The first thing you lose when you get old...

Is your memory.

A couple of hours ago I saw a commercial that pandered to the lowest common denominator, now that I've got my computer and can blog about it...I can't remember what it was.

Of course most commercials these days do so, which is why if I were able to watch TV on a full time basis now, I could make more than 5 posts a day to this blog. As it is, the TV is upstairs and I'm downstairs...

I am watching TV shows I taped 5-10 years ago, as I convert my VHS tapes to DVD-R, and commercials were almost as bad then as they are now. The usual suspects - dumb husbands, understanding moms and know-it-all kids. The abject sexuality of today's commercials isn't quite as apparent - or at least they weren't shown during A&E's airing of Perry Mason, the tapes I'm currently working throug...

I suppose I could talk about the Beyonce commercial...I think she's advertising a Vizio, where she's performing a strip-tease type dance in front of a guy who would rather watch her on the TV screen...

Miller Light commercials

I've blogged about these Miller Light commercials before, but they just keep getting worse and worse.

The commercials are all the same. A female bartender ridicules a male customer, either because he's wearing a teeny bikini, or a nerdish outfit, or, as in the case of the commercial I saw, his voice is too hight.

The male customer accepts the ridicule and walks out of camera, looking embarrassed.

And this is supposed to sell light beer to men?

These commercials are just as bad as those that ridicule women.

World's Dumbest Criminals #23 on Tru TV

This tv show is offensive on so many levels.

First of all, you've got these stupid criminals trying to do their crimes, so they are being glorified.

Then you've got these loser entertainers - Danny Bonaduce, Todd Bridges, Tonya Harding, and a couple of people I didn't recognize, commenting on what they're seeing in really, really stupid ways.

The dumbing down of America.

And what's even sadder...my dad actually likes to watch it..though he says he also doesn't like the commentary by the career-dead 'celebrities' in between each clip.

Burger King commercial, 2 chicken sandwiches for the price of one

I've seen this a few times, most recently on Monday Night Football on ESPN, Texans vs Ravens.

A black guy is dancing with a black woman. Except, there's a black guy behind him, holding two chicken sandwiches, one in each hand.

The woman starts to protest, and the guy holds up his finger to her lips (how condescending!) and tells her to just go with the flow.

Coincidently, my dad is chanel surfing and we just saw a few seconds of the Sean Hannity show, where he was talking at Imogen Lloyd Webber, a British political commentator. We came in just as Hannity smirks at her and says, "Calm down. Take a breath." in a very condescending way.

They were talking about health insurance, and just like O'Reilly, Hannity doesn't seem to give his guests a chance to talk before he over-rides them to give his own opinions. Annoying.

Acura commercial

I've seen this a couple of times, most recently while watching the New York Jets vs New England Patriots game on ESPN.

It shows a bunch of snooty white people, spending gazillions of dollars on "foolish" things like doll houses, etc. "In a season marked by over-indulgence and over-spending, Acura gives good deals."

yet another attempt by the media to create class warfare...there's plenty of folks of all hues who have plenty of money and don't mind spending it on themselves, and why not - the money they spend goes to people who need jobs, doesn't it?

This is newsworthy???

UPI, like AP, is a news gathering resource.

Today I looked up an article on space exploration, put out by UPI. On the right hand side of the article was a columbn marked "most popular."

One of the items?

"Susan Boyle gets a frog in her throat on the View."

Why is this news worthy? A singer gets a frog in her throat, for God's sake! This is bad as "Yahoo news", where we're treated to the news that two skeletal actresses wore the same dress to the Emmys, or that actress had a wardrobe malfunction somewhere else.

This is the petty, invasive gossip that the public at large does not need to know. And should not know.

And UPI shouldn't lower itself to provide it.

I thought sports was supposed to engender sportsmanship?

Over in Europe, a goalie who kicked the ball into his own goal was, I believe, killed by outraged fans. Here in the States, the Boise State kicker who missed 2 "easy" field goals is being savaged by "fans" - and apparently some are even calling up the poor guy's family and leaving threatening messages.

That is just beyond the pale. It's a bloody game, and more than that it's a college game, not a professional one.

Hopefully the people leaving these messages can be discovered and arrested and sent to jail for a few months to teach them some sportsmanship.

Boise State kicker becomes target of threats, barbs
BOISE, Idaho -- Dealing with missing two field goals in Boise State's loss to Nevada is difficult enough. Now Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman is having to endure an endless stream of taunts and barbs on social networking sites.

The senior kicker and leading scorer in school history missed a game-winner from 26 yards with 2 seconds left in regulation then minutes later misfired again from 29 yards out in overtime in the Broncos' 34-31 loss Friday against Nevada.

The loss spoiled the ninth-ranked Broncos' unbeaten season and even bigger hopes of playing in a BCS bowl or possibly even for the national title.



Kyle Brotzman missed two critical field goals from inside 30 yards late in the game. (US Presswire)
It didn't take long for angry fans to unleash their frustration on Brotzman, who grew up in the Boise area.

Within hours, the Ada County Sheriff's Department got a report about callers leaving obnoxious, harassing telephone messages with a woman thought to be related to Brotzman.

Then dozens of Facebook pages emerged, some filled with ugly name-calling, jabs and taunts aimed at Brotzman. Supporters responded just as quickly, starting "Bronco Nation Loves Kyle Brotzman" or "We Still Love Kyle Brotzman" pages and posting hundreds of messages of support for the beleaguered kicker. As of Monday afternoon, more than 21,600 people had clicked on the Like button for those pages.

Coach Chris Petersen on Monday tried to deflect criticism away from Brotzman, saying no single person is responsible in a loss like that and that there is plenty of blame to go around.

"Including myself," Petersen said. "There were a lot of other chances to win the game. That was just one of them. That's one that 99 out of 100 times he's going to make."

One thing is certain: It was a rare moment of futility for Brotzman

During his career, the Lou Groza semifinalist has banged the ball through the uprights more than any other kicker in conference history, surpassing former Hawaii kicker Jason Elam three weeks ago to become the WAC's all-time leading scorer.

His 425 career points make him the leader for scoring among active players in major college football and at one stretch the former walk-on nailed 118 straight extra points.

And how can any Bronco fan forget Brotzman's perfect 30-yard pass to Kyle Efaw on a fake punt that set up the game-winning touchdown in last season's Fiesta Bowl victory over TCU?

"From what I have seen and what little I've heard, I think the fans have been great," Petersen said. "You're always going to have the other side, the other third, that can't do it the way you'd like them to. I don't know if those are BSU fans to tell you the truth."

The Nevada loss isn't the only disappointment facing Bronco fans these days.

On Monday, TCU announced it was bolting the Mountain West Conference to join up with the ACC, following the steps of Utah, bound for the Pac-10, and independent BYU.

Boise State is expected to join the MWC next season, and coaches, administrators, players and fans were eager for an annual date with TCU and the potential rewards of playing a more challenging schedule.

Petersen played down TCU's defection, saying the MWC still remains the best fit for Boise State's future.

"I have no feeling on that whatsoever," Petersen said about TCU's move. "The only thing I think is we're still going to a better league than we're in right now. And that's no disrespect to anybody."

State Farm Commercial

African-American man and woman standing in front of an SUV that has been backed up all the way on top of a different car.

The woman is really bitching at the guy - he didn't listen to her when she was giving him advice on how to back up. She says she'd rather have a different boyfriend, and suddenly his shirt is ripped off revealing a nicely muscled body.

Then, he says he'd rather have a different girlfriend, and all of a sudden her clothing switches to that of a slut - tank top revealing breasts, very high skirt etc.

And I just found this commercial offensive. Whatever happened to touting how good the insurance is? Why focus on the sexual element? Now of course it was nice to finally see a little eye candy for the ladies, but having a guy with a bare chest is not the equivalent of having a woman dressed like a slut. She wasn't dressed 'sexily' - she was dressed like a slut.

Shame on State Farm.

Blog resumes Tuesday

I've been on travel and visiting friends with no computer connection. Blog will resume Tuesday, God willing and the snow don't fly!

NCIS (and cop shows in general)

I watched the first 15 minutes of NCIS tonight. Tony and Ziva are following someone. Ziva gets a spidy sense that there's someone behind them, whirls and draws her weapon. There's a white woman behind her, with her weapon drawn, and she tells Ziva to drop her weapon.

This is a cliche in many cop show/adventure shows these days, and its downright stupid. If someone has a gun and sees someone else with a gun, they don't just stand there pointing guns at each other. They are both going to shoot, and one of them is going to win and the other will die.

Star Trek: TNG "The Cost of Living"

Okay, this episode is 18 years old, but it exemplifies a problem with parents today.

Worf's son, Alex, is on board the Enterprise, and he refuses to do what his dad tells him to do. He's a little brat who needs a spanking. (Or, being a Klingon, he needs to be beaten severely.)

In any event, that's not what happens. Counsellor Troi says, "Okay, you guys need to draw up a contract. Alex has his duties, and Worf has his duties."

In other words, Worf isn't supposed to be a parent, he's supposed to be a "friend" to his son. Worf and Alex are supposed to be equals, regardless of the fact that one is 40 years older than the other, and is the parent.

