MTV Is Not Birth Control

Yahoo.com:

Television: Is there anything it can’t do?

After decades of being slammed by bluenoses, bureaucrats, and Bruce Springsteen for sexing up and dumbing down the masses, it turns out that the small screen has accomplished what no amount of promise rings, Twilight movies, or mandatory banana-on-a-condom classes have managed to do: reduce the number of teenage births.

At least that’s what the authors of a widely discussed new study say. In “Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing,” (available online for the low, low price of $5.00 from the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Melissa S. Kearney (University of Maryland) and Phillip B. Levine (Wellesley College) write “The introduction of 16 and Pregnant along with its partner shows, Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2, led teens to noticeably reduce the rate at which they give birth.” According to their calculations, the shows are responsible for “a 5.7 percent reduction in teen births in the 18 months following [their] introduction.” 

You’ve gotta love economists with their ultra-precise calculations of inherently vague social situations (who doesn’t want to be able to say with utter confidence (PDF) that, for example, the Budget Control Act of 2011 will result in “the loss of 1,006,320 direct, indirect and induced jobs”?). En route to their conclusion, Kearney and Levine concoct an inventive if not fully compelling methodology in which they track Google searches and tweets for terms related to teen pregnancy, contraceptives, and the like around airings of the MTV shows.

You can almost hear the programmers at MTV crying out like Viacom’s answer to Oskar Schindler that they could have done so much more to prevent just one more teen pregnancy! Indeed, who knows how many more births they might have prevented had they not featured Farrah Abraham, who went to star in the porno Backdoor Teen Mom, which doubtless increased sexual activity among teens?

The study is far less interesting for the specific claims it makes about teen birth rates than it is as a variation on persistent attitudes toward cultural production and consumption redolent of Frankfurt School anxieties over media’s impact on the proletariat. In many ways, “Media Influences on Social Outcomes” is simply the latest echo of the idea that TV, music, movies, novels, and the like don’t simply move audiences to laughter, tears, or contemplation but compel them to act in particular ways.

The main difference here is that rather than fretting over increases in violent or sexual activity after watching TV, the authors claim to document the most uplifting effect the boob tube has had since Fonzie got his library card on Happy Days and supposedly spurred a 500 percent increase in application requests nationwide. “Typically,” write Kearney and Levine, “public concern addresses potential negative influences of media exposure, but this study finds it may have positive influences as well… We find that media has the potential to be a powerful driver of social outcomes.” In more doctrinaire versions of Frankfurt School analysis, the producers of content are drivers and audience members are, well, just passengers along for the ride. To their credit, Kearney and Levine aren’t nearly so deterministic, even though they are quick to ascribe causative power to a particular set of programs.

In 2002’s Is Art Good for Us?, University of Tulsa professor Joli Jensen refers to this sort of thinking as an “instrumental view of culture.” It presumes “that art is an instrument like medicine or a toxin that can be injected into us and transform us.” This view, says Jensen, “is very tempting because if certain kinds of culture cause bad things in society, then you can change that culture and fix society.” The instrumental view implies formal or informal commissars that must oversee and direct cultural production, making sure more “good” art is made. After all, you are what you read, or watch, or hear. Morally suspect art leads to crime, chaos, and bad behavior.

Jensen contrasts the instrumental view of culture with what she dubs “the expressive view,” which proceeds from “John Dewey's understanding of culture as a way that all of us, even those of us who are not in a special guardian class, understand and symbolically engage the world.” The expressive view stresses that “we all participate in creating the meaning of a particular piece of work.” 

Especially in an age of DIY and on-demand cultural production and consumption—an age in which even the least engaged or conscious individual is able to decontextualize and recontextualize any piece of art in a way that would have absolutely blown Walter Benjamin’s mind (PDF)—the expressive view provides a more compelling and nuanced understanding of how we engage culture. Culture isn’t something that happens to us or programs us like robots. It’s something that emerges from the interplay between creators and audiences.

The expressive view of culture helps explain why despite massive increases in depictions of violence and sex across every possible mode of expression over the past several decades, all indicators of problematic social behavior has declined. If popular culture really compelled us to act one way or another, that couldn’t be true. In fact, there is essentially no direct effect of a given show or song on us in terms of any particular behavior. The fault (or the credit) lies not in our TV shows but in ourselves. 

