Pro-lifer Scott DesJarlais Attempts to Force Mistress to have Abortion
The pro-life front is caught up in yet another case of hypocrisy. This one involves Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais, a representative from Tennessee. His transgression is that some tapes were released detailing a conversation that DesJarlais had with his mistress (at the time), trying to convince her to abort their unborn child.
As I’ve been speaking of in my previous posts, the idea of making abortion illegal applies only to the poor, as the rich can get one done whenever they’d like. DesJarlais has proven that he ascribes to that policy by fighting abortion in the state of Tennessee but using the procedure at a time when he felt it affected him. Even if abortion were completely illegal, I doubt his decision to pursue one would have turned out any different.
But now he’s been caught with his pants down, hypocrisy exposed for all the world to see. What does he have to say about the matter? Nothing at all. His PR people tried to dismiss it as “old news” and also attempted to spin it so that the question was avoided and an issue of campaign slander replaced it. DesJarlais’s contempt for the voters is obvious. He feels that they do not need or deserve an explanation for his actions, regardless of the fact that everything he stands for has come into question.
Hopefully, people will see through his smokescreen efforts and realize that the man they voted into office is far from the person he really is. Just who is that person? A hypocrite who will say whatever he needs to in order to get votes while living his life in whatever manner suits him at the time. As long as people swallow his lies and he retains a seat in Congress, DesJarlais will continue to preach whatever people want to hear, regardless of how he really feels about the matters at hand.
Reading Pile: 10/13/12 Pt 2
Uncanny Avengers #1-Well, despite how much I don’t care for how they got to this point, the actual issue wasn't bad. Visually it’s great because hey, John Cassaday is an amazing artist. Scripting and plotting are tight because hey, Rick Remender is a good storyteller. Plus, I am 100% behind the idea of switching up the villains of the Marvel Universe. Red Skull vs Mutants? That is actually interesting and kinda logical. Overall, a decent start despite the $3.99 price tag for only twenty-two pages of story. B+
Nation Comics: Rose & Thorn One Shot-This wasn’t too bad of a modern re-imagining, although it didn’t really bring anything new to the table either. It’s sort of a nice touch to have the different personalities of Rose & Thorn communicate via Facebook, and there are little bits of deranged humor like that spread throughout. I really like Neil Googe’s artwork, so overall it is an enjoyable issue to read and look at and they actually gave you thirty-two pages of story for the $3.99 price point. B
Evil Ernie #1- I’ve certainly read worse comics. At first I thought it was strange how they were setting up a new background for Evil Ernie without the connection to Lady Death, then my brain finally caught up to me a realized that can only be a good thing. As far as the script and plot go, it’s actually not a badly put together story. I’m not entirely sure how much I care about the story, but it’s not badly told. The art is very lackluster and a bit ugly in many places. Not the good type of ugly either that you want for a horror comic, but just odd anatomy and weird faces. It also tries to depict the demonic version of Ernie too realistically, which is a mistake considering any depiction of him is cartoonish and that’s probably the only thing that makes him work. Compare all the variant covers (yes, this is Dynamite after all) to the interiors and I think you’ll get what I’m saying. Despite all that, Jason Craig actually has some decent layouts. He can competently frame a sequential narrative, and can probably really develop if he tightened everything up a bit and worked on his figures. Overall, I’m sure if you’re an Evil Ernie fan it’s probably a decent read, but to the casual reader I think it’s probably of generic schlock. On top of that, $3.99 for twenty-for pages isn’t great. Better than a chunk of Marvel, but still not great. C+
Violence Hits the Gay Community in Russia
The struggle to promote gay rights in Russia is not an easy one. Even though Russia is progressing in their social programs, a heavily religious population and some throw-back draconian laws prevent the movement from receiving even the limited rights that the LGBT community in American enjoys. The churches scream loudly to make all things homosexual illegal and the government passes laws to hedge in activity by the community as a whole. And though gay rights activists make attempts to fight, sometimes the backlash can be quite tragic, as was the case this last week.
During a “coming out” party at a Russian gay-friendly club, about two-dozen nationalists wearing masks stormed in and caused violence. They beat up many of the patrons, most of which were women, using both their fists and bottles. The attack resulted in multiple injuries, though thankfully only four people were forced to go to the hospital and none were killed.
