Here:
"McLEAN, Va. (AP) — The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them. [...]
Prison officials cite specific pages — but not specific passages — in the books that they deem objectionable. They include one page in Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams from My Father," and 22 separate pages in his policy-oriented 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope." It was not immediately obvious what passages might have been deemed problematic, though nearly half of the pages cited are in a chapter devoted to foreign affairs."
Besides the irony that two books authored by the current President of the United States constitute a threat to national security in the wrong hands, I think that the FBI, if it has a collective brain cell in its head, should be aware that the train has probably already left the station on this one.
The nefarious agents of Al Qaeda don't need a prison administration to get a hold of these books; they can walk down to the local grocery store and get them, or go to a chain bookstore, or order them from Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk, or wherever they're located. I don't think that Al Qaeda right now is saying "Curses! We cannot get our hands on this information, getting it to the Supermax prisoner was our only hope!"
Friday, July 10, 2009
Seattle is coming back.
Although people won't admit it easily, it's common knowledge that since the crest of '90s X-er culture Seattle has been in a decline with relation to interesting movements going on. For a while, Portland seemed to be the in, happening place. Now though, I feel that the groundwork is being set for a Seattle resurgence. The explanation is generational: the X-ers are fading into the woodwork and a group of people is coming up who weren't part of that culture who also feel confident in putting their own ideas forward instead of just parroting the older, 'cooler', kids. I can see it happening in front of me, although it may not be obvious to people outside of the city. The new generation, by which I mean folks in their '20s and not simply ultra-young people, is coming up here and will be establishing their place soon.
So no need to go to Portland to get in touch with the zeitgeist. In fact, I'd say that Portland is spending itself out, with the sort of hippy/crunchy alternativeness stuff sort of getting old. One person I talked to a while ago put it something like this, that in Portland you can go to yet another play or performance involving fire and people fucking on stage that your friends are putting on, but in the end where's any of it going? What does it all add up to, in other words, beyond another transgressive/hip assault on the system, which, if you're doing it all the time and you're getting polite reviews, doesn't seem like much of an assault on the system anymore.
So no need to go to Portland to get in touch with the zeitgeist. In fact, I'd say that Portland is spending itself out, with the sort of hippy/crunchy alternativeness stuff sort of getting old. One person I talked to a while ago put it something like this, that in Portland you can go to yet another play or performance involving fire and people fucking on stage that your friends are putting on, but in the end where's any of it going? What does it all add up to, in other words, beyond another transgressive/hip assault on the system, which, if you're doing it all the time and you're getting polite reviews, doesn't seem like much of an assault on the system anymore.
Seattle Weekly, The Stranger
These are the two alternative weeklies in Seattle. What I've found in reading both of them for years is the following: The Stranger has better general articles, but if you want to find out what's actually going on in Seattle in terms of music, movies, art, special events, the Seattle Weekly is the place to go. They may ebb and flow with the interesting articles, but they do a good job of reviewing stuff. The Stranger, on the other hand, is a nightmare when you're looking to find out what's new, often compressing lots and lots of information into really small blurbs that don't distinguish between good bands and forgettable ones, for example.
The 'black mob' in Akron
Although it's being framed in racial terms, you know the thing about a few people being reportedly attacked by a 'mob' of fifty people is that it's most likely a gross oversimplification of what happened. Fifty people don't just randomly assemble and go walking through the streets looking to beat people up, and isolated victims are rarely really that isolated. And folks who (reportedly) say 'it's a black world' are most likely meaning something along the lines of 'get out of my neighborhood', with a rhetorical flourish.
Maybe writers on the Right have never actually encountered black people and so aren't aware that many of them do not like white people, even you, no matter who you are. This is their right, and an understandable feeling based on the history of slavery, racism, and segregation that we have in this country. Most people who live in urban areas, including white-landia Seattle, know that lots of black folks may not like them, accept it, and try not to step on people's toes or to go to neighborhoods and areas where they're not wanted.
