White People Panic

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Pisces / ἰχθύς

So, my husband has always worn an ichthys around his neck on a cord--or at least for as long as I've known him. He said he always thought it was a more hopeful symbol of Christianity than the cross; he never understood why Christians were so obsessed with the most violent, humiliating part of Jesus' life. Recently, I was looking at the website of a Catholic "supply store" in Louisville, trying to find a St Joseph statue to give to a friend, and Thomas asked me to see if they had any ichthyses (¿?) for sale. That got me thinking about the symbology of the ichthys, as it is a pretty incredibly awesome symbol. And here are some things I found. In what should be a weird coincidence but isn't (as I've given up believing in coincidence long ago), my whole meander into the ichthys ends with a sheela-na-gig. Of course.

Some interesting tidbits about the ichthys:

- Greek: ἰχθύς; also transliterated and latinized as ichthus, icthus, or ikhthus, meaning "fish."
- It refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs resembling the profile of a fish.
- used by early Christians as a secret symbol
- this symbol has origins predating Christianity, relating to fertility, female genitalia, and fish. The word also meant "womb" and "dolphin" in some tongues, and representations of this appeared in the depiction of mermaids. In ancient Greek, "fish" and "womb" were denoted by the same word ("delphos").
- the constellation Pisces comprises a set of dim and scattered stars that trace the images of two widely separated fish joined by a knotted cord. One fish, swimming upward, faces east toward Aries, while the other fish swims westward toward Aquarius along the plane of the ecliptic. The directions of motion of the two fish form a cross, the symbol of the Christian religion -- the upright line of the cross representing spirit and the horizontal line signifying matter.

Image from the site of David Darling.
- Jesus as a "fisher of men," or an acronym of the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ (Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma) to the statement of Christian faith "Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ" (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios Sōtēr: "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior")
- the ichthys may be an adaptation of the mystic/mathematical symbol known as the Vesica Piscis--"the Great Mother," a pointed oval sign. The length-height ratio of the vesica piscis, as expressed by the mystic and mathematician Pythagoras, is 153:265, a mystical number known as "the measure of the fish."

Image from the site Landscape Geometry.

Origins of the Ichthys:

- Ichthys was the offspring son of the ancient Sea goddess Atargatis, and was known in various mythic systems as Tirgata, Aphrodite, Pelagia or Delphine.
- central element in other myths, including the Goddess of Ephesus, who has a fish amulet covering her genital region; also the tale of the fish that swallowed the penis of Osiris, the symbol was also considered a symbol of the vulva of Isis.
- the fish is identified in certain cultures with reincarnation and the life force. For example, among one group in India, the fish was believed to house a deceased soul, and that as part of a fertility ritual specific fish is eaten in the belief that it will be reincarnated in a newborn child.
- its link to fertility, birth, feminine sexuality and the natural force of women was acknowledged also by the Celts, as well as pagan cultures throughout northern Europe.
- a "Cult of the Fish Mother" has been traced as far back as the hunting and fishing people of the Danube River Basin in the sixth millennium B.C.E.
- over fifty shrines have been found throughout the region which depict a fishlike deity, a female creature who "incorporates aspects of an egg, a fish and a woman which could have been a primeval creator or a mythical ancestress..." The "Great Goddess" was portrayed elsewhere with pendulous breasts, accentuated buttocks and a conspicuous vaginal orifice, the upright "vesica piscis" which Christians later adopted and rotated 90-degrees to serve as their symbol.

Image from the blog Kill Your Pet Puppy.

This info was borrowed from the site Global Oneness.

It is also interesting to add that the Pisces is the last symbol in the astrological calendar, concluding the "winter" cycles. It has been proposed likewise that the chronology of this calendar should be viewed as a sort of spiritual evolution or aging, each of the 12 signs representing different stages of life comprised of a 7 year period. That means that the house of Pisces corresponds to the period of life from age 77 - 84, and is the oldest and "most evolved" sign. It makes sense, given the strong wisdom and spirituality associated with this sign, that Jesus came also to be associated with it. So, contrary to Kris Kristofferson and all Western tradition, Jesus was a PISCES, in all probability. :-P

Psychotic linguistic associations

saber > to know > saber > saber-toothed > saber > wise > to know > saber-toothed > long in the tooth > old > wise > hag

I wonder if saber-teeth are called "saber" because they are mature teeth? like, you only get them if you're old and wise and have lived a long time?

I wonder if that's related to the expression "long in the tooth"?

Hmm.

http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/special_expressions_with_body_parts09.html

Louisville in the the wintertime

Argh. (AKA Current conditions on the ground right outside my house.)
Go, winter. Reeeeeal inspiring; thanks.

Louisville Weather Forecast, KY (40222)

Thanks, Jared Hess

Ice Cream - Clearasil Commercial - For more amazing video clips, click here

I must admit, I find this commercial hilarious. It's just the right tone with its perfect combination of weirdness, nerd-worship, and ironic, hipstery self-consciousness. But this commercial (and others in the same vein--Starburst, Burger King and Old Spice come first to mind--although they aren't all in the same league of awesomeness, of course) could never have made it to release in a pre-Napoleon Dynamite world. So, thank you, Jared Hess, for making the world receptive to nerds and their chic quirkiness.

An example of how gender is culturally prescribed

From Hannah Mermelstein, in an email about her recent experiences in Syria, new to her as she's just arrived from Palestine (which is a secret, because Syria is trying to "normalize" relations with Israel):

An addendum from Hannah herself:

Just to clarify, the reason I can't say I have been to Palestine is that Syria does not allow people with Israeli stamps in their passport to enter Syria, and since Israel occupies and controls the borders of the West Bank, there is no distinction in a passport stamp between going to Israel and going to the West Bank.

Sorry for the misrepresentation!

3. Gender. My hair is short. In Palestine, this often causes people to do a double take, or even sometimes to assume at first glance that I'm a man but to change their minds once I give a subtle cough (I do this sometimes when I know that men who are sitting next to me assume that I'm a man, because there is generally far less personal space between men in the Arab world than in the US and far more between men and women). Now, in Syria, I find that people don't even look twice. I am almost consistently perceived as a man – and usually a Syrian man. Incredibly, I've found that even when I speak people often do not change this assumption (if I speak more than a few words, of course, they'll hear my accent and figure out I'm not Syrian, but will still often think I'm a man). It's interesting in many ways, but in such a gendered society it can also be awkward, like when the driver of a shared taxi orders me to squeeze in the front with him and another guy in order to let women get into the body of the car. Or when a man giving me directions puts his arm around me to push me in the right direction, something he clearly would not have done if he thought I was a woman. So I have to decide on a pretty constant basis whether to try to keep passing as male or to make my gender clear…

gringoism: hilaridad. ¿quién sabía? yo, no.

hilaridad

Con frecuencia oímos que tal o cual palabra «no se debe usar» o «no está admitida» porque es un ‘anglicismo’ o un ‘galicismo’, cuando lo cierto es que los diccionarios españoles están repletos de palabras provenientes del francés y de inglés, entre muchas otras lenguas. Es muy frecuente que acaben consagradas por el uso, recogidas a regañadientes en los diccionarios y finalmente se olvide su origen ‘impuro’.
Uno de esos vocablos es hilaridad: desaprobado hacia 1867 como “galicismo” por el filólogo venezolano Rafael María Baralt, primer americano incorporado a la Academia Española, quien recomendaba emplear ‘regocijo’ o ‘risa’ en lugar de hilaridad.
En la realidad, la palabra proviene del latín hilaritas, hilaritatis (alegría, buen humor), pero no permaneció en el romance castellano, sino que llegó a nuestra lengua en la primera mitad siglo XIX, derivada de los vocablos franceses hilare e hilarant (risible, hilarante). Esta historia acabó en 1884, cuando la palabra fue incorporada al Diccionario de la Academia y su origen ‘espurio’ quedó relegado al olvido, como suele ocurrir.

Movie list

So, as you may observe, gentle reader, I have begun yet another widget/list on the side of my blog. I have been considering starting this list for a long time, but have talked myself out of it for an equally long time on the grounds that it's not a worthy list.

