FREE SPEECH Serving Progress Since the Enlightenment

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Review: READING THE BIBLE BACKWARDS by ROBERT PRIEST

ISBN-10: 1-55022-835-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-835-9
5.5 x 8.5 in, 120pp, paperback
$16.95 CAD
October 2008
a misFit book

Robert Priest’s new book, Reading the Bible Backwards, displays his usual multi-dimensional creativity manifested, as the back cover blurb puts it: “in reverse engineering the word, meme splicing, morpheme replacement therapy, phonetic modifications” Priest’s poetic oeuvre reflects a child’s commitment to the spiritual policy of: for Poetry I will grow up just enough. Life and language is his sandbox.

Reading the Bible Backwards is another toss-up of his mischief with linguistic orthodoxies, abiding by the dictum of SHELLY, Percy Bysshe; “…if no new poets should arise to create afresh the associations that have thus been disorganized, language will be dead to all the nobler purposes of human intercourse.” Priest takes the well-worn laundry of language thru several spin cycles, presenting them all haut couture strutting down the catwalk of this anthology.

Yes, there is a gimmick here, the unraveling of the Bible-dna thread that has all too often constricted the larynx of our imagination. He has recycled and liberated cultural orthodoxy, let the dogmas out to lose themselves into the light. Gimmicks can be dangerous. Successful gimmicks have the unfortunate enticement of becoming a rut, but Priest has always known when the cow has been milked dry and moves on to other langscapes of poetry.

Priest’s gimmick is declared up front in the title of the book. He becomes the Priesthood re-verse-ing sacred narrative to refresh meaning; forward to the past. The book kicks off with the liberation of Jesus from the Cross and moonwalks us into BC. Many poems are edged in cleverness, and weighted with wit; “…turn the other cheek, or I’ll turn it for you.”

His meme splice poems provide a clever utilization of a concept which provides many fascinating sub-concepts that sub-verse the orthodoxies of language. In this regard, the Priesthood becomes the Priest hoodlum, a collaborator with Richard Dawkins, wiping the dirt of dogma from the windshield of our culture, joysticking it in re-verse, backing out of the cul de sac of unsalvation onto the main Free Expression Freeway. It is wreck-creation as recreation to re-creation.

The FACE-FAITH MEME SPLICE poem is rich WOW moments. “Just another pretty faith”, “You can‘t faith the truth“, “Utterly two-faithed”, “The faithless masses”, “To look into the very faith of God.” Unfortunately, I read this poem first and it set me up for disappointment with subsequent meme splice poems; they did not contain the same intensity of WOW-WIT found in FACE-FAITH.

The Priest hoodlum takes on one of the most famous poems in the Bible: the Lord’s Prayer. While I enjoyed the in-verse of its contents, I do wish he had spent sufficient time to conform to the cadence of the prayer. It is too well known, it’s rhythms deeply embedded in us all, so dissonance is instantly recognized. Priest’s re-versed prayer is cloak of many colours that is ill-fitting.

PUTTING UP BABEL is a poem that I regard as quintessential Priest:

“…if someone
Unifies the language
We go dialectic, megalexic
We get all slang on them

And at the top
Having stopped
At the end of atmosphere
We’ll lean out
High over god and all the angels
And shout as one
A trillion words for sky

Backwards to star words from the big bang of Priest’s imagination, and from the sky he brings us down to the debris of Babel, selecting nuggets of neologism, and scattering them on the page like treasure, like a filthy-faithed child bursting through the kitchen door and detonating with delight; Hey-look-what-I-found! “Mass Martyrers”, “ terrortorial”, “immurderate language”, “banksters.”

Our Children Are Explosive is wonderfully simple, the premise in its title. I read the poem as if it were a fuse, following the sizzle to its detonation. Children are the perpetual treasure of our continuity. They ensure evolution until Priest describes them as a “famine waiting to happen.”

This Priesthood of Poetry, or more aptly, Priest hoodlum of poetry, contains dark diamonds of compressed cynicism acquired from living beyond his gamble with pre-destiny or pre-dysentery. There a few mediocre poems in this collection. The gimmick of Re-Verse does not work in and of itself. There is no poetic imagination in the assertion that God is Great to Nothing is God. But mediocrity can be found in any collection of Neruda, Eliot, Blake, Byron.

One characteristic of Priest’s poetry that I find incredibly enriching is the exquisite tenderness of his romantic poetry.

The Sail Cannot
Deny the wind
How can I deny
My love
You move me
You send me
I have crossed barriers
I never dreamed
With you behind me.

I love how Priest spills his imagination, brilliant debris, in his neologisms, carrying us through time, unravelling the narrative-spine of Western culture, deconstructing and reassembling and playing god with language, plunging into lleH & re-Versing out to Heaven, leading us all to the salvation of love as exemplified in the last poems of this collection:

I LOVE YOU FORWARDS

I love you for words
I love you for songs
The two us holding a dream between us
Centring the inkblot
Circling the unattainable
Giving symmetry something
To arrange itself around.

SUSAN COLE: MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS!!!!

