[ culturologist.com ]

Today I am doing a couple of taped segments for Todd. One is on mydeathspace.com…a website dedicated to the dead. The owner of the site is Michael Patterson, who claims he created it to record deaths, and to prevent drunk driving. I am not all that sure it is as civic-minded as he claims. Patterson charges $34.95 for a premium membership which enables one to learn about deaths 24 hours before the public web readers.

Facebook has groups dedicated to the dead, created by the living–memorials to those who are gone, with blogging and letters to the departed. Often cellphones of the dead will hold late messages to the dead guy telling him or her how much they are loved.

I think there is a fetishization of death and mourning in our society, as Joe calls it, a neo-shrine created to those who are gone. Somehow I think cybermourning is the inability to acknowledge the death of someone…like he or she is now residing in cyberspace, it is easier to accept the death.

unless the internet is down

Interview today with Todd Van der Hayden at CTV Montreal: Todd is interested in Hillary and if being a woman affects political status. Well, as a non-fan of Hill, I talked about her being a legacy politician…in that had she not been married to a previous president, she would have never been a candidate. I believe she is an unlikely candidate in any other circumstance. Honestly, would she have stayed with Bill after the Monica disaster, if he hadn’t had political designs? Cynical, possibly–but if she is the strong woman she is painted to be, no way would she have stayed with him. So, we have Golda Mier, Margaret Thatcher, Corazon Aquino–lots of strong women, not all elected (some chosen by parties)–nothing from the US. Female Americans have had the vote for 88 years, and finally a woman is running–but is she the right woman? Why not Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters, Olympia Snow…or the late Ann Richards–Hillary is not that caliber of candidate. So, yes…she is a legacy candidate..

Bush 2 was a legacy candidate…what a country, money and a name gets one elected, not capability. Maggie Thatcher didn’t use Dennis to become PM

Some current female leaders:

Philippines

Switzerland

Liberia

Chile

India

Argentina