Yes, I Do

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Library Free Louisville

The Louisville Free Public Library recently was told by its patrons, the citizens of Louisville, that they did NOT want to support an increase in the occupational-tax to fund the library. It would have meant a "levy of two-tenths of 1 percent on the earnings of all workers in Jefferson County, and also on the net profits of all businesses in the county." That means that "a worker earning $38,000 a year would pay $76 a year to the library district." It would have "guaranteed that the library system an income stream and end its dependence on metro government for funding" (data from the Louisville Courier-Journal: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007710240814 ).

According to Joe Reagan, president of Greater Louisville Inc. (the metro chamber of commerce), Louisville spends only $24 a year per capita on the library system, compared with $66 in Cincinnati, $46 in Lexington and $42 in both Indianapolis and Nashville.

Well, on November 6, 2007, we Louisvillians apparently decided that we were just fine with stacking up sub-par with other cities of like size in our region. Once again, 66% of us voters decided for us all that we want Louisville to continue to uphold that lovely image of Kentucky as an illiterate, backwater, backwards, snake-holding, gun-toting, toothless, shoeless, tabacky-spitting, bourbon-guzzling, horse-gambling state. So now Director Craig Buthod and the rest of the Board of the Library Foundation have to decide what's "essential." So, like, does the library need all THREE volumes of Das Capital? Does your kid really need to read ALL the Nancy Drews? Come on, you know they're just gonna make the movie anyway...

More info here: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS01/711080413

Or, see how Jefferson County voted by precinct: http://datacenter.courier-journal.com/elections/2007/general/librarymap.png
Needless to say, my precinct voted NO at a rate of 65% - 75%. So WHY is the new library being built in our precinct????

Sucks ASS. And so does my precinct.


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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Gil Scott Heron

One of the best songs ever.

So go on, switch off the tellie and go riot.

Those are MY holiday plans, anyway...

King Dork

So, I just finished this excellent little book called King Dork. It was recommended and lent to me by my good friend Luke. It's sort of a spoof on-cum-paean to Catcher in the Rye. In a way, it's an updated version or interpretation of Catcher. It is, at the same time, an exploration of how Gen X- and Y-ers relate (or don't) to their Boomer hippie parents (something I can definitely get into). It also is--for me anyway--a fascinating peek into the brain of a 15 year old boy, as the 49.5% of the world with XY chromosomes tend to utterly baffle me much of the time. Furthermore, it is chock full of musical references, including a "Glossary of Terms" at the back of the book which includes many l.o.l. definitions of various bands and recording artists of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Finally, it is also the best ethnography of high school ever written. It is a quick read and highly recommended for anyone who

(1) loves fiction
(2) was born between 1975 and 1990
(3) loves music
(4) feels they are a "nerd"
(5) knows and/or lives(lived) with hippies
(6) is or speaks Catholic
(7) has been or is a teenager

More info on the author, Frank Portman (who is also a member of the band The Mr. T Experience (MTX)), can be found here. Thanks for the recommendation, Luke!

The Distant Future: the Year 2000

marriedtothesea.com

If only

marriedtothesea.com

Bomb bomb bomb, Bomb bomb

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Color Blind Society

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Family Ties

Even though my stepson totally would not get this joke, I really want to give him this t-shirt for Christmas:



You can find this inside joke from the 80s and so many more pop culture ways to waste your day here.

The Politics of Naming Genocide

I just turned in a final paper today for my Human Rights class. One of the essays in the paper answered (or at least attempted to address) the prompt, "Elaborate upon why the US declared events in Darfur a genocide and did not do so in Rwanda." Here is my response (aka tirade about how the United States has abandoned its moral mandate).

It seems fairly obvious to me that the reason the United States has so much invested in calling the current events in Darfur a genocide but not those of Rwanda in 1994 is for its own political reasons and not for any real concern about human rights violations or violence against innocents. What I mean is, Darfur is of such popular interest to the United States because it is seen through a “religious/cultural warfare” lens rather than an “African-on-African” lens. We, as Americans, and especially the United States government, finds it disturbingly simple and easy to ignore genocide or other human rights abuses in the continent of Africa (and other places where the “other” lives: where other brown, black, red, or yellow people are the majority) for the same reason it seems to ignore so many social problems here at home: namely, institutionalized racism. Part of the discourse of this racism includes such ideas as “blacks being blacks,” those violent savages that can’t help themselves slaughtering each other, et cetera. The general attitude that genocide or other human rights problems are things that happen to “the other”—which we discussed at length in class and which Makau Mutua discusses in his article “Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights”—is a form of Euro-ethnocentrism and racism, in the case of Rwanda.

