Music for a Sunday: Songs that made the hit parade

In loving memory of Jean Stapleton, most famous for her portrayal of Edith Bunker on “All In the Family” (and her screechingly funny rendition of the theme song above, which is a satire on nostalgia for the not-so-golden age of capitalism, otherwise known as the Great Depression.) Jean Stapleton passed away yesterday at the age of 90, and while Edith was far from being her sole claim to fame, she was still the character most of us fondly remember her for.

Edith was often put down as a “dingbat” by her bigoted husband, Archie (played by Carroll O’Connor, who was nothing like Archie in real life), but she was really anything but. And she changed the way a lot of TV viewers of the 1970s and ’80s thought of social issues, such as women working outside the home, and rape (Edith’s experience with the latter made it quite clear that power and intimidation, not sex, are the real motivators behind the crime.) When Edith stood up for herself, the opposition — Archie or anyone else — crumbled like a cracker. It takes a mighty tough “dingbat” to make THAT happen.

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Wankers of the Week: Mayor McSleaze

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Crappy weekend, everyone! And a crappy belated 44th birthday to Wanker #1. Good grief, I can’t believe he’s younger than me; he looks at least 20 years older. Douchebaggery will do that to one, I suppose. It’s very prematurely aging…Oh, you came here for the weekly wankapedia? Very well…here it is, in no particular order…

1 and 2. Rob and Doug Fucking Ford. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are now Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber. They went on the radio to bluster about the evil, wicked media as usual…but too late. And nobody believes them, because the same drug dealer Robbo was photographed with on the night in question was gunned down shortly afterwards. Meaning, this is not just about a buffoonish mayor harmlessly abusing substances during his off hours. And it’s not about a buffoonish mayor’s equally buffoonish older brother being a confirmed former drug dealer, either. It means that both the mayor AND his brother are STILL involved with the drug trade. It probably also means that they never stopped being involved, either — and just happened to have better cover than most drug traffickers, thanks to their respective/collective power and influence at Toronto City Hall. And now, their cover is blown. All the bluster in the world isn’t going to blow that lid back on, guys, so give it the fuck up and step the fuck DOWN. If the media are “maggots”, it’s because you are dead meat. And damn, you are stinking something bloody fucking awful. PS: Ha, ha. PPS: Oh dear, that’s not going at all well for you, is it? PPPS: Oh, Dougie…someone just called bullshit on you, too. PPPPS: And suddenly, we learn that there IS a video. Of Robbo. Smoking crack. Surpriiiiiiise!

3 and 4. Pamela Fucking Wallin and Mike Fucking Duffy. What do we want? THEM OUT! When do we want it? NOW! Actually, yesterday…but who’s counting? Certainly not our next wanker, who can never surround himself with enough yes-people…

5. Stephen Fucking Harper. Because DUH. Also, b’KAWWwwwww, buk buk bk bk bk…

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6. Moses Fucking Znaimer. Conflating the anti-apartheid BDS movement (which has an awful lot of un-self-hating Jews in it) with “Jew bashing” is a new low for an already oily, sleazy character from the underbelly of Canadian TV. But yeah, he went there. Because of course he would. This man knows no bottom, after all.

7. Toru Fucking Hashimoto, AGAIN. How does one say “nice non-apology, dickhead” in Japanese?

8. Ron Fucking Paul. How sweet is it that the UN (which he loves to hate) has trashed his flibbertigibbertarian arse? I know, I know!

9. Ann Fucking Coulter. Nobody voted to “become Mexico”, Coultergeist dear. But a substantial hunk of what used to be Mexico got stolen during a certain war of the mid-1800s, complete with a bunch of little brown people who used to be Mexicans. And who are now what idiots like you call “illegals”. Which is neither a noun, nor a fact; they are just people, and they’ve been here much, MUCH longer than your kind. And they’re at wits’ end to figure out how to get rid of you ignorant colonial carpetbaggers.

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10. Frijide Fucking Barjot. Or whatever her real name is. Long story short, this professional homophobe has blood on her hands for her role in the anti-marriage-equality movement in France. It serves her right that she’s now getting threats from her fellow losers. As long as they bash each other and leave the LGBTs alone, it’s all fine with me.

11. Patrick Fucking Colón. Like father, like son? Yuppers. Willie Colón’s sprog is apparently just as scummy as his Chavecito-hating old man. Lucky for him that he’s the son of a famous salsa musician; if he were just another Latino guy, he’d be going to jail for that kiddie porn.

12 and 13. Rick Fucking Perry and Louie Fucking Gohmert. Crotch must be getting itchy in the closet; maybe Gomer would like to help him out? Ewwww, brain, don’t go there. Even if it IS awfully tempting to speculate what kinky shit they probably get up to dressed as Boy Scouts, it’s not at all titillating to visualize.

14. Tom Fucking Coburn. Exactly how fucking “responsible” do victims of a natural disaster have to be? The only fitting response to horseshit like this is to make the crapper live in a trailer park during the height of tornado season, so he can see what Personal Responsibility actually looks like on the ground.

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15. Nick Fucking Ross. Before you put your foot in your mouth again, Nick, here’s a little piece of advice that might save you some soggy shoe leather: Men should not get to define what “real” rape is. Because the definition has always gone mysteriously in their favor, if you know what I mean.

16. José Fucking Canseco. And while we’re on the subject of rape culture, let’s just put this douchebag straight as well by making it painfully clear that there is no such thing as a “need” for rape, any more than there is such a thing as a “need” for sex. Not that the two are in any way related, either; the one is about power, and the other is just about sex.

17. Pat Fucking Robertson. Being quoted verbatim is being “misconstrued”? Either Patwa is more senile than we thought, or Cthulhu is preparing a mighty fine cerebral hemorrhage for him.

