I Spy

A hammer-wielding “anti-racist” gang in masks and hoods attacked suspected white supremacists dining at a suburban Chicago restaurant, injuring ten and sending three to a local hospital to close head wounds. Authorities suspect the 18 attackers who stormed the Tinley Park Irish-American eatery were “spillover” radicals protesting the NATO summit in Chicago. “This was a real riot,” Tinley Park Mayor Edward Zabrocki tells MSNBC. “These guys started beating the crap out of the other group. Tables were knocked over, dishes were broken and there was food all over the walls. It was terrible.” Five Indiana men were arrested in the attack and charged with mob action and aggravated battery, reports the Chicago Tribune. Police are seeking the others.

This isn’t the way, folks. 

Sean King, a Colorado Springs second-grader at Meridian Ranch Elementary school, found himself in hot water last when he was pulled out of class for dressing like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while also wearing black face paint for a school project. Now, Sean and his family want an apology from the school for the way the staff handled the situation.

…

Last week, KRDO first reported that Sean dressed up as MLK, Jr. for a school project. The boy’s mother told KRDO that it was “wax museum day” for the second grade class and that each child was assigned a historical figure to dress up as.

Sean showed up for school on Wednesday doing a Martin Luther King impersonation, wearing a black suit, tie, mustache and black face paint — his parents were with him, as were all the students’ parents, to watch the day’s presentation. But before things could get started, Erica Mason, the school’s principal, told the second-grader that he needed to wash his face, according to KWGN, leaving Sean confused.

“They thought it was inappropriate and it will be disrespectful to black people and I say it’s not,”young Sean said to KRDO. “I like black people. It’s just a costume and I don’t want to insult anybody.”

The NAACP has come out in support of Meridian Elementary Principal Mason and in support of Sean’s desire to portray Dr. King, but has said that he just shouldn’t have worn the black face paint.

Umm… I’m thinking Sean’s parents were to blame here. How is it that - in a country with this much racial history and tension - they were able to miss the offensiveness of having their kid paint his face black? Suit - fine. Moustache - great. Blackface - No. Just - no. I hope the school took the time to explain the rationale to Sean, though, as he obviously is too young to understand why/how it was offensive.

The fact that so much of the reaction seems to be supportive of the blackface just seems to be more evidence of the fact that all this talk about a post-racial society might be doing more harm than good.

Kudos to Sean King. What a great kid and he is handling this so well. Very disappointed in the school and also the NAACP. You both have set the nation back a few years by your actions. I think MLK would be very proud of Sean. I know I am.

…

What a shameful decision your principal made regarding Sean King trying to honor Martin Luther King on his Wax Museum day. A white person can’t dress up as a great, American Black figure? Was the same decision made of any African American students who portrayed great White Americans? The principal of this school fueled and created a racial divide by not letting young Mr. King honor the late Martin Luther King. Racism will continue as long as uneducated decisions like this one are made.

I think the school made the right decision and I think classes to teach students and parents about racial sensitivity are a great idea.

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These handy little things are all things you probably own already. I know this is a topic usually reserved for moms on Pinterest, but seriously — who has time to properly iron a shirt or clean a toilet?

These were pretty awesome. I’ve no clue how a banana “fixes” a DVD, but you know I’ll try it.

In a 1976 interview, Betty Friedan suggested to Simone de Beauvoir that women who wanted to stay home and raise their children had a right to do so. De Beauvoir disagreed: “No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children … because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.” Given the multiple levels of female self-surveillance, with women being watched by other women, women being watched by men, women being watched by women being watched by men — a sorority house built in the shape of a panopticon — De Beauvoir’s patronizing sentiment remains alluring to some ostensible feminists who want to protect women from the harmful effects of a scopophilic culture that doesn’t permit them to flourish.

A really good read. It’s easy to miss that what looks progressive is so often regressive. The issue is complex, however, so the solution must necessarily be so as well.

Some of Cyrus’ultra-conservative critics have gone so far in the past as to call her “disgusting,”but she feels as though the entertainment industry has backed her into a corner as to how she’s supposed to behave.

“[It] used to be if you’re a woman you do not sing about sex, and now if that’s not what you’re singing about, if that’s not your entire image, you won’t get played [on radio and TV],” she explained. “The last season of [“Hannah Montana”] I put out “Can’t Be Tamed,” which even just the title of that for a woman to say that she can’t be tamed, and of all people in the world, my face saying I can’t be tamed, when that’s all people really wanted to do — I think that proves how sexist people still really are and judgmental. It’s the whole thing of saying ‘be sexy, but our way.”

