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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
A Gore Vidal Sighting
I love this guy. Ever since I discovered him when I was 14, he has provided me with hours of side-splitting laughter. His novels center around either one of two themes: the deconstruction of the national myths or an apocalyptic variation on the Schreber case.
However, it's his essays that I enjoy most. I remember in one of them from the early '70s, he discussed a psychological study that had something to do with the relationship between rich kids and their parents. As a kid who had grown up around some very privileged people, he noted that the focus of the study was absolutely wrong and observed quite wryly. "Psychotherapists seem to know all of the questions, but none of the answers."
In the same essay, he argued that Americans should be encouraged to think more rather than to feel or emote. This is a point he's made in countless other places and he raises it again in this interview:
“Does anyone care what Americans think? They’re the worst-educated people in the First World. They don’t have any thoughts, they have emotional responses, which good advertisers know how to provoke.”
He should have added all we have in America are advertisers and consumers of advertised products. Madison Avenue peddles soap and cars and gadgets, with the same gusto and elan it uses to market political leaders and wars.
However, it's his essays that I enjoy most. I remember in one of them from the early '70s, he discussed a psychological study that had something to do with the relationship between rich kids and their parents. As a kid who had grown up around some very privileged people, he noted that the focus of the study was absolutely wrong and observed quite wryly. "Psychotherapists seem to know all of the questions, but none of the answers."
In the same essay, he argued that Americans should be encouraged to think more rather than to feel or emote. This is a point he's made in countless other places and he raises it again in this interview:
“Does anyone care what Americans think? They’re the worst-educated people in the First World. They don’t have any thoughts, they have emotional responses, which good advertisers know how to provoke.”
He should have added all we have in America are advertisers and consumers of advertised products. Madison Avenue peddles soap and cars and gadgets, with the same gusto and elan it uses to market political leaders and wars.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Different Voices vs. Conventional Wisdom
I've discovered two different tumblogs, STFU Gays and HomoShame.
Conventional wisdom says that I, as a gay man, should be outraged by these blogs, but actually I'm kind of amused and sympathetic.
I'm amused because I have so little use for what passes as conventional wisdom in the gay community these days. It pushes a political correctness that trumpets diversity so long as this diversity doesn't diverge from its beliefs and thinking.
And I'm sympathetic because conventional wisdom encourages a great many of the flagrant violations of good taste that are so easily lampooned in these blogs. I mean, come on, gay community, if you're going to be sitting ducks, you're going to get shot at.
In other feats of twisted logic, conventional wisdom holds that as a gay person, you're exhibiting self-hatred if you don't want to identify with the heterosexual institutions of marriage and children. Conventional wisdom also seems to maintain that it is good to promulgate hackneyed stereotypes in the public domain because it keeps the heterosexuals comfortable.
I have never subscribed to Conventional Wisdom's newsletter and it's something that I just have no desire to understand. If I were concerned about it, however, maybe I'd be worried that I wasn't straight.
I could leave you with that quote from Voltaire about disagreeing with what you say, etc. But to the owners of these two tumblogs, I just want to say, Rock on.
I could leave you with that quote from Voltaire about disagreeing with what you say, etc. But to the owners of these two tumblogs, I just want to say, Rock on.
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