HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE MIKE

Filming China's Dark Side from the NY Times

2012-01-30T17:47:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Bill Wooley for sending me this video.

Philadelphia weakly

2012-01-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

This:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/01/27/philly-cash-reward-catch-killer/

And this:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/01/27/philadelphias-murals-ugly/

The short version, the City of Philadelphia has allocated $500,000 to catching murderers in the year that we topped all American cities as the murder capital of the US.

This is one third the amount of money that the Mural Arts Project gets from the city yearly.
I don't even know what to say about this situation.
Actually, I do but the information stands on it's own.
The horse is well dead and thoroughly beaten.

BIRD11SIVIEW

2012-01-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

You need to read this blog regularly.
Jim Black started this blog just recently.
This guy can just flat out write.
He sent me something around Christmas that was so beautifully written that it literally caused tears to run down my face.
Jim is probably the biggest in size of all of my friends, which is pretty serious because most of my friends tower over me.
He also is one of the most moral men I know, a funny son of a bitch and a complete lunatic.
Jim grew up and lives near Two Street in Philadelphia. Do yourself a favor and check this out.

http://bird11siview.wordpress.com/http://bird11siview.wordpress.com/

THE PAMPHLETS BY TIMOTHY BUCKWALTER THAT YOU NEED TO BUY TODAY!

2012-01-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

About Timothy Buckwalter and his pamphlets

which are available through Lulu Press.

Timothy Buckwalter is an artist, writer and curator. This former Philadelphia native is the
most proficient pamphleteer since the heyday of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's
Almanac. Be the first on your block to collect the whole set. Supplies are limited by Tim's
attention span so don't delay. Press "Add to Cart" buttons, subliminally you are suddenly
aware of a deep need to own the entire set of these pamphlets but you don't know why.

Fidel Castro attacks 'idiocy and ignorance' of US Republican race from the Guardian

2012-01-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

Fidel Castro attacks 'idiocy and ignorance' of US Republican race

Retired Cuban leader says Republican primaries are 'the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been'

Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 January 2012 12.39 EST
Article history

Fidel Castro said he was was appalled by the level of debate in the Republican race. Photograph: Reuters

Fidel Castro has lambasted the Republican presidential race as the greatest competition of "idiocy and ignorance" the world has ever seen, and also criticised the news media and foreign governments for seizing on the death of a Cuban prisoner to demand greater respect for human rights.

Castro's comments came in a long opinion piece carried by official media two days after a Republican debate in Florida presented mostly hardline stances on what to do about the Communist-run island.

Cuba has become an important issue as the candidates court Florida's influential Cuban-American community in an effort to win the biggest electoral prize so far in the primary season.

Castro said he had assumed the candidates would try to outdo each other on the issue of Cuba, but nonetheless he was appalled by the level of debate.

"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalised and expansive empire is – and I mean this seriously – the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," he wrote.

Castro disputed accounts of the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza, a 31-year-old prisoner, saying he had not been a dissident and had not been on a 50-day hunger strike, as human rights and opposition groups claimed. The retired leader said Villar had been a common criminal sent to prison for domestic violence, and he had received the best medical attention possible.

Washington and several European governments condemned Cuba for his death, and Amnesty International said it had been planning to put Villar on a global list of prisoners of conscience.

Villar had become a cause celebre for opponents of the Cuban government, but was not a well-known figure even among island dissidents before his death.

The Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, said during Monday's debate that Villar had died "fighting for democracy", and that his death highlighted the need to stand firm on Cuba. Washington has maintained a trade and travel embargo on Cuba for nearly 50 years.

Romney's rival Newt Gingrich said he would authorise increased covert operations to bring down the Cuban government. And at another moment of the debate, Romney and Gingrich sparred over whether Castro's soul would go to heaven or hell.

Asked what he would do as president if he found out Castro had died, Romney said he would first "thank heavens" that the revolutionary had "returned to his maker", to which Gingrich replied: "I don't think Fidel's going to meet his maker. I think he's going to go to the other place."

Castro did not refer to the comments specifically in his opinion piece, and said he was too busy with other things to waste any more time analysing the Republican competition.

from the series Origins (with Paul Evans)

2012-01-23T08:45:00.001-08:00

from the series Origins (with Paul Evans), a photo by Karl Hurst . on Flickr.

This is the work of the photographer Karl Hurst of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Please follow the link to see more of his work.

A few years ago my then 11 year old cat Nikita snagged a bird from the rail of my balcony outside my bedroom. She was quite a bird killer back then, it had been her fourth kill that year. It was still early in the morning and I was hurrying to get ready for work. The cat batted the bird through my open sliding glass doors and had it inside my bedroom, toying with it, letting it fly and knocking it down again, with the usual predatory cat-like cruelty mixed with play impulse.
I was going to try to get the bird away from the cat but it occurred to me that the cat was just fulfilling it's nature as a cat. I love the cat. She is 15 years old now and I have an investment of time and shared companionship with the cat, whereas I had none with the bird. The bird was already irreparably damaged by this point. Nikita was having so much fun that I just left the bird with her and went about my morning ablutions. I made a mental note to clean up whatever carnage was left over from this game when I got home.
I returned several hours later. There was little evidence that a bird had ever been in my apartment. I couldn't find anything of the bird in my bedroom. The only evidence that a bird had been there was that there were four or five tail feathers downstairs in the living room. I thought that perhaps, against all odds, the bird had recovered enough to escape Nikita's fatal clutches. I threw the feathers out, thankful that there was not a more sanguine crime scene.
I got undressed to take a shower. As I was walking across the bedroom I felt something tiny squish underneath my bare foot. I bent down to investigate the cause of this unpleasantry. The only part of the bird that Nikita did not devour was a very tiny, perfectly formed miniature of what looked like a human heart. Nikita had worked around this organ with the finely honed skills of an experienced feline surgeon.

fine art (macfeat/motherwell)

2012-01-23T04:30:00.001-08:00

fine art (macfeat/motherwell), a photo by kerouac's ghost on Flickr.

This is the remix of a portrait of me taken by Kevin Madden.
My friend John Black from Texas did the processing.
I am truly and profoundly grateful to John for his effort in trying to make me look good. It is an effort worthy of Sisyphus.

DN Editorial: Strauss' Very Public Art

2012-01-23T01:05:00.000-08:00

DN Editorial: Strauss' Very Public Art

Click on the above title, Strauss' Very Public Art, to access the Daily News editorial that is referenced in the following article.

