Who is the Most Toxic of them All?

Just for fun folks. Only because I have friends who grew up in these cities or currently live in them.

Forbes came out with 2011 Most Toxic Cities List.

What would be your first guess for #1?
Los Angeles maybe? Good guess. That is where I grew up and I miss those orange sunsets, sunrises, and… daily sky color… but LA only comes 6th on the list.

Good Ol’ Philadelphia comes in on #1, but California will not be out done as it holds 4 of the top 10 spots with #2 Bakersfield, #3 Fresno, #6 Los Angeles, and #10 Riverside.

The rankings was based on the average of five variables. Air quality, water quality, superfund sites (areas no longer in use that contain hazardous waste), Number of Days with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 100+ (higher the number the worse the air), and EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The pool was limited to the 80 largest Metropolitan Areas.

Without further delay:

America’s 10 Most Toxic Polluted Cities!

#1 Polluted Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

MSA: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa./N.J./Del./Md.
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 2
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 11.3 million
EWG top water concern: Total trihalomethanes

#2 Befoul Bakersfield, California

Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 43
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 2.2 million
EWG top water concern: N/A

#3 Foul Fresno, California

Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 26
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 338,000
EWG top water concern: Nitrates

#4 Nasty New York, New York

MSA: New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y./N.J./Pa.
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 5
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 4.1 million
EWG top water concerns: Total haloacetic acids; dieldrin; total trihalomethanes

#5 Bedraggled Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): None
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 33.6 million
EWG top water concern: N/A

#6 Loathsome Los Angeles, California

MSA: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 14
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 3.8 million
EWG top water concerns: Arsenic; total trihalomethanes; nitrate; total haloacetic acids

#7 Heinous Houston, Texas

MSA: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 1
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 54.8 million
EWG top water concern: Alpha particle activity

#8 Sooty St. Louis, Missouri

MSA: St. Louis, Mo./Ill.
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 1
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported: 22.3 million
EWG top water concern: Total haloacetic acids

#9 Soiled Salt Lake City, Utah

Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 15
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported: 130.4 million
EWG top water concern: Total haloacetic aci

#10 Rancid Riverside / San Bernardino, California

MSA: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.
Number of unhealthy air quality days (2009): 16
Pounds of on-site toxic releases reported (2009): 1.3 million
EWG top water concerns: Total haloacetic acids; nitrates; perchlorate

Now don’t get all worked up now, I didn’t make up this list – just the adjectives but all in good fun. I grew up in Los Angeles and visited all the other California locations as well as New York and I can say that all.. ok some… of those cities (la, riverside) are beautiful and a great place to live. Bakersfield smells tho…

False Security in Diversity

As you flip through 3000 channels, listen to numerous radio stations, and cruise around the Internet – you may be thinking how great it is to have access to so many different ideas and shows. It is like going to the supermarket and having access to 100s of different kinds of cereal. Great! Except you look closer at the box and realize, the vast majority of those cereals are owned by 3 companies: General Mills, Kellogg’s & Post. Wait, 75% of all soft drinks are owned by Coke & Pepsi as well. What is going on here!?

The truth is that through years of mergers and acquisitions, very few powerful media corporations control the vast majority in almost every market. Media is no different. That same company that produces great children films probably produces the trashy movies as well – just under a different name. What is your favorite movie? Favorite TV Show? Favorite children film? Favorite Sports radio station? Don’t be surprised if it is all owned by the same company.

US Media Controlled by the Big 6

The U.S. media landscape is controlled mostly by six massive media corporations: General Electric, Walt Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, & CBS. These six media corporations control most of what we hear, read, and see. Our perceptions, worldviews and our culture is dictated by the message portrayed by a few corporations. With so much influence and control it is very easy to capitalize on such influence to market products, create desires we never had, influence our emotions and ultimately use it all to make huge profits.

Is that thought scary? Is it to much to think companies control media messaging for maximum profit? Chime in and let us know in the comments!

Just to note, there are other big media companies who are big players in particular media markets (ex. Cox, Bertelsmann), but these six are easily the biggest both in terms of profits and sweeping influence. These companies are vertically integrated, meaning they control everything from production to distribution.

Did You Know?

Zondervan – The largest Christian publishers, including the vast majority share of the “Bible” is owned by News Corp. Every time someone purchases a bible, the #1 bestseller in history, News Corp profits.

Let us know what you think about these media facts!

• Did you know that six companies controlled most of media?
• Did any of the facts shown below surprise you?
• What is your biggest concern with a few companies controlling and dictating the vast majority of media?

Let us know in the comments!

Snapshot of the Big 6′s Control over Media

---

GENERAL ELECTRIC

2008 Revenues: $183 Billion
Sample Ownership: NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, USA, A&E, Universal Pictures, NBC.com, CNBC.com, iVillage.com, and Hulu.com (joint venture with News Corp).

TV – Television networks: NBC Networks, Telemundo, Ion Media (partial stake).

TV – Cable: NBC Entertainment, NBC News, NBC Sports, NBC Television, NBC Universal, CNBC, CNBC World (Arabia, India, Asia, Europe), MSNBC, Bravo, Sci Fi Channel, Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, Weather Plus, Mun2, Sleuth, Chiller, Universal HD, A&E Networks (25%; includes A&E, the History Channel, History en español, the Biography Channel, Military History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, A&E HD, the History Channel HD, History International), the Weather Channel (partial), Sci-Fi Channel HD.

TV – Production and distribution companies: NBC Universal Television Distribution, Universal Media Studios

26 television stations, owned under the “NBC Universal” division. These include NBC affiliates, 46 stations, Telemundo affiliates, and a small number of independents.

TV – International Channels: 13eme Rue (France), 13th Street (Germany), Studio Universal (Germany), Sci-fi Channel (Germany), Calle 13 (Spain), Sci Fi Channel UK, Movies 24 (UK), DivaTV (UK), Studio Universal (Italy), Universal Channel (Latin America), CNBC Asia, CNBC Europe, 18 Hallmark Channels (worldwide), KidsCo (worldwide, partial).

TV – Programming: NBC Network News, NBC Universal Global Networks, NBC Universal International Channels, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Dateline NBC, Meet the Press, Early Today, CNBC, Squawk Box, Mad Money, CNBC World, CNBC Arabia, CNBC-India TV-18, Hardball with Chris Matthews, the Rita Cosby Specials Unit, Morning Joe, Mun2, Sleuth, A&E [partial], the History Channel [partial], the Biography Channel (partial), ShopNBC (27%).

Film – Production: NBC Universal (80% ownership): Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures. Universal has production agreements with Imagine Entertainment, Jersey Films, Tribeca Films, Shady Acres, the Kennedy/Marshall Company, Playtone Company, Strike Entertainment, Type A Films, Depth of Field, Stephen Sommers and Working Title Films (Europe).

Film – Distribution: Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Online - NBC.com, CNBC.com, iVillage.com, Scifi.com, telemundo.com, nbc.com, hulu.com (a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.), Bravotv.com, Triotv.com, msnbc.msn.com, nbcolympics.com, ShopNBC.com. Partial: aetv.com, biography.com, historychannel.com, military.history.com, Thehistoryhcannelclub.com, Historytravel.com, Newsvine.com.

WALT DISNEY

2008 Revenue: $37.8 Billion
Sample Ownership: ABC, ESPN, Disney, A&E, History Channel, 277 radio stations, Marvel Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, NBA.com, and NFL.com

TV – The ABC Television Network: ABC Entertainment, ABC Daytime, ABC News, ESPN on ABC, ABC Television, ABC Kids, and Touchstone Television.

TV – Production & Distribution Companies: Walt Disney Television, Walt Disney Television Animation, BVS entertainment, ABC Studios, Walt Disney Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

TV – Cable Networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN PPV, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPNHD, ESPN2 HD, ESPNEWSHD and ESPNUHD, Disney Channel HD, Toon Disney, SOAPnet, ABC Family Channel, A&E Television Networks (37.5% equity; includes A&E, the History Channel, the Biography Channel, History en español, Military History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, A&E HD, The History Channel HD), Lifetime Entertainment Services (50% equity; includes Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women).

TV – International Channels: ESPN International, ESPN Classic Sport Europe, ESPN Latin America, ESPN Asia, Jetix Europe, Jetix Latin America, Jetix Canada, Jetix Israel, International Disney Channels, History International, NASN Limited.

The ABC Television Network has 226 affiliated stations reaching 99 percent of all U.S. television households. The company owns and operates ten ABC television stations in the nation’s top markets.

TV – Programming: Good Morning America, World News with Charles Gibson, World News Now, 20/20, Primetime, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Sportscenter/Monday Night Football, ESPNplus, Playhouse Disney, Jetix, ABC Kids.

Radio – Programming: ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes Radio, Radio Disney, Lifetime Radio for women (50% equity), ABC Music Radio, ABC Radio Networks: Imus in the Morning, The Mark Levin Show, Morning Joe, The Tom Joyner Show.

Publishing – Magazines: Family Fun, ESPN the Magazine, Jetix Magazine, Wondertime Magazine, Bassmaster Magazine and Disney Adventures

Publishing – Music: Disney Music Group distributes music and motion picture soundtracks under its four labels: Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records, Buena Vista Records, Lyric Street Records, Disney Music Publishing Worldwide.

Film – Production and Distribution: Walt Disney Pictures (includes Walt Disney Feature Animation and DisneyToon Studios), Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Pixar Animation Studios, Hollywood Pictures, Buena Vista International, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Buena Vista Home Entertainment International, Disney Theatrical Group, A&E IndieFilms (37.5% equity).
Publishing – Books: Disney Publishing, a subsidiary of the Company, owns Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Children, Disney Press, Disney Editions, Disney Adventures, Disney Fairies, Disney Digital Books, Mirimax, ESPN books, ABC Daytime Press, Hyperion East, Hyperion Audiobooks, Volo, Jump at the Sun, Disney Libri (Italy), Disney Hachette JV (France).

