Editor’s Note: This series attempts to juxtapose the high and the low, surveying each day’s trashy headlines and disturbing crime stories and comparing them with with the religious practices of nature-worshipping death cults. Yes — it’s celebrity gossip mixed with Bible verses and high brow philosophy. How to handle the culture pumped out by TMZ and the Daily Mail? With Maimonides, the Bible, and the great thinkers of Western Civilization along for the ride, lighting the way. Tweet your tips and suggestions to @DaveSwindle and tag @DaveSwindlePJM with suggested images on Instagram.
Tuesday:
Is There a Connection Between Brigitte Bardot’s 100 Lovers & Her 4 Suicide Attempts?
Inaugurating a new feature to try to make sense of the trashier, darker side of the media and its predecessors in the ancient world.
1. At the Daily Mail today, as referenced in the above video introducing this new series: “EXCLUSIVE: Brigitte Bardot had 100 lovers – including women – and four husbands, but fame led to despair as she tried to end her life four times and abandoned the only child she ever had, reveals new book”
Bardot didn’t get the assignment but she and Vadim instantly fell madly in love.
‘He made on her the impression of a ‘wild wolf’’ Bardot wrote, ‘he looked at me, scared me, attracted me, I didn’t know where I was anymore’, writes the author, Ginette Vincendeau. ‘She wanted him’.
Vadim introduced Bardot to his friends in the media, to books such as Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and to sex.
They became lovers meeting secretly and then openly against the wishes of her parents, who threatened to send their daughter away from Vadim to England.
They relented only when she tried – for the first and not the last time – to kill herself, but decreed that they could not be married until Bardot was 18.
Depressed by the thought of not seeing her lover, Bardot turned on the oven and buried her head inside to be discovered in time by her parents.
A few more examples of popular stories grabbing people’s emotions with the shocks of sex and violence. From last week’s NY Daily News:
2. SEE IT: Sicko Texas teen gets life in prison after killing mom with hammer, raping corpse:
“I guess I lost my virginity to a dead corpse,” Davis told police.
Davis told police he had violent sexual fantasies that included both his mother and sister, the Caller-Times reported.
Davis also planned to kill his sister, Desirae Hill, but gave up and rode off on his bicycle when she didn’t show up at the family’s Corpus Christi home.
Four headlines juxtaposed together today at the New York Post: Sex, Sex, Violence, Death:
3. Cocaine, sex tips and more from Amy Poehler’s new book
4.Facebook, Apple will now pay for employees to freeze their eggs
5.Flag-toting drone causes massive brawl in Euro qualifier
6. Ebola death rate hits 70%
Fox News: Sex, Death, Sex:
7. ‘Set your girls free’: Monday is National No Bra Day
8. Chris Brown calls Ebola a form of population control
9. Cameron Diaz: People have seen my butt
10. And in ISIS news, from the National Post: “ISIS jihadists offer Islamic justification for taking thousands of Yazidi women as sex slaves”:
When stories of mass murder and enslavement first emerged in August there were suggestions they might be exaggerated.
Now, however, researchers who have talked to survivors and imprisoned women on hidden mobile phones believe that up to 5,000 men may have been shot dead and bulldozed into mass graves, and 7,000 women held in detention centres to be offered as slaves.
…
Bakat Khalaf, 60, another refugee in Ba’adre, said his 13-year-old niece had escaped seven weeks after being “taken away” but had so far been too distressed to describe what had happened to her. “She just cries when she tries to speak,” he said. Others escapers have told of being “married” to older jihadi leaders, in some cases raped, and made to watch acts of barbarity. Such stories have been confirmed by researchers from the United Nations. Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago who was in Kurdistan as the assaults happened, said he had a list of 4,800 names of women and children being held captive.
From Judges chapter 2, the names of the ancient gods now appearing again in our postmodern world:
Related: #3 from 7 New Year’s Resolutions for 2014 I Invite You to Burgle From Me Bilbo-Style
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image illustration via / rook76 / Shutterstock.com
Wednesday:
Cross-posted from Vodkapundit at Lifestyle today, a new blog highlighting women and weapons:
11. New Blogs: Guns and Curves
In 2011 I found myself in a situation where I needed to protect myself. At first I just wanted to learn how disarm somebody with a gun in the event that I ever was in a situation that warranted it. But, after handling a gun for the first time, I realized that it wasn’t something to be afraid of, but rather something to be respected.
