Fresh off their victory to funnel unnamed corporate money into misleading, dishonest, deceitful and vile language advertising disguised as political campaign advertising, Citizens United announced the creation of their new spot.  Tentatively titled, “Obama wants to fuck your mother“, the spot will feature images of the President of the United States in a gang bang of white women with their horrified children and husbands being forced to watch.

Citizens United spokesperson, Richard Cranium discussed this new project as they released their latest batch of deliberately misleading falsehoods, innuendos and lies which target the low-information, lazy voters in the run-up to the November mid-term Congressional elections.  Also known as “the dumb-ass vote”, the millions of easily influenced minds who make up this sector of the voting public are easily swayed by vicious rumors and bold-faced lies.

“We think the American people should know the consequences of what could happen, if a black President gang-raped white mothers in front of their families.  People have a right to choose for themselves, the kind of government they want.” said Mr. Cranium.

The new spot will feature images people and events that Citizens United want Americans to think about when they consider voting for Democrats:  Hitler, Satan, black people, illegal aliens, drug addicts, pregnant black women refusing to work and demanding that white people give them money, white men having everything taken away from them, women voting, queers, transgender and transsexual persons, rape, murder, muslims, arabs and soccer.

Citizens United scored a great victory for the fundamental rights of corporations to use The Constitution’s protection of individual rights to in fact, render the individual powerless and defenseless.  The Supreme Court decision gives the go-ahead to all corporate criminals to purchase elections and fill the government ranks with people that will people that can immunize those corporations from criminal or financial liability for their actions.  According to Mr. Cranium however, this victory is bittersweet.

“This decision is great news for the future, sure.  But, a lot of us are still upset that we went after the wrong Democrat (when they focused on Hillary Clinton).  This is a business after all, and we owe it to our investors to accurately target the right opponents and to understand the real threats to our way of life.”  Mr. Cranium stated.

Indeed, their singular focus on Hillary Clinton was the prevailing focus of the GOP for the entire Cheney-Bush regime.  It has been called by many as a classic example of preparing for the current war by planning for the last one.

“I mean, seriously.  Who the hell thought they’d elect a black guy?  None of us saw that coming.  Oh well…live and learn.” Mr. Cranium reflected.

Citizens United has built its industry leading reputation as a disinformation provider by funneling large amounts of money into massive, organized and thorough campaigns to defeat any measure or candidate that will stand in the way of corporate excess, pollution, fraud or the demolition of the middle class.  Utilizing proven methods and assets like phone banks, thousands of attorneys and copy writers to overwhelm media and voters, Citizens United has also taken advantage of new media.

By creating fake blogs and pseudonyms at legitimate websites, they flood the web with so many ridiculous claims that nobody knows what to believe.  This is especially effective with the dumb-ass voters, for whom even a second opinion is too much for them to handle.

Citizens United is also in beta trials of a new crowd-sourcing application which takes the unused cycles of employees and computers from their investors.  The idea is that if these corporations can hide the money they spend on Citizens United, they may as well throw in some unclaimed man-hours from their employees.

One example is an insurance company that is heavily invested in Citizens United.  A special program, called Mierda is loaded onto the computers of their actuarial department, loss and liability departments as well.  Citizens United runs a Mierda server, which takes large jobs and breaks them up into units of work that can be completed in about 5 minutes.  These can vary from number crunching to assigning phone numbers to call to even helping to verify names and addresses for mass mailing.  Mierda is dormant when the users are doing their actual job, but when they are idle for 60 seconds, Mierda assigns them a task from the Citizens United server.

As they prepare the next project, already in production, Mr. Cranium let on that even bigger things are in store.

“We’ve entered into negotiations with Apple and AT&T to release the Mierda platform as an app for the iPhone.  We think it will be released before Labor Day.  Pretty soon, people will be able to call themselves and deliver whatever message we want them to get.  It’s really going to be a game-changer.”  Mr. Cranium boasted.

Who can disagree?

Last year, Wikileaks posted information about the Australian government’s then secret Internet blacklist, supposedly designed to prevent child pornography but which contained many sites having nothing to do with kiddie porn. The great public outcry against the China-like plan to filter and block Internet content has made Mr. Assange persona non grata in many Australian government official’s views.  Shortly afterward, the Australian government made certain to add Wikileaks to that very same blacklist.

Recently, Wikileaks made a big splash by releasing footage from a US attack helicopter showing the murder of journalists, and a civilian trying to save lives by that same helicopter.  The site has also angered the Swiss government and banking industry as well as the banks of The Caymans by publishing details of taxation avoidance perpetrated by banks and US citizens.

Julian Assange travels countries every six weeks, maintains anonymity and hides his location, running Wikileaks from his laptop – all because he runs a website that shares information.  Having his location broadcast is limited is a threat to his physical safety.  The message from Australia is simple and clear:

We know who you are and where you are.  Keep your mouth shut.

Information has always been power.  Never has this been more true than now in this digital age.  In fights, wars, battles, conflicts and competitions – opponents vie for the information that will allow them to defeat their enemies.  In this information age, data…knowledge…ideas are not only information, but they are the living, breathing currency of our social structure.  In every scenario, whoever can gain, hoard and control information will be the person or group with power.

On one side, there are organizations like “big media” (newspapers, TV & radio networks and magazines), the carriers like telecommunication companies and official governments.  These entities are all the status quo.  They make and spend enormous sums of money, all gathered from the public and they all seek to maintain their status by the strict control of information.  And they all tell us that this is for the public good.  It is no coincidence that they oppose Wikileaks and Net Neutrality.

On the other side, blogs and websites like Wikileaks are doing what muckraking journalists of the old Fourth Estate model used to do – give voice to vast majority of us, who have neither muscle or capital, nor the advantages of being in the staus quo.

If you care about your freedom, please help support Wikileaks and write to your representatives, newspapers and regulatory agencies demanding Net Neutrality.

We’ve already had a Dark Ages.  We do not need another.

Self-sacrifice in war is no more noble than self-sacrifice in peace.  When a soldier dies in combat we honor that person for giving his or her only life so that others may live.  It may be so that other soldiers can live or it may be in defense of one’s country.  We honor those who give their lives in the horror of murder that is War.

Not all of us will wear the uniform and answer the call to fight for our country.   I did and I live on while some that I know do so, no longer.

Duty.  Honor.   Sacrifice.  Country.  Patriotism.

These words are not the province and reward of only soldiers. They are the birthright and cornerstone of citizenship.

Callous men (and I mean men) shirk the opportunity to fight in a war but call for the death of others – wave about the flag and religion to urge other sons and daughters into the slaughter of war.   These same men own companies that make enormous fortunes from the manufacturing of weapons and the harvest of plunder from vanquished lands.  These men do not sacrifice their children’s education or lives or wealth by sending them to die in foreign lands.  These men do not sacrifice their children’s health care nor their own.

Duty.  Honor.  Sacrifice.  Country.  Patriotism.

Not everyone will choose the way of war and not everyone will be asked to.  Some of us will answer the call to public service.

The great majority of us will neither wear a uniform nor work in any government position.  Most of us will live, breathe and die in pursuit of our own aims throughout our education, employment and families.  We will enjoy our lives in the benefits of citizenship, reaping the rewards of other people – most of whom we will never meet.

