I may not like everything that is happening right now, but I do like what I see in this photo.  Do you see what I see?

If you are not familiar with Susan Rice, here is a different sort of bio page that has excellent background on her past and her family connections.

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And then I wander further and find this over at Jezebel which is a hell of a juxtaposition about women and their place in our world:

Supermodels Tortured For"Prestigious" Nude Calendar

Ever heard of the Pirelli Calendar? Sure, Pirelli makes tires, but the company also produces a calendar, famous for its limited availability. You can see it online, but you can't buy it: It's not sold, only given as a corporate gift to a restricted number of important customers and celebrity VIPs. It's basically the world's only prestigious pin-up calendar, featuring "artistic" nude photography. This year, the calendar was shot in Botswana by Peter Beard, and the concept involves half-naked models draping themselves over elephants, dunking themselves in algae-covered watering holes, or, in the case of poor Isabeli Fontana, left, being tortured by posing with some sort of giant insect on her face.

While the tears are Photoshopped out in the final image on the calendar, it's clear in the behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot that Fontana is crying. Tearing up, maybe, but still. And this is no top model challenge: She's already posed for Victoria's Secret, Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, Versace and Valentino. Watching the photographer coerce the models into doing bizarre and offensive things (more footage here) — smoke next to an elephant, run topless with frizzed out hair and a leopard-print bikini (how "savage"!) — makes you wonder: Why? Why would the models subject themselves to such icky stuff? Why did the photographer choose these painful concepts for a "pin-up" calendar? (Naomi Campbell posed in 2005, and didn't look quite as uncomfortable.) And, of course: If it's not sexy, and it's not selling tires, what's the point?

Making Of Pirelli Calendar [Spiegel]
Behind The Scenes Of The 2009 Pirelli Calendar In Botswana  [SassyBella]

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I went to the Pirelli site where the pictures are for the world to see, but hidden behind an agreement that threatens law suits if the photos are distributed.  I did not click through.

Not deterred, I found them somewhere else.  They are part of the open domain now as they are making the rounds.  As you look at them, do you see what I see?

One blogger saw the fear and suffering of women being used as a sexual turn on.  Another saw racism and colonialism as well as sexism.   These three are just a sampling with one of them blown up to show the detail:

I guess it is still a fight hard to get one step forward while everyone else is pushing you two step backwards world.