Two stories Via the New York Post front page today:
12. 15 BONKERS THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ‘FIGHT CLUB’
13. Stephen Collins plays pedophile priest in short film
In his latest short film, Stephen Collins, who is accused of molesting children, plays a pedophile priest.
The 10-minute movie, “Penance,” directed by Jeff Wolfe, co-stars David Lyons as Thomas Walker, a man haunted by his personal demons and traumatic past, reports People.
The former “7th Heaven” star, 67, plays the priest Thomas visits to “clear his conscience and discover exactly what it means to find forgiveness … or to give it,” said the movie’s official site.
At the Huffington Post today:
14. Marine Suspected In Death Of Transgender Filipino Woman May Be Charged This Week
15. Nepal Avalanche, Blizzard Kill 12 People, Including Foreign Trekkers
16. Leo Sheng, Transgender Man, Documents Transition Through Instagram
17. Women Die When Domestic Abusers Keep Their Guns
18. Newspaper Publisher, Family Found Dead Inside Oklahoma Home
19. Man Accused Of Making Child Porn In House Where Mom Ran Daycare Center
Gawker headlines:
20. Vanilla Sex: A Perfectly Fine Way to F****
21. Passenger Forced Airplane Lavatory Door Open, Sexually Assaulted Woman
22. Drunk Zombie Santa Terrorizes Minnesota Family, Pukes in Their House
23. Horny Teen Caught Making Love to Stuffed Horse in Walmart Bedding Dept
24. Supreme Court Blocks Texas From Shutting Down Abortion Clinics
25. Cops Charge 10-Year-Old Boy as Adult in Slaying of 90-Year-Old Woman
Via Drudge today:
26. Man arrested for lewd act with stuffed animal inside WALMART...
27. Halloween display terrifies neighbors with blood-splattered dolls, severed heads…
28. MARRIAGE RATES HIT ALL-TIME LOW…
New data shows more young people are waiting to marry – and there’s no shortage of opinions on why that’s happening.
According to the latest available census data, the percentage of U.S. adults who have never been married has hit a new, all-time high.
In 1960, about one in ten adults over the age of 25 fell into that category.
By 2012, the number had jumped to one in five.
These 3 headlines appeared together:
29. Iran executions surge amid U.S. nuke talks…
30. City subpoenas church pastors for sermons dealing with homosexuality…
31. Harvard Law profs decry tough new crackdown on campus sex assaults…
At the Daily Beast:
32. Bulgaria’s Vampire Graveyards
Vampires may be greeted with swoons today, but in medieval Eastern Europe they were dealt a metal spike through the chest.
Last week, Bulgarian archaeologists unearthed an unusual 13th-century grave in an ancient city named Thracian.
The bones are encrusted in dirt, revealing a bowed, partially crushed skull and a round stake emerging from the left side of the skeleton’s chest. The interred is believed to be a middle-aged man, who was incapacitated post-death—cause unknown—by a two-pound iron rod thrust through his heart and the removal of the lower half of his left leg. Both mutilations were meant to stop the man, who villagers believed was a vampire, from returning to haunt the town and prey upon its inhabitants, researchers say.
33. The Perils of Glitzy Celebrity Feminism Having a Moment
Does Beyoncé’s feminism, one glitzy word emblazoned behind a beautiful superstar post-pole dancing routine, actually reflect and reaffirm modern-day feminism as we know it? Has Beyoncé helped take the shame away from identifying with an important political project, or has she simply adopted the term “feminist” into her own self-affirming lexicon, without bothering to truly understand the real world implications of that word or the movement it alludes to? In other words, is Beyoncé promoting a nuanced conversation and real-world action, or is she just promoting herself?
At Jezebel today:
34. Anita Sarkeesian Cancels Speaking Event in Light of Shooting Threat
Video game critic, blogger, and founder of Feminist Frequency Anita Sarkeesian was supposed to give a speech about the role of women in video games Utah State University today. However, Sarkeesian, one of the prominent targets of #Gamergate, chose to cancel the event after the school received a threat of a mass shooting if she gave her talk.
