Central Dogma [The Movie] (FTF Films)

Posted from Vimeo - May 24: 2013


Central Dogma [The Movie] (FTF Films) from FeedTheFire Films on Vimeo.

Why Has Humanity Always Fantasized About the Capture and Rape of Women?

Photo Credit: Peter Paul Rubens,
"Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus"

Posted from Alternet - May 22: 2013

By Lynn Stuart Parramore

Misogyny’s deepest roots are exposed in the endless repetition of stories about capture and rape.

If  you think about it, a woman carried off against her will is one of the most popular stories in human history. Whether she’s forced to marry, sexually violated, or otherwise tormented, the female captive pops up in Persian tales, Arthurian legends, and the great epics of India. She’s a staple of every art form and cultural product, from the paintings of great masters to true crime stories, from sonnets to soap operas. She’s woven into explanations of imperial origins: the Romans became the Romans because they snatched women from a neighboring tribe in a celebrated event known as the Rape of the Sabines. Biblical stories of captured women are so commonplace that the Lord issues helpful instructions on how to do the thing correctly, which include shaving the captive’s head, and if she fails to please you, properly disposing of her after she has been “dishonored.” (Deuteronomy 21:10-14).

Myths overflow with women abducted and raped (the two terms have an ancient linkage): Persephone is carried off by Hades, Europa by Zeus, and Helen by Paris, which sets off the Trojan War. The romance would not be the romance, nor the novel the novel, without the long tradition of captive women in everything from the legendary medieval romance Apollonius of Tyre, to the grotesqueries of the Marquis de Sade, right on down to Stieg Larsson’s pop culture sensation, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (original title: Men Who Hate Women).

How do we explain this persistence? First, there’s the ancient notion of a maiden taken for the purpose of bringing “new blood” to the tribe  – what anthropologists call “exogamy.” This idea, usually expressed in a rape or a violent raid, gets sanitized and elevated in originary cultural narratives like the story of the Virgin Mary, whose divine impregnation (which she didn’t appear to choose), transforms her into the mother of the Christian religion.

Sometimes the captive woman expresses dramatic tensions, and even attractions, between men, as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, where the capture and violation of a female creates a fraught male triangle. Other times captive women express economic and political conflicts between large groups. In Europe, popular stories of women abducted into Oriental harems (often featured in erotica) were brought over by settlers to America, where they gave way to tales of white people – often young women – taken captive by Indians (Western movies like The Searchers carried on this tradition). The visual titillation provided by captive women, a favorite theme of great European painters like Rubens and Titian, became a cinematic staple of schlocky slasher films, where young girls are abducted and terrorized until a “rescue” releases the audience from any collective feelings of guilt about watching women chopped into confetti.

The horror doesn’t end with the story. Captivity tales have a disturbing way of floating between fantasy and enactment. The key modern captivity novel, John Fowles’ The Collector, centers on a lonely clerk who collects butterflies until he kidnaps the object of his romantic obsession and locks her in the cellar. The novel inspired countless imitations in literature and film. It was also cited as the real-life inspiration for not one but three different American serial killers, one of whom, Leonard Lake, actually named his kidnapping and killing spree “Operation Miranda” after the victim in Fowles’ book.

In the porn industry, the capture, degradation and torture of females constitutes an entire subgenre. Women are hogtied, gang-banged, and locked away in dungeons. The captured and raped schoolgirl is a favorite theme of Japanese erotic hentai cartoons and video games. Monster porn adds the spectacle of tentacled aliens and horned devils delivering the torture.

There is no telling how many souls sit in darkened rooms consuming these flickering fantasies, which reflect the whole pantheon of sexual taboos and repressions. It’s not only men; women, too, have fantasies associated with capture-and-rape, for a variety of reasons, among them the need to erase culturally prescribed guilt about initiating sex. For a reasonably well-adjusted adult, consumption of violent porn may be a way to process common human fears and desires in a way that doesn’t actually hurt anyone. For others -- it’s impossible to know how many -- the images may become haunting demons that taunt the watcher into action.