Online - ABC.com, ABCNews.com, Oscar.com, Disney.com, Disneychannel.com, Family.com, ESPN.com, Familyfun.com, Go.com, Soccernet.co (60%), NFL.com, NBA.com, NASCAR.com, Toysmart.com (partial), Go Network, www.disneysgamecafe.com, ESPN.com, Abcsports.com, ESPNdeportes.com, Wondertime.com, iparenting.com, celebrityparents.com, incrediblebabynames.com, disneyfairies.com, clubpenguin.com, Disneyshopping.com, (37.5% equity: aetv.com, biography.com, historychannel.com, militaryhistory.com, thehistoryhcannelclub.com, Historytravel.com).

News Corp

Sample Ownership: Fox Network, Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox, Myspace.com, Ign.com (gaming), Scout.com (sports), Simply Hired (job), New York Post, Rotten Tomatoes, Marketwatch, Hulu.com, 150 newspapers, Harper Collins, & Zondervan.
2008 Revenue: $33 Billion

TV – Networks: Fox, MyNetworkTV. In the United States, News Corp. owns 27 television stations.

TV – Cable: Fox Business Channel, Fox Movie Channel, Fox News Channel, Fox College Sports, Fox Regional Sports Networks (16 owned and operated), Fox Sports En Espanol, Fox Sports Net, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Reality, Premier Media Group (Australia 50%), Premium Movie Partnership (Australia 20%), Cine Canal (Latin America 23%), Telecine (Latin America 13%), FUEL TV, FX, FX HD, National Geographic Channel (US 67% and Worldwide 52%), National Geographic Channel HD, SPEED Channel, SPEED HD, Big Ten Network & Big Ten Network HD (49%), Premier Media Group (Australia 50%).

TV – Production and Distribution Companies: Fox Television Studios, Fox Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Television, Regency Television (50%).

TV – Satellite Television: Fox International owns 120 channels around the world.

TV – Europe: SKY Italia includes Sky Sport, Sky Calcio, Sky Cinema, Sky TG 24, Premiere AG (25%). British Sky Broadcasting (39%) includes Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Travel, Sky One, Sky Movies, Artsworld. News Corp. also owns Balkan News Corporation.

TV – Latin America: LAPTV (33%), Telecine (13%).

TV – Asia: STAR Channels, Space TV (India DBS 20%), Phoenix Satellite Television (18%), Hathway Cable and Datacom (22%), China Network Systems (17 affiliated cable systems), Vijay, Xing Kong Channel [V], ESPN Star Sports (50%), ANTV (20%), TATA Sky (20%).

TV – Australia & New Zealand: Sky Network Television Limited (44%), FOXTEL (25%).

TV – Programming: Fox Sports, Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox Report with Shepard Smith, On the Record With Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, Fox Pan American Sports (38%).

Publishing – Magazines: Barron’s, SmartMoney (50%), Big League, InsideOut, donna hay, News America Marketing (In-Store, FSI (SmartSource), SmartSource iGroup, News Marketing Canada), Alpha, The Weekly Standard, The Weekend Australian Magazine, sundaymagazine, body + soul, STM (WA), home, TVGuide, News Magazine (Australia).

Publishing – Newspapers:

Publishing – Australia/Asia: More than 150 titles including: The Wall Street Journal Asia, the Fiji Times, Daily Telegraph, Nai Lalakai, Shanti Dut, Gold Coast Bulletin, Herald Sun, Newsphotos, Newspix, Newstext, NT News, Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (63%), Sunday Herald Sun, Sunday Mail, Sunday Tasmanian, Sunday Times, Sunday Territorian, The Advertiser, The Australian, The Courier-Mail, The Mercury, News Limited, The Sunday Mail, The Sunday Telegraph, Weekly Times, The Weekend Australian, MX, Brisbane News, Northern Territory News, Cumberland (NSW), Leader (VIC), Quest (QLD), Messenger (SA), Community (WA), Darwin Sun/Palmerson Sun (NT).

Publishing – United Kingdom: News of the World, The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Times, News International.

Publishing – United States: Newspaper holdings include the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, MarketWatch and Dow Jones Newswire; News Corp. also acquired the Ottoway group of community newspapers through its takeover of Dow Jones in 2007.

Publishing – Books: HarperCollins Publishers, Zondervan

Film – Production and Distribution: Fox Film Entertainment: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Fox 2000 Pictures, 20th Century Fox Espanol, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising, 20th Century Fox International, Fox Atomic, Blue Sky Studios, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Music, Fox Studios Australia, Fox Studios Baja (Latin America), Canal Fox (Latin America), Balaji Telefilms (26%, Asia), 20th Century Fox Animation.

Online – Fox Interactive Media manages Fox’s online holdings, which include MySpace.com, Scout.com (a college sports site), ign.com (Internet gaming), Simply Hired (an online job search site), FoxSports.com, Fox News.com, Fox.com, Intermix, IGN.com, IGN.com.au, NYPost.com, MSN.Foxsports.com, WeeklyStandard.com, Broadsystem.com, NewsOptimus.co.uk, NewsOutdoor.com, RottenTomatoes, Fox.com, AmericanIdol.com, MarketWatch.com, Photobucket.com, Hulu.com (45%), jamster.com (51%), askmen.com, whatifsports.com, ksolo.com, springwidgets.com, flecktor.com milkround.com, nds.com, newsoutdoor.com, wsj.com, dowjones.com, barrons.com.

Time Warner

2008 Revenue: $29.8 Billion
Sample Ownership: Warner Brothers, CNN, Cinemax, HBO, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT, AOL, AIM, Mapquest, Moviefone, Advertising.com, ICQ, TMZ, PGA.com, Bebo, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, DC Comics, Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Fortune Magazine, People Magazine (150+ Magazines)

TV – Network: CW Network (50% with CBS).

TV – Cable: Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO, Cinemax, HBO Sports, HBO Pay-Per-View, HBO on Demand, Cinemax Multiplexes, Cinemax on Demand, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, as well as HBO channels around the world), TruTV, TBS, TBS HD, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, TCM Europe, TCM Asia Pacific, TNT, TNT HD, CNN Airport Network, CNN International, CNN Headline News, CNN en Español, CNN en Español Radio, CNN Pipeline.

TV – Regional and Local Channels: NY1 News, NY1 Noticias, Sports Net, R News (Rochester, NY), Turner South, Capital News 9 Albany, MetroSports, News 8 Austin, News 10 Now — Syracuse, News 14 Carolina-Charlotte, News 14 Carolina-Raleigh.

TV – International: CNN International, CNN Headline News in Asia Pacific, CNN Headline News in Latin America, CNN+, CETV (36%)(China), CNNj, CNN Turk, CNN-IBN, Cartoon Network Europe, Cartoon Network Latin America, Cartoon Network Asia Pacific, Cartoon Network Japan (70% share), Imagen, TCM Classic Hollywood in Latin America, TNT Latin America, Nuts TV, Cartoonito, Pogo, 7 networks in Latin America.

TV – Production and Distribution: Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Home Video, Warner Horizon Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Telepictures Productions, HBO Video, HBO Independent Productions, New Line Television, Williams St. Studio, Cartoon Network Studios, CNN Newsource.

TV – Programming: CNN Newsroom, Live From The Situation Room, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360, NBA Games, MLB Playoffs, NASCAR, Entourage, Kids’ WB, American Morning.

Film – Production: Subsidiary The Warner Bros. Entertainment Group owns: Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Warner Premiere, Picturehouse, Warner Bros. International Cinemas, Warner Independent Pictures, a joint venture with Village Roadshow Pictures, and a joint venture with Alcon Entertainment.

Film – Distribution: Distribution to more than 125 international territories.

Publishing – Comics: DC Comics, E.C. Publications, Inc. (publisher of MAD magazine).

Publishing – Time, Inc. : Time Warner Book Group (with publishing companies The Mysterious Press, Time Warner Book Group UK, Warner Faith, Warner Vision, Warner Business Books, Aspect, and Little, Brown and Company (includes Little, Brown Adult Trade, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Back Bay, and Bulfinch Press); Oxmoor House, Inc., Sunset Books, Books-of-the-Month Club, Inc., Southern Progress Corporation, Grupo Editorial Expansion (publishes 15 magazines in Mexico).

Publishing – More Than 150 Magazines: People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, This Old House, 25 Beautiful Homes, 25 Beautiful Kitchens, 4×4, Aeroplane, All You, Amateur Gardening, Amateur Photographer, Ambientes, Angler’s Mail, Audi Magazine, Balance, Bird Keeper, Business 2.0, Cage & Aviary Birds, Caravan, Chat—Its Fate, Chilango, Classic Boat, Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Cottage Living, Country Homes & Interiors, Country Life, Cycle Sport, Cycling Weekly, Decanter, Entertainment Weekly, Essence (joint venture), Essentials, EXP, Expansion, European Boat Builder, Eventing, Family Circle (U.K.), Fortune Asia, Fortune Europe, FSB: Fortune Small Business, Golf Magazine, Golf Monthly, Guitar, Hair, Health, Hi-Fi News, Homes & Gardens, Horse, Horse & Hound, Ideal Home, In Style, In Style U.K., International Boat Industry, Land Rover World, Life, Manufactura, Marie Claire (joint venture), MBR-Mountain Bike Rider, MINI, MiniWorld, Model Collector, Money, Motor Boat & Yachting, Motor Boats Monthly, Motor Caravan, NME, Now, Nuts, Obras, Outdoor Life, Park Home & Holiday Caravan, People en Espanol, Pick Me Up, Practical Boat Owner, Practical Parenting, Prediction, Progressive Farmer, Quien, Quo (joint venture), Racecar Engineering, Real Simple, Rugby World, Ships Monthly, Shoot Monthly, Shooting Times, Soaplife, Southern Accents, Southern Living, Sporting Gun, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Stamp Magazine, Sunset, Superbike, Synapse, Targeted Media, Teen People, The Field, The Golf, The Golf+, The Railway Magazine, The Shooting Gazette, This Old House Ventures, Time Asia, Time Atlantic, Time Australia, Time Canada, Time for Kids, Time, Inc. Content Solutions, Time Pacific, TV & Satellite Week, TV Easy, TVTimes, Uncut, VolksWorld, Vuelo, Wallpaper, Webuser, Wedding, What Camera, What Digital Camera, What’s on TV, Who, Woman, Woman & Home, Woman’s Own, Woman”s Weekly, World Soccer.

