Sex sells, no question

So there are plenty of ads that use sexy imagery

to get our consumption glands dribbling

There's a Dolce & Gabbana ad with a woman

being pinned down "in a position which

suggests rape is intended",

an example of porn-chic.

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Keywords: chic, porn, sexuality, commodification, sex, female, commercials

God Is Dead - Long Live the Celebrity

Today, celebrities are rather like calendar saints, according to Leo Braudy, the author of The Frenzy of Renown.

The stars’ unreal level of glamorous privilege gives them the allure of a lucky talisman.

So now we have Angelina Jolie, Our Lady of the Rainbow Family and of Teenage Fantasies.   more »

Five centuries of colonialism and imperialism have left a legacy of a deeply ingrained racism which expresses itself at every level of society but which is most insidiously expressed by the state and its mouthpieces, the corporate and state-run media.

Taken as individual expressions, they appear to be innocuous, or at least not directly offensive but when viewed contextually, that is to say as visible articulations of official policy, their impact over time reinforces whatever prejudices people have already absorbed.

Take for example the following quote from Channel 4 News (UK) about the siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan made by Jon Snow as he allegedly reported on events there. Snow tells us that Pakistan is “a breeding ground for global terror”

There are so many implications embedded in these six words that they need to be exposed for what they are: inflammatory and racist and simply untrue.   more »

It has become increasingly difficult

to write off Christian fundamentalism

as some kind of loony fringe. It's become mainstream

It is no accident that just about every

presidential hopeful in the US

has asked God to endorse his or her campaign

   more »

Keywords: extremism, christian, fundamentalism

Relentlessly, Bush, sticks to his message, repeating again and again his core beliefs about the war and why failure is not an option.

That is part of his problem: he has no new news to make on Iraq, so what makes headlines is the rising opposition.

He always deflects questions containing contrary information, such as yesterday's Bob Woodward report that CIA chief Michael Hayden warned the Bush administration last November that the Iraqi government "cannot function" and that this seemed "irreversible."

In a maudlin, self-pitying moment, Bush acknowledged the personal toll of sticking with his beliefs when they were so profoundly in opposition to those of the American people.   more »