I am oddly impressed with this woman because she acted like such a man in staking out her territory and pursuing a rival.
This case has lingered for quite some time. She could have faced life in prison and the previous post from the Beeb said she was going to plead temporary insanity. Sorry, girl, you methodically planned the attack with malice aforethought. Psychotic people simply aren't capable of this.
Sadly, if a man had been accused and convicted of such behavior, he would have gotten more than just his hands slapped, no matter what position and expertise he had.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ms Nowak: Bunny Cooker from Space
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Going back to my old school
CNN recently published a list of the 10 Most Expensive Undergraduate Colleges in the US. When I got to the very end of it, I was absolutely startled that my old school, Vassar, had tied for tenth position. I didn't know whether to be proud or concerned. Tuition for my freshman year there was $8200, a princely sum for the early '80s. And now for '09-'10 it's almost sixfold.
I went to Vassar because it was my safety school. I cursed that I didn't get into Princeton. But ultimately I was relieved that I would not be one of Brooke Shields' classmates and I learned to embrace Vassar wholeheartedly.
While at Vassar, I encountered a great many people like myself. There were a lot of Ivy League rejects there. And we were rejects not because we didn't have the ability to handle the academic requirements of an Ivy, but because we simply had not applied ourselves during our high school years.
We were misfits, freaks, malcontents and assorted other iconoclasts who heard the beat of a different drummer-- somehow the Admissions Office could pick us out from the applicant pool. When we passed through Taylor Gate, we were amazed that Vassar simply didn't encourage us to follow to follow this beat if we heard it; she REQUIRED us to. She articulated something that we had perhaps already discovered, that the life of a troublemaker was not an easy path, but she codified in us that it was the only path worth following and it was our duty to pursue it.
These days I now hear opinions like this-- articles that decry the managerial elite that our nation's finest schools are now producing, their students' lack of intellectual curiosity and hard questions, their desire to march lockstep with the group, to not rock the boat and to get along for material gain. When I read this essay, I was both ashamed that it specifically trashes our traditional brother school, Yale, and I was also quite proud because it describes exactly what Vassar is NOT.
I suppose that there are many other reasons that Vassar is among the costliest of things. We don't have the massive endowment of Harvard and Stanford and yet our portfolio has been hit just like everyone else's. Less than 10% of our operating budget comes from corporate donations and 60% of students receive some sort of financial aid. At least, those were the last figures that I saw.
However, in the final analysis, I have to say that I am very proud of my old school and want to tell any prospective student that her future value to you is beyond any estimation and her current price is worth every damn penny.
I went to Vassar because it was my safety school. I cursed that I didn't get into Princeton. But ultimately I was relieved that I would not be one of Brooke Shields' classmates and I learned to embrace Vassar wholeheartedly.
While at Vassar, I encountered a great many people like myself. There were a lot of Ivy League rejects there. And we were rejects not because we didn't have the ability to handle the academic requirements of an Ivy, but because we simply had not applied ourselves during our high school years.
We were misfits, freaks, malcontents and assorted other iconoclasts who heard the beat of a different drummer-- somehow the Admissions Office could pick us out from the applicant pool. When we passed through Taylor Gate, we were amazed that Vassar simply didn't encourage us to follow to follow this beat if we heard it; she REQUIRED us to. She articulated something that we had perhaps already discovered, that the life of a troublemaker was not an easy path, but she codified in us that it was the only path worth following and it was our duty to pursue it.
These days I now hear opinions like this-- articles that decry the managerial elite that our nation's finest schools are now producing, their students' lack of intellectual curiosity and hard questions, their desire to march lockstep with the group, to not rock the boat and to get along for material gain. When I read this essay, I was both ashamed that it specifically trashes our traditional brother school, Yale, and I was also quite proud because it describes exactly what Vassar is NOT.
