View allAll Photos Tagged decency

Juego de Cartas illuminati - Steve Jackson.

Governor Cuomo said. “Raising the minimum wage to $15 is at the heart of everything this state stands for – fairness, decency and justice for all working families,”

 

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

A Perfect Country, USA, made possible with the core values of freedom, human rights, innovation, hard work, collaboration, fairness, honesty, integrity, and decency.

 

Innovations in all fields of engineering and space exploration with core values as a guide, put the country past everyone else to the #1 spot in the world.

 

Even till today, any field in science or engineering requires the approval of an American Journal, Publication, or Society, to be considered bonafide and verified as the truth. In the Arts & Medicine as well, anyone trained and certified in America is considered better than anyone else in their respective fields. America has a power to verify the best in everything like no other country in the world. It is because, guided by the core values, America strives to be perfect in everything it does. And it does do many things perfectly.

 

The only space needed to be made perfect was for the owners of the land.

 

====

 

The 'system' is the 'Driver's Manual'... the rules of the road. This is law. This is what everyone agrees on without question. The laws of the road/drivng are such that they are extremly fair, keeps us safe, and are applied uniformly. This is what we call as a 'levelled system'. The playing field is levelled for all. It is fair. There are no grafts and nepotism, or partiality towards anyone. Result: Everyone is relatively safe and happy. You stop at stop signs and red lights. But you also 'disobey' the red light if an abulance or flashing siren passes. Why? Because an emergency over-rules the stop light. There is no fighting over these points. The law is well written, what action precedes what, in a given situation, is very clear. When you can make a right turn (in small towns), but you cannot make a right turn in a city, is very clear. No one disputes these rules. The reason is they are written to keep us ALL safe. It has nothing to do with sexism, racism, nepotism, whatever-ism. The 'system' of road safety is undoubtedly fair. No one protests against it. All drunk and drug offenders are taken to court. No one questions the fairness or unfairness of the officer who sends you to court. The law is clear. Your BAC determines if you will be detained or let go.

 

So also, media has the ability to see deep into the 'political system'. They know every detail about the system, where it is fair and where it is unfair. They can play a part in 'levelling' out the system almost better than any other group, if only they formed a union that wants to be an advocate to level the 'political system', and make it fair. Their reach into every system can 'level out' any system into complete fairness. But it must copy the successful framework/system of the rules of the road/driving, if it is to work correctly. This method can be applied to any system. Instead of just talking about it, you can yourself bring about the needed changes.

 

What would stop them from doing that? I don't know. But they can, they could, if they wanted to. That is their choice.

 

There's going to be people and groups that say, "We are already a country of laws and the law is equally applied all over, and all is well" There are others who will say "definitely not, some laws are absurd, and some are not equally applied". So that's where levelling comes in.

 

A clear example would be, there are some instances when the priority is lost. For example, when at a stop light, a flashing ambulance doesn't get the right of way. Why? Because its a stop light and we MUST stop no matter what. Because the law says STOP at a stop light. Now that can kill someone in an ambulance because the law was improperly written. These cases where priority is lost and the result is unfair, these must also be looked into, to level the system.

 

Finally, law and application of the punishment. That is the final system that needs levelling. There are other areas to look into as well. What are the causes of breaking of the law? Is it economic? What economic solutions can be put in place to avoid breaking of the law.... and so forth.

 

Hint: it isn't here ... or here ...

"Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage . . . to listen to his own goodness." -Pablo Casals

A car front ended our Ford Explorer today at Whole Foods!

Left a 2 Foot by 2 foot dent in the front bumper...And did not have the decency to leave a note!Hope they step in dog poo!

Clive Davis Pre Grammy Party 2009

 

All images copyright © Matthew Field 2009

 

p.s. if you are going to ignore my copyright and post my images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me and link them back to here, or i'll probably have to stop posting them here or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

  

Catching up on some back shots from the beginning of the year

 

On a walk around the Addington Cemetery with a wonderful Flickr friend. February 13, 2016 Christchurch New Zealand.

 

There is so much damaged in the cemetery because of the earthquake we have had. It is such a pity as I don' think it will ever be fully repaired.

 

The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858 when the Scottish Presbyterians of St Andrew’s Church purchased land for a cemetery in Selwyn Street. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first “public” cemetery, “being open to all persons of any religious community” and allowing the performance of any religious service “not contrary to public decency”.

 

The first burial took place on the 10th of November 1858. The cemetery has several persons of note buried within its grounds including activist Kate Sheppard, Christchurch Mayor Tommy Taylor and members of the pioneer family, the Deans.

For More Info:http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/addington-cemetery/

NORTHERN DECENCY

Container Ship IMO 9253296 built 2003 Liberia flag

Algeciras port

Spain

News.com.au ran a story about Banksy today. News.com.au didn't even have the decency to check all the artwork was actually by Banksy, let alone credit the photos to their respective photographers.

 

If this is your photo, you should write to News.com.au and complain.

