“I can’t believe this is happening,” she said in wonderment”

By John Charles Reedburg

A mere nipple isn’t anything. Want worst? Go to MySpace.

Online, the virtual “nurse-in” to protest FACEBOOK’s ban on breast-feeding photos has taken off, with hundreds hourly joining a group that crept toward 70,000 members Saturday evening.

The real-life, pavement-pounding protest drew fewer placards than photojournalists Saturday, with only a handful turning out to sing, chant and breast-feed in front of Facebook’s downtown Palo Alto headquarters. But it had all the elements of a Palo Alto protest: A handful of peaceful pickets discreetly tucked away in a University Avenue plaza; placards reading “Hey Facebook, Breast-feeding is not Obscene,” protesters chatting up the media; and indifferent passers-by. A member of the Raging Grannies, the Midpeninsula activists who stage various theatrical protests, showed up to proclaim in song that “our breasts aren’t porn.”

It’s hard to say whether either demonstration will move Facebook executives — who appeared to not be at work Saturday — to lift the site’s prohibition of breasts displayed on members’ profiles and albums. Facebook says the areola, the dark skin around the nipple, violates a policy on “obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit” material.

On their Facebook group site, which also serves as an open petition to the company, nursing advocates by Saturday evening had posted more than 10,000 wall comments, two dozen videos and nearly 3,000 photos of breast-feeding, while starting more than 1,500 discussion threads. Facebook, it seemed, was not removing them.

All this might not have happened had the social networking site simply answered Heather Farley’s e-mail asking why the networking giant in October removed photos of her breast-feeding her baby.

When she posted another photo and then received a letter threatening to delete her account, she went public.

“I felt bullied,” said Farley, of Provo, Utah, who decided to protest while she was in California for the holidays visiting in-laws.

Her challenge drew support from other Facebook critics and lactation advocates. Among the pickets Saturday were her mother-in-law, Sheri Farley of Placer County, who breast-fed her eight children and now boasts that 19 of her 20 grandchildren have been nursed.
Alexa Sockol of Redwood City, a doula who assists with childbirth and newborns, was nursing 6-month-old Ethan at the protest. “There are enough challenges with initiating and continuing breast-feeding without complicating it with social rules,” she said.

The picketing also drew Facebook newbies like Lucile Couplan-Cashman, 56, of Palo Alto, and Bernadette Gersh, 46, of Redwood City. “I didn’t know that Facebook was so puritan,” said Couplan-Cashman, who doesn’t have an account on the site.

Heather Farley, a self-described “avid user” of Facebook with 200 online friends, said she doesn’t know how far she’ll pursue her protest. She doesn’t want to lose her Facebook account, which is the primary way she keeps in touch with high school and college friends and is the place she and her husband post their family photos.

Still, she’s blogged about her disputes with Facebook. And although the company still hasn’t answered any of her electronic messages, she’s now hearing from people worldwide. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she said in wonderment.

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President Obama has “an effect on culture in a major way”

By John Charles Reedburg

No one has swagger like barack

Obama’s influence extends further than polictics

By John Charles Reedburg

I’ve never seen a President with this much shine.

He has more star status than Lil’ Wayne.

Yet he should.

After comedian Jon Stewart announced on election night that BARACK OBAMA was indeed the next president, the “Daily Show” host was joined by confused and sad correspondents, including John Oliver, Rob Riggle and Samantha Bee. They whined about what they were going to do now that this two-year trial had passed. They didn’t know how to cover anything else, they sobbed to their leader.

To soothe his troubled team, Stewart launched into a calming rendition of the “The Morning After.”

But what exactly will that morning look like in terms of comedy, music and books?

“Presidents do have an effect on culture in a major way,” says Maer Roshan, editor in chief of the recently defunct politics and pop culture magazine Radar. “They set the tone from the top.”

President Bush and his administration begat a bumper crop of pop culture -movies like Oliver Stone’s “W.,” novels like Curtis Sittenfeld’s “American Wife,” protest albums from generations of rockers from Neil Young to R.E.M. and Bright Eyes. There were ready-made punch lines for the late-night comics about Vice President Dick Cheney shooting people. And can you imagine “The Colbert Report” without the Bush years?

So, what may be created now that we have a new national ‘tude and an intellectually complex president who encourages honesty and openness?

We asked a cast of pop-culture pros for their predictions.

Obama, a best-selling author, impressive orator and man of well-chosen words, could have a positive effect on the nation’s literacy -judging by the level of excitement among heavyweight American writers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Jane Smiley and Toni Morrison also praised Obama’s literary acumen to the AP. “I had read his first book (‘Dreams From My Father’). I was astonished by his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase,” Morrison said. “I was very impressed. This was not a normal political biography.”

Southern Indiana-born author John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son,” points out that we may not see many non-fiction screeds railing against the system for a little while -from either the Michael Moores or Ann Coulters of the world.

