Chocolate. Roses. Kittens. Lotz of kittehs.

What do you love, or loathe–about Feb 14? Or just in general?

Since the day Stephen Colbert started taking money from special interests to fund his SuperPAC Nancy Pelosi has dedicated herself to stopping the pundit who she claims

doesn’t even like kittens.

In this video, Pelosi says that the first step to ending Colbert’s heinous SuperPAC plot is

passing the Disclose Act

The Disclose Act, aka HR 4010, was introduced Thursday afternoon by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, and other entities, and for other purposes.

You can learn more and  join in stopping Colbert and his SuperPAC  here.

Paying cash for that long-awaited tattoo of  Derpy Hooves or Rainbow Dash holding a PBR could get you questioned by the FBI, especially if you and your Bronies all go for My Little Ponies inked  on your inner calves.

Publicintelligence.com has compiled a collection of Communities Against Terrorism fliers created by the FBI and Bureau of Justice Assistance and

distributed to local businesses in a variety of industries to promote suspicious activity reporting. The flyers are not released publicly, though several have been published in the past by news media and various law enforcement agencies around the country.

The fliers all warn against people who

Insist on paying with cash or uses credit card(s) in different name(s)

[sic] Damn, that phrase’s grammar is fail!  And it’s on several of their fliers! Anyway…

The flier entitled “Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Tattoo Shops” presents some real issues for tattoo shop owners (who actually prefer cash), since most of the indicators of a “terrorist” actually match demographic subsets of the larger Hipster Community:

•    Significantly alters appearance from visit to visit (shaving beard,
changing hair color, style of dress, etc) [Hipster]
•    Have missing hand/fingers, chemical burns, strange odors or bright colored stains on clothing [Hipster/artist/Burning Man attendee/trustafarian on an experimental psychotropic binge]
•   Make suspicious comments regarding anti-US, radical theology, vague or cryptic warnings that suggest or appear to endorse the use of violence in support of a cause. [Hipster who has read too much poli sci and Robert Anton Wilson, or falls asleep listening to Coast to Coast/trustafarian on an experimental psychotropic binge]

The tattoo shop flier also alerts staff to be wary of groups who

Make repeated returns with multiple individuals requesting identical tattoos.

You know, like rock bands and their girlfriends, frat boys. And Bronies.

(The FBI already considers the Jugalos, followers of the band Insane Clown Posse to be a gang, though the pierced, tattooed and heavy made up clan of thousands who gather annually at Hogrock Campgrounds in Cave-in-Rock, Illinois maintain:

Juggalos are NOT a gang [W]e are family whoop whoop.

I think the FBI sending a a team to infiltrate Gathering of the Juggalos is the premise for a really bad movie. But think of the soundtrack possibilities!)

Despite this hysterical headline:

FBI Says Paying for Your Morning Coffee with Cash a Potential Terrorist activity, Urges Coffee Shop Owners to Report Cash-Paying Customers to Authorities

there is nothing in the CAT program about using cash at Intelligentsia (or heavens forfend if you’re in the ‘burbs, at a Starbies), though proprietors of “internet cafes” (do those even exist anymore with so many places WiFi-ed?) should be wary of those who

•    Are overly concerned about privacy, attempts to shield the screen from view of others
•    Always pay cash or use credit card(s) in different name(s)
•    Apparently use tradecraft: lookout, blocker or someone to distract employees
•    Act nervous or suspicious behavior inconsistent with activities
•    Are observed switching SIM cards in cell phone or use of multiple cell phones
•    Travel illogical distance to use Internet Café
Activities on Computer indicate:
•    Evidence of a residential based internet provider (signs on to Comcast, AOL, etc.)
•    Use of anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address
•    Suspicious or coded writings, use of code word sheets, cryptic ledgers, etc.
•    Encryption or use of software to hide encrypted data in digital photos, etc.
•    Suspicious communications using VOIP or communicating through a PC game

Though really any combination of those could indicate a screenwriter, gamer, cheating spouse, or  the blogger whose home computer crashed…

[H/T: Natural News]

[Photo and tattoo artwork: Broken Art Tattoo in Silver Lake, CA;  via creative commons]

(this is not the banned video, though it is indicative of Andrew Christian’s video style)

Andrew Christian’s cheeky videos on YouTube advertise the clothing company’s expressive line of men’s underwear, featuring gorgeous male models flaunting their assets—and front-sets: Andrew Christian’s “Show-it” line promises

maximum frontal enhancement.

