Liberal Serving

PARKing Day Protest

New York is overrun with cars. For how small the reletive driving population is to the public transportation crowd, we really go out of our way to give up a lot of land to cars. Does anyone really have a right to a free parking space in Manhattan? For all the thousands of people walking through the city, why are the sidewalks so much smaller than the road? Rebar group staged this very photogenic Park-in for PARKing day, (get it, huh? huh?) but others have protested the absurd bias show to drivers. via curbed.

Nature + Technology Car

Nature + Technology Car, originally uploaded by ryanmurphy.

Art cars aren't so common in NYC, but they turn up in Chelsea. Loved the go-fast wings, and - best of all - the "green" roof.

UnBrandAmerica

I love Adbusters. I'm ok with the irony...

"From this house, in 1961, a housewife changed the world"

I'm slow to post about such an important passing, but I nevertheless direct you to curbed, which has been providing excellent coverage.

"Dear Jay Leno...fags...I think you can do better"

I don't know, but the internets claim this is indeed real:

From: "Jeff Whitty"
Date: April 21, 2006
To: (Tonight Show email address)
Subject: For Mr. Leno

Dear Mr. Leno,
My name is Jeff Whitty. I live in New York City. I'm a playwright and the author of "Avenue Q", which is a musical currently running on Broadway.

I've been watching your show a bit, and I'd like to make an observation:

When you think of gay people, it's funny. They're funny folks. They wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They're sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons.

Gay people, to you, are great material. 

Queer Protesters Arrested at BYU

I'm all about the poetic protest - but, seriously, this is enough to be arrested for at BYU?!

Two dozen gay-rights activists were arrested Tuesday and cited for trespassing on the campus at Brigham Young University while protesting what they consider discrimination by campus officials.

About 30 people carrying Easter lilies (35 lilies representing gay Mormon students who have committed suicide since 1965) silently marched from a temple operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the main entrance of the church-owned university.

Tame stuff. They look like they even dressed up for the occasion. The Mormons must be scared. Soulforce is on a national tour protesting homo-hating schools (even more were arrested at Jerry Falwell's "Liberty" University). I'd suggest they bring out the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for added impact, but Soulforce appears to be sincerely religious, so I doubt they'd appreciate the irony much. via towleroad

"It was a gorgeous Palm Sunday. The kind of day that makes you want to ride on a donkey and get hit with palm fronds..." Or Support the War On Easter

buahahaha:

"People go to churches to hide from the truth," Flemming said in a statement. "At no time is this more apparent than Easter, when Christians get together to convince each other that a man died, stayed dead three days, rose from the dead and then flew into the air above the clouds.

Worldnetdaily has its undies in quite a bunch over an (obviously very effective) PR stunt capitalizing on everyone's favorite - the war on xmas:

A media company that produced a best-selling documentary asserting that Jesus Christ never existed today launches its "War on Easter," encouraging volunteer atheists to plant copies of the film "The God Who Wasn't There" in churches across the United States.

Dubbing the effort "Operation Easter Sanity," Brian Flemming, a self-described "former Christian fundamentalist" and president of Beyond Belief Media, hopes to covertly place 666 copies of the documentary in churches by Easter Sunday, April 16. The number 666 is the biblical mark of "The Beast," which also is the name of another film by Flemming set for a 06-06-06 release.

Now, who would do such a thing? It's so... pushy. Invading the privacy of this place of worship and planting propagandist materials in hopes of converting some vulnerable thinker is so... deliciously ironic. Really, atheist tracts? I've never met a more satisfying idea. The Atheist Mama put it to work:

She reports:

The strike began at dawn...

Ok, not really. It actually began about around 9:30 after I had dropped my oldest off at school, and cleaned out my car... I was very polite and I have no ill feelings towards anyone there, and was very welcomed. The woman at the front desk actually suggested that I was sent by God because she was just praying that she would meet women from my side of town for her new Women's Group. Besides, I can't count how many times Xian tracts have been left on my doorstep.

Sure you could argue that she was just as bad as evangelimentalists leaving tracts and knocking on doors, but you'd be wrong. Upending the dominant culture's tactics to criticize is valid comment and satire on it's own (not to mention damned funny). That she's spreading her truth (or rather lack thereof) is even more justification. In a postmodern world it does matter who starts the fight. (buy a t-shirt if you like - and check out the War's blog for more reports from the troops)

rah rah patriarchy

You must click over to read the whole strip. Must. Via Twisty.

"Brokeback High" Kid Back In School

Well, it was letting him back in, or setting themselves up for some obvious liability:

Yesterday afternoon I met with the administration. They reiterated to me the fact that this was never called an expulsion. In their eyes, transferring me to CCC was in my best interest. The fact that this transfer was mandatory is what I've been protesting. They said that given my attendance record and how "things didn't seem to be working [at WLHS]", regardless of my last report card (which is the best I've ever done in high school), they thought that moving me to another school was for my benefit. The school insists that my 'transfer' was never the result of homophobia, but either way, it seems clear that they've had a change of heart regarding my situation.

I'm sure the unwelcome attention of  national media (and blogs!) had nothing to do with this. Score another for instant global media. Brandon promises he'll put the video online as soon as he can, so expect an update. via towleroad.

Student Expelled Over "Brokeback High" PG-13 Video

Aren't we all a little guilty of provoking the man in high school? He deserves it. My man watched soaps on a tiny black and white TV, whiling away the years until retirement. He was asking for some riling - and it's incumbent on kids to push back against the steaming pool of messy hegemony. It's an incubator of prejudices and route thinking, and it's not possible that too much can be done to disrupt it. With that in mind, kudos to Brandon Flyte for his "Brokeback High"

I aired Brokeback High (the video project I was required to make in Ms. Houck’s English 12) to my Marine Biology class on a Friday. The following Monday morning, I was called into a conference with the three vice-principals of West Linn High School. Now before I showed Brokeback High to my English class, I was required by the administration to edit out a scene of the two lead male characters snuggling together shirtless in bed. When I showed my Marine Biology class the film, the snuggle scene --which I might add was very tastefully done-- was left in.

Apparently the administration thought that this was a big enough violation to warrant an expulsion. Only, it’s not being called an expulsion. It’s basically a ‘mandatory transfer’ to the local community college. I have no choice in it. West Linn High says they’ll pay for me to finish up my last 2 months of high school at Clackamas Community College, and I'll be able to walk with my high school class at graduation and attend Prom as a guest, "depending on behavior this spring related to West Linn High School."

Obvious overreaction aside, it took guts for Brandon to put himself on the line. Culture change happens in microcosms like this. Challenging this petty authority really shines a light not only on the topic at hand, but on the small-minded cultural programming that these principles are stuck on. Oh, and why does the man not understand that high school principles don't have the power of fascist dictators - that when they try to squash independent thinking they just spread it like so much flaming poo in a burning paper bag? via towleroad