We will drive on roads built by people we never met.  The clothes on our back, made by unseen hands.  We use electricity for devices and we will never see where either one of them came from or how they are produced.

There are other unseen factors in our contact with each other that contribute to our lives as well.  The unexpected interaction with a stranger can alter our lives.  It cold be responsible for us missing our train home and five minutes later, we meet the person we eventually marry.

Every day of our lives, in every minute – we operate in a world created by the whole of our society.   All the good and all the bad.  We trust that the things we need will be there.  We take it for granted.  All we need to do is earn our money to buy these things.

We need education to earn money.  Science, fact, reason, language and the ability to adapt to change.  These are the tools that determine whether or not we feed ourselves and how much money we make.

We need our health to be alive to learn and then employ that knowledge for our own personal gain and for our efforts to become part of the pool of unnamed accomplishments that others will draw from to shape their lives as we do with roads, clothes, electricity, etc.

The great many of us that do not pick up a gun and leap into the murder of War will not be exempt from Duty, Honor, Sacrifice & Patriotism.  Our sacrifice comes in the deliberate contributions we make to each other – our shared health and education.

Duty.  Honor.  Sacrifice.  Country.  Patriotism.

For most of us, that means paying taxes.  It means that we give some of our wealth to the rest of our society so that we all may benefit.  Most of us do not need to dive upon a grenade in our last breath, to give our society a chance to continue on.

I will not dishonor the mortal sacrifice of those that died so that I may be born, live and prosper by refusing to make my own sacrifices of time, effort and treasure.  Will you?

No society of inequality will last.  None ever has.  The great experiment and testament of The United States of America is the proof that exists in our shared prosperity.

Are we a minority of men hoarding the wealth of our nation in a system of poor health, insufficient education, inciting violence against each other and other countries?  Or are we a society of people who all live out the meaning of Duty, Honor, Sacrifice, Country & Patriotism?

What is money?

Money is imaginary to begin with.  It consists of something (credit, paper, gold, a number in a computer, etc.) chosen by a society to represent measured units of value for people to exchange goods & services.  It is not only a straight replacement for goods & services, but money itself is a commodity.  The particulars of how money works makes for good reading.

Money is in one sense, the confidence we have in this society of ours; in our ability to work together, exist together, live together for the betterment of us as individuals and as a group.

Money is trust.  Money is a membership in society.  Money is a varying measurement on how we feel we are doing as a group.  How this plan of working together is going.  Money is a report card and an assertion that we all believe in ourselves as a society.

Money makes it possible for people outside our daily transactions, consumptions and interactions with each other – to contribute to each of those parts of our lives.  Money makes it possible for someone to make a shoe in one town for us to buy in another without ever seeing or even knowing that shoemaker or town.  It’s not just shoes – it’s everything.

Nothing exists in a vacuum.  This includes money and vanity.

How many people do you know that are self-sufficient? By that, I mean

• grow their own produce
• raise their own livestock
• make their own clothes
• drive on roads they made themselves in their self-designed & self-built cars?
• Talk on a phone they designed & built via their own telephone network?

To believe in “my money” as something separate from society is a delusion, a trick of vanity and gullibility.  Without the efforts of others, the toil of others, the sweat of others, the gifts of others, the lives of others – “my money” does not exist.  Period.   No exceptions.  None.

Pretending that I can earn my money, keep it all and owe society nothing in return is the height of insanity.   It is pure gobbledygook.  Hogwash.  Fairy tale.  Delusion.  Insanity.  Selfishness.

Everything we “own” comes as a result of someone else’s work.  Everything.  House, car, clothes, .mp3 player.  Nobody is off the grid of society.  Not even Ted Kaczynski, Christopher McCandless or Sawney Beane could get away from depending on society.

So, what are people really saying when we talk about “my money”?  Most of the time, we’re saying “I’ve got mine – fuck you”.  Only…we don’t usually have the nerve to just come right out and say that.  That would be sociopathic and probably let everyone know that we are out to fuck them over.  We might not get as much of “our money” if people knew how selfish we are being.  So, we need some rationalizations, some marketing, some sales pitches, some reasons, some excuses to help us.

Luckily, we have people willing to offer us just such a service: religion and the modern “conservative” movement, the “new cons”

When we become “everyone for one’s self”, we dismantle the agreement we made as a society…the investment of faith, effort and thought that we made in constructing this society. What is this?  Piracy?  We get so removed from the original intention, the original society creation discussions that we forget what this society, this money is made from and made for.

We buy into the belief that our lives are so desperate that we have no choice but to become selfish and brutally so.  Are we too easily sold on this idea?  Are we just looking for a reason to abdicate ourselves from any responsibility to lean into the giving part of society and not just the taking?  Is this why religion finds us such easy prey?  Are we looking for a reason to pretend that we have no choice to but to take from society and give nothing in return?  Maybe.  I can certainly see the case for it.  However, that doesn’t let NeoCons (the new cons) nor organized religion off the hook for their foul deeds of turning us against each other for their profit.

The myth of upward mobility.

We’ve all been told the same ideal.  Anyone can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” in a capitalist and democratic society.  Anyone can…but who do you know that really has?  Look at the CEO’s of the Fortune 1000.   How many of them were born in a first generation immigrant family?  How many were born to a working class family?  How many were born to a poor family?  How about the Fortune 5000?  How many are white men?  Most of us are one paycheck from disaster.

In the USA beginning with the Reagan regime and up through the reign of George Bush the lesser, when all the wealth was being transferred from the middle class into the wealthiest .01% or the population, how many of the people receiving that wealth were middle class working families or “blue collar” families or poor families?  The number you’re looking for is zero.

While the wealth of the nation was being amassed in the pockets of the people that already had the most money, the middle class and working poor have been decimated.

• The cost of living skyrocketed.
• Health insurance costs quadrupled and coverage was cut in half.
• Unemployment rose to double-digit numbers.
• One trillion dollars was spent on two wars
• Another trillion dollars was spent on the “defense” industry system of siphoning cash from the country into the pockets of a few men.
• Private prison industries emerge and swell with the scores of people whose only crime is that they got high on pot or cocaine instead of lining the pockets of the alcohol industry.
• Law enforcement industries now exist where fortunes are made by imprisoning our own citizens. The USA, home of “freedom and liberty” has the most people in prison of any nation on earth – both in terms of numbers and percentages.  That ain’t freedom.  That’s a police state.
• Oil, Insurance, Weapons and Banking industries have reaped enormous, record profits – year after year after year.

The wealth of our nation is being amassed by fewer and fewer people.  The great majority of us can’t pay our bills or are in debt up to our eyeballs and in effect – indentured servants.   Gone are the days of 30 years, a pension and a gold watch.  More and more of us face a retirement of working hourly wage at Walmart as a greeter.  We have spent the decades since Ronald Reagan took office in an orgy of delusional piety, jingoist flag waving, corporate sponsored dismantling of the rule of law & middle class and the adoration of naked, selfish greed.  All the while, we have celebrated and endorsed the robber land barons as they stripped this country’s government of any protection for the other 99% of this country.

We either sink or swim as a society.

Is the USA really the land of the free?  Or are we an uneducated, mob of minimum wage workers, prisoners and xenophobes waving a flag & a cross at the beck and call of corporate raiders and warmongers?

