The Latest in Bashing Department

From iviews.com, an opinion by Nahal Ameri, community relations director of the Los Angeles–based Muslim Public Affairs Council, titled "The New Breed of Islam Bashers":

"There is a new breed of Islam bashers that were at one point part of the Muslim community itself. Muslims already have to contend with people like Daniel Pipes making statements such as 'Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene. . . . All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.' "

"Now beyond Daniel Pipes, Muslims are seeing a new stream of attacks against their faith by individuals that were born Muslim and being promoted by media. . . . Although I completely respect freedom of speech, I must ask what is the point of all of this? Do these Muslim bashers want us all to convert out of Islam? Do they want the whole world to hate Islam? The answer in my view is that they want Muslims and the rest of humanity to renounce the religion and in their delusion hope to extinguish the light of Islam from the world."

*****

If you're interested in the whole Daniel Pipes thing -- and I warn you, it's nothing but a can of worms -- go here and read Pipes's response to the charges levied against him, including his denial that the statement attributed to him above is was not his view but simply his "reporting on the way Europeans think."

Department of Delayed Notification of Chronical Longevity

Last week, without my noticing it, my blog "turned" a year old. What can I say?

Trading Bases Department

"From the ashes of abandoned Iraqi army bases, U.S. military engineers are overseeing the building of an enhanced system of American bases designed to last for years.

"Last year, as troops poured over the Kuwait border to invade Iraq, the U.S. military set up at least 120 forward operating bases. Then came hundreds of expeditionary and temporary bases that were to last between six months and a year for tactical operations while providing soldiers with such comforts as e-mail and Internet access.

"Now U.S. engineers are focusing on constructing 14 'enduring bases,' long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops expected to serve in Iraq for at least two years. The bases also would be key outposts for Bush administration policy advisers.

As the U.S. scales back its military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq provides an option for an administration eager to maintain a robust military presence in the Middle East and intent on a muscular approach to seeding democracy in the region. The number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, between 105,000 and 110,000, is expected to remain unchanged through 2006, according to military planners.

" 'Is this a swap for the Saudi bases?' asked Army Brig. Gen. Robert Pollman, chief engineer for base construction in Iraq. 'I don't know. . . . When we talk about enduring bases here, we're talking about the present operation, not in terms of America's global strategic base. But this makes sense. It makes a lot of logical sense.' "

Read the rest of the story here.

Department of an Example to the Commander in Chief

"Acting on a damning report of United Nations security failures in the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters last August, Secretary General Kofi Annan fired his chief of global security, demoted a second senior official, penalized three staff members and received — but did not accept — the resignation of his own deputy, his spokesman said Monday."

If only Bush would have done the same after the much greater security failure(s) of Sept. 11, 2001. Read the rest of the story here (it gets pretty low-profile play, by the way, appearing on page 12 of the Times' first section).

Department of Policing Personal Responsibility

I came across this blog posting at random: Driven to Tears: Getting Stung by Terror.

In it, one Mickey Z. uses the Police song "Driven to Tears," off of the 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta, as a springboard to reflections on the question of the relationship of individual behavior to events in the United States today, and in the world at large.

Obvious, perhaps; and of course these kinds of reflections don't change a damn thing. Still, I have to admit that I too in recent months have recollected the lyrics of this song, thinking back, somewhat nostalgically, to the time in my life when I was first discovering my attitudes and opinions about the world around me. As pathetic as it may sound, "Driven to Tears" was one of several pop/rock songs that had an influence on my thinking. And so to Mickey Z. I say, thanks.

Don't Tell Me This Isn't the Coolest Thing You've Seen in Several Weeks Department

Tidying up the floor of my study a few minutes ago, I ran across this piece in the "Online Diary" from the New York Times of August 28, 2003.

The third item, "Accents Are Positive," reads as follows:

Accents Are Positive

"Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

This paragraph contains nearly every sound in English ("oy" is an exception, which may upset New Yorkers). At the Speech Accent Archive (classweb.gmu.edu/accent) you can hear it spoken by more than 260 native and nonnative speakers of English and compare their accents, from Milwaukee to Zulu. The archive demonstrates the systematic nature of accents, according to Steven Weinberger, founder of the archive and an associate professor in the English department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Most of the speech samples are collected by Professor Weinberger's research assistants, but submissions are welcome. The archive is used primarily by linguists, speech recognition engineers, English-language instructors and actors, Professor Weinberger said by phone from Jerusalem, where he had just recorded a "very rare" native Yiddish speaker's declamation on Stella and Bob. (Actors are the intended audience of the International Dialects of English Archive, a similar site run by the University of Kansas's theater and film department at www.ku.edu/~idea/index2.html.)

Anyone who has tried to place someone's accent or made a social judgment based on an accent will find it interesting. Each speaker answered seven questions related to factors like place of birth, gender, and the English-learning method, and this data accompanies each sample. The most crucial predictor of an accent turns out to be the age at which someone learns English.

*****

I am bookmarking that Speech Accent Archive quicker than a Fang can say "lickety-split"!

Free Trade Lefties of the World, Unite!

Never heard of 'em before, but Kevin Drum and Matthew Yglesias weigh in on the problem of changing right-thinking people's minds on free trade -- in other words, how to convince them that free trade is *good.*

(Thanks again to Matt Welch; I been leechin' off him a lot lately.)

The Economist beats the free trade drum all the time, and in fact it's the one area in which that magazine has convinced me, over the years, to be more "pro-market." I put the phrase in quotation marks, because I believe that to be pro-market on free trade, at least if you support it for reasons of wanting to pull up the world's poor, you have to include all sorts of caveats and qualifiers when you do so. Reason being that the market never, ever works the way it's "supposed to" all by itself.

I have nothing to say about Prospect Theory, but I can say this: I am convinced that one of the reasons there is not more support for free trade in this country, and specifically among Democrats and their labor supporters, is that the government, regardless of which party has been in power, has not put enough effort into the retraining programs that must be put in place to ensure that those workers who lose their jobs when their industries lose business to companies abroad can find work elsewhere. As far as I know, any such efforts in this direction have so far been sorely inadequate.

