Greece - Preview of the World to Come
The chart says it better than I can, but let's be clear: Greece is simply the first stock
The Beautiful Killers
Chomsky.info has a link to this interview with Chomsky by Israeli TV, in the wake of Israel's refusal to let him into the West Bank. (Still called "Israel" in a number of online sites.)It's reasonably entertaining to watch him fillet the interviewer, who lobs one bit of Israeli propaganda after another at him, only to have him shoot them down. It's also a reminder that Chomsky's a Zionist, a
The Beautiful Killers
Chomsky.info has a link to this interview with Chomsky by Israeli TV, in the wake of Israel's refusal to let him into the West Bank. (Still called "Israel" in a number of online sites.)It's reasonably entertaining to watch him fillet the interviewer, who lobs one bit of Israeli propaganda after another at him, only to have him shoot them down. It's also a reminder that Chomsky's a Zionist, a
WON'T COME HOME AGAIN.
We know literally nothing about William Fitzsimmons or Pink Ganter other than that the union of the two in the latter's remix of Fitzsimmons' "So This Is Goodbye" is VERY GOOD. Enjoy.MP3: "So This Is Goodbye" (Pink Ganter Remix) - William Fitzsimmons
Change I Don't Believe In
I found this (via) at Flagrancy to Reason, and thought it deserved to be spread around some more. A lot of people put Martin Luther King Jr. and John Fitzgerald Kennedy on matching adjacent pedestals, and it's useful to have this explicit reminder that King didn't have much use for JFK. There was also a strange dust-up recently at Who Is IOZ? about the merits of the Civil Rights Act, in which
Change I Don't Believe In
I found this (via) at Flagrancy to Reason, and thought it deserved to be spread around some more. A lot of people put Martin Luther King Jr. and John Fitzgerald Kennedy on matching adjacent pedestals, and it's useful to have this explicit reminder that King didn't have much use for JFK. There was also a strange dust-up recently at Who Is IOZ? about the merits of the Civil Rights Act, in which
Compare, Contrast, Liquefy
This status was posted by one of my Facebook friends from high school:A Soldier is missing their family while caring for yours. In the minute it takes you to read this, Soldiers all over the world are saving lives. It's Military appreciation week....Repost if you are a Military, love a Military member, hold memories of a Fallen Hero or appreciate the MilitaryOr rather, re-posted, since it's
Compare, Contrast, Liquefy
This status was posted by one of my Facebook friends from high school:A Soldier is missing their family while caring for yours. In the minute it takes you to read this, Soldiers all over the world are saving lives. It's Military appreciation week....Repost if you are a Military, love a Military member, hold memories of a Fallen Hero or appreciate the MilitaryOr rather, re-posted, since it's
Message: I Care
The other day President Obama gave his first press conference in ten months, to reassure the nation that he's on the job and "BP is operating at our direction." Doesn't that make you feel better? Mitch Froomkin at Huffington Post reports that Obama "hammered home his main talking point over and over again", in "a powerful rhetorical rejoinder to the growing perception that Obama has been
Message: I Care
The other day President Obama gave his first press conference in ten months, to reassure the nation that he's on the job and "BP is operating at our direction." Doesn't that make you feel better? Mitch Froomkin at Huffington Post reports that Obama "hammered home his main talking point over and over again", in "a powerful rhetorical rejoinder to the growing perception that Obama has been
Gold Denigration Persists
This screen capture of a recent set of headlines at Yahoo Finance caught my eye: Of
Who Owns the Gold in Ft. Knox ? - Lew Rockwell and Judge Napolitano on Freedom Watch
Ludvig von Mises Institute Chair Lew Rockwell on auditing the Federal ReserveWho Owns the Gold in Ft. Knox? - Lew Rockwell and Judge Napolitano
I'm going to GayDays Disney!
I'm heading to GayDays at Disney! I'm totally stoked! Plus if you head to What's Happening Magazine, you can see they're already getting started with their Mari-Con event taking place at the Doubletree Hotel. This is gonna be fun!
I'm going to GayDays Disney!
I'm heading to GayDays at Disney! I'm totally stoked! Plus if you head to What's Happening Magazine, you can see they're already getting started with their Mari-Con event taking place at the Doubletree Hotel. This is gonna be fun!
Come Over and Help Us
I imagine there must be one or two people out there wondering why I haven't been posting about Korean politics this time around, especially with the growing tensions over the sinking of a South Korean ship, blamed by South Korea and the US on North Korea. I haven't been following events closely enough, to tell you the truth.I have seen a lot of clips of Secretary of State Clinton grandstanding on
Come Over and Help Us
I imagine there must be one or two people out there wondering why I haven't been posting about Korean politics this time around, especially with the growing tensions over the sinking of a South Korean ship, blamed by South Korea and the US on North Korea. I haven't been following events closely enough, to tell you the truth.I have seen a lot of clips of Secretary of State Clinton grandstanding on
Explore Pulau Komodo Island National Park
It's time to explore and visit Indonesia by explore indonesia. In this chance i will give short article about explore Komodo Island national park.Komodo National Park located between two islands that is Pulau Sumbawa and Pulau Flores. That Pulau Komodo is the biggest island in this national park besides Pulau Padar and Pulau Rinca with total wide area 1917 Km2 .Komodo National Park is already
Gold May Rise to $3,000 in Several Years Rosenberg Says
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Matt Miller and Carol Massar about the outlook for gold prices and U.S. stocks. (Source: Bloomberg)
One More Push?
I have moved my focus to shorting the stock market. I have been buying puts on the triple
Two Types of Faith, 2: Fire and Brimstone
Hatefulness isn't limited to the religious, of course. I've been meaning for some time now to comment on a brief posting by a fellow left atheist blogger whom I respect a great deal, and consequently disagree with often. When air travel in Europe was halted by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, he wrote a post called "I Like How Earth Is Celebrating Earth Day":Am I the only one who's getting a
Two Types of Faith, 2: Fire and Brimstone
Hatefulness isn't limited to the religious, of course. I've been meaning for some time now to comment on a brief posting by a fellow left atheist blogger whom I respect a great deal, and consequently disagree with often. When air travel in Europe was halted by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, he wrote a post called "I Like How Earth Is Celebrating Earth Day":Am I the only one who's getting a
Two Types of Faith: 1, Tears in Heaven
A Facebook friend from my high school days posted this as her status today: God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to beSo He put His arms around you and and whispered "come to me"With tearful eyes I watched you, and saw you pass awayAlthough I loved you dearly I could not make you stayA golden heart stopped beating, hard working hands at restGod broke my heart to prove to me He only takes
Two Types of Faith: 1, Tears in Heaven
A Facebook friend from my high school days posted this as her status today: God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to beSo He put His arms around you and and whispered "come to me"With tearful eyes I watched you, and saw you pass awayAlthough I loved you dearly I could not make you stayA golden heart stopped beating, hard working hands at restGod broke my heart to prove to me He only takes
US Department of State website carries info on gay and lesbian adoption
Just a small indication of the perspective of the Obama administration on gay and lesbian families appears on the State Department website on international adoption. There is a section entitled "GLBT adoption." (Note that "GLBT" is identified as the shorthand for "gay and lesbian" individuals and couples. Does someone in the State Dept not know about the bisexual and transgender part?) While
Commerical Real Estate - Return of the Dream Short
Shorting the market and/or being bearish on it isn't for everyone. Something about our
A Christian Mind
I meant to include this in the earlier post on "sexualized" children, but it slipped my mind.The term "rape culture," used repeatedly by the Hathor Legacy blogger, is misleading if it suggests that there is a "rape culture" distinct from the culture as a whole. As Joanna Russ wrote in 1985 (Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts, The Crossing Press, page 92):I’ve always thought
A Christian Mind
I meant to include this in the earlier post on "sexualized" children, but it slipped my mind.The term "rape culture," used repeatedly by the Hathor Legacy blogger, is misleading if it suggests that there is a "rape culture" distinct from the culture as a whole. As Joanna Russ wrote in 1985 (Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts, The Crossing Press, page 92):I’ve always thought
ELECTRIC IS THE AIR.
We've shown no shortage of love to Clock Opera as of late, but how could we not when dude is just deserving it so hard with every move he makes. First he dropped jaws with his immaculate remix of Marina & The Diamonds, then last week he unveiled his brilliant new single "A Piece of String", and now he's back with yet another beautiful rework, this time for Brooklyn dreamweavers Au Revoir Simone.
Gold Stocks, Gold and the Stock Market - What's Next?
It's fun to guess, thought those that lay out predictions of the future in black and
Next weekend is Gay Days at Disney World. Me and Steve are heading that way with some friends. I found out that this year it's theme is called Heroes! So, since Disney is like a 3 hour drive from my home, I gotta go! Here's a banner that was sent to me by What's Happening! magazine. Anyone else heading that way?What's Happening Magazine Site
Next weekend is Gay Days at Disney World. Me and Steve are heading that way with some friends. I found out that this year it's theme is called Heroes! So, since Disney is like a 3 hour drive from my home, I gotta go! Here's a banner that was sent to me by What's Happening! magazine. Anyone else heading that way?What's Happening Magazine Site
Little Women on the Verge
[Note: I've corrected a factual error below. I wrote that a commenter had said that "if boys of the same age were taught to be 'little Chippendales', the shit would hit the fan." In fact, it was the blogger herself who brought up "little Chippendales." I quote her words below, and added one more quotation and some more discussion later on.]A writer at The Hathor Legacy linked to a post of mine
Little Women on the Verge
[Note: I've corrected a factual error below. I wrote that a commenter had said that "if boys of the same age were taught to be 'little Chippendales', the shit would hit the fan." In fact, it was the blogger herself who brought up "little Chippendales." I quote her words below, and added one more quotation and some more discussion later on.]A writer at The Hathor Legacy linked to a post of mine
GoldMoney Founder James Turk interviewed at Baird Co. by ITN
GoldMoney at Baird & Co. GoldMoney's Founder James Turk interviewed at Baird & Co. by ITN's London
BETTER WITH YOU.
