Santana on Tavis

for Carlos (haiku)

black magic shaman
eighteen inches mind to heart
journey of the soul

Check this out!

Taxation Without Representation

Time for DC to get the same rights we're "spreading" throughout the Middle East.

/snip/
BACKERS OF D.C. voting rights say they are ready to bring their bill to the Senate floor. That the District's long-disenfranchised citizens are ready is an understatement. Before Congress heads out of town for its August recess, it should -- without further delay -- take up the issue of justice for the people who live in the nation's capital but are denied a basic American right.

Happy "Dress-Like-A-Ho" Day!

There wasn't a parental warning on the site. I didn't have to fork over my credit card number or proof of age. And yet I'm freely paging through images of hundreds of pouty women clad in the most outlandish of role-playing fetish gear. There oughta be a law ... against the superskanky women's costumes at SpiritHalloween.com!

From sexy witch to saucy maid, from skanky mail carrier to slutty scarecrow, the Halloween-costume wardrobe for women is now entirely built on a base of thigh-high fishnets and push-up bras.

Oh hells no I'm not wearing that


Even the New York Times is ready to toss out the G-string vampire costume this Oct. 31.

New York Times: Good Girls Go Bad, For A Day
New York Times: Halloween On Heels

I'm hoping this skeezy trend is a sex-positive feminist "Take Back The Dominatrix Outfits!" holler, but it's hard to keep up that optimism while vainly searching for a costume that wouldn't make my parents cry.

“I think it’s damaging because it’s not just one night a year . ... If it’s all the costume manufacturers make, I think it says something bigger about the culture as a whole.” Tanda Word, Texas Tech student, prefers being warmly dressed on Pumpkin Day

It's worse when tacky oversexualization, aka Skankula, starts preying on the kids' costumes:

I wear more than this to the beach

Disney It Ain't

Poor Pope Benedict XVI. Like Sammy Hagar to David Lee Roth, he's having a hell of a time living up to his superpopular predecessor. Pope John Paul II got his own comic books, a flash Popemobile, and calls for canonization. Pope Benedict got the keys to the Vatican and some poorly-made flaming effigies.

Now, Pope John Paul II even gets his own animated film.
Cartoon tribute to Pope John Paul



Experts are calling this a move toward bolstering Catholicism's dwindling popularity among the young folk, but honestly, a cartoon isn’t going to lure in us Catholics feeling increasingly disillusioned by the church’s rigid policies. We want condoms! We want birth control! And not that shifty rhythm method stuff, the real kind! Women clergy members! Popemobiles!

Popemobile!

How Kaavya Viswanathan Got her Life Back

Ok, so we've all seen the news reports of how teen author Kaavya Viswanathan got busted for plagerism... but check out this great take on her situation:

Click here for the article

-Jean Chen

Iraq Horror

I really really hope this isn't true. There's an account on Playahata.com about a writers' friend who is in Iraq. Basically, there are American soldiers who feel like they can rape and pillage just for the hell of it:

Click here for the account.

When will this war end?

- Jean Chen