Author Archives: Cpike

About Cpike

Freelance writer and affiliate marketing, tech geek, and movie nerd. If it's got a button on it, I'm, probably interested.
Cpike

Jobs as President? Uh…No.

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Politics / Current Events

Bill Maher, HBO’s resident comedian/pundit has a bit on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, called “New Rules” in which he lays out new conditions for our collective social contract. They’re almost always pretty funny and it gives him a chance to rant about some hand-picked social ill. On the May 14th show, he choice was President Obama’s commencement address to Hampton University in which he said that he didn’t know how to work an iPod. (the larger point being the role of information in today’s society and how a glutton of useless info combined with ready access to it could one day impair our democracy). Maher went on to criticize the remark saying it’s unlikely that one of the hippest, most tech-savvy President’s this country has ever seen would be incapable of operating a device that has become ubiquitous in our culture. Maher went on to say that Obama was likely trying to appeal to the “Aw shucks” crowd which regard a lack of knowledge about modern culture as endearing and folksy.

Maher further commented if we want this country to right itself, we need a President who is more aggressive about his beliefs and his willingness to pursue them, citing Steve Jobs as an example of someone who has built his career on a no compromise strategy. Bill offered up various solutions that Jobs could propose to fix this country’s ills, but I had stopped listening. Steve Jobs as President? He couldn’t be serious. After 8 years of Bush and Cheney, whose obsessive need for need for secrecy succeeded in covering up some of the worst abuses of executive power since the Nixon administration, the last thing this country should aspire to is someone whose “my way or the highway” approach to business runs counter to the transparency that people should expect in government.

Look at Jobs recent track record since returning to Apple in 1996. Want to know about what the company is working on? Most tech reporters have stopped asking, knowing the company’s stance on not commenting on upcoming projects and going hard after leakers of such info. I suspect that more people are afraid of a call from Apple’s legal team than they are from the Department of Justice. Want a say on how the company is run? Jobs owns a majority share of the company and notoriously hates talking to “bozos” as he’s referred to the common people who want to chat him up on a daily basis (in fact, it’s so bad that according to the unofficial biography of Jobs called iCon, Apple employees in the flagship San Francisco store are forbidden from even approaching Jobs if he should enter. It’s an offense that results in instant termination). And God help you if you should happen to possess something that belongs to him and write about it. Even the Apple fanboys had a hard time defending the company’s move in the whole Gizmodo/iPhone 4 saga.

Obviously Maher wasn’t seriously offering up Jobs as a potential candidate for the highest office in the land, but it’s that increasing desire towards authoritarian figures that should trouble us. The suggestion that being successful in the business world automatically translates into success in the political world is also a fallacy that needs to be dispensed with in the 21st century. Governing a country is no where near being the same thing as running a company. It takes a different skill set. What makes Jobs a brilliant CEO and marketing guru would work against anything approaching a democratic society and people as smart as Maher should see that.

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Cpike

Why Apple Will Destroy Gizmodo

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To be successful in today’s world, there are only 3 rules you need to live by:
1) Treat others as you wish to be treated
2) Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line
3) Never, ever fuck with Steve Jobs
The last one is something the folks over at Gizmodo are learning the hard way.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the tech blog Gizmodo got themselves into a little bit of trouble with Apple over a series of pieces they published about a prototype 4th generation iPhone they got their hands on. However, as much attention as those articles got them, what went on behind the scenes garnered even more. Over the days the followed the initial story, rumors of how the blog got their hands on the device began to overshadow the initial find.

According to stories in both Wired and Gizmodo, here’s what happened: an Apple employee, Gray Powell, was at German bar about 20 miles away from Apple HQ the night of March 18 preparing to celebrate his 27th birthday the following day. With him was the iPhone 4G disguised as an iPhone 3GS. Powell had only one of a few working prototypes of the next generation iPhone in order to test it in real world conditions before mass production (a common practice of Apple’s). After updating his Facebook on the fine selection of beers at the restaurant, he set the phone down, had a few more beers and left the bar, leaving the phone behind.

