Kinky sex used to sell mascara

The US is prudish about sex.  Just ask the right wing Republicans and evangelical Christians/Catholics who would rather see Bristol Palin pregnant at 17 than teach sex education to public school kids.

You can tell what a culture REALLY thinks, by their symbols and their ads.

OH, YEAH, BABY…  In America, its really about selling S-E-X.

Note she/he is rocking the latex pants/kinky boots?

For a mascara ad?

“The only mascara that does for lashes what stilettos do for legs – …Lashes look leaner, unlawfully long!”

And can those really be her eyelashes?  Ad companies have gotten into hot water before, for putting mascara onto fake eyelashes.

requisite sexual innuendos in this ad:

• red color splashed on right side of black ad
• open, inviting lips
• two beautiful big front teeth
• inhumanly perfect skin
• perfect brushed eyebrows
• bangs brushed across forehead
• shiny lips
• black eyeliner
• spider eyelashes

“Provocative Length, Black Patent Shine”

and red tipped stilettos, to boot!!!

Posted in Ads, Do you see what I see?, Sex, Symbols in our Culture | 1 Comment »

Cheney Says: Don’t Blame Bush/Cheney For Economic Woes, It Is A Global Problem

• We want to be the world’s cop.
• We want to be the world’s bank and banker.
• We want to be the world’s producer.
• We want to be the world’s morality police.
• We say that “Nothing can interefere with the ‘American Way of Life’, and we mean ’standard of living’.  Don’t try to take our triple bacon cheeseburgers and huge SUVs away from us, dammit. 

But when our actions (remember, Cheney was in charge for 8 YEARS) have global consequences, then Bush/Cheney would like you NOT to remember that they are responsible for the global economic breakdown.

His cronies have become multi-millionaires under his watch, while you pay your lowly taxes and see your home value and savings cut in half.  His cronies have made money off the selling of Iraq, while you have not;  you’ve probably buried a beloved soldier or know someone who has.

Now he’d like to place the blame on Obama, who has been in office for less than two months.  And he’d like to blame other countries (who followed America’s orders).

Democracy? Oh no, he and Bush diin’t…

So when Cheney goes on the Sunday circuit, saying ‘it ain’t my fault’, rest assured,

IT IS PROBABLY HIS FAULT.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, Justice System, News, Um, NO!, What the ????? | No Comments »

Lindsay Lohan has BIG lips again

Well, Lindsay has puffed-up lips again.

And she’s supposedly drugging and drinking again, according to mainstream media and tabloid press.

I wish we were easier on our starlets.

I wish they could grow up knowing they are beautiful, as they are.

Maybe they wouldn’t turn to liquor or drugs for support.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, News, What the ????? | 1 Comment »

While YOU are paying your April 15th taxes, AIG is paying ‘RETENTION bonuses’ to departed employees

Yes, Rick Santelli and his insanity rears its head again:

‘why are you worried about $165 million dollars in bonuses, that’s not very much’…

Rick thinks the Average American TAXPAYER isn’t going to give a damn that AIG gives out $165 million dollars in bonuses!  Do you care?

I DO!

Um, you are wrong, Rick, $165 million in bonuses is a big number, and it comes from the tax dollars of hard working Americans.

AIG is especially guilty when it has hidden the bonuses behind fraudulent information.  AIG and others taking bailout funds have said they HAVE TO PAY THOSE BONUSES, to retain their best people, the same people who got them into their current financial insolvency.

Turns out, not so true, actually.

Andrew Cuomo says 73 individuals received bonuses of $1 million or more, with one recipient getting a bonus of more than $6.4 million.

And some of those people NO LONGER WORK WITH AIG.

Retention bonus?  I don’t think so.

In this picture, the kitty is Rick Santelli and the businesses like AIG that he wants to take more of our hard earned tax dollars…  We are the ‘little soft-soft’, about to be LUNCH.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, Um, NO!, What the ????? | No Comments »

Feds are worried Mrs. Bernie (Ruth) Madoff will make off with $93 million

Uggh.

I asked the other day how she was able to pay for the private security she provided for her husband as he went to and from trial and their home.

Now it appears the Feds say she has nearly $93 million in assets, IN HER OWN NAME.  Which, if I’m asked for my opinion, means he transferred ill-gotten gains to her, so she could live the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed with him.

The feds should FREEZE all assets in her name.  I don’t think they can do that, though.

So innocent investors will commit suicide, Bernie will go to jail, and Ruth will be able to take the yacht out in the South of France.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, Justice System, News, Regular Americans, Um, NO!, What the ????? | No Comments »

Obama brings in the BEST: Van Jones

Van Jones:

lawyer, advocate, social entrepreneur,

and now…

Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

for President Obama

I met Van years ago, in Oakland at his office at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which he helped found.  He is an amazing man.  He’s humble, smart, brainy, down to earth and deeply driven to work for social justice for the most vulnerable in our society.

Look at what he’s done!

CLOSE PRESTON NOW: Join the campaign to close the abusive, expensive and outdated Preston Youth Prison. OAKLAND GREEN JOBS CORPS: Mayor Ron Dellums symbolically cuts the ribbon as training begins.