In any case, the fantasy of capturing a woman and getting away with it is nothing if not pervasive. But how exactly does the fantasy come to be acted out? Would it happen, or happen as often, without the images and the narratives pointing the way?

We don’t yet know what combination of elements drove Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro to enact his particular fantasies, what biological components and individual life experiences set the stage for his horrific actions. But we do know that the capture-and-rape narrative is deeply embedded in our cultural DNA. We think of acts like Castro’s as the aberrations of a monster or the sickness of a pervert, but they reflect something that permeates our shared culture – our literature, myths, religious rituals, everything that forms what Freud called our archaic inheritance, or, if you prefer Jung, our collective unconscious.

It is the myth of Persephone, I think, which exposes the deepest roots of the capture-and-rape fantasy. In that ancient tale, Persephone is out gathering flowers when a cleft in the earth opens and out leaps Hades, Lord of the Underworld, who snatches her and carries her off to his dark kingdom. Eventually, Persephone is allowed to return to the upper world for half the year. The part where she is down below is winter, and her return signals spring.

In this case, the abduction of a woman is meant to explain the cycles of nature. That makes sense when you consider that a woman’s body is always more connected to the cycles of nature than a man’s. It’s she who bleeds every month, and she who gives birth. Because of her association with the cycles of life, she’s always connected to death. After all, that which is born must also die. (The death and the maiden motif, a cousin of capture-and-rape, is its own artistic subgenre.) The womb is always connected to the tomb. And woman must be punished for it.

In many ways, human civilization can be seen as a frantic effort to transcend nature – to break away from the cycles that condemn us to die. Patriarchal cultures work desperately to erase our dependence on nature, personified in women’s bodies. We give children the names of their fathers, erasing matrilineal history, and in our religious fantasies we turn mothers into virgins impregnated by gods. We intuitively understand that manly gods, whether Zeus or Yahweh, must impose themselves over nature and humans – that is how we know they are gods. We are conditioned to expect that they will exert their authority through and over the bodies of women.

In the kingdom of his dilapidated home, Ariel Castro could fancy himself a godling; transcendent over the processes of nature. He could control the sexuality of the women he imprisoned. He could control the process of birth, which he evidently did with deadly enthusiasm, forcing Michelle Knight to deliver Amanda Berry’s baby, threatening to murder her if the infant did not survive. He was in charge of the process of life and death. Destiny itself belonged to him.

Castro is a deeply disturbed criminal, but he is not an alien. The sensationalistic coverage of the Cleveland kidnappings, with its rapt attention to every lurid detail, every particle of torture, expresses both our horror at the criminal’s actions and our voyeuristic participation in his fantasy. The comforting notion that we are only trying to understand brutality erases the shared guilt we feel in suspecting that a whole host of psychological, cultural and political structures in our society reinforce the idea that a woman is an object to be taken and owned, a bit of prey to be hunted, a temptation whose behavior can suddenly spark a man’s animal nature.

The focus on the criminal’s punishment – will he or won’t he get the death penalty?  -- promises the counterpart of the “happy ending” in the slasher film. And yet once the criminal has been brought to justice, the vicious dynamics of power, the negligence of the legal system, the visual culture dependent on tormented female bodies, and the lingering curse of patriarchy itself, remain largely undisturbed.

But no matter, soon we’ll get to see the made-for-TV movie.

Lynn Parramore is an AlterNet senior editor. She is cofounder of Recessionwire, founding editor of New Deal 2.0, and author of 'Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture.' She received her Ph.d in English and Cultural Theory from NYU, where she has taught essay writing and semiotics. She is the Director of AlterNet's New Economic Dialogue Project. Follow her on Twitter @LynnParramore.

