Sanely free of McCarthyite calling anyone a "traitor" since 2001!
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I've a long record in editorial work in book and magazine publishing, starting in 1974, as well as a variety of other work experience, but have been, in recent years, recurringly housebound with insanely painful now-sporadic (when I have meds) gout, an enlarged heart, and other health problems, particularly including lifelong recurring major clinical depression and bipolar disorder. I'm also sometimes available to some degree as a paid writer or researcher. I'm available as a fill-in Guest Blogger at mid-to-high-traffic blogs that fit my knowledge set.
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"The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include With ease, and you beside"
-- Emily Dickinson
"We will pursue peace as if there is no terrorism and fight terrorism as if there is no peace."
-- Yitzhak Rabin
"I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport."
-- Barbara Jordan
"Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to
trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule --
and both commonly succeed, and are right."
-- H. L. Mencken
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-- William Pitt
"The only completely consistent people are the dead."
-- Aldous Huxley
"I have had my solutions for a long time; but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them."
-- Karl F. Gauss
"Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire,
the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind;
and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise
the improvements of social life."
-- Edward Gibbon
"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his
expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were
respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."
-- Edward Gibbon
"There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify
the evils, of the present times."
-- Edward Gibbon
"Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners, contempt for authority.
They show disrespect for elders and they
love to chatter instead of exercise.
Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of their households. They
no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize
their teachers."
-- Socrates
"Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments."
-- Sidney Hook
"Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness."
-- Sidney Hook
"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization.
We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect
disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about particular degrees of interest
and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimized."
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
"Faced with the choice of all the land without a Jewish state or a Jewish state without all the
land, we chose a Jewish state without all the land."
-- David Ben-Gurion
"...the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him
an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this
or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages
to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also
to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing,
with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess
and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminals who do not withstand such
temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the
opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction;
that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion
and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their
ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,
because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of
judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square
with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil
government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts
against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if
left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has
nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her
natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is
permitted freely to contradict them.
-- Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson
"We don't live just by ideas. Ideas are part of the mixture of customs and practices,
intuitions and instincts that make human life a conscious activity susceptible to
improvement or debasement. A radical idea may be healthy as a provocation;
a temperate idea may be stultifying. It depends on the circumstances. One of the most
tiresome arguments against ideas is that their 'tendency' is to some dire condition --
to totalitarianism, or to moral relativism, or to a war of all against all."
-- Louis Menand
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."
-- Dante Alighieri
"He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers."
-- Henry B. Adams
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the
poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under a bridge."
-- Anatole France
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
-- Edmund Burke
"Education does not mean that we have become certified experts in business or mining or botany or journalism or epistemology;
it means that through the absorption of the moral, intellectual, and esthetic inheritance of the race we have come to
understand and control ourselves as well as the external world; that we have chosen the best as our associates both in spirit
and the flesh; that we have learned to add courtesy to culture, wisdom to knowledge, and forgiveness to understanding."
-- Will Durant
"Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is
but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest
winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?"
-- Herman Melville
"The most important political office is that of the private citizen."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"It is an error to suppose that books have no influence; it is a slow influence, like flowing water carving out a canyon,
but it tells more and more with every year; and no one can pass an hour a day in the society of sages and heroes without
being lifted up a notch or two by the company he has kept."
-- Will Durant
"When you write, you’re trying to transpose what you’re thinking into something that is less like an annoying drone and more like a piece of music."
-- Louis Menand
"Sex is a continuum."
-- Gore Vidal
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802.
"The sum of our religion is peace and unanimity, but these can scarcely stand unless we define as little as possible,
and in many things leave one free to follow his own judgment, because there is great obscurity in many matters, and
man suffers from this almost congenital disease that he will not give in when once a controversy is started, and
after he is heated he regards as absolutely true that which he began to sponsor quite casually...."
-- Desiderius Erasmus
"Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule of what we are to read, and what we must disbelieve?"
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to N. G. Dufief, Philadelphia bookseller, 1814
"We are told that it is only people's objective actions that matter, and their subjective feelings are of no importance. Thus pacifists, by obstructing the war effort,
are 'objectively' aiding the Nazis; and therefore the fact that they may be personally hostile to Fascism is irrelevant. I have been guilty of saying this myself more than once. The same argument is applied to Trotskyism. Trotskyists are often credited, at any rate by Communists, with being active and conscious agents of Hitler; but when you point out the many and obvious reasons why this is unlikely to be true,
the 'objectively' line of talk is brought forward again. To criticize the Soviet Union helps Hitler: therefore 'Trotskyism is Fascism'. And when this has been established, the accusation of conscious treachery is usually repeated.
This is not only dishonest; it also carries a severe penalty with it. If you disregard people's motives, it becomes much harder to foresee their actions."
-- George Orwell, "As I Please," Tribune, 8 December 1944
"Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If 'needy' were a turn-on?"
-- "Aaron Altman," Broadcast News
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
-- Lewis Thomas
"To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?"
-- Cicero
"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
-- Samuel Johnson, Life Of Johnson
"Very well, what did my critics say in attacking my character? I must read out their affidavit, so to speak, as though they were my legal accusers: Socrates is guilty of criminal meddling, in that he inquires into things below the earth and in the sky, and makes the weaker argument defeat the stronger, and teaches others to follow his example."
-- Socrates, via Plato, The Republic
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself."
-- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
"Remember, Robin: evil is a pretty bad thing."
-- Batman
"Being evil is not a full-time job."
-- James Lileks
Gary Farber is now a licensed Double Super-Secret Master Pundit.
He does not always refer to himself in the third person.
Did he mention he was presently single?
The lutefisk is dead. Donate via the donation button on the top left
or I'll shoot this gefilte fish.
Current Total # of Donations Since Blog Began: 618
Subscribers to date at $5/month: 30 sign-ups; 24 cancellations; Total= 6
Supporter subscribers to date at $25/month: 7 sign-ups; 3 cancellation; Total= 4
Patron subscribers to date at $50/month: 10 sign-ups; 6 cancellations; Total= 4
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
Farber's First Fundamental of Blogging:
If your idea of making an insightful point is to make fun of people's
names, or refer to them by rilly clever labels such as "The Big Me" or "The Shrub,"
chances are high that I'm not reading your blog. The same applies if you refer
to a group of people by disparaging terms such as "the Donks" or "the pals." (Note: I have to say I don't give that much of a damn any more.)
Farber's Second Fundamental of Blogging:
The more interested you are in scoring a "point" for a political "team," a "side," than in exploring the validity or value of an idea, the less interested I am in what you're saying.
(Note: Partially suspended for the Duration. Later note: forget I ever said this.)
Farber's Third Fundamental of Blogging:
If you see a link on another blog, and use it, credit the blog.
Some places I go:
[weblogs, sites, and columns]
People I've known and still miss include Isaac Asimov, rich brown, Charles Burbee, F. M. "Buzz" Busby, Terry Carr, A. Vincent Clarke, George Alec Effinger, Abi Frost,
Bill & Sherry Fesselmeyer, George Flynn, John Milo "Mike" Ford. John Foyster, Jay Haldeman, Chuch Harris, Mike Hinge, Lee Hoffman, Terry Hughes, Damon Knight, Ross Pavlac, Bruce Pelz, Elmer Perdue, Tom Perry,
Larry Propp, Bill Rotsler, Art Saha, Bob Shaw, Martin Smith, Harry Stubbs, Bob Tucker, Harry Warner, Jr., Jack Williamson, Walter A. Willis, Susan Wood, Kate Worley, and Roger Zelazny.
It's just a start.
And She of whom I must write someday.
You Like Me, You Really Like Me
...Darn: I saw that Gary had commented on this thread, and thought: oh. my. god. Perfect storm. Unstoppable cannonball, immovable object.
-- Hilzoy
Guessing that Gary is ignorant of anything that has ever been written down is, in my experience, unwise.
Just saying.
-- Hilzoy
Where would the blogosphere be without the Guardian? Guardian fish-barreling is now a venerable tradition. Yet even within this tradition, I don't believe there has ever been a more extensive and thorough essay than this one, from Gary Farber's fine blog. Gary appears to have examined every single thing that Guardian/Observer columnist Mary Ridell has ever written. He ties it all together, reaches inevitable conclusion. An archive can be a weapon.
-- Dr. Frank
Isn't Gary a cracking blogger, apropos of nothing in particular?
-- Alison Scott
I usually read you and Patrick several times a day, and I always get something from them. You've got great links, intellectually honest commentary, and a sense of humor. What's not to like?
-- Ted Barlow
...writer[s] I find myself checking out repeatedly when I'm in the mood to play follow-the-links. They're not all people I agree with all the time, or even most of the time, but I've found them all to be thoughtful writers, and that's the important thing, or should be.
-- Tom Tomorrow
Amygdala - So much stuff it reminds Unqualified Offerings that UO sometimes thinks of Gary Farber as "the liberal Instapundit." -- Jim Henley
I look at it almost every day. I can't follow all the links, but I read most of your pieces. The blog format really seems to suit you. It also suits me; I am not a news junkie, so having smart people like you ferret out the interesting stuff and leave it where I can find it is wonderful.
-- Lydia Nickerson
Gary is certainly a non-idiotarian 'liberal'...
-- Perry deHaviland
...the thoughtful and highly intelligent Gary Farber... My first reaction was that I definitely need to appease Gary Farber of Amygdala, one of the geniuses of our age.
-- Brad deLong
My friend Gary Farber at Amygdala is the sort of liberal for whom I happily give three cheers. [...] Damned incisive blogging....
-- Midwest Conservative Journal
If I ever start a paper, Clueless writes the foreign affairs column, Layne handles the city beat, Welch has the roving-reporter job, Tom Tomorrow runs the comic section (which carries Treacher, of course). MediaMinded runs the slots - that's the type of editor I want as the last line of defense. InstantMan runs the edit page - and you can forget about your Ivins and Wills and Friedmans and Teepens on the edit page - it's all Blair, VodkaP, C. Johnson, Aspara, Farber, Galt, and a dozen other worthies, with Justin 'I am smoking in such a provocative fashion' Raimondo tossed in for balance and comic relief.