18. Glenn Fucking Beck. Why is the media trying to label him as a conspiracy theorist? Um, maybe because he IS one — and a particularly loopy one, at that? Just a rough guess.

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19. Bryan Fucking Fischer. Batten down the hatches, he’s fantasizing out loud again. And this time, it’s about polygamy with Mormon boy scouts, or some such. Isn’t he violating some kind of broadcast decency standard with that, or something? Jeebus. PS: And no wonder he’s fantasizing. He’s intimidated by independent women. Poor baby! PPS: Ew, ew, EW.

20. Larry Fucking Klayman. Ever since Chavecito went on to immortality, Krazy Larry has been floundering around in search of targets to bash. Finally he’s found one: THE JOOOOOOOS! Hang onto your yarmulkes, folks, the barf is about to fly.

21. Bill Fucking Kintner. He doesn’t understand women. He admits as much. And yet, he wants to legislate what they get to do with their oh-so-mysterious female reproductive plumbing. Figure THAT out.

22 and 23. Beth Fucking Cox and Joi Fucking Wasill. While smarter states (hello, Illinois!) are crossing abstinence-only sex “education” (note the quotes) off their curricula, Tennessee remains as bass-ackward as ever, with the high teen birth rates and STD rates to prove it. And also proving that kids can’t be scared away from having sex, no matter how many glasses of spittle-flecked water get passed around a classroom or how much macho misinformation about the nature of Manhood gets sliced up and tossed around. And of course, the Religious Reich is never far behind. God bless bullshit!

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24. Peter Fucking LaBarbera. Another professional homophobe who secretly fantasizes doing it with Boy Scouts. When will all these right-wing perverts be locked up?

25. Michelle Fucking Bachmann. She finally hung it up this week! Not sure if this entry will be the retirement of her “number” or not, but in the meantime, enjoy the Greatest Shit. And remember, she’s dropping out to devote herself to bearding for her gaydar-tripping husband full time!

26. Abdullah Fucking Mohammad Al Fucking Dawood. Why the double Fucking? Because the idea that groping women in public will “keep them chaste” is just doubly fucked up. Especially when you consider that the majority of indecent assaults actually take place in the home, anyway.

27. Mark Fucking Regnerus. Ha fucking ha. How does it feel to be totally discredited?

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28. Matt Fucking Trewhella. No, you know what’s really disgusting? Assholes who think “preborn” is a word (it isn’t), that you can be a missionary to fetuses (you can’t), and who think parents should teach their children to hate (they shouldn’t). In short, YOU are what’s disgusting…asshole.

29. Phyllis Fucking Schlafly. A racist? NO! I would never have guessed it. After all, she’s such a reactionary on every other level…

30. Adam Fucking Kokesh, again. Thwarted in his efforts to stage a Million Moron March on Washington, DC with loaded guns, he’s now turning his attention to a 50-state treason effort. Kiddies, this is what you get when you wear your tinfoil chapeau too tight…you start to cut off the circulation to your brain. And your reasoning faculties are the first thing to go.

31. Erick Fucking Erickson. Saying that it’s “anti-science” to believe that men should not dominate women, is like saying it’s “anti-science” to believe that whites should not dominate blacks. Do I smell a three-fifths humanity clause here, or do I just smell bullshit, as usual? PS: Oh Erick, go home. You’re drunk.

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32. Greg Fucking Walker. Yet another right-wing preacher who’s fantasizing about Boy Scouts. Yikes. Where do all these perverts keep coming from?

33. Julian Fucking Fantino. Government websites used to be so neutral, informative and dull. Now they’re hotbeds of Partisan Conservatard Diatribes-R-Us. And all the backpedalling of the least competent ex-cop ever isn’t going to change THAT.

34. Arthur Fucking Porter. Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me a bit to learn that one of Harpo’s cronies is under arrest for fraud in Panama. Well, except for the arrest part. Most times, the corrupt right-wing government of that country prefers to look the other way, especially when it comes to cronies of OTHER corrupt right-wing governments of the hemisphere. As for the cancer story, that’s a laugh…because if he was really too sick to travel, what was he doing outside the country where he claimed to be receiving treatment for it?

35. Alexander Fucking Baron. Calling on Facebook to enforce its own hate speech policies is NOT “censorship”. And the statistics this assclown cited as “not proving anything”, actually prove feminists’ point damn well. Own goal? Yuppers. Dude, here’s a word of sisterly advice for you: Don’t write any more opinion pieces. You’re crappy at marshalling facts to prove that you are anything but a butthurt sexist loser.

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36. John Fucking Hawkins. So, this one-man right-wing arbiter of taste has decided that only white male musicians are worth listening to? Yeah, that totally proves that conservatards aren’t a bit racist or sexist.

37. Nathan Fucking Deal. Talking about sex and doing it are two different things. And kids with little or no sex education are actually doing it more than those who have had the comprehensive good stuff, and who have talked it through with parents, teachers and peers. That’s the dirty little ill-kept secret about abstinence-only: All it ever fosters is ignorance. And ignorance prevents neither pregnancy nor diseases. Nor, as is painfully clear, does it help education researchers who are trying to find out what kids know and what they don’t.

38. Clark Fucking Aposhian. A guy who’s too careless to store his guns so that no one can steal them has no business being allowed to own any. And one as obviously deranged as this one is, also belongs in a rubber room.

39. John Fucking Stossel. Oh sure, no one ever died of starvation before welfare existed! And no one ever went to prison for 20 years just for stealing a loaf of bread, and no one was ever sentenced to hang for stealing five cents…except that yes, all those things and more actually DID happen (and are still happening!). But what am I saying…it’s FUX Snooze! It’s not supposed to be factual or historically accurate, it’s just supposed to conform to a certain odious ideology that makes the non-rich majority feel like failures and shit!