It’s ironic to me that the people who claim to be worried about freeloading poor on welfare (code for brown people) are themselves to the last one of them – taking from society and from the sweat of these very poor while refusing to give back.  The sad truth is that we’re all poor.  We are all losing our wealth to the top .01%.  The only means we have to escape the indentured servitude of our lives is through education and the adoption of reason over religious dogma.

We cling to the delusion of “our money” and the rejection of science for dogma, like a drowning person holding onto a gold brick instead of a life preserver.

Government is not the problem.  People who sell you the idea that government is the problem while robbing us blind at every step are not even the problem.  When someone tells you to screw your neighbor over and call that god’s will or patriotism is not even the problem.  Americans being frightened, stupid and lazy is the problem.

When we choose to invest in each other’s misfortune instead of each other’s success – we are the problem.

The financial mess we live in, the inequity of class, race and gender and the abdication of responsibility employed in the use of guns and neglect in the name of a god – these are things of our doing.  These are things we do willingly.  We must honestly admit our part in the dissolution of our world and the creation of the ills we suffer from before we can hope to alter our actions.

I’m not suggesting that we do away with money nor pool resources a la Soviet Russia.  I am offering that we remember where this money came from and who it belongs to.  I ask us all to honor our part of the bargain.

And if you’re going to take from us all, then do me us both a favor.  Just be honest.  Don’t blame government or people of different races or religions or sexual preferences or anything.  Just look me in the eye and say “fuck you”.  I won’t like you any more, but the honesty would be a refreshing change.

-gadfly

However, as I was walking the dog and enjoying the more respectful conversation it provided, I thought about what kind of god I might be interested in.  Nobody ever asks me what kind of god I want.  They always seem to be shoving theirs onto my lap for blind acceptance, fear, intimidation, peer pressure or just a plain old grab for cold, hard cash.

Here is a list of the attributes I would want in a god / supreme being / maker of all this stuff…

• Does not give a shit if I swear.  I can say anything I like.
• Does not care if I listen to any priests or anyone else pretending to be god.
• Does not send me off to kill people.
• Does not want my money.
• Does not want me to be afraid of god.
• Does not care if I believe in god or not.
• Wants me to use my brain as much as I possibly can, exercise my own judgment and choose my own life.
• Does not want me to tell / convince / convert anyone else to believe anything about god – ever.
• Doesn’t really care what I do with my life – it’s mine to live as I choose.
• Does not care which words I use to define myself or for what reasons I choose them.  This includes gender, race, age, ability, sexuality or any other descriptor I define myself with.
• Is not keeping track of my fuck-ups as a reason to justify me being punished to suffer for eternity.
• Does not care if anyone agrees with my definition of god or not.
• Is happy if I’m happy.
• Doesn’t allow people to be raped, starved, beaten, tortured or killed.
• Can move neocons or me to another planet entirely, so that I don’t have to hear or see them – ever again.
• Would make a public statement that all the ‘holy books’ in the world are a bunch of crap, written down by men, for men over the last few thousand years – and nothing more.
• Is not a man.

I am not guaranteeing that I would believe in this god, but I would have a hard time not really liking it a whole lot.

You may have your own.  What are they?

You may find this hard to believe, but I do celebrate Christmas. I celebrate life, each other and the giving of joy. I wish you all the very same.

- gadfly

CEO Robert “Bob” Iger has scheduled a press conference for this Thursday,two hours before President Barack Obama‘s address to the joint chambers of Congress.  With rumors swirling of The White House taking up a draft of its own health care plan, this move is clearly designed to beat the President to the punch and gain the initiative.

This very bold move, the first example of private enterprise seeking to displace Federal legislation took shape over the August Congressional recess.  House Minority Leader John Boehner was vacationing with his family at Disneyworld.  With the vast majority of Rep. Boehner’s constituents having been bussed off to disrupt Democratic Party town-hall meetings, he opted to spend time with his family.  Upon arrival, Boehner was  informed that all things are possible in Disneyworld, especially in Fantasyland.  Boehner immediately asked to speak to ‘someone in charge’.  He was rushed into a meeting with Mickey in his exclusive car on the monorail.  Aides close to Rep. Boehner describe the meeting as colorful and animated.

Since that meeting, executives at Disney have been working frantically to broker a solution for the two most pressing issues facing the citizens of the US: the health care crisis and the 100 million homes that are not directly connected to a Disney-owned media stream.

Final details are still being worked out in advance of their presentation later this week.  However, we have learned that Disney will purchase Blue Cross / Blue Shield outright.  Additionally, Disney will establish a data / media network to provide all medical providers with access to medical records and useful daytime TV programming for their reception areas.  This last move will give medical providers access to electronic medical records compliance standards and edge out Fox, CBS and NBC from the critical ‘appointment’ viewers demographic.

On the patient side, Disney has partnered with Microsoft and Apple to deliver a system that allows patients to access to their online records, phyisician’s appointments and coverage by subscribing to a licensed ISP / CableTV provider.  The initial system will only work with Windows 7 or OS X 10.5 and iPhone 3G.

Regarding eligibility and pricing, the details will be made public after the official announcement.  It is believed that no one will be turned away without first being offered a higher premium.  Illegal immigrants will not be covered except for a limited workers’ compensation offering available only during the summer tourist season.

In a joint statement from Rep. Boehner and The Walt Disney Co, they simply stated.

“We are offering a Mickey Mouse health care solution for the American people.”

Expect to hear more on this in the days to come.

-gadfly

Today, on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol, US Senator Al Franken held a press conference to declare his intention to seek a second term as Minnesota’s junior Senator.  Sen. Franken spent his entire first term in a lengthy court battle with The Party of “No”.  With his wife Fran at his side, he addressed a large crowd of press, supporters and curious onlookers who seemed surprised to learn that Minnesota actually has two US Senators.

Excerpts of Sen. Franken’s prepared remarks are published here with permission:

“Hello everyone and thank you for being here.  It seems almost like yesterday when I ran for my first term as a US Senator.  However, as we know – yesterday, I was in court fighting to dismiss or disprove ridiculous charges of vote fraud or procedural delay tactics that were being mounted by ex-Senator Coleman.  Which is also what I did the day before yesterday…and the day before that…and so on.

Now that time has marched on and The Party of No is sitting on a 9% approval rating, they have thrown in the towel.  Their strategy was to waste a Democratic Senator’s first term in court proceedings.  Well, they succeeded.  Not only has my first term been eliminated, but we celebrated some important milestones in my absence from doing the job you elected me to do:

• HD TV  replaced Analog across the country
• Iran had a questionable election and mass riots
• North Korea launched missiles and detonated nuclear testing
• An economic stimulus package was passed
• Guantanamo’s torture prison was ordered closed
• 3 states legalized same-sex marriage
• Honduras had a military coup
• US military forces left Iraq
• George W Bush actually started to look good (when compared to Glenn Beck, Dick Cheney, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh)

Six years ago, I was a newcomer to politics, as you all know.  Thanks to the tireless string of appeals and objections raised by ex-Senator Coleman, I am still brand new.  I have not served a day in office.  You can thank the party of ‘fiscal responsibility’ for wasting your tax dollars and squandering my time.  While I was in court defending what you had elected me to do, absolutely nothing was being done by my office on your behalf.

