Or, Why doesn't anyone know that we've moved on?

Seriously!

If I had to name a moment in time when the Post Modern came into existence, it would be with Andy Warhol’sreturn to past art as in his Venus which he based on Boticelli’s Birth of Venus. The importance of the figure and the portrait in Warhol’s work is emblematic of a return to, not the end of history in general on the part of many visual artists.
*
Yes, that’s an over simplification, and a generalization. However, for my purposes here it will do. The point is that we’ve been calling it the Post Modern for 45 years. After the turn of the century, and especially since September 11, 2001, the world has changed drastically. We are witnessing a return to conservatism that includes a draconian fundamentalism among Catholic and Protestant Christians, Jews, and many practitioners of Islam. The United States under George Bush II and his neo-conservative administration has returned to carrying a BIG STICK though we aren’t wise enough to include the walking softly part. Americans in general have given up their power as an electorate to an Oil Oligarchy reminiscent of the 19th century Industrial and mercantile barons. Thus, I’ve answered my own question. That which started as a movement in the arts has become a general direction for Twenty-first Century societies. Our culture, if not all cultures are in a process of reversion to fundamentalism in religious practice, and a universal conservative approach to life and politics that allows for easy decision making, and a stubborn refusal to countenance change.

However, Warhol invested Venus with his own energy and technique. She is a Serigraphic ‘tour de force’ in color and design. In Warhol, Venus is not only revisited, but reborn. She is cropped, taken out of context, reinvented in multiple copies, each slightly different, with registration askew. She is black, she is white, she is cool blue, and she is warm pink flesh. She is an icon to Twentieth Century popular culture, methods of production, and consumption. She is Venus commodified. And yet, her facial expression is wistful and enigmatic, looking just to the left and down, she avoids our eyes. The cycle is incomplete because our gaze is directed to the twists and tangles of her hair as it changes color from one image to the next. Warhol did not provide the easy answer. I wonder if that is why he so often refused to talk seriously about his art.

Instead, today in politics and religion we are looking for easy solutions where non can be found.

* “Warhol, Birth of Venus Set,” Magidson Fine Art Gallery, Aspen, CO, http://www.magidson.com/warhol/image1.html, Visited Sunday, March 13, 2005, 10:33 PM EST.


Tsunami Victims

And now another major earthquake with hundreds more dead. And, more earthquakes to follow according to those who study seizmic activity. Please give to the following in order to help reunite orphans with distant relatives, and to insure that your money is used by people with true humanitarian concerns rather than proselytizing religious zeal.

American Friends Service Committee, and UNICEF



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I had to do it. After all, it was Easter.

Ruth came to get me yesterday morning at 10:00 AM. We went to Easter Sunday services at Trinity Lutheran Church on South Duke Street in Lancaster. Rebecca, my deceased wife and I had settled on the Lutheran Church after leaving the Amish order back in 1939, so our children, Ruth, Joseph, and Abraham were all raised in the Lutheran church.

Architecturally, Trinity is a magnificent colonial building, with a beautiful pipe organ, so I did enjoy the service. The current structure was built in 1761 after a fire destroyed the original building. Upon completion of the church steeple in 1794, it was the tallest man made structure West of Philadelphia, and survived as such well into the Twentieth Century.

Samuel Sr., Ruth’s husband, and their oldest son, Samuel Jr., his wife Nichole and their two children, Amy and Terrance, met us at the church. It was cloudy, cold, and damp, but the magnificent stained glass windows glowed in the subdued light. I always feel comforted at church, more so when I am alone, than when immersed in a crowd. After the services, we all went back to Orchard Hill Farm for our traditional family Easter Sunday ham dinner. I especially enjoyed my time with the grandchildren, though as usual, Ruth was tedious. At one point, as we drove to church, she launched into one of her critical diatribes about my artwork.

“Daddy, a friend showed me your on line journal.”

“Blog.”

“Whatever. It has gay pornography!”

“It doesn’t.”

“There are pictures of naked men.”

“Their parts are covered, and they aren’t just pictures, they are works of art, and they are necessary to the entire sense and tenor of the blog.”

“Daddy, it’s just not healthy, an old man making pornographic images.”

“They aren’t pornography.”

“You can’t deny they’re sexual.”

“Of course not.”

“Then, they’re pornographic.”

“According to that definition, you and Samuel making love are pornographic.”

“Daddy!”

“We’re talking apples and oranges, Ruth.”

“What does fruit have to do with it?”

“Why, everything, daughter!”

And, so it went. Every time we were alone, she ran in obsessive circles about my blogging. She thinks Stephen Gulliver is a more grandiose delusion than was Varnastrama. I fairly screamed at her.

