Creating a warm bubble of agreement
It seems that Republicans in government are very fragile nowadays. So fragile that teenage girls who disagree with them must be arrested by state police, lest they shatter the delicate bubble of Republican groupthink with inconvenient reality-based thinking.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Look, up in the sky!
Cool miltech stuff: carbon-fiber wings that may allow paratroopers to glide up to 200 miles. But that's not all: "[S]tudies have begun on a powered version which will use small turbo-jets....
Another source supplies a picture.
Of course, Leonardo da Vinci may have done it first.
Cool miltech stuff: carbon-fiber wings that may allow paratroopers to glide up to 200 miles. But that's not all: "[S]tudies have begun on a powered version which will use small turbo-jets....
Another source supplies a picture.
Of course, Leonardo da Vinci may have done it first.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Back from Toronto and Stratford
Things done:
* Saw Stratford Festival production of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's later tragedies, with fabulous Fiend and two friends, "Noth" and a fellow for whom I do not yet have a convenient online handle. (NOTE: the "extended synopsis" link contains spoilers.)
The Toronto Star reviewer praises the lead actor's performance. I concur, but it also seemed that the play was effective and powerful because it avoided much of the discursive banter and meandering subplots that bog down other, lesser Shakespearian plays. Every scene, maybe even every line, contributed directly to the plot. It's a lean and direct play, a bitter and cynical look at the rise and fall of a superbly capable soldier who's just too proud for his own good. Too proud to play politics, too proud to pander to the plebian mob, and thus easy prey for those more skillful in that art.
I found myself reflecting that this is exactly how many political thinkers of Shakespeare's time viewed democracy: as violent, unpredictable mob rule, subject to the machinations of designing demagogues who promote themselves by manipulating the opinions of the ignorant herd and, in the process, deliberately driving out any capable potential leaders who might threaten their position. That is, after all, what frequently did happen in democratic Athens, where successful generals and rulers were exiled from the city with rather monotonous regularity. When the founders of the US were hammering out the terms under which their new nation would govern itself, the same thoughts haunted the mind of Alexander Hamilton and others. ("Your people, sir, is a great BEAST....")
* Saw The Da Vinci Code. A busy and baffling movie. As with the book, I found it rather implausible that an elderly man dying of a bullet in the gut would be able to run all over the Louvre, composing clever anagrams to scrawl on different paintings, hiding artifacts here and there, writing intricately-coded messages on the floor, and then arranging himself in an artful pose before expiring. Entertaining otherwise. Ian McKellan nearly steals the show from stolid Tom Hanks and subdued Audrey Tatou with his irascible but debonair portrayal of Sir Leigh Teabing. Dang it, when I'm his age, I hope I have wavy hair and twinkling eyes like that.
The movie is visually good-looking, with lots of mysteriously dark settings and baffling imagery. The use of computer-generated animations to portray Robert Langdon's thought-processes was a good idea, but relying on it as a crutch so that the movie doesn't have to really let the viewer see certain critical objects and locations in their entirity is excessive.
I note that various Christian groups and individuals are protesting against the movie, although so far as I know no Catholic or other Christian clergyman has issued the kind of public calls for riot and murder that characterized the Danish Cartoon brouhaha of a few months ago.
* Watched BBC miniseries of Dorothy L. Sayer's Strong Poison, in which the aristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey meets and is romantically smitten with an accused murderess, Harriet Vane. The actor playing Lord Peter was perhaps a bit older than I expected, but seemed otherwise well suited to the role. Bunter seemed a bit young but quite capable. Harriet Vane didn't have much to do in this episode, since she spent most of the time either locked in a prison cell or stoically enduring the accusations of the court. Fiend assures me that strong-willed Harriet plays a much more active role in other episodes.
* Accidentally discovered miniscule-but-lovely Cloud Garden Park in downtown Toronto.
* Debated merits of SmartCar.
* Bought a boring-but-servicable Generic Dark Suit to replace the one that was in the back of the Pontiac when it was stolen.
Things not (yet) done:
* Canoe/paddleboat race along the river in Stratford. Future fellow Stratford-goers may expect to be challenged to such a contest.
* Exploring Toronto's Music Garden.
And that was my Memorial Day weekend. Anyone else care to describe theirs?
Things done:
* Saw Stratford Festival production of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's later tragedies, with fabulous Fiend and two friends, "Noth" and a fellow for whom I do not yet have a convenient online handle. (NOTE: the "extended synopsis" link contains spoilers.)
The Toronto Star reviewer praises the lead actor's performance. I concur, but it also seemed that the play was effective and powerful because it avoided much of the discursive banter and meandering subplots that bog down other, lesser Shakespearian plays. Every scene, maybe even every line, contributed directly to the plot. It's a lean and direct play, a bitter and cynical look at the rise and fall of a superbly capable soldier who's just too proud for his own good. Too proud to play politics, too proud to pander to the plebian mob, and thus easy prey for those more skillful in that art.
I found myself reflecting that this is exactly how many political thinkers of Shakespeare's time viewed democracy: as violent, unpredictable mob rule, subject to the machinations of designing demagogues who promote themselves by manipulating the opinions of the ignorant herd and, in the process, deliberately driving out any capable potential leaders who might threaten their position. That is, after all, what frequently did happen in democratic Athens, where successful generals and rulers were exiled from the city with rather monotonous regularity. When the founders of the US were hammering out the terms under which their new nation would govern itself, the same thoughts haunted the mind of Alexander Hamilton and others. ("Your people, sir, is a great BEAST....")
* Saw The Da Vinci Code. A busy and baffling movie. As with the book, I found it rather implausible that an elderly man dying of a bullet in the gut would be able to run all over the Louvre, composing clever anagrams to scrawl on different paintings, hiding artifacts here and there, writing intricately-coded messages on the floor, and then arranging himself in an artful pose before expiring. Entertaining otherwise. Ian McKellan nearly steals the show from stolid Tom Hanks and subdued Audrey Tatou with his irascible but debonair portrayal of Sir Leigh Teabing. Dang it, when I'm his age, I hope I have wavy hair and twinkling eyes like that.
The movie is visually good-looking, with lots of mysteriously dark settings and baffling imagery. The use of computer-generated animations to portray Robert Langdon's thought-processes was a good idea, but relying on it as a crutch so that the movie doesn't have to really let the viewer see certain critical objects and locations in their entirity is excessive.
I note that various Christian groups and individuals are protesting against the movie, although so far as I know no Catholic or other Christian clergyman has issued the kind of public calls for riot and murder that characterized the Danish Cartoon brouhaha of a few months ago.
* Watched BBC miniseries of Dorothy L. Sayer's Strong Poison, in which the aristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey meets and is romantically smitten with an accused murderess, Harriet Vane. The actor playing Lord Peter was perhaps a bit older than I expected, but seemed otherwise well suited to the role. Bunter seemed a bit young but quite capable. Harriet Vane didn't have much to do in this episode, since she spent most of the time either locked in a prison cell or stoically enduring the accusations of the court. Fiend assures me that strong-willed Harriet plays a much more active role in other episodes.
* Accidentally discovered miniscule-but-lovely Cloud Garden Park in downtown Toronto.
* Debated merits of SmartCar.
* Bought a boring-but-servicable Generic Dark Suit to replace the one that was in the back of the Pontiac when it was stolen.
Things not (yet) done:
* Canoe/paddleboat race along the river in Stratford. Future fellow Stratford-goers may expect to be challenged to such a contest.
* Exploring Toronto's Music Garden.
And that was my Memorial Day weekend. Anyone else care to describe theirs?
Update on HR 5319
The text of Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick's effort to ban most interactive web services from schools and libraries can be found here. (From Politechbot by way of Bytes in Brief.) It's also now available through Thomas (search for bill number HR 5319).
I commented on this bill earlier in May.
The text of Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick's effort to ban most interactive web services from schools and libraries can be found here. (From Politechbot by way of Bytes in Brief.) It's also now available through Thomas (search for bill number HR 5319).
I commented on this bill earlier in May.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Recent reads:
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
A startling and engrossing vision of dystopia. I won't bother to recap the basic premise ofthe book since, like me, most people reading this blog have probably become aware of that premise through exposure to the book, the movie, or the discussions that it has inspired since its publication in 1986.
The book's still worth reading, even for someone who already knows that premise. It's a tour de force of writing in which Atwood never seems to hit a single wrong note in her first-person portrayal of a woman trapped in a living hell. Even the "villainous" characters who are responsible for her enslavement are believable and, at times, sympathetic in their own twisted way. (If anyone thinks that such a society cannot exist, or that women would automatically rise in righteous rebellion against it, he or she would do well to read up on revolutionary Iran, Afghanistan under the Taliban, 19th-century Utah, or the present-day Short Creek community of polygamists.)
Part of the reason Atwood's story is so effective is because the reader's viewpoint and knowledge are so strictly limited that we feel as closed-in and claustrophobic as the protagonist. The reader is trapped inside the perceptions and thoughts of the"handmaid" of the title, both literally and metaphorically blinkered and unable to see anything outside the hellishly confined world to which she's restricted. We're even denied knowledge of her real name, just as that name is denied to her by the society in which she lives.
In Nancy Pearl's scheme of things, this is a setting-driven novel. My interest in the book was driven by intense curiosity about the world that Atwood created: how it worked, how it came to exist, how people managed to live in it. Although the protagonist "Offred" and the other characters she describes are indeed compelling, the impact of the novel depends almost entirely on the setting as it is gradually, haltingly, revealed, and to a lesser degree on her own backstory as it is gradually and reluctantly revealed in a series of flashbacks, dreams, and uncomfortable reminiscences. It's implied that she's been tortured into submission -- "broken" -- after being torn away from her husband and child. We know, because she describes it, that she's been put through a "training program" that most people would consider brainwashing. And throughout the novel we have a ringside seat inside her head as her memories of a better time, and her desire to escape her current life, vie with the vile things she has to do and the submissive facade she has to maintain in order to survive.
All this makes for powerful drama, but I found myself reading on not because I was particularly interested in "Offred"'s current or future emotional state, or whether she became pregnant or not, or even what her eventual fate might be, but because, in a horrified way, I wanted to know more about the world in which she lived. How did it come to be? And how did people manage to live in it? And what might eventually become of it?
A measure of this can be seen in the fact that the reader is never actually told what eventually happens to "Offred". The story she tells simply trails off into silence after a critical moment, after which we're given a kind of framing device in the form of an academic presentation about the provenance and background of the "soi-disant manuscript" that we've been reading. We don't find out much more about "Offred" than she's already told us, and we certainly don't find out what happened to her after the events she describes. What we do get is some context, a few more details about the "Gileadite regime" in which she lived, all of it couched in a stream of condescending, trivializing academic jokes that seem downright ghoulish after what we've just read. It's tempting to think that Atwood is just poking fun at the affectations of academia, but it's also possible that she has bigger game in mind. I'll leave that as a question for discussion should anyone feel so inclined.
Edit, 5/25: corrected publication date of Handmaid's Tale. Thanks to S. and Fiend.
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
A startling and engrossing vision of dystopia. I won't bother to recap the basic premise ofthe book since, like me, most people reading this blog have probably become aware of that premise through exposure to the book, the movie, or the discussions that it has inspired since its publication in 1986.
The book's still worth reading, even for someone who already knows that premise. It's a tour de force of writing in which Atwood never seems to hit a single wrong note in her first-person portrayal of a woman trapped in a living hell. Even the "villainous" characters who are responsible for her enslavement are believable and, at times, sympathetic in their own twisted way. (If anyone thinks that such a society cannot exist, or that women would automatically rise in righteous rebellion against it, he or she would do well to read up on revolutionary Iran, Afghanistan under the Taliban, 19th-century Utah, or the present-day Short Creek community of polygamists.)
Part of the reason Atwood's story is so effective is because the reader's viewpoint and knowledge are so strictly limited that we feel as closed-in and claustrophobic as the protagonist. The reader is trapped inside the perceptions and thoughts of the"handmaid" of the title, both literally and metaphorically blinkered and unable to see anything outside the hellishly confined world to which she's restricted. We're even denied knowledge of her real name, just as that name is denied to her by the society in which she lives.
In Nancy Pearl's scheme of things, this is a setting-driven novel. My interest in the book was driven by intense curiosity about the world that Atwood created: how it worked, how it came to exist, how people managed to live in it. Although the protagonist "Offred" and the other characters she describes are indeed compelling, the impact of the novel depends almost entirely on the setting as it is gradually, haltingly, revealed, and to a lesser degree on her own backstory as it is gradually and reluctantly revealed in a series of flashbacks, dreams, and uncomfortable reminiscences. It's implied that she's been tortured into submission -- "broken" -- after being torn away from her husband and child. We know, because she describes it, that she's been put through a "training program" that most people would consider brainwashing. And throughout the novel we have a ringside seat inside her head as her memories of a better time, and her desire to escape her current life, vie with the vile things she has to do and the submissive facade she has to maintain in order to survive.
All this makes for powerful drama, but I found myself reading on not because I was particularly interested in "Offred"'s current or future emotional state, or whether she became pregnant or not, or even what her eventual fate might be, but because, in a horrified way, I wanted to know more about the world in which she lived. How did it come to be? And how did people manage to live in it? And what might eventually become of it?
