April 2003 Archives

So I bit and downloaded iTunes 4 and started playing around with it. Haven't ordered anything yet, but I'm sure I will — it's too temptingly easy not to. And fast! (If you have a broadband connection, anyway.)

But there is one teensy fly in the ointment... their categorization system.

Celine Dion, I regret to inform Apple, is not World Music. Nor is Yo Yo Ma a Latin performer. I don't really consider Irving Berlin an Opera composer. Oh, he's not — it's just that his songs were performed by Kiri Te Kanawa. (Update: Suicidal Tendences? Hip hop? Shurely not.)

Also, in their Soundtrack section, they have several items with artist names like "Original 1953 Broadway Cast", "Original Broadway Cast", and "Original Nashville Cast". That may not be useful information, but I don't know how other record stores deal with it. Probably the same way — it just seems more glaring here, since apparently you have to browse by artist before you browse by album.

Still, it's all pretty darn cool, and it's only the first couple of days.

So still no condemnation of his remarks. In fact, the White House calls him "inclusive" and has issued a gag order to prevent anything but supportive comments. The troglodytes are alive and well and living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. (What is it with Pennsylvania?)

While it's great that Saddam is out of power, and we even get to leave Saudi Arabia, it's still not clear that there was an urgent reason to invade Iraq. (And shooting protesters isn't going to play well on TV or anywhere else.)

Meantime... did the administration stretch the truth or even outright lie in order to justify this war? Even some supporters are starting to wonder.

--> www.nytimes.com/2003/04/29/opinion/29KRUG.html
--> www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,945381,00.html

So KALX was playing a bunch of Nina Simone songs, and there was one called "Sealion Woman" that I thought was cool. It was apparently a remix from Japan. Searching online, didn't get more details on it, but did find this station in New York state that has RealAudio archives of their shows, including one with that song (not the Japan remix)

--> This is the DJ's playlist page... I'm listening to the March 29 show: www.wfmu.org/playlists/BB

I guess some time ago I signed up for a mailing list for law librarians. I forgot about this list, because I'd stopped getting mail from it... but somehow, spammers have discovered it. Guess they don't know it's defunct.

Thus, today I received the following masterpiece of marketing.

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The detail pleases enter: http://mere.cn.gs/kqwins

I'd say, the real intelligence arranges a good translator (and doesn't spam all and sundry). But hey, that's just me.

So I made this very sick get-well card for a friend... and couldn't resist sharing it with the world. (Maybe I've been reading too many of my old Bloom County books.)

I love Photoshop, ClipArt.com, and Google Image Search. I hope that nobody sues me.

American Crusade 2001 trading cards, a great (and disturbing!) parody of the "Iraq's Most Wanted" deck of cards.

Was talking to a friend who had heard comparisons of Bush's contentious winning of the presidency to Hitler's rise to power. So I did a quick search online and found this. This guy has been writing an online history book. (Click on his biography too — what a crazy life!)

So everyone's talking about Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, because he gave an interview with Associated Press and basically lumped homosexuality in with infidelity and incest. It's my considered opinion that he's a big old jerk and should resign, and the Republican party should have a good think about why these bigots seem to be so common in their ranks, and what they are doing to encourage, rather than discourage, such bigotry. Weren't they supposed to be all about freedom and the government not telling you what to do?

Anyway, the interview itself is interesting. His most oft-quoted line is the one that got him in hot water. The full paragraph was this:

"We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does."

Gee, that's funny — I agree that sodomy laws undermind the basic tenets of our society and the family too! Oh, wait, he's talking about sodomy, not the laws against it. Darn. (Guess he took elocution lessons from President Bush.)

He's an imaginative fellow, too. This is my favorite part of the interview, personally:

Santorum: Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

For some reason, that exchange really made my day.

Updated April 23: Now the fellow is claiming that his comments were taken out of context... but he still says the law backs him up. Lovely. And the White House still won't criticize him for it.

This author says that Bush has his work cut out for him if he wants to get reelected — while the war was a success (by his terms anyway) his domestic agenda isn't doing so well, and neither is the American economy. As such, he's vulnerable to the threat of becoming a one-term president like his father.

But...