“Neither are delusions. They are both real! And, Stephen’s world is where this one is headed unless everyone in it wakes up immediately from this nasty nightmare that includes an evangelical God who doesn’t tolerate various sexual orientations, supports a Twenty-first century crusade against Arab nations and the war of empire created by this president, the oil oligarchy, and the denial of global warming!”

“God tolerates homosexuals - it’s just the kind of, well, u-m-m, you know, sex you have that he doesn’t like.”

“Daughter, I haven’t had sex in ages, but when I did have male sex, it was homosexual sex done by a homosexual with another homosexual.

“Daddy! I must insist that you not talk like that.”

There is no arguing with Ruth. I don’t know why I do it. She will never accept or understand the journey I have made, much less that there is more to sexuality than the heterosexual versus homosexual dichotomy. I must be something of a masochist to try.

Tsunami Victims

It’s been over three months since the disaster, and the number of missing persons seems to have stabilized at about 200,000, with death tolls standing at 180,000. How much less would the disaster be if sea levels had not risen 6” during the past 50 years, and how much worse will future disasters be as the sea rises another 12 inches to 2 feet because of global warming. Give to the following in order to help reunite orphans with distant relatives, and to insure that your money is used by people with true humanitarian concerns rather than proselytizing religious zeal.

American Friends Service Committee, and UNICEF


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Or, Seize the Moment

I was relaxing in the central lounge when the other Democratic party member and resident here at “Prickly Palace” approached my over-stuffed couch grinning from ear to ear.

“Do you mind if I sit next to you, Isaac?”

“Sure,” I said. “As long as you don’t mind it being rumored throughout the manor that you’ve turned gay and are having an affair with me.”

“Are you being a bit paranoid?”

“Some of the old Republican biddies will make hay of it, I’m sure. Be that as it may, you look like the cat that is about to drop the mouse on my doorstep.”

“Actually, I do have some information I’m sure you’re going to enjoy.”

“Shoot.”

“I was listening to the news this morning and they were talking about Gee-Double-yah’s history with Feeding tube law.”

“And.”

“It seems that as governor of Texas he signed a bill into law that allows the tube, or any other apparatus designed to keep brain injured persons alive to be removed, turned off, disconnected, unplugged, whatever. In Texas you have to be able to pay your own way, or… In fact two hospital patients died in Texas this past week alone as a result of the law’s application.”

*

“Are you sure you understood what was being said?”

“What, are you saying I’m deaf, senile, or both?”

“Actually, both, just as am I.”

“I may be senile, but deaf I am not, and I was so stunned by what I heard that I wrote it down. Look.”

Of course, this information is second hand, so I cannot yet verify, though you’d better believe I will check it out. However, I couldn’t wait to report it.

Later same evening -I found it atAlterNet.*

What Does the Insertion of the Tube Entail?

Just so everyone is on the same page, given the controversy over Terri Schiavo’s life and tube, I thought it might be helpful to know something about how doctors view the tube. A good place to start is the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, Role of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy. The site not only discusses how the insertion of the tube is accomplished, but why and when the surgery is necessary. If one reads carefully it is easy to understand that this is an extreme measure aimed at prolonging a life when that life’s quality is already extremely poor. I guess the question is - how does one prevent other persons from artificially prolonging ones life when one is terminally ill and / or brain dead?


* “Enteral feeding and aspiration pneumonia in the frail patient, The Hong Kong Practitioner, Volume 24 / August 2002, http://www.hkcfp.org.hk/article/2002/08/page390_394ua.html, viewed Wednesday, March 23, 2005, 4:28 PM EST.

*Montopoli, Brian, "No Life Support for You,"AlterNet.org,"http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21571/," Posted March 23, 2005, visited Wednesday, March 23, 2005, 6:17 PM EST.


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Well, the Congress of the United States of America just spent the weekend playing with Terry Shiavo’s feeding tube. I don’t mean to be flip – actually, I do. Of course Mr. Bush flew back from his ranch to Washington early so he could be on hand to sign any legislation that might be passed concerning Mrs. Shiavo’s tube. And, apparently he did sign the legislation into law shortly after midnight this morning.

The American ship is sinking in a sea of debt due to this president’s colonial policies of empire and foreign war, but he has time to manage a private family argument between Mrs. Shiavo’s husband and parents. Actually, this is a covert operation being foisted on the public under the guise of life valued over death. It is a Republican (dare I say Rovian) plan to undo the power of the state courts. By an act of congress signed into law by Mr. Bush, the Florida State Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision is null and void. Instead the decision has been handed to the Federal Court System. That removal from state court to national court permanently negates any Republican claim to support for the power and rights of the individual states over and above that of the Federal Government. In the future, the Republican congress, Senate, and President will have this case as precedent any time they want to change a court decision made in any particular state.

