First they came for the Democrats...

If you think that you guys are safe because you're Republicans, Messrs. Hastert, Frist et al., think again. The message they're sending is, "It can happen to you, too. Toe the line." Newt gets it – however ethically challenged he may be, he's not stupid. Click on title for full story.

FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned
Democrat Jefferson Denies Wrongdoing
By Dan Eggen and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 23, 2006; Page A01
An unusual FBI raid of a Democratic congressman's office over the weekend prompted complaints yesterday from leaders in both parties, who said the tactic was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
...
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

Watch out, Stephen Colbert

I hope this doesn’t give Dubya any ideas. For full story click here:

Egypt: Support for Detained Award-Winning Blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)

PRESS RELEASE

May 11, 2006

Posted to the web May 12, 2006

Reporters Without Borders voiced support today for blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah and his family following El-Fatah's arrest along with 10 other people while demonstrating outside a Cairo court on 7 May. Three of the 10 have since been released.

El-Fatah has been charged with illegal assembly (in violation of the state of emergency law), blocking traffic, insulting President Mubarak, and verbal abuse of police officers at the time of his arrest. Reporters Without Borders called for his release in a letter to the Egyptian authorities on 9 May on the grounds that the charges do not warrant his being kept in custody.

Russ Feingold - a nice Jewish boy with cojones

Russ Feingold walked out of the committee yesterday working on the anti-gay marriage amendment, which of course was following none of the rules and - as someone put it, it was so appropriate that they were meeting in a "closet"? Good for him! He'd better watch out, though - they'll be accusing him of being gay soon, since he hasn't run out and found himself a third wife, or even held auditions in advance of the second divorce like Newt. (Where's the line? I'm sure there's one forming somewhere.) It's good to know that we have so few problems that Congress has time to occupy itself with momentous issues like an amendment that doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of passing and declaring English to be our “official” language. I feel so much safer now! On second thought, since I just used a non-English word in my heading, I’ll probably be carted away to Guantanamo.

Seriously, though - if Feingold is running for President, he’s going about it in the right way, even though I believe that he is taking these stands on principle. Sometimes doing the right thing is also smart politically. If nothing else he is standing out from the crowd by standing up for what he believes in, and as shown by the unfortunate example of George W, people respect that, even when they don’t agree. At least he’s not “cowering in the corner” as a lot of his fellow Democrats were when he introduced his censure resolution, and as a lot of them still are - witness Nancy Pelosi denying even the possibility of impeachment. Whether you think it should be done or not, it certainly should not be completely taken off the table. (Nancy, every so often you have an attack of intestinal fortitude, but unfortunately you always recover.)

Mother's Day

This was my first Mother’s Day since I lost my mother back in September, and I can’t believe how much publicity it gets ahead of time. I think that was the hardest thing - every time I turned on the radio looked at my e-mail, etc., there was something saying “Get this for Mom” or something to that effect.

However, as I said during the shiva service when the rabbi (Esther, the second night) asked me to talk about her, I really always have her with me because she had such an influence on me and taught me so much about being a decent person. If I’ve succeeded at that, it’s because of her. She taught me to love books and knowledge, to be curious and think for myself, that all of us are God’s children and, I hope, to be strong in the face of the challenges that life deals us. Nothing exemplifies her own willingness to change her thinking than her evolution from a staunch Reagan Republican to a very harsh critic of the “Bush crime family,” as Mike Malloy refers to it, although we never could convince her to switch her registration at least to independent, or “none” as it goes by in NYS. (I love telling people I’m a “none.”) My sister and I were debating yesterday whether, if she were still here, she’d be ecstatic at the fact that a lot of other people are finally waking up (her) or whether she would have already had another stroke by now with all the abuses of power that are constantly hitting the news (me). Well, if she hadn’t had another stroke (or if she’s looking down on us), she would be glad that he’s finally even losing the support of his base.

Anyway, I hope she is in a better place, whatever that means since if there is an afterlife I don’t believe that we are able to conceive what it would be like, and free from all the frustrations that she had to suffer from in the last couple of years, which were almost worse than physical pain in decreasing her quality of life.

How much value does this have? None.

Here is an answer to the doubts that I expressed at the end of the last post, although to be fair, there is some back and forth about it further down. This guy makes the most sense to me, though.

NSA Sweep "Waste of Time," Analyst Says

It'd be one thing if the NSA's massive sweep of our phone records was actually helping catch terrorists. But what if it's not working at all? A leading practitioner of the kind of analysis the NSA is supposedly performing in this surveillance program says that "it's a waste of time, a waste of resources. And it lets the real terrorists run free."

Re-reading the USA Today piece, one paragraph jumped out:

This kind of data collection from phone companies is not uncommon; it's been done before, though never on this large a scale, the official said. The data are used for 'social network analysis,' the official said, meaning to study how terrorist networks contact each other and how they are tied together.

So I called Valdis Krebs, who's considered by many to be the leading authority on social network analysis -- the art and science of finding the important connections in a seemingly-impenetrable mass of data. His analysis of the social network surrounding the 9/11 hijackers is a classic in the field.

Here's what Krebs had to say about the newly-revealed NSA program that aims to track "every call ever made": "If you're looking for a needle, making the haystack bigger is counterintuitive. It just doesn't make sense."

Specter vows (for about the thirtieth time) to hold hearings

Arlen dear, that phony outrage of yours is so cute! I’ll believe in it when you sign on to Feingold’s censure resolution, actually put a few of these people under oath, and put your money (or your chairmanship) where your mouth is! Click on title for full story.

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

REACTION:
From the White House:
The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.
''The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,'' said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence activities.

From Capitol Hill:

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel ''to find out exactly what is going on.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, sounded incredulous about the latest report and railed against what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the media was doing the job of Congress.

''Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda?'' Leahy asked. ''These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop?''

The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper, added: ''Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents.''

Another thing: how keeping track of calling patterns for all Americans has any value in the "war on terror" is beyond me! Also, I just heard on the Al Franken show that Qwest, the one company that stood up to the NSA, told them that if they went to the FISA court and got the OK, they would hand over the information; evidently, however, this was too much trouble for the people who work so hard to protect us from terrorism.

Book Review: The Last Cato ***1/2

The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi ***1/2

I have to say I’m very conflicted about this book. I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of places where I found it very hard to suspend my disbelief. The plot is that of the standard “religious thriller” (and no, Virginia, these have existed for as long as I’ve been reading - they didn’t begin with The Da Vinci Code). An expert (Dr. Ottavia Salina, a paleographer who also happens to be a nun) is asked to research aspects of a mysterious death, in this case the strange scarifications on a man who was killed in a plane crash, which seem to be linked to the theft of fragments of the “True Cross” from churches around the world. She is teamed up with Kaspar Glauser-Roist, a captain from the Pope’s Swiss Guard (who also happens to have a degree in Italian literature) and Farag Boswell, an Egyptian Coptic professor. They discover links to a 1500-year-old society whose mission is the guardianship of the cross, and following clues in Dante’s Divine Comedy, they travel the area around the Mediterranean undergoing the various initiation rituals that will enable them to locate the group.

The plot of the book was original and well-done, and the puzzles were intriguing. Often I found it hard to picture some of the scenes; this might have been the fault of the translation, which seemed a bit sloppy in places, but some diagrams also might have been helpful. There was also a lot of interesting information about the early days of Christianity, arcane subjects such as alchemy, and the Divine Comedy, needless to say. I do have to agree with at least one other reviewer, though, that the characters were not particularly well-developed, and did not grow much, although there were a couple of times that were obviously supposed to be life-changing moments for Ottavia, but in the end I didn’t feel that they lived up to their promise. The ending was a bit far-fetched, but on the whole I did enjoy the journey.

Here are some of the things that rather stretched my ability to suspend disbelief: 1) That these two incredibly well-educated people (Ottavia and Farag) are completely clueless about computers, and in her case at least, I mean completely; 2) That a paleographer who’s evidently in the top ranks of her profession apparently knows nothing about the techniques used to recover faded text - it’s not that she doesn’t know how these things are done, but that she doesn’t even appear to know that the techniques exist; 3) That another extremely smart, well-educated man (Glauser-Roist) doesn’t know the meaning of the word basileia; 4) Most unbelievable and essential to the plot, that a group existing in opposition to the Catholic Church is able to construct and maintain these huge, complicated structures in the midst of their enemy’s territory and keep their own people in charge of them without the Chuch ever finding out.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever ... The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest."

Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227

Read it and weep. We may not be carrying out these killings, but especially when death squads are being run out of the government we put in place, we bear at least some of the responsibility. However opposed we may have been to this war from day one, all of these things have been done in our name.

"Reason for Their Death Is Known"
 By Dahr Jamail
Wednesday 03 May 2006

Death in Iraq. It is relentless and incessant.

Know what it is like when scores of your fellow citizens are being killed every single day while the world proceeds unheedingly on? As a journalist I've had but a taste of that poison during my eight months in Iraq. Try it out: be an Iraqi for a day, into your fourth year of being occupied, humiliated, tortured and killed, doing all you can just to survive.

All communication with my Iraqi friends is punctuated by and smattered with their use of the words "praying," "God," and "Insha'allah" (God willing). Perhaps there is need to invoke something else altogether?

And all the dead air is alive. With the smell of America's God.

- Harold Pinter, "War With Iraq"

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

The media is totally ignoring the brilliantly satirical remarks delivered by Colbert at the Correspondents’ Dinner, probably because they were the target of some of his most blistering invective.

Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. Intelligence, the affect of global warms. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

He also brought up things that I would bet no one dares mention in front of Dubya, like his 32% approval rating, the fact that his administration’s biggest (and sometimes it seems only) talent is staging photo-ops, etc.

The blogosphere, on the other hand, is cheering. If you want to send your own personal thanks, you can go here. You can also see the video at this site. The reason, oh Great and So Out-of-Touch Defenders of the Republic, is because he did what you won’t do. He spoke truth to power, while “power” was sitting less than 10 feet away from him.

I saw something that said that even Keith Olbermann (usually one of the good guys, but wrong on this one, if it’s true) was worried that the routine might have made poor Dubya “uncomfortable.” You know what I say? Good! He deserves to be “uncomfortable” and worse. All he hears, day and night, in his little bubble, is how wonderful he is, so of course a little dose of reality (which, as Colbert says, has “a well-known liberal bias”) is going to hurt. I mean, between Harriet Miers’ mash notes and Josh Bolten’s collection of photos of his hands, for God’s sake, the man doesn’t have a staff – he has a fan club. What he deserves, apart from trial and conviction for war crimes, is to never have a moment’s peace for as long as he lives. Like Richard III (Shakespeare's fictional Richard, not the real one), he deserves to have his dreams haunted by the thousands whose lives he’s been responsible for ending or ruining. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough imagination or capacity for remorse for that to ever happen.

What I’m a little worried about, as I told my sister yesterday, is that in the near future Colbert’s show will be cancelled due to his inexplicable “disappearance.” He also might want to consider not flying in the future, assuming that the government would let him fly, since he’s obviously an al Qaeda sympathizer.

Book Review: The Grass Crown *****

The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough *****

The second book in McCullough’s “Masters of Rome” series, The Grass Crown picks up where The First Man in Rome leaves off, chronicling the slow decline of Gaius Marius, the main character in the first book, and the rise of his aristocratic colleague and rival Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Several other Romans, famous, infamous and obscure, also make an appearance, including the young Pompey, Cicero, and of course Julius Caesar, already charming, intelligent to the point of genius, and utterly ruthless.

With the impeccable research that made The First Man in Rome such a joy for lovers of historical fiction, McCullough also provides a richly detailed background for the careers of these well-known men. Roman history is such a vast subject, usually concentrating on the expansion of the empire and dry politics, that it is a treat to get an intimate glimpse into the Romans’ personal lives, alliances and rivalries, as well as the larger but often overlooked conflict with the other Italian tribes known as the Social War. The strong women who helped make Rome great, although their political power was virtually non-existent, are not neglected here either. Marius’ wife, Julia, and Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, are two exceptional women who made their first appearance in the last book; introduced here, as a child, is the treacherous Servilia, who will eventually become the mother of Brutus. In addition, we get an extended look at Rome’s great nemesis Mithridates, king of Pontus, and a glimpse of Egyptian dynastic politics before Cleopatra.

Although sometimes the details of troop movements and political maneuvering can be a little hard to follow, McCullough’s real forté is characterization. As with the characters in I Claudius, they can take such a hold on the imagination that it can be a little disconcerting to read non-fictional accounts and find that for all the research and loving detail, her interpretations of personalities, motivations, etc. are just that, interpretations. To me, this is a mark of truly excellent fiction - to make the us forget that it is fiction and that we are not actually there, eavesdropping on history.

The hazards of being an Amazon reviewer

That reviewer rating ... those helpful votes ... those unhelpful votes. I admit it. I’m addicted to checking my profile to see how I’m doing – #27,792, 106 helpful votes/124 total, thank you very much. It’s much worse than the habit of clicking the SiteMeter on this site and checking how many people have seen the blog, how they found it, etc.

The problem with the reviewer rating, though, is that there is a temptation (although I don’t think I’ve given in to it yet), to pull your punches, especially if what you’re reviewing is something about which a lot of people have been very enthusiastic. Two cases in point: 1) I found Therese (the movie about St. Therese of Lisieux) to be very superficial, but a lot of people were just gushing about it. Maybe I was expecting more of it than it was aiming for, but I did feel that it could have been so much more that I felt justified in being hard on it. Still, I heard that little voice in my head saying, “A lot of people are not going to like this review and are going to give it a ‘not helpful’ vote.” I admit that occasionally I will do the same if I really feel that someone hasn’t gotten the point, but generally I won’t vote at all unless I find something to be decidedly unhelpful. 2) I also knew that I was probably going to get in trouble with some Narnia-philes with my generally negative review of The Last Battle, but I bent over backwards to be fair by starting out with a disclaimer that I might be irredeemably prejudiced against it, pointing out that I had rather enjoyed the middle books of the series, and suggesting ways in which parents could blunt what I found to be the problematic areas of the book by discussing it with their children. I would think that even lovers of the series would want to point out that Lewis lived in a different time and was raised with a sense of white (specifically British) male entitlement that he would have been more exceptional than he was to overcome.

Anyway, I will try my best not to be seduced by the siren song of the Amazon reviewer rating and to be guided instead by the words of my new “Amazon friend” Brian: “[The review of Therese] was probably a little too honest and will eventually get you a lot of negative votes but that goes with the territory of being honest with one’s opinion.... Best of luck and keep writing those reviews, Amazon needs more intelligent reviewers like yourself.“ That means a lot more.

An excellent op-ed from Arthur Schlesinger

Click on title to read entire article.

Bush's Thousand Days

By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Monday, April 24, 2006; Page A17

The Hundred Days is indelibly associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Thousand Days with John F. Kennedy. But as of this week, a thousand days remain of President Bush's last term – days filled with ominous preparations for and dark rumors of a preventive war against Iran.

The issue of preventive war as a presidential prerogative is hardly new. In February 1848 Rep. Abraham Lincoln explained his opposition to the Mexican War: "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.' "

This is precisely how George W. Bush sees his presidential prerogative: Be silent; I see it, if you don't ...

Book Review: Gods and Legions ****

Gods and Legions by Michael Curtis Ford ****

Gods and Legions is a historical novel about the Roman Emperor Julian, also known as the Apostate, who attempted during the second generation after Constantine to reverse the Christianization of the Empire. Julian’s story is told by his Christian doctor Caesarius (a historical character) to the doctor’s brother Gregory, bishop of Nazianaus, so we should assume from the start that his will be a biased account. However, he is also Julian’s friend, which exerts an influence in Julian’s favor, as well as giving him an insight into the Emperor’s thought processes and motivations.

