The Ministry of Silly Walks.

One of the zebra crossing signs in Haparanda. Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi

One of the zebra crossing signs in Haparanda. Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi.

The Ministry of Silly Walks is alive and well in Haparanda, Sweden. I think these signs are very cheerful, fun, and uplifting.

Close to Sweden’s border with Finland, Haparanda has brought a smile to local faces with these new road signs that are shaking up the town centre by urging pedestrians to jump, dance or play the guitar while crossing the street.

The Local got in touch with Terese Östling, who is in charge of “Remake the City”, a project launched in 2012 to revamp the heart of the historic parts of the town, to ask why.

She said the idea for the new signs came from Jytte Rüdiger, the local authority’s chief of culture.

“She (Rüdiger) picked up on the fact that people in Haparanda had lots of ideas for development in the ‘old’ parts of town. Many cities in Sweden struggle with dying inner parts as new, big shopping centres pop up outside of town, attracting visitors and locals out of the town centre. Business, attractiveness and inner city life suffers as a result,” she explained. […] But perhaps unsurprisingly, the signs have sparked the most reaction, with a report by national broadcaster SVT trending on social media on Monday.

How to cross the street while carrying a guitar. Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi.

How to cross the street while carrying a guitar. Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi.

The ideas for the various designs – which include a zebra crossing sign of a man doing a version of Monty Python comedian John Cleese’s famous silly walks – were thought up by local residents.

“The result has been overwhelming! Every day I go into town, I see people taking pictures of the signs and other new attractions, enjoying the new vitality of a once tired and shabby inner city. Haparanda is on its way back,” said Östling.

When asked if she had actually seen anyone give a quick boogie while crossing the street, she said: “I have seen it, but I can’t prove it with a picture sadly.”

Want to dance across the street in Haparanda? Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi.

Want to dance across the street in Haparanda? Photo: Stefan Haapaniemi.

Full story at The Local SE.

Homosexual totalitarianism is out of the closet!

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will meet with a group of around 700 evangelical pastors this week, hoping to win over hardline, anti-gay Religious Right leaders who have thus far been hesitant to embrace his struggling candidacy.

Trump is scheduled to speak on Thursday at a closed-door meeting in Orlando, Florida hosted by the American Renewal Project (ARP), a group of evangelical Christian pastors. The event has been widely criticized as anti-LGBT, with another selected speaker — former Florida senator and former GOP presidential candidate Mark Rubio — fending off accusations of insensitivity for appearing at the event so soon after the tragic murder of nearly 50 people in Orlando at a gay nightclub in June.

Rubio has also defended his doing so, won’t shut up about it, actually. These are people who have no empathy whatsoever, don’t know what compassion means, and are utterly bereft of lowly sympathy.

Accusations of anti-gay sentiment are rooted in inflammatory statements made by the ARP’s founder, David Lane. Lane’s group is sponsored by the American Family Association, which is listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition, he has personally called for “war” against the “pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage” in the past, and repeated similarly bombastic sentiments to Bloomberg this week.

“Homosexual totalitarianism is out of the closet, the militants are trying herd Christians there,” Lane said.

Indeed, Lane appeared hopeful that Trump would be swayed to his right-wing ideology. He said he appreciated the businessman’s support for repealing the Johnson Amendment — the law that makes it illegal for churches to retain tax-exempt status if they explicitly endorse candidates — but remained focused on pushing him to embrace policies many believe discriminate against LGBT people in the name of religion.

“[Repealing the Johnson Amendment is] a good first step,” Lane told Bloomberg. “But what about the religious liberty of Christian photographers, Christian bakers, Christian retreat centers, and pastors who believe same-sex intercourse and marriage is sin? These Christians were simply living out their deeply held convictions of their Christian faith when they politely refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding. Doesn’t the First Amendment give us all a right to our beliefs?”

As usual, these bigoted hate-mongers manage to completey lose the “all” in all a right to our beliefs. Yes, we certainly do have the privilege to believe whatever we like, no matter how daft, reasonable, or hateful. The key word being all. That means you don’t get to make the rules, Mr. Lane. Your right to believe what you like does not extend to harming people, and yes, discrimination is harm.

Trump could, hypothetically, push on without such endorsements, but there is a tactical value at stake: Evangelical turnout operations are often heavily reliant on leadership — especially faith leaders who attend Pastors and Pews meetings, many of whom played a key role in evangelical get-out-the-vote efforts during the 2012 election cycle.

