A recipe for cream of food soup, by Ursula K. Le Guin. May you rest in peace, and with plenty of croutons. #UrsulaKLeGuin
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A recipe for cream of food soup, by Ursula K. Le Guin. May you rest in peace, and with plenty of croutons. #UrsulaKLeGuin

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The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name James Kirkup
As they took him from the cross I, the centurion, took him in my arms— the tough lean body of a man no longer young, beardless, breathless, but well hung.
He was still warm. While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness.
I was alone with him. For the last time I kissed his mouth. My tongue found his, bitter with death. I licked his wound— the blood was harsh.
For the last time I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death's final ejaculation.
I knew he'd had it off with other men— with Herod's guards, with Pontius Pilate, With John the Baptist, with Paul of Tarsus with foxy Judas, a great kisser, with the rest of the Twelve, together and apart. He loved all men, body, soul and spirit—even me.
So now I took off my uniform, and, naked, lay together with him in his desolation, caressing every shadow of his cooling flesh, hugging him and trying to warm him back to life. Slowly the fire in his thighs went out, while I grew hotter with unearthly love.
It was the only way I knew to speak our love's proud name, to tell him of my long devotion, my desire, my dread— something we had never talked about. My spear, wet with blood, his dear, broken body all open wounds, and in each wound his side, his back, his mouth—I came and came and came
as if each coming was my last. And then the miracle possessed us. I felt him enter into me, and fiercely spend his spirit's final seed within my hole, my soul, pulse upon pulse, unto the ends of the earth- he crucified me with him into kingdom come.
This is the passionate and blissful crucifixion same-sex lovers suffer, patiently and gladly. They inflict these loving injuries of joy and grace one upon the other, till they die of lust and pain within the horny paradise of one another's limbs, with one voice cry to heaven in a last divine release.
Then lie long together, peacefully entwined, with hope of resurrection, as we did, on that green hill far away. But before we rose again, they came and took him from me. They knew what we had done, but felt no shame or anger. Rather they were glad for us, and blessed us, as would he, who loved all men.
And after three long, lonely days, like years, in which I roamed the gardens of my grief seeking for him, my one friend who had gone from me, he rose from sleep, at dawn, and showed himself to me before all others. And took me to him with the love that now forever dares to speak its name.
[Learn more about this poem here. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.]
me when i get my student loan
this is the money cat. reblog in 30 seconds and you will find yourself with more wealth
#this is the only money cat i will reblog because it’s actually doing the manekineko pose151,646 notes (via lolwhutninja)
OMG YOU’RE RIGHT
“The [National Democrats] refuse to learn from history. Estrada and Arroyo both mouthed populist rhetoric when it was in their advantage, just like Villar. In both cases sections of the left and self-described progressives went along with this. We know where this lead to. The Philippine left is badly in need of a national force that can represent the popular classes in all arenas, including electoral politics, a force that is genuinely democratic, not lead by a manipulative, self-appointed vanguard. (Is there any reason to believe Ocampo and Maza take all the nice things they are saying about Villar [seriously] themselves?)
“Building such a force is a project opposed to the interests of the ruling elite. It’s an illusion to think it can be created by hitching a ride with a trapo. The lack of an alternative is already making itself felt in the ’protest fatigue’ that was visible during Arroyo’s presidency. She’s hugely unpopular, her presidency is discredited. But still, protests against her remained relatively small, never achieving anything like the scale that is needed to ’oust Gloria’ like the NDs demand. This fatigue can not be separated from the lack of a progressive alternative; ’why work hard to oust Gloria, only to replace her with another trapo?’, people think. It’s the job of the left to educate people about the structural causes of poverty and inequality and to build movements that are not dependent on representatives from the elite but can fight for the interests of the poor whoever is sitting in Malacañang Palace. The ND twists and turns are steps away from this perspective. It’s the whole left, not just the ND, in the Philippine that will suffer from the kind of short-sightedness we are seeing now. French 18th century reactionary Talleyrand said it best: ’worse than a crime, its a mistake’.” —Alex de Jong, “The electoral politics of the NDF and the CPP in the Philippines”
But aside from discouraging future generations of philosophers and poets (or just thoughtful citizens), the main problem with the casual vilification of pretentiousness is that we end up using it as a pretext to take up arms against anything that smacks of intellectualism. We see this every time humanities and arts courses are defunded or someone talks about voting for the guy he’d like to have a beer with. Among public policymakers, the so-called high-minded pursuits are constantly being threatened and attacked as unnecessary. As if a well-read society weren’t a happier society. As if the viewing of art doesn’t add much needed nourishment to souls desiccated by a hundred thousand insurance forms and boner pill commercials. It is a shortcoming of our age that we have little ability to see or appreciate that which indirectly benefits our lives. We have traded in understanding for information, knowledge for data. And those endeavors — philosophy, psychology, art, even simple human interactions — that help to make sense of the more perplexing aspects of our existences have been relegated to the realm of the nonessential. We’ve taken a myopic and simplistic view of the world: What does not contribute directly to the bottom line is seen as frivolous, as if Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes little more than food, shelter and the occasional fuck.
