Episode 169 – The One Where We Try Turmeric Charcoal Milk

In This Week’s Show, episode 169, Big Gay Jim joins us to tell us all about the HIV, the AIDS, and what you can do for them…. I mean, for people with them.

In This Week’s Show, episode 169, Big Gay Jim joins us to tell us all about the HIV, the AIDS, and what you can do for them…. I mean, for people with them.

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while the Venti (Roman gods of the winds) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying their patience!

Shea’s Life Lesson

This week I learned that the safest music to air drum too while driving is Def Leppard, you can keep one hand on the wheel. (Rick Allen)

Jenn’s Actual Lesson

Did you know that, other than being a drinking measurement, the Venti were also known as the Tempests? Because of their connection with storms at sea, Roman naval generals often sacrificed all-white animals to keep them placated before a voyage.

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Copper Alt | Zipline Brewing

From: Brendon

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2DPTGXY
  • BA Rating: 3.68/5
  • Style: Altbier
  • ABV: 5.2%
  • Aaron: 3
  • Jim: 2
  • Shea: 9
  • Steve: 7

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

New Patrons

  • Catherine H., who is obviously the greatest Catherine, including that other dud who didn’t give us money… freaking Russians.
  • Louise (who still listens to us after we attempted a Scottish accent the last time she contacted us.)

Voicemails!

Sky-high voicemail from Ood from Occultae Veritatis Pod (or O.V. Pod for Aaron). https://ovpod.ca

As Steve says it’s a good show! I’ve listened to a few now too and I suggest you give them a go eh!
~ A

Follow up: In case you missed it, Honorable Judge Bad Ass Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced epic piece of shit Nassar to up to 175 years for his pervasive abuse of young female gymnasts. “I just signed your death warrant.”

Speaking of judges, the less honorable soon-to-be ex-Judge Assface McFuckwhistle who barely sentenced convicted rapest Brock “the rapist” Turner to almost jail is up for retirement on the June ballot, find out more at www.recallaaronpersky.com

We’d like to say goodbye to Rob and Amy of Secular Yakking Podcast, who are calling it. wrapping up their show after several years of good work. All the best. Robert and Amy are amazing people and fast friends. We can’t wait to see what happens next with the Original Motto Project (link soon). Hit them up on twitter and thank them for years of great shows and give’m a send off deserving of the great people they are!

Finally, before we dive into the headlines I’d like to encourage you all to check out WyoAIDS.org — and not just to tell me how great the redesign is ;) Jim?

“The money we raise stays here in Wyoming and is used to support those living with HIV/AIDS. WyoAIDS pays the costs that insurance, government assistance, and other programs don’t including dental and travel help.”

Headlines

HL1 – Hello Albania, This is Dog – http://wapo.st/2Eat43Q

  • A cheater using Ashley Madison wanted out of his marriage, but wouldn’t divorce because of GOD
  • Stephen Allwine, from a suburb of St. Paul, MN, tried to get his wife killed via a contract with Albanians on the dark web.
  • A church elder who offered marriage counseling and a Internet technology specialist, had cheated on his wife with at least two women he met on Ashley Madison, but couldn’t get a divorce because he’s a member of the United Church of God which is very against divorce.
  • The dark web site he tried to hire, stole $6000 in bitcoin from him with no murder, so he took matters into his own hands.
  • He called 911 about her “suicide” but cops found no evidence of suicide, but ample evidence of murder.
  • Fuck him. His trial continues.

HL2 – The Isle of Boredom – http://bit.ly/2nqIAiM

  • The Scottish Isle of Lewis doesn’t allow fun on Sundays
  • The fiercely (stupid) religious isle off the west coast of Scotland has not allowed movies to screen on Sundays (nor swimming pools, sports center, golfing, they used to even chain up the park swings on sunday)
  • Now, as a trial, the only movie theater (cinema) on the island will start a trial by showing flix on the last sunday of the month and all the seats for Star Wars sold out (others attended a workshop on building a model Death Star) over half of the tickets for the next Sunday feature Coco are already sold.
  • There were a couple of protesters with signs, of course,
  • There were fierce protests in 2002 when the first commercial flights began, as well as in 2009 when ferry service began.
  • The movie conducted a survey before this trial run where they found a “significant majority” in favor, but 78yo Rev. David Fraser said, “This is a serious breach of God’s law.”

