Malcolm Brenner Chronicles His Sexual Relationship With Dolphin In ‘Wet Goddess’ headshot - By Simon McCormack (Huffpo)

She was the one that got away.
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Malcolm Brenner, 60, wrote “Wet Goddess,” a new book about a man’s nine-month sexual relationship with a dolphin — an affair that bears “a striking degree of resemblance” to his own interspecies romance.
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The author claims he started his relationship with a dolphin named Dolly back in 1970, when he was in his early 20s. Brenner was a sophomore at New College of Florida in Sarasota. A writer hired Brenner to take photographs for a children’s book about the dolphin show at an amusement park in nearby Nokomis. He was given free access to the park and introduced to the staff.

If Brenner is to be believed, the dolphin courted him.
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Initially, “she became more and more aggressive,” said Brenner, who lives in Punta Gorda, Fla. “She would thrust herself against me.”
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But over time, Dolly became more gentle, he claimed.
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“I found that extraordinarily erotic,” Brenner said. “It’s like being with a tiger or a bear. This is an animal that could kill you in two seconds if it wanted to.”
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After about nine months, the Floridaland amusement park was sold to become housing.
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His college sweetheart was shipped off to an oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss., while he said he enrolled in Evergreen State College in Washington.
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The Huffington Post has been unable to verify his account of the affair with Floridaland officials; the park closed in 1971. However, historical photos and archival brochures indicate there was a “Porpoise Pool” attraction at Floridaland.
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“I had every intention of going to visit the dolphin when I got back to the South, but it didn’t work out that way,” Brenner said. “I learned the hard way that dolphins are chattel, and much more emotionally vulnerable than I had ever imagined.”
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Brenner said Dolly died about nine months after the last time he saw her.
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“I had a vivid dream at the time about dolphins dying in a dark environment which proved to be remarkably similar to the oceanarium where she actually died,” Brenner said.
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It appears that Brenner’s relationship wouldn’t have broken any laws. Florida only passed a law banning bestiality this year, after two failed attempts.
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But Dr. Denise Herzing of the Wild Dolphin Project, which researches communication between dolphins and humans, said a book aggrandizing a human-dolphin sexual relationship could send a dangerous message.

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“Glorifying human sexual interactions with other species is inappropriate for the health and well being of any animal,” Herzing told HuffPost. “It puts the dolphin’s own health and social behavioral settings at risk.”
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But Brenner insists his relationship did not harm the dolphin.
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“Some people find it hard to imagine that I wasn’t abusing the animal,” Brenner said. “They didn’t see me interacting with the dolphin. They weren’t there. These creatures basically have free will.”

Brenner points out that some researchers have argued dolphins should be considered “non-human persons,” because of their intelligence.
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“What is repulsive about a relationship where both partners feel and express love for each other?” Brenner asked. “I know what I’m talking about here because after we made love, the dolphin put her snout on my shoulder, embraced me with her flippers and we stared into each others’ eyes for about a minute.”
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“This was not some dog trying to hump my leg, okay. This was a 400-lb. wild-born female dolphin. She was an awesome creature.”
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“As self-aware mammals, dolphins are capable of making profound emotional attachments to other dolphins and, apparently, to selected humans as well,” Brenner said. “A dolphin can die of loneliness, of a broken heart, of separation anxiety.”
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As evidence of his claims, Brenner points to the story of former trainer turned animal rights activist Richard O’Barry, who said he watched a dolphin living in captivity commit suicide in his arms.

He’s not married, but Brenner said he has two ex-wives who knew about his fling with Dolly.

“Neither one objected,” Brenner said.
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His daughter from his first marriage even designed the book cover.
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Brenner, who is now a freelance writer and photographer, started writing “Wet Goddess” in 1973 at the suggestion of Dr. John C. Lilly. Excerpts were published in the 1974 anthology “Mind In The Waters” and Penthouse, according to Brenner.
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“I was still too emotionally raw from the experience and my writing skills were inadequate to the task,” Brenner said.
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He took it up again in 1994, finished the novel in 2000 and spent the next 10 years trying to get it published. Brenner said he shopped it around, but after “mainstream” publishers rejected “Wet Goddess,” he decided to self-publish the book last year.
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So far he has sold about 230 paperback copies and 20 e-books. Vendors sell it for $16.95 on Amazon.