She’s absolutely right.

Not that it didn’t jar me to read that the former Hannah Montana thinks sex is beautiful and magical, cause it did. But that’s my issue. She’s had to grow up in the public eye and I can’t imagine that it was easy to make the usual awkward prepubescent missteps while the whole world watched (and judged).

Crazy things can happen when you’re shooting a movie. Sometimes, your lead actor will have an ego and pout in his trailer all afternoon. Others, a set will collapse causing the director to spend more money than they had originally planned. And then there’s the moment when the co-star star of your film is stabbed by a fellow cast member with a steak knife — something that happened to Will Smith during the production of “Men in Black 3.”

As Will asked Josh Brolin in the latest edition of Moviefone’s Unscripted, “Why did you stab me in my knee with a steak knife in Brazil?” Brolin’s response? “Because I have a drinking problem.” The whole thing went down while the two were in the middle of filming “MIB3,” the third chapter in the multi-million-dollar blockbuster franchise. (Luckily, the two seem to be in good spirits about the whole thing.)

Good times.

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Last year, moviegoers under the age of 25 turned out in force for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, propelling the film to post a six-day debut of $180.7 million when opening over the July 4 holiday, including a three-day weekend total of $97.9 million.

This past week, fellow Hasbro Entertainment property Battleship— complete with Transformers-like aliens — debuted to a dismal $25.3 million at the domestic box office, sending shockwaves throughout the film industry.

WithThe Avengersstill storming the marketplace, observers knew that Universal and Hasbro’sBattleship would come in on the more modest side ($35 million to $40 million), but no one expected it to come in at such a low level after making $226 million overseas.

The big difference betweenBattleshipandDark of the Moon: 66 percent ofBattleship’saudience was over the age of 25, and 50 percent was over 30.

Some speculate that younger moviegoers have no connection to the classic board game that Battleship is based on. Another problem could be the perception that it is some sort ofTransformers spinoff.

Can’t say that I’m surprised. Few people younger than 25 will have played “Battleship” and few people older than 25 will have been compelled to see it from nostalgia. It just wasn’t that great a game (even if you did throw yourself off a dock each time your battleship was sunk). 

I’m holding out hope that this is a hoax (*closes eyes and crosses fingers*) but apparently, Think Like a Man will not be released in France because it lacks racial diversity.

Just let that sink in for a moment before you go on to the quote:

“Surprising as it may be, the answer lies in the fact that the film has an all-black cast. French cinema is often pointed at for not fairly displaying all components of the country’s multiethnic population. Although the recent success of the movie Les Intouchables, which earned French African actor Omar Sy the Cesar award for Best Actor in 2012, caused great pride and hope among French nationals from Africa and the Caribbean, it was not to be the turning point for a deep and lasting change.”

…

“The French state has had a sociopolitical strategy which favors interracial relationships rather than valuing communities. In the comedy ‘Think like a Man’, the focus is on black couples.”

…

“Black actor and producer Tyler Perry’s movies are never scheduled in any French movie theaters or are only released in DVDs, even though he has been used to leading the US box-office, as with ‘Why did I get Married’ and ‘For Colored Girls’. The French society acts hypocritically, when it refuses to show movies from black producers who earn millions from conveying a positive message to the African diaspora through their films.”

I’m not going to get into the positivity of Tyler Perry’s messages or whether or not a movie with an all-black (or mostly black) cast can draw audiences world-wide, but I will say that if that is the rationale, it qualifies for today’s Most Thinly-Veiled Instance of Racism award.

Now, let’s all give France a nice, sarcastic slow clap.

In what will hopefully be the most depressing news of the day (dear Lord, I don’t think I can survive worse than this, Jezebel highlights a study that finds that men (and not women) are the ones who derive joy from parenthood:

According to the study, women with children aren’t happier than women who don’t have kids (and, as we said last week, usually they’remoredepressed). Young parents (under the age of 26) are way less happy than mid-20-somethings without children, and single parents aren’t having a blast, either. “Married parents did not differ in satisfaction or happiness from married people without children,” the study concluded. So, uh, who is experiencing all the happiness and joy, here?

It turns out that “parenthood is associated with greater satisfaction and happiness only among fathers,” and married dads at that, which doesn’t surprise anyone, least of all the study’s authors, who said the discrepancy “is not unexpected, as the pleasures associated with parenting may be offset by the surge in responsibility and housework that arrives with motherhood.” Ahh, perhaps.

Cripes. Jezebel finds at least one new reason for me to regret being born female each week.

