Mmm hmm.

“We don’t expect anything from Obama, whom we regard as a great hypocrite. But we hope and expect the American people — trade unions, professors’ associations, student unions, activist groups, to come out in support of us. What we want for the US government is to completely get out of the picture. We don’t want any sort of backing; just cut aid to Mubarak immediately and withdraw backing from him, withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop supporting the state of Israel. Ultimately, Mubarak will do whatever he has to do to protect himself. He will suddenly adopt the most anti-US rhetoric if he thought that would help him save his skin. At the end of the day he’s committed to his own interests, and if he thinks the US won’t support him, he’ll turn somewhere else. The reality is that any really clean government that comes to power in the region will come into open conflict with the US because it will call for radical redistribution of wealth and ending support for Israel or other dictatorships. So we don’t expect any help from America, just to leave us alone.”
 — Egyptian blogger and activist Hossam el-Hamalawy talks to U.C. Irvine history professor Mark LeVine at Al Jazeera.

by Edie Larson

From time to time, we offer free editorial space to common folk with something to say. Today’s topic for discussion concerns the issue of parenting, a subject that has been in the news lately.

Nobody wonders how Minnesota parents raise such stereotypically stereotypical kids. They never wonder what these parents do to produce so many nice children or what it’s like inside a nice family. Well, I can tell them anyway, because I’ve done it. If it’s not too much trouble and you have a minute, here are some things my daughters, Jenny and Cristi, were never allowed to do:

• Skip doing their homework
• Put their elbows on the table while eating supper
• Miss church (except for the day after prom, during deer hunting season, and on Super Bowl Sunday)
• Go to school in April without a jacket
• Get into a van with a strange man
• Use swear words in the house
• Forget to call grandma on her birthday

I’m using the term “Minnesota mother” loosely. I know some Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowan and Minneapolis parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Minnesota heritage, almost always born out of state, or Catholic, who are not Minnesota mothers, by choice or otherwise.

All the same, even when other parents think they’re being nice, they usually don’t come close to being Minnesota mothers. For example, my Chicago friends who consider themselves nice only apologize to guests about how badly prepared the mashed potatoes are. At most, they’ll include the carrots. For a Minnesota mother, apologizing for the potatoes is the easy part. It’s asking forgiveness for everything from the poor selection of cheese and crackers, to the dry turkey, to the weakness of the pie due to the poor selection of apples at Byerly’s that’s tough. (To say nothing of how the coffee could be better.)

Despite our squeamishness about comparing ourselves to others in public, there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Minnesotans and others when it comes to parenting. In one study of 50 non-Minnesota mothers and 48 Minnesota mothers, almost 89% of the non-Minnesota mothers said that “if a person mispronounces your name you should immediately correct them.” By contrast, roughly 0% of the Minnesota mothers felt the same way.

Minnesota parents can get away with things that other parents can’t. Once when I was young — maybe more than once — when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily went to the basement to look for something for over two hours without coming back upstairs. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But neither I, nor anyone else ever spoke of it ever again.

Minnesota mothers can say to their daughters, “Oh, you’re going to wear that dress?” By contrast, other parents have to directly address the issue, talking in terms of “sluttiness.”

If a Minnesota child gets a B, well, good for them! Room for improvement.

Other parents try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment. Minnesota parents would surely do this too if we knew anything about the passions or feelings of our children.

Here’s a story in favor of niceness, Minnesota-style: Aunt Lena is about 84, still using the restroom and driving by herself. She was a real firebrand. After she lost Ole, her husband of 61 years, we were over at her house for meatloaf. It had been just a month and we were worried about how she was coping, alone in an old farmhouse far from anyone else.

In the middle of ice cream, Lena became very quiet and looked as though she was going to cry. I immediately mentioned how we were supposed to get some snow by Friday, but that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be three or five inches. Lena clicked on the local news, and, wouldn’t you know it, we caught the end-of-program forecast. It was five inches. And we got to talking about if it would be wet and heavy or the good light stuff we’ve been getting lately which is really easy to sweep and not much of a hardship at all, in fact, it makes it nice to get out there and get some exercise, especially if the wind isn’t blowing.

Even my husband Carl gave me credit for that one. Without nice, Lena would have had to face her crushing grief in front of us. Thanks to the Minnesota style, Lena was able to avoid an embarrassing expression of her emotions.

Don’t get me wrong: It’s not that Minnesota parents don’t care about their children. Just the opposite. They would sacrifice anything for their children, even if it was out of their way and they weren’t already sacrificing something anyway. That’s just who we are.

But if you don’t agree with the Minnesota mother’s approach, well, I’ll look into that. Maybe you’re right.

Edie Larson just does not know how to feel about the Packers being in the Super Bowl this year.