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that has a divided back.

 

The rider is clearly of a higher class than the man leading the donkey. Note the wheel (water wheel?) in the background.

 

The Korean Gat

 

The man on the donkey is wearing the traditional Korean gat (Korean: Hunminjeongeum 갓)

 

A gat is a traditional hat worn by men along with hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) during the Joseon period. It is made from bamboo or horsehair with a bamboo frame, and is partly transparent.

 

Most gats are cylindrical in shape with a wide brim on a bamboo frame. Before the late 19th. century, only noble class men could wear gat, which represented their social status and protected their topknots.

 

Robert Neff of the Korean Times has written the following about Korean male headware:

 

'One of the most important articles of clothing for Koreans in the late 19th. century was the hat. The elderly man with his majestic black horse hair hat, often seen in pictures, is the iconic image of Korean male society during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1910).

 

According to Percival Lowell, an American who stayed in Seoul in the winter of 1883-84:

 

"No Korean can in decency appear

without it [hat], except only to make

room for some other hat."

 

It was a sign of manhood, "the most essential of attributes," and a badge of one's position in Korean society.

 

Lowell seemed amused with the difference between Korean and American culture. In the United States it was considered poor manners to wear a hat indoors, and one would rarely remove one's shoes, but the opposite was true in Korea:

 

"A man would part with any or all of

his clothing sooner than take off his

hat. On entering a house, he leaves

his shoes outside to await his return,

but he and his hat go in together.

As he sits down to eat, he divests

himself of his outer garments that he

may eat with greater freedom, but his

hat stays on; and so it sticks to him

through life ― a permanent black halo."

 

There were many types of hats. The iconic hat, the gat, was made from horse hair and bamboo and was black and somewhat transparent.

 

It had a fairly wide brim that in the past, according to popular legend, was much wider as a means of preventing unrest. Because of its wide brim, conspirators were kept apart, and were unable to whisper their plans to one another.

 

There was also a large mourning hat made from bamboo. It was designed to hide the face of mourners from others they might encounter on the streets. It was considered a grievous breach of etiquette to look into the face of the mourner.

 

Early French missionaries used the mourning hat to disguise themselves as they traveled the Korean peninsula before the 1880's. They were able to move about in relative secrecy for no one would attempt to communicate with a mourner.

 

Court officials' hats had slightly bent-forward ear-shaped horizontal wings. It was said they symbolized the wearer's attentiveness and willingness to "catch every word of command that the King may utter."

 

As Korea entered the 20th. century, there were many reforms forced on the population. Some were readily accepted and appreciated, but others, especially those that dealt with hair styles and hats, were vehemently opposed.

 

"A man is much more firmly bound to

his hat than he is attached to his wife.

He may put away the latter; without

the hat, life becomes a hollow mockery,

for the hat makes the man. Without it

he remains forever a boy."

 

Hats remained a part of male culture throughout the first half of the 20th. century, but have since disappeared. The only exceptions are those worn by elderly males in the Jongno area, or the bright colorful caps that young teens and adults wear while out with their friends. The "permanent black halo" is no more.'

 

How Japan Took Control of Korea

 

Erin Blakemore has written the following for history.com in 2018, and updated it in 2023:

 

In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.

 

Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean, and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed.

 

Topographical and other postcards of Korea were published with descriptions in Japanese text.

 

It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts, and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.

 

During the occupation, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 100,000 Japanese families settled in Korea with the land they had been given; they chopped down trees by the million and planted non-native species, transforming a familiar landscape into something many Koreans didn’t recognize.

 

Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were made to work in Japan and its other colonies, and as World War II loomed, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into life as “comfort women”—sexual slaves who served in military brothels.

 

Korea’s people weren’t the only thing that was plundered during Japan’s colonization—its cultural symbols were considered fair game, too. One of the most powerful symbols of Korean sovereignty and independence was its royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, which was built in Seoul in 1395 by the mighty Joseon dynasty.

 

Soon after assuming power, the Japanese colonial government tore down over a third of the complex’s historic buildings, and the remaining structures were turned into tourist attractions for Japanese visitors.

 

As historian Heejung Kang notes, the imperial government also attempted to preserve treasures of Korean art history and culture—but then used them to uphold imperial Japan’s image of itself as a civilizing and modern force.

 

This view of Korea as backward and primitive compared to Japan made it into textbooks, museums and even Koreans’ own perceptions of themselves.

 

The occupation government also worked to assimilate Koreans with the help of language, religion and education. Shinto shrines originally intended for Japanese families became places of forced worship.

 

Historian Donald N. Clark explains:

 

"The colonial government made Koreans

worship the gods of imperial Japan,

including dead emperors and the spirits

of war heroes who had helped them

conquer Korea earlier in the century.”

 

This forced worship was viewed as an act of cultural genocide by many Koreans, but for the colonists, it was seen as evidence that Koreans and Japanese were a single, unified people.