Moments later, a bar patron noticed the phone and began asking around to see if the owner was still around, eventually asking 21-year-old Brian Hogan, who has been sitting next to Powell, but was not with his party. Hogan said the phone wasn’t his, but was given the phone to look after when the man who found it left the bar. Hogan asked around further, but no one claimed it, so Hogan and his friend stayed at the bar to see if Powell would return for it (he didn’t that night but made several trips to the bar over the next few days to see if anyone had returned it). While Hogan was waiting, he turned on the phone and noticed the Facebook app and opened it, finding Powell’s page. Hogan figured he would return the phone the next day and left the bar. While at home, he tinkered with the phone more and discovered the case to be fake. Opening it, he realized what he really had in his possession. The next morning, he placed calls to AppleCare, Apple’s product support line, trying to get someone who could tell him how and where he should return the (now inoperable) phone, but was only given a ticket number.

It’s at this point where the story becomes murky. Apparently frustrated that the phone couldn’t be returned to Apple, an unidentified friend of Hogan’s begins calling tech journalists offering to sell the phone to them, finally settling on Nick Denton, a British journalist and entrepreneur, who serves as publisher of Gawker Media, the parent site of Gizmodo. Denton paid $5000 for the device and gave it to one of his editors, Jason Chen, to disassemble, analyze and write up his findings for Gizmodo. As a result of Chen’s piece, Gizmodo experienced as many as 15 million hits in a day of its publication. That was when all hell broke lose at Apple.

Upon publication, Gizmodo contacted Powell and let him know they had the phone and were willing to return it (according to Denton). However, publicly, Apple outside counsel was demanding the return of the phone, now referring to it as stolen property and launching an investigation of Chen that included a warrant-free police raid on his home and confiscation of his computers and servers. Police have also contacted Hogan, who has refused to let the police search his home. It has been these moves which have launched a firestorm of controversy for both Apple and Gizmodo.

Denton and Chen are standing by their principals, claiming that the raid was illegal because Chen is protected by California’s shield law for reporters, allowing them to publish confidential information without revealing the source of it. Apple is claiming the law doesn’t apply to Chen because Denton knowingly purchased stolen property for the purpose of profiting off of it (and he has if you factor advertising rates for Gizmodo). Much has been written already about what Denton did wrong and what he stands to get by fighting Apple (including this must-read piece by Business Week’s Jason Calacanis), but what Denton is missing is that while he may win this fight with Apple, he is doomed to lose the war (and his business) if he continues. And if he needs proof of this, he need look no further than the last blog to fight Apple; Think Secret.

Think Secret was the brainchild of Nick Ciarelli, a then 13-year-old kid and Apple fanboy who loved writing and exposing all of the products Apple has released or was about to release. From 1999 to 2007, his network of leakers got scoops on Apple products that would drive fanboys and Apple’s legal team insane. Lawsuit after lawsuit came with the intention of getting Ciarelli to reveal his sources, but to no avail. Finally a deal was struck so that Ciarelli would get to keep his list secret, but he would have to shut down the blog. They were a number of stories that indicated that Think Secret was at the end of its rope financially and that continuing the fight would no longer possible for his legal team.

Now while Gawker Media has far more resources to defend themselves than Ciarelli had when he fought Apple, it won’t be enough to fight them on the field Apple is going to be playing at. The more you fight Jobs, the more entrenched he’ll become until his legal team wears you down. For a man like Denton who is looking only at the bottom-line and whose company is already feeling the heat from the economic collapse, he’d do well to remember that. It doesn’t matter if he is right or if he has the law on his side. Apple is willing to make this a long fight in order to scare away any reporters who may want to steal Apple’s thunder in the future. Jobs always wins and is revered for it by both the press and his fans.

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Review of Iron Man 2

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Entertainment

There was an article out a couple of years ago decrying the fact that the summer movie season was starting earlier each year and that the traditional Memorial Day Weekend didn’t have as much meaning now that a healthy chunk of summer movies were already out. This year that line gets moved back even further as the summer season starts today with the release of Iron Man 2. The sequel directed by comic book fan Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, picks up 6 months after the Stark’s famous announcement “I am Iron Man” at the end of the first film. Here’s a spoiler-free, down and dirty rundown of what I liked and didn’t about this flick.

