I am thinking of starting “phallology”

Send me a picture of your penis and $125 and I’ll tell your future.

Here’s a piece on “Rumpology.”

Stallone claims that the left and right butt cheeks reveal a person’s past and future, respectively. She says she has a degree in chemistry, but she must not have studied anatomy or physiology. She claims any doctor will tell you that the body is like a warehouse which stores everything. She thinks that the right buttocks represents the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain, while the left buttocks represents the right hemisphere. Her rump report, she says, can tell you “whether you are going ass-backwards (into that little closet called the left brain)” or are going forward with the right brain.

She even teaches others how to read the future by looking at behinds. José Miranda, for example, learned rumpology from Stallone. The Little Havana (Miami) soothsayer became a hit on the “phenomenally popular and raunchy late-night talk show ‘La Cosa Nostra’ on Spanish-language WJAN-TV Channel 41.”*

Miranda says that rump reading is “no different than reading a palm or someone’s eyes.” That’s no exaggeration. Rumpology works the same way as astrology, cartomancy, metoposcopy, palmistry, and getting messages from ghosts. Although Miranda’s live readings of scantily clad models adds a new dimension to the expressions cold reading, subjective validation, and sympathetic magic.

via rumpology – The Skeptic’s Dictionary – Skepdic.com.

Are we really surprised at this when we have prisons for profit?

Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, two judges in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, pled guilty to receiving cash kickbacks for sending minor juvenile offenders to youth detention centers and camps that are run for profit by Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp. One of the “youth offenders” was Hillary Transue, a 15-year-old girl who mocked her principal on the Internet. She was sent away to wilderness camp.

Let me repeat this: A 15-year old girl was taken from her parents and sent to a wilderness detention camp for writing something on MySpace.

Are we really surprised by this? Our for-profit criminal justice system trains more criminals each year than it rehabilitates. We invent crimes – including drug prohibition – to lock people up.  When every inmate is a dollar sign, children, like all citizens, become raw materials to be destroyed in the name of profit.

About 50 percent of the children who waived counsel before Ciavarella were sent to some kind of placement, the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center reports. In comparison, the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission in Pennsylvania found that 8.4 percent of juveniles across the state wind up in placement.

via Pennsylvania rocked by ‘jailing kids for cash’ scandal – CNN.com.

We need change.

Bong-busting boycott of Kellogg bubbling along

Bursting with indignation, legions of legalize-marijuana advocates are urging a boycott of Kellogg Co., including all of its popular munchies, for deciding to cut ties with Olympic hero Michael Phelps after he was photographed with a pot pipe.

via Pro-pot group smokes Kellogg for axing Phelps – Olympic Sports- nbcsports.msnbc.com.

Indignation? Let’s talk about indignation. For decades this country’s leaders have been riding indignation in order to fuel the prison industry. We criminalize and deny rights to otherwise law abiding citizens with a drug war that is financially cumbersome, and costs countess American lives through the violence that prohibition inevitably creates. Kellogg’s, after selling box after box with images of the record-breaking gold-medal Olympian, decides that his one-time private use of marijuana was “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.”

Well if marijuana use isn’t consistent with Kellogg, so be it, say the potheads. The website BoycottKellogs.net points to the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Kellog’s boycott page and over 70 Kellogg products to boycott:

Cereal and snack manufacturer Kellogg’s announced that it will not renew its sponsorship contract with 14-time Olympic gold medal champion Michael Phelps. A Kellogg Company spokesperson said that Phelps’ recent acknowledgment of marijuana use, and subsequent apology, was “not consistent with the image” of the company.

We disagree!

As NORML wrote earlier this week, it’s not Michael Phelps who should be castigated, but rather it’s the absurd and hypocritical laws that criminalize the behavior of Phelps and tens of millions of other successful and productive Americans like him that is worthy of condemnation.

