Ahh--OOOooog-A

The AW Hostage Crisis has been Boing-Boinged.

Also, please let me direct your attention to Making Light's recent update, and link round-up. Our good friend Dawno is, as always, about two steps ahead of me, too. There's also the Random Acts of Kindness approach.

A friend of mine just emailed me to say, "Barbara Bauer and her nineteen friends must be puking a lot these last few days."

We can only hope. You can help, personally, by clicking the paypal button at the bottom of this post, or else spread the word. Feel free to email me if you need help with code for either of the buttons--there's a link to contact me directly, to the right and towards the top, on the sidebar.

Neasa from Stones' comments has taken up the cause, too. She's put the AW button on her blog and is helping spread the word to non-writers--thank you, Neasa! (She's got a cool and beautiful blog, too--go and look. You won't be sorry. And she's a bellydancer.)

Also, I'll be posting this on my regular domain for easy linkage, later--but don't miss this.
Jim Macdonald--Yog Sysop, for you sff.net regulars and Usenet veterans--has done an amazing and generous thing and assembled this list:

Books for Writers

• Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books by William Germano
• The Craft of Research, 2nd edition by Wayne C. Booth, Joseph M. Williams, & Gregory G. Colomb
• An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing (Princeton Paperbacks) by Robin Derricourt
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
• Getting Permission: How To License & Clear Copyrighted Materials Online & Off by Richard Stim
• On Writing by Stephen King
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing by Jennifer Basye Sander
• The Business of Writing for Children by Aaron Shepard
• Conflict, Action and Suspense (Elements of Fiction Writing) by William Noble
• The Concise Guide to Copy Editing by Paul LaRocque
• Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner
• Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children by Karen Judd
• Editing Fact and Fiction: A Concise Guide to Book Editing by Leslie T. Sharpe & Irene Gunther
• Characters and Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing) by Orson Scott Card
• Conceiving the Heavens: Creating the Science Fiction Novel by Melissa Scott
• Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight
• The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (15th Edition) by University of Chicago Press Staff
• Elements of Style (4th ed.) by William Strunk and E. B. White
• The Writer's Legal Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference by Tad Crawford and Kay Murray
• Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing by Walter W. Powell
• Writing for Scholarly Publication by Anne Sigismund Huff
• How I Work As a Poet and Other Essays by Lew Welch
• How to Get Happily Published (5th Ed) by Judith Appelbaum
• You Can Write Children's Books by Tracey E. Dils
• How to Write & Sell Your First Novel by Oscar Collier, Frances Spatz Leighton
• The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script by David Trottier
• Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress
• Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by L. Rust Hills
• Copyright Plain & Simple by Cheryl Besenjak
• If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland
• Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook
• The Making of a Bestseller : Success Stories from Authors and the Editors, Agents, and Booksellers Behind Them by Brian Hill & Dee Power
• Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
• Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th Edition)
• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Knowlton Zinsser
• Persist and Publish: Helpful Hints for Academic Writing and Publishing by Ralph E. Matkin, T.F. Riggar
• Proofreading Plain and Simple (Plain and Simple Series) by Debra Hart May
• Putting It Together: Turning Sow's Ear Drafts Into Silk Purse Stories by Mike Resnick
• The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
• Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
• On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner & Raymond Carver
• The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron
• The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus by Christine Lindberg
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey
• Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual by Rita Mae Brown
• Words into Type by Marjorie E. Skillin
• How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
• The Essential Writer's Notebook by Natalie Goldberg
• Writing Without Teachers by Peter Elbow
• The Craft of Revision by Donald M. Murray
  • Writers' and Artists' Yearbook: 2006 by Terry Pratchett (Editor)
  • The Writer's Handbook: 2006 by Barry Turner (Editor)
  • Literary Market Place 2006: The Directory of the American Book Publishing Industry (LMP) R. R. Bowker
  • 2006 Poet's Market by Nancy Breen (Editor)
  • 2006 Writer's Market by Katie Struckel Brogan (Editor)
  • Jeff Herman's Guide To Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents, 2006 (Jeff Herman, editor)
  • 2006 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market by Lauren Mosko (Editor)
  • 2006 Childrens Writers & Illustrators Market by Alice Pope (Editor)

Book sales from this page will help support Absolute Write and the Absolute Write Water Cooler

SFWA Top 20 Worst Agents List,
Dawno,
barbarabauer,
AWMondayMemes

Calling all Stragglers

If you're one of our AW peeps, and can't find us, we're hanging out temporarily at some of these places:

The AW Refugee Camp, kindly hosted by Roger Carlson our Tech mod.

The Making Light AW thread, kindly started by TNH.


Now you can get the tee shirt to commemorate this...ummm....occasion:

Dawno's "I survived the AW Shutdown" stuff at Cafe Press.

I'll update when I know anything about the restoration of the board.

I'm terribly interested in the fact that every IT person I know is a bit gobsmacked that our host just kept our data. No one's heard of that happening, apparently.

Heh. Our Jenna, she's a trendsetter.

Keep the faith, folks.

"You...

...can't stop the signal."


Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agents:

" Below is a list of the 20 literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints over the past several years.

None of these agencies has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (book placements claimed by some of these agencies turn out to be "sales" to vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made--whether directly, by levying fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for editing or other adjunct services.

Writer Beware recommends that writers avoid questionable literary agencies, and instead query agencies that have verifiable track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

Note that while the 20 agencies listed here account for the bulk of the complaints we receive, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Writer Beware has files on nearly 400 questionable agencies, and we learn about a new one every few weeks."

• The Abacus Group Literary Agency
• Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
• Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
• Benedict Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
• Sherwood Broome, Inc.
• Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
• Desert Rose Literary Agency
• Arthur Fleming Associates
• Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
• Brock Gannon Literary Agency
• Harris Literary Agency
• The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:
  -Children's Literary Agency
  -Christian Literary Agency
  -New York Literary Agency
  -Poets Literary Agency
  -The Screenplay Agency
  -Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)
  -Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
• Martin-McLean Literary Associates
• Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
• B.K. Nelson, Inc.
• The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
• Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency)
• Southeast Literary Agency
• Mark Sullivan Associates
• West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)

BarbaraBauer

Buttons and Codes

Matt's Button--



Okay--blogger isn't helping one bit with posting the code, it keeps wanting to fix it for me. So here it is, but you've got to replace the [ ] brackets with <> brackets, instead, for html.

[a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974934445/
absolutewrite" target="new" title="Get your copy of The Street Smart Writer and support AW, too!"][img src="http://www.mattdinniman.com/aw2.gif" /][/a]

Feel free to swipe it, and if you have trouble with the code, just let me know.


Matt, how hard is it to make the button bigger?

Let's make a couple more, folks, so peeps have a choice--what do you think?

ETA:

Street Smart Writers

Jenna's blog, in case you hadn't found it.

She says she isn't comfortable taking donations for the forums, yet, until she knows if she can "put Humpty Dumpty together again."
We can all buy more copies of The Street Smart Writer, though.

Jenna's page about the book is here.

Lisa Spangenberg, our own Digital Medievalist, points out in an email:

"Now, if we all link to the Amazon page for the book, using this url:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974934445/absolutewrite

Then AbsoluteWrite gets a little bit of cash from Amazon, and we can
save
someone from the Barbara Bauers of the world.

Pass it on . . .
http://www.jennaglatzer.com/street-smart.htm "

Maybe someone would like to design us a nifty sidebar button to share around?

In the Meantime...

Roger Carlson has put up a forum as a gathering place for displaced AW folk--you have to register, but it's free.

Oh dear...

Let us consider the saga of Barbara Bauer, literary agent from hell:

What's worse for a scammy agent than being prominently featured on Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agents list? Or attracting the aggravated attention of the redoubtable and delicious Miss Snark?

Why, having a series of very public temper tantrums about it, creating a ludicrous nuisance of yourself, and generally giving the whole thing oh-so-much-more Google juice than it ever would have had, otherwise. Better minds than mine have cooked up a smart and dirty Google Bomb. Do consider participating.

