LeRoy's Pink Fist

Timothy Potts

2012-02-16T03:36:00.001-08:00

Ian Curtis

2012-02-16T03:13:00.001-08:00

Ross Park Mall being searched after bomb threat

2012-02-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

A large shopping mall in the northern suburbs is being searched this morning after an employee reported finding a bomb threat written on a wall in a restroom. Bomb-sniffing dogs are being used at Ross Park Mall in Ross, and township police have blocked off all entrances from McKnight Road. Ross police detective Brian Kohlhepp said five dogs are being used to search the facility, and five more are being brought in to assist. The mall was evacuated of all workers. It is set to open for business at 10 a.m., pending the progress of the search.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sister Carol Keehan

2012-02-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie were spotted on the streets of London Thursday night dressed as a nun and the pope for a kabbalah party to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates the day Queen Esther saved the Jewish people living in ancient Persia from extermination. “Yes, she was dressed as a nun and Guy was dressed as the pope,” Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said. “Some Catholic groups are saying stuff, but Purim is a joyous holiday occasion. Madonna and Guy had a great time drinking and dancing. It’s funny, because she said that she was happy that the pictures of her are out there because her father would be so proud. She said that when she was a girl she wanted to be a nun and she guesses that she’s still a nun at heart.” - all about Madonna dot com

M.I.A.

2012-02-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

Madonna has taken to the airwaves to express her disappointment with M.I.A.'s decision to flip the bird at cameras during the halftime show, calling the move a "teenager ... irrelevant thing to do." Madge was chatting with Ryan Seacrest about her performance when he brought up the incident. To the pop star, the middle finger was simply "out of place" at a show characterized by "such a feeling of love and good energy and positivity." Madge also called into Carson Daly's show and said M.I.A. has apologized to her. The halftime show was viewed by well over 100 million people. Reactions to the incident varied from bemused to enraged, and NBC and the NFL both condemned M.I.A. (and blamed each other for the fact that censors didn't block her middle finger). - The Huffington Post

And now I know

2012-02-13T04:46:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Hudson fights back tears

2012-02-13T04:44:00.000-08:00

as she performs “I Will Always Love You” at the moving Grammy tribute to Whitney Houston. - NY Post

Battleship named after Gabrielle Giffords

2012-02-13T01:43:00.000-08:00

Adele Adkins

2012-02-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

Beat the other women and dominates the market with her brand.
She's the winner.

Poor Adele sounds just like Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston dropped dead on her big night. Boo Hoo she's the rich and famous biggest talented winner.Pity - It is a personification[7] of a Christian element[8] that some critics argue was a negative virtue for Blake, since pity is associated with "the failure of inspiration and a further dividing"[9] and also "linked by alliteration and capitalization".[10] It is also a part of Blake's mythology, in which a sexually frustrated Tharmas becomes "a terror to all living things", although the emotion inherent in him is pity.[11] Other Blake characters have this feeling, and his mythology is developed between the confrontation of a feminine "Pity" and a masculine fiery, as happens in the brutal suppression of desire in Urizen.[12] - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Conversion of St Paul

2012-02-13T01:20:00.000-08:00

Bobby (with a why) Bobbi (with an eye)

2012-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

"At this time, we ask for privacy, especially for my daughter, Bobbi Kristina," Bobby Brown wrote in a statement released about an hour after she was transported from the hotel. "I appreciate all of the condolences that have been directed towards my family and I at this most difficult time." - AP

Draft of condolence letter from Joseph Cornell to Teeny Duchamp, 1968 Oct. 8

2012-02-11T04:24:00.000-08:00

Creator: Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp first met in New York around 1934. In this draft of a condolence letter to Duchamp’s widow, Teeny, Cornell struggles to find the right words to convey the depth of his feelings as he recalls that first meeting: THE NEWS JUST DOESN’T SEEM TO REGISTER THE MEMORIES ARE TOO GRAPHIC, ENDEARING & ENDURING. THE FIRST MEETING RECALLED AS IF ONLY YESTERDAY, WITH ITS PIQUANT FLAVOR OF CONTACT WITH A UNIQUE PERSONALITY. RARE, RARE QUALITIES, SLOWING MY PEN AND HUMBLING ONE ATTEMPTING HOMAGE. I FEEL MY DEBT IS REAL AND GREAT. - Smithsonian Archives of American Art

The Singing Cowboy

2012-02-11T04:20:00.000-08:00

Thomas Eakins

Holy Prepuce

2012-02-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

Sell the Cowboy?

President Obama offered “accommodations” to religious institutions on the new health insurance rule Friday
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/02/10/us/politics/100000001348924/timescast--birth-control-compromise.html

Philadelphia cardinal's death investigated

2012-02-11T04:08:00.000-08:00

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The child-molestation scandal in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has taken a mysterious new turn, with prosecutors asking a coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua to establish whether he died of natural causes. Risa Vetri Ferman, district attorney in suburban Montgomery County, said Friday that she wants to lay to rest any speculation about Bevilacqua's end, given the "peculiar" timing of the 88-year-old cardinal's death just a day after a judge ruled him competent to testify at the trial of his longtime aide. Bevilacqua, spiritual leader of the archdiocese's 1.5 million Roman Catholics from 1988 to 2003, died Jan. 31 at a seminary and was laid to rest without an autopsy. He was suffering from dementia and cancer, according to church officials and his lawyers, and his death was widely assumed to be from natural causes. Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman told The Philadelphia Inquirer that prosecutors want to "make sure there were no intervening events that could have speeded up that demise." Neither Hofman nor the district attorney would comment on whether they are looking into the possibility of suicide or euthanasia — both of which are considered grave sins by the Catholic Church. Hofman said he is conducting toxicology tests on fluid and tissue that his office took from Bevilacqua's body after it had already been embalmed but before it was entombed. He said he believes he has enough material for an examination, despite the embalming, and hopes to issue a cause of death by the end of the month. "The most likely cause of death is death due to natural causes," the coroner said. "Those illnesses were very well-documented by his private physician." Just before Bevilacqua died, a Philadelphia judge ruled him competent to testify at the child endangerment trial next month of Monsignor William Lynn, who is accused of quietly shuffling priests suspected of molesting children to unwitting parishes while he was a high-ranking archdiocesan official from 1992 to 2004. - PATRICK WALTERS

