Iran is Officially Murdering Gays !

Iran must STOP !
stop stoning "adultresses"
stop hanging homosexuals
stop curtailing human rights
stop censoring speech and all other means of expression

Stop NOW !


Il a 18 ans et il va être pendu - Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir

Après Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condamnée à la lapidation pour adultère, l'Iran persiste et signe en condamnant à la pendaison un jeune homme soupçonné d'homosexualité. Les écrivains Philippe Besson et Gilles Leroy publient cet appel, rejoints par Jonathan Littell, Camille Laurens, Dominique Blanc, Alfredo Arias, Chantal Thomas, Arthur Dreyfus, Claude Lanzmann, Viviane Forrester, Marie Ndiaye, Atiq Rahimi, Isabelle Gallimard, Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, Catherine Cusset, Benoît Legemble, Christophe Girard, André Glucksmann, Caroline Fourest, Alain Jakubowicz, Mathieu Vidard, Valentine Goby, Stéphane Bern, Christophe Hondelatte, Marilù Marini, Colette Kerber, Pascale Kramer, Arnaud Cathrine, Clara Dupont-Monod, Vincent Josse, Bertrand Delanoë.

Ebrahim Hamidi a dix-huit ans et il va mourir. Dans son pays, l'Iran, il a été reconnu coupable d'un crime abominé, de ceux qui condamnent à la pendaison. Ebrahim Hamidi serait homosexuel. Donc il doit mourir. Car si les juges de Téhéran n'hésitent pas à vouer à la lapidation une femme accusée d'adultère, ils livrent également au bourreau l'homme soupçonné de dormir dans le même lit que son semblable.

Cette seule perspective suffirait à nous horrifier, tant elle est contraire à la notion même d'humanité et nous laisse imaginer la terreur dans laquelle vivent les homosexuels iraniens, obligés de se taire, de mentir, de nier leur identité.

L'accusation aurait été montée de toutes pièces à la suite d'une rixe banale, les dénonciations faites par des tiers emprisonnés l'auraient été au prix de promesses de remise en liberté, les aveux d'Ebrahim extorqués sous la torture. Au cours de son procès, l'accusé n'a pas eu droit à la moindre représentation légale. Quant au verdict, il a été prononcé par un magistrat qui s'en est remis à son propre jugement, procédure utilisée lorsqu'il n'existe pas de preuve formelle. Le mois dernier, en un rebondissement spectaculaire, la « victime » présumée d'Ebrahim Hamidi a reconnu avoir porté contre lui de fausses accusations sous la pression de ses parents.
On pourrait croire que cette rétractation a entraîné l'annulation de la sentence. Pas du tout. Ebrahim Hamidi est toujours coupable, d'un « crime » qu'il n'a pas commis. Est-il homosexuel ou non ? Qu'importe. Il doit mourir.

Il le doit, pour que tous les « vrais homosexuels » continuent de se dissimuler et de subir la terreur en silence. Il le doit, pour qu'on comprenne que la justice iranienne ne peut pas se tromper. Et il va mourir, si nous ne nous mobilisons pas. Si nous ne réveillons pas les consciences. Si nous ne crions pas haut et fort et partout que cette condamnation est insupportable et qu'elle doit être cassée.
- jeudi 2 septembre 2010
-- Reproduction autorisée avec mention de la source : © http://www.prochoix.org/

Teen Faces Execution in Iran
By Michelle Garcia
"An 18-year-old Iranian is facing execution after being sentenced for sexually assaulting another man.
The sentence was handed down for Ebrahim Hamidi on June 21 by a provincial court, despite two rejections from the Iranian supreme court for the sentence. Gay Middle East calls the case against Hamidi "vague" and "unspecified" and says there is no evidence that Hamidi is gay, nor that he committed the crime.
According to the report, Hamidi's attorney has gone into hiding after a warrant for his arrest was issued. The execution has no set date and can happen at any time. "

Brief Tribute to a New Citizen of the Planet Earth

Kaeden Christopher Price was born yesterday at 5:oo pm, weighs 8 lbs. and is already 20 inches tall.

May his world know ever more peace, ever more tolerance, ever more justice, ever more thoughtfulness, ever more humaneness, ever more hope and charity and love.

Goodbye To My Mama - A.Prairie.Home.Companion.

She wouldn't have needed the strange subtitles, but the sound quality is good, so, one day later, this is for mama's birthday, Rose Tyson Gardner, August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007.

Divine Destiny is Diabolically Destructive

Anyone claiming his/her country is on a divine mission should be watched closely to prevent him/her from ever achieving any power anywhere or having any influence on anyone in power anywhere!

A good example was the "Restoring Honor" rally on August 28.

Glenn Beck: Televangelist

The Beck crowd ... had all the trappings of a reconstituted, 21st Century Christian Coalition. While political signs were banned from the event, the marshals didn't seem to object to the two
enormous crucifixes some people brought to the front of the crowd. Lots of the people in attendance appeared deeply religious. A Boy Scout troop leader from New Hampshire was wearing a scout hat that identified him as "Elder Delevan," as in Mormon church elder. Joan DeMasi, 79, from Warwick, Rhode Island, told me that she had been drawn to the rally by "God–and Glenn Beck." She said she was tired of "people not saluting the flag and not believing in God." So from her perspective, "Restoring Honor" was simply "incredible." Whether the rest of the tea party movement will share such a glowing assessment remains to be
seen.

Beck on Top
The talk-show host's 'Restoring Honor' rally was about one thing: him.
Almost no one who attended Saturday’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall seems able to cogently explain what, exactly, took place. Was it a thinly disguised political rally? A triumph of Made in America inspirational treacle? A modern-day religious revival? When probed by reporters, happy participants and skeptical observers alike struggled to make sense of the prayerful parade that saw Tony LaRussa, Sarah Palin, and Eveda King take turns at a podium between prerecorded voiceovers about crossroads, awakenings, and miracles. Yet there was one message that the afternoon’s emotional emcee managed to get across with unmistakable clarity: Glenn Beck is still a major force to be reckoned with, and has every
intention of staying one.

