has an article at the Labour Friends of Iraq site that has been already cited all over the place but it's worth a read, albeit of the self-affirming variety that I object to below. The SIAW site also has a post citing renegade Karl Kautsky that makes for interesting reading, even for a non-Marxists like me.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Vote Early, Vote Often
There are “elections,” and there are elections. There’s “democracy,” and then there’s democracy. Anarchists, as you will no doubt be aware, tend to have a particularly jaundiced view of these things, hence their readiness to apply quotation marks to the majority of processes meant to legitimize government. And with good cause. Anyone who’s had experience of democratic centralism or the “proletarian democracy” of the Leninist microsects understands that it resembles genuine democracy about as much as “proletarian justice” resembles actual justice. At the same time, when we hear liberals talking about democracy, civil liberties, and human rights, we want to take them at their word and hold them to it: For them, representative democracy is the motherlode, whereas for anarchists it’s about as close as you can come to democracy without democracy, the perfect hegemonic deception.
The problem with democracy as anarchists see it is that there simply isn’t enough voting done. If liberals are serious about democracy, we ask that it should be direct democracy, not representative; that it mean not just political democracy, but also economic and industrial democracy, meaning democracy in the workplace; and also that it mean social democracy, that is, that the decisions made affecting all of us in our everyday lives be subject to direct democracy and accountability, so that we can be meaningfully involved in and have control over local schools, retirement homes, sports clubs, residents and tenants associations, and so on.
That this should require a social transformation, we accept; that it necessarily requires a violent overthrow of those in power, we do not. What it does require is the support of the mass of people who make up society, and when anarchists advance the “Marxist” view that the liberation of the workers will be task of the workers themselves, we mean precisely that: Anarchists will support the workers where their aims are congruent, but they won’t try to “lead” a workers’ movement or pose as its vanguard or even seize power in their name.
Legitimate, violent revolutions do take place, of course, but they occur usually because there is no meaningful alternative for the expression of protest or opinion. Orlando Figes’s analysis of the Russian revolution made it clear that the revolution was bound to happen given the lack of accountability of the Tsar and his circle, but it was also necessary that a major crisis, the war, accompany the lack of formal social structures of accountability. There was no other outlet for protest at the futility and atrocity of war, and the court’s attitude to the populace had been clearly demonstrated over the preceding decade.
We’ve taken an approach of studied quietude over events in Iraq since last March, mostly from a sense of discomfort at the bloviating witnessed elsewhere and a realization that blogs lend themselves readily to self-importance, and one thing we are not, at Counago & Spaves, is important. So no ponderous pontificating. We have also suspended judgement on an ongoing basis because experience has taught us, if nothing else, the law of unintended consequences. Since the 1960s, the anti-imperialist left has royally fucked up on the job by supporting national liberation movements that could in no sense be called progressive against an American imperialist power that was intent on denying basic human rights. Genuinely well-meaning and good people regularly managed to advance the causes of butchers and murderers by assuming that they had to take sides; that we live in a Manichean world in which the opposite of Evil had to be Good, as opposed to another Evil. By assuming that the enemy of their enemy was their friend, the left has time and again allied itself with reactionary forces.
It’s an apocryphal tale that Chou en-Lai was once asked by a reporter to comment on what he thought were the most important consequences of the French revolution, to which he said that “it’s too early to tell.” The fact that it wasn’t Chou who spoke these words but an adviser who was giving an off-the-cuff response to what he thought were contemporary events occurring on the other side of the world doesn’t matter. There’s much to be said for his circumspection. We’re not the sort here to trawl the Net looking for news items that only confirm our pre-selected interpretation of events, as though history isn’t happening, only the unfolding of some master dialectic. It is, indeed, too early to tell.
Does that make this anarchist’s eye any less jaundiced? Shouldn’t he be rejoicing?
It’s too early to tell.
The problem with democracy as anarchists see it is that there simply isn’t enough voting done. If liberals are serious about democracy, we ask that it should be direct democracy, not representative; that it mean not just political democracy, but also economic and industrial democracy, meaning democracy in the workplace; and also that it mean social democracy, that is, that the decisions made affecting all of us in our everyday lives be subject to direct democracy and accountability, so that we can be meaningfully involved in and have control over local schools, retirement homes, sports clubs, residents and tenants associations, and so on.
That this should require a social transformation, we accept; that it necessarily requires a violent overthrow of those in power, we do not. What it does require is the support of the mass of people who make up society, and when anarchists advance the “Marxist” view that the liberation of the workers will be task of the workers themselves, we mean precisely that: Anarchists will support the workers where their aims are congruent, but they won’t try to “lead” a workers’ movement or pose as its vanguard or even seize power in their name.
