By Beauty Damned

Friday Anthem

This song makes me want to get out and dance like a freak, shoot some pool, kick some ass, toss back some shots and pass out in my bed drunk and tired and happier than a pig in shit.

Wild Child
by Iggy Pop

Well I'm just outta school
Like I'm real real cool
Gotta dance like a fool
Got the message that I gotta be
A wild one
Ooh yeah I'm a wild one

Gotta break it loose
Gonna keep 'em movin wild
Gonna keep a swingin baby
I'm a real wild child

Gonna meet all muh friends
Gonna have ourselves a ball
Gonna tell my friends
Gonna tell them all
That I'm a wild one
Ooh yeah I'm a wild one

Gotta break it loose
Gonna keep em movin wild
Gonna keep a swingin baby
I'm a real wild child

I'm a real wild one
And I like a wild fun
In a world gone crazy
Everything seems hazy
I'm a wild one
Ooh yeah I'm a wild one

Gotta break it loose
Gonna keep em movin wild
Gonna keep a swingin baby
I'm a real wild child

I'm a wild one
I'm a wild one
I'm a wild one
Oh baby
I'm a wild one

Gotta break it loose
Gonna keep em movin wild
Gonna keep a swingin baby
I'm a real wild child

It's a Bird, It's a Plame

So Valerie Plame is suing Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove for leaking her identity, ruining her status as an undercover CIA operative and causing much concern for herself and everyone who is related to her.

Three words: YOU GO GIRL.

I really hope she succeeds in nailing them all. It is a sickening injustice that so far the only person to shoulder the Plame blame has been the least culpable party, Scooter Libby. That poor schmuck....with friends like Cheney and Rove, who the hell needs enemies? I think old Harry "Buckshot" Whittington could probably answer that for us...

...And Give to the Poor

Thanks to my friend Matt for posting this article on myspace about an unbelievably fascist Las Vegas ordinance which attacks the homeless and any charitable organizations who offer free food.

This line at the end is a real clincher:

"Jerbic said police make judgment calls based on the severity of the crime, and this would be no different."

Now it is a crime to offer aid to your fellow human beings. Just when you think America can't get any more uppity and full of itself, people start writing their disdain for compassion and humanity right into the law books. We really are going straight down as a culture as long as we allow laws like this one to take hold. These "not in MY public space" laws are almost always initiated by privileged, fair skinned folks, and are an assault upon the very concepts of tolerance and altruism.

All we can do is keep publicizing injustice so that others who still have a heart can get mad enough to help change it. Stand up for our right to help others. Holy christ! How the hell can they outlaw CHARITY? The very idea that we would be encouraged to forego the endeavor of feeding the hungry - in order to insure that some yuppies will have a more pleasant day at the park - is so foreign to me that I can't even believe that members of the human race would come up with it.

Please read the article below. This is one more example of why all of us passionate young people should do more to get involved in the political process; so that assholes aren't the only ones making the decisions and setting the precedents that affect present and future generations. No matter where each of us lives, there are people who are working hard to enact laws that limit our freedoms and attack the poor and less fortunate on every level. Let's continue to defy these fuckjobs and maintain our freedom to give a dollar or a sandwich or clothing or any other kind of charity we see fit to whomever, whenever and wherever we choose.

Peace out and keep giving.

Feeding homeless outlawed
ACLU calls measure unenforceable

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-20-Thu-2006/news/8589438.html

If someone looks like he could use a meal, be warned: Giving him a sandwich in a Las Vegas park could land you in jail.

The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.

The measure is an attempt to stop so-called "mobile soup kitchens" from operating in parks, where residents say they attract the homeless and render the city facilities unusable by families.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada called the ordinance blatantly unconstitutional, unenforceable and the latest attempt by the city to hide and harass the homeless instead of constructively addressing their plight.

"So the only people who get to eat are those who have enough money? Those who get (government) assistance can't eat at your picnic?" asked ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein. "I've heard of some rather strange and extreme measures from other cities. I've never heard of something like this. It's mind-boggling."

The city's new ordinance, which officials could begin enforcing as early as Friday, defines an indigent as a "person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance" from the government under state law.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has been a vocal advocate of cracking down on the homeless in city parks, dismissed questions about how marshals, who patrol city parks, will identify the homeless in order to enforce the ordinance, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor.

"Certain truths are self-evident," Goodman said. "You know who's homeless."

City officials said they instituted the law in part because of recommendations from some who work with the homeless who say offering food separately from other services, such as counseling and drug treatment, is counterproductive.