Rwanda was a clear case of genocide, and, without getting into the problematic of ‘intent’ with regards to genocide, may I say that there was at least plenty of warning signs that a genocide could (and eventually did) occur. Yet the United States did not intervene. It continued to stay out of the genocide even after our then State Department spokesperson Mike McCurry himself described the events this way: “I think there was a strong disposition within the department here to view what has happened there [as a genocide]; certainly, constituting acts of genocide that have occurred....” Even though within 100 days some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered, the United States continued to turn a blind eye. In short, although the United States clearly knew that the right thing to do was to intervene, it actually demanded the removal of United Nations troops and then sat on the sidelines, since there was no public outcry or political reason compelling them to do so.

It would seem to make sense, then, at first glance, for the Western, Eurocentric, tactically rather than morally inclined United States to dismissively group the Sudan (Bilad-al-sudan, literally “country of the blacks” ) with all the other poor, black, African savages. But the Sudan has an interesting exception which proves politically advantageous for the United States: Arabs! So we see the tactical, political reason to condemn the perpetrators of the genocide, the Janjaweed: it paints Arabs as criminals (which is actually true in the case of the Janjaweed) and further bolsters the solidity of the United States’ inflammatory and condemnatory discourse against the Arab world, which it keeps up in order to further strategic goals in the Middle East.

In further evidence that the American label “genocide” on the Darfur situation is purely political is the reality that we have nothing to lose by doing so. Unlike the case of Rwanda, naming Darfur’s reality a genocide does not commit us to any action, but it is, as I said, a useful and powerful rhetorical tool in our “war on terror” and our other discursive campaigns in our quest to maintain hegemony.

The same political reasons as well as implications for responsibility are evident in our linguistic pussy-footing around the issue of Iraq. As Mahmood Mamdani argues in his article, the similarities between Darfur and Iraq are striking, yet we (American mouthpieces: the media, the military) constantly refer to Iraq as an “insurgency” while we call Darfur a “genocide.” This is further evidence that the naming of conflicts by the United States is done so with purely political aims in mind, rather than the aims of truth and human rights. Well, not purely political, because if Iraq was called a genocide, it would carry implicit responsibility for the United States with it. In Darfur, there is no implication of responsibility. While we invaded Iraq and created its current problems, Darfur’s problems conveniently (for American strategists and politicians) have no direct causation with the United States, yet they relate perfectly to our discourse on terror and our implicit war on the Muslim world (I do not say Arab world, because we are also trying to attack Iran).

In conclusion, it is only for political and strategic reasons that the United States focuses its supposed moral compass on Darfur. Any real humanitarian concern is belied by the fact that the United States commits to nothing by slinging terms around, but does gain significant political currency for its appearance of humanitarian concern. In short, the United States is not only disingenuous, but negligent. And it is, as a significant state actor, not unique in this way, although our hegemony in terms of weaponry and veto power on the world stage is.

Fascism: Coming Soon to a Homeland Near You

I saw this t-shirt on Cafe Press and thought it was pretty awesome (except for the inevitable typo). You can order your own here.

14 Early Signs of Fascism

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

And if your country begins to look like this, you have the duty as a lover of freedom and liberty for ALL (not some), including yourself, to go out and put a stop to it! Think for yourself, be educated, be cosmopolitan, read, travel, protest, trust, love, share, include. These are tactics feared by fascists.

werd nerd

I am a sucker for word humour. Check this out if you also row this canoe:

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.
6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash, n. a rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle, n. a humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude, n. the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon, n. a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster, n. a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent, n. an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Thanks for Dad for sending these to me.

4th and Hill Dreamin'

Ah, horoscope. Stop reading my mind!

Weird.

Discontent with your neighborhood and with your usual daily routine could have you thinking in terms of moving, or perhaps taking a long vacation, or both. You're feeling especially expansive, Clare, perhaps dreaming of relocating to a more ritzy neighborhood, or to a more exotic place. However, before making definite plans you need to take care to remain grounded in the realities. Don't commit to obligations you might not be able to keep.

Okay, so. Daily mantra of 30 Nov 07: Do NOT fantasize about moving. Do NOT fantasize about moving. Live in reality. Live in possibility. Live in reality. Live in possibility. CALM DOWN.

