It appears that at least part of the populace is getting tired of the "in-danger-from-a-strong-breeze" look: fans of actress Lindsay Lohan have started a petition to get her to "eat something" that has already amassed over twelve thousand signatures. They even have a web site devoted to the cause, complete with merchandise.

While I'm not fond of starved and fragile appearances myself (and find myself more amused than perhaps the situation warrants), I have to wonder with some sympathy what the actress thinks of all this. Although she might be healthier on a less restrictive diet, I'm not sure if having a crowd pressure you to eat more is any better on a social level than having a crowd pressure you to eat less. At some point, you're supposed to find the body shape that's healthy for you because you feel comfortable there.

People spend far too much time contorting themselves to meet the expectations of strangers as it is.

I've been mulling over for a while now the analysis by John Rogers over at Kung Fu Monkey of what Republicans have been doing right and what Democrats have been doing wrong in politics. There are thousands of these, of course, but I think this one is one of the best, because it's not coming from the perspective of a political analyst, but a stand-up comic.

As one might expect a stand-up comic to say, the problems basically resolve down to Democratic candidates not being enough like stand-up comics. He goes into great detail, however, and whether or not you agree with the conclusions, they provide a fascinating starting point for thinking about how people react to politicians, and how thinkers tend to react to those people. He also followed up on some of the more common responses to his essay.

Behind the somewhat flip title and reference to the (somewhat depraved, but rather funny) Chopping Block cartoon lies a more serious matter: our tendency to dehumanize our enemies. This is a natural, but regrettable tendency; trying to think of someone that has hurt you as less than completely evil often makes things hurt more. It is, however, an error; people are not completely evil, and by forgetting that even our monsters are still human leads down the slippery slope of abandoning compassion completely.

I spent more time thinking about this after reading a story both uplifting and tragic, the memories of a man who was saved from serious injury and possibly death by a serial killer, and who's mother was ultimately responsible for his capture. In the comments, a woman describes her own similar emotional conflict in remembering and judging a sociopath who saved her life.

http://story.theusnews.com/p.x/ct/9/id/b7c876cbe0bed4e2/cid/187cf2a69985adcf/

I actually pulled this from someone else's blog while looking at other Drupal sites, but one sentence in particular caught at me, and I thought I'd note it here:

"Around one-fourth of all homeless Americans are veterans, and more than 75 percent of them have some sort of mental or substance abuse problem, often PTSD, according to the Homeless Veterans coalition."

If those figures are true, we're doing a frighteningly bad job of taking care of our survivors. I have no idea where to begin looking at how to fix that. It is, however, something I want to remember for the future, so I'm writing it down.