsidizing Your Healthcare."

Earlier this month, the porn site PornHub decided to announce that it could fix Healthcare.gov in short order, given how much traffic the site was used to handling. (And, presumably, a decent number of sign-ins and financial transactions.) "I think that would be pretty inappropriate and something we would not be interested in doing," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Julie Bataille said to reporters, according to NBC. Because the government is not exactly trying to highlight the sex-Obamacare thing. (Incidentally, there are zero hits for the term "Pornocare" online, suggesting that conservative commenters still have one realm to explore.)

Americans have sex, America. The idea that the government should not "promote" sex is an old one, emerging probably at some point during the drafting of the Constitution but most notably in the fight over sex ed in elementary schools. This is an old country founded in part by Puritans (happy Thanksgiving!) and deeply committed to religiosity. That means that an effort to expand health care would necessarily have needed to get past a few sex-related speed bumps, from Sandra Fluke to who knows what. There are more sex-battles to come, and no one is particularly happy about it except the escorts.

       

Here's How 'Anchorman 2' Could Be an Oscar Contender

Paramount

If you ruled Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues out of the Oscar race, you might have spoken to soon. As The Playlist handily points out, Paramount is touting the ballad "Doby" as a best original song contender. You can listen to the song here.

It's naturally sung by Will Ferrell/Ron Burgundy, though it really is hard to tell the two apart these days. Sung to a mysterious "Doby," has lyrics like: "Doby, oh Doby, may you find many treasures both emotional and monetary." Somehow we still think one of the songs from Frozen has a better shot at winning or — heck — even getting a nomination, but we've been fooled before. 

Anchorman is basically everywhere these days. In addition to the many many cross-promotional materials the movie is already engaged in, Will Ferrell will host SportsCenter as Ron Burgundy December 5, and the cast was recently warbling "Afternoon Delight" in  Australia.

But you don't have to wait as long to see the whole shebang in theaters. Yesterday it was announced that the release date was moved up two days to December 18. 

       

George R.R. Martin's New 'Thrones' Novella Does Just Enough to Tide Over Fans

Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen character won't appear in George R. R. Martin's newest Game of Thrones novella, which takes place years before the main storyline of the popular books and HBO show. (JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP)

No, it's not the book George R. R. Martin's fans have been desperately waiting for, but Martin's 35,000-word novella, "The Princess and the Queen" does just enough to tide over Game of Thrones-lovers through the long sequel-less winter. (Which are taking longer to write than readers and HBO executives would like.)

Amazon

Early reviews are in for "The Princess and the Queen" —officially out December 3 in the larger anthology book Dangerous Women — and seems to describe a tome that is perfectly fine for big-time fans of the epic fantasy series, but less-so for casual observers. The story covers a massive civil war about 200 years before the main events of the books in A Song of Ice and Fire, and a huge battle called The Dance of the Dragons. As that name implies, the story is bursting with dragon fights, blood, poison, betrayal and all that Martin-esque goodness. However, it's dry tone and "so what"-ness keeps it from reaching the same elevated pitch as his main series.

So what exactly does this stocking-stuffer have to offer? (General series spoilers below.)

Dragon battles galore

We've seen a splash or two of dragon battles thus far in the books and TV show, but "The Princess and the Queen" takes that to another level. In giving the book a B+ rating, Entertainment Weekly  notes the best part of the story is "a lot more dragons." So, too, does Reddit early reader Indianthane95 agree. "Speaking of dragons, they made the novella for me. We get extremely-well detailed and choreographed tales of dragon warfare," (s)he writes. "The battles are, simply put, awesome." Those include dragon v. dragon airborne fights, as well as human v. dragon battles. (Warning: The humans don't do so well.) Even when they're not fighting, though, fans at Westeros.org are eating up the dragonlore, particularly the parts with wild dragons and some Avatar-like human-dragon domestication.

A slow-moving point of view

Like the other Thrones books, the story is written from the point of view of a person within that world. Here, though, that person is a dull, old Westeros historian, making the tale more like a textbook, without the zingers and wit of a character like Tyrion. Entertainment Weekly was less-than pleased about this:

Less good news: It is written as deep history, with a style closer to Tolkien's faux-biblical prose than Martin's dialogue-rich snap. Some paragraphs consist of little more than lists of confusingly identical names: Aemon and Aemond and Daemon, plus two guys named Aegon, all trying to kill each other."