Legitimate, violent revolutions do take place, of course, but they occur usually because there is no meaningful alternative for the expression of protest or opinion. Orlando Figes’s analysis of the Russian revolution made it clear that the revolution was bound to happen given the lack of accountability of the Tsar and his circle, but it was also necessary that a major crisis, the war, accompany the lack of formal social structures of accountability. There was no other outlet for protest at the futility and atrocity of war, and the court’s attitude to the populace had been clearly demonstrated over the preceding decade.
We’ve taken an approach of studied quietude over events in Iraq since last March, mostly from a sense of discomfort at the bloviating witnessed elsewhere and a realization that blogs lend themselves readily to self-importance, and one thing we are not, at Counago & Spaves, is important. So no ponderous pontificating. We have also suspended judgement on an ongoing basis because experience has taught us, if nothing else, the law of unintended consequences. Since the 1960s, the anti-imperialist left has royally fucked up on the job by supporting national liberation movements that could in no sense be called progressive against an American imperialist power that was intent on denying basic human rights. Genuinely well-meaning and good people regularly managed to advance the causes of butchers and murderers by assuming that they had to take sides; that we live in a Manichean world in which the opposite of Evil had to be Good, as opposed to another Evil. By assuming that the enemy of their enemy was their friend, the left has time and again allied itself with reactionary forces.
It’s an apocryphal tale that Chou en-Lai was once asked by a reporter to comment on what he thought were the most important consequences of the French revolution, to which he said that “it’s too early to tell.” The fact that it wasn’t Chou who spoke these words but an adviser who was giving an off-the-cuff response to what he thought were contemporary events occurring on the other side of the world doesn’t matter. There’s much to be said for his circumspection. We’re not the sort here to trawl the Net looking for news items that only confirm our pre-selected interpretation of events, as though history isn’t happening, only the unfolding of some master dialectic. It is, indeed, too early to tell.
Does that make this anarchist’s eye any less jaundiced? Shouldn’t he be rejoicing?
It’s too early to tell.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Yeah, he should stick to doing what rabbits do best . . . within the confines of marriage, of course
Cartoon rabbit Buster Baxter is being attacked, says the New York Times, because an episode of his show featured lesbian parents.
What is it with these people having a go at cartoon characters? Is it because they have no souls or something?
What is it with these people having a go at cartoon characters? Is it because they have no souls or something?
Long live the wilfully perverse
Review in last Saturday's Guardian of the Gang of Four gig at the Manchester Academy.
Satan in a Leotard
From an article by Douglas Groothuis in the November 2004 issue of Christianity Today:
"The biblical worldview is completely at odds with the pantheistic concepts driving Eastern meditation. We are not one with an impersonal absolute being that is called "God." Rather, we are estranged from the true personal God because of our "true moral guilt," as Francis Schaeffer says.
No amount of chanting, breathing, visualizing, or physical contortions will melt away the sin that separates us from the Lord of the cosmos—however "peaceful" these practices may feel. Moreover, Paul warns that "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). "Pleasant" experiences may be portals to peril. Even yoga teachers warn that yoga may open one up to spiritual and physical maladies."
Take a deep breath and count to ten.
"The biblical worldview is completely at odds with the pantheistic concepts driving Eastern meditation. We are not one with an impersonal absolute being that is called "God." Rather, we are estranged from the true personal God because of our "true moral guilt," as Francis Schaeffer says.
No amount of chanting, breathing, visualizing, or physical contortions will melt away the sin that separates us from the Lord of the cosmos—however "peaceful" these practices may feel. Moreover, Paul warns that "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). "Pleasant" experiences may be portals to peril. Even yoga teachers warn that yoga may open one up to spiritual and physical maladies."
Take a deep breath and count to ten.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Rappaport's Testament: I Never Gave Up
(Chorus)
And if you survive me (I Never gave up)
Tell them this (I Never gave up)
And if you survive me (I Never gave up)
Tell them this
Almost as if I were planning ahead
I drank, I ate, I made love
I learnt to snatch whatever I could
I never asked for pity and I never gave up
(Chorus)
Twenty months I kept accounts
And in the end they'll balance out
Sometimes I vomit happy memories
Sometimes I laugh out loud just to crack my face
(Chorus)
And if I meet Hitler in the other place
I'll spit this precious soup in his face
And all my accounts will be settled, you see
'Cause Hitler never ever got the better of me
(Chorus)
I never gave up, I never gave up
I crawled in the mud, but I never gave up
(Repeat)
Lyrics by Chumbawamba from the album Slap!
based on "Rappaport's Testament," by Primo Levi, in Moments of Reprieve.