************

*Remember what Mark Twain said about faith meaning to believe in what you know ain't right.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse perched on the Dornbusch rise on our beloved island of Hiddensee blinked us a farewell as our cruise ship sailed off into the night from Rügen to return to Kiel this morning. Now we're home and filled with enjoyment and elation!

Baltic Cruise

The first day out of Kiel was at sea, we roamed the ship and never had a boring moment, are still on Tuesday finding new nooks and crannies to sit or look that we hadn't discovered before.
Riga was covered with a guided walking tour of the old town, and our guide Aja could explain everything. It is a beautiful town, even if the landing was at a lumberyard dock.
Tallin was the third day, and we "did" it on our own. It is even more beautiful than Riga, has a Russian Orthodox cathedral where the worship and standing ceremony evidently never stops. The only thing ugly was a strange concrete bunker like step construction from the foot of the old town's hill out to the harbor. No one wanted to explain it to us, until the vendor of juniper boxes at the ship was willing to talk about it in English. It was an over-dimensioned concert hall built by the Soviets that no one liked and that was abandonned with independence. The massive concrete is too expensive, till now, for anyone to invest in demolition.
St. Petersburg is glorious, if faded at the edges. The first day, with a walking tour, was tiring, as it is vastly laid out. Our guide Anja was an extremely proud St. Petersburger and set a walking pace nearing a trot, but otherwise we would have never covered everything in the allotted time. She was also our guide on the second day for a boat tour through the canals and on the grand river Neva, as well as to the original fortress of Peter the Great, where the Church of Peter and Paul stands with its long gilded spire and all Czars since Peter are buried.
Helsinki is ok, small, we've already walked it, quaint, some nice buildings, a beautiful main square with a giant Lutheran cathedral, but we are already back at 10:30 am local time on the ship and I'm trying to take the time to organize photos for further upload and to make these first notes about our cruise.



To sum it up: WE ARE HAVING A FABULOUS AND LUXURIOUS TIME!
(The photos of the ship scattered in among the sightseeing pix and the sunsets and sunrises from ship board might give you a hint...)

The Walled City

When I first arrived in this wonderful city of Berlin, my destination was only one half of the city, West Berlin, technically belonging to no country but comprised of the three occupation zones of the Western Powers, France, Great Britain, and the United States. The inhabitants of West Berlin were actually not citizens of any country, were provided diplomatic services abroad by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, its "provisional capital" in Bonn.

Having heard of the Wall before arrival, having even seen pictures of it, I went to see it within my first few days here, specifically at Potsdamer Platz. The picture from the postcard of that time shows a view of the Wall, begun on this day in 1961, from there across no-man's land and Leipziger Platz to the eastern part of the city.

In East Berlin, technically the fourth occupied zone under control of the USSR, but made capital and part and portion of the German Democratic Republic with Soviet approval despite Western Allies protest, the inhabitants were citizens of the GDR, although this actually violated the occupation status of Berlin as a whole, and were subject to all provisions this entailed. They had to serve in the draft army, the Volksarmee, and could "watch" the government of the country with all its ministries and offices in East Berlin.

Inhabitants of West Berlin were not allowed to be in the Bundeswehr, the army of West Germany, and many West German boys "fled" to West Berlin to avoid the draft there. When, for example, elections to the presidency of the BRD were held in the Reichstag in West Berlin, the Soviets protested loudly, even sending jet fighters to razz the assembly in low-altitude flights or to break the sound barrier overhead.

My husband Detlef grew up on the "east" side of the Wall, and we would probably never have met, certainly not have been able to establish a common life, had that wall not come down in November of 1989.

The little red chip standing below the picture is the one piece of the Wall I hacked out at precisely the location of the photo, at Potsdamer Platz. Its color is from the graffiti that covered the western side of the wall, in stark contrast to the blank white of the other side, to make it easier to see any who might attempt to get over it. Don't forget that there were TWO walls: the "outer" or "western" one here in the foreground and the "inner" or "eastern" one on the far side of the mined and patrolled no-man's land in the distance on this picture.

The Wall was an attempt to separate people for ideology; its fall an example of people overcoming barriers; its absence is the presence of my life in love with Detlef.

In Berlin I feel and relish the absence of that Wall every minute of every day. That absence is a freedom hard to describe if you never experienced the hassles trying to "cross" at the checkpoints; hassles nothing in comparison with what the inhabitants of the East faced, usually not allowed to cross at all!

And now Detlef and I simply ride the number 200 bus across Potsdamer Platz, right through what was no-man's land, piercing both "sides" of the now absent Wall. Here, too, was where I first walked across after the opening of the Wall in November, 1989. The first place I saw the Wall with my own eyes is the first place I crossed back and forth once a makeshift opening was created there. It is now one of the central points of our life in Berlin.



Ironically, Detlef's mom's birthday is also August 13th; and thanks to the Fall of the Wall 21 years ago after it had stood for 28, Detlef and I along with his brother and his wife and kids and some of her friends will celebrate Edith's birthday in a riverside restaurant in the Köpenick district of Berlin this evening. There is family unity and no wall to hinder celebration, as she once experienced when she was not allowed to attend a celebration of her sister's in Bavaria. So then, this is a lesson in birthdays!

The birthday of a Wall is to be commemorated only now that it has fallen as a reminder never to allow infringement of freedom. And the birthday of my dear mother-in-law is a celebration of the joys of humans able to love and overcome boundaries.



Never forget!

Courage Campaign: RIGHTS are Right !

