I don’t know much about British stars, so this is actually the first time I’ve heard of Cheryl and Ashley Cole. Cheryl is a singer and hosts the X-Factor, which is the show that Simon Cowell is bringing to America and Ashley is a soccer player.   Apparently I’m alone because there are thousands of articles on this story

We know from John Terry how British soccer players get down.  Allegedly Ashley had an overseas affair with a Seattle City government worker.  He also pulled the token sexting move (when will people learn?)

I don’t know if this his his only instance of cheating, but I do know that Cheryl is pissed.  She called things off via text message.  She’s even removing the “Mrs. C.” tattoo from her neck.

Oh yeah…there’s no pre-nuptial agreement either.

This story just leaked a few days ago, but more details will arrive soon.  Cheryl is set to provide details with talk host Jonathan Ross on March 21.

Source: Telegraph

Taiwanese Official Ryan Wu has the following to say about monogamy: “”Why do we have monogamy? I think this is a baffling moral concept.”

Wu recently resigned from the KMT party in Taiwan in the wake of a sexual harassment claim against a college student while he held another job.

Is sexual harassment a baffling moral concept Mr. Wu?

Source: ABS-CBN News

The Peruvian poison frog has been identified as the first monogamous amphibian. The article is pretty interesting, so give it a read.  I’m sure critics are going to attack on the ground that they are monogamous because of the small pool (literally) of eligible mates.

*On a side note, the discovery was made by Dr. Jason Brown of East Carolina University.  I went to college in N.C. and the state has a special place in my heart.

Source: BBC News

One of my friends compared me to Stephen A. Smith because I am always venting about something.  Well he recently did and interview discussing how he felt about the Tiger Woods speech.  Smith called Tiger a “punk and a coward.”  I think that’s a fair assessment.  I believe that if you’re going to have a press conference, then you need to take comments from the press.  Otherwise, it’s just a press release (which is something you just send out to people).  Smith also said

On the temptation that superstars like Woods and Michael Jordan have to deal with when women flaunt themselves over them:

Smith: It’s incredibly prevalent. There’s no denying that. It’s pretty much understood that they sit there and promise the love, honor and that other stuff. That does not necessarily include monogamy. That’s just the bottom line. By and large, that’s just not something that’s expected of these guys. There’s very, very few of them that live by that code. I don’t want to call them out or anything like that, and I’m not going to get into a percentage or names. But by and large, when you consider the quality of women and the amount of women that throw themselves at these guys’ feet, remember, it’s one thing to avoid temptation, it’s another thing to constantly have to resist it. Very, very few men are able to avoid that and resist that temptation on a constant, constant basis.

I agree that constantly fighting off women can be tiring.  The problem is I don’t see men, whether famous or not, fighting off women in the first place.  If an extremely attractive woman starts flirting with a committed guy (and I mean any guy) and says “we should talk later” I’m willing to bet that at least 75% of men would give her his phone number.

To play Devil’s Advocate, I’m almost willing to say that athletes should be in a BETTER position to turn down women.  The more you do something, the better you’ll get at it.  Attractive women get hit on so much, that they just learn how to ignore guys.  I’d imagine that the same should happen for a handsome and/or rich guy.

Athletes know that practice makes perfect in their game.  I wish they’d apply the same logic to their relationships.

Source: NBC Sports

Managing this blog gets depressing at times, especially when I read things like this.  Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport is strapped for cash.  Along comes Trashy Madison to the rescue with $10 million in hand.  All they ask is that the airport be named Ashley Madison International Airport for five years.  Fortunately, the city declined the offer.

Source: Phoenix Content

Meet Scott Schmidt.  Schmidt is a former firefighter.  He shot and killed his “estranged wife” (I don’t know whether they were going through divorce or just having problems) three times in the head on Apriil 17 outside their home.  He’s now in court and defended himself on the basis that he was trying to prevent his wife from committing adultery.  The victim, Kelly Wing Schmidt was on her way to meet with a man at a hotel.  Scott says that prosecutors don’t take adultery seriously, so he decided to take matters into his own hand (literally).

Again, I don’t know their status because it says “estranged wife.” All I know is that she didn’t deserve this.

Source: PostCrescent

I tried to come up with a better title, but there’s no other way to state it (so I used the one from the source, HipHopWired). Meet Samson Ojo.

Ojo is a 24-year-old married man with children.  Ojo took his family to see “Did You Hear About the Morgans.”  Ojo left the theatre and asked a woman for her phone number.  When she refused, he took her into an empty theatre and raped her.  He then returned to the theatre with his family to watch the movie.  Ojo has been charged with rape and kidnapping.

This guy is sick and this is probably the most shocking thing I’ve ever posted on this blog.  Although it’s not as shocking, I still want people to get to the point where we find the fact that he asked for the woman’s number objectionable as well (I bet a lot of people missed that reading the story).

Source: HipHopWired

Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye

You all know that I’ve never been a fan of crAPPS, well now Apple isn’t either.  According to Techcrunch, these are the new rules

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)

2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)

3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)

4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)

5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned

6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)

7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

This removes about 5000 or 3% of the apps from the App store.  There’s been a lot of controversy because the SI Illustrated (2009 & 2010) as well as Playboy apps haven’t been removed.  I respect what Apple is doing, but you’ve got to play fair.

There are a bunch of theories as to why Apple took action.  I believe that it’s because some of the crAPPS made their way into the Top 10.  Others say that it’s because Apple wants to clean up the store because it releases the education-friendly iPad.

Picture by App Advice

My little brother and I don’t agree on much.  Our personalities are literally night and day (although he’s coming more toward my side now).  Nevertheless, our views on relationships are strikingly similar.  We both have given our significant others access to our Facebook accounts.

