alright, questions about the 70s in country music

how long did the outlaw movement last, from when to when
who were t he outlaws
how long did the countrypolitan movement last, from when to when
who were the countrypolitian

how large, in terms of sales were outlaw
how large in terms of sales were countrypolitan
how large in terms of radio play were outlaw
how large in terms of radio play were countrypolitan
ditto for concert revenue, and media concentration

how much of a cross over (songwriters, perormers, etc) were between various kinds of country music,

how does the folk revival impact these numbers irt the hippie qoutient.

why, amongst certain cultural critics, has the outlaw movement become such a peice of nostalgia.
is there an equal amount of nostalgia amongst current nashville perfomers (ie Paisley or Keith) (Rednecks and Bluenecks hints at the Keith connections, but rarely mentions Paisley, who I think may be a key to this)

how legitmate is the idea that outlaw country worked in musical and geographic oppostion to music row (ie Austin vs Nashville)

how does Johnny Cash fit into all of this?

What about Bakersfield.

rare volume, of grims fairy tales, illustrated by 38 david hockney photos--like his work from the rakes progress opera, done about the same time, they have a sketchy construction, trying to appear more messy and more raw then he thinks he is, but some of them have an elegant, formal innovation, and a darkness that grimm has but hockney sure has hell doesnt scanned here the work for rapunzel, and the illustration of the woman caught in the fish are my favourite.

full text of the SoDak Abortion descion, what did emerson say, consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds...well it applies here.

patterns consist only with exceptions, for african xianity, esp. the post colonial working out of sexual ethics, are being centered by Rev Nicholas Henderson, in Malwai, who is queer friendly in a western sense, genorous, and beloved of his congreation--the look on the faces of nigerian bishiops, when they realise they dont have control, has an amusing irony gaurdian story here

list of songs to download, from bluenecks and rednecks


Uncle David Macon--The Bibles True, Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat
Bob Miller Better-Than-Thou Hypocritical Blues
Roy Acuff--Old Age Pension Check
Gene Autry--Dont Bite the Hand Tahts Feeding You
Buchanan Brothers--Atomic Brothers
Tex Ritter--Deck of Cards
Carson Robinson I Dont Work For A Living
Hank Williams No No Joe
Little Jimmie Dickens--They Locked God Outside the Iron Curtain
Louvin Brothers--GReat Atomic Power, The Weapon of Prayer, Theres a Grave in the Wave of the Louvin Brothers
Jimmy Wakely--The Red DEck of CArds
Bobby Bare--This is for Protection of the People, Somebody Bought my Home Town,Redneck-Hippie Romance,Good Xian Soilder, Finger on the Button
Jimmy Dean--Dear Ivan
Merle Haggard--Hungry Eyes, WOrking Mans Blues, They're Tearing the Labour Camps Down
Tom T Hall--Strawberry Farms, I want to SEe the Parade, Girls in SAigon City, America the UGly,
Porter Wagoner I Dreamed I Saw America on Her Knees
Doc Williams--Freedoms Monkey
Travis Bell--Welfare Cadilliac
DAvid Allen COle--How Highs the Watergate, Martha, Fuck Anita Bryant.
Arlene Harden, Congratulations, you sure made man out of him
James Talley--Are They Gonna Make Us Outlaws Again
Tanya Tucker--I Believe the SOuth is Gonna Rse AGain
Waylon Jennings--Will the WOlf Survive
Iris Dement--Theres a Wall in Washington
Drive-by Truckers--The Presidents PEnis is Missing, Wallace, Putting People on the Moon, SAnds of Iwo Jima
Steve EArle==Xmas in Washington, F the CC
Kris Kristofferson--Aguila DEl Norte, Love of Money, Third World War
Randy Travis--Point of Light
Donovan Chapman--There is no War
Rodney Cowell--Ignorance Is the Enemy
Dave Dudley Dont MEss with US Truckers
Lester Flatt, I cant Tell the Boys from the Girls
Emmylou Harris Time in Babylon
Joe Nichols If Nobody Belived in You
Dolly PArton Welcome Home
Tom Snider Conserative Chritian TIght Wing Republican STraight White American Male

http://rufuswainwright.com/carnegiehall
What do we think of this. the first album is heartbreaking, gorgeous and difficult, a classic that has been burried because of myth

and there is something interesting, when gay culture has become more mainstream, more straight, less intresting, less spiky, less QUEER...there are writers and performers who are working as historians, for the old (coded, hidden, darkened street corner) ways, wayne kaustenbaum as a writer, john cameron mitchell as a director, etc--and rufus of course is among those.

he can be a really great performer, as well. a brillant song writer, a talented singer, a louche/outre performer...and we kind of need all of those. (But my question is--w. all this desire for the carefree 70s gay sex, found all over queer discourses in the last few years, is this uncritical nostalgia, is he playing fey cause it makes money--and the other narratives, being loved by Neil Tennant and Elton John, the meth addiction/casual sex revealtions, etc--how much of Wainwrights obsession with those hallowed days features critical distance, and does it need to?
)

but, does anyone think this is trying to hard? does anyone think this will end up as a gong show, a supenova break down of "Elizabeth Taylor" tendecies, or worse, too reverential, too banal, too obvious.

if you were in charge of Judy's catalog, is this where you would start-and if not where would you begin?