Philadelphia Raises Enough Money to Retain a Masterpiece

2012-02-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

It’s taken a citywide fund-raising effort and the sale of two paintings and two drawings by Thomas Eakins, but the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have now managed to raise the entire $68 million needed to keep an Eakins masterpiece, “The Gross Clinic,” in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Museum announced on Wednesday that it had sold the Eakins painting “Cowboy Singing” to the Denver Art Museum. - CAROL VOGEL April 24, 2008

Richard Raaphorst - Frankenstein's Army

2012-02-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

Scarry

2012-02-09T04:31:00.000-08:00

"In political and moral life you must be aware of the pain of people whom you may never see." - Elaine Scarry

Carson McCullers

2012-02-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

“Listen,” F. Jasmine said. “What I’ve been trying to say is this. Doesn’t it strike you as strange that I am I, and you are you? I am F. Jasmine Addams. And you are Berenice Sadie Brown. And we can look at each other, and touch each other, and stay together year in and year out in the same room. Yet always I am I, and you are you. And I can’t ever be anything else but me, and you can ever be anything else but you. Have you ever thought of that? And does it seem to you strange? ”
― Carson McCullers, Member Of The Wedding
Mo teen described as thrill killerJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri teenager who confessed to murdering a young neighbor girl faces the possibility of life in prison when she's sentenced Wednesday morning. Alyssa Bustamante, 18, was described by prosecutors as a thrill killer who lacked remorse and by defense attorneys as a disturbed child who deserved the chance to be set free one day. The trial's conclusion follows days of testimony in a small courtroom in Missouri's capital city. Proceedings descended into chaos Tuesday as prosecutor Mark Richardson was making an impassioned, final plea for a lifelong sentence for Bustamante, who pleaded guilty to murdering 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten in October 2009. - DAVID A. LIEB

“The human capacity to injure other people has always been greater than its ability to imagine other people,”
- Elaine Scarry

Sarah Weaver

2012-02-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

http://sarahweaverillustrator.blogspot.com/2008/12/thesis-piecestodays-icons-by-sarah.html

Images of tortured, abject and otherwise pained bodies present a spectacle of wounds. Popular media produces a veritable onslaught of such images and viewers are forced to sift through these assaults. Photographs from Abu Ghraib, Darfur, and Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans give salient evidence to Elaine Scarry’s theories of projection. But what about unseen woundings presented as acts of self-ownership and assertion? When Janice Dickinson defended years of anorexia and countless plastic surgery procedures she stated that she wants “to be the most beautiful corpse that ever lived.” With this quote, Dickinson claims her body as already dead tissue to be molded and prepared for its grave. If every made object is a projection of the human body, then how do we view a body that is made/sculpted/altered/objectified by the very person inhabiting it? Plastic surgery, elective amputation, and even some forms of masochism treat the body as an object to be made. As viewers of these bodies, we have to ask ourselves whether we see them as people or objects; or if a person is an object, an it. (Levinas 1961) If we view others as objects, how does projection work? Does it? Or is it, rather, that I view everything external to me as an object onto which I project my own desires, and thus I truly ever empathize only with myself in any attempt to understand another?
- Margaret Di Giulio

cult of personality/community presidency

2012-02-06T04:56:00.000-08:00

We do not have that much time to wait. If the current relationship between the people, the media, and the presidency continues, we will inevitably sink deeper and deeper into the morass of image making, with it's potential for ever greater evil. The need for a realistic, poor-in-spirit community presidency is now. ... We are confronted with the task of achieving maturity. And nowhere can this task be more effectively accomplished than in community, where all the members learn to exercise leadership and combat their own tendancy to depend upon an authority figure. But media professionals in particular should pick up on this burden. In their hands lies the most critical power to decide whether to support or to ridicule a REALISTICALLY POOR-IN-SPIRIT PRESIDENCY. It is the primary responsibility of journalists, TV, and radio commentators to educate the public toward political maturity and restrain its capacity to infantilize us. - M Scott Peck The Different Drum

Baratunde Thurston & Charles Murray

2012-02-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

Artist J.Tabasco Goes Kersplatski -- Abstract Expressionism goes splat in the 21rst century

2012-02-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

Cocksucker

2012-02-05T05:11:00.001-08:00

Lenny Bruce

Ben Gazzara

2012-02-05T04:38:00.001-08:00

Ben Gazzara as Charles Bukowski explains "Style"

Or does it explode?

