The National Gadfly

Today, on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol, US Senator Al Franken held a press conference to declare his intention to seek a second term as Minnesota’s junior Senator. Sen. Franken spent his entire first term in a lengthy court battle with The Party of “No”. With his wife Fran at his side, he addressed a large crowd of press, supporters and curious onlookers who seemed surprised to learn that Minnesota actually has two US Senators.

(Image courtesy of digado)

As many of you may already know, I have recently launched a community, collaborative blog: sexgenderbody.com. In the last couple months, my content here had become a bit too higgledy-piggledy even for myself. I found that I had a great deal to say on personal politics, the politics of self-definition. This is not a conflict with the conversations I have been having here in the realm of Politics with a capital P, the politics of institutions and society at large or simply – groups.

MEXICO: God, the supreme being, maker of all things, the divine creator of all – has been found…here on Earth. Apparently, God has been here for the last 27 years, living in poverty in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. God, known around the world by many names, (Yaweh, Allah, Krisha, Zeus, etc.), is known locally as Cora, is a single mother of two children, eking out a living as a prostitute in a brothel.

During the Reagan years, I dated a woman that had two children from a previous marriage. They adopted a cat and went through this lengthy process of naming the animal. I really didn’t want to get involved, so I figured that I would offer a suggestion so bad that they’d just leave me alone.

“How about Separation of Church and State” I said.

Crickets.

POMPANO BEACH: Progressive blogger, The National Gadfly was arrested today outside the West Side Tattoo parlor by Broward County Sheriff’s deputies. Only 30 minutes after a hastily convened grand jury issued an indictment and arrest warrant for The Gadfly, authorities were able to locate the known troublemaker and malcontent via a tip from an estranged lover. Broward County District Attorney Gloria Stevens acted quickly to convene the grand jury after her office was informed of The National Gadfly’s presence in Florida was confirmed.

I took my 8 y/o daughter recently to visit the grave of my grandmother and grandfather. They’re buried in a little cemetery in Batavia, IL called Resurrection. My daughter said it was too bad that we didn’t bring flowers and I agreed. I’m not much of a cemetery visitor myself, but there is something about flowers.

We agreed to bring flowers next time.

This week, I attended another screening at Clarisse Thorn’s Sex+++ Film Series at Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. Two documentary films were featured. The first one, “Sex, Disability & Videotape” (Beyondmedia Education) was about women from age 16 -24 with disabilities claiming and exploring their self image, self worth and sexuality. The second feature, “Orgasmic Women” (Marianna Beck) is a film of 13 women interviewed about masturbation, with demonstrations.

Wikileaks servers are overloaded and cannot operate. They recently posted a secret list of a proposed banned sites.

According to Forbes, the scope of Australia’s internet censorship has developed far beyond its initial aim to block child pornography and web pages associated with terrorism. Free speech advocates fear it could be used to block legitimate activity.

VAHALLA, NY. Recently, there has been a stream of people quoting Ayn Rand and her novel, Atlas Shrugged as justification for the economic policies that created the current financial crisis. Ms. Rand’s polemic novel which assaulted altruism and government has been quoted and promoted by CEO’s, government officials, lobbyists as well as print, radio and television – and apparently, they’ve all got it wrong.

Do you write about any of these issues and communities?

LGBT
TS/TG/TV
FETISH
SEX WORK
POLYAMORY
SWING
BDSM
TRANSHUMAN

Do you work with these communities as an advocate or ally and would like to write?  Would you like to make an impact across your own affected community and reach out to other SGB communities?  Would you like to help bridge the gap between all SGB identities to increase understanding, acceptance, rights and respect?

A new collaborative community blog is being launched that will bring these communities, individuals and issues together in frank, open discussion.  Contributions will come from anyone that wants to post at the site, cross-posters from other blogs active in a community and featured writers.

We are looking for Feature Authors for this site from among the following:

ESTABLISHED BLOGGERS
ADVOCACY AND RIGHTS WRITERS / BLOGGERS
PUBLISHED SGB AUTHORS
SGB JOURNALISTS

Interested parties please contact admin @ sexgenderbody.com with the following:
NAME
EMAIL / IM / TWITTER
PHONE
SGB ISSUE OR COMMUNITY OF YOUR FOCUS
BLOG ADDRESS
WRITING SAMPLE

The site is scheduled to begin in May 2009.  The selection of Feature Authors will be completed by April 15.

Thank you