Don't say Merry Christmas to me!
The War on Christmas is better known as being inclusive
Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

Tell me something: Does anybody think Irving Berlin's estate needs another infusion? No, right? So why do the malls start piping in Berlin's hit White Christmas alongside all those other Christmas chestnuts starting as early as November? We get the same 17 songs for six weeks. Where's the creativity here?
==========================================================

NOW Magazine’s professional social scold, Susan Cole, warns her readers to “be inclusive. Say Marry Christmas only to people you're absolutely sure celebrate that holiday. Play it safe with the rest of us”

I’m having social shivers already. Is Ms Susan Scold advising us that half the population in the public domain have short wicks, are escapees from Anger Ms Management Spas, and are likely to Ms Behave Badlee if one of those Christians utters something identifiably Christian?

Although I’m an atheist, I don’t have the social arrogance to scold people in the public domain for the equivalent of wearing a necklace bearing a Cross or Star of David or Crescent Moon or whatever, outside their clothing, rather than wearing it inside their clothing for fear of an encounter with some tight-ass Ms Retro Grundy.

“Play it safe with the rest of us,” she warns, or what? be dragged to the newspeak enforcement agency of political correctmess?

Cut a little slack, Susan.

Loosen up, Susan.

Visit Enemas R Us, Susan (I’ll give you a gift card – unlimited repeats)

Don’t make me call in the Bigotry Busters to deflate your intolerance of Christian practices.

I’m curious about the delineation of Cole’s bigotry. If an imam mounts a minaret to call for prayer five times daily in her neighbourhood, would her reaction be: “Call for prayer only to people you’re absolutely sure respond to that call. Play it safe with the rest of us.”

Susan Scold needs a big time-out from proselytizing her strict 24/7 disciplinary regimen. She’s become a grumpy old social nag worthy of tenure in the bureaucrazy of a Human Rights Triburinal.

Bemoaning the lack of creativity, Susan Scold points to the futility of “trying to get a card that’s not holiday related.” (Excuse me a moment, while I get some tissue)

If she wasn’t bereft of creativity herself, she would do what many individuals in the Creative Class do – MAKE OUR OWN CARDS!!!!

Making your own cards has a hint of anti-corporate subversion, but Cole’s consumerista inclinations prefers shopping off the rack; how cold and impersonal! Making one’s own cards and distributing them to loved ones couldn’t be more personal.

In 1984, Orwell described how newspeak cards were designed with several politically correct felicitations -- one would cross out all the felicitations that did not apply before sending it on to their loved one. Making your own cards, not buying off the rack, is the kind of subversive act I suspect Jesus would be more inclined to bless.

I trust anyone who ever receives a card from Susan Scold will now know that it’s an off-the-rack cheap industrial-strength corporate-approved-for-distribution card and reciprocate accordingly. Furthermore, the recipient of the card should also appreciate that Susan Scold has little patience with xmas crowds, so it is unlikely that she has sufficient patience to browse through the 100 or so off-the-rack cards to select the one she thinks will most closely suit the recipient.

Susan Cole suffers from a self-inflicted disability. Her lack of creativity (mediocrity) is an unfortunate result of her pathological piety to the conforming pressure of politically correct orthodoxy.

THE WAL-MARTYR: DEDICATED TO BARBARA HALL & JENNIFER LYNCH

Infidels
apostates
blasphemers
fornicators
& general all purpose unbelievers
I am your terrorist for tonight
I am a weapon of Hamas destruction,
A mani-infestation of the Ku Klux Koran
I am here to blow you away
With the force of my faith

I am a smart bomb
You Children of Crusaders
think you have smart bombs
You have dumb dumbs
I am a smart bomb
I can loiter, backtrack, choose my moment
Your smart bombs cost millions
I cost the liberation of my soul
You are a stupid people

I am a stealth bomber
You Children of Crusaders
think you have stealth bombers
you don’t; you have wealth bombers
I am a stealth bomber
because I am an invisible minority
invisible to your assorted profiling systems
I can penetrate your insecurity systems
enter subways, discos, board buses,
Your stealth bombers cost billions and billions
I cost the liberation of my soul
You are a stupid people

Your Norad cannot detect me
even though I am in your schools
in your parks, in your malls, in your suburbs.
You are a stupid people.

Your NATO cannot stop me
though it is the most poetent gang in the world
with its fly-by shootings & inconsequential collateral.
You are a stupid people.

You love to live
We love to die
You love your bonds to the temporal
We love our wings to the eternal
You kill to live and make hell on earth
We kill to live and earn eternity in heaven
We kill to purify the earth of infidelity,
the Abomi Nations of Western Wickedmess
Your democrazies have liberated licentiousmess only
the widespread eagled dishonouring of your women
with their nakedmess
& unveiled gynecological generosities
with the perversonality of homosexual culture
you want to shove up our culture
with the Uniperversal Declaration of Unhuman Rites
You are a stupid people.

I am of the people of the God Squad
who will avenge your idolatries and idollartries.
We will bring down all your Manhatten man hatin’
towering boners of banality.
You are a stupid people

Your sons say,
“Daddy, I want to be pathetically correct when I grow up.”

