Peace, order and good government, eh?: Reserving judgement for now
POGGE has the links for the inquiry testimony and also some wise advice: "What people are reacting to is hearsay and anonymous second-hand reporting on testimony from someone who's facing criminal charges and apparently decided to sing like a bird. He may have told the truth and he may have tried to spread the blame as widely as possible. I'm inclined to reserve judgement until things settle down and we get some decent, sourced reporting on what's going on."
But it does sound pretty bad for the liberals.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Saturday, April 02, 2005
This be the verse
I didn't realize until I read Amanda's Pandagon post at Feminist Blogs, but April is National Poetry Month.
Now, I've been waiting for an excuse to put this poem on my blog. It's not personal -- actually, my own parents didn't do too badly by me, and neither did my husbands, though of course we both have some loveable quirks to this very day! And our kids still like us, as far as we can tell. But I think its a great poem, nonetheless:
This Be The Verse - Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Now, I've been waiting for an excuse to put this poem on my blog. It's not personal -- actually, my own parents didn't do too badly by me, and neither did my husbands, though of course we both have some loveable quirks to this very day! And our kids still like us, as far as we can tell. But I think its a great poem, nonetheless:
This Be The Verse - Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Good Bad Ugly
Just a quick roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly:
Good - "Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to. No delays. No hassles. No lectures." Illinois Pharmacies Ordered to Provide Birth Control
Bad - "Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well." DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts
Good - ". . . there's something about historical depth of human experience that Catholicism represents that commands my respect, even if the church's behavior doesn't always earn my admiration. . ."Shoes of the Fisherman
Bad - "The many anecdotal reports of voting irregularities create a context in which the possibility that the overall vote count was substantially corrupted must be taken seriously." National Election Data Archive Project (thanks to Frog for this story)
And here's the ugly:
Good - "Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to. No delays. No hassles. No lectures." Illinois Pharmacies Ordered to Provide Birth Control
Bad - "Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well." DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts
Good - ". . . there's something about historical depth of human experience that Catholicism represents that commands my respect, even if the church's behavior doesn't always earn my admiration. . ."Shoes of the Fisherman
Bad - "The many anecdotal reports of voting irregularities create a context in which the possibility that the overall vote count was substantially corrupted must be taken seriously." National Election Data Archive Project (thanks to Frog for this story)
And here's the ugly:
"Its about hierarchy, power and control. It is not about life."
You MUST read this Juan Cole gendered analysis of how the Schavio case connects theoretically to the Iraq invasion. Gender-based analysis of power relationships uses the theory of patriarchy (rule of the fathers) as the structure for social analysis. It applies in all sorts of areas where, at first glance, the male/female dicotomy does not seem evident or applicable but wherever relations of power are central to understanding. The insights this type of analysis provides are unique and meaningful:
How does Bush square all the violence he has unleashed in the world with his praise of 'life?' What is the link between war-mongering and being 'pro-life?' It turns out that anti-abortionism is not about life at all. It is about social control. It helps establish a hierarchical society in which men are at the pinnacle and women kept barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Likewise, the Schiavo case was in part about the religious Right dictating to Michael Schiavo how he must lead his private life. This campaign is not really about life at all, as the examples of the raped woman or the woman whose pregnancy puts her life in danger demonstrate. It is about control, and the imposition of a minority's values on others. And that is why the Iraq war is the perfect symbol for the anti-abortionists. Colonial conquest is always a kind of rape, but now the conquered country must bear the fetus of Bush-imposed 'liberty' to term. The hierarchy is thus established. Washington is superior to Baghdad, and Iraq is feminized and deprived of certain kinds of choices. And that is also how the Schiavo case makes sense in the end, because the religious Right feminized Michael Schiavo, made him into the pregnant woman seeking an 'abortion,' and wished to therefore deprive him of choice in the matter. If hierarchy is gendered, then the persons over which control is sought are always in some sense imagined as powerless women. Powerful non-fundamentalist men and uppity Third World countries that won't do as they are told are ultimately no different from feminist women seeking an abortion. All must be subdued, in the view of the Christian Right. It is about hierarchy, power and control. It is not about life.
Robert's rant
I missed this My Blahg story from Wednesday: BISHOP CRIES FOUL OVER HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS What a great rant.
Robert first quotes what the Bishop actually said: "Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to . . . curtail them in the interests of the common good," Henry wrote.