The Good
Robert Downey Jr: This guy has had one of the most interesting careers in show business. Early critical acclaim, early Oscar, followed by persistent drug use, jail, having most of the entertainment industry write him off as another Hollywood has-been, only to recover and have a bigger career than the first one. All that and he’s fascinating to watch on screen. His take on Stark as a hyper-manic, impulsive genius with the weight of the world on his shoulders is a performance that makes you want to see more and what will drive me back to see the movie again. He does for Stark what Johnny Depp did for Jack Sparrow; made the role his own. Seriously, now that you’ve seen him play it, can you ever imagine anyone else doing it? RDJ’s take on Iron Man is like the anti-Spider-Man; with great power comes as little personal responsibility as humanly possible.

The CGI: You really can’t get too far into this movie without commenting on how well the special effects are. From the opening scene at Stark Expo (taking place in Flushing, New York, the director’s home town) to the final battle scene with War Machine and the Hammer drones (humorously referred to as “hammer-roids”), this film rocks. In fact, that battle scene at the end is probably one of the finest I’ve scene put to film in a very long time. Think the Death Star fight in the original Star Wars, but with battle suits. Also, your trivia for the day: the War Machine suit you see in the film doesn’t exist. It is entire CGI unlike the Iron Man armor, which is an actual costume. Hard to believe when you see it on screen.

Sam Rockwell: No one can play a smarmy asshole like this guy. His Justin Hammer is a kind of bumbling little brother to Stark. Always looking up to him, trying to be him and failing badly. There have been articles written comparing the relationship between the two as a kind of Jobs-Gates thing, but I don’t see that anywhere in the film, unless you assume that Gates has some sort of massive inferiority complex, which seems unlikely considering his software runs something like 90% of the world’s personal computers. I’d love to see more of him in a sequel.

There is no 3D version: God, I hate 3D movies. It was always a cheap little gimmicky thing and it still is. Gladly, someone at Paramount decided to resist the urge to jump on this tired bandwagon.

The Bad:
The trailer: I know this is kind of picky, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. About 1/3 of the trailer that’s been shown of the movie doesn’t appear anywhere in the final film. I hate that. It almost feels as if the group tasked with promoting the film didn’t think it was good enough so they went to the editing room to look for scenes to boost interest. It’s Iron Man, people were going to see this anyway, so stop trying to game the audience because some of those scenes in the trailer were funny and I would have loved to see them in the film.

Olivia Munn: I follow a lot of movie and geek sites and there has been an uproar about the role Mumm has in the film. Originally her role was of a reporter who Stark seduces, but her scenes were cut from the film. Favreau felt bad about it and called her back to shoot some new scenes which would appear in the film, which led to fans to speculate that she was going to be playing a role that would be pivotal to the upcoming Avengers film (Scarlet Witch? The Wasp?). Her entire appearance is 5 seconds long and is a complete throwaway cameo. What a complete waste of hype.

So should you go see this film? If you’re not already in line reading this on a smartphone, then you’re a fool. It’s the start of the summer season and this is one of the films that was made for the big screen. Go now. Rating: 4 boobies out of 5

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ACTA: the most sweeping international agreement you’ve never heard of.

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Politics / Current Events

It’s been debated over various legal forums for years. It’s considered the bane of of privacy groups like the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union as well as international groups as Australian Digital Alliance, The Canadian Library Association, Consumers Union of Japan, and InternetNZ. It’s been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories across the Internet, but most people in America have never heard of it. The treaty is called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and if passed by the negotiating countries, represents some of the most draconian practices that industry insiders have wanted codified into general practice worldwide.

The treaty, which the US began formal negotiations on in 2007 (along with a European Commission, Japan and Switzerland), was originally intended to deal with the flow of counterfeit goods travelling across borders and inflicting undue harm upon the companies who were making original product. Their long-standing claim was that they were seeing their sales damaged as a result of international states failing to crack down on the black market trade. However, even then, some legal scholars, among them Canadian Internet law expert Michael Geist, wrote that he believed that copyright and intellectual property (IP) were also high on the list of items these countries would be talking about. This speculation led many to hypothesize that US industry types wanted international states to impose measures that were somewhat common in the U.S., but unenforceable overseas.