Starting at the battle during which Julian receives the wound that will kill him (or is it the original wound that does the trick?), the narrative is an extended flashback tracing the path that has brought Julian, Caesarius and the Empire to this fateful moment. The only survivor of a purge by Constantine’s son Constantius that has eliminated all of his male relatives, Julian is in Athens studying philosophy when he is abruptly called to the Emperor’s court. Rather than being killed, which he half expects, the scholarly young man is thrust into the position of Constantius’ deputy in Gaul, which is riddled with corruption and menaced by barbarians. From the admiring point of view of Caesarius, we see Julian remake himself into a general and administrator and succeed where he was meant to fail, until the treachery of his uncle becomes too much for him and he takes up arms against the Emperor. Before their armies meet, however, Constantius dies, and Julian finds himself undisputed ruler of the Empire.

It is now that the friendship between the two men is stretched to its limits, when Julian announces to the devoutly Christian Caesarius that he has abandoned the beliefs with which he was raised and aims to restore the worship of the old gods. After a brief retirement from court, Caesarius is recalled to Julian’s side to accompany him in his attempt to fulfill the vain dream of previous emperors and conquer Persia, the campaign on which he is to be killed.

It is obvious that Ford has done painstaking research for this book, and I appreciate his historical note at the end suggesting further reading. The detail is impressive, particularly the battles and other military maneuvers, although it may be a little too graphic for some people’s taste. I suppose there is an argument to be made that these things were brutal and shouldn’t be sugarcoated, but the line between realism and gratuitous violence is a fine one, and I’m not sure that Ford always stays on the right side of it. Some parts of the novel dragged a little bit for me, particularly after the beginning of the Persian campaign, and the descriptions of Julian’s excesses in his observance of pagan religion sound suspiciously like Christian propaganda, of which I’m sure there was plenty. On the whole, however, I found Gods and Legions to be a well written and enjoyable book, and would consider reading other novels by the author. Readers interested in another fictional view of this fascinating character might want to check out Gore Vidal’s Julian.

God bless Australia

We and the Canadians (for the most part) seem to have missed out on the gene, but there’s nothing like the Brits and the Australians for sheer biting invective.

Some examples:

In recent weeks, scanning the political coverage in the mainstream US media and sampling the blogs has been to watch a flood tide ebbing to reveal a rotting, skeletal hulk. It is the George W. Bush ship of fools, stuck in the mud for the world to see in all its mendacity, its incompetence, its faith-based stupidity.

It is possible, at this late stage, that even Bush himself has begun to realise something is wrong. That oddly simian face is ashen, the eyes leaden. The voice is shrill and its tone defensive.
...

This is a trash presidency, founded on lies and knavery, fraud and ignorant ideological crackpottery.

Karl Rove is another faux-Texan wheeler-dealer sometimes described as Bush's brain, a courtier most often seen superglued to the presidential right ear. Pink and pudgy, he looks like one of Disney's three little pigs, although infinitely more smug.
...

Compared to this lot, Bill Clinton was John the Baptist.

Movie Review: Therese ***

I was very excited to see this film in the video store, but on the whole was quite disappointed with it. Comparing it to the actual life and writings of St. Therese of Lisieux is like comparing one of the saccharine pictures of her (holding a bouquet of roses and much prettier than in real life) to an actual photograph. Nice - maybe inspiring, but superficial and insipid when placed next to the real thing.

One of the big mistakes I think the makers of the film made, unless their goal was an introductory hagiography, was to attempt to portray Therese's entire life, at least beginning shortly before her mother's death. Even a relatively uneventful 15-20 years cannot be covered in any depth in an hour and a half. Also, even though she has a few crying spells, she is still shown as an almost perfect human being right from the beginning, so I didn't really get a sense of her spiritual struggle and growth. In addition, the passivity with with she is portrayed almost completely dilutes the power of her "little way." I believe that the French film mentioned by one of the other reviewers concentrated on the period of her illness and death, and was able to show her life and personality in much more depth.

A couple of things that could have been brought out or portrayed even in this version: the fact that Therese was made Mistress of Novices, entrusted with the spiritual direction of women who were sometimes older than herself; her relationship with the saintly old Mother Superior who died during her time at Carmel; and more than a glancing reference to the writing of the manuscripts that were published as The Story of a Soul.

However, if this movie inspires people to go out and read Therese’s writing (I also recommend the biography The Story of a Life by Msgr. Guy Gaucher, which is where I first encountered her), I suppose it will have fulfilled its purpose.

Moat of Death - what a great name

No, it's not something Dubya’s putting in around the ranch in Crawford to keep out the mothers of dead soldiers. It’s from the National Geographic website - they are busy little beavers these days, or just reporting on some really interesting finds. The disturbing part of the article is the suggestion that the "Moat of Death" may be a glimpse at the future of our oceans.

Beneath the waves of the South Pacific lies a volcanic realm nearly as strange as that featured in TV's hit drama Lost.

But instead of a mysterious island, scientists have found a bubbling submarine volcano whose weird features include a swirling vortex, a host of strange animals, and a fearsome zone of toxic waters dubbed the Moat of Death.

Book Review: Ghosts of Vesuvius

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino *****

People who like their reading clear, concise and organized will probably hate this book. To someone like me, who is decidedly “right-brained,” it was a joy to read, even though there were times when I put it aside because I just couldn’t cope with the sheer amount of information.

Charles Pellegrino, who has also explored the wreck of the Titanic and the island of Thera (whose devastation in a volcanic eruption is a possible inspiration for the story of Atlantis), here brings his expertise to the results of the first-century eruption of Mt. Vesuvius as well as the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. “The behavior of dust-heavy air in Manhattan was governed by the very same physics that sent volcanic death clouds crashing...upon the cities of Vesuvius in A.D. 79,” he writes, and the book which would have resulted from this simple comparison would probably have been equally fascinating, although much shorter and more focused.

Instead, Pellegrino gives us an extended meditation on catastrophes, human reactions to them and the impermanence of civilizations that is truly breathtaking in its scope, yet also shines a spotlight on intimate human moments and the personal reactions of the author, all the more poignant in the case of 9/11, where he lost people he knew. The bulk of the book is devoted to recent discoveries at Vesuvius, however. Pellegrino’s reconstruction of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, based on what science knows about the physics of it, eyewitness accounts from authors such as Pliny the Younger, and archaeological evidence, is riveting. He also builds up a context in which to place them, a context of slave revolts, religious ferment and amazingly advanced technology, which help to bring the people whose stories he tells to life.

This book probably could have been more tightly edited without losing its stream-of-consciousness feel, and Pellegrino’s assertions were sometimes hyperbolic and occasionally flat-out wrong (the Pharisees were not a “sect of Temple high priests,” but in general non-priests who were often in opposition to the Temple cult), but I still found it enjoyable and well-worth reading.

Book Review: The Gospel of Judas

The Gospel of Judas edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marin Meyer & Gregor Wurst (also includes an essay by Bart Ehrman) ****

If you want to know all the details about the race to preserve this exciting discovery, the science, etc., this book is not the one you want. That is evidently the focus of the companion book to this one, The Lost Gospel by Bart D. Ehrman. If, however, you want the actual translation of the Gospel of Judas with copious explanatory footnotes and essays that put it into some context, I highly recommend this book. One reviewer referred those who are only interested in reading the gospel to the NY Times website; however, the National Geographic site has the whole thing available for download with no registration required. I personally found the footnotes (only available in this book) to be very helpful in disentangling some of the theology and terminology used.

The essays are also well-written and illuminating, especially if the reader is not familiar with gnosticism. (These readers may also find it helpful to read the essays first and then the contents of the manuscript.)

Hype notwithstanding, this discovery is not about to shake the foundations of Christianity, but I hope that it will stimulate interest by Christians in the origins of their faith and the exciting ferment of ideas that existed during the first couple of centuries until all debate was shut down by the new establishment, the official religion of the Roman Empire. For the most part the “secret revelations” given by Jesus to “Judas” are boilerplate gnosticism, although even a glimpse of that system of thought, alien as it now is to most of us, may stimulate readers to learn more. I highly recommend Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels as a readable introduction; although several years old it is still in print. Ehrman’s Lost Christianities is a more recent exposition of the many “Christianities” that fought it out in the early centuries.

Books that I need to put on a fast track

These are books that I am really enjoying but for some reason just keep getting distracted from and have yet to finish. Of course they’re all quite long and just packed with information - maybe it’s some kind of overload. I suppose that what I should do is put them at the top of my list and not even touch anything else until they’re done, but somehow I doubt that will happen.

Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll. I love this book and its writer, especially some of the columns he’s published in the Boston Globe. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I had left off on the book that I had to start it all over again, and I was just as impressed the second time around. However, I have now reached just about the same point, and I haven’t picked it up for a couple of weeks.

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino. This is really the one I was thinking of when I said “packed with information.” There’s almost enough in here to blow the circuits in your brain, but his description of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, based on what science knows about the physics of it, eyewitness accounts from authors such as Pliny the Younger, and archaeological evidence, is riveting.

The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins. A fascinating journey backwards in time, based loosely on the framework of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. There is a lot of info in here to assimilate too, particularly scientific.

Leaker in chief

Just one more disaster in a week full of them. To be fair, I think that the people I listen to on Air America have made an amazing leap which, so far, at least, is not justified by the evidence – namely, that because Dubya authorized the leaking of the NIE, he is ipso facto guilty of outing Valerie Plame. (This, on an affiliate that calls itself “the voice of reason.”) Of course, the news makes it obvious that he’s at the very least a hypocrite and a liar, since even if he didn’t authorize that specific leak, he certainly could have guessed where it came from. Even he isn’t that stupid.

However, here is a meme that the White House’s media stenographers have been very effective in getting out, this time in Newsweek, although I have seen it in story after story since the news came out.

Legally, Bush did nothing wrong. The president can declassify a document any time he wants. Indeed, a sanitized version of the document in question—a National Intelligence Estimate compiled by the CIA and other agencies—was formally declassified and made public only 10 days after some of its contents were leaked by Libby to New York Times reporter Judith Miller in July 2003. But the administration was unquestionably playing games with reporters, whether or not the president was directly involved.

Only problem is, it’s not true. At least, not everyone agrees on the issue. John Dean (uh, former White House counsel, who might reasonably be expected to know something about it) writes the following on the Findlaw website:

In addition, conventional wisdom - if that label fits the consensus information that is surfacing on radio and television news shows - has it that this information does not reveal that the President or Vice President did anything illegal. But that claim, too, is not necessarily accurate.

At a minimum, the filing indicates that the President and Vice President departed radically, and disturbingly, from long-set procedures with respect to classified documents - and that the Vice President, in particular, exceeded his declassification authority. And it may indicate that they, too, ought to be targets of the grand jury.

This is what I would love to know – what did Dubya and Dick tell the FBI when they were interviewed? If they told the “truth,” or what they claim now is the truth, shouldn’t that have cleared up the investigation? And if they did nothing wrong, why cover it up?

More from Dean:

Assuming that Libby's testimony is accurate, did the President do anything wrong by so declassifying the NIE? Given the fact that the national security classification system is created by executive order of the president, it would appear logical that the president has authority to unilaterally and selective declassify anything he might wish. However, that is not the way any president has ever written the executive orders governing these activities. To the contrary, the orders set forth rather detailed declassification procedures.

In addition, there is law that says that when a president issues an executive order he must either amend that executive order, or follow it just as others within the executive branch are required to do. At present, we have so few facts it is difficult to know what precisely Bush did and how he did it, and thus whether or not this law is applicable. There is also the problem that no one has standing in court to challenge a president's refusal to follow his own rules. But voters may take note of the disposition of this administration to play by the rules, and put a Democratic Congress in place to keep an eye on the last two years of the Bush/Cheney presidency.

What is apparent, however, based on Fitzgerald's filing, is that no one other than Bush, Cheney, Libby and apparently Addington was aware of this unilateral and selective declassification - if, indeed, the NIE was declassified. The secrecy surely suggests cover-up. For example, Fitzgerald notes that Libby "consciously decided not to make [then Deputy National Security Adviser] Hadley aware of the fact that defendant [Libby] himself had already been disseminating the NIE by leaking it to reporters while Mr. Hadley sought to get it formally declassified." (Also, CIA Director George Tenet apparently was not aware of the partial declassification by Bush.)

Whatever authority Bush may or may not have had, however, it is crystal clear that Vice President Cheney did not have any authority to unilaterally and selectively declassify the NIE.

Recently, Cheney made the public claim (to Brit Hume of Fox News) that he had authority to declassify national security information. Learning of this, Congressman Henry Waxman asked the Congressional Reference Service of the Library of Congress, which issues non-partisan reports, whether Cheney was right. CRS found that the Vice President has limited declassification authority, generally speaking. And their report shows Cheney had no authority in this instance - only in situations where the Vice President had been the authority to classify the material in the first place, could the Vice President have the authority to unilaterally declassify it.

Is this America's future? The theocrats hope so.

Excerpts from a horrific article in Sunday’s New York Times about criminalized abortion in El Salvador:

Abortion is a serious felony here for everyone involved, including the woman who has the abortion. Some young women are now serving prison sentences, a few as long as 30 years.
...
In this new movement toward criminalization, El Salvador is in the vanguard. The array of exceptions that tend to exist even in countries where abortion is circumscribed — rape, incest, fetal malformation, life of the mother — don't apply in El Salvador. They were rejected in the late 1990's, in a period after the country's long civil war ended. The country's penal system was revamped and its constitution was amended. Abortion is now absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.

There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus — the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal. Like the woman I was waiting to meet.
...
As they do in any investigation, the police collect evidence by interviewing everyone who knows the accused and by seizing her medical records. But they must also visit the scene of the crime, which, following the logic of the law, often means the woman's vagina.

"Yes, we sometimes call doctors from the Forensic Institute to do a pelvic exam," Tópez said, referring to the nation's main forensic lab, "and we ask them to document lacerations or any evidence such as cuts or a perforated uterus." In other words, if the suspicions of the patient's doctor are not conclusive enough, then in that initial 72-hour period, a forensic doctor can legally conduct a separate search of the crime scene. Tópez said, however, that vaginal searches can take place only with "a judge's permission." Tópez frequently turned the pages of a thick law book she kept at hand. "The prosecutor can order a medical exam on a woman, because that's within the prosecutor's authority," she said.

In the event that the woman's illegal abortion went badly and the doctors have to perform a hysterectomy, then the uterus is sent to the Forensic Institute, where the government's doctors analyze it and retain custody of her uterus as evidence against her.
...

What will become of poor Tom Delay?

I've been worrying about Tom DeLay. I'm afraid he's going to find life after Congress unfulfilling. I suppose he could become a consultant, but that would probably be boring after being in the hurly-burly of things, twisting arms and cracking the whip on the floor, and I don't imagine that his former colleagues would welcome him back as a lobbyist, at least not for a year or two. However, I think I have a solution.

As you can see from the excerpt below (click here for link, though it's actually to a page that quotes the original article, or just google "tom delay vietnam"), poor Tom was never able to serve his country. Even though he wanted to go to Vietnam, those mean ole minorities got in first and cheated him out of his chance (although it looked from my search results like Big Bad Tom might also have claimed that his wife wouldn't let him go).

Read an excerpt from a 1999 article that recounts the novel excuse that DeLay offered as to why he and Dan Quayle didn't serve in Vietnam:

Which Bug Gets the Gas? Will the next house DeLay fumigates be that big White one or his own? By Tim Fleck....

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention...

Hey, Tom, they're calling up guys today who must be at least your age, and you look pretty fit and healthy in your mug shot. The way they've been lowering standards lately, indictment or even conviction shouldn't be an obstacle, as long as you can weasel your way out a long sentence. This is your chance to see combat and serve the party - uh, country - that you love so much. Go to exciting places (like Iraq), meet interesting people, and kill them. And unlike most of the Democrats in Congress, the Iraqis actually fight back. Be all that you can be!

Gospel of Judas and "missing link" in the same week - fundamentalists frothing at the mouth!

Here are a couple of news stories - Gospel of Judas here, "missing link" between fish and land animals here. It's pure coincidence that both of these outlets are Canadian - I don't even know if they're the best ones, but I wanted to get something up here before going to work. I will have more to say about both of these. As I said to my sister in an e-mail today, though, my reaction to the "Gospel" (and this applies regardless of the authenticiy - or lack thereof - of its contents), was, "Duh! I could figure out by reading the canonical accounts that the 'betrayal' was a put-up job."

Shabbat shalom!