Millions of Americans agree. In fact, in the past week dozens of high profile pundits and commentators — including Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, Stanton Peele in the Wall Street Journal, and Doug Bandow in National Review Online — have demanded a repeal of America’s archaic and overly punitive pot laws.

Michael Phelps is in good company. Nearly one out of two Americans have admitted using marijuana. Whether or not the most decorated athlete in history chooses to unwind during his off time with a glass of wine or a bit of cannabis is really none of the government’s — or our — business.

Please take time today to contact the Kellogg Corporation. Tell them that you oppose their decision to drop Michael Phelps and that, as a result of their actions, you will not be purchasing any Kellogg’s related products for the next three months (or until the company decides to reinstate the Phelps as their spokesperson).

Maybe Kellogg doesn’t deserve Michael Phelps.

Kellogg’s statement rejecting Michael Phelps wasn’t just a business decision. They could have quietly let the contract go. No, they had to make a point to say that Phelps – who trained hour upon hour a day, who pushed himself to be the best he could be for the country and who likely had a goal of being on a Wheaties box – because he was caught with one bong hit was “not consistent” with Kellogg’s. What is consistent with Kellogg except sugar coated breakfasts and the rise of diabetes in America? Fuck Kellogg.

And Michael, stop apologizing. Be a leader.

‘1969′

“What intrigued me was the pattern of how the dial of the ’60s got turned up in 1969,” (author Rob) Kirkpatrick says. “The revolution was no longer just in the city streets but had made its way to the suburbs. It was in Iowa and Indiana. It was even in Zap, N.D.” (Kids who had gathered there over spring break destroyed much of the town.)

Kirkpatrick says he was surprised when sections of his book began to emerge “organically.” Nixon and the covert war in Cambodia in winter. The rise of the sexual revolution in spring. The innocence of Woodstock in the summer. The tragic Altamont concert in California (one homicide and three accidental deaths) on Dec. 6, where the Rolling Stones played before an unruly crowd as the Hells Angels acted as police.

“The year played out in an arc,” Kirkpatrick says. “It had a definite and dark climax.

“People still point to Woodstock as the apex of ’60s counterculture but call Altamont, which happened just four months later, the ‘death’ of ’60s counterculture. It’s a fascinating concept: the heights and depths of a generational movement, all in one four-month period.”

That same dichotomy held true, he says, for technology. Man walked on the moon, while back on Earth pollution was so bad that Ohio’s Cuyahoga River went up in flames.

And then there was the soundtrack. Some pop culture experts say 1969 is all about the music. Led Zeppelin introduced heavy metal, The Who gave us the rock opera Tommy, the Rolling Stones were in top form. It was also the year The Beatles broke up.

“There were truly seismic shifts in music and popular culture” in the late ’60s, says Joe Levy, editor of the music magazine Blender.

Levy, 44, says “the reason we remember 1969 is because of the twin poles of Woodstock and Altamont. The community of peace and love and the nightmare of chaos and disorder…”

Jeremy Wallach, a cultural anthropologist with the department of pop culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, calls 1969 “the apotheosis and decline of the counterculture.” He, too, says the music of the day tells the story.

“After (1969) you see the rise of disco, punk, alternative, indie rock, heavy metal,” says Wallach, 38. “What’s interesting is this was the beginning of all these styles. You see what was to come. Pop music got a lot darker.”

Another telling sign of the times was that concertgoers wanted to be “part of the show.” “You can see it in footage from Woodstock. They were rushing the stage,” Kirkpatrick says.

Karal Ann Marling, 65, professor emerita of history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, says 1969 was much more than just Woodstock. “The whole late ’60s are a period,” she says. “I’m not sure we had a lot of hope, but we were bound and determined to have change.”

via ‘1969′: The year, and a book, that defined an era – USATODAY.com

NBC Story on the endless drug war

Prohibition is pointless and it has failed. Weed is part of our culture. Why do we spend countless dollars and waste countless lives fighting it? It’s time to end the war on marijuana.