Well, I've changed my mind and now regret all those months of talking myself out of a fantastic list which will help intellectually orient myself in a specific place and time when I go back to review something in my blog archives--a practice I engage in periodically when I want to remember the "ambience" of a given point in the timeline of my life. That is the point of a diary, is it not?

So this list is of movies I've watched during the year. Just as I keep a list of the books I've finished, I'll keep a list of the films I finish. I may decide to also put TV series on as well, if I watch an entire season. That, to me, is a cogent piece of small screen artistry on par with a film in terms of plot and productional effort (if "productional" is a word).

The unfortunate thing is to start such a list with only 5 weeks left in the year. Perhaps I'll add in retrospect as my memory permits; for sure I'll have a complete list for 2009. Go, me.

Weirdest

This is the weirdest thing I've seen yet today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Center,_Kentucky

http://www.city-data.com/city/La-Center-Kentucky.html

La.

Center.



WEIRD. RANDOM.

Shall we riot? cha cha cha

superpoop.com

GET OVER YOURSELF. STOP BITCHING -- START A REVOLUTION (preferably about something more meaningful than a scone).

In the immortal words of Lou Reed...

Republican M.O. versus Democratic M.O. (AKA, the only time Republican politicians ever get excited):


superpoop.com

Chicken, how do I love thee?

nataliedee.com

THAT'S... a good one

nataliedee.com

So true

toothpastefordinner.com

Hipsters and the immutability of human nature

toothpastefordinner.com

Check this out

Blancanieves y los 7 enanos

Just because I couldn't remember como se llaman en español:

Doc, Feliz, Gruñón, Dormilón, Tímido, Tontín y Estornudo. ...
del sitio ProZ.

Hey, Motrin: you missed the mark

This new wave feminist, why-suffer-for-my-child, having-a-baby-is-such-a-drag, excuse for attention view of motherhood is just plain insulting, not to mention outmoded. 21st century moms are WAY beyond this prima donna shit.

Mothers don't want to be associated with selfishness, so they are not going to respond positively to an ad like this. Yes, we understand the importance of taking care of ourselves, too; but "What about me?" is not the cry of a responsible, loving adult. Motrin, back to the drawing board. You just flunked "Communicating on Moms' level 101."


Courtesy of the website Cotton Babies and my cousin, Molly. Thanks, lady!!!

¿Qué diablos quiere decir 'diagético'?

Todo aquel sonido que está en consonancia con el ambiente que se describe se llama DIEGÉTICO y lo denominamos NO DIEGÉTICO a aquel que no pertenece al ambiente que se está desarrollando en campo. A veces el sonido diagético o no diagético se utiliza para sorprender al espectador, para llamarle la atención, por alguna finalidad narrativa.

de Espai de Cinema

Fascism is not too strong a word

“If this movement were to be given a name, I think it would be most appropriate to call it Christo-Fascism, and if anyone objects to my using the word fascism, because it seems so redolent of the Axis powers, and after all we valiantly defeated fascism once, well understand this about fascism: when it arrives it never shows up in the discarded costume of some other country, and when fascism comes here, it's not going to be wearing a toothbrush mustache with a luger in his belt and go goose-stepping around the mall, because that’s Germany. And it's precisely characteristic of fascism, that it seems absolutely, totally expressive of the homeland; it seems completely familiar, it’s when 150% America puts a flag on its lapel and a cross around its neck and a real folksy way a talkin’. But just because it’s red, white and blue, doesn’t mean it’s American.”

- Mark Crispin Miller, A Patriot Act

How poetic!

From WordDictionary.com:

sidereal \sy-DEER-ee-uhl\, adjective:

measured or determined by the daily motion of the stars; of or having to do with the stars or constellations

Just effing groovy, is all.

courtesy of Luxon Blogware

Yo: interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity

Here is another great op-ed by Nicholas Kristof (again courtesy of Dad). The following is my favourite excerpt. ¡Viva la intelectualidad!

An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions, and — President Bush, lend me your ears — that leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity.

(Intellectuals are for real. In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”)

Mr. Obama, unlike most politicians near a microphone, exults in complexity. He doesn’t condescend or oversimplify nearly as much as politicians often do, and he speaks in paragraphs rather than sound bites. Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level.

Thanks, Dad

So, my dad sent me this beautiful op-ed by Frank Rich from the latte-liberal NY Times this morning. Those crazy socialists. If you have 5 minutes, it's a great summation of why I am hopeful for the first time in my voting life; not so much because Barack Obama is black (a nice plus), but that our country (minus a few Christians who want to have Sean Hannity's babies) has finally rejected the horrible neo-con paradigm of the Republicans. I don't know why it didn't happen in 2004 (unless it did), but at least we can start picking up the pieces now. Even if you don't read the whole op-ed linked above, here is the end, and a sentiment with which I whole-heartedly concur:

The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.

So even as we celebrated our first black president, we looked around and rediscovered the nation that had elected him. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said in February, and indeed millions of such Americans were here all along, waiting for a leader. This was the week that they reclaimed their country.

And to go along with that idea, here is our national anthem (or what it SHOULD be, rather):

A hundred things

Realize that you are the one responsible for cleaning up your own mess, Clare. If you have left your dirty clothes scattered on the floor and the dishes unwashed, it will be you who has to pay the consequences later on. Take responsibility for your actions. Today is an excellent day to do your laundry and clean the mess in the sink. You will feel better about yourself and your immediate environment when you accomplish your tasks of the day.

Yeah, woman. That goes for homework, too!
List of things to do today (this is more for me than for anyone reading):
- call Elizabeth
- take Thomas' car to get the tire fixed
- put away Halloween things (finally)
- clean off stuff in breezeway
- go for a bike ride
- get sources together for Medina's paper
- go grocery shopping
- maybe change the sheets...

Laugh at my boner, will you?!

This seems like it would have been a MadLibs type thing where you substitute a mundane word for something awfully hilarious like "boner." But, no--this is from an ACTUAL Batman comic from the 1960s, when apparently a 'boner' meant something veeeeery different. Feel free to click on the image to read the hilarity in all its glorious detail:



Courtesy of Comic Book Girl

Picking Oranges the Palestinian Way

This is an article by Ray Smith from Live from Lebanon. It's a realistic and depressing look into the lives of a few displaced Palestinians. And, you know, let's keep in mind that these refugees have been displaced for 2 generations now. Since 1948. The original article can be found here on the Electronic Intifada.

The sun has yet to rise at an orange plantation in the hinterland of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Muhammad has just transferred ten buckets of oranges into black plastic boxes at the edge of the orange grove. After carrying the empty buckets back to the other workers, he says: "After this work I return home, rest for an hour and leave for my second job as a decorator. Harvesting oranges alone doesn't feed my family."

This morning around half past five, the foreman, whom I will call "Abu G" and his dozen workers drove to the plantation in a blue minivan. One hour later, the men are busily fulfilling their specific tasks. Two balance on ladders and pluck oranges from the top of the trees while Muhammad and some others pick from the lower branches. From time to time, between six and ten buckets are being carried away at once. After sorting the oranges, they are put into boxes which are then loaded on a small truck that takes them to the north of Lebanon, and from there they are exported to other countries in the region. While his workers sweat away, the foreman lays down on a piece of cardboard. Even if the foreman-laborer power disparity is sharp, they all have one thing in common: they are Palestinian refugees living at the Burj al-Shemali refugee camp.

Burj al-Shemali is located at the edge of Tyre and was established in the early 1950s after Zionist forces expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. Many of Lebanon's initial refugee camps were relocated due to political pressure from the Lebanese state. Some were situated near citrus plantations in the coastal plain and others near the industrial areas of Beirut. Today some 20,000 people live in the quiet, but fenced-in Burj al-Shemali Camp. More than two-thirds of its labor force work at least part-time in agriculture.

