Platform

Photo: David Sweet

Mythic redux

And speaking of beauty

Living Proof. Mike by AnomalousNYC

Slope

[Click to enlarge]

Ugly then, ugly now.

I heard two [white male] tea-baggers interviewed at yesterday’s protest. One was asked if this was his first foray into political activism, he replied “The only other rally I’ve ever been to was the Promise Keepers . . . I’m just an ordinary guy.”

The second, an organizer for a rally in Oklahoma, was asked by CNN’s Don Lemon pointedly (repeatedly) what exactly the protesters wanted.

“We want our country to go back a hundred years,” he answered, donning his “don’t tread on me” yellow t-shirt.

Let’s see, one hundred years ago . . .

Women didn’t have the right to vote. Wives were property. Abortion was unspeakable.

Whites and blacks were segregated. There were no civil rights. Lynchings were common.

There was no Medicare. No cure for polio. No Penicillin. Sickness was a smite from God. One prayed.

Sodomy laws were still on the books as a criminal act (until 2003). Homosexuals were known to kill themselves.

White men, and their white man’s “God,” held dominion over the land (what they still refer to as “Our America.” Obama’s not “their president.” Women? O, you mean “the wife”).

Yep, as far as I can tell, that’s what they want. Keep America White. Christian (the “gun-toting/God-fearing” kind). Straight. Male.

“Free.”

_____

Addendum (17/09/09): “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.”

Thank you, again, for your brave unwavering voice, President Carter.

Photo: “So this is what a straight [white] pride march looks like.”

The Body

stvndggs

Uncommon

Christ

 

“Are you the Christ? Tell us.” “If I tell you,” He replied, “you will certainly not believe; – Luke 22:67

Significant.

What did evolution have in mind by making one out of a million look like the boy standing before me? What was the function of such handsomeness except to draw attention to everyone else’s imperfection? I hadn’t been wholly disregarded by the god of appearances, yet the brutal standard set by this paragon turned one, by comparison, into a monstrosity of ordinariness. While talking to him I had to deliberately to look away, his features were so perfect and his looks that humbling, that shaming—that significant.

PHILIP ROTH, from Indignation

Celebrating 25 Years. Freedom to Read Week 22-28 February 2009

After Dark November 1978

Reach the Audience with Money to Spare. You’ll find them in After Dark! They’re affluent, successful and single. With no strings to tie them down. And the time and money to live it up, any chance they get.

Oh, to still own my old issues of After Dark. As a gay teen living in Toledo, Ohio, I’d have to go downtown to Leo’s Book and Wine Shop on Superior to find my treasure trove of guilty male pleasures in the far back corner of the store next to Leo’s office, only to silently squeal in delight the new issue had arrived with Jan-Michael Vincent on the cover (August 1978)!

Hilly Blue’s crown-worthy achievement at flickr archives this, and many, many more priceless images, in abundance. Voraciously so. A gift.

After Dark November 1978, originally uploaded by Hilly_Blue.