Saturday - October 03, 2009
A fallen hero and the story of what befell the rest of his comrades in 1 Platoon.
BATTLING BRITS is not a figure of speech ppl.
I caught this late today, only minutes ago. I have to say the way the Mail presented this really brings home what these fellows are all about.
And at the same time, it also pisses me off big time to know these heroes are being stabbed in the back. I just can not add anything to this.
It speaks for itself.
A fallen hero and the story of what befell the rest of his comrades in 1 PlatoonBy Richard Pendlebury
Last updated at 8:34 AM on 03rd October 2009This week, hundreds of people lined the streets of Wootton Bassett to give the town’s traditional salute to a fallen hero as another British serviceman was repatriated from Afghanistan in a Union Jack draped coffin.
Corporal Michael Lockett, 29, was the most highly decorated British soldier to die in the battle against the Taliban. His body had been flown back to Britain to nearby RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, and a fly-past was staged before a private ceremony for his family.
Corporal Lockett, a father of three, was the first holder of the Military Cross to be killed in the war and had received the honour last year from the Queen for his ‘absolutely exceptional leadership and supreme courage’ in a clash with the Taliban in Helmand.
He had rescued wounded comrades and recovered bodies of fallen pals despite heavy enemy fire in a three-hour firefight.
On the eve of battle he posed for this remarkable photograph. To the regiment, it has always been an emblematic and proud picture; a portrait of young warriors who were supreme heroes under fire.
Yet in the past fortnight the photograph has also - perhaps inevitably - come to reflect war’s growing human cost.
This band of brothers is 1 Platoon of A Company, 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).
Shortly after the picture was taken in 2007, in the Afghan province of Helmand, they fought one of the bloodiest engagements of the conflict.
One night, the platoon was ambushed by a strong Taliban force. In the subsequent firefight, two Mercians were killed and seven wounded, two seriously.
Sergeant Craig Brelsford lost his life (and won a posthumous Military Cross) trying to retrieve the body of Private Johan Botha, which the Taliban were attempting to drag away. Others kept trying.
Corporal Lockett directed their efforts on that night in September. He is the soldier standing on the far left of the photograph; one of the most popular of Mercians.
But the war has continued longer and proved bloodier than then expected. Two years after surviving the ambush, ‘Locky’ was killed, on September 21.
He was nearing the end of his third tour and was the 217th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since 2001.
But what of his comrades-in-arms in the picture? War brought the platoon together. It also tore them apart. Here are their stories…
This is important BMEWS. Go to the link below since I can’t seem to post the photos cleanly here. Don’t know why. There are two photos and one of them explains the following. In trying to reduce the pix for this post, the photos just didn’t work. When left at original size, they seemed to overwhelm the page.
1 Michael Lockett. Then aged 27, from Angus. Vowed never to leave any of his men behind on the battlefield and did not. The body of colleague Private Botha was recovered from the Taliban and other wounded British soldiers saved. Promoted to sergeant. Received his MC from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Killed on September 21.
2 Private ‘Ginge’ Jones. Territorial Army soldier from Hastings, East Sussex. Now studying military history at university.
3 Corporal Ben Umney, 25. A section commander from Chesterfield. During an ambush, a bullet pierced his helmet but not his skull, stunning him. Has just left the Army after 11 years service. Now runs his own plumbing business.
4 Corporal Lee ‘Al’ Hodson from Worcester. On active service again in Helmand.
5 Private Matthew Farr from the West Midlands. Promoted to lance corporal. Returned to active service in Helmand.
6 Lance Corporal Jonathan McEwan, 27, from Retford, Nottinghamshire. On active service again in Helmand.
7 Christopher Bell, 20, from Redditch. Left the Army last year.
8 Lance Corporal Lee Weston. Shot and wounded in the shoulder during the night ambush. Has now left the Army and is a qualified mechanic.
9 Lance Corporal Wayne Russen, 24, from Redditch. Avoided the ambush, having been injured in an attack a few days before. Has since left the Army and is looking for work.
