Occupy Wall Street has, rather ironically, provided quite the opportunity for those in the emblazoned merchandise business. There are over 2,000 Occupy Wall Street products listed on eBay at the time of this writing.

But this one just might take the cake.

Yes, you’re seeing that right, folks, it is an Occupy condom.

They claim they are 99 percent effective — get it? — and have added a clever slogan: “WE WON’T BE SCREWED! WE WILL COME FIRST!”

The company making these condoms, Condomania, is selling them at a discounted price of $11.99 for a 30-pack. They are also giving them away for free to protesters.

Apparently that includes not only Occupy Wall Street protesters, but also demonstrators located in other cities.

Hear that, Occupy Charlotte? From what I’ve seen, the donation table is looking pretty well stocked, but how are you guys on rubbers?

Condomania provides the following additional details on their website:

Occupy Condoms! Why? Whether or not you agree with the "demands" of the Occupy Wall Street movement that is sweeping the U.S., one thing is for sure; lots of people out there are tired of feeling screwed. Occupy Condoms say it all in a neat little package while affording young protestors the protection they need to stay safe in the passionate frenzy that is social protest.

Occupy Condoms are sold at a 70 percent discount to demonstrate our support for social change and the virtuous pursuit of equality for all. Mostly, we didn't think it cool to be capitalizing quite so blatantly on a protest movement that itself is concerned about unscrupulous profiteering. So, we'll just hope for some good buzz and a small amount of unscrupulous profits.

Contact Condomania to request free Occupy Condoms for the Occupy Movement in your city!

There was a trending topic on Twitter Sunday night, #AmberCole.
My first thought was did J. Cole and Amber Rose, the stripper ex of Kanye West, get together? The answer is no and what that topic was about is beyond disturbing.
Amber Cole is a 14-year-old girl who is allegedly on the back steps of her school performing oral sex on a classmate.

It was filmed and it went viral. By the way, if this girl is 14, that is child porn and someone needs to go to jail — for real.
And you won't find that video here!

She doesn’t know she’s being taped and there is a second boy who can be seen laughing in the distance. The girl’s name became a Twitter trending topic, as people of all ages make jokes about her and called her every awful name under the sun. She allegedly then created a Twitter page to defend herself, while also capitalizing off her new-found ”fame” (the account now has over 16k followers) by attempting to chat up celebrities such as Bow Wow and Evelyn Lozada- a very 14-year-old thing to do.

When did this behavior become cool?

A traffic stop on the West Coast brought down a rare type of criminal, a woman accused of making and possessing child pornography.

Here's the story: Kings Mountain woman, Crystal Dawn Johnson Smith, 21, allegedly took pictures of some preteen girls in sex acts back in 2008. Then she took off and ran from the charges for over two years.

Kings Mountain Police Capt. Derek Johnson said Smith sent the photographs to her boyfriend, a military servicemember who was stationed in California.

The photos weren’t posted online, but were “disseminated electronically,” Johnson said.

Police say the Naval Criminal Investigative Service interviewed Smith’s boyfriend and his case was handled in the military justice system.

Smith induced the girl to engage in “various and multiple sexual acts for the purpose of producing material containing a visual representation depicting this activity,” the arrest warrant states.

Johnson wouldn’t say whether Smith is accused of participating in the sex acts, but he did say investigators have no other sus-pects in the case.

The alleged incident took place on Oct. 9, 2008, and a warrant for Smith’s arrest was issued in April 2009. The Washington State Highway Patrol stopped Smith’s car on Sept. 20 and learned of the warrant through the National Crime Information Center database, Johnson said.

Cases about women involved in making child porn are rare. But it does happen. In Maryland, a 19-year-old woman, Patricia Ann Tasker, pleaded guilty to making a sexually explicit video of an 8-year-old she was taking care of.

During Operation Wire Breaker, in 2010, which was a nationwide child porn sweep, an Iowa City woman received two years in prison for possession of the illegal images.

Jennifer Marie Abbott of Iowa City pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on March 25 to possession of child pornography. Today Judge James E. Gritzner sentenced Abbott to 2 years imprisonment, 5 years supervised release and required Abbott to pay $100 to the victim’s assistance fund.

A minute entry for the March change of plea hearing noted that the Court “finds extraordinary circumstances present.”

It's estimated that more than 5 million pornographic pictures and videos of children are circulated on the Internet every day, according to a report on Oprah.com.