Finland's Villa Nah first entered our lives last summer when "Ways To Be" wound up stuck on repeat on the office stereo for a solid month via their debut VN EP, yet somehow it never found it's way onto the blog. Fortunately after locking themselves in the studio for the past 10 months, the group are back with their debut album, Origin, and "Ways To Be" is back in our lives for good. Out now via
Unintentional Absence
Apparently, the electrons in my blog triggered the electrons in a software program used
Say Goodnight, Gracie
My old friend the minister is at it again, giving me material for a blog post. He just posted on Facebook:We're beginning a new series of messages at Trinity UMC-Elkhart this weekend. Calling it BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS TRUTHS ABOUT GOD. We're wading into deep water. Talking about such BIG mysteries as the Trinity, the 2nd Coming, and the fact (this week) that grace comes in three flavors...works in
Say Goodnight, Gracie
My old friend the minister is at it again, giving me material for a blog post. He just posted on Facebook:We're beginning a new series of messages at Trinity UMC-Elkhart this weekend. Calling it BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS TRUTHS ABOUT GOD. We're wading into deep water. Talking about such BIG mysteries as the Trinity, the 2nd Coming, and the fact (this week) that grace comes in three flavors...works in
My Cell Phone Problem
I don't have a cell phone back in the States, because I'm already paying for a landline and DSL and don't need another bill to pay just now. Occasionally I consider getting a prepaid cell phone, just to get used to the thing and for the occasions when it would be handy for people to be able to reach me when I'm not at home. (When I went out of state to visit a relative at her new home, for
My Cell Phone Problem
I don't have a cell phone back in the States, because I'm already paying for a landline and DSL and don't need another bill to pay just now. Occasionally I consider getting a prepaid cell phone, just to get used to the thing and for the occasions when it would be handy for people to be able to reach me when I'm not at home. (When I went out of state to visit a relative at her new home, for
Peter Schiff: Glenn Beck Doesn't Know That GOLDLINE Is Ripping People Off!
Peter Schiff: Glenn Beck Doesn't Know That GOLDLINE Is Ripping People Off! MSNBC 25 may 2010
Singapore: The "Not So Budget" Traveling
Most of time my traveling style would be budget, because the "wallet situation" (now i sound like that Jersey Shore show, yikessss!!!) not allow me to had so many choices but being smart to pick something that around my budget (yepp, feel pretty good at it now!). I like to pick something in budget in order i could travel much longer or had more places to go (e.g with only US$500, i could visit 3
This Train Is Bound For Bojeung, This Train
One of the ambiguous pleasures of visiting Korea is seeing Korean TV, especially some of the commercials. I still lag behind current corporate culture there, so I don't recognize all the stars who perform in commercials, but I recognize some. And it's educational to compare gay-themed or at least gay-ish commercials in this conservative Confucian country with gay-themed commercials from the
This Train Is Bound For Bojeung, This Train
One of the ambiguous pleasures of visiting Korea is seeing Korean TV, especially some of the commercials. I still lag behind current corporate culture there, so I don't recognize all the stars who perform in commercials, but I recognize some. And it's educational to compare gay-themed or at least gay-ish commercials in this conservative Confucian country with gay-themed commercials from the
What If They Gave a Press Conference and Nobody Came?
John Caruso at The Distant Ocean noticed something I didn't, or wouldn't have, in the coverage of President Obama's signing of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. "Speaking of press freedoms," one of the journalists present asked if he could ask a question about the BP oil spill, and The Only President We've Got replied testily, "You are free to ask them ... I'm not doing a press
What If They Gave a Press Conference and Nobody Came?
John Caruso at The Distant Ocean noticed something I didn't, or wouldn't have, in the coverage of President Obama's signing of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. "Speaking of press freedoms," one of the journalists present asked if he could ask a question about the BP oil spill, and The Only President We've Got replied testily, "You are free to ask them ... I'm not doing a press
GOLD016: MR. LITTLE JEANS
Our love for Mr. Little Jeans knows no bounds, so it's with great pleasure that we announce her debut single, the three-track Angel EP, out on Neon Gold next month. We already introduced you to the brilliance that is the EP's title track last month, but today we've got AA-side "Faking Gold" for your ears, another rollicking Yeah Yeah Yeahs-esque masterstroke from the pint-sized pop sensation.
This May Come As a Surprise ...
... but I think it's a welcome one. Glenn Greenwald covers the new British government's apparent commitment (a real commitment, carried out in action) to do something about Britain's involvement in and collaboration with the Bush-Obama US torture-terror regime.Now that this left-right, Tory/Lib-Dem alliance has removed the Labour Party from power and is governing Britain, these commitments to
This May Come As a Surprise ...
... but I think it's a welcome one. Glenn Greenwald covers the new British government's apparent commitment (a real commitment, carried out in action) to do something about Britain's involvement in and collaboration with the Bush-Obama US torture-terror regime.Now that this left-right, Tory/Lib-Dem alliance has removed the Labour Party from power and is governing Britain, these commitments to
Gold Savers Will Get the Last Laugh
For that's what this cycle is all about. Cleansing the system of debt is a process fought
Calm Before the Storm
I remain black bile bearish on the stock market to the point where I am more interested
Melt Down or Bounce?
In the short-term, we're all just guessing. I think we're getting ready to have a
What went wrong in Arkansas
Earlier this month, the Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report on the passage of Initiated Act 1 in Arkansas in 2008. This was the law that banned adoption and foster parenting by anyone living with an unmarried partner. In addition to describing the chronology and the players in the Arkansas intiative process, the report offers "lessons learned" to guide future struggles.The
Buy gold on dips for long-term: Kotak
May 19, 2010 — In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Amol Tilak, Head-Research at Kotak, spoke about his outlook on gold, silver, copper and nickel.^M ^M
Trying to Ride One More Wave in Gold
From euphoria to despair and fear fairly quickly. I couldn't resist taking final profits
Travel / Posting Advisory and Eternal Life
I'll be leaving for Korea on Friday morning, so things are going to be hectic until after the weekend. Hell, they're hectic now, and I should be at home getting ready instead of sitting here in the Pourhouse typing. But that's procrastination!Meanwhile, I found this at Homo Superior, and the link indicated that it had come from Andrew Sullivan.The Christian notion of eternal life just doesn’t
Travel / Posting Advisory and Eternal Life
I'll be leaving for Korea on Friday morning, so things are going to be hectic until after the weekend. Hell, they're hectic now, and I should be at home getting ready instead of sitting here in the Pourhouse typing. But that's procrastination!Meanwhile, I found this at Homo Superior, and the link indicated that it had come from Andrew Sullivan.The Christian notion of eternal life just doesn’t
Bought Paper Gold Today - Part 2
Paper Gold went on a deeper discount today, so I bought more. I also partially covered
Gold rush in China is pushing the Gold price to all times high
Chinese love GOLD May 18, 2010 — China is now the number one consumer of Gold , and it is not just consumers , the central bank of china is quietly building up its reserves moving away from Euros and Dollars into hard assets like Gold ...and to meet this demand for gold China is opening new mines every month to the point that China now eclipsed south africa as the gold's first producer ,
Bought Paper Gold Today
As a short-term trade. Today's post over at Trader's Narrative confirms the cognitive
AirAsia 0 (ZERO) Fare!! fly for FREE!!
IT IS TIME TO PLAN YOUR 2011 HOLIDAY!!AirAsia Zero Fare is here !!! book your flights right now!!
FROM A HEIGHT IMMEASURABLE.
The Great Escape had no shortage of delights on offer last weekend in Brighton, but for us there was perhaps none greater than Clock Opera at Hector's House on the Saturday. We've been fans of the group from square one, having put on one of their first ever live shows last July and given them their first remix commission (and we all know how that one turned out), but even we weren't prepared for
How to Write a Headline
Via Counterpunch, which called the link "Chomsky Denied Entry Into Israel". I think it's remarkable that ABC News even covered it: Noam Chomsky Denied Entry to Israel Israel Admits Error in Denying Left-Wing, U.S. Intellectual Noam Chomsky Entry Into Controlled Territory That was odd. I'd already read the story at the BBC site, which made it reasonably
How to Write a Headline
Via Counterpunch, which called the link "Chomsky Denied Entry Into Israel". I think it's remarkable that ABC News even covered it: Noam Chomsky Denied Entry to Israel Israel Admits Error in Denying Left-Wing, U.S. Intellectual Noam Chomsky Entry Into Controlled Territory That was odd. I'd already read the story at the BBC site, which made it reasonably
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Speaking of the BBC, their site also reports that President Obama signed a new law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, named for the American journalist who was beheaded by Islamic militants in 2002.The new law will requirethe US state department to compile a public list of foreign governments that violate press freedom. Mr Obama said the measure would send a strong message that
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Speaking of the BBC, their site also reports that President Obama signed a new law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, named for the American journalist who was beheaded by Islamic militants in 2002.The new law will requirethe US state department to compile a public list of foreign governments that violate press freedom. Mr Obama said the measure would send a strong message that
Copper to Gold Ratio: RUN AWAY!