10 Private Kyle Drury, 22. Temporarily blinded by phosphorous during ambush and shot in chest, but was saved by his body armour as bullets deflected off his radio. Since promoted to lance corporal and still in the Army.
11 Private ‘Trout’ Stout, 20, from Nottingham. On active service again in Helmand.
12 Private Latham, 20, from Nottingham. Since promoted to lance corporal. Back on the Helmand frontline.
13 Private Luke Cole, 24, from Wolverhampton. Territorial Army reservist. Shot and wounded in initial ambush, but refused morphine treatment and continued to fire at Taliban and tend to even more seriously hurt colleague Private Cooper.
Shot again, through hip and stomach, before being evacuated several hours later. Awarded the Military Cross for his bravery. Permanently disabled by leg wound, he has spent time in a wheelchair and can no longer run. Unable to return to his former job of fork-lift truck engineer.
Currently retraining at specialist college for the disabled.
14 Private Sam Cooper, 18, from Chesterfield. Youngest soldier in regiment. Shot in head and suffered brain damage in the ambush, which affects his speech and one side of his body. Treated at Headley Court rehabilitation centre.
15 Private Daniel Hammer, 19, from the West Midlands. On active service again in Helmand.16 Lieutenant Simon Cupples, 25, from Chesterfield. Officer in command of the platoon during ambush. At times, was less than 20 metres from Taliban lines as he fought to remove his men from the ‘killing zone’.
Awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, second only to the Victoria Cross. Now promoted to Captain and second in command of A (Grenadier) Company, 2 Mercians.
17 Privater Ben Johnson, 23. Temporarily blinded by phosphorus during the night ambush. Still serving. Has been on active service again in Helmand.
18 Private Matthew Carling, 21, from Derby. Left the Army last year.
19 Private ‘Dunc’ Dunkley, from Nottingham. No longer in the Army.
Posted by peiper
on 10/03/2009 at 10:28 AM
Filed Under: • Heroes • UK • War-Stories •
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Permalink • GLORIOUS AND GLAMOROUS WEEKEND WOMEN.
Since beauty is generally in the eye of the beholder ... these are some of my choices of beautiful women. But I do have favorites of course.
One of my all around all time favorites of any time is
ANN MARGARET I think I’ve had a school boy crush on her ever since forever.
Naturally being male my favorite list can extend to the hundreds. But there are exceptions who stand out and go far beyond mere ‘Eye Candy.’
Some of you youngsters may not know this, but Lucille Ball in her prime, in her 20s, was one of the most awesomely, naturally beautiful and fantastic women on the planet. Some only know her from I Love Lucy. I’ve seen photos of her that weren’t posed and where she wasn’t wearing make up. Trust me.
She was heart stopping.
So here’s another coz I loved her dearly but it’s odd having said that, that I wasn’t a fan of the TV show. Go figure.
Now this dame will live forever I think. There’s generations aware of MAY WEST (Mary Jane West) who may not be aware of more recent sexy ladies of filmland. She’s another one I have been smitten with from boyhood. Her quips and wit and I won’t deny it. I loved her looks.
And one more just coz I still love lookin’ at her.
OK so, I’m almost obligated to include SOPHIA LOREN. How can we post pretty women and leave her out? She was never one of my heart throbs though, truth to tell. I liked her looks of course. What’s not to like? But she’s was never an Ann Margaret or Lucille Ball or May West. Oh boy. Here come the flames. OUCH!
Alright here. This has to make up for my last remark and I offer it as bribe to avoid flames from her fans.
Finally, there’s this bit of sexy something and I am certain they had the wrong name attached. It was labeled Jayne Mansfield but it surely is NOT.
Here ya go. Take a look.
Posted by peiper
on 10/03/2009 at 08:11 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •
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Permalink • I HAVE NOW READ EVERYTHING THERE IS TO READ RE. THE “R” WORD. FOR THE BIRDS? APPARENTLY
A few of our regular commenters have, in the last 24 hours, wondered just how far down the dumb ladder some ppl would fall. In one of his posts I believe Drew asked the same question. Maybe not in those exact words but you get the picture.
