Kookaburra and Persimmon

From Lofty. First up, Kookaburras, and oooh, pretty dinosaurs they are. Thanks, Lofty!

Two pics of the resident Kookaburra clan, getting their morning feed from my wife. On the advice of our local vet they get dog food pellets, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes and drained. There are never any left after a dozen kookas hoover them up.

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A Persimmon tree and fruit.

A couple of pics of one of our few successful fruit harvests this year. The persimmon tree, after spending three months under bird netting, yields three full buckets of fruit. Harvested and pruned back severely, the tree sheds its last few leaves on a damp Autumn morning. A row of persimmons sits on the window sill to ripen a bit longer.

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Photos © Lofty. All rights reserved.

Transfixed: Asperger’s Syndrome & Trans Rights

A smart and engaging Canadian documentary profiles a couple at the nexus point of trans rights, politics, and Asperger's Syndrome.

A smart and engaging Canadian documentary profiles a couple at the nexus point of trans rights, politics, and Asperger’s Syndrome.

The wealth of identities and stories from within the trans community—kept silent for too long—continues to challenge, enrich, and surprise us. Such is the case with Transfixed, a fascinating new documentary from Alan Kol. The story follows Martine Stonehouse and her partner John Gelmon, two Canadians living with Asperger’s Syndrome, and Martine’s efforts to become eligible for gender reassignment surgery in spite of governmental bias and a weight problem.

The journey reveals Martine’s strong and principled character. She is someone who embodies the term activist in the purest sense when she becomes one not for political reasons, but simply to live her life the way she deserves.

Out Article.

Nude Trump Garners Death Threats…

and a lawsuit!

Illma Gore’s painting of a nude Donald Trump. Photograph: Courtesy of Illma Gore

Illma Gore’s painting of a nude Donald Trump. Photograph: Courtesy of Illma Gore

An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of over £100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.

The piece by Illma Gore, titled Make America Great Again, depicts Trump with a small penis. It went viral in February after the artist published it on her Facebook page and has since been censored on social media sites and delisted from eBay after the anonymous filing of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore.

The Maddox Gallery in London offered to exhibit the painting after galleries in the US refused to host the piece due to security concerns following threats of violence from Trump’s supporters. Hundreds of visitors have queued to see the work.

Gore said: “The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great. Who knew it would be such a big deal? I think an artist’s job is to take the times we’re living in and then set the scene. It is a representation of where we are.”

The LA-based artist has received thousands of death threats and travelled to the UK to escape the frenzy, agreeing to allow Mayfair to manage the sale of the controversial painting, now priced at £1m.

The artist is offering free downloads of the art work on her website. (NSFW). The Guardian has the full story, but be aware the full art work is shown, and is NSFW.

I went to a gay wedding. OK? I mean, that’s what I’ve done.

The Republican presidential candidate was pressed into discussing LGBT rights at a San Francisco town hall.

The Republican presidential candidate was pressed into discussing LGBT rights at a San Francisco town hall.

Bryan had asked Kasich if people are “born gay.” The Republican presidential candidate attempted to avoid answering the question, stating “I’m not gonna get into all the analysis of this or that.” But Bryan pressed Kasich and asked again.

“Do I think that people are, you know, born gay? Probably,” Kasich conceded, according to CNN. “I’ve never studied the issue. But I don’t see any reason to hurt you or to discriminate you or make you feel bad or make you feel like a second-class citizen. I don’t think that’s right.”

Kasich also reminded the audience that he once attended a same-sex wedding.

“I don’t agree with gay marriage,” he said, according to CBS News. “[But] I went to a gay wedding. OK? I mean, that’s what I’ve done.”

When asked if LGBT people deserve “free, regular rights like everybody else,” Kasich responded, “Well, you have free regular rights. We’re not denying you any rights. … I’m not out to discriminate against you. I think you ought to have as good a life as anybody else.”

[…]

“In terms of me, I don’t believe in discrimination,” Kasich said. “I think there is a balance, however, between discrimination and people’s religious liberties. But I think we should just try to, like, take a chill pill, relax, and try to get along with one another a little bit better instead of trying to write some law to solve a problem that doesn’t frankly exist in big enough numbers to justify more lawmaking.”

