Gingrich describes Palestinians as 'invented people'

It just keeps getting better with Gingrich. First he wants to abolish child labor laws and now this --

“Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places.”

Dear Mr. Gingrich, considering that Pakistan and Bangladesh were once a part of India and did not exist prior to 1947 and 1971 respectively, does this mean that it's okay to view the Pakistani and Bengali citizens as invented people as well? Are you really that simple minded?

capricho no. 43

Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1797, etching. 

'Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the source of her wonders'. - Francisco Goya

I Live/I Love

Hi All, I will be exhibiting two photographs in this one week show (during a time where most of you will be away for the holidays).

This is suppose to be an event but for some reason they made an artist page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-LiveI-Love-by-Richard-and-Mica-Hadar-Foundation/160745747346319

During the opening night, I will be doing a performance piece: "How to Make Light of a Situation."

You are all welcome to come to the opening. Please note that it is likely I will not be free to socialize until closer to the end of the event. Please feel free to come around 7:30 - 8pm to catch the end of my performance and then maybe we can all go out to drinks afterwards!

Details:
I LIVE/I LOVE -- Opening Reception Tuesday, December 27, from 6 - 9 pm
Second Space, 568 Broadway (4th Floor)
Between Prince Street and Houston Street

Email invite to follow

Candiru Catfish & Penises

So as I'm getting my Grey's Anatomy fix on Netflix, they mention something so absurd I had to Google it.

McSteamy and Burke reviewing an X-ray revealing the candiru catfish lodged into the patient's urethra.

From River Monsters: Candiru Catfish:

The Candiru is the star of an urban legend — which turns out to be true — of a man who was urinating in the Amazon River when a 6-inch Candiru swam up his urine stream into his penis. The fish remained there for days, until a surgeon was able to remove it.

 

What's a Prisoner Worth?

I have a stack of reading material (old copies of the New Yorker and Newsday, as well as a textbook on skin carcinomas I picked up from a local thrift store) piled on top of my toilet's tank, and I often earmark really good reads that I want to share with my friends. Sometimes, I'll post links to the articles on my Facebook (which go largely unnoticed in that platform of useless status updates about being hungover, heartbroken or some other uesless shit), but for the most part, I carry these notable reads on my mind and rarely ever get a chance to discuss them at length. But now I'm going to create a new label on Rough Draught called "poop reading material."

During my last bathroom session, I came across "What's a Prisoner Worth?" in the October 24 Newsday edition.

1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 1 Israeli. Does anyone else find this shocking? It never occurred to me to do research on the number of prisoners on either side.

Interesting points from the Wikipedia page on Palestinian Prisoners in Israel:

• "...as of 31 August 2011, there were 5,204 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, of them 272 in administrative detention."

• "...between the years after the Six Day War (1967) and the First Intifada (1988), more than 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more."

• "Between October 2000 and April 2009, approximately 6,700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested by the Israeli authorities, according to Defence for Children International's Palestine Section (DCI/PS). The number of Palestinian children held in detention and interrogation centers, as well as prisons, both in Occupied Palestinian Territory and inside of Israel, was 423 in 2009. In April 2010 the number was 280. DCI/PS reports that these detentions stand in contravention of international law."  

• Read their whole section on notable Prisoner Exchanges and Releases.

 
Now I know that there are two sides to this story (that's your cue to opine here), and I acknowledge that some of these prisoners were incarcerated because of acts of terrorism, etc., but take one second (or several) to think about this -- ONE THOUSAND INDIVIDUALS for ONE INDIVIDUAL. How did the Israeli government choose which prisoners deserved freedom?

Wikipedia (as well as various news articles and websites) might not be the greatest or most reliable source for my information, but I find that it quenches my thirst for a discourse on this topic. I'm getting tired of friends who tell me "Politics bore me." It's not boring, people! Wake up! Where is the compassion? These events are happening and being experienced by individuals, people with families, previous careers, and aspirations of all sorts.

The Fraud Police

Amanda Palmer is a musician that I follow. While some don't really like her music, I feel that I must share this with you. She was invited to speak at a graduation and this is what she shared with them.

If you ever question yourself and what the fuck you're doing, you will benefit from this video.

"The Fraud Police" - AFP's Commencement Speech to NEIA's Class of 2011 from Amanda Palmer on Vimeo.

Here's the transcript if you want to read along: http://bit.ly/AFPsGradSpeech

"The fraud police are this imaginary, terrifying force of experts and real grown-ups who don't exist and who come knocking on your door at 3am when you least expect it, saying "fraud police. we've been watching you and we have evidence that you have no idea what you are doing. and you stand accused of the crime of completely making shit up as you go along. you do not actually deserve your job and we're taking everything away. and we're telling everybody."

New artists every month

I'm super excited that this blog has found a second (third?) life in it.

I remember at my last birthday when I asked, oh yeah so Aileen and Vic got back together? and everyone else was like, Where have you been? I advocated a friendly "email newsletter what have you" of sorts while everyone else was like, use facebok. Dude! But its more than that. Facebook has its place. And I think this blog does too. To share whatever the fuck you like.

Anyways, you might have notice that the art changed around here. I'm hoping to change the RD imagery every once a while, changing the person every month or so.
This month, we're featuring polaroids by my friend Rita. (She doesn't contribute to this blog and she doesn't know I'm using her work.) Here is her blog: http://polarita.tumblr.com/

Happy posting y'all!