Early in the morning, between 5 and 6am, a wave of footsteps and whispering voices can be heard in the camp's narrow alleys. Silence follows and lasts until half past seven, when hundreds of sleepy pupils walk to school. It is in the darkness of the early morning hours that hundreds of day laborers leave their homes, gather in the streets and then head to their work in the fields and plantations of the region. Among them are youth, university graduates and grandparents. Some work in the fields, but most of them harvest oranges, lemons and bananas. Before noon, most of the workers return to the camp. However, it isn't the end of their work day.

Lebanese law treats the more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees in the country as foreigners. Therefore they are not allowed to own land, they are forbidden to work in over 70 white and blue-collar jobs, they aren't guaranteed a minimum wage and they aren't integrated into the Lebanese social and medical insurance system. These various forms of exclusion make them vulnerable in many ways. Many refugees depend on the services and assistance by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, and on remittances from their relatives abroad. Highly qualified Palestinians like doctors or engineers, who are not allowed to practice their professions in Lebanon, find themselves behind the steering wheels of taxis, in the countless small shops in the refugee camps or as day laborers in construction or agriculture.

Hajja Amne, 65 years old, says that she worked hard in agriculture throughout her whole life, but never received any benefits. Now her health problems prevent her from working. Although pleased by the wage hike that was the result of a strike by Palestinian harvest workers in the beginning of the year, she is disturbed by the fact that men still earn more than women for the same work. She also complains, "If a worker is sick and can't work, she won't get paid." However, the workers aren't only being exploited by the Lebanese landowners and employers, but sometimes also by their own foremen. They often line their pockets with an unjustified amount of the money siphoned from the wages of the laborers. While some foremen themselves participate in the harvest, others limit their activity to commanding the workers and, as in the case of Abu G., resting in the grass.

Efforts have been made towards a collective organization of the Palestinian day laborers in agriculture. The struggle for higher wages in the beginning of this year is one of several indicators. According to Hosni, a foreman who identifies as communist, ideas regarding the establishment of an autonomous insurance system by the workers were discussed. However, nothing has been implemented so far, and barriers to self-organization can be found in the fragmented political landscape in the camps. Even in the extreme case of Nahr al-Bared, the refugee camp in northern Lebanon destroyed by the Lebanese army last year in fighting a Sunni militant group that had occupied part of the camp, the Palestinian parties can hardly manage to put aside their differences to work together toward the collective interest of the refugees.

Meanwhile, Muhammad continues to leave the camp seven days a week in the early morning in order to work in the orange groves. A few years ago, he built another floor on top of his parents' house in the camp and got married. Since then, his wife gave birth to a baby girl. "As a Palestinian you don't learn an occupation and stay in the same business until the end of your life," says Muhammad. "We have different work experiences in various fields and often we work in several places at the same time in order to make money."

This Is Your Nation on White Privilege

No. Not everyone who is planning to vote for John McCain is a racist. And voting for Obama does not make racism a thing of the past.

I think what Obama's candidacy has brought to center stage, more than anything, is not the tradition of racism and dualistic thinking from which this country has suffered for a long time. We already know about this. Obama's candidacy, in other words, has not opened people's eyes to overt discrimination. That is not news in 2008, and in fact I believe the U.S. has made improvements to mitigate discrimination in its raw form since the civil rights era of the 1960s.

Rather, Senator Obama's candidacy has really raised questions about privilege--white privilege, that is: a phenomenon alive and well in this country, albeit officially undiagnosed in many parts. Recognizing that white people take certain things for granted that people of color cannot does not make you a racist; instead, recognizing white privilege makes you simply honest in your attempts to eradicate racism once and for all.

We DON'T all have to look alike; we DON'T all have to be "colorblind" (as if that were possible or desirable). But we DO have to be conscious of structural violence that embeds social inequity and injustice along racial lines throughout our society. And Tim Wise's Sept. 13th article addresses that in relation to this 2008 presidential race better than anyone else I've heard. Please take 6 minutes to read his lucid thoughts on the subject.

los swingers. wtf.

Is this how Europe views the United States? What does it mean that this article appears in Spain's main newspaper the weekend before a US presidential election?

The article starts with the lines (translated by me):

They share their love for guns, rodeos, barbeques, and big familias. They form part of Middle America (traditional/conservative America). They don't seem like Middle America--they are Middle America. A true reflection of the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Maybe the only diference--who knows--between these good patriots and the Alaskan governor is the passion that they express for the exchange of couples.

(El original dice: "Comparten su entusiasmo por las armas, los rodeos, las barbacoas y las familias numerosas. Forman parte de la misma América profunda. No se parecen a ella. Son como ella. Un fiel reflejo de la candidata republicana a la vicepresidencia de Estados Unidos, Sarah Palin. Quizá la única diferencia -quién sabe- entre estos buenos patriotas y la gobernadora de Alaska sea la pasión que derrochan por el intercambio de parejas.")

THAT'S RIGHT. The newspaper El País is (a) saying that "swinging" is a popular, fairly widespread thing to do in the United States, and (b) its popularity is found mainly in the conservastive, Middle American sector of the population. The article gets a lot of its info from this article printed last year in Newsweek by Gretel Kovach.

email exchange

From my friend to me:

I wanted to see how you were and ask if you are feeling the same psychic gnawing that I am regarding Nov 4. I have the WORST feeling that all frickin hell is gonna break loose, but I can't quite figure out why I am feeling this way.

I spoke to Alvin after his race, he did the 31 miler in just at 6 hours. He said it was brutal.
Later

Reply from me to my friend:

Yeah, man. I'm feeling WAY nervous. weird things have been happening around the house and neighborhood, which just adds to the spooky October-ness of it all, and to the feeling that the end times is near, fer reals.

For example: this morning at about 9 am, i was watching tv and eating breakfast when the tv turned off by itself, and then there was a loud boom outside. it seemed equally likely that a transformer had exploded that there was a roving militia in the neighborhood. i hesitated as to whether i ought to call LG&E first, or draw the blinds, collect my Yarmuth sign from the front yard, and go to the basement and hide. i am ON EDGE. and really wanting a cigarette, but as yet have avoided the temptation. go, me.

i miss you. i miss Alvin. i miss Honors. sigh. i am praying and hoping and volunteering in order for Obama to beat McCain. it's amazing to feel so uneasy given that he's ahead in the polls and way more well-funded. and yet, it does not mitigate my fear of racists and neo-cons.

Ugh.

No more food wars

So, my mom sent me this article Michael Pollan wrote in the NY Times last week. Perhaps you've already seen it--I'm just now catching up on my non-work-related email...

Anyhoo. Michael Pollan, as we all know, is THE MAN. Not like, "Damn the man; save the empire," but like, "You da MAN." I had the extreme honor of hearing him speak at UofL earlier this year and he was AWESOME. It was shortly before I took my first trip to San Francisco (where he lives and works. Well, Berkeley might as well be SF from where I live and look), when I finally understood what it truly means to be a "foodie." The farmer's markets alone are AMAZING, to say nothing of the restaurants, juice bars, and cafes that flourish throughout the city. We truly don't know how underdeveloped KY is. And we have so much potential! We have great land here, and a sense of community not found in other states of similar size.

We should use these existing benefits to GO LOCAL with our food. I mean, a LOT more than Louisville already is (or is trying to be at the whole foods stores). We should petition grocery stores to stop carrying out-of-season foods and to use KY farm products FIRST (or ONLY). Then we don't have to worry about the carbon impact of importing fruit from Honduras. Then we don't have to worry about NAFTA or CAFTA or neo-cons. Then we can improve KY's economy, even without hemp being relegalized! We won't have to worry about how much gas our fruits were given to ripen and color them once the arrive at the store. We can shorten the food chain immensely, and know the faces of the people who grow and pick our food for us. THAT is truly American: agriculture, community, honesty, simplicity, self-sufficiency.

NO MORE FAKE FOOD! NO MORE FREE TRADE!!!!!!

Racism: alive and thriving

This is a copy of an email I received yesterday. It's from the President and Provost of the University of Louisville, and was sent to everyone at the university. THIS IS SCARY SHIT:

This morning a professor at the University of Kentucky discovered an effigy of presidential candidate Barack Obama hanging from a tree on campus.