And if you survive me (I Never gave up)
Tell them this (I Never gave up)
And if you survive me (I Never gave up)
Tell them this
Almost as if I were planning ahead
I drank, I ate, I made love
I learnt to snatch whatever I could
I never asked for pity and I never gave up
(Chorus)
Twenty months I kept accounts
And in the end they'll balance out
Sometimes I vomit happy memories
Sometimes I laugh out loud just to crack my face
(Chorus)
And if I meet Hitler in the other place
I'll spit this precious soup in his face
And all my accounts will be settled, you see
'Cause Hitler never ever got the better of me
(Chorus)
I never gave up, I never gave up
I crawled in the mud, but I never gave up
(Repeat)
Lyrics by Chumbawamba from the album Slap!
based on "Rappaport's Testament," by Primo Levi, in Moments of Reprieve.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Awesome Satiric Irrelevance
Something we all aspire to at Counago & Spaves, but actually a description of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, reviewed in the January 10 issue of Time by Richard Schickel. My phrase of the day.
Cynicism Alley (not far from Irony Corner)
I've often wondered what would happen if incontrovertible evidence could be provided that not only does prayer work but also that it works in ways contrary to the desires of those doing the praying. How would scientists respond to and interpret such proof, and what would theologists make of God's malevolence other than to reiterate that He/She moves in mysterious ways?
The thought was prompted again by a colleague reminding me of the case of Elisabeth Targ, a psychiatrist who conducted research into distant healing by prayer. In one of her studies, the rare and aggressive brain tumour known as glioblastoma was chosen as the control illness. Either by pure coincidence or because of the negative power of prayer, you choose, Targ herself was diagnosed during the course of the research with glioblastoma, the rare (I emphasize) disease being utilized.
She was interviewed for O: The Oprah Magazine on the power of distant healing. The interview appeared in the September 2002 issue.
Targ died on July 18, 2002.
The thought was prompted again by a colleague reminding me of the case of Elisabeth Targ, a psychiatrist who conducted research into distant healing by prayer. In one of her studies, the rare and aggressive brain tumour known as glioblastoma was chosen as the control illness. Either by pure coincidence or because of the negative power of prayer, you choose, Targ herself was diagnosed during the course of the research with glioblastoma, the rare (I emphasize) disease being utilized.
She was interviewed for O: The Oprah Magazine on the power of distant healing. The interview appeared in the September 2002 issue.
Targ died on July 18, 2002.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
The Wise Saragossa Scene
Guilt at my inadvertent insults, as much as admiration for his style, compels me to draw attention to the thought-provoking and incisive blog of the eponymous and pseudonymous Alphonse van Worden. If you like your aesthetics politicized rather than your politics aestheticized, this is the place to go.
Irony Corner
From the January/February issue of Orion:
New Zealand scientists have designed a method of birth control to help protect the natural environment of the nation's islands—not from too many people, but from too many possums. The sly wonders of genetic engineering now make it possible to administer birth control to animals we don't like. And most New Zealanders detest possums, an introduced species. "I do my best to run over them on the road. Everyone does. They are a plague on New Zealand," says Tim Popham, a zoologist living on the South Island.
Brought to New Zealand from Australia in 1837 by European settlers who wanted to establish a fur trade, brush-tailed possums are overrunning the country. Without native competitors to keep the possum population in check, New Zealand's unique and diverse island ecosystem is being squeezed by an estimated seventy million of the pesky marsupials. Possums eat the eggs of the rare and native kokako bird; devour entire canopies of rare native trees, like the rata and kamahi; and threaten one of New Zealand's largest export industries by transmitting bovine tuberculosis to beef and dairy cattle. Other methods of possum control—shooting, trapping, and poisoning—have proved ineffective for the long term.
If successful, the proposed possum contraceptives could reduce the population's fertility by 70 percent. However, the contraceptives are produced using genetically modified plants, and 70 percent of New Zealanders oppose the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to their islands. Ignoring citizen protests, in October 2003 New Zealand's Labor government lifted regulations that prohibited research on GMOs outside of laboratories and controlled field trials. Now, the genetically engineered vegetables used to produce possum contraceptives—currently imported from Australia where, ironically, possums are endangered—may be grown in New Zealand. This is raising eyebrows, particularly since New Zealand's Ministry for Environment has concluded that "[potential] impacts [of introducing GMOs] on individual industries—especially the agriculture industry—remain significantly large."
Yet possums aren't a potential problem, they are a proven one. Janine Duckworth, a possum biocontrol scientist at the New Zealand firm Landcare Research, which is producing the contraceptives, believes the risk of doing nothing to control possums is far greater than the perceived risk genetic engineering poses. But organic farmer John Baker isn't so sure. Baker, who worries about the future awaiting his children, has a suggestion: "Tell them to go test it in America, then come back to us when they know it works." And that might not be a bad idea. Though possums are not pests in the United States (where they are more commonly called by their formal name, opossums), the U.S. has its own invasive species, which are already a $137-billion-a-year problem. Genetically modified organisms, feared by some but spreading through the country's food system all the same, might well be a man-made solution to the man-made problems of introduced, out-of-control species. Or they might not. After all, once upon a time an enterprising businessman thought that a new species—the possum—was just what New Zealand needed.
