This Is What The Houston Rockets General Manager Thinks Of Mitt Romney

Rrr rrrRomney is a friend

This is what it said:

He then tweeted this to Roland Martin.

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Brazil Protests: FIFA is the Ugly Side Of the Beautiful Game

Every four years, the world comes together in what is arguably the most celebrated international sporting tournament, the FIFA World Cup. The event features many of the greatest players in soccer, many of whom have come from Brazil, where next year's competition is set to be. Yet, despite soccer's immense popularity in Brazil, many Brazilians are not looking forward to playing host to the world.

It seems surprising to find this kind of opposition in the country that gave us soccer greats such as Pele, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho. Regardless, people have questioned Brazil's current ability to do the job, and whether the tournament is at all beneficial for their economy. The costly expenses associated with the tournament, security issues, and FIFA's other problematic hosting choices all work in favor of the Brazilian protesters' arguments that next year's World Cup could do them more harm than good. FIFA, however, don't seem to agree.

Although the World Cup is an expensive burden to bear, why would Brazilians want to discourage foreigners from going to Brazil and spending money in its growing economy? While Brazil’s been identified as an economic power on the rise, this has also coincided with recent concerns over where money’s been spent in recent years. You could argue that the South American country has been long overdue for the recent protests targeting the increasing cost of living, and funds being directed to the tournament rather than nationwide areas of concern, including health care and education. Another cause for worry is that much of the tournament’s revenue will reach FIFA’s hands rather than be redirected to Brazil. The uproar over the costs of the World Cup can’t be described as unexpected, as previous countries to host the tournament have done the same. The FIFA World Cup in South Africa just three years ago caused similar reactions.

Between the monetary concerns, protests, and latest acts of violence in soccer, there are also potential complications having to do with security. Recently, a referee stabbed a player during a game in São Paulo, and was later stoned to death and decapitated by angry spectators. That’s not the only recent death. Protesters are dying, too, and much of this is happening around stadiums. There’s also distress over the staggering number of homicides and crimes that generally occur in Brazil. The favelas of Brazil are a main point of interest, particularly as some of the tournament’s stadiums are situated near them. Due to the need for expansion of infrastructure in these neighborhoods, thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes. This undoubtedly poses a problem for Brazilians and non-Brazilians alike, as it brings up the question of whether these areas will be safe enough to linger in.

The sport’s organizing body has also had its fair share of controversy in recent years. From regionally alienating rules — including banning Iran from competing due to headscarves — to these hosting decisions, things haven’t been running smoothly for a while. In recent years, England was denied its application to host the tournament in 2018, with the honor going to Russia. Although the decision appeared to be one of mere preference, it’s hard to deny an obvious truth: England already has all of its facilities up and running, meaning it would have been an effective choice. The appointment led to lots of anger and resentment from English supporters, and only furthered the already-rocky relationship between FIFA and the English Football Association. The decision to assign Qatar with the World Cup in 2022 has also been a matter of controversy. The choice to have the small but well-off country play host to the world has been criticized from the very beginning, with there being concerns over Qatar's summer heat and many suggesting that Qatar “bought” the tournament. Whether or not money played a role in Qatar’s win, at least the country has the means to deal with the immense pressures brought on by the World Cup. Not all potential hosts are currently equipped to handle the ridiculously high expectations that come with the responsibility. As such, the requirements to host shouldn’t be taken lightly, yet they continue to be optimistically dismissed until it’s a little too late to abandon ship. This inevitably causes problems that are usually attributed to the country in question, but should be attributed to FIFA’s decisions and willingness to overlook deeply embedded problems that can’t be fixed in 10 years.

While South Africa successfully hosted the most recent World Cup in 2010, there’s no guarantee that Brazil can replicate this next year. FIFA's latest admittance that Brazil may have been the wrong choice for the tournament doesn't really acknowledge any of its own responsibility in the matter, nor any understanding behind the main reasons for Brazil's unrest. Despite that, Brazilians are still concerned about the state's funds, as well as security. FIFA's previous decisions regarding hosts have also done little to prove that they're adept at assessing whether a country can, or should, be in charge of the competition at that time. As a lifelong fan of the beautiful game, it makes me wonder if FIFA purposely seeks out trouble. After all, to the attention seeking, any press is good press.