HL3 – Gesus Saves… & Backs Up! – http://slct.al/2nrbTBJ

  • If you ask an Amazon Echo “Who is Jesus Christ,” the robot will prattle off something from Wikipedia. “Jesus, also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth,” and so forth and so on. But if you ask a Google Home, you’ll get “I’m not sure how to help you with that.”
  • “Google, who is Allah?” “According to Wikipedia, in Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence,” the virtual assistant replied.
  • David Sams, a man from Tennessee, is very concerned about this conspiracy. “It’s kinda scary, it’s almost like Google has taken Jesus and God out of smart audio,” Sams told WJLA. “First it started with schools.”
  • “I even asked Google who is David Sams? Google knew who I was, but Google did not know who Jesus was, Google did not know who Jesus Christ was, and Google did not know who God was,” Sams told Fox 17.
  • “They took prayer out of schools, they think just taking Jesus out of everything is politically correct these days and I think that’s the stem of a lot of our problems,” Collins said, noting that if Google has “some kind of wizard making these decisions” they should correct this error pronto

This Week’s Stories

Jenn’s Stories:

The GOOP invades the Big Apple, disappointed apple not organic.

People.com

refinery29.uk

Fast Company

Moon Juice

If this past weekend you sensed a disturbance in the force of bored wealthy, white women, you were not wrong. The first East Coast summit of Gwyneth Paltrow’s tragically popular pseudo-health, not-even-close-to-science line of branding, GOOP, held its first summit (In Goop Health) in NYC January 27th. (This follows the inaugural summit in LA last June.) And it was pretty much as weird, useless and privileged as you would imagine.

In case you missed it, I discussed some of the plans as well as a hyped-speaker in episode 161. This is sort of a follow-up with testimony.

Proving once again that just because you are rich does not mean you deserve to be, the event was entirely sold out (tickets for the one-day event ranged from $650 – $2000). It also featured a few big-name lady celebrities that I can no longer have any respect for including Drew Berrymore, Bryce Dallas Howard and Chelsea Handler. Of course, Saint Gwyneth was also in attendance.

So what exciting activities were packed into the GOOPy 8hrs? From Rana Rafael writing for Fast Company:

It began with a group sound meditation of “binaural beats” and “sacred acoustics.”

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“A…healer by the name of Karen Newell instructed 600 attendees to close their eyes and “follow their heart’s center. …As you breathe in, silently say ‘let,’” Newell commanded. “As you breathe out, silently say ‘go. Let go. How many of us actually live our lives very consciously, with love at the center?”

Throughout the day there was a variety of high-end “wellness activities” and spa treatments for participants to choose from. These included LED light mask treatments (see pic above), aromatherapy oil massages, manicures from a toxin-free nail salon and facials. The longest lines were reserved for IV drips. “I’ll get this instead of coffee,” says a 50yr old attendant getting a needle shoved in her hip.

Of course, before anyone asks, the Jade vagina eggs were in attendance. They started at $55 and “help cultivate sexual energy, clear chi pathways in the body, intensify femininity, and invigorate our life force.”

There was a wide selection of overly priced barely-foods including: turmeric chia seed pudding, vegan charcoal ice cream, gluten-free tamales, avocado toast, and Moon Juice (It’s actually a line of food with too much blah blah for a simple description. It’s into is “Becoming The Alchemist And Thriving Cosmically” and past the beginner’s guide to “adaptogenic herbs,” “raw foods,” and other “alkalizing ingredients,”. Some recipes include ‘Hot Sex Milk’ and expound the healing power of the full moon. It’s also written, incongruously, by a woman with last name of Bacon.)

