People are doing ANYTHING to keep PETA off their a$$ nowadays… Neiman Marcus Violates Federal Law With Fake Faux Fur Sales Via CBSNews : The Federal Trade Commission says that a trio of retailers, including Neiman Marcus, have agreed to settle charges that they falsely claimed certain products were made of “faux” fur, when they actually contained real fur. In addition to the upscale department store operator, the retailers include DrJays.com Inc. and Eminent Inc., doing business as Revolve Clothing. The FTC says the companies also violated federal laws by not naming the animal that the fur came from. The FTC also charged that The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. falsely claimed that a rabbit fur product had mink fur, and failed to disclose the fur country of origin for three fur products. Under the proposed settlement, the retailers would be prohibited from violating the laws for 20 years. According to the FTC, Neiman Marcus’s website misrepresented the fur content and failed to disclose the animal name and fur country of origin for three products: a Burberry Outerwear Jacket, a Stuart Weitzman Ballerina Flat shoe, and an Alice + Olivia Kyah Coat. Neiman Marcus also misrepresented the fur content of the shoe in its catalog, at bergdorfgoodman.com, and in ads mailed to consumers. Who are we kidding, Kanye would NEVER buy fake fur. He’d make absolutely sure that when his “mink is draggin’ on the floor” that is was ripped off the back of some poor creature. He’s kind of a perfectionist like that… Image via Splash
They got that geriatric good-good? Twins Retires From Selling Sex In Amsterdam The 69-year-old twins are believed to be Amsterdam’s oldest ladies of the night and after more than 50 years on the job — and approximately 355,000 men between them they’ve decided to retire. Practically speaking, the two have been retired for some years now, a factor of both advancing arthritis and an admitted difficulty in attracting new clients. But Martine still has a regular, and “I couldn’t give him up,” she told The Inquisitr. “He’s been coming to me for so long like it’s like going to church on a Sunday.” After a couple years on the fence, though, the Fokkens recently finished a new book on their sexual endeavors, “The Ladies of Amsterdam,” and say it’s time to hang up their stockings for good. Given their experience, they do offer an interesting look at modern shifts in the “world’s oldest profession.” They believe the “golden years” of prostitution in Amsterdam came long before its legalization in 2000, a development Martine said “has not improved prostitutes’ lives.” “Meet the Fokkens,” a documentary on the sisters, premiered in 2012. (Watch the trailer below.) A New York Times review of the film concluded that beneath the Fokkens’ cheery facade lies a “familiar story of poverty, male violence, lost children and a fight for independence.” These hoes have been sokken and fokken for a hot minute! Do they have retirement plans for these ladies of the night? We salute them and their worn out cooties.
They got that geriatric good-good? Twins Retires From Selling Sex In Amsterdam The 69-year-old twins are believed to be Amsterdam’s oldest ladies of the night and after more than 50 years on the job — and approximately 355,000 men between them they’ve decided to retire. Practically speaking, the two have been retired for some years now, a factor of both advancing arthritis and an admitted difficulty in attracting new clients. But Martine still has a regular, and “I couldn’t give him up,” she told The Inquisitr. “He’s been coming to me for so long like it’s like going to church on a Sunday.” After a couple years on the fence, though, the Fokkens recently finished a new book on their sexual endeavors, “The Ladies of Amsterdam,” and say it’s time to hang up their stockings for good. Given their experience, they do offer an interesting look at modern shifts in the “world’s oldest profession.” They believe the “golden years” of prostitution in Amsterdam came long before its legalization in 2000, a development Martine said “has not improved prostitutes’ lives.” “Meet the Fokkens,” a documentary on the sisters, premiered in 2012. (Watch the trailer below.) A New York Times review of the film concluded that beneath the Fokkens’ cheery facade lies a “familiar story of poverty, male violence, lost children and a fight for independence.” These hoes have been sokken and fokken for a hot minute! Do they have retirement plans for these ladies of the night? We salute them and their worn out cooties.
