Canada, make a choice – are you for or against child abuse?

Posted on March 17, 2013 by david

NO excuse!

The good life

 49 countries – except Canada – support international child abuse battle

One of more than 10,000 abused every day!

Some issues are above politics. Child abuse is one of them – except in Canada. An article in the Toronto Star on March 15, 2013 reported, “Canada drags its feet on joining global online child abuse battle … American and European diplomats are scratching their heads over why Canada remains the only Western country that has stopped short of joining a new high-powered Global Alliance against online child abuse set up in Brussels last December.” That’s three months ago. While Harper fiddles, thousands of children are burned, bound, bruised and sexually assaulted:

So vulnerable, so defenseless … and unprotected

NO excuse Canada!

“The nature of Canada’s participation … is under consideration,” Public Safety spokesperson Jessica Slack told the Star, while acknowledging that “international cooperation is critical … to combat this terrible crime.” Under consideration? That’s a cop out Canada! Member countries do not have to commit any money or resources to the organization; they simply agree to set certain public targets in fighting child abuse and make reports on that progress.” And yet, Canada is absent. That is shameful. Disgusting. Inexcusable. It’s politics before children. Call, write, email your MP – today! Just send the link below and ask he/she why our country is not joining the Global Alliance with 49 other countries (see Harper’s email address below).

What government wouldn’t care? 

How low can the Harper Government go?

Steven Harper has an agenda, a weak cabinet and a caucus of sycophants, including Justice Minister Ron Nicholson. The rule is: fit in or you’re out. But, if for every rule there is an exception then child abuse is it. These are family men and women, parents … can politics be that morally corrupt? Obviously, “yes.” If our elected representatives are that despicable, that indecisive about protecting children, then we have only one choice: Start abusing the politicians.

Abuse your politician – today!

Start shouting today – at your politicians

It’s one thing to play politics with immigration, economics, healthcare, etc. but when it comes to our children there is no debate. Protect them. From physical and mental abuse, from sexual abuse, from assault with deadly weapons … from having to grow up in a country that is so politically skewed that it cares not, and does not, for its people. It is one thing for politicians to screw most of the people, most of the time, but to ignore the abuse of children for even a moment – let alone three months – is … well, criminal.

Do something – not Harper – YOU!

My way or the highway – and that includes children (photo: koolation)

Ron Do-nothing-Nicholson, Minister of Justice (except justice for abused children)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where’s the outrage? We know Harper and the politicians are dragging their asses on this issue so it’s time to start abusing them, so to speak. Take some action. Show your outrage. Send a quick note and a link to this blog. Or a link to the 8 minute Youtube video (see below):

  1. Harper’s email: pm@pm.gc.ca
  2. Ron Nicholson: mcu@justice.gc.ca

Here’s the link to this straightspeak blog – cut & paste and send it to them:   http://straightspeak.com/2013/03/canada-make-a-choice-are-you-for-or-against-child-abuse/

Don’t drag your ass like the Canadian government. Demand some answers!

Take eight minutes – for the kids that don’t have a fighting chance – and watch this Dreamcatcher video. And then send it to Harper and Nicholson. It says it well.

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Paper is dead – who needs it?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by david

Paper, paper everywhere, what’s a body to do? (photo: disorder.cl)

Even Steve Jobs couldn’t have solved this one

Remember the predictions of a paperless society? It started in the 1970s and still hasn’t materialized. What’s with the techies? Can’t they figure it out? Or is paper here to stay?

One clever ad agency makes a salient point – with this humorous TV ad. It’s in French but everyone gets it: “Paper is not dead/Le papier ne sera jamais mort.” And techies with their iPads, iPhones and computers should be careful what they wish for. Watch it (if it doesn’t show here, click link on screen to vimeo.com)

Le papier ne sera jamais mort / Paper is not dead ! from INfluencia on Vimeo.

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Men on top? Women on top? What’s up with work, marriage, love and sex?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by david

Keeping it up at both ends is not easy when you both work and it’s damn near impossible when there are kids.

 Who wrote the book of love? Well there’s a bunch of them

Everybody, including the neighbor, has an opinion on how to find a balance between office and home, career and family, money and kids, love and sex, but there’s a big difference between talking about it and doing it. And in case you haven’t heard enough, there are a few books you might want to check out. They cover – or is it uncover? – a lot:

  • Balancing work, career and home life
  • Breaking through the glass ceiling
  • The dollars and cents of love and sex
  • The rise of women and the end of men?

Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In suggests women can have it all – or almost, if you just lean into it.

Love your work and lean into it

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has a  new book and it’s already a bestseller on Amazon. With Lean In Sandberg brings considerable enthusiasm and energy to the issue of women and work and she certainly views the “glass ceiling” as a glass half full, not half empty. But she says, “We [women] are stalled” and we have to use more of the “talent and power we have” to push the boundaries. Easily said by someone already on top of the glass ceiling. The book is a good conversational read but Sandberg isn’t talking to everyone, it’s not geared to the vast majority of working women – working class women who don’t have an Ivy League degree, nanny and dog walker. It does, in part, talk to all women in terms of pushing themselves more, being more aggressive and speaking their mind. So on that count, it’s a needed message but it’s also only half the story. If men, who fill over 80% of the executive positions, don’t get it and see the value of female leadership, then it will be almost another century (i.e., women’s suffrage in 1920) before women achieve the equality our society needs. Read the book! And lean into the conversation and push for women on top. Men too, you might enjoy it (see other books below).

Every guy needs to read this before the glass ceiling is shattered bu the women

Which side of the glass ceiling are you on?

Here’s a book with a provocative title and a provocative tale, plus plenty of research based facts and potential harbingers of times to come. Who will be on top in the end? If you pay attention to trends then the trend is up for women and down for men, even though some like Sheryl Sandberg (see above) thinks “women are stuck.” Hanna Rosin posits in The End of Men that women have changed their role significantly while men have drifted in the same role too long. She suggests they might want to redefine themselves in everything from “Mr. Mom” to the “hook up” scene and how women now see casual sex. It’s about the numbers, the emotions and the reality. Men have to change in what is moving, regardless of how slowly, to a matriarchal society. And it’s about a helluva lot more than trying to be a good father. Read the book! And ladies, you might want to read it on a Kindle, like you did Fifty Shades of Gray (see earlier blog) because this one might scare off the men, which might be a good thing in a bar but not the office.

It ain’t cheap and yet, we are all buying – over and over again.

Sex and love for a price–can you afford it?

Someone once said, the numbers don’t lie. And they don’t. So don’t read this book unless you “can handle the truth.” Dr. Marina Adshade says in her book, Dollars and Sex that love and sex is better understood when you know what it costs. Yikes! Talk about taking the romance out of romance. The “promiscuity math” suggests that there are economic consequences to dating, romance, sex, marriage and, of course, divorce. But all those that come before divorce may well have something to do with the big cost of divorce. In fact, they may be bigger. There’s a four minute video chat about the book on CTV , if you want more on the math. Here are three basic costs Adshade writes about – and there’s more:

  • Romance and dating: about $6,000
  • One year engagement: about $3,500 for a ring (or you could go to a pawn shop)
  • The wedding: about $26,000 (or perhaps paper plates would do?)

So grab a calculator and read the book. Or don’t, and enjoy the uninhibited – but costly – joy of love and sex (there’s a revised version of that book too).

Here’s one

One for the guys’ guy

If you’re going to read The End of Men then you should also read Michael Kimmel’s book, Guyland: the Perilous World Where Boys become Men. He says, the end of men is premature rhetoric and it is inaccurate to cast men as antediluvian dinosaurs, unwilling or unable to adapt, slouching towards extinction.” But he paints a worrisome picture of men between the age of 16-25 – from being binge drinkers to being intimidated by women. This is the next generation of male leaders and there are some “dangerous” signs that they are not preparing well to compete with the women. These guys may be looking up at their own glass ceiling and as Kimmel says they are more accepting, and perhaps glad, to have the women in charge. But do we have to wait for two generations of the “old graying dinosaurs” ahead of them – who are ensconced in leadership positions (corporation, governments, schools) – to die off before women get to lead and men are comfortable with it? Sounds more like evolution than social progress.

A stay-at-home dad is a full time job. (photo: sleepersister.com)

In a Globe and Mail article by Erin Anderssen, a 2012 study stated that of more than 24,000 Canadians asked about work-balance and care-giving, over half the families had women as either primary or equal earners. A third said the man had primary responsibility for child care. Looks like guyland is transforming into homeland and gal-land might create a better-for-all land. Anderssen also references Stephanie Coontz, research director at Evergreen State College in Washington State. She says this can mean, “men are released from the burden of doing all the providing. They are no longer denied the satisfaction of being involved parents and partners at home. Both men and women are free to be more well-rounded human beings.” Her latest book is A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s.

