Weinstein Co. & MPAA deal gets Bully documentary a PG-13 rating; film to open in 115 new theaters

Steven Zeitchik, in his blog 24 Frames, explains the deal the Weinstein Company has made with the Motion Picture Association of America to recut its documentary Bully to get a PG-13 rating.

The new cut of the Lee Hirsch film makes some concessions to the MPAA: It removes an obscenity that begins with the prefix “mother” in an early scene, along with two other quickly uttered F-words. Audio will be dropped out in all three instances.

     But the new cut leaves intact a controversial scene on a school bus in which three F-words are used against a bullied child. The case now represents an exception to the MPAA’s rules; the group typically will impose an R rating on any film with more than two F-words.  

     Stephen Bruno, head of marketing for the Weinstein Co., told 24 Frames that “I can say with no stutter that we would have remained unrated if we had to change that scene.”

     In an interview, Hirsch said that he felt satisfied by the results. “This was about drawing the line but not being utterly unreasonable,” he said. “What’s absolutely relevant is the scene that we retained. There was one [obscenity in another scene] I didn’t want to give up. But I didn’t want to hold back all the groups that wanted to see the movie, Boy and Girl Scout groups and school groups, that wouldn’t be able to go if we stayed unrated.”

Anchorage City Clerk Barbara Gruenstein's fishy election; lowest turnout in last 3 mayoral elections, but ballot shortages all over city; ACLU sets up hotline

KTUU map of ballot shortage locations throughout Anchorage
Locations marked on Google map, created by Chris Klint and Jeff Rivet,
were submitted by Channel 2 viewers and Facebook users
A list of locations is at the end of this post.

Steve, of the blog WhatDoIKnow, was suspicious of Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Gruenstein's explanation of Anchorage's recent, chaotic mayoral election when he read her explanation in the Anchorage Daily News story, "Voter turnout creates ballot shortage."

 "An 'unprecedented number of voters' caused the shortage, she said."

     He thought that odd, due to his research using figures from the city clerk's office, which showed turnouts of 35.18% in 2006, 29.92% in 2009, but only 26.92% in 2012 (as of 11:48 pm Tuesday night, with 118 out of 121 precincts reporting).

     The law requires printing enough ballots to cover 70% of the registered voters — 143,386. 26.92% is only 54,946 ballots.

     143,386-54,946=88,440 extra ballots. 

     Here is Barbara Gruenstein's explanation for why that wasn't enough, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News:

Not all the ballots were distributed to polling stations because some went to absentees or for early voting. On Tuesday, nearly 55,000 ballots were run through voting machines, representing about 27 percent of the registered voters. Many more ballots were cast, but the city can't say just how many yet, Gruenstein said. The 55,000 figure doesn't include thousands of absentee ballots or those of people who voted early or on a questioned ballot. 

Barbara Gruenstein

     People voting in polling places that ran out of ballots had to vote questioned ballots, even after additional ballots arrived, because the extra ballots were not programmed for the voting machines, said deputy city clerk Jacqueline Duke.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/04/03/2406037/precincts-run-out-of-election.html#storylink=cpy

     The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska is investigating and has set up a hot line, 263-2015, to help gather information to determine whether it needs to take action, said executive director Jeffrey Mittman, who said the organization wants to know if there were irregularities which disenfranchised voters.

     Complicating ballot shortages was blatant encouragement of voter fraud by Jim Minnery, leader of antigay Anchorage group Protect Your Rights. Minnery sent out an email Tuesday, accompanied by a similar posting on the organization's Facebook page, telling recipients they could register at the polls and vote immediately.

"Did you know that people can register and vote at the same location and it doesn't even have to be at their precinct location? PLEASE take a few minutes now and call or text or e-mail ONE MORE PERSON and remind them to get to any polling station to cast their NO vote on Prop. 5."

     Gruenstein claimed that ineligible voters voting in incorrect precincts drained polling places of ballots that could have been used by people who actually lived in said precincts.

