Akinori Ito has invented an amazingly simple (and small, and inexpensive to operate) machine that recycles plastic safely back into the oil from whence it came. In Japan there isn’t a lot of space to spare, much less for garbage dumps. And Japan has no native oil deposits either, so any petroleum — for plastic, fuel and chemicals — must be imported. For those reasons, recycling is a much higher priority there than it is here. Ito’s machine can be used anywhere there is electricity, and converts one kilo of plastic into approximately one litre of oil, using one kilowatt-hour of electricity. I’ve often wished there were some means of disposing safely of all the plastic that gets thrown out along the roadsides where I live, so this machine sounds like something I’d definitely use if it ever became available here. And with tar-sands pollution and the dangers of massive pipelines becoming a greater menace every day, it seems like a much better idea all around.
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 26
May 20, 2013 — Sabina BeckerHey! Remember how the Venezuelan opposition used to snipe at Chavecito for being a former military officer, calling him a “dictator”, even though he was democratically elected (and re-elected, and so on, and so on) as a civilian? Remember how they used to squall under his extremely lenient rule about all the “censorship” and “repression” there was not? Remember how ironic that was? Well, get ready, because here comes Rafael Poleo — opposition propagandist, media owner, soi-disant “journalist”, and all-around poor excuse for a human being, laying a big steaming pile of smelly brown irony all over the place:
So what does that mean? Let me translate:
Dirty War
General Videla was not a soldier who sold food. He was born of a breed of warriors that began with the independence of the Republic of Argentina. When his country was on the verge of falling into the hands of Montonero and ERP terrorists, he took on the tremendous responsibility of leading the dirty war which the terrorists were winning. General Videla won that dirty war by applying the hard formulas of his military office. Who knows what would have happened if the military had lost that war. (During a meeting of the Socialist International in Caracas in 1975, [Rómulo] Betancourt said that military men don’t always take power because of ambition and avarice, but because often they are rescuing it from the river where the politicians let it fall. When Betancourt died, the brave generals who defeated Russo-Cuban intervention under his command asked for permission to wear their old uniforms. Thus attired, they were the ones to carry the casket and bury the great man.)
This bit of diarrhea was occasioned by the recent death of the ex-dictator of Argentina, ex-general Jorge Rafael Videla. In it, the irony-impaired Rafael Poleo not only praises a real, unelected, antidemocratic military dictator and human rights abuser, he shits all over the grave of an elected, humanistic and extremely popular socialist president.
One of the first things Chavecito did when he came to power in 1999 was send the army out to help the people, not to repress them. Under Plan Bolívar, soldiers sold food at affordable prices in poor neighborhoods. This pissed off the well-to-do shopkeepers, the same who had occasioned the Caracazo ten years earlier by hoarding food and then telling those same poor folks that there wasn’t any. And when those poor Venezuelans put the dirty lie to that by breaking into the back rooms where the hoarded food was being kept to be sold at inflated prices, and simply taking it, the then-president, Carlos Andrés Pérez, sent the army out to repress them. The death toll from those five days of rioting and repression was in the thousands.
It was this that spurred Chavecito and his Bolivarian army buddies to rise up against CAP three years later, after a clandestine recruitment drive that drew disgruntled officers from all branches of the Venezuelan military. None of them could bear the shame of being repressors in a nominally democratic country, under a presumably elected president.
Bolívar once said: “Cursed is the soldier who turns his weapons on his own people.” The 1992 uprising, despite its failure, was meant to expiate that curse. As was Plan Bolívar, in which the military was placed at the service of the people, rather than as mere bodyguards to capitalists and their political lackeys.
And the Argentine junta were nothing if not bodyguards to the international capitalists. Under them, Argentina became Milton Friedman’s wet dream, and the corpses of 30,000 “disappeared” dissidents a small price to pay for free-market “reforms”. The bulk of that repression took place under General Videla’s iron fist. Never elected, never under the faintest illusion of being a democrat, the pious hypocrite Videla did not “rescue” Argentina from the socialist Montoneros and the ERP; he turned it into a human slaughterhouse. There was literally no atrocity of which he and his torturers, repressors and co-conspirators were not guilty.
And in the end, Videla proved Bolívar’s axiom correct. He died accursed, on the floor of the washroom of his cell in the Marcos Paz penitentiary, a convicted murderer, baby-thief and criminal against humanity. His death was as undignified as can be imagined; he was stricken with diarrhea and on his way to the toilet at the time. Karma took a flying dump all over his dogma.
