As events in Eastern Europe continue to unravel and occupy the Obama administration’s attention, questions surrounding Afghanistan have supposedly stabilized. The Bilateral Security Agreement, which involves an explicit, adumbrated relationship between the United States and Afghanistan after the scaling down of American troops, remains unsigned to this day. Afghan President Karzai refused to sign the agreement toward the end of last year and the U.S. has had to wait for Afghanistan’s Election results before proceeding further. Without a clear winner in the Presidential Election, however, the waiting will continue until June’s runoff election.

Godzilla is back and he’s not alone

Three years ago, thanks to the Wexner Center, I witnessed something that few people in this country have had a chance to see: the original 1954 version of Godzilla. Unlike the Americanized edition that was released in the U.S., it had no Raymond Burr reporting on the mayhem for the folks back home. There were only thousands of scared Japanese citizens trying to avoid being crushed by a prehistoric creature that nuclear weapons had brought back to life.

It was a startlingly grim experience.

Now a special-effects veteran and relatively unknown director named Gareth Edwards (2010’s Monsters) has revived Japan’s favorite beastie. Though the overall tone is quite different, this Godzilla also has its share of grimness.

Last month, they emptied the storage locker and took all the displays to individuals’ homes. On Saturday, an immense funeral pyre consumed the
6,800 wooden tombstones.
 
Members of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition  (NWOPC) have decided they will no longer mount their “Arlington Midwest” memorial to the Iraqi and Afghan civilians and American soldiers killed in over a  decade of war and occupation.
 
It cost about $1,000 a year to store the massive display, but mostly it’s ending because for some time now, nobody with a highly visible acre of land has been willing to offer their property to set it up.  Fact is, when you ask people on the street, just about everyone says the  wars are over – except for a heartbreaking number who respond, “What war are you talking about?”
 

May is International Masturbation Month

“If you want something done right, do it yourself.”

Beginning in 1995, the sex toy store Good Vibrations began a celebration of self-love as a protest against the firing of the Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders. After a speech at the 1994 UN World AIDS Day conference, Dr. Elders was asked about masturbation as a way to discourage youth from engaging in partnered sex to avoid the AIDS virus. She responded, “I think it is something that is part of human sexuality and a part of something that perhaps should be taught.” She was forced to resign from working for the government.