Bracing!

Now there's a word I love.

Bracing.

Picture yourself on the bridge of a ship. No, not the Titanic. 

A Canadian Navy frigate. The wind slams you, its icy gusts laden with frozen droplets of fog.

Political humour here at DJ! is caustic, sharp and bracing.

Let my new favourite comic Tony Baker describe another form of *bracing*.

Oui. It's just a different take on the brilliant Molly Ivins' view of how to weaponize humour. In her words:

"There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful."

Twelve years ago on this day, Fernhill and I gave birth. DAMMIT JANET! sprang forth, as Athena did. What joy and naughty merriment she has brought.

Happy, happy!

To everyone who makes DAMMIT JANET! such a slice, but especially for my co-blogger and co-founder of this here joint, fernhilldammit:

Happy birthday to us, toots!

That by the way is the sans-pareille Betty Bonifassi.  You can hear and see her here, too.

Pop icons...

Five hilarious years, blogging with my virtual roomie fern hill. Time flies when you're having fun deriding venal right wing nut jobs, fundamentalist religious zealots, and vapid political ideologues of all stripe. The video above captures something of the flavour of our dynamic interaction, I think. Happy Birthday to DAMMIT JANET!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Unbelievably, DAMMIT JANET! turns four years old today.

Here are the two launch announcements.

At one, we had some confessions to make.

By two, we were getting a bit blasé.

At our third b-day party, we were showing some leg(s). (Ok, not really.)

For me, the most notable bloggy event of our past year was the bust-up with ProgBlogs and the subsequent creation of Canadian Progressive Voices (for which DJ! claims no credit atallatall).

I hafta say though how pleased I am at how DJ! has evolved. We have collected such interesting monsters writers and commenters.



ADDED: From the comments, Beijing York's gift.

Happy Birthday DAMMIT JANET!

Difficult to believe that today is our 3rd birthday.

And the cat has Patsy's tongue, as you may have noticed; she is non-plussed at the legs DAMMIT JANET! has shown over the last three years.

Since there's sadly no end in sight to the scathingly wrong, batshitcrazy stupidity of rightwingers and greedy neocons, we have miles and miles to blog yet.

Today is our birthday

DAMMIT JANET! is two years old today and still rocking!

Fifty looks good, when you're made of plastic.

From the top of her head to the tip of her toes, Barbie™ is a material girl. Plastic material, that is. Flesh-and-blood-and-silicone versions of this low and haute couture clothes mannequin, like Victoria 'Posh' Beckam, are but pale imitations.

A fixture in toy cupboards around the globe, Barbie has become more than just a doll for young girls growing up. An enduring cultural icon, she has also weathered much criticism and controversy over the years. ...

From her early swimsuit days Barbie has sported a range of fashions and styles; some which would rival the Oscars red carpet for their inventiveness and designer labels.

She has also pursued more than 100 different careers, including astronaut, gymnast, flight attendant, Unicef ambassador, and Formula One driver. Barbie even had several runs for president, including, ahead of her times perhaps, as a female African-American candidate in 2004.

There was of course that unfortunate release of the math-phobic Barbie™. Although Mattel responded to criticism, it did lead to a guerrilla underground movement, where countless Barbie™ voice microchips were replaced with .... GI Joe's?!?!? There are many who would demonize, elevate, post-modernize and re-habilitate her.

... in Mary Anne Moresco's What Hath Fifty Years of Barbie Wrought? for Catholic Exchange, she claims your wardrobe is indecent and that you're unhealthy for girls. She says Mattel is offering girls "scantily clad, toy-acquiring, self absorbed, empty-headed plastic dolls as role models, and leading girls to fall into that same vain, glamorous, over-sexed anorexic pit."

Feminist writer Camille Paglia adds in 'Pornographically Android Barbie' for Salon.com that you "prefigured the destabilization of sexual identity that would lead, among other things, to an epidemic of anorexia and bulimia among white middle-class girls ..."

OK, you're thin and your neck is a little scary. ... But in your defense, you've been single and self-supporting since 1959, which is pretty cool. And you've got equally verbose supporters, who see you as empowering women. Writing in the London newspaper The Guardian, Moira Redmond dares anyone to imagine you "doing housework; sucking up to men; cowering; being bullied or intimidated; being sexually harassed."

Is there anything left to say except a belated happy birthday?