Scientology lobbying to restrict rights of HIV+

Scientology cult to fight protesting by lobbying the county to ban HIV+ protesters. Isn’t this just a clarion call for more protesters?

While I believe most religion is a scam, Scientology is the scam king of them all.

Scientology is lobbying for the passage of a county-wide ordinance in Riverside County that would result in restricting protesting at “Gold Base.” Scientology lawyers are advocating that the presence of the two HIV-positive men presents a threat to the well-being of the alleged 500 workers at the Base, and is seeking to restrict protests.

Scientology Accused of Singling out HIV+ Protesters :: EDGE Boston

I agree: BART Cop Needs to Be Held without Bail

After seeing better video of the BART shooting, I’m convinced the officer needs to be locked up.

And why isnt this larger in the media? Are pre-judicial execution style slayings by police acceptable nowadays? Is this what we’ve done to America?

There is no reason for that officer to be walking the streets. Mehserle needs to be held without bail as he as an apparent danger to himself and society.

Neal Rodriguez: BART Cop Needs to Be Held without Bail.

Until justice is in place, more riots will happen.

Wake up national media! Report this! This is not a local story.

More evidence Bush abstinence-only policy is a failure

If only George Sr. And Barbara had abstained!

Note: Electoral win in 2004 notations, colors,  added by me. (I’m sorry Obama, old habits die hard. There’s just too much evidence to show that conservative policies found in Republican states have drastic negative consequences. This needs to be shown.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mississippi (R -2004, 2008) has claimed the distinction of having the highest teen birth rate in the United States, a figure more than three times higher than the states with the lowest rates, health officials said on Wednesday.

Mississippi, a comparatively poor state in the South, had a rate of 68.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. That marked a 13 percent increase over 2005.

Mississippi often performs badly in health rankings. For example, 33 percent of its population is obese, the highest in the nation.

New Mexico (R -2004, D -2008) (a rate of 64.1 per 1,000) and Texas (R -2004, 2008) (63.1) were next on the list, according to the CDC. Those two states had been tied for the highest in the nation the previous year.

Teen birth rates were highest in the South and Southwest (mostly Red R 2004, 2008) and lowest in the Northeast (all Blue D, 2004, 2008), the CDC said. The lowest rates were recorded in New Hampshire (18.7), Vermont (20.8) and Massachusetts (21.3), according to the report.

The only states with a decrease in teen birth rates from 2005 to 2006 were North Dakota (R -2004, 2008) , Rhode Island (D -2004, 2008) and New York (D -2004, 2008) .

The CDC previously reported that the nationwide teen birth rate rose in 2006 for the first time in 15 years. The national average was 40.5 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19.

Critics have said that one factor in that increase may be recent federal funding for so-called abstinence-only education that does not give information about contraceptives.

Mississippi has highest teen birth rate | U.S. | Reuters

Is Larry Flynt serious or is this some political message?

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” Flynt is quoted as saying on TMZ. “It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.”

Porn kings Larry Flint and Joe Francis go begging for a bailout

Discrimination is Expensive

TSA Officials And JetBlue Pay $240,000 To Settle Discrimination Charges

In a victory for constitutional rights, two Transportation Security Authority (TSA) officials and JetBlue Airways have paid Raed Jarrar $240,000 to settle charges that they illegally discriminated against the U.S. resident based on his ethnicity and the Arabic writing on his t-shirt. TSA and JetBlue officials prevented Jarrar from boarding his August 2006 flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport until he agreed to cover his shirt, which read “We Will Not Be Silent” in English and Arabic, and then forced him to sit at the back of the plane. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Jarrar’s behalf in August 2007.

Raed in the Middle: I Won

Mulatto on the Metro, and in the White House

I was on the Red Line yesterday morning, when a young woman caught my attention to show we are both reading The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. I was on my way out the sliding doors as she wrote her blog name on the final page of my copy.

In visiting her blog, she reminded me that we don’t have a black president, we have a mulatto president.