Say what you want about Gov. Beverly Perdue — make fun of her voice or her lack of media savvy — but at least she has the guts to stand for what's right.

Friday, Perdue said she will vote against the proposed ban on same-sex marriages. Way to go, Lady Gov.

Gov. Bev Perdue issued a statement Friday saying that she opposes the proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions that will be on the ballot in North Carolina next spring.

But she said that she did believe that a marriage is between one man and one woman. She said she opposes the amendment, which will be on the ballot on May 8, 2012, because of its potential effect on job recruitment in the state.

“My top priority is creating jobs. Too many people are out of work and I’ve heard from several business leaders who’ve told me that the proposed constitutional amendment will harm our state’s business climate and make it harder to grow jobs here,” Perdue said.

If the General Assembly paid attention to the people they were sent to Raleigh to represent, they'd know this constitutional ban is a waste of time.

Fifty-six percent of North Carolina residents oppose a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriages, according to a poll released Friday.

The Elon University Poll, which surveyed 594 adults statewide between Sunday and Thursday, found support for recognizing gay marriages growing in North Carolina. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

So, why is the government wasting time on this when the economy has gone to shit, unemployment is still high and let's not even talk about the roads.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police apprehended a suspect in yesterday's robbery and sexual assault.
From the police:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Detectives have arrested Daven Lorenzo Teeter, B/M, DOB: 03/07/1990 in relation to this case. He was arrested at the 1800 block of Vinton Street and charged with

1st Degree Rape, 1st Degree Sex Offense, 1st Degree Kidnapping (2 counts), Breaking and Entering, Armed Robbery, and Communicating Threats. Mr. Teeter will be transported to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, where he will remain in their custody.

Shortly after midnight on this night, [Rae]Carruth and his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams were leaving the Regal Cinema in south Charlotte. They drove separately, so Adams was following Carruth in her car. Suddenly Carruth stopped in the middle of the road, causing Adams to do the same. A car pulled alongside her and gunshots erupted. She was struck four times — in the neck, chest, and abdomen. The car carrying the shooter, and two other men, sped off. Carruth drove away as well.

Bleeding profusely and holding on for dear life, Adams was able to call 911, telling the operator that she'd been shot and that she believed Carruth was involved. Police and paramedics arrived minutes later and Adams was rushed to Carolinas Medical Center. Doctors performed emergency surgery to deliver her baby boy, for whom she had already picked out the name Chancellor. He was born 10 weeks premature. After undergoing surgeries and fighting for her life, Adams managed to write notes for the police explaining what happened during her shooting, once again implicating her newborn baby's father.

If you remember, Carruth was a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers and is now serving a 19-year sentence for his role in Adam's murder.

Former Panther, the late Fred Lane, died in a domestic dispute with his wife. More accurately, Deidra Lane shot him with a 12-gauge shot gun.

Her 24-year-old husband, a running back for the Carolina Panthers who had recently been traded to Indianapolis, was shot to death as he came home from visiting his family in Tennessee. Police found Fred Lane's body just inside the front door of his house. His packed bag lay nearby, and his keys were in the door lock.

Prosecutors portrayed Deidra Lane as a cold-blooded and abusive woman who murdered her husband in hopes of collecting on a $5 million life insurance policy.

They said she waited for her husband to get home, shot him in the chest with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, then walked through his blood and shot him again in the back of the head.

But the defense said Lane was a battered wife who killed in self-defense. Her lawyer said that during a three-day period while Lane was nine months pregnant, Fred Lane rammed his wife's head into a wall, broke open her lip and threw her down a flight of steps.

"He just got shot because he wouldn't leave me alone," a sobbing and screaming Lane told a 911 operator the day he was shot. "I kept telling him to stop."

And there are the other teams in the NFL where players have been arrested or charged with assault on a female.

But in those cases, there were never any suspension.

Last February, the NFL Player's Association did team up with Verizon Wireless to provide money to programs that focus on teen domestic violence programs.

George Atallah, NFL Players Association assistant executive director, external relations, said, "At the NFL Players Association, we are concerned not only about the well-being of our members but also about teen athletes and their development on and off the field. We are glad to partner with Verizon to bring this valuable training to our program and be part of the solution to end domestic violence.

Yet, no word on an effort to stop domestic violence with in the NFL. So, we'll applaud the NFL for wearing pink in October to raise awareness of breast cancer — but we have to question when the league will address domestic violence.

So, you don't mind putting your life on the line for an orgasm, young lovers?

