<p>I totally agree, Flossy. I find Charlize to be funny, interesting and admirable. I guess her recent movie was a flop but I saw a few interviews and really liked her as a person. Gwyneth I find to be just viscerally annoying. My kids hated her on Glee as well 
She has a “I do everything just a bit better than you” tone to the things that she puts out there and has the feel of a poser from her singing to her cook book thing. </p>
<p>I try hard not to be offended by what people say because I know:</p>
<ol>
<li>My interpretation is not necessarily what was meant. In fact, my interpretation is almost guaranteed to be different from what is meant.</li>
<li>People say the wrong thing all the time. The words just come out. If the choice is between talking and not talking, I pick talking because I think the world is better if people talk instead of bang on each other with clubs.</li>
<li>Odds are I don’t care. GPaltrow says some stupid stuff. Do I care? No, not really. She matters to me less than Teresa Giudice of Real Housewives because my wife is addicted to that show and thus I have to watch or listen to it because I like to be in the same room as my wife.</li>
<li>Finally and most importantly, I understand that my interpretations are not the only ones.</li>
</ol>
<p>So I doubt Paltrow meant every working mom has it easier than an actress. If she thought about it, she’d might say that it would be nice not to have money woes like so many working families and have a predictable schedule. It would be incredibly stupid to mean a mom struggling to pay rent has it better than an actress worth vast sums. I could interpret her words to give her the benefit of the doubt or to get really mad but I don’t care enough to bother.</p>
<p>To switch gears, take the return of the POW. People are offended. Rather, some people are offended. They have a right to be offended but I remember: it’s just their interpretation not some HOLY WRIT FROM GOD and that I don’t really care what they think because I have a mind of my own. With the success of the Daily Mail online and of course FoxNews, we’re seeing more and more and more of the marketing of “outrage” and amped up words like “obsessive”. I’ve noticed relatively sensible online sites like Slate have switched headline styles to pure tabloid come-ons. So I can go to the Daily Mail and read every bit of outrage and offense. It’s a vast reminder that Twitter chose its name well: human society is a bunch of twittering birds. (That said, I was truly amused to hear John McCain sputtering about Obama obtaining this POW’s release. John McCain was a prisoner in Hanoi and made 32 propaganda tapes for the enemy. We learned later that he was tortured … though other captured men didn’t do this … and we obtained McCain’s release though we could see he’d cooperated with the enemy as it was killing our soldiers. By McCain’s logic, we would have left him in Hanoi as a traitor.) </p>
<p>John McCain didn’t walk away from his men in the middle of the night either. He was captured. Just a little bit different IMHO.</p>
<p>@lergnom, your McCain analogy is simply outrageous. And no, my feelings weren’t stoked by the Daily Mail or FoxNews.</p>
<p>Lergnom, sorry for the bubblegum pop talk but love Charlize so if I don’t feel she has not done anything wrong I say something. As for GP, enough of my minutes have been wasted on her. </p>
<p>The POW topic is interesting. I’m not sure if we are allowed to talk about it but I see it as swapping the starting five players of a team for the other team’s bench player who punched his own teammates. Need to verify the facts but right now that is what’s being reported.</p>
<p>Not sure we can talk about either but since we are…It’s also being reported that he left behind a letter renouncing his US citizenship. In any case, this is not turning out to be a happy homecoming story, at all. It’s another debacle. </p>
<p>Flossy, where did you see that? Man, if that’s the case, then it’s a whole 'nother kettle of fish, as least as far as coverage of the story goes. I agree with a radio commentator who said last night; “Was it a good thing to trade him for 5 very nasty guys? I don’t know. Was is a good idea to go try to free him and bring him home? Absolutely!”</p>
<p>@LakeWashington Jennifer Griffin of FNC broke it this morning. Yes, I know it’s Fox and people will dismiss it for that reason but his teammates and parents of dead teammates are starting to speak up everywhere. It’s beyond politics.</p>
