I’m going to work on the Peace Quilt a while (Leaf 24), and let the Tree Quilt rest until I can stock up on thread.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
I’m going to work on the Peace Quilt a while (Leaf 24), and let the Tree Quilt rest until I can stock up on thread.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
From Giliell. Such nice detail. I like snails. I used to have apple snails, my favourite was Sam I Am. Click for full size.
© Giliell. All rights reserved.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
3 Sparrows on a cake. Click for full size.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
While figuring out what colours I wanted for the next background piece, I came across a very small amount of the ultra very light mocha. Of course I did. So, as that’s what I need more of to finish this particular bit of background, I’ll get a couple more lines done on it now. Clickety for full size. © C. Ford. All rights reserved.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The most controversial moment of a Donald Trump rally here Thursday night may have come before the bombastic candidate took the stage. For a solid 20 minutes, a Confederate flag with the words “Trump 2016” hung from the railing in the Silver Spurs Arena.
It was easily visible even as public figures like Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Pastor Mark Burns gave warm-up speeches before the Republican presidential nominee took the stage. Then minutes before Trump began his speech, organizers asked the supporters who brought the flag into the venue to furl it.
The imagery harkens back to a heated debate throughout the South over the flag’s racist meaning after another mass shooting, in Charleston, S.C., which ended with the flag being removed from the capitol grounds. It also harkens back to a New York Times video that recently went viral that recorded unfiltered remarks by Trump supporters that were unabashedly racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic. Confederate symbolism makes an apperance there as well.
The media doesn’t often focus on the attitude of the Trump crowds. Even in this latest case, as tends to happen at Trump rallies, such symbolism got brushed aside as the crowd got whipped up over other matters.
[…]
Most importantly, Trump was speaking in a suburb of Orlando two months after the Pulse massacre and hours after meeting with pastors and evangelicals during an event critics have called an anti-LGBT gathering. Trump made mention of the Orlando attack, saying more people should have reported shooter Omar Mateen to the FBI: “People knew he was demented.” In fact, Mateen was interviewed multiple times by the FBI based on complaints placed by those who knew him.
Clearly building off the closed-door discussions with leaders at the American Renewal Project conference in Orlando earlier in the day, Trump appealed to social conservatives in the room. “The evangelicals took me to a point that I never even thought we could reach,” he said. “All around the country we did well.”
The Advocate has the full story. Speaking of the intense anti-LGBT gathering in Orlando, again, Marco Rubio just will not shut up about being a keynote speaker, and keeps on attempting to defend his stance, while at the same time, telling people not to be judgmental. Hypocrisy knows no limit where Rubio is concerned:
ORLANDO — In a speech laden with scripture, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on Friday compelled church leaders at a conference here to “abandon the spirit of judgment” against LGBT neighbors. The remarks came on the two-month anniversary of a shooting at the Pulse night club located about 10 miles from the religious gathering.
[…]
Rubio was the headline speaker for The American Renewal Project’s two-day event in Orlando, and on Friday devoted much of a 30-minute speech to encouraging preachers to create an accepting environment free of discrimination. “In order to love people, we have to listen to them,” he said. “When it comes to our brothers and our sisters, our fellow Americans, our neighbors in the LGBT community, we should recognize that our nation, while the greatest nation in the history of mankind, is one with a history that has been marred by the discrimination against and the rejection of gays and lesbians.”
He also emphasized his continued opposition to marriage equality, saying his faith called for the elevation of the “union of one man and one woman.” But he said Christian leaders should understand many gays and lesbians felt “angry and humiliated” that the law until recently did not recognize their own loving relationships. “Many have experienced sometimes severe condemnation and judgment from some Christians,” Rubio said. “They have heard some say that the reason God will bring condemnation on America is because of them. As if somehow God was willing to put up with adultery and gluttony and greed and pride, but now this is the last straw.”