New pope but same old conservative ways… New Pope Is Against Gay Marriage And Abortion Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a 76-year-old Argentinean, was chosen as the first Latin American pope on Wednesday . He will lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics as Pope Franci s. While his selection may be historic, it may also mean more of the same when it comes to gay rights in the Catholic Church. Via HuffPo reports: Pope Francis is a conservative who is anti-gay marriage and anti-gay adoption. He has described same-sex marriage as the work of the devil and a “destructive attack on God’s plan.” He has also said that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children. In 2010, Francis championed against a bill for same-sex marriage and gay adoption, according to the National Catholic Register. “[T]he Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family,” he wrote to the four monasteries in Argentina. “At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.” He went on to describe it as a “‘move’ of the Father of Lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God” and asked for lawmakers to “not act in error.” In John 8:44, the Father of Lies is the devil. Argentina approved same-sex marriage in 2010, making it the first Latin American country to legalize the union, the New York Times previously reported. The country is also progressive when it comes to contraception. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has promoted free contraception and artificial insemination, the Associated Press notes. In the past, Francis has clashed with the Argentinean government over his stance on these issues. GLAAD President Herndon Graddick responded to the election of the new pope in a statement obtained by The Huffington Post. For decades the Catholic hierarchy has been in need of desperate reform. In his life, Jesus condemned gays zero times. In Pope Benedict’s short time in the papacy, he made a priority of condemning gay people routinely. This, in spite of the fact, that the Catholic hierarchy had been in collusion to cover up the widespread abuse of children within its care. We hope this Pope will trade in his red shoes for a pair of sandals and spend a lot less time condemning and a lot more time foot-washing. Graddick also specifically addressed Francis’ previous comments about gay adoption being a “discrimination against children.” “The real discrimination against children is the pedophilia that has run rampant in the Catholic Church with little more than collusion from the Vatican,” he said. Along with GLAAD, Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill responded to the new pope’s election, saying: ‘We hope Pope Francis shows more Christian love and charity to the world’s 420 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people than his predecessor.” Despite the pope’s prior anti-gay sentiments, Francis’ official biographer, Sergio Rubin, defended him as a noble man. “Is Bergoglio a progressive – a liberation theologist even? No,” he told the AP. “He’s no third-world priest. Does he criticize the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism? Yes. Does he spend a great deal of time in the slums? Yes.” It’s just the same old song with the Catholics. To lead the new generation, they needed a truly progressive Pope who would moderately lead and target issues such as a women’s rights, gay marriage, pedophilia cases within the church, the AIDS epidemic and poverty. Instead, they just hired the same guy to do a new job.
Bang Bang! Lackin’ azz gun laws ? That’s that isht we DON’T like! Via NYDailyNews reports : States with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, according to a study that suggests sheer quantity of measures might make a difference. But the research leaves many questions unanswered and won’t settle the debate over how policymakers should respond to recent high-profile acts of gun violence. In the dozen or so states with the most gun control-related laws, far fewer people were shot to death or killed themselves with guns than in the states with the fewest laws, the study found. Overall, states with the most laws had a 42 percent lower gun death rate than states with the least number of laws. The results are based on an analysis of 2007-2010 gun-related homicides and suicides from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers also used data on gun control measures in all 50 states compiled by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a well-known gun control advocacy group. They compared states by dividing them into four equal-sized groups according to the number of gun laws. The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. More than 30,000 people nationwide die from guns every year nationwide, and there’s evidence that gun-related violent crime rates have increased since 2008, a journal editorial noted. During the four-years studied, there were nearly 122,000 gun deaths, 60 percent of them suicides. “Our motivation was really to understand what are the interventions that can be done to reduce firearm mortality,” said Dr. Eric Fleegler, the study’s lead author and an emergency department pediatrician and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. He said his study suggests but doesn’t prove that gun laws — or something else — led to fewer gun deaths. Fleegler is also among hundreds of doctors who have signed a petition urging President Barack Obama and Congress to pass gun safety legislation, a campaign organized by the advocacy group Doctors for America. Gun rights advocates have argued that strict gun laws have failed to curb high murder rates in some cities, including Chicago and Washington, D.C. Fleegler said his study didn’t examine city-level laws, while gun control advocates have said local laws aren’t as effective when neighboring states have lax laws. Previous research on the effectiveness of gun laws has had mixed results, and it’s a “very challenging” area to study, said Dr. