1.) Again, I’m not suggesting that moving parts aren’t normal and acceptable in a fitness center locker room. What I am suggesting is use a towel liberally and minimize the nude buddy conversations until you at least have your boxers or man panties on.Question: Fellas, do you notice this lack of locker room decorum? Ladies, what's it like in the women's locker room?
2.) It’s not the penises that are a problem. It’s the proximity of the penises. There are rules of personal space at play. Respect the them. It's good locker room etiquette.
3.) Fellas, don’t use this post as an excuse to waste time wondering what happens in women’s locker rooms. I’ve already wasted enough time for you. It took everything in me NOT to drop the word “coed” somewhere in this post and, yet, at the very end I failed.
Bonus Takeaway) Wouldn't it be funny as hell to actually hear Captain Kirk say to Spock "bros before hoes"? I'm not a fan of the derogatory terminology, but funny is funny.
The White House braced for a tough sell of President Barack Obama's long-awaited decision on whether to commit tens of thousands of new U.S. forces to the stalemated war in Afghanistan, even as the president met Monday with top advisers for the last major discussion before an announcement "within days."There's plenty more detail to the story, so I'd suggest everyone go have a look before discussing.
Military officials and others expect Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 U.S. forces to the 8-year-old conflict. That rough figure has stood as the most likely option since before Obama's last large war council meeting earlier this month, when he tasked military planners with rearranging the timing and makeup of some of the deployments.
The president has said with increasing frequency in recent days that a big piece of the rethinking of options that he ordered had to do with building an exit strategy into the announcement -- in other words, revising the options presented to him to clarify when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government and under what conditions.
As White House press secretary Robert Gibbs put it to reporters on Monday, it's "not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out."
More than ten percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were "created or saved" by the $787 billion stimulus package are doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven major newspapers and the Associated Press.Before anyone goes off on a tangent about this being some rightwing conspiracy, a majority of these accounts were reported by The Associated Press, which is about as close to a non biased news agency as you'll find. If you think this is all BS, just go read the report and google the stories themselves. Nothing's being made up here.
Based only on our analysis of stimulus media coverage in the last two weeks, The Examiner has documented exaggerated stimulus claims. The report, which will be updated as new revelations appear, currently reflects an exaggeration by the Obama administration of about 75,000 jobs, out of the 640,000 jobs supposedly "created or saved."
This reflects reports from The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the Sacramento Bee, The New York Times, USA Today, the Las Vegas Sun, the Detroit Free Press, the New York Post, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It remains a work in progress because relatively few newspapers have scrutinized stimulus spending so far.
The Obama administration has claimed that the $787 billion economic stimulus package "saved or created" some 650,000 jobs. But almost as soon as the White House trotted out this figure, news organizations found huge exaggerations in the reported data. Many of the jobs reportedly created do not exist or cannot be accounted for.
The Southwest Georgia Community Action Council claimed to have saved 935 jobs with the $1.3 million it received, even though only 508 people work there. In fact, the group used most of its grant to give raises and now says it created 9.35 jobs.
“The Bergen County Community Action Program in Hackensack, N.J., noted the nearly $213,000 it received went to cover raises for existing staff only, but it also reported saving 85 jobs.”
The Child Care Association of Brevard County reported creating 129 jobs with $98,669 in stimulus money. In fact, “the cash was used to give her 129 employees a 3.9 percent cost-of-living raise.”
Koring Group in Toledo, Ohio reported hiring 52 people, but it turns out that they double-counted jobs that “only lasted about two months.” The FCC estimates that “actual job count is closer to five.”
The Mid-Willamette Valley (Oregon) Community Action Agency reported 205 jobs created or saved with $397,761. The money was actually used for pay raises.
A Kentucky shoe-store owner claimed he created nine jobs on an $889.60 contract. In fact, he supplied nine pairs of shoes to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Stetson University in DeLand, Fla claimed to have created or saved 483 jobs with a grant of only $193,469.
Officials at East Central Technical College in Douglas, Ga. “said they now know they shouldn't have claimed 280 stimulus jobs linked to more than $200,000 to buy trucks and trailers for commercial driving instruction...The 280 were not jobs, but the number of students who would benefit...”
In DC, $3,500 purchase of paint was credited with saving or creating a job.
The California State University system received $268.5 million in stimulus funds and claimed that the money allowed them to save over 26,000 jobs or half its workforce. But when pressed, the California State University system admitted they weren't really going to lay off half their workforce, and that in fact few or none of these jobs would have been lost without the stimulus. "This is not really a real number of people," a CSU spokesman said. "It's like a budget number."