I am trying to meticulously catalog all of the signs telling me that the stock market is
Gold Bull vs. Bear
Tom O\'Brien, editor of The Gold Report, expects a $200 pullback in gold, and Brian Hicks, of US Global Investors, thinks the commodity could soar to $1,500. They go head-to-head on CNBC.
Gold May Rise for Several Decades says Robert Cohen, manager of Goodman
May 17, 2010 — May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Cohen, manager of Goodman & Co.'s Dynamic Gold & Precious Metals Fund, talks with Bloomberg's Julie Hyman about influences on the gold market and the outlook for gold prices. Cohen also discusses some of his gold-related stock recommendations including Osisko Mining Corp., Red Back Mining Inc. and San Gold Corp. (Source: Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley - Out of Here?
Just a philosophical thought, as this is no ordinary secular stock bear market. We have
LIFE ISN'T MEANT TO DRAG US DOWN.
Fyfe Dangerfield is one of our all-time favorite musicians and one of the nicest people we've ever met in this industry, so when he finally broke into the UK Top 10 last week with his breathtaking cover of Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman" (as featured on this phenomenal John Lewis advert), we couldn't have been happier for him. Now at long last he's bringing his debut solo album Fly Yellow
If I Had a Hammer
Something else struck me about Marilynne Robinson's "The Tyranny of Petty Coercion," which I criticized before. She wrote there (The Death of Adam pp. 258-9):I am myself a liberal. By that I mean I believe society exists to nurture and liberate the human spirit, and that large-mindedness and openhandedness are the means by which these things are to be accomplished. I am not ideological. By
If I Had a Hammer
Something else struck me about Marilynne Robinson's "The Tyranny of Petty Coercion," which I criticized before. She wrote there (The Death of Adam pp. 258-9):I am myself a liberal. By that I mean I believe society exists to nurture and liberate the human spirit, and that large-mindedness and openhandedness are the means by which these things are to be accomplished. I am not ideological. By
Not Just Another Dip For Buying
Rather, I think we are due for a full blown return to the nasty general stock market bear
Living in the Catacombs: John Howard's Men Like That, part one
(Yeah yeah yeah, I know I know: Dogpatch was in Kentucky, not Mississippi. So sue me.)I've had this long piece sitting around for some years now; I figure it might as well go here.John Howard. Men like that: a Southern queer history. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1999.1.Depending on whom you believe, either an Evil Essentialist Empire has seized hegemonic power over American
Living in the Catacombs: John Howard's Men Like That, part one
(Yeah yeah yeah, I know I know: Dogpatch was in Kentucky, not Mississippi. So sue me.)I've had this long piece sitting around for some years now; I figure it might as well go here.John Howard. Men like that: a Southern queer history. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1999.1.Depending on whom you believe, either an Evil Essentialist Empire has seized hegemonic power over American
Watch out for GLD pretending to be GOLD
GLD vs GOLD May 14, 2010 — Watch out for that GLD, it isn't really GOLD.Read the prospectus on the ETF, I believe they hold 10%...I am not sure I even trust that as an accurate number.Physical is the only way to protect yourself form the Banksters Paper Games.Yes, it is a game of musical chairs...Paper gold is NOT physical gold!If it isn't in your hands, then you don't own it.
Gold Stocks vs. Gold Bullion
Colin Whitehead, senior analyst with Fat Prophets, says gold stocks tend to overreact on the downside to market movements. He makes the case for why gold bullion is a safer investment with CNBC’s Oriel Morrison.
Black Bile Bearish
I am now loaded up with shorts on the S&P 500 (using puts on the triple bullish UPRO ETF)
Yale Cultural Cognition Project considers gay and lesbian parenting
Among opponents of gay and lesbian adoption who base their opposition on the welfare of children, only 22% say they would change their mind if shown convincing empirical evidence that children raised by gay and lesbian couples are just as likely to be healthy and well-adjusted as children raised by heterosexual couples. This is just one statistic in the report recently released by the Cultural
Is This Trip Really Necessary?
My old school friend the minister is going on sabbatical. Here's how he explained it on Facebook:It is a time of renewal where a pastor is allowed to step away from the responsibilities of leadership - so his or her soul can reconnect with God. It is a time for travel...for just hanging around...for finding joy.Well, good for him; I'm about to go on a semi-working vacation myself. But I was
Is This Trip Really Necessary?
My old school friend the minister is going on sabbatical. Here's how he explained it on Facebook:It is a time of renewal where a pastor is allowed to step away from the responsibilities of leadership - so his or her soul can reconnect with God. It is a time for travel...for just hanging around...for finding joy.Well, good for him; I'm about to go on a semi-working vacation myself. But I was
Eating Gold
This one here's for all the paperbugs that have been zombified, brainwashed and stupefied
Wild Kingdom
I was walking home early yesterday evening through the residential neighborhood I live in, when I noticed a tiny young rabbit with its mother in the grass near the sidewalk. There are a lot of rabbits around here, too many, and they're used enough to people that they're fairly bold, as long as one doesn't move too close.The young one was a couple of feet from its mother. They both froze immediately, of course, so I stopped too, to watch them. Both sets of big brown eyes were fixed on me. So I took one step backward ... and the little one took one step forward, towards me. The mother didn't move.
Surprised, I moved back another step, and the little one, still watching me, stepped forward again. The mother was visibly more anxious, but didn't move. So I waited some more, and at last the young rabbit turned back towards its mother, who in turn came forward and covered it with her body. It began rooting under her for a nipple, I think, but she wasn't having any. She wanted it under her, and it wouldn't stay. ("Just wait till I get you back in the burrow, young man!") I continued home with a couple of glances back to see them moving into the bushes around the house whose lawn they'd been nibbling.
(The photo above isn't mine -- I didn't think to get out my camera -- but it's what the young rabbit looked like.)
Wild Kingdom
I was walking home early yesterday evening through the residential neighborhood I live in, when I noticed a tiny young rabbit with its mother in the grass near the sidewalk. There are a lot of rabbits around here, too many, and they're used enough to people that they're fairly bold, as long as one doesn't move too close.The young one was a couple of feet from its mother. They both froze
Wild Kingdom
I was walking home early yesterday evening through the residential neighborhood I live in, when I noticed a tiny young rabbit with its mother in the grass near the sidewalk. There are a lot of rabbits around here, too many, and they're used enough to people that they're fairly bold, as long as one doesn't move too close.The young one was a couple of feet from its mother. They both froze
Gold Bull, Bitches!
Nothing to add to this juvenile and immature post. Enjoy today's move, Gold bulls.
Texas rebuffs nonbio mom...in spite of previous court order with bio mom's consent
Sheila Haley and Charlena Renee Smith went to court in 2002, when their twin children were four months old, and obtained the equivalent of a joint custody order giving them both rights to the children. Those children were born to Smith. Haley then bore a child using the same semen donor. When the couple split up in 2008, Smith denied Haley access to the twins and got a court order declaring
Bad Medicine
Tonight I watched the pilot episode of No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, one of whose subplots involved people who make magical cursing packets, which require among other things real human fingers. The customer for such goods in the story is a powerful criminal, a gangster and gun runner. It occurred to me that while such witchcraft does cause real harm to the people who supply the ingredients, and perhaps some psychological harm when people know and believe that they have been cursed, they are strictly limited in the amount of harm they can really do.
As I watched, I imagined someone like Richard Dawkins fulminating about the deception involved in witchcraft -- the irrationality, the false claims. "I can make your enemies suffer from a distance," the sorcerer tells his or her client. "They can't escape from your wrath." To the science cultist, this is outrageous, since the sorcerer can't really make good on these promises, he or she really has no such power, and is deceiving the client. These people need to be enlightened! How awful superstition is!
No doubt it is. But then I thought of the way that scientists have served their powerful clients. No one could accuse them of failing to make good on their promises.
As I watched, I imagined someone like Richard Dawkins fulminating about the deception involved in witchcraft -- the irrationality, the false claims. "I can make your enemies suffer from a distance," the sorcerer tells his or her client. "They can't escape from your wrath." To the science cultist, this is outrageous, since the sorcerer can't really make good on these promises, he or she really has no such power, and is deceiving the client. These people need to be enlightened! How awful superstition is!
No doubt it is. But then I thought of the way that scientists have served their powerful clients. No one could accuse them of failing to make good on their promises.
In their elite obeisance and service to established power, the twentieth-century proponents of the religion of technology have outdone their predecessors. The engineers of nuclear weapons, endowed from the outset with the authority and limitless largess of the state, have devoted their energy and imagination to an enlargement of state power. And their counterparts and colleagues in space exploration have done likewise. Von Braun aimed at the stars but hit London and Antwerp, on behalf of the Third Reich. Later he prepared for future terror on behalf of the American armed forces. Throughout most of their careers, the men who built the U.S. (and Soviet) space programs served military ends; in their quest for space travel they brought the world but minutes away from mutually assured destruction. Thereafter, under the nominally civilian auspices of NASA, they have continued to contribute to the militarization of space, in terms of both surveillance capability, and the capacity for weapons development.So, Science the Self-Correcting Way of True Knowledge has delivered on at least some of its promises. (Not always, of course: the promise of medical science to "cure" homosexuality never panned out, for example, and has largely been forgotten.) But is that anything to be proud of?