We join with UK President Lee Todd in calling this action "despicable." As Americans and as an institution of higher education, we know the importance of free speech and free thought. This type of activity, however, is not acceptable as either.

At UofL, we are committed to being a diverse and inclusive university community....

We know you join us in saying within the context of our vision statement and in keeping with our larger mission, that we do not condone hate speech or acts of intolerance that underlie forms of oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia or discrimination; and that we will commit to eradicating all forms of inequality and injustices by building a just, fair and inclusive campus community.

Let's treat each other with civility and respect.

James Ramsey Shirley Willihnganz
President Provost

UofL's diversity statement
UofL's Diversity office

As I have been saying since the beginning of the general election, this election has FINALLY created a clear choice between a moderate candidate and a neo-con candidate; they proudly tout vastly divergent worldviews and policies. While it has been exciting for me to choose from two major party candidates who are actually different (instead of more of the same "Skull vs. Bones", to quote America the Book), it has baffled me (1) that anyone has difficulty making this choice, and (2) that anyone would choose John McCain over Barack Obama. The economy, the war, the last 8 years of neo-con rape of our country and our people, should all make this the easiest, most conscience-clear election of people's lives.

And yet.

And yet racism lives on, so tenaciously. People are so blinded by the cover of the book that they don't want to even pick it up and leaf through it, let alone buy it. Leaving aside the consideration of how arbitrary and stupid it is to dislike someone because he looks different from you, racial discrimination is just self-defeating, both in this election and in life! If nothing else, it should be a matter of self-interest, right? In the case of this particular man, Barack Obama, he is the obvious best choice in this election. In a general sense, white racists should learn that “[Taking] the world as a whole, it’s an eccentricity to be white,” as George Orwell says well in Burmese Days.

So when I hear about Obama being lynched in effigy, I get really worried--for him, for us, for the world. I get worried about the election too: Democrats and Obama supporters are getting a little strident this week. Not Obama or Michelle, but their supporters, have started "measuring the drapes," as John McCain likes to say so often; it would behoove those enthusiasts to know about this incident at UK.

That is to say: the election isn't for 5 days. The inauguration isn't for 2.5 months after that. So don't count yer chickens before they hatch, you optimists. The man isn't president yet, and there are plenty of people who still look at that accomplished, intelligent, eloquent, vibrant, (half-white) lawyer, public servant, and son-of-an-anthropologist, and all they see is a n*gger they ain't votin' for.

the SLAYER

I'm not one to post on celebrities much, but I was doing my film class homework and there was a picture of Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in the chapter I'm reading, and I just thought, "OMG. He was the Zac Efron of the boomer generation." So now you can have a side-by-side analysis in order to agree or disagree with my well-reasoned opinion, after years of careful study.

That is to say,

Unto each generation a Heartthrob is born.
HE ALONE shall stand against the weak chins, limp hair, and the forces of thin eye-browedness.
He is THE HEARTTHROB.

C For Cookie / V for Vendetta

I know there are "certain people" who think that I don't actually write enough on my blog, but I simply recycle or re-post things from the web. WELL--that might be so sometimes... but in this case, ISN'T IT SO WORTH IT?

My step-daughter spent the better part of a month a few years ago when this first came out, watching it OVER and OVER and OVER dozens of times in a row. That's autism for ya. But it's so classic, who can blame her? Easily the best use of Sesame Street ever.

For those in Louisville, this is basically mandatory

For those of you who don't already know, I did my senior thesis last year on human rights in Palestine. I examined creative nonviolent resistance to the Wall being constructed around the West Bank by Israelis to ghettoize the area and ruin Palestinians' lives, in violation of the UN Human Rights Declaration and international law.

Please please come to this if you can, as it is a topic very dear to me.

SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL: STORIES FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND PALESTINE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 7:30 P.M.
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE,CHAO AUDITORIUM in EKSTROM LIBRARY

Reverend Eddie Makue and Doctor Diana Buttu

World leaders including Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter have called for the world to recognize that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has created a society strikingly similar to South Africa under apartheid. Diana Buttu will describe conditions on the West Bank and Gaza where four million Palestinians live on nonviable pieces of land, cut off from the outside world and from each other by a concrete wall and more than five hundred checkpoints. In contrast to the dire poverty of the Palestinian population, Israeli citizens consume most of the country's resources and move about freely on modern by-pass roads. Eddie Makue, from the South African Council of Churches, will describe the many parallels between the current situation on the West Bank and the former system of apartheid in South Africa ; where the majority of the population was concentrated in Bantu lands.

Diana Buttu holds a Law Degree from Queen's University in Kingston , Ontario and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. She was a legal advisor to the Palestinian Liberation Organization on negotiations with Israel.

Reverend Eddie Makue is the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He has been an activist in the struggle for South African civil rights since 1982.

University of Louisville Sponsors:

Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, the Departments of Pan-African Studies, Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, Women's and Gender Studies, Anthropology, Minor in Social Change, Commission on the Status of Women (COSW)--Women and Global Issues Committee, Office of Diversity and Outreach-College of Arts and Sciences, Muslim Student Association, Commission on Diversity and Racial Equality (CODRE)

Louisville Community Sponsors:

The United Nations Association, Committee for Peace in the Middle East, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Louisville Chapter, Committee for Israeli and Palestinian States, The Ramallah Club.

Los Americanos

This is hilarious. We watched it in my teaching and research methods class. Please see below for a translation and please watch it! It's so true, so true...

"Los Americanos" (por Piero)
(Translated by Clare Gervasi Kalb)

They are born old
And they get older
Across their lifetimes
The Americans

And they are born convinced
That there's nobody in the world
More important
Than The Americans

Napoleon for them
was an Italian guy
Who organized something
Without Americans

And they are more than sure
That he would not have lost
At Waterloo with the help
Of the Americans

If they know history
It's not for having read it
But for having seen it
In American movies

With grand stages
And grandiose music
In the subtle style
Of the Americans

With big jaws
From chewing so much gum
It's common to see them
The Americans

Displaying a thousand colors
Everything but black
Which they don’t consider
To be American taste

When they get older
They dress like tourists
And go around the world
The Americans

On organized tours
With romance included
Paid for in the long run
By Americans

If there is something to admire
Where one wants them to go
It’s the great elegance
Of The Americans

With typical attire
They mix with the people
And nobody realizes
That they’re Americans

And besides that
They buy valuable antiques
Recently made old
For Americans

And later in their homes
They receive friends
Who praise the good taste
Of The Americans

And in the night clubs
After a few drinks
They feel inspired
The Americans

And it’s very common to find them
Dancing ceaselessly
Brimming with the grace
Of The Americans

And so my dear friends
Enough for now
I told you what I could
About The Americans

And if you see them...
If you see them, give my most respectful greetings
To The Americans

Ambivalence

"Ambivalence: The holding, at the same time, of 2 opposing emotions, attitudes, ideas or wishes toward the same person, situation, or object. The coexistence of contradictory emotions, attitudes, ideas, or desires with respect to a particular person, object, or situation." (cita)

I have been writing a paper on the myth of Simón Bolívar for my Symbols, Myths and Legends class. Here is a supercool thing I read in a supercool (albeit old) book called Culto a Bolívar (Cult to Bolivar). It says:

Obervación. La ‹‹aflicción›› no suele ser sólo una verdad psicológica real, sincera en muchos casos; menos, o nada sincera en otros; sino también un recurso literario legítimo, a menos que se negara todo valor a la literatura, a la poesía, a la elocuencia. Pero, ¿es que esas formas de la expresión—como fenómenos humanos que son—no tienen función alguna legítima, según ocasiones, público, etc.? ¿Es que sólo existe, con legitimidad, el ‹‹discurso histórico›› científico, analítico, sin emoción, sin pathos? Yo creo que ambas formas de expresión humana conviven legítimamente. En efecto, aquí se peca a menudo tomando todo por ‹‹historiografía››, cuando hay otros géneros, también válidos... (Joaquín Gabaldón Márquez 7)

My bad translation is thus:
"Observation. The 'affliction' [referred to in the book--the 'cult' to Bolívar] isn't just a real psychological truth, sincere in many cases; less, or not at all sincere in others; but also it is a legitimate literary resource, unless it negates all validity of literature, poetry, and eloquence. But is it that those forms of expression--as human phenomena that they are--don't have some legitimate function, depending on occasion, audience, etc? It is just that only the 'historical discourse' exists legitimately, scientific, analytic, emotionless, without pathos? I believe that both forms of human expression live together legitimately. In effect, here we err sometimes taking everything as "historiography," when there are other genres, also valid..."