What led the speculation was the fact that all of the negotiations between the parties are taking place in absolute secrecy. There are no reporters allowed, no one who participates is allowed to discuss any facet of the negotiations, and no one is allowed to say who is taking part in them. At present, it is know that since it’s inception, the original group of countries has grown to include Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States. But until recently nothing else was known about the group (the United States lists ACTA as a national security issue and will not discuss it publicly)

One of the alleged controversial measures was the law known here as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The law, which states that “internet service providers are responsible for the infringing material hosted on their networks if they fail to remove the content at the rights holder’s request” is a law in the U.S. but most foreign bodies will not enforce it on their shores, leading groups like Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), to push the U.S. trade representatives to include a version of it for consideration by the international body.

The concerns of many privacy advocates were answered in 2008 when Wikileaks published what was purportedly a paper on discussions from within the group. In it, the DMCA had morphed into a kind of ‘three strikes” law, meaning anyone caught distributing illegal works without consent of the copyright holder would face losing their Internet access for good. With no one to contradict the rumors of its existence, privacy advocates wrote paper after paper condemning its inclusion and stating that it represented a complete overreaction to the problem. They also demanded that a draft of the agreement must be released to the public for further scrutiny.

Those calls for transparency were answered just a few days ago when, after another embarrassing round of leaks, an official draft copy of the treaty was released to the public. In it, was a variant of the “three strikes” that said that nations could implement such a practice, but did not have to (reportedly after EU officials said they would not vote to ratify if the measure was mandatory).  Also included in the 39-page document were steps that would penalize anyone who developed circumvention technology, which as author and ACTA critic Rob Pegoaro states would, “which stop you from breaking a digital lock on a copyrighted file, even for perfectly legal purposes. As a result, the U.S. would no longer be able to correct that mistake without violating its ACTA obligations.”

But, you may be wondering why all the fuss? Trade treaties still have to be ratified by the U.S. Senate before becoming law, right? Not in this case. The ACTA negotiations were set up under a loophole in international treaty provisions. ACTA is considered a “sole executive agreement”, meaning that once signed by the trade representatives, it becomes binding. Congress will never see it the final draft before ratification. Soi the question remains, do you trust an unaccountable group of people (whose names you do not know), setting up a binding international legal document that could have place fundamental changes on how you conduct your personal and professional business?

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This is How I Would Remake Saved By The Bell

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Funny / Humor

Spider-Man? Rebooted.

Clash of the Titans? Remake

The Dukes of Hazard? Remake

Superman? Reboot of the remake

Alice in Wonderland? Re-imagining of a reboot of a remake

The Incredible Hulk? see above

The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3? Remake

Highlander? Who knows.

Are you like me and really tired of Hollywood giving up on even the illusion of credibility and going on a binge of unnecessary remakes of the classics of years gone by, or remakes of films that weren’t that good to begin with? Think they’re out of ideas completely? Well, I think they could use some help from the fans themselves, so I’m going to be starting a new section here on the blog where I propose some films and TV shows that are ripe for a gritty updated remake for today’s originality-deprived audiences. Each of these is sure to be a hit. Feel free to contribute your own. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the one responsible for tomorrow’s greatest cinematic smash.

First up: Saved by the Bell

Synopsis: Set in inner-city Los Angeles, the new Saved by the Bell is less cutesy WASP high school and more gritty drama. Think Colors meets Deliverance meets 10 Things I Hate About You. Join the adventures of Zack Morris, a talented but conflicted man-child as he navigates his way through what the country has deemed “the most dangerous high school in America”. Between daily shootings and riots, Zach’s innocence is slowly corrupted by drugs and violence. Leading his downfall is his favorite teacher and part-time lover, the aptly-named Miss Bliss. Between meth and ecstasy-fueled sex marathons, Zach tries to keep a normal relationship with the girl of his dreams, Kelly, who’s been resorting to turning tricks on the side to cover the costs of her own education, and AC (Absolute Cruelty) Slater, his protector and best friend, an ex-jock and steroid junkie given to random burst of rage. Slater has killed once while protecting his friend and isn’t afraid to do it again. In fact, he’s starting to like it. Kelly’s pimp, Lisa, is the power center of sex at the school, having an iron grip on every whore in a 15 block radius of the school. But she is still trying to turn the hottest piece of ass her way, Jessie Spano. Lisa’s would change her mind if she knew that Spano was really the world’s greatest teen assassin on a personal mission to kill whoever set up her sister on a suicide mission at the school two years ago. She’s now working closely with undercover DEA agent and authority-bucking Mr. Belding, who’s out to end the drug trade at the school-by any means necessary. However, not even he is prepared to deal with the sickest freak and sociopath the city has ever seen; Samual “Screech” Powers who got his name by the sounds he produces from his victims as he dismembers them alive in the school’s boiler room. Screech’s depravity is only matched by his unquenchable sexual appetite as he nearly reaches his goal of having sex with every living thing (human or not) at the school. Yes, this isn’t your father’s Saved By The Bell. It’s raw power will come ripping off the screen. Coming to theaters next Christmas. Rated YGTBFKM (You’ve Got To Be Fucking Kidding Me).