Jim Minnery of the
Alaska Family Council

      The very first response to Protect Your Rights' false advice on facebook was a correction by a Prop 5 proponent. But the exhortation to commit what amounted to voter fraud stayed up and, according to Bent Alaska, the author of the correction was mocked by Protect Your Rights supporters, one of whom wrote:

Hey Joe go to your pervert website and help them!

     Minnery, in an email to his supporters Wednesday, claimed that someone had asked him whether registering and voting on Election Day was possible. He said he checked with the city clerk's office and was told it was allowed as long as the person had lived in Anchorage at least 30 days.
     Gruenstein said she later asked Minnery who he talked to and he couldn't provide a name.

     What Minnery also didn't provide was the admission that on February 17th, he sent an email to his supporters reminding them that they needed to register by March 4th in order to vote. In the intervening month Minnery apparently either developed amnesia, Alzheimer's or else decided to blatantly lie to his supporters in order to queer the election.

     On Wednesday evening Gruenstein said the extent of the shortage still was being assessed, but KTUU didn't wait — it published feedback from voters in the form of a list (below) and a Google map (above) of polling places which ran out of ballots:

Anchorage locations which ran out of ballots, as provided to KTUU by viewers and readers of the station's Facebook page:

Abbott Loop Elementary School
Alpenglow Elementary School
Bayshore Elementary School
Creekside Park Elementary School
Huffman Elementary School
Klatt Elementary School
Lake Hood Elementary School
Muldoon School
Scenic Park Elementary School
Spring Hill Elementary School
Taku Elementary School
Hanshew Middle School
Chugiak High School
Dimond High School
East High School
Service High School
Grace Christian School
Chugiak-Eagle River Library
Z.J. Loussac Public Library
St Elizabeth Catholic School
St Innocent Russian Orthodox
Anchorage School District
Anchorage Public Works
YMCA
The Alaska Club South
Chester Valley Elementary School
Huffman Fire Station
UAA Building Anchorage, AK 99508
Chester Valley Elementary School
Sand Lake Elementary School
Wayland Baptist University
Eagle River Lions Club
Nunaka Valley Elementary School

Map comment: Add another in at Nunake Valley Elementary School, we ran out by 6:00

New York Times turns web article on video games into a video game

You can obliterate the Opinion, Business or Style sections. You can even blast away at a Maureen Dowd blast. Regrettably, William Safire is already dead.

Variety asks Martin Sheen how he supports marriage equality and remains Catholic

In Variety, Ted Johnson asked Martin Sheen, who recently played lawyer Ted Olson in "8" which revisited the court proceedings which overruled California's anti-gay marriage initiative. Johnson asked Sheen how he reconciles his religion with support for same-sex marriage rights.

They do not have the authority to condemn anybody. They can't say anybody is in hell. That is between [that person and] God. The church is not God.

Forty years ago, (long before The West Wing) Martin Sheen starred with Hal Holbrook, Hope Lange and Scott Jacobi in That Certain Summer, a then-daring Levinson-Link production for ABC television that was truly ground breaking for American commercial television.

Hawaiian Sprinter loses race but wins over crowd with quick rendition of The Worm

(Video taken by Jennifer Adams)

Iowa Rep. Steve King thinks a dude with a picture of his boyfriend on his desk should be grounds for firing

ThinkProgress' Scott Keyes caught up with Iowa Rep. Steve King in homophobe-friendly LeMars, Iowa, home of the Blue Bunny dairy, whose owners have funded Iowa's leading heterosexual supremacist, Bob Vander Plaats.

KING: You have private sector businesses here and they need to have freedom to operate. In the first place, I would think that unless someone makes their sexuality public, it’s not anybody’s business, so neither is it our business to tell an employer who to hire. He won’t know who to discriminate against in the first place.