A measure of this can be seen in the fact that the reader is never actually told what eventually happens to "Offred". The story she tells simply trails off into silence after a critical moment, after which we're given a kind of framing device in the form of an academic presentation about the provenance and background of the "soi-disant manuscript" that we've been reading. We don't find out much more about "Offred" than she's already told us, and we certainly don't find out what happened to her after the events she describes. What we do get is some context, a few more details about the "Gileadite regime" in which she lived, all of it couched in a stream of condescending, trivializing academic jokes that seem downright ghoulish after what we've just read. It's tempting to think that Atwood is just poking fun at the affectations of academia, but it's also possible that she has bigger game in mind. I'll leave that as a question for discussion should anyone feel so inclined.
Edit, 5/25: corrected publication date of Handmaid's Tale. Thanks to S. and Fiend.
Recent reads:
A Skeleton in God's Closet, by Paul L. Maier.
Maier's name seemed vaguely familiar to me when I picked this 1994 book out of the library book sale, and the title, along with the bookjacket teaser copy ("A skeleton almost 2,000 years old -- will it shed new light on the life of Jesus or plunge the world into darkness and chaos?") seemed to suggest a religious thriller that I might be able to recommend to people who are still on the waiting list for the Da Vinci Code.
It turns out that Maier's name is probably familiar to me because he edited a collection of the "essential writings" of Josephus Flavius that I recently ordered for the libraries at which I work. He's a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, and he's also written novels about Biblical characters such as Pontius Pilate, but I haven't read them.
The plot of the novel in hand involves an archaeological dig near Jerusalem, in which the protagonist, a globetrotting history professor and archaeologist, unearths a grave that may hold secrets that will rock the Christian world. Complications ensue, as the Vatican and various governments around the world seek to spin the story or alter it to suit their purposes.
The historical and archeological tale that Maier spins here is intriguing because of his knowledge of archaeological technique and early Christian history. As Nancy Pearl might say, it's a plot-driven novel, in which the reader keeps forging onward to find out what new twist is going to be revealed, not because of the clunky writing or the stereotypical characters. Most readers in the western world are familiar with the fundamentals of the story of the early Christian church and the thought-system that has developed from it, and thus will find some interest in a story about how that history and thought-system would be affected if an archaeological discovery were to cast doubt on its most sacred elements.
It would be interesting to trace the threads of influence linking various books in this mini-genre of religio-historical thrillers. As mentioned above, Maier's protagonist could almost be the prototype for the hero of The Da Vinci Code. There's even a reference or two to Opus Dei, with a suggestion that it might have ill will toward anyone who presents evidence contradicting established Christian doctrine. Maier may have done a bit of borrowing of his own, too, since one plot twist involving an ancient document is very similar to the critical plot twist of James Hall Robert's 1964 religious thriller, The Q Document.
Still, it might be worth recommending to people who enjoyed DVC and are aching for another fix of Biblically-flavored historical mystery. As with DVC, I enjoyed the ride, even as I sometimes winced at clumsy prose or characters who were just too goody-goody to be true.
A Skeleton in God's Closet, by Paul L. Maier.
Maier's name seemed vaguely familiar to me when I picked this 1994 book out of the library book sale, and the title, along with the bookjacket teaser copy ("A skeleton almost 2,000 years old -- will it shed new light on the life of Jesus or plunge the world into darkness and chaos?") seemed to suggest a religious thriller that I might be able to recommend to people who are still on the waiting list for the Da Vinci Code.
It turns out that Maier's name is probably familiar to me because he edited a collection of the "essential writings" of Josephus Flavius that I recently ordered for the libraries at which I work. He's a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, and he's also written novels about Biblical characters such as Pontius Pilate, but I haven't read them.
The plot of the novel in hand involves an archaeological dig near Jerusalem, in which the protagonist, a globetrotting history professor and archaeologist, unearths a grave that may hold secrets that will rock the Christian world. Complications ensue, as the Vatican and various governments around the world seek to spin the story or alter it to suit their purposes.
The historical and archeological tale that Maier spins here is intriguing because of his knowledge of archaeological technique and early Christian history. As Nancy Pearl might say, it's a plot-driven novel, in which the reader keeps forging onward to find out what new twist is going to be revealed, not because of the clunky writing or the stereotypical characters. Most readers in the western world are familiar with the fundamentals of the story of the early Christian church and the thought-system that has developed from it, and thus will find some interest in a story about how that history and thought-system would be affected if an archaeological discovery were to cast doubt on its most sacred elements.
It would be interesting to trace the threads of influence linking various books in this mini-genre of religio-historical thrillers. As mentioned above, Maier's protagonist could almost be the prototype for the hero of The Da Vinci Code. There's even a reference or two to Opus Dei, with a suggestion that it might have ill will toward anyone who presents evidence contradicting established Christian doctrine. Maier may have done a bit of borrowing of his own, too, since one plot twist involving an ancient document is very similar to the critical plot twist of James Hall Robert's 1964 religious thriller, The Q Document.
Still, it might be worth recommending to people who enjoyed DVC and are aching for another fix of Biblically-flavored historical mystery. As with DVC, I enjoyed the ride, even as I sometimes winced at clumsy prose or characters who were just too goody-goody to be true.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Props to PLOS
The Public Library of Science has launched another free, peer-reviewed online journal, PLOS Clinical Trials.
So far neither Suburban Public Library nor Busy Bee College has added links to PLOS to its list of online resources. As it was explained to me, if administrators see that such things are available for free, they won't pay for expensive commercial databases.
The Public Library of Science has launched another free, peer-reviewed online journal, PLOS Clinical Trials.
So far neither Suburban Public Library nor Busy Bee College has added links to PLOS to its list of online resources. As it was explained to me, if administrators see that such things are available for free, they won't pay for expensive commercial databases.
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency has a series of libraries scattered around the country which make scientific studies and other information about pollution and pollutants available to the general public.
Fortunately, the Bush administration has a solution to this problem.
The Environmental Protection Agency has a series of libraries scattered around the country which make scientific studies and other information about pollution and pollutants available to the general public.
Fortunately, the Bush administration has a solution to this problem.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Recent reads:
A Houseboat on the Styx, by John Kendrick Bangs and Peter Newell. I've heard this book referred to time and time again on fiction-related listservs. Finally I was able to order a copy for Suburban Public Library, thanks to Kessinger Publishing's extensive catalog of print-on-demand editions of public domain works.
Unfortunately, the book didn't quite live up to its billing. It is witty, and it is clever, and it is somewhat amusing, but there's no plot to speak of. The reader is essentially a witness to the arguments and conversations that Bangs puts into the incorporeal mouths of various deceased souls inhabiting a gentleman's club aboard the titular houseboat. It's clever and amusing at first to hear Samuel Johnson and William Shakespeare in animated disputation with Socrates, et al, but the novelty wears off before one reaches the end of the book.
Rumor has it that Connie Willis alludes to this book in To Say Nothing of the Dog. I expect that tracking down her allusion to it will be more satisfying than the work itself.
A Houseboat on the Styx, by John Kendrick Bangs and Peter Newell. I've heard this book referred to time and time again on fiction-related listservs. Finally I was able to order a copy for Suburban Public Library, thanks to Kessinger Publishing's extensive catalog of print-on-demand editions of public domain works.
Unfortunately, the book didn't quite live up to its billing. It is witty, and it is clever, and it is somewhat amusing, but there's no plot to speak of. The reader is essentially a witness to the arguments and conversations that Bangs puts into the incorporeal mouths of various deceased souls inhabiting a gentleman's club aboard the titular houseboat. It's clever and amusing at first to hear Samuel Johnson and William Shakespeare in animated disputation with Socrates, et al, but the novelty wears off before one reaches the end of the book.
Rumor has it that Connie Willis alludes to this book in To Say Nothing of the Dog. I expect that tracking down her allusion to it will be more satisfying than the work itself.
Graphic novel roundup
A Thousand Ships (Age of Bronze, vol. 1), by Eric Shanower For those of us who never actually got around to reading The Iliad, this volume's a must-read. Shanower portrays the events leading up to the Trojan War in dramatic, fast-moving fashion. I didn't spot any significant departures from mythology as I know it, but for those who want to check up on him, he provides an afterword in which he discusses the sources he used and the problems of chronology and contradiction that he encountered with them.
My Faith in Frankie, by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, et al. A witty look at the problems of having a personal diety. Frankie's a cute brunette who would really like to have a boyfriend. She also has a personal diety who is, quite literally, a jealous god. Things get complicated when Frankie heads off to college and becomes the target of both a lecherous upperclassman and more sinister forces. The artwork is cartoonish and lighthearted, especially when portraying Frankie's younger years in flashback. There are some adult themes, although no explicit nudity.
Once in a Blue Moon, by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Jennifer Quick, et al. An entertaining, anime-style interpretation of that old fantasy staple, the mysterious/magical book that transports a modern-day teenager into a parallel world of mortal combat between good and evil.
A Thousand Ships (Age of Bronze, vol. 1), by Eric Shanower For those of us who never actually got around to reading The Iliad, this volume's a must-read. Shanower portrays the events leading up to the Trojan War in dramatic, fast-moving fashion. I didn't spot any significant departures from mythology as I know it, but for those who want to check up on him, he provides an afterword in which he discusses the sources he used and the problems of chronology and contradiction that he encountered with them.
My Faith in Frankie, by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, et al. A witty look at the problems of having a personal diety. Frankie's a cute brunette who would really like to have a boyfriend. She also has a personal diety who is, quite literally, a jealous god. Things get complicated when Frankie heads off to college and becomes the target of both a lecherous upperclassman and more sinister forces. The artwork is cartoonish and lighthearted, especially when portraying Frankie's younger years in flashback. There are some adult themes, although no explicit nudity.
Once in a Blue Moon, by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Jennifer Quick, et al. An entertaining, anime-style interpretation of that old fantasy staple, the mysterious/magical book that transports a modern-day teenager into a parallel world of mortal combat between good and evil.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Recent viewings
Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), disk 1
There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name....
Plenty of people have heard Johnny Rivers sing the lyrics above. Not so many have seen the television show for whose US presentation they were written. Fortunately, DVDs and the magic of the Long Tail have made it possible to do so.
And a good thing, too. Danger Man (to use its original British title) is an above-average spy thriller series in which Patrick McGoohan's character, a British secret agent named John Drake, uses intelligence, personal charm and believable spycraft -- rather than explosions, violence and implausible James Bond gadgetry -- to complete the various missions to which he is assigned. And, occasionally, freelance ones of which his bosses disapprove....
It's suggested early on in the episodes I watched that Drake and his political bosses often disagree about ethics and responsibility. McGoohan went on to create a better-known series, The Prisoner, in which a dissatisfied secret agent tries to resign from a spy agency and ends up incarcerated in a surreal Village of brainwashers and brainwash-ees.
Officially, Number Six is not John Drake. But I couldn't help but notice a prominent, framed picture of a penny-farthing bicycle on the office wall of the boss to which Drake reports in one episode.
Hmmm.
Proto-Prisoner or not, it's worth checking out for anyone who enjoys Cold War spy dramas.
Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), disk 1
There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name....
Plenty of people have heard Johnny Rivers sing the lyrics above. Not so many have seen the television show for whose US presentation they were written. Fortunately, DVDs and the magic of the Long Tail have made it possible to do so.
And a good thing, too. Danger Man (to use its original British title) is an above-average spy thriller series in which Patrick McGoohan's character, a British secret agent named John Drake, uses intelligence, personal charm and believable spycraft -- rather than explosions, violence and implausible James Bond gadgetry -- to complete the various missions to which he is assigned. And, occasionally, freelance ones of which his bosses disapprove....
It's suggested early on in the episodes I watched that Drake and his political bosses often disagree about ethics and responsibility. McGoohan went on to create a better-known series, The Prisoner, in which a dissatisfied secret agent tries to resign from a spy agency and ends up incarcerated in a surreal Village of brainwashers and brainwash-ees.
Officially, Number Six is not John Drake. But I couldn't help but notice a prominent, framed picture of a penny-farthing bicycle on the office wall of the boss to which Drake reports in one episode.
Hmmm.
Proto-Prisoner or not, it's worth checking out for anyone who enjoys Cold War spy dramas.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Recent viewings
It Happened One Night. A first-rate romantic comedy, circa 1934. Claudette Colbert is a spoiled-but-lonely heiress on the run from her father, who disapproves of her marriage to a flamboyant New York playboy. On the road, she encounters a cynical newspaper reporter (a young Clark Gable, looking disreputable in trenchcoat, fedora and pencil-thin mustache). Verbal sparks fly in all directions as they spar with each other, other bus passengers, and the occasional detective trying to track down the elusive heiress. Watching the two of them spontaneously improvise ways to distract unwelcome inquisitors, while becoming steadily closer to each other, is a sheer pleasure. Some of Gable's macho posturing wouldn't pass modern-day political muster, but aside from that minor quibble it's a delightful story from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
(Note: this review was written sometime back in January and got misplaced until now.)
It Happened One Night. A first-rate romantic comedy, circa 1934. Claudette Colbert is a spoiled-but-lonely heiress on the run from her father, who disapproves of her marriage to a flamboyant New York playboy. On the road, she encounters a cynical newspaper reporter (a young Clark Gable, looking disreputable in trenchcoat, fedora and pencil-thin mustache). Verbal sparks fly in all directions as they spar with each other, other bus passengers, and the occasional detective trying to track down the elusive heiress. Watching the two of them spontaneously improvise ways to distract unwelcome inquisitors, while becoming steadily closer to each other, is a sheer pleasure. Some of Gable's macho posturing wouldn't pass modern-day political muster, but aside from that minor quibble it's a delightful story from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
(Note: this review was written sometime back in January and got misplaced until now.)