Although it is great to see the Daily News endorse the work of a living Philadelphia artist, the photographer Zoe Strauss, the most interesting part of this article is that the Philadelphia Daily News shares the concerns put forth by THE HERETICAL SOCIETY a decade ago regarding the Mural Arts Program. The final statement of the Daily News article is very similar to the last line of THE HERETICAL SOCIETY tract, the incendiary essay NO MORE UGLY MURALS.

The City of Philadelphia provides over $1,500,000.00 to the Mural Arts Program yearly yet is forced to cut back funding to libraries and social programs. This situation is untenable and given the dire economic times we collectively endure, it is utter madness! The entire budget of MAP is $6,000,000.00, which means it drains an additional $4,500,000.00 from the small pool of arts funding that isn't provided it by the City of Philadelphia. This money would be put to better use funding more viable and less aesthetically embarrassing cultural institutions and social programs. The Philadelphia Orchestra is suffering financial difficulties. It is unconscionable that the Mural Arts Program continues to drain 6 million dollars from a shrinking pool of funding for cultural organizations. We do not need additional illustrations on the walls of buildings. We need programs that address the crime on the streets that overlook the murals. We need to address the problems of homelessness, poverty, unemployment and our ranking as the number one per capita murder capital of the United States.

There are currently over 3,000 murals painted on the walls of Philadelphia. The economy of Philadelphia is considerably worse than it was 10 years ago yet this ineffectual program still receives taxpayers' money. At the time when NO MORE UGLY MURALS was written, the city was blighted by only 1,500 of these amateurish and saccharine odes to politically correctness. If the Mural Arts Program had the same budget it does now every year for the last decade, it would have consumed $60 million dollars in arts funding. Can anyone that is not employed by the bureaucracy of the Mural Arts Program possibly think that this situation makes any sense at all? The taxpayers of Philadelphia deserve much better treatment than this.
The City of Philadelphia definitely has more pressing concerns than the irresponsible and unnecessary decoration of architecture. That 1.5 million dollars of taxpayers' money could have a lasting impact in restoring cuts to social programs. As long as even one child goes to school hungry in this city, the funding of the bureaucracy of the Mural Arts Program is unthinkable. We do not have the luxury of decorating walls while poverty and crime keep our elderly citizenry trapped behind them.

Below is the original HSOC essay, which is even more pertinent today than when it was written.

No More Ugly Murals

The Heretical Society Demands the immediate cessation of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia. The recent proliferation of crudely painted murals is an embarrasment to the city of Philadelphia. The Mural arts program, originally concieved to combat graffiti, is more destructive than the supposed malady it seeks to correct. Littering the inner city with bad paintings as a cure for urban blight is the aesthetic equivalent of ameilorating insomnia with crack cocaine. When the themes are appropiate to the neighborhood, the designs are clearly substandard. With very few exceptions, the artistic quality is amateurish, despite the fact that we have an extremly high concentration of artists in this city. This odd disparity between poor quality and abundant talent is not an indicment of the arts community. It reflects the lack of discernment our city goverment invaribly exhibits toward the arts.
Philadelphia's best artists are not associated with the program. Is this due to a deliberate exclusion, or is it the result of the program being administered by a group of misdirected bureaucrats, as far removed from the arts community as they are from constituency of our neighborhoods? The time has come to abolish this system of cultural imperialism and degradation. Painted sloganeering of social issues does nothing to alleviate these problems. These murals act as a constant reminder of existing hardships, social and cultural. The people of Philadelphia do not need larger than life admonition of the painfully obvious. We are a great deal more sophisticated than that. THE HERETICAL SOCIETY demands the immediate cessation of the Mural arts program, with its budget to be distributed among the causes it so ineffectually champions. All extant work of poor quality should be obliterated by being painted over in single colors. Any remaining funds should be donated to social agencies with relevant connections to the aggrieved neighborhoods. The architect John Pawson talks about " the uncomplicated beauty of the unadorned wall." We Demand this beauty.

POINT BLANK

2012-01-22T22:17:00.000-08:00

This is one of the greatest crime movies of the all time, Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson and Alcatraz. "I just want my money."

The Driver, 1978, written and directed by Walter Hill

2012-01-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing film released in 1978. It was written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Ryan O'Neal, Isabelle Adjani and Bruce Dern. Ryan O'Neal is so cool in this thing, which may be because he has very little dialogue. Bruce Dern does a great job as the despicable cop. Isabelle Adjani is gorgeous in this film. She has obviously made a deal with Beelzebub because at 55 she has barely aged at all. This is one of the obscure little gems that I only have on VHS. I still watch it. Below is the poster for the film, Isabelle Adjani in 1977 with Bruce Dern and Isabelle Adjani in 2012.

Godzilla

2012-01-17T18:21:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite monster movies of all time as a kid. My grandmother used to let me stay up until 2:00am Saturday night watching the double-feature horror films on television. There were only only three television channels in Philadelphia at the time, on channels 3, 6, and 10. PBS wasn't even broadcasting at the time. Everything was black and white, although color television may have been available by then. I didn't have a television for most of my adult life and the first color television I ever owned I did not get until I was in my thirties. I have a television now but I don't have cable so I just use it to watch DVD's and yes, VHS tapes. I have a copy of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle that I would have difficulty getting rid of even if I did not own the technology to play it.
I remember being horrified the first time I saw blood on a news program in color in 1972 at my mother's apartment in Westmont, NJ. There was a shot of the aftermath of a car crash that showed blood in bright red on a telephone pole. This was also during the waning days of the Vietnam War. Unlike the sanitized long distance night photography of the war in Iraq cranked out by the corporate propaganda machine that runs the media and the government today, the footage from Vietnam was up close and personal, quite bloody and graphic. The images coming from that combination of swamp and hellhole were instrumental in galvanizing opposition to that unpopular war. They wised up after Vietnam and now only show the very distant green night vision of aerial attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, making the conflicts look like the playful screen of an innocent video game rather than the actual horror and destruction.

Chris Hedges on Truthdig

2012-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Chris Hedges' Columns

Why I’m Suing Barack Obama

EMAIL PRINT SHARE

Posted on Jan 16, 2012

AP / Dusan Vranic

Detainees pray at the U.S. military detention facility known as Camp Bucca in Iraq in this 2009 photo.

By Chris Hedges

Attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31.

The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until “the end of hostilities.” It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.

To read Chris Hedges’ legal filing aimed at overturning a new law that would allow the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens deemed terrorism suspects, click here. To read the law itself, click here.

I spent many years in countries where the military had the power to arrest and detain citizens without charge. I have been in some of these jails. I have friends and colleagues who have “disappeared” into military gulags. I know the consequences of granting sweeping and unrestricted policing power to the armed forces of any nation. And while my battle may be quixotic, it is one that has to be fought if we are to have any hope of pulling this country back from corporate fascism.

