The Dog + the Dolphin

[h/t Mindy]

I ♥ TARGET | I ♥ REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

An amusing (and pointed) bit of street theater...

Jon Stewart | Extremist Makeover - Homeland Edition

Guilt by Association on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

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Mosque-erade| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

[Strong language: Proceed at your own risk]

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Passionate But Not Careful

The other day a friend of a friend informed me matter-of-factly:

The fact is most of The presidents cabinet has no clue how to fix the problems they are worsening. Interesting fact, only 8% of the presidents cabinet members were previously employed in the private sector. That is the lowest amount of any president ever. Eisenhower had 57%, Reagan had 53%, and W Bush had 51%.

Setting aside issues of who does what in government, this 8% of cabinet members previously employed in the private sector struck me as just the sort of thing that's easy to check these days.

8% of 20 first-term cabinet members comes to just 1.6 individuals this person claims were previously employed in the private sector.

Susan Rice and the recently-resigned Peter Orszag were both consultants for McKinsey & Company — so we're already at 10%.

A Message from Charles Sherrod | On [G]RACE

Salon's Joan Walsh sent a message to Charles Sherrod, husband of the now celebrated Shirley Sherrod, inviting comment on a piece at Salon.com.

"He got back to me," Walsh writes, "and this is all he said:

The attack on my wife has opened up an avalanche of discussion on a tabooed subject...RACE. It is a blessing to be an instrument of God's GRACE.

I wonder: What part do (can, should, must) people like you and me play as instruments of God's grace on this subject, in this moment?

What Wall Street Reform Means Where We Live

Here are a few highlights courtesy of Whitehouse.gov:

• There's now a single agency responsible for looking out for consumers: the Bureau for Consumer Financial Protections. Instead of seven agencies dealing with these issues part-time, one agency will be in charge of establishing clear rules of the road for banks, mortgage companies, payday lenders and credit card lenders.
• Mortgage brokers won't make a higher commission by selling people mortgages that they can't afford. This was a major factor in the recent housing crisis. Now brokers and banks have to take into consideration a borrower's ability to repay before giving a home loan.
• You’ll be able to get a free credit score if you’re denied a loan, an apartment, or a job because of your credit, so you won’t be turned down without knowing why. Right now, you get one free credit report a year, but you can’t see your credit score for free, even if a lender or employer rejects your application because you have bad credit.
• No more bailing out banks with our tax dollars, no more "too big to fail." If a company's in trouble because of risky gambles, it will have to liquidate -- and do so before it can take down the rest of the financial system.

Stay tuned for more...

Not Ever

Rape Crisis Scotland takes on the victim-blaming ethos that excuses sexual assault.

See also the comment in the British medical journal The Lancet titled: Key to prevent HIV in women: reduce gender-based violence.

Monologue | One More Call

Here's another free script from the Sketches: Mainly on Sex collection for my youth worker and drama friends. 

The piece is titled One More Call and it's a somber monologue from a school administrator about what happens when kids don't look out for each other.

I hope One More Call strikes a chord with you. If so, tell your youth worker and drama-geek friends where to find it, with my compliments. 

The text is below. If you like it, download the free script for One More Call, with discussion questions. 

Enjoy! And let me know what you think.

Mr. Potter

 This is not why I got into education, OK? If I have to call in one more child sex abuse case...

Which is a joke. I’ll make that call before the month is out.

Did you know that 70% of teenage pregnancies are fathered by men over 20? 70%. It’s ridiculous.

Some guy comes along with a car and a part time job and he’s not all pimply and awkward so, what — he makes a girl feel like a woman? And of course he wants her to act like a woman, right? No way! He wants her to act like a girl. He wants her to do whatever he says. He wants oral sex and vaginal sex and whatever kind of sex he can get and he’ll be tender or demanding or whatever it takes to get what he wants. Oh, and he wants to keep it a secret from her parents. Real mature.

Speaking of oral sex, if I have to tell one more parent I just pulled her seventh grade girl off some boy behind the gym...

HealthCare.Gov is Up + Running

This week, HealthCare.gov went live.

Here's a fourish-minute video describing how to move around the site, which includes details on what's changing (and when) and current state-by-state availability of health coverage keyed to specific individual, business and family circumstances.

Monologue | Coming Clean

As proprietor of The Tiny Company Called Me it's my responsibility to set delivery dates and prices for my work. I always try to find a win/win schedule and price and, in that spirit, I'm happy to deliver the script for a monologue about sexual responsibility immediately and for free. 


The piece is called Coming Clean and it's in the voice of a youth worker who talks about his own sense of responsibility around sexuality.


If you're a youth worker or some kind of drama geek, I hope the timing and price—to say nothing of the quality of the piece—will strike you as a clear win. If you're not, I'll hope you'll find it an entertaining read. 


It will seem like a win from my side of the transaction if you tell a few youth workers and drama geeks where to find Coming Clean and if they download it and use it to engage kids in a conversation about telling the truth and living together responsibly.


So, read Coming Clean here and then download it free, complete with discussion questions—normally that costs two bucks.


Enjoy! And let me know if you if you like it (or hate it).

WARREN

I want to come clean with you about something tonight. OK? Is that alright with you?

Standing before you is living, breathing, proof that it is possible to grow up in this culture without falling into alcohol and sex — please, hold your applause till the end.

You may find this hard to believe, but I’ve never been drunk. People talk as if that’s inevitable — something they might as well do so they can check it off the list. Well I’m here to tell you it’s not.

And the only person I’ve had sex with is Sarah, my lovely wife. Stand up, honey; let the people greet you. Sure, you can clap for my bride. Isn’t she beautiful? Yeh.

Sex is another experience about which some people say, “Well, I may as well just get it over it over with.” Isn’t that romantic? Trust me: sex is worth the wait...Every time. (Rim shot sound effect) Thank you, thank you very much — I’m here every weekend.

Happy Father's Day from Louis C.K.

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