A fundamental right is to be upheld for all!
Listen to the idiots fascists from Fox try to maintain securing rights is some sort of dictatorship and Ted Olson set them straight. The MAJORITY may NOT deny RIGHTS to any MINORITY. Perhaps FOX, too, will one day learn that SUCH would be dictatorship; guaranteeing rights to minorities is the sine qua non of democracy.

Courage Campaign Sign our "thank you" card to Ted Olson, David Boies, and AFER

Good News for Germany = Bad News for the Tigerente!

The Button Merkel and the Westernwave have finally, with their impossibly incompetent and socially cold policies, moved their parties down into the basement of public opinion as the German electorate awakens to the fact that neoliberal economics may help bankers and the rich, but not the population in general or the country as a whole. The shift in the polls holds out great hope, as state elections loom next year!

Sonntagsfrage ‹ Bundesweit ‹ Umfragen & Analysen ‹ Infratest dimap
05.08.10
Union: 31%
SPD: 31%
FDP: 5%
Linke: 10%
Grüne: 17%
Sonstige: 6%

Which would provide a parliamentary majority for SPD-Green and perhaps nudge Germany into the Twenty-First Century again!

With Liberty and Justice For All !

May the new Supreme Court Justice, Justice Kagan, have success in her obligation to ensure justice under the law equally for all and to uphold the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Morning Music

To accompany whatever you're reading and/or writing at the moment, your thoughts, your love, your yearning...

Leise flehen meine Lieder
durch die Nacht zu dir;
in den stillen Hain hernieder,
...Liebchen, komm zu mir!
Flüsternd schlanke Wipfel rauschen
in des Mondes Licht;
des Verräters feindlich Lauschen
fürchte, Holde, nicht.

Hörst die Nachtigallen schlagen?
Ach! sie flehen dich,
mit der Töne süssen Klagen
flehen sie für mich.

Sie verstehn des Busens Sehnen,
kennen Liebesschmerz,
rühren mit den Silbertönen
jedes weiche Herz.

Laß auch dir die Brust bewegen,
Liebchen, höre mich!
Bebend harr' ich dir entgegen!
Komm, beglücke mich!

No Revolution Without Dancing

Who else remembers this fantastic series from the open channel on Manhattan cable TV in the late 1970's? If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution!

I continue to adhere to that principle, as a princple-less principle, that I want to dance at the revolution or miss it. May I also dedicate this odd post to Christa Wolf and her poignant and wise new book Stadt der Engel, oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud. If you care to think, read that book and rewatch the episodes of IICDYCKYR. Experiments are worth it; learning is perhaps the ultimate goal.

And from ME no recognition for the church!

Catholic Church will ‘never’ recognise gay marriage, bishop tells Cameron - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community - Pink News

A Scottish bishop has written to prime minister David Cameron to tell him that the Catholic Church will 'never' recognise marriage for gay couples.
The Bishop of Paisley, Philip Tartaglia, was responding to reports that campaigners and some Scottish MPs are pushing for the Scottish government to open debate on the issue.
The bishop told the Herald that his letter said the church would never recognise same-sex marriage, even the government eventually enacts legislation to allow it.

I have no need of their recognition, am able to relish in the legal recognition I have, while demanding more equality, and will certainly always deny such an organization any recognition whatever eternally, for now and ever more!

Fencing in the Banks!

The US has finally done it, Europe must follow suit, Germany must rein in the banker-cynics here, and the priority of humans before financial gains must be strongly reasserted everywhere. Even if the US reform could go further, it is a first major step and a warning signal to the speculators who think numbers are more important than people!

A Beautiful Wish ...

... that I'm passing on from my dear cousin Mary Ann to everyone who happens to stumble onto this page! Let life be good, consider that life is good, smile, and be happy in being!

Justice for All - July 4th

Evidence must be considered and those not guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt released. That is the American Way, justice under the Enlightenment, the tradition of democracy shared by so many free countries. And it is what Obama promised - to end the injustice of the bushbaby playpen!

Appeals Court Sides With Detainee - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has sided with a Guantánamo prisoner whose case prompted a major internal argument among Obama administration legal advisers last year over how broadly to define terrorism suspects who may be detained without trial.
...
“The government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any Al Qaeda member, much less evidence suggesting Bensayah communicated with” anyone else to facilitate travel by an Al Qaeda member, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote in a 17-page opinion that was declassified late last week. Parts of the ruling were censored by the government.
...
The uncertainty about his travel history, the judge wrote, “at most undermines Bensayah’s own credibility; no account of his whereabouts ties him to Al Qaeda or suggests he facilitated anyone’s travel during that time. These ‘questions’ in no way demonstrate that Bensayah had ties to and facilitated travel for Al Qaeda in 2001.”

The Best Fourth of July Picnic ...

... is simply right here at home with Detlef, both of us now rehabilitating from our surgeries and on the way to unimpeded life again!

Koko apparently snapped this photo during our evening meal yesterday!

Productively transgressive...

...is all REAL literature.

Childlike, childish, the writer experiences fright, wonder, enthusiasm, must share that, whatever the threat of punishment he may face for daring to express such extreme emotion! And transgression may seem evil, dangerous, is forbidden, is necessary for art.

Love When There's Little Sleep

While Detlef's in the hospital, and probably next week when I am, neither of us gets very much sleep, I, too, think how our love wins, prevails, and know that dawn will bring us there again, and dawn comes VERY early at this time of year.
Listen to the wonderful Placido Domingo render these thoughts, enjoy beauty, think of love, think, and love!

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che fremono d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!

None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall win!

Longest Day - Shortest Night - of the Year

Where else? With Detlef in the hospital after his arm and leg break (arm in a cast, leg operated to insert a plate with screws to the thigh bone)...