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

Tom DeLay is out, and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the subject of this article: Federal Probe Has Edged Closer to Texan. Why, Tom says so - would he lie? We all know he’s being persecuted because he’s a “Christian.” If you believe this I’ve got some nice oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

I found this part of the article to be particularly nauseating - just one more example of crooks protecting their own. “DeLay also is entitled under federal election rules to convert any or all of the remaining funds from his reelection campaign to his legal expenses, whether or not he resigns, is indicted (my emphasis) or loses the election. Election lawyers say one advantage of bowing out of the election now is that the campaign cash can be converted to pay legal bills immediately, instead of being drained in the course of a bid to stay in office.” I don’t know what should happen to that money, but this is one thing that it shouldn’t be allowed to be used for. (Sorry about ending a sentence with a preposition, Esther - I just think it reads better. As Winston Churchill used to say, “This is something up with with we will not put.”)

For more on poor oppressed Christians check this hilarious clip from Bill Maher - as he says, nothing says “I’m oppressed” like the opulent Regency Ballroom of a fancy hotel. (He starts out talking about Andy Card leaving the White House.)

In case anyone thinks I'm completely opposed to C.S. Lewis and/or his brand of Christianity...

Here is an excerpt from an article discussing Lewis' feelings about the conservative Christian obsession with homosexuality as opposed to more widespread (and more culturally erosive) sins such as excessive materialism and the drive to get ahead at all costs. Maybe this is because of the tendency, which Jesus noted, for people to point out the mote in their brother's eye while ignoring the beam in their own, as most of the people who so loudly proclaim their Christianity to the world (see Matthew 6:5 – "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men") seem to be beset by these very problems.

Lewis also describes, largely in passing, the English public school tradition by which socially powerful older boys enter into sexual liaisons with younger boys, who thereby acquire a status similar to that of courtesans. At one point, Lewis addresses why he has so little to say about this practice, and indeed why he doesn't even bother to condemn it: "What Christian, in a society so worldly and cruel as that of Wyvern, would pick out the carnal sins for special reprobation? Cruelty is surely more evil than lust and the World at least as dangerous as the Flesh. The real reason for all the pother (about homosexuality) is, in my opinion, neither Christian nor ethical. We attack this vice not because it is the worst but because it is, by adult standards, the most disreputable and unmentionable, and happens also to be a crime in English law. The World will lead you only to Hell; but sodomy may lead you to jail and create a scandal, and lose you your job. The World, to do it justice, seldom does that."

Much has changed since Lewis wrote; but one thing that has not is the veritable obsession many Christian conservatives seem to have with homosexuality. As Lewis points out, this obsession has no sound basis in Christian ethics or theology. It is true that Christian morality has traditionally condemned homosexual behavior. But it is, on this view, no different from fornication, or promiscuity, which are also considered perversions of sexual passion, and which draw relatively little attention from contemporary moralists.

Furthermore, as Lewis notes, Christian theology considers lust to be a less dangerous vice than worldly ambition or (especially) spiritual pride. So why are so many Christian conservatives focused on the putative threat that the widespread acceptance of homosexuality presents to the spiritual health of society, as opposed to, say, the threat posed by the widespread acceptance of materialism, or the fanning of nationalistic passions?

Actually, I would have a lot more problems with the specific practice that Lewis dismisses so casually than with a committed same-sex relationship - not because of the homosexuality, but because of the abuse of power inherent in it.

More thoughts on Narnia

Well, I have now finished the entire series, so I can kvetch about it. I wasn't crazy about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but I actually did enjoy the middle books. On the whole, the less Lewis preaches, the more I enjoy him. I also read the Twayne’s Masterwork Series companion and The Way Into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide by Peter J. Schakel, which I found very useful and perceptive, although both of them seemed determined to ignore (for the most part) things that I found problematic.

Although some of his criticisms of the series are a bit too sweeping, on The Last Battle I have to agree with Philip Pullman. It seems to send some really horrible messages, and I just hope that a lot of kids don't pick up on them. First, there seems to be a tinge of the Victorian sentimental "good children dying young" meme. Secondly, dark-skinned people (also known as "Darkies") are just bad by nature, and only one of them, evidently, is worthy of heaven (or the Narnian version of it). Thirdly, in the first book Edmund was ready to betray his siblings to certain death and is forgiven; in this one Susan is presumably cast into the outer darkness for being a normal teenage girl. (One essay I read suggests that she may still have a chance, but the implication is there.) None of the "good" people seems more than mildly disturbed by this - shades of the saints enjoying a ringside seat watching the suffering of the sinners in hell, or it is more "out of sight, out of mind"? There is also no indication that they will ever be reunited with their parents, who were also killed in the train crash, and that doesn’t seem to bother them at all. Ain’t family values grand?

In the meantime, do any readers spare a thought for poor Susan? Her entire family has just been wiped out and as she is “no longer a friend of Narnia” she doesn’t even have the comfort of thinking of them in heaven. What happens to her afterwards could make a wonderful book.

I have seen several defenses of Lewis against Pullman’s charge of misogyny, but they all seem to miss the point. For the most part his female children aren’t too bad, but he seems to have a real animus against adult women. OK - some people would say against adults in general, with the exception of Frank the cabby and his wife in The Magician’s Nephew, but only the female villains are truly menacing on a metaphysical level.

One thing that annoys me really has nothing to do with Lewis himself, but with some of his adoring legions of followers. There seem to be as many non-Christian, mythological elements in these books as there are in Harry Potter (Bacchus?), but hey, that’s OK - presumably because they subordinate themselves to Aslan, while the Harry Potter books are denounced as “Satanic.”

I found what to me is the best explanation so far for my position on the HP side of the Harry Potter/His Dark Materials-Narnia divide (to the extent that there is one - I am aware that a lot of people enjoy all three series) in a book called Boys and Girls Forever: Children’s Classics From Cinderella To Harry Potter by Alison Lurie:

In Narnia, final happiness is the result not of individual initiative and enterprise, but of submission to the wisdom and will of superior beings. Misbehavior can be forgiven if it is sincerely repented...

One complaint that both [critics] make against the Potter books is that in them evil and good are ambiguous and shifting. Apparently harmless or innocent characters turn out to be working for dark forces, and wicked-looking characters are revealed to be messengers of light. In Narnia, on the other hand, good and evil are clearly distinguishable...

The world of Narnia is simple and eternal: goodness, peace, and beauty will eventually triumph. The world of Harry Potter is complex and ambiguous and fluid. And in this, of course, it is far more like our own world, in which it is not always easy to tell the ogres from the giants. When we choose books for our children, do we want them to teach obedience to authority or skepticism, acceptance of the status quo or a determination to change what needs to be changed?

(I would modify Lurie’s “obedience to authority” to “unquestioning obedience to authority,“ since I don’t think she is arguing that obedience in itself is a bad thing.)

A couple more curmudgeonly views can be found here and here.

Book Review: Day of the False King

Day of the False King by Brad Geagley *****

The second installment in this series, which follows the adventures of Semerket, Egyptian Clerk of Investigations and Secrets, in 20th Dynasty Egypt, does not disappoint. Semerket’s ex-wife Naia and Rami, a young boy whom he befriended in Year of the Hyenas, have been sent as slaves to Babylon, and Semerket receives a fragment of a note indicating that they are in danger. Upon appealing to Rameses IV, the new Pharaoh, who owes Semerket his life and his throne, he is given permission to seek them and bring them back to Egypt, as well as a sensitive diplomatic mission to the ruler of Babylon. (Oops - I originally put "king" but when reading this over remembered that one very strong point made in the book was that Babylon, unlike Egypt, didn't have a king.)

In Babylon, which is seething under foreign occupation (shades of modern day Iraq?) Sermerket quickly learns that he can trust no one, not even his own country’s ambassador. The raid on the plantation where Naia was a maid is rumored to have been undertaken by resistance fighters, but evidence points to Egyptian involvement. A remarkably clever and sophisticated slave, a seductive transvestite, and a pair of spies who stick to Sermerket like glue even after they’re called off are only a few of the many colorful characters who help him solve the several mysteries he faces and find out what happened to Naia and Rami.