I remember reading about the doubt in this case ages ago. Stories like this are why I cannot support the death penalty:

A Texas judge who reviewed the controversial 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham planned to posthumously exonerate the father who was put to death for killing his three daughters in a house fire.

Scientific experts who debunked the arson evidence used against Willingham at his 1992 trial and a jailhouse witness who recanted his shaky testimony convinced District Court Judge Charlie Baird in 2010 that “Texas wrongfully convicted” him. But Baird’s order clearing Willingham’s name never became official, because a higher court halted the posthumous inquiry while it considered whether the judge had authority to examine the capital case.

While waiting for permission to finish the case from the Third Court of Appeals, Baird put together the document that “orders the exoneration of Cameron Todd Willingham for murdering his three daughters,” because of “overwhelming, credible and reliable evidence” presented during a one-day hearing in Austin in October 2010.

Responses like this are why I cannot trust politicians who do support the death penalty:

Some of the harshest criticism in Baird’s writing is directed at Perry. The governor’s role in refusing to postpone Willingham’s execution was closely examined by The Huffington Post during his presidential campaign.

“By 2004 there was no doubt that every single indication of arson had been debunked by the scientific community,” Baird wrote. “This fact was staring Governor Perry in the face; nevertheless, he refused to grant a reprieve.”

Perry has stood by the decision when questioned previously about Willingham. His office didn’t flinch from the latest criticism.

“Nothing the Austin court could have done would change the fact that Todd Willingham was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers for murdering his three daughters,” said a statement from his spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. “He had full access to every level of the appeals process, and his conviction was reviewed and upheld by multiple levels of state and federal courts. … The governor reviewed all of the facts of the case and agreed with the jury, and state and federal courts that Willingham was guilty.”

Carlos DeLuna’s story is another case of the death penalty gone wrong. So long as the chance exists that an innocent man might die for the crimes of another, how can it be justified?

It always seems like these things happen in threes. First Donna Summer, then Chuck Brown, now Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. RIP:

Robin Gibb, one of the three singing brothers of the Bee Gees, the long-running Anglo-Australian pop group whose chirping falsettos and hook-laden disco hits like “Jive Talkin’ ” and “You Should Be Dancing” shot them to worldwide fame in the 1970s, died on Sunday in London. He was 62 and lived in Thame, Oxfordshire, England.

Well, now. That was bizarre. 

Will Smith is in the middle of a press tour for “Men in Black 3” and got more than he bargained for while in Moscow this week.

Smith was walking a press line when a reporter stopped him to give him a hug and attempted to kiss him.

“Hey man, what the hell is your problem?” Smith exclaimed, and pushed him away, before slapping the man in the face. “He tried to kiss me on my mouth!”

“He’s lucky I didn’t sucker punch him,” Smith added afterward.

According to TMZ, the man involved in the incident is a TV reporter who likes to kiss celebrities.

TMZ’s account is a lot less charitable to the Fresh Prince, mentioning that he was “incredibly pissed that the guy showed overt affection toward him” and pointing out that Smith just came out in support of gay marriage.

I’m inclined to think that one can support gay marriage while rejecting an unwelcome advance, but that’s just my humble opinion.

Channing Tatumhopes to see Magic Mike reach the broadest audience possible — heterosexual men included.

The film, loosely based on his own experiences as an exotic dancer, features Tatum, 32, Matthew McConaughey, 42, Alex Pettyfer, 22, Matt Bomer, 34, Joe Manganiello, 35, and Adam Rodriguez, 27, in various states of undress.

“With Joe Manganiello naked in a movie, I think even straight guys are going to be, ‘Sh-t, I need to see that,” Tatum tells OUT’s June/July issue. “That man is a specimen.’”

In case you don’t know, this is Mr. Manganiello:

Oh yes, Channing. I’ll be there.

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Now a new study shows that employed men’s marriages may be partly to blame for stalling the march toward gender equality at work.

The research, led by Sreedhari D. Desai, an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at UNC-Chapel Hill, consisted of four smaller studies conducted by researchers from Harvard, NYU, UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Utah. They explored the relationship between the type of marriages that employed men have and their attitudes toward working women, the Harvard Business Review reported. The researchers found that employed men who are in more traditionally-structured marriages (i.e. their wives stay at home or work part-time outside the home) tend to:

1. Feel less positive about the presence of women in the workplace.
2. Believe that female-dominated organizations operate “less smoothly.”
3. See organizations where women are in leadership roles as “unattractive.”
4. Promote qualified female employees less.

