Category Archives: Media

Does Michelle Obama declaring ‘Black Girls Rock’ Create a Racial Double Standard?

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https://youtu.be/SbXmEkB-pUA

According to Entertainment Writer NEKESA MUMBI MOODY of The Associated Press – Michelle “…Obama got arguably the night’s loudest ovation as she came on stage and declared “Black girls rock!” – the slogan and name of the organization founded by Beverly Bond. It is designed to uplift young black girls, a group that often has difficulty finding positive and reaffirming images of themselves in the world…”

For the entire AP story — Click Here

For more information on the organization BlackGirlsRock, Inc. Click Here

HERE’S THE REAL QUESTION: Within all the controversy of Racism today — does it feel like there’s a double standard going on?

As one YouTube commenter wrote: “…Imagine a white first lady getting up in front of a crowd and saying…. ‘White girls rock!’ Your president thinks you rock too!”

If such a thing did happen, do you think there would be any cause for offense, and would we hear from the offended?

It is easy to understand, that the reason behind the event was to accentuate the mission of BlackGirlsRock, Inc. which is “to promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media.”

Now, remember, we can’t even enjoy the Disney movie ‘Song of the South’ on DVD because Disney has it locked up in the vault. Banned, because it portrays life on a southern plantation in the days of slavery, featuring the black man Uncle Remus (who, by the way, everyone dearly loves), all based on the fear that the movie’s premise is in some way offensive to the black community. So, if race consciousness is going to be the cause of something like that (along with many other such things), then in this ever so incessant race equality conscientious society that we have become — for the First Lady of our country to come along and specifically (and emphatically) indorse and hail an organization which identifies itself with such a blatant (in your face) race baiting title as “Black Girls Rock,” well…….., that sort of thing just seems laced with a gross and rotten amount of double standard is all.

Aside from the fact that not all black girls rock. For example, watch this and pay particular attention to the other black girls standing around filming and participating in this. I would say that these black girls don’t Rock at all – but rather the opposite.

https://youtu.be/u-DXrnieMsM

By the way, there are a great number of Black Girls who do indeed Rock. So do a goodly portion of White Girls, Hispanic Girls, Indian Girls, Irish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, German, Middle Eastern, Russian, Brazilian, Mediterranean, Etc., Etc.!

Oh, and we get that you’d like it if we garnered a little more understanding about the concept behind “Black Girls Rock,” and maybe appreciated the good intentions driving the movement. I’d even say that you’d be perfectly correct in this manner of thinking, except— if you’re going to be on the side that claims, and brutally enforces political correctness, especially when it benefits your cause, then you’d better yourself be politically correct and meticulously fair across the board, especially if you’re the President or the First Lady!

Here at TomZom, we abhor racism even in the least degree!

 

-TomZom

Bill? Nope — the other Bill.

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Maher

I read a recent article that hailed how “Bill Maher Blasts the Media’s Easy Treatment of ‘Blatant, Bald-Assed Liar’ Bill O’Reilly.”

It sure sounds like the stress is catching up with ole’ Bill Maher. He seems to be showing himself more and more as the incessant angry guy these days — held captive by his own self aggrandized importance which he blatantly divulges throughout all of his sarcastic (so called) humor.

His condescending (everyone else is so stupid) arrogance is way less than attractive, and his foolish sounding know-it-all attitude is a major turn-off!

What makes it all really sad, is that he seems to have the potential to do a lot better, yet for some reason — he doesn’t. Because of all this, I’m pretty much compelled to give him an overall “F” and stand with Bill O’Reilly instead! At least with Bill O’Reilly, I get to be the one who bloviates!

 

-TomZom

50 Shades of the War on Women

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In this day and age you’d think some basic things that have plagued our society would be addressed.   We all know tobacco is bad. There’s an entire organization specifically dedicated to raise awareness about the harmful affects of smoking. (Truth campaign, anyone? I love their ads!)

Well there is something that is as old as the oldest profession, that has always loomed in the dark corners of society, that most people rather not talk about but we all know is there.  Ok, that’s not entirely true, a lot of people talk about it all the time.  Because it’s become “normal,” and “acceptable.”

I’m talking about pornography.

From mainstream movies like Don Jon, to scientific studies conducted introducing the concept of the Coolidge effect, it has become glaringly obvious that pornography is NOT a GOOD thing!