Similarly, Reddit's Indianthane95 notes that it has "a huge list of characters and Houses," many of whom don't even survive till the end of the short novella. If genealogy is your thing, then have at it.

Martin-like twists and turns

As we noted when the first previews came out in July, the book has Martin-esque levels of blood and betrayal. "[T]ime and time again we’re allowed to follow individual characters just long enough to get attached before some violent calamity befalls them," Bridget McGovern of Tor.com wrote then. Reddit's Indianthane95 agrees: "You finally get to like and sympathise with one of the many fighters of the War? BAM s/he's gone, and so is his/her dragon. Repeat 100x." Not content to kill off almost all of our beloved characters in the main series, he commits here to ending the lives of people we only mildly care about. And a lot of them, too. "Be prepared for a body count that makes the end of Hamlet look like Care Bears on Ice," Mcgovern wrote.

So no, it's not what fans wanted, but as Thrones blog Tower of the Hand writes, it's a "not-too-shabby replacement." Since the next volume of A Song of Ice and Fire isn't expected for some time, the blog has had to "solemnly acknowledge that this will have to sustain us for, possibly, another 12 to 24 months before the next Ice and Fire dosage." Winter continues.

       

Taylor Swift's Thanksgiving Break Included Singing with Prince William

In America we may be gearing up for our most gluttonous of holidays, but one of the most prized members of our nation was overseas yesterday to hobnob with our former colonial overlords. 

Yes, Taylor Swift was at the Winter Whites Gala at Kensington Palace, an event benefiting the Centrepoint charity that for some reason involved a "Livin' on a Prayer" sing-a-long with Jon Bon Jovi. Swift and Prince William joined Bon Jovi on stage, and somewhere Kate Middleton, not in attendance, rolled her eyes. (Or she sang along. "Livin' on a Prayer," is pretty damn catchy.) Swift, of course, treated this as she treats everything, with boundless enthusiasm and a lack of awareness of the appropriate dance moves for the moment.

The best parts of the number are when Taylor coaches William, doing a hand movement to single the next line of the song...

When Taylor hand hearts...

When Taylor gets really excited and that excitement is not reciprocated...

 

       

Sasha Obama Is So Over Her Dad

Associated Press

At Wednesday's (weird, gross) presidential turkey pardon, Sasha Obama's always-just-beneath-the-surface annoyance with the corny necessities of her dad's job were on full display.

Of course, she's 12, an age at which even kids with normal parents start to see the adults' behavior as horrifying and terrible. If your father's job requires that 1) you always be on camera and 2) that he do really dumb things like pretend to bless a turkey, normal tween mortification is obviously amplified.

At no point in the turkey pardoning did Sasha look at all happy about it. When the camera pulled back to show President Obama's two daughters, Sasha stood sullenly, looking at the ground. (Malia, a trooper, smiled and brushed her bangs off her forehead.)

Via Dorsey Shaw

When Obama actually did the pardoning, Sasha was unimpressed by the bird, and gave her dad the side-eye. Her attitude was poorly hidden; "sasha is *over this*," Marketplace's Lizzie O'Leary tweeted. And she is, clearly. Everyone knows that look in a kid's eye.

And then, when the brief ceremony was over, Sasha was the first to turn back toward the White House, lifting her eyebrows slightly at Malia as if to say, "Come on."

To be fair: This is precisely how everyone would have acted at the age of 12. But Sasha has been sassing her dad on TV for a while now.

During Obama's speech at the 2012 Democratic convention, Obama made a joke about the kids having homework to do. Sasha was not amused.

When he won, Sasha, Malia, and Michelle joined Obama on stage for his second inaugural address. And it was boring.

Chin up, kid. Only 1,150 days left until there's a new president, and only three more turkey pardonings. The important thing, as anyone who has graduated from his or her teenage years can tell you, is to get all of the crankiness out of your system by yelling at your parents in private and refusing to do what they want until the last minute. Or maybe threaten to become a Republican. Obama may not negotiate with terrorists, but he'll probably come to the bargaining table for you.

       

The Weird, Wonderful World of Right-Wing Art

Tumblr

The art world never fails to surprise — first George W. Bush becomes an accomplished painter (of pets and Jay Leno), and now a burgeoning right-wing art movement is taking over the Internet. For your enjoyment, the Right-Wing Art tumblr began collecting melancholy oil paintings of Andrew Breitbart this week.