Kasich does keep affirming that he’s an idiot, and a mealy-mouthed one at that. Full Story Here.

Poor Moderate Christians

A screen shot of various Jesus memes captured on a Google search.

A screen shot of various Jesus memes captured on a Google search.

Oh, poor moderate Christians, the right-wing has eaten Christianity, and no one pays attention to the good Christians, oh no.

The Christian right in America has dozens of politicians and mega-pastors broadcasting its beliefs. Meanwhile, more moderate Christians hardly make the media radar.

[…]

Moderate and progressive Christian activism doesn’t make headlines and it’s certainly not clickbait. The basic goodness in my corner of Christianity garners pretty much no mainstream media attention. Crazy gets more clicks, so the extremists get all the airplay. The progressive message needs a signal boost.

Once I started posting Jesus memes, I realized I wasn’t facing anti-Christian bias on the part of my friends, but rather cluelessness. They had formulated their ideas about modern Christianity from what the media was telling them. To them, “Christian” equaled global-warming denier and homophobe. Was I one of those people, they wondered? They needed assurances that I didn’t see faith and science as mutually exclusive, or even faith and common sense. It was up to me to inform them that I was down with Bill Nye, not Lou Sheldon.

Yes, yes, people are just absolutely clueless about Christianity. And of course, all that nasty, judgmental Christianity that gets all the airplay, why it’s not at all real, right? What’s important about those nasty beliefs isn’t that they are being pushed into law everywhere, is that poor, moderate Christians aren’t getting equal time. I’d like to see a moderate Christian think past their own nose, and come to the full realization that they are the foundation upon which nasty, hateful, judgmental Christianity rests. If the poor, downtrodden moderate Christians want to be taken for something other than people who happily spread poison about, perhaps you should stop whining about memes, and do something that matters, like rise up against your brethren. Take a stand. Something relevant, something more than weakly declaring “but I’m a good Christian!” on social media.

The #notallchristians made a show. Not a good one. So, moderate Christians, where are all your grass roots campaigns? Where is the activism to take back Christianity? Where are the ads? Where are the billboards? Where are the protests? Hello? As I pointed out to #notallchristians, Atheists do those things. Satanists do those things. Various Humanist groups do those things. When are all the moderate Christians going to step up? Put those supposed values where your mouth is, please.

Full article here.

Sunday Facepalm: God: An Autobiography

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Author Jerry L. Martin’s book describes his journey from non-believer to believer to translator.

Imagine.

As if riding lightning, a bolt from the blue brings God’s voice to you one day.

Would you listen? Would you believe?

Jerry L. Martin did and does. Furthermore, he said that he collaborated with God on a book, “God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher” (Caladium, $24.95). A former agnostic, Martin journeyed from a status of non-believer to believer to translator within a transformation and result that brands as phenomenal.

“The first time God spoke to me,” Martin writes in the opening of the book, “I didn’t believe He existed.”

Martin was sitting with his future wife, Abigail Rosenthal, on a park bench in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, he heard a voice that she did not hear.

“I said, ‘who is this?’” Martin, a philosopher and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said during a recent interview by phone.

The voice replied casually, as if in conversation.

“‘I am God,’” Martin said. “The voice was as real and normal as talking to my wife on the telephone. She was writing in her journal. I told her about it. She didn’t say very much. The voice kept talking to me.”

[…]

Gradually and unsurprisingly, Martin’s life radically changed. Essentially, his professional life shifted from that of a philosopher to an author, a skeptic to a conduit for God.

“God wrote 80 percent of this book,” Martin said. “God said He wanted me to tell His story. God gave me the title.

So…”God”, who apparently is happy with that damn placeholder rather than its proper name, is as good as Leonard da Quirm* when it comes to naming things.

 

*Oddly enough, his creativity seems to stop when needed to give appealing names to his inventions: for example, for his machine capable of travelling submersed in a marine environment he came up with the name of “Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device”.  Source.

Aaaaaaand, a bonus facepalm:

Tweeting with God Manual.

 

Belief in Evolution Rises

It’s a slight rise, to be sure, but any is better than none.

