Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
"Rules" for writing?
No wonder the blank page elicits something like constipation for students! Bemused by some teachers' insistence that essay-writing students should never use a first-person pronoun, I found this blurp, whose intention seems to be to lighten up on the rules; yet it introduces scarily rigid tenets - by means of so many unnecessary words that it veers toward opacity. A travesty. You who read this instant protest could prune that blurp down to half its length and make it clearer in the process. And then do the same with this instant protest
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Cuckoo's Song
SUMER is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu—
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu—
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!
- Anonymous (c. 1250 CE)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Oh no! Suleiman's Worse!
Pleasure in torturing "people he doesn't know":
The intelligence chief tapped by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as his vice president and potential successor aided the U.S. with its rendition program, intelligence experts told ABC News, and oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
MORE VIDEO
WATCH: The Egyptian People Celebrate
WATCH: What's Next For Egypt?
WATCH: Into the Heart of Revolution
In the midst of Egypt's protests, Omar Suleiman went on television Monday to say that President Mubarak had ordered him to launch reforms and begin talking to opposition parties. But for the U.S., the CIA, Israel, and Egypt's Islamist opposition, 74-year-old Suleiman, who has been the head of Egyptian intelligence since 1993, represents a continuation of the policies of the old regime.
"Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA. "They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform."
Ron Suskind, author of the book The One Percent Doctrine, called Suleiman the "hit man" for the Mubarak regime. He told ABC News that when the CIA asked Suleiman for a DNA sample from a relative of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Suleiman offered the man's whole arm instead.
"He's a charitable man, friendly," said Suskind. "He tortures only people that he doesn't know."
Suskind said Suleiman "was our point man in Egypt for many years. Everything went through Omar. We never had to talk to anyone else. When we wanted someone to be tortured, we'd send him to Egypt to have them tortured. We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked."
"As chief of the Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Directorate," said John Sifton, who authored the 2007 Human Rights Watch report on torture conducted by Egypt's other intelligence agency, SSI, Suleiman oversaw joint intelligence operations with the CIA and other Arab countries "which featured illegal renditions and tortures of dozens of detainees."
As revealed in U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman has cooperated closely with the U.S. and with Israel in trying to undercut Hamas, the Islamist party in the Palestinian territories. The Mubarak regime views Hamas, which has its roots in Egypt's own Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat.
"Our intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman," says a 2006 U.S. State Department memo, using an alternate spelling of his name, "is now probably the most successful element of the [U.S.-Egypt] relationship." During a 2009 meeting with U.S. military officials, Suleiman said his "overarching regional goal was combating radicalism, especially in Gaza, Iran and Sudan," according to another WikiLeaks cable.
Other U.S. cables describe paranoia within the Mubarak regime, call it a dictatorship, say "torture and police brutality are widespread" -- and that six years ago, Suleiman was already seen as likely to become vice president.
1 | 2NEXT > Go to the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
RELATED
The intelligence chief tapped by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as his vice president and potential successor aided the U.S. with its rendition program, intelligence experts told ABC News, and oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
MORE VIDEO
WATCH: The Egyptian People Celebrate
WATCH: What's Next For Egypt?
WATCH: Into the Heart of Revolution
In the midst of Egypt's protests, Omar Suleiman went on television Monday to say that President Mubarak had ordered him to launch reforms and begin talking to opposition parties. But for the U.S., the CIA, Israel, and Egypt's Islamist opposition, 74-year-old Suleiman, who has been the head of Egyptian intelligence since 1993, represents a continuation of the policies of the old regime.
"Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA. "They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform."
Ron Suskind, author of the book The One Percent Doctrine, called Suleiman the "hit man" for the Mubarak regime. He told ABC News that when the CIA asked Suleiman for a DNA sample from a relative of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Suleiman offered the man's whole arm instead.
"He's a charitable man, friendly," said Suskind. "He tortures only people that he doesn't know."
Suskind said Suleiman "was our point man in Egypt for many years. Everything went through Omar. We never had to talk to anyone else. When we wanted someone to be tortured, we'd send him to Egypt to have them tortured. We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked."
"As chief of the Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Directorate," said John Sifton, who authored the 2007 Human Rights Watch report on torture conducted by Egypt's other intelligence agency, SSI, Suleiman oversaw joint intelligence operations with the CIA and other Arab countries "which featured illegal renditions and tortures of dozens of detainees."
As revealed in U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman has cooperated closely with the U.S. and with Israel in trying to undercut Hamas, the Islamist party in the Palestinian territories. The Mubarak regime views Hamas, which has its roots in Egypt's own Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat.