 

Though some families got around the Shinto edict by simply visiting the shrines and not praying there, others grudgingly adopted the new religious practices out of fear.

 

By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first, the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to prevent confusion in family registries.

 

But in 1939, the government made changing names an official policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.

 

At least 84 percent of all Koreans took on the names since people who lacked Japanese names were not recognized by the colonial bureaucracy, and were shut out of everything from mail delivery to ration cards. Historian Hildi Kang writes:

 

“The whole point was for the government

to be able to say that the people had

changed their names ‘voluntarily.’”

 

The Plundering of Korea by Japan

 

(a) Historic Korean Artifacts

 

Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items.

 

However the treaty was not definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections, as well as those originating in North Korea.

 

The size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun:

 

"35,000 Korean art objects and

30,000 rare books have been

confirmed to be there, too."

 

However that is only the tip of the iceberg: vastly more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

 

Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis. Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. states:

 

"It's almost impossible to trace the

provenance of centuries-old artifacts."

 

Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910, meaning that relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time.

 

To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section.

 

A lot of precious Korean artifacts are now owned by private Japanese citizens or organizations, which means that the Japanese government can’t just acquire them and hand them back to Korea. So, unless the Korean government offers to actually spend millions of dollars to buy back the artifacts, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.

 

As well as removing cultural artifacts to Japan, the Japanese also burned countless Korean government buildings and palaces.

 

(b) Natural Resources

 

The Japanese also removed vast amounts of Korea's natural resources, including lumber, rice, coal, iron ore and many other minerals.

 

The land itself was also appropriated by the Japanese; by 1910 an estimated 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily, and by 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership had grown to 53%.

 

Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations. Many former Korean landowners became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced upon them. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.

Werchter

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster supporting QOTSA in Reading, UK

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

News.com.au ran a story about Banksy today. News.com.au didn't even have the decency to check all the artwork was actually by Banksy, let alone credit the photos to their respective photographers.

 

If this is your photo, you should write to News.com.au and complain.

DVD 381

 

Humor, spectacle and magic rule in Walt Disney s legendary classic tale The Sword In The Stone now celebrating its 45th Anniversary with exciting new bonus features!

Embark on an adventure-filled quest for an unlikely hero! According to legend, only someone with honor, decency and inner strength can claim the throne of England by pulling out the enchanted sword that lies locked in a massive stone. Many brave knights have tried, so it seems impossible that a young apprentice known as Wart could succeed. But with the guidance of the wizard Merlin, help from some hilarious friends and true strength of character, Wart just might become England s greatest king.

News.com.au ran a story about Banksy today. News.com.au didn't even have the decency to check all the artwork was actually by Banksy, let alone credit the photos to their respective photographers.

 

If this is your photo, you should write to News.com.au and complain.

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was published by the Tokyo Design & Printing Co. of Kanda, Tokyo.

 

Kanda (神田) is an area in northeastern Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It encompasses about thirty neighborhoods.

 

Kanda was a ward prior to 1947. When the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23, it was merged with Kojimachi to form the modern Chiyoda.

 

The Korean Gat

 

The standing men in the photograph are wearing the traditional Korean gat (Korean: Hunminjeongeum 갓)

 

A gat is a traditional hat worn by men along with hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) during the Joseon period. It is made from bamboo or horsehair with a bamboo frame, and is partly transparent.

 

Most gats are cylindrical in shape with a wide brim on a bamboo frame. Before the late 19th. century, only noble class men could wear gat, which represented their social status and protected their topknots.

 

Robert Neff of the Korean Times has written the following about Korean male headware:

 

'One of the most important articles of clothing for Koreans in the late 19th. century was the hat. The elderly man with his majestic black horse hair hat, often seen in pictures, is the iconic image of Korean male society during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1910).

 

According to Percival Lowell, an American who stayed in Seoul in the winter of 1883-84:

 

"No Korean can in decency appear

without it [hat], except only to make

room for some other hat."

 

It was a sign of manhood, "the most essential of attributes," and a badge of one's position in Korean society.

 

Lowell seemed amused with the difference between Korean and American culture. In the United States it was considered poor manners to wear a hat indoors, and one would rarely remove one's shoes, but the opposite was true in Korea:

 

"A man would part with any or all of

his clothing sooner than take off his

hat. On entering a house, he leaves

his shoes outside to await his return,

but he and his hat go in together.

As he sits down to eat, he divests

himself of his outer garments that he

may eat with greater freedom, but his

hat stays on; and so it sticks to him

through life ― a permanent black halo."

 

There were many types of hats. The iconic hat, the gat, was made from horse hair and bamboo and was black and somewhat transparent.

 

It had a fairly wide brim that in the past, according to popular legend, was much wider as a means of preventing unrest. Because of its wide brim, conspirators were kept apart, and were unable to whisper their plans to one another.

 

There was also a large mourning hat made from bamboo. It was designed to hide the face of mourners from others they might encounter on the streets. It was considered a grievous breach of etiquette to look into the face of the mourner.

