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The CLOG
Hot off the press release wire:
No God?...No Problem!" Some ask what do non-believers celebrate?
President of the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, Joe Fox, recalls attending a Humanist conference in Phoenix "Humanicon" in 04 and reading a headline in a newspaper "Non Believers gather at a Humanist conference". Fox was offended by the headline. "My Humanist life-stance has many beliefs including good morals, values and ethics, but belief in a God is not one of them", said Fox. So what do Fox and many other Humanists celebrate during the holiday season? HumanLight, a humanist winter holiday, celebrated on or about December 23. It is a time for celebration and community for those who wish to affirm the positive values of humanism during the time period of the "traditionalâ winter holidays.
"Humanist families enjoy the holiday season in many of the same ways that other people do,â said Fox, father of two. "Many people are under the false assumption that humanists are a bunch of Scrooges who don't celebrate the winter holidays, but actually, we humanists appreciate and enjoy the season in ways that reflect and promote the humanist values of reason, hope, community, and compassion."
"Because humanists shy away from rigid rituals, the specific elements of HumanLight celebrations will differ from region to region, and even year to year," continued Fox. "But they often include a meal with friends and family, dance, song, gift exchange, and short talks, discussions, or readings. Some aspects are similar to religious observances while others are different."
"In 2001 humanists in New Jersey inaugurated HumanLight as a specifically humanist observance. Since then it has spread to dozens of cities around the United States.â
Joe Foxâs chapter, the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia (HAGP), celebrates HumanLight this year on Sunday, December 20th, from 12:30-4pm at the Williamson Restaurant in Horsham, PA. Festivities include Wondergyâs "CoolScienceâ, an interactive family program fit for the season which explores how things freeze; live music from the band Letters From June; and keynote speaker Jennifer Michael Hecht, a historian and award winning poet whose best selling books include Doubt: A History and The Happiness Myth. HAGP co-sponsors this celebration with the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia.
A listing with HAGPâs and many more of this year's celebrations along with much more information can be found at the HumanLight website at http://www.humanlight.org/.
Happy Holidays from one of your loyal CLOG commenters!! To My Democratic Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish. To My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 2010.
I don tink dares anyting rong wit wurshippin oder godz & goddesses. Da problim is wit peeple dat dont beleeb nuttin. DOZE are da peeple dat we shud be wurryin bout.
I worship Kuballima, god of the atmosphere. Shibukee, goddess of the mountains also protects us. Bookoofookoo, goddess of the storms, is the sister of Shibukee & mother of Kuballima, so Bookoofookoo is stronger.
On another note, after the Christmas day attempted airliner bombing, do you feel safer now Billman? In addition to the attempted nearly successful airliner bombing, there are 'Hundreds of al-Qaeda militants planning attacks from Yemen' (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6970574.ece) The Guantanamo Bay prison for enemy combatants in the war on terror is closing, waterboarding is "torture", and Janet Napolitano, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden & Barack Obama are now running our homeland security & national defense. We need Bush & Cheney NOW!!!!
I tink dat wit da nu yeer, dat Billman shud fokiss on rytin bout meenin full stuf, insted uv tryin ta ster up trubel. Hoo reely kayerz bout deez hoomanists - it ain ryte ta beleeb in nuttin.
So Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut for Lieberman, Conn. — seriously) has decided that this compromise of a compromise of a compromise of a public option will not be suiting him, no sir. Even though he supported this exact same goddamn thing just a few months ago, as an alternative to a real public option. Check it:
In the vid, Lieberman appeared to go further than the current Senate deal, which would expand Medicare to those aged 55-64, saying he supported the idea of expanding it to people aged 50 and over. Lieberman referenced his proposal along these lines during the 2006 campaign, and added:
"My proposals were to basically expand the existing successful public health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaidâ¦
"When it came to Medicare I was very focused on a group — post 50, maybe more like post 55. People who have retired early, or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose their health insurance and theyâre too young to qualify for Medicare.
"What I was proposing was that they have an option to buy into Medicare early and again on the premise that that would be less expensive than the enormous cost. If youâre 55 or 60 and youâre without health insurance and you go in to try to buy it, because youâre older ⦠youâre rated as a risk so you pay a lot of money.â
And even though he stumped for it in 2000, as a veep candidate. And even though, a week ago, he told Democratic senators that he supported it. And even though this plan, milquetoast as it is, has yet to be scored by the CBO. And even though Lieberman promised his constituents in 2006 that he would fully support the Democratsâ universal health care agenda And even though Lieberman has been caught lying about how much the various health plans would cost.
