Judge Kennedy Strung Up Down By Daltonistas

Not Justice Kennedy, recently

Wall Street Journal, Friday, November 20, 2009 -- "Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said he was frustrated by criticism of his response to a school newspaper's coverage and called it a misunderstanding that spiraled out of control. Justice Kennedy went to New York's Dalton School on Oct. 28 to speak to students about civics.

Shortly after, the student newspaper ran a note saying "numerous publication constraints" had delayed its article on his talk. The New York Times then reported that Justice Kennedy's office had barred the student paper from publishing an article without its approval.

The story flashed across the Internet, prompting editorial writers and bloggers to brand Justice Kennedy, for years one of the court's strongest free-speech advocates, a hypocrite."

We Can Always Run Like F@*&%$

He's Gonna Get To Us All Twice Over

There is something almost "Hollywood Blockbuster Sequel Extravaganza!" about the decision to bring alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in a civilian court in lower Manhattan -- not a mile or two from the twin towers, not even ten city blocks from ground zero, but in fact a distance of perhaps six minutes' brisk walk from where bodies and glass and concrete rained down eight years ago.

My feelings about this are conflicted. It seems almost affording the man a privilege, to be brought to the scene of the 'crime of the century,' though of course there will almost certainly be other, worse, examples of man's inhumanity to man. And speaking of privilege: if the U.S. waterboarded KSM 183 times, according to reports, does he have the right to counter-sue for ill treatment in custody?

If this is to be a fair trial, and, remember, the chief law enforcement officer of the U.S. is Harvard Law Professor Obama, there has to be somewhere the slim possibility that KSM could be acquitted on a technicality, and therefore, he'd get to walk. A technicality like, "They waterboarded me 183 times! I'd have confessed to sinking the Titanic after that." A fair trial includes pre-trial motions for disclosure: what might KSM's defense attorney ask for? One (presumably biased) right-wing American suggested at very least that KSM would want to air information about: "interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques..." Maybe KSM could take a racial profiling suit all the way to the Supreme Court?

Now of course I know that KSM has boasted of carrying out the planning of the attacks of 9/11 many times, which, in spite of the waterboarding, may make the prosecution's task much easier, but let us also consider an example from the recent past.

There are enormous differences in degree, magnitude -- but not much else different -- between the activities of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland and the works of al Qaeda. It was the vigorous intent of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to treat the IRA as criminals, men and women who hid in ditches and hedges, houses and barns, so as to ambush police officers, soldiers, civilians with bullets and bombs, because, Thatcher said, the attackers were no different from pickpockets, car thieves, drug dealers and rapists. IRA members were tried -- sort of -- as if they murdered people the same way as Al Capone murdered people.

But of course they did not commit murder for the same reasons: as was often argued in and out of court, these people were motivated by political ideals which, no matter how repugnant, how disgusting their outworkings, were of a vastly different order from common criminality. In fact, a 'common criminal' might hope to keep the body count to a minimum, in order to stay ahead of the law. The whole point of political murder is to draw attention to your politics.

Thatcher herself said famously: "There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence." But hadn't she heard of George Washington? Of Michael Collins?(From County Cork!) Of the Stern Gang? Of any or all the successful 20th century 'freedom fighters' whose failure would have meant spending history in the column titled 'terrorists'?

If you are staring down the gun barrels of an imperial power against whom you have no legal redress in a court or at a ballot box, what would you do next? If that imperial power has already invaded your lands, arrested and tortured your neighbors, ask yourself how low would you go? I would not ever dare equate KSM with George Washington (KSM has already made that comparison himself*). Washington fought for liberty of some kind; KSM presumably would want to successfully impose some form of Islamic legal bullshit on everyone. But at some point someone has to ask why KSM and his pals were motivated to do what they did. And in an ordinary court of law, no prosecutor can conclude his or her remarks with a George W. Bush form of words such as: "and so I call for the death penalty because we think the defendant is pure evil."