Here, Breitbart contemplates hashtag-War (artist unknown). That's a reference to Breitbart's ominous promise of "War!" with the left in the Hating Breitbart documentary trailer. You can buy the painting on rightwingart, Tumblr

Here's an offering from Dan Lacey, the "Painter of Pancakes," featuring Speaker John Boehner's tears.

rightwingart, Tumblr

Lacey has also painted President Obama riding a unicorn, naked. 

Painter Denny Pinkham went with an Anthony Weiner joke. Unfortunately, it looks like the work has been sold.

rightwingart, Tumblr 

And here, a cartoon artist who simply goes by Dale offers us the best social commentary of our time. Ann Coulter encouraging Gov. Chris Christie to drink the Obama Kool-Aid. (Note how Obama holds a "Marxie" cup instead of a Dixie cup.)

rightwingart, Tumblr

Oh, and please, feast your eyes upon Margaret Thatcher as an angel of the Lord. Artist Ben Moore displayed this painting around the time of her death.

rightwingart, Tumblr

For more inspiration, or perhaps a nice holiday gift for a loved one, see rightwingart.tumblr.com. 

       

Egypt Sentences Women and Girls to Prison for Public Protesting

Riot police take positions as students of Cairo University, who are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, shout slogans against the military and interior ministry during a demonstration at the main gate of the university around Al Nahda square in Cairo, November 24, 2013. (REUTERS/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY)

Egyptian authorities arrested two pro-democracy activists who played a significant role in the 2011 ouster of then-president Hosni Mubarak for inciting protests on Wednesday, implementing a controversial new anti-demonstration law passed by Egypt’s interim president on Sunday. The high-profile arrests coincide with the sentencing of 21 female protesters to years-long prison terms for rallying in favor of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Fourteen women will spend 11 years incarcerated and seven girls, who are underage, will be held at a juvenile detention center until they turn 18. The Associated Press describes the scene at the court house and, previously, on the streets:

Images from the courtroom in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria showed the 21 young female defendants in white head scarves and white prison uniforms, handcuffed in the defendants cage... A day earlier brought other harsh scenes: Security forces beating and dragging female secular activists on the ground during a protest outside parliament. Pole detained 14 women, then drove them in a van through the desert where they were dropped off on a remote road in the middle of the night in a move to intimidate them, several of the women said.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for a repeal or alteration of the broad law, which she said “leaves the door open to a very restrictive and repressive interpretation.” From the U.N.:

The new law prescribes a list of escalating measures that law enforcement authorities can employ, after issuing warnings, to disperse unruly demonstrators. These include tear gas, water cannon, smoke grenades, warning shots, rubber bullets, and even live ammunition which is prohibited by international standards except in unavoidable instances in order to protect lives.

According to The Guardian, non-Islamists — who have largely refrained from joining Islamists in rallying for Morsi — recently began partaking in demonstrations against the military, so fed up are they with their anti-democratic rule. Now, the anti-protesting law affirms some Egyptians’ fear of losing even more of their democratic rights. Egypt’s interim leaders will hold a referendum on the country’s constitution in December, as a step towards elections of a new ruling cabinet.
       

It's OK to Like Disney Princesses

Disney

The new film Frozen, opening today, adds two new members to Disney's expansive collection of animated princesses. And that's not entirely bad thing. 

Among certain circles these days, princesses aren't very popular. Take for instance the suddenly infamous ad for the building toys GoldieBlox, which has generated some controversy for appropriating a Beastie Boys song, but also pointedly comments on the concept of gendered toys. The ad, featuring girls building a Rube Goldberg machine, attacks the princess culture that crowds the girl toy market. (Though the rewritten version of the Beastie Boys' "Girls" has been replaced in a new version of the ad, you can see the original here.) And GoldieBlox, a company markets building toys primarily to young girls, has a very legitimate point. The girlie toy market is expansive and often oppressive. 

But as a former princess-lover, something about the ad frustrated me. I may not have ended up an engineer, but I turned out no worse—I'd like to think—for loving my dolls and princesses. And while I heartily acknowledge that the classic Disney princess stories didn't have many feminist messages, I'd argue that my affection for them and other supposedly girlie things didn't stifle my creativity, but instead propelled me to want to be a storyteller. Entertainment Weekly's Anthony Breznican  felt the same way about the GoldieBlox spot, tweeting: "Girls should def play w robots, superheroes, construction equipment - but I cringed at how that ad dissed pink-loving princess types." So did I. 