One of the risks of writing about a hard-bitten and embittered character such as Semerket is that he will either become totally unsympathetic or, if his life improves sufficiently, lose the “edge” that makes him so interesting in the first place. Moving him to a different culture was a brilliant move for Geagley, since Semerket is thrown slightly off balance by the strangeness and is forced to show some of his vulnerabilities. It remains to be seen whether he will continue to maintain the balancing act.

The book also provides some fascinating insights into the Babylonian politics of the time, some quotations from The Lament for Ur (which appears to have similarities to the biblical book of Lamentations, if only because the emotions felt by the survivors of a devastated city probably don’t differ much), and ancient medical practice. I only wish that, on his website if not in the book, Geagley would provide some information about his sources and recommended reading for those who would like to learn more.

A Democratic mole in the RNC?

If you can’t stand going to any Republican websites, check out their new “anti-Feingold” ad on CrooksandLiars.com. This is so weird - why would the party in power want to show anyone using the words “the President broke the law”? It actually (heaven forfend!) gives context to Feingold’s call for censure, when they’ve been trying to spread the meme that those bad ole Democrats are going after Dubya for going after the terrorists.

I found it kind of ironic that our hyper-nationalist, English-only right wing would end their extremely bizarre ad with the grammatically awful "Who do you stand with?" Of course, they might think saying "Whom," let alone "With whom," would make them sound like those evil eastern elitists, but even "Who do you support?" wouldn't be as bad.

I also notice that when they have Feingold saying, "This is a lot more serious - a lot more like an impeachable offense..." they cut him off. What did he say after that? Probably something like "...than lying about sex." What - aren't they proud of that fiasco?

Finally, where is the beginning of that ad supposed to be set, anyway? It looks like either Fallujah or one of our inner cities, where setting off a bomb wouldn't make much of a difference to the landscape. It would have been a lot more effective if they'd shown these guys doing their dirty work in an affluent suburb or mall, but I suppose they wouldn't want to give the masses any ideas!

Book Review: The Secret Supper

The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra *****

If you are expecting another Da Vinci Code you will almost certainly be disappointed by The Secret Supper, which is not the same kind of fast-paced popular thriller. For one thing, it is set in the 15th century, during the creation of the Last Supper, and that alone slows it down. Also, it is more driven by character development than plot - not to criticize Brown's book, but there is a different emphasis, as well as a different vantage point on some of the same theories.

Father Agostino Levyre is sent to Milan by the Inquisition to investigate allegations made by a mysterious corresponent known to them only as the Soothsayer. According to the Soothsayer, the Duke of Milan and Leonardo da Vinci are conspiring to enshrine heretical ideas in Leonardo’s works, in particular the Last Supper, and Father Agostino must discover both the truth or falsity of the allegations and the identity of the Soothsayer. Sierra’s writing talents (and those of his translator, Alberto Manguel) are buttressed by his previous scholarly work in this area. In the process the inquisitor finds himself undergoing his own spiritual transformation.

At least one other reviewer at Amazon felt that the subject matter was too esoteric, but I would hope that readers would be inspired to do some more delving into the transmission of previously unknown traditions from Byzantium to the West in the fifteenth century and the possibility that “heretical” movements that had supposedly been wiped out survived into the Renaissance and influenced Leonardo. Recommended reading: The Albigensian Crusades by Joseph Strayer and The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O'Shea, which I've just started but seems to be very well-written.

He's got a lot of nerve (not!)

Here is one of those things I really wish I’d written (excerpts below), although I couldn’t have since I don’t have the patience to listen to or read as many of Dubya’s talks as this guy obviously has. It kind of reminds me of the prince in Shrek, who tells the army he has put together to assault the tower and win the princess (paraphrasing), “Many of you will die in the assault, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

He said it after a cabinet meeting. He said it in Wheeling, West Virginia. He said it at the "Mike Sodrel for Congress and Indiana Victory 2006 Reception." He said it at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner. He said it at the Georgia Republican Party President's Day dinner. (The "unnamed official" said -- well, the reporter who gave him cover wouldn't say where he said it.)

In all these comfortable, safe, even plush locations, he said it. But he didn't demonstrate it. What was he talking about? "Nerve."

...
This particular buzzword's going to bring him down. It's "bring it on," squared. Here's a man who's spent a lifetime losing his nerve, who blinks in thinly disguised panic when he's asked a question that's not in the script.
...

This pathetic tactic lights the President from within like an X-ray, revealing his nature for the entire country to see: The President is a weakling.

Immigration Part 2

One reason I like blogs better than letters to the editor (and this has happened with my more well thought-out ones too), is that you can have second thoughts and clarify your ideas. Now I’m hoping that I didn’t unintentionally sound like I was endorsing Dubya’s guest worker program, because I don’t think that companies should go out and bring people over unless they absolutely cannot find anyone in this country to do the jobs, which I doubt. My proposal was more an after-the-fact penalty (in addition to any fines, which as I said I don’t think work on their own) on the employers. As was pointed out by Randi Rhodes on her show today, there also has to be work done on the other end of the “pipeline,” making Mexico, in particular, a place where people can stay and earn a decent living for their families.

I used to buy into the idea that undocumented workers do the jobs that Americans won’t do, but now I have some major qualms about that. In some cases it might be true, but if it ever was on a large scale, a couple of things have changed in the past several years. First, as someone else pointed out on the radio, they’re not just picking vegetables anymore; the number of industries hiring people who are here illegally has expanded. Secondly, the economy and the job market have gotten worse, so that people might be willing to take jobs now that they weren’t twenty years ago. Also, it would make a big difference if they were offered a decent wage, but that’s the sticking point.

I’m really not sure what kind of work Americans are supposed to do - On Point had a show on last week about how everything except service jobs is eventually going to be shipped overseas, and they want to bring people in to do those. Then the rest of us, I suppose, will be excoriated for being lazy bums. Of course, they will presumably give us those service jobs if we’ll do them for next to nothing, but in that case we will end up as a country with a very few very wealthy and a majority of poor people. Evidently they’ve forgotten Henry Ford’s insight - that you have to pay people enough so that they can buy what you’re providing, or you’ll have a very limited base of people to sell to.

Then of course we have to look at what to do with the people who are already here. The idea of deporting them all is ridiculous and unworthy of this country, although not of our present leadership. The only thing that’s protecting them now is Dubya’s loyalty to his corporate base. It would be a long haul (although it might provide work for quite a few Americans), but I think they should be looked at, if not on a case-to-case basis, at least not as a homogenous mass. Are they the kind of people we want to have as citizens? Are they attempting to assimilate, or would they if given legal status? Are they people who are willing to work hard if their work is rewarded? Do they have family here who can help them out?

My proposal for immigration reform

Of course, when I send well-thought out, brilliant letters to the News they don’t get published, but when I dash something off on the spur of the moment and send it via a website that I connected to by e-mail, then I get a call from them. Well, I’ve been told that they will only publish you every 60 days, so there go the other ones I’d thought of writing - assuming they do print this one.

It seems to me that the main problem is that companies (as well as individuals) want cheap labor, whom they can treat any way they want because their employees will never report them for fear of being deported. The solution to this is to make any undocumented immigrant legal the minute they’re hired. Whoever hired them becomes their sponsor and is therefore responsible for them. (I know that this would require some finessing since I’m sure a lot of these people are paid off the books, so there would have to be a way for them to prove to the INS that they are working for someone. I leave that up to the lawyers. It would also have to be well publicized, since it wouldn’t work if the employees didn’t know about it.) This eliminates two things - the incentive that the employer has for hiring the person and the fear of being deported that keeps the employee from reporting substandard wages, conditions, etc. Fining the employer does nothing, since they probably just rack it up to the cost of doing business and go out and do it again. With my idea the employee doesn’t get deported, has a chance of becoming a productive, taxpaying legal immigrant and if they’re in danger of going on welfare, become disabled, etc., the employer becomes responsible for them.

I know there are a lot of people who foam at the mouth at the idea of “rewarding” people for coming here illegally, but I’m sure there could be some way in which additional hurdles could be put in their path before, say, they could become citizens. Considering the hardships that some of them go through, maybe more in some cases than those who wait their turn, I don’t think it would be that big a deal and anyway, if this could be enacted and enforced the numbers would go down drastically - though the price of fruits and vegetables might go up quite a bit.