Department of Getting Under Matt Welch's Skin

Chomsky's got a blog! It's through ZMag and it's called Turning the Tide.

Department of Rounding Up Expatriate Scribblers

Courtesy of Matt Welch, ex-Prague expatriate Alexander Zaitchik's "Let the Kazoos Sound: A Decade of English Press in Prague."

The only periodical I can think of that he missed is One Eye Open, a semi-femi journal. But I also think Howard Sidenberg and his Twisted Spoon Press deserve to have been given more attention—lots more.

Department of Ensuring Domestic Tranquility

"TV Channel for North American Muslims to Debut in 2004." You saw it here first!

Department of Do As We Say, Not As We Do

"Injustice in Afghanistan," an opinion from the March 20th Washington Post:

"Under pressure from the Supreme Court and many foreign governments, the Bush administration at last has begun to take steps toward providing a review process for the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. But it has yet to address the less publicized but possibly more serious problems surrounding its detention of foreign nationals elsewhere in the world. Under the guise of the war on terrorism, the U.S. military and CIA are holding hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly other locations under conditions of extraordinary secrecy and without any formal legal process. Many of the detentions are a necessary and normal part of ongoing military operations, and many of those detained are terrorists or others who might accurately be described as 'illegal combatants.' Nevertheless, as a new report by Human Rights Watch on Afghanistan has documented, the Bush administration's practice of refusing to follow the Geneva Conventions or any other rule of law has led to abuses that are an affront to fundamental American values.

"The 60-page report on U.S. practices in Afghanistan during the past two years details questionable or possibly criminal behavior by American personnel, including the use of excessive force during arrests and systematic mistreatment of some detainees. It shows that U.S. interrogators have used practices, such as prolonged shackling and sleep deprivation, that the State Department's annual human rights report describes as torture when they are used by other countries. Perhaps most disturbing, it documents how numerous Afghan civilians have been held for periods of up to a year or more without charge, 'virtually incommunicado without any legal basis for challenging their detention or seeking their release.' "

"U.S. authorities have never disclosed how many prisoners are being held or where, nor have they permitted visits by family members or lawyers to those detained. No charges have been brought against any of the prisoners. 'Simply put,' the report concludes, 'the United States is acting outside the rule of law.' "

You can read the Human Rights Watch report — “Enduring Freedom”: Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, issued March 8th — here.

Department of Blasts from the Past

A 10-year-old(!) Matt Welch piece from Prognosis in which Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" makes a jackass of herself as she struggles to squeeze the Young Americans in Prague phenomenon into the minuscule confines of her clearly acid-warped brain.

Addendum (3/23/04, 11:56 a.m.): Onetime Prague denizen Pete "House" Hausler wrote in Tuesday morning with the following letter, sent to the New York Times Magazine "sometime in '93, after I returned from Prague, after they wrote one of those articles that Matt rails against. Needless to say, they didn't print my letter, probably b/c I call them plagiarists for their 'pack journalism.' "

"To the Editor:

"Let me get this straight: From your article — Y(oung) A(mericans in) P(rague), Sunday, December 12, 1993 — I learned that the city-state of Prague — also called New Paris — exists in a vacuum somewhere in central Europe and is inhabited solely by hip, young Americans. The one remaining Czech in Prague is writer-turned-president Vaclav Havel, who rules these idolizing Westerners with the help of writer-turned-ghost Franz Kafka. The patron saint of the ancient Czech capital is Ernest Hemingway, of late associated with Prague because he lived in Paris 70 years ago. Some of Prague's buildings retain quaint Czech names like Obecni dum, in deference to the natives, who disappeared when Communism fell in November 1989.

"But seriously . . . I returned to America this past August from a year in Prague. Not once while living there did I hear Americans calling themselves 'YAPs.' It is simply wrong for you to refer to YAP as 'the local acronym.' This media pigeonholing of pop culture trends is lazy and disgusting; I expect better from the New York Times. You seem to have fallen prey to the prevalent attitude of round 'em up, subgroup everything, slap on a cheap label, and bang: it's copy for the masses.

"By now, Americans in Prague must hold the dubious distinction of being the longest running media darlings in the history of journalism. There are many fresh, interesting stories in Prague; this familiar angle is not one of them. By now, three years after we started hearing about this phenomenon, the story is old. Continuing to rehash the dozens of previous stories is simply lazy, hackneyed journalism perpetrated by plagiarists. A new story, please."

Department of Utter Absurdity

From the Russian daily Pravda:

Republican senators want to learn how to achieve the same level of support for Bush as the Russian President managed to get during the recent presidential elections. Senator Trent Lott has made this statement in his interview to RIA "Novosti":

"Democracy is an evolutionary process. I would like to congratulate Mr. Putin and the delegates of the State Duma with their victory. I would like to learn how we could reach the same level of support for Republicans and President Bush for the elections in our country," said Lott.

Department of Must-Read Articles

Adam Gopnik on the "new Times Square" in last week's New Yorker.

One of the many reasons why I enjoyed this article and consider it a must-read for New Yorkers is that in it Gopnik debunks the myth — which I myself had believed — that Giuliani and Disney were the chief architects of the "new," sanitized Times Square.

Referring to two recent books about the transformation of Times Square — The Devil’s Playground, by James Traub, and Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon, by Lynne B. Sagalyn — Gopnik writes:

"Traub and Sagalyn agree in dispelling a myth and moving toward a history, and the myth irritates them both — Traub’s usual tone of intelligent skepticism sometimes boils over here into exasperation. The myth they want to dispel is that the cleanup of Times Square in the nineties was an expression of Mayor Giuliani’s campaign against crime and vice, and of his companion tendency to accept a sterilized environment if they could be removed, and that his key corporate partner in this was the mighty Disney, which led the remaking of West Forty-second Street as a theme park instead of an authentic urban street. As Traub and Sagalyn show, this is nearly the reverse of the truth. It was Mayor Koch who shaped the new Times Square, if anyone did, while the important private profit-makers and players were almost all purely local: the Old Oligarchs, the handful of rich, and mostly Jewish, real-estate families — the Rudins, Dursts, Roses, Resnicks, Fishers, Speyers, and Tishmans, as Sagalyn crisply enumerates them. Mayor Giuliani, basically, was there to cut the ribbon, and Disney to briefly lend its name."

