What if the kid is just a Dukes of Hazard fan? Apparently, the stars and bars is a “symbol of white supremacy.” Hmm. She was not suspended for wearing the garment but for her attitude when asked to remove the garment. Hmm. What crap.
East Windsor teen suspended over Confederate flag shirt, mom says school is wrong
Lisa Coryell, For The Times | nj.com | November 14, 2011, 3:54 PM
EAST WINDSOR — A Kreps Middle School parent who says her daughter was suspended for wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the image of the confederate flag says the school overstepped its boundaries and violated her daughter’s right to free speech.
Jane West says she’s thinking about withdrawing her daughter, Torri Albrecht, from the school even as district officials insist that the flag — viewed by many as a racially charged symbol — was not the reason the girl was suspended.
“They’re saying that now because they know they really went too far this time,” West said. “If there wasn’t a problem with the sweatshirt, why did the vice principal call at 10 after 8 on Monday to demand that I bring a change of clothes for my daughter?”
“He told me he had a bunch of students and a bunch of teachers come into his office to say they were disturbed by it,” she said.
West said she told the assistant principal, Jermaine Blount, he was crazy if he thought she was coming out with a change of clothes for the eighth-grader.
“The Indian kids wear their turbans. The Jewish kids wear their yarmulkes. That’s their birthright,” she said. “I told him that Torri was born in Virginia. That flag is her heritage and I’m not telling her to take it off. He said ‘I guess she’ll have to suffer the consequences.’”
This year yoga lifestyle retailer lululemon gets lots of attention for promoting an Ayn Rand character on its shopping bags.
Lululemon's bag.
Ayn Rand wrote books. John Galt is in one of the books.
Image via Wikipedia
Occupy Your Yoga Pants: Lululemon’s Toxic Mix Of Commerce And Ideology
Todd Essig, Contributor | www.forbes.com | 11/21/2011
Lululemon, a company that sells high-end yoga and workout gear to people, well, people like me, really stepped in it with their new Ayn Rand tote bag. The company has shown a genuine disrespect towards customers by remaining irony-free and proudly defiant in their effort to promulgate an ideology many find repugnant, dangerous in its popularity, inconsistent with the company’s mission to date, and just plain dumb and wrong.
Just the other day, before I found out about the tote debacle, Lululemon was my first stop for an autumn running shirt suitable for a 5K charity Turkey Trot, and they had exactly what I wanted. The shirt was functionally luxurious. I was all set for Thursday; when I crossed the finish line I was going to look good and feel great.
But then I learned the company has been ginning up support for Rand’s ideology of selfish rationality: “Who is John Galt” (a character and phrase from Atlas Shrugged) is emblazoned on a new version of their hip tote bag and the company blog proudly proclaims founder Chip Wilson built Lululemon on a Rand-esque “quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness.”
“Shot-by-shot comparison of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919-1973. My love letter to Indiana Jones and the films which served as inspiration.”
Mr Henderson’s story is sad and scary. Hopefully Dinklage’s shout out on a global awards telecast can help others avoid a similar fate.
Peter Dinklage and Martin Henderson (Pic: Getty and SWNS)
Who is Martin Henderson? Golden Globe Winner Peter Dinklage Dedicates Award to Him [VIDEO]
By Laura Matthews | January 16, 2012 | www.ibtimes.com
When Peter Dinklage won a 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series on Sunday at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Award, the “Game of Thrones” star dedicated the award to a man name Martin Henderson.
Henderson, a fellow little person from Somerset in England, was the victim of a dwarf tossing incident that left him with serious back injuries. The BBC reported that Henderson, 37, was picked up and dropped on the ground while he was out celebrating his birthday with friends at the White Horse pub in Wincanton in October.
The attack happened when Henderson went outside for a cigarette and he told “Metro” that a drunken stranger picked him up and threw him. The toss caused Henderson to land on his back, after falling three feet, according to reports.
