Watch your backs, Matt and Trey - Seriously!

     It appears that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made a lot of Muslim people very, very angry.

     In celebration of the 200th episode of "South Park," creators Matt and Trey released a special two-parter that involves a Tom Cruise-led, class-action law suit by celebrities who's characters have been defamed by(the town of...)South Park. In part one, Tom Cruise and 200 other celebrities are seeking the prophet Muhammad, in order to take from him his "power to not be ridiculed."

     When they find Muhammad, he is in a mascot-style bear suit.

     It may not be surprising to anyone that Matt and Trey would offend the faith of the billions of people who follow the world's second-largest religion - they have, after all, aired plenty of episodes that are thoroughly offensive to every other religion, belief, sexual preference, and form of disability -

but this time is different.

     On the revolutionary Islamic website, RevolutionMuslim.com, writer Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee posted about the episode:

     "We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

     These words are beneath a grisly photo of a Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in the street in 2004 for making a documentary about violence against Muslim women.

     Under a headline reading "Where do they live?" there is a link to an article in the Huffington Post that provides details about Matt and Trey's home in Steamboat Springs, CO.
     Beneath that is a clip of a Muslim preacher talking about assassinating people who defame the prophet Muhammad.

     In a follow-up post, the author wrote that he didn't know if Matt and Trey were afraid of being bombed, but they should be.

     I completely agree.

     Matt and Trey, I love you - I have been a South Park fan since the beginning of time - but joking about Muhammad is obviously not funny, and I don't think these people are kidding.

     Also, I don't think placing Muhammad inside of a bear suit, within a U-Haul, and bleeping every mention of his name for the second episode equals an apology to Muslim people, or anyone else.
     If I were you guys, I would seriously start thinking about a real apology; thinking about it and then offering it.
    
     I love my first amendment rights, but I love being alive and whole-bodied a lot more.

Save the Hollywood Sign!

     In case you haven't heard, the Hollywood sign could be in desperate peril, and needs our help.
     It's been all over the news that Fox River Financial Resources Inc., the company that owns the land under and surrounding the Hollywood sign, has been planning to sell the property for $22 million so that it could be used as the site for a prestigious, four-house subdivision.
     Instead, says an April 20 article at HousingWatch.com, the investment corporation recently made a deal to practically give the land and the sign to California's Trust for Public Land for just $12.5 million (A little joke of mine....Ha. Ha. Sidebar: the sign was originally built for only $21,000....).

     The trust was given until April 14 to come up with the money.

     Unfortunately, when the deadline rolled around, the trust was only able to raise $11 million - not quite enough.

     According to the Associated Free Press, Fox River Resources has agreed to extend the sale deadline until April 30, giving the trust 16 more days to come up with the money, but now the Trust for Public Land is turning to the public for that additional $1.5 million.

     The trust has already received millions of dollars in donations from big names like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Now, the generosity of the average Joe, who is (hopefully) unwilling to let such an American icon be destroyed, may be the Hollywood sign's only chance for survival.

     This is where you come in.

     Those willing to donate can do so in several ways:

• 
  
  Go to www.savehollywoodland.org
• 
  
  Become a fan of Kimpton Hotels on Facebook    

or

• 
  
  Instantly donate $5 by texting the word LAND to 50555 

     There are only six days and about 27 minutes left, so there's really no time to waste; why don't you go give a little something right now, then come back and read the rest of this blog? It's not going anywhere.

     Ok.

     So, with the possible destruction of this iconic landmark on the horizon, it is a good time to ask yourself, "How much do I even know about the Hollywood sign?"

     For instance, did you know that the Hollywood sign was originally built in 1923 as a billboard to promote a housing development of the same name? Or that it was first built to read "HOLLYWOODLAND", and stayed that way all the way up until 1949?

     Did you know that the Hollywood sign (even though it is highly-dangerous, difficult and illegal...) has been altered multiple times, being made to read things like "HOLYWOOD" (in 1987, honoring Pope John Paul II's arrival) and "HOLLYWEED" (in 1976, noting a new state marijuana law)?

     A few times now, the sign has fallen into disrepair, and had to be rescued.

     Some of Hollywood's hugest stars have run to the sign's aid in the past, pledging their money, service and time.

     According to Hollywoodsign.org, in 1977, Hugh Hefner even hosted a big fundraising party at the Playboy mansion, where the Hollywood sign's individual letters were "auctioned" off at $27,000 a piece.

     Alice Cooper "bought" an "O" in honor of Groucho Marx.

     Today, the sign is 86 years old, and other than the fact that its future could soon be ruined with an obnoxious subdivision(...or, says Housingwatch.com, maybe a hotel), it is doing well.

     For this to remain the truth, and for future generations to be able to know and love this internationally-revered landmark, the Hollywood sign needs our help.