“I wrote this book for dolphins because we are mistreating these animals by keeping them in captivity,” Brenner said. “We should be attempting to communicate with them and treating them with more respect and dignity.”
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Brenner said he might consider another relationship with a dolphin in the future.

“Under the right circumstances I would if I had the energy for it,” Brenner said. “I’m 40 years older now.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/malcolm-brenner-dolphin_n_974764

'Wet Goddess' author shares details of his 6-month sexual relationship with Dolly the dolphin By Ginger Adams Otis NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | Jun 11, 2014

Now this is getting fishy.

Another self-confessed dolphin lover claims he had a six-month consensual affair with one of the sleek marine animals — and insists it's nothing to be ashamed of.

Malcolm Brenner, 63, shared his story with British newspaper The Mirror in the wake of a BBC documentary that featured Margaret Howe Lovatt, an animal researcher who said she had sex with a dolphin in the 1960s as part of a NASA-funded study.

Brenner, a writer who also admits to having prior sexual experiences with a dog, said he fell in love with Dolly the dolphin in a Florida amusement park in 1971.

Dolly "came on to him," he told The Mirror — and he was heartbroken when she died about nine months after they met.

The two had their interspecies intercourse after conspiring to elude the male dolphin that shared Dolly's pool, Brenner said.

"She announced her intentions to me by positioning herself so I was rubbing against her," the zoophile told The Mirror.

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Brenner claims that Dolly ‘came on to him’ and ‘announced her intentions to him’ when she would rub against him. (Barcroft Media/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

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Brenner said he'd been given full run of the dolphin enclosure while shooting pictures for the amusement park.

"At first I discouraged her, I wasn't interested. After some time I thought, 'If this was a woman would I come up with these rationalizations and excuses?'" he said.

"There's something quite transcendental about making love with a dolphin," he mused.

"The dolphin is very aware, the dolphin is an intelligent and creative creature and making love is a consummate act."

The two played rub-a-dub-dub for nearly a year, but the aquatic affair ended when Dolly got moved to another park.

Brenner said he was heartbroken to lose her and fell into a deep depression when she died not long after they parted.

Dolly leaps out of the water to grab a snack.(Barcroft Media/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

He believes she committed suicide by voluntarily refusing to breathe — the same fate Lovatt believes her dolphin lover Peter suffered when their affair ended.

Brenner was so affected by his "relationship" with Dolly that he wrote about it years later.

The Punta Gorda, Fla., resident penned "Wet Goddess" in 2011.

He said Lovatt's somewhat shamefaced confession of her long-ago affair with Peter the dolphin — who would rub himself on her knee or hand — didn't shock him at all.

"I wish she'd spoken out about it a long time ago. I've found her reaction a bit sad," Brenner said.

The twice-married man — who says he's also experienced the physical passion of doggy devotion — doesn't equate what he and Lovatt did with abuse.

"There is no comparison between sexual abuse and a sexual relationship with a consenting animal," he claimed.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-shares-details-sexual-relationship-dolphin-article-1.1825434

COVID-19 Crisis Shows - Capitalism Doesn't Work - Things That Can't Go On Forever - Don't - (Boson Workers) 29 March 2020

(Nurses at Mount Sinai West in garbage bags. (Photo: Facebook, Diana Torres)

Every serious effort to deal with this coronavirus crisis, and to prepare for it, has been sabotaged by private ownership of the means of production. This is the basic issue: whether economic life is directed by the ruling elite on the basis of profit and the accumulation of wealth, or whether it is directed by the working class on the basis of social need. Capitalism or socialism.

To the extent that private property gets in the way of saving lives, it must be swept aside. The vast technological and scientific advances and the enormous productive forces of humanity must be freed from the constraints placed on them by the profit motive and the nation-state system.