I suppose that there are many other reasons that Vassar is among the costliest of things. We don't have the massive endowment of Harvard and Stanford and yet our portfolio has been hit just like everyone else's. Less than 10% of our operating budget comes from corporate donations and 60% of students receive some sort of financial aid. At least, those were the last figures that I saw.
However, in the final analysis, I have to say that I am very proud of my old school and want to tell any prospective student that her future value to you is beyond any estimation and her current price is worth every damn penny.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Important Decisions and the Crack Pipe
This is exactly what the Nobel Committee had to be passing around when they made their decision on this year's Nobel Prize for Peace.
As a card-carrying liberal, I can only scratch my head and go, WTF?
This man has done nothing but continue the failed foreign policies of his predecessor. And because they have failed so miserably, we might have to invade a couple of other countries in the next few months.
And this guy receives a prize for peace-making?
I can only repeat softly to myself, War is Peace, War is Peace, War is Peace, in order to wrap my head around what's been done here.
And I love Jesse's musings:
Is the award taxable?
Not if his Treasury Secretary does his tax returns.
As a card-carrying liberal, I can only scratch my head and go, WTF?
This man has done nothing but continue the failed foreign policies of his predecessor. And because they have failed so miserably, we might have to invade a couple of other countries in the next few months.
And this guy receives a prize for peace-making?
I can only repeat softly to myself, War is Peace, War is Peace, War is Peace, in order to wrap my head around what's been done here.
And I love Jesse's musings:
Is the award taxable?
Not if his Treasury Secretary does his tax returns.
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
I had never heard of this year's Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Herta Mueller. She defected from Romania to West Germany in the 1980s and writes in German.
In her essay Securitate in all but name, she describes the difficulty in obtaining the security dossier on her after the fall of Communism and her behavior that created the thick file.
The description of her harassment in Romania is a chilling flashback from an earlier time of life behind the Iron Curtain. She describes how Ceausescu's secret police, the Securitate, tried to recruit her to spy and how she refused. After her refusal, they made her life a living hell, including a brief detainment and constant surveillance by both strangers and acquaintances. She published her first work, Nadirs, largely as a protest against the situation.
The book was well received in West Germany, where she eventually obtained asylum. She details how the Securitate tried to smear her as a spy in the Romanian immigrant community in Germany, while denouncing her as a traitor at home.
In one of the most chilling personal details in the essay, Mueller writes about a friend, who came to visit her in Germany. This woman had shown her much kindness when she first began to get into trouble with the Secret Police in Romania. During the German visit, Mueller discovered that this friend had been sent to spy on her and she confronted her about it. The friend admitted that, yes, that's what she was doing, but only because she needed cancer treatment. Mueller accepted her explanation and forgave her, but then a few days later she caught the friend with a duplicate key to her apartment. She ordered the woman to get out and was left wondering if the woman's earlier kindness and friendship in Romania simply hadn't been staged.
But perhaps what is most chilling in this essay is the difficult time Mueller encountered in trying to obtain her dossier. When she finally does get it, she discovers that most of it has either been redacted or forged. And she points out what has occurred all over Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union-- the Old Secret Intelligence agencies never really disbanded, but just continued to function under new names. The people who still work there have no interest in being identified or prosecuted. And so, her files were heavily edited to protect the still-employed guilty.
Congratulations to Ms. Mueller. In a life that no one could envy, she has produced great art and managed to induce Cold War flashbacks of ghosts that never really go away.
In her essay Securitate in all but name, she describes the difficulty in obtaining the security dossier on her after the fall of Communism and her behavior that created the thick file.
The description of her harassment in Romania is a chilling flashback from an earlier time of life behind the Iron Curtain. She describes how Ceausescu's secret police, the Securitate, tried to recruit her to spy and how she refused. After her refusal, they made her life a living hell, including a brief detainment and constant surveillance by both strangers and acquaintances. She published her first work, Nadirs, largely as a protest against the situation.
The book was well received in West Germany, where she eventually obtained asylum. She details how the Securitate tried to smear her as a spy in the Romanian immigrant community in Germany, while denouncing her as a traitor at home.
