Yummy Treat

    Those of you who ask for the bacon posts have the ultimate waist expansion delight to be found. Look to Texas for Chicken Fried Bacon with Country Gravy.

  Speechless.

Media Moment

  As someone who sees a ton of websites as part of my side gig at BlogPrWire, I've noticed a ton of mum bloggers who are outraged because of a commercial airing on Spike TV.

  In a targeted advert, Axe plugs a detailer designed to clean your balls. While there are numerous euphemisms (and a few stereotypes), it's pretty clear that man balls are the ones Axe is talking about.

Watch the ad for yourself (various shorter ones have also aired after complaints) and see if it disturbs you or whether you find it acceptable.


  I personally find the commercial in  bad taste, but I'm also considering the network it is aired on as well. I saw the commercial tonight while my housemate was watching wrestling, which I find inappropriate for young viewers anyways. It's also a network that specifically targets the college-aged man with shows like Manswers and 1000 Ways to Die. It's a channel that honours tastelessness and immature adult behavior, so the ad seems to fit in with the format.

  While I imagine that it is probably shocking to some parents to see this, maybe those parents should be monitoring the channels kids have access to instead of expecting Spike to be their nanny. It's a crass channel with suitably crass ads during shows that your kids probably shouldn't be watching. If it is absolutely awful to you, change the channel.

A Turn For The Worst: When The Tide Turns Into A Toilet

Article first published as A Turn For The Worst on Blogcritics.
  The right has taken a dangerous turn where candidates like Christine O'Donnell and Carl Paladino actually have scored  nominations and brought publicity for their ridiculous agendas.
  Christine O'Donnell actually beat moderate incumbent Mike Castle in Delaware's GOP Senate primary in a stunning upset that will essentially ensure a Democratic win in the Senate race come November. Her win is a glaring example of the disturbing trend where Republicans are fighting against the rights of others as opposed to truly being representatives of smaller, less invasive government.

  Some of you may have seen and heard tapes of Ms. O'Donnell demonizing masturbation and spreading lies that abstinence-only education actually works. As a Republican, one would expect fiscal responsibility, but she is swimming in personal debt. The founder of Savior's Alliance For Lifting The Truth firmly believes that her theological beliefs should have dominion over the most private affairs. (Pardon the Maddow intro)


Here's yet another video of the homophobic candidate's misinformed discussions from the 90's. In it she claims that condoms and needle exchange programs do not reduce the spread of disease (and if they do they give people a false sense of entitlement to continue lifestyles she doesn't agree with) and that AIDS-afflicted individuals are so because of their own faults and that gays are to blame. (the discussion started because of a call about a drag queen ball) She likens AIDS to heart disease, and under this theory, maybe heart disease charities get too much funding too.


  People like Ms. O'Donnell block attempts to minimize disease under the guise of morality. they work to deny life-saving prevention measures and drug rehabilitation. By pushing a theological agenda and spreading hateful stigma, they are actually partially responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst young people. The fact of the matter is that over 80% of global HIV cases are amongst heterosexuals who abstain from drug use, a point that is lost on those who want America to become a theocracy.

  Like it or not, the vast majority of human beings masturbate. Self-satisfaction has even been captured in utero and amongst infants, and they're probably not lusting. And even if so, so what? Pretending that sex doesn't exist will not make it go away. People have been having sex since the beginning of time, all around the world, in various positions, and for various reasons. Even while I'm writing this blog someone, somewhere is having sex, and hopefully they're having safe sex.

  HIV/AIDS is also a serious disease, and denying treatment to those afflicted may make them die quicker, but they're going to spend less time being productive citizens before they pass. And most of those with HIV do not know that they are infected, so telling youth that condoms do not prevent the disease makes the hyperreligious agenda an accessory to transmission.

  Christine O'Donnell is merely a symptom of a disease striking the western world- one of paranoia, hatred, and denial. This extremism has afflicted all political spectra and is an attack on your personal freedom and that of your neighbours. And if you're Republican, go and take a look at the principles and do note that the dangerous trend in the party is absolutely contrary to what it is supposed to represent. If you think that theocracy and democracy can coexist, look at Iran and give your head a shake.

  I'd like to thank all of you who voted for Christine O'Donnell for handing the Senate seat to Chris Coons on a silver platter.

"The best lack all conviction while the worst are filled with passionate intensity." - W.B.Yeats

The Power of a Tweet

 I remember when Twitter was small. You were a big cheese if you had ten thousand followers, and then minor and then major celebrities signed up to interact with fans on the road, spread the word about charities, or simply because it is less of a pain in the butt as Facebook.

  I joined after someone (who has now become quite famous and shall thusly remain anonymous) told me about Twitter in a MySpace message, and after figuring it out, I quite like it. There's few weird apps, a ready timeline, and nobody asking if you want to join their imaginary mafia for the 142nd time.

 Twitter has blown up, and there are tons of kids who follow their favourite actors, writers, and politicians. And those in the limelight are often bombarded with follow and tweet requests from their admirers. While some of us old farts might find it silly, it can really make some kid in the hospital's day if Justin Bieber or Jay-z wishes him a happy birthday.

  Today an auction began, and I'll admit that I was cynical at first. Influential twitterers are being asked to auction off follow requests, mentions, and retweets. Part of me thought this idea messed with the integrity of Twitter in the way that sponsored tweets does, but I figured I'd still read up on the reasoning behind the auction before passing judgment.