*

Does that make me think about the Massachusetts court decision to allow gay and lesbian marriage in that state?

You bet it does!

Additionally, our present Republican Federal government must make such an effort in order to shore up its position on abortion. If the life of several uterine cells is sacrosanct then so too must be the life of a brain dead adult. What was it Mr. Bush said today? “Any decision must always come down on the side of life.”

I have a message for the Republican Congress, Senate and President…

Mrs. Schiavo is brain dead. That means she isn’t here. She is with God. The 80 percent of us that are not evangelical Christians (we may be Christian – we’re just not the know-it-all type.) are able to understand when our government of elected officials is pandering to the interests of the 20 percent who are. Instead, the purpose of the court in Florida to determine what Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted to happen to her partially functioning body should have been supported and upheld. The Federal Government as represented by the two houses and the president must stay out of such a process!

I do not pretend to know what God desires as do my evangelical brethren, nor do I want to make the decision concerning Mrs. Schiavo’s life as they do. This is a terribly painful personal matter between the Schiavo and Schindler families and hopefully the very personal relationship each of them has with God. It is not the business of the Federal government or of institutionalized religion.

Shame on all of you who wish to interfere for your own religious and/or political reasons!

For an impartial perspective on the matter, look at abstract appeal by Matt Conigliario

It is time to start thinking about "losing" some of these elected officials who feel it is their duty to interfere with individual freedoms.

* “Justice Studies Department,” San Jose State University, http://www2.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/, Fall 2005, visited Monday, March 21, 2005, 10:51 PM EST.


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I took Peter, Millie, and Tillie to Market today, and I'm exhausted. We had to do a lot of walking and my knee is still giving me a rough time. Be that as it may Central Market is one of the many reasons tourists love Lancaster, PA. It’s located in the heart of downtown Lancaster, a city of well-preserved eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture. I've included some photographs that I took of the market while we were there. I hope they will inspire folks to consider visiting because there is so much to see and do here in "God's country," as we local Pennsylvania Dutch call it.

On a normal day that last might send me off on a lengthy polemic about God, just who and what belong in his country, and who determines these. However, I shall resist, and stay with the tenor of this brief travelogue.

An interesting aside, my gaydar detected at least two young gay male couples, two lesbian couples, as well as several down low types walking through the huge building.








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Check out spreading Santorum. He is my super sleazy evangelical conservative Republican senator. Mind you, I’m not saying that evangelicals, conservatives, or Republicans are sleazy, just this one. Anyone that compares gay people to adulterers and bigamists, and gay male sexual acts to men (bleep)ing dogs is a sleazeball.

And, an oh-so frightening rumor has it that Sleazeball Santorum is Carl Rove’s choice to run for president in 2008!

Tsunami Victims

With death tolls standing at 180,000, and almost as many missing, give to the following in order to help reunite orphans with distant relatives, and to insure that your money is used by people with true humanitarian concerns rather than proselytizing religious zeal.

American Friends Service Committee, and UNICEF

Tsunami and the Beach

A part of my upset about the Tsunami is caused by the video shots I’ve seen of the huge waves smashing the beach resort at Phuket, Tailand. I love the beach so much, and it has been so-o-o-o-o cold this month that I have been dreaming about the beach constantly. I’ve been looking through last summer’s photographs of Rehoboth Beach and Cape Henlopen, Delaware and drooling. I can’t wait for warm weather.

So, it’s summer 2005, and I’m standing on the beach, camera in hand.

SNAP goes the shutter.




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Or, Is It?

Another Rant

Check out this article from the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, February 23, 2005. I found the article when I was looking at another (extremely young and smart) gay man’s blog sometimeshappy. Michael Ventura, writing “America by the Numbers: No. 1?” has a few facts that punch holes through the notion held by most of us that we are the greatest nation on earth. For instance,

• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth.


• Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year.


• The World Health Organization “ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. (was)...37th.


• "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower"


• # "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

*

Actually, he lists a total of 33 of these debilitating tidbits.

I know that this is politically incorrect to the point of blasphemy against the Holy Roman Empire of the United States of America. However, one of our rights as citizens of this once great democracy is that of dissent.

*

Well, I am dissenting!

Mr. President, you and your neo-con administration have commandeered the entire nation into an adventure that is bankrupting us economically, politically, socially, and spiritually!


*Ventura, Michael, “America by the Numbers: No. 1?”City Pages, http://www.citypages.com/, February 23, 2005, visited Sunday, March 13, 2005, 9:16 AM, EST.

*Indymedia Ireland, http://www.indymedia.ie/index.php?results_offset=10, viewed Sunday, March 13, 2005, 9:48 AM, EST.