It is a beautiful thing we have a mulatto President, for we now have a leader, who, by his very existence, represents the epitome of the American Dream of racial harmony.

mulatto mayhem: The American Dream

I wholly admit now that I am mostly ignorant of this word. Wikipedia reminds me that it may be considered “pejorative and demeaning” in some cultures. But we don’t really use it here in the U.S., so I don’t know how people view it. Is it an insult? An “Invisible American Identity?” The woman on the train says she wants to blog to “curb the negative connotation of the word mulatto itself.”

An interestng conversation post by “Ben” on mulatto.org:

To be honest, when I first heard of Obama I never wanted him to become to Democrat President elect incase he won because the media with write him inaccuratly in history as the first Black President. That has happened and I’m very angry that the media are constantly referring to the mixed race Obama with a white up bringing as Black or African American. His white heritage has almost been erased from his public identity. And I find the smugness of both black people and white liberals with them referring to him as black really irritating. I can’t tell you how much anger I have to all these hypocrites who want to live in a multicultural society and less racist one but insist on referring to anyone who’s mixed race or has black ancestry as black.

My ignorance comes from growing up in a completely white suburb in a generally non-racist family. It’s easy to not realize how an innocent comment might be misunderstood to be something heinous. A friend of mine (yes, black) loves to tell the story of how, as we packed up a group picnic years ago, I was prepared to offer our perfectly good extra food to a family reunion at a neighboring pavilion. “Yes, Joe,” he said to me, “You walk your lilly-white ass up to that black family reunion and ask them if they want some fried chicken and watermelon.” I looked down and realized that was the bulk of the remaining food. I just figured they might be hungry.

By calling Obama “mulatto,” am I using a word innocently, or am I offering him fried chicken and watermelon? Is Ben’s anger at Obama being called “black” justified?

Pirates or Protectors?

Johann Hari has another researched point of view:

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to “dispose” of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.”

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: “If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters.”

This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged.

Johann Hari – You are Being Lied to About Pirates

Muslim Family Booted Without Even Using a Smokeless Bong

Interesting that this news piece happened the day I rented “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.”

"Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay"

A Muslim family that was ordered off an AirTran Airways flight on New Year’s Day said on Friday that they were told they could not reboard or rebook a flight on the discount airline even after security officials cleared them for travel.

Atif Irfan said in an interview with CNN that federal authorities removed him, seven family members and a friend from the flight after passengers overheard members of the group talking about the safest place to sit on the plane. He said they were being careful to avoid any “buzz” words like “bomb” that would trigger a security alert.

Muslim family booted off U.S. airline after comments | Reuters.

Barack the Magic Negro

Ugh! How disgusting! Yes, that was my first thought while hearing about the controversy surrounding Republican National chair candidate Chip Saltsman including the song in a holiday disk…. “It’s satire! It’s a parody!” scream the handful on the right who are standing up for the garbage.

OK, so I try to be fair and understand source facts in arguments. Yes, I know that doesn’t make for exciting blogging. Still, if I’m going to have an opinion it should be based on reality not imagination, right? So in doing a little research about this, I found a few interesting things. Unless you look into the controversy, you may not realize that:

• “Magic Negro” is a literary term used to describe a non-threatening black character in a story who helps the white protagonist using special insight or magical powers, often related to his race.
• The parody “Barack the Magic Negro” is supposed to be sung from the point-of-view of Al Sharpton, who in the song says Barack isn’t really black like Snoop Dog or himself.
• The song’s point is taken from a David Ehrenstein Los Angeles Times article that accuses Obama of being a “Magic Negro” for America, to help whites overcome white guilt by electing a black man.

So let’s identify the outrage: A prominent Republican included the song in his holiday CD sent to fellow Republicans. The outrage is that someone of such stature would include an arguably racist message in his all-but-official holiday greetings.

