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4月30日 Obligatory Shakespeare QuoteTo-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Shakespeare, Macbeth (V, v, 19) 4月29日 Political Spin from the American Playbook('Stephen Harpur meets with Bush, Fox')
'The Hour' is actually pretty good stuff; usually well worth watching on TV or browsing through on the web. There should also be a Chomsky interview on this page linked above as well.
Google TranslateI'm not sure how accurate it is, but I thought it was pretty cool.
You can also translate entire web pages. For example, this is my page in Portuguese;
This is my page in Arabic;
Formidable! 4月28日 Daydreams Under Changing Skies'Ambition intoxicates more than fame; desire makes all things blossom, and possession makes them wither away; it is better to dream your life than to live it, even though living it is still dreaming it, albeit less mysteriously and less clearly, in a dark, heavy dream, like the dream diffused through the dim awareness of ruminationg beasts. Shakespeare's plays are more beautiful when viewed in a study than when put on in the theatre. The poets who have created imperishable women in love have often only ever known humdrum servant girls from taverns, while the most envied voluptuaries are unable to grasp fully the life they lead, or rather the life which leads them. - I knew a young boy of ten, of sickly disposition and precocious imagination, who had developed a purely cerebral love for an older girl. He would stay at his window for hours on end to see her walk by, wept if he didn't see her, wept even more if he did. He spent moments with her that were very few and far between. He stopped sleeping and eating. One day, he threw himself out of his window. People thought at first that despair at never getting close to his lady friend had filled him with the resolve to die. They learnt that, on the contrary, he had just had a long conversation with her: she had been extremely nice to him. Then people supposed that he had renounced the insipid days he still had to live, after this intoxication that he might never be able to experience again. Frequent remarks he had previously made to one of his friends finally led people to deduce that he was filled with disappointment every time he saw the sovereign lady of his dreams; but as soon as she had left, his fertile imagination restored all her power to the absent girl, and he would start to long for her again. Each time, he would try to find an accidental reason for his disappointment in the imperfect nature of the circumstances. After that final interview in which he had, in his already active and inventive fantasy, raised his lady friend to the high perfection of which her nature was capable, and been filled with despair when he compared that imperfect perfection to the absolute perfection on which he lived and from which he was dying, he threw himself out of the window. Subsequently, having been reduced to idiocy, he lived for a long time, since his fall had left him with no memory of his soul, his mind, or of the words of his lady friend, whom he now met without seeing her. In spite of supplications and threats, she married him, and died several years later, without having managed to make him recognize her. - Life is like this girl. We dream of it, and we love what we have dreamt up. We must not try to live it: we throw ourselves, like that boy, into a state of stupidity - but not all at once: everything in life deteriorates by imperceptible degrees. Within ten years, we do not recognize our dreams, we deny them, we live, like an ox, for the grass we graze on moment by moment. And from our marriage with death, who knows of we will arise as conscious, immortal beings?'
Marcel Proust, Nostalgia - Daydreams Under Changing Skies, Pleasures and Days 4月27日 'If You Speak the Truth, Keep a Foot in the Stirrup.'About a year ago the very talented Maggie Gyllenhaal made a statement which basically said that American foreign policy helped create 9/11. While she simply stated the obvious, she now keeps her political views to herself; this is a shame.
"I think what's good about the movie is that it deals with 9/11 in such a subtle, open, way that I think it allows it to be more complicated than just 'Oh, look at these poor New Yorkers and how hard it was for them', I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way and so I think the delicacy with which it's dealt [in the film The Great New Wonderful] allows that to sort of creep in...9/11 was a terrible tragedy and of course it goes without saying that I grieve along with every American for everyone who suffered and everyone who died in the catastrophe...But for those of us who were spared, it was also an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world." Fabrizio's Mistresses...As crabs, goats, scorpions, the balance
and the water pot lose their meanness
when hung as signs in the zodiac, so I can
see my own vices without heat in...distant
persons.
(Emerson)
Fabrizio's Mistresses
Fabrizio's mistress was intelligent and beautiful; nothing could console him for this fact. 'She shouldn't know her own mind so well!' he groaned aloud, 'I find her beauty is spoiled by her intelligence; would I still fall in love with the Mona Lisa each time I looked at her, if I had to listen at the same time to some critic sounding off, however exquisitely?' He abandoned her, and took another mistress who was beautiful and devoid of wit. But she continually prevented him from enjoying her charm, thanks to her merciless lack of tact. Then she aspired to intelligence, read a great deal, became pedantic and was just as intellectual as the first women, but less naturally, and with a ridiculous clumsiness. He begged her to keep quiet: even when she as not talking, her beauty cruelly reflected her stupidity. Finally, he struck up an acquaintance with a women whose intelligence could be guessed at merely through her more subtle grace: she was happy just to live, and did not dissipate in cavilling conversations the alluring mystery of her nature. She was as gentle as the gracious, agile beasts with their deep gaze, and troubled people's minds like the morning memory, poignant and vague, of their dreams. But she could not be bothered to do for him what the others had done - namely, love him.