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Republicans vs. the internet (again)
Republican senator Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania has proudly announced a bill, HR 5319, that would require any library or school that receives any federal funding to censor "social-networking" websites. The latter is, according to various news sources, very broadly defined and would include most weblogging services as well as wikis, instant-messaging services, many e'mail services, and many interactive news-and-commentary sites such as DailyKos, Redstate, etc. In essence, it seeks to block access to the whole generation of interactive, user-centered web applications that are loosely referred to as "Web 2.0".
Unfortunately, Thomas doesn't seem to have the full text of this bill, HR 5319, available yet, and I'm dependent on published news summaries such as BusinessWeek, personal blog-entries, and legislative alerts from groups like the ALA.
Now I'm willing to grant that some social-networking sites may be useless or even counterproductive in a school environment. But local schools are perfectly capable of blocking troublesome websites on their own, without this kind of federal mandate. (What ever happened to the Republican love of local control, small government, and parental responsibility? Evidently, it was whisked away like a cardboard theater prop the moment they took control of the juggernaut that they spent the last twenty years screaming against.)
Furthermore, the mission of public libraries is not nearly as restricted and specialized as that of schools. Even if this bill made sense for schools, it makes no sense at all for libraries, whose computer services exist in order to link the general public with the electronic world, not to wall them off from it. And I can testify that it works. One of the regular users of Suburban Public Library has achived a bit of note lately on DailyKos for her regular commentaries about the recent changes in Medicare. That wouldn't have been possible if this kind of restriction were in place, and both she and those all across the nation who read and benefitted from her commentaries would be the poorer for it.
Even if it affected only users under the age of 18, it would be a disaster. The extremely broad ban contemplated by Rep. Fitzpatrick would in effect wall them off from the ongoing public conversations that they need to be aware of if they want to become knowledgeable adults. And, entertainingly, it might actually outlaw services like www.tutor.com, which provides live online tutoring with qualified teachers through school and library computer connections.
The rationale, of course, is to protect the children from "online predators". The reality? Once again the Republicans are using nuclear weapons to hunt cockroaches, inflicting enormous collateral damage on the vast, law-abiding majority in order to win political points for largely illusory blows against a small minority of abusive users.
Or -- to use an entirely different metaphor -- they're standing, like King Canute, at the low-water mark on the beach, holding up a hand and shouting "stop!" at the waves of the advancing tide. I don't think that interactive web applications will disappear just because Representative Fitzpatrick is afraid of them.
If this misguided bill is passed, it will serve only as one more barrier blocking those who access the internet through public spaces like libraries from being able to participate in the most active and vibrant part of the world's economy of information. And, of course, it'll do absolutely nothing to "protect" any kid who has access to his own, or his parents', computer.
Republican senator Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania has proudly announced a bill, HR 5319, that would require any library or school that receives any federal funding to censor "social-networking" websites. The latter is, according to various news sources, very broadly defined and would include most weblogging services as well as wikis, instant-messaging services, many e'mail services, and many interactive news-and-commentary sites such as DailyKos, Redstate, etc. In essence, it seeks to block access to the whole generation of interactive, user-centered web applications that are loosely referred to as "Web 2.0".
Unfortunately, Thomas doesn't seem to have the full text of this bill, HR 5319, available yet, and I'm dependent on published news summaries such as BusinessWeek, personal blog-entries, and legislative alerts from groups like the ALA.
Now I'm willing to grant that some social-networking sites may be useless or even counterproductive in a school environment. But local schools are perfectly capable of blocking troublesome websites on their own, without this kind of federal mandate. (What ever happened to the Republican love of local control, small government, and parental responsibility? Evidently, it was whisked away like a cardboard theater prop the moment they took control of the juggernaut that they spent the last twenty years screaming against.)
Furthermore, the mission of public libraries is not nearly as restricted and specialized as that of schools. Even if this bill made sense for schools, it makes no sense at all for libraries, whose computer services exist in order to link the general public with the electronic world, not to wall them off from it. And I can testify that it works. One of the regular users of Suburban Public Library has achived a bit of note lately on DailyKos for her regular commentaries about the recent changes in Medicare. That wouldn't have been possible if this kind of restriction were in place, and both she and those all across the nation who read and benefitted from her commentaries would be the poorer for it.
Even if it affected only users under the age of 18, it would be a disaster. The extremely broad ban contemplated by Rep. Fitzpatrick would in effect wall them off from the ongoing public conversations that they need to be aware of if they want to become knowledgeable adults. And, entertainingly, it might actually outlaw services like www.tutor.com, which provides live online tutoring with qualified teachers through school and library computer connections.
The rationale, of course, is to protect the children from "online predators". The reality? Once again the Republicans are using nuclear weapons to hunt cockroaches, inflicting enormous collateral damage on the vast, law-abiding majority in order to win political points for largely illusory blows against a small minority of abusive users.
Or -- to use an entirely different metaphor -- they're standing, like King Canute, at the low-water mark on the beach, holding up a hand and shouting "stop!" at the waves of the advancing tide. I don't think that interactive web applications will disappear just because Representative Fitzpatrick is afraid of them.
If this misguided bill is passed, it will serve only as one more barrier blocking those who access the internet through public spaces like libraries from being able to participate in the most active and vibrant part of the world's economy of information. And, of course, it'll do absolutely nothing to "protect" any kid who has access to his own, or his parents', computer.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Recent viewings:
Lost in La Mancha Documentary chronicle of a film production gone horribly, abortively wrong. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python alumnus and director of films like Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, seeks to create a modern film adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire of knight-errantry, Don Quixote. Unfortunately, according to LILM, the production of the latter film has won Gilliam a reputation as a spendthrift, which limits his access to funding. Minor obstacles snowball into disasters: scheduling conflicts, ailing actors, torrential flash floods, the Spanish Air Force....
It's hard to tell what the finished Gilliam film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, would have been like. It would have featured Johnny Depp as a modern-day advertising man somehow transported into the medieval Spain of Cervantes' story, much like the protagonist of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A couple of scenes discussed in LILM suggest that the Depp character would have been -- at least initially -- sarcastic and dismissive of Quixote's tales of chivalry. Other scenes suggest that the giants and other fantastical elements of Quixotes' tale would have been portrayed as real, or at least experienced as real by characters including Depp's cynical modern protagonist. The French actor selected to play Quixote seems well-suited to the part of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, but appears in too few completed scenes for the viewer of LILM to draw any further conclusions.
I was struck by the degree to which Gilliam's production effort seemed to be slapdash and disorganized from the beginning. He seems to have started production without any firm scheduling commitments from key actresses, with inadequate scouting of exterior locations, and (incredibly) without confirmed access to any professional-quality indoor sound stage. The various disasters that are visited upon the film crew might not have stopped a better-prepared team. I wonder -- is this kind of seat-of-the-pants flying typical of professional movie production?
I would love to see what Gilliam would make of Don Quixote, but based on this documentary, the failure of the production seems to have been the result of poor organization and preparation, not an Act of God. Let's hope he's better prepared if he ever essays it again.
Lost in La Mancha Documentary chronicle of a film production gone horribly, abortively wrong. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python alumnus and director of films like Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, seeks to create a modern film adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire of knight-errantry, Don Quixote. Unfortunately, according to LILM, the production of the latter film has won Gilliam a reputation as a spendthrift, which limits his access to funding. Minor obstacles snowball into disasters: scheduling conflicts, ailing actors, torrential flash floods, the Spanish Air Force....
It's hard to tell what the finished Gilliam film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, would have been like. It would have featured Johnny Depp as a modern-day advertising man somehow transported into the medieval Spain of Cervantes' story, much like the protagonist of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A couple of scenes discussed in LILM suggest that the Depp character would have been -- at least initially -- sarcastic and dismissive of Quixote's tales of chivalry. Other scenes suggest that the giants and other fantastical elements of Quixotes' tale would have been portrayed as real, or at least experienced as real by characters including Depp's cynical modern protagonist. The French actor selected to play Quixote seems well-suited to the part of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, but appears in too few completed scenes for the viewer of LILM to draw any further conclusions.
I was struck by the degree to which Gilliam's production effort seemed to be slapdash and disorganized from the beginning. He seems to have started production without any firm scheduling commitments from key actresses, with inadequate scouting of exterior locations, and (incredibly) without confirmed access to any professional-quality indoor sound stage. The various disasters that are visited upon the film crew might not have stopped a better-prepared team. I wonder -- is this kind of seat-of-the-pants flying typical of professional movie production?
I would love to see what Gilliam would make of Don Quixote, but based on this documentary, the failure of the production seems to have been the result of poor organization and preparation, not an Act of God. Let's hope he's better prepared if he ever essays it again.
Fun Fact:
Charlton Heston was born with the name John Carter. Too bad he never got the chance to play himself.
Charlton Heston was born with the name John Carter. Too bad he never got the chance to play himself.
Recent viewings:
Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore can be a very effective documentarian, and very effective at satirizing the arrogant cluelessness of our modern-day aristocracy. He can also be pretentious, pompous, hypocritically self-righteous and meanspirited -- a textbook example of the very tendencies he mocks. Unfortunately, that's the side of him that's on display here, especially in the final segment of the film, in which he opportunistically badgers a frail and visibly ill Charlton Heston over the latter's long involvement with the National Rifle Association. It's sort of like watching a smug, fat hyena harass an elderly lion that could have broken him in half with a mere paw-flick in healthier days. Disgraceful.
Other than giving Moore a chance to bully and mock an aging hero with Alzheimer's disease, the film has no real focus or organization. It sort of wanders around aimlessly, presenting minor factoids about guns in American history and pop culture, documentary footage of the Columbine murders, and some of Moore's trademarked self-promoting media grandstanding, until Moore gets his apparently much-desired opportunity to hector a man who spent most of his career campaigning for civil rights and other American freedoms.
Not recommended.
Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore can be a very effective documentarian, and very effective at satirizing the arrogant cluelessness of our modern-day aristocracy. He can also be pretentious, pompous, hypocritically self-righteous and meanspirited -- a textbook example of the very tendencies he mocks. Unfortunately, that's the side of him that's on display here, especially in the final segment of the film, in which he opportunistically badgers a frail and visibly ill Charlton Heston over the latter's long involvement with the National Rifle Association. It's sort of like watching a smug, fat hyena harass an elderly lion that could have broken him in half with a mere paw-flick in healthier days. Disgraceful.
Other than giving Moore a chance to bully and mock an aging hero with Alzheimer's disease, the film has no real focus or organization. It sort of wanders around aimlessly, presenting minor factoids about guns in American history and pop culture, documentary footage of the Columbine murders, and some of Moore's trademarked self-promoting media grandstanding, until Moore gets his apparently much-desired opportunity to hector a man who spent most of his career campaigning for civil rights and other American freedoms.
Not recommended.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Big Brother is listening to you
This humble little personal blog doesn't even pretend to be a comprehensive news source. But this story is just too big to ignore.
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls (USA Today)
This is in direct contravention of the law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class-action suit against AT&T's participation in the scheme, which is forbidden by Section 222 of the Communications Act (as described in the article linked above.)
The Bush administration's response has been, basically, a big f*ck-you. "Rule of law? We don't need no schtinkin' rule of law. Shut up because we say so."
Meanwhile, Bush's appointee to head the CIA is none other than the military officer who ran this blatantly illegal scheme to spy on American citizens. Not "terra-ists" or criminals. All American citizens. That includes you, your Aunt Mabel, your friends, your co-workers. It includes everyone whom the ruling political deems a political "threat" or wishes to exert pressure on. It's well documented that this includes Catholic pacifist groups, the Quakers, and just about anyone who isn't in lockstep with the Bushite drive for perpetual war and absolute "unitary executive" power.
"Unitary executive" is a synonym for dictator.
Meanwhile, in little-remarked news, Dick Cheney's cronies at Halliburton have received yet another sweetheart no-bid contract, this time to construct a series of military prisons within the United States. The stated purpose is to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs".
Just what "new programs" are contemplated that might require such a chain of concentration camps? And why does the government need to compile a massive database of its citizens' personal communications?
Well, I don't know, not being a "unitary executive". But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, offers some helpful suggestions to our torture-authorizing Attorney General:
Meanwhile, the Army mutters something about a "Civilian Inmate Labor Program".
Elections are coming up. Gotta be ready for 'em.
This humble little personal blog doesn't even pretend to be a comprehensive news source. But this story is just too big to ignore.
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls (USA Today)
This is in direct contravention of the law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class-action suit against AT&T's participation in the scheme, which is forbidden by Section 222 of the Communications Act (as described in the article linked above.)
The Bush administration's response has been, basically, a big f*ck-you. "Rule of law? We don't need no schtinkin' rule of law. Shut up because we say so."
Meanwhile, Bush's appointee to head the CIA is none other than the military officer who ran this blatantly illegal scheme to spy on American citizens. Not "terra-ists" or criminals. All American citizens. That includes you, your Aunt Mabel, your friends, your co-workers. It includes everyone whom the ruling political deems a political "threat" or wishes to exert pressure on. It's well documented that this includes Catholic pacifist groups, the Quakers, and just about anyone who isn't in lockstep with the Bushite drive for perpetual war and absolute "unitary executive" power.
