Harper blames Islamic terrorism as "biggest threat"

If there's one thing I've picked up on since I've moved to Canada, it's that Canada -- well, politicians and anyone else whose job it is to make nationalist rhetoric -- prides itself on being socially progressive.

Yet sometimes we sing a different tune.

The CBC reports Prime Minister Stephen Harper says "the biggest threat" to Canada is Islamic terrorism. As CBC writes:

"There are other threats out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats," Harper said.

Harper cautioned that terrorist threats can "come out of the blue" from a different source, such as the recent Norway attacks, where a lone gunman who hated Muslims killed 77 people.

But Harper said terrorism by Islamic radicals is still the top threat, though a "diffuse" one.

Despite acknowledging the variety of backgrounds that comprise terrorists, Harper insists Islamic terrorism is the top threat. Even if the majority of terrorist attacks committed in the past decade were by Islamic extremists, justifying rights-defying laws like arresting suspects without a warrant and detaining them without charges inherently relies on prejudice.

If intelligence defined the "biggest terrorist threats" as the largest and most notable attacks globally, such as the incidents in Norway, I can't help but think that Harper wouldn't adjust his foreign policy to focus on Christian extremists.

Quidditch!

You're jealous.



Check for yours truly ~17 seconds.

"Proud" to be obese? Please don't be.

Of course I'm for positive body role models, supporting women with curves and healthy self-esteem -- the whole shtick.

But when obese young actress Nikki Blonsky boasts about her glowing self-image in this article, I groan.

From the Us article:

"I play a character called Willhelmina. She's awesome, she's totally against the grain," Blonsky tells Us. "She doesn't want to
lose weight. She thinks fitness camp is stupid and that's why I love her, because she doesn't want to do anything that the camp wants her to do."

And like her character, the actress admits that she's proud of her full-figured shape.

"I feel awesome," Blonsky tells Us. "I think there's nothing better than just showing by confidence and showing that I love my body. Why not share it with L.A., New York, everywhere?"


Based on the way she gloats about her self-image, it seems like she's trying to convince us that she has the body she's always wanted in an attempt to reconcile her insecurities.

But even if I'm right, there are countless women -- and even men -- who feel they look better if they're a couple dozen pounds past overweight, dribbling the word "voluptuous" as a trendier way to describe being fat.

At first it seems refreshing to read, in contrast to the poor self-esteem that usually accompany obesity. (Thanks, western society.)

But supporting notions such as "fitness camp is stupid" is unjustifiable.

Boasting about how proud you are of your weight when you're obese represents a complacency with an unhealthy lifestyle that should be unacceptable. There's a difference between accepting your flaws when they come in the "those last stubborn ten pounds" variety and tolerating a destructive lifestyle.

Blonsky is only 21 years old and clearly in the "obese" category -- potentially "morbidly obese." Her negligence for health and fitness in favor of proving that she can be happy with herself among the unfairly perfect bodies of Hollywood frightens me. This shouldn't be the only way she markets herself.

This does apply to famous men too. Though being "fluffy," as Gabriel Iglesias might say, may provide great material, comedians often fall into a habit of using their obesity for laughs and are unwilling to shed the weight.

These entertainers may fear they'll lose their fan base if they do trim down to a healthier range. Yet Jennifer Hudson, who was also praised for her larger figure, recently became a spokesmodel for Weight Watchers and still garners the same support for her talent and character as she did before.

The Hollywood obese may want to sacrifice years of their life for a few more years of fame and success. If that's how they feel fulfilled, then that's the case. However, like it or not, they have a responsibility to be role models to their legions of fans that make them the celebrities they are.

Some of the responsibility falls on Blonsky, comedienne Mo'Nique, actress Kirstie Alley, and several others to lose the weight themselves.

At the same time, part of the responsibility relies on the rest of us.

