Eric the Red

The art community has a new pillar to add to the likes of Mapplethorpe and Kiki Smith [Warning: pages may contain material that is not safe for work]:

One performance piece detailed on the Web site involves her donning a bikini fashioned out of meat, a statement on objectification of women.

In another performance, she paints her buttocks and then makes impressions of her backside on large sheets of paper to cover a wall with the images.

The funny thing is, shes a schoolteacher. Well, a teacher of mine always said that art ranges from the beautiful to the grotesque…..

Earlier I wrote about the odds of hillary clinton being elected. I thought that she would, because many of my peers think her being a woman is enough. A CNN poll disagrees:

Regarding potential Democratic candidates, 47 percent of respondents said they would “definitely not vote for” both Clinton, the junior senator from New York who is running for re-election this year, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party’s candidate in 2004.

This poll is silly for one particular historical reason:

Among all choices, Clinton had the highest positive number; of those polled, 22 percent said they would “definitely vote for” her.

Remember folks that Bill Clinton won with less than 50% of the vote both times. If the republicans put up a Bob Dole against Hillary Clinton, a Clinton II is not so hard to believe.

Every now and then, I get these email messages from the Alliance for Marriage. These emails are about gay marriage. Recall, I wrote about this topic months ago from an equality point of view. BoiFromTroy has a whole category on it. The tone of the debate surrouding the issue is what I would call theological.

While Bush says we need to defend the “sanctity of marriage“, I ask why are we passing constitutional amendments to defend the sanctity of a largely economic institution? Sure, we have the whole “love” thing, but should the government get involved in determining who loves who? What if politicians decide to extend religious principles into other aspects of our lives?

Lets look at some examples:

• In Iraq, Islamic fundamentalism is eroding the rights of women in academia and many were killed since the invasion. It seems that under Sharia law, womens rights erode mens rights
• Islamic theocrats in Iran have prevented women from dressing, working, traveling or choosing spouses freely. Honor killings due to “unchaste” behavior are common.
• In Afghanistan, the Taliban regularly amputated the limbs of criminals and dissidents.
• Fred Phelps routinely demonstrates at military funerals, an activity for which his family is currently being sued. Phelps preaches that the United States is under attack because it is tolerant of homosexuals.

If an Islamic leader were voted into office in 2008 and attempted to institute Sharia law in order to defend the sanctity of mens rights, or defend the sanctity of women, what would we say? What if Fred Phelps was voted into office and decided to institute the laws of Leviticus, so that we can defend the sanctity of cloth made of only one thread?

The bottom line is that the government can not and should not try to defend that sanctity of anything. When you remove the religious interests in marriage, what is there to attack? And while we are at it, how does a same-sex marriage attack anything, other than the Old Testament?

I would challenge anyone with an interest in the Federal Marriage Amendment to explain to me how same-sex marriages threaten any other couples. Instead, I’ll get the usual barrage of hate mail. What the gay community needs is a loudspeaker, to frame it as an issue of conflicting principles.

Well, it certainly has been a while!

Since my last post, I finished school, got a nice job and am dealing with 2 hours of commuting each day.

A word of advice for those still in school: watch what you post online. There have been stories in the media about myspace and to a lesser extent Facebook. Students should be aware the online community is anything but isolated. There have been many cases of students being denied jobs because of posts they have made on the internet. Even after you graduate, be careful what you write. Your boss may not like it and act accordingly.

As far as my job goes, I will be vague on the details. I will say that I am a manufacturing engineer. This means that when a client brings a product, I have to figure out how to efficiently assemble it in mass quantities.

I have airshow pictures and Florida pictures to post that will appear shortly.

I must admit, politics has taken a bit of a toll on me. I will probably only write about political issues that cause a big fuss. The rest of this site will be about photography, travel, technology and pop culture – things that are much more fun!