title: MKUltra

text: At the invitation of Stanford psychology graduate student Vik Lovell, an acquaintance of Richard Alpert and Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of MKUltra, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The project studied the effects of psychoactive drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, AMT and DMT on people.


title: MKUltra

text: The Office of Security used LSD in interrogations, but Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who directed MKUltra, had other ideas: he thought it could be used in covert operations. Since its effects were temporary, he believed it could be given to high-ranking officials and in this way affect the course of important meetings, speeches, etc. Since he realized there was a difference in testing the drug in a laboratory and using it in clandestine operations, he initiated a series of experiments where LSD was given to people in "normal" settings without warning. At first, everyone in Technical Services tried it; a typical experiment involved two people in a room where they observed each other for hours and took notes. As the experimentation progressed, a point arrived where outsiders were drugged with no explanation whatsoever and surprise acid trips became something of an occupational hazard among CIA operatives. Adverse reactions often occurred, such as an operative who received the drug in his morning coffee, became psychotic and ran across Washington, seeing a monster in every car passing him. The experiments continued even after Frank Olson, an army chemist who had never taken LSD, was covertly dosed by his CIA supervisor and nine days later plunged to his death from the window of a 13th-story New York City hotel room, supposedly as a result of deep depression induced by the drug. According to Stephen Kinzer, Olson had approached his superiors some time earlier, doubting the morality of the project, and asked to resign from the CIA.


title: MKUltra

text: Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in these cases they appeared to be singled out for even more extreme experiments. In one case, seven volunteers in Kentucky were given LSD for seventy-seven consecutive days.


title: MKUltra

text: MKUltra's researchers later dismissed LSD as too unpredictable in its results. They gave up on the notion that LSD was "the secret that was going to unlock the universe," but it still had a place in the cloak-and-dagger arsenal. However, by 1962 the CIA and the army developed a series of super-hallucinogens such as the highly touted BZ, which was thought to hold greater promise as a mind control weapon. This resulted in the withdrawal of support by many academics and private researchers, and LSD research became less of a priority altogether.


title: MKUltra

text: Another technique investigated was the intravenous administration of a barbiturate into one arm and an amphetamine into the other. The barbiturates were released into the person first, and as soon as the person began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released.


title: MKUltra

text: Other experiments involved heroin, morphine, temazepam (used under code name MKSEARCH), mescaline, psilocybin, scopolamine, alcohol and sodium pentothal.


title: MKUltra

text: Declassified MKUltra documents indicate they studied hypnosis in the early 1950s. Experimental goals included creating "hypnotically induced anxieties", "hypnotically increasing ability to learn and recall complex written matter", studying hypnosis and polygraph examinations, "hypnotically increasing ability to observe and recall complex arrangements of physical objects", and studying "relationship of personality to susceptibility to hypnosis". They conducted experiments with drug-induced hypnosis and with anterograde and retrograde amnesia while under the influence of such drugs.


title: MKUltra

text: The CIA exported experiments to Canada when they recruited British psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron, creator of the "psychic driving" concept, which the CIA found interesting. Cameron had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by erasing existing memories and reprogramming the psyche. He commuted from Albany, New York to Montreal every week to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University, and was paid $69,000 from 1957 to 1964 (US$579,480 in 2021, adjusted for inflation) to carry out MKUltra experiments there, the Montreal experiments. These research funds were sent to Cameron by a CIA front organization, the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, and as shown in internal CIA documents, Cameron did not know the money came from the CIA.


title: MKUltra

text: In addition to LSD, Cameron also experimented with various paralytic drugs as well as electroconvulsive therapy at thirty to forty times the normal power. His "driving" experiments consisted of putting subjects into drug-induced comas for weeks at a time (up to three months in one case) while playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements. His experiments were often carried out on patients who entered the institute for common problems such as anxiety disorders and postpartum depression, many of whom suffered permanent effects from his actions. His treatments resulted in victims' urinary incontinence, amnesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents and thinking their interrogators were their parents.


title: MKUltra

text: During this era, Cameron became known worldwide as the first chairman of the World Psychiatric Association as well as president of both the American Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Psychiatric Association. Cameron was also a member of the Nuremberg medical tribunal in 1946–1947.


title: MKUltra

text: His work was inspired and paralleled by the British psychiatrist William Sargant at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and Belmont Hospital, Sutton, who was also involved in the Secret Intelligence Service and who experimented on his patients without their consent, causing similar long-term damage.


title: MKUltra

text: In the 1980s, several of Cameron's former patients sued the CIA for damages, which the Canadian news program "The Fifth Estate" documented. Their experiences and lawsuit were adapted in the 1998 television miniseries "The Sleep Room".


title: MKUltra

text: Naomi Klein argues in her book "The Shock Doctrine" that Cameron's research and his contribution to the MKUltra project was not about mind control and brainwashing, but about designing "a scientifically based system for extracting information from 'resistant sources'. In other words, torture."


title: MKUltra

text: Alfred W. McCoy writes, "Stripped of its bizarre excesses, Dr. Cameron's experiments, building upon Donald O. Hebb's earlier breakthrough, laid the scientific foundation for the CIA's two-stage psychological torture method", referring to first creating a state of disorientation in the subject, and then creating a situation of "self-inflicted" discomfort in which the disoriented subject can alleviate pain by capitulating.


title: MKUltra

text: Unlike the US and Canada, Denmark had a centralized population register, allowing participants to be tracked over the course of several years. U.S. psychologist Zarnoff Mednick teamed up with Danish professor Fini Schulsinger to study schizophrenia progression in Danish orphans. The project grew out of QKHilltop and was later absorbed into MKUltra. In 1977, Schulsinger completed his doctoral dissertation on the project, but as MKUltra had been officially declared in the U.S. to have been discontinued with records destroyed, Schulsinger's thesis became a state secret. The children were required to undergo frequent and harsh mental health assessments for which there was no informed consent. In December 2021, radio documentarian Per Wennick discovered 36 boxes of MKUltra records stored at a psychiatric center in a Copenhagen suburb, but when he asked for access, the center shredded the records, in violation of Danish law.


title: MKUltra

text: In areas under American control in the early 1950s in Europe and East Asia, mostly Japan, Germany and the Philippines, the CIA created secret detention centers so that the U.S. could avoid criminal prosecution. The CIA captured people suspected of being enemy agents and other people it deemed "expendable" to undertake various types of torture and human experimentation on them. The prisoners were interrogated while being administered psychoactive drugs, electroshocked and subjected to extremes of temperature, sensory isolation and the like to develop a better understanding of how to destroy and to control human minds.


title: MKUltra

text: In 1973, amid a government-wide panic caused by Watergate, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed. Pursuant to this order, most CIA documents regarding the project were destroyed, making a full investigation of MKUltra impossible. A cache of some 20,000 documents survived Helms's purge, as they had been incorrectly stored in a financial records building and were discovered following a FOIA request in 1977. These documents were fully investigated during the Senate Hearings of 1977.


title: MKUltra

text: In December 1974, "The New York Times" alleged that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the 1960s. That report prompted investigations by the United States Congress, in the form of the Church Committee, and by a commission known as the Rockefeller Commission that looked into the illegal domestic activities of the CIA, the FBI and intelligence-related agencies of the military.


title: MKUltra

text: In the summer of 1975, congressional Church Committee reports and the presidential Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the Department of Defense had conducted experiments on both unwitting and cognizant human subjects as part of an extensive program to find out how to influence and control human behavior through the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means. They also revealed that at least one subject, Frank Olson, had died after administration of LSD. Much of what the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission learned about MKUltra was contained in a report, prepared by the Inspector General's office in 1963, that had survived the destruction of records ordered in 1973. However, it contained little detail. Sidney Gottlieb, who had retired from the CIA two years previously and had headed MKUltra, was interviewed by the committee but claimed to have very little recollection of the activities of MKUltra.


title: MKUltra

text: The congressional committee investigating the CIA research, chaired by Senator Frank Church, concluded that "prior consent was obviously not obtained from any of the subjects." The committee noted that the "experiments sponsored by these researchers ... call into question the decision by the agencies not to fix guidelines for experiments."


title: MKUltra

text: Following the recommendations of the Church Committee, President Gerald Ford in 1976 issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities which, among other things, prohibited "experimentation with drugs on human subjects, except with the informed consent, in writing and witnessed by a disinterested party, of each such human subject" and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Commission. Subsequent orders by Presidents Carter and Reagan expanded the directive to apply to any human experimentation.


title: MKUltra

text: In 1977, during a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to look further into MKUltra, Admiral Stansfield Turner, then Director of Central Intelligence, revealed that the CIA had found a set of records, consisting of about 20,000 pages, that had survived the 1973 destruction orders because they had been incorrectly stored at a records center not usually used for such documents. These files dealt with the financing of MKUltra projects and contained few project details, but much more was learned from them than from the Inspector General's 1963 report.


title: MKUltra

text: The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations.


title: MKUltra

text: At least one death, the result of the alleged defenestration of Frank Olson, was attributed to Olson's being subjected, without his knowledge, to such experimentation nine days before his death. The CIA itself subsequently acknowledged that these tests had little scientific rationale. The officers conducting the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.