"Bush is a different animal from his father and three things could stop history repeating itself. The first is the Democrats. The prospect of getting rid of Bush will energise many Democrats but the nine who have put themselves forward so far have either failed to capture the popular imagination or simply have little hope of getting elected. The front-runner in the polls, John Kerry, has flip-flopped on the war and comes across as uptight. The front-runner in the money-raising stakes, John Edwards, is too rightwing and inexperienced. There is not one of them who is likely to win who could bellow: "That ain't right", even if they wanted to."

I consider myself warned.

--> www.guardian.co.uk/comment/ story/0,3604,940367,00.html

He starts off saying that he misses Ronald Reagan. But don't stop reading there!

"Forces that first assembled and ideas that first appeared during Reagan's presidency have now had two decades to develop -- to grow more powerful and more marginal simultaneously. That is one reason why Bush is so dangerous now. Policies that were but twinkles in the Reaganites' eyes -- a war on the mixed economy and the multilateral world order -- have reappeared fully grown in Bush's presidency.

"What Bush seems determined to extirpate are the basic forms of common security in America. His particular targets seem disproportionately the handiwork of years ending in "5." From 1965, there's Medicare, which he seeks to subordinate to the pay-as-you-can calculus of HMOs; from 1945, there's the United Nations and the whole structure of postwar alliances, which he seeks to subordinate to an imperial America freed from international laws and treaties; from 1935, there's Social Security, which he still seeks to privatize, and the Wagner Act, whose pro-labor tilt he seeks to obliterate in his tax policy.

"Underpinning these assaults is a decided preference for a more social (and international) Darwinistic order -- though in this uniquely Old Testament White House, Darwinism is the love whose name cannot be spoken."

--> www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7616

So, for some reason, I've started getting lots of spam at my home email address (don't know if a filter stopped working, or my email address got scooped off my website, or what). I usually just delete them, but for some reason, the subject heading of this one stopped me in my tracks:

Bah, Bah... Best Farm Sex s1te 0n the NET

"Best Farm Sex S1te"? What, you mean there's more than one? Is there a competition with the category of Farm Sex Site? (and one for "best creative spelling?" or one for websites not on the net?) Is there an awards ceremony? What's the prize? Do the webmasters get up there and give speeches?

"And I'd like to thank my parents, and most of all, my sidekick, um, Daisy*, here. I can honestly say that I wouldn't have gotten to my present position without her."

OK, I'm deleting that message now. Disturbing...

*What do you mean, you've never seen Woody Allen's Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask!?!?

So, she died today, at age 70.

I saw her in concert at the Paramount Theater a couple of years ago with my friend Leila. She was obviously not in good health, even then; an aide had to help her walk to her piano. She gave a vigorous, if somewhat short, performance, though. I remember she made some very pointed remarks about George W. and how we needed to do something about him... Anyway, I am now doubly glad I got to see her.

Ah, just looked up the date of the concert — it was July 11, 2001.

--> Obituary from the NY Times: www.nytimes.com/aponline/ obituaries/AP-Obit-Nina-Simone.html

I so rock. OK, well, maybe Google does, rather than me, but so what. Anyway, the point is, I was listening to This American Life on NPR yesterday, and they had a piece by this guy who did a graphic novel all about this relationship he'd had. He read a poignant episode in which he watches his girlfriend take a bath (Michael thought the guy was a little obsessive.) Anyway, I was curious and wanted to find the book, but I forgot the title. First I tried the show's website, but they didn't have anything about it, and the audio wasn't archived yet. Then I tried Google Groups to see if anyone had talked about the program, but no dice.

Finally, in desperation, I tried the following in Google:

"graphic novel" relationship girlfriend

Tenth item on the page was this:
www.artic.edu/webspaces/fnews/2002-may/mayreviews2.html

The book is called "Clumsy". Success!

The thing that annoys me most right now (OK, one of the things that annoys me) is the "nyah nyah nyah" tone to much of the rejoicing over our military success in Iraq. Yes, it's great that Saddam is out of power, but why be so childish about it? "Smugness is our greatest enemy" says this Newsweek editorial.

He castigates those of us who opposed the war for not admitting that freeing millions of people from Saddam was a good idea, but he does also skewer the Pentagon for the poor handling of the aftermath.

"I learned last week that many Army officers wanted to airlift in 3,000 MPs (military police) from Europe to protect supply lines and police Baghdad. That would have aided the drive to the capital and helped to protect institutions like hospitals and museums once forces arrived there. As it was, the main hospital wasn’t even secured until an officer was alerted to the looting by New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson.