[…]
Rubio’s anti-LGBT record is lengthy. The senator doesn’t support the Equality Act proposed in Congress, for example. It would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1967 Civil Rights Act, ensuring protection from discrimination in housing and employment. When he had a chance to vote in 2013, Rubio voted against passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which some moderate Republicans helped pass 64-32 in the Senate, though it would stall in the House. But his discriminatory policy stands don’t stop there. Rubio has in the past said letting LGBT people adopt children is a “social experiment” that he opposes. He also opposed reversing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that required LGBT people to stay closeted while serving in the U.S. military.
The Advocate has the full story.
Monsignor Lawrence McGovern — Fox 40 screenshot.
Oh look, another priest who doesn’t understand boundaries, consent, and immoral, unethical behaviour. About the only thing new in this case is that Monsignor McGovern decided to sexually harass an adult. I have no doubt that Monsignor, who has been placed on administrative leave will be yet another priest in the Catholic church’s ongoing game of “Where’s the Pedo Priest?” Given that this is case of sexual harassment, rather than assault or rape, the Monsignor will most likely merit the lightest of smacks on the wrist, perhaps 40 Lord’s Prayers and 50 Hail Marys.
The Stockton Catholic Diocese has suspended a monsignor over allegations that he sent pictures of his penis to the church pool maintenance man who complained — only to be fired.
According to FOX40, Monsignor Lawrence McGovern, the pastor of Presentation Parish in Stockton, has been removed from his duties after the landscaper filed a lawsuit against the church for sexual harassment.
According to an attorney for the unidentified father of two, who is also a church parishioner, McGovern sent his client sexually explicit pictures.
“It’s extremely disturbing that the person’s who is head of this parish would be sending text with photographs of his exposed genitals,” attorney Vince Finaldi said before ading. “Someone’s who’s engaging in that type of conduct has very, very serious credibility issues and issues with judgement.”
According to Finaldi, his client confronted the priest over the pictures and pressed him over his vow of celibacy.
According to the victim, McGovern responded, “Oh, that just means that you’re not married.”
The local diocese issued a statement saying, “Today the Diocese of Stockton learned for the first time of employment related allegations against Monsignor Lawrence McGovern, the Pastor of Presentation Parish in Stockton. In accordance with the Canon Law of the Church, Bishop Stephen Blaire has placed Monsignor McGovern on administrative leave pending a full and complete investigation.”
A full and complete investigation. Right. There really isn’t anything to investigate though, is there? So what they actually mean is that they need to get together to figure out what they are going to try and sell people to make them believe they are actually doing something.
According to Finaldi, McGovern should be dismissed, saying, “That person has no business being in a parish and head of a school where there are numerous young children walking around everyday.”
I’m with Mr. Finaldi. I’m damn tired of priests and cops constantly being given another ride on the merry-go-round, no matter how bad their behaviour, and no matter what heinous acts they commit.
Via Raw Story.
Cecilia Giménez’s paintings. Arnau Bach / New York Times.
Andrew Flack and Paul Fowler are currently working on a comic opera about Giménez’s life and how the mistake that initially horrified her (and the internet) ended up saving her small town from an economic slump, The New York Times reports. The painting, which was mocked in memes, a Saturday Night Live segment, and with comparisons to the 1997 film Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, became a tourist attraction that spurred a 1,000 percent increase in visits to the local medieval art museum and revitalized the town’s restaurant business.
When the pair began work on the musical in 2014, Flack told the Times, “It’s a story of faith. … Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art? It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon. God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle.”
The real story is full of dramatic tidbits, like local wineries bickering over the right to display “Potato Jesus” on their wine labels. Also, the two-faced priest who initially threw Giménez under the bus by denying that he gave her permission to work on the fresco ended up banished from town — he was accused of embezzling 168,000 euros from the church.
Most compellingly, it seems as though the whole scandal occurred because photos of the fresco were released long before Giménez had finished her attempted restoration. Her other artwork is gorgeous! I can’t wait to see how the fictional Giménez’s heroic redemption plays out.