"Unitary executive" is a synonym for dictator.
Meanwhile, in little-remarked news, Dick Cheney's cronies at Halliburton have received yet another sweetheart no-bid contract, this time to construct a series of military prisons within the United States. The stated purpose is to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs".
Just what "new programs" are contemplated that might require such a chain of concentration camps? And why does the government need to compile a massive database of its citizens' personal communications?
Well, I don't know, not being a "unitary executive". But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, offers some helpful suggestions to our torture-authorizing Attorney General:
“The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,” Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.This is the "unitary executive", you may recall, who has asserted that, for the duration of the fraudulent war which he has illegally started and intends to continue perpetually, he has the power to arbitrarily arrest any American citizen and imprison them indefinitely without ever showing any legal cause for doing so.
“I stand by this President’s ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find out about Fifth Column movements, and I don’t think you need a warrant to do that,” Graham added, volunteering to work with the administration to draft guidelines for how best to neutralize this alleged threat.
“Senator,” a smiling Gonzales responded, “the President already said we’d be happy to listen to your ideas.”
Meanwhile, the Army mutters something about a "Civilian Inmate Labor Program".
Elections are coming up. Gotta be ready for 'em.
It's... it's.... it's....
The Amazing Flying President!
He seems to be looking for his approval ratings. Can you help him find them?
The Amazing Flying President!
He seems to be looking for his approval ratings. Can you help him find them?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
None dare call it....
Florence King, in the May 22 issue of National Review, dares speak the word that other conservatives dare not apply to Iraq.
Florence King, in the May 22 issue of National Review, dares speak the word that other conservatives dare not apply to Iraq.
Iraq "might be approaching" a civil war. It "could be spiraling into" a civil war. "If it were" a civil war. "It could turn into" a civil war. "It may be an undeclared" civil war. On and on it went: "on the brink of" a civil war, a civil war "is imminent.. over the horizon... threatening." There was even a "quasi-civil war", and, influenced no doubt by endless cancer-awareness spots, someone described a "pre-civil war" and predicted that "it could metastasize" into the real thing....
Conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political spectrum are no doubt in ecstasy over this festival of temporizing. Oliver Stone could get two movies out of it: 1) The liberal media want to start a civil war in Iraq while our troops are there so they will be killed in it, 2) A great big fat civil war is already in progress but the conservative media are under orders from the White House to play down the fiasco.
It has nothing to do with conspiracy. It's psychological projection, a head game we play on ourselves when we attribute our own situation to somebody else. WE are afraid of having a civil war, so we convince ourselves that Iraq is NOT having one.
SS France
Yet another example of our endemic cultural amnesia.
It's unfortunate that, even if I were able to afford a trip to Europe or some other overseas destination, I wouldn't have enough time to take the leisurely ocean-liner route. Nor, it seems, any ship on which to sail.
Yet another example of our endemic cultural amnesia.
It's unfortunate that, even if I were able to afford a trip to Europe or some other overseas destination, I wouldn't have enough time to take the leisurely ocean-liner route. Nor, it seems, any ship on which to sail.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Over the transom
(or, cleaning out that file of stuff I've been meaning to blog about for the last three months)
The next time you think about how much you or your employer is pouring into the gaping, sucking vortex of health insurance, just remember that it's going to a good cause.
Katrina survivors are forced to squabble with their insurance companies over whether the damage to their insured property was caused by floods or winds.
Trent Lott, staunch Republican partisan for "tort reform" to limit individual's ability to sue corporations for misbehavior, has a sudden change of heart.
Walgreens has helpfully sent me -- or, rather, themselves -- a check for $20.00. On the check is the following note, in type about 2 millimeters high.
Mike Shatzkin, speaking to a publishers' association, discusses Publishing and Digital Change : What's Next? Among the topics discussed: the "problem" of college students being able to purchase used copies of textbooks and how publishers can use digital textbooks to "solve" it. Also, how to "solve" the "problem" of a global free trade in books, which limits the publishers' ability to selectively price-gouge North American and European students.
And, lastly, the Historical Society of Michigan is planning their Upper Peninsula History conference for June 23-25 in Escanaba. I probably won't be able to make it. But anyone feels like making the trek, let me know.
(or, cleaning out that file of stuff I've been meaning to blog about for the last three months)
The next time you think about how much you or your employer is pouring into the gaping, sucking vortex of health insurance, just remember that it's going to a good cause.
Katrina survivors are forced to squabble with their insurance companies over whether the damage to their insured property was caused by floods or winds.
Trent Lott, staunch Republican partisan for "tort reform" to limit individual's ability to sue corporations for misbehavior, has a sudden change of heart.
Walgreens has helpfully sent me -- or, rather, themselves -- a check for $20.00. On the check is the following note, in type about 2 millimeters high.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Purchase of a new or transferred prescription required (prescriptions cannot be transferred from another Walgreens.) Give check to phamracist at time of prescription purchase. Offer not valid with Medicaid, Medicare, or any other governmental programs or where prohibited by law. Cannot be combined with other offers, limit one check per customer.Oh well. At least it's good for something.
Good toward any purchase except prescriptions, co-pays, liquor, tobacco and dairy as restricted.
Mike Shatzkin, speaking to a publishers' association, discusses Publishing and Digital Change : What's Next? Among the topics discussed: the "problem" of college students being able to purchase used copies of textbooks and how publishers can use digital textbooks to "solve" it. Also, how to "solve" the "problem" of a global free trade in books, which limits the publishers' ability to selectively price-gouge North American and European students.
And, lastly, the Historical Society of Michigan is planning their Upper Peninsula History conference for June 23-25 in Escanaba. I probably won't be able to make it. But anyone feels like making the trek, let me know.
A hero for our times
Rex Libris!
Preview here; Action figures here. (No, not really, but it would be pretty to think so.)
Rex Libris!
Preview here; Action figures here. (No, not really, but it would be pretty to think so.)
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
A disturbing development
Chicago gangs are reportedly having members join the military for training in urban warfare.
Chicago gangs are reportedly having members join the military for training in urban warfare.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Would you send work to this company?
More noise-n-smoke about the "book packager" involved in the Opal Mehta plagiarism case. Another author asserts that they similarly plagiarized her draft manuscript after "rejecting" it.
More noise-n-smoke about the "book packager" involved in the Opal Mehta plagiarism case. Another author asserts that they similarly plagiarized her draft manuscript after "rejecting" it.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Chronologically challenged Istanbulians and other Denton denizens
Dang it, once again I've gone and missed the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. I probably couldn't have made it to Texas in any case, but it would have been fun to finally get a chance to hear folks like Brave Combo and Little Jack Melody and His Young Turks in the flesh. (Some video clips of the latter here, in case anyone's interested.)
Dagnabbit. I used to do this while I lived there, too: find out about it the day afterward, purely by random chance. (i.e., not by browsing yesterday's newspaper). Yesterday's news is still news to me.
Dang it, once again I've gone and missed the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. I probably couldn't have made it to Texas in any case, but it would have been fun to finally get a chance to hear folks like Brave Combo and Little Jack Melody and His Young Turks in the flesh. (Some video clips of the latter here, in case anyone's interested.)
Dagnabbit. I used to do this while I lived there, too: find out about it the day afterward, purely by random chance. (i.e., not by browsing yesterday's newspaper). Yesterday's news is still news to me.
Who is John Galt?
Brad Pitt, according to Variety. Or at any rate he's reportedly being considered for the role.
It will be entertaining to watch the Rand cultists minutely parse the movie for its faithfulness to the Objectivist gospel. Just as it will be entertaining to see if the producers retain Rand's nearly fetishistic portrayal of cigarette-smoking as a symbol of capitalism. I'm not sure how hard I want to think about how accurately it might portray the railroad industry.
I also wonder how on earth anyone expects to fit anything like the plot of Rand's doorstopper-sized tome into less than, say, a two week miniseries. A key question: will the movie contain the entire text of Galt's 90-page broadcast sermon near the end of the book?
Previous filmic versions of Rand books (i.e., The Fountainhead) have been less than satisfactory, largely (in my view) because the material had to be so compressed and rushed that it sounded like a rapid-fire series of political soundbytes.
Brad Pitt, according to Variety. Or at any rate he's reportedly being considered for the role.
It will be entertaining to watch the Rand cultists minutely parse the movie for its faithfulness to the Objectivist gospel. Just as it will be entertaining to see if the producers retain Rand's nearly fetishistic portrayal of cigarette-smoking as a symbol of capitalism. I'm not sure how hard I want to think about how accurately it might portray the railroad industry.
I also wonder how on earth anyone expects to fit anything like the plot of Rand's doorstopper-sized tome into less than, say, a two week miniseries. A key question: will the movie contain the entire text of Galt's 90-page broadcast sermon near the end of the book?
Previous filmic versions of Rand books (i.e., The Fountainhead) have been less than satisfactory, largely (in my view) because the material had to be so compressed and rushed that it sounded like a rapid-fire series of political soundbytes.
"Opal Mehta": the plot thickens
An interesting coincidence, as reported in the NYT and elsewhere:
An interesting coincidence, as reported in the NYT and elsewhere:
"The relationships between Alloy and the publishers are so intertwined that the same editor, Claudia Gabel, is thanked on the acknowledgments pages of both Ms. McCafferty's books and Ms. Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life." Ms. Gabel had been an editorial assistant at Crown Publishing Group, then moved to Alloy, where she helped develop the idea for Ms. Viswanathan's book...."
Ha!
As someone on Library Underground said, this video clip is "just wrong on multiple levels". But it's funny.
Note to all future candidates: if you're going to go hunting, either because you really enjoy it or because your consultant says you need the NRA vote, try not to shoot anybody. It makes it way, way too easy for the comedians.
As someone on Library Underground said, this video clip is "just wrong on multiple levels". But it's funny.
Note to all future candidates: if you're going to go hunting, either because you really enjoy it or because your consultant says you need the NRA vote, try not to shoot anybody. It makes it way, way too easy for the comedians.
Would you trust (fill-in-name-of-Democratic-presidential candidate) with this power?
That's a good question to ask the conservatives of your acquaintance when discussing any question of executive power or privilege. They'll be forced to either seriously consider the merits of the executive power in question, without reference to current partisanship, or admit that they want to abolish free elections and establish permanent one-party dictatorship.
When Democrats hold the White House, just flip it around and ask it to the fervent Democrats who suddenly forget that they didn't like executive power when it was in the hands of somebody else.
So. Would you trust your least-favored candidate with this power?
US steps into wiretap suit against AT&T
(Other links here, here, here, and elsewhere.)
As near as I can tell, this represents a demand that the executive branch have the power to tell courts to dismiss any and all lawsuits filed in any matter, anywhere, whenever they feel like it, whether or not the government is even a party to the lawsuit. The Bush administration asserts that it need not demonstrate why it wishes to invoke this power or provide any evidence of any national security interest, not even to the judge hearing the case.
Not surprisingly, the administration's business buddies concur in saying that lawsuits involving them should be dismissed whenever the government says so.
As First Amendment attorney Glenn Greenwald points out, the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" was created by a judge, not by the legislature or by that forgotten scrap of paper, the Constitution. And it was, as he demonstrates, created as the result of deliberate fraud on the part of the government.
Who would you trust with this power?
That's a good question to ask the conservatives of your acquaintance when discussing any question of executive power or privilege. They'll be forced to either seriously consider the merits of the executive power in question, without reference to current partisanship, or admit that they want to abolish free elections and establish permanent one-party dictatorship.
When Democrats hold the White House, just flip it around and ask it to the fervent Democrats who suddenly forget that they didn't like executive power when it was in the hands of somebody else.
So. Would you trust your least-favored candidate with this power?
US steps into wiretap suit against AT&T
(Other links here, here, here, and elsewhere.)
As near as I can tell, this represents a demand that the executive branch have the power to tell courts to dismiss any and all lawsuits filed in any matter, anywhere, whenever they feel like it, whether or not the government is even a party to the lawsuit. The Bush administration asserts that it need not demonstrate why it wishes to invoke this power or provide any evidence of any national security interest, not even to the judge hearing the case.
Not surprisingly, the administration's business buddies concur in saying that lawsuits involving them should be dismissed whenever the government says so.
As First Amendment attorney Glenn Greenwald points out, the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" was created by a judge, not by the legislature or by that forgotten scrap of paper, the Constitution. And it was, as he demonstrates, created as the result of deliberate fraud on the part of the government.
Who would you trust with this power?
Friday, April 28, 2006
Oh, fun!
The judge in the famous lawsuit involving Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code encoded a secret message in his ruling (.pdf link). The judge apparently really got interested in the conspiratorial, hidden-secrets aspect of the case. The fact that he himself is interested in military and naval history may have been a further inspiration. (Hints here.)
Have fun. Or if you'd rather, just read the answer. Note that the ABC News aritcle linked above includes some speculations about the answer which are not necessarily correct.
I wonder if this judgment will become one of those that future law students and law librarians will be sent to look up in the hopes that its eccentricity will amuse them. (For example, this case, or the rhyming judgement against a bad driver who ran his Chevy into a tree that I had to look up in the one class I took on law librarianship. Sadly, I can't find it now. Obviously the class didn't take.)
