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The Girlfriend Experience

By: Billy Beerslugger

Steven Soderbergh is an Academy Award Winning director of such films as Sex Lies and Videotape, Traffic, Erin Brockovich & The Oceans 11 franchise.  His latest film, The Girlfriend Experience is a film about a $2,000 an hour call who juggles a boyfriend and the demands of her profession.

The film stars Porn Actress Sasha Grey in the lead.  As far as I can tell this is the first major mainstream release of  a movie with a Porn Star as the lead, or at least a Porn Star who still works in Porn.  I don’t know if you think it’s significant but I think it definitely reflects a change in the way the mainstream now more readily accepts people in the adult industry.

While the movie does have a Porn Star as the lead it is said to have very little nudity and no sex.

In case your a porn junkie like me here’s some links to Sasha Grey’s work.

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Cracktacular

crackBy: Billy Beerslugger

So I’m reading some stuff today and come across that the president is pushing for more lenient crack cocaine laws.  Now yea I’ll agree that the law is a little scewed, putting crack cocaine offenders away longer for less amounts, I get that.

What I do not get is why we are lessening Crack Cocaine sentences and not lengthening Cocaine sentences.  Seems logical to me.  Yes I do have sympathy for the “Treatment Movement”, where instead of throwing people in jail, putting them into rehab.  I do think that some people come out of prison worse than they were before they went in.

Some statistics I’ve seen suggest a better rate of non-repeat offending after rehab as opposed to jail.  But statistics can be misleading and subjective in terms of the people doing the survey as well as the people chosen for the sample.

Federal law currently has a system in place which 5 grams of crack gets the same minimum sentence as 500 grams of coke, according to the article in the link above.  So there does need to be some reform, but I’m not sure lessening sentences is the way to go.

I understand the penal system is overcrowded.  I understand it is a lot of money to have someone in jail for 5 years.  Is that the answer though to the Crack Cocaine problem, reduced sentences, more crackheads on the street?  It’s bad enough that the people selling the stuff and the people in the neighborhoods they own will not narc anyone out, now you’re just making it more of an incentive to not talk to the police.

To me it’s kind of like telling a kid “If you do XYZ you’re going to be grounded for 2 weeks instead of 5”.  Well now the kid is going to think about the situation a little more.  Maybe he should steal the case of beer from his dad, 2 weeks of being grounded isn’t that bad.

No the current laws are not fair, but boost up sentences on Cocaine and not lessen sentences on Crack.

But I could be wrong….

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Pirate Bay, The Pirate Party & The Court Case you don’t know about.

the_pirate_bay_logoBy: Billy Beerslugger

Bit Torrent is a peer to peer file sharing protocol.  Think of it as a way more accurate, efficient, and reliable Napster or LimeWire.  Bit Torrent traffic, by some estimates, makes up about 35% of all internet traffic.  It is by far the most popular protocol for large file sharing.

A Bit Torrent Client is essentially a program which manages downloads and uploads. There are many Bit Torrent Clients out there and apparently LimeWire supports to a limited extent Bit Torrents.  One of the more popular Bit Torrent Clients is uTorrent, very lightweight.

A Torrent (of the Genus and Species Bit) is really whatever you want it to be.  It can hold Mp3’s, movies, datasets, computer programs, Tv Shows… if it’s in a digital form you can probably put it in a Torrent.

A Bit Torrent Tracker is a web based interface which provides search functionality (much like Google) for Bit Torrents.

The Pirate Bay is a bit torrent tracker.  It is the most popular bit torrent tracker, ranked as the 106th most popular website by Alexa Internet and is the defendant (or at least the operaters are) of a major laswsuit.

On April 17, 2009 Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were found guilty of assistance to copyright infringement and sentenced to one year in prison and payment of a fine of app. 3,620,000 USD after a 9 day trial.  The defendants are appealing the verdict, seeking a re-trial and recent news has come out that the judge presiding over the case was a member of Pro-Copyright groups.  The Website is still in operation.

