Art Provokes Thought

Yes, the play Golgota Picnic, now at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, production Centro Dramático Nacional Madrid, production déléguée Théâtre Garonne Toulouse, coproduction Festival d’Automne à Paris, and which has already been performed in Spain, Toulouse, Graz, and is coming to Hamburg in January, has been "greeted" everywhere by the protests of those so unfirm in their fundamentalist religious "beliefs" that they very christianly and catholically have NOT seen it and condemn all those who do to a hell of their own fantasies and demand its prohibition as "blasphemous" (hello Sharia!) and is confronted in Paris (City of Lights, former center of the Enlightenment) with violent actions to disrupt the performances, with pious ultra-rightists, royalists, and Pius Brothers at the fore and a dangerous coalition with populists neo-nazis and fascists.

Can art be so dangerous? Can a play in a theater cause so much havoc? Remember the idiotic protests against the film The Exorcist in fundamentalist Baptist strongholds in the States, but also in rabid Catholic neighborhoods in the Northeast? Blasphemy is in the eye of the beholder, and is NOT a legal term. Freedom of expression is NOT limited by the beliefs of others; quite the contrary, freedom to believe is no longer possible if all opinions cannot be expressed. There is also a freedom NOT to believe, by the way. Moreover, true belief could never be endangered by satire or diatribes against it.

In any case, it is time to support the performances of this play wherever they may be and to condemn vehemently those who would attempt to deprive you of your right to decide on your own whether to watch it or not.

Praise is due again to Charlie Hebdo for satirizing in its latest issue the fundamentalists at work in Paris; the "blasphemous" caricatures are a refreshing breath of fresh air!

And here, to shock, please, irritate, interest, or baffle you, a video trailer of Golgota Picnic:

Welcome to the Twenty-First Century !

I wish for more such fellow countrymen before the country of my birth sinks fully into the dark night of medieval ignorance and prejudice. Mr. Prayer-Perry should perhaps ask his god who gave him the right to demean and discriminate other fellow humans or to deny them the rights and privileges and duties he enjoys himself. He is not running a campaign for president, but a campaign for Ayatollah of America. Watch out, people, before they put you under a veil with stars and stripes and introduce a christaria reminiscent of the horrors one of the first great American authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne, described in The Scarlet Letter. I for one will always be in solidarity with all the Hester Prynnes everywhere!

Perry’s Anti-Gay Rights Focus Is Divisive Even to Staff

The New York Times, by RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr., Published: December 8, 2011

OKATIE, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas’ hard turn the past two days on gay issues, in which he has suggested that gay rights are inconsistent with both American and Christian values, has generated enormous criticism from lesbian and gay organizations and some religious groups, and has even helped split Mr. Perry’s top campaign aides over a new ad.

In that campaign ad, released on Wednesday, Mr. Perry says “you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday” to know it is wrong that gay men and lesbians openly serve in the military at a time when there is no organized prayer in public schools.       

Taxation WITH Representation - Caring for the People!

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died MichaelMoore.com

Perhaps the anarchist tea-party henchman of the wealthy few who duck taxes and all social responsibility should think about this rather than spending all their time attempting to destroy government of the people, by the people, and FOR the people!

Let them drink tea ...

... yes, drink tea is what those lame-brains should do and leave governing the country, especially given the implications of poorly caring for a citizenry and a country's obligations in our ever more globalized system, to those interested in and committed to governing well, judiciously, fairly, socially, responsibly rather than to those who are actually only interested in abolishing government altogether.
It is time to call these Tea-Party denizens what they truly are: dangerously radical ANARCHISTS !

See also this accurate editorial in today's print edition of The New York Times:

To Escape Chaos, a Terrible Deal

There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.

[...]

Democratic negotiators decided that the automatic cut system, as bad as it is, was less of a threat to the economy than another default crisis, and many are counting on future Congresses to undo its arbitrary butchering.

Sadly, in a political environment laced with lunacy, that calculation is probably correct. Some Republicans in the House were inviting a default, hoping that an economic earthquake would shake Washington and the Obama administration beyond recognition. Democrats were right to fear the effects of a default and the impact of a new recession on all Americans.

President Obama could have been more adamant in dealing with Republicans, perhaps threatening to use constitutional powers to ignore the debt ceiling if Congress abrogated its responsibility to raise it. But this episode demonstrates the effectiveness of extortion. Reasonable people are forced to give in to those willing to endanger the national interest.

Democrats can look forward to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts next year, and will have to make the case in the 2012 elections for new lawmakers who will undo the damage.

And, I might add, the wealthy MUST carry more of the burden of taxation; and tea partiers should stop believing that they are helping themselves with what they demand: they are only helping the very wealthy to the detriment of all less well-off!

SHAME on the USA!

Bank robber planned crime and punishment bank robbery - Gaston Gazette
Being sentenced to jail was the only way this man had to have the medical treatment he needed paid for. Could there be anything more shameful for a so-called civilized country than to give its inhabitants a choice between jail, bankrupcy, and death from serious illness?