Bent Alaska proves Jim Minnery organization knew it was encouraging Anchorage voter fraud

Jim Minnery of the
Alaska Family Council

UPDATE: Minnery's sudden amnesia about voting rules; the ACLU sets up a hotline in Anchorage to investigate election fraud and disenfranchisement.

The results of yesterday's chaotic Anchorage municipal election are still in doubt due to much greater than expected turnout and a shortage of ballots. Oh — and apparent widespread voter fraud knowingly encouraged by a leading antigay organization.

Jim Minnery, leader of Anchorage anti-LGBT protection ordinance group Protect Your Rights is the cousin of Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Government and Public Policy for Focus on the Family and a founding member of the Alliance Defense Fund and former chairman of the board. The Alliance Defense Fund recently attempted to torpedo an Omaha LGBT protection ordinance, but failed.

Protect Your Rights actively encouraged voter fraud in Alaska via its Facebook page and the following email from Jim Minnery:

 "Did you know that people can register and vote at the same location and it doesn't even have to be at their precinct location?"

KTUU said this is false:

City law, however, requires voters to register for an election 30 days before it occurs -- a fact which makes Minnery's claim false, according to Municipal Clerk Barbara Gruenstein.

     "That's not true," Gruenstein said.

     While Gruenstein said it wouldn't be accurate to claim people were trying to "crash" the election, she did say she had reason to believe that people from outside Anchorage were attempting to vote.

     Reached for comment Tuesday night, Minnery acknowledged sending the email but denied any conscious plan to crash the election.

From BentAlaska:

Minnery’s misinformation
Yesterday, we reported that an administrator of Jim Minnery’s Protect Your Rights – Vote NO on 5 Facebook page posted the following notice:

Attention Young People or First Time Voters – YOU CAN REGISTER AND VOTE AT THE SAME LOCATION TODAY !! It is super easy. Take a few minutes TODAY and stop by a polling station, register to vote (all you need is your AK driver’s license) and cast a NO Vote on Prop. 5. We really need you to vote. Tell at least 3 of your friends how easy it is.

Click on the MyNeighborhood link below to find your polling place. Once in MyNeighborhood type in your address, then use the Political pull down menu. A map with your polling place location, street address, and Assembly representatives will be displayed.
http://neighborhood.muni.org/

The post has now apparently been removed from the Protect Your Rights Facebook wall.  However, Bent Alaska took a screenshot of the post and all comments as of 10:42 AM on April 3, which can be read in this linked document.

The first comment on the post was a correction from a Proposition 5 supporter, [emphasis added by AKSARBENT] Joseph A Connors, who wrote,

Umm – actually Jim – REGISTRATION CLOSED 30 DAYS AGO – see: http://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Clerk/Elections/Pages/VoterRegistration.aspx – “you must register to vote or update your registration no later than 30 days before an election.” You really need to stop providing bad information to the public . .

A Prop 5 opponent retorted,

Hey Joe go to your pervert website and help them!

No apparent effort was made by Protect Your Rights to correct the information based on Joseph A Connor’s accurate info or other commenters’ corrections with citation to Municipal voting information. As of this writing, Protect Your Rights continues to display another post with misinformation (or see the linked PDF), though differently phrased:

You have until 8:00pm tonite to help us defeat Prop. 5. Have you called a friend, co-worker or family member to remind them to get to the polls ? Did you know that people can register and vote at the same location and it doesn’t even have to be at their precinct location ?

This proves to be the same text used in an email sent to the Protect Your Rights mailing list at 1:23 PM on election day. (Click through for the entire email in PDF format.)

Jon Stewart rips Sarah Palin's Today Show appearance

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Chicago's own Trayvon Martin-like scandal; black former Chicago cop survived 28 shots from 4 white cops during traffic stop; Howard Morgan now faces 80-year attempted murder sentence; double-jeapordy alleged

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on a racially-charged incident that, in its own way, is as dubious as the Trayvon Martin incident receiving much wider play in the media.