Spring Video for the Beginning of Summer

... and walking subjects one to less calamitous results than biking ...

Sonia Brex - Fruehling in Berlin from Jean de Oliveira on Vimeo.

... love to Detlef up on the Hedwigshöhe ...

(and thanks to Erich for sharing this video)

Tigerente Plummets !

Merkel und Westerwelle stürzen ab - ZDF.de

Now that's good news, fits with the WM loss today somehow, which also doesn't allow the Chief Button Popper and Westernwave to hope for a distracted population. Now lets move on to kicking out all their plans if not all their ministers and try to move this country forward again, with concern for the less well off and a demand for responsibility from the well-to-do and the financial institutions so cynically grinning through the crisis!

Video report on same in this link...

A Reason to LIKE the World Cup

I'd've never thought anyone could give me a good reason to praise the mania surrounding the World Soccer Cup, but The Nation has done so. So now I'm a fan from the farthest sidelines who'll watch as few games as possible but praise it to every conservative I encounter anywhere!

Glenn Beck's Blues: Why the Far Right Hates the World Cup The Nation

“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us,” yipped the Prom King of new right, Glenn Beck. “It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.”

Brief Reminder to the Greedy

All of you who are so greedy - BP, investment banks, hedge funds, FDP members - are cordially invited to read and take as warning:

Canto VII of Dante's Inferno !

It's ok if you read it in translation: the message will be clear nonetheless, though the utter horror awaiting you is lyrically better expressed in the original. Probably, though, as greedy as you are, you will turn to some summary of contents: there, too, the message should get you.

You are doomed!

To the 4th Circle of Hell!

Beauty of Word and Sound

Cecilia Bartoli

Gauck !

That's all one needs to say about the choices offered for the next Federal President of Germany:

GAUCK

About the alternative, Die Zeit says it all:

Wulffs Kür führt vom Chaos zum Stillstand

Deutschland braucht aber nicht nur eine Führung, die sich nicht ständig selbst zerfleischt. Es braucht politische Anstöße. In Afghanistan sterben deutsche Soldaten in einem Krieg, den niemand hinreichend erklären kann. Das Vertrauen der Bürger in Markt und Staat zerbröselt. Das Wohlstandsversprechen, welches das Land zusammenhielt: Es könnte bald nicht mehr gelten. Was verbindet uns stattdessen? Diese Fragen müssen bald beantwortet werden. Zuvor allerdings muss sie jemand stellen.


Kann Wulff das? Ein Präsident wächst mit seinem Amt. Nicht ausgeschlossen, dass er doch die richtigen Themen und den richtigen Ton findet. Aber wenn, ist es Zufall. Zu den großen gesellschaftlichen Fragen hatte Wulff bisher so wenig zu sagen wie die Berliner Koalition selbst.

So elect someone with stature: Gauck!

Warum Gauck die bessere Wahl wäre als Wulff

The Others Should Resign

Nach heftiger Kritik: Bundespräsident Köhler tritt zurück - Hintergründe - Politik - FAZ.NET

Now it's more than overdue that the other incompetents with real governing power resign! Köhler was one of the few with even a milligram of sense in his head, though his tongue could never quite wrap itself around a coherent thought. But the Tigerentenregierung headed by Chancellorette Merkel and Outdoors Minister Westernwave wouldn't recognize a coherent thought if it stood up in front of them and barked, which is probably the real reason for the resignation of the Federal President. He knows that those clowns haven't a clue what he's talking about, even when he does, and that the country would be better off with a completely new team at the helm! After all, there are a few issues that really need attending to...

Can't help it, I like it.

Congratulations to Lena for her win for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest yesterday evening (with the friendly advice to ditch the strange accent she sings with). All in all, this edition of the contest was of much better quality than the previous several, and now there's a reason to watch again.
So, here's the official video of her doing her number:

Good News from Malawi!

Malawi frees jailed gay couple World news guardian.co.uk

A gay couple sentenced to serve 14 years in jail in Malawi have been pardoned and released after their country's president met the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.
Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were tried and found guilty of sodomy and indecency earlier this month in a move that sparked international condemnation.
But after talking with Ban today, Malawi's president, Bingu wa Mutharika, announced the pair would be freed. "These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws," he said after the meeting, at the southern African country's State House. "However, as the head of state, I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions.
"I have done this on humanitarian grounds, but this does not mean that I support this."
Ban, who is due to address Malawi's national assembly later, is expected to ask legislators to change the nation's laws on homosexuality.
Monjeza and Chimbalanga were arrested two days after they made a public commitment to marriage in a symbolic ceremony at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked as a janitor in late December. They were the first same-sex couple in Malawi to seek marriage.
Passing sentence on them on 20 May, the magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said: "I will give you a ... sentence so that the public [will] be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example."
The pair were then separated. Sent to prisons more than 40 miles apart, they had little hope of maintaining contact.
High-profile figures who spoke out in support of them include the singer Elton John, the British campaigner Peter Tatchell, of the gay and lesbian human rights group OutRage, and the pop star Madonna, who adopted a child from Malawi. Amnesty International also called the sentences an "outrage".
In South Africa, the new human rights organisation Section27 called on the president, Jacob Zuma, to apply pressure on Malawi through the Southern African Development Community.

This is an instance of the United Nations and its General Secretary doing their job correctly for the promotion of human rights worldwide! Thank you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon!

Keep Moving and Gain More Support

Defense secretary addresses concerns over repeal of ban on gays in military

Step by step, the US is moving into today and looking at tomorrow!