Who wouldn't buy that paper? Who wouldn't want to read it? Who wouldn't climb over their mother to be in it?
-- James Lileks
Gary is a perceptive, intelligent, nice guy. Some of the stuff he comes up with is insightful, witty, and stimulating. And sometimes he manages to make me groan.
-- Charlie Stross
One of my issues with many poli-blogs is the dickhead tone so many bloggers affect to express their sense of righteous indignation. Gary Farber's thoughtful leftie takes on the world stand in sharp contrast with the usual rhetorical bullying. Plus, he likes "Pogo," which clearly attests to his unassaultable good taste.
-- oakhaus.com
Gary Farber is a principled liberal....
-- Bill Quick, The Daily Pundit
I read Amygdala...with regularity, as do all sensible websurfers.
-- Jim Henley, Unqualified Offerings
Okay, he is annoying, but he still posts a lot of good stuff.
-- Avedon Carol, The Sideshow
The only trouble with reading Amygdala is that it makes me feel like such a slacker. That Man Farber's a linking, posting, commenting machine, I tell you!
-- John Robinson, Sore Eyes
Jaysus. I saw him do something like this before, on a thread about Israel. It was pretty brutal. It's like watching one of those old WWF wrestlers grab an opponent's
face and grind away until the guy starts crying. I mean that in a nice & admiring way, you know.
-- Fontana Labs, Unfogged
We read you Gary Farber! We read you all the time! Its just that we are lazy with our blogroll. We are so very very lazy. We are always the last ones to the party but we always have snazzy bow ties.
-- Fafnir, Fafblog!
Gary Farber you are a genius of mad scientist proportions. I will bet there are like huge brains growin in jars all over your house.
-- Fafnir, Fafblog!
Gary Farber is the hardest working man in show blog business. He's like a young Gene Hackman blogging with his hair on fire, or something.
-- Belle Waring, John & Belle Have A Blog
I bow before the shrillitudinousness of Gary Farber, who has been blogging like a fiend.
-- Ted Barlow, Crooked Timber
Gary Farber only has two blogging modes: not at all, and 20 billion interesting posts a day [...] someone on the interweb whose opinions I can trust....
-- Belle Waring, John & Belle Have A Blog
Gary Farber! Jeez, the guy is practically a blogging legend, and I'm always surprised at the breadth of what he writes about.
-- PZ Meyers, Pharyngula
Gary Farber takes me to task, in a way befitting the gentleman he is.
-- Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
I do appreciate your role and the role of Amygdala as a pioneering effort in the integration of fanwriters with social conscience into the larger blogosphere of social conscience.
-- Lenny Bailes
FOUNDATIONS AND EMPIRES: There's an unfortunate amount of truth to this. And I note with interest that David Brooks singles out the same New York Review of Books piece, "Occidentalism," by Avishai Margalit and Ian Buruma, that I cited as a must-read, as support.
While I agree with much in this essay, it's necessary to point out that Brooks entirely neglects to give consideration to the notion that there might be any good reasons for Europe to not "be imperially confident, to feel the forces of history blowing at one's back, to have heroic and even eschatological aspirations."
Reasons, say, such as having had empires, and having suffered through the misfortunes of them, and of their moral responsibilities and failures, and through the aftermaths. Reasons such as having lived through the slaughter and devastation of the 20th century, through World Wars One and Two, and the scything down of entire generations of manhood, which tempers all thought of war, no matter how called for. It's not just bourgeoisophobia, petty envy, and other sordid motivations such as those Brooks rightfully decries, that fertilizes the soil of Europe's intellectual notions today.
Nor does it seem to me that, as Brooks seems to think, in all things American ways must be correct, and European ways incorrect. Perhaps I'm mindlessly against efficiency uber alles, but is it so indivisibly wonderful that Americans have the shortest vacations and longest working hours of anyone on the planet? It does wonders for the GDP, but for the individual? Y'know, that person American ideals are supposed to be all about, rather than the collective?
Despite my lack of signing on with one hundred percent enthusiasm for every word, I must note that Brooks has produced an impressive, classic, my-goodness-when-will-he-pause-for-breath, rant. Not must-read, but worth reading.
FOG IN CHANNEL, EUROPE CUT OFF: Joan Smith of The Independent writes of the Falklands War:
Its real significance, I suspect, lies in the way a nasty Latin American junta unintentionally changed the fortunes of a deeply unpopular British prime minister. We got the Falklands back but we also got another eight years of Lady Thatcher, which doesn't strike me as anything to celebrate.
Another way to look at it is that a deeply unpopular British prime minister changed the fortunes of a nasty Latin American junta, responsible for the deaths of thousands of its oppressed citizens, which led to the rapid decline and disappearance of all South American dictatorships, ultimately freeing an entire continent and hundreds of millions of people from terrible regimes.
(Despite, one may add, the shilly-shallying of the US Reagan Administration epitomized by the temporizing of Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Alexander Haig, who never met an anti-communist dictator they didn't like; insert obligatory Sir John Nott reference here.)
It also stiffened the resolve of NATO and emphasized that it was not to be trifled with, helping to weaken the notion in the Soviet Union's leadership that they were breaking NATO and Western will and ability to resist Soviet power-plays.
So it's possible that just a bit more was in play than the sheep-herders of the Falkland islands, and Margaret Thatcher's popularity on a larger set of isles, if one wishes to consider a world faintly larger than domestic political concerns.
TWO VIEWS of rioting middle-class college students intoxicated by sports and alcohol: one unsympathetic here and one sympathetic here.
Alas, my own reactions line up with old journalism's Michelle Cottle against blogger Will. Will Wilkinson has many plaints, but my heart, I fear, is hard.
He says the Washington Post "fail to note how the police visibly incited the crowd." I realize I'm a stickler in this, but I think it's possible to avoid throwing trash cans, smashing windows, and counter-threatening the police, no matter how true this is (and his own account makes clear that little of the student behavior was "incited"). Will explains:
The PGCPD must give specialized courses in how to actively create a climate of opposition and rebellion, because they achieved this with brilliant efficiency. Now students we're just thrilled to have an opportunity make frat house martyrs of themselves. A group of guys stood about ten feet in front of the line, just stood there, back to the cops, saying Fuck You with their proximity. And after a short while, sure enough, the kids were painted with Terminator lasers and fired upon repeatedly, Pop Pop Pop. And they just stood there, enduring the sting and the gas. That's right, fuck you. The crowd roared in appreciation.
The PGCPD established themselves firmly as the enemy, and declared open season on the non-police. And the students, in their inebriated pride, felt it incumbent upon themselves to actively resist, and so began hurling bottles at the shields, tearing down police line ribbons and using them creatively for a bit of limbo in the intersection, all to show that you ain't gonna tell us what to do.
And so on. Bad police. Very mean. They fired pepper shots and "did their best to ensure that vandalism and agression did become the overall spirit."
Yes, well, somehow I'm a bit lacking in sympathy for the way somehow these delightfully exuberant students -- in their ever so important cause of flipping out over some sports event, which clearly is one of the moral causes of the age -- were hypnotically relieved of all personal responsibility as moral agents by the Laser Mind Rays of the police and Their Intimidating Horses, and forced to become drunken criminal assholes in response to The Man.
I've just become a stuffy pompous ass in my old age, it's clear.
Woo-hoo, I wish I could beat hell out a neighborhood, and get away with it, too. 'Cuz it ain't over, y'know, protesting Evil Globalizing Corporations, or Oppressive Israelis, or Amerika's Imperial Militarism, it's for a fun cause, like winning a basketball game! So that's okay, then. They were exhilarated.
30 points is in the 20 through 39 precent
TYPE C (HIT-CURIOUS). You do the weblog thing for yourself instead of for an audience, but you are aware that you do have an audience, small as it might be. You are often curious as to what other people find so interesting about your weblog. You check your weblog referrers every now and then just to satisfy your curiosity.
KELLY'S HEROS: Brad Leithauser looks at Pogo. They're discussing their blogs.
Most bloggers:
The story mentions Tom Tomorrow, by the way ("the sharpest strip currently going, Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World, seems the work of an unapologetic Sixties lefty").
BASICALLY CORRECT: Doing my part to help Jim Henley lose his bet that few will link, I'd say that this exegesis of Perry de Havilland is largely accurate, though I'd quibble a bit with a couple of smaller points.
My quibbles are that a) I don't agree that bigoted behavior towards Arabs was particularly driven by "collectivist strain of thought" unless Perry is using that in a more generalized way than I'm familiar with (and mayhaps he is) to refer to all bigoted behavior.
b) Israel certainly wasn't trying to make sure Arafat was made leader of the Palestinians; indeed, one of the stupidest strategic mistakes Israel made was during the Seventies and Eighties when they did all they could to build up religious militant opposition to Arafat by supporting, with money and aid, Hamas and like-minded groups. I'm not sure people who are johnny-come-lately to Middle East observing realize this, it seems so inconceivably wrong-headed now (and did then to anyone who wasn't obsessed with the idea that Arafat was the worst possibility).
And c) of course (and Natalie Solent missed this as well), a significant amount was done to tie Palestinians economically to Israel, and also to help many genuinely benefit from interaction with the Israeli economy, including as entrepeneurs, not just as down-trodden labor to be exploited. However, this had its own obvious drawbacks, and was therefore done both insufficiently, and to the detriment of the Israeli economy as well, given its collapse.
Beyond these essentially small points, I have no problems with, as far as it goes in its limited venue, de Havilland's analysis.
I'd only point out that he neglected to mention how self-destructive treating Israel's Arab population as second-class citizens has also been, and which is bearing more and more poisoned fruit. (No matter that, of course, Israel is the only state in the Middle East where Arabs freely elect their own representatives to the national parliament, and do have civil rights).
YUM!: Organic circuits made of carbon and hydrogen. They're being developed so that, for instance, they can be tagged onto food at the grocery, to analyze freshness, and report it and location via radio.
...such circuits are soluble and can be attached to organic substrates like plastic, paper or even cloth — materials that would never survive the high temperatures required to make circuits out of silicon.