Although the police officers alleged Morgan opened fire when they tried to arrest him, the fusillade of bullets turned Morgan a human sieve and put him in the hospital for seven months.
     He was later charged with four counts of attempted murder; three counts of aggravated battery and one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a police officer.
     Morgan languished in jail until an anonymous donor put up the $2 million bond.
     In 2007, a jury acquitted Morgan of aggravated battery and discharging a weapon at a police officer. They deadlocked on attempted murder charges.
     Prosecutors retried the case and in January, and a second jury found Morgan guilty on the attempted murder counts. Morgan’s supporters argue that the verdict subjected him to double jeopardy because he was acquitted in the first trial of discharging a weapon.

Evidence of Chicago PD obstruction of justice and coverup:

• Howard Morgan's van was crushed and destroyed without notice or cause before any forensic investigation could be done.
• Howard Morgan was never tested for gun residue to confirm if he even fired a weapon on the morning in question.
• The State never produced the actual bullet proof vest worn by one of the officers who claimed to have allegedly taken a shot directly into the vest on the morning in question. The State only produced a replica.

From Free Howard Morgan:

Frito-Lay evidently now being advised about truth-in-advertising by Mitt Romney

Some settling of contents may occur, my ass.

The bag was 1/3 full.*

Related: Being so pissed off at finding a bag of potato chips lacking, that you turn it into a blog post is probably a cry for help.

Or maybe very good anger annoyance management.

Good thing we're not introspective, ain't it?

-----------------------------
*Disclaimer: We ate two (small) chips on the way home before the pictures were taken. Lucille had one.

NE senate race: antigay Nebraska AG Jon Bruning vs. gay-friendly Bob Kerrey: Bruning now using 'Willie Horton' political consultant

Right-wing Nebraska AG Jon Bruning will has retained D.C.-based McCarthy-Hennings Media, as the website Nebraska Watchdog first reported.
     The "McCarthy" in that corporate name refers to adman Larry McCarthy, whose resume includes the 1988 Willie Horton attack ad against Michael Dukakis during George H.W. Bush's campaign for president.
     McCarthy played xenophobia and religious divisions in the electorate like a violin in more recent political spots like "Chinese Professor" and "Mosque."
     Bruning, for his part, has compared welfare recipients to raccoons scavenging for food.

"The raccoons, they're not stupid, they're going to do the easy way if we make it easy for them -- just like welfare recipients all across America," he said in a video recorded by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic independent expenditure group. "If we don't send them to work, they're going to take the easy way out."

     ..."What better way to reform your image as a politician who makes racially insensitive comments than to hire the ad firm that makes racially insensitive ads?" said Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge 21st Century. 

     In November 2003, Bruning said Massachusetts' Supreme Court ruling against that state's ban on gay marriages was ridiculous. "Does that mean you have to allow a man to marry his pet, or a man to marry his chair?" Bruning said. "I mean, at some point, it needs to stop." [Associated Press, 11/18/03]

     In 1982, Bob Kerrey, then on the Human Rights Commission in Lincoln, supported an equal employment measure for gay citizens before voters overturned it amid a rumor campaign fueled by a subsequently discredited NU psychologist Paul Cameron.
     From 2007 to 2011, a period in which many Americans lost their life savings, Bruning tripled the value of his personal non-publicly traded assets, from a range of $4.3 to $17.8 million to $12.6 to $61.3 million while in office as Nebraska Attorney General and has held positions while AG on 24 different banks, private businesses and LLCs.
     Below, Joe Jordon, of Nebraska Watchdog, talks to AG Bruning about his ties to David Sokol, who abruptly left Berkshire Hathaway amid charges of insider trading and is the target of an ongoing SEC investigation.



Below: then-senator Bob Kerrey took on Charleton Heston and the NRA in an ad for his successful reelection to the US Senate.

