What Our Kids Are Exposed To - Want to Add to the List? Can You Top These Cultural Icons and Influences?  Add to It in Comments and I'll Add to List:

Time to do something...

Role Models

Lindsey Lohan Rehab
Mary-Kate Rehab
Britney Basketcase
Hero "Role Model" Athletes:  any who use drugs, steroids, rape women, drive drunk, carry guns, sleep around and it makes the news.
Paris Hilton - a waste of space.  Cruel, self-centered and contributes nothing to the world.
Naomi Campbell - I'm rich so I can beat my maids and then go on SNL and make money parodying myself.

Favorite Shows
-Cribs - lifestyles of the rich and famous - up and coming "talent"
-My Super Sweet 16 - you want to see the most overindulged, nasty, ungrateful, snotty girls (and guys) get $200K "Sweet 16 Parties - complete with car from daddy (Mercedes, oh and watch Daddy pull out of the trunk of the 16 year old's new Benz, the surprise diamond Rolex in front of all her friends) after a whole show of kids trashing mom and dad for everything they do.  Sometimes they even have guys line up bare chested to choose who comes to the party.  Now isn't that SWEET?
-Tila Tequila For Love - Reality TV's Bisexual Bachelorette -  guys and gals vie for her AND prove  love by tatooing her name on themselves (one episode). Her reason for landing this show:  Had the most "friends" collected ever on MySpace.
-Jackass - need I say more?
-Date My Mom - boys take Moms out for dates hoping the boy will choose their daughter sight unseen (uhh, is this pimp my daughter?)
-Meet My Folks - parents and loser boyfriend/girlfriend watch while parents get a date for daughter son (and then watch daughter (mostly) on date making out while loser boyfriend and parents make nasty comments at each other.  Wholesome family fun.
-Swing town - Isn't that sweet?  Couple swapping drama in the disco '70's on prime time TV.  The ads make me sick.

Fun Things For Teens To Do:
-Steal prescription drugs from parents or buy them and mix them with alcohol and "regular recreational drugs"
-Shoplift - "everyone does it."
-Boys going up to girl classmates or guests they don't know and grinding them from behind at school dances - (14 year old boys, with chaperones and parents present and clergy!).
-Young teen version of "Hooking Up" - making out with a random guy (or a few) at a party
-Graffiti on nature's rock walls is still alive and well as is at trains, signs, etc,
-Huffing

Now here's the icing on the cake, a few of my "favorite" songs - the teens love.    Yes folks, our culture. 

Songs:

I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry   (THE NEWEST BIG FAVORITE:  All the girls think it is a cool song.  I have no doubt guys love it.  Bisexual "fun"  I actually heard on radio, loved music and then heard lyrics.  Searched lyrics to post and saw video - looks like a singer in a bordello. OFFENSIVE.)
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter
You're my experimental game
Just human nature
It's not what, good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey

Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-Lot - been around a while, but played at chaperoned school dances
A few choice lyrics:
[Sir Mix-a-Lot]
I like 'em round, and big
And when I'm throwin' a gig
I just can't help myself, I'm actin' like an animal
Now here's my scandal
I wanna get you home
And ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh
I ain't talkin' bout Playboy
'Cause silicone parts are made for toys
I want 'em real thick and juicy
So find that juicy double
Mix-a-Lot's in trouble
Beggin' for a piece of that bubble
So I'm lookin' at rock videos
Knock-kneeded bimbos walkin' like hoes
You can have them bimbos
I'll keep my women like Flo Jo
A word to the thick soul sisters, I wanna get with ya
I won't cuss or hit ya
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna *fuck*
Till the break of dawn
Baby got it goin' on
A lot of simps won't like this song
'Cause them punks like to hit it and quit it
And I'd rather stay and play
'Cause I'm long, and I'm strong
And I'm down to get the friction on
So, ladies! {Yeah!} Ladies! {Yeah}
If you wanna roll in my Mercedes {Yeah!}
Then turn around! Stick it out!
Even white boys got to shout
Baby got back!

And here's a real song of hope:

You Know Me - 2 Pistols

...Somethin serious ...Shorty you know wat it is

(Ray J) chrous
I know you shorty, you know me and you know I can't leave these streets, cause I mean its in my veins shorty wish I could stay but for now just pray for me.
I know you shorty, you know me so hard for me to leave these blocks got my head tied in a knot always runnin from the cops prayin that I don't get caught.