And this is the man Rafael Poleo chose to praise and eulogize. Along with the long-dead, unlamented Rómulo Betancourt, who stole his way to power via the reviled Punto Fijo pact, and who waged a dirty war of his own against Venezuelan leftists, who had been shut out of participation in the elections, and some of whom had taken to the hills as guerrillas, after the fashion of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Venezuelan leftists disappeared, were tortured and killed, and thrown in the sea, more than ten years before the Argentine junta seized power, with Videla as de facto “president” (note the quotes). One corpse, that of PCV director Alberto Lovera, washed up on the beach at Puerto La Cruz, badly bloated and disfigured, but with chains still attached:
That was in 1965, seven years after the last military dictator of Venezuela was deposed. And Lovera’s death, along with hundreds of others, was a direct legacy of Rómulo Betancourt, the so-called “Father of Venezuelan democracy”. Betancourt, like all the other Punto Fijo Pact beneficiaries, was only nominally a democrat, and only nominally elected. And he, like all of them, knew it…and took extreme measures to make sure that no serious challenges to his leadership could ever come from the left. There was literally nothing that they would not stoop to, from Betancourt on down, in the name of preserving a “free market” capitalist “democracy” (again, note the quotes).
This is what Rafael Poleo was praising and eulogizing when he called Betancourt a “great man” and his hated, crooked military yes-men “brave generals”. This ugliness, this rot, this repression, this medieval torture.
And yet he probably would not hesitate to ascribe all these horrors and more to Chavecito, who was out of uniform for five full years at the time of his first election of many, with a clear majority and a popular mandate. Never mind that Chavecito never did anything of the sort, and indeed went to great lengths to undo the damage that Betancourt and his successors had done. Not to mention that he helped Néstor Kirchner, and later his widow, Cristina Fernández, rescue Argentina from the clutches of the IMF…the same that was all too enthused about General Videla and his ilk.
The mind boggles, does it not?
Music for a Sunday: Fashion, play your part
May 19, 2013 — Sabina BeckerThe first China Crisis song I ever heard, and still one of the best. Totally underrated ode to the working class…in the electro-pop medium, which some would say was unexpected. The fact that British pop came from the working class, and that much of it in the 1980s was a direct reaction against Maggie Fucking Thatcher, might go a long way to explaining this.
The fact that it’s got a good beat and is danceable is just a bonus, really.
Crank that mother.
Wankers of the Week: Earthquakes, umbrellas, and crackpipes, oh my!
May 18, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Crappy weekend, everyone! Or should I say CRACKy weekend? Heh, no. I’m just glad to be getting through it in one piece after that earthquake that I never even felt. Should I panic? Nah…I’m too busy ducking and covering against all the flying wank. And here’s who jerked it this week, in no particular order:
1. Stephen Fucking Harper. Not content to wish his wife a happy Mother’s Day in private, Little Stevie Peevie decided to go all out…and send a spam e-mail to every address he could find, asking them to do it for him. Awww. Isn’t that just so special? Instead of doing more for Canadian mothers, Little Stevie decided that Canadians — mothers or not — had to do more for him. I’m touched. Really. (Well, no. Not really. And no, Stevie, you didn’t reach me, nor will you ever get my e-mail or home address. Now piss off.)
2. Ben Fucking Shapiro. And speaking of women existing only to serve men, what is up with him? He takes issue with Maxim’s “Hot 100″? Well, so do I. But then, I take issue with that stupidly subjective list for existing at all. He takes issue with it because it lists women over 40 (horrors!), Democrats (double horrors!) and Miley Cyrus (oh, the unspeakable horror of it!). Meanwhile, his idea of hot is…what, exactly? I don’t know, but I suspect it has ghastly helmet hair and most of its “beauty” can be removed with the flick of an industrial-strength baby wipe. (The remainder is plastic surgery.)
3. William Fucking Bigelow. Again with the dumb old “Hitler was gay” canard. No, you’re thinking of Ernst Röhm, who was executed for it (well, that, and bidding fair to depose the Führer in an intra-party popularity contest.) Hitler was an incestuous girl-molester. Get it right!
4. Dick Fucking Cheney. Benghazi is “worse”. Than what, the Big Dick’s hemorrhoids? No, sorry, it’s not even as bad as that.
5. Linda Fucking Harvey. I honestly had no idea that Teh Ghey could be bought and sold, much less via blogs. How much is it going for these days? (The reason I ask is because the militant heterosexualists are starting to bug me.)