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Christian School Thinks Students Should Stop Having Sex and Have Burping Contests Instead

Thanks to the crack journalism of Stuff.com, the world has been made aware of a dastardly scheme to deprive the young children of Queensland, Australia of the full use of their private parts. At the Baptist-affiliated Colloundra Christian College, a private K-12 school in Queensland, Australia, students will be exposed to the general silliness of a pamphlet entitled, “101 Things To Do Instead Of Doing It.” The pamphlet is rumored to encourage subversive activities such as blowing bubbles in the park, having a water fight, and having a burping contest in place of engaging in premarital sexual activity. Given the obvious international implications for such a riveting report, I am sure Stuff.com will keep us updated about new developments as they occur. I am also sure that this little bit of journalistic fluff has a bigger agenda than simply a nonsensical report about the status of Christian education in Australia.

In a vacuum, the inclusion of this throwaway piece in the “OddStuff” section of Stuff.com makes little sense. While the suggestions in the pamphlet seem fairly odd (i.e. “Acting like you are six years old,” for example, instead of having premarital sex is a juxtaposition that would never occur to me), there is hardly an objective reason why such a pamphlet should matter. The Baptist position on abstinence is well known. The fact that a Baptist school would distribute this pamphlet should surprise no one. However, in the context of the modern political climate, this inconsequential story vividly illustrates the undeniable power of ridicule as a political weapon.

Like no other rhetorical tool, ridicule offers an advocate the chance to demean an opposing speaker and his or her message with the advocate simply being humorous. By emphasizing the absurd aspects of the opponent’s argument, ridicule allows those aspects of the exchange to destroy any credibility the speaker or the message might have garnered. The result of such an exchange is an opponent attempting to defend a generally sound position against vague criticisms that question whether that opponent is actually believable.

In a few simple lines, Stuff.com employs ridicule to discredit conventional Christian beliefs on abstinence. To set the tone, the author places this story in the “OddStuff” section of the website. When placed on the shelf beside other stories that seem ridiculous, the audience is clued in that they should receive the article as a curiosity instead of an object of reasoned debate. The author’s first sentence attempts to highlight the degree to which the school seems “out of touch,” by noting that the pamphlet suggests blowing bubbles instead of having sex. We are never told that this sexual education curriculum is tailored to middle and early high school students. The author then provides various quotes from the principal of the school regarding abstinence juxtaposed against the comparably absurd suggestions from the brochure. For example, after noting that the CEO of the school said, “We tell the full story too — there are emotional dangers in committing yourself to a sexual relationship and the best way to protect yourself medically and emotionally is abstinence," the article proceeds to list suggestions of activities in lieu of sex from the brochure such as cleaning the house for your parents, fruit picking, and pretending you are six. Upon finishing the article, the casual reader is left with the suggestion that those who believe in abstinence education probably ascribe to the asinine notion that children need to pick fruit or visit the elderly when they experience sexual desires. Disagreement and derision is the only acceptable view of the school’s decisions.

While this article is only one of many examples of the media heaping ridicule on causes and individuals with which they disagree, it should serve as a vivid reminder that the media tells us “what to think” on a daily basis. With one piece, a formerly decent person can transform into a raving radical lunatic at the mercy of out-of-context quotes and unflattering pictures. In the article above, an Australian CEO finds himself equating blowing bubbles with sex in the international media. Somehow, I do not think that is the image he meant to portray.

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Our Public Schools Are in Crisis — and Pensions Are the Problem

School districts across the country are continually being forced to scale back resources and cut public funding on educational initiatives. This has been an immediate reaction to the extensive financial holes left from budget shortfalls during the Great Recession, but as local officials grapple with these challenges, it is difficult not to take a step back and ask oneself: How did these immense gaps spiral out of control in the first place? While we can attribute financial instability to the slow recovery process facing both the private and public sector, the underlying issue of our education budget shortcomings is a lack of leadership from public officials who have played politics with taxpayer money and public employee pensions rather than work towards substantive solutions to fix this bankrupt system.

A primary case study that has recently received widespread media attention this past week involves the Chicago Public Schools and their decision to solve this looming pension crisis by raising property taxes on residents and by cutting 2,110 teachers from their current payroll. This controversially constructed plan involved top secret deliberations with the end result sending shockwaves throughout the community, particularly the teacher’s union. The board unveiled a $5.6 billion budget plan that contained deep cuts which disproportionately were aimed directly at the classroom.