Our sons say,
“Father, I want to be a Wal-martyr when I blow up”

Your sons say,
“I want to ejaculate.”

Our sons say,
“I want to detonate.”

I am an apostle of the Universal Declaration of God’s Rights
I am a weapon of Hamas destruction
I am here to blow you away with the farce of my faith
I am the price of your freedom
And I will make you pay
God is the greatest!
Allahu akbar!
ALLAHU AKBARBARIAN!!!!!

WALLY KEELER OVERDOSES ON FREE SPEECH

TORONTO POETS WANT FREE SPEECH, ALWAYS

A mani-infestation of the policy of Poetry Proliferation & Proselytization. Free Speech facilitates Poets expanding the imagine nation. George Orwell wrote: "The imagination, like certain wild animals, will not breed in captivity." Free Speech is twice the fun of censorshit. Free Speech is tough on bad ideas.

Note the placards being raised:
LIVE UNCENSORED,
WE WANT WIT,
POETRY IS POETENCY,
DOWN WITH DULL.

2008 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD FOR POETRY VIA FREE SPEECH

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It was announced this morning that Jacob Scheier has won the Governor-General's Award for Poetry (English). Poet Scheier, currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, won for his anthology, More to Keep Us Warm. (ECW Press). The citation for his work reads: "More to Keep Us Warm invites the reader into a world of hope, pain, laughter and forgiveness – elements that reconcile the human drama through the power of love and sheer poetic invention. With deep affection for his work, Jacob Scheier manages his debut collection with precision, grace and stunning metaphor." The jury for the English poetry award consisted of Di Brandt (Brandon, Man.), Pier Giorgio Di Cicco (Toronto), and Connie Fife (Nanaimo, B.C.).

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS CAN HANDLE FREE SPEECH -- SO CAN YOU

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ROBERT PRIEST TAKES OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO POETRY

My long-time poetent friend, Robert Priest is a poet, playwright, song-writer, and novelist. An exhibition of his vast imagination and poetic skills can be seen in these videos.

Robert Priest also known as Dr Poetry on CBC’s Wordbeat has performed his exciting mix of poems and songs all over the world. His words have been debated in the legislature, posted in the Transit system, quoted by politicians, turned into a hit song and widely published in text books and anthologies.

The author of fourteen books of poetry, he won the Acorn People's Poetry Award for his now classic Mad Hand (1988).

In his alias as Dr. Poetry he wrote and performed thirteen segments for CBC radio's spoken-word show Wordbeat.

As a songwriter, he co-wrote the number one hit, Song Instead of a Kiss,for Alannah Myles. You may even have seen him recently singing topical songs on CBC Televison's Sunday Night News.

He teaches a lyric-writing course at U.of T.'s School of Continuing Education. His Aphorisms have already appeared in The Farmer's Almanac, and Colombo's Canadian Quotations.His musical play Minibugs and Microchips received a $25,000.00 Chalmer's Award.

His novel, Knights of the Endless Day got an 'Our Choice Award; from the Canadian Children's Book CentreBoth of his books of poems for children: Daysongs Nightsongs, and The Secret Invasion of Bananas are on the CBC's recommended reading listAs a teacher/workshop leader he has been described as "Ontario's most popular poet in the schools" by Today's Parent Magazine.

INFIDEL BLOGGERS AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Click on image to go to Infidel Blogger Awards

Not enough satire in your diet? Then quit grinding your teeth and mosey on over to the Infidel Blogger Awards. Completely unscientific; friends, family and business associates can vote. Lots of selections -- very pro-choice. Choose your winners and losers, whinners & hosers.

Exercise your freely selected choice by voting. Put down that turkey baster, set aside that executive decision, neglect your children for a brief spell, and vote. The community of infidels, fornicators, blasphemers, and apostates await your hip-jerk response.

ONTARIO COURT OF APPEAL HEARS ARGUEMENTS ON CRIMINAL POEM

Last year, November 23, Royson James wrote a column for the Toronto Star entitled, Councillors need lesson on economy. His column is a litany of wrongs, and ends with the call: “Councillors should be hanged, one a day, at noon, in Nathan Phillips Square. Charge admission. We'll net enough money to pay off most of our civic bills.”

Mr James was NOT charged and convicted of uttering a death threat. But Antonia Batista, 76, was. He was convicted last year of uttering a death threat in a poem.

A complaint had been made by Ward 9 Mississauga Councillor, Pat Saito, after Bastista posted 5 copies of his doggerel poem on utility poles in his neighbourhood complaining about Saito’s obsession with potholes. The poem, lyrically entitled, Parked Cars and Potholes in the City of Mississauga, contained this “death threat”:

Pat pot, patch pot
Look here look there
Pat pot patch pot
There is a car parked here
There is a car parked in there
This kept a Good looking lady from her
Working place and
By looking at pot holes She
Thought about doing
Nothing and winning the Race
When she got to Churchill Meadows
She was out of the Race
But She was too far behind in
Her work, and without thinking
She backed up and without making
Sure that it was safe to do so
She provoked a big accident
We are going to dig a pothole
About six feet long and three feet wide
And five feet deep to hide
Her body and God will take care
Of Her Soul, but We cannot
Forgive her for doing nothing
She can keep running
At a good pace but
We will make sure that she is in HEAVEN
And out of the Race
So please God take care
Of this SOUL forever and
EVER

But, but, this is satire, ain’t it? University of Toronto literary prof., Dennis Duffy, testified that he regarded the poem to be satire, adding; “Many of the great satires are in foul taste, and that is where they get their effect." Justice James J. Keaney briefly explained that because Batista did not have a high level of education it was unlikely he could know what satire was and therefore he could not have written the poem in jest. Councillor Saito, when told of the conviction, said she was “glad the poem was recognized as a death threat.”

