Posted by olvlzl.
The best Christmas present I got this year wasn’t given to me, it was the Collections Canada site, The Virtual Gramophone, that came up in the search for information about “La Bolduc”* about whom I posted last Sunday. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying listening to her and many others preserved on old 78 recordings, a continual Christmas party. It is a wonderful thing that Canada has given its citizens and to people around the world. If any of you know about other collections like this available online I’d love to try them.
Here is a sample of the riches.
My niece got a lot of pleasure out of these ancient recordings of “I Love You Truly” and "O Promise Me".
Ok, so maybe it was the old man lip syncing it that made her laugh so hard.
The most amazing bones playing I’ve ever heard along with some interesting button accordion playing, The Frog’s Reel. This place is like button accordion heaven, by the way.
But it isn’t only Canadian folk music. Hear Mary Garden, Debussy’s first choice to sing the role of Mélisande, sing his song Beau Soir.
There are a lot of vintage recordings of classical pieces. It’s interesting to see how ideas about performing it have changed over the years. And the advantages of long playing records were.
There are some windows on life of about eighty years ago. This one reminds me of the Fitzgerald story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”.
And to end, here is a of New Year’s song from the incomparable Mary Travers Bolduc. I wish you a happy new year.
* Her recordings, and I believe they have every one that was ever issued, are under Bolduc. That would be short for Mde.Edouard Bolduc, which was how she billed herself back in the 1920s and 30s.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Looking Forward
Posted by olvlzl.
Still a left entrance into the national political arena should not start with a presidential candidate. Left presidential campaigns are inherently episodic. Starting at that level greatly increases the danger of a pattern that has already plagued the left – one of indifference to national politics between presidential elections and then frantic, mindless efforts to do something when it’s too late for anything beyond token gestures. And even if the effort creates a constituency it is ephemeral and quickly defuses if not followed up with activities and campaigns for Congress.
James Weinstein: The Long Detour, 2003
I’m really looking forward to the new congress. When’s the last time you could honestly say that? Even before Newt Gingrich hoodwinked the American electorate the dismal eras of Tom Foley and Tip O’Neill were relieved only by the very short period of an opposition congress under Jim Wright . He’s hardly a liberal but, as I’ve said here before, the only real leadership opposition Republicans have faced in decades.
The 100 Hour Agenda, the oversight hearings, the reforms of House rules..... There are all kinds of interesting and useful things planned*. The focus of the media will be on the Senate and the presidential race. But I agree with the late James Weinstein, the House of Representatives is the logical place for us to concentrate on. Holding it and increasing the Democratic majority will pay off for the left. It is one place where we can really have an effect on laws passed and policies made. Success in the House will be easy, it would be hard to do worse than the Republicans have in the past twelve years. We have to support Nancy Pelosi and other leaders, even if we don’t agree with everything they do. They are already under the full attack of the Republican lie machine, big media, in two words. We shouldn’t go into this believing that we are going to get all or even most of what we want from this congress. That is simply not going to happen. We should go into it insisting on getting something, an expectation that we have had no rational reason to have for more than a decade.
There are several reasons for concentrating on congressional elections. First, presidential politics is dormant for three out of every four years. Engaging in campaigns like Nader’s entails a start-and-stop politics that leads only to wasted effort and disappointment. Then, too, this style of politicus interruptus requires starting at the top, which in turn requires a national recognized leader – someone like Jackson or Nader. But candidates as good as these are rarely available, and in any case a well-known candidate not of the left’s own making may well tend to have a private agenda at odds with it. [Weinstein 2003]
Weinstein wrote this before 2003. He died last year and I don’t know what his further thoughts on Ralph Nader’s candidacy might have been. Needless to say, neither Nader nor Jackson had any chance of winning a presidential election. Dennis Kucinich, who I respect and who would be a great president, has no chance of gaining the nomination or winning the election in 2008. After several decades of watching symbolic candidacies, isn’t it clear that they are worse than a waste of the left’s limited resources? A representative’s time would be better spent on addressing issues in the Congress, not in collecting money and volunteer time that would be better spent on what can actually be accomplished. Symbolism in leftist politics carries only one guarantee, it will be distorted by the corporate media and the Republican party and used against us and our agenda.
The House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, the Senate are the grounds for leftists to make any progress in the coming year. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are as much a part of the federal government as the presidency. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the House has a Progressive Caucus larger than the last congress. That is even with two of its members, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders now in the Senate. A socialist in the Senate, something I never, in my life, expected to see.