title: MKUltra

text: In Canada, the issue took much longer to surface, becoming widely known in 1984 on a CBC news show, "The Fifth Estate". It was learned that not only had the CIA funded Cameron's efforts, but also that the Canadian government was fully aware of this, and had later provided another $500,000 in funding to continue the experiments. This revelation largely derailed efforts by the victims to sue the CIA as their U.S. counterparts had, and the Canadian government eventually settled out of court for $100,000 to each of the 127 victims. Cameron died on September 8, 1967, after suffering a heart attack while he and his son were mountain climbing. None of Cameron's personal records of his involvement with MKUltra survived because his family destroyed them after his death.


title: MKUltra

text: The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.


title: MKUltra

text: Working with the CIA, the Department of Defense gave hallucinogenic drugs to thousands of "volunteer" soldiers in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to LSD, the Army also tested quinuclidinyl benzilate, a hallucinogen code-named BZ. (Note 37) Many of these tests were conducted under the so-called MKULTRA program, established to counter perceived Soviet and Chinese advances in brainwashing techniques. Between 1953 and 1964, the program consisted of 149 projects involving drug testing and other studies on unwitting human subjects


title: MKUltra

text: Given the CIA's purposeful destruction of most records, its failure to follow informed consent protocols with thousands of participants, the uncontrolled nature of the experiments, and the lack of follow-up data, the full impact of MKUltra experiments, including deaths, may never be known.


title: MKUltra

text: Several known deaths have been associated with Project MKUltra, most notably that of Frank Olson. Olson, a United States Army biochemist and biological weapons researcher, was given LSD without his knowledge or consent in November 1953, as part of a CIA experiment, and died by suicide by jumping out of a 13th-story window a week later. A CIA doctor assigned to monitor Olson claimed to have been asleep in another bed in a New York City hotel room when Olson fell to his death. In 1953, Olson's death was described as a suicide that had occurred during a severe psychotic episode. The CIA's own internal investigation concluded that the head of MKUltra, CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb, had conducted the LSD experiment with Olson's prior knowledge, although neither Olson nor the other men taking part in the experiment were informed as to the exact nature of the drug until some 20 minutes after its ingestion. The report further suggested that Gottlieb was nonetheless due a reprimand, as he had failed to take into account Olson's already-diagnosed suicidal tendencies, which might have been exacerbated by the LSD.


title: MKUltra

text: The Olson family disputes the official version of events. They maintain that Frank Olson was murdered because, especially in the aftermath of his LSD experience, he had become a security risk who might divulge state secrets associated with highly classified CIA programs, about many of which he had direct personal knowledge. A few days before his death, Frank Olson quit his position as acting chief of the Special Operations Division at Detrick, Maryland (later Fort Detrick) because of a severe moral crisis concerning the nature of his biological weapons research. Among Olson's concerns were the development of assassination materials used by the CIA, the CIA's use of biological warfare materials in covert operations, experimentation with biological weapons in populated areas, collaboration with former Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip, LSD mind-control research, and the use of psychoactive drugs during "terminal" interrogations under a program code-named Project ARTICHOKE. Later forensic evidence conflicted with the official version of events; when Olson's body was exhumed in 1994, cranial injuries indicated that Olson had been knocked unconscious before he exited the window. The medical examiner termed Olson's death a "homicide". In 1975, Olson's family received a $750,000 settlement from the U.S. government and formal apologies from President Gerald Ford and CIA Director William Colby, though their apologies were limited to informed consent issues concerning Olson's ingestion of LSD. On 28 November 2012, the Olson family filed suit against the U.S. federal government for the wrongful death of Frank Olson. The case was dismissed in July 2013, due in part to the 1976 settlement between the family and government. In the decision dismissing the suit, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote, "While the court must limit its analysis to the four corners of the complaint, the skeptical reader may wish to know that the public record supports many of the allegations [in the family's suit], farfetched as they may sound."


title: MKUltra

text: A 2010 book by H. P. Albarelli Jr. alleged that the 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning was part of MKDELTA, that Olson was involved in that event, and that he was eventually murdered by the CIA. However, academic sources attribute the incident to ergot poisoning through a local bakery.


title: MKUltra

text: The revelations about the CIA and the army prompted a number of subjects or their survivors to file lawsuits against the federal government for conducting experiments without informed consent. Although the government aggressively, and sometimes successfully, sought to avoid legal liability, several plaintiffs did receive compensation through court order, out-of-court settlement, or acts of Congress. Frank Olson's family received $750,000 by a special act of Congress, and both President Ford and CIA director William Colby met with Olson's family to apologize publicly.


title: MKUltra

text: Previously, the CIA and the army had actively and successfully sought to withhold incriminating information, even as they secretly provided compensation to the families. One subject of army drug experimentation, James Stanley, an army sergeant, brought an important, albeit unsuccessful, suit. The government argued that Stanley was barred from suing under the Feres doctrine.


title: MKUltra

text: In 1987, the Supreme Court affirmed this defense in a 5–4 decision that dismissed Stanley's case: "United States v. Stanley". The majority argued that "a test for liability that depends on the extent to which particular suits would call into question military discipline and decision making would itself require judicial inquiry into, and hence intrusion upon, military matters." In dissent, Justice William Brennan argued that the need to preserve military discipline should not protect the government from liability and punishment for serious violations of constitutional rights:


title: MKUltra

text: The medical trials at Nuremberg in 1947 deeply impressed upon the world that experimentation with unknowing human subjects is morally and legally unacceptable. The United States Military Tribunal established the Nuremberg Code as a standard against which to judge German scientists who experimented with human subjects... [I]n defiance of this principle, military intelligence officials ... began surreptitiously testing chemical and biological materials, including LSD.


title: MKUltra

text: No judicially crafted rule should insulate from liability the involuntary and unknowing human experimentation alleged to have occurred in this case. Indeed, as Justice Brennan observes, the United States played an instrumental role in the criminal prosecution of Nazi officials who experimented with human subjects during the Second World War, and the standards that the Nuremberg Military Tribunals developed to judge the behavior of the defendants stated that the 'voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential ... to satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts.' If this principle is violated, the very least that society can do is to see that the victims are compensated, as best they can be, by the perpetrators.


title: MKUltra

text: In another lawsuit, Wayne Ritchie, a former United States Marshal, after hearing about the project's existence in 1990, alleged the CIA laced his food or drink with LSD at a 1957 Christmas party which resulted in his attempting to commit a robbery at a bar and his subsequent arrest. While the government admitted it was, at that time, drugging people without their consent, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found Ritchie could not prove he was one of the victims of MKUltra or that LSD caused his robbery attempt and dismissed the case in 2005.


title: MKUltra

text: After retiring in 1972, Gottlieb dismissed his entire effort for the CIA's MKUltra program as useless. The CIA insists that MKUltra-type experiments have been abandoned.


title: MKUltra

text: MKUltra plays a part in many conspiracy theories due to its nature and the destruction of most records.


title: Camp (style)

text: Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aesthetic attributes such as beauty, value, and taste through an invitation of a different kind of apprehension and consumption.


title: Camp (style)

text: Camp can also be a social practice and function as a style and performance identity for several types of entertainment including film, cabaret, and pantomime. Where high art necessarily incorporates beauty and value, camp necessarily needs to be lively, audacious and dynamic. The visual style is closely associated with gay culture.


title: Camp (style)

text: Camp art is related to and often confused with kitsch and things with camp appeal may be described as cheesy. In 1909, "Oxford English Dictionary" defined camp as "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual" behavior, and by the middle of the 1970s, camp was defined by the college edition of "Webster's New World Dictionary" as "banality, mediocrity, artifice, [and] ostentation ... so extreme as to amuse or have a perversely sophisticated appeal". The American writer Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on "Camp"" (1964) emphasized its key elements as: "artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness, and shocking excess".


title: Camp (style)

text: In 1870, the crossdresser Frederick Park referred to his "campish undertakings" in a letter produced in evidence at his examination before a magistrate at Bow-street, London, on suspicion of illegal homosexual acts; the letter does not make clear what these were. In 1909, the "Oxford English Dictionary" gave the first print citation of "camp" as


title: Camp (style)

text: According to the dictionary, this sense is "etymologically obscure". "Camp" in this sense has been suggested to have possibly derived from the French term "se camper", meaning "to pose in an exaggerated fashion". Later, it evolved into a general description of the aesthetic choices and behavior of working-class gay men. The concept of camp was described by Christopher Isherwood in 1954 in his novel "The World in the Evening", and then in 1964 by Susan Sontag in her essay and book "Notes on "Camp"".


title: Camp (style)

text: The rise of post-modernism made "camp" a common perspective on aesthetics, not identified with any specific group. The camp perspective was originally a distinctive aspect of pre-Stonewall gay culture , where it was the dominant idiom. It originated from the understanding of gayness as effeminacy. Two key components of camp were originally feminine performances: swish and drag. With swish featuring extensive use of superlatives, and drag being exaggerated female impersonation, camp became extended to all things "over the top", including women posing as female impersonators (faux queens), as in the exaggerated Hollywood character of Carmen Miranda. It was this version of the concept that was adopted by literary and art critics and became a part of the conceptual array of 1960s culture. Moe Meyer still defines "camp" as "queer parody".


title: Camp (style)

text: The Comedy Central television show "Strangers with Candy" (1999–2000), starring comedian Amy Sedaris, was a camp spoof of the "ABC Afterschool Special" genre. Inspired by the work of George Kuchar and his brother Mike Kuchar, ASS Studios began making a series of short, no-budget camp films. Their feature film "Satan, Hold My Hand" (2013) features many elements recognized in camp pictures.