The New York Times
As ‘Don’t Ask’ Fades, Military Faces Thorny Practical Issues

Will openly gay service members be placed in separate housing, as the commandant of the Marine Corps has advocated? What benefits, if any, will partners or spouses of homosexual service members be accorded? Will all military units be required to treat homosexuals the same? And what training will heterosexual officers and enlisted troops receive to prepare them to serve with openly gay soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines?
...
Many service members interviewed this week said they knew homosexuals in the military and did not mind serving alongside them.
“If you trust a soldier with your life, that’s what is most important, not being gay,” said Specialist Kevin Garcia of the Army, who has done two tours in Iraq and is now stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

Get real and get ready to respect people as people. When it's about soldiering, gay or straight, what's important is who's pointing a gun at whom and why!

Slovenly sophisticated ...

On an island of beauty such as this, where the sun shines all morning after tempting us between several downpours yesterday, sophistication is knowing how many layers to put on to go out when it's still cool in the morning and not worry if you already wore those things yesterday, or the day before.

Those bothered with such concerns may consider us verging on the slovenly, but they will never return to this island, and we have been here at least once a year every year for 14 and have no intention of stopping, or of shaving more often than necessary.

Now we have to ride our bikes north to the entrance to the Altbessin and hike down to the Vogelhäuschen, the bird watching hut-tower at the southern most point of that peninsula allowed to humans.

And we'll see if the wind pushes or pulls us.

Island Reality

This island is so much more than a possibility, with fog and sun and sand and cliffs and friends and smiles and skies so blue and hazes so dense you can't see the lighthouse yesterday that you climb up and oversee the whole island from today. Pictures will help, and the video of the whit-fire on Saturday.

The slide show will be expanded daily as we upload more photos from the days on the island.

Visiting Rosemary's Castle

Well, with Rudi & Renate, we did three local castles and a cloister yesterday, all within easy driving distance of Berlin, and were rewarded with the first day of brilliant sunshine in more than a week.
One of the castles has a fantastic restaurant in the courtyard, and there, in Burg Rabenstein, we enjoyed a superb lunch (and could play a natural wood xylophone on the way back down).
So you may all know what sort of place this was, here, in a quickly rendered translation of the text on the back of the postcard-sized admission ticket to climb to the top of the castle tower, is the legend of the castle.

The Legend of Rosemary

A knightly couple that once dwelled in the Castle "Rabenstein" had a daughter named Rosemary. One evening, on Saint John the Baptist's Day, she was sitting at her window looking towards the village of Raben and noticed how much fun the village youth were having playing games and dancing. The desire to take part in this joyful activity grew ever stronger in her breast. Rosemary put on simple clothes and sneaked off to the village and mixed in with the common people. She didn't notice how time passed. Suddenly, the clock struck midnight and the horns sounded from the tower of the castle. That meant that Rabenstein's gates were being closed. The maiden was shaken by fright and rushed back to the castle. But she came too late. Only after much pounding on the door was she let in by the tower guard, who of course reported the incident to the Knight. Rosemary's parents ordered her to appear in the chapel before them and all her ancestors. There, she was accused of serious misconduct and her punishment was pronounced. Rosemary was banned to the tower, invisible for everyone, and had to make twelve shirts from the linen given to her. Upon completion of the shirts, her misconduct would be atoned and she would be free again. However, she was only allowed to sew one stitch every fifty years, unless a bold young man managed to climb up the outside wall of the thirty-meter high tower without any aids whatsoever and unite with her.

Rosemary has now been sitting in the tower for hundreds of years, as young and beautiful as ever, though invisible, and wanders through the castle at midnight.

Once a year, in the night of St. John the Baptist's Day, Rosemary's ancestors arise and gather with her in the chapel to reproach her again and again for her misconduct.

We neither saw her nor tried to free her, but the steak béarnaise in her restaurant was delicious, the xylophone was fun, and the pictures below will show you how much fun you can have on a sunny May day visiting castles just west of Berlin.

Satire Perfect

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with ...
... a rabble rouser of incredible venom, slight intelligence, extreme foxiness, obtuse references, and extreme danger,
then watch this to free yourself from the beckon of beck:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Visionaries in Berlin

Three dimensionality recycled.

8 May 1945 : 65 Years of Liberation

Nicolas Sarkozy in Alsace
8 mai 1945 : Nicolas Sarkozy en Alsace pour "réparer une injustice" - LeMonde.fr

Nicolas Sarkozy a célébré les 65 ans de la victoire des alliés sur l'Allemagne nazie à Colmar, l'une des dernières villes françaises libérées, où il a rendu hommage aux "malgré nous", samedi 8 mai. Dans un discours d'une quinzaine de minutes, le chef de l'Etat est surtout revenu sur le sort des Alsaciens et Mosellans incorporés de force dans l'armée allemande. "Ceux qui n'ont rien fait pour empêcher cette ignominie perpétrée contre des citoyens français ont trahi les valeurs de la France, l'ont déshonorée. Vichy a trahi la France et l'a déshonorée."

Angela Merkel im Gespräch - Süddeutsche Zeitung
''Wir müssen sprachfähig sein über unsere Geschichte''

SZ: Frau Bundeskanzlerin, was bedeutet der 8. Mai 1945 für Sie?
Angela Merkel: Das Ende eines schrecklichen Krieges. Das Ende von millionenfachem Mord, des Holocaust. Damit ist der 8. Mai der Tag der Befreiung Deutschlands und Europas vom Nationalsozialismus.

Rosselini Continues to Seduce

And this link appears to be accessible in Europe, too! (With thanks to DarthR!)

Unification!

And along with Isabella, a little salute to the subversive surrealists of nearly 100 years ago. (Consider how modern you are today!)

Topography of Terror - Finally Opened!