Heh. Also, don't miss Fireflies in the Cloud's hilarious follow-up post, complete with illustrations.

Then consider how wise it is to put yourself squarely in the sights of a bunch of writers--after depriving them of a time-consuming and much-beloved hobby by getting a favorite hang-out like AbsoluteWrite pulled down off the web, even temporarily.

Jenna Glatzer is one of ours. She consistently and tirelessly fights the good fight. If you really want to take her on, Barbara, you'll have to take on all of us.

ETA: Oh, look! Barbara Bauer has been Wiki'ed!

A whole host of others.

More blogging about Barbara Bauer.



BarbaraBauer

AW Down but not Out

AbsoluteWrite's message boards are temporarily down, for those of you who might wander by here looking for information. We've been temporarily frozen out, through the combined effects of an apparently inept-but-abusive supposed literary agent, and a cowardly and amateurish web host overreaction.

Blustering agent Barbara Bauer, PhD (wooHOO)--proprietor of the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency and proud member of WriterBeware's 20 Worst Agents list--called up our webhost and they shut us out.

Thanks a lot, JC Hosting. Way to stand up for what's right. Don't look to word of mouth from us for a whole lot of positive future traffic, I'm afraid. Best of luck with Barbara's good wishes, though, since you've chosen sides like this.

It's a long and sordid story, and you can get the gist of it here.

We're working diligently to get everything back up, and at this point it looks like we've saved the databases, and should be back and badder than ever sometime tomorrow morning.

Thanks, everyone. Blog it, if you can. Then blog it some more. Be sure and use her name: Barbara Bauer, or even Barbara Bauer, PhD. Perhaps we can all compare nasty and abusive emails, later! Won't that be fun?


technorati tag--and pass it along: BarbaraBauer

You must remember this...

I submit for your consideration The Payphone Project--self-described as "stories, pictures, phone numbers and news from payphones and public telephony."

Just the price of the gas in this picture should give you a hint as to how long ago it was taken. Ah, the good old days.
My personal experiences with payphones over the years tend toward the middle-of-the-night, damn-I'm-in-a-fix variety. You know the kind I mean, right? Your car broke down and you've just hiked along the shoulder of some lonely two-lane highway, in the dark. You find a roadhouse with a payphone in the back, through the smoke and past the pooltables.

So you cradle the receiver and fish in your pockets for enough change for what's going to be a long-distance call from the middle of nowhere, and when you finally manage to get through, you stick your finger in your free ear to block the loud music from the crummy local band, and shout your location to whoever was unfortunate enough to pick up, on the other end of the line--never mind that you can only make out about every third word they try to reply.

Then, if you've still got a couple of bucks in your pocket, you go order a draft beer and settle in to wait for your friend, roommate, sister--or whoever you called--to come and retrieve your sorry ass.

That can't possibly just be me. That's happened to all of you, too, right? Before we all carried cellphones, I mean?

Much has been made of the vanishing payphone, in this brave day of blackberries, cells, and wifi hot spots. The disappearance of coin-operated telephones creates problems for people in remote areas, since guaranteed cell service still isn't a Constitutionally protected right.

Here's an article that points out some of the issues with losing these free-standing, well-lit oases of communication with the rest of the world.

From The New York Times in October 2005:

The pay phone in the dirt parking lot of the Acworth General Store here is not terribly impressive, its base coated in grime and a plastic-covered phone book hanging limply from its metal frame.

But to residents of this village of 150 people in southwestern New Hampshire, it is a phone worth fighting for. The town gets no cellphone reception, and there is no other pay phone for miles. The police and volunteer fire departments even have to use the phone sometimes when their radios do not work.

I don't really need payphones, anymore. I just sort of miss them, you know? For all that my friends make fun of my propensity to fondle my cell phone--which lets me check my email, download music, text and send pictures, and even take snapshots or short digital video clips--there was more than once I was awfully happy to see even a beat-up payphone with the yellow-pages long since gone missing.

Even now, especially on the road, driving long distances, I find myself noticing and remembering where I last saw a phone. You know, just in case.
Not to mention that poor Supes is going to have to figure out yet another whole new system for those quick costume changes.

Just found this post, (via Bitch, Phd)on a blog called Super Babymama.

Since I've nothing particularly interesting of my own to say, I thought I'd at least direct you to someone who does.

I'll be more myself, I'm sure, when my brain returns from wherever it's gone this time.

Spring

You know how when you go to the beach and wade out into the surf, if you watch the water instead of keeping your head up to orient between sand and water and sky, the sea tries to coax you out deeper and deeper, and you don't even quite realize it until a bigger wave nearly lifts you off your feet, and you look up suddenly, remembering that you're supposed to be watching that--that the ocean will swallow you up--and you realize you're much further from dry land than you meant to go?

That's what spring is like, for me. I understand why adults, kids, and teens, Christians, pagans and neo pagans alike, all want to build bonfires and stay out in the newly-warming nights. Chasing around, playing tag as dark falls, watching the flames dance, breathing deeply of the rising tide of green.

I wish I knew the constellations better, to understand the seasonal differences in their positions.

So that's where I've been, just lately.

I've been listening to that siren call that would take me far out to sea.

Gift Song Meme

This was Medievalist's idea, and I think it sounds like really a serious lot of fun.

1. Pick one or more of your friends who listens to digital music; preferably someone who already has iTunes and an iTunes account, and who has a blog or Live Journal or somthing similar.

Songs are .99 cents on iTunes; if people want to send MP3s directly, that's up to them, but post the song title, artist, and album anyway. You can use a credit card or PayPal to purchase songs. I suspect it's possible give music with other music services, but I don't know. There are also lots of good sources for free music on the net; feel free to use those, or to publicize indie artists you like a lot. Oh, and there are
free songs at Amazon too.

2. Select the song you want to give.

3. Post this meme on your blog or Live Journal, and list your friends, the song you've chosen for them, (keep the song a secret until after you friend receives it, if you'd like), a link to their blog, and these instructions. Feel free to add a comment about why you chose the song.

4. Purchase the single song for each friend, one at a time, (that is don't buy three songs for three friends.) If you use the iTunes store, find the song, then click on the link for the album; you will see a link near the top of the screen that says "Gift This Music"; click it, then click the Gift button that's included in the link for the song. When you check out, you'll see a form with spaces for your name, your friend's name and email address, and a short message. This will be emailed to your friend, with instructions about how to download their gift song. Use the message to send them a link to the permalink for your blog post about the meme so they'll know to blog about the song. If you use Tags, tag the post as "Gift Music."

5. If you decide to "gift back" to someone who tags you, please also tag someone else, so we can have a variety of musical tastes, journals, blogs, and people.

So I'm tagging Mark Pettus, at The Bluff; Dawno, at NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES; Jenna Glatzer at Hot Diggety; and Ray Wong. Also, I'm sending one to Medievalist, cuz it was her idea--but it might show up in her LJ, instead. (Of all these, I think Lisa is the only one likely to have whatever I send. She's already doing the meme, too.)

ETA: If you have trouble with the links in your email, try recopying the actual link (double checking that there are no line breaks or extra spaces) into your browser address bar, and navigating to pick up your gifted song that way.

gift music meme

For your contemplation

Five Reasons Torture is always wrong.

Christianity Today is an unlikely source for me. I've deep and long-term philosophical differences with self-identified Christianity. Nonetheless, many of my friends profess to be Christians, which declaration always makes me squirm a bit--then I feel sort of dirty, as if I'd said "some of my best friends are straight...(or black, or queer, or fill-in-the-blank.)"

So a thank you nod to TNH over at Making Light, for her Particles in the sidebar.

At some point we must, all of us, make a stand that wrong is wrong is wrong.

Torture is wrong.

The WA State Highway 2 trestle, from beneath.

The moon is high, and there are cars up there, going somewhere.