…

The new study also found that these men who have negative views of working women tend to be the same men who held influential positions of power, which doesn’t bode so well for women trying to advance in male-dominated industries or companies. It stands to reason that these men are also probably less likely to offer sponsorship or mentorship to female employees, which has been shown to be an extremely important factor in career advancement. The researchers concluded that marriage structure has an impact “beyond the four walls of the house” and that attitudes toward women are determined by the social role that a guy plays in his own life. If a man is the primary breadwinner, he may — even subconsciously — believe that that’s how it “should be” in all marriages.

Identifying the source of these attitudes doesn’t mean that they’ll be easy to alter, Desai and her colleagues concluded. Men who believe unfavorable things about working women are unlikely to change their mind unless their marital structures change, the researchers wrote, which would be “an exceedingly improbable event on a large scale.” This means that women will have to work around these attitudes — at least for the time being.

Argh. Any advice on exactly how we’re supposed to work around these attitudes would be greatly appreciated.

After reading this Time article, I’m not at all sure whether emo haircuts can cause lazy eyes (and stiff necks), but I figure they’re all safer if they do like The Bieb and move on:

Andrew Hogan, a national executive member of Australia’s Optometrists’ Association, told the Daily Telegraph that the floppy, Justin Bieber–esque ’do could lead to amblyopia — lazy eye. “If a young emo chap has a fringe covering one eye all the time, that eye won’t see a lot of detail … And if it happens from a young age, that eye can become amblyotic,” he said. According to Hogan, the asymmetrical fringe acts as an eye patch: “If you walk around with an eye patch on all day, then that eye will end up seeing more poorly than the other eye.”

“Veteran hairdresser” Roseanne Anderson also suggests that the fringe poses risks to young people’s posture, because of the incessant head tilting and hair flicking that inevitably ensues:

“I have to wonder how they don’t get a stiff neck … I have seen lots of fashions come and go — but really when I think about it, this is probably the only hairstyle in my 40 years of hairdressing that could be a health hazard.”

Good thing other eye professionals say the whole thing is complete and utter nonsense. “This is a crazy idea, the concept of this blocking vision and causing problems with sight,” Auckland-based ophthalmologist Justin Mora told TV New Zealand. “It’s just silly.” But maybe get a haircut, just in case.

Hmm … the ophthalmologists are a wash, I guess, but the “veteran hairdresser”? ROFL. 

Say hello to Florence, the vegetarian nurse shark. This is kind of cool:

A nurse shark at the Birmingham National Sea Life Center in England appears to have become the world’s first vegetarian shark after developing a palate for heads of lettuce and other veggies, TreeHugger reports.

Florence, a 6-foot nurse shark, made headlines in 2009 after undergoing a risky out-of-water surgery procedure to remove a rusty hook from her jaw. It was only the second time the operation had been performed on a shark, according to the BBC.

Florence recovered from the surgery and was put on exhibit at Birmingham Sea Life Center, but was never quite the same: Handlers reported that she started avoiding meat and has now gone “completely veggie.”

Graham Burrows, a curator of the Sea Life Center, said in a press release that caretakers have had to find creative ways of getting Florence proteins and other nutrients missing from her preferred diet.

“We’re having to hide pieces of fish inside celery sticks, hollowed out cucumbers and between the leaves of lettuces to get her to eat them,” Burrows said. “And it has to be well hidden, because if she realizes it’s there she’ll ignore the offering and wait for the strictly vegetarian option.”

And on the heels of the Queen of Disco, Chuck Brown, The Godfather of Go-Go has also passed away. RIP to him as well.

A late R.I.P. for Donna Summer, Queen of Disco:

Donna Summer, the R&B songstress known best for her far-ranging voice and late-’70s dance-floor ballads who was dubbed the Queen of Disco at the height of the genre’s popularity, died Thursday from complications of cancer. She was 63.

Famous for her singing abilities as well as for her songwriting talents, Summer scored consistent hits at the height of her career with tunes that still get frequent radio airplay, like “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,”  “MacArthur Park” and “On the Radio.”

A source from Summer’s family confirmed her death midday Thursday. She had been living in Englewood, Fla., with her husband, musician Bruce Sudano.

You’d think beheading and cannibalism would be two of the few offenses for which you would never be allowed to see the outside of a metal institution ever again. You’d be wrong:

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — A man who beheaded and cannibalized a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada won his bid to leave the grounds of the mental hospital where he is being kept, a criminal review board ruled Thursday.