(posted from ilm, hoping to link ysi files, but that doesnt seem to be working, so if you want a copy of a live version of the judy signtature Somewhere Over the Rainbow or his song Gay Messiah, AIM, Email or leave a comment, and i can arrange.)

x tra west took the r kelly peice.

links:

an amusing essay on henry james, and his apparent testicle injury--it came thru on mefi, and two impt things were imparted
1) the dude who quit his masters cause everyone apparently was gay, and this wasnt fair (james is a frequent subject of queer theorists, and i dont think its b/c they think hes gay, but because his view of sexuality is so gossetted, so quiet, so closeted, and his biography is similar, that the tools of sexual deconstruction (ie unravlleing, noticing power differentials, gender and sex as performance, themes of veiling and unveiling, and a formal overlapping w. biography work better w. james then almost any other 20th century writer--ie how he wrote is how he lived...(and his prose is really close to other genuinely (semi) closeted writers, like gide, forrester, and the little ive read of proust)

2) apparently in moveable feast, hemmingway told a ribald story about fitzgeralds cock--he was so worried it was too small, hemmingay brought him to the met in new york, to show the greek statues (ie butch men/small dix) fitzgerald left more dispondent then he came. how hemmingway saw fitzgeralds cock is the interesting question


Charles Ray, 2005, Ink On Paper, Untilted (smaller, more decroative, less autobio, then his usual work--at matthew marks new drawing show, most of the big guns, really ugly work, but i liked this.

lego brokeback

Melina Raissinia, is an artist, writer, craftswoman and rugmaker. Here hand made rugs have an elegant, intriguing, almost child like sense of design, with great colours, and lots of white space, a sort of handhewn geometry, that reminds me of klee--they are some of the most beautifully composed images, and they look much different then the high gloss attempts at art or the punk fuck you of locult made high, like the graff rugs i posted a few months ago (work i loved, but rassinia is much mroe complicated)

here is here site, with essays, paintings, drawings, etc

Edit: Go to the link, the images are being fussy.


genuine mid50s batman strip, the yellow is fotoshopped

First Big Drug SCandal of the Torino olympics,ends with the austrian coach in the loony bin.

fantastic bitter rant about the really quite stupid stalker laws that are infesting LA, esp, how celebs blame pappazari, instead of taking repsonsiblity w. their own idiocy. and another on Jill Caroll, the christian relief worker/hostage in Iraq. When did the LA times become the American paper of record...


Jesus Kitsch

forget that its from daily kos, apparently the GOP is back to astroturfing southern churches found here

There is also the philosophical problem. Bush has done real violence to the principle of limited government with all of his talk about how the government has to move when someone is hurting and his aim to leave no child behind. Some of his programs are, I think, easily defended on the merits. But that doesn't change the fact that as general philosophical issue, Bush has conceded that the government is there to help in a way Reagan never would have. Sure, Reagan made exceptions to his general anti-government position. Sometimes they were pragmatic, sometimes they were legitimate exceptions (conservatives aren't uniformly opposed to all government interventions), and some times his deviations were hypocritical, at least in the eyes of some. But such hypocrisy was the tribute conservatives must sometimes pay to politics. Bush has conceded much of the fundamental ground to liberals when it comes to the role of government. Now the argument about governmental problem solving is technical -- "will it work?" -- rather than principled, "is it the government's job?"
far right cassandra, Jonah Goldberg, on NRO online, found here (hes batshit but a fantastic writer)

new book of american soilders taking photos of themselves, from the gq website, so it went from print web print.

Fiction:
48 Cory Doctorow
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
read it cover to cover in 36 hrs--he writes well, pushes a narrative along, jumps all over the place, and a strange mix of social realism, allegorical fantasy, cyberpunk and family melodrama...i still dont know if i liked it, the urban fantasy stuff would seem to be right up danielles alley, and pat loves him, so im going to put it on the shelf until i can talk to pat and ds read it.

adbusters, they wanted to print it as a letter to the editor, didnt tell me this, and i need money/status/etc, i thot about letting it thru, but couldnt honestly give it as a clip and the access wasnt enough, so i said fuck it, push--if it goes thru awesome, and if not i can starve on my own intergity

last nights dream was shopping for nuts (peacans, walnuts, brazil nuts, peanuts, chesnuts,etc) at sobeys. been really bad, really tired, really sad, really out of it, not working hard enough

james funeral is on the fourth

in the next week i have to:
edit/rewrite s&v
rework curratorial statment
contact paul
wrangle paper from 7 artists
meet with elaine
get the 44 proposal finished and sent
and make arrangements to go to the funeral in olds, which is depressing in its own right.

i just had a dream about edmonton colleen. there was a lot before, and a lot after, but the main image was her in a bath tub, and a long time looking at her fetal like that, and then blood blossoming thru the water, and then seeing the page of her website, saying memorials.

im shaken about it

More of those amazing photos of the bellies of airplanes, flying thru the sky, by Jeffery Milstein, a couple of dozen, i like how clean they are conceptually, framed centrally, and overpowering, but i like the dirt, the little elements of decay...i like how careful the composition works against the dirt of the planes..

I still really really want to know how he does it

Steve Fietch, One Star, From New Signs in Visual California (I think) 74

Ten Fictional Char. I would Like to Fuck:
1)
Ofcr. Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert
Black Dahlia
Ellroy

2)
Sally Bowles
I Am The Camera
Isherwood

3)
Kurt Serving
Berlin
Lutes

4)
Frank Chamberlin
The Postman Always Rings Twice
McCain

5)
Jimmy
Oryx and Crake
Atwood

6)
Jim
Vox
Baker
(but only over the phone)

7)
Any of the men in What we Talk about When We Talk About Love
Carver

8)
Tom Jones
Tom Jones
Feilding

9)
Fanny
Erica Jong
Fanny

10)
Quertermain
H Rider Haggard
King Solomon's Mines/Leauge

annoated 30 pages of the book today, the first time i did any real writing on it in a month or two, and it was an interesting excercise, some of the writing as really strong, but its a mess, large jumps in peices, really judgemental, dangling qoutes, places where nothing hangs together, manic changes in tone, places where i reference something but dont explain, some really good ideas that barely place, lots of extending that is needed, ...and the usual spelling, grammar shit besides.

there are enough solid peices of writing, enough interesting ideas, enough good work in it, that it can be salvaged, and the research makes any opinons that i have stronger and more conistent.

its the linear narrative and tone that i need to work on.