Depressed? It’s probably because of all that nasty junk food you’re eating, says Science. Also, you’re fat.

Dimon implies bankers being raped: “to suggest we’re supposed to bend down and accept it bec we’re bankers — not fair” #wef #businessThu Jan 27 09:24:44 via web

Andrew Clark
clarkaw

What’s happening at the World Economic Forum in Davos, you ask, because you love to know about moguls? Well, JPMorgan Chase honcho Jamie Dimon thinks bankers are the new rape victims. But that’s not all Dimon is spouting off about.

Here’s a delightful post from Marketwatch about how pretty much everything he thinks is wrong.

And there’s this!

Jamie Dimon proposes MDBFBDB to shield the global financial system: minimally-damaging bankruptcy for big dumb banks.#wef #davosless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Lisa Jucca
ReutersLJucca

Oh yes. That sounds GREAT. An escape hatch for immense failing businesses. I’m sure that’s super for some kind of economy.

In other Davos news, apparently babes are on the prowl for mega-millionaires. You know, unlike in Silicon Valley or New York.

One fascinating development in Egypt: even the Cairo papers are displaying front-page photos of the protests. They almost have to: more than a thousand people have been arrested. It should also be noted that very substantial demonstrations are happening in non-Cairo cities, like Ismailia and Suez. Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Mohamed ElBaradei is supposedly en route to Cairo, and may become an opposition candidate. Tomorrow’s demonstrations are expected to be massive. According to the FT? “Currency and stocks slide amid more violence”! Which, yes, the Egyptian stock market had a massive tumble, and was suspended, but I’m pretty sure it’s not related to “violence” (which has been relatively minor!) but, you know, is perhaps attributable to the sudden, stunning fact that the regime in Egypt is quite possibly not going to remain permanent! Jerks. While, meanwhile in Yemen….

Were you ever at, I don’t know, a Rite Aid or Penn Station or a Grateful Dead concert or a family gathering where you looked around and got to feeling like everyone else there was an alien from outer space? Well, you were probably right, according to Science.

Essentially, we all come from outer space.

NASA astrobiologist Daniel Glavin and a team of colleagues recently conducted an experiment that provides more support for the theory that an asteroid collision seeded the earth with the elements that developed into basic forms of life. Amino acid molecules, which are the the building blocks of life, can form in corkscrew shapes either turning to the left or the right. For some reason, life on earth is made up of ones turning to the left.

Glavin and these other people who understand things that I cannot understand used special sunglasses to observe a special type of light, that, when shined on basic molecules of water, methanol and ammonia — which exist in space around — create a predominance of left-turning amino acids. As the BBC reports:

Light has a polarisation, which is to say that light rays oscillate along a given direction — say, up and down, or left and right. While we can’t see this effect directly, it is apparent in polarising sunglasses, which block reflected light that tends to be polarised along the left-and-right direction. The light used by the researchers, by contrast, was what is known as circularly polarised. Rather than along a single direction, the polarisation traces out a corkscrew shape. Light in the regions around a forming star is known to become circularly polarised like this as it passes through vast clouds of dust grains that are aligned by magnetic fields. The experiments showed that the circularly polarised light led to the formation of both left- and right-handed amino acids — but there were slightly over a percent more of the left-handed version.

Again, I don’t fully understand that. But I’m pretty sure I’ve seen those sunglasses.

Slightly over one percent is the same level of excess leftward-turning amino acid molecules Dr. Glavin and co. have measured in meteorites found here on earth. So it’s looking good for the theory that life — or, really, just the essence of life — has extraterrestrial origins.

“This excess is pretty cool,” said Glavin.

I’ll say.

Well that didn’t take too long: Mark Salter has been “officially” fingered as the author of O, the fictionalized, non-sadomasochistic work of fiction about the president, written by someone described by the publisher as someone who “has been in the room with Barack Obama.” You remember Mark Salter as the man who writes everything for John McCain. Oh I see. Political ops. The book has been in print for two days. “Trite, implausible and decidedly unfunny,” says the New York Times!

No official word on whether or not Jay-Z’s classic “Hard Knock Life” will make the soundtrack to the new version of Annie he’s going in on with Will and Willow Smith. But if his recording history is a precedent, the team’s next movie will be a remake of Oliver! starring Willow’s brother Jaden. And it will be pretty much exactly the same as Annie.

Good morning, New York, and welcome to your new reality. Actually it’s quite nice out there right now, except for the whole “getting around” thing. There’ll be a little more snow Friday and Saturday, so enjoy this brief respite from our endless winter while you can. And, you know, wear boots. God, it’s like Groundhog Day. (Actual Groundhog Day is next week; I’m sure we’re all very excited.)