Tentative Cast:

Zack Morris: Seth Rogan

AC Slater: Danny Trejo

Lisa Turtle: Gabourey Sidibe

Kelly Kapowski: Jessica Alba

Jessie Spano: Lindsay Lohan

“Screech” Powers: Crispin Glover

Mr. Belding:Ving Rhames

Miss Bliss: Christina Hendricks

Directed by: Robert Rodrigeuez

cross-posted at WetGirlzBlog

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The 3 Biggest Winners and Losers in Apple’s Porn Purge

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Geekisms and Gadgets

Earlier in the month, Apple went on an unannounced purge of its iPhone App Store and removed any application that it deemed too adult to be purchased. It unleashed a flurry of protests from tech bloggers, app developers and pornstars. They felt Apple was being far too paternalistic in their decision to eliminate apps they had previously approved through their already controversial process.

However, the problem didn’t end there. Within days, it was discovered that apps such as Playboy and Sports Illustrated, both of which feature women in bikinis or lingerie, were allowed to remain in the store without any interruption whatsoever. When pressed for an explanation to what appeared to be a discrepancy in their original explanation, Apple’s Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing, claimed that organizations with a well-known brand would be allowed to keep their apps alive since Apple was aware of what it was they were offering Apple’s customers.

Yes, you read it right, indie apps are screwed. While Apple has been making inroads to the developer community in recent months after a couple of years of imposing rather Draconian roadblocks like the length of time between submission of an app and inclusion to the App Store, awkward reasons for refusing an app, and deleting apps after initially approving them, this represents a huge step backwards. I suspect this could be a game-changer for some who have simply become fed up with the entire process. Some will likely walk away as did Facebook iPhone App guru Joe Hewitt after he became frustrated with Apple. Others are going to figure out a way around the roadblocks. Below is a short list of who I think will be the winners and losers in the upcoming months:

WINNERS

Google: Google was the first major company who had an app submission rejected for no good reason by Apple (which resulted in a legal battle being fought in the courts and through the FCC). Depending on who you ask, the Google Voice iPhone app was rejected by Apple shortly after submission because 1) AT&T wanted any competition with their services killed 2) Apple’s growing unease about Google starting to move in on their territory 3) it genuinely violated the terms of agreement Apple has with its developers to not submit apps that duplicate native features already present on the iPhone.

Google responded by bypassing the App Store altogether and reconfiguring the app in the new HTML5 format and releasing it on their own (much like they did with their Google Wave application). Unlike traditional web apps, which consume an inordinate amount of battery life, HTML5 presently requires much power and apps built on it tend to operate more like an App Store application. This could very well be a game changer for many who feel they have been shafted by Apple.

This is a significant development by Google. By bypassing the gatekeepers in Cupertino, Google has shown there is a way to produce a quality app without the need to craft 5 different versions of it for every smartphone out there. Just one. Now all they need is for some other major industry to embrace it to get the ball rolling (see “the adult industry”).

HTML5 Developers: If you’re a web developer and not already familiar with this very new and increasingly popular format, you would be doing yourself a favor to start learning it now. Those skills are going to be in demand soon as tech companies start to realize the advantages to having more control over an app’s development and content. Besides, learning something new is fun (and profitable when you’re the only one on the block who knows it).

The Adult Industry (potentially): Traditionally, the adult industry has always played the role of kingmaker to new technology (BetaMax anyone?) and this could be no different. But could is the operative word here. Since HTML5 is so new, no one has really taken the time to exploit it, but now that Google has entered the fray, the industry is in a position to be the force that drives it into regular use. There are already so many apps available that have been stymied (and now banned) by their inability to use Flash. The industry is in an excellent position to show the world what this format is capable of, if they chose to do it.