 

Early French missionaries used the mourning hat to disguise themselves as they traveled the Korean peninsula before the 1880's. They were able to move about in relative secrecy for no one would attempt to communicate with a mourner.

 

Court officials' hats had slightly bent-forward ear-shaped horizontal wings. It was said they symbolized the wearer's attentiveness and willingness to "catch every word of command that the King may utter."

 

As Korea entered the 20th. century, there were many reforms forced on the population. Some were readily accepted and appreciated, but others, especially those that dealt with hair styles and hats, were vehemently opposed.

 

"A man is much more firmly bound to

his hat than he is attached to his wife.

He may put away the latter; without

the hat, life becomes a hollow mockery,

for the hat makes the man. Without it

he remains forever a boy."

 

Hats remained a part of male culture throughout the first half of the 20th. century, but have since disappeared. The only exceptions are those worn by elderly males in the Jongno area, or the bright colorful caps that young teens and adults wear while out with their friends. The "permanent black halo" is no more.'

 

How Japan Took Control of Korea

 

Erin Blakemore has written the following for history.com in 2018, and updated it in 2023:

 

In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.

 

Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean, and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed.

 

Topographical and other postcards of Korea were published with descriptions in Japanese text.

 

It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts, and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.

 

During the occupation, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 100,000 Japanese families settled in Korea with the land they had been given; they chopped down trees by the million and planted non-native species, transforming a familiar landscape into something many Koreans didn’t recognize.

 

Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were made to work in Japan and its other colonies, and as World War II loomed, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into life as “comfort women”—sexual slaves who served in military brothels.

 

Korea’s people weren’t the only thing that was plundered during Japan’s colonization—its cultural symbols were considered fair game, too. One of the most powerful symbols of Korean sovereignty and independence was its royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, which was built in Seoul in 1395 by the mighty Joseon dynasty.

 

Soon after assuming power, the Japanese colonial government tore down over a third of the complex’s historic buildings, and the remaining structures were turned into tourist attractions for Japanese visitors.

 

As historian Heejung Kang notes, the imperial government also attempted to preserve treasures of Korean art history and culture—but then used them to uphold imperial Japan’s image of itself as a civilizing and modern force.

 

This view of Korea as backward and primitive compared to Japan made it into textbooks, museums and even Koreans’ own perceptions of themselves.

 

The occupation government also worked to assimilate Koreans with the help of language, religion and education. Shinto shrines originally intended for Japanese families became places of forced worship.

 

Historian Donald N. Clark explains:

 

"The colonial government made Koreans

worship the gods of imperial Japan,

including dead emperors and the spirits

of war heroes who had helped them

conquer Korea earlier in the century.”

 

This forced worship was viewed as an act of cultural genocide by many Koreans, but for the colonists, it was seen as evidence that Koreans and Japanese were a single, unified people.

 

Though some families got around the Shinto edict by simply visiting the shrines and not praying there, others grudgingly adopted the new religious practices out of fear.

 

By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first, the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to prevent confusion in family registries.

 

But in 1939, the government made changing names an official policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.

 

At least 84 percent of all Koreans took on the names since people who lacked Japanese names were not recognized by the colonial bureaucracy, and were shut out of everything from mail delivery to ration cards. Historian Hildi Kang writes:

 

“The whole point was for the government

to be able to say that the people had

changed their names ‘voluntarily.’”

 

The Plundering of Korea by Japan

 

(a) Historic Korean Artifacts

 

Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items.

 

However the treaty was not definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections, as well as those originating in North Korea.

 

The size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun:

 

"35,000 Korean art objects and

30,000 rare books have been

confirmed to be there, too."

 

However that is only the tip of the iceberg: vastly more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

 

Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis. Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. states:

 

"It's almost impossible to trace the

provenance of centuries-old artifacts."

 

Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910, meaning that relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time.

 

To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section.

 

A lot of precious Korean artifacts are now owned by private Japanese citizens or organizations, which means that the Japanese government can’t just acquire them and hand them back to Korea. So, unless the Korean government offers to actually spend millions of dollars to buy back the artifacts, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.

 

As well as removing cultural artifacts to Japan, the Japanese also burned countless Korean government buildings and palaces.

 

(b) Natural Resources

 

The Japanese also removed vast amounts of Korea's natural resources, including lumber, rice, coal, iron ore and many other minerals.

 

The land itself was also appropriated by the Japanese; by 1910 an estimated 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily, and by 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership had grown to 53%.

 

Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations. Many former Korean landowners became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced upon them. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.

 

Brilliant! The form is bound by Chinese literary conventions and decency standard (dating back thousands of years), yet the play-on-words is totally vulgar and funny. The best of both worlds!

 

Since I post this in "Guess where in Hong Kong?" Pool I cannot disclose the location.