This is true even for teens, where arrests for violent crime are half of what they were 20 years ago and where teen sexual activity continues to drop. Despite easy access to ubiquitous and free online porn, only around 43 percent of girls and 42 percent of boys engage in sex before graduating high school. In 1988, the corresponding percentages were 51 percent and 60 percent. As Kearney and Levine themselves note, the teen birth rate—around 29 girls per 1,000 between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth—is about half of what it was two decades ago. The decline is even more pronounced if you start the trend line four or more decades back.)

In a 2012 paper titled “Explaining Recent Trends in the U.S. Teen Birth Rate (PDF),” Kearney and Levine note that explicitly didactic interventions into teen pregnancy issues such as “abstinence only education or mandatory sex education” had no role in the long-term decline. Rather, they argue that reductions in welfare benefits and access to birth control via Medicaid account for 12 percent of the decline since 1991. More important, “weak labor market conditions, as measured by the unemployment rate, do appear to lead to lower teen birth rates and can account for 28 percent of the decline in teen birth rates since the Great Recession began.” 

In the new study, they reiterate that a rotten economy tends to drive down birth rates: “When the labor market is weak,” they write, “teens (like older women) respond by having fewer children. The effect is rather large as well; a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate reduces the teen childbearing rate by about 2 percent. This means that the five point increase in the unemployment rate that the U.S. experienced in the Great Recession would generate a 10 percentage point reduction in teen childbearing.”

While attributing a bigger share of the decline in the teen birth rate to a crap economy rather than low-rent reality TV shows is obviously less likely to garner New York Times coverage, it also demonstrates how the expressive understanding of culture works. 

Individuals—even the disproportionately low-income and low-educated girls who are most likely to have babies as teens—exercise a tremendous amount of agency in deciding when and under what circumstances they became a mother (or a father). This decline in birth rates is in fact a global phenomenon, one well-documented by Jonathan V. Last in What to Expect When No One’s Expecting. In every developed economy and even most undeveloped countries, he observes, birth rates have plummeted over the past several decades. It turns out that when women have access to more education and better employment possibilities, they have fewer children and have them later in life. 

RELATED:  'Couples Therapy' Cast Calls Bullshit on Farrah Abraham's 'Sex Tape'

Miley Cyrus Endorses Killer Drug 'Molly'

CNN.com:

This week, Time magazine named Miley Cyrus a finalist for Person of the Year, the annual award bestowed on the person editors think has "most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year." A true testament to the global influence of twerking, she was the only nominee from the entertainment industry.

Her co-nominees included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, President Obama, Pope Francis, and gay rights activist Edith Windsor.

The pope was the winner, but one thing's for certain: Miley Cyrus makes an impact. Regardless of whether you care about her latest performance or haircut or provocative, eyebrow-raising declaration to the press, it's likely you'll have heard about it. In part, that's owing to her affinity for ever-media-friendly shock, delivered in the form of a raunchy, nudity-filled music video; a raunchy, nudity-filled photo shoot with photographer Terry Richardson; and a raunchy awards show performance that likely would have contained some nudity had it been allowed. It did, however, contain a foam finger and a latex bodysuit. And a tongue that was a performer of its own.

Shocking behavior isn't uncommon in the entertainment industry, and especially in music. Shock, like sex, sells. But it's quite possible Cyrus isn't selling just shock, and albums. She's also selling drugs.

Earlier this year, Miley ended months of speculation that one of her song lyrics referred to "Molly," the nickname for psychedelic drug MDMA, or a form of Ecstasy. When she was asked if she was referring to her own name or the drug Molly in the song "We Can't Stop," she told The Daily Mail, "If you're aged 10, it's 'Miley.' If you know what I'm talking about, then you know."

In September, she offered a second endorsement, telling Rolling Stone that marijuana and Molly are "happy drugs -- social drugs. They make you want to be with friends."

What effect might the former Disney star's drug advocacy have on the legions of tween and teen fans who follow her every move?

A 2008 study looking at the influence of technology, media and pop culture on criminal behavior concluded that while young people are influenced by pop culture, and more so than adults, it was difficult to empirically study the cause and effect of pop culture on their behavior.

And certainly, the glorification of vice in music is not at the hands of Miley Cyrus alone: A 2008 study out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that 33% of the top 300 songs on the top of the Billboard charts portrayed drug or alcohol use -- an increasing number of them pop songs -- which means that kids receive about 35 references to substance abuse for every hour of music they listen to.

