Maohair is a fotog from china, who takes photos of the immigrant migrations from rural regions into cities, this urbanazation is the single largest problem in the next 100 years, next to information control and the nation state--his ability to take photos of car crashes, industrial accidents, police brutality, etc, and then smuggle them out, combine these two, making him perhaps the most impt (and unheard of) journalist (esp since photojournalism seems to be more am then pro these days) working recently--the images are incredibly graphic, but well worth seeing (here is one of the least violent:

his caption for this image: Migrant workers climb up the construction towers at the site to demand their back wages
here>are more, but in mandrian

every playboy centerfold ever--the ones from the 50s are much sexier, then the ones later (though there is a string of well fed lovechildren from 68 to 72 or so that come close...
the pussy wars of the 80s, make everything so harsh, mechincal, parodic, and competitve, its less about decent photography, beautiful women, and general giddy fun and more about who can out hustle hustler...(read laura kipnis' bound and gagged for discussion about the history of mainstreaming porn, and class signifers in this sort of thing)

mass hysteria among catholic school girls in laos, memories of salem or loudon, sometimes i wonder if beatlemania and the like is a western manifesation of this

speaking of mass hysteria a brilliant interview with christian page, about abortion, and how its legalazation gave us all sorts of under rated gifts (including contraception, pleasure, queer rights, the autonomy of womens bodies, stronger laws against rape, the work against "surgical correction" of intersex folks, and the mainstreaming of blow jobs), once again the abortion wars are wars against non reproductive sex
three great qoutes:
The first line of attack is legal and safe abortion. The second line of attack is contraception. We have to understand that the pro-life goal isn't about reducing abortion or furnishing people with prevention. It's about forcing people to live in ways that the pro-life movement wants them to live.

The pro-choice movement is like a relief agency. In a war-torn country, these workers are the first to get attacked. The ones furnishing water, medical supplies, furnishing people with the things that enable them to live their lives safely — they're the first to go down.

The American Prospect recently analyzed coverage of the New York Times op-ed page and concluded that it's been increasingly airing inaccurate or terrifically critical views of the pro-choice movement. Even NPR has been slow. I don't see a lot of perspectives from people who are in the trenches on either side of this issue. What I do see are these diary-like entries as to what's been happening: "Alito nominated. Alito confirmed. Memo found." I don't see people asking questions that matter.
read the whole thing


French/Polish 19th Century, a great example of the flying penis motif, from the rare erotica blog

Dean fires his queer point man, goes in front of the cameras, and talks about how marriage is only for breeders, loses 5k of campaign money, and apolgizes, not getting the money back story here people assume that queer rights are a minority, and a small one, and fucking with them is alright--the problem is that we work as canaries in the coal mine, about sexuality, about how to treat complicated minorties, about behaviour vs idenity, about mutablity and choice in a (post) democratic society, etc etc and so noting games being played against us is a good indication of games being played elsewhere (though he was eloquent, on point, funny, and pointed today on the daily show--the guy is slippery as a trout


SHE has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled. Thabitha Khumalo’s crime: to campaign against a critical shortage of tampons and sanitary towels in Zimbabwe, one of the least talked about and most severe side-effects for women of the country’s economic crisis. Full story here, including how to help, and attention being paid b/c of british celebs, here it reminds me of how womens shelters constantly beg for tampons, or how tampons are taxed in canada while condoms arent, or about how food banks never have enough pads or tampoons, or how expensive they are--the politics of blood...i dont have any cash, but if you do, try to send some along (and people should talk to oxfam about whether they do this too)

ill get ray to explain this one to you, sein fienn (ie the poltical part of the catholic ira) nomainted ian paisley (ie colonialist, homophobe, racist, batshit protestant) to be on their council here

The philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, who has taught at Harvard and the U of T, and has written about Ghandi, Isiah Berlin and Hegel, went back home to Tehran, and got arrested--he is in prison right now, though apparently phyisically safe (the prison he is in his notorious for a torture center--though i havent read Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, i have read several articles of his on pacificism, ethnic identity, king and ghandi--this isnt good news, and im really quite scared for me... Teh Chronichle of Higher Education reports here...the last qoute of the article is really impt---Rather than having embassies intervene and turning this into a political show, I think the best strategy would be for Ramin's academic colleagues -- college presidents, provosts, deans, faculty, students -- to write to Iran's leaders, to the president, to the head of the intelligence ministry, to the head of the Iranian foreign ministry. ... It's very important not to involve U.S. political officials, because that would immediately be used against him.

The address for his cultural research beurou(sp) in Tehran is:
No 10, Shahid Servati St.
Kamranieh- Shemiran
Tehran- Iran