<p>I think the reactions to my comment about McCain makes my point. One apparently walked away - but we have to see, don’t we - and the other was definitely captured but then made not 1 but 32 videos for the enemy. It was a long time ago and McCain not only became Senator but ran for President so that’s in the past but what if we decided not to trade for him because of what he did? I’m surprised and somewhat amused that he isn’t more sympathetic. My point is that each of us has a perspective, not that any one is right and that people should stop caring so much about what others say or believe. I don’t give a hoot about your outrage and you shouldn’t give a hoot about mine.</p>
<p>BTW, Israel has traded over 1000 prisoners for 2 dead bodies and a living soldier - who may have not put any resistance to being captured (if you believe those stories, which I don’t). Some of the people traded did hideous things like child murder. And some have gone back to “war”. The Israelis understand that’s part of conflict. You can’t have everything your way. </p>
<p>Well said, Lergnom.</p>
<p>The POW story is an interesting take on perspectives, and it shows how much they vary. Some are outraged,. arguing that you don’t negotiate with terrorists, yet the US went to war against the Taliban when they were the recognized government of Afghanistan, so what this is technically is a POW exchange, which is done in many wars. Not saying the Taliban are a great bunch of guys, far from it, but there is a big difference between the Taliban and Al Qaeda, it is a legal point but still valid. </p>
<p>Then, of course, the fact that the circumstances around this guy are murky, makes it even more difficult. His fellow soldiers are outraged, because they say he walked away, then they wasted lives trying to find him, and I can understand their anger. Others seem to be seeing him as some sort of martyr or protester against the war, which to me is idiotic, but that is what they believe. </p>
<p>Then we have to look at this from another perspective, that of the administration. The person in question is a POW, all the accusations we are hearing, all the claims that he was a deserter, are meaningless, because if this guy was a deserter, how come the military over the past 5 years kept promoting him in absentia and never opened an investigation? It is all great and good the outrage some are feeling, but if this guy was a deserter, why was he never charged or investigated? It all sounds like a slam dunk, he left his gear at his bunk, supposedly his fellow troup-mates heard talk on the radio the soldier basically gave himself up to the Taliban, yet why are we hearing this only after this exchange happened? In the end, it doesn’t matter, because people can claim he renounced his citizenship, they can claim he was a traitor, but the C in C acts out of the facts at hand, and at the time they negotiated for his return, he was an American POW, pure and simple, there had been no investigation of him (where was the military AG in all this?), and the C in C acts based on facts, not speculation, not what people claim. More importantly, even if he was accused of deserting, he is an American Citizen, all the main street Harry’s and such yelling and screaming don’t have the power to strip that, so in the end, he still was an American Citizen ostensibly held against his will as a POW…and want to know my own perception? That had the Obama administration left him in captivity, those now yelling and screaming about the guy, would be ranting how he abandoned an American serviceman to captivity, how he left an American Citizen in the clutches of the Taliban, etc…so Obama and Co were going to be hit either way…</p>
<p>BTW, I am not saying that the guy should have been exchanged or not, what I am saying is that this case shows the many perceptions out there, and also how something like this can be used to fuel all kinds of things, where facts and law suddenly become whatever people think they should be. People perceive GP as this spoiled product of Hollywood who never had to struggle in her life, so if she says something about ‘regular moms’ of course she is looking down on them, etc…they filter it through their own perceptions, and condemn her even though in reality, they don’t know her, they know the public perception of her, and assume…</p>
<p>At first, I was glad for his release. Then everyone in his group popped up with tales of his leaving his post, the long search for him, and the death of others. If I am being manipulated by news reports, so must others. I wonder why more people didn’t speak up during these past 5 years.</p>
<p>In terms of GP, there was talk long ago about why Ben left her. to paraphrase, not plagiarize, she seemed high maintenance–never leaving home without perfect clothes and make-up. I still like her acting, but I wouldn’t look to her for advice about anything but make-up and clothes. </p>