In a scenario similar to others regarding prosecuting file sharing sites/companies, membership to The Pirate Bay surged following the verdict.  The more media coverage of the site and what it does, the more it’s members continue to grow.

In Sweden, which is the headquarters of The Pirate Bay, supporters of the site have formed their own political party.  It is currently the 4th largest political party in terms of members in Sweden.  It’s ranks grew by about 20% in the hours following the verdict and increases by the minute.  The number of young members in the party put it at number one in that demographic.

The Pirate Bay and Bit Torrent in general have been the subject of much debate in the United States and Internationally.  Not only for the issue of copyright infringement but from throttling bit torrent traffic, packet sniffing and other ways Internet Service Providers have tried to limit access to Bit Torrents.

Whether or not you personally support the prosecution of The Pirate Bay, file sharing is not going away.  Movie Studios and Record Labels need to find a way to a way to distribute their content and sustain profit off of it.   Old ways of doing this like Cd’s and Dvd’s are not going to cut it in our computer/gadget centric society.  Optimally the solution they come up with does not impede upon how you use the Internet or Net Neutrality.

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Wiggers… Life Imitating Art… Imitating Thuglife

By: Billy Beerslugger

As I am transitioning from the suburbs back to Philadelphia after almost a year, one thing I’m not going to miss is the fake ass Wiggers that have popped up in the neighborhood i grew up in.  It’s like the student body of  my old high school (and apparently 90% of the bar crowd), who are Caucasian mind you, dress in Sean John, Fubu, hoodies, hat’s tilted to the side with a straight brim and solid color or airbrushed t-shirt that’s 3 sizes too big.

wigger-42888So take these guys above for instance.  Flashing signs of some sort, maybe trying to convey they are from the West Coast, maybe Westmont High School, maybe W was the letter of the day on Sesame Street, I don’t know.  What I do know is that these are the types of harmless hooligans I see on the streets of the neighborhoods I patrol at night while working as a freelance vigilante. They’re up on the “urban” dialect that they hear in movies and the latest song featuring T-Pain.  Spouting out words and phrases such as “crunk”, “bling” and “supaman dat hoe”.  Listening to Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter 14 in the car their mom and dad got them for their 17th birthday.  For this car they got fake rims and a speaker system that makes the trunk rattle like when you rip a fart on a leather couch.

Quick to talk shit and challenge someone to a fight while their boys are there but ultimately back down and end up talking shit from behind their biggest friend.  Because they’re “Gangsta”, “I’m a Thug”. They’re in the “game” cause they sell weed to their friends and know a guy who can get Percocets.  Probably got a karaoke machine in the basement they’re making a demo tape on with some recycled beats thinking they’re gonna be tha next Eminem.

What I’d really like to do is scoop up all these wannabees I can find, put them on a bus, take their cell phones and wallets and drop them off in the middle of North Philly.  We’ll see how gangster you are then.  Shit done changed then, walking out of North Philly with no shirt on cause a group of real thugs approached you and said they didn’t have a Ed Hardy shirt from Macy’s but wanted one real bad.

It makes me laugh.  Acting like a thug while being raised and currently residing in the suburbs is oxymoronic.  You get ZERO street cred for that.  Have one of your friends shoot you in the leg and say it was over a drug deal.  Then maybe people will take you seriously.

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Free Radio – The TV Show

I catch this show sometimes while I’m flipping through channels and I gotta say it’s hilarious.  The premise of the show is that some shock-jock leaves the fictional KBOM radio station in Los Angeles and is temporarily replaced by an intern.  This intern (Lance) is completely inept but somehow ratings continue to climb and he is tabbed as the official on air talent of “Moron in The Morning”.

The funniest part of the show (and basically the show itself) is that they interview real celebrities as if it was an actual radio show.  The exchanges between Lance, co host Anna and the guests are usually priceless.  Pretty much the only thing I would consider watching on VH1 unless they decided to bring back music videos.

