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The TGIF Movie Review: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

September 3rd, 2010 by Matt Zambito

Editor’s Note: To read even more about Wal-Mart and what you can do about this giant monster unregulated capitalism has created, check out our recent Wednesday on ways to downsize Wal-Mart. Just click this sentence to read a five-part to-do list you can act on right from your computer.

- – - – -

Wal-Mart destroys. That’s the message at the heart of the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. It’s rather simple. Wal-Mart destroys. That’s what it’s designed to do, and boy, it does it well. Wal-Mart is our Golem. Wal-Mart is the Godzilla of our market-driven creation, eating Tokyo after Tokyo after Tokyo. Only Wal-Mart ain’t no myth, and it ain’t no movie.

But this flick about Wal-Mart makes a new and well-defended argument against the behemoth. What is this larger claim? Wal-Mart is a form of what could be described as, in the film’s words, contemporary “plantation capitalism.” How so? Wal-Mart is all about profit at the expense of all parts of every kind of individual—shoppers, employees, widget-makers alike. Profit at the expense of small, long-lasting, family businesses. Profit at the expense of safety from crime (trust me: it’s in the movie, and it’s peel-your-eyelids-back messed up). Profit at the expense of the environment. Profit at the expense of drinking water. Profit at the expense of public education. For crying out loud, profit at the expense of fire departments. Profit at the expense of health and healthcare. Profit at the expense of various cultures. Profit at the expense of workers’ rights. Profit at the expense of the world economy. Profit at the expense of public funds.

Using data, shocking firsthand accounts by current and former employees, news reports, and absolutely heartbreaking interviews with private business owners, this film deftly argues that everything is expendable to Wal-Mart except for the exchange of money from your wallet to their registers, and it will do just about anything to make that exchange keep happening. Everything else, in the minds of everyone from the lower management (who are taught to spy on and scare potential union leaders, and who are taught to fudge hours so that people who’ve earned overtime don’t receive overtime) to the board members, everything else can, almost literally, go to hell.

At this point the movie takes a turn, and it shows how the people of Inglewood, California, when told by Wal-Mart that they could go to hell said, “Wait. No. You go to hell.” And then a list of city after city scrolls over the screen, each one a place that told Wal-Mart to do the same and won.

This is a movie about activism. This is a movie with a ray of hope. Since many local governments kowtow to Wal-Mart, we can’t trust elected officials to fight for us. We have to do it ourselves. We have almost no other choice. But that choice? It is simple and it is ours: we can choose to shop at Wal-Mart or we can choose not to shop at Wal-Mart. If we can start hacking away at the only thing that Wal-Mart cares about, then we can win. Only then. But then.

We can choose to put a scary parable to rest. We can choose to click off the monster picture before it ends badly for all the characters. Please take a look and choose for yourself:

TGIF,Wal-Mart,movies,video,watch   Add a comment

This Wednesday: Downsizing Wal-Mart

September 1st, 2010 by Progressive Wednesday

Problem:

Back in December of 2006, after we opened our P.O. Box in Model City, New York, we received our first piece of junk mail, the kind of junk mail that makes us believe in a god of irony (okay, we don’t actually believe in a god of irony, but, well, sometimes we find it difficult to rule it out): a circular from Wal-Mart. Not just any flyer, mind you. This one promised, amongst other things, “instant savings,” “the season’s best savings,” and “brilliant holiday savings.”

At Progressive Wednesday, we’re all about saving and even savings, but we’re also about taking action to protect our tax dollars, our families, our environment, our safety, and our small businesses. And we could use your help. It’s time to stop the Walton family from harming our country far, far, far more than it helps (since, you know, it essentially doesn’t help us at all). It’s time to downsize Wal-Mart.

*

Make Progress:

.

Watch:

To witness an even-handed and wonderfully heartbreaking documentary, check out the PBS Frontline flick Is Wal-Mart Good for America? by clicking here. It’s conveniently broken into five segments, so you don’t even need to watch the whole thing straight through. You can watch ten minutes, then fix a sandwich (we dig Monte Cristos, by the way). You can watch another ten minutes worth, and then buzz your grandma (she misses you and you never call). You get the picture.

While this film filled us with pit-bull rage, it also left us feeling empowered. We realized that we could change things in our own small ways, because, despite what Wal-Mart would like you to think, we aren’t actually a bunch of wishy-washy wimps when we come face-to-face with even the largest, richest, and arguably most despicable, American company.

After watching the film, maybe take the time to send an email from the Frontline page to three friends (the email link is on the far left margin of the page). You might indicate which section you thought was the most interesting, so that folks could just take a few minutes to educate themselves about Wal-Mart and the ways it harms America’s hard-working families.

You can always click the Share button at the bottom left-hand corner of this post and email from there.

There are even more videos you could tell your pals about from the folks at Wakeup Wal-Mart.

Why do you want you to watch these films? Why do we want you to get your friends to watch these films? Because, quite frankly, we want everyone to stop shopping there until Wal-Mart radically changes its ways.

.

Stop:

We ain’t never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we’ll never do so. And we’ll admit it: we’ve shopped at Wal-Mart; we’ve shopped at Sam’s Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don’t involve our arrests. But there’s always the b-word, and we don’t mean bulldogs or bananas or bills or baklava; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we’ll also promise this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we’ll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven’t already, please consider joining us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn’t saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need?

But here’s the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you’re reading this–try to convince one other person to stop. A little ways down this page, we’ll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you’ve learned and how disgusted you are with the company.

Or click the Share button at the bottom of this post, and email them this Wednesday’s info.

And now we’ve arrived at the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don’t exactly have the answer to that because we don’t know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

  1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
  2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses that care about the planet. You can always try the Yellow Pages online. (Remember: to cancel getting the hard copy just click this sentence.)
  3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn’t make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday stuff will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you’re 9 or 99.