Someone somewhere once said something about mankind only posing for itself problems that it can solve. Permit me a wry smile.
New Zealand scientists have designed a method of birth control to help protect the natural environment of the nation's islands—not from too many people, but from too many possums. The sly wonders of genetic engineering now make it possible to administer birth control to animals we don't like. And most New Zealanders detest possums, an introduced species. "I do my best to run over them on the road. Everyone does. They are a plague on New Zealand," says Tim Popham, a zoologist living on the South Island.
Brought to New Zealand from Australia in 1837 by European settlers who wanted to establish a fur trade, brush-tailed possums are overrunning the country. Without native competitors to keep the possum population in check, New Zealand's unique and diverse island ecosystem is being squeezed by an estimated seventy million of the pesky marsupials. Possums eat the eggs of the rare and native kokako bird; devour entire canopies of rare native trees, like the rata and kamahi; and threaten one of New Zealand's largest export industries by transmitting bovine tuberculosis to beef and dairy cattle. Other methods of possum control—shooting, trapping, and poisoning—have proved ineffective for the long term.
If successful, the proposed possum contraceptives could reduce the population's fertility by 70 percent. However, the contraceptives are produced using genetically modified plants, and 70 percent of New Zealanders oppose the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to their islands. Ignoring citizen protests, in October 2003 New Zealand's Labor government lifted regulations that prohibited research on GMOs outside of laboratories and controlled field trials. Now, the genetically engineered vegetables used to produce possum contraceptives—currently imported from Australia where, ironically, possums are endangered—may be grown in New Zealand. This is raising eyebrows, particularly since New Zealand's Ministry for Environment has concluded that "[potential] impacts [of introducing GMOs] on individual industries—especially the agriculture industry—remain significantly large."
Yet possums aren't a potential problem, they are a proven one. Janine Duckworth, a possum biocontrol scientist at the New Zealand firm Landcare Research, which is producing the contraceptives, believes the risk of doing nothing to control possums is far greater than the perceived risk genetic engineering poses. But organic farmer John Baker isn't so sure. Baker, who worries about the future awaiting his children, has a suggestion: "Tell them to go test it in America, then come back to us when they know it works." And that might not be a bad idea. Though possums are not pests in the United States (where they are more commonly called by their formal name, opossums), the U.S. has its own invasive species, which are already a $137-billion-a-year problem. Genetically modified organisms, feared by some but spreading through the country's food system all the same, might well be a man-made solution to the man-made problems of introduced, out-of-control species. Or they might not. After all, once upon a time an enterprising businessman thought that a new species—the possum—was just what New Zealand needed.
Someone somewhere once said something about mankind only posing for itself problems that it can solve. Permit me a wry smile.
The American Dream
title of an article in this month's Esquire (U.S. edition) by Sara Solovitch concerning the fabrications about the torture Jumana Hanna claimed to have endured in Saddam's Iraq. Worth a read if only to remind ourselves how willing we can be to believe stories that confirm our own prejudices.
Monday, January 24, 2005
How will his family live with the shame?
Apologies in advance for bad taste.
From Saturday's Guardian:
The "wicked" boyfriend of Jodi Jones was found guilty yesterday of tying up and murdering her in a horrific attack when he was just 14 years old.
In June 2003, Luke Mitchell, now 16, slit 14-year-old Jodi's throat and repeatedly stabbed her. As the foreman of the jury at the high court in Edinburgh read out the verdict, Jodi's family sobbed. Mitchell, the boy Jodi believed she loved, showed no emotion.
Mitchell, who had an obsession with the occult, had tried to cover his crime by burning his clothes and fabricating an alibi, backed by his mother. But, by majority verdict, the jury found him guilty, bringing to a close one of the biggest and most complex criminal investigations mounted in Scotland in many years.
At the time of Jodi's murder, Mitchell claimed he was at home making dinner for his family. His mother, Corinne, gave him an alibi to that effect. The evidence of Mitchell's brother, Shane, however, blew apart that alibi. Computer records showed that between 4.53pm and 5.16pm Shane Watson had been looking at porn on the internet. Giving evidence, he admitted he had been masturbating. He said he would not have done so if anyone else had been in the house at the time.
From Saturday's Guardian:
The "wicked" boyfriend of Jodi Jones was found guilty yesterday of tying up and murdering her in a horrific attack when he was just 14 years old.
