Friday, May 13, 2016
Donations For Diesel
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
FH readers were introduced to the adorable and furry Diesel, along with his equally adorable side kick Todd last December. (NYC BUNS) This past week, Diesel required emergency surgery due to an abnormal growths in his abdomen and free fluid in his stomach. If it was not quickly taken care of it could have been lethal. The unexpected $2,104 cost for the surgery proved a challenge for Diesel's family. If you are able to help, or want find out more about how Diesel, and Todd, are doing, check out NYCBUNS HERE:
Donald Trump’s list of endorsers is a who’s who of extremists—and it’s a big red flag.
Not the company you’d want to keep.
From: HillaryClinton.com
Donald Trump has run a campaign fueled by bigotry and bluster. Since he launched his presidential bid in June, the presumptive Republican nominee has called Mexican immigrants “criminals, drug dealers, [and] rapists,” proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, and said women should be punished for seeking an abortion (I could go on). So it’s no surprise that his list of endorsements reads like a who’s who of extremism and hate.
In politics and in life, the company you keep says a lot about you. Meet seven of the public figures who are lining up behind Donald Trump.
As sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio oversees “Tent City,” a jail that inhumanely houses thousands of prisoners in Korean War–era surplus tents in the Arizona heat. He gained national notoriety as one of the most hard-line immigration opponents in the country and has been accused of racially profiling Latinos and retaliating against his critics. The U.S. Department of Justice eventually filed a lawsuit against Arpaio for unlawful discriminatory police conduct.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate needs little introduction—but here’s what she said when she endorsed Trump:
Republican Kris Kobach serves as Kansas’s secretary of state—but his influence extends far beyond the state’s borders as one of the most influential anti-immigration elected officials in the country (noticing a trend?). He’s been called the legal mastermind behind Arizona’s anti-immigration law SB 1070, and he’s coached legislators in states like Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri to pass dozens of similar measures.
Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the late religious-right leader, is president of Liberty University in Virginia. He’s a vocal proponent of concealed carry—and had this to say to his students after the San Bernardino terrorist attack:
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has long been a vocal opponent of comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Even so, she says she didn’t know much about Trump “until he won me over with that Mexican rapist speech. … He’s just always cared about America first.”
From: HillaryClinton.com
In politics and in life, the company you keep says a lot about you. Meet seven of the public figures who are lining up behind Donald Trump.
As sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio oversees “Tent City,” a jail that inhumanely houses thousands of prisoners in Korean War–era surplus tents in the Arizona heat. He gained national notoriety as one of the most hard-line immigration opponents in the country and has been accused of racially profiling Latinos and retaliating against his critics. The U.S. Department of Justice eventually filed a lawsuit against Arpaio for unlawful discriminatory police conduct.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate needs little introduction—but here’s what she said when she endorsed Trump:
“What the heck would the establishment know about conservatism? Tell me, is this conservative? GOP majorities handing over a blank check to fund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood and illegal immigration that competes for your jobs, and turning safety nets into hammocks, and all these new Democrat voters that are going to be coming on over the border as we keep the borders open, and bequeathing our children millions in new debt, and refusing to fight back for our solvency, and our sovereignty, even though that’s why we elected them and sent them as a majority to D.C. No! If they’re not willing to do that, then how are they to tell us that we’re not conservative enough in order to be able to make these changes in America that we know need to be.”
Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the strictest anti-immigration measures in the country, known as SB 1070. It required police officers to determine the immigration status of people they stopped and suspected of being in the country without proper documentation—a practice that invited judgment solely based on the color of someone’s skin. Parts of the law were struck down by the Supreme Court.
Republican Kris Kobach serves as Kansas’s secretary of state—but his influence extends far beyond the state’s borders as one of the most influential anti-immigration elected officials in the country (noticing a trend?). He’s been called the legal mastermind behind Arizona’s anti-immigration law SB 1070, and he’s coached legislators in states like Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri to pass dozens of similar measures.
Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the late religious-right leader, is president of Liberty University in Virginia. He’s a vocal proponent of concealed carry—and had this to say to his students after the San Bernardino terrorist attack:
“It just blows my mind that the president of the United States [says] that the answer to circumstances like that is more gun control. If some of those people in that community center had what I have in my back pocket right now. ... Is it illegal to pull it out? I don’t know. I’ve always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in and killed them. I just wanted to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit. We offer a free course. Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.”
Although David Duke, a white supremacist and former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has yet to formally endorse Trump, he told listeners to his radio program that “voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage. … I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has long been a vocal opponent of comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Even so, she says she didn’t know much about Trump “until he won me over with that Mexican rapist speech. … He’s just always cared about America first.”
Happy Birthday today May 13th
Happy 25th to model Francisco Lachowski!
