Massachusetts Gay Marriage

Here is a clip showing people supporting the legalization of Gay Marriage in Massachusetts. It is somewhat related to my paper but here you can see some people in the streets with signs supporting or going against gay marriage. You also get to hear from some of the people in the crowd and can see of the mass of people that showed up outside the Massachusetts Statehouse before the vote on whether gay marriage should be legalized.

Westboro Baptist Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMP3AK5jwo



Here is a radical interview between Fox News and Shirley Phelps Roper who represents the Westboro Baptist Church. This shows how they protest in funerals and even the Fox News representatives start to critisize Shirley Phelps Roper with her radical rhetoric and ideas. She talks about how god punishes everyone for being gay, sinning, etc. It's really offensive for people hosting the funeral and I find it strange that they have large posters with God Hates Fags at the funerals.

Prozac for Pets

This is one of the first sites that pops up under a Google search of "anti Prozac media".

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23271578-1702,00.html

The fact that I thought for about a split second that the article was serious, is proof that I'm really gullible, but also that the overuse of anti-depressants is so wide spread, giving them to pets wouldn't be completely out of the question.

Billboard Culture Jamming

I found this website - http://billboardliberation.com/ - that is solely dedicated to culture jamming on billboards. They offer tips and detailed instructions to inform people of how they can change billboards to say what they want. I find it really interesting that there is a whole website and group dedicated to just changing billboards. The website talks about the impact advertising has on people in today’s modern society. Advertisements surround us and control our lives in a way.

They subtly change billboards to make strong statements against advertising, fast food, war, or other things they may see as contributing to the downfall of America. If you browse the archives you will find a lot of interesting billboards that may even be located in a city near you.

http://billboardliberation.com/

Wikileaks allowed to operate in the US

Via the Huffington Post:

On Friday, the judge dropped the injunction that took the site offline, citing First Amendment concerns and questions about legal jurisdiction.

At a court hearing in San Francisco, White said he had "serious questions" about whether the legal measures sought by the bank "would be constitutionally approriate" and whether they constituted prior restraint by the government. He also cited "possible violations of the First Amendment."

In addition, White said he questioned the "effectiveness" of blocking the site, an apparent reference to the fact that other Web sites quickly obtained and disseminated the information about the bank.

The judge recognized that "the genie is out of the bottle," said Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of several organizations that filed briefs on the case. The Associated Press and the ACLU were also among them.

Culture Jamming - Obama and Borat

The example on top comes from : http://www.dma.org/~backstro/
The example on the bottom comes from: www.johninnit.co.uk/2007/01/

Both of which are blog like websites. What is interesting is the top comes from a website mostly concerning 'the conspiracy of global warming created by an air force veteran and the bottom coming from the UK. I think these are interesting examples of culture jamming especially in the context of where they are coming from. It is interesting to see that two people from different sides of the world spoofed the same pop culture artifacts.

In my opinion the one on the bottom (from the UK) doesn't make a whole lot of sense...but it is interesting to see a foreign opinion...especially in comparison... any other opinions...reactions...??

pollyticks.com

http://www.pollyticks.com

I stumbled on this website and thought to share it with the class. Personally I don't think it has all that much to say-nothing too profound-but it creates this space for people to try and express their ideas or feelings around the politics no matter how informed they acctually are. It is a space for people who are surrounded and effected by on going politics but are no necessarily involved. The creator of the site even rights in one of the earliest blogs:

For starters, it's crap. This site is total crap, so don't expect much because I'm an idiot. This site is my sketch book, my side project and my feeble attempt to connect with other talentless idiots.

Here, I post my pitiful political cartoons, funny videos made by people far more talented than I am, weird news stories, boring rants about Democrats and the Republican Party, weak observations about freedom of religion and other concepts I only barely understand, and lots of other crap. I guess the key point to take away from this is that most of what you'll find here is total crap.

-Blue Steel

I felt this example highlights what we were talking about earlier this week, that everybody no matter their interests, education, awareness, etcetera, has a public space to discuss their ideas and/or feelings.