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Athens, Greece, is burning. Let it.
Enter condoms, exit raunchy porn
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As the reality of condom regulation looms for California's porn machine, it is very, very, very, VERY likely the bulk of porn studios will simply pull up stock and leave sunny, trashy L.A. for another section of the country where their reportedly $8 billion annual revenue will be "welcomed" if, albeit, morally condemned. It's no secret to the other forty-nine members of the Union, L.A. (and California as a whole) is full of itself (ditto NYC); so this latest dig in, of all industries, adult entertainment is probably water cooler fodder but, hell, that's only for those fortunate enough to have a job from which to take a work break. The law which would legally require porn shoots use condoms is commonly referred to as Measure B.
Read all about it:
As the reality of condom regulation looms for California's porn machine, it is very, very, very, VERY likely the bulk of porn studios will simply pull up stock and leave sunny, trashy L.A. for another section of the country where their reportedly $8 billion annual revenue will be "welcomed" if, albeit, morally condemned. It's no secret to the other forty-nine members of the Union, L.A. (and California as a whole) is full of itself (ditto NYC); so this latest dig in, of all industries, adult entertainment is probably water cooler fodder but, hell, that's only for those fortunate enough to have a job from which to take a work break. The law which would legally require porn shoots use condoms is commonly referred to as Measure B.
Read all about it:
Feliz Ano Nuevo 2012
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I live my life to be able to look any man in the eye and, if need be, tell him to go to Hell. What you think of me is none of my business. To quote Johnnie Walker, Keep walking....
I live my life to be able to look any man in the eye and, if need be, tell him to go to Hell. What you think of me is none of my business. To quote Johnnie Walker, Keep walking....
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| New Years 2012 (Istanbul, Turkey) |
Greek airport security (Athens)
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I get the full-body pat down, including two-finger swipe around the inside of my waistband. And although the X-ray machines were being used they did not work either because my carry-on luggage had everything removed from it.
Read more: Don't Go To Canuckistan; ó Rick Steves Blows: Racist Greek airport security (Athens)
I get the full-body pat down, including two-finger swipe around the inside of my waistband. And although the X-ray machines were being used they did not work either because my carry-on luggage had everything removed from it.
Read more: Don't Go To Canuckistan; ó Rick Steves Blows: Racist Greek airport security (Athens)
So...the First Lady don't got back?
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I missed this news item (I don't have television in Athens) about a GOP somebody sneering about the First Lady's ample posterior...which, apparently, is not so ample after all...?
This rebuff comes courtesy of a website devoted to publishing photographs of Michelle Obama.
So...Michelle don't got back? They say the proof is in the picture (or was that pudding?)
I missed this news item (I don't have television in Athens) about a GOP somebody sneering about the First Lady's ample posterior...which, apparently, is not so ample after all...?
This rebuff comes courtesy of a website devoted to publishing photographs of Michelle Obama.
So...Michelle don't got back? They say the proof is in the picture (or was that pudding?)
I don't argue with Scientology. I ignore it.
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Scientology is so full of...itself. It wants to be academic (reachable) and inclusive while, at the same time, above it all (supernatural). And Scientologists are sure they can help me because they and their spaceship and yachts and compounds are the answer to the world's problems.
I used to not have any qualms about this group - and I still love Tom Cruise movies - but Scientology's smug self-importance has rubbed thin. When "fishing" they strive for debates -- albeit with a smile. I don't stop in the streets and argue with Catholics or Jehovah's Witnesses over their doctrines and I don't intend to do so with friendly Scientologists. Scientology's crusade against pharmaceuticals' over medication for Man's ills is all very real and good but L. Ron Hubbard, the man, was a big, fat phony.
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Scientology is so full of...itself. It wants to be academic (reachable) and inclusive while, at the same time, above it all (supernatural). And Scientologists are sure they can help me because they and their spaceship and yachts and compounds are the answer to the world's problems.
Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion. -L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction author who later started the Church of Scientology (1911-1986) |
I used to not have any qualms about this group - and I still love Tom Cruise movies - but Scientology's smug self-importance has rubbed thin. When "fishing" they strive for debates -- albeit with a smile. I don't stop in the streets and argue with Catholics or Jehovah's Witnesses over their doctrines and I don't intend to do so with friendly Scientologists. Scientology's crusade against pharmaceuticals' over medication for Man's ills is all very real and good but L. Ron Hubbard, the man, was a big, fat phony.
