75,000 people- way to go Portland! Since our nominee is going to be appointed by the party elites anyway, let’s make sure the superdelegates know we’re not kidding. Oregon- tell them we want Obama!
You go, girl(s and boys)!
5/19/08
Obamagonians- Woot!
75,000 people- way to go Portland! Since our nominee is going to be appointed by the party elites anyway, let’s make sure the superdelegates know we’re not kidding. Oregon- tell them we want Obama!
You go, girl(s and boys)!
5/17/08
If You're Not Mad, You're Not a Civil Liberties Attorney Specializing in Constitutional Law
According to conventional bumper-sticker wisdom, if you’re not mad, you’re not paying attention. As we get closer to the end of the primary cycle, the candidates and their surrogates are ratcheting up the political rhetoric, and we are certainly being given plenty to be mad about. Last Wednesday, as Bush declared to the Israeli parliament that engaging in talks with Iran’s president Ahmadinejad is akin to trying to appease Hitler, we saw the familiar GOP fear-mongering tactics being deployed; just a bit of strafing in advance of the main campaign ground forces. And McCain did not hesitate to take the gift from the administration, agreeing with the statements and wondering what Obama thought he might want to talk to Ahmadinejad about. But of course with the pre-season almost over and the real game about to begin, we know these types of distractions from the issues are going to come at us fast and furious now. The bad guys are out there, they will tell us. “Gathering” and “grave”, they warn. Just waiting for us to let our guard down and elect a democrat so they can blow up more cities. We’ve seen it before, heard it all before. Americans have been paying attention, and we are indeed mad.
But there is a much greater threat to our liberty and security gathering out there. Unfortunately, though, to truly grasp the scope of this threat it’s not enough to just pay attention. Turns out, you have to be a constitutional scholar, a civil liberties attorney and an investigative journalist in order to figure this mess out. Fortunately, many of just those types of people have been working on unraveling the knot of directives, bills and acts that have been pushed through since 9/11 in the name of ‘homeland security’. And what they are telling us is
that some of the foundational rights granted under the constitution are now gone. As things now stand, our illustrious President has the power to have any American citizen arrested and jailed- without showing just cause, without allowing them access to a lawyer, without ever bringing them to trial, without even telling the person what the charges are. Once more for effect: our bible-thumping, non-reading, fear-mongering, myopic and arrogant President can have any American citizen arrested and jailed at any time, and without any due process.
Now, I’m as liberal as the next guy. In fact, I am generally as liberal as the next three or four guys. And as such, I am always eager to believe the worst of this administration. But when I first read this in Naomi Wolf’s book The End of America, even I thought it had to be hyperbole. The President, even this President, could not possibly have been able to amass that much power; it is just too sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-conspiracy-theory-ish. So I did a little research…
The first Patriot Act (sec 802) gave us a new category of crime known as ‘domestic terrorism’, and broadly defined it as: “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life” or “are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State” and which “appear to be intended to: i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; ii)influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion [and] occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States”. It then goes on to clarify that “any act of domestic or international terrorism” is broadly an “act of terrorism”. According to these new definitions, the immigration rights activists who
marched on May Day, students protesting the war, even Greenpeace can now be defined as terrorist groups. But this wasn’t enough, because constitutional protections still existed for American citizens. Even if you did participate in the activities of a “terrorist” organization, you would still have to receive a fair and open trial, with all the rights granted by due process intact, before you could be convicted of any crime or suffer any consequences. So in sec 501 of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka Patriot Act II), the rules were changed so that no one has to prove you’re a terrorist. Instead, “joining or serving in, or providing material support to a terrorist organization… shall be prima facie evidence that the act was done with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality.”
And just like that- you’re an expatriate. An enemy combatant.
It’s a brilliant circular proof, really. They do not have to have any evidence that you’re a terrorist when they accuse you and jail you indefinitely, because those rules are for citizens only. But the reason you’re not a citizen anymore is because you’ve been accused of being a terrorist.
But of course, there was still that annoying Geneva Convention treaty mucking things up. “Members of the regular forces of a State engaged in hostilities against the US” are just soldiers doing their job. Even an enemy combatant, it would seem, has rights. And so was born the Military Commissions Act. This delineates lawful and unlawful enemy combatants; the former being soldiers from legitimate armies, the latter being anyone else. Now, anyone who falls into that latter category would be subject to a whole new set of rules. And rule #1 “changes pre-existing law to forbid explicitly the invocation of the Geneva Conventions..” by unlawful enemy combatants.
There. Done.