Batista's lawyer, Clayton Ruby, stood before the Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday, and said the convicting judge was an expert in law, not in literature. He said the Justice Keaney mistakenly believed that he knew what satire was, thereby striking a blow against freedom of expression.

Ruby argued, “This judge did not realize that his training was in law, not in literature. There is no sign that this judge exercised the requisite caution that flows from the fact that this was political speech. We protect not only good and popular expression, but also unpopular and even offensive expression."

Exerpt from Globe & Mail:
However, Crown counsel Megan Stephens argued that no reasonable person could mistake Mr. Batista's poetry as being anything less than a serious threat to the well-being of a vulnerable political figure. She said that while being interviewed by police, Mr. Batista showed genuine anger toward Ms. Saito - proving that he had not merely satirized her in good fun.

Ms. Stephens also argued that Judge Keaney was perfectly capable of understanding the meaning of satire without having an expert explain it to him. "It is implicit in his reasons," she said. "He was aware of this evidence, but he did not find it overly helpful or necessary."

At one point yesterday, Judge Sharpe wondered aloud about whether Mr. Batista's writing really required expert analysis. "I want to be fair to your client, but I don't think he would describe himself as one of the world's great poets," he observed.

"Whether you are good, bad or indifferent, experienced or inexperienced, it is important to understand satire in its context," Mr. Ruby replied. Mr. Ruby also noted that a would-be murderer is unlikely to post death threats in public.

Late in Mr. Ruby's presentation, Judge Lang noted that the legal test Judge Keaney was bound to apply in the case involves whether a reasonable person would perceive Mr. Batista's poem as a death threat. "The reasonable person is not trained in literature," she said. "I'm still having trouble with your argument."

"The reasonable-person test does not in any way negate the use of expert evidence," Mr. Ruby countered. "You would want that person to have as much information as possible. Once you understand satire and what it is, this is clearly satire."

The court reserved judgment on the appeal.

Sources: Globe & Mail, Globe & Mail editorial, Toronto Star.

FREE SPEECH CAN IMPROVE PEOPLE

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FREE SPEECH TWICE THE FUN OF CENSORSHIT

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POETRY GROUP BANNED FROM PUB

Poetry group banned from pub by council on health and safety grounds

A poetry group has been banned from performing in its local pub on health and safety grounds after the council said the landlords had the wrong licence.

By Stephen Adams 30 Oct 2008
The Royal Standard in Ely, Cambs, has been threatened with a £5,000 fine because it only has an entertainment licence for singing and not speaking.

More here: The Telegraph

JACOB SCHEIER DISPLAYS HIS VEHICLE FOR ELOQUENCE

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FREE SPEECH IS VOLUPTUOUS

JACOB SCHEIER ALWAYS KEEPS ELOQUENCE ON HAND

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Jacob Scheier is currently short-listed for the Governor-General's Award for English Poetry.

Muslims Attack British Art Gallery

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Gallery attacked over 'insulting' artworks By Arifa Akbar, Arts CorrespondentThursday, 30 October 2008

A gallery showing inflammatory images of veiled Muslims, including a bare-breasted woman partially clad in a burqa, is under police surveillance after being attacked earlier this week. Windows and doors at the SaLon Gallery in west London were smashed after a series of abusive, anonymous phone calls and angry protests about the images from Muslims. The gallery has complained to police.

Rest of story here.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF NICE

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FREE SPEECH BREAKS OUT AT CANZINE

FREE SPEECH breaks out at Canzine.

Canada’s largest festival of zines and the independent arts was held at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street West, when a unit of verse of the universe of the imagine nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry trolled the gathering to implement the Papers Please program.

Canzine is organized by Broken Pencil, a zine of indie zines. Over 150 zines from across Canada on display and for sale! The heart of the event, indie publishers both in print and online come from across the country and the continent to show their wares! Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness.
High Heels Lo Fi (Mandy Wells on bass, Cynthia Gould on guitar, Patricia Humphreys on drums, Paisley Rae on guitar) took a few moments out from their hectic day to display their FREE SPEECH.

One of the rooms was dedicated to the entertainment of the High Heels Lo Fi, a hot-saucy group of girls, a bunch of babes, wanton wits, plucking strings attached in the chord of F U in FUN. It reminded me of the opening stanza of The Shooting of Dan McGrew:

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.