The judge in the famous lawsuit involving Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code encoded a secret message in his ruling (.pdf link). The judge apparently really got interested in the conspiratorial, hidden-secrets aspect of the case. The fact that he himself is interested in military and naval history may have been a further inspiration. (Hints here.)
Have fun. Or if you'd rather, just read the answer. Note that the ABC News aritcle linked above includes some speculations about the answer which are not necessarily correct.
I wonder if this judgment will become one of those that future law students and law librarians will be sent to look up in the hopes that its eccentricity will amuse them. (For example, this case, or the rhyming judgement against a bad driver who ran his Chevy into a tree that I had to look up in the one class I took on law librarianship. Sadly, I can't find it now. Obviously the class didn't take.)
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The Day's Catch
News stories that have caught my interest today:
The bibliosphere has been all atwitter for the last few days about the 19-yr-old college student who got a half-million-dollar advance for her first novel, courtesy of a so-called "book packager", and then apparently plagiarized large chunks of another novel. Whether she or the "packager" is responsible for the mess seems to be an open question, since copyright to the book is reportedly shared between them. John Barlow discusses his experience with a "book-packaging" company which proudly boasts of perpetrating the Sweet Valley High series.
Perhaps I should be farming out my name to such book-packaging companies. At a half-million a shot, it's pretty good money for, apparently, not much work.
News stories that have caught my interest today:
The bibliosphere has been all atwitter for the last few days about the 19-yr-old college student who got a half-million-dollar advance for her first novel, courtesy of a so-called "book packager", and then apparently plagiarized large chunks of another novel. Whether she or the "packager" is responsible for the mess seems to be an open question, since copyright to the book is reportedly shared between them. John Barlow discusses his experience with a "book-packaging" company which proudly boasts of perpetrating the Sweet Valley High series.
Perhaps I should be farming out my name to such book-packaging companies. At a half-million a shot, it's pretty good money for, apparently, not much work.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Pirates in Ypsi!
Pirate radio, that is. Sadly, I didn't find out about it until after they were busted by the Guardians of Clear Channel Profits... er, Guardians of the Airways.
Typical.
Pirate radio, that is. Sadly, I didn't find out about it until after they were busted by the Guardians of Clear Channel Profits... er, Guardians of the Airways.
Typical.
Another filtering squabble....
... that I didn't find out about until a month later, thanks to the vagaries of staff-periodical routing lists.
Hate speech filters in MO Libraries draw lawsuit
It's not very pleasant to defend groups like this, but free speech demands it.
... that I didn't find out about until a month later, thanks to the vagaries of staff-periodical routing lists.
Hate speech filters in MO Libraries draw lawsuit
It's not very pleasant to defend groups like this, but free speech demands it.
I'm not sure this is a good idea
I Am Legend is reportedly being remade for the third time... with Will Smith as the vampire-hunting Robert Neville, previously played by Vincent Price and Charlton Heston. (Some discussion here.)
I suddenly have nightmare visions of the Fresh Prince exhorting a bunch of hip-hop vampires to "get jiggy wit' it." Or, almost as bad, a "cool", wisecracking action-hero version of the lonely, violently paranoid, nearly-psychopathic lone survivor depicted in Robert Matheson's classic novel. (Say what you please about Heston's politics, but his involvement in the NRA does make him more creditable as a survivalist and vampire-killer.)
I suppose one can always hope.
Late edit: Speaking of vampiric entertainment... critics seem to be unimpressed with the musical version of Lestat. I'd cut-n-paste excerpts of the Reuters article, but it's just too hard to pick and choose. Read it yourself.
I Am Legend is reportedly being remade for the third time... with Will Smith as the vampire-hunting Robert Neville, previously played by Vincent Price and Charlton Heston. (Some discussion here.)
I suddenly have nightmare visions of the Fresh Prince exhorting a bunch of hip-hop vampires to "get jiggy wit' it." Or, almost as bad, a "cool", wisecracking action-hero version of the lonely, violently paranoid, nearly-psychopathic lone survivor depicted in Robert Matheson's classic novel. (Say what you please about Heston's politics, but his involvement in the NRA does make him more creditable as a survivalist and vampire-killer.)
I suppose one can always hope.
Late edit: Speaking of vampiric entertainment... critics seem to be unimpressed with the musical version of Lestat. I'd cut-n-paste excerpts of the Reuters article, but it's just too hard to pick and choose. Read it yourself.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Let's hope they do better than they did with Penland.
Thee University has announced plans to demolish the 85-year old dormitory in which Your Humble Blogger and some of his little friends, as well as many other university denizens of the male persuasion, spent their formative years. Those who are not among that select group can get a glimpse of its amenities here. (More news stories here.)
I note that a few amenities seem to have been introduced over the years since I was there. Cable TV connections and additional phone lines, for example.
Darnit, when I was a young 'un, we trekked down to the central TV room on each floor and we watched TV shows together. And we liked it! (Uphill in the snow both ways, etc., etc.)
Or at least those who managed to wrest control of the channel changer liked it. Those of us who wanted to watch something other than sports or Saturday Night Live had to resort to various underhanded strategems and bluster and persuasion. ("Hey, did you know they're also watching this up on the third floor? ANd they have pizza and popcorn?")
Many are the stories of students coming home in a ... shall we say, less than sober ... condition, and of their roommates and friends smuggling them into their rooms through the many stairwells and exterior doors that bypassed the designated nighttime door and its university-appointed guardian. (I'm sure it helped when they weren't singing tipsily at the time.)
Actually, my favorite part of Brooks Hall was the unused top story, which was accessible through one or two neglected doors. I spent quite a few sunny afternoons lazily reading and watching the campus from its dormer windows.
Thee University has announced plans to demolish the 85-year old dormitory in which Your Humble Blogger and some of his little friends, as well as many other university denizens of the male persuasion, spent their formative years. Those who are not among that select group can get a glimpse of its amenities here. (More news stories here.)
I note that a few amenities seem to have been introduced over the years since I was there. Cable TV connections and additional phone lines, for example.
Darnit, when I was a young 'un, we trekked down to the central TV room on each floor and we watched TV shows together. And we liked it! (Uphill in the snow both ways, etc., etc.)
Or at least those who managed to wrest control of the channel changer liked it. Those of us who wanted to watch something other than sports or Saturday Night Live had to resort to various underhanded strategems and bluster and persuasion. ("Hey, did you know they're also watching this up on the third floor? ANd they have pizza and popcorn?")
Many are the stories of students coming home in a ... shall we say, less than sober ... condition, and of their roommates and friends smuggling them into their rooms through the many stairwells and exterior doors that bypassed the designated nighttime door and its university-appointed guardian. (I'm sure it helped when they weren't singing tipsily at the time.)
Actually, my favorite part of Brooks Hall was the unused top story, which was accessible through one or two neglected doors. I spent quite a few sunny afternoons lazily reading and watching the campus from its dormer windows.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
The Return of the Water Hustlers
In 1960, John Graves published a book that was to become a classic work of Texana and a classic of the conservation movement. The book was Goodbye to a River, an account of his last canoe trip down a stretch of the Brazos River before it was flooded and destroyed for the benefit of faraway cities.
In 1971, he followed up by contributing a portion of a book titled The Water Hustlers, in which he and two other writers described the arrogance and corruption of various big-city water project promoters whose mode of operation was to simply ignore the rights and interests of rural landowners, farmers, and ranchers in order to concoct ever more grandiose dams and pipelines to take water away from one group and sell it to another.
Well, they're back again. To preserve the God-given right of north Dallas suburbanites to spray millions of gallons of potable water over their Day-Glo-green lawns throughout the 100-degree Texas summers, the powers-that-be in north Texas are once again demanding the power to seize land and rivers and water rights belonging to someone else, elsewhere in the state.
The latest scheme, recently approved by the legislative shills in Austin, proposes to build yet more dams, including one on the Sulfur River and one on the Neches River. All this despite the fact that public opinion in East Texas is firmly against these projects which seek to seize and destroy massive swathes of the region for the benefit of Dallas suburbanites.
Farmers, loggers, and environmentalists aren't the only ones affected.
Goodbye to a Railroad?
From Railroad Newsline:
That famous Dallasite love of the free market and property rights? Well, suh, it ends where other people's property begins.
In 1960, John Graves published a book that was to become a classic work of Texana and a classic of the conservation movement. The book was Goodbye to a River, an account of his last canoe trip down a stretch of the Brazos River before it was flooded and destroyed for the benefit of faraway cities.
In 1971, he followed up by contributing a portion of a book titled The Water Hustlers, in which he and two other writers described the arrogance and corruption of various big-city water project promoters whose mode of operation was to simply ignore the rights and interests of rural landowners, farmers, and ranchers in order to concoct ever more grandiose dams and pipelines to take water away from one group and sell it to another.
Well, they're back again. To preserve the God-given right of north Dallas suburbanites to spray millions of gallons of potable water over their Day-Glo-green lawns throughout the 100-degree Texas summers, the powers-that-be in north Texas are once again demanding the power to seize land and rivers and water rights belonging to someone else, elsewhere in the state.
The latest scheme, recently approved by the legislative shills in Austin, proposes to build yet more dams, including one on the Sulfur River and one on the Neches River. All this despite the fact that public opinion in East Texas is firmly against these projects which seek to seize and destroy massive swathes of the region for the benefit of Dallas suburbanites.
Farmers, loggers, and environmentalists aren't the only ones affected.
Goodbye to a Railroad?
From Railroad Newsline:
The North Texas plan calls for about $3.3 billion to be spent on new lakes, including $2.15 billion for the 62,000-acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir on the Sulphur River and its 130-mile pipeline to North Texas. Two 32,000-acre lakes and another of about 7,500 acres would be built.I'm sure those who stand to profit from such projects would tell you that it's just a happy coincidence that their shills in Austin have recently declared fiscal war on the Texas State Railroad despite its long and successful history, its prominent role in bringing movie productions to the state, and the thousands of visitors who enjoy it each weekend.
An additional 200,000 acres or more could be taken from landowners in a mitigation process that is required if prized bottomland habitat is flooded for the reservoirs. The proposed Lake Fastrill would flood four miles of the Texas State Railroad State Park and most of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed Neches River National Wildlife Refuge.
Employers and landowners said the plan would be detrimental to East Texas.
Kevin Driscoll, manager of International Paper's Texarkana Mill, which has about 860 employees and an annual payroll of about $70 million, said his mill would be hurt by the loss of water to new lakes.
Bill Ward, president of Ward Timber in Linden, said the plan would "cripple the timber industry."
Said Max Shumake, a sixth-generation Texan whose family settled the Sulphur River area in the 1840s: "I don't see the need to give up my heritage to water someone else's grass."
That famous Dallasite love of the free market and property rights? Well, suh, it ends where other people's property begins.
Yee-haw!
Let's saddle up, podner, and head on down t' Texas, t' see if these city slickers can start up a ranch without goin' belly-up!
Seriously... the PBS "House" programs are the only form of reality-television that I enjoy watching. Unlike most "reality" shows, they actually have some connection with reality. And I can easily picture myself in the situation of the participants. B. and other family types (if they're still reading) may remember my suggestions that we do something similar with the family's old Ozark farmstead. Just for fun.
Let's saddle up, podner, and head on down t' Texas, t' see if these city slickers can start up a ranch without goin' belly-up!
Seriously... the PBS "House" programs are the only form of reality-television that I enjoy watching. Unlike most "reality" shows, they actually have some connection with reality. And I can easily picture myself in the situation of the participants. B. and other family types (if they're still reading) may remember my suggestions that we do something similar with the family's old Ozark farmstead. Just for fun.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Recent viewings : The Avengers (original series)
After hearing several participants in a fiction-magazines listserv sing the praises of Diana Rigg, I finally broke down and watched a few episodes from the first season of the old Avengers television series in which she played the sexy and, perhaps, ambiguously kinky secret agent Emma Peel.
It's enjoyable enough as a kind of lightweight cross between James Bond and a screwball romantic comedy, but even in the few episodes I watched, I couldn't help but notice a rather weird subtext. At the end of every episode, there's a brief vignette, completely unrelated to everything else, in which Emma Peel is shown, in some way, dominating her male partner, John Steed (played by the patrician Patrick McNee). In one, she's riding in a rickshaw that he's pulling down an English country lane for no apparent reason while she cries out commands in a strident voice; in another she's ordering him about while he rows a boat. It seems rather apparent that "Steed", in addition to his eminently English virtues of suave demeanor and elegant apparel, may a devotee of "the English vice".
As for me, I think I prefer my English secret agents to be a little less overtly kinky.
After hearing several participants in a fiction-magazines listserv sing the praises of Diana Rigg, I finally broke down and watched a few episodes from the first season of the old Avengers television series in which she played the sexy and, perhaps, ambiguously kinky secret agent Emma Peel.
It's enjoyable enough as a kind of lightweight cross between James Bond and a screwball romantic comedy, but even in the few episodes I watched, I couldn't help but notice a rather weird subtext. At the end of every episode, there's a brief vignette, completely unrelated to everything else, in which Emma Peel is shown, in some way, dominating her male partner, John Steed (played by the patrician Patrick McNee). In one, she's riding in a rickshaw that he's pulling down an English country lane for no apparent reason while she cries out commands in a strident voice; in another she's ordering him about while he rows a boat. It seems rather apparent that "Steed", in addition to his eminently English virtues of suave demeanor and elegant apparel, may a devotee of "the English vice".