"Our intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman," says a 2006 U.S. State Department memo, using an alternate spelling of his name, "is now probably the most successful element of the [U.S.-Egypt] relationship." During a 2009 meeting with U.S. military officials, Suleiman said his "overarching regional goal was combating radicalism, especially in Gaza, Iran and Sudan," according to another WikiLeaks cable.
Other U.S. cables describe paranoia within the Mubarak regime, call it a dictatorship, say "torture and police brutality are widespread" -- and that six years ago, Suleiman was already seen as likely to become vice president.
1 | 2NEXT > Go to the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
RELATED
Cairo
In the waning hours before Mubarak's goon squad trod in:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/2/voices_of_the_egyptian_revolution_democracy
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Le Morte D'Arthur XVIII.xxv (spring fever)
CHAPTER XXV
How true love is likened to summer.
AND thus it passed on from Candlemass until after Easter,
that the month of May was come, when every lusty heart
beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like
as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May,
in like wise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover,
springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth
unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May, in
something to constrain him to some manner of thing
more in that month than in any other month, for divers
causes. For then all herbs and trees renew a man and
woman, and likewise lovers call again to their mind old
gentleness and old service, and many kind deeds that
were forgotten by negligence. For like as winter rasure
doth alway arase and deface green summer, so fareth it
by unstable love in man and woman. For in many persons
there is no stability; for we may see all day, for a little
blast of winter's rasure, anon we shall deface and lay apart
true love for little or nought, that cost much thing; this
is no wisdom nor stability, but it is feebleness of nature
and great disworship, whosomever useth this. Therefore,
like as May month flowereth and flourisheth in many
gardens, so in like wise let every man of worship flourish
his heart in this world, first unto God, and next unto the
joy of them that he promised his faith unto; for there
was never worshipful man or worshipful woman, but
they loved one better than another; and worship in arms
may never be foiled, but first reserve the honour to God,
and secondly the quarrel must come of thy lady: and
such love I call virtuous love.
But nowadays men can not love seven night but they
must have all their desires: that love may not endure by
reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty heat,
soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot
soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not
so; men and women could love together seven years, and
no licours lusts were between them, and then was love,
truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in like wise was used love
in King Arthur's days. Wherefore I liken love nowadays
unto summer and winter; for like as the one is hot and the
other cold, so fareth love nowadays; therefore all ye that
be lovers call unto your remembrance the month of May,
like as did Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little
mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and
therefore she had a good end.
How true love is likened to summer.
AND thus it passed on from Candlemass until after Easter,
that the month of May was come, when every lusty heart
beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like
as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May,
in like wise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover,
springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth
unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May, in
something to constrain him to some manner of thing
more in that month than in any other month, for divers
causes. For then all herbs and trees renew a man and
woman, and likewise lovers call again to their mind old
gentleness and old service, and many kind deeds that
were forgotten by negligence. For like as winter rasure
doth alway arase and deface green summer, so fareth it
by unstable love in man and woman. For in many persons
there is no stability; for we may see all day, for a little
blast of winter's rasure, anon we shall deface and lay apart
true love for little or nought, that cost much thing; this
is no wisdom nor stability, but it is feebleness of nature
and great disworship, whosomever useth this. Therefore,
like as May month flowereth and flourisheth in many
gardens, so in like wise let every man of worship flourish
his heart in this world, first unto God, and next unto the
joy of them that he promised his faith unto; for there
was never worshipful man or worshipful woman, but
they loved one better than another; and worship in arms
may never be foiled, but first reserve the honour to God,
and secondly the quarrel must come of thy lady: and
such love I call virtuous love.
But nowadays men can not love seven night but they
must have all their desires: that love may not endure by
reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty heat,
soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot
soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not
so; men and women could love together seven years, and
no licours lusts were between them, and then was love,
truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in like wise was used love
in King Arthur's days. Wherefore I liken love nowadays
unto summer and winter; for like as the one is hot and the
other cold, so fareth love nowadays; therefore all ye that
be lovers call unto your remembrance the month of May,
like as did Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little
mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and
therefore she had a good end.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
No Time
This is no time for Celebration / this is no time for Shaking Heads / this is no time for Backslapping / this is no time for Marching Bands / this no time for Optimism / this is no time for Endless Thought / this is no time for my country Right or Wrong / remember what that brought - Lou Reed
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Eminem at Yale; 2001 - 2002
Rapper Eminem Joins Yale Faculty
"Real Slim Shady" to Teach Beowulf, Chaucer
NEW HAVEN, CONN. - Yale president Dr. Richard Levin ended weeks of media speculation yesterday when he confirmed that rapper Eminem will teach at the prestigious university this fall.