"It's a black world", fourth of July speech celebrating Obama's winning? Sure, and if unprovoked violence happened to those people I feel sorry for them, but this wasn't the secret signal for the start of a race war, unless right wing commentators and their allies turn it into one.
Maybe writers on the Right have never actually encountered black people and so aren't aware that many of them do not like white people, even you, no matter who you are. This is their right, and an understandable feeling based on the history of slavery, racism, and segregation that we have in this country. Most people who live in urban areas, including white-landia Seattle, know that lots of black folks may not like them, accept it, and try not to step on people's toes or to go to neighborhoods and areas where they're not wanted.
"It's a black world", fourth of July speech celebrating Obama's winning? Sure, and if unprovoked violence happened to those people I feel sorry for them, but this wasn't the secret signal for the start of a race war, unless right wing commentators and their allies turn it into one.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
A scene from Evergreen...a failing of the place
From The Evergreen State College in Olympia. I was in a year long program designed to give a more theoretical background to activists who were on the ground level and to give a practical background to people who had mostly theoretical or academic experience; there was also a video/media component to it. Anyways, a strange thing happened, which was that the people who were in it with practical experience who were supposed to be learning to think about that experience critically constantly objected that the theoretical concepts were irrelevant, that the people who knew them well were rich spoiled brats, and that their knowledge of things on the ground level trumped all of that. They then parlayed this attitude into not doing any of the work everyone else was doing and justifying it through shaming all the rest of the people with all of this. Yet for all of their complaints they didn't drop out of the program and in fact received lots and lots of college credit for it, while being almost open in class discussions themselves that they hadn't read the books and didn't care. In private they were a lot more forthcoming about not having done any of the work. So something that started out with potential ended up as another exercise in futility.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
A wry, revealing quote by a neo-con in an article about WIlliam Appleman Williams
Williams was a very interesting lefty foreign policy guy. The article is Here, and is very comprehensive and good.
The Quote: " "Can a generation raised on the teachings of William Appleman Williams and Walter LaFeber believe that the alleged sins of neoconservatism--excessive idealism, blinding self-righteousness, utopianism, hubris, militarism, and overweening ambition, and throw in if you want selfishness and greed--are somehow new sins?"
Exactly. Neoconservatives in the wake of 9/11 played their hand, came right out and said what they believed, what they wanted, how they thought about the world, but people didn't recognize it for what it was. The writer, Robert Kagan, is in this quote linking Neoconservatism with a long history of American imperialism, writing approvingly of it, and writing that, yes, that's what they're fully consciously putting out there. Only, of course, they don't see anything wrong with it.
The post-9/11 flurry of conservative commentary revealed what was always concealed behind the velvet glove: the pro-capitalist, anti-democratic, autocratic, expansionist agenda...with religion thrown in to add some spice, and ultra-patriotism of course as well.
It's we, or at least you guys (and gals), the American public in general that was surprised when they came right out and said it. Folks familiar with the true history of the United States weren't all that shocked, were shocked if it all by the force they pushed it with rather than with the sentiments themselves.
And as a consequence, after eight years of Bush, the American public decided that it was time for a change.
The Quote: " "Can a generation raised on the teachings of William Appleman Williams and Walter LaFeber believe that the alleged sins of neoconservatism--excessive idealism, blinding self-righteousness, utopianism, hubris, militarism, and overweening ambition, and throw in if you want selfishness and greed--are somehow new sins?"
Exactly. Neoconservatives in the wake of 9/11 played their hand, came right out and said what they believed, what they wanted, how they thought about the world, but people didn't recognize it for what it was. The writer, Robert Kagan, is in this quote linking Neoconservatism with a long history of American imperialism, writing approvingly of it, and writing that, yes, that's what they're fully consciously putting out there. Only, of course, they don't see anything wrong with it.
The post-9/11 flurry of conservative commentary revealed what was always concealed behind the velvet glove: the pro-capitalist, anti-democratic, autocratic, expansionist agenda...with religion thrown in to add some spice, and ultra-patriotism of course as well.
It's we, or at least you guys (and gals), the American public in general that was surprised when they came right out and said it. Folks familiar with the true history of the United States weren't all that shocked, were shocked if it all by the force they pushed it with rather than with the sentiments themselves.
