Former Vermont governor and current presidential candidate Howard Dean, speaks with Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his position on the death penalty, June 22, 2003:

I think there may be one instance where just possibly it could be [a deterrent] and that's the shooting of a police officer. If you're about to pull a trigger on a guy who's in uniform and you know that you're going to get the death penalty and if you don't pull the trigger something different will happen, maybe that might save the police officer's life.

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Leo Standora, in the New York Daily News, May 15, 2003, demonstrates the perils of a socially constructed reality:

Here's a new study that's bound to send your blood pressure up—and that's the problem.

Updated federal guidelines mean that 45 million more Americans are now considered at risk for high blood pressure because the longtime standard for a healthy reading—120 over 80—has been lowered.

The new guidelines mean a much larger group has a greater chance of heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, blindness and dementia....

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A message printed on boxes of Green Tea manufactured by the Republic of Tea:

A simple cup of green tea is imbued with a wisdom beyond wisdom, capable of enlightening both mind and body. We invite you to heat the water, brew the tea and sip its greatness, taking in its teachings.

A similar message on the box of a British Breakfast blend:

Life is impossible and so what? It is in its very impossibility that we find our joy. Tea Mind allows life to live us. It frees us from the hubris of trying to control what cannot be controlled. The life of tea is the life of the moment. We have only Now, and we each sip it in our own cups.

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New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the Guggenheim Museum permission to build a temporary wooden enclosure on its roof to store a ton of frozen Vaseline used by artist Matthew Barney. The New York Times reports that the Vaseline "will be seen running down the interior of the Guggenheim's rotunda in specially designed troughs. Frozen Vaseline will cover the front of an Art Deco bar.... [A] hidden hose, fed from the roof enclosure through the museum's lighting system, would keep the Vaseline on the bar at 17 degrees so it holds its shape."

Barney was the subject of a long, thoughtful profile in The New Yorker. The Times' chief art critic Michael Kimmelman describes Barney as "the greatest American artist of his generation." In one of the artist's videos, he is depicted "climbing naked up a pole and cables and applying dollops of Vaseline to his orifices." Barney's Guggenheim exhibit, running through June 11, will also feature daily screenings of "Cremaster," a five-part film cycle inspired by the muscle that raises and lowers the testicles.

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The New York Daily News reports that the U.S. Postal Service spent at least $3.6 million on conferences featuring therapeutic exercises designed to improve job performance and work environments. These exercises included wrapping each other in toilet paper and aluminum foil, building sand castles at the beach, making animal noises, dressing in cat costumes, and asking make-believe wizards for advice.

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According to boundary 2 editor William V. Spanos, not only is it necessary to call attention to "America's tenacious historical privileging of the imperial metaphysic perspective as the agent of knowledge production, that perspective, synchronous with the founding of the idea and practices of Europe, which, in perceiving time from after or above its disseminations, enables the spacialization of being and subjugation or accommodation of the differences it disseminates to the identical, self-present, and plenary (global/planetary) whole," it is also necessary to consider "America's obsessive and systematic refinement and fulfillment of the panoptic logic of this old world perspective in an indissolubly related array of worldly imperial practices, the intrinsic goal of which is not simply the domination of global space but also of thinking itself."

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From a report by the National Organization for Women Foundation on its first annual "Feminist Super Bowl AdWatch," in a section titled, "What We Found: Few Surprises," January 24, 2003:

Men were again the big winners in the Super Bowl ad extravaganza—many more men than women were employed to act in the commercials, and much of the content of the ads was directed at the male viewer.

The humor was clearly aimed at young men, with women being the butt of many jokes. A number of ads featured exclusively male casts, while others had only one or two female characters. The large majority of movies advertised were violent, male-oriented action flicks. The ads did not feature or appeal to a wide age range, starring mostly young, thin and able-bodied actors.

No female sports stars appeared in any of the ads, compared with at least six male athletes. And male celebrity spokespeople outnumbered females as well, though by a smaller margin. Exploitative promos for ABC programs came under fire from viewers, as did several of the "message" ads, which our feminist monitors felt were manipulative and misleading.

On the positive side, monitors noted that a significant number of people of color appeared in the commercials this year, and that racial diversity was prominent in several ads.

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The winner of this year's Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch's Wacky Warning Label contest is a label on a robotic massage chair that warns: "Do not use massage chair without clothing" along with "Never force any body part into the backrest area while the rollers are moving." Second place went to a snowblower with a label that read: "Do not use snowthrower on roof." Third place went to a label that read: "Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher."