* Just an example, there are Barney Frank’s planned hearings on requiring credit reporting agencies to actually correct their misinformation. A member of my family was the victum of inaccurate credit reports based on having the same name as someone else. It was a nightmare. The burden belongs on the corporations who spread false information, not on the hapless target.
Still a left entrance into the national political arena should not start with a presidential candidate. Left presidential campaigns are inherently episodic. Starting at that level greatly increases the danger of a pattern that has already plagued the left – one of indifference to national politics between presidential elections and then frantic, mindless efforts to do something when it’s too late for anything beyond token gestures. And even if the effort creates a constituency it is ephemeral and quickly defuses if not followed up with activities and campaigns for Congress.
James Weinstein: The Long Detour, 2003
I’m really looking forward to the new congress. When’s the last time you could honestly say that? Even before Newt Gingrich hoodwinked the American electorate the dismal eras of Tom Foley and Tip O’Neill were relieved only by the very short period of an opposition congress under Jim Wright . He’s hardly a liberal but, as I’ve said here before, the only real leadership opposition Republicans have faced in decades.
The 100 Hour Agenda, the oversight hearings, the reforms of House rules..... There are all kinds of interesting and useful things planned*. The focus of the media will be on the Senate and the presidential race. But I agree with the late James Weinstein, the House of Representatives is the logical place for us to concentrate on. Holding it and increasing the Democratic majority will pay off for the left. It is one place where we can really have an effect on laws passed and policies made. Success in the House will be easy, it would be hard to do worse than the Republicans have in the past twelve years. We have to support Nancy Pelosi and other leaders, even if we don’t agree with everything they do. They are already under the full attack of the Republican lie machine, big media, in two words. We shouldn’t go into this believing that we are going to get all or even most of what we want from this congress. That is simply not going to happen. We should go into it insisting on getting something, an expectation that we have had no rational reason to have for more than a decade.
There are several reasons for concentrating on congressional elections. First, presidential politics is dormant for three out of every four years. Engaging in campaigns like Nader’s entails a start-and-stop politics that leads only to wasted effort and disappointment. Then, too, this style of politicus interruptus requires starting at the top, which in turn requires a national recognized leader – someone like Jackson or Nader. But candidates as good as these are rarely available, and in any case a well-known candidate not of the left’s own making may well tend to have a private agenda at odds with it. [Weinstein 2003]
Weinstein wrote this before 2003. He died last year and I don’t know what his further thoughts on Ralph Nader’s candidacy might have been. Needless to say, neither Nader nor Jackson had any chance of winning a presidential election. Dennis Kucinich, who I respect and who would be a great president, has no chance of gaining the nomination or winning the election in 2008. After several decades of watching symbolic candidacies, isn’t it clear that they are worse than a waste of the left’s limited resources? A representative’s time would be better spent on addressing issues in the Congress, not in collecting money and volunteer time that would be better spent on what can actually be accomplished. Symbolism in leftist politics carries only one guarantee, it will be distorted by the corporate media and the Republican party and used against us and our agenda.
The House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, the Senate are the grounds for leftists to make any progress in the coming year. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are as much a part of the federal government as the presidency. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the House has a Progressive Caucus larger than the last congress. That is even with two of its members, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders now in the Senate. A socialist in the Senate, something I never, in my life, expected to see.
* Just an example, there are Barney Frank’s planned hearings on requiring credit reporting agencies to actually correct their misinformation. A member of my family was the victum of inaccurate credit reports based on having the same name as someone else. It was a nightmare. The burden belongs on the corporations who spread false information, not on the hapless target.
Pre-New Year’s Confessional
Posted by olvlzl.
No. I can’t do it now. You’ll think less of me for saying it. It’s so ....... vulgar. But it is the last day of the year, how can I make a new beginning if I don’t own up? How can the new year get off to a clean start unless I’m purged of my shame? All right, here goes. I’m ashamed to say it but I’m really, really enjoying the war between *(Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump)*. Gosh, that was hard. And I don’t really feel any better about it.
I feel so cheap.
No. I can’t do it now. You’ll think less of me for saying it. It’s so ....... vulgar. But it is the last day of the year, how can I make a new beginning if I don’t own up? How can the new year get off to a clean start unless I’m purged of my shame? All right, here goes. I’m ashamed to say it but I’m really, really enjoying the war between *(Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump)*. Gosh, that was hard. And I don’t really feel any better about it.