35.Pastor Has Sex with Congregants, Lies About AIDS, Refuses to Step Down
36. Girl Group SNH48’s Lesbian Music Video Reportedly Banned In Korea
37. Black Flag Co-Founder Accused of Child Abuse
38. Is There Any Such Thing as a Dangerous Sex Position?
39. Kesha Reportedly Wrote a Song About Relationship with Alleged Abuser
Kesha may have written a song about her alleged abuser, Dr. Luke, with lyrics referring to selling her soul and more.
The singer filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke alleging physical abuse and drug coercion (he countered with a suit of his own in response). Some are speculating that Kesha may have written about what she endured in at least one of her past songs. As Buzzfeed points out, the song “Dancing with the Devil,” an unreleased track popular with fans, may have been inspired by her relationship with the producer.
The high-minded point of this exercise? To remember that these gods of sex and violence aren’t new. Today’s palate-cleansing scripture is from 1 Kings 16:31-34:
Updated: This one from the Daily Beast demands inclusion…
40. Denmark’s Bestiality Problem: It’s Legal
Denmark already has a handful of animal brothels which, according to Ice News, a site specialized in Nordic reporting, charge between $85 and $170 depending on the animal of choice. “When the rules have been tightened in the rest of Europe, there’s a risk that Denmark will be considered a refuge for people with this proclivity,” the minister said, according to AFP. “That’s why I want to send a clear signal that Denmark is not a refuge for people who want to sexually exploit animals.”
Danish news sources have quoted a recent Gallup poll, which found that just 76 percent of the Danish population support the new law, which implies that 24 percent of the population would like freedom of movement when it comes to pursuing beasts for pleasure.
41. The Atlantic’s most popular story today: The Adultery Arms Race
One might assume that the proliferation of such spyware would have a chilling effect on extramarital activities. Aspiring cheaters, however, need not despair: software developers are also rolling out ever stealthier technology to help people conceal their affairs. Married folk who enjoy a little side action can choose from such specialized tools as Vaulty Stocks, which hides photos and videos inside a virtual vault within one’s phone that’s disguised to look like a stock-market app, and Nosy Trap, which displays a fake iPhone home screen and takes a picture of anyone who tries to snoop on the phone. CATE (the Call and Text Eraser) hides texts and calls from certain contacts and boasts tricky features such as the ability to “quick clean” incriminating evidence by shaking your smartphone. CoverMe does much of the above, plus offers “military-grade encrypted phone calls.” And in the event of an emergency, there’s the nuclear option: apps that let users remotely wipe a phone completely clean, removing all traces of infidelity.
But every new app that promises to make playing around safer and easier just increases the appetite for a cleverer way to expose such deception. Some products even court both sides: a partner at CATE walked me through how a wife could install the app on her husband’s phone to create a secret record of calls and texts to be perused at her leisure.
Updated again: with Mediaite’s contribution:
42. Family Feud Contestant Mercilessly Brings Her Husband’s Penis into It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M79dJgMBFh4
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image illustration via shutterstock /Lars Zahner
Thursday:
At Truth Revolt today, a new video from Ben Shapiro, sifting the numbers to find what percentage of Muslims worldwide believe in radical interpretations of their faith that include honor killings and death for apostates:
43. The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority
More at Truth Revolt:
44. A Hermaphroditic Snail Named to Honor Same-Sex Marriage
45. Crowder: Real Rape vs “Rape Culture”
46. Slate: Time To Fully Embrace Abortion As ‘Social Good’
47. Teen Girl Cuts Off 10-Year-Old’s Fingers As Sacrifice To Satan
Via Drudge this morning:
48. Professional Clowns Protest ‘AMERICAN HORROR STORY’ Murderous Character…
49. Cops: Barber slashed customer’s throat…
Two lead stories juxtaposed at the New York Post:
50. Hot celesbians are everywhere you look
51. Snakes on a train!
Eleven stories at the Daily Mail today:
52. Watching child porn does NOT make you a pedophile, says author John Grisham in bitter attack on US judicial system after a ‘buddy from law school’ was locked up
53. Third law enforcement agency investigates Stephen Collins after he is accused of exposing himself to 13-year-old girl in 1983
54. I blame myself for Peaches’ death, says Geldof: Boomtown Rats singer reveals he ‘goes over and over and over’ what he could have done to help his daughter
55. ‘Oscar faces death if he goes to jail’: Prison gang leader ‘The General’ has ordered hit on athlete behind bars, claims Blade Runner’s lawyers
56. Playboy model in ecstasy drug bust after flying into California on a private jet with more than 50,000 pills and 90 pounds of MDMA
57. Man who murdered Hee Haw banjo-playing comedian David ‘Stringbean’ Akeman granted parole after 40 years
58. Washington high school football student quits his team as he faces rape charges even though coaches told him he could continue playing
59. Most decorated officer in state police history reaches plea agreement on gross sexual assault charges against child relative
60. ‘We will chop off the heads of whoever you bring’: British ISIS fighter dares west to send ground troops in new video rant – despite fanatics being pushed back in Kobane
61. Killer Queen and Another One Bites The Dust: Killer gigolo who cooked his transgender lover before slashing his own throat is farewelled at Queen-themed funeral as family remember a ‘loving young man’
62. Police investigating the possibility that a father murdered his daughter by slashing her throat before killing himself – just days after she moved home to care for him following surgery
These two headlines next to each other:
63. Embattled Seattle megachurch founder who called women ‘penis homes’ resigns amid accusations of bullying and financial corruption
64. Multimillionaire mom on trial for death of her autistic son, eight, claims ex-husband put a contract on her life… but she didn’t tell police
And these two together:
65. Prison camps? Torture? Human rights abuses? Not us says North Korea – and world’s most secretive regime tells UN ‘we have nothing to hide’
66. Brazilian police crack open haul of child pornography on ‘dark internet’ and rescue six children from abuse
At The Blaze:
67. How a ‘Ragtag Group of Volunteers’ — Including ‘Walking Dead’ Star — Brought Down Major Sex-Trafficking Ring & Helped Rescue 55 Victims
68. The Shocking Reasons an Ex-Church Member Is Calling This Pastor a ‘Monster’
At The Huffington Post:
Two headlines juxtaposed:
69. Rate Of Mass Shootings Triple Since 2011
70. ‘Too Tired For Sex’ Couple Now Has An Unusual Arrangement
Some crime headlines from the HuffPo main page:
71. Milwaukee Cop Fired After Allegedly Shooting Man In Park
72. 10-Year-Old Homicide Suspect: ‘I Killed That Lady’
At the Epoch Times:
73. Reports of Campus Sexual Violence Increase:
Among the top 25 universities in the country, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, there was a 61 percent jump in reports of sexual assault from 2011 to 2013. The large increase was reported by Al Jazeera America’s flagship program, “America Tonight” based on an independent analysis of data.
The data they used is publicly available, but the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), which monitors the statistics, only has data through 2009 posted online.
What the numbers show is that at the nation’s most prestigious educational institutions, the number of reported sexual assaults went up dramatically. Though the overall numbers are still relatively low compared to the student populations—MIT reported assaults went from 7 to 17 —there seems to be a connection with the greater prominence on the national stage and the increase in reported assaults.
74. Visions of Dead Loved Ones Not Yet Known to Have Died:
These cases go beyond premonition or a vague intuitive feeling—the people involved reported having a clear vision of a loved one and thus learning of the loved one’s death. In these cases it seems the people could not have known of the deaths through normal means.
Here’s a selection of cases from dozens compiled by Dr. Bruce Greysonat the University of Virginia in his 2010 paper “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” published by the American Anthropological Association.
Dr. Greyson wrote: “Cases of this kind provide some of the most persuasive evidence for the survival of consciousness after bodily death.”
At Patheos:
75. From Thomas Kidd: “Does the Bible Prohibit Revolution?“
My graduate students and I recently read James Byrd’s terrific Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution. This book is a treasure trove of information about how the Patriots and Loyalists actually used the Bible during the Revolution. The most surprising fact I learned from the book is that Romans 13 – in which Paul commands submission to the “higher powers” – was the most commonly cited biblical text in Revolutionary America. This passage, alongside a similar passage in I Peter 2, are precisely the texts I might have imagined that Patriots would have avoided. How does one “honor the king” while engaging in revolution?
These passages would seem, on a plain reading, to have prohibited Christians from participating in the American Revolution. Indeed, some former Patriot leaders such as Savannah pastor John Zubly withdrew when they realized that the protests against British taxes were likely to morph into violent revolution, which Zubly believed was not an option for Christians.