Papillion 'Family Values' Sen. Jim Smith sponsors law to make it easier for foreign oil company to condemn land of rural Nebraska families under eminent domain

Sen. Jim Smith, of Papillion, sponsor of
LB1161, which helps TransCanada trample
property rights of Nebraska ranchers and
farmers through abuse of eminent domain.
Smith's law exempts oil companies that apply
during 2012 from complying with Nebraska's
new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act. Smith
claims, with a straight face, that his law
wasn't unconstitutionally written
specifically for TransCanada.

LB1161 would exempt the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline from Nebraska's new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act for a year and would let the company condemn farmer and rancher land under eminent domain without a federal permit for its pipeline.

    Smith is the Nebraska State Chairman of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group funded by the extremist right-wing billionaire Koch brothers, to get bills written by corporate lobbyists passed in state legislatures.

     Smith's bill lets TransCanada dictate terms, conditions and compensation to landowners and if they don't like it — tough luck. Here's the language:

...desiring or requiring a right-of-way or other interest in real estate and being unable to agree with the owner or lessee of any land, lot, right-of-way, or other property for the amount of compensation for the use and occupancy of so much of any lot, land, real estate, right-of-way, or other property as may be reasonably necessary for the laying, relaying, operation, and maintenance of any such pipeline or the location of any plant or equipment necessary to operate such pipeline, shall have the right to acquire the same for such purpose through the exercise of the power of eminent domain...

Above: citizen testimony in May of 2011 about TransCanada's deplorable treatment of Nebraska farmers and ranchers, which would now be aided and abetted by Sen. Jim Smith's pending legislation. (The bills at the end of the video are no longer pending.)

Here's what Bold Nebraska said about LB1161 on March 28th:

This bill IGNORES the laws we just passed during the Special Session and fast-tracks a route approval (before they submit their federal application). Worst of all, LB 1161 grants TransCanada immediate eminent domain authority versus them having to get their federal permit before taking Nebraskans' land which is our state law now.

Despite Jim Smith's ridiculously dishonest denials, the law is obviously boutique legislation to benefit a foreign oil company. Look at the shamelessly specific language in his bill:

...The Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act shall not apply to any major oil pipeline that, prior to January 1, 2013, has submitted an application to the United States Department of State pursuant to Executive Order 13337 or, prior to January 1, 2013, has applied for or is granted international border crossing authority pursuant to federal law.

Ben Gotschall of Bold Nebraska on the LB1161 hearing:

Another frequent phrase used during the hearing by Sen. Christensen was that Nebraska needed to “hold up our end of the deal” with TransCanada. Well, Sen. Christensen, in the Special Session you and the rest of our lawmakers made two deals: one with Nebraskans (LB1), and one with TransCanada (LB4). TransCanada’s deal fell through when their permit was denied. Now, Sens. Christensen and Smith, among others, want to bow out of their deal with Nebraskans and instead stand with a foreign pipeline company, while telling Nebraskans we have to foot the $2 million bill to study their pipeline under the DEQ process.

Reaction from the Nebraska Chapter of the Sierra Club:

The vote by a majority of the Natural Resources Committee to advance LB 1161 disregarded the Nebraska Constitution, the rights of Nebraska landowners and the wishes of all the Nebraska citizens who testified at the committee hearing,” said Ken Winston, Nebraska Sierra Club spokesperson. “The committee had been given a legal memo that raises serious questions about the constitutionality of LB 1161, but disregarded that opinion. They had heard testimony from landowners that the rights of Nebraska landowners needed to be strengthened against eminent domain threats by private pipeline companies, yet they advanced this bill that weakens landowner rights. And every Nebraska citizen who testified on LB 1161 opposed it, yet the majority of the Committee ignored their testimony.