In the same setting, the pioneers of Artificial Intelligence, in quest of the eternal mind, have been sustained by the U.S. military – together with their disciples in Artificial Life, cyberspace, and virtual reality. As they have trained their minds for transcendence, they have contributed enormously to the world arsenal for warfare, surveillance, and control. And they have also placed their technological means at the disposal of manufacturing, financial, and service corporations, which have deployed them the world over to discipline, deskill, and displace untold millions of people, while concentrating global power and wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
[David F. Noble, The religion of technology: the divinity of man and the spirit of invention (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), pp 205-206.]
When people wonder why the new technologies so rarely seem adequately to meet their human and social needs, they assume it is because of the greed and lust for power that motivate those who design and deploy them. Certainly, this has much to do with it. But it is not the whole of the story. On a deeper cultural level, these technologies have not met basic human needs because, at bottom, they have never really been about meeting them. They have been aimed rather at the loftier goal of transcending such mortal concerns altogether. In such an ideological context, inspired more by prophets than by profits, the needs neither of mortals nor of the earth they inhabit are of any enduring consequence. And it is here that the religion of technology can rightly be considered a menace [206-207].
Bad Medicine
Tonight I watched the pilot episode of No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, one of whose subplots involved people who make magical cursing packets, which require among other things real human fingers. The customer for such goods in the story is a powerful criminal, a gangster and gun runner. It occurred to me that while such witchcraft does cause real harm to the people who supply the ingredients,
Bad Medicine
Tonight I watched the pilot episode of No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, one of whose subplots involved people who make magical cursing packets, which require among other things real human fingers. The customer for such goods in the story is a powerful criminal, a gangster and gun runner. It occurred to me that while such witchcraft does cause real harm to the people who supply the ingredients,
Another Way to View the Chinese Bear Signal
Big bounce today in general stocks. I used the opportunity to re-establish a small
Yet Another One Bites the Dust
Dan Savage has a story at The Stranger (via) about the latest right-wing bigot to get caught with his tadpole in the dookie jar. (And the answer to his musical title question appears to be Yes. It's getting to the point where I think the proper response to any antigay bigot one encounters ought to be: "Why, Mr. X! I didn't know you were gay!") I'd already heard it about it elsewhere, can't
Yet Another One Bites the Dust
Dan Savage has a story at The Stranger (via) about the latest right-wing bigot to get caught with his tadpole in the dookie jar. (And the answer to his musical title question appears to be Yes. It's getting to the point where I think the proper response to any antigay bigot one encounters ought to be: "Why, Mr. X! I didn't know you were gay!") I'd already heard it about it elsewhere, can't
Paperbugs Don't Understand How Far We Have to Go
The value of common stocks relative to Gold is about to accelerate in the opposite
Mike Maloney Silver at $100 oz CNBC 4-2010
Mike Maloney says Silver at $100 /oz is a no brainer on CNBC 4-2010
I'm From the Government, and I'm Here to Help
There is, as Washington Post hack Dana Milbank remarks (via, h/t to Doonesbury's Daily Briefing) with unseemly Schadenfreude, "something exquisite about the moment when a conservative decides he needs more government in his life." Which doesn't mean I don't share his Schadenfreude, as:
So I want Sarah Palin to denounce those crooks in Washington who want to waste the taxpayers' money on cleaning up after a foreign oil company that her husband worked for for 18 years. And what happened to "Drill, baby, drill"? Oh, she still supports it of course. But about keeping government out of Louisianans' business, nada so far.
And Teabag Nation, where are they? I want to see them get out there and denounce Jindal, Vitter, and the other hypocritical Republicans-in-Name-Only who want the socialist (or fascist, depending on which day of the week it is) Obama to send National Guard troops in to suppress the freedom-loving people of Alabama, and government money from their pockets to help Big Oil. But I doubt it very much. As shown by their general allegiance to Social Security and Medicare (for themselves), they're quite willing to ignore Ronald Reagan's infamous quip about government help when it suits them. (The blogger who endorsed Reagan's quote seems mainly concerned about how the oil spill will affect his god-given right to eat his favorite foods.) Government helps those who help themselves to the contents of the Treasury, especially Republicans.
About an hour later [after Senator David Vitter, R-La. called for Big Government to help clean up the oil spill rather than require the Private Sector to clean up after itself] came word from the Pentagon that Alabama, Florida and Mississippi -- all three governed by men who once considered themselves limited-government conservatives -- want the federal government to mobilize (at taxpayer expense, of course) more National Guard troops to aid in the cleanup.
That followed an earlier request by the small-government governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal (R), who issued a statement saying he had called the Obama administration "to outline the state's needs" and to ask "for additional resources." Said Jindal: "These resources are critical."
These would be reasonable requests if they weren't coming from vocal opponents of Big Brother's terroristic interference with ordinary citizens' lives. As Milbank goes on to point out:
That's nothing new, of course. Opponents of big government usually have their hands deep in the taxpayers' pockets. And that "newfound respect for the powers and purse of the federal government" will disappear down the memory hole as soon as right-wing pols go on the campaign trail, which means next week.It may have taken an ecological disaster, but the gulf-state conservatives' newfound respect for the powers and purse of the federal government is a timely reminder for them. As conservatives in Washington complain about excessive federal spending, the ones who would suffer the most from spending cuts are their own constituents.
An analysis of data from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation by Washington Post database specialist Dan Keating found that people in states that voted Republican were by far the biggest beneficiaries of federal spending. In states that voted strongly Republican, people received an average of $1.50 back from the federal government for every dollar they paid in federal taxes. In moderately Republican states, the amount was $1.19. In moderately Democratic states, people received on average of 99 cents in federal funds for each dollar they paid in taxes. In strongly Democratic states, people got back just 86 cents on the tax dollar.
So I want Sarah Palin to denounce those crooks in Washington who want to waste the taxpayers' money on cleaning up after a foreign oil company that her husband worked for for 18 years. And what happened to "Drill, baby, drill"? Oh, she still supports it of course. But about keeping government out of Louisianans' business, nada so far.
And Teabag Nation, where are they? I want to see them get out there and denounce Jindal, Vitter, and the other hypocritical Republicans-in-Name-Only who want the socialist (or fascist, depending on which day of the week it is) Obama to send National Guard troops in to suppress the freedom-loving people of Alabama, and government money from their pockets to help Big Oil. But I doubt it very much. As shown by their general allegiance to Social Security and Medicare (for themselves), they're quite willing to ignore Ronald Reagan's infamous quip about government help when it suits them. (The blogger who endorsed Reagan's quote seems mainly concerned about how the oil spill will affect his god-given right to eat his favorite foods.) Government helps those who help themselves to the contents of the Treasury, especially Republicans.
I'm From the Government, and I'm Here to Help
There is, as Washington Post hack Dana Milbank remarks (via, h/t to Doonesbury's Daily Briefing) with unseemly Schadenfreude, "something exquisite about the moment when a conservative decides he needs more government in his life." Which doesn't mean I don't share his Schadenfreude, as: About an hour later [after Senator David Vitter, R-La. called for Big Government to help clean up the oil spill
I'm From the Government, and I'm Here to Help
There is, as Washington Post hack Dana Milbank remarks (via, h/t to Doonesbury's Daily Briefing) with unseemly Schadenfreude, "something exquisite about the moment when a conservative decides he needs more government in his life." Which doesn't mean I don't share his Schadenfreude, as: About an hour later [after Senator David Vitter, R-La. called for Big Government to help clean up the oil spill
Rational Panic - Where Are We?
Honestly, it may actually be time for Prechter to be mostly right. I love the guy and his
Robert Kiyosaki : Cash is Trash Gold and Silver is Gods money
Robert Kiyosaki of 'Rich dad Poor dad' self help book fame, describes in overview how he reckons silver is a winner and "cash is trash" Very interesting.Robert Kiyosaki : Cash is Trash Gold and Silver is God's money , the Dollar and the Euro will go towards Zero ,
Her Rigour Is Terrifying
One thing I wondered about but didn't try to fit into my earlier post was how Marilynne Robinson felt about Barack Obama. I suppose I could have predicted that she'd be a fan -- indeed, she's "passionate" about Obama, and donated $1000 to his election campaign.
Take this famous exchange.
I remember watching the Bentsen/Quayle debate at the time, and part of me loved Lloyd Bentsen -- or more precisely, I loved his performance. The benign grandfatherly manner. The way he actually seemed to be listening to Quayle's babbling, smiling ruefully, making notes to himself, and then making a quiet, devastating reply that answered what Quayle had been saying. That, it seems to me, is the way debate should be done, but it rarely seems to be done that way in the US. (Britain, famously, is different.)
I watched a couple of presidential debates after that, and found that they didn't equal the standard Bentsen had set. I recall a news pundit remarking on Bentsen's putdown of Quayle, saying that it had surely been prepared. Of course it was! The odd thing, given the heavy preparation for these little shows, is how unprepared the candidates generally seem. But that may be part of the intention, especially since the pundits declared Quayle the winner in his encounter with Bentsen, because he was so ineffective.
The corporate media don't like smart people, even minimally smart ones. In The Bush Dyslexicon Mark Crispin Miller discusses, and quotes at length (pp. 68-70), an ABC News bull session from October 22, 2000, in which Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson complained that talking about substance was too "cerebral," preferring to talk about image and likability. Which isn't that far from gushing because Barack Obama was "riding a wave of interest in public speaking." That's very nice, but what was he saying?
I don't think debate has ever been popular, in the US or elsewhere, because, as Lady Augusta Bracknell remarked, "I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing." Or, as many of my contemporaries remark, "debating on teh internet is like competing in the special olympics - even if u win, your still retarded lol lol lmao!"
Which reminds me of another bit that caught my attention in the Guardian article on Marilynne Robinson.