(the tone problem is, i think, interesting...in that i am trying to be respectful, and cynical--trying to tell what is, and then what could be on other side...and i t hink that my conversation, in its odd mix of peity, irony, earnestness, cynicism, deconstruction and faith, would be functionally useful for a text like this, and i think the tagential, webbed, tendecy to refuse all common wisdom, would also be useful, as is my theory tendencies, and how they enmesh w. my wit and obsecnenity--alot like this blog but its really clunky, i havent given myself permission, i think, to be free, inconsitent, etc--my formal (ie for cash) writing, is really academic and stiff, but that stiffness i really think makes me sad (sad is the wrong word)...i need to figure out if i am doing an academic treatise or something looser, something stranger (ie is this books patriach john ralston saul or robert anton wilson...and then of course, when i have an opinon, i can write with clarity, and a certain rigid, almost sermon like charisma--and that tone would be perfect for this book (and really works well for things like Straight Edge or Thomas Merton's nurse) and my other style, the floaty, postmodern lyricism, the lotus eating and butterfly collecting works well for Warhol or Arthur Blessitt--but i have yet to push it in either of those moulds..and so it just grates)

salvation is a poor substitute for ecstasy
johnny eastman

Don't become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish. If you want to woo the muse of the odd, don't read Shakespeare. Read Webster's revenge plays. Don't read Homer and Aristotle. Read Herodotus where he's off talking about Egyptian women having public sex with goats. If you want to read about myth don't read Joseph Campbell, read about convulsive religion, read about voodoo and the Millerites and the Munster Anabaptists. There are hundreds of years of extremities, there are vast legacies of mutants. There have always been geeks. There will always be geeks. Become the apotheosis of geek. Learn who your spiritual ancestors were. You didn't come here from nowhere. There are reasons why you're here. Learn those reasons. Learn about the stuff that was buried because it was too experimental or embarrassing or inexplicable. --- Bruce Sterling : ``The Wonderful Power of Storytelling''

Thats the Whole Qoute.

sometimes wisdom comes from the strangest places--a genorous(sp), wise, and clever queer heremuntic deconstructing the connections b/w sodom and sodomy, is posted on the usually quite brilliant times and seasons, a conserative, orthodox, LDS blog.

(speaking of taking comfort from former enemies, this 6 page Fukayama story starts exocratied Bush (the neo-con establishment's attitude towards him know seems to be oops, we really couldnt control him), talks about neo-con precedent (including Daniel Patrick Monayahin, who apparently spent his early years as a trot,i need to spend more time thinking about him--his status as a kingmaker, his ability to play right against left, his reluctant work helping get Hilary elected to the senate, and his writing in the 50s/60s...its someone to point out, unless Daniel Patrick is different then Daniel, then well never mind) wanders into liable (see his one line on the brilliant Anne Norton, who is much smarter, and much less of an ideolouge then her critics think, and whose status as a punching bag for the new right, mostly comes from her being a woman willing to say nasty (but true) things against great men--read her books, esp. Leo Strauss and the Politics of the American Empire, published by Yale, and get back to me) and pseduo-defence of the indefencible (see his actually believing that Leo Strauss didnt say anything about current politics/statecraft), becomes self aggrandizing (See how people just didnt understand his v. v. good books), contradticts itself (this might not be fair, but saying bad things about bush, and then telling us that he and his travelling circus, including condi, have become more reasonable, seems a little batshit), and then in the last page, page and a half, is a wise, clever, well read, hopeful, realist, and distinctly scholarly discussion of soultions and problems to (recent?) questions of the state, defense, and multi-national co-operation. There are actually parts I agree with (b/w this and agreeing with large portions of benedicts first encylical, either the cons are becoming more reasonable, or im becoming a con)

Trace Adkins new single is old news, its been on all the message boards, the videos all over CMT, late nite comix have made as many jokers as the bloggers have, and I should be able to just laugh it off. Hony Tonk Badonkadonk, oh look its a booty song, oh look its about women, isnt it "clever". But I keep thinking that it hates women, and its quasi racist, and shit like this blows up, when genuine slippages b/w hip hop and country go unlistened to by anyone but critics.

Even worse, Adkins' last song was called Arlington, the only song abut the iraq war that actually mentions bodies in the ground.

I want pop to be about something. Thats horribly naive of me, isnt it ?

Thru the stage magic of theory, I have made culture about things it wasnt--i convinced myself that Jessica Simpson was a pop goddess, and the rise of Crazy Frog was the rise of a new prophet. How long can you mainline sugar before you become a diabetic though? Even Chely Wright's Bumper of my SUV, said something, said something horribly fascist, and kind of silly, but had an opinon beyond "I like to fuck broads with big asses"

Raymond does not think that this animal is the cutest on gods (white) earth. email him, telling him how fucking wrong he is. Also mention that Wombats rule, Monkeys triumph, and Robots rust.

james maybank just died

interview w. me from jt kirklands site.
watch me be pretentious

Google Video's Randomness is once again present here is one of British Soilders before and after a massive acid dope. (people forget, i think, how batshit prevelant large doses of lsd were to any number of rather ordinary people, i dont think that it has been placed in history, like i dont think churchills drinking and hitlers tendecies towards amphtetines have properly been placed in context of WWII (and there is something strangely poetic to the idea that soliders cant shoot their guns cause they were giggling too much, poetic in that lets hold hands and bring the moon spirt down, hippie bullshit way, but poetic nonetheless.) (watch till the end, a guy climbs a tree looking for non existant birds)

and speaking of soilders, the new pictures from abu gharib:
are here
I am debating whether to post them on the blog, they are all over the web, and they are available from a google search, and by linking them, you can chose to see them or not. i dont think they change anything, we know what happened there, we have seen them once before, and those they affect, will be affected. noting what happens in the general culture is more impt i think...like this from mcfarlene toys new miltary line , the propghanda, american as comic book hero is nothing new, and the sort of soft fascism is distressingly common, but to make a toy that has visual qoutes from previous abu gharib photos, shows that we refuse the lessons of history, we refuse to look carefully...i think thats why im not img src'ing the photos, because i dont think seeing them again and again will change anything (another side note, tagentially related, flickr hit its 100m upload today, reminding me that no real critics of photography has really taken to the political/formal/aesthetic/personal implications of citizens constantly recording themselves, for better or worse--there has not been a camera lucida, on the pain or suffering of others, or others on this (telle me im wrong if i am) the photos in the above link, are one extension of the instincts that mark my flickr acount, my blog, anyones flickr account, everyones blog--we have as a culture, now, absorbed a desire to constantly record everything that has ever happened to us electronically--and i am unsure whether its a cthulluic remix of big brother or a viral remix of the price of freedom is eternal vigalence. it is strange, and it is there, but i dont know what it is (i pitched a story about this to bad subjects and prefix, both said no)

the american department of the interior is giving away billions in oil revenue, back to the companies.