6. Pat Fucking Buchanan. The South shall rise again! Well, at least the Southern Strategy has…like a decrepit zombified corpse from an unmarked grave. Now, where did I put my sharpened stake?
7. Michele Fucking Bachmann. Well, now that Minnesota has voted to legalize same-sex marriage, it was inevitable that she should squawk up. And advocate Christianist jihad. This while also dissing the Muslims. Obviously, her Wheaties are fortified with a lot of irony.
8 and 9. Samy and Amy Fucking Bouzaglo. You know you have a shitty restaurant/bakery when you get dumped by Gordon Ramsay, who is not a dickweed but an entire fucking thicket thereof. And when, challenged on your theft, hatemongering, and repackaging of cakes bought elsewhere, you act like a monkey, showing his ass more and more the higher he climbs. Amid all that Internet flaming, who’s got time to run a respectable joint? PS: Oh myyyy.
10. Toru Fucking Hashimoto. “Comfort women” were “necessary”? Um, dude, you just said that sex slaves who were raped to death…HAD to be. No, they did NOT. This was a war crime. This was brutality. This was slavery. This was BULLSHIT! As my best friend says, I hope this fascist goes to jail…and has to “serve” his fellow prisoners the way those women had to do with soldiers. TO THE DEATH, MOTHERFUCKER. PS: There are also those who said Hiroshima was “necessary”. Some of them are relatives of those so-called “comfort women” who died at the hands of their rapists.
11. Rob Fucking Ford. So, everyone should get off the gravy train…except Robbo. Of course. Frod Nation isn’t Toronto, it’s a bunch of friggin’ suckers. PS: What the fuck is this? I can’t even. PPS: OMG. Robbo’s apparently a crackhead. Now it all makes sense! PPPS: And the Star has all the deets. Oh myyyyy.
12. Ted Fucking Nugent. So, he thinks undocumented immigrants should be treated like indentured servants? That’s very generous of him, considering that most of their employers already treat them like SLAVES.
13. Samuel Fucking Yoon. Yet another preacher, nabbed for trying to buy a teenage girl. Funny how so many holy rollers like ‘em underage. What is this, a Mary Magdalene complex?
14. Matt Fucking Barber. And speaking of holy rollers and their holy shit, how about him? He thinks “leftist” sex education is to blame for antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Actually, it’s the LACK of it…and that lack can be directly traced to the Christian conservative holy rollers and their holy fucking hypocrisy. Because of their “abstinence only” crapola, kids don’t get accurate information on what STDs are and how to prevent them…much less access to the condoms and microbicides that would do just that. PS: Ugh. Also, do I smell a whiff of the closet on you, Matty?
15. Patrick Fucking Brazeau. Oh, so now he won’t pay back what he stole from the public purse? Very well, public hearings it must be, then. And I hope they are as humiliating as possible.
16. Mike Fucking Duffy. And while we’re on the subject of senators who steal, how about Puffy? Looks like he’s been sent scurrying out the back door yet again, in a manner of speaking. And he’s had some help from Harpo’s chief of staff, who courteously held the door so Puffy could hustle his corpulent ass as fast as it would go. PS: Oh my, Puffy sure isn’t shy of throwing his considerable weight around anywhere, is he?
17. Dan Fucking Hall. Y’know, Dan-o, same-sex marriage wouldn’t be divisive if you stupid fucking right-wingers would only stop trying to use the issue to drive wedges between people. Just sayin’.
18. Lindsey Fucking Graham. See #17, and add that immigration wouldn’t be an issue either, if only stupid fucking right-wingers would stop using it as a…well, you know.
19. Ken Fucking Hutcherson. Once more into the breach…of Teh Stoopid. If homosexuality has really “destroyed every civilization it has touched”, then why does humanity still exist here on Earth? Because unless you live alone on a very deserted island, you’re going to be in contact with Teh Ghey somehow, somewhere…whether you realize it or not.
20. James Fucking Dobson. Feminism is over? Women want to be housewives again? Hardly. It’s still very much on, and a few upper-class ladies who lunch (and who stay at home because they can afford to, and make their own pickles for the novelty value of it) are no representatives of anything…except, of course, in the fever swamp of the Religious Reich’s ever fertile imagination.