That said, what we do know: Exposure to excessive violence in video games can increase aggressive attitudes, behaviors and values, particularly in children. And adolescent exposure to music, a powerful social force often linked to identity, memories and mood, is much more frequent than it is to any other form of pop culture.

According to the Pittsburgh School of Medicine study, most teens listen to an average of 16 hours each week of music, compared with about six hours each week for movies. Perhaps more than any other entertainment medium, the study authors wrote, "music is well known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development."

And so it's hard not to argue that Molly is likely reaping the benefits. The numbers are there: A 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 12.4% of Americans between 18 and 25 had experimented with MDMA, while a report released last week by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration stated that emergency room visits related to MDMA increased 128% between 2005 and 2011 among people younger than 21. 

RELATED:  MTV names Miley Cyrus 2013 Artist of the Year

Miley Cyrus Smokes Weed Onstage At MTV Europe Music Awards

NYPost.com:

Just when you thought Miley couldn’t possibly have any more stunts up her sleeve, she pulls a blunt out of her purse.

Last night at the MTV EMAs in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the 20-year-old one-woman wrecking ball stunned the crowd and the viewing audience of millions by celebrating her “Best Video” award by taking out a joint from her purse and lighting up. 

The gesture was a nod to marijuana’s semi-legal status in the host country (possession of small amounts does not lead to arrest), but the act was nevertheless too hot to handle for MTV America who edited the entire sequence out of their delayed telecast.

RELATED:  The Numbers on Moral Decline

Twerking Towards Sodom and Gomorrah

RedState.com:

Viewers of the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night were treated to a bizarre dance routine from former Disney child actress Miley Cyrus, which CBS News describes as “one performance that won’t be forgotten very quickly:”

Cyrus gave Robin Thicke a lap dance, paraded around with dancing bears, twerked her butt off and grabbed her crotch a few times. Not to mention the tongue. We saw a lot of that.

[Robin] Thicke’s mother, Gloria Loring, told OMG! Insider, “I don’t understand what Miley Cyrus is trying to do. I think she’s misbegotten in this attempt of hers. And I think it was not beneficial.” She added, “I didn’t get what her point was. It was so over the top as to almost be a parody of itself.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “twerking” is a dance move that dispenses with all the other subtleties of dance to deliver pelvic thrusts and butt wiggles.  If a cell phone set to “vibrate” magically became human and started dancing, it would twerk.  CBS left out the part where young Miley grabbed a foam finger from a member of the audience and began rubbing it against her crotch.  She wound up simulating a bit of anal penetration with Ms. Loring’s son, who was singing with her on stage.  And the “bears” in the act were dancers dressed like children’s teddy bears, adding a lovely touch of pedophilia chic to the proceedings.

My first exposure to Ms. Cyrus music came when I was putting together a photo slideshow for my 6-year-old niece’s birthday party, back in the “Hannah Montana” days.  That wasn’t so long ago.  I remember how much my little niece adored “Hannah Montana.”  She’s just now entering her preteen years – that tender moment in a young girl’s life when liberals think she should be able to get morning-after birth control pills over the counter, without her parents’ consent.  ”Hannah Montana” was a cute Disney fantasy about an ordinary girl who is secretly a millionaire pop star.  Is this how all the little girls who daydreamed about being Hannah Montana thought the dream would end?

I can tell Robin Thicke’s mom what Miley Cyrus was “trying to do.”  Most obviously, it was a bid for attention, another jolt of cheap electrical stimulus to the temples of a jaded, faded culture that expects nothing from young people, and is therefore shocked by nothing they do.  It’s not easy to generate controversy in a society whose only standard is that there should be no standards.  The only way for a barely-legal singer to get tongues wagging is to wag her tongue.  What else was she supposed to do, sing and dance modestly after endorsing abstinence, traditional marriage, and self-discipline?  That would have been plenty controversial, all right, but the people marketing her music wouldn’t like it, it’s hard to squeeze cash from rebellious teenagers with a message like that, and all the wrong people would have applauded.