Section 1031 of the bill defines a “covered person”—one subject to detention—as “a person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”

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The bill, however, does not define the terms “substantially supported,” “directly supported” or “associated forces.”

I met regularly with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. I used to visit Palestine Liberation Organization leaders, including Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad, in Tunis when they were branded international terrorists. I have spent time with the Revolutionary Guard in Iran and was in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. All these entities were or are labeled as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. What would this bill have meant if it had been in place when I and other Americans traveled in the 1980s with armed units of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua or the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas in El Salvador? What would it have meant for those of us who were with the southern insurgents during the civil war in Yemen or the rebels in the southern Sudan? I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists. But that does not make me one.

Once a group is deemed to be a terrorist organization, whether it is a Palestinian charity or an element of the Uighur independence movement, the military can under this bill pick up a U.S. citizen who supported charities associated with the group or unwittingly sent money or medical supplies to front groups. We have already seen the persecution and closure of Islamic charity organizations in the United States that supported the Palestinians. Now the members of these organizations can be treated like card-carrying “terrorists” and sent to Guantanamo.

But I suspect the real purpose of this bill is to thwart internal, domestic movements that threaten the corporate state. The definition of a terrorist is already so amorphous under the Patriot Act that there are probably a few million Americans who qualify to be investigated if not locked up. Consider the arcane criteria that can make you a suspect in our new military-corporate state. The Department of Justice considers you worth investigating if you are missing a few fingers, if you have weatherproof ammunition, if you own guns or if you have hoarded more than seven days of food in your house. Adding a few of the obstructionist tactics of the Occupy movement to this list would be a seamless process. On the whim of the military, a suspected “terrorist” who also happens to be a U.S. citizen can suffer extraordinary rendition—being kidnapped and then left to rot in one of our black sites “until the end of hostilities.” Since this is an endless war that will be a very long stay.

This demented “war on terror” is as undefined and vague as such a conflict is in any totalitarian state. Dissent is increasingly equated in this country with treason. Enemies supposedly lurk in every organization that does not chant the patriotic mantras provided to it by the state. And this bill feeds a mounting state paranoia. It expands our permanent war to every spot on the globe. It erases fundamental constitutional liberties. It means we can no longer use the word “democracy” to describe our political system.

The supine and gutless Democratic Party, which would have feigned outrage if George W. Bush had put this into law, appears willing, once again, to grant Obama a pass. But I won’t. What he has done is unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous. The threat and reach of al-Qaida—which I spent a year covering for The New York Times in Europe and the Middle East—are marginal, despite the attacks of 9/11. The terrorist group poses no existential threat to the nation. It has been so disrupted and broken that it can barely function. Osama bin Laden was gunned down by commandos and his body dumped into the sea. Even the Pentagon says the organization is crippled. So why, a decade after the start of the so-called war on terror, do these draconian measures need to be implemented? Why do U.S. citizens now need to be specifically singled out for military detention and denial of due process when under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force the president can apparently find the legal cover to serve as judge, jury and executioner to assassinate U.S. citizens, as he did in the killing of the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen? Why is this bill necessary when the government routinely ignores our Fifth Amendment rights—“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”—as well as our First Amendment right of free speech? How much more power do they need to fight “terrorism”?

Fear is the psychological weapon of choice for totalitarian systems of power. Make the people afraid. Get them to surrender their rights in the name of national security. And then finish off the few who aren’t afraid enough. If this law is not revoked we will be no different from any sordid military dictatorship. Its implementation will be a huge leap forward for the corporate oligarchs who plan to continue to plunder the nation and use state and military security to cow the population into submission.

The oddest part of this legislation is that the FBI, the CIA, the director of national intelligence, the Pentagon and the attorney general didn’t support it. FBI Director Robert Mueller said he feared the bill would actually impede the bureau’s ability to investigate terrorism because it would be harder to win cooperation from suspects held by the military. “The possibility looms that we will lose opportunities to obtain cooperation from the persons in the past that we’ve been fairly successful in gaining,” he told Congress.

But it passed anyway. And I suspect it passed because the corporations, seeing the unrest in the streets, knowing that things are about to get much worse, worrying that the Occupy movement will expand, do not trust the police to protect them. They want to be able to call in the Army. And now they can.

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Raoul Vaneigem: What's Free is the Absolute Weapon

2012-01-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

An edited version of this interview was published in Adbusters. This is the complete Not Bored! version.