When the conversation veers toward President Barack Obama, another Midwesterner recently relocated to the East coast, Robinson leans forward like a slightly giddy teenager. She praises the president for "riding a wave of interest in public speaking—the oldest tradition in American life." The admiration, it turns out, is mutual. "He has a Facebook thing," she says—quickly adding that it was her students who found the page online, not her. Sure enough, Obama's personal page on the social network lists Robinson's novel Gilead as one of his "Favorite Books," alongside the Bible and Lincoln's Collected Writings.Ah, public speaking, the oldest tradition in American life, and just as prone to hucksterism as public writing. I did some searching but couldn't find anything more substantial than this remark, and this was the only comment I could find on President, rather than Candidate Obama; during the campaign she was mainly tooting Iowa's horn, for defying stereotypes about the Midwest and supporting a black candidate. Robinson's enthusiasm for Obama seems to be merely formal. But the trouble with George W. Bush was not that he was a poor public speaker, though it wouldn't surprise me if that was a major complaint of Robinson's. I can't speak about all her writing, but she seems to be more concerned about form than content.
Take this famous exchange.
I remember watching the Bentsen/Quayle debate at the time, and part of me loved Lloyd Bentsen -- or more precisely, I loved his performance. The benign grandfatherly manner. The way he actually seemed to be listening to Quayle's babbling, smiling ruefully, making notes to himself, and then making a quiet, devastating reply that answered what Quayle had been saying. That, it seems to me, is the way debate should be done, but it rarely seems to be done that way in the US. (Britain, famously, is different.)
I watched a couple of presidential debates after that, and found that they didn't equal the standard Bentsen had set. I recall a news pundit remarking on Bentsen's putdown of Quayle, saying that it had surely been prepared. Of course it was! The odd thing, given the heavy preparation for these little shows, is how unprepared the candidates generally seem. But that may be part of the intention, especially since the pundits declared Quayle the winner in his encounter with Bentsen, because he was so ineffective.
The corporate media don't like smart people, even minimally smart ones. In The Bush Dyslexicon Mark Crispin Miller discusses, and quotes at length (pp. 68-70), an ABC News bull session from October 22, 2000, in which Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson complained that talking about substance was too "cerebral," preferring to talk about image and likability. Which isn't that far from gushing because Barack Obama was "riding a wave of interest in public speaking." That's very nice, but what was he saying?
I don't think debate has ever been popular, in the US or elsewhere, because, as Lady Augusta Bracknell remarked, "I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing." Or, as many of my contemporaries remark, "debating on teh internet is like competing in the special olympics - even if u win, your still retarded lol lol lmao!"
Which reminds me of another bit that caught my attention in the Guardian article on Marilynne Robinson.
She has never had a live encounter with Dawkins. "I'm a little nervous about live encounters, because everything's a shouting match. I'm thinking of television of course [she doesn't own a television], but so much of it is who can bully, in effect. Not that I couldn't." She smiles dangerously.Well, no, debate is not a shouting match, nor is it bullying. Many Americans may think it is, and American corporate news networks may like it that way, but the clip of Bentsen and Quayle shows that it shouldn't be. For that matter, you can find clips of debates at the Oxford Union online, such as this, or this. For someone who appeals to intellectual traditions, Robinson seems oddly ignorant of this one. Maybe someday I might aspire to a live debate -- though I prefer written ones -- with Marilynne Robinson (he smiled dangerously).
Her Rigour Is Terrifying
One thing I wondered about but didn't try to fit into my earlier post was how Marilynne Robinson felt about Barack Obama. I suppose I could have predicted that she'd be a fan -- indeed, she's "passionate" about Obama, and donated $1000 to his election campaign.When the conversation veers toward President Barack Obama, another Midwesterner recently relocated to the East coast, Robinson leans
Her Rigour Is Terrifying
One thing I wondered about but didn't try to fit into my earlier post was how Marilynne Robinson felt about Barack Obama. I suppose I could have predicted that she'd be a fan -- indeed, she's "passionate" about Obama, and donated $1000 to his election campaign.When the conversation veers toward President Barack Obama, another Midwesterner recently relocated to the East coast, Robinson leans
Gold Stocks Versus General Market - 3 Month Perspective
A picture's worth 1000 words, so without further ado, here's a 3 month daily candlestick
Talking Turkey
I'm now reading The Bigness of the World, a collection of stories by Lori Ostlund, which I found out about through a post at Band of Thebes. The book has won a slew of awards, which is very nice, though as Band of Thebes complains, "Nevertheless, mainstream review attention has been scant. And the book is impossible to find in Manhattan; I've called the chains and the independents. Buy it online and talk it up among your friends." By all means, do. I checked it out of the public library, read the first page, and set it aside until I'd finished a couple of other things.
I have to confess, though, that so far, sixty pages in, I'm not all that excited. Ostlund writes well, and I do appreciate the stories she tells, especially since lesbian characters in mainstream fiction are still too rare. But her work appears to be pretty standard MFA writing -- competent, disciplined, dull. Too much of the GLB fiction I've read in the past few years is like that, which is why I keep going back to writers like Nicola Griffith, Emma Donoghue, Christopher Bram, Rabih Alameddine, Sarah Waters, Sherman Alexie (who may not be gay but writes interestingly about gay and bi characters), Samuel R. Delany, David Levithan.
But don't blame those writers for this invidious comparison. The reason I'm bringing this up here is that I do find sparks of life in Ostlund's writing, like the bit I'm about to quote from "Talking Fowl with My Father", page 59. The narrator lives with her girlfriend of ten years in San Francisco, and keeps in touch with her widowed father in the Midwest. His health is failing steadily and inexorably, and he refuses to follow his doctor's advice.
The anecdote is well-observed and told, but Ostlund won't let it go anywhere. That's what I take to be the MFA part: keeping everything low-key, avoiding melodrama or any "big" events in favor of the smallish, telling, meaningful details. The narrator of "Talking Fowl with My Father" begins by telling how her father wants to FedEx her a pheasant he shot on a hunting excursion, and she happens to know that he hasn't been hunting for at least five years. She knows he's been hanging on to lots of decaying things, perhaps trying to pretend that time isn't passing, trying to stave off mortality by pretending it isn't there. (Again I'm reminded of my father, who refused to take his blood-pressure medicine for years. He still lived to be 81.) Something's missing, though I think it's missing by design. The story is kept heavily restrained, and I wish it would get loose and go for a walk along the highway, out in front of all the neighbors, letting them see its business. I can't help imagining what some of the other authors I mentioned might have done with the same material, even though I know it's not fair to them or to Ostlund.
Still, you might get a sense from the quoted paragraph whether The Bigness of the World would interest you. I'm going to read the rest of the book, just because I consider it important to read the GLBT fiction that mainstream (straight, corporate, male heterosexual) media -- and too many gay people, alas -- ignore. I believe I've complained in this blog before about how most gay people I know don't seem to read any gay-related fiction; to me that would like refusing to breathe. I want a lot more GLBT fiction to be written, published, and read, and I don't mind if a considerable amount of GLBT fiction doesn't speak to me, any more than I mind if every human being isn't attractive to me. Go thou, and do likewise.
I have to confess, though, that so far, sixty pages in, I'm not all that excited. Ostlund writes well, and I do appreciate the stories she tells, especially since lesbian characters in mainstream fiction are still too rare. But her work appears to be pretty standard MFA writing -- competent, disciplined, dull. Too much of the GLB fiction I've read in the past few years is like that, which is why I keep going back to writers like Nicola Griffith, Emma Donoghue, Christopher Bram, Rabih Alameddine, Sarah Waters, Sherman Alexie (who may not be gay but writes interestingly about gay and bi characters), Samuel R. Delany, David Levithan.
But don't blame those writers for this invidious comparison. The reason I'm bringing this up here is that I do find sparks of life in Ostlund's writing, like the bit I'm about to quote from "Talking Fowl with My Father", page 59. The narrator lives with her girlfriend of ten years in San Francisco, and keeps in touch with her widowed father in the Midwest. His health is failing steadily and inexorably, and he refuses to follow his doctor's advice.
Years before, when his doctor had first begun to mention diet and exercise, before my father decided to stand firm against anything that might benefit his health, he went through a brief period of highly anomalous behavior -- namely, following his doctor's advice. For almost two months, he and my mother drove back into town each night after dark and locked themselves inside their store, where, for forty-five minutes, they walked. They went up and down the same aisles where they spent their days, past gopher traps and sprinklers and all kinds of joinery, my father in the lead, my mother several steps behind. When my mother accidentally let this secret slip and I asked why, why, when they could be out looking at lakes and trees and fields of corn, they preferred to walk indoors, she said, "You know your father doesn't want people knowing his business."This reminded me of my parents, both of whom were born in the 1920s. They both had something of this paranoid secretiveness, reinforced by the norms they grew up with. So "paranoid" isn't really the right word: it's not paranoid to keep your business out of other people's sight if those other people are watching you and everyone else to make sure they don't do anything odd, and if those other people regard almost anything as odd. I suspect it's not a specifically Midwestern trait, but like Ostlund the Midwest is what I know, where I grew up.
The anecdote is well-observed and told, but Ostlund won't let it go anywhere. That's what I take to be the MFA part: keeping everything low-key, avoiding melodrama or any "big" events in favor of the smallish, telling, meaningful details. The narrator of "Talking Fowl with My Father" begins by telling how her father wants to FedEx her a pheasant he shot on a hunting excursion, and she happens to know that he hasn't been hunting for at least five years. She knows he's been hanging on to lots of decaying things, perhaps trying to pretend that time isn't passing, trying to stave off mortality by pretending it isn't there. (Again I'm reminded of my father, who refused to take his blood-pressure medicine for years. He still lived to be 81.) Something's missing, though I think it's missing by design. The story is kept heavily restrained, and I wish it would get loose and go for a walk along the highway, out in front of all the neighbors, letting them see its business. I can't help imagining what some of the other authors I mentioned might have done with the same material, even though I know it's not fair to them or to Ostlund.