.

Write:

We believe that one of the most powerful ways to make progress is to be the voice of progress and to state your case publicly. One of the most effective means of doing this is writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. (For advice on writing letters to the editor, check out our brief tool or our full tool.) We’d like to encourage you to write one of two different letters.

1. If there’s a Wal-Mart in your area, we’d like you to consider writing a letter that tackles one of the following topics:

We think these frames are strong as well, so feel free to use our language. You might ask readers why Wal-Mart is so morally irresponsible. You can find other talking points and info here and here and here and here. The thing is, you’re going to want to localize the problem of Wal-Mart in your area so you can better reach the audience. You might express concern that one of the problems you read about in the above links might happen in your area.

As we mention in our letters to the editor how-to tool, we recommend offering a solution. This solution might be urging folks to support local businesses and to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. You can probably come up with solutions of your own.

2. If there’s not a Wal-Mart in your area–after you thank your luckiest of stars–we’d like to suggest writing a letter expressing how grateful you are, and how much you’re hoping it will stay that way. You might want to pick one of the aforementioned topics to explain why you feel this way.

If you’re swamped and still want to yawp a bit to your community, there’s a simpler approach to writing a letter to your local newspaper’s editors. Wakeup Wal-Mart has a section of their webpage dedicated to just such writing. You choose the topic you’d like to address, select your state, click on your newspaper or newspapers, and then tweak your letter.

We applaud the ease of this, but find that more personalized letters have a better shot of getting published (though you could easily add some personal narrative to the form letter they’ve created). We also think it’s good to get into practice writing letters, as they play an integral role in making progress.

One last thing to keep in mind: the opinion section of a newspaper is actually the most read section of the newspaper. You read that right.

.

Donate & Replace:

This act of progress is really pretty straight-forward. We’d like to suggest you donate just one thing (though a dozen would be even better) which you don’t need or don’t want or dig but want to update somehow, and, if you have to, replace it with something else used or something new.

This will achieve several aims. By helping others in poverty, you very well might help reduce the odds someone else will to go to Wal-Mart. And you’ll help another person in need. And you’ll help the economy by making a purchase. And you’ll help small businesses or blue-collar American workers or both when you replace the item or items with something not sold at Wal-Mart. And you can even get a tax break for your donation. It’s one of the gifts that keeps giving and giving and giving and….

Here’s how donations help Salvation Army. Here’s how to find a Salvation Army near you.

And what to buy? And where? You’ll find a few links and ideas in the Stop section of this Wednesday topic, but below you’ll find even more of our favorite progressive venders:

Editor’s Note: Think Target’s better? Maybe so. But we read that they recently donated over $150,000 to help support a candidate running for governor in Minnesota who has taken a strong stance against gay rights. (As an aside, Best Buy recently donated $100,000 to support the same regressive candidate.) What is Target doing to rectify this? Like cowards, they’re just shutting up.

Want to help make marriage equality for all a reality in a country who supposed ethos is to offer equal rights to all? Consider making even the smallest of donations to the Human Rights Campaign.

.

Sign:

Talk about an easy way to make some progress: ask Wal-Mart to hold itself to moral responsibility. How? Sign this message to Wal-Mart, then print, sign, and send the letter to the C.E.O. of Wal-Mart.

You can also sign up for more information about Wal-Mart here.

You might also consider printing this letter, signing your Jane or John Hancock at the bottom, and sending it off to your local and state legislators. If they use the resources at Wal-Mart Watch, they’ll be better at waging a strong fight against this unethical company.

Your voice matters in a very real way. The goal is to reach a tipping point so that we can have more progress made.

PBS,PW,Wal-Mart,Wednesday,boycott,corporations,documentary,donate,human rights,labor rights,stop,watch   Add a comment

Downsizing Wal-Mart Some More

December 5th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Problem:

A scant few weeks after we opened our P.O. Box in Model City, New York, we received our first piece of junk mail, the kind of junk mail that makes us believe in a god of irony (okay, we don't actually believe in a god of irony, but, well, sometimes we find it difficult to rule it out): a circular from Wal-Mart. Not just any flyer, mind you. This one promised, amongst other things, “instant savings,– “the season's best savings,– and “brilliant holiday savings.–

At Progressive Wednesday, we're all about saving and even savings, but we're also about taking action to protect our tax dollars, our families, our environment, and our small businesses. And we could use your help. It's time to stop the Walton family from harming our country more than it helps. It's time to downsize Wal-Mart.

*

Make Progress:

.

Watch:

To witness an even-handed and wonderfully heartbreaking documentary, check out the PBS Frontline flick Is WAL-MART Good for America? by clicking here. It's conveniently broken into five segments, so you don't even need to watch the whole thing straight through. You can watch ten minutes, then fix a sandwich (we dig Monte Cristos, by the way). You can watch another diez minutos, and buzz your grandma–she misses you and you never call. You get the picture.

While this film does fill us with pit-bull rage, it also leaves us feeling empowered. We realized that we could change things in our own small ways, because, despite what Wal-Mart would like you to think, we aren't actually a bunch of wishy-washy wimps when we come face-to-face with even the largest, richest, and arguably most despicable, American company.

After watching the film, maybe take the time to send an email from the Frontline page to three friends (the email link is on the far left margin of the page). You might indicate which section you thought was the most interesting, so that folks could just take a few minutes to educate themselves about Wal-Mart and the ways they harm America's hard-working families. You can always click the Share This button at the bottom left-hand corner of this post and email from there.

If you dug this documentary (though “dug– might be too generous a word), you might want to check out The Wal-Mart Movie, a flick by Robert Greenwald, who's produced several other charged and progressive movies. This one takes a more sharply critical eye to the company than does the PBS program. You can buy the sucker here or check out the trailer first:

There are even more videos you could tell your pals about from the folks at Wakeup Wal-Mart.