This means Lane’s wish for a more vocally-anti-LGBT Trump could very come true, if only out political necessity. Nearly three-quarters of white evangelical Christians remain opposed to marriage equality — even though most other major religious groups in America support it. Since the group still makes up a sizable part of the Republican electorate, Trump may be hoping to revive his rapidly decreasing poll numbers by winning back the core of his Republican base.

This might be more than a probability, given Trump’s latest attempt to wrest money from people, the “Trump Gold Card“:

According to Trump, the card will signify to the world that you “are tired of a government that bows down to foreigners, refuses to even say the words ‘Radical Islam,’ and leaves our borders wide open!”

Trump-card-800x430

Trump Woos Radical Christians at Think Progress. The ‘Trumpet your Trumpness’ is at Raw Story.

Black Lives Matter Is Silly.

Getty Images.

Getty Images.

So sayeth former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly.

“I think these demonstrations are counter-productive, they’re silly,” Kelly said.

Speaking on John Gambling’s AM 970 radio show, Kelly specifically addressed last week’s demonstrations outside City Hall, during which protesters organized in part by Millions March NYC called for the divestment of the NYPD, paid reparations to the families of victims of police shootings, and the resignation of Commissioner Bill Bratton (the last of which actually happened).

When asked, Kelly characterized the protests as “so ridiculous and myopic. If there’s on group that’s concerned about black lives more than any other group it clearly is the police department not only in New York City but really throughout America.” He also complained that rallies and marches criticizing police conduct can really “depress” working cops.

People get damn depressed over cops committing willful murder at a very high rate, commish. People who lost a loved one to aggressive, bigoted, hyped up stormtroopers just might get damned depressed. Angry, too. Angry enough to make the point that murderous cops must go, and that policing as it stands here in uStates has to change. The current model breeds bias, bigotry, and corruption. Let’s not forget about all those murderers being churned out from cop school.

“[Police] think they’re doing a good job, and then you see these demonstrations,” he said.

It’s worth noting that that under Kelly’s leadership, NYPD officers routinely violated New Yorkers’ constitutional rights.

Well, there’s a surprise. :eyeroll:

Later in his interview, Kelly—who now makes an undisclosed salary as an executive at K2 Intelligence—blamed some cities’ rising crime rates on the so-called “Ferguson effect,” in which officers frightened by investigations and national calls for justice apparently refrain from doing their pledged duty of policing neighborhoods and keeping civilians safe. Kelly also reiterated his affection for stop-and-frisk. “Stopping and questioning people who are acting suspiciously,” is “perfectly reasonable and authorized in the law,” he said.

Actually, commish, crime rates are down, except for all the ones being committed by cops. Those are going up. The “Ferguson Effect” was waking people the fuck up, and no, cops don’t like that. You’re at least right about something.

Via Gothamist.

YASH.

“Where trees don’t grow” Wall for Artscape 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“Where trees don’t grow” Wall for Artscape 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

 

From Spring Remake 2016 in Snösätra, Stockholm.

From Spring Remake 2016 in Snösätra, Stockholm.

 

Stockholm 2015.

Stockholm 2015.

 

Wall from “Spring remake 2015” in Rågsved, outside Stockholm, Sweden.

Wall from “Spring remake 2015” in Rågsved, outside Stockholm, Sweden.

Linus Lundin – who works under the pseudonym Yash – has done most of his work in the Swedish capital, where he has lived for the last five years after moving from the small town of Gnesta.

His colourful murals are marked by their emotive faces and depictions of animals interacting with humans. Each one takes around five days to complete – not including the extensive planning and sketching that is required beforehand.

“It’s important to get the expressions right in my paintings,” he explained.

“I get my inspiration from my own feelings and the feelings of those around me. I ponder about and depict security, the search for something, and anxiety quite a lot. I also think a lot about the relationship between humans and animals.”

Incredibly, Lundin has no formal education in art beyond high school level. Instead, he developed his style by putting in hours and hours of hard practice.

“I just went out and painted, but there’s a lot of time and work behind everything,” he noted.

“I’ve painted murals for over ten years now, but they didn’t always look like they do now. Finding my aesthetic has been a long process. I was lucky enough to have a wall in the small town I grew up in where I could develop my work legally.”