Unicameral Natural Resource Committee members:

• Sen. Chris Langemeier, Chairperson
• Sen. Tom Carlson
• Sen. Mark Christensen
• Sen. Annette Dubas
• Sen. Ken Haar
• Sen. Beau McCoy
• Sen. Ken Schilz
• Sen. Jim Smith

Time-lapse remix of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Via Towleroad (see bloglist)

Matt Baume on secret National Organization for Marriage memos and the increasing failure of its expensive initiatives

Supreme Court rules 5-4 to allow strip searches for any arrest, without cause

The editorial page editor of the NYT, Andrew Rosenthal, looks askance at the ruling:

Justice Kennedy said courts are not in a position to second-guess correctional officials in this area. Funny, I thought that was exactly what the courts were supposed to do. If the Supreme Court won’t, who will? ...Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that exceptions to the ruling were possible “to ensure that we ‘not embarrass the future.’” Well that’s reassuring. How about not embarrassing the present?

Was that a real cop or a stripper cop?

Hey, gay rednecks! Kirsti shows you how to make your very own acrid rainbow with a 12-gauge shotgun!

Taste the rainbow, city queers.


(Everydaynodaysoff via Neatorama via BoingBoing)

AKSARBENT quote of the day, from the Iowa City PD

“Do not mention to the public or the media the use of cellphone technology or equipment used to locate the targeted subject.”
It should also be kept out of police reports, the Iowa City Police Department warned officers in one training manual.
(Source: New York Times, ACLU)

Pittsburgh mayor Ravenstahl against marriage equality; probable challenger Peduto in favor

Top: councilman Bill Peduto (photo: Pittsburgh City Paper);
bottom: Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (photo: Peter Diana,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

From a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece on the gulf between between mayoral support of marriage in eastern and western Pennsylvania comes the delineation of the sharp contrast between Pittsburgh's current mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, and probable challenger, City Councilman Bill Peduto:

Joanna Doven, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, said he does not support gay marriage and would not sign the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry statement...

     City Councilman Bill Peduto, a likely challenger to Mr. Ravenstahl in next year's election, said he would support Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.

     "Fairness and equality are the basis of this country," he said. "Supporting same-sex marriage is something I've supported throughout my career."

N. Ireland priest accidentally screens Powerpoint gay porn, bolts from room, recovers nicely; asks for money

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Pomeroy,
Co Tyrone, N. Ireland (photo: Wikipedia)

All kinds of news outlets are reporting the story of Father Martin McVeigh's hapless Powerpoint presentation of gay porn to 26 parents of pupils at St. Mary's School in Pomeroy, Co Tyrone after sticking an unexpectedly frisky memory stick into a computer.

From Pink News:

A statement issued by the parents present said Father McVeigh was “visibly shaken and flustered” after the Powerpoint presentation went awry.

     It continued: “He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room. The co-ordinator and the teachers then continued with the presentation.

     “Twenty minutes later he returned, he continued with the meeting and wrapped up by saying that the children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the church.”

Lincoln Journal-Star interviews Outsports' Cyd Zeigler on post urging dismissal of coach Ron Brown

Zeigler in a suit

Cindy Lange-Kubrick, of the Lincoln Journal-Star interviewed Outsports founder Cyd Zeigler following the Huffington Post's publication of his call for dismissal of assistant coach Ron Brown to find out why Zeigler wants Brown gone.

Here's an excerpt:

"I have an affinity for Nebraska," said Zeigler, who... followed the Big Red in its glory years. "So it makes me sad."
     Zeigler spent most of a week researching Brown before writing his piece. He read stories and watched two hours of video on YouTube, where Brown shared his religious viewpoint, often using Tom Osborne Field as a backdrop.
     And he came to this conclusion: "There's no way a gay player on his team would feel comfortable expressing himself."
     (It would defy all odds, added Zeigler, to think there have not been gay football players at Nebraska during Brown's 20-year tenure.)
     ...But to Zeigler -- and hundreds who signed an online petition asking the university to let Brown go -- the coach crossed a line when he used his position as part of his platform.
     "In his arguments, Brown suggested it is God's will to discriminate against gay people," Zeigler wrote, "even saying that those who voted to protect gay people would be held to 'great accountability' by God."
     "His remedy for a gay person in the locker room would be to change them with the word of Christ," said Zeigler. "No coach should be allowed to create this kind of hostile environment for anyone he coaches."

