Yep. I admit it. I'm a fan of Big Brother All Stars. What's with Howie and Dr. Will? And isn't Kesar -- er -- hot? And what about Janelle? Chill Town keeps scheming to get her out of the house because she's a major competitor. But I digress.

I know a young woman named Jennifer who has this boyfriend named Jordan who spent a lot of his teen years locked into "behavior modification" camps. But now Jordan is out in the real world and finally has all the freedom he wants. And what does he do with it? Ha. Now he spends all of his time plotting up ways to use those same horrible behavior modification techniques on JENNIFER!

And what is the core technique at the heart of all those Brat Camp behavior modification programs? "Isolate and brainwash!" Isolate and brainwash.

Well, Jordan has isolated young Jennifer alright -- and done a good job of it too. He's got her living with him at his PARENTS house for crying out loud. Shades of "Failure to Launch"! Plus he's cut her off from all of her friends, TAKEN AWAY HER CELL PHONE, convinced her to drop out of school and to quit her job too. Can't get more isolated than that -- not even in the Big Brother house!

Now comes the brainwashing part: "I know what is good for you," Jordan repeats over and over to poor sweet Jennifer. "Without me, you are nothing. You're ugly. You're fat. You would NEVER get another boyfriend like me. I'm smart. I'm wonderful. I'm cute." Then he starts in on trying to scare Jennifer. "Don't go out that door! It's dangerous outside. If you go out by yourself, terrible things could happen to you. It's a scary world out there. Stay home here where I can protect you."

I'd love to see him try to use that line on Janelle!

The last time I saw Jennifer, she was just a shell of her former self. All her confidence was gone. I ran into her and Jordan on the street the other day and she gave me this pathetic little finger-wave behind Jordan's back -- afraid to actually come out and actually say "Hello". What if Jordan were to hear her? Yikes!

"Isolate and brainwash". That is how men who need to control women manage to do it. Ladies, beware! And, ladies, especially watch out if any Christian, Jewish or Muslim man starts to give you some holier-than-thou crap about, "Our religion teaches us that women must stay home and not go out on the street by themselves." Yeah sure. Let's all isolate and brainwash in the name of the Bible and the Qur'an.

Whenever you hear crap like that, ladies, don't just go off to the diary room and have a nice chat with Julie Chan. Run like hell!

And who else is getting isolated and brainwashed these days? America. America is getting this treatment too. First we get isolated from the rest of the world. And then the neo-cons start in with the brainwashing.

"Isolate and brainwash". It worked on Jennifer. It works on "religious" women. It works on America too. Isolating people and then brainwashing them is really an effective technique if you are a control freak.

So why stop now?