I was reminded of that today when watching the Cowboys vs Giants football game. Wade Phillips was fired last week, and the new coach has input some new rules, such as "be on time for meetings." Be on time for meetings!

And the Cowboys are playing better today than they have for a long time. (Although, it is only the end of the first half as I write this.)

But kids, like football teams (which are, afterall, only overgrown kids) need discipline. Not extremely strict discipline, but discipline nevertheless. A child should never be allowed to say "No." when a parent tells him or her to do something. And yet most of them are allowed to say no.

TO of the Bengals

Terrell Owens of the Cincinatti Bengals scored a touch down a few minutes ago. Of course he had to do his little schtick...looking like a mime. And Ocho Cinco waited patiently for him to do his "Hey, guys look at me" before congratulating him.

But no one else came over to congratulate him. No one even bothered to hang around and wait for him, except Ocho Cinco.

I love to see that, and I wish more teams would do that. Someone wants to have their look at me moment, just walk off the field and let him make a fool of himself all by himself.

Sunday is the Day!

I've been in my new house for just under a month now - without any TV. It's due to be hooked up tomorrow. So then I'll have access to the mass media of commercials - devolution media if I've ever seen it, and this blog can get back on track.

Thanks for your patience.

Apologies for the Hiatus

I've just moved into a house in Cheyenne, Wyoming and have no TV! No TV! So I haven't been subjected to devolution media in a while - not the least because I haven't gone into any malls or anything recently, either, where other mass media lurks...

TV should be hooked up in two more days, then this blog will continue.

New Balance Shoes - commercial

New Balance has a new shoe out that is supposed to help women tone their muscles and butt while they walk.

So the commercial shows women walking away from the camera, wearing very very short shorts, and talking about how these shoes tone the muscles etc., and the women are swaying their hips and it's all eye candy for the boys and men watching.

I mean, really. Are women influenced by this commercial to get shoes to tone their legs and butts, or are they influenced by the knowledge that guys will watch their behinds as they walk and is it that what they desire?

Reality series featuring abusive wife

I saw a brief news snippet of this a couple of days ago. I'm not quite sure what the name of the show is, but I think the woman who was beating up on her husband ended up being arrested based on the footage in that show.

It was utterly disgusting. I had the sound down so couldn't hear the dialog, but she was yelling at him and would just haul off and pop him as a period to each sentence. And he stood and took it. He was a big guy, and if he'd retaliated he would've easily broken her jaw.

Too bad he didnt, IMHO.

But, had he done so, he'd've gone to jail for assault.

There is a double standard - women can abuse boyfriends and husbands all they want and guys have to take it... let a guy hit his wife (in retaliation for her hitting him) and he becomes the villain.

I just hope that guy divorces that woman. It's ridiculous for someone to sticky with someone who is physically abusive. Or verbally abusive, for that matter.

Conan - TV talk show

I don't watch talk shows. At least, I used to watch them decades ago, when Johnny Carson was the host, but today, no.

But, I live in the world, so I am familiar with Jay Leno, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Conan O'Brien. I'm aware that Conan took over Jay Leno's spot as host of the Tonight Show when that guy left to go to prime time, where he bombed.

Then, Conan was kicked off the Tonight Show and Leno was reinstated, which I thought was unfair.

But now Conan has his own show again, and I've got to admit I'm conceiving a dislike of the guy just by watching the commercials for his show.

There's one where he's "dancing" without music. Of course it isn't dancing - perhaps he's channeling Austin Power - but in any rate it's some sexual movements that, with music, would be called dancing today, but since he has no music, it just makes him look like an ass. (And it does, too.)

Then there's the one where he's sitting, or rather lying, stretched out in a chair and just turns his head to look at the audience. I'm thinking, Oh, please, get over yourself.

New Balance Activewear - clothing line

The one sleeve off the shoulder shirt is not a new style, it's probably been around since Flashdance back in the 1980s, but I'd hardly call it "activewear." How can you run, kick and jump with half your shirt falling off?

But, it's eye candy.

There's another fashion that I don't understand, that's been going on for several years, and that's the sleeves of a shirt or sweater so long that they extend half over the hand. That would just drive me crazy....

In the eye of the beholder

I'm currently visiting my Aunt in Burleson, Texas.

We were sitting down last night watching the Bears/Giants game, and the commercial for some laundry detergent came on. Mother has borrowed her daughter's shirt, got it dirty at some dance, and hidden it away. Daughter is looking for it. So mom quickly digs it out and washes it, Daughter "finds it", mother sees her with it on and says "Oh, you found it," and out the door the daughter happily walks.

I thought it was silly - that a mom would hide a dirty shirt from her daughter instead of just washing it immediately...my aunt - who actually has kids (although all grown up now) thought it was cute.

Ah, well!

Two and a Half Men (sit com)

I've never watched an ep of this popular comedy straight through - I've never needed to, I knew it was pap. On occasion I've watched a few seconds of it while channel surfing, and never seen anything to change my opinion.

So today, I was channel surfing, and saw the last minute or so of an episode. The boy, the "half man" of the title, is sitting on the couch playing a video game while his uncle is trying to talk to him. And the kid is a jerk who continues to play the game, says "Yeah whatever" to his uncle, and generally treats him with disdain.

And the father comes out with his neck and hands in a brace, and has taken pills, and he wants some alcohol. And the uncle, instead of turning off the TV, ripping out the video game and telling the boy to go to his room or get out of the house for good, leaves the boy in command, and runs after the dad wanting his own pills and alcohol.

And I hate to think it, but this probably happens in real life more often than not. And it's too bad. Let a kid talk back to you, his parent, once, and that's it, you've lost.

What's really annoying is...did this kid's parents raise him to talk back to them?

Many years ago, Jonny Quest was my favorite TV cartoon. The original, not the remake. So I was watching...I think it was the movie they made of it, and Jonny Quest has fallen in love and has talked back to his dad and they have a huge fight.

Never happen. Not to the original Johnny Quest and his dad, because Johnny was raised right. And his dad would never have put up with his son showing disrespect.

But now....? Today's generation?

Direct TV (Commercial)

Direct TV certainly does seem to be putting together a series of sexist commercials. The NFL Direct Ticket or whatever it is is part of Direct TV. And those are extremely offensive/sexist.

I'm watching the Bears / Packers game, and I've seen this Direct TV commercial before, too. It's a male European (of course) walking through his opulent home, bragging on his riches. And of course he's got a skinny, beautiful woman following him, just to take the bowl of candy he's carrying.

Then he sits down on a couch, an there's two more skinny beautiful women, and the one in the center is wearing a dress that is very revealing, if you're a breast man, and the beautiful woman looks at the other beautiful woman with a face indicative of jealousy, while the guy leans over and kisses a miniature giraffe!

What the hell's up with that?

Let Me In (movie)

Okay, I'm someone who has never understood the appeal of horror movies. Dracula and Frankenstein and The Wolfman were not really horror...although I suppose they were for the 1930s - I like those. But from Hammer Horror onward, when the emphasis has been on blood, guts and gore, ick, ick ick.

And these days, with the proliferation of "horror porn" - the Jason movies, the Friday the 13th movies - horrible, horrible, horrible.

Zombies seem to be the "monster" of choice these days, which I don't really understand. I mean, vampires and werewolves, okay. But zombies - living dead, with no minds of their own? And yet, there's all kinds of fiction books written these days to capitalize on women's - I'm sure it's young girls, "Goths" fascination with these creatures. For example there's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

From Bookmarks Magazine
It’s difficult to tell if critics’ reactions to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies should be characterized as praise or astonishment. Some reviewers treated the book as a delightful gimmick. Others found that, beneath the surface, the book actually constituted an interesting way of looking at Austen’s novel. Zombies answer certain puzzling questions: Why were those troops stationed near Hertfordshire? Why did Charlotte Lucas actually marry Mr. Collins? (She had recently been bitten by zombies and wanted a husband who could be counted on to behead her—of course!) But critics also pointed out that this parody shows that Austen’s novel has remained so powerful over time that even the undead can’t spoil it.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
From Booklist
This may be the most wacky by-product of the busy Jane Austen fan-fiction industry—at least among the spin-offs and pastiches that have made it into print. In what’s described as an “expanded edition” of Pride and Prejudice, 85 percent of the original text has been preserved but fused with “ultraviolent zombie mayhem.” For more than 50 years, we learn, England has been overrun by zombies, prompting people like the Bennets to send their daughters away to China for training in the art of deadly combat, and prompting others, like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, to employ armies of ninjas. Added to the familiar plot turns that bring Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together is the fact that both are highly skilled killers, gleefully slaying zombies on the way to their happy ending. Is nothing sacred? Well, no, and mash-ups using literary classics that are freely available on the Web may become a whole new genre. What’s next? Wuthering Heights and Werewolves? --Mary Ellen Quinn

And that's a long lead in to get to this movie, Let Me In, a remake of a European film, which feature two prepubescent lead charactes - a vampire girl age 12 and a young boy who falls in love with her.

Wendy's Commercial (spicy chicken nuggets)

I've seen this commercial a few times, most recently during the Dolphins/Jets game.