 

So many books, so little time.

Even if you don’t read these books all at once, buy them as handy reference material and required information if you want to be part of the conversation that shapes the decades ahead and lays the foundation for better relationships for our sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. As Martha Stewart, one of the women on top, might say, “And that’s a good thing.”

Here’s the five minute interview with Michael Kimmel on the 16-25 guys:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Will the new Pope really make much of a difference?

Posted on March 12, 2013 by david

For centuries the Popes have been issuing Papal bull (see definition below), (photo: Lapham’s Quarterly)

When they blew white smoke up the Vatican chimney were they really just blowing smoke up our …?  And is it just more bull?

Webster’s dictionary: Papal Bull (noun) – a formal proclamation issued by the pope (usually written in antiquated characters and sealed with a leaden bulla).

White smoke rises to the heavens over Vatican City to announce a new Pope while the Church lives under a dark black cloud of sin, heresy and hypocrisy – that no Pope has changed for many, many centuries. (photo: cfurlong/getty)

After centuries, the question is: will this change of Popes in 2013 change the Catholic Church much? Will it free the Church from centuries of dogma, sin and heresy? In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII (it takes some audacity to use a sobriquet like “Innocent”) issued a bull (bulla) proclaiming the Church’s misguided, scorched-earth doctrine to attack innocent people in an effort to purge the faithful of heretics and sinners. Here’s an excerpt from a long diatribe (courtesy Lapham Quarterly) capturing a snippet of Church hypocrisy and lunacy:

” … many persons of both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the Catholic faith, give themselves over to devils … moreover, they deny with sacrilegious lips the faith … at the risk of their own souls, to the insult of the divine majesty and to the pernicious example and scandal of multitude.”

Hang’em, burn’em … all the sinners are devils and must die in Hell – except, of course, for our beloved priest who love all god’s children, some more than others. (photo: gamepark.cz)

Torture the sinners

And then the Church sent out its great inquisitors to capture, torture and burn the sinners, all the while sinning themselves at the most hideous level – sexually abusing  children. And 600 years later, they are still doing it – not the blatant torture, the sexual abuse, which is a life of torture for the innocent victims. And they’re still covering it up – as did retiring Pope Benedict XVI when he was just a lowly Cardinal in Germany. And the last two Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, spanning thirty-four years of leadership, first claimed the scandal was made up by lawyers and media (the oldest, lamest political dodge), and then when this pontifical mirage was blown away they reverted to the old tried and true, “it’s Satan’s work.”

Can Pope Francis begin to change what has not changed in 2000 years? (photo: faz.net)

Change comes from within

Catholics worldwide are celebrating the election, on March 13th, 2013, of Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina. Many herald it as a sign of change and point to his previous life of humble simplicity (that has changed in a puff of smoke) and his tireless advocating for the poor. That’s a good thing, but lest we forget, he is a “conservative,” not a “progressive” Catholic. Does that mean he will lead great works for the poor but stick to archaic dogma that ignores women’s issues (i.e., abortion, birth control, female priests, etc.) and continue the Church’s religious blindness to cancerous sexual abuse still rampant throughout the Church?

Why do Catholics – over a billion good men and women worldwide – put up with the hypocrisy, denial and criminality in their Church? How can they continue allowing the pomp and ceremony and garments and ritual to hide the obvious and the hideous? Why do they revere the spectacle and ignore the reality. For example, Pope Benedict (now ex-Pope) wrote the most outrageous, inane, lame letter to all Catholics as part of his recommendations after an internal “investigation” of the abuse scandals (see five minute video below). Benedict, in a letter circulated to all priests and read to his worldwide flock, said that the remedy was for everyone to:

” … Pray, give Friday penance, fast, do works of mercy and read the scriptures.”

Benoit XVI is certainly not Pope Innocent. The real question is: Is he an “accessory after the fact” to sin, thus, as guilty as the perpetrators of these crimes against youthful humanity? (photo: saint-jo.net)

That’s it?

That’s not leadership, it’s denial. It’s the perpetuation of centuries of criminality. No amount of faith, prayer and pageantry will exorcise such hypocrisy, only true leadership will.