And as a consequence, after eight years of Bush, the American public decided that it was time for a change.
And now Obama won't release people acquitted of crimes in Guantanamo
From the Wall Street Journal:
"By JESS BRAVIN
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it may continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.
Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat. The Bush administration took the same position, but its legality was never tested."
So lets see: you've been arrested, gone to trial, been acquitted of committing whatever crime that you're charged with, then the government decides to keep you locked up until they make a "threat assessment" about you committing the act that you've been cleared of committing in the future.
"By JESS BRAVIN
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it may continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.
Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat. The Bush administration took the same position, but its legality was never tested."
So lets see: you've been arrested, gone to trial, been acquitted of committing whatever crime that you're charged with, then the government decides to keep you locked up until they make a "threat assessment" about you committing the act that you've been cleared of committing in the future.
Wow, the creativity of the computer class: the Force Quit Won't Work threads
I'm having this problem on my Mac, which is that Force Quit will not quit applications. The applications disappear but cannot be restarted without restarting the entire computer. This rather sucks when you're working on a long document and suddenly Microsoft Word freezes, can't be force quitted, and can't be restarted without restarting the whole computer. But the kicker is the response of the Mac community to the many complaints that this is happening with folks: instead of asking what was going on when the applications froze up and wouldn't force quit, the standard responses are a) use the command line function 'kill' to stop them, and b) when kill doesn't work accuse the person of just having a messed up system whose problems have absolutely nothing to do with Apple software then go on a rant about how Leopard is the best thing that could ever happen to computing and how it never causes problems.
Well folks, when it comes to solving problems that have non-obvious solutions you fail. So much for the vaunted creative powers of the computer class.
*and just to prove the point, my copy of Microsoft Word just froze up as I was trying to save a copy of this entry. Thanks Apple!
Well folks, when it comes to solving problems that have non-obvious solutions you fail. So much for the vaunted creative powers of the computer class.
*and just to prove the point, my copy of Microsoft Word just froze up as I was trying to save a copy of this entry. Thanks Apple!
Monday, July 06, 2009
I'm curious if anyone ever made a connection between the two. 'pataphysics is a concept created by writer and troublemaker Alfred Jarry that describes a sort of (often humorous) science of impossible solutions. Or imaginary solutions. An example would be a Rube Goldberg-esque construction that's complex, has absolutely no potential of working in the real world, but that according to imagined principles works fine. Or maybe I'm describing a lot of Science Fiction in general? No, 'pataphysics is different. There's an interesting scene from Jarry's posthumously published "The Exploits of Dr. Faustroll, 'pataphysician", where the doctor, a companion, and a baboon pilot a large bed made out of brass rods over the streets of Paris like a gondola, with something like electrostatic energy propelling it.
Of course, since this is Jarry, the baboon has a pair of buttocks surgically connected to his face, and swears constantly, but that's another topic.
Well, we seem to have gotten off the point here, ok, so here's an example, although it removes some of the humor that's the essential component of Jarry's work:
Practical Construction of the Time Machine.
"Since Space around us is fixed, when we wish to travel in it we employ a vehicle: Duration. The role it plays in kinematics is that of an independent variable like any other and which determines the co-ordinates of the points that are being observed. Kinematics is a form of geometry. Phenomena described in it have neither before nor after, and the fact that we create such a distinction proves that we are carried through Time along with them.