“Something changes when your country moves in an obviously positive direction. It’s harder to establish a contrarian space for yourself, and that’s been such a big part of the identity of writers in my generation and the ones that came before it,” he says. “They saw themselves as just fundamentally in opposition in every way to the mainstream culture.”

Farai Chideya, host of National Public Radio’s “News & Notes” and a walking encyclopedia of politics and pop culture, sees a window of opportunity opening for black writers.

“You’ll see a lot of shattering of what people consider black literature,” she says. “Popular black literature, like popular anything, tends to be very traditional. … There are people working more in the avant-garde.”

She points to black author Paul Beatty, author of the ambitious and absurd “Slumberland,” as a prime example of the type of African-American authors who may break out.

Laura Shine, a DJ in Louisville has been inundated with Obama-themed music -none of which she’s chosen to play on the air – since he became the Democratic nominee.

“Lots of independent artists have been sending their songs about change and Obama. Some of them are not that good, and a lot of them come from sort of questionable sources,” Shine says.

“Some, I believe, are about real change, and people are very excited about it, and some of it seems to be capitalizing on a trend.”

Musicians are singing Obama’s praises worldwide, according to Chideya. “There are a bunch of Kenyan songs, a bunch of reggae songs” about him, she says. She also predicts a new awakening for hip-hop. “There is going to be a post-hip-hop music form that emerges within the first Obama term, if there is more than one,” she says. “Hip-hop has run a certain course, generationally.

“There is going to be a return to music that has, if not a straight-ahead social conscience like protest music, more narrative,” she says.

America’s major purveyors of funny have bemoaned the lack of laughable material the composed and classy Obama offers, especially in comparison to his comedy-gold predecessor. And Bill Maher, of HBO’s “Real Time,” has mused on whether comedians will be afraid to poke fun at a black president -and whether audiences will laugh.

Former “Saturday Night Live” “Weekend Update” anchor Norm, MacDonald, said on a local radio station last Friday that he had to change his entire act now that Obama has been elected.

Well, we have some good news. Chideya says Larry Wilmore, “The Daily Show’s” “senior black correspondent,” is on the case. He’s producing and starring in a Comedy Central series “where he will portray an Obama-like character,” Chideya says. That’s all she’ll say for now about the project.

She also notes that ground has already been laid for more fresh political satire.

“Now you have ‘Chocolate News,’ on Comedy Central with David Alan Grier, and ‘D.L. Hughley Breaks the News’ on CNN. You’re seeing a spectrum,” she says. “You’re going to see a lot of people try to hit that sweet spot with blackness-humor in the news, and it’ll be interesting to see who actually hits it and what combination works.”

“I’ve got to admit, as a comedian, I’m going to miss President Bush because Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about,” Jay Leno said last week. “See, this is why God gave us Joe Biden.”

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“US Internet security experts have struck a major blow against junk email purveyors”

By John Charles Reedburg

Too bad for the spammers. But – yay! For us.

SPAM has been with us since the earliest days of the Internet, and is now an accepted annoyance of being online, along with pop-up ads and your aunt forwarding you chain emails. But it seems that US Internet security experts have struck a major blow against junk email purveyors, shutting down a hosting company they claim was responsible for up to 75 percent of worldwide spam.

The company is McCOLO, an Internet Service Provider. When their upstream provider Hurricane Electric cut off their access to the series of tubes known as the Internet, those that track these sort of things noticed huge drops in the level of spam being sent out. IronPort, an e-mail security firm, said levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening, while Spamcop.net reported that spam fell from 40 spam e-mails per second to 10 per second.

McColo, whose corporate website is down for the moment, seems to be out of the spam game. Still, this doesn’t mean the end of emails with titles like “ch4eP C!@lis” and “STAATSLOTTERIJ INTERNATION NET AWARD !!” In an article in the the Washington Post, spam experts are worried shutting down McColo could actually make things even more difficult:

Joe Stewart, director of malware research for SecureWorks, said botnets such as “Mega-D” or “Srizbi,” which are known to send e-mails about access to prescription drugs, have had their master servers hosted at McColo.

Although security experts who have been seeking to stop McColo from allegedly hosting questionable sites are pleased to see the company lose its access, some are worried that it will only make it harder to track illegal activity.

“Everything will just be more spread out and harder to mitigate,” Stewart said. “We rather like knowing where the bad activity is coming from, so protecting our networks is easier.”

So don’t worry — someone out there will still be willing to help you “Turn you stick to a skyscraper!!”*

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Car repossessions hit a 10-year high in 2008, according to most industry studies

By John Charles Reedburg

HOTT FACTS

Repo agents suggest an average rise of 15-20% in the number of repo vehicles they are processing daily

Repo’s jumped 10% in 2007

Repossessions of luxury cars are soaring in upscale areas where the housing downturn hit particularly hard like Florida and Southern California

Motorist one, let’s call him JIM, just bought a used car from his neighborhood auto dealer. Meanwhile, motorist two, let’s call her JANE, just lost her new car to repossession. Jim celebrated a good deal as his dealer bought the car at auction and passed on the savings to Jim. Jane couldn’t afford the payments on the new car she bought a year ago, and she cried when the repo firm took it away. Jim, for the purposes of our story, is the proud new owner of Jane’s repossessed car, but how did the car make it from one owner to another? We take a look at the sometimes painful and often complicated process by which a car becomes repossessed and the steps by which it makes its way back into the sales chain.