As I say, this is but one of many reasons why Gopnik's article is worth reading. At several points, Gopnik takes to task those who sentimentalize about the old, pornified Times Square. And yet neither does he give the new Times Square a stamp of approval.

"All the same, there is something spooky about the contemporary Times Square. It wanders through you; you don’t wander through it. One of the things that make for vitality in any city, and above all in New York, is the trinity of big buildings, bright lights, and weird stores. The big buildings and bright lights are there in the new Times Square, but the weird stores are not. By weird stores one means not simply small stores, mom-and-pop operations, but stores in which a peculiar and even obsessive entrepreneur caters to a peculiar and even an obsessive taste. (Art galleries and modestly ambitious restaurants are weird stores by definition. It’s why they still feel very New York.) If the big buildings and the bright signs reflect the city’s vitality and density, weird stores refract it; they imply that the city is so varied that someone can make a mundane living from one tiny obsessive thing. Poolrooms and boxing clubs were visible instances of weird stores in the old Times Square; another, slightly less visible, was the thriving world of the independent film business, negative cutters, and camera-rental firms.

"There is hardly a single weird store left on Broadway from Forty-second Street to Forty-sixth Street — hardly a single place in which a peculiar passion seems to have committed itself to a peculiar product. You have now, one more irony, to bend east, toward respectable Fifth Avenue, toward the diamond merchants and the Brazilian restaurants and the kosher cafeterias that still fill the side streets, to re-create something that feels a little like the old Times Square. (Wonderful Forty-fifth Street! With the Judaica candlesticks and the Japanese-film rental and the two-story shops selling cheap clothes and stereos, lit up bright.) Social historians like to talk about the Tragedy of the Commons, meaning the way that everybody loses when everybody overgrazes the village green, though it is in no individual’s interest to stop. In New York, we suffer from a Tragedy of the Uncommons: weird things make the city worth living in, but though each individual wants them, no one individual wants to pay to keep them going. Times Square, as so often in the past, is responding, in typically heightened form, to the general state of the city: the loss of retail variety troubles us everywhere, as a new trinity of monotony — Starbucks, Duane Reade, and the Washington Mutual Bank — appears to dominate every block. We just feel it more on Broadway."

Read the article.

Corrections Department: No Draft

They are NOT reinstating the draft. Or at least not according to a friend of mine who is an editor at Newsday.

Regarding the legislation referred to in my previous posting (specifically, HR 163), my friend wrote:

"This is the bill that Charlie Rangel introduced to highlight the disparate numbers of minorities serving, and dying, in the Armed Forces. It doesn't have enough support to come even close to passing. Rummy et al. have said no to this. So I'm not counting it as real, unless you want to think that Rangel is acting as a Republican stooge."

Here is the text of HR 163, introduced by Rangel on Jan. 7, 2003.

Guess What? They're Reinstating the Draft

Following is the lion's share of an e-mail I received today from a friend:

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) that will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed NOW, while the public's attention is on the elections. Details and links follow.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. SSS must report to the president on March 31, 2005, that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation.

See www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the SSS Annual Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2004.

The Pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. Though this is an unpopular election-year topic, military experts and influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of "war on terror"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

Here's an article with more details: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5146.htm.

Congress this year brought forward twin bills — S 89 and HR 163, titled the Universal National Service Act of 2003 — "To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [ages 18 to 26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." These active bills currently sit in the Committee on Armed Services.

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era remember. College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the United States signed a "Smart Border Declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan that implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminate higher education as a shelter.

Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

*****

Department of I Hate to Say I Told You So, but I Told You So (a.k.a. When Will It Ever End Department)

A far-reaching proposal from the FBI, made public Friday, would require all broadband Internet providers, including cable modem and DSL companies, to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police.

Read it and weep.

Hear, Hear! Department

From a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, defines anti-Semitism as: "1: hostility toward Jews as a religious or racial minority group often accompanied by social, economic, and political discrimination - compare RACISM. 2: opposition to Zionism: sympathy with opponents of the state of Israel."

In a letter of protest last Sunday, the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee called on Merriam-Webster to "repudiate" the latter meaning and retract it.

Equating opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism, the Washington, DC–based group said, "smears and impugns the motives of all those who support the human and political rights of Palestinians" and "stigmatizes perfectly legitimate political opinions and activities."

I agree. There are a lot of things about the Israeli government's policies I oppose, and I think it's safe to say that I am not an anti-Semite.

Note, by the way, that the Third New International (known in the trade as Web 3) was last published in 1986. (I know this because, thanks to Ben Sullivan, who gave me the copy that belonged to Prognosis when that paper folded, I own it—thanks, Ben!)

On the other hand, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition (known in the trade as Web 10), published in 1995, defines the term simply as "hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group."

All of which is to say that I assume the new edition of Web 3 will employ a similarly less fraught definition.

Department of Things I'm Glad to Hear but Would Rather Hear Said Right Here at Home, Where American Voters Are Listening

During a visit to Singapore last week, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said that some of the measures imposed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks—including racially based checks on foreign visitors to the United States—had been unfair.

Said Ridge: “America knows we cannot seek a double standard and America knows we get what we give. And so we must and will always be careful to respect people’s privacy, civil liberties, and reputations. To suggest there is a trade-off between security and individual freedoms—that we must discard one protection for the other—is a false choice. You do not defend liberty to forsake it.”

Ridge also said that regulations that arbitrarily turned away thousands of foreign students seeking to enter the United States had been wrong and damaging.

P.S. I wonder if this piece is by the same Mark Baker who used to work at the Globe bookstore in Prague?

Department of I'm Outta Here

Goin' to Mexico for my sister's wedding. Be back March 13th. Hasta la vista, baby!

Department of Island Exploration

Amy Langfield recently took a trip with the intention of writing about riding the entire length of the B train. Instead she ended up writing about Coney Island. Give it a read.