I feel so cheap.
Torture Isn't Entertainment
except for fascists.
Posted by olvlzl.
The recent strife over Jimmy Carter’s latest book exposed what is apparently a new law of American intellectual life these days. If you want to say something critical of Israeli policy you have to pass trial by Alan Dershowitz. The condition made by Brandeis University that Jimmy Carter, likely the American who has done more to promote the security of Israel than any other, that if he was to speak he would have to appear with Dershowitz wasn’t an attempt to promote intellectual honesty, it was a dare. It was a condition that there was every reason to suspect that Jimmy Carter might not choose to accept, participation in one of The Dersh’s spectacles of what passes, these days, as ‘debate’.
I wrote a short piece at the time saying that a good reason for not “debating” Alan Dershowitz is because he advocates torture as a tool of governmental intelligence. I will say again that, for me, this places him in exactly the same place that David Irving’s Holocaust denial places him in for Deborah Lipstadt. I fully agree with her about Irving for exactly the same reasons and I place proponents of torture in the same category. There are some positions that put people beyond consideration as a responsible participant in a respectable debate.
In this morning’s Boston Globe there is a short article by Martha Bayles about torture which mentions something much more dangerous than the proposed, C-Span ready event dealt with above, it mentions the increasing use of torture by heros in pop entertainment. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that it is Fox TV, “24", which is presenting torture as an heroic endeavor engaged in by sexy men. It also doesn’t surpise me that another cable network seems to be adopting the same entertainment values. The cabloids, both “news” and eye-candy, are the voice of the corportate right. Entertainment has the potential to do the same things that right-wing cabloid ‘news’ does, much faster and more dangerously. It does matter what entertainment shows do because their purpose is to manipulate emotions, that is their entire purpose. If this trend continues you can depend on torture becoming much more widely used and it’s punishment become not only very rare as it is today, but impossible. Torture, like the death penalty, is an essential tool of fascism. It is highly desired by many who would like to be able to use it without the inconvenience of being called to account for its use. Its promotion is the promotion of fascism.
The brain-game played by the proponents of torture, that it is essential to be able to extract information from terrorists that could prevent the imminent deaths of innocent people is the temptation dangled in front of an edgy population. Your decency or your life. But it’s not a bargain that has to be taken.
If, and that is one enormous IF, on some extremely rare occasion, someone is proven, in court, to be guilty of torturing someone and extracts information that does, actually, in real life, prevent the deaths of people in some act of terror, I doubt a conviction would be either obtained or that it would stand. If it did, the pressure for a pardon would be too great for any governor or president to withstand. If I am wrong about that what do we risk? That someday an individual who tortured someone to save lives will linger in jail. If the pro-torture side is wrong, then what do we risk? The answer is found around the world and is fully documented. Torture as a part of the spectrum of allowable consideration seems to always proceed to the worst case scenario.
Posted by olvlzl.
The recent strife over Jimmy Carter’s latest book exposed what is apparently a new law of American intellectual life these days. If you want to say something critical of Israeli policy you have to pass trial by Alan Dershowitz. The condition made by Brandeis University that Jimmy Carter, likely the American who has done more to promote the security of Israel than any other, that if he was to speak he would have to appear with Dershowitz wasn’t an attempt to promote intellectual honesty, it was a dare. It was a condition that there was every reason to suspect that Jimmy Carter might not choose to accept, participation in one of The Dersh’s spectacles of what passes, these days, as ‘debate’.
I wrote a short piece at the time saying that a good reason for not “debating” Alan Dershowitz is because he advocates torture as a tool of governmental intelligence. I will say again that, for me, this places him in exactly the same place that David Irving’s Holocaust denial places him in for Deborah Lipstadt. I fully agree with her about Irving for exactly the same reasons and I place proponents of torture in the same category. There are some positions that put people beyond consideration as a responsible participant in a respectable debate.