In cities throughout the United States, hospitals are approaching capacity as the number of people infected with COVID-19 doubles every two days. On Friday, the number of cases topped 100,000, after nearly 20,000 new cases were reported. More than 250 people died, bringing the total number of deaths to over 1,500.

 (Federal Center For Disease Control CDC Recommends that medical staff improvise masks with bandanas)

Meanwhile, doctors and nurses are faced with a nationwide shortage of protective gear and health care equipment.

The shortage of lifesaving ventilators is rapidly emerging as a central factor that will vastly increase the death toll from the coronavirus.

In Metro Detroit, which is emerging as a center of the pandemic in the US, Henry Ford Health System warned patients that “because of shortages,” those who are “extremely sick” may be “ineligible for ICU or ventilator care.” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (a former health care executive) praised the letter yesterday, declaring that “what they put out is honest.”

Other health care systems are preparing even more horrific measures. The states of Washington and Alabama are activating statutes that would allow them to deny lifesaving care to the mentally disabled.

A lawsuit filed by the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program noted that the state’s emergency plan for ventilator rationing “specifically singles out and excludes certain people with intellectual disabilities from access to ventilators in the event of rationing… Hospitals are ordered to ‘not offer mechanical ventilator support for patients’ with ‘severe or profound mental retardation’… This policy also applies to children.”

Within days, medical professionals will be living their worst nightmare, forced to determine who lives and who dies.

Trump’s claim that “nobody in their wildest dreams would have ever thought that we’d need tens of thousands of ventilators” is an outright lie. In fact, innumerable reports and articles from epidemiologists, health care professionals and even government agencies have made precisely such warnings.

A 2003 report from the Government Accountability Office warned that “few hospitals have adequate medical equipment, such as ventilators that are often needed for respiratory infections.” In 2005, the Department of Health and Human Services published a Pandemic Influenza Plan noting that “in a severe pandemic it is possible that shortages, for example of mechanical ventilators, will occur…”
In June 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report from epidemiologists, “Stockpiling Ventilators for Influenza Pandemics,” which stated: “Substantial concern exists that intensive care units (ICUs) might have insufficient resources to treat all persons requiring ventilator support. Prior studies argue that current capacities are insufficient to handle even moderately severe pandemics…”

However, the federal government, under both Democrats and Republicans, did nothing. The amount spent on the military every year over the past two decades is more than 50 times what it would have cost to build a national stockpile of one million ventilators. To produce such a stockpile would have cost about $15 billion, a minuscule fraction of what was used to bail out the banks.

Now, in the face of a critical ventilator shortage, major corporations see the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to generate enormous profits through price gouging and profiteering.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that plans by General Motors to produce ventilators fell through because the Trump administration balked at the price demanded by the company.

The move “came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors.” GM reported profits of $6.5 billion last year.

The Times added, “The $1.5 billion price tag comes to around $18,000 a ventilator. And the overall cost, by comparison, is roughly equal to buying 18 F-35s, the Pentagon’s most advanced fighter jet.”

GM subsequently announced that it would go ahead with producing the ventilators, in partnership with medical device company Ventec.



For its part, the Trump administration refrained for weeks from invoking the Defense Production Act to enforce the production of ventilators and other equipment because it did not want to impose any demands on the corporations. On Friday, Trump announced that he would utilize the act to “compel” GM to do something it had already pledged to do.

With parts in short supply, almost none of the ventilators will be available for the massive expansion of demand expected in the next two months. The Times noted that “the overall boost will not have a major effect until early summer, industry executives said—perhaps in time for a ‘second wave’ of infections.”

As the Trump administration and the auto giant haggle over how much will be paid and how much GM will profit, hundreds of millions of people's lives are thrown into chaos and uncertainty, people are dying unnecessarily, and the only thing that the government guarantees is that capitalists will be bailed out.  Capitalism does not work without government socialism for the rich.  Things that can't go on forever....don't.

 

https://archive.is/PVri5

Mayor Welsh Ask Gov Baker For Ventilators, Masks - Governor Send Tanks and Armed National Guard Troops - No Ventilators

(Boson MASS) A column of tanks and reinforced military humvees with masked guardsmen set up a perimiter around Boson Commons on Saturday 28 March 2020.  Boson City Mayor Martin J. Walsh had urgently called the governor asking for basic medical equipment like latex gloves, face masks, and most importantly ventilators.