2012-02-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

A Dream Deferred
by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Cher & Chaz

2012-02-03T07:25:00.001-08:00

I think that the longer I look good, the better gay men feel.
- Cher
Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/cher.html#ixzz1lKgFt64n

Survive

2012-02-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

Tru

2012-02-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

lee

RIP Mike Kelley

2012-02-03T04:47:00.001-08:00

Trulee HallAnd you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey.Don Cornelius’ son: Dad called me day he died
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/don-cornelius-son-dad-called-day-died-article-1.1015883#ixzz1lK3XMiAC

we just want to get back to work at Sotheby's

2012-02-03T04:18:00.000-08:00

Negotiations Make Progress as Art Handlers Lose Health Care and the Auctioneer Loses Money
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/758493/sothebys-lockout-update-negotiations-make-progress-as-art-handlers-lose-health-care-and-the-auctioneer-loses-money

Gardens are not made by singing “Oh, how beautiful,” and sitting in the shade.
- Rudyard Kipling

Suicide Bomber

2012-02-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

Religion poisons everything.
- Christopher Hichens
I kill myself for my body.
- Cher

Jana Paleckova
Madonna’s Illuminati Superbowl Halftime Show - Laced with profound imagery, Madonna’s halftime performance was a massive Illuminati ritual, one that was witnessed by billions of viewers. On this Superbowl “Day of Atonement”, Madonna, the High Priestess of the Illuminati industry, entered the Holy of Holies of America and delivered a 13 minutes sermon that was heard by all…but understood by few.
Read more:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/madonnas-superbowl-halftime-show-a-celebration-of-the-grand-priestess-of-the-music-industry/

Breakfast Prayer

2012-02-03T03:03:00.000-08:00

suicide right on the stage

Elvis Presley looks good in toast.
So does U.S. president Barack Obama.
With a torch in hand and bread ready, Maurice Bennett burns up a new masterpiece.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blending politics and religion, President Barack Obama said his Christian faith is a driving force behind his economic policies, from Wall Street reform to his calls for the wealthy to pay higher taxes. Obama's remarks Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast were his most explicit account of how his personal religious beliefs factor into his decision-making on the nation's pressing problems. The comments came amid election-year criticism from Catholic groups and some Republicans that the president is waging a war on religion following his decision to require church-affiliated institutions to cover free birth control for employees. Speaking to more than 3,000 people at the annual breakfast, Obama said "faith and values" should play as much as role in tackling the nation's challenges as sound decision-making and smart policies. - JULIE PACE

Lets talk about forever

2012-02-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

$35,800

2012-02-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

Andy SpahnJeffrey Katzenberg's palatial $35 million new home in the Trousdale Estates section of Beverly Hills will be the site of a major fund-raiser for President Barack Obama, an event some already are calling a make-or-break moment in the incumbent candidate's turbulent relationship with Hollywood. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hit town Jan. 30 to help allay industry fears that the Democrats have gone soft on piracy, but Obama's outreach will be crucial. While the president will be in L.A. on Feb. 15 for two fund-raisers at the home of producer Bradley Bell and wife Colleen (Will Ferrell and wife Viveca Paulin are co-sponsors), the Katzenberg event is seen as the key Hollywood gathering for Obama to mend fences and convince high-level fence-sitters to open their wallets. Ticket prices will most likely be set at $35,800, in accordance with campaign finance laws. - The Hollywood Reporter

Madelyn Murray O'Hare on Toast

2012-02-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

HUNX & Dustin Wong

2012-02-02T05:46:00.001-08:00

aleXsandro Palombo - Anna Wintour supports Obama's re - election.

2012-02-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

Anna Wintour gives a testimonial as to why Christopher Hitchens was such a joy to hang out with.
This past July, I gave a book party for my friend Gully Wells. Christopher Hitchens—or Hitch, as he was known to me and just about everyone else—came, as did Martin Amis and James Fenton, who were among his closest friends. It ended up being a reunion of sorts. We’d all known each other for a long time; a million years ago, in London, I’d dated Hitch, and Gully had dated Martin...... There was nothing that Hitch liked to do more than talk—and all the better if talking meant arguing. Hitch didn’t care if he agreed with you or not; In fact, he’d be contrary just for the hell of it. Yet no matter how combative he got, it did nothing to diminish our—my—love and affection for him. And that night in July, he seemed exactly as we all remembered him. I saw Hitch again at Thanksgiving, when I went to visit him in the hospital. He was sitting upright heroically typing away on his computer, working on his next book, surrounded by the New York Times and all other types of paraphernalia, hell-bent on creating his own last ruined table. As Sir Winston Churchill said: “Let us command the moment to remain.” - Anna Wintour

aleXsandro Palombo

2012-02-02T05:04:00.001-08:00

Chelsea Clinton and Mark Mezvinsky

http://www.humorchic.blogspot.com/

Haim Saban

2012-02-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

We wish you love, peace and soul.

2012-02-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

Simon Konecki & Adele

2012-02-01T05:11:00.001-08:00

Ru Paul

2012-02-01T04:13:00.000-08:00

183

2012-02-01T03:12:00.001-08:00

http://www.183art.ru/

Isadora

2012-01-30T07:17:00.000-08:00

President Obama’s old car on eBay

2012-01-30T06:47:00.000-08:00

http://wjbc.com/president-obamas-old-car-on-ebay/

Matthew Barney - Chrysler Imperial, 2002

2012-01-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Time Piece - Jim Henson

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

The Neuroscience Of Integrity: Now They Can Measure In The Brain When You Sell Out