While working on another story I found this bit of nonsense and so it’s my first for Saturday. 
The giant issue of the day ... Is killing a pesky bird .... RACIST?
This week Natural England officially deemed the ring-necked parakeet as a pest, making it possible to shoot the birds without a licence.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
However Dr Ian Rotherham, Director of the Environmental Change Research Unit at Sheffield Hallam University, said there is a danger that labelling parakeets as a “nasty alien” just because they are from abroad could be seen as a form of “racism” towards a foreign species.
Parakeets can be shot without a licence under new rules to control spread of exotic birds
‘Eco-xenophobia’ on the rise warns conservationist
Should we be shooting parakeets?“If there is a problem - for example with the birds taking fruit - then we have to take steps to deal with it. If you start to label it as alien then that is some sort of racism. Eco-xenophobia is the label I would use.
“I suspect there is an underlying view it is because they are alien, but it should be because they are a problem.”Matthew Frith, Deputy Chief Executive of the London Wildlife Trust, said parakeets were “as British as curry” and agreed it was dangerous to label the birds as a pest just because they are foreign.
“Parakeets are birds from the Indian sub-continent that came here is the last century and are doing very well. Just like curry,” he said.“There are concerns that species from other parts of the world are scapegoated but we have been bringing different animals here like rabbits and hares since Roman times.
“The biodiversity in our country is a mix of native and non-native just like the social make-up of this country.”The ring-necked parakeet first appeared in the wild in Britain in 1969, having been bought here as a pet.
By the late 1990s the birds were being seen throughout the South East and there are now thought to 20,000 birds across the country. The exotic birds are especially common in London around Richmond Park.Farmers in Surrey have complained about the birds taking fruit and there have been concerns about parrakeets threatening native birds like woodpeckers and nuthatches.
Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said it was important to control non-native and exotic species.The new rules allow people to kill parakeets or take their eggs without a licence as long as they can prove the birds are causing a nuisance. Canada geese and Egyptian geese have also been given the designation under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
“Non-native species are a major threat to global biodiversity and it is important that licences can operate as an effective tool in helping to tackle the problem,” she said.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said parakeets are already controlled under licence and the new rules would just make it easier for people with legitimate concerns to control the birds.
While I don’t think anybody really is gonna take that fruitcake seriously (altho there may be a few) I doubt his “R” claim will have any effect. But what it does do, is show how easily and how ready in even the stupidest of ways, someone like the mad doctor will jump on the ‘r’ word.
Posted by peiper
on 10/03/2009 at 06:25 AM
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Friday - October 02, 2009
Eco Terrorists Hold Coal Mine Hostage
Climbers from Greenpeace have since early Friday morning been blocking the loading of coal from the Svea mine at Svalbard. The action is a protest against coal mining and climate changes.
The Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise has spent the last months in the Arctic sailing in the waters around Greenland and now over to Svalbard area. Onboard are both activists and scientists
researching the climate changes impact on the Arctic.
Friday morning, 22 activists from the vessel are participating in the action. Svea coal mine is operated by the Norwegain state own company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani.
A huge banner at the loading crane says “Coal fired Arctic meltdown.”
Svea mine is located in the inner part of the Van Mijenfjord in the southern part of the Spitsbergen Island at 75 degrees north in the Norwegian Arctic.
Four of the Greenpeace climbers are Friday morning hanging over the loading crane stopping the coal from land to be transferred over to the coal bulk vessel Pascha.
Greenpeace says the coal mining at Svalbard should be stopped.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 08:44 PM
Filed Under: • Environment • Politically-Incorrect •
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Permalink • You Knew There Would Be One, Right?
News From Down Unda
A SURFER escaped death in the Samoan tsunami by riding out the giant waves that surged over the Pacific Island.
New Zealand student Chris Nel was surfing on the south coast of Savai’i island when the 8.3 magnitude quake struck on Wednesday morning, The Dominion Post newspaper reports.
