I dislike that opponents of the Cordoba House have won in branding it the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ – more evidence that it’s mostly non-New Yorkers, who generally prefer calling it the ‘World Trade Center’.
I ventured out to take some Creative Commons shots of the protesters and supporters of Cordoba House, but there were only a handful of supporters when I arrived at noon. If people are not against Cordoba House and think it’s fine, they aren’t particularly enthusiastic with support. That would explain the lackluster support turnout. I would say there were about 500-1000 people who showed up for the actual protest.
These images may be re-used and cropped – they are licensed Creative Commons 3.0. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
This was the small crowd of supporters of Cordoba House.
Okay, the title of this post is a little hyperbolic, but some of these people are incredibly influential; they were, after all, on the red carpet for the 2010 Time 100.
Ashton Kutcher is one of my favorite celebrities. I’m not one of his Twitter followers, and I don’t rush to see what new thing he does (I just can’t keep up); but every time I hear about him or see his work, I like it. How can you not like someone who Sean “Diddy” Combs said this about on his Time 100 profile:
Most of us want to make as much money as we can, but Ashton, 32, is out to make the world a better place. He is smart — smart enough to leave Punk’d when he could still be making money at it. He has to have a heart in what he does. What he and Demi do with Twitter is a good example. Most people use it to promote themselves, but he uses Twitter to connect, to strike up conversations, to send positive messages to the millions of people who read his words. This guy will show us the future. And it’s gonna be a blast.
Here are some other couples portraits of those who were on the red carpet. All of these images are licensed Creative Commons 3.0:
No, Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg aren’t a “couple”, but they are both comedic powerhouses and I wanted to put this photo in some post. Samberg was a 2010 Time 100 contender.
The famous Palins, Todd and Sarah.
Karls Paul-Noel and “guest” (wife?) – I couldn’t find any other photograph of the two where she was identified. Paul-Noel was a Time 100. Rudy Guiliani wrote this about him: “Karls Paul-Noel, 53, is that kind of firefighter, and his compassion outranks even his bravery…. Less than 24 hours after the quake, Paul-Noel’s team was searching pancaked schools and houses, digging among smashed desks, cinder blocks and the bodies of the dead to find signs of life. His team found 11 survivors in Port-au-Prince, including four children.”
Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow. Mann is an actress who has appeared in many of her her husband Apatow’s films. Apatow was a 2008 Time 100 and a contender for the 2010 list.
Except for spotting weights as the work-out buddy of Cristiano Ronaldo (where he’d really open up while he lifted), I can’t think of a better way to spend a lunch hour than accompanying Joan Jett around Union Square as she approached strangers with PETA vegetarian starter kits.
The kits can be found in newsstands all around New York City.
Joan’s story can only be told in pictures, all licensed Creative Commons (with attribution):
Meet Joan. Joan’s a rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress. Kristen Stewart just played her in a highly-acclaimed movie about her life. No, she’s not 32, she’s 51, if you can believe that shit. Joan looks good. She has been a vegetarian for 20 years.
Joan has vegetarian beginner’s kits. She wants to give one to you.
To me?
Yes you, Hat. Joan asks, “Do you care about animals and your health?” Joan asks if he would like one of her kits. Hat gladly takes one and talks vegetarianism with Joan.
Now everyone is happy. Joan is happy. Hat is happy. But Joan does not yet see those women with strollers over her shoulder.
No matter where she goes, Sarah Palin overshadows an event. She certainly did last night on the red carpet at the Time 100 Gala, and she was amongst some pretty amazing people. I may not think much of her politics, but she sure as hell makes a good celebrity. The press couldn’t get enough of her!
I have so many photos from last night I am going to split them up in several posts. The people were pretty incredible; they deserve some individual words and multiple shot posts (including the one above with the First Dude). Until I get those up, here are some of the Big Names everyone knows.
All portraits are licensed Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 or 3.0 Generic.
I took my nephews to a massive pillow fight in New York City’s Union Square for International Pillow Fight Day. Roughly 150 cities were scheduled to participate in an event that is aligned with the so-called urban playground movement. Aside from the occasional crusty pillow and whiff of B.O., it was a blast (that’s me in the third shot). All images are licensed Creative Commons 3.0 (please link back here):
Last Sunday I met up with legendary writer Larry Kramer (who landed one of the toniest publishers for his magnum opus, The American People) and we did a few photographs, licensed Creative Commons 3.0:
So Eric Cantor is freaking out that a mentally-ill man, Norman Leboon, posted a YouTube video threatening him and his family. But Leboon is really not at the same level as the the Christian Militia terrorists, or even Joseph Stack, the anti-tax nut. His insanity was not focused.