Marcel Proust, Fragments from Italian Comedy, Pleasures and Days 4月26日 Blog ThieveryI'm stealing this link from here.
If you've never seen this...it was quite brilliant.
Jon Stewart's Brutal Exchange with CNN Host And I'm stealing the next link from here.
It is a little war room scenario outlining the conundrums of dealing with Iran.
4月25日 Body Bags Send the Wrong MessageIt seems prime minister Harpur has been paying attention to politics south of the border after all. Apparently this has become big news, and I nearly missed it. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out; from what I understand Afghanistan won't be getting safer any time soon.
coup d'état"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
Samuel P. Huntington
I came across a list of Iraqi blogs. They make for some interesting reading.
'Baghdad Burning' is one of the better ones.
'[news item]...“The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.”
That’s how messed up the country is at this point.' 4月24日 'Overreacting to Protest''Wenyi Wang acted rudely when she yelled and waved a banner at visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao during his White House appearance Thursday. The Secret Service was right to hustle her off the grounds. President Bush was right to apologize. But does Ms. Wang deserve to go to prison for six months? That might be the response to embarrassing and rude speech in Beijing. It shouldn't be in Washington. But yesterday the U.S. government charged Ms. Wang under a law that could bring her that sentence.'
Saskatchewan's Best Hope for a Population Increase DeniedREGINA (CP) - The possibility of Saskatchewan becoming a second Canadian stronghold for a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group that practices polygamy isn't something government officials here are about to welcome with open arms.
"Polygamy is against the law in Canada and perhaps more importantly, there are laws against the sexual exploitation of children and minors," Frank Quennell, Saskatchewan's attorney general and minister of Justice, said Monday.
"Those laws will be enforced in Saskatchewan and we certainly don't have the welcome mat out for anybody who would break them," he added.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by fugitive Warren Jeffs and teaches polygamy as its central tenet. It is based in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., where about 10,000 church members live.
Jeffs is wanted on a U.S. federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after allegations he arranged a plural marriage between a 16-year-old girl and an older man.
Last week Bruce Wisan, a spokesman for the church, said Jeffs may be creating a new colony in Saskatchewan and that as many as 40 per cent of the church members may be moving to "a very remote, pristine area to start over again."
4月21日 No Justice, No PeaceSome commentary and a copy of a New York Times article on the Maher Arar 'incident' by Bob Herbert have been stolen from here.
If I could figure out the backtracking thing, I'd have done that instead of copying and pasting the whole thing.
Bob Herbert: We're All Concentration Camp Guards Now
Bob Herbert, in No Justice, No Peace returns to the appalling case of Maher Arar, who "thanks to the United States government, went through the almost incomprehensible agony of being tortured. Now he is trying to live with the aftermath of torture, which is its own form of agony."
Bob Herbert is very, very angry: The rendition program is one more example of the way the United States, using the threat of terror as an excuse, has locked its ideals away in a drawer somewhere. All Americans are complicit in the Bush Regime's use of the empty rhetorical phrase, "the war on terror" to justify the indiscriminate use of torture. And it can only get worse. The war on terror has been "rebranded" as "the long war". How convenient. America can indulge in war without end and feel good, even complacent about it. What's your excuse for meekly accepting America's right to torture whom it pleases? Are you only following propaganda orders? A report from Human Rights First has just been released. In brief: 98 detainee deaths in U.S. custody. You can read the overview at link above and download full report. [Ed Strong]
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE By BOB HERBERT If you talk to Maher Arar long enough, even on the telephone, you'll get the disturbing sense that you are speaking with someone whose life has been shattered like a pane of glass. "Sometimes I have the feeling that I want to go and live on another planet," he told me. "A completely different planet than planet Earth. You know?" Mr. Arar, thanks to the United States government, went through the almost incomprehensible agony of being tortured. Now he is trying to live with the aftermath of torture, which is its own form of agony. On Sept. 26, 2002, Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria, was taken into custody by American authorities at Kennedy Airport in New York. He was locked in chains and shackles and accused of being "a member of a known terrorist organization." There was no evidence to support the accusation, and no evidence has ever come to light. Nevertheless, as part of the hideous U.S. policy known as extraordinary rendition, Mr. Arar was shipped off to Syria, where he was kept in an underground rat-infested, grave-like cell, and tortured. (When I visited him in Ottawa last year,, he told me how he had screamed and wept and begged both God and his captors for mercy.) After 10 months, he was released. No charges against him were ever filed. I called Mr. Arar last week after a federal judge in Brooklyn threw out a lawsuit in which Mr. Arar had sought damages from the U.S. government for his ordeal. "I don't feel like I am the same person," he said. "I feel that my brain or my inner soul does not want to think about what's going on. My soul is trying to distract itself from reality." The reality, he said, is that his life has been all but completely destroyed. He is fearful. He has become psychologically and emotionally distant from his wife and two young children. He has nightmares. He can't find