5 Monumental Actions Critical to Averting Global Environmental Crisis and Protecting the Biosphere

© Waking Times

Posted from Waking Times - May 22: 2013

By David Olson

Human-caused changes to our biosphere—the global total of the world’s ecosystems—are now so great and alarmingly rapid that human lives and societies undoubtedly face epic challenges in the near future as our biosphere deteriorates, planetary boundaries are reached, and tipping points exceeded. We may survive, we may painfully adapt, but it is a fair bet that grave hardship, loss, and sacrifice lay ahead. The nature and extent of impacts among human populations hinges on how successfully we respond to the biosphere crisis with extraordinary leadership, balanced solutions applied at global scales, and unprecedented cooperation—or not.

Human-transformed ecosystems and technological fixes simply cannot replace the role of robust, complex, and interconnected natural ecosystems in maintaining the biosphere’s favorable conditions. For this critical reason, any viable response to the global environmental crisis must greatly expand the level of protection currently afforded to wild life and wild places through monumental conservation action. Five global-scale conservation actions are priority.

Protect and Restore Natural Landscapes and Seascapes

Somewhere in the range of forty percent of our planet’s surface needs to be more “natural” than “developed” (or “heavily exploited”), balanced between the terrestrial (~26% of the planet’s surface with ice caps covering ~2.6% ; 50% of the land recommended managed as “natural” to achieve biodiversity and biosphere function goals), freshwater (~2.75% of the surface; ~50%+ managed as “natural”), and marine realms (~71% of the Earth’s surface; ~33% of seas managed as “natural”). A half is likely impractical given current human abundance, explosive increase (a 40% increase by 2050 is projected), ubiquitous distribution, exploitative efficiency, and sky-rocketing resource demands. But oft-deliberated protection goals near 10% will inevitably fail to sustain biospheric processes or conserve much at all of the Earth’s complex tapestry of diverse life forms.

At least a third of all seas and coastlines require strict protection, even on the high seas where reserves should shift to track dynamic productivity hotspots and wildlife aggregations. Restoring resilient marine ecologies and balanced fisheries will require no-take Marine Protected Area (MPAs) networks protecting at least a quarter of all coastlines along continents, archipelagos, and islands, coral reefs, and trawling bottoms (shallow water benthic habitats) around the world. All remaining natural habitat on land must receive long-term protection and restoration, with an initial emphasis on larger, well-connected natural landscapes, remaining habitat in biodiversity hotspots, and vanishing habitat types and biomes. Restoration on land and expanded reserves will be necessary to reach the goal of a half of the Earth’s land surface in “natural” condition.

It is imperative to protect all old-growth habitats, whether they be unlogged forests, ungrazed deserts, untrawled seafloor, or unfished seamounts, as these remnants are ancient repositories of rich and vulnerable biodiversity and optimal arenas for life-sustaining processes. A bet-hedging strategy to assist as many terrestrial species as possible to persist in the face of changing climates is to protect larger natural landscapes that encompass diverse habitats, complex landforms, and strong environmental gradients; and emphasize protection of habitats that can function as climate microrefugia (for example, old-growth forests, shady slopes, riparian habitats) for local adaptation and persistence of vulnerable species.

Ban Harvesting Larger Marine Species

All commercial harvesting of larger marine species (for example, cetaceans, sharks, giant clams, billfish, groupers, Bluefin tuna) should be banned for several decades to allow species and populations (and fisheries) to rebound and regain their ecological roles. A range of species with foundational roles in ecosystems, such as pollock, squid, clupeids (fish like sardines, anchovies, herring), and krill, will inevitably require a generous level of protection to sustain fisheries and associated marine communities.

Banning International Trade in Wildlife

 All international trade in vulnerable and threatened wildlife―large and small, terrestrial and aquatic, plant or animal, edible or inedible―must be immediately halted to stem the global hemorrhaging of wildlife populations and biodiversity that is leaving us a very lonely and dysfunctional planet. Vulnerable species require strict protection everywhere, whether they are traded or not.

