Tag Archives: analysis

Race Matters: Adoption Agencies Price Black Foster Babies At “Discount” Rates To Get Parents To Consider Adoption

Black Children Are Being Adopted At Discount Rates To “Fix” Racist Foster Care System Adoptee and HuffPost writer, Deshanne Stokes is reminding every one of the glaring reality of racism in adoption. Today there are twice the amount of black children in out of home foster care situations, than there are being cared for in homes with families. This is no coincidence, institutional racism plays a role. SMH. This is was Deshanne Stokes had to say about agencies trying to price black children at discounts in order to pair them with safe foster families.:   According to the Administration for Children and Families, more than half of the children entering the foster care system in 2013 were children of color. The Children’s Bureau reports   that African American and Native American children are present at double the rate in out-of-home foster care as they are in the general U.S. population. Findings from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) further reveal   that the average length of stay in foster care for African American children in 2012 was 29 months, a full 7 months (32 percent) longer than the 22-month length of stay of average child in foster care. Clearly, institutionalized racism remains alive and well in America. And it’s hurting our nation’s children. Many adoption agencies try to combat such institutionalized racism. A recent piece on NPR, for example, revealed how a Minnesota couple went to an adoption agency and found that the agency’s fee structure was based on children’s racial background, a practice that is common, though not often talked about. Non-white children, they were told, were harder to place in adoptive homes, and so, as an incentive, prospective parents could adopt children of African American decent at a reduced cost. Adopting a Caucasian child cost $35,000 while an African American child might cost only $18,000. Even as a well-intentioned attempt to combat racial disparities, such practices can send a dangerous message about the valuation of human life. It suggests that someone who looks like me is inherently more valuable, and should be seen as more valuable, than someone who does not. I shudder to think about the impact on a child or adult to learn they were adopted at a “discount” rate. SMH at their being a disparity in enthusiasm towards adopting black children. Do you think the discount rate is justified?

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Race Matters: Adoption Agencies Price Black Foster Babies At “Discount” Rates To Get Parents To Consider Adoption

Aubrey Plaza in a Bikini of the DAy

People fucking love Aubrey Plaza… I still don’t know who Aubrey Plaza… But based on her bikini pics… I don’t fucking love Aubrey Plaza… She’s terribly fucking average looking, even boring looking, and her ass doesn’t inspire me… I don’t care about her work, because I’ve seen none of it…her comedy because I’ve seen none of it, or really anything about her…because I’ve seen none of it…. Allowing me to be absolutely objective, the way I am supposed to be, in my analysis of her boring bikini ass.. TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICS CLICK HERE The post Aubrey Plaza in a Bikini of the DAy appeared first on DrunkenStepfather .

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Aubrey Plaza in a Bikini of the DAy

Pornstars Tell You Why Marijuana Makes Sex Better for 420 of the Day

It’s 420 on Monday…it’s also Cannabis Cup this weekend in Denver, where Weed is Legal…so it only makes sense that a video would come out of a bunch of Porn Stars…or are they scientists, discussing what Marijuana does for them during sex…. I figure, since porn chicks are just nymphos who like to be watched getting fucked, and porn is mainstream and more and more college girls are getting into it, thanks to doing it for free in the frats for all those years…some of these girls may actually be scientists…but their analysis of why weed makes sex better….on this few days before 420 to prep you potheads for 420…because I know you’re all fucking pot heads…even though this is a drinking site…is worth watching…and passing around…the room…hoping no one in the room has herpes…because your mouth was just on it…if you know what I mean… If you don’t…you’re probably high. The post Pornstars Tell You Why Marijuana Makes Sex Better for 420 of the Day appeared first on DrunkenStepfather .

