Here We Go Again

Another kid, this one a little girl of fourteen, Laura Dekker, wants to sail around the world alone. She wanted to try at 13. Her goal is to be the youngest person to perform the stunt, and her parents say, yes. This kid is from Holland, and the Dutch courts blocked her for a year from attempting this reckless stunt, but yesterday, against the advice of the child protective agency, the court lifted its restrictions.

Adults are going to do foolish and reckless things, children should not be allowed to. Some folks think it should be up to the kid and her family, as if the world community doesn't have a stake in this. If the kid runs into trouble, the world is expected to respond with a rescue attempt. The decision to allow a little kid to sail around the world alone is selfish. She and her parents are all for this, for the glory that may come if the kid is successful. The parents put their child at risk for money, fame, that may come to her. But if she runs into trouble, rescuers would be expected to put themselves at risk rescuing her.

Fox News Race Baiting II

O'Reilly vs Rachel Maddow = No Contest

Bill O'Reilly thought / probably still thinks that he's in a league with Rachel Maddow and is capable of sparring with her. O'Reilly is a minor league player, who has bigger cable ratings, because he follows the FOX News formula of playing to the fears, prejudices and hates of the American fringe.

Ms Maddow, on her show last week, pointed out Fox News' role in promoting and distorting the Shirley Sherrod story. Fox News, observed Ms. Maddow, is different from other news organizations. "Just like the ACORN controversy, Fox knows they have a role in this dance. That's not new; that's not actually even interesting about this scandal. Fox does what Fox does."

That lightweight Bill O'Reilly, who used to write boring soft porn novels, thought he could put Ms. Maddow down by pointing out that his Fox News show, and other shows on the Fox News channel get higher ratings than Ms Maddow show, and the other shows on MSNBC. To Mr. O'Reilly, it must be all about the ratings and not about journalism, or honesty and truthfulness. He said to Ms. Maddow, that his program, "kick(s) your network's butt every single night, madam. And you have to be kidding me with this 'fake ACORN scandal' stuff? Unbelievable. Do you live in this country?"

Ms Maddow wiped the floor with the pompous airhead, with her response. "Because when you got all 'kicked your network's butt' and 'madam' on me, you really weren't trying to tout your network's ratings. You were trying to take the attention off me saying that your network, Fox News, continually crusades on flagrantly bogus stories designed to make white Americans fear black Americans -- which Fox News most certainly does for a political purpose, even if it upends the lives of individuals like Shirley Sherrod, even as it frays the fabric of the nation, and even as it makes the American dream more of a dream and less of a promise." See the video.

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

Girls Gone Wild Can Strip You Without Your Consent

In 2005 a woman goes to a bar, planning to drink and party.  Turns out the "Girls Gone Wild" video team is there.  Signs are posted.  However, she refuses to sign the consent form.  If there is a more clear way to signal "I do not consent" than refusing to sign a consent form, I can't think of it.

As she's dancing, the video camera is moving through the crowd.  As she turns away from the camera, a hand reaches out from behind it and pulls off her shirt. 

She says "No no no no," pulls it back up, and turns away.  Again - that's a pretty clear sign of not giving consent.  Saying "no" and putting your top back on.  

But somehow she ends up on the Girls Gone Wild tape anyway.  And when she sues?  The jury finds in favor of Girls Gone Wild.

WHAT.

Incidentally, there is a lot of talk of "the hand" or "a hand."  One article identifies it as a female hand.  I have seen the footage (thanks to - choke - Fox News) and it looks to me like:

A)    A male hand
B)    The hand of the person holding the camera.  In other words, the Girls Gone Wild cameraman.

The phrase that's getting thrown around a lot - including by the reprehensible Fox News anchor guy in that clip - is "implied consent."

Now, I agree that sometimes it's difficult to know whether or not consent has been implied.  In this case, people are arguing that she implied consent because there were signs posted at the bar that the Girls Gone Wild crew would be there.  The signs did not say "We may pull down your top, and by being here you agree to that."  The signs did not say "All your nudity is belong to us."  

A lot of this rests on slut shaming.  She's blonde and pretty and wearing a low-cut top, and in a bar dancing with a drink in her hand.  So obviously she deserved it.  In the words of the "Fox News Analyst," she implied consent by "jiggling those breasts around."  So of course she consented.  Heck, she asked for it.  She probably wanted it.  Why else would she have been there in the first place?

Sound familiar?  Yeah.  The same set of rationalizations are at work here as in rape cases.  I'm not saying that pulling down her top and filming it against her stated wishes (that pesky "No no no") is equivalent to rape.  But it does exist on the continuum of "unwanted sexual behavior."  

And it makes me wonder, how far do those little signs go?  What exactly do they cover?  If by staying in that bar she was implying consent to being forcibly stripped and filmed for commercial purposes, what else did she imply consent to?  What if that hand that reaches out from the camera pulled down her pants?  

For some reason, the fact that this case is about women and sex just throws logic out the window.  But I guess it's good to keep in mind that apparently a "We are filming" sign is equivalent to "We can strip you and sell the tape for profit."

A Green Stunt

Boat Made from Recycled Plastic Bottles

Today, Monday, aye, okay! The sailboat, the Plastiki, a 60-foot (18-meter) ocean-going craft, made largely from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles, managed to make its way to harbor in Sydney, after four difficult months of weathering ocean storms, during an 8,000 nautical miles journey from San Francisco, crossing the Pacific Ocean, stopping along the way at island nations, on a trip, a stunt, meant to raise awareness of plastic waste. How making a boat and sailing it for four months is the best way to do that? I don't know.

The boat was hard to steer, and according to an Associated Press report, the crew "struggled to maneuver into port, outside the Australian National Maritime Museum." A crowd as big as about a hundred people were on hand to welcome the boat arrive.