Also, Ms. Loring, I would advise you not to underestimate the importance of the pedophile edge to Miley’s routine.  Sexualizing young people is an important mission of the Left.  They want little girls to jump right from teddy bears to Planned Parenthood.  That helps dissolve the bonds of family, which is a fading bastion of independence and self-reliance against collective power.  It’s important for the “Ozzie and Harriet” crowd to feel utterly marginalized, as unwelcome in 2013 as the pilgrims of Plymouth Rock.  We are supposed to accept that the world has forever moved on from those days.  Parents can’t control their kids – indeed, their influence is expressly unwelcome when it comes to sexual training, where the concept of “parental consent” has become as antique as the pocketwatch or bustle.  Liberal culture defines wanton sexuality and the rejection of family authority as “empowerment.”  It softens people up for hardcore government dependency when they’re forced to stop twerking and face the consequences.

Also, sexy children make a nice distraction for the older members of the Low Information Voter community, who crave transgression and worship youth, working as hard as possible not to grow up.

Miley Cyrus was on the bill with Lady Gaga, who is supposed to be the second coming of the aging Madonna, who has been busy transforming herself into a James Bond villain in her dotage.  Lady Gaga is said to have been “upstaged” by Miley’s re-enactment of a Japanese schoolgirl porn video, because all poor Gaga could think to do was dress up as a nun.  What kind of rebellion against authority is that?  Nuns are so pre-ObamaCare.  Religious conscience has given way before the power of the almighty State.  Nuns are just marking time until they’re legally compelled to perform abortions.

It might seem pathetic to watch these “edgy” artists flaunt their defiance against thoroughly vanquished traditions, but maybe it’s an encouraging sign.  Their marketing gurus apparently think there’s still a bit of milk in the old sacred cows.  The kids of 2013 can still savor a look of scandalized horror on Mom and Dad’s faces.  Someone apparently thinks “family values” haven’t quite been beaten to death.

Which is good, because “family values” remain our only hope for pulling out of the social and economic nose dive we find ourselves in.  The upper class retains the “secrets” of decorum, respect, and fidelity that everyone else has been tricked into forgetting.  Back when the Left set about turning the phrase “family values” into a post-modern joke, laughs were had at the expense of uptight squares who didn’t understand the difference between safeguarding important principles and having a bit of fun.  Well, the joke is on everyone else.

We never should have forgotten the potent connection between thought and expression, the importance of habit and ritual.  It is difficult to treasure what a saturation media culture treats like trash.  And it doesn’t help that the law of diminishing returns obliges the people who dug our cultural pit to dig more frantically as the hole grows deeper, madly searching for whatever flickers of shock value might still be left to uncover.

Societies die from thousands of cultural cuts.  Children are powerfully influenced by popular culture.  They yearn for guidance and inspiration from the adult world.  They receive the lesson transmitted by crap like the MTV Video Music Awards.  Kids a bit younger than Miley Cyrus remember what she used to be, and they see what she is now.  They see the road stretching between those points, and they follow it.  Unfortunately, they don’t understand that if you want to live a hedonistic anything-goes lifestyle, starting before you’re legally allowed to purchase alcohol, and avoid being destroyed by the consequences, it really helps to be a millionaire.

RELATED:  Mika Brzezinski: ‘Morally Bankrupt’ Media Exploiting Miley Cyrus Video

Politiks As Usual: In The News 2/4/13

Washington State Considers Final Gender-Neutral Language Bill

Obama Encourages Boy Scouts Of America to End Ban On Gays, Gov. Perry Says Keep It

Why I'm Canceling My Sports Illustrated Subscription

ObamaCare Will Cost Your Family at Least $20,000

Gallup: Conservatives Outnumber Liberals in 47 Out of 50 States

Only Truth in ‘True Life’ is MTV’s Contempt for Conservatives

Wanda Sykes on Super Bowl: 'I'm Gay...Not Rooting for San Francisco Is Like Booing Africa'

White House Brandishes Obama Skeet-Shooting Pic for Reporters

Mother’s Blog Demonstrates Aggressive Atheist Arguments

The Top Ten Reasons Hillary Must Be the Next President

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/5/11

Obama, Romney To Unveil Jobs Plans As Congress Returns

Part-Timers Pose Biggest Threat To Unemployed 

America's Uncle Omar Problem

Illegal Aliens Received Billions In Tax Credits Last Year

Marco Rubio's Courageous Speech

MTV's Missing 'Pants'