So, now it is time to turn our sights forward…”

Senator Franken went on to say that he is looking forward to actually seeing his desk in his office in Washington D.C.

Reactions from the media were mixed and predictable.

Radio personality Rush Limbaugh fumed with outrage as only he can.  Limbaugh got into an argument with a caller who directly challenged Mr. Limbaugh’s assertion that Al Franken is black.  The caller later issued a public statement in order to ‘clear the air’ about any disagreement he may have had with Limbaugh.  After apologizing for disagreeing with Rush Limbaugh, the caller said that the way to win back Minnesota’s Senate seat is to hate more non-whites and all gays and women.

Rep. John Boener (R-Ohio) funneled money from funds that were gifted to him by private donors in Fortune 100 companies, into the filming of PSA’s that involved the Congressman sicking dogs after Senator Franken.

Bill O’Reilly announced that Senator Franken was a killer, capable of “real Nazi stuff”.  Several times in his evening tirade, Mr. O’Reilly referred to Senator Franken as ‘Senator Killer’, which he later denied.

So, a new chapter begins for the voters of Minnesota and it is anybody’s guess as to how it will turn out.  Will they elect another Democratic Senator only to see his term wasted by the dying remnants of Plantation and slave owners?  Perhaps Minnesota will simply give up on the idea of two Senators or simply forget completely that they are entitled to that number of representatives in the upper house.

Minnesota is not known for trendsetting, but they may be the test bed for a new GOP strategy – one that no longer seeks a majority through the polling place.  Instead, they may simply try to negate their opponents’ victories and make the positions of elected Democrats irrelevent.  It is a bold plan, unprincipled and unscrupulous and it is tailor-made for a party that seeks to combine religious intolerance with military brutality under the banner of morality.  In all honesty, if the GOP can’t make this happen – no one can.

-gadfly

(Image courtesy of digado)

As many of you may already know, I have recently launched a community, collaborative blog: sexgenderbody.com.  In the last couple months, my content here had become a bit too higgledy-piggledy even for myself.  I found that I had a great deal to say on personal politics, the politics of self-definition.  This is not a conflict with the conversations I have been having here in the realm of Politics with a capital P, the politics of institutions and society at large or simply – groups.

Politics with a P are the more commonplace discussions that we all know and ‘love’: conservative vs. liberal, right-wing vs. left-wing, labor vs. management, class vs. class, race vs. race and so on.  Inside the myriad of daily Politic-speak are notions of the rights of the individual.  The terms of these conversations are subtly couched in a model where governments and institutions are defining the individual.  Rights, protections, entitlements, values, uses, and many other terms that all serve to reinforce the model that the individual exists in terms given by the society, or Political party affiliation.  A person’s rights as given by the Constitution, a Political affiliation or membership in a religious sect.

Yet, we exist in a world where we are constantly being sold on the idea of our having the freedom to define ourselves.  We are barraged with advertising that urges us to express our individuality…by purchasing a car or .mp3 player or jacket that is made in lots of 100,000.  We are told the stories and shown the images of people expressing themselves in one way or another for the last 50 years of Pop Culture.  Hippies, Beatniks, Protesters, Generation X’ers, Xtreme Sports Enthusiats and Green Advocates…images all of who we can be, to be individuals.  Maybe they are genuine expressions for some.  Maybe they once were.  But, when they are blasted on billboards, advertising, movie sets, TV shows and Internet ads – they are industrial images of definition: mass produced to define the individual in terms that society desires.

So, for years I have asked myself how do I define myself as an individual – in my own terms?  Is that even possible?  I don’t invent any words, in fact I need to use words that were invented by someone else so that I can be understood.  But, the choice of words is mine.  That, I should own.  I should be able to choose when and where I choose the words and images to define myself.  So, should you.

In some societies, this is forbidden outright.  In others, this could happen.  In this society, the USA, it’s supposed to be not only possible but paramount.  Since the Reagan Ass-olution gave the (Im)Moral Majority access to government funding, we have been beat down with disapproval and judgment, ‘correct’ living codes, religious intolerance and vilification, class warfare and dehumanization.  We have been defined by talking heads on news channels, pundits, think tanks, ad agencies and anyone else wishing to side with the human harvest.

We are told what to eat, what to wear, where to work, what to drive, where to vacation, what to buy, what to drink, what to desire in a mate, how to succeed in bed and what to do before we die.

Politics with a p: the expression of one’s self in one’s own terms, is a difficult thing to find.  It is. This is not something measured by choosing a blue pickup truck over a red mini-van.  It’s measured when someone chooses to change gender.  It’s measured when someone chooses to marry someone of the same gender.  It is measured when someone agrees with a spouse to love many partners and have sex with whomever they choose, because they wish to for themselves.  It is measured when a child born with a small penis is not subjected to male genital mutilation because the parents or doctor judge that a man can never be a man with a small penis.  It is measured when a person is free to identify as bisexual today and straight tomorrow.

Society does not need to allow people the right to define themselves.  Society needs to stop trying to take that right away.

There seems to be an assumption that all the labeling of individuals, the suggestions of what is ‘good’ or ‘right’ or ‘acceptable’ for self-definition is done for the common good.  That we’ll all be better if people just play by these rules and pull in the same direction.  But, we are not the same.  We are all individuals already.  All that we accomplish by silencing people’s genuine individuality is a society of dishonesty.  We don’t end up any happier if we are hiding our true desires or self-definitions.  Society deprives itself of the very best of people’s true talents and expressions when individuality is repressed.  Repression is not an efficient form of government or a lasting model for success and health in a society.

Repressive regimes fail.  The all fail – for the same reason: individuals abandon them one at a time, until no one is left.

So, I set up sexgenderbody for these conversations to exist, to multiply, to thrive and to take root.  It is a site for the individual to discuss one’s self, one’s body, one’s gender and one’s sex – in one’s own terms.  A place from which to dictate to society, the terms of who you are.  I invite you to visit a place that can be defined with a simple phrase:

I define my sex, gender, body.  You define yours.

The National Gadfly will still be a place for disrespect of hypocrisy, challenges to abuse of power and Politics with a P.

-gadfly

God was recently discovered by Fr. Sebastyn Smyrnalovka from Huendoara, Romania while performing what he claimed to be “missionary work” in the brothel.  According to regular customers, Fr. Sebastyn has been holding ‘prayer vigils’ with the women of this brothel for years.  These sessions often last for about 15 minutes and the Fr. is very generous with the girls, leaving a 15% gratuity and sometimes more.

Recently, when all of his favorite girls were occupied, Fr. Sebastyn was very eager to pray with someone and settled on God.  The exact events are still a little uncertain, but shortly after entering the room with God, Fr. Sebastyn came out of the room naked and shrieking about his undeserving penis, crying for forgiveness ran out into the street.

A small crowd gathered near the brothel, which faces the Josue Neri Santos Gym.  God had already returned to her normal duties of cleaning up after the prostitutes and their patrons.  On a busy Saturday night, God often works 12-14 hours changing sheets, cleaning toilets, mopping vomit, urine and feces from the floors.  With the increased drug traffic in Ciudad-Juarez, the brothels are busier than ever.