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Pornstars Tell You Why Marijuana Makes Sex Better for 420 of the Day

‘The Aristocrats’ Director Paul Provenza: The Onion’s Apology To Quvenzhané Wallis Was ‘Problematic’

When The Onion ‘s CEO Steve Hannah publicly apologized last week for the satirical newspaper’s controversial Oscar-night tweet about Quvenzhané Wallis , two thoughts crossed my mind: 1) It’s not a good day for comedy when a satirical publication says it’s sorry for a joke that was not actually about the Beasts of the Southern Wild  actress. And 2) what would Paul Provenza make of this? In addition to being a veteran stand-up comic and actor, Provenza directed The Aristocrats ,  one of the finest dissections of comedy in any media (and not because I’m in it). The 2005 documentary deconstructs one of the oldest and dirtiest jokes in stand-up — the film’s title is its punchline — and when I shot my segment with Provenza, I quickly learned that, in addition to being a very funny guy, he’s a scholar of humor, who’s really good at explaining why something is funny — or not. ‘The Onion’: The Quvenzhané Wallis Controversy So, in the aftermath of the Wallis controversy, I emailed Provenza to get his analysis of the situation. Excerpts of his assessment appear below, but, first, an unexpurgated recap of what happened last week for anyone who was focusing on the sequestration crisis instead. If you’re offended by the word “cunt,” then stop reading now, because the term appears quite a bit in the following passages, and, in the context of this discussion, I think it’s justified. Also, as Provenza noted, censoring the word, “just adds to the irony” of the controversy. Here’s what The Onion  initially tweeted during the Academy Awards on Feb. 24.  After initially obscuring the offending word, the tweet was eventually disappeared as the backlash grew: “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right?” The Onion’s Apology Here is the apology that Hannah posted on The Onion ‘s Facebook page on Monday, Feb. 25: Dear Readers, On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry. Sincerely, Steve Hannah CEO The Onion Why The Onion’s Apology Is Problematic Take it away, Professor Provenza: I think the crux of it is that the whole issue has more to do with Twitter than it has to do with comedy. Not completely, but largely. Twitter is a big, broad audience, and it’s a tough room to ‘read’, particularly with a joke this harsh. But the joke is absolutely misunderstood in most of the chatter. It is NOT a joke calling that sweet little girl a cunt. It’s not maligning her in any way whatsoever — it is saying exactly the opposite. The joke rests squarely on the fact that Quvenzhané Wallis is the very last person you’d ever want to call a cunt.  Not even the most steadfast cynic can find her anything but innocent, beautiful and adorable, and that’s the whole point of the joke: The Hollywood schadenfreude and the palpable desperation that runs through much of the movie biz inspires the idea that someone, somewhere in Oscartown is already spreading vicious rumors about her. The fact that it is so inappropriate to say anything like that about her is precisely the basis — and I believe the point — of the Tweet. It was meant as a satirical comment about Hollywood and the pretense that everybody at the Oscars loves each other so much. It’s all golden statues and lavish praise — and is, The Onion suggests, about as phony as it gets. SO The Onion ‘s apology is problematic. It suggests they did insult her, and they’re sorry about it. Which is not the case. They offended, yes — not by insulting  Quvenzhané Wallis, but by using the word “cunt” in the first place. And what could they expect, putting a most innocent, beloved 9 year old in the same sentence with perhaps the second most reviled word in the English language?  That’s not the norm for The Onion , which usually does a much more deft job of communicating harsh comic ideas, but, comedically speaking, the joke is  meant  to be a bludgeon. So, I really can’t fault it on that score. It’s not meant to be a cleverly disguised notion. It’s meant to be as harsh as the ugly truth of envy, back-biting and negativity that Hollywood embodies. No one is spared, no matter how sweet and pure and innocent. Provenza goes on to point out that launching the Wallis joke into the Twitterverse put The Onion in “a difficult place.” Their work rarely has reached the audience this has reached — it has gone beyond their normal audience of comedy fans, fans of biting satire, whatever — to the broadest based audience imaginable: Oscar viewers, news & opinion blog/TV watchers. That audience includes far more people who would be offended in great numbers. And that’s where it becomes about Twitter. It’s now a story debated by people who have never had, nor do they now have, any interest in The Onion or what they’re all about. And now we’re into the business of damage control. But man, it feels wrong to apologize for a joke you didn’t even make. When I asked Provenza if The Onion should have apologized at all, he replied: Not this apology. They could have apologized for upsetting people in their audience. That would  have been honest — they didn’t want to offend anyone. But this apology is dishonest: They apologize for offending the little girl and saying she deserves better when they did NOT say anything offensive about her. Thus, the apology is obsequious, reeks of insincerity and is compromising of The Onion’s integrity and its actual point of view in the first place. The Onion’s Tweet & Seth MacFarlane’s Jokes Stir The Pretentious Pot Provenza also drew a provocative connection between The Onion ‘s tweet and Seth MacFarlane’s much-maligned emceeing of the Academy Awards that night: If you look at  The Onion  thing (the actual substance of the joke, not the misinterpretation of it) and Seth’s entire night of hosting, some very loud voices were digging into the whole pretension of the Oscars.  And what’s really interesting to me is that Seth was essentially a fox in the Academy Awards henhouse. The producers of the telecast knew what he was going to do: Nothing was off the cuff, songs were rehearsed for weeks, scripts were signed off on by legal departments and Standards & Practices. In other words, the producers of the Oscars themselves chose to  let  Seth call bullshit on false propriety, to dredge up unsavory things about the celebs in attendance and onstage, to take very little of it as seriously as the Oscars seem to want to be taken. They essentially allowed him to repeatedly remind the audience what a load of crap it all is. We all know that Oscar itself is a massive industry. The politics behind the nominees and winners is predominated by studios/distributors’ financial interests and all kinds of deal-making and horse trading.  The fact that awards shows and celebrities are being called out ever more loudly, even from within, seems to suggest something. It’s almost as if even the people involved in the enterprise can’t ignore how pretentious it all is and are really tired of the machine. I can’t wait to read the comments on this. Leave them below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on  Twitter . Follow Movieline on  Twitter .

