The Wit of a Model

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has said that she has never suffered from anorexia because she has had "a strong family base" behind her. In fact, she has said that the numerous problems that anorexia has caused in Brazil, not to mention all over the world, are because of parents and family.

"...the parents are responsible, not fashion..."

Wow ! I for one am very impressed with that amazingly intelligent psychoanalysis of the disease in young women ! I should just abandon what my psychology professors have taught me in university, and tell those doctors that they were wrong, and that Gisele Bundchen has solved this growing mental illness...
How would you feel if you were the parents of Ana Carolina Reston and a supermodel blamed you for the death of your daughter, and then said it wasn't the industry that she was in that caused her death ?

Ms. Bundchen may have had the support she needed from her family, but not all families are the same. Some families work, some don't, others just fall apart. I don't think Ms. Bundchen would tell someone who suffers from Post Traumatic Shock that if his father who beat him was more supportive, his nose and ribs would still be intact. Not in the same category, but it does involve abuse of some kind. And that's what Anorexia is - it's a personal abuse of oneself due to a lack of confidence and destructive self image.
So what do you say, Ms.Bunchen when you run into a heavy-set person and s/he tells you that s/he wants to be rail thin to look like you ? Do you tell them that their parents are responsible for the genes that made them fat, and that they should blame them ?

But I'm sure that I'm wrong. I'm sure that the fashion industry has nothing to do with the way young women see themselves. I'm sure that the thin supermodel ban in Spain had nothing to do with Anorexia and Bullemia, nor the health problems and risks that many doctors are talking about concerning being underweight and too thin.
I'm sure that the numerous times we see people suffering from this terrible mental affliction, and requiring interventions and professional help, is all an over exaggeration of the reality. Everybody in Gisele Bundchen's world are all thin, rich, and happy. So there's no way that these health problems could be caused by the environment around her...
I'm sure the image that society, the fashion, advertising, music, and movie industries shoves to us has nothing to do with how we are influenced in the way we look, dress, eat, and feel.
...by the way, Ms. Bundchen, that also includes the model industry too...but you already knew that, right ?



Octavian

What about Russia ?

Iran is eager for friends, and America should be too.
With the crisis of Iraq still in the horizon, President George "Cowboy W." Bush is now looking towards another Middle Eastern threat in Iran, and with the way his first war is going, if he decides to take on this one in the same manner, we could probably expect more missiles flying over New York City.
What America needs is an ally (and no the British won't count on this one. As far as I'm concerned, they paid off their World War 2 debt by jumping into Iraq) And who better an ally than Russia.

Russia and the US have had some kind of history together. Opposing ideas that lead to the longest war in history, but that should be behind everybody by now. Barring Ann Coulter's constant reference to Communism whenever she refers to a Democrat, the Russians are now part of the twenty-first century, and while not totally embracing the idea, are more democratic than they were eighteen years ago. And in terms of pure strategy, Russia would be the best bet to deter Iran. The nation doesn't have to accept their way of thinking, hell, they don't even have to like them ! But mutual destruction can make anybody side with each other.
Deterrence by position is a very good way of looking at it.
If both the US and Russia stood together in Iran's nuclear position, this would lead China to reconsider its own. We all know that Iran wants to further relations with Russia because of its proximity and its own nuclear power. This would ensure that the US would not be able to use the area around the former Soviet Union as a jump point in getting to Iran should a missile be fired.

So if that's Iran's strategy, then why not try and beat them to the punch ? Why not try and get a partnership going before all of that happens ? Answers : Cold War and Communism.
President Bush and the nation still can't seem to get over the idea that the Soviet Union fell and that there is no more Iron Curtain to prevent relations. The more I see it, the more I begin to realize that Bush like most Americans just want to fight for an ideology and once that comes to pass, they couldn't give a shit about what happens next. Clinton did it when the Commie barrier was finally broken through (after all of the efforts by the far superior Reagan administration), and the sudden culture and economic shock brought Russia plummeting down a toilet. And where was the mighty US to help out ? They were in the same place they were when Bush Sr. told the Kurdish people they needed to stand up to Saddam.
And now Bush is asking everybody why nobody wants to follow his lead - Does he really have to wonder ?

Octavian