Book Review: Love, Sex and Tragedy

Love, Sex and Tragedy by Simon Goldhill *****

The title sounds like either a soap opera or a really tacky popularization of history, but this book is an erudite and eminently readable examination of the multiple cultural threads that connect us to the ancient world, in areas from politics to entertainment.

The “love and sex” part is somewhat graphic, with several pictures of artifacts which, while in common use in the ancient world, could never be put on public display in museums lest they shock our oh-so-sophisticated 21st century sensibilities. In this first section Goldhill also talks about the real meaning of “Greek love,” which comes off as much more restrictive than modern gay rights activists would like to portray it, as well as the role of ancient statuary in creating the ideal of the male body, and the multitudinous ways in which the poetess Sappho has been “used to express female longing in a man’s world.”

The next section deals with Christianity and the ways in which it could not help being influenced by classical culture and philosophy, which at its most austere could have a lot in common with Christian ideals, in spite of itself. Goldhill’s comparison of the “adventures” of the early Christian St. Thecla, a follower of Paul, to racy Greek novels is fascinating. He also discusses more highbrow subjects, such as the importance of more accurate translations of Greek in the Renaissance (notably by Erasmus) to the breaking of the Catholic Church’s monopoly on scriptural truth.

In politics, as Goldhill points out, our debts to the classical world are many and so are our differences with it. After explicating the background and workings of the original democracy, he recounts the harsh criticism it attracted from such significant figures as Plato. He notes ironically that Socrates, for whose death Plato blamed Athens, never would have been allowed into Plato’s Republic.

Where entertainment is concerned, Goldhill seems to feel that we have abandoned some of the best aspects, such as the communal feeling that he attributes to the the Great Dionysia, the Athenian festival at which the great tragedies were staged, while retaining the worst, such as the fascination with violence epitomized by the gladitorial games. He does tell a wonderful story of tragedy working its magic in the modern world, when an audience in Northern Ireland, attending a performance of Sophocles’ Electra after a week of sectarian violence, insisted on remaining afterwards and discussing the devastating effects of revenge both on societies and the individual.

The book ends with a look at the story of Oedipus, in both its ancient and modern (Freudian) manifestations, and the importance of knowing our origins. From Clark Gable’s bare chest to George Washington as the Roman farmer/dictator Cincinnatus, from Mussolini’s appropriation of the fasces of ancient Rome to the Passover seder as Greek symposium, they are all around us.

Pedaling backwards as fast as we can

Here is a very disturbing story about the teaching of evolution (not!) in Arkansas. Long, but worth the read. By the way, these people are in violation of their own state educational standards, although I'm sure that they'll fix that if they can – by changing the standards, of course, a la Kansas.

I keep meaning to write some of that "original material" that is supposedly copyrighted at the bottom of the page, apart from book reviews, but it just never seems to happen.

Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the “e-word” (evolution)with the kids. They are permitted to use the word “adaptation” but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term “natural selection.” Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students’ questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.

But Bob’s personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old.”

As a person with a geology background, Bob found this restriction hard to justify, especially since the new Arkansas educational benchmarks for 5th grade include introduction of the concept of the 4.5-billion-year age of the earth. Bob’s facility is supposed to be meeting or exceeding those benchmarks.

Book Review: Year of the Hyenas

Year of the Hyenas by Brad Geagley ****

When the body of a blind, elderly priestess turns up on the opposite side of the Nile from where she lived, the mayors of the eastern and western halves of Thebes are at loggerheads, each declaring the crime to be in his own jurisdiction. As a compromise, the vizier appoints Semerket, a misanthropic, embittered "follower of Set" who has no respect for anything but the truth, to investigate the death.

In the process Semerket, who is trying to get over the loss of his beloved wife to another man, finds mystery and intrigue enough to drive her from his mind, at least temporarily. The "harem conspiracy" to kill Ramesses III and place his son by his wife Tiya on the throne is a historical fact, and Geagley imaginatively reconstructs the circumstances surrounding it. Interestingly, there is an article in the March/April 2006 issue of Archaeology magazine that discusses the possibilty of an unidentified mummy found in 1886 being the prince who was to have benefited from the conspiracy, and only a couple of months ago I was reading a book called Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt which discussed the rivalry between the two mayors and the organized tomb robbing that is also dealt with in Year of the Hyenas.

In addition to the painstaking historical detail, Geagley also creates interesting, believable and sympathetic characters, from the young Crown Prince whose succession is endangered to Semerket himself, as well as women such as Queen Tiya herself and the promiscuous, frustrated Hunro, whose dream is to leave the tomb-makers' village and set herself up in Thebes.

One of my only criticisms is that someone must have informed Geagley that it was obligatory to have at least one graphic sex scene, which only detracted from the plot and could easily have been deleted.

More on Africa's new ocean

This is a really cool story, with pictures yet, although it’s hard to tell exactly what you’re supposed to be looking at in some of them. It gives a lot more information than the original article, which I posted a link to some time ago. It's nice to read once in while about something happening in the natural world that isn't an imminent disaster caused by human activity. That's one reason why I like to post these stories, along with the other ones about discoveries of new species, etc. Click on title to read whole story.

A Continent Splits Apart
By Axel Bojanowski
Normally new rivers, seas and mountains are born in slow motion. The Afar Triangle near the Horn of Africa is another story. A new ocean is forming there with staggering speed -- at least by geological standards. Africa will eventually lose its horn.

Will anyone notice?

Salon has now published all 279 photos and 19 videos that it possesses from the Army’s internal investigation of the abuses of Abu Ghraib. Of course the biggest issue in the so-called “mainstream media” is whether the NY Times correctly identified the prisoner in the iconic photo of the man standing on the box with his arms outstretched.

Update (3/19): The answer to this question, obviously, is no. Even Buzzflash hasn't had anything on it since the original posting.

Thank you, Senator Feingold!

It’s good to know that at least one Democrat has the guts to stand up to Mr. 36% Approval Rating, but in the meantime all of his colleagues (except Harkin, at the moment) look pathetic. The description of their all avoiding the reporters who want to ask whether they will support Feingold’s resolution for censure reminds me of the scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 where Michael Moore is asking the members of Congress whether they’re willing to sign their kids up for the army. “Cowering“ fits them perfectly. Well, Americans were starting to trust Democrats more than Republicans to protect them, but after this display of sniveling pusillanimity, that may change. If these people won’t even stand up for principle on a largely symbolic vote, what will they stand up for?

Here’s a link to a great article by William Greider (excerpt below). We need more ”embarrassments“ in the Senate, and the House too!

The Nation -- Senator Russ Feingold is an embarrassment to the US Senate, which makes him an authentic hero of the Republic. The Wisconsin senator gets up and says out loud what half of the country is thinking and talks about every day. This President broke the law and lied about it; he trashed the Constitution and hides himself in the flag. Feingold asks: Shouldn't the Senate say something about this, at least express our disapproval? He introduces a resolution of censure and calls for debate.

Well, that tore it in the august chamber of lawmakers. Democrats scurried away like scared rats. And Republicans chortled at the thought. You want to censure our warrior President, the guy who defends us every day against terrorist attacks? Let's have a vote right now, the Republican leader demanded. Yuk, yuk.

Happy Purim!

A hollow creature indeed

I love this quote from James Carroll’s column in Monday’s Boston Globe. He’s the author of Constantine's Sword, by the way, and I would finish that book if only I would stop getting piles of them out of the library.

If this were a novel or a play, we would watch with a certain empathy, alert to revelations of our own inevitable implication in deception and self-deception. None of us is innocent, and it is to wrestle with that fact of our condition that we read books and buy theater tickets.

But the present American story is not a work of literature. From all appearances, the president is not a candidate for the role of ''Bush" because a narrative that unfolds across the terrain of an inner life requires an inner life, and Bush shows no sign of having one.

Even a character flaw presumes a depth of character that the president seems to lack. What interior conflict can there be for a man who attributes all failures, all mistakes, all crimes to those around him, as if he himself (alone of all humans) is blameless? Where there is no capacity for shame, there is none for insight, much less transformation. Without the secret struggle against the self, there can be no drama, only pathos.