LOSERS

Adobe and/or Flash developers: Sorry, guys, it’s been a nice run, but your days are numbered. Either stop fighting the tech community’s embrace of HTML5 or get on board. You don’t have to like it, but Jobs’s refusal to use your product has boxed you into a corner and you don’t need to look around all that hard to see the number of companies Apple has damaged or put out of business by their own refusal to adapt to a changing marketplace. AIR will never be the product you keep hoping it will be, so it’s time to face facts; you’re at a crossroads (or think of it as a technological Darwinian state, if you prefer) – adapt or die.

Steve Jobs: Jobs is one of the last corporate titans who will so willingly and often buck the marketplace and do what he wants. Most of the time, that instinct has served him well. It’s hard to argue that when it comes to hardware design, his vision has revolutionized the technology industry. The eMac, iPod, iMac and iPhone have each changed the way tech companies approach hardware design and made Jobs a household name. Even his commercial failures, like the Newton, have been profitable for the tech industry.

However, his record in terms of software design has been more spotty. Sure, iTunes changed the way people consume content online and put a major dent into online piracy, but applications like MobileMe and iWork and have never really taken off in comparison with its competitors, many of which are offered at little or no cost to the consumer.

Jobs’ refusal, right or wrong, to prevent Flash applications from finding a home on the iPhone has spurned development into other ways to get web-based video or animation to the iPhone. Many have opted to use Apple’s own Quicktime, but it’s an extra step to cater to the iPhone market (one that is too large to simply ignore). Embracing the HTML5 format could potentially create a situation where the notoriously control-conscious Jobs no longer has any input over what goes on the product he created.

The Adult Industry (potentially): At some point, Apple will probably relent and re-introduce adult-themed apps back into the store (there are some signs that in addition to the parental options available via the 3.o software update, iTunes will introduce an “Explicit Content” section of the store), but that fix is only temporary until someone else throws a fit about Apple profiting from porn on the iPhone. Suicide Girls, iEva and iTeagan will probably make their way back on your phone, but for how long?

If the industry fails to embrace the challenge laid out by Google, content producers will find their fortunes minimized and at the whim of a corporation who does not have their interests at heart. Going independent has always been a hallmark of the industry when all other avenues have been closed to them. This time the door was slammed in their face and if producers and studios fail to take up the challenge and go their own way, they could see one of the most profitable aspects of the industry throttled and bottlenecked by the very technology that should be their greatest ally.

Cross-posted at Wet Girlz Blog

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Are Brit ‘Lad’ mags porn?

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That’s the question facing retailer according to a new U.K. gov’t report which is recommending just that. The concern is access by children to such magazines, which feature a bevy of topless or semi-nude models. Currently they are stocked on lower shelves rather than the higher ones where more traditional porn mags are kept.

Business Week covered the story earlier today:

“Lads’ mags” in Britain such as Nuts and Zoo should be placed on the top shelf in shops alongside pornography to prevent children being sexualized at a young age, a government report said.

IPC Media Ltd.’s Nuts magazine and Bauer Consumer Media Holdings Ltd.’s Zoo, which both feature picture of topless women alongside articles on soccer aimed at young men, should also not be sold to anyone under the age of 15, the report by psychologist Linda Papadopoulos recommended.

“At the moment you get them next to SpongeBob SquarePants,” Papadopoulos said in a telephone interview in London today, referring to the magazine of the children’s cartoon character made by Viacom Inc.’s Nickelodeon. “If they were on the top shelf, marked for age 15, there would be no pretense about what they are. They’ve got nipple counts, for goodness sake!”

In the 36 recommendations made in her Home Office- commissioned report, Papadopoulos said games consoles, computers and mobile phones should come with parental controls that can restrict access to adult and online content.

She also urged the government to forbid advertisements for work in the adult entertainment industry, such as lap dancing, being placed in branches of the state-run Jobcentre Plus, saying in her report that they can lead to a “normalization” of the job as a “viable career choice.”

