it's all one thing

War on democracy - School of Americas

2008-10-07T16:36:00.001-07:00

One more today:

Sister Ortiz on Torture

2008-10-07T16:01:00.001-07:00

On second thought, I will provide these links. She speaks well. She does not dwell on the incidents. Do not be afraid to listen to her story.

why I will not shut up about the NED and the CIA: Guatemala and Sister Ortiz

2008-10-07T15:43:00.001-07:00

I left a comment yesterday at Film Review: Cold War Terror in the Americas: A History Lesson. It hasn't appeared. Maybe I misposted. Maybe it's another example of people being unwilling to acknowledge the ties between Human Rights Watch and the National Endowment for Democracy.

I've lost friends over my opposition to the NED. It hurts—I always knew my former friends were more comfortable with hierarchy than I am, but I thought they were fundamentally good people who respected the truth, regardless of the politics of the person presenting it.

But shutting up about the NED means being silent about the desaparecidos. Thinking about thousands of people is hard, so I'll focus on one: it means being silent about Sister Dianna Ortiz. (No, I won't provide links. You can google. She talks about her torture on youtube, if you want to see and hear one victim of US foreign policy.)

To understand how my government paid for Sister Ortiz's ordeal, a little history: In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected president of Guatemala and installed the first of a line of dictators. From then until the mid-1990s, the US provided training, weapons, and money to Guatemala's ruling monsters. (If you think "monsters" is too harsh, read about Sister Ortiz, and remember that her torturers are linked to a graduate of the US's School of the Americas, now renamed, but not disbanded. There is no word harsh enough to describe these people.)

In 1983, the NED was formed. It immediately began its job of continuing the CIA's work around the world in general and in South America in particular—in 1984, it funded a rightwing Panamanian politico. Whether the NED gave money to the torturers of Dianna Ortiz in 1989, I haven't been able to discover, but this is clear: the NED is the right hand and the CIA is the left hand of the worst members of the US ruling class.

I am not brave. Threaten me with violence, and I might be silent. I'll certainly shut up to protect people I love. But so far, I've only been censored and banned. When I think of the courage of people like Sister Ortiz, I know silence for what it is: collaboration and cowardice. Out of respect for what she and countless others have endured, I have to try to speak a little longer and a little louder.

women rule!

2008-10-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

DAILY NATION - Rwanda female-majority House elects Speaker after historic poll

Rwanda’s newly elected Members of Parliament voted in the first ever woman Speaker today, setting a record as the first female-majority parliament in the whole world.

Soldier falls short in 'Warrior' contest | www.azstarnet.com ®

A Tucson soldier competing for the title of the Army's Best Warrior didn't win, but Sgt. Lisa Morales, the first female contender, was in good spirits following defeat, a spokesman for her unit said.

So she didn't win. She was the first woman to make it into the final round.

The Future Soon

2008-10-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks, Emma!

A-Ha, original and literalist versions

2008-10-06T22:00:00.001-07:00

The original:

The literalist version:

via Neatorama

fun break: how an engineer folds a shirt

2008-10-06T20:43:00.001-07:00

via lots of places:

how pyramid schemes collapse

2008-10-06T19:21:00.001-07:00

from Robert Reich's Blog: The Meltdown (Part I)

...no lender trusts any borrower to repay, fearing that that borrower won't be able to rely on anyone else to honor obligations.

Read it all. Reich continues to be my favorite capitalist economist. People love to compare this to the usual crises of capitalism, but Reich's right: "We're in completely uncharted terrain."

sharing a near-rant

2008-10-06T18:51:00.001-07:00

I like the Moviestorm forums enormously. The people are nice and helpful, and it's my place to get away from politics. But the subject came up in The news of the US's financial demise has been greatly exxagerated, where someone suggested things weren't all that bad. I replied:

A 90-year-old woman shot herself in an apparent attempt to commit suicide when she was being foreclosed. A murder-suicide a few hours ago killed a family of six; the husband was worried about money. Those are only two of the more dramatic stories. It's going to get worse.

I've usually lived a life that didn't leave me much to lose. Currently, my wife and I are novelists living as the caretakers of a friend's second home. If the market hurts our friend badly enough, we'll be novelists looking for a new place to live. That's how trickle-down economics work.