Why do you want you to watch these films? Why do we want you to get your peeps (that's right, we said “peeps– ) to watch these films? Because, quite frankly, we want everyone to stop shopping there until they change their ways.

.

Stop:

We ain't never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we'll never do so. And we'll admit it: we've shopped at Wal-Mart; we've shopped at Sam's Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don't involve our arrests. But there's always the b-word, and we don't mean bulldogs or bananas or bills; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we'll also admit this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we'll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven't already, join us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn't saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, yo, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need? (The answer rhymes with “hero.– )

But here's the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you're reading this, try to convince one other person to stop. We'll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or the educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you've learned and how disgusted you are with the company. Or click the “Share This– button at the bottom of any of these posts, and email the sucker.

And now comes the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don't exactly have the answer to that because we don't know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

 

  1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
  2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses. You can always try the Yellow Pages online.
  3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn't make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday swag will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you're 9 or 90.

.

Write:

We believe that one of the most powerful ways to make progress is to be the voice of progress and to state your case publicly. One of the most effective means of doing this is writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. (For advice on writing letters to the editor, check out our brief tool or our full tool.) We'd like to encourage you to write one of two different letters.

1. If there's a Wal-Mart in your area, we'd like you to consider writing a letter that tackles one of the following topics:

We think these frames are strong as well, so feel free to use our language. You might ask readers why Wal-Mart is so morally irresponsible. You can find other talking points and info here and here and here and here and here. The thing is, you're going to want to localize the problem of Wal-Mart in your area so you can better reach the audience. You might express concern that one of the problems you read about in the above links might happen in your area.

As we mention in our letters to the editor how-to tool, we recommend offering a solution. This solution might be urging folks to support local businesses and to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. You can probably come up with solutions of your own.

2. If there's not a Wal-Mart in your area–after you thank your luckiest of stars–we'd like to suggest writing a letter expressing how grateful you are, and how much you're hoping it will stay that way. You might want to pick one of the aforementioned topics to explain why you feel this way.

*

If you're swamped and still want to yawp a bit to your community, there's a simpler approach to writing a letter to your local newspaper's editors. Wakeup Wal-Mart has a section of their webpage dedicated to just such writing. You choose the topic you'd like to address, select your state, click on your newspaper or newspapers, then tweak your letter.

We applaud the ease of this, but find that more personalized letters have a better shot of getting published (though you could easily add some personal narrative to the form letter they've created). We also think it's good to get into practice writing letters, as they play an integral role in making progress.

.

Donate & Replace:

This act of progress is really pretty straight-forward. We'd like to suggest you donate just one thing (though a dozen would be even better) which you don't need or don't want or dig but want to update somehow, and replace it with something else or something new.

This will achieve several aims. By helping others in poverty, you very well might help reduce the odds someone will to go to Wal-Mart. And you'll help another person in need. And you'll help the economy by making a purchase. And you'll help small businesses or blue-collar American workers or both. And you can even get a tax break for your donation. It's one of the gifts that, much like the Energizer Bunny, keeps giving and giving and giving and– ¦.

Here's how donations help Salvation Army. Here's how to find a Salvation Army near you.

And what to buy? And where? You'll find a few links and ideas in the Stop section of this Wednesday topic, but below you'll find even more of our favorite progressive venders:

Shop Union Made
Pangea
CD Baby
Powells
The Book Corner
One Good Bumblebee
The Progressive Wednesday Store

.

Sign:

Talk about an easy way to make some progress: ask Wal-Mart to hold itself to moral responsibility. How? Sign this message to Wal-Mart, then print, sign, and send the letter to the C.E.O. of Wal-Mart.

You can also sign up for more information about Wal-Mart here.

You might also consider printing this letter, signing your John Hancock at the bottom, and sending it off to your local and state legislators. If they use the resources at Wal-Mart Watch, they'll be better at waging a strong fight against this unethical company.

Your voice matters in a very real way. The goal is to reach a tipping point so that we can have more progress made.

Wal-Mart,Wednesday,business,donate,sign,stop,watch,write 1 Comment

“Porn” is a Four-Letter Word

November 14th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to keep it real, let's just say that this Wednesday entry may include graphic descriptions of sexual acts and links to material that some might find objectionable. Much of the content below offends the heart and mind, and we've included it to do just that. Please proceed with appropriate caution. In other words, you might not want to read this at work (particularly if your boss is a “snooper– ) or at home with your wee ones in the room or at all if you don't want to face the ugly truths about pornography.

* * *

Preamble:

I'm sure my grandmother is going to be thrilled that I'm writing this story, but I'm apologizing in advance to the woman rode a filthy boat for weeks so she could move to this country so that, decades later, I could live, and breathe, and you know, write this story, which I like to call “Everything I didn't want to know about sex because I was afraid to ask.– Here goes– ¦.

My grandmother suffers from some pretty debilitating arthritis, but is still able to walk, though with limitation. Despite our protests, she still drives regularly, and a couple of years ago she was driving along a highway in Niagara Falls, New York, when her car started to ka-thunk. She pulled of at the nearest exit, where the car completely died. The exit is fairly removed from, well, just about anything. As with most octogenarians, she didn't have a cell phone (this incident proved to be a fairly powerful impetus behind getting one). The only building close enough for her to hike to? If you guessed a porno shop, then you guessed right. This one was creatively named “Talk of the Town.–

I couldn't help but picture my sweet, sweet grandmother walking past row after row of pocket vibrators, double-sided dildos, and blow-up dolls, row after row of girl-on-girl, barely legal, and anal adventure videos. It didn't help matters that, after picking her up some said adult establishment, I had the following conversation while hightailing her home:

“I couldn't believe how many cars were in the parking lot,– said my grandmother.