Bratz dolls merchandized by MGA Entertainment Inc., some of which wear fishnet tights, are an example of presenting sexualized images to little girls, she said. “Bratz is a really good example of where people turn a blind eye,” she said.

A spokesman for Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he will respond to her report tomorrow, when it is officially published.

While I understand her concern, the better avenue for this struggle to take place would be within the culture itself. Moving the placement of the magazines misses the larger point (which she did mention) of the sexualization of the culture, particularly that of young girls. Peer pressure public campaigns have worked before and could here as well. And I would not be surprised if she didn’t find a great deal of support from the magazine’s publishers, if not from the adult industry as well.

cross-posted at Wet Girlz Blog

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Hell no, we won’t go!

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The Adult Video News (AVN) trade magazine reprinted an article by Larry Flint that was posted on Huffington Post over the summer in which he offers his analysis of the recent actions by President Obama and his decisions of late to support his advisers concerning the banking industry.

Many liberals have criticized Obama’s attempts at focusing solely on the financial sector as opposed to a more balanced approach on both Wall Street as well as Main Street. The figures showing a marked improvement in the stock market have been offset by news of increasing unemployment numbers with no end in sight.

This “jobless recovery” as leading economists refer to it, will continue to worsen because the Wall Street gains were brought about by dealing in price speculation, abstract debt and potential economic forecasts rather than real profits and losses by businesses. Much of the same thing took place prior to the original crash late last year.

Flynt, while supportive of Obama, doesn’t feel that he’s done enough to right the economic ship of state, choosing instead to surround himself with the same financial insiders who advised Bush and his Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson. Flynt’s concerns mirror others in the progressive community who have called for the administration to 1) bring the CEO’s who were in charge of the disaster into account 2) end expensive bonuses for the staff of companies who took federal bailout money and 3) enact another stimulus package geared toward infrastructure projects and assistance to state and local governments who are becoming overburdened by the rise in unemployment and the subsequent need for social services.

The answer to these issues, Flynt believes, is for the everyday people this crisis is affecting the most to take to the streets like they did in the 20′s and 30′s to protest the lack of government action. Yes, he’s calling for a national strike in order to accomplish:

Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Additionally, he’s also calling on a mass consumer boycott, urging people to not buy anything on whatever date they decide to stage the protest. While this could certainly be a powerful sight and action to commit to, it’s also one of the most impractical ones and would be bound to fail if even attempted.

Why? Two big reasons. First, Flynt doesn’t seem to grasp that the culture in the 20′s and 30′s that allowed for mass protests to occur doesn’t exist anymore. Sure there are pockets of communities that support each other, but the middle and lower classes in America have fallen victim to the same “You get yours, I’ll get mine” mentality that pervades the upper class and helped propel them to success.

Probably the biggest motivating factor that made these protests effective was the sense of unity and camaraderie citizens felt for one another and the knowledge that they were all part of something larger. While that kind of grassroots, bottom-up approach is still in existence today, it’s no where near as cohesive or reliable as it once was. Think about how long and hard the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle were to manage and orchestrate and how many times you’ve seen that level of organization since.

Secondly, mass consumer boycotts don’t work. One need look no further than Buy Nothing Day, a anti-consumption protest scheduled every Black Friday, to see this is true. People literally don’t know how not to spend. We, as a culture, have made pain-free shopping practically a science now. Buy all you want and the pain will come…someday.

And even then it’s possible to keep putting it off and off and off. Or at least it was until the bottom fell out of the economy because too many people were financing their debt on housing bubbles and false hope.

The only examples in recent memory of boycotts working are ones that have been very focused with a great deal of organizational and strategic planning behind it. The “Dump Glenn Beck” advertiser boycott carried out by Color of Change after Beck’s remarks referring to President Obama as a racist is a superb example of punishing a corporate entity (Fox News) by going after its advertising base for a specific show based upon actions by the host of that show. There were no protests in the streets, just an intense, focused effort on a specific list of advertisers to pull away from a single show in order to avoid the threat of action against themselves.

So you see why what Flynt is proposing is a intriguing, yet wholly impractical idea. We’re not the people we were 70 years ago. If progressives want to effectively pressure Obama to act on the promises of his campaign, they’re are going to need a better, more modern strategy that appeals to both those who can appreciate the threat they face as well as those who are open to being convinced of it.

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