This is, as columnist David Faris pointed out last week, the sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves, in which one petty man with a grudge against the progressives who nearly threw his ass out on the street a few years back can derail the reform that millions of Americans have sought for decades, to settle a score. It's bad enough that the White House has to grovel before the likes of Olivia Snowe to nudge the ball forward; itâs worse that this sniveling prick, this unprincipled wretch of a human being, will probably get what he wants.
The White House doesnât seem to have much of an appetite to use reconciliation to get health care reform through the Senate. And efforts to ameliorate the role of the filibuster havenât gathered much steam (although, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is toying with the idea of eliminating it altogether, which seems like a better idea before you consider the words "President Sarah Palinâ ⦠shudder).
So now what? I'd love to see the Dems boot this little leech from their caucus, strip him of all his seniority and committees and make him run as a Republican in 2012 after a few years as a nothing backbencher in the Senate. Itâs high time to kneecap the bully. But I donât get the feeling that dish is on the menu.
Caught this little slice of life on the Atlantic this morning, an interview with a prostitute in South Philly. Princess, as she's called, got laid off from her job as an office manager and has been unable to find work since, so, in her words, "I's opening my pussy for business." Her two kids, the story tells us, know what she does for a living, as does her approving father. For what it's worth, I'm sort of conflicted on the issue of prostitution: On the one hand, I'm of a libertarian bent on most social issues; what consenting adults do, no matter the arrangement between them, is none of our business. On the other, the prostitution industry carries with it an almost inherent exploitation of women.
Princess, meanwhile, adamantly defends her chosen profession:
"I cause pleasure. I provide a service that brings people pleasure. I won't service married men or women, men of the cloth. See even hos got rules of morality," she laughs. "But seriously, I can understand why people who been brought up one way think it's immoral. I don't understand why it's illegal. With our government needing money, I wish I could pay taxes."
Curious to know what you Cloggers think.
Why don't you go have sex with a protistute Billman & tell us all about it? Do it without telling your wife / fiancee...tell her afterwards, then tell us on the Clog what her reaction was.
PROSTITUTE
How's that old saying go? The most expensive prostitute is one's wife? Funny but so true in a way - and the sex disappears for so many guys, or is used as a manipulation tool...no wonder so many married guys see whores, or wind up gay & having gay sex in parks & public restrooms.
I was wondering what business had her as their office manager??? "I's opening my pussy for business.", that's how I want the people who work for me to speak. I was wondering, was the purpose of this little blurb to educate or infuriate? If you're asking me to believe that this woman has been laid off from an office job and naturally turned to tricking, I'd have to say ...you're asking alot!
Let us know when you do some original reporting.
Prostitution in America (as with so many other things) is different than in other countries (forgive me - I JUST wrote a term paper for my Master's about this). In India, sex workers have a labor union, pay wage taxes, and as a regulated industry have far lower rates of unwanted pregnancy and abuse. Studies have repeatedly shown that sex workers are much more health-conscious and practice much higher levels of safe sex than the average...sex-haver...and the rate of STI infection is much lower than one would expect. And while internationally, those who turn to sex work to support a drug addiction or because they're being trafficked are a massive contingency of victims that need huge amounts of help, there does exist a faction of sex workers who enjoy what they do, who did not enter the profession via some kind of physical, psychological, or economic trauma, and lead generally fulfilling and safe lives. There's a sort of caste system with sex workers, even in the U.S., with escorts and in-house girls (such as Las Vegas, where the industry is highly regulated) at the top, who rarely experience any sort of abuse, are not allowed to receive pay if they test positive for drugs, and make a decent living wage. Street walkers are at a high risk for abuse, but it generally tends to happen the most if they're drug-seeking or working with an addiction. Women (and men, btw) who are trafficked into sex work are easily the most often abused, with the highest rates of mortality, infection, and unwanted pregnancies. The profile of underage sex work in the U.S. is alarmingly full of teenaged boys, not teen girls. It has been proven that a lack of employment opportunity is negatively correlated with prostitution (one goes down, the other goes up). Because America was founded on moral fibers, it will never be a valid form of work, and because it's not valid, it's not legal, and because it's not legal, it's not taxable. But when it comes to the oldest profession in the world, you only need to look around the rest of the world or to Las Vegas to see what regulation and decriminalization has done. You can't rehabilitate someone who's doing something that, under the eyes of the law, shouldn't exist.