“I bet,– I said.

“I think they show movies in the back or something. Right?–

“Um– ¦ I wouldn't really know, but that makes sense.”

“For twenty-five cents I think the sign said.”

“I suppose if someone had an extra roll of quarters– ¦.–

“I mean, in the middle of the day? Really? Who does that? Who's that horny that they don't want to eat lunch instead?–

“Grandma, that sounds like a trick question.–

What's the moral of the story? I guess it's that a cell phone is your friend, and that if you pick your grandmother up at a porno store when her car breaks down, you might hear her say the word “horny.–

* * *

Problem:

And after that light, ambling preamble, here's where we get as serious as a stroke. Porn is everywhere. And this might not be a problem in and of itself if it weren't for some of the disconcerting side effects. Like the damaging impact on children and teens who don't know a world without pornography available on a whim. Like the damaging impacts on adult sexuality. Like the damaging impact on the performers and the dehumanization of sexuality as a result. Like the damaging desire for more violent pornography.[1]

Our culture tries to hide it's addiction to pornography, which we do amazingly well considering it's a 10-15 billion dollar industry (that's billion with a “b– ) in the U.S. (Feel free to check out that sentence again.)

We have a problem with sex in America, from viewing to educating, and something needs to be done. Why? Because we live in a culture where, increasingly, Americans are watching videos that include fake rape scenes, bestiality, gangbangs, men spitting on women[2], men urinating and having bowel movements on women[3], double penetrations, multiple oral sex performances[4], fisting, unprotected anal sex[5]. We live in a culture where pornographic sex makes women into subordinate, submissive body parts and men into superficial, heartless, violent animals, morphing sex into something violently robotic, clinical and feculent.

Our love of pornography is selfish. It's damaging. And we at Progressive Wednesday now think, after doing enough research, that much of it (maybe most if it) is dangerous.

* * *

Make Progress:

Let's just cut to the adult-entertainment chase.

- – - – -

[1] According to study done by Michael Barron and Michael Kimmel published in the Journal of Sex Research: “The more pornography is consumer at one level, the less arousing this material becomes, as the consumer becomes used to — satisfied with — the material. This satiation leads the consumer to seek out newer, more explicit, and more violent form of sexual material that will again arouse him/her.–
[2] Amis, Martin. “Sex in America: XXX Marks the Spot.” Talk Feb 2001: 100.
[3] Paul, Pamela. Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. 1st ed. New York: Times Books, 2005. p. 88.
[4] Ibid. p. 85.
[5] Ibid. p. 87.

.

Read:

We thought we ought to let porn speak for itself (“porn on porn,– if you will), so here's a series of actual quotations by adult film actors and directors on their experiences, their beliefs, their profession, and their concerns:

“[Wicked Pictures, one of the largest adult video production companies, doesn't] cater so much to the raincoat crowd, your hard-edged, hardcore viewers. There are companies where that's all they cater to– ”the nasty shit. We don't do that. There's still lots of anals, and facial come shots, but it's not usually degrading to women.– — Brad Armstrong[1]

*

“I was the first to shoot Rocco [Siffredi]. Together we evolved toward rougher stuff. He started to spit on girls. A strong, male-dominant thing, with women being pushed to their limit.– — John Stagliano[2]

*

“I don't have relationships anymore. They make life unstable. The only sex I have is the sex I have on screen.– — Temptress[3]

*

“Some girls are used up in nine months or a year.– — Jonathan Morgan[4]

*

“But at least if a guy is unhappy with the way his wife is performing, he can watch porno and jerk off maybe, rather than have an affair.– — Brad Armstrong[5]

*

“I had actually never had anal sex before the business. I tried it and loved it so much that I went a little crazy. I got hurt doing it. I stopped doing it and we are going to wait a bit until I heal and then go back to it.– — Alicia Alighatti[6]

*

“There's tons of girls who think it's way hot and desperately want to make or see a movie featuring– ¦ tentacle rape, gagging on cum, girls getting the shit beat out of them, whatever it is, there is some girl somewhere who is way into it and just wants to be able to get her hands on it.– — Zak Sabbath[7]

*

“You're not going to be arrested. You are not going to be hit. You are not going to end up in a car truck somewhere.– — Nina Hartley[8]

*

“I got the shit kicked out of me, but that was not in the program. I was not prepared to be roughed up that much. I couldn’t stop crying for the rest of the day. I was traumatized from that video. They did not tell me that they were going to be literally hurting me. This is the worst line ever put out there. It’s right up there with snuff videos. [The actor] choked me while lifting me off the ground. I couldn't breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset, and they didn't stop. They kept filming. You can hear me say, – ˜Turn the fucking camera off,' and they kept going. If they think women are into that, they’re dead wrong.– — Regan Starr[9]

*

“Nearly everyone has STDs. I had 10 different venereal diseases during my first year in the industry.– — Chloe[10]

*

“The tests we take only test for AIDS. We've contained AIDS in the industry, but what about all the others? You know we're now up to hepatitis G?– — Chloe[11]

*

“Yeah, a fourteen year old look.– — Alicia Alighatti, when asked about her glasses and braces.[12]

*

“Men take advantage of women in every industry. We live in a patriarchy. But that being said, when you want to do porn, you go to an agent and they ask you what you will do and what you won't do — will you do girls? Will you do boys and girls? It's not like that in the real world. They don't give you options like that.– — Joanna Angel[13]

*

“We're prostitutes. There are differences. You can choose your partners, and they're tested for AIDS — you won't get your john to do that. But we're prostitutes: We exchange sex for money.– — Chloe[14]

*

“There’s a little bit of Jenna Jameson in every woman out there.– — Jenna Jameson[15]

*

“To this day, I still can't watch my own sex scenes.– — Jenna Jameson[16]

- – - – -

 

 

[1] Bowe, John, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter. Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium. 1st ed. New York: Crown, 2000. p. 360.