THE OWNER AND THE LENDER

Jane, our fictional motorist, bought a new sports compact from her friendly local franchise with no money down and signed a five-year finance deal. Six months later, Jane lost her job as a Realtor’s executive assistant amid the economic downturn. A few months later, she defaulted on her monthly payment. After several notices demanding the outstanding funds, her loan company informed her it had initiated legal proceedings to take possession of her car.

After unsuccessful negotiations with her loan company, Jane could do little else other than wait for the repo company’s dreaded knock on her door, although she saved herself some costs by voluntarily allowing the car to be repossessed. But the bank or lien holder has to fulfill several legal requirements before it can repossess a car. Any lender seeking repossession must prove they have a lien on the vehicle and that the terms of the lending agreement — often the lender’s credit application — have been upheld. Then they ask the courts to grant a levy on the vehicle.

They must give the car’s owner a certain number of days’ notice — which varies from state to state — to comply with the court’s order. Only when these requirements are fulfilled can a lien holder move to sell the car. A bank must also notify the borrower when and where their vehicle will be put up for sale (sometimes with a mandatory wait or notice period), to give the original buyer a chance to buy back the vehicle while paying off any fees associated with the repossession, and the lending institution will also check the car’s “book-out” sheet, which allows the lender to check that all the options loaded in the car match the loan they granted for the car, and help the institution gain an idea of the car’s market worth.

THE REPO AGENT

A repo professional at an San Fernando Valley, Calif., firm, who requested anonymity, said the economy is the main reason for a recent surge in repossessions. And it’s not just the average driver losing their car — the firm just had its “best month this year.”

“Now, it’s more luxury cars, a Ferrari popped up a couple weeks ago in San Fernando Valley. He had two other high end cars and he said he was in a serious pickle and he’d probably lose them too. He had a wife, three kids, upside down mortgages — it was bad. And it’s sad. Sometimes I wish business wasn’t so good.”

The agent said they had a long period earlier this year where they were routinely working on the case file of someone formerly employed in the mortgage industry. She said many repossessions involving mortgage lending industry workers are drying up, indicating most of these losses have worked their way through the system.

The agent said her collection agents have to abide by certain laws when repossessing a car and the lien holder has to give an order to the repo agent to possess the car. The repossession is only finalized when the collection agent is sitting in the car or the vehicle is secured in a tow truck off the owner’s property.

A car is repossessed largely without much trouble — in some states, the operation must be performed peacefully by law — though the agent has seen some upset owners in her time. Some states allow a repo worker to enter a property without the owner’s permission, while some owners choose to relocate their vehicles in a bid to avoid a repo (which is also legal in some states). Usually, the repo agent, who is paid from $150-$300 per job, will be tasked with finding the owner and their car.

THE AUCTIONEER

After Jane’s car was repossessed; chances are it was taken to the repo firm’s lot until it was taken to auction. Some of these auctions are public but most are private events that bring together key elements of the repossession trade: the creditors, dealerships or leasing companies that have repossessed the cars and the mom-and-pop car outlets or general retail dealerships that buy them to sell. Auction rules require at least three independent bids on any repossessed vehicle. It is up to the company that repossessed the car to decide if they want to sell the car at the price offered.

LOU BESCHOFF, the general manager at Prime Auto Auction in Southern California, says most of the cars often sell for under the book price. That’s partially because a creditor knows that the car’s previous owner is typically responsible for the difference between what they originally paid for the car and the price the creditor gets at auction.

Any reconditioning of the vehicle is “entirely up to the person who repo’d the car,” Beschoff said.

“It’s a financial thing: how much of a hole are you in being the lessor? [The cars] always get a wash, vacuum and cleanup. But tires, brakes it’s all up to them. Some are sold as is, depending on age conditions and value. Some auction houses offer new wheels or bumper painting, but the basics are usually provided and the car is sold.”

Beschoff said that though auto sales in general are falling, his company has seen an increase in the percentage of repossessed cars sold this year. Major auction houses like Manheim report a surge in repossessions this year according to Foss National Leasing, where Manheim chief economist Tom Webb blamed the current economic credit squeeze for repo’s “peaking” in 2008. He predicts repo numbers will fall in 2009.

THE DEALER

STEVE SKARRY, an independent used car dealer at Island Auto Sales in Alameda, Calif., said he has “definitely” seen more repossessions in the past year at the auctions he frequently attends. Prices for repossessed cars are not higher or lower in any noticeable way, he says, and the crowd of 300, and sometimes more, used-car dealers always sets the market value on a vehicle, which is largely based on its condition and not its history. “It’s like the dealers came together and said they would pay that and not more. Then one guy pays a little more and gets it. It’s just like an art auction,” Skarry said.