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center For Gun Policy. He was not involved in the current study. The strongest kind of research would require comparisons between states that have dissimilar gun laws but otherwise are nearly identical, “but there isn’t a super nice twin for New Jersey,” for example, a state with strict gun laws, Webster noted. Fleegler said his study’s conclusions took into account factors also linked with gun violence, including poverty, education levels and race, which vary among the states. The average annual gun death rate ranged from almost 3 per 100,000 in Hawaii to 18 per 100,000 in Louisiana. Hawaii had 16 gun laws, and along with New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts was among states with the most laws and fewest deaths. States with the fewest laws and most deaths included Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma. But there were outliers: South Dakota, for example, had just two guns laws but few deaths. Editorial author Dr. Garen Wintemute, director the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, said the study doesn’t answer which laws, if any, work. Wintemute said it’s likely that gun control measures are more readily enacted in states with few gun owners — a factor that might have more influence on gun deaths than the number of laws. Seems like it’s pretty clear what needs to be done. Now it’s just a matter of getting the politicians to get on their jobs! AP
Ciara Kisses Future And Posts Picture On Twitter If Ciara was phased by Rih-Rih and her crew supposedly throwing shade at her new single, it looks like she’s over it now. The pop-lockin’ popstress was all about her new rapper boo Future last night as she posted this pic of the two of them having a little photo-op fun as she kissed all on him for the cameras: And she even called him her “Rockstar.” How cute. Twitter/Instagram
Toya denies being a gold-digging diva and exploiting her brother’s famous children! La Toya Jackson Denies Controlling Michael Jackson’s Kids Careers La Toya Jackson is firing back at The New York Post, calling a recent article on her relationship with Michael Jackson’s three children “false” and “derogatory.” The article referred to La Toya as a “gold-digging diva” and claimed that she “pounced” while the rest of the family was engaged in a bizarre feud last summer. It also was reported that La Toya is in the process of shopping a Jackson family reality series and that Oprah Winfrey’s OWN was thought to be the front-runner in a $10 million bidding war. Via Billboard reports: Below is La Toya’s response in full, submitted to The Hollywood Reporter by publicist Juliette Harris: “The story in The NY Post is completely and unequivocally false. Neither La Toya nor her company represent any of MJ’s children in any legal capacity nor has she received any commissions or payment as a result of their individual ventures. As a loving Aunt, when the children ask for help or advice she supports them 100%, and will continue to do so. Furthermore, there is no shopping of a reality show for the children. Paris did her movie deal over a year ago directly with the production company and La Toya had nothing to do with it. Over the past year, Prince has continuously asked his Aunt for her help in starting his career because of the infrastructure she has. When she asked her nephew what he wanted for his birthday he replied, “He just wanted to work,” It was at the time that she diligently started to assist him with his career and that’s when Entertainment Tonight was booked and then 90210. La Toya is currently consulting with her attorneys on how to proceed against these false and derogatory statements made by The NY Post and other participating publications.” Looks like Toya will stick to horrible reality shows to get them checks! WENN
RIP baby Zoe! Ex-Cop Found Guilty Of Murdering Daughter A former Jackson police detective is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Via ClarionLedger reports: After an emotional trial that lasted nearly two weeks, a jury early Thursday evening found Natyyo Gray guilty of capital murder in the death of his 1-year-old daughter Zoe. “This was certainly a horrible, horrible thing,” Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith said after the verdict was issued. “It’s kind of hard to describe how this could have possibly been at the hands of the father.” Prosecutors delivered their closing arguments with an image of a smiling, healthy Zoe shown on the projector as they spoke, a stark contrast from the gruesome images they showed of Zoe Brown’s mangled body earlier in the trial. At the time of her death, Zoe had sustained bruises to her forehead, back and pelvis, along with extensive abdominal bruising and a large hematoma on the top of her head. She also had a lacerated liver and pancreas and was bleeding from her anus. An autopsy determined she bled to death after being beaten. In his closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride repeatedly asked jurors to put “the animal” who hurt her behind bars. “He beat the tar out of that little baby,” McBride said grimly. But his attorney has pledged to appeal the ruling. “It will definitely be appealed. We feel there are issues of the law that need to be addressed by the Mississippi Supreme Court in this matter.” He would not elaborate on what those issues were, adding only that there were “numerous” things that the high court should look at. While waiting for jurors to return a verdict, Gray sat quietly, his hands folded in his lap. Later, as bailiffs escorted him from the courtroom, Gray turned calmly to someone in the audience and said, “I’ll see you.” He should be put down immediately. His incarceration will cost taxpayers thousands of dollars depending on how long he lives. 20 years will cost close to a million dollars. One shot would be perfect. What do prisoners think of baby killers, especially ex cops?