2 Pistols
You know I push it to the limit sun up, sun down, baby I got to get it, gotta get it..I gotta get it (repeat 1x)

(verse)
Baby girl, you know my situation. I know sometime you get impatient. I be on tha grind. You be at tha house, probably think Im at another broad house. Shorty I'm gettin money more than I've ever seen. True Religion jeans, I know you like those. Thats why I buy'em for ya
smile for me. You can't believe them hatin B**ches, they be lyin on me. Keep a nine on me, you know they plottin on me, you just keep that pu**y tight. I'm comin home early. I gotta get it, get it. I can't leave the streets. I did'nt choose tha hustle, tha hustle chose me.

(Ray J) chrous
I know you shorty, you know me and you know I can't leave these streets, cause I mean its in my veins shorty wish I could stay but for now just pray for me.
I know you shorty, you know me, so hard for me to leave these blocks got my head tied in a knot always runnin from the cops prayin that I don't get caught.

2 Pistols
You know I push it to the limit sun up, sun down, baby I got to get it, gotta get it..I gotta get it (repeat 1x)
(Ray J singing) Pray for me pray for me

Streets keep callin, the block keep on watchin. You're my shorty, hope'n you stay down be with me win or lose. Girl my heart is always with you, don't get confused. Just hold me down, I promise that we'll make it through.

(VERSE 2) 2 Pistols
I'm gettin money 24/7 life as a hustler, they wanna throw away the key and lock a ni**a up, I remember when they put me in handcuffs. I look you in tha eye "Shawty what u cryin for?" I'll be out in the morning, baby post bail. Get your hair done cause I'm comin straight over there. I trust her with tha money, shorty so real. I put them diamonds on her,
just to show I care. You stuck with a ni**a, in and out of jail. I know you love me baby, I put you through hell.
I gotta get it, get it. I can't leave the streets. I did'nt choose tha hustle, tha hustle chose me

If you want to get a message to Google FAST, since they don't allow comments on blogs or emails it seems, just a form fill that will never be read, hit them where it hurts:  their pocket books.  They have deep pockets when lawsuits are aimed at them.  But rolled over on users' privacy. 

So, DO NOT CLICK ON THE SPONSORED LINKS on Google searches.  You know where they are?  They're in a band on top of page and on the whole right side.  You click, they make money.  That's how they stay in business and make their bajillions. Or stop using them.  And use Ecocho and help the environment.  But send a message to Google to fight this judge's ruling or your privacy will quickly erode with this ruling. It is just the beginning.  A cease and desist on copyrighted material would have sufficed.  This is a travesty.

Just when Iraq says things are stablizing as have been reports from American military we get this "bomb." 

I send this and recent posts to hear people dialogue.  I leave the questions open as to your thoughts.  I have no agenda except to hide under the table or face my locker :))

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070900235.html?hpid=topnews

Iran Test-Fires Long-Range Missile

By Howard Schneider and Michael Abramowitz

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2008; 8:24 AM

Iran said on Wednesday it had test-fired a long-range missile capable of reaching Israel and U.S. troops in the region, a step promptly condemned by the Bush administration as heightening tensions over the country's suspected nuclear weapons program.

The roughly 1,200 mile range of Iran's Shahab-3 rocket has been known for several years, but the test firing -- and pointed statements from Tehran about the country's "capability in hitting its enemies" -- added to a tense climate.

Iran "only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said at the meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. He said Iran's missiles violate existing United Nations resolutions, and "They should . . . refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the missile was test-fired as part of a larger military exercise by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. In Tehran, the Associated Press said that as many as nine missiles of different sizes were fired during the exercise, carried out partly near the Persian Gulf shipping lanes that Iran has threatened to close if it is attacked.

A top Iranian official said this week the country would also retaliate against Tel Aviv if any targets inside the country are struck.

"Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami said on Wednesday, according to the wire service.   (Beanie's comment:  What an ass-)

The missile tests and statements from Iranian officials like Salami are part of a recent sharp back and forth between Iran, Israel and the U.S. that have formed the backdrop to on-going negotiations about Iran's nuclear program.

Top leaders from all three countries play down the chance of a military confrontation, and say they are committed to a diplomatic solution to their disagreements, particularly the nuclear issue.

Iran insists it is only developing nuclear technology for civilian power needs, but the U.S. is pushing the country to shut down its processing of uranium out of concern that Tehran's ultimate aim is to produce a nuclear weapon. The combination of nuclear technology with long-range missiles, the administration argues, would pose a threat to Israel and be broadly destabilizing in the Middle East.

Last month, Israel staged a large military exercise that involved over 100 warplanes operating over distances that they would need to cover to strike Iran. The maneuvers deep over the Mediterranean were interpreted both as a warning to Tehran, and a prod to the U.S. and other western nations to increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

During its meetings in Japan this week, the G-8 issued a statement reiterating western demands that Iran abandon uranium enrichment.