As Abby Ohlheiser reported in Slate, while Benedict rides his golden parachute into a glorious retirement home with a pension, servants, food and whatever else the congregation humbly blesses upon him, the used and abused are to pray, fast (millions already go hungry) and read scripture. It hasn’t worked for centuries so why do the congregations of the world think it will this time?

The one thing we have learned between 1484 and 2013 is that it is human nature (not right, but natural) to do what the sinners among the flock have done, and continue to do. Sexual need is part of being human and no amount of hopeful prayer or damning scripture will ever change that. So why can’t a man who climbs to the pinnacle of leadership in a two-thousand year old, global organization figure out what to do? Or can he, but chooses not to? And why not?

Continue reading →

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Rebuilding Playboy – and the fake bunnies too!

Posted on February 27, 2013 by david

Where are they now? All those fake breasts, fake smiles, fake fake, fake … gone in the name of money, non-silicone breasts and digital everything – well almost everything. (photo: x-elle-x)

Less sex, more profits – and no fake breasts. It’s much more about anthropology than marketing and finance

Hugh still has lots of toys and Barbie dolls to play with in his sandbox. And his son is looking forward to a future filled with more of the same – except there will be less silicone. (photo: karin85)

There’s a new playboy in town and eighty-six year old Hugh Hefner, along with his wives, harem and mansion, have been moved out to pasture – well almost. He and his son are still playing in the sandbox Hugh turned into a sex empire, but change is in the wind and it’s blowing through the house that Hugh built.

When the Wall Street Journal is covering Playboy you know it’s got more to do with money than sex. And yet, the sixty year legacy of Playboy has been built on the most basic human principle: Give them sex and they will beat a path to your door (with money).  But now, a new CEO, 55 year old Scott Flanders and private equity investors are in charge of the sandbox and they think less sex will bring in more money. Time and the human condition will tell.

Content may be different but brand image looking a lot like always – and that’s probably good thing if you know anything about using sex to sell anything. (photo: zinio)

A recent Wall Street Journal article and video with Keach Hagey and a lengthy interview with Hugh Hefner (see  below) reveal much about the new digital bunnies – coming soon to a newsstand, desktop, iPad and iPhone near you. And they’ve done a redesign and uplift to the magazine. Jimmy Jellinek, the editorial director of Playboy, commented on the March issue. “There is not a single fake breast in this issue.” Now that’s thinking smaller. Maybe they’re tapping into the trend toward natural and organic products, health and fitness (like Oxygen and Clean Eating magazines), and the niche market for millennials who have grown up with free porn online. According to the Wall Street Journal article, Flanders has brought in a sexual anthropologist “to help it make the new Playboy content appeal to a generation that grew up with the free pornography.” Smart move because in the end anthropology, not marketing and finance will determine the outcome. The smart money always bets on anthropology.

Wall Street Journal provided this financial snapshot of a slimmer, trimmer, non-silicone induced Playboy. (graph: WSJ)

Flanders may or may not be right on what the WSJ called a “less smut, more money” strategy, but he and the private equity firm Rizvi Traverse are betting on it. However, Standard and Poors aren’t so sure and they recently warned that they may downgrade Playboy’s credit rating, saying, the company “has performed below our expectations.” And as we all know, sex that performs below expectations has no chance of lasting. Maybe Rizvi Traverse, should take a position in Viagra in order to cover its bet on Playboy – just suggesting.

Here’s a WSJ interview video (4 minutes) on the business side of Playboy – the money not the sex. For more on the sex, history, Hugh and soon-to-be movie, see the second video below – if you have the inclination or time, it’s 18 minutes.

Here’s a little insight into the storied beginnings of Playboy, almost sixty years ago. Founder Hugh Hefner opens up to Wall Street Journal “Business of Celebrity” host Lee Hawkins in an exclusive interview about the future of Playboy, his succession plans, his sons Cooper and Marston, and a forthcoming movie being made about his life.

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Democracy … hypocrisy – does anyone give a shit?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by david

We all love cuts, just as long as it isn’t our head. (photo: gztv.com)

 Cut the deficit! As long as it’s nothing to do with what we want

A new Pew Research poll reveals the truth and depth of Americans’ hypocrisy – no different than anywhere else in the world. The American people in a recent poll opposed almost every possible spending cut except one. Guess which one. Hint: It had nothing to do with their own well-being. It was “Aid to the world’s needy.”