In June 2003, Luke Mitchell, now 16, slit 14-year-old Jodi's throat and repeatedly stabbed her. As the foreman of the jury at the high court in Edinburgh read out the verdict, Jodi's family sobbed. Mitchell, the boy Jodi believed she loved, showed no emotion.
Mitchell, who had an obsession with the occult, had tried to cover his crime by burning his clothes and fabricating an alibi, backed by his mother. But, by majority verdict, the jury found him guilty, bringing to a close one of the biggest and most complex criminal investigations mounted in Scotland in many years.
At the time of Jodi's murder, Mitchell claimed he was at home making dinner for his family. His mother, Corinne, gave him an alibi to that effect. The evidence of Mitchell's brother, Shane, however, blew apart that alibi. Computer records showed that between 4.53pm and 5.16pm Shane Watson had been looking at porn on the internet. Giving evidence, he admitted he had been masturbating. He said he would not have done so if anyone else had been in the house at the time.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Matthew and Matt in Barcelona
Yesterday, Jordi and I were at the Bikini in Barcelona, where Matthew Sweet and Matt Sharp offered the last gig of their Spanish tour.
The first act was Matt Sharp assisted by Goldenboy. Sharp is an interesting character. He played bass in Weezer and then created his own band The Rentals. His second album as The Rentals (Seven More Minutes) was written in Barcelona and features a song with the name of the city. You could tell that the fact of playing in Barcelona was something special for Sharp, who even attempted to refresh his Spanish while he tried to communicate with the audience.
Matthew Sweet was the main act. I think it was the first time he played in Barcelona, and the fans were quite numerous. Apparently he was a bit sick, and after playing precisely his hit Sick of Myself, he left us with his band Velvet Crush for a couple of numbers. Then he came back to the stage and completed his show very professionally.
For more information about him, I found this fan site, Anita's Matthew Sweet Site, which is better updated than the official site.
The first act was Matt Sharp assisted by Goldenboy. Sharp is an interesting character. He played bass in Weezer and then created his own band The Rentals. His second album as The Rentals (Seven More Minutes) was written in Barcelona and features a song with the name of the city. You could tell that the fact of playing in Barcelona was something special for Sharp, who even attempted to refresh his Spanish while he tried to communicate with the audience.
Matthew Sweet was the main act. I think it was the first time he played in Barcelona, and the fans were quite numerous. Apparently he was a bit sick, and after playing precisely his hit Sick of Myself, he left us with his band Velvet Crush for a couple of numbers. Then he came back to the stage and completed his show very professionally.
For more information about him, I found this fan site, Anita's Matthew Sweet Site, which is better updated than the official site.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
But what flavour condoms do they use?
Catholic schoolgirls complain about sweet wrappers depicting fruit having sex.
I couldn't locate it in the CIA World Book
Excerpted from an article from UFO Info on last September's hurricanes in the U.S.
"Weather experts said unusually warm waters and a huge high-pressure system hovering over the Atlantic (sometimes called a "Bermuda high"--J.T.) have helped create and steer hurricanes directly at the U.S. coast. The Florida coastline was lashed with wind and surf for hours before Ivan hit land, causing major beach erosion and destroying waterfront homes."
"A buoy in the Gulf of Mexico 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Dauphin Island, Alabama registered waves 50 feet (15 meters) high. Televised reports from Alabama showed Dauphin already flooded."
"The band of high pressure in the Atlantic stretches from Cabo Verde all the way to Florida, which is really unusual," UFO Roundup editor Joseph Trainor commented. "Strange, too, that the Bermuda high has lasted so long. Rainstorms coming out of Africa grow to tropical storm strength just offshore from Nigeria. But the Bermuda high prevents them from heading north into the mid-Atlantic. Instead, it creates a kind of 'conveyor belt' carrying the storms all the way across and then shooting them up into the Caribbean Sea. Now a new tropical storm has formed west of Cabo Verde--Hurricane Karl."
UFO Roundup received three emails from readers who claimed to have heard HAARP broadcasting from Alaska on Tuesday, September 14, 2004. The signal was heard on frequency 3.390 MHz.
"Personally I don't think HAARP has the power to 'steer' a hurricane," Trainor added, "But the Tuesday burst might have deflected Ivan away from its original projected landfall around Tampa."
"Other than aliens, I can think of only one source able to create and sustain that unusual Bermuda High over the Atlantic--Shambhala, the hidden city of mystics in Afghanistan. Shambhala is reputed to have access to the weather-modification technology of ancient Atlantis."
"There have also been reports of Osama Bin Laden hiding out occasionally in Shambhala. Osama might have persuaded the Shambhalans to use 'weather warfare' against the USA."