Though the lien holder may accept a lower price to shift the responsibility for the vehicle to someone else and recoup some of its money, Skarry said repossessed vehicles, which often will be marked with a sticker, can hang around the auction circuit for weeks before the creditor accepts an offer. Occasionally, Skarry said, the institution finally will accept an offer it had previously turned down. He said he’s purchased several vehicles that way. There is little difference in filing the vehicle’s paperwork — it’s a matter of one DMV form that essentially allows the sale process to bypass the previous owner, Skarry said.

While there’s no great advantage either way in buying a repossesed car, “usually the repossessed car is not as good quality,” he said.

“In general, and I mean in general, you have to take into consideration how people think. If they can’t make payments on their car usually they can’t afford to take care of the car,” Skarry explained. “Some of course are very meticulous but they just can’t afford them, but 80 percent of time they’ve seen more abuse and haven’t been taken care of.”

THE CIRCLE COMPLETE

Finally, all that’s left to do is for Jim to get his loan approved and buy Jane’s shiny sports compact that’s sitting on the lot. It’s got a slightly tangled history but its Carfax record is untainted and Jim is pretty sure the quality of the car will minimize potential risks that exist when buying any used car. He even bargained extra hard on the price as he knew it was a repo. Jim is happy, Jane probably isn’t and the can’t care less.

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But what else could happen?

A customer fills his car with gas at a Phillips 66 gas station November, 13, 2008 in Jennings, Missouri. The price of oil fallen close to 50 dollars before steadying in trading today as OPEC announced the possiblity of an emergency output meeting.

By John Charles Reedburg

The more gas prices lower. Happier I become.

Yay!

Gas prices are falling harder than President Bush’s motivation to go to work in the morning.

It sucks for the oil companies (and for green energy activists actually), but it rocks for anyone planning to go see Mom for Thanksgiving. With AAA reporting a national average of $2.18/gallon, prices have dropped below the $2 mark in states such as Missouri and Texas.

Will Green go out the window only to be crushed under the giant wheels of a pimped-out Escalade?

It’s possible the whole thing could help stimulate a much-needed holiday-spending boost. But what else could happen? With these gas prices, will people start buying trucks again? Will Green go out the window only to be crushed under the giant wheels of a pimped-out Escalade?

The Kansas City Star has reported forecasts predicting an average of $2.37/gallon throughout 2009. All joking aside, those sorts of gas prices could slow demand for more energy efficient vehicles. That’s good news for GM, who is currently trying to wrangle some federal bailout money its way.

But here’s hoping people stay smart and keep demanding more from auto makers. Can we all agree not to buy anymore vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon?

What do you think? Are these lower gas prices good or bad for us in the long term?

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The patch boosted a woman’s “satisfying sexual experiences”

By John Charles Reedburg

This is sort like Viagra for women. But instead of a pill, it’s a patch.

Postmenopausal women who have lost interest in sex may be able to bring their libidos back to life with a testosterone patch, according to new research published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Even though results were modest, one expert called them meaningful.

However, the use of the male hormone to boost sex drive in women may not be risk-free. Out of the 814 women in the study, four women who were taking testosterone developed breast cancer, but none of the women on placebo did. It’s not clear whether this was a statistical blip or a warning sign that excess testosterone could cause or spur the growth of a malignancy. Some women also reported excess hair growth, although none stopped using the hormone for this reason.

Susan R. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., of Monash University in Australia, and colleagues in the United States, Canada, and Sweden, evaluated two different doses of testosterone delivered by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals’ Intrinsa patch. In 2004, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel gave Intrinsa the thumbs down and called for larger, longer studies to ensure that the medication was safe, in addition to proving that it actually helped women’s sex lives.

As the new findings show, it did. Wearing the higher-dose testosterone patch boosted a woman’s “satisfying sexual experiences” by an average of 2.1 times every four weeks, compared to an increase of just 0.7 such experiences for women taking a placebo. Both testosterone doses used in the study seemed to increase desire and decrease distress.

“Although the change in activity is modest, that’s something that is appropriate and I think most women would be more than happy with it,” says study co-author Sheryl A. Kingsberg, Ph.D., chief of behavioral medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. “They wanted to return to the level of desire they had in their premenopausal years, and that’s what they got.” Before starting treatment, the women in the study had been having satisfying sex about twice a month on average, Kingsberg points out; the higher-dose patch increased that to once a week.

“For most women and providers of health care for women, that modest benefit is clinically meaningful,” agrees North American Menopause Society president JoAnn V. Pinkerton, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, who did not participate in the study.