Its not surprising that the bigotry in this remark has resulted in human rights complaints against the bishop, who throws "homosexuality" in there with behaviours of choice like adultery and pornography, and with illegal activities like prostitution, and then demands that they all be made illegal.
Then Robert gets into his rant: "Let's get one thing clear. This is not about Bishop Henry's beliefs. It's about his attempt to generate ill will toward a segment of the community with outrageous rhetoric; an increasingly common occurrence which is being spearheaded by those who claim to abide by religious teachings in this country . . . Drop the dangerous rhetoric that serves only to demonize people who have caused you no harm nor foul . . . "
Right on, Robert.
Robert first quotes what the Bishop actually said: "Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to . . . curtail them in the interests of the common good," Henry wrote.
Its not surprising that the bigotry in this remark has resulted in human rights complaints against the bishop, who throws "homosexuality" in there with behaviours of choice like adultery and pornography, and with illegal activities like prostitution, and then demands that they all be made illegal.
Then Robert gets into his rant: "Let's get one thing clear. This is not about Bishop Henry's beliefs. It's about his attempt to generate ill will toward a segment of the community with outrageous rhetoric; an increasingly common occurrence which is being spearheaded by those who claim to abide by religious teachings in this country . . . Drop the dangerous rhetoric that serves only to demonize people who have caused you no harm nor foul . . . "
Right on, Robert.
Links
The "links" section on this site lists the blogs that I myself enjoy reading or use for reference -- it's the simplest place for me to have all these listed.
You may notice I have shifted things around on the Links bar, created some new categories, and also cleaned up some of the formatting (though I am pretty incompetent about fiddling around with the template tool.)
I have added a few new blogs, too, ones that I have come to enjoy reading - Juan Cole and Blondsense and feminist blogs and and suburtan guerrilla and next hurrah and poor man, as well as a couple of additional Canadian blogs Rigorous Intuition and Sean Incognito. And Penguin Papers is back.
Next, I am thinking about put each section into alphabetical order, so I can find things.
Any suggestions for other blogs I should be reading regularly?
And how about your own blogs? Sometimes when people post comments, I remember to check out and bookmark their home blogs, but sometimes I don't have time and then I forget to go back, so I would appreciate a URL for your own blog, too.
You may notice I have shifted things around on the Links bar, created some new categories, and also cleaned up some of the formatting (though I am pretty incompetent about fiddling around with the template tool.)
I have added a few new blogs, too, ones that I have come to enjoy reading - Juan Cole and Blondsense and feminist blogs and and suburtan guerrilla and next hurrah and poor man, as well as a couple of additional Canadian blogs Rigorous Intuition and Sean Incognito. And Penguin Papers is back.
Next, I am thinking about put each section into alphabetical order, so I can find things.
Any suggestions for other blogs I should be reading regularly?
And how about your own blogs? Sometimes when people post comments, I remember to check out and bookmark their home blogs, but sometimes I don't have time and then I forget to go back, so I would appreciate a URL for your own blog, too.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Ain't gonna happen
Schiavo kin remain divided after her death"The Schindlers plan to launch a campaign to change state laws so people with severe brain damage, such as Schiavo's, meet a different fate . . . "
So state legislators are going to pass laws requiring the parents or the spouses or the hospitals or the health insurers or the HMOs to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars, year after year, just so someone's "persistent vegetative state" wife or husband or child can continue to piss brainlessly down a tube until all the relatives die off or disappear and the insurers go bankrupt?
Ain't gonna happen. And it shouldn't happen. It is pagan, not Christian, to revere life at all costs, to worship life.
So state legislators are going to pass laws requiring the parents or the spouses or the hospitals or the health insurers or the HMOs to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars, year after year, just so someone's "persistent vegetative state" wife or husband or child can continue to piss brainlessly down a tube until all the relatives die off or disappear and the insurers go bankrupt?
Ain't gonna happen. And it shouldn't happen. It is pagan, not Christian, to revere life at all costs, to worship life.
It's all lies, I tell you, lies!
Daily Kos runs what is, unfortunately, an April Fool story - Tom DeLay Alleged to be Democratic Forgery.
In addition to Tom Delay, the story lists all the other things which true-believer republicans consider to be "media-driven forgeries".