21. Pat Fucking Robertson. Dear Abby and Ann Landers (and, more recently, Dr. Joyce Brothers) must be rolling in their graves; Patwa is the worst fucking advice columnist EVER. And a walking anti-marriage advertisement if ever there was one.
22. Richard P. Fucking Sheridan. Because you’re a homophobic “cunt, bitch, coward”. (And a huge fucking projectionist, obviously.) I’m shocked that you got all of 28 votes; with your attitude, it should have been none.
23. Pam Fucking Regentin. Oh joy, another baker who refuses to cater a same-sex wedding. Why is it so hard to just sell a fucking cake, dammit? Are you afraid they’ll get lesbian cooties all over it? Well, Teh Ghey might not be contagious, but word about how much you suck sure is…
24. Lai Fucking Tung-kwok. Once more, with feeling: Women drinking do not cause rape. Guys raping cause rape. Got that?
25. Mike Fucking Adams. No, Angelina Jolie is not inspiring women to “maim themselves by celebrating medically perverted double mastectomies”. You ignorant fucking jackass, she got that done because she carries a mutated gene that makes it close to 90% certain that she will get breast cancer, and 50% certain that she will get ovarian cancer. (She’s also getting her ovaries out, BTW. Which is exactly what REAL cancer specialists recommend under these circumstances.) I don’t care how sad that makes your shrivelled little penis, because it’s never going to come within spitting distance of her, anyhow. She’s doing it to improve her odds of not dying of cancer. And fancy you prattling on about “quackery”, as if you weren’t a flaming practitioner thereof. What’s your excuse for writing loony (and really freakin’ anti-choice) columns for a shitty antiscience conspiracy site masquerading as a “natural health” news site, huh? Newsflash: Your fucking CD will NOT save anyone’s breasts from “systemic” cancer, whatever the fuck THAT is. I hate to think how many people are going to die because they trusted a fucking charlatan like you instead of getting appropriate prophylactic treatment in time.
26. Barry Fucking Logan. How sweetly ironic is it that an ambulance-chaser going after “illegal” downloaders is himself guilty of using stock photos he didn’t bother to buy? Yeah, Barry, tell us again about how “entitled” we all are. If you can do it over the loud, derisive laughter, that is.
27. Jon Fucking Lundberg. Hell hath no fury like a speeding state senator caught on a traffic cam. Or one who, instead of paying his ticket and learning his lesson in good grace, decides to throw rocks at said traffic cam, metaphorically speaking.
28. Kevin Fucking Williamson. How NOT to lead by example: Demonstrate your impeccable public cellphone etiquette by grabbing someone else’s out of her hand and throwing it. In a crowded theatre, no less. Oh, and then write yourself up in the National Review as a model of public cellphone etiquette, complete with artificially sophisticated phraseology, to cover your ass — and the fact that you’re just another fucking right-wing asshat with far worse manners than the woman whose phone you so thoughtfully decided to fling. PS: Enjoy your criminal charges…ASSHAT.
29. Cedric Fucking Cuthbert. If ever you’ve had nightmares involving men of the cloth — or Disneyworld — guess what? They’re true, and he’s the star. Congrats, Cedric, you pedophilic pervypants, you.
30. Trey Fucking Radel. Maybe it’s just as well that most of his old-school hip-hop heroes are dead. Because if they were alive, they’d probably want to kick the shit out of him, and maybe pop a cap in his ass, for the right-wingnutty way he chooses to interpret their raps.
31. Glenn Fucking Beck. Can anyone make hide or hair of his shit anymore? Because I can’t. I just read that sentence three times and it still staunchly refuses to make any fucking sense at all. Since when does the KKK lynch white people? Has it ever? Because if it has, I have no fucking idea who, or why. And wouldn’t we have heard of that, if it happened…seeing as anything terrible that happens to white people is always news?
32. Kevin Fucking Cramer. Abortion causes school shootings. Yeah, and your hemorrhoids cause pineapples, dillweed.
33. Steve Fucking Roberts. No, the N-word hasn’t been outlawed anywhere. And neither is it “politically incorrect” to use it. It’s just racist and rude, same as ever…ya dumb fuckin’ honky.
34. Mitt Fucking Romney. Would it surprise you terribly to learn that Mittens hasn’t paid any taxes — none, nada, zippo, zilch, bupkus — in at least ten years? Oh good. Me neither!
35. Darin Fucking Haas. Would it surprise you terribly to learn that the US military is awfully fond of putting coyotes in charge of the henhouse where sexual assault, harassment, etc., are concerned? Oh good. Me neither!