He had been in the water with four other New Zealand surfers and an Australian when the tsunami appeared.
“All of a sudden the water went real weird, it kind of glassed off and got real lumpy, then we started moving real quick, getting sucked out to sea,” Nel told the Post.
“It was pretty scary looking back and seeing the reef completely dried up. It looked like a volcanic riverbed - it was just gone.’’
A “big-as spurt of water’’ then hit the shore, Nel said.
“I was thinking, ‘this is it, we’re going to get washed away and smashed into the jungle’.’’
The surfers struggled to reach the shore and they lay on the surfboards as more wave surges swept in, riding them out and trying not to get smashed on beach.
“After about 35 or 45 minutes of floating around we managed to time it between a surge to get to land through the reef channel.’’
By the time Mr Nel returned, much of the surf camp he had been staying at had been destroyed.
“A lot of my stuff got washed out to sea and I found one of my surfboards in the jungle.’’
He left Samoa on Thursday, flying back to Wellington wearing a pair of jeans he had found in the jungle.
Gnarly tale, dude.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 08:03 PM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Letterman
Yeah yeah yeah, David Letterman was blackmailed by the producer of the news show 48 Hours. And they caught the guy. It’s all over the news, yadda yadda. But by “coming clean”:
As part of the testimony, Letterman admitted that he had engaged in sexual relationships with staff members.
“My response to that is, yes I have.
hasn’t Dirty Dave just admitted that he’s guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment? I mean, aside from the marital infidelity? He’s the boss. And he’s screwing his staff members. Tell me this isn’t an open and shut case worth millions? And about the same amount when his wife now divorces him? Am I the only person in America to have this thought? Because the story is everywhere today, and not a single news source or blog that I’ve seen has asked this question.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 07:43 PM
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Permalink • New Crowder
Crowder takes on Michael Moore’s new crapfest. This ought to be good.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 07:25 PM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • Clear Thinking and Straight Talk
There have been some phony arguments put forth for another “surge” in Afghanistan. We need not a surge of troops, we merely need to let our forces there do what needs to be done – kill the enemy.
There is this misconception of Afghanistan in particular (and Islam in general) that somehow we can bring Central Asia (and the rest of the Islamic world) kicking and screaming into the 21st Century through good will. This is simply not the case. There is no amount of money to spend, infrastructure to build, schools to provide, hospitals to heal, or good will that Americans can display toward the Afghan people that will produce a lasting effect. I was once told by an accomplished Afghan intelligence analyst that, “you can rent an Afghan, but you can’t buy him.”
The hard fact is that the “hearts and minds” of the Afghan “people” are not for sale! The descendants of “The Great Khan” and their tribal cousins have no interest in being Westernized in any way. And, the human sewers that serve as their political leadership can only be rented. Americans are interlopers in a land where interlopers generally have their heads lopped off.
The current crop of Afghanistan’s “Warriors” is almost exclusive to the opposition. The true believers are fighters – cowards too, but fighters nonetheless. By contrast, the bulk of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) are not fighters, nor are they “true believers”. They are simply cowards – frauds – corrupt to the core by any standard and an apostate to their own faith. They are slovenly, drug-addicted, dimwitted, and totally unreliable at any level. Like the Taliban, they are brutal to their own countrymen. They thrive on their petty powers and refuse to shoulder any burden or responsibility. Does this sound too harsh? Not for the Marines and Soldiers who have been killed by the treachery of ANA and ANP who have purposely led them into ambush.
Iraq is a case study in deception. You have been told by the media and our politicians that the Iraqi Army is now capable of maintaining order in Iraq with limited U.S. support. Well, read the news. Iraq is still in chaos. As we withdraw it will become worse; Sunni v. Shitte, Kurd v. Sunni and/or Shitte. Arabs are as brutal as Central Asians. However, they are even worse soldiers, and bring new meaning to the term cowardly. An American colonel who tried to train an Iraqi brigade regularly quips that his greatest accomplishment in twelve months was to get the Iraqis to use the toilets. He was not exaggerating. Americans have no idea how screwed up the world is east of Greece.
