Derrick Burts Gay/Straight Porn Star Tests Positive For HIV - Advocates Condom Use in the Industry

Warning: This post may be a bit too graphic for some.

It seems sort of shocking that there isn't already condom usage in the porn industry, but it's good to see that Derrick Burts, HIV-Positive porn star, is advocating for its usage. This shows a lot of maturity and shows responsibility.

The 24-year-old spoke to the Los Angeles Times regarding this serious issue. LA Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske writes that Burts tested positive for HIV in October after getting tested at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks.

Personal photo taken from CBSNEWS

Burts wants there to be mandatory condom usage in porn productions. This doesn't sound too far fetched - with all the editing software out there someone could probably edit out the condom.

Burts tells the LA Times that he believes that he contracted this virus during a porn performance with another male. Burts performs in straight and gay porn - he gave the facilities a list of all the other performers he had been in contact with so that it could be narrowed down to who he may have contracted this from.

According to the clinics no one on the list tested positive. Burts also has a girlfriend who tested negative.

When accusations were made that he may have contracted it from his personal sex life he told the LA Times:

"That's completely false. There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend."

CBS News, personal photo with girlfriend

It must be pretty interesting to be dating a man who works in the gay and straight porn industry - especially after finding out that he is now HIV positive. Sorry for digressing.

Burts says that during a gay porn shoot in Florida the performers used condoms during the actual intercourse, but there was no condom usage during oral sex.

He says that he makes $200-800 for filming a straight scene and $1,000-2,000 per gay scene. Again, thinking about his girlfriend in this situation. That must be one interesting relationship.

He gives advice:

"Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn't worth your life. Performers need to be educated."

Video Below:

 

A's Stadium San Jose vs. Oakland update: SJ Council approves Gen Plan

ALERT! A's Stadium San Jose vs. Oakland update.

A quick follow-up on yesterday's post regarding opposition to the San Jose effort to build a stadium for the Oakland A's (Athletics): the San Jose City Council passed it's much discussed amendment to its General Plan.

Three San Jose Councilmembers, Oliverio, Liccardo, and Herrera, voted against the proposal. Councilmember Pierluig Oliverio was the one to sound the call that the amendment would "erode the city's tax base."

What that means is more housing where industrial property is currently situated, and more urban costs and less tax increment revenue generation from a tax base that some San Joseans feel has already suffered a "death by a thousand cuts."

This decision is a major blow to the city's ability to afford a stadium for the Oakland A's. That is, of course, assuming San Jose withstands a court challenge from both the San Francisco Giants and The City of San Francisco, as well as The City of Oakland.

Stay tuned.

Obama made right call; Democrats didn't get the votes

President Obama reminded everyone, including us Democrats, that politics is the art of compromise. Facing votes on two tax-cut deals that didn't go the way most Democrats wanted, Obama struck a deal that restored unemployment insurance funding while retaining tax cuts for Americans making over $250,000.

Great move. Why?

While U.S. Money Supply is rebounding from this time a year ago, and the highest it has been, as it should be because that wasn't the case earlier this year, it's not appreciably higher. Meanwhile, the more-often reported unemployment rate is still near 10 percent. And more to the pedestrian point, people who are drawing unemployment need their checks.

The President wasn't going to use them in a political game, unlike many Democrats and Republicans who have money coming in. But Democrats who say they stand for the working person should be ashamed. Working people can make over $250,000 a year - great. I support that. But I don't support taxing them while the economy is in recovery mode out of the weakest recession in history.

If Democrats really feels so strongly, why the hell didn't more of us vote in the 2010 Midterm Election? Stop whining. Start working.

That includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D - California), who's first job should be to back the Democratic President. It was on Speaker Pelosi's watch that the Democrats lost the House of Representatives. Pelosi must realize that the politics of division don't work. Still, given her statements against the President on this issue, it seems she has no problem applying such politics to her own party.

Speaker Pelosi and other Dems must realize the U.S. economy is not back to full health.   Not even close.  Obama made the right call.

Cam Newton for The Heisman Trophy

Suburban Atlanta - This blog post is complicated because the motivation for writing it was because, first, of my good friend Oakland Tribune Sports Columnist Monte Poole's passive agressive Heisman Trophy take. Second, my current proximity to Cam Newton's College Park residence, just outside Atlanta, Georgia.  Third, seeing Newton and Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck (who Poole picked for the Heisman) play, and finally Southern Culture and the fact that I can't sleep.  Blogging should knock me out.

Cam Newton (photo by euroweb.com) is quite simply the best quarterback talent I've ever seen and should be the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner.

The main difference between Newton and Luck, is that for all of his accomplishments, Luck is a product of an offensive system formed by Cardinal Offensive Coordinator David Shaw, who gets little credit for his work. Cam's success has little to do with a particular offensive scheme, but his god-like talent. Consider this is Newton's first year in Auburn's system, and his third system in three years, where Luck has played in the same system for the three year span.

We've seen Cam do things, like score six touchdowns in the SEC Championship, that even the most rabid college football fans only dream of.  And all in his first year in a new system with new players and at a new school.  That's wild.

Cam's only problem is he's in an area of the country known for scams. To one from the San Francisco Bay Area (I go back and forth to help my Mom, who's here) it seems an inordinate number of people have their hands out, selling this or that. Robocalls are rampant. Newton's only hell has been growing up black, male, and physically gifted in football-crazed, dollar-sign-driven Georgia.