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Swift Boat is Back To Sink AARP

Another Rant

Actually the folks responsible for Swift Boat are being hired by “USA Next”. It seems none of these Republican based groups are enamored with AARP’s stand against President Bush’s plan to revamp social security, so they scheme to put AARP under just the way they did Senator John Kerry. Remember him? He was the Vietnam war hero with 3 medals that Swift Boat claimed were a sham. If you were to believe Swift Boat liars, Senator Kerry was a pro gay marriage, pro choice vacillating wimp who didn’t deserve those medals for saving his crew - 52% of Americans took it to heart - and voted for our president. Of course, GW practiced flying a plane sometimes during the Vietnam War, and he only drank, and did drugs before the war. I guess he became the real hero because he got BORN AGAIN.




Well those same folks that brought us presidential campaign lies and BS are back with ten million dollars and an ad/poster that claims AARP is against the war in Iraq and for gay marriage. Well, I am a senior (that means very old) gay man who wishes that such a lie were true. But I’m here to tell you that it “ain’t!” I’m tired of these heterosexual pricks who are using my God given sexuality against me and every American including you straight folk out there. Yes. They’re duping you with this kind of manure. Stop being so gullible! And, while you’re at it, stop being so prejudiced!

I do love you all! I just won’t turn the other cheek.


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My Own Art in This Case

I've added a new blog, Isaac's Art and placed a link to it in the side bar. I'm really excited about it. I've uploaded one Photoshop artwork to get it started, and will be adding more from time to time. Take a look and let me know what you think.

A Post Modern Anthropological Oculus

*

With an eye focused on the function of Evangelical exclusivity, I have decided not to be angry with any of them, including GW. Let me explain. The functions of religion in general are varied, and historically they include the maintenance of psychological well being, and the support and completion of social needs, including political alimentation of the state. Historically, the imperial rights of the sovereign whether king, queen, Cesar, or Pharaoh were understood as God given. Anthropologically speaking, these functions are understood as being accomplished through the use of ritual, which is defined as cyclical acts that are performed at a particular time and place. Ritual works because it supports prescribed belief systems. It does that because it makes people feel good. Christian rituals occur in church at regular services every Sunday. They also happen at Bible study groups, church suppers, Sunday school, and other church functions. Removing these rituals to a special place like a church helps to make the rituals more effective. I myself, though I no longer attend regular church functions, study my Bible, other religious texts, and pray at night, in my bedroom just before going to bed. I am completely exclusive in my spiritual practice, and by excluding everyone I make my practice more meaningful. Thus it is that evangelicals also perform exclusivity in order to reinforce religious practice. Unfortunately, the consequence of ritual exclusive practice in the case of evangelicals includes the repudiation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. The ritual makes evangelicals feel good because it supports their belief system. Such practice is circular, feeding on itself, and is extremely difficult to change.

Additionally, evangelicals, including the President, have tied their religious practice to politics and patriotism. The president does not see any incongruity between the founding father’s concern for the separation of church and state and his practice of Federal funding for religious charities. The President sees our federation of states, and the institution of democracy itself as God given, and therefore proposed in his recent state of the union address the practice of an Imperial Democracy that seeks to accomplish the conversion of foreign governments to our own practice. However, if, in truth, our form of government is the best, all other nations should come to practice it on their own given time.

Evangelicals in general also advocate for Christian prayer in the public schools. Evangelicals seek the inclusion of Creationism as a viable alternative theory to Darwin’s theory of evolution, though the former is an article of evangelical Christian religious faith and the later is a scientific theory with volumes of scientific study to support it. It amazes me that some nearby school districts in Pennsylvania have succumbed to the pressures evangelicals have brought to bare, and include creationism in science classes. Instead, the appropriate place in the public school curriculum should be a required course in comparative religions that includes creationism as a tenant of evangelical / fundamentalist practice.

Because I look at evangelical Christianity through anthropological eyes, I understand how and why evangelicals believe as they do. However, I cannot accept their faith as a prescription for the way others must live. Instead, I advocate for a Christian belief system that allows for diversity of religious practice. As a gay, Christian man, who believes that God made me the way I am, I am looking for a Christian church that is inclusive of all people regardless of their sexuality. Finally, I side with the founding fathers to maintain the separation of church and state.

*Arnush, Michael, Prof., HI202 Roman History, Skidmore College, “http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/classics/courses/2001fall/hi202/november.html, viewed Thursday, March 3, 2005, 6:03 AM EST.

Tsunami Victims

With death tolls standing at 180,000, and almost as many missing, give to the following in order to help reunite orphans with distant relatives, and to insure that your money is used by people with true humanitarian concerns rather than proselytizing religious zeal.

American Friends Service Committee, and UNICEF


Please E-mail me at

ZacSfuts@aol.com

with comments. I do so like to have the opportunity to communicate with readers.

Visit my homepage at AOL Hometown.