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40. Elon Fucking Musk. Actually, humanity has a third option: Not fouling our collective nest on THIS planet, which, when all’s said, is the only one we can truly call our own. But then again, leave it to an entreprenoor to not even consider inventing something which might help to make THAT happen. PS: Oh dear. How embarrassing!

41. David Fucking Barton. How the hell can a cup of coffee be “attacking God”? God is immaterial, so drinking a material beverage can’t do anything to that, one way or the other.

42. Eric Fucking Bolling. Everything women do is all about abortion! And everything right-wing TV hosts do is all about Teh Stoopid.

43. Rodney Fucking Wold. One does not hunt rabbits with an AK-47. One does not threaten to hunt humans with one, either.

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44. Tim Fucking Hudak. Oh Timmy, who do you think you’re kidding? We know that the Ontario SupposiTories were all fucking over Doug Fucking Ford just last summer. Don’t tell me you’re gonna throw all that love away in the name of some votes you won’t get anyway, now.

45. John Fucking Baird. For Squealer to accuse Elizabeth May of sexism is not just the pot calling the kettle black, it’s the pot calling the COPPER kettle black. At any rate, what she said was not sexist, but a perfectly legitimate observation. Is it her fault that he took it the wrong way?

46. Maurice Fucking Vellacott. Once more, we are reminded of why he can’t get laid. And why he feels the need to advertise it in any medium that will give his arsy face any column inches or airtime. The only mystery is how he could possibly think that spreading blatant bullshit about abortion is gonna ever make him one of the popular boys.

47. Rex Fucking Tillerson. Why?

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Of course, it stands to reason that the CEO of ExxtortionMobil would be an asshole. It’s like none of these guys ever watched Wall Street to the end.

48. Paul Fucking Elam. If it’s any day of the week, it must be the day that A Voice For (Violent, Assholish, Woman-Hating) Men is whipping out its (pathetic, withered, perpetually flaccid) willy and waving it around. That Paulie is a rape apologist should come as a surprise to no one; like #46, he’s totally sexually unappealing. Hating women and justifying violent assaults on them by any (crude, humorless, fucked-up) means possible might go a long way toward explaining that, but let’s face it: He’s also violently fucking STUPID. He will NEVER get it. The only thing he WILL get, sooner or later, is arrested. And I will have on my dancing shoes on the day that THAT happens.

49. Steve Fucking King. Oh lordy, lordy, good Gordie. Again with the “Christian nation” crapdoodle. Stevie, read the Treaty of Tripoli; Article 11 should put that matter definitively to rest. And it may surprise you greatly to know that forgiveness is a universal human value, one that has nothing to do with any single religion.

50. Cathie Fucking Adams. Grover Fucking Norquist is a great many awful things, but really — a “secret Muslim”, just because he has a beard? That’s like saying every fucking redneck out there with a goatee and a do-rag is a secret Talib. And while a lot of them do have beliefs in common with those unsavories, Islam has fuck-all to do with any of it.

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And finally, to the so-called “Ford Nation”. How many of you are there really? All of two dozen? All of two, period? I’m really enjoying this shitshow, just so you know. It gives me a chance to laugh at your redneck rube asses. Bet you’re not feeling very gloaty now. (I almost typed “bloaty”, which I’m sure was a very Freudian slip of the fingers, ha ha.) I do, however, feel truly sorry for Toronto proper (NOT Scarborough or Etobicoke), because they didn’t vote for him. No sensible person ever would. And now that six staffers and counting have quit, and he’s reduced to hiring Liberals (!!!), and it’s only a matter of time before that video surfaces on YouTube or WorldStarHipHop, all I really need to do is pop some corn, melt some butter for over top, and sit back with a huge grin on my face. You dumb fuckers got what you voted for, and you deserve every drop of your humiliation.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: Venezuela comes to Venice

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Coolest mural at the Biennale? Bolívar in shades, bitchez.

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Quotable: Henry Rollins on rebellion

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Child prostitution: The scourge of Colombia’s mines

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Prostituted girls on the streets of Medellín, Colombia. The crime-pocked streets of that cocaine-infested city are not the only places in that land where children are sexually exploited and enslaved, as El Tiempo’s sub-editor, Jineth Bedoya Lima, reports:

Mireya’s life has been so rough, violent and bitter that at 13, she already feels 40. A night of “bad business” left her with a scar that outlines her right eyebrow, runs down her cheek, and ends near her mouth. “I had 72 stitches, but I worked on the scar with mortician’s paste, and it doesn’t look so bad,” she says, looking at herself in a tiny piece of glass that she uses for a mirror.

Her days are full of glue, which she sniffs to forget the hunger and the abuses of the clients, or the long work days with drunken miners and assailants in the clandestine camps in the lowlands of Atrato, between Murindó (Antioquia) and Carmen del Darién (Chocó).

In these ancestral lands copper and gold aren’t the only things being exploited. There are bodies which have not even reached their maturity, which are also being used by human trafficking networks, forced prostitution, and sexual exploitation. But that’s not all. El Tiempo has also documented how, in mining regions throughout Colombia, criminal groups are doing a parallel trade which does not limit itself to extortion or deforestation.

Behind the mining titles which have generated so much controversy in the last year, behind illegal mining and armed groups taking advantage to maintain a source of financing, there is a crime which no one has attacked and which, for those regions, is practically part of the landscape. Officials assured us that wherever there are masses of men, there is prostitution, and since it is the oldest profession in the world, there is no cause for alarm.

But the truth is that dozens of girls, none of them over 16, have been enslaved sexually and are now part of a statistic that no one has clearly counted. There is no plan on the part of the state to save them from exploitation.

Mireya began travelling by bus every Wednesday from a corner in the neighborhood of Cuba, in Pereira, when she was 11 years old. Her mother, who is in jail for selling bazuco [cocaine paste] and marijuana in a “stewpot” in the centre of the city, sold her to a man who was recruiting “workers”. That was in March of 2011. “I don’t know how much money Mona [Mireya’s mother] got, but she packed a t-shirt for me, some underwear, a pair of shorts, and she gave me a thousand pesos to tide me over along the way.” That day Mireya began her journey, from the hands of the man who bought her, into horror and abuse.