[2] Amis, Martin. “Sex in America: XXX Marks the Spot.” Talk Feb 2001: 100.
[3] Ibid. p. 101.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium. p. 364.
[6] “Alicia Alighatti Interview.” Rog Reviews. 10 Feb 2007 <http://www.rogreviews.com/interviews/alicia_alighatti.asp>.
[7] DiMattia, M. “Zak Sabbath alt.porn Q&A.” BME: Body Modification Ezine. 28 Feb 2007 <http://www.bmezine.com/news/guest/20060920.html>.
[8] Schlosser, Eric. Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. 1st ed.. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. p. 181.
[9] “Regan Starr.” Adult Video News. 10 Feb 2007 <http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=18391>.
[10] Amis, Martin. “Sex in America: XXX Marks the Spot.” Talk Feb 2001: 103.
[11] Ibid. p. 134
[12] “Alicia Alighatti Interview.” Rog Reviews. 10 Feb 2007 <http://www.rogreviews.com/interviews/alicia_alighatti.asp>.
[13] Dworken, Arye. “Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth? Part II.” Jewcy.com : What Matters Now 15 Nov 2006 21 Jan 2007 <http://www.jewcy.com/interview/kiss_your_mother_with_that_mouth_part_2>.
[14] Amis, Martin. “Sex in America: XXX Marks the Spot.” Talk Feb 2001: 134.
[15] Cooper, Anderson. “Jenna Jameson: ‘I chose the right profession’.” CNN 28 Aug 2004 10 Jan 2007 <http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/08/27/jenna.jameson/>.
[16] Jameson, Jenna, and Neil Strauss. How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale. 1st ed. New York: Regan Books, 2004.

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Protect:

If you're a parent and you let your kids have access to the Internet, there are a variety of parental controls available to protect your kids from pornography. Why do we need them? Because according to a study run by the London School of Economics, 60% of children using the Internet happen upon pornography regularly.[1] Most Internet service providers, like MSN, AOL, and Earthlink, have built-in parental controls available, but if your provider doesn't offer these protections or if you'd like to double-up the safety, you can turn to some of the tools listed below:

This is just a small sampling and not an endorsement or a statement of efficacy in regards to any of this software in particular, though Optenet did receive a five-star rating from the reviewers at c|net.

We owe it to our kids to protect them this much more.

* * *

You can also find a ton of free (Did you just say free? We did.) downloads here from, of all places, Download.com.

You can find reviews of parental control software by clicking this sentence.

You can also learn more about protecting your kids on the Internet (in terms of instant messages, MySpace, blogging, etc.) at the NetSmartz Workshop, a informational resource put together by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

- – - – -

[1]Prigg, Mark, and Paul Sims. “Truth About Dangers of Net as Half of Children Are Exposed to Porn.” The Evening Standard 03 Sept 2004

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Watch:

“American Porn– is a FRONTLINE documentary put together by the generous and somewhat genius folks over at PBS. When I first watched it in 2003, it left me shocked and a little sick to my stomach. Apparently, I want to spread the acid indigestion. But seriously — this film, given the rise of pornography in both our popular and private cultures, is a must see. Just click the PBS logo to be taken to the film.

Here are three of the highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at them):

  1. AT & T, GE, AOL, hotel chains, and other companies make hundreds of millions of the cash-register cha-ching off adult films every year. The numbers are only rising.
  2. Some pornography (and we're not just talking about child pornography) appears to break criminal laws.
  3. September 11, 2001 greatly diminished the way the federal government prosecutes criminal pornography.

If nothing else, check out section five, “A Demand Driven Business,– to witness some seriously screwed up shit (pardon our lack of French, but there's really no other word for it).

When you're done watching, please tell someone else about it. Just click the green “Share This– button in the lower, left hand corner of this post, and then click “E-mail.–

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Stop:

Because we're social libertarians (we believe we have a right, as odd as it might be, to harm ourselves but not others), we can't quite bring ourselves to think that “pornography” should be completely banned (because some consider erotica pornographic, and, well, we don’t). There are valid arguments that porn increases rates of rape, pedophilia, general misogyny and misandry, distorted sexual expectations, and addiction, amongst other problems. But the issue remains too pervasive and complex, too gray around some of its edges. We've at least come to believe that greater governmental oversight is required. If pornography should be shut down, and there is a great deal of research to suggest that the societal damage it creates would permit the government to enact such a ban without being too paternalistic, we really can’t rely on the government to do it.

We are going to recommend, however, that you take one simple action: stop.

Odds are, given the fact you're an Internet user and likely a citizen of a country that spends 10-15 billion dollars each year on pornography, that you have or do watch pornography.[1] But stopping can seriously improve your life and the lives of others.

Why? As the author Pamela Paul argues, “the all-pornography, all-the-time mentality is everywhere in today's pornified culture.– She's painfully right. We live in a culture where stores hock Hello Kitty thongs, a piece of clothing which is “literally a byproduct of the sex industry.– [2] A culture where between 1992 and 2004, “breast augmentation procedures in this country went from 32,607 a year to 264, 041 a year.– [3] A culture where Paris Hilton is celebrated by teens because “she is our mascot.– [4] A culture where a porn star's book tops the best-seller list (a porn star, we should add, that according to her own book, “was beaten unconscious with a rock, gang-raped, and left for dead– ¦her sophomore year of high school– [5]). A culture where, according to a 2004 study, porno websites get three times the traffic as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search combined.[6]

But this isn't “a– culture. This is our culture, and not for the sexually better, but for the worse.

