now is the time for all good men to come...

Very little of this is mine, other than the selection.

In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy. -Fran Lebowitz, author (b. 1950)

—

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Human beings took our animal need for palatable food … and turned it into chocolate souffles with salted caramel cream. We took our ability to co-operate as a social species … and turned it into craft circles and bowling leagues and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took our capacity to make and use tools … and turned it into the Apollo moon landing. We took our uniquely precise ability to communicate through language … and turned it into King Lear.

None of these things are necessary for survival and reproduction. That is exactly what makes them so splendid. When we take our basic evolutionary wiring and transform it into something far beyond any prosaic matters of survival and reproduction … that’s when humanity is at its best. That’s when we show ourselves to be capable of creating meaning and joy, for ourselves and for one another. That’s when we’re most uniquely human.

And the same is true for sex. Human beings have a deep, hard-wired urge to replicate our DNA, instilled in us by millions of years of evolution. And we’ve turned it into an intense and delightful form of communication, intimacy, creativity, community, personal expression, transcendence, joy, pleasure, and love. Regardless of whether any DNA gets replicated in the process.

Why should we see this as sinful? What makes this any different from chocolate souffles and King Lear?

BREAKING: 9th Circuit Court Rules Prop 8 UNCONSTITUTIONAL | NOH8 Campaign

ernestsewell:

Nearly one and a half years since Federal District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declared Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional in the landmark Perry v. Brown case, the 9th US District Circuit Court of Appeals finally announced this morning that they will beupholding Judge Walker’s decision: PROPOSITION H8 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

30371_mediumOpponents of same-sex marriage will likely file an appeal to the decision, and the next steps may inevitably lead to a hearing before the US Supreme Court; casting the national spotlight on California’s fight for the freedom to marry and putting the focus on same-sex marriage at a federal level. Most importantly, today’s rulings open up the door for the same arguments to be used to the benefit of advancing pro-same-sex marriage legislation in other states.

What does this mean in the now? When can same-sex couples in California begin to get married again? The imposed stay on permitting same-sex marriages will likely stand in anticipation of further appeals; but we will update this page as more information becomes available.

For now, we must celebrate this huge advance for gay rights and continue this year’s momentum of the positive forces for change we’ve seen in places like Washington state, Delaware, Hawaii, and of courseNew York. This is an incredible day for couples not only in California but across the United States, and we will continue to share the details of what this decision means as we learn more.

In addition to ruling on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, there were two more issues for the 9th Circuit to rule on. First, they were to decide whether or not Prop 8 Supporters have the standing under federal law to appeal Judge Walker’s decision: they have ruled they do, mirroring the California Supreme Court’s decision this past November. Second, the 9th Circuit had to decide if Judge Ware (who took over for the now retired Judge Walker) was correct in denying a motion from Prop 8 supporters that would overturn Judge Walker’s decision based on the the revelation that Judge Walker failed to disclose he was in a committed same-sex relationship himself. The 9th Circuit has ruled that Judge Ware was indeed in the right and dismissed the motion to vacate, reaffirming that Judge Walker’s relationship has no bearing on the merit of his decision.

 

In the meantime, one of the most important notions to gain from today’s victory is that there is promise, there is hope, and that with enough perseverance and patience, we can achieve the equal rights we deserve. We need to focus on figuring out what each of us can do from here to help the movement in our own way. Everybody has their own way of speaking out, and we have to celebrate those differences and encourage people to bring their own personal talents to the table. We want full recognition of equal rights for everybody on a federal level, and all of us are going to have to work together to do it!

So many people and organizations, particularly AFER, have played such a pivotal role in this historic decision. The NOH8Campaign was born out of the passage of Prop 8, and we’re proud to be a part of the fight. Even still, we couldn’t do what we do without such incredible dedication and help from each of you in the community. If not for your support, NOH8 would have never made it past California — and here we are, three years later, having been to three countries and well over half of the United States spreading our message of hope and acceptance. Prop 8 was just the beginning; we will continue to fight and advocate for those without a voice until everybody is equal.

(Source: ernestsewell)

My Easy God Is Gone

“Now he haunts me seldom: some fierce umbilical is broken, 
I live with my own fragile hopes and sudden rising despair. 
Now I do not weep for my sins; I have learned to love them 
And to know that they are the wounds that make love real. 
His face eludes me; his voice, with its pity, does not ring in my ear. 
His maxims memorized in boyhood do not make fruitless and pointless my experience. 
I walk alone, but not so terrified as when he held my hand. 
I do not splash in the blood of his son 
nor hear the crunch of nails or thorns piercing protesting flesh. 
I am a boy again—I whose boyhood was turned to manhood in a brutal myth. 
Now wine is only wine with drops that do not taste of blood. 
The bread I eat has too much pride for transubstantiation, 
I, too—and together the bread and I embrace, 
Each grateful to be what we are, each loving from our own reality.” 
― James Kavanaugh, There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves

Discovered at www.goodreads.com James Kavanaugh Quotes

The full poem is here Poem of the Week (long dormant)

Become a shoe repairman

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver.

-Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

from A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg @ wordsmith.org

maudelynn: Emily, Countess Cowper, by William Owen, c.1810

maudelynn:

Emily, Countess Cowper, by William Owen, c.1810

erospainter: “The drug of love was no escape, for in its coils lie latent dreams of greatness which awaken when men and women fecundate each other deeply. Something is always born of man and woman lying together and exchanging the essences of their lives. Some seed is always carried and opened in the soil of passion. The fumes of desire are the womb of man’s birth and often in the drunkeness of caresses history is made, and science, and philosophy. For a woman, as she sews, cooks, embraces, covers, warms, also dreams that the man taking her will be more than a man, will be the mythological figure of her dreams, the hero, the discoverer, the builder….Unless she is the anonymous whore, no man enters woman with impunity, for where the seed of man and woman mingle, within the drops of blood exchanged, the changes that take place are the same as those of great flowing rivers of inheritance, which carry traits of character from father to son to grandson, traits of character as well as physical traits. Memories of experience are transmitted by the same cells which repeated the design of a nose, a hand, the tone of a voice, the color of an eye. These great flowing rivers of inheritance transmitted traits and carried dreams from port to port until fulfillment, and gave birth to selves never born before….No man and woman know what will be born in the darkness of their intermingling; so much besides children, so many invisible births, exchanges of soul and character, blossoming of unknown selves, liberation of hidden treasures, buried fantasies…” ― Anaïs Nin, Four Chambered Heart

erospainter:

“The drug of love was no escape, for in its coils lie latent dreams of greatness which awaken when men and women fecundate each other deeply. Something is always born of man and woman lying together and exchanging the essences of their lives. Some seed is always carried and opened in the soil of passion. The fumes of desire are the womb of man’s birth and often in the drunkeness of caresses history is made, and science, and philosophy. For a woman, as she sews, cooks, embraces, covers, warms, also dreams that the man taking her will be more than a man, will be the mythological figure of her dreams, the hero, the discoverer, the builder….Unless she is the anonymous whore, no man enters woman with impunity, for where the seed of man and woman mingle, within the drops of blood exchanged, the changes that take place are the same as those of great flowing rivers of inheritance, which carry traits of character from father to son to grandson, traits of character as well as physical traits. Memories of experience are transmitted by the same cells which repeated the design of a nose, a hand, the tone of a voice, the color of an eye. These great flowing rivers of inheritance transmitted traits and carried dreams from port to port until fulfillment, and gave birth to selves never born before….No man and woman know what will be born in the darkness of their intermingling; so much besides children, so many invisible births, exchanges of soul and character, blossoming of unknown selves, liberation of hidden treasures, buried fantasies…”
― Anaïs Nin, Four Chambered Heart

Michelle Williams does not have Marilyn’s magical glow in any of the photos that I’ve seen. (How could she?) Nonetheless, I want to see this movie. allaboutmarilynmonroe: NPR: A Prince and a Showgirl, On Location and at Odds There’s an old story about Marilyn Monroe window-shopping with a friend on 5th Avenue, at the height of her fame. The friend was suddenly struck by the fact that they’d walked several blocks together on a busy New York sidewalk without anyone appearing to notice the best known and most glamorous star in all of motion pictures. Monroe wasn’t in disguise — quite the contrary, she wasn’t even wearing sunglasses. Still, passers-by were simply passing by.When the friend remarked on this, Monroe is reported to have said, “Oh, do you want them to notice me?” Then she reached into her purse for a lipstick and a scarf, and by the time she’d covered her blond locks with the latter, thrown back her shoulders slightly, and taken 20 steps, she was mobbed. Star power was something she had to turn on…

Michelle Williams does not have Marilyn’s magical glow in any of the photos that I’ve seen. (How could she?)

Nonetheless, I want to see this movie.

allaboutmarilynmonroe:

NPR: A Prince and a Showgirl, On Location and at Odds

There’s an old story about Marilyn Monroe window-shopping with a friend on 5th Avenue, at the height of her fame. The friend was suddenly struck by the fact that they’d walked several blocks together on a busy New York sidewalk without anyone appearing to notice the best known and most glamorous star in all of motion pictures.

Monroe wasn’t in disguise — quite the contrary, she wasn’t even wearing sunglasses. Still, passers-by were simply passing by.

When the friend remarked on this, Monroe is reported to have said, “Oh, do you want them to notice me?” Then she reached into her purse for a lipstick and a scarf, and by the time she’d covered her blond locks with the latter, thrown back her shoulders slightly, and taken 20 steps, she was mobbed. Star power was something she had to turn on…

mostlyzeldazonk: There may be an exact psychiatric term for what was wrong with her. I don’t know-but truth to tell, I think she was quite mad. The mother was mad and poor Marilyn was mad.-George Cukor 

mostlyzeldazonk:

There may be an exact psychiatric term for what was wrong with her. I don’t know-but truth to tell, I think she was quite mad. The mother was mad and poor Marilyn was mad.
-George Cukor 

(Source: mostlymarilynmonroe)