April Fools' Day

One possible origin for April Fools' Day, or All Fools' Day.

My favorite explanation for this holiday, and the likeliest sounding, is found here:

Another explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was provided by Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. He explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.

The problem with that explanation is that the good professor invented it. Never happened. Was, itself, an April Fools' joke.

As not a particularly subtle person, I've played my share of practical jokes, over the years.

Just wanted to remind y'all to be a bit skeptical, today.

Happy April.

Jill Carroll released

Journalist Jill Carroll, kidnapped in Iraq back in January, has been released by her captors.

What do you take for granted?

I take good books for granted. I appreciate them--but frankly, I assume there will always be books I want to read.

I mean plain old fashioned books--words on paper, with a cover. Everytime someone starts speculating about books being out of date, ebooks being the wave of the future, yadda yadda...I cringe.

I don't think I'm in that much danger, though.

How 'bout you?

Folk Songs

Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament

Baloo, my boy, lie still and sleep
It grieves me sore to hear thee weep
If thou'lt be silent I'll be glad
Thy moaning makes my heart full sad.
Baloo, my boy, thy mother's joy
Thy father bred me great annoy
Baloo, baloo, baloo, baloo
Baloo, baloo, lu-li-li-lu.

O'er thee I keep my lonely watch
Intent thy lightest breath to catch
O, when thou wak'st to see thee smile
And thus my sorrow to beguile.
Baloo, my boy, thy mother's joy
Thy father bred me great annoy
Baloo, my boy, lie still and sleep
It grieves me sore to hear thee weep.

Twelve weary months have crept away
Since he, upon thy natal day
Left thee and me, to seek afar
A bloody fate in doubtful war.
Baloo, my boy, lie still and sleep
It grieves me sore to hear thee weep
If thou'lt be silent, I'll be glad
Thy moaning makes my heart full sad.

I dreamed a dream but yesternight
Thy father slain in foreign fight
He, wounded, stood beside my bed
His blood ran down upon thy head
He spoke no word, but looked on me
Bent low, and gave a kiss to thee!
Baloo, baloo, my darling boy
Thou'rt now alone thy mother's joy.

Ah--if I lived to be a thousand, I could never learn all the marvelous things I'd love to learn.

The historical Lady Bothwell's husband was killed in 1640--the song was also sometimes called Baloo, My Boy, though. Fragments of this song have been around since at least the mid sixteenth century, though. Like nearly all folk songs, its history is murky, because it might well have been sung for years, in different incarnations, before anyone thought to write it down.

This is a cool site.

This one is fun, too.

Thinking about:

The Lives of Saints. The murder of Becket. Giuseppe Desa and hair shirts. Henry II walking barefoot to Canterbury. The Children's Crusade.

You know how sometimes your brain wants to make a connection, and you can't quite tease it out?

They were just like us.

Just. Like. Us.

More later, after this stews a while.

Running

Okay. I've finally realized no one really likes to run. Not at first, anyway. Maybe not ever. The jury is still out.

I had visions of loping easily along, like a wild animal; formidable, fast, a stunning picture of grace and power.

It's not like that. I loathe it.

No. Really. Loathe it. Always have. Even in the years before I started smoking, I was not a particularly good runner.

Running hasn't gotten any better in the intervening years, either. Plus, is it just me, or is gravity getting a lot stronger? I'm here to tell you. Gravity is strong. Damn strong. Especially when you're going up hills. It gets even stronger, then.

It hurts. I suck desperately for air, and fight to keep some rhythm between my feet and my breath, and I try very hard to ignore the fact that I can hear all the blood in my body roaring in my ears. I get all sweaty and red in the face. It's actually sort of awful.

Then I realized everyone I see out running looks the same way. I felt a bit better.

So then I started thinking about marathons. Those people never really look like they're having that much fun, after the beginning. Not until the finish line, when they get to stop. Right?

So I started looking around, checking out some of the training schedules helpful runners have posted for newbies. There are some nifty 20 week plans to train to peak for your first marathon.

They say things like "Week 12: Monday--Run an easy eight miles--you should be breathing too hard to sing, but still able to gasp your location into the cell phone for the ambulance guys. You know. Just in case. Come home and do wind sprints til you pass out. When you wake up, drink as much water as you can hold, walk out the charley-horses, then blend up raw eggs with almonds and drink that, too.

Repeat."

September, I think. I think I could be ready by September.

Okay--quick question

Who has an ipod or an mp3 player--which one, why, and so on? I'm not all that interested in what the salespeople have to tell me, yet. I'll ask those questions after I've already figured out what it is I need.

So most of you know I've recently quit smoking. Along with that, I'm running again. Both farther and longer than ever before.

The harder I push and the farther I go, the more I'm thinking it would be nice to hear something besides my own ragged, tearing gasps for air and leaden footfalls, especially after the first couple of miles when the rhythm falls all apart.

(Remind me, by the way, to tell y'all about the weirdest emotional baggage that comes up, quitting a habit you've carried for nearly twenty years. Just, you know, if you're interested.)

Tell me about your favorite portable music device.

Suck it up, Bitch--Marry your rapist, raise your baby...

See the video of Bill Napoli describing what sort of raped woman might...might...be entitled to an abortion.

Edited to add another source for the video--thanks, TillyLost.

Digby covers the story pretty well.

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

But, you know, tough shit if you happen to be a woman who is only raped, but not sodomized (and WTF is that about, Napoli? Get a stiffy just thinking about it?)

Or, you know, if you're not a virgin. 'Cause if you wanted it once, it's obvious you want more.

Or, you know, if you're not religious and saving yourself for some nice rapist boy, to come along and knock you up and make a real woman of you, so you can get married whether you like it or not, like when Senator Napoli was a young man, growing up in the Wild West.

There's a deeply disturbing post about how this South Dakota law is not just about abortion, but also about rape, and about women's control over their own bodies at a very fundamental level, by Liza at BlogSheroes:

Digby covers all the major outrage points on the subject of how Napoli is basically signing onto the idea that forced childbirth is the proper punishment for being female and having a sexuality all at once, which is an argument that strikes me as no different in any substantial way than then argument that getting drunk or being 16 or whatever is reason enough to deserve to be raped and spat on. So I won’t bother with it, but I will say that what struck me about Napoli’s statement here is that he had to squeeze in “sodomized”, an act that actually can’t get you pregnant. I found it interesting that Napoli requires the sodomy before he’ll deem the Christian girl raped so badly that even he can’t imagine her deserving to be punished further for whatever the hell it is that women need to be punished for.

It takes a strong stomach, I promise you, to get all the way through the entry--it's primarily about a deeply depressing aquittal in an Illinois rape trial. That's why we all need to read it. And think about it. And talk about it.

From the linked article:

Reporters and other courtroom observers were not allowed to see the tape. Lawyers' descriptions indicate that it shows Missbrenner and codefendant Burim Bezeri having sex with the teen during the party in Missbrenner's home in the upscale suburb. The tape also shows the men and others spitting on the woman and writing on her naked body.

Defense attorney Patrick Campanelli relentlessly dissected the tape Friday, however, contending the accuser's actions indicated that she had not been coerced.
[emphasis added by me]

If this had happen to her in the great state of South Dakota, this kid would be unable to legally abort a pregnancy resulting from being gang-raped while she was drunk at a party. Yep, that's right--she would be required by South Dakota law to carry to term and raise the child of one of this gang of young men who raped her, spit on her, and scrawled obscenities on her naked body...then left her unconcious, missing her pants.

That's yer family values in action, there, eh?

A friend of mine observed earlier this week that I sounded angry, discussing this legislation and the issue of whether a woman is entitled to make her own decisions about whether or not to carry a child. That's a fair observation. Yep. I am angry. I'm furious, in fact, that there should even be any question of whether this topic belongs in the arena of public discussion.


This is why the pro-choice among us cannot afford to get tired and stop yelling about it.

For Dawno...