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
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| Francisco by Justino Esteves |
Friggatriskaidekaphobia
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
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| DirtRoad by Noplacia Photography |
Friggatriskaidekaphobia, (the fear of Friday the 13th) affects millions of people and costs Americans a billion dollars per year in absenteeism and costs businesses, especially airlines and train travel which suffer from severe losses on Friday the 13th. Triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of the number 13 is even more widespread. So much so that many high-rise buildings, hotels and hospitals skip the 13th floor and many airports do not have gates numbered 13. In many parts of the world, having 13 people at the dinner table is considered bad luck.
Budding Bromance: Men Are Swiping Right to Find New Friends
From: NBC News
Swipe right … for a friend?
Outside of college, finding friends in adulthood can get tricky. While the digital dating space is now firmly established in mainstream culture, there's now a wave of apps offering a new way to make platonic connections.
There are services like Wiith, which is marketed as a social app with which users can create events like brunch or happy hour and invite others along. Smeeters calls itself a "social club" that connects two groups of friends, reserves a spot at a bar and buys the first round of drinks for the whole group.
Bumble BFF is a new feature within the popular dating app that lets users swipe for friends. Once both people swipe right on a photo, each person has 24 hours to start the conversation.
And while women seem to have taken most readily to the feature, plenty of men are using it, too.
Bumble tells NBC News that nearly 1 million men have used BFF since the feature launched in March. While the company says 97 percent of women on the dating app have tried BFF, half of all males on the app have also tried the new feature.
"The last few years have been so much about swiping for love, and men are totally tuned in with what that means. What's exciting is to see them pivot and try BFF," said Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble.
"We were expecting slower adoption from men versus women, so we're excited to see men use it in a significant way."
In New York City, new friends Greg Zimmerman, 29, and Charlie Wieser, 28, connected on BFF after some initial skepticism.
"The whole concept is pretty new, and felt a little awkward at first," said Weiser. "It worked out great and I now recommend it all the time."
It turned out that Zimmerman and Wieser are both MBA candidates at New York University, but had not met until they both swiped right. They now hang out several times a week to play basketball, go to social events or to have double dates with their girlfriends.
"After meeting Charlie through the app, I now understand that it is a great way to meet new friends, extend your network and help make the city feel a little smaller," said Zimmerman.
An Investigation into the Dick Size of the American Male
From: VICE
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| The smallest penis in Brooklyn and the (alleged) largest penis in the world. Photos courtesy of Nick Gilronan and Jonah Falcon |
There’s something fascinating about penises.
In truth, my fascination is less about penises themselves and more about the disjunct between what they are—dangling, fleshy, easily agitated protuberances—and what they are asked to represent: authority, virility, power. They are masculinity’s synecdoche, and rather an odd choice.
For a start, #notallpenises get to be representative of strong, manly qualities. We know the hierarchy: big = good, small = bad. For an organ that changes size upward of 11 times a day (and even more frequently at night), the size thing really gets to people. As a woman, I get that. I know what it is to consciously or unconsciously size up my body or parts of my body, noting the sizes of others', comparing, keeping track. It’s an enormous amount of unnecessary pressure, and it seems to me that if you tell a man he has a “small dick,” the message is more or less the same thing as saying, “You’re fat” to a woman: You are sexually undesirable and not good at being your gender.
While conversations about the everyday humiliations of embodiment in present-day North America are common among my female friends, the only men I’ve ever really talked to at length (heh) about their junk have been boyfriends or lovers. I was reminded of something dick-pic critic Madeleine Holden said in an interview with VICE in May: “I've come to the conclusion that men face similar (although less intense) pressures to look a certain way, but are afforded fewer outlets to discuss how it affects them. Traditional masculinity requires men to be stoic about their emotional issues and men risk being called pussies and fags if they are openly self-conscious. Basically, men are a simmering heap of raw nerves and unexplored emotions.”
I put out a call on Twitter: Did anyone want to talk about his dick? It turns out people really, really did. More than 55 men (all cis-gender) responded to my casual survey, including Jonah Falcon, who currently holds the title for largest recorded dick in the world, and Nick Gilronan, the winner of last year’s Smallest Penis in Brooklyn contest. Aside from Falcon and Gilronan, everyone else’s names have been changed. I let them pick their own pseudonyms.
The men came from a conveniently varied range of geographic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Their average age was 32. The average dick size was 6.2 inches erect, at the high end of the North American average, which is between five and six inches. (I expect Jonah’s 13.5-inch penis skewed the stats somewhat.) The smallest reported penis was 3.6 inches erect. There was a 50:50 foreskin-to-circumcised ratio. The sheer range of items men compared their dick and balls to was incredible—eggs, berries, iPhones, Magic Markers, the classic bottle of Coke, and “about two lighters, end to end.”
With a few exceptions, almost all the guys knew the exact dimensions of their penises—length and circumference. A few claimed to “never have measured,” but even they acknowledged that was hard to believe.