But instead of avoiding Romans 13 and I Peter 2, Patriot pastors (to their credit) took them on frequently and directly. They usually replied to Loyalist critics that the command to submit was never unconditional – just as it is not unconditional in marriage, in church, or in any other social setting. The Bible was replete with stories of resistance against unjust rulers. Even Peter and Paul routinely confronted and flouted the authority of Jewish and Roman officials, saying that they must obey God rather than man.
76. Also from Patheos, from John Beckett: “The Dark Side of Druidry”
I can’t rain fire down on my enemies, but if you think that means magic is useless you haven’t been paying attention to one of the core messages of this blog.
Our friends the Witches have a saying “a Witch who cannot hex cannot heal.” Victor Anderson, co-founder of the Feri tradition, said “White magic is poetry. Black magic is anything that actually works.”
There is a dark side to Druidry, a side that’s not about hugging trees and telling Irish stories. It’s a side many modern Druids prefer to ignore in their practices and actively deny to the non-Pagan world. The dark side of Druidry is scary, it can be dangerous, and it carries more responsibility than many of us prefer to accept.
The thesis of this ongoing series, restated: the manifestations of stories of murder and sex in modern media and the emotional satisfaction that comes from wallowing in them mirrors the ancient ritual invocations of the Canaanite gods Ba’al and Astarte, the masculine and feminine in the extreme. Here they are as depicted in Douglas Rushkoff’s Testament series, issue 6:
Page 43 of This Is My God by Herman Wouk describes the stark difference between the Biblical and the Pagan depictions of creation:
Updated: Over at the PJ Tatler by Raymond Ibrahim:
78. Muhammad and Islam’s Sex Slaves
One little-known story is especially eye-opening:
During Muhammad’s jihad on the Jews of Khaybar, he took for himself from among the spoils of war one young woman, a teenager, Safiya bint Huyay, after hearing of her beauty. (Earlier the prophet had bestowed her on another Muslim jihadi, but when rumor of her beauty reached him, the prophet reneged and took her for himself.)
Muhammad “married” Safiya hours after he had her husband, Kinana, tortured to death in order to reveal hidden treasure. And before this, the prophet’s jihadis slaughtered Safiya’s father and brothers.
While Islamic apologists have long tried to justify this account—often by saying that Muhammad gave her the honor of “marriage” as opposed to being a concubine and that she opted to convert to Islam—they habitually fail to cite what Islamic sources record, namely Baladhuri’s ninth century Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (“Book of Conquests”).
Friday:
3 today Via Drudge: Death, Death, and Sex (the ebola stories are taking up most of the need for death coverage at Drudge and many sites):
79. GUIDELINES ON ASSISTED SUICIDE RELAXED IN UK…
Doctors and nurses who help severely disabled or terminally ill people to take their own lives are less likely to face criminal charges after Britain’s most senior prosecutor amended guidelines on assisted suicide.
Until now all health care professionals faced a greater chance than others of being prosecuted for helping people to die because of the trust their patients placed in them.
Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said this special deterrent would now only apply to those directly involved in a person’s care.
Anti-euthanasia campaigners accused Ms Saunders of “decriminalising” assisted suicide by health care professionals “at a stroke of her pen”.
80. Family receives text from dead grandmother…
81. STUDY: Male brains wired to ignore food in favor of sex…
Some worms had been genetically engineered to make them more sensitive to the smell of food by tampering with their neurones.
It was revealed that the normal male worms left their food source and went in search of a mate.
However the males who had been genetically engineered to be “hungrier” were ten times less successful at mating as they wanted to stay by the food source.
At TMZ: Death, Sex, and Attempted Death:
82. JOAN RIVERS: Sources Say SOMEONE SCREWED UP
Someone did something wrong in the medical procedure that led to Joan Rivers’ death … this according to one source involved in the investigation.
The Medical Examiner has said the death was the result of a therapeutic, predictable complication. Sources tell us … the complication did NOT involve the Propofol administered to Joan. The complication was the result of the procedure itself.
83. Stephen Collins: Wife Blasted Him For Movie Role … As a Pedophile Priest
84. War Machine Attempts Suicide by Hanging in Jail
War Machine tried to kill himself in his Las Vegas jail cell this week … but his attempt was foiled by a corrections officer.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Tuesday night around 9:30 an officer was walking by War Machine’s cell in Clark County Jail. The officer saw him sitting on the ground with his feet up on the bunk bed. When the officer called to him he was unresponsive.
