Are your boobs wearing the right shoes?

I could not resist copying the title from Kate Harding's takedown in Salon.com of these ridiculously sexist Reebok ads.

I could be wrong, but I just don't see these ads as being that effective.  We know you can fool men into buying things by ogling women's bodies in ads, but will that really get women to buy products?  Harding:

I trust I don't need to repeat my rant from yesterday
on why companies trying to sell women products with images that appeal
primarily to heterosexual men is infuriating. But the depressing
question I didn't get to in that post is: How well does it work?
Sterling-Cooper lost the Patio account with the Ann-Margret ripoff
Peggy objected to, but Reebok paid for these and paid to run them.
(Well, at least one — has anyone seen the boob ad somewhere other than
YouTube?) Some decision-maker was confident that women will be so
enchanted by the thought of being ogled more often, they'll run out and
buy these shoes. And what's really scary to consider is, they might not
be wrong — not entirely, anyway.

I hope they aren't effective, because if it's not bad enough all the sexism in ads aimed at men, we certainly don't need to add to the objectification of women in ads actually aimed at women.  If I were a woman I'd be totally offended (I'm a man and I'm offended), but than again, unlike most, I'm actually an admitted feminist. 

Y'all (and I know you are reading this) don't comment enough– I'm really curious about your thoughts on these ads.

Catholic Church and gay marriage in DC

Why is the Catholic Church trying so hard to drive me away.  The latest:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday
that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs
for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex
marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people
the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month,
religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space
available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws
prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Short version: we don't like you being nice to gay people so we're going to stop help you address the needs of the city's troubled and impoverished citizens.  You know, I really don't think it's that hard to figure out what Jesus would have to say about that. 

Worst email scam ever?

Probably not, but I could not believe the amateurishness of the email that somehow just made it through my spam filter:

 This message is from the Database Information Technology service messaging
center, to all our e-mail account user. All Mailhub systems will
undergo regularly scheduled maintenance. Access to your mailbox via our mail
portal will be unavailable for some period of time during this
maintenanceperiod.

We shall be carrying out service maintenance on our database and e-mail account
center for better online services. We are deleting all
unused-mail accounts to create more space for new accounts.

In order to ensure you do not experience service interruptions/possible deactivation
Please you must reply to this email
immediately confirming your email account details below for confirmation/identification.

1. First Name & Last Nam
2. Full Login Email Address
3. Username & Password
4. Confirnation

Also, the return address was not one of those pseudo-tricky "reply@yahoo_upgrade.com" or something like that, but rather just: corteingles@iplanmail.com.ar.  I almost feel like someone who falls for this one deserves to get hacked.  Kind of a Darwinian on-line survival of the fittest.