Bug Off Container Garden

Water is the universal solvent. Chemical pest control eventually ends up in our water supply. I try never to use manmade pesticides. Those Frankenstein concoctions are killing our bees. I am always looking for natural solutions to environmental problems.

Rob Sproule of Salisbury Greenhouse writes excellent garden articles. He is doing interesting work in the community with school gardens. Teaching children gardening is one of the better things one can do with one's time. 

“Mosquitos are a fact of life in Canada, but dousing our skin in DEET doesn’t have to be. This container, though non-edible, is perfect to grow on your patio, in your gazebo or anywhere you like to sit and unwind in the evenings. You could also break it up into smaller pots to create a scented perimeter.” – Rob Sproule

Cher Readers - Announcement

Google has backed down from their new Net Censor mode. Yes!

TALK ME DOWN. I AM FREAKING OUT.

I have been told by google that if I have graphic nudity on my blog, my blog will be marked PRIVATE whether I like it or not.

That means you cannot read or post here unless I put your screen name on a list of regular readers. Evidently you would have an extra step to access the blog. You will get an 'adult content warning.'

If the nudity is for educational purposes, it is kool evidently. Is Mapplethorpe educational or cultural?

EVIDENTLY TOADYS AND PEARL CLUTCHERS CAN REPORT ME. I would like to keep my PUBLIC status. I might have to take down the cock pictures.

I am not sure what to do to preserve my blog as it is. If there are more sophisticated NET consumers than me, and that is not hard, please give me any ideas about how to deal with this. Do I need my own domain to preserve content and ease of access?

Adult content policy on Blogger

Starting March 23, 2015, you won't be able to publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity on Blogger.

Note: We’ll still allow nudity if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.

Changes you’ll see to your existing blogs

If your existing blog doesn’t have any sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video on it, you won’t notice any changes.

If your existing blog does have sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video, your blog will be made private after March 23, 2015. No content will be deleted, but private content can only be seen by the owner or admins of the blog and the people who the owner has shared the blog with.

Settings you can update for existing blogs

If your blog was created before March 23, 2015, and contains content that violates our new policy, you have a few options for changing your blog before the new policy starts:

• Remove sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video from your blog
• Mark your blog as private

If you’d rather take your blog down altogether, you can export your blog as a .xml file or archive your blog's text and images using Google Takeout.

Effect on new blogs

For any blogs created after March 23, 2015, we may remove the blog or take other action if it includes content that is sexually explicit or shows graphic nudity as explained in our content policy.

I am coming out of my closet. I have a role in this video.

This video is one of the funniest things my friend Beefy has done. Our scene is extemporaneous. We created it on the spot in my back yard and my parlor.

Beefy is a comedy genius and it was an honor to work with him. This is what a genius can do with no money. Imagine what he could do if he had some bucks.

This underground video sold like condoms in Philly. I thought I hated rap. I did not understand it. Some superior poetry in these raps.

Sign of the Month - February 2015

Turkish men have donned miniskirts to denounce violence against women at a protest in Istanbul after a 20-year-old student was beaten to death after trying to fight off a man assaulting her. Video at the link above.

I respect men who love and protect women. For more photographs of these amazing men go HERE. 

Tanrı bu adamları korusun. God bless them just standing there in their socks. If my Turkish is poor, cher Readers, please correct me.

See more at: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ozgecanicinminietekgiy

The Men's Mini Skirt Action

World Food Day Posters 2014

Congratulations to the winners of World Food Day Poster Contest 2014 entitled ‘Family Farming’.

I present my favorite posters  because the children's art is so amazing and energizing. 

Go to the link to see all the posters in the contest and the names of the artists and their ages. You can also find out how to enter your child or your class in next year's contest. 

Paying attention this time, Hillary? Big Dog and the Repubs did this. - UPDATE

UPDATE: Hillary needs to do something about economic populism and it seems she knows it.

Hillary Clinton Had A Private Meeting With Elizabeth Warren

"... and if you want to improve, you have to recognize where you are. We live in a white patriarchal society and if you are a woman, a child or a minority, you are fucked." - Bob Earll

"Too many women are forced to abort by poverty, by their menfolk, by their parents ... A choice is only possible if there are genuine alternatives." - Germaine Greer:

You can buy the cartoon below on a Tshirt. Barry Deutsch is the artist.

We’re Arresting Poor Mothers for Our Own Failures

Bryce Covert

You’ve probably heard the name Shanesha Taylor at this point. She’s the Arizona mother who was arrested for leaving her children in the car while she went to a job interview. 