Online – America Online: AOL, AOL.com, AOL Instant Messenger, AOL Wireless, AOL Music Now, AOL Local, McAfee VirusScan Online (bundled with AOL services), AOL by Phone, AOL Call Alert, AOL CityGuide, AOL PassCode, AOL Voicemail, AOL Europe (Germany and Luxembourg), America Online Latino (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Chile, AOL Global Web Services, AOL Latino).

Online – Other Online Holdings: CNN.com, CNNMoney.com, CNNStudentNews.com, MapQuest, Moviefone, Movietickets.com, RED, Advertising.com, CompuServe, ICQ, KOL, SI.com, People.com, Pipeline, GameTap, CartoonNetwork.com, DCComics.com, Time.com, VeryFunnyAds.com, Cwtv.com, Golf.com, Truveo, Weblogs, TMZ.com, Momlogic.com, AIM, Bebo.com, NASCAR.com, NASCAR.com en Espanol, PGA.com, PGATour.com, Play On!, superdeluxe.com, MyRecipes.com, MyHomeIdeas.com, ThisOldHouse.com, buy.at, MedioTiempo.com, Goowy, Sphere Source, Mousebreaker.com.

Viacom

2008 Revenue: $14.6 Billion
Sample Ownership: MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, BET, Paramount Pictures

TV – Viacom owns 10 TV stations (primarily broadcasting MTV Tr3s).

TV – Cable: MTV, MTV2, Nickelodeon/Nick-at-Nite, TV Land, VH1, Spike TV, CMT: Country Music Television, Comedy Central, Palladia, MTV U, LOGO, MTV World, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Comedy, BET, BET Jazz, BET Gospel, BET Hip Hop, Nick Jr., MTV Tr3s, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, VH1 Pure Country.

TV – International Channels: MTV Networks International operates in 160 countries. Viacom also owns Colors, The Music Factory, The Box, Game One, VIVA, QOOB, MTV Network Europe, Comedy Central Germany, MTV Base, MTV Arabia.

TV – Production: BET Event Production, MTV Productions.

TV – Programming: The Hills, Nick Gas, Turbo Nick, Nicktoons Network, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, MTV Jams, MTV World and TeeNick.

Radio – MTV Radio, BET Radio, Imagine Radio Limited

Publishing – Music: The Extreme Music Library, Director’s Cuts Production Music.

Publishing - Magazines: Nickelodeon Magazine.

Film – Paramount Pictures (includes Dreamworks, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Home Entertainment), Viacom 18 (50%) (India).

Online - MTV.com, VH1.com, Spiketv.com, ComedyCentral.com, Nick.com, GT.TV, GameTrailers.com, Neopets Inc., MTVi Group, SonicNet.com, GoCityKids.com, MTV Overdrive, VH1 Vspot, BET.com, BET on Blast, Cmt.com, TurboNick, Quizilla, Nick Jr. Video, The Click, Nicktropolis, Addictinggames.com, Shockwave.com, ParentsConnect.com, Atomfilms.com, Rhapsody America (49%), Virtual Worlds (Nickropolis, vmtv.com), thedailyshow.com, colbertnation.com, southparkstudios.com (51%), spiketv.com, ifilm.com, jokes.com, Xfire (gaming).

CBS

2008 Revenue: $14 Billion
Sample Ownership: CBS, CBS Sports, Showtime, Simon & Schuster, CBS radio, Paramount, 29 television stations.

TV – Networks: CBS Network consists of 29 stations. CW Network (50% with Time Warner).

TV – Cable: CBS College Sports Network, the Smithsonian Channel, MountainWest Sports Network (50% with Comcast). Showtime Networks, Inc. (SNI) owns Showtime, the Movie Channel, Flix, Showtime Too, Showtime Showcase, Showtime Extreme, Showtime Beyond, Showtime Next, Showtime Women, Showtime Familyzone, the Movie Channel Xtra, Showtime HD, Showtime Too HD, Showtime PPV, Showtime on Demand, the Movie Channel HD.

TV – Programming: CBS Television Distribution: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, Jeopardy!, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Early Show, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Face the Nation, Two and a Half Men, The Young and The Restless. CBS also owns CBS News, CBS Sports, CBS Entertainment, and broadcasts the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

TV – Production and Distribution: CBS Paramount Network Television, CBS Paramount International Television, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Films.

Radio - CBS Radio owns 140 radio stations in 31 markets; most of these are in the nation’s top 50 markets.

Radio – Books:
Publishing – Simon & Schuster: Atria Books, Kaplan, Pocket Books, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, The Free Press, The Touchstone, Fireside Group.

Publishing – Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing: Aladdin Paperbacks, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Little Simon, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Simon Pulse, Simon Spotlight.

Publishing – Other Publishing: Simon & Schuster Canada, Simon & Schuster UK, Simon & Schuster Australia, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, MTV Books.

Online – CBS.com, CBSNews.com, CBS Interactive, CBSGames.com, CBS Outernet, CBSSports.com, Sportsline.com, CNet.com, ourchart.com, ProElite, Inc., smithsoniannetworks.com (50%), MaxPreps.com, NFL.com, NCAAsports.com, ParentConnect.com, PGATour.com, Sho.com, Innertube, TheShowBuzz.com, Last.fm, GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, help.com.TV show?

• Let us know what you think!

Related posts:

1. Bias of American Media – Influence of Media Money
2. Are Election Media Polls Trustworthy?
3. Average Adult Watches an Hour of TV Ads a Day

1 in 3 Teenagers Send 3,000+ Texts a Month

Prepare for an overload of Teenager Texting Statistics:

Just the Girls

• Girls typically send and receive 80 texts a day; boys send and receive 30.
• 86% of girls text message friends several times a day; 64% of boys do the same.
• 59% of girls call friends on their cell phone every day; 42% of boys call friends daily on their cell phone daily.
• 59% of girls text several times a day to “just say hello and chat”; 42% of boys do so.
• 84% of girls have long text exchanges on personal matters; 67% of boys have similar exchanges.
• 76% of girls text about school work, while 64% of boys text about school.

More interesting tidbits about Teens & Texting -

• A third of U.S. teenagers with cellphones send 100+ texts a day as texting has exploded to become the most popular means of communication for young people, according to new research.
• The Pew Research Center said that three-fourths of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 now own cellphones and of those that do, girls typically send or receive 80 text messages per day and boys, 30 per day.
• Study author Scott Campbell said focus groups conducted by Pew also offer insight into the subtleties of teen communication and culture, revealing for example that, while boys don’t typically use punctuation, for girls such nuances are critical.

“If a girl puts a period at the end of a text message (to another girl) then it comes across as she’s mad,” Campbell said, which explains the prevalence of smiley emoticons.

“They have these practices because they’ve learned that texts can lead to misunderstandings,” Lenhart said. “It’s a deliberate thing and it’s also part of a culture that’s interested in differentiating itself from adult culture.”

• The mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens.
• Cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends, with cell calling a close second. Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns. Fully 72% of all teens2 — or 88% of teen cell phone users — are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters.
• Among all teens, their frequency of use of texting has now overtaken the frequency of every other common form of interaction with their friends (see chart below).

How are Parent’s Responding to it All?

For parents, teens’ attachment to their phones is an area of conflict and regulation.

Parents exert some measure of control over their child’s mobile phone — limiting its uses, checking its contents and using it to monitor the whereabouts of their offspring. In fact, the latter is one of the primary reasons many parents acquire a cell phone for their child. However, with a few notable exceptions, these activities by parents do not seem to impact patterns of cell phone use by teens.

• 64% of parents look at the contents of their child’s cell phone and 62% of parents have taken away their child’s phone as punishment.
• 46% of parents limit the number of minutes their children may talk and 52% limit the times of day they may use the phone.
• 48% of parents use the phone to monitor their child’s location.
• Parents of 12-13 year-old girls are more likely to report most monitoring behavior.
• Limiting a child’s text messaging does relate to lower levels of various texting behaviors among teens. These teens are less likely to report regretting a text they sent, or to report sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images by text (also known as “sexting”).
• Teens whose parents limit their texting are also less likely to report being passengers in cars where the driver texted behind the wheel or used the phone in a dangerous manner while driving.

Cell Phone Uses Functionality

• 83% use their phones to take pictures.
• 64% share pictures with others.
• 60% play music on their phones.
• 46% play games on their phones.
• 32% exchange videos on their phones.
• 31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
• 27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
• 23% access social network sites on their phones.
• 21% use email on their phones.
• 11% purchase things via their phones.

Texting & Driving

• Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.
• 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.
• 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

What are your Thoughts?

That my friends, is a ton of statistical information. What is clear is that texting has become the favored form of communication for teenagers. 100-200 texts a day? Many will grow to have finger arthritis at that rate. But seriously, what are your thoughts in all this?