Of course, everybody wants to have their cake and eat it too. It’s human nature. (photo: indulgy.com)

70% of Americans say it is essential reduce the deficit but they actually oppose cutting almost any specific program. Of course, it’s natural for people to want their cake and eat it too, that’s why we stand by and watch the politicians have a political food fight with our cake and do nothing. And that’s why they don’t do anything – except spend more. It’s called, “buying the vote” and keeping our sorry asses somewhat happy and their sorry asses in office. It’s also called, “no balls.”

In another Pew/USA Today poll, 76% agree with President Obama that the deficit should be reduced through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Only 19% agree with the GOP that tax increases should be off the table. Whatever happened to the will of the people? The reality is that it’s lost in the Grand Canyon between democracy and hypocrisy!

I’m OK Jack

The “I’m okay Jack, NIMBY” (not in my back yard) maxim applies to the hypocrisy of cut the deficit but not with my money. Or the old adage, “I’m all for change; you go first.” In the survey, a majority of Americans oppose budget cuts to 18 of the 19 government programs.

The Pew report in short

Freidrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). He had it right. The human species cannot be fixed … unless we have the “will to power” to do it. And that has not been evident across our history.

Aid to the world’s needy is the only program for which a plurality of Americans support decreased spending, and even in that case the total respondents who believe that the aid budget should be increased or kept the same outnumber those who believe it should be reduced. One of the problem is that this segment of the budget only accounts for about 1% of the total budget. The truth is, the politicians are not following the will of the people, they’re feeding the wants of the people, giving them what they want not what they need. Basically, it’s no different than bad – weak – parenting. Leadership (there’s a misnomer) is simply perpetuating a spoiled, over-indulgent, obese, addicted bunch of children (citizens) and as Nietzsche said over a hundred years ago, the human condition is one of “eternal recurrence.” And from Nietzsche’s perspective, it’s obvious that we do not have the “will to power” to get ourselves out of the current mess.

Bye Bye Ms. American Pie …

The pie is shrinking, there’s not enough to go around. Not good for the deficit but good for obesity.

With the great American pie shrinking and the “sequestered” cuts looming, the Republican strategy is to slam President Obama for threatening jobs because “we cannot make even the tiniest cuts.” The GOP has refused to explain how and what they would cut, instead they’re demanding the president propose cuts – all not wanted.  House Speaker John Boehner asked in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: “Mr. President … What spending are you willing to cut?” Boehner reads the polls. He knows that although Americans agree with the idea of cutting the budget it is much too dangerous, politically, to suggest specifics in case you step on the self-centered, whiny citizens’ piece of the American pie. So the politicians just perpetuate the food fight while we all sit in the the great American cafeteria fighting for our piece of what’s left of the pie with no intention of not charging it on the great American credit card.

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Read this article – it will make you sick!

Posted on February 24, 2013 by david

But it’s also good for your health and maybe your pocketbook

TIME, February Issue

This article in the March issue of Time is a MUST read for anyone who wants to know and understand the inside truth about the costs of US healthcare. “We the people” are being screwed by the hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and support services. We knew it (kind of) but Steven Brill lays it out in a thoroughly investigated, well reported, long (24,000 words) expose.  Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us digs deeply into the outrageous pricing and egregious profits that are destroying the American healthcare system. And Canadians, you might want to make a copy and take a look at your own bloated, obese, on-life-support healthcare system. Because it is a lot further from “free” than you think it is.

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Who is Oscar – pimp, slut, celebrity or mother nature?

Posted on February 20, 2013 by david

Are Oscar and Sundance emblematic of voyeuristic “safe sex” or a Cialis moment (hours) that taps into our natural needs? (photo: photoblog.nbcnews.com)

An exchange of money for sex is, by law, prostitution

Golden girls, golden men – there’s gold in them there hills.

Let’s be clear, the amount of money and sex exchanged in Hollywood, Utah, New York and Cannes is not only excessive, it could be categorized as obscene. But we shouldn’t misunderstand the nature of these things. Most of us enjoy a good number of movies, a good amount of sex and a good amount of money, but the proliferation of sex in the Oscar-Sundance winning movies is, well … naturally excessive. It’s as if everybody on the red carpet is acting in the red light district. But it’s what we want – most of us. And there’s a lot of money changing hands. But before we plop down on the couch to watch this week’s parade of Hollywood sex and self-aggrandizement, there’s something some of us should know.

