Kanye West leads Grammy nominations

Confirming his standing as a groundbreaking producer and an artist whose appeal transcends the hip-hop genre, Chicago native Kanye West led the pack yesterday with eight nods when the nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards were announced in Hollywood.

West will be vying for album of the year and best rap album honors for his third disc “Graduation” as well as for best rap solo performance (“Stronger”), best rap song (“Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” and “Good Life”), best rap collaboration (“Good Life”) and best rap performance by a duo or group (“Better Than I’ve Ever Been” with Nas, Rakim and KRS-One and “Southside” with fellow Chicagoan Common).

Chicago rapper Kanye West leads the Grammy nominations announced this morning.

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Common, another Chicago-bred rapper who scored the bestselling album of his career with “Finding Forever,” earned a total of three Grammy nods, with best rap solo performance (“The People”) and best rap album joining the nomination for his collaboration with West.

Honored with a nod for the key category of song of the year was “Hey There Delilah” from the fourth album by Chicago shopping-mall punks and Fall Out Boy proteges the Plain White T’s. The same tune earned the good-looking quintet a second nod for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

In addition to these hometown heroes, the list of multiple nominees includes the troubled retro chanteuse Amy Winehouse, who claimed six Grammy nods.

Alternative rockers the Foo Fighters, rap legends Jay-Z and Timbaland, dance-pop star Justin Timberlake and hip-hop favorite T-Pain earned five nods each, while rapper Akon, country stars Dierks Bentley and Tim McGraw, former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry, indie-pop crooner Feist, R&B singers Ne-Yo and Rihanna and long-running rock icon Bruce Springsteen received four each.

In the prestigious album of the year category, West’s “Graduation” will be competing with “Back to Black” by Winehouse, “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace” by the Foo Fighters, “These Days” by Vince Gill and “River: The Joni Letters,” jazz man Herbie Hancock’s tribute to Joni Mitchell.

Contenders for record the year (which honors the artist) are “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce, “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters, “Umbrella” by Rihanna and Jay-Z, “What Goes Around... Comes Around” by Timberlake and “Rehab” by Winehouse. In addition to the Plain White T’s, the nominees for song of the year (which is awarded to the songwriters) are “Before He Cheats” performed by Carrie Underwood, “Like A Star” by Corinne Bailey Rae, “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse and “Umbrella,” the hugely popular single by Rihanna.

In the last of Grammy’s “big four” categories, the nominations for best new artist are Feist, the genteel crooner who’s become ubiquitous on television commercials for the iPod; New Orleans R&B singer Ledisi Anibade; the Tennessee-based, emo-influenced pop-rock band Paramore; country singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and Winehouse, the beehive-sporting English soul singer who broke through in the U.S. with the hit “Rehab,” a sad irony given that she has since become as well known for her failed attempts to battle drug and alcohol abuse as she is for her music.

Other Chicago artists who scored Grammy nominations include Wilco, (best rock album for "Sky Blue Sky") and controversial R&B superstar R. Kelly (best R&B performance by a duo or group for “Same Girl” with Usher and best long form music video for “Trapped in the Closet Chapters 13-22”).

The Grammys will be handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 10 during a ceremony that will be telecast live on WBBM-TV (Ch. 2) starting at 7 p.m.

source: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/derogatis/684582,120607grammydero.article

GE Microwave Recall

There's a GE microwave recall going on. GE is calling back for repair a number of recently sold microwave ovens:

General Electric is recalling 92,000 microwave ovens because of a fire hazard, the firm and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The recall includes GE, GE Profile and Kenmore models sold from 2000 through 2003. The door switch on the devices can overheat, though no injuries have been reported. The ovens were manufactured in the U.S.

I thought that last line was interesting: no one can blame the recall on Chinese imports.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of about 92,000 General Electric built-in combination wall and microwave ovens. Consumers should stop using the recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.The door switch in the microwave oven can overheat and ignite plastic components in the control area, posing a fire hazard to consumers. The lower thermal oven does not pose a hazard.GE is aware of 35 incidents of minor property damage and one incident in which a fire damaged adjacent kitchen cabinets. No injuries have been reported.