Though I see it can be beneficial in being able to stay constantly connected to friends, what I fear the most is that when teenagers grow up relying on less personal mediums that do not requires face-to-face interaction – it could have some negative effects in the way a teenager is able to relate to people in real life situations. It is so easy to text something, especially something seemingly uncomfortable, then to pick up a phone and call or *gasp*.. meeting up with someone. It creates a easy way to not experience the real work of building personal relationship. Just a thought. What do you think?

• Do you feel there is little harm in youths sending 100 texts a day?
• Do the benefits of constant connection outweigh the detriments of losing real social interaction?
• How many TEXTs do YOU send a day?
• If you don’t mind – kindly state your age (or age range) since I am going to go out on the limb to assume different age groups will think very differently about this issue.

Take the Poll: Come Back to See Results:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Related posts:

1. Study Links Pregnancy with Watching Sexy TV Shows
2. Teenager Pregnancy Statistics – Good News?
3. Girl Self-Esteem & Image Issues & Parents

Hey Clean Cut Media Readers,

During this thanksgiving holiday, I am very thankful to have YOU, the readers here on Clean Cut media. I am even more thankful for those of you who have started to engage the posts by commenting with your thoughts. I would hate for readers to miss out on the interesting comments and poll results on past postings. Some of the comments are very interesting and we would all benefit from hearing the thoughts of each of you! So please visit some of the past articles, check out the comments and polls and share your thoughts! As always be courteous or should I say – Clean Cut.

Most Commented Articles

Have you read some of the comments made by our readers? Most of the posts on Clean Cut Media end with open ended questions in the hopes that collectively we can discuss the influences of media and our culture. I truly hope we can get to a point where we can post up topics and it is the COMMUNITY that will create the “real” juicy content through the discussions and commentary. So help us out! If you find the article or a comment made by another user interesting, please let us know your thoughts!

Teenager Kills Mother, Shoots Father Over Halo 3
- The comments have been a bit one sided due to the influx of readers coming from Halo Forum sites. What are your thoughts? Agree or disagree?

Clean Family Friendly Movie Reviews & Rating
- Many users have contributed to this list. We wanted to create a list of family friendly movies so users can know what movies are safe both for themselves and their children. Please be as detailed as possible when you contribute!

Creativity: Amazing 3D Building Art
- The art postings on Clean Cut Media always brings out a flurry of comments expressing their awe and delight in what they’ve seen. Check all our 3D Chalk arts postings.

Movie Review: Watchmen Morality Review
- Lot of interesting takes on this movie. What are your thoughts? If you didn’t see the movie, it’s ok! Still give us your take!

AdBlock Plus: Blocks All Ads on the Internet
- Have you downloaded this awesome plug-in? Eliminates Ads altogether!

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince Movie Review
- Too much emphasis on teen love? Is the message behind the film good? Give us your thoughts?

Polyamory Relationships & Cultural Subjectivity of Truth
- Again, heavy feedback from the Polyamory community. Word got out about this posting via twitter. Comments are mostly by Polyamory participants. Your thoughts?

Top 5 Polls

Which is your Favorite Street Art – 820+ Votes
Users voted on their favorite 3D Chalk Art piece. River Rafting & Coke Bottle have run away with this.

Do you use Facebook and/or MySpace – 630+ Votes
In this article, we discussed the growth of Facebook vs Myspace. This poll helped determine who uses MySpace and who uses Facebook. Facebook easily is the most popular.

What is the Most Amazing – 300+ Votes
Users again voted for the most amazing Chalk Art. Dive Plank edged out Batman and Robin!

Which 3D Building Art is Your Favorite – 280+ Votes
Users love these opinion polls! Which one was their favorite? The one I voted for, the building ripped open. Really incredible. Check it out.

Have sites like YouTube helped or hurt our culture – 70+ Votes
Has Youtube helped our culture by enhancing the proliferation of information? Or has it somewhat hurt our culture? See how the votes are panning out!

Most Tweeted – Follow us at @CleanCutMedia

Those who are interested in Social Media Marketing tend to follow this blog for the statistical summaries and commentaries. There is a lot of information out there and users have found it useful to find it all consolidated on a couple posts. “ReTweet” is something fairly new on this blog, so it hasn’t picked up just yet, but hopefully it will continue to grow in the future. See the list below!

Social Networks in Asia: Korea, Japan, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore etc

YouTube Statistics – The Ultimate Time Suck

Polyamory Relationships & Cultural Subjectivity of Truth

Teenager Kills Mother, Shoots Father Over Halo 3

Twitter Statistics: Visitor Growth

Social Media Statistics Video – Growth & Impact

15 Beautiful HDR Photography Art

Most Visited Postings (excluding 3D & Social Media Articles)

Below are the most visited postings on Clean Cut Media this year. I’ve only linked the ones not linked above. Don’t want to link you out!

Movie Review: Watchmen Morality Review
Teenager Kills Mother, Shoots Father over Halo
Teens Sharing Nude Photos Online
- I really hope people are finding this article for the right reasons.
Influence of Media Advertising in our View of Life
- Pretty straightforward title. Very old post that started it all.
Israel Palestinians Media War
- Interesting post on the digital media war waged in the middle east.

Girl Self-Esteem Image Issues
- Great piece about Media’s affect on girl’s self image. Lots of Statistics.
Pro Anorexia Pro Ana Sites
- Discussion about Affects of Social Networks on Pro – Anorexia Groups.
Famous Manipulated Photos, Pre-Photoshop
- Take a look at famous pictures from history that were photoshoped for various purposes.

Hope that was helpful to help you navigate around the site. Please let us know which article was your favorite. Also please comment on the ones you find interesting and give us your take!

- Media Influence

The sex-ed lobby has always claimed it was all about health—teaching kids how to stay safe. But in reality, their goal was not preventing disease, pregnancy, and emotional distress. It’s about indoctrinating them into a radical ideology—sexual freedom….

What’s the result of this [sex education] teaching? One in four American girls now has a sexually transmitted disease. – Breakpoint

• Are sex educators not providing the latest medical facts?
• Are we really missing out on scientific facts about our sexual health?
• What are the latest findings on the effects of living with sexual freedom?
• What are those scientific facts! Am I in danger?

Dr. Miriam Grossman vs. Sex Educators

Dr. Miriam Grossman M.D, a board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, recently wrote a book called “You’re Teaching My Kid What?”.

She writes about the fact that sex educators as well as the SIECUS [Sexual Information and Education Council of the US], the organization that sets the standard for sex education, are not presenting the medical facts thus rather than empowering people to make the right decisions, they are giving them a false sense of security with disastrous results.

One example is how sex educators urge kids to avoid pregnancy by engaging in oral sex. But what about the medical facts?

- HPV can be transmitted during oral sex, and can cause cancers of the throat.

- If kids interact with five or more partners, they increase their risk [of oral cancer] “a whopping 250 percent.” And yet sex educators, Grossman writes, portray this activity as safe and normal.

Dr. Miriam’s Goal: Educate the Youth to the Medical Truths of Sexual Freedom

Her aim is simple: “As a physician who has spent hundreds of hours with young people with sexually transmitted infections, I’m on a one-woman mission to expose the falsehood of those claims.” What claim? Planned Parenthood, one of the biggest names in sex education says on their homepage “We deliver comprehensive and medically accurate information that empowers women, men, teens, and families to make informed choices and lead healthy lives.”

“I’m a doctor who is tired of seeing a steady stream of young people come through my office, casualties of the worldview that places sexual freedom before sexual health. The only power I have to fight this calamity is the power of the pen. While the nation struggles over issues related to health, and stands on the verge of supporting organizations like SIECUS with millions of tax dollars, does someone with authority have the courage to stand up and put an end to this fiasco?” – Dr. Miriam Grossman M.D.

SIECUS Undermines Parents with Different Messages

She has also published articles about how SIECUS adopts different positions depending on the audience. In public forums and statements, they tell the parents that their primary concern is with the child’s health. SIECUS says they tell the teens that it’s best for them to delay sexual activity. However in the material for teens, the message is about sexual rights and the freedom to make their own decisions at any age, regardless of what adults think.

An example of this is All About Sex. This pamphlet is the first resource suggested to young individuals on the SIECUS site. The piece begins by telling kids that everyone has their own way of expressing their sexuality, then it goes on to for eight pages discussing the a their “sexual rights”.

Read what it says:

“Every human being has basic rights. Still, adults may say and do things that make young people feel like they don’t have rights. It’s important for you to know your rights so that you can stand up for yourself when necessary.”

She continues: “At every point in your life, you can choose if and how to express your sexuality.” Later: “It is up to you to determine how much risk you are willing to take.” And: “Many teens choose to be sexually active and many choose not to. You have the right to decide exactly what behaviors, if any, you are comfortable participating in….”

Basically, it’s a green light, telling kids it is all up to them to chose how much they’d like to risk. A far cry from promoting the delay in sexual activity message they promise to parents.

Her statement is simple, sex educators are not providing the medical facts that are absolutely neccessary for a child (and parents) to make the right decisions. Rather by avoiding all the hard data, sex educators are simply promoting the social agenda of sexual freedom and when sexual freedom reigns, sexual health suffers.

Breakpoint Commentary on Sex Education Messaging

Below is a recent post from Breakpoint.

Are you squeamish when it comes to talking with your kids about sex? Well, you’d better get to them fast, before they’re exposed to sex educators in school.

Dr. Miriam Grossman was lecturing at a Philadelphia college about sexual health. The students had invited her to talk about something they’d never encountered in all their years of sex education—the dangers of non-marital sex.

Grossman will never forget the girl who told her that everything she’d said about sexually transmitted diseases was correct. “I always used condoms, but I got HPV anyway, and it’s one of the high-risk types,” the girl said. If the infection did not go away, she had a 40 percent chance of developing cervical cancer.

In her new book, You’re Teaching My Child What?, Grossman says she felt “a wave of sorrow” at the girl’s words—but she was hardly surprised. The girl was yet another victim of a destructive philosophy that has been forced on America’s youth under the guise of “sex education.”