2012-01-30T03:51:00.000-08:00

Let your better self rest assured: Dearly held values truly are sacred, and not merely cost-benefit analyses masquerading as nobel intent, concludes a new study on the neurobiology of moral decision-making. Such values are conceived differently, and occur in very different parts of the brain, than utilitarian decisions. “Why do people do what they do?” said neuroscientist Greg Berns of Emory University. “Asked if they’d kill an innocent human being, most people would say no, but there can be two very different ways of coming to that answer. You could say it would hurt their family, that it would be bad because of the consequences. Or you could take the Ten Commandments view: You just don’t do it. It’s not even a question of going beyond.” Blood flows to different parts of the brain in utilitarian (green) and matter-of-principle (yellow) decisions. Image: Berns et al./Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B In a study published Jan. 23 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Berns and colleagues posed a series of value-based statements to 27 women and 16 men while using an fMRI machine to map their mental activity. The statements were not necessarily religious, but intended to cover a spectrum of values ranging from frivolous (“You enjoy all colors of M&Ms”) to ostensibly inviolate (“You think it is okay to sell a child”). After answering, test participants were asked if they’d sign a document stating the opposite of their belief in exchange for a chance at winning up to $100 in cash. If so, they could keep both the money and the document; only their consciences would know. According to Berns, this methodology was key. The conflict between utilitarian and duty-based moral motivations is a classic philosophical theme, with historical roots in the formulations of Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant, and other researchers have studied it — but none, said Berns, had combined both brain imaging and a situation where moral compromise was realistically possible. “Hypothetical vignettes are presented to people, and they’re asked, ‘How did you arrive at a decision?’ But it’s impossible to really know in a laboratory setting,” said Berns. “Signing your name to something for a price is meaningful. It’s getting into integrity. Even at $100, most all our test subjects put some things into categories they were willing to take money for, and others they wouldn’t.” When test subjects agreed to sell out, their brains displayed common signatures of activity in regions previously linked to calculating utility. When they refused, activity was concentrated in other parts of their brains: the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known to be involved in processing and understanding abstract rules, and the right temporoparietal junction, which has been implicated in moral judgement. 'If it's a sacred value to you, then you can't even conceive of it in a cost-benefit framework.' In short, when people didn’t sell out their principles, it wasn’t because the price wasn’t right. It just seemed wrong. “There’s one bucket of things that are utilitarian, and another bucket of categorical things,” Berns said. “If it’s a sacred value to you, then you can’t even conceive of it in a cost-benefit framework.” According to Berns, the implications could help people better understand the motivations of others. He’s now studying how moral equations change according to the social popularity of values, and what happens in the brain when deep-seated principles are confronted with reasoned arguments. “Can I change your mind? Lessen your conviction? Strengthen it? And how does this happen? Is this appealing to rule-based networks, or to systems of reward and loss?” Berns wondered. Whether sacred principles offer utilitarian benefits over long periods of time — many years, perhaps many generations, and at population-wide as well as individual scales — is beyond the current study design, but Berns suspects that one of their benefits is simplicity. “My hypothesis about the Ten Commandments is that they exist because they’re too hard to think about on a cost-benefit basis,” he said. “It’s far easier to have a rule saying, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ It simplifies decisionmaking.” - Brandon Keim
Image: BenFrantzDale/Flickr
Citation: “The price of your soul: neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values.” By Gregory S. Berns, Emily Bell, C. Monica Capra, Michael J. Prietula, Sara Moore, Brittany Anderson, Jeremy Ginges and Scott Atran. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Vol. 367 No. 1589, March 5, 2012.

Send Money

2012-01-30T03:30:00.001-08:00

Alain de Botton plans to build a £1m "temple for atheists" among the international banks and medieval church spires of the City of London have sparked a clash between two of Britain's most prominent non-believers. The philosopher and writer Alain de Botton is proposing to build a 46-metre (151ft) tower to celebrate a "new atheism" as an antidote to what he describes as Professor Richard Dawkins's & Christopher Hitchens "aggressive" and "destructive" approach to non-belief."Atheists don't need temples," the author of The God Delusion said. "I think there are better things to spend this kind of money on. If you are going to spend money on atheism you could improve secular education and build non-religious schools which teach rational, sceptical critical thinking." The philosopher said he has raised almost half the funds for the project from a group of property developers who want to remain anonymous. He hopes to find the rest of the money with a public appeal, and construction could start by the end of 2013 if permission is granted by the Corporation of London. De Botton said he chose the country's financial centre because he believes it is where people have most seriously lost perspective on life's priorities.
- Robert Booth
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/26/alain-de-botton-temple-atheism

Tiny Tim - Living In the Sunlight

2012-01-29T16:43:00.001-08:00

Rene LeBouvier

2012-01-29T06:42:00.000-08:00

In France, an elderly man is fighting to make a formal break with the Catholic Church. He's taken the church to court over its refusal to let him nullify his baptism, and the case could have far-reaching effects. Seventy-one-year-old Rene LeBouvier's parents and brother are buried in a churchyard in the tiny village of Fleury in northwest France. He himself was baptized in the Romanesque stone church and attended mass here as a boy. LeBouvier says this rural area is still conservative and very Catholic, but nothing like it used to be. Back then, he says, you couldn't even get credit at the bakery if you didn't go to mass every Sunday. LeBouvier grew up in that world and says his mother once hoped he'd become a priest. But his views began to change in the 1970s, when he was introduced to free thinkers. As he didn't believe in God anymore, he thought it would be more honest to leave the church. So he wrote to his diocese and asked to be un-baptized. "They sent me a copy of my records, and in the margins next to my name, they wrote that I had chosen to leave the church," he says. That was in the year 2000. A decade later, LeBouvier wanted to go further. In between were the pedophile scandals and the pope preaching against condoms in AIDS-racked Africa, which LeBouvier calls "criminal." Again, he asked the church to strike him from baptismal records. When the priest told him it wasn't possible, he took the church to court. Last October, a judge in Normandy ruled in his favor. The diocese has since appealed, and the case is pending. "One can't be de-baptized," says Rev. Robert Kaslyn, dean of the School of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America. Kaslyn says baptism changes one permanently before the church and God. "One could refuse the grace offered by God, the grace offered by the sacrament, refuse to participate," he says, "but we would believe the individual has still been marked for God through the sacrament, and that individual at any point could return to the church." French law states that citizens have the right to leave organizations if they wish. Loup Desmond has been following the case for the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. He thinks it could set a legal precedent and open the way for more demands for de-baptism. "If the justice confirms that the name Rene LeBouvier has to disappear from the books, if it is confirmed, it can be a kind of jurisprudence in France," he says. Up to now, observers say the de-baptism trend has been marginal, but it's growing. In neighboring Belgium, the Brussels Federation of Friends of Secular Morality reports that 2,000 people asked to be de-baptized in 2010. The newspaper Le Monde estimated that about 1,000 French people a year ask to have their baptisms annulled. There is much anger across the continent by the recent pedophile scandals. In September, Germans marched to protest the pope's visit. Christian Weisner is with the German branch of the grassroots movement We Are Church. He says Europeans still want religion, and they want to believe, but it has become very difficult within the Catholic Church. "It's the way that the Roman Catholic Church has not followed the new approach of democracy, the new approach of the women's issue," he says, "and there is really a big gap between the Roman Catholic Church and modern times." Back at the church in Fleury, LeBouvier stands by his parents' grave. When asked if the case has ruined his chances of being buried in the family plot, he says he doesn't have to worry about that. He's donating his body to science. - ELEANOR BEARDSLEY

