Ann Arbor News, R.I.P. in your (kind of) new intangible home

My hometown newspaper is going under, and will officially cease printing in July of this year.  A new web-based news company will go up in its place, AnnArbor.com, which is good, but this is still a sad loss and it still means that some good jobs are gone.

Perhaps they can use this to continue or better the news community in Ann Arbor.  Despite the high level of education in the city, our newspaper does not have a reputation for being near-perfect or particularly typo-free.  They could use this to clean house and fix things up a little.  As the News’s article says:

“The Ann Arbor News was struggling as a daily print newspaper, with steep losses in 2008,” Champion said. “At the same time the demand for local news and information in a wired community has never been stronger.”

There are a lot of talented journalists and web-savvy people in Ann Arbor.  I’m hopeful that this will not mean the death of Ann Arbor News, so much as a new and brighter direction for journalism, information, knowledge and communication in my hometown.

VP Biden Exposed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Visit Wonkette to see Biden outed and FOX NEWS claim victory once again

Wow, FOX NEWS has done it again and exposed the Obama administration for what it really is.  It reminds me of Al Franken talking about Ann Coulter and how she clearly has no respect for her readers and apparently thinks they’re all idiots.  FOX viewers, your trusted oracles think you have no brain.  Do you really want to rely on these people for information?

Anyway there’s nothing poignant or funny I can think of at the moment that Wonkette hasn’t already said.  Go here.

“Corrective rape” to deal with lesbians

South African lesbians are living every day knowing that because they are homosexual they may be raped and brutalized at any moment.  And the women aren’t the only ones subjected to the abuse—their family members suffer, too.  The Guardian’s Annie Kelly reports on what these women face.  The women interviewed appear surprisingly resilient, strong, able to talk about their experiences, but these are only a few of the many victims.  

Even more disturbing, and infuriating, than listening to the men in the video is that these women and their cases are being ignored in South African courts.  Reports Kelly:

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa’s acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa’s best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbian women in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call “corrective rape” committed by men behind the guise of trying to “cure” lesbian women of their sexual orientation.

… Despite more than 30 reported murders of lesbian women in the last decade, Simelane’s trial has produced the first conviction, when one man who pleaded guilty to her rape and murder was jailed last month.

On sentencing, the judge said that Simelane’s sexual orientation had “no significance” in her killing. The trial of a further three men pleading not guilty to rape, burglary and murder will start in July.

In Soweto and Kwa Thema, women seem unconvinced that Simelane’s case will change anything for the better.

UPDATE: A reader posted a comment about NGO ActionAid that I would like to add to this post, as Kelly talks about ActionAid in her article, and as surely some of you are interested in what can be done:

“Corrective” rape survivors interviewed by ActionAid (global NGO based in South Africa) were told by their abusers that they were “teaching [them] a lesson” and “showing [them] how to be real women and what a man tasted like”.

If you’re interested in ActionAid’s report on Hate Crimes in South Africa, and our work to combat violence against women, please visit the UK site:

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/101756/hate_crimes_the_rise_of_corrective_rape_in_south_africa.html

Together we can end shameful and brutal oppression of women.

BOP talks with Ludacris, Common, Xzibit, oh my!

Click on the image to see more!

Burn One Productions, owned and run by the talent and imagination of my good friend Ashley Eberbach, has a new and exciting video on BOP Blog TV, featuring BOP correspondent Heather Storm’s trip, with an all-access pass, to the Hip Hop 101 Music & Arts Festival.  She interviews Common, Ludacris, and Xzibit about their music, their work in the movie industry, black history, and more.  ALSO, she’s wearing my drawing (the car on her T-shirt) the entire time!  To watch the interviews, click here!

Ashley’s also just finished working on a new film, Shotgun Chaza, which you can watch at the BurnOnePro YouTube channel.  The short film stars Catherine King, Casey Peters, Jason Burks, and Ryan Fogle.  Michael D. Lynch, John Corser, and Mike Hedge co-produced with Ashley.

One more thing: Blogs, Vlogs, and all things on-line are bigger than ever in the entertainment industry.  BOP has been growing rapidly, and you can help us keep it up by subscribing to the BOP Vlog!

Thanks and enjoy!