The sex-ed lobby has always claimed it was all about health—teaching kids how to stay safe. But in reality, their goal was not preventing disease, pregnancy, and emotional distress. It’s about indoctrinating them into a radical ideology—sexual freedom. Kids are urged to consult websites that urge them to begin “exploring” their sexuality at a young age, insist that sex at any age is a right, and encourage them to engage in bizarre and dangerous activities.

The findings of science are not allowed to interfere with these radical teachings. If new research proves the dangers of the behaviors they advocate, the so-called “sexperts” simply ignore it.

For instance, sex educators urge kids to avoid pregnancy by engaging in oral sex. But two years ago, cancer specialists found that oral cancers were on the rise among young adults, who used to be at very low risk if they did not smoke or drink.

If kids interact with five or more partners, they increase their risk “a whopping 250 percent.” And yet sex educators, Grossman writes, portray this activity as safe and normal.

What’s the result of this teaching? One in four American girls now has a sexually transmitted disease.

What do the sex educators say about this? They shrug it off, telling kids that “most” people contract an STD in their lifetime—as if such a thing were normal and unavoidable.

This ought to make us really angry. The “comprehensive” sex educators have done enormous harm to our kids. They keep right on teaching kids that life is a sexual-free-for-all with no consequences as long as they use so-called “protection.”

Read Dr. Miriam Grossman’s book, You’re Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child… And then, share it with the teens in your life. They need to know the truth—that while STDs, cervical cancer, and heartbreak may be increasingly common, they are no more “normal” than swine flu.

- Breakpoint

Here is a link to Amazon for the book. You can read some reader reviews there.

You’re Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child

Endorsements of “Teaching My Child What?” – From Amazon

“Parents, this book is a gift from a gutsy doctor who puts your child first. Dr. Miriam Grossman examines what the powerful sex education industry teaches your child, and what she finds will make your hair curl. Do you have a child in school? With this book you’ll understand the destructive agendas of so-called `scientific’ sex ed, then you’ll learn what your kids really need to know: politically incorrect truths that blow those agendas out of the water. Finally, a doctor who’s brave enough to break ranks and call foul. We owe her a standing ovation.”
–Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Author and host of a nationally syndicated radio program

“Dr. Miriam Grossman is a bright, bold, but solitary beacon revealing the avalanche of faulty sex education and counseling that is endangering the physical and emotional health of our young people and corrupting their futures. This is an alert that all parents must read, and an antidote that our young people can use against those so-called experts who would indoctrinate them.”
–Nicholas A. Cummings, Ph.D., Sc.D. Former President, American Psychological Association

“The sex education lobby systematically undermines traditional morality and aggressively promotes an ideology of sexual license while pretending to be concerned only with the health and safety of young people. The sad truth is that by subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) encouraging and often facilitating adolescent sexual activity, the sex ed establishment jeopardizes the physical and emotional health of children as well as their moral and spiritual welfare. It is high time that someone stepped forward to expose much contemporary sex education for what it is, namely, a series of catechism classes for the pseudo-religion of sexual liberationism. Dr. Miriam Grossman has done just that. This bold and brilliant physician has done the nation and its children a great service. Everyone who believes, as I do, in the importance of childhood innocence and safety, and the sound moral development of young men and women, owes Dr. Grossman an enormous debt.”
–Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University

Sample Reader Reviews of “Teaching My Child What?” – From Amazon

Must Read book for Parents

This is the first review I have ever written for a book. Never have I ever been so compelled to try and get the word out on an issue. This book MUST be read by every parent in the United States. Sex Ed in our schools must be updated. IT is false.

I heard Dr. Grossman interviewed on the radio. I was so compelled by her intellect and knowledge of the subject of Sexual Education in the public schools, that I purchased her book. This was a first for me. You see, I have three teenage children, two in college, and one in high school. I thought that it was high time I took a look at what their peers are being taught.

Dr. Grossman lays out, systematically and thoroughly in this book, the inaccuracies and outright lies of what is being taught by SIECUS (The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States), Planned Parenthood, and Advocates for Youth in our schools, and on websites that are recommended by our schools in the Sex Ed programs and accompanying pamphlets and brochures handed out in the nurses office or during the class.

This book starts with showing who is exactly teaching your children. She then covers the topic of the differences between boys and girls, and the false information taught in the SE classes. Next, she talks about the abstinence/protection/do it if it feels right issue, the doctor’s responsibility, the plagues of incurable sexually transmitted infections, gender identity and homosexual/heterosexual/transgender/etc. issues. All of these topics are taught to our children in the public schools. If a child doesn’t go to a public school, not to worry, most of this information is also available on line from the three above mentioned organizations and their websites, plus the sites that they link from within their sites. No child in the United States is truly exempt from this teaching.

The text is 188 pages with 48 pages of footnotes in much smaller font than the text. She amazed me with the research, and study that went into this book. In the introduction, I began to verify each footnote sited. By the end of the introduction, which contained 31 footnotes for 14 pages of text, I was convinced that she had done her homework and had completely studied and verified her claims. She makes a statement, and then shows you with easy to verify footnotes that prove what she is saying is true. Many footnotes are easily found online.

The book is filled with personal stories of her medical practice at university medical centers, as well as others that she has gleaned elsewhere.

She convinced me that the SE classes are being taught with faulty, outdated data, and sometimes even unscientific data. She presents in this book, the most up to date data and research available. One table that she presents as an appendix at the end of the book is dated June 19, 2009. This is current information. This is valid information.

Our children are not being given the most up to date, accurate information in their sex ed classes. They are being misled about things such as condom failure rates, percentages of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the fact that the younger you begin sexual activity, the more likely you are to become infected with an STI. This book needs to be read by you and your children if you deem it appropriate for their age. I would never recommend a parent give this book to your children to read before you have pre-viewed it. It is a book that we have discussed at great length in our home, but I would not allow younger children near it. It is graphic when it needs to be. We are talking about sex here, so a parent must use their own discretion when teaching the facts in this book to their children.

Dr. Grossman counters sex ed lies with hard science,

Wow! Just as the subtitle of the book states, Dr. Grossman exposes lies – sex education lies – and that they harm our children. She asserts that the health of our youth are in a `911 emergency’ state and explains how the sex education industry priorities are detrimental to our children. She counters with the biological and neurological truths that should be part of sex education messages they receive.

“You’re Teaching My Child What?” is a must read for any adults who care about and are involved in the lives of young people. Check out the references Dr. Grossman has highlighted as examples of teen `health’ sites – ones that are endorsing risky, bizarre and fringe behaviors. Learn why she believes sexuality educators “send these kids into a minefield”. Don’t assume her message is simply about abstaining from sex, as her approach focuses on biological truths and hard science.

Most importantly, Dr. Grossman guides parents, educators and health providers as to the message we should be conveying to our youth. She includes practical suggestions for parents “to optimize your child’s chance for a life of healthy sexuality”. One can gain knowledge to counter destructive messages your child is receiving and be encouraged to provide the truths they deserve to hear.

As a mother who has checked things out enough to be alarmed and shocked at the sexuality indoctrination, I am grateful to Dr. Grossman for her commitment and boldness. I highly recommend “You’re Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child”.

See more reviews on Amazon:
You’re Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child

• What do you think? Comment Below!

Related posts:

1. Study Links Pregnancy with Watching Sexy TV Shows
2. Media’s Impact on Sexual Freedom
3. Who Regulates Online Advertising & Marketing to Children?

Is Truth Relative? Do we have a “right” to do as we please?

This discussion is not about abortion, but let me lay it out as an example to make a point. Everyone has heard the abortion arguments before: the argument for life and the argument for choice. Is abortion wrong because the child is a human being and no one has the right to kill a child? Or should abortion be considered a valid option because it is in the right of the mother to determine whether they can or want the child? How about the right of a person to kill oneself? Do old sickly people have the right to end their own lives? Can other people assist them? Stop them? The debates continue but underlying these discussions is a much deeper battle: the battle in the validity of the sanctity of life.

Morality vs Rights?

Our current culture emphasizes tolerance and rights. The “right” of a person is held on a high pedestal, I dare say even above morality. What happens when someone chooses to say someone is wrong? They are labeled intolerant and someone not considerate of the “right” of a person to do and believe what makes them happy. We are told truth is not absolute, it is relative. It is all about what feels right to a person and the “right” for a person to hold onto his or her version of truth. Thus over time, “rights” have become a touchy subject but an issue we need to tackle when discussing the sanctity of life.

Are Humans any Different from Animals?

• Is there such a thing as the “sanctity of life” when it comes to human beings?
• Is there something innate about human beings that sets them apart?
• If so, under what basis?

Naturalism says there is nothing in life outside of what we see in nature- there is no spiritual world, there is no god, there is no supernatural. Thus from a strict naturalistic perspective, humans are no different from animals. Why is that? Naturalist have to believe that humans were born out of bunch of atoms that by chance led to who we are today. From a naturalistic perspective, the only explanation for our seemingly unique ability to reason, make decisions, or have a moral conscious, is simply determined by our chemical makeup. The very reason you are reading this article is due to chemical reactions in your body – you did not chose to read it, it was set to happen. There is no “free will” or “choice”, we just do as our chemical agents leads us to do. Thus if there is no free will, there can be no choice of doing what is right or wrong, or any extra “value” in us. Hitler did what he did due to his all the chain reactions from the beginning of time. Mother Teresa did what she did, not by choice, but due to her chemical makeup. You can’t blame one or honor the other – it’s was all determined. In this worldview, there is nothing that separates us from other animals let alone plants. There is no special “sanctity of life”.