Raoul Vaneigem: What's Free is the Absolute Weapon

An interview with the former situationist by one of his old buddies

A member of the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970, Raoul Vaneigem is the author of Traité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations (Gallimard, 1967),[1] from which the most forceful slogans of May 68 were drawn, and around thirty other books. The most recent to appear is L’État n’est plus rien, soyons tout (Rue des Cascades, 2011).[2]
Siné Mensuel: Can you give a brief definition of the situationists?
Raoul Vaneigem: No. The living is irreducible to definitions. The vitality and radicality of the situationists continues to develop behind the scenes of a spectacle that has every reason to keep quiet and conceal itself. On the other hand, the ideological recuperation that this radicality has been subjected to has experienced a superficial surge, but its interests have nothing in common with mine.
Siné Mensuel: What did the situs mean when they said that situationism doesn't exist?
Raoul Vaneigem: The situationists were always hostile to ideologies, and to speak of situationism would be to place an ideology where there isn't one.
Siné Mensuel: Why did you break with the Situationist International in 1970? In hindsight, what do you think of Guy Debord?
Raoul Vaneigem: I broke [off] because the radicality that had been the priority in May 1968 was in the process of dissolving into bureaucratic behavior. Each member had chosen to pursue his route alone or to abandon the project of a self-managed society. Perhaps Debord and I felt more complicity than affection, but the split doesn't matter! What is sincerely lived is never lost. The rest is only the dregs of futility.
Siné Mensuel: What's your take on the Movement of the Indignant?[3]
Raoul Vaneigem: It is a public-safety reaction against the resignation and fear that provide the tyranny of capitalism with its best supports. But indignation isn't enough. It is less a matter of struggling against a system that is collapsing than in favor of new social structures founded upon direct democracy. While the State is destroying public services, only a self-managing movement can take charge of the well-being of everyone.
Siné Mensuel: Is utopianism still on the agenda?
Raoul Vaneigem: Utopianism? From now on, that's the hell of the past. We have always been constrained to live in a place that is everywhere but, in that place, we are nowhere. That's the reality of our exile. It has been imposed on us for thousands of years by an economy founded on the exploitation of man by man. Humanist ideology has made us believe that we are human while we remain, for the most part, reduced to the state of beasts whose predatory instincts are satisfied by the will to power and appropriation. Our "veil of tears" was considered the best possible world. Could we have invented a way of living that is more phantasmagorical and absurd than the all-powerful cruelty of the gods, the caste of priests and princes ruling enslaved peoples, the obligation to work that is supposed to guarantee joy and substantiate the Stalinist paradise, the millenarianist Third Reich, the Maoist Cultural Revolution, the society of well-being (the Welfare state[4]), the totalitarianism of money beyond which there is neither individual nor social safety, [and] finally the idea that survival is everything and life is nothing? Against that utopia, which passes for reality, is opposed the only reality that matters: what we try to live by assuring our happiness and that of everyone else. Thenceforth, we no longer are in a utopia, but at the heart of a mutation, a change of civilization that takes shape under our eyes and that many people, blinded by the dominant obscurantism, are incapable of discerning. Because the quest for profit makes men into predatory, insensitive and stupid brutes.
Siné Mensuel: Explain to us how what's free [la gratuité] is, according to you, the first decisive step towards the end of money.
Raoul Vaneigem: Money isn't simply becoming devalued ([diminished] buying-power proves it); it invests itself so savagely in the bubble of stock-market speculation that it is doomed to implode. The tornado of short-term profit destroys everything in its path; it sterilizes the earth and hardens life so as to extract useless benefits. Humanely conceived, life is incompatible with the economy that exploits man and the earth for lucrative ends. Unlike survival, life gives and gives itself. What's free is the absolute weapon against the dictatorship of profit. In Greece, a "Don't Pay" movement is developing. At its beginning, the car-drivers refused tolls; they had the support of a collective of lawyers who sued the State, which was accused of selling the highways to private firms. Today it is a question of refusing to pay for public transportation, of demanding free health care and education, of no longer paying taxes and duties that serve to bail out the embezzled banks and enrich the stockholders. The fight for pleasure in oneself and in the world doesn't pass through money, but, on the contrary, its absolute exclusion.
It is absurd that a strike obstructs the free circulation of people while it could decree free public transportation, health care, and education. It is necessary that we understand -- before the financial crash that is coming takes place -- that what's free is the absolute weapon of life against the economy. It is not a question of breaking men but breaking the system that exploits them and the machines that make them pay.
Siné Mensuel: You advocate civil disobedience. What does it mean to you?
Raoul Vaneigem: It is what's going on in Greece, Spain, Tunisia and Portugal. It is what summarizes the title of the pamphlet I wrote for our libertarian friends in Thessaloniki: The State is Nothing; We Are Everything. Civil disobedience is not an end in itself. It is the road towards direct democracy and generalized self-management, that is to say, the creation of conditions that are propitious for individual and collective happiness.
The project of self-management begins its realization when an assembly decides to ignore the State and, on its own initiative, puts in place the structures that are capable of responding to individual and collective needs. From 1936 to 1939, the libertarian collectives of Andalusia, Aragon and Catalonia successfully experimented with self-managing systems. The Spanish Communist Party and Lister's army crushed them, opening the way for Franco's troops.
To me, nothing seems more important today than the implementation of self-managing collectives capable of developing themselves when the monetary collapse makes money disappear and, along with it, a way of thinking implanted in our behavior for thousands of years.
Siné Mensuel: You disapprove of the carceral system, but in 1996, following the Dutroux Affair,[5] you participated in the "White March" in Brussels that, according to the French press, demanded greater prosecution of pedophiliac acts. Isn't this contradictory?
Raoul Vaneigem: This is a good example of an obvious journalistic counter-truth. If the parents of the victims of Dutroux had demanded the death penalty for the assassin, the crowd would have agreed. Thus, the opposite took place. I admire the courage and humanity of Gino and Carine Russo [parents of one of the victims], who are resolutely opposed to the death penalty (they have even warned that they wouldn't accept it if the murderer was eliminated by the other prisoners, as is the custom). The "White March" was an extremely rare example of a popular emotion that [directly] refused pedophilia and predators in the name of humanity, and not indirectly through penal repression. There was a dignity there, in contrast to the populist ignominy that consists in using emotion to promote brutish repression, vengeance. Today, where does one see a collective reaction that denounces the strategy of the scapegoat, which, in order to prevent the anger of the citizens from focusing on the ruinous racketeering mafias, sounds the alarm bell of fear and security so as to designate the other, the foreigner, the “different” – Jew, Arab, Gypsy, homosexual or, if need be, simple neighbor – as a potential threat and enemy?
Siné Mensuel: You have several children. Do you not find it cruel to deliberately give birth to new beings in this world?
Raoul Vaneigem: I loathe the pro-birth politics that, by mechanically multiplying children, condemns them to poverty, to sickness, to disaffection, and to military, sexual and work-related exploitation. Only religious, ideological and criminal [affairiste] obscurantism finds those politics to their advantage. But I refuse to allow a State or an authority of any kind to impose its ukases on me. Each person has the right to have children or to not have them. The important thing is that they are wanted and engendered with the consciousness that everything will be done to make them happy. There are new generations – completely different from the generations that were the fruits of familial authoritarianism, the cult of predation, and religious hypocrisy – that today are in the process of opposing the liberty of living according to their desires against market totalitarianism and its political yes-men.
Siné Mensuel: Tell us about animal rights [la cause animale], which revolutionary thinkers have not taken into account for a long time.
Raoul Vaneigem: It is less a question of animal rights than a reconciliation of man with a terrestrial nature that he has exploited for lucrative purposes until today. What has hindered the evolution of man towards a veritable humanity has been the alienation of the body put to work, the exploitation of the life force transformed into a productive force. Our residual animality has been repressed in the name of a spirit that is only the emanation of a heavenly and temporal power charged with taming terrestrial and corporal matter. Today, the alliance with natural energies is preparing to supplant the plundering of vital, planetary resources. To rediscover our relationship with the animal kingdom is to reconcile with the animal inside us; it is to refine it instead of oppressing it, repressing it, and condemning it to the cruelties of blowing-off steam. Our humanization implies recognizing the animal’s right to be respected, in its specificity.
Siné Mensuel: In Belgium, voting is obligatory, in principle at least. Have you ever voted? Do you pay the fines?
Raoul Vaneigem: I never vote. I have never received a fine.
Siné Mensuel: What lessons can be drawn from this long year, in which Belgium has had no government?[6]
Raoul Vaneigem: None. During the lucrative sleep of the politicians – those 55 government ministers don’t have problems making ends meet – the financial mafias have continued to make laws and do very well with the yes-men at their command.
Siné Mensuel: How do you see the on-going “revolutions” in the Arab countries? Does it seem to you that Islam is a threat to them?
Raoul Vaneigem: Where the social carries the day, religious preoccupations fade. The liberty that is currently getting rid of secular tyranny isn’t disposed to accommodate itself to religious tyranny. Islam will try to democratize itself and will experience the same decline as Christianity. I appreciate the Tunisian slogan “Freedom to pray, freedom to drink!”
Siné Mensuel: Finally, you remain an irreducible optimist, don’t you?
Raoul Vaneigem: I can content myself with Scutenaire’s formula:[7] “Pessimists! What did you expect?” But I am not an optimist or a pessimist. I don’t give a fuck about definitions. I want to live by beginning again each day. It will be necessary that the denunciation and refusal of our insupportable conditions yield their place to the working out of a human society that is an absolute break from market society.