PEACE IN OAKLAND: How will you Silence The Violence? Share your ideas for creating peace in Oakland. HANDS ON, HANDS TOGETHER: Join Soul of the City as we plant a garden in East Oakland March 14.

Jakadi Imani blogged on Huffington Post:

13 years ago that Van co-founded our organization — working out of a closet. (Yes, a closet!) Today, we’re a thriving social justice action center, and Van is headed to Washington to work for President Obama.

Based in Oakland, California, the Ella Baker Center has tackled some of the most troubling issues plaguing urban America by promoting positive alternatives to violence and incarceration. Over that time, we’ve seen the fruits of our labor come in the form of victories such as landmark juvenile justice reform, effective violence-prevention policy, and successful implementation of the historic Oakland Green Jobs Corps.

But never in our organization’s history have we seen a moment more beautiful than this. It’s truly remarkable to have one of our own ascend to the nation’s highest levels of power — and almost unbelievable that he’s been tapped to craft an inclusive green agenda that ensures the emerging clean energy economy is strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

Van’s dream for a green and equitable future for all began with a straightforward idea that was elegant in its simplicity years ago: Fight poverty and pollution at the same time.

Back then, “going green” wasn’t as sexy, appealing or marketable as it is now. But Van was tireless in his commitment to move our cities past the pollution-based economy that destroyed the planet and made people — most often people of color and low-income people — sick. There were more doubters, more cynics, and more critics than you could count challenging these groundbreaking ideas, but we kept at it, spreading our “Green Jobs Now” message from conference to conference, city to city, town hall to town hall.

As all things green eventually became all the rage, the term “green-collar job” was tossed around with increasing frequency. It was up to us to protect and promote the true ideals behind the trendy rhetoric. Van has been steadfast in calling for not only the creation of clean energy jobs, but also for job training for people with barriers to employment, so they, too, can reap the benefits. The vision — the same vision Van now brings to the Obama administration — is an equitable America where the people who most need work are connected with the work that most needs doing.

Our work continues to gain momentum. Today, the Ella Baker Center’s Green-Collar Jobs Campaign is partnering with dozens of California’s most influential and respected organizations to form the “California Green Stimulus Coalition.” This new coalition is working to make sure officials in California — at the state, regional, and local levels — use federal stimulus funds in the greenest and most equitable way possible.

Van’s vision for an equitable America was, and remains to this day, a guiding light for our movement. Having worked with him for 10 years, I witnessed his tireless passion every day. His commitment to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty didn’t stop with his work at the Ella Baker Center. After moving on from our organization, Van went on to found Green For All, an organization that builds upon the green-collar jobs work we’ve done here in California at the national level. Green For All has been advocating for — and winning — local, state and federal commitments for job creation, job training, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy, especially for people from disadvantaged communities.

What this movement has already been able to do is truly extraordinary. Working together, we’ve brought to light real solutions to the economic and environmental crises facing the country and the world, while creating a huge shift in the thinking of millions of Americans who finally understand that global warming is real. We can’t drill and burn our way out of the problems created under the gray economy; we must invest and invent in a green pathway out of this mess.

For years, Van has helped lead this movement with solution-oriented ideas that provide some of our most marginalized communities with effective tools to create lasting change in their lives. He has co-founded dynamic organizations to carry the work forward, and is leaving Green For All in good hands. Now, Van is going to help chart a green pathway for the nation.

To have someone from our family advising the White House on how to put America back to work in a new, clean, and green economy brings renewed hope to our movement. During this time of global war, global recession, and global warming there is no one more effective at addressing the needs of the everyday American than Van Jones.

Its a good day to be an American, with Van on the job!

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, Justice System, News, Peace, Rascism, Regular Americans | No Comments »

US healthcare system is a global liability. Still Repubs call any changes ’socialism’

The Republican party had 8 years to make substantial changes to the US healthcare system, and they only added Medicare prescription changes (that screwed the elderly).

Now the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies, says:

America’s health care system has become a liability in a global economy.

Americans spend $1,928 PER PERSON on health care in 2006, at least 2 and a 1/2 TIMES more per person than any other advanced country…

What happens if you factor in health?  If you say, well, are Americans healthier for that extra cost?

The US would start 23 yards behind its closest competitors, because of health care that costs too much and delivers too little.

Its a no-brainer.

Insurance-for-profit has destroyed the doctor-patient sovereignty.  It has coldly covered only the healthy, and the employed.

Health care should be a right, within a democracy.

When we know what makes people healthy (diet, exercise), prescription drug companies should not be our policymakers.  They have billions to spend on lobbyists, to protect their profit-making.

Healthcare should be about HEALTHCARE, not profits.

Not surprisingly, but sadly, the CEOs of the Business Roundtable believe health care for U.S. workers and their families should stay in private hands, with a government-funded safety net for low-income people.

One thing the report does not do is endorse the same solution that countries like Canada have adopted: a government-run health care system.  But as more American companies face global competition, the “value gap” is being felt by more CEOs — and their hard pressed workers.  Keeping health care attached to employment seems foolish.