Adrian Platts is a Photog, from Detroit, this is the public library there, and it looks like Alex Ross doing superman, some WPA thing.

go to his entire blog here

Taking Sides:



versus

a collective of housing advocates in Sao Paulo have spent the past decade or so, reclaiming an abonded clothing factoryphotos here making a collective, finding medicine, food, shelter, all the basics, in the midst of a place left feral by the state.

they have until today to leave, the owner of the clothing company, who owes the government 5m dollars, and who hasnt even looked at the building in 20 years, is taking it back. (the government in brasil is basically socialist)

i keep thinking about this, and thinking about how it relates to how the danish government has become farther and farther right, and has found the anarchist collective who grew up around, and provided an alternative, in the compund of cristina in denmark, (link from a promient candian journalist who wrote a globe and mail feature about it) and this as well offical site

and then i was wondering about the cyberfutrists favourite example--kwoolon, and i realised that i assumed it was broken down underneath the mainland chinese government, but i didnt know anything about it since 1997, except in the fiction of gibson (irodou, etc) and so i read about it a bit, and it seems to have gentrified and become another bohemian theme park (ie east village in new york; yorkville in toronto; gastown in vancouver,et. al)

and i realised, is that a failure of immiganation, does the state always win, does capitalism bulldoze, what are the implicaitons of this

I expanded Yek with a discussion of Sue Williams here:
http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2006_02_01_wedge_archive.html#113997639970930405

Tomorrow dont fuck, cause Valentines is the day of purity (catholic precedent, for fallwell's proddie prodding: valentine offered council to newlyweds, his day was about chastity, about holding fast, and engaging in approite ethical situtations, so he is trying to respirtualise, so hes not totally off base)

a dozen examples of english actresses who played Liz I< with pictures, interviews, and fore/aft make up shots--including helen mirren, glenda jackson, judi dench, cate blanchett, and others..sinker started an ilx thread about this, and the site is fascinating.

fascinating example of conserative unvieralism. Chris Patterson, switched from sinners in a hand of an angry god, to we are all saved by the grace of a loving god--its a fight, about the nature of gods judgement, that happened with the concnetration of analysis vis a vis calvinism in the 17th century, and about the methodist/baptist/etc split a few decades years later, and the scofield/fosdick fight of the 1920s...so ive been waiting for another one to pop up, esp. with the heretic seeking that the protestant churches have been doing recently (cf the SBA)...whats interesting, is that Chris PAtterson's move to universalism lost him 90 per cent of his congreation, his teaching and preaching roles, his church, and his status (he met with Bush, he was a leader of the more promeinient black churches,etc ) I wonder about prosperity gospel preachers. who promise gods bounty, but require a convential realtionship that (may be/is) antiethtical to the genrousity of spirit that this requires. (work because it is good, because it is nessc., because it is required in the making of christian communities, and not because as children we should be rewarded by a mecurial parent) i havent done enough work on the actual hermeuntics of universialism, my theology runs on balls and guts, and so im not arguing anything but this is interesting on a soc. level.

story about the arabic media's response to the brits beating the shit out of iraqi citizens.

Timeline of US involvement in Iran (notice the n) dont know anything about the source, so keep that in mind

here is the invite for the show my photo is in (blogger is acting up, so dont take this annoucncement and then 2 photo links as an indication that i think im as good as conolly or yelland, no ego)

where ever Cynthia Connolly is, she takes pix of ice machines, in cool b&w, which make you notice the color ever more (why is the universal colour for ice machine font red, when red is a warm colour?, i like how the font is pretty universal)

Tobin Yelland takes amazing skateboard photos


Sothebys, 19th Century, Enamel and Diamonds, English manufacter, est. 2.3-2.6m

Steven Shearer creates mass collages out of the detrius of commerical culture (ie cut and paste dead tree catalogs) , here is one of tool sheds:


The one with Xmas Trees features in this months art forums is lots better.

Candy DArling on her Death Bed, Peter Huja, 198(7?)

Also from Western Projects. The homoeroticism of classical subjects made the desire to wank legit

Yek Wong, acrylic latex on canvas over panel, Forrest Floor


Arrangement #24 (Open Fields, Night) (same materials)


Lies (2000)

Singapore painter, there is something ludcrious, cartoonish about the colours and shapes here--like helicopter panels, hot rods, subway doors, something slightly futuristic, and manga/animeish, it really is a pop updating on the landscape tendecies of post minimalism, did his post grad under dave hickey in vegas, and undergrad in texas, which i think is important, but m not sure why, it really is an overlapping of colour as geographic signifer

The Lies seires, reminds me of a less literal euan macdonald or a self mocking peter halley and explictly connected to a kind of reducto ad absurdum, with regards to graphic tendencies and narratives (they are panels of a comic book, but just the abstract bits, and because they reduce so far, and because they are about fiction, they are lies, its cute)

He goes by first names only, and calls himself the Barry White of post-conceptual painting

more hereand here from the brilliant Western Projects Gallery, in Culver City, California
here is an article) and another from a gallerist in seattle

i was going to be part of an online forum with the producers of americas next top model on the 28th of Feb.

Johari Windowfrom Lisa--It would mean lots if you folks could do this for me!

The Duchess of Northumberland just spent 3.3m lbs on the worlds most kick ass treehouse.


Bridget Riley, early 90s

This Ohio state law prohibts any queer parent from having children in their houses, it is the most retrograde legistaltion wrt parent raising, but it includes progressive langauge, using words like transgendered, etc...it is supposed to be about adoption, but the langauge is really more restrictive then that, wor th a derridan analysis...