Ten Ways That Liberals Deny Reality 

Defiant Gadhafi Vows Long Guerilla War 

The Too Black, Too White Presidency 

Nation Suffering From Obama-Induced Irregularity

What The Left Doesn't Understand About Obama

Politiks As Usual: In The News 6/13/11

First Gabby Giffords Photos Released Since Arizona Shooting

New Post Says Syrian 'Gay Girl' Blogger Is A Hoax

Obama's Abortion Extortion

At Least 30 Percent Of Employers Will Drop Health Benefits In 2014

Viacom's Endless Violations: MTV Movie Awards Stoop To New Low

28 Months Later, Obama Says: Recovery's 'Going To Take Time'

Fighting For Traditional Marriage In NYC

'Creepy': Early Show Guests Rip MSM's Palin-Email Goosechase

Newt Gingrich Drained Campaign With Private Jets

Tens Years And Counting: Where's The Global Warming?


Infantilizing The Culture


Whitewashing Civil War History

Politiks As Usual: In The News 1/31/11

William Daley Says Obama Ready To Revise Health Care

Florida Mom Charged With Killing Children Returns To Jail After Hospital Release

Now Hawaii Wants To Sell Obama's 'Birth Release'

Have American Teachers Moved "To The Left" Of President Obama?

CMI Commentary: Media MIA On Scrutiny Of 'Skins' Creator

Hillary Clinton Urges Change That Responds To 'Legitimate Grievances' Of Egyptian People

'Gays' In Military - Force It, Then Move On

Egypt: Mubarak And The Shah

Sam Donaldson Thanks Anti-American TV Network Al Jazeera

Rand Paul: End All Foreign Aid To Countries, Including Israel

Conservative Actors Bemoan 'Intolerant' Hollywood

Gallery: When Mothers Are Amputees

Politiks As Usual: In The News 1/24/11

Left Wing Climate Of Hate And Assassination

Colin Powell: Obama Still Has Work To Do

FBI: Woman Who Raised Stolen NY Baby Held In Conn.

Does The NFL Still Need The 'Rooney Rule'?

The Philadelphia Horror

The Fight To Give Educational Choices To Poor Dc Children

Skins: A New Low, Even For MTV; More Advertisers Pull Out

Rick Santorum: Why Would Obama Deny Human Rights To An Unborn Child

2nd Grade Teacher Suspended After Reports Of Classroom Sex

Gov. Robert Bentley Apologizes For Remarks On Christians

Former Rep. Bob Barr: Haiti Is Worse Now Than Under Duvalier; Show Me The Money, Haiti

Norm Coleman: GOP Outreach To Hispanics 'Tough Sell'

Kim Kardashian Blames 'Teen Mom' For Memphis Pregnancy Epidemic, Says It's ‘Disturbing'

Geez, if Kim Kardasian, not exactly a role model for morals and decency, gets it than why can't the rest of America get it and do something about MTV's longtime role in not only hyper-sexualizing our youth, but destroying America's moral framework:

Kim Kardashian is blaming MTV's popular Teen Mom reality television show for the teen pregnancy epidemic that has plagued a high school in Memphis, Tennessee.


The socialite took to Twitter on Wednesday and called the program “disturbing” and warned followers that teen pregnany should not be considered “trendy”.


"Does the show Teen Mom disturb anyone else?,” she wrote. “Can't get this Memphis story out of my head. This should NOT be
trendy!"


A teen pregnancy epidemic has plagued Frayser High School where ninety students are currently pregnant or have already had a baby this year, according to a report from WMC-TV 5 in Memphis.


According to Kim, the show that has turned Amber Portwood into a celebrity, encourages such behavior.


"I just couldn’t believe this and I find it so sad and disturbing," Kim wrote.


"It seems that shows like Teen Mom are all of a sudden making teen pregnancy seem cool in the eyes of young girls. The kids from these shows are all over the news, even on the covers of magazines, and have been become almost like celebrities, but girls, these are not people you should idolize!"


"When I think back to when I was 16, there is no way I would even have considered having a baby. That thought wouldn’t even have entered my head. Having a baby is one one of the biggest, and most life-changing decisions a person can make and while I’m not saying that no teen is in the position to raise a child, having a baby so young shouldn’t be seen as the trendy thing to do."


Kim even offered some sound advice for young teens who are sexually active and considering having children.


"Girls, please, think very carefully before you make these kind of decisions," Kim writes.