(By the way, I always thought Coney Island meant "King's Island," the word Coney having warped from the original Dutch koning, meaning "king." This site, however, claims that the name comes from konijn, the Dutch word for "rabbit." Who knows?)

In reading Amy's posting, I was pleased to see that she stumbled across the amazing boardwalk game called Shoot the Freak!, which my more faithful readers will recall from previous postings here last June and August. I am past pleased to hear that the game is still up and running.

For all the information you could ever hope to know about Coney Island, go to this incredible site.

Written on the Subway Walls Department

In the past few weeks, I have seen two defaced advertisements that stand out for the monomaniacal thoroughness with which their defacers defaced them.

1) Starsky and Hutch. E/V platform, Manhattan-bound, 23 St–Ely Av.

This one I admire mainly for its devotion to the old school putdown "faggot." Here is what the poster for the movie looks like:



Now picture these words, scrawled in black marker: on Amy Smart (the blonde), "washed up"; on Carmen Electra (the brunette), "will fuck 4 money"; on Ben Stiller (forehead and chin), "I wish I still did coke cause then I would be too wired to do this lame homo shit with this queer"; on Owen Wilson (again, forehead and chin), "I am a faggot . . . close your mouth cause you don't want the photographer to smell your penis breath"; on Snoop Dogg, "Snoopy sellout faggot"; and on Vince Vaughan, "I was money 4 5 minutes."

A second hand has also written across the top of the poster "Wow! Hollywood is so 'original.' "

2) Barnes and Noble ad featuring Charles Dickens. L platform, Manhattan-bound, Lorimer St.

For those of you who have not yet seen this poster, it is part of a recent campaign in which B&N pledge to deliver books to certain (desirable) parts of Manhattan, free of charge, the same day you order them. (Of course it ain't necessarily so, as this brief piece in Grand Street News points out. But that's a different story.) Anyway, this is what the poster looks like:



So, again, picture this, in black marker, though this time the words are encased in word balloons: Underneath the text "Your favorite authors. Fast." is written "With Kissinger's head. Fast." Clutched in Dickens' left hand is a severed head wearing glasses; extending from its neck is a messy tangle of blood vessels and nerves; the head's face wears a tortured expression as it says, "Dickens hass kott [sic] my severed head, it seems." Dickens himself is saying, "I am carrying the severed head of Henry Kissinger." In the upper left-hand corner of the poster, flitting about Dickens' head are two onlooking birds, one of which says, "Look -- it's Charles Dickens running some kind of marathon," while the other replies, "Yes, and in his left hand he carries the fucking severed head of that genocidal fat man, Kissinger."

This one, amazingly, I spotted within two or three days of watching the movie The Trials of Henry Kissinger. Ah, the small pleasures of riding the subway in New York!

Department of Overblown but Kind of Funny

"Blogging Off," by Whitney Pastorek. (I especially like section 4: "They have created a new world order.")

Who Knew? Department

From Islam Online: Slovakian Muslims Seek 'Positive Integration'.
For the full interview with Mohamad Safwan Hasna, head of the Islamic Foundation in Slovakia, go to this page at the Slovak Spectator.

Department of Why Americans Don't Vote

Seems as good a day as any to remind ourselves of that. Frances Fox Piven, to the best of my knowledge, "wrote the book" -- literally -- on why Americans don't vote.

For other theories, click here and choose at will.

Department of Why War Is Awful

Provided you have the stomach for it, read this article and then watch the clips (one and two) of U.S. soldiers shooting what appear to be unarmed and injured Iraqis, a violation of international law. (In all fairness, the first clip shows an Iraqi who has a gun lying next to him but no longer in his hands. The transcript says he is writhing on the ground next to his gun; the voiceover on the video itself does not mention his gun.)

The first clip, from CNN, after the shooting shows a young soldier saying that the feeling after battle, after killing someone, is "awesome." The second clip — footage from an Apache helicopter, shot at night, and broadcast by ABC News — was in my opinion more harrowing, mainly because it lasts as long as it does.

If you check the links at the bottom of the article above, you will find reactions to the first video by present and former members of the U.S. military, debating the legality and propriety of the shooting, as well as a written piece from ABC News to accompany the video (at least I assume that's what it is; I can't get the page to load).

Department of Utter Ridiculousness (a.k.a. When Copy Editing Is a Crime)

The U.S. Treasury Department, according to a Feb. 28 article in the New York Times, "has warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy.

"Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace 'inappropriate words,' according to several advisory letters from the Treasury Department in recent months.

"Adding illustrations is prohibited, too. To the baffled dismay of publishers, editors and translators who have been briefed about the policy, only publication of 'camera-ready copies of manuscripts' is allowed.

"The Treasury letters concerned Iran. But the logic, experts said, would seem to extend to Cuba, Libya, North Korea and other nations with which most trade is banned without a government license."

Department of Who Da Bad Guys?

Read this year's edition of the U.S. State Department's annual Human Rights Report.

As soon as they are available, I will post links to critiques of the report, soon to be forthcoming from various do-gooder groups.

Department of Ex-Prognosisites in the Times

Heidi Bradner, whose photographs I see in the Times from time to time, had two shots in Tuesday's paper, for an article about the bones frozen into the land around the area of Siberia known, thanks to Solzhenitsyn, as the Gulag Archipelago.

If you're interested, go and see it now; the article (and the photos with it) will only be available online for free til Tuesday. Also, be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them.

Ah, never mind. Here they are:



In Norilsk, an industrial complex and former penal colony in Siberia, the most prominent memorials so far, like the one at right to Polish prisoners, were built by non-Russian republics, now free of the Soviet bloc, whose citizens died in the Soviet gulag. A campaign by survivors for an official monument to all of the victims has been met with official indifference.



Vasily F. Romashkin, a former political prisoner in Norilsk, in front of part of a nickel ore enrichment plant that he and fellow prisoners built. The factory, one of many at the area's first nickel mine, is still in use.