We move in the same direction and with the same speed as Time, since we ourselves are part and parcel of the present. Were we able to remain immobile in the Flow of Time, in absolute Space, i.e. suddenly lock ourselves away in a Machine that could isolate us from Time (bar the small amount of the normal "speed of duration" which would remain with us by dint of its inertia), then we should be able to travel through all future and past instants successively (late we shall see that the Past lies beyond the Future, from the Machine's point of view), just as the sedentary spectator watching a panorama is under the impression that he is journeying rapidly through successive landscapes"
I don't know if that captured it. Here's a more typical example of Jarry's work:
From "Visions of the Present and Future"
"... And how much wiser when face to face with one's enemy to choose a scalpel with one's Index from the arsenal carried by three leporine slaves, and to slice off the protruding ears and nose. But the plural today is the American-style duel, a game of hide-and-seek, a fulgurating meteor which bursts and is gone, the triangular blade of the guillotine cradled back to sleep by its two blood-red arms. The sudden drop. And then the dark. Better than the guillotine: the gallows. Permanently visible and elegant: picture the worm-eaten corpses in the gibblets after the crows have passed, and their own aerial navigation. Better than the banal, dull-threatening Bomb is the Disembraining Machine: the grand-daughter of Moloch and iron Maidens, whirring away on a hillock, dashing out the brains coram populo every Lord's day. You could have one in every village, all you need is a little local Caesar. Having three obedient servants helps, to do the dirty business and to oil the machine (I prefer rubber slaves -- you can deflate them afterwards and put them away in a drawer). It heralds a renaissance of the arts: the whirling gurgling of a specially adapted organ lends a certain charm to the victims' last moments. Phynance, the justi- and puri-fication of everything, flows from a tap. The populace and his family, spattered white with brains from standing too close to the fence, return home happy and morally edified by this democratic spectacle. But such a scene of the Golden Age lies far in the future..."
Quotations taken from "Alfred Jarry: Adventures in 'Pataphysics" published by Atlas Press.
Of course, since this is Jarry, the baboon has a pair of buttocks surgically connected to his face, and swears constantly, but that's another topic.
Well, we seem to have gotten off the point here, ok, so here's an example, although it removes some of the humor that's the essential component of Jarry's work:
Practical Construction of the Time Machine.
"Since Space around us is fixed, when we wish to travel in it we employ a vehicle: Duration. The role it plays in kinematics is that of an independent variable like any other and which determines the co-ordinates of the points that are being observed. Kinematics is a form of geometry. Phenomena described in it have neither before nor after, and the fact that we create such a distinction proves that we are carried through Time along with them.
We move in the same direction and with the same speed as Time, since we ourselves are part and parcel of the present. Were we able to remain immobile in the Flow of Time, in absolute Space, i.e. suddenly lock ourselves away in a Machine that could isolate us from Time (bar the small amount of the normal "speed of duration" which would remain with us by dint of its inertia), then we should be able to travel through all future and past instants successively (late we shall see that the Past lies beyond the Future, from the Machine's point of view), just as the sedentary spectator watching a panorama is under the impression that he is journeying rapidly through successive landscapes"
I don't know if that captured it. Here's a more typical example of Jarry's work:
From "Visions of the Present and Future"
"... And how much wiser when face to face with one's enemy to choose a scalpel with one's Index from the arsenal carried by three leporine slaves, and to slice off the protruding ears and nose. But the plural today is the American-style duel, a game of hide-and-seek, a fulgurating meteor which bursts and is gone, the triangular blade of the guillotine cradled back to sleep by its two blood-red arms. The sudden drop. And then the dark. Better than the guillotine: the gallows. Permanently visible and elegant: picture the worm-eaten corpses in the gibblets after the crows have passed, and their own aerial navigation. Better than the banal, dull-threatening Bomb is the Disembraining Machine: the grand-daughter of Moloch and iron Maidens, whirring away on a hillock, dashing out the brains coram populo every Lord's day. You could have one in every village, all you need is a little local Caesar. Having three obedient servants helps, to do the dirty business and to oil the machine (I prefer rubber slaves -- you can deflate them afterwards and put them away in a drawer). It heralds a renaissance of the arts: the whirling gurgling of a specially adapted organ lends a certain charm to the victims' last moments. Phynance, the justi- and puri-fication of everything, flows from a tap. The populace and his family, spattered white with brains from standing too close to the fence, return home happy and morally edified by this democratic spectacle. But such a scene of the Golden Age lies far in the future..."
Quotations taken from "Alfred Jarry: Adventures in 'Pataphysics" published by Atlas Press.