title: Camp (style)

text: Famous representatives of camp films are, for example, John Waters "(Pink Flamingos, 1972)" and Rosa von Praunheim "(The Bed Sausage, 1971)", who mainly used this style in the 1970s, created films which achieved a cult status.


title: Camp (style)

text: American singer and actress Cher is one of the artists who received the title of "Queen of Camp" through her outrageous on-stage fashion and live performances. She gained this status in the 1970s when she launched her variety shows in collaboration with the costume designer Bob Mackie and became a constant presence on American prime-time television. Madonna is another example of camp and according to educator Carol Queen, her "whole career up to and including "Sex" has depended heavily on camp imagery and camp understandings of gender and sex". By some point of her career, Madonna was also named "Queen of Camp".


title: Camp (style)

text: Dusty Springfield is a camp icon. In public and on stage, Springfield developed a joyful image supported by her peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" look. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens of the 1950s, such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, and pasted them together according to her own taste. Her ultra-glamorous look made her a camp icon and this, combined with her emotive vocal performances, won her a powerful and enduring following in the gay community. Besides the prototypical female drag queen, she was presented in the roles of the "Great White Lady" of pop and soul and the "Queen of Mods". South Korean rapper Psy, known for his viral internet music videos full of flamboyant dance and visuals, has come to be seen as a 21st-century incarnation of camp style. Geri Halliwell is recognised as a camp icon for her high camp aesthetics, performance style and kinship with the gay community during her time as a solo artist.


title: Camp (style)

text: Lady Gaga, a contemporary exemplar of camp, uses music and dance to make social commentary on pop culture, as in the "Judas" video. Her clothes, makeup, and accessories, created by high-end fashion designers, are integral to the narrative structure of her performances. Katy Perry is another example of camp with outlets like Vogue describing her as the "Queen of Camp".


title: Camp (style)

text: The words "camp" and "kitsch" are often used interchangeably; both may relate to art, literature, music, or any object that carries an aesthetic value. However, "kitsch" refers specifically to the work itself, whereas "camp" is a mode of performance. Thus, a person may consume kitsch intentionally or unintentionally. Camp, as Susan Sontag observed, is always a way of consuming or performing culture "in quotation marks".


title: Camp (style)

text: Sontag also distinguishes between "naive" and "deliberate" camp, and examines Christopher Isherwood's distinction between low camp, which he associated with cross-dressing practices and drag performances, and high camp, which included "the whole emotional basis of the Ballet, for example, and of course of Baroque art".


title: Camp (style)

text: According to sociologist Andrew Ross, camp combines outmoded and contemporary forms of style, fashion, and technology. Often characterized by the reappropriation of a "throwaway Pop aesthetic", camp works to intermingle the categories of "high" and "low" culture. Objects may become camp objects because of their historical association with a power now in decline. As opposed to kitsch, camp reappropriates culture in an ironic fashion, whereas kitsch is indelibly sincere. Additionally, kitsch may be seen as a quality of an object, while camp, "tends to refer to a subjective process". Those who identify objects as "camp" commemorate the distance mirrored in the process through which, "unexpected value can be located in some obscure or exorbitant object."


title: Camp (style)

text: Comedian Kenneth Williams wrote in a diary entry for 1 January 1947: "Went to Singapore with Stan—very camp evening, was followed, but tatty types so didn't bother to make overtures." Although it applies to gay men, it is a specific adjective used to describe a man who openly promotes the fact that he is gay by being outwardly garish or eccentric, for example, the character Daffyd Thomas in the English comedy skit show "Little Britain". "Camp" forms a strong element in UK culture, and many so-called gay icons and objects are chosen as such because they are camp. Performers such as Elton John Kylie Minogue, John Inman, Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen, Lulu, Graham Norton, Mika, Lesley Joseph, Ruby Wax, Dale Winton and Cilla Black, as well as the music hall tradition of the pantomime are camp elements in popular culture. The British tradition of the "Last Night of the Proms" has been said to glory in "nostalgia, camp, and pastiche". Thomas Dworzak published a collection of "last portrait" photographs of young Taliban soldiers about to depart for the front, found in Kabul photo studios. The book, titled "Taliban", attests to a campy esthetic, quite close to the gay movement in California or a Peter Greenaway film.


title: Camp (style)

text: The Australian theatre and opera director Barrie Kosky is renowned for his use of camp in interpreting the works of the Western canon, including Shakespeare, Wagner, Molière, Seneca and Kafka; his 2006 eight-hour production for the Sydney Theatre Company "The Lost Echo" was based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Euripides's "The Bacchae". In the first act ("The Song of Phaeton"), for instance, the goddess Juno takes the form of a highly stylized Marlene Dietrich, and the musical arrangements feature Noël Coward and Cole Porter. Kosky's use of camp is also effectively employed to satirize the pretensions, manners, and cultural vacuity of Australia's suburban middle class, which is suggestive of the style of Dame Edna Everage. For example, in "The Lost Echo" Kosky employs a chorus of high school girls and boys: one girl in the chorus takes leave from the goddess Diana, and begins to rehearse a dance routine, muttering to herself in a broad Australian accent, "Mum says I have to practice if I want to be on "Australian Idol"." Australian writer/director Baz Luhrmann, in particular "Strictly Ballroom", constitutes another example.


title: Camp (style)

text: Since 2000, the Eurovision Song Contest, an annually televised competition of song performers from different countries, has shown an increasing element of camp—since the contest has shown an increasing attraction within the gay communities—in their stage performances, especially during the televised finale, which is screened live across Europe. As it is a visual show, many Eurovision performances attempt to attract the attention of the voters through means other than the music, which sometimes leads to bizarre onstage gimmicks, and what some critics have called "the Eurovision kitsch drive", with almost cartoonish novelty acts performing.


title: Camp (style)

text: The 2019 Met Gala's theme was , co-chaired by Anna Wintour, Serena Williams, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, and Alessandro Michele. Lady Gaga's entrance took 16 minutes, as she arrived to the gala alongside an entourage of five dancers carrying umbrellas, a make up artist, and a personal photographer to snap pictures of Gaga's poses. Gaga arrived in a hot pink Brandon Maxwell gown with a 25-foot train and went through a series of four "reveals," paying homage to drag culture, debuting a new outfit each time, until reaching her final look: a bra and underwear with fishnets and platform heels. Other notable ensembles included Katy Perry wearing a gown that looked like a chandelier, designed by Moschino, and Kacey Musgraves appearing as a life-size Barbie, also by Moschino.


title: Camp (style)

text: The first post-World War II use of the word in print may be Christopher Isherwood's 1954 novel "The World in the Evening", where he comments: "You can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it; you're making fun "out" of it. You're expressing what's basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance." In the American writer Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on "Camp"", Sontag emphasized artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness, and shocking excess as key elements of camp. Examples cited by Sontag included Tiffany lamps, the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake", and Japanese science fiction films such as "Rodan", and "The Mysterians" of the 1950s.


title: Camp (style)

text: In Mark Booth's 1983 book "Camp", he defines camp as "to present oneself as being committed to the marginal with a commitment greater than the marginal merits". He makes a distinction between genuine camp, and "camp fads and fancies", things that are not intrinsically camp, but display artificiality, stylization, theatricality, naivety, sexual ambiguity, tackiness, poor taste, stylishness, or portray camp people, and thus appeal to them.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich (BLT)), or as a flavouring or accent (as in bacon bits in a salad).


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game, including venison and pheasant, and may also be used to insulate or flavour roast joints by being layered onto the meat. The word is derived from the Proto-Germanic "*bakkon", meaning "back meat".


title: Bacon

text: Meat from other animals, such as beef, lamb, chicken, goat, or turkey, may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon, and may even be referred to as, for example, "turkey bacon". Such use is common in areas with significant Jewish and Muslim populations as both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Vegetarian bacons such as "soy bacon" also exist.


title: Bacon

text: Before the advent of cheap and widespread artificial refrigeration in the modern era, the curing of meat was necessary for its safe long-term preservation. However, both the flavour imparted to the meat in doing so and the extended shelf life it offered had become much prized, and although curing is in general no longer necessary in the developed world, it continues in wide use.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is cured through either a process of injecting it with or soaking it in brine, known as wet curing, or rubbed with salt, known as dry curing. Bacon brine has added curing ingredients, most notably nitrites or nitrates, which speed the curing and stabilize colour. Cured bacon may then be dried for weeks or months in cold air, or it may be smoked or boiled. Fresh and dried bacon are typically cooked before eating, often by pan frying. Boiled bacon is ready to eat, as is some smoked bacon, but they may be cooked further before eating. Differing flavours can be achieved by using various types of wood, or less common fuels such as corn cobs or peat. This process can take up to eighteen hours, depending on the intensity of the flavour desired. "The Virginia Housewife" (1824), thought to be one of the earliest American cookbooks, gives no indication that bacon is ever "not" smoked, though it gives no advice on flavouring, noting only that care should be taken lest the fire get too hot.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is distinguished from other salt-cured pork by differences in the cuts of meat used and in the brine or dry packing. Historically, the terms "ham" and "bacon" referred to different cuts of meat that were brined or packed identically, often together in the same barrel. Today, ham is defined as coming from the hind portion of the pig and brine specifically for curing ham includes a greater amount of sugar, while bacon is less sweet, though ingredients such as brown sugar or maple syrup are used for flavour. Bacon is similar to salt pork, which in modern times is often prepared from similar cuts, but salt pork is never smoked, and has a much higher salt content.