But it does not stop there. The Patriot Acts had done a pretty good job of being just vague enough so that almost anyone could be considered an unlawful enemy combatant. But to be safe, the MCA defines it as “a person who before, on or after the date of the enactment [of the MCA] has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.” In other words, an unlawful enemy combatant is anyone the President says it is. Our bible-thumping, non-reading, fear-mongering, myopic and arrogant President really can have any American citizen arrested and jailed at any time, and without any due process.
Ok, now I’m really mad.
But there is a much greater threat to our liberty and security gathering out there. Unfortunately, though, to truly grasp the scope of this threat it’s not enough to just pay attention. Turns out, you have to be a constitutional scholar, a civil liberties attorney and an investigative journalist in order to figure this mess out. Fortunately, many of just those types of people have been working on unraveling the knot of directives, bills and acts that have been pushed through since 9/11 in the name of ‘homeland security’. And what they are telling us is
that some of the foundational rights granted under the constitution are now gone. As things now stand, our illustrious President has the power to have any American citizen arrested and jailed- without showing just cause, without allowing them access to a lawyer, without ever bringing them to trial, without even telling the person what the charges are. Once more for effect: our bible-thumping, non-reading, fear-mongering, myopic and arrogant President can have any American citizen arrested and jailed at any time, and without any due process.Now, I’m as liberal as the next guy. In fact, I am generally as liberal as the next three or four guys. And as such, I am always eager to believe the worst of this administration. But when I first read this in Naomi Wolf’s book The End of America, even I thought it had to be hyperbole. The President, even this President, could not possibly have been able to amass that much power; it is just too sci-fi-post-apocalyptic-conspiracy-theory-ish. So I did a little research…
The first Patriot Act (sec 802) gave us a new category of crime known as ‘domestic terrorism’, and broadly defined it as: “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life” or “are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State” and which “appear to be intended to: i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; ii)influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion [and] occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States”. It then goes on to clarify that “any act of domestic or international terrorism” is broadly an “act of terrorism”. According to these new definitions, the immigration rights activists who
marched on May Day, students protesting the war, even Greenpeace can now be defined as terrorist groups. But this wasn’t enough, because constitutional protections still existed for American citizens. Even if you did participate in the activities of a “terrorist” organization, you would still have to receive a fair and open trial, with all the rights granted by due process intact, before you could be convicted of any crime or suffer any consequences. So in sec 501 of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka Patriot Act II), the rules were changed so that no one has to prove you’re a terrorist. Instead, “joining or serving in, or providing material support to a terrorist organization… shall be prima facie evidence that the act was done with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality.”And just like that- you’re an expatriate. An enemy combatant.
It’s a brilliant circular proof, really. They do not have to have any evidence that you’re a terrorist when they accuse you and jail you indefinitely, because those rules are for citizens only. But the reason you’re not a citizen anymore is because you’ve been accused of being a terrorist.
But of course, there was still that annoying Geneva Convention treaty mucking things up. “Members of the regular forces of a State engaged in hostilities against the US” are just soldiers doing their job. Even an enemy combatant, it would seem, has rights. And so was born the Military Commissions Act. This delineates lawful and unlawful enemy combatants; the former being soldiers from legitimate armies, the latter being anyone else. Now, anyone who falls into that latter category would be subject to a whole new set of rules. And rule #1 “changes pre-existing law to forbid explicitly the invocation of the Geneva Conventions..” by unlawful enemy combatants.
There. Done.
But it does not stop there. The Patriot Acts had done a pretty good job of being just vague enough so that almost anyone could be considered an unlawful enemy combatant. But to be safe, the MCA defines it as “a person who before, on or after the date of the enactment [of the MCA] has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.” In other words, an unlawful enemy combatant is anyone the President says it is. Our bible-thumping, non-reading, fear-mongering, myopic and arrogant President really can have any American citizen arrested and jailed at any time, and without any due process.
Ok, now I’m really mad.