Of course, the Disney Princess market is going very strong—in 2012 sales of Disney Princess merchandise amounted to $1.52 billion in the U.S. and Canada—and doesn't need any defense. In the greater scheme of things, GoldieBlox's viewpoint is in the minority and should be championed as much as possible. And with the GoldieBlox debate (yes, the GoldieBlox Debate) ongoing, Frozen enters a strange climate. Should princesses like Elsa and Anna matter any more? I want to say: yes. 

There are certainly things you can begrudge Frozen for: it's a very homogeneous world; Anna and Elsa are typically gorgeous, and have tiny, unrealistic waists; the head of animation for the film made some dumb comments about how hard it is to animate women because of their emotions. But when you actually see the movie, there's even more to applaud. The film delightfully subverts the classic Disney love-at-first sight trope. The men in the story really are the sidekicks. It's a story above-all about female power and the friendship and love between two women, topics that are unfortunately rare in mainstream movies these days. Frozen also happens to be co-directed and co-written by a woman, Jennifer Lee. "It was very very important to us—as a woman, and Jennifer Lee felt this very much too—that we write something that our daughters could be proud of, that our daughters could take into adulthood and learn from," co-songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez told The Wire in an interview this week.  

So is it bad for a little girl to put on a dress to resemble Elsa and sing "Let It Go," the centerpiece song from the movie? No. As Sasha Stone wrote in a piece praising the movie at Awards Daily, the song is "such an anomaly in the world of animation where usually women sing songs about love or the men they can’t have. But here, she’s singing about unleashing her own magical power of freezing things." I'd add that it's also about a woman finding herself and embracing a positive power for which she has been demonized. It's the animated version of a woman standing up for herself after being called a bitch. 

There's a space where the world of princesses and the world of GoldieBlox can coexist without one diminishing the other. Frozen helps point us toward it. 

       

White House to Delay Obamacare's Small Business Online Exchange for a Year

The shadow of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is shown as she speaks at the Community Health and Social Services Center in Detroit.  (AP)

Welcome to the Thanksgiving Wednesday news dump, Obamacare edition. The administration will announce a one-year delay of the online health insurance exchanges for small businesses on Wednesday, meaning that employers with a staff of 50 or under need to work with an insurance broker to buy employee coverage. 

As The Washington Post explains, this means that small businesses are still eligible to buy insurance through the exchanges, just not online, as they have been since October 1. Thanks to a previous delay, the Small Business Health Options Program (or SHOP), didn't go live with the individual exchange sites on October 1. It was originally delayed for a month.

Since then, the problems with individual sign-ups on the Healthcare.gov site have dominated talk of the federal exchange roll-out. Small businesses have been able to apply for coverage through paper applications since the exchanges opened last month. Here's the note from the Department of Health and Human Services (via Politico): 

We’ve concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace, and adding key new features, including an employee choice option and premium aggregation services, by November 2014." 

The notice references another delayed portion of the small business marketplace: a "consumer choice" feature that will allow employees of small businesses to pick their own plans. That feature was delayed until the 2015 open enrollment period. In July, the White House delayed the "employer mandate" provision of the healthcare reform law, giving medium and large businesses an extra year to provide affordable health insurance to their employees. 

       

The Best Tweets of All Time, According to Us

Associated Press

If you are bored at the airport right now, thanks to America's faltering infrastructure and terrible weather, or if you want something to look at / laugh at / refer bafflingly to tomorrow night at Thanksgiving dinner, here you go: The best tweets that have been created as of November 27, 2013, as selected by The Wire and Various People We Know. 

"What is your favorite tweet" is, for Twitter users, a surprisingly hard question to answer. Twitter's so-called "favorite" tool doesn't help, allowing, as it does, an infinite number of favorites. So actual favorites need something special, maybe some context, maybe something else to really stand out.

Take my favorite tweet. It is this, written just as Massachusetts police had surrounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in that suburban back yard.

why not just tow the boat to jail

— Eric Spiegelman (@ericspiegelman) April 20, 2013

This is a good tweet; if you are writing tweets, aim for this. Topical, funny, and, yes, an incisive look at the nature of police work and also boat trailers.