GET A JOB

2012-01-29T05:35:00.000-08:00

http://pfizercareers.com/

Al Sharpton Newt Gingrich

2012-01-29T05:04:00.000-08:00

Cynthia Gordy: Who do you predict will win the Florida primary?
Al Sharpton: At this point, Mitt Romney would be my guess. And let me say this: Even though Mitt Romney has not said the things that Gingrich has, Romney stood on the stage next to Gingrich and never took issue with it, never said he disagreed with it. And Romney himself has taken positions like, "Let Detroit go bankrupt," and says that poor and working-class people who are talking about economic equality are just envious of him. So he has his own baggage to deal with.
In the past Gingrich has partnered with African-American public figures, including the NAACP's Ben Jealous on criminal justice reform, and Al Sharpton on education. - The RootBen Jealous - KAREN CALDICOTT

Uncle Teddy

2012-01-29T04:49:00.001-08:00

Friend --
Four years ago today, I joined my Uncle Teddy and thousands of excited students at American University to endorse Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Barack Obama had stirred something in young people and the young at heart. I saw the passion in my own teenage children, and I heard it from a different generation of people who said they felt like they did when my father ran for president. We felt strongly that we needed to elect a president who urged us to believe in ourselves, who could tie that belief to our highest ideals, and who understood that together we can do great things. Four years later, as I think about what first inspired me to support Barack Obama, I'm proud we have a president who has fought hard for the values Teddy held dear, and stood up on issues that matter. Will you join me by saying what first inspired you to stand with Barack Obama?

http://my.barackobama.com/Teddy

How proud he would have been to see his candidate sign the Affordable Care Act into law as president, giving all Americans the security of knowing that their health care will be there when they need it most. In his speech four years ago today, Teddy reminded us all of that bright light of hope and possibility that shines even in the darkest hours. He knew that with Barack Obama as president, America would shine again. I don't think he would be surprised to know that four years later, this president would have ended the war in Iraq, repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and guaranteed women the right to equal pay for equal work. The 2012 election will be harder than the last. As you think about what role you can play this time, I want you to remember that when Teddy joined this campaign, it wasn't just Barack Obama who drew him in. It was you. The possibility of a campaign run by ordinary people determined to change our country for the better and willing to work as hard as necessary inspired him then, and it's what inspires me today.

Thanks for all you do.

I'll see you out there,

Caroline

Egyptians move to reclaim streets through graffiti

2012-01-29T04:36:00.000-08:00

CAIRO (AP) — The conflict between Egypt's ruling military and pro-democracy protesters isn't just on the streets of Cairo, it's on the walls as well, as graffiti artists from each side duel it out with spray paint and stencils. Earlier this month, supporters of the ruling generals painted over part of the largest and most famous antimilitary graffiti pieces in the capital. - AYA BATRAWY

Rosanne

2012-01-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Quick

2012-01-28T04:12:00.001-08:00

Robert Hegyes - Juan Luis Pedro Philippo DeHuevos Epstein

2012-01-28T03:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/robert-hegyes-played-sweathog-epstein-back-kotter-dies-60-article-1.1012658

Amy Winehouse by Jean Paul Gaultier

2012-01-28T03:48:00.000-08:00

The most memorable of this week's Spring 2012 couture shows was undoubtedly Jean Paul Gaultier's homage to Amy Winehouse. The irreverent French designer sent Winehouse lookalikes, complete with beehive hair, swipes of black eyeliner and the occasional cigarette, down the Paris runway with the singer's signature bluesy voice wafting through the speakers. Gaultier intended the collection as a wholly literal take, telling Women's Wear Daily, "I think Amy Winehouse was truly a fashion icon" whose style has failed to be honored by magazines since her July 2011 death. But Winehouse's family did not appreciate the sentiment. The Sun reports today that Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, expressed displeasure at Gaultier's unauthorized use of his daughter's image and memory. "The family was upset to see those pictures, they were a total shock," said Mitch, according to the Sun. With the family marking the six-month anniversary of Amy's tragic passing just this week, Mitch noted, "to see her image lifted wholesale to sell clothes was a wrench we were not expecting or consulted on." Her father also added:

We're proud of her influence on fashion but find black veils on models, smoking cigarettes with a barbershop quartet singing her music in bad taste."

Attendees of the show were perceptive enough to suspect the same. Women's Wear Daily pointed out that the show "felt at best ill-advised: a young woman who died tragically less than a year ago the fodder for an oh-so-feisty fashion show." Some of Amy's friends agreed. Kelly Osbourne tweeted, "Although @JPGaultier was paying homage to my dear friend & icon to the world i found it to be lucratively selfish and distasteful!" Surely Gaultier did not intend any offense. But one would think that with such sensitive material, the designer would have consulted the family. But when asked backstage, Gaultier admitted that he had never even met Amy but simply thought that their "styles had always been similar," according to AP. - The Huffington Post

Smash

2012-01-28T03:41:00.001-08:00

Don't leave your wallet in the dressing room.