(Remarks collected by Jean-Pierre Bouyxou. Published on 24 November 2011 by Siné Mensuel. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! 23 December 2011. Footnotes by the translator, except where noted.)
[1] Translated as The Revolution of Everyday Life (1983) by Donald Nicholson-Smith.
[2] The State is no longer anything, we are everything. Not yet translated into English.
[3] A series of spontaneous demonstrations in Spain, involving tens of thousands of people, starting on 15 May 2011.
[4] English in original.
[5] Marc Dutroux is a currently imprisoned child molester and child killer. It took the Belgian police and judicial system an extraordinarily long time to apprehend and prosecute him for crimes he committed in 1995 and 1996.
[6] Split in two geographically and politically – Flanders (Flemish Nationalist) and Wallonia (Socialist) – Belgium hasn’t had an official government since the parliamentary elections of 13 June 2010.
[7] Note by Siné Mensuel: the Belgian writer Louis Scutenaire (1905-1987) is the author of Mes inscriptions. Raoul Vaneigem devoted a book to him in the “Poets Today” Collection (Seghers, 1991).

(Note: a censored version of this interview was published by Adbusters.)

To Contact NOT BORED!
Info@notbored.org

Casta Concordia

2012-01-17T11:02:00.001-08:00

2012-01-15T03:19:00.000-08:00

Toilet Paper/Maurizio Cattelan

2012-01-14T12:48:00.001-08:00

Toilet Paper/Maurizio Cattelan

2012-01-14T12:46:00.001-08:00

Buddha Machine

2012-01-13T11:59:00.001-08:00

IMF - UCKED

2012-01-12T00:18:00.001-08:00

IMF - UCKED, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.

FIRE

2012-01-04T02:12:00.001-08:00

FIRE, a photo by Michael Macfeat on Flickr.

They used to love me on the West Coast.

Ah, the City of Brotherly Love

2012-01-03T07:32:00.001-08:00

The Morning Sun King

2012-01-02T13:43:00.001-08:00

The Morning Sun King, a photo by Michael Macfeat on Flickr.

Kim Jong Un was called the Morning King Sun by his mother.
This is a portrait of Kim Jong Un with an overlay of the pattern of electric lights burning in North and South Korea. Either they hit the sack earlier in the North or they use less electricity.
Kim Jong Un is proof that not everyone is affected by the famine in North Korea.

Anonymous - National Defense Authorization Act - WKTFU!

2012-01-02T12:37:00.001-08:00

ANONYMOUS - Occupy Freedom America

2012-01-02T12:23:00.000-08:00

American Mastodon

2012-01-02T11:34:00.001-08:00

Super animation for sure...

Getting off to a fast start in the City of Brotherly Love

2012-01-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

Philly sees bloody year's end and start; 6 dead

The Associated Press

2011's unsolved homicides

Winter Classic moved to 3 p.m. start - 4:00pm
6 dead in bloody year's end and start
At least two homicides ring in new year
Romney ramps up rhetoric in Iowa
Hockey central on New Year's in Philly
More Breaking News »

PHILADELPHIA - Police in Philadelphia report a bloody end to the old year and the start of a new one with six people killed and others injured around the City of Brotherly Love.
Police said shortly before midnight, a 36-year-old man and 31-year-old woman were found shot to death in a car north of the center of the city.
A few hours later, a 23-year-old man was found nearby with a gunshot wound and died at a hospital.
A few minutes after midnight, a 77-year-old man died after he was stabbed in a domestic dispute in south Philadelphia. A 52-year-old man was arrested.
In northeastern Philadelphia early Sunday, a 47-year-old man was shot to death.
A 26-year-old man died Saturday afternoon after he was shot six to nine times in north Philadelphia.

playah playah playah

2012-01-01T00:14:00.001-08:00

playah playah playah, a photo by Michael Macfeat on Flickr.

This is a loving tribute to the Photoshopping skills of the North Korean media.
Love is the drug.

VACANT HOMES OUTNUMBER THE HOMELESS BY 5 TO 1

2011-12-31T23:02:00.000-08:00

IN THE UNITED STATES, VACANT HOMES OUTNUMBER THE HOMELESS BY 5 TO 1!
One of two Americans have fallen into poverty.
Could something possibly be amiss?
Read the article. I hate to beat a dead horse without back-up.

Okay, more weirdness from North Korea but what is this thing?

2011-12-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, front left, and his son Kim Jong Un, front right, look at the gifts brought by visiting Chinese Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu, center, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Monday, Feb. 14, 2011. (AP)

Can anyone identify what the "gift" is that the Chinese have bestowed on Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un other than ugly? They certainly do seem quite happy about this thing. I must warn you, if someone brings one of these things to my house as a gift I am going to toss you out on your ass on 3rd Street.

North Korea's Giant Man Spotted At Kim Jong Il Funeral Procession

2011-12-31T17:34:00.000-08:00

In a sea of indistinguishable onlookers clad in black with their backs turned to the camera, one man stood out at Kim Jong Il's funeral. The Associated Press released a photo of the procession in North Korea, and a hawk-eyed Reddit contributor was quick to point out an anomaly in the otherwise uniform crowd of mourners. In the photo above, one man appears to be nearly twice as tall as the gentlemen on his left and right.

THIS COUNTRY IS FINISHED GEORGE CARLIN ON COUNTDOWN

2011-12-31T14:04:00.001-08:00

Millions of Unemployed Americans Will Not Find Jobs

2011-12-31T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Chicago Tribune reports that while the U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession, millions of American workers will not. What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come.

Jobless Americans struggle to cope

2011-12-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

Al Jazeera gets it but Congress has no clue.