The Criminal Code review board said Vince Li’s treatment team may grant him short escorted trips into the central Canadian city of Selkirk, Manitoba.

The review board said the passes will start at 30 minutes and increase incrementally to a maximum of full days.

Li was found not criminally responsible for the July 2008 death of Tim McLean, a young carnival worker who was sitting next to Li on a bus near Portage la Prairie.

…

McLean had his eyes closed and was listening to music on his headphones when Li, a stranger who was sitting beside him, suddenly stood up and started stabbing him. As the bus stopped and horrified passengers fled, Li carved up McLean’s body and ate portions of it.

Li’s trial was told he was an untreated schizophrenic.

As part of this year’s review, Li’s psychiatrist, Dr. Steven Kremer, described Li as a model patient, who has shown no security risks and who has participated in treatment programs and taken up odd jobs at the hospital.

On point as usual, Jezebel calls out everyone huffing and puffing over Ri-Ri’s apparent lack of concern for stuffy social mores:

…why do we target Rihanna’s sex life so aggressively? Well, first of all, she seems to be truly having an awesome time—and women owning their sexual pleasure veers dangerously close to women wanting to own their bodies. And we can’t have that! The more sexual agency you possess, the less of an object you become. That’s threatening to a lot of people. Rihanna’s not even some delinquent heiress with a sex tape whose only job is commodifying her sexuality (although that’s fine too)—she’s an incredibly successful artist who works hard on her craft and in her free time does whatever-the-snatch she wants without apology. And isn’t that exactly what we want women to do? Whatever-the-snatch? It’s almost like there’s a right kind of slut (Kim Kardashian?) and a wrong kind of slut (our dear RiRi), and the difference lies in exactly how many fucks you give. Kim Kardashian’s entire job is giving fucks (it’s called maintaining her brand). Rihanna is just whoever Rihanna happens to be that day.

But more importantly, Rihanna is very famous, kind of bonkers, and completely unfiltered. She behaves exactly like any average 24-year-old does (plus a million billion dollars) and she has the nerve and the platform to do it right where we can see it. Most celebrities are so buttoned-up and micromanaged that as far as we know they’re all smooth as a Ken doll down there. Not RiRi! And shouldn’t we be happy about that? There’s an entire INDUSTRY devoted to prying open the dirty little corners of celebrity life and digging out the nuggets that prove the stars are human, Just Like Us. Rihanna just hands it all over, shame-free, and now you’re mad? Is it just the cycle of illusion/hunt/exposure that we like? Gross, you guys.

Whatever the reason, here is my rallying cry: CUT IT OUT. We need to stop shaming celebrities for having sex when celebrities having sex is obviously our favorite thing. Freaking out about Rihanna every time she Tweets some crazy shit about fucking a leprechaun or whatever doesn’t make you hilarious or grounded or moral. It makes you just a couple of clicks above Chris Brown. Because what you’re saying, essentially, is that women’s sexual behavior is shameful and should be hidden and/or mocked.

No. Women’s sexual behavior needs to be accepted so that women’s sexual health can be protected. So slut it up, Rihanna.

I think it’s pretty clear that Rihanna and her label are counting on the pearl-clutching (on both sides of the gender divide) to help build enough hype to keep the millions rolling in. I can’t speculate on how “real” all of the drama is, but I respect anyone who can’t be bothered to give have a fuck about what the world thinks. Go girl.

(Shout out to WOMANTRA for pointing out the article)

(photo credit here, but the meme is all me, baby)

The Westboro Baptist Church is known for its extreme stance against homosexuality, picketing funerals of American serviceman and desecrating the American flag. They are so hateful that even the Klu Klux Klan distanced themselves from the church, denouncing them as “hatemongers.” The church is an Independent Baptist church headed by Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kansas.

 They are infamous for their slogans against those they deem as sinful such as: “God hates fags” (also the name of their website) and “Pray for more dead soldiers.” Civil rights organizations the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center monitor the Westboro Church and consider them a hate group.

In May 2011 President Obama honored fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Three members of the Westboro Church showed up to protest, and were met by 70 counter-protesters. Among those counter-protesters were ten Klu Klux Klan members. Allegedly, the “imperial wizard” of a KKK chapter led those ten. He said it was a shame that the Westboro Church showed up to disrespect people’s funerals.

When the KKK is questioning your hateful ideology, it might be time to re-examine your philosophy.

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A “transgender gothic hip-hop artist” who goes by the name Black Madam is on trial for allegedly administering illegal (and sometimes lethal) silicone butt injections. Like ya do. After the procedure, one 23-year-old client began vomiting blood and developed severe respiratory problems due to silicone particles accumulating in her lungs.