US healthcare in private hands?  Um, NO.

How’s that gone for you the last 8 years?

How bloody is your forehead banging against the profit for insurers’/drug manufacturers’ wall in an effort to get good, reasonably priced care?

Time to be democratic and have health care for all, not related to the imposition of cost on employers.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, News, Regular Americans | 3 Comments »

Poor Mrs. Madoff had to pay for security for her felon husband. Um, where did she get the dough to pay security?

I think the Government screwed up its case against Bernie Madoff.

Apparently Mrs. Madoff made off (hahaha) with some millions of her own, 15 million to be exact, the DAY BEFORE her husband was arrested.

At court today, when Madoff was sentenced to prison, his lawyer mentioned that poor Mrs. Madoff had had to hire private security while Bernie was home under house arrest.

Um, where’d she get the money for that?

She withdrew it right before he was charged.

Suspicious.

And now the Government is wondering if any of Bernie’s family members or co-workers were in on his Ponzi scheme?

Um, ask the wife.  The millionairess.  The sudden, recently desposited millionairess.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, Justice System, News, Um, NO! | 1 Comment »

Neighbors invite 97 year old over, when he can’t get his own meals

My personal belief is that all children and elderly should have nutritious meals and safe housing.  We are savages if we can’t provide at least that minimum, to our most vulnerable.  Instead, America has gone the way of ‘PROFITS’ and ‘caring for people is socialism’.

My local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal, had the BEST article today about some amazing neighbors:

Jennifer Haruta gets a hug from her neighbor Al Locati after delivering a home-cooked meal to her neighbor Locati at his home in San Anselmo on Wednesday. Marilee Rogers (left), who arrived with a large print book for Locati, has coordinated the neighbors to supply Locati with meals and other necessities twice a week. (IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel)

When Al Locati, 97, decided to give up driving and began to cope with his failing eyesight, across-the-street neighbors Marilee and Norman Rogers thought that he seemed depressed.That’s when they organized Al’s Meals, a neighborhood effort to supply Locati with at least two dinners each week. Marilee Rogers canvassed fellow residents of Hawthorne Avenue in San Anselmo to ask who would be willing to take Locati to a restaurant, invite him eat at their home, provide him with a cooked meal or bring him a take-out dinner.

Twenty households said yes.

“It’s working quite well,” Norman Rogers said. The plan is almost three months old, and so far no one has provided dinner more than once.

“It’s like long-lost cousins getting together

Jennifer Haruta chats while delivering a home-cooked meal to Al Locati at his home in San Anselmo on Wednesday. (IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel)

again,” Locati, a small man with a bald head and smiling eyes, said. “I don’t know that I deserve this.”Norman said it’s an example, when hard times strike, of people helping people. “I’m very proud of my neighborhood.”

This is not the first time Hawthorne residents have chipped in to help a neighbor, Susan Shroeder said. When she had major surgery two years ago, residents organized meals for her and her family. “It was a huge help. We are fortunate to have such a strong community up here on our little hill.”

When I moved to Mill Valley 8 years ago, Joan Levison and her husband Mike Jackman were our ‘cruise directors’.  They had potlucks at their house on a regular basis.  All the neighbors gathered and became friends, looking out for each other.  Before he died, Mike helped me and my daughter prep our bikes for a bike ride.

Its the kindness.  The compassion.  It comes on strong when you care for others.

Wayne Dyer says that both the giver and received of kindness experience positive hormonal and chemical benefits.  Amazingly, so does someone who simply watches an act of kindness.

The Marin IJ is known for these kinds of NEWS stories, the kind that change lives and save communities.

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, News, Peace, Regular Americans | 1 Comment »

Through no fault of their own, Foster Kids suffer

Did you know that:

• Half of all foster youth have been held back in school

• 30% of foster youth function below their educational grade level

• Close to 50% of foster youth fail to complete high school

• After foster care, 25% experience homelessness and 51% are unemployed

Isn’t that terrible?  Through NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN, foster kids were born into families that could not raise them.  Instead of blaming absent parents, let’s step up and help these kids.

Each kid deserves nutritious food, a safe place to sleep, a school that cares whether or not they show up, and a family to help them cope with their natural emotional issues stemming from loss of their birth family.

While we are renegotiating our corporate structures, we should invest in our children.  All of our children, not just the children born to the wealthy and the powerful.

SleepTrain has done just that.

There are nearly 80,000 children in the California foster care system. And many have suffered the effects of neglect, poverty and even abuse. Recent studies show that for many foster children, the challenges are just beginning.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Sleep Train is joining forces with specific and targeted non-profit organizations who support foster youth in the markets where we do business to help California’s foster kids. With your help, we can provide foster kids with the little things that can make a BIG difference. Things like school supplies, new shoes, clothing, or even something as basic as a Christmas present or warm coats. Thank you for helping us give foster kids the childhood they deserve! Learn more about our current collection effort.

Not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child.®

Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Justice System, News, Peace, Regular Americans | No Comments »