As for me, I think I prefer my English secret agents to be a little less overtly kinky.
The doom of Europe?
Mark Steyn, of National Review, contemplates the demographic and spiritual doom of Europe.
Having duly noted the dippy newage beliefs and practices of some post-Christian "spiritual" folks in the West, Steyn notes:
Steyn goes on to suggest that Pope Benedict (the former archconservative Cardinal Ratzinger) "foresees dark days ahead and his job as being to save European Catholicism". (European Protestantism, sadly, isn't up to the challenge, in Steyn's opinion.)
Is it really so paranoid to wonder whether the growing numbers of Muslims in Europe will demand the imposition of their form of theocracy if and when they get enough political pull to do so, as suggested by Bat Ye'or in her book Eurabia?
It's a new form of the old question about whether a tolerant and free society can survive when large numbers of its inhabitants demand repression. But, perhaps, with a new urgency.
Mark Steyn, of National Review, contemplates the demographic and spiritual doom of Europe.
Having duly noted the dippy newage beliefs and practices of some post-Christian "spiritual" folks in the West, Steyn notes:
I’ve been a demography bore for years now — pointing out how aging childless French, Belgian, and Dutch populations are surrendering their turf to young fecund Muslims — but, at the risk of piling too many doomsday scenarios atop one another, it’s worth noting that Islam is advancing not just by outbreeding but also by conversion....Will we live to see the imposition of sharia law in western Europe, either by demographically-driven popular vote or through intimidation, a la Yeats' famous poem? ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.")
The ... “reverts” — as Islam calls converts — are not merely the Muslim equivalents of the Richard Gere Buddhists and Tom Cruise Scientologists but the vanguard of something bigger. As English and Belgian and Scandinavian cities Islamify, their inhabitants will face a choice between living as a minority and joining the majority: Not all but many will opt for the latter. At the very minimum, Islam will meet the same test as the hippy-dippy solstice worship does in Vermont: It will seem environmentally appropriate. For many young men, it already provides the sense of identity that the vapid nullity of multiculturalism disdains to offer.
As for the gals, I was startled in successive weeks to hear from both Dutch and English acquaintances that they’ve begun going out “covered.” The Dutch lady lives in a rough part of Amsterdam and says, when you’re on the street in Islamic garb, the Muslim men smile at you respectfully instead of jeering at you as an infidel whore. The English lady lives in a swank part of London but says pretty much the same thing. Both felt there was not just a physical but a psychological security in being dressed Muslim. They’re not “reverts,” but, at least for the purposes of padding the public space, they’re passing for Muslim in public....
Steyn goes on to suggest that Pope Benedict (the former archconservative Cardinal Ratzinger) "foresees dark days ahead and his job as being to save European Catholicism". (European Protestantism, sadly, isn't up to the challenge, in Steyn's opinion.)
Is it really so paranoid to wonder whether the growing numbers of Muslims in Europe will demand the imposition of their form of theocracy if and when they get enough political pull to do so, as suggested by Bat Ye'or in her book Eurabia?
It's a new form of the old question about whether a tolerant and free society can survive when large numbers of its inhabitants demand repression. But, perhaps, with a new urgency.
The latest FBI fishing expedition
They apparently want to rummage through the personal papers of Jack Anderson, the late investigative reporter, and grab up anything that's embarrassing to the Bush administration.... er, I mean, Classified. (Classified at the time, I wonder, or retroactively classified to hide Republican screwups?)
Read all about it here. (Or here, or here, etc.)
Many years ago, as a public school student, I wrote a paper which my grandmother (proudly?) showed to her brother, an employee of... well, I probably shouldn't name that agency. Anyway. He found it very interesting, according to a conversation we had years later. Apparently I had managed to describe things in my school paper which were officially "classified information". "The only way I could figure it," he said, "was that you probably found some of Jack Anderson's columns where he had discussed this stuff."
I wonder what they're really after.
They apparently want to rummage through the personal papers of Jack Anderson, the late investigative reporter, and grab up anything that's embarrassing to the Bush administration.... er, I mean, Classified. (Classified at the time, I wonder, or retroactively classified to hide Republican screwups?)
Read all about it here. (Or here, or here, etc.)
Many years ago, as a public school student, I wrote a paper which my grandmother (proudly?) showed to her brother, an employee of... well, I probably shouldn't name that agency. Anyway. He found it very interesting, according to a conversation we had years later. Apparently I had managed to describe things in my school paper which were officially "classified information". "The only way I could figure it," he said, "was that you probably found some of Jack Anderson's columns where he had discussed this stuff."
I wonder what they're really after.
The wonders of technology
Someone remind me. Just why, exactly, is mandatory digital TV supposed to be good for us?
Phillips patents technology to force ad viewing
Someone remind me. Just why, exactly, is mandatory digital TV supposed to be good for us?
Phillips patents technology to force ad viewing
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Life imitates art
In Robert Grudin's academic satire, Book, there's a scene in which a fatuous professor of literary theory, one "E.F. Taupe", files a complaint that another professor's book has "intellectually raped" her by exposing her to ideas which she dislikes.
Comes now the faculty of the Mansfield campus of Ohio State University, which last month voted unanimously to investigate reference and instruction librarian Scott Savage for alleged harassment based on sexual orientation. Savage is a member of a conservative Quaker group and the author of two books about living simply and avoiding unnecessary use of technology, one of which (A Plain Life) I've read and enjoyed. It appears that he has come to a somewhat eclectic meeting of the minds with technology, on the one hand using e'mail and other electronic resources in his job, but on the other hand commuting to that job by horse-drawn buggy instead of automobile.
His crime? As a member of a campus committee tasked with recommending books for first-year students to read, he recommended four controversial books by politically conservative authors. Savage reportedly stated that other books suggested for the list reflected a liberal political bias, one that he wished to counterbalance. One of the books he suggested was The Marketing of Evil, by the editor of WorldNetDaily, a popular right-wing news webpage. It reportedly criticizes homosexuality as one of the "evils" endangering modern society.
At least one previous recommendation by Mr. Savage, Freakonomics, was turned down for not being controversial enough, not likely enough to spur debate. It's safe to say that this batch of suggestions didn't have that flaw. In response to his book suggestions, three OSU faculty members filed a complaint of harassment against Mr. Savage, claiming that his recommendation that students read these four books made them feel "unsafe" and "threatened".
Various conservative webpages and weblogs have discussed the matter over the past couple of days. For more details, see here, here, here, etc. Fiend has pointed out to me that most of the sources covering the story appear to have a conservative bias. This might be a result of conscious bias on the part of liberal commentators, but it seems more likely that it's a result of information about the situation being disseminated through conservative news alerts and advocacy groups who saw one of their own academic oxen being gored. (It appears that Mr. Savage appealed for aid to at least one such group when it became clear that he was the target of a leftist academic lynch mob.)
If liberal commentators have knowingly failed to discuss the matter, it's a black mark against them, not agasint Savage or the validity of his position. Right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who reports it.
Now as it happenes, this has lately become a moot point... at least for the present. It seems that after considering the matter, OSU officially cleared Mr. Savage of wrongdoing. The timing of this decision, though, casts some doubt on its motivation. It came one day after a conservative advocacy group went public with the story. (Note: the comments following this article make for very interesting reading, not least because they include Mr. Savage's take on the events.) Savage, and others in similar positions, can only wonder whether the university, in the absence of a glaring spotlight of politically-tinged publicity, would have simply "put him away privily". It remains to be seen whether OSU will target him for retaliation later on, when the spotlight has moved elsewhere. Especially if he does not enjoy the privilege of academic tenure.
My take: the books recommended by Savage, especially The Marketing of Evil, may be of dubious academic merit, but recommending that people read them doesn't constitute "harassment" of anybody. Especially when the express purpose of the recommendations was to spark discussion and debate, which could easily include critiquing the books' flaws and biases. The OSU faculty's treatment of Savage is embarrassingly bigoted.
In Robert Grudin's academic satire, Book, there's a scene in which a fatuous professor of literary theory, one "E.F. Taupe", files a complaint that another professor's book has "intellectually raped" her by exposing her to ideas which she dislikes.
Comes now the faculty of the Mansfield campus of Ohio State University, which last month voted unanimously to investigate reference and instruction librarian Scott Savage for alleged harassment based on sexual orientation. Savage is a member of a conservative Quaker group and the author of two books about living simply and avoiding unnecessary use of technology, one of which (A Plain Life) I've read and enjoyed. It appears that he has come to a somewhat eclectic meeting of the minds with technology, on the one hand using e'mail and other electronic resources in his job, but on the other hand commuting to that job by horse-drawn buggy instead of automobile.
His crime? As a member of a campus committee tasked with recommending books for first-year students to read, he recommended four controversial books by politically conservative authors. Savage reportedly stated that other books suggested for the list reflected a liberal political bias, one that he wished to counterbalance. One of the books he suggested was The Marketing of Evil, by the editor of WorldNetDaily, a popular right-wing news webpage. It reportedly criticizes homosexuality as one of the "evils" endangering modern society.
At least one previous recommendation by Mr. Savage, Freakonomics, was turned down for not being controversial enough, not likely enough to spur debate. It's safe to say that this batch of suggestions didn't have that flaw. In response to his book suggestions, three OSU faculty members filed a complaint of harassment against Mr. Savage, claiming that his recommendation that students read these four books made them feel "unsafe" and "threatened".
Various conservative webpages and weblogs have discussed the matter over the past couple of days. For more details, see here, here, here, etc. Fiend has pointed out to me that most of the sources covering the story appear to have a conservative bias. This might be a result of conscious bias on the part of liberal commentators, but it seems more likely that it's a result of information about the situation being disseminated through conservative news alerts and advocacy groups who saw one of their own academic oxen being gored. (It appears that Mr. Savage appealed for aid to at least one such group when it became clear that he was the target of a leftist academic lynch mob.)
If liberal commentators have knowingly failed to discuss the matter, it's a black mark against them, not agasint Savage or the validity of his position. Right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who reports it.
Now as it happenes, this has lately become a moot point... at least for the present. It seems that after considering the matter, OSU officially cleared Mr. Savage of wrongdoing. The timing of this decision, though, casts some doubt on its motivation. It came one day after a conservative advocacy group went public with the story. (Note: the comments following this article make for very interesting reading, not least because they include Mr. Savage's take on the events.) Savage, and others in similar positions, can only wonder whether the university, in the absence of a glaring spotlight of politically-tinged publicity, would have simply "put him away privily". It remains to be seen whether OSU will target him for retaliation later on, when the spotlight has moved elsewhere. Especially if he does not enjoy the privilege of academic tenure.
My take: the books recommended by Savage, especially The Marketing of Evil, may be of dubious academic merit, but recommending that people read them doesn't constitute "harassment" of anybody. Especially when the express purpose of the recommendations was to spark discussion and debate, which could easily include critiquing the books' flaws and biases. The OSU faculty's treatment of Savage is embarrassingly bigoted.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Struwwelpeter on the web!
In the course of commenting on another blog, I noticed that Struwwelpeter, which I discussed in a previous post, is (at least partly) available on the web. Check out The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches. My favorite! (Mmm. Crispy!... )
In the course of commenting on another blog, I noticed that Struwwelpeter, which I discussed in a previous post, is (at least partly) available on the web. Check out The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches. My favorite! (Mmm. Crispy!... )
Who is your constituent?
In a recent nationally-distributed fundraising letter, Katherine Harris, the Republican apparatchik who used her position in the government of Florida to influence the 2000 election in favor of her boss's brother, has unwittingly revealed the basic nature of today's Congress. In between sycophantic solicitations for payment, she promises that "When elected to the United States Senate, I will represent ALL conservatives." (emphasis in original.)
Now forgive me for being naive. But I was under the impression that it was the duty of Senators and Representatives to represent the residents of their designated districts. You know, the people who actually vote in the elections. Even the undecided moderates and those who are not card-carrying, blood-oath-swearing members of one's own political party. Not so, according to Harris and many other politicos. Their duty as they see it is to serve the interests of the national or extra-national interests who pay them.
In other words, Katherine Harris is more interested in supporting the interests of someone on the other side of the country who wishes to buy her vote, or to promote some kind of perceived national conservative agenda, than in the interests of mere insignificant voters in Jacksonville or Miami or Apalachicola.
The day when we actually and openly have Congresscritters openly representing partisan organizations, corporations and churches, rather than voters who inhabit actual geographic districts, may be upon us sooner than we think. But, as long as we actually go through the motions of conducting elections, the good folks in Florida still have the final say, and they may balk at the prospect of being "represented" by someone who displays such fundamental unconcern for their local interests. The Lakeland, Florida Ledger notes, in an editorial entitled Katherine Harris Should Step Aside, that "Strong as Harris remains with Florida Republicans, she is extraordinarily weak with Democratic and independent voters."
Gee. I wonder why that might be.
In a recent nationally-distributed fundraising letter, Katherine Harris, the Republican apparatchik who used her position in the government of Florida to influence the 2000 election in favor of her boss's brother, has unwittingly revealed the basic nature of today's Congress. In between sycophantic solicitations for payment, she promises that "When elected to the United States Senate, I will represent ALL conservatives." (emphasis in original.)