Still, you might get a sense from the quoted paragraph whether The Bigness of the World would interest you. I'm going to read the rest of the book, just because I consider it important to read the GLBT fiction that mainstream (straight, corporate, male heterosexual) media -- and too many gay people, alas -- ignore. I believe I've complained in this blog before about how most gay people I know don't seem to read any gay-related fiction; to me that would like refusing to breathe. I want a lot more GLBT fiction to be written, published, and read, and I don't mind if a considerable amount of GLBT fiction doesn't speak to me, any more than I mind if every human being isn't attractive to me. Go thou, and do likewise.
Talking Turkey
I'm now reading The Bigness of the World, a collection of stories by Lori Ostlund, which I found out about through a post at Band of Thebes. The book has won a slew of awards, which is very nice, though as Band of Thebes complains, "Nevertheless, mainstream review attention has been scant. And the book is impossible to find in Manhattan; I've called the chains and the independents. Buy it
Talking Turkey
I'm now reading The Bigness of the World, a collection of stories by Lori Ostlund, which I found out about through a post at Band of Thebes. The book has won a slew of awards, which is very nice, though as Band of Thebes complains, "Nevertheless, mainstream review attention has been scant. And the book is impossible to find in Manhattan; I've called the chains and the independents. Buy it
Another Quiet Day in the Markets
Gold went higher and won the clash of the titans match against king Dollar today, busting
Defending the Indefensible
I knew there was something else I meant to write about here, but it kept slipping my mind.I've always liked Doonesbury, though since I don't regularly read newspapers there have been prolonged periods when I didn't follow the strip closely. For a few years in the 1980s I would just buy each collection as it was published. Now that it's available online, I've done a little better. It was fun to watch certain right-wingers fume when he started up some plots about the Iraq War, with very sympathetic and intelligent portrayals of the troops. When longtime character B.D. lost a leg and his football helmet, a lot of people took notice, but Trudeau has also given serious story time to Leo aka Toggle, an Iraq vet who returns to college after his medical discharge, where he becomes romantically involved with Mike Doonesbury's daughter Alex. Leo lost an eye and has trouble speaking due to Traumatic Brain Injury; he's also a heavy-metal fan who drives a pickup truck. Not exactly the kind of character the Right (or many liberals, alas) would expect to get sensitive kind of treatment in Doonesbury. Which only goes to show how little they know. Sure, Trudeau is a liberal, but he's the kind of liberal that gives liberals a good name.
In last Sunday's strip, Alex and Leo go out for coffee. Alex makes some slighting remarks about some men carrying guns, "open-carry yahoos" as she calls them. (Do such men regularly kick back at Starbucks?) Leo intervenes in the argument: "Listen, dude," he tells one of the men, "I spent two years behind an M60 machine gun defending, among other things, your right to be a moron about guns!" Alex exclaims in delight over Leo's unexpectedly getting out a full sentence.
It's a cute little story, but one thing jumped out at me. Leo was not defending freedom in Iraq. No Iraqi was a threat to Americans' right to be morons about guns. No Iraqi was a threat to American rights or freedoms. It was, and is, our government that is the biggest threat to American rights or freedoms -- remember the Patriot Act, which was passed under Bush but was originally a Clinton-era project? -- and it was in the service of that government that Leo and thousands of other soldiers went to Iraq.
I know, I know, what he said was in character. For that matter, the latest Doonesbury collection, Signature Wound, has a Foreword retired US Marine Corps General and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace, who hails "all who have stepped forward and volunteered to protect the freedoms we hold dear." Such talk is a conditioned reflex, not only in the military but among most people who can't quite bring themselves to object to any war the US starts. I must respectfully but firmly differ with the General, and with Leo, and with Garry Trudeau if it comes to that. The United States has not fought a defensive war in my lifetime, and I was born in 1951. With all proper sympathy and empathy for those who feel the need to rationalize and justify their participation in the wars of aggression we have fought and are fighting now, I can't go along with them on this point. As far as I can see, until Americans can recognize what their government and their armed forces are doing, we will continue to get involved in these wars, and that will mean more young people getting chewed up and spat out by the military, with more or less support from their society. (Not to mention the vastly greater numbers of innocent foreigners who suffer.) But the best way -- the only way, really -- to support them is not to damage them in the first place.
P.S. May 9, 2010: Oh, dear, here's another one. (Via)
I am a homosexual American citizen and while I fight to defend the rights of free speech and a democratic legislature process, I suffer because these very same freedoms are denied to me as a gay Sailor.Again, this is mere rhetoric (read the whole letter for his account of the highlights of his service). Which, as I've said before, doesn't mean the ban on gays in the military shouldn't be lifted, only that it has nothing to do with defending anyone's rights.
P.P.S. May 16, 2010: This one from the Give a Damn Campaign's website, an open letter to President Obama from a gay soldier on leave from deployment in Iraq:
When serving in a war zone, you learn quite a bit about yourself and what’s important to you. I’ve had the chance to work on a close and personal level with the people of Iraq, and in doing so, I have realized more than ever that the freedoms we enjoy as Americans should not be taken for granted – we must protect them at all costs. These freedoms are essential to the very foundation of our society. Yet so many men and women who fight for these freedoms aren’t allotted their own. Our freedom to love and be loved by whomever we choose. The freedom to live of a life of truth and dignity.I wonder if it's possible to talk about an issue like this without relying on such pious garbage. But this young man isn't protecting my freedoms, or your freedoms, or anyone else's freedoms. If anything, he's fighting for a state that is dedicated to taking freedom away. (In an exchange on the Campaign's Facebook pages, one guy inadvertently came closer to reality: "I'm gay, and I would love to serve my military..." (But then I noticed that "Serving the Military" is the thread topic; I can't even give this poor kid credit for the Freudian slip.)
Defending the Indefensible
I knew there was something else I meant to write about here, but it kept slipping my mind.I've always liked Doonesbury, though since I don't regularly read newspapers there have been prolonged periods when I didn't follow the strip closely. For a few years in the 1980s I would just buy each collection as it was published. Now that it's available online, I've done a little better. It was fun to
Defending the Indefensible
I knew there was something else I meant to write about here, but it kept slipping my mind.I've always liked Doonesbury, though since I don't regularly read newspapers there have been prolonged periods when I didn't follow the strip closely. For a few years in the 1980s I would just buy each collection as it was published. Now that it's available online, I've done a little better. It was fun to
European Gold Bull Party
As the Euro makes a panic spike down, Gold priced in Euros is ramping higher, acting as a
David Morgan : the fundamentals of Silver on HoweStreet
David Morgan of The Morgan Report and silver-investor.com discusses the possible coming trend, and again why silver makes a bit more sense, albeit a volatile potential investment, as opposed to gold, although he does not advise against investing in it either. It's a very compelling look at what is happening right now
Make My Heart
Now, this is what I'm talking about. Mm hm hmm. Yes indeed.
Early in the life of this blog I complained about a music video by a diva beloved of many gay men, which kept everything thoroughly heterosexual in its choreography: "I suddenly noticed that though the choreographer had paired males with females and a few females with females, there were no males paired with males. This, although in a cast full of dancer/model types, there must have been a few gay males, and although Dayne’s target audience was presumably not homophobic teenaged boys."
Oh, well, I don't pay much attention to music videos, but I did pay attention when the Angry Black Woman touted Toni Braxton's new one: "Fat Dancers! Muscled women! Church Ladies! And all other sorts of hot LGBT dancers!!! And the music! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" With a link to Rod 2.0, who writes, "The track is destined to be a clubbanger especially because the Billie Woodruff-directed video is a love letter to black and Latino LGBT youth. It fuses the vintage "house" music club scene of the 80s to the ballroom scene of the 90s and 00s." Yeah, that's a lot more like it.
Early in the life of this blog I complained about a music video by a diva beloved of many gay men, which kept everything thoroughly heterosexual in its choreography: "I suddenly noticed that though the choreographer had paired males with females and a few females with females, there were no males paired with males. This, although in a cast full of dancer/model types, there must have been a few gay males, and although Dayne’s target audience was presumably not homophobic teenaged boys."
Oh, well, I don't pay much attention to music videos, but I did pay attention when the Angry Black Woman touted Toni Braxton's new one: "Fat Dancers! Muscled women! Church Ladies! And all other sorts of hot LGBT dancers!!! And the music! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" With a link to Rod 2.0, who writes, "The track is destined to be a clubbanger especially because the Billie Woodruff-directed video is a love letter to black and Latino LGBT youth. It fuses the vintage "house" music club scene of the 80s to the ballroom scene of the 90s and 00s." Yeah, that's a lot more like it.