5/8/08
Welcome 1.2
Now that we're all in and settled, I just wanted to say Welcome Again, this time to all our new contributors! We now have a slightly broader representation of the thirtytofortysomething zeitgeist, and a much more diverse collection of interests. The danger of mutating into a sports blog has been averted- thank you Kathleen and Karin- and I hope that our Blogorrhea will now live up to it's appellation and become a random and eclectic mix of stories. On paper, we are a demographer's dream: two urban dinks, a suburban family and a west-coast hippie (walk into a bar). Being the news junkie that I am, I hear a lot of pundits lately telling me what they "know" about what I believe, about what is important to me, based on my demographic classification. But the reality is that we all defy our stereotypes. The dinks might happily give up their safe, white-collar jobs and trendy neighborhood condo to become a transient professional poker player and an environmental warrior. Our hippie can always be found on a Saturday afternoon watching a bunch of rednecks in big, hydrocarbon-spewing V-eights spend three hours turning left really fast. And I am certainly as far as one can get from being a soccer mom, and not just because I have never been to a soccer game in my life. So as we tell our stories, not only will we defy what the experts “know” about us, we will probably surprise each other as well. But as The Boss says, that’s where the fun is. 
There is a philosophic idea I find intriguing which claims that every individual’s interpretation of the things they encounter, their understanding of the world, is informed and shaped by the accumulation of everything they have encountered before. Philosophers are quite fond of taking intuitively obvious ideas and giving them complex explanations and esoteric names. In 
this case, the ability to remember stuff and use it to figure out new stuff is referred to as one’s camera obscura. There is a reason philosophers do this, though, and it is not simply that we are logorrheic. Well, maybe a little it is. But it’s also a way to try to identify something more subtle or complex that might be hiding within an otherwise mundane idea. We see that little thread and need to pull on it, trying to unravel the whole thing. The concept of camera obscura suggests that a person can never achieve a truly objective understanding of the world. That, in fact, our understanding can by definition only ever be subjective. Whether there is really such a thing as ‘absolute truth’ is irrelevant, because the very nature of the way we learn prohibits our ability to ever find it. Interesting notion, eh?
this case, the ability to remember stuff and use it to figure out new stuff is referred to as one’s camera obscura. There is a reason philosophers do this, though, and it is not simply that we are logorrheic. Well, maybe a little it is. But it’s also a way to try to identify something more subtle or complex that might be hiding within an otherwise mundane idea. We see that little thread and need to pull on it, trying to unravel the whole thing. The concept of camera obscura suggests that a person can never achieve a truly objective understanding of the world. That, in fact, our understanding can by definition only ever be subjective. Whether there is really such a thing as ‘absolute truth’ is irrelevant, because the very nature of the way we learn prohibits our ability to ever find it. Interesting notion, eh? 
Ok, maybe not.
But here is an equally interesting conclusion that could be drawn from that premise- I’m calling it the Second Law of Sociodynamics. (Ok, it’s more of a working title.) Theory aside, the practical reality is that most people within a given society share many similar experiences. As a result, their ontological beliefs tend to be similar as well. The more experiences they have in common, the more likely they will agree that certain things are ‘true’. But what happens when we encounter someone with different ideas? A different belief about the true nature of a thing? Even if we don’t agree, their ideas, that experience, contributes to our overall knowledge base and therefore becomes part of what colors our understanding of everything from that point on. And we have similarly contributed to theirs. Our respective understanding of the world has just moved closer together- even if only slightly. Now if we could imagine this process on a global scale, where people from Chicago listen to the stories of people from Nairobi, who had been chatting with people from Hanoi, who just got off the phone with people from Sydney… eventually we might start to see a kind of social entropy. All of our ideas mix together, inevitably leading to a kind of ‘blending and smoothing’ of universal ontology. Relativism would start to look a little more universalistic, and maybe the world would start to become a less contentious place.
Ok, I’m done getting all We-Are-The-World on you. I have no delusions that Israelis and Palestinians will stop hurling explosive devices at each other because I told you all about the funny thing the dogs did yesterday. But as the old saying goes, entropy starts at home. The fact that hockey fighting is good, that drugs are bad and that “The Count” can bring the vicious knees when needed has already been assimilated into my consciousness; and although I would disagree, I now know some people may hold the belief that two tents might be excessive. The perspective of my camera obscura has been enhanced, and now reveals to me a slightly more refined image of the world.
So tell me all your stories, and welcome to the blog!
5/6/08
The curse of the consumerist society
Well, it has finally happened - I've decided I have to many books. After moving two entire households in two entire days - two adults, with a full load of the detritus of an adult life - into one apartment, we are crammed to the rafters, and probably half of that is books. Yes, we both work for a bookstore. Yes, we have unlimited access to piles of free books. And yes, we had to carry everything down three flights of stairs, and then up one flight. Ugh. So, it turns out we not only have a great many books, but pretty much two of everything a modern American household acquires.
Two couches, two can openers, two sets of dishes, two coffee tables, two sets of pots and pans, two TVs, two toolboxes (well, actually four, because Blaine has his, his Dad's big one, and his Mom's little one). The list goes on...