Topographie des Terrors

As long as I have been here in Berlin, I have been visiting the grounds of the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, where the Gestapo and SS had their "headquarters" for the organization of persecution and terror in Nazi Germany. The basement cells where people were held and tortured for the most absurd reasons were visible along the perimeter on my first visit there. Throughout the years there were various efforts to preserve what had come to light and construct some sort of exhibition space to document what happened here and to provide a roof to prevent the slow decay of those subsurface torture chambers.
Finally, yesterday, the new structure was inaugurated and the grounds once more made accessible to the public. Standing at one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and across the street from Göhring's Luftwaffenministerium, now the German Finance Ministry, it is a must for anyone interested in history, so as not to forget the extremes of cruelty to man man is capable of.
In our age of rather generalized amnesia, this site of memory, recollection, commemoration, and thought is a welcome signal!
Take the time to visit when you are in Berlin.

Five Years Remembering

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin celebrated the fifth anniversary of its opening yesterday, and I would like to pay this small tribute to this effort to stamp into the heart of this city a suitably sustantial call on us all never to forget the horror of calculating humans rather than encouraging humans to think and live and love.

"Die Fabrikation von Leichen in Gaskammern und Vernichtungslagern" [MH GA 79, S.27] was not only murder, genocide, but indeed also the horrid robbery of the victims' very death, depriving them of their own "Tod ... das Gebirg des Seyns im Gedicht der Welt" [ibid., S.56] .

May this memorial massively restore at least to their memory a mount in the poem of the world.

A Fantastic Day !

Now with some photos of the day.

STOP ARIZONA! STOP DISCRIMINATION! ENTER THE 21st CENTURY!

I simply must quote the New York Times Editorial in full. The world cannot affort such parochial close-minded belly-button gazing as Arizona is attempting to do. We are in this together, on one planet, and had better soon stop allowing powerful lobbyists to persuade us that those who do not look like us are the source of danger. The source of danger is from the bigots and the bigotted, from the well-to-do who tell us to envy the down-and-out.
Wake up and stop hating each other!

Editorial - Stopping Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law - NYTimes.com
Editorial
Stopping Arizona

A fight is brewing over Arizona’s new law that turns all of the state’s Latinos, even legal immigrants and citizens, into criminal suspects. And this is not a local fight. The poison is spreading; there is talk in Texas of passing a version of the Arizona statute.
President Obama has called the law “misguided” and promised to keep an eye on it. But when racial separation finds a foothold in any of the 50 states, the president needs to do more than mildly criticize. He should act. Here’s a partial but urgent to-do list:
DEFEND CIVIL RIGHTS The Justice Department needs to challenge this law forcefully in court. The statute requires police officers to stop and question anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law but says she doesn’t know what an illegal immigrant looks like, leaving that to others who think they do.
The Justice Department knows what kinds of abuse that invites. It is already investigating the sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, who raids Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Phoenix. His deputies demand people’s papers based on the shirts and boots they wear.
Federal law requires noncitizens to carry documents but does not empower police officers to stop anyone they choose and demand to see papers. Arizona’s attempt to get around that by defining the act of standing on its soil without papers as a criminal act is repellent.
STOP ARIZONA COLD Arizona’s scheme will rely on federal databases to determine immigration status. It will also need the cooperation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, in accepting detainees. ICE says its priorities are dangerous criminals and fugitives, not the peaceful workers and families who are overwhelmingly the targets of the new law. In that case, ICE will deny Arizona authorities data, cooperation and scarce resources.
TAKE BACK IMMIGRATION POLICY The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot make their own immigration laws. The Arizona debacle gives the Obama administration another chance to make it clear that the nation’s immigration policy cannot be left to a ragged patchwork of state and local laws.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama praised a federal court’s decision striking down a law in Hazleton, Pa., that made it illegal to hire or rent housing to undocumented immigrants. To start forcefully asserting the central federal role in immigration, the administration should rescind a once-secret 2002 memo from President George W. Bush’s attorney general, John Ashcroft, that declared that state and local police had “inherent authority” to make immigration arrests. It should have done that long ago. It should also weigh in against another reckless Arizona law, now before the Supreme Court, that revokes the business licenses of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
The administration’s actions elsewhere have sent the wrong message. Janet Napolitano once vetoed extremist immigration-enforcement bills as Arizona’s governor, but as the homeland security secretary she defends the use of state and local police as “force multipliers.” Ms. Napolitano needs to end dangerous experiments like the 287(g) program and Secure Communities, which hand over vital federal duties to untrained, unsupervised local deputies, openly enabling racial-profiling and undermining community policing and public safety.
These steps are no substitute for immigration reform, the future of which seems pretty murky after Mr. Obama started gingerly backing away this week. But the federal government must react forcefully to the Arizona statute. Is our core belief still the welcome and assimilation of newcomers? Arizona has given one answer. It’s time for Mr. Obama to give the other.

The New York Times, April 30, 2010

Let's finally start to think and deal with real problems!

Perfect Discourse

New interview with Philippe Sollers, by Guillaume Chérel and Franck-Olivier Laferrère, on April 14. Words more thoughtful are rare indeed!

Entretien Ph. Sollers Partie I
Uploaded by Cid-Errant. - Arts and animation videos.

Philippe Sollers « Pour vivre cachés vivons heureux » The interview as published in full in L'Humanité on April 29.

It Should Be Done !

Too bad this was only a brainstorm, it should be made reality! Everyone everywhere who comes in contact with Maledictus or receives him as a visitor to their country should confront him with modernity. Is he so narrow-minded that he cannot even be expected to HEAR other views?

Pope 'condom' gaffe: Foreign Office apologises - World news - The Observer

The Foreign Office was last night forced to issue a public apology after an official document suggested Britain should mark the Pope's visit this year by asking him to open an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage and launch a range of Benedict-branded condoms.

I, for one, do NOT think they should have apologized!

ASH !

Ash wasn't gray or black or ugly or smelly;

ash was blue-skied azure, immaculate,

ash was fiery sunshine streaming down at you,

ash was the absence of even the slightest vapor trail,

ash was quiet, calm, pristine, restful.