Make My Heart
Now, this is what I'm talking about. Mm hm hmm. Yes indeed.Early in the life of this blog I complained about a music video by a diva beloved of many gay men, which kept everything thoroughly heterosexual in its choreography: "I suddenly noticed that though the choreographer had paired males with females and a few females with females, there were no males paired with males. This, although in
Make My Heart
Now, this is what I'm talking about. Mm hm hmm. Yes indeed.Early in the life of this blog I complained about a music video by a diva beloved of many gay men, which kept everything thoroughly heterosexual in its choreography: "I suddenly noticed that though the choreographer had paired males with females and a few females with females, there were no males paired with males. This, although in
TIME Magazine Interviews: Robert Kiyosaki
The financial guru's new book is 'Conspiracy of the Rich.' Robert Kiyosaki will now take your questions
More Bearish Breakdowns in General Stocks
In no particular order, some important break downs adding to the data indicating an
New York court fails the children of same-sex couples; don't be fooled by press reports to the contrary
Debra H. is the mother of her six-year-old son, a child she raised with Janice R,. her ex-partner who is the child's biological mother. So ruled the New York Court of Appeals today (and that's the highest court in NY, so their decision is final). For that reason, press reports, at least the early ones, refer to the opinion as expanding the rights of gay parents.Not so fast. What the court
New York draws line between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" children of lesbian couples. I want to throw up.
I confess that wanting to throw up is not a rationally sound or doctrinally astute reaction to a court ruling. I don't care. There is no other response I can have to today's ruling from the highest court in New York (the New York Court of Appeals) that a child born to a lesbian couple who are married or in a civil union has two parents while a child born to an unmarried/not unioned couple has one
Buying Yesterday and Today
This morning, I am buying back into the Gold patch. I bought GDXJ bullish call options
LET'S TAKE JESUS OFF THE DASHBOARD.
Surf noir. We've no idea what it is really, but still it seems a pretty apt description for NYC via New Jersey songwriter Lana Del Rey. All femme fatale lyrics and rampant nostalgia for the kitschy Americana of yesteryear, Lana's tracks hook you with a sultry approach to pop songwriting that sets her apart from her peers in this city. The icing on the cake is her homemade music videos, which
Hawaii civil union bill creates equal rights for same-sex and different-sex couples
The Hawaii legislature took everyone by surprise last week when it approved the creation of civil unions in the state. The gay press generally reported the development as approval of civil unions for same-sex couples, but that's not what the legislation does; it approves civil unions for any two unrelated adults who are not in another civil union, a marriage, or a reciprocal beneficiary
Inappropriately Touched by God
I recently saw a new book by Marilynne Robinson, the novelist and essayist who wrote a good (though uneven) dissection of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion. (The review used to be available online, but now you can only see it if you're a Harper's subscriber.) The new book is called Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self; I hadn't seen the subtitle until I looked the book up on Amazon, and it looks like something you'd see in The Onion, but apparently she's serious. The book is apparently based on her Terry Lectures, just like Terry Eagleton's Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, which I finally found embarrassing and unreadable. Robinson appears to be a more careful, rigorous thinker than Eagleton, but I'm not ready to spend money on the new book, and it's not in the library yet.
So I took one easy way out. Robinson's earlier book of essays, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (Picador, 2005) was in at the public library. The last essay, "The Tyranny of Petty Coercion," looked interesting. And so it was. Robinson is concerned with the courage to express dissenting opinions, which she seems to think is in shorter supply now than in younger, happier days. "Physical courage," she writes (255), "is remarkably widespread in this population. There seem always to be firefighters to deal with the most appalling conflagrations and doctors to deal with the most novel and alarming illnesses. It is by no means to undervalue courage of this kind to say it is perhaps expedited by being universally recognized as courage. Those who act on it can recognize the impulse and act confidently, even at the greatest risk to themselves." Those who act on it, I'd add, can also expect respect and praise for doing so, unlike those who say or write unpopular things.
I'd also point out that the tactic Robinson deplores is ancient. The Romans dismissed the early Christians as atheists, and the Bible (both Testaments) is among other things an anthology of bad arguments against opponents, be they "pagans" or other Christians or Jews. Jennifer Wright Knust's Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (Columbia, 2006)
describes how,
I suppose Robinson is aware of all this, and is only citing instances from the Bush II administration as a contemporary example rather than a novelty, but some acknowledgment that she's not a lone voice crying in the wilderness would be nice.
Which brings me to my next point. No doubt some people were inhibited from criticizing the Bush administration by the fear of being accused of "Bush-bashing," but many more were not. There was no shortage of criticism and attack during those long eight years, though admittedly not as much, or as substantial, as one might have liked in those media we call Mainstream. What actually happened (another verifiable, or at least arguable, claim about truth) was that many critical voices were excluded by the corporate media, but 1) there were probably more alternative venues for criticism than at any other time I can remember in my lifetime, especially on the Internet, but even so there was plenty of criticism of Bush at a personal level, in letters to the editor, and elsewhere, unabashed by the accusation of "bashing"; and 2) the corporate media have never been friendly to critical voices; I think there was more rational political discussion going on during the Bush years than there was during the 1960s on Vietnam or the Civil Rights Movement. You don't have to read Chomsky and Herman's writings to know this, but they're convenient, well-known (and therefore frequently misrepresented and demonized) and well-documented; many other students have covered the same ground, with much the same results.
But Robinson is really aiming at something else, I think: the claim that what one is doing and saying, though many other people are doing and saying it, is in fact hardly being said or done by anyone, and therefore one is speaking out at great personal risk, if only risk of being accused of Bush- or Obama-bashing or of Political Correctness.
The reason this tactic annoys me, I think, is that I associate it mainly with bigots and other reactionaries, like the people on Facebook who declare that they are Christians and dare you to copy the same declaration to your status, only a few will have the courage -- will you? When I declared that I was an atheist in response to one of these, they attacked me for denying their right to believe. I guess they didn't have the courage to declare their faith in Christ unless absolutely everybody around them agreed with them. (Given their beliefs, they should worry, considering what the gospels show Jesus saying about those who will not acknowledge him before men.)
And finally, is it just me, or is there something of the very attitude she deplores in her own reaction to those silly billies who are so shallow as to disrespect "the religious/mystical/aesthetic/intellectual tradition that is so essentially compelling to me"? Don't they see that she's the one who's really cool after all? But I'm sure it's totally uncool of me to point that out.
P.S. Hey, Robinson is going to be teaching a workshop on theological writing at Princeton this summer. That's what happens when you make shocking statements about your faith in today's attitude-ridden secular society. For those who want to be in with the in crowd...
So I took one easy way out. Robinson's earlier book of essays, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (Picador, 2005) was in at the public library. The last essay, "The Tyranny of Petty Coercion," looked interesting. And so it was. Robinson is concerned with the courage to express dissenting opinions, which she seems to think is in shorter supply now than in younger, happier days. "Physical courage," she writes (255), "is remarkably widespread in this population. There seem always to be firefighters to deal with the most appalling conflagrations and doctors to deal with the most novel and alarming illnesses. It is by no means to undervalue courage of this kind to say it is perhaps expedited by being universally recognized as courage. Those who act on it can recognize the impulse and act confidently, even at the greatest risk to themselves." Those who act on it, I'd add, can also expect respect and praise for doing so, unlike those who say or write unpopular things.
Moral and intellectual courage [she continues] are not in nearly so flourishing a state, even though the risks they entail -- financial or professional disadvantage, ridicule, ostracism -- are comparatively minor. ... Indeed, consensus is so powerful and so effectively defended that I suspect it goes back to earliest humanity, when our tribes were small and vulnerable, and schism and defection were a threat to survival. But it should never be forgotten how much repression and violence consensus can support, or how many crimes it has justified.Whew! She does run on, almost as much as I do. Anyway, she then offers an example of what she's complaining about:
It is true that in most times and places physical courage and moral and intellectual courage have tended to merge, since dungeons, galleys, and stakes have been extensively employed in discouraging divergent viewpoints. For this reason our own society, which employs only mild disincentives against them and in theory positively admires them, offers a valuable opportunity for the study of what I will call the conservation of consensus, that is, the effective enforcement of consensus in those many instances where neither reason nor data endorse it, where there are no legal constraints supporting it, and where there are no penalties for challenging it that persons of even moderate brio would consider deterrents [256].
Here is an instance: for some time the word "bashing" has been used to derail criticism of many kinds, by treating as partisan or tendentious statements that are straightforwardly true or false. To say that the disparity between rich and poor in this country exceeds any previously known in American history ... is to say something falsifiable -- that is, for practical purposes, verifiable, and in any case arguable. But such statements are now routinely called "Bush bashing." In other words, something that is objectively true or false is dismissed as the slur of a hostile subgroup. Perfectly sensible people flinch at the thought that they might sound a trifle Jacobin, and they are shamed out of saying what they believe to be true in the plainest sense of the word "true." Nor is it the critics alone who lose their bearings when these strategies are employed. Those who identify with the group toward whom the criticisms are directed -- in this case, the present administration -- can hear irrational attack where they might otherwise hear a challenge to their values or to their theories and methods.As I read this, I couldn't help wondering if Robinson has ever read the writings of Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman on the ways in which dissenting views are muffled in a society which does not use violence to suppress them. Nina Eliasoph's Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life (Cambridge, 1998) also addresses this problem, as did George Orwell's preface to the original publication of Animal Farm, which was not published until 1972. Quite a number of people have noticed and studied conformism, self-censorship, and the ways in which such behavior is produced, encouraged, and enforced. The "exchanges that political life entirely depends on" rarely take place, and it's an uphill battle to make them happen at all.
So the exchanges that political life entirely depends on, in which people attempt in good conscience to establish practical truth and then candidly assign value to it, simply do not take place [257].