Entertainment magazines, have a field day publishing quotes from Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tyra Banks defending their weight gains, because by any account, they're physically more gorgeous than most of us. But stop praising shows like Mo'Nique's Fat Chance, as they're probably harming women's bodies much more than they're promoting self-satisfaction.

If your daughter is 10 years old and 200 pounds, there's no reason to tell her she's ugly, but stop telling her she's just "fabulous" and leave it at that. Change her diet, get her active, and don't let her fall into a habit of rejecting fitness.

And if you're obese, know that you're not ugly either. Nor is Blonsky. Nor is Mo'Nique. In fact, they are both beautiful, and I bet you are too. But you're not at your best when you're much fatter than you need to be. When your metabolism can sustain you through your fast-paced day, you'll love your body heck of a lot more. And trust me, your body will love you back.

The irony of America's Next Top Model

I spent a while letting my cursor blink of the "Title:" field.

For one, I'm embarrassed to admit that not only have I seen America's Next Top Model, I've seen every episode ever aired, most of them multiple times. I'm ashamed that I can't deny offering a critical opinion on the photo shoots and prancing struts down the self-important runways that the contestants on the show produce. Not only is the quality of the production terrible, but the show takes the subjects that I rage against -- superfluous fashion, vanity, materialism -- seriously. Devoting an article to the show forces me to draw on my expertise as a religious -- dare I say 'fan'?


Giving up on a show once I've seen a full season is hard for me to do. Hey, I stuck with Chuck for several seasons, and even Heroes long after it stumbled away from its geeky, self-referential fun and into a swamp of convoluted melodrama and useless characters.



(If this character had been killed off any later, I think I would've acquired her "power.")

This leads me to my second reason for my hesitation before typing the title: what do I call this article? I want to discuss the 'evolution' of the show, but while I've watched its artistic direction change, I certainly wouldn't suggest it has improved on its formula.

I started watching the show after Vh1 insisted on playing frequent weekend-long marathons of the show. What hooked me was watching someone do this:



Or make this:



And watching the show means following the back stories, so I cheered when I saw an Internet meme named "Creepy Chan" go from posting pictures of herself on 4Chan like this:



To this:



The first season of the show spared no reality TV cliche: creating catfights, exaggerating characters to make villains, reiterating sob stories, you name it. Even for reality TV, it wasn't innovative or smart. Yet, as a teenager somewhere around 14 years old, I was entranced by how chic the visuals seemed and how fascinating the makeup, hair, and costumes were.

And up until somewhere around the fourth season, this seemed to be their demographic. After all, the self-important young woman who plunges into social trends and scoffs at the quirky and weird has kept magazines such as Cosmopolitan a profitable market.

Maybe Tyra Banks was disappointed at the spoiled generation upon which she depended for her audience. At this point, "personality" became a main criterion in hiring participants.

Alright, sure. This is TV, right? In order for me to appreciate the contestants a little more, I need to cheer for the endearing ones as they fight against the antiheroes.

Yet more and more, "endearing" is turning into "relatable." So sure, we all have temper tantrums once in a while. And not all of us know everything about fashion without this show. But when has this ever been charming?



As it disintegrates into trashiness, America's Next Top Model simultaneously begins to cater to the tween market. Pastel colors pop up everywhere. Contestants are fed lines such as "I'm just SOOO super excited!" to squeal. Since cycle seven, one of the prizes has been a spread in Seventeen magazine, which prides itself in putting "role models" on their cover.



If the show sells out the dignity of its contestants by proving them to be vapid, selfish, arrogant, and/or short-tempered, why bother appealing to the younger audience?

Tyra's Top Model doctrine, which she makes painfully obvious, is to accept intriguing and unconventional bodies and faces to redefine "beauty" and offer girls a standard. With contestants cursing at each other and referring to themselves as "the head bitch in charge," I wonder how that's going.

A little note before we move on

You all thought this was out of commission. To be honest, after piles of reporting assignments/essays consuming most of my time, social life aside, I decided gleefully tapping away at my keyboard was not the type of leisure I needed.

