In your car-slash-environmental travel pod in Los Angeles, you are alone. Other pods are abstractions, “a thing causing me irritation” most of the time. You vent your id at people in their pods in ways you would never vent to a person on a Los Angeles street. New Yorkers vent their ids far less often. People are more often people than an abstraction.
No sooner had the news broken that Jenna Jameson had been charged with two counts of DUI that the internet exploded with rude remarks about the former porn star and entrepreneur. In typical fashion, Jameson struck back. Good for her. This habit of mocking people with substance abuse problems has to go. Substance abuse isn’t funny. Joking about people who suffer from it doesn’t help them get better, doesn’t help their loved ones heal faster, or help keep the streets safe.
In a video to promote a campaign fundraiser for Obama, U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama reminisce about their first date — lunch at the Art Institute, a Spike Lee movie and a stroll. “He was showing me all facets of his character: He was hip, cutting-edge, cultural, sensitive,” the First Lady says, smiling. “It was nice.”
In an effort to make itself feel better because no one uses their Facebook e-mail addresses (what? Facebook has e-mail addresses?), the social network decided yesterday to change everyone’s profiles to list only their Facebook e-mail addresses, thereby screwing up all your settings.
Last week, Jim Stamas, the Republican Majority Floor Leader for Michigan’s House of Representatives decided to bar Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield), from speaking on any of the bills the House is attempting to pass before adjuring for the summer. The reason for the ban? She said “vagina.” To talk about a bill regulating abortion. What was she thinking, right?! See for yourself.
If Rajeev Rawat had known was was about to befall him, it’s highly likely he would have logged in to Facebook instead of Google+. But Rajeev liked Google+. Unlike Facebook where most people — especially women — were in the habit of locking down their profiles, the atmosphere on Google+ was different. On Google+ he could browse for hours, jumping from one woman’s profile to another’s often finding a lot of photos. And, of course, he could comment on most public posts.
I have no interest in shaming Trey Radel for his sexy URLs. I support the purchase of domains with the intent to create adult content, whether for profit or fun. What bothers me about this story is seeing someone exploiting sex for profit while supporting a platform that, under the guise of “family values,” shames sexual self-expression and reviles anything that doesn’t fit the heterosexual, monogamous binary idea of a relationship. That infuriates me. It’s typical, commonplace, even, but it gets me every time.
There’s been a lot of talk over the years about the human pheromone. Promises, promises and so far, nothing concrete. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. If you’re the sort who desperately longs for the most well-read of book lovers, this scent is all you.
Two years ago Twitpic cracked down on nudity. They offered users no options, simply suspended accounts that contained inappropriate imagery. Now Twitter has followed suit, but their effort to clean up is considerably more mature. Instead of censoring users, Twitter is asking that people label their content “sensitive.” By opting in, users enable others to choose whether they want to see such content or skip it.
L.A. is not the best place to try to find love. Love is second fiddle to the Dream. The Dream is paramount. The Dream is why we’re here. Face it, when you’re working your way from the bottom, invites seldom come with a plus one. It’s true. L.A. sucks when it comes to love. And sometimes we’re so lonely, we want to pack up the U-Haul and go home. Okay, not really, but we do our fair share of bitching while under the influence only to delete the tweets in horror the morning after.
