TWO FROM WORKING FOR CHANGE

First a Maureen Dowd essay on Kirstie Alley's new show:

Girth to Mirth?

This ribald and irresistible show is more than a case study in the double standard of fat. It's also a study in the cultural and personal ambivalence of a woman who is both brazen and vulnerable, sassy and self-loathing, and trapped between the desire to accept her weight and lose it.

But more than anything else, "Fat Actress" puts a star's body at the center of the plot. And that's where we are these days.

On Broadway we had a play about a doomed relationship named "Fat Pig." Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," turned her sights to the bad belly in "The Good Body."

Meanwhile, television is full of "Extreme Makeovers" and Us Weekly ranks the "Best Body Makeovers" from J.Lo to Kate Winslet. At the same time, the thinparazzi track the eating disorder of Mary-Kate Olsen while The New York Times describes her and her twin sister as role models for the cool look of skinny girls in baggy clothes.

We are no longer surprised when the narrative of a celebrity's life turns out to be divided into the chapters of her changing body. It's the norm.

Click here for the rest.

Next, an essay on the recently passed bankruptcy law by conservative wonk turned liberal wonk Arianna Huffington:

Senate Opens Fire on U.S. Consumers

Make no mistake, the inequitable nature of the bill -- bending over backwards to help the credit card industry while sticking it to American working people who fall on hard times -- is no accident. Time and again over the last week, the Senate shot down amendments that would have made the bill a bit less mean-spirited. They denied proposals that would have made it easier for military veterans, the sick and the elderly to qualify for bankruptcy protection. They even rejected an amendment that would have put a 30 percent ceiling on the interest rates credit card companies can charge. Thirty percent -- that's more than Paulie Walnuts charges. But 74 U.S. senators -- including John Kerry, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin -- clearly thought that wasn't high enough. Quick, somebody send those guys a Bible bookmarked to Deuteronomy 23:19: "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother."

Click here for the rest.

Jesus, even John Kerry voted for this thing. And people give me shit for supporting the Greens.

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