Their music is a cocktail of poetry and blues, with garnishs of glam, rock, cheese, booze, and hilarity - with pink accessories. The audience for their performances grew as the day lengthened, proving that pinko is not just a watered down communist. One of the leading luminaries of High Heels Lo Fi is Cynthia Gould, a performance poet, among other cultural activities. Her poetry has raw intensity married to a brazen honesty highlighted with a sense of humour. The following poem taken from ‘some words spoken’ is a fine example of a ‘fallen’ woman redeeming herself in a poem, a boozed broken heart rising from the debris of stars.

gutter stars

Don't tell me that you understand me
when you don't know all of the gory details
and the few you have an inkling about make
you nervous.

Don't tell me that you're listening to me
when every word from my mouth is
filtered through your mind's interpretation
of what I meant to say.

Don't tell me that you know where I'm coming from
when even your nightmares
could not resemble
the places I've crawled out of.

Don't tell me that you only want to see me happy
when you could never believe
that the moment I learned how to be happy
I was listening to glass shatter across the street
as the boy who had been my lover my love five minutes before
threw a bottle in rage
the contents of which were
the reason why I was lying on the sidewalk
he stomped away over the icy glass
which, like my heart, was smashed beyond repair
and I lay on that cold pavement
more alone than I had ever been before
in the rich neighbourhood between the skiddy bar
and my apartment
and I cried sobbed screamed
not thinking that someone might call the cops
not thinking of how I could possibly crawl home from there
not thinking that I was a glaring target for any sort of attack
not thinking of anything but my own miserable self
when I finally looked up past the gutter,
past the buildings, dark trees
I saw the stars.
twinkle tiny dancing magic sparkles
put there a zillion years ago
just to brighten my black black night right now
in the midst of my tragic loneliness,
they made me a little bit happier

Don’t tell me that you understand me
When you haven’t seen the stars from the gutter
And realized that it is me and me alone who
Decides whether or not I will be happy.

Canzine is largely a tossed salad of a cultural manifestation in its infancy. This is the place where emerging artists, poets, and other morphs, display their talent for the first time. It’s a place where one can acquire new publishing concepts and techniques, a sort of honing of craft. It’s a place where mediocrity, and there’s plenty there, does not rise above its current level. It is the very few genuinely creative talents that make their entry level display that makes a couple hours of browsing so worthwhile.

Canzine also has a few regulars, some that return to their roots, speak the same genre, such as CAROUSEL which is a unique gallery of page poetry/art that is being displayed in art: CAROUSEL is art itself.

But there is also a grand daddy publication which continues its efforts to be relevant after thirty years of publishing, FUSE, a magazine of “a diverse community of visual and performing artists, educators, community workers, writers, activists, organizers, policy makers, social thinkers, curators and other movers and shakers. Together we produce a quarterly magazine on art, media and politics.” FUSE magazine has enjoyed state financial assistance throughout most of its lifetime. As a recipient of government arts largesse, FUSE continues to be obedient to government standards as set forth and enforced by various human rights commissions throughout the nation. FUSE follows the government line in this regard.

This was a decent young man. No I have no idea what it is about. He was flogging his literary/drawings as displayed before him. I didn’t open his publications. I didn’t ask him about the outfit. I pretty much wanted a picture demonstrating that Roswellians can also have a say. I must have been nervous holding the camera.

I was still nervous when the minders of Steel Bananas pulled out their FREE SPEECH cards. They bought 300 hundred bananas for the occasion, from Price Chopper. So they exercised FREE SPEECH by handing out bananas bearing their website url. She selected a banana. Held it towards me. "This big one's for you." What a flirt.The Toronto Comic Jam, is a ‘gathering of artists, doodlers, and creative-minded people.” The group could be 10 or 50 people, each one contributing a square drawing to a developing comic zine. There is no dominant style, although there can be varying levels of drawing skill exhibited by individuals. It is a collaborative art formula that has yet to produce a masterpiece. Largely the process is a vehicle for community where each member encourages others and perhaps inspires one member to go off on a fruitful tangent. It’s fun.

Is she a teacher-assistant at a private elementary school? a tutoring student at a branch library? An articling student doing a survey on reactions to her colouring book? a brazen sweet young thing that enjoys illustrations of explicit erotica. The table top is strewn with crayons. Kindergarten for bedtime. Brings out the inner Lolita. It’s the Jenna Colouring Book put out by Yard of Blonde Girls, Inc. FREE SPEECH gives good oral tradition.

Stuart Ross, a Toronto fiction writer, poet, editor and creative-writing instructor, and co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair, displays his FREE SPEECH with complete aplomb – he is the only one to display without using his thumb as a support digit. As poet, Al Purdy would say at the Quinte Hotel, “That oughta be worth some beer.”

Team Macho makes art, displayed on their website, and they show up here to display the fruit of their FREE SPEECH.

A. Jeminez and R. Eddington had a room of their own. They placed photographic postcards of urban landscape images on narrow poles, then invited guests to throw a styrofoam golfball at the card. Knock it off – it’s yours. Of course. It was only natural that FREE SPEECH found its place amongst the pylons.

And finally ...