People with sever breathing problems from the COVID-19 virus may need to be in a ventilator to stay alive.

"Ventilators are not something the National Guard, or the commonwealth, just keep parked for emergencies," Governor Charles Baker said.  "We have tanks and helicopters and machine guns.  But, why would we stock medical equipment.  That doesn't make any sense when one is trying to save money on health care."


The governor added.  "The Massachusetts National Guard is to keep public order with armed men and women.  They are not a medical corps.  They are fighting units.  Sure, we bring them out when there are floods or massive snowstorms, but that is basically a kind of preparedness drill.  Ask any successful capitalist or hospital administrator; best practice is to order the supplies you need for 'just in time' delivery.  US medical supplies and even ventilators come from China.  They have to be ordered at the last moment, to save money."

As a way to help the population deal with the COVID-19 crisis the governor has temporarily lifted the ban on plastic bags at grocery stores and other essential businesses.  Re-usable tote bags have been found to be a method of transmitting the virus as they are used by many people.  "Global warming can wait," Governor Baker said.


 


Home bound Green Party activist were outraged.  "Mother Nature is taking revenge on humans for environmental sins," one anonymous activist posted on Twitter.  "You may not believe in Global Climate Change, but Global Climate Change believes in you.  That's were this virus came from, Mother Nature."

At the Boson ITT Tech, which refuses to shut down, or refund students for their tuition if they do not attend,  students and professors have developed an easy to build ventilator from the materials in their Freshmen Challenge technology course materials.  They are offering it to manufactures free from patent protection.  Green Party activists are demanding that any new units be solar powered. 


https://archive.is/reo7K

You think you've got it all set up - You think you've got the perfect plan - I'm gonna tear your playhouse down - Pretty soon

Paul Young - I´m gonna tear your Playhouse down 1984

You think you've got it all set up

 You think you've got the perfect plan

To charm everyone you see

And playing any game you can

But I've got news for you I hope it don't hit you too hard

One of these days while you're at play

I'm gonna catch you off guard

I'm gonna tear your playhouse down

Pretty soon I'm gonna tear your playhouse down

Room by room, hey

 You make our lives a stress and strain

Using the power ploy

All you do is pass around

Hearts you use as play toys

 You've been playing madly

With every mind in town

So what you gonna do when you look up one day

And see your playhouse tumbling down

I'm gonna tear your playhouse down

Pretty soon I'm gonna tear your playhouse down

Room by room

(Instrumental)

You think you've got it all set up

You think you've got the perfect plan

 To charm everyone you see

And playing any game you can

You've been playing madly

With every mind in town, oh

What you gonna do when you look up one day

 And see your playhouse tumbling down

I'm gonna tear your playhouse down Pretty soon

16 March 2020 - Tarot Fortune - Ferocious Bleed Velvet Poison

Magnetic words don't lie. 

The Koranic Commandment to Spread Islam Is Why Muslims Migrate

The violent clashes at the Greek border with dozens of young Muslim men warring with border guards, tearing down barriers and yelling "Allahu Akbar" is proof of something rarely mentioned: migration is central to Islamic faith. The Islamic calendar begins with Muhammad's migration to Medina. The Quran repeatedly calls for the community to march out in jihad and that God will provide for those who do. In fact, those who "emigrate in the cause of God" will receive not just earthly rewards, but those of Paradise too. As written by Fred Donner in Muhammad the Believers, "the word hijra conveys both itself a word that carried overtones of migration, of full membership in and commitment to the Believers’ movement, and of “fighting in God’s way.” He supports this with the Quran:

But those passages that speak of "making hijra in the way of God" imply that hijra is roughly equivalent to jihad, "striving," which is also done "in the way of God," and several passages associate hijra with leaving home for the purpose of fighting (Q. 3:195, 22:58). Indeed, hijra in this larger sense may have served as the decisive marker of full membership into the community of Believers, much as baptism does for Christians: "Verily, those who have Believed and made hijra and strive [yujahidun] in God's way with their property and themselves, and those who gave asylum and aided [them] - those shall be mutual helpers of one another. But those who have Believed and [yet] have not made hijra, they have no share in the mutual assistance [of the others], until they make hijra ... " (Q. 8:72)

From the very beginning as instituted by Muhammad, the Believers movement (which even predates Islam as a separate religion) set out to migrate, form a righteous community (the umma), and spread strict monotheism to the unbelievers in expectation of the Last Judgement.