According to Dr. Levin, the controversial Detroit-based vocalist will lecture in Anglo-Saxon and old English poetry, with a focus on Beowulf, a work that Levin described as "a popular Medieval epic."
"We’re very excited that Mr. Eminem is joining the Yale family," Levin stated at a press conference. "The faculty feel they just aren’t reaching the students these days, that we aren’t even speaking the same language any more. We finally decided that a culture change is required, and one day Mr. Eminem’s name came up. I warmed to the idea right away. Having a star of Mr. Eminem’s caliber on campus will prove to our young people that school’s still cool, if you will; that literature professors aren’t just a bunch of swinging dicks with our noses stuck in old books."
"Solid," commented an unnamed journalist. "Shit sounds like the bomb, Professor."
"Word," replied Levin. "Very much so."
When asked if he believed Eminem’s own assertion that he is the "real" Slim Shady, Dr. Levin hesitated. "Based on the facts I have, yes, I think he is. His look is brutal, his rhymes are bad as shit, and he rocks all the bitches, all the time." When pressed on the issue, Levin would only say that, "If there’s a truer Slim Shady in all of academia, I certainly haven’t met him."
Levin refused to comment extensively on Eminem’s recent legal troubles. The entertainer is alleged to have assaulted a man he believed was getting jiggy with his old lady.
In Levin’s words, "The only information I have about the incident is that which Mr. Eminem himself gave me." When asked to elaborate, Dr. Levin replied, "Well, he was all, 'I was pissed off! I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real.'" Levin paused, then added, "And besides, as we all know, Money’s hookahs be his own damn bid’ness."
Eminem himself was not available for comment at press time. Roger Carlisle, legal counsel for the embattled superstar, issued the following statement: "Mr. Eminem looks forward to sharing his passion for Anglo-Saxon verse with the gifted young minds at Yale. He's amped. He’s into it. His shit is tight."
The university later released the following sample from Eminem’s fall lecture notes on Beowulf:
Book One: The Hall Heorot is Attacked by Grendel
His name is Grendel, that evil bitch
Switch cocked a hit to the Hall Heorot
Its not a Hall for him, that son of Cain
But, slain he did about thirty Danes.
Book Two: The Coming of Beowulf to Heorot
"Punk ass mofo cocked his fist to my boys,"
Spoke Hygelac to Beowulf (whom he employs)
[In a manner of speaking, it was Hygelac who sought revenge, and thus in turn hired his bravest soldier Of the Danish Army, Beowulf, and then, at his behest, Beowulf did set sail to Heorot.]
Book Three: The Feast at Heorot
Brothers be feastin’ like a herd of Nell Carters
In comes Unferth talkin’ bout the waters--
How our main nigga Wulf lost a snap to Brecca,
Heck yeah, but now Wulf’s betta, spit em out like feta,
Cheese, put you on your knees, beggin, "Oh please,
Go find Grendel."
Book Four: The Fight with Grendel
Pump, pump goes Wulfie, throw up your hands, stand, in the air
I got clout, gonna take you out, spout, your blood
Buck, buck you down, Grendel, down like Skylab:
Down like feathers, Lewinsky, and mad TAB.
Book Five: Celebration at Heorot
Sup, Sup for da killah, cold chowin’ wid his boys
Got Sigemund, not Freud, dragon couldn’t avoid
His sword, got Hrothgar there givin’ props to Beo,
"You gotta new Daddy now--I’m takin’ charge like Baio!"
Book Six: Grendel’s Mother Attacks
"I’m Grendel’s mother, yes I’m the real mutha
All those other Grendel’s muthas are just undercover
So won’t the real Grendel’s mother please stand up? Please stand up! Please stand up!"
This Grendel’s mother was a tough-ass ho
Like my main dudes from Hazard, Luke and Bo
Slice the Danes like Velveeta, thick and cheesy
She got Ginsu on the ass of the great man Aschere.
Book Seven: Beowulf Attacks Grendel’s Mother
Bitch be flipped like Wilson, like a flapjack on Sunday
Beowulf, his sword Hrunting
Go hunting, bitch punting
Drop momma to the mat like my boy Max Schmelling
But his trusty sword’s limp, like Philip K’s dick,
So he grabs another blade and runs it through her quick.
Book Eight: Further Celebration at Heorot
"Give props to Allah, Lord God Mighty,
He’s tidy, mighty fine, he’s guzzlin’ down Shasta
Through the portals of Time."
Book Nine: Beowulf Returns Home
Welcomed back to the hood
Like comin’ back from Desert Storm
All the hussies in the house be feelin’ up his form.