Who Killed Jesus? Department

Re: Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion of the Christ, David Denby writes, in the March 1 New Yorker:

"In The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson shows little interest in celebrating the electric charge of hope and redemption that Jesus Christ brought into the world. He largely ignores Jesus’ heart-stopping eloquence, his startling ethical radicalism and personal radiance—Christ as a "paragon of vitality and poetic assertion," as John Updike described Jesus’ character in his essay "The Gospel According to Saint Matthew." Cecil B. De Mille had his version of Jesus’ life, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Martin Scorsese had theirs, and Gibson, of course, is free to skip over the incomparable glories of Jesus’ temperament and to devote himself, as he does, to Jesus’ pain and martyrdom in the last twelve hours of his life. As a viewer, I am equally free to say that the movie Gibson has made from his personal obsessions is a sickening death trip, a grimly unilluminating procession of treachery, beatings, blood, and agony—and to say so without indulging in "anti-Christian sentiment" (Gibson’s term for what his critics are spreading). For two hours, with only an occasional pause or gentle flashback, we watch, stupefied, as a handsome, strapping, at times half-naked young man (James Caviezel) is slowly tortured to death. Gibson is so thoroughly fixated on the scourging and crushing of Christ, and so meagrely involved in the spiritual meanings of the final hours, that he falls in danger of altering Jesus’ message of love into one of hate."

Later in the piece Denby notes: "The writer Jon Meacham, in a patient and thorough article in Newsweek, has detailed the many small ways that Gibson disregarded what historians know of the period, with the effect of assigning greater responsibility to the Jews, and less to the Romans, for Jesus' death. Meacham's central thesis, which is shared by others, is that the priests may have been willing to sacrifice Jesus—whose mass following may have posed a threat to Roman governance—in order to deter Pilate from crushing the Jewish community altogether. It's also possible that the temple élite may have wanted to get rid of the leader of a new sect, but only Pilate had the authority to order a crucifixion—a very public event that was designed to be a warning to potential rebels."

Reach Meacham's article here. (Be warned: It's more than 5,000 words.)

Department of Harnessing the Power of Comics to Erode a Long-standing Myth

Will Eisner, creator of the 1940s comic hero the Spirit, is doing a graphic novel that depicts the fraudulent origin of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," in 1903, and its subsequent exposure as a fake, by the Times of London in 1921.

I'll buy that.

Advertising Department

The ads at the top of my blog as I write this say "Czech translations: Top quality at competitive rates ISO-certified quality assurance" and "Muslim Single, Marriages: Meet tens of thousands of muslim singles. Free registration."

Language Police Department

As an addendum to my previous postings on the situation in Slovakia, note that while the BBC correctly refers to the Roma as Roma, Reuters, AP, and UPI all use the better-known but clearly derogatory appellation Gypsies.

The New York Times, in its World Briefing section yesterday, went with an abridged Reuters story that only used the word Gypsies. (Note that the Reuters dispatch above uses Gypsies in the headline, but in the body text switches over to the more accurate term, Roma.)

Brief Update Department

From the front page of today's Lidove noviny (by a correspondent in Kosice, not a wire report): "We Will Go to Czechia, Say Slovak Roma":

Yesterday, too, the situation in Romani settlements in central and eastern Slovakia was near a state of emergency. While the looting has ceased, thousands of police and soldiers are patrolling the area. Meanwhile the extent of the crisis forced the Slovak government to reduce the planned curtailment of welfare benefits. The minister of labor moreover declared that he wants to help the Roma by reducing the influence of usurers, who fleece them of most of their money. The situation remains tense. Many Roma have begun to speak in front of journalists of a plan to leave for Czechia. "The Czech Roma, they have the life. They've got Mercedes and enjoy themselves," the 50-year-old Pavol Stanko describes the mood.

According to officials, it was quiet yesterday on the Slovak-Czech border. But Romani activists in Ostrava, for instance, are talking about the risk of an exodus of Roma to Czechia, with Ostrava the most likely destination of the first wave. "As long as the disturbances continue, thousands of Roma will want to cross the border," said the chairman of the Moravian-Silesian Roma Civic Initiative, Frantisek Sivak.

More information on page 6.

*****

Here is a PDF of the front page of today's Lidove noviny. The photo caption says: " 'THEY DID THIS TO ME.' Relatives in a Romani settlement on the outskirts of Trebisov, Slovakia, point out a bruise on the face of a Rom boy. They claim he sustained the injury in an intervention by police units."

Found in Translation Department

Allow me, briefly, to point out a few things about the two CTK articles I translated in my previous posting:

1) On a lighter note, when they say "an angry man hurled an ashtray," you should know that these are not the cheapo plastic ashtrays that prevail in American bars, but ponderous, thick-walled, glass ashtrays that can easily kill someone.

2) Note the headline of the second piece, "Slovakia Deploys Against Looting Army." In other words, the (white) Slovaks are Slovakia; the (nonwhite) Roma are not. And not only are the Roma not Slovaks, they are an army, i.e., a force of invading foreigners.

3) In general, throughout the articles, which, since written for the Czech News Agency, will run in every daily in the Czech Republic, the language is such that the Roma are always "they" or "them." Note the fifth paragraph of the first piece, for instance, which refers to "they" without bothering to make clear who "they" is. Why bother?

4) Substitute the words African-American for Rom and Romani, and African-Americans for Roma, and you will learn a great deal about Czechs' and Slovaks' attitude toward Roma. You will also understand how little Czech journalism has changed in this respect since 1989.

5) Apart from the tedious repeating of information in the second piece, note that Interior Minister Palko seems to be fairly bragging to journalists about the Slovak police's use of a water cannon against the protesting Roma: "This is the largest police mobilization since 1989. As you have noticed, it was also the first time since 1989 that a water cannon has been used." Not to mention that his comment suggests that he himself made the decision to use it, as opposed to the police on the ground.

To read a good article about racism toward Roma in Europe in general, click here.

That is all for now. I have paid work to do.