Finding and prosecuting these people will prove to be more complicated than it would seem, despite the fact that they were caught on camera before they put their masks on. The fact that there are no laws pertaining to hate crimes in Russia and a police force that is less inclined to care what happens to the LGBT community makes it an uphill struggle.
This is not the first violent attack against gays in the country. There have been seven so far this year, and those are just the ones that have been reported. The violence comes from nationalist elements, police officers and religious factions, so the LGBT community finds itself under assault on all fronts.
The future of the movement is not in question - Russia will see a blossoming of gay rights just as America has and just as the world will see some day. The question is - how long will it take for real change to be made? Only by banding together can the various LGBT communities across the world support each other during these times of need and let each other know that there will indeed be change.
Terry Jones - Enemy of the World
Most people around the world know by now who Pastor Terry Jones is. He’s put himself into so many headlines for his radical and violent anti-Islamic views that it’s hard to look on your Google-news without seeing a report about some new idiocy he’s committed. Every day it seems like he’s trying to start a religious war and very few people like him for what he’s done so far. He’s burned Korans in front of his church, openly supported the “Innocence of Muslims” video that’s caused riots and deaths and even managed to get himself banned from the UK and Germany because of his violent, right-wing political views. Now Canada is looking to add themselves to the list of Jones-haters by barring him from entering their country.
His plan was to attend a religious debate called Freedom Showdown. He was going there to talk about how Islam doesn’t work within a Western society. But the border officials shut him down and said no entry. The reasons they gave were half-hearted at best, citing some infractions of law that Jones has since cleared up, but the motivations behind the banning were quite obviously the concern over Jones’s beliefs and how they might affect public safety.
Unfortunately, the pretense used to disallow him into Canada was pretty flimsy and has given Jones more ammunition to use in his war of words. He is now screaming about free speech and trying to rally more brainless idiots behind him and his twisted cause.
Things might be much easier if there was some way to simply ban him from every country that doesn’t want such a hate promoter within their borders. This would go against the tenants of free speech, but perhaps we could come up with some other reason for kicking him out, such as the fact that he’s a raging asshole? People like Jones do nothing to help bring people together peacefully and his indirect responsibility for many deaths is proof of that. Hopefully a piano will fall on his head soon and we won’t ever have to hear from him again.
College cross country starts to heat up
Though there has been some great pre-season action, this past weekend saw the kick-off of the cross country season for the NCAA Division I. There was a plethora of races all around the country, and some smoking fast times were hit. Below are recaps of the Adidas Wisconsin Invitational and the Pre-National Invitational.
Adidas Wisconsin Invitation
This was the race to be at for a preview of some of the best teams in the country. Defending champs Wisconsin hosted the meet, and used it as a litmus test to see whether or not they would activate their top two runners for the cross season.
After all was said and done, though, the Badgers ended up having a rough day, placing 17th, while the Stanford men won in decisive fashion. Iona and Oklahoma came 2nd and 3rd.
Arizona runners Lawi Lalang (defeding NCAA Champ) and Stephen Sambu put on a clinic for how to dominate a race, coming 1-2 in times of 23:03 and 23:07. Matt Gelispe of Iona was 3rd in 23:25
On the women’s side, Iona decimated the 6k field with 109 points. Stanford came second with 181, and Arizona placed third with 242.
The individual race came down to a shoot out between Laura Hollander of Cal Poly and Betsy Saina of Iowa State. Hollander, a freshman, won in 19:33, with Saina taking 2nd in 19:35, and Amber Henry of Weber State coming in 3rd in 19:43.
Pre-National Invitational:
Though Pre-Nationals boasted a small glimpse of the brand new cross country national course (the past few years has been in Indiana), the amount of ranked teams competing was surpassed by the Wisconsin meet. Regardless, both the men and women’s seeded races (the RED race) offered some great action for distance fans.
The men’s race was INCREDIBLY fast, with Anthony Rotich of UTEP winning in a time of 23:01. He won by thirteen seconds, with Paul Chelimo of UNC-Greensboro coming second and Terefe Ejigu of Eastern Michigan in third.