Her story just flows, as if she were telling what had happened on a bad day and remains paradoxically imbued with a profound innocence. Her youth helps her to rise above the assaults she suffers, because she believes that this is the life she “must” live. The girl only nods her head when asked if she knows that she has rights and that the law is supposed to protect her.

After several days’ journey, in March 2011, Mireya was brought together with 11 other minor girls. She remembers that “one of them had just turned nine years old and still talked baby talk”; the five who were virgins were separated from the group and on Saturday night, were brought to four miners. “They were more or less old. First they made us drink aguardiente [hard liquor, similar to whisky], and later…it all began.” No tears. This girl’s words are only laden with desperation.

One could say that Mireya is a survivor of what is happening in one sector of Careperro. This mountain is home to one of the largest gold deposits, and experts say that it is the entryway to a gigantic vein of copper that crosses the Andes, all the way from Chile.

There are now 16 legal mining titles in the zone, which span territories of black and indigenous communities, most of them in the hands of a US-based company, where there is a relative degree of control. However, around the illegal mines, which have no legal title, there are camps on the weekends which play host to young girls and teens who are offered in mobile brothels.

“In the towns where the mines are, near the municipal offices, the brothels are outside the towns, in houses, and it’s easy to control them, but in the mines which are in the middle of the mountains, you can get away with anything,” said an army official of the zone.

And one of the bottlenecks of the problem is which responsibility each authority bears. “We’re not competent to deal with minors. That’s the responsibility of the police,” said the soldier. Meanwhile, the police say that the mines are in rural areas difficult to access, which are the jurisdiction of the army. So the prostitution networks can operate widely, without problems, and with an often permissive attitude from the civil authorities.

But this is not only a problem in the border regions of Chocó and Antioquia. In Córdoba, in the area of Nudo de Paramillo and in Ayapel, there are also centres of sexual exploitation. And in the northeastern zone and the valley of Cauca, near the gold mines, there is another critical point.

The final point is in Guainía, where the extraction of coltan has also unleashed a wave of prostitution, which is not new but which in recent months has affected several indigenous communities, because their girls have ended up being exploited.

The paradoxical thing about this illicit growth is that no functionary wants to talk about it publicly, “because there are no documented cases”, but when one turns off the recording device, they acknowledge the problem and even tell stories of what goes on in their zones.

How do these networks of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution function near the mines? A source from Army Intelligence has been documenting for several months how from Cartagena, Pereira, Medellín, Armenia and Cali, there are “hooking offices” moving minors and prostitutes up to 26 years of age.

The most alarming thing is that these criminal networks have built encampments near the mines, to “offer entertainment services to the workers”. They tell this to the girls to justify the abuses.

“The information is fragmented because the interviews we’ve managed to do have taken place in security centres, and we have to admit it: at the moment we take into custody a demobilized guerrilla, a prisoner or an informant, the first priority is to ask about illegal groups, drug or weapons trafficking. But rarely or never do we pay attention to women’s issues,” admits an investigator.

His frankness makes clear that there is no plan to confront the problem.

From the testimonies of several young girls and teenagers, El Tiempo has reconstructed the routes the exploiters take for “supplying” the demands of hundreds of miners who, according to the police, spend all their weekly earnings on liquor and prostitutes, many of them underage.

One route is the one between Cartagena and Antioquia. The intermediate point where the girls are collected is in Turbaco; there, generally, a bus takes the “express route” to Caucasia, and from there, they travel in public vehicles to Nechí, El Bagre, and Zaragoza.

“Last November 8 we had a situation at a checkpoint with several minor girls. They were heading for El Bagre (near Cauca), in a minibus. When we asked them why they were there, they claimed they were just passing through; later they said they had signed on as waitresses on a finca [large estate], but we already knew what was going on. We turned them over to the police, and they, in turn, to the ICBF. That’s all we know,” said a soldier. Even now he doesn’t know what happened to the girls.

Another infamous route for girls runs from Cartagena to Córdoba. Some get off at Ayapel; others, in the city of Montería and from there, to Valencia and Nudo de Paramillo. The modus operandi is the same: a bus or minibus, a fake story, and in the end, a camp or a house for abuse.

From Medellín there is another route, which carries girls to Chocó, or northeastern Antioquia, to Segovia and the Cauca valley, and from Medellín and Pereira to the edges of Antioquia and Chocó.

The authorities are also investigating what is happening to indigenous girls in the coltan-mining zone of Guainía, as well as the likely sale of minors, by their parents, in the emerald-mining area of Boyacá. But the drama of these girls is not only in the camps where they are enslaved and abused.

The chain of horror begins in the same streets where they are recruited. In the centre of Medellín, for example, the “Convivir” (extortion gangs) get paid a percentage of the girls’ earnings for letting them stand on a street corner. The girls are offered security in case a client doesn’t pay, and if they make trouble while under the influence of glue fumes, they are beaten and kicked out of the block. But these delinquents, who claim to maintain control of the streets, are the same contacted by the heads of the networks who seek “merchandise” to traffick into the mining areas.

“Without a doubt, most of the trade in the mines is controlled by the Urabeños. They buy girls in Cartagena or Medellín. Their own mothers offer them, and they make money off them,” says one of the investigators documenting cases. And in Antioquia, there is a name which everyone knows and remembers painfully: Jhon Jairo Restrepo, alias “Marcos”, formerly of the Carlos Alirio Buitrago Front of the ELN guerrillas. Now he is the chief of the Urabeños in the northeast, and one of the victimizers of girls and women.

