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February
1, 2002
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
Francis
Schor
The
Strange Career
of Frank Carlucci
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 1,
2002
The Cover Up of Minnie Lou
by Dr. Susan Block
Seems ol' crabby, crafty Ayatollah Asscraft is
testing our ability to withstand his craftiness, and proving
himself to be every bit the Ass 'n' Ayatollah we were afraid
he'd be. Over the past few months, especially since 9.11, he
has been doing this in some serious life- and liberty-threatening
ways that have been covered (quite minimally, due to our miniscule
budget for political reporting here at the Dr. Susan Block Institute)
in these pages.
But Asscraft's latest destruction of
liberty and justice involves  suppression of liberty for the Spirit of Justice.
That is, he has ordered to be covered up a rather large, lovely
statue named the "Spirit of Justice" that has towered
behind American Attorneys General for some 70 years. With a set
of $8000 drapes (prudery isn't cheap), he has turned the Spirit
of Justice into the Spirit of Censorship.
See, the "Spirit of Justice"
is naked. Well, topless. Actually, half-topless. One breast (looking
to be a rather nice, round, C -cup complete with perky nipple)
is revealed, the other concealed by a Grecian-style tunic, giving
our Spirit of Justice gal just a bit more coverage than her male
counterpart, the "Majesty of Justice," who has nothing
but a loincloth sheathing his majestic manhood. These huge aluminum
statues were constructed during the 1930's under FDR, and were
strongly influenced by the Art Deco movement of the times, as
well as, perhaps, the taste of certain Democrats. According to
Beverly Lumpkin of ABC News, the lady statue has been fondly
referred to for years as "Minnie Lou."
Minnie Lou is not exactly a sexpot. I
imagine that the Art Deco sculptor who created her had more than
pure prurience on his or her mind. More of an Athena (Warrior
Goddess of Wisdom), than an Aphrodite (Sexy Goddess of Sex),
she exudes power and dignity. Minnie's partial nudity is part
of her power, her purity, her naturalness, her truth and thus,
her spirit of justice.
Now, thanks to the American Ayatollah,
Minnie and her counterpart (Mickey?) have both been covered up,
shrouded like ghosts, depriving the common people of our right
to even glimpse these glorious feminine and masculine symbols
of American Justice rising up out of the deep Depression in all
their shiny aluminum splendor.
What kind of prudish, priggish, self-conscious
ass would do such a thing?
Even former Attorney General Edwin Meese
didn't cover up the perennially half-topless Minnie Lou. Of course,
her gloriously bare boob did seem to mock the presentation of
Meese's report on his commission on pornography. Minnie Lou has
been in the Great Hall for over 70 years to remind us that the
Spirit of Justice is naked, at least partially.
Asscraft has already shown himself to
be awfully Ayatollah-like in his draconian Patriot Act, which
strips civil liberties from American citizens, and in his Torture-Lite
approach to the "detainees" at Guantànamo Bay.
Now he appears to be adopting the mullahs' mode of dealing with
the complexities posed by the human female body: Cover it up,
get it out of sight, and get on with the manly business of oppression,
power-grabbing and punishment.
I can just imagine him thundering to
his staff (pun intended): "If the Taliban can cover up their
women, then by God Almighty, we can cover up our half-topless
female statues!!"
After all, Ayatollah Asscraft is just
one man, and he can't run around this great gigantic country
of ours covering up the millions of bare bosoms of nudists, topless
dancers and sculptures throughout the US (though that's coming...).
But, by Jesus, he can cover up the flagrantly bare bosom of the
lady statue that towers over him during his all-important speeches
to pesky journalists and left-leaning photographers who like
nothing better than to snap a nice shot of Minnie Titty rising
above the dour Asscraft visage.
But $8000 for drapes? Whew, that's an
expensive burka.
I guess we should be grateful he didn't
blow Minnie up like the Taliban did the Bamian Buddhas.
But it makes you wonder: Does Asscraft's
cover-up of the Spirit of Justice signify his tendency to "cover
up" other things? Though the Spirit of Justice is more Athena
than Aphrodite, she is a beautiful, powerful woman. Covering
her and her consort up in this already Dark Age projects gloom
and oppression. Is that the message Asscraft wants to send? Or
is it that he just can't help himself?
Obviously, he's got a problem with nudity.
Now, I would never force a person to stand in front of a naked
statue if it really made him or her uncomfortable. But Asscraft
knew all about the Spirit of Justice when he accepted the job
of Attorney General. He shouldn't have taken the job if he didn't
like the trappings. But of course, one of the reasons Asscraft
probably wanted the job (other than the fact that he'd just lost
the Missouri Senator's race to a dead man) was because of his
driving lust to cover up Minnie and generally restrain all liberties,
except the freedom to pray.
Extreme prudery in any religion is fertile
soil for fanaticsm, just a hair's breath from terrorism. The
most successful and despicable alleged terrorist of our time,
Mohammed Atta, is a case-in-point for prudery gone amok. Here
was a man who wouldn't even shake a woman's hand (though there
are rumors of him hiring hookers), wouldn't even look at a woman.
A roommate's girlfriend taunted Atta by hanging a reproduction
of a Degas nude above the toilet in their shared apartment. Atta
tried to ignore it for a couple of months, then tersely asked
his roommate, not the girlfriend, to remove it. Many mysteries
of 9.11 remain to be solved, and surely there are a multitude
of personal, political and economic reasons why this atrocity
occurred. But one small yet powerful cause seems to have been
the deep anti-sex, anti-female feelings of this man, his abhorence
for women, for nudity, for Eros, for life. It is ironic that
the attack would put another sexual repressive of a different
religion into the spotlight, enabling him to grasp greater powers
than ever.
But, since irony is dead (long live irony),
it just seems sadly predictable. Thanatos leads to Thanatos.
Atta leads to Asscraft. Until a preponderance of us are fed up
enough to respond to Thanatos with Eros. Things seem pretty bleak
these days, but I believe we can do it, even now, in the depths
of our terror. Just as there's a little bit of yin in every yang,
there's always a little bit of Eros in Thanatos times.
I call upon some brave and crazy soul,
some truly patriotic citizen to run into our Hall of Justice,
tear down those $8000 drapes (gently, please, don't damage them)
and set the Spirit of Justice and her beloved Majesty free!
And if that's considered a terrorist
act, so be it.
Please send all comments, questions,
arguments and offers to liberties@blockbooks.com
Dr. Susan Block
is a sex educator, host of the Dr. Susan Block radio show, and
author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure. Visit her website
at: http://www.drsusanblock.com/
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