Remove Dams

Healthy rivers must flow again accomplished, in large part, by the worldwide removal of obsolete and poorly-considered dams and barrages coupled with the restoration of riparian, wetland, and headwater habitats at watershed scales.

Protecting Our Atmosphere

Compounds that damage the Earth’s fragile and essential ozone layer must be immediately banned and we must strive towards good progress in reining-in greenhouse gas production.

Conclusion

These five actions may seem dauntingly ambitious, yet they are all achievable by a committed global community within the next two to four decades, which is very likely our window of opportunity to avert biospheric disaster. Global programs empowered by the support and compliance of all nations and people have to be rapidly organized and funded to put in place a functional biosphere stewardship program and manage it into the future, vigilant against crimes against the Earth, co-option by economic interests, bureaucratic quicksands, and misguided nationalism. Grueling necessity will inevitably spur a measured or panicked response from an increasingly desperate humanity. We should have a good plan ready when that happens.

About the Author

David Olson is a conservation biologist with Conservation Earth Consulting, Los Angeles, California. He can be reached at conservationearth (at) live.com.

Pensioner dragged off his scooter before being kicked and bitten to death... by donkeys

Killed: Sandor Horvath, 65, was
chased and pulled off the scooter
at a farm in Magyarszecsod

From Sott.net - May 20: 2013

The Daily Mail UK

Sandor Horvath, 65, was attacked by donkeys in Hungary

Bitten and trampled on so much looked like he had been attacked by wolves

Postmortem revealed the bites and markings had come from the donkeys 

Pair responsible for killing him are now waiting to be put down

Killed: Sandor Horvath, 65, was chased and pulled off the scooter at a farm in Magyarszecsod

A Hungarian pensioner was dragged off his mobility scooter and mauled to death by a pair of killer donkeys.

Sandor Horvath, 65, was bitten and trampled on so much that when his body was found it was believed had been torn apart by wolves.

Mr Horvath, was chased and pulled off the scooter at a farm in Magyarszecsod where he was visiting his farmer friend.

His mutilated remains were found by the farm owner who called the police, believing his friend had been attacked by wild dogs.

But a postmortem revealed the bites and markings had come from the donkeys.

Police who pieced together the evidence said it appeared that the donkeys had chased the man and dragged him off the scooter before killing him.

The farmer's daughter Csikos Darda said: 'I had noticed that the donkeys were becoming increasingly aggressive and I'd asked my father to do something about it, but he'd said they were fine.'

A vet told local media: 'Donkeys aren't usually aggressive towards humans.

'They probably reacted like this as they thought the victim was intruding upon their territory.'

The pair are now waiting to be put down.

A police spokesman said: 'If these were dogs then they would also be put to sleep.

'We can't allow animals to go around killing people. Putting them to sleep is the best thing for everyone.'



Culprits: Police who pieced together the evidence said it appeared that the donkeys had chased Mr Horvath and dragged him off the scooter before killing him. The pair responsible, pictured, are waiting to be put down

Angelina Jolie backlash grows as women slam "elitist" surgery only affordable by ultra rich

From TheHealthRanger - May 20: 2013

Angelina Jolie's bizarre announcement that she had both of her healthy breasts surgically removed to "prevent" cancer has turned into a PR nightmare. more..

Three Teens Allegedly Rape 12-Year-Old, Post Video to Facebook

© Opposing Views

From Opposing Views - May 19: 2013

By Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht

Three teen boys in Chicago were charged as adults for the rape of a 12-year-old girl held at gunpoint in an Englewood basement. Prosecutors say the teens taped the December assault and posted the video to Facebook.

Scandale Fritz, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Justin Applewhite, 16, were held in leiu of $900,000 bail after a Friday hearing in criminal court.

The assault took place at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 15 in Fritz’s home, police records show.