A white guy is sitting there, eating his nuggets and making whoa, whoa sounds. Another white guy comes up to him, says, "Pretty spicy, huh?" and the first guy says, "No. They're just 99 cents." So then the second guy starts making the same "whoa whoa" sounds, like having 99 cent chicken nuggets is such a big deal.

Oh please. And its just stupid.

Sesame: Indoctrinating Kids Early on the Role of Females in Society

I didn't see this myself, apparently it was on a segment of Bill O'Reilly last night.

Singer Katy Perry recently appeared on Sesame Street. That's a show that is supposed to teach pre-schoolers how to read.

She was wearing a top that showed just about as much of her breasts that are legal to show on TV.

I wonder what Katy Perry was thinking. I also wonder what the people at Sesame Street were thinking.

But what does it tell little kids? For girls, that girls must show off their assets so that boys will like them. For boys, that girls breasts are fair game to be gazed upon, commented on, obsessed over.

This indoctrination starts very young...but having it start as young as Sesame Street?

('m reminded of an ep of PeeWee's Playhouse from decades ago. Grace Jones appeared on that,singing in her wonderful voice, Little Drummer Boy. But her outfit? Would have had grown men drooling. Inappropriate for a kid's show!

McDonalds commercial

Watching the Sunday night Colts vs Giants football game, and there's a McDonald's commercial, strictly for their MacCafe coffee.

Bearded guy can't be bothered to talk to his friends or a beautiful woman on his bus, "not til I've had my coffee."

Goes to McDonalds, the clerk starts saying, "Would you like to have our..."

and he interrupts her, "Not before I've had my coffee."

Now in real life you know the clerk would keep a stoic face, perhaps, and not say word one. She wants this jerk gone as soon as possible.

Instead she smiles brightly and says, "premium roast MacCafe coffee."

And he buys it, drinks it, gets an orgasmic expression on his face which seems to be de rigeur for anyone eating or drinking in a commercial, and then he walks back to his office or wherever he's going, and now he's all cheerful, talking to people.

And frankly, I found this offensive, the more so because I actually used to work with someone who was "not a morning person," and so couldn't muster up a polite smile or anything, and indeed was quite rude until they woke up. So everyone else in the office had to suffer because she couldn't be bothered to be polite until she felt like it.

Grammatical error in headline: Japan officials delay Paris Hilton from entering

Let us consider that people who work in media - whether as "professionals" or amateurs, should use the English language properly. Anything less is to degrade not only the language but also the intelligence of the country.

This is the Yahoo news headline:

Japan officials delay Paris Hilton from entering (AP)
AP - Japanese officials delayed Paris Hilton's entry into the country a day after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in Las Vegas, the socialite's spokeswoman said.

The headline is grammatically inaccurate. The word "from" has no place there.

It should be

"Japanese officials delay entrance of Paris Hilton"
"Paris Hilton faces delay in entering Japan due to legal problems"
"Japan protects borders - refuses to allow criminal into country" [a headline you'll never see in the US, I daresay]
"Japanese officials delay Paris Hilton's entrance into country"

Sports is supposed to build character...isn't it?

If you read the interview with this boy - he's hardly a man at 19, at least not in the mental health department - the idiot thinks he did nothing wrong. He's proud of it and would do it again. In actual fact, he needs to be thrown in jail.

The sad thing is that there are many people on sports message boards - presumably at the mental age of 19 themselves - who think his unwarranted assault was perfectly okay and "funny."

It may be funny when it's orchestrated, but when you've got a totally unsuspecting victim attacked with no warning and no reason -- it's not funny. It's criminal assault.

This guy probably watches the DTV NFL Ticket commercials and laughs and laughs.


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Turns out, the Bobcat had it in for the Buckeye all along.

"It was actually my whole plan to tackle Brutus when I tried out to be mascot," said Brandon Hanning, formerly known as Ohio University's Rufus Bobcat. "I tried out about a year ago, and the whole reason I tried out was so I could come up here to Ohio State and tackle Brutus."

And that's what he did Saturday, wrestling unsuspecting Brutus to the ground before 105,075 screaming college football fans at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State got even in the end, trampling the visiting team, 43-7.

The tussle led to an apology from Ohio University on Monday and the 19-year-old Hanning is banned from further affiliation with the school's athletics department. Actually, he's not even a student there anymore; he now attends nearby Hocking College.

Hanning, of Meigs County in southeast Ohio, not far from Ohio University's campus in Athens, suited up about 15 minutes before the Bobcats faced Ohio State, went on the field near the OU cheerleaders and waited for his chance.

It came as Brutus and an Ohio State cheerleader hoisted an OSU flag, and prepared to lead the Buckeyes players onto the field. With his Bobcat head in place, Hanning ran along the sideline and got in position.

"As soon as they started running onto the field, that's when I went," he said.

The Bobcat sideswiped the Buckeye, who got back to his feet and continued his sprint toward the end zone.

But Rufus, um, Hanning, wasn't done.

He then chased Brutus into the end zone, climbed on his back and rode him to the ground. The two then tussled, with Rufus punching the Buckeye in his oversized head while fans booed.

The Post of Athens was the first to report Hanning's intentions.

Ohio apologizes for mascot's attack on Brutus Buckeye

Bobcats athletics spokesman Jason Corriher released a statement calling the actions "extremely poor judgment and sportsmanship" and saying that the university regrets the negative effect they may have on the relationship between the two schools.

Bobcats coach Frank Solich summed up it nicely: "Obviously we needed to tackle the guy with the ball, not the mascot."

Hanning said he thinks the reaction to the tackle has been "a little blown out of proportion."

"Either everybody loved it or everybody hated it. It's never been anything in the middle," he said.

"I think I planned it pretty well ... and I definitely would have done it again."

Sprint commercial

Watching the Redskins vs Houston Texans on CBS.

They've shown a Sprint commercial a couple of times.

Girl and a guy, each with short hair and white shirts, looking prim and proper and nerdish. Girl takes off a headband and shakes out her hair all sexy like and suddenly she's beautiful. Guy does the same thing - all of a sudden he's got long hair and pouty lips (but he still looks like a nerd.)

Then they start kissing each other despite the girl looking rather apprehensive...then the guy jumps up so he can wrap his legs around the woman.

Yet another sexualized commercial.

Adverts for TV series

The new TV season is going to start in a few days, and they are showing adverts for the season premiers and the new eps.

And most of them, police drama or what have you, seem to have an emphasis on sex.

House, for example. The advert for that has House and his hospital administrator kissing, and in bed.

Hawaii 5-0. Mostly male actors. The character of Kono is played by a female and of course we see her in a bikini on a beach, knocking a guy out with one punch. So silly. Yes, she could kick him between the legs an then karate chop a pressure point, but a woman of her size can't knock a guy out by punching him on the chin.

The new NCIS has a story from a couple of years ago coming back to haunt Gibbs. His family killed by a Mexican drug lord, he had gone into Mexico and sniped the guy. Now, the only ones who should know this are Gibbs and his lead guy at that time, but oh no, now lots of people know, including the daughter of the guy he killed. Bull crap! But it's probably going to be some justification for illegal immigrants and hw terrible it is to take the law into your own hands...

Women: Why do they get no respect?

A few days ago, a Mexican reporter named Inez Sainz went to the NFL's New York Jets locker room. She was wearing very tight pants!!! This was apparenty an excuse for some of the Jets members to catcall and whistle at her. Then Clinton Portis chimed in and said, basically - what did she expect? You let a woman into a room with 53 naked men, obviously she's going to check out their "packages", just as they're checking out her.

Which is probably true, by the way. As an aside, no reporters of either sex belong in a team's locker room. That's just ridiculous.

In any event, I've been reading the comments on this, made by people who read the articles whereever they appear (Yahoo News and CBS Sportsline, for me) and they are filled with sexist rants against women.

But really, don't women share some of the blame? Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting women dress in burkhas and wear clothing that covers them from wrist to ankle, that's ridiculous. But when you wear shorts cut so short that your buttcheeks are revealed, and shirts that are little more than bra tops, what is the message you are sending to every guy you pass (who in his turn is dressed in a baggy t-shirt and baggy shorts, although if you're lucky once in a while you'll come across one who has his shorts belted underneath his buttocks, so you get a fine view of his buttock-clad underwear - but that's a rant for another time.)

Anyway, if women want respect, and I hope they do, time for them to stop pandering to the marketing folks who run their sports (I'm thinking track and field) and start wearing "power suits" not "yes, I'm just eye candy for you and deserve no respect because all I'm trading on are my assets" suits.

Now, following one article, I came across blacksportsonline.com, a site that is supposed to celebrate black athletes in sports. Check out their header.



There are plenty of black female athletes. Admittedly only a couple in tennis - Venus and Serena Williams, but plenty of WNBA players - Candace Parker, etc., and plenty of track and field stars. And yet they deliberately choose these two women, none of whom I recognize, both of whom are clearly there strictly for the salacious aspect.

Burger King (commercial)

watching the Packers vs the Eagles, 7.03 pm.