One is 90 pages of early lunar photographs, from the Eastman collections. (all 90 :here

DAnny's Land, is a blog about the cultural and social history of amusement parks, adn its a great blog, this entry is about super security that resulted when the radical Yippies tried to take it over, hoping to storm sleeping beauty's castles, and hoisting a vietcong flag on its summit.,

The nuns of the Holy Name Monastery say they have been swept into the net cast by the nation's antiterrorism laws. The sisters say the monastery's main bank account was frozen without explanation in November, creating financial headaches and making the Benedictine nuns hopping mad. They were told the Patriot Act was the cause
Full Story: here

a complete list of cuts and elimantions that Bush wants to make to pay for his little excursion into Iraq...My favourites:

Elimantions:
Educational technology state grants, $272 million
Arts in education, $35 million
Elementary and secondary school counseling, $35 million
Perkins Loan cancellations, $65 million
Maternal and child health small categorical grants, $39 million
Urban Indian Health Program, $33 million
Bureau of Indian Affairs Johnson-O'Malley assistance grants, $16 million
Small Business Administration microloan program, $14 million
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $114 million

Cuts:
Conservation operations, $77 million
Wildlife habitat incentives program, $30 million
Perkins Loans Institutional Fund recall, $664 million
Clean Coal Power initiative, $45 million
Environmental management, $762 million
Substance abuse and mental health programs, $71 million
Public housing capital fund, $261 million
BIA school construction, $50 million

I am not going to comment, just report.

FEMA, having the pacing of a drunken snail, fails to get their fucking act together, and now thousands of hurricane katrina victims are being evicted from hotels in time for mardi gras

dozens of aerial photos of mexico city, taken by helicopters, beautiful.

huge article on important stolen work, in promeinit american and european collections.

Feingold grows balls, takes axe whacks to the NSA's rape of the constitution

Cameroon has had a hysterical campaign of homophobia, tabloids outing people, general violence, and murder. One of the most promenit Cameroonian pop stars (Yannick Noah) has been outed, amongst any number of other people. The Bishop there hasnt really helped any, adding to the usual arguements against queer issues in the west, the african arguements about colonial decadence. Strange times.

BYU of all places, has released information on a new AIDS cocktail, that looks like it might be really quite promising.

just to balance the anti muslim cartoons from Denmark, here is a large collection of anti jewish cartoons, from a variety of arabic location.

Story on outed american soilders.

Half of the JT Leroy team comes out, and admits the hoax, the other half, is keeping v. v. quiet.

ad busters took a story based on this pitch:

I live in a small town, and work as a photographer/writer. Part of my
photographic practice is to take photos where ever I go, including Wal
Mart. The last time I took a photo in Wal Mart, a floor worker told
his assistant manager, who told me that the law prohibited this. She
forced me to erase the photos from my memory card, and threatened to
have my arrested. This bullying is regular to Wall Mart, it is the
only place to get DVDS, CDs, photo-processing, Polaroid film, and
other daily resources. To live in this town is to interact with Wal
Mart. To record it, is to reclaim it. I have taken photos of the
taxidermy in the sporting goods, of patterns in the floor tile, of
large scale capitalism and human scale interactions. I am not
competition, and there is no excuse for me not to use it. I want to
write about the complicated, sometimes violent and often exhausting
relationship between citizens and Wal Mart. To do this, I want to take
photos in Wal Mart, and attempt to get permission as well. Writing
about what happens in various Wal Marts in assorted Albertan small
towns, when I try to take photos without talking to Canadian
headquarters in exurban Toronto, and the labyrinthine maze that occurs
when interacting with those who lead, I want to implicate the
pyscho-geographic complexities that occur here.

some other things remembered:

the personality inventor had 3 questions about being famous, and more then a few about pain, body pain, lower back pain, that sort of thing

he seemed really weirded out about my desire to get theological training, and when i said i was queer, he said, like unusal, i said no, he said like homosexual, and i said yeah

and he gave me three diagnosies
central nervous system hyperarousal disorder
dyspraxia
executive dysfuction disorder

how come everytime i go to a shrink, i get different diagnosies.

some other things remembered:

the personality inventor had 3 questions about being famous, and more then a few about pain, body pain, lower back pain, that sort of thing

he seemed really weirded out about my desire to get theological training, and when i said i was queer, he said, like unusal, i said no, he said like homosexual, and i said yeah

and he gave me three diagnosies
central nervous system hyperarousal disorder
dyspraxia
executive dysfuction disorder

how come everytime i go to a shrink, i get different diagnosies.

pysch assesment done by dr massey and asst. (half day)

intro interview, questions about family, hearitage, birth, narrative, etc--he from the beginning had a thesis, but apparently did not read the case notes, the same story told over and over again, cheap memoir, treated it like talking to a lawyer (as little info as possible, cynical, and exhausted)

then 15 arthemtic questions, addition, subtraction, division, fractions, factoring, algerebra, and the like.

spelling test, 20 questions, then pronouncing, 15 questions, real words, but made to sound like others lucubration, among them

some pattern recognition then, a series of ever more ocmplicated drawings, in sets of five or ten--they had a numerical value, and i had to tell the pysch, well thats a four or thats a five, fairly difficult, but pronounced typical

379 question personality inventory, 3 obvious controls (including high jumping is my favourite sport to watch on television and raymond kerezxk is my favourite poet), lots of questions about being sick more often then others, having my sickness being hard ot diagnose, having my illness being strange, that sort of thing...same difficulties about answering contextually heavy, deeply complicated questions about my personal and social history/current existence in a 3 point scale, some questions phrased so that it is impossible to advertise as such, lots more questions then usual about drinking and drug use, less of the pyschotic scale then i was used to.

then dr masseys asst (mellissa, dressed in black, rings on her fingers, diamond double cs at her throat), did the rest of the exams.

a pattern recognition set, which i did badly at.

the first verbal one, where they asked analogy questions and i did really well in, a series of make this pattern out of tesslating tiles, which i really cant do, a quiz on defitions of words (including insurgency, aposotsy, anarchy, mosquito and machine--the hardest word to define was machine, and the easiest was anarchy (but not in a way that i think she liked)

then a bunch of hand eye cordination excercises (if God in Her infinite majesty, ever decides to punish me in hell, She will make me do the excercise where i have to put interlocking pins in holes--the pins were shiny, with one end raised, so that the raised end would fit in a correspondingly shaped hole, they slid around, they were small, and it was a dask best designed for those who spent theirt lives playing video games) also, two electronic machines one meant to test hand strength and one meant to test reaction time)

then two more personality inventories, one with 79 questions, about anger, temper, mood, and anxiety and one with 100 questions, a full half of them about fucking, with questions that alluded to moral postions on bdsm, casual sex, anon. sex, etc--which i am sure they give to all faggots, and which i told nice old melissa that i had serious ethical questions answering, she played dumb, and i prayed to saints michel and dythmia for courage.

written report in a month, verbal report in time for dr sanderson.

http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=514

Robert Adams works better in black and white

John Duda

I like how it works between photo-realism and iconic simplyfying, and the colour/spacing.