Ealing in Anarchy

2011-12-29T09:07:00.001-08:00

Ealing in Anarchy from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

Exploring Revolt in Greece

2011-12-29T08:51:00.001-08:00

Exploring Revolt in Greece from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

Odd scenes from North Korea

2011-12-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

The upper photograph was taken by a Japanese film crew, the bottom by a North Korean. Notice that the film crew on the left hand side of the photo is missing in the NK version.
The video is just odd. It shows North Korean citizens and military personnel in a state of mourning bordering on ecstasy. It would surely interest Georges Bataille if he were alive.

In Philippine Slums, Capturing Light In A Bottle by SIMONE ORENDAIN from NPR

2011-12-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

Filipino soldiers install solar light bulbs through a roof in a shantytown in Manila, Philippines. The bulbs are actually old plastic soda bottles filled with water and bleach, and powered by the sun.

text size A A A

December 28, 2011

Sheila Royeras, her husband, her mother and two young daughters live in a single-room cement apartment in a poor neighborhood in Manila, Philippines. Like many such homes, it's mostly dark during the day, except for a small ray of sunlight that enters through an open front door.

EnlargeJay Directo/AFP/Getty Images

Illac Diaz inspects a solar light bulb with Siplicio Mondas, 73, in Manila. Diaz heads the nonprofit MyShelter Foundation, which is overseeing this solar lighting project.

But this is about to change.

On this morning, volunteers and local government workers arrive to hang low-tech solar light bulbs from the corrugated metal roof. The bulbs are very simple, very effective and the ambitious plan is to put them in 1 million homes this year.

The bulbs are actually discarded plastic soda bottles filled with water and wedged in a hole cut in the roof. With the help of a tropical sun, the makeshift bulbs give off about 55 watts of light. There is no electricity involved.

As a result, electricity bills are slashed in a poor country where nearly half the population lives on less than $2 a day.

While the workers install the light bulbs in her home, Royeras looks forward to keeping the electric lights off during the day.

"Because of [the high price of] electricity sometimes we don't eat," she says. "If we don't pay that bill on time, electricity is cut."

Royeras says having electricity is a priority because her sixth-grader needs light to study and keep up her honor-roll status.

A Simple Bulb

The holes in the roof are cut to the size of a one-liter plastic soda bottle. The workers fill the bottle with purified water and two caps of bleach that prevent the growth of mold. The bottle is held in place by a small metal brace.

It's safer. It's healthier. It's brighter. And the funny thing is, the light bulb actually comes from the place you'd least expect it, which is the trash bin. So it's the cheapest light bulb in the world.

- Illac Diaz, MyShelter Foundation

Nelly Duka, a community leader who helps assemble the bulbs, says they have a five-year lifespan.

Volunteers push the bottle through the hole in the roof until it juts in halfway. They hammer the brace to keep it in place. Then, workers use sealant to guard against leaks from rain. The sun's light passes through the top of bottle and the water inside refracts it, casting a glow from the bottom.

In a neighboring municipality, Illac Diaz keeps tabs on a solar bulb-making program at a local jail. Diaz heads the nonprofit MyShelter Foundation, which is overseeing this lighting project called "A Liter of Light."

He says in tropical countries poor people often live in dark spaces that are heavily covered against driving rains and the hot sun. Diaz says this type of bulb is a better alternative to candles or other potential fire hazards.

"It's safer. It's healthier. It's brighter. And the funny thing is the light bulb actually comes from the place you'd least expect it, which is the trash bin," Diaz says. "So it's the cheapest light bulb in the world."

Diaz estimates the solar bulbs will save customers an average of $10 a month on their electric bills.

For Royeras, having the three new bulbs in her tiny house is a huge benefit.

"I'm much happier," she says. "Maybe by the time we get the next electric bill, I'll have some extra money to buy food."

The Clash/Career Opportunities

2011-12-26T20:03:00.001-08:00

poema cinemático/Lygia Pape

2011-12-26T19:45:00.001-08:00

The Geniuses of the Pharmaceutical Consortium

2011-12-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

This is a deliberate disaster waiting to happen.

Hydrocodone Painkiller Being Developed, Abuse Experts Worried

NEW YORK -- Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation's second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.

The 30 Harshest Artist-on-Artist Insults In History

2011-12-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

The 30 Harshest Artist-on-Artist Insults In History

by Marina Galperina. Posted on 2:00 pm Monday Aug 29, 2011

This site is kind of funny since most artists suck anyway.

Francis Bacon on Jackson Pollock:
“Jackson Pollock’s paintings might be very pretty but they’re just decoration. I always think they look like old lace.”

Happy Holidays from Truthdig

2011-12-24T14:04:00.001-08:00

It isn't paranoia if it is true.

2011-12-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

THE NIGHT BILL WALTON AND I ROBBED THE MUGGER

2011-12-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

THE NIGHT BILL WALTON AND I ROBBED THE MUGGER

The Philadelphia Art Now project, hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a bus poster competition was a bone thrown to Philadelphia artists in the form of a series of exhibitions designed to shut up the locals for time immemorial since nothing of the sort has even been considered since. The exhibitions took place in 1991. It obviously didn't work since I am bringing it up now.

To say that the effort was a dog is to speak ill of dogs and I won't. The exhibition at PMA was a juried show. Artists sent slides and a jury chose the winners. I don't remember how the artists were chosen to have their work put up as bus posters (it doesn't matter) and the exhibition at ICA was called Artists Choose Artists. Older more established artists were chosen to pick one other artist to be in the exhibition. I had no intention of sending in slides to compete in the free-for-all at Philadelphia Museum of Art or the bus poster competition. Bill Walton was chosen as one of the nominators for the Artists Choose Artists exhibition and he chose me. I was not interested in any aspect of the Art Now project including this one. It was a transparent effort to include the vast majority of working artists in a series of exhibitions that would allow them to put the exhibition on their resumes and not much else. Of course the attention starved artists were tripping over each other trying to get involved. Perhaps now they would finally be discovered! As Oscar Wilde said, "Everything popular is wrong" and I planned to sit this celebration of mediocracy out.

It took Bill a while to persuade me to be involved in the exhibition, which was often the case. I imagine his motivation was at least in part because he didn't want to do it by himself. He thought that the exhibition would be more entertaining with me in it. Knowing the culture industry as well as I did told me that if I got involved it was bound to piss me off since I worked in the belly of the beast at Philadelphia Museum of Art (aka The Old Whore on the Hill). We were both right. Out of respect for Bill and Tom Chimes who had also been talked into getting involved with Artists Choose Artists, I agreed to do it. I had a large backlog of work and no plans to exhibit it so it would not take much work on my part.