In this morning’s Boston Globe there is a short article by Martha Bayles about torture which mentions something much more dangerous than the proposed, C-Span ready event dealt with above, it mentions the increasing use of torture by heros in pop entertainment. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that it is Fox TV, “24", which is presenting torture as an heroic endeavor engaged in by sexy men. It also doesn’t surpise me that another cable network seems to be adopting the same entertainment values. The cabloids, both “news” and eye-candy, are the voice of the corportate right. Entertainment has the potential to do the same things that right-wing cabloid ‘news’ does, much faster and more dangerously. It does matter what entertainment shows do because their purpose is to manipulate emotions, that is their entire purpose. If this trend continues you can depend on torture becoming much more widely used and it’s punishment become not only very rare as it is today, but impossible. Torture, like the death penalty, is an essential tool of fascism. It is highly desired by many who would like to be able to use it without the inconvenience of being called to account for its use. Its promotion is the promotion of fascism.
The brain-game played by the proponents of torture, that it is essential to be able to extract information from terrorists that could prevent the imminent deaths of innocent people is the temptation dangled in front of an edgy population. Your decency or your life. But it’s not a bargain that has to be taken.
If, and that is one enormous IF, on some extremely rare occasion, someone is proven, in court, to be guilty of torturing someone and extracts information that does, actually, in real life, prevent the deaths of people in some act of terror, I doubt a conviction would be either obtained or that it would stand. If it did, the pressure for a pardon would be too great for any governor or president to withstand. If I am wrong about that what do we risk? That someday an individual who tortured someone to save lives will linger in jail. If the pro-torture side is wrong, then what do we risk? The answer is found around the world and is fully documented. Torture as a part of the spectrum of allowable consideration seems to always proceed to the worst case scenario.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Ok, That Was Bleak
Try these six word short stories for relief.
Thanks to Ursula K. Le Guin for the link. Her website is wonderful.
Thanks to Ursula K. Le Guin for the link. Her website is wonderful.
When Life As We Know It Becomes Impossible to Sustain
Posted by olvlzl
What are the consequences for a world in which the food supply has been greatly diminished by global warming? What are the exigencies of a world in which the absolute necessities of life are vastly more expensive than they are now? It’s a question occasioned by the breaking away of that huge ice field in the arctic this week. Assuming that there are no willfully ignorant global warming deniers* here, then it is a question that we should be considering with a lot more urgency.
While there is no way of knowing what will happen, if the food supply and the supply of many other things is disrupted or destroyed then there are two general schemes that seem likely. There is the 1960s, macho sci-fi concept of a dystopian fascism of some kind. That would certainly be attempted. Life would become a bleak, violent and cynical endeavor. The idea of a democracy in such circumstances is impossible. If the thankfully brief viewing I’ve seen of the cabloid stations this past year, it’s the one they favor.
But there is another possible response, one that should be a matter of reflex in a modern democracy, equal sharing of scarcity, an equal distribution of necessities and the practice of the common-wealth in services and enrichment resources whatever those are. In short, putting the alleged ideals of enlightenment into effect. It’s not nearly as popular as sci-fi fascism in theatrical or literary speculations mainly because it is inherently undramatic. I can’t imagine any of them being able to make a hit movie out of it. Anyone who could pull it off would probably be a creative genius of the first order, Ursula K. Le Guin level. It’s absence from the popular imagination is a danger that will become more evident as things get worse. And there is every reason to believe that is what is going to happen during some of our lives.
If we want decency in the future there will be a price, selfishness, greed, ignorance and a host of other personal indulgences can’t be indulged. The consequences of them become ever worse in a more crowded more impoverished milieu. A good item to consider is what will happen to the right to have children. What will happen to that if the level of starvation increases several fold? It’s not pleasant to think about but it will become impossible to ignore the problem in the near future. There are some horrible alternatives already in place, both one-child policies and the vastly worse, non-governmental systems that arise though malign neglect, gender inequity and organized crime. We can, of course, keep ignoring this or we can try to come up with the least bad solution before it becomes impossible to choose to do nothing.
If we are fortunate, the choice isn’t between violent disorder and fascism, it’s between gaudy, unequal misery and modest decency. But we are going to have to cultivate the idea. The fans of privilege will be at work the whole time and many of them are in the judiciary and government. They won’t think twice about playing dirty, that’s just practice for when things really get bad.
This is a theme I’m going to be looking into next year. It won't all look bleak but to ignore those possiblities would make it a waste of time and that is growing ever shorter.
* When real scientists make predictions and those predictions start to come true, that means they’ve won the argument, Hirelings of industry, ideological fanatics and their journalistic equivalent, you’ve lost. That is already beyond doubt in the real world.