Department of Economic Conflict Disguised as Ethnic Strife

Roma Protests in Slovakia: The First Installment

A report by the Czech News Agency (CTK), dated Feb. 20 and datelined Kosice, appeared in the daily Lidove noviny under the headline "Lower Benefits Drive Roma to Loot":

After the government's decision to pay lower welfare benefits beginning next month, instances of looting occurred in eastern Slovakia. Dozens of Roma today raided shops in the border town of Cierna nad Tisou. The first case of looting was recorded a week ago in Levoca.

According to the spokeswoman of the regional police headquarters in Kosice, Jana Demjanovicova, a group of about 40 to 50 Roma, including children, broke into a Jednota a Rokoko grocery store today before noon, and stole items worth approximately 50,000 Slovak crowns [about $1,560]. In the process, the crowd injured two saleswomen who had tried to prevent the looting.

According to the police spokeswoman, the Roma population is affected the most by the lowering of welfare benefits. In some Roma communities in eastern Slovakia, 100 percent unemployment is not unusual, so the only source of income for people here is support from the state.

While in the past they received 4,000 crowns a month and up, from March of this year the state, under a new law, will pay only a little more than 2,000; they can earn another 1,000 crowns by performing public works for the town or municipality.

Ministry: Usurers Behind Looting

Workers in the offices of labor and social affairs in eastern Slovakia, however, are already experiencing tough times now. Often they too are targets for attacks. Curses and insults are not all they face; in Kosice an angry man hurled an ashtray at an official and one was struck in the face.

"Most of the people dependent on welfare will not feel the impact of the new law until a month from now. The fear on the part of the office employees is understandable. We will probably not be able to get by without the assistance of the police," Eva Surova, spokeswoman for the head of the Social Affairs Division of the Office of Labor and Social Affairs in Kosice, was quoted as saying in today's edition of the regional newspaper Korzar. Jana Demjanovicova confirmed that in the past few days the police had sent out guards to offices and post offices where benefits are issued, and they will probably do the same a month from now as well.

But the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs denies that the incidents are an expression of people's desperation. Martin Danko, the ministry's spokesman, described the looting of shops as a deliberately organized action. According to him, the main people behind these incidents are usurers, who "are losing a source of ill-gotten income as a result of the reduction in benefits," and as a result are now trying to stir up hysteria among the Roma population.

*****

Another CTK dispatch, this one from the Slovak capital, Bratislava, and dated Feb. 24, was titled "Slovakia Deploys Against Looting Army":

The Slovak government tonight approved the deployment of 1,000 troops to aid police in overseeing Roma in the country's eastern and central regions who are revolting against a planned cutback in welfare benefits, Interior Minister Vladimir Palko and Defense Minister Juraj Liska told journalists after a cabinet meeting.

"This is a joint patrol operation. The soldiers will not be carrying out any other assignments," Palko said at the press conference. According to the minister, the police will be backed by 1,000 troops, both professionals and soldiers serving their mandatory military service, but he did not say which regiments the soldiers would be from or whether he was considering deploying special army units as well.

"We all know that the Romani problem has taken on a new shape," Palko said. "We intend to meet this problem head-on. We have the resources, and we will deploy as many resources as necessary for us to get this problem under control and for the police force to be able to perform their normal duties," he added.

Not Social but Romani Disturbances

Asked whether he considered the situation now, unlike Monday, to be a case of social disturbances, he stated that it was a matter of "Romani disturbances." Prior to Monday's and today's violent confrontations of hundreds of Roma with police in Trebisov, Palko had refused to speak of social disturbances.

One of the reasons the cabinet opted to deploy the military was that it is expecting Romani demonstrations in some places on Wednesday, despite that the original organizers from the Romani Parliament called off the nationwide protests against the reduction of welfare benefits they had announced for today.

"In some places they are announced, and in other places we have reliable information that even though they were not announced, they are going to take place," Palko said of the planned protests. "As long as they proceed without any criminal acts committed, it will be absolutely fine. No one will intervene," he said.

Army Just as Supplemental Guard

The ministers emphasized that the deployed troops would be acting only as a supplemental guard force and would be under the command of the regional police. "The main part of their activity will consist of detached units of the police force that I have sent to the Kosice, Presov, and parts of the Banska Bystrica regions," said Palko.

Among the 1,000 members of the army will be soldiers performing their mandatory service, as well as professionals. Liska assured that they would not be armed with any special weapons but are only going to assist in patrols. He did not reveal, however, which regiments he had chosen.

The aid of the army in the police's patrol service is provided for by the Slovak law on the police force not only under exceptional circumstances but also in common situations such as elections or defending the borders; cabinet consent is all that is required. The army has served a similar function in the past 15 years only a few times, for instance after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Largest Police Operation Since 1989

"I have decided to shift a significant number of police to the territory of the Presov, Kosice, and parts of the Banska Bystrica regions. All policemen have been called back from vacation. This is the largest police mobilization since 1989. As you have noticed, it was also the first time since 1989 that a water cannon has been used," said the minister. A total of roughly 1,200 policemen will be relocated to the territory of the regions where looting is taking place.

The looting continues in central and eastern Slovakia, and Roma say it is because they are going hungry due to the reduction in welfare benefits. But many politicians and experts in Romani issues believe that usurers are behind it, in the fear that, come March, the new method of paying benefits will lower their profits.
-END-

Department of News to Come

It may take me a while to get a posting together, as I have to read and translate a few articles first, but my Czechish readers should be aware of the protests going on by Roma in Slovakia, and the government's response, which has been to mobilize more police than at any time since 1989. In other words, the hovno is hitting the vetrák. (Sorry I can't get the hacek.)

While I get my posting together, you can read about it in English on this page.

Department of Historical (or is it History-making?) Opinions

If I am not mistaken, this is the first time Noam Chomsky has ever been able to get an opinion published in the New York Times. Could the Times be a-changin'?

Department of Why the New York Times Is Certainly Not the Home of "All the News That's Fit to Print"

Case in point being this article from last week, appropriately dissected and slammed by Jack Shafer of Slate.

Seems the vaunted Times is unable to keep straight the difference between Arabs and Muslims. Fuckin' idiots.