Some guy in a delivery outfit starts singing some stupid song about Breakfast, then marches down the street, to be joined by men - all men - from various walks of life. At one point they walk past a beautiful blond woman watering her lawn. She's got one hip thrust out and is looking at the men (or rather, the camera) with a "Would you like to have sex with me right now? Come on in!) expression on her face.

So of course the middle row of guys walk through flowebeds and into poles, because they're too busy looking at this eye candy to watch what they're doing.

Then they continue their march to Burger King.

And I'm like... who is the audience for this? Does Burger King think that only men watch football, and that only men stop in at Burger King for breakfast instead of women? And is it really necessary to pander to their prurient fantasies, that there will always be some beautiful blond out on a street near them, just aching for them to have their way with her?

Subway (commercial)

Also shown during the football game, and also one I've seen before, a Subway commercial in which a bunch of motorcyclists - clearly a gang, rather than young, clean-cut riders, are riding through the desert - so hot that a rabbit catches on fire, heading for a Subway, for some new sandwich that has jalopenos on it.

Who is their target audience here? Motorcycle gang members?

Stupid commercial.

Sprint (commercial)

Watching the Vikings and the New Orleans Saints, Channel 10, (not sure what the National station is - the Peacock? ABC?

Anyway, I've seen this commercial before and hate it. But it's typical of today's commercials, in which total jerks do whatever they want, and don't realize that they're being jerks to other people.

An old, white doctor is sitting in a chair texting and ignoring his patient, a black athlete lying on a table with his knee wrapped up. The athlete has received a text from the doctor telling him he's out for the season. The doctor is oblivious to the athlete's anxiety, "Don't worry, I have unlimited texting, I'm dropping you from my fantasy team," etc.

This is bad on so many levels. There's the racial aspect - white doctor treating black athlete like a piece of meat, not caring about his feelings. Then, there's the sheer coldness of the doctor (Obama health plan - doctors are so greedy, we need to cut them down to size) to his patient.

Just an unpleasant commercial. Kids of course will see themselves in it, adults hopefully have learned a bit of compassion and will also find it distasteful.

Despicable Me (movie)

I've seen Despicable Me twice now, and enjoyed it, for the most part, both times. (Yes, I'm a 50 year old woman, but I love the animated movie genre.)

And I really, really love the steampunk look of the movie. Steampunk means that there are wheels and ratchets and all sorts of "steam" driven paraphenalia to do the stuff that one simple microchip could do. For example an ordinary gun is... well, an ordinary gun. Gru pulls out his gun and immediately 6 or 7 additional barrels pop into being.

His couch was in the center of what looked like a dinosaur or other large reptilian thing - I loved that couch.

But, there were some problems with it.

The movie is made for young kids. Why, then, in the scene with Vector, is he talking about "a geometric entity endowed with both length and direction" and when he talks about "length" he does some pelvic thrusts, so the adults in the audience knew exactly what he was saying - but really, every little kid there must have gotten some idea too, and that was so unneccesary. Thank God none of the males in the movie were drawn such that the mounds that would their genitalia were shown, but still, it was so classless.

But, it continued.

One of the current methods of showing your lack of respect for someone is to angle your butt at them and pretend to fart, or to rub something several times on your butt (as the ping pong nemesis did in Balls of Fury) and as Vector does here.



Totally classless, and no need to pander to the lowest common denominator by showing it.

But it gets worse.

Throughout the movie, Gru's mother is shown as a real bitch. No other word for it - a verbally-abusive bitch. When Gru tells her his dream is to fly to the moon, she very casually says, "You're too late. NASA doesn't send monkeys to the moon anymore." How cruel, and on a par with everything else she says.

So what I want to know is, when Gru finally grows up, why is this woman still in his life? Why did't he shoot her to the moon a long time ago? [This is a mystery fiction trope that I really dislike. There are at least a couple of authors, probably more - or perhaps it's the same one using a multitude of pen names) who always has a woman detective, her husband or boyfriend, and a live-in mother who can't stand the man and is always saying rude things about him. Again, if I were in this situation in real life, I'd give the woman an ultimatum. Stop saying rude things or get out. And I hate reading in fiction books where this type of rude behavior is tolerated.

Finally, I found the ending of the movie particularly distasteful. Again, this movie is meant for little children, and the three girls in the movie are pre-pubescent and shouldn't even know what pelvic thrusts look like, let alone what they are.

So at the end, since Gru had missed the girl's recital, they're putting on a recital just for him and his minions. Three girls, dancing to Swan Lake, while mom, Gru and the minions look on. Could have been a sweet ending.

But no. Instead one of the Minions decides to turn into a DJ and puts Staying Alive onto the record player. So Gru gets up on stage, and all of a sudden he's doing the pelvic thrusts, and the clapping his butt with one hand and then the other while he looks out at the audience, and its just so inappopriate. Then we get the Vector character on the moon, who can apparently hear the music as well, and he shoves his butt out and starts slapping it like he's riding a horse (or having sex) and it was just unpleasant.)

(Previous to going into the movie, I had walked down the long line of magazines at my local Books-a-Million, and there was a whole rack dedicated to "Men's Interest" that had magazines with covers that featured nothing but women in bikinis, facing away from the camera, posing so their very large butts tilted upward and were just "in your face", while they look over their shoulders at the viewer with a seductive look. One model looked like she was in a pool, and she and her breasts were facing the camera, but you could tell she had her hips angled so that her buttocks were perked up a little, just ready for a man to start "riding" her. Disgusting. I'm all for consenting adults doing whatever they want to do in the privacy of their own home, but it is sad to see women pandering to their own degredation like this, in magazines in plain view for little kids - and big kids with their cellphones, of course - to see.)

State Farm Insurance (commercial)

State Farm has two commercial spokesmen. One is a black actor whom I believe stars on The Unit (or some similar TV show), the other is a young white guy.

The white guy, in the commercials I've seen of him, interacts with people who have to live on a budget, that they didn't use to have to do.

So I'm watching Bones on TNT, and I've just seen a commercial with the white guy, and one young man is walking along and he says proudly to one of his friends, "I found out that if I bring my lunch to work instead of going out, I can save $60 a month!"

And I'm thinking, well, golly gee whiz, who knew that if you didn't go out to restaruants, but instead brought food you'd made from home, you could actually save money??? Thanks so much All State for giving me this invaluable piece of advice, that never would have occurred to me!

It's bad enough that commercials have dumbed down the US for 30 years or more, do they really need to go this much lower?

Dos Equis (beer commercial)

Dos Equis (pronounse Dosekki) has as its spokesman a bearded, just over middle-aged guy whom they call "The most interesting man in the world."

I'm watching Twins vs Rangers on ESPN 2 (come on, Twins!), and just saw the latest commercial, which as usual annoys me. He's sitting at the head of the table, flanked by two gorgeous women who gaze at him as if enraptured.

For god's sake grow up! Do the viewers really think if they drink Dos Equis (and "stay thirsty" at the same time - how does that work?) some woman worth having is going to fall in love with them. I don't think so.

I'd like to see a commercial of a beatiful woman seated at the head of the table, with a couple of handsome guys gazing at her with doe's eyes, then she pushes them away and walks out alone.

Machete (movie)

There's an old saying, 95% of everything is crap.

That's certainly true with movies. Movie producers, from independents to bigshots, make movies every year and most of them bomb. Of the ones that bomb, most are garbage, and you wonder why in the world someone thought making it was a good idea.

Such is my thought on the movie Machete. They've been showing trailers for it for about a week now. In my Fortress of Attitude blog I'll discuss my annoyance at the sexualization of the female characters - a woman in a black bra walking around with guns hanging off her, please - but here I just want to address the plot of the movie.

Apparently the "hero" is a Mexican American DEA agent who worked under cover for the US - the FBi, the CIA, whatever. He is betrayed and his family is apparently killed, so this guy decides to get his vengeance on the US villains - Robert DeNiro as a senator, etc.

And I'm thinking, is it really necessary to make this movie now, when the country is rife with anger toward those who welcome ILLEGAL aliens and those who don't? Is it really necessary to make the US goverment the villains? Why not make the villains the Mexican and Caribbean drug cartels, that just today decapitated four people and hung their bodies off a bridge? But no... the US is going to be the villain in this piece of garbage.

I'd say it should be boycotted.

Miller Lite (commercial)

It's 6.14 pm easitern time, on ESPN, and I've got Sportscenter on.

Just saw a Miller Lite commercial that I've seen a couple of times before. (Unfortunately I had the sound down, so couldn't refresh my memory as to what was being said, but it went something like the following):

Young, handsome man comes up to a bar and asks for a lite beer, but of course doesn't specificy Miller Lite.

The beautiful female bartender looks at him with contempt and says something to the effect that he's a "girl man." He takes his beer and walks away, to reveal he's wearing a thong - although we only see the top part of it, but he plucks twice at his nether regions.

And the beautiful bartender just plumps her bo-toxed lips and smiles.

Problem? Well, on so many levels. A dig at gays, of course - as in only gay men would wear thongs. Or at the very least, effeminate men. Then there's the fact that no one in a service profession should be talking to a customer like that. Finally, of course, do we really have to see a man plucking at his underwear? Anymore than should we get to see a woman doing it? (But of course, if a woman does it, you can bet she won't be wearing any pants, so the guys in the audience can get the whole vicarious look,whereas with a guy, of course he's wearing his pants, all we see is the top of the thong above it.