 

由於XXX山勢陡峭碎石遍佈,被遠足人士稱為「香港三尖之首」及「香港第一險峰」

As bad as the top layer was, the bottom layer is worse. At least the upper layer had the decency to come off easily. It was the bottom layer that took all the time. Since it was directly on the wallboard, it must have been there as long as the house, which makes it almost 50 years. Yikes!

Dallas, Texas Band huddles before the "big game"

Please excuse the crap photo. (Is it as bad as I think it is?) Today is not a photoshoot day, apparently. To begin with, it's kind of miserable outside - hence the horrible camera flash. Cordi's pants popped open when I wasn't looking and I'm feeling too lazy to reshoot so, in the name of decency, I've photoshopped them closed again. And to top it all off, I put the darn hat on backwards so there's a lovely little divot above her left eye where I apparently did a sloppy job covering up the join in the first round. Grrr... (argh...)

 

But, because I've got nothing better to do today (aside from all the housework I'm avoiding), here's Cordi sporting her new Firefly-inspired hat. I've got a similar one, but self-portraits are not my thing on a good day, and this is not a good day.

 

(Hat and sweater handknit by me. Pants by Sugar Mag.)

Chris Derow of The League of Fucking Decency

Why do people with bad breath always want to share their secrets with me? Had I not the decency to not to hurt them, I would have said to them ‘By Jove, you have a jungle mouth’.

Catching up on some back shots from the beginning of the year

 

On a walk around the Addington Cemetery with a wonderful Flickr friend. February 13, 2016 Christchurch New Zealand.

 

There is so much damaged in the cemetery because of the earthquake we have had. It is such a pity as I don' think it will ever be fully repaired.

 

The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858 when the Scottish Presbyterians of St Andrew’s Church purchased land for a cemetery in Selwyn Street. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first “public” cemetery, “being open to all persons of any religious community” and allowing the performance of any religious service “not contrary to public decency”.

 

The first burial took place on the 10th of November 1858. The cemetery has several persons of note buried within its grounds including activist Kate Sheppard, Christchurch Mayor Tommy Taylor and members of the pioneer family, the Deans.

For More Info:http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/addington-cemetery/

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Freedom, Self Expression, All, Inclusive, Acceptance, Acknowledge, Parade, Charlotte, Downtown, Girl, Young, Different, Rainbow, Colors, Walk, Legs, Top, Straight, Cover, Decency, Legal, Normal, Diversity

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that has a divided back.

 

The Korean Gat

 

The man in the photograph is wearing the traditional Korean gat (Korean: Hunminjeongeum 갓)

 

A gat is a traditional hat worn by men along with hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) during the Joseon period. It is made from bamboo or horsehair with a bamboo frame, and is partly transparent.

 

Most gats are cylindrical in shape with a wide brim on a bamboo frame. Before the late 19th. century, only noble class men could wear gat, which represented their social status and protected their topknots.

 

Robert Neff of the Korean Times has written the following about Korean male headware:

 

'One of the most important articles of clothing for Koreans in the late 19th. century was the hat. The elderly man with his majestic black horse hair hat, often seen in pictures, is the iconic image of Korean male society during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1910).

 

According to Percival Lowell, an American who stayed in Seoul in the winter of 1883-84:

 

"No Korean can in decency appear

without it [hat], except only to make

room for some other hat."

 

It was a sign of manhood, "the most essential of attributes," and a badge of one's position in Korean society.

 

Lowell seemed amused with the difference between Korean and American culture. In the United States it was considered poor manners to wear a hat indoors, and one would rarely remove one's shoes, but the opposite was true in Korea:

 

"A man would part with any or all of

his clothing sooner than take off his

hat. On entering a house, he leaves

his shoes outside to await his return,

but he and his hat go in together.

As he sits down to eat, he divests

himself of his outer garments that he

may eat with greater freedom, but his

hat stays on; and so it sticks to him

through life ― a permanent black halo."

 

There were many types of hats. The iconic hat, the gat, was made from horse hair and bamboo and was black and somewhat transparent.

 

It had a fairly wide brim that in the past, according to popular legend, was much wider as a means of preventing unrest. Because of its wide brim, conspirators were kept apart, and were unable to whisper their plans to one another.

 

There was also a large mourning hat made from bamboo. It was designed to hide the face of mourners from others they might encounter on the streets. It was considered a grievous breach of etiquette to look into the face of the mourner.

 

Early French missionaries used the mourning hat to disguise themselves as they traveled the Korean peninsula before the 1880's. They were able to move about in relative secrecy for no one would attempt to communicate with a mourner.

 

Court officials' hats had slightly bent-forward ear-shaped horizontal wings. It was said they symbolized the wearer's attentiveness and willingness to "catch every word of command that the King may utter."

 

As Korea entered the 20th. century, there were many reforms forced on the population. Some were readily accepted and appreciated, but others, especially those that dealt with hair styles and hats, were vehemently opposed.

 

"A man is much more firmly bound to

his hat than he is attached to his wife.

