As I skimmed the headlines this morning, I noticed that Girls Gone Wild chief douchebag, Joe Francis, is being sued again by two young women for releasing a sexually explicit video without their consent.

I know. SO shocking.

But to me, that’s neither here nor there. Francis’ MO of taking video footage of young women in compromising positions for the purpose of making tens of millions of dollars is well known by now. He’s a pig.

A pig with tour buses.

Yes, now in addition to going into clubs and party spots to approach girls whose judgment may be impaired and getting them to flash some T&A or make out or whatever in exchange for a cheap, ugly GGW trucker cap, the crews can now bring them on their bus to “perform” in their roving mobile studio. Supposedly they check all ID’s before they allow girls on the bus and never ever serve alcohol, as has been alleged. *coughBULLSHITcough*

The whole bus premise is completely vile and it’s definitely not in keeping with Francis’ claims that what they do is all very spontaneous and they just happen to be there to capture all those magical moments.

Ugh. I hope he loses every penny he ever made with GGW and fails miserably at mastering new and innovative ways to to safely pick up the soap while he’s incarcerated.

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There were so many great submissions that I wasn’t able to choose just one winner in the photo caption contest so what I’ve decided to do is let the readers speak. Out of the following captions, please cast your vote in the comments for the one you like best. I’ll tally the votes Friday morning.

In no particular order:

1- More and more naked men are washing up on the beach for no apparent reason.

2 - Amazing — he’s cheeky, cocky and ballsy!

3 - You call those beach balls?

4 - Sunscreen … $10, Sunglasses … $40, Cock-Tails on the beach? Priceless

5 - I said I wanted a pink lemonade, not a pink limousine!

While I have you here, can I ask a favor? Would you please, please, PRETTY PLEASE click this link and view my Scrapblog? That’s it! Just go look at it. Comments are optional.

See, I’m trying to win a free Blogher 07 trip for two (Yes, two! Who shall I take if I win? Maybe YOU!) and each pageview of my Scrapblog counts as an entry in the the sweepstakes so please, if you ever read anything on this blog that you enjoyed, click for me! Gracias, my friends :)

And to those who have already viewed my Scrapblog, thanks! You rock!

My friend Judy of the awesome Goody Blog would like you all to know about this month’s Parents podcast which is all about the dads and features none other than Greg Allen of the blog daddytypes.

Judy swears you will love it or she will come to your house and kiss your dog on the lips. Okay, not really on that last part. I just made that up, you know, for drama. Anyway, if you have a sec, go read the details about the podcast because it sounds like a really good-y one. (sorry…I can’t resist a pun).

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The ladies over at ParentBloggers would like you to know that they are giving away a FULL registration to Blogher ‘07 (a $200 value). Get all the details here and hurry because the deadline is Friday June 8th.

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The crew over at Babble want you to know they have a spanking new blog called drool.icio.us in which they bring you the “Top Million Baby Products”. They feature all kinds of parent, baby and kid-centric stuff found by chicks with flawlessly cool taste. Go show ‘em some love!

Have you checked out Sk*rt yet? If you haven’t, perhaps you’re familiar with Digg or Reddit and perhaps like me you find a lot of the links a little…dull? Well, Sk*rt is the same concept as Digg and Reddit but it’s for da ladies!

See, Sk*rt is an online media ranking site created for and by women, featuring topics women dig and was designed to promote sites, blogs, video, products, articles, ideas, art, etc. to women. Cool, huh? Run, don’t walk, and check out Sk*rt!

And finally, one of the most important things you should know about is the BlogHers Act Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann of Been There and The MotherHood, along with BlogHer, are setting in motion a year-long initiative to harness the incredible power of women online. Simply put, this means that the BlogHers Act will take on two things –

1. Making a difference on a single global cause

2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election.

To participate in this amazing idea, go to Been There or BlogHer and let them know what global issue(s) are important to you. The deadline for suggestions is June 15th.

Go! Be heard!

Apparently the Louisiana Supreme Court thinks not because last week it upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of raping an eight year old girl.

The specifics vary but capital punishment for child rape is legal in Georgia, Florida, Montana, Oklahoma, Louisiana and South Carolina. Texas also just passed a bill and it is expected the Governor will sign it into law. I didn’t even know a death sentence was an option in such cases but I have to say that I am uncharacteristically happy about it.

Ordinarily, I do not support the death penalty because of all the cases in which people have been proven wrongly convicted by the advent of DNA testing. But for some reason, I feel absolutely no compunction about giving a death sentence to someone who commits child rape, as in the Louisiana case, where the attack was so brutal that the little girl required surgery to try and repair the damage.

Perhaps if I knew all the facts, I would feel differently, but as it stands I feel no mercy whatsoever for the perpetrator, Patrick Kennedy.

I’m a little ashamed that I feel glad that he’s slated for death; that I can’t rise above it, but ultimately, I just look at it as one less predator to worry about; one less piece of shit for the state to support and then monitor when he gets out on parole, which he no doubt eventually would. And? One less piece of shit that will become a recidivist and rape again, as sexual predators almost always do.

I can’t explain the disparity between my feelings about capital punishment for murderers and child rapists except to say that, as a parent, I feel a special kind of hate for people that prey on kids that supercedes just about anything else. Logical? No. Of course not.

When I was nine years old, I was grabbed at a Holiday Inn ice machine by a guy who, ten minutes earlier, had helped me open the tricky door to our hotel room. He held me and asked me what I would do if he pulled his pants down and when I started screaming, he tried to put his hand over my mouth and forcefully subdue me. I struggled with him and when I broke free he ran away but I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had been too scared to fight; if I had been too scared to scream?