The University of Colorado men pulled out the team win with 72 points, besting BYU who scored 127. Oregon rounded out the podium with 152 points.
On the women’s side, Aliphin Tuliamuk-Bolton of Wichita State battled it out with Risper Kimaiyo of UTEP, winning by three seconds in a time of 19:43 for 6k. Alexi Pappas of Oregon came in third.
The Florida State women won with 72 points, with Oregon coming second with 87 and the Michigan women coming third with 141.
Links for October 13, 2012
Confucianism helped create a nation of overly trusting and obedient citizens in Japan. japantimes.co.jp
Fukushima tobacco is contaminated with radiation. abc.net.au
A government study estimates 225,000 cases of cancer will result from the Fukushima disaster. enenews.com
An Idaho nuclear lab is fined after workers are exposed to radiation. foxnews.com
Links for Cotober 12, 2012
Decontamination of one percent of areas around Fukushima produced 260,000 bags of radioactive soil. fukushima-diary.com
Columnist Bob Nichols charges that there are no serious efforts to contain the radiation from Fukushima disaster. veteranstoday.com
TEPCO says that Fukushima crisis was avoidable. online.wsj.com
The Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation of India is considering a new technology that uses radiation from radioactive materials to irradiate sludge from water treatment plants. timesofindia.indiatimes.com
YouTube Nation - Geeking Out
There is a whole new culture growing from seeds planted decades ago, a culture that places geeks at the top (or at least near the top) of the social hierarchy. Growing up in the 80s, when most of my pastimes were reason enough for the kids at school to beat me up, it’s came as quite a shock to watch it all develop and unfold. Super hero movies are the top earners, comic books aren’t seen as being just for kids, jocks are playing football in the park while wearing their Batman and Green Lantern t-shirts… it’s like the whole world has been shifted into an alternate reality!
Most people have jumped on the bandwagon fairly recently and often they consider themselves a “geeky” or “nerdy” person just because they enjoy watching Doctor Who, think that The Avengers was one of the best movies ever or happen to own a copy of Halo or some other mainstream game. The truth of the matter, however, is that there’s a whole subculture that still exists, one composed of the hard-core nerds that have been inducted into this sacred cult since birth. And by searching the YouTube you can often find the pieces of this lost civilization peeking up through the contemporary crowds of imitators and late-comers. Do I sound like an elitist? Damn straight I do. I’ve been reading comics for more than 30 years, you filthy poseurs! Worship at my geek-lord feet, for I have earned my crown through years of struggle!
Okay, so I digress due to the needs of my own inflated ego. Back on track now…
The point I was trying to make is that the people who truly deserve to be hailed as the geek- and nerd-lords of the world are those that go out of their way to attend conventions across the world and, perhaps most specifically, those that spend days, weeks and even months designing the perfect costumes and then dressing up in them to transform the cons into other worlds.
Here are some videos that pay tribute to the many cosplayers in this world, set to nifty music and everything.
The first is from a user called sneakyzebra and it is one of the best videos I could find. He cruises the cons, picks up footage and puts it together in an amazing montage of images and action. No professional models here folks, just cosplayers having fun and willing to be filmed doing it.
Next is a bit more professional of a shoot with some not-so-great music added. Still, this is a good example of the wonders that can come about when people put in serious time to develop their clothing, props and make-up. In truth, these are some of the most beautiful costumes I have ever seen.
And the final one is a nod to the serious production values that geek-stars can bring about with their money and fame. It’s the cast of The Guild (if you haven’t heard of the show, please turn in your geek-membership card right now) and their breakthrough video “Do You Want to Date My Avatar”. It’s a tribute to MMO gamers everywhere, as is their web show, and helped to make people all across the world feel more comfortable about dressing up in skintight and revealing clothing. God bless them, every one.
Hope you enjoyed the brief videos and wish I had more time to load this page with more of the best of them. But it’s easy enough to find more on YouTube, each one featuring its own theme and set of cosplayers, from super heroes to games to movie icons and more. I suggest following some of those links back to YouTube and looking at the suggestions. You never know what you may stumble across in your quest for more cleavage and booty shaking.