It is time that I address a really big issue in society:  Privacy.  This post is going to be relatively long, so I am going to chop it up into a series.

Privacy amongst couples.  The notion of privacy within a relationship is somewhat of a head scratcher for me.  Before the Internet (which was only popularized about 15 years ago), there was basically four ways to communicate with someone 1) Telephone at home 2) Mail to home 3) Telephone at work and 4) Mail to work.  The latter two primarily applied to white-collar workers.  Naturally, it was somewhat harder to have an affair.  After all, your mistress (gender neutral) would be dumb to call your home phone because you may pick up.  And I suppose that your mistress could send you mail under a pseudonym, but that’s about it.

And then we got pagers, cell phones, smartphones, e-mail, social-networking sites, etc.  Now there are endless ways to reach a person INDIVIDUALLY (literally, you can have as many e-mail addresses as you want).  Digital messages are also faster to transmit meaning you can send something without really thinking (as opposed to walking to the mailbox and having a change of heart).

While technology has changed, human nature has not.  Many people have failed to understand the responsibility that accompanies a computer or a cell phone and fall susceptible to temptation.  That’s why 20% of divorces cite Facebook as the cause of divorce.  And that’s why you have people getting caught up with sexting.  Humans have always had urges to cheat and technology makes it that much easier to act upon that feeling.

My brother and I are firm believers of openness in relationships and that’s why we have no problem giving our girlfriends our passwords to our Facebook accounts.  We both believe that if you have nothing to hide, there shouldn’t be a problem.

There’s a REBUTTABLE presumption that a personal message is inappropriate.  Simply put, if you have something to say, you should be able to say it on your wall.  When you hear about people getting in trouble on Facebook, like Judge Woods, it’s usually because they send private messages.

You will think twice about sexting or poking if you know that your significant other could be checking watching you.

And if you really care about privacy, then don’t get on a social network.  But you can’t have it both ways.  You can’t say that I am free with everyone on my network knowing my business, but I have a problem with my significant other knowing my business.  What is the “my business” mess about?

The same rule applies to not being protective about your phone.  My girlfriend has a Blackberry and often asks to use my iPhone to check a website (since it looks better).  I hand over my phone with no questions asked.  Again, if you have nothing to hide, then what’s the big deal?

Now you may be asking, what if one of my friends sends me a confidential message about their life?  To that I respond, you should talk to that individual in person or on the phone.  It’s NEVER a good idea to send a confidential text message because you don’t know who will receive it.

Notice how this post is specifically discussion social networks and text messages and not e-mail. I understand that people may have confidential work-related content in their e-mails, so giving your significant other access could be a problem.  But no one sends serious messages on Facebook.  In fact, the vast majority of the messages that I receive are for parties.

My girlfriend also brought up the point of how people personalized profile settings can lead to trouble.  For instance, I can prevent my friends from seeing certain information or pictures.  We both agree that you shouldn’t add someone as a friend if you don’t want them viewing your profile.  We can’t really determine an instance where it is appropriate for some people to see that we’re in a relationship, but not for others.

I can speak on this issue firsthand because I got caught by an ex sending flirtatious messages on Facebook.  I had a universal password and she correctly guessed that I used it on Facebook too.  We got into an argument about trust and since we were both in the wrong, we moved on.  And what did I do after that? Change my password.  If I really wanted to stop myself from flirting, I would have kept it the same.

Giving your significant other access to your profile doesn’t mean that he/she will actually check it.  It’s just a symbol of trust.  In fact, I believe that they will be less likely to check your messages because you have exhibited that you can be trusted.  However, if you clamor up at the thought of your significant other checking your Facebook or text messages and they have the opportunity to…they’ll likely want to take a peek.

Technology clearly demonstrates that people are more quick-tempered, racist, weak in the flesh than we once thought.   The Manogamy Movement cannot solve every problem, but we at least aim to help with the third.

Cheetah Woods

A lot of people have asked me how I feel about the Tiger Wood’s press conference that everyone saw today. (And by everyone, I mean that one friend who’s an attorney said that her firm postponed a conference call to watch the press conference).  I’m not going to go into the underlying issue, but only address the press conference.

1. I’m glad that he clarified the situation with his wife.  I don’t think that Elin needs to be villified in this situation.

2. I’m glad that he spoke up for his religion.  Many people said that he needed to convert to Christianity because the Buddhist faith allows encourages polygamy.  I’m glad that he squashed people’s ignorance about religion.

3. I’m glad that he told the media to leave the kids alone.  Their children have a lot to face by being celebrity kids, this matter will only make things worse.

4. I think that it’s whack that he didn’t take comments from the floor.  When you make a mistake of that magnitude, you need to answer to your decision.  He got off WAY too easily.  If he didn’t like a question, he should have just said [No Comment].  I mean Chris Brown even went on Larry King to field questions after the incident with Rihanna.

5. I think that it’s whack that he tried to justify what he did.  He said something to the effect of I worked hard, so I felt like I could have a little fun.  President Obama works damn hard too, but I hope that he doesn’t think that entitled him to cheat on the First Lady.  Many people work hard Tiger: Secretary of Education down to every teacher that principal and teacher.  That doesn’t make it right.  And you he knew that beforehand.  I have been informed that his father cheated on his mother, so maybe that’s where it came from.  But to blame it on success is a cop out.  It’s called discipline Tiger.  You know what discipline is from all the hours you’ve spent perfecting your swing.  The same thing applies to perfecting your approach toward monogamy.

My feelings for #4 & #5 outweigh the first three, so overall I think that the press conference only made me displike him more.

*Note that the views expressed in this post do not reflect the views of members of the Manogamy Movement, but that rather of Jarrod Jenkins in his individual capacity.