Spake the hero: "I cleaned house like Pledge, like Florence, like Hazel
I’m the quicker picker upper from the planet Fatal."
Book Ten: Beowulf and the Dragon
Dear Diary, Fifty years gone by and I’ve not a thing to complain about. Really, all has been quite fine. But what’s this. . .?
Book Eleven: Beowulf Attacks the Dragon
Fire-breathin’, scaly-demon, no-money lizard
Settin’ things ablaze like a cheap-ass Mr. Wizard
Wulfie grabs the mike, tips his cap to the ladies,
Starts talking smack to reptilian Slim Shady:
"Step back, man; ain’t got no Fate, man.
But when I grab the mike I rock a phat jam."
[The dragon, puzzled at the absence of both mike and ladies, continues along his path of wanton Destruction until Beowulf’s kinsman Wiglaf intervenes.]
"Yo yo yo, I’m krazy-ass Wiglaf,
Fightin’ dragons to the death, so you can just kiss off."
But Wulf’s fucked up, he’s wounded and bleeding;
Wig busts a cap into the ass of the seething.
Book Twelve: Beowulf’s Funeral
They torched Wulf’s body like it was Hester Prynn
Shipped him out to sea cuz he couldn’t swim.
And that be the end of brave Beowulf--huh!
Massive props to that nigga: he was full-on nutz.
Home > Eminem to Teach at Yale
"Real Slim Shady" to Teach Beowulf, Chaucer
NEW HAVEN, CONN. - Yale president Dr. Richard Levin ended weeks of media speculation yesterday when he confirmed that rapper Eminem will teach at the prestigious university this fall.
According to Dr. Levin, the controversial Detroit-based vocalist will lecture in Anglo-Saxon and old English poetry, with a focus on Beowulf, a work that Levin described as "a popular Medieval epic."
"We’re very excited that Mr. Eminem is joining the Yale family," Levin stated at a press conference. "The faculty feel they just aren’t reaching the students these days, that we aren’t even speaking the same language any more. We finally decided that a culture change is required, and one day Mr. Eminem’s name came up. I warmed to the idea right away. Having a star of Mr. Eminem’s caliber on campus will prove to our young people that school’s still cool, if you will; that literature professors aren’t just a bunch of swinging dicks with our noses stuck in old books."
"Solid," commented an unnamed journalist. "Shit sounds like the bomb, Professor."
"Word," replied Levin. "Very much so."
When asked if he believed Eminem’s own assertion that he is the "real" Slim Shady, Dr. Levin hesitated. "Based on the facts I have, yes, I think he is. His look is brutal, his rhymes are bad as shit, and he rocks all the bitches, all the time." When pressed on the issue, Levin would only say that, "If there’s a truer Slim Shady in all of academia, I certainly haven’t met him."
Levin refused to comment extensively on Eminem’s recent legal troubles. The entertainer is alleged to have assaulted a man he believed was getting jiggy with his old lady.
In Levin’s words, "The only information I have about the incident is that which Mr. Eminem himself gave me." When asked to elaborate, Dr. Levin replied, "Well, he was all, 'I was pissed off! I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real.'" Levin paused, then added, "And besides, as we all know, Money’s hookahs be his own damn bid’ness."
Eminem himself was not available for comment at press time. Roger Carlisle, legal counsel for the embattled superstar, issued the following statement: "Mr. Eminem looks forward to sharing his passion for Anglo-Saxon verse with the gifted young minds at Yale. He's amped. He’s into it. His shit is tight."
The university later released the following sample from Eminem’s fall lecture notes on Beowulf:
Book One: The Hall Heorot is Attacked by Grendel
His name is Grendel, that evil bitch
Switch cocked a hit to the Hall Heorot
Its not a Hall for him, that son of Cain
But, slain he did about thirty Danes.
Book Two: The Coming of Beowulf to Heorot
"Punk ass mofo cocked his fist to my boys,"
Spoke Hygelac to Beowulf (whom he employs)
[In a manner of speaking, it was Hygelac who sought revenge, and thus in turn hired his bravest soldier Of the Danish Army, Beowulf, and then, at his behest, Beowulf did set sail to Heorot.]
Book Three: The Feast at Heorot
Brothers be feastin’ like a herd of Nell Carters
In comes Unferth talkin’ bout the waters--
How our main nigga Wulf lost a snap to Brecca,
Heck yeah, but now Wulf’s betta, spit em out like feta,
Cheese, put you on your knees, beggin, "Oh please,
Go find Grendel."
Book Four: The Fight with Grendel
Pump, pump goes Wulfie, throw up your hands, stand, in the air
I got clout, gonna take you out, spout, your blood
Buck, buck you down, Grendel, down like Skylab:
Down like feathers, Lewinsky, and mad TAB.