  As it turns out, all proceeds of the auction are going to benefit disabled and orphaned children in Haiti. Through aHomeinHaiti.org , kids who might otherwise be left to die will be given an opportunity to have food, shelter, and adult mentors to see them on their way to becoming the generation that affects real change in the troubled nation. When you help the smallest members of a society, you become huge in my eyes.

  I'm not surprised that so many of the famous have lent their names to such a noble cause and more should jump on board. Like it or not, celebrity is a huge thing in our society, but I'm thrilled that fame is being used for societal betterment as opposed to staining it like notoriety so often does.

  Chances are that large businesses are going to win most of the auctions, but why not band together to make some sick kid's day with a united mega-donation? Or why not make a smaller donation just because it is the right thing to do?

  If you want to change a kid's life TODAY without waiting to see if you've won an auction wander over here and drop a dime in a bucket that will hopefully fill to the brim. I may not be a celebrity, but you'll be a hero not only to me, but an innocent who needs their voice heard.

" the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the fear of being unloved" - Mother Teresa

Lunchtime Quickie

 Watch this commercial. Yes it is 34 seconds of your life that you will never get back, but do it anyways while eating your McWhatever.



  This advert is about adult literacy, a pretty serious thing. I know several folks who never learned to read for various reasons.

But the ad tells people to 'look under learn' as a solution to their issue.

Are they taunting people? Who the hell came up with the idea to tell people who can't read to pick up a phone book? These ads have been running for years- are people too PC to point out that the commercial is just a tad goofy?

  This series of ads might be the most unintentionally hilarious series still running.

Scumbag Of The Weak

  This is William Bendert, Pastor of a Lutheran Church in Lake Orion, Michigan. And he is one depraved individual.

  The perverse preacher was arrested after showing up to a hotel in the hopes of offering 'sexual training services' to what he thought was a mother and her 11 year old daughter.

  The shameless married man courted an FBI informant online thinking it was a mother who wanted spiritual and sexual training for her child. He bragged about having no sense of guilt and of having offered the molestation service to other girls in terms so morally repugnant I'm not going to post them. (If you absolutely MUST, you can read them HERE and HERE) The disgusting 51 year old sworn to protect children sent e-mails so someone he thought was a child discussing sex in disturbing detail and the 'games' that molesters play to relax their victims for their purposes. What's worse, he engaged in most of the behaviour from his office in the church.

 People often opine that priests are pederasts because they are not allowed to marry, but look at this bastard- he's married. Seriously damaged people enter into positions of influence at a disturbing rate to get closer to their prey. The trusted servant of God could be Satan in cloth. It is becoming so difficult to know who to trust that I can understand why parents are so protective. The stain on humanity above is exactly why we must be constantly vigilant.

  As for 'Mr.' Bendert, I hope he rots in Hell after a very lengthy prison sentence. After this arrest, I wish for every baby this slug touched comes out of the woodwork and he does life shacked up with some thugs who will show him a new definition of training. There are no words to describe how much I absolutely hate someone who harms a child; all I can do is wish all of the merciless misery in the world upon his head.

  Watch your kids. You have no idea who may be watching them.

The Power of a Word

  In the natural childbirth movement there is a term that hits far too close to home.

  Birth Rape is a term used by home-birth advocates to describe what they see as violations that occur when giving birth in a hospital setting. Some women do indeed experience traumatic births. There are doctors who seem cold and disconnected, episiotomies, and an audience.

  According to advocate Amity Reed, it is something sinister. She describes hospital birth in the following way :
"Fingers, hands, suction cups, forceps, needles and scissors ... these are the tools of birth rape and they are wielded with as much force and as little consent as if a stranger grabbed a passer-by off the street and tied her up before having his way with her."

  Now I will agree that some instances of hospital birth, and birth in general can be traumatizing. Women are at their most vulnerable. Some of the experiences I've read about do indeed sound like an awful way for a child to enter the world. There are bad doctors, and in some instances women who do not seem to understand that the birth experience is not a painless, pretty thing. Childbirth can be a pretty awful way to spend a Sunday, but it isn't rape.

  Rape is something entirely different. I know this because I've experienced it (And yes Whoopi, it was 'rape rape', actually more like 'rape rape rape rape'.) Rape is a weapon of war or power. It is a dehumanizing hate crime that often leaves its victims with permanent mental or physical injuries, forced pregnancies, diseases, and even death. If you ask any of the mothers in Congo or Bosnia whether there childbirths and involuntary violations were the same thing, every one of them would reply that it is not. While you may not consent to every specific procedure, you did volunteer to bring a child into the world. For the most part childbirth is an option while being attacked in the worst way by 4 miscreants who are trying to kill you is not.

  The concept that a life-saving Caesarean Section is the same thing as the worst possible experience that can happen to a human being is insulting. Calling traumatic birth rape actually increases the amount of trauma that the person may feel. Difficult births do happen but casting them in the same light as a grotesque sexual violation turns a doctor into a potential rapist- a term that is undignified at the least and slanderous to be sure. The term Birth Rape is a deliberate attempt by natural-birth advocates to demonize physicians and cause fear in already scared women.

  There are few things I've found more repugnant than the use of a metaphor such as rape to represent something that it is clearly not. This is an inappropriate insult to every human who has survived the real thing and unnecessarily cruel to women who choose to give birth in hospitals. This is an inaccurate representation used as a ploy by women's advocates who should know better.

  We must get this repulsive term out of the mainstream.