And I hate being trickled on. Good capitalist economists like Paul Krugman point out that if you want to stabilize our economy, target the folks who are losing homes and jobs.

Here's the quickest explanation of what happened: Capitalism. Alas, explaining capitalism isn't easy; the quickest version of that is "pyramid scheme." What we'll end up with, I don't know. At the very least, the US should be looking at the 1930s and recreating the Civilian Conservation Corps and similar social programs that the Republicans happily destroyed after WWII.

Well, my apologies to folks who, quite reasonably, were hoping for a break from politics here. Some of my best friends are Republicans, so conservatives reading this shouldn't take any of this personally. Deregulating capitalism got us here, but we're all in it together now.

Uh, obviously, that last paragraph isn't for people foolish enough to read my blogs. But I am trying to be less political now, or differently political now. At this point, all I know to do is vote for Obama while trying to work harder to build a world in which people care about truth, justice, and helping each other. That last is the part of the American Way that's been overlooked lately.

Okay, it's been overlooked since Tom Paine saw that the best ideals of the American Revolution would be abandoned by both Hamilton's and Jefferson's factions. But overlooked is not forgotten.

Back on the web: "Taken He Cannot Be" Also, pizza with peas

2008-10-06T15:18:00.001-07:00

Taken He Cannot Be fell off the web when I accidentally nuked a blog a while back—really, don't reorganize your web sites when you're tired.

I will start writing about writing soon, but probably not for a few more days. In the meantime, I've been enjoying the questions, and especially the answers others give. Feel free to keep 'em coming!

In other news, peas are pleasant on a pizza. I was afraid they would be mushy, but they're simply bland. If you're out of spinach and asparagus and want something green in the mix, try peas. (I used frozen. Canned might, indeed, be mushy.)

'Maverick' backlash

2008-10-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

Right now on Google news, there's an article titled "Millionaire Steve Fossett a flying maverick." I clicked on it because I was annoyed with the way the media seizes on a word ("embolden", anyone?) and found enough others may be annoyed that the title may have been changed; it's now Fossett never stopped pushing the envelope. The top comments there:

takeaseat
Let's declare a one year moratorium on the word 'maverick.' I don't care who uses it and I challenge the media to find an alternative that hasn't already been beaten to death.

vector
I am getting tired of the word maverick. Overhyped, overused by undeserving people.

charliewade
He was a maverick, alright. It isn't everyday a flyer puts his plane into a mountain-side. Most aviators aren't 'maverick' enough to do that.

You know what a maverick is? A lost calf. Something too ignorant to know what it should do to survive.

And a team of mavericks? It's either a contradiction in terms or a suicide pact.

PS. Yes, "maverick" is also an independent thinker and a great TV show. But it's not a word to describe anyone dancing the Neocon Two-step.

PPS. Thanks to madrobins for pointing to this. The part about the historical use of the word is simplified, but no more than I did above. (I don't know if Maverick abused the principle that all unbranded calves were his, but mavericks tended to get branded by people who thought they could get away with it.)

Today's wacky fundamentalists: Jewish "Modesty Patrols" Sow Fear In Israel

2008-10-05T02:11:00.001-07:00

from Jewish "Modesty Patrols" Sow Fear In Israel

JERUSALEM — In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.

"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."

not as funny as it might be

2008-10-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

but it's Gina Gershon as Sarah Palin, so who cares?

See more Gina Gershon videos at Funny or Die

what do you want to hear about writing?

2008-10-03T21:39:00.001-07:00

Two people have recently wished I would write more about writing. For the last year or two, I haven't felt like a writer, but I had a lot of fun at the library talk last Saturday, and at the risk of sounding egotistical, I do know a bit about story. Not art—that's the thing that can't be taught. But when it comes to craft, I'm solid. I still make beginner's mistakes in my own work, of course, but, well, me and storytelling, we're buds.

So, if you have any questions, ask away!

dare to be naive

2008-10-03T13:46:00.001-07:00

A Tiny Revolution: The Tyranny of the Ironical Voice:

(David Foster) Wallace made a fascinating observation, not about humor per se but about a certain post-modern attitude that I've witnessed again and again. (I paraphrase.)