Very cool: they're inherently printable. The only manufacturing necessary is the right inkjet printer.
Other potential applications for organic transistors include cheaper, faster blood tests, biometric sensors, anti-counterfeiting circuits printed onto currency, apparel that resists theft, smarter luggage tags and products that take advantage of the transistors' ability to superconduct energy at low temperatures and to drive lasers.
ARTIFICIAL SOCIETIES: Models of them, that is, nowadays computerized. A fascinating article on what we can learn with them, including how individual preferences can lead to surprising collective outcomes.
In other words, even in this extremely crude little world, knowing individuals' intent does not allow you to foresee the social outcome, and knowing the social outcome does not give you an accurate picture of individuals' intent.
Hey, just like our world!
More to the point, this has something to say about how societies reach tipping points.
SIMPLESME BOVE: The American Prospect also has the lowdown on who the hell Jose Bove is. Turns out he's a Bakunist anarcho-syndicalist who likes to be called a "farmer."
Arrested outside the compound by the Israeli Defense Force on April 2, Bove -- who gained international attention after destroying a McDonalds in the southern French town of Millau in 1999 -- was deported to Paris the next day. Bove has become, in recent years, a surprisingly ubiquitous international figure, turning up at Zapatista marches in Mexico and anti-trade conferences from Seattle to Brazil. And part of the reason for his ubiquity is that he is not a farmer-turned-activist at all.
Instead, he is a self-proclaimed activist-turned-farmer who has spent less and less time on his Millau farm in recent years and who routinely inserts himself into international controversies.
THAT DARNED LIBERAL NEWSPAPER: Brendan Nyhan (of SpinSanity) has the story (in an actual unabashed liberal publication) of how Washington Post reporter Susan Schmidt lost it and tried to get Clinton-supporter e-mailers complaining about her stories fired from their jobs.
How long until the Post gets a blog? (Let's not count Howard Kurtz.) Amygdala Washington Post Blog Countdown: Day 1.
Jewish students coming out of worship services have been pelted with eggs and subjected to epithets, Oleon said. Last week someone threw a cinder block through the front windows and wrote "F-- Jews" in black marker on the Jewish Hillel cultural center's recycling bins. Some Jewish students believe that Berkeley professors, even those who are Jewish, have unfairly come down hard on Israel in lectures.
But Palestinian students say they too are harassed on campus -- labeled as terrorists and as being anti-Semitic just for voicing their opposition to Israel. Some say Zionist students have tried to intimidate them by declaring their intentions to join the Israeli army after graduation.
MAILING LIST SUED for $15,000,000.00 because people on it complained about bad service from a company.
Read about it here. Moreover, people are being sued for trademark infringement for using the name of the company -- that's "Pets Warehouse," by the way -- in writing about the case on the web. Pets Warehouse. Pets Warehouse. Pets Warehouse. Pets Warehouse. Pets Warehouse. Pets Warehouse. Who knows how many people might mention this, and have to be sued?
Have I mentioned that I am Spartacus? And I wouldn't buy from Pets Warehouse.
Three people confessed to trying to throw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in southern France and five suspects were detained in a similar attack outside Paris, officials said Friday.
Meanwhile, a suspected homemade bomb was found at a Jewish cemetery in the eastern city of Strasbourg that was the target of an arson attempt earlier in the week, police said.
Bomb experts were called to the Strasbourg-Cronenbourg cemetery after receiving reports Friday that a fire extinguisher filled with powder was found on the grounds, police said. It was safely removed.
Arsonists set fire to a prayer pavilion at the same cemetery Tuesday, causing its roof to collapse. It was just one of many attacks on Jewish targets in recent days that has coincided with heightened tensions in the Middle East.
Five people were detained after two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre overnight Wednesday. The devices failed to hit their apparent target and crashed onto a nearby sidewalk without causing damage, officials from the Val de Marne region said.
The identities of the five detainees were not released.
Police said three people confessed to trying to throw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in the southern city of Montpellier early Thursday. They appeared before prosecutors Friday and were placed under investigation -- a step short of being charged -- for arson-related charges.
The gasoline bombs caused serious damage to the building that adjoins the synagogue, which authorities believe was the intended target.
[...]
[The attack] embarrassed the government, which has tried to play down accusations that anti-Semitism is a growing problem in the country, which has a large Muslim population.
TREASON: There seems to be considerable confusion afoot as to what "treason" is. Treason consists of committing acts of war or espionage against your country. It is one of the most serious charges possible. In many countries it is the only remaining crime punishable by death. It is not to be thrown about lightly. To call for it is to say that the person found guilty of it is worthy of the death penalty. To call for someone's death necessitates the deepest moral consideration.
And yes, Gary, I do accuse Adam Shapiro of being a traitor. By trying to save Arafat’s life, he adds legitimacy to Arafat who is both directly behind a great deal of terror attacks against other Jews via his Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Brigades and indirectly by turning a blind eye or actively calling for more martyrs. He did indeed verbally defend Arafat in a CNN interview conducted by a newswoman who was so enamored with him, that had she been able to felate him, I have no doubt she would have. Shapiro indeed chose sides, and he chose the enemy of the Jewish people. Nevertheless, I will stand with you and condemn those schmucks who have threatened his family back in New York. It is uncalled-for and wrong.
Y'know, I don't care if Adam Shapiro leaped into Arafat's lap, deep-throated him, and was adopted as Yasser's grandchild.
If Shapiro did not take up arms against Israel, or smuggle arms to Israel, or deliver miltary secrets to the Palestinian Authority, it simply doesn't matter what he says. Whatever he says, it's not treason. It's free speech.
That's a simple concept, Geoff, but we're back to it again. Free speech. That includes stuff that upsets you.
Your repeated opinion that people should be killed because of their speech offends me. Shall I now, too, call you a "traitor" to the US Consitution, and call for your death? Or shall I put it down as ill-considered thought, made in the heat of understandable passion, not treason, just as anything Adam Shapiro says must be so considered, no matter how it upsets you or me or anyone else?
Avram Grumer responds here. Various comments, including about "self-hating Jews," including from me, are made here and here.
Addendum: Geoff Meltzner's responded and I'll leave him with the last word.
PAGING TOM FRIEDMAN who keeps calling, of late, for US and NATO peacekeepers in the West Bank. I'm dubious they'd wind up being treated any differently by Palestinians than Israeli troops, but in any case, should this come about, here's one reported plan.
(In other stunning news, here's a headline that takes everyone by surprise: Israel's tourism suffers. Really?, he gasped in astonishment.)
PERES SHOULD TELL THEM WHERE TO SHOVE THEIR PRIZE: I'd say it's unbelievable, but it's too believable:
Oslo Bishop Gunnar Stalsett, a committee member for the past eight years, describes as "absurd" what he sees as the involvement of a Nobel laureate in human rights abuses.
He's talking about Arafat, right? Of course not.
Members of the Norwegian committee that awards the annual Nobel Peace Prize have launched an unprecedented verbal assault on Israeli Foreign Minister and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres. Mr Peres accepted the peace prize jointly with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel's late prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, in 1994.
In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper, committee members said they regretted that Mr Peres' prize could not be recalled because, as a member of the Israeli cabinet, he had not acted to prevent Israel's re-occupation of Palestinian territory.
One member said Mr Peres had not lived up to the ideals he expressed when he accepted the prize.
"What is happening today in Palestine is grotesque and unbelievable," said Hanna Kvanmo.
Yes, it is, as is what's happening in Norway and Europe.
"Yes, I wish it was possible that we could recall the prize" said Nobel committee member Hanna Kvanmo. [...] Other committee members argue that the Israeli government's actions in general and Mr Peres' involvement in particular are threatening to bring the prize into disrepute.
There is not a single question voiced about that nice Mr. Arafat.
Committee chairman Geir Lundestad voiced the concern of several members that if Mr Arafat were to be killed as a result of Israeli actions, one Nobel laureate might in effect be said to have killed the other.
BLOG BADMINTON: Avram Grumer has some thoughts regarding what Eve Tushnet said about the social organization component aspect of political identity and ideology, and my response.
I realize that I'm more interested in sorting out which ideas I think are right and wrong and which I support and oppose than I am in Picking A Political Identity.
Avram also provides, in response to Eve, his test for "You may not be a conservative anymore if... "
FREE-MARKET COMPETITION: Protesting that the Catholic Church gets too much credit for an ancient and vigorous history of anti-semitism, Scottish Episcopalians entered the fray, declaring that they could be just as antisemitic as any Papists:
A Scottish clergyman said today that a church mural showing a crucified Jesus flanked by both Roman soldiers and modern-day Israeli troops was not anti-Semitic, but designed to make his congregation think about current conflicts.
The Rev. John Armes said the painting, which was unveiled last week as part of the church's Easter celebrations and removed today, "unashamedly addresses the role of the Israeli government" in the Middle East conflict.
[...]
The 2.7-meter square painting showed Jesus lying dead in his mother's arms with the Roman soldiers on one side and Israeli troops on the other.
[...]
"Our mural is a challenge not to the Jewish people but to the Israeli state," he said.
And, I suppose, to the Arabs and Christians who live there, who murdered Jesus. Or maybe not. The earlier story is here; the original report in The Scotsman is here:
Jesus is flanked by Roman soldiers on one side and Israeli troops on the other. His thorn of crowns is made of barbed wire and his cross has been broken in the conflict.
John McLuckie, St John’s associate rector , said the painting was aimed at getting the public to think about the victims of violence. "It’s the traditional image of dead Jesus in the arms of his mother but it is meant to symbolise modern victims," he said.
"It’s meant to make people think about the violence that is going on and to consider what lies behind the violence coming from both sides.
"It’s about getting people to think about the occupation of Palestinian territory. In common with other church leaders , we think Israel ought to abide by the UN resolution and let Palestine have their territory, that occupation should end.
"The victim is meant to represent all victims of violence."
I'm not holding my breath waiting for a mural showing people's body parts, blood, and internal organs, strewn across the floor of a disco, a pizza parlor, a cafe, as someone with a belt explodes. But this mural does, after all, cover "both sides." You can see that in the picture, right?