Book Five: Celebration at Heorot
Sup, Sup for da killah, cold chowin’ wid his boys
Got Sigemund, not Freud, dragon couldn’t avoid
His sword, got Hrothgar there givin’ props to Beo,
"You gotta new Daddy now--I’m takin’ charge like Baio!"
Book Six: Grendel’s Mother Attacks
"I’m Grendel’s mother, yes I’m the real mutha
All those other Grendel’s muthas are just undercover
So won’t the real Grendel’s mother please stand up? Please stand up! Please stand up!"
This Grendel’s mother was a tough-ass ho
Like my main dudes from Hazard, Luke and Bo
Slice the Danes like Velveeta, thick and cheesy
She got Ginsu on the ass of the great man Aschere.
Book Seven: Beowulf Attacks Grendel’s Mother
Bitch be flipped like Wilson, like a flapjack on Sunday
Beowulf, his sword Hrunting
Go hunting, bitch punting
Drop momma to the mat like my boy Max Schmelling
But his trusty sword’s limp, like Philip K’s dick,
So he grabs another blade and runs it through her quick.
Book Eight: Further Celebration at Heorot
"Give props to Allah, Lord God Mighty,
He’s tidy, mighty fine, he’s guzzlin’ down Shasta
Through the portals of Time."
Book Nine: Beowulf Returns Home
Welcomed back to the hood
Like comin’ back from Desert Storm
All the hussies in the house be feelin’ up his form.
Spake the hero: "I cleaned house like Pledge, like Florence, like Hazel
I’m the quicker picker upper from the planet Fatal."
Book Ten: Beowulf and the Dragon
Dear Diary, Fifty years gone by and I’ve not a thing to complain about. Really, all has been quite fine. But what’s this. . .?
Book Eleven: Beowulf Attacks the Dragon
Fire-breathin’, scaly-demon, no-money lizard
Settin’ things ablaze like a cheap-ass Mr. Wizard
Wulfie grabs the mike, tips his cap to the ladies,
Starts talking smack to reptilian Slim Shady:
"Step back, man; ain’t got no Fate, man.
But when I grab the mike I rock a phat jam."
[The dragon, puzzled at the absence of both mike and ladies, continues along his path of wanton Destruction until Beowulf’s kinsman Wiglaf intervenes.]
"Yo yo yo, I’m krazy-ass Wiglaf,
Fightin’ dragons to the death, so you can just kiss off."
But Wulf’s fucked up, he’s wounded and bleeding;
Wig busts a cap into the ass of the seething.
Book Twelve: Beowulf’s Funeral
They torched Wulf’s body like it was Hester Prynn
Shipped him out to sea cuz he couldn’t swim.
And that be the end of brave Beowulf--huh!
Massive props to that nigga: he was full-on nutz.
Home > Eminem to Teach at Yale
Monday, August 16, 2010
Historical Relativism
Glenn Beck and Our 'Stolen' History
How is it that one set of people know for sure what it means to 'take America back'?
By THOMAS FRANK
Text
Over the past few months, I've tried to have fun pointing out the historical bumbling of public figures great and small. I have reminded Sen. Jim DeMint that the economies of western Europe boomed after World War II and did not decline "into economic stagnation," even though he thought they should have because of their embrace of socialism. I broke the news to Rand Paul, erstwhile messenger of today's tea party movement, that the original Boston Tea Party was ablaze with "criticism of business," and I took a look at the syllabus of errors being drawn up by the Texas State Board of Education.
Our heroes may be flunking history, but it's not because they don't care for the subject. It's because they love it so.
These days, people wear three-cornered hats to protest meetings and, according to an account in Sunday's Washington Post, try to enlist the support of the George Washington impersonator at Colonial Williamsburg for the tea party rebellion. Mr. DeMint's bestselling book, "Saving Freedom," includes in its pages both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Joseph Farah's "Tea Party Manifesto" does the same. "Glenn Beck's Common Sense," written by the Fox News personality himself, includes the text of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet of the same name.
In one sense, our historical mania is nothing new. Americans have argued over the meaning of the American revolution since the day it ended. As Harvard historian Jill Lepore reminded me when I talked to her a few days ago, both Whigs and Jacksonians grabbed for the mantle of the Founders, as did Confederates and Unionists during the Civil War. So did the New Left in the 1960s. Claiming some special kinship with the revolutionary generation is simply what American political actors do. It is the oldest game in the book.