Frankly, I find the young man impressive. He handled himself extremely well when being questioned by CBS Sideline Reporter Tracy Wolfson.  He never broke his winning smile, and came off quite charming.  He certainly passed the Mom test, as mine was sold on his presentation at the SEC Championship.

What Cam knew or did not know, does not matter. Spend a little time down here and you don't have to be a genius to know that someone made Cam the focus of their sell / scam efforts. That's not Cam Newton's fault, yet it's being held against him.

Look, let's be honest with each other.  What we're tired of is yet another example of the African American male student who's great on the sports field, but has questions about his character off of it.  The Reggie Bush Heisman give-back has left a bad taste in the mouths of many.   But Cam Newton is not Reggie Bush.   Cam's not the smart, militant, chip-on-shoulder guy that Mr. Bush can be at times.  Cam Newton is an innocent kid with King Kong talent.   And like Kong, Newton can't help how society responds to him.

The question is, did Cam do well on and off the field this year in Auburn?  Yes.  He did.  And what Newton did on the field was jaw-dropping amazing.

Cam Newton for The Heisman.

Kid Sister Pro Nails Remix used in Michelle Wie - Kia Commercial

In case you're wondering, here's the woman behind the music that informs the Michelle Wie - Kia Commercial. She's Chicago's Melisa Young, AKA, rapper Kid Sister:

Kid Sister - Pro Nails from WBEZ on Vimeo.

For more, here's Kid Sister's website and MySpace page.

Kia Soul and Michelle Wie - Wie really is that strong

Golfer Michelle Wie currently stars in a Kia commercial that strongly implies she has amazing strength. Wie hits a ball and in the clip it just keeps going at supersonic speed. It's so fast, it captures the attention of people who aren't even watching her golf, and shocks the hell out of every man watching.

Here's the Kia commercial:




Folks. Wie really is that strong. Take a look:



And don't think for a moment that Wie doesn't think all the boys are checking her out. Especially since she went "Miley Cyrus" last year.

Oh, and the music's from Kid Sister - check her out!

A's Stadium has opposition in San Jose: Better Sense San Jose

Over all of the talk about an Oakland A's baseball stadium in San Jose instead of Oakland, the San Jose Murky News failed to mention the organized opponents in the form of Better Sense San Jose.  

Better Sense San Jose describes itself as:

a community based all volunteer organization founded to promote open and transparent government, and sensible, prioritized spending in the City of San Jose.

It has a simple position on the Lew Wolff proposal, stating that San Jose can't afford it, and that it's a "poor economic deal" for the city and a lousy investment. Here are the reasons Better Sense San Jose gives:

- land purchases and infrastructure improvements for a stadium will cost San Jose an estimated $100M in present value initially, plus a loss of roughly $1M a year from foregone property taxes.
- the net ROI (Return on Investment) for San Jose is 2% or less, while the Redevelopment Agency bonds supplying the capital cost 5% or more per year. A bad deal.
- a stadium will create just 138 new, seasonal, mostly low wage jobs at stadium; with $100M in public costs for the stadium, the cost for the 138 new stadium jobs is almost $725,000 per job. That's a terrible value.
- a stadium will not by itself create new businesses, and will not increase property values (according to San Jose Neighborhood Economic Impacts of the Proposed San Jose Stadium.

While this blogger would quibble with the stadium jobs estimates, the point is, there's an organized opposition to it.  The website is just part of their efforts to kill the proposal, but some members claim the San Jose City Council is trying to ram it down the collective throats of the people of the city.

There's also opposition to the stadium from the perspective of those who say San Jose's redevelopment tax increment revenue production ability is being harmed by "tax base erosion," which is caused when industrial land uses are converted to residential uses.

In fact, there's a meeting tonight on that issue at 7:30 PM, according to San Jose District 6 Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, who calls it Tax Base Erosion Night in his blog, San Jose Inside. The SJ 6 Council Dude says that San Jose's suffering a "death of a thousand cuts" with so many requests to change land use to fit residential plans.

That includes A's Owner / Manager Lew Wolff's proposal to convert industrial land to housing in the case of land owned by something called iStar Financial, a commercial mortgage Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that's not doing well, with $3.5 billion in non-performing assets it reports.

Wolff tried, and failed, to get San Jose to pay him for a soccer stadium, but the City Council balked at the land use.  But from SJ 6 Council Dude Oliverio, it looks like the proposals coming back to them, but with a baseball stadium instead of soccer.

This is what Oliverio wrote:

iStar-

was proposed as a conversion from industrial to housing so as to give a higher land value and therefore money to the developer to pay for soccer stadium however that did not go forward since it is not really appropriate. However I would not be surprised if it resurfaced

This is why Oakland must makes sure it has all hands on deck, and that its baseball effort has a clear leader in the form of the Mayor of Oakland.   San Jose has three major problems in the pursuit of an A's stadium: the Major League Agreement being against them and for Oakland, the opposition, and the San Francisco Giants.

(Oh. If I see one more article in either the San Jose Murky or the San Francisco Chron that fails to mention the Giants fan base in San Jose, I'll scream.)

Got an issue?  Don't get stadium and baseball business dynamics?  Ask this blogger and play his game.