Many of the clean-up girls, like God were born to women that worked in the brothels.  They live and play here while their mothers are working.  Many of them begin working here at an early age, because youth fetches a high price among the clientele.  In fact, girls beyond the age of 21 are considered to be ‘old’ and they are often passed over for the younger, teenage girls.  Girls like God will often take on housekeeping duties, to replace the lost income.  Still, in busy times they are often called in to service men when they require multiple women.  Usually this is for hand-jobs, but can include any sex act the client requires and has the money to pay for.

God’s two children, Jesus, age 7 and Maria, age 5 work in the brothel as well.  Maria will run to nearby stores for liquor and cigarettes for the clients and tampons, condoms and douche kits for the women.  Jesus is supposed to be in school, but with no one to escort him to the bus, he has begun playing with the roving packs of boys that are everywhere in these neighborhoods.  Most of these boys will end up in gangs and many of them already are by the age of 9.  God knows that it may already be too late for Jesus, but she has made arrangements to cross the border into The United States.

God will leave Ciudad Juarez next month, packed with other families in the back of a truck and ride for two days into the desert where they will attempt to cross into El Norte. God has given up waiting for Christians, Muslims, Jews and all other religions to get anything done to help poor children, so she is trying to save two at least.  On a break from cleaning toilets, God sat in the kitchen, watching her children eat a simple meal of beans and rice.  Tired and visibly worried, God spoke of her dwindling faith in humanity to take care of anybody.

“People grow up and treat each other like shit.  They let children starve, be raped and killed by the millions.  I think I really screwed up when I built puberty.  The intent was to give people a sense of stewarship and then they would look after the young.  Childhood is supposed to be the age of discovery but all these children learn about is how to get sick, be raped or be killed in a pile of garbage.”

As the Saturday night regulars from the local leather tannery stream in, God gets herself ready for one of her regulars.  He prefers anal sex and often brings a friend.  God says that she doesn’t mind the work, but if they are drunk it can get violent.

Picking up her cigarettes, God thinks out loud:

“You know, I could arrange it that everybody dies at age 25, unless the children are all fed.  So help me, if one of my children die – I will probably do just exactly that.”

Reporting from Ciudad-Juarez,

-gadfly

During the Reagan years, I dated a woman that had two children from a previous marriage.  They adopted a cat and went through this lengthy process of naming the animal.  I really didn’t want to get involved, so I figured that I would offer a suggestion so bad that they’d just leave me alone.

“How about Separation of Church and State” I said.

Crickets.

That was about the one and only time the topic has been used as a punch line, in my lifetime.  These days, the assault on this core principle of The United States of America is no laughing matter.  I don’t have anything original to say about Theocracy, but since this is a blog – I won’t let that stop me.

Theocracies always end in murder.

Theocracies are always about money.

Theocracies are inefficient.

Theocracies always fail, fail miserably and the societies are worse off afterwards.

Theocracies always require military enforcement.

Theocracies are run by people who claim to get their instructions from an invisible being that is watching us all.

Theocracies lie.

Theocracies are an intentional grab of power, for economic advantages, masking lies and brutality with piety.

Theocracies always ask for more than they give.

Theocracies fight science, reason and knowledge for their personal gain.

Theocracies want us to be uneducated and poor, in debted to them and unable to resist their autocratic rule.

Theocracies define ‘religious freedom’ as their freedom to be the religion that makes the most money.

Theocracies discriminate against, judge and punish people for being different.

Theocracies are a license to do anything to anybody with a permission slip from an invisible being that is all-powerful but needs these people to run everything and collect money.

I don’t believe in God, so theocracies have nothing to offer me.

-gadfly

The DA’s office issued a statement today, announcing that The Gadfly was sought for being the alleged mastermind of an international counterfeit ring.  This ring has printed and sold phony vehicle registration stickers, city stickers and parking permits.  They have flooded the market with the fakes and thus crippled municipalities like Chicago, Rome, Tokyo and Barstow.  Authorities estimate the annual sales of these counterfeit stickers to total in the millions of dollars, yen, rupees and lira.  The cost to each city in lost revenue from the sales of legitimate stickers and the lost revenue from tickets and summons for violators is immeasurable.

Local authorities first became aware of The National Gadfly during a spate of graffiti crimes that terrified men’s room attendants in Miami nightclubs in 1984.  Goat’s blood began appearing spattered in bathrooms of popular nightclube in Miami’s Deco district and in certain stalls of the Miami International Airport.  The signature of this crime was the term “Death Rides A Pale Caprine”, written in blood and signed with a Jolly Roger.

The National Gadfly has openly challenged curb taxes across the planet, claiming that

“The only differences between a common thief and an official at City Hall are pension and health plans.”

Although not directly involved with known protest organizations that regularly disrupt international conferences of the World Bank, G20, WTO and RIAA, The National Gadfly has been positively identified in photographs taken of crowds outside these events.  These photographs show The Gadfly in his signature gesture of picking his nose and often were taken mere minutes before large scale demonstrations erupted into violence.

District Atty. Stevens pointed out in her statement that the very cities that have witnessed these protests, all experienced a huge spike in counterfeit sticker sales in the weeks leading up to the conferences and riots.  Stevens asserted that The National Gadfly was in Pompano Beach today because the city is a finalist to host the 2010 Wealth Hoarding Conference.  Stevens claimed that several sources approached her office with information that The National Gadfly was in town to scout this event, obtain copies of legitimate parking stickers, license plates stickers and taxi cab receipts as source materials for counterfeit.

Asked what The National Gadfly was doing in the tattoo parlor at the time of his arrest, District Attorney Stevens replied,

“He was having the word “Defenestration” removed from his left testicle”

No further information was given.

Approximately one hour later, The National Gadfly appeared before a judge for arraignment with a legal team comprised of several attorneys that normally serve as in-house counsel for The Teamsters.  They announced that they have taken an indefinite leave of absence from their current duties, to act as pro-bono defense counsel for The National Gadfly.

Judge Clement Norwood set bail at $500,000 and The National Gadfly was ordered to surrender his passport.  Bail was posted in cash.  A request was made by District Attorney Stevens, to freeze the assets of The National Gadfly.  This may be difficult to insure, as The Gadfly’s legal residence is listed as a bathroom stall in the Minneapolis.  Judge Norwood set a court date of October 15, 2009 for jury selection to begin and November 14 for a trial start date.

Broward County courts records are public domain, so the trial of The National Gadfly will be aired on Court TV.  According to Lisa Michalski, Sr. VP of Marketing at Court TV,

This trial will be the media circus to rule them all.  It’s a ‘perfect storm’ of the worst elements of the Pulitzer divorce, the OJ Simpson trial and the Nuremburg trials.  Imagine those three events taking place in a crowded courtoom without airconditioning, 100 miles up the Amazon river, broadcast live – and you have begun to glimpse what this fiasco will mean to our ratings and pop culture.

- gadfly

I took my 8 y/o daughter recently to visit the grave of my grandmother and grandfather.  They’re buried in a little cemetery in Batavia, IL called Resurrection.  My daughter said it was too bad that we didn’t bring flowers and I agreed.  I’m not much of a cemetery visitor myself, but there is something about flowers.

We agreed to bring flowers next time.