No ash isn't bright or clear or pretty or fragrant;

no ash is dark skies streaked with all sorts of clouds,

no ash is very little daylight penetrating the gloom,

no ash is renewed jet engine exhaust across the sky,

no ash is noisier, more hectic, blemished, restless.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,

we must simply await the next eruption.

- In Memoriam of the Ash Crisis, April 17-21, 2010

Censored in France!

But via the internet, you can watch this interview with Nicolas Sarkozy there and everywhere. Sarkozy successfully precluded broadcast of this report made by Télévision Suisse Romande because they asked to many questions about his pressure on the press and disruption of free reporting.


So, watch and learn that freedom of speech must NOT be curtailed, even by the president of France!
Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:


And finally a link to the original broadcast from June, 2009, on the website of French-speaking Swiss Television.

Here's To Berlin !

Grateful to relish life amidst urban troubles rather than suffer tranquility in the provinces!

[Thanks to Claudia for putting me on to this one!]

Progress IS Possible !

May Obama prevail over the clouded fears of the manipulated to move the United States ever more out of its self-imposed Dark Ages into the light of thoughtful and compassionate statehood!

Obama extends hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners of gays [The Washington Post, April 16, 2010]

President Obama mandated Thursday that nearly all hospitals extend visitation rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians and respect patients' choices about who may make critical health-care decisions for them, perhaps the most significant step so far in his efforts to expand the rights of gay Americans.

Presidential Memorandum - Hospital Visitation

I truly welcome all the enlightened actions of this administration, hope indeed that it can push back the resentments that all too many Americans seem to have made into their new guiding ideology.

-- And a note on deficits, people: Who turned a budget surplus into the BIGGEST deficit ever? The Bushbaby ! And that Paling tea cozy babbling in your ears would like to "reduce" taxes and increase the deficit even more. Have you ever stopped to consider that those who benefit the most from tax cuts are those who have so much money they don't notice the difference, while those with hardly anything might just be able to buy one more loaf of unhealthy squishy white bread per month with the benefits they receive?
Come on, think and stop whining!

Penance, Endlessly

Yes, Maledictus, do penance! All of you should do penance, endlessly, for all the crimes you have indirectly committed or directly covered up, all the lives you have abuse that were naive enough to grant you and yours tutelage over them or to come to you seeking ministry.
And you can do penance for your Pius Brother Williamson, now finally on trial for denying the Holocaust.
Penance, though, will hardly be enough.
Begin thinking, and tell all who have been satisfied and betrayed by faith to think as well.

Seaside right next door

A wonderful trip yesterday all within easy reach of home: Rheinsberg, Himmelpfort, Müritz

A Memorial for the WTC & Philippe Petit

One of the memories connected with the World Trade Center in my own mind which make it always tower high into the sky... 1974...

Saturday Before Easter in the City

My Easter Bunny

This year it hopped into my hands as the latest edition of L'Infini, light and joyful for reading on the way here and there during the four-day weekend.

Happiness, Love, Joy

From Sollers' "Paradis caché" in Discours Parfait, p.104-5:

«l'enfer et la damnation, dès ici-bas, est le non-accès à la poésie comme telle.
[....]
La grande poésie , elle, transforme la vie, elle pense plus que la philosophie.
[...]
La joie, le bonheur, l'amour sont gratuits. Un amour qui n'est pas gratuit n'est pas de l'amour.
[...]
Le bonheur rend invisible. C'est la grâce qu'il faut souhaiter.»

Quick rough translations:

• Hell and damnation, here and now, is non-access to poetry as such.
• Great poetry transforms life, it thinks more than philosophy.
• Joy, happiness, love are free. Love that is not free is not love.
• Happiness makes you invisible. That's the grace you must wish for.

Worthy thoughts for a Sunday morning before heading out for a trip along the Oder.

FINALLY - Responsible Action for HEALTH !

Thank you, Mr. Obama; thank you, Congressmen and Congresswomen who voted YES!
Thank you for finally guaranteeing EVERY American health care and health insurance coverage in the United States.
Thank you for finally bringing the US into the modern world where solidarity and compassion for all are ever more a necessity to ensure that all may enjoy the benefits of medicine.

Compassion is always better than greed. Solidarity is always better than sneering at those worse off than you. Sharing never hurts those who have more than enough to share. And perhaps even you will benefit from the new regulations when you switch jobs, and are thus compelled to switch insurance companies, and have some chronic disease that you need to continue to have treated, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, or even post-nasal drip. Pre-existing conditions may no longer be excluded! Even YOU have the right to insurance coverage for what ails you! Congratulations!

Yesterday's Delight

Because it's finally gotten warmer but was drizzly, we opted for a museum visit yesterday afternoon. From here to there by bus to reinforce the notion of a leisure activity, we arrived at the Schloss Charlottenburg stress-free and crossed the street to the Western Stüler Building.

A collection of dimensions you can take in and appreciate without visual fatigue, the Museum Berggruen of the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin is a delightful experience of Picasso and contemporaries. Some 100 works by Picasso, from 1897-1972, are complemented by those of Giacometti, Matisse, Klee, and even traditional African artists.

Whenever you have the opportunity to visit, do so!

Widerstehen dem Nichts

The original version of the Hölderlin passage Philippe Sollers places at the front of Discours Parfait:

«Je angefochtener wir sind vom Nichts, das, wie ein Abgrund, um uns her uns angähnt, oder auch vom tausendfachen Etwas der Gesellschaft und der Tätigkeit der Menschen, das gestaltlos, seel- und lieblos uns verfolgt, zerstreut, um so leidenschaftlicher und heftiger und gewaltsamer muß der Widerstand von unsrer Seite werden. Oder muß er es nicht?»

