arse poetica

Talk About Your Primary Sources!

My fantasy homeland, Sweden, is up to its old tricks again, this time promoting -- get this! -- tolerance. What is the deal w/ all the humanity around there, I ask you? Can't they just bog down in stale old ideas that bore everyone comatose and further ignorance and a whole host of -isms, not to mention petty resentments, like the rest of us?

"Loan a lesbian" idea to promote tolerance.

If you're one of those people who thinks all lesbians are sexually frustrated or all animal rights activists aggressive, then a Swedish library project that allows you to "borrow" a real live human being rather than a book may provide some useful insight.

The Living Library project will enable people to come face-to-face with their prejudices in the hopes of altering their preconceived notions, Ulla Brohed of the Malm Library in southern Sweden told AFP.

"You sometimes hear people's prejudices and you realize that they are just uninformed," she said.

This weekend, nine people, including a homosexual, an imam, a journalist, a Muslim woman and a gypsy, will be available at the Malm Library for members of the public to "borrow" for a 45 minute conversation in the library's outdoor cafe.

"Maybe not all journalists are know-it-all and sensationalist, just unafraid and curious. Maybe not all animal rights activists are angry and intolerant, but intelligent and committed," she said.

Hear! Hear! Not all journalists are know-it-alls! Most are know-nothings! Ahem. I guess I know who I need to check out of the library. But I'd probably incur a late fee, arguing a little concept I like to call "professional ethics," and I'm not making any promises about dog-earing. (No cracking the spine jokes, please.)

Sweden's library "loan" conceit says a lot about what's preoccupying us of late: a homosexual, an imam, a journalist, a Muslim woman and a gypsy. Replace gypsy with "Mexican," and this could be a Murkan experiment (if Murka were truly interested in addressing the problem of intolerance, that is). Who would you want to borrow?

[via justinsomnia]

Simple But Hard Lessons: Our Actions Have Consequences

Fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, ozone depletion, climate change, hurricanes.

Maybe we could carpool, take the bus, ride our bikes, agitate for viable public transportation and city planning that accommodates pedestrians and bikers and centralizes communities. We could stop overdeveloping, repair our communities and make them functional as we keep an eye turned to preserving greenspace. Reinvestment is a wise choice. Safer communities are thriving communities. People want to walk around safely w/ their pets and kids and friends eating popsicles and listening to music and swimming in the lake. Save what we have, in town and out. It's a start. It's long overdue. It's fair. To people.

We could call our congresspersons and ask them to be reasonable. We could tell them to be accountable. There are sacrifices to be made, and we all have to start making them. Why is gas mileage so low? What happened since the 70s, or, rather, what hasn't happened since the 70s? We need to be more vocal in taking a stand against Big Oil. Do we need bigger cars? Do we need more ozone and smog warning days? More lung cancer? More allergies and mercury and toxins and autism? More noise? Our congresspersons, cowards all and (almost) every one of them on the take, need to know that we are serious about this, and, more importantly, we are behind them, in that they are in front of us because we put them there to act on our behalf. We need them to remember that they're leading on this question, because it is what we want. It is what we demand.

Let's save this:

Arctic Promise.

Pistols at Dawn?

Not even going to lament the 'spectacle' aspect of all this when the horrors of our burning imperial Rome offer more ghastly spectacles than one could ever turn one's eyes from. At least the vitriol-flinging will, for once, be articulate. In these increasingly incoherent times, a cheeky turn of phrase is quite welcome. [Ask me again tomorrow, and I'll argue for lamenting the spectacle.]

Popinjay jibe triggers US brawl of the Brits.

The Grapple in the Big Apple will pit "Gorgeous" George Galloway, the MP, against Christopher Hitchens, the writer and polemicist, in a public debate over Iraq and US and British foreign policy. Political junkies in America are drooling at the prospect.

When the anti-war Respect MP for Bethnal Green visited Washington earlier this summer to deliver a lecture on Iraq to a gobsmacked Senate and to denounce allegations made against him by Republican senators, he briefly exchanged verbal fisticuffs with the pro-war Hitchens, and accused him of being a "drink-sodden former Trotskyist popinjay".

Well, goodness. That's cutting to the heart of things.

Now it's time for a re-match. The event will take place on September 14 in the Mason Hall at the Baruch College performing arts centre in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan. It may not have quite the whiff of Madison Square Gardens, and the cornermen will be more likely to have to deal with wounded pride than bloodied cheekbones, but the venom will be as potent as in any title bout.

Fitting that this is being held in a performing arts center, but I would see this if only to see two hyper-articulate egomaniacal showmen argue the finer points pro- and anti-war. It could be 1) quite constructive, in that it offers strong polemical arguments for either side, or 2) it could be a bloody (in the broad meaning of the word) spectacle of Caligula-level excess. Likely both, which I would love to note is fitting for our political climate -- we've got Caligula-level excesses down so cold one could be forgiven for thinking we invented it, but, sadly, our political discourse can't seem to aspire beyond this.

I'm rooting for Galloway, with hopes that he forces Hitch to come to grips w/ his highly suspect, increasingly untenable, poorly rationalized pro-war bloodlust. Sigh. I don't let go of my crush on Hitch easily.

The Internets Are Brilliant

Folkstreams can take up the better half of a morning, friends.

Pentecostals, blues singers, faith healers, minstrels, chainsaw art, and Finnish Americans. What more could one ask for?