This is why large groups of young men set out to form communities in the West. The incentive is not just economic, although that certainly helps. The motivation comes from Islam itself. Migration is a holy duty that goes back to the very foundation of Islam.

And those migrating have every expectation of success. During the Islamic conquests, troops that numbered no more that 250-300,000 conquered the two superpowers of the day, Eastern Rome and Persia, with inhabitants of around 25-30 million. Those Christian and Zoroastrian citizens were weary after decades of war, and for the most part simply allowed themselves to be taken over. Christians especially capitulated and often fought alongside the invaders because they saw no real religious distinction between their faith and the faith of the Believers movement, which was not codified into Islam until after the conquest was complete, and resistance was by then impossible.

https://redd.it/fgrk3f

The Fault Lies Not in the Star - But - In Myself - Predicting A Day With Tarot Cards, Quotes, and Magnetic Words - 10 March 2020

I was listening to the audio book for The Castle of Otranto and the deliberately antique way the character speak.  As I skated down the hall I heard, "Forsake me not!"

I thought about that phrase; I wondered if a lot of people today would not understand what the sentence means.  "Don't leave me," is a good modern translation.

But, that is not where I told my future this morning.  I did step out onto the front porch when I awoke around 5 o'clock and saw the moon bright in the west with a ripple of clouds across the sky highlighted and white.

I went towards the back yard and saw a bright star to the south east and said to myself, "That is Jupiter."  I could see a faint star to the upper right of Jupiter.  "That must be Mars," I guessed.

 I went back into the house and put my skates on and looked on the kitchen computer for what was in the sky.  I found the web site that lists the night sky and saw three 'stars' in a row lined up to the south east.  Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.  I could not see Saturn, I was guessing.

I started listening to The Castle of Otranto on Youtube with some woman's volunteer reading for a university web site.  A good reading.

On the table in front of me I had a deck of tarot cards that I had cut the day before to predict my day.  Purely for entertainment.  There is no mechanism or magic that can allow the tarot cards to predict the future.  I enjoy the entertainment.

So, I shuffled the deck as I skated up and down the wood floors of the hall listening to the audio reading as I watched a 'fireplace' video on the computer laptop screen on a stool against the wall.  I cut the deck and saw 'The Star' was the tarot card I got when I cut the deck to predict my day.

(Gotta love the scary organ theme from this movie - 3:51 min) 

The cards are designed to be vague and one can get many, many stories out of any particular card.  But, I had been looking up at the dark morning sky at the moon and then a bright star to the south east.  Now, I had dealt myself the 'star'  card.  What did that mean?

I skated over to a magnetic white board I had a collection of magnetic words on.  At random I picked out four words.

"Devour - Some - Broken - Baby"

I have a day planned in front of me taking care of a little baby.  But, the baby is not broken.  I do have so many toys in this house and have more than one broken baby doll.  So, that can fit with the prediction.  But, I have no plans to eat any of those 'babies.' 

In one of Shakespeare's plays a character wisely observes that the fault for human problems comes from human's themselves, not the 'influence' of the stars in the sky above.

 Carpe Diem!

To use a Latin phrase meaning - 'seize the day' or 'take control of the things around you and be the actor, not the one acted upon or waiting to see what happens.'

8:20 am - time to get on with the day and stop writing.  Or... should I write some more?  We shall see what the future holds. 

https://archive.is/gOp9i

Transphobia row leaves Scottish poetry scene in turmoil

After the Scottish Poetry Library aired concerns over ‘escalating disharmony’, campaigners have questioned its respect for trans writers

The Scottish Poetry Library’s headquarters in Edinburgh. Photograph: Thomas Lee/Alamy

Alison Flood

Published on Thu 5 Mar 2020  

 

A bitter conflict is escalating in the Scottish literary scene with the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) standing accused of “institutional transphobia” after it said that it would not support “bullying and calls for no-platforming of writers”.