You can watch the latest episode at 11pm every Thurday or here at VH1.com
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Internet Service Providers Raising Prices?

By: Billy Beerslugger

So I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a while now.  I believe this is the beginning of the end of “Unlimited Bandwidth” through Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) in the United States.

Like a lot of my generation, I get a good portion of my news online.  Actually, I get pretty much all my news online.  It’s much more convenient, I can read it when I want to and I can read what I want to as opposed to Network TV news who are at the mercy of Advertisers and their own networks shows (i really don’t need to know who got kicked off of American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Amazing Race or Big Brother).  I recently read an extremely interesting article from the NY Times.  It makes some really good points including the issue over Bandwidth Consumption, Internet Prices and Government regulation.

First, the article states that most ISP’s in the U.S. want to end the unlimited bandwidth option from their subscription services.  As long as I’ve been using Cable internet it has been browse as much as you want, download as much as you want.  Now they want to measure usage and bill accordingly just like the electric or water company.  On the surface this may seem fair to you, especially if you don’t watch movies and television online or don’t do a lot of downloading or youtube viewing.  If someone else is using the Internet more than you maybe they should pay more and you should pay less.

However, just because a person uses more bandwidth than someone else doesn’t effect the ISP’s profits or the availability/speed of the internet.  The ISP makes just as much money when no one uses the internet as when everyone is glued to the internet checking out the latest Brittany Spears upskirt shot.  Think of Internet use the same way you would think of Cable TV usage (Both use the same technology and have about the same costs).  Does the person who is at work all day and not watching TV pay the same as the person who is at home watching TV all day? Yes, they do.  Each pay for a service and can use as much or as little as they want for a flat fee.

The main costs in running the ISP are investment in network equipment and expanding the networks but just like everything else computer related, costs continue to fall as technology advances.  Most if not all of the Major ISP’s profit margins are stable.  So why change to a consumption based business model?  I’d say to make more money.  ISP’s like Comcast, Time Warner etc pretty much have a monopoly on providing Internet service.  Much like before the phone companies prices were regulated by the U.S. government, ISP’s can charge pretty much whatever they want because there’s not that much else out there.

As some ISP’s are beginning to offer higher Megabits per second than are currently offered, they are also raising prices disproportionately than countries like Japan who offer this higher MBit/s for about $5 more than their regular plan.  In the U.S. prices for this service would increase your bill sometimes twofold and more.  There is a lot more competition in Japan in terms of ISP’s.

There’s other theories out there that suggest Cable Company’s that also supply Internet want to increase prices to Internet Service because online video etc is eating a hole in their Cable TV revenue.  This could also be a reason.

Overall, I would say don’t let an ISP, government or whomever else limit your access to the Internet.  It is essential to free speech and will continue to play a more integral part in our daily lives as the years progress.  As computers, cell phones and Televisions seemingly stay on a path to converge continue to look for ways of how the Corporations that control access to these services may try to screw you and speak out and fight against it.

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Jim Cramer backlash… Main St. Vs. Wall St.

cramer125By: Billy Beerslugger

First of all Jim Cramer is a born and bred Philadelphian.  This guys first job was selling ice cream at the Vet during Phillies Games.  He’s taken a lot of heat lately from people like Jon Stewart and others and has essentially become the face of Wall Street’s economic meltdown.  I realize he’s pretty heavily touted on CNBC.  “In Cramer We Trust” is what they say over there.  I recently saw a video on the Huffington Post and some dude was touting some other dude’s way of investing and saying we need, “less of In Cramer we trust”.  To a certain extent, he deserves some blame.  Apparently he was wrong about the collapse of certain companies before the recession started and told people to buy instead of sell, though in other instances he told people to sell resulting in a good call.

To be fair, there is some debate as to whether Cramer’s stock picks even beat the market over the last two years.  However, from what I understand he has made himself and others a shit ton of money over the last 4 or so years with his Mad Money show.

