I’ve linked it here before, but not since I started posting. It’s called “Cover Snark,” done by the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books writers. It’s sooo funny, and there is eye candy for most, as well. The Smart Ones are good people. Enjoy.
Tag: Art
Peace & Justice History 8/9
The subject of South African pass laws makes me think of the GOP’s Agenda 47, and Project 2025…
August 9, 1943 Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian conscientious objector who reported for induction but refused to serve in the army of the Third Reich, was executed by guillotine at Brandenburg-Gorden prison. An American, Gordon Zahn, wrote about Jägerstätter while researching the subject of German Roman Catholics’ response to Hitler. Zahn’s book, In Solitary Witness, influenced Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to stand against the Vietnam War by bringing the previously secret Pentagon Papers to public attention. Against the Stream by Erna Putz, the story of the courage of Franz Jägerstätter: https://www.c3.hu/~bocs/jager-a.htm August 9, 1945 The second atomic bomb, “Fatman,” was dropped on the arms-manufacturing and key port city of Nagasaki. The plan to drop a second bomb was to test a different design rather than one of military necessity. The Hiroshima weapon was a gun type, the Nagasaki weapon an implosion type, and the War Department wanted to know which was the more effective design.Responsibility for the timing of the second bombing had been delegated by President Harry Truman before the Hiroshima attack to Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, the commander of the 509th Composite Group on Tinian, one of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific.  Scheduled for August 11 against Kokura, the raid was moved forward to avoid a five-day period of bad weather forecast to begin on August 10. English translation of leaflet air-dropped over Japan after the first bomb [excerpt]: “We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate.”Of the 195,000 population of the city (many of its children had been evacuated due to bombing in the days just prior), 39,000 died and 25,000 were injured, and 40% of all residences were damaged or destroyed.“What on earth has happened?” said my mother, holding her baby tightly in her arms. “Is it the end of the world?” Sachiko Yamaguchi (nine years old at the time of the bombing).Hear an eyewitness account of this terrrible event Photographic exhibit of the aftermath August 9, 1956  20,000 women demonstrated against the pass laws in Pretoria, South Africa. Pass laws required that Africans carry identity documents with them at all times. These books had to contain stamps providing official proof the person in question had permission to be in a particular town at a given time. Initially, only men were forced to carry these books, but soon the law also compelled women to carry the documents. August 9, 1966 Two hundred people sat in at the New York City offices of Dow Chemical Company to protest the widespread use in Vietnam of Dow’s flammable defoliant Napalm.  Napalm in use in Vietnam Read more about Dow Chemical and the use of napalm: https://thevietnamwar.info/napalm-vietnam-war/ August 9, 1987 Hundreds were arrested in an all-day blockade of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Golden, Colorado. Protests at Rocky Flats had been going on for some years. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august91943
A Poem I Just Read
This poem came in a newsletter I receive. I thought it’s a worthy share.
The Earthling
The Earthlings arrived unannounced, entered
without knocking, removed their shoes
and began clipping their toenails.
They let the clippings fall wherever.
They sighed loudly as if inconvenienced.
We were patient. We knew our guests
were in an unfamiliar environment; they needed
time to adjust. For dinner, we prepared
turkey meatloaf with a side of cauliflower.
This is too dry, they said.
This is not like what our mothers made.
We wanted to offer a tour of our world,
demonstrate how we freed ourselves
from the prisons of linear time.
But the Earthlings were already spelunking
our closets, prying tools
from their containers and holding them
to the light. What’s this? they demanded.
What’s this? What’s this? And what’s this?
That’s a Quantum Annihilator; put that down.
That’s a Particle Grinder; please put that down.
We could show you how to heal the sick, we said.
We could help you feed every nation, commune
with the all-seeing sentient energy that palpitates
through all known forms of matter.
Nah! they said. Teach us to vaporize a mountain!
Teach us to turn the moon into revenue!
Then the Earthlings
left a faucet running and flooded our basement.
Copyright © 2023 by Matthew Olzmann. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 17, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.
In the interest of inclusiveness,
and because it’s very beautiful:
Did You Know That Poetry Used to Be an Actual Olympic Sport?
And the First Openly Gay Olympic Medalist Was a Poet
Reblog from BQuick
Portrait of Peter Tatchell hung in National Portrait Gallery
LGBTQ+ and human rights campaigner ‘delighted and honoured’ to have painting by Sarah Jane Moon on display
Harriet Sherwood Tue 30 Jul 2024 00.00 EDT
Peter Tatchell’s portrait is in the History Makers gallery alongside other prominent public figures. Photograph: National Portrait Gallery
A vibrant portrait of the LGBTQ+ and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been hung in the National Portrait Gallery’s History Makers gallery as part of a drive to better reflect the diversity of the UK.
The painting by Sarah Jane Moon shows Tatchell in a casual pose, seated with his hands clasping his left calf. The 72-year-old activist is sporting a rainbow tie to celebrate almost six decades of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights.
Tatchell, who has experienced more than 300 violent assaults and has been arrested or detained by police more than 100 times, said he was “delighted and honoured” to have his portrait in the gallery “alongside so many esteemed public figures”.
“I love the bold, expressive, joyful style [of the painting], which reflects the spirit of my campaigns,” he added. He consciously chose brightly coloured clothes for sittings in order to avoid “the sombre, dark tones” of many portraits.
Although few men routinely wear ties these days, it is not unusual for Tatchell. He realised many years ago that people had “preconceptions about campaigners in T-shirts. I put on a tie and people started treating me much more seriously, so I’ve stuck with ties ever since.” (snip-More)
Celebrating Colors
Reblog Does Anyone Know Where I Set My Coffee?
Jenny Lawson’s Substack
I have trouble fitting in. by Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)
But you probably already know that .Read on Substack
Snippet:
And honestly, how very freeing that can be…
“JUST A REMINDER THAT YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO TWIST YOURSELF INTO KNOTS IN ORDER TO FIT IN.”
Hugs,
me
(me is Jenny.)