Department of Free Brazilian/Electronic Mixes by DJ Dougiegyro

His latest is titled Žižkoteca 2: City of Gott. Download it, along with cover art, here.

Department of I Doubt It's Worth the Hoopla but I Suppose I Shouldn't Knock It

A new Web site that "features writers from around the world in English translation": Words Without Borders.

Department of the Kind of Man You Just Gotta Love

Native New Yorker, in his 50s, and he's *never* been to a restaurant in his life. Well, maybe twice. But not only that: he's a deshatnesizer! Meet Ira Glustein.

Department of My Problems Are the Problems of All Americans

Viz this editorial on spyware in yesterday's NY Times.

Department of Turnabout Is Fair Play

Our attorney general, Ashcroft, is being sued by one of his own prosecutors!

The whole brouhaha is a result of this botched anti-terror case in Detroit last year.

I, for one, am happy to see Ashcroft take it in the chin. By the way, in case you hadn't heard, the chaste antispeed freak is also being sued -- for torture! -- by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Department of Odds and Ends

A few items I found interesting in yesterday's NY Times:

1) Goldfish to shed trans fatty acids (I've always loved goldfish crackers)

2) Kennan just won't quit (the infamous Mr. X lives on and on and on . . . )

3) Libeskind to design Dalí museum in Prayhey (trodding the Berlin–New York–Prague axis)

4) A plague of artisten on your Mohawk ("we may have a problem")

Department of Retrospective Highlighting

Now that I myself have read it, I wholeheartedly recommend, for anyone interested in the tangle of Israel/Palestine, this interview with Tom Segev, the eloquent author of the aforementioned One Palestine, Complete. Not only does Segev have a way with words, but he is also incredibly fair and balanced (insincere apologies to Fox for infringing on their "trademark").

Department of Changing the World

Ashoka is an innovative nonprofit organization that "searches the world for social entrepreneurs—extraordinary individuals with unprecedented ideas for change in their communities" and gives those people funding to carry out their ideas.

I discovered Ashoka in the course of my (unsuccessful) job search of 2001–03, and this past fall I signed on to do a few Czech-to-English translations for them every once in a while, on a volunteer basis. (My Czechophile readers, by the way, may be interested to look into the projects of Ashoka fellows in the Czech Republic.)

Anyway, Ashoka just put a new book out, called How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. I got a copy from my father, who happens to be an Ashoka supporter, and intend to read it sometime in the near future (probably once I get through with One Palestine, Complete).



So if you are one of those people who aim to make their mark on the world, why don't you jump over here and give the book a little look-see.

Department of Municipal Pride

Last week, in case you missed it, New York City became the 250th governing body in the United States to adopt a resolution sticking up for civil liberties in the face of the attack on them embodied by the USA PATRIOT Act.

Here's the Washington Post article on it (too late to get the New York Times, since it's past the seven-day limit). And here is the ACLU's press release heralding the event.

At moments like these, I am proud to be a New Yorker.



(Above is a picture of the Empire State Building, taken from Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, a few blocks from where I live. Those who have visited me in Greenpoint, and taken the neighborhood tour, may recognize it.)

Department of Immigration Politicization

A very interesting piece from the Detroit News — which, not at all coincidentally, given the concentration of Arab-Americans in the Detroit area, has, along with the Detroit Free Press, the best coverage of Arab-Americans in the United States — on the attitudes of immigrants going into this year's election.

This article is also noteworthy for its info on the Great Lake State's growing Mexican population.

Department of Chipping Away at the Wall of Untruths

I'm talking about the new book by ex-Prognosisite Chris Scheer, The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq.



I went to see Chris and his father talk about the book last night at Housing Works, and conveniently for me, since today is a hectic day, another ex-Prognosisite who was also in attendance saw fit to say a word or two about the event and the book. Her name is Amy Langfield (née Collins) and you can read her account here.

I didn't have enough cash on me to buy a copy last night, but I'm planning to buy at least one copy here, and you should too.

Well done, Chris. It may be, as you say, just another chip in the wall, but it's a crucial chip. You done made me proud, boy!

Department of Strangulation by Eating Utensil




Two quotes from an article in yesterday's New York Times on the recent opening of The Shops at Columbus Circle:

1) "It's like a mecca for everything."

2) "This is like a piece of Stamford in Midtown. It's really nice that they brought the suburbs into the city."

I don't care what the developers responsible for it say; this place is a *mall,* and if you ever catch me in there, you can force me to buy you an eight-dollar bottle of Bud at Stone Rose, the restaurant there run by Cindy Crawford's husband. As if! Gag me with a spoon!

Department of Frustration

My computer is on the fritz. Apart from this nasty virus that's cutting a wide swath around the globe, infecting, when I last heard, one out of every three e-mails *in the world,* my browser has been eaten away by spyware to the point that it will no longer open. Period. Which means I can send e-mail but I can't get on the Web.

Thanks to Microsoft's brilliant bundling of the browser into the OS, I can't simply delete my Internet Explorer and reinstall a clean version. No. I have to reinstall my whole frickin' operating system. Which means that first I have to somehow backup all of the files I don't want to lose, which I won't be able to do until this weekend, when I can visit a friend who's got a Zip drive.

Meanwhile I am posting this from Clare's Mac, and for some reason there are a number of operations you cannot do in Blogger on a Mac, such as boldface text by hitting a button.

Whine, whine, whine. I'm tired of winter.

More on the Mayoral Candidacy of Charles Barron

A rather lengthy profile (more than two and a half thousand words) of Barron from the current issue of New York Press.

New York Newsday's piece covering the announcement of Barron's candidacy. (Go here for a later, slightly modified version of the same story.)

Department of Unsurprising Yet Nonetheless Disheartening News

Not to turn my blog into a shilling site for MoveOn, but I feel this is worth noting:

I just received an e-mail informing me that "During this year's Super Bowl, you'll see ads sponsored by beer companies, tobacco companies, and the Bush White House. But you won't see the winning ad in MoveOn.org Voter Fund's Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest. CBS refuses to air it."

