A Thought for the Day
The utter absurdity of conformist, prudish thinking about human sexuality appears in starkest contrast when one considers human origins, when for plus or minus ninety thousand years of humanity’s plus or minus hundred thousand years of eking out existence in Africa and beyond, our common ancestors more or less universally practiced group marriage, only to cast aside such lavish licentiousness for castration, slavery, and mass concubinage among the rulers of the ‘civilizations’ that agriculture permitted, an environment in which even the eunuchs were wanton and fiery, and almost all freeborn women or men sought encounters with each other because of how nature had made us, in thrall to pleasure and available for sex contracts of various sorts, so much so that the notion of chastity much past the menarche or a young man’s first spill made no more sense than would voluntary fasting in rich pastures by cattle or a forbearing mercy toward the slower sheep among the wolves and lions: to deny such bestial bounty inevitably guarantees mental sickness and physical distress among the well-endowed for luscious love who constitute the overwhelmingly vast majority of Homo Sapiens.
This Day in History
This year, today is one of the four important marking points that occur every year, in the Northern Hemisphere the Vernal Equinox, not surprisingly a font of dozens of other celebrations, such as World Sparrow Day, International Day of Happiness, World Storytelling Day, and World Astrology Day, among others; in Rome two thousand sixty years ahead of the present moment, possibly to the day, a baby boy was born who would become the great poet, Ovid; also on the Italian Peninsula, seventeen hundred eighty-two years ago, the first non-Roman took the imperial throne in a period when the empire’s adherents were all on the verge of cannibalizing each other and their plots to plunder the Earth; four hundred fifteen years before the here-and-now, merchants in Holland formed the Dutch East India Company; fourteen years further on, only a year less than four centuries before now, in 1616, Sir Walter Raleigh gained his liberty after thirteen years imprisonment in the Tower of London; MORE HERE
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Nearly Naked Links
From Friday’s and Saturday’s Files
Naked Capitalism on Vault Seven – http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/gaius-publius-explosive-wikileaks-release-exposes-massive-aggressive-cia-cyber-spying-hacking-capability.html
Berlin’s Film Festival & Contemporary Life – http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/03/09/berl-m09.html
Deconstructing Russian Devil Bullshit
EVENTS
The 30th annual Rally of Writers Conference will be held on April 8 on the West Campus of Lansing Community College in Lansing, Michigan. The conference features workshops, craft and publishing talks, and author readings in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Participating writers and publishing professionals include poet Terry Wooten; fiction writers Landis Lain, Steven Piziks, and Jess Wells; nonfiction writer Andrea King Collier; and agent Alice Speilburg (Speilburg Literary). Fiction writer Lori Nelson Spielman will deliver the keynote. The cost of the conference is $85 ($60 for students) in advance, and $100 ($70 for students) on-site. Visit the website for more information.
OPPS/SUBS/CONTESTS
A prize of $10,000 is given occasionally for an essay. Two $2,500 runner-up prizes will also be awarded. The winning essays will be published in Creative Nonfiction. The theme for the Winter 2018 issue is “Dangerous Creations: Real-life Frankenstein Stories.” Submit an essay of up to 4,000 words with a $20 entry fee (waived for current subscribers), or $25 for a subscription to Creative Nonfiction, by March 20. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
JOBS
Wide Open Country is looking for Contributors – remote
We’re looking for writers who can consistently create articles on country music and lifestyle topics with an engaging, but informative tone to be published on Wide Open Country…
Company: Wide Open Country
Payment: TBD
Skills: Writing
Source: company website
A Reason to Stand view of why propaganda is so endlessly appealing: “So I suppose the question for those of us who recognize our society’s noticeable and
A new Library of Congress blog that informs readers to the inner workings of the copyright office: “With roughly 400 employees across eight divisions, the Copyright Office represents myriad perspectives, backgrounds, and interests. We are current and former musicians, writers, and software developers; we’ve performed in children’s theater, at Carnegie Hall, and at the Vatican. We have acted in popular TV shows, played on a nationally ranked rugby team, and crafted anti-terrorism training for developing countries. We have worked in the public and private sectors, in academia and at nonprofits, for content companies and technology companies. Altogether we have worked in at least fifteen different federal agencies and speak languages as varied as Swahili, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Marathi, and ancient Greek.”
A Possible CIA Journalistic Murder
A Mint Press News article that contextualizes a recent violent murder: “The untimely and violent death of award-winning journalist Michael Hastings sparked rumors for years that the CIA was somehow involved in the car crash that claimed his life. Now, Wikileaks’ “Vault 7” revelations have shown that the CIA has long had the ability to remotely hijack vehicles in order to conduct “undetectable assassinations.””
A Consortium News view of some of the dangerous games we’re playing with nukes: “Official Washington’s anti-Russian hysteria has distorted U.S. politics while also escalating risks of a nuclear war as U.S. war planners dream of “winning” a first-strike attack on Russia, reports Jonathan Marshall.”