It took us about 20 minutes to find the headstones, which was comedic in itself.  I was sort of embarrassed that I didn’t know where the markers were.  I mean, I really did spend a lot of time with “Gramma” when she was alive.  I haven’t visited her grave since the day she was buried, 9 years ago.

As I lined up an 8 y/0 child with me into a search party for two rocks in the ground with names Donald and Jane, I thought that it’s probably a lucky break for me that I am an atheist.  I figured that if I believed that I’d be facing the spirits of the dead in an afterlife, they would chew my ass out for never visiting their tombs or at least bringing flowers when I did finally swing by.  Not to mention spending my remaining living years stewing over the guilt for my misdeeds.

As it was, I just passed the time watching my daughter pick up shiny things as an offering for the graves of her ancestors.  I wondered if I was a poor example of how to respect ones ancestors, but that was just my old Catholic guilt training flaring up like some scar from a childhood trauma.  In reality, the way to respect my ancestors is to live a life of dignity and honesty; to live a life worth living.  That’s what they did and that’s the only thing Gramma would want me to do, if she were here.  It’s all she ever wanted for me.

We found the markers.  My daughter found them, of course.  I walked over and we gazed up the remembrances of those gone before us, father and daughter.  In addition to his birth and death dates and name, Donald’s stone listed his accomplishments:

WWII, KOREA, 82ND AIRBORNE, SFC, PURPLE HEART, BRONZE STAR.

Jane’s stone said less:

WIFE

Wife? Wife? That’s it?  What an insult.  I was stunned.  As we looked on, my daughter captured the essence of this label perfectly:

“That sucks.”

I looked around for comparison to see a demonstration of the travesty before me.  Unfortunately, this seemed to be the norm as the theme for choosing an epitaph for a woman seemed to be “What is the least we can possibly say?” The result looks like a low bidding war of using the least syllables.  Sort of like the last move in a Scrabble game, when you don’t even have a full tray of letters.  Or a funeral home game show called Name That Woman: “I can name that woman in one word.”

Wife. Mother. Sister.

I wondered what stopped the trend from going even lower on the value scale.  Maybe it has and there are women’s graves out there with declarations of even lower value:

Her. Cook. It.

Maybe it was nothing more than an indictment of my mother’s strained relationship with her own mother.  Whatever.  I was pissed.  My daughter and I stayed a while longer and then I took her for a drive around Batavia.  I showed her my grandmother’s old house, her church, her charities.  I told her of holidays and summer days that lasted forever.  I showed my daughter a house that Mary Todd Lincoln had lived in near my grandmother’s house.

“Cool!  Did you meet her, daddy?”  My daughter asked me.

Which is the exact same question I asked my grandmother when she showed me that house!  Gramma didn’t think it was nearly as funny a question as my guffaws indicated to my daughter’s inquiry.

I told her my grandmother’s life story, as I know it.

Born, in 1916 in NYC as Rita Mae Krueger.  Her birth certificate was issued from an adoption hospital, where women would deliver a child that they would give up for adoption.  Rita was adopted by a family in Elgin, IL who already had a son of their own, Sylvester.  The changed Rita’s name to Jane.  They also adopted another little girl and named her, Helen.

Helen became very ill so she was returned to the orphanage and a new girl brought home.  She too was renamed Helen.  My grandmother confided to me that this event made her dreadfully afraid to become ill, for she was afraid that she would be returned to die alone. These three children remained close for the rest of their lives, with my grandmother and her brother living on for years after Helen.

Her teen years and young adult years are not known to me.  It has been suggested that my grandmother too had a child out of wedlock which she gave up for adoption.  My grandmother married before WWII to a Emanuel and she bore two girls with him.

He went to war and she stayed behind with the girls.  He came back from the war as an alcoholic and became the town drunk.  Grandmother divorced him, despite her strong Catholic faith.

Grandmother knew how to work the system.  She was vigorously active in the Democratic Party and civic organizations.  She had a strong sense of community contribution and the duties of citizenship.  In addition to earning the money to raise her daughters, named Jane and Rita (go figure), she contributed time and effort to her church; community organizations; Democratic Party operations, GOTV drives & registration.  She joined The Loyal Order Of Moose, whose signature charitable operation is funding Mooseheart – The Child City, a home for orphans. (go figure…again).

After her daughters were raised and gone, she remarried to Don.  She found in him true happiness.  Their wedding was in Hawaii and they bought a house in Batavia to live out their days and cash in on the good life promised to those that made so many sacrifices during WWII.  I remember every visit to their house as a time of laughter, smiles and joy.  Christmas eve seated around a shiny silver christmas tree made of wire and plastic with a lamp on the floor shining red, blue, green and yellow light on the tree.  Summer days in the backyard swimming pool.  Ice cream sundaes in little plastic cups in the freezer.  Friday night fish-fry at the VFW.

She was a busy-body.  She always had little lists of things to do and memo pads by the phone with a pencil.  Her refrigerator had little lists posted on there and she was always working off of some list.

When I was 8, Don went to the hospital for chest pains.  They gave him some medicine and released him.  He called his wife to come pick him up and while she was driving to him, a blood clot slipped into his heart and he died.  That’s when we put the first rock in the ground at Resurrection Cemetery.

Grandma lived another 30 years after that.  She was always busy.  She never married again.  She didn’t want to lose her military health benefits.  She did meet a man and they lived together for a few years.  But, she couldn’t bring herself to let go of the benefits she had.  She was the queen of working the system.  Not milking it – she contributed plenty.  More than many others.  But, if a promise was made to her, she was going to make sure that it is kept.  The greatest generation was promised much for their sacrifice during WWII and Jane O’Flaherty was going to make sure that the promise was delivered.

Until retirement, she worked in state institutions for troubled children and teens.  She was there for those that no one was there for.

She kept her Catholic faith, but like many – she made the personal decisions regarding her own life by the terms of what is best for her and not what is best for the Pope.  She was an active member of her church, Holy Cross.  However, she was not secretive about her opinions – especially when they differed from the Vatican or the Pastor.  Her brother had joined the priesthood as an adult and for years, she assisted his parishes in addition to her own.  They shared a close bond of friendship, sibling kinship and shared values.  He was with her for all but the last 5 years of her life.

I told all of this to my daughter, remembering all the love I received from that woman.  My daughter said to me while I pointed out the Chevy dealer my grandmother kept afloat by purchasing a new dark blue Caprice every 3 years.  The little voice in the back seat said:

“Daddy, great-grandma was really committed.  Wasn’t she?”

Those words were a greater respect for the dead than any floral arrangement or carved monument.  The knowledge this little girl has of the goodness from her ancestor and the ownership of that as a part of who she is – priceless.

In reality, the memories of the dead can never do justice to their lives.  No monument or story or reverence can replace or recreate the impact of anyone.  It is simply not possible.  What we can do, is to do what they did – live, and do so with every ounce of care and commitment that we can generate.  The greater the legacy we might wish to honor, the greater the commitment we share with those that live with us now.

Thinking about what words my grandmother’s stone would have, if she were to choose them, I suspect it might look like one of her little lists:

move on.

work the system.

stay healthy.

do your part.

say your prayers.

- gadfly

I did not initially sense how these two films would pair with each other around any central theme or related conversation.  The first film was about a group called Empowered Fe Fes, which is a support group for young women with disabilities.  The film focused on two relationship conversations.

