Our Race To The Bottom: It's All In Black & White (Now Offer To Take Your Girl To Italy)

We're not saying you shouldn't respect politicians or women, but, at some point, you have to admit it gets to be difficult:

The Italian prime minister says he has nothing to be ashamed of, and that he has just been having fun. But the sheer mass of sordid details of his “bunga bunga” parties has now been revealed for the first time. The descriptions provided by prosecutors, investigating allegations of wrongdoing, prostitution and sex with an under age dancer, read like a bacchanalia.

One opposition politician has already remarked this week: “Compared with Berlusconi, Caligula was a prude.” And so it might seem from the 389 pages of investigation and full gallery of skimpily-dressed showgirls named in prosecutors’ papers and assembled for the first time by The Daily Telegraph.

“After the meal,” a woman on one of hundreds of surveillance tapes says, “I heard some girls saying 'Let’s go down to the bunga bunga (room)’, a sort of disco with sofas, a dance pole, a kind of bar and bathrooms where the girls changed into revealing outfits.” Half-naked starlets are then said to have performed pole dances, put on stripteases and “wriggled up to the prime minister provocatively on the sofa, rubbing him up and letting him have a feel, indulging in mock lesbian kisses and rubbing against each other”. Another woman is said to be wandering around topless, repeatedly kissing Mr Berlusconi.

One showgirl was ordered to dress up for the 74-year-old prime minister as a nurse. “You’ll have to get a white coat, with nothing on underneath of course,” she was told. “Put on a stethoscope, a nurse’s uniform and white stay-up stockings. You know how much he likes that sort of thing, playing the patient.”

The women were described unflatteringly by one witness as “a bunch of idiots who dance like mongols”.

The frenzied organising of the prime minister’s courtiers is revealed too, putting together gatherings in Milan, Rome, and on Lake Maggiore. A faithful lieutenant is taped saying: “He’s on form and raring to go. He’s just called me and he is on top form. This is the right evening but who can I find?”

A scramble ensues, and women compete to be at the parties because Mr Berlusconi is viewed, according to one newspaper, as a “cash machine for which you need no PIN”.

All we have to add is, the next time you hear of a rapper describing women as a bunch of "hos", you be sure to tell them why they're wrong, O.K.?

Between examples like this - and the way "no-fault" divorce works - we're 100% positive every word-slinger out there will believe you,...

This Is Why Nobody Likes The Unions Anymore

Jesus, these pink-shirted assholes are fucking nurses,...

Hat Tip: The Reluctant Optimist

Happy New Year: You're Thick As A Brick

"Several people are said to have contacted the [Yavapai County Sheriff's Office] with information about the [James Arthur] Ray program called 'Modern Magick', which is held in Hawaii. Diskin reports, 'During this event participants are told to break bricks with their hands. Several people reported there were no instructions or training on how to break these bricks without being injured. There were no doctors or nurses employed by James Ray on site to treat the injured. Bronwen Richards is a nurse who attended Modern Magick in 2008. She reports that both she and her husband broke bones during this event. Bronwen estimated 16 people were being treated in the local emergency room with broken bones from attending the James Ray event. Participants of this event who asked for a refund were not given a refund.'"

-- Lynne LaMaster, making a point that, I think, is worthy of passing along to your little ones this New Year: "Kids, the stupidity of some people - but especially those in the medical field who should know better - can be breathtaking, and so, because we don't ever want to see you floored by these bozos in the future, or ever becoming a tree-hugging NewAge dork yourself, everyday we're going to have all of you do a little bit more homework, eat a little bit more meat, and continue to bone up on FantasyLand, by reading the Prescott eNews.

Spread The Word: Emily Rosa Wants To "Talk"

"Linda and Emily Rosa are trying to locate any rational nurses who are skeptical about 'complementary and alternative medicine.'

If you know of any such person, write them at: rosa@4dv.net"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Linda Rosa is a famous nurse and anti-pseudoscience/quackery activist. That is a photo of her daughter, Emily, above.

As a 9-year old, Emily Rosa created a very simple experiment that proved Therapeutic Touch doesn't work - becoming the youngest person featured in the Journal of American Medicine - and a big ol' hero to TMR.

If you are a nurse who is bothered by the nonsense in medicine, please, please, please take a little time and contact these two very-important women in the history of science, medicine, and skepticism.

Thank you,

CMC