So I have news for you,  he’s not going to get every call right.  While he’s reporting on the state of Economic America and picking stocks I don’t think for one second he did anything malicious to try and kill people’s 401k’s overnight.  I just can’t see that happening even though he may have some inside tricks for driving up stock prices etc from when he was a Hedge fund manager.

So why is he singled out and not everyone who reports on Economics of America?  Why is he the scapegoat?  Because he says things like “Booya” and punches sound effects while commentating? I don’t know.  One thing I do know is that no one is infallible.  No one is perfect.  There’s no hero’s out there.  There’s “here’s what I think” and you can either choose to take my advice or not.  He’s not holding a gun to your head and making you buy stocks.

Where’s the backlash for the thousands of brokers out there.  Where was all the phone calls telling people who had their faith for X amount of years to get out of AIG and all those other stocks before they tanked.  Why didn’t they see this coming?  Are they not professionals too?
bob-ross
If you are serious about the Stock Market why not take some time to learn about it and not just listen to guys like Cramer and your stock broker and make some choices for yourself.  Or use these stock pundits recommendations as a basis for stocks you should consider doing research on for possible purchase.

I’m not going to pretend I’m some big time Stock Guy.  I’m not and I wouldn’t take my advice.  Most of my vast fortune lies in a collection of Authentic Bob Ross oil paintings and the VHS tapes of him making them from PBS.  My art dealer has told me these are going to appreciate like gangbusters so I decided in 2004 that I would take all my money out of Teldar Paper and Blue Star Airlines and invest in these classics from the man that made painting fun.  That’s my retirement fund. And as long as Bob Ross resides in the hearts and minds of America my retirement fund is recession proof.

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The “Rooney Rule” – Minority Coaches in The NFL

By: Billy Beerslugger

There has been pressure recently on professional sports teams, by their leagues and other organizations, to hire more minority coaches.  “The Rooney Rule” in the NFL focuses on the requirement of interviewing a minority candidate for any vacant head coaching position unless the position was already promised to an assistant head coach in their contract.

The “Rooney Rule” was one of the contributing factors to having African American head coaches in the NFL jump from 6% in 2005 to 22% in 2006.  The Detroit Lions were fined $200,000 in 2003 for not interviewing minority candidates for the team’s vacant head coaching job.  The Eagles current O-Coordinator, Marty Mornhinweg was fired and Steve Mariucci was hired without interviewing any other candidate (although the Lions dispute this).

I guess my problem with the “Rooney Rule” and how it is enforced is that it seems only African America candidates have to be interviewed. When the NFL uses the term “diversity” or “minority” does it really mean “black” or “African-American”?  It seems to me that if you were going to institute a form of affirmative action it should apply to all minorities and not just one.  I’d like to see how many Latino or Asian candidates were interviewed since the inception of the rule.  As far as I can tell the NFL has no Latino or Asian head coaches. And what about Women?  Women are a minority.  Why do they not get an equal share in the “Rooney Rule” (if you want to get technical).

The NFL players are comprised of 70% African American and nearly 30% white with a small percentage of Hispanic and negligible quantities of other races.  So in this scenario maybe it does make sense that you would consider hiring more African American coaches.  However, don’t call yourself being diverse when you only deal in black and white.

Dealing in sheer population, Latino’s (14.8%) out-number African Americans(13.4%) in the United States, and that’s not even dealing with bi-racial people, a large number of which happen to share Latino descent.  While Hispanic’s  do not make up a great deal of the NFL players they do make up a greater portion of the general population than African Americans.  Shouldn’t that count for something?

The Rooney Rule is now talked about being instituted into NCAA football and possibly other sports.  Did the NFL get this correct enough to warrant it being discussed in other leagues?  Will they move to include more types of minorities in the hiring process? Should this the Rooney Rule even exist?  I guess that’s for you to decide.  I know I wouldn’t be a big fan of being made to interview people (regardless of race/religion/sexual preference) that I didn’t consider a serious contender for the position.  I would just want the best person available.