In her 2005 book, Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy describes the problem of pornography this way: “porn stars are selling something more than a skill — they are giving up the most private part of their being for public consumption.– Some might respond by saying, “Well, they're choosing to do it.– This, of course, doesn't mean we have to participate in it by viewing and purchasing the material. According to Dr. Melissa Farley, a psychologist and researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, “the vast majority of women in the sex industry have experienced incest or other childhood sexual abuse– (180 FCP). As she points out, “there is something twisted about using a predominately sexually traumatized group of people as our erotic role models. It's like using a bunch of shark attack victims as our lifeguards.–

We think that what we've written in our opening salvo (and the Read, Protect, and Watch sections of this Wednesday topic) do a good job of supporting the simple argument we're making now: stop, people, stop.

Picture clicked this fine-eyed photographer.

- – - – -

[1] We're not going to be holier-than-thou: we've watched pornography; we've owned pornography.
[2] Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. 1st. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. p. 142.
[3] Ibid. p. 20.
[4] Ibid. p. 28.
[5] Ibid. p. 182.
[6] Baertlein, Lisa . “Study: Web porn entices far more surfers than search.” USA Today 03 June 2004 12 Feb 2007 <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-06-03-popular-porn_x.htm>.

.

End:

Child pornography is an insult to humanity. It must be stopped. And it's much more pervasive than you might think. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 20% of all Internet pornography involves children. This organization also indicates that the “global sales of illegal pornography that exploits children–including those under 4 years old–are about $3 billion a year.– If that doesn't churn your stomach, we're not sure what will.

Well, maybe this will: according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, “of the juvenille victims identified in conjuction with pornography crimes, 25% were members of the offender’s family, 59% were teens, 28% were elementary school age, and 13% were preschoolers.– Additionally, “by the end of 2003, the CyberTipline was receiving more than 1,500 reports on child pornography per week.– (Emphasis added.)

Or maybe this info from the NCMEC will do the trick: “according to investigators who handled the cases of estimated arrestees, “most had images of children who had not yet reached puberty. Specifically 83% had images of children between ages 6 and 12; 39% had images of 3 to 5 year old children; and 19% had images of toddlers or infants younger than age 3.–

Need more? Unfortunately, we've got it: “between 1996 and 2004 the total number of child porn cases handled by the FBI's cyber-crime investigators increased 23 fold.– [1]

One of the largest organizations trying to battle the sexual exploitation of children is ECPAT International. According to their website, this stand-up, and unfortunately necessary, organization does the following and more:

We follow what governments are doing, and have done, to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children, and we publish the results. We explore good models for prevention work, and share those models and experiences. We find and develop training modules to help caregivers to do their work better. We develop learning tools for police training curricula. We provide advice and information to groups who are trying to make a national plan for their country, or to implement an existing plan. We carry out research and develop research methodologies. We promote the participation of young people in seeking solutions to the problems and in providing support to victims.

As far as child pornography is concerned, ECPAT “seeks to develop positive cooperative relationships with the ISPs and the software and search engine production industries in order to find answers to the technological problems concerning the transmission of child pornography via computer and the Internet.– But, as they indicate, this battle is an uphill one due to technology changes, definitions of “child,– and legal practices.

What we've learned is that this is an international problem, not just an American one. But all children deserve respect, kindness, and caring, not sexual exploitation and abuse. If there's ever been an organization that needs and deserves your help, it's this one. No child should suffer at the hands of these predators.

You can help. And since you've got more than ventricles and atriums — I'm saying you've got heart, man – “ you will help. Here's how:

- – - – -

[1] Paul, Pamela. Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. 1st ed. New York: Times Books, 2005. p. 190.

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Postscript:

We realize this may have been a disturbing Wednesday to read. But we live in a somewhat disturbing world in need of our help and in need of the progress we can make.

Toward the end of his article about pornography in Talk Magazine, Martin Amis writes: “porno is littered — porno is heaped — with the death of feelings.– In an issue of Walrus, Charles Foran makes the case more specifically. He writes that:

Pornography may be stalking one emotion more than any other. That would be the shared feelings we have for fellow humans, along with the inclination to recognize kindred suffering and even lend aid. Porn may yet be the death of empathy.

Because life is, quite possibly, the thing we desire most of all, life itself is progress. So it might be time we considered a slightly different way of living. It might be time we, as individuals and as a culture, made a different choice.

AIDS,Frontline,Internet,PBS,Wednesday,boycott,children,donate,end,libertarianism,parenting,pornography,protect,read,stop,watch Closed

We’re back. (Really?) Really.

October 31st, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

We’re back.

For real, yo. We ain’t, and I repeat, ain’t playin’. Tell your friends, your families, your friends’ families, your enemies’ friends, the friends of your friends who might have enemies within their own families, your hairdresser, your newspaper deliverer, your imaginary pal “Yodel” the dancing penguin, and your future funeral director (is that too morid? ah, screw it, this is the new Progressive Wednesday, and we’ve got a bit more attitude).

So, we’re going to have a slightly different tone, focus, format, photos, group of staffers, and lots of et cetera. Trust us. So to show you we really mean it (we’re talkin’ really, really, really mean it), here’s a taste of our new tune.

Enjoy…

*

PW,video,watch Closed

This Wednesday: Don’t Leave Home Without It

October 17th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Problem:

Credit Cards. Credit Scores. Credit Reports. Credit. If you're reading this you've probably got them, for better or for worse. Unfortunately, if you're like most Americans (including us, until we did this research), you understand very little about them. But if you're not careful, they can sneak up from behind you and take control of your life. In fact, more often than not, they can take control of your life while staring you right in the face.