A spokeswoman for the Board of Education has said that due to the state legislature’s lack of compromise on comprehensive pension reform, officials are tasked with filling a $1 billion budget deficit, as they must make contributions to previous pension obligations. This situation is not idiosyncratic, as this has been documented as a growing problem throughout the country over the past couple of years. A recent Education Week article highlighted that states have roughly $325 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and failure by state representatives to take action to bring solvency to this system has had a ripple effect, from the steps of each state capitol to the steps of schools across the nation. Chicago Public Schools, which has one of the largest school districts in the U.S., provides an essential context surrounding the current state of our public education system. Over the past 10 years, while education budgets grew at unprecedented rates, numerous studies have displayed that student achievement levels have decreased or remained stagnant. If throwing money at the problem of student achievement was the answer to improving educational quality, why hasn’t it been working and where is all the money going?

The answer is simple. While politicians were busy making promises that they are unable to keep to the American workforce regarding salary and benefits, our students were being shuffled through the systems with no tangible advancements in the quality of classroom resources. The PBS documentary of former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee provided illumination into the governmental waste in spending that has been hidden in educational legislation, as increased funds (generally from raising property and education taxes) are going to grow a central-office bureaucracy rather than making it into the classroom to help our most vulnerable students. On the other end of the losing side are our great teachers, who are selflessly paying out of pocket to provide supplemental books and resources in their classrooms to ensure that their students are learning the appropriate material in a timely manner. So how are politicians repaying them? With no real solution to solving the pension crisis, and by cutting employed teachers to make up for lost ground.

With all the absence of leadership surrounding the pension problem, there is an example of a true education reformer who got it right. Two years ago, Governor Chris Christie (R) brought the issue of pension and health benefits reform to the forefront of the New Jersey political landscape and effectively fostered a conducive environment for legislators to fiercely debate the appropriate course of action in an effort to establish a sustainable model. Under the premise of shared sacrifice, the governor, with bipartisan support from Democratic leadership and the entire Republican caucus, was able to pass sweeping pension and health benefit reform legislation in the state of New Jersey. It is imperative that we demand bipartisanship in the decision-making process as it is the only way we will be able to progress forward in a productive manner.

Facilitating a fundamental transformation in how we allocate funds to our schools, as well as modifying the emphasis we place on valuable assets to school communities, is the pathway to creating the most talented and competent workforce to date. The next generation of leaders is counting on us to demonstrate our commitment to education, so it is time we step off the sidelines and enforce the ideal that all students should be afforded the highest quality of education possible, and it should not be affected by unfunded pension liabilities from dishonest politicians.

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Mic Check: 9 Horrific Photos That Show How Bad Egypt's Protests Have Become

1. Can Egypt Come Back From the Brink?

Egypt’s upheaval entered a new stage on Saturday when clashes broke out between police and pro-Morsi demonstrators taking part in a sit-in around a Cairo mosque. The violence began when demonstrators tried to extend the barricades around their sit-in. Egypt’s health ministry says 78 protesters died in the violence, but doctors put the death toll over 100. Morsi supporters continued their protests today, holding three marches in Cairo. Over 200 Egyptians have died in the violence following Morsi’s ouster.

More from around the web:
• Is Egypt’s military trying to eradicate the Muslim Brotherhood? (NPR)

• The Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t have any good options (NY Times).

More From PolicyMic:
• 9 Horrific Photos That Show Just How Bad the Protests in Egypt Have Become (Maggie O’Neill)

• The Arab Spring Protests You Don't Know About (Yury Barmin)

2. Israel and Palestine to Hold First Peace Talks in 3 Years

A State Department spokeswoman announced Sunday that the first peace talks between Israel and Palestine since 2010 will begin tonight over dinner at Secretary of State John Kerry’s house. The Israeli Cabinet voted on Sunday to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in order to convince Palestine to negotiate. Don’t get your hopes up just yet: The goal of these talks is to establish a timeline for future negotiations.

More from around the web:
• Israel was right to release Palestinian prisoners (Haaretz).

More From PolicyMic:
• The EU Tells Israel, "End the Settlements – Or Else" (Uchechi Kalu)

3. Major Ad Agencies Merge to Take On Google

Major ad agencies Publicis and Omnicon announced they will merge in early 2014 at a press conference on Sunday, creating the world’s largest advertising company. The merger will help the agencies to negotiate better rates for their clients as tech giants like Google have begun to make billions selling ad space. Publicis and Omnicon combined for $22.7 billion in earning last year, while Google made $50 billion, mostly from ads.

More from around the web:
• Is the Publicis-Omnicon merger a sign of strength or weakness? (Forbes)

• Advertisers take a unique approaching to placing ads on Mad Men (New Yorker).