36. Jorge Fucking Bergoglio. “Money has to serve, not to rule!” That’s nice, Yer Holiness. So, when are you going to dismantle the Vatican Bank?
37. Mark Fucking Krikorian. I just love it when fascists eat their own. I love it even more when they do it because some of their own are immigrants.
38. Nigel Fucking Farage. Fancy HIM calling anyone else a “fascist scum”. I guess his irony meter is kaputt.
39. Sarah Fucking Palin. Why?
That’s why. Say one thing, do the other. Just another day in the life of Quitbull.
40. Pete Fucking Santilli. I’m no fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton (or anyone else in the State Dept.), but you know what I want to do to this fucking shock jock? I want to shoot him right in the (microscopic) cock, and for him not to die right away…just lie there bleeding and feeling the pain. All the fucking pain. And look him in the eyes, and laugh, and say, “On behalf of all sane people, here’s a taste of your own crazy medicine, you motherfucker.”
41. John Fucking Roach, Jr. Three words, Yeronner: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION. Nobody should have to care whether some right-wing nutjob in robes approves of their “lifestyle”.
42. J. Peter Fucking Zegarra. Actually, we have gag reflexes for a reason. It’s to keep us from choking to death on some dude’s fucking cock! Jayzus, how could a doctor not understand that?
43. Marc Fucking Patrone. So, a former commissioner of the CRTC…has quit to join “must carry” FUX Snooze North? Why no, that’s not conflict of interest at all (she said, dripping snark all down her cleavage…)
44. Pamela Fucking Wallin. Badadump, bump, bump…another one bites the dust. And another one’s gone, and another one’s gone, another one bites the dust…oops, sorry. Funny how Harpo keeps putting all these toadies and spongers in his caucus. You’d think he was awfully fond of sycophantic yea-sayers, wouldn’t you?
45. Trent Fucking Franks. Well, that was predictable. Yet another push for a late-term abortion ban (and yet another stupid fetal-pain canard), instead of making birth control more available, affordable, and accessible. And instead of recognizing that abortions are gonna happen, like it or not, and that they should therefore also be more available, affordable, and accessible…preferably as early as possible. And isn’t it funny how we never hear the connection between late-term abortion and abstinence-only sex education? Because it’s there…but you’d never know it to hear all these ignorant right-wing males tell it.
46. Silvio Fucking Berlusconi. Yup, ol’ Bunga-Bunga is back in the news. And this time, we find out that one of his hired strippers wore an Obama mask. I’m not sure what to make of this, and I don’t know what His Barackness would make of it, either. Say, is that a whiff of mothballs I smell? Did someone leave a closet door ajar…?
47. M. Joseph Fucking Sheppard. Honestly, I never knew an umbrella was anything but a means to keep the rain off oneself. It turns out that ALL presidents get an aide to hold an umbrella for them from time to time, but since some black dude did it recently, suddenly it’s a “humiliation” to the US Marine Corps. Go figger.
48. Stacey Fucking Campfield. Sex education is for the “far left”? Even at a university that’s the 16th most LGBT-unfriendly in the US? Wow. If ever you needed proof that being conservative is for the stupid, there you go.
49. Gene Fucking Simmons. He thinks Muslim culture is vile? I think his tongue is vile. Especially when you consider what drips off it.
50. Nigel Fucking Wright. Why?
That’s why. $90,000 isn’t exactly some loose change you find between the sofa cushions, unless you’re working for Harpo, the guy who lost $3.1 billion of OUR money. Puffy’s bagman has some ‘splainin’ to do.
And finally, to all the teabaggers and other assorted nutcakes who keep seizing on manufactured scandals. Like Benghazigate (which, inconveniently, was proven to be piffle just this week). Or Umbrellagate, which is also piffle. If you’re gonna criticize Barack Obama about something horrible he’s doing, how about making it something real…like not closing Gitmo? Or like sending drones out after just about everything and everyone? Oh wait, those are the very things Dubya also did. Never mind!
Good night, and get fucked!
Festive Left Friday Blogging: I want this one for my wall
May 17, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Sigh. If only this were a tapestry…
PS: How many of these Latin American leaders can YOU name?
General Videla is dead
May 17, 2013 — Sabina Becker
The ex-dictator of Argentina, Jorge Rafael Videla, died today in the Marcos Paz penitentiary, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. He was 87 years old.
