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Katie Couric's Colon
As if a colossal colon traveling the country wasn't enough,
now we have to endure Katie
Couric's colon too!
 Evicted
This was a tumultuous week for the House Guests. Not only
did they have to endure Scott's venomous and mysoginistic
diatribes, they also had to compete for the power of veto
and say good bye to Amanda and Scott.
In a surprising twist to the "X-Factor" twist,
Scott couldn't handle living with his ex-girlfriend Amanda.
He freaked out, threw chairs around and Big Brother sent him
packing.
 Having
Sex as seen on National Television
That left Amanda free to shag "former army ranger"
Dave on the live feeds broadcast on the Internet. Of course
things were edited as the story aired on national television...
They barely mentioned the affair probably because it happened
too quickly to edit it into the show they had already created.
Jee is HOH
I still think he's a total idiot, but his choices seemed good
as he nominated Erika and Michelle. The house is now officially
infested with a tumultuous batch of back stabbing and self
preservation maneuvers. Dana better watch her back because
other people can see she's trying to play things both ways
with the openly operating alliances.
 Mars
Needs... Women
Recently,
Mars emerged into the morning sky and has begun an orbital
dance with planet Earth that will, over the next several months,
lead to the best viewing opportunity since the Neanderthals
looked skyward.
I think it's very interesting that Mars, named for the the
Roman God of war is so close to our planet. While you might
not believe in planetary influences as outlined in Astrology,
it is certainly undeniable that the US Government's God of
War has been very busy lately.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest:
It's orbit: 227,940,000 km (1.52 AU) from Sun
It's diameter: 6,794 km
It's mass: 6.4219e23 kg
The planet probably got this name due to its red color and
the association to blood spilled in battle; Mars is sometimes
referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note:
the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming
associated with the Greek Ares; those in favor of colonizing
and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name
of the month March derives from Mars.
For an explanation of the science behind this phenom, check
out this article.
Lazy Bear
The term, "bear," delineating a more natural-looking
man, usually stocky, muscular but not overly gym-honed, and
always naturally hairy, often with facial hair, especially
beards, entered a gay context sometime in the late 80's to
early 90's, as far as I can recall. It was almost a direct
backlash to the then gay standard of smooth, sullen-looking,
buff boyish youths, who had totally taken over, at first gay
porn, then gay sensibility in general. Since then, the bear
subculture has flourished as a direct alternative to what
still seems the "mainstream" gay ideal of smooth,
buffed boys.
To refer to a man as a "bear," however, is certainly
not a novel idea. For years, a burly, often hairy, male has
been referred to in literature as "a bear of a man."
Even in J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Hobbit," there's a
character named Beorn, whose name sounds as if it's a bastardization
of the word bear. He is described as "a huge man with
a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs
with knotted muscles." The Hildebrandt Brothers included
an illustration of him in one of their Tolkien calendars from
the late 70's, complete with very hairy chest and arms.
So, whereas the descriptive appelation has been around for
centuries, it would appear to have a gay context from only
relatively recent times. Why would I natter on about such
things? Because this weekend was the annual Lazy Bear Weekend.
I had a bunch of friends go up to the Russian River this weekend,
but I stayed in the city because apparently reservations for
accommodations need to be made well in advance. Some of the
better spots have been sold out since last January. I thought
about going up a little early and trying to scoop up a space
that's opened up via cancellation, but I'm still car-less
and couldn't convince anyone to break away from their city-bound
plans. Perhaps I'll check it out next year and you'll see
a review here.
Flash Mob
San Francisco had it's first taste of the silliest phenomenon
to sweep the planet. If you've not heard about Flash Mobs,
you've been living under a rock or Iraq or something. They're
a bit like the spontaneous, "Outlaw Parties" that
Klub Kids used to sponsor in the late 80s but they're far
better organized and the participants seem much better behaved.
Technically, they seem to be defined as, "a project that
creates an inexplicable mob of people for ten minutes or less."
I love it. I think it's a symptom of the energetic backlash
against the hyper control enforcing "New World Order"
of the Bush Regime.
 For
the first SF event, people gather at a designated spot and
spun in circles as they walk back and forth across the street
with their hands in the air. They quickly dispersed after
ten minutes or so. Flash Mobs were initially organized by
performance artists in NYC (Of Course) but now several are
scheduled for Rome, London, Boston, New York (#5 next week!)
and at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.
The fourth New York City flash mob headed to a hoity-toity
fancy-pants SoHo shoe store, where participants pretended
they were on a bus tour from Maryland, and acted excited yet
bewildered about the whole thing.
While it could be funner than friendster, it's sure to be
co-opted by corporate interests. Several "Matrix-Mobs"
have been organized in Japan to promote the film, "Matrix
- Reloaded"
For more details, updates and information about Flash Mobs;
check out the "Cheese
Bikini" blog. It's chock-a-block with details.
Election '04
Support Goes Both Ways
The major Democratic candidates made a secret pact to avoid
the NAACP National Conference this week. African American
media played it up as yet another sign of the Democratic party
taking African Americans for granted. There is much debate
about this because Republicans were the party of liberation
and then took them for granted. Then African Americans migrated
their support to the Democrats who proved to be the party
of civil rights. Now as their interests are being ignored
or attacked, African Americans are more and more talking about
mass support for the Green Party. It plays into the larger
debate about the one party system in America. The Republicans
have moved so far right that they've pulled the Democrats
to the center right leaving the majority of American's interests
largely unaddressed as they pander to corporations and religious
extremists.
One Hit Wonder
Just like crack adicts jonsing for drugs... the Republicans
are jonsing for more tax cuts. They're like a one hit wonder
because when the economy was great they wanted tax cuts, saying
we could afford it. When the economy is bad, they claim tax
cuts can help. They can't have it both ways for very long.
If the democrats are smart, they'll harp on this fact all
through the 04 election cycle.
"Misled" or Mondacity?
The CIA Director found himself on the hot seat this week as
congress wanted answers about faulty intelligence leading
to Bush's war. This is a major component of the Shrub's credibility
and at its core, this issue affects the Shrub's electibility.
 The
Age of Imperialism
Death Toll Higher Than Ever
Reports rolled in DAILY about fresh attacks on US forces.
Now the number of US citizens killed to oust the leader of
a sovereign nation for no apparent reason other than oil rights
has exceeded the number of patriotic Americans protecting
the sovereign nation of Kuwait during the first Gulf War.
Guerilla Gorilla
Pentagon and Millitary officials in Washington DC finally
acknowledged the guerilla war that's being waged in Iraq against
US troops. With The Shrub's Trillion dollar a day deficit
growing by the minute, officials seem to be at a loss for
how to deal with this issue. By admitting that there IS a
problem with urban guerilla warfare, at least we're finally
past the first step in instigating a solution to the death
and destruction inflicted by the shrub's folly.
Demonstrating Their Rights
Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets this week to protest
the US Imperialist agenda and foreign occupation of their
country. Millions still have no running water or electricity
and they live in a desert. Discontent can only escallate as
the height of summer keeps tensions simmering.
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Week
Ending 20 July
Workin'
It 
