So I'm sure many of you read about the topless coffee shop and the interview with some of the waitresses and the 150 applicant pool for 10 positions. Here is what I think about it.
Firstly, I hate it when women state the common argument "no, I love it...I find it very empowering, not degrading" because it's so stupid and illogical as that waitress said. I was so shocked to hear that. Why could not she just be honest and say "I need the money" instead of lying?
So to those of you who are advocates of such coffee shops, please cut the nonsense, how is it NOT degrading?? You're being viewed as an object, not as someone who's opinion matters. If those men got their way, they could get rougher not more respectful. Respect comes with power. And those women are not in a position of power; they are serving coffee to those in power. How's that "empowering?"
Via FP Passport: Piracy in Lebanon is being crushed quite literally. And I really like this picture because it demonstrates that so powerfully. All those illegal CDs, DVDs and hours of great movies being crushed. It reminds of drag racing cars being crushed in the US as it is illegal here.
Associated Press: A 9 year old son wrote a school essay in which he mentioned his Dad shooting him in the derriere with a BB gun once. The school teacher showed the essay to the authorities which ended up having the Dad arrested.
First of all, if I was the teacher, I would have not believed it knowing how wild imaginations can get from 9 year olds. So good work teacher! Good work in knowing when a child is telling the truth and when not.
Secondly, why would the Dad shoot the son? There was no description of that by the Dad who may now spend six years in prison. Kind of silly how the kid wrote this in an essay. This probably means think before you write if you want to hide something. Of course the Dad does deserve some punishment, but I won't be the judge to how much. A very weird story indeed.
Indonesian women are protesting HRC's upcoming visit. According to Reuters, they are saying "you are not welcome here Hillary!" The reason for the protest is due to HRC's ties with Israeli lobbyists. The women are saying that HRC has no interest in diplomacy with the Muslim world except for defending Israel.
This was expected. Hillary will have a tough time carrying out Obama's agenda as she has ties to the complete opposite of what Obama would like to do. She basically disagreed with Obama's positions on Israel and Iran during the campaign. What makes anyone think that she'll happily give up those previously held notions for the POTUS? No one is that subservient. This is why I still don't understand Obama's picks. Why is he not picking someone who can actually pass his agenda rather than someone who can destroy it? He is focusing too much on bipartisanship. And we've already seen the results of that after the stimulus package was tried to be passed. Hats off to Judd Gregg for stepping aside quickly instead of staying and ruining Obama's agenda. In this case Gregg was much more of an honest man than any of the other Obama's other tax fleeing nominees. 4 nominees have already left due to tax issues. Why should anymore of his nominees be trusted? So my thanks to Gregg for not having tax issues and for recognizing that he had fundamental differences in philosophy with Obama which may hinder his and Potus' success in Commerce department. Thank you Gregg, for not waiting until someone pointed you out. Thank you for realizing that the friction of bipartisanship can sometimes be not so useful.
Maybe Obama picked Hillary to garner the support of the half the Democratic congress and to flatter the general American public. It was part of that secret deal that they had after she lost the campaign. Obama probably promised her SOS position while she promised to campaign for him. But who knows, as shrewd as she is, she could have asked so much more besides the SOS position, such as being able to pass her own policy and being completely independent from the President.
Please check out this great link. Former POTUS discusses how Israeli attack was completely unnecessary and could have been avoided in this latest interview. Also, in the interview he discusses how we can achieve peace there in his new book: "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land." It's just one reason why he is my favorite US President. His previous book got him controversy ('controversy' only in the US and Israel, but got him Nobel Prize and praise from around the world) for his position against some of Israeli positions and even led to Barack Obama avoiding him which is disappointing. But I am sure that Barack has something up his sleeve and was just trying to take a neutral position on this. So far Barack is juggling and struggling with cabinet nominees and waiting for Iranian elections to take place. So it will be a while before we see any major achievements in the Middle East. Soon, I will be assessing in more detail Barack Obama's Presidency in the coming days!
CNN and FOX relax. Tennis player Shahar Peer's Visa rejection by UAE is nothing huge. It's just like rejecting Iranian athletes or Soviet Union for Olympics. Dubai is known in the world for one of the most globalized and networked cities and this may sound backward to some. However, UAE has nothing against Ms. Peer personally. It's just the fact that UAE along with the United Nations, and Ban ki Moon does not recognize the recent butchering of innocent civilians in Gaza.
I'm sorry to all Israelis, but Israel broke the ceasefire first this time if you remember clearly. Know that I respect Israel's right to exist, but as in the video below, Palestinian civilians are dying like flies. There are millions living without electricity there and hospitals are no better than slums.
Ehud Barak, what is your 'objective' if not peace? Meanwhile US intelligence is predicting an Israel-Iran war by the end of this year. Why is US putting up with this? Let's take a step back and go back to the basics. Israel is being supported militarily and being provided nuclear weapons for killing innocent civilians! Let me go back to the old argument: just because you were the victims 60 years ago does not mean you can do what you like! You are no more the victim. In fact, this is another holocaust. And the United States must not let the Israeli lobby to bend US policy towards Israeli interests instead of US interests. It not only hurts Americans, but it is hurting the world.
