April 26, 2008 archive

Looking for bodies in Boston….

Please be gentle with me… this is my first attempt at a diary.  So, keeping that

in mind what I’m looking for is Boston area bodies to join RUKind and me at Fanuil

Hall on May Day (May 1st) noonish.  We’d like to rattle some cages and yell louder

for our country.  OPOL has offered (well, really we begged him and he said yes to

shut us up) some of his wonderful art work and we’re going to have hand outs to

sprinkle about.  We’d love it if you’d join us…

More information will be coming soon but for right now we’d like some kind of an

idea of who’s willing/eager/interested in showing up.  As an added benefit you’ll

be able to view an actual DD YELL LOUDER tee shirt in person.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Mugabe party loses Zimbabwe parliament after recount

by Susan Njanji, AFP

19 minutes ago

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s main opposition movement has won a historic victory over President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, official results showed on Saturday, but the outcome of the presidential vote remained unknown.

The results in 18 of the 23 constituencies where ballots were being double-checked stayed the same after the recount of a March 29 vote, officials said, re-affirming victory for the Movement for Democratic Change.

The remaining five constituencies were not sufficient for the Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwean African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which has controlled parliament uninterruptedly since 1980, to gain a majority of seats.

Sex: Part 1

(Note: some links may go to images that human beings under 18 are ‘not allowed’ to see…but you will have to click on them to find out which ones!)

CLICK!

Your Preacher disapproved it, your Gubmint boo-hoos it, yeah yeah yeah. It is tittered at and whispered about, it is taboo’d, verbotten, and discouraged on the surface of our silly society….even as its waves and tides wash over each and everyone of us every minute of every day and affects everything we do see and think about with it’s primal pull from deep in our loins to the top of our brain chemistry.

There is nothing more natural than sex…in fact sex IS nature. Nature has one goal, to regenerate life through…sex. Whatever the ‘life force’ is that animates EVERYTHING on this planet, it is expressed in its purest form as sexual energy. Unless of course, you don’t believe in science, and it is all caused by the will of some big gut with a beard sitting on a throne in the clouds causing and ruling all life through his power and will. And who decided in his infallible wisdom, that SEX was the way that all life should be produced. That’s right! God chose and invented sex!. And yet, Gods ‘chosen’ minions on earth have been repressing God’s choice…God’s will, for thousands of years. If sex is so bad, why did God choose it?

We think about it all the time, and our bodies are constantly producing, secreting and distributing sexual signals that are imperceptible to our ‘higher selves.’ Yet denial and hypocrisy is the way our society deals with anything even vaguely sexual. Unless of course, it is used to sell a product.

The Saints Are Coming

In a thread yesterday over at the GOS, somebody blamed 60s era hippies for the mess we’re in today (again).  Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion.  We did not win the culture wars in the 60s, we lost.  It wasn’t us that ended up running things, it was the other side, the Nixonites.  The neocons are direct descendants of said rightwingers (they did NOT descend from the hippies).  There was no point where the evil rightwing bastards turned things over to the hippies either.  That hippies are somehow responsible for the trashing of America is a rightwing-inspired urban myth.  They do that a lot, it takes the heat off of them.

If the hippies had won that struggle back in the 60s we’d live in a more humane world today.

outpouring-of-humanity_NEW2

Iglesia………………………………………Episode 51

(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

Previous episode

Balance is precisely what we are dealing with, yes. I am afraid I must confess to ignorance on the subject of a ….batphone? But having now spent a considerable length of time in your …delightful…presence, I believe I have achieved enough of a familiarity with your various forms and tones of communication to dismiss the reference in question as some sort or another of sarcasm or facetiousness. Therefore, we shall move on to the gist of the briefing and indeed, the balance… or to correct myself, the imbalance that is currently directly tied to the fate of your earth and her population, and, I must admit to being increasingly reluctant to say, your critical roles in affecting said imbalance. Unless I am in error?” Smirk and a raised eyebrow. He must be darned proud of that particular load of polysyllabic spewed crap, thought Iglesia.

“Please walk this way,” Rogers said, and turned his back on them with a bit of a flourish and moved towards the cave with his normal clipped and proper gait.

God may not damn us, but …

God may very well forsake us if we do not change our ways.

I was disturbed today by a comment that I read at dKos this morning. The comment contained a quote, attributed by the comment author ‘broui’ to the Paul Tsongus campaign for President. The quote:

Truth is what people are willing to believe.

That Post 9/11 Rush to Terrorism.