Dallin Morgan

2012-01-28T03:31:00.000-08:00

ROY, Utah (AP) — The two teens had a detailed plot, blueprints of the school and security systems, but no explosives. They had hours of flight simulator training on a home computer and a plan to flee the country, but no plane. Still, the police chief in this small Utah town said, the plot was real. "It wasn't like they were hanging out playing video games," Roy Police Chief Gregory Whinham said Friday. "They put a lot of effort into it." Dallin Morgan, 18, and a 16-year-old friend were arrested Wednesday at Roy High School, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, after a fellow student reported that she received ominous text messages from one of the suspects. "If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and your brother are not there," one message read, according to court records. "We ain't gonna crash it, we're just gonna kill," read another message. While police don't have a motive, one text message noted they sought "revenge on the world." - PAUL FOY

NY art dealer charged in $4M fraud

2012-01-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK — A New York art dealer has been charged in a $4 million fraud for selling works by Picasso, Matisse and others without informing the owner or giving him the proceeds. The charges in a criminal complaint in Manhattan accuse Robert Scott Cook of selling 16 works of art without the owner/collector's knowledge. The artwork included watercolors, drawings, photographs, and other works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others. Lawyers in court papers filed in a civil case against him say Cook is likely living abroad because he travels frequently around the world. A lawyer for the 62-year-old Cook did not immediately return a phone message for comment. From 2005 to 2011, Cook owned Cook Fine Art, LLC. - Associated Press

Death Row

2012-01-27T07:02:00.000-08:00

Joshua Komisarjevsky & Steven Hayes of Connecticut

Skrillex

2012-01-27T03:26:00.000-08:00

Fu Baoshi (1904-1965)

2012-01-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

“Drunk Monk” (1944)
FU BANKSY DRUNK MONK - LeRoy "King of Art" Jan 27 2012

Jan Brewer & President Obama

2012-01-27T03:14:00.000-08:00

Federal suit settled over wastewater in McKeesport

2012-01-27T03:06:00.000-08:00

January 25, 2012 - Two environmental groups and McKeesport's municipal authority have settled a federal lawsuit that claimed the city was violating state and federal environmental laws by treating wastewater from Marcellus shale drilling operations, according to court documents. Attorneys for both sides and representatives for the city, Clean Water Action and Three Rivers Waterkeeper couldn't immediately be reached for comment. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer ordered the case closed Monday after the attorneys said they reached a settlement. Joseph Rost, executive director for the authority, said he couldn't discuss the settlement because the authority board hasn't approved it. The board's next regular meeting is Feb. 14, but it might meet before then to get the lawsuit settled, he said. "We're really close," he said. The judge's order doesn't provide any details of the settlement. The two groups claimed that McKeesport's sewage treatment plant was accepting drilling wastewater even though its permit doesn't provide for the treatment of industrial waste. The state Department of Environmental Protection in April asked drillers to stop sending wastewater to municipal sewage treatment plants and asked plants to stop accepting it. - Brian Bowling

Barney Frank to marry longtime partner

2012-01-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

Retiring congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will marry his longtime partner, Jim Ready. Frank and Ready plan to wed in Massachusetts. Frank's home state is one of six states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that permits gay marriage. Frank announced in November that he would be retiring from Congress after 16 terms to pursue other opportunities. In 1987, Frank disclosed that he was gay, becoming the first openly gay member of Congress. Ready and Frank have known each other since they met in 2005 at a fundraiser in Maine, and began a relationship in January of 2007 after Ready's partner died. Ready works as a photographer and has a small buisness doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, and welding according to Frank's office.
Ready, like many political spouses, has occasionally found himself in the headlines. He was arrested in 2007 for growing marijuana outside his Maine home; Frank was present at the time he was arrested. Ready later pleaded guilty to a fine for civil possession, and related charges were dropped. "I told him that our relationship could not develop if he could not promise me that he would not repeat this. He apologized, with great sincerity I believe, and he made that promise and has lived up to it," Frank said in a statement in 2010. Frank's vows come at a crucial time for the gay-rights movement. In Maryland, New Jersey and Washington, bills that would legalize same-sex marriage are poised to pass this legislative session. In Maine, voters will be able to vote to allow same-sex marriages in November, while North Carolina and Minnesota voters will consider constitutional amendments that would ban gay marriage. During a 2004 debate in Congress over a federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, Frank railed against the proposal. - Justin Sink

THE HUFFINGTON POST

2012-01-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

Banana Republic Kate Middleton Dress Inspired By Reiss Original -- Want to relive one of the most awesome moments of 2011? The May 2011 meeting of the Duchess of Cambridge and Michelle Obama, two HuffPost Style faves, was one of our favorite photo opps of the year because it revealed just how distinctive each of the women's personal style is. The contrast was day and night: Michelle wore a typically bold, playful outfit, choosing a swingy, colorful and print-covered look by Barbara Tfank; Kate went for youthful yet quiet elegance in a neutral-colored, body-conscious sheath by Reiss. Now that oh-so Middleton dress can be yours. Banana Republic is now selling a dress dubbed the "Kate sheath," retailing online for $130. According to InStyle, it's a great deal cheaper than the Reiss original, which sold for $340. Then again, it's also missing the layers of fabric around the skirt that gave it that sexy, bandage effect. The original, called the Shola, sold out immediately and crashed the Reiss website, obvi. But Banana's brought it back. See the pics below -- how did the American retailer do? If you approve and so desire your own "Meet the Obamas" moment, you can find the Kate sheath at BananaRepublic.com.