(Somehow, sleep found a way of overriding that. I hate being mortal.)

Well, I'm back.

As a reminder, I don't take this little blog seriously, and neither should you. The writing is terrible, the entries aren't cohesive, and if I say anything clever you can assume it was an accident. Monkeys with keyboards, you know.



That said, feel free to browse An Awkward Angle at any time to see what's on my mind, or even comment on the inanity.

Now, on to talk about something trivial.

Harper doesn't like Canadian . . .

. . . news.*


KITTEH NEEDS LOLCAT CAPTION CONTEST. KTHXBI

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apparently doesn't like to read Canadian news. In fact, he does the most anti-Canadian thing most Canadians can dream of: he reads -- *GASP!* -- American news. Apparently, he likes to read about American politics as more of a hobby.

I'll defend him here; I don't think he needs to read Canadian news. See, usually that means he's in there somewhere, and he probably doesn't want to see his face plastered everywhere with negative and speculative captions jabbing the reader's attention. Hey, I wouldn't want to see that, either.

The other point is he's the freaking prime minister. Dude has more aides than American rednecks could count with a calculator. They tell him everything he needs to know, and don't waste his time with what (they tell him) he doesn't need to know. He's gotta be pretty busy if he's helping to run the country, even if it is little ole Canada (zing!).

One other reason this doesn't surprise me: most Canadians I know who are interested in politics spend most of their time analyzing American politics. Face it, they're more interesting by nature: bipartisan politics mean crazies on BOTH sides! Compromise, functionality, and productivity with multiple parties and executive forces? Pshh. That's for squares.

But, really, Canadians only pay attention to Canadian news because it affects them, but for fun, dynamic American politics are where it's at. People may suggest Harper should read Canadian news, but like I said, his aides do that for him. He can choose whatever hobbies he prefers. If those include studying American politics, than he's doing justice to the sweater vests he wears.

This post doesn't save Palin from my scoffing attacks at her for not being able to name a single new source she "reads." Journalism major, my extremity.









*On this blog, I rarely cite my sources just because I can (although if you ever ask, I'll post the website/link to newspaper where I found it; I don't make this stuff up).

Adam Lambert's new song suffers the American Idol curse

I heard Adam was going to work with Lady Gaga's producers on his album. On American Idol, this guy was the king of reinvention. Even when he wasn't re-creating something, his stylistic choices, vocal arrangements, and in-the-moment performances made him more memorable than Kris What's-His-Name. Remember when he blew your socks off with the KISS performance?


(Pardon the quality, but it's the best I could find. Somebody needs to tell the 12-year-olds who upload American Idol videos to stop recording them from a video camera.)

Well, unfortunately, none of that glitzy style has transcended into his solo work. I present to you the mess that is his first single, "Time for Miracles."



The arrangements are predictable, the theme is unoriginal, the lyrics are just one cliche after another, and the whole song is blase. Even Adam seems bored when he sings it. There needed to at least be more moments for him to belt out his signature screams.

Lambert isn't a songwriter; he's a song makeover artist.

Witness: vintage Adam Lambert in "Crazy" -- and it means something when I say he sounds good on it, because I'm a huge Gnarls Barkley fan



and: "Ring of Fire" -- not his original concept for the rearrangement, but still something new


Here's my point. Adam Lambert needs to be given a distinctively jarring track. Then, let him take the reins on vocal post-production. Have some creative writers pen lyrics that mean something -- or maybe even don't mean anything, but leave listeners scratching their heads wondering what they could mean -- and Lambert's inspiration will follow. If you give him the dry, lifelessly generic songs that could be David Cook's or Daughtry's latest radio-friendly dud, he won't do much to the song. Hopefully, his other songs will be Lady Gaga-influenced poppers with funky synth beats and clever hooks, and he can fill in the gaps with his Freddie Mercury voice. Now is no time to be humble; if he doesn't take some risks, he'll fall under the American Idol curse until he's just another once-been.