Of the 34,500 jobs allegedly saved or created by the stimulus in Washington State, 24,000 belong to state teachers already under contract to finish out the school year, whose jobs were never in jeopardy. Rather, stimulus money was shuffled to them and their money went to offset budget cuts elsewhere.
In Arlington, VA $100,000 in stimulus money is being used to start a wine bar.
Two child care centers in central Colorado claimed to have created 292 jobs with $650,000 in grant money. In fact, the money went to pay raises.
The local Head Start program in Greenfield, Mass. claimed 90 new jobs, but actually created no new jobs, and used its $245,000 grant to give pay raises.
The company Teletech claimed to have created 4,300 jobs from a $28.4 million contract, but in fact 3,000 of the jobs lasted only a month.
Bridgewater State (CT) College claimed to have created 160 jobs with a $77,000 grant. The college acknowledged the mistake, and said no new jobs were created.
Universal is facing a potential PR disaster for its decision to digitally remove the names and images of the only black couple in 'Couples Retreat' on the film's UK movie poster.It "regretted offending anyone, huh"? How about they simply don't put the Negroes in the movie in the first place next time?
According to England's The Daily Mail, a Universal spokesman said the updated ad was released "to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognizable in international markets."
But some are calling foul on the complete removal of actors Kali Hawk and Faizon Love from the film's poster. "I think this was an ill-conceived move," Mediawatch-UK director Vivienne Pattison told the Mail. "We celebrate diversity in Britain and we could have coped with seeing the same poster used in America."
In the U.S. version, all eight principal stars, including Hawk and Love, are seen standing knee-deep in water with their names displayed above. For the UK version, a different backdrop is shown with only the six (white) actors and actresses on display.
"Any discrepancy between the posters is cause for alarm because it makes racist assumptions about target markets," says Ann Simonton, founder of the non-profit organization Media Watch. "But this is a somewhat common response to how advertisers target audiences. So much of advertising depends on our ignorance and it's important for the consumer to remain ignorant. When they eliminate diversity, it maintains this false view of our world. It's sickening to think about what the industry's motives are, but it's important that they be called on it."
Daily Mail film critic Jason Solomons weighed in over the weekend, noting, "We don't cater much for the black cinema-going audience in this country, which is a great shame, so it seems strange that when there are black stars in a major feature film, this fact isn't promoted. And, in terms of business decisions, this seems a pretty counter-productive one."
For its part, Universal has acknowledged the omission, saying it regretted offending anyone and is abandoning plans to use the revised poster in other countries.
Ebonie - Is Obama being as forceful in his handling of this incident as he should be? Even without knowing what was behind the Fort Hood shooter’s actions, some people are already speculating that this occurred because he was Muslim or suggesting that Muslims should go through more intense scrutiny to join the military than everyone else. So at this point with many facts of what led to the rampage unknown, I’m glad that President Obama hasn’t jumped to conclusions and started decrying the rampage an act of terrorism against America or some sort of Islamic threat.Question Two - Writing tell-all books seems to be the latest hustle, but how much do we really care? Recent weeks have seen President Obama's half-brother outing Obama Sr. as a wifebeater, and Andre Agassi admitting he was a meth-head.
Modi - Maaaaan, you ain't never lie! Did you hear Rush (Limbaugh) going HAM on Rocky? Oh, and quick sidenote: I call Barack Obama "Rocky" because he's the underdog. People always criticizing and chastising, praying for the man's downfall, yet he's still standing. But I digress. Rush was getting on Rocky for not calling the Ft. Hood massacre an act of "terror". I think Barack just doesn't want to say anything crazy before he knows his facts. He runs a freaking country for Christ's sake. He'll call a spade a spade when he has all the facts, but until that happens, he's got to be as diplomatic as possible.
Michelle Hux - Regardless of how he handles it he'll be chastised. If he doesn't call out Islam, the people claiming Obama is a Muslim will have a field day. If he does, he'll be labeled a racist. I think the way he handled it with caution is how he is supposed to handle it.
Greg Dragon - How about we ask, do a lot of us Americans need something to do? I will say yes, can brown Barry breath? Forceful or not, anything that man does will be seen as bad.
Tunde - I can seem some people's concern on Obama not calling this an act of terrorism but what is calling out Islam going to do besides piss of Muslims in American and around the world? If he does that, one thing you can bank on is an increase in terrorism attacks. Yes this was one man, who happened to be Muslim, but how can you condemn a whole religious sect based off the actions of one individual? Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Tunde - I really think I'm going to write my own tell all book. Its going to be called, "Scandal, Sex and Halle Berry: The True Story of Our Love Affair". Of course all of it will be exaggerated but if everyone else can make money off selling tell all book then so can I. I wonder what publishing company would buy the writes to my book.Question Three - The DC Sniper was executed late last week. If you're from the DC Metro Area, and remember that terrorizing Fall, what are your feelings about seeing a man put to death?