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Octavio Romano in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 2002:

Actually, probably no other people on earth go to such extremes as Americans to conceal the true features of women, particularly when they go out in public. This concealment is a multibillion-dollar industry, and it deals not in cloth, but in cosmetics.

Cosmetics is but another word for a burqa.

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Richard Goldstein in the prototypical Village Voice article, November 13-19, 2002:

Two events of lasting significance occurred last week: the breakdown of the Democratic party and the breakthrough of Eminem. His debut film, 8 Mile, became the highest-grossing film in America just days after Republicans won control of Congress. These two events may not seem related, but they reflect the mainstreaming of ideas that seemed extreme just two years ago. Bush's right-wing agenda and Eminem's violent misogyny were once considered over the line. Now they have crossed over and become the line. Not that Em is a Republican (though he might favor ending the estate tax). But he and George W. Bush do have certain things in common. Both draw their power from the compelling image of the strongman who can pose as the common man. Both played the populist card to win the nation's heart. And I would argue that both own their success to the sexual backlash....

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In its ongoing interpretation of the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, the Federal Election Commission ruled that it was permissible for late-night comedians such as David Letterman and Jay Leno to crack jokes about political candidates in the weeks prior to elections.

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A judge in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh ruled that Kamla Jaan, a eunuch, was legally a man and thus could not serve in a mayoral post reserved under a quota system for women. While Indian eunuchs as a group consider themselves female even though an estimated 99 percent are castrated males, Jaan argued that she was a "born eunuch," meaning a hermaphrodite with ambiguous or deformed genitals.

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An animal rights activist has set up an Internet business, veganerotica.com, that sells leather-free collars, restraints, whips and harnesses to sado-masochistic vegans. Endorsing the site, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: "More and more people are looking for items that are cruelty free."

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A federal judge in Albany, New York, ruled that movie theaters providing handicapped patrons an unobstructed view of the screen do not sufficiently comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act if the view angle is not as desirable as that available to the rest of the audience.

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A garbage barge moored in New York Harbor was temporarily declared protected habitat after being nested by terns.

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Reporting on crime statistics once again in the New York Times, Fox Butterfield writes that "the increased number of criminals put behind bars has not been an effective deterrent to crime." Instead, a Justice Department study shows "the rate at which inmates released from prison committed new crimes actually rose from 1983 to 1994." Butterfield explains the distinction as follows: "Criminologists generally agree that the prison binge of the last 25 years ... has helped reduce the crime rate, but largely by simply keeping criminals off the streets."

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In March, British artist Tracey Emin—whose depiction of her own unmade bed sold for £150,000 and was shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize—offered a reward for the return of her missing cat. However, all of the reward flyers she posted on London streets were quickly removed by art lovers eager to possess one of her original works, and the flyers were soon valued at £500 each. A spokesman for Ms. Emin offered a clarification in the London Times: "It's simply a notice to alert neighbors. It's not a conceptual piece of work and it has nothing to do with her art."

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The text of a message received by Weekly Standard staff writer Stephen F. Hayes, from an unnamed journalism e-mail list to which he subscribes, reproduced at his magazine's website, April 19, 2002:

Hi everyone! I hope someone out there can help me. I'm looking for a young black entrepreneur—under 40, tech savvy, who has started his own dot-com or company—to profile for CNN NewsNight. Since this will be part of a series about race in America, the ideal candidate is someone who struggled or encountered discrimination while looking for jobs or working in the tech sector (also could be someone who became frustrated by the predominantly white male culture) and subsequently decided to strike out on his/her own. Or something along those lines. Could be anywhere in the U.S. If anyone knows of such a person or knows someone who does, please get in touch. Many thanks!

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When Rev. Scott Landis, pastor of a Congregationalist church in Denver and father of three, announced to his congregation that he was terminating his marriage because he was gay, he received a standing ovation.

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For her performance in the women's bobsled event, Vonetta Flowers was the first black person ever to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. But of course commentators could not phrase it that way, so at least one declared that Flowers was "the first African American from any country to win gold at the Winter Olympics."

[Ed.: A commentator at the subsequent World Figure Skating Championships described the members of an American pairs team, one raised in Russia, and the other a "native American." My wife and I had to talk that one over for a little while.]

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