Prosecutors said the 12-year-old girl came to the house to speak with Fritz, and he allegedly demanded sex from her. The girl saw that Brown had a gun in his pocket.

She was then taken downstairs into the basement where Fritz allegedly raped and sodomized her. Prosecutors said he called Brown and Applewhite downstairs and told her to have sex with the other boys. When she refused, Brown pulled out his gun.

The girl was sexually assaulted and forced to perform sex acts on them while Fritz videotaped it. On the footage, which shows all three of the suspects, Brown can be seen holding a gun during sex and all three of the boys shout gang slogans on camera.

The girl was taken to the hospital the next day after she told someone about the attack, and a police report was filed.

The video was posted to Brown’s Facebook page Dec. 17, prosecutors said, and then was posted to all three suspects’ Facebook pages.

According to prosecutors Fritz admitted to making the tape to investigators.

Fritz and Brown are co-defendents in an unrelated robbery and aggravated battery case. Brown is currently on probation for unlawful use of a weapon charge dating back to November 2012. Applewhite had no criminal record.

The three are schedule back in court June 6.

Reality check: The truth about the lies we're told about Iran

From Sott.net - May 18: 2013

By  Ken O'Keefe - 1WorldCitizen


 It is time to stop being Israel's Bitch!

I renounced my US citizenship and the United States of Hypocrisy refused to acknowledge my right, our right, to self-determination. Alright then, I am thinking now that maybe I just needed to leave for 10 years or so and reflect on things, now that I have, I have made some important conclusions.

First among them is that it remains an embarrassment, that idiot flag waving Americans have sat by while their Constitution was used like toilet paper and their government became a bought and paid for circus of clowns.

Second is that due to this despicable state of affairs of failing to pay attention on our watch we Americans have continued to be complicit in mass murder that is truly unparalleled in the modern age. God help us for what we are collectively responsible for.

Third, our American sons and daughters continue to be used as the meaningless pawns they are and ultimately, aside from those our sons and daughters murder in foreign lands, aside from those we rape and torture, our sons and daughters themselves are the biggest victims of all. We so pathetically spouted "support our troops", like idiots, incredible idiots, while effectively sentencing them to a fate that makes post-traumatic stress disorder almost inevitable. Look at the drug abuse, domestic violence, homelessness and suicide rates of returning soldiers and compare it to the returning soldiers of Vietnam, what the fuck are we doing to our supposedly cherished sons and daughters?

I have come to another conclusion, America is almost assuredly going down and going down hard, so hard that it might just bring the whole world down with it, for this reason more than any other I feel a need to exercise the best virtues I obtained as an American born son and do my best to sound the alarm. To reach out to every genuine, not fake ass idiot patriot, but to reach out to the genuine patriots.

And lastly, we need to acknowledge 100% that the American government is bought and paid for by the Zionist, Jewish supremacists, Israeli "dual citizens", which in truth is a pyramid with the Rothschild's and their bankster kin at the top. These are the puppet masters and they have used America as their strong arm, if we are so blindingly stupid as to continue this role as their enforcers, we will exterminate not only ourselves but possibly this beautiful world we live in.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are proof of just how horrendous we have been and thus are capable of being today.

It is time to stop being chumps, it is time to actually give some meaning to the word patriot. It is especially time for those in the police, military and government who took an oath to uphold the Constitution to honor that commitment. Are you a person of honor? Or are you a fraudster? A coward?

I couldn't care less about fake patriots, but real patriots, I am serious about working with you. Get the fuck up and take the fake ideals of America and make them real. If that were to happen I will happily ask for my citizenship back... until such time I do not give my allegiance to this criminal entity and thus I am not a citizen regardless of the judgments of this corrupt government and its minions.

When America truly becomes a nation of honor I will be proud to stand among its citizens as a genuine member of the family. Let us make this so.

Thank you to Anthony Lawson for his reading.

TJP,
Ken O'Keefe