The company directs their marketing towards gay men, though seriously straight dudes couldn’t go wrong wearing some of these styles which look far more comfortable and sexy than the standard hide-away tighty-whiteys and boxer briefs. A man, no matter what his sexual orientation, would definitely cut a fine figure in these underpinnings–they are kinda like a super-bra for the meat and potatoes.

The Andrew Christian videos–which are age restricted on YouTube–definitely play up sexuality, as do vast number of YouTube videos aimed towards straights and featuring female models (and amateurs). So why did YouTube yank Andrew Christian’s “Pink Paradise” promo from the company’s YouTube channel? (I haven’t seen it, but if it’s anything like their others, it’s cute, playful, and sexy with hot guys frolicking in skivvies, eye candy for straight women and gay men).

In an open letter to YouTube, Andrew Christian wrote:

Our video was meant to be a fun way to feature our new line of underwear. We’re disappointed and confused about its removal for inappropriate content when there are hundreds of thousands of videos featuring overtly sexual female imagery. We are a company that only produces menswear, and it feels unfair that our ads are held to different standards for featuring the male body.

There is no doubt in our mind that there would be no issue if the exact same video was posted with female models instead of male. Are you being homophobic or is it something else?

All we request is for our account to be unblocked, and the “Pink Paradise” video to be restored with its original view count so we may continue to regard YouTube as a fair and balanced outlet for reaching our audience.

The company’s channel is now unblocked.  Their letter included a short list of videos which feature the same type of content as the Andrew Christian video (and may be NSFW depending on your company standards):

-Fully exposed breasts / butt

-Lingering shots of tight underwear, exposed butts (and over 18 million views)

-Visible nipples and butts

-Fully exposed breasts

-Camel toe video

-Entire video is slow motion close-ups of bouncing breasts

-Girl rubbing her barely covered body, very near nudity

-Female pool party video with just as much exposed butt and small swimsuits

-Exposed butts, near-exposed breasts

Some of these are age restricted, and one that Andrew Christian listed in their letter featuring

Women making out and putting their hands under each others’ underwear

is now removed. I found more raunchy videos of women including this one which far exceeds the amount of ass shown in Andrew Christian videos, and the related videos that are featured on the same page are um, really rather extreme. Based on their titles, I cannot unsee them, so I didn’t click. You may be braver than I.

YouTube’s community guidelines state:

YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content.

While I haven’s seen Andrew Christian’s “Pink Paradise,” based on other videos featured the company’s channel, I can safely say they are sexy but not explicitly sexual. And definitely not porn.

YouTube’s Terms of Service explain that by using YouTube:

You further understand and acknowledge that you may be exposed to Content that is inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable

Undoubtedly there are people who find videos of  anyone frolicking in their underwear offensive, indecent, or objectionable, but seriously, they are adults. In underwear. And just like Victoria’s Secret and that god awful Paris Hilton Carl’s Jr commercial (I do not recommend clicking on the “banned” version which will get you a whole list of related videos which are really skanky and somehow have passed muster with YouTube’s community standards, possibly because they cater to heterosexuals, though feminists might get a bit worked up over a couple of them based on the preview stills).

Seriously, YouTube, did you cave to some homophobic complaints? Please reinstate Andrew Christian’s “Pink Paradise,”  which is simply a sexy underwear ad, the same as this one.

JC Penney named Ellen DeGeneres as spokesperson. And naturally conservative crackpots One Million Moms (have you ever met anyone who is one of these mythical million moms?), , have launched a whine-athon against the department store chain, urging that people call their local JCP branch and complain.

In what many might seem as one of the signs of the End Times, Bill O’Reilly jumped into the fray and supported JC Penney’s right to choose whomever as a spokesperson, saying that calling for Ellen’s firing is un-American and

wrong…a witchhunt.

