There's no place like home

That's it. I've had it. For the past decade or so, I've been assaulted by the whims of homophobic, sexist, racist, xenophobic, ethnocentric right-wingers.

I've heard them say absolutely outrageous crap, I've read their deluded rants, I've watched their insane, unethical, and fabricated "news" stories, and I've waved them off with a "Yeah, those are some crazy fuckers".

No more.

I've lived long enough now to watch the political pendulum swing a few times, so I knew that sooner or later, the pendulum would swing back from this radical pull to the right -- at times, I even thought: "Fine. Go on. Get crazy with it!"-- knowing that for every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action.

I don't know exactly what happened today, but, for me, this is that time. Reaction day has arrived.

If fundamentalist Xtians (I use this term consciously because I do not believe that anyone who espouses hatred, judgment, killing, etc. is actually a Christian -- any "real" Christians out there? -- you can consider yourself not included in this rant) -- if fundy Xtians have the freedom to claim that LGBT people are "less than", or sinful, or destructive, or threatening -- if Republican sock-puppets can claim that the media is owned and controlled by the "radical Left", and justify torture, and unlawful imprisonment, and wars predicated on lies -- if xenophobic, racist right-wingers can claim that illegal immigrants are over-running our country and ruining it -- if no less an august body than the presidential administration of the USA can dodge and weave and flout the rule of law -- and all of these people can do this while claiming that they are "protecting" my country somehow -- then I can speak, too.

...

From this moment forward, every time I hear some crap like:

1. Homosexuals are dangerous and want to subvert your kids to their lifestyle, OR
2. Women are already equal to men (and even have privilege over men), OR
3. Racism doesn't exist any more and isn't really a problem, OR
4. The media is controlled by the Radical Left, OR
5. Water-boarding isn't torture, and even if it is, sometimes torture is necessary,
6. OR, OR, OR . . . . .

I'm going to say: "No. That is factually incorrect, and I believe that you know that it's factually incorrect."

WASHINGTON, DC—According to a groundbreaking new study by the Department of Labor, working—the physical act of engaging in a productive job-related activity—may greatly increase the amount of work accomplished during the workday, especially when compared with the more common practices of wasting time and not working.

"Fucking around is in fact detrimental to the work process," the study reads in part.
...
Typical workplace activities, such as shooting the shit, turn out to be less productive than not wasting time.
...
A similar study conducted at Harvard University over a period of three years attempted to determine conclusively whether working was more productive than various different subsets of not working. The results showed across the board that working is 100 percent more productive than listening to music and checking e-mails, 100 percent more productive than meandering around the office socializing with coworkers, 100 percent more productive than playing online Sudoku, 100 percent more productive than watching YouTube videos of nostalgic childhood television programming, 100 percent more productive than reading celebrity-gossip blogs while chatting with friends on Instant Messenger, 100 percent more productive than napping, and 98.2 percent more productive than not showing up to work.

I'm Bill Wadman, a New York-based photographer who after completing my first 365 Project, and then a weekly 52 Project, has taken it upon myself to shoot and post one portrait every day of 2007. The photo will have been taken that day, and each day will be a different person. Some will be in the studio, some will be in the wild. Hopefully they will all be interesting.