Today's Topics:
Estrogen Pollution
Satan snares Daniel Ortega
Long article
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Message-ID: <9002021225.AA00742@spruce>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 07:25:53 est
From: Eric Haines <eye!erich@wrath.cs.cornell.edu>
To: cornell!subgenius%media-lab.media.mit.edu@wrath.cs.cornell.edu
Subject: Estrogen Pollution
>From "Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet", January 5, 1990:
An Australian environmental scientist told a parliamentary inquiry that
the birth control pill has caused the flushing out of huge quantities of the
hormone estrogen into domestic waste water. Dr. Ian Wallis went on to warn
that 60% of Australian women use the pill, and the estrogen-rich sewage may be
changing the sex of fish in the polluted waters. (Fish farmers use the hormone
to produce fish that are genetically female but infertile, and therefore able
to put more energy into growth.)
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Message-ID: <19900202181135.7.MT@OUROBOROS.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 13:11 EST
From: Michael Travers <mt@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
To: subgenius@MC.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Satan snares Daniel Ortega
From: jschon@infmx.UUCP (John Schonholtz)
Subject: Dateline Managua: The Satan Issue!
Date: 2 Feb 90 06:20:23 GMT
The following (heavily edited) article is from the January 27 San
Francisco Chronicle. I'm not sure how much of an impact on the
Nicaraguan election we're talking about here but if nothing else it's a
good laugh. Heavily edited.
BEWITCHING WIFE MAY PUT HEX ON ORTEGA CAMPAIGN
Amid the feverish Sandinista election campaign, with its fierce, all-out
public-relations efforts, President Daniel Ortega's aides admit that his
wife's activities could hurt his campaign.
First lady Rosario Murillo, who quietly separated from Ortega last month, has
splashed into the nation's headlines, causing howls of outrage from preachers
and gasps of titillated horror from the public.
Resplendent in her knee-high, spike-heeled boots, skin-tight black leather
clothing, and jangling tramp jewelry, Murillo has launched an investigation
into the occult.
Murillo, 38, recently announced that she is organizing Latin America's first
international conference on witchcraft, parapsychology and folk medicine.
Scheduled for March, the conference has provoked a storm of criticism from
Catholic and Protestant ministers.
Murillo has not been seen on the Sandinista election trail for months and her
organizaing of the conference now appears to have given a spark to the
sagging campaign of Ortega's challenger, Violeta Chamorro, in the February
25 elections.
Officials in Ortega's presidential campaign, agreeing to speak only if not
identified, confirmed that efforts had been made to keep Murillo's activities
from reflecting negatively on their candidate. However, they admitted that
they had tried, but failed, to get Murillo--in her capacity as minister of
culture--to postpone the occult conference until after the election.
At a meeting with 2,000 pro-Sandinista Protestant ministers last week,
Ortega was forced to defend himself against emotional accusations that he
was doing Satan's work.
"We are faced with the work of the devil," thundered one preacher. "Satan
works in the center of power ... this must not be allowed to happen in
Nicaragua".
Ortega grimly refused to condemn or ban his wife's conference, arguing "in
the end, if a man has faith, if he really is in communication with GOd, he
has no reason to feel afraid of witches ... To be afraid of them is to
accept that they are stronger than God."
.....
A storm of scandalous headlines in the nation's press spurred by the "spin
control" efforts by Ortega's campaign advisers, who realized that the
Sandinistas' often-rocky relationship with the church was again at stake,
only a month from election day.
Chamorro has a close relationship with conservative Catholic and Protestant
church authorities, and uses religious issues at every chance on the
campaign trail.
The image contrast, Ortega's aides realized, couldn't be clearer.
While campaigning, the image-conscious Chamorro often dresses in flowing
all-white clothing, prompting gushing comparisons to Pope John Paul II from
many voters.
--
* John Schonholtz * It's the end of the world as we know it
* Informix Software, Inc. * And I feel fine
* 415/926-6813 * {pyramid,uunet}!infmx!jschon
My guess is that the CIA is funding Murillo and her conference. Not the
first time they've dabbled in the Forbidden Sciences, either.
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Message-ID: <9002030358.AA17257@jacobi.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 22:58:26 EST
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
To: subgenius-request@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Subject: Long article
ReSent-Message-ID: <19900203040054.1.MT@OUROBOROS.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
ReSent-Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 23:00 EST
ReSent-From: Michael Travers <mt@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
ReSent-To: subgenius@MC.lcs.mit.edu
You might want to send this out as a single message, rather than in a
digest.
Dale
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Subject: The pinks attack High Culture again! (long - 142 lines)
From: worley@Compass.COM (Dale Worley)
See what thanks you get when you try to enlighten the Pink masses?
>From the Boston Globe Living|Arts section, November 1, 1989:
Officials, audience, BF/VF react as the smoke clears
By Pamela Reynolds, Globe Staff
====================
Executive Director Ann Marie Stein says the Boston Film/Video
Foundation did not know in advance what Coleman's performance at its
facility would be like. [Whatta wimp.]
====================
Anne Marie Stein of the Boston Film/Video Foundation found herself in
the middle of a storm of phone calls yesterday.
Sein, executive director of the nonprofit group, spoke with BF/VF
board members early in the day, the Masachusetts Council on the Arts
and Humanities at midmorning and a legion of reporters throughout the
afternoon.
