Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Yesterday, December 19, marked seven years since one of my favorite movies, Fellowship of the Ring, came out in theaters. In honor of that, here are a couple clips from the Lord of the Rings DVDs.

Here’s a clip from the Fellowship of the Ring extended edition DVD in which Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan discuss an incident involving a splinter.

And here is an Easter Egg of a fake interview between Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan. Dom interviews Elijah via satellite while posing as a German interviewer. “When will you wear wigs??”

Time to End the Global Gag Rule

On his first day in office in 2001, George W. Bush reinstated the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule. This policy denies U.S. family planning assistance to foreign organizations that use funding from any source to perform abortions, lobby for abortion rights, or provide counseling about abortion. Sign the petition asking Barack Obama to overturn this policy.

The video and petition are from EngenderHealth.

Target Women: Lessons 2008

In the newest Target Women segment, Sarah Haskins reflects on lessons learned from the media in 2008. “I don’t know where Paraguay is!”

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Help save a feminist bookstore

I saw this posted at Feministing and thought I should spread the word. In Other Words is the last non-profit feminist bookstore in the U.S, and they need to raise $11,000 by the end of December or else they’ll have to close in March. According to their website, they’ve already raised nearly $7,000. You can help by making a donation, visiting the store in Portland, or shopping at their website.

Target Women: Jewelry

Another Target Women segment is here, and as usual it’s hilarious and spot on.

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FYI: If you’re thinking about buying a diamond but want to make sure it’s produced under ethical conditions and not being used to fund war, you can find resources at The Conflict Free Diamond Council.

Taylor Hanson and Natalie Have Fourth Child

And the Hanson family keeps growing!

Taylor Hanson, 25, and his wife Natalie, 24, welcomed their fourth child, Viggo Moriah, on Tuesday, December 9, 2008. The couple told PEOPLE, “Viggo is doing great. He is the perfect early Christmas gift. We look forward to being home to enjoy the holidays with him and his very excited brothers and sister.”

The newest Hanson baby will have plenty of company, including siblings Ezra, 6, River, 2, and Penelope, 3. The baby’s cousins include Isaac and Nikki’s sons Everett, 1, and Monroe, 5 months, and Zac and Kate’s son Shepherd, 6 months.

According to PEOPLE, Hanson is planning to head back into the studio and release a new album by the summer.

Yes, We Did

I just came across this video posted by Jay Smooth about Obama getting elected. He eloquently expresses both the symbolic nature of this achievement and the importance of making sure we continue working to bring about change. Also, the cat in the video is really adorable.

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Ani DiFranco: “November 4, 2008”

Here is a video of Ani DiFranco’s new song, November 4, 2008, performed live at Babeville on 11/29/08:

Target Women: Vampires

In her newest Target Women segment, Sarah Haskins visits a “Twilight” poster signing to find out why teenage girls want to date vampires. I only heard of the “Twilight” phenomenon recently, but apparently the series is extremely popular. The movie, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, earned $70.5 million its opening weekend, making it the biggest opening weekend for a female director in history. A blogger at OverThinkingIt pointed out that once “Twilight” grosses over $187 million, it will become one of the top 100 highest grossing films in the U.S.

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Jon Favreau and the Facebook Incident

Jon Favreau, Barack Obama's chief speechwriter, and a friend pose with a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton. (Source: The Washington Post)

For about two hours on Thursday afternoon, the picture on the right was posted on Facebook. It could be a scene from a frat party, except look more closely and you’ll notice that the man on the right is wearing a shirt that reads “Obama Staff.” On the left is 27-year-old Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter. The two are shown posing with a lifesize cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton. Favreau is shown cupping his hand over Clinton’s breast while the unidentified person on the right is pulling back her hair, placing a beer in her face and giving her a kiss.

Since the photo first surfaced, I’ve seen reactions ranging from outrage and calls for Favreau to be fired to apathy and “boys will be boys” type justifications (see blog posts about this issue here, here, here and here). According to The Washington Post, Favreau “reached out to Senator Clinton to offer an apology.”

The Washington Post reported that “Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines cast the photos as evidence of increased bonhomie between the formerly rival camps.” Reines stated that “Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon’s obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application.” Campbell Brown criticized Clinton for not taking the incident seriously after having denounced sexism throughout her campaign. As a blogger pointed out on Shakesville, it’s possible Clinton responded this way to avoid being labeled a “humorless feminist,” or maybe she really doesn’t see it as a big deal. Either way, I think the blame should be placed on the men in the photo, not Clinton.

The photo could be easily dismissed as silly, immature behavior at a party, but I think more should be expected from someone with a high profile position in the Obama administration. It shows a lack of judgment on Favreau’s part, and I don’t think it’s overreacting or being a “humorless feminist” to call him out on it. Of course there are other pressing issues to be concerned about, but excusing actions like this sends the message that it’s ok to disrespect women. Just because sexist behavior is often normalized in our culture doesn’t mean it should be viewed as acceptable.