Morra Aarons-Mele writes Women and Work. She is a contributing editor on politics and news at BlogHer and a self described liberal and progressive. Random linkage dropped me into the front page of her blog where I saw a post referring to a Mother Jones interview with her, and posts on feminism, hiring psychiatric workers to help address PTSD issues of returning vets, and birth control. I thought I’d spotted someone interesting. Further reading dulled my interest.
Aarons-Mele has archives going back a year and a half. I started at the beginning and read her posts in chronological order. She’s a Kerry Democrat so that means she’s a compromiser and she’s been co-opted. She’s worked (works?) for Edelman so that means she’s a compromiser and she’s been co-opted. Wait. Am I repeating myself? She has size 13 feet. She links Thich Nhat Hanh.
Regarding the Edelman/Wal-Mart stink:
Now, I started the department at Edelman that’s come under so much fire. [See these posts — fp –] I helped launch the Wal-Mart account (tough for a committed Democrat with a labor arbitrator father). I hired Miranda Grill when it was just me, and she is an honorable person. The department has done great worked [sic]. It’s taken risks. I don’t know what led to these fake blogs launching without bylines, but honestly, anyone who’s worked in DC knows there are a million coalitions and groups run by communications firms. Call any 1-800 coalition number for many non-profits and companies and you’ll get a PR firm. Why is a blog so different? Because it’s more visible to those beyond the target audience?
In a post called “Why Don’t Women Get The Soundbite?” Aarons-Mele says,
It always bothered me that Dr. Phil, the person who made psychotherapy part of our vernacular, is a man.
God, I love that line!
Aarons-Mele and her husband Nicco (a former Howard Dean webmaster) were interviewed in the recent tech-politics issue of Mother Jones. Mother Jones, a sort of mash-up of Parade Magazine and Fast Company, a slick mag pretending to “smart, fearless journalism,” misses the point completely in their “Politics 2.0″ presentation. Without drawing too fine a point on this, there is an upper class in this country bolstered by a corporate power structure. That upper class has come to believe that the invisible hand of self-interest driven market economics somehow scientifically will yield optimum social arrangements and provide a fair and equitable distribution of wealth and human services for all. These Ayn Randian bullshit fantasies of adolescent solipsists have torn down a public infrastructure that was the best and getting better in 1980. Mother Jones did nothing then to address this issue and they do nothing now. Rather they give voice to middle of the road corporate fantasists. Why does this bother me? Because they do it under the name of Mother Jones.
I’m glad I read Aarons-Mele’s blog front to back. Now you don’t have to.
3 responses so far ↓
1 madame l. // Jul 2, 2024 at 12:22
i will not hate people. i will not hate people. i will not hate people…
Women with large feet don’t despair.
2 Aunt Hentic // Jul 2, 2024 at 12:47
Oh Frank! I think someone might have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
I just re-watched this lovely interview with the ladies from BlogHer done by the Famous Robert Scoble (how does he get it all done??!!) and his savvy wife Maryam (who’s expecting!!!).
These women from BlogHer seem so smart and get along like sorority sisters. See? Women really can work together! They support diversity and are interested in helping other women explore technology! The business of you platform particularly excites me!
Please take the time to watch the whole video. Maryam, in particular, asks some fascinating questions.
And Robert is so cute! I would love to bake him a pie! We need more nice people like this in the blogosphere! My two cents.
Raised Pork Pie
Preparation time 30 mins to 1 hour
Cooking time over 2 hours
Ingredients
For the fillings:
1.2kg/2 frac12; lb boned pork shoulder
225g/8oz lean bacon
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
2.5ml/½ tsp each ground mace, freshly grated nutmeg and ground allspice
2 tsp anchovy essence
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the jelly:
900g/2lb pork bones
1 pig’s trotter
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bouquet garni (celery, bay leaf, thyme and parsley)
12 black peppercorns
4 cloves
For the pastry:
450g/1lb plain flour
1 tsp salt
275g/10oz chilled butter, cut into
pieces
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2-3 tbsp cold water
Method
1. For the jelly: put all the ingredients into a large pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer gently for 3 hours.
2.Strain through a very fine sieve into a clean pan and boil vigorously until reduced to 600ml/1 pint. Season to taste and leave to cool.
3. To make the filling: cut the pork and bacon into 1cm/½ in pieces. Put half of the pork and 55g/2oz of the bacon into a food processor and process using the pulse button until coarsely chopped.
4. Scrape into a bowl and stir in the rest of the diced pork, bacon herbs, spices, anchovy essence, 1 tsp salt and some pepper.
5. Fry a little piece of the mixture in sunflower oil, taste and adjust the flavourings if necessary.
6. To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a food processor or mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
7. Beat the whole egg with the egg yolk and water and gradually stir into the dry ingredients to make a soft dough. Knead briefly until smooth then cut off one third of the mixture and set it aside for the lid.
8. Roll out the larger piece and use to line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in clip-sided cake tin, leaving the excess pastry overhanging the edges.
9. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
10. To assemble the pie:spoon the pork filling into the tin and slightly round the top of the mixture to give the finished pie a nice shape.
11. Brush the edge of the pastry with beaten egg. Roll out the remaining pastry and use to cover the top of the pie.
12. Cut a small hole into the centre of the lid with a small pastry cutter, remove the plug of pastry and leave the cutter in place to retain the hole during baking.
13. Brush with more beaten egg and decorate with a twisted rope of pastry and pastry leaves. Brush the top with beaten egg.
14. Bake the pie for 30 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and continue to cook for a further 1½ hours, loosely covering the pie with a triple-thickness sheet of greaseproof paper once it is nicely browned.
15. Finally, remove the pie from the oven and leave to cool for 2 hours. Then warm through the jelly and pour into the pie through the hole in the top. Remove cutter used to make the hole in the top. Leave to go cold overnight.
Have a good one!
3 Jmo // Jul 2, 2024 at 1:08
This reminds me of a song I heard on the radio the other day…
o/` Sometimes it takes balls - to be a woman…
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