Some might be tempted to say that one believes we are mere chemicals, but still believe humans are valuable. Most would agree to that, but again, under what basis? If we are indeed just a chance product of nature (this including our ability to reason, our emotions etc), what basis do we have any “sanctity” versus some other animal?

“It seems we demand humans to live with indignity, pain and anguish whereas we are kinder to our pets when their suffering becomes too much. It simply is not logical or mature…” – Dr. Philip Nitschke

Who is Dr. Philip Nitschke?

Dr. Philip Nischke is an Australian medical doctor and founder of pro-euthanasia group called Exit International. He has campaigned for legal euthanasia and was successful in passing a law in Australia’s Northern Territory. He helped four people end their lives before the law was overturned by Australia’s Federal government. He has also provided advice to others who ended up ending their lives. He has also been in the news for his willingness to accompany several New Zealanders to Mexico to help them purchase potentially life-ending drug Nembutal and also for presenting the idea of a “death ship” which he would take people to international waters to circumvent local laws.

Dr. Philip Nitschke’s Worldview
Nitschke’s worldview is a natural result of naturalism. Since what we see in nature is all there is to life, there is nothing innate about human beings that makes them any more valuable than a dog, a cat, or even an insect. He argues in the quote above, if we kill our own pets when they are suffering, why can’t we “dignify” people in doing the same. The question is, are humans innately different than animals? Are humans more valuable or are they the same? Is killing a dog or an insect different than killing a human being? To Dr. Nitschke, we are all the same.

Check out this article from Breakpoint regarding the Sanctity of Life:

Euthanasia & the Sanctity of Life

Regular BreakPoint listeners have heard me speak about the impact of declining birth rates around the world. One consequence is that older people comprise an increasing percentage of the population in places like Japan and Western Europe.

This increases economic pressures on these countries since an aging population requires more services while having fewer young workers to pay for them.

One doctor has come up with a way to address the imbalance between pensioners and workers—that is, fewer pensioners.

What Dr. Philip Nitschke has in mind isn’t raising the retirement age—his goal is fewer pensioners.

Nitschke is the founder of Exit International, a self-described “world-leading Voluntary Euthanasia” organization. As part of his mission, Nitschke, who is from Australia, travels to different countries teaching people “how to end their lives safely.”

One of his methods is a dose of the barbiturate Nembutal. While in Britain, he told Reuters that “almost every 75-year-old I meet now sees merit in having their own bottle of Nembutal in the cupboard as an insurance policy, in case things get bad.”

Every 75-year-old? Clearly the Kevorkian from Down Under runs with an atypical crowd. As Reuters put it, “Nitschke’s is an extreme view.” Extreme, but unfortunately not unthinkable, especially given the trajectory of our culture.

At the same time Nitschke was speaking to Reuters, Britain was awaiting new guidelines for cases involving people who help family members commit suicide. The guidelines are the result of litigation involving a woman with multiple sclerosis who plans to go to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal. She wanted assurances that her husband wouldn’t be prosecuted for helping her kill herself. Britain’s law lords ruled that she was entitled to such assurances.

While assisted-suicide is still illegal within Britain, attitudes are changing. For example, the Royal College of Nurses has gone from being opposed to assisted-suicide to a position of neutrality. You don’t have to be an alarmist or even a pessimist to guess what the next change will be.

These changes coincide with the graying of the British population. Currently, 20 percent of Britons are over 65, and that is projected to rise to 30 percent by 2020. Pro-euthanasia advocates scoff at the idea that the elderly will be pressured to die by society, but British officials acknowledge the possibility. One told the BBC that he wouldn’t want to live in a society that pressured its elderly to kill themselves to make life easier for their families.

The government’s way of preventing that is laws that “strike a balance,” he said, between “sympathetic” cases and protecting the elderly. But you and I know where the road paved with good intentions leads. Without a bright line around the sanctity of human life, the extreme inexorably becomes the mainstream.

The so-called “right to die” can become, as one American politician suggested, a “duty to die,” especially as the costs associated with an aging population crowd out other priorities.

There is only one insurance policy against this nightmare—an unqualified commitment to the sanctity of life.

Euthanasia vs. the Sanctity of Life: It has only just begun.

Healthcare has become one of the biggest discussion topics in Congress and this issue of the sanctity of life is soon going to be a very real topic every person will have to grapple with. The large “baby boomer” population are slowing entering into the later stages of life.

How will the government deal with the limited resources available?
If an old frail 80 year old needs special treatments that will require expensive procedures and medicines, should we make them fully available? Or is it more “practical” to use those limited resources on someone younger who has more years to live and has a better quality of life?

The discussion on euthanasia and the sanctity of life has only just begun…

Where do you stand?

If one asks you..

• Do you believe a person has the right to kill oneself if they are old and sick? (By the way, let’s not sugarcoat this, it’s basically committing suicide).

If you answered yes, the next question would be,

• Does a person have a right to kill oneself even if they aren’t old and sick?
• Does the person have the “right” to do that?

It’s a slippery slope folks. If we deem it the “right” of a person to take one’s own life because they are sick (or assist someone), we will have to allow a person to kill themselves in any situation. Ultimately it comes down to this:

• Do you believe in the sanctity of life?
• Do you believe people innately have value and are set apart from animals, insects and inanimate objects? Or do you believe humans have no intrinsic value?

Intrinsic Value or No Intrinsic Value?

• If you believe in the sanctity of life, then under what basis?
• What gives people intrinsic value versus other things of nature?

If Dr. Philip Nischke is right and we are no different from animals, then he has every right to believe it is ok to kill a human being. We kill animals all the time, so why not people?

If you believe that people have intrinsic value and that life is sacred, first you need to figure out under what basis? Where does the value come from? Secondly, issues like euthanasia and abortion should be crystal clear. No one is allowed to kill any other human being under any circumstances. Nobody has the “right” to do that.

So where do you fall?
Leave your comments below.

Related posts:

1. There is Media, then there is Reality – Abortion
2. Sex Trafficking Victims – The Facts

Remembering 9/11 – Attack of the World Trade Center

An early apology for dampening your day, but I am a strong advocate for the need for all people to remember the events of September 11, 2001. This was a historical moment in history, one that will be seared in our minds forever. As hard as it is to relive the experience, I think it is important that we remember the fragility of life and how in the aftermath of this horrible tragedy, everyone had to stop their hurried life to reexamine why they do what they do. Questions about the meaning of life, why suffering exists, questions about God and afterlife all became a real issue in the eyes of those not only living in the United States but around the world.

See first the details of the event, followed by my own experience that morning.

Details of the Sept 11, 2001 Attack on WTC

Early in the morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial airliners en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles from Boston, Newark, and Washington, D.C. (Washington Dulles International Airport). At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower, followed by United Airlines Flight 175 which hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. Another group of hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, whose ultimate target was thought to be either the United States Capitol or White House, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m, after the passengers on board engaged in a fight with the hijackers.

During the hijacking of the airplanes, the hijackers used weapons to stab and/or kill aircraft pilots, flight attendants and passengers. Reports from phone callers from the planes indicated that knives were used by the hijackers to stab attendants and in at least one case, a passenger, during two of the hijackings. Some passengers were able to make phone calls using the cabin airphone service and mobile phones, and provide details, including that several hijackers were aboard each plane, that mace or other form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray was used, and that some people aboard had been stabbed. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools. A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on Flight 175, and passengers on Flight 93 mentioned that the hijackers had bombs, but one of the passengers also mentioned he thought the bombs were fake. No traces of explosives were found at the crash sites, and the 9/11 Commission believed the bombs were probably fake.

On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93′s recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers.Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, organiser of the attacks, mentioned in a 2002 interview with Yosri Fouda, an al Jazeera journalist, that Flight 93′s target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name “the Faculty of Law”.

The World Trade Centers Collapse

Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south tower fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The north tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. When the north tower collapsed, debris heavily damaged the nearby 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) building. Its structural integrity was further compromised by fires, and the building collapsed later in the day at 5:20 p.m.

Widespread Confusion, a Traffic Controller’s Nightmare

The attacks created widespread confusion among news organizations and air traffic controllers across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days. Aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. News sources aired unconfirmed and often contradictory reports throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta Air Lines airliner—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio. [Source: Wikipedia]

Casualties of Sept 11, 2001 – The Statistics

There were a total of 2,993 deaths, including the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes, 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. An additional 24 people remain listed as missing. All of the deaths in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center. In 2007, the New York City medical examiner’s office added Felicia Dunn-Jones to the official death toll from the September 11 attacks. Dunn-Jones died five months after 9/11 from a lung condition which was linked to exposure to dust during the collapse of the World Trade Center.

NIST estimated that about 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks, while turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest that 14,154 people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m. The vast majority of people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings, along with 18 people who were in the impact zone in the south tower. 1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower. According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact, while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed. As many as 600 people were killed instantly or were trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower.

At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers, landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access doors were locked. No plan existed for helicopter rescues, and on September 11, the thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented helicopters from conducting rescues.

A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene died as they attempted to rescue people and fight fires. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 341 firefighters and 2 FDNY paramedics.The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers, and 8 additional EMTs and paramedics from private EMS units were killed.

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11′s impact), lost 355 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the city of Hoboken sustaining the most deaths.

