A very different reckoning of photography's role in delivering the truth is offered by Clinton Fein, who repurposed photographic appropriation to make a series of works based on the pictures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that came to public attention in April 2004. A South African-born, San Francisco-based First Amendment activist, Fein hired models to reenact the notorious compositions (detainees piled in a human pyramid, forced to simulate fellatio, handcuffed to beds and bars in extreme positions), illuminated the tableaux vivants with penumbral and strangely intimate lighting, and displayed the enlarged pictures as high-quality chromogenic prints mounted on panel.

Oh, the predictability.

Just weeks after I wrote an editorial on my blog on the San Francisco Chronicle's website criticizing Matt Barber, of Concerned Women for America -- one of the first homophobic organizations to latch onto the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) press release relating to staph infections (MRSA) as evidence of the danger of homosexuality -- he has retaliated by quoting from a satirical article I wrote back in 2005 titled The Gay Agenda

In a column They Didn’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, Sunday, January 6, 2007, New York Times columnist, Frank Rich wrote that the Iowa caucuses served as a lesson that change -- not experience -- is what voters value most in this Presidential primary

I’m not one who is apt to repeat myself, but on the first day of 2008, the year America will finally elect a new president and – despite the lack of ideal choices – one that my just show a little more respect for not only the Constitution he or she is worn to uphold, but for American citizens, aliens (fabulous term, no?) both legal and illegal, and to global citizens who have a right to live each day without fear of being bombed, shot or tortured by the United States.

Not much to say about this loser that hasn’t already been said. The new rising star of the Republican presidential hopefuls is a former governor of Arkansas with a few choice attributes that make him the perfect Republican.

He equates homosexuality with pedophilia and necrophilia (perhaps an association made by spending too much time in Church), refused to retract his absurd 1992 comment that people with AIDS should be quarantined, and is one of those self-appointed soldiers for Christ, to whom the fringes on the religious right gravitate like flies to feces.

He is as corrupt as the day is long. As he censored art he deemed offensive, innocent men were brutally tortured with plungers shoved up their asses. As he preached sanctimonious drivel, he carried out a sleazy affair with another woman in the Mayoral residence, while his wife and children slept under the same roof. His conduct toward his wife, his second, at the time was so appalling his son doesn’t even support nor speak to him. He represents the absolute worst of everything that stinks about politics.

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein's decision to join Senate Judiciary committee Republicans in approving the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General is nothing short of disgraceful.

In a San Francisco Chronicle review of the new Ken Burns documentary, "The War," a seven-part PBS show about the Second World War, Steve Winn discusses the notion of patriotism -- how it was back then and is perceived now.

On Tuesday, I head to Beijing for the Opening of Art Beijing and the international debut of my exhibition, Torture. How China responds to content that may make officials uncomfortable, possibly evoking their own tendencies in certain areas, ought to serve as an interesting test of their commitment to free expression in the arts. If Chinese citizens are exposed to art that provokes and challenges governments on human rights issues, particularly the United States as in this case, I believe an incredible opportunity exists for opening a dialogue well worth engaging.

Since I would never find myself in the same position as Senator Craig, I tried to imagine what I would do from Sgt. Dave Karsnia -- the entrapper’s -- point of view, or if I was minding my own business in a bathroom stall and some strange, liver-spotted, gnarled hand swept across the underside of the stall. My guess is I would probably yank off the wedding ring, and walk out, making sure to flush first. Etiquette always.

But then again, if I was Sgt. Dave Karsnia, I would be too busy thinking about what to tell my family when they ask me how my day was, or what to tell my kids if they wanted to inform their peers what their father actually does as a "first responder."

In a recent blog post on The New York Times web site, Will the Real Hooded Man Please Stand Up, Errol Morris focuses on one of the most iconic images to come from the Abu Ghraib scandal – The Hooded Man -- and the extent to which a controversy over the victim’s true identity raises a more profound question as to what an image reveals or omits and how context shapes our understanding and interpretation of what is depicted.

Twenty one years ago I left South Africa. Apartheid, in full flourish, was the policy of a regime that was designed by those in power to ensure that they remained there. Ronald Reagan’s policy of "Constructive Engagement" helped to keep it going, providing a global legitimacy.

From 1978 to 1984, South Africa’s Prime Minister, P.W. Botha ruled like a dictator, responsible for the torture and murder of thousands, for which he refused to apologize, even after The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in post-Apartheid South Africa, found him responsible.

The most frightening coming out announcement ever made happened Friday, after the revered financial guru, Suze Orman, outed herself to Deborah Solomon in an interview for Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

 
Far more troubling than Britney’s haircut, was the Britneyesque comment Orman made which, itself, translated into global headlines. Not long ago, Ms. Spears told a legion of fans of a certain generation that she was a virgin, and thousands of young, gullible girls believed her.

In an inappropriately jovial press briefing, the President literally beamed with pride when asked what made him so "certain that the highest levels of Tehran's government is responsible." Leaning forward, he forcefully stated: "But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know, and what matters is, is that they're there. What's worse, that the government knew or that the government didn't know?"

Sometimes politeness is impossible. There are times when, no matter how hard I try, I cannot find the words without softening the visceral anger I feel when I'm treated like an idiot, and am expected to smile at the brilliance of the euphemisms, nod in appreciation of the circular logic, and go about my day as if Xanaxed into some robotic, flag-waving, brainless slug, lest I be branded un-American, unpatriotic or unsupportive of the troops.

I know one should use profanity judiciously in these diaries, so please believe me and understand that these are the nicest, kindest words I could find. To protect the squeamish, my image has been reduced to a detail, here above the fold, and the depth of my respect for this administration accompanies the whole image below the fold. Don't click on more if you aren't pissed off or are easily offended.

San Francisco’s media machine is in a tizzy over Gavin Newsom’s mea culpa. And given the above-the-fold attention its being given, it seems like the whole city is gagging over it, commenting, blogging and opinionating like nothing since a certain friend betrayed the confidence of another, and what would become the most talked-about blow job in history was revealed in what would become known as, annoyingly, Monicagate.

"My name’s Isaiah Washington and I am a bigot. My epithet of choice. Faggot."

It was perfectly timed. The same day Serena Williams stunned the world Friday, pulverizing the top-seeded Maria Sharapova to win the Grand Slam title in Melbourne, Australia, the decrepit, wheezing, dried-up cocaine addict and radio shock-jock, Don Imus, was wincing irritably over a bad telephone connection to Sid Rosenberg, the gambling crack-addict that was fired as Imus' sports commentator after making the following comment in response to singer Kylie Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis: "She won't look so pretty when she's bald with one titty."

You may recall, Rosenberg – in a comment that did not get him fired -- called Serena and sister Venus Williams, animals, better suited to pose for National Geographic than Playboy.