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage

2012-01-26T07:38:00.001-08:00

Photographer Annie Leibovitz says project that became Smithsonian exhibit revived her spiritWASHINGTON (AP)— Photographer Annie Leibovitz says she has come back from some dark days and revived her creativity with a new project now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum that marks a departure from her popular celebrity portraits. Two years ago, Leibovitz was facing millions in debt and a mismanaged fortune that nearly cost her the legal rights to her own work, which includes some of pop culture’s most memorable images. The ordeal was a good lesson in managing her business, Leibovitz said, but left her “emotionally and mentally depleted.” On Tuesday, she led a tour through the photographs she says renewed her inspiration with a few road trips through U.S. history. The idea grew out of a book she had wanted to make with her partner, Susan Sontag, with a list of destinations and an excuse to visit them. After Sontag died, she eventually revived the idea with her young children. It began with a six-hour drive to Niagara Falls during the period of her financial troubles only to find out her credit card had been rejected at a hotel and their rooms had been given away. While they found another place to stay, Leibovitz was upset wanted to go home. But she agreed to go to a lookout point at the waterfalls with her kids. “I was sitting off to the side, feeling a little down, and I saw my children mesmerized, studying the falls,” she said. “And I walked over, stood behind them ... and I took this picture.”

Nick Gruber

2012-01-26T07:18:00.001-08:00

Not not in love
Calvin Klein and his 21-year-old boy toy Nick Gruber are still together, despite reports that the two are “on a break.” The fashion designer, 67, was in good spirits at the Ziegfeld on Tuesday night for the premiere of Madonna’s film “W.E.” without his beau, but with Drena De Niro. Klein explained that Gruber was out West skiing, adding, “We still have a wonderful relationship and I love him.” He emphasized: “We’re not not together . . . he’s a very special person in my life.” NY Post

Surreal in Hollywood

2012-01-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

“I have given up trying to claim a political aspect to my work. I leave it to others to judge.”
- Francesco Vizzoli Court Painter/Corporate Tool

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will host a talk show on a Russian TV network

2012-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has championed the exposure of government secrets, is getting his own TV show — on a network bankrolled by the Russian government. Assange will host a talk show on the Kremlin-backed RT news network starting in March, focusing on what the network said in an announcement Wednesday is “his favorite topic: controversy.” - Paul Farhi

James Farentino

2012-01-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

Tina Sinatra's Stalker

George Clooney's Dad

January 25th Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

2012-01-25T16:44:00.001-08:00

St. Paul, named Saul at his circumcision, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, was born at Tarsus, the capitol of Cilicia. He was a Roman citizen. He was brought up as a strict Jew, and later became a violent persecutor of the Christians. While on his way to Damascus to make new arrests of Christians, he was suddenly converted by a miraculous apparition of Our Lord. From a fierce persecutor he became the great Apostle of the Gentiles. He made three missionary journeys which brought him to the great centers of Asia Minor and southern Europe, and made many converts. Fourteen of his Epistles are found in the New Testament. He was beheaded in Rome in 66, and his body is kept in the Basilica of St. Paul near the Ostian Way.

Gary Lee Boas & Ronald Reagan

2012-01-24T02:30:00.001-08:00

Gary Lee Boas - GARBO
John Hinckley
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who shot President Ronald Reagan appeared fixated during a visit to a bookstore last year on a bookshelf bearing titles on presidential assassinations and Reagan's presidency, according to testimony at a court hearing Monday. John Hinckley, who shot Reagan in 1981 to impress actress Jodie Foster, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt. He has been held for the last three decades at a Washington psychiatric hospital, but has been granted increasing freedom in recent years as doctors say his mental illness has been in remission. An ongoing hearing in Washington's federal court is determining whether Hinckley, 56, can begin visiting his mother in Virginia for stretches of approximately three weeks at a time, with an eventual transition to living outside the mental hospital full-time. The court case has spanned years. - ERIC TUCKER

New Banksy Appears In Kentish Town London

2012-01-23T09:01:00.000-08:00

First Photo of Banksy 2012 looks to be the real thinghttp://www.artlyst.com/articles/new-banksy-appears-in-kentish-town-london

See ya Tuesday...

2012-01-23T07:00:00.001-08:00

William T. Taliaferro - Teenie Harris's uncle

2012-01-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

Pittsburgh's first black professional photographer

Walter Tharp Jr.

2012-01-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

The first black window dresser - Wolf & Dessauer Fort Wayne IndianaWalter Tharp Jr.
http://www.frostillustrated.com/atf.php?sid=8208

Kyle Kramer

2012-01-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

G-20 2009

Oh

2012-01-23T06:15:00.001-08:00

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

Imelda & Nancy

2012-01-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

Viva Famous heterosexuals!

Norma Desmond

2012-01-23T04:28:00.000-08:00

"In relation to God we are all women." - CS Lewis

John Waters: 'Sometimes I wish I was a woman, just so I could have an abortion.'

But we still postpone the question of who was laughing at whom. - Christopher Hichens "The Importance of Being Andy"
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts-the-importanc-e-of-being-andy-1342524.html

Elizabeth Wurtzel

2012-01-23T04:01:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton Quits White House Race, Endorses Prozac
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace (Monday morning)
— Ending weeks of speculation, Sen. Hillary Clinton today pulled out of the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, and announced she would endorse Prozac, a prescription drug used to combat depression and obsessive compulsive disorder among other conditions. The New York senator, who launched her White House bid claiming that she didn’t want to start a campaign “but a conversation” that she was “in to win”, this morning said abruptly: “This conversation is over. I win.” The former presumptive front runner then promptly inked a $7.9 million deal with Eli Lilly to become the national poster-woman for its flagship antidepressant drug. A spokesman for the pharmaceutical company said, “If Prozac can keep Hillary Clinton on an even keel after the shattering of her life’s ambition and manifest destiny, think what it can do for those of us who are just feeling a little blue.” Asked if she would eventually endorse presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama, she said, “With my Prozac contract, we’ve established the benchmark price for all future endorsements. That said, I’d be glad to back Barack for the good of the party, and of the nation.”How to play pink moon by Nick Drake