Some women lose interest in sex during and after menopause, due in part to the drop in estrogen that comes with the “change of life.” While taking estrogen can increase lubrication and possibly restore a woman’s sex drive, hormone replacement is now understood to raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. Many physicians prescribe testosterone instead, although there is currently no testosterone product that’s FDA-approved for treating women with “hypoactive sexual desire disorder.” The European Union has approved Intrinsa, but only for women who have had their ovaries removed, a procedure also known as surgical menopause. Read more on the medical reasons why some women don’t want sex

In the current study, 814 women who had undergone either surgical menopause or natural menopause were randomly assigned to use daily a placebo patch or an Intrinsa patch containing either 150 or 300 micrograms of testosterone. The trial lasted for a year, and a subset of women was followed for an additional year. Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals sponsored the study and helped design the trial as well as collect and analyze the data.

“Based on these data and other studies we’ve conducted, we are continuing our talks with [the] FDA to explore new opportunities and pathways forward,” says Procter & Gamble spokesperson, Tom Milliken.

One of the women on the 300-microgram dose was found to have breast cancer three months after the study ended; three others in the testosterone groups learned they had the disease between four and 12 months after treatment began.

“We do not know if the testosterone patch contributed to proliferation or metastasis of the breast cancer in women diagnosed in the earlier months of the study, potentially affecting their long-term survival,” says Leslie R. Schover, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, who recently wrote an article analyzing research on testosterone for low libido. “A valid safety study needs at least a five-year follow-up period in a large, randomized trial. If women use Intrinsa without such a trial, I believe they are risking their lives to gain a very modest increase in sexual desire.” Learn why birth control is safer than ever (and sometimes it’s even good for you)

But Dr. Davis says she is not concerned about the increased breast cancer risk seen in the study. Four breast cancer diagnoses among 814 women during a two-year period “is not unexpected,” she says, and given that twice as many study participants were taking testosterone than were on placebo, “it is probably a chance finding that they were in the two treatment groups.”

Many doctors who treat postmenopausal women — and prescribe testosterone off-label to some of them — say a treatment tailored to women is sorely needed and would probably be safe with short-term use. “We don’t have enough safety data to say it’s safe for long-term use, but I think short-term, the benefits clearly outweigh the risks,” Dr. Pinkerton says. Read more: 10 questions to ask a new partner before having sex.

But some experts warn that a pill or patch isn’t always the answer to a sexual problem.

“For women there are so many other things that can contribute to sexual issues, starting from the fact that the most important sex organ is the brain,” says Marcie Richardson, M.D., director of the Harvard Vanguard Menopause Survey in Boston. “I’m glad that people are trying to sort this out with good objective evidence, but I hope we don’t fall victim to the notion that this is all about medication, because it’s not.”

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Obama’s success reflects the glass ceiling in American popular culture

By John Charles Reedburg

Are we all free at last? This shouldn’t be considered a rhetorical question.

Today, I took it upon myself to do the right thing and vote early. As I stood in line (for 35 minutes) I tried to read a book and tried not to listen to other people’s conversations. I managed the first okay, but the second? Failed.

Sometimes eavesdropping has its reward. A couple of twenty-something college students, neither one African-American, stood in front of me chatting about how they both used to wish Cliff Huxtable was their dad when they were kids. Cliff was tough, but cool. He wore ugly sweaters — a plus ever since Mr. Rogers made it fatherly chic.

In all the talk about the supposed “Bradley effect” in this year’s presidential election, I think big media have missed the much bigger story, which is to say few of them are writing/broadcasting about “The Huxtable Effect.”

“The Huxtable Effect,” as I’ve coined it, speaks to the importance of images in popular culture — TV, movies, music, books, etc. — and formation of both a sense of self in viewers and, most importantly for our discussion now, a sense of others.

Social scientists have long shown the link between what children see in popular media and how they view the society those images purport to represent.

In fact, it has been theorized that every major political movement in the United States has followed, by about two decades, a matching movement in the arts and pop culture.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s onward was predated by the Harlem Renaissance in literature and art, and the hyper-intellectual bebop movement in jazz, by about 20 years.

The women’s rights movement that peaked in the 1960s and 1970s followed by about 30 years the Rosie the Riveter movement in American popular culture, which aimed to show strong women in movies and in music, spurring 6 million women to replace men at war in factory jobs.

There are no accidents of public consciousness, and there is no better tool for changing perceptions of social roles than popular culture.

So it is, I believe, that BARACK OBAMA’s successful candidacy and likely presidency were heralded with the arrival of The Cosby Show in 1984. On the air for eight seasons, The Cosby Show featured Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, an all-American father, medical doctor, and love husband, in the lead role. Never before in American TV had there been such a character. But the impact of Cosby’s weekly presence in America’s family rooms, as the fair-minded, fun, quirky Dr. Huxtable, cannot be underestimated in its affect upon the consciousness of Americans who were children and young adults at the time.

Cosby was not alone in what I have come to think of as the Bel Air Renaissance for African-Americans in popular culture, begun in the mid-1980s. Oprah Winfrey’s show got its start in 1986, and is still on the air. The 1980s saw: the rise of Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes as America’s favorite leading men, in mainstream, good-guy roles. It marked the mainstream entry of rap and hip-hop into the musical lexicon, and we saw Whitney Houston become the all-American girl-next-door vocalist (well, at least until she married Bobby.)