But civil authorities claim not to know anything about him. At least, so says the mayor of Segovia, Jhony Alexis Castrillón, who would only say that “in this town there is no prostitution, because the women are very hot and don’t need to be paid.”

The same saddening response comes from various other entities of the state: “There is no sexual exploitation here,” said a functionary of the Centre for Attention to Victims of Sexual Violence (CAIVAS), to the police in Medellín.

And the case of “Marcos” in Antioquia repeats itself in Chocó with three men who each have four aliases, and who have taken it upon themselves to provide the “services” of minor girls in the camps less than three kilometres from the mines.

“They picked me up in Pereira, they took me on a bus to Chocó, all the way out into the jungle. I was there for two months in the camp. Four other girls travelled with me, but I never saw them again, I don’t know what happened to them…” says a 15-year-old girl, who was just 14 in the middle of 2012, when she was taken to the Atrato valley.

“Mile”, which she says is her street name, keeps looking around her as she speaks. Her sadness is evident as she tells what those eight weeks were like. “The guy who picked me up in Bolívar Square told me I would have food and a bed, and that I’d be paid at the end of the month. And I did have that, but at the end of the first two weeks, Leo (as she calls the man) passed me a hundred thousand pesos and told me that was the payment.

The next month, the same thing happened. “Mile” decided to take a risk and asked one of the miners, who was heading to Pereira, to take her along, and that she wouldn’t charge him anything for going to bed. He agreed. “The bus stopped before arriving in Pereira, the guy was asleep, and I stayed behind, I didn’t go back…”

She decided not to return to her city for fear that Leo would come back to kill her, and now she is on the streets of Medellín. Her body bears the marks of clients, thieves and drunks, who forced her at knifepoint to comply with any number of aberrant requests.

“Lots of things happen in the mines. In many parts of the country lots of things happen, but here the authorities and everyone say that we’re the whores…I, for example, feel like I’m not a person anymore…this happened to me and there’s nothing I can do.”

Translation mine.

I cried while I was translating this, much as I did during the last chapter of The Table Dancer’s Tale, which is also full of stories of girls prostituted by their own parents. Many of them are well under legal age, too. The difference between Mexico and Colombia is that the Mexican girls tend to work out of established houses, bars and nightclubs, which are more or less controlled environments, within the reach of local police; the Colombians are subjected to truly horrific conditions, in jungle encampments near the mines, which are in remote mountain locations and thus so much harder to escape. The police and the army both turn a blind eye, and only rarely intercept a “shipment” of human “merchandise” bound for the mining camps. How hard do the authorities need to be hit over the head to realize that this is a pervasive problem? Or are girls just so disposable in Colombia that literally anything goes, and that it’s “normal” for their own mothers to sell them to mafiosi? Do they rationalize the situation the way one brothel keeper in the stories of Gabriel García Márquez did, by writing over the doors of the establishment that the girls worked there because “they are hungry”? How many more girls are going to be exploited before someone makes the necessary political and economic changes that will make prostitution unprofitable for the traffickers who enslaved them?

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Posted in Economics for Dummies, El NarcoPresidente, Filthy Stinking Rich, If You REALLY Care, Isn't That Illegal?, Mexican Standoffs, The United States of Amnesia | 2 Comments

Teh Heterostoopid goes hardcore

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Just think, people…perfectly capable gay couples are being denied the right to adopt while heterosexuals like this are…well, just READ:

A Washington state man accused of putting his infant daughter inside a freezer long enough for her body temperature to drop to 84 degrees was charged Tuesday with first-degree child assault, first-degree criminal mistreatment and interfering with the reporting of a domestic violence incident.

His bail was set at $1 million, NBC station KING5 of Seattle reported.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said the 6-week-old baby also suffered a broken arm and leg and a head injury.

Tyler James Deutsch, 25, and the baby’s mother live together in a trailer in the city of Roy. The mother left the child alone with Deutsch from about 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. Saturday, KING5 reported.

The prosecutor’s office said Deutsch told detectives he was tired and the baby was crying, so he put her in the freezer and closed the door, according to KING5.

The man then fell asleep and only woke up when the mother returned home.

And just think, professional homomphobes like the “good” folks of NOM will never say boo about this. Why? Because these two are straight, and heterosexuals, as we all know, are the only people who should be allowed to marry and have kids.

Even if they’re goddamn fucking stupid and can’t parent for shit.

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The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 27

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“According to the new Work Law of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, proposed by the Comandante, they can’t fire me.”

Howdy, everyone! Remember how our last installment dealt with putschist media figures and their dubious respect for the dead? Well, today’s entry will take on that topic from another angle…this time, their total lack of respect for the living. And the shitstorm it can cause for the owners of the putschist TV channels, too…

On Monday night, the new board of directors for the private TV channel Globovisión released a communiqué, in which they explained the various new decisions they had made. In the first place, they reiterated that their contract with parliamentary deputy Ismael García for his participation on the show “Aló Venezuela” was “an amicable resolution and not related to recent political events.”

“The channel remains open to the free expression of Deputy García. The management enjoys the autonomy to cover and broadcast his activities, and the opinion programs to invite him,” states the document.

Secondly, the document explains the exit of the talk-show host Francisco “Kiko” Bautista was “the result of a concern expressed publicly (by him) related to the supposed departure of Ismael García, without having previously sought and requested information over the facts, as is the duty of every journalist.

“Additionally, Mr. Bautista refused to take the phone calls we made to talk about the matter, and only appeared on Sunday night, when the decision had already been taken by the board,” said the press release.

As well, “No national independent producer [that is, program host] has the right to be consulted about administrative decisions taken by the board. This decision does not necessarily affect the continuation of the program ‘Buenas Noches’, or labor relations with journalists Carla Angola and Pedro Luis Flores.”

The communique also state that the board of directors “has not vetoed any political functionary or director’s appearance on Globovisión. On the contrary, the editorial policy of the channel consists in broadening its ine of information and opinion to all the voices of the land, without any discrimination,” in clear allusion to the censorship supposedly imposed on ex-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski.