He may put away the latter; without

the hat, life becomes a hollow mockery,

for the hat makes the man. Without it

he remains forever a boy."

 

Hats remained a part of male culture throughout the first half of the 20th. century, but have since disappeared. The only exceptions are those worn by elderly males in the Jongno area, or the bright colorful caps that young teens and adults wear while out with their friends. The "permanent black halo" is no more.'

 

How Japan Took Control of Korea

 

Erin Blakemore has written the following for history.com in 2018, and updated it in 2023:

 

In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.

 

Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean, and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed.

 

Topographical and other postcards of Korea were published with descriptions in Japanese text.

 

It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts, and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.

 

During the occupation, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 100,000 Japanese families settled in Korea with the land they had been given; they chopped down trees by the million and planted non-native species, transforming a familiar landscape into something many Koreans didn’t recognize.

 

Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were made to work in Japan and its other colonies, and as World War II loomed, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into life as “comfort women”—sexual slaves who served in military brothels.

 

Korea’s people weren’t the only thing that was plundered during Japan’s colonization—its cultural symbols were considered fair game, too. One of the most powerful symbols of Korean sovereignty and independence was its royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, which was built in Seoul in 1395 by the mighty Joseon dynasty.

 

Soon after assuming power, the Japanese colonial government tore down over a third of the complex’s historic buildings, and the remaining structures were turned into tourist attractions for Japanese visitors.

 

As historian Heejung Kang notes, the imperial government also attempted to preserve treasures of Korean art history and culture—but then used them to uphold imperial Japan’s image of itself as a civilizing and modern force.

 

This view of Korea as backward and primitive compared to Japan made it into textbooks, museums and even Koreans’ own perceptions of themselves.

 

The occupation government also worked to assimilate Koreans with the help of language, religion and education. Shinto shrines originally intended for Japanese families became places of forced worship.

 

Historian Donald N. Clark explains:

 

"The colonial government made Koreans

worship the gods of imperial Japan,

including dead emperors and the spirits

of war heroes who had helped them

conquer Korea earlier in the century.”

 

This forced worship was viewed as an act of cultural genocide by many Koreans, but for the colonists, it was seen as evidence that Koreans and Japanese were a single, unified people.

 

Though some families got around the Shinto edict by simply visiting the shrines and not praying there, others grudgingly adopted the new religious practices out of fear.

 

By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first, the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to prevent confusion in family registries.

 

But in 1939, the government made changing names an official policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.

 

At least 84 percent of all Koreans took on the names since people who lacked Japanese names were not recognized by the colonial bureaucracy, and were shut out of everything from mail delivery to ration cards. Historian Hildi Kang writes:

 

“The whole point was for the government

to be able to say that the people had

changed their names ‘voluntarily.’”

 

The Plundering of Korea by Japan

 

(a) Historic Korean Artifacts

 

Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items.

 

However the treaty was not definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections, as well as those originating in North Korea.

 

The size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun:

 

"35,000 Korean art objects and

30,000 rare books have been

confirmed to be there, too."

 

However that is only the tip of the iceberg: vastly more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

 

Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis. Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. states:

 

"It's almost impossible to trace the

provenance of centuries-old artifacts."

 

Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910, meaning that relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time.

 

To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section.

 

A lot of precious Korean artifacts are now owned by private Japanese citizens or organizations, which means that the Japanese government can’t just acquire them and hand them back to Korea. So, unless the Korean government offers to actually spend millions of dollars to buy back the artifacts, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.

 

As well as removing cultural artifacts to Japan, the Japanese also burned countless Korean government buildings and palaces.

 

(b) Natural Resources

 

The Japanese also removed vast amounts of Korea's natural resources, including lumber, rice, coal, iron ore and many other minerals.

 

The land itself was also appropriated by the Japanese; by 1910 an estimated 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily, and by 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership had grown to 53%.

 

Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations. Many former Korean landowners became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced upon them. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.

Though one of the buildings houses the local MacDonalds of Lugano, they had the decency not to spoil the style of the facade.

A golden morning after a long period of frost, as if spring won't be too long now.

CAPE MAY – Author and historian Richard Striner will sign his book “Summoned to Glory: The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln,” Wednesday, July 28 at 10:30 a.m. at the Carriage House Museum Shop at the Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St. The event is sponsored by the Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture) Lessons of History Team.

“In the troubling times through which we have been living, there is much to be learned from the decency of Abraham Lincoln's leadership, the brilliance he showed in confronting racial injustice, and the way he faced up to our very worst divisions to create a better future for the nation,” Striner said. “Even at this late date in the study of our 16th president, the Lincoln story is full of surprises.”

Striner taught history for over 30 years at Washington College, in Chestertown, Md. He is author of more than a dozen books, an acclaimed Lincoln scholar, and his books and articles have covered political history, presidential history, literature, economics, film, architecture and historic preservation. His most recent book, “Summoned to Glory: The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), will be available for purchase at the Carriage House Museum Shop. Admission is free and open to the public for this book signing.

Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture) is a multifaceted, not-for-profit organization committed to promoting the preservation, interpretation and cultural enrichment of the Cape May region for its residents and visitors. Cape May MAC membership is open to all. Visit capemaymac.org/support/membership to learn more. .For information about Cape May MAC’s year-round schedule of tours, festivals and special events, visit capemaymac.org. For information about historic accommodations, contact Cape May Historic Accommodations at capemaylodging.com. For information about restaurants, accommodations and shopping, call the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May at 609-884-5508. For information on the city’s COVID-19 response, please visit capemaystrong.org.

  

###

 

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Freedom, Self Expression, All, Inclusive,, Parade, Charlotte, Downtown, Girl, Young, Different, Rainbow, Colors, Cover, Decency, Legal, Normal,

....and the splashes were ENORMOUS, AND it was just before sunset and she had the decency to be swimming right into the most amazing light (thank you, sweetie!)

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was produced in Japan. The card has a divided back.

 

The Korean Gat

 

The seated men in the photograph are wearing the traditional Korean gat (Korean: Hunminjeongeum 갓)

 

A gat is a traditional hat worn by men along with hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) during the Joseon period. It is made from bamboo or horsehair with a bamboo frame, and is partly transparent.

 

Most gats are cylindrical in shape with a wide brim on a bamboo frame. Before the late 19th. century, only noble class men could wear gat, which represented their social status and protected their topknots.

 

Robert Neff of the Korean Times has written the following about Korean male headware:

 

'One of the most important articles of clothing for Koreans in the late 19th. century was the hat. The elderly man with his majestic black horse hair hat, often seen in pictures, is the iconic image of Korean male society during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1910).

 

According to Percival Lowell, an American who stayed in Seoul in the winter of 1883-84:

 

"No Korean can in decency appear

without it [hat], except only to make

room for some other hat."

 

It was a sign of manhood, "the most essential of attributes," and a badge of one's position in Korean society.

 

Lowell seemed amused with the difference between Korean and American culture. In the United States it was considered poor manners to wear a hat indoors, and one would rarely remove one's shoes, but the opposite was true in Korea:

 

"A man would part with any or all of

his clothing sooner than take off his

hat. On entering a house, he leaves

his shoes outside to await his return,

but he and his hat go in together.

As he sits down to eat, he divests

himself of his outer garments that he

may eat with greater freedom, but his

hat stays on; and so it sticks to him

through life ― a permanent black halo."

 

There were many types of hats. The iconic hat, the gat, was made from horse hair and bamboo and was black and somewhat transparent.

 

It had a fairly wide brim that in the past, according to popular legend, was much wider as a means of preventing unrest. Because of its wide brim, conspirators were kept apart, and were unable to whisper their plans to one another.

 

There was also a large mourning hat made from bamboo. It was designed to hide the face of mourners from others they might encounter on the streets. It was considered a grievous breach of etiquette to look into the face of the mourner.

 

Early French missionaries used the mourning hat to disguise themselves as they traveled the Korean peninsula before the 1880's. They were able to move about in relative secrecy for no one would attempt to communicate with a mourner.

 

Court officials' hats had slightly bent-forward ear-shaped horizontal wings. It was said they symbolized the wearer's attentiveness and willingness to "catch every word of command that the King may utter."

 

As Korea entered the 20th. century, there were many reforms forced on the population. Some were readily accepted and appreciated, but others, especially those that dealt with hair styles and hats, were vehemently opposed.

 

"A man is much more firmly bound to

his hat than he is attached to his wife.

He may put away the latter; without

the hat, life becomes a hollow mockery,

for the hat makes the man. Without it

he remains forever a boy."

 

Hats remained a part of male culture throughout the first half of the 20th. century, but have since disappeared. The only exceptions are those worn by elderly males in the Jongno area, or the bright colorful caps that young teens and adults wear while out with their friends. The "permanent black halo" is no more.'

 

How Japan Took Control of Korea

 

Erin Blakemore has written the following for history.com in 2018, and updated it in 2023:

 

In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.

 

Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean, and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed.

 

Topographical and other postcards of Korea were published with descriptions in Japanese text.

 

It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts, and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.

 

During the occupation, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 100,000 Japanese families settled in Korea with the land they had been given; they chopped down trees by the million and planted non-native species, transforming a familiar landscape into something many Koreans didn’t recognize.

 

Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were made to work in Japan and its other colonies, and as World War II loomed, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into life as “comfort women”—sexual slaves who served in military brothels.

 

Korea’s people weren’t the only thing that was plundered during Japan’s colonization—its cultural symbols were considered fair game, too. One of the most powerful symbols of Korean sovereignty and independence was its royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, which was built in Seoul in 1395 by the mighty Joseon dynasty.

 

Soon after assuming power, the Japanese colonial government tore down over a third of the complex’s historic buildings, and the remaining structures were turned into tourist attractions for Japanese visitors.