Michelle Hux - I'm not a cynical person but let's be real. As far as Obama's brother, he's doing it for the money. His dad is dead so it won't evoke a sense of shame in him causing him to apologize. His mother is no longer alive so it isn't for her closure. President Obama already revealed that his dad was abusive in his own memoir. So the point... is money.
Ebonie - It’s about the money. All of these “cleansing my soul” tell all’s get a big side-eye from me. Especially President Obama’s half-brother. During a TV interview he gave recently, he kept insisting that the main purpose of the book was to bring light to the issue of domestic abuse and it was bigger than him. Uh huh. Just keep it honest and admit you’re trying to cash in book sales by being a relative of President Obama.
Modi - Well, let's deal with Obama's half-brother real quick. Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father" was required reading for the class of 2009 coming into Boston College. In fact, he spoke at our convocation, and it was incredibly inspirational. In the book, he never claims his father to be an angel. He was a drinker, and he was abusive. We already knew that. So homeboy doesn't really have much to say beyond what we already figured out through inductive reasoning. Of course that man is BS'ing. Just look at that his picture! Agassi is a completely different story, dude. Nobody just spills every little minute detail to the world for no reason. This is something that every other human in the world has - personal, embarrassing stories. I think that the money is cool, but it wasn't for it. He's lived a lot of his life in the public, and he probably felt guilty that he put up such an act or a front for so long. Lying to his supporters for so long can't sit well on your conscience. It's either that, or he's shitting all over people very discretely. "I was on crystal meth and I was STILL making millions." That kinda stuff. Highly doubt that's the route he's going though
Greg Dragon - Lol it’s the newest hustle going… AB answer me this, it is very obvious that folks don’t like reading and probably a huge reason why the rich stay rich while the poor don’t read and learn…(that’s another discussion). So who the hell are the “readers” buying these books for it to be even seen as lucrative? Wouldn’t a sex tape bring in better money?
Modi - The Dc Sniper was probably one of the scariest things that has happened in my lifetime. One of the shootings was right by my house at a place that I frequent, so Lord knows that could have been me. You had to live in fear, not knowing where these bastards would strike. It even stopped our homecoming weekend celebrations at Sidwell that year, and nobody even complained, because they knew how serious the situation was. I don't think I can even answer this question. Taking lives shouldn't be punished by death, but then again, what is a just punishment? Life in prison? You're still living, which is a blessing. I couldn't even give you an answer to this. I just think it's very sadistic to see people get excited over an execution like they were the day the sniper was to be executed.Question Four - Are there double standards in cheating? It was recently revealed that Shaquille O'Neal has been having an ongoing affair with the fiance of fellow NBA player Gilbert Arenas. Most comments in the blogosphere seem to be slamming the young lady for being a tramp, while simply giving Shaq (who was married) a free pass. Do people generally perceive a cheating woman as being less moral than a cheating man? Why?
Tunde - I'm from the DC area and I was a junior in college when the killings took place. I remember it like it was yesterday. I personally don't believe in the death penalty. How can a person decide if another man lives or dies. For all those who are for the capital punishment, how many of you would have the heart to physically pull the lever or inject the needle?
Michelle Hux - I'm from the DC area and I read an article about how execution gives a sense of closure. It doesn't. It doesn't change the fact that our lives were truly changed. My brother's football games were cancelled (as were most outdoor activities at his school). Killing the DC Sniper doesn't change any of that. Seeing a black man be put to death in general just makes me feel some kind of way. I've always been one to think that a shot and a few last breaths is an easy way out so I feel like he hasn't been punished. I feel worse for his teen accomplice who is serving life in prison.
Greg Dragon - I am pro death penalty, and watching the interview with his wife drove home more reality to me of this man, he needed to be put down a long time ago, he was a ticking time-bomb. I think the situation was held down very quietly given the damage this brother did. The abuse (mostly mental) that he did on his black wife, combined with his struggles as a black militant trained to fight under a white president’s lead is a case study in itself. Even his execution was silent, no real coverage on it etc. Is serial killing so normal here that we have become desensitized to it? It freaks me out how no-one cares.
