porn and Pynchon with some random shit

[Joseph Tracy]

I've been talking about the uses of"pornography" with a mildly  
negative tone, but I think the topic is complicated. Dictionaries  
talk about it as material depicting sex or the body in a way   
intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional  
response.  To me this could describe some subtle and delightful art .  
Anyway, sexuality is fully worthy of artistic interest.   The erotic  
becomes pornography  when words like prurient, commercial,  
exploitive, boring, and  empty all describe the material.  I think  
the word can be applied to violence or propaganda  or TV or many  
other things with equal precision. Some truths that the arts explore   
are pretty crude;  maybe drawing any lines is silly, but  I think  
Pynchon is probing at where the lines might be and why, and  he's   
doing so in ways that invite some serious consideration while we  
enjoy the ride in all its crude joking transgressiveness.  Isn't sex  
in fiction always more interesting when you care about one or both of  
the characters involved?

Is Doc Sportello kinda like Stencil and Benny united in a single dude?

Apparently some noble  US servicemen are defending the homeland by by  
risking life and limb to kill Afghan alligators and cut off their ,  
er , fingers and steal their hashish.

Published on Thursday, September 9, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
US Soldiers 'Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers  
as Trophies'
Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly  
murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war
by Chris McGreal
Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that  
allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected  
their fingers as trophies.   Five of the soldiers are charged with  
murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in  
separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up  
the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he  
reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish  
stolen from  
civilians.                                                               
                                            In one of the most  
serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict,  
the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a  
Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern  
Afghanistan.

"Through their extraordinary service they have written their own  
chapters in the American story, and by any measure have earned their  
place among the greatest of generations."    Barack Obama,  largest  
recipient of BP campaign money,  noble speechmaker,  Gold man sex  
pimp, potus, proud defender of the white house puppy, a sweet dog  
currently under dire threat from the Taliban, who would like nothing  
better than to potty train him on the holy bible.

  More fun porn yet to come!