So , in the comments on my test thread with the jeep pic, my dear friend Dawno said:

I am studiously staying away from the blogging by mobile option. Ya'll do not want to see what weird things I'd blog about if I could do it anytime from anywhere.

"oh, look! That cloud looks like a bunny!"

or "This is what I'm having for lunch"

or "what kind of a bug is that?"

This is my coffee-mug that goes everywhere with me. I bought it at a gas station in Maine, on a road trip, thirteen years ago.

Now, this is not going to turn into one of those blogs...You know the ones. The blogger tells you all about every detail of every day, "So, like, OMG! I totally found the cutest shoes on sale, and..."

Not gonna happen.

I was thinking though, it's funny how small items lend a sense of continuity and flow to our lives. This mug has been all over the US and Canada, with me. It's lasted longer than any relationship I've ever had. It outlived my good dog, Grady, who was with me on that trip. We camped on Bar Harbor, and there was the most amazing thunderstorm late one night in Delaware in the campground on the beach, and my gf-at-the-time got so mad at me in Ann Arbor, I thought she was going to leave me there...

And all those complex memories and emotions are keyed for me by a silly coffee mug with a cartoon lobster. We attach sentimental value to these small things, for what they tether us to. There's something sweet about that.

So, Dawno, maybe we do want to hear about that cloud that looks like a bunny, or what you had for lunch. Not because lunch is that interesting--but because the first time you ever had tempura was the time you got sold to that white-slaver ring in Shanghai...

Testing . . .

Here we are again, in the middle of the night...

I've spent my entire adult life moving gradually west. Much further west, and I'll fall in the water, in fact.

I'm not sure why, either.

Looking at it, I'd be hard pressed to give an answer--any more than a salmon can explain its spawning behavior. While I'd like to think I'm a bit smarter than the average salmon, sometimes I've very little evidence to back that up.

*sigh*

We all do those things, though, don't we--things we can look at later, and exclaim about, when we see a pattern?

There are the obvious human physical motivators driving us all the time, of course: food, shelter, sex, pain. Then, though, there are also the invisible, non-physical motivators: honor, faith, superstition, sex, or fear.

The older I get, the harder a time I have separating those spheres from each other, in my version of reality.

Look at this!

I just brought home some of these things to put in the yard. And some of these, as well, for the horse pasture, most likely.

And some of these, which are beautiful.

See? Of course, they won't look like this until fall. In another year, or three.

It's Spring! It's Spring! We can plant things! The sun is coming back!

Actually, everything looks sort of like plain little sticks, just now. I see the potential, though. Like most things that matter, it just takes some vision and some blisters.

Gardening plans, everyone?

You have to see this...

Okay. I was going to post something intelligent and insightful.

Then, out surfing late one night, I was poking around author's sites on SFF.net, and at this site, I came across a link to a collection of Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974.

You have to go look. Really.

Take the tour.

Read the text, too.

Put down your beverage, first.

I'll try for intelligent and insightful when I can stop laughing.

Marching toward Gilead, redux

From Salon, today:

February 23,2006 | PIERRE, S.D. -- South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban the procedure except when the woman's life is in danger.

The bill, designed to spark a courtroom showdown over the legality of abortion, passed 23-12 Wednesday. On Thursday, it was headed back to the House, where lawmakers already approved similar legislation.

Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, a longtime abortion opponent, has said he would "look favorably" on an abortion ban if it would "save life."

Under the measure, doctors in South Dakota would face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion. The only exception would be for women who need abortions to save their lives.

"In my opinion, it is the time for the South Dakota Legislature to deal with this issue and protect the lives and rights of unborn children," said Sen. Julie Bartling, a Democrat and the bill's main sponsor.

The bill makes no exceptions for incest, rape, or the health of the mother.

South Dakota has tried to do this before, and the ban has always failed. Bitch, PhD has some powerful things to say about it--I'll warn my more conservative readers that she's fiercely pro-choice, and is much more passionate and vigorous in her arguments about the issue than I am.

Look, I understand what the anti-abortion contingent is about--I understand that women who advocate state control of women's reproductive decisions think that this is about saving a human life, albeit nestled inside a clump of cells that weighs around an ounce, about the size of my thumb, still without a complete and functioning central nervous system--a life the evil abortion-mongers want to snuff like a tadpole.

That really is not what access to safe and legal abortion is about, though.

It's just not.

Access to safe and legal abortions is about, in at least small measure, protecting the lives and health of women for whom pregnancy is simply untenable. Because, anti-choice propaganda aside, only someone deeply disturbed perceives abortion as a desirable birth-control strategy. This is very much part of a pervasive and misogynistic view of female sexuality that includes keeping birth control restricted and stigmatized; and keeping adolescent women uninformed and largely defenseless--only further increasing male control over female bodies.

Now, I do know I've more than one reader who feels very strongly about this--and we can talk about it, if you'd like. I also know that this is a hot button issue for people, but y'all have always shown yourselves to be intelligent and thoughtful, even when we disagree on something important. So I'll trust us to be kind to one another. I'll also promise to listen.

If this is the wave of the future for our country, I fear greatly for the women whose lives will be tragically affected by this trend.

A wire coat hanger in someone's basement is a really lousy alternative for everyone involved.

And now...

The llama song.

Snowboarders

I've been watching the snowboarders at the Olympics. I'm not a big sports fan, but I'm a long time snowboarder.

I keep hearing everyone scream about Lindsey Jacobellis hotdogging at the last minute and blowing her gold medal snowboard cross run. She's getting ripped a new one, by the press. Here's a pretty representative example:

BARDONECCHIA, Italy -- Lindsey Jacobellis had gold in her reach. Then she reached for her snowboard instead.

She had a chance to step on top of the medal stand, wrap herself in an American flag and hear "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Then she went for one last roar from the crowd, stupidly trying a flashy trick when all she needed to do was slide down the hill.

These guys don't know thing one about boarding.

I've been boarding nearly as long as this poor kid has been alive. My first board was one of the big Burtons that looked like a surfboard without the fin, with one flat end. Look down at the pic. See that 1989 board on the far right? Yep. My first board.

I've boarded a long time. I'm definitely not Olympic class, and never was. When I started, it was damned hard to find ski areas that even let boarders ride the chairs up the mountain. We perversely took pride in that.

So when I tell you what I'm about to tell you, understand that it's because I've loved this sport since its beginnings.

I respect Lindsay Jacobellis' attitude toward snowboarding much, much MORE--not less--for doing what came naturally and grabbing that edge, in the air, at the end of a terrific run. That right there gave her away as truly a boarder's boarder.

Way to go, Lindsey. Be proud of yourself, kiddo--I cheered when I saw you do that. I was frankly stunned and saddened that I hadn't seen a boarder do something similar until that point.
With that simple trick, you embodied what this sport is all about, and why I still love it.

Piss Off, Big Sports Media Guys. You have no idea.

Weird Things

Jill at Writes Like She Talks, and September at Midnight Writings, both tagged me for the five weird habits meme.

Since I don't follow instructions well, I've decided to put my own spin on the thing.

Also, don't we all have treasured weirdnesses? They mark our individuality in a context where conformity is rewarded, and noncomformity is idealized.

So I'll tell you guys about my weird habits, if you share, back. We can take turns.

I'll even go first: I daydream. Not just a little...I can be perfectly happy inside my own head, motionless or not, for hours and hours. On occasion, I'll daydream for days on end, taking only short breaks to answer direct questions like, "Have you eaten anything this week?"

See ya in the comments thread.

Just for fun

Because I never grew out of comic-kid geekdom. Via Writes Like She Talks--Which Superhero are you? Take the Quiz, post your answers--if you don't post here, give us a link, eh?

I'm 95% Spiderman, as it turns out:

"You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility."




Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Changing tastes

When I was a kid, I loved fig newtons. Really, really loved 'em.

I had a fig newton tonight, and it was sort of bland. Just...there. Where on earth did that fig newton template in my memory go?