Gallup

PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. […] A small minority of Americans hold the “secular evolution” view that humans evolved with no influence from God — but the number has risen from 9% in 1982 to 16% today. At the same time, the 40% of Americans who hold the “creationist” view that God created humans as is 10,000 years ago is the lowest in Gallup’s history of asking this question, and down from a high point of 47% in 1993 and 1999.

The influence of political affiliation is also noted:

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The significantly higher percentage of Republicans who choose a creationist view of human origins reflects in part the strong relationship between religion and politics in contemporary America. Republicans are significantly more likely to attend church weekly than are others, and, as noted, Americans who attend church weekly are most likely to select the creationist alternative for the origin of humans.

Full Article is Here.

Sweet Jesus!

The stories of Jesus like you’ve never seen them before.

 

Borys Tarasenko is the Edmonton artist behind a new exhibit at the Bleeding Heart Art Space. (Dave von Beiker)

Borys Tarasenko is the Edmonton artist behind a new exhibit at the Bleeding Heart Art Space. (Dave von Beiker)

The son of a parish priest, Borys Tarasenko has drawn plenty of inspiration from the Bible.

But he’s far from a typical believer.

Tarasenko is the Edmonton artist behind the Sweet Jesus exhibit at the Bleeding Heart Art Space on 118th Avenue.

His handmade drawings, outlined in rudimentary black paint, depict a series of strangely reimagined Bible stories.

In one, an apron-clad Jesus is shown barbecuing, extending his holy hand to offer his disciples a slice of grilled hot dog. A rotund bear in priestly robes stands with jaws agape waiting for the grilled godly offering.

Tarasenko says his work was inspired by the iconography of the Ukrainian Catholic church. (Dave von Beiker)

Tarasenko says his work was inspired by the iconography of the Ukrainian Catholic church. (Dave von Beiker)

Tarasenko, 27, grew up surrounded by religion and the images of Ukrainian iconography. But as he got older,  his dogma changed, and departed from Catholicism.

Now he doesn’t believe in any higher power. But religion is still a big part of his life, and he faithfully attends St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in Edmonton at least once a week.

“As this was happening I came to enjoy going to church more because I could appreciate it for what it was,” he said. “And I really loved going, because it was just culturally beautiful. So much a part of me growing up that I loved going back there.”

[…]

The exhibit includes an open invitation to colour its walls, even supplying the felt pens.

Much like the pages of a colouring book, what was once stark in black and white has gone technicolour, and the already bizarre images have become even more outlandish.

“It’s crazy. It’s bonkers,” Tarasenko said an interview with CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active. “People have been adding things I couldn’t have imagined. Speech bubbles, fish, what looks like a hot air balloon, wings on characters. Such a different way than I expected. Every time I come in it’s like opening a present.

“I wanted people to be able to add themselves to the work.”

Once black and white, the artist's images have gone technicolor as visitors to the gallery make their own additions to the work. (Dave von Beiker)

Once black and white, the artist’s images have gone technicolor as visitors to the gallery make their own additions to the work. (Dave von Beiker)

Being Persecuted By LBGTQ Mafia

In a previous campaign ad, GOP Congressional hopeful Kay Daly threatened to shoot her opponent.

In a previous campaign ad, GOP Congressional hopeful Kay Daly threatened to shoot her opponent.

North Carolina GOP Congressional candidate Kay Daly claimed that she’s being targeted by LGBT rights activists in a recent message posted to her Facebook account.

Referring to equality groups as the “P.C. GAYSTAPO” and the “LGBTQ Mafia,” Daly wrote, “The homosexual extremists and their lavender lobby are coming after me again.” The Republican hopeful, who is currently running in the state primary race for a seat in the Senate, further alleged that LGBT groups are “outraged that I proudly support the North Carolina law that says grown men can’t use the girls’ restrooms in government facilities.” Daly, however, offers no proof to substantiate her claims.

The post links to a fundraising email in which Daly further argues that transgender people are  “perverts and deviants.” She said, “It is God who selects your gender, not you.”

[…]

In a recent endorsement posted to Facebook, James Dobson, founder of the right-wing anti-LGBT group Focus on the Family, described Daly as a “faithful warrior in the fight for the traditional values and religious liberties.” “Kay is one of us,” he said. “She has proven it over and over in word and deed, often when others with less courage have sounded the retreat.”

Full Story Here.