Here's today's followup. Those nice Scottish people were going to march to the US consulate to "to protest at their continued backing for Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," but police wouldn't allow the protest there, so the March from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign will be held on another street. No word in the paper when the march from the Israeli Terror Bombing Victim Solidarity Campaign will be held. Oh, there is no Israeli Solidarity Campaign. Darn, not even because both Scots and Jews are so cheap. (Original tip via Bill Quick and Midwest Conservative Journal.)
PARIS, April 4 — Despite a government pledge to crack down on anti-Semitic incidents, a synagogue in a Paris suburb was damaged by a firebomb today, the latest in a series of attacks on Jews and Jewish buildings across Europe.
The police said they had arrested and were questioning several youths in the Paris suburb of Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, southeast of the city center, after several gasoline bombs were hurled at a synagogue building, despite a police guard at the site. No one was injured and the building suffered little damage, officials said.
Several Jewish targets were attacked late Wednesday. In Montpellier, in southern France, several gasoline bombs damaged an office building during the night between Wednesday and Thursday in what police said appeared to be a botched attempt to damage a Jewish community center in an apartment on the same street.
Despite the government pledge for more protection, the apartment was unguarded. The police said three people had been arrested and were being questioned.
Earlier on Wednesday, unidentified attackers set afire and destroyed a bus and car used to transport Jewish schoolchildren in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers. That same day, the police had begun patrols at two Jewish schools and the synagogue in Aubervilliers, but officials said the police had been unaware of the existence of a parking lot near one of the schools where the bus and car had been left.
Meanwhile, I notice that local media here -- the tv stations in Denver -- cover none of this -- not a word. And the Israel/Palestine news gets less than two minutes of coverage per broadcast (and, no I don't think it's intelligent or fair coverage, for the most part, either). When the Israeli Defense Forces roared into Ramallah on Friday night, there was no coverage whatsoever. Not a lot of Jews or Arabs around here, so who cares?
4/05/2002 12:23:00 PM |permanent link| | Main Page |
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NO END OF BEING WRONG: Has Francis Fukuyama ever been right about anything? Here we see him fighting post-humanism. Good luck, guy, our avatars won't miss you.
Genetic engineering: bad; mood-altering drugs: bad; increases in human longetivity: bad. Basically, all progress, science, and learning, must come to a stop, apparently, to fulfil Fukuyama's desire that everything end, including history. Paging Virginia Postrel: here's a guy whose life goal and theory is stasis. Period, end of story. Literally.
He's not content, now, either, to write books and give lectures. No:
Dr. Fukuyama says he believes some things should be banned outright, like cloning people, which he regards as immoral in itself and as the opener for worse things, like enhancing human qualities by germline genetic engineering. Despite his membership in the Council on Bioethics, he doubts the ability of national commissions to address the problems raised by biotechnology, calling instead for legislation and `institutions with real enforcement powers."
INTERACTIVE TV: Amusing, but telling, piece on being an empowered nerd tv fan, particularly of Buffy, but branching out to other shows, and elaborating on how the net allows for two-way participation in creativity. A lot of people have said a lot more about this, and better, but the writer is still on target.
THE SUN ALSO RISES: The New Yorker takes note of the new paper in town.
For them, it's enough that expression will at last be given to political views that—apart from a few lonely voices at the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, two or three score nationally syndicated columns, a couple of dozen magazines, a few hundred 24/7 talk-radio stations, the Fox News cable network, the Bush Administration, the Supreme Court, and half of Congress—have been ruthlessly suppressed by the liberal establishment.
THROW RICE: This is very cool: they've mapped the rice genome.
Plant geneticists say the rice map will make it much quicker to identify genetic traits and create new versions of crops by the old-fashioned method of cross breeding. [...] Science magazine [published] Thursday draft maps of the genomes of separate subspecies of rice. [...] Rice is a staple for half the world's population, and the decoding of its genes is expected to help alleviate world hunger by making it easier for scientists to come up with varieties that are more nutritious and have higher yields.[...] [it's thought that they've poinpointed] the gene that causes production of vitamin A. That information could speed the development of rice varieties that have higher levels of the nutrient. Vitamin A deficiency is a major cause of blindness in Asia.
They should be able to use the data to further find key traits in corn and wheat and other grains. Why, soon they'll be growing Frosted Flakes, I'm sure.
GOOD NEWS FOR HILLBILLIES: A study reported in The Journal of Genetic Counseling has found that the genetic risks of first cousins having offspring are minimal. In the general population, the risk of a serious problem is is 3 percent to 4 percent; to that background risk, first cousins must add another 1.7 to 2.8 percentage points; that's it. However:
Twenty-four states have laws forbidding first cousins from marrying, and seven states have limits like requiring genetic counseling.
The report of National Society of Genetic Counselors says those laws should be done away with. They point out that
in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, marriages between cousins are considered preferable.
"In some parts of the world," the report says, "20 to 60 percent of all marriages are between close biological relatives."
And, interestingly, that very fact plays a significant role in the problem Islam has adapting to modernism, insofar as it is essential to kinship ties, which are a key part of segmentary lineage systems, which is a key part of Islam, according to this insightful essay in Policy Review masquerading as a review of Bernard Lewis's What Went Wrong. You've read commentary on Lewis, but go read this piece by anthropologist Stanley Kurtz, too.
It has some useful insights into how traditionalist ethos of kin-based societies plays a major role in having prevented Islamic society from modernizing at all easily.
INTO AFRICA: George Packer follows a used tee-shirt from an old woman to a NYC thrift shop to Africa, in a look at the used clothing business, and how Africa is clothed in discarded Western wear.
There are more than 300 export categories at the factory, but the four essential classifications are ''Premium,'' ''Africa A,'' ''Africa B'' and ''Wiper Rag.'' ''Premium'' goes to Asia and Latin America. ''Africa A'' -- a garment that has lost its brightness -- goes to the better-off African countries like Kenya. ''Africa B'' -- a stain or small hole -- goes to the continent's disaster areas, its Congos and Angolas. By the time a shirt reaches Kisangani or Huambo, it has been discarded by its owner, rejected at the thrift shop and graded two steps down by the recycler.
[...]
In warlord-ridden, destitute Somalia, used clothing is called, rather contemptuously, huudhaydh -- as in, ''Who died?'' A woman in Kenya who once sold used dresses told me that not long ago Kenyans assumed the clothing was removed from dead people and washed it carefully to avoid skin diseases. In Togo, it is called ''dead white man's clothing.'' In Sierra Leone, it's called ''junks'' and highly prized. In Rwanda, used clothing is known by the word for ''choose,'' and in Uganda, it used to be called ''Rwanda,'' which is where it came from illegally until Uganda opened its doors to what is now called mivumba.
INFORMATION WANTS TO BE... OH, WAIT, THAT'S NOT FREE: Think of Asia when you think of pirated CDs? Try Mexico and Latin America.
Mexico has become the third-largest market for copied music, after China and Russia. In 2000, 216 raids yielded 2.6 million pirated discs. Last year, 302 raids turned up 17.1 million illegal copies. In just three months this year, another 10 million have been confiscated.
[...]
According to a recent market study by Bimsa, a Mexican polling company, around 12,000 street venders in Mexico peddle pirated discs for about $1 each. Last year, they sold an estimated 73 million of them.
By comparison, fewer than 900 stores sell legitimate music in this nation of 100 million people. They sold only 57 million legal CD's.
And the gap is growing. Three years ago, illegal copies accounted for about 15 percent of the compact disc market in Mexico. Today, they have an estimated 61 percent. And illegal sales show no sign of slowing.
APRIL FOOLS: Oh, look, it's an April Fool's joke from Ted Rall. Y'know, the Afghan war is the fault of the Masons, I mean, the oil companies. Snore. Islamic terrorists wouldn't exist if the CIA hadn't funded them "in the first place." The US is responsible for funding terrorism by giving "extremist groups... their most potent and legitimate rallying cry: unlimited U.S. support for Israel's home-grown terrorist Ariel Sharon." (Quick, can you spot exactly how many lies there are in just those quoted words alone?)
Now the number of dead by American bombs is "5,000 to 15,000 Afghans killed." And since they "had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11. That's an atrocity, it's even worse than 9-11 and Arabs know it." Mm. It's not as if any Afghans had an interest in, or involvement in, overthrowing the Taliban. It's not as if any Afghans applauded and cheered wildly for those bombs. And it's not as if, you know, the Taliban and al Queda had any sort of involvement with each other. No, it's very simple: it's even worse than 9-11. I'm not clear on what slipstick Rall uses for his moral calculus, but I do believe it's slipped a bit.
Did you know that "the Taliban offered to turn [bin Laden] over but we turned them down"? In the Rallverse, that is.
I will offer proof, by the way, next week, that Ted Rall is secretly paid by Unocal so as to make criticism of oil companies look insane, and thus protect them. Because, you know, the oil companies are The Secret Masters behind all. Behind Ted Rall. Behind me. Behind everything.
MOORE WATCH: Spinsanity's analysis of Michael Moore's book is up.
Michael Moore's latest success might be his most remarkable. At a time when the public remains strongly supportive of the Bush administration -- and few dissenting voices have risen above the din -- his book "Stupid White Men" stands atop the New York Times bestseller list for a third week running.
And at a time when some Republican leaders are using Bush's popularity to equate any criticism of U.S. policy with treason, Moore's success should be a reason for any democracy-loving American to cheer.
It should be, but it isn't.
That would be because Michael Moore is, alas -- what's the term? -- oh, yes: a big fat liar. (This is a comment on the weight of his lies, not his body.)
This is Spinsanity's response to Andrew Sullivan's comments.
IF ANY BRITISH READERS would like to comment in the comments section on this report on the lack of ethnic integration in Britain, I'd be interested in their point of view.
IN A FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO COMPETE WITH PALESTINIAN HATEFULNESS AND STUPIDITY, some Jews in NYC have done this:
The death threats against Mr. Shapiro's parents began after he left the compound on Saturday. The threats to the Shapiros came via e-mail and telephone messages. Fliers went up around Brooklyn urging people to dial a number where a message denounced Adam Shapiro as a traitor to America and the Jews, compared him to John Walker Lindh and urged his parents to condemn him. The recording even left a purported home address.