Here's the list -- the Schiavo GOP talking points, Bush's national guard records, Bush's drunk driving records, the torture of Iraqi prisoners, the torture of Guantanamo prisoners, memos that argue for the legality of the torture of those prisoners, extraordinary rendition through countries that torture prisoners, voting irregularities, GOP staff convictions for voting irregularities, the latest North Slope oil spill, any other North Slope oil spills, Republican foreign junkets, openly conservative college professors, CAT scans, teen sex, Christians who do not vote Republican, Harkin Energy, Halliburton, reports that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi civilian casualties, the ongoing Iraqi resistance, the First Amendment, the falling dollar, European protests of American policies, peak oil, Iran-Contra, global warming, glacial melting, the deficit, test failures in the 'Star Wars' missile defense program, the podium decorated like a crucifix at the Republican National Convention, Mary Cheney, Red Lake, the ongoing recession, stem cells, reports of the failure of Texas 'No Child Left Behind' laws, preferential treatment of Saudi nationals after 9/11, Bush's crappy performance in the first debate, Bush's crappy performance in the second debate, Bush's crappy performance in the third debate, Paul O'Neill, the Nobel Prize, Bin Laden at Tora Bora, Clinton-era budget surpluses, Pakistani-based nuclear proliferation, numbers that show Social Security is not in crisis, numbers that show Medicare is in crisis, Ken Lay, Ken Lay's airplane, pollution from coal-fired power plants, the militia movement, 'Got Wood?', warlord-protected opium production in Afghanistan, the historic separation of Church and State, years in which the stock market does not rise at the rate of 6%, anthrax, gay penguins, typewriters that can center text, poor people, dinosaurs, James Guckert, and any memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S."
In addition to Tom Delay, the story lists all the other things which true-believer republicans consider to be "media-driven forgeries".
Here's the list -- the Schiavo GOP talking points, Bush's national guard records, Bush's drunk driving records, the torture of Iraqi prisoners, the torture of Guantanamo prisoners, memos that argue for the legality of the torture of those prisoners, extraordinary rendition through countries that torture prisoners, voting irregularities, GOP staff convictions for voting irregularities, the latest North Slope oil spill, any other North Slope oil spills, Republican foreign junkets, openly conservative college professors, CAT scans, teen sex, Christians who do not vote Republican, Harkin Energy, Halliburton, reports that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi civilian casualties, the ongoing Iraqi resistance, the First Amendment, the falling dollar, European protests of American policies, peak oil, Iran-Contra, global warming, glacial melting, the deficit, test failures in the 'Star Wars' missile defense program, the podium decorated like a crucifix at the Republican National Convention, Mary Cheney, Red Lake, the ongoing recession, stem cells, reports of the failure of Texas 'No Child Left Behind' laws, preferential treatment of Saudi nationals after 9/11, Bush's crappy performance in the first debate, Bush's crappy performance in the second debate, Bush's crappy performance in the third debate, Paul O'Neill, the Nobel Prize, Bin Laden at Tora Bora, Clinton-era budget surpluses, Pakistani-based nuclear proliferation, numbers that show Social Security is not in crisis, numbers that show Medicare is in crisis, Ken Lay, Ken Lay's airplane, pollution from coal-fired power plants, the militia movement, 'Got Wood?', warlord-protected opium production in Afghanistan, the historic separation of Church and State, years in which the stock market does not rise at the rate of 6%, anthrax, gay penguins, typewriters that can center text, poor people, dinosaurs, James Guckert, and any memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S."
Goalposts moving again
They're doing it. They're actually doing it. It looks like the US is planning on declaring Victory in Iraq and leaving. The Financial Times reports "A top US general on Wednesday said the Pentagon could begin large withdrawals of troops from Iraq as long as the level of violence in the country remained low until national elections, scheduled for the end of the year . . . "[If] the elections go OK, violence stays down, then we ought to be able to make some recommendations for us to be able to bring our forces home," Lt Gen Smith said at the Pentagon."
I guess the 50 to 60 attacks a day reported by General Casey less than a week ago, is now an 'inoperative' figure.
And note how the goal posts are moving again. Though the article notes that Bush himself has said US forces will remain until Iraq can provide for its own security, the generals quoted in this article aren't saying that at all. Rather, the new measurement of success appears to be only whether attacks on American soldiers are declining.
And I'll bet the daily attacks will decline pretty quickly once the US commanders in Iraq find out about the goalpost move. They'll make sure their troops just stop going on patrols. As soon as those elections are over, then whoosh, they're outta there.
After all, as somebody-or-other once said, no one wants to be the last man to die for a mistake.
I guess the 50 to 60 attacks a day reported by General Casey less than a week ago, is now an 'inoperative' figure.