Here are some videos from early 2009 worth watching. Especially watch how the UN describes this as disproportional killing and death of Human Rights workers. And the last 2 videos also discusses how 'talking' with Hamas can pause rocket fires. Stop discouraging POTUS from talking. Bill O' Reilly and Ann Coulter need to realize that as in the last video unless the occupation and strangulation of Gaza ends, there will be no peace and Hamas will continue fire. And don't say "Hamas will not negotiate" because they WILL and they have in the past. Yes, they have objectionable tactics, but would you rather kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians, then talk? If yes, then thats the most pathetic strategy ever. Former POTUS Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Prize for exactly this and was criticized by only 2 groups for receiving it. Can you guess who they were? Yes, only Israel and US. Finally, know that Gaza blockade will only feed terror. Make sure to watch this video which was in my earlier posts too. Also make sure you watch the Rabbi video below too. We need more people like those in the world.
Also, a Jewish Rabbi gives his take on the Israel-Palestine issue:
So we've already heard about Christian Bale and Michael Phelps. Bale as we already know has acted in 'angry' movies (Batman films and the American Psycho) which show that he may make a great angry actor for any future searching director. Either he is a pathetic actor who is actually the angry, frustrated guy he plays in films in real life too, or after playing a character it's hard for him to go back to the real Christian Bale mode.
Apparently some new members have also joined the gang (that was fast!); 19 year old singer Chris Brown and singer Rihanna, 20. Basically, the story goes something like this: Brown and Fenty were in an argument and got physical. Physical as in beating each other up. Both Brown and Fenty had injuries, though Fenty (I prefer to use people's last names) showed more. Chris Brown till now had a completely clean image and a promising career, but now is facing a career setback as major radio stations have taken his songs off the radio and some sponsors had dumped him and he got arrested. After all, singing love songs about a woman on TV when you've actually beaten up one and been arrested for aggravated assault doesn't fit nicely.
Also, you might be interested to hear this latest rumor. Possibly Brown got angry because as pathetic as the timing was, Rihanna decided to inform him that she gave him herpes and threw Brown into an uncontrollable anger. Sounds ridiculous and is definitely not too funny.
Haven't heard of this rumor? See it here for yourself. It's gone crazy on Youtube.
Meanwhile somewhere in Alaska, a small town, folksy, media sensation, mom turns 45. Thanks for bringing entertainment into politics Sarah! Happy Birthday!
As the threats of global warming loom, we discover that there are three types of plants that can help with climate change. This is a talk given at Ted on how we may 'grow our own fresh air.' Worth checking out the talking points here.
Honestly, this is outrageous. A 40 year old mother is now in custody for beating her kids with a crowbar and heating up a nail and using it to burn the lower eyelid of the daughter. The kids are safe now with Social Services, but if one of the daughters had not managed to get the neighbor to call the police it would not have been pretty. According to this article, this happened regularly when the dad was not at home. My question is why? Why would the mom want to hurt her own kids in such a brutal manner. Even the punishment in jail is not so severe as the punishment given by this 40 year old mother. Either she has mental issues or those kids give her a real, tough life. And I doubt it that those kids gave the mom such pain to deserve such a punishment. Seriously, child abuse is now reaching depressingly new heights. And the family planning and law enforcement funding provision cut from the stimulus package by the stubborn GOP does NOT help one bit.
This is the Director of Photography or "DP" as Bale referred to him, Shane Hurlbut.
"Seriously, man we're _ done professionally." - Christian C. P. Bale
Though this will seriously hurt Bale in the media, without doubt, this flap only brings increased interest and attention to the movie. Commercially, Bale did a great thing for his movie. Way to promote your film, Bale! If this was just a stunt to grab attention to the Arnold-less movie, then I must say Bale is not bad at acting.
Pretty much every press agency discussed and criticized President Obama for keeping Daschle as HHS Sec. despite the new facts that have burst into the scene. It's true that Daschle is highly experienced and very knowledgeable on passing bills in Congress, but it does not make sense to appoint a cabinet member who violates the ethics you created especially when you've promised ethics reform and established new ethics rules for a more "transparent" White House. Yesterday, of course, the Obama administration's response to this controversy was pretty dry and not meaningful. So what changed his mind to stay?
Two main things forced him to withdraw:
1. Another member, the Chief Performance Officer withdrew her nomination also because of tax issues before Daschle did which perhaps pushed Daschle over the edge to make the decision to withdraw. 2. This morning the New York Timeseditorial asking for Daschle's withdrawal was read by Daschle himself. The editorial spoke on behalf of the New York Times as a whole. The editorial's update then says that he "did the right thing."
I don't know why, but he reminds me of Harry Potter. Anyone else also see him that way? Any way he seems really "deeply disappointed" with his actions and it's pretty much guaranteed that he'll be HHS chief. But I don't care about that now. See the most important thing is fixing the health care system. That's the top priority. If he can accomplish that, then it's okay whoever he is or whatever lobbyist funding he's received.
This is not cool, Mr. President. In fact it's sickening. Your Secretary of Health & Human services has not paid taxes and received lobbyist funding for being chauffeured in a limo during bad times for Americans. Don't you think someone about to take control of the health care sector should abide by your newly created ethics rules? I can understand why Geithner's situation isn't that bad because at least he didn't request and waste US taxpayer money on chauffeured limos! I'm also aware that Daschle kept this fact from you until now which is not your fault, but now that you're fully aware of his bad actions, dump him please, for the sake of your new White House ethics rules and to send a bold message to future staff tax evaders.
Seems like Israel prefers hostile relations with Iran and does not want Iran-America talks no matter what good it may bring. And they don't want the media around either!
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