Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day?

[patrice]

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20534

In the gay Irish novelist Jamie O'Neill's magnificent, best-selling 2001 novel "At Swim, Two Boys" -- about a pair of lads before and during the Easter Rebellion -- one character said: "Help these boys build a nation their own. Ransack the histories for clues to their past. Plunder the literature for words they can speak. And should you encounter an ancient tribe whose customs, however dimly, cast light on their hearts, tell them that tale, and you shall name the unspeakable names of your kind, and in that naming, in each such telling, they will falter a step to the light."

"Terrible Queer Creatures" fulfills that injunction admirably.

In case you're wondering, why I, a confirmed heterosexual, would offer such a quote, I ask you to consider the model provided by a person named, amongst other things, Yeshua, who showed us that the only way to the Real Truth is through Freedom.

Om namah Shivaya!

[xchrom]

1. recommend -- love 'at swim' nt

[patrice]

2. I just ordered At Swim, Two Boys; you can hear True Poetry, in the sense in which

Robert Graves identified it, in that brief passage quoted above.

Don't know if I have the patience for Terrible Queer Creatures.

[bluedawg12]

3. As usual

I learn a ton by logging on to the old GLBT DU forum.

Who knew:

"Ireland, which -- under the yoke of an austere and ultramontane Catholicism -- used to be one of the most sexually repressed countries in Europe, today has one of its most vibrant, politically effective, and internationalist LGBT movements. Every major city has a skein of gay activist groups, and even the gardai -- the Gaelic name for the Irish police -- place recruiting ads in gay publications. Ireland's parliament, the Dáil, is expected this year to pass a government-sponsored bill legalizing same-sex partnerships.

Just in time to give heartburn to the homophobic Ancient Order of Hibernians, which continues to ban gay contingents from Manhattan's St. Patrick's Day Parade, comes Brian Lacey's new history of homosexuality in Ireland. "Terrible Queer Creatures" demonstrates rather convincingly that male same-sex relationships were respected and in some instances even honored in medieval Ireland. "

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20534

:thumbsup:

[patrice]

5. I know one of those Ancient Order of Hibernians types, personally.

People throw the word "Fascism" around, many don't know the half of it; there's this hugely aggressive thing about how no one may "sully" this person's "purity" in any way shape or form, not even indirectly; need I say "ex-military"? And if you do "insult" him, you are punished severely, especially Family. The guy needs help, but he thinks it's everyone else who needs help.

[bluedawg12]

10. Gawd, I know the type.

Angry, ex-military, puzzled by the changing world around them and the challenge to the established heteronormative, patriarchy they see swirling around themselves. They resent the par venues, who want racial civil rights, women's civil rights and gay civil right. They classify them as "special rights" those very rights they pretend extend only to themselves.

I have debated with such types, in fact I have run across their blogs, they tie jingoism and patriotism into a fear of "the other" and use words like moonbats, deny climate change, make fun of Al Gore, they see themselves as libertarians and strong rugged individualists who don't mind gays as long as they don't have to hear, see, or deal with Teh Gay, they fear government because it might want to help others rise and level the playing field, so they speak of small government and States rights and hate lawyers (ACLU) and "activist judges."

They often bond in groups of like minded bigotted guys who create a fraternal order of bigotry and anger.


Like that? :nuke:

Oh and I looked this up, the pet word for today from the article:
ul⋅tra⋅mon⋅tane   /ˌʌltrəmɒnˈteɪn, -ˈmɒnteɪn/ Show Spelled Pronunciation Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective 1. beyond the mountains.
2. of or pertaining to the area south of the Alps, esp. Italy.
3. Roman Catholic Church. a. of, pertaining to, or advocating ultramontanism.
b. of, pertaining to, or supporting the belief that the pope is the spiritual head of the Church in all countries.

Note: This term was first applied, somewhat contemptuously, by the Italians, to the nations north of the Alps, especially the Germans and French, their painters, jurists, etc. At a later period, the French and Germans applied it to the Italians. It is now more particularly used in respect to religious matters; and ultramontane doctrines, when spoken of north of the Alps, denote the extreme views of the pope's rights and supremacy maintained by Bellarmin and other Italian writers.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ultramontane?jss=1

[mitchtv]

11. thanks for the definition

I was taking it A synonym for Hillbilly or backwoods . Oh, and for you Irish Newyorkers I am pleased to say I marched with the Gay Irish contingent in the Jackson Heights Pride some years . I know, I know, but it was fun anyway

[bluedawg12]

12. I was thinking more of the Joe the not-plumber model.

but about twenty years older, probably active duty circa gulf war 1, but, they do come in many different permutations. They seem to like Michellemaulkin and Rushlimpbags a lot too. There's a whole nest of them blogging to each other, that I found last year. They love calling us liberuhl wackos and moonbats and other endearments. :eyes:

I would love to see pics of you in the St Paddys day parade.

Happy anniversary!

[IntravenousDemilo]

13. Probably most members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians suffer from penis envy.

It's why they're so cross and homophobic.

[tbyg52]

4. Are you sure you're *confirmed*? Perhaps you are "admitted" - ;->

"And when you're not a known homosexual, you're an admitted one. 'Mr. Farquar, an admitted stockbroker...."
http://books.google.com/books?id=ht1sleEJACYC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=maupin+admitted+homosexual&source=bl&ots=4qau7qsFJH&sig=IXyu0Znap5DAwGeAg-dZAtwqQqA&hl=en&ei=YPmWSdn7IJicNZjylY4M&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Sometimes I think my head's stuffed completely full of nothing but Maupin quotes. They just pop up like a magic 8-ball....! :hi:

[patrice]

6. All love comes from the same place in me.

[patrice]

7. No problem, I get your point and I agree. By way of explanation, I have a habit of

playing rhetorical chess with memes, point:counter-point, and/or counter-point:counter-counter-point etc. . .

Thanks for your perspective, though, tbyg52, it IS a useful one.

:hi:

[tbyg52]

8. Heck, it wasn't even a perspective - !

just a dumb sort-of joke that popped out of my Magic 8-Ball mind. That's absolutely all I meant by it, honest! :hi:

[bluedawg12]

9. All love does come from the same place-and that's a great point.