What are the consequences for a world in which the food supply has been greatly diminished by global warming? What are the exigencies of a world in which the absolute necessities of life are vastly more expensive than they are now? It’s a question occasioned by the breaking away of that huge ice field in the arctic this week. Assuming that there are no willfully ignorant global warming deniers* here, then it is a question that we should be considering with a lot more urgency.
While there is no way of knowing what will happen, if the food supply and the supply of many other things is disrupted or destroyed then there are two general schemes that seem likely. There is the 1960s, macho sci-fi concept of a dystopian fascism of some kind. That would certainly be attempted. Life would become a bleak, violent and cynical endeavor. The idea of a democracy in such circumstances is impossible. If the thankfully brief viewing I’ve seen of the cabloid stations this past year, it’s the one they favor.
But there is another possible response, one that should be a matter of reflex in a modern democracy, equal sharing of scarcity, an equal distribution of necessities and the practice of the common-wealth in services and enrichment resources whatever those are. In short, putting the alleged ideals of enlightenment into effect. It’s not nearly as popular as sci-fi fascism in theatrical or literary speculations mainly because it is inherently undramatic. I can’t imagine any of them being able to make a hit movie out of it. Anyone who could pull it off would probably be a creative genius of the first order, Ursula K. Le Guin level. It’s absence from the popular imagination is a danger that will become more evident as things get worse. And there is every reason to believe that is what is going to happen during some of our lives.
If we want decency in the future there will be a price, selfishness, greed, ignorance and a host of other personal indulgences can’t be indulged. The consequences of them become ever worse in a more crowded more impoverished milieu. A good item to consider is what will happen to the right to have children. What will happen to that if the level of starvation increases several fold? It’s not pleasant to think about but it will become impossible to ignore the problem in the near future. There are some horrible alternatives already in place, both one-child policies and the vastly worse, non-governmental systems that arise though malign neglect, gender inequity and organized crime. We can, of course, keep ignoring this or we can try to come up with the least bad solution before it becomes impossible to choose to do nothing.
If we are fortunate, the choice isn’t between violent disorder and fascism, it’s between gaudy, unequal misery and modest decency. But we are going to have to cultivate the idea. The fans of privilege will be at work the whole time and many of them are in the judiciary and government. They won’t think twice about playing dirty, that’s just practice for when things really get bad.
This is a theme I’m going to be looking into next year. It won't all look bleak but to ignore those possiblities would make it a waste of time and that is growing ever shorter.
* When real scientists make predictions and those predictions start to come true, that means they’ve won the argument, Hirelings of industry, ideological fanatics and their journalistic equivalent, you’ve lost. That is already beyond doubt in the real world.
End of Year Badness Blogging
Posted by olvlzl
Fever's down, throat's scratchy, nose stuffed, look more like the old Willa Cather than the young David Nivin.
Maybe this is a good time to get this in before I make a resolution not to pick useless fights. But
I HATE THE CAPITOL STEPS!
There, that felt better. More to follow.
Fever's down, throat's scratchy, nose stuffed, look more like the old Willa Cather than the young David Nivin.
Maybe this is a good time to get this in before I make a resolution not to pick useless fights. But
I HATE THE CAPITOL STEPS!
There, that felt better. More to follow.
Happy New Year!
To us all. May 2007 be one of those years that are not even worth putting into history books. Because only nasty events tend to be recorded.
Good energy to you and yours.
Echidne and Henrietta the Hound and the snakes, even Green Mamba
Friday, December 29, 2006
On Saddam Hussein
He has been hanged by the neck until dead. At least it was done so fast and secretly that we are unlikely* to get videos of it on the internet or even in the mainstream media. Only yesterday I saw a poll on some website about whether we should be allowed to watch the hanging from the privacies of our own homes, perhaps with popcorn included, and I went all despairing about the human species, once again. Because I don't really like the idea that public executions used to be a major form of family entertainment.
Added: After surfing the blogs I find that we are now supposed to feel safer than before. Ok. I will try.
*Added even later: Looks like there is a video. Damn.
Health Care Politics and the Elderly
This piece of news is a few days old but what it describes is still relevant:
Some prescription drug plans did not inform Medicare beneficiaries of impending changes in their costs and benefits, as they were required to do, Bush administration officials and Congressional aides said Tuesday.
This could be a serious omission in a program where beneficiaries need accurate information to choose among dozens of competing private plans.