Westin New York

Westin New York, originally uploaded by Fenfotos.

censorship -- OFF
free speech -- ON

ROBERT PRIEST BREAKS OUT OF THE MOLD

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ROBERT PRIEST: FREE SPEECH IS SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT

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Canadian poet, Robert Priest, has been utilizing FREE SPEECH ever since the first vowel drooled down his chin into his pablum bowl. Robert Priest is a well-endowed poet, belonging to the club of one-percenters with well-hung imaginations. He is the author of charming bon mots:

"Turn the other cheek or I'll turn it for you."

TURKEY PM HAS DAMAGED MORALS

Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won a claim of ‘moral damage’ against satirical magazine, LeMan.

MUSLIM POET BUSTED FOR APOETASY

Islam Samhan, poet and journalist, was placed into custody this week for publishing a book without government authorization, and for blasphemy.

Islam Samhan, 27, whose name translates as ‘Tolerant Islam’, published a collection of his poems several months ago. The volume of poetry, In A Slim Shadow, received a web site criticism that the volume insulted Islam.

Suha Philip Ma’ayeh, Foreign Correspondent for The National, wrote:

“Noah Alqdah, Jordan’s grand mufti, the kingdom’s highest religious authority, called the poet an apostate and enemy of religion for his poetry, some of which included lines comparing his loneliness to that of the prophet Yusuf in the Quran.”

All copies of his book had been removed from bookshelves throughout the country. Samhan claims innocence, claiming the defence of metaphor.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics asserts that metaphor is a “a condensed verbal relation which an idea, image, or symbol may, by the presence of one or more other ideas, images or symbols, be enhanced in vividness, complexity, or breadth of implication.”

.
Abdullah Hammoudeh, head of the Jordanian Writers Association’s freedoms committee, attended Samhan’s initial court session, and afterwards, said that Samhan “explained in court that there were verses from the Quran because it was in Arabic, which is the language of the Quran… and when he used the word ‘gods’ in his lines, it was a reference to the Greek mythology because the word God cannot be plural in Arabic.” So there!

References:
Writer charged with insulting Islam
Reporting for the L.A. Times from Beirut
Calls to release Jordanian poet
Jordan detains poet for religious crime

HOLY DUCK

HOLY DUCK, originally uploaded by nutfield2.

Holy Quaker – Walks on water.This little fellow got fed up with his arse getting all soggy and wrinkled - So he's decided to think outside the box - Become a pedestian - And waddle along on the surface instead! - He's the envy of all his friends.

FREE SPEECH IS TOUGH ON BAD IDEAS

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PAPERS PLEASE. A passerby on Queen Street West, downtown Toronto, was intercepted October 4, 2008 by elements of the Canadian Humiliation Rights Commission, who were monitoring the creative manifestations on display at Nuit Blanche. The passerby held out his FREE SPEECH card with the smug insolence that it has the same effect on the bad idea of censorshit that a cross has on a vampire.

Tarek Fatah posts a YouTube clip from UK

Saudi school in UK teaches "Jews are monkeys and Christians are pigs"

Tarek Fatah wrote:

Friends,
Watch this newcast clip about the curriculum of a Saudi school in UK. These Saudi textbooks are also available in US and Canada, but no one dares to challenge this hate material. Someday someone will have the courage to join the MCC in its lonely fight against the Saudi and Iranian hate machine that thrives in our schools and universities.

Watch the official from the school squirm, obfuscate, dodge, etc. Free speech armed with truth is the best weapon against bigotry.

A REASON WHY I ADMIRE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

A FREE SPEECH PORTAL

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Shopping for the State of Free Speech? Drop in on this site maintained by Bostom College for links.

FOUND POEM: FREEDOM ASSERTED

There is a turbulent intelligence emanating from a group of unlikely allies. I like to regard them as FREEniks.

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. . . . . They re-verse

. . . . . the per-verse

. . . . . of the in-verse.

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They have set off a trend. Blazing Cat Fur is a very good starting point. Link & lock, emit...

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I am a free Canadian

I am a Canadian,

a free Canadian,

free to worship

God in my own way,

free to stand

for what I think right,

free to oppose

what I believe wrong,

free to choose those who shall govern my country.

This heritage of freedom

I pledge to uphold

for myself

and for all mankind.

. . . . --Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, from the House of Commons, Debates (on the Canadian Bill of Rights), July 1, 1960.

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POEM MOULD

Poem mould, originally uploaded by mamzellenix.

This project by mamzellenix is exceedingly compliant with the Policy of Poetry Proliferation & Proselytization of the imagine nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry. Poetry is an expansionist state of mind. This project marks turf for the expanded poetic imagine nation.

The Ministry of Extrodinary Affairs has been instructed by the Poetburo, for the benefit of all units of verse of the uniVerse, to declare this project as an example of POETRY IS POETENCY!

FOUND POEM: TRANSCRIPT, UNITED FLIGHT 93

A poem configured from excerpts from the cockpit transcript of United Flight 93. This poem is part of the series, entitled: I Slam A Phobia.