Through all of the recent talk about post-George Bush America no longer torturing there runs as usual a strange naivete. "We don't torture," is the mantra I've read and heard, here and there. Of course I want to live in a world where no one is waterboarded. Of course I want to live in an America where no one is tortured, least of all tortured by having to read my blog. But extending to KSM a trial in, of all places, the scene of his greatest triumph, seems guaranteed to torture all of us, from the families of victims to the average commuter. If war is the continuation of politics by other means, can't justice be done by quietly dropping KSM on his head?

*From a Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal, KSM's own words: Same language you use, I use. When you are invading two- thirds of Mexican, you call your war manifest destiny. It up to you to call it what you want. But other side are calling you oppressors. If now George Washington. If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain. For sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant. But American they consider him as hero. This right the any Revolutionary War they will be as George Washington or Britain. So we are considered American Army bases which we have from seventies in Iraq. Also, in the Saudi Arabian, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. This is kind of invasion, but I'm not here to convince you.

This is Stephen McKinley

Another one (courtesy of FacePuke). If there are more than one of me, does that reduce my value by 50 percent?

He says many things, but this especially touched me:

"Give a man a match and he'll be warm for a minute. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

So true.

Wisdom is clearly a trait we share.

U.K. woman loses appeal over ban on 'unnatural' lovemaking

LONDON - A British woman lost her appeal yesterday against a ban on her noisy sex sessions, after a court in Newcastle heard how her marathon romps that kept neighbours awake sounded like someone being murdered.

Caroline and Steve Cartwright's 'howling' lovemaking sounded 'unnatural,' 'hysterical' and 'like they are both in considerable pain.' (Neither of them are pictured above, however this image represents "a typical English couple," according to the 2010 Paul Newman Zimbabwean Recipe Guide).

Neighbours at their home in Washington, northeastern England, complained about the noise -- as did passers-by and the mailman.

The couple were banned from 'shouting, screaming or vocalization at such a level as to be a statutory nuisance.'

Ms. Cartwright, 48, appealed under human rights laws against her conviction for breaching the ban.

"It's just not fair," moaned Ms. Cartwright afterwards. "This... just... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh..... isn't just," she groaned, while Mr. Cartwright gasped, then howled: "We. ALWAYS! Speak... likethis!!! Hnnnnnggh!"

We Sat For A Long Time, Confused in Central Park

The view was nice, though.

Dissident Mourns Fall of Wall

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall brought to an end Soviet hegemony over half the world, a well-known expert on walls tearfully wrote on his blog:

"That Wall was the ONLY HOME I EVER KNEW!"

Elsewhere, a young French philosopher wondered if Capitalism's triumph as Communism fell -- described popularly in the 1990s as "The End of History" -- was not in fact the beginning of a far more invidious dark night of the soul. His bleak thoughts resonate throughout his book, Coming of Age At the End of History:

Camille de Toledo burst onto Paris’ intellectual scene in 2008 with his brilliantly incisive manifesto, examining present-day counterculture from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. He asks what it is, exactly, his generation is protesting against and contemplates how revolt against western capitalistic values has been neutralized since the time of Francis Fukuyama’s landmark 1989 article “The End of History.” Providing historical context from The Surrealists to Jean-Luc Godard; Guy Debord to Johnny Rotten, Gilles Deleuze to Kurt Cobain, he reveals how the diffusion of political power as well as media co-option have robbed all forms of cultural dissent of their critical potential, leaving behind a new generation of rebels unsure of their cause.

This is more important than you, dear reader, may think, more important than I can express. I can only say, with humor, that we are more doomed than ever before. And if proof is required, just look at the latest news:

"'Bobbitt' Case: I Cut Off Dad's Penis and Burned It, but I Didn't Want Him to Die, Queens Woman Says"--headline, Daily News (New York), Nov. 5
"Woman Forced to Wear Diapers to Work"--headline, Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 5
"Adopt Me: Prince Charles Looking for Someone to Love"--headline, El Paso Times, Nov. 6

From the Fall of the Wall to the Fall of the Towers is just over a decade, but the 1990s will be one of the most significant era in recent history. In the end, we all fall down.