…

Black Madam’s (real name: Padge Victoria Windslowe) so-called “pumping parties” took place in private homes and hotel rooms, where she would charge clients (largely exotic dancers hoping to enhance their professional prospects, it seems) $1000 for four silicon butt injections that would transform their ordinary butts into the best butts ever. Then she would close the butt-wounds with krazy glue. “After being injected and sealed, Windslowe told the women to lay on the floor for four to five hours, to not sit on their buttocks for three days and to drink a lot of water, the victim said.”

…

What makes this case even more tragic is that the above victim knew about the death of one of Windslowe’s previous clients (a British woman who died in 2011), but chose to go ahead with the procedure anyway because “everybody was doing it.” In case anyone was wondering how it hurts women when we train them to believe that nothing—even their health—is too great a price to pay for the “perfect body,” well, sometimes it makes their lungs come out their mouth.

Wow. Here’s hoping Ms. Black Madam does a great deal of time for this one. 

Still, I’m having a hard time mustering up much sympathy for someone willing to pay $1,000 to let a person without a medical degree inject them with silicone and seal it with krazy glue.

I obviously recognize that society places immense pressure on women to conform and that certain celebrities make it seem like a relatively safe thing to do, but if someone tells you that they’re going to make four holes in your ass, plug them with glue and charge you $1000 for the privilege … and you don’t run screaming to the police, well, you pretty much deserve whatever you get.

At a press conference in Jacksonville today, Mitt Romney said he rejected a plan presented by GOP strategists to a Super PAC funded by Cubs-owning billionaire Joe Ricketts aimed at “defeating” President Obama by rehashing his ties to controversial reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Back in February, Romney himself brought up Wright in an interview with Sean Hannity on his radio show. “I think again that the president takes his philosophical leanings in this regard, not from those who are ardent believers in various faiths but instead from those who would like America to be more secular,”Romney said then. “And I’m not sure which is worse, him listening to Reverend Wright or him saying that we must be a less Christian nation.”

Asked today if he still stood by those remarks, Romney responded that he was “not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.”

Am I to understand that there are real live people out there somewhere who would actually vote for this guy?

(On another note, is it wrong that I was tempted to illustrate this post with the relevant butt plug?)

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Looking for a reason to break up with your significant other? The Frisky’s got five of them for you.

Conversely, if you’re looking for a reason to stay together, they’ve got you covered there, too: In fact … you should probably read this one first. 

You know, it’s one (asinine) thing to argue that slavery/segregation was better for society at large, but it’s a whole other thing to argue that black people preferred it because we chose to stay in the US rather than go back to Africa (a continent with which the slaves would have had no remaining ties whatsoever):

The gentle Harriet Beecher Stowe, for example, closed out Uncle Tom’s Cabin with an appeal, grounded in Christian charity, for freed blacks to be educated and trained … so that they would be better able to survive in Liberia!

[…]

Abraham Lincoln was keen to help blacks escape white supremacy, too. In August 1862 he invited a delegation of free blacks to the White House … in order to urge them to leave America.

[…]

But with all this opportunity and encouragement, how many freed blacks actually chose to escape from under the iron heel of white supremacy? Most sources give 15,000-20,000 — out of a Civil War-era black population of around four million. That’s less than half of one percent. Ninety-nine point five something percent preferred white supremacy. That’s an even bigger proportion than voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

It takes guts to trot out that kind of nonsense and call it fact. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t already thoroughly disgusted.

And in today’s winningest example of bigoted doublespeak, we have Bob Marshall, Republican delegate of Virginia:

A Virginia Republican delegate who led the effort to defeat the nomination of a gay Richmond prosecutor to a post on the general district court defended his opposition to the nomination, questioning how he would rule in the case of a “bar room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual” and added that “sodomy is not a civil right.”

…

Rejecting a comparison to the civil rights movement, Marshall said on CNN, “Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office that they broke. Sodomy is not a civil right. It’s not the same as the Civil Rights movement.”

…

However, Marshall was critical of Thorne-Begland’s opposition to DADT. “He can be a prosecutor, if he wants to,” Marshall said on CNN. “We don’t want advocates as judges.”

When asked directly whether his opposition was solely because of his sexuality, Marshall said, “No. Sorry, you’re mischaracterizing that. I said sodomy is not a civil right, and there’s an effort by homosexual lobbyists to equate the two. That’s wrong.”

That’s some impressive backpedaling, there.