Administration officials have told Congress that they may give these beneficiaries a six-week extension of the open-enrollment period, which ends Sunday. Beneficiaries could use the extra time to compare the options that will be available to them in 2007.
Drug benefits are administered by private insurers under contract to Medicare. Premiums, co-payments and the list of covered drugs vary by plan. In general, people who are enrolled in a drug plan and take no action by Sunday will remain in that plan throughout next year.
Even when a Medicare drug plan keeps the same name, its costs and benefits may change substantially on Jan. 1. Medicare officials repeatedly told insurers that they must notify beneficiaries of such changes by Oct. 31 of this year. But some insurers did not send out the "annual notice of change" documents, which can be 30 or 40 pages long.
Thirty or forty pages of information to decide which plan to sign up with? How many of the insured elderly can digest that and make meaningful choices, what do you think? How many of the non-elderly could do so?
This is a real problem with the patient-initiative school of pro-market health care politics. Patients don't really have the time and the expertise that is needed to make sense of the myriad different policies which often differ in ways that are hard to spot but which may come back to bite your ass. Note that people are not just asked to compare prices the way we do when buying ordinary groceries. They are also asked to compare the quality of the services and to try to predict their own health needs in the coming year. Now, a voodoo board might do as well for all that as poring over those forty pages.
And Yet More Feminist Blogs
Melinda Casino noted in my comments to the earlier post on the feminist blogosphere that I only linked to the large blogs (though not even to all of them, say, Majikthise), and she is right. I was trying to avoid the work of linking because link-minding is the one part about blogging I truly dislike. But she is right, so here are some links to a bunch of interesting feminist or profeminist blogs. (There are more in my blogroll, enough for a second post later on.):
Women of Color blog is always interesting, whether I agree with the posts or not, and so is Angry Black Bitch. It's a useful thing to learn about how race makes a difference in feminism. I like A View From a Broad for slightly similar reasons, to let me see how other people think about issues when they are not placed where I am placed. And the Gimp Parade is a good place for understanding the intersection of disability rights and feminism.
Maya's Granny is a blog I enjoy, even when the contents are not explicitly feminist ones. Mad Melancholic Feminista has a lot of good academic stuff. And Sour Duck has good feminist commentary on social and cultural issues. Then there is Reclusive Leftist and Faux Real Tho!, both good in general on feminism.
Then there are the sites which are more like expert blogs. For example, Our Bodies Ourselves and Feminist Law Professors. I haven't blogrolled these types of blogs in the past, because I saw the role of the blogroll differently, but I may change this policy.
The characterizations above are my own opinions, and others might find different aspects of these blogs more interesting.
Grumpiness Coefficient: High
Blogger doesn't have the ability for me to say how I'm feeling while typing each post in, and mostly that is just fine, but right now I want to point out that I'm grumpy. I don't want to write about Gerald Ford and I don't want to write about silly plans about how to win the unwinnable war that is the Iraq occupation. And most nobody reads my economics posts or that's how it seems to me.
So I wanted to put up a picture of an embroidery which has a neat feminist theme but I gave it away and I can't find the jpg of it anywhere. Grrr. And explaining the embroidery in words would spoil it should I come upon it later on.
Usually when I'm this grumpy I'm coming down with something.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Julius Caesar - Irresistible to Women!
I'm listening to a public radio station running an interview with some guy who has written a book on Julius Caesar. As part of the conversation, the interviewer and the interviewee discuss Caesar's supposed bedroom triumphs. He is said to have bedded not only the wives of his political enemies but also those of his political allies. Because he had to be the best in everything, they say.
So women went all gooey over Julius Caesar, the conclusion seems to be. Then the next topic is about how violent politics had become during that era. Will the two men discussing the topic manage to link the political violence to the question of how a woman might have had the gall to refuse THE EMPEROR her bed? And what might be the result for a woman who refused him or for her family?
Odd blind spots people have. This is a little similar to the argument that women really desire the rich old guy with all the power. Not his money or the power he can wield to hurt you or help you, but the guy itself. Now, some rich old guys can be quite sexy, of course, but the idea that having money or power somehow makes the guy himself sexy is crap and largely promoted by old guys who have money.
Other Feminist Blogs
There are so many good ones, these days. Just check out my blogroll for some. I have many others waiting to be added in the to-do-list, but you can also find more in the blogrolls of Pandagon, feministing.com, feministe, BitchPhd and so on. Also at Shakespeare's Sister and Rox Populi and...