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Son of a field negro
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Seen on a man's T-shirt in Paris last month:
Seen on a man's T-shirt in Paris last month:
Son of a Field Negro
... the struggle continues
My memoir is better than his
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As this Penn State U. boy scandal unfolds, the dry turd is going to smell fresher and fresher. I just learned the title of Jerry Sandusky's memoir is, get this, "Touched" (2000).
Damn, and I thought my book's title was self-explanatory!
As this Penn State U. boy scandal unfolds, the dry turd is going to smell fresher and fresher. I just learned the title of Jerry Sandusky's memoir is, get this, "Touched" (2000).
Damn, and I thought my book's title was self-explanatory!
vs.
Bye-bye Berlusconi
Don't Go To Canuckistan; ó Rick Steves Blows: - What a difference a year makes. Last year around this time I was in Rome - saw the Coliseum, Vatican City, the pyramid, Sistine Chapel!...
(click title to read more)
From the fridge to the ditch
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The old pimp colonel has finally been dumped in the ground Muslim fashion after being on display P.T. Barnum fashion - how rightfully undignified! - in a commercial meat locker for relieved and curious spectators; Guess you can he went from the fridge to the ditch (sorry, I does like rhyme and cadence).
Qadhafi had it all -- and blazed out in a dramatic fall. It's been said so, so many times it's testament to human-ness: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. What part of that didn't you get Moamar? Jesus, it's like talking to a guy with shit for brains -- or a hole in his head.
Qadhafi had it all -- and blazed out in a dramatic fall. It's been said so, so many times it's testament to human-ness: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. What part of that didn't you get Moamar? Jesus, it's like talking to a guy with shit for brains -- or a hole in his head.
Qadahfi: The rat bastard is dead
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Oh so this is how you kill a rat dictator: click to see raw footage (graphic)
And, yeah, he really was a bastard...didn't have or even know his French father.
Oh so this is how you kill a rat dictator: click to see raw footage (graphic)
In honor of his favorite color, the link is green!
Failed multiculturalism in Germany
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Germany's chancellor, the über Teutonic Angela Merkel, had some tough words to her nation: this whole intermingling diversity thing just ain't working.
Germany's chancellor, the über Teutonic Angela Merkel, had some tough words to her nation: this whole intermingling diversity thing just ain't working.
Michael Stern Hart 1947 - 2011 (E-book pioneer)
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Mr Hart is the man we have most to thank for electronic books, or e-books, as we now know them. Way, way back in 1971 (the "personal computer" didn't even exist because conventional wisdom cried, Who would want to take work home?) as a freshman at the University of Illinois he had access to the mainframe computer and, bored silly, typed the entire Declaration of Independence into the system. When six people downloaded it the young Hart was encouraged to go forth.
He called himself a "cyber-hippie" (but did a stint in the US Army before college) and would go on to found Project Gutenberg, an online library. Quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1999:
Project Gutenberg
Mr Hart is the man we have most to thank for electronic books, or e-books, as we now know them. Way, way back in 1971 (the "personal computer" didn't even exist because conventional wisdom cried, Who would want to take work home?) as a freshman at the University of Illinois he had access to the mainframe computer and, bored silly, typed the entire Declaration of Independence into the system. When six people downloaded it the young Hart was encouraged to go forth.
He called himself a "cyber-hippie" (but did a stint in the US Army before college) and would go on to found Project Gutenberg, an online library. Quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1999:
I'm not doing this to make the academic community happy. I am a revolutionary in this neo-industrial revolution. That's why they have trouble with me. How can anyone be troubled by free information?He died in Urbana, Ill. He was sixty-four.
Woman journalist questions male audiences preference for action heroes
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This summer's unleash of comic book heroes on the big screens prompted Tribune newspapers writer Rebecca Keegan to pen "Flex time" in which she questioned the merit of so much cinematic muscular action on male audiences. Her cornerstone concern: Muscular summer actions have swaggered back into style [as opposed to the prima donna pretty boys, anti-heroes, and boyish action stars like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider Man] but what are they saying to male audiences?