A Web site also listed personal information about the Shapiro family and urged action against them, Noah Shapiro said.
According to Noah Shapiro, most of the messages wish "a fiery death" to the entire family. "Some of the messages say, `We hope,' and others say, `This will happen to you and we will make it happen to you.' " He said the family was turning over all messages to the police, who are monitoring the family's phone lines.
Adam Shapiro is the humanitarian worker who wound up trapped overnight in Arafat's compound. The ever-charming New York Post had a column yesterday by Andrea Peyser headed in completely non-inflammatory and thoughtful manner:
OUR LATEST TRAITOR MUST LIVE WITH HIS VILE CHOICE
referred to him as "the Jewish Taliban" (why let a little thing like a complete lie stop you from a good smear?) and went on to again call him a traitor, etc.
What's his crime, exactly? Apparently that he didn't try to strangle Arafat. And that he's arguably naive.
These are not crimes. Peyser digs up an alleged childhood friend for a quote, and then concludes:
"He is a traitor. He's Sheepshead Bay's John Walker Lindh."
Israel is at war for its existence. In America, we must chose sides.
Shapiro chose his.
And if we're choosing sides, I'm opposed to smears, lies, and calling people "traitor" who aren't. If Shapiro had picked up a Kalashnikov, and were shooting at the Israeli Defence Force, sure, he'd be a traitor. If Shapiro had smuggled in weapons or ammunition to the Palestinian Authority, sure, he'd be a traitor. He didn't do those things, or anything like them. He even said he wasn't going to verbally defend Arafat. He brought freaking food. That's okay. If that's being a traitor, than so is the Israeli Army, which is delivering food to the compound.
Being a "Lindh" would be to join the al Aksa Brigades, or Hamas, or any of the terrorist groups. Saying that Adam Shapiro did that is a lie. A complete lie. A vicious lie. And a knowing lie. And telling lies is being a traitor to the truth.
The people who are threatening the life of Adam Shapiro -- the Jews who are threatening the lives of Adam Shapiro and his family -- they are the ones acting similarly to the Taliban. It's hateful and disgusting, and strong feelings are no excuse. Nor do the New York Post and Andrea Peyser have any excuse for fanning on this sort of hate. The Judaism I was taught valued human life: all human life. Palestinian human life. They should remember that. And they should be ashamed of themselves.
DO YOU SUFFER FROMtaijin kyofusho, that is to say,
intense fear that one's body, body parts, or bodily functions are displeasing, embarrassing, or offensive to other people in appearance, odor, facial expressions, or movements.
It's well-known in Japan. How about jinjinia bemar, sukra prameha, dhat or jiryan? That's semen-loss syndrome, as known in Assam, Sri Lanka, and India.
Perhaps zar, a from of spirit possession known in North Africa whose symptoms may include dissociative episodes with laughing, shouting, hitting the head against a wall, singing, or weeping? (You may develop a long-term relationship with the possessing spirit.)
Susto, where your soul leaves your body?
These are all some of the culture-bound syndromes you can find at this site. Myself, I don't care that I'm not from West Africa; I know I suffer from brain fog. (Via Schism Matrix.)
Women Seeking Men Location - Iowa Age - 18 [...] Best radical event that you've been part of - My first was Seattle, but since then I like to spend my time doing direct action for free entertainment; dumpster diving, graffiti, and economic direct action at my favorite retailers. :)
[...]
Women Seeking Men Location - Cape Cod, MA Age - 16 [...] Favorite books - Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto Favorite movies - Clockwork Orange, Romper Stomper, Fight Club
[...] Etc.
Ah, to be young. Amusing stuff. Interestingly, almost every poster lists A Clockwork Orange as a favorite movie. Can someone fetch me my walker, and tell me, from this:
i really don't want to go out with any junkies, tweekers, or heavy drinkers)
Over the weekend, one of Egypt's main government-controlled television channels overlaid the Star of David with a swastika and said that "Zionism has opted for the final solution used by Hitlerite Germany to exterminate the Jews."
"Where are the Arab leaders?" shouted the popular Egyptian talk-show host Hamdy Kandil on his show, Editor in Chief. "I want you all to stand up for the Palestinian people."
The quote from the-woman-on-the-street?
"What is Bush saying? The U.S. is controlling Israel."
Her theorizing about "liberals" interests me, unsurprisingly: Eve suggests:
...But my theory is that political labels seem to refer more to social affiliation than to actual policy/philosophical beliefs. ("Libertarian" is an exception to this rule, most of the time.) People call themselves "liberal" because they feel more comfortable with reluctant Gore voters than with reluctant Bush voters. People call themselves "conservative" because when they imagine voting for Gore, they feel the need to shower. I don't endorse this behavior--it drains words of meaning, confuses debate, and leads people to think that the Democrats (or GOP) are better representatives of their beliefs when in fact that's not true. But I think it happens a lot.
I'd agree that it happens a lot. On the other paw, when she asks:
Is the term "conservative" used more coherently than "liberal"?
I'm not at all sure about that, given the various blocs and factions, some fairly incompatible, within conservatism. Insofar as it may have some truth, I think that it's largely ascribable to "liberalism," whether the word is used or not, being a more generic and wishy-washy default in society, as well as the fact that the most unthinking conservatives are rightfully considered "reactionaries." Simply by having advantage of size of numbers, liberalism winds up less defined (see Nick Denton's entirely useless definition: "I'm defining liberal as anyone who cares about injustice, whether in the US, or in the world at large.").
Something I've been thinking more and more about of late, and expect I'll write more about as coherent explication comes to me, is the sheer lack of understanding of each other's narratives most conservatives and liberals have. To a huge extent, people who identify with each side simply completely lack understanding of what the other side actually believes, and what motivates them; playing substitute is, as a rule, ludicrous demonization and caricature, usually only differing by degree and level of sophistication.
Much badness results, including a complete inability, in many cases, to respond to the other side's logic and argument, as well as an unjustified and uncivil insistence on the opponent's bad faith, sheer stupidity, and malevolence.
This does not lead to insight or solutions.
What we commonly see, rather than attempts to find points of agreement, and rather than actual study of the wide range of opinion on "the other side," based on that assumption of Stupidity And Malevolence, is simple berating and abuse and contempt.
Look how many blogs make that their meat and drink. How good it makes one feel. How useless it is in stimulating thinking. How lazy. How destructive to civil discourse. What superior beings we are when we indulge. Stupid opponents make Hulk mad. Hulk smash with name-calling. Demonstrate superiority. Them bad. Us right. Yay, us.
IDIOCY FASCINATES OVER INSIGHT every time. As I expected, last night Mr. Beam ranked #3 on Daypop, and Microcontentnews's Borg Journalism at #11; now Beam is #2 and tied for #36 while BJ is at #10.
Much mock has duly been made. Richard Bennett points out that Beam recycled an anti-reader's letters column. Beam has contempt for a lot of people, particularly readers and writers. What an asset he is in helping the profession of journalism rise in people's esteem.
FLIGHT 77: Matt Welch has an appropriate response to those who believe it didn't crash into the Pentagon, or that perpetuating the lie is cute or funny. One of his childhood friends was on the plane.
I didn't know anyone either on the plane, or in the Pentagon, but I thought of the man who moved nearby to work on the reconstruction to be near the place where his son died, and how he'll never be the same, and how none of the families of the victims will ever be the same, and I can't imagine what's in the heads of people who think that "playing" with the claim that the plane didn't crash is a joke, something to have fun with, something out of the X-Files. It's outrageous.
"The House of Representatives does hereby encourage the formation of the Kentucky Navy and subsequently immediately encourages the purchase and armament of one particularly effective submarine, namely, the USS Louisville 688 VLS Class Submarine, to patrol the portion of the Ohio River under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth to engage and destroy any casino riverboats that the submarine may encounter."
When will politicians learn to think outside the box? What's needed is a pirate ship. Plunder their treasure and steal their grog, then put the whole thing on TV each week. That, I could get behind. A submarine is just silly.
EMPTY LABELS: Brink Lindsey, whose page is must-read, carries one of my constant themes: the useless weight of so many policy and political abstractions.
So it seems to me that the proper U.S. foreign policy is sometimes multilateralist and sometimes unilateralist; sometimes realist and sometimes idealist; sometimes noninterventionist and sometimes interventionist. The difference between sound policy and disastrous blunders is knowing what times call for what approaches. The labels do absolutely nothing to illuminate the choices.
The bottom line is that international affairs are irreducibly chaotic. The world of state-to-outside-world interactions is a flux of changing actors, power alignments, threats, and opportunities -- it is not susceptible to grand abstractions. The prevailing abstractions are as useful to the statesman as "buy low, sell high" is to the investor, or "go with the flow" is to the whitewater rafter.
Go read why. Scoot! I'm not going to quote it all for you: that's what links are for.
Okay, one last bit:
For the statesman, as for the investor or the rafter, success comes not from big generalizations, but from intimate knowledge of ever-changing conditions, seasoned judgment, and the knack of good timing. In the foreign policy arena, those who cling to labels instead of developing these skills are practitioners of foolish consistency. Sooner or later they will miss the critical turn.
This applies to a heck of a lot more than just foreign policy, of course, but to politics and political divides in general. If you've held the same line on everything for the past decade, you're wrong, whatever it is: circumstances change, you need to rethink, there's new information.
Absorb it! Make use of it! Figure out where your old line doesn't apply any more, because it's a different world, and it is every decade.
ARAFAT'S BILL: DEBKA, via WorldNetDaily, which is to say, a source I don't consider terribly reliable, via another source only mildly more reliable, posts what nonetheless I have no trouble believing: an alleged accounting statement signed by Arafat for terror supplies:
1. Cost of posters for Martyrs of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: Azam Mazhar, Osama Juabra, Shadi Afouri, Yasser Badawi, Ahad Fares (inserted by hand: NIS2,000).