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FREE SPEECH IS NOT A MINOR MATTER

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Dozens of Canadian citizens displayed that they have FREE SPEECH at Nuit Blanche, the dusk2dawn art thing that dominates downtown Toronto. At times, people waited in line to be photographed with their FREE SPEECH for this blog. The camera ran out of power. Perhaps, next year I will set up a backdrop, lighting, power supply, and spent the entire documenting the thousands who would be willing to display that they have FREE SPEECH. In meantime, go visit I HAVE FREE SPEECH blog to tour the many people who have FREE SPEECH.

PREVENT MEDIOCRITY: BLANCHE NUIT

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Toronto is hosting it’s second BLANCHE NUIT, (Oct 4-5) the dusk to dawn art thingie, when imagination and originality go street-side or curb side. Last year, Wally Keeler, dressed up as a suicide martyr (from his poetry performance, The Wal-Martyr) and took a stroll along Queen Street West, which culminated in police intervention. The episode was documented by poet, Robert Priest, in this NOW story.

This is the Wal-Martyr hanging with some Beaver in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, before embarking on a stroll along Queen West. The stroll attracted an entourage of paparazzi, and eventually, the Toronto police, who assured themselves that the Wal-Martyr was carrying nothing more explosive than metaphors, and released his imagination back into the wild.

This year, Wally Keeler will be setting up a video camera in Trinity-Bellwoods Park (west end, facing Queen West, against wall of building) and inviting poets, poetasters, poetry lovers or sluts, to take a stand against mediocrity and pledge their allegiance to Poetry. Each unit of verse will be required to stand in front of the camera (head & shoulders only) and recite the following:

. . . . .. . .“I, (YOURNAME),
. . . .SWEAR TO SPEAK POETIC,
. . . .. . . WHOLLY POETIC,
. . . .AND NOTHING BUT POETIC,
. SO HELP ME (NAME OF FAV POET).”

Mr Keeler will also be requesting people pose with their FREE SPEECH cards and recite:

"I (YOUR NAME), HAVE FREE SPEECH BECAUSE ..."

Mr Keeler will be vacating the space from 9:45pm through to 11:00pm to attend a poetry show at the Bovine Sex Club, then returning to the Trinity-Bellwoods Park site to complete the project, until my equipment exhausts its power supplies, or until I exhaust my power supply, which ever comes first.

IF IT'S WORTH DYING FOR ...

LOSS OF LIFE ON COBOURG BEACH

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It was natural.

It was organic.

It was unrelenting.

TAREK FATAH: THE OIC DOES NOT SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS

A great Canadian, Tarek Fatah, recently traveled to Geneva and gave what-for to the Islamists attempting to infect the UN Human Rights Commission.

"I approach the issue of freedom of speech and freedom of expression embodied in the 1948 UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights as defending a treasured right that few of my co-religionists can dream off, let alone cherish or possess."
. . .
"To suggest that any criticism of Islamism, the political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Ayatollahs, is anti-Islamic is a bogus and fraudulent position. I would contend that my religion Islam demands that I stand up to these bullies and take away from their
right to put padlocks on poetry and chastity belts on independent thinking."

I was fortunate to attend his address in Port Hope late last week. Tarek has a charming wit, lives his life in the ambience of joy, and is a great soldier of the Eternal Vigilence Force.

EXPANDING THE IMAGINE NATION

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The above quote was taken from George Orwell's essay, The Prevention of Literature. This essay should be required reading in every secondary school in Canada.

NEIL BISSOONDATH HAS FREE SPEECH: DO YOU?

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Canadian author, Neil Bissoondath, was utterly Canadian as he displayed his FREE SPEECH card. Mr Bissoondath, was blind-sided by an agent from the Creative Intelligence Anarchy, who had bought a copy of Bissoondath's book as enticement to obtain his right fore-fingerprint. This was followed by a request to participate in a propaganda campaign: I HAVE FREE SPEECH. It is an act of cultural appropriation, and cultural assertion. Please drop into the I HAVE FREE SPEECH blog to see the individuals added as we go.

I HAVE FREE SPEECH; DO YOU?

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Feel free to download and print this card. (A hand-drawn reasonable facsimile is acceptable). The upper right hand corner of the card should bear the holder's right fore-fingerprint. Please have a picture taken of yourself displaying this card in any setting. Please send a jpeg or jpg image to this email: [poetburo@hotmail.com] to be uploaded into a new blog called I HAVE FREE SPEECH to serve as the gallery. Let's generate a node for anyone with a digital camera to display their support for FREE SPEECH. Send the picture attached to an email, with the subject line being I HAVE FREE SPEECH.

STANDING UP FOR SALMAN RUSHDIE

A 'MS GUIDED' VIEW OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

A bit of a blast from the past. The unrelenting farce of political correctmess makes me feel like a broken levee outside New Orleans. I took care in writing this letter to avoid identifying the gender of my child, but this did not stop the presumption of the enraged responder. Enjoy.

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CONGRATULATIONS, IT'S A MURDERER

The Cobourg Daily Star, Sept 9, published an editorial entitled, "Oh, the male of the species." The editorial was a response to an earlier letter I had written that had been published in the same newspaper. Local feminists are into fund raising to have a monument placed into the central park there. The monument is there to commemorate the women who had been murdered in Montreal many years back by Marc Lepine.