How many times this week has Capital One offered you a 0% APR with no annual fee and up to a $50,000 credit limit? Or 5% cash back on purchases and double air miles. Seriously, how many? My wife and I usually get three or four a week. Last Tuesday we got two offers each in a single day. We are not alone. Credit Card companies mail out over 6 billion offers each year. 641 million of those offers have been taken up and are responsible for $1.5 trillion (that's right, ta-ta-trillion) in consumer spending.

To pile the numbers up a little more, here they are in list form:

  • 115 million Americans carry a balance on their credit cards from one month to the next, paying interest rates, in some cases, as high as 40%. The industry calls these customers “revolvers.–
  • These revolvers carry an average balance of nearly $9,000, with an average interest rate of almost 18%.
  • The total outstanding credit card debt in the US is more than $800 billion, equaling $128 billion in interest paid.
  • The minimum payment on most of these cards in 2%. If a person pays the minimum, they are often paying little more than they are spending in interest alone.
  • There is no legal limit to the interest rate credit cards can charge, nor is there a limit on late fees, returned check fees, or over-limit fees. These fees have reached as high as $40.
  • If a late payment is reported on any loan, most other creditors automatically raise their interest rates.
  • The Better Business Bureau receives more complaints about the credit card industry than any other.

Rather sobering statistics, eh? Here's the good news: we're here to help.

Make Progress:

Watch

A few months ago I recorded PBS' Frontline documentary, “Secret History of the Credit Card– on my DVR. When we decided to cover “credit– as this Wednesday's topic, the first thing I did to research it was sit down and watch this program. Then I sat and stared at a blank TV screen for what seemed like hours after it ended, blown away by what I had just learned.

The winner of both the 2004-2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 2006, this documentary will likely enrage you and possibly comfort you, both at the same time. The things that credit card companies are legally allowed to get away with will flash-boil your blood, and yet it was oddly calming to learn how many people are in even worse shape with the credit card companies. Oddly calming, yet highly motivating.

“Secret History of the Credit Card– is available online in five parts in either Windows Media or RealPlayer formats. There is also a collaborative website with tons of great tools to educate yourself and fight the fe-fi-fo-fumming credit card industry. Or to help out the good people at PBS you can order a copy of the DVD here. This might be good option; there's a copiousness of mind-numbing information packed into an hour's-worth of minutes. Plus, you'll want to show everyone you know. As the show points out at the end, we'll have to fight numbers with numbers.

Understand

In 1989, Fair Isaac Corporation began using an algorithm to create a score by which lenders could judge how big of a risk it will be to loan you money or issue you a credit card. By 1991, all three major United States credit reporting agencies made these FICO scores available, and in 1995 many mortgage companies began using them for evaluating applicants. Now anyone who has opened a bank account, applied for a credit card or taken out a loan has a score.

Now that you've memorized that bit of history (there's a quiz later on), you need to know how your FICO score can affect you, because affect you it can, deeply, and for a long time. Like the time you got stood up for your high school prom. That kind of affect. When you apply for a credit card, mortgage, auto loan, debt consolidation loan, etc., potential lenders look at your credit score to determine if you qualify for the loan, how much (if any) they are willing to loan you, and what interest rate they are going to charge you for the loan.

Your score is essentially all of your credit information boiled like a frog (but without the mess) down to a three-digit number, ranging from 300-850. The higher the better: this ain't golf. Someone applying for a $200,000 mortgage with a score of 780 would qualify for the best interest rates and have a payment of less than $1,200 per month. That same loan for someone with a score of 550 has a monthly payment of over $1,700 (check your payments here). So, it's 500-bucks-a-month-important to have a good FICO score and to understand why that number is what it is. Here's the breakdown, the elucidation, the “skinny– :

  • 35% – Payment history: This guy's the biggest. Collections, unpaid bills, late payments, over-limit spending, bankruptcies, foreclosures– ¦. I know it's easier said then done, but avoid these at all cost. If you need help, we'll tell you how to get it later.
  • 30% – Outstanding debt: This one's tricky. It's not necessarily the amount of debt you have that negatively affects your score, but rather, how close you are to your credit limits on your unsecured debt. In other words, try your best to keep your balance lower than 30% of your credit limit. Easier said than done, I know. Believe me, I know.
  • 15% – Length of your credit history: How long have your accounts been open? The longer, the better. Between this and maintaining a low credit limit percentage, you might want to think twice before closing that card that you never use.
  • 10% – Recent inquiries: Whenever you apply for credit, you create an inquiry which can negatively affect your score. But don't worry about shopping for the best mortgage rate or auto-loan. Inquiries of the same variety within 14 days of each other don't have a negative impact. The exception, of course, is credit cards.
  • 10% – Types of credit in use: Having installment loans, like mortgage and education will help your score, while a lot of revolving accounts (credit cards) will hurt it.

That's what you need to know about how your credit score is derived. But how do you change it? Read on, dear friends.

Request

Your credit report is a record of your borrowing and repayment history made available to any potential lender. When you apply for a loan, they'll pull up this report containing everything you've borrowed, anything in collection, how much you owe, how often you're late with a payment, etc. In other words, all the things that are used to create a credit score. So in order to improve your credit score and make it easier to get a loan or a better interest rate, you have to know what's in that report.

Fortunately, on December 4, 2003, Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). This law allows everyone with a credit history to access their credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and Trans Union, once every twelve months at no charge.

There are hundreds of web sites that offer “free credit reports,– “instantly,– “hassle free,– “fast, free, and easy.– Beware of these sites. The last bit of information they ask for is a credit card number in order to enroll you in a monthly service. Don't do it, Daddy-o. The only web site that is authorized to fill orders for credit reports under FACTA is annualcreditreport.com. That's it. Fill out the information on that page and you will actually have a quick, easy, hassle-free, instant, yadda-yadda, credit report.