What distinguishes the current revival of interest in revolutionary times, according to Ms. Lepore, whose book about the tea party and history will be published this fall, is "historical fundamentalism." It's a way of understanding the past as "an incontrovertible argument. There is a narrowly defined past that is sacred to us as Americans." We have special historical documents, which "can be read as scripture. They come alive for us the way we need them to come alive. They cross time."
View Full Image
Associated Press
T.V. host Glenn Beck
But to these fundamentalists comes the inevitable question: Why do so many others disagree with them? How is it that one set of people knows for sure what it means to "take America back" but another set keeps contradicting them?
Glenn Beck has the answer: It's because "our history is being stolen from us," as he announced on his program a month ago.
"Progressives have been changing history for about 100 years," the entertainer intoned, sitting next to a pile of textbooks. "They knew they had to separate us from our history to be able to separate us from our Constitution and God."
Besides, history is simply too important to be left to historians. For one thing, as Mr. Beck charged on another occasion, historians are biased: "See, what happened is, historians have been going back and trying to piece things together and bring in their own ideas instead of going back to the original sources, and that's really the problem."
But in Mr. Beck's monologues, I guess, no opinions ever intrude. He gives us the fundamentals. All is presented as we know it must have been.
And so we attend to Mr. Beck's nightly lectures, with his famous chalkboard standing by to lend scholarly gravitas. We sign up for what the entertainer calls Beck University, where learning is divided into three rubrics: Faith, Hope and Charity, each discipline assigned a particular founding father as avatar.
But between the history-mindedness of the right and that of the left-wing radicals they despise, writes Boston College historian John Summers in a recent issue of the New Republic, there is a curious kinship. "Everyone today wants their country back, by way of their own, 'alternative' history," Mr. Summers writes.
So too with the right's understanding of high-school textbooks as collections of radical lies, which is a sort of faith-based inversion of a longstanding left-wing complaint. "If you look at the textbooks," says James Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me," an influential account of high school textbooks, "they basically portray an America that never did anything wrong, and if it did do anything wrong, it was an innocent mistake."
Our ideal image of the past obscures reality, and our desire to understand patriotism as an act of daring—subject to persecution, even—easily overwhelms the fact of anodyne, patriotic textbooks. We hold the most conventional views, but we imagine ourselves to be rebels for holding them. And so we sign up for a course in Faith, embracing this baseline rule of the new history: Wishing is what makes it so.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703545604575407622878300804.html
How is it that one set of people know for sure what it means to 'take America back'?
By THOMAS FRANK
Text
Over the past few months, I've tried to have fun pointing out the historical bumbling of public figures great and small. I have reminded Sen. Jim DeMint that the economies of western Europe boomed after World War II and did not decline "into economic stagnation," even though he thought they should have because of their embrace of socialism. I broke the news to Rand Paul, erstwhile messenger of today's tea party movement, that the original Boston Tea Party was ablaze with "criticism of business," and I took a look at the syllabus of errors being drawn up by the Texas State Board of Education.
Our heroes may be flunking history, but it's not because they don't care for the subject. It's because they love it so.
These days, people wear three-cornered hats to protest meetings and, according to an account in Sunday's Washington Post, try to enlist the support of the George Washington impersonator at Colonial Williamsburg for the tea party rebellion. Mr. DeMint's bestselling book, "Saving Freedom," includes in its pages both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Joseph Farah's "Tea Party Manifesto" does the same. "Glenn Beck's Common Sense," written by the Fox News personality himself, includes the text of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet of the same name.
In one sense, our historical mania is nothing new. Americans have argued over the meaning of the American revolution since the day it ended. As Harvard historian Jill Lepore reminded me when I talked to her a few days ago, both Whigs and Jacksonians grabbed for the mantle of the Founders, as did Confederates and Unionists during the Civil War. So did the New Left in the 1960s. Claiming some special kinship with the revolutionary generation is simply what American political actors do. It is the oldest game in the book.
What distinguishes the current revival of interest in revolutionary times, according to Ms. Lepore, whose book about the tea party and history will be published this fall, is "historical fundamentalism." It's a way of understanding the past as "an incontrovertible argument. There is a narrowly defined past that is sacred to us as Americans." We have special historical documents, which "can be read as scripture. They come alive for us the way we need them to come alive. They cross time."
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Associated Press
T.V. host Glenn Beck
But to these fundamentalists comes the inevitable question: Why do so many others disagree with them? How is it that one set of people knows for sure what it means to "take America back" but another set keeps contradicting them?
Glenn Beck has the answer: It's because "our history is being stolen from us," as he announced on his program a month ago.
"Progressives have been changing history for about 100 years," the entertainer intoned, sitting next to a pile of textbooks. "They knew they had to separate us from our history to be able to separate us from our Constitution and God."
