End 2009 With the Most Epic Song Ever!

Ah, 2009. You brought us crazy Lady Gaga, Kanye interrupting poor Taylor Swift, and, of course, more exploits outside of the music industry: the gate-crashing Salahis, the Balloon Boy scandal, and the motherflippin' inauguration of President Obama, complete with Aretha Franklin's amazing hat. And what's the best way to end the year? A party! With a song that combines the top 25 songs of the year, according to Billboard.com. Called, "Blame it on the Pop," this song is a mash-up of 25 equally awesome songs, including Lady Gaga's "Just Dance," The Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow," and Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me."

>> listen at hype machine

>> download at the ratcatchers

watch the mashed-up music video under the cut

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that The New Yorker has put together an amazing series of portraits featuring many of the most powerful figures in international politics. The Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon was featured alongside President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Brown, and others. At least from my perspective these portraits were enlightening; several of the pictures reveal sides of the politicians you wouldn't necessarily have seen before. I won't give anything away, however. The bad news: you need a subscription to see the portraits on The New Yorker's page. A handful of photos can be seen on blogs like PoliticalStyle but for the full effect I'd suggest picking up a copy. Happy New Year!

Shoes are for the Weak

Many of us remember the infamous shoe-throwing incident one year ago (that is when an Iraqi journalist proceeded to lob a shoe at President Bush during a speech in Baghdad) an Italian named Massimo Tartaglia attacked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. This time, instead of a shoe a marble sculpture was used as the projectile in question. Tartaglia allegedly threw the statue of the Milan Duomo at the Prime Minister Sunday in Milan.

Also suspected of carrying "pepper spray and a crucifix," Tartaglia has already amassed 63,000 fans on his Facebook page, which Italian officials have officially requested be removed, according to the NYTimes. All commenting set aside this attack does appear brutal and unnecessarily violent. Seriously just watch the video of Berlusconi.

Timed one year after the Iraqi incident this attack begs the question: are we a more violent people today or are we simply engaging in acts which extend mankind's inevitable resistance to perceived government restraints?

Karlie Kloss Most Used Model by International Vogues in 2009

After careful calculating, shubrub at the fashion community FASHIN announced that model Karlie Kloss had snagged the most editorials overall throughout global Vogue magazines. The international Vogue fashionsphere includes Vogue Australia, Vogue Brazil, Vogue China, Vogue Espana, Vogue Germany, Vogue Italia, Vogue Mexico, Vogue Nippon, Vogue Paris, Vogue Russia, Vogue UK, and Vogue US. She topped Vogue Italia, Vogue Mexico, Vogue UK, and Vogue US. The most-used photographer was Patrick Demarchelier. [Fashin]

French Legislator to Battle Idealized Beauty in Ads

People have complained for years about too-thin models on the runways and the unrealistically high standards presented by celebrities in advertisement, but French legislator Valérie Boyer is actually doing something about it: proposing a law that would require all advertisements featuring digitally retouched people to say so on the advertisement.

In such a commercial world, people, especially the youth, are constantly being bombarded with advertisements. Boyer argues that seeing the idealized beauty of advertisements has a negative impact on self-esteem, especially of young women, and may incite eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Boyer told The New York Times, "If someone wants to make life a success, wants to feel good in their skin, wants to be part of society, one has to be thin or skinny, and then it’s not enough — one will have his body transformed with software that alters the image, so we enter a standardized and brainwashed world, and those who aren’t part of it are excluded from society.”

This debate is not new: arguments against the idealistic women in the fashion industry have been happening for a while, from model Fillipa Hamilton's extremely retouched Raplh Lauren advertisement in which her waist was shrunk to the width of her head and Self magazine's publishing of a thinned-down Kelly Clarkson. Boyer hopes, from a mother's perspective, that labeling these retouched images will start to open up the eyes of young girls who idolize the stick-thin models.

Many French women disagree with this idea. A former model, Inès de La Fressange, says that the bill is "demagogic and stupid," claiming the causes of anorexia are more complex than pretty pictures. Dominique Issermann, a French fashion photographers, goes even farther to say,  "There is this illusion that photography is ‘true,’” but "as soon as you frame something you exclude something else." She argues photo-retouching is not always used to slim girls down. Issermann uses her photograph of actress Keira Knightly in an advertisement for Coco Chanel perfume as an arguing point, saying that it was retouched to add to her thigh, because the actress was too thin there.

This debate will probably not be solved by the passing of this law, if it even passes. Anne-Florence Schmitt, editor of fashion magazine Madame Figaro argues, “Michelangelo painted idealized bodies, so the idea of idealized beauty was already there. It’s a fake debate.”

Amanda Knox Found Guilty of Murder in Italy

After being held in Italian custody for more than two years, the crime that shocked Italy has finally come to an end: Knox was convicted unanimously guilty of the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007 on December 5. 





