Watch out! Relativism!

As an example of sloppy thinking, the latest Vatican broadside would be hard to beat. According to King of Bling Benedict and his new mouthpiece, Bagnasco, opening the door to civil unions would let in, as an inevitable consequence, incest and paedophilia. Why? Because civil unions are relativist. And relativism is a no-no.

So what do we call an institution that systematically does one thing and says another? An institution riddled with practising gay men that condemns homosexuality? An institution that denies the right to abortion to all women, with the exception of raped nuns in Bosnia? An institution that preaches poverty and owns more real estate in Rome than the government. An institution that says thou shalt not kill and covers up murders within its walls? An institution that protects its own paedophiles and then uses paedophilia as a weapon against the rights of others? An institution that has one set of rules for itself and another for everyone else?

That’s right. A relativist institution.

Bob Dylan and Patti Smith

http://www.youtube.com/v/2ZqwOh5gYTMBob and Patti sing Blue Eyes in Philadelphia, 1995.

War relief

Poached from this blog, which also has an image of what might be called extreme urban fishing.

Of course, it’s far more fun if you ask them to take their helmets off first.

Chocolate Christ gets licked

Tasteful? Well, obviously not. Bannable? Apparently, yes. This statue of a hanging man made entirely out of chocolate and drawing on a familiar religious icon for its inspiration has attracted the ire of something called the Catholic League, a non-elected body with the power to determine what the rest of us see. (It appears to be using the term catholic in its lower case sense: i.e. it welcomes bigots of all denominations.)

They have two complaints. The material used: 200 lbs of chocolate. And the fact that the genitalia are visible.

There’s a statue in St Peter’s in Rome whose sandalled foot has been worn mirror-smooth by the hands of the faithful. Who’s to say how long this artwork’s choccy dick would have survived its worshippers’ oral attentions?

If you’d like to know more, click here for the article in today’s Guardian. In the meantime, let’s hope the chocolate wasn’t made by Nestlé: with the Swiss company’s reputation in the third world, that really would be a thorny moral issue.

Cat with mug

The other post may have shown the mug in all its beauty, but the cat lost out.

Now it’s looking at you.

Kid.

It pays to advertise

I thought I’d go with Google’s offer to give me money in return for space on my blog. Which is why you’ll see a tasteful pale blue rectangle in the top right hand corner whenever you visit me. Naturally, the more often you click on the ad the more I earn, so I expect you to do your best.

The only problem so far is that, being Google, it seems to work on key words and phrases. In my case, presumably on the strength of the recent post about dead pets (entitled Loved Ones: see below), it’s decided this blog is an ideal place to advertise sites selling grief management, memorial websites, mortuary services – the gloomier the merrier, so to speak.

So if you notice future posts with cheerful titles that are quite unrelated to the substance of the post (e.g. party time! followed by an attack on homophobia in Zimbabwe), don’t be surprised. I’m just trying to throw Adsense off.

Oh yes, after only two days I’ve made seventy cents. Looking good…

Lese-majesté

Almost four years ago, Piero Ricca accused Silvio Berlusconi of being a buffoon as the then-PM left a courtroom during one of his many trials for corruption and generally illicit business activities. Ricca, a freelance journalist and the son of a magistrate, was fined €500. The Supreme court subsequently annulled the fine, partly on the grounds that the fact that the insult was used in the corridors of a tribunal was legally irrelevant, and remarking that such a site was, in fact, particularly suitable for a judgement of this type, bearing as it did on Berlusconi’s respect, or lack of it, for the law.

Even without the annulment, Ricca would have got off lightly compared to the unfortunate Mr Oliver Jufer, a long-time Dutch resident in Thailand, who stands to serve ten years for defacing an image of the Thai monarch. For more details click here.

Holiday in Phuket anyone? I’ll bring the paint.

Mug with cat

Vanessa Gebbie has recently posted some very attractive photos of her new mug. Never knowingly outdone, I photographed one of my own favourite mugs, sadly handleless and relegated to the humbler role of pen-holder. Beside it is a small wooden cat Jane carved some years ago, which has graced my desk ever since with its lopsided charm.

Emergency response

PeaceReporter and Emergency, the humanitarian organization founded by Gino Strada to provide medical care to civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty, have started a petition calling for the release of Rahmatullah Hanefi, head of Emergency’s hospital at Lashkargah. Rahmatullah Hanefi was instrumental in organizing the liberation of the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo. Following Mastrogiacomo’s departure, Hanefi was seized from his home by Afghan secret police; since then, no one has been allowed to see or speak to him. No charges have been made, but there are eye-witness accounts that he is being tortured.

The petition also calls for the release of Mastrogiacomo’s interpreter, Adjmal Nashkbandi, seized at the same time as the journalist .

You can sign the Italian version here. If you want it in English, click here.

Loved ones

I was reading an LRB review of what appears to be an extremely interesting book by Alice Kuzniar, dealing with the dog-human relationship and called Melancholia’s Dog, and this image, seen in the Guardian round-up of readers’ pictures for 2006, came into my head.

This is the caption that accompanies it:

This is a special image for me of my dog Charlie, who passed away this August. I used the clippings from a trim he had during the summer heatwave to create the image, which reminds me of the mischief he regularly got into.

Kuzniar talks about mourning in her book, and refers to a photograph by Sally Mann showing a piece of skin taken from the corpse of her beloved greyhound, Eva, on which ribs and other bones from Eva have been lined up. The photograph is entitled ‘What Remains, 2003’. She comments:

Although Sally Mann might be accused of uncovering and publicly displaying what is intensely personal, namely the remains of a loved one, by representing finitude and loss she militates against how grief over a pet is socially foreclosed.

If this is true of Sally Mann, it’s even truer of Charlie’s owner.