At Mediaite: Sex, Sex, Sex punctuated by Ebola death stories…
The lead story:
85. Fox’s Kilmeade Shuts Down Gohmert for Mocking Geraldo’s ‘Nudie Selfies’
Two more sure to grab attention:
86. Jon Stewart Thanks the Comedy Gods for Charlie Crist’s Sweaty Balls
87. Coach Sends Video of Himself Masturbating to Female Students, Claims Accident
At Salon: Sex and Death combined, and sex and sex
88. BDSM haunted houses and sexy demons: Why it’s so hard to separate sex and horror
But I suppose running into a porn star demon really forced the question for me: What is it about sex and horror?
I decided to ask the demon herself, one Lorelei Lee, a performer, director and author. “Well, in my experience, people get very turned on by fear,” she said. “Fear drives endorphins and endorphins heighten sensation to make pleasure more pleasurable.” Whether it’s watching a horror movie where you know there’s a bad guy around the corner or having sex with someone for the first time, there is “anticipation, tension, suspense,” she points out. “These are all elements of fear, and they’re all emotions that, when used effectively, get us to forget to analyze a situation with our rational brains. For a lot of people, sexual desire isn’t fully satisfied unless they can let go of the critical and rational part of their brains — fear can help you get there faster.” The similarities between sex and scares don’t end there, either: “The fear and release of fear acts really similarly to an orgasm — a building up of tension, followed by a rush of endorphins.”
89. It’s normal for teens to sext
90. Is this the child pornography case John Grisham is talking about?
The Daily Mail again shows how it’s done with loading up more sex and death onto one homepage than anywhere else online that I’m aware of:
Death:
91. Family confirms that actress Misty Upham is dead after her body is found in the woods two weeks after she went missing
92. How money-obsessed teen lay in wait at home to ‘murder one-by-one his entire family in the hope of inheriting just $3,000’
93. ‘Jail Oscar for ten years’: Prosecutor demands long prison sentence for Blade Runner killer as his family ‘rocks’ mount show of support
94. Five-month-old baby boy ‘dies from enterovirus’ after failing to wake up from his afternoon nap
95. Pakistani Christian woman is sentenced to hang for ‘blasphemous’ comments about prophet Mohammed during row with Muslim women who refused to share water
96. Heart-stopping moment cops talked suicidal man off a ledge in Times Square as the street came to a standstill 11-stories below
Sex:
97. Wisconsin man armed with 33 sex toys arrested after he is accused of throwing them at teenage girls
98. Teenagers charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy who was left with ‘life-threatening’ injuries
99. Ruthless gang of New York strippers are offered plea deals on charges of ‘stealing $200,000 from wealthy men’s credit cards after spiking their drinks with cocaine and ecstasy’
100. Risqué swimsuit calendar shot on US army property prompts investigation by Utah National Guard
101. Seattle woman shames sex offender by posting photos of his face on Twitter after he ‘groped her’
102. Justice apologizes for 234 sexually explicit emails that he sent and received, but insists his colleagues are out to get him
103. Florida ‘sex tourist’ busted in international sting for repeatedly traveling to Colombia ‘to have sex with young girls and produce homemade porn films’
104. Man sues for emotional distress ‘after he awoke from surgery to find he was wearing pink women’s underwear’
105. Teacher who slept with her 14-year-old student is now spared probation after she avoided jail and was excused part of her sentence to care for newborn twins
106. From nude playmates and scantily clad strippers to a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe – risqué new photography book celebrates the ‘Godfather of pin ups’
107. Mon Dieu! Parisians claim city has been ‘humiliated’ by 24ft sculpture that resembles a massive sex toy – but artist insists it’s meant to be a TREE!