She told everybody the same thing: "I certainly think we could have
known more and should have known more. From our point of view,
endangering the public and cruelty to animals is a problem. [What
about cruelty to Pinks?] ... I would find it highly disturbing if
this would be considered an example of what we do. ... Clearly I think
there's an issue for us to review our access policy."
As the head of an organization dedicated to promoting film and video
as art forms, Stein was fielding inquiries about the "shock art"
performance of Joe Coleman, a New York-based [you know what those New
Yorkers are like] performance artist ["Look out! It's bad art!" --
Doonesbury] who appeared at the BF/VF's facilities at 1126 Boylston
St. last weekend. Coleman's performance ended abruptly Sunday when he
bit the heads off live mice and then ignited fireworks attached to his
chest, causing an audience of about 35 to flee the smoke-filled
theater. The performance, designed to terrorize the autience, did
exactly that. It also produced so much smoke [see COLEMAN, Page 78]
[Coleman, continued from page 75] near its end that it set off
building fire alarms, and caused about $500 worth of damage, according
to fire officials.
Coleman is now under investigation by the police and fire departments
as well as the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals. Lt. John Carey, of the city's arson squad, said criminal
charges are likely to be brought against the New York performer,
charges that may include burning a dwelling and the illegal possession
of an incendiary device.
"I imagine if I went through the complete law books I could come up
with 900 charges against him," said Carey. [Or anybody else, for that
matter.] "Every one of them would be a criminal charge. [All charges
are criminal charges.] With the fireworks and smoke, there could have
been trampling with the panic it caused."
Coleman, now back in New York, said that one the advice of his
attorney he would have no comment. [And he would also stay out of
Mass. for a while, too!]
According to Stein, the BF/VF - a small and generally respected arts
foundation [translation: a bunch of quiche-eaters] - had no knowledge
of what it was getting into when it decided to rent its performing
space to Coleman for $20 an hour.
"We were told this person was in 'Mondo New York,'" a documentary
about the seamy side of New York, says Stein, "and we didn't know
anything about him." Stein says a BF/VF volunteer approached the
organization about renting out facilities to Coleman. "We were shown
a picture of a man with explosives taped to his chest and we went to
ask her if that would be happening and she said, 'No, nothing to that
extent.'"
But there were explosions on stage, and a number of audience members
said they were afraid during the performance.
"Everyone was in the same condition I was in, with adrenaline racing
[mixed mataphor, there] feeling real disturbed, just glad you didn't
get hurt," said Peter Prescott of the local band Volcano Suns, who
watched the performance. He went on to say that Coleman was making "a
legitimate artistic and political point: That people are so dead to
things you have to go this far to jolt them."
"At the time I felt it wasn't fun, that it was ridiculous and I was
going to run out," says Viveca Cardiner, a Somerville financial writer
who was also in the audience. "I'm thrilled because we made it out
[alive?] and it's a great story. It provioked a reaction in me that
nothing else has in a while." [Then sign up for Accu-Beating.]
Stein says the BF/VF has certainly learned its lesson. The BF/VF, she
said, receives nearly half of its funding - which totaled $730,000
this year - form public sources like the Massachusetts council on the
Arts and Humanities and the national Endowment for the Arts. It does
not want to jeopardize its access to such money in an era when the
public funding of the arts in increasingly under scrutiny. Such
mistakes, she says, could very well cost an organization such as hers
its life.
Rick Schwartz, a spokesman for the Mass. Council, said yesterday that
no such thing would happen in this case. The council, which provided
the BF/VF with $57,000 last year, will continue to support it.
"They receive our funding and I'm pround to say they do," said
Schwartz. "I don't know if you could possibly connect them to what
happened. ... If the council has any reason to believe the whole thing
is being improperly handled then we would certainly withhold funds.
But we are honored with our association with the BF/VF. Certainly
they have no record with us that suggests that they should be put on
probation. There is no history of problems [like bad publicity] with
the BF/VF."
Last year, the National Endowment for the Arts supplied the group with
$118,000 and the Arts Lottery provided $6,000. The balance of the
BF/VF budget was obtained through earned income. Much of it came
through renting out performing space to artists like Coleman.
In the past the BF/VF has worked with film makers and artists on a
diverse range of subjects. Film makers and artists who work with the
organization said yesterday that they hope Sunday night's performance
will not be overblown.
"The organization is critical to film people in this community," said
Rhonda Richards, a filmmaker who is receiving help for a documentary
on cows from the BF/VF. [perhaps Dave Barry's exploding cows?] "It
would be terrible [for me] if anything bad happened to the
organization in terms of it losing its funding or public face. It's
not like it was approved, like the BF/VF say saying, 'Hey, let's do
this really outrageous thing.'"
At the State House, a key legistlator was agreeing with that viewpoint
yesterday.
"Every once in a while in the business of the arts, as in the business
of government, you get a dud [the Mass. Legislature is full of them],"
said Rep. Nicholas Paleologos [Greek for "old word"] (D-Woburn), House
chairman of the Arts and Education Committee, which handles
legislation affecting the Mass. Council. "That seems to be the case
here. But you shouldn't abolish a funding program just because there
are a few rotten apples in the barrel."
Carol Stocker of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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End of SubGenius Digest
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