The story sounds totally made up.
Earlier this afternoon, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union stood inside the federal courthouse at 6th and Market and entreated U.S. District Court Judge John P. Fullam to uphold free speech in Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, just across the street.
The hearing was called after the ACLU submitted an emergency motion this morning, urging Judge Fullam to enforce a 1988 injunction that prohibits the Park from "preventing... individuals, or groups distributing literature, assembling, or soliciting signatures in [the Park] or on streets, sidewalks, parks or other areas open to the public, so long as such activities do not involve breaches of the peace [or] interfere with similar activity by others." The case is still ongoing; another hearing has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Some quick background: On Sept. 5, Pennsylvania Friends of Animals (PFA) learned the hard way that you need a permit to exercise free speech in the Park. A small group of people -- fewer than 20, according to PFA spokesman Brandon Gittelman -- were distributing pamphlets about the inhumanity of horse-drawn carriages at the intersection of Fifth and Chestnut Streets. Park rangers approached and told the protesters to move off Park property. The ACLU interceded on their behalf and procured a permit from the Park superintendent for the group's next demonstration, in October. That permit gave a restricted number of demonstrators -- two, according to Mary Catherine Roper, one of the ACLU attorneys -- access to all corners of Fifth and Chestnut, as well as the stretch of Sixth Street between Market and Chestnut.
Now, PFA is planning another protest against horse-drawn carriages in the Park this Saturday -- but neither they nor the ACLU doesn't believe they should have to apply for another permit. Roper and her colleagues think it's unconstitutional to require non-disruptive groups of fewer than 20 people to get a permit before they can demonstrate on publicly-accessible property. "You don't need a prior restraint to keep people off the sidewalk to prevent misbehavior," said Roper during the hearing. "You police to prevent misbehavior."
In response, U.S. attorney Michael Blume argued that misbehavior isn't the only lawful cause for the government to restrict free speech -- there can be context-specific reasons for prohibiting a demonstration in a certain place. Besides, he added, the PFA have already been permitted to protest in the Park once. "Were they to apply for a permit before or on the day of Saturday, Friends of Animals would in all likelihood get access to the tourists and everything else they want," he said. (This doesn't exactly fit with the Park's general attitude toward permits; as Park public affairs officer Jane Cowley told City Paper two weeks ago, it's unlikely that any future group would get the same access permit won by the PFA.)
Judge Fullam did not seem wholly convinced that the whole permit process employed by the Park is unconstitutional, saying he saw "no irreparable damage" to anyone's constitutional rights from the events that have transpired so far. He concluded today's hearing by asking PFA to apply for another permit for Saturday's protest, and promising to hear from their ACLU counsel on Thursday if that permit doesn't come through. City Paper will keep you posted.
A couple weeks ago, we told you about the ongoing row between the Independence National Park Service, the ACLU of PA and the Pennsylvania Friends of Animals over the park service's weird and semi-ironic restrictions on free speech and protests, even on public sidewalks that fall in the shadows of the buildings in which the Constitution was crafted. At the time, you'll recall, the civil liberties types were convinced that the park brass would at least hear out their concerns, while the park brass basically said they were done talking, so piss off.
PFA, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and park officials are "in discussions to permanently change some of the rules," says Gittelman. The group's demands aren't steep. They just want any and all non-violent groups to have relatively unrestricted access to these sidewalks, so long as the crowds don't get out of control. But Cowley, the park's flack, says negotiations are over and the park won't be making any rule changes. And, she adds,"I don't know that any group would be permitted" the access that PFA already won, because " who knows who'd be coming down the pike?"
This morning, the ACLU took the hint, and filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge for a permanent injunction against the regulations.
"Movants [PFA] have twice sought a permit to protest peacefully on publicly traveled sidewalks in Independence Park," the injunction request says. "The first attempt (made without counsel) was met with a flat denial, and that denial was then confirmed with the threat of criminal prosecution when Movants attempted to protest on Park property at the intersection of Fifth and Chestnut Streets. The second attempt (intensely negotiated through counsel), resulted in a permit that allowed access to some publicly traveled sidewalks, but severely restricted the number of protesters and use of signs on other publicly traveled sidewalks in Independence Park. Movants, through their counsel, have sought assurance from the Park Service that the same restrictions will not be applied to their December 5 protest. The Park Service has refused to give such assurance."