"Is it just a coincidence that the 'hurricane blitz' began on August 3, the same date Allied forces stepped up their offensive in Afghanistan?" Trainor asked. "The 6th Marines have been running long-range patrols out of Bagram air base and Camp Ripley, just south of Tarin Kowt. Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines has a firebase in the Hindu Kush mountains. That's practically on Shambhala's doorstep. The Sages are above politics, but maybe some of the residents might be listening to Osama."
Last week there was a heavy firefight in Zabu, northeast of Kandahar, between coalition forces and Al- Qaeda fighters, in which 20 guerrillas were killed.
"I just find it extremely interesting that Hurricane Ivan's worst fury descended upon the old Jewish synagogue in Pensacola, Fla., as if Osama planned it that way," Trainor added, "Hopefully, Shambhala won't uncork the big stuff. Otherwise, Condi Rice will have to wake up Dubya at 4 a.m. some morning and explain that Lake Michigan now extends all the way to Lafayette, Indiana."
"Weather experts said unusually warm waters and a huge high-pressure system hovering over the Atlantic (sometimes called a "Bermuda high"--J.T.) have helped create and steer hurricanes directly at the U.S. coast. The Florida coastline was lashed with wind and surf for hours before Ivan hit land, causing major beach erosion and destroying waterfront homes."
"A buoy in the Gulf of Mexico 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Dauphin Island, Alabama registered waves 50 feet (15 meters) high. Televised reports from Alabama showed Dauphin already flooded."
"The band of high pressure in the Atlantic stretches from Cabo Verde all the way to Florida, which is really unusual," UFO Roundup editor Joseph Trainor commented. "Strange, too, that the Bermuda high has lasted so long. Rainstorms coming out of Africa grow to tropical storm strength just offshore from Nigeria. But the Bermuda high prevents them from heading north into the mid-Atlantic. Instead, it creates a kind of 'conveyor belt' carrying the storms all the way across and then shooting them up into the Caribbean Sea. Now a new tropical storm has formed west of Cabo Verde--Hurricane Karl."
UFO Roundup received three emails from readers who claimed to have heard HAARP broadcasting from Alaska on Tuesday, September 14, 2004. The signal was heard on frequency 3.390 MHz.
"Personally I don't think HAARP has the power to 'steer' a hurricane," Trainor added, "But the Tuesday burst might have deflected Ivan away from its original projected landfall around Tampa."
"Other than aliens, I can think of only one source able to create and sustain that unusual Bermuda High over the Atlantic--Shambhala, the hidden city of mystics in Afghanistan. Shambhala is reputed to have access to the weather-modification technology of ancient Atlantis."
"There have also been reports of Osama Bin Laden hiding out occasionally in Shambhala. Osama might have persuaded the Shambhalans to use 'weather warfare' against the USA."
"Is it just a coincidence that the 'hurricane blitz' began on August 3, the same date Allied forces stepped up their offensive in Afghanistan?" Trainor asked. "The 6th Marines have been running long-range patrols out of Bagram air base and Camp Ripley, just south of Tarin Kowt. Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines has a firebase in the Hindu Kush mountains. That's practically on Shambhala's doorstep. The Sages are above politics, but maybe some of the residents might be listening to Osama."
Last week there was a heavy firefight in Zabu, northeast of Kandahar, between coalition forces and Al- Qaeda fighters, in which 20 guerrillas were killed.
"I just find it extremely interesting that Hurricane Ivan's worst fury descended upon the old Jewish synagogue in Pensacola, Fla., as if Osama planned it that way," Trainor added, "Hopefully, Shambhala won't uncork the big stuff. Otherwise, Condi Rice will have to wake up Dubya at 4 a.m. some morning and explain that Lake Michigan now extends all the way to Lafayette, Indiana."
Just because he prevents conception doesn't make him gay
From today's New York Times.
Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge
By David Kirkpatrick
ASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.
SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity."
The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.
Mr. Rodgers suggested that Dr. Dobson and the American Family Association, the conservative Christian group that first sounded the alarm, might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth.
"The fact that some people may be upset with each other peoples' lifestyles, that is O.K.," Mr. Rodgers said. "We are just talking about respect."
Mark Barondess, the foundation's lawyer, said the critics "need medication."
On Wednesday however, Paul Batura, assistant to Mr. Dobson at Focus on the Family, said the group stood by its accusation.
"We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch."
Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge
By David Kirkpatrick
ASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.
SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity."
The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.
Mr. Rodgers suggested that Dr. Dobson and the American Family Association, the conservative Christian group that first sounded the alarm, might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth.
"The fact that some people may be upset with each other peoples' lifestyles, that is O.K.," Mr. Rodgers said. "We are just talking about respect."