The Iranian news agency said that the military exercise "was aimed at improving combat readiness."

But the firing of the Shahab 3, capable of carrying a one-ton warhead, was "to demonstrate Iran's capability in hitting its enemies accurately at the early stages of their probable attacks against the Islamic Republic," the agency said. The Shahab, it said "is able to reach targets in the occupied lands," a reference to Israel.

When asked in a form fill on YouTube why I deleted my account (of which they still have my information) I replied:

'Per a Judge's orders, Google will be sharing my personal info with Viacomm - name, IP, videos watched.  This is a violation of the privacy I thought I had a right to.  And Google can't protect me.  Google proprietary info is protected but not the users' private information.
I don't know how else to stand up for my right to privacy. DO NOT SHARE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION."

I invite you to stand up for your right to privacy on the Internet.  The Internet is the people's forum.  Viacomm could do a cease and desist with YouTube - not get access to our private information and habits all matched up.  Google offers all kinds of neat services.  Bundle all your health care info in one place for example.  What will prevent them from not being mandated and willing to share that?  Or any other service they offer you? 

Google has bottomless pockets when companies sue them - and they protect their rights to revenues.  But they roll over on their users?  Think about it. 

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 07/ 7/2008  washingtonpost.com

Court Invites Viacom to Violate YouTube Viewers' Privacy

Not for the first time, a court ruling in a copyright-policy case has made privacy rights an afterthought. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton ruled that Google had to hand over video-viewing records of its YouTube subsidiary to Viacom, which alleges that YouTube built a business on the unauthorized sharing of Viacom's copyrighted works and seeks at least $1 billion in damages.

As my colleague Ellen Nakashima wrote in Friday's Post, the ruling will require Google to provide its viewing log --12 terabytes' worth of data containing "the unique login ID of the viewer, the time he began watching, the Internet Protocol, or IP, address of the user's computer and the identification of the video."

Judge Stanton had no problem protecting Google's own intellectual property, rejecting Viacom's demands for access to the source code behind much of YouTube's operations. But he blandly dismissed Google's defense of YouTube users' privacy in a brief paragraph of the 25-page ruling (PDF):

... their privacy concerns are speculative. Defendants do not refute that the "login ID is an anonymous pseudonym that users create for themselves when they sign up with YouTube" which without more "cannot identify specific individuals" (Pls.' Reply 44), and Google has elsewhere stated: "We... are strong supporters of the idea that data protection laws should apply to any data that could identify you. The reality is though that in most cases, an IP address without additional information cannot."

Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Kurt Opsahl also argues convincingly that the ruling violates the letter and spirit of the Video Privacy Protection Act.

The silly thing is that by far the best remedy to unauthorized video sharing is not lawsuits that take years to grind through the legal system, but ad-supported video sites that offer far better quality and reliability than YouTube.

Viacom says it won't make any use of this viewing data outside this lawsuit. But, speaking for myself, I'm not in the habit of trusting the lawyers of any large corporation to protect my rights.

I am a little more reassured by the part of Nakashima's story that quotes Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas as expressing a willingness to honor Google's request that it be allowed to anonymize these records. In that case, the data would arrive at Viacom's offices already stripped of IP addresses and login IDs -- which the company shouldn't need anyway to prove that YouTube relied on the unauthorized viewing of Viacom's works.

Should Viacom fail to follow through on that, however, I have no problem with Google following TechCrunch's mischievous suggestion that it deliver those 12 terabytes' worth of logs in printed form. Or, in a less environmentally crummy form of protest, Google could provide the same 12 TB of data on hand-labeled USB flash drives.

I welcome your thoughts on this case. But first, be honest: Have you watched a clip from a Viacom subsidiary on YouTube? (My answer: Yes, I watched quite a few Jon Stewart routines there -- up until Comedy Central started putting them on its own site.)

Well, we've been asked to leave.  Do you believe it?  What does it mean for McCain?  Obama?  Does it help Obama?
Does it put McCain in awkward situation when Iraq and majority of US want out?

I pose these questions because the news (Fox, MSNBC) were all over this last night.  Focusing much on McCain - because it's been a major message of his campaign.  I have no agenda. I share no opinion.  Rather I am here, open to listen to all sides and learn.  My only comment is I don't believe Iraq's conviction or follow through.  But besides that, what are your thoughts if it is true?  All comments are welcome.