2. Cost of printed notices, invitations and mourners' tents (inserted by hand: NIS1,250).
3. Cost of attaching personal photos of these martyrs to wooden panels, plus those of Tabeth Tabeth and Mahmoud al Jamil (inserted by hand: NIS1,000).
4. Cost of memorial ceremonies for martyrs. Memorial ceremonies held for Martyr Azam, Martyr Osama (inserted by hand: NIS6,000)
5. Cost of electrical goods and miscellaneous chemical substances for manufacturing explosives and bombs – the largest item. (One prepared explosive device – NIS700 at least). We need 5-9 devices per week for the squads in the different regions (inserted by hand: NIS x 4 = NIS20,000 per month)
6. Cost of bullets (cost of Kalashnikov ammo is NIS8 per bullet; M-16 bullets cost NIS2-2.5 each) We need bullets supplied on a daily basis. Note: Available are 3,000 Kalashnikov bullets @ NIS2 each. We need a sum of money at once to buy them (inserted by hand: NIS22,500 for Kalashnikov bullets – NIS60,000 for M-16 bullets)
In conclusion, glory and pride to those who support our brave resistance against the occupation. Revolution until victory.
Is this authentic? I have no idea. Does Arafat authorize something like this for, at the least, the al Aksa Brigades? Surely. (Pointer via faithful reader Joel Rosenberg.)
See also this, a better sourced version from Haaretz, the English-language version Israeli newspaper I far and away always most recommend as having the best journalistic standards and most open-minded stances.
The IDF presented a document Tuesday that was seized in the during a raid on the Ramallah office of Fuad Shubeiki, who heads the Palestinian Authority's financial apparatus. The document, which was sent to Shubeiki by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade....
Colonel Miri Eisen, a senior intelligence officer who presented the document, said that she did not have information on whether the transfer of funds was carried out, although since the letter was sent, several days after September 11, 2001, eight members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade had carried out suicide bombings in Israel.
Eisen estimated Tuesday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat never signed documents tying him to the terrorist activities of various organizations, but that Shubeiki's signature, who is part of Arafat's inner circle, testifies to the PA's involvement in acts of terror.
Not that there's an open question on that, in general; it's merely a totality of specifics that aren't yet in the Western public record.
Shubeiki was the individual who financed the purchase of the Karine A weapons ship from Iran in December 2001.
Dore Gold, an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Tuesday, that Shubeiki had visited Baghdad in August 2001 so as to coordinate positions with the Iraqi government, and that in May 2001 he was present at a meeting in Moscow during which the draft for joint activities between Iran and the PA was agreed upon.
WOULD THAT IT WERE TRUE: More wisdom from Nonviolence.org:
The prevailing myth of evil obfuscates the fact that the enemy is human, and that the enemy acts with reason. When we discover the reason for any act of violence we can take steps to remedy the cause of violence rather than fuel the cycle of violence with violent retaliation.
This is touching, and easy to believe if you lack all knowledge of history.
Another page tells us "What You Can Do: [...] Protest all military interventions." Yes, all of them. Don't think. Just protest. No moral judgment is required. No context matters, no cause need be considered, no justice invoked. Just protest. Acquire no knowledge, consider no moral complexities. Just protest.
And all will be for the best, in this best of all possible worlds.
KILLING CIVILIANS: Here is the view of someone at "Nonviolence.org." Here is the view of a foul militarist, a military man, a trained killer, who obviously is capable of letting slip the dogs of war at any moment, and who surely has no regard for the poodles of peace.
Read the two pieces, and you decide who has thought longer, harder, and better, about the morality and place of killing civilians in war. Decide whose view you'd rather have applied to you and yours.
Here are a couple of samples of the thinking of Clark Rieke of "Nonviolence.org":
One, it is false that civilians in a democracy are innocent. Civilians in a democracy are responsible citizens. [...] The killing of soldiers is not less evil than the killing of civilians, and the killing of civilians is not more evil than the killing of soldiers. One emotion behind this faulty reasoning is that civilians understandably identify closer with killed civilians than killed soldiers.
[...]
the faulty rule against targeting civilians is counterproductive when it is used to demonize the enemy. The purpose of demonizing is to increase the emotions for war (putting soldiers in harms way) rather than seek a mutually beneficial peace settlement. Negotiating with terrorists for peace is a more reasonable way of reducing further killing than demonizing them.
MORE MORE MORE: Can't stand any Moore? He's back! The Diary is up again! The weirdness once more pours forth!
Mike can't pay his rent. He travels in time. Let's deconstruct:
I am being evicted today, Good Friday, from my office. I had just one week left to edit my film, but the landlord -- heartless bastard! -- is having me tossed out for non-payment of rent. Back in October, my publisher, HarperCollins, was supposed to pay me for the work I did in writing "Stupid White Men." Citing "the tragic events of 9-11" (a mantra that seems to have been repeated by every business in America as they've shamelessly used the dead of that day to justify their obscene layoffs and cutbacks) the publisher claimed they did not have to pay me until the book was "published."
Where to begin? First, Mike isn't being evicted from his dwelling -- and it's been a hard life, having to fly around the country on first-class air fares, being put up in fancy hotels, and chauffeured around with an entourage to meet adoring fans; we should all suffer such hardship -- but from his office; I rather imagine he can write his next book anywhere there's a computer -- maybe even from his upscale West Side Manhattan apartment. Oh, he's in a scary situation all right; why, it's almost like being homeless! Except not at all!
Turning from the harshness of his office landlord, we hear about his publisher. I've worked on and off -- admittedly far more often off than on -- in NYC publishing, particularly trade book publishing, since 1975. I know how book contracts are written, and while there are innumerable variations, commonly an advance is split into two, three, or four parts; a payment upon signing is typical, as is a payment upon delivery of the manuscript -- this may or may not be split into parts -- and a payment upon publication is normal. Mike, I'm willing to bet, got his first two payments. He's whining that his payment upon publication was being held until -- oh, the inhumanity, the criminality! -- publication!
What a terrible "claim" for the publisher to make! They were going by the normal terms of the contract! (I bet.) Help! Come see the oppression inherent in the system! He's only getting hundreds of thousands of dollars at each stage (in all probability), and will make millions in royalties! Oppression! Repression! Evil!
[I elide his further plaint, until:] I got my last paycheck for this film 12 months ago, so I was counting on the fee for the book to get me through the rest of 2001.
I would bet large amounts that this is, as phrased, a lie. Because it implies that the only fee he was getting, and had gotten, for the book, was the fee upon publication. That's almost impossible to believe.
I don't believe he has a completely incompetent agent, and that's the only way he would not have received his first partial advance upon signing the contract, and as I said, most likely another chunk upon acceptance of his manuscript. So while I can't prove it absent a copy of his contract, my bet, based on standard publishing practice, is that he is implicitly lying by omission, trying to make us believe he is being stiffed of all money from HarperCollins up to now. Gosh, they must just love working with him.
When that didn't happen (as most of you know, the publisher wanted me to "tone down" the stuff about Bush in the book, and I wouldn't, so there was a standoff until they finally backed down),
Yes, unsurprisingly, they wouldn't pay him for an accepted manuscript until they accepted it; it's up to the publisher to decide what to publish, and what they wish to accept; if Moore, or any writers, don't like that, they are free to pull the book and get someone else to publish it, or publish it themselves.
things began to fall apart. After I had already gone a few months without being able to pay the office rent where our edit room was located, the landlord went to court and got an order -- to have the sheriff toss me out on the curb! Suddenly, visions of Deputy Fred from "Roger & Me" were dancing in my head! Well, I negotiated with the landlord to give me a little more time, and the angels from Salter Street Films in Canada (who have backed this documentary from the start) agreed to pay some of the rent.
Oh, it's such a hard life. His landlord is nice enough to grant him more time, and it's just his damned office, and other people will chip in to help, too.
And, let us not forget, Moore is so broke that he can whip out twenty-dollar bill after twenty dollar bill to hand out as undocumented campaign contributions, and he can hand out refunds to fans on his book tour.
Am I hallucinating, or is this not the guy who proclaimed:
"I'm a millionaire, I'm a multi-millionaire. I'm filthy rich. You know why I'm a multi-millionaire? 'Cause multi-millions like what I do. That's pretty good, isn't it? There's millions that believe in what I do. Pretty cool, huh?"
Back at the diary:
But the landlord would only accept the money on the condition that we leave the premises on Easter weekend.
And, thus, here I am, using the last computer still hooked up to electricity, writing you this letter. I can't get past either the irony or the yin/yang of this moment: I've got the number one bestselling book in the country -- and the landlord has just cut my off my electricity in the middle of this sentence! I don't even know if the computer has backed-up this letter! Agggghhh!!...
And thus the miracle of sentences written on a computer without electricity. Now, obviously Moore wrote that, if there's any truth to it at all, after electricity was restored. But does he bother to acknowledge this? No. One could put this down to artlessness and clumsiness of writing, but the pattern of "I'm so oppressed" is too consistent to see it as other than what it obviously is: we should all feel so sorry for what a victim Michael Moore is.
And that makes me mad.
There are a lot of victims. Real victims. There are a lot of people truly homeless here in the US. We should care about them and help them. Not about millionare Mike Moore's office eviction.
There are, if we want to be sympathetic to people Moore probably would give lip service to, a lot of Palestinians in the West Bank living in dire circumstances, more dire than ever right now. If they're not terrorists, we can, and should, care about them.
We can care about the people being rended into body parts, and less, in Israel every day; some of them still have offices: just not body parts, or lives; others will now never be old enough to have an office.
We can care about the victims of disease and war all over the globe right now. We can care about a lot of true victims.
Mike Moore aint' a victim. That he bleeds so for himself is, well, outrageous. No, I take that back; feeling sorry for yourself is a privilege I wouldn't begrudge anyone. Asking us to feel sorry for him is what is outrageous.
Okay, I've returned from my encounter with the landlord in the hallway and the lights are back on. How surreal is this? Now comes a message from the publisher that the book goes on sale in the U.K. and Ireland this week, and they've also just sold the rights for the book in China, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, and... THE LINE JUST WENT DEAD! The phone company has disconnected our phone lines. AARRRGGHH!!...