We filed a police report but we never heard anything else about the case and thus I also wonder, on occasion, how many other girls were not as lucky as I was.

So I ask you…should child rapists get the death penalty and why?

Or should they be spared and why?

If you chose the former, would you still be in favor of the death penalty if the perpetrator were a family member?

And if you chose the latter, would you still feel that way if the victim were your own child?

A billboard in Chi-Town. Whattaya think???

The other night Wendy and I went to the movies and saw Disturbia. Can I just tell you that it was SO dang scary & suspenseful!

I must have said “Wendy, I’m scared!” about ten times while looking between my fingers.

If you haven’t seen it yet and you’re looking for something fun and intelligent rather than serious or depressing to go see, Disturbia is a winner.

The female teen character was smart and empowered and she was very pretty but not cheesy. The male lead character wasn’t your typical Hollywood pretty boy but rather, an average kid like the one that lives across the street from you.

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But have you read about the “Women’s Town” Chinese tourist attraction? It’s a town where women rule and men get in trouble for disobedience. No, really… I’m serious.

The new motto of the town will be “women never make mistakes, and men can never refuse women’s requests.”

Hmmm. I wonder if they’ll ever franchise and open one up over here???

The article from Yahoo:

Chinese tourism authorities are seeking investment to build a novel concept attraction — the world’s first “women’s town,” where men get punished for disobedience, an official said Thursday.

The 2.3-square-km Longshuihu village in the Shuangqiao district of Chongqing municipality, also known as “women’s town,” was based on the local traditional concept of “women rule and men obey,” a tourism official told Reuters.

“Traditional women dominate and men have to be obedient in the areas of Sichuan province and Chongqing, and now we are using it as an idea to attract tourists and boost tourism,” the official, surname Li, said by telephone.

The tourism bureau planned to invest between 200 million yuan ($26 million) and 300 million yuan in infrastructure, roads and buildings, Li said.

“We welcome investors from overseas and nationwide to invest in our project,” he added.

The motto of the new town would be “women never make mistakes, and men can never refuse women’s requests,” Chinese media have reported.

When tour groups enter the town, female tourists would play the dominant role when shopping or choosing a place to stay, and a disobedient man would be punished by “kneeling on an uneven board” or washing dishes in restaurant, media reports said.

The project, begun in the end of 2005, was expected to take three to five years to finish.

Is that not the most bizarre thing you’ve read all day? And isn’t it wonderful for the lucky women who get to live there?!

Edited to Add: There seems to be some misunderstanding that I am not aware of or don’t care about the women/human rights issues brought to light by this new venture.

Au contraire, people… Women/human rights are known to be poor in China. That’s a given. The reason I say the women who live in this particular town are lucky is because they do not have to suffer as second class citizens as most women do in China and in countless other places around the world.

As for the men being submissive to women, I think it’s just the way things are there. I don’t believe anyone is forcing them to stay. In any case, the reason this area is being exploited for tourism is because the whole female-dominant scene, as a way of life rather than a source of sexual titillation, is an anomaly as well as a novelty.

(I’m going to try to keep this from getting too lengthy but if you’re a regular here, you probably know that’s damn near impossible for me so I’ll just apologize in advance for any long-windedness.)

The topic at hand today is Bratz dolls. Well, no. It really isn’t Bratz dolls so much. It’s more about how our society has become so numb to the constant sexualization of girls that it’s hard for some to even recognize it anymore. And it’s about one small thing we can do to stem the proverbial tide.

So what am I carrying on about now? Well, for starters, I was recently vindicated by the American Psychological Association who ALSO sees a problem with society projecting sexuality onto younger and younger girls. While many insist that it’s all in good fun and that people like me are perverts for thinking otherwise, all I can say is “Ha! My instincts were spot on!” Padded bras for six year olds and toddler dolls in thongs and dolls dressed like hookers being marketed to little girls are NOT harmless.

See, the thing is, Bratz dolls are not going to make your daughters become prostitutes. But they are one very visible component of a culture of which the resultant cumulative effect is a loud and clear message that a girl’s worth lies with her sexuality. The dolls, simply put, are just a small part of something much larger; a general but very perceptible shift in how women are regarded in the world at large and it’s starting with our preschool age daughters.

So what do I want? I want something better. I want to change the world from place where a young girl’s worth is in her willingness to shed her clothes or trade basic human dignity for a few minutes of fleeting fame or infamy; a culture where girls don’t seem to mind trading themselves for things that are worthless.

I’m not talking about adults here. Adults can make as many stupid decisions on how to live their lives as they want. I’m talking about children and self-worth and I just can’t figure out where the disconnect is. I can’t find that corner we turned where respecting yourself stopped being as important as flashing for a free Girls Gone Wild hat, or giving a blowjob because it’s just oral sex and it makes you popular; or being “hot” completely displaced being accomplished or intelligent.

When did self-respect become so uncool? I’m not even sure I can effectively articulate what I mean to say here but if one single person considers leaving a comment lecturing me about how I can’t stop progress or the world is the way it is and I should just “educate” my child to be better or whatever, don’t bother. I refuse to accept that.

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Imagine you had to undergo cancer treatment that would render you infertile.

And imagine that before you started treatment, you went through the beginning stages of in vitro fertilization so you could ultimately create fertilized embryos to be frozen and used after you completed your cancer treatment to get pregnant and have a family.

And then imagine that you ended up splitting with your partner and he decides, because he doesn’t want you to have his child anymore, to destroy those embryos — because the law says he can.

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