One of my favorite films is this one of girls' playground games. Beautiful!

Caveat: addictive.

Thank You, Jimmy Carter!

FEMA established by Carter in 1979. Another great liberal innovation from which we all benefit.

AP photo gallery. These photos are v. moving, and I'm tearing up at work, so in that sense, I'm not sure they're "work safe."

How to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina (to be updated):

Feed the Children
Red Cross

Anyone worried about donating to an iffy charity should check the Better Business Bureau's Give.org.

Sounds Like a Fair Question

Diane at DED Space asks , "What part of 'hate crime' don't you understand?"

Sydney at Shut Up and Listen asks, "What part of 'sometimes I can't f*cking stand white people' don't you understand?"

Twisty at I Blame the Patriarchy asks, "What part of 'beauty maims' don't you understand?"

Emma at Gendergeek asks, "What part of 'the left ain't so feminist' don't you understand?"

Southerners Most Affected by War

From the Institute for Southern Studies comes this:

Number of 16-25-year-olds in the Pentagon's military recruitment database: 30 million
Percent of schools receiving No Child Left Behind Act funding that must give personal student information to the military unless student opts out: 100%
Annual military recruitment budget: $3 billion
Amount this represents per enlistee: $11,000
Percent of enlistees that don't receive funding for college: 66%
Minimum number of years new enlistees must serve: 8
Of 16 states providing the most Army enlistees aged 17-24, number in the South: 7
Number of students that have opted out of the military recruitment database: 13,000

All sources on file at the Institute. Read the complete report (pdf).

According to a huge billboard on I-40, NC is "America's Most Military Friendly State," and now I know why this just makes me sad: the statistic I highlighted above. So often we hear that people enlist in the military for college funding, which infuriates me, because educating onseself should not have to be a life-or-death proposition. That small point aside, 66% don't receive funding for college??? I know people join the military for a whole host of reasons, and I won't pretend to understand them all, but why are 2/3 of them not receiving college funding? Doesn't that seem contrary to the accepted recruitment wisdom?

In other news, there were about 40,000 high school dropouts in 03-04 in NC. I wonder how many of those kids went into the military. I wonder if this contributes to a lack of college funding on the other end. I live in an ivory tower bubble town, and here it's difficult to get a job w/o three PhDs, because every other candidate has two. What's happening to 40,000 kids w/o high school diplomas? That's a lot of kids.

P.S. The Institute for Southern Studies has a blog, also listed on the sidebar.

I've Changed My Mind: Tort Reform Now! =)

Frivolous much?

University of California Sued Over Creationism.

LOS ANGELES -- A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.

The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution. Other rejected courses include "Christianity's Influence in American History."

According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books.

Wendell E. Bird, a lawyer for the association, said the policy violates the rights of students and religious schools.

"A threat to one religion is a threat to all," he said.

UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said she could not comment, because the university had not been served with the lawsuit. Still, she said the university has a right to set course requirements.

"These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed," Poorsina.

Prepared. Schmepared. Critical Schmitical. Thinking schmink -- okay, enough. I know the Creationists want to push their POV against the godless heathen science-privilegers in the UC system, but I am here to seek the truth, and that truth lies w/ Our Noodly Master. The puny UC system is no match for His Truth!

Ahem.

"A threat to one religion is a threat to all." Yes, nice sentiment. Too bad the evangelical-types running this circus sideshow don't believe in it. I don't see them living side-by-side in harmony, everyone finding solace, meaning, and guidance in their own religious beliefs. Those beliefs are, according to our evangelical pals, wrong, corrupt, or, at the very least, misguided, and the wayward must be brought home to Jeebus. They can't have it both ways; they can't simultaneously hide under cover of an important social justice principle and every day of their lives work to discredit and deny other religions.

There are many evangelical, even fundamentalist, types who do not desire to wipe the earth clean of other forms of worship, no matter how much they privilege their own way. Bless them. But these folks, the ones who get the press, the ones who yell the loudest, the ones who clog up our legal system w/ frivolous lawsuits under guise of "religious freedom," they do us all a disservice.

These are not small questions. How are the dominionists going to cut it when facing educational science standards? The Bible can't help you study for the SAT or the MCAT. I can't help but worry for any group who is so set on professing their belief as the (scientific) truth that they'll "prove" that Adam & Eve hung out w/ T. Rex.

Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass on the Way Out

Tell me this and this don't essentially say the same thing. One is just much, much funnier. Not funny-haha so much as funny-tear your hair out.

Avedon Carol suggests we print out the second one and send it in to our Dem representatives. I don't think that's a bad damn idea at all. (For my sentiments, see title.)

Operation 'If the Shoe Fits'

Ann Telnaes has some suggestions for the Pentagon's recent announcement to put the war slogans intended to build public support on soldiers' tombstones in Arlington Cemetery.

How can we think it's anything but a macabre propaganda ploy when their defense for doing it is this:

The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.

"It just seems a little brazen that that's put on stones," said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. "It seems like it might be connected to politics."

What does this guy know? He's only been doing it for 20 years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it isn't. "The headstone is not a PR purpose. It is to let the country know and the people that visit the cemetery know who served this country and made the country free for us," VA official Steve Muro said.

Are we to think that the millions of visitors to the gravesites of the thousands of soldiers already buried in the cemetery won't know that those soldiers "served this country and made the country free for us"? What are they saying?