Monthly Archives: April 2004

Military Coffins (Casualties From Iraq) at Dover Air Force Base

Politics


A gallery of 289 photographs of war dead at Dover Air Force Base has been made available
by The Memory Hole. Click on the photo above to access the gallery. Take a few minutes to browse the photos, in memoriam for the sons and daughters who have been killed in Iraq.


SEATTLETIMESFRONTPAGE

The front page of last
Sunday’s Seattle Times.

Following from a Freedom of Information Act request, the U.S. Air Force released 289 photographs of the flag-draped coffins of American soldiers to The Memory Hole website yesterday (photos 72 through 361). As of this writing, all photos have been verified as those of soldiers who have died during the war in Iraq.
Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose haunting photograph (above) of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published on the front page of last Sunday’s edition of The Seattle Times (left), alerted Memory Hole editor Russ Kick to the existence of the photos. While Mr. Kick set about to gain access to and publish the photos, Ms. Silicio was fired by Maytag Aircraft “for violating U.S. government and company regulations,” in supplying the photo to The Times (watch this video for background and commentary).
As of this writing, 709 members of the American Armed Forces have lost their lives in Iraq — along with hundreds more foreign soldiers and civilians. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives. Thousands more Americans have been wounded — many losing limbs.
“This is a war of images and a war of ideas, and I think the administration and the Pentagon are reluctant to give the other side what they want,” Max Boot, of the Council on Foreign Affairs, told NBC News last night.

Indecent Exposure: Do today’s fashions promote the naked truth?

Pop Culture

NAKEDTRUTH

Abercrombie & Fitch catalog photo
marketed to 10 – 13 year olds

Throughout history, people have thrown up their hands at cultural change and declared the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Well, to many it looks as if it’s headed there again — faster than ever — as bare skin is spotted just about everywhere you look, particularly among young people.
What was once relegated to adult videos, strip clubs and Playboy magazine now shows up regularly on network sitcoms, reality shows, music videos and advertisements. Much to the alarm of many parents and child advocates, fashion merchants are marketing the provocative styles of pop-music princesses to teens and prepubescent girls who yearn to look “hot”.
Bucking the bare skin trend, though, is like trying to stop a freight train.
So where does the healthy expression of sexuality and a mature attitude about the human body end and plain old-fashioned smut begin? Young people in every generation have expressed themselves in ways that challenged authority and the rules of the game, from “Elvis the Pelvis” in the ’50s, to long hair, the ‘braless look’ and miniskirts in the ’60s; from the sexual revolution and punk rock in the ’70s through to the low-rise, hip-hugging jeans and exposed flesh of today.
Meanwhile, the controversies continue.
Late last year clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch pulled its controversial in-store catalogues after outraged parents threatened a boycott over material they said was pornographic, according to Slate magazine. The “Christmas Field Guide” featured naked or nearly naked young models in outdoor settings, and offered advice on sex. Even earlier, in 1995 and 1999, advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein Jeans employed images of pubescent models in provocative poses, causing major controversy and debate when they crossed the line between fashion and pornography.
Well, the answer to the decay of Western society seems to be at hand.

People who wear low-slung pants that expose skin or “intimate clothing” would face a fine of up to $500 and possible jail time under a bill filed by a Louisiana lawmaker.


According to a Times-Picayune article reporting on State Representative Derrick Shepherd’s concerns (“I’m sick of catching glimpses of boxer shorts and G-strings over the lowered belt lines of young adults”), the proposed legislation would be appended to the state’s obscenity law, which restricts sexual activity in public places and the sale of sexually explicit items. Joe Cook, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Louisiana chapter, said the bill probably does not meet the U.S. Supreme Court’s standard for the prohibition of obscene behavior under the First Amendment.

Make Earth Day 2004 count

Environment, Food & Health

EARTHDAY


EARTHDAY

While some people may plant trees or pick up litter to honour Earth Day, Yahoo (by way of Debra Galant) points the way to how you might go about Saving the World in a Day.
As we read every day, and as we are aware, environmental crises abound as our own actions and those of industry pollute and degrade the fragile environment we all need to survive. What can we do? Well, certainly this provides some insight as answer to that question.
First launched as an environmental awareness event in the United States in 1970, Earth Day (April 22nd) is celebrated as the birth of the environmental movement. Spearheaded by Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson and Harvard University student Denis Hayes, Earth Day has become a powerful catalyst for change, involving some 20 million participants each April 22nd, in teach-ins that address decades of environmental pollution.
In Canada in 1990, two million Canadians joined 200 million people in 141 nations across the globe in celebrating the first International Earth Day. Earth Day serves to put needed pressure on heads of nation states to address issues such as climate change and the world wide loss of species.
In many places, including Canada, Earth Day has grown into Earth Week and even Earth Month, when thousands of events take place, ranging from waterway clean-ups to engaging in a variety of other pollution solutions. This is Earth Day. Organize, volunteer, and learn what you can do to help make this a better world for all of us.

Tangled Up In Boobs
Not Across My Daughter’s Big Brass Bed You Don’t, Bob

Pop Culture

“When the man who wrote ‘Forever Young’ starts leering at jailbait during prime time, the result looks like a recruiting tool for a pedophilia advocacy group.”


BOBDYLAN

Bob Dylan, as seen in the Victoria’s
Secret campaign.

From the first moment VanRamblings saw Bob Dylan shilling women’s undergarments in a Victoria’s Secret ad, we felt a sense of dis-ease, as if we were watching something unsavoury, and corrupt.
Writing as a 53-year-old male who, in the past, has been very much attracted to younger women, in recent years I have changed the nature of my mindset around my relations with comely young women. No more are they objects of my sexual affection; rather, my feelings toward young women have become distinctly paternal and caring. I cannot help but see young women as an extension of family, as someone’s daughter. The nature of my relations with young women, then, has come to be governed by “the golden rule”: treat young women as you would wish older men to treat your daughter were she to find herself in a similar circumstance. To wit: caring, appreciative of their humanity and intelligence, and loving, in the most generous and non-sexual sense of the word.
What the hell, then, is Bob Dylan doing, carrying on in a lascivious manner with a barely clothed woman, young enough to be his granddaughter?
As a follow-up to VanRamblings’ earlier story on Dylan’s appearance in a Victoria’s Secret ad, Leslie Bennetts — who is quoted above — offers her thoughts on what she felt the first time she watched him play a song called ‘Love Sick’ while “a nubile young model writhed around in her underwear …”