Here is how other people answered that same question.

Favorite tweets of non-Wire people

Caitlin Kelly, senior web producer at The New Yorker

Well, @SexCauldron, could the ability to apply intelligence and skill in pressure spots--rather than being overrun by anxiety--be 'clutch'?

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) October 16, 2013

Max Read , Gawker.com deputy editor

.@parisreview So is Paris any good or not

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) January 9, 2013

Margarita Noriega , Editor-in-Charge of Reuters Live News

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Pizzas

— Pizzacat (@catpizzas) August 13, 2013

Alex Pareene , Salon.com columnist

@justinbieber @jdickerson

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) April 26, 2010

Ryan Woodsmall , self-described "professional idiot"

Hello sir, I-*briefcase full of jellybeans falls open*

— brendle what (@brendlewhat) February 4, 2012

Josh Fruhlinger, freelance writer and editor
Context: This is about the McDonald's anthem "Mac Tonight."

"This creepy moon singing a jazzy, food-based reinterpretation of a leftist ode to a murderer will make people want hamburgers at night"

— alex pareene (@pareene) November 25, 2013

Jen Doll, author of Save the Date

Twitter is like screaming into a great abyss and then sometimes your friends will swing by the periphery and be like, "Hey, nice screaming."

— Nick Greene (@NickGreene) July 29, 2013

Jess Zimmerman , Grist List editor

Pick up artists and garbage men should switch names.

— Ceej (@ceejoyner) May 29, 2013

Matt Novak , editor of Gizmodo's  Paleofuture blog

No, no, no. Everything happens for a reason IN MOVIES. Common mistake.

— Alex Baze (@bazecraze) September 5, 2011

Darth , internet celebrity

What’s all the fuss about horse meat? Who gives a shit? I’ll eat a horse. I’ll eat your dog. I’ll eat your fucking family.

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) February 19, 2013

The Wire staff's favorite tweets

Elle Reeve

*hugs girlfriend, gets on 1 knee* honey, would you *points up, fireworks spell out "LIKE A FREE IPAD?" she looks down& i'm holding a survey*

— LeVar Burzum (@drugleaf) February 18, 2012

Richard Lawson

Thank God it's Friday!!!!!! It is the weekend baby!!!!!! Have fun and enjoy it!!!

— Quvenzhane' Wallis (@IAMQUVENZHANE) May 10, 2013

Danielle Wiener-Bronner
Context: Perhaps unaware of the full context of that first sentence.

Two Bills, one selfie. Already having fun at #CGI2013 MT @BillGates A @billclinton selfie as we sat down to talk http://t.co/iK4Y7tGFIY

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) September 24, 2013

Esther Zuckerman

Does anyone know if dexter filkins is on twitter?

— Sarah Jessica Parker (@SJP) November 6, 2013

Zach Schonfeld

@TriciaLockwood No.

— T.J.Maxx (@tjmaxx) May 8, 2012

Abby Ohlheiser
Context:  Back in 2009, early Twitter adopter Stephen Fry was trapped in a crowded elevator, and livetweeted the whole thing. He even took a photo of his fellow travelers.

Here we are x http://twitpic.com/1bgnt

— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 3, 2009

Joe Reid

I'm not tweeting again until the Red Sox win.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) April 6, 2011

Allie Jones

Does anyone know how outback makes their bloomin onion?

— Audrina Patridge (@AudrinaPatridge) April 20, 2013

Brian Feldman

no

— NPR News (@nprnews) June 21, 2012

Alex Abad-Santos

I want @drake to murder my vagina

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) March 22, 2013

Arit John
Context: Earlier this summer Vanity Fair published "40 Signs You Are a BuzzFeed Writer Running Out of List Ideas." If you're at BuzzFeed (unofficial motto: #nohaters), this is probably the best way to respond.

40 Reasons Vanity Fair is no longer invited to brunch.

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) July 9, 2013

Gabriel Snyder

Robot jerk cut me off... Chased it into parking lot. Now what do I do??? pic.twitter.com/W98jpC9dcS

— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) July 30, 2013

Eric Levenson

it is a common misconception that slugs are naturally slow moving honestly theyre just chill as hell

— YA BOY BILL NYE (@yaboybillnye) October 23, 2012

And, the classic:

Dashiell Bennett

dan abrams

— Dan Abrams (@danabrams) March 30, 2011