MTV Continues To Promote Smut And Sleaze With New Show "Skins"

In a Girls Gone Wild culture somehow MTV doesn't get near the amount of credit for formenting this stuff as it deserves--blame the usual suspects in the lamestream media for enabling them:

MTV has bumped up the smut and sleaze level on television with its new show “Skins” – a take off on a successful BBC series. The scripted show’s attempt to portray the real lives of high school students showcases casual sex among minors without consequences, a 16 year-old child purchasing four ounces of marijuana, an adult woman stripping for an underage peeping tom, parental verbal abuse, an overdose on narcotics, and sexual assault of a minor – all in the series premiere.


Titled “Tony,” the episode’s plot revolves around a group of illegal drug-using, pill-popping, casual sex touting group of friends attempting to get virgin friend Stanley’s “cherry popped.” “Stan’s gotta get laid before he turns 17 or he’s not my friend anymore,” said the main character, Tony.


In a press release, MTV’s boasted about the premiere’s ratings, and its success among the 12-34 demographic, despite its TV-MA rating. On January 18, “Skins” drew the “network’s largest P12-34 audience for a series launch…and drew the most P12-34 viewers for a show launch in the network’s history. MTV’s newest scripted series drew 3.26 million total viewers and 2.7 million viewers in its core demo,” read the release.


The hour-long episode follows the teens’ wild quest to persuade formerly hospitalized mental-case Katie to have sex with Stanley. She agrees on the condition that he gets her some “good narcotics.” Viewers follow Stanley’s visit to a drug dealer’s home where, after selling him marijuana, the adult male drug dealer sexually assaults him. There are several shots of the teens smoking joints, participating in casual sex, and viewing pornography. The episode ends with an erratic, law-breaking drive to the hospital in a car the teens stole, in order to save Katie who has overdosed on mysterious pills before Stanley could have sex with her.


Sadly, this is MTV’s attempt to portray teenage “reality.” But in truth, lewd, illegal and dangerous behavior like the characters engage in would inevitably bring some of them diseases, pregnancy, jail time and even death.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 1/3/11

House GOP Plans Two-Pronged Assault On Health Law

Navy To Investigate Lewd Videos Shown On Carrier

Iranian Woman Sentenced To Death Says She Will Sue German Journalists

A New Coalition Of Black Churches Offers Nothing New

MTV To Air Abortion Special, Media Yawn

Society of Professional Journalists Questioning 'Illegal Immigrant' As An 'Offensive' Term (UPDATED)

Planned Parenthood Launches 'Social Change Initiative' To Parents

NYT: There's No Way To Reduce Deficit And Grow Economy Without Raising Taxes

Obama Signs Health Bill For Sept. 11 Responders

When Leftists Rage Against "Them"

What The Chicago Mayor's Race Says About Black America

Politiks As Usual: In The News 12/13/10

Estate Tax Emerges As Key Democratic Beef In Obama's Compromise

19 Unusual Gifts Nobody Wants

Ruling Elites Wage War On Morality

Yes, ObamaCare Still Worse Than You Thought

Gossip Blogs Claim Teens Are Getting Pregnant To Get On MTV Show

Obama's Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low With Liberals At 70 Percent

Haiti 'Perfect Environment' For Disease

What's Next For Liberals? Friendly Fascism

Michael Steele To Announce RNC Re-election Decision Monday Morning

Michael Bloomberg On Presidential Run: 'No Way, No How'

The Unmaking Of The President

Check's Finally In The Mail For Black Farmers

'Teen Mom' Star Amber Portwood Charged With Domestic Violence Felonies

CNN.com:

MTV's "Teen Mom" Amber Portwood faces felony domestic violence charges in her Indiana hometown because of incidents on her reality TV show -- where she is seen shoving, punching, slapping and choking her boyfriend, a police spokesman said.


Two of the three charges are felonies because the couple's 1-year-old child apparently witnessed the violence, according to Anderson, Indiana police spokesman Mitch Carroll.

The charges were outlined in a probable cause affidavit filed by police, but Portwood, 20, will not be arrested until the Madison County, Indiana, prosecutor files formal charges, Carroll said.

The investigation began seven weeks ago after MTV aired an episode of the reality series "Teen Mom" showing incidents captured over the summer, he said.

Gary Shirley, the 24-year-old boyfriend, and Portwood gave statements to police last month admitting to the incidents, he said.