Doris Day gives rare interview to Fresh Aire's Terri Gros aired on eve of singer/actress' 88th birthday

Doris Day, who turns 88 Tuesday, was the biggest female box-office star in Hollywood history when, after 40 movies, she retired to Northern California in 1968 to rescue dogs (and cats). She is even notable for what she didn't do — having turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.
     The animal-loving star, who is down to her last six dogs and 10 cats, released My Heart last year, her first commercial recording since 1967 and is the subject of a new four-DVD box set of her films as well as TCM's star of the month for April. Twenty-eight of her movies will air during prime time this week on the cable network. Day's interview with Teri Gross on NPR's Fresh Aire is below.

Dan Savage's Savage U MTV teaser

Get More: MTV Shows

(Via Towleroad)

Rick Santorum tries to catch up with Mitt Romney's lies; tells whopper in WI about California colleges

From ThinkProgress:

In fact, of the 10 UC system schools, just one (San Francisco) doesn’t offer American history courses. But that’s because it doesn’t offer any humanities courses at all — it’s a medical school.

     Meanwhile, Berkeley, Irvine, Davis, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz all offer numerous American history courses. All require students to take U.S. history before they can graduate.

Goldman Sachs owns 16% of biggest forum for sex trafficking of underage girls in US

The New York Times is reporting that private equity financiers (including the 16% stake owned by Goldman Sachs) own the biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States — a web site called Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media.
     In one recent case in New York City, prosecutors say that a 15-year-old girl was drugged, tied up, raped and sold to johns through Backpage and other sites.
     Perhaps this is a small indication of why Warren Buffet's 2008 $5 billion Berkshire Hathaway investment in Goldman Sachs has yielded a 50% return. Yeah, we know Warren invested to stabilize the economy (and to enrich himself via the VERY favorable terms of his investment at a time when Goldman Sachs was pretty desperate), not to encourage teenage girl white slavery, but geez. Ewww.

BPI puppet, Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, at pink slime dog-and-pony show, gets testy at ABC reporter who asks about the $150,000 he got from Big Beef

Most of the video of this event (last week) seen around the country was from KCCI, but this clip, from the Sioux City Journal, is a bit more illustrative of the tension between Branstad and ABC senior correspondent Jim Avila. Branstad successfully pressured Hy-Vee to reverse its decision to stop selling the finely textured "beef product." Branstad, a beneficiary of BPI's largesse, appeared indignant that a reporter might raise doubts about his impartiality, saying "I will always fight for what's right and I will never be intimidated by anybody in the press."
     Branstad's spokesman, Tim Albrecht, said that the governor has received $150,000 in the last two years from people tied to BPI, whose employees (mostly top executives) have given all but $28,400 of $820,750 to congressional and presidential candidates over the last decade.
     At his weekly press conference, Branstad called for a congressional investigation into how what he called "a smear campaign" against finely textured beef product (aka "pink slime") originated.
     Food safety advocate Nancy Donley, whose son died from 3-coli poisoning, was livid when Avila asked her why acknowledgement of BPI's $250,000 donation to her organization, half its budget, was recently removed from her website. Here's more from Radio Iowa.
     The Omaha World-Herald was uncharacteristically more skeptical about the proceedings in its reporting than was the Des Moines Register.

Branstad, who on Wednesday helped persuade West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee Inc. to reverse its decision to scrap products containing the beef additive, turned combative during the event after he was questioned about a $150,000 campaign donation by BPI. He said it had no impact on his support for the company.

     After the press conference, Branstad told The World-Herald that he would support other grocery chains doing as Hy-Vee is and using signs to show what products contain the additive and which do not.

     "Instead of using these charged words . if you describe what it is — it is really lean beef, and people want lean beef — I don't think (signage) hurts it," he said.