I'd also point out that the tactic Robinson deplores is ancient. The Romans dismissed the early Christians as atheists, and the Bible (both Testaments) is among other things an anthology of bad arguments against opponents, be they "pagans" or other Christians or Jews. Jennifer Wright Knust's Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (Columbia, 2006)
describes how,
From biblical tradition, to Greek invective, to early Christian polemics, "the opponents" -- be they gentiles or slaves or barbarians or heretics -- were universally said to devote themselves to sexual excess. Though there may have been licentious gentiles, slaves, rulers, philosophers, barbarians, heretics, or Christians, the sources I have been exploring will not help us find them. Instead, these sources indicate a widespread attempt to employ moralizing claims regarding sexual behavior and gender deviance to validate authority. Still, there is a sense in which all this sex talk was actually about sex: by strategically claiming superiority on the basis of a strict sexual morality, early Christians were under tremendous pressure to display the sophrosyne they had defined for themselves. Therefore, all of this highly charged sex talk was necessary. Christians had to be convinced to live up to sophrosyne, displaying it for all to see. Moreover, the content of in-Christ self-discipline required frequent renegotiation and reiteration in light of the changing circumstances of the first Christians. Charges against the heretics provide further clues regarding the contested claims of Christian sophrosyne as well as the imagined constitution of the group [160].On the other hand, many of Bush's liberal critics were more obsessed by his Texas accent and his inability to pronounce "nuclear" the way they thought he should, as well as his often-incoherent speaking style, than by his actual crimes. They welcomed the advent of Barack Obama because, as so many said, it was such a relief to finally have a President who wasn't an embarrassment as a public speaker! If anything, this was a convenient way of ignoring Obama's actual stated policies, and those who criticized Obama from the left were also accused of bad faith by his devotees, just Bush's critics were. But I've dealt with this issue often before.
I suppose Robinson is aware of all this, and is only citing instances from the Bush II administration as a contemporary example rather than a novelty, but some acknowledgment that she's not a lone voice crying in the wilderness would be nice.
Which brings me to my next point. No doubt some people were inhibited from criticizing the Bush administration by the fear of being accused of "Bush-bashing," but many more were not. There was no shortage of criticism and attack during those long eight years, though admittedly not as much, or as substantial, as one might have liked in those media we call Mainstream. What actually happened (another verifiable, or at least arguable, claim about truth) was that many critical voices were excluded by the corporate media, but 1) there were probably more alternative venues for criticism than at any other time I can remember in my lifetime, especially on the Internet, but even so there was plenty of criticism of Bush at a personal level, in letters to the editor, and elsewhere, unabashed by the accusation of "bashing"; and 2) the corporate media have never been friendly to critical voices; I think there was more rational political discussion going on during the Bush years than there was during the 1960s on Vietnam or the Civil Rights Movement. You don't have to read Chomsky and Herman's writings to know this, but they're convenient, well-known (and therefore frequently misrepresented and demonized) and well-documented; many other students have covered the same ground, with much the same results.
But Robinson is really aiming at something else, I think: the claim that what one is doing and saying, though many other people are doing and saying it, is in fact hardly being said or done by anyone, and therefore one is speaking out at great personal risk, if only risk of being accused of Bush- or Obama-bashing or of Political Correctness.
This is a time when it actually requires a certain courage to declare oneself a liberal, even among presumptively like-minded people. That might seem a minor act after the instances I have just cited, in which people defied prejudice, custom, and law. But the purely arbitrary nature of this little coercion isolates the impulse to enforce consensus, even when absolutely nothing is at stake for the enforcers and the one subject to coercion risks no penalty -- except the embarrassment of seeming not to know that a word is passe, that posture is, well, as of now a little ridiculous [260].Does it "actually" require a certain courage to declare oneself a liberal, "even among presumptively like-minded people", in these troubled times? I don't know, since I'm not a liberal. Nor, living as I do in a college town among the presumptively like-minded, have I needed much courage to declare myself gay, atheist, and of leftist opinions. But I have often noticed people, like Robinson, telling the world how courageous they are for stating their views, often in front of audiences of the presumptively like-minded. And I'll bet you can guess what comes next.
To illustrate this point, I will make a shocking statement: I am a Christian. This ought not to startle anyone. It is likely to be at least demographically true of an American of European ancestry. I have a strong attachment to the Scriptures, and to the theology, music, and art Christianity has inspired. My most inward thoughts and ponderings are formed by the narratives and traditions of Christianity. I expect them to engage me on my deathbed [260-261].Parenthetically, I'd like to point out that much of what Robinson says here is true of me, and I'm an atheist: I also have a strong attachment to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, etc. and they (along with the other cultural products of Western civilization -- which would be a good idea, as Gandhi quipped) inform the way I think. (See, for example, the poems I wrote using the Bible and Christianity as source material.) But then, I could say the same of Greek and Roman "narratives and traditions," and I daresay so could Robinson. The philosopher Walter Kaufmann said the same of Judaism, which he contended with even long after he'd ceased to be observant or to believe in Yahweh. If I'd grown up in China, the same would be true for me with respect to Chinese narratives and traditions. What Robinson is doing is sort of like bragging that she's attached to the English language, simply because she grew up in an English-speaking country.
The reason this tactic annoys me, I think, is that I associate it mainly with bigots and other reactionaries, like the people on Facebook who declare that they are Christians and dare you to copy the same declaration to your status, only a few will have the courage -- will you? When I declared that I was an atheist in response to one of these, they attacked me for denying their right to believe. I guess they didn't have the courage to declare their faith in Christ unless absolutely everybody around them agreed with them. (Given their beliefs, they should worry, considering what the gospels show Jesus saying about those who will not acknowledge him before men.)
Over the years many a good soul has let me know by one means or another that this living out of the religious/mystical/aesthetic/intellectual tradition that is so essentially compelling to me is not, shall we say, cool. ... Now, I do feel fairly confident that I know what religion is. I have spent decades informing myself about it, an advantage I can claim over any of my would-be rescuers. I am a mainline Protestant, a.k.a. a liberal Protestant, as these same people know. I do not by any means wear my religion on my sleeve. I am extremely reluctant to talk about it at all, chiefly because my belief does not readily reduce itself to simple statements [261].Again: Hey, most of this is true of me too! Robinson's claim reminds me of an exchange I once saw between William F. Buckley and Malcolm Muggeridge on Buckley's TV show, where Buckley said basically the same thing as Robinson says here, and Muggeridge said that he found that people were intensely interested when they found out he was a Christian. (Hey, here it is! Starting at about 2:55; Muggeridge responds at about 4:30.) Maybe the reaction you get depends on your own attitude? (Muggeridge suggests as much, very tactfully.) But I'd never invite Buckley to a dinner party in the first place, and I'm having my doubts about Robinson.
The question has been put to me very directly: Am I not afraid to be associated with religious people? These nudges would have their coercive effect precisely because those who want to put me right know that I am not a fundamentalist. That is, I am to avoid association with religion completely or else be embarrassed by punitive association with beliefs I do not hold. What sense does that make? What good does it serve? [261].This is also familiar to me, especially as a gay man. I've often been asked whether I'm not worried about being judged by those crazy Gay Pride Marches, for example. But it is also familiar in the context of the "New Atheism." As I've written before, many of my fellow atheists are an embarrassment to me, and I'm still not always sure what to do about it. (Except, I guess, to keep on learning, and take pot shots at my fellow atheists when they say especially stupid things.) But as Robinson wrote in her review of Dawkins, “The nineteenth-century abolitionist, feminist, essayist, and ordained minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson made the always timely point that, in comparing religions, great care must be taken to consider the best elements of one with the best of the other, and the worst with the worst, to avoid the usual practice of comparing, let us say, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie with the Golden Rule.” And as I wrote of her remarks, the question then arises of how to tell which are the best elements and which the worst, both in Christianity and in atheism. I suspect that one reason why Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett have gotten so much media attention is that they are clowns and yahoos, which the corporate media love. A more informed and nuanced discussion of the issues is too boring for the corporate media, which prefer soundbytes to analysis.
This is only one instance of a very pervasive phenomenon, a pressure toward concessions no one has a right to ask. These are concessions courage would refuse if it were once acknowledged that a minor and insidious fear is the prod that coaxes us toward conforming our lives, and even our thoughts, to norms that are effective markers of group identity precisely because they are shibboleths, a contemporary equivalent of using the correct fork. ..."The present dominance"? I see no reason to think that what Robinson is talking about is anything new. It was true when I was young, and seems to have been true long before that. (I'm presently reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which shows the same processes of aspersion and ridicule being used very effectively in English life at the end of the 18th century.) But what baffles me is that Robinson is writing as though she only just figured this out, and she's eight years my senior. Well, maybe she did. Maybe she spent most of her life sheltered in "mainline Protestant" circles, and never had to try to have a discussion with people who differed with her on basic issues. But if so, that undercuts her stance as a longtime observer of the American political scene, distressed by its degeneration into aspersions and attitudes.
The present dominance of aspersion and ridicule in American public life is a reflex of the fact that we are assumed to want, and in many cases perhaps do want, attitude much more than information. If an unhealthy percentage of the population gets its news from Jay Leno or Rush Limbaugh, it is because they are arbiters of attitude. They instruct viewers as to what, within their affinity groups, it is safe to say and cool to think [262].
And finally, is it just me, or is there something of the very attitude she deplores in her own reaction to those silly billies who are so shallow as to disrespect "the religious/mystical/aesthetic/intellectual tradition that is so essentially compelling to me"? Don't they see that she's the one who's really cool after all? But I'm sure it's totally uncool of me to point that out.
P.S. Hey, Robinson is going to be teaching a workshop on theological writing at Princeton this summer. That's what happens when you make shocking statements about your faith in today's attitude-ridden secular society. For those who want to be in with the in crowd...
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