Ian Stansel, “It’s good to be pretentious” (Salon.com)

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Heneral Luna is part of planned trilogy. The second film is about Gregorio del Pilar. The third is about Manuel Quezon. But we need Luna to succeed to a certain extent for the other two to materialize. We're doing a Marvel thing here, where instead of a shared universe of superheroes, we have a shared universe of national heroes. Let's hope for the best.
Jerrold Tarog, director of Heneral Luna
[The hagiographer's] fidelity, as a rule, depends largely on his state of mind. If, for instance, while pursuing his aim of edification, he can persuade himself that the sins of the saint before and even after his conversion, far from clouding his glory, actually enhance the triumph of divine grace, he is not likely to leave the more human side of his hero in the shade, and will beware of placing him on those inaccessible heights which discourage imitators.
The Legends of the Saints: An Introduction to Hagiography
The endeavors of the film to flesh Luna out towards “humanness” and “relatability” as he contends against apparently powerful enemies and great odds, or as he stumbles into comic situations—including a riff on the present-day struggles of Filipinos with the English language—are nearly perfunctory in fashion, ticking off such boxes as a major character flaw, loyal sidekicks, a formidable lover, and a doting mother, to wit: a belligerent temper, Eduardo Rusca (Archie Alemania) and Paco Roman (Joem Bascon), Isabel (Mylene Dizon), and Laureana Luna (Bing Pimentel). It also provides Luna with convenient opportunities to launch into monologues about his views on the revolution through the prompting of Joven Hernando (Arron Villaflor), a young journalist who taken it upon himself to develop a profile on the general for a fledgling publication that seeks to carry on the work of the people, Luna among them, behind the pivotal periodical La Solidaridad.
The results are, to say the least, ungainly: its tone is uneven and its movement incoherent, such that one never really grasps a sense of the stakes involved, of the immense height of such stakes; no matter how mightily the visual and aural designs—remarkable in and of themselves—strain to imbue onscreen developments with gravitas, the film is marked by a certain airlessness, a diminutiveness of scale, notably given the performance of Arcilla, whose version of the infamously bellicose Luna at times leaps headlong into the abyss of cartoonishness.
The Diameter of the Bomb - Yehuda Amichai
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded. And around these, in a larger circle of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered and one graveyard. But the young woman who was buried in the city she came from, at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers, enlarges the circle considerably, and the solitary man mourning her death at the distant shores of a country far across the sea includes the entire world in the circle. And I won't even mention the howl of orphans that reaches up to the throne of God and beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.
(Translated by Chana Bloch)
However briefly or unwittingly—though hopefully not unwillingly—thank you for being part of my life this 2014. May the coming year be as full of adventure and discovery, of knowledge and delight, of growth and astonishment. "Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey / Without her you would not have set out." —C. P. Cavafy To the health and happiness of one and all in 2015!

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Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Bryan Stevenson on The Daily Show.
To make it clear: this horrible act has two reasons. The animalistic bestiality of an obvious sick and retarded bloodthirsty American soldier who has no respect at all from human life as also especially not from Philippine people, but as well in your own society and corrupt politics. Look at a city like Olongapo. Where is the so well-known hospitality there? Only you will find it in the normal poor people. I have been there (for a long time) so I can say. But what is the government and the mass of the society? Corrupt to the bone. All you can get (is) in Olongapo and other capitals. All for money. You can get away even with any criminal act if you are a foreigner. It just costs money. No wonder the monster soldier did think he would get away with it. You show him that every day. Your society does. How should a foreigner respect people like Jennifer if your own society doesn't? So face your own guilt. And if the death of Jennifer is for one sense. Learn from it. Listen to the gender protests of those who now finally stand up. Open your eyes (to) what is happening around you and make everyone part of your community.
