U.K. Issues Travel Warning About Antigay U.S. States

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Days before President Obama travels to England, the United Kingdom’s foreign office has issued a travel warning to British tourists visiting the American South, specifically referencing North Carolina and Mississippi.

On the U.K.’s Foreign Office website, under the local laws and customs section of the USA travel advice, is the following message:

Local laws and customs

Laws vary from state to state. When you are physically present in a state, even temporarily, you are subject to that state’s laws. You must carry a passport showing that you have leave to enter or remain with you at all times.

The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country. LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before travelling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign.

Full Story Here.

Much Ado Over…

Women on 20s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced on April 20 that Andrew Jackson will be replaced by Harriet Tubman on the $20 Federal Reserve Note.

Women on 20s
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced on April 20 that Andrew Jackson will be replaced by Harriet Tubman on the $20 Federal Reserve Note.

Indigenous people have an interest here, to say the least. Before I get to that, the mere fact that a woman might end up on a piece of paper is apparently cause for outrage. Add to that fact it will be a black woman, and oh my, there goes the internet again, all blowed up, and you see things like this:

Bigots

hey all I know is she stole property. Jackson gave Indians a new home. Tubman was a criminal.

Jackson gave NDNs a new home? There are times the stupid is utterly infuriating. I know that most people don’t know anything at all about Indigenous peoples in uStates, but this is beyond the pale. You’re on the ‘net, you know. Take five minutes out and fucking learn something. As for Tubman being a criminal? Point me to one past uStates president that hasn’t been one. Oh, but they were white, so it was okay. Ms. Tubman saved lives. Jackson was a murderer. A bit of a difference there. But for those preaching #whitegenocide, this heralds the beginning of the end. I would have preferred Chief Wilma Mankiller to be on the $20, but I’m very happy with the choice of Ms. Tubman, assuming this actually happens.

Women on 20s organized to get a woman on U.S. paper money to celebrate the centennial in 2020 of the 19th Amendment, which extended the right to vote to women. They picked Jackson as their target in furtherance of another goal in their mission statement: “Removal of symbols of hate, intolerance and inequality…”

I learned something at that point that was highly gratifying. I know Cherokees who put 20s in their wallet in a manner that avoids looking at Jackson’s face. I know Cherokees who identify as Republicans because Jackson was a Democrat and are highly offended at Democrats having annual “Jefferson-Jackson dinners.” What I did not know is that Indians generally despise Jackson almost as much as Cherokees do.

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Bill John Baker, released a statement reacting to the decision to replace Jackson with Tubman:

Andrew Jackson defied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and forced the removal of our Cherokee ancestors from homelands we’d occupied in the Southeast for millennia. His actions as president resulted in a genocide of Native Americans and the death of about a quarter of our people. It remains the darkest period in the Cherokee Nation’s history. Jackson’s legacy was never one to be celebrated, and his image on our currency is a constant reminder of his crimes against Natives…

The Cherokee Nation applauds the work… to replace his image with the image of Harriet Tubman, whose legacy represents values everyone can be proud of.

Harriet Tubman to Replace Indian Killer and Slave Dealer Andrew Jackson on $20 Bill.

Back to Jackson.

Courtesy Whitehouse.gov Andrew Jackson took office in 1829 with one goal set firmly in his mind: Indians must be moved “beyond the great river Mississippi.”

Courtesy Whitehouse.gov
Andrew Jackson took office in 1829 with one goal set firmly in his mind: Indians must be moved “beyond the great river Mississippi.”

[Read more…]

Sounds So Horrible It’s Wonderful.

It’s pretty bad. It’s still not as bad as Pat Boone. Way to go protesters! If you’re in the area, think about making a horrible noise at another Pat.

‘Can You Hear Us Now, Pat?’: Awesome ‘Air Horn Orchestra’ Actually HB2 Protest At Governor’s Mansion.

Ripe for Mockery

gI_92391_gI_105172_Abraham Father of Atheism

Abraham Father of Atheism: The logical course of action smart atheists should take is now in a book. There’s a video at that link, but I don’t recommend watching it as it’s very poorly done and simply self serving. On to the website!

…but unfortunately, given the fact that scientists are only 99 percent sure that there is no Creator, shutting believers up with such an answer doesn’t seem to be an effective solution to me. At the end of the day, you are a one percent gambler….

…I agree with you that Muslims, Christians, and Jews should not be considered, by any means, to be useful people, because the world would simply be better without them. However, there is a story about a person called Abraham in their scriptures. His story, believe it or not, is of great significance to you as a non-believer because it can still provide you with the opportunity to justify your disbelief. Consequently the one percent probability is realized and the so-called Big Boss does exist, you will still be a winner.

I admire you; and highly appreciate your disbelief, but you should improve how you justify it in order to free yourself from the jaws of the pliers. In this book, I will teach you how to do that in a way that doesn’t result jeopardizing any afterlife, just in case the so-called Creator does exist.

There’s a wealth of material at the site, and from what I’ve skimmed, I’d be willing to bet this person wants to be the next Chopra. As for me, I can only take so much before the 3rd cup of tea. All I have to say right now is:

BOLLOCKS!

BOLLOCKS!

Psycho meets the Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof garden is perennially one of the most popular spots in New York City during the summer, in part because it’s a lovely venue, but also because of its fantastic, often-immersive outdoor exhibits. This year should be no exception: For the 2016 season, the roof garden commission is British artist Cornelia Parker’s “Transitional Object (PsychoBarn),” which is indeed a replica of the creepy home featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic Psycho.

