Joe. My. God. (what a good blog!)
Nov 24 at 9:09am by wilkins
We’re excited to learn of Joe.My.God . The man can write - and we particulary commend to your atten attention a four-part series called Blogdaddy. You can read all four pieces here
He’s also got some outgoing links that held our attention:
Dog Poet this man’s dog is so cute that it beggars description
The Ninth Circle of Helen (”Helen Damnation,’ which seems to be based in Brooklyn.
Jockohomo Datapanix on exhibition in NY Times gallery
Nov 24 at 8:08am by wilkins
Jockohomo DataPanik on an installation in the lobby of my homewtown paper:
Moveable Type, a new permanent art installation in the lobby of the New York Times is the ultimate in real and virtual news. Created by artist Ben Rubin and UCLA professor/statistician Mark Hansen, 560 vacuum-fluorescent display screens mounted on 2 walls use statistical methods and natural-language processing algorithms to parse the daily output of the paper (news, features, editorials) and the archives, as well as the activity of visitors to the paper’s website, browsing, searching, commenting etc. Watch a Video of the installation, read more from Flowing Data, check out a few more shots of the installation.
Oklahoma - Okay! (not so much)
Nov 17 at 5:05pm by wilkins
[singlepic=1,320,240,,left] Tony Comstock has an interesting piece about, among other things, Oklahoma anti-pornography statutes:
Many of the people who I spoke with were professors who taught sexually or researched aspects of sexuality in a university setting, and several of them were interested in our films, either for use in their classrooms, or in their experiments. This included a professor from an Oklahoma university, who himself was at the conference to present a paper on BDSM. “I’d really love to use your films in my class, but penetration is illegal in Oklahoma.” This is the second time in a month that I’ve heard this. The first time was last month at a trade-show in Las Vegas. A woman who owns a lingerie shop was at our booth, delighted by what she saw. “Do your films have penetration?” she asked. “Of course they do. Our films are about sex.” “Oh, then I can’t carry them. Penetration is illegal in Oklahoma. If you stick your tongue in someone’s ear and it’s sexual, it’s illegal in Oklahoma.” Of course this is nonsense. Legislators in Oklahoma can no more outlaw the photographic depiction of sexual penetration than they can outlaw the photographic depiction of blue shirts. Yet apparently they have. There is variety of expression not seen as worthy of First Amendment protection – obscenity. Throughout the Twentieth Century, what is and is not obscenity has been the subject of a number of Supreme Court decisions, the last being the 1973 case of Miller v. California. With regard to what sort of sexually explicit expression is not protected by the First Amendment, Miller v. California ((http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1971/1971_70_73/; Wikipedia entry here)) is the law of the land, and defines obscenity by a three-pronged test. A work is considered obscene, and therefore may be suppressed by the government if: The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest And The work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law. And The work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value. What that means is that if a jury decides the answer to any one of these three questions is “no”, then the work is not obscene, and if it’s not obscene than the state of Oklahoma has no power to suppress the distribution of the work. In theory. In practice, the threat of an obscenity prosecution is enough to prevent work from being seen, even films recently described as, “Perhaps the most cinematic and pro-social depictions of sexual behavior ever produced.” (You gotta love how sex scientists talk!) The simple fact is that the Oklahoma professor I talked to this weekend is afraid that if he uses our films in his classroom, he’ll go to jail. The Oklahoma shopkeeper we talked to is afraid that if she offers our films to her customers she’ll go to jail. And that fear is enough to keep people from seeing our films in the Sooner State.
Tony Comstock’s Blog: When Penetration is Illegal in Oklahoma, Oklahomans Get Fucked
I’ve been looking through Oklahoma statutes - and haven’t found the relevant “penetration” provision. But here are provisions which are a bit disturbing:
Oklahoma Statutes, Title 21, Crimes and Punishments, §21-1024.1. Definitions
[(A) defines child pornography (B) essentially recites the Miller test, with a few details to make it even easier for prosecutors]
B. As used in Sections 1021 through 1024.4 and Sections 1040.8 through 1040.24 of this title:
1. “Obscene material” means and includes any representation, performance, depiction or description of sexual conduct, whether in any form or medium including still photographs, undeveloped photographs, motion pictures, undeveloped film, videotape, CD-ROM, magnetic disk memory, magnetic tape memory or a purely photographic product or a reproduction of such product in any book, pamphlet, magazine, or other publication, if said items contain the following elements:
a. depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct which are patently offensive as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards,
b. taken as a whole, have as the dominant theme an appeal to prurient interest in sex as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, and
c. a reasonable person would find the material or performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value.