And note how the goal posts are moving again. Though the article notes that Bush himself has said US forces will remain until Iraq can provide for its own security, the generals quoted in this article aren't saying that at all. Rather, the new measurement of success appears to be only whether attacks on American soldiers are declining.
And I'll bet the daily attacks will decline pretty quickly once the US commanders in Iraq find out about the goalpost move. They'll make sure their troops just stop going on patrols. As soon as those elections are over, then whoosh, they're outta there.
After all, as somebody-or-other once said, no one wants to be the last man to die for a mistake.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The Frightened Man
William Pitt writes at Truthout about George W. Bush, the Frightened Man: "It is not terrorism that motivates George, or patriotism, or even profiteering. It is fear, pure and simple: Fear of the truth, fear of the world, fear of any data that collides with his faith-based bubble-encapsuled worldview, and fear most of all of the people he would represent. You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Now we know, and the knowledge is deeply and profoundly disturbing."
I believe this to be true.
As I sat watching the press conference Bush held just before he went to war in Iraq, it gradually dawned on me that I was watching a terrified man -- so scared, he could hardly speak. How horrifying to realize that the President of the United States was a coward who wanted every American to be as afraid as he was -- ". . . we live in a dangerous world. We live in new circumstances in our country. . . . I know [people] remember the tragedy of September the 11th, but I hope they understand the lesson of September the 11th. The lesson is, is that we're vulnerable to attack, wherever it may occur, and we must take threats which gather overseas very seriously . . . "
And that was BEFORE anyone had seen the seven minutes when Bush, confronted with an unprecedented demand for courage, could do nothing but sit frozen with fear.
I believe this to be true.
As I sat watching the press conference Bush held just before he went to war in Iraq, it gradually dawned on me that I was watching a terrified man -- so scared, he could hardly speak. How horrifying to realize that the President of the United States was a coward who wanted every American to be as afraid as he was -- ". . . we live in a dangerous world. We live in new circumstances in our country. . . . I know [people] remember the tragedy of September the 11th, but I hope they understand the lesson of September the 11th. The lesson is, is that we're vulnerable to attack, wherever it may occur, and we must take threats which gather overseas very seriously . . . "
And that was BEFORE anyone had seen the seven minutes when Bush, confronted with an unprecedented demand for courage, could do nothing but sit frozen with fear.
Gone,
Steve Gilliard's News Blog gets it. Wouldn't it be nice if the Shindler supporters could shut the f**k up for a minute or two, and maybe spare a prayer for Terri Schiavo herself instead of spending every moment consumed with bile and anger?
"One of the wacko priests supporting the Schindlers said the brother and sister were asked to leave so Michael Schaivo could spend the last minutes alone with his dying wife. He said 'his heartless cruelty continued'. What? Heartless what? The Schindlers slandered this man, allowed protesters to haunt his small children, tormented him for eight years and they want to talk about heartless cruelty? They tore into him for years, slandered him and placed his life in danger. There's been plenty of heartless cruelty and it lays at the feet of the Schindler's."
"One of the wacko priests supporting the Schindlers said the brother and sister were asked to leave so Michael Schaivo could spend the last minutes alone with his dying wife. He said 'his heartless cruelty continued'. What? Heartless what? The Schindlers slandered this man, allowed protesters to haunt his small children, tormented him for eight years and they want to talk about heartless cruelty? They tore into him for years, slandered him and placed his life in danger. There's been plenty of heartless cruelty and it lays at the feet of the Schindler's."
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Snarfffrfffrrrrrzzzz
My Blahg points to this priceless Paul Wells column at Macleans.ca Inkless Wells - Deflationary spiral -- I had been meaning to blog something about all the election speculation but it didn't seem to be going anywhere, really, and now Wells explains why to anyone who can stay awake long enough to read it:
Ah, the Canadian parliamentary press gallery -- can't live with 'em, could live without 'em.
I wonder whether anyone, at any of several papers, who ordered the latest snap-election wild-goose-chase baloney story splashed across the top of the front page for most of a week feels at all sheepish.
What is so stunning about the debate over the clause that was inserted into a budget enabling bill that would have enabled the Liberals to enact their bottomless Kyoto vengeance against.......znnnnnssssnszzzzz....
Oops. Nodded off. What I was trying to say is, the amazing thing about the week's game of feint and counter-feint over some Kyoto budget thingie....snarfffrfffrrrrrzzzz....