For guys and mother-wannabes

Turn off the damn TV, get up and get going … (fotosearch.com)

One thing guys and mother-wannabes might want to consider before sitting down to binge on the Oscar-Sundance sex movies is a recently published study by the Harvard School of Public Health. It just might get you up off the couch and cut back on the time you spend watching too many sex movies. According to the study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, sitting too much in front of the TV can lower a man’s sperm count. In the study, those who watched the most TV (over 20 hours/week) had a 44% lower sperm count than those who watched none. So unless you’re looking for a unique form of birth control, you might want to skip the Oscars, get up off the couch and go for a walk – maybe to the drugstore for some Viagra. Or if you’re done with baby manufacturing then skip the vasectomy, grab the remote and start some binge viewing.

Back to the red light district

This little manhood dingy (282 ft. and $200 million) is purported to be Steven Spielberg’s pimp mobile. Who says size doesn’t matter? (photo: forbes.com)

We know sex sells. But it used to be that blatant sex in a movie did not always mean it was a “hit.” Except on the back lots of “Pornville Studios.” But is seems as if Hollywood is becoming Pornville – highly popular and  highly propagated? Obviously, Helen Hunt in Oscar-nominated Sessions is bucking – and a word that rhymes with that – the old traditon. And if recent Sundance movie offerings are any indication then we can expect there’s more to come. As Josh Braun, president of Submarine Entertainment said,

The money changers are in the temple and it’s not the temple of doom, it’s the temple of gold and sex. (photo:jshearer/invision/AP)

“Perhaps all the distribution execs are sexually frustrated.” He didn’t mention, by name, the big pimps at the top of the food chain (a.k.a. Spielberg, Weinstein, Katzensberg, et al) but they’re like the moneychangers in the temple and there’s a lot of gold in that there temple. But maybe, as home-cooking TV star Martha (who makes a pile of gold without the sex) might say, “It’s a good thing.”

And why not?

Nothing new here!

This sex thing has been with us forever. If you include uncle ape, it’s been a few million years. Perhaps it’s time to get it out in the open, let it all hang out. Tear off the veil of prudence – to hell with the prudes (Rick Santorum comes to mind) – rip away the veneer of religious hypocrisy and see, sell and enjoy sex for what it is: Something men and women do; something common to almost seven billion men and women. It’s normal. More accurately, it’s us, in all our humanity. So why not have “full monties” across the big screen and every screen? Celebrate it. What’s wrong with having a whole bunch of self-aggrandizing, insecure, egomaniac celebrities show it, flaunt it, do it and celebrate it – in front of us? As we vicariously bask in their pleasure. It’s fictional sex. The crime is not the sex, it’s the indecent amount of money exchanged for it in the temple of Hollywood. Of course, every pimp needs to make his cut, but geez, when the pimps make a gazillion dollars each, the onstage harem almost as much, and the “johns” (us) get nothing but momentary pleasure, then something doesn’t feel right. Are they worth our groupie adulation, gushy glorification, orgasmic adoration, addicted idolatry and all the false veneration by Oscar, Sundance, The View, People and Entertainment Tonight? They’re just fecken’ actors. Some beautiful, some handsome (born that way), some with talent – a lot without – and all with a big cut of the pimps’ trunk full of money. How do they make all those billions? Aaah, the secret ingredient: sex. And the appeal to our primal needs.

Lincoln, and his stand-in, Daniel Day Lewis are the only ones deserving of an Oscar (photo: IMDb)

Granted, it’s not all about sex, there are some good stories that don’t need the sex crutch but it seems as if Hollywood is leaning more and more to the sex crutch – even two crutches and a cane. Is it because there’s a dearth of good stories and good story tellers? Lincoln, by Spielberg is a great story and average storytelling. Except for Daniel Day Lewis, the story telling by Spielberg – in his usual plodding, watch-this-great-directorial-shot, style – is certainly not worthy of  an Oscar. Sex would not have saved this one and, of course, it would have tainted forever a tourist’s visit to the Lincoln bedroom in the White House. A great movie with great performances and no sex is Les Miserables, but, unfortunately, it’s the exception to what seems to be the new rule in Hollywood: Money reigns, sex rules.