Okay, the phones are back up.
Can we guess that the conveyance of some money was elided by Mike here? No, the phone company must have turned the line back on out of kindness. And, y'know, we've already read Mike earlier in his diary talk about having a cell phone. So: he's got a cell, and he pays to have the landline turned on, but doesn't tell us that.
Moore goes on and on and on and on, crying his tears for himself, literally, but I don't have the stomach to repeat any more, or to comment. It's superfluous. I'm genuinely sorry he's had deaths in his family in recent months, but if Michael Moore is "Inside His Own Private Golgotha," well, he's not doing much of a job keeping it private. Why should he? He's got a book to sell, and a movie, and an image to generate.
TODAY'S BEAT ON THE JEW NEWS: Yes, it's the EuroJew news! Today, Germany:
BERLIN (Reuters) - A group of seven or eight men attacked two American Jews walking along one of Berlin's smartest streets after they visiting a synagogue, German police said Tuesday. [...] Police said the two 21-year-old New Yorkers were walking along Kurfuerstendamm, an avenue in west Berlin famous for its upmarket cafes and stores, after 9:30 p.m. when the group of young men with "southern" features appeared.
German police usually use the expression "southern appearance" to describe people from southern Europe, north Africa or the Middle East.
The men asked whether the bearded New Yorkers were Jewish before pushing them to the ground. Police said the victims' black and white clothes identified them as Orthodox Jews.
One of the victims suffered facial wounds needing hospital treatment. The attackers fled the busy street and have not been caught.
In a separate incident, a swastika was painted on a Jewish memorial in Berlin in the early hours of Tuesday.
And this is what it comes to:
[...] Most of Germany's significant Jewish sites are guarded by armed policemen. Barricades surround buildings such as Berlin's historic New Synagogue, and water cannon and armored vehicles are also in evidence.
This is what it takes. This is our time. This is our day.
THE BLOG COLLECTIVE: One of these pieces of professional journalism about blogging, good readers, is a superb, well-written, utterly clueful and spot-on analysis. The other dumps that pot of jello over the writer's head and we see him flip his lips back and forth with his fingers, allowing us to debate whether that's spittle or drool, drool or spittle, he's emitting. Could it be sprool? Drittle? Read them both! Decide which is which! The prize is getting to know which writer is worth reading again in future!
For more sheer chewing pleasure, bet on which piece will rate highest on Blogdex and Daypop! Is idiocy more infamous than sagacity is famous? You, the people, decide, here at The Blogger's Court!
You can also, and you even may also, read the masterfully baiting e-mail the sprooling Alex Beam sent James Lileks: remember, it takes a professional to be this tactful! (Don't miss Lilek's non-pareil brilliant choices for his ideal newspaper staff.)
Whatever you do, don't link to Asparagirl: it makes her nervous. (Even if she did write this.)
STILL NO ANTI-SEMITISM IN FRANCE is a newspaper headline I expect to see in some European newspaper, or perhaps the Grauniad soon. Let's see:
Three French synagogues were set on fire over the Passover-Easter weekend, which ended today, a public holiday. Besides the Orthodox Or Aviv synagogue in Marseille, which was burned to the ground, one in Strasbourg had its doors set ablaze the day after an anti-Israel demonstration, and in Lyon, 15 masked men crashed two cars through the gates of a synagogue and set them afire.
But these are just casual things. Nothing organized about that. Just high spirits in action from 15 masked men who randomly found themselves in the same place, with two cars, at the same time, and nothing to do.
Shots were fired at a kosher butcher shop near Toulouse, though no one was injured, and a young Jewish couple were badly beaten in Villeurbanne, in the Rhone region.
Rememberthe problem will grow bigger if we talk too much about it. Thank goodness that's not been done in France. Just imagine how large the "problem" -- that's the "Jewish problem," right? -- would be now.
In Brussels, the floors and pews of an Orthodox synagogue were damaged when five firebombs were thrown inside, the police said.
On Sunday, Le Journal du Dimanche reported that a Jewish couple in their 20's were wounded in an attack on Saturday afternoon in the town of Villeurbanne, near Lyon. The woman, who is pregnant, was reportedly hospitalized overnight.
Nah, nothing to worry about. It could never happen here.
VISA FRENZY A MANUFACTURED OUTRAGEasserts the Cogent Provocateur, Seattle's rather anonymous "RonK," at his blog.
I pointed out a few days before RonK wrote this piece that the famed notices sent to the flight school regarding Mohammad Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi's visa status were sent by private contractor ACS Inc., not the INS itself. But RonK presents a far more detailed and, dare I say, cogent analysis, suggesting that the odds of both notices being produced on the same day, given the differences in the two cases, are in his opinion over 100-1, and thus implying a deliberate event, and asking Quo vadis?, with the answer obviously pointing to those who want to target INS.
I don't know if he's correct or not, but it's an analysis I found most interesting, and I recommend reading it; the rest of his page is well worth checking out, as well, as it's written with precision and intelligence well above that of most blogs. I'll be, you know, like Arnold said, back.
BLOG WATCH A is going to be extremely erratic, at best, for the time being. I've suddenly had to raise several other time-consuming tasks to a far higher priority, leaving me with the choice of spending a significant amount of time taking notes on other blogs and blogwatching them, or spending that time on reading articles on my own, and blogging about them; I figure, immodestly, you get the better deal from my own links and thoughts. So Blog Watch A ain't dead, but it's, uh, going very irregular until more free time springs forth. Easy come, easy go.
4/01/2002 09:02:00 PM |permanent link| | Main Page |
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LAND OF A THOUSAND DANCES: I used to have the original single of Patti Smith doing "Piss Factory" on one side, and "Hey, Joe," on the other, which I bought long before Horses came out.
Plus various bootleg tapes; I think Paul Williams passed me on a couple. That was when I was fanatically catching her at CBGB's with Lenny Kaye, and Jay Dee Daugherty, and wossname the piano player, or just after she moved on from doing poetry with some musical background at St. Marks Church.
WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR REALITY AUGMENTED?: No, that's not a reference to the eight million hoaxes posted on the web today, from the Register's AOL/TW blog buy-outto Wil Wheaton's "crash" and announcment that Wesley will have a recurring role on Enterprise. Instead, you may choose optical see-through or video see-through. Theoretically, you eventually get an entire world annotated, kinda like sensory blogging. A new career possibility blooms.
If you'd prefer April Fools, you can try the Grauniadquiz, or check the "Museum of Hoaxes" top ten. (My favorite is the Grauniad's San Serriffe.)
BLOOGER ETIQUETTE: Nick Denton asks about blogger netiquette, and has some answers from Rebecca Blood, as well as from Cory Doctorow.
It's terribly presumptuous of an egg such as I, who have been blogging only since the end of December, to offer opinions to such blogging elders as those three, but, hey diddly doh, I've also been writing stuff no different form my blogging since 1995 on Usenet, and in sf fanzines since 1973, and reading same, so I do have those opinions, and will offer them when I think they might be of use.
Nick asks:
Is a conversation with a weblog author off-the-record, unless otherwise specified, or on-the-record?
Here's the deal bloggers might want to adopt en masse perhaps, as it's a system proven to work easily and clearly for over half a century in the world of science fiction fanzines: Stuff that isn't clearly for public consumption should not be printed without either permission or very good cause for not asking it. But when you want to make clear that something is private, you say it is "DNQ," Do Not Quote. And that clearly labels it. DNQ means keep it confidential under pretty much all circumstances, printed and oral. "DNP," Do Not Print, is a bit less restrictive, and means it's okay to mention in private conversation to someone you trust, but do not print or post it. DNQ and DNP: they work. Give it a try. This is not DNQ.
Prominently saying on your blog "mail sent regarding this blog will be considered submitted for publication" is fair, but it's still polite to check before doing so if you as the blogger have any doubt .
As regards the other queries Nick poses, my opinions are: a) responses are never obligatory -- many things are, in fact, best passed over in silence; b) check with someone else before posting their anecdote, and at the very least, give them a more than reasonable deadline to respond before you post; c) when telling an oral anecdote, mention you've blogged it -- this is no different than any other "have you heard this before?" situation; d) if someone feels you've been unfair to their point of view, give a pointer to their own version; giving them space in your own blog is optional -- but do give that pointer -- I think it's obligatory politeness.
Incidentally, I don't think "angry-white-man" is at all a fair description of John Stryker's persona as he comes across to me, at least, in his blog. I can think of a number of bloggers I'd drop that label on, and he's not one. I think both Nick and the Sarge are misreading cues from each other and bridling unnecessarily, but, then, it's not for me to tell someone how to react.
DEAFNESS AS A CHOICE FOR YOUR CHILD: part of the Deaf identity movement.
The easy reaction is to knee-jerk against this. And absolutely, the cost to society in deliberately seeking such a baby, and then asking for life-long government subsidized help for it, is probably not going to make a case libertarians will rush to support, though they might support such a choice absent the ADA-compelled government aid. One of the things I liked about this piece of journalism, however, is that it leaves conclusions up to the reader.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG: These two bozos' speech was hateful and idiotic, but it's free speech, and there's no way it should be prosecuted.
In a decision released Friday, Judge William Harrington wrote that Upshaw said his language was "of a political nature, intended to spur debate and thought." But the judge ruled that the words "were plainly intended to incite the crowd to violence, and not simply to express a point of view."
[...]
Judge Neil Ross ruled that the time and place of the speech made it reasonable to infer that Harvey knew "that public inconvenience, annoyance and alarm would result."
Yes, the violence would have been against Upshaw, and absolutely such unpopular speech is protected by the First Amendment. Ditto that Harvey's speech caused "annoyance and alarm." This is core protected speech, the essence of what freedom of speech is about. Take it away from them, it's taken away from thee and me.
3/31/2002 08:37:00 PM |permanent link| | Main Page |
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FIGHT TERROR BY GOING LO OR HIGH?: The WashPo looks at high-tech proposals for fighting terror.