One was a look into the day to day relationship of a woman with disabilities who was dating a man with full use of his limbs.  They both discussed how their courtship and daily lives and romance together.  In their discussions about sex, they both demonstrated that all human relationships reach intimacy when communication and relatedness are present. She described her daily ritual of getting ready as a sexual act, which surprised me – and at my age & perversion level, surprises don’t come easily. The reason it surprised me was that my own prejudiced unstated or unacknowledged views of disabilities tend to be poorly informed and largely comprised of my own unease around the topic.

“We are all born sexual”

The other focus of the film was to show the Empowered Fe Fes meeting in groups to discuss self image, sexuality, relationships, health care and how they choose to hold themselves in respect.  They discussed, in frank terms, Eugenics in the past and present tense as a very real demonstration of the horror we inflict upon each other, the instant that we dehumanize someone.  It is a grim truth that individuals with disabilities see every day.  One statistic they discussed is the 20k plus women that have been sterilized in California between 1900 – 1960.  One woman in the group had been tricked into a hysterectomy, but realized before it was too late what was going on and was able to avoid it.  She described being given a consent form to sign for the hysterctomy and having been instructed to not read it before signing.

“Sexuality is a civil right”

The women discussed abusive relationships, orgasms, sex, masturbation, make up, courtship and child bearing.  At one point, they all went to a sex-toy shop in Chicago, Early to Bed.  This was a scene of such innocence and grace as these women experienced a space where sexuality is not only something to be claimed, but celebrated.  The laughter and joy of that moment was an intimate moment unlike many that I have seen or may see again.

There was some footage of the Fe Fes out on sidewalks, engaging the public to raise awareness.  They had microphones and were interviewing passers by.  One woman in a wheelchair asks a young man walking by what he thinks when he sees a disabled person on the street.

He said that he sees them “just like any normal person”.

The audience reacted in gasps and cynical remarks at the boy’s obvious prejudice.  The director stayed right with the woman as she asked him in return

“What do you mean when you say normal?”

The boy, nervously stammered, trying to undo his awkward admission of his own prejudices.

The director didn’t turn away from that moment and the result was an unblinking look at the very real dynamics of how people deal with their judgments of each other as well as the impact that our judgments have on others and ourselves.  The all too scary truth about dehumanization is that it can begin with our discomforts, fears and shame.  I realized that my prejudices, hushed voice and averted face are at the very least a denial of the humanity I share with anyone and at the very worst – a step in the direction of the cruelties and malice that all dehumanization leads to.

Claiming one’s sexuality and personal identity can be a difficult process for anyone.  How much harder is it when society injects value judgements and restrictions into the very personal nature of sexuality and identity?  This is a very intimate film.  Intimacy built from the honesty of these young women and the filmmaker’s long look at the places where a woman with disabilities will carve out her identity and the struggle she may face by simply asking for society to see her as she defines herself.

The next film, hosted by Betty Dodson, was a horse of a completely different color.  Women from all walks of life agreed to be interviewed about masturbation.  They discussed their first orgasm, their relationship with masturbation, their self image and the effect that sex with themselves has had on their relationships and self esteem.

These women touched on every aspect of their sexuality in frank, unassuming terms:

“I wish I was the kind of person that would devote more time to it (masturbation)”

“Being raised by an orgasmic mother is a blessing”

The women each brought in whatever toys they wanted in order to masturbate.  The process was, in many cases elaborate.  The sexual energy was not simply overt as they masturbated at length until orgasming, but overwhelming.  Several women had multiple orgasms and the camera spared no detail as women touched and entered themselves in pleasure and self awareness.

Their relationships to masturbation were all over the place as well.  One woman described being raped at 11 y/o and that masturbation allowed her to safely deal with hormones and to enter a healthy sexual adulthood.  Another woman described it as what she does to calm herself at the end of a rough day.

Almost all of them described their first orgasm as something they suddenly experienced in their childhood. Each recounting it in terms that made it clear how natural and human sexuality is.

There were some surprises here as well.  One woman used stones and this gave her a sense of relationship between her life, her Self and the places where she had gathered these stones.  Water, lubricants, latex toys, vibrators were all used.  However, they almost vanished as each woman’s sense of arousal became almost this external entity in and of itself.  One woman didn’t know how to orgasm with her fingers or hands and instead ground herself onto a rolled up blanket.  I have seen some hot scenes in my life, but let me tell you now that watching this woman grind it out onto a rolled up blanket was just about the hottest sex scene I have ever seen.  The muscles of her back, butt and legs were grinding and gyrating in a dance where she used her body and mind to meet the surface of the earth, playing with gravity and time.  Unbelievable.

They spoke to the camera, touching themselves in the means of comfort and arousal.  There was often an almost Zen flow from a woman touching herself in matter-of-fact absent mindedness and rhythmically focused drive toward pleasure.

Let me tell ya something, folks – it is not easy to sit through watching 13 women take me through a tour of their bodies, their lives and their selves en route to an orgasm.  About halfway through, I was looking for a plank of wood to use as a bite block.  I ordered this movie to watch with my wife.

One woman stated:

“Masturbation helped me take control of my own orgasm”

This film walked back from orgasm into self definition, while the first film came from the opposite direction.  They both provided a view of intimacy, individuality and a person’s path to define one’s self in one’s own terms and for one’s own reasons.  These films are about being human and all that it entails.  They are about being related to ourselves and each other.

The discussion afterward was somewhat abbreviated and seemed awkward.  There was a nervous energy in the room and I thought people were spending a lot of time defending their views or reacting to some slight or insinuation.  But, nobody really was saying anything negative, so it just seemed like a bunch of people taking differenct exceptions to phantom negative comments.

There was one man that just started talking and it didn’t seem like he was going to stop – ever.  A man right nexgt to him kept going on about how it’s not bad to be shy or private about sexuality.  I wondered if he might have found the experience of watching 13 women naked and orgasming – distasteful.

As I was riding home, it occurred to me why the discussion group was so stilted.  We had all just watched and experienced deep intimacy and intense sexual expressions for over 2 hours.  The last 90 minutes was a parade of women’s genitals in full bloom.  There was all this sexual energy in the minds of us all.  Our limbic brains had been playing at 78 speed for 90 minutes.  And now, we were all trying to disconnect that motor and switch over to conversation and analysis.

I think an appropriate thing to say, to break that tension would have been an admission so that we could all just be with that for a minute and not pretend so much that it was not in the room at all.  Something simple, like the very thought I had in my head:

“I don’t know about you folks, but after watching that movie – I gotta go home and fuck my brains out!”

-gadfly

According to Forbes, the scope of Australia’s internet censorship has developed far beyond its initial aim to block child pornography and web pages associated with terrorism. Free speech advocates fear it could be used to block legitimate activity.

Wikileaks recently published a complete list of the proposed blacklist sites currently under review in Australia, under the guise of protecting the people of Australia from child pornography.  The Australian government has issued a statement calling the list a fake and threatening action against Wikileaks.  Wikileaks is standing behind the list’s authenticity and has issued a statement informing the Australian government of their full rights to publish the list as well as a promise to pursue legal action against anyone attempting to censor Wikileaks.