I don’t suppose anyone could assume that heterosexual judges could be biased against homosexuals and be advocates for heterosexuality, right? Surely not.

As for “sodomy is not a civil right” … it’s not too difficult to imagine that he’d have said something similar about interracial marriage 50 years ago.

A catalog of the series of unfortunate investigative events following Trayvon Martin’s death.

The killing of Trayvon Martin here two and a half months ago has been cast as the latest test of race relations and equal justice in America. But it was also a test of a small city police department that does not even have a homicide unit and typically deals with three or four murder cases a year.

An examination of the Sanford Police Department’s handling of the case shows a series of missteps — including sloppy work — and circumstances beyond its control that impeded the investigation and may make it harder to pursue a case that is already difficult enough.

The national furor has subsided for the moment. But as the second-degree murder case against the defendant, George Zimmerman, moves from the glare of a public spectacle to the grinding procedures of the court system and eventual trial, the department’s performance, roundly criticized by Mr. Martin’s family as bungling and biased, will be scrutinized once again, though in more meticulous detail.

With doubts shadowing the quality and scope of the police work, the prosecution and the defense will be left to tackle critical questions even as they debate the evidence. And ultimately, what happened on the rainy night of Feb. 26 may come to rest on the word of one man, George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who fired the fatal shot.

*sigh* Where’s Horatio when you need him?

Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, had the drug THC in his system the night of this death, according to new information obtained by ABC News.

…

The autopsy report shows traces of the drug THC, which is found in marijuana, in Martin’s blood and urine.

The autopsy also shows that Zimmerman shot Martin from a distance of between 1 inch and 18 inches away, bolstering Zimmerman’s claim that he shot Martin during a struggle that landed Zimmerman on his back, Martin straddling him and banging Zimmerman’s head on the ground.

Martin’s autopsy report also revealed that there was a quarter-inch by half-inch abrasion on the left fourth finger of Martin, another indication of a possible struggle. The teen, who lived in Miami, was in Sanford while serving a suspension for a bag of marijuana being discovered in his possession.

*reads between the lines*

Sooo… Trayvon was a weed-crazed maniac who attacked a man with a gun, forcing him to shoot in self-defense?

Because what immediately comes to mind when you think of GOP polling is … butt plugs?

These are 3D renderings of each GOP candidate’s vote-approval rating in this year’s presidential campaign.

They’re also functional sex toys.

Matthew Epler had run out of ideas when his telecommunications professor at New York University gave him the assignment of representing data in a way that doesn’t bore the average Joe to death.

That is, until an ad for butt plugs popped up on his computer — he swears he’s not a creep and was on a music site.

“The first thing that came to mind was, ‘Hey, that’s a line graph,’” Epler told The Huffington Post. “I found [in the butt plug] a way to represent data beyond just staring at a screen.”

A 3D graph idea was born. Epler took data from Gallup’s website and created line graphs reflecting the changes in voter approval for each GOP candidate: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry. He took the data to a sculptor who helped him design the molds.

The result: “Grand Old Party” butt plugs.

That big one on the left up there? Yeah, that’s called “The Romney”.

In the meantime, folks can file complaints with the Chemical, Food and Drugs Division (I’ve never heard of them either), which I can only assume is responsible for enforcing the existing (unenforced) regulations against advertisements claiming to cure non-communicable and metabolic diseases.

Awesome. 

(image credit)

They are not enthused:

Acting Senior Supt in charge of the unit, Dianand Naipaul, called for greater consultation before Government reached a final decision. The plan is expected to be implemented on July 1.  Other senior officers in the unit have labelled the plan a “total disaster.”  The biggest change will be Ariapita Avenue one-way, going west, while Tragarete Road will only allow eastbound traffic. The new measures are being introduced on a trial basis for three months in the first instance.  “We have not rejected the plan. It is under review and we are carefully studying it. But we know it cannot work,” Naipaul said yesterday.

 I supposed it’d be silly of me to wonder why the folks who would be enforcing the new plan weren’t consulted before it was announced.

DOMA, on the other hand, says it’s a great idea:

The  plan to convert Ariapita Avenue into a one-way route has been hailed as a step in the right direction by the president of Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA), Gregory Aboud. Aboud, however, called for the plan to be extended beyond Woodbrook and to include St James and Long Circular. 

That’ll be fun.

The first masseur to accuse John Travolta of all kinds of hijinks has dropped his case and parted ways with his lawyer: 

This dismissal comes on the heels of evidence that contradicted the date John Doe gave for the alleged incident. John Doe claimed Travolta made sexual advances during a massage appointment at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Jan. 16.

