Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Europe
Lesbian 'marriage' at Notre-Dame ends in punch up
2005-06-06
A priest was slightly hurt Sunday at Paris's famed Notre-Dame cathedral when clashes broke out between church security personnel and gay rights activists who performed a mock marriage of two lesbians.
"Do you, Claudette, take Fifi...?"
"Vous betcha!"
About 20 members of the group Act Up entered the cathedral and proceeded to perform the mock marriage, before baffled tourists and worshippers, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
"Jean-Louis! What the hell are they doing?"
One militant - dressed as a priest - pronounced the two women married, while other Act UP members chanted: "Pope Benedict XVI, homophobe, AIDS accomplice."
"Oh. I see. That's what they're doing. Just ignore them, Jean-Pierre. They'll go away eventually."
With security officials in pursuit, the militants fled the cathedral, but clashes broke out outside the Paris landmark, during which Monsignor Patrick Jacquin suffered a minor neck injury.
"Minor? Mon necque, c'est almost busted!"
He was treated at the scene.
"Help me get his head turned around right, Jean-Jacques!"
"Cheeze! Is this what I look like from the back?... Owww!"
The demonstration marked the first anniversary of France's first gay wedding, performed last year in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles. The union of two men has since been declared null and void by the French courts.
"'At's okay, though. Jean-Michel met M. Right and dumped me. Now I don't have to pay for a divorce..."
"They are savages. I was pushed to the ground and trampled, kicked in the neck. It's a scandal for these people to lash out at me and the pope," Jacquin told AFP. Jacquin said he was considering filing charges against what he called "barbaric, odious and scandalous acts."
Beating up priests is so... ummm... revolutionary.
The president of Act Up Paris, Jerome Martin - who participated in Sunday's demonstration - told AFP by telephone that he also had been hit in the melee, but said the priest had exaggerated the actual events.
"Pooh. 'Twasn't like that at all! He's a liar!"
"We did not want to be aggressive with respect to the worshippers... the aggressive security detail wanted to rip up our banner," he said.
"So what else could we do? It's really all their fault, for not letting us do what we wanted to do on their property..."
Earlier, the Act Up militants demonstrated outside Paris city hall, denouncing homophobia and calling for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
Link


Fifth Column
World Beauzeaux Convention: List of Speakers
2002-01-31
1st Plenary: Globalization, Militarism, the Neoliberal Agenda and its Discontents
  • Suzanne Adeley, Al-Awda - The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition "Give us Israel."
  • Amy Goodman, Democracy Now Oooh! Audio by Chomsky and Cornel West!
  • Michael Letwin, New York Labor Against War
    Ummm... Would this one be the Wobbly? Nope, just another tired Lefty: "Michael Letwin, of NYC Labor Against the War, will report from ‘ground zero’ on dissent in the USA. As a New Yorker and a public sector trades unionist, he will explain why he rejects the war being made in his name, and its impact on civil liberties, racism and the media." Labor connection? "Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW 2325 President: Michael Letwin" He's a professional protester.
  • Professor Manning Marable, History and Political Science; and founding Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies They couldn't get Cornel West
  • Professor Peter Marcuse, Urban Planning at Columbia University
    Author of Missing Marx. A Personal and Political Journal of A Year in East Germany, 1989-1990 Damn. Where have I heard that name before? Marcuse? Marcuse...
  • Patrick Reinsborough, Rainforest Action Network
    Representing the Big Green Machine. No, not the Marine Corps. That's the Little Green Amphibious Monsters.
  • Women for Afghan Women
    "A women's collective of Afghan and non-Afghan women from the New York area who are committed to the human rights of Afghan women." Oooh. Limousine liberals! (Hey, baby! Can I see under yer burqa? Heh-heh!)

    2nd Plenary (If the first one didn't stultify you): Another World is Possible, Globalizing Justice and Solidarity
  • Barbara Garson, author of Money Makes the World Go Around
    Boy, don't it? Having been broke, and having been flush, I like flush better... Oh. You're against it.
  • Richard Juarez, Comite Zapatista Los Pasamontañas
    Obligatory Little Brown Brothers. Mexican gunnies wearing masks.
  • Amanda Lugg, Act Up New York
    Obligatory Little Homosexual Brother/Sister/Whathaveyou.
  • Monami Maulik, Desis Rising Up and Moving
    Obligatory Little Brown Brother with a Turban. Hey! Can I see that Indian rope trick?
  • Cindy Milstein, Institute for Social Ecology
    No idea what the hell "social ecology" might be. The proper balance of collectivists and libertarians? We'll never know, because their website doesn't work.
  • Jaggi Singh, Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal
    "We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a system driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human capital, ecosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject the idea that the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and efficiency." Lotsa innalekshul depth here. You can tell. They're big on polysyllables. Zzzzzz.
  • Starhawk
    "If you didn't like the State of the Union speech, if you don't like the war on terrorism or the war on civil liberties, if you consider yourself progressive, left, radical, or you just don't like seeing more wealth and power concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, you need to be here." Peace and love and a low IQ.
  • Link



    Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
    -2 More