My beef with this 'concern' is why isn't it ever asked aloud regarding the chorus line of effete, scrawny, unmanly and queer characters ubiquitous on television (cable and network) and popping up all over movies? Seems to be that influence warrants an obvious "Hmmm?" But it's not asked in the Tribune newspapers or Newsweek or sophisticated style magazines - Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair - because that would come off as, oh, intolerant...small-minded...homophobic...male chauvinistic.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - the wonderful actor Guy Pierce was very believable! - Glee, The Big Bang Theory (which is not remotely funny), Ugly Betty apparently say nothing of import to the blockbuster demographic 17-34 y/o males but too many macho images and intellectuals want to organize dialogues. Thor, Captain America, the Green Lantern, Conan the Barbarian, and HBO's "Game of Thrones" all cut a swath through viewership this summer. No shortage of testosterone and biceps there!
All these manly muscle men leave some experts, according to Keegan, to "tempt men both in and outside of show business to consider using illicit products to keep up" because, hey, "steroid use still occurs in Hollywood." There are also dozens of fitness centers and body transformers ("gym" is oh so Neanderthal) and real live models all over L.A. fueling the billion dollar fitness industry. It is possible for boys and men to improve self-esteem via building muscle and to go at it naturally and sanely. The question isn't what influence behemoth action characters have on men - that's obvious - but why male audiences still prefer said characters? But, then again, that's obvious too --it's just a thorn in some academics' sides.
This summer's unleash of comic book heroes on the big screens prompted Tribune newspapers writer Rebecca Keegan to pen "Flex time" in which she questioned the merit of so much cinematic muscular action on male audiences. Her cornerstone concern: Muscular summer actions have swaggered back into style [as opposed to the prima donna pretty boys, anti-heroes, and boyish action stars like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider Man] but what are they saying to male audiences?
My beef with this 'concern' is why isn't it ever asked aloud regarding the chorus line of effete, scrawny, unmanly and queer characters ubiquitous on television (cable and network) and popping up all over movies? Seems to be that influence warrants an obvious "Hmmm?" But it's not asked in the Tribune newspapers or Newsweek or sophisticated style magazines - Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair - because that would come off as, oh, intolerant...small-minded...homophobic...male chauvinistic.
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| Jason Momoa as Conan |
All these manly muscle men leave some experts, according to Keegan, to "tempt men both in and outside of show business to consider using illicit products to keep up" because, hey, "steroid use still occurs in Hollywood." There are also dozens of fitness centers and body transformers ("gym" is oh so Neanderthal) and real live models all over L.A. fueling the billion dollar fitness industry. It is possible for boys and men to improve self-esteem via building muscle and to go at it naturally and sanely. The question isn't what influence behemoth action characters have on men - that's obvious - but why male audiences still prefer said characters? But, then again, that's obvious too --it's just a thorn in some academics' sides.
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| Original Muscle Beach in Venice Beach, CA |
It could be worse
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And, Lawd, don't I know it first hand! This is me working at optimism during peaceful, good times: It could be worse. I tell myself this now so as not to be broadsided by the sudden ill wind. Of course it can always be worse or better, but compared to what?!
I use specifics.
Although I'm without steady work it could be worse:
And, Lawd, don't I know it first hand! This is me working at optimism during peaceful, good times: It could be worse. I tell myself this now so as not to be broadsided by the sudden ill wind. Of course it can always be worse or better, but compared to what?!
I use specifics.
Although I'm without steady work it could be worse:
- I'm in a much, much, much better situation than General Qaddahfi. Here is a man who has gone from ruling and owning a country for 42 years to hiding in underground tunnels -- like a rat. On top of that media outlets can't agree on a uniform spelling of his name. Damn, you'd think a world leader would at least have his name gotten right.
- I have a clean place to sleep and eat and take hot showers and work online.
- I have helpful friends.
- the funds are low but I'm not piss poor broke! nor hounded by creditors.
- I'm not washed up like lesbian Lindsay Lohan
- I'm not a worthless piece of shit like the pitiful lot of homeless addicts I see in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Scary mofos!
- I don't have broken bones
- my sense of humor is still intact, too
Greendot prepaid cards = ANOTHER SCAM
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Avoid the trap of buying one of these cards. Consumer complaints about them and PayPal are eerily similar: THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY and give you the runaround about sending out an investigation team.