title: Bacon

text: For safety, bacon may be treated to prevent trichinosis, caused by "Trichinella", a parasitic roundworm which can be destroyed by heating, freezing, drying, or smoking. Sodium polyphosphates, such as sodium triphosphate, may also be added to make the product easier to slice and to reduce spattering when the bacon is pan-fried.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon type differs depending on the primal cut of pork from which it is prepared, which reflects local preference.


title: Bacon

text: The inclusion of skin with a cut of bacon, known as the 'bacon rind', varies, though is less common in the English-speaking world.


title: Bacon

text: The most common form sold is "middle bacon", which includes some of the streaky, fatty section of side bacon along with a portion of the loin of back bacon. In response to increasing consumer diet-consciousness, some supermarkets also offer the loin section only. This is sold as "short cut bacon" and is usually priced slightly higher than middle bacon. Both varieties are usually available with the rind removed.


title: Bacon

text: In Canada, the term "bacon" on its own typically refers to side bacon. Canadian-style back bacon is a lean cut from the eye of the pork loin with little surrounding fat. Peameal bacon is an unsmoked back bacon, wet-cured and coated in fine-ground cornmeal (historically, it was rolled in ground, dried peas); it is popular in southern Ontario. Bacon is often eaten in breakfasts, such as with cooked eggs or pancakes. Maple syrup is often used as a flavouring while curing bacon in Canada.


title: Bacon

text: Some of the meanings of bacon overlap with the German-language term "Speck". Germans use the term "bacon" explicitly for "Frühstücksspeck" ('breakfast "Speck"') which are cured or smoked pork slices. Traditional German cold cuts favor ham over bacon, however "Wammerl" (grilled pork belly) remains popular in Bavaria.


title: Bacon

text: Small bacon cubes (called "Grieben" or "Grammerln" in Austria and southern Germany) have been a rather important ingredient of various southern German dishes. They are used for adding flavour to soups and salads and for Speck dumplings and various noodle and potato dishes. Instead of preparing them at home from larger slices, they have been sold ready made as convenience foods recently as "Baconwürfel" ("bacon cubes") in German retail stores.


title: Bacon

text: In Japan, bacon (ベーコン) is pronounced "bēkon". It is cured and smoked belly meat as in the US, and is sold in either regular or half-length sizes. Bacon in Japan is different from that in the US in that the meat is not sold raw, but is processed, precooked and has a ham-like consistency when cooked. Uncured, sliced pork belly, known as bara (バラ), is very popular in Japan and is used in a variety of dishes (e.g. yakitori and yakiniku).


title: Bacon

text: Back bacon is the most common form in the UK and Ireland, and is the usual meaning of the plain term "bacon". A thin slice of bacon is known as a "rasher"; about 70% of bacon is sold as rashers. Heavily trimmed back cuts which consist of just the eye of meat, known as a "medallion", are also available. All types may be unsmoked or smoked. The side cut normal in America is known as "streaky bacon", and there is also a long cut, curving round on itself, known as "middle bacon", which is back bacon at one end, and streaky at the other, as well as less common cuts. Bacon is also sold and served as joints, usually boiled, broiled or roast, or in thicker slices called chops or steaks. These are usually eaten as part of other meals.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon may be cured in several ways, and may be smoked or unsmoked; unsmoked bacon is known as "green bacon". Fried or grilled bacon rashers are included in the "traditional" full breakfast. Hot bacon sandwiches are a popular cafe dish in the UK and Ireland, and are anecdotally recommended as a hangover cure.


title: Bacon

text: The term "bacon" on its own generally refers to side bacon, which is the most popular type of bacon sold in the US. Back bacon is known as "Canadian bacon" or "Canadian-style bacon", and is usually sold pre-cooked and thick-sliced. American bacons include varieties smoked with hickory, mesquite or applewood and flavourings such as maple, brown sugar, honey, or molasses. A side of unsliced bacon is known as "slab bacon".


title: Bacon

text: USDA regulations only recognized bacon as "cured" if it has been treated with synthetic nitrites or nitrates (e.g. sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate). This means that bacon cured with nitrites derived from celery or beets (which has the same chemical outcome) must be labelled "uncured" and include a notice such as "no nitrates or nitrites added except for that naturally occurring in celery". There is also bacon for sale uncured with any nitrites from any sources.


title: Bacon

text: Salted pork belly first appeared in China. In Middle English the term bacon or bacoun referred to all pork in general. Before the industrial revolution, bacon was generally produced on local farms and in domestic kitchens. The worlds first commercial bacon processing plant was opened in Wiltshire in the 1770s by John Harris.


title: Bacon

text: The United States and Canada have seen an increase in the popularity of bacon and bacon-related recipes, dubbed "bacon mania". The sale of bacon in the US has increased significantly since 2011. Sales climbed 9.5% in 2013, making it an all-time high of nearly $4 billion in US. In a survey conducted by Smithfield, 65% of Americans would support bacon as their "national food". Dishes such as bacon explosion, chicken fried bacon, and chocolate-covered bacon have been popularised over the Internet, as has the use of candied bacon. Recipes spread quickly through both countries' national media, culinary blogs, and YouTube. Restaurants have organised and are organising bacon and beer tasting nights, "The New York Times" reported on bacon infused with Irish whiskey used for Saint Patrick's Day cocktails, and celebrity chef Bobby Flay has endorsed a "Bacon of the Month" club online, in print, and on national television. "Everything Tastes Better with Bacon", a 2002 book by Sara Perry, is a cookbook in which all dishes contain bacon.


title: Bacon

text: Commentators explain this surging interest in bacon by reference to what they deem American cultural characteristics. Sarah Hepola, in a 2008 article in "Salon.com", suggests a number of reasons, one of them being that eating bacon in the modern, health-conscious world is an act of rebellion: "Loving bacon is like shoving a middle finger in the face of all that is healthy and holy while an unfiltered cigarette smoulders between your lips." She also suggests bacon is sexy (with a reference to Sarah Katherine Lewis' book "Sex and Bacon"), kitsch, and funny. Hepola concludes by saying that "Bacon is American".


title: Bacon

text: Alison Cook, writing in the "Houston Chronicle", argues the case of bacon's American citizenship by referring to historical and geographical uses of bacon. Early American literature echoes the sentiment—in Ebenezer Cooke's 1708 poem "The Sot-Weed Factor", a satire of life in early colonial America, the narrator already complains that practically all the food in America was bacon-infused.


title: Bacon

text: As of December 2016, the U.S. national frozen pork belly inventory totaled , the lowest level in 50 years.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon dishes include bacon and eggs, bacon, lettuce, and tomato (BLT) sandwiches, Cobb salad, and various bacon-wrapped foods, such as scallops, shrimp, and asparagus. Recently invented bacon dishes include chicken fried bacon, chocolate covered bacon, bacon jerky, bacon ice cream and the bacon explosion. Tatws Pum Munud is a traditional Welsh stew, made with sliced potatoes, vegetables and smoked bacon. Bacon jam and bacon marmalade are also commercially available.


title: Bacon

text: Streaky bacon is more commonly used as a topping in the US on such items as pizza, salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, baked potatoes, hot dogs, and soups. In the US, sliced smoked back bacon is used less frequently than the streaky variety, but can sometimes be found on pizza, salads, and omelettes.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is also used as an accent in dishes, such as bacon-topped meatloaf, sautéed crisp and crumbled into green beans, or as a crumble in a salad.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon bits are crumbled bacon in condiment form, typically commercially prepared and preserved for long shelf life.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon fat liquefies and becomes drippings when it is heated. Once cool, it firms into a form of lard. Bacon fat is flavourful and is used for various cooking purposes. Traditionally, bacon grease is saved in British and southern US cuisine, and used as a base for cooking and as an all-purpose flavouring, for everything from gravy to cornbread to salad dressing.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon is often used for a cooking technique called "barding" consisting of laying or wrapping strips of bacon or other fats over a roast to provide additional fat to a lean piece of meat. It is often used for roast game birds, and is a traditional method of preparing beef filet mignon, which is wrapped in strips of bacon before cooking. The bacon itself may afterwards be discarded or served to eat, like cracklings. It may also be cut into lardons.


title: Bacon

text: One teaspoon () of bacon grease has 38 calories (40 kJ/g). It is composed almost completely of fat, with very little additional nutritional value. Bacon fat is roughly 40% saturated. Despite the disputed health risks of excessive bacon grease consumption, it remains popular in the cuisine of the American South.


title: Bacon

text: One 10-g slice of cooked side bacon contains 4.5 g of fat, 3.0 g of protein, and 205 mg of sodium. The fat, protein, and sodium content varies depending on the cut and cooking method.


title: Bacon

text: 68% of the food energy of bacon comes from fat, almost half of which is saturated. A serving of three slices of bacon contains 30 milligrams of cholesterol (0.1%).


title: Bacon

text: Studies have consistently found the consumption of processed meat to be linked to increased mortality, and to an increased risk of developing a number of serious health conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Although these links have not been definitely established as causal, they are likely to be.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon can contain nitrites, which can form carcinogenic nitroso-compounds such as S-Nitrosothiols , nitrosyl-heme and nitrosamines. In the United States, sodium nitrite cannot exceed certain levels in bacon. Vitamin C (ascorbate) or sodium erythorbate can be added to bacon, which greatly reduces the formation of nitrosamines but has no effect on S-Nitrosothiols and nitrosyl-heme. Vitamin E (tocopherol) also reduces nitrosamine levels. Bacon fried at higher temperatures potentially has more nitrosamines than bacon fried at lower temperatures.