Mark Barondess, the foundation's lawyer, said the critics "need medication."
On Wednesday however, Paul Batura, assistant to Mr. Dobson at Focus on the Family, said the group stood by its accusation.
"We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch."
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Trashcans Play Dublin
Whelan's next Wednesday. Martin saw them in Manchester last week with a few mates and had a good night (I bought him Weightlifting for Xmas). Must dig out Cake.
Home page.
Home page.
And Orwell would NEVER have walked into this one, Hitch
From the letters page of the Nation, December 27:
Washington, DC
“Bruce Robbins is entitled to his room-temperature resentment of me ["Prisoner of Love," Dec.6], but he makes a false allegation when he says that I have "repeatedly claimed Orwell's mantle." To the contrary, and leaving aside the fact that I don't believe in "mantles" anyway, I have taken every opportunity to disown this aspiration. My denial doesn't involve me in much immodest effort: Orwell suffered from censorship and hardship all his writing life and took a bullet from a Francoist while narrowly escaping another one in the back from Stalin's agents in Catalonia. My own life has been somewhat easier, and better rewarded. Moreover, Orwell wrote much better than I do and was capable of producing serious fiction, which I am not. Once or twice, critics and reviewers have been good enough to make a comparison between us, which makes me shy but which delights my publishers. As with, say, "Jeffersonian," the term "Orwellian" has only one proper attribution. The coinage "Hitchensian" is unkindly affixed by Robbins to the word "simplifications," but even if it were yoked to a nobler term, I just can't see much of a radiant future for it.”
Christopher Hitchens
ROBBINS REPLIES
New York City
“It's rare for a writer to stand up and say, "I hereby claim the mantle of X." The process of arranging to be seen in the light of some earlier writer's accomplishment is a subtler thing. One writes a book about the desired predecessor, for example, and discovers in her or him virtues one has reason to hope others will then see confirmed in oneself. This leaves no evidence that would hold up in a court of law. I will not dispute, therefore, Christopher Hitchens's statement that he has never sought the authority of George Orwell's example but has merely had that authority thrust upon him. The point of my review was that, whether he wants it or not, he doesn't deserve it. Both write very well. But as one learns from Hitchens's admirable book on Orwell, Orwell had better politics.”
Bruce Robbins
Washington, DC
“Bruce Robbins is entitled to his room-temperature resentment of me ["Prisoner of Love," Dec.6], but he makes a false allegation when he says that I have "repeatedly claimed Orwell's mantle." To the contrary, and leaving aside the fact that I don't believe in "mantles" anyway, I have taken every opportunity to disown this aspiration. My denial doesn't involve me in much immodest effort: Orwell suffered from censorship and hardship all his writing life and took a bullet from a Francoist while narrowly escaping another one in the back from Stalin's agents in Catalonia. My own life has been somewhat easier, and better rewarded. Moreover, Orwell wrote much better than I do and was capable of producing serious fiction, which I am not. Once or twice, critics and reviewers have been good enough to make a comparison between us, which makes me shy but which delights my publishers. As with, say, "Jeffersonian," the term "Orwellian" has only one proper attribution. The coinage "Hitchensian" is unkindly affixed by Robbins to the word "simplifications," but even if it were yoked to a nobler term, I just can't see much of a radiant future for it.”
Christopher Hitchens
ROBBINS REPLIES
New York City
“It's rare for a writer to stand up and say, "I hereby claim the mantle of X." The process of arranging to be seen in the light of some earlier writer's accomplishment is a subtler thing. One writes a book about the desired predecessor, for example, and discovers in her or him virtues one has reason to hope others will then see confirmed in oneself. This leaves no evidence that would hold up in a court of law. I will not dispute, therefore, Christopher Hitchens's statement that he has never sought the authority of George Orwell's example but has merely had that authority thrust upon him. The point of my review was that, whether he wants it or not, he doesn't deserve it. Both write very well. But as one learns from Hitchens's admirable book on Orwell, Orwell had better politics.”
Bruce Robbins
I Still Prefer One -Armed Boxer
A review, from the January 2005 issue of Art in America, by John Bowles of the Sanford Biggers exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati:
"Sanford Biggers's new work develops the artist's earlier explorations of hip-hop's ethos of participation and community-building into a critique—if not quite a condemnation of the global commodification of black culture. One of two videos in Hip Hop Ni Sasagu (In Memory of Hip Hop), 2003–04, documents the memorial service for hip-hop that Biggers arranged at a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan. Sixteen participants, including the artist and the temple master, participated in a ritual of structured improvisation, ringing Buddhist prayer bells of the kind Japanese families keep at home to commemorate their ancestors. A bell Biggers commissioned for the ceremony was displayed along with the other video, which documents how Japanese craftsmen cast the bell from hip-hop jewelry purchased in Japan. Hip Hop Ni Sasagu demonstrates a fascination with the way Japanese youth have adopted the stylings of hip-hop without understanding its value for African-Americans. Biggers offers an alternative by self-consciously blending a lay appreciation of Zen Buddhism with hip-hop's participatory esthetic, claiming for both the meaning they each lose in the global marketplace.