Odds and ends of writings in my library
There's a large book about mystical Shi'ite theology printed in Iran, the "Rukhnamah" by Supramat Turkmenbashi, who was the complete totalitarian dictator of Turkmenistan and who required questions from the Rukhnamah to be on drivers' tests, then the St. Petersburg dialogues by Joseph de Maistre, which are much less violently reactionary than his writings on the French Revolution and are actually interesting, if out of print. Another one is "Dust: a Creation Books Reader", which is a decadent and extreme collection of fiction stories from the fringe literature publisher. What else is either picturesque or picaresque?
I don't know. I do know, however, that when I'm depressed or life isn't going so well I retreat to the company of severely misanthropic writers. Early 2007 was one of those times and during it I read "Fable for Another Time" by Celine, written in prison in Denmark, "Mysteries" by Knut Hamsun, the crime novel "Fantomas" by Allain and Souvestre, "The Exploits of Doctor Faustroll, 'Pataphysician" by Alfred Jarry (which is a fun book), "The Wild Ass's Skin" by Balzac, read a lot of "The Banquet Years", about the early 20th century French Avant-Garde by Roger Shattuck, which was depressing because of the grinding poverty that they all lived in, Did I read "Moravagine" by Blaise Cendrars during that time? Maybe, but it's not all dark...
Maybe I should memorize "A season in hell" by Rimbaud like Robert Mapplethorpe did. Maybe I should read the poem(s) in the first place.
:Oh yes, during that time I also read "In the Realms of the Unreal: 'Insane' writings", which is a compendium of writings by people who are Schizophrenic or have other, similarly extreme, mental disorders. Interesting stuff.
*on edit: I get thinking about all this stuff and I get ideas like writing a story that's composed purely of punctuation marks and single, double, triple, etc... combinations of letters that don't form words but who suggest different syllables and associations.
?!Fucoooolllalalalsheennnmarark
I don't know. I do know, however, that when I'm depressed or life isn't going so well I retreat to the company of severely misanthropic writers. Early 2007 was one of those times and during it I read "Fable for Another Time" by Celine, written in prison in Denmark, "Mysteries" by Knut Hamsun, the crime novel "Fantomas" by Allain and Souvestre, "The Exploits of Doctor Faustroll, 'Pataphysician" by Alfred Jarry (which is a fun book), "The Wild Ass's Skin" by Balzac, read a lot of "The Banquet Years", about the early 20th century French Avant-Garde by Roger Shattuck, which was depressing because of the grinding poverty that they all lived in, Did I read "Moravagine" by Blaise Cendrars during that time? Maybe, but it's not all dark...
Maybe I should memorize "A season in hell" by Rimbaud like Robert Mapplethorpe did. Maybe I should read the poem(s) in the first place.
:Oh yes, during that time I also read "In the Realms of the Unreal: 'Insane' writings", which is a compendium of writings by people who are Schizophrenic or have other, similarly extreme, mental disorders. Interesting stuff.
*on edit: I get thinking about all this stuff and I get ideas like writing a story that's composed purely of punctuation marks and single, double, triple, etc... combinations of letters that don't form words but who suggest different syllables and associations.
?!Fucoooolllalalalsheennnmarark
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Several Hundred Tea Baggers Descended on Olympia for 4th of July Tea Parties
I find this interesting because two weeks earlier 8,000 people turned out for the Olympia Pride march. 8,000 vs. 200 or so.
But who am I to judge. The call and response chants of "Freiheit, Heil! Freiheit, Heil!" must have their own special charm, as must affirming your loyalty to Konstitutional Sozialismus in front of large bonfires and many large flags.
But who am I to judge. The call and response chants of "Freiheit, Heil! Freiheit, Heil!" must have their own special charm, as must affirming your loyalty to Konstitutional Sozialismus in front of large bonfires and many large flags.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
I find it very amusing that Palin struck back at critics using her Facebook page
Over her resignation. It just shows how juvenile she is. I mean, people everywhere have Facebook pages, but for the governor of one of the United States to counter her critics on one is kind of head and shoulders above simple social networking. I wonder which of the Jonas Brothers she likes.
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