"But Rumsfeld apparently decided: no MPs. The European MPs would have had to be replaced by reservists. And if more reservists had been called up in the middle of the war, it would have reinforced the criticism that Rumsfeld hadn't sent enough troops. When the real history is written, we may find out that some ofthe world’s oldest treasures were lost to looters in part because someone at the Pentagon suffers from the oldest of human sins—pride."

Hang on a minute. An article in the Scottish Sunday Herald dated April 7 talks about the possibility that there might be looting in Iraq's museums. And it's not that nobody told the Bush administration. In fact, a group of art dealers met with them to offer their help to "preserve" Iraq's collections.

And yet, somehow, the military in Baghdad seemed completely caught off guard by the looting. And Rumsfeld laughed it off. "Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?" Well, perhaps he won't be laughing so hard now. According to international law (a concept we seem to be having a bit of difficulty with), the U.S. had a responsibility to try to prevent looting — especially to cultural treasures.

Rumsfeld also said: "Think what's happened in our cities when we've had riots, and problems, and looting. Stuff happens! But in terms of what's going on in that country, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to see those images over, and over, and over again of some boy walking out with a vase and say, 'Oh, my goodness, you didn't have a plan.' That's nonsense."

I thought about the looting and compared it to the rioting we had here in Oakland after Rodney King, and after the Raiders made it to the Super Bowl... and after they lost the Super Bowl... my initial thought was that the way people behave in the absence of order reveals something about them... not who they are fundamentally, but how they've lived and how they've been treated. Perhaps it was too warm and fuzzy and P.C. a thought. In any case, it wasn't a spontaneous mass attack on the institutions of culture; it seems more and more likely that it was the coordinated and planned work of professionals.

So. Do I think the Bush Adminstration did this on purpose? Actually... no. But I think it just shows that they didn't believe it was important to guard the museums and libraries. They didn't really think they were valuable the way the oil wells are. (Side note: I'm not convinced that this war is merely "all about oil"; I think there's more to it, but that's another story) Really, this isn't a bunch known for their appreciation of culture. (But perhaps they'd appreciate Saddam's good taste.)

One last thought: I sure hope eBay is keeping an eye on its auctions over the next few months.

Oh, and one more of the paintings Saddam liked so much!

Two Seders in two days is a bit much for someone who is best described as "Jew Lite". Still, it all went well. What will I do with all the chopped liver?

Before I forget, I want to mention that this Hagaddah that I got online kicked butt. Perhaps that's not the right terminology, but it had the English, the Hebrew, and the Hebrew transliteration, it was not too long, and it had a good slant on the holiday. I particularly liked the way it handled the Four Questions (instead of sneering at the wicked child and telling him that he'd still be a slave back in Egypt with his bad attitude, we're supposed to reach out and say, "You need to feel a part of this.") And it didn't have a lot of the old tired stuff from before Communism fell.

...That A) the former privacy officer of, of all things, DoubleClick is now the nation's first Privacy Czar, or B) that she's only 34 (my age)?

--> www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ articles/A39211-2003Apr16.html

Oh yeah, Happy Passover! I just threw my first Seder (with a little lot of help).

First the museum, now the library, destroyed by looters and arsonists. Why would people do that to their own culture, their own heritage? Why would the "liberators" stand by and do nothing to help stop this? Did nobody think this might happen?

Just seems like Bush et al were so concerned about securing the oil wells, they neglected to secure other vulnerable treasures. For some reason, this upsets me much more than the Taliban destroying the buddhas. Books and ancient artifacts aren't human lives... but the Iraqi people have lost something very important in their lives, whether or not they realize it yet. (Obviously, the head librarian and chief curator do.)

--> www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/ 04/15/international1522EDT0692.DTL

Just finished reading Caleb Carr's The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians. His basic thesis is that civilians have long been the target and victims of war, and that such targetting weakens the cause of those countries and organizations who engage in it, and often ultimately does them in.

The section of the book covering World War II is provocative — the blitzkrieg fighting of the Germans can actually be considered "progressive" war, though they were abandoned in favor of far more distructive tactics, and the Allies engaged in terrorism — but the really interesting part (for me, anyway) was the chapter covering the United States after the war ended; there are real parallels to what's going on now. "The world must repeatedly be made safe for the development of freedom, a word that, in postwar parlance, began to be used very loosely indeed..." and in order to fight Communism, American agencies were reorganized to serve "national security." This was done under James Forrestal, secretary of the Navy, who pushed for the passage of the National Security Act of 1947 and then succumbed to paranoid schizophrenia. That, in and of itself, is a fascinating story I'd like to learn more about.