From an article about Ratzinger's personal history and his popedom, in the 2/6/06 New Yorker, and related to the odd (buried, and vital) wording about charity, love, and the state from his first encylical. he made these remarks in a Spring, 2004 event, at Normandy...

In this hour we bow in respect to teh dead of the Second World War, We remember the many young people from our homeland whose futures and hopes were destroyed in the vloddy slaughter of the wara. As Germans, we cannot hep but be painfully moved to realise that their idalism and their obdeicence to the state were misused by an unjust government...they simply tried to do their duty--even if beset by terrible, inner ocnflicts, doubts and questions

Animosty and bitterness remained between the combatant natiosn after the First World War, esp[ecialyl beyween the German and the French, resulting in a poisoning of the nations souls

The treaty of VErsailles was deliberatley intended to humilate Germany and to burden the country with so much debt that it radicalised the people, therby opening the door to dicatorship and to belief in its depcepive promises of the return of freedom, honor and might to GErmany"

An Eye for an Eye, a too for a tooth for , that does not lead to peace. We have seen the results"

Thank God the same thing was not repeated after the Second World War

The Americans generously helped us GErmans with their Marshall Plans, helped wus rebuild our country, and made prosperity and freedom possible.

The rest of the article deals with Catholics post war history, including the convent built near Dachau and two future popes visits there, Ratzinger in Auschwitz, the Protestant and CAtholic confentations in 68 in Turinberg, Ratzingers discomfort at mentioning the victims of the holocaust (namely in a one page 1978 statement, on the 40th anniversary of Kristalnacht, "It also cannot be forgotten that, in these same days, the same Nazi leaders publicly declared war on the CAtholic church...Just as the Jewish shops, the (church) windows were broken and smashed...(the holocaust) as a "preliminary step" to the eridication of Xinity. The article also talks about Ratzingers position as a Bishop to Bavira and Sudentenland, where he played games with history, instead of being humble about his role, and the churches role in the holocaust, he places the sudentenland as victims, of a "lost homeland". "horrific conditons" and "injustice", which "the public does not like to hear about this, for many reasons," "It does not fit into their understanding of history. They try to forve a veil of silence around this injustice, and even well intentioned indivuiuals feel that it should no longer be discussed for the sake of reconfilliation". that this lead to "sipressed truths" which led "to a poisoning of the spirit".

well worth reading

52 book project

i have decided that instead of recording all my books this year, im going to try to read 52 fiction books (novels, anthologies of short stories, ficciones, post modern constructions, et. al) and record those--aside from the usual research, and nf i will read, which i will not record (i read 37 books of fiction last year)

completed so far:

52
The Tent--Margaret Atwood
really short, really simple, parables and rerealised fairy tales, cautionary works, more concered with eco-politics then the gender politics of good bones, but basically a (clever, funny, well constructed) version of that.

51
Best American Erotic--2006
one of the best, i have written before about this, but this one was funny, tender, hard, and viscous in equal measures, with small town americana and wild raelbais in equal measure--the more typical/vanilla hetroeroticism tend to be better written then the kink for the sake of kink, as is the usual case.

50
BAE--1996
Just getting on her feet, of its time, with 3 (!) vampire stories, not worth another read.

49
Holleb ecq--Elementary Particles
kinky, self involved, hateful, boring, misogynyst, racist, obtuse, philosophical and actually mastabtory (ie mentions jacking off once every 5 pages or so) and hates americans, in a really cheap never eaten a big mac, never seen kansas kind of way a parody of populist french philosophy of the celine/batialle school, the first 100 pages were readable but the rest is easily dismissed

libdem higher up mark oaten, who got fired for fucking boys while being married to a girl, also liked to shit in rent boys mouths, while the rentboys dressed in football costumes.

hott

insane film director ken russell (lizstmania, the devils) started as a photographer, and here dozens of photos he took of teddy girls, a varration of rockers in mid century, post war london. the gender and class signifiers of these photos are amazing, some of the girls basically drag kings.

The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq. full story here here NY Times

Hedda Gabbler, with robots

Syrian protesters who burnt and looted the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus at the weekend were encouraged to organise by the Syrian authorities, and received text messages from Islamic study centres urging them to gather, according to participants in the riot. from the uk independentThis ties into the information, that booklets of the danish cartoons, with new more damaging ones, being translated and passed thru europe...the islamic study centers, i have seen in vancouver, new york, toronto, edmonton, calgary, seattle, victoria and they have the same colours and the same fonts, a sort of jihad mcdonalds...i wonder how close they are connected, the explicit mechanics of information dissemation, it seems closer to the ground and less instutional then xians, but this might be my ignorance.

Father George V. Coyne, SJ, who runs the Vatican Obseratvory, talks movingly about the implications of science and faith, in this talk given to catholic university students text here



these are two early photos of the holy land, from 1870 to 1910 from here

Sun Ra and Al Koopers, brilliant, strange, space rocky genius is found mostly in the Arkestra, and the Bluesmen, their session musicans--they did a batman and robin sound track for the super camp Adam West series for a New Jersey Toy Company--DOWNLOAD EVERY FUCKING SONG here

Best Picture: Munich
Best Director: George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck.
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote
Best Actress: Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents
Best Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain
Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay: The Squid and the Whale - Noah Baumbach
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain - Larry McMurtry
Cinematography: The New World
Editing: Cinderella Man
Art Direction: King Kong
Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Original Score: Brokeback Mountain
Original Song: "Travelin' Thru" - Transamerica - Dolly Parton
Best Makeup: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Best Sound: King Kong
Best Sound Editing: King Kong
Best Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Animated Feature Film: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Foreign Language Film: Tsotsi (South Africa)
Best Documentary Feature: Murderball
Best Documentary Short: The Life of Kevin Carter
Best Live Action Short: Six Shooter
Best Animated Short: 9

Defective Yeti (Seattle on the left) does the software to make this super easy!