Ignorance is Bliss

"I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit... For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1, 17-18.

"The Doc said he would inoculate me with a vaccine, then I'd be immunized"

With Swine 'Flu (don't forget that apostrophe, folks!) and regular 'flu stalking the land, conversation this Fall has often turned to the subject of the 'flu shot. Or indeed shots, plural, because regular influenza requires a different (... uh... vaccine? inoculation?) shot from the more scary H1N1 virus, also known as Swine 'Flu.

What is the difference, I wonder, between these verbs, which we all use interchangeably? To vaccinate; to immunize; to inoculate?

Inoculation, strictly speaking, means putting something into another organism where it will grow or reproduce. It is used most commonly to refer to putting serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease.

Vaccination: the word originates with the work of Edward Jenner, sometimes known as the Father of Immunology, because he figured out that milkmaids did not seem to catch Smallpox (and had fair, unmarked skin), because their work with cows (French: la vache, from Latin: vacca), caused them to catch a milder variety of the disease, Cowpox, which produced an immune response. Ergo: they could not catch Smallpox.

Immunization means the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against a disease or pathogen.

After all that, I sort of see how each word differs in its definition, but also how they overlap. It's time for a joke: last winter, a man says to his friend, "I said that Americans would never elect a black man as President, never in a million years, pigs will fly before that ever happens! And the next thing that happens? Swine 'Flu!"

[Adding a final word or three to this post: a fairly common expression at home in Ireland, aimed at anyone who talks a lot, is: "Where you inoculated with a gramophone needle when you where a child?" It seems to be a common expression across the English-speaking world].

Like a slow sledge hammer!

"You are a terrible woman; but I love your pulse!"

I recently watched — and loved — The Millionairess, a play by George Bernard Shaw, in a 1972 BBC production starring Maggie Smith as a monstrous English woman in the title role. Tom Baker hilariously plays an Egyptian Muslim doctor, who is her polar opposite.

She is stinking rich; he gives every penny he earns away to the poor. Shaw uses the play as a vehicle for his Socialist ideals, ramming home point after point about the evils of the wealthy accumulating their money/power while the poor starve, fall sick, suffer and die. He is acute on every point, and though almost too didactic, he is far more subtle than say, Arthur Miller, whose plays are blunderbusses to Shaw's scalpel (and with none of Shaw's humor).

Tom Baker (yes, Doctor Who!) is seen above after discovering that stinking rich Epifania, the Millionairess of the title (Maggie Smith), has kicked someone down a hotel staircase, then pretends it is she who is in need of medical attention. He checks her pulse, and gasps. For she has a pulse "like a slow sledge hammer..."

I love Baker's voice when he delivers this beautifully alliterative line. Of course, the doctor falls in love with her:

THE DOCTOR [coming to her and feeling her pulse]: Something wrong with your blood pressure, eh? [Amazed] Ooooh!! I have never felt such a pulse. It is like a slow sledge hammer.

EPIFANIA: Well, is my pulse my fault?

THE DOCTOR: No. It is the will of Allah. All our pulses are part of the will of Allah.

ALASTAIR: Look here, you know, Doc: that wont go down in this country. We dont believe in Allah.

THE DOCTOR: That does not disconcert Allah in the least, my friend. The pulse beats still, slow, strong. [To Epifania] You are a terrible woman; but I love your pulse. I have never felt anything like it before.

PATRICIA: Well, just fancy that! He loves her pulse.

THE DOCTOR: I am a doctor. Women as you fancy them are nothing to me but bundles of ailments. But the life! the pulse! is the heartbeat of Allah, save in Whom there is no majesty and no might... One, two, three: it is irresistible: it is a pulse in a hundred thousand. I love it: I cannot give it up.

BLENDERBLAND (whom she had kicked downstairs): You will regret it to the last day of your life!