For you skeptics not comfortable filling in your information online, you can call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form, print it, and mail it to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

Once the report is in your hands, check it over. You have the right to dispute any information on your report that is not accurate and up-to-date. You should contact both the creditor that is in error and each credit bureau that has the error on file. The bureaus are required to investigate each claim and if they cannot verify the negative information within “a reasonable amount of time– (usually 30 days), the negative entry must be dropped.

Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union all have online dispute forms (click on each), or you can write an old-fashioned “snail-mail– letter to each. The FTC has a great sample letter that can be copied to increase your chances of winning your dispute as well as a very detailed description of how to go about doing it. It's hard enough to have a good credit report without having those inaccuracies on there. So get your report, then fix those errors. You work too hard for your money to have a creditor or credit bureau let bad information slip through and cost you moolah.

Oh, yeah. Looking over your credit report is also a surefire way to detect identity theft. That's a hassle you want to avoid like a wounded, hungry puma.

Call

The first act of the new Congress following the 2004 Presidential and Congressional elections was to pass the Orwellian-named Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. This law makes it much more difficult for consumers to file for protection from creditors, increased fees associated with bankruptcy protection, and made the consumer pay more to their creditors, while doing nothing to address the legal loopholes that allow multi-millionaires to protect their assets while they file for bankruptcy. All of this happened while most major bank and credit card companies were reporting record profits.

There are no laws preventing credit card companies from raising interest rates on a whim. There are no limits to the interest rates they can charge, or the fees they can assess for going over your credit limit, making a late payment, or bouncing a check. It's time our representatives started legislating for the benefit of the middle and lower classes. So give your Senator or Representative (or both) a ring. You can find their numbers here. Need help with what to say? Try this:

“My name is (your name) and I am a voter from (your state and/or district) and I am outraged at the lack of consumer protection from credit card companies. If (your Senator or Congressperson) wants my support in their next election (he or she) will introduce legislation putting a cap on credit card interest rates, over-limit fees, and late fees. Thank you for your time.–

Get Help

Of course, you don't want to wait for politicians to solve this problem, so here I go again, sounding like a spam email or that annoying commercial that comes on at two o'clock in the morning while your blankly staring at a rerun of M.A.S.H., your credit card debt keeping you miles from sleep. But I'll say it anyway: Get some help now, before it's too late!

You may have considered using a credit-counseling agency before, but everything on “the tube– (or plasma, LCD, DLP, or projection) or online looked like a scam. Or maybe you haven't, but should. I know how confusing and difficult it is to sift through all the bogus ads to find a counselor that's too-legit-to-quit (sorry). But in my extensive, and I mean EXTENSIVE, research of this topic almost all of the reputable credit information sites point to The National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

The FTC suggests that if you can't develop a plan to rid yourself of unsecured debt in one year, you should seek credit help. The NFCC will point you to accredited and reputable services, either local or national, by phone, Internet, or in person. Some require a small fee or a monthly charge for their continued service, but they can save you a 50-gallon-drum's worth of cash in the long run.

If your debt is James-Earl-Jones’-voice deep they may suggest a Debt Management Plan (DMP). This is a way to pay down debt by making a monthly deposit to the agency, which negotiates with your creditors to reduce or eliminate fees and interest rates, and then uses the money to pay off your debt. In many cases, large debts can be paid off in as little as 36 months.

Whatever they suggest you do, it's worth a call. I recommend doing it sooner rather than later; each month that goes by that you're paying 25% interest rate buries you deeper and deeper. I speak from unfortunate experience: the smaller the debt, the less stressful it is.

Wednesday,call,credit,debt,get help,request,understand,watch Closed

The TGIF Movie Review: Factory Girl

July 20th, 2007 by Matt

I can’t get enough of Andy Warhol. I’ve seen every fictional film portraying him–I Shot Andy Warhol, Basquiat, The Doors, and 54. I’ve been to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. A documentary of his life is tops on my Blockbuster Total Access queue.

So why am I so obsessed? I’m not sure really, and I’d rather not waste my time at the therapist trying to figure it out fully. Let’s just say I love his art’s humor and horror, it’s ability to critique and praise our cookie-cutter culture at the same time. He broke rules. He reinvented. He inspired. He destroyed. He road coattails. He devoted himself to Christianity. He couldn’t care less.

So my fascination with Warhol, and not Edie Sedgwick, is what drew me to Factory Girl, a fictionalization of Sedgwick’s life during the 60s and the boom and bust of her relationship with Warhol. It’s incredibly important when watching Factory Girl — despite the film’s effort to do otherwise — to remember that this ain’t a documentary. The film includes blatant factual falsehoods, it conglomerates real people into single characters, it plays with time, and it distorts the truth (whatever “truth” means). But this is a fine film if you keep in mind that all of the characters are imaginary.

Factory Girl shows us the life of an heiress, Edie Sedgwick, played with brutal honesty and bravery by Siena Miller, falling in love with fame and flamboyance, giving up on a dream of being an artist for the flimsy accomplishment of celebrity for the sake of celebrity. And we also see the life of Andy Warhol, played by a well-disguised Guy Pearce, a self-obsessed artist who manipulates people and the media for his own importance. And we see their relationship burgeoning out of an admiration of the other’s power over people.

The character of Sedgwick suffered abuse from her father, grew up in an institution, and dropped out of college to pursue art. She ends up drugged and dead at 28. This film takes us on a roller-coaster journey of her “life,” that is if we were made to take ecstasy and morphine before getting on the ride. The cinematography continually befits and benefits the narrative, and the music is like the iTunes playlist I wish I owned. For art lovers, for film lovers, for acting lovers, this is a must-see movie.

Enjoy for yourself:

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(To learn more about the real Edie Sedgwick, just click here.)

TGIF,art,for fun,movies,reviews,video,watch Closed
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