In one of the most chilling personal details in the essay, Mueller writes about a friend, who came to visit her in Germany. This woman had shown her much kindness when she first began to get into trouble with the Secret Police in Romania. During the German visit, Mueller discovered that this friend had been sent to spy on her and she confronted her about it. The friend admitted that, yes, that's what she was doing, but only because she needed cancer treatment. Mueller accepted her explanation and forgave her, but then a few days later she caught the friend with a duplicate key to her apartment. She ordered the woman to get out and was left wondering if the woman's earlier kindness and friendship in Romania simply hadn't been staged.
But perhaps what is most chilling in this essay is the difficult time Mueller encountered in trying to obtain her dossier. When she finally does get it, she discovers that most of it has either been redacted or forged. And she points out what has occurred all over Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union-- the Old Secret Intelligence agencies never really disbanded, but just continued to function under new names. The people who still work there have no interest in being identified or prosecuted. And so, her files were heavily edited to protect the still-employed guilty.
Congratulations to Ms. Mueller. In a life that no one could envy, she has produced great art and managed to induce Cold War flashbacks of ghosts that never really go away.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Physicians for Human Rights calls for Justice
Recently the CIA Inspector General's Report of 2004 was released by court order. It detailed various enhanced interrogation techniques approved for detainees and other unlawful combatants in the War on Terror and further corroborated an International Committee of the Red Cross Report on detainee abuse.
The Physicians for Human Rights read the report and were shocked by what they found. They concluded that psychiatrists and psychologists designed and implemented torture programs and then engaged in human experimentation and data collection of the results. They are demanding a full investigation and feel that if psychiatrists and psychologists are found guilty of participating in human experimentation, then charges of war crimes need to be brought against them and their licenses and certifications revoked.
However, in the true APA style of talking the talk but never walking the walk, the American Psychological Association has merely expressed its concern and dismay that some of its members might have engaged in such practices, but it has never formally repudiated the behavior or demanded an investigation into the alleged activities. In fact, some members have tried at times to present themselves as angels of mercy.
Wishful thinking might want to dismiss Physicians for Human Rights as a fringe group. But, as Nobel Peace Prize recipients in 1997, they are not. Sadly, however, no one in the current administration seems to want an investigation of any practices pursued in the last administration, saying that we need to put the past behind us and move forward. I am very concerned when people and governments refuse to take responsibility for their actions and fail to learn from past mistakes. It only lays the groundwork for further atrocities.
The Physicians for Human Rights read the report and were shocked by what they found. They concluded that psychiatrists and psychologists designed and implemented torture programs and then engaged in human experimentation and data collection of the results. They are demanding a full investigation and feel that if psychiatrists and psychologists are found guilty of participating in human experimentation, then charges of war crimes need to be brought against them and their licenses and certifications revoked.
However, in the true APA style of talking the talk but never walking the walk, the American Psychological Association has merely expressed its concern and dismay that some of its members might have engaged in such practices, but it has never formally repudiated the behavior or demanded an investigation into the alleged activities. In fact, some members have tried at times to present themselves as angels of mercy.
Wishful thinking might want to dismiss Physicians for Human Rights as a fringe group. But, as Nobel Peace Prize recipients in 1997, they are not. Sadly, however, no one in the current administration seems to want an investigation of any practices pursued in the last administration, saying that we need to put the past behind us and move forward. I am very concerned when people and governments refuse to take responsibility for their actions and fail to learn from past mistakes. It only lays the groundwork for further atrocities.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
US economic power 'is declining'
That is, according to the President of the World Bank.
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grows apace and most members of the G-7 languish.
Zoellick fails to point out that although our economic power is declining, our means of production still allows us to manufacture better and more bombs than anyone else.
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grows apace and most members of the G-7 languish.
Zoellick fails to point out that although our economic power is declining, our means of production still allows us to manufacture better and more bombs than anyone else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)