Website Hall of Infamy
June, 2004 Winner: FoxWolfie Galen's Plushie Page
Are you a Plushie? Does looking at a stuffed panda bear or Tickle Me Elmo at the local Toys 'R' Us turn you on? Are you dying to learn how you can have sex with your favorite stuffed bunny that you got as an Easter present? If so, then this site is for you. This site includes several categories of people who literally love stuffed animals including Plushophiles (people who love to sleep with and/or have sex with stuffed animals), Furry Fans (people who collects furry things), Zootaphiles (people who are sexually aroused when wearing animal costumes), Toonophiles (people who really love cartoon characters), and Texturephiles (people who gets sexually aroused by wearing textured materials against their bodies like fur, vinyl, silk, etc.).
This site also features writings on how people conduct erotic acts on stuffed animals and furry animal costumes. Thanks to a survey on Plushies, I learned that men are more likely to be into this sort of thing than women.
Okay, I'll admit that being sexually attracted to stuffed animals is nowhere nearly as bad as being sexually attracted to real animals or young children. But it seems kind of pointless to waste your time and sexual energy on inanimate objects that can't talk to you. At least gays and lesbians make love with other people who can talk back. Ditto for bisexuals and heterosexuals.
I guess I adhere too much to the message in the Toy Story movies that stresses how toys are meant to be played with (in a non-sexual way), not to be abused or displayed in glass cages.
May, 2004 Winner: Abu Ghraib Iraqi Prison Fantasy Camp
I got the inspiration for the latest induction to the Website Hall of Infamy from Change for America's blog. When I first saw this site about opening the new Abu Ghraib Iraqi Prison Fantasy Camp in Mountain Home, Idaho, I thought it was some kind of sick Internet hoax that's taking advantage of recent news stories about the nasty photographs taken in Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison showing members of the U.S. military doing degrading things to Iraqi prisoners. The e-mail contact lists one of those Yahoo! e-mail address (abughraib@yahoo.com) that one can get for free, which also aroused my suspicion. But then I read the last paragraph that says "ATTENTION: Someone is trying to take credit for this site, claiming that it is a hoax. Please disregard anything you hear along these lines. Thank you. Check back soon."
If this site is a hoax that's meant to be a parody, then it's totally unfunny—unless you're a devoted follower of the Marquis de Sade who thinks that the news reports of Iraqi prisoners being stripped naked and forced into doing sexually degrading activities by U.S. troops at the same prison that Saddam Hussein used to torture prisoners are a total laugh riot. If that's the case, then you'd probably think that the recent video beheading of Nick Berg (an American civillian who was looking for work in Iraq only to be kidnapped and executed by a group that's linked to Al Qaeda in retailiation for what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison) that's currently circulating around the Internet is totally hysterical.
But if this site is legitimate and someone is attempting to open a fantasy camp that reproduces what happened at Abu Ghraib, then this definitely gives capitalism a bad name, especially when you read a description like this:
For those who "get" that it isn't a picnic over there, we are setting up the Abu Ghraib Fantasy Camp. Wish you could be in the military, but you can't for some reason? Want to show our troops you support them? Just want to "blow off some steam" (as Rush Limbaugh so correctly put it)? Abu Ghraib Fantasy Camp is here for you! (actual opening date set for Summer '04)
At Abu Ghraib Fantasy Camp, Mountain Home, Idaho, you'll find dozens of "Iraqi prisoners" you'll be able to "discipline." Don't worry, they (and you) will be perfectly safe. Unlike in Iraq, we've taken every precaution to protect your safety.
It'll sure FEEL real, though. That's what you're paying us for, after all. Our camp is even built on an actual desert lot. From the time you arrive to the time you leave, you'll feel as if you're really a member of the U.S. military in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
We're working hard to make your Abu Ghraib Fantasy Camp experience as real as safety and the law will allow.
This would be like if someone in West Germany had opened a fantasy camp devoted to Auschwictz in the 1950's and the visitors get to play the role of SS officers who had their own "Jewish inmates" for them to mistreat. Or if someone in Turkey had opened a fantasy camp devoted to the massacre of Armenians circal 1913-1917. Or if someone in the U.S. had opened a fantasy camp in the 1970's devoted to a recreation of the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam.
Opening such a camp is totally disgusting. It has nothing to do with being for or against the war in Iraq or even being for or against the Bush Administration. It has everything to do with common human decency, which the idiot who cooked up this insane idea clearily lacks.
Besides, if the camp's founder (who's pictured on the web page wearing a mask because—as the site makes clear—he's afraid of the "peace-loving" liberals going after him) thinks it's so great to open such a fantasy camp, I think he should volunteer to be one if the "Iraqi inmates" who gets mistreated by visitors pretending to be in the U.S. military. I'm sure he'll find it really fun to get stripped completely naked and have a glow stick shoved up his ass numerous times by one or more of his guests.
April, 2004 Winner: Never Trust Anyone Who Doesn't Like Garlic!
Not only does this site have the longest domain name I've ever come across (www.nevertrustanyonewhodoesntlikegarlic.com), but the person behind this site actually surveyed celebrities on whether they like to eat garlic or not. I guess if you're the kind of person who wants to know whether Adam West (star of the 1960's Batman series) or David Bowie eat garlic, this is the site for you. (For the record, they do.) But, to be honest, seeing the list of celebrities who admit to eating garlic prompts this question—who cares?