"According to police documents, on August 14, 2009, Portwood shoved Shirley against a wall, slapped him on the face and choked him," Carroll said. "The incident was witnessed by the couple's 1-year-old child who sat in a child seat on a nearby bed."

Leave it to MTV to exploit the young, poor, naive and famewhore-seeking youths of the word for their profit margin. I've never watched "Teen Mom", but just from the title alone, sensationalizing young mothers who are clearly not ready for the strains of motherhood is just another chapter of MTV's long line of pushing our youth away from self-responsibility until every dollar is squeezed.

Anti-Abortion Billboards In Georgia Claim 'Black Children' Are 'Endangered Species'

NYDN.com:

A series of anti-abortion billboards targeting the African-Amerian community in Georgia have pro-choice advocates crying foul.

The series of ads, which went up last week, state that "Black children are an endangered species," and promote the website, www.toomanyaborted.com.

Abortion rights advocates labeled the campaign as "disgusting."

"To use racist arguments to try to bait black people to get them to be anti-abortion is just disgusting," said Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall, who teaches women's history and feminist thought at Spelman College.

"These one-issue approaches that are not about saving the black family or black children, it's just a big distraction," she said.

The billboards, sponsored by Georgia Right to Life, are part of a push to have legislation established in Georgia that would make it a crime to "solicit a woman to have an abortion based on the race or sex of the unborn child."

Black women accounted for the majority of abortions in that state in 2006, even though blacks make up just a third of its population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I think [the billboard campaign] is necessary," said Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser for Operation Rescue. "Abortion in the black community is at epidemic proportions. They're not really aware of what's actually going on. If it shocks people ... it should be shocking."

Funny that it's taken this long for some black folks in this country to wake up to the fact that Black women have long been disproportionately affected by the exploitation tactics of Planned Parenthood. If anyone is denying that there are serious problems within the Black culture in regards to abortion, out of wedlock births, Black-on-Black crime and violence (all of which the "1st Black President" Obama has shown little to no interest in taking on since he's been in office) is just ignoring the truth. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was an admitted racist who founded the group with the goal of exterminating the black race--young black women should be as aware of Sanger's history as much as they are Christopher Columbus'. Sanger's racist roots and Planned Parenthood's billion-dollar operation aren't fabricated or misrepresented, they're something we conservatives like to refer to as facts. With the percentage of young minorities getting pregnant increasing every year, much less thinking it's cool (indeed MTV's "16 & Pregnant" series is now one of its most popular shows), it's up to the black community to stand up to white liberalism and get the abortion rate down before it is to late.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/20/08

John McCain: "I Love Being The Underdog"

Obama's Secret Campaign Cash: Has $63M Flowed From Foreign Sources?

Joe The Plumber Slams Back At Media

Barack And William Ayers Shared Office For 3 Years

McCain Must State Obvious: Obama Is A Socialist

MTV Takes A Shot From The Public

Supreme Court Sides With Ohio Vote Cheaters

New Research Debunks Claim Christians Are "Homophobic"

Sarah Palin Is Not Hillary; She's Like Bill Clinton

Democrat Congressman/Adulterer Tim Mahoney May Not Seek Re-Election

Jordin Sparks Quote of the Day!

"I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It's not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody - guy or girl - wants to be a slut"

- R&B/pop singer Jordin Sparks defending the promise ring-wearing Jonas Brothers after they were insulted by british MTV Video Music Awards host (and Barack Obama supporter) Russell Brand last night.

More Debauchery From MTV: Tila Tequila, Whore, Gets TV Show

Untalented, unattractive, bisexual (i.e. "I'll have sex with anybody as long as it's breathing"), overexposed, D-lister Tila Tequila (aka "The Queen of MySpace") announced yesterday that raunch channel MTV has okayed her to star in her own dating show, where guys . . . and girls will compete for a chance to sleep with Tila:

Another dating competition series is coming to television, but this one has a new twist: MTV's "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila" will feature the bisexual MySpace phenom choosing from among both male and female suitors.

MTV has greenlighted 10 episodes of the reality series, which is set to premiere at 10 p.m. Oct. 9. Tequila, who is said to be the most popular girl in the history of MySpace, will be choosing from among 16 straight guys and 16 lesbians, who will move into her mansion.

Every episode will end with an elimination ceremony.

MTV = Mindless Television at it's best.