According to MTV News, both Dinklage and Henderson suffer from achondroplasia, which causes dwarfirsm.
‘Most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia’, claims plus-size magazine in powerful comment on body image in the fashion industry. Reading this was educational, who knew plus size models ranged in size from 6 to 14?
Size matters: PLUS Model Magazine has shot size 12 Katya Zharkova pose with a 'straight-size' model to demonstrate the difference between them. Image Plus Model Magazine
Magazine says ‘Most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia’
By TAMARA ABRAHAM | 12th January 2012 | www.dailymail.co.uk
A magazine dedicated to plus-size fashion and models has sparked controversy with a feature claiming that most runway models meet the Body Mass Index criteria for anorexia.
Accompanied by a bold shoot that sees a nude plus-size model posing alongside a skinny ‘straight-size’ model, PLUS Model Magazine says it aims to encourage plus-size consumers to pressure retailers to better cater to them, and stop promoting a skinny ideal.
Size 12 (U.S.) model Katya Zharkova, 28, stars in the shoot, which has a powerful statistic accompanying each image.
Usually audiences in the USA have no idea the TV show they are watching was inspired by an identical show in another country. Think it is a weird idea? FRIENDS, THE OFFICE, and moldy oldie THREE’S COMPANY are all inspired by shows in far away places. Thanks to MOST EXTREME ELIMINATION CHALLENGE which was basically edited from Takeshi’s Castle with a snarky new commentary in English by ‘Vic Romano’ and ‘Kenny Blankenship’ many American’s thought WIPEOUT was REALLY familiar.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 25 (UPI) — ABC and production company Endemol have settled a 2008 lawsuit brought by Tokyo Broadcasting System alleging their show “Wipeout” was a ripoff of its shows.
The Hollywood Reporter said documents filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles this past week showed a settlement was reached Nov. 30 with the help of a federal judge acting as a mediator. The terms of the settlement were not revealed, the entertainment newspaper reported Saturday.
Lululemon seems to be in a habit of printing not so yoga positive things on it’s bags. In my research it seems this story from 2008 was bigger in Canada than the USA. It is unclear if the bags were only used in Canada.
A printed message hidden inside a Lululemon Athletica shopping bag is a lot more risqu� than the inspirational messages printed on the outside, as one Toronto mother inadvertently discovered.
Norma Columbus and her 17-year-old daughter Heather found the message after they washed the reusable bag from the yoga-wear retailer. One side began to peel off and Heather continued to scrape away, curious about what the message said.
Underneath a glossy layer of inspirational quotes such as “friends are more important than money” is a second note with a strong message about creativity and how regular aerobic exercise results in a similar “high” as drugs or sex.
“Some brief or quick-fix incidences when our minds are clear to be creative are….when drunk or stoned…just after an orgasm,” it says.
The message concludes to say that regular aerobic activity provides a longer, more sustainable high.
“The athlete’s high is the most long-lasting as it can last up to six hours,” the note continues to say.
“There is little difference between addicts and fanatic athletes. Both are continually searching for a way to remain in a creative state.”
Lululemon in an official publication stated in 2008 “soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi will be known as ‘the cigarettes of the future’”. Lululemon in 2008 also had to remove controversial messages from it’s bags. Click here to download a pdf of the document that contains the soft drink comment.
Lululemon drops Coke and Pepsi from its manifesto
January 16, 2008 | Canadian Press
Yoga-wear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. has removed a reference suggesting soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi will be known as “the cigarettes of the future” from its corporate manifesto, which adorns the popular retailer’s shopping bags and website.
The line, which had appeared in the top left corner of the manifesto poster, had read: “Coke, Pepsi and all other pops will be known as the cigarettes of the future. Colas are not a substitute for water. They are just another cheap drug made to look great by advertising.”
Talks about perpetuating unrealistic body images. Some have said this is another example of how the fashion industry hates real women. Personally, I think it is terrible in that it takes jobs away from 16 yr old tall skinny girls who otherwise would have to go to school, play basketball and enter beauty pageants instead of globe hop and lead a happy glamorous life like Kate Moss.
