Artist CondOmne Benedict Edict

Scheherazade was the star of One thousand and one nights, Kubrick the star/director of Two thousand and One Space Odyssey  Niki Johnson  was the star of Seventeen thousand multicolored condoms to weave into Pope Benedict's portrait.

She painstakingly unwrapped 17,000 condoms of all colors (270 hours) and weaved them one by one in a canvas of Pope Benedict's portrait. Her stated goal: responding to the Pope condemning contraception in his African tour. I say she is an obscure self-proclaimed artist that craved the publicity...and she got it. As a matter of fact, she is getting more of it as we speak. She is another "accident" in the long line of publicity stuntmen and stunt-women that became (in)famous by desecrating Holy symbols of the Catholic Church: Elephant dung on Virgin Marie picture (please check facts Brooklyn Museum 10-15 yrs ago); Christ on the Cross in a glass full of urine (Piss Christ!), and others.

The saddest and most revolting fact is not that much of these obscure artists profited from their disgusting deeds and became overnight sensations, but that the media condoned and encouraged this and there was no mass revolts in the streets to condemn these hideous acts that they called Art. Michelangelo is turning in his tomb.

Remember the stupid amateurish video that supposedly caused the Benghazi massacres and the US Embassy attacks in Egypt and Tunis? One nobody amateur used a home camera to film a bad spoof about Prophet Mohammed, and put it on YouTube (like any snot-nosed teenager can do these days)...and you all saw the worldwide outrage and the political ramifications. Obama and Clinton even bought air time on Pakistani media to apologize about it on behalf of America (who had nothing to do with it by the way)!

There are as many Catholics as Muslims in the world (about 1,2 billions). Are we supposed to keep turning the other cheek and be politically correct regarding freedom of speech and whatnot, while they will make a mountain out of every mole hill (check) and milk it to the bitter end to try to get more political advantage...and more inroads into our way of living?

I said it in a previous blog and I am saying it again, the liberals who are supporting these so-called freedom of expression demonstrations and progressive deeds are NOT Muslims. I do not really know who or what they are but they are surely paving the way for Islam to slowly take over our Western civilization from within: Shari'a Law, homosexuality ban, no rights for women, polygamy, and especially NO separation between Religion and State. These are the dogmas we would be facing or should I say will be. Are these the changes American liberals want? I do not believe so. Hence. they should indeed be careful what they wish for. It is not the Al Qaeda skirmishes abroad that will destroy our Western civilization, it is this lascivious depraved immoral implosion that these so-called artists are fostering.

While we are busy trying to change them in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Egypt, they are diligently working on changing us RIGHT HERE and we are being shamefully oblivious and dismissive. There is a thin line between naivete and stupidity and we are teetering on it.

US Lesbians not following Sappho's Model

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why 75% of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance.” Gay men are usually leaner than straight men.

A number of hypotheses can be raised from the raunchy and graphic, to the sexist and chauvinistic, via the quasi-medical and scientific. From all I have read so far, nobody seems to wonder whether these lesbian women became obese over the years AFTER they came out of the closet; or did obesity lead them somehow to become lesbians, or was a contributing factor. Whereas the former could be attributed to nurture and environment, the latter could suggest some genetic linkage between obesity, homosexuality and the X chromosome. Or it maybe a default or forfeit situation: the ones who are too fat to “catch” a man just settle for women.

Are people in sexual relationships with men, heterosexual women and gay men, more under pressure to look thin and attractive than do people in sexual relationships with women, lesbians and heterosexual men. Is that because MEN ARE FROM MARS? Around men’s libido, there is usually more of a “hunt” going one, more of a studly behavior, hence the trimmer figure. Does heterosexual sex also burn more calories...or is it just a PHALLACY?

However, there seems to be increasingly strong evidence for a genetic link between obesity and sexual behavior. We know obese men’s morphotype can look a bit female (gynecomastia, shrunken penis, fat rolls in mid section). The obesity of the type II diabetic reminds us that Insulin is a Yin (female) hormone. It makes one gain weight. So do most anxiolytics like Paxil, Prozac, Lexapro that are much more often taken my women than men. Are these more often taken by lesbians? That will certainly be part of the explanation.