And some of you out there still think universal health care insurance is communist? It is merely humane and it is an absolute necessity!

Wake up and support Obama on all measures to provide FULL coverage for ALL people in the US whatever illness they may have, however rich or poor they may be, regardless of what some private insurance company aims to reach in profit goals!

SOLIDARITY FOR THOSE ILL IS WHERE HUMANITY BEGINS!

Pale, Paler, Palin - Poetically Speaking

Sarah Palin's Midnight Ride, by Ben Greenman, from The New Yorker online.

Union Rights are YOUR Rights!

The right to collective bargaining and organization of workers in unions is the ONLY reason workers have any protection and benefits on the workplace anywhere in the world! The curtailment of collective bargaining rights place an utterly unfair advantage in the hands of owners to maximize profits while dehumanizing society! WORK IS NOT FOR OWNERS' PROFITS BUT FOR A DECENT LIFE FOR THOSE WHO WORK! That various states in the USA are curtailing union and collective bargaining rights is a move back to the early 19th Century. Unless you'd like to live in shop housing, have black lung, die of tuberculosis, have no vacation or sick leave ever, work 80 hours a week, maybe even pay for the "privilege" of having a job, you'd better wake up and stand up for the unions who are there to stand up for your rights!

Reading Heidegger on Chemo

Gesamtausgabe Band 53: Anmerkungen zu Hölderlins Hymne "Der Ister"
provides very enjoyable and thoughtful reading while here at Virchow, especially when you can see (and then ignore) the (mute) TV images the other patient in the room is watching from the private commercial stations all day.

And for variety, when I need to let a couple of sections solidify reflectively in my mind, I pick up John Waters' Role Models for a taste of truly tasteful trashy extravagance of the artistic mind.
Roth's Nemesis is also waiting to be begun, and there is a volume of lesser known one-acters by Tennesse Williams also on the shelf.

And if the counts are too low, or the chemo and the rest has just left me too tired, then a nap after lunch is also allowed.

After all, I have to drag out the laptop and check in here every once in a while, also news sources, to make sure they haven't further screwed up the world while I haven't been watching as closely.
That the plagiarist ex-Dr. not at all noble Guttenberg finally resigned from his position of Defense Minister here, still claiming he has done nothing wrong, may be the reason his university now accuses him of intentional plagiarism and has turned the whole thing over to the state attorney for investigation and possible charges.
That Kadaffi is still around is a reason to wish all those against him as much strength and endurance in their battle to shake off the yoke of tyranny as possible.
And my personal current experience should be a reminder to those in the country from which I hail of how important universal health insurance truly is

Politically Correct?

Should Céline be condemned for his anti-semitism? Certainly, but where does literature remain in that political correctness? The pamphlets of Céline are certainly disgusting, but his literary works provide more insight into the great technically minded disaster of the Twentieth Century (enduring to the present day, besides) than any historical political account I know of. Voyage au bout de la nuit, Nord, Rigodon, D'un château l'autre are reason enough to celebrate the author Céline, and reading them reveal that the author himself often enough condemns the person Céline and recognizes the anathema he deserves/suffers.
A great author died 50 years ago, and with him a despicable anti-semite; his pamphlets have not stood the test of time, his amazing novels have and will endure and continue to influence a less technocratic more humanly focused style of writing.

Le Monde, 21.01.11:
Le fantôme de Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) a encore frappé. Au nom des Fils et Filles des déportés juifs de France, qu'il préside, l'avocat Serge Klarsfeld s'indigne, dans une lettre rendue publique mercredi 19 janvier, que l'écrivain français, connu pour son antisémitisme, fasse partie - à l'occasion du 50e anniversaire de sa mort - des personnalités incluses dans le recueil 2011 des célébrations nationales, publié par le ministère de la culture.

Le Monde, 21.01.11:
"Après mûre réflexion, et non sous le coup de l'émotion, j'ai décidé de ne pas faire figurer Céline dans les célébrations nationales", a indiqué M. Mitterrand vendredi soir. "Ce n'est en aucun cas un désaveu à l'égard du Haut Comité [chargé d'établir la liste des personnalités] mais (…) une inflexion que j'assume pleinement", a-t-il ajouté. Auteur du Voyage au bout de la nuit ou encore de Mort à crédit, Louis-Ferdinand Céline a également rédigé plusieurs pamphlets violemment antisémites.
Peu après cette annonce, M. Klarsfeld a exprimé son "très grand soulagement". "Oui, c'est un très grand soulagement", a-t-il commenté au micro de RTL. "Je félicite Frédéric Mitterrand d'avoir eu le courage de désavouer ceux qui, dans son ministère, ont accepté que Céline figure dans ce recueil", a-t-il déclaré.
"Je considère Céline comme un grand écrivain, mais c'est un être abject également. (…) De ce point de vue-là, Céline n'avait pas sa place, ce n'était pas à la République de célébrer entre guillemets le plus antisémite de tous les Français de l'époque."

Try reading the novels rather than merely parotting the obvious! And you might also consider what Philippe Sollers has to say about the whole affair of removing Céline from the list of cultural figures to be celebrated in 2011 by the French Ministry of Culture. The 50th anniversary of his death is the occasion.