-Hölderlin an den Bruder, 2. November 1797: Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. Hrsg. von Günter Mieth. Berlin und Weimar, 1970. Bd.4, S.283

Word - On the Completion of a Thoughtful Reading

»Wort? Die lautlose Stimme des Seyns.«
»Das Wort nimmt in den Anspruch das Wesen des Menschen dergestalt, daß es ihn für das Da-sein beansprucht.«
«Durch Erdenken der Efahrung des Seyns --> (Ereignis).«

[MH GA71 Das Ereignis, §314, S.283-4]
Word? the soundless tuned-voice of Being.
The word places such a claim on the essence (essential-sway) of man that it claims him for the being-there.
Through the bethinking of the beholding-experience of Beyng --> (Enowning).

[RG trans.]

Enowning: the only event.

Let Writers Travel With Their Words!

CHINA has again violated freedom of expression and freedom of mobility by refusing Liao Yiwu the right to leave the country to attend a literature festival in Cologne.
CHINA must cease endless violations of human rights and no longer maintain that it is subject to some other, "non-western" standards.
CHINA must finally recognize that HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS FOR ALL MANKIND!
CHINA must cease expecting us to breathe their pollution, buy their cheap products, and incur ever more unemployment due to their cutrate production prices exploiting their own people.
CHINA must be boycotted until it respects and upholds human rights!

LET Liao Yiwu travel! Release him from the house arrest he has been place under. Allow him to publish his works, and read from them publicly. Support LIAO YIWU !

China Writer Blocked From Going to German Festival
Published: March 2, 2010

BEIJING — Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.
It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.
“How can this happen?” The A.P. quoted him as saying. “It’s a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!”

----

And while we're at it:

Burma, Myanmar, Birma, whichever name you prefer for that country, has enacted a law which forbids Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the upcoming elections in that country, because she is under house arrest for expressing her opinions on the situation in that country. She is the great hope of many of that country's population, and if she remains a member of her own opposition party, it will also not be allowed on the ballot. MYANMAR must institute justice and democracy and release Aung San Suu Kyi!

Change or More of the Same

Take a look at the ad and put pressure on Mr. Obama to bring accused terrorist to trial in criminal courts, as he promised in the campaign. Now he must be true to his word and restore American principles of justice and due process. Terrorism can ONLY be effectively fought WITHOUT violating the Constitution of the United States or the UN Charter of Human Rights !

ACLU Ad: What Will it Be, Mr. President? American Civil Liberties Union

Yann Moix interviews Philippe Sollers on Film

Entretien entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers - La Règle du Jeu

The above link leads to the four-part video documentation of the interview on the site La Règle du Jeu.

La Règle du Jeu vous propose un entretien exclusif entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers à propos du cinéma. Le premier, écrivain réalisateur. Le second, écrivain ô combien amoureux de la littérature, de la beauté, des arts… et néanmoins réfractaire au cinéma. Mais est-ce si sûr ? Et en ce cas, pour quelles raisons ? La guerre du goût doit-elle (devrait-elle ?) passer nécessairement, par celle du verbe contre l’image ?
Objet d’un dialogue étonnant.

International Women's Day

To all the women I know:

This is YOUR day! May you enjoy it and benefit from true equal rights!

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was run in 1911. Next year is IWD Global Centenary 1911-2011 ...

The first International Women's Day was in 1911. It followed unanimous agreement at an International Conference of Working Women the previous year. Clara Zetkin proposed that every year in every country there should be one same day when women's solidarity presses for equality ...

Do Not Let It Fail !

The New York Times Editorial
If Reform Fails
Published: March 6, 2010

As the fierce debate on President Obama’s plan for health care reform comes to a head, Americans should be thinking carefully about what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation.

[...]

If reform is defeated, it seems likely that most of the proposed experiments designed to cut costs — first within Medicare and then throughout the rest of the health care system — will die as well. The legislation needs to be passed to establish a structure to force continuing improvement over the years. That is the best chance of restraining soaring medical costs that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the federal government.
Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of “dangerous experiments” on the “best health care system in the world.” The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo.

Genocide by any Other Name ...

... remains genocide. Turkey should do put more effort into facing dark sides of its own history than into criticizing those who point out that dark side. The Armenian tragedy should not be swept under the rug. Silence on crimes against humanity is never golden, but instead very close to being a crime itself!

Turkey Criticizes House Committee’s Declaration of Armenian Genocide - NYTimes.com

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that the vote by a Congressional committee in Washington condemning the mass killing of Armenians early in the last century as genocide would damage ties with the Obama administration and set back reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.
[...]
Historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians died in a forced migration by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies that this was a planned genocide, and the topic had long been taboo in Turkey, with no mention of it in history books. Writers and intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced criminal charges for airing the debate.

Freedom of Art

With thanks to Rachel's Joey and greetings to her and to you all with glee as art frames music:

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

No, the Government MAY NOT Collect Data on Telecommunications in General

Today, the German Supreme Court ruled that a law mandating all telecommunications firms to store data on ALL connections (telephone, mobile, internet, email) of ALL users for 6 months to be available to government agencies at their will is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, violates the rights to privacy of the individual, stands in no proper relationship to efforts to combat crime &/or terrorism because too general, and is therefore NULL AND VOID. All data that has been collected and stored must be destroyed IMMEDIATELY. A proper law detailing who has access to whose information for what specific purposes of law enforcement and terrorism prevention may be permissible, in accordance with EU guidelines, the court added, but the current law is sloppy, too general, and does not properly balance individual rights against security concerns. There was NO transition period allowed; the law has been stricken from the books and may not be used. Only with passage of a new and proper law is any such collection of data perhaps possible, but the court has made clear that this must properly weigh the individual's right to privacy of his data. Below, a short video of the Justices announcing the decision, in itself interesting for the formality of such a procedure here.