Help us

2012-01-22T06:31:00.000-08:00

I pray only 4 guidance

Ellsworth Kelly & Gweneth Paltro

2012-01-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

Gweneth Paltro: On politics in network news
Ellsworth Kelly: I’m so interested now in what is going on with the Republicans. And I watch Rachel Maddow, who is really young and tough. She gets you worked up by telling you things that you didn’t know about, and then says,
“I’ll be back in one minute.” - Interview Magazine

Leslie Kilgore

2012-01-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

Peter Paul Rubens

2012-01-22T04:09:00.001-08:00

Shaye Saint John

2012-01-21T05:12:00.000-08:00

Little Prince Nails

2012-01-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Anne Sinclair

2012-01-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

Paul Rosenberg

2012-01-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

The Art Boom
During World War II, Europe experienced a huge art boom due to the great supply and demand for “degenerate” and Germanic works. The Paris art market experienced a significant amount of activity and flourished more than other occupied territories. The city was flooded with enthusiastic collectors, mostly German, and opportunist eager to make a safe investment in uncertain times. In fact, art became like money and was often bartered for black-market goods, such as exit visas, items of luxury or food. According to Feliciano, agents for German museums, embassies and the Deutsche Reichsbank made up the majority of Franco-German deals. Many of these were then transferred to Germany. Surprisingly, amongst the “pure” works exported was “degenerate” art. Feliciano stated that “some German dealers and art collectors were brave enough to ignore Hitler’s directives and even bought work by artists classified as Jewish.” It was clear that Hitler’s goal of complete “Aryanization” of the market was ineffective. Tens of thousands of confiscated art works were housed in Paris at the Jeu de Paume Museum, one of the ERR’s main offices. Works that were considered “degenerate,” such as those by Chagall, Monet, Dufy or Vuillard were often sold for a profit to collectors. Perhaps the most significant collections to be sold off from the Jeu de Paume were those looted from prominent Jewish citizens Paul Rosenberg and the de Rothschild family. They included paintings by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir, among others. The art market in France prospered throughout the war. Consequently, many collectors and art dealers made a great deal of money. Moreover, the art boom contributed greatly to the French economy. It was all made possible by a series of Nazi laws. - The Third Reich's Pillage of European Art and Treasures By Rachael Bell

Etta James

2012-01-20T09:37:00.001-08:00

Agency: Iran shuts down shops selling Barbie dolls

2012-01-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Police have closed down dozens of toy shops for selling Barbie dolls, part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Friday. Mehr quoted an unnamed police official as saying police confiscated Barbie dolls from toy shops in Tehran in a "new phase" of its crackdown against "manifestations of Western culture." Barbie dolls are sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear head scarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together. A ban on the sale of Barbie dolls, designed to look like young Western women, was imposed in the mid-1990s. In 1996, a government-backed children's agency called Barbie a "Trojan horse" sneaking in Western influences like makeup and revealing clothes. Authorities launched a campaign of confiscating Barbie dolls from toy shops in 2002, denouncing what they called the un-Islamic characteristics of the uniquely American doll. The campaign was eventually dropped. Also in 2002, Iran introduced its own competing dolls - twins Dara and Sara - who were designed to promote traditional values with modest clothing and pro-family stories. But the dolls proved unable to stem the Barbie tide. Despite bans on many Western books, movies, satellite TV channels, music, haircuts and fashions, young people maintain their interest in Western culture. Even channels of Iran's state TV broadcast several Western and Hollywood films every week. Islamists have repeatedly tried to fight what they see as a Western cultural "invasion" since 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy. Since then, importing Western toys has been discouraged by a regime that seeks to protect Iranians from what it calls the negative effects of Western culture. In 2008, the Iranian judiciary warned against the "destructive" cultural and social consequences and "danger" of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys. Even so, Iranian markets have been full of Western toys aimed at Iranian children. One-third of Iran's population of 75 million is under 15 years old. - NASSER KARIMI © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Miss Bala

2012-01-20T05:20:00.001-08:00

a tempest in a teapot

2012-01-20T05:07:00.000-08:00

David Furnish has described his and Elton John’s spat with Madonna over the Golden Globes as “a tempest in a teapot.” After blasting Madge as “desperate” and “narcissistic” after she beat Elton for Best Original Song, a not fully apologetic Furnish wrote on Facebook, “Wow! What a tempest in a teapot. My comments . . . have been blown way out of proportion. My passion for our film ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’ and belief in Elton’s song really got my emotional juices going. But I must say for the record that I do believe Madonna is a great artist, and that Elton and I wish her all the best for next week’s premiere of the film ‘W.E.’ ”- NY Post

Charles Cowles & his Mom

2012-01-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

Larry Gagosian is being sued for more than $14 million for selling two works of art it’s claimed he had no right to sell. Gagosian has paid British collector Robert Wylde a $4.4 million settlement for selling him Mark Tansey’s $2.5 million “The Innocent Eye Test” in 2009, which Wylde later discovered was owned by Jan Cowles and had been promised to the Met. Now Gagosian is being sued by Cowles, 93. Court papers filed by Cowles last night state the Tansey, along with a $4.5 million work from Roy Lichtenstein’s “Girl in Mirror” series, were sold by her son, Charles, to Gagosian, “without her knowledge or consent” in 2008-2009. Court papers say the Lichtenstein, in good condition, was shipped to art fairs, then sold to a mystery buyer for $2 million in “damaged condition.” Cowles argues the work was not damaged and may have been sold in a “dishonest fashion.” Her lawyer, David Baum, said, “Gagosian’s conduct was blatant and egregious.” Gagosian’s rep declined to comment. - NY Post

Daddy

2012-01-19T07:57:00.001-08:00

The poem is read by Sylvia Plath herself.