title: Bacon

text: According to the World Health Organization in 2015, regular consumption of processed meats such as bacon increases the likelihood of developing colorectal cancers by 18%.


title: Bacon

text: Several alternatives to and substitutes for bacon have been developed for those who cannot or prefer not to eat standard pork bacon, including beef, chicken, turkey, bison, soy, and coconut bacon.


title: Bacon

text: Turkey bacon is consumed by some as an alternative to pork bacon for health benefits, religious laws, or other concerns. It is lower in fat and food energy than bacon, but is used similarly.


title: Bacon

text: The meat for turkey bacon comes from the whole turkey, which is chopped and reformed into strips to resemble bacon, and can be cured or uncured, or smoked. Turkey bacon is cooked by pan-frying. Cured turkey bacon made from dark meat can be less than 10% fat. The low fat content of turkey bacon means it does not shrink while being cooked and has a tendency to stick to the pan.


title: Bacon

text: "Macon" is produced by curing cuts of mutton in a manner similar to the production of pork bacon. Historically produced in Scotland, it was introduced across Britain during World War II as a consequence of rationing. It is today available as an alternative to bacon, produced for the Muslim market and sold at halal butchers; it is largely similar in appearance to pork bacon except for the darker colour.


title: Bacon

text: Vegetarian bacon, also referred to as "facon", "veggie bacon", or "vacon", is a vegetarian "bacon" made from plant matter. It has no cholesterol, is low in fat, and contains large amounts of protein and fibre. Two slices contain about . Vegetarian bacon is usually made from marinated strips of textured soy protein or tempeh (fermented soybeans).


title: Bacon

text: The popularity of bacon in the United States has given rise to a number of commercial products that promise to add bacon flavouring without the labour involved in cooking it.


title: Bacon

text: Bacon bits are a frequently used topping on salad or potatoes, and a common element of salad bars. They are usually salted. Bacon bits are made from small, crumbled pieces of bacon; in commercial plants they are cooked in continuous microwave ovens. Similar products are made from ham or turkey, and analogues are made from textured vegetable protein, artificially flavoured to resemble bacon.


title: Bacon

text: There is also a wide range of other bacon-flavoured products, including a bacon-flavoured salt (Bacon Salt), Baconnaise (a bacon-flavoured mayonnaise), Bacon Grill (a tinned meat, similar to Spam) and bacon ice cream.


title: Al Franken

text: Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comedy show "Saturday Night Live," where he worked from the 1970s until the 1990s. After decades as an entertainer, he became a prominent liberal political activist, hosting "The Al Franken Show" on Air America Radio.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was elected to the United States Senate in 2008 as the nominee of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL, an affiliate of the Democratic Party), defeating incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly three million cast (a margin of just over 0.01%) in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate. He was reelected in 2014 with 53.2% of the vote over Republican challenger Mike McFadden. Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him.


title: Al Franken

text: In September 2019, Franken announced he would be hosting "The Al Franken Show" Saturday mornings on SiriusXM radio. It covers global affairs, politics, the 2020 presidential election, and entertainment. In September 2021, Franken began a 15-city live tour, his first since semi-retiring from comedy during his time in the Senate.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was born in New York City to Joseph P. Franken (1908–1993), a printing salesman, and Phoebe Franken (née Kunst) (1918–2003), a real estate agent. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Germany; his maternal grandfather came from Grodno, Russian Empire; and his maternal grandmother's parents were also from the Russian Empire. Phoebe was from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Both of his parents were Jews, and Franken was raised in a Reform Jewish home and attended Temple Israel in Minneapolis. He has an older brother, Owen (b. circa 1946), who is a photojournalist, and his cousin Bob is a journalist for MSNBC.


title: Al Franken

text: The Frankens moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, when Al was four years old. His father opened a quilting factory, but it failed after two years. The family then moved to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Franken graduated from The Blake School in 1969, where he was a member of the wrestling team. Franken says that he scored 800 (out of 800) on the math section of his SATs and 662 on the verbal section. He attended Harvard College, where he majored in political science, graduating "cum laude" with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973. As a student, Franken wrote comedy and idolized comedians Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce because they did acts about hypocrisy and corruption while making the audience laugh.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken began performing in high school, where he and his longtime friend and writing partner Tom Davis were known for their comedy. The duo first performed on stage at Minneapolis's Brave New Workshop theater specializing in political satire. They soon found themselves in what was described as "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles".


title: Al Franken

text: Franken and Tom Davis were recruited as two of the original writers and occasional performers on "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL") (1975–1980, 1985–1995). In "SNL"'s first season"," the two apprentice writers shared a salary of $350 per week. Franken received 15 Emmy nominations and five awards for his television writing and producing while creating such characters as self-help guru Stuart Smalley. Another routine proclaimed the 1980s the "Al Franken Decade". Franken and Davis wrote the script of the 1986 comedy film "One More Saturday Night," appearing in it as rock singers in a band called Bad Mouth. They also had minor roles in "All You Need Is Cash" and the film "Trading Places", starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd .


title: Al Franken

text: On "Weekend Update" near the end of Season 5, Franken delivered a commentary called "A Limo for a Lame-O". He mocked controversial NBC president Fred Silverman as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. As a result of this sketch, Silverman declined Lorne Michaels's recommendation for Franken to succeed him as the producer, and Franken left the show when Michaels did, at the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken returned to the show in 1985 as a writer and occasional performer. He has acknowledged using cocaine and other illegal drugs while working in television and stated that he stopped after John Belushi died of an overdose. In 1995, Franken left the show in protest over losing the role of "Weekend Update" anchor to Norm Macdonald.


title: Al Franken

text: In 1995, Franken wrote and starred in the film "Stuart Saves His Family" which was based on his "SNL" character Stuart Smalley. The film was a critical and commercial failure and Franken later became depressed as a result. Despite its aggregate rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film received favorable reviews from "The Washington Post" and Gene Siskel.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken is the author of four books that made "The New York Times" Best Seller list. His 1996 book "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations" topped the "New York Times" list; the audiobook, which was read by Franken, won a Grammy Award. Another Grammy was awarded for Franken's 2003 "", a satirical book on American politics and conservatism. The book's title incorporated the Fox News slogan "Fair and Balanced", and had a cover photo of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly; that August, Fox News sued claiming infringement of its registered trademark phrase. A federal judge found the lawsuit "wholly without merit." The incident focused media attention on Franken's book and, according to him, greatly increased its sales. The publicity resulting from the lawsuit propelled Franken's yet-to-be-released book to number 1 on Amazon.com.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken signed a one-year contract in early 2004 to host a talk show for Air America Radio's flagship program with co-host Katherine Lanpher, who remained with the show until October 2005. The network was launched on March 31, 2004. Originally named "The O'Franken Factor" as a pun on right-wing talk show "The O'Reilly Factor", but later renamed "The Al Franken Show" on July 12, 2004, the show aired three hours a day, five days a week for three years. Its stated goal was to put more progressive views on the public airwaves to counter what Franken perceived as the dominance of conservative syndicated commentary on the radio: "I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected," he told a "New York Times" reporter in 2004. Franken's last radio show on Air America Radio was on February 14, 2007, at the end of which he announced his candidacy for the United States Senate.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken also co-wrote the film "When a Man Loves a Woman", co-created and starred in the NBC sitcom "LateLine", and appeared in the 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate".


title: Al Franken

text: In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Since 2005 he has been a contributor to "The Huffington Post".


title: Al Franken

text: Franken toured Iraq several times with the United Service Organizations (USO). On March 25, 2009, he was presented with the USO Metro Merit Award for his ten years of involvement with the organization.


title: Al Franken

text: According to an article by Richard Corliss published in "Time" magazine, "In a way, Franken has been running for office since the late '70s." Corliss also hinted at Franken's "possibly ironic role as a relentless self-promoter" in proclaiming the 1980s "The Al Franken Decade" and saying, "Vote for me, Al Franken. You'll be glad you did!" In 1999 Franken released a parody book, "Why Not Me?," detailing his hypothetical campaign for president in 2000. He had been a strong supporter of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and was deeply affected by Wellstone's death in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 election. Wellstone was a mentor and political and personal role model for Franken, who stated his hopes of following in Wellstone's footsteps. Senator Norm Coleman's comment that he was a "99 percent improvement" over Wellstone was an impetus for Franken's run for the Senate.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken said he learned that 21% of Americans received most of their news from talk radio, an almost exclusively conservative medium. "I didn't want to sit on the sidelines, and I believed Air America could make a difference", he said. In November 2003 Franken talked about moving back to his home state of Minnesota to run for the Senate. At the time the seat once held by Wellstone was occupied by Republican Norm Coleman. At a 2004 Democratic presidential campaign event, Franken tackled a man who was allegedly threatening other attendees and heckling Governor Howard Dean. In 2005 Franken announced his move to Minnesota: "I can tell you honestly, I don't know if I'm going to run, but I'm doing the stuff I need to do in order to do it." In late 2005 he started his own political action committee, Midwest Values PAC. By early 2007 the PAC had raised more than $1million.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was the subject of the 2006 documentary film "", which "The New York Times" called "an investigation of the phenomenon of ideological celebrity."