Weeks after the attack, the estimated death toll was over 6,000. The city was only able to identify remains for about 1,600 of the victims at the World Trade Center. The medical examiner’s office also collected “about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead”. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Morning of Sept 11, 2001 – Shocked & Confused

I woke up to the sound of someone talking on the radio. The sun was already beating down through the bedroom window, another beautiful day I thought. Half alert, I was wondering why my roommate had the radio on. I had planned to sleep in a bit. Then I heard over the air-waves, someone speaking of a plane crashing into a building. For a second I thought I must have misheard. Planes being run into buildings? That’s crazy. I need more sleep. Then I heard it again, a plane has hit the world trade center. I am not dreaming. Something is going on. I jumped out of bed. My roommate and I ran out to flip on the TV and there it was. The country was in utter chaos. Everyone was confused. It was surreal, you don’t ever hear such words like planes, buildings, terrorists uttered in the same sentence. Our eyes were glued to the TV, looking at the burning tower, the people screaming, the people crying. It was as if the world stopped. Are the people out? What about those on the top floors? What in the world happened? Why is no one making it clear what happened?! By now everyone was on the phone calling their own families. Then it happened, the tower collapsed. We gazed in horror as New York was engulfed in smoke. The dust smoke crawled and expanded in and between all the buildings as if it had the intent to bury all in it’s path.

The thought of the lives of 3,000 some people, gone in an instant, was something impossible to even fathom or comprehend. What about their families? How many people left that morning as if it was just another day in their lives to only have their lives transformed in a blink of an eye? I don’t know about you, but in that moment my view of life itself became very focused. What is the meaning of life? What really matters in life? What happens after life? Why is this happening? What is evil? Why is there suffering? Emotionally this day would shake the foundations of many who witnessed what we would later call 9/11.

To be honest, it is only the next year as I attended a gathering memorializing the event, when it really hit me what kind of horrible event I had just lived through. I just hope that all those questions people had then, will not be forgotten and those who dared to ask such tough questions, chose to find answers. If they did not, I think that is a tragedy in itself. Don’t let such an event not change you for the better.

• What is your memory of the Sept 11, 2001?
• Did your life change at all due to the incident?
• Did you ever grapple with questions like the meaning of life, suffering, afterlife or any other “life questions”?

Update Sept 13, 2011 – 9 11 Quotes & Statistic Infographic

What is Polyamory?

Polyamory is relationships with multiple mutual consenting partners.

The difference between Polygamy and Polyamory is that the former involves multiple spouses, while the latter still has only one spouse, just multiple partners. Essentially it is a belief in non-monogarmy, engaging in loving, intimate relationship with more than one person with the full consent of all those who are involved.

With the rise of the gay community and various wins in the advancement of gay marriage rights, Polyamory believers are starting to become more bold and the public will slowly have to take notice. Some estimate the polyamourous family count to be more than half a million in the United States alone. There are polyamory events, magazines and groups and the numbers continue to grow.

Where did Polyamory come from?

Polyamory may be shocking to some, but in the same time it isn’t all that surprising. There was a time where anything outside of traditional marriage was considered a taboo, completely rejected by all of society. Then as we shifted into cultural modernism, the more “traditional” forms of religious faith and social organizations were seen as outdated with the rise of the new economic and social conditions in the rapidly industralizing world. As each succeeding cultural thought often does, modernism was a direct reaction to the enlightenment way of thinking. The enlightenment thinking still rooted itself in the existence of a Creator. All sense of morality was anchored in traditional Judeo Christian values. Moral Truth was absolute. With the rise of modernism, this “anchor” slowly lost it’s influence.

Then Modernism soon naturally developed into Post-Modernism. We live in a post modern world where the principles of ethics have slowly changed into subjective morality. Basically there is no anchor. All moral truths are subjective. What matters is what one judges to be true for themselves. Everyone has their own idea of what is right and wrong and we should be tolerant of their ideas.

“If I believe this to be true, who are you to judge?”
“If they are happy with it, you should leave them alone.”
“We must be tolerant of all ideas.”

Marriage being Redefined by Culture

Post-Modernism has allowed people, basically to live as they like. If they truly believe something to be true and right, then it has become taboo for anyone to take that away from them. Think about how politicians have to balance out what they say and never fully take sides just to appease all parties. No one has the authority anymore to directly say something is right or wrong.

Definition of Tolerance

“Tolerance” used to mean being tolerant of people. Respecting people despite differences in opinion. However there was still the understanding that there is moral truth. There is a objective standard of right and wrong that we are all held to. “Tolerance” has now encompassed the idea of tolerating ideas. Even the other person believes it is right for them, then we must be “tolerant”.

So doesn’t it make logical sense that the definition of marriages is a source of debate in our current post-modern world? What was once a clearly defined by the Judeo Christian faith as an husband and wife relationship now is being defined as anyone sees fit. Without the “anchor” or objective truth, it is no surprise that different groups are redefining marriage as an social construct that can involves two people of the same gender, or multiple spouses, or in this case, expand the rules of marriage to include external relationships.

Ever Changing Definition of Marriage in a Post Modern World

Husband and Wife? Husband and multiple wives? Group marriages? Marriages between relatives? Marriage between father and daughter? Brother and sister? Sounds outrageous, but when we carry out the belief that truth is subjective, who is to say this is wrong?

Full Reference

• What are your reactions to Polyamory Relationships?
• Do you think it is right or wrong?
• Do you think you have the right to say it is right or wrong?
• Do you think our culture is heading in the right or wrong direction in post-modernism?

3 Latest Viral Videos Floating around the Web

I am not one to be promoting video games. I personally believe video games, though can be fun activities in groups, usually ends up as a huge time sink. This isn’t an issue just with children and teenagers, but adults. In the modern era, even adults spend hours on end playing video games rather than living life in the real world. This is especially a concern for young children who spend so much time in front of the tube that it hinders their general interpersonal development.

I mean, a kid shot his parents over Halo 3 a while ago. I am not claiming the game caused him to do it, but if he wasn’t so obsessed with playing the game, it probably would not have never happened! Games are very addicting.

Having said that, I appreciates graphics, CG, and creativity. The following few videos are trailers and previews that came out of the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo or “E3″ conference. It has been making it’s rounds in the internet world.

What is Microsoft Natal?

Heard any buzz yet? The first of these is a trailer by Microsoft in regards to new concept technology they are currently developing. With the success of the Wii and it’s movement sensing controller, Microsoft decided to take it further by proclaiming “no controller!”. Basically what they dubbed “Natal” will be able to detect your entire body movements and use your actions for the game. Imagine playing a fighting game actually swinging fists and legs. Imagine racing with an imaginary steering wheel. That is what Natal is trying to do. See the video.

E3 – Microsoft Natal Trailer Video

The next two videos are preview shots of upcoming games Star Wars and Final Fantasy XIV. These previews show mostly CG Rendering and Visual Graphic effects. The graphics are simply spectacular. The battle scene depicted in Star Wars between the Jedi Knights and the Seth empire is truly epic, grander than any of the movies released so far.

New Star Wars Trailer – Epic Battle Scene

Final Fantasy XIV – Preview Trailer

Now don’t be wasting time playing video games! Go out! Play sports! Do something!

Craigslist Threatened by Attorney General for Erotic Services

• Are you aware that Craigslist were making headlines among the internet sphere for their battle against South Carolina’s Attorney General for the controversial “erotic services” column.
• Were you aware Craigslist even had such a category?

Craigslist has become an household name as the place to go to find jobs, to buy and sell items anything from a used DVD to cars to houses. The service boasts 40 million classified ads posted every month. Amidst all the different categories and millions of posting, what often goes unnoticed is the “erotic services” section that is unfortunately accessible to anyone. Adults, Children- anyone can access these classified section.

The Attorney Generals of several states demanded that Craigslist shut down this service as it promotes prostitution. Craigslist chose to implement changes in response to their concerns. It adopted screening measures that were recommended and removed the “erotic service” category… kinda.

Craigslist is Protected under Federal Law Section 230

To Craigslist credit, they did this despite technically being protected under federal law for content posted by users. Section 230 CDA protects free speech online and it is often used to protect sites like Youtube from being completely shut down to do user videos that violate copyright law. If a prostitute advertises illegal services and carries it out, the prostitute is guilty but Craigslist is free of any crime.

However the Attorney General of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, believed this wasn’t enough and threatened criminal charges if Craigslist did not comply. Craigslist had recently entered into South Carolina and was quickly adapted by it’s residence. McMaster sent Craigslist an ultimatum demanding ALL sexual postings be removed from Craigslist South Carolina. He first threatened legal action if Craigslist did not comply in 10 days.

“remove the portions of the Internet site dedicated to South Carolina and its municipal regions which contain categories for an functions allowing for the solicitation of prostitution and the dissemination and posting of graphic pornographic material”

10 days passed. No Compliance. Henry McMaster than stated they will start a criminal investigation.

“As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.”

Drama Unfolds – Craigslist vs Henry McMaster!
Craigslist decided it needed to take an offensive position. Craigslist responded with a flurry of blog entries stating that he Henry McMaster was in the wrong. Craigslist demanded an apology stating that though they are constitutionally protected they complied with requests from the Attorney Generals with a strict ad screening regimen, and that many more prominent companies were doing far worse. Here is an entry:

Many prominent companies, including AT&T, Microsoft, and Village Voice Media, not to mention major newspapers and other upstanding South Carolina businesses feature more “adult services” ads than does craigslist, some of a very graphic nature. For a small sampling, look (careful NSFW) here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
- [All "here" were links to various companies that allowed adult advertising. Links have been removed]

No Apology came and Craigslist filed it’s own lawsuit.

Henry McMaster Office claims Victory

More importantly, overnight they have removed the erotic services section from their website, as we asked them to do. And they are now taking responsibility for the content of their future advertisements. If they keep their word, this is a victory for law enforcement and for the people of South Carolina.

Immediately the media went on a frenzy, calling this simply a PR ploy in response to the suit against the the office. They were claiming victory for something that happened over a week ago and it only came after Craigslist sued Henry McMaster seeking declaratory relief. He has also been accused of attacking Craigslist as a way to gain attention and prominence in office.