That is what I'm talking about. So, if that didn't work for you, don't worry--it was an anthropology book. Just look at my photoshopped picture of Bolívar for my paper instead and be amused. teehee.

Don't be stubborn, you stubborn-head

I think Thomas slipped this one into my email today (at least, the last part):

Today, you should have a lot of vitality, Clare. Recently, you have decided to take matters in your own hands. Your relationships will only benefit from this decision. The conflicts you had to deal with were greatly based on a lack of understanding. You sometimes have to make compromises! Try not to be too demanding!

I will definitely heed that advice. Thanks, horoscope. (astrocenter.com for those of you too intrigued to avoid signing up for your own daily dose of celestial wisdom.)

It's funny 'cause it's true?

marriedtothesea.com

w t f

So... This is pretty disturbing, right?

The "rif-raff" is coming: lock up your white women

HAPPY HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH!!!!

So... not to be all "in-yer-face" about the "browning" of the United States, but you guys all do realize that Hispanic is the new Irish, right? People with origins in the Latin-American world are emigrating to the United States is big numbers. We all know this--and depending on our political leanings, we suggest different responses and experience different feelings. Well, during this Hispanic Heritage Month here in the good ol' USA, many interesting news bits are coming out which reflect this trend and suggest how to mould the influence of the influx of hispanic/latino immigrants. Here is an excerpt from a larger piece of news from castellano.org:

Destacó tres factores esenciales que confluyen en estos momentos en la celebración del mes de la Hispanidad, que se lleva a cabo del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre:

Un primer factor son los datos divulgados por la Oficina del Censo de Estados Unidos, que pronostican para 2042 la transformación del país en una nación de "minoría mayoritaria" en la que uno de cada tres ciudadanos estadounidenses será hispano.

Al vaticinio de que los grupos minoritarios -un tercio de la actual población del país- lleguen a ser mayoría en 2042 le sigue el "reconocimiento cada vez más arraigado de que el español es, de hecho, la segunda lengua del país" .

Otro elemento fundamental, al parecer de Piña-Rosales, es la "conciencia" creciente de la necesidad de "proteger y estandarizar" el uso del español en Estados Unidos.

Aludió a los cerca de 46 millones de hispanos que viven en Estados Unidos (sin contar los 4 millones de Puerto Rico) , un segmento que constituye el 15 por ciento de la población en este país y es además el de más rápido crecimiento. Según los pronósticos del Censo, los hispanos representarán el 25 por ciento de la población estadounidense para el 2050.

TRANSLATION:

Three essential factors were highlighted that are coming together during this month of Hispanic Heritage celebration, running from September 15 to October 15:

A primary factor are the data from the US Census which expects that by 2042 the country will have become a "minority majority" nation en which 1 out of every 3 citizens will be hispanic.

The prediction that minority groups--currently one third of the US population--will end up be a majority in 2042 follows the "increasingly more entrenched recognition that Spanish is, in fact, the second language of the country."

Another fundamental element, it seems to Piña-Rosales [Geraldo Piña-Rosales, director of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE)], is the growing "consciousness" of the necessity to "protect and standardize" the use of Spanish in the United States.

He aluded to the almost 46 million hispanics living in the United States (not counting the 4 million in Puerto Rico), a segment which constitutes 15% of the population in this country and is besides the fastest growing group. According to Census projections, hispanics will represent 25% of the United States population by 2050.

Yee-haw! (Although I'm not sure what Piña-Rosales is implying with all this "standardization and protection" business. Sounds a bit ominous to me. So it goes with any massive language+nation project, however. Sigh.

Photo grabbed from the blog Grits for Breakfast.

Iraqi refugees in Jordan return to school

An update from the UNHCR:

Iraqi refugee children can continue their education in Jordan's public schools . UNHCR/S.Malkawi

With the support of the UN Refugee Agency, many Iraqi children have been joining public schools. UNHCR believes it is essential that all refugees continue to receive an education.

This past summer UNHCR conducted a campaign to increase school enrollment and to encourage Iraqi refugees who had exhausted their savings to transfer their children from private to public schools.

Despite Jordan's generosity in opening up its public schools, UNHCR is concerned that large numbers of children are still missing out on classes. Many cash-strapped Iraqi refugee families are opting to send all, or some, of their children out to work.

"My [older] brother has been out of school for three years because he has been forced to work to provide for our family," Laila revealed.

UNHCR is working with the government on building the capacity of public schools and examining the introduction of evening classes that children can attend after work. Other initiatives include non-diploma courses in areas such as computer skills, language and art, to equip people with marketable skills.

"One of the most crucial challenges that we face is that we do not lose the literacy and futures of a generation of Iraqi children due to displacement," said Imran Riza, UNHCR's representative to Jordan.

More than two million Iraqi refugees have fled from their homes to neighboring states, mostly Syria and Jordan.

That's one in every 10 people. Refugees. That's not including internally displaced persons, by the way.

Naomi Klein responds to the economic crisis

So, yesterday I was in academia-land all day and I really wasn't keeping up with the news. In fact, I had been thinking this week that it was kind of unfortunate that EVERYTHING happens mid-September to mid-October and there's not enough time to do everything I wanna do. Specifically, watching the first Obama/McCain debate was probably not going to happen, even though I was interested in watching it. I have my first presentation for a graduate class due on Monday, my sister's coming into town tomorrow, there is apparently going to be aNOTHER Manual-Ballard football game, the Idea Festival starts today, there is a concert the Spanish Dept is sponsoring that I'm going to, etc etc. What a time to have a debate! Sheesh!

But none of that matters at this point. I arrived home last night around 9 pm, and Thomas and I briefly caught a little of Bush's fear tactics about the economy and how we Americans should just lie down and take it while Wall Street and the administration blatantly trample all over us, rather than subtly killing us as has been their m.o. in the past. As I watched I thought, "Surely no one is buying this. Do people even still think he's in charge? He's the lamest lame duck there ever was."

Then we watched part of a documentary called Crude Awakening, about peak oil and the crash. It's interesting, but not in league with the best documentaries (I say, 30 minutes into the thing. Opinions were meant to become obsolete). Anyhoo, when I woke up this morning, I'm sleepily listening to NPR and making coffee, trying to make my head stop throbbing (oh, allergies, how I love you), and I hear the report that McCain is trying to pull out of the debates! WTF! Talk about shock and awe: these Republicans are really trying to scare people. Shit.

Well, their speeches aren't scaring me, but the news coverage of economists' reactions is. I wonder if we shouldn't liquidate everything, get Jacq and Joe passports, and blow this popsicle stand while we still can. I realize this is reactionary, and I should stop buying into the panic, but it is hard. I feel really uneasy. Anyhoo, I felt a little better when my friend, Tony, emailed me Naomi Klein's 'weigh-in' on the whole mess. I encourage you to read the whole thing (it's not long, like maybe 500 words) here, but in the meantime, here is a little excerpt to whet yer whistle:

We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in "strong leaders" - even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.

So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant.

I certainly hope that last line is true. But racism + the election of '04 = I have almost no faith in "the American people" anymore.

Folke Bernadotte

IN MEMORY OF COUNT FOLKE BERNADOTE , UN mediator, murdered on 17 September 1948.

On 20 May 1948, the United Nations appointed as first official mediator in its history Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, of the noble Swedish family of Bernadotte. He was assigned to Palestine. Among his activities during the first Palestinian war of 1948 was to pave the way for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to assist Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. In negotiations with the Israelis he worked for recognition of the Palestinian refugees' right of return. In particular, on 17 June 1948 he requested that the Israelis enable the return of 300,000 refugees.

