War does set up a dilemma. People generally justify their enlisting to patriotic reasons - for those who aren't drafted - and then when they die, their families have the choice of believing their soldier died a hero or died in vain (or worse.) For most, that choice is easy. Even if it doesn't match reality. Anything that challenges that choice pushes a very strong emotional button.
Alaska Report blogger Dennis Zaki reports in an email that he keeps having problems with people using his photos without permission. I've written a bit here about photos and copyrights. It seems Dennis got ticked off enough with Dan Fagan for putting up his (Dennis') pictures without permission that he got Fagan's website (the Alaska Standard) suspended for a bit until the offending picture was taken down. Here's what I got when I went to Alaska Standard on Wednesday.
The site was back up when I checked on Thursday.
A final brief note. I saw in the LA Times yesterday a short piece on Levi Johnston's deal with Playgirl to take off his clothes. I'm a little sheltered here in the big city so I hadn't seen this bit of 'news' when it hit the ADN. With all the free nudes available on line, we know that Playgirl isn't just paying him for skin shots, but for Palin related skin shots. Let's see now - abstinence only education leads to teenage moms leads to teenage dad getting paid to pose nude. Isn't America great?
Speaking of skin shots, have you seen the latest Sports Illustrated "Body Issue"?
ReplyDeleteTotally nude baseball player Nelson Cruz, Bruins and Oilers hockey players, soccer players Oguchi Onyewu and Natasha Kai (her with tattoos, too), rock climber Steph Davis, rower Susan Francia, hurdler Lolo Jones, 3 LPGA golfers lounging on a golf cart, skier Kristi Leskinen, a bevy of motocross riders and poker players and another of Team USA softball players (one pregnant!), pro bull rider Shane Proctor on a fence facing a bull, the D.C. United soccer players (in a "Full Monty" pose...ewww) -- also tennis star Serena Williams (except for barely seen shorts), triathlete Sarah Reinertsen (except for her prosthetic leg and a thong)...
Levi Johnston has a hard act to follow.
You know what I think would be hilarious? If PLAYGIRL poses the real Levi Johnston next to a livesize Sarah Palin poster cutout, like the guys in the movie "Major League" did with the lifesize poster cutout of their female baseball club owner (stripping a stick-on piece of clothing off her every time they won a game).
When I go to http://www.thealaskastandard.com/, I still get bounced to a page at Bluehost (same hosting service I use) which announces "This Account Has Been Suspended." Same result if I try to go any Alaska Standard story found in Google Search.
ReplyDeleteKaJo - we probably ought to be exploring the whole issue of nudity and why it is 'bad.' I recall meeting people of the Karamoja tribe in Uganda who walked around totally nude. They took it for granted, even though they met lots of people with clothes. And how American kids used to get their only sanctioned views of nudity in National Geographic pictures of 'tribal' women's breasts. I understand clothes as a way of protecting the body from cold and thorns, but I think we've gone a bit overboard. So all these people feeling free and safe enough to pose nude is probably healthy. But it's not that easy. If they are only posing nude because they got big paychecks - especially those who wouldn't otherwise, that's not quite as healthy.
ReplyDeleteMel, when I clicked your link I got to Alaska Standard. I did yesterday too. Maybe it's just blocked in Alaska. :)