     Like I said: Here, here or here. Go now.

Poor Bristol Palin...

     Last week, perhaps as an early kick-off to National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (which is next month), the Candie's Foundation released a public service announcement speaking to the issue wih the mouth of none other than Bristol Palin.
     Here it is:








     In case you've been living on the moon, Bristol was pushed into fame back in 2008 when, as a vice presidential cantidate's daughter, she got knocked up by her by her boyfriend, Levi Johnston.

    
     Now, here she is in this p.s.a. - trying to do the right thing - and she's still catching sh*t...
     
     Here are a few of the things being said about Bristol and this ad:
    
      "I'm privileged, so it's OK that I got pregnant, but you're not, so don't." (Gina Serpe, E! Online)
    
      "...its basic message seems to be that well-off teens can f*ck around to their hearts’ content, but if you’re poor? Get your goodies back into your off-brand jeans, dumb*ss." - (James Brady Ryan, http://blogs.nerve.com)
    
      "What if Bristol Palin wasn’t getting child support from the sale of nude photos of her uber-hick baby daddy?

What if Sarah Palin taught her daughter about contraception before Levi put his P in her V?
What if Bristol didn’t have a team of hair stylists with a Bump-It arsenal?
What if they couldn’t see Russia from their house?
What if Bristol didn’t spend her life complaining about being a mom and telling the world how much she regrets having a child?" (Sammie, www.collegecandy.com)
    
     That kind of thing.
    
     Can't a girl catch a break???
    
     I mean...a. last I checked, no one was perfect, and b. what's a girl have to do for society to stop punishing her??

     I think this is an affecting message. I love the empty apartment at the end - naked walls, no furniture. I love that it's just her, the baby, and the empty space. It feels genuine to me, and I feel like it had to take a lot of chutzpah.

     I say: Bravo, Bristol Palin! Some people may be b*tching, but I think doing this ad shows heart. Way to go =]

     And all the rest of you little'ish ladies out there - please, please, take it from Bristol, and consider this a lesson learned. I honestly cannot explain how much you do not want to be a pregnant teen.

     And also, even though abstinence isn't the message of the video, I, personally, think it is the only way to go for teens.

     If you need convincing, get yourself a copy of the 1995 movie "KIDS".

     Seriously...the sooner, the better. Makes Bristol Palin look like Sister Bristol Palin.

"Alice" Sitting Pretty in Box Office Heaven

     If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have already stepped through the looking glass and into Tim Burton’s 3D Wonderland, you probably have just one question:


     Why is a raven like a writing desk??

     "Alice in Wonderland in 3D" - Tim Burton's film-attempt at the legendary Lewis Carroll writings - does not answer this pestering riddle for you. (Carroll is actually supposed to have made that riddle up without an answer…) What the movie does do (in just 108 minutes!) is the absolute best to-date job of re-visioning Carroll's classic story, in its entirety, for the big screen.

     In other words: exactly what Tim Burton set out to do.

     While ’Alice’ was still in its infant stages, Burton told the internet magazine, the Sci-Fi Wire, that he’d never seen a version of the fabled story where he felt like they had “gotten it all.” He said he thought trying to make the stories work as a whole, and as a movie would be “interesting“.

     He also compared the stories to drugs for children.

     “It’s like, ‘Whoa, man,’” he said. “The imagery - they’ve never quite nailed making it compelling as a full story…so I think it’s an interesting challenge to direct.”

     'Interesting' is perhaps not as appropriate a word as, say, 'crazy' - especially once you consider the fact that Burton had never read the original novel, and was largely unfamiliar with anything Carroll-related, until this 'Alice' project fell into his lap.

     At a Feb. 20 press conference, he admitted, “I’m from Burbank, so we never heard about 'Alice in Wonderland' except for the Disney cartoon, the Tom Petty video, Jefferson Airplane..."

     Tim Burton certainly could fool an audience into believing him as a lifelong Lewis Carroll fan, though - and he has the box office numbers to prove it.

     This recent trip to the box office even awarded Burton a new top domestic grosser, as ‘Alice’ has now earned a healthy $10 million more than his old top-earner, “Batman”.

     In the top spot for three weeks in a row, and with the sixth-biggest third weekend of all time, Tim Burton's latest vision has been drifting peacefully in box office Wonderland.

     With worldwide ticket sales now topping $565.8 million, it doesn’t look like ‘Alice’ is going anywhere anytime soon, either.

Facebook Users Beware!

     With the dawn of online social networking, came cyber hackers trying exploit the market. Currently, some of the beastliest of the beastly hackers have in their sights the 400-million-plus users of Facebook. Their weapon of choice: a malicious, quick-eating worm, dubbed Koobface.