Besides, history is simply too important to be left to historians. For one thing, as Mr. Beck charged on another occasion, historians are biased: "See, what happened is, historians have been going back and trying to piece things together and bring in their own ideas instead of going back to the original sources, and that's really the problem."
But in Mr. Beck's monologues, I guess, no opinions ever intrude. He gives us the fundamentals. All is presented as we know it must have been.
And so we attend to Mr. Beck's nightly lectures, with his famous chalkboard standing by to lend scholarly gravitas. We sign up for what the entertainer calls Beck University, where learning is divided into three rubrics: Faith, Hope and Charity, each discipline assigned a particular founding father as avatar.
But between the history-mindedness of the right and that of the left-wing radicals they despise, writes Boston College historian John Summers in a recent issue of the New Republic, there is a curious kinship. "Everyone today wants their country back, by way of their own, 'alternative' history," Mr. Summers writes.
So too with the right's understanding of high-school textbooks as collections of radical lies, which is a sort of faith-based inversion of a longstanding left-wing complaint. "If you look at the textbooks," says James Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me," an influential account of high school textbooks, "they basically portray an America that never did anything wrong, and if it did do anything wrong, it was an innocent mistake."
Our ideal image of the past obscures reality, and our desire to understand patriotism as an act of daring—subject to persecution, even—easily overwhelms the fact of anodyne, patriotic textbooks. We hold the most conventional views, but we imagine ourselves to be rebels for holding them. And so we sign up for a course in Faith, embracing this baseline rule of the new history: Wishing is what makes it so.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703545604575407622878300804.html
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
from STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, Chapter XIV
In Laputa, according go Lemuel Gulliver, no person of importance listened or spoke without help of a "climatole" - or "flapper" in English translation, as such servant's duty was to flap the ears of his master with a bladder whenever, in the opinion of the servant, it was desirable for his master to speak or listen. Without the consent of the flapper it was impossible to converse with any Laputian of the master class
The flapper system was unknown on Mars. Martian Old Ones would have as little use for flappers as a snake has for shoes. Martians still corporate [in this life body] could have used flappers but did not; the concept ran contrary to their way of living.
A Martian needing a few minutes or years of contemplation simply took it; if a friend wished to speak with him, the friend would wait. With eternity to draw on there could be no reason for hurrying - "hurry" was not a concept in Martian. Speed, velocity, simultaneity, acceleration, and other abstractions of the pattern of eternity were part of Martian mathematics, but not of Martian emotion.
Contrariwise, the unceasing rush of human existence came not from mathematical necessities of time but from the frantic urgency implicit in human sexual bipolarity.
- Robert A. Heinlein, SINASL, (New York: Ace Books, 1961) 128-129.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
If you see something, say something
Bradley Manning said something:
Defend Bradley Manning! Facing 52 years for sharing video
By Courage to Resist. July 14, 2010
“From what I’ve heard of (Pfc. Bradley) Manning, he is a new hero of mine.” —Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Army charge sheet (PDF)
In April, the Wikileaks website released a video depicting a US helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed eleven unarmed Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters employees, and seriously wounded two children. Titled “Collateral Murder”, the video was widely posted and reported on.
Last week, the Army charged 22-year-old intelligence analyst Pfc. Bradley Manning with providing the video after he allegedly took credit for doing so online. For the past month, he has been held in isolation from supporters and civilian legal assistance in a US military confinement facility in Kuwait.
The Potomac, Maryland native was charged with two counts of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The first encompasses eight alleged criminal offenses, and a second covers four noncriminal violations of Army regulations governing the handling of classified information and computers. According to the Army, the “classified video of a military operation in Iraq was transmitted to a third party, in violation of a section of the Espionage Act, 18 USC 793(e),” which involves passing classified information to an uncleared party, but not a foreign government. He allegedly also provided Wikileaks with 50 classified diplomatic cables that are thought to contain embarrassing insights into the state of the US occupation of Iraq.
News articles initially reported that the Iceland-based Wikileaks website intended to provide Bradley Manning with a legal defense team. However, the Army has so far blocked all communications with the soldier. Meanwhile, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Eric Bloom has gone on record to deny that the isolation even exists.
It is possible that the Army prosecutors, in collaboration with an appointed military JAG “defense” lawyer, are using this time to pressure Bradley into accepting a plea bargain that will send him to prison for many years—but less than the threatened 52 years.
Courage to Resist, along with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Veterans for Peace, is launching an effort to support Bradley Manning. We know other concerned organizations and individuals around the world who are also in the process of finding ways to support Bradley Manning, and we expect to collaborate when possible. These include advocates for whistle-blowers and supporters of the freedom of information.