The standard for obscenity applied in this section shall not apply to child pornography;
2. “Performance” means and includes any display, live or recorded, in any form or medium;
3. “Sexual conduct” means and includes any of the following:
a. acts of sexual intercourse including any intercourse which is normal or perverted, actual or simulated,
b. acts of deviate sexual conduct, including oral and anal sodomy,
c. acts of masturbation,
d. acts of sadomasochistic abuse including but not limited to:
(1) flagellation or torture by or upon any person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a costume which is of a revealing nature, or
(2) the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of one who is nude or so clothed,
e. acts of excretion in a sexual context, or
f. acts of exhibiting human genitals or pubic areas ….
Particularly disturbing is (B) (4), which essentially makes defines child pornography as that which a police officers reacts to as child pornography: From Oklahoma Statutes, Article 21, §1024.1 (B)(4):
“Explicit child pornography” means material which a law enforcement officer can immediately identify upon first viewing without hesitation as child pornography.
In other words - if the government says it’s bad -it’s bad.
The notion of “penetration” as the test - which two reasonable people described to Tony Comstock - sounds like a layperson’s distillation of cautious legal advice in this sort of environment: don’t.
An obvious constitutional problem with Miller is this: by definition, a “community standard” allows a majority to decide what’s acceptable for minorities - this sort of system lets majorities - or powerful minorities - make cultural choices for the rest of the population - with liberty and rights of citizenship at risk.
Oklahoma lyrics (Rodgers & Hammerstein) here.
Comstock Films: Xana and Dax
Nov 15 at 2:02am by wilkins
(No - I’m not sure how to pronounce the “x’s” in their names.
I was recently reminded that while I’d heard about Comstock Films, I’d never seen any of their work. So I took a look at samples of two of their films - they’ve got a short list, but the heat-to-mass ratio, based on my sample, is quite high. And ordered “Xana & Dax: When Opposites Attract“What started this was my reading an essay on Tony Comstock’s blog. Since my taste in women runs to the smartest ones - stands to reason I’d like pornography made by smart people.
In the meantime - we’ll be watching the mail - please watch this space for a review.
Don’t Irritate the Lions (Noli Irritare Leones)
Nov 9 at 11:11pm by wilkins
Noli Irritare Leones is, of course, very good advice. But it’s also the name of a really wonderful blog by a woman whose username is Sappho; conversations on this blog tend to be very interesting, with an exceptionally gentle tone. From her “About” page:
Some of the topics on this blog don’t require too much explanation; as I’m a Quaker it’s not surprising that I should talk about Quaker practice, the Peace Testimony, the Bible, and the like, and then everyone does memes, talks about movies, and discusses the latest items in the news. I blog about feminism because I’m a feminist. I also have an interest in blogging about sexuality, in particular how people relate their faith to their sexuality, and in particular how people who are attracted to their own sex relate their faith to their sexuality. Beyond that, here are some of the topics that show up on my sidebar where the connection may not be obvious, and why I’ve blogged about them.Why Africa? My sister-in-law is African, from Chad, and she’s the mother of about half of my nieces and nephews. Also, when I started looking for news from Chad, I found out that there are a whole lot of really cool blogs from Africa, and that the Internet provides an opportunity to get African perspectives that you’d never find otherwise.
Why Anarchism? Just because Emma Goldman is cool.
Why Catholic Worker? Dorothy Day is even more cool. And I’ve done things with the local Catholic Worker house on an intermittent basis.
Why so much about the Catholic and Episcopal churches? I was raised Episcopalian and married into a Catholic family.
Why Gnosticism? Well, I blog about orthodox Church Fathers, too. I’m interested in church history from all sides, including understanding the heresies that got rejected.
And, in fact, all of those topics, and more, on Noli Irritare Leones. Being Jewish, I’m not so sure of this, but I suspect it’s a reference to some sort of Christian gallows humor. (Groucho Marx used to tell a joke about a man who, when brought to the gallows, was asked if he had any last words. He replied: “I don ‘t think this damned this is safe.”)
(Update: plus, she reads Zuzu, my friend and neighbor, probably the best-known feminist blogger - well, at least in Brookyn).
AAG exhibits exceptional grace under substantial pressure
Nov 7 at 11:11pm by wilkins
Check out Driveway - not what NPR refers to as a “driveway moment,” but an account of AAGbeing a great parent in a tough situation. Her soon-to-be-ex: not so much.
Always Aroused Girl (AAG) - shredding the space-time continuum like nobody’s business.
Lee of the Stone - risks human auto-sacrifice
Nov 1 at 3:03am by wilkins
Either that or an incredible act of faith - in skepticism. She watched several hours of what may be the worst television “reporting” ever - so you didn’t have to. Don’t take my word for it - read her accounts Blogging the Ghost Hunters: Hour One and Blogging the Ghost Hunters: Hour Two - if you dare.
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