Crossposted from the Wild Wild Left and to Station Charon

Its okay they shredded the constitution, its more like they made safety provisions in a flawed document, you see. We don’t farm out our protection against attack and national security.

I mean do we want terrorists bombing buildings or burning our cars, burning down our houses and killing our children!

Thats what terrorists do.

We need to listen carefully to every phone call because people may be trying to get terrorist cells to incite other terrorists to be burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that.

Hell the Feds are all over that shit. Anyone caught saying that kind of thing is probably an islamofascist trying to tear up the very fabric of America.

Land and Freedom

I happened to catch another viewing of Land and Freedom by Ken Loach this week.

What makes it a particularly unique movie is that it is a critique of the left from the left.

A young British communist travels to Spain to defend the the Republic and finds himself in a militia composed largely of anarchists and PUOM members ( independent Marxists ). The main character initially embraces the philosophy of collectivism and revolution now until an injury causes him to re-think his position while in convalescence. He decides to reject the cause of his lover ( an anarchist ) and join up with the better armed communist fighters. A battle between the two factions occurs and he ultimately goes back to his old militia partially no doubt to return to his lover.

There are two scenes in the movie that resonated with me. In one, workers of a local village have a forceful debate about whether to instantly collectivize a former land owner’s property. Their argument is simple: it is the only way to ensure that everybody eats. One man argues against it, essentially saying the land he works has produced because of his labor. The village wants to institute the principles of revolution immediately. Several militia members participate and one of the speakers cautions against it saying that it is wiser to fight against the forces of fascism, and worrying about the actual revolution later.

Later toward the conclusion of the movie, the militia is confronted by the communist forces and ordered to join up and put down their weapons. A verbal confrontation leads to an armed one and the results are predictable, a few defiant militia members are killed and the rest concede.

Loach’s vision is obvious: that the mainstream communist forces in Spain betrayed possible revolution and were more than willing to sacrifice the idealistic aims of the anarchists, independent Marxists, and peasants. Clearly, this is a simplistic view, neglecting the reality that the world community was reluctant to intervene save Mexico and Russia, and ultimately the Nationalist forces had an actual professional fighting army.

Americans joined the international effort in the Abe Lincoln Brigade and Canadians formed the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. A memorial to the Abe Lincoln Brigade was dedicated in San Francisco this year.

The Hannah Montana Law

Yesterday I was reminded again that I work with some really smart wonderful people. I was chatting with a few staff when one of them started ranting about a bill that is about to clear our state legislature in record time. I hadn’t heard anything about it because I quit paying attention to alot of the local news a while ago. Our tv stations and newspapers have gone the way of media consolidation are are pretty much worthless. And it just makes my blood boil to listen to them or read them…so I stopped.

Anyway, back to this new law speeding through our state legislature. As my title indicates, its known as the “Hannah Montana Law” and it passed the House on a 119-12 vote and the Senate unanimously.

 

Pony Party:Your Morning Art

Usually, I post a montage of paintings, I thought I would go with a photographer today…

You can read about Manuel Alvarez Bravo here, a prominent photographer, perhaps the most famed in all of Mexico.

His approach was direct and he said this about his work….

I don’t look for anything. I discover things.” Over the years, he told students: “Shoot what you see, not what you think. A photographer’s philosophy should be not to have one.”

His images can be accessed here.

Another extraordinary photographer, Tina Modotti, reminds us of this bare truth….

I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art

You can read a bit about her here.

This piece is composed by Michael Nyman who also did the score for one of my favorite movies: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, not I should add recommended viewing for everybody.

Go forth and imprint on the world.

Please don’t recommend pony party. hang out and chit chat, and then read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Boston Legal goes to the Supreme Court

On prime time… on prime time. Actors representing the real justices and these people and their decisions being bashed ON PRIME TIME. It’s too good. And guess who showed this to me??????????? My republican brother-in-law.

Wow.

Tears in my eyes… couldn’t help myself… this is on prime-fucking-time:::

Rush Brandenburg Limbaugh

(Crossposted from Cobalt6)

I noticed a huge amount of anger in the blogosphere over the remarks of, as Keith Olbermann is fond of calling him, “comedian Rush Limbaugh”.

He was not seen as funny.

By me, or anyone else that I know of on our side of the aisle.

   Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

   He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

   “Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats,” Limbaugh said during Wednesday’s radio broadcast. He then went on to say that’s the best thing that could happen to the country.

The question that repeatedly came up:

How is this legal?

How can a nationally syndicated, hugely popular talk show host incite this kind of violence on his show and not end up in shackles?

The answer is below the fold.

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