Writing a letter to Bradley is one step in attempting to break his isolation. Mail to: Inmate Bradley Manning; TFCF (Theater Field Confinement Facility); APO AE 09366; USA
A public letter of support, including initial signatures, will soon be available at couragetoresist.org. You’ll be able to add your name, and we’ll send the message by postal mail on your behalf to President Obama and the Department of the Army.
Since it is unknown if the unidentified Wikileaks lawyers plan any further efforts on Pfc. Manning’s behalf, it is possible that we may need to take responsibility for providing Bradley Manning with qualified civilian legal representation with military court martial experience who are willing to travel to Kuwait to do so. If so, the legal expenses would also include the need for expert witnesses. We may need to recruit a lawyer to travel to Kuwait to simply speak with Bradley to inform him of the support available to him. If it comes to that, Courage to Resist will ask supporters to donate funds earmarked for that purpose.
On July 11, in order to kick off this effort, nearly 100 participants at the 6th annual IVAW national convention in Austin, Texas—including retired Army Colonel Ann Wright—issued a call for Pfc. Bradley Manning to be allowed communication with civilian lawyers, and that he be released from confinement.
There is plenty of intrigue swirling around Bradley’s case, from Lady Gaga to the role of international hackers. However, in the middle of all that stands a young man who made a heroic choice to expose the crimes being committed in our names. We’ll do whatever possible to support him.
By Courage to Resist. July 14, 2010
“From what I’ve heard of (Pfc. Bradley) Manning, he is a new hero of mine.” —Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Army charge sheet (PDF)
In April, the Wikileaks website released a video depicting a US helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed eleven unarmed Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters employees, and seriously wounded two children. Titled “Collateral Murder”, the video was widely posted and reported on.
Last week, the Army charged 22-year-old intelligence analyst Pfc. Bradley Manning with providing the video after he allegedly took credit for doing so online. For the past month, he has been held in isolation from supporters and civilian legal assistance in a US military confinement facility in Kuwait.
The Potomac, Maryland native was charged with two counts of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The first encompasses eight alleged criminal offenses, and a second covers four noncriminal violations of Army regulations governing the handling of classified information and computers. According to the Army, the “classified video of a military operation in Iraq was transmitted to a third party, in violation of a section of the Espionage Act, 18 USC 793(e),” which involves passing classified information to an uncleared party, but not a foreign government. He allegedly also provided Wikileaks with 50 classified diplomatic cables that are thought to contain embarrassing insights into the state of the US occupation of Iraq.
News articles initially reported that the Iceland-based Wikileaks website intended to provide Bradley Manning with a legal defense team. However, the Army has so far blocked all communications with the soldier. Meanwhile, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Eric Bloom has gone on record to deny that the isolation even exists.
It is possible that the Army prosecutors, in collaboration with an appointed military JAG “defense” lawyer, are using this time to pressure Bradley into accepting a plea bargain that will send him to prison for many years—but less than the threatened 52 years.
Courage to Resist, along with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Veterans for Peace, is launching an effort to support Bradley Manning. We know other concerned organizations and individuals around the world who are also in the process of finding ways to support Bradley Manning, and we expect to collaborate when possible. These include advocates for whistle-blowers and supporters of the freedom of information.
Writing a letter to Bradley is one step in attempting to break his isolation. Mail to: Inmate Bradley Manning; TFCF (Theater Field Confinement Facility); APO AE 09366; USA
A public letter of support, including initial signatures, will soon be available at couragetoresist.org. You’ll be able to add your name, and we’ll send the message by postal mail on your behalf to President Obama and the Department of the Army.
Since it is unknown if the unidentified Wikileaks lawyers plan any further efforts on Pfc. Manning’s behalf, it is possible that we may need to take responsibility for providing Bradley Manning with qualified civilian legal representation with military court martial experience who are willing to travel to Kuwait to do so. If so, the legal expenses would also include the need for expert witnesses. We may need to recruit a lawyer to travel to Kuwait to simply speak with Bradley to inform him of the support available to him. If it comes to that, Courage to Resist will ask supporters to donate funds earmarked for that purpose.
On July 11, in order to kick off this effort, nearly 100 participants at the 6th annual IVAW national convention in Austin, Texas—including retired Army Colonel Ann Wright—issued a call for Pfc. Bradley Manning to be allowed communication with civilian lawyers, and that he be released from confinement.
There is plenty of intrigue swirling around Bradley’s case, from Lady Gaga to the role of international hackers. However, in the middle of all that stands a young man who made a heroic choice to expose the crimes being committed in our names. We’ll do whatever possible to support him.
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