This begs the question, is “Barack the Magic Negro” parody? If it is a parody, especially because it was inspired by an opinion article, does this mean it’s not racist? Well you cannot ask this without looking at the lyrics to the song that was originally written by Conservative satirist Paul Shanklin in 2007. I got these from Conservative Culture.

SHANKLIN (Sharpton impersonator): Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.

The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s not authentic like me.
Yeah, the guy from the L.A. paper
Said he makes guilty whites feel good
They’ll vote for him, and not for me
‘Cause he’s not from the hood.
See, real black men, like Snoop Dog,
Or me, or Farrakhan
Have talked the talk, and walked the walk.
Not come in late and won!

[refrain] Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.

Some say Barack’s “articulate”
And bright and new and “clean.”
The media sure loves this guy,
A white interloper’s dream!
But, when you vote for president,
Watch out, and don’t be fooled!
Don’t vote the Magic Negro in –
‘Cause — ’cause I won’t have nothing after all these years of sacrifice

And I won’t get justice. This is about justice. This isn’t about me, it’s about justice.
It’s about buffet. I don’t have no buffet and there won’t be any church contributions,
And there’ll be no cash in the collection plate.
There ain’t gonna be no cash money, no walkin’ around money, no phoning money.
Now, Barack going to come in here and –

Wow. That was bad. Horribly, horribly bad. I don’t mean racist. I just mean incredibly lame. But it is using source material to poke fun at a societal issue. So yes, it is a parody (not satire).

But does this excuse the message? Let’s take a look at it. First of all, the lyrics are more an attack on Al Sharpton than Barack Obama. The lameness of the lyrics makes it difficult to really level an articulate position on what they say. Is it really about Obama being a Magic Negro, or about Sharpton being a greedy politician? To me, it’s more about Sharpton. It’s a poorly structured song with a garbled message.

So let’s go back to the source material: the David Ehrenstein Los Angeles Times article that accuses Obama of being a “Magic Negro” for America. This has likely been beaten to death in the blogs since it was first published March 19, 2007, but I am only reading it for the first time.

It seems obvious to me that Ehrenstein wasn’t expecting Obama to win.

Obama’s fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he’s written in his two (count ‘em) books, or even what he’s actually said in those stem-winders. It’s the way he’s said it that counts the most. It’s his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is “articulate.” His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn’t called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media).

Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn’t project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.

Ehrenstein joined the masses of pundits who believed that it wasn’t what Obama said, it was how he said it. Even Geraldine Ferraro all but called Obama a Magic Negro (she said he was only winning the Dem nomination because he was black). These pundits just didn’t get it, and they were wrong the whole way through the election. It’s not about Obama. It’s not about race. It’s about America. It’s about bringing in a new generation of leadership that will get past the arguing and old politics in order to tackle the problems we are facing – which seem to increase every day. To overlook that and assume anyone likes Obama for some magical reason based on race – and not because Obama has demonstrated knowledge, wisdom, temperament and leadership – shows an inability to get past race. This is itself racism.

So the leadership of the backward opposition political party demonstrates their narrow mindedness by sending a poorly crafted (and not humorous) parody of Al Sharpton accusing the first black president of being a tool elected by whites to magically save them from their own guilt. By sending the greeting only to Republican National Committee members, he further identifies his fellow Republicans as the party hung up on judging people by the color of their skin.

They can’t get past race. It’s got to be about race. Well this isn’t about race. It’s about the next generation of leadership, and the next phase in American progress. New generations are coming about – generations that don’t care about race or sexuality or old gripes. Obama is the first of many new leaders who aren’t your typical silver-haired white guy. When Republicans exhibit behavior that shows they are not ready to be a part of this new reality, they falter. That’s why this whole holiday CD thing is such a fiasco for them.

CNN’s Salzman Calls Obama a “Cusper,” Ignores the 13th Generation

CNN has it right, Boomers are out. (Finally!)  But Marian Salzman calls Barack Obama a “cusper,” as if a “cusper” is a whole new generation. “Cuspers” are those who are born when generations overlap and can provide a translation between the conflicting generations.