a job. He spins dizzily from one bout with depression to another. And some former friends who are Muslim will no longer associate with him because "they're afraid to be the next target." "I mean, you can tell, no one wants to hear about me," he said. "After 9/11, everyone branded with the terrorism label — they're doomed." Mr. Arar, now 35, made a comfortable living as a software engineer before he fell into the demonic embrace of the rendition program. Now no one will hire him. "They put it in a nice way," he said. "They've said to people: 'Listen, we believe he's innocent. But, you know, we don't want to hire him.' " Mr. Arar's own psychological difficulties have compounded the external challenges he faces. "I was invited to go and speak in Vancouver, which is west of here," he said. "But I can't take the plane anymore. Psychologically I am so scared to fly. So I couldn't go." He said he frequently lacks the confidence or motivation to perform even minor tasks, and often feels overwhelmed by the thought of something as ordinary as a scheduled meeting with the principal at his 9-year-old daughter's school. He said his 4-year-old son, Houd, panics whenever he thinks his father is about to go out. "He always wants to come with me," said Mr. Arar. "He insists, and he cries if I can't take him. He's afraid that if I go, I won't ever come back." So the nightmare that began with rendition continues with no end in sight. Mr. Arar is grateful that his wife was able to land a job last year with a political party. "It's not much money," he said, "but had she not found a job we would be in a very, very miserable situation. We're just barely surviving." Unexpected emotional support has come from ordinary Canadians; strangers frequently come up to Mr. Arar on the street and shake his hand. "They might say, "We're behind you,' or, 'We support you,' " he said. "It means a lot to me." The rendition program is one more example of the way the United States, using the threat of terror as an excuse, has locked its ideals away in a drawer somewhere. We don't even give them lip service anymore. A person like Mr. Arar is not seen as having any rights. He's not even seen as human. He was carted away in accordance with official U.S. policy, and treated like an animal. "They are doing this to people and it is wrong, wrong, wrong," said Mr. Arar. "This is an evil practice, and I want them to acknowledge it. I want them to acknowledge that what they did to me was wrong." 4月18日 Hell is Other People's Music: Welcome to Hell
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - God Is In The House - The Mercy Seat (Live)
Flaming Lips: Do You Realize?
Bjork: All Is Full of Love  Courtesy of IFILM
The Cure: Trilogy - One Hundred Years This DVD is one of my favorites.
Joseph Arthur: All of Our Hands
4月17日 Sundance Festival - In the Can: Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
Sundance Channel's Festival Dailies - In the Can: Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man 4月14日 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Into My Arms
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Into My Arms 4月13日 'Dear God'Dear God, hope you got the letter and Dear God, sorry to disturb you but Did you make disease Dear God don't know if you've noticed but I won't believe in heaven and hell If there's one thing I don't believe in XTC, 'Skylarking' 4月12日 The Sojourners Guy'The religious right are more American nationalists than evangelical Christians. They talk about taking back the nation, I'm talking about taking back the faith. It's hard to find many references to patriotism in the Bible. ‘God bless America' is not in the Bible."
In God's Politics, Wallis describes how President George Bush - whose faith is deep and sincere, he believes - confuses the biblical message to build a theology of American empire. For example, Bush quoted a popular hymn in one speech, saying "there is power, wonder-working power in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people". But the wonder-working power in the hymn is the power of Christ in salvation, not the power of the American people. Another time he quoted the Gospel of John - "the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it" - then applied it not to Christ but the American ideal, "the hope of all mankind". Bush should not claim God's blessing for America's policies, saying God is on America's side, Wallis says. That leads to triumphalism, self-righteousness and dangerous foreign policy. Rather he should seek, as Abraham Lincoln said, to make sure he is on God's side. The change in emphasis should bring humility, reflection and accountability. Because the right is comfortable with the language of religion and values, they have come to own that territory, Wallis says. But they reduce it to abortion and gay marriage - and even there they get it wrong. "If I'm an unborn child I should stay unborn. Once I'm born I'm off the radar screen of the religious right - no child care, no support for mothers. It's probirth, not pro-life. "I agree there's a family crisis of breakups and kids falling between the cracks and high divorce rates, and parenting has become a counter-cultural activity in America. But all this has very little to do with gay and lesbian people. Caring for the family is the right thing to do, but this is the wrong circuit."
So how did the religious right capture the debate in the first place? It was a project of the political right, Wallis says. They met TV preachers and made a deal: give us your databases and we'll create this power bloc. "People don't know quite how bad it is. The Republican national committee asks churches for membership lists. It's a very compromised relationship. They appealed to genuine concerns and grievances church folk have, or the banality of the moral climate. Then they turned that into wedge issues to divide people."' 4月10日 History as Gravity'There is a wonderful tenacity of life about this sort of opposition to physical science. Always crushed it seems never to be killed, and after a thousand defeats it is as rampant now as in the days of Galileo.'
Thomas Huxley |
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