Akon: "violence is never the answer"

Akon is some kind of special. Probably akin to special ed. It would explain his duplicitous nature. Let me clarify.

Akon has a song called Sexy Chick. In the video, which had no problem ripping off the concept from The Hangover (so much for originality), he is "performing" while a host of bikini-clad women gyrate to his song. At one point the women are dancing in front of a statue of Buddha.

Now here is the controversy and the duplicity.

The women dancing in front of the Buddha in that particular attire (or lack thereof) is an offense to Buddhists. In Sri Lanka it's such a big deal that the government there denied him a visa to the country. This of course impedes his ability to perform a concert in that country. In addition people in that country are protesting and throwing rocks at the offices of his promoter.

All of this has affected the 'entertainer'. He has stated

"I myself am a spiritual man, so I can understand why they are offended," the singer added. "But violence is never the answer and I am disheartened."

Spiritual? What spirituality appreciates objectifying women, and being so oblivious to other religions that a roughly 10-foot symbol of a major world religion is ignored? Seriously the statue of Buddha in question is 10-feet at least, and a centerpiece of the area most of the video takes place in. How did he miss it? Especially if he is so spiritual and understanding? Or did the money he hoped the video would make him block out that spirituality?

And as to his comment about violence, this is Akon right? The same guy that took a 15 year old kid from the middle of a crowd of fans onto his stage, and then threw the kid off the stage. The video of that event was a major component in his trial, that he plead guilty to.

So it seems that violence is the answer, IF it's done by Akon.

I'm not a Buddhist, nor spiritual. But at least I'm not a hypocrit that's trying to say anything in order to make another buck.

Toddler power beats drug ring

Criminals these days must deal with many factors, especially if they are involved in drugs. Sniffing dogs, DEA, INTERPOL, detectives, narcotics officers, informants and more are just a few of the hurdles they must outwit or avoid. But for those that can clear all these hurdles, there is one more defender of the law that they have to be prepared for. Toddlers.

Yes toddlers. To be more specific, in England there is 3 year old Kian Parlour, who recently cause an international drug ring to be found and closed. In a somewhat Clouseu-ish act, little Kian was able to do what no one else was.

As it turns out, Kian’s parents were holding onto several packages for their neighbors who were away on a vacation. This is nothing strange as like many neighbors the Parlour’s were doing this and had had it done for them while they were away. But Kian saw the packages stacked in the hallway and decided he needed to see what was inside. Once the packages were opened he presented the prize to his mother, who realized they were drugs and not candy. A quick call to the police and the neighbors’ holiday was at an end.

In total 640,000 pills of diazepam were found, all shipped from Sri Lanka. The neighbors were sentenced to 3 ½ and 2 ½ years individually. And roughly $57,000 worth of drugs were removed from the streets of England. All due to perhaps the youngest sleuth of all.

Pregnant? Chocolate may prevent complications

Here is something sure to bring joy to millions of pregnant women across the world, though I’m sure some super fitness freaks will be against it. Research has been done that suggests that chocolate is good for pregnant women. Yes chocolate.

Now this doesn’t mean that every pregnant woman out there should have their man run to the local store and buy out all the candy bars, though I’m sure more than a few will have cravings for such. But if a woman consumes at least 5 servings of chocolate a week, especially dark chocolate, during her 3rd trimester then her odds of getting preeclampsia is 40% less than women that didn’t consume chocolate.

Now this is not perfect data. The research has only been done based on 2,291 women in Sri Lanka. Results in the rest of the world have yet to be investigated, and the study so far is quite small. But every little bit of good is great.

Of course there are other benefits to chocolate besides its potential reduction in preeclampsia cases. It has been found to stimulate the heart, relax smooth muscle and dilate blood vessels. All of these things are positives in and of themselves. There is no question that these effects are positive in most pregnant women. And for the fathers (and everyone else) there is the good news that chocolate, especially dark chocolate has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries.

All that and it works great on a sweet tooth too. Ok, so now all the guys can make that run to the local store.