Ditto for pepperoni. Something bad is happening to my palate.

There seems to be an entire class of flavors that exists only in memory--they're now unattainable in any kind of physical reality.

That seem terribly sad.

Can o' Worms

Don't feel obliged to flame, but I'm willing to talk about it, if you guys think this is as important as I think it is. I'll trust that if we choose to discuss the issue, we can remain at least civil to each other. I'll promise to listen, as best I can, even when I disagree--as long as you do the same.

The Kansas Supreme Court blocked the State Attorney General's access to records from two abortion clinics, to protect the patients' right to privacy.

One online report tells us:

Kline spoke to reporters after details of the secret investigation, which began in October, surfaced in a legal brief filed by attorneys for two medical clinics. The clinics argued that unless the high court intervenes, women who obtained abortions could find government agents knocking at their door.

The clinics said Kline demanded their complete, unedited medical records for women who sought abortions at least 22 weeks into their pregnancies in 2003, as well as those for girls 15 and younger who sought abortions. Court papers did not identify the clinics.

The records sought include the patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile.

The clinics, which said nearly 90 women and girls would be affected, are offering to provide records with some key information, including names, edited out.

Today's Seattle PI says:

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The state's highest court on Friday temporarily stopped the state attorney general from looking at records from two abortion clinics, saying such a review could violate patient privacy.

The Kansas Supreme Court ordered a lower court judge to first make sure that Attorney General Phill Kline has the right to see the documents in his investigation of potential violations of state restrictions on abortion and suspected rapes of children.

If Judge Richard Anderson determines Kline does have that right, he must still ensure that the patients' privacy is protected, the court said.

I'm thinking about collective experiences, today. Sure, maybe we all read The DaVinci Code, but I'm not sure that counts. You know--the way communities bond, by experiencing the same things together. Do we do that any more?

I'm not quite sure how so many conservative-type folks ended up here in a blog-neighborhood somewhere near the intersection of Marxist Drive and Dogma Lane, but here we all are. I'm delighted you're here, too. You're a treasured part of the little community that this blog is growing into.

Comment thread Synchronicity

Jill said, in the comments thread:

What I would like to hear more of, and I do think some of it's getting out there, is how do Muslims around the world feel? Is this what they want Islam to be identified with by non-Muslims? I know they don't - I know that there are Muslims speaking out about how their beliefs do not support suicide bombing. But what hasn't that group taken hold? What is preventing their voice from being the dominant one inside the more radically religious and conservative Middle Eastern governments? I saw the picture on the cover of the NYT just after the election, and it was a sea of men and boys. Not a single female face. Doesn't that alone speak to scary?

In the NYT this morning, this article declares:

To a degree specialists said was new in the conservative Muslim society of the Gaza Strip, Hamas used its women to win, sending them door to door with voter lists and to polling places for last-minute campaigning.

Now in surprise control of Palestinians politics, Hamas can boast that women hold 6 of the party's 74 seats in parliament — giving the women of the radical group, guided in all ways by their understanding of Islam, a new and unaccustomed public role.

Now, understand that I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian environment, where some hard "truths" were stated pretty baldly. I clearly remember, when it came up that I was planning to pursue a college prep course in high school, one church elder bluntly said, "What on earth for? Women have absolutely no business going to college except to find a husband."

Higher education giving women all those uppity feminist ideas, after all.

I remember my mother ruthlessly repressing her own rebellious feminist urges to tell me that there was no good reason for women to vote; their husbands should speak for both of them. Don't judge her too harshly for that. She's the one who made it possible for me to leave and go to the aforementioned college. While I didn't notice at the time, she began much of the eventual deprogramming that would culminate later, after a handful of logic, philosophy and theology classes.

So I understand all too well about women participating in their own subjugation.

It does make me wonder about the moderate Christians, too. I wish they'd get a whole lot louder. They're out there, though. They are apparently Christians who struggle to reclaim their religion, and the perception of their religion, from the extremist Christian right:

I am a Christian. I also grew up in the American South. "My people" -- both Christians and Southerners, according to my friend and many Yale students -- are changing our nation with a conservative agenda. That agenda is not mine. Many Christians, like myself, strongly believe in separation of church and state; are Democrats and pro-choice; support women in ministry as preachers and teachers; and believe that God loves all people, regardless of race, creed, color or sexual orientation. It is possible for Christians to represent such God-like views and not be radical judgmentalists. It is possible for Christians to be loving, kind, conversational and respectful of persons of different faiths.

Despite my vote in the presidential election, my identity as a Christian became associated with Christian conservatism more than ever after Nov. 2. "My people" appear to be part of the Christian right because voices from the Christian left are often stifled or silenced.

I do indeed wonder about the more moderate Muslims, out there--because I'm not hearing much on either a local or an international level. Jill's question has certainly been asked before; there just aren't very many particularly loud public responses.

Turns out, according to Islam for Today, even the terminology is somewhat problematic:

American media uses the term moderate Muslim to indicate a Muslim who is either pro-western in her politics or is being self-critical in her discourse. Therefore both President Karzai of Afghanistan and Professor Kahlid Abul Fadl of UCLA wear the cap with felicity, the former for his politics the latter for his ideas.

Muslims in general do not like using the term, understanding it to indicate an individual who has politically sold out to the “other” side. In some internal intellectual debates, the term moderate Muslim is used pejoratively to indicate a Muslim who is more secular and less Islamic than the norm, which varies across communities. In America, a moderate Muslim is one who peddles a softer form of Islam – the Islam of John Esposito and Karen Arm Strong – is willing to co-exist peacefully with peoples of other faiths and is comfortable with democracy and the separation of politics and religion.

It seem like we never do hear as much from the center, though. While certainly some of that can be blamed on our own media--because it's so much sexier to report car-bombings that to report sane and reasonable people calling for peace--maybe those of us closer to the middle need to get a whole lot louder.

What about bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, on a grassroots level; Christian, secular, other. . . How do we do that?

We know how war starts. Now how do we begin peace?

Think Pink

The breast cancer site has a button that leads to a page of sponsor ads. You can click the button, and the revenue from the ads goes to pay for treatment for women in need.

I'm seriously considering doing the breast cancer 3-day walk. Have any of ya'll done it?

Thus ends today's public service announcements.

This frightens me

Hamas' recent election win frightens me. I don't think it bodes well for anyone's future--not even Palestine's.

Probably because I'm currently reading Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, I'm feeling especially sensitive to the whole issue. It's almost certainly a holdover from my upbringing that I'm doggedly pro-Israel, as a default position. Certainly, as the Palestinian situation has smoldered over the years, there's been a great deal of pressure to understand and empathize with the plight of Palestine--pressure especially from the left and far-left, where I'm usually ideologically comfortable.

You know what, though? I find a curious blank wall in my brain, where those arguments just don't get through. I simply cannot bring myself to sympathize with people that view suicide bombing civilian targets as a viable diplomatic strategy--I don't care how goddamned desperate and hopeless they feel. At what point is doing wrong just...well, wrong? (Which is equally applicable to Israel's behavior toward civilians in the conflict, of course--but when civilians are the primary combatants, those lines become very blurry, don't they?)

From the Palestinian side of the ideological chasm:

There is no doubt that Fatah was entirely complicit in the game, to which it had become both a prisoner and an indispensable partner. Why else would the United States have desperately tried to shore Fatah up by spending millions of dollars on projects in recent months designed to buy votes, and why else would the EU have threatened to cut off aid if Palestinians voted for Hamas? Most Palestinians could see clearly that after years of negotiations and billions of dollars of foreign aid that they are poorer and less free than ever before as more of their land has been seized. It is no wonder that this kind of bribery and blackmail had no power over them and probably had the opposite effect, increasing Hamas support.

Hamas' victory pulls the rug from under the project of trying to deflect the blame for the conflict from Israeli colonization to Palestinian internal pathologies. The peace process industry will not give up easily, however, and will now urge Hamas to act "responsibly" and to "moderate" its positions -- which means in effect abandoning all forms of resistance and assuming the docile and complicit role hitherto played by Fatah.