How do we do this? Acquire, pretty much without noticing, huge quantities of stuff? My old place was tiny - less than 250 square feet! - and yet my stuff alone seemed to fill half of our new place, which is nearly 900 square feet. What the heck did I have all this stuff for? And what the heck do I do with it, now? It is no wonder we have environmental issues on this planet! Even I, the self-described green nut, has tons of unneeded, unused stuff. I reuse baggies, for Gaia's sake, and yet I have boxes of things I have no earthly need for.
Blaine has a bunch of gardening tools, and no garden in sight. I have way more wall maps than I could ever fit on walls, and a box of road maps to cities I will probably never visit. Three toolboxes? Two cat boxes, and one cat. About 400 glasses, cups, mugs, etc., and two people. On, and on, and on.
I blame it on our society. We somehow have developed into a society that doesn't feel successful unless we are shopping. If we can't afford it, or we don't want to buy it, we have somehow failed as an American. Heck, didn't Shrub tell us to shop, to help the economy, to 'support America' or some such crap, after 9/11? No, thank you. From this point on, if I can't find it at Goodwill, or Freecycle, or Craigslist, I don't need it.
Two tents. At least four coolers, in various shapes and sizes. An overflowing shelf full of tupperware-like containers. At least eight bookcases, also in various shapes and sizes. More cleaning supplies than we could possibly use in a reasonable period of time.
My biggest pet peeve, of course, is when people simply throw things out. They don't bring it to Goodwill, or FreeGeek, or have a garage sale. They don't even recycle it. Nope. They put perfectly - or even slightly flawed - stuff in the garbage can, and think that is fine. There is no 'away', folks. There is no such thing as 'throwing it away'. When you put it in the garbage can, it becomes someone else's problem, but it is not 'gone' by any stretch of the word. It still exists, and will continue to exist, for probably thousands of years yet. And, if we keep this up for much longer, everyone will have an 'away', in the form of a garbage dump, in their neighborhood. You want that? I sure don't.
Three brooms. Two VCRs. Three sets of stereo speakers, and three sets of computer speakers. Three sets of mixing bowls, and a bunch of unmatched mixing bowls. A whole bookcase's worth of Mark Martin geegaws.
What is the answer? Well, I believe some of our problems will be solved, one way or the other, when we are out of oil. Hello, peak oil! Come on down! No more disposable plastic bags, toys, gadgets, containers, toothbrushes, bottles, shoes, shower curtains, phones, furniture, and on, and on, and on. I like that idea. If you buy something, it is now a permanent item - it is not disposable, is is recyclable -actually recyclable, not like plastic with the '7' is (un)recyclable - and it is fixable if it breaks. Hey, that could be the next big startup business! There will be a booming business again in repair shops - places that can actually fix our small appliances like mixers and VCRs when they break.
Three media shelves, and more media -CDs, DVDs, even VHS tapes - than fits on them. About a dozen film cameras, digital cameras, video cameras, old cameras, reel to reel projectors, etc.
I have decided to revamp how I shop. I will try to get it used first, or repair what we already have. If that is not possible, we will look for something that is sturdy, repairable, and most importantly, recyclable. No extra packaging, nothing 'disposable', nothing that is 'trendy' that I will tire of quickly. Nothing made of cheap plastic! We will purge, purge, purge, but we will pass these things on to others to use - we will not put unwanted things in the garbage cans!
Of course, first things first. I need to make a little room on those bookcases... Anyone want a nice, used copy of Middlemarch? How about an old, but perfectly fine copy of the old, early 70's era, Whole Earth Catalog? (I'm keepin' my Millennium WEC, that one is signed by Stewart Brand...)
Two couches, two can openers, two sets of dishes, two coffee tables, two sets of pots and pans, two TVs, two toolboxes (well, actually four, because Blaine has his, his Dad's big one, and his Mom's little one). The list goes on...
How do we do this? Acquire, pretty much without noticing, huge quantities of stuff? My old place was tiny - less than 250 square feet! - and yet my stuff alone seemed to fill half of our new place, which is nearly 900 square feet. What the heck did I have all this stuff for? And what the heck do I do with it, now? It is no wonder we have environmental issues on this planet! Even I, the self-described green nut, has tons of unneeded, unused stuff. I reuse baggies, for Gaia's sake, and yet I have boxes of things I have no earthly need for.