This wasn't the case when I started blogging. Alas, a Blog was around then but few other explicitly feminist blogs, or if they existed I didn't find them. I'm so happy with the growth in feminism in the blogosphere, so happy! For the obvious reasons but also because it allows me to specialize in only certain feminist topics as I know that others are covering the rest of the field much better than I ever could so I don't have to try.
That's one reason why I don't write a lot on rape, for example. Not because it wouldn't be a very important topic but mostly because I read what needs to be said on those other excellent blogs. But another reason I don't write about rape has to do with my reluctance to write about the one time someone tried to rape me. I don't really want to go there, and that tells me that I should. So I will, tomorrow... Thanks for the reader who told me to write about something challenging.
Check out the vast world of feminist blogs. Lots of thinking and debating going on there.
Sex Your Brain!
Phila gave us this interesting "sex on the brain" link to a test on the BBC website you can take. It's supposed to tell you if you think more like a man or a woman. Sadly, it is quite a biased study. Here, for your information are a few of the statements in the test which are intended to tell if you are good at systematizing or empathizing. Naturally, the first is defined as a male attribute and the second a female attribute.
Ready? The idea is to see how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements:
I really enjoy caring for other people.
I find it difficult to read and understand maps.
It is hard for me to see why some things upset people so much.
I find it easy to put myself in somebody else's shoes.
I find it easy to grasp exactly how odds work in betting.
If anyone asked me if I liked their haircut, I would reply truthfully, even if I didn't like it.
I find it difficult to learn how to programme video recorders.
I do not enjoy games that involve a high degree of strategy (e.g. chess, Risk, Games Workshop).
Other people tell me I am good at understanding how they are feeling and what they are thinking.
I can remember large amounts of information about a topic that interests me e.g. flags of the world, airline logos.
I am able to make decisions without being influenced by people's feelings.
People sometimes tell me that I have gone too far with teasing.
I know very little about the different stages of the legislation process in my country.
I usually stay emotionally detached when watching a film.
I can easily visualise how the motorways in my region link up.
I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion.
Note anything funny? Notice how the emotional questions are left mostly vague but the systematizing questions have very specific examples, examples which all have to do with male roles in the society? For example, we are gently steered to think about odds in the sense of BETTING (still largely a male hobby). Then we are told to think about the ability to remember large amounts of information and the examples are FLAGS OF THE WORLD, AIRLINE LOGOS. Then there is stuff about MOTORWAYS. And references to very specific games of risk.
It would be fairly astonishing not to find the answers biased by sex even if systematizing was an equally likely characteristic of both sexes. Now think about how those questions could be changed to make the test less biased. Why not add examples which apply to hobbies women have? For example, in the statement about remembering large amounts of information, why not add an example to collections of Barbi dolls or 1930s jewelry or embroideries? And in the empathizing questions, why not give some specific examples that might apply not only to women's traditional societal roles? Something about what a man might do when coaching children in sports, for example?
I was also annoyed to find that the tests don't pay any attention to cultural aspects in general. For example, the little summaries one gets after completing a part of the test tell us what we should believe based on evolutionary psychology theories only.
Here is the list of the experts BBC contacted, by the way:
Dr Simon Baron-Cohen
Autism Research Centre, Cambridge, UK
Dr Richard Lippa
California State University, Fullerton, USA
Dr John Manning
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
Prof David Perrett
University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
Dr Stian Reimers
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Notice anything odd there? If men and women think so very differently, how come is the whole test created by men?
On Islamofascists
Atrios links today on a post by Sadly, No, which gives this quote from a wingnut blog:
As I have said again and again, if you, as a Muslim, want the American people to stop eyeing you with suspicion, then you and your brethren will need to do something about those who use Islam as an excuse for perpetrating mass murder. It would also help if you quit acting like terrorists when you board an airliner. Don't ask for special treatment. Be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. You want us to view you as just another American? Then start acting like someone who's actually on the team.
And Cultural sensitivity? How about some cultural sensitivity for Americans who lost nearly 3,000 of their loved ones early one morning on 11 September, 2001? Why should "cultural sensitivity" for your "feelings" take precedence over the current and future safety of our citizens? Sorry. You can take your "cultural sensitivity" and stick it where the sun don't shine.
Try a little substitution here. Put in "men" for "Muslims", "rape" for "9/11" and "women" for the "real Murkans". I bet that the writer of this post would scream in rage at what that substitution would create. It is very weird.