The case has been much debated: the prosecution weaved a tale of sexual jealousy and violent passion, claiming that Knox slit Kercher's throat after sher refused to participate in a sex game with Knox and her boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito. The two main pieces of evidence were Knox's DNA on a knife and her DNA on Kercher's bra clasp. However, the defense refuted these by saying that, not only was the clasp found some six weeks after the murder and the knife did not match the wounds in Kercher, but that Knox's innocence was clear: she was branded the American "Amelie," after the whimsical French film.





Either way, the jury unanimously found Knox guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Kercher, and she was sentenced to 26 years in prison, avoiding Italy's most severe punishment of life.





Knox's father said, "Hell yes," when asked if he will be appealing the verdict.

Our Precipice

A new surge, a new push. The additional 30,000 troops President Obama has pledged for the War on Terror in Afghanistan will bring the total number of US troops fighting there to over 100,000. I am not a national security expert or a world leader but in the spirit of free discussion I'm adding my opinion.

Since September 2001, the American people have entrenched themselves as victims. In all honesty we were victims of a terrible attack on innocent civilians. While I do not aim even in the slightest to undermine the tragedy of that day, I feel that the United States as a nation must move past 9/11. The world has been intrinsically altered in the "post-9/11 world" and not for the better. The United States has launched into a two-front war, the global economy has entered a recession, and fundamentalism is on the rise. We are quick to think of ourselves as victims in not only the sense that we experienced crushing tragedy but also in the idea that the events of the past 8 years are also not our fault. I argue that they probably were.

Indeed many turning points in international politics would not have occurred without 9/11 and the following US response. In many ways the world would have been helped if we hadn't mobilized in the way that we did. Our unilateral lust for blood only confirmed the rancorous accusations that the United States was a "great Satan" attacking the Islamic homeland. The interests of peace and American stability would have been much better served by an American transformation in the months following 9/11 rather than an international transformation. As we face another tragedy, a global economic crisis seemingly to far-reaching to be resolved within the next few years, we must utilize this period in American history as another reconstruction.

Evidence that bombing Afghanistan and occupations didn't work for the Brits either. Source- NYTimes 1919

As Thomas Freidman argued in his column in the New York Times Wednesday, the United States stands for much more than a War on Terror. The history of America as a nation devoted to a deeper and more significant aspect of freedom, democracy, and equality is fleeting. We have become the aggressor; a people singularly identified with war. We are simply another imperialist cause taken to "nation building" in two tions simultaneously. If history has shown us anything of the course of the last 2000 years, it is that Afghanistan, in particular, cannot be occupied successfully by a foreign power (Britain, USSR, etc.) Therefore, in order to save our image abroad, the respect of our allies, and our own stability, we must scale down our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and focus on a massive reconstructive effort at home. Think of what we could do with the money we continually spend in Iraq and Afghanistan. 101 million Americans could have had one year of college tuition funded by the government with the money already spent in Iraq alone. (That's 1/3 of the country!)

I argue for a massive overhaul of infrastructure projects and regulation. We must use reinvent the United States as a nation committed to progressive action- in terms of morality legislation, climate change efforts, and social programs. We must abandon our traditionalist views and step proudly into the 21st-century in terms of what is and is not accepted by the American legal system. We must accept gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research. We have to create legislation now to curb the effects of global warming as well as invest heavily in alternative energy. (If we don't hurt big business now what makes anyone think we could face them when they rebound) Social security must be reorganized to provide for the growing number of Americans reaching retirement and college tuition must be made more affordable for our teens. Universal healthcare must become a reality and the world must see that we are far from a single-issue constituency.

For to long the United States has been set apart with a negative stigma. It is time we reverse our international appearance. We need to be seen as a nation that does the most for its citizens, the world, and peace. We need our new leader to lead decisively. The United States is standing on a precipice. Our actions now will determine the scope of this global recession as well as the future role of the United States in an increasingly multi-polar world. We need to act.

The Fate of the White House Party Crashers

The now-infamous Virginia socialites Michaele and Tareq Salahi may just be redefining the definition of "party-crashing." The Salahis, who were not invited to a White House dinner honoring the Indian ambassador on Nov. 24, came anyway, somehow passes through the layers of security for the party. However, this morning on the TODAY show, the Salahis said they were invited to the party. Micaele Salahi said, "We were invited, not crashers. There isn't anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that."



The socialites have been called attention seeking for their posting of pictures from the event immediately on Michaele's Facebook page, and many have criticized them for their apparent desire of a reality tv show. However, the Salahis face greater problems than the criticism of bloggers: the White House may press charages. Jonathon Turley, professor of law at George Washington University, told TIME, "There's no question the Secret Service is likely to push very hard for a criminal charge. They are famous for lacking a sense of humor." The chances are even greater considering the break in the Secret Service's facade: the Salahis passed through a metal detector, and although they did not, it is possible that they could have had anthrax or another undetectable weapon that could have possibly harmed the president. Although the couple said the were invited, it is uncertain where the case will go.



But Turley says the Facebook pictures are not helping. These people took something that would have been a memorable keepsake and turned it into criminal evidence," saying "this act of vanity could cost them dearly." The Salahis are yet another victim of American vanity.