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Jun 2011 13

by SG’s Team Agony feat. Sassie and Vanessa

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.


[Sassie in Postern]

Q: How does a shy guy like me talk to an angel? For the longest time, I have been enjoying the most intense dreams of a SG kind of girl. All emo with tattoos and such. Gush….

This has been going on in my thoughts and dreams even before I discovered this wonderful site. It is almost as if I found my way this far for a reason.

Now with that said, I am in a horrible marriage. Ten years have gone by now. If it were not for the fact that we have an 8-year old daughter, I would have dumped her years ago.

Do you think it is possible to find the gal of my dreams here on SG? And if so, how do I approach the subject of me being married but not happy and ready to jump ship?

Let us leave it at that for now…

[..]

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Jun 2011 13

by Nicole Powers

“I think that the tide against mountaintop mining’s free ride is turning.”
– Bill Haney

There’s nothing pretty about coal mining at the best of times, but mountaintop removal mining is downright obscene. The process is ugly in every sense of the word, but is less labor intensive, and therefore cheaper and more desirable for the big energy corporations who do it. However the hidden expense in terms of the environment, public health, employment, and subsidies mean that it’s something that the American public is paying dearly for. The cost of mountaintop removal mining is something that is literally and metaphorically killing us.

The sordid details involve deforestation to prepare the site. The ‘overburden’ – in this case a euphemism for the top 250 to 500 feet of a mountain – is then removed using dynamite to reveal the underlying coal seam. The rubble created as the mountaintop is blown away is generally pushed down the mountainside, covering flora and fauna, rivers and streams, and anything else in its wake. Once the coal has been removed the mining companies are supposed to restore the site, but this requirement is at best broadly interpreted, and at worse blatantly flouted with few repercussions.

Fifty percent of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-powered plants, and thirty percent of the coal used comes from Appalachia. As a result, 500 majestic Appalachian mountains have been destroyed. The biggest perpetrator of this destruction is Massey Energy, who proudly proclaim on their website that their ‘vision’ is ‘to be the premier supplier of quality coal from Central Appalachia to worldwide markets.’

The physical removal of coal however, is only the first stage in a highly toxic chain of events. The coal then has to be prepared, a procedure that uses vast amounts of water to wash off the soil and rock. The byproduct of this is a filthy sludge, which contains all manner of heavy metals and other such carcinogens, that is stored in vast impoundments. These sludge ponds are generally lazily constructed using dirt that is blasted off the mountaintop to damn a valley below. For the most part, there’s no concrete or steel reinforcement as would befit dams built on such a scale. Because of this, many of these impoundments are leaking, and, furthermore, because these structures are not lined, the pollutants even in the sound dams leak into the surrounding water table.

The environmental impact of such mining practices is supposed to be mitigated by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, which in turn are supposed to be enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and, to some extent, the Army Corps of Engineers. But a Bush-era single word change to the Clean Water Act arrested its ability to control pollution, much to the delight of the polluters. Known as the Fill Rule, the definition of allowable fill material that could be dumped into lakes, rivers, and streams was essentially broadened to include all manner of waste. Thus, the Clean Water Act now serves as a license for big business to pollute.

Because of the intrinsically dirty nature of coal mining and the cozy relationship the industrialists have with those in power (George Bush famously called his election to office ‘a coal-fired victory’ because of the extent of the industry’s contributions to his cause), pollution is an inevitable part of the process and polluters are rarely brought to task. For example, according to Environmental Protection Agency records, Massey Energy committed over 60,000 violations between 2000 and 2006, but has paid a pittance in fines, which when compared to the company’s profits barely even register as a tickle on the wrist, never mind the slap they’re supposed to be.

In the lieu of the government acting in the interests of the people it’s supposed to represent, the battle for clean air and water, and sustainable energy and jobs is being fought on the ground by those Big Coal directly adversely effects. The struggle of one such community in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, whose homes, land, health, and employment prospects have been blighted by Massey’s mountaintop removal mining operations, is documented in a new film, The Last Mountain.

A collaboration between filmmaker Bill Haney (whose previous credits include the Academy Award-shortlisted Price of Sugar) and renowned environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Last Mountain should be mandatory viewing for anyone who’s ever switched on a light. The film not only tells the inspiring story of the grassroots fight against the Goliath that is Massey, but also underlines our implicit culpability, which can be summed up by one simple yet staggering statistic: sixteen pounds of coal is burned each day for every man woman and child in the US.

SuicideGirls participated in roundtables with Haney and Kennedy. The following is excerpted from the interview with Haney (our conversation with Kennedy is posted here).