title: Al Franken

text: Franken initially supported the Iraq War, but opposed the 2007 troop surge. In an interview with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, he said that he "believed Colin Powell", whose presentation at the United Nations convinced him that the war was necessary, but had since come to believe that "we were misled into the war" and urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to refuse to pass appropriations bills to fund the war if they did not include timetables for leaving Iraq. In an interview with Josh Marshall, Franken said of the Democrats, "I think we've gotta make President George W. Bush say, 'OK, I'm cutting off funding because I won't agree to a timetable.'"


title: Al Franken

text: In 2004, Franken favored transitioning to a universal health care system, with the provision that every child in America would receive health care coverage immediately. In 2014, he objected to efforts to privatize Social Security or cut benefits, favoring raising the cap on wages to which Social Security taxes apply. On his 2008 campaign website, he voiced support for cutting subsidies for oil companies, increasing money available for college students, and cutting interest rates on student loans.


title: Al Franken

text: During the 2008 election, New York state officials asserted that Al Franken Inc. had failed to carry required workers' compensation insurance for employees who assisted him with his comedy and public speaking from 2002 to 2005. Franken paid a $25,000 fine to the state of New York upon being advised his corporation was out of compliance with the state's workers' compensation laws. At the same time, the California Franchise Tax Board reported that the same corporation owed more than $4,743 in taxes, fines, and associated penalties in the state of California for 2003 through 2007, because the corporation did not file tax returns in the state for those years. A Franken representative said that it followed the advice of an accountant who believed when the corporation stopped doing business in California that no further filing was required. Franken subsequently paid $70,000 in back income taxes in 17 states dating back to 2003, mostly from his speeches and other paid appearances. Franken said he paid the income tax in his state of residence, and he would seek retroactive credit for paying the taxes in the wrong state.


title: Al Franken

text: On January 29, 2007, Franken announced his departure from Air America Radio, and on the day of his final show, February 14, he formally announced his candidacy for the United States Senate from Minnesota in 2008. Challenging him for the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party endorsement was Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor, author, and activist; trial lawyer Mike Ciresi; and attorney and human rights activist Jim Cohen, who dropped out of the race early. Franken won the nomination with 65% of the vote.


title: Al Franken

text: On July 8, 2007, Franken's campaign stated that it expected to announce that he had raised more money than his Republican opponent, Norm Coleman, during the second quarter of the year, taking in $1.9million to Coleman's $1.6million, although in early July 2007, Coleman's $3.8million cash on hand exceeded Franken's $2million.


title: Al Franken

text: In May 2008, the Minnesota Republican Party released a letter about an article Franken had written for "Playboy" magazine in 2000 titled "Porn-O-Rama!" The letter, signed by six prominent GOP women, including a state senator and state representative, called on Franken to apologize for what they called a "demeaning and degrading" article. His campaign spokesman responded, "Al had a long career as a satirist. But he understands the difference between what you say as a satirist and what you do as a senator. And as a Senator, Norm Coleman has disrespected the people of Minnesota by putting the Exxons and Halliburtons ahead of working families. And there's nothing funny about that."


title: Al Franken

text: On June 7, 2008, Franken was endorsed by the DFL. In a July 2008 interview with CNN, he was endorsed by Ben Stein, a noted entertainer, speechwriter, lawyer and author known for his conservative views, who generally supported Republican candidates. Stein said of Franken, "He is my pal, and he is a really, really capable smart guy. I don't agree with all of his positions, but he is a very impressive guy, and I think he should be in the Senate."


title: Al Franken

text: During his campaign, Franken was criticized for advising "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels on a political sketch ridiculing Senator John McCain's ads attacking Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Coleman's campaign reacted, saying, "Once again, he proves he's more interested in entertainment than service, and ridiculing those with whom he disagrees."


title: Al Franken

text: Preliminary reports on election night, November 4, were that Coleman was leading by over 700 votes, but the official results, certified on November 18, 2008, had Coleman leading by only 215 votes. As the two candidates were separated by less than 0.5 percent of the votes cast, the Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie authorized the automatic recount provided for in Minnesota election law. In the recount, ballots and certifying materials were examined by hand, and candidates could file challenges to the legality of ballots or materials for inclusion or exclusion. On January 5, 2009, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified the recounted vote totals, with Franken ahead by 225 votes.


title: Al Franken

text: On January 6, 2009, Coleman's campaign filed an election contest which led to a trial before a three-judge panel. The trial ended on April 7, when the panel ruled that 351 of 387 disputed absentee ballots were incorrectly rejected and ordered them counted. Counting those ballots raised Franken's lead to 312 votes. Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 20. On April 24 the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Oral arguments were conducted on June 1.


title: Al Franken

text: On June 30, 2009, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously rejected Coleman's appeal and said that Franken was entitled to be certified as the winner. Shortly after the court's decision, Coleman conceded. Governor Tim Pawlenty signed Franken's election certificate that evening.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was reelected to a second term in 2014. He won the August 12 primary election, in which he was challenged by Sandra Henningsgard, with 94.5% of the vote. He won the general election against the Republican nominee, Mike McFadden with 53.2% of the vote.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was sworn into the Senate on July 7, 2009, 246 days after the election. He took the oath of office with the Bible of late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, whose old seat Senate leaders set aside for Franken.


title: Al Franken

text: On August 6, 2009, Franken presided over the confirmation vote of Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. On August 5, 2010, Franken presided over the confirmation vote of Elena Kagan. His first piece of legislation, the Service Dogs for Veterans Act, which he wrote jointly with Republican Senator Johnny Isakson, passed the Senate by unanimous consent. It established a program with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to pair disabled veterans with service dogs.


title: Al Franken

text: A video of Franken at the Minnesota State Fair on September 2, 2009, engaging in a discussion with a group of Tea Party protesters on health care reform, began circulating on the Internet and soon went viral. The discussion was noted for its civility, in contrast to the explosive character of several other discussions between members of the 111th Congress and their constituents that had occurred over the summer.


title: Al Franken

text: During the debate on health care reform, Franken was one of the strongest supporters of a single-payer system. He authored an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act called the Medical Loss Ratio, which required that insurance companies spend at least 80% of premiums on actual health care costs, and 85% for large group plans. On September 30, 2013, Franken voted to remove a provision that would repeal Obamacare's medical device tax from a government funding bill, saying that though he supported the provision, he disagreed with its being used as a condition for preventing the 2013 federal government shutdown.


title: Al Franken

text: Citing the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, Franken introduced a limit to the arbitration policy of the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that withheld defense contracts from companies that restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery, and discrimination cases to court. It passed the Senate in November 2010, 68 to 30, in a roll-call vote.


title: Al Franken

text: In May 2010 Franken proposed a financial-reform amendment that created a board to select which credit rating agency would evaluate a given security. At the time, any company issuing a security could select the company that evaluated the security. The amendment passed, but the financial industry lobbied to have it removed from the final bill. Negotiations between the Senate and House, whose version of financial reform did not include such a provision, resulted in the amendment's being watered down to require only a series of studies being done on the issue for two years. After the studies, if the Securities and Exchange Commission had not implemented another solution to the conflict-of-interest problem, Franken's solution would go into effect.


title: Al Franken

text: In August 2010, Franken made faces and hand gestures and rolled his eyes while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a speech in opposition to the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. McConnell responded, "This isn't "Saturday Night Live", Al." After Kagan's confirmation, Franken delivered a handwritten apology to McConnell and issued a public statement saying that McConnell had a right "to give his speech with the presiding officer just listening respectfully."


title: Al Franken

text: The "National Journal" reported in 2013 that Franken supported the National Security Agency's data mining programs believing they have saved lives, and that "I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people."


title: Al Franken

text: When Franken declared his intention to seek reelection in 2014, his seat was thought to be a top target for the Republicans because of his very slim margin of victory in 2008. But "Politico" reported that his high approval rating, his large campaign fund, and the Republicans' struggle to find a top-tier candidate meant he was a "heavy favorite" to win reelection, and Franken won the race comfortably.


title: Al Franken

text: In 2015, during Loretta Lynch's confirmation hearings, Franken asked her about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, reiterating concern for the aggressive prosecution of Aaron Swartz in "United States v. Swartz".


title: Al Franken

text: The Associated Press noted that, contrary to expectations, Franken did not seek out the media spotlight: "He rarely talks to the Washington press corps, has shed his comedic persona and focused on policy, working to be taken seriously." In interviews he expressed his desire to be known for a focus on constituency work, keeping his head down, and working hard.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken was an effective fundraiser for the Democrats. By late 2015, his political action committee had raised more than $5million in donations. In 2016, his PAC raised $3.3million. According to "The Star Tribune", Franken was able to "draw crowds and donations across the country".


title: Al Franken

text: Franken condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis.


title: Al Franken

text: In September 2016, in advance of UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Franken signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel. Franken supported an Anti-Boycott Act, which would make it legal for U.S. states to refuse to do business with contractors that engage in boycotts against Israel.


title: Al Franken

text: In July 2017 Franken voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea.


title: Al Franken

text: On November 16, 2017, radio broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden alleged in a blog post and an interview with her radio station, 790 KABC, that Franken forcibly kissed her on a 2006 USO tour during a rehearsal for a skit. She wrote, "I said 'OK' so he would stop badgering me. We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth." She said she pushed him away, feeling "disgusted and violated". Roger Stone circulated news of the allegations to right-wing media.