Final Thoughts – Craigslist is Right, but…

I agree with Craigslist that Henry McMaster cannot simply point them out and ignore the fact that this is happening everywhere. The big companies like AT&T, Microsoft, and Village Voice Media are all guilty of doing the same thing. All the big newspaper media companies also allow similar advertising. If you go after one you have to go after all if truly this is your conviction. Even if it means ruining one’s own standing with the media and losing political support from these big name companies. The Craigslist CEO’s response was very well written and very convincing.

However having said that, being that craigslist is so accessible by all people including teens and children i think it behooves craigslist to take the ethical route and simply rid itself from all sexually linked advertisements altogether. The step taken by Craigslist in placing strong filter is a great move and I applaud that. I also agree Craigslist is compliant to applicable laws. The point I do not agree with is the approach of pointing at others who are doing “worse”. What’s the big deal if I steal a bike when everyone else are stealing cars? Ultimately it is still the same thing. It is still wrong regardless of the “degree” of the act. Both parties should be held accountable. This is a situation where being compliant to law is not enough and the need to adhere to a higher moral law is in order. I say drop it altogether, admit it wasn’t right and become the force to encourage other companies to follow suit.

No More Erotic Services! Just Adult Services…

By the way – Craigslist got ride of “erotic services” but has now put up “adult services” open for posting by legal adult services. Postings will cost $10, reposting at $5. All proceeds go to charity.

Holy smokes. Does anyone find this a bit disturbing? Charity? That’s like taking blood money…

• What is your take on this matter?
  
• Do you agree with Craigslist or Henry McMaster?
  
• What is the best way Craigslist should respond?

Related posts:

1. Bias of American Media – Influence of Media Money
2. Who Regulates Online Advertising & Marketing to Children?
3. South Korea: World’s Fastest Internet, PC Gaming Capital

Star Trek Movie 2009

Star Trek (2009)

Primary Audience: Teens, Adults
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Length: 2 Hour 6 Minutes
Rated: PG-13

Starring: Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Leonard Nimoy (Spock Prime), Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison
Director: J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield)
Producer: Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment

Is Star Trek Action Packed as the Trailer?

Have you seen the Star Trek trailer? The Star Trek trailer makes the movie seem like an edge-of-your-seat action packed movie. There are a lot of movies where the movie itself doesn’t do the trailer justice, however this is not one of them. Star Trek was a visual treat and an extremely well made movie. With the latest in CGI technology, space travel has never been so fun and visually pleasing. The trailer showed a lot of action and the movie made good on it’s promise.

Do I need to be a Trekkie to Enjoy the Movie?

Absolutely not, though I imagine this movie is going to create a lot of new fans and a huge boost in sales of older Star Trek DVDs. Though this movie is a prequel to the original star trek series, the movie has enough content and story in itself to be very enjoyable. I myself am not a trekkie. I’ve only seen clips of a few episodes and saw one star trek movie. Of course Star Trek fans of old would enjoy this movie all the more knowing the future histories of many of the characters such as Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scottie, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov.

General Star Trek Premise & Storyline

I promise this summary won’t reveal too much of the story, but skip this section if you don’t want to know anything.

This story centers around Kirk, the future captain all trekkies know and love. It shows his dramatic rise from a new starfleet recruit to becoming a captain. He starts off as a very troubled kid getting into bar fights without a care in the world, until he meets Captain Pike who takes an interest in him after discovering that he is the son of the great Captain Kirk the elder who in a span of a few minutes saved hundreds of lives. Captain Pike calls him out and says he is meant to do something special, not to waste his talents but to put it to use for a higher cause.

The story also spends a good deal of time showing the struggles of Spock as he deals with his unique identity as a half-Vulcan and half-human.

The villian in this movie is Nero played by Eric Bana. A cruel Romulan leader who holds a fierce grudge against the federation. He is out for revenge particularly against a young commander named Spock.

In this movie we are introduced to all of the original characters and how they ended up on the newly commissioned Enterprise NCC 1701.

Appropriate? Morals? For the Family?

Star Trek is a PG-13 Rated Film. It is pretty accurate to the rating.

Star Trek: Violence
Without question there is a lot of violence. From bar fight scenes to gun fights, hand to hand combat, people getting killed in all sorts of ways. Of course considering this is movie depicting war that comes as no surprise. There is very limited gore or blood throughout.

Star Trek: Language
Good amount of bad language. As well as comment in the bar about farm boys having sex with animals. There were also another sexual innuendos during the bar scene.

Star Trek: Sexual Content
There is one questionable scene where Kirk is shown in bed with a green skinned Orion girl. If you don’t know Kirk is quite the womanizer. Both are in their underwear though nothing blatantly sexual is shown on screen. They are interrupted before anything happens by the coming of the girl’s roommate Uhura. Uhura is shown taking her shirt off before she figures out someone is in the room to which Kirk comes out from under the bed and leaves. As always I personally don’t see why this scene had to be in the movie, it was absolutely unnecessary and had no bearing on the story at all.

There are several reasons though why they might have put this scene in the movie. It makes great trailer material. They spliced this short 20-30 second scene twice in the trailer as to make the movie look like there is a lot of sexual content. Sex sells, unfortunately. Also by putting in this scenes it guarantees the movie to get at least a PG-13 rating. Distributors do not want their movies to have a G or PG rating because the perception of such a rating results in lower sales. Every movie wants to end up in the PG-13 mark because it caters to the widest audience. Either way, at the benefit of marketing and gross sales, the decision makers are bringing tremendous cost to the culture.

Themes of Star Trek

Pros: Despite the one very questionable scene, the movie itself had many good themes. The themes of honor, sacrifice, friendship are all on full display. To see Kirk go from just wasting his life to giving himself to a greater cause is another great theme. The friendship between Kirk and Spock despite their completely different personalities is another beautiful thing to watch. They go from hating each other guts to appreciating each other’s qualities.

Cons: The overall approval of Kirk’s rebellious attitude. Kirk is brash and confident throughout the entire movie with a complete lack of respect for authority. He ends up doing what he likes completely reliant on his emotions and guts with a completely disregard of the wisdom and experience of others. I understand this is how he was when he was young but unfortunately his brash, cocky behavior is never quite put into check or shown can lead to disastrous results. His decisions end up being “good” decisions because it ends up working despite him breaking all the rules. That is a dangerous message. He ends up rising in the ranks and in the end is shown his decisions led to triumph. This instinct is praised in this movie both by Captain Pike and by the way the events turn out. I think it is great to have such instincts and to be able to think on your feet, but think about the message it sends to it’s viewers especially those who are young. It really plays into the rebellious, independent image that we tend to gravitate towards in our generation. (Think Wolverine vs Cyclops, “Cool” vs “Goody-Good boy”)

I wish there was some component showing Kirk’s rebellious self confidence leading to a wrong decision and a trail of hurt people which would be more in line with reality. However having said that this is not a stand alone movie and perhaps such character development comes much more in the future. Let’s hope so.

Live Long and Prosper

• What are your thoughts about the themes in Star Trek?
• What themes did you like?
• What themes did you think was not so good?
• What are your thoughts about the movie overall?

Please let us all know!

Related posts:

1. Watch the Best Movie Films of 2009
2. Monsters vs Aliens: Movie Review for Parents & Children
3. Movie Review: Watchmen Morality Review

In 2004, a survey by NPD Group showed that on average, girls started to use beauty products at the age of 17. Today that average is 13.

Influence of Media on Children & Beauty

There’s a scene in “Toddlers & Tiaras,” the TLC reality series, where 2-year-old Marleigh is perched in front of a mirror, smothering her face with blush and lipstick. She giggles as her mother attempts to hold the squealing toddler still, lathering her legs with self-tanner. “Marleigh loves to get tan,” her mom says, as the girl presses her face against the mirror.

The quote above is about Marleigh, one of the pageant girls on the show. Does anyone find something disturbing about this picture? She is two years old. Unfortunately the ridiculousness of this scene doesn’t end on screen, it is a depiction of our current generation.

What do these shows have in common? “Extreme makeover”, “I Want a Famous Face” “Little Miss Perfect” “Toddlers & Tiaras”. These are shows centered around raising the bar of what is considered the norm when it comes to beautifying our children.

With reality TV shows, thousands of beauty product commercials, air-brushed magazine ads, and beautiful celebrities adorning every movies we watch, the norm of the importance of beauty has changed dramatically. In 2004, a survey by NPD Group showed that on average, girls started to use beauty products at the age of 17. Today that average is 13.

But even that figure could be an overstatement. According to a market research firm Experian,

• 43 percent of 6 to 9 year olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss
• 38 percent are using hairstyling products
• 12 percent use other other cosmetic products

By the time they are 50 years old, an average women would have spent nearly $300,000 on just their hair and face according to Newsweek’s research on beauty trends (noted below). But is this surprising considering girls ages 11 to 14 are exposed to 500+ advertisements per day? 8 to 12 years old already spend $40+ million a month on beauty products according to NPD Group. Teenagers? $100 Million.

More Statistics on Beauty

• Cosmetic Surgery Procedures for Under 18 – Doubled last 10 years
• 14% of Botox injections given to 19-34 age group, seeking “preventative treatments”
• [American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery]
• 42% of 1st to 3rd Graders want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 years olds fear getting fat

“When you have tweens putting on firming cream… it’s clear they’re looking for imaginary flaws,” – Harvard psychologist Nancy Etcoff

Full Article on Beauty

True Cost of Lifetime Beauty

Economy got you down? Trying to pinch a few pennies here and there? How about cutting out on some beauty products and enhancements! See the chart below.

See Beauty Spend Breakdown Here

• What are your thoughts about young children and teens spending so much time and money on beautifying themselves?
• How about Adults?
  
• What can be done to help push up against our image driven culture?
• Can anything be done?

Related posts:

1. Powerful Impact of Media on Children
2. Children as Commodities, Influence of Media on Children
3. New Dove Beauty Campaign “Onslaught” Video