 

As historian Heejung Kang notes, the imperial government also attempted to preserve treasures of Korean art history and culture—but then used them to uphold imperial Japan’s image of itself as a civilizing and modern force.

 

This view of Korea as backward and primitive compared to Japan made it into textbooks, museums and even Koreans’ own perceptions of themselves.

 

The occupation government also worked to assimilate Koreans with the help of language, religion and education. Shinto shrines originally intended for Japanese families became places of forced worship.

 

Historian Donald N. Clark explains:

 

"The colonial government made Koreans

worship the gods of imperial Japan,

including dead emperors and the spirits

of war heroes who had helped them

conquer Korea earlier in the century.”

 

This forced worship was viewed as an act of cultural genocide by many Koreans, but for the colonists, it was seen as evidence that Koreans and Japanese were a single, unified people.

 

Though some families got around the Shinto edict by simply visiting the shrines and not praying there, others grudgingly adopted the new religious practices out of fear.

 

By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first, the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to prevent confusion in family registries.

 

But in 1939, the government made changing names an official policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.

 

At least 84 percent of all Koreans took on the names since people who lacked Japanese names were not recognized by the colonial bureaucracy, and were shut out of everything from mail delivery to ration cards. Historian Hildi Kang writes:

 

“The whole point was for the government

to be able to say that the people had

changed their names ‘voluntarily.’”

 

The Plundering of Korea by Japan

 

(a) Historic Korean Artifacts

 

Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items.

 

However the treaty was not definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections, as well as those originating in North Korea.

 

The size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun:

 

"35,000 Korean art objects and

30,000 rare books have been

confirmed to be there, too."

 

However that is only the tip of the iceberg: vastly more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

 

Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis. Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. states:

 

"It's almost impossible to trace the

provenance of centuries-old artifacts."

 

Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910, meaning that relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time.

 

To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section.

 

A lot of precious Korean artifacts are now owned by private Japanese citizens or organizations, which means that the Japanese government can’t just acquire them and hand them back to Korea. So, unless the Korean government offers to actually spend millions of dollars to buy back the artifacts, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.

 

As well as removing cultural artifacts to Japan, the Japanese also burned countless Korean government buildings and palaces.

 

(b) Natural Resources

 

The Japanese also removed vast amounts of Korea's natural resources, including lumber, rice, coal, iron ore and many other minerals.

 

The land itself was also appropriated by the Japanese; by 1910 an estimated 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily, and by 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership had grown to 53%.

 

Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations. Many former Korean landowners became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced upon them. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.

ear wax's tattoo i gave him

Wagtale played another gig last night, this time with a hint of sophistication and decency as we performed under lamp light and with daffodils strewn across the set. I only played one song on my soprano however, as Sir Richard Riley (the saxophonist the band used to have till he went abroad) was back and stole all of the songs from me. He was darn good though!

I went to the No Kings Day protest in Ogden, UT yesterday, primarily as a photographer, as I'm pretty neutral politically (yes, there is such a thing). There were probably a couple thousand people there. I was pleasantly surprised because the protest had good vibes, and 95% of the signs people were carrying were about the freedom, the Constitution, and the values that made America great. About 20% of them disparaged the President, but I did not see a single one about violence, transexuals, other rainbow people, or other socially devisive issues. I only saw two that mentioned Antifa. The very best sign was this one, which expresses my philosophy.

A different definition of decency, it would appear.

The old commercial center, the Main Street, continues today even after a generation or two with strip malls and big box stores at the edge of the city. There is no other public space centrally located that serves the purpose of parades and similar civic gatherings. That is why the seasonal decoration is carried out with care and deliberateness. The national flags are festive, historical reminders, and symbolic of the lives sacrificed, the ideals upheld, and the birthright of citizens under the constitution created for all to enjoy equally. There is an official flagpole in the foreground near the big fountain that flies the national, state, and county flags. Somehow this official setting in front of the county government and court building makes the national flag different to the ones hung up and down the shopping street. Despite tatters in the social fabric and quality of shared civil society among community groups and political agitations that are amplified, simplified, and weaponized to attack anybody challenging one side's vision for ideal and defendable life, still there are traces of common decency and a bit of mutual respect for others different to oneself. Therein lies some hope for a stronger tomorrow in matters of shared concern.

Press L for full-screen view; Z (or click the image) for full-file size view.

On Leicester 76, the stairs were ‘reversed’, blocking the driver’s vision of traffic over his left shoulder. One of the steps was made with holes, providing the driver with a better view. To prevent the conductor from using this feature to view ladies ankles, a serious offence, a ‘decency flap’ was provided to cover the holes when not in use.

Djelibeybi's been replacing the beams in the bathroom and creating a new floor for the special floor panel for the shower. It freaks me out watching him working over the drop revealed by his having to remove the underside floorboards. He hasn't fallen through yet. Hoping he doesn't!

 

On the window you can see a rough mapping out of how we're going to reconstruct that wall

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