title: Al Franken

text: During the 2006 tour, Franken was photographed holding his hands above Tweeden's breasts while she was asleep wearing body armor and a helmet. In Franken's defense, CNBC's John Harwood said, "That pic was obviously a joke, not groping, just like LeeAnn Tweeden wrapping her leg around Robin Williams and smacking his butt; entertainment for soldiers deployed overseas is raunchy like that." Harwood was referring to video taken of Tweeden "humping" the married Williams on a similar 2004 USO tour.


title: Al Franken

text: In response, Franken said, "I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann ... As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it." A few hours later, Franken issued a longer apology, which Tweeden accepted.


title: Al Franken

text: In the days that followed, seven additional women came forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior during photo ops. Lindsay Menz accused Franken of touching her clothed buttocks while they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Two anonymous women made similar complaints related to events during political events. Franken apologized, saying, "I've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations. I'm a warm person; I hug people. I've learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women—and I know that any number is too many." Another anonymous woman said that after she was a guest on Franken's radio show in 2006, Franken leaned in toward her face during a handshake and gave her "a wet, open-mouthed kiss" on the cheek when she turned her face aside. The same day, Stephanie Kemplin, an army veteran, told CNN that Franken held the side of her breast for 5 to 10 seconds "and never moved his hand" while posing for a photograph with her during a 2003 USO tour in Iraq.


title: Al Franken

text: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent Tweeden's accusations to the Senate Ethics Committee for review, a decision supported by members of both parties, including Franken. On November 30 the committee announced that it was investigating allegations against him. Some liberal groups and commentators, including the Indivisible movement and Sally Kohn, called on Franken to resign. On December 6, two more accusations surfaced, one by an anonymous congressional aide about an attempted kiss at his radio show studio, and one by congressional aide Tina Dupuy that Franken squeezed her waist at a party before he took office. More than two dozen Democratic senators, led by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, called on Franken to resign before the ethics committee could review the allegations.


title: Al Franken

text: Although Franken had asked to be allowed to appear before the Senate Ethics Committee to give his side of the story, on December 6 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told him he had to announce his resignation by five o’clock or he could be censured and stripped of committee assignments. On December 7, Franken announced his intention to resign his Senate seat. He called some of the accusations "simply not true" and said he remembered others "very differently". In his resignation speech he made comparisons to Republican politicians, saying he was "aware of the irony" that President Trump remained in office despite the comments Trump made in the Access Hollywood tape released a month before his election, and that the Republican Party supported Roy Moore's Senate campaign despite the many allegations of harassment and molestation against Moore. Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, and Minnesota governor Mark Dayton appointed the lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, to Franken's seat until a November 2018 special election, which Smith won.


title: Al Franken

text: After resigning from the Senate, Franken canceled appointments with close friends and ignored phone calls from others. "It got pretty dark, I became clinically depressed. I wasn't a hundred per cent cognitively. I needed medication," he said.


title: Al Franken

text: Reporting in 2019 by "New Yorker" journalist Jane Mayer documented substantial inaccuracies in Tweeden's allegations. Seven former or current senators who called for Franken's resignation in 2017 told Mayer they regretted doing so. Patrick Leahy said calling for Franken's resignation without having all the facts was "one of the biggest mistakes I've made" as a senator. New Mexico senator Tom Udall said, "I made a mistake. I started having second thoughts shortly after he stepped down. He had the right to be heard by an independent investigative body. I've heard from people around my state, and around the country, saying that they think he got railroaded. It doesn't seem fair. I'm a lawyer. I really believe in due process." Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "It's terrible what happened to him. It was unfair. It took the legs out from under him. He was a very fine senator."


title: Al Franken

text: Accusations that the forced resignation was unfair were described as a liability to Gillibrand's presidential campaign in mid-2019. In a 2018 "Politico" article, Franken supporters accused Gillibrand of doing damage that Republicans could not have done, given Franken's effectiveness in the Senate. Prominent Democratic fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell said that the episode "stained [Gillibrand's] reputation as a fair player. I do hear people refer to Kirsten Gillibrand as 'opportunistic' and shrewd at the expense of others to advance herself, and it seems to have been demonstrated in her rapid treatment of her colleague Al Franken. I heard her referred to as 'She would eat her own,' and she seems to have demonstrated that. I know [Gillibrand] thought she was doing the right thing, but I think she will be remembered by this rush to judgment. I have heard [that] some of her women colleagues regret joining her."


title: Al Franken

text: In 2019, Franken said that he was sorry that he made some women feel uncomfortable, and that while he was still trying to understand what he did wrong, he felt that differentiating dissimilar kinds of behavior is important. "The idea that anybody who accuses someone of something is always right—that's not the case. That isn't reality," he said.


title: Al Franken

text: In September 2019, a ninth accuser told "New York" magazine that in 2006 Franken groped her buttock in a photo line at an event for Patty Murray. The unnamed woman, described as a "former staffer who served on Democratic campaigns and works at a large progressive organization", said she had not come forward because she feared it would be held against her in her career. In response, Franken told "New York", "Two years ago, I would have sworn that I’d never done anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but it's clear that I must have been doing something. As I've said before, I feel terrible that anyone came away from an interaction with me feeling bad."


title: Al Franken

text: In a February 9, 2022, interview with Washington Post Live, Franken said he regretted resigning from the Senate and might run for public office again.


title: Al Franken

text: After his resignation, Franken went into a period of self-imposed isolation and, in May 2019, started "The Al Franken Podcast", which is now in its third season. Around the same time, Franken went on tour with a non-comedic show that he did from a podium and with notes. The COVID-19 pandemic put the show on hold, but when clubs reopened, he made unannounced shows at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, where he lives. In the fall of 2021, his first post-COVID theater show took place in Northampton, Massachusetts, in front of a friendly audience. The solo show, called "The Only Former US Senator Currently on Tour Tour", continued into 2022.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken met his wife, Franni Bryson, during his first year at Harvard. In 2005 they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. Their daughter, Thomasin, has degrees from Harvard and the French Culinary Institute; she is the director of extended learning at DC Prep, an organization in Washington, D.C., that manages charter schools. Their son, Joseph, works in the finance industry. Franken is a second cousin of the actor Steve Franken, known for his appearances in the television series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". In 2013, Franken received the Stewart B. McKinney Award for his work fighting homelessness.


title: Al Franken

text: Franken has said that he "very strongly" identifies "as a Jew—as a pretty secular Jew." He has also said he believes in God.