This morning, the wife of a soldier, Cecilia Pando, confirmed via Radio Once Diez: “Videla died in his sleep. Last night he didn’t want to eat supper because he was feeling ill.”
But judicial information indicates that Videla died in the bathroom of the federal prison’s unit for crimes against humanity. Since last night, he had been having stomach trouble. This morning, he got up, and as he was entering the washroom, he fell to the floor and died.
Videla was condemned to 50 years’ imprisonment for theft of babies. The sentence was handed down by the Sixth Oral Federal Tribunal, and was added to other previous sentences. Bignone, the last de facto president of the Argentine junta, received 15 years. The tribunal investigated 35 cases of children born in captivity.
Videla was born in Mercedes, in the province of Buenos Aires, on August 2, 1925. He became president following a military coup on the 24th of March, 1976, and remained in that post until 1981. Following the return to democracy in 1983, Videla went on trial and was sentenced to life in prison and stripped of his military rank for numerous crimes against humanity committed while he was in power.
Videla entered the National Military College on March 3, 1942, and graduated on December 21, 1944, with the rank of second lieutenant of the infantry. He attended the War Academy between 1952 and 1954 and graduated as an officer of the High Command. He was a member of the Secretariat of Defence between 1958 and 1960, and directed the Military Academy until 1962. In 1971 he rose to the rank of brigadier general and was named by Alejandro Agustín Lanusse as director of the National Military College. At the end of 1973, Comandante Leandro Anaya named him Chief of the High Command of the Army, and on August 27, 1975, President María Estela Martínez de Perón named him Commander in Chief of the Army.
On March 24, 1976, Videla, along with Emilio Eduardo Massera and Orlando Ramón Agosti, headed the military coup that deposed President María Estela Martínez de Perón, dissolved all political parties, and closed the National Congress, giving rise to the so-called “National Reorganization Process”.
Translation mine.
What with Ríos Montt convicted and going to prison (and pulling a Pinochet to try to get out of it), and Videla dying there, this has been one good week for riddance to bad rubbish. Just a pity that none of the US spooks who aided and abetted these vile criminals will ever see justice.
Stupid Sex Tricks: Colombian roulette
May 16, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Hey! Remember all the moral panic about jelly bracelets? Or “rainbow” parties? And remember how it was all kinda bogus? Well, looks like Colombia’s got a situation, and I’m sure hoping this one’s also bogus…because the outcome is no joke:
In Colombia there is a “game” that’s all the rage, which is also causing concern among adults, since the so-called “roulette” or “carrousel” is a “game” consisting of rounds in which the young men penetrate girls quickly, but whenever one of them ejaculates, he loses and drops out of the game.
The game is practically an orgy, and has parents and health authorities concerned, since pregnancies have begun to crop up among teenagers.
“It was a friend’s 15th birthday.* We were on a finca [large ranch estate] and we were drinking. When they put on music, we started dancing. We were about 10 people, and someone suggested we play “Carrousel” or “Roulette”, said one girl, 14 years old, who even at that young age is faced with the possibility of becoming a mother without knowing who is the father of her baby.
“The idea was to demonstrate who could hold out the longest, but I ever thought I could end up pregnant, because it didn’t take very long, it was just a game,” said the worried girl.
Luz Marina Peláez Vanegas, head of the Sexual Reproductive Health project of the Health Secretariat in Medellín, said that “we’ve been hearing of this kind of game for about a year, from pregnant girls. There are variations, but in essence these are group sexual relations, for the most part indiscriminate, and without the necessary protection. They happen principally at parties, fincas or places where there is no adult supervision.”
According to authorities in Medellín, 6,967 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 became pregnant last year; in 2011, it was 6,880 in the same age group.
The worrisome part is that 82.5% of these teenage pregnancies end in a clandestine abortion.
In Medellín, the percentage of pregnant girls with syphilis diagnosed and treated before the 17th week of pregnancy was 40.9 in 2012 and 42.3 in 2011. Also, during the past year, three cases of AIDS were diagnosed in pregnant girls.
Translation mine.
82.5% of these pregnancies will end in a clandestine (read: illegal and highly unsafe) abortion. And just a little under half of all girls who become pregnant also have an STD? Yikes. Definitely do NOT try this at home, kiddies.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
*15th birthday parties, or quinceañeras, are the Latin American equivalent of the North American “Sweet Sixteen”, and are considered a “rite of passage” birthday. Those who can afford to celebrate in style, tend to go all out…or go nuts.
