Porn in the USA

According to Harvard Business School, an analysis of credit card spending patterns shows that conservatives spend more more money downloading porn from the Internet than liberals. They are also more likely to visit wife-swapping sites.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by." (Well now, who'da thought it?)

8 of the top 10 pornography consuming states voted for McCain, while 6 of the 10 states with the lowest consumption voted for Obama.

The 27 states with laws forbidding gay marriage bought an average of 11% more porn. Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays, but more during the week.

Could it really be true be that too much porn makes you a Republican?

Proposition 8: The Musical

You know what really pushes my homophobia button?
(Apart from Catholic priests with halitosis, I mean...)

Musicals.

Showtunes.

Broadway musicals have to be the least sexual musical genre ever invented, and yet gay men simply adore them... (rolls eyes)

So it was a real test of my commitment to equality and diversity that I sat through "Proposition 8: The Musical". And you know what? It's bloody funny.



What would Jesus do? Support gay marriage? Or give up shrimp cocktail? You'll have to watch the movie if you want to find out.

Left Wing Politics

Heroes of the Working Class, Manchester, 1983

I picked this up from America's National Public Radio. It's a poet's response to the banking crisis.

$700 billion is more than enough money to buy every able-bodied American a chain saw, a solar-powered generator and a stake in a communal well and windmill. Also, red dirt and plum trees.

That would probably only cost about $100 billion, and you can use the other $600 billion to buy everybody their house outright.

Now everybody can own their house and be green and self-sufficient, and can go back to whatever they were doing before the world ended: watching TV.

Except for me. I was sharpening my chain saw.

It's an idyllic vision, worthy of Thoreau and Walt Whitman. There's only one thing I don't like about it: the assumption that Americans are all stupid sub-prime rednecks who contribute nothing to the world.

Doesn't that exclude most of the honest working class?

Or maybe the idea is that America should just give up on capitalism and allow the Asians to run the world from now on?


Okay, I get it now.

Meanwhile, back in jolly old Blighty...

Last week, on a day when the British government seized the assets of Icelandic banks, shares continued to fall, and inflation in Zimbabwe reached 231 million percent, the most frequently accessed article on The Guardian website was about local councils' attitudes to lap-dancing clubs.

• Where are the ideas?
• Where are the debates?
• Where are the leaders?

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence
(picture posed by model)

Ready To Be Led Astray

After I blogged about the War On Penis Enlargement, (that's right, Blame Canada) people have written in to point out that

1. Republican candidate Sarah Palin looks a lot like Austin Powers
2. Nobody knows how to pronounce "VPILF"
3. John McCain seems to fancy her.

Just watch his body language in this video: the way he keeps staring at her breasts, and fidgeting with his wedding ring. Is he Ready To Lead ... or ready to be led astray?



The guy clearly needs some up-to-date advice on dating techniques.

Or possibly just to remember that he's married. To a very wealthy woman, who owns a brewery. I mean, a lot of men would be very happy with that.

Paris Hilton Enters Race For President

Last week John McCain put out an attack ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Now, Hilton has put out a spoof video hitting back at McCain, the "oldest celebrity in the world" and a wrinkly, white haired dude, and declaring herself "totally hot" and "ready to lead".

Paris Hilton shows off her presidential credentials.
You can see more funny videos at Funny or Die

I think it's no more than McCain deserved. His team tried to portray Obama as superficial and inexperienced (he could have just said: young and popular, but that would have been too kind) and got bitten in the backside by a real celebrity. (Some men would pay good money for that experience...) I think Paris is not as dumb as she's made out to be in the media, and certainly knows how to milk a crowd.

So: what about Obama's riposte, that McCain was attacking Obama because the Republicans have no positive message, and are trying to scare the voters?

"They're gonna try to say that I'm a risky guy. They're gonna try to say, well, you know, he's got a funny name. And he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills."

McCain's people didn't like that one bit. Campaign chief Rick Davis said that "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck." Really? Let's go to Union Missouri, and replay the video of Barack's bottom of the deck moment, courtesy of a local reporter. It comes after 19 minutes, so you can press fast forward, as Jay-Z says.

I didn't see any racial tension being stirred up there. I saw a black man telling a joke, and a crowd of white people laughing. Because it was funny. And true.

Britney Spears has a funny name, and she doesn't look like the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills.

Politics

I want to go to bed with these people. At the same time.

(I'm also really pleased about David Davis forcing a by-election on the question of civil liberties, but I don't want to sleep with him.)

Honest Politician

You know what you're going to get from this man...

God Hates Babies

"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." Psalm 137:9