     Asked why the product isn't sold as a stand-alone product, a BPI spokesman said consumers would not respond positively to the fine texture of the product.

Gay school board member wants NU coach Brown fired; in radio response to HuffPost article, Brown alarmed at names like "Pat" or "Stacy"

Above: Ron Brown, inside NU's Memorial stadium, hard at work on a side job with Justen Wack promoting an anti-porn initiative and cross-promoting his evangelical effort by wearing a FreedMen tee shirt in front of the television camera. The YouTube video is here.

WOWT, the NBC affiliate in Omaha, and Kevin Abourezk of the Lincoln Journal-Star are reporting that Barbara Baier, an openly gay member of the Lincoln Board of Education, wants NU to fire assistant football coach Ron Brown for his public comments against an Omaha proposal (subsequently passed) to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Below, the Journal-Star:

"When some people seek to camouflage their hatred under the cloak of their faith, their professed religious beliefs should not shield them from the consequences of their actions," Barbara Baier wrote in a letter to NU leaders.
      Baier said she decided to send the letter out of concern for gay NU athletes who may fear Brown's beliefs that homosexuality is a sin threaten their well-being. She said her own 12-year-old son is considering attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but that she isn't encouraging it right now. She said she was expressing her opinions as a private individual and not as a Lincoln school board member.
     "I would like to see them go and seriously change the culture in their athletics program across the board and make sure that the university is a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, including the gay and lesbian community," she said. "That's going to take some work."

On Friday, NU Chancellor Ron Perlman said:

"I am personally offended by the comments of Coach Brown with regard to gays and lesbians," Perlman said Friday. "Whether intended to do so or not, they reflect poorly on the university, on our athletic programs, and I am certain they cause pain and discomfort among a valued and productive segment of our community."

Perlman also said Brown had the right to express his personal views and hadn't done anything to warrant his dismissal.
     The Omaha World-Herald, which is never amused when persons other than its editorial writers — especially persons from Stinkin' Lincoln — tell the city council how to run Omaha, liberally quoted both Perlman's and Baier's sharp disapproval of Brown:

"Unless and until I have evidence that coach Brown has engaged in conduct beyond speech that many of us find offensive, I do not intend to do more than seek to assure that he speaks only for himself and to disassociate myself and this university from his position," Perlman said.

     "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever," he [Brown]said Friday. "I have no fear of any man or any thing."

     Baier said she saw Brown speak at a Champions Club event last fall. She said he made clear his UNL connection and spoke in terms of faith as he attacked gay and transgender individuals and discussed a "mysterious but undefined 'homosexual agenda.'"

     "At the conclusion of the speech, I was deeply troubled and, as a person of the attacked minority group, I felt psychologically and socially threatened, so I left the event," she said.

     Perlman said he was sorry Baier felt intimidated, but he noted it was not a university event. He said Brown's views on gay rights do not reflect the views of most of the UNL community.

     Right-wing talk radio station KLIN in Lincoln aired a puffball interview with Brown here (unearthed by The Friendly Atheist) in which Brown responded to Outsports' Cyd Ziegler's 3/22/2012 Huffington Post column calling for Brown to be fired.
     In the radio interview, Brown expressed his alarm that some parents are choosing gender neutral names like "Stacy" or "Pat" and railed against the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

The YouTube boxed set — it arrives in a lot of boxes

(Via JMG and Forbes)

Ask reddit: "I think my brother is spreading rumors about me being gay."

The Internet, as Gene Pitney would have said had he been prescient, is a town without pity. But just for fun, without looking, please rate the following responses as to their reddit popularity as of noon today. No cheating.

1. Punch him right in the dick with your mouth.
2. Fuck his girlfriend
3. Spread a rumor that you're straight.

Spoiler/answer below, in white on white. Click and swipe to reveal.

The answers are listed in reverse order of popularity.

Who is Good Guy Greg? AKSARBENT has an interview with him!

Please note the day before getting all mad and stuff.