The instant US demand that Hamas "recognize Israel" is like rewinding the clock twenty-five years to when this same demand was the pretext to ignore and exclude the PLO from peace negotiations. But as Hamas has observed, all the PLO's submission to these demands did not lead to any loosening of Israel's grip or any lessening of US support for Israel. Hamas is unlikely to do as the US demands, and even if it did, it would probably only give rise to new resistance groups responding to the worsening conditions on the ground generated by the occupation.

From the other side of the chasm, "Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

It is a sad day for democracy when a majority of Palestinians vote for the party that employs and glorifies terrorism to achieve its aim to destroy Israel. The empowerment of Hamas puts peace in peril and dashes hopes for a viable
Palestinian state living in peace and security with Israel.

History has shown time and again that extremist groups come to power by promising a better life for the people, but once governing, implement their extremist policies. As long as Hamas remains an armed terrorist group it cannot be a partner for peace or accepted as a legitimate government by the international community of nations.

What are your thoughts on this, folks? Is it something you're interested in talking about? Because even though I haven't perhaps said so, directly, I'm often stunned and grateful at the kind, smart, and reasonable discussion that results in the comments here, despite our various and deeply-held differences of opinion.

Thank you for that, all of you.

No Surprises, there

The State of the Union speech was pretty much exactly what I expected. GW said the same stuff he always says. The Republicans bounced to their feet, applauding, so often that they looked like a gallery full of jack-in-the-boxes.

The new Associate Justice, Sam Alito, doesn't look like Voldemort--actually, he looks good-humored and kind. I fervently hope he is. There's no question about his intelligence; only about his loyalty to the Executive branch, versus the Constitution and the people.

The Democrats didn't look quite like the pack of whipped pups that they often do. That's encouraging. Digby thinks the pendulum is beginning to slow, before its inevitable swing back the other way.

Cindy Sheehan got arrested for wearing an anti-war tee-shirt to the State of the Union address.

Does anyone else feel increasingly disconnected from all of this? Does it seem more and more like grand theater, designed to keep us occupied arguing with one another--while we drug our kids into submission, work our two (or three) jobs, hold our breath and clench our teeth while pay for this week's gas and groceries, and worry about whether or not we'll still have to work in our 70s else how will we live?

In point of fact, I believe we want the same things, most of us. We want the freedom to pray, when and where we choose, if we so choose. We want secure jobs, affordable health care, safe streets and schools. We want to hold our heads up and know that, as individuals and as a nation, we are behaving honorably. We are willing to work our butts off to achieve and keep those things.


Chop wood and carry water.

I love me my stereotypes

One of the things I decided early on was that I wouldn't try to tell you how to think, with this blog. I'll tell you how I think, and why I think that way--but, often enough, I'm not entirely certain about anything. I think the world is a complex and surreal place, with intricate interconnected dynamics of influence and cause-and-effect.

Certainty, that is to say, is either for those much smarter than me; or for those who have given up completely.

I happily encountered a kind philosophy professor, my freshman year in college, who took the time to essentially deprogram me from the fundamentalist religious upbringing I brought with me into his Technology, Society, and Values seminar. Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd have turned out quite sane, without Charlie's patient Socratic questioning about "truths" I was so certain of. *No comments from the peanut gallery about my relative sanity, either.

What part of your upbringing and education do you look at and think, "That. That helped define who I've become. That person (or insert other noun of your own experience) shaped how I think"?

That said, you should read Michael Bérubé's Academic Freedom essay (via Making Light.)

What animates the radical right, in other words, is not so much a specific liberal belief about stem-cell research here or gay civil unions there; on an abstract level, it’s not about any specific liberal issues at all. Rather, it’s about the very existence of areas of political and intellectual independence that do not answer directly and favorably to the state. So, for example (and this is my final example, chosen especially for you librarians out there), when in April 2005 Alabama state representative Gerald Allen proposed a bill that would have prevented Alabama’s public libraries from buying books by gay authors or involving gay characters, he wasn’t actually acting as a conservative. Real “conservatives” don’t do that. He was behaving like a member of the radical right. Indeed, his original intent was to strip libraries of all such works, from Shakespeare to Alice Walker; and as he put it, “I don’t look at it as censorship. I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children.” Thankfully, relatively few public officials see it as their job to protect the children of America from the heritage of Western culture.

But some do, and that’s why academic freedom is so important. It may not be written into the Bill of Rights—you know, the real one, the one in the Constitution. It is far younger than the rights enumerated there, and more fragile. But together with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the freedom of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, academic freedom is an aspect of procedural liberalism that is one of the cornerstones of a free society. If you believe in the ideals of the open society and the intellectual legacies of the Enlightenment, you should believe in academic freedom—and you should believe that it is a freedom is worth defending.

Now--I admittedly associate anecdotes like the one above with southern and midwestern states, almost exclusively. Or I did, until the PA Intelligent Design case came up, and was so hard-fought.

Is there no sin in it? offers an interesting take on that snobbery and reverse-snobbery--which I'm as guilty of as the next guy or gal:

Those who would appeal to the uneducated hold that there is a coterie of liberal wealthy academics, atheists all, who spend most of a day out-laughing one another over dark witticisms in French while they rave over food that smells like old socks. The uneducated propose that, in private, these people must actually find bodily fluids funny.

Those who would appeal to the educated claim that there is a tragic sector of the population who are functionally illiterate, watch hours and hours of television, love killing things, and find nothing more wonderful under the sun than a well-timed fart. The educated assume that, in private, these people are deeply, solemnly at one with God.

I think those observations are true and important, because those stereotypes polarize the opposite sides of the debate about what should and shouldn't be taught; and about how things should or shouldn't be taught. Deep down, she's got me pegged. On some level, I believe that if parents wants their kids to hear about Creation--or Intelligent Design, because frankly, I believe it's the same thing--those parents must be mouth-breathing Nascar fans with GEDs, and living in a 1974 double-wide, thinking frozen tater-tots are a vegetable.

That is, of course, quite wrong. So how on earth did I develop that conviction? Is this a media thing? How did these careful constructs get built? How did I manage to be so susceptible to them? This isn't a product of how I was raised. We were hardly rich and intellectual liberals--my generation was the first on either side of the family to complete college. So where do these come from, these polarized constructs in my mind?

While we're at it, how do you perceive the state of academic freedom? Are we in danger? Or for the more conservative readers, here--you know who you are *grin*--do you have personal experiences with academic bias? Not stories you've heard, mind you; but things that happened to you or yours.

What is the single most important thing to teach our children?

Clap, if you believe!

Here's an interesting news item:

VILLAGERS who protested that a new housing estate would “harm the fairies” living in their midst have forced a property company to scrap its building plans and start again.

Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him £15,000. His first notice of the residential sensibilities of the netherworld came as his diggers moved on to a site on the outskirts of the village, which crowns the easterly shore of Loch Earn.

He said: “A neighbour came over shouting, ‘Don’t move that rock. You’ll kill the fairies’.” The rock protruded from the centre of a gently shelving field, edged by the steep slopes of Dundurn mountain, where in the sixth century the Celtic missionary St Fillan set up camp and attempted to convert the Picts from the pagan darkness of superstition.

Heh. Darned pagan darkness, bogging down good capitalist endeavors like that! I must say--I like that fairies are apparently anti-development. It sort of puts ELF in a whole new light, eh?

Shall we?

Let us speak of first love.

You know the one I mean. Whoever it was--his or her name sprang immediately into the front of your mind. No matter how long ago, how far away; no matter how very different you were, then.

For the most part, I think the notion of romantic love doesn't do us many favors. I'd like very much to say I don't even believe in it--that it's really a mixture of pheromones, chemistry, and youthful naivete. I'd like to say that . . . but I don't entirely believe it.