The organisation – an influential part of Scotland’s thriving poetry scene – released its statement in February after what it described as an “escalation, particularly on social media, of disharmony” and an increase in writers being no-platformed at literary events. It stressed that the statement was to encourage freedom of expression and was not tied to a specific incident, but, speaking to the National, SPL director Asif Khan said that these issues had affected the mental health of some unnamed poets, claiming some had become suicidal.

The issue was raised in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday, where the SNP’s Joan McAlpine said it was “worrying that women such as feminist poets in Scotland, Jenny Lindsay and Magi Gibson, have been subject to online mobs trying to stop them getting work or blocking their performances”.

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The library stressed that it had spoken out to encourage freedom of expression. “We are a values-led organisation that embraces inclusivity, collaboration and a respect for pluralism – of languages, cultures and faiths … this does not mean that we are taking sides in any particular debate but we will not be passive if we are made aware of behaviours within our community that do not align with our values.”

But in response, a group of trans and non-binary authors released an open letter that said the SPL’s position “may reflect serious institutional transphobia”, and had caused “extensive distress”.

“Your use of the term ‘no-platforming’ … risks being read as being directly about calls from trans people to act on transphobia,” says the letter, which is signed by poets Harry Josephine Giles and Sy Brand, and more than 100 supporters. “The language used and the manner of communication led us to worry that the statement provided cover and comfort to public transphobia, and failed to protect and respect trans writers.”

Khan told the Guardian on Wednesday that the SPL board was considering its response. He said that its Edinburgh fringe programme last year was themed on trans and non-binary writers, and it is presently celebrating LGBT History Month with an exhibition.

“We find the no-platforming of poets [is] in direct opposition to the principle of freedom of expression, which libraries uphold. No-platforming and ‘cancel culture’ are impacting writers’ livelihoods and lives, often with a severe impact on mental health,” he said. “Looking forward, we will engage with trans and non-binary writers and audiences through a process of healing and reconciliation. However, we will continue to champion freedom of expression as a core value. It is non-negotiable. In this week celebrating international women’s liberation, our thoughts are with women around the world who are prisoners of conscience.”

On Wednesday, Giles confirmed that the SPL had been in touch saying that it hoped to repair the situation. “I think we would all really welcome engagement from the SPL and some proper work to understand transphobia and how it operates,” they added. “The letter we wrote lays out the path for doing that. We really need to repair things with a national institution that has done some damage to its reputation.

“Personally I’ve seen a lot of upset from people about the kind of quotes which are appearing in the media, and the way the situation is being spun. We said in our letter that the language you’re using, if you’re not careful, it’s going to be spun against trans people, so please be careful, and lo and behold that’s what’s happening.”

Reactions to SPL’s statement and the ongoing fallout have been varied. Scottish PEN said on Tuesday that it was disappointed, writing: “Free expression is complex and any policy that ignores such complexity can stifle the free expression of a range of stakeholders, most notably members of marginalised communities.”

On Wednesday, more than 200 writers including author Lionel Shriver and comedian Graham Linehan put their names to an open letter of support for the “unequivocal stance” of the SPL: “From universities to arts organisations, libraries and government departments, the no-platforming and bullying of anyone holding views not actively endorsing extreme gender ideology is destroying our cultural life,” says the letter, although the SPL had mentioned not gender. “Scotland has always been an example of progressiveness in arts, education and culture, and we are proud that the first stand against this aggressive chilling of intellectual debate and thought has been taken by Scotland’s national poetry library.”

The writers of Wednesday’s open letter say that many of them have been forced to sign the letter anonymously or under pseudonyms because “we are afraid for our reputations, our jobs, our livelihoods … This is how deeply this ideology has already travelled, that to speak against it is a danger,” they write.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/05/transphobia-row-leaves-scottish-poetry-scene-in-turmoil