Excerpts of Ratzinger's first encylical.

...His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape...

Jesus gave this act of oblation an enduring presence through his institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. He anticipated his death and resurrection by giving his disciples, in the bread and wine, his very self, his body and blood as the new manna (cf. Jn 6:31-33). The ancient world had dimly perceived that man's real food—what truly nourishes him as man—is ultimately the Logos, eternal wisdom: this same Logos now truly becomes food for us—as love. The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving. The imagery of marriage between God and Israel is now realized in a way previously inconceivable: it had meant standing in God's presence, but now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus' self-gift, sharing in his body and blood. The sacramental “mysticism”, grounded in God's condescension towards us, operates at a radically different level and lifts us to far greater heights than anything that any human mystical elevation could ever accomplish.

The parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37) offers two particularly important clarifications. Until that time, the concept of “neighbour” was understood as referring essentially to one's countrymen and to foreigners who had settled in the land of Israel; in other words, to the closely-knit community of a single country or people. This limit is now abolished. Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbour. The concept of “neighbour” is now universalized, yet it remains concrete. Despite being extended to all mankind, it is not reduced to a generic, abstract and undemanding expression of love, but calls for my own practical commitment here and now

True, no one has ever seen God as he is. And yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely inaccessible. God loved us first, says the Letter of John quoted above (cf. 4:10), and this love of God has appeared in our midst. He has become visible in as much as he “has sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn 4:9). God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path.

Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me.

The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word.

Since the nineteenth century, an objection has been raised to the Church's charitable activity, subsequently developed with particular insistence by Marxism: the poor, it is claimed, do not need charity but justice. Works of charity—almsgiving—are in effect a way for the rich to shirk their obligation to work for justice and a means of soothing their consciences, while preserving their own status and robbing the poor of their rights. Instead of contributing through individual works of charity to maintaining the status quo, we need to build a just social order in which all receive their share of the world's goods and no longer have to depend on charity. There is admittedly some truth to this argument, but also much that is mistaken. It is true that the pursuit of justice must be a fundamental norm of the State and that the aim of a just social order is to guarantee to each person, according to the principle of subsidiarity, his share of the community's goods. This has always been emphasized by Christian teaching on the State and by the Church's social doctrine. Historically, the issue of the just ordering of the collectivity had taken a new dimension with the industrialization of society in the nineteenth century. The rise of modern industry caused the old social structures to collapse, while the growth of a class of salaried workers provoked radical changes in the fabric of society. The relationship between capital and labour now became the decisive issue—an issue which in that form was previously unknown. Capital and the means of production were now the new source of power which, concentrated in the hands of a few, led to the suppression of the rights of the working classes, against which they had to rebel.

Bishop Ketteler of Mainz (1887)

The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply.

As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation “in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good.” [21] The mission of the lay faithful is therefore to configure social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective competences and fulfilling their own responsibility.[22] Even if the specific expressions of ecclesial charity can never be confused with the activity of the State, it still remains true that charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived as “social charity”.[23]

In the Catholic Church, and also in the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, new forms of charitable activity have arisen, while other, older ones have taken on new life and energy. In these new forms, it is often possible to establish a fruitful link between evangelization and works of charity. Here I would clearly reaffirm what my great predecessor John Paul II wrote in his Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis [28] when he asserted the readiness of the Catholic Church to cooperate with the charitable agencies of these Churches and Communities, since we all have the same fundamental motivation and look towards the same goal: a true humanism, which acknowledges that man is made in the image of God and wants to help him to live in a way consonant with that dignity. His Encyclical Ut Unum Sint emphasized that the building of a better world requires Christians to speak with a united voice in working to inculcate “respect for the rights and needs of everyone, especially the poor, the lowly and the defenceless.” [29] Here I would like to express my satisfaction that this appeal has found a wide resonance in numerous initiatives throughout the world.

The proper way of serving others also leads to humility. The one who serves does not consider himself superior to the one served, however miserable his situation at the moment may be. Christ took the lowest place in the world—the Cross—and by this radical humility he redeemed us and constantly comes to our aid. Those who are in a position to help others will realize that in doing so they themselves receive help; being able to help others is no merit or achievement of their own. This duty is a grace

In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service. In her letter for Lent 1996, Blessed Teresa wrote to her lay co-workers: “We need this deep connection with God in our daily life. How can we obtain it? By prayer”.

Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavours. They constantly experience the gift of her goodness and the unfailing love which she pours out from the depths of her heart. The testimonials of gratitude, offered to her from every continent and culture, are a recognition of that pure love which is not self- seeking but simply benevolent.

found here

Notes:
The idea that g-d is our lover, a source of erotic power, has a long (mostly female, mostly mystic) tradition, and has been only hinted at by the pope, he qoutes a male theologian to make the point, but the holiness of god's genitals remains.

This seems so obvious to me, but I hadnt really thought about it, until i read this...the euchurist is an extenstion of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, in that it is about plenty in a place of hunger. when the lord says feed my sheep, he is being painfully literal, he is extending the idea that his sacrament should be tied to charity, that the bread of the holy supper should be not only a bread of communion but a bread that staves phyiscal hunger, that the bread blessed on that table should grow enough to feed everyone, just like Jesus did w. the loaves and fishes. (and it makes again logos less abstract, logos becomes the lingustic formulae to make the abstract concrete)

I like this, it means that charity is more then being nice to people, for having a wishy-washy generalised lets all hug sense of the world---even if all men are brothers, it means we must go past the tribal nastiness of our world. it means, that to the fullness of our abilty, we must muck out the collective shit of humanity.