With cessation of the draft in the early 1970s America cultivated a professional warrior class. For over thirty years we have trained and equipped the most lethal fighting force ever known to mankind. They have sworn an oath to our Constitution that they take seriously. The question is whether or not their political leadership takes their own oath seriously. Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines are worthy of competent leadership that they can trust. Our president has demonstrated his contempt for America on foreign soil. In speeches around the world he has apologized for our history and failed to recognize our contributions. His personal history is littered with questionable personal friendships and professional associations. He has denied our Judeo-Christian heritage and stated that “Victory” is not in his vocabulary. We need to ask ourselves if he is worthy to be trusted with making policy that may mean the lives of our brave Warriors?
President Obama and General McCrystal need to review their history. When you treat the Afghans with kid gloves, they will bite off your hand.
This war is going to be lost on one front and one front only; at home. It is going to be lost at home because the American people are going to lose all confidence in our government’s ability to prosecute this war. This is not a military problem; it is a political problem. The daydream that we are engaged in right now is just that; a daydream. It is an experiment in social engineering with a population of people who hate us ideologically and who don’t want what we have. We MUST get back to the original mission as stated, to locate Al Qaida and kill them, deny them training ground, battle space and to hold those who aid them in their attempts to train and export violence accountable.
Sounds simple enough to me. Now all we have to do is remind our elected officials what they swore to protect and defend…
Semper Fidelis;
John Bernard, 1stSgt, ret
Sgt Bernard’s blog, Let Them Fight Or Bring Them Home has been up about a week now, so you can go and read the entire thing in about 20 minutes. His first posts are essays. Essays written from the heart, from a boots on the ground perspective absolutely in line with the name of the blog. I read the entire thing and I can’t find much to quibble with.
h/t to Atlas.
Please read below the fold:
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 04:47 PM
Filed Under: • Military • War On Terror •
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Permalink • IOC Rejects The New Messiah
The International Olympic Committee on Friday eliminated Chicago and Tokyo as contenders to host the 2016 Games. Still under consideration to host the two-week sporting spectacle are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Madrid, Spain. After the cities made their presentations to the IOC on Friday, the IOC members sat down to cast their votes in a secret ballot.
“It’s not a requirement for heads of state to come to our session,” said the IOC spokeswoman, who asked not to be named. “We are obviously very honored if they decide to come, but there’s no particular requirement.”
So we can write this little trip off as another waste of time and money by Teh One. Now that he has nothing important left to do, how about figuring out a plan of action for Afghanistan?
UPDATE: Rio gets the 2016 games. Good for them. There hasn’t been a South American Olympics in ... ever?
Better yet: pundits are seeing Oblahma & the Klingon’s quickie visit to the Netherlands as an insult. Hey, he came, he spoke about himself, he blamed Bush. Shouldn’t that be enough to get him whatever he wants?
Chicago had long been seen as a front-runner and got the highest possible level of support — from President Barack Obama himself. But he only spent a few hours in the Danish capital where the vote was held and left before the result was announced. Former IOC member Kai Holm said that the brevity of his appearance may have counted against him.
The short stopover was “too business-like,” Holm said. “It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect.”
Senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper surmised that Asian voters may have banded together for Tokyo in the first round, at Chicago’s expense.
“I’m shocked,” Gosper said. “The whole thing doesn’t make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote.”
He worried that the shock exit could do “untold damage” to the already testy relations between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee. They had recent flare-ups over revenue sharing and a USOC TV network.
“To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving,” Gosper said.
The European-dominated IOC’s last two experiences in the United States were bad: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Obama had held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC earlier Friday that the “full force of the White House” would be applied so “visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people.”
Now, Chicago can only rue what might have been. And Obama’s gamble of expending his own political capital on the bid backfired.