Full story here. You can see Yash’s artwork here.

Imagine.

London police brawl with men during traffic stop (YouTube).

London police brawl with men during traffic stop (YouTube).

A video showing British police officers brawling with a group of unruly men shows how violent attacks can be stopped without gunfire or even serious injury.

The video shows officers arguing with a group of increasingly aggressive men during a traffic stop in London, reported the Independent.

The men surround the officers as they try to remove two friends from police custody, and then a fight breaks out.

One officer is pulled to the ground during the fracas, and police use chemical irritant spray to subdue the men until backup arrives.

Online commenters at Reddit noticed how the officers were able to take the assailants into custody without shooting or seriously harming anyone.

“Imagine how differently this would have been if this happened in America,” said one Reddit user.

Another commenter pointed out that police even warned the men they would use chemical irritant despite the lengthy scuffle.

“Top of Form British police officers making American police officers look unprofessional, as usual – after 5 minutes of scuffle, the police STILL warns the guy ‘One more step and I will spray you.’ Nobody got seriously hurt that day,” the Reddit user said.

Two of the police constables were treated for minor injuries, and four of the men were arrested on a variety of charges, including assault on police.

[Read more…]

32.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Whitehouse.gov.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Whitehouse.gov.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, as many as 2 million sheep grazed on the Navajo Nation.

That was in addition to hundreds of thousands of goats, cattle and horses that foraged on the 27,000-square-mile reservation spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The Navajo population itself had quintupled since 1870 and, at the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, about 39,000 Navajos lived on the sprawling reservation, embracing a life of pastoralism and moving livestock from winter homes to summer pastures.

But the Navajo, who were almost entirely dependent on income from sheep and wool, were hit hard by the worst economic disaster in American history. The livestock population skyrocketed while revenues plummeted, and the Navajo Agency reported in 1933 that income had “greatly reduced to the vanishing point,” according to Raymond Friday Locke’s “The Book of the Navajo.”

The land was also showing signs of overgrazing and environmental distress, and its deepening gullies and parched vegetation caught the attention of the federal government. Four months after Roosevelt took office, his newly appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, toured the Navajo Nation and proposed an aggressive and often coercive livestock reduction program.

John Collier. Corbis image/Wikipedia.

John Collier. Corbis image/Wikipedia.

[Read more…]

Invictus. (Possibly NSFW.)

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The goal is to fund the publishing of two large-scale, hardcover, coffee table books.  This is my third Kickstarter campaign, and like last year I will produce a book featuring wounded veterans of the Gulf Wars, Invictus and a second book featuring male figure studies using fitness models from around the world, Adonis Blue.
Invictus
Over the past year I have photographed fifteen severely wounded veterans from the Gulf Wars, all of them amputees who lost a limb or multiple limbs from IED attacks while deployed. Of these fifteen veterans, ten served in either the United States Army or Marines.  Five served in either the British Army or The Royal Marines. The format and size of Invictus will be the same as last year’s Always Loyal: hardcover photo book with dust jacket, 96 pages or more and measures 13.5 X 10.4 inches.  Like last year I will include individual bios for each veteran.  All the images are already photographed and only need to be organized and published.  When the book releases, I anticipate a full retail price of $79.

[Read more…]

Cops: High Fivin’

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The behaviour of the cops who murdered Paul O’Neal just get worse. They actually high fived after murdering an unarmed young man, and it was this moment that one cop expressed annoyance over a probable 30 day suspension. These people are utterly despicable, and placing them on administrative leave is not nearly enough. This is outright murder, and the murderers should be punished.

CBS Chicago’s Charlie De Mar saw the video and reported that it shows one officer high fiving another before saying “F***, I’m going to be on desk duty now for 30 days”; and one officer saying to another, “Make sure this (body-camera) is off.”

“We just came from watching Chicago police officers execute Paul O’Neal. … It is one of the most horrific things that I have seen, aside from being in a movie. These police officers decided to play judge, jury and executioner,” he said. “It is amazing to me. It is horrific, it is tragic, that these officers did what they did and took their street justice in their own hands—the things that they are trying to prevent, or supposed to prevent.”

I seriously advise people to avoid the comments on that tweet. There’s a whole lot of poison there. Full story here.