H&M recently admitted to using a computer-generated body to model clothing for much of their website. The company adds on different real-life models' faces in post-production for a result like the one seen here. All images from H&M's site.
Clothing Giant H&M Defends ‘Perfect’ Virtual Models
By Katie Kindelan | Dec 6, 2011 | abcnews.go.com
Visiting the H&M website is not the only virtual experience to be had by H&M customers who choose to order the company’s clothes online instead of inside one of their 2,300 global retail stores.
Also “completely virtual” are the models at the center of H&M’s swimsuit and lingerie online campaigns, the Swedish-based retailer confirmed.
“It’s not a real body; it is completely virtual and made by the computer,” H&M press officer Hacan Andersson told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in an article questioning the company’s picture-perfect online models.
In the Dec. 4 article, translated into English by U.S. celebrity website Jezebel, Andersson explained the company’s approach.
“We take pictures of the clothes on a doll that stands in the shop, and then create the human appearance with a program on [a] computer,” he said.
Images from the company’s website show models wearing the latest swimsuit and lingerie looks appear in generic, stock-form with their left hand resting slightly below their waist, right arm straight and face looking directly ahead.
That Viral Story About The Poor Woman Stuck With The Poop Tattoo? Sorry, It’s Totally Full Of Crap.
November 29, 2011 | thesmokinggun.com
That viral story about the Ohio man who purportedly tattooed a pile of excrement on the back of his wayward girlfriend?
Fake. Fake. Fake
As the fable goes, “Rossie Brovent” was expecting her boyfriend, “Ryan L. Fitzjerald,” to ink a scene from “Narnia” on her back. Instead, having found out that “Rossie” had cheated on him, a vindictive “Fitzjerald” retaliated by delivering a tattoo of a steaming, swirly pile of excrement encircled by several flies.
“Rossie” claimed “Fitzgerald” tricked her into drinking a bottle of “cheap wine” and tequila shots, which incapacitated her for most of the time it took him to ink the tattoo.
According to the story–which is accompanied by a photo of the purported tattoo–“Brovent” this month filed a $100,000 civil lawsuit against “Fitzjerald.” The former couple are described as “trailer park residents” from Dayton in the story.
As seen above, the photo appears legitimate. In fact, it first surfaced online about 18 months ago as part of a “Worst Tattoo of the Day” post on the blog I Am Bored.
The image reappeared this week–complete with a backstory about the fractured love of “Rossie” and “Ryan”–on a sketchy “weird news” web site that appears to be dedicated to ginning up its Googe AdSense impressions.
A review of court indices, of course, shows no such civil complaint has ever been filed (either in federal or state court) by “Brovent.” James Druber, administrator of the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court (where Dayton residents file their six-figure complaints), said that he had heard nothing about the purported tattoo lawsuit.
Man Arrested for Boosting Butts With Cement, Fix-A-Flat
abcnews.go.com | Nov 18, 2011
Florida police on Friday arrested a man suspected of administering dangerous and illegal butt-boosting shots – injecting at least one woman with a cocktail of substances including cement, glue and tire sealant.
And, believe it or not, that man is the person pictured above.
The man is 30-year-old Oneal Ron Morris.
Police could not release an official report on the incident, noting that the case is still under investigation. However, Sgt. William Bamford of the Miami Gardens, Fla., Police Department said that the procedure took place in May 2010, after the as-yet-unidentified victim met with Morris to discuss the procedure.
“They agreed on the price of $700 for the procedure, which was intended for cosmetic purposes,” Bamford said.
What the woman got for her money was a series of injections containing a bizarre concoction of cement, super glue, mineral oil and Fix-A-Flat tire inflator and sealant, police said.
Bamford said that the procedure was conducted not in a clinic, but in a residential setting in Miami Gardens, and that shortly after the substance was injected into the woman’s body she developed what Bamford termed “severe complications.”