Overall, a fascinating book that was a pretty quick read, though there were some things I wish the author had explained in more detail, like Woodrow Wilson's effort to create the League of Nations — he's contemptuous of Wilson's "criminally narcissicistic willingness to sacrifice almost any principle and any cause to his personal holy grail", but doesn't really give enough background. (Did I miss something in history class? Guess so.) Also, some of his suggestions for future policies are troubling, particularly his support of "preemptive strikes." Who gets to decide when they're justified? He doesn't say.

From Craig's List comes this great parody. "I AM USING THIS MEDIUM T0 REACH YOU. HOWEVER I HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE AND THIS IS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, YOUR CO-OPERATION IS NECESSARY. YOUR RESUME WAS SELECTED AS BEING HIGHLY QUALIFIED, BUT THIS IS NOT SPAM! THIS IS FREEDOM FROM DEBT - CUT YOUR MORTGAGE IN HALF WITH OUR AMAZING REMOTE-CONTROL PASTA POT. THIS OFFER IS FREE. YOU HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO DELETE IT AT ANY TIME..."

In the New York Times today (April 8)... "Librarians Use Shredder to Show Opposition to New F.B.I. Powers". It starts off with a description of librarians in the Santa Cruz Public Library system doing a daily shred of patron activity documents. They were also one of the first library systems in the country to post signs warning patrons of the implications of the PATRIOT act. They're even now handing out flyers that go into more details about their concerns, and they are reviewing their records to make sure they're only keeping what they need to.

Depressingly, though, a survey by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois last fall found that almost half of all responding libraries had complied with law enforcement requests for information on their patrons.

The library's board has issued a resolution on the PATRIOT act.

(I went to UCSC, and did a freelance project a few years ago for the Santa Cruz Public Library's website)

--> www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/national/07LIBR.html

--> www.santacruzpl.org/libraryadmin/ljpb/patres.shtml

So I might host a Passover Seder for the first time ever this year. This may or may not be a Good Thing, but it did result in one truly silly conversation with Michael, when he told me his parents had offered to bring us copies of the Haggadah(s) they used to use. "Cool, that might be helpful." I said.

"Yeah, but you don't understand. This Haggadah went on forever."

(Switches to Charleton Heston/Monty Python voice)

"And, lo, Moses wandered in the desert with the Israelites, and they wandered and wandered for 40 days. And then, lo, Moses came upon Pharaoh and said 'Pharaoh, let my people go." And verily, Pharoah said to him, 'Not a chance.' And so Moses wandered the desert some more. And then he spoke to the Israelites and told them many things. And then he quoth to the Lord, 'Oh Lord!' And the Lord spake unto Moses and said, 'Moses, you need to do this first thing.' And Moses did the first thing and wandered some more..."

{ Then several minutes of this followed, but I can't recall it well enough to do it justice. But it involved plagues. Lots of plagues.}

"And then, the most ridiculous part... was that it ended with the song "God Bless America!'"

I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

I thought this list of contact information, websites, and other assorted information might come in handy. While all of it is available online, it's not always easy to track down. Some of these are from the San Francisco Chronicle, About.com, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Feel free to copy and distribute this information! Also, here's a pdf version for downloading/printing.

Updated March 13, 2003 by Katherine Falk

The JTA is running a news story today on Richard Goldstone, a judge and human rights expert in South Africa who said that international law does not justify this war.

"The use of military force is lawful only in two cases — dire self-defense, when the threat of attack is so imminent there is no time to wait for the United Nations to act, or when it is authorized by the Security Council. Goldstone said neither of these applies to the invasion of Iraq. 'The self-defense argument is very weak' and it was 'quite clear that the majority of Security Council members do not authorize the use of force.'"

He also commented on the military intervention in Kosovo, saying that while it was illegal, it was made legitimate because it was right to protect the Albanians.

This doesn't mean that Bush and Blair are war criminals, but they are operating in a grey area.

"He said international law has been moving in the direction of recognizing intervention in extreme situations for humanitarian reasons, 'but this is not the same as regime change.'"

--> In South Africa, Jewish rights expert calls U.S.-led war on Iraq "unlawful"