Black Belt Jones (2003), Biggers's portrait of 1970s blaxploitation and Kung Fu movie star Jim Kelly in his most famous role, provides a key to the exhibition, which was titled "both/and not either/or." Here, Biggers has re-created a publicity photo in grains of Indonesian black rice and American long-grain white rice glued to paper. The rice articulates the interrelatedness of African-American and Asian cultures; it is a food important to both but also refers to the trade in enslaved Africans, many of whom were brought forcibly to work on North American rice plantations. History thus makes an odd circuit—from the colonial trade in rice and slaves to the revolutionary promise Kung Fu action movies once held for black youth—to articulate a common heritage defined by commerce, culture and conflict.
In the video Danpatsu (2003–04), Biggers retells the story of Samson and Delilah within the structure of a sumo retirement ceremony, in which the wrestler's peers and supporters take turns cutting off his sumo topknot. Taking the place of the wrestler, the artist meditates with eyes closed, dressed in the traditional clothing Japanese men wear for formal occasions. A Japanese woman wearing a kimono approaches Biggers from behind, cuts off his dreadlocks and shaves his head; a close-up of her hand holding the razor reveals a hip-hop ring. Black culture has popularly been figured as masculine and Asian culture as feminine. Though it is unclear whether Danpatsu questions these conventions, the implication is that the commercialization of some black and Asian traditions—Rastafarian spirituality, hip-hop and sumo—has not shorn expressive cultural forms of their liberatory potential. Rather, their future lies in how each is valued in the present."
A golden opportunity missed, I think, to deconstruct Enter the Dragon (which Kelly also starred in) as an archetypal attempt to globalise Western liberalism. Not that I can be arsed.
"Sanford Biggers's new work develops the artist's earlier explorations of hip-hop's ethos of participation and community-building into a critique—if not quite a condemnation of the global commodification of black culture. One of two videos in Hip Hop Ni Sasagu (In Memory of Hip Hop), 2003–04, documents the memorial service for hip-hop that Biggers arranged at a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan. Sixteen participants, including the artist and the temple master, participated in a ritual of structured improvisation, ringing Buddhist prayer bells of the kind Japanese families keep at home to commemorate their ancestors. A bell Biggers commissioned for the ceremony was displayed along with the other video, which documents how Japanese craftsmen cast the bell from hip-hop jewelry purchased in Japan. Hip Hop Ni Sasagu demonstrates a fascination with the way Japanese youth have adopted the stylings of hip-hop without understanding its value for African-Americans. Biggers offers an alternative by self-consciously blending a lay appreciation of Zen Buddhism with hip-hop's participatory esthetic, claiming for both the meaning they each lose in the global marketplace.
Black Belt Jones (2003), Biggers's portrait of 1970s blaxploitation and Kung Fu movie star Jim Kelly in his most famous role, provides a key to the exhibition, which was titled "both/and not either/or." Here, Biggers has re-created a publicity photo in grains of Indonesian black rice and American long-grain white rice glued to paper. The rice articulates the interrelatedness of African-American and Asian cultures; it is a food important to both but also refers to the trade in enslaved Africans, many of whom were brought forcibly to work on North American rice plantations. History thus makes an odd circuit—from the colonial trade in rice and slaves to the revolutionary promise Kung Fu action movies once held for black youth—to articulate a common heritage defined by commerce, culture and conflict.
In the video Danpatsu (2003–04), Biggers retells the story of Samson and Delilah within the structure of a sumo retirement ceremony, in which the wrestler's peers and supporters take turns cutting off his sumo topknot. Taking the place of the wrestler, the artist meditates with eyes closed, dressed in the traditional clothing Japanese men wear for formal occasions. A Japanese woman wearing a kimono approaches Biggers from behind, cuts off his dreadlocks and shaves his head; a close-up of her hand holding the razor reveals a hip-hop ring. Black culture has popularly been figured as masculine and Asian culture as feminine. Though it is unclear whether Danpatsu questions these conventions, the implication is that the commercialization of some black and Asian traditions—Rastafarian spirituality, hip-hop and sumo—has not shorn expressive cultural forms of their liberatory potential. Rather, their future lies in how each is valued in the present."
A golden opportunity missed, I think, to deconstruct Enter the Dragon (which Kelly also starred in) as an archetypal attempt to globalise Western liberalism. Not that I can be arsed.
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