Philippe Sollers: «Cette affaire Céline est absurde»

Fallait-il inscrire le cinquantenaire de la mort de Louis-Ferdinand Céline dans le calendrier officiel des «Célébrations nationales» 2011? Serge Klarsfeld, président des FFDJ (Fils et filles des déportés juifs de France), en appelle à Frédéric Mitterrand et Nicolas Sarkozy pour s'y opposer. Pour Philippe Sollers, auteur de nombreux textes sur l'écrivain, c'est «insensé».

«C’est insensé. Il est insensé qu’un citoyen demande au président de la République de retirer un auteur de l’importance de Céline d’un volume officiel paru avec la validation du Ministère de la Culture. On ne pouvait pas mieux faire comme pub à Céline.

Ca me laisse vraiment stupéfait. Cette réaction me paraît tout à fait illégitime et déplacée: on ne doit pas traiter la littérature avec ce genre de censure, qui se rapproche de celle de Monsieur Hessel à l’ENS par Madame Canto-Sperber, obtenue semble-t-il avec l’accord de Madame Pécresse. Tout ceci est extrêmement négatif. C’est une façon de jouer avec le feu qui me semble extrêmement dangereuse. Hemingway disait: «Quand ça va mal, la littérature est en première ligne.» Nous en avons la preuve éclatante. Les jugements deviennent déraisonnables.

Cette affaire est absurde. J’ai rassemblé mes textes sur Céline dans un livre paru en 2009 (*), cela ne fait pas de moi un nazi notoire. Il a dit une chose définitive: «Je suis anarchiste jusqu’au poil.» Les deux grands écrivains français du XXe siècle sont Proust et Céline. Point, à la ligne.

On peut critiquer Céline tant qu’on veut, on ne manque d’ailleurs pas de le faire, et il faudra évidemment publier une édition critique parfaitement formulée de ses pamphlets. On peut même critiquer tant qu’on veut ce volume édité par le Ministère. Il n’y a qu’à lui tirer dessus à boulets rouges, mais pas demander une censure au président de la République, enfin!»

Propos recueillis par Grégoire Leménager

(*) «Céline», par Philippe Sollers, éd. Ecriture, 107 p., 14,95 euros.

Quite correct!

Reactionaries Moving Backwards

Just how far back do these partied-T banana-republicans want to move the United States? More than one hundred years after the rest of the civilized world, the US finally enacted a very watered-down version of universal health care for its citizens. These absurdly majoritied elephants in the House of Representatives, however, are determined to vote to let more Americans die and suffer from uninsured illnesses in order to "protect" business. Can they explain why business in Germany and most of Europe, with universal health care, is better than the US without it? Anyhow, the protection line is a bald-faced lie; companies with healthy employees are more productive than those with workers who come to work rather than go to a doctor when they are ill because they can't afford it and then spread their infections around the entire staff. This is just one trivial economic argument, but the real argument is concern for fellow man. Everyone should have access to all the benefits of treatment western civilization can provide.
So while they are moving backwards, maybe those elephants in the House porcelain shop should also consider digging up the Interstate Highways, cracking the Hoover Dam, repealing the holiday on July 4, closing Amtrak, and eliminating the Coast Guard, for these are all "federal intrusions" on tea party victims.
And then they can raze the cities and inform all citizens that they must begin to build log cabins again or live in wigwams because all federal mortgage programs are being canceled retroactively and the houses and apartments they all live in are being foreclosed on and demolished to sell the material to some other country that knows better what to do with values!

G.O.P. Newcomers Set Out to Undo Obama Victories
The New York Times, January 2, 2011

Representative Robert E. Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, challenged the Republicans to bring it on. “We will respond by pointing out the impact of repeal on people’s lives,” Mr. Andrews said. “On women with cancer who could be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition. On senior citizens who would lose the help they are receiving to pay for prescriptions.”
Democrats argue that repeal would increase the number of uninsured; put insurers back in control of health insurance, allowing them to increase premiums at will; and lead to explosive growth in the federal budget deficit.
“For months, Republicans have been shoveling out hypocrisy and lies to the American public,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York. Mr. Crowley and more than 60 other House Democrats have demanded that lawmakers pushing for repeal of the new law give up their own government-subsidized health insurance.

The Democrats say Republicans will make a mistake if they focus first on repeal, rather than on finding additional ways to stimulate the economy and create jobs — a mirror image of criticism that Republicans lobbed at Democrats for the last 18 months.

And just in case you refuse to believe The New York Times, The Washington Post also reports on the reactionaries' plans:

House Republicans set Jan. 12 vote on repeal of health-care law

"Republicans want another debate about health-care reform? Well, so should Democrats. They beat us in round one with lies and scare tactics. We welcome a second shot," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).
And Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the outgoing speaker, said in a post on Twitter, "While Dems are focused on job creation, GOP is fast-tracking repealing patients' rights & Rx help for seniors."

Stand up for the Twenty-first Century and maintain health care for all!