Gee! Only a hundred / rather only about a hundred. Maybe folks found other things to do? See the video.

Flying Pasties, Don't Leave Home Without 'em

Whether we like them or not, airport scanners aren't going away anytime soon, at least not until we get rid of this pesky problem with terrorism and whatnot. Despite criticism that they are an invasion of privacy, body scanners for now are a necessary evil. But now you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the humiliation of having your bits and pieces exposed to the ogling eyes of airport security employees with a clever product called Flying Pasties.

Flying Pasties are basically stickers that you insert underneath your clothes to cover up your more private parts. According to their website:

"Flying Pasties are NOT your typical 'Pasty' or 'sticker', they are 2mm thick 100% rubber and can obscure your private areas when you pass through airport scanners. No adhesive necessary as they simply slip into your clothing!"

There you go folks! Now you can go through the airposrt scanners without feeling any shame.


Bear Steals Car for a Joy Ride

Maybe the bears in Colorado are smarter than the average bear? Maybe they are just curiouser?

The Associated Press reported --" A bear got into an empty car, honked the horn and then sent it rolling 125 feet into a thicket, with the bear still inside -- The bear managed to open the unlocked door of his 2008 Toyota Corolla early Friday and climbed inside. A peanut butter sandwich left on the back seat is probably what attracted the bear."

Peanut butter sandwich, huh? I wonder if this bear watches television? Could it be too much Yogi Bear?

Tyler Baskfield, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said that bears are very smart. "It's not unusual for bears to open unlocked doors to cars and houses in search of food..It happens all the time."

Bear pretty smart, huh? Breaking into a Toyota? I bet this bear can't even read, huh? He sure doesn't read the news on the Internet. Toyotas aren't safe.

The AP reported a theory as to how the bear went on his joy ride. The joy ride may have been purely accidental.

I may have misjudged the bear.

Quote from AP --"Once inside, the bear must have knocked the shifter on the automatic transmission into neutral -- sending the car rolling backward down the inclined driveway and into the thicket. The door probably slammed shut, when the car jolted to a stop, trapping the bear inside."

Poor bear got himself trapped inside a Toyota!

The AP reported, "Neighbors had called 911, and deputies freed the bear by opening the door, with a rope from a distance. The bear then ran into the woods."

Smart bear! Got away from the Toyota! The owners of the car are complaining that the bear trashed the interior, as he tried desperately to get out of the car, and that before he left, he left "a present" on the driver's seat, a big pile of do-do. Well, darn, that bear was an auto critic.

Daniel Schorr Signs out.

Long Time CBS TV News Man Dies.

Daniel Schorr famous news man, long time CBS News reporter, (23 years), famous NPR, (National Public Radio), commentator, famous member of President Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies list" in the 1970s, died. today, Friday, July 23, 2010. The Associated Press is reporting that death came to Mr. Schorr at a Washington hospital after a brief illness. He was 93.

Mr Schorr is being remembered as the last of Edward R. Murrow's legendary CBS team who was still fully active in journalism. He was a journalist for more than sixty years. As a foreign correspondent, he reported from Moscow; Havana; Bonn, Germany; and other cities, breaking important stories during the Cold War. During the Watergate Scandal, he was CBS' chief Watergate correspondent. The AP reports--

"Hoping to beat the competition, (Mr. Schorr) rushed to the air with Nixon's famous "enemies list" and began reading the list of 20 to viewers before previewing it. As he got to No. 17, he discovered his name. 'I remember that my first thought was that I must go on reading without any pause, or gasp or look of wild surmise,' he wrote in his book 'Clearing the Air.' --'I do not know how well I carried off my effort to appear oblivious to the discovery of my name on an ominous-looking list, but I count this one of the most trying experiences in my television career.'."

Mr. Schorr won many journalism awards..His long career ended with his death. He was a senior news analyst and commentator for NPR on the day he died. Years ago, I met Mr. Schorr and had two very brief conversations with him.

Daniel Schorr, R.I.P.

Improv at the Mall

I so want my mall experience to be like this! YAY Improv- even if it is all pre-choreographed and slightly fake- it still kicks absolute ass over any mall experience I've had in my entire life.

What Happens When Nobody's Watching

In Bell, California there is still gold to be had, if the folks aren't looking. It's fools gold, as in snatching all the gold, no fooling.

Three so-called public servants of a small working class suburb of Los Angeles, with fewer than 40,000 residents, were helping themselves handsomely to the public gravy and piling biscuits on to their plates too. The three were paying themselves huge salaries. The Associated Press reports that, the town's Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo paid himself $787,637 a year, nearly twice as much as the President of the whole USA makes. Police Chief Randy Adams got $457,000, twice as much as the LA Police chief makes, and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia received $376,288 a year. To cover these huge salaries, and may be a few other things, property taxes in one of the poorest towns (Census figures from 2008 show 17 percent of the population lives in poverty), in Los Angeles County have doubled in recent years. These huge salaries were a secret until the Los Angeles Times reported on them last week. The citizens of the town were shocked and angry, and they demanded that the high dollar officials be fired.

After a week of citizen protests, the town city council announced, in the wee hours of this morning, Friday, that the three so-called public servants have agreed to quit, and without severance pay, but with huge state pensions! $650,000 a year for life, for Mr. Rizzo, more than $411,000 a year for Mr. Adams, and as much as $250,000 a year for Ms. Spaccia, when she reaches 55. She is now 51.

Ah, but the high dollar three weren't the only ones sponging up all the juice. The members of the City Council are paid very well too for representing a small town, in the middle of a recession, and if you buy it, a slow recovery. Four of the five hauls in $100,000 annually for part-time work. When this news got out, the local residents started shouting: "Recall!, Recall!"

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