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The Cougar – The Dating Show That Breaks All the Rules.

By: Billy Beerslugger

So uh…. yea.  There’s a dating show where the object of affection is a cougar.  20 or so dudes are going to vie for some 1 on 1 time with a cougar.  That’s where we’re at people.  We have a dating show where a 40 year old woman is being chased around by 20 something guys,  looking for LOVE.  How many conversations is this going to spawn at the Cougar bar? “Did you see the last episode? Joey is totally hot”.  And how many lonely nights will these women sit on a couch watching the show, drinking a bottle of wine thinking, “I could do this.  I could be the cougar.”

Now I’m all for Cougar Hunting, it’s a god given right and something I personally do when there are either no good looking women my age or younger in the bar or I’ve already struck out with all those women.  However, it’s not exactly something you’re proud of.  You’re not trying to fall in love with a Cougar.  You don’t bring a cougar home to your Mom because well, she’s only about 5-10 years younger than your Mom and your Mom will slap the shit out of you.  It essentially goes against nature.

You have to be either insane or a complete fame whore to be on one of these dating shows like the bachelor/bachelorette, Rock of Love etc.  You really can’t take yourself seriously.  And if you watch these shows you’re a little bit different as well.

Yea, I get it, some of these shows are supposed to be funny, like Flava Flav of Love or Rock of Love where women just want to be on TV, but do you really want to watch people fake falling in love?  Not this guy I have way more important things to do like watch the Phillies pitching staff get rocked for 4 runs every first inning or write blogs about shows that I’m not going to watch.

I did watch one of these type shows back in the great year of our lord 2001.  It was called Temptation Island.  In this dating scenario, a bunch of couples were put on an island, separated and made to go on dates with single people of the opposite sex.  In the culmination of this series, the couples picked whether they still wanted to be with one another (usually after making out with two or three other people).  The concept was to break people up not get people together.

So this concept got me in 2001.  I may have been suckered into a couple of episodes of Joe Millionaire in 2003 but that’s my dating show repertoire.  I can’t sit there and watch the same recycled bullshit.  Someone gets voted off every week and everyone is interviewed Real World style to get their feelings on what just went on or whats about to happen, in between there may be some sort of physical challenge and or one on one dates, I get it.  Then the final 3 people meet each others family (which is really fucking weird to get your actual family involved in a fake courtship) and finally one person is chosen and the couple go on a happy vacation where they then breakup after they are no longer in the media cycle.

Enough already.  Why won’t reality TV just die?  I predicted in 2005 that it was on it’s last legs but this shit doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.   There’s enough mindless losers in America to keep any crap running for two or more seasons provided you’re voting people off 1 week at a time.

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Terminator 4 – Salvation

By: Billy Beerslugger

I have been a fan of the Terminator movies since birth.  I can remember watching The Terminator and Ghostbusters over and over as a child.  The film spawned the sequel Terminator 2, in 1991,which was not only awesome but blew the doors off of the use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) in movies (although it did use a ton a actual stunts and real explosions).  Terminator 3 was a I’m guessing a way to get money for Arnold Schwarzenegger as he was running for Governor of California.  It really was not very good although I still want to give Clare Danes the high hard one.

In May 2007, the rights for the movie franchise passed from two feuding producers to a new company which planned a new Trilogy.  The first film of the Trilogy is Terminator: Salvation, scheduled to come to a theater near you on May 21st.  Pulling out all the stops they got the greatest action hero of today, Christian Bale (of American Psycho and Batman fame), to play the role of a grown up John Connor fighting in the resistance against the machines.

The film is one of the last for legendary special effects Stan Winston and is said to be once again pushing the limits in terms of that category.

I for one cannot wait for this movie to come out and is one of the few franchises/movies I will actually go to the movie theater to see.

I guess the only problem I have with it is that rapper Common is in the movie. While not a slight to Common I do generally hate movies with Rapper/Actors in them.