Marc Suselbeck, German national and fiancé of Jennifer Laude
On August 26, 2013 as the multitude of angry protesters convened in historic Rizal Park to hold the Million People March I spoke in Pinky Webb’s Mornings at ANC program and said “I am against the outright abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) because it is a simplistic solution to a complex problem.” I received a lot of flak for that statement including allegations that I have become the spokesperson for Congress and Malacañang. But my position is clear and simple. The issue is not the abolition of the PDAF, or the later and more controversial Development Acceleration Fund (DAP), or graft and corruption. The issue is about “discretion” in the use of public funds. Over time, we have given a small number of elected and appointed officials in government vast powers, and broad discretion, to determine how public funds will be appropriated and spent. Many of these decisions are done behind closed doors and are not subject to public scrutiny and transparency. The broad discretion, lack of transparency, weak accountability mechanisms, and poor government controls breed corruption. If “pork” is defined as lump sum appropriations, the disposition of which is left solely to the discretion of an office holder, then it now exists in all branches of government. It is called PDAF in Congress; includes the Social Fund and Malampaya Funds of the President; and lump sum appropriations in every department for “intelligence,” livelihood, farmers’ assistance, public safety, peace building, pollution control, road safety, and capital outlay for various purposes. There is the Judicial Development Fund (JDF) in the Supreme Court, and pork barrel in all provincial boards and city councils. When we say “we should abolish all pork” what exactly do we mean? Abolish all funds that are subject to the discretion of public officials? While abolishing all “pork” will pander to the public outcry against corruption it will create more problems than solutions. How do we expect the President (or key cabinet members) and local governments to respond to the needs of affected communities hit by disasters? Will the President tell victims to wait for the next year’s budget so funds can be appropriated for the relief and reconstruction of their communities? And if we abolish PDAF will corruption suddenly disappear in government projects? What about corruption in executive agencies? Will shifting expenditures exclusive to executive departments reduce corruption? This is what I mean when I say we should not have simplistic solutions to complex problems. The issue of discretion and misuse of public funds can only be discussed and resolved if we do the following: First, we need to see the whole picture on the misuse of public funds. How much public funds are subject to the discretion of public officials? Where are these funds? What are the lump sum appropriations that are worded in generic terms such that these can be misused? We know that the PDAF amounts to about P25B but beyond that we don’t know the numbers. We might be shocked when we find out that the “pork” in the other branches of government (and local governments) is much bigger than the PDAF that we are so agitated about. If we find out that discretion results in the misuse of public funds, then we must make sure that these officials must be punished. This is non-negotiable. I support not only the filing of cases against corrupt government officials but also the public shaming of these officials to make sure they will not win in the next election. We must then decide—should discretion be stopped altogether? Or do we still allow discretion but put stronger control mechanisms in place? We also decide who among the government officials should have some discretion in the use of public funds. Finally, once we know the amount of public funds subject to discretion, how discretion has been exercised, and determine the officials and offices that should continue having some discretion, then we debate on the proper allocation of public funds. I support the call for re-channeling these funds for education and health care but this must be decided upon in full public debate, not just by politicians and bureaucrats in the executive and legislative branches of government. The recent Supreme Court decision on the PDAF has put in place some of the reforms in the use of pork. Legislators now cannot be involved in the identification of, and amounts to be given for, projects in their district or any part of the country. Even before the SC decision, the House of Representatives required its members to submit a list of infrastructure projects (worth P25M) to be implemented in their districts in 2014. This list will be included in the proposed 2014 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and will be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). This reform is consistent with the SC decision and takes the form of “earmarks” in the US model of pork barrel. This is possible for “hard pork” or infrastructure projects which can be pre-identified but impossible for “soft pork” such as scholarships or medical assistance for constituents. The PDAF allocation for scholarships and medical assistance has been put in CHED and DoH with a provision that there will be “consultation with the representative in the district”. This violates the SC decision. The CHED and the House of Representatives must now find creative ways to allow legislators to participate in the selection of beneficiaries. Sixteen senators have decided to forego