Bill and I went to the opening reception in Bill's truck. As were walking down Chestnut Street approaching the ICA, we saw a scuffle breaking out between a black man in his early thirties and a young Asian woman. He was straddling a bike as he tried to rip the fanny pack off of the young woman's waist. She was screaming hysterically in a foreign language. She put up a good fight. The larger man was having difficulty wrenching the pack off her midsection. It was around 6pm on a Friday night and the pedestrian traffic was moderate, mostly Penn students going home for dinner before evening classes. Bill and I were the closest people to this fracas and we tore off in the direction of the mugging.

The mugger noticed that two malevolent older white men were barreling down on him and wisely decided to give up his struggle for the bag and beat a hasty retreat. He started peddling away from us but his bike was geared up too high to make a quick escape. Bill and I caught him at about the same time. I clipped him behind the ear with a glancing right hook while Bill grabbed the back of the bike and stopped it dead. The mugger lost control of the bike, wobbled a few feet and took off on foot. I took off after him but I quickly gave up pursuit. I was winded already and this guy could really run. Bill meanwhile still had his bike and a backpack that was in the front basket. We did a quick inventory of the bag. He had left behind a Walkman cassette player, several tapes and his wallet. Inside his wallet was $26 that Bill and I quickly split and pocketed. There were also multiple welfare checks made out in multiple people's names that were obviously stolen. We walked the bike over to the side of the road and flagged down a cop, who of course seemed annoyed to be bothered. Bill talked to the police while I tried to calm the girl down. I quickly ascertained that she spoke no English what-so-ever which made explaining the situation to her impossible. Somehow I determined that she was Japanese but I don't remember how. I did a quick scan of the street and noticed an Asian student of Penn (he was wearing a Wharton sweatshirt and was carrying school books) in close proximity. I dreaded the upcoming conversation because no matter how I handled it I was certain that I was going to come off looking like a jerk. Having no other options, I gestured the young man over to the distraught girl. I explained the situation to him as best I could adding, "I hope that you don't think that I am being ignorant or presumptuous but I can see that you go to school here and we need someone that speaks Japanese to interpret for the police and to calm this woman down. Do you have any idea where we can find a Japanese translator?" He replied, "Yes, of course, I am Japanese." The first person that I spoke to on the street in West Philadelphia also spoke Japanese! The unlikely event of finding a Japanese national on Chestnut Street in the early 90's were so astronomically bad that one couldn't imagine the odds on the event. I couldn't believe the dumb luck! Not only had Bill and I saved this girl from getting her purse snatched but we also were able to provide the girl and the police a translator. The appearance of the translator created enough of a diversion that Bill and I were able to slip into the crowd without having to spend additional time talking to Philadelphia's Finest! We walked away from the event as the girl's heroes and we each made a $13 profit, which we shrewdly invested in beer as soon as we could slip out of the opening reception without being noticed.

Untitled

2011-12-21T03:19:00.001-08:00

Untitled, a photo by timothy b. buckwalter on Flickr.

From Timothy Buckwalter's new book of craven images HAUNTED.

Le menu à Chez Macfeat hier soir

2011-12-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

If you had been eating at my house last night, you would have been served:
monkfish
kale sauteed in olive oil with garlic, beans with celery, green onions and fresh organic shiitake mushrooms
jumbo shrimp
and a salad of baby romaine lettuce with green onions, apples, blue cheese, tomatoes and cranberries
with a fruit tart for dessert.
I had the good pleasure and good company of having dinner at Terri Saulin's house this evening.
Terri is curating my exhibition at Tiger Strikes Asteroid.
If she is one tenth the curator that she is a chef I am in marvelous hands.

Das Kapital ist Himmel!

2011-12-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

"Five banks that received federal bailout funds during the financial crisis didn't pay income taxes for one or more years between 2008 and 2010, according to an iWatch News analysis of a new study of tax dodgers [from the Citizens for Tax Justice & the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.]

Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, PNC Financial Services Group, Capital One Financial Inc. and State Street Corp. were among 78 of America's largest and most profitable corporations that managed to avoid paying income tax in at least one of those years.

Researchers looked at 280 corporations that reported a total pretax U.S. profits of $1.4 trillion. The federal corporate tax code "ostensibly requires big corporations to pay a 35 percent corporate income tax rate, on average, the 280 corporations in our study paid only about half that amount."

The study was released Thursday by nonpartisan advocacy groups Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

All five financial institutions named were profitable, but still received funds in the form of stock purchases from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/bankers-still-whining-abo_n_1160938.html

This just in from Pennsyltucky...

2011-12-20T20:45:00.000-08:00

Rick Santorum has once again topped himself as the extemporaneous spokesman for the lunatic fringe of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, recently had this sensitive analysis of American economics:

"They talk about income inequality. I'm for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality."

590 JAY by Bill Walton

2011-12-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

590 JAY

FOUR DRAWINGS AND ONE WALL PIECE

FROM http://billwaltoninfo.blogspot.com/

wall piece

silver/lead/tin/copper/black tape

24 x 24

charcoal / pigment wash / black tape

18 1/2 x 15 1/4

charcoal / pigment wash / black tape

17 1/4 x 17 3/4

#3 - x

charcoal / pigment wash / black tape

19 3/4 x 16 1/2

charcoal / pigment wash / black tape

19 3/4 x 17 3/4

NO COMMENT

2011-12-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

Mittens Romney said, "Cutting Welfare dramatically, I don't think that it will hurt the poor."