Read our interview with Bill Haney on SuicideGirls.com.

The Last Mountain opens in Los Angeles* on Wednesday, June 15, and in Irvine, Pasadena, Philadelphia, San Francisco*, and Berkeley on Friday, June 17.

*Bill Haney and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear in person at the Landmark opening night screenings in Los Angeles and San Francisco – visit the Landmark website for more details.

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Jun 2011 10

by Daniel Robert Epstein

“I’’m more of a stream of consciousness kind of guy.”
– David Arquette

David Arquette made a name for himself in the Scream trilogy and since then has had a long career in television and film. But for his directorial debut, The Tripper, Arquette has gone back to the horror genre, this time infusing it with political overtones. The Tripper is about a Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer that targets a bunch of hippies.

While some may be surprised that Arquette may be stepping into directing, it is no shock because he comes from one of the most talented and prolific Hollywood legacies ever. The Arquette family in show business started with Cliff Arquette, better known as Charley Weaver and spawned Lewis Arquette and David’s sisters Patricia and Rosanna. Most recently Arquette stepped back into television with the sitcom In Case of Emergency and co-producing Courteney Cox’s show Dirt. I got a chance to talk with the first time director after his long grassroots bus tour promoting The Tripper.

Read our exclusive interview with David Arquette on SuicideGirls.com.

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Jun 2011 09

by Brad Warner

About a week ago I saw a posting on Facebook regarding a big Buddhist gathering in upstate New York. The post read as follows, “Next week, New York’s Garrison Institute will be hosting some 230 Buddhist teachers for a conference on a range of topics concerning the future of Buddhist practice in North America, including legacy, succession, lineage, ethics, and ‘how to preserve and adapt the Dharma in new conditions without losing depth.’ The conference, known as the Maha Teacher Council, is by invitation only.”

I reposted this link on my own Facebook page with the following comments, “Oh nice. A self-selected group of important Buddhists get together to decide what’s best for the rest of us. Gatherings like this worry me a lot. The intent is to create a unified sense of what Buddhism ought to be. It’s like trying to create a unified sense of what art ought to be. Very Soviet sounding to me.” This generated a lot of commentary and crosstalk that’s still going on even as I type this.

One of the initial comments asked if I was “butt hurt” at not being invited. I’m not sure if “butt hurt” is how I would describe my feelings. But the commenter was correct in assuming I was not invited. And he was on the right track in thinking that my not having been invited was part of my problem with the event. But it wasn’t because I was “butt hurt.”

[..]

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Jun 2011 09

by Daniel Robert Epstein

“I got double excitement wood”
– Jamie Kennedy

Jamie Kennedy has played everything from a nerdy high schooler obsessed with movies to a nerdy tech obsessed NSA agent to a nerdy wannabe rap star… — well maybe he hasn’’t played everything. But usually whatever Kennedy does is very funny and that seems to be the case with Kickin’ It Old Skool where he plays an 11-year old breakdancer who falls into a coma and wakes up at age 30 and tries to put his life back together through the power of dance.

Read our exclusive interview with Jamie Kennedy on SuicideGirls.com.

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Jun 2011 08

by Blogbot

A column which highlights Suicide Girls and their fave groups.


[Exning in The Red Couch]

This week, Exning Suicide talks about why she loves Body Mods.

Members: 438 / Comments: 1,744

  • WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: It’s really the only place where I can talk about slicing and stretching without having to sound strange
.
  • DISCUSSION TIP: If you don’t like it, you don’t have to say it

.


  • BEST RANDOM QUOTE: “Anytime someone asks me if my tattoos are fake I say, ‘Yes, I draw them on every morning.'”




  • MOST HEATED DISCUSSION THREAD: We’re all sort of laid back.
  • WHO’S WELCOME TO JOIN?: People who are interested in scarification, stretching, heavily tattooed naked chicks and everything in between.

[..]

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Jun 2011 08

by A.J. Focht

Welcome to your extra long conference edition of Ur W33K 1N G33K!

X-Men: First Class is being widely hailed as the best super hero movie since The Dark Knight, and it ruled the box-office this weekend grossing $56 million. The prequel to the X-Men series may have beat out other current films on its opening weekend, but it doesn’t measure up to any of its predecessors, or in this case protégés. First Class had the smallest opening weekend audience of any of the X-Men movies. Despite all the critics praise, the film appears to have suffered from the sins of its…future, as the past two X-Men movies (X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) nearly destroyed all the credibility the series had built. Still, they’ve managed to win back many of their estranged fans and currently hold an audience rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

[..]