Washingtonpost.com
Speaking on MSNBC Tuesday morning, McCain said that "The fact is that we and the Iraqis will deal in what is in the national security interests of both countries. And there is no reason to assume that the Iraqis aren't going to act in what they perceive as their national
interest. I believe we will enact ours and I believe we will all come home."

Do you agree?  Or do you think we should ignore and occupy?

Or are they just saying this for their election and voters?

There seems to be waffling in what is coming out of Iraq between top two guys.

Yahoo.com

BAGHDAD - Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq's prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

President Bush has said he opposes a timetable. The White House said Monday it did not believe Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was proposing a rigid timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals.

U.S. officials had no immediate comment Tuesday on al-Rubaie's statement.

Al-Rubaie spoke to reporters after briefing Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf on the progress of the government's security efforts and the talks.

"Our stance in the negotiations underway with the American side will be strong ... We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq," al-Rubaie said.

He provided no details. But Ali al-Adeeb, a Shiite lawmaker and a prominent official in the prime minister's party, told The Associated Press that Iraq was linking the timetable proposal to the ongoing handover of various provinces to Iraqi control.

The Iraqi proposal stipulates that, once Iraqi forces have resumed security responsibility in all 18 of Iraq's provinces, U.S.-led forces would then withdraw from all cities in the country.

After that, the country's security situation would be reviewed every six months, for three to five years, to decide when U.S.-led troops would pull out entirely, al-Adeeb said.

So far, the United States has handed control of nine of 18 provinces to Iraqi officials.

"This is what the Iraqi people want, the parliament and other Iraqi leaders," said al-Adeeb.

The proposal, as outlined by al-Adeeb, is phrased in a way that would allow Iraqi officials to tell the Iraqi public that it includes a specific timetable and dates for a U.S. withdrawal.

However, it also would provide the United States some flexibility on timing because the dates of the provincial handovers are not set.

Some type of troop status agreement between the United States and Iraq is needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year's end.

Iraq's government has felt increasingly confident in recent weeks about its authority and the country's improved stability. Iraqi officials have sharpened their public stance in the negotiations considerably in just the last few days.

Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni tribal revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and crackdowns against Shiite militias and Sunni extremists.

In northern Baghdad Tuesday, guards opened fire, wounding 13 people when a crowd seeking aid payments for the poor, widows, orphans and disabled people became unruly, Iraqi officials said.

The U.S. military said a soldier had died from injuries sustained when a roadside bomb hit a troop convoy in Baghdad.

The U.S. military says five other soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah.

___________

Associated Press reporters Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Abdul-Hussein al-Obeidi in Najaf contributed to this report.

This is our election.  The outcome, make no mistake, will affect generations of our lives and our children through to our great, great grandchildren and beyond:  our present, our economy, our freedom at home, our place in the world,  our troops abroad and when they come home and need our care, our planet and its survival which will affect ours.  Think about the legacy we leave when we're not part of this planet.  What do you want to be remembered for having made happen?
I ask you to consider all of this rather than ideology alone.  Read.  Think.  If you're liberal, learn from conservatives.  If you're a conservative, learn from liberals.  Each has valid points that can open your vistas vs. stuck in party platforms.

The clock is running out on our lives as we have know them.  Choose wisely.  And choose with the future.  Don't "be right."  Be open.  Be willing.  Steer away from sound bytes taken out of context and used to portray erroneously any candidate.  The two men left in the race face-off are men of honor.  Now, push away politics, sound bytes, smears, and look toward a future that will forward life, not destroy it.  I make no endorsement here.  I ask that you go beyond paranoia and join as a country - with the people you may despise ideologically and listen to each other and learn and come to a decision. 

And make sure EVERYONE you know does the same and VOTES.  To botch a cliche, if you don't vote, you get what you deserve.

This was sent to me by a friend. This father and son are from Boston.  The crowds along the road go crazy with applause and tears.

Happy Father's Day.   The story is below and the movie below that.  It is a must see. 

I usually work a quasi part-time week so I can take care of the full-time job of schlepping two teens all over creation. :)

Last week I tallied.  I know MANY people do this.  I don't.  Vowed I wouldn't.  I worked 83 hours.  About 60 hours went into making a movie for a presentation.  And it was new software, editing, and I'm a neophyte.  I am SICK of the computer.  One day I worked on the film until 4:00 am.  Then got up at 6:00 to go back to office.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved the project. It was my idea.  And in many ways became a gift of love to my colleagues to acknowledge all the hard work they did - by presenting this to a large company audience who came into town.

So I may not respond.  I don't even have it in me to look up facts, etc.  Or read blogs. 

Later.

Peace.  Out.

B-