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‘The Aristocrats’ Director Paul Provenza: The Onion’s Apology To Quvenzhané Wallis Was ‘Problematic’

Kim Basinger nude sex

Kim Basinger stars in the movie “Final Analysis”, having a wild sex scene with Richard Gere. Continue reading

The Simple Problems Of Too Much US Debt

http://www.youtube.com/v/ID4xay5RITY

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In a succinct and chart-laden presentation, Professor Antony Davies, of Duquesne , offers a simple perspective on just how bad things are for the US (in terms of debt or obligations). Putting the interest cost in the context of war-spending, his analysis is interesting given the recent and dramatic rise in interest rates. Current interest payments, given the US Government’s lowest ever 3% interest… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : zero hedge Discovery Date : 20/03/2012 13:23 Number of articles : 2

The Simple Problems Of Too Much US Debt

I Need Nothing, A Music Video With Lyrics Illustrated by Album Covers

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=29399425

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“I Need Nothing” is a clever music video for the song “Doughnut” by Parenthetical Girls in which the song’s lyrics are illustrated on a succession of 200 custom album covers. The concept for the video is by Portuguese music label Cãoceito, it was shot by Moopie Videos, and premiered at the EXD’11 Design Festival in Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Laughing Squid Discovery Date : 20/10/2011 15:22 Number of articles : 2

I Need Nothing, A Music Video With Lyrics Illustrated by Album Covers

Commentaries, Opinions, Editorials, And Analysis On The Death Of Gaddafi

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Gaddafi Deserved His Death In A Libyan Sewer – He Had All The Morality Of A Sewer Rat — Con Coughlin, The Telegraph I can’t think of a better way for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to meet his end than to be gunned down in a Libyan sewer. It is a fitting end to the career of a man who presided over one of the most murderous and violent regimes of the modern age, and had all the morality of a sewer rat. This… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : War News Updates Discovery Date : 20/10/2011 22:03 Number of articles : 2

Commentaries, Opinions, Editorials, And Analysis On The Death Of Gaddafi

Michael Jackson Overdose Re-Enacted In Court Video

Prosecution aimed to prove MJ’s death could have been prevented if Dr. Conrad Murray had the proper equipment and staffing. By Gil Kaufman Steven Shafer Photo: Pool/Getty Images After five days of recess, the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson doctor Conrad Murray resumed in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday (October 19) with the airing of a dramatic video showing an actor going into cardiac arrest and being revived following a propofol overdose. The Witness

VOTD: A Shot-By-Shot Analysis of The Chase Sequence from ‘The Dark Knight’

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=28792404

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Some fans consider negative comments about The Dark Knight totally blasphemous. Christopher Nolan’s 2008 mega-blockbuster has reached the kind of untouchable status where it’s not only considered by many to be the best superhero movie of all time, some even consider it one of the best movies of all time. I think it definitely warrants mention in the superhero argument but, personally, don’t think it… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : /Film Discovery Date : 13/09/2011 17:00 Number of articles : 2

VOTD: A Shot-By-Shot Analysis of The Chase Sequence from ‘The Dark Knight’