They also look at the journey of Richard Reid, the Shoe bomber, how he fell in with al Queda, and the fact that more such as he are out there. Remember, it was while on the track of this story that Daniel Pearl was killed.
SPARKY FANS sent here by Tom Tomorrow may wonder where the "whole lot of thought into what defines the left, specifically in terms of the war" may be found. I wonder, too, since I didn't do any such thing, I swear, m'lud. I just dashed off my usual off-the-cuff response. My thoughts on politics are scattered, of course, throughout my archives.
As I told Dan ("Tom") in e-mail, and others many times, I've come to loath pre-fabricated politics, and buying political packages. I'm a dim-sum politico, I find the "left-right" continuum of political analysis direly simplistic, and I find focus on where a position fits into it tiresome in the extreme.
If the time comes to start lining up "liberals" to be sent to their rooms, I'll pick up the yellow badge and pluck it on my arm, but I started out somewhat from the left as a youth, hold a lot of libertarian notions (up to a point), respect and agree with quite a lot of conservative ideas, and all around am most fairly labeled an eclectic who lurches in different directions depending upon the issue.
Dan more or less pointed people at my links, perhaps not focusing on the way they, too, are eclectic. I don't link to blogs because I endorse or agree with them; I'm more concerned with well-put argument, clarity of expression and thought, and interesting links, and am happy to have my ideas challenged.
I'd rather have any of that then link to blogs merely because they agree with me, but do so sloppily and poorly. I think very little, frankly, of the way so many blogs link to, and endlessly praise, various blogs, merely because they are in Ideological Solidarity with said blogger, no matter that the blogger has nothing original to say, but says it in sufficiently aggravated tone. Yet other blogs may have some interesting links, but rarely rise above muddleheaded and superficial analyses.
I try not to link to such blogs, but I also don't link to various blogs simply because I've not yet read them, or I've gotten picky, or I'm just not seeing them saying anything I don't see elsewhere, and I prefer to keep my links to something vaguely resembling a reasonable length; I feel no compulsion whatsoever to be comprehensive; you can find that in plenty of other blogs.
All of which is a longwinded way of saying I don't endorse blogs I link to, and I don't look for blogs depending upon their ideology, left, right, libertarian, socialist, up, or down.
This is an utterly non-comprehensive list; they just happen to be folk I currently read (a couple, such as Patrick, and Avedon, are ancient friends). The Sideshow_, The Daily Howler, and Junius would be among the most clearly left-wing. Anyone want to suggest other non-right-wing blogs, feel free. And do keep in mind that this movie just played over at Nick Denton's recently, and was commented on by various, including Patrick, and Ginger Stampley. (If left-wing readers would like to prove they can hit the "donate" button in the upper left better than others, that would be delightful; I'm entirely poor and deserving, I assure you; the amount can be dropped to just a $1 or $2, and seriously, I can really use it.)
MARMALADE: Ever wonder how it was made, or wanted to know more about it? Probably not, but here it is. I'd be curious to try lemon with Earl Gray tea; orange with Champagne; orange with whisky; and lime, kumquat and blood orange, myself.
YOUR GENES HAVE GOOD RHYTHM, YOU CAN DANCE TO THEM: Following Jaron Lanier's "let's encode literature into the entrons of cockroaches," we have:
An executive with one Silicon Valley company is now suggesting that DNA sequences be converted to digital music, arguing that they might then be protected under copyright law. [...] The technology to convert the coding of a strand of DNA — essentially a string of letters, a different letter for each of the four nucleotides — into music is already available. Free or inexpensive programs like Bio2Midi and ProteinMusic take such character strings and come up with musical compositions.
The outcome of the war now under way between the Israelis and Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe, to all of civilization. Why? Quite simply because Palestinians are testing out a whole new form of warfare, using suicide bombers — strapped with dynamite and dressed as Israelis — to achieve their political aims. And it is working.
[...]
The world must understand that the Palestinians have not chosen suicide bombing out of "desperation" stemming from the Israeli occupation. That is a huge lie. Why? To begin with, a lot of other people in the world are desperate, yet they have not gone around strapping dynamite to themselves. More important, President Clinton offered the Palestinians a peace plan that could have ended their "desperate" occupation, and Yasir Arafat walked away. Still more important, the Palestinians have long had a tactical alternative to suicide: nonviolent resistance, à la Gandhi. A nonviolent Palestinian movement appealing to the conscience of the Israeli silent majority would have delivered a Palestinian state 30 years ago, but they have rejected that strategy, too.
[...]
Let's be very clear: Palestinians have adopted suicide bombing as a strategic choice, not out of desperation. This threatens all civilization because if suicide bombing is allowed to work in Israel, then, like hijacking and airplane bombing, it will be copied and will eventually lead to a bomber strapped with a nuclear device threatening entire nations. That is why the whole world must see this Palestinian suicide strategy defeated.
Some say Friedman is all wobbly and soft, but he calls for Israel "to deliver a military blow that clearly shows terror will not pay" and that:
the U.S. should declare that while it respects the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism, it will have no dealings with the Palestinian leadership as long as it tolerates suicide bombings. Further, we should make clear that Arab leaders whose media call suicide bombers 'martyrs' aren't welcome in the U.S.
THE LEFT -- WAR NO MORE?: Dan Perkins ("Tom Tomorrow") asked about lefty blogs, and today clarifies that:
So, no--no party lines. I guess what I mean by "lefty" is bloggers who are more skeptical than not of the war effort....
This startled me a bit, because I thought both the sensible left and the idiot left have plenty of other elements to define them.
I find the linkage of the left with being automatically anti-war, any war, dubious, but possibly that's wishful thinking, because it's a primary factor in pushing me further and further away from that [large] element of the left.
The left I'm aware of passionately supported fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and were, of course, dubbed "premature anti-fascists" as their consolation prize for losing.
The left I'm for were all for fighting Hitler, save for those communists who took their line from the CPs, aka Moscow, and defended the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
Even the Communists -- and yes, when I most identified as a leftist, I identified as an anti-Communist leftist, since I knew the history of leftism -- supported, of course, the revolution to overthrow the Czar, as well as, evilly, the revolution to overthrow Russian democracy and seize dictorial power for themselves, as well as, of course, the resulting Civil War and war to conquer the neighboring republics and form the Russian Empire known as the USSR.
Similarly, fights against all sorts of local fascisms were always supported by various overlapping flavors of leftists in ensuing decades.
I always thought that fighting for freedom, against oppression, and against repressive fascist regimes was a leftist notion, though not exclusively so. I don't see where Islamo-fascism gets a ticket out. I don't see where leftists should turn against liberating Arabs, Afghans, and the like, from the heavy hand of racist, anti-semitic tyranny.
I'm with John Lloyd in this, whose excellent piece, from the sensible left, was published in the Guardian/Observer two weeks ago.
The left is right to always question the need for war. But a blind anti-Americanism risks betraying the left's anti-fascist heritage.
[...]
These traditions - of pacifism, individualism and anti-fascism now meet another: anti-Americanism, not confined to the left in developed states, but most virulent on it. [...] But there is now a narrative of the left - complete in itself in the way such narratives are - which sees in the US an imperial predator whose actions - all actions - are conditioned by this aspect of its being.
This narrative has ceased to be critical, but become predestinarian: rather as predestinarians divided humanity into those whose actions could never be wrong and those whose actions could never be right, so this strain of left critique arrogates to itself the first and confers on the US the second. It is important not to confuse this grand, totalising critique with criticism, from left or right. The latter is essential for governments, most essential for governments with such awful power as the US commands. But the totalising critique is an intellectual construct, derived from the techniques of 19th century philosophy, which bends all facts to fit the ideological line.
[...]
But the view, which the far left in Europe powerfully expresses, that in a consideration of action against Iraq the folly, imperialism and crimes of America are the only matter which may enter the discussion is an abdication of the left's own attachment to enlightenment rationalism.
It also abandons, or at least suppresses, its own anti-fascist credentials.
This is exactly right. Go read the rest. Any "left" that operates on this basis, I want no part of. I surely hope this, and reflexive "supporting the stability of third-world tyranny is preferable to supporting war against it" are not defining elements of other than the Idiot Left, because I should hate to see the Left fall entirely to the idiots.
See also what I said when inspired by Michael Walzer's must-read Dissentpiece.
That a "Vietnam Syndrome" affected US military culture and political culture long ago became Accepted Wisdom, because it was true. What there has been extraordinarily little discussion of, at least in my view, has been explication of the "Vietnam Sydrome of the Left," how the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the rise to dominance of the baby boomer New Left, overthrowing the Old Left as bearers of the mantle of the Left Line in popular discourse, affected and changed the narrative of the Left in America and much of the West, and, in retrospect in my view, greatly to the detriment of the Left, bringing to the fore this knee-jerk anti-Americanism, replacing the traditional leftist view of America as a breeding ground, and supporter, of freedom and equality.
Blinders were put on, allowing only the viewing of what America may have done wrong, preventing the seeing of anything America does right.
Of course, although historians such as Todd Gitlin were writing this history of the left as long ago as the early Seventies, when I was eagerly reading it, few leftists have ever had much sense of or knowledge of leftist history, instead riding on a vogue of contemporary down-with [capitalism, globalization, polluters, Republicans, contras, corporations, etc.] that is as much a politics of feel-good, feel-righteous as is that of those on the Right whose chimes are rung by snarling at [those liberals, the nanny state, pacifists, taxes, class warfare, big government, redistributionism, the Clintons].
If a lot more lefists studied a lot more leftist history (and some do, I hastily say), with a stress on the internal and conflicting threads, particularly including how the Communist elements became internally imperialist elements and then split into the pro-Moscow and Trotskyite lines, both the enemies of social democrats and simple liberals, but also including the rise of the New Left in the Sixties, and the fragmentation of the Left in the post-Vietnam era, the Left might be far further along the way to meaningful and helpful critiques of society and polity, rather than in its current rather rotted state. Wouldn't that be nice?
They're discussing their blogs. 
And, I suppose, to the Arabs and Christians who live there, who murdered Jesus. Or maybe not. The earlier story is 
I used to have the original single of 
Jesse Ventura pulled a 
