- Who hasn’t had this happen to them: You’re a middle-aged
German couple who organizes hundreds of wild sex parties and next thing you
know, the police are knocking down your door and accusing you of owing $1.4
million in back taxes. Such is the tale of a couple currently being investigated
by police after they were caught with three male customers in a Frankfurt hotel during a
raid last week by a special unit of the city council's "Ordnungsamt,"
or regulatory agency. The 51-year old man and his 49-year old wife are
accused of making a crap load of euros off their sex parties and conveniently
forgetting to pay taxes on their income. “The officers found laptops in the
room, which indicated that this was not the first time that the couple had
organized such events,” said Ordnungsamt spokesman Michael Jenisch. "Grapes
and chocolates were draped on the bedside table, while the wife was laying in
the sheets eagerly awaiting the guests.” The setup for the parties was an
"untaxed" entry fee of 180 euro (approximately $250) per customer,
with the parties advertised online in all of the usual places deviant freaks go
when they’re looking for their next fetish fix. Frankfurt City Police
spokesman Ralph Rohr explained that the couple now faces a legal
investigation for tax evasion of nearly 1 million euro thanks to evidence
pointing to their organization of more than 450 group sex parties since 2005.
Amazingly enough, the officers involved in the raid seized plenty of evidence
and questioned participants, yet arrested no one. Yes, Germany does have more
relaxed prostitution laws than the U.S., permitting it in some restricted areas,
but the hotel in question doesn’t happen to be one of those areas. “The hotel
director was not amused, when he heard what was going on behind closed doors at
his facility,” Jenisch said. Sounds like someone needs a warm, stout German
beer……..
- Dallas Cowboys
receiver Dez Bryant needs to remember one lesson among the many he should have
learned during Sunday’s 37-36, come-from-ahead-to-choke loss to the Green Bay
Packers: You cannot, barring the death of a loved one or family member or
receiving life-altering medical news while on the job, cry at work. Not wanting
to allow the world to see him (allegedly) cry as the clock ran out in Sunday's
loss is the reason Bryant offered up Monday for leaving the bench area with
1:21 remaining as the Green Bay Packers were taking a knee to end the game. The
miracle comeback that saw the Packers rally from a 26-3 halftime deficit was
simply too much for Bryant to take and so he bolted from the field and sobbed
it out in the comfort of the cushy home locker room. But hey, at least he owned
it completely and didn’t try to make lame excuses for his actions. "I was
wrong," Bryant said. “"It didn't have anything to do with my
teammates. I just ... I couldn't watch Green Bay kneel the ball down on the
field after a tough loss like that. I was very emotional. I cried when I got
into the locker room. I didn't want to show that stuff on the sideline."
Really? You’re the only guy on that Dallas sideline upset by blowing a game you
badly needed to keep your playoff hopes viable? Odds are other Cowboys felt
that way, but they were all able to compose themselves enough to stay for the
end of the game. Hell, hundreds of players watch their opponents kneel down to
end the game every week and they don’t run down the tunnel to escape. Cowboys
coach – for the next two weeks anyhow – Jason Garrett promised to speak with
Bryant about the situation. "We'll address that with Dez today,"
Garrett said. “I understand why to a certain extent: They're kneeling the ball,
the game essentially is over. He's an emotional guy; we're all very emotional
about what we do. But he needs to stay out on the field, and I'll address that
with him today. The address should be short, sweet and consist of five words:
Stay on the damn field……..
- Put down the Purell and back away from the antibacterial
hand washes, germophobes. That alcohol-laced cleansing crap you douse your
hands with all winter long in the hopes of warding off all illnesses may be
more worthless than you know. Antibacterial soaps have gained “widespread
consumer use,” but there is little data showing added health benefits, the Food
and Drug Administration said. Oh, and the common active ingredient in such
products, triclosan or triclocarban, may be linked to hormone imbalances and
antibiotic resistance, the FDA said. That is a boatload of good news about
products that comprise a large chunk of the $900 million in liquid soaps sold
each year. If the FDA has its way, that could soon change. Proposed new safety
standards would affect as many as 2,000 soap products and while many companies
have already started phasing out triclosan, including Johnson & Johnson and
Lysol-maker Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc., a some still use the ingredient. On
the positive side for the germ-paranoid set, hand sanitizers such as Purell
would not be included in the new law, as would be mouthwash, cosmetics and
cleaners. Consumer safety advocates believe the FDA needs to step back and
conduct a more thorough evaluation, then inform consumers about whether these
products actually do what they are advertised to do. Ironically, chemicals such
as triclosan were never intended for mass consumer use. It began as a surgical
scrub in the 1970s before it was gradually included t as an ingredient in
everyday household products, from soap to toothpaste to germ-resistant sponges.