The editorial writer, Grahame Woods, is a retired mental-health counsellor and Gemini-winning television playwright. He wrote, "Marc Lepine very much represents men who, throughout history, up until this so-called modern day, have brutalized, raped, killed, battered, imposed upon, and, generally, dehumanized women as if it were their god-given right and..."

Of course I replied with the following letter. The red text was deleted by the Cobourg Daily Star before it was published today:

Section 13.(1) of the Human Rights Act declares that “It is a discriminatory practice for a person ... to communicate ... any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination”

Grahame Woods' screed displays all the characteristics of exposing men to contempt. He does not qualify any of his assertions with modifiers such as “many men” “a few men” “a significant portion of men” or such like. His assertion is that the mentally deranged murderer, Marc Lepine, represents men as an identifiable group, and produces a litany which depicts that men as an identifiable group are murderers, rapists, brutal savages throughout history.

Yep, the feminist doctor just delivered a baby boy and handed it to the mother saying, “Congratulations! It’s a murderer.”

But let us look at another litany, one that is a counterpoint to the dreary “boys and their toys” accusation of feminist peaceniks who portray women as natural born nurturers. This litany refers only to the present age.

It was under former prime minister of India Indira Gandhi's rule that India had a bloody shoot‑up with Pakistan in 1971. It was under her tutelage that India constructed and exploded a nuclear device.

It was under former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto's rule that Pakistan continued to lob artillery shells into India. It was under her tutelage that Pakistan continued its program to develop nuclear weapons.

It was under former prime minister of Israel Golda Meir's rule that Israel went to war with the Arab countries in 1973 on Yom Kippur. It was under her tutelage that Israel continued its construction of nuclear weapons.

It was under former prime minister Margaret Thatcher's rule that Britain went to war with Argentina in 1982. It was under her tutelage that Britain modernized its nuclear forces and invited U.S. nuclear weapons to sit on British soil.

It was under former Chinese leader Mao Zedong's rule that his wife, Jiang Qing, former leader of the Gang of Four, directed the Cultural Revolution, which caused countless deaths and degradation for millions throughout China.

War and preparations for war (a.k.a. defence) is firmly rooted in the maintenance and/or extension of power. Power is genderless. The capacity for evil, as for goodness, belongs equally to both men and women.

The problem with power extends to women in the home. An extensive study, Homicides of Children and Youth, is a publication of the U.S. Dept of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, reveals that 75 percent of children under age 6 are killed by women. The study also determined that child-killing women are hands-on killers – women are more likely than men to use their hands and feet as weapons to kill children (54 percent versus 22 percent). A 1988 study (Silverman and Kennedy) highlighted the fact that young, unmarried females are more likely to commit infanticide by suffocation or strangulation whereas older married females beat them to death.

Mr Woods ends his hateful screed with the following, “The shame is that most men, from the beginning of time, have remained and continue to remain silent, turning a blind eye, accepting, rarely speaking out against other males' abhorrent behaviour.”

The exact same applies to the dominant killers of children: women. And let us not forget that children are the most vulnerable and innocent of victims anywhere and at all times throughout human history.

It may come as astonishing news to Mr Woods, but malevolence exists in equal proportions in both genders, and it manifests itself in an unlimited number of ways – each of them as hurtful as the other. I believe in equality; I neither favour nor disfavour men over women, nor do I favour nor disfavour women over men.

FREE SPEECH DEFENDS ITSELF BETTER THAN CENSORSHIT

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CHILD'S PLAY: FREEDOM/LIBERTY CROSS

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NOW MAGAZINE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN DIVERSITY

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Well, I have to give credit for NOW magazine for publishing my response to Ms Susan Cole's venal column of the previous week. However, the credit has to be clawed back for the deletions removed from the letter. It seems that the magazine that likes to consider itself as edgey, is actually a scared little kitty kat. Below is the letter as I had sent it. I have bolded/reddened the text that was deleted. Not only do they delete, they deliberately distorted: note how they changed the word "recommending" to "reprimanding." Why, my goodness, NOW magazine has become as silly as the defunct Ontario Censorshit Board in days of yore.
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I am deeply impressed with Susan Cole’s hope that Yankee voters not lay off pregnant 17-year-old Bristol Palin, and to flog her “front and centre as an attack on anti-sex-education platforms.” It demonstrates quite clearly that Ms Cole will stoop to exploit an underage pregnant girl to further a political point. Ms Cole is an exemplary “progressive” role model for all feminists in this regard.

I have always been pro-choice. I have always supported officially-approved sex education, including abstinence as one of many options, so that young people can come to experience the joy of official pleasure with their official orgasms, but Ms Cole’s [Her] snake-belly abuse of an underage teen disgusts me.

I hear the Comedian Human Rights Commission, is flogging a pro-diversity policy concerning sex-education in our schools. They're recommending girls who cry out "Oh God! Oh God!" when having their official orgasms, should once in a while cry out "Oh Allah! Oh Allah!", to celebrate multiculturalism. Surely this is something Ms Cole could wrap her mouth around and moan the rainbow about.

Oh, excuse me, I hear the CHRC knocking at my door.