So, lawsuit! The parties are going to court in, oh, about 20 minutes now — 3:45 at the federal courthouse on Sixth and Market, room 15A, if you're interested. We've dispatched our intrepid super-intern, Julia Harte, to the scene. Reports forthcoming.
[...] unresolved, of course, is the issue of why activists should have to hire ACLU attorneys and sue Independence Park before they're granted one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed to U.S. citizens. But one step at [...]
Oddly enough, here's my brief story: Back in June, I decided to hold a candlelight vigil for the people of Iran who were fighting back against their government and lost their lives in front of Independence Hall. After an hour, our small but passionate group of 20 people lit candles and recalled tales of both what we heard and what the Iranian-born folks heard back home. It was getting late when a park ranger and asked if I had a permit. I cited Philadelphia Law saying we didn't need one since it was in reaction to a current event, to which he said that we were on federal property so it didn't apply. But he was wonderful enough to let us stay. The main problem was with the "open flame" from the candles. we had to put them out, which wasn't a problem since it was around the time we were done. The ranger was very nice, and we all left feeling good about what we did. I hope this gets resolved soon and everyone is allowed to protest. :)
While we're protesting the National Park Service, let's get them to remove the barricades locking Independence Hall, a symbol of freedom, behind bars. President Obama, tear down those bike racks!
It was a curious thing for me as a child that the first places my grandparents looked to in their morning paper were the obits and death notices. It struck me as somewhat morbid and perhaps macabre, especially as they got older and the pictures in those pages grew increasingly familiar — "Oh, I know her;" "I went to school with him." And then, when my grandmother passed in 2002, my mother and I marched into the Palm Beach Post's classified office and paid (I don't remember how much) for them to publish her obituary.
Perhaps because I'd never encountered or really thought about it before, that notion — paying for an obit — just seemed strange, as if my grandmother wasn't worthy of a couple inches of newsprint on her own merits, so we had to pay to memorialize her. Which, from a news perspective, I get; but, still ⦠weird.
In any event, seven out of every 10 people who take the dirt nap in this country find their way into these obit pages. Many of these are then aggregated onto legacy.com, which allows you to search for your ancestors (curiously, I was able to find my grandfather's death notice —sub. req. — but not my grandmother's). Newspapers across the country are taking a few different tacks. Some are switching to paid obits; some are diligently trying to write a few words about everyone in the community who does; still others are trying to find a hybrid, all while publishers and stockholders push for — in this and every other section — more revenue, fewer expenses.
So what does the future hold for obits? Northwestern University's Medill School took up this project in a big research paper (full disclosure: my friend and former colleague, Ian Monroe, was one of the three lead authors), analyzing the trends in the obit world (after a quickie survey, you can download the 3o-page pdf here). If you knew Ian, this would seem an entirely appropriate endeavor.
Like many content categories, obituaries are being transformed by changes in audience behavior and media technology. Once just a concise piece of text reserved for the elite members of society, an obituary can now be created for anyone and can now include multimedia. Mourners can gather not just in a church or funeral home, but also on social networking sites and memorial pages that live on long after the lives that inspired them have ended. This report tracks these changes as they have evolved.
As a blog on Editor & Publisher tells it,
This being newspapers, the authors must warn the industry not to get complacent because obits can go the way of classifieds. Social networking sites, like Facebook, are fast becoming popular ways to commemorate those who have died in a much more engaging way that lasts longer than static, standard newspaper obits and death notices.
The student make the following recommendations:
- Don't cut resources devoted to obits since it can drive readership.
- Connect to social media sites with obits
- Newspapers should create their own social media sites too, allowing readers to post comments, pictures and videos of the deceased.
- Send out obit "alerts" since many people check out death notices regularly and often
(Plug: Their suggestions remind me a bit of what — as we reported in last week's cover story — local LGBT advocate Chris Bartlett is trying to do with his Gay History Wiki.)
It's an interesting report, and if you've got a few minutes, you should check it out.
[...] our report prominently. Another article on Canada.com. Oh, hey, look at this! My buddy Jeff Billman wrote it up for a blog on the Philadelphia City Paper. Here’s another article on [...]
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