Stupid Sex Tricks: How NOT to advertise anything
May 16, 2013 — Sabina BeckerJust think how silly it looks when guys are made to do what women in advertising are made to do…all the fucking time.
Radical breast cancer preventive surgery common in Brazil
May 15, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Brazilian pop star Rita Lee knows what Angelina Jolie is going through; she’s been through it herself. And so have many other Brazilian women:
Actress Angelina Jolie caused a great sensation on Tuesday when she announced that she had undergone a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. But the procedure is common in Brazil as well. In 2010, singer Rita Lee had her breasts removed, on the advice of her gynecologist. Her mother had died of cancer, and the risk of developing the disease was very high.
“My gynecologist advised me to have my breasts removed, which didn’t make much difference, since mine were already small,” said the singer, interviewed by Istoé magazine, in September 2010. “I prefer to be without breasts and at peace, rather than still have them and be paranoid,” said Lee, who decided not to have reconstruction surgery.
Plastic surgeon and breast specialist João Carlos Sampaio, director of the Brazilian Institute for Cancer Control, said that he performs at least one preventive or prophylactic surgery a week. According to the specialist, the number of such interventions has grown in recent years, as a result of improved surgical techniques and of early diagnostic procedures.
“I recommend it. The result is the same as a breast enlargement,” Sampaio explained, stressing that the scar would be quite small. Before, the patients would ponder more, with fear of suffering some type of mutilation or for esthetic reasons.
João Carlos Sampaio says that he knows of other cases of famous women, including patients of his, who opted to have their breasts removed. He refused to give names for ethical reasons.
Before recommending a preventive surgery for breast cancer, the doctor performs genetic analyses, a genealogy, and pathologic exams to determine if there are pre-cancerous cells. With results in hand, a patent can decide whether to have her breasts removed, take hormone treatments, or only medical follow-ups.
“It’s not obligatory. It’s one option. I always converse with my patients. It’s very important that she understand the risks and the options. Any choice needs to be conscious,” Sampaio emphasizes. “If she has an 87% risk, it’s almost certain that she will have breast cancer,” he says, speaking of the case of Angelina Jolie.
João Carlos Sampaio has developed, and uses in Brazil, a technique more modern than the one used on Angelina Jolie. The actress’s procedure was performed in two phases: first, removal of the breasts, and second, nine weeks later, reconstruction.
Sampaio’s patients have preventive surgery in just one phase. Instead of using an expander, as in Jolie’s case, for weeks, to create space for silicone prostheses, the surgeon lifts the patient’s muscle partially and inserts a type of screen. Then, he implants silicone prostheses and adjusts the size so that the breasts have a natural appearance.
“I was surprised to read that she used the older technique,” Sampaio says, adding that many doctors in the United States use the technique created in Brazil.
The method developed by the Brazilian specialist was published in the 1990s, and has been refined since then.
“I’ve haven’t been using the expander for nearly 20 years. There is no more need for that type of surgery.”
Angelina Jolie’s mother died of cancer at age 56, after nearly a decade of fighting against the disease. The actress had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer, and a 50% chance of contracting ovarian cancer.
Translation mine.
Like Angelina Jolie, Rita Lee lost her mother to breast cancer. Unlike her, she chose not to have reconstruction, as there wasn’t much to rebuild in the first place. Here she is as a teenager in the late 1960s, with her then boyfriend and his brother, as the wildly popular rock-tropicalist trio, Os Mutantes:
The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 25
May 14, 2013 — Sabina BeckerOh dear. Looks like MariCori has been pwned again in Colombia, this time very nicely and politely by a member of the local opposition:
Here’s the story, courtesy of Aporrea:
Last Wednesday, Venezuelan deputy María Corina Machado won the right to speak in the Colombian senate chamber. Very dramatically, she told her version of what happened during the brawl in the National Assembly, which was provoked by right-wing deputies, and how the parliamentary president, Diosdado Cabello, refused them the right to speak for not recognizing the president of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro.
During her talk, presented with a bandaged nose to show how democracy is under attack in Venezuela, the senator from the Democratic Pole, Alexander López Maya, told her that in reality it was she who was attacking democracy, and countered with the tragic history of political assassinations in Colombia.
Senator López Maya ran out of speaking time, and, in the interim, said that it negated the possibility of expressing himself. He got a colleague to cede his time to him, but there, before Machado, the president of the senate ordered López Maya to say that there was indeed freedom of expression [in Colombia], or he would not turn the microphone on.