The Verge has the full story. Given the er, botch of styles to be all mixed together in this opera, I hope it works out for everyone.
Dr. Paul Hard.
It happened in Alabama, and as the Chief Justice Roy Moore was speaking after being suspended for defying the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling.
He will go on trial in September.
A few hundred feet away from Moore’s speech to crowds with many holding signs like ‘homosexuality destroy families’ and ‘sodomy ruins nations’, there was an alternative press conference organized by the Human Rights Campaign.
Among the people speaking there were people like Dr Paul Hard, who has been involved in a legal fight for his husband who died five years ago to be recognized as his husband.
And when he began to speak about his partner’s death, a man in the crowd laughed.
‘You can’t have a husband,’ he said.
John Archibald, a columnist who was there at the conference, asked: ‘How can any man, no matter his position on Roy Moore or any issue, stand before another and mock his pain?
‘How can one stand under the banner of God and laugh at another man’s death?
‘How — in the name of God — can one deride genuine grief?’
He added: ‘Christians cannot let these people define their religion. All they have is volume. As a substitute for moral authority.’
https://vine.co/v/5bihOImElmJ
Lovely, isn’t it, how Christians behave? If they don’t like something, they can be as ugly and immoral as they like, smug in their sense of self-righteousness. They should be busy cultivating a sense of shame. If you aren’t one of those very ugly Christians, where are your voices? Get busy, and drown these assholes out, put them down, tell them in no uncertain terms that they are not Christians, regardless of them sharing the same beliefs.
Via Gay Star News.
August 13th is International Left Handers Day, and that should be something celebratory and fun, but for a great many children, it’s anything but. At Intransitive, left0ver1under is doing a 7 day series on why this is an important issue which needs attention.
Why is left handedness an important social justice issue? Because those most affected are children, and there is no one who speaks out for them. It’s not a “first world problem” – the countries where it happens most are in Asia, Africa and muslim countries, where use of the left hand is deemed “shameful” and “disrespectful”, where “corporal punishment” is still inflicted on children. In South America and many Eastern European countries, it is still seen as “problem that needs correction”.
But even in wealthy and supposedly “enlightened” countries, it’s still an issue. I have found a grand total of *one* teacher training program (Stephen F. Austin University in Texas) where teachers are taught how to teach left handed handwriting. Everywhere else, they say, “Just copy what the right handers do.” Poor training in writing skills affects speed, learning and testing at school. Left handed kids are getting a second class education. And that’s without mentioning the design of classroom furniture or stationery….
Visit Intransitive, and spend some time on the sinister side.
P.S. If you’re having a difficult time with the image, note that it’s the print of the inside of a left hand. If you hold up your left hand to the monitor, it will magically match! :D Or you could have fun, and coat your left palm and fingers with paint, and do a print.
Cover for All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1. Illustrated by Alex Ross. Photo courtesy of Marvel Comics.
‘Annual’ releases exist in a strange place in the comic world. Created as a way to tell a different story in a series without interrupting the main plotline or numbering, some see annuals as a marketing gimmick. But, as evidenced by All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1, they can be a bold chance to think outside the box. This issue sees everyone’s favorite teen from Jersey City, Ms. Marvel, logging onto her favorite fan-fiction website to write some stories about her fellow heroes. Once logged on, she sees that other people have written stories about her and her friends, and she’s shocked but compelled to read on. The rest of this comic, then, are those fan-fiction stories of Marvel heroes. Layered, and with plenty of goofiness and a variety of styles, this annual does exactly what it should: it tells weird stories the regular comics certainly couldn’t.
From Giliell. I took the liberty of playing with this a bit, I love odd bits of metal. Giliell says it’s corroding now, so hopefully there will be more photos. Click for full size.
© Giliell. All rights reserved.
Have some fun checking out the wonderful creativity on display at the 36 Days of Type Instagram. This is a fun creative exercise for all types of artists, and it’s great to see so many wonderful versions of everyday letters and numbers.