Image result for moon juice cookbook

Quick side trip with Bacon: when a large Rose Quartz Crystal was stolen from her shop she had a delightful online meltdown. The warning issued, straight from her Instagram:

This loving rock has given so much to an entire community and has much more to share. To whomever took her out the door, you do not want the energy of a stolen crystal, please trust me!

This leads right into the spiritual items available to the GOOPies (yeah, that’s what they call themselves). These ranged from psychic mediums communicating with dead relatives to Tarot card readings and 10 hours of meditation. One medium that Paltrow introduced herself, Laura Lynne Jackson, even informed the crowd that “death did not exist”. (Good news: Paltrow’s deceased dog will supposedly be waiting for her at the pearly gates.) She doesn’t clarify exactly what it is that causes people to go to the “other side”, but did have some messages. Again from Rana in Fast Company:

The medium proceeded to present herself as a conduit from the great beyond with a mix of success and failure inspiring as many tears as moments of nerve-inducing cringe. “Is there a John, a Julian, or a name with a J in your family?” Jackson asked one middle-aged mom. No, the woman replied.

But for all the attendees who questioned the authenticity of psychics–and a few who even felt the session was a bit predatory–there were just as many who hungrily ate it up. When Jackson asked who in the audience had experienced connections with the dead, a majority of the room sheepishly raised their freshly manicured hands.

“Oh, I’m not the only one,” exclaimed the woman beside me. “That’s cool.”

Not surprisingly, not much science was discussed. As Goop chief content editor Elise Loehnen says, “I think it’s easier to metabolize mental and spiritual-enhancing techniques than really heavy science, particularly in a panel format.” So yeah.

Paltrow slightly touched upon her exploratory approach to her own wellness during a talk with the audience. The CEO lauded her brand for being “open-minded” and a “thought leader” within the booming health and wellness industry–with a mild acknowledgment of Goop’s woo-woo roots.

“I think we’re brave, and we’re unafraid to ask questions,” Paltrow declared. “We like to shine light on things and we do that with our insatiable sense of curiosity.”

“We love science and data and we make a lot of our decisions based [on that],” she continued, a nod to rampant criticism of her site’s many unscientifically verified clams, “but we also like the unexplained and unexplored. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. There’s not always a double-blind study.”

Statistics released verifying that progress for LGBTQ+ people has been reversed since Trump has taken office.

Jezebel

NBC news

National Coalition For Anti Violence

GLAAD

Happily, we have Jim with us this week for his Good Gay News to balance out me with my news of unsurprising news of the shitty.

Since we all lived through 2017, many of us in the US, it should come as no surprise that anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment rose for the first time in years.

The Harris Poll is a survey that has been active in the US since 1963 and tracks social views and public opinions. GLAAD has been utilizing the Harris Poll since 2014 to track opinions on LGBTQ+ acceptance and opinions.

For the 1st time since tracking began a decline has been noted:

The study found that of the 2,160 adult participants, only 49 percent described themselves as “very” or “somewhat” comfortable around LGBTQ people, compared to the 53 percent who felt that way in 2016. (Of the participants, 1,897 classified themselves as non-LGBTQ.)

The survey’s results indicated a significant decrease in comfort among heterosexual people in personal situations relating to LGBTQ identity. These situations included “learning a family member is LGBTQ,” “learning my child’s teacher is LGBTQ” and “learning my doctor is LGBTQ.”

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement sent to NBC News. “This report puts numbers to the bias that too many LGBTQ Americans have recently experienced.”

In a statement included within the report, Ellis said the decline in LGBTQ support “can be seen as a dangerous repercussion in the tenor of discourse and experience over the last year.”

“2017 brought heightened rhetoric toward marginalized communities to the forefront of American culture. Policies and headlines ran that were anti-LGBTQ including the President’s proposed ban on transgender people entering the U.S. military, confirmation of a Supreme Court justice opposed to marriage equality, and the passage of a state law in Mississippi which allows businesses to legally deny service to LGBTQ families.”