Senator Alexander López (AL): The first order of business is that we approve a proposition that a member of the Venezuelan opposition be allowed to speak, but also the ruling party, so we should speak clearly and concretely to the country.
Secondly, Deputy Corina, neither do we share the belief that differences and discussions can be resolved by physical aggression. We lament that that has occurred, and we wish that this had not happened to you and your eight comrades. We are the opposition here in Colombia and, luckily, that is all that happened to you. I want to tell you, Dr. Corina, that we leftists have had four of our presidential candidates assassinated. They have assassinated an entire political movement of ours, the Patriotic Union, more than 3000 political directors, senators, representatives — assassinated, Dr. Corina, totally wiped out of the politics of this country. Today we, who represent the left in this land, have seen the previous government intercepting not only our mail, but our telephone calls.
The previous government persecuted us all the time. I and several of my comrades were victims of montages organized by the Army in this land. From that “democracy” my colleagues speak of came the fact that a director of the DAS, named by President Uribe, handed over to the paramilitary groups lists of union leaders so that they would be assassinated, and from that same “democracy” they speak of here, have come the murders of thousands of Colombians. Some, not all, were members of the Public Force, and termed “false positives”. In this “democracy” you speak of, the union movement has minimal rights, minimal guarantees, and every day, labor rights are violated here.
President of the Senate (PS): One minute remaining, Senator López. Remember, this is a debate.
AL: Mr. President, this is a guarantee to the opposition and to democracy.
PS: Senator Camilo Romero has the floor.
AL: President, I need more time.
PS: Senator Romero, do you cede your time to your comrade?
Camilo Romero (CR): I will speak, of course, Mr. President, but I believe it is necessary to hear out Senator López, so I ask for my time, and for more time for Senator López.
PS: Do you plan to take the floor, Senator Romero?
CR: Of course, President, as I was telling you.
PS: Senator Alexander, I will give you the time you need if you affirm truthfully that we have all democratic rights guaranteed here, but if you plan to affirm that we do not have them when you have used them so that someone will have a false image of this Congress, it seems to me that you are lacking in truth. And the Senate also has the right to rectify that. Turn on Senator López’s microphone again so he can make free use of the speech as has always been done in this chamber.
AL: That’s how it must be for the opposition. So, Dr. Corina, I told you that every day they were violating workers’ human rights here. Here, they permanently violate human rights. The defenders of human rights are permanently persecuted, attacked and assassinated, not all of them. Those who reclaim the land, in the name of thousands of campesinos, are also assassinated in this country.
So, Dr. Corina, I too lament having to tell you these particulars about my country. I hope that in other congresses they allow that we divulge all that occurs in Colombia, which is sometimes much more grave than what happens in your country. I hope that this does not occur in your country or mine, because we too love the Venezuelan people. We are Bolivarian peoples, we are peoples who are called to freedom, and for that reason, we consider that in every scenario and discussion that presents itself, everyone interprets democracy in their own way, and the democracy in this country is not such as they want to reflect in this Congress.
Just because we talk here doesn’t signify that there is democracy, not because we do our activities or have a sector of Colombians accompanying us does it signify that we have democracy here. For that reason, I too demand on behalf of this opposition, the democratic opposition of the people, I demand guarantees, not of speech, but that we can accompany the people of Colombia in their tragedy, a people of whom more than half are living in poverty, a people of whom more than a quarter are mired in indigence, a people who currently receive from their government decisions absolutely contrary to the social reality of this country.
In this way, Dr. María Corina, I want to express to you our concern for what is occurring in Venezuela, and we hope that in a spirit of conciliation, you will be able to resolve your political conflicts of this moment.
Translation mine.
Recall that the last time we heard about MariCori, she was shut out of an audience with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos — who, unlike his predecessor, El Narco Uribe, is on good terms with the Venezuelan government, and seems disposed to want to stay out of the neighboring country’s internal affairs. MariCori wangled an invite to address the Colombian congress instead, no doubt hoping to find a totally captive and sympathetic audience there.
As you can see above, she didn’t get exactly what she’d been counting on. She got a very polite, but very to-the-point dressing-down from a Colombian oppositionist who faces a great deal more political persecution than she could ever claim, legitimately or otherwise. And with that, she got a timely reminder of the tremendous irony of her own position, and of how silly she and her comrades are to come whining to the Colombian government about matters which obviously are of no concern to it.