After strutting and tub-thumping and preening their way across the high ground of politics, media, culture and finance for 30 years, baby boomers have gone from top dogs to scapegoats in barely a year.

As baby boomers lose their authority and appeal, generational power is shifting one notch down: to cuspers (born roughly 1954-1965), who arrived in style in 2008 with their first truly major figure, Barack Obama (born 1961).

Commentary: Baby boomers out, ‘cuspers’ in – CNN.com.

But even calling Obama a  cusper is wrong. Wrong! Does CNN fear handing over the reins to Generation X? Fear not. Barack Obama’s attitude is very much Generation X: “Cut the crap. Let’s get this thing done.” Over 17 years ago, Strauss and Howe predicted Generation X’s leadership would be “nomadic”.

Nomadic leaders have been cunning, hard-to-fool realists, taciturn warriors who prefer to meet problems and adversaries one-on-one.

Barack Obama is part of the 13th Generation. He’s an Xer. Our time has come. Get over it.

Vegas and How the Country Needs to Change

America needs to regroup and rethink how we do things. David Sirota thinks so too.

We don’t stop driving Hummers around a warming planet just like we don’t stop building population centers in deserts, just like we don’t stop gambling when wages drop, just like we don’t stop wasting energy on casino signs. Why? Because it’s fun to drive tanks, live in desert climates, double-down on 11 and gape at bright lights in the big city. And during the years of cheap energy, income growth and seemingly endless water supplies, fun always trumped pragmatism.

That period, of course, has been supplanted by the Age of the Finite. And to its (few) sober visitors, Vegas implicitly asks whether our whole society is genuinely ready for that new reality.

Whether hanging Christmas lights in Toledo, buying SUVs in Boulder, taking long showers in Atlanta, residing in sprawly suburbs near Chicago, or overspending anywhere, we are all Las Vegans now. And because we have become so environmentally and economically interconnected, what happens in our own Vegas no longer stays in our own Vegas — it affects everyone.

Knowing that, are we ready to turn off some lights in our homes? Is it possible for Americans to forfeit McMansion dreams, drive smaller cars, take public transit, embrace water restrictions, or live in more sustainable geographies? Can we resist materialism, halt the bone-crushing stampedes to Wal-Mart, and stop needlessly spending beyond our means?

We all live in Las Vegas now | Salon

Are Straights Obsessed with Two Men Kissing?

Why are straight men obsessed with gay affection?

Poor James Franco. (And poor Sean Penn. But for the moment, poor James Franco.)

In the relentless publicity interviews he’s been doing for his new movie, “Milk,” there’s plenty to ask about his performance as the neglected lover of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the gay rights martyr. So what does every interviewer — from David Letterman to the Philippine Daily Inquirer to public radio’s Terry Gross — want to discuss most?

The kissing.

Wasn’t it really difficult to kiss another man? Implied: Without throwing up, seeing as you’re so obviously straight? Did you rehearse it? What was it liiiiiike?

Bullneck Reviews Life in Washington DC

Bullneck offers a review of life in Washington, D.C.upon his second anniversary of living in what he calls the “Federal City.”

(O)ne spot of brightness is the next plus to DC: it’s Youthful Population. Through a combo of university clusters here, a job market geared toward entry-level government or contracting types, and the continued population boom, DC has one of the highest percentages of folks aged 18-29 amongst US cities. In this sense I feel completely amongst my peers, and the city has an increasingly energetic vibe with a forward-looking bent.

Another pro, and it’s a big one for me, is the cluster of Cops here. I don’t need to go into explaining this one other than to say that whereas NYC is perhaps the only city which can even compete with the Federal City for more police visibility, it just plain doesn’t match up with the variety that DC offers through a combo of Federal and local agencies and the annual locus of police events here every May.

