A Brave Best-Selling Writer Gets Me, He Really Gets Me

In the late 1950s and early 1960s when both sex and race were fiercely off-limits Robert Gover courageously breached both topics. He wrote a novel, One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding (1962), about a black prostitute and a rich white college boy. It was initially rejected by American publishers. Only after being successfully issued in Europe was it published in the States. The book then climbed to third on the New York Times best-seller list even though the newspaper refused to accept advertisements for it due to its controversial nature.

Gover’s work has not only enjoyed commercial success, but it has also earned the praise of such luminaries as Gore Vidale, Joseph Heller, and Bob Dylan. Another legend, Gover’s friend, Jim Morrison, wanted to direct and star in a movie adaption of Gover’s book, The Maniac Responsible (1963). Now in his late seventies Gover continues to eschew the commercial, the popular, and the mainstream by maintaining his own nuts-and-bolts website and writing about astrology.

I knew nothing about this man until he contacted me and offered to write a review of my book, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos. His wonderful review has recently been published in the literary magazine, Perigee. Although Gover writes that, “no major American publisher would touch [You Will Die] with a ten-foot pole,” he adds that, “given a decent promotional campaign, this book has what it takes to top the New York Times bestseller list for months.”

In favorably comparing my book to the amazing Alan Watts book, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), Gover writes:

The main difference between the approaches of Watts and Arthur is that Watts aims at self-enlightenment while Arthur aims at societal enlightenment. This difference reflects the different tempers of these different times, the 1960s and the first decade of the 21st Century.

I am honored.

Sources

  1. Robert Gover, “On The Way to a Fortunate Misunderstanding,” 2005. LINK
  2. Robert Gover, “You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos [review],” Perigee, Apr.-Jul. 2008. LINK
  3. Thomas Kennedy, “A Conversation with Robert Gover,” Perigee, Aug.-Oct. 2007. LINK

Dick Cheney Could Kick Your Ass

On March 17, 2008, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Baghdad. He was promptly greeted by a car bomb that rocked Baghdad and injured three people. Before the end of the day a suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in the neighboring city of Karbala, two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, and an exploding mortar shell killed five people on a Baghdad soccer field. Cheney used his visit to announce that the troop surge had accomplished “phenomenal changes” and that the US invasion was a “successful endeavor.”

Cheney has shown he is not above crass language in public. He agreed with President George W. Bush at a 2000 campaign event that New York Times reporter, Adam Clymer, was a “big time” asshole and on the floor of the US Senate in 2004 he told Senator Patrick Leahy to “fuck himself.”

And yes, he shot his friend in the face.

Sources

  1. Helen Dewar & Dana Milbank, “Cheney Dismisses Critic With Obscenity,” Washington Post, 25 June 2004. LINK
  2. Liz Sly, “Iraq Violence Greets McCain, Cheney,” Chicago Tribune, 18 Mar. 2008. LINK
  3. Jake Tapper, “A ‘Major League Asshole,’” Salon.com, 4 Sep. 2000. LINK

We’re War Pigs. So? You got a problem with that?

This cartoon stems from my amazement at recent comments made by Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and John McCain about the Iraq War. Their gall is breathtaking.

Its right column contains morsels I’ve heard from hawks in the past.

Just like with the Drug War, the Iraq War was precipitated by dishonest fearmongering (LINK to Bush’s Iraq Lies), suffering caused by the war is used to further justify the war, and the people making the money are behind it all.

Sources:

  1. For torture and murder claim see Richard Leiby, “Down a Dark Road,” WashingtonPost.com, 27 Apr. 2007, ret. 25 Mar. 2008. LINK
  2. Casualties were taken from AntiWar.com’s “Casualties in Iraq” page on March 25, 2008. LINK
  3. Costs taken from National Priorities Project’s “War in Iraq Costs” page, ret. NationalPriorities.org, 25 Mar. 2008. LINK
  4. Iraqi opposition was taken from a 2007 poll. A more recent poll could not be found. Gary Langer, “Voices From Iraq 2007,” ABCNews.go.com, 19 Mar. 2007, ret. 25 Mar. 2008. LINK
  5. American opposition and Dick Cheney’s response from Ken Herman, “Cheney’s Dismissive ‘So?’ on Iraq Prompts Swift Elaboration,” Cox News Service, 20 Mar. 2008, ret. TwinCities.com, 25 Mar. 2008. LINK
  6. George W. Bush’s no regrets from Ross Colvin, “Four US Soldiers Killed In Iraq,” Reuters.com, 24 Mar. 2008, ret. 25 Mar. 2008. LINK
  7. John McCain’s comment from Liz Sidoti, “McCain Says US Succeeding in Iraq,” AP, 25 Mar. 2008, ret. 25 Mar. 2008, news.yahoo.com. LINK
  8. In 2005 I received a lengthy e-mail forward damning Jane Fonda for her ideological treason during the Vietnam War.
  9. While listening to fundamentalist Christian radio several years back a Christian American soldier was interviewed during a segment decrying the negative coverage of the Iraqi War. He compared America’s involvement to Jesus Christ’s violence in the temple towards merchants.

The $1,000/hr Victim

This cartoon was created out of my disgust at an editorial in the New York Times by Melissa Farley and Victor Malarek, “The Myth of the Victimless Crime.” LINK For all the reasons presented in the cartoon above, they claimed that all prostitutes are victims – including Eliot Spitzer’s high end call girl.

I disagree with their assertions. My abridged arguments can be found in The Prostitution Legalization Primer, and a list of intelligent and proud sex workers, such as Norma Jean Almodovar, can be found in my Prostitution Hall of Fame.

In 2008 my feelings towards those that still believe sex acts by consenting adults require police intervention are the same as those expressed around 1900 by the mayor of Toledo, Ohio, who was exasperated by the inanity of forcing “rehabilitation” and prison on prostitutes:

Why is it constantly necessary to do something to people? If we can’t do something for them, when are we going to learn to let them alone? Or must this incessant interference, this meddling, this mauling and manhandling, go on in the world forever and ever?

For a view from the United Kingdom where the religious right and sex-negative feminists have less sway go to the following Guardian article, LINK.

Addendum:

In a New York Times letter to the editor one woman wrote:

In the various political roundtables this week, everyone seemed to agree, at least, on the “victimless crime” argument. I am shocked that the thoughtful, intelligent people (mostly men) on these shows are so comfortable with the idea that a woman would choose to have sex for money.

Do these people know any women? Can they really believe that this is a choice?

Yes, they do know women. Here are postings about Farley’s article by women who chose sex work, LINK & LINK.

Sources:

  1. Amanda Brooks, “Farley Saves the Day!” Bound, Not Gagged (Blog), 12 Mar. 2008. LINK
  2. Melissa Farley & Victor Malarek, “The Myth of the Victimless Crime,” New York Times, 12 Mar. 2008. LINK
  3. Karly Kirchner, “Melissa Farley Get a Life!” Bound, Not Gagged (Blog), 12 Mar. 2008. LINK
  4. Elizabeth Pisani, “Spitzer’s True Folly,” Guardian, 13 Mar. 2008. LINK
  5. Kathleen Reeves, “To The Editor,” New York Times, 13 Mar. 2008. LINK

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