"This is not a punishment; this is to help people," Goodman said. "The people who provide sandwiches have good intentions, but they're enabling people not to get the help that is needed."

Residents near Huntridge Circle Park, on Maryland Parkway near Charleston Boulevard, say people who bringing food to the homeless draw them to the area.

But one advocate who feeds the homeless at the park said she will continue to do so.

"I'm going to do whatever I think is necessary to keep people alive," said Gail Sacco.

Sacco has been cited twice while feeding the homeless, for holding a gathering of 25 or more people without a permit.

That ordinance is currently the subject of litigation by the ACLU of Nevada, and Gary Peck, the group's executive director, said the ordinance adopted Wednesday probably will be included in the lawsuit.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic said the city tried to negotiate with the ACLU and Sacco, including attempting to find a place where Sacco could provide food to the homeless.

Peck said negotiations "ended badly because, from our perspective, they're not negotiating in good faith. They're trying to figure out ways of making homeless invisible or kicking them out of our community."

Sacco said the city's approach has been to spout rhetoric and push the problem out of view, instead of offer constructive solutions.

"If the city and county and nonprofits are getting out there doing outreach to the people, then (the homeless) won't be at Circle Park and I won't have anyone to feed down there," Sacco said. "If they're just putting people in jail, the city is making it look like they are doing a wonderful job on the homeless issue. It's just a farce."

Sacco said in addition to providing food, she works to get the homeless housing, treatment, identification and jobs.

For the past month, the city has been cracking down on the homeless at Circle Park, arresting those inside the park before it opens at 7 a.m. and citing others for trespassing if they're on private property.

Neighbors have applauded the city's efforts, which have also included threats to increase the number of mentally ill homeless that they force to be hospitalized.

But Peck said despite residents' concerns, any sweep or crackdown has to be done in a legal manner. "It doesn't matter if they're unsightly, if neighbors don't like them. It doesn't trump the Constitution," he said.

The council unanimously passed the ordinance. Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian was absent.

Councilman Steve Wolfson, who last week raised concerns that the measure would prohibit someone from giving a sandwich to a homeless person, said after talking with Jerbic he felt comfortable with how the ordinance would be enforced.

"The marshals will get specialized training on enforcement," Wolfson said. "If you bought a couple of burgers and wanted to give them out, you technically would be in violation, but you wouldn't be cited."

Jerbic said police make judgment calls based on the severity of the crime, and this would be no different.

Lichtenstein said the city's statements were a clear indication they intend to use selective enforcement, which is unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Eerie

One of my favorite things of late (Dubya doing Sunday Bloody Sunday):

He's The Decider

Bush casts his first veto on stem-cell bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush used his first veto on Wednesday to block legislation to expand embryonic stem-cell research, putting him at odds with top scientists and most Americans, including some in his own Republican Party.

"It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect so I vetoed it," Bush said.

The U.S. Senate approved the legislation on Tuesday. The legislation, which had also been passed by the House of Representatives, now returns to the House chamber but it does not appear to have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the veto. It was Bush's first veto since taking office more than five years ago. [Continue reading]

I love how Bush is the "decider" of what is moral. Even if that morality is based on a belief system that all of us do not share. Even if the majority of Americans support broader stem cell research. I guess we've learned well enough over the past six years that what the citizens of this country want doesn't matter nearly as much as what HE wants.

The City

Coming home from Oregon is difficult. I feel so depressed. I feel like I could cry at the drop of a hat (and I have been). There's always this long period of readjustment where I have to remember what it is that I love about living here in New York and why it wouldn't work out to move back west. It takes a while to get back to feeling exhilerated about living in this city. Right now I feel deprived. Deprived of nature, deprived of family and a real group of friends. The heat here is horrendous. I feel like there is no escape. There are no rivers. No lakes. Not even any good swimming pools that don't require some fancy membership that only rich people can afford. It is 90% humidity outside that turns my bones to jello and hardcore air conditioning inside that freezes me to death. It is elevators and escalators and asphalt and trains and grumbling commuters and assholes of all shapes and sizes. If I could have one wish right now, it would be to live in a big, beautiful house near a wonderful beach or a pristine river and not have to worry about money or work or clutter or cities full of people who are so busy that they don't even have time to sit down and think about whether or not they are enjoying their lives or what it is that they're missing out on while being consumed in the rat race.