The incredible explosion of positive African-American role models in American popular culture, which started in the mid-1980s and has continued in force to the present day, has been profound and unprecedented in our history.

Barack Obama is reaping the political benefits of that now.

Unfortunately, the mainstream US media rarely connect political coverage to coverage of arts and culture. In newspapers, they are given separate sections, with politics regarded as masculine and important, and culture relegated to the “women’s” pages. This disconnect is unfortunate, and has led to coverage of Obama’s rise that is, in cultural context, laughably “surprised” by his ascent. For those of us paying attention to shifts in popular culture and public consciousness, Obama came as no surprise; he was as predictable as a happy ending to a Cosby Show rerun.

Part of the reason so many stories in the mainstream media have expressed astonishment at the rise of “a black man” to presidential candidate (and likely president) have to do with the simple fact that many of the older people in charge of those institutions owe their own worldviews to 1950s entertainment; to them, it is Ward Cleaver, not Cliff Huxtable, whom all kids wished were their own dad. America’s editors and producers are living in a Ward Cleaver reality, unaware of The Huxtable Effect, or its many tentacles.

That having been said, it is important to note that the subsequent stories — about the supposed “end of race” in America that today’s mainstream editors believe Obama’s candidacy represents — are also incorrect.

Obama’s success reflects the glass ceiling in American popular culture having been broken down by a single group among its many oppressed minority groups: African-Americans.

Latinos have had no such breakthrough.

In fact, according to some analysis, portrayals of Hispanics/Latinos in American popular culture are worse now than ever before. A UCLA study found that even though Latinos represent 15 percent of the nation’s population, they get less than 4 percent of all movie or TV roles; most of these are negative roles, such as gang member, criminal, maid or slut.

They have yet to see their own Huxtable family on TV. Yes, they had George Lopez, but between the drunk, abusive granny and the low-paying job, his TV family was hardly the astute, successful, happy, upper-middle class bunch we all might wish to belong to. Not since Desi Arnaz graced the small screen alongside wife Lucille Ball have they seen a middle-class Latino father who wasn’t screwed up, and even so, Desi’s character was cartoonish.

To make matters worse for Latinos, the drumbeat of hatred and fear-mongering on the immigration issue, on cable news programs — especially Lou Dobbs — and talk radio and in newspapers and magazines, has further sullied the image of all Latinos (most of whom are not immigrants, legal or otherwise, but this distinction is rarely made in US popular culture).

While hate crimes overall are down for all other groups, Latinos have seen hate crimes against them in the US increase dramatically during the past 8 years — just as positive popular culture images of themselves have declined, and hateful immigrant-bashing has increased. While the media jumped to protest cries of “kill him” about Obama by racists at republican rallies, the very same outlets had no problem promoting Dobbs and his ilk.

Yes, Obama is the political expression of a racial barrier knocked down in America, a movement begun in the arts and pop culture. But it does not mean the end of “race” or “ethnic” discrimination in our country. In many ways, it marks merely a beginning.

So again people. I ask the question:

Are we all free at last?

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Your wife or girlfriend may have “something on the side”

By John Charles Reedburg

Men, if you think that you’re a player. You might not be. There’s a chance that you’re girlfriend might be playing you. Old norms for sexual relationships no longer apply for the modern day woman.

A good example would be matrimonial values.

For example, throughout history, there have always been abstract forms of worth applied to women getting married and of a bride-to-be.

Men have traditionally been excused for having mistresses or “something on the side” from their wives. If Benjamin Franklin and Tony Soprano have taught us anything, it’s that powerful men in history keep their wives for family and appearances, while the mistress gets quietly taken care of, sometimes completely known by the wives. The sanctity of marriage was based on the chastity of the woman and the view from the outside. Wives weren’t sexual beings; there were other, less valuable women for that. The quintessential Madonna whore.

How many partners a woman has had, the family she came from, the job held by her father — all these factors played into and determined the worth of a potential wife. In terms of marriage, chastity and homemaking abilities were worth locking down, while promiscuity and the lack of feminine motherly instinct kept a female at the bottom of the barrel when it came to husband hunting.

But today, the modern woman may laugh at these standards. Being a good wife has nothing to do with chastity and homemaking. Who needs to spend all day cooking dinner when we have automatic ovens and microwaves and frozen lasagnas? The talent of dishwashing has become obsolete when that stainless steel dishwasher gets installed. And with nannies, daycares and pre-preschool learning classes for toddlers, moms are just as free to be clueless about parenting as their husbands.

It’s not just traditional motherhood that can be shelved in the modern relationship. Wives have become as sexually free to have boy toys as their men to have mistresses. It is even more acceptable for a woman to admit her extra marital affairs without facing the harsh Victorian-age judgments.