Con: Crime. However, despite the amount of police agencies and visibility here, DC remains heavily-affected by crime, especially violent crime. There are areas of the District and region I just plain don’t step foot into. I’ve never not felt ’safe’ here, but there’s a sense that crime is going to get much worse before it gets better.

Read the whole thing.

Sexualized Hazing and Bullying a “National Phenomenon” Fostered by Oppressive Environments

If you really know me, you realize I don’t really hang out with straight people. It’s not that I have a problem with them. I just don’t understand straight men much of the time, and stories like the “Sexualized Hazing” at an Arizona Cheesecake Factory show why.

I am very uncomfortable with straight men acting gay. I don’t mean putting on a lisp or something stereotypical like that. I mean straight guys making intense specific “joke” sexual moves on another guy. I guess to me a sexual move is for real. So if you are manhandling me, you better expect me to handle your man handle, if you know what I mean. But most of the time, that’s not really what is intended and a straight guy who realizes you really are gay thinks you’re a freak for actually enjoying the things he fantasizes about. I prefer to just ignore these mixed signals and hang out with gay people mostly. At least you have some clue where they stand.

I used to work in a restaurant in Philly, and quite honestly I miss the sexualized atmosphere. Yes, we all joked with one another. Half of the male waitstaff was gay. There was a bunch of teasing in the back of the house, but nothing quite like the kitchen initiation rituals going on at the Cheesecake Factory. This was insane.

“About 10-plus cooks and dishwashers shut the lights out,” Fitzpatrick recalls. “A guy grabbed me from behind and made me put my butt on top of his genitals.”

One cook grabbed Fitzpatrick’s right leg and held it up in the air. Another held his left leg. Two other men grabbed Fitzpatrick’s arms.

“A cook would stand in the middle and rub his genitals into my genitals,” Fitzpatrick said.

During his tenure at the restaurant, he suffered the attacks more than 20 times, he said. In interviews with The Arizona Republic, two other former employees of the restaurant chain described being similarly grabbed and held down by co-workers while men simulated sex with them.

Employees whom police interviewed described the incidents as “dogpile, initiation, joke, kitchen games, hazing, manhandling, horseplay and normal joking activity among Hispanic cooks.”

Hazing of a sexual nature is not uncommon. Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist from Long Island, N.Y., and an expert in conflict and violence, describes “sexualized hazing,” including sodomy, as a national phenomenon. But it’s more commonly found among high school and college athletics or in fraternal organizations such as the military or law enforcement.

Annie Lyles of Prevention Institute in Oakland, CA, talks about this kind of environmental behavior and how it is easily stopped by a few choice word, or prevented by policies and culture:

AZ Central: Bystanders can deter bullying

“One of the interesting parts about this situation (at Cheesecake Factory) is the connection between bullying, male violence and bystanders,” she said. “Having an environment that has norms where people are respected in the workplace prevents things like this happening.”

Research shows that if a bystander says something, bullying generally stops within 90 seconds and doesn’t recur, she said.

“There are all sorts of amazing research about the power of the bystander and the power of supervisors to really set standards,” Lyles said. “In this case, there was a key opportunity for a bystander to support the individuals who were being persecuted, really. That’s a huge failure of the environment.”

Every culture has aspects of violence as well as aspects of respect, she said.

“It’s easy to say this was cultural, but there are plenty of people of Mexican descent who are not violent,” she said. “In terms of why would men do this, I would say when there’s an environment that allows and fosters one group to oppress another, that environment lets it grow.”

A New Drug: HIV Drugs Getting Teens High

BBC NEWS | Africa | Getting high on HIV drugs in S Africa

Anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids are being bought and smoked by teenagers in South Africa to get high.

Reports suggest that the drugs are being sold by patients and even healthcare staff for money.

Schoolchildren have been spotted smoking the drugs, which are ground into powder and sometimes mixed with painkillers or marijuana.

Aids patients themselves have been found smoking the drugs instead of taking them as prescribed.

How long before this becomes an issue in the gay community?