Dammit.
What I was trying to say was that it was all so stunningly pointless. I mean, jaw-droppingly pointless. Organ-bustingly pointless.
For yet another week, the political and chattering classes colluded in an utterly made-up fantasy narrative. Turns out the Liberals didn't mean to force a showdown. Turns out the Cons didn't mean to threaten one. Turns out this minority government's fifth high-stakes, edge-of-your-seat, ooooooooh-golly-what'll-they-do game of brinksmanship was actually about less than the first four.
And yet we cleared the nation's front pages for an endless, breathless account of every meaningless comma. To save our lives, we won't cover what the government is doing. With a gun to our heads, we wouldn't cover what the government could be doing but isn't. We are too busy spinning ourselves into a pathetic tizzy at every spurious hint of another election - an election that would be as thoroughly about nothing as are the weeks when we don't have an election.
Here's how far the gallery's obsession with fantasy goes: on the weekend, Jean Lapierre, who after all is the actual minister of transport in the federal government of the second-largest nation on the face of God's earth, spent several minutes on TV actually discussing transport policy. Airport tax levels, international competition for air routes, carrier bankruptcies, what have you. For a few minutes, it was as though Canada had a government or something.
But at least one big paper ignored all of that, preferring to latch onto Lapierre's momentary burst of angst over the effect of Gomery on the Liberals' electoral fortunes. Out came the banner hed: Minister Fears Snap Election.....snarrrffffffffflllzzzzzzz......
...Sorry. Where was I? Oh yeah. Over at the Toronto Star, Graham Fraser took it into his head to cover what the government minister was saying about the government's plans for his ministry. Silly Graham. At least one commentator spanked him for "burying the lede."
Because you see, the lede is never what the government is actually doing. It's what the government might conceivably do, or have done to it. The conspiracy of inanity, englobing government, opposition and gallery, continues. No rogue reporter, with his mulish insistence on writing about the government as though Canada had one, will be permitted to spoil the parade.
Sorry, that's a bit of a rant. Oh well. It was a profoundly depressing week.
Ah, the Canadian parliamentary press gallery -- can't live with 'em, could live without 'em.
POGGE asks the question
The US economy is Canada's very own 600 pound gorilla, living right next door, too.
POGGE writes a post about the growing protectionist panic in the US - which will get worse, I would think, as their gas prices triple and their housing bubble bursts because their interest rates rise. In Playing chicken with China POGGE asks: "So where does that leave Canada? If the real goal of those who are pulling the strings in the U.S. is to see the American dollar slide more quickly, pushing our own dollar up in relation to it, we lose a big advantage in our trade with the U.S. If there's serious discussion of using protectionist measures to protect American jobs we could see even more disputes like softwood lumber. And if the Americans gamble and lose or fail to act soon enough -- if financial meltdown occurs -- it only gets worse. This is the economy which John Manley and Tom d'Aquino -- not to mention Paul Martin -- want us to depend on even more than we already do. Is there a Plan B?"
POGGE writes a post about the growing protectionist panic in the US - which will get worse, I would think, as their gas prices triple and their housing bubble bursts because their interest rates rise. In Playing chicken with China POGGE asks: "So where does that leave Canada? If the real goal of those who are pulling the strings in the U.S. is to see the American dollar slide more quickly, pushing our own dollar up in relation to it, we lose a big advantage in our trade with the U.S. If there's serious discussion of using protectionist measures to protect American jobs we could see even more disputes like softwood lumber. And if the Americans gamble and lose or fail to act soon enough -- if financial meltdown occurs -- it only gets worse. This is the economy which John Manley and Tom d'Aquino -- not to mention Paul Martin -- want us to depend on even more than we already do. Is there a Plan B?"
Security OK
Canada is not a superhighway for terrorists, says Interpol boss
I am so glad somebody said this.
Not that any nation can boast these days about how secure its borders are, but I felt many of those anti-Canada news stories after Sept 11 talking about our lousy security were suspect -- usually, they seemed to be quoting just one or two ex-CSIS agents who had either set up their own security firms and were "available" for contracts, or had just published a book and wanted publicity for it.
I am so glad somebody said this.
Not that any nation can boast these days about how secure its borders are, but I felt many of those anti-Canada news stories after Sept 11 talking about our lousy security were suspect -- usually, they seemed to be quoting just one or two ex-CSIS agents who had either set up their own security firms and were "available" for contracts, or had just published a book and wanted publicity for it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
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