Blaine has a bunch of gardening tools, and no garden in sight. I have way more wall maps than I could ever fit on walls, and a box of road maps to cities I will probably never visit. Three toolboxes? Two cat boxes, and one cat. About 400 glasses, cups, mugs, etc., and two people. On, and on, and on.
I blame it on our society. We somehow have developed into a society that doesn't feel successful unless we are shopping. If we can't afford it, or we don't want to buy it, we have somehow failed as an American. Heck, didn't Shrub tell us to shop, to help the economy, to 'support America' or some such crap, after 9/11? No, thank you. From this point on, if I can't find it at Goodwill, or Freecycle, or Craigslist, I don't need it.
Two tents. At least four coolers, in various shapes and sizes. An overflowing shelf full of tupperware-like containers. At least eight bookcases, also in various shapes and sizes. More cleaning supplies than we could possibly use in a reasonable period of time.
My biggest pet peeve, of course, is when people simply throw things out. They don't bring it to Goodwill, or FreeGeek, or have a garage sale. They don't even recycle it. Nope. They put perfectly - or even slightly flawed - stuff in the garbage can, and think that is fine. There is no 'away', folks. There is no such thing as 'throwing it away'. When you put it in the garbage can, it becomes someone else's problem, but it is not 'gone' by any stretch of the word. It still exists, and will continue to exist, for probably thousands of years yet. And, if we keep this up for much longer, everyone will have an 'away', in the form of a garbage dump, in their neighborhood. You want that? I sure don't.
Three brooms. Two VCRs. Three sets of stereo speakers, and three sets of computer speakers. Three sets of mixing bowls, and a bunch of unmatched mixing bowls. A whole bookcase's worth of Mark Martin geegaws.
What is the answer? Well, I believe some of our problems will be solved, one way or the other, when we are out of oil. Hello, peak oil! Come on down! No more disposable plastic bags, toys, gadgets, containers, toothbrushes, bottles, shoes, shower curtains, phones, furniture, and on, and on, and on. I like that idea. If you buy something, it is now a permanent item - it is not disposable, is is recyclable -actually recyclable, not like plastic with the '7' is (un)recyclable - and it is fixable if it breaks. Hey, that could be the next big startup business! There will be a booming business again in repair shops - places that can actually fix our small appliances like mixers and VCRs when they break.
Three media shelves, and more media -CDs, DVDs, even VHS tapes - than fits on them. About a dozen film cameras, digital cameras, video cameras, old cameras, reel to reel projectors, etc.
I have decided to revamp how I shop. I will try to get it used first, or repair what we already have. If that is not possible, we will look for something that is sturdy, repairable, and most importantly, recyclable. No extra packaging, nothing 'disposable', nothing that is 'trendy' that I will tire of quickly. Nothing made of cheap plastic! We will purge, purge, purge, but we will pass these things on to others to use - we will not put unwanted things in the garbage cans!
Of course, first things first. I need to make a little room on those bookcases... Anyone want a nice, used copy of Middlemarch? How about an old, but perfectly fine copy of the old, early 70's era, Whole Earth Catalog? (I'm keepin' my Millennium WEC, that one is signed by Stewart Brand...)
Off the Junk!
So after a full year of cranial medication, I've cut down on my anti-anxiety medication. I've always been suspicious of prescription medications dealt out by 'medical professionals'. What did a year on Lexapro really do for me? Excessive sleeping, and that is about it! I think I probably could have saved a boatload of cash and smoked a bowl every now and then for basically the same result. And that would have been a lot more fun as well.
So now that my dose is cut in half, I can no longer sleep. All I want to do is clean out the garage, do some laundry, rearrange the furniture, and wake John up because it is no fair that he sleeps like a newborn all the time with that satisfied smile on his face. He is so laid back he is a chronic low-blood pressure sufferer.
I think that our culture just needs to chill out and then we all wouldn't be searching for hope in a pill. I would just prescribe sniffing trees. Unless you have horrible tree pollen allergies. Which actually is another topic for another time---the effects of modern lifestyles on obliterating the human immune system. Kids today just need to eat some dirt.
So now that my dose is cut in half, I can no longer sleep. All I want to do is clean out the garage, do some laundry, rearrange the furniture, and wake John up because it is no fair that he sleeps like a newborn all the time with that satisfied smile on his face. He is so laid back he is a chronic low-blood pressure sufferer.
I think that our culture just needs to chill out and then we all wouldn't be searching for hope in a pill. I would just prescribe sniffing trees. Unless you have horrible tree pollen allergies. Which actually is another topic for another time---the effects of modern lifestyles on obliterating the human immune system. Kids today just need to eat some dirt.
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