The actual ovens involved in hte GE microwave recall are the following:

The recall includes GE combination microwave and conventional built-in wall ovens sold under the following brand names: GE, GE Profile™ and Kenmore. The ovens were sold in white, black, bisque and stainless steel. The brand name is printed on the lower left corner on the front of the microwave door. The following model and serial numbers can be found inside the microwave oven on the left interior wall.

-Recalled Models Serial number begins with: GE / Profile

-Recalled Models:

JTP85BA2BB, JTP85BA3BB, JTP85BA4BB, JTP85BA5BB, JTP85BD1BB, JTP85WA2WW, JTP85WA3WW, JTP85WA4WW, JTP85WA5WW, JTP85WD1WW, JTP86BF1BB, JTP86CF1CC, JTP86SF1SS, JTP86WF1WW, JTP95BA2BB, JTP95BA3BB, JTP95BA4BB, JTP95BA5BB, JTP95BD1BB, JTP95WA2WW, JTP95WA3WW, JTP95WA4WW, JTP95WA5WW, JTP95WD1WW, JKP85BA3BB, JKP85BD1BB, JKP85WA3WW, JKP85WD1WW, JKP86BF1BB, JKP86CF1CC, JKP86SF1SS, JKP86WF1WW, JT965BF1BB, JT965CF1CC, JT965SF1SS, JT965WF1WW

-Serial Number Begins With:

AZ, DZ, FZ, GZ, HZ, LZ, MZ, RZ, SZ, TZ, VZ, ZZ, AA, DA, FA, GA, HA,LA, MA, RA, SA, TA, VA, ZA, AD, DD, FD, GD, HD, LD, MD, RD, SD, TD, VD, ZD, AF, DF, FF, GF, HF, LF, MF, RF, SF, TF, VF, ZF

-Kenmore (All model numbers start with 911)

-Recalled Models:

41485991, 41485992, 41485993, 41485994, 41489991, 41489992, 41489993, 41489994, 49485992, 49489992, 47692100, 47699100

47862100, 47869100, 47812200, 47813200, 47814200, 47819200, 47792200, 47793200, 47794200, 47799200

-Serial Numbers Begin With: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

-Sold at: Department and appliance stores from January 2000 to December 2003 for between $1,500 and $2,000.

-Manufactured in: United States

If you've got a GE oven, you might want to go and check your model and serial numbers.

source: http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/12/ge-microwave-re.html

Multicultural Feminists Seeks To Normalize Female Circumcision

Female circumcision - a social custom involving the invasive and destructive removal or disfigurement of the female clitoris - sure sounds like mutlilation and abuse to me and most other people in Western cultures, but some Africian scholars are now arguing that it should not only be allowed in Africa and in Islamic Middle Eastern countries where it is prevalent but also in Europe and the United States.

This so called "“third wave” or "multicultural feminist" seeks to convince us that female circumcision isn't all that bad and is really considered a cosmetic procedure with "aesthetic results".

ARE THESE WOMEN OUT OF THEIR MINDS OR HAVE THEY BEEN SO INCULCATED THAT THEY FAIL TO SEE MUTILATION FOR WHAT IT IS?

Sorry gals, but I have absolutely no desire to change my cultural mores and think that a sliced up clitoris is appealing or makes a woman more womanly. Clearly this whole soft headed multicultural mumbo jumbo has gone way too far if such heinous disfiguring rituals are going to be brought into the realm of the norm. Just like I think that flying jetliners into the World Trade Center in the name of Allah was wrong - so is genital mutilation.

I like my culture and country just the way it is - genital circumcision IS a grotesque mutilation of a woman's natural body PERIOD!

article in full - emphasis mine

A New Debate on Female Circumcision

By John Tierney

Should African women be allowed to engage in the practice sometimes called female circumcision? Are critics of this practice, who call it female genital mutilation, justified in trying to outlaw it, or are they guilty of ignorance and cultural imperialism?