Especially in this day and age of high speed internet where not only is any amount of pornography available at our fingertips, but in blazingly fast internet speeds.  The speed here is important because if you click on the hyperlink I have on the Coolidge effect it says:

“What happens when you drop a male rat into a cage with a receptive female rat? First, you see a frenzy of copulation. Then, progressively, the male tires of that particular female. Even if she wants more, he has had enough. However, replace the original female with a fresh one, and the male immediately revives and gallantly struggles to fertilise (sic) her. You can repeat this process with fresh females until he is completely wiped out.

This is called the Coolidge effect—the automatic response to novel mates. It’s what might have started you down the road to getting hooked on Internet porn.”

It has become SUCH an issue that organizations have popped up because pornography addiction has become rampant, and we are desperately trying to fight it.  Organizations such as Porn Harms, Fight the New Drug, and Porn Addicts Anonymous to name a few.

So if we consider that high speed internet gives an opportunity for the Coolidge effect (ie many “partners” in rapid succession) but READING an erotic novel takes more time, effort, and commitment, causing the reader to have longer dopamine releases then why, OH WHY, do people STILL call them “romance novels,” or “adult novels” when it truly is nothing more, than porn?

If you click here it leads to a site called “Your Brain on Porn” and it addresses this specific issue from a recovering addict, who states,

I find erotic stories can be worse than porn in some ways, as it takes much longer to read a story, which can lead to very long dopamine rushes. They are often broken up into multiple parts, which the author keeps building upon, leading to an endless need to keep returning for a fix.

You think binging for hours for that perfect shot in a video is pathetic? Imagine searching for that “perfect” scene in a sea of words. Looking for that one sentence in a 20 page story that will scratch that itch. Not in this story? How about the next one? The next one.. Years of my life have been wasted chasing the fix in erotic stories. sigh

So porn is bad.  No matter what form it’s in.  Video. Pictures. Novels. You name it, Porn = BAD.

Now that this poorly written porn fan fiction has turned into a movie, women all over the country are falling over themselves to go watch it.

Pause

Hold that thought.

If you are familiar with the “war on women” you know it’s a common phrase to denote certain conservative policies that really aren’t about women’s rights, as much as they are trying to push their own liberal agenda of “free health care” i.e. contraceptives, abortions.

Unpause

The 50 Shades series has recently released the movie version of the first book.  In it, the protagonist begins a relationship with a man who introduces her into the BDSM lifestyle.

BDSM AKA Bondage, Dominance, Sadism and Masochism. Or Sadomasochism. I’m only going to address the latter two.

If we go to the DSM IV {Diagnostic Standards for Mental Disorders] (I know the DSM V has recently been published, and I’ll address that in a minute) it states the diagnostic criteria for sexual sadism are

“A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving acts (real, not simulated) in which the psychological or physical suffering (including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person.

B. The person has acted on these urges with a nonconsenting person, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.”

(Sounds like something we should all know the definition of… something called RAPE.)

Masochism was actually only addressed in the DSM III, and taken out of the DSM IV, but part of the definition in the 3rd edition is this:

“The masochist deliberately provokes, solicits, and incites angry, disparaging, and rejecting responses from others in order to feel on “familiar territory”: humiliated, defeated, devastated, and hurt.”

The full description is here.

 

Now as far as the DSM V is concerned this 5th edition has made a drastic change and has begun using an umbrella term called “Paraphilic Disorders” to identify any unusual sexual behaviors, but ONLY (get this) IF the person “feel(s) personal distress about their interest, not merely distress resulting from society’s disapproval; OR ha(s) a sexual desire or behavior that involves another person’s psychological distress, injury, or death, or a desire for sexual behaviors involving unwilling persons or persons unable to give legal consent.”

Essentially saying that no matter what your sexual exploits are, it’s no longer  a “mental disorder” unless you feel personal distress about it.

Unless you feel personal distress about it.

So now the medical community is saying that you only have a sexual mental disorder IF YOU feel personal distress about your own actions?!?  (ie a rapist only has a mental disorder if he or she feels bad about being a rapist.)

That is giving the green light on so many different things that I didn’t even want to address in this post but now feel obligated to. I mean, do I even have to say it?

Pedophilia, necrophilia, beastiality.

(And if anyone reading this even attempts to rationalize pedophilia, necrophilia, or beastiality, then you are clearly not a rational person, and I will not dignify any attempt of rationalization with a response.)