     The Koobface virus is spread through messages sent from Facebook users - your friends - who have infected computers. The messages arrive in your inbox with titles like, “you look just awesome in this new video,” or “your mom would cry if she saw this,” and “your butt looks not bad in this video…” The point is to entice you into taking a look. Then, after you click the link, you’re taken to a counterfeit YouTube site, where you’re told to install an Adobe flash plug-in. The faux plug-in installation is really a disguise to cover the loading of the vicious Koobface onto your computer.

     Once a computer is infected, not only does the worm grab sensitive information, such as passwords and banking info, but it also puts a total shut-down on whichever of the three internet browsers - Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome - you operate.

     Patrick Wells, a tech desk support worker at Greenwich Technologies in Grosse Pointe, said he saw two of these contaminated computers in just one week, and, he warned, curing a Koobface-infected computer is no small feat.

     “Since the computers could not open any web browsers, I had to manually download all the necessary programs from another computer. Then, I had to copy them to a USB flash drive, and then copy them onto the infected computers,” Wells said. He said he can’t even remember how many separate programs he had to use to nurse the computers back to health.

     Facebook is aware of this potentially-monumental problem, and, they say they’re working on it.

     Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, announced in a mass email that "only a very small percentage of Facebook users have been affected,” and that they’re working hastily to update their security systems to “minimize any further impact."

     Unfortunately, “a very small percentage,” when Facebook is the pool from which you’re pulling, could still mean tens of millions of people - and you might be one of them. So, rather than sitting around, waiting for Facebook to eliminate this global threat, Patrick Wells suggests avoiding the problem altogether.

     As with anything else, Wells said, a little common sense can go a long way. Don’t follow links that seem fishy to you. Don’t watch a video in which you know you cannot possibly be. Let a friend know, if he or she is sending out messages that you suspect to be lures.

     Click safely, and smartly, folks - use your heads. Be wary. Don’t become another sucker with a computer rendered useless by a Facebook-routed super-virus.

Sick.

Many guilty criminals continue to profess their innocence even when no one believes them, and often even once they're behind bars.

In the case of Koua Fong Lee, a Laotian immigrant serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for vehicular manslaughter, his unending pleas of innocence might acutally be true.

In June 2006, Lee, 32, was driving a 1996 Toyota Camry home from church - his father, brother, pregnant wife and four-year-old child in the car with him - when, he claims, the accelerator stuck, pushing his speed to 70-90 mph. He blasted through two stop signs before crashing into another car, killing three of its occupants - all members of the same family.

In court, Lee testified that, in addition to the car accelerating on its own, the brakes weren't working.

According to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in a follow-up inspection of Lee's car, mechanics found the brakes to be in working order.

The jury did not believe Lee's story, and from 2006 until now he has been locked in a Minnesota prison.




The '96 Toyota Camry was recalled in the 1990's due to a sudden acceleration problem related to the cruise control feature, but this fact was not mentioned at the trial.

Actually, according to Google News, both Toyota and U.S. Transportation officials had known about "unintended acceleration" issues since late 2003.

"There is a terrible wrong here, and there is an innocent man in prison," said Brent Schafer, Lee's lawyer, to ABC News.


I, personally, could not agree more, and although I don't know very much about the laws involved here, common sense is telling me that Toyota owes this guy...something - money, at the very least...a whole lot of money.

How absolutely outrageous for an innocent man with no obvious criminal motives whatsoever to rot in prison for the better part of a decade! I think it's a disgusting abuse and failure of our judicial system.

I very much hope the media blows this up so enormously that Toyota can't hide from it.

I'm doing my part right now, and I hope that, if you have a blog or a Twitter account, you'll go there now and do yours.

School Used Webcam to Spy on Kids

Imagine you're a high school student.

You're in class when you receive a summons from the principal's office. You have no idea why.

When you reach the principal's office you go in. You're told to sit down.

You can tell by your principal's expression that you're here for business, and that it's serious...whatever it is.

She starts talking, and it takes only a few moments for you to realize that you're in trouble. You're not in trouble for anything at all school-related, though.

Actually, you're stunned to hear, you're being reprimanded for "improper behavior"...at home!

As it turns out, the school-provided laptop computer you've had sitting in your bedroom is equipped with a remote-operated webcam which has been turned on, and officals from your school have been able to see almost anything that's gone on in your bedroom...

It's shocking, but this is a very real situation, which is happening in a very real Pennsylvania school district.

It's also at the roots of a real federal lawsuit.

Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley first learned of the embedded webcams on Nov. 11, when their son, Blake J. Robbins, lived the scene above.

The boy's assistant principal, Lindy Matsko, cited as evidence of his "improper behavior" a webcam photograph from Blake's school-issued laptop.

What was Blake shown doing in these indecent photos? According to the Robbins' attorney, Mark Lotzman, he was eating Mike and Ike's.