The really strange thing is that no matter how you go on--how well or how permanently you love, later in life--you never forget. Somehow, the memory doesn't detract from other loves, other places, either; rather, the memory only adds to who you've become.

For me, it was Nina. I think I was all of about 20 years old.

She lived in the room next to mine, my last year in the dorms. She played the strangest music, very loud, at the most ungodly hours.

She had thirteen piercings in her left ear, seven in her right. She wore a lot of black, smoked Virginia Slims, and drove this horrible and enormous green car that she had named; for the life of me, I can't remember what she called it, though. She piloted the thing very fast, and in highly alarming fashion--stomping the accelerator and laughing like a lunatic at the smaller cars and pedestrians scrambling to get out of her path. I mostly clutched the dashboard and the armrest, and tried to seem both relaxed and worldly-wise.

She got me drunk one afternoon, kidnapped me from my advanced symbolic logic class and took me to the mall where she had the top of my left ear pierced.

It was excruciating. I very nearly passed out in the chair right there in the earring kiosk, in fact.

But I still wear a discreet stud through the hole, even now, when I am closer to 40 than to twenty.

To my enduring regret, I never told her how I felt.

Your turn. Tell me about your first love.

Go, Google!

Let me preface this post by saying I'm not particularly an advocate of pornography. I am an advocate of free speech, however. Consenting adults, and all that--sure. It doesn't bother me except in mostly abstract terms about what it means to objectify and sexualize human beings into. . .errr. . .actually, that's another post altogether.

I am staunchly of the belief that child pornography is evil and indefensible. I suspect most of us are of the same mind.

However, does anyone honestly believe that the government really wants millions of records from Google, from two specific months, for the sake of a court-battle over a law struck down in 2004, as unconsitutional? I don't buy it.

Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek, as posted on CRN:

The government initially asked for two sets of data. First, a file containing all "URLs that are available to be located through a query on your company's search engine as of July 31, 2005." Following discussions with Google, this request was narrowed to "a multi-stage random sample of one million URLs."

Second, the government asked for all "queries that have been entered on your company's search engine between June 1, 2005 and July 31, 2005, inclusive."

The DoJ said in the filing: "The production of those materials would be of significant assistance to the Government's preparation of its defense of the constitutionality of this important statute."

In a statement opposing the DoJ demands, Google associate general counsel Nicole Wong said, "Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches. We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously."

John Battelle, an online publishing entrepreneur and author of "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture," expects that the federal government will make more such requests of search engines.

More on the matter, here:

The case worries privacy advocates, given the vast amount of information Google and other search engines know about their users.

"This is exactly the kind of case that privacy advocates have long feared," said Ray Everett-Church, a South Bay privacy consultant. "The idea that these massive databases are being thrown open to anyone with a court document is the worst-case scenario. If they lose this fight, consumers will think twice about letting Google deep into their lives."

Everett-Church, who has consulted with Internet companies facing subpoenas, said Google could argue that releasing the information causes undue harm to its users' privacy.

"The government can't even claim that it's for national security," Everett-Church said. "They're just using it to get the search engines to do their research for them in a way that compromises the civil liberties of other people."

It might behoove us to remember the government--ANY government--exists to serve the needs of the people, and not vice versa. In the wake of the recent NSA wiretapping scandal, this seems indicative of an especially troubling trend.

But then . . . this administration has never seemed all that concerned about the Constitution, anyway.

Tough question

From a NYTimes item about the new Bin Laden tape, this morning:

Vice President Dick Cheney, asked by Fox News about the tape, said it now seemed likely that Mr. bin Laden, whom some had believed dead, was alive. But, the vice president said, Mr. bin Laden has clearly had trouble getting his message out and added, "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

"I think you have to destroy them," he said. "It's the only way to deal with them."

Mr. bin Laden offered the American people a vague truce, saying "both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan." Later in the statement he quotes from a book which calls for an end to what he termed "American interference in the nations of the world."

What do you guys think? What's the right thing to do? How do you interpret this new information?

A sad commentary on American post-secondary education

I offer Cheatingresearch.com, for your jeers, sneers, and general disapproval. These enterprising souls are trying to recruit papers-for-hire from at least one writer's board.

From their website:

There are a number of important steps you need to take in order to ensure that you don’t get caught when you buy a paper.
1. Never admit anything!
2. Only use a custom written paper, pre-written papers are easy for teachers to track down.
3. If you have gotten "D"s all semester, let your writer know. If you get an A+ on the final after a pattern like this, a red flag will be raised in the teacher’s mind. If the teacher does ask why this paper is so much better, just say that you felt badly about how you slacked off in the early part of the course, and really went the extra mile to make up for it with this paper.
4. If you are accused, offer to show the teacher a rough draft of your work. (Don’t expect to get away with it if you buy a paper from a site that doesn’t give you rough drafts.)
5. Only buy papers from companies that check their writers for plagiarism. Many supposedly custom paper companies will sell the same paper over and over, or copy it outright from somewhere else.
6. Make sure that you understand all the words in your paper. If you get a rough draft filled with words you don’t know, tell the writer.
7. Make sure you can briefly state the main argument of the paper and the conclusion.
8. Finally, hold your ground, if you follow all of these steps, there is absolutely no way anyone will be able to prove anything.

Lovely. Just lovely. They even offer a sample essay.

I especially like the way they check their writers for plagiarism. Cuz, ya know, that's just the kind of world we live in. People cheat, if they think they can get away with it, right?

When did students stop thinking of their education as an actual means of improving themselves, but rather an asset or a commodity, to be purchased?

And what the hell kind of unethical asswipes are writing these papers, in the first place?

Thursday's Child*

In honor of Dawno, I'd like to talk a wee bit about Star Trek. My mother was a hard-core fan of the original show, and my baby sis and I watched the syndicated episodes after school every day (at least until my mother gave away the TV set, because my baby sis was refusing to learn to read--but that's another story, entirely.)

My most fervent wish was for a working communicator. I suspect I wasn't alone--in fact, I think we can safely blame our fetish for flip-phones on the fact that we grew up on Star Trek reruns. As for me, I love my Razr with no apologies. It's black and sleek, and has bluetooth that usually works.

I found out too late about THIS; though, Dawno probably has one.

For a mere $25,000, an honest-to-god piece of Captain Kirk has recently...um... changed hands, too. (The proceeds went to charity--kudos to Bill Shatner.)

The coolest thing about Star Trek is the idealistic vision of an future society, constantly encountering quandaries while balancing its egalitarian principles with the realities of both small-scale villainy and large-scale tyranny--all without losing sight of those admirable goals of freedom and equality.

Every time we humans get something right, it gives me that same little surge of hope and optimism. So I was surprised and pleased to see the Vatican newsletter come out with a statement that ID is not science.

Oh, oh! And then there's the safe return of NASA's Stardust!

So we have quite a way to go, before achieving any egalitarian utopian vision. We do try, though. As long as we still try, there's hope, eh?

Happy Thursday, everyone.




* Monday's child is fair of face.
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe.
Thursday's child has far to go. . .

Not sure what this little ditty says about Yesterday's Son, though.

Mixed Feelings

Before I forget, if you've a taste for the slightly skewed, and aren't following Emily Veinglory's Gay Zombie Penguins, you probably should.


I'm a bad lesbian. I have no real desire to see Brokeback Mountain, although I probably will go anyway because Annie Proulx wrote the short story.

I will admit that the apparently deep-seated appeal of slash fic is somehow lost on me. I strongly suspect the good looks of the two young actors in the movie, coupled with the novelty and promise of hot guy-on-guy chemistry, is boosting this movie's popularity far beyond what it might otherwise exhibit. Normally, I'd expect a movie like this to come out low-budget, with complete unknown actors, play a long weekend in the local art-house, then disappear forever.

I'm stunned and impressed that the story--it's a good story, by the way, published in The New Yorker, in 1997--managed to draw such big names.