Travolta’s lawyer later provided a photo that indicated Travolta was at the Greenwich Hotel in New York and enjoying meals at Mr. Chow that evening. John Doe’s former lawyer, Okorie Okorocha, claimed that Travolta could have traveled there in time.

Okorocha explained the case dismissal to People.com: “Let’s just say we had differences in opinion of how to handle the case and decided to part ways.”

One down, one to go.

The appointment of Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner as acting Prime Minister has been condemned by both the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI) and lobby group Fixin’ T&T.

…

“In particular, TTTI is concerned about the message that this appointment sends to our nation’s youth about the people that are chosen to lead them. We do not believe that this appointment sends a positive message about the standards of behaviour and integrity that we expect from our leaders.

“We do not believe that this appointment sends a positive message about the equity with which the law is supposed to treat all citizens, especially to young men incarcerated in the Remand Prison where they await trial for relatively minor offences.”

TTTI said the public cannot maintain confidence in the country’s institutions if leaders are not held accountable to standards of behaviour that are above reproach.

“When we lose confidence in our institutions they can collapse, and become unable to meet their responsibilities. In these situations, the victims are the most vulnerable in our society, especially the poor and those who depend on the Government for support,” the TTTI said.

The statement from Fixin’ T&T said, “In the context of the several international and local allegations of corruption, Fixin’ T&T categorically condemns the appointment of the Minister of Works and Infrastructure Jack Warner to the position of Acting Prime Minister. This latest development again brings into question the judgment of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

“We remind the Prime Minister and our citizens that Trinidad and Tobago is ranked 91 out of 183 countries on the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2011. On a scale of zero to ten with zero being the highest perception of corruption and ten being the lowest, T&T scored 3.2.  By comparison, in 2010, T&T was ranked 73 out of 178 countries with a score of 3.6.”

The group said Persad-Bissessar has a responsibility to vigorously guard the reputation of Trinidad and Tobago, and to demonstrate a commitment to ensuring the country becomes one that is associated with the highest standards of ethics and integrity, especially in light of “the promises and assurances of same made during the campaign of the People’s Partnership in 2010”.

It all sounds fine, really. Except for two tiny insignificant details:

1. Jack’s not under investigation in this country.

2. The PP (and its leader) has consistently shown a blatant disregard for protocol, transparency and equity throughout most (if not all) of its term so far. 

The sentiment is nice, but I can’t see that anything will come of it. Especially when Minister Warner (a man famous for brushing off sensible inquiries) responds thusly:

“Fixin’ T&T never voted for me. They have no constituency. They don’t appoint me.They don’t appoint the Prime Minister. Fixin’ T&T should first fix themselves and then talk about what should happen in the country. They have two or three fellows there who have their own agenda.”

He said, “I cannot go down to that low level. If people don’t want to come up to my level, I cannot go down to theirs. My role is to bring up people to my level. Nobody votes for these people and why should I be worried about that? I am concerned about the people who vote for us in this country. Why waste time with that? I am not going to be sidetracked by that.”

A sentiment befitting the acting PM, no?

A PREGNANT woman underwent emergency surgery yesterday to save her arm after she was mauled by three dogs.

Two of the dogs are mixed with the pitbull breed.

Kurleen Cooper, 36, who is five months pregnant, yesterday complained she was not feeling any movement in her womb after she was attacked by the dogs at Pt Fortin.

The dogs tore the flesh off her left arm and bit her on the head, hands, inner leg, left ear and stomach.

I can’t help but sigh whenever I see a pitbull attack on the front page. I truly hope we’re not missing the point here. It’s not pitbulls that are the problem, it’s the owners who can’t be bothered to properly secure their dogs.

The dogs were loose in the yard, and there is no gate installed to the front of the house, according to an employee of Maharaj who was at the Point Fortin Police Station assisting investigations yesterday.

However, June Garib, Maharaj’s wife, said when she left for work at 5 a.m., the three dogs, along with three others they own, were chained at the back of the house.

“When I came home I saw the dogs tied. I asked if anyone let go the dogs and they said ‘no’. I don’t know if it’s my dogs that bit the lady.”

I’d like to believe that the police confiscated the dogs pending investigation, but if the case of little Ezekiel’s attack is an example of the way these cases are handled, I’d be so very wrong.

I’d also like to hear from the detractors of the Dangerous Dogs Act, specifically those who feel that the part requiring insurance policies for their dogs is asking too much.

(For more on my views on this act, click here)