Now forgive me for being naive. But I was under the impression that it was the duty of Senators and Representatives to represent the residents of their designated districts. You know, the people who actually vote in the elections. Even the undecided moderates and those who are not card-carrying, blood-oath-swearing members of one's own political party. Not so, according to Harris and many other politicos. Their duty as they see it is to serve the interests of the national or extra-national interests who pay them.
In other words, Katherine Harris is more interested in supporting the interests of someone on the other side of the country who wishes to buy her vote, or to promote some kind of perceived national conservative agenda, than in the interests of mere insignificant voters in Jacksonville or Miami or Apalachicola.
The day when we actually and openly have Congresscritters openly representing partisan organizations, corporations and churches, rather than voters who inhabit actual geographic districts, may be upon us sooner than we think. But, as long as we actually go through the motions of conducting elections, the good folks in Florida still have the final say, and they may balk at the prospect of being "represented" by someone who displays such fundamental unconcern for their local interests. The Lakeland, Florida Ledger notes, in an editorial entitled Katherine Harris Should Step Aside, that "Strong as Harris remains with Florida Republicans, she is extraordinarily weak with Democratic and independent voters."
Gee. I wonder why that might be.
Recent Reads : Shared Fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds, by Gary Alan Fine.
Pablo and I have sometimes been wont to theorize, speculate and otherwise wax garrulous on the social and psychological significance of role-playing games in the world at large and in and the lives of those who play them. Apparently we aren't the first to do so.
Way back in the ancient age of 1977-1979, Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, decided to observe and report on this strange subculture which had just reared its head among the wargamers and college students of the country. For approximately two years he participated in both isolated gaming sessions and extended campaigns in and around the university, and interviewed players and referees. This book, published in 1983 and reissued in paperback in 2002 by the University of Chicago Press, reports his observations and interpretations.
The first chapter is a useful short history of the development of role-playing games, concentrating on the development of Dungeons & Dragons from earlier military simulations but also touching upon other games such as Traveller, Chivalry & Sorcery, and U of Minnesota professor M.A.R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne. Subsequent chapters discuss the observed characteristics of players and referees, observations about their interactions both as characters (within the game) and as players (outside the game), and a more detailed examination of Barker's Tekumel, the imagined world of Empire of the Petal Throne. Since Barker's long-running game campaign set in Tekumel is something of a legend among gamers, this in itself is worth the price of the book.
I was somewhat disturbed by the outright attitudes of sadism and misogyny displayed by some player characters described by Fine in part of chapter two. However, it's consistent with what I observed among some players when I was in high school. Perhaps it's inevitable that when adolescent males are given the opportunity to vicariously act on whatever fantasy they please, fantasies of power and sex unrestrained by responsibility, morality or long-term personal involvement come to the fore. It may be that the relatively young ages of the players observed by Fine had something to do with this. (He comments at one point on the disruption wrought when the median age of a certain gaming group dropped from 20 to 15.)
Fine also describes, in later chapters, the greater degree of personal and dramatic involvement displayed by older players, especially with regard to role-playing aspects of a characters' personality which are harmful to the character's prospects of "winning", and otherwise becoming engrossed in the game world as a complex imagined secondary reality instead of "just" a game to be played for immediate entertainment or simplistic wish-fulfilment. This, again, is consistent with my own experiences. The last gaming campaign in which I was involved was in a mixed group of men and women, all of whom were in their mid to late twenties and most of whom were members of a conservative church. All of these characteristics are atypical according to Fine's observations from the groups he observed. In this long-running campaign, there was far less concentration on hack-and-slash fighting, and far more concentration on the building of long-term storylines involving personal and political relationships than in previous games I'd encountered.
I wonder if the same kind of shift has occurred on a wider scale, and if so, how it may have affected the "typical" behavior of RPG players. This assumes, of course, that there is a homogenous group of "typical" gamers to be measured, an assumption which may no longer be true as role-playing games have evolved out of their original niche among military wargamers, passed through the demimonde of bored college students' entertainment, and metastasized throughout the world of popular culture and science-fiction and fantasy fandom.
Pablo and I have sometimes been wont to theorize, speculate and otherwise wax garrulous on the social and psychological significance of role-playing games in the world at large and in and the lives of those who play them. Apparently we aren't the first to do so.
Way back in the ancient age of 1977-1979, Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, decided to observe and report on this strange subculture which had just reared its head among the wargamers and college students of the country. For approximately two years he participated in both isolated gaming sessions and extended campaigns in and around the university, and interviewed players and referees. This book, published in 1983 and reissued in paperback in 2002 by the University of Chicago Press, reports his observations and interpretations.
The first chapter is a useful short history of the development of role-playing games, concentrating on the development of Dungeons & Dragons from earlier military simulations but also touching upon other games such as Traveller, Chivalry & Sorcery, and U of Minnesota professor M.A.R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne. Subsequent chapters discuss the observed characteristics of players and referees, observations about their interactions both as characters (within the game) and as players (outside the game), and a more detailed examination of Barker's Tekumel, the imagined world of Empire of the Petal Throne. Since Barker's long-running game campaign set in Tekumel is something of a legend among gamers, this in itself is worth the price of the book.
I was somewhat disturbed by the outright attitudes of sadism and misogyny displayed by some player characters described by Fine in part of chapter two. However, it's consistent with what I observed among some players when I was in high school. Perhaps it's inevitable that when adolescent males are given the opportunity to vicariously act on whatever fantasy they please, fantasies of power and sex unrestrained by responsibility, morality or long-term personal involvement come to the fore. It may be that the relatively young ages of the players observed by Fine had something to do with this. (He comments at one point on the disruption wrought when the median age of a certain gaming group dropped from 20 to 15.)
Fine also describes, in later chapters, the greater degree of personal and dramatic involvement displayed by older players, especially with regard to role-playing aspects of a characters' personality which are harmful to the character's prospects of "winning", and otherwise becoming engrossed in the game world as a complex imagined secondary reality instead of "just" a game to be played for immediate entertainment or simplistic wish-fulfilment. This, again, is consistent with my own experiences. The last gaming campaign in which I was involved was in a mixed group of men and women, all of whom were in their mid to late twenties and most of whom were members of a conservative church. All of these characteristics are atypical according to Fine's observations from the groups he observed. In this long-running campaign, there was far less concentration on hack-and-slash fighting, and far more concentration on the building of long-term storylines involving personal and political relationships than in previous games I'd encountered.
I wonder if the same kind of shift has occurred on a wider scale, and if so, how it may have affected the "typical" behavior of RPG players. This assumes, of course, that there is a homogenous group of "typical" gamers to be measured, an assumption which may no longer be true as role-playing games have evolved out of their original niche among military wargamers, passed through the demimonde of bored college students' entertainment, and metastasized throughout the world of popular culture and science-fiction and fantasy fandom.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Recent Reads : Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler
Without particularly trying to, I seem to have stumbled into a rut of reading apocalyptic fiction lately. When Octavia Butler died recently, I was prompted to pick up one of her novels and read it. I had heard of her for years, but did not actually pick up one of her books until now.
As suggested above, it's apocalyptic in tone and substance, but it's a different kind of apocalypse. Each of the books I mentioned while discussing Califia's Daughters recently is based on the premise that some externally-generated catastrophe -- a nuclear war, a super-potent plague, etc. -- brought civilization crashing down.
Butler eschews such drama in favor of a much darker and more disturbing prospect. In her story, civilization is not overwhelmed by massive wars, natural disasters or fatalities, but simply withers away through lack of any organized will to sustain it. The dystopian nightmare she proposes bears some resemblance to the America being brought into being by the policies of the modern-day Republican Party and the "shrink government until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub" theories of Grover Norquist.
The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is the daughter of a preacher who has organized a group of families into a walled, protected community while all around them, public services and infrastructure have, over the years, decayed into rampant corruption and functional collapse. The ultra-rich live in their barricaded fortresses; the corporations have fortified compounds; the poor live a hardscrabble, animalistic life of violence and starvation amid acres of burned-out building shells and collapsed highways. The middle class, already reduced to living in communal groups like primitive villagers, is being, quite literally, exterminated through lack of economic opportunity on the one hand and constant violent assault by desperate thieves and deranged drug addicts on the other.
Lauren, due to the prenatal effects of an experimental drug that her mother took, is cursed with the gift of hyperempathy, the ability to literally feel others' pain. This, and the stresses of the increasingly desperate life she's forced to live, push her to develop a philosophy, or religion, upon which she hopes to found a new kind of society. Personally, I found the "Earthseed" passages in the book, which describe her poetry and philosophy, to be the least interesting and least compelling, although the inconclusive ending of the novel suggests that a community founded on these principles may be the subject of a sequel. I was fascinated by the nightmarish disintegration of society as depicted by Butler, and her characters' attempts to ward off disaster and survive. Perhaps I'm just a Philistine who prefers tales of Thrilling Adventure! to gentler philosophical explorations of more positive prospects.
Without particularly trying to, I seem to have stumbled into a rut of reading apocalyptic fiction lately. When Octavia Butler died recently, I was prompted to pick up one of her novels and read it. I had heard of her for years, but did not actually pick up one of her books until now.
As suggested above, it's apocalyptic in tone and substance, but it's a different kind of apocalypse. Each of the books I mentioned while discussing Califia's Daughters recently is based on the premise that some externally-generated catastrophe -- a nuclear war, a super-potent plague, etc. -- brought civilization crashing down.
Butler eschews such drama in favor of a much darker and more disturbing prospect. In her story, civilization is not overwhelmed by massive wars, natural disasters or fatalities, but simply withers away through lack of any organized will to sustain it. The dystopian nightmare she proposes bears some resemblance to the America being brought into being by the policies of the modern-day Republican Party and the "shrink government until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub" theories of Grover Norquist.
The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is the daughter of a preacher who has organized a group of families into a walled, protected community while all around them, public services and infrastructure have, over the years, decayed into rampant corruption and functional collapse. The ultra-rich live in their barricaded fortresses; the corporations have fortified compounds; the poor live a hardscrabble, animalistic life of violence and starvation amid acres of burned-out building shells and collapsed highways. The middle class, already reduced to living in communal groups like primitive villagers, is being, quite literally, exterminated through lack of economic opportunity on the one hand and constant violent assault by desperate thieves and deranged drug addicts on the other.
Lauren, due to the prenatal effects of an experimental drug that her mother took, is cursed with the gift of hyperempathy, the ability to literally feel others' pain. This, and the stresses of the increasingly desperate life she's forced to live, push her to develop a philosophy, or religion, upon which she hopes to found a new kind of society. Personally, I found the "Earthseed" passages in the book, which describe her poetry and philosophy, to be the least interesting and least compelling, although the inconclusive ending of the novel suggests that a community founded on these principles may be the subject of a sequel. I was fascinated by the nightmarish disintegration of society as depicted by Butler, and her characters' attempts to ward off disaster and survive. Perhaps I'm just a Philistine who prefers tales of Thrilling Adventure! to gentler philosophical explorations of more positive prospects.
Thanks, Dorothea, whoever you are.
There are days when scanning the output of the blogosphere is just an extended waste of time. Today's not one of those days, thanks to the keeper of Caveat Lector. Her description of Durufle's "Requiem" is intriguing enough to persuade me to try out a classical composer I've never heard of before, and she -- like Jessamyn over at www.librarian.net -- hits the nail on the head regarding the ALA's obscenely silly campaign to get retired librarians to work for free.
There are days when scanning the output of the blogosphere is just an extended waste of time. Today's not one of those days, thanks to the keeper of Caveat Lector. Her description of Durufle's "Requiem" is intriguing enough to persuade me to try out a classical composer I've never heard of before, and she -- like Jessamyn over at www.librarian.net -- hits the nail on the head regarding the ALA's obscenely silly campaign to get retired librarians to work for free.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Recent Reads: The Star Woman, by H. Bedford-Jones
Pirates in Canada!
I requested this book by interlibrary loan after it was mentioned on a fiction-magazine listserv. It turns out to be a very strange but entertaining pulpish tale of an Englishman who has renounced all allegiance to king, country, and church, and sets forth into the frigid seas and untracked wilderness of northern America during the period when French, British, independent freebooters, and various warring native tribes all contended for control over its lucrative fur trade.
The first part of the book takes place along the seashore and aboard ship as our raffish hero, one Hal Crawford, proclaims his disinterest in worldly allegiances and his independence from political states:
Affiliating himself with a piratical crew in quest of a lost Spanish treasure-galleon, he becomes embroiled in all manner of derring-do. Despite displaying great talent as a pirate, he eventually comes ashore, always striving westward toward his self-appointed destiny. Both hostile and friendly native tribes and fellow Europeans stand between him and his goal, as well as vast forests and one or two surprising strangers. Deceit, betrayal, courage, death, desperate fights and startling revelations, all for desire of the mysterious Star Woman he's never seen. It's a bit like "Captain Blood Meets Black Robe."
Great pulpy fun, although late in the narrative it becomes somewhat difficult to tell who's on which ship, who's on which side, and who's betraying whom.
Editorial note, 4/10: Thanks to fabulous Fiend for this informative brief article about H. Bedford-Jones, the "King of the Pulps". He seems to have been quite a prolific fellow.
Pirates in Canada!
