saturday morning musings

Steak & Seafood for Two coupon at Morton's - $99 - unfortunately you can't use it at the San Francisco location, but you can use it in Los Angeles. Good until September 30, 2006, in case you're planning a trip down there.

Dateline does a story on Dov Charney, owner of American Apparel, sexual harasser or sexual creative? They quote Claudine Ko, who did the infamous Jane article in which Dov Charney asks her whether it's okay to masturbate in front of her. And she lets him. I own several American Apparel shirts, and I've bought from them a couple times, but honestly, I think Dov Charney's a total fucking creep. A lot of the people who do creative stuff I like (bands, musicians, etc) or companies who give out free shirts buy from them, probably because they probably give a good bulk deal, and make people feel good about "not buying from a sweatshop", but I'd really prefer to have other options.

Oh, and the sweatshop thing? They've busted union organizing before. I remember hearing an interview on NPR with an employee, and she made sure to say "We don't need unions" in her speech, and was really pissed NPR said nothing about the organizing. It was for A Day Without Immigrants. Hmmm...

Anyway, supposedly American Apparel can pay "non-sweatshop wages" because of their machinery, or some such thing that hastens development, and takes them out of the garment bidding war, in which the garment company that bids the lowest amount of money for a designer gets to do the job.

I have to go, but maybe I'll write more later.

Meanwhile, I found this Musicians Against Sweatshops page.

30 days - Illegal Immigration

I only read one page of the TWoP forums on 30 Days and already I'm pissed. People bitching about why the Gonzales did not make X, Y, or Z choice, like immigration law is actually on their side, or that they actually have to make a living from day to day and can't be expected to make the most ideal choices everyday.

I thought the episode was really thoughtful, and man, I felt for Armida, and watching her family go through a lot of the same shit we went through sucked. But as soon as I saw one of the kids playing on the Playstation, I knew people would bitch, "How can they afford a Playstation if they're poor? Why did they buy such an expensive toy? Maybe they're not really poor!" Because poor people don't have a need to escape, poor people always need to make a correct financial decision in favor of less stuff, because poor people just aren't like normal middle class people. They fucked up. It's always because they fucked up.

It happened with the minimum wage episode, too. I feel like pounding a sledgehammer into these ignorant asses: POVERTY DOESN'T LET YOU HAVE CHOICES.

Morgan Spurlock's commentary on the episode.

Donate to Armida's college fund.