The Guardian: Letter Of The Week

Can I suggest that the Guardian stops putting the doings of the Church of England on its front page (Ruling that gay clergy can be bishops reignites church feud, 5 January)? Giving them the oxygen of publicity will only reinforce their idea that they remain relevant. Having insulted the entire female population over the issue of women bishops, they now do the same to the gay community by condescendingly agreeing to give them a measure of equality, but only as long as they don't actually engage in their disgusting version of the act of love. On both these issues, the church will bleat that, underneath its apparent misogyny, homophobia and general bigotry, real progress is being made towards enlightenment. Of course, this enlightenment is theirs not ours, as most of us moved way beyond them decades ago. So please, can you print their next cock-up (if you'll excuse the expression) on a much later page? Near the obituaries, perhaps?
Alan Clark
London

The Guardian.

The Guardian also published today a thoughtful and witty piece on this "ludicrous" hoohah by Giles Fraser, the former canon of St Paul's Cathedral of Occupy-supporting fame - Why Gay Bishops Have To Lie. 
Giles, along with the Rev Richard Coles and the late Oscar Romero are a good argument that maybe not all Christians are mad, and some are quite humane.
Further breaking with convention it's also illustrated online with the above photo featuring some of your actual gay men's faces.
Will wonders never cease?

Heterosexual Awareness Month: Right Here! Right Now!

Sorry, I'm a bit late coming to this, but I wish them well.

PS It's a joke, you big dummy.

#OccuPride: Adorable!

San Francisco Pride, pictured earlier today.

Gay Inc: "So Excited"

If you want something to read, Fagburn heartily endorses this article by Stephen Thrasher from Village Voice's new Pride Issue on the corporate takeover of gay.
Why has liberation been overtaken by equality in our collective imagination?
Why do people obsess over promoting "marriage equality" over other LGBT issues?
Why are some campaigners only capable of seeing gay people as consumers? 
If big business is funding gay groups are they buying silence on their dodgy working practices?
And just because a politician is pro-gay why should we overlook how otherwise they are a reactionary right-wing scumbag and/or unconvicted war criminal? 
Please write your answers in full and show your workings...

•  The above tweet sent by Gay Star News made me despair - in 140 characters or less it perfectly encapsulates the attempted cultural banalification and political stupification of our world. "So excited". WTF?

Occupy 12 May: Together

The annual Sunday Times Rich List yields four very important conclusions for the governance of Britain (Report, Weekend, 28 April). It shows that the richest 1,000 persons, just 0.003% of the adult population, increased their wealth over the last three years by £155bn. That is enough for themselves alone to pay off the entire current UK budget deficit and still leave them with £30bn to spare.Second, this mega-rich elite, containing many of the bankers and hedge fund and private equity operators who caused the financial crash in the first place, have not been made subject to any tax payback whatever commensurate to their gains. Some 77% of the budget deficit is being recouped by public expenditure cuts and benefit cuts, and only 23% is being repaid by tax increases. More than half of the tax increases is accounted for by the VAT rise which hits the poorest hardest. None of the tax increases is specifically aimed at the super-rich.
Third, despite the biggest slump for nearly a century, these 1,000 richest are now sitting on wealth greater even than at the height of the boom just before the crash. Their wealth now amounts to £414bn, equivalent to more than a third of Britain's entire GDP. They include 77 billionaires and 23 others, each possessing more than £750m.
The increase in wealth of this richest 1,000 has been £315bn over the last 15 years. If they were charged capital gains tax on this at the current 28% rate, it would yield £88bn, enough to pay off 70% of the entire deficit. It seems however that Osborne takes the notorious view of the New York heiress, Leonora Helmsley: "Only the little people pay taxes."
Michael Meacher MP
Labour, Oldham West and Royton

Letter to The Guardian.

‘We are all in this together’ never rang so hollow. There is no ‘together’ and they are not part of ‘we’. They want us to pay for their crisis... So we'll pay them a visit, one by one.
'On 12 May people around the world will rise up again responding to the global call for... action that marks the birth of the indignados movement.
'It’s time to face the 1 per cent. And guess what? They are right here in London....'

Message from Occupy 12 May via Queer Resistance. 

May Day: Divine Resistance

Fraternal greetings to all this May Day.
Solidarity!

• Poster by Occupy Los Angeles. Gay activist Jacob Remes on The Radical History of May Day and Occupy LA's call for a general strike.

Update: "People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning..." Your Uncle Noam.

Fagburn: The Richard (Not Judy) Book Club

In the absence of anything interesting to write about today I'm doing some reading.
A copy of The Passion Of Bradley Manning by Chase Madar has arrived, so I've started on that.
Thanks Chase.

'Who is Private First Class Bradley Manning? Why did he allegedly commit the largest security breach in American history--and why was it so easy? Is Manning a traitor or a whistleblower? Is long-term isolation an outrage to American values--or the new norm? Are the leaks revolutionary or a sensational nonevent? Which is the greater security threat, routinized elite secrecy or flashes of transparency? And what impact does new information really have?'

It's available in the UK now for ten of your English pounds.
You can read an excerpt here, and you can watch an interview with Chase Madar here.
But remember: Other books are available.
Like this one here, Occupy by Noam Chomsky.
Though technically it's a pamphlet.

'Through talks and conversations with movement supporters, Occupy presents a crystallization of Chomsky’s latest thinking on the cornerstones issues, questions and demands that are driving ordinary Americans to protest. How did we get to this point? How are the wealthiest 1% influencing the nation? How are the financial crisis and our political system linked?  How has corporate personhood impacted the country and why should it be stopped? How can we get money out of politics? What would a genuinely democratic election look like? How can we redefine basic concepts like “growth” to increase equality and quality of life for all? How can we sustain the movement and turn this country around?'

PS The book I'm really looking forward to is Tom Daley: My Story, obvs.

UND! Why Do We Need Whistleblowers in a Democracy? An Evening with Craig Murray, Ex Ambassador, Author, Broadcaster, Whistleblower and Human Rights Activist, Cardiff University. Monday April 16th.

Pepper Spraying Cop: Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Nice guy.
More oddly amusing artistic re-imaginings of this cruel cunt's 15 minutes on this here Tumblr.

PS Apparently/allegedly etc... In 2008, Police Lt. John Pike, the police officer who pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters at UC David last week, was the accused in an anti-gay abuse case, which ended up costing his police department $250,000 in a settlement...
More here.

#Occupy: Turning Rebellion Into Moneyshots

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