See, Norman Leboon is megalomaniac and probably schizophrenic. In other words, he’s insane. Batshit insane, in the classic Apocalypse Now sense. It’s unfathomable that all of this occurred and yet the man was not committed to a hospital:
Leboon’s brother, Peter, said yesterday that his brother’s behavior had become so erratic in recent months that he also had notified the FBI after Norman Leboon posted one antigovernment YouTube rant.
“They dismissed it as no big deal,” Peter Leboon said.
Peter Leboon said he tried several times to have his brother committed to a mental institution, most recently before Christmas. [...]
Peter Leboon was concerned because his brother, who he said began showing signs of mental instability three years ago, had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
“The last time I tried to get him help, we searched the whole house, six or seven of us, we couldn’t find the gun,” Peter Leboon said. “I found the permit, though, and destroyed it. Whatever happened to that gun, who knows?”
Christina Wilson, 28, a neighbor, said FBI agents took Leboon away in shackles on Saturday.
That morning, Leboon was outside his house screaming at his neighbors.
“He was ranting and raving: He was going to blow everybody up on the block,” said Wilson, who lives two doors from Leboon.
“For the past two years, he’s been off his rocker,” Wilson said. “I’ve called the cops plenty of times.”
The police would take Leboon away, but never for more than a few hours, said James Hopkins, 39, brother of Leboon’s live-in partner, John Hopkins III.
“I’ve called the police for two years, and the City of Philadelphia has done nothing,” said James Hopkins, who lives across the street. [...]
According to Philadelphia court records, Leboon was arrested by police June 14 after he threatened to kill John Hopkins and slammed his face into a wall.
But at a July 28 hearing in Municipal Court, neither Leboon nor John Hopkins appeared, and Municipal Court Judge Frank T. Brady issued a warrant for Leboon’s arrest – a warrant that remains outstanding. [...]
“He’s made threats to Obama,” he said. “There’s threats to the pope. He threatens to stone him.”
The videos were made in Leboon’s kitchen on a desktop computer with a Web cam attached to the monitor, Hopkins said.
Wilson, who has three children, said parents would have to run out and grab their children when Leboon would come outside and start preaching that he was God.
Incredible! The real story, given all of the above, is how the Reagan era policies that led to the closure of federal mental health hospitals, and thus no place to put the mentally ill, have been a complete failure (they knew it back then, too).
The failure is still with us. Look at how many times Leboon, unstable and possibly carrying a gun, came into contact with authorities. Now what is likely to happen to him? He’ll be locked up in prison, which is the new mental health hospital. He clearly needs treatment, not prison, but that’s not the way we roll in the U.S.A.
The larger issue remains that our country has no functional way to deal with our mentally ill. It wasn’t just Eric Cantor that Leboon’s insanity focused on from his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Mayfair. As Wonkette sardonically wrote, “He threatened George W. Bush and Barack Obama and David Duke and Harry Reid and the talking pig-godBabe, and we did nothing.”
Here’s his threat to President Obama from November 2009:
So to all the Republican folks who jumped on this poor schizophrenic’s ramblings as damning evidence that violent extremism is on both sides of the political spectrum (read this gloating post at Gather.com), you might want to hold your pens. This guy is no more a liberal activist than he is the God of Enoch (which he claims he is).
Not just Obama – this woman was also selling John McCain and Sarah Palin condoms in Union Square today. Yes it was her: the Obamacondoms.com lady. All images licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.
Last night was a star-studded salute to one of the main reasons people pick up the Village Voice: Michael Musto, who has written for the newspaper for 25 years. Pick up his new book, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back, and you’ll be as enchanted by his acerbic wit as is the rest of New York City.
Below are photos from the celebration, all taken by David Shankbone and licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.
The folks at PETA are pure geniuses at marketing their cause: as of this writing, there were 314 stories on Google News about the Tiger Woods ad that they’ve barely used:
I dislike that opponents of the Cordoba House have won in branding it the 'Ground Zero mosque' - more evidence that it's mostly non-New Yorkers, who… »
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