UPDATE UPDATE: (stolen from Michelle Malkin’s place)
This is actually a pretty good pun, because créu means to believe and to suppose. It’s also the name of the latest fad dance sweeping Rio this summer, a kind of pelvic shaking version of the macarena set to a techno amazon beat. Lots of thrustin’ goin’ on, although it mainly seems to be a man’s dance. So Brazil is using dance (it’s what they do best!) to give Obama a big old “fuck you”! Love it!
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 11:50 AM
Filed Under: • Obama, The One • Sports •
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Permalink • Thursday - October 01, 2009
Ok, I get it
But it’s still porn.
(Another follow up post; this one to Peiper’s post about the showing at the Tate gallery)
Tate Modern gallery has withdrawn a controversial photograph of Brooke Shields following a visit by police, amid concerns it could be in breach of child pornography laws.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police attended the gallery yesterday. They are consulting the Crown Prosecution Service over whether the image breaches the Obscene Publications Act.
The provocative picture by New York artist Richard Prince shows Shields standing naked in a bathtub, with a heavily made-up face and oiled torso. Children’s campaigners had condemned the Tate for including the picture in their latest exhibition, describing it as a “magnet” for paedophiles.
So controversial is the photograph, called Spiritual America, that it was hung in its own room behind a closed door bearing a warning that the work was “challenging”. However, visitors to a preview showing yesterday found the room closed.
The Tate chose to include the picture in the Pop Life: Art In A Material World after consulting lawyers. It has been exhibited in the US before but never in Britain. A spokesman said: “The exhibit is temporarily closed. We are in discussions with police.”
Prince’s work is a photograph of a photograph. The original was taken by Garry Gross, a US photographer, in 1975. It was commissioned by Shields’ mother, who was intent on turning her little girl into a child star and signed away the rights. The picture was later featured in a Playboy Press publication, and Gross planned to turn it into a poster.
In 1981, Shields made an unsuccessful attempt to buy back the negatives. A judge ruled that she was a “hapless victim of a contract… to which two grasping adults bound her”. The legal battle caught the eye of Prince, and he describes Spiritual America as a commentary on Shields as an “abstract entity”
When Gary Gross took the photograph, he called it “Brooke Shields : The woman in the child”. It is a photograph of an undeveloped little girl standing in a somewhat provocative pose, naked in a steamy fancy marble tub, while wearing a black lace choker, a ton of makeup, and a fancy hairstyle. At that age Brooke Shields had the facial structure of a woman in her mid 20s. That was her big appeal in the modeling world several years later. But it was this picture that her mother commissioned, signed away the rights to, and then published in a soft porn skin magazine to jump start the kid’s career. In my opinion the photograph is pornographic, though there are worse kinds of pornography.
Richard Prince comes along and takes a picture of the picture. Oooh, so creative. He might have saturated the colors a bit more, and he might have thrown in a little soft focus. But that’s it, and those are mights because I’ve never seen the originals, and how the heck can you really tell on the internet anyway? So Prince takes a picture of a picture, and gives it a smarmy douchebag title Spiritual America - ooh, what amazing irony, what soul splitting artistic insight: we crude Americans will whore out ourselves and our own children just to make a buck. Which pretty much was exactly what Brooke’s mother Terri Shields was doing.
Artistic merit: ZERO
Artistic effort: ZERO
Originality: ZERO
It isn’t “pop art”. At best Prince’s work is cynical snark. I get it already, now go away and take your kiddie smut with you.
But listen to the art world - this is the MAJOR PIECE at the Tate’s exhibition. The MOST IMPORTANT part. Which tells me that the Tate show sucks donkey hooves.
Tate Modern’s Pop Life is a fascinating show, but one of the most interesting works in it is the American artist Richard Prince’s 1983 work Spiritual America.
It takes the form of a ready-made or found object – a publicity photograph showing the prepubescent actress Brooke Shields naked, her body wet from the bath.
Prince framed the photo in an elaborate gilt frame, and then hung it alone. The heavily ironic title, Spiritual America, was used by Alfred Stieglitz for a photo taken in 1923 showing the haunches of a work horse. By using it Prince wasn’t inviting us to ogle the child, but to see exploitation as symptomatic of what was happening in America in the mink-coated Reagan years.