Meanwhile Ellen had this to say:

Me, I’ll be calling my local JC Penney’s manager and thanking them for having Ellen as a spokesperson. And maybe I’ll venture inside their doors for the first time since I was like 16, buy some things, and tell the salespeople and cashiers why I chose to spend my dollars there.

Roseanne Barr has qualified to run for president in the California primary on the Green Party ticket, where she will be one of candidates for the nomination.

Will she ever be able to live this down?

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has reversed their stance on Planned Parenthood and will continue to fund the health organization. Meanwhile a portion of sales from an optimistically named pink and black polymer gun with SgK branding goes to fund breast cancer research. Oddly the link toDiscount Gun Sales, a firearms retailer selling the Walther P-22 Hope Edition has since been disabled since the story via Daily Kos hit the mainstream. Guess Discount Gun Sales is no longer

proud to team up with the Susan B. Koman Foundation to offer the Walther P-22 Hope Edition in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A portion of each P-22 Hope Edition will be donated to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Now I wonder how Susan G. Komen feels about child abuse, considering the non-profit

currently funds cancer research at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to the tune of $7.5 million.

Ron Jeremy is more honest than most of the candidates running for president! And a far more wholesome candidate than Mitt, Newt or  Randall Terry:

Terry, who founded the Operation Rescue organisation that came to prominence by blockading abortion clinics and has been jailed for his activities, registered as a Democratic presidential candidate against Barack Obama in order to use a federal law that requires television stations to air political adverts uncensored within 45 days of a primary or general election.

You can view Terry’s graphic, repulsive ads here. Warning they are NSWF. Or kids!

I am in Tucson, Arizona for the huge gem, mineral, fossil and precious stones and whatever else expos/shows, and to visit Occupy Tucson which is staging several anti-bank rallies this week. I love gems and minerals, geodes, agates, and fossils, but it kinda bums me out to see so much of Nature’s beauty churned for a buck.

Today we just visited the fossil motel. Room after room in a two story building packed with stuff: A complete pterodactyl skeleton, small to giant ammonites, ichthyosaurs, and box after box loaded with small fossils. Many were dug up in South Dakota, Morocco, China and parts of the UK. Crates of ancient shark, horse and other critter teeth, sliced mammoth bones–I mean really, like what kinds of losses to science and the environment had been done by digging and dredging these things up just so someone could hang them on a wall?

And meteorites–absolutely insane chunks from 2 millimeters to many inches in diameter, weird metals and anhydrous balls of glass from the Libyan desert formed when meteors struck.

Two older guys, a dealer and a customer, were discussing a robbery that had occurred the night before in one of the rooms. Three carved stone dealers over from China were robbed at gunpoint by “a Mexican” who took all their cash. A fourth man stepped out of the bathroom and was robbed as well. This is one of the few times in anyone’s memory a robbery has happened at one of the gem and mineral shows. Consensus: Darn lucky none of the victims were armed because it could have gotten messy fast.

I ate lunch today in a cafe with a sign posted that read:

No firearms allowed inside

On a lighter note, here’s a quiz:

Which of these is not true:

A. Sean Penn has been named an ambassador.

B. Dehydrated, homophobic, really rich comic Tracy Morgan won’t pay $25K to save his mom’s house from foreclosure.

C. Brad Pitt has blocked his kids from Googling him and Angelina Jolie.

D. Mitt Romney was caught drinking hot coffee–but he claims it was Sanka.

Speaking of Mitt, according to the National Enquirer, three dozen of his extended family who live in Colonia Juarez, Mexico, have been targeted by the cartels:

Inside sources told The ENQUIRER that Romney’s advisers fear he will be scarred by a blood-soaked scandal if any of his kin are slaughtered due to their ties to the presidential candidate.

“These relatives of Mitt lived quietly until now, working hard as farmers and cattle ranchers,” a top political source told The ENQUIRER.

Citizens, get ready! This Friday, February 3 is the first National Day of Protest against NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows indefinite detention to be codified into law. We are urged to protest at the Congressperson’s office, a list of which can be found here: www.house.gov/representatives/

So grab your friends, make some signs, plan some good street theater, keep it legal, and rally away!

Here’s what the ACLU had to say about NDAA’s indefinite detention statute:

This  statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.

Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again.  The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA.  In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.

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