More From PolicyMic:
• Are Oreo’s Social Media Spots the Future of Advertising? (Brett Ryan)

4. American Poverty is Much More Common Than You Think

A new report by the Associated Press reveals economic difficulties are shockingly common in the U.S. The report says 79% of Americans deal with joblessness, near poverty, or reliance on welfare at some point in their lives. White Americans have become especially pessimistic about the economy: 63% said the economy was in poor shape. The AP’s poll shows the gap in poverty rates between white and non-white Americans is shrinking, but not fast enough: Non-whites have a 90% chance of facing economic hardship.

More from around the web:
• Get Obama’s take on the state of the economy (NY Times).

• Guess which demographic is actually upbeat about the economy? (Pew)

More From PolicyMic:
• Obama's Economy Speech Lays the Smackdown On Austerity (Amir Salehzadeh)

5. Jewel Thief Steals $54 Million in Diamonds From French Hotel

A jewel thief stole $54 million in diamonds from the Carleton Hotel in Cannes on Sunday in the second largest jewel heist in French history. Cannes has been struck by several high-profile robberies recently: Robbers pulled off two smaller jewel heists in May. Ironically, Alfred Hitchcock set his famous jewel heist thriller, To Catch a Thief, at the Carleton.

More from around the web:
• Get the inside scoop on the legendary Pink Panther jewel thieves (New Yorker).

More From PolicyMic:
• The 10 Greatest Diamond Heists in History (Roy Klabin)

DESSERT
• How scientists are implanting false memories (NY Times).

• Find out why 2014 is going to be a huge year for 3D printing (Quartz).

• How long will it be until your iPhone is your wallet? (Bits)

• Great writers share their favorite opening lines (Atlantic).

• Which U.S. city has the worst drivers? (Slate)

Thanks for reading!
Nick

What do you think of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks? Do you think Egypt is going to spiral out of control? Share your thoughts on Twitter: @nicholascbaker.

Share Mic Check and help your friends stay informed: http://eepurl.com/of1jj.

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Being Gay is Still Illegal in This Louisiana Sheriff's Town

Despite the apparent gains for the LGBT rights movement in recent months, namely the Supreme Court's repeal of DOMA and its overruling of California's anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8, many areas of the country have not progressed past the Stone Age with regards to LGBT rights and dignity.

On Saturday the Advocate, an LGBT magazine, uncovered a sting operation run by the sheriff of East Baton Rouge targeting gay men in Louisiana. Under the sheriff's orders, police officers would meet gay men in public parks and bring them back to their apartments, where they would proceed to arrest the victim on the grounds of Louisiana's anti-sodomy laws.

The sting operations were merely the result of a zealously homophobic law enforcement agency who would like to see the U.S. return to the dark ages by targeting and harassing members of the LGBT community. The state of Louisiana should remove the sheriff from his position.

Moral outrage outside, anti-sodomy laws are indisputably unconstitutional. 19 states had repealed their sodomy laws by the end of the 1970s, but some states continued to actively enforce their laws as late as the 1990s. In 1998 the police arrested a gay couple in Houston under Texas anti-sodomy laws. The case took five years longer than it should have, until the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that homosexuality is not a crime in 2003, thereby overturning the remaining states' anti-sodomy laws.

Nonetheless, the sheriff's spokesman had the gall to defend the arrests, claiming that he has a duty to enforce all laws passed by the Louisiana legislature and that the courts would decide whether or not the laws were valid — even though the Supreme Court had clearly made that decision in 2003.

Thus, the sheriff's office is operating illegally and on completely unconstitutional grounds. No money was ever exchanged in these operations and the rendezvous were obviously consensual. Even if anti-sodomy laws were constitutional, the police presumably made the arrests before any sexual activity took place. Nonetheless, the East Baton Rouge police have arrested 12 men on sodomy charges since 2011, with the most recent arrest on July 18, causing public embarrassment and distress for their victims.

In addition to the sheriff's pure, unadulterated homophobia and harassment, the futile sting operations were undoubtedly a waste of taxpayer money and a terrible allocation of police resources. This is particularly concerning because in 2012, Louisiana had the honor of being the most violent state in the U.S. On top of that, Baton Rouge was ranked the eighth deadliest city the same year.

Furthermore, the task force charged with performing the sting operations is explicitly responsible for stopping prostitution and child predators. The sheriff's office's most recent statement further demonstrates that they seem to equate homosexuality with pedophilia.

Despite the sheriff's initial response to the constitutionality of his arrests, his office continued to insult the public's intelligence by maintaining that they were unaware that anti-sodomy statutes are unenforceable. Their statement was rife with homophobic undertones. It claimed that the office was "honorable" and acting in "good faith" under anti-sodomy statutes, using them to respond to "reports of public masturbation, sex and other lewd activity in a park where children are playing."