Psych (TV series)

This TV series has been on for 3 or 4 seasons now.

Originally I liked it - for the character of the police officer, Lassiter.

But more and more it's just getting on my nerves.

The premise of the series is simply - de-evolved.

James Rodriguez plays a character named Shaun Spencer, who's extremely intelligent with a photographic memory. His father, a police officer, raised him to be a police officer, but he rebelled when he was 20 or so and drifted off into a series of low level jobs, before returning back to California, getting involved in a kidnapping case and having to prove who did it to remove himself from suspicion, because he had "known to much" about the case.

Each episode after that, the police are trying to do their job, when Shaun and his partner Gus show up. The police tell Shaun to go away, he never does. In the real world, he'd be thrown in jail. In the TV series, he always turns out to be right, which makes one wonder, why do the cops always try to keep him from investigating, when he's always right? (Perhaps they should do a sequel...do all his cases get thrown out at trial because of the way he found evidence and so on?)

In any event, the Shaun Spencer character just annoys the hell out of me. He's very much an exhibitionist, everything is about him. He barges into meeting rooms and starts talking, he ignores orders from the cops, etc. etc.

What does this teach kids in real life? That if your'e a guy you can act outrageously and get away with it? That authority is meant to be defied every single time? That nothign bad will happen to you if you talk back to cops (wrong), teachers (well, there, of course, kids can do anything they want to teachers without fear of punishment) and parents, likewise.

NFL Sunday Ticket (commercials)

I've been watching golf on TNT for the last couple of days, and I'm sure I've seen these commercials on other channels as well.

There are two commercials that I've seen so far.

In one a bunch of people in Boston or somewhere, shoveling snow, have a new neighbot who's a Dolphins fan. So they're standing out in their yards, shoveling snow, and one of them sends a shovelful at the guy's front door.

In another, more egregious version, a group of young businessmen are in a country inn, and they ask for more tea from an old waitress, who proceeds to wring out her dishrag into their tea, before giving it to them. All because they follow the wrong sports team.

Now of course these are meant to be funny, but I don't think they are. They are catering to the lowest common denominator of people who actually are this obsessed by sports.

There was a case a couple years ago where some guy wearing a ballcap from the wrong football walked into a sports bar, and got beaten up because of it.

And how many teenagers who are going to work at restaurants for money when their parents demand they get a job, are going to remember that dishcloth-wringing-into the tea schtick and decide they're going to do that too, after all, it's funny and they did it on TV!

Just terrible.

"I was born to have children. It's what I'm here for."

Even if she must live on welfare to take care of them. And in England, welfare is pretty lucrative, as witness the stories below.

Benefit Scroungers

Carl and Samantha Gillespie, together with their 12 children, have moved into a detached period house, with eight bedrooms, a garden, its own driveway and all set in a leafy residential area of Newbury, Berkshire. It's the type of highly-desirable family home that is well beyond the reach of many middle-class professionals but they've been given the keys without paying a penny. The couple, who receive an astonishing £44,000 in benefits a year, have been housed in the £500,000 property by their local council.

West Berkshire County Council gave them the keys after their previous council home burnt down in a blaze sparked by one of the couple's children. The Gillespies have been dubbed 'Britain's biggest scroungers' and are the most notorious example of people taking advantage of our generous benefits system. The £44,000 benefits includesf £1,500 a month housing benefit, £1,200 a month child tax credit, £560 a month child benefits, £280 job seeker's allowance and £1,600 a year in council tax.

The couple say they don't work because looking after their children is a full time job and they would earn less working than they do claiming the dole. Mr Gillespie quit a job at stacking shelves at Asda before he had even started, when he realised the £300 a week he would earn would result in a £400 benefits cut. He said, "Some people may think we're a bunch of spongers, but it's not true." His wife added, "I was born to have children, it's what I am here for."

Prior to their latest home, the Gillespies were housed in a five-bedroom property in Purley-on-Thames, Berkshire. However, in June last year the property burnt down when one of the family's youngest twins played with a cigarette lighter. Following that they lived in temporary council accommodation and the children were ferried to and from school in a minibus, paid for by the council. Their latest home, formerly a hotel, is estimated to have cost £350,000 to buy and a further £150,000 to renovate with double-glazing, carpets, central heating and furniture. (Source: Daily Mail, Jul/07)


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Martin McLoughlin defended his foul-mouthed family after six of them were handed ASBOs. The freeloading family are set to be banished from the whole of Lancashire after an eight-year reign of terror and his wife and all four of their sons, one just 14, have been barred from going out at night by the unprecedented anti-social behaviour order. Defiant McLoughlin, is vowing to fight the interim ASBOs and said the accusations against himself, wife Christine and sons were "bullshit", and complained how his family struggle to survive on £1,000 a month benefits.

McLoughlin accused police of "victimising" his family and has made a complaint to the Police Professional Standards Board. He is also threatening to sue Lancashire Police, and since the family have no money it will be the taxpayer who funds their expensive legal aid bill. The interim ASBOs came after family members were accused of being involved in 500 incidents in Morecambe since 1999, including vandalism, handling stolen goods and terrorising a wheelchair victim. The interim ASBOs force them to stay indoors between 11pm and 7am and ban them from swearing or harassing people anywhere in England and Wales.

Anyone breaking the order could be landed with a five-year stretch in jail but one of the brood, a convicted arsonist, stormed, "We are not the family from hell, we are more like the Royle family off the telly. I can't even say 'bloody'. It's an infringement of free speech. Whatever happened to being allowed to speak your mind in this country? We will be fighting this ASBO all the way." The family were kicked out of their council house in Morecambe but they trashed it before they quit and left the garden strewn with rubbish.

They have moved into a £70,000 home which belongs to a woman friend who is charging them just £500 rent a month. It has a widescreen TV, leather sofas and DVD players in every bedroom. McLoughlin said, "We're over the moon and very lucky. The rent is a bargain and we'll get some, if not all, of the amount covered by housing benefit. We've landed on our feet. We'll never step foot in Morecambe again." (Source: Sunday People, Feb/07)


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Aubrey and partner Kelly have claimed thousands in handounts. Kelly pockets nearly £20,000 a year in welfare payments, but still moans, "It's a hard life on benefits." And now, their break-up is now costing thousands more, as they fight a legal aid-funded battle for custody of their 10 dependant kids. Aubrey, who left their home in Orpington, Kent, with four of the kids, said, "These people who criticise, it's because they don't know us." They lived in two houses which council bosses knocked into one to house them all.

Kelly said, "Having seven bedrooms is great, I love it. I have a spare room for guests. My brother is living in there." As well as child benefit, chain-smoker Kelly picks up around £1,000 a month in tax credits, disability payments and income support. She pays £43 rent a week and no council tax, and she can afford to go clubbing every Saturday night, and even splashed out more than £600 on an African grey parrot.

Most of her money goes on the kids. She explained, "We used to make them share the Xbox but it meant that they didn't get much time on it. So now we have two Xboxes and three PlayStations." Kelly drives a BMW. Aubrey drives a Jaguar and spends his days tending his 38 canaries, one parrot, one dog and 18 tropical fish. (Source: News of the World, Mar/07)


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Mark Corby, who gets £20,000-a-year in benefits, has a massive Christmas lights decorating the outside of his four-bedroom semi. And he is running up a small fortune in electricity burned to keep his display lit 7 hours a day for 7 weeks. Corby, who has not worked for three years, admits he had lost track of how much he and his jobless wife get in income support, housing benefit, incapacity benefit, family allowance and child tax credits.

He said, “A few years ago it was very tough to get by on state benefits. But it’s much easier these days because of all the tax credits. If I was self-employed I could earn £30,000 a year but I don’t want to be my own boss. And to be honest, it’s not worth me working for less than £20,000. All the money I get just goes in the bank and I use my switch card to pay for everything. Why shouldn’t I spend some of it on Christmas decorations? Poverty is all relative.”

Corby claims to be too ill to work but refuses to say what was wrong with him. His wife Susan is also long-term sick and Corby claimed he needs to be off to care for her. They have eight children aged eight months to 14 years at home. Two older children have left home and have jobs. Local people are incensed by the display. One stormed, “Mr. Corby is a fit and able man who shows no sign of physical or mental impairment preventing him from doing an honest day’s work."

They added, "All his children are regularly dressed in designer clothes and expensive sportswear. The thing that upsets the hard-working people in the area most is the amount of Christmas lights he has, which put Blackpool illuminations to shame. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It looks like Las Vegas on steroids. They must have cost many hundreds of pounds, if not thousands, yet it’s all done on benefits.” (Source: The Sun)

A family of 16 has revealed they are better off staying at home and claiming benefits than getting a job. Mother-of-fourteen Dawn Cain, who is expecting her 15th baby in April, and husband Sean are given £36,847 in tax-free benefits a year. Mr Cain, a former landscape gardener, has been out of work since 2003 when he took time off to help his wife care for their children but he soon realised his family was better off claiming benefits than if he worked. He said, "With the social giving us £700 a week, why should I work for anything less? There's no point me even trying to look for a job. I've got a family of 15 to support. I'm better off staying at home and helping Dawn with the kids. People could call us scroungers but what would they do in the same situation?"