The image and title are used to contrast the country’s old values of hard work and honest endeavour with the pursuit of success and fame at whatever cost. When Prince first hung the picture on the gallery wall, it was without comment. It was as though he was speechless in the face of such crassness.
Nice try. FAIL. A picture of porn is still porn, no matter what “heavily ironic” title you steal from another work and label it with. Prince is a total loser. And the Tate Gallery are panderers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/6248384/Brooke-Shields-picture-withdrawn-from-Tate-exhibition-after-police-visit.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/richarddorment/6249734/Tate-Moderns-Brooke-Shields-photograph-a-crass-lack-of-morals-in-mink-coated-Reagan-years.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/6248757/Brooke-Shields-photographer-disappointed-by-police-pornography-claim.html
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2009 at 06:59 PM
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Permalink • Leave Them For The Crows
I call this unfair! The deal was, cradle to grave care from the nanny state! What part about being DEAD don’t they get? Bury them. In fancy coffins no less. It’s their RIGHT!!!
Inside the Wayne County morgue in midtown Detroit, 67 bodies are piled up, unclaimed, in the freezing temperatures. Neither the families nor the county can afford to bury the corpses. So they stack up inside the freezer.
Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the morgue, said he has never seen anything like it during his 13 years on the job. “Some people don’t come forward even though they know the people are here,” said the former Detroit cop. “They don’t have the money.”
Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell’s aunt, Nancy Graham—and say their goodbyes.
The couple, already financially strained, don’t have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don’t have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell’s grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card—at 21% interest.
So the Vickers had to leave their aunt behind. Body number 67.
“It’s devastating to a family not to be able to take care of their own,” said Darrell. “But there’s really no way to come up with that kind of cash in today’s society. There’s just no way.”
The number of unclaimed corpses at the Wayne County morgue is at a record high, having tripled since 2000. The reason for the pile-up is twofold: One, unemployment in the area is approaching 28%, and many people, like the Vickers, can’t afford last rites; two, the county’s $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.
“One way we look back at a culture is how they dispose of their dead,” said the county’s chief medical examiner, Carl Schmidt, who has been in his position for 15 years. “We see people here that society was not taking care of before they died—and society is having difficulty taking care of them after they are dead.”
GOD FORBID that any of these people should have actually spent a couple dollars (that they might have earned once upon a time) on burial insurance!
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2009 at 04:28 PM
Filed Under: • Nanny State •
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Permalink • ACORN gets an new $million
WTF?? I thought their funding got shut down. So why the heck is DHS giving these thieving bastards almost a MILLION DOLLARS through FEMA as part of a Fire Safety and Prevention program??
What the flea flippin’ finger fuck does ACORN have to do with fire safety? Give us a friggin’ break!!
by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Earlier this month and despite the public scrutiny over the voter fraud and felony criminal activity associated with ACORN, the Department of Homeland Security went ahead and granted $997,402 to ACORN under the FY 2008 Fire Prevention and Safety Program.
To most people, the timing and the amount of the grant would seem off base, but when you take into account the fact that DHS awarded ACORN–an organization with no clear expertise in fire safety and prevention–a fire prevention and safety grant, it’s just plain offensive.
With fire departments all over Louisiana – and the rest of the country – struggling to make ends meet and get the equipment and training they need to protect their local communities, the idea of a million dollar grant going to ACORN is unsettling, to say the least.
I’ve had grave reservations about ACORN for some time, and over the past year we’ve seen numerous examples of serious allegations of wrongdoing on the part of this organization and its employees across the country. I simply can’t see the logic behind diverting much needed funding from worthy fire departments to this organization.
So last week, I wrote a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano requesting that she rescind this grant from ACORN. As of today, the Secretary has not responded to my request. This site will post a copy of the letter for you to read and see for yourself.
Rest assured, I’ll keep working to help prevent further ACORN schemes to procure federal money.
Try again Obamacorn. You can’t play Hide Da Moneys when the whole damn country is watching. Son of a bitch. Take these mothers down.
h/t to Nice Deb.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2009 at 04:15 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Racist!!!!!!!