Officials from Harrinton High, Blake's school, mistook the candy for pills, and concluded that Blake was taking and selling drugs.

The Robbins filed a 17-page suit against the school district Tuesday, alleging that the remotely-controlled webcams are a form of "spying."

In addition to an immediate and permanent end to the "spying," the Robbins are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the Lower Merion School District.

In their defense, school district officials alledge they have only activated the remote device - a security feature on every laptop provided to the 1,800 in-district high-schoolers - in order to track stolen or missing laptops, but as Lotzman explained the the press, "It's absolutely not true that this was a lost or stolen laptop."

An FBI offical who wouldn't confirm a federal investigation of the Lower Merion School District did say that if the allegations are true, it certainly sounds to him that state and federal laws were violated.

Richard Scheff, chairman of Montgomery-McCracken, a major Philidelphia law firm, said that the lawsuit will likely come down to the issues of privacy and search and seizure.

Could soda really change the world?

     That's what the people at Pepsi want to know, and they've created the Pepsi Refresh Project to find out.



     I don't have a head full of ideas with which to save the world. I'm not that girl. I do know with my whole heart, though, that that girl is out there - ten thousand times over, I'm sure!

     It makes me happier than I can explain seeing Pepsi collect (not to mention put forward) this kind of money to help others help the world.

     Way to freakin' go, Pepsi. And big, fat good luck to you too. I will definitely be using every one of my gifts for language to spread the news of this contest (I suppose you could call it?) far and wide.

Medical Marijuana for Kids?

The February 1st episode of "The Dr.s" featured 10-year-old Joey and his mother, Mieko Hester Perez of Fountain Valley, Calif..

Joey was diagnosed with "Autism" at the age of 16 months. At the age of 9 years, Joey experienced an intensification within his inability to focus. Further, Joey weighed 46 lbs and had begun to deteriorate at a rapid pace due to his unwillingness to intake food, and his an apparent inability to properly digest food.


His medical prognosis at that time was high probability of death within 6 months. (http://www.uf4a.org/)

To combat the myriad side-effects of his autism, Joey took a mind-boggling 13 medications. But, still he was starving to death.

Today, Joey is treated with three medicines; one of them is marijuana -

marijuana brownies, to be specific.


Hester-Perez told the Dr.'s that, in the seven months since starting the medicinal marijuana regement, her son has gained 38 pounds. She said he has also entered "the most progressive developmental period ever."

"He's making noises!" She sxclaimed to the Rhode Show. "We didn't even know he could make noise until the first batch of brownies!"

According to Joey's mother, Joey's overall quality of life has significantly improved with the marijuana treatments (which, she included, she only has to administer once every two or three days).

While medical marijuana is definitely not considered a cure for autism, there can be no question that it has helped Joey make giant strides. And a lot of people have noticed.

Since first making their television debut on Good Morning, America, Hester-Perez has reported receiving over 300 phone-calls from people - mostly mothers - thanking her, or commending her for speaking out, as well as for her bravery.

Look at this comment left on GMA's "Mother Gives Son Marijuana to Treat His Autism" page:

As a dietitian and a mother, I have been angry for years over the use of amphetamines for treating ADD. I am told "you just don't realize how hard it is to deal with (as parents or educators) these children." It is doctor prescribed, so it must be ok. Read about the side effects of Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat ADD/ADHD. Most of the stuff I read about the use of medical marijuana fails to mention that one pharmaceutical company has indeed been producing and selling Marinol (THC the active ingredient) for many years. It's all very hush hush. And it probably doesn't work as well as the plant, since, like food, there are many ingredients in it that may contribute to the effectiveness in addition to the THC. You ought to read the side effects in the pharm literature, tho. Increased appetite, euphoria, heightened sense of hearing, taste, smell, etc. Re autism , check out vitamindcouncil.org for another radical view on cause/treatment of autism. FREE SUNSHINE!!!! Neva, Austin, TX (User: nevagrieves 2/1/2010)

(As a personal side-note: I 100-percent-agree here ^)

Of course, not everyone feels that way. Dr. Sharon Hirsch, a child psychiatrist at the University of Chicago, told GMA about Joey, "He is intoxicated. He's stoned. It means that he's under the influence of a drug and may have an addiction. It can cause psychosis, may lead to schizophrenia. [There's] no evidence at all at this time and no reason to prescribe any kind of marijuana for a child with autism."

But to Dr. Hirsch and anyone who feels the same way, Hester-Perez said, "When a mother hears that her son is knocking on death's door, [she] will do anything to save his life."

Joey's mom probably said it best (and simplest) near the end of her first-ever TV interview (on GMA). She said, "I saved my son's life. And marijuana saved my son's life."




...How can you argue with that?