title: Al Franken

text: In the summer of 2021, Franken moved back to New York City, settling in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad (), was the nominal Queen of Castile from 1504 and Queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was married by arrangement to Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria, of the House of Habsburg, on 20 October 1496. Following the deaths of her brother, John, Prince of Asturias, in 1497, her elder sister Isabella in 1498, and her nephew Miguel in 1500, Joanna became the heir presumptive to the crowns of Castile and Aragon. When her mother, Queen Isabella I of Castile, died in 1504, Joanna became Queen of Castile. Her father, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, proclaimed himself Governor and Administrator of Castile.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1506 Archduke Philip became King of Castile "jure uxoris" as "Philip I", initiating the rule of the Habsburgs in the Spanish kingdoms, and died that same year. Despite being the ruling Queen of Castile, Joanna had little effect on national policy during her reign as she was declared insane and confined in the Royal Convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas under the orders of her father, who ruled as regent until his death in 1516, when she inherited his kingdom as well. From 1516, when her son Charles I ruled as king, she was nominally co-monarch but remained confined until her death. Joanna's death resulted in the personal union of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, as her son Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, also became King of Castile and Aragon.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Joanna was born in the city of Toledo in the Kingdom of Castile. She was the third child and second daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, both members of the House of Trastámara. She had a fair complexion, brown eyes and her hair colour was between strawberry-blonde and auburn, like her mother and her sister Catherine. Her siblings were Isabella, Queen of Portugal; John, Prince of Asturias; Maria, Queen of Portugal; and Catherine, Queen of England.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: She was educated and formally trained for a significant marriage that, as a royal family alliance, would extend the kingdom's power and security as well as its influence and peaceful relations with other ruling powers. As an "infanta" (princess), she was not expected to be heiress to the throne of either Castile or Aragon, although through deaths she later inherited both.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Her academic education consisted of canon and civil law, genealogy and heraldry, grammar, history, languages, mathematics, philosophy, reading, spelling and writing. Among the authors of classical literature she read were the Christian poets Juvencus and Prudentius, Church fathers Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory, and Saint Jerome, and the Roman statesman Seneca.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In the Castilian court her main tutors were the Dominican priest Andrés de Miranda; educator Beatriz Galindo, who was a member of the queen's court; and her mother, the queen. Joanna's royal education included court etiquette, dancing, drawing, equestrian skills, good manners, music, and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, and sewing. She studied the Iberian Romance languages of Castilian, Leonese, Galician-Portuguese and Catalan, and became fluent in French and Latin. She learned outdoor pursuits such as hawking and hunting. She was skilled at dancing and music, having played the clavichord, the guitar, and the monochord.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1496, Joanna, at the age of sixteen, was betrothed to the eighteen year old Philip of Flanders, in the Low Countries. Philip's parents were Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his first wife, Duchess Mary of Burgundy. The marriage was one of a set of family alliances between the Habsburgs and the Trastámaras designed to strengthen both against growing French power.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Joanna entered a proxy marriage at the Palacio de los Vivero in the city of Valladolid, Castile, where her parents had secretly married in 1469. In August 1496 Joanna left from the port of Laredo in northern Castile on the Atlantic's Bay of Biscay. Except for 1506, when she saw her younger sister Catherine, the then Dowager Princess of Wales, she would not see her siblings again.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Joanna began her journey to Flanders in the Low Countries, which consisted of parts of the present day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Germany, on 22 August 1496. The formal marriage took place on 20 October 1496 in Lier, north of present-day Brussels. Between 1498 and 1507, she gave birth to six children, two boys and four girls, all of whom grew up to be either emperors or queens.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: The death of Joanna's brother John, the stillbirth of John's daughter, and the deaths of Joanna's older sister Isabella and Isabella's son Miguel made Joanna heiress to the Spanish kingdoms. Her remaining siblings were Maria (1482–1517) and Catherine (1485–1536), younger than Joanna by three and six years, respectively.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1502, the Castilian "Cortes" of Toro recognised Joanna as heiress to the Castilian throne and Philip as her consort. She was named Princess of Asturias, the title traditionally given to the heir of Castile. Also in 1502, the Aragonese "Cortes" gathered in Zaragoza to swear an oath to Joanna as heiress; however, the Archbishop of Zaragoza expressed firmly that this oath could only establish jurisprudence by way of a formal agreement on the succession between the "Cortes" and the king.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1502, Philip, Joanna and a large part of the Burgundian court travelled to Toledo for Joanna to receive fealty from the Cortes of Castile as Princess of Asturias, heiress to the Castilian throne, a journey chronicled in great detail by Antoon I van Lalaing (). Philip and the majority of the court returned to the Low Countries in the following year, leaving a pregnant Joanna in Madrid, where she gave birth to her and Philip's fourth child, Ferdinand, later a central European monarch and Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand I.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Upon the death of her mother in November 1504, Joanna became Queen regnant of Castile and her husband "jure uxoris" its king in 1506. Joanna's father, Ferdinand II, lost his monarchical status in Castile although his wife's will permitted him to govern in Joanna's absence or, if Joanna was unwilling to rule herself, until Joanna's heir reached the age of 20.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Ferdinand refused to accept this; he minted Castilian coins in the name of "Ferdinand and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, León and Aragon," and, in early 1505, persuaded the "Cortes" that Joanna's "illness is such that the said Queen Doña Joanna our Lady cannot govern". The "Cortes" then appointed Ferdinand as Joanna's guardian and the kingdom's administrator and governor.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Joanna's husband, Philip, was unwilling to accept any threat to his chances of ruling Castile and also minted coins in the name of "Philip and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Léon and Archdukes of Austria, etc." In response, Ferdinand embarked upon a pro-French policy, marrying Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII of France (and his own great-niece), in the hope that she would produce a son to inherit Aragon and perhaps Castile.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In the Low Countries, Joanna was kept in confinement. When her father-in-law Maximilian (in semi secrecy) visited them on 24 August 1505 though, she was released to welcome him. Maximilian tried to comfort Joanna with festivities and she spent weeks accompanying him in public events, during which she acted like a wise, prudent queen, as noted by the Venetian ambassador. To entertain Joanna, Philip and Maximilian (who was dressed incognito) jousted against each other at night, under torchlight. Maximilian told Philip that he could only succeed as a monarch if husband and wife were "una cosa medesima" (one and the same). After this, the couple reconciled somewhat. When Philip tried to gain support from Castilian nobles and prelates against Ferdinand though, Joanna firmly refused to act against her father.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Ferdinand's remarriage merely strengthened support for Philip and Joanna in Castile, and in late 1505 the pair decided to travel to Castile. Before they boarded the ship, Joanna forbade a ship with woman attendants to join the trip, fearing that Philip would have illicit relationships with them. This action played right into Philip's and Ferdinand's propaganda against her. Leaving Flanders on 10 January 1506, their ships were wrecked on the English coast and the couple were guests of Henry, Prince of Wales, later Henry VIII, and Joanna's sister Catherine of Aragon at Windsor Castle. They weren't able to leave until 21 April, by which time civil war was looming in Castile.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Philip apparently considered landing in Andalusia and summoning the nobles to take up arms against Ferdinand in Aragon. Instead, he and Joanna landed at A Coruña on 26 April, whereupon the Castilian nobility abandoned Ferdinand en masse. Ferdinand met Philip at Villafáfila on 27 June 1506 for a private interview in the village church. To the general surprise Ferdinand had unexpectedly handed over the government of Castile to his "most beloved children", promising to retire to Aragon. Philip and Ferdinand then signed a second treaty secretly, agreeing that Joanna's "infirmities and sufferings" made her incapable of ruling and promising to exclude her from government and deprive the Queen of crown and freedom.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Ferdinand promptly repudiated the second agreement the same afternoon, declaring that Joanna should never be deprived of her rights as Queen Proprietress of Castile. A fortnight later, having come to no fresh agreement with Philip, and thus effectively retaining his right to interfere if he considered his daughter's rights to have been infringed upon, he abandoned Castile for Aragon, leaving Philip to govern in Joanna's stead.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: By virtue of the agreement of Villafáfila, the procurators of the "Cortes" met in Valladolid, Castile on 9 July 1506. On 12 July, they swore allegiance to Philip I and Joanna together as King and Queen of Castile and León and to their son Charles, later Charles I of Castile, Leon and Aragon and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as their heir-apparent. This arrangement only lasted for a few months.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: On 25 September 1506, Philip died after a five-day illness in the city of Burgos in Castile. The official cause of death was typhoid fever. The general opinion publicly declared was that his father-in-law Ferdinand II, who had always disliked his foreign Habsburg origins and with whom he never wanted to share power, had had him poisoned by "bocado". Joanna was pregnant with their sixth child, a daughter named Catherine (1507–1578), who later became Queen of Portugal.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: By 20 December 1506, Joanna was in the village of Torquemada in Castile, attempting to exercise her rights to rule alone in her own name as Queen of Castile. The country fell into disorder. Her son and heir-apparent, Charles, later Charles I, was a six-year-old child being raised in his aunt's care in northern European Flanders; her father, Ferdinand II, remained in Aragon, allowing the crisis to grow.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: A regency council under Archbishop Cisneros was set up, against the queen's orders, but it was unable to manage the growing public disorder; plague and famine devastated the kingdom with supposedly half the population perishing of one or the other. The queen was unable to secure the funds required to assist her to protect her power. In the face of this, Ferdinand II returned to Castile in July 1507. His arrival coincided with a remission of the plague and famine, a development which quieted the instability and left an impression that his return had restored the health of the kingdom.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Ferdinand II and Joanna met at Hornillos, Castile, on 30 July 1507. Ferdinand then constrained her to yield her power over the Kingdom of Castile and León to himself. On 17 August 1507, three members of the royal council were summoned – supposedly in her name – and ordered to inform the grandees of her father Ferdinand II's return to power: "That they should go to receive his highness and serve him as they would her person and more." However, she made it evident that this was against her will, by refusing to sign the instructions and issuing a statement that as queen regnant she did not endorse the surrender of her own royal powers.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: Nonetheless, she was thereafter queen in name only, and all documents, though issued in her name, were signed with Ferdinand's signature, "I the King". He was named administrator of the kingdom by the "Cortes" of Castile in 1510, and entrusted the government mainly to Archbishop Cisneros. He had Joanna confined in the Royal Palace in Tordesillas, near Valladolid in Castile, in February 1509 after having dismissed all of her faithful servants and having appointed a small retinue accountable to him alone. At this time, some accounts claim that she was insane or "mad", and that she took her husband's corpse with her to Tordesillas to keep it close to her.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: After the death of her father, Ferdinand the Catholic, on 23 January 1516, her then seventeen-year-old son Charles arrived in Asturias at the Bay of Biscay in October 1517. Until his arrival, her Crown of Aragon was governed by Archbishop Alonso de Aragon (a natural son of Ferdinand) and her Crown of Castile was governed by Cardinal Francisco de Cisneros. On 4 November, Charles and his sister Eleanor met their mother Joanna at Tordesillas – there they secured from her the necessary authorisation to allow Charles to rule as her co-King of Castile and León and of Aragon. Despite her acquiescence to his wishes, her confinement would continue. The Castilian "Cortes", meeting in Valladolid, spited Charles by addressing him only as "Su Alteza" ("Your Highness") and reserving "Majestad" ("Majesty") for Joanna. However, no one seriously considered rule by Joanna a realistic proposition.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1519, Charles I now ruled the Kingdom of Aragon and its territories and the Kingdom of Castile and León and its territories, in personal union. In addition, that same year Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor. The kingdoms of Castile and Aragon (and Navarre) remained in personal union until their jurisdictional unification in the early 18th century by the Bourbons, while Charles eventually abdicated as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in favour of his brother Ferdinand, and as King of Spain in favour of his son Philip, so dissolving the personal union between the Empire and the Spanish kingdoms that Joanna's marriage had established.


title: Joanna of Castile

text: In 1520, the Revolt of the Comuneros broke out in response to the perceived foreign Habsburg influence over Castile through Charles V. The rebel leaders demanded that Castile be governed in accordance with the supposed practices of the Catholic Monarchs. In an attempt to legitimise their rebellion, the Comuneros turned to Joanna. As the 'on record' sovereign monarch, had she given written approval to the rebellion, it would have been legalised and would have triumphed.