In a recent article published by The New York Times titled “Love, Sex and the Changing Landscape of Infidelity,” more women — at a younger age — are not only cheating on their husbands, but for the first time in history, they’re willingly admitting to it.

It seems that throughout time, men have wanted to believe that their women (or any woman for that matter) don’t cheat, and women don’t want their men to know they cheat. Women must be faithful, pure and loyal to their men, no matter what. Cheating is something more attributed to the man. Now statistics show that 15 percent of women under 35 cheat, while men in the same age group are only slightly higher at 20 percent. Women are becoming the new men.

This head game between the sexes carries so much history, it’s almost more baggage than the affair itself. Why women hide their affairs while men flaunt them is a clear example of gender roles taking their toll on the family structure. The fact that this is slowly diminishing could be a step in the right direction, even if it encourages cheating in a marriage.

Partners admitting their unfaithful behavior is a step in the right direction. It preaches a more equal partnership in action and words.

So the modern relationship includes cheating but not lying. The lies stem from social norms and setups, which we all know lead only to trouble.

At the same time, gentlemen, if any of this doesn’t apply to you. Then all I have to say is, “Play on, player.”

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DMX says, “What the f–k is a Barack?!”

By John Charles Reedburg

Hip hop has done a great job in getting a younger generation who usually don’t vote registered and out early to the polls. Yet does the negative lyrics in some hip hop songs really help Obama’s stride for socio-economic and progressive change?

On Oct. 23, the hip-hop elite congregated in Atlanta for BET’s annual Hip-Hop Awards. For the most part it was the typical industry extravaganza involving the hottest names, rappers capable of selling a million CDs in a week to a demographic stereotypically seen as young and rebellious but apathetic.

This year, however, things at the Black Entertainment Television event felt different – way different.

In the past, many hip-hoppers were content to shuffle cynically around major elections. But the nomination of BARACK OBAMA has yanked the hip-hop generation into the mainstream of American electoral politics. From presenters to performers to winners, from Russell Simmons’ blinging Obama T-shirt to Salt-N-Pepa’s tribute to the Democratic candidate’s wife, Michelle, the hope for change personified by Obama appears to have special resonance in hip-hop culture.

And, given hip-hop’s vast reach that could have a huge impact on the vote.

MTV reports that around 95 per cent of the hip-hop world supports Obama’s candidacy. As rapper TALIB KWELI wrote on his blog, “I have two beautiful children, and Barack Obama is an incredibly positive influence on them. I want them to know they can be anything they want.”

The genius of Obama’s campaign is that the senator has managed to galvanize the hip-hop community, traditionally shamed for promoting a cross-section of societal ills, without alienating the rest of America. That’s in part because Obama – who has said he listens to JAY-Z and KANYE WEST – hasn’t pandered to the hip-hop world, criticizing its misogyny, among other things. “We’re all consumers of this culture,” he told hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang in a Vibe magazine interview, “and there’s nothing wrong with us sort of saying, `You know what? Some hip hop is terrific and powerful and some of it is junk.’”

Still, hip-hop’s affinity for Obama hasn’t been embarrassment-free. Take New York rapper and actor DMX, who by March still hadn’t heard of the politician from Illinois. “What the f— is a Barack?!” he barked in an interview with the hip-hop magazine XXL.

“Where he from, Africa?”

In July, the senator’s campaign denounced rapper LUDACRIS for his underground song “Politics (Obama Is Here),” which called George W. Bush “mentally handicapped,” pitched the b-word at Hillary Clinton, and imagined the physical crippling of John McCain.

But many other hip-hoppers understand that when it comes to Obama’s campaign, they have to be judicious. In the most recent Vibe, Atlanta’s CEE-LO, he of Gnarls Barkley fame, asked hip-hoppers to “allow Obama’s work and the fruits of his labour to manifest.” Houston’s Scarface was even more pointed, stressing in Vibe, “Hip-Hop needs to shut the f–k up right now to get Obama elected.”

The Net is awash in pro-Obama MP3s, from lyrical shout-outs by prominent emcees such as Chicago’s Common to props from suburban Pennsylvania’s Caucasian newcomer, Asher Roth.

Asian emcee Jin’s “Open Letter 2 Obama” came across corny, but Obama’s team posted it to the campaign website as a free ringtone download. OutKast’s Big Boi collaborated with John Legend and MARY J. BLIGE on “Sumthin’s Gotta Give,” which has the three working in an Obama campaign office in the video. And challenging the Democrat to keep his promises after he enters the White House, NAS raps on “Black President,” “I think Obama provides hope and challenges minds. Of all races and colors to erase the hate.”

Even YOUNG JEEZY, who shook hands with John McCain on Saturday Night Live, dedicated his track “My President” to Obama. “He was cool,” Jeezy said about his meeting with Senator McCain. “He wasn’t Barack.” The Atlanta native says he spent a pocketful clearing his criminal record so he could register and vote for Obama. “He’s a strong-minded person,” Jeezy explains of his choice, “and at the end of the day you could really tell he’s passionate about making some type of change.”