My biggest fear today is how to talk about anything that means anything without sounding cliche or uncool or unhip. There's an absolute terror that goes along with it. If the greatest sin in the past was obscenity, the greatest sin today is to appear naive, so somebody can give you that extra cool smile and devastate you with that one line that puts a hole in your sad balloon.

Just subscribe to Dark Roasted Blend's feed

2008-10-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

I don't think they ever have a post that doesn't have something I like. Today's favorite:

later: Their RSS feeds: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheThrillingWonderStory

Faith in the Free Market

2008-10-03T12:55:00.001-07:00

via LENIN'S TOMB: Faith

the simpler online life: leaving LJ, Facebook, and Twitter

2008-10-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

I won't say forever, because I believe people who can't change their minds should be pitied, but I'm simplifying my online life again. I've deactivated my Facebook. I've closed my shortlived Twitter. This is the last message that I plan to crosspost to LiveJournal. I'll stay at it's all one thing, though my style there will change in ways I don't yet know—in the short term, expect fewer posts while I revise a novel.

For now, and always, happy trails!

later: I'm so easy. A few LJers made sad sounds, so I'll continue the LJ crossposting a little longer.

Foreclosure Alley

2008-10-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

my moderation policy

2008-10-03T10:04:00.001-07:00

1. If you give away the end of a story, I may censor that part of your comment. Few sins are greater than spoiling someone else's art.

2. If a comment smells of spam, I'll delete it. If you say it was appropriate because there was poi, I'll restore it.

3. The Golden Rule applies online, too. If you'd rather insult people than reason with them, or if your comments are wildly off-topic, I may censor or delete them. If you persist in flaming or trolling, I will ban you.

4. I hate the idea of moderating anyone, so don't let this moderation policy inhibit you—interesting digressions, friendly banter, and civil dissent are always welcome.

for USAns who haven't registered vote, or know people who haven't

2008-10-02T14:15:00.001-07:00

Go here now and check the state deadlines:

State by State Info - Declare Yourself

Arizona is especially evil: "29 days before the election." That's four days away.

Compare that with Minnesota: "you may register at your polling place on election day." As a rule, it's harder to vote in a Republican state than in a Democrat state.

More Arizona info is at Welcome to ServiceArizona presented by the Arizona MVD.

I want to go to Lebanon, too

2008-10-02T13:31:00.001-07:00

Dark Roasted Blend: Lebanon: Switzerland of the Middle East. Many pretty pictures!

the "fuck you" theory of censorship and free speech

2008-10-02T11:25:00.001-07:00

I rather like the conclusion of this Letter: There is no such thing as free speech | UK news | The Guardian

There is no such thing as free speech - and a good thing too. There are rather just degrees of tolerance, permissiveness and relative freedom, with boundaries, legal, social and cultural. And there are always limits, many of which we are barely aware of, so much do we take them for granted. The issue with this book and others that have offended Muslims, including The Satanic Verses, is that their publication is liable to give Muslims the possibly correct impression that a culture riddled with its own shibboleths, taboos and areas of interdiction does not consider it a problem to offend their sensitivities, not least by trivialising their religion and their culture in works of fiction. This is far worse than being anti-Muslim. It treats Muslim sensitivities as being beneath consideration. No wonder they are angry.
Charlie Gere

It reminds me that some censors and some champions of free speech operate from the some philosophy: we can ban you or we can abuse you because you do not matter.

My positions on the big issues:

1. Governments should not censor.

2. Publishers have a great responsibility to be fair to people who lack an equivalent place to speak.

My positions on the small examples:

1. On your web site, if someone is off-topic, you should feel free to delete their messages. If they're repeatedly off-topic, you should feel free to ban them: they're trolls.

2. If they're on-topic and you delete their messages or ban them, you're worse than a troll: you're a hypocrite.

later: Apologies for the implication that I think comment sites should only ban people if they're off-topic; I didn't mean for those two "small examples" to be a definitive list. So I'll add to it:

3. If you choose to ban, delete, or censor, post a moderation policy, update it when necessary, and use the same standards for your opponents and your supporters.

Experts on capitalism, shut up.

2008-10-02T10:54:00.001-07:00

You got us here.