Rent on the Cains's home in Wythenshawe, Manchester, is paid for them and they do not have to pay their £1,023-a-year council tax. They get £7,176 in child benefit, £22,828 in child tax credits and free school dinners for eight of their children worth £1,920. Mr Cain also receives £3,900 in Jobseeker's Allowance. (Why? You have to prove you are actively seeking employment in order to qualify for this benefit!) The total amount is £36,847 a year, equivalent to someone earning a gross salary of £51,500. Mrs Cain, who has not worked since she was 18, added, "I'm a good mum. I breastfed them all and with each one I learn a bit more, so I think, "well why not have another one?" I look after my kids well and make sure we get by. And every Christmas I make sure they get everything they want." (Source: Daily Mail, Dec/09)

Advocates of Anti-Shariah Measures Alarmed by Judge's Ruling

This is one of the most frightening things I've read in a long time. A woman IN THE USA wants a restraining order against her husband because he beats her and rapes her repeatedly. The judge says, "Sorry. No. He's Muslim. He can do that to you because that's part of his religon."

Advocates of Anti-Shariah Measures Alarmed by Judge's Ruling

A New Jersey family court judge's decision not to grant a restraining order to a woman who was sexually abused by her Moroccan husband and forced repeatedly to have sex with him is sounding the alarm for advocates of laws designed to ban Shariah in America.

Judge Joseph Charles, in denying the restraining order to the woman after her divorce, ruled that her ex-husband felt he had behaved according to his Muslim beliefs -- and that he did not have "criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault" his wife.

According to the court record, the man's wife -- a Moroccan woman who had recently immigrated to the U.S. at the time of the attacks -- alleged:

"Defendant forced plaintiff to have sex with him while she cried. Plaintiff testified that defendant always told her "this is according to our religion. You are my wife, I c[an] do anything to you. The woman, she should submit and do anything I ask her to do."

In considering the woman's plea for a restraining order after the couple divorced, Charles ruled in June 2009 that a preponderance of the evidence showed the defendant had harassed and assaulted her, but "The court believes that [defendant] was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited."

Charles' ruling was overturned last month by New Jersey's Appellate Court, which ruled that the husband's religious beliefs were irrelevant and that the judge, in taking them into consideration, "was mistaken."

The woman's lawyer, Jennifer Donnelly of New Jersey Legal Services, told FoxNews.com that Charles' ruling should add to the case for a proposed Oklahoma law, which will be on the ballot in November, which would ban judges from considering "international law or Shariah Law" in their rulings.

"Those who don't want the bill to pass say, 'there's really no need for it because why would a judge walk down that road of religion?'" Donnelly said.

"Clearly here, this judge did walk down that road. He may not have said 'Shariah law.' But I think it's indicative that, in trying to be respectful of religion, judges venture into a very slippery slope."

Donnelly said she was surprised when Charles refused to issue a restraining order, adding that the only tipoffs that it might happen were questions he put to the husband's imam when he testified in the case.

The Appeals Court ruling notes, "The imam testified regarding Islamic law as it relates to sexual behavior. The imam confirmed that a wife must comply with her husband's sexual demands, because the husband is prohibited from obtaining sexual satisfaction elsewhere.

"However, a husband was forbidden to approach his wife 'like any animal.' ... he acknowledged that New Jersey law considered coerced sex between married people to be rape."

Charles, a former New Jersey state senator, declined to comment on his ruling. The husband, who represented himself in court, remains unnamed, as does his ex-wife.

While the judge in the case did not specifically mention Islamic or Shariah law, Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.com, said he might as well have.

"This is a ruling that is strictly in line with Islamic law, which does indeed declare that a wife may not refuse her husband sex under virtually any circumstances," Spencer said. "The only legal framework that would not consider marital rape to be sexual assault is Shariah."

But Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council for American Islamic Relations, said claims about Shariah law in the U.S. play into irrational fears about Muslims.

"It fits into the whole extremist Muslim-basher theme that Muslims are somehow trying to replace the Constitution with Islamic law," he said.

"That is absolute fantasy, and hateful. Islamic beliefs don't permit rape of any kind," he said, speaking of the New Jersey case.

Asked whether the imam's testimony contradicted that, Hooper replied, "It's just clear that a Muslim husband shouldn't do anything of this sort to his wife. It's just common sense. You don't need a religious figure to tell you that's wrong."

First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA, said, "The Shariah law debate is a total distraction," and he noted that in the U.S., two people may sign a contract and give an Islamic court the power to determine if the contract is breached. In a 2003 case, for instance, a Texas district court ruled that the private "Texas Islamic Court" should decide the amount a husband owed his wife in a divorce proceeding -- because when they got married, they had signed a contract specifying that was what they wanted.

But assault is illegal, regardless of any contract, Volokh said, and the Appellate Court in New Jersey ruled correctly.

"The claimed religious practice of non-consensual sex involved in this case is so heinous that almost everybody thinks that you shouldn't have the right to do that, no matter what your religious beliefs are."

The husband in the case has been indicted on criminal charges and is expected to face trial in the fall.

Donnelly said that, as far as she knew, her client had not had trouble with her ex-husband since they divorced. She added that she hoped the Appeals Court ruling for her client would set a precedent.

"This ruling will really help people coming behind her," she said.

Geico Car Insurance (commercials)

The Geico commercials have irritated me for some time. (Well, as you can probaby tell from this blog, most commercials have irritated me for some time.)

The Geico salesperson in most of these is a Gecko. The Gecko's boss is an old white guy executive who isn't very smart. (Indeed, isn't that interesting? Geico is trying to sell itself as a great insurance company, and their two main spokespeople are an incompetent/clueless white executive and a little green gecko?

One of the commercials is the white exec wanting to do a trust building exercise, where he's going to fall backward and let the Gecko catch him. Sure to get a laugh, because it's so stupid...but doesn't it really decrease your trust in Geico a bit?

Another one is where the exec takes out the first dollar he's ever made - that he's apparently saved for 40 years or so, because he wants to show it to the Gecko. Thing is the Gecko saw a dollar on the man's desk, decided to steal it, and treat himself to some potato chips (or crisps as they call them in England.) What's up with that? Teaching kids and even adults that if you see a dollar floating around in someone's home or office, it's just fine to pick it up and spend it? Well, apparently the Geico gecko seems to think so.

NFL Sunday Ticket (commercial)

I've seen this commercial a few times now, the latest today at 11.37 am eastern time on the MIlitary channel, during a doc on the CH-47 Chinook.

A reasonable channel to have an ad from NFL Sunday Ticket, of course, but the contents are just repulsive.

Very old man in a wheelchair, who is clearly out of it, sits with a Cowboy blanket over his knees, while his very young, blonde and Texan wife talks about NFL ticket. Meantime, a dog goes around peeing on Redskin memorabilia. I'm assuming the guy is a Redskin fan, and his new trophy wife is a Cowboy fan, so she's going to spend what little remains of his life making him miserable.

Do guys really think this is funny?

J. G. Wentworth - commercial

Way back in 1976, Peter Finch starred in Network. He was a newscaster who has a nervous breakdown on air, and advises his audience to go to their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."

Well, J. G. Wentworth is riffing on that with their commercials, where people who are getting insurance payments paid over time rather than a lump sum, yell out, "It's my money and I want it now."

There are two kinds of these commercials. ONe is opera singers, singing it, others have "real people" sitting in their cars or sticking their heads out their window, shouting into the nothingness.)

And J. G. Wentworth is going to help them get it.

Twist of Kate (TV reality show)

Kate Gosselin is a woman who has built a financial empire out of being over-fertile. She and her ex-husband have 8 children.

They were first featured in a documentary in 2005 called Surviving Sextuplets and Twins. Since that time Kate and her husband, and now just Kate herself, have starred in several reality shows featuring how they cope with their large family. I doubt if its representative of the real world - these people are paid millions of dollars to have cameras in their home watching their every move.

But that's it. This woman is world-famous, and her opinion matter to people (she is now co-host on The View) because she has 8 kids, and for no other reason.

SHe's also written 3 books. If Wikipedia is to be believed, women (I'm sure men don't give a damn) have bought over 500,000 copies of her books.

Gosselin has also written several non-fiction books. Her first book was published in November 2008, titled "Multiple Blessings." It debuted at number 5 on New York Times Best-Seller list, and sold over 500,000 copies by the end of 2009. Her second book, "Eight Little Faces", was released in April 2009, and also debuted at number 5 on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Her third book, titled "I Just Want You To Know" was released on April 13, 2010 selling approximately 10,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number 103 on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Her next book, titled "Love Is in the Mix" is currently slated for a 2011 release date

I confess that the thought of 500,000 people in the US or wherever being so interested in a woman who has 8 kids is disturbing. Perhaps a large part of it is because she is of course white, blonde and beautiful. (Plenty of other folk have 8 kids, but since they're matronly, and probably work menial jobs to keep themselves afloat, no one cares.)