On 17 September 1948, together with UN observer Colonel André Serot, he was shot by militant leaders of the Jewish terrorist group Lehi, the so-called Stern Gang.

The reason for the murder was Bernadotte's public declaration that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to their homeland. His proposals for the solution of the refugee problem were the basis for Resolution 194, passed on 11 December 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly, in which the right of return of refugees on both sides was established.

A few months after the assassination, despite the overwhelming evidence of their guilt, the perpetrators were
granted general amnesty by the Israeli government.
(from: Wikipedia)

In 1863, when Henri Dunant started the work of the Red Cross, he used as organizational motto: Inter arma caritas--"Amidst weapons, mercy." Later events, not least the experience of World War II, revised the motto to: Post armis caritas--"After weapons, mercy." The time will come when mankind can say: Pro armis caritas--"Instead of weapons, mercy."
(from: Folke Bernadotte, An Stelle von Waffen. Verlagsanstalt Hermann Klemm, Freiburg i.Br., ca. 1950, page 179;
translation by Clarissa Hall)

Stu Pollard and Richard Gott to speak at UofL

So. Perhaps y'all have heard of this fantastic event called the Idea Festival. It is a Kentucky original event which brings innovators and genius-types from all over the world to Louisville for a 3-day conference. It's a bit expensive, but they do have package deals and student prices. Two of the cool people who are presenting at the conference are also going to give exclusive lectures through the Honors Student Council at the University of Louisville; they are Stu Pollard and Richard Gott. Please see below for the specifics of their lectures at UofL, and for more info on the Idea Festival, please go to their website.

September 30th in the Chao Auditorium in Ekstrom Library at 7:00:
Join independent filmmaker Stu Pollard for an insightful discussion about his movie making experiences. Using a combination of film clips and slides, Pollard will offer his insights on subjects such as finding source material, raising money, working with actors, running a set, solving production challenges, and securing distribution. He will also provide some pointers for embarking on a career in entertainment.

Pollard, a native of Louisville, has written and directed two feature films, Keep Your Distance and Nice Guys Sleep Alone. His producing credits include Ira & Abby, True Adolescents, and Dirty Country.

The second lecture is the next day, October 1st in the Etscorn Honors Center also at 7:00.
Dr. J. Richard Gott is a native of Louisville and a Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University. He is an internationally respected astrophysicist and The author of "Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe" which discusses why it’s imperative that we begin now to develop the means and technology that will allow humans to leave this planet and colonize other worlds. He also developed his Doomsday Theory which deals with the demise of the human race.

These lectures are going to be incredibly interesting and both speakers are part of the Louisville Idea Festival this year. Come out and hear what they have to say!

Finally, as a quick summary of the information here:

Stu Pollard
September 30th
Chao Auditorium
7:00

Dr. J. Richard Gott
October 1st
Etscorn Honors Center
7:00

Hope to see some people at Stu Pollard! I can't make it to Dr. Gott's lecture, since I have class. But I think I'll see him at the Idea Festival.

To Those Former Days of Beardfulness, I Salute You

Really interesting! If you wanna translation, email me or post a comment.

From the Real Academia Española:
bigote

Los enormes bigotes que solían usar los germanos en la Edad Media llamaron la atención de los habitantes de la Península Ibérica, no menos que los juramentos y las imprecaciones que proferían aquellos bárbaros.
Con inusitada frecuencia, los germanos exclamaban bi Got! ‘¡por Dios!’. Más que un juramento, era una mera interjección. Sin entender lo que aquella palabra significaba, los españoles empezaron a llamar bigot a los hombres bigotudos hasta que, con el tiempo, la palabra ya castellanizada como bigote sirvió para denominar el propio apéndice piloso.
Muchos creen que bigote llegó al español bajo el Imperio de Carlos I (Carlos V de Alemania) con el fuerte contingente germánico que entró por entonces a la Península. Sin embargo, Carlos I gobernó el Imperio a comienzos del siglo XVI, y bigote aparecía ya en el Diccionario latino-castellano, de Nebrija.
Por otra parte, aunque la etimología parece suficientemente comprobada, no es seguro que hayan sido los germanos quienes llevaron la palabra a la Península. En efecto, allá por el siglo XII, en Francia se llamaba bigot a los normandos, y en esa época, al otro lado del canal de la Mancha, los ingleses pronunciaban bi God ‘por Dios’. Sobre esta base, se plantea la duda acerca de si esta voz fue traída al español por los germanos o por los franceses.
En un trabajo de 1968, el académico Rafael Lapesa afirmaba que bigote debía su origen al bi Got proferido por unos guardias suizos que participaron en la Reconquista de Granada y que habían llegado a España en 1483, una fecha perfectamente compatible con el registro de Nebrija arriba mencionado.

Sweet Emotion

The following was found in a tome in one of the special collections rooms at Quincy University. It was an account of some native Americans by some Spanish guy who tried to convert them all to Christianity. The book made me a bit queasy, but it opened with this rather interesting quote:

"With their names
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song:
And history so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this."

It wasn't attributed in the book (which was written in the 19th century), but a little Googling gives this direction:

William Cowper (pronounced Cooper), 1731-1800, English poet.
Cowper suffered attacks of insanity throughout his life, and sought either treatment or retirement in an asylum early in his life. There he became interested in the predestinarian theology of John Calvin, and became devoted to evangelical Christianity. In 1767 he moved to Olney, where he wrote The Olney Hymns with the evangelical preacher John Newton. The project was interrupted by another attack of insanity, during which he was convinced of his irrevocable damnation -- a sense he describes in his last important poem, "The Cast-Away."
In 1785 he published his most famous work, The Task, a long poem in six books.

(more here or on Wikipedia)

I really like the quote. This excerpt from a longer poem interests me because it seems to ring true that so many things worth examining remain unsung, while many things we wish we could forget are scrutinized ad nauseam. The implication is that we should pay more attention to the overlooked, the taken for granted things. And that seems to be a major theme in my life. I'm quite drawn to and focused on parts of human existence which are generally "out of the norm." I think Aerosmith echoed this sentiment perfectly when Steven Tyler sang, "Care about things and nobody cares; [I'm] wearing out the things that nobody wears."

(And THAT's how you connect religious poets of the 18th century to rock hits of the '70s. Voilà.)

If You Could Say It In Words

So. I'm not sure how big my readership is, but I really want to encourage anyone in or near Louisville to come to this movie premiere next month. This film is important for several reasons:
(1) one of Thomas' former students, Nicholas Gray, is the filmmaker
(2) he was partially inspired to learn more about autism and be an advocate for it because of Thomas' stories about Jacq and Joe
(3) the film is about a person with Asperger's FUNCTIONING in a neurotypical world
(4) the film seeks to portray autistics as whole people, instead of 2-dimensional caricatures the likes of Dustin Hoffman's albeit entertaining savant, "Raymond," in Rain Man
(5) my kids are going to be interviewed by a (minor) celebrity as part of the promotion for this film.

Please support it! Here are the specs:

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
9:00pm - 11:00pm
Louisville Memorial Auditorium
970 SOUTH FOURTH STREET
Louisville, KY

Here is the film's official website.

Read a film review and synopsis here.

RSVP to the event on Facebook, if you like, here.

For more info, you can also contact: Adam Eisenstein, 646-221-2254

You can buy tickets (only $6) to the film, or passes for the whole Derby City Film Festival here.

Here are the film's IMDB specs.

At home in the world

For those of you who are into anthropology, take note:

cosmopolite \koz-MOP-uh-lyt\, noun:

One who is at home in every place; a citizen of the world; a cosmopolitan person.

The Bechdel Rule

Yo sé que ya sabéis todos esta regla y que ya habéis oído esta noticia de NPR, but it was new(s) to me. So, in case you're curious, here is the link to this uberawesome little piece: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94202522&sc=nl&cc=movn-20080905 . Alison Bechdel writes the incredible strip Dykes to Watch Out For, and she is the Bechdel who popularized this rule.