I worry, however, on a couple of points. I worry that a queer lovestory going so mainstream will serve to create a tempest in a teapot with the idiot far-right, and distract from the fact that we can't marry our long-term partners, file a joint tax-return, or do any number of other little things that straight, married people take completely for granted. I worry that the backlash will serve to distract from the fact that in many states it is completely legal to deny housing or employment on the basis of sexuality. "Look, you got Brokeback Mountain, for chrissakes--you're getting your perversion flaunted right in our faces, so quit yer whinin'!"

I dunno. I could just be paranoid, too.

Then, there's the completely selfish aspect--I don't really want to let the idiot far-right in on queerness. I don't really want them to see the pain and the heart-breaking self-identification battles. I don't really want to share with them that rare, private moment of "oh, my god...this is why I've never quite fit in." It feels too personal. Too private. If I thought it would make a difference for one single second, then perhaps I'd feel differently. These people aren't even going to go see the movie, though--much less experience some sort of epiphany. They'll just use it as so much more ammunition about the "homosexual agenda"--which is not about rubbing anyone's face in anything, by the way; but rather, it's about being able to have a job and an apartment; and about not being beaten nearly to death, tied with your own shoelaces and left to die hanging from a fence . . . all just because you're queer.

I will say, after cruising a handful of message boards to see what was being said about the movie, I'm glad for the sake of the young and enthusiastic newly-gay*, out there. They seem to feel affirmed and, frankly, a bit giddy. As if this movie really is a triumph towards the greater goal of cultural acceptance.

In the long run, I'm afraid, it'll do no such thing.





*Newly-gay being the under thirty-five crowd. After a couple of decades, it gets harder to sustain that level of enthusiasm about your sexuality--probably regardless of gender-preference.

Not that it isn't still fun...

More Rain

26 consecutive days of rain.

There's inches of standing water covering everyone's lawns.
Mine, too.

The sun has gone. This is reality. It has always rained. It is raining now. It will rain every day, forever.

I can't even smoke, anymore. I tried to smoke a cig, and it tasted terrible--sort of like if you burned dirt, mixed with roofing tar and old newspapers.

This sucks.

My laptop is still broken, too. The repair guys are lying to me...I can sense it. "Oh! We were just about to CALL you!"

My ass they were. They weren't going to call me. They didn't even know which laptop was mine. Although, next time, maybe I'll just pay the bill on the one they try to give me, and take my chances...

Did I mention it's our 26th consecutive rainy day?

I feel my mental processes decaying. I don't remember what the sun looks like.

I've been staring at the wall beyond the desktop monitor for a long time. I think the pattern is moving. Now and again, I look away, and look back quick--trying to catch it happening.

I can see the difference. Sometimes I can detect the motion, from the corner of my eye.

Then I look directly at it, and it stops, immediately.




What was the question, again?

AGH! I missed a tag!

I always feel so guilty when that happens...
Sorry 'bout that, Tish!

The meme goes like this:

1. go to your archive
2. find the 23rd post
3. find the 5th sentence
4. post the text of the sentence in a blog entry along with these instruction
5. tag 5 other people

Unfortunately, there aren't five sentences in my 23rd post.

The entirety of that post reads: "No matter HOW bloody smart you think you are, it really DOES help to plot the damn thing first."

Now I'm tagging Jill, Ray, Unique (what the hell happened to your blog?!) Kira and Jason.

A Rant

Recently, an internet acquaintance said something I keep thinking about. Over at AW, HConn said: "I love how the term "PC" became a derogatory term for not insulting people. My father, a construction worker, taught me to be PC, but since the term hadn't been invented then, he called it "having manners," and it was usually accompanied by a dummy slap."

I've thought about that for a couple of days, now. Like you, I'm growing accustomed to the conservative backlash over political correctness. I wince every time I hear "PC" used to denigrate an idea or argument.

Even worse, the accusation that something is PC justifies people who immediately stop listening--do not pass go, do not collect your two hundred bucks. "Oh, that's just so much PC bullshit" is sort of the ultimate ad hominem--attacking not just one speaker, but an entire class of speakers and ideas.

Right over the fucking top is the way the other guys--you know, the ones who hate all things PC with a passion--keep making up bogus stories about imagined out-of-control PC tyranny. The so-called War on Christmas, or how Oakland Schools are going to teach Ebonics instead of English? Total scare-tactic crap, fabricated from bits and pieces lifted out of context and given a wild spin to the right, sent out into the news and onto the web to wreak whatever havoc possible, before finally blowing out.

Philip Atkinson, a UK writer, says of Political Correctness:

"The declared rational of this tyranny is to prevent people being offended; to compel everyone to avoid using words or behaviour that may upset homosexuals, women, non-whites, the crippled, the mentally impaired, the fat or the ugly.

This reveals not only its absurdity but its inspiration. The
set of values that are detested are those held by the previous generation (those who fought the Second World War), which is why the terms niggers, coons, dagos, wogs, poofs, spastics and sheilas, have become heresy, for, in an act of infantile rebellion, their subject have become revered by the new generation. Political Correctness is merely the resentment of spoilt children directed against their parent's values."

Oh. Nice.

People who don't want to be called "nigger" or "coon" are really just spoiled and rebellious children. People who don't want to be called "faggot" or "dyke," ditto. Because the right to call people these names is a dearly-held value of the previous generation, we should all just grow up and accept our lot as inferior beings--subject to whatever derogatory language the more culturally powerful care to place on us.

Because, make no mistake, the act of such marginalizing and name-calling is a clear indication of where the power rests. Don't believe me? Think of three nasty words for people of color. Can you think of three equally familiar terms for white folks? I can't. How about the same experiment for queer and straight?

Don't for a moment think Mr. Atkinson is alone in this specific criticism of all things PC, either.

From a speech given by Bill Lind:

...For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic.

We have seen other countries, particularly in this century, where this has been the case. And we have always regarded them with a mixture of pity, and to be truthful, some amusement, because it has struck us as so strange that people would allow a situation to develop where they would be afraid of what words they used. But we now have this situation in this country. We have it primarily on college campuses, but it is spreading throughout the whole society. Were does it
come from? What is it?

We call it "Political Correctness." The name originated as something of a joke, literally in a comic strip, and we tend still to think of it as only half-serious. In fact, it’s deadly serious. It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead in Europe, in Russia, in China, indeed around the world. It is the disease of ideology. PC is not funny. PC is deadly serious.

If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious.

First of all, both are totalitarian ideologies. The totalitarian nature of Political Correctness is revealed nowhere more clearly than on college campuses, many of which at this point are small ivy covered North Koreas, where the student or faculty member who dares to cross any of the lines set up by the gender feminist or the homosexual-rights activists, or the local black or Hispanic group, or any of the other sainted "victims" groups that PC revolves around, quickly find themselves in judicial trouble. Within the small legal system of the college, they face formal charges – some star-chamber proceeding – and punishment. That is a little look into the future that Political Correctness intends for the nation as a whole.

(Trans: God forbid anyone marginalized should stand up for themselves and demand to be respected. In fact, should they dare to do so, we'll just lump 'em all together and marginalize them even further--plus, any weak-willed, lilly-livered, straight, white, liberals who want to side with 'em can go right on that same boat; we'll sink 'em all together, that way.)

The whole speech rambles on in that vein. Making wild assertions and spectacular and improbably leaps of, uh, "logic."

Interesting that in both of the above anti-PC rants, the group conspicuous by its absence from the list of the marginalized is straight, white, conservative men. With some consideration, I can think one apt pejorative for two specific individuals belonging to that particular class.

Dickheads.

/rant

Umm...well...Hiya!

My beloved laptop is still in the shop, which cuts quite egregiously into my blogging and recreational writing time. Which is just another way of saying I know I've been scarce, and thank you for your patience.

Meanwhile, we're having our 24th consecutive day with measurable precipitation. That's rather a lot, at one stretch. Even for Seattle.

What's up out there? What are you guys doing with your Januaries?