The Big Bang Theory (sitcom)

I actually like this sitcom a great deal, but there's no denying that it's got devolution media written all over it.

Leaving aside the concept - 4 extremely smart guys and one beautiful woman whose intellectual capacity is only good enough to buy shoes...

There have been two episodes that really did an injustice to the name of science.

In Season 3, episode 18, "The Pants Alternative," Sheldon is afraid of public speaking so he gets drunk (accidently, on liquor Penny gives him) goes up to the podium and proceeds to moon the audience. Now, on the show that got a great big laugh. But in real life - he'd've been so fired the next day.

Similarly, Season 3, Ep 9, "The Vengeance Formulation," Sheldon's nemisis Kripke plays a practical joke on him. Sheldon returns in kind, only *his* joke catches some important college dignitaries as well as Kripke. Yes, very funny, but once again in real life, he'd be so fired.

Yet in the show, there are no consequences. Leading impressionable young teens to think, Jeez,there's no consequences for making someone look like a fool, or to play vicious practical jokes, it'll all be forgotten, so let's give it a try.

Parents who watch this show with their kids and teens need to point out this misapprehension to them.

Allstate Insurance commercial

Just saw an All State commercial I'd never seen before - 9.52 pm eastern time, A&E, watching Criminal Minds.

The ad is demonizing Wall Street executives. Shows a young, arrogant Wall Street exec in his car, talking coldly to the TV watcher, how he lost a million dollars, gets upset, slams on the brakes so that a woman behind him slams into him. So he's going to sue her because, "That's what I do."

So people should get All State.

So the demonization of executives continues. This is so bad on so many levels. Sure, a lot of executives spend all their money on large houses, with pools, and don't care about the little people, but they're not all like that and to portray them as evil, to create class hatred, that's not what the US needs right now.

Tampax (commercials)

There have actually been a series of commercials, in which a middle-aged but beautiful "Mother Nature", wearing a 1970s-ish skirt and jacket - I assume to look like some sort of exectutive, appears in a woman's life holding a box called "Monthly Gift" while looking extremely snarky and evil.

Just saw one onthe FX Channel while watching Deep Rising at 11.50am today. (A movie that is its own horror, but that's a rant for a different blog!)

What does this tell girls, and women (assuming any of them are watching this testosterone-laden movie, and I suppose any of those who like Anthony Heald or Treat Williams are)? Well, on one level, that other women, particularly executive women, are "evil," always ready to do you down.

On another level, I suppose it is trying to be funny. "Monthly gift" is one of the euphemisms for one's period, so presumably the creators are just tying to be funny, but there are underlying issues in how they portray "Mother Nature".

(And I've just looked on YouTube, and apparently these commercials are so popular that Tampax has its own channel devoted to them!)

The Back to the Future Date Hoax - Twitter

People believe what they read in newspapers, but most young people, who have no knowledge in back of them to judge anything they see, seem to get all their news from the internet...and worse than that, from "tweets" that other people send.

The latest debacle?

In the trilogy of movies called Back to the Future, there is one in which Marty McFly goes to the future, October 21st, 2015.

So a site called Total Film doctors - forges - a picture making it seem as if it were July 5, 2010. And everybody believes it and there is great excitement.

Now it's revealed to be hoax.

The question is, will any of the young people who were fooled by this be outraged? Will they think they've been deliberately lied to? WIll they realize it's a bad thing? Or will they think, "Ah, how clever, what fact can I write down to see if other people are stupid enough to believe it?"
'Back to the Future' Date Hoax Goes Viral

by Mike Ryan · July 7, 2010
Fireworks came a day late for "Back to the Future" fans this week after a film site ignited an Internet trend by declaring Monday, July 5th as "Future Day." The site, Total Film, tweeted a doctored photo of the date shown on the dashboard of the Delorean that "Doc" (played by Christopher Lloyd) and "Marty McFly" (Michael J. Fox) used as their time machine. The photo (see it here) showed July 5th, 2010 as the "future date" they'd be traveling to. Followers of the site's feed retweeted that pic, and then their followers retweeted the image and so on. Soon it became it became one of the most-searched terms on the internet and a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

Joe Jonas tweeted, "Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future after hitting 88mph in a Delorean in 1985." Ivanka Trump added, "Greatest fun fact EVER: Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future in "Back to the Future 2."

Photos: 'Back to the Future' among movies with prediction fails

The only problem? The whole thing was a hoax.

After the so-called "Future Day" news reached every corner of the Web, the site finally caved and admitted they'd pulled a fast one on the internet, issuing a mea culpa post: "We got it wrong. Apparently 5th July isn't mentioned in Back to the Future. So we went back and changed it..."

See them now: Stars who played 'Back to the Future' mom, girlfriend

As it turns out, the real future day is still a good five years off. It's on October 21st, 2015 that "Doc" warns Marty that there are a few problems with his kids, so they must go to the future to correct the situation. It's worth noting that most of the films predictions will likely not come to fruition: On the actual "future day," as depicted in the film, "Jaws 19" plays at the local movie theater (or, "holomax," as it's referred to in "Back to the Future") and the Chicago Cubs sweep Miami to win the World Series. Another popular myth is that "Back to the Future Part II" predicted the Florida Marlins winning a World Series long before there was a team in Miami. This is also false, because, well, it's not 2015 yet and the Cubs would have to win -- which, if statistics hold, will likely never happen.

If "Back to the Future" has taught us anything, it's that facts about the past (or future) need to be checked using an almanac, not Twitter. Also, we have five more years to create flying cars, the hoverboard, and 15 more "Jaws" films.

Alpha and Omega (animated movie)

I went to see Toy Story 3 today and loved it. Before the movie began, though, there were 5 or 6 trailers for movies, most of them utter garbage.

One of them, an animated one - intended for children - was called, "Alpha and Omega."

There's no plot up at the IMDB yet, except one sentence, "Two mismatched young wolves are thrown together by circumstance."

The actual plot as depicted in the trailer - a male wolf, who would be considered "not handsome" or a "nerd" if this were a movie about people, is kidnapped along with a beautiful female wolf, who would be considered beautiful if she were human) and released in an area of a forest where the humans of the movie expect them to breed and start a new wolf pack.

They attempt to return to their original home, and of course initially the beautiful female wolf has no interest in the nerd, but he proves himself to be brave and resourceful so I have no doubt that by the end of the film they are in love and will indeed have sex - though perhaps the kids in the audience won't be treated to that.

Very reminiscent of Bolt, with his cross-country journey with the "villainous" cat Mittens.

Utter garbage.

Note the way the characters are depicted below.

The male... just a male. Obviously a nerd. Probably in this pic looking at the alpha female in hopeless love, knowing that he could never have such a beautiul creature.

then look at the female .... sexualized. Flirting. Come hither look. Telling girls...yes, girls, if you want to get a guy, if you want "grrrl power" it's not about looking strong, it's about looking sexy and willing to go to bed with the first guy who tells you you're pretty.

Huggies Blue Jeans Diapers (Commercials)

The only commercial I've seen for these things - there may be others (http://www.remotepatrolled.com/2010/05/huggies-jeans-commercial-i-poo-in-blue/) has a young boy, 2 or what have you, wearing sunglasses, strutting along like he's cock of the walk in his blue jeans diapers, being stared at with lust by grown women and eventually grown men.

The idea is that the babies will look cool as they poop, and its for the trendy parents who follow ever style trend and don't hesitate to buy their younglings $400 shoes that they'll grow out of in two weeks.

Not that I expect these diapers to cost that much, but if they did, some dim bulb would probably buy them.

A Dozen Overweight Men in Mankinis

Apparently this was a photoshoot in London, England for a cellphone advertisement.

Here's my thoughts on the photos.

Replace all these 12 guys with 12 pencil thin, gorgeous models, and none of them will think they look beautiful.

Whereas I'd be willing to bet cash money that every single one of these pot-bellied guys still thinks he looks like God's gift to women.

That's the difference between the sexes...

Hannity.com (Talk radio host, Republican party)

I generally listen to the Rush LImbaugh show. I have on occasion tried to listen to the Hannity show, but I have to admit his voice gets on my nerves. He always sounds so... I can't think of the word.... but I prefer people who speak calmly.

In any event, a couple of weeks ago Al Gore and his wife Tipper filed for divorce. Or rather, Tipper apparently filed for the divorce. And there was great jubiliation among many Republicans, who thought...oh, some scandal must be responsible for this, something we can turn to our political advantage.

Now there's news that Gore was investigated for "groping" a woman in Oregon, and of course Republican sites (not necessarily Republican sites, but those of private citizens who are Republicans, and various talk show people) are saying, OH, this must be a cover up, why isn't he in jail, and so on.

Now, dont' get me wrong, I'm a Republican - or rather I have Republicnan principals, not something a lot of Republicans have these days, but I really find this salivating and "sharks gathering to feed" distasteful. It's like everything else - wait until all the facts are in until you start making accusations, instead of guessing and posting speculation as fact.