Reconciling Apartheid

Of late, I have been reflecting a lot about my time in Africa in 1995. It is partially because my Human Rights class has talked a lot this semester about different parts of Africa, especially the Sudan and South Africa. It is partially because of my research on the West Bank and the "Apartheid Wall" being built there. It is partially because I am old enough to look back to that time in my childhood through a different lens and some degree of "perspective."

Today in class we watched (most of) a documentary called Long Night's Journey into Day which recounts parts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions established in 1995-6 by the new South African government led by Nelson Mandela. Desmond Tutu was appointed head of the Commissions.

Apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994 and the new, democratic government began to take over. My family and I lived in the country to the north, Zimbabwe, for six months in the following year. We visited South Africa while on holiday in June of 1995, and now, looking back, it seems a certain kind of insanity to think that we were there during so much unrest.

But to be honest, it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. We spent most of our time in Durban, but we did visit (and flew in and out of) Johannesburg. Durban reminded me very much of Miami, but with many Indians rather than Cubans. Johannesburg was another story. My contact with it was somewhat limited and vehicular in nature. That is to say, we hired a white, female tour guide to show us Johannesburg. She refused to take us anywhere but downtown, and she would not let us get out of the car. Most of what I remember is that it was raining, and there were lots of people on the streets, mostly blacks, and lots of open shops. The streets and shops had a somewhat antiquated character (like being in the 1950s), but it was well-maintained and well-used. There seemed to be a lot of commerce in both cities, which amazes me now, as I am now more cognizant of the immense political turmoil during that time.

When I lived in Zimbabwe, we often read in the Harare newspaper about protests, rallies and subsequent casualties that were occurring all over South Africa. There were several plazas that we visited in Durban where just weeks or days before or after, demonstrators were gunned down or killed in riots. It seems really unbelievable and surreal now, to think that I was so surrounded by conflict which to my present-day, East-End Louisville resident self, often seems rather remote.

I suppose I'll write more about this as I reflect more... But these were a few things I was thinking about as I watched the documentary today.

Saint Noam Wrestles the Demon

In bad news today, I share with you this 8 minute clip (transcript available on same page) of an interview from RealNews.com with Noam Chomsky, talking about nuclear disarmament and U.S. foreign policy towards Iran.

Chomsky's best quote is this, although the whole interview is excellent:

"Suppose it was true that Iran is helping insurgents in Iraq. I mean, wasn’t the United States helping insurgents when the Russians invaded Afghanistan? Did we think there was anything wrong with that? I mean, Iraq's a country that was invaded and is under military occupation. You can't have a serious discussion about whether someone else is interfering in it. The basic assumption underlying the discussion is that we own the world."

So, as my dad used to say, I think it's time we all "put our heads between our knees and kissed our asses goodbye." Hello, nukes!

To See or Not to See (the movie)

"Perhaps the Zemeckis film has found a way to have its cake and eat it too. At one level, our reptilian brain gets to thoroughly enjoy the triumphant ass-kicking of a take-charge hero, but up in our neocortex we pay our penance for this thrill by morally condemning the protagonist — scolding Beowulf and ourselves for the momentary power trip.

Beowulf might survive Grendel. But in going up against the 21st-century guilt trip, he may have met his match."

Stephen T. Asma
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=2sNqsYcczKt4NcMC3y3fDnt6s8KJkvzc

Thanks to Dad for sending Asma's reflection on the new film to me. I will mayhaps go to see it--just to get a glimpse of Grendel's Mothers nipples in 3-D, if nothing else... har har

Horoscope du jour

The following is my own horoscopic advice for the day (for Leos, especially those born 24 July), but I think it's an excellent mantra for all of us as we finish our semesters and head (tumble?) into the busy holiday season. Good luck to all; don't let the man get you down...

Professional difficulties could lead to putting in some extra hours working and scheming today, Clare. Whatever problems arise are likely to be less troublesome than they initially seemed, but in the meantime they will have led to frenetic activity and quite a bit of stress. Finish whatever needs to be done, then go home and relax. You are conscientious by nature, but you need to remember to put yourself first. You work to live; you don't live to work.

http://karenswhimsy.com/zodiac-signs.shtm

Hope for the Flowers

I couldn't embed the video on my blog (because I'm technologically impaired), but in case you missed it, this week in the news was Alberto Gonzales, heckled for the rotting jerk that he is, while speaking at the University of Florida recently. See the video of the hecklers and the student reaction here . Perhaps there is hope for the political/civic life of our nation. Maybe everybody isn't asleep or too busy buying their new SUV or iPod to notice... Let's hope so!

keep louisville weird

This is an excellent little overview of a few of the many excellent places that make Louisville one of the best cities in the USA. I believe.