There are some excellent articles on these events at the following links:

FORBES:
Aussie Internet Blacklist Has Gray Areas

WIRED:

Australia Censors Wikileaks Page

Excerpt:

The federal government in Australia has been wanting to force all ISPs to use the list to censor the internet for everyone, but that plan has sputtered under severe criticism from online liberty groups and technical experts.

But just last week, ACMA forced Whirlpool to remove a user forum link that pointed to graphic pictures on an anti-abortion website. ACMA threatened the site’s hosting provider with fines of $11,000 a day if the link was not removed.

That, free speech advocates say, shows the censorship regime isn’t limited to fighting child pornography and will be used to block legitimate political speech.

GUARDIAN (UK):
Wikileaks taken offline after publishing Australia’s banned websites

IT NEWS:
ACMA blacklist proves too popular for Wikileaks

LEZGETREAL:
Australian Government Purposed to Ban Gay Websites

UBER REVIEW:
What the Leaked Australian Internet Blacklist Says About Censorship

Excerpt:

Then there are the technical aspects of censorship. It constricts rapidly increasing traffic and slows the flow of information. It is not simply a matter of blocking access to the sites on the list; all Internet use must be monitored in order to prevent access to the blacklisted sites. Thus, as the number of sites on the list grows, the speed of user traffic will decrease. Australia’s Internet is already embarrassingly slow for a developed country a nation-wide filtration system would constitute a further step back.

COURIER NEWS:
Scared men wear secrecy veil: Terry Sweetman

Excerpt:

SECRECY, said British judge Sir John Chadwick, is the badge of fraud. He was speaking in the context of financial fraud but it seems equally to apply in Australia where governments wear the badge while robbing us of our freedoms, all the while pretending to do precisely the opposite.

DONATE TO WIKILEAKS

Wikileaks needs money to upgrade their servers and get more bandwidth.  This is where you can and need to help! Please, go to Wikileaks and donate right now to donate $10 or more.  The enemies of free information are the enemies of us all.

Wikileaks is on the front line of the fight for accountability, transparency and accountability.  Please help.

-gadfly

The source of this claim?  None other than the ghost of Ayn Rand herself, who recently appeared near her tombstone in Kensico Cemetery.  According to several witnesses, the image of Ms. Rand first appeared several weeks ago.  Initial observers assumed that the spirit was simply another CEO come to Ms. Rand’s tombstone to meditate and give herself permission to lie, cheat and steal in the name of some Libertarian higher moral code.

According to Mr. Rudolph Cosentino, head groundskeeper here at Kensico, it is normal to see lurkers around plot #254:

“We get them here all the time.  A lot of corporate types will sit there and fill out their MBA applications.  They ask for wi-fi, but I won’t do that.  It’s too much fun watching them trying to use a #2 pencil.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Cosentino was approached by the apparition when he stopped to light up a Lucky Strike in the shade of an elm tree near the grave of Ms. Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor.

“She asked me for a light.

I said ‘Sure.’ and looked up to see her face.

I almost crapped my pants.  I could see right through her!  I just lifted my hand and flicked the lighter.  She cupped her ghost hands around the flame and lit up her ghost cigarette.  Then, she told me to go and get some reporters because she wanted to say a few things.

I hauled ass outta there, believe you me!  I called the NY Times, Daily Post and The National Enquirer and about 60 other newspapers, TV and radio shows.

Ms. Rand granted her first interview in over 25 years.

The first reports were filed by a Ralph Pfingsten, a beat reporter from the Green Bay Packers Radio Network, in town for a cosmetic toe surgery.  Pfingsten, a philosophy minor at Utica College, with the help of his managing editor in Fond du Lac was able to keep pace with the dead Ms. Rand for the roughly two hours that it took for his Vicadin prescription to be filled at the Rexall Pharmacy across the street.

Previous reporters may have struggled with Ms. Rand’s complex and radical philosophical views and her distinctly Russian perspective and thick accent.  Mr. Pfingsten claims to have been aided by the residual effects of the general anasthesia he received earlier in the day.

The full interview will appear in the Arts & Leisure section of next Sunday’s Milwaukee Herald.  Here are some excerpts from the AP pool feed:

RP: Ms. Rand, most people believe that once a person dies, they are gone.  Why not, just stay dead?

AR: First, my life or my death is a personal decision of my own choosing.  It is not for society to tell me when to be dead or alive.  That is the whole point of Objectivism.  Second, I felt that my work is being used by Moochers and Looters as justification for their attempts to steal wealth from those that earn it.  I may be dead – but I am not blind nor deaf!  I hear every word from these imbeciles and I have reached the point where I can no longer allow it to happen.  Nobody else has spoken up to these people, so I took it upon myself to speak up and say to them, that which needs to be said.

RP: What specifically would you like to say to these people?

AR: F**k you!  You lying dogs.  You hide behind my work – the words of a dead woman and use people’s trust in my intellect, to carry out your thievery.  Well, this dead woman is not going to let you. F**k you!

RP: What was the tipping point for you?  What ultimately compelled you to return to the land of the living?

AR: Cute boy.  Adorable question.  John Boehner, Dick Cheney and Bill O’Reilly all mentioned my book in the same day.  These three have never worked a day in their lives.  They live solely off the effort of others, lying, killing and stealing from millions of people every day.  These criminals are the real Looters.  They take wealth from everyone, at the point of a gun or with other weapons like outright thievery or the purchase of government policy and lawmaking.  They are the very people I warned about in my book and they are hiding behind my book to rob humanity of its life blood – free will.  Just look, almost the entire world is in debt except for these Looters.  They talk about my book to no end, but going to a symposium about a dead Russian woman does not make them either individuals or moral human beings.

RP: Your work has been cited as part of the framing philososphy that got us into this financial disaster we are in.  Many people, including long time Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan -

AR: Greenspan!  Please – darling boy, do not talk to me about that panty sniffer.  He was always trying to bed me.  I even caught him stealing my panties from my luggage.  Does he talk about that, when he is recommending my book?  I will bet not.  He is maybe the biggest Looter of them all.  I abhor Central Banks as anyone who reads my work for 10 minutes can tell you.

RP: Ms. Rand, it is widely held that Objectivism is a promotion of selfishness.  The book still sells 200,000 copies annually and is a staple for business schools, corporate think-tanks and is the de facto Bible of Capitalism.  CEO’s use it as a roadmap to success.  Don’t you feel in some way that you are now turning your back on the people you encouraged in the first place?

AR: Ah! You misunderstand Objectivism.  The promotion of selfish excellence of the individual as a boon to society.  We are witnessing the result of selfish manipulation and hoarding to the ruin of society.  Objectivism is a celebration of humankind’s greatest possession, the intellect.  Most of these greedy Looters are using selfishness as a justification for thievery, murder and enslavement.  Society is not made better by these people manipulating economies in secret deals or funding wars without end.  The first casualty is the intellect.  Education is not valued, but greed is.  Objectivism is a moral code and not a permission slip for amoral destruction.

The rest of this interview deals with a wide range of subjects from Ms. Rand’s love affairs in the afterlife to her views on how radical feminists are portrayed in Bollywood dance pictures.

Ayn Rand may no longer be among the living, but she still packs quite a punch.  For anyone seeking an audience with one of the most acerbic wits in this life or the next, you are well advised to visit her grave to hear for yourself how the spirit of Libertarianism is holding up after all these years.

- gadfly