Be that as it may, one meaning of the word lesbian derives from the poems of Sappho, who was born in the island Lesbos and who wrote with powerful emotional content directed toward other females, making her the spiritual leader of the lesbian movement. The third-century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that Sappho was "small and dark"  not obese, and that her relationships to her female friends were similar to those of Socrates (with his male friends of course).

Lesbos is one of the Greek Islands. It is forested and mountainous with two large peaks, Mt. Lepetymnos at 968 m and Mt. Olympus at 967 m, dominating its northern and central sections. The island’s volcanic origin is manifested in several hot springs and the two gulfs. A helicoptered view evokes a female body with the two equal mounts and the golf below (see picture). Maybe the Greek Gods on Mount Olympus wanted it this way.

I can imagine what Sappho could say to her American woman lover:

There is definitely more of you to love my Muse

Too Big To Jail so Follow the Money Trail

HSBC UK and USA laundered $881 million dollars of drug money, on behalf of drug cartels from Bogota, Columbia to the crime ridden streets of northern Mexico, and has openly admitted to this. In addition, the company violated economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government in dealings with rogue regimes like Iran, Libya, Cuba, Burma, and the Sudan.

Of course, no one has gone to jail, no one has been brought to trial, and everyone is keeping their bonuses. The company has paid a fine of $1.92 billion, which is a little less than six weeks of company profits.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren sounded off on the Department of Justice's utter lack of accountability in taking HSBC:

"If you're caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you're going to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life. But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night…”

It is not just fundamentally wrong, it shows something far more concerning: The banks and the government are in business together, and as a result there are two sets of laws in America. One preview of what these strange bed fellows can do together is what is happening in Cyprus right now:

In a radical departure from previous aid packages, euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus savers to forfeit a portion of their deposits in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for the island, which has been financially crippled by its exposure to neighboring Greece (Cypriots anxious about savings tax proposal);

When a government is addicted to spending and they ALL are, they cozy up to the money sources where they can get it. The banks will gladly pay big penalties because they will get it back in all kinds of fees from customers. There is a Yo-yo effect that settles in which both parties seem to be comfortable with.

Bank of America for example will pay $10 billion to federal mortgage issuer Fannie Mae to settle allegations that mortgages were improperly handled during the financial crisis. The bank will pay $3.6 billion in cash related to how it sold and distributed certain residential mortgage loans. (BAC) will also repurchase $6.75 billion worth of residential mortgage loans it and its Countrywide Financial unit sold to Fannie Mae, about 30,000 loans, from January 2000 through December 2008.

Another similar story:10 banks settle foreclosure claims for $8.5 billion.

In addition to forfeiting $1.256 billion as part of its deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice. That DPA sure sounds like a cleverly crafted legal gimmick to allow the HSBC executives to buy their freedom.

HSBC has also agreed to pay $665 million in civil penalties: $500 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and $165 million to the Federal Reserve for its anti-money laundering program violations. Is that to help up shore up the dollar and fund the Fed’s Quantitative Easing policy? It sounds a bit fishy to me. 

To top it all the DOJ Office of Public Affairs released a long document (12/11/12) online delineating all cartels, agencies involved and laws broken. It seems there was four felony counts for breaking four acts or laws (long names each) and it took about 10 principal government official for more than 7 agencies to catch them. The document is carefully mentioning everybody with lots of kudos. I wonder how many will get promoted after this (that will cost the taxpayer more money too!).

Let us do a quick comparison. Remember my blog Laughing ist Verboten… where I tell the story of a disabled man Robert Schiavelli who received two summons for laughing too loud in his home. Each ticket was $250 or 15 days in jail. Compare to HSBC and DO THE MATH!

Money IS Everything…You Can Take That to the BANKS