MARCUS BACHMANN'S BULLYING OF LGBT CHILDREN from LGBTQNATION

2011-12-18T12:40:00.000-08:00

The news surrounding the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates provides a daily avalanche of horror and disbelief. It is almost impossible to believe that they are collectively so ignorant, superstitious, uncaring, reactionary and unsophisticated but they prove time and time again that they are. They have no concept how obscene their squandering looks to the average working and unemployed American voter, from the example of Mittens Romney betting Rick Perry $10,000 to Newt Gingrich owing Tiffany's between a quarter and a half a million dollars. They are filthy rich, they represent the White Ruling Class and they are beholden to them for their fortunes and their positions of power. They have no other constituency beyond the 1% and they have no knowledge or interest in anything but protecting the money that this filthy rich minority hoards. They wallow in discriminatory and reactionary social views and seek to promote these outlandish and outdated policies by making them laws. Herman Cain would have us blame the poor and the unemployed for the economic crisis created entirely by the greed of the rich and Marcus Bachmann has made it his life's work to cure homosexuals of being themselves. The repressive Puritanical outlook of the American Ruling Class mirrors the Taliban in its desire to force repressive views into law. The policies of the lunatic fringe of the extreme right wing of the Republican party promote the equivalent of a Fundamentalist Christian Sharia law. Michele Bachmann is bizarre enough but her "better half", Marcus is beyond the beyonds. His current quest into the absurd is investigated in this article by Kyle Luebke of LGBTQNATION. To make matters worse, in the picture that accompanies the article Marcus Bachmann is wearing a suit so badly tailored that it looks like something previously owned by the young Nikita Khruschev while he was still ruling the Ukraine with an iron fist. This buffoon has more money than generations of his family can spend and he is dressed in a suit that fits like a trash bag. It is bad enough that we have to hear about him. Even worse than hearing about him is listening to Marcus Bachmann speak. Have you heard this man? I am not referring to his bizarre and erroneous thought processes but the actual sound of his voice. Considering his crusade to rid the world of homosexuals he has a very odd and affected way of speaking. If we have to look at him as well as hear about and from him, it is imperative that he find a good tailor at the very least. He certainly can afford one. Although it seems damn near impossible, this clown may actually be more insane than his spouse and it is quite clear that Michele Bachmann is completely out of her mind. She proves it on a daily basis. Here is the latest from the Fundamentalist Christian Sharia set. This is disturbing and an affront to anyone with half a brain in their skulls but it makes sense to Mr. and Mrs. Bachmann:

Marcus Bachmann’s Bullying of LGBT Children

By Kyle Luebke

77Share

Marcus Bachmann has decided upon his course of action if he were to become the first “first gentleman” to occupy the White House.

And instead of waging a war against obesity, which is Michelle Obama’s cause, he has decided that he is going to pursue something more important: reaffirming the discriminatory notion that ones sexual orientation can exclude you from one of the most valued institutions of society.

During a campaign event in Le Mars, Iowa, Marcus Bachmann — the controversial husband of Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann — told reporters that his focus as the first gentleman would be to tell the country that “marriage is between one man and one woman” and that they are going to “promote families.”

Interesting that Michele Obama has focused on obesity and that Laura Bush focused upon reading skills, yet the Bachmann campaign would focus upon reinforcing marital apartheid and devaluing our families.

Instead of encouraging children to make themselves better, Marcus Bachmann would rather see LGBT children grow up in a society that says to them “you and your relationship with your significant other are not ‘good’ for society, and thus instead of being encouraged, should be heavily stigmatized.”

Instead of helping children see that they are inherently valuable, Bachmann would rather use the force of law to instill in these vulnerable segments of our society the belief that there is something wrong with them.

Now I am well aware that the Bachmann candidacy has no chance of going anywhere, whether it be in this election or any in the near future. But regardless, it is important that these issues be addressed.

As long as figures like the Bachmanns are allowed to make statements which demean and actively promote hatred and discrimination against our community, they must be called out.

Their words have direct impact upon the lives of countless men and women across the United States (and yes, the world), and every one life that is lost because of the rhetoric that the Bachmanns use is one precious life that can never be regained.

As we gather around our families this coming weekend — whether it be my husband and I at my parents house in Atlanta or you at your parents/siblings/aunts and uncles — it is essential that we forcefully assert the value of our relationships and way of life.

When we are passive, and speak in code regarding our sexual orientation or relationships, we are giving into the mentality that there is something “wrong” with us. We are giving into the notion that we are “different” from the rest of our family; and every time we do that, we are no better than the Bachmanns.

Though they are actively promoting hatred, our passivity in combating the hatred and discrimination that we face every day shows to our closest family members that such discrimination is alright and that it can continue.

By not sticking up for our rights in our families, why should we expect society to treat us with dignity and respect?

With that, though I am sure I will post before then, I wish you and yours an excellent Holiday Season.

Kyle Luebke, is a political science major at the University of Memphis.

Scott Brown Single-Handedly Blocks An Extension Of Unemployment Benefits

2011-12-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Scott Brown Single-Handedly Blocks An Extension Of Unemployment Benefits
Fortunately this former male model and sycophantic boot-licking errand-boy to the Ruling Class is poised to lose his upcoming election against Elizabeth Warren. Warren is an intelligent candidate that has actual qualifications that will serve her well in government. Scott Brown, on the other hand, governs like someone qualified to pose nearly-nude for Cosmo magazine, which he in fact did in the 80's. Unfortunately for Brown, it is no longer the 80's and his suitability as a beef-steak cover boy for women's magazines is as tenable as his suitability as a senator, that is to say, not-so-much.
Coupled with the other similarly cerebral-challenged darling of the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, they would be much better suited as a line of plastic action figures modeled on the Barbie commodity than playing at politics, with Scott Brown reprising the genital-free and cuddly Ken doll. That would leave Michelle Bachmann as the paradigm for the Skipper doll, if they can possibly find a way to make plastic do justice to her wild-eyed rage, which is doubtful given the current technology. Michelle Bachmann's husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann presents a real challenge to Mattel, given that the current crop of male sidekicks that Barbie presently fraternizes with are all too butch to portray the homosexual-curing physician. Perhaps they can tweak the Jazzie mold to emulate Marcus, but they certainly will need to add a voice to the doll, activated by pulling a string, since his melodious tones are perhaps his most notable trait outside of his quixotic attempts to cure homosexuals of being themselves.
The United States government would be much better served if the Tea Party began to choose candidates for some other reason than they are cute. Even though their positions are extremist in nature and they resemble a home-grown Taliban with their race towards an imaginary past that never existed, it would be considerably easier to take them seriously if they chose candidates using some other criteria than the same ones used by cynical members of the music industry to pick members of a teenage boy-band. Cute is fine as a consideration for a one-night stand but it should be irrelevant in choosing a candidate for the United States Senate. Once these pin-up boys and girls find themselves under the hot klieg lights of the media they tend to wilt like shit-house lilies in an 110 degree Arizona sun. Sarah Palin's Katie Couric interview is a perfect example of this phenomena. Sooner or later these hotties are bound to open their mouths and when they do they are inevitably exposed by their lack of intelligence and insufficient preparation.
Scott Brown is desperately needed by the modeling industry and it is the responsibility of the people of Massachusetts to make sure that he doesn't get lost finding his way back home.

happy holidays

2011-12-17T21:43:00.001-08:00

happy holidays, a photo by Michael Macfeat on Flickr.

Feel free to print this and use it for your holiday greeting card.

Scorpion (angle detail)

2011-12-17T00:40:00.003-08:00

Scorpion (angle detail), a photo by Michael Macfeat on Flickr.