By Behr
Historical comparisons are often a foolish game. There will always be incompatibilities. However I think there is some merit to this one.
1848
As you might remember from grade nine Socials, 1848 is known as the year of revolutions. Over the course of those twelve months, every major European nation fell victim to insurgency. Centuries old monarchies and recent reactionary regimes were shaken by demands for democracy and social justice. (more…)
Everyone wants to be a celebrity. In times past, you would have to accomplish something of significance to reach that status. Recently, Guest of Guest featured a “Facebook Celebrity”. Essentially this guy supposedly jets around the world, and, to prove his overwhelming baller-ness, he has posted over 2000 photos of him in various first class lounges and on flights. Everything about him is vom-worthy. Thanks to social media, obnoxious people like that seem to be everywhere. Remember the days when blogs and bloggers were such innocent, personal, and (at times) informative things?
It pays to be nice . . . ?
Now, everyone and their pet monkey has a blog, (yep, me included). The increasing number of self-expression platforms available is fantastic. How else can I get away with gratuitously criticizing people? What makes me want to vom is not the number of blogs or bloggers; it’s the exponential growth of the blogger’s ego and sense of entitlement.
Last month, the United Nations (after much time and effort) instituted an agency to address the rights of women. The good news: Iran did not make it into the group. The Islamic Republic had passionately been campaig
ning for a place on the board. This caused a furor amongst feminists. Especially when it was revealed that on the Election Day, an Iranian woman had been sentenced to death by stoning for the crime of adultery. Fortunately, Australia asked one of the world’s newest democracies, East Timor, to run and it succeeded in being elected instead.
The bad news: Saudi Arabia is on the board. Six of the seats were held for “donor nations.” I’m not exactly sure why, but the Saudi’s took an interest in this new agency and decided to donate a great deal of money. This meant that Saudi Arabia was guaranteed a seat. (more…)
Lady Human Meat
PETA came under fire when it was revealed they kill ninety five percent of the animals they take in. Sorry, ninety five percent? Why not take some of the money you’re putting into sexually charged ads and put it into what you’re actually campaigning for. (more…)
By Behr
Do you know who Bayard Rustin is? Most likely not.
He was one of the founding members of the Civil Rights movement.
Bayard Rustin
Among other things, he’s notable for organizing the famous March on Washington (where the “I Have a Dream” speech was given). Not many people know that he began this movement back in 1941 (when Martin Luther King was only 12 years old!).
So why isn’t he better known? Mr. Rustin was gay, which was criminalized behavior in the 1960’s. He was also not one to keep it a secret. He became one of the early Gay Rights leaders as well, a position that caused many people to grow suspicious of him. Consequently he has been swept under the rug of history. (more…)