Now the sheriff's office is backtracking, claiming they didn't know the laws were constitutionally unenforceable.

"Does he know slavery is no longer around?" exclaimed one outraged LGBT advocate. "Does he know that we have cars and no longer horse and buggies?"

Clearly the best way to protect our children from inappropriate public conduct is to target unsuspecting gay men, rather than finding the perpetrators of the alleged lewd conduct. As the sheriff's office attempts to make excuses for itself, its second statement makes it perfectly clear that it equates homosexuality with pedophilia and lewd conduct, assuming that the perpetrators of their supposed complaints must be gay.

The sheriff's demeaning actions and middle finger to the Supreme Court set an unfortunate precedent, as 13 other states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books. Virginia's attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, hoping to distract from ethics accusations, requested that a federal court overturn Virginia's ban on sodomy laws, allowing him to enforce Virginia's anti-sodomy statutes as governor.

Louisiana must punish East Baton Rouge's sheriff for his vicious, degrading actions by removing him from office. Above all, his behavior, alongside Cuccinelli and his ilk, are a sobering reminder that although the U.S. continues to make great strides in the LGBT rights movement, it still faces major setbacks in certain areas of the country.

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Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' Gets the Feminist Response It Deserves

Robin Thicke’s recent song "Blurred Lines" has generated controversy due to its rape-y lyrics and demeaning music video. Women all over the country have been up in arms over the objectifying nature of the song. Now, Melinda Hughes, a girl power comedienne from LA, has created a new parody video sharing feminist responses to Thicke’s controversial song.

As a woman sympathetic to all victims of sexual abuse, I felt a tremendous amount of pain watching the "Blurred Lines" music video. Although the models are hot and the goat is cute, the undeniable popularity of this negative message has shot up some serious red flags.

Sexual abuse often leaves the victim feeling powerless. The “I know you want it” lyrics seem to perpetuate these victim-blaming reactions that leave many of us feeling powerless long after the abusive incident.

Unfortunately, there’s a “douchebag” percentage of the population that listens to music like this and takes it at face value. Certain members of our society may listen to this song and watch this video and think, “Hey, I deserve to have the hottest girl in the bar. She’s here for my amusement.” One in six American women have experienced a rape or attempted rape. The vast majority of rape is committed by someone the victim already knew. This assumption that women’s purpose is to serve a man’s fantasies, reinforced by violent male dominance, has been termed “rape culture." This video strives to combat rape culture and set an example. Women are funny, intelligent, and clever, and need to be represented as such!

My big question is... how did the majority of the American audience miss the song's intention, as Thicke himself was quoted, "to degrade women as much as possible.” Are we that hypnotized by three pairs of beautiful breasts? Or is that how commonplace the degradation of women is in our society — so common we don’t even recognize or notice when the artist goes out of his way to offend as much as possible? And even more perplexing, why was the intention of "Blurred Lines" to degrade women? This song does not play as a satire or a parody or a social commentary on a current issue. The song plays as just another R&B song, so why was it funny to the performers to make a joke on the shoulders of rape culture?

In the video, the men are given all the power and control. The models dance around with vacant expressions. The three fully-clothed men touch and gawk at them in whichever way they choose, without any reaction from the women. As a result, the women seem more like sex dolls for the amusement of the men than actual women. The women are not celebrated for their wit, their intelligence, their creativity, their loving nature, their ability to give life, or even their individual beauties. They are celebrated as sexual objects. Not only are the models stripped of their clothing, they are stripped of their voices, stripped of their individualities, stripped of everything. I think many women are tired of being represented in such a limited way.

When the value of women is continuously contingent on whether a woman fits the ideal of sexual beauty and whether she fulfills what we expect from her sexually, we create a society in which the goal of a woman is to be sexually appealing. The feminine contribution to society is reduced to looking sexy or being sexy. This view of women and their opportunities and roles in our society is something that needs to change.

Instead of seeing a rise in plastic surgery, I would like to see a rise in a feeling of self-worth in who we are as people from the inside out.

Instead of seeing a rise in eating disorders, I would like to see a rise in women business owners.

Instead of seeing a rise in music videos like "Blurred Lines," I would like to see more videos like our parody that show women as smart, sassy, sexy, empowered, and equal.

Share Melinda Hughes "Blurred Lines" Parody! #Douche @MelindaHug

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