This sample group was simultaneously very OK with having average-size penises, and not totally aware what the average is. Almost everyone considered their dicks to be average size, even when this was clearly not the case. “I know the average in Canada is between five and six inches,” said Steve, a 25-year-old from Toronto. “So I’m in the ballpark.” Steve’s penis is seven inches long and five inches around. Neil, 37, felt his was “likely below average,” despite it being over six inches (the top of the statistical average) while erect, and “occasionally having problems with lady friends not being able to accommodate it.” Overall, most men reported being happy with their penises, regardless of size.
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| Photos courtesy of Nick Gilronan and Jonah Falcon |
The most concern seemed to be among the grower-not-a-shower demographic. Deggy, a 32-year-old bisexual man from Leeds, said he consciously avoids Speedos because of his 3.5-inch flaccid, 6.5-inch erect penis. “I often think, 'If only they could see it erect, then they wouldn’t think less of me,'” he said.
Ahmed, 29, from Toronto, said his erect penis is “slightly smaller than the length of an iPhone 5C.” He started shaving his pubes in his teens to make his 4.7-inch penis look longer and has kept up the practice despite not really noticing a difference. “I often feel ashamed of the size of my penis,” he said. “We're so inundated in our society that bigger is better, and people are always talking about if size really matters or not, so it's hard sometimes to not feel inferior.” He added, “I've often heard the average penis is five to six inches, so technically I'm almost average, but I still feel inferior, and often wish I had a bigger dick. I worry about my size constantly. It’s definitely something that sticks in the back of the mind and affects confidence.”
The lone supporter of this demo was Gilronan, winner of the aforementioned Brooklyn’s Smallest Penis contest, who said, “I do enjoy when I'm with a significant other and she looks at my penis in amazement when it triples in size from flaccid to erect. That always seems to wow them.” Flaccid, Nick’s penis is about one inch long. “I’m happy with my penis. Absolutely no complaints. We’ve had many fun times together and with others.”
Most men with small dicks reported finding their penis size unremarkable. “No one’s rushing home to text their girlfriends about it, but I’ve made peace with the size,” said Jim, 30. Men under four inches also reported occasionally being turned down for sex based on their dick size, but most were resilient enough to consider that bad manners on behalf of the proposed sex partner. John, a 67-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario, said, “Of the eight women I’ve been with, each of them eventually told me they’d been uncertain about the level of satisfaction I’d be able to deliver… Only one woman has ever decided it wouldn’t be OK for intercourse.”
There were a few ardent small-peen supporters, too. Kenny, 46, has a penis that is “just under four inches” and “about the size of a magic marker (med size).” He was very positive about all aspects of his genitalia, including balls (“left one hangs lower than the right, but feel great!”), foreskin (“I am great with it”), and overall aesthetics and functionality (“it may not be long but it does have a nice head and shoots big loads :) ”).
While less hung men were either neutral or negative about their small penises, men with large dicks seemed positively affected by the knowledge that they’re packing heat. “If I was as happy with everything else in my life as I am with my penis, it would be pretty magical!” said Stefano, a 26-year-old from Toronto with a girthy seven-inch penis. “I honestly love the size of my dick,” Luke, a Brooklyn-based 27-year-old with eight inches of cock in his pants. He explained, “I suffer from depression, and at low points its been a source of (extremely gendered comfort) for me. I think it’s bigger than the statistical average and that feels great.” As a child, Luke spent his spare time stretching his scrotal skin to completely engulf his penis. “Watching it slowly unfold would provide hours of entertainment.”
Todd, a 37-year-old from Toronto with an 8.5-inch dick, said he was “quite pleased” with his penis. “It never fails to impress. It’s visibly bigger than most other penises I’ve seen. I play a lot of sports so am in a lot of naked man showers.” He said there wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about well-endowed life, “other than how into big dicks girls are… They talk about it throughout the entire experience.” Todd also took the time to posit a theory: “I actually find that girls that are attracted to me are predominantly a C-cup and over. Is there a genetic thing that attracts well-endowed men to well-endowed ladies and vice verse?” Food for thought.
The men I spoke to mostly referred to their penises in the context of others—what sexual partners said about it, how it compared with others they’d seen. Average men responded with “no complaints from sexual partners,” while large dicks remarked on women’s positive comments. Overall, if a man’s penis was under five inches erect, he made repeated and emphatic reference to his ability to please orally. “It’s nothing to brag about,” said a man with a four-inch penis. “I wouldn't go showing it off.”
This experiment, like the abortion interviews I conducted a few months ago, reminded me once again how hard the patriarchy is truly screwing both genders. Many of the men said their everyday lives didn’t really afford them space to talk about their bodies and the pride and/or insecurity those bodies can elicit. They usually spoke about their penises with sexual partners or sometimes with guy friends, but the former conversations tended to involve (as one interviewee put it) “a biased party, trying to be kind or preserve feelings or get things going,” and locker-room-style conversation among lads was largely sexual grandstanding. More than a few of the interviews closed with an expression of relief. “This has been interesting… and to be honest, very unburdening,” one interviewee said.