“The coverage of a particular director or political party cannot be determined by the decisions of a private interest group. No media channel is obligated to broadcast live, for longer or shorter time, the declarations of a certain political director.”

Translation mine.

I guess I should mention the backstory here. It seems that Ismael García, a parliamentary deputy who used to support Chavecito but then later, for reasons of venal self-interest, turned on him, is the author of his own misfortunes here. He broadcast on his show, Aló Venezuela (a crude Globomojón takeoff on Chavecito’s immensely popular Aló Presidente, which was broadcast on VTV) a crude montage of VTV’s Mario Silva, host of La Hojilla (The Razorblade), allegedly saying all kinds of nasty things about Diosdado Cabello, the president of the Venezuelan national assembly. García is currently under investigation for that recording, which “incriminates” not only Mario Silva but several important members of the PSUV. (For his part, Diosdado Cabello accepts Mario Silva’s version of events, and doesn’t believe a word of the accusations.)

It wouldn’t surprise me if García’s allegations all prove false. He is a politician known for a long series of dirty tricks, starting with his “jumping the divider” (i.e., joining the oppposition) after riding into office on Chavecito’s coattails. In fact, at one point, Globomojón even tried to position him as the leading proponent of “Chavismo without Chávez” — a typical opposition attempt to siphon off the looser supporters of Chavecito while the latter was still alive. It was a flat failure; Ismael García was reduced to being just another fool with delusions of grandeur, who occasionally shouted in the National Assembly and on opposition TV. He made a regular ass of himself by accusing Chavecito and his followers of every awful thing under the Sun. So don’t anyone be too surprised if this latest accusation of his doesn’t pan out.

Mario Silva, in the meantime, is in Cuba, receiving medical treatment; seems that the combined stress of losing Chavecito, and now this, has caused an existing heart problem to flare up. He categorically denies having said any of the things Ismael García alleges he did, and has gone off the air voluntarily while the matter is under investigation. He is confident that his good name will be cleared, and has even written an amusing open letter from his “exile”, in which his characteristic wit and honesty come across loud and clear.

Kiko Bautista, on the other hand, has long been cruising for a bruising. His irresponsible “journalistic” antics (note the quotes) may have been tolerated and indulged by the old management of Globomojón, but now that the channel is under new ownership, it appears that somebody (or a group of somebodies?) is reluctant to let the shenanigans continue unabated. Kiko’s head was long overdue to roll, and finally, it has. With his buggy eyes and his fuddy-duddy mannerisms, he was the Don Knotts of Venezuelan talk shows, but unlike that comedian, Kiko is a genuine buffoon who takes himself extremely seriously, and is funny just by accident. He’s often been pwned on the air by guests who refused to take his anti-Chávez bait, thus making for a lot of inadvertent comedy over what was supposed to be a “serious” topic.

Mario Silva has seldom passed up an opportunity to make fun of Kiko…and Ismael García. It’s not surprising that those two would have it in for him. But don’t be surprised, either, if the attempt to undermine the PSUV and La Hojilla backfires on these guys. Already it’s caused a panic at Globovisión…and that was a channel that used to seize on every slightest opportunity to make out that the PSUV, and especially Chavecito, was at the root of all the nation’s crimes and economic woes.

How ironic, then, that two of their leading crapagandists have suddenly found themselves out of a job…and at such an opportune moment, too!

PS: Oh my. Looks like Kiko’s colleagues, Carla Angola and Pedro Luis Flores, have stepped down from their jobs at “Buenas Noches” in “solidarity”. There’s irony in them thar hills, too…the fractious Venezuelan opposition is not usually so big on solidarity, unless there’s yet another widdle putschist march to mount.

What a pity that Chavecito isn’t around to see this…I can just hear him laughing.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Karma 1, Dogma 0 | Comments Off on The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 27

Toilet baby rescued in China

Happy Monday night. Here’s your WTF du soir:

A newborn baby was rescued from a toilet pipe in China. According to reports, no one has stepped forward to claim the child. I’m not surprised; most likely this was the outcome of a clandestine pregnancy, and the mother tried to hide the final evidence any which way she could. Still, this is NOT the way to deal with such things…and that should go without saying.

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Music for a Sunday: Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir-là

“Psycho Killer” with a cello? LOVE. (The cello comes courtesy of Arthur Russell, who should have gotten a lot more hype off of this than he did.)

Thanks to Cort G. for the heads-up!

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Wankers of the Week: Ohhhhhhklahoma!

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Except you out there in Oklahoma, who’ve had just about all the crap you folks could be humanly expected to take. Dang, what rotten luck. How I wish it had been these people taking the hit from that tornado instead:

1. Adam Fucking Kokesh. Gandhi with a gun is what…Gundhi? No, nonexistent. One does not bring a loaded gun to a “nonviolent” march in Washington, DC…or anywhere else, for that matter. A loaded gun means that violence is on the agenda, duh. And I bet this dude had a huge hard-on at the prospect of “engaging” the local police. Or the Secret Service, maybe. Well, now he can engage his jail cellmate. Just don’t drop the soap, Adam.

2. Alex Fucking Jones. Black helicopters now come with spray nozzles! Shoot, who needs something perfectly comprehensible like global warming to blame for violent weather (like the Oklahoma tornado, say) when you can just as easily go for convoluted and cuckoo — and not bloody likely?

3. Pat Fucking Robertson. On the other hand, why blame black helicopters with spray nozzles when you can blame Jeebus? Or people not praying to him hard enough. In the buckle of the Bible Belt, of all places. Meanwhile, how much did Patwa pray to “still the storm”? And how much of his televangelically-gotten loot is he planning to contribute, like a proper Christian, to the relief effort?