The theme treated in this NPR piece, inspired by Bechdel's musing so many years ago, is something I think worth noting, and ties in a lot with many of my thoughts about image, and who controls images of whom. What I mean is, the fact that Oprah Winfrey puts herself on the cover of every issue of her O Magazine really irritates some people. Why? To me, it communicates a very powerful message that a black woman from the impoverished South has become successful enough to own her own image, and successful enough to promote certain images of Black women which are empowering rather than stereotypical and oppressive. With every issue Oprah affirms that "I am my own woman; I am in charge of myself, and the self that's presented to the world." How many other women on the covers of magazines can say this about themselves? We don't often think about the images we see in this light: who decided to show a woman in such a pose? Dressed in such clothing? Surrounded by such topics?

Women and other "minorities" (for we make up over half the world's population) rarely have complete--or even partial--control over how they are represented in the media, which is what makes the Bechdel Rule so important to pay attention to. So please listen to the linked piece.


Photo by Liza Cowan

National Health Care is not a dirty phrase

Here is a good article on Obama's health care platform. It's pretty upsetting that even the "liberals" in this country refuse to support a health care system that would at once cover EVERYONE and eliminate HUGE CORPORATE PROFITS, all because of fears of "hyper-nationalism" and "socialism." Argh.

How many more people have to become destitute, how many more people have to languish and die before something changes?

Oh, no, he di'in

I heart John Yarmuth. He is much more in-line with my politics than Anne Northup--or any other politician ever put forth for election by any part of Kentucky, to my knowledge. HOWEVER, apparently even Ol' Yarmuth has his limits. Effing politics. Check out his pussy-footing below (and when I say "pussy-footing," I specifically mean to invoke the behaviour of my cat, Frances, who is the stupidest and jumpiest, most psychotic, illogical cat alive):

Thank you for writing to share your deep concern with the Bush Administration. I firmly believe that this President’s policies have led this country in the wrong direction, and share your commitment to holding this Administration accountable.

Like you, I am deeply troubled by the actions taken in the past six years by the Bush Administration. Considering the moral imperatives of this moment in history -- ending the involvement of U.S. forces in the Iraq War, providing the American people with secure and affordable health care, reducing the cost of college for our children, and even ratcheting back executive power that this Administration has abused – the Democratic leadership has concluded that an attempt to impeach President Bush or Vice President Cheney would make these goals even harder to achieve.

House leaders believe that given our slim majorities in the House and Senate, any effort to bring articles of impeachment against the President or Vice President will not succeed, will further divide a nation in critical need of unity, and gridlock the chambers from enacting desperately needed legislation. That being said, I believe Congress has a constitutional responsibility to do everything in its power to conduct extensive oversight of this Administration and ensure accountability.

I asked to serve on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee specifically to perform this duty. My colleagues and I have already investigated the travesties at Walter Reed Hospital, the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, government outsourcing issues, the Pat Tillman Fratricide, Surgeon General Independence, White House use of private e-mail accounts, and a host of other issues you can find at the committee's website (http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp).

While I look forward to the end of their time in the White House, it is clear that with the new Congress, the Executive’s power has been diminished. Please be assured I will continue to aggressively investigate this administration and continually fight against the secrecy and corruption that has defined the Bush presidency.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

Horoscope for Friday, Sept. 5, 2008:
Why not radically change the way you behave toward others, Clare? You are in the process of orienting yourself towards establishing relationships that are more fraternal, with far fewer risks involved. This wasn't the case before. When you don't try hard to seduce and impress, your audience claps louder. Haven't you noticed?

Tru dat. Seriously. I have noticed (with surprise) my very fraternal (or sororal, mejor dicho) feelings toward everyone of late. It is such a different way of being... I've always oriented myself around sex, power, and attraction, unconsciously and then consciously as I grew up. It is weird to have those impulses and reactions so wholly subsumed and disengaged. It was not a conscious process; on the contrary, all of a sudden I noticed that I was orienting myself to the world as one human meeting others, rather than one woman meeting other women, men, children, anzianos. This new tendency to interact as one in an imagined community of brothers and sisters (rather than one woman in a sea of other beings with gender and power) has given me more peace, and more permission to be alone. I think all this makes me a more effective human being; that is, more caring, more patient, more aware. It makes me approach my passions in life--children, family, pregnancy and birth--in very different ways, too. I have a newfound confidence and calm about the role of doula and woman that I never had before.

I chalked all this up to growing a bit older (I can reach out and touch 30 now, after all :) ), to having been married for 4 years already (together for a total of 7 uninterrupted years), to having completed my college degree, to exercise, to my brain gelling, to learning anthropology... and all those are important factors, no doubt, in my mental paradigmatic shift; but there is, I'm willing to believe, a celestial element to it as well. Qué chévere.

una bagatela de la lengua

So... as you know, I subscribe to Dictionary.com's "Word of the Day," which most of the time doesn't teach me anything new, although it comes up with a few gems now and again. (I've got to find a better/more challenging word-a-day subscription.) I would recommend Dictionary.com to high school students or college freshmen, however, who are trying to be more educated and/or do well on the SATs, write better essays, sound more erudite, whatevs... But I'm kind of past that point as an educated English speaker (to toot my own horn).

Anyhoo, I decided that in addition to an English word-o-the-day, I also really needed to subscribe to a SPANISH word-of-the-day. Past the intermediate level of Spanish, all vocab learning is supposed to be independent or intuitive, and I for one really miss it, since I do so enjoy vocab lists. It's a great way to learn words. I find it very logical and pleasing to have a group of words which are semantically/thematically related presented all at once for absorption as a group. It's fun! And makes learning easy! (Buy today for only $29.95!!!!!!)

But, barring the formal presentation of pretty vocab lists in a classroom setting, a word-a-day is a good way to take in a little vocabulary at a time. It's like Cher says in the movie Clueless, "We have got to work on your vocabulary, Tai... Try using it [sporadic] in a sentence today." So, a word-a-day enables you to focus on one word, practice it, and therefore retain it. It's sort of like how Catholics have a scripture reading every day (one Old Testament, one New Testament) to ruminate about; so I have a word a day. In Spanish. I found this groovy website, castellano.org, wherein one can subscribe to a "palabra-del-día" listserv. Woot woot. So, the one for today is pretty cool. For those of you who read Spanish:

bagatela

Es algo de poco valor o de poca importancia. Proviene del italiano bagattelle, lengua en la cual también tiene el significado de ‘cosa sin importancia’. La palabra se formó en italiano a partir del bajo latín baga (pequeña prenda de ropa) cuyo diminutivo era bagatta. El vocablo original ya aludía a algo pequeño y el diminutivo a algo menor aun, pero el italiano se caracteriza por tener en ciertos casos un diminutivo del diminutivo (Ver fettucine), de modo que bagatta tiene el diminutivo bagattella, algo realmente insignificante. La palabra llegó también al francés bagatelle, con el mismo significado.
El etimólogo alemán del siglo XIX Hugo Schuchardt, por su parte, sugiere que el origen no sería baga sino baca, que en latín significaba ‘pequeño objeto redondo’ pero, en todo caso, la evolución posterior de la palabra sería la misma. En la primera edición del Diccionario de la Academia, bagatela aparecía así definida:

Cosa menuda, de poca substancia, sin valor.

La palabra aparece en castellano en el siglo XVII, y la encontramos por esa época en textos de Calderón de la Barca y de Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza, entre otros.

Connecticut Yankee in River City, escondida

According to this accent quiz I took on Facebook tonight, I have a "Northern Accent." This is hilarious, since I'm from Ohio. HOWEVER, my dad's from the Bronx and my mom's from Cleveland, and I've lived in Louisville for 12 years, so I'm a bit of a mish mash, I suppose. Plus, I make deliberate pronunciation choices about some words. Like, open vowels instead of tight ones on words like "hilArious", "hOrrible", and "mArry", and I distinguish "AW" groupings from open O sounds (as in "dawn" versus "don"). These are trademarks of a Northern accent (as in New England and the like).

Woo hoo. I could be a Connecticut Yankee after all...

