Modern-day slavery or Good-will toward women/men?

There's an interesting article on BBC.com about immigration fraud concerning African refugees.

Apparently, African citizens claiming family reunification with someone in the U.S. turned out to be true only 20% of the time.

The article did a fairly good (objective) job in framing the issue here because the story led to me to conclude two opposing explanations:

1] Altruistic people wanting to give African refugees to leave their homes for safety, food, or support in the U.S. Or close friends or distant relatives, while not blood-related, are eager to help friends they've left behind. Its not uncommon for friends or friends-of-friends to "marry" someone headed for deportation or a someone with a soon to be expired visa. So it is easy not to rule out the same strategies for African refugees.

2] Modern-day slave-traders/owners (yes, slavery still exists) taking advantage of desperate refugees. The media and non-profit orgs have made some effort in spreading awareness about human trafficking. The damning truth is that many American Joe Schmoes and others are oftentimes complicit in these human trafficking schemes.

I suppose only time will tell. (pardon the cliche)

NO GLITTERING

Ever heard of Gary Glitter?

No, he's not an adult film star or someone from South Park, but rather, a pop singer (from forever ago) convicted of pedophilia.

See the full article here.

Skid Road, Hospitals, Homeless people, and insurance fraud

Joan! This was the stuff I was telling you about earlier.

Apparently, there was this insane fraud involving major hospitals that "recruited" homeless people from Skid Row and brought them in to the hospital to receive treatment or just to "occupy beds." Its a crazy scam that hospitals used to milk money from government insurance programs.

The homeless people were compensated too: money, food, cigarettes.

One homeless person admitted to being constantly recruited and receiving unneeded treatment in return for cash to buy coke.

Check it for yourself in the New York Times article.

The LA Times has a page with news, editorials, and pictures on Skid Row.

Song on Repeat Assault

I'm so guilty for having this song on repeat for the past 48 hours on my iPod and on my iTunes.

Its Coldplay, "See You Soon."

Why?

Its a good song. Chris Martin's voice gets me every single time he opens his mouth. And yeah, I'm a tad smitten/sad at the moment.

McCain Family Photoshoot or Photoshop?

Doesn't this photo look TOTALLY photoshopped? I don't know if it means anything, but its from ABC News.

Check out more pictures of McCain and the rest of the bunch from the ABC News site here.

Saddleback Church

Saddleback Church is this ginormous church in Orange County. This popular mega-church invited Barack Obama and John McCain for a civil forum.

Both candidates were asked the same questions and both candidates had an hour. I haven't seen the McCain interview yet, but I just started watching the Obama one:




Is it just me, but does his stuttering remind you of a grandpa? Its generally pretty tolerable, but sometimes, you just want to shake the words out of him.

Who's your money on?

Mine? Joe Biden.

If you haven't already, you can be the 'first to know' who the chosen one will be by going to BarackObama.com

Sign up to get an e-mail or even a text (from Barack Obama himself!) to see who'll be the lucky(?) guy.

Barack Obama will announce VP this week!

For all you Obama girls and boys and for everyone else who hasn't gotten enough of Obama-mania, the presumptive Democratic nominee will announce his running mate as early as this Wednesday, according to the New York Times.

The possible candidates include:

• Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana
• Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia
  
• Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware

Start placing your bets on Intrade.com!

Meghan McCain

For all you campaign junkies out there, check out Meghan McCain's blog!
She's the daughter of Cindy and John McCain. She recently graduated from college and is currently blogging from the "Straight Talk Express" campaign trail.

Costas-Free Olympics: Philippine Boxing

The Yahoo! caption: Manyo Plange of Ghana, left, fights Harry Tanamor of Philippines during a men's light flyweight 48-kilogram preliminary boxing match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008.

Wow. I never knew Pilipinos had it in them.

New Zion for Ugly (female) Ducklings?

Recently, the mayor of Mount Isa (a mining town in Australia) has come under fire for his remarks concerning 'beauty-disadvantaged' women.

He has invited 'beauty-disadvantaged' women to come to Mount Isa because currently, there only 5 blokes for every lass. Which makes any lovely lass a lucky girl.

According to the article,

In 2006, there were just 819 women aged 20-24 living there out of a total population of 21,421, according to the most recent census.

The mayor refuses to apologize because he feels that he is telling it like it is.

The feminist in me wants to kick him in the baby-maker for even seriously contemplating such a thing.

But in reality, what self-respecting woman or just people in general would take his comments seriously? I mean, would any female seriously consider going to a women-deficient town just to land a man?

Well, this one did:

Cover Song + YouTube Video (with a purpose) for the Week

"Baby I'm Yours" by Barbara Lewis is one of my favorite songs of all time. Its just a sweet, simple song that says 'I love ya..'

The Arctic Monkeys do a cover of it and its also the background song to a nifty youtube video!

Doesn't it remind you of your first crush? Or you first (innocent) love?