Becky Schear, Instagram.

Becky Schear, Instagram.

Parker says she was inspired not just by Hitchcock’s iconic film, but also by the work of artist Edward Hopper, who was known for painting rural landscapes punctuated by the odd barn or rambling old house. In fact, the Bates home in Psycho was allegedly inspired by Hopper’s painting House By the Railroad, and Parker’s piece shares similar characteristics. It’s covered in reclaimed wood, which comes from an actual barn; she’s stated that she wanted to contrast the “wholesomeness” of that image with the creepiness of the Hitchcock film.

Cornelia Parker's "Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)" on the roof of the Met Fifth Avenue Photographed by Alex Fradkin, Photo courtesy Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker’s “Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)” on the roof of the Met Fifth Avenue. Photographed by Alex Fradkin, Photo courtesy Cornelia Parker

The exhibit opens today and runs through October 31st.  Curbed and Out have the story.

Outright Sacrilege. Diabolical. Demonic.

I don’t do television these days, but even when I did, I didn’t watch SNL anymore, because I seldom found it funny. They do get it right now and then though, and the God Is A Boob Man sketch was one of those. (PZ has the video, but it is uStates-centric). Pat Boone (Do people younger than a dinosaur even know who he is?) is thoroughly riled up about it, and he’s certainly giving the skit a whole hell of a lot more power than it actually has.

Pat Boone Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/Getty Images


Pat Boone
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Pat Boone is calling out NBC and Saturday Night Live for allegedly being anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, cowardly, “diabolical” and even demonic for a skit over the weekend that parodied God’s Not Dead 2, the actor-singer’s latest movie.

[…]

Boone called NBC and SNL cowardly because executives and creative talent know they can pick on Christians without fear of reprisal, whereas political correctness dictates that some other groups are off-limits.

“This skit was outright sacrilege. They know if they did this to Muslims they’d have to be put into the witness protection program,” he said. “There’s nothing sacred at SNL — except maybe the words ‘Mohammad’ or ‘Allah.’ They’d never take those names in vain, but when they called God a ‘boob man,’ they took his name in vain.”

There’s just the little problem of ‘God’ being a placeholder. It’s not the actual name of your god, so maybe it’s taking a placeholder in vain, but I don’t recall that being a specific no-no.

Oh my. We’ve never heard that line of reasoning before, oh no. Full rant here.

A common complaint

A common cause for complaint among artists is the high cost of supplies. It’s not unusual to spend thousands of dollars a year on supplies. It’s this cost that leads a lot of artists to abandon art as a career. It’s this cost which also makes a lot of people complain about the cost of art works. While most artists can recoup the cost of materials in selling a piece, they often have to cut the price of their labour down to the bone. A good example of supply cost is turpentine – both of these cost $10.00:

Complaint

The small bottle is Winsor & Newton distilled turpentine, 2.5 ounces / 75 ml. Ten bucks. Is it better? Yes. At least it used to be, it has become increasingly suspect (mostly detected by smell. It no longer smells pine-y fresh). What it has is a name, one established enough that they can stick any price on their products, and people will buy it. (Obviously, I’m included there – I bought it.) I don’t use turpentine a great deal, so it’s easier for me to go with the cheap stuff. The temptation to cheap out is always there, but that is problematic too, because you do get what you pay for. An example:

Complaint1

Prismacolor coloured pencils, and Derwent blender and burnisher. Prismacolor is my preferred colour pencil, and they cost $2.00 a piece. That might get a shrug from most people, and if all you needed was one pencil, that might be an appropriate response. When you need 5, 10, 20, or more pencils, well…it adds up quickly. What about a set? I should mention that I don’t shop at Amazon or Walmart, but even at Walmart, a set of 150 Prismacolor Premier pencils costs $163.50. (The list price is $312.00). Online art supply – Dick Blick, the set is $151.00 + shipping. Same with Jerry’s Artarama. Prismacolor is far from the most expensive in coloured pencils, too. I won’t even look at Caran D’Ache ($292.00 for a set of 76 luminance). The pricing is the same when it comes to drawing pencils. I have an assortment of pencils, Staedtler, Koh-i-noor, Faber Castell, Derwent, and Sanford to name a few. And yes, all those pencils have specific attributes and effects, so going cheap on pencils isn’t an answer either. The price of good quality markers is very high, for a limited amount of colours, usually in the neighbourhood of $40.00 to $50.00 for 24 markers. I don’t want to even discuss the cost of brushes – that alone can utterly break you, along with the cost of canvas and, oh, paper. I love paper, and a lot of it I just dream about. The cost is prohibitive, especially for things like large size, single sheet Arches 300 lb cold press.

Quality matters, so the next time you’re contemplating buying an art work, please keep in mind that artists aren’t just mindlessly putting an ‘outrageous’ price on their work. We should be able to earn a living wage and be able to continue buying supplies.

Wings on Wednesday: Mourning Dove

I have a great fondness for Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura), and we used to have a good population of them on property. Then the Eurasian Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) arrived. The Collared Doves are considerably larger, and serious bullies. I’ve been missing the Mourning Doves for around a year and a half now, but they are coming back, and I’m so happy about that. I hope our nesting mums come back too, it’s a wondrous thing to watch baby doves outside my studio window. Click for full size.

WW1

WW2

© C. Ford.