their P200M PDAF allocation and want it deducted from the proposed 2014 budget. The question is—what happens to the other senators who want to continue receiving PDAF? How will this lump sum appropriation appear in the GAA? What would be the mechanism will be used in the implementation of this fund? Will this mechanism be consistent with the SC decision? Interestingly, the SC decision can now be used to question the pork barrel in local governments. Local legislators enjoy broader and wider discretion in the use of pork compared to their counterparts in Congress. Control mechanisms are weaker at the local level, and NGOs and the media are not as active in monitoring public expenditures. It is about time that we look into the local government pork. There are other reforms that need to be undertaken if we want to make sure that public funds are used judiciously, effectively, and go to targeted beneficiaries. One, we need serious and drastic reforms in our auditing system. The Commission on Audit must immediately make public all audit reports in the past years, explain why some agencies and years were not audited, and penalize their personnel who failed to audit agency expenditures. The knee jerk response of COA is to say that they lack the personnel. COA must now think out of the box and partner with private audit companies and associations like the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) to effectively undertake its audit responsibilities. This is a standard practice in many developed countries and is allowed under the constitutional provisions creating the COA. Two, we must hold the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) accountable for their systems and procedures that allowed the Napoles NGOs to conduct business. These NGOs had the proper papers from SEC and accreditation from DA. The congressional hearings have identified these lapses. People must now be held accountable and new systems have to be put in place. Three, the DBM must also make public all the projects funded through DAP if it is true, as the agency claims, that these accelerated the economy. I know a lot of projects funded through DAP that were beneficial, implemented well, and were not accompanied by corruption allegation. But I do not know whether this is the same situation across agencies and regions. The piece-meal and “by installment” approach of showing beneficial projects funded from DAP does not allow for full public debate and the negative public perception on the DAP will continue. Finally, we need serious budget reform in this country. The line item veto power of the President and the mechanism for automatic appropriations must be abolished because these unduly tilts the balance of power towards the executive branch, creates an imperial presidency, and creates fiscal irresponsibility among legislative and executive officials.
J. Prospero E. de Vera, DPA, Professor, National College of Public Administration and Governance, UP Diliman
The general rule is that where part of a statute is void as repugnant to the Constitution, while another part is valid, the valid portion, if separable from the invalid, may stand and be enforced. The presence of the separability clause in a statute creates the presumption that the legislature intended separability, rather then complete nullity, of the statute. To justify this result, the valid portion must be so far independent of the invalid portion that it is fair to presume that the legislature would have enacted it by itself if it had supposed that it could not constitutionally enact the other. Enough must remain to make a complete, intelligible, and valid statute, which carries out the legislative intent. The void provisions must be eliminated without causing results affecting the main purpose of the act in a manner contrary to the intention of the legislature. The language used in the invalid part of the statute can have no legal effect or efficacy for any purpose whatsoever, and what remains must express the legislative will independently of the void part, since the court has no power to legislate. The exception to the general rule is that when the parts of a statute are so mutually dependent and connected, as conditions, considerations, inducements, or compensations for each other, as to warrant a belief that the legislature intended them as a whole the nullity of one part will vitiate the rest. In making the parts of the statute dependent, conditional, or connected with one another, the legislature intended the statute to be carried out as a whole and would not have enacted it if one part is void, in which case if some parts are unconstitutional, all the other provisions thus dependent, conditional, or connected must fall with them.
Ruben E. Agpalo, Statutory Construction

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Collective memory is more about the present than the past because it is integral to how a group sees itself. And what that memory is can be and often is the subject of debate and argument where, in Halbwachs’s words, “competing narratives about central symbols in the collective past, and the collectivity’s relationship to the past, are disputed and negotiated in the interest of redefining the collective present.”
Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History. (via iwriteasiwrite)
…the facile dichotomies between Light and Darkness, free world and obscurantism, sweet tolerance and blind violence, tell us more about the overweening pride of their authors than the complexity of the contemporary world.
Tzvetan Todorov (via iwriteasiwrite)