As for us, the beholders of this narrative, there can be no suspension of disbelief, no identification, and no recognition of our own fate being rescued by a confrontation with the truth. On the contrary, since this is not literature but life, there is only the increased awareness of the danger into which the world is plunged by having such a hollow creature in the position of ultimate power. (emphasis mine)

Book Review: The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman *****

Twelve-year-old Will Parry is on the run. His father, a retired soldier and explorer, vanished in the Arctic soon after he was born, and now mysterious men (government? military?) are after the letters that he sent to Will’s mother during his last expedition. Determined to find his father or at least what happened to him, Will leaves his emotionally fragile mother with a friend. He returns to his home to find the men there, and one of them is killed. Fleeing from the house, cat lover Will follows a strange cat through a “hole” in the air, and finds himself in another world.

This is the opening to The Subtle Knife, the second book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. In Cittagazze, the spectre-haunted world where Will ends up, he meets Lyra Silvertongue, the protagonist of The Golden Compass, and they form an uneasy alliance that will mature into a deep and abiding friendship. Will’s natural gentleness, as well as the cautiousness and sense of responsibility he has been forced to develop in “parenting” his childlike mother, provide a counterweight to Lyra’s weaknesses of impulsivity and recklessness, while she prods and sometimes bullies him into action, as well as giving him some of the nurturing he has lacked in his life.

Will finds himself, after a violent fight in which he is forced to kill a man, the possessor of the “subtle knife,” which can, in addition to cutting through any earthly surface, also cut windows between worlds. The two children will use the knife and Lyra’s alethiometer (the “golden compass” of the first book), to pursue their self-appointed quests, finding his father in Will’s case and discovering more about the mysterious “Dust” in Lyra’s. Along the way they are caught up in an escalating revolt against the church authorities and “the Authority” in heaven led by Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel. (I do not believe that Pullman means “the Authority” to be God, but the twisted, desiccated “God” that many people have unfortunately replaced Him with.)

Not only do many of the wonderful characters from the first book (Serafina Pekkala, Lee Scoresby, Mrs. Coulter) make an appearance, but several new ones who will play vital parts in the denouement of the story are also brought in, most notably Mary Malone, a physicist in our world who has lost her Catholic faith. She is enlisted by Lyra to explain the mysteries of Dust, but ends up being far more important in the scheme of things. Angels and Gallevespians (tiny people who ride dragonflies and make excellent spies) are also introduced.

This is a book that is filled with adventure and heroic sacrifice, as well as friendship, loyalty, and abiding questions about good and evil.

Book Review: Finding Darwin's God

Finding Darwin’s God by Kenneth R. Miller *****

Subtitled “A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution,” this book is a thoughtful and serious attempt to resolve the question of whether a sincere Christian (or adherent of any other Western religion, which is his main focus) can also accept Darwinian evolution. In the first chapter, Miller recounts his religious Catholic upbringing, his introduction to Darwin (dogged by warnings that he was reading a “dangerous” book), and his later decision to enter the field of biology.

The next part of the book looks at the development of the scientific method and the theory of evolution, as well as painstakingly and devastatingly refuting the three major schools of opposition to it. He shows that the proponents of these “alternatives” misunderstand and distort science, continue using obsolete arguments long after they are debunked, and make no effort to do scientific research of their own while demanding that their ideas be accepted as science. He also argues that they present profoundly flawed pictures of God, as evidenced by his chapter titles: “God the Charlatan,” “God the Magician,” and “God the Mechanic.“

Miller also tackles head-on the most legitimate beef of the anti-evolutionists, the use of ”Darwinism“ by many scientists to attack religion and to claim that if nature can be explained and understood, God is proven not to exist or life proven to be purposeless. He feels that it is as wrong to make these claims as it is to attempt to use science to ”prove“ that God does exist.

The final third of the book is devoted to a passionate and well thought out case that acceptance of the truth of evolution is not only not a bar to a sincere and committed religious outlook, but can be, in conjunction with other areas of science, an affirmation of it. I won’t try to summarize or do justice to his argument here, but I believe that many who are more traditional than I am will find it convincing. I don’t think that Miller will convert any atheists to his point of view, but that is not his purpose. What he is doing is reaching out to believers and offering them a place at the table instead of antagonizing them and pushing them away, without compromising his scientific integrity. His obvious enthusiasm for science and love of God make him a perfect person to do this, and given that people are most belligerent when they feel that their core beliefs are being threatened, it seems to me to be a very sensible course to follow.

Movie Review: Mirrormask

Mirrormask ****
Screenplay: Neil Gaiman
Starring: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee Director: Dave McKean Rating: PG

Helena Campbell is an artistically talented teenager who is part of a circus family and wants to “run away to real life.” When her mother becomes seriously ill after they have an argument, she naturally feels responsible. During the night before her mother's major surgery, she wakes up in a weird, phantasmagoric land based on her own drawings, where the "balance has been upset" and the Queen of Light lies in a deathlike sleep as shadows destroy her kingdom. Only Helena, with the help of a rogue named Valentine, can wake the Queen, as well as returning to her own world, where an "anti-Helena" is wreaking havoc with her life, by finding a mysterious "charm."

There is obviously a lot of psychological symbolism in this film, but the creators are not in your face about it. I think that many people will recognize the portrayal of the inner turmoil that teenagers often face as they attempt to separate from their parents while still maintaining a loving relationship. Of course, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption are themes that will resonate with viewers of any age.

Not surprisingly, with the involvement of Neil Gaiman and Jim Henson Productions, the conception of the alternate reality, as well as its realization on film, is awesome.

South Dakota abortion ban

As you may know, the South Dakota legislature has passed a law that would ban virtually all abortions in the state. Read more here.

A couple of recent articles by Jane Hamsher (here and here) on the Huffington Post slam NARAL and Planned Parenthood for using the issue to raise funds but not being there when the chips were down (i.e., to stop Scalito), but Planned Parenthood does have an easy-to-use tool for sending a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Use it. I plan to.

The phantom reader

Even though I don’t have a clue whether anyone apart from myself is reading this blog, I’ve noticed a definite difference between the mindset of someone writing just for him/herself and writing, at least theoretically, for public consumption. It’s subtle, but every so often I hear a little voice in my head, when thinking of a topic, saying, “But is anyone really going to be interested in reading that, however fascinating you personally may find it?” I’m sure that this pressure increases as a writer (or performer of any kind) gains a larger audience, often leading to charges of “selling out.”

It seems to me that there is a fine line to walk here. On the one hand, I would like to connect with people who care about at least some of the things that I care about, and I suppose you can stay true to yourself without dumping everything in your brain on the whole world, but I would also like to explore topics that may bore others out of their minds, so if anyone’s out there I hope you’ll just skim past those and that there is enough here that does interest you to keep you coming back.

We never could have anticipated...

You name it – planes being flown into buildings, levees being breached - except that it turns out that all of these things were anticipated, and finally, here is the smoking gun on the levees: a video of a briefing session from before Katrina hit

As someone somewhere has said, the administration and its spokesrobots in the media will spin it by saying, "Oh, they just said that the levees might be 'topped,' not actually broken through." Of course, if a Democrat were making that claim, the same people would immediately label it "Clintonian."

Anyway, I'm sure their main concern will be finding out who leaked the tapes, one of which they had told Congress they didn't have "because no one hit record." Good to know there are some patriots in this government who are fed up enough to get this stuff out.

Support our troops - bring them home!

The results of the first-ever poll of the soldiers on the ground have to be seen to be believed. An “overwhelming” 72% think we should leave within the next year (why do they hate America?), but this is the scariest part.

Nearly nine of every 10 - 85% - said the U.S. mission is "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks," while 77% said they believe the main or a major reason for the war was "to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq." (emphasis mine)

I have mixed feelings about Mike Malloy on Air America, but one thing I agree with him on - whoever is feeding them this B.S. is evil! Not even that many civilians ever thought that, and it should be common knowledge by now outside of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh’s show that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and despised bin Laden. Even Dubya has admitted it - on videotape - so the only way they could think so this overwhelmingly is if they’re getting it from their superiors.