4. Tom Fucking Coburn. Why?

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That’s why. If he wants to see budget cuts, I suggest starting with his salary…and that of any other senator who opposes federal aid to ANY disaster victim.

5. Rand Fucking Paul. Oh noes, the IRS is targeting teabags! Time to throw some shit into Boston Harbor. Like, oh, say, HIM. PS: Like I said…toss this tosser.

6. Peggy Fucking Noonan. See above, and add dog whistles, audible only to senile Reaganite trash.

7. Sarah Fucking Palin. It’s snowing in Alaska! Yes, and the wind is blowing between her ears. Either way, how does that prove global warming to be a myth? Uh…it doesn’t.

8. Stephen Fucking Fincher. If those who don’t work shouldn’t eat, then back away from the table, bible-boy. Because what the hell have you done for your constituents lately? Or their kids? (Spewing bullshit doesn’t count.)

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9. Wolf Fucking Blitzer. No, not everybody in Oklahoma believes in God. Of course, that’s why #3 thinks the tornado hit there. How about praying for BRAINS?

10. Larry Fucking Pratt. What do guns have to do with immigration reform? Hell if I know. But apparently he thinks immigrants are coming to take away white racists’ guns. Oh, if only they would…

11. Michael Fucking Kinsley. Homophobes are on the wrong side of history, and have been for as long as homophobia has been a thing (and that’s pretty damn long!). So why should we pamper their delusions until the poor widdle dears finally come around to the right side? They have their heels dug in, they’re getting more violent (not less!), and they’re willing to kill for the sake of their stupidity. We don’t owe them an ounce of “compassion” or “understanding”, because they certainly have none for those they hate. So yeah, Mike, I guess what I’m trying to say here is, FUCK THEIR DELICATE SENSIBILITIES. And fuck you, too, for trying to protect a bunch of despicable, cowardly bullies.

12. François Fucking Ozon. Women fantasize about being prostitutes, and being “used” as sex objects? Um, non. Maybe men fantasize that, but we don’t. For one thing, far too many of us don’t have to; we already know the reality all too well. And Pretty Woman it ain’t. (It ain’t YOUR film, either.)

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13. Barbara Fucking Listing. Yeah, rape is just exactly like a car accident. Except that cars don’t deliberately drive into vaginas, you fucking idiotess.

14. E.W. Fucking Jackson. Being a Christian is no excuse for homophobia, bigotry, hate…or stupidity. And Jesus resents you tacking his name onto all this shit that he never had anything to do with.

15. Robert Clark Fucking Young. Wow, talk about wankery. Not content merely to trash the Wikipedia pages of other authors with whom he was feuding (while simultaneously inflating his own), he also goes after Pagans…and more specifically, Witches. Watch out, dude, before somebody turns you into a turd…oops, too late. Anyway, why be redundant? Anybody who spends so much time and energy wiki-feuding (and so little actually WRITING) is not a piece of shit, he’s a whole stinking manure pile.

16. Mike Fucking Duffy. Oh, of COURSE Puffy did nothing wrong. It’s never a crime when a member of the traditional ruling class does it. When do we peons get all OUR expenses paid, no questions asked, nudge nudge wink wink? PS: Ha, ha.

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17. Stephen Fucking Harper. He says he wasn’t “consulted” about Puffy’s bailout? I call horseshit. Harpo is the king of all control freaks. Nobody lets so much as a fart without his express written permission, much less advance knowledge and prior consultation.

18. Conrad Fucking Black. Lord Blah-Blah has clearly fallen on hard times. He’s now reduced to doing propaganda work for Puffy and Harpo. Very verbose, pompous, and long-winded propaganda, of course. The kind you’d expect from a disgraced right-wing newspaper baron covering the pudgy arses of a disgraced right-wing former journalist and a disgraceful right-wing election stealer.

19. Joe Fucking Francis. No, Guy Gone to Jail, the jurors who convicted you are NOT “retarded”. But you sure as shit are motherfucking stooooopid. As well as violent, sexist and just an all-around sack of shit.

20. Dana Fucking Loesch. Why?

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That’s why. She thinks she’s a wit, and she’s only half right.

21. Riduan Fucking Masmud. “Other men are allowed to marry underage girls” is really a weak argument. Other men have also raped underage girls. Just because “other men” have done it, doesn’t make it right.

22. George Fucking Zimmerman. Victim-blaming: Not just for rapists and sexists anymore. Racists and vigilantes can also use it, apparently…although if the trial judge is smart, this shit will not make it into the legal record.

23 and 24. Rob and Doug Fucking Ford. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are bidding fair to go down together. The one for smoking crack and not coming clean; the other, for trying (unsuccessfully) to cover for him. PS: This isn’t helping either, Robbo. PPS: Oh myyyyyy. Suddenly it all makes sense!

25. Jason Fucking Kenney. Why?

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Considering that Justin is surging in the polls while Harpo and the entire SupposiTory party are sinking, due to their ugly US-style attack ads backfiring, well…that’s really not very bright of him to say. But then again, Jason was never very bright to begin with. Conservatives generally aren’t, you know.

26 and 27. David Fucking Tkachuk and Carolyn Fucking Stewart Olsen. Two of them, and they still can’t cover Puffy’s capacious ass. Give it up, you guys, we all know he’s guilty!

28. Henry Fucking Pettigrew. Guns don’t kill people; DJs playing the wrong songs kill people!

29. Glenn Fucking Beck. Yeah, sure, that Okie atheist who pwned Voof Bleetzah was part of some massive conspiracy of “spiritual darkness”! This is right up there for cockamamie with Alex Fucking Jones and his black helicopter spray attachments.

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30. Ted Fucking Cruz. Why yes, there ARE an awful lot of “wacko birds” in the US Senate. And there are an awful lot more wacko birds outside the US Senate, who voted for them in the wackobird belief that these guys were actually (a) smart, and (b) good for something. Case in point: Ted Fucking Cruz.

31. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Finally, he knows who his true fans are: the makers and sellers of counterfeit Viagra! I can’t think of a more fitting sponsor for his Excrements in Broadcasting, can you? And besides, he’s gonna need that shit for his next child-sexploitation tour of the Dominican Republic. Maybe this time, he’ll even work up the ‘nads to get that ‘scrip under his own name.

32. Giorgio Fucking Mammoliti. Y’know, I’m starting to think there might be something to this theory that Rob Fucking Ford is going to buy the incriminating video of himself smoking crack, and so beat the Gawker Crackstarter. Why else would “Gino-boy” be throwing a $5000-a-table fundraiser to “keep up the good fight” for Robbo’s sake?

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33. Michelle Fucking Malkin. So, the Asian White Supremacist thinks that British progressives brought on the horrific Woolwich butchery attack by being “too politically correct”? Too bad that what the butchers themselves said directly contradicts that; it’s the conservative British government’s fault, and this attack was pointedly aimed at their racist, Bush’s Poodle-era “War on Terra” policies. Maybe Ms. Maglalang would like to exercise a little hearing comprehension before she shoots her unhinged jaw off again with such a jawdropping load of Teh Stoopid.

34. The Fucking Westboro Bastards. Given that they’re from Kansas, it’s only a matter of time before God drops a tornado on them. And I can hardly wait to hear what ol’ Fred says then.

35. Jason T. Fucking Willis. Y’know, Craigslist could save itself a buttload of legal troubles if it just got rid of its much-misused adult personals section. Meanwhile, I sure hope this guy doesn’t drop the soap in the jailhouse showers. Because, y’know, that’s like an in-person Craigslist personal ad saying he’s down for anything.

36. Louie Fucking Gohmert. Why?

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That’s why. “Brainless” about sums him up. And by the sounds of things, he doesn’t have a heartbeat, either.

37. Joachim Fucking Meisner. And speaking of no brains and no heart, get a load of this German cardinal. Sez women should stay home and breed, and keep those pesky immigrants from polluting the nice pure German “race”. Know who else said that?

38. Bryan Fucking Fischer. Yup, him again. Reeking even more of the closet this week, as we learn that he fantasizes about sodomizing Boy Scouts. (Run, kids! RUN!!!)

39. Christine Fucking Lagarde. Fraud? Embezzlement? Pooh, pooh. That’s all in a day’s work for the IMF. Dirty MF. Takes away anything it can get…sorry, channeling Bruce Cockburn again. Happens all the time around here, especially when the IMF is mentioned.

40. Ed Fucking Henry. “Let’s not be a bunch of lemmings for Obama”, says this FUX Snoozer, a denizen of the channel that singlehandedly turned all the media into lemmings for Dubya. Starting with calling it (fraudulently) for the Shrub in Florida in 2000.

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41 and 42. Samy and Amy Fucking Bouzaglo, again. Looks like Samy’s got some ‘splainin’ to do to the feds, and Amy is…well, you know.

43. Paul Fucking Hewson. Yes, that’s right…Bono is a wanker again this week. This time for teaming up with Monsanto to “save” the world. And by “save”, we mean “peddle unwanted genetically modified crap to”. Remember when he was actually a pretty good singer on the right side of history? Pity that was 30 years ago.

44. Roman Fucking Polanski. Awww, isn’t that sweet? The old girl-raping pervert has some quaint ideas about romance which are, as you may have guessed, full of reactionary antifeminist shit. I wasn’t aware that giving women flowers was “indecent” (and it isn’t, unless maybe you’ve hidden a hanky soaked with chloroform in the bouquet). Or that the Pill has ruined everything (by making women sexually autonomous, I guess, is what he means by “masculinizing”.) I guess somebody’s still bitter that he’s wanted by the US for sexually assaulting an underage girl three different ways, but NOT wanted by women of any age (trophy wife notwithstanding). There is no other possible explanation for such a ridiculous fucking tirade.

45. Jeff Fucking Melcher. Purchasing food is a bad behavior? One that shouldn’t be “encouraged”? Gosh, who knew? I suppose he’ll follow this one up with how eating shouldn’t be encouraged, either.

46. Richard Fucking Dawkins. Why?

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That’s why. I do believe that’s called apologism. It’s also a bunch of bullshit.

47. Phyllis Fucking Schlafly. Once more, witness the irony of an old, old woman who has made an awful lot of money babbling about how gays are trying to take away her right to freedom of speech, while feminism is “the most destructive element in our society”. Meanwhile, not a word of thanks for how feminists won her the right to read, write and vote, not to mention shoot her old fool mouth off utterly unimpeded.

48. Joe Fucking Arpaio. Guilty, guilty, GUILTY. That is all.

49 and 50. Garry Fucking Tanuan and John Fucking Del Grande. Gay-straight alliances “promote a positive view of homosexual activity, which undermines Catholic teaching on chastity and marriage”? Damn straight they do. And what the fuck is wrong with that? Those teachings are fucked up anyway. They deserve to be undermined.

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And finally, to Dominique Fucking Venner. Congratulations, m’sieu, you’re my first posthumous wanker. Killing yourself on the altar of Nôtre Dame because you couldn’t bear the idea of gay people being able to marry whomever they wanted, and be happy in life, instead of celibate and miserable (probably like yourself) with the expectation of going to heaven at the end to make up for it all? Bra-fucking-vo. Only one thing wrong with that: You’re a right-wing Catholic traditionalist who forgot that suicides go straight to hell, per traditional right-wing Catholic belief. Quel fromage! But hey…I still kind of hope your brand of activism catches on, because at least no gays will be the ones getting killed in the name of bigotry. And because I believe in evolution, and far be it from me to deny the unevolved a well-deserved Darwin Award.

Good night, and get fucked!

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