MYANMAR

So right now we got over 100,000 people dead with thousands more missing in the delta region of Myanmar. The military junta is using this disaster as an opportunity to help sway upcoming elections by deliberately disallowing foreign aid and distributing propaganda portraying the government as in control... (http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=a9ce8b417c79aebe736894bb87cb53fe2c56ac06)

but now to whats really important...

You hear the one about the Yankees fan who, in a drunken rage, ran down and killed a Red Sox fan after he and his friends chanted "yankees suck?" Finally justice!

Miley Cyrus is still big news. This child pop icon is still receiving grief about her now infamous backshot on the cover of Vanity Fair. Not to dwell on naked young girls, but this whole fracas raises some important issues. Anyone who has visited Europe knows that its quite easy to see little girls' titties; all you have to do is go to your local beach. But the difference is that these girls are not sexualized; so it is not an issue. Chests are chests, nothing more. But here in America we are taught that 15yr olds can be pop icons. They can be given all of the responsibilities of an adult as messenger of our vicarious desires for fame and fortune, while satisfying our voyeuristic perversions, but then at the slightest indication of deviation from our forcibly imposed idealized manifestations we quickly turn against our idols and banish them to the front page of The New York post, or even worse, page six.

If we consider it porn if a 15yr old girl shows her back isn't that a reflection of OUR perverse attitude? Alone, a teen girl's back is not sexual, especially a wholesome teen icon's back, but for some reason our media and citizens are declaring in unison that Miley is a slut. Would she be a slut if we didn't already establish her as a subject of sexual desire?

Do we yell whore at women who unstrap their tops a the beach to secure an even back tan?
When was the last time we considered our doctors perverts for making us undress?
Do we scream porno when bare chested toddlers stumble around on diaper commercials?

The only reason this picture is considered racy is because we have made it that way. We, the American public, should be ashamed of our treatment of this young girl. She is not a sexual object and if she is, it is because we created her this way. Celebrities our a reflection of our desires, we decide what these stars represent.

We need to accept the picture for what it is, a harmless photo of a teenager's back.

As for me, if this is Miley at 15...I can't wait for her to turn 18! Yowza!

Enough titty talk...

Anyone attend the Sean Bell rallies in NYC? Some good ol' fashioned civil disobedience. Over 2oo more people thrown in jail. Rev. Al Sharpton got 'em going! I just hope these protesters are careful and don't pull out wallets to fast or threaten to "go to their trunks."

On a related note check out the police gunfire statistics for the past 11yrs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/nyregion/08nypd.html?em&ex=1210478400&en=a075b29baae7fe50&ei=5087%0A