Here’s a sampling of some sex coming soon to a theater near you:

Lovelace – she’s back! (mojim.com)

  • Lovelace: About Linda Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace (a.k.a. “Deep Throat”). Are they so desperate that they have to recreate and rerun the same old sex?
  • Don Jon’s Addiction: About an Internet porn-obsessed  man. Relativity films bought it for $4 million.
  • The Look of Love: A feature film about a British porn king Paul Raymond. 
  • Concussion: About a lesbian housewife-turned-prostitute.
  • Pussy Riot: About the imprisoned Russian punk group arrested for performing in an Orthodox cathedral in Moscow. In the film, one devout man says that the group’s name translates into “deranged vaginas.”
  • Sessions: Helen Hunt, Oscar winner in As Good As It Gets (not a great performance) is nominated again. She does perform better – in all her nakedness – in this one.

What’s good for your sex life?

Turn the TV off, and turn your sex life on! (photo: flickr)

You have options. Sit for hours watching the self-aggrandizing Oscar parade and put your sperm at risk or go for a long walk. Or, based on another survey, this one by the US Travel Association, take a trip. They found that couples that travel together have better relationships and better sex – duh! Nearly two-thirds of couples said that a weekend getaway is more likely to spark romance than a gift so imagine how bad just sittin’ and watchin’ TV is, even if it is fictional sex. 77% of those who travel together say they have a good sex life compared to 63% who don’t travel together and 28% say their sex life improved after travel (together) with 40% saying the improvement was permanent. So dump the TV remote, cut back on the number of movies you watch and start traveling. Go anywhere you can. Around the block (twice), across the country or a weekend in the country – but no TV watching. Remember those vulnerable “swim-buddies” that you are dependent on, just like uncle ape is.

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Did you know that wrinkles are a sign of class, elegance, security, humility and intelligence

Posted on February 20, 2013 by david

Maggie and the dowager know a thing or two about aging, wrinkles and true class. (photo: rollingstone.com)

And the opposite is true of nips, snips, tucks and botox

Helen after – faux beauty that is as shiny and cheap as bling and as obvious and undesirable as her insecurity and desperation. (photo: factsnews.mn)

Helen before the botox – the real person – secure, confident, charming, beautiful and aging with grace. Happy to be who she is rather than who she is not. And yet, she trades that for the plastic demanded by the pimps of  Hollywood. (photo: scrapetv.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so many more sad insecure beauties (used-to-”bes” still wanting to be)

Mary – Lou and Murray won’t recognize you and only superficial Ted would approve (photo: sgrantiz)

Oh Joan, save your daughter from the same fate, let her grow old gracefully.

Dolly, your forehead, lips and dimples are so botoxed up they’re bigger than your …

 

Maggie Smith – now there’s class, elegance, beauty, humility and intelligence

Maggie Smith at 78 – beauty, class, humility, elegance, intelligence.

Maggie Smith is a great actor. And nary a fake bone in her body. In a recent 60 Minutes interview (see clip below), she exhibits what is conspicuous by its absence in most actors: humility, candor, intelligence, a secure grip on reality and her own, naturally beautiful face and wrinkles. Maybe there’s a correlation between intelligence, humility and natural, just as there’s a correlation between insecurity, ego and botox (i.e.,  Mary Tyler Moore,  Joan Rivers, Dolly Parton, et al).

Watch just a portion of the 60 Minutes video to see the natural beauty of a woman.

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Guns in America – past the point of no return?

Posted on February 19, 2013 by david

Keep it up and we won’t need Medicare or Social Security

As gun ownership increases the average life span decreases.

Did you know?

  • On average in the US, over 30 people are killed by guns everyday.
  • Since Newtown, more than 1990 people have been killed by guns.
  • In the USA, the number of murders by guns per year is between 11,000-12,000. That’s 20 times higher than any other western “civilized” nation.
  • In Canada the number of murders rose to 598 in 2011, 44 more than 2010, the first increase in three years.
  • In Britain, the number of murders was 640 in 2011 – and only 44 by guns.

  • This represents the absurdity of the NRA’s rationale. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and more pathetic than prophetic.

  • Since RFK and MLK were murder more than 1.2 million Americans have died from firearms. Almost double all the American deaths in all US wars since the nation was founded. That certainly raises a question about the wisdom of the Second Amendment.
  • In US Congress, 119 Republicans and 46 Democrats own guns. In the Senate: 26 Republicans; 16 Democrats. In the House: 93 Republicans; 30 Democrats. (source: USA Today, Feb. 5, 2013). Good luck on increasing gun controls.
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