Dowbrigade

Kooshi, a seven-year-old mixed breed shorthair cat, hisses from his perch
on the window ledge, inside his home in Rishon Letzion, Israel, Tuesday,
Dec. 2, 2003. The Israeli cat was banned by a local officials from
circulating freely outside, apparently because its jet black color
was frightening the residents..

from AP
News

(AP photo)

Winner
of the Turner Prize, transvestite potter Grayson Perry, dressed as
his alter ego Claire, famous for his vases depicting images of sex
and child abuse, at Tate Britain in London, Sunday Dec. 7, 2003. The
decision to grant Perry the award marks a rare Turner victory for traditional
arts, as the winner puts his own spin on an ancient decorative form.

The
Turner Prize rewards an artist aged under 50 for an outstanding exhibition
of work over a recent 12-month period. To be eligible, the artist
must either be working in the United Kingdom or British-born.

from Excite
News

(AP photo)

December 6, 2003 — Struggling 2004 Democratic wannabe John Kerry fires
an X-rated attack at President Bush over Iraq and uses the f-word -
highly unusual language for a presidential contender – in a stunning
new interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

article from the
New York Post

full Rolling Stone Interview

Two feet of snow! Reminds me of when I was a boy. Back in the day, Upstate
New York, this kind of storm was the norm.  Why, I remember having
to dig tunnels through the snowdrifts just to get to the sidewalk
so we could walk to school.

Anyway, up at dawn this morning to see what the
storm had wrought. Amazing drifted vistas of wild whiteness, and more
still pouring from the sky.  I reached for my digital camera -
and was already hip deep in the front porch drift before noticing the
camera was abnormally light! 19-year-old able-bodied but unemployed
#2 son had raided the camera batteries for his Diskman!  If he
hadn’t left the house last night at the height of the storm for a blizzard
party I swear I would have done a Homer Simpson strangle on him.

However, the invigorating two mile tramp to the
nearest open convience store did me good.  Reminded me of when
I was a boy. Oh yean, been there.  Said son will be sentenced
to digging out the car when he returns. Here is a shot from my walk.

Two
ex-sales managers say
Abercrombie & Fitch were after
a certain "look" for their sales force, and the less a salesperson
had of this look, the less they worked.
"
I was sick of getting my schedule back every week with lines through
names," says Mandrick. "I can’t look the people that work
for me, that want to be there, in the eye and…lie to them and say
‘Oh, we don’t have hours,’ when, really, it’s because they weren’t
pretty enough."

A group of minorities suing Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t think the
retailer has the right to hire based on a look, a look they say too often
is mostly white. "[The look] is dominated by Caucasian, football-looking,
blond hair, blue-eyed males. Skinny, tall. You don’t see any African
American, Asian Americans," says Jennifer Lu, an Asian who says
she is suing the retailer for firing her and other Asians because management
preferred white males.
Abercrombie & Fitch denies these accusations, but would not speak
on camera to 60 Minutes. But the two former managers say what they saw
was "lookism" rather than racism.

As a "lookisticly-challenged" individual the Dowbrigade can empathize with the plaintiff in this case. It is high time attention was drawn
to the daily indignities, not to mention the illegally limited employment
and
advancement
opportunities
forced
upon those who fail to measure up to society’s standards of "looking
good".

In fact, our attorney has advised us to file a suit against the
Downtown Hyatt in Rochester, New York, who declined to hire him for
a Head Lifeguard position on the ridiculously transparent grounds that he
lacked
Red Cross certification, when the real reason was obviously "Lookism".
Lets see, 34 years of back pay……

from CBS News