Back to the topic at hand, sadism is “intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving acts (real, not simulated) in which the psychological or physical suffering (including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person. ” And masochism is WANTING to “incite…feel(ings) on ‘familiar territory’: humiliated, defeated, devastated, and hurt.” (Once again, rape.)

There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is healthy. There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is “average.”  There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is GOOD!

I had somebody try to “explain” it to me one time, because they were participants in the life style.  This person tried to tell me how BDSM is about love and trust.  Someone please tell me how causing psychological or physical suffering or wanting to feel humiliated, defeated, devastated and hurt has ANYTHING to do with LOVE!?!

Love.  Compassion. Tenderness.  Intensity. Passion.

Psychological & Physical harm. Humiliation. Devastation. Defeat.

These feelings cannot healthily co-exist .  And anyone who is excited by the BDSM lifestyle does in fact have a mental disorder.  Regardless of what the DSM V says, if you have these kind of feelings and they are NOT causing you personal distress, that should be even MORE of an indication that you need help with some deeper lying issue than someone who DOES have personal distress over it.

So while the mainstream media is trying to play this lifestyle off as acceptable, exciting, and “normal,” newsflash; IT’S NOT!!!  And the fact that they are promoting it as such and encouraging this type of behavior is the true “war on women.”

 

-Joseph Forefathers

 

 

“gate” is not a suffix

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You can read all about the Watergate scandal here, but that’s not the purpose of this post.  This post is to simply vent my frustration about the overuse of the “suffix” “gate.”  The reason I put suffix in quotes is because “gate” isn’t truly a suffix.  Although it is the last part of the word “Watergate,” it is not a suffix.  Watergate is the name of the hotel and office building where the Democratic National Committee headquarters was at the time of the Nixon administration.  And a suffix is a grammatical device which can be attached to a word to denote a certain meaning.   And although I understand that the “gate” “suffix” has come to denote “political scandal” because of Watergate, I find it very troubling how frequently it is use, but  more so that the situations for which it is used are hardly comparable to the original scandal.

[Please note, when I say “hardly comparable,” I mean that the situations that are being compared are either grossly over or under stated.]

My first example is Benghazi “-gate.” And I shudder to even tack that “suffix” on there because of the atrocities associate with this event.  In case any of you need reminders of Benghazi, (and if you do, I’d invite you to stop living under a rock, and join the 21st century) I am referencing the attacks on the US Embassy on the 11th anniversary of September 11, 2001.  Our leaders had warnings, and our embassy personnel had requested backup weeks in advance, which they were not only denied, but had extra security removed!  US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, former Navy SEALs  Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty , and Information Management Officer Sean Smith were all killed during this attack on September 11, 2012.

For this reason I feel that attempting to equate Benghazi to Watergate is a feeble attempt in fully and accurately describing this horrific situation, for which we STILL HAVE YET TO HAVE ANY INDICTMENTS, let alone a trial or convictions!

Nixon was so embarrassed by having any involvement in Watergate, and was certain that he would be impeached and removed from office anyway that he RESIGNED AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!  And nobody even DIED!  For this reason, I will say that at least Nixon was an “honorable” man to recognize the fact that he did wrong and the fact that he no longer should hold the title of the most powerful man in the free world.  Others I cannot say have near the “honor” of Nixon, and did NOT step down from office.

This, obviously, is an example of Watergate falling very short of describing the Benghazi scandal.

Next, “Bridgegate.”

Governor Chris Christie has the George Washington Bridge shut down for several days, causing massive traffic jams.  There was even a FEDERAL investigation by the FBI!  Seriously?!? 

Clearly these people have never been to LA or Houston.   Nobody  DIED because of this traffic jam.   Suck it up and take the Lincoln Tunnel.  And that’s all I’m going to dignify this situation with.  It doesn’t hold a candle to Watergate nor Benghazi.  And people feel it’s accurate to place “gate” as a suffix because they had to endure … dare I say it, bad traffic!?!

So while I’m not the first in making a request for people to stop comparing stupid things  to Watergate, I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds this not only annoying, but inaccurate and inappropriate.

Everything in life is a case by case situation, and everything should be handled as such.  But to continually compare things to Watergate will only hurt your conversation, in my humble opinion.  It’s almost as bad as the constant combining of celebrities’ names, but that’s a different post.

 

-Joseph Forefathers.