“Obama has inspired the hip-hop generation like no political candidate ever has,” says JEFF CHANG, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. “He understands the issues we face from nearly an insider’s point of view.

He is taking the positions that the hip-hop generation overwhelmingly favors–on the war, on the economy, on education. But lastly, he literally embodies the hopes of a new majority, one that is racially progressive.”

Two Philadelphia beat-makers who produced ‘The Obama Song’ talk about the track and where hip hop is headed. Produced by CASSIDY HARTMANN of Pennsylvania for MTV’s Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08 at chooseorlose.com.

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“There is fear on the part of many senior leaders …”

By John Charles Reedburg

But how afraid should we be?

National security issues loom large for the next president: He will have to manage the draw-down of thousands of American troops in Iraq, oversee the deployment of thousands more in an increasingly violent Afghanistan, and assess whether to grow the military to cope with the war on terrorism.

On these issues, the advantage might seem to be all on the side of Senator McCAIN, a war veteran.

But former defense officials, as well as active-duty and retired officers, say that the military – whose rank and file are perceived to vote Republican – sees positives and negatives in both candidates.

McCain’s big advantages are his experience and his familiarity with the military, but Senator Obama’s may be a greater willingness to listen to Pentagon advice.

That could be important because the past eight years under the Bush administration, especially the decision to invade Iraq, has left some Pentagon officers feeling ignored.

“Senior military officers have carried out orders they didn’t agree with all their professional lives,” says Dennis Blair, who retired as a four-star admiral in 2002 and who served in senior defense jobs during two administration transitions. “All they want is for their best military advice to be considered, and then they will salute and execute their orders. It’s pretty easy for an incoming administration if they are smart enough, to give them a chance.”

McCain’s high military credibility

McCain’s strengths in the national security realm could be a weakness if he comes at the Pentagon with too many preconceptions, say former defense officials. The Pentagon may also be an ideal place for him to display his “maverick” approach.

“He is a reformer, and he will try to make sure there is a minimum of bureaucracy and a maximum of efficiency,” says Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) of California.

OBAMA, perceived as a “listener,” is considered a national security neophyte who will need to make forceful decisions based on the advice he receives to establish his credentials within the Pentagon.

“He seems like a very good listener without a fixed national security agenda, but he doesn’t seem soft,” says Mr. Blair. He adds that Obama will have to find the balance between taking military advice without being dominated by it.

Key to the next president’s success as commander in chief will be his approach to the Pentagon. President Clinton famously stumbled with the military when he made an ill-fated attempt to allow homosexuals to serve openly in his first days, which was also when the peacekeeping operation in Somalia turned ugly.

In 2000, the military had high hopes for George W. Bush based on his father’s success during the first Gulf War and on the appointment of certain senior leaders. But then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came to be perceived as heavy-handed and dismissive of military advice if it didn’t comport with his own thinking.

McCain’s military service and war hero status naturally give him credibility with today’s military. But it will only get him so far, say many officers.

Some worry that McCain would be more inclined to carry out his own ideas about what the military should do. Experts outside the military with knowledge of the campaigns indicate McCain’s camp, which has been struggling to establish itself against the economic crisis, has largely ignored military issues, sending a signal to some that a McCain administration might come into office with its own agenda.

“He would start out on Day 1 saying I know the issues, I know the personalities, and there is probably some anxiety along those lines to be blunt,” says Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star general who frequently consults with senior officials in Washington.

McCain is also more likely to follow the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, who presided over the “surge” of forces in Iraq and will within days become the head of US Central Command in charge of operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The McCain camp will be less skeptically inclined and be more trusting of Petraeus,” says a staffer for a senior senator on Capitol Hill.

Obama brings an open ear, fresh eye

The perception that Obama is a rookie on national security issues both hurts and helps him with the military, say those inside and outside the defense establishment.

Both candidates have expressed the desire to change the dynamic in Afghanistan, but Obama may be inclined to shake it up more.

“The fact that he doesn’t have a wealth of experience allows him to call for a strategy review in Afghanistan that wouldn’t be seen as naive but as using fresh eyes to look at the problem,” says Dan Fata, a senior policy secretary who left the Pentagon last month and is now vice president at the Cohen Group, a Washington-based consulting firm.

The military may expect an Obama administration to be less inclined to use them for international saber rattling, says General McCaffrey.

“I think there is fear on the part of many senior leaders to see McCain in office,” he says. “It’s almost counterintuitive, but there is a bit of me that says they would be happier to see Obama.”

On Gates, common ground

Both men will want to put their own fingerprints on the Pentagon in time. But this will mark the first change of an administration during wartime since Vietnam, and most analysts bet that either candidate will keep Robert Gates on as defense secretary.

How long either would keep him is unclear. But Richard Danzig, a former Navy secretary and Obama’s chief national security advisor, has said Gates is a good Pentagon chief and would be “an even better one” under Obama. Gates is equally popular among Republicans, who may urge McCain to keep him for the first months of his administration.

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