A new study says young people in the United States and Europe are not using condoms when they have sex.

Jennifer Woodside of the International Planned Parenthood Federation said: "What the results show is that too many young people either lack good knowledge about sexual health, do not feel empowered enough to ask for contraception or have not learned the skills to negotiate contraceptive use with their partners to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies or STIs (sexually transmitted infections)."

This isn't JUST scary, it is dangerous!

The number of young people having unprotected sex in the West has risen sharply over the past two years, a survey said Monday, with health professionals concerned the safe sex message is falling on deaf ears.

The study by the Parenthood Foundation showed particularly sharp increases among sexually active teenagers in the United States and in European countries such as France who were failing to use contraception with a new partner.

In the United States, the percentage rose from 38 percent in 2009 to 53 percent now, while France saw an increase from 19 percent to 40 percent.

The survey to mark World Contraception Day also discovered that Thailand is a particular cause for concern because as many of 62 percent of young Thais have had unprotected sex with a new partner.

Need to get tested in Mecklenburg County?
Planned Parenthood
STD Testing Charlotte (there is a $79 fee, but results are given the same day)
Mecklenburg County Health Department

A 16-year-old girl flaunts her body in front of the 35-year-old father of her friend. She teases him with sexual innuendos, advances and tells him, "I will show you things you've never seen" and "you know you want it."

The father logs on to the Internet, looking for the age of consent, and he finds a link that says it's 16. The next time the girl makes a sexual advance on him, he boldly says, "If you want to have sex with me, you are going to have to be a woman about it." Then they have sex twice, because he figures once the deed is done, she will leave him alone.

Then people find out that the 35-year-old man had sex with the 16-year-old girl, and he finds out the age of consent is 17, not 16, as the link said.

How much time do you think he'd get in jail? Do you think there would even be a deal offered to this father, who was friends with the girl and her parents on social media?

Let me answer that for you: Hell no.

A lesbian actress who starred in "The L-Word" says she kissed a girl — and got escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight for doing it.

Leisha Hailey took to Twitter on Monday to call for a boycott of the carrier after a flight attendant told them other passengers had complained after witnessing the affection.

Her first tweet said: "I have been discriminated against." She later added, "Since when is showing affection to someone you love illegal?"

Southwest Airlines Co. responded on its website that Hailey was approached "based solely on behavior and not gender." The airline's four-sentence response said passengers were characterizing the behavior as excessive.

A discussion followed on the flight, and the airline said it "escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground."

Stop me if this story sounds familiar. Here in Charlotte, a local bar, Dixie's Tavern, had a similar situation happen in January.

Tracy Thomas said she and her friend Kelly Johnson created the page after visiting Dixie's Tavern on Seventh Street in uptown Charlotte on Dec. 17 about dinnertime. She says they grew upset after about 20 minutes passed and no waiter came to their table, although waiters were serving tables nearby.

When they finally got to put in their drink order, Thomas said, another 10 minutes passed before it came so they decided to leave. She said a member of the staff asked if they were going to pay for the drinks and they said no.

They said as they walked out that the staffer said, "Good, we don't want to serve lesbians here anyway," followed by cuss words and other degrading comments.

Dixie's apologized after a Facebook page popped up calling for a boycott of the bar.

Will Southwest, the official airline of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, offer an apology in order to keep this designation?

Or, was the airline within its rights to ask the couple to stop the PDA?

That is, if you believe the story floating around about the former Alaskan governor and failed vice presidential candidate.

A Palin biography says she had a one-night stand with retired NBA player Glen Rice, who was a Charlotte Hornet from 1995-1998.

“Publishing sources familiar with the contents of author Joe McGinniss’ highly-anticipated book ‘The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin’ have revealed shocking secrets that will impact her decision to enter the 2012 presidential race. In the book, which will be published on September 20th, McGinniss claims Sarah had a steamy interracial hookup with basketball stud Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband Todd. Sarah hooked up with the NBA great, then a 6-foot-8 junior at the University of Michigan when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska in 1987, the book says. At the time, Sarah, just out of college, was working as a sports reporter for the Anchorage TV station KTUU. A publishing source told The Enquirer that McGinniss claims Sarah had a ‘fetish’ for black men at the time and he quotes a friend as saying Sarah had ‘hauled (Rice’s) ass down.’ … In the book, McGinniss quotes Rice as confirming the one-night stand.”

Talk about reinventing yourself.