Snake Scales Are the Ultimate Aphrodisiac; Or A Melange Of Thoughts On Gerald Ford and Friends
Nothing, but nothing is as sexy as snake scales on a goddess. So says one Echidne of the snakes. Are you convinced? You shouldn't be.
Why then, are so many people convinced by Henry Kissinger's statement:"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac?" Me and Henry are in the same boat here as neither of us has much else to claim than the thing we tout.
Enough joking. I have lots to be modest about, just like the recently departed Gerald Ford. It's interesting to watch the process of his sanctification, though I do wish it wouldn't last so long, what with the lying-in-state and the funeral and so on. I fear that I will learn more about Gerald Ford than I ever wished to know.
Though it would have been fun to know earlier that old Gerry was opposed to the Iraq war escapades. Sadly, we were not allowed to know that when the information might have done some good. Now it's safe to publish as the wingnut party enforcers can't whip Gerry. Or it doesn't matter if they do.
This embargo business makes me wonder how many other secret interviews there are. I guess we will never know.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
On Darfur
This is a topic that got the better of me. It was just too depressing to shout into the barrel. I started in March, 2004 and wrote more about Darfur in November, 2004. Then there was an action alert in February, 2005. Then I just gave up. I apologize.
Here are some more recent news on Darfur:
Sudan has agreed to a United Nations peacekeeping role in the Darfur region, but U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is taking "nothing for granted" after many false starts in getting relief to the war-torn area.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sadeq al-Magli on Friday didn't specify how many troops would be accepted but said the U.N. would mainly provide technical assistance, consultants and military and police experts. He added that the force would be commanded by the African Union.
Annan said earlier Friday he was encouraged that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir would agree to a hybrid AU-UN force, along with a cease-fire and renewed peace efforts.
"I do fervently hope that we are now at last close to rescuing the people of Darfur from their agony," he said. "But after so many disappointments, I take nothing for granted."
The United Nations had been pushing for a much larger role in Darfur _ where AU peacekeepers are already operating _ in an effort to put an end to fighting that has claimed more than 200,000 lives and left 2.5 million displaced.
But al-Magli's comments reflected his government's long standing opposition to the deployment of 20,000 U.N. troops as proposed by the U.N. Security Council.
Between my early posts and today, how many people have died in Darfur? That came out wrong. I don't mean that my posts would have mattered, but that the wheels of international help grind so slowly that it's hard not to lose hope.
The Last Stance Against Femifascists
I thought that I was a feminazi but now I also seem to belong to the more general category of femifascists. This according to a forthcoming book by a sitting judge:
A liberal-bashing book by a veteran St. Louis judge is to become available publicly this week, but it is already causing a stir in political and legal circles — and prompting some to say it could cost him his job.
Chapter 1 of Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr.'s book, "The Tyranny of Tolerance: A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault," has circulated via e-mail since last month and been widely read in legal circles, lawyers and judges say.
The sentiments expressed in that chapter, which frequently uses the term "femifascists" and is titled "The Cloud Cuckooland of Radical Feminism," have already prompted a complaint with the state body that can reprimand or remove judges.
Other judges and lawyers have said that Dierker may have violated a state rule against a judge using his or her position for personal profit. One judge said it would be surprising if Dierker was not removed, calling the book "professional suicide."
Dierker ends his book by reassuring all us femifascists that he would rule fairly and justly from the bench should one of our cases come before him. So I am not at all concerned, naturally, as Mr. Dierker clearly doesn't have strong prior prejudices to combat.
It's odd how extremely powerful and evil feminists are in this country. How fascist and nazi-like they are. How vicious and evil. And powerful, did I mention that? You can see the influence of feminists everywhere: Those long government-funded maternity leaves and those bans on inquiring about pregnancy when interviewing women for a job! The long, unbroken chain of only women in the Supreme Court! The female bishops and of course the woman Pope! And nothing but women to run the large companies or this country! And of course women own all the media corporations, too and the porn providers on the internet.
No amount of my sarcasm will make any difference. It's like that old cartoon showing a boardroom meeting with about twenty men and one woman sitting around a long table while being introduced to a second woman to join the board. The thought bubble over the sitting woman's head says "Still only two women!", whereas the thought bubbles over the heads of all the men say "We are surrounded!"
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Hattip to mbcviews.
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