Both Sex and Death:
108. Porn actor HIV scare spurs another call to shut down California’s adult film industry
109. Man ‘high the vapors from sealing a floor killed his mother-in-law in front of his daughter, six, and was sexually abusing the body when police arrived’
110. Troubled daughter of slain California porn tycoon sentenced to two years for identity theft and credit card fraud scheme
111. On trial for mass murder, forced marriage and rape, Pol Pot’s right-hand men: Khmer Rouge leaders in court for regime’s brutality 40 years ago
112. Pastor who confessed to having sex with married parishioners but failed to reveal he had AIDS is temporarily banned from church
Do these 3 from the Daily Mail hit hardest? Sex and Death in a different way:
113. Convicted felon pleads guilty to punching his girlfriend’s 4-year-old godson to death because the boy didn’t want to take a nap
114. Mother of three who jumped out of second floor window with her twin babies, before landing on top of one killing him, is jailed on charges of murder
115. Baby girl dies after father left her in car in Oregon parking lot for SIX hours
At the New York Post, a great one from Kyle Smith:
116. Brad Pitt should be court-martialed for war-porn ‘Fury’
The film is, at times, a harrowing, visceral experience — you can almost smell the corpses as truckloads of them rumble through the mud — and the grit of “Fury” makes a contribution, of sorts.
Yet I couldn’t help suspecting that there’s a pornographic leer to it all, a savage glee.
“It will end soon, but before it happens, a lot more people gotta die,” Pitt’s character tells us.
Thanks, Sgt. Obvious, but there’s much more to war than just maximizing the body count, and this film’s implication that getting mowed down a few days before war’s end is more glorious than surrender is appalling, juvenile and wrong.
117. Social ‘butt’-erflies: Celebs’ most bodacious belfies
Perhaps best to end with a laugh, if you didn’t already have enough reasons to reject Generation X’s most overrated comedian with the most inexplicable career:
118. Dane Cook says he slept with a ‘few hundred’ groupies
How DID Dane Cook get so popular for awhile there? Your guess is as good as mine…
Spiritual palate cleanser via Luke chapter 4, verses 1-13.
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image illustration via shutterstock / Natursports
This Weekend:
It’s Sunday and we need only 7 more stories to make an even number of 125 for the week. Here’s what jumped out as most horrific of all:
At Breitbart:
119. ISLAMIC STATE CRUCIFIES 17-YEAR-OLD IN SYRIA FOR FILMING ISIS TRAINING SITES
Lebanon’s Daily Star notes that the sign around his neck identifies the boy as “Abdullah al Bushi.” The NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed the image and execution as authentic.
The Islamic State has repeatedly used crucifixion as an execution method against those who work directly against the terrorist group or otherwise violate its extreme interpretation of Sharia law. Fellow captives report that American journalist James Wright Foley was often the victim of “mock executions” in which he would be hoisted onto a cross. Muslims in Syria, particularly, have been displayed on crosses as “apostates” for violating Islamic State rules. In June, the Islamic State crucified nine men in Aleppo, most believed to be working against President Bashar al-Assad’s military. They, too, were displayed for three days. That same month, the group crucified eight Islamic State jihadists who were accused of not being sufficiently zealous about the fight against the West.
120. John Nolte: LENA DUNHAM TWEETS EXCUSES FOR HER ALLEGED-RAPIST: NOT A ‘CLEAR CUT VILLAIN’
According to Lena Dunham’s memoir “Not That Kind of Girl,” thesame man who allegedly raped her and hurt two other women is still on the loose.
According to our own reporting, Dunham has not volunteered to cooperate with authorities in order to get her rapist off the street.
Early Saturday morning, Dunham appeared to tweet excuses for the man she claims raped her.
During a book tour appearance earlier this month, Dunham told Howard Stern that not all rapists are “straight-forward villains.” Dunham’s tweets, though, represent the first time she appears to have made excuses for the man she claims sexually assaulted her as 19 year-old Oberlin College student.
At Salon:
121. Jack the Ripper’s long shadow: From Sherlock Holmes to “Jekyll & Hyde”
122. When my dad died, I lost my will to live
When my father, Theodore “Bubber” West, died on October 18, 2011, I wanted to die.
I’ve never told anyone that before now, but as the third anniversary of his death approaches with agonizing slowness, I feel strong enough to say that if not for being afraid of causing my children the same pain that I felt, I don’t know what I would have done.
When he died, I didn’t recognize myself anymore. So much of my identity was being my father’s daughter and nothing was the same. What was the meaning of life and was it worth it?
These were questions that I could no longer answer as I navigated the world exposed, vulnerable, hovering somewhere above my body between reality and a dream state.
At Jezebel:
123. 2500 Year-Old Tattooed Siberian Mummy Had Breast Cancer, Used Marijuana
124. Nobody Has Wedding Night Sex Anymore
And finally, an ominous omen…
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