I know this feeling will pass. I know that the walls will close back in and I too will cease to dwell on the things that I'm missing. And that makes me sadder than anything else. I live in a city that is so removed from nature that after awhile being here, a person can almost forget that nature exists at all…that there are canyons coursing along this earth flowing year round with beautiful jade water that is crystal clear all the way to the bottom, deep pools for swimming, trees for shade and sand for sun, rocks for jumping and logs for sitting; that there are creeks that crash all the way down from the highest mountains down into the lowest valleys, never stopping, never closing up or shooing away, just being there whenever you have a minute to stop by, today or ten years from now. Ironically, I am on an island that is surrounded by water on all sides. There is no force of nature greater than water, yet the waters that surround us here represent the most intangible kind of nature. A massive river that I can't touch or jump into because it would just fling me to my demise or suffocate me in its pollution.

When I was flying into New York early on Sunday morning I was blown away by the view. My plane flew over Manhattan as we descended to JFK airport. Everything looked so gray. The buildings, the water, the sky as far as the eye could see all the way to the massive arc of the earth's horizon. The water swirled and glittered forever. The actual land seemed so tiny in comparison to the vast rivers and oceans that surround this island of skyscrapers. It was surreal. I couldn't believe that this is the place I call home now. After six years, it IS home. There's no doubt.

Soon all of this sadness will subside. But right now it is all-consuming. The images of my trip are still in the forefront of my memory. That day at the Illinois River with my brother and my sister…in the hot sun, jumping into the perfect water…watching my siblings enjoy the day…seeing my brother look a picture of perfect health and wellness…It was all so beautiful. I yelled at the top of my lungs from the water, "IF ONLY THIS MOMENT COULD LAST FOREVER!!!!!" Everyone just smiled at me from the water's edge, thinking the same thing, wishing that life were that easy all the time. And even though they live there just an hour and a half drive from that spot on the river, I know they probably won't go there again until the next time I come. Or maybe they will…maybe they'll need to like I need to. Maybe they'll dream about it like I dream about it. Maybe they'll be desperate to recapture those moments of pure bliss and freedom like I am. Those are the times that you feel like you know what life is about and why it is worth living. Not the everyday grind and the need to accumulate wealth and possessions, not the nitty-gritty edges of life, but the warm, beautiful center of life that tastes like a big, sweet, juicy bowl of cherries.

Depressing Humor

This made me want to laugh and jam a pencil into my forehead at the same time.

Hilarious, and yet, not at all.

How Republican Fuckjobs Make Their Point

If the people who draw these cartoons only felt half as much outrage about the Whitehouse leaking the identity of a CIA agent, wartime prisoner abuse, the lies and misrepresentations that Bush made to get us into this war in the first place, the plundering of our federal treasury, Dick Cheney's secret energy council, the rape of the American people at the gas-pumps, and discrimination being written into the Constitution - as they do at the thought that a free press is actually allowed to exist...! Boy howdy. These A-holes could have a field day if they gave a crap about anything other than painting those who oppose the "war on terror" and Bush's shennanigans as "traitors" and trying to take away the fundamental right to free speech in this country. The cartoons I've posted below win for most pathetic attempts to blame the "liberal press" for "leaks of top secret plans." If they were such a fucking secret, how did the press find out about them? And if the press found out, why should the American people be denied the right to information about the deeds and actions of our government - especially THIS government, that is, one that thinks laws and treaties do not apply to them? Yeah, MORE SECRECY! That's just what this shitwash of a presidential administration needs. Meanwhile, the greatest gift that has ever been given "the terrorists" was us going in to Iraq while letting Osama Bin Ladin run free, thank you very much.

That last one really tickles me. Are liberals actually being accused of having the blood of soldiers on their hands? How the fuck does that work when we are the ones who didn't want to send them to Iraq in the first place? That makes a lot of sense. On "Opposite Day."

NYC Chainsaw [Attempted] Massacre

This is exactly the type of thing that makes me freaked out that I ride the subway everyday.

Subway Rider Sliced in Power Saw Attack

The Associated Press
Thursday, July 6, 2006; 1:10 PM

NEW YORK -- A man grabbed two cordless power saws off a subway station workbench and went on a rampage Thursday, swinging the saws at riders and slicing open a man's chest before running away, police said.

The 64-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Police were searching for the suspect, described by witnesses as a thin man in his 30s, who had earrings in both ears and was possibly carrying a teddy bear.

The attack occurred before dawn at a subway station a few blocks south of Columbia University.

Wielding a saw in each hand, the man took a swipe at one rider on a platform and missed, police said. Moments later, he cut into the man's chest at a turnstile before bolting out of the station, still carrying the power tools, which were later found in a trash can.

Police were reviewing security camera videotape.

The attack came two weeks after a Boston man was charged with stabbing four people _ three of them tourists _ over a 13-hour period in the subway and the theater district in Manhattan.

© 2006 The Associated Press