Clint Eastwood and Issues of American Masculinity

My friend Drucilla Cornell has written a new book: Clint Eastwood and Issues of American Masculinity.

Briefly: Professor Cornell, a former union organizer and professor of feminist jurisprudence is the presently occupant of the national research foundation chair in customary law, indigenous values and the dignity jurisprudence (that's a mouthful) at the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town.

She has been interested in the transition of Eastwood (below, with his wife) from his Dirty Harry days to the introspective, even ineffectual men of his more recent movies, grappling (she says) with the classic male American stereotypes — cowboy, cop, soldier, boxer — and, she argues, he has helped sink these images as they were already foundering.

There Are Some Things Money Can't Buy

There are so many reasons to vote that little shit Bloomberg out of office tomorrow, as he attempts to buy a third term (should we say steal a third term?), but here I present two. The first one is the above photo; need I say more?

The second is this fact: at a time when 'ordinary' people are struggling with hard times, poverty, lay-offs, no cash or not enough cash to go around, "Bloomberg is spending $35,000 an hour out of his own pocket on his campaign." [NY1]

Riverside Church Labyrinth

Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is the tallest church in the U.S. and also — to my fascination when I first discovered it years ago — has a labyrinth or maze outlined on the floor of the nave.

The labyrinth is designed to be walked by those of faith while pondering and meditating. In the largest sense, it represents the twists and turns of the road of life, those times of confusion or moments of uncertainty, when, in reprising them by walking the labyrinth, one gains at very least perspective on one's problems. Two images of the actual Riverside Church labyinth, below.

From the Past, and Thoughts of the Future

Dear readers, here are a few random images from the past, ending with a book recommendation for the future.

Keith Haring's "Ten Commandments" was exhibited in the U.S. for the first time ever (at the Deitch Gallery in Long Island City, on loan from Nice, in France).

Remember when the world was ruled by folks who looked like those ones (above)? Don't worry, it soon will be again. That's if people like him (below) keep on putzing around (it seems to me) with the delusion that bipartisanship is possible with the radical clerics of the Republican Party of Hatred, Bigotry and No.

Meanwhile, for what it matters (a lot, actually), the New York Times Magazine presents a big article on the Obamas' Marriage.

All of this, and none of it will matter soon enough. For the future, I recommend a read of the book below. An excerpt from the preface follows.

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon

I never heard of these islands before: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, "where France meets North America!" as the islands' excited web site says. The islands lie just south of Newfoundland, and 800 miles north-east of Boston, in the North Atlantic (see map below). Being close to French-speaking Canada, of course the islands are francophone, but they are also still French territorial possessions! In other words, Americans and Canadians have to pass through French (E.U.) passport control to visit the islands.

Tiny islands indeed. But size matters, and while in fact there are more than two of these petit morceaux, they are collectively known by the names of the two largest islands, naturally. Do not forget that after St Pierre and Miquelon there's also Ile aux Marins, Langlade,and many other little spits of rock.

Chomp

Hallowe'en's Most Terrifying Manifestation

...is Wicked Dusty!

Good God, They're Godless

In this most religious of cities*, atheists are having their moment, see above. Curses! Just when I have started believing in God again! I'm always so unfashionable...

*New York City may be recognized worldwide for Wall Street, Broadway and Sex, but it's crammed full of churches, synagogues, mosques, hospel galls, etcetera...

Welcome News for Politicians, Crooks, Crims

Old Grey Lady Cuts 100 Newsroom Jobs

Wall Street Journal, 10/18/09 — The New York Times on Monday said it plans to shed 100 jobs from its nearly 1,300-person newsroom by the end of the year, the latest in a string of cost-cutting moves as the newspaper grapples with steep revenue declines.

The Times hopes to achieve the cuts through buyouts but will resort to layoffs if it can't get the requisite number of volunteers. The buyout offer, disclosed to Times employees in a memo from Executive Editor Bill Keller, will be made to both union and nonunion employees. The Times will distribute the offers to everyone in the newsroom on Thursday, the same day New York Times Co. reports third-quarter earnings.