Granted, anytime a movement attempts to change societal ‘norms’ there will be some edd and flow. But unfortunately other negative numbers have been growing as well. There was a dramatic uptick in the number of reports of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. In this latest survey, the number jumped to 55 percent — an 11-point jump from last year.

Finally, and most disturbingly, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released a report this month tracking lesbian, gay, transgender and queer hate violence homicides for 2017. It indicates the number of related homicides rose 86 percent in 2017 with 52 people dying as a result of hate-based violence. Of these deaths, 71% are people of color.

To end on a not-entirely negative note, it was found in the Harris poll that acceptance for equal rights by non-LGBTQ+ respondents has remained steady at 79%.

Extra Story (evergreen) –

Confused Vaginas get Cancer from Haram sex – http://bit.ly/2GDD2JF

  • From the “did you really pass biology?” file, you’re a woman and have “haram” sex, you’re more likely to get cancer according to a Moroccan cleric.
  • The cleric, Sheikh Abderahman Sekkach sparked outrage when he came out with his statement on local radio station Chaada FM
  • Sekkach argued that when a woman has sex for the first time, her vagina “decodes” her husband’s sperm. So when she has engages in intercourse with someone who is not her husband, her vagina gets confused because it now has to decode the sperm of another man.
  • Which of course causes cancer in the uterus.
  • this new fact was discovered by “Western scientists” who are proving the wisdom of extramarital sex being banned in Islam, despite him also reportedly saying that the West is falling to abyss and has no benefits to Muslims.
  • He also claimed that this is proof behind God’s wisdom behind the prescribed iddah period, which outlaws women from remarrying for 40 days after they have been widowed or divorced.
  • “What Western scientists have just found out is what the prophet Muhammad already knew over 1400 years ago. He knew that the uterus needed these 40 days for her vagina to reset its coding. How did he know if it is not the divine miracle?” he said.

Next Week’s Beer

Dirty Bastard | Founders

From: RW

Faith In Humanity Restored

Jim Estill is a good guy – http://bit.ly/2nujU8T

  • decided to sponsor 50 Syrian refugee families, he didn’t tell anyone about it at first—not his accountant, not his friends, not even his wife.
  • “I didn’t want to be 80 years old and know that I did nothing during the greatest humanitarian crisis of my time,”
  • Estill was disturbed by the wave of xenophobia that had emerged during the Harper administration. when One of his best friends, Franz Hasenfratz, was a refugee who fled Communist Hungary.
  • So he did some math. He checked Kijiji to find out how much apartments in Guelph were renting for, googled child tax benefits and GST/HST rebates in Ontario, and formulated a monthly food budget. He estimated that $30,000 could support a family of five for one year. He multiplied that number by 50 and realized the total cost—$1.5 million—was one he could easily afford – CEO of Danby, an appliance company with annual sales of $400 million.
  • “If you can run a company with 800 employees, then you can run an organization with 800 volunteers,” he says. He has a clear definition of success for the program: 50 families who work, pay taxes, buy their own groceries and speak English. “We’re not encouraging them to be dependent on us,” he told me. “You’re not doing anyone any favours if you just hand them cheques.”
  • When the first refugees arrived, Estill found that many of them lacked the necessary experience or mastery of English to get hired at Guelph’s factories. He established Ease into Canada, a program at the Danby warehouse in which newcomers can get jobs, train to work in a factory and study English. Any Syrian who applies—even if they’re not one of Estill’s refugees—gets a job at Danby as part of the three-month program, either as a warehouse handler or working the returns line. The program offers flexible schedules and in-house ESL classes twice a week.

Bonus Cat Video

Why Alien Life Would be our Doom – The Great Filter – YouTube

Pop Culture Typography – YouTube

4-2: The History of Super Mario Bros.’ Most Infamous Level – YouTube

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp – Official Trailer – YouTube

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