Doggy Style

On the enactment of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) or, Don’t You Just LOVE Moralistic Christians:

The half-century of campaigning by groups like the Anti-Saloon League (U.S.) contributed perhaps more than any other factor in generating support for Prohibition. By the early 1900s in the U.S., the great temperance leaders ordered their forces to use any means necessary to shut down the saloons — even hatchets if necessary. The Bible and hatchet-carrying Carry Nation and her male counterpart, the iron-fisted Dr. Howard Russell, were the most popular of the U.S. temperance leaders….

This Prohibitionary craze may seem unfathomable out of context but, on closer examination, the period up until 1920 was dominated by prohibitions - on clothing, behavior and even food. In Ontario, especially, the straight-laced Protestant ethic dictated an exclusive code of conduct. It was strictly forbidden in 1919, for example, to purchase a cigar, an ice cream cone, a newspaper or anything vaguely frivolous on a Sunday. And playing sports of any kind was absolutely banned on the Lord’s Day. In Michigan, as an extreme example, it was considered a crime for women to wear high-heeled shoes. In such a world a ban on intoxicating beverages did not seem so out of place.

In addition to all of these factors, the farmer was regarded as the silent partner of the Prohibition movement. The Prohibitionists relied upon the farmer to cast his ballot against the evils of drunkenness and sloth, which he viewed from the safety of his front veranda in he remote and serene countryside as something distinctly urban. The Farmer’s Sun told farmers what they already knew - that their rural sanctuary could only be ensured if they voted to bring cities and towns under the umbrella of Prohibition.

Gervais, M. The Rumrunners. (Biblioasis, 1980, 2009). pp. 14-18.

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.

— Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 1938)

Charlie Brooker of NewsWipe, in London, shows us exactly how news stories are put together, while mimicking a news story — how inane they are, and how British TV news and American TV news are ugly, self-serving, trivial twins.

Brilliant!

If we knew each other’s secrets, what comfort we should find.

— John Churton Collins

Do I look gay in this shirt?

Prop. 8 Judge is Gay

NBC News is reporting that 9th District Court of Appeals Judge Vaughn Walker, who is currently considering testimony in the closely watched marriage-rights case regarding the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, is himself gay. While it might seem like an advantage to Prop 8 proponents, Walker’s sexuality doesn’t provide easy grounds for an appeal should he strike down the ban on same-sex marriage.

David Levine, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings School of Law, noted:

Every judge has a race. Does that mean when there’s a case involving racial discrimination, no judge can decide a case involving race because they have a race? No.

Maryland Report Cards Now Come With “Ex-Gay” Recruitment Propaganda

We all know that “gay rehabilitation” programs do NOT work. But, as usual, “ex-gay” religious “ministries” do not care (about the validity of their claims, or about children). And they are now aggressively recruiting adolescents dealing with their (non-heterosexual) gender and sexual identities.

The website teachthefacts.org, started by Montgomery County parents who aren’t born-again, fundamentalist, ignoramuses, and who think that children should be taught scientifically, reports that an ex-gay group calling itself PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays) — the name of which is typically (of right-wing proto-fascist Christian groups) deceitful and derivative and manipulative, being intentionally very similar to PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) — anyway, PFOX recently “took advantage” (as in molestation or abuse) of a Maryland public school district, disseminating information about ex-gay outreach programs in the same envelopes as high school students’ report cards.

Montgomery County, just to the north of Washington, is one of the most affluent (but, obviously, not educated) counties in the country, with just over a million residents.

Montgomery County, MD, lost a 2006 lawsuit, filed by PFOX, for supposed violation of First Amendment rights. The judge ruled that the school must distribute any literature distributed by non-profit groups, as long as the literature wasn’t considered “hate speech.” (Why encouraging high school students to undertake sexual orientation “cures” by quacks, using methods that have been clearly demonstrated to be psychologically and, sometimes, physically traumatic, isn’t considered legally abusive and hateful is beyond me!)

[via Carnal Nation]

Hitler Injected Bull Semen For Virility and Strychnine For Gas

There are myriad theories out there about Hitler’s health. Some say he was a drug addict, others say he was the victim of hypnosis gone wrong. Then there are the strange hypotheses about his genitalia.

But, a new book, entitled Was Hitler Ill?, has now debunked most of those ideas. Drugs and illness, it turns out, had little effect on his actions. The book is reviewed here, and even the review is fascinating.

The book, written by Professors Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann, claims that the dictator took 82 different medications as he led Germany, all prescribed by his physician, Theodor Morrell, the so-called “Reich Syringe Master,” including an extract of testosterone, along with the semen and prostate glands of young bulls, that worked as a “primitive Viagra.” (And, apparently he needed a bit of help — Hitler was 32 years older than his lover, Eva Braun.)

In the safer sex ads for Doc Morris Pharmacies, perhaps the responsibility for saving the world from dictators and terrorists falls squarely on you. The message may be that using a condom will prevent you from fathering the next Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, or Osama bin Laden, so it’s best to cap-off the conduit.

Or, so many people seem to believe.

Me? I believe the message is this: Diseases are like evil dictators, controlling you and ruining your life.

[Of course, if the message isn’t clear then the ads are, to some degree, merely a provocation and, thus, a failure. In well-created ads, the message should be immediate and perfectly clear. But, that’s not my point here….]

While the ad campaign certainly grabs your attention, Agence-France Press reports that the Chinese government is less than amused since the Communist Party has demanded that the company apologize to China. Since being profitable (which means being able to acquire Chinese clients) is more important than any ad message, Grey Worldwide, the ad agency, has sent a letter of apology to the Chinese.

Still, I thought you’d like to see the ads…

Marriage Equality in Mexico

Under its left-wing mayor and city assembly, Mexico City has stretched the nation’s limits in acknowledging just how much the conceptions and realities of family have changed here. The city legalized abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, untangled its cumbersome divorce laws and recognized civil unions.

A new Mexico City law goes into effect March 4 that will allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, propelling the city to the forefront of the global gay rights movement.

But fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church erupted almost as soon as the law was passed on Dec. 22.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera superstitiously declared in a homily at his Mexico City Cathedral (paid for my common Mexican citizens, most of whom are poor, and built by enslaved indigenous and peasant Mexicans whose families and ways of life were destroyed by that same oppressive church):

Today the family is under attack in its essence by the equivalence of homosexual unions with marriage between a man and a woman.