Louisville, we love you! Don't ever change, baby.


Keep Louisville Weird from Thommy Browne on Vimeo.

People Are Just People and The World Is Everlasting

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us... It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely... I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.

--Thomas Merton

I like this quote. I like it because it doesn't imply that God fills a void, but rather that this part of us IS God in us and together our collective sparks of holiness make a sun. It is that God is everywhere, and we are holy. We have holiness. We carry the sacred within us, which has meaning only when added to the sacred in others. We must honor this and discover that "heaven is everywhere." God and we are the same. We walk side by side with God, in and around and through God, and we are God and God is in us. Holiness abounds. And to me, people (men) who claim God for their own and say that God is separate from us and we can only access God through them are mistaken. But this lesson is repeated throughout history.

The husband of one of my birth clients a few years ago introduced me to a Leonard Cohen song sung by Buffy St Marie called, "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot." I hear it when I read this passage--a passage which my grandmother sent me several years ago, by the way. It's on my fridge and I look at it often. Thought it merited a post, at least. BTW, below are the lyrics to "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot."

1...

God is alive; Magic is afoot
God is alive; Magic is afoot
God is afoot; Magic is alive
Alive is afoot.....
Magic never died.

God never sickened;
many poor men lied
many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot
God never died.

God was ruler
though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Magic never fled
Though his shrouds were hoisted
the naked God did live
Though his words were twisted
the naked Magic thrived
Though his death was published
round and round the world
the heart did not believe

Many hurt men wondered
many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always led.
Many stones were rolled
but God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served.

2..

Magic is afoot. God rules.
Alive is afoot. Alive is in command.
Many weak men hungered
Many strong men thrived
Though they boasted solitude
God was at their side
Nor the dreamer in his cell
nor the captain on the hill
Magic is alive
Though his death was pardoned
round and round the world
the heart did not believe.

Though laws were carved in marble
they could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
they could not order men
Police arrested Magic
and Magic went with them,
for Magic loves the hungry.

But Magic would not tarry
it moves from arm to arm
it would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
it cannot come to harm
it rests in an empty palm
it spawns in an empty mind
but Magic is no instrument
Magic is the end.

Many men drove Magic
but Magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
they only passed through Magic
and out the other side
Many weak men lied
they came to God in secret
and though they left him nourished
they would not say who healed
Though mountains danced before them
they said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
the naked God did live

3...

This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh with in my mind
This I mean my mind to serve 'til
service is but Magic
moving through the world
and mind itself is Magic
coursing through the flesh
and flesh itself is Magic
dancing on a clock
and time itself the magic length of God.

ALSO:
"The Ghost of Corporate Future" by Regina Spektor

A man walks out of his apartment,
It is raining, he's got no umbrella
He starts running beneath the awnings,
Trying to save his suit,
Trying to save his suit.
Trying to dry, and to dry, and to dry but no good

When he gets to the crowded subway platform,
He takes off both of his shoes
He steps right into somebody's fat loogie
And everyone who sees him says, "Ew."
Everyone who sees him says, "Ew."

But he doesn't care,
'Cause last night he got a visit from the
Ghost of Corporate Future
The ghost said, "Take off both your shoes
Whatever chances you get
Especially when they're wet."

He also said,
"Imagine you go away
On a business trip one day
And when you come back home,
Your children have grown
And you never made your wife moan,
Your children have grown
And you never made your wife moan."

"And people make you nervous
You'd think the world is ending,
And everybody's features have somehow started blending
And everything is plastic,
And everyone's sarcastic,
And all your food is frozen,
It needs to be defrosted."

"You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending right now.
You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending right now."

"Well maybe you should just drink a lot less coffee,
And never ever watch the ten o'clock news,
Maybe you should kiss someone nice,
Or lick a rock,
Or both."

"Maybe you should cut your own hair
'Cause that can be so funny
It doesn't cost any money
And it always grows back
Hair grows even after you're dead"

"And people are just people,
They shouldn't make you nervous.
The world is everlasting,
It's coming and it's going.
If you don't toss your plastic,
The streets won't be so plastic.
And if you kiss somebody,
Then both of you'll get practice."

"The world is everlasting
Put dirtballs in your pocket,
Put dirtballs in your pocket,
And take off both your shoes.
'Cause people are just people,
People are just people,
People are just people like you.
People are just people,
People are just people,
People are just people like you."

The world is everlasting
It's coming and it's going
The world is everlasting
It's coming and it's going
It's coming and it's going