Found Poem

I am cleaning off my desk this morning and I found this poem I wrote last year. It's a sentiment I still feel truly and deeply, and although it's not much of a poem, it's a useful mantra for when I start letting the world in too much. And really, I post it more to have an electronic copy than for any desire for anyone to read it. Really. My poetry... isn't.

My life has been knee-jerk
automatic responses to
questions I was capable of thinking through
myself

Pavlov's dog of a decision-maker
¿Was it the chicken of self-doubt
or the egg of overwhelmedness
that came first?

I can think
I can decide
I can take time
--keep time
--live outside time, even
I don't have to pressure myself
I can do it
I can think
I can live a better way

(written February 1 2007)

The stupidest word ever

naif \nah-EEF; ny-\, adjective:

1. Naive.
2. A naive or inexperienced person.

Uh... Why not just say NAIVE? Oh, wait. Maybe there is an interesting etymology, lest I judge too quickly.

Naif comes from French, from Old French naif, "naive, natural, just born," from Latin nativus, "native, rustic," literally "born, inborn, natural," from Latin nativus, "inborn, produced by birth," from natus, past participle of nasci, "to be born."

Hmm. That's pretty retarded too. Then, the "in-context" examples that WordDictionary.com gave for this word used it as a NOUN, even though that usage doesn't match the definition given.

Argh. Is it so much to ask for an effing word a day? Alls I wanna do is learn, y'all.

Is this foreboding?

Horoscope du jour:

When we have found our path, we naturally want to start to walk down it, Clare. The reverse isn't true despite what you seem to believe. It is quite futile to learn how to walk when you don't know which path to walk upon. This may seem a little obtuse to you and yet it is true. It is desire that creates aptitude and not the reverse.

Is this ominous? Does it portend failure in my nascent Spanish graduate student career? Argh. This little paragraph gives words to my ongoing problem with Spanish: it is not Spanish itself which gives me fulfillment. It is not the culture, or the language, which thrills me and compels me to learn. Rather, it is what doors the knowledge of Spanish opens for me which inspire my desire to learn more; it is the ability to travel, to communicate, and the love of language itself which interests me. Which is why I worry about this whole graduate program business. Everyone is already asking, "What are you going to do with your MA in Spanish?" and my answer is, "I don't know, but I know it won't be the groundwork for a higher degree in Spanish." I don't want to teach Spanish as a career, although I do enjoy the academic life.

All I know is, I am looking forward to the opportunity to work at the University, build some professional experience, and attain a graduate degree. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I am loyal, and smart, and I learn quickly. I know I am equal to the task... yet I wonder if what I will learn will have more to do with intra-departmental politics, university machinations, and how to teach introductory classes, than anything about Spanish language or Latino culture which will inspire desire in me. I go with an open mind, but my horoscope says that's not enough. Aptitude can never create desire, eh? Well, we'll see. And even if the MA program doesn't create desire for Spanish in me, at least it will help me choose a next step for my life. And in the meantime, my aptitude will introduce the opportunity to learn, my drive to succeed will concrete the attainment of my goals... even if my aptitude for Spanish will not inspire passion for it by itself.

Toilet Water in exchange for nonviolence

Y'all, I know the theme of this blog is not Palestine, but I really feel the need to do what little I can to disseminate information about Bil'in in order to raise it's profile in the general consciousness. I figure if you keep reading, maybe you'll remember Bil'in's nonviolent methods the next time you hear someone rail about "crazy Palestinians," and you'll say, "But what about Bil'in? What about Nil'in? What about Qalqilya and Bethlehem?"

So with that in mind, please read this update from the people of Bil'in:

Toilet water – the new kind of weapon used against the people from Bil’in
Bil’in’s Protest 8/08/08
Today, 8 August 2008, after the Friday Prayers, the inhabitants of Bil’in, Israeli, and international peace activists participated in a demonstration against the wall. They raised Palestinian flags and signs with slogans that condemn the policies of the occupation. The slogans condemned the construction of the wall, the confiscation of Palestinian lands for the construction of settlements, the road closures, and the seizure of Palestinian villages, towns, and cities. The protesters also carried signs with slogans against the killing of innocent civilians, especially children. In addition, the slogans condemned the attacks on detainees, in particular, shooting at them while detained, hand cuffed and blindfolded.

The protest started from the centre of the village, and the protesters chanted similar slogans in addition to those that called for national unity. Upon arrival to the wall, the protesters while raising photos of the murdered children, Ahmed Husam Yousef Musa and Yousef Ahmed Amera, attempted to cross the wall in to their land. The action was a symbol of protest against the monstrous violations that Israeli soldiers commit against Palestinian civilians. Israeli soldiers murdered Ahmed 10 days ago, 29 July 2008, and Yousef 3 days ago, 4 August 2008 - both while participating in non-violent protests against the construction of the segregation wall in Ni’lin.

Today, the protesters succeeded to arrive at the location of the wall, and they repeated chants and slogans against the occupation soldiers and their officers that command them to shoot unarmed civilians. Soon after, confrontations started, the soldiers started firing tear gas, and sprayed us with toilet water. We would like to take a sample for analysis. Many people immediately had to be sick after being sprayed with this water. This is not the first time they use water, but this time was the first that they used water from the toilets. In addition to the water, the soldiers use many types of weapons on the Palestinians. For example they use many types of gas, many types of rubber bullets, clean water, water mixed with gas, scream, saltball, sackbeans. All of these are new weapons.

From a different point, the Israeli Supreme Court gave 45 days (52 as of today) to the Israeli army to correct the current track of the segregation wall that passes through the village. Israeli Chief Justice, Dorit Beinisch, and two of her fellow colleagues, condemned the Israeli government’s neglictance of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, which ordered the correction of the current track of the wall.

Chief Justice Beinisch confirmed to the Israeli government representative, Avi Lisht, her ruling to correct the track of the wall and added; “we ruled that the current track cannot sustain as it does now.”

The people of Bil’in submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court in 2005, hoping to prevent the Israeli occupation army from confiscating their lands. The confiscated lands would be used to build the segregation wall and further annex the remaining of the land in favor of constructing the illegal settlement, ‘East Metateaho’.

On July 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court decreed the illegitimacy of constructing the wall on Bil’in’s lands, and further ordered the government to propose a different track of the wall without harming the nature of the village. A year after the ruling, and because the Israeli government did not act in accordance with the ruling, the people of Bil’in through their advocate, Mikhael Sfard, decided to return to the Supreme Court. The Israeli government further continues the same policy without acknowledging the Supreme Courts ruling.

from Friends of Freedom and Justice: Bil'in

Shiva to Vishnu

Don't be surprised if you develop a yearning to redecorate. The celestial energies have put you in the mood to dress your house up a bit. Take care not to go overboard, Clare. You have a tendency to turn little projects into big ones. For now, content yourself with buying some flowering plants and perhaps some new area rugs and throw pillows. Leave the kitchen and bath renovation for later.

Sometimes one's horoscope is just spot on, you know? In some ways, this has sort of been true of my entire summer. For several reasons, the stars aligned in such a way as to make this summer one of homesteading for me. I've had little desire to venture off my grounds, excited instead to improve upon the kingdom I have at home. I have been ripping up the carpeting in my house, room by room, over the summer, revealing beautiful hardwood floors underneath. I've been going through files, reorganizing and culling obsolete information. I've reviewed all the books, clothes and CDs in the house, rearranging, weeding through, and uploading each respective group of things. I've begun a garden. Throughout the summer I've weeded, dismantled, swept out, scrubbed, straightened, thrown away and just generally pondered all the material things in my life. And it feels good to sort through everything, judge something worthy or not to continue to be taken care of, and feel like I'm getting things in order.

In order for what, though? Who really knows, but... the next big project, one supposes. That is to say, GRADUATE SCHOOL. I'm looking forward to it quite a lot, and I'm beginning to get excited and nervous for real. But today, I content myself with cleaning in the basement a little bit and doing some laundry. The carpet project will wait for another day, Horoscope--I promise. Gotta wait for my body to feel better, for one thing! Threw my back and knee out last week. C'est la vie of a domestic goddess.