Greg Dragon - There's a double standard in most things male/female, this can be blamed on the respective roles we have only shed in the last 20 years. Now that everything is nice and even between the sexes, you have to expect that there will be remnants of the past brought to light. Women used to be at home, the trampy ones were in Saloons, Brothels and the like, a man could sew his seed and come home to business as usual. For most of us swapping that scenario makes the man seem weak and the woman immoral. Not our fault we think this way, we have the media, parents and the past to blame. Any cheating is wrong be it man or woman. NBA and NFL players are like Military wives…Question Five - What started out as a simple BET Awards Show skit has been greenlit for production. Skank Robbers, starring Jamie Foxx as Wanda and Martin Lawrence as SheNehNeh will be hitting theaters next year.
Michelle Hux - I guess for other people there is a double standard but when I first heard about this I thought Shaq was just so triflin. First of all not that I condone cheating but out of all the groupies in the world, you have to choose a fellow brotha's fiance? Really, Shaq? Really? I don't see a woman cheating as less moral than a cheating man. They're both ridiculous people who were too cowardice to leave their significant others to engage in sexual activities with someone new.
Modi - To answer your question, yes. People generally perceive a cheating woman as being less moral. Why? There is no explanation for that. It's just nature. Innate, if you will. And I don't think they're giving Shaq a free pass. We just already expect that from Shaq. In high school, I used to babysit for a woman whose baby mother was a player on the 76ers, and who actually got me and my man floor tickets to a Heat game through Shaq. The stories she'd tell about the guy were ridiculous. She paid me so well that you'll never heard those stories, but my point is, Shaq is grimey already. We've been embracing that. His wife has left multiple times, hasn't she? Gil's baby mother isn't even cute to me. She fucked up. Gil was treating her like a queen, he took her from whatever situation she was in and made her life wonderful. But uh, wouldn't it be brilliant if while Shaq was with Gilbert's baby's mother, Gil was kickin' it with Shauntie? That'd be the ultimate twist.
Tunde - First I wonder if Agent Zero will dap Shaq up when the Wizards play the Cavs. I do believe there is a double standard in cheating but in this case it make yougin look like a NBA groupie. The victim here is Arenas although I'm sure he's probably getting his in anyway.
Michelle Hux - I just don't understand why we keep doing this to ourselves. How often do black men have to dress up as black women in order to get laughs (I'm talking to you Tyler Perry.) There's a commercial with Evander Holyfield dressed up as a woman for Taco Bell. Taco Bell! It wasn't even that funny of a commercial. I like comedy as much as the next person but we should really support both.Question: Is Obama being too PC? When are you releasing your tell-all? Skank Robbers or Precious? Wanna join the next edition of The AB.com RoundTable?
Greg Dragon - It says that most of us would rather have a laugh than watch some depressing sh-t like Precious. They lost me at the light-skinned teacher consoling the ugly, fat, dark skinned girl right after her monologue of wanting a light skin boyfriend with good hair. As a moviegoer and reviewer, I have noticed a trend with theater audiences – I rarely see black folks unless it is a movie that is 90% black (read Tyler Perry), a horror movie (we come out in droves), or a comedy with an African American lead. Anything else and I am a raisin in a bowl of milk at the theater. So Precious doesn’t surprise me, it will be touted as a powerful black experience – by white people, it will not make record numbers and will be nonexistent in most Blu-Ray collections. For me its just another boring stab at Oscar-Bait and it will win too, just like Amelia… yawn.
Modi - Well, I don't know if it says anything about the taste of black moviegoers. It's pretty monumental to have Martin and Jamie in the same flick. But if we want to make an argument about their finicky tastes, we could make the same one that is made in music. You have artists like Nas and Black Thought / The Roots making progressive music (for the most part), but they won't sell like Soldja Boy. Black people want entertainment. Tyler Perry's movies are so heavily criticized, but they do great work at the box office because they are cathartic (yep, check that dictionary, I'm bringing out the words, baby), while portraying black culture in such an entertaining manner. People deal with enough seriousness in real life, movies (and music for that matter) is for people to get away from reality for a bit. There's a time and place for everything.
Ebonie - Why am I not even surprised that “Skank Robbers” is hitting the big screen? I’d rather see “Precious,” but as long as there’s an audience for movies like “Skank Robbers” they’ll keep getting the green light. If people are willing to pay for bad movies just because there aren’t that many black films on the big screen and they want to see black folks on film, then movies like “Skank Robbers” will keep getting made.
Tunde - Black moviegoers in general like to see ignorance and coonery. This explains why directors like Tyler Perry have a higher career income than Spike Lee. You can say I'm hating but the overall message of Madea Goes To Jail or Daddy's Girl can't be better or more powerful than X or Do The Right Thing. I refuse to believe that. Please go see Precious. I plan to.