Those questions will be debated Saturday morning in Washington at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting. Representatives of international groups opposed to this procedure will be debating anthropologists with somewhat different views, including African anthropologists who have undergone the procedure themselves. As the organizers of the AAA panel note:

The panel includes for the first time, the critical “third wave” or multicultural feminist perspectives of circumcised African women scholars Wairimu Njambi, a Kenyan, and Fuambai Ahmadu, a Sierra Leonean. Both women hail from cultures where female and male initiation rituals are the norm and have written about their largely positive and contextualized experiences, creating an emergent discursive space for a hitherto “muted group” in global debates about FGC [female genital cutting].

Dr. Ahmadu, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, was raised in America and then went back to Sierra Leone as an adult to undergo the procedure along with fellow members of the Kono ethnic group. She has argued that the critics of the procedure exaggerate the medical dangers, misunderstand the effect on sexual pleasure, and mistakenly view the removal of parts of the clitoris as a practice that oppresses women. She has lamented that her Westernized “feminist sisters insist on denying us this critical aspect of becoming a woman in accordance with our unique and powerful cultural heritage.” In another essay, she writes:

It is difficult for me — considering the number of ceremonies I have observed, including my own — to accept that what appears to be expressions of joy and ecstatic celebrations of womanhood in actuality disguise hidden experiences of coercion and subjugation. Indeed, I offer that the bulk of Kono women who uphold these rituals do so because they want to — they relish the supernatural powers of their ritual leaders over against men in society, and they embrace the legitimacy of female authority and particularly the authority of their mothers and grandmothers.

You can read more about this in Dr. Ahmadu’s essays or in this critique of the global campaign against female genital mutilation, written by another participant in Saturday’s discussion, Richard Shweder of the University of Chicago.

Dr. Shweder says that many Westerners trying to impose a “zero tolerance” policy don’t realize that these initiation rites are generally controlled not by men but by women who believe it is a cosmetic procedure with aesthetic benefits. He criticizes Americans and Europeans for outlawing it at the same they endorse their own forms of genital modification, like the circumcision of boys or the cosmetic surgery for women called “vaginal rejuvenation.” After surveying studies of female circumcision and comparing the data with the rhetoric about its harmfulness, Dr. Shweder concludes that “‘First World’ feminist issues and political correctness and activism have triumphed over the critical assessment of evidence.”

If I were asked to make a decision about my own daughter, I wouldn’t choose circumcision for her. But what about the question raised by these anthropologists: Should outsiders be telling African women what initiation practices are acceptable? - Source: By The Opinionator

Jennifer Love Hewitt Furious About Bikini Pictures

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is slamming back against comments made in the media about her weight after photos of the star in a bikini were splashed across the Internet. Hewitt, who recently became engaged Scottish actor Ross McCall, issued a statement to the press saying: "like all women out there should, I love my body… being a size 0 doesn’t make you beautiful".

Photos of the Ghost Whisperer star frolicking on the beach in a bikini surfaced this past week on the Web, prompting a slew of nasty comments about the actress' body on blogs and gossip web sites. TMZ.com, one of the most popular celebrity gossip sites on the Net, posted an unflattering shot of the actress with a nasty play on words referring to her starring role in I Know What You Did Last Summer: "We know what you ate this summer, Love—everything!"

Bloggers and gossip columnists all over the web had opinions to air about Jennifer Love Hewitt and her bikini-clad form. Normally most celebrities tend to let such things slide by, refusing to engage in a flame war over comments on their personal lives or appearance. Hewitt, on the other hand, decided to come out swinging.

In a scathing post on her web site blog, the Party of Five hearthrob issued a statement in response to the media frenzy over her bikini pics. "Like all women out there should, I love my body, I know what I look like, and so do my friends and family," she says. "I've sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women's bodies are constantly scrutinized"

Hewitt claims her decision to face the negative comments made about her appearance were prompted by her concern for young women who might be hurt by such portrayals of female celebrities in the media. "To set the record straight," she stated on her blog, "I'm not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image."

"A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn't make you beautiful. …To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist," Hewitt says, "put on a bikini—put it on and stay strong."

Source: http://www.gaywired.com/NewsArticle.cfm?Section=66&id=17419&CFID=13124486&CFTOKEN=40923416