In the mid-1990s, President Clinton signed welfare reform legislation into law that changed welfare in America profoundly. One of the major changes welfare reform brought about was the work requirement. Now, even women with young children were required to be working, or looking for work, in order to receive benefits. In a radio address after signing the bill, Clinton promised that if poor people went to work, “we will protect the guarantees of health care, nutrition, and child care, all of which are critical to helping families move from welfare to work.” THAT SUPPORT NEVER MATERIALIZED. 
Read more at The Nation. 

So glad I voted for Tom Wolf. Way to go, Governor!

“The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to.”
- Anton Chekhov

Governor Tom Wolf expanded Medicaid in our State. I cheered. That makes a big difference in my daughter's life and the lives of many young people just starting out in life.

So, I was congratulating myself for voting for him. 

And then I read the article below and I got even more proud that I had the good sense to vote for this good thoughtful man. The American Civil Liberties Union position on the death penalty can be read HERE. 

Execution Moratorium Imposed in Pennsylvania

By DAN MCCUE

Pennsylvania's newly elected governor imposed a moratorium on the state's death penalty Friday, declaring it "anything but infallible."

Governor Tom Wolf's decision surprised many in the state capital of Harrisburg, as capital punishment had not been an issue in his 2014 gubernatorial campaign to unseat the incumbent Tom Corbett. In fact, his campaign website, which is still active, focuses mainly on the state's economy, job creation and education.

Wolf said as currently wielded, the state's capital sentencing system is "riddled with flaws, making it error prone, expensive and anything but infallible." He said the moratorium will remain in effect at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that has been created to study the administration of the death penalty in the state since 2011.
Read more HERE...

STFU Star Parker. Just STFU right now. - Asshats on Parade

"I will kill your Sisters." My Stepfather on my 13th birthday. Little did I know they were told the same thing.

- 21 Men Holding Signs Quoting Their Rapists. 

After rape, men commonly insert foreign objects into the vagina: sticks, sand, rocks, knives, burning wood or charcoal, or molten plastic made by melting shopping bags. Killing the rape victim by firing a handgun or rifle inserted in the vagina is a common practice; some victims have survived.

- Mass Rape in the Congo by Ann Jones

Star Parker asserts that a spoken sentence about the history of religious terrorism is the same as rape of a person with a penis or a broken bottle or a gun.

A sentence uttered, however much it may discomfort one, is not a violent crime. Only rape is rape.

Is it important to say here that I am a Christian? Maybe. This woman claims to speak for Christians. I hope I make it clear she does not speak for me.

I am getting really tired of Authoritarians of the religious and secular persuasion who trivialize rape. And then set out to stick things up my vagina for Jesus, family values, my fetus and the American Way. Tired down to the ground.

I am a rape survivor. Only rape is rape.

I am weary of extremists - whatever their ethnic, political, sexual or religious persuasion. Helpless anger is the feeling I get. I do not like feeling this way. I am writing about my issues. I tweeted this woman a link to this article. It is not enough.

The Ties that Bind Us

Thirty years ago women focused on equality in U.S. church and society. Today that expectation remains largely unfulfilled around the world.

The institutional Roman Catholic Church is widely seen as the epitome of male privilege run amok, covering up some of its leaders’ criminal sexual behavior and illegal financial dealings by focusing on the perceived shortcomings of women.

I fear this current discussion of women, and even the seemingly helpful efforts to eradicate sex trafficking that are being discussed in Rome this week may be more smokescreens than picture windows. I long to be proven wrong. - Mary E. Hunt

Venere Restaurata - Man Ray

The quote above is the closing paragraph in Mary E. Hunt's article Vatican Council on Women Would Be Funny Were It Not So Insulting. The article is a thoughtful analysis worth reading. I think I can support her scepticism graphically.

The Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome, presided over by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and made up of cardinals and bishops who are all men, discussed “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference” from February 4-7, 2015. The council chose Man Ray’s Venus Restored 1936 as the cover illustration for its study document in preparation for the meeting. 

Mary Hunt is a respectable lady and I am not sure she would feel comfortable being quoted in Plum Land. Hat tip from me but no apology. I am underscoring her sense of the absurdity of it all. Not one woman was allowed to speak at that council. 

Tell me, Cher Reader, would you illustrate the cover of a conference on say Men's Cultures: Equality and Difference with this image? And then not allow men to speak about their reactions to such? You think that might cause a wee problem?

At least this image has arms and some fooking clothes on. How tone deaf is the Roman Catholic hierarchy? Catholic women are the church. Why do these celibate men disrespect and marginalize us? What revolting narcissism. 

Bound Man (Hombre atado)

David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexico, 1896-1974)

Mexico, 1930

Woodcut on colored tissue paper

The Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art

Latin American Art