How do we deal with a god so much larger then ourselves, he answeres this, and its an answer that has come from the gospel since, to the least of my brethern...so the guy you give a couple of bucks to, to spend on what ever he wants, as a panhandler, is christ. the bishop, with his rectory, is less so...we, as xians, continue to refuse to internalise it in a concrete way, and i dont think that hte pope has here, either..

he has a way w. the aphormism, means that hes gunning for a legacy, which betrays the humility the press has reported, about how he didnt really want to be the pope.

i think this is a vast misreading of both the gospels and marx, and his unwillingness to make "the world turn upside down", as in the fools masses of the 12-15th century, i think betrays this encylical. the world turn upside down, once a day, happened during carnival (so in a couple of weeks really), and what happened, was the poor took over the positions of power and privelege, they became kings and queens, and the kings and queens became peasants--that one day a year, indicated to the world, was variable, and they were in danger if they were not just, that the revoution was not far off...it was a symbolic gesture, but it allowed that the church could stand to be destablized. so it was a longtime before christ talked, that allowed for a mobilty that ratzinger refuses...(other examples of medival christian mobility, no longer availble: pilgrims, monastaries, covents) back to the gospels, one reads the gospels to correspond to a personal ideology...and my ideology of course tends towards radicalism, and economic leveling, so i see that in the gospels, but i think perserving an unjust order (ie late market capitalism) is not something that a Man who worked so hard against poverty would encourage--he w. the loaves and fishes, of the money changers in the temple, of a rich man and an eye of the needle, of sell everything and follow me, the beatitudes which promise all of heaven to them--this does not sound like a leader who was advocating a top-down model of charity, but a world turned upside down recalcuation of class...and this was before marx. i wonder why lib/theo is so threatening to these people?

I have no idea who Kettler of Mainz is

I think that this is meant to settle the fear that w. the disoloution of hte nation state, the church will try their old role of crowning empires--its also disingenous, because this pope and the last pope, have consdliated power as effictvley as humanly possible, engaging in state craft and the refusal of state craft when ever politcally conveinet. this is the closest to the old ratzinger is, and its pure machavelli.

He is qouting this: John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 42: AAS 81 (1989), 472. I havent read it, so I will hold off on commenting until i can get proper context.

I think he is making apolgetics for the old school, "like a drunk in a midnight choir" school of catholic good works, which sturck me as both desperate and rathwer dangerous--and which you can see in assholes like FRanklin Graham, tying the giving of charity to the giving of the gospel has never worked for Mother Church, it allows for cruelty and hunger, and i cannot imagine it is what christ meant by "feed my sheep"

I found the connection b/w charity, justice, and humility intesnely powerful, and something that the church has to work on, and almost ending with this idea, is to center the levelling i expect of christs gospel...

it makes my skin crawl, to read Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, because of the speed of her cannozation, because of her rigour, because her lack of humilty and justice, and because of her hyprcosy--she is the conserative pin up, and it should be paid attention to, b/c he qouted her twice (and Martin of Tours, Virgil, Plato, Augustine, and Thomas)

so its a mixed bag, things that are revelatory, radical, just and beautiful, things to pay attention to, and things that seem horribly fucked up

the forty year old virgin is a v. conserative and slightly unfunny movie.

tim barber asked for a print of one of the truck series, for a show he's currating at the spence brownstone, new york

A Lexington writer points out that maybe the prayer breakfast should be something more then jesusriffic, and the spokesperson calls back, causing all sorts of chaos (foul languge and personal insults, amongst others) the article has that gee whillikers tone that peeves me, nad ive been around enough theologians who use fuck freely, but still an amusement.

more info on how the warhol authentication board is deeply in trouble--running out of money, attempting to control the uncontroallbe, and doing really obvious power grabbing moves. ive been following this story for at least half a decade, but this is the mainstream, at least in england. i find it really funny, and i think warhol would too, the attempt to make his work "authentic" in order to bolster his market space.

flying spaghetti monster hentai

The Ampulex Compressa is a wasp thatmakes zombie cockroaches to do its billing--like something out of the Alien films (the blog linked is worth reading, as it is written by an entomolygist with a taste for weird parasits)

speaking of parasites several women have died in iraq, of dehydration, because they didnt want to go to the latrines at night, fearful of being raped.

thousands of photos of body builders, and other decadents, have been found in the soviet archives, esp. images thought lost from the studios of KK Bulla, who spent a large portion of his life in the gulag, for mysterious circumstances...the interesting thing about Bulla's (and his sons) photos, is how tender they are, and how deeply erotic, like the dual uses of american studios 40 years later, or italian nymphs at about the same time...qouting the gaurdian:
The KK Bulla studio was the first to record the discreet gay culture to which tsarist Russia turned a blind eye, according to Dr Dan Healey, a history lecturer at the University of Wales, who has published a comprehensive study on Russia and its attitude to homosexuality. Traditionally, the Orthodox Church had not taken a firm line against sodomy, and it was not until 1835 that a ban on it was extended from the armed forces to the general population. "Even then, it was rarely enforced," Healey says. "While the French and German police entrapped gay men using sting operations, the Russian police most often did nothing, enabling a gay culture to evolve in St Petersburg and, to some extent, Moscow." Men met partners in bathhouses or on the street. For women, the only escape from society's expectations of femininity was joining the Cheka (secret police) or army.. v. much worth reading, this article




House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. Found
here

Denmark is really interesting, the first scandavian country to elect a reactionary, anti immigrant, neo-con government, prone to be more martial then its siblings, and with the desctrution of Cristina, and the maina for mainting a western european liberal democracy, what ever that means, having a bunch of fairly insular c artoons in the national paper, and then being too fucking pigheaded/stupid to figure out why they are offensive, doesnt suprise. neither does the reaction of the middle east, who's fundementalism is confusing to me, i want to perserve freedom of speech, i belive deeply in the mechanics of offense, but really, i wish that the offense was better constructed, if you are going to piss off a billion people, then be clever about it, dammit

here are the cartoons




a dozen or so american national security specialists write to Congress and point out, with precedent and history, exactly how fucked up Bush's ideas on executive power, an exhausting document, in every sense of the word.




hopper, gas station, mid30s
airbrushing, mid 50s
anon graffiti 2006
(missing: rosenquist ca 1960/warhol basquit ca 1980)

With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman's right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman's life is in danger,
1/31/06 Washington Times article (not linking, cause ive linked the fuckers once)

oded ezer does nift, scuptural things with hebrew typography.