Seeing just how Bizarro World England has become these days, how is it possible that the actual government would fund a program that targets an actual ethnic group and profiles them as being inclined to criminal behavior? Wouldn’t this be just about a capital offense? It makes NO DIFFERENCE if it’s absolutely true! Not only is that beside the point, it might even make it a worse crime!
Police warn girls on hiding guns
Young women are being warned not to hide guns for their boyfriends, brothers or male friends in a new campaign by the Metropolitan police.
It is aimed at the growing number of teenage girls in London who, the Met says, are being persuaded to store weapons for male gang members.
Police are primarily targeting black girls aged between 15 and 19.
People caught hiding a gun for someone else can expect to receive a five-year prison sentence.
The series of radio, cinema and billboard adverts with the message: “Hide his gun and you help commit the crime” is being launched by Trident, the Metropolitan Police’s anti-shooting unit.
Claudia Webb from the Trident Independent Advisory Group says vulnerable young women are sometimes pressured into storing or transporting weapons by the men they know.
“We are deeply concerned however, that this involvement seems to be increasing and those who are involved seem to be younger and younger,” she added.
Jail for gangsters’ girlfriends who stash guns
Young women who stash guns for their gangster boyfriends are risking their futures and will face jail, police said today.
The stark warning was issued at the launch of a campaign to help prevent shootings across London by urging young women not to hide weapons .
Black teenagers in the capital aged between 15 and 19 years are being targeted under the initiative, which follows a recent rise in the numbers of young women being arrested and convicted for possessing weapons.
Among a dozen women charged so far this year with possession of a firearm were seven teenagers, including a 16-year-old girl arrested after a 9mm Browning self-loading pistol loaded with one round was discovered in her bedroom.
The series of radio, cinema and billboard adverts - carrying the strapline “Hide his gun and you help commit the crime” - has been masterminded by Trident, the Metropolitan Police’s anti-shooting unit.
There is no mistake here. It’s not just one or two articles saying this. It’s all of them:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090930/od_nm/us_police_girls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8281942.stm
http://madnews.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/uk-news-met-police-warn-girls-on-hiding-guns/
http://cms.met.police.uk/news/publicity_campaigns/trident_warns_of_consequences_of_storing_guns
Ok, sometimes they try to dress it up a little bit, but that actually makes for a more specific profiling group:
The hard-hitting adverts, which are aimed at 15 to 19-year-olds of African and African Caribbean heritage, are designed to combat a worrying growth in the number of young women being arrested and convicted of possessing weapons.
Is street crime so out of control there - where handguns are already illegal, right? - so utterly out of control that the cops have to result to racial profiling? What has that socialist utopia come to?
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2009 at 03:36 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Guns and Gun Control • Politically-Incorrect •
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Permalink • Remarkable 20 second film of Anne Frank, 1941.
Little girl at the window: Only known film of Anne Frank is posted on YouTubeBy Peter Allen
Last updated at 2:40 PM on 01st October 2009Courage: Video footage of Anne Frank, shown here in an undated photo, has been released on YouTube
The only known film footage of diarist Anne Frank has been released for the first time to a worldwide audience.
The haunting black-and-white images show the then 12-year-old schoolgirl leaning out a window in her home city of Amsterdam at the height of World War II in July 1941.
Despite clearly smiling, she looks vulnerable and alone as she stares out on to the busy street.
Soon afterwards Nazi persecution of Jews meant she and her family had to go into hiding, before she was finally captured and sent to a concentration camp where she died aged 15.
Anne Frank’s Diary, chronicling her last few years, was first published in 1947 and became an international symbol of the Holocaust.
But while Anne’s prose has moved millions across the world and plenty of still photographs have been published, few have seen the only known film of her.
The Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to her legacy, was in possession of the film - but previously it was only accessible to those visiting the museum or watching documentaries that contained the footage.
Posted by peiper
on 10/01/2009 at 03:16 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • History •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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