The Hannity website has a message froum, that also makes for interesting reading. It contains both Democrats and Republicans, and its interesting to read their arguments in which none of them are ever convinced by what the other person has to say.

But what is interesting is the deliberate misrepesentations that go on on these message boards. People read a sentence in a news article, and they riff on this until it's a whole big condemnation of Obama and his policies, or of a specific politician, etc. IT's just too funny, but rather scary at the same time.

CA Welfare Recipients Can Get Cash in Casinos

The article beloCw is from Libertarian Republican.net, and so of course is written with a political slant, but the facts are irrefutable. People who receive welfare - in California at least and doubtless through the US, gamble that money away on casinos, drugs, alcohol, etc.

In a system with ATM cards that was supposed to make it easier to track waste, fraud and abuse, how could this have been going on for 7 years?

My own solution - supposedly the government would know the names in which these cards are issued in. Anyone who has used their welfare benefits to play at a casino, cancel their account. Obviously if they have enough money to waste at a casino they don't need welfare money.

Casino welfare! California recipients Go Wild! with Taxpayer Money
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2010/06/casino-welfare-california-recipients-go.html
From Eric Dondero:

Seven years in office, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is just now uncovering a huge scam from the previous administration. In the late 1990s, Democrat Governor Gray Davis instituted a program that would allow welfare recipients to access "Fast Cash," out of ATMs. The ATMs included machines located at the States' numorous Indian-owned Casinos.

The money drawn from the accounts can be used for any purpose: Booze, Black Jack, Concert tickets, 24-hour Buffets, even tipping Cocktail waitresses. There is absolutely no accounting or oversight.

From the LA Times, June 24, "California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs":

The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.

State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards.
Schwarzenegger reacts:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who learned of the issue when asked to comment for this story, promised to take immediate action.

"We have instructed our vendors to prohibit these cards from being accepted at ATMs located in casinos and card rooms," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Wednesday. "It is reprehensible that anyone would use taxpayer money for anything other than its intended purpose."
Fortunately, this strengthens his hand against Democrat lawmakers screaming about his proposed "drastic" budget cuts to welfare programs. Continuing:

Schwarzenegger had already threatened to eliminate the state welfare program in his May budget proposal, and that was before he and his Republican allies in the Legislature knew that the cash could be accessed by people strolling from poker games to blackjack tables.

"In a time when we have a $19-billion deficit, and we're taking a serious look at the future of many safety-net programs, it's appalling to think that welfare beneficiaries can use their cards in a casino," said Seth Unger, spokesman for the Assembly Republican Caucus.
Meanwhile, Republican for Governor Meg Whitman has made cutting waste, fraud and abuse in California's massive welfare budget a key campaign plank. Also from the LA Times, May 17:

Whitman insisted that the state budget could be brought under control by targeting "waste, fraud and abuse" -- as well as making cuts to social services.
The State currently suffers from a $19.1 Billion deficit

.

Dairy Queen commercial

I really wonder what advertising people think about.

Witness this commercial. A family is driving down a highway, and the "responsble" ones, the mom and the dad, are leaning out of the car window shouting up at a Dairy Queen truck driver - yeah, way to promote safe driving.

Then, there's a clown in the back seat, tossing cofetti out the window onto the street - that's littering.

The two teenage kids are extremely embarrassed by their parents - of course that is de facto in media these days - the parents are idiots and the kids are always embarrassed by them...

And for what? I love Dairy Queen and everything about that commercial makes me think, Jeez, I don't think I'll be visiting them today.

Bones (ep Conman in the Meth Lab)

Okay, this isn't really "devolution media" per se, but I'm watching an episode of Bones entitled Conman in the Meth Lab. The main crux of the episode is that Seeley Booth (David Boreanz) brother, Jared, is an alcoholic, who always turns to Booth for help when he's done something bad - like have an accident. And Booth always sacrifices something of his to get Jared off the hook. And Jared is so grateful that he continues to get drunk and have accidents, knowing his big brother will help him.

But that wasn't really what caught my eye. (Hopefully brothers/sisters going through that will think - gee, maybe I should stop being an enabler.)

No, the interesting thing was an interrogatin between a woman suspect and Booth and Brennan.

"My husband's job barely pays the bills, and we're trying to have another child."

I heard her say that and I just went... what? You're having trouble making ends meet as it is, but you're still going to have another child, so that you can go even deeper in debt? But of course there's always that ol' welfare to rely upon, which is given out regardless of the stupidity of the recipient.

And I just wonder, how many times does this happen in real life? People on welfare have no hesitation in having child after child - they know the government (and our taxes) will keep them from starvation. And of course if you try to point out to them that they have no right to have children that they can't afford on their own - first, they don't understand the concept, and second, they'll say it is interfering with their right as a woman to have a child. (The woman, obviously, saying this.)

For myself, I don't think women these days have a "right" to have a child. Obviously it's an extremely easy thing for most women to do. Get a guy, a total stranger off the street, have some sex, 9 months later you have your baby. If you're lucky you know the name of the father, but of course he'll take no responsibility for raising the tyke, that's the mom's job and the government's responsbility to pay for it.

And it's the media - these TV shows, not necessarily Bones but others that I'll talk about in due course, that encourage people to have these thoughts that living off the income of others is perfectly fine.

Newlywed couple: Officer blocked us from ER during bride's stroke

I support police officers, and in times of crisis if they end up punching someone - even a 17 year old girl - who is disobeying their orders - well, them's the breaks.

But there is no denying that the following story illustrates that there is at least one cop who takes the "letter of the law" way too seriously. And the fact that the story continued to escalate is just ridiculous. Incompetence all the way down the line.

Fortunately (in one sense) the victims of this case of ineptitude appear to be white so they can't cry racism - it's a straight out case of a cop just being incredibly insensitive and stupid. [And other cops will be able to use this in future, "Oh, they just behaved so offensively because they were racist" trials by showing that, no, cops can be just as vicious toward white folks as well.

Many's the cop who will let a driver go with a warning...and this guy found it necessary to follow a couple to the emergency room and give them grief???

One wonders about the selection policy for Chattanooga police officers. Are they trained to know that if someone is suffering a stroke, every second is vital or they will suffer consequences for the rest of their lives?

Newlywed couple: Officer blocked us from ER during bride's stroke

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) – A patient, believed to be having a stroke, says an officer with the Chattanooga Police Department blocked her husband from taking her to the emergency room at Erlanger Wednesday night.

Aline Wright is a cancer survivor, amputee and a newlywed. Wednesday night she began to show signs she was having a stroke.

"I started feeling some left arm numbness and a facial droop," said Aline.

"It appeared to me that I was probably having a stroke."

That's when her husband of four days, Jesse Wright, put her in the car and rushed her to the Erlanger Medical Center. Wright knows an emergency. He is a nurse technician at Erlanger.

On the way to the hospital, Aline says Jesse treated two red lights like stop signs. He would stop and then proceed if no traffic was coming. After Jesse ran the second stop light one block from Erlanger, the officer turned on the cruiser's blue lights and followed the couple into the emergency room parking lot.

"At that point we figured because we were so close to Erlanger emergency department that the police would be aware that's where we were going," said Aline.

According to Aline, the officer caught up with the couple as they were attempting to enter the emergency room at Erlanger Medical Center. Aline says her husband was carrying her in his arms because she could not walk. According to Aline, the officer blocked the entrance and demanded answers for running the red lights.

"He picks me up in his arms and the officer continues to block the way into the emergency room," said Aline.

"He's standing between Jesse and I, and the emergency room doors."

Aline says eventually the officer allowed them to enter the hospital, but says he didn't stop there.

Aline tells Channel 3 Eyewitness News that once the couple was placed in a hospital room, the officer attempted to enter their room to arrest Jesse for evading the police.

Erlanger medical personnel then turned the officer away, informing him that since Aline could not speak Jesse was needed to answer questions for the doctors.

Thursday morning Erlanger security informed the couple that a warrant for Jesse's arrest had been issued, and suggested he turn himself in. Aline says Jesse went to the Hamilton County Jail to turn himself in that evening. According to Aline, jail employees told Jesse that they had no record of a warrant for him and told him he was free to go.

Jesse returned to his ailing wife's bedside at Erlanger Medical Center.

"I thought it was over," said Aline.

"But apparently it wasn't. I was awakened abruptly by people coming in the room."

On Friday morning the police were back at the hospital. This time Jesse surrendered to Erlanger Security who arrested him on behalf of the Chattanooga Police Department.

Channel 3 had the only crew there as Jesse was released on $7,500 bond, about eight hours after being arrested. He is facing seven charges related to Wednesday night's events, including felony evading arrest. He's due in court on July 9th.

Eyewitness News contacted Chattanooga Police today for their side of the story.

Lt. Kim Noorbergen says the officer was just "doing his job".

The department will not comment further until a formal complaint is filed with the Internal Affairs Department.

Aline Wright says she plans to file a complaint. The couple has already hired an attorney for a possible lawsuit.

An Erlanger spokesperson tells us by law their security guards are obligated to carry out any arrest warrant related to felony charges. The Erlanger spokesperson says once they learned the warrant for Wright's arrest was issued, and they learned he was in the building, they had to arrest him.