Avoid the trap of buying one of these cards. Consumer complaints about them and PayPal are eerily similar: THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY and give you the runaround about sending out an investigation team.
The Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial (D.C.)
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The new memorial sits on the Washington Mall between statues of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and stands a huge 30 feet tall.
"...A stone of hope" is so much more than President Obama has turned out to be. Instead of laying down a standard of new shoes to fill the nation's first black president - just saying that still rings amazing - proves just how hard it is to match up to a giant of a man who was a helluva leader.
The new memorial sits on the Washington Mall between statues of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and stands a huge 30 feet tall.
The statue depicts King emerging from a stone. The concept for the memorial was taken from a line in the "I Have a Dream" speech, which is carved into the stone: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." Visitors to the memorial pass through a sculpture of the mountain of despair and come upon the stone of hope.
"...A stone of hope" is so much more than President Obama has turned out to be. Instead of laying down a standard of new shoes to fill the nation's first black president - just saying that still rings amazing - proves just how hard it is to match up to a giant of a man who was a helluva leader.
My beef with FedEx
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Before leaving Mexico I shipped a parcel to a relative in the States. Using the online tracking system I saw the parcel arrived to FedEx office in Virginia where my relative lives. Next thing I know I'm receiving a text from my relative saying the package was back en route to Mexico! Turns out the lazy bums NEVER - never - tried to deliver the parcel to the house address but, instead, relied on telephoning the house. Since the phone was never answered FedEx returned the item from whence it came and refused to send it back to Virginia because the company didn't want to pay for the cost.
Back in Mexico I figure I could have a friend pick it up. No dice. Mexican Customs assigned a $117usd cost to it and unless I 1) paid the Customs fee and 2) paid another delivery fee the parcel is to remain in FedEx warehouse -- barring no employee has stolen it already.
Since FedEx took my money and failed to actually attempt to DELIVER the parcel and in the act of returning it "to sender" incurred a steep Customs charge I feel I don't warrant fault at all. I've spent months calling telephone customer service and really worry the parcel, which I went through so much effort to mail, will be stolen.
This sounds like a matter for the small claims courts.
netSpend is a bogus, sneaky business
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I went out and bought a netSpend debit card from a typical check cashing store in order to book a room at a nearby hotel whose policy it is to not sell to non-plastic customers. (Has this credit crisis taught Americans nothing?) It takes only 4.95 to get the card going and I started it with ten dollars. Afterwards I promptly called the company's activation number, entered a PIN and had the card activated. Was able to book the room online (but I still paid for the room in cash, thus not using any of the ten dollar balance)!
When I went back to the check cashing store to add money to the card I was told the card was blocked. When I called the company the rep explained my account/profile was insufficient unless I sent verification of address plus my SSN card. What?! Apparently my identity doesn't match up with my identity although he was "prevented" from detailing exactly what information was askew in the name of "privacy." Right...so how exactly can I remedy the confusion if I don't know where the confusion starts?
more complaint stories about netSpend
At any rate if this so-called financial institution can't research and validate one's SSN and gov't approved identification (I used my passport), then how much better can it do with a copy of my SSN card - which is NEVER accepted as proof of person - and L.A. address?? Barring these documents I "do not qualify"...for a disposable debit card. Right....
Then he goes on to try to confuse me with credit versus debit versus gift certificate; and depending on how I used it I could purchase items via credit or debit. I wasn't buying it.
a debit card is a debit card, not a credit card!
- For one, netSpend is not a credit card. Therefore I shouldn't have to "qualify" for credit.
- Secondly, debit means I am spending my own money; what I use is from what I put in -- and there is no qualification to spend one's money.
- Thirdly, netSpend just as quickly takes money for everything: 50cents to check your balance offline; $1 to $2 for shopping with it; and another monthly fee to maintain it.
I told the netSpend rep he was full of shit and so was netSpend's sneaky policy, and that I would not be faxing over any further documents.
I had to contact them regarding this "blocked" business. A real bank notifies its customers when something is not quite right but netSpend told me it doesn't contact customers for, again, "protection of privacy". Bull! I'm filing a consumer complaint and one with the BBB.
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