The Craigslist Files #169 - The Best Craigslist Ad Ever
Everyone has a secret fantasy, some dream (usually involving naked members of the opposite sex) that they have little hope of ever achieving unless they manage to strike it rich and can afford to pay for it. For some of us, the dream is simple and quite possibly affordable. When you have one of those dreams, it might even be an option to advertise on Craigslist to help get your kinky little fantasy fulfilled. One group of individuals sought to do just that, by seeking out a special lady to make their friend’s bachelor party the most memorable one in history. What did these people want, you ask? Why, a game of D&D with a topless Dungeonmaster - what else?
This ad actually became so popular that it’s been making the rounds through various news sources - reputable news sources. It has since become rather widespread and, honestly, if you’re reading this and haven’t heard of this great request yet, I’m quite surprised. But it makes perfect sense to me. After all, if there’s one thing that geeks love more than D&D, it’s naked boobies. Well, maybe the D&D goes first on that list…
For those that haven’t seen this ad yet, I am bringing it to you now. Being that I’m a long-time D&D geek and Dungeonmaster (of the non-topless variety) myself, this bachelor party request holds a special place in my geeky little heart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Woman DM needed for D&D based Adult Bachelor Party
Description:
Looking for a woman with Dungeon Master experience in Dungeons and Dragons (specifically 3.0 or 3.5 editions) to run a game. The event is for a Bachelor Party and the "future husband to be" would prefer if the DM could be topless. With that said, I ensure you that nothing else is expect of you other than an exciting adventure.
Requirements:
Dungeon Master experience in Dungeons and Dragons (preferably in 3rd or 3.5 Editions)
Must be able to provide a picture including the face and body (No nudes please.)
It is preferable that cup size be at least C or greater.
If books are needed it must be stated ahead of time however it would be preferable if the DM had her own.
Clientele:
There will be 5 "guys" that will be participation including myself. We are at all above the age of 24. Each of us are gentlemen and will treat the Dungeon Master with the utmost of respect.
Compensation:
I honestly don't know how to charge for this kind of service because it's not something typically done so the compensation will be negotiated. It's expected that the session last no less than 30 minutes.
Date:
A day prior to October 11th (The Day of the Wedding) would be ideal.
Location:
The location will be negotiated but priority will be give to the preference of the Dungeon Master.
Any other questions will be answered as needed. Only serious applicants need apply.
Of course, it’s hard enough finding a girl who plays D&D, let alone one who both DMs and is willing to do it topless. I suppose if you offered enough cash, however, that anything is possible. I am seriously curious whether this impending hubbie got his wish or not, considering that the event is already a few days past now. If I happen to find the answer to that question, rest assured I shall update you, my loyal readers (all 2 of you). Until then, live your dreams and never give up on even the most geeky of dirty fantasies!
Matera’s Sant’Angelo Hotel
The Sant’Angelo Hotel is located in the city of Matera near the Gravina Canyon. This city is world-famous for being an area that has some of the oldest known settlements in the world, dating back to Paleolithic times. Because of this, the city if filled with historical and archaeological treasures, including the hotel itself.
The hotel is comprised of many parts. The lobby is a converted 13th century chapel. Many of the rooms are made of renovated cave dwellings. The interior of the hotel is carved mostly into the rock, so walking into Sant’Angelo is literally walking into the side of a hill. This creates an experience that is very unique as visitors travel through mixtures of caves and historic buildings.
Up to 55 people total can stay at the hotel at any given time, spread out among 19 converted historic dwellings. The accommodations are not as barren as one might think, however. The beds are comfortable although they lie very close to the ground and each room features a gigantic sunken tub. It’s a mixture of luxury and stark simplicity that creates a striking contrast.
Due to the hotel’s position, it’s easy to get a spectacular view of either the Canyon or the city. There are plenty of sites to see while staying at Sant’Angelo, both in the city and nearby. Tours can be arranged to visit the castles of Venosa and Melfi, the Pollino National Park or some of the more than 100 rock churches that litter the town.
This is a semi-luxurious resort with a very unique character. If you’re a lover of history, you’ll no doubt enjoy both the city of Matera and a stay at Sant’Angelo. To do both only heightens that experience of exploring the past.