The FDA has thrown the doors open for a six-month public comment period,
followed by an additional 60-day rebuttal period, with the standards taking
effect one year after the rule is made final. If the ruling is as severe as
expected, it could well mean war with the mop-wielding maniacs at the American
Cleaning Institute, which cited two dozen studies that it said have shown the
benefits of using antibacterial soap. “We are perplexed that the agency would
suggest there is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are beneficial as
industry has long provided data and information about the safety and efficacy,”
the Washington-based lobbying group for the cleaning industry said. Johnson
& Johnson maintains that none of its baby-care products contain triclosan
and has said on numerous occasions that it plans to eliminate the ingredient
from adult items by 2015, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. the world’s
largest consumer-products maker, also claims it will remove the substance by
next year. Way to clean up your cleaning act, guys………
- Art is am amorphous blob designed to fill many varying
purposes in society. It can provoke, inspire, challenge or infuriate. In a
sense, Sacramento
State University art student Christina Edwards – a senior at the university –
used a recent class project to do all of the above and then some. Her art,
displayed on campus earlier this month, went outside the studio in an
in-your-face way, with two males dangling from a tree with nooses around their
necks, portraying a time that many African Americans wish they could forget. Lynchings
and lynch mobs are one of the ugliest times in the history of any society, yet
Edwards was willfully throwing that era in the faces of her fellow students,
staff and administrators. The images quickly spread via social media and
created exactly the controversy Edwards was seeking. “The purpose of this
performance was to bring to light social injustices and the issue of inequality
that impacts me and my community as a whole,” Edwards said. Aside from her
butchered grammar – she is an art student and not an English major – her
concept is brilliant in theory. She identified a time in history that is ugly,
revolting and regrettable and to depict it by using race reversal in an effort
to bring the reality to light in a new way. Oddly enough, the always
open-minded folks in suits who run the university disagreed and university
president Alexander Gonzalez released a statement that read in part: “The
university did not approve the display, and I want to assure everyone that I am
working to address the multiple issues raised by this incident.” Great art – or
even mediocre art – is rarely understood or appreciated in its time………
- Sequels are the way Hollywood works these days and
announcing them in bunches is even better. James Cameron knows this and it’s
why the acclaimed director of such bloated blockbusters as “Titanic” and “Terminator”
has announced plans to shoot all three of his scheduled “Avatar” sequels in New Zealand. Much like Gore Verbisnski did
with his “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequels, Cameron could shoot all three of the
follow-up films to his hugely successful sci-fi blockbuster in a single
calendar year. The trio of sequels, which will likely gross several billion
dollars combined, could be filmed within nine months. Picking New Zealand as
the location for the films was predictably well-received by the Kiwis, who know
what sort of boost the projects will provide for their economy. "The Avatar sequels will provide hundreds
of jobs and thousands of hours of work directly in the screen sector as well as
jobs right across the economy,” Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said.
Sam Worthington, who starred as
Jake Sully in the original film in the franchise, recently revealed that
production on “Avatar 2” will
begin in October 2014. That film is scheduled for release in December 2016 with
the third and fourth films set to follow in 2017 and 2018. By the time the
fourth (and presumably final) movie drops, it will mark a full decade for the
franchise, which began in 2009. The original “Avatar” broke all sorts of records when it dropped, finishing as the
highest-grossing movie of all-time, a title it still holds, with worldwide box
office takings exceeding $2.7 billion. Worthington’s co-stars Zoe Saldana and
Sigourney Weaver are expected to return for the sequels and the Gover-nator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will reportedly join
the crew as an evil human general…….
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