My man!!! Denzel Washington keeps it all the way trill when discussing who his friends are, and they ain’t of the White Hollyweird assortment… According to Yahoo! Movies: Some actors make a point of hob-nobbing with famous and high-profile folks in the industry and getting their picture in the tabloids as often as possible. Then there’s Denzel Washington. In an interview with Xan Brooks published on The Guardian.co.uk, Washington announced, “Actually, even within the industry, I don’t have any actor friends. My friends are old friends. One’s an ex-music guy, the other’s a restaurant owner and the other’s an ex-pro ballplayer.” When asked why he didn’t have many friends among his colleagues, Washington snapped, “Because I don’t make friends! Maybe I’m not a butt-kisser, maybe I’m not a schmoozer. I’m not about to go to a party to try to get a job. And then when you have children, the other friends become other parents. We’d coach baseball or basketball. My wife and I were raised right. I don’t want movie-star friends. And being African American, there were no big movie stars to hang out with anyway, not when I was starting out, they were just the third guy from the back! For whatever reason, I never befriended any white actors.” (One of Washington’s public relations representatives later offer a clarification on the Guardian story, “I sat in on this interview,” the rep said. “The part they failed to mention was after he said ‘never befriended any white actors’ he mentioned ‘except,’ and then listed Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, etc. They cut the rest of the thought out. The rest is fine though.”) As the interview went on, Washington’s seem to clarify that his attitude had less to do with his opinions of his fellow thespians and more with the current culture of celebrity in America. “I’m a working actor!” he declared. “What’s a celebrity anyway? Paris Hilton’s a celebrity. I’m just a working actor.” While Washington didn’t go into deep detail about his private life in the interview, the well-grounded and publicity-shy actor alluded to his religious scruples and the role they play in his life and his work. When asked about his character’s plea for help from God in “Flight,” Washington replied, “That line, ‘God help me,’ was very important to me. As an arc as much as anything. You see this butt-naked, coke-sniffing, weed-smoking guy finally get to the point where he can say: ‘God help me.’ He gets his life back.” Love it, way to keep it all the way 100, Denzel!!!! WENN
The Catholic church is in crisis …. Pope Resignation Linked To Gay Blackmail Scandal Via Gawker reports: A new report outlining a network of gay Vatican officials might have been behind the Pope’s resignation earlier this month, a claim the Vatican neither confirms or denies. Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that gay Vatican prelates were being blackmailed by people with knowledge of their network, which met and had sexual encounters in “a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.” The network was supposedly detailed in a 300-page report to the Pope put together by three cardinals who were looking into the “Vatileaks” affair, a series of Papal dispatches which were stolen and leaked by Pope Benedict’s butler last May. The report was given to the Pope on the same day he reportedly decided to resign. The cardinals found that “various lobbies within the Holy See were consistently breaking” the sixth and seventh commandments (no adultery, no stealing), and were influencing the Vatican. Pope Benedict alluded to the affair in his Ash Wednesday homily, when he railed against vague internal “divisions.” Let’s pray the successor has not only more intellectual competence but will also have greater moral fiber. The scandal of avoiding defrocking pedos and their enablers undermined the ethical character of the Roman Catholic denomination.