I requested this book by interlibrary loan after it was mentioned on a fiction-magazine listserv. It turns out to be a very strange but entertaining pulpish tale of an Englishman who has renounced all allegiance to king, country, and church, and sets forth into the frigid seas and untracked wilderness of northern America during the period when French, British, independent freebooters, and various warring native tribes all contended for control over its lucrative fur trade.
The first part of the book takes place along the seashore and aboard ship as our raffish hero, one Hal Crawford, proclaims his disinterest in worldly allegiances and his independence from political states:
"I have perceived the fallacy of giving allegiance to another man and fighting for him. I shall now fight for myself alone.... "Our rakish hero, having thus renounced all worldly allegiances and ambitions, comes into possession of a strange, star-shaped medallion. Hearing rumors of a mysterious "Star Woman" who lives among the Indian tribes of the western forests and is revered by them, he takes it upon himself to seek her out. His destiny, he decides in fine fey romantic style, lies "beyond the horizon," and the devil take all who stand in his way.
Why should I fight for money? Why should I rob and murder in order to take other men's money and goods?"...
"You are certainly mad!"
"No," said Crawford. "I am free."
Affiliating himself with a piratical crew in quest of a lost Spanish treasure-galleon, he becomes embroiled in all manner of derring-do. Despite displaying great talent as a pirate, he eventually comes ashore, always striving westward toward his self-appointed destiny. Both hostile and friendly native tribes and fellow Europeans stand between him and his goal, as well as vast forests and one or two surprising strangers. Deceit, betrayal, courage, death, desperate fights and startling revelations, all for desire of the mysterious Star Woman he's never seen. It's a bit like "Captain Blood Meets Black Robe."
Great pulpy fun, although late in the narrative it becomes somewhat difficult to tell who's on which ship, who's on which side, and who's betraying whom.
Editorial note, 4/10: Thanks to fabulous Fiend for this informative brief article about H. Bedford-Jones, the "King of the Pulps". He seems to have been quite a prolific fellow.
"'Henry can't come to the phone,' his wife is said to have reported. 'He's working on a novel.'
"'I'll hold on until he's finished,' said the caller.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
On religious requirements for jobs
I keep noticing job postings from religious institutions, most of which strongly suggest that applicants better be faithful and devout members of the One True Church, OR ELSE.
A question for ethical discussion: would it be unethical to pretend great enthusiasm for the Second Reformed Holy-Rollin' Double-Dipped Sanctified-in-the-Blood Church of the Whatever in order to get a full time job with a living wage?
Any halfway competent librarian can research a denomination well enough to pretend to be at least casually acquainted with its beliefs and practices. One would have to count time spent faking an interest in its worship services as simply an unpaid job requirement.
After all, the Elmer Gantries of the world do quite well for themselves. Why should I exclude myself from success and riches?
I keep noticing job postings from religious institutions, most of which strongly suggest that applicants better be faithful and devout members of the One True Church, OR ELSE.
A question for ethical discussion: would it be unethical to pretend great enthusiasm for the Second Reformed Holy-Rollin' Double-Dipped Sanctified-in-the-Blood Church of the Whatever in order to get a full time job with a living wage?
Any halfway competent librarian can research a denomination well enough to pretend to be at least casually acquainted with its beliefs and practices. One would have to count time spent faking an interest in its worship services as simply an unpaid job requirement.
After all, the Elmer Gantries of the world do quite well for themselves. Why should I exclude myself from success and riches?
Thursday, April 06, 2006
The Plame Game: the moment of truth
White House spokesperson, Sept. 29, 2003:
"[T]here's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement...."
"I've made it clear that there's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the Vice President's office, as well. When I'm talking about the White House, I'm talking about the Vice President's office as well....
Q: "You continue to talk about the severity of this and if anyone has any information they should go forward to the Justice Department. But can you tell us, since it's so severe, would someone or a group of persons, lose their job in the White House --
"At a minimum."
Q: "At a minimum?
"At a minimum."
George W. Bush, Sept. 30, 2003:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.... [L]eaks of classified information are a bad thing."
Now that the world knows who was ultimately responsible for leaked classified information identifying a CIA operative and her network of sources, will the President keep his word?
After all, he's such a good Christian man and all....
White House spokesperson, Sept. 29, 2003:
"[T]here's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement...."
"I've made it clear that there's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the Vice President's office, as well. When I'm talking about the White House, I'm talking about the Vice President's office as well....
Q: "You continue to talk about the severity of this and if anyone has any information they should go forward to the Justice Department. But can you tell us, since it's so severe, would someone or a group of persons, lose their job in the White House --
"At a minimum."
Q: "At a minimum?
"At a minimum."
George W. Bush, Sept. 30, 2003:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.... [L]eaks of classified information are a bad thing."
Now that the world knows who was ultimately responsible for leaked classified information identifying a CIA operative and her network of sources, will the President keep his word?
After all, he's such a good Christian man and all....
Latest Republican political tactic:
Sending amateur thugs to disrupt dissenting political meetings and push women around.
No joke.
Reported by "Juanita", of The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon. Also picked up by DailyKos, Wonkette and others.
Let's call this what it is. They're brownshirts, a la Adolf Hitler. Amateur thugs incited to go beat up dissenters and disrupt the activities of opposing political groups. The Republican party is quite openly adopting the tactics of the Nazi Party, and Americans have no one but themselves to blame if they fail to get the hint.
It remains to be seen whether the local prosecutor will file charges and whether the police will follow through on them.
Sending amateur thugs to disrupt dissenting political meetings and push women around.
No joke.
Reported by "Juanita", of The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon. Also picked up by DailyKos, Wonkette and others.
Let's call this what it is. They're brownshirts, a la Adolf Hitler. Amateur thugs incited to go beat up dissenters and disrupt the activities of opposing political groups. The Republican party is quite openly adopting the tactics of the Nazi Party, and Americans have no one but themselves to blame if they fail to get the hint.
It remains to be seen whether the local prosecutor will file charges and whether the police will follow through on them.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Briefly noted
Donkeys better than wives, says Indian textbook.
The Mad Bookseller opines about ABE's promotional bookmarks, and the Freeper reaction to them.
Smithsonian Institute privatizes access to its archives.
An amusing piece of experimental fiction in the form of a series of check stubs.
Donkeys better than wives, says Indian textbook.
The Mad Bookseller opines about ABE's promotional bookmarks, and the Freeper reaction to them.
Smithsonian Institute privatizes access to its archives.
An amusing piece of experimental fiction in the form of a series of check stubs.
Another documentary I'd like to see...
... if it were available.
Pulp Fiction Art : Cheap Thrills and Painted Nightmares
On a related topic: I recently watched a documentary on Frank Frazetta, the famous/notorious creator of many pulpish book and magazine covers. I suppose it should not surprise me that a documentary of the artist's life was somewhat less thrilling than the scenes depicted in his work. The film producers, unfortunately, had chosen to use, and over-use, the rather gimmicky device of using computer imaging to 'animate' some of his works. The first time it appeared, in the form of a three-dimensionalized version of one of his Conan paintings, it was mildly startling. The second and later times were simply annoying.
Ah well. The documentary neither adds to nor subtracts from Frazetta's paintings. Like 'em or not.
... if it were available.
Pulp Fiction Art : Cheap Thrills and Painted Nightmares
On a related topic: I recently watched a documentary on Frank Frazetta, the famous/notorious creator of many pulpish book and magazine covers. I suppose it should not surprise me that a documentary of the artist's life was somewhat less thrilling than the scenes depicted in his work. The film producers, unfortunately, had chosen to use, and over-use, the rather gimmicky device of using computer imaging to 'animate' some of his works. The first time it appeared, in the form of a three-dimensionalized version of one of his Conan paintings, it was mildly startling. The second and later times were simply annoying.
Ah well. The documentary neither adds to nor subtracts from Frazetta's paintings. Like 'em or not.
01:02:03, 04/05/06
It's coming up early tomorrow morning. It will only happen once in this century. Celebrate however you please.
Fiend has pointed out to me that for those who follow the British convention of listing day/month/year rather than month/day/year, this happy occasion will not arrive until May 4th. (She also pointed out that the year is really 2006 rather than "06", but I refuse to listen to such tedious hairsplitting!)
Unfortunately, I don't think I have time to start an apocalyptic cult of people who will sign all their earthly possessions over to me in anticipation of the world ending on this momentous occasion.
It's coming up early tomorrow morning. It will only happen once in this century. Celebrate however you please.
Fiend has pointed out to me that for those who follow the British convention of listing day/month/year rather than month/day/year, this happy occasion will not arrive until May 4th. (She also pointed out that the year is really 2006 rather than "06", but I refuse to listen to such tedious hairsplitting!)
Unfortunately, I don't think I have time to start an apocalyptic cult of people who will sign all their earthly possessions over to me in anticipation of the world ending on this momentous occasion.
Animal acts
Superior Township, just north of the crime-ridden little slum where I used to live, seems to have developed problems of its own.
Between the rampant theft, robbery and sexual assaults in Ypsilanti, sadists in Superior, and the various thieves and perverts who frequent the libraries, I'm becoming more and more convinced that taking the old saying about homes and castles literally may be the only way to live without being perpetually victimized. Unfortunately, people who work for their living rather than stealing it from others a la Bush, Cheney, Kenny Lay, et al, can't afford castles.
(For a sample of Ypsilanti's lovely environment, check out this fellow's resume.)
Superior Township, just north of the crime-ridden little slum where I used to live, seems to have developed problems of its own.
Between the rampant theft, robbery and sexual assaults in Ypsilanti, sadists in Superior, and the various thieves and perverts who frequent the libraries, I'm becoming more and more convinced that taking the old saying about homes and castles literally may be the only way to live without being perpetually victimized. Unfortunately, people who work for their living rather than stealing it from others a la Bush, Cheney, Kenny Lay, et al, can't afford castles.
(For a sample of Ypsilanti's lovely environment, check out this fellow's resume.)
Monday, April 03, 2006
"I got a one track mind,
going down a one train line
Living on dreams half the time
Going west...."
From Fortune magazine, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, a regional railroad formed from routes discarded by the Chicago & North Western and other class-I mainlines, is poised to expand into the lucrative Powder River coalfield. (A map of the DM&E and its affiliated connections can be found here.)
Hm. If I had any money, and if the company were public, I might consider putting a little money into it just so I could say I owned a piece of the first major US railroad construction project in half a century. Not to mention the dicey hope of cashing in on a combination of government loans and rising fuel prices. (No one should take this as investment advice, though; I'm far too ignorant about financial matters for that.)
(Note: Yes, I stole the title of this post from Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It seemed appropriate.)
going down a one train line
Living on dreams half the time
Going west...."
From Fortune magazine, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, a regional railroad formed from routes discarded by the Chicago & North Western and other class-I mainlines, is poised to expand into the lucrative Powder River coalfield. (A map of the DM&E and its affiliated connections can be found here.)
Hm. If I had any money, and if the company were public, I might consider putting a little money into it just so I could say I owned a piece of the first major US railroad construction project in half a century. Not to mention the dicey hope of cashing in on a combination of government loans and rising fuel prices. (No one should take this as investment advice, though; I'm far too ignorant about financial matters for that.)
(Note: Yes, I stole the title of this post from Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It seemed appropriate.)
In case you ever wondered:
According to a recent listserv posting from one of the principals of Norstrilia Press, the correct pronunciation of Cordwainer Smith's dry, dusty planet of sick sheep and fabulously wealthy farmers is "Nor-strile-ya".
Quoth Bruce Gillespie:
According to a recent listserv posting from one of the principals of Norstrilia Press, the correct pronunciation of Cordwainer Smith's dry, dusty planet of sick sheep and fabulously wealthy farmers is "Nor-strile-ya".
Quoth Bruce Gillespie:
The contention was that, in using the term Norstrilia, Linebarger invented 'Strine' (the language that Australians actually speak) well before Professor Afferbeck Lauder (= 'alphabetical order') published 'Let Stalk Strine' in 1966.
The other contention is that Linebarger's satire of Australia in the early sixties in Norstrilia is dead-on. Gillian Polack at last year's Continuum convention in Melbourne pointed out that Linebarger's description of Norstrilia is an exact description of Canberra as it was at the time. It is not (as I assumed) merely a generalised description of northern, outback Australia, but shows how Canberra was a national capital set up among grazing and agricultural properties.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
From a volume of Cicero's orations, opened at random:
XXIII. So that even if you have any one who may appear able to cope in terms of advantage with the king's armies, still, unless he be also a man who can keep his hands, and eyes, and desires from the treasures of the allies, from their wives and children, from the ornaments of their temples and cities, from the gold and jewels of the king, he will not be a fit person to be sent to this Asiatic and royal war. Do you think that there is any city there peacefully inclined towards us which is rich? Do you think that there is any rich city there, which will appear to those men to be peacefully inclined towards us? The sea-coast, o Romans, begged for Cnaeus Pompeius, not only on account of his renown for military achievements, but also because of the moderation of his disposition. For it saw that it was not the Roman people that was enriched every year by the public money, but only a few individuals, and that we did nothing more by the name of our fleets beyond sustaining losses, and so covering ourselves with additional disgrace....
Now reading....
The Sorrows of Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. For a quick overview of Johnson's views on the US's ever-expanding military "footprint", see this article.
The Sorrows of Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. For a quick overview of Johnson's views on the US's ever-expanding military "footprint", see this article.
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