Unlike MoveOn, I do not believe the use of the word censor is accurate or appropriate in this situation, but I did sign the petition to CBS expressing my disagreement with its decision. If you feel inclined to do the same, go here.

In case you are curious, here is the ad that MoveOn would like to air. (For more information about the origin of the ad, go here.)

Department of Noting the Many and Not Insignificant Honors Bestowed on the Bon Mots' Album Le Main Drag in the Course of Its As Yet But Brief Existence

(1) WXRT Radio Chicago continues to spin selections from Le Main Drag; a couple weeks ago, Richard Milne singled it out as one of the Local Anesthetic Top 5 of 2003.

(2) Dagger, a quality zine out of Portland, Oregon, recently picked Le Main Drag as a Top 10 CD for December 2003.

(3) F5, Wichita's alt press, recently named Le Main Drag as one of the 10 best albums of the year.

(4) An outfit in Connecticut named Independisc recently picked Le Main Drag as its 2003 Independisc Record of the Year.

The above information comes to me courtesy of the Bon Mots themselves, who, incidentally, are performing this Friday — that's tomorrow! — at Schubas, in Chicago.

You may, as always, learn more about the Bon Mots at the band's Web site, www.thebonmots.com.

(I love this photo.)

Department of Point-by-Point Rebuttals

The Center for American Progress responds, point by point, with supporting documentation, to President Bush's State of the Union address last night.

If you oppose the policies of the Bush administration, read it and you will feel buttressed in your ability to counter Bush's claims.

The Five Percent Nation Department?

"U.S. security agents have a master list of five million people worldwide thought to be potential terrorists or criminals, [Canadian] officials say. 'The U.S. lookout index contains some five million names of known terrorists and other persons representing a potential problem,' Brian Davis, a senior Canadian immigration official in Paris, said in a confidential document obtained by the [Toronto] Sun."

Department of Taking Things Stupidly Far

"France's plan to bar religious symbols from state schools slid into confusion on Tuesday after the education minister said a looming ban on Muslim veils could also outlaw beards if they were judged to be a sign of faith."

And if you sport the cowboy look, you too had better watch your step.

Anti-Muslim Dwarf Goes on Rhetorical Rampage

(I know my hed is not entirely accurate. So sue me: I couldn't resist.)

"A Welsh Hollywood movie star was castigated Monday, January 19, by his local community, Muslims and non-Muslims, for his 'racist and ill-informed' statements he made about Islam.

"John Rhys-Davies, a lead actor in the blockbuster Lord Of The Rings, drew flack after he warned of a 'demographic catastrophe' in Europe by 2020 that around 50 percent of the children under 18 in Holland, for instance, will be of Muslim descent, according to the national website of Wales Sunday."

Here's the piece in full.

Department of I Don't Care What Anyone Says, This Man Sides With Evil

Democratic NYC councilman Charles Barron has announced he's running for mayor of New York in 2005. Personally, I can't stomach the man, and I'll tell you why.

I don't mind his calls for slave reparations, or for portraits of black dignitaries to be hung in City Hall; I don't care if he calls Mayor Bloomberg a racist; I don't have much to say about his tax proposals; nor do I take issue with his statement that "too few white men have too much power right now."

What I object to is Barron's sickening embrace of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. To read what a murderous man Mugabe is, visit the Web sites of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, or the homegrown Zimbabwe Human Rights Association and Zimbabwe Research Initiative for more grisly details than a person could ever hope to digest.

Read tales of beatings, rapes, and burning homes, courtesy of government—i.e., Mugabe-controlled—soldiers. Read about how Mugabe's regime uses food as a political weapon.

If you subscribe to the Economist, then you must surely have read its coverage of this monster, including this article, from February 2002—"Hell, no, I won't go"—which offers ample evidence to support its claim that "the 78-year-old autocrat would rather wreck his country than surrender control of it."

A more recent article, from last September, recounts Mugabe's ongoing suppression of any attempt by the Zimbabwean media to criticize his reign, as well as documenting the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy with facts such as these: "[the country's] GDP has shrunk by a third in the past three years; inflation has now surged over 420%; and 70% of the population live in poverty."

(BTW: the Economist is the only major news source to have a correspondent in Zimbabwe—or at least it was, until he was jailed and then thrown out, last year.)

But my point is this: In September 2002, Charles Barron brought Robert Mugabe to New York City Hall—"the first time since Nelson Mandela was received by Mayor David Dinkins that an African Head of State had a reception held in his honor at City Hall." It must have turned Nelson Mandela's stomach to see his name mentioned next to Mugabe's.

The Global Black News account of the event continues: "Upon their arrival at City Hall, President and Mrs. Mugabe were greeted by a large group of people welcoming them with their signs and banners carrying such messages as 'Mugabe Is Right' and 'Free the Land.' They then entered the Red Room where Council Members, community activists and members of the clergy were able to greet them personally and hear Mugabe's informal statement.

"Mugabe began by thanking the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus for inviting him. 'I felt overjoyed, delighted indeed that we would have this get-together,' he said.

"He went on to explain that although Zimbabwe got its political freedom 22 years ago, 'Economic freedom had not come to the people yet, mainly because the resources remained in the hands of the very people from whom we snatched ownership of our political freedom.' He said that the sovereignty of a people is not expressed merely by being able to vote leaders into power, but by owning one's own resources. That's the struggle they have now waged and won.

"Mugabe ended his informal remarks by extending once more the invitation he made in Harlem when his country first gained its liberty, 'Zimbabwe is free. Zimbabwe is home. Come home.' "

If you're interested, you should read the rest yourself. Also, here is Nat Hentoff's take on the episode, as well as that of the Gay City News.

But again: I don't care what anyone says, Charles Barron sides with evil, and I hope that those who support him now will soon enough come to their senses.

And the Hits Just Keep on Comin' Department

Ecumenical philanthropists of the world, take fright! You better hope you don't turn up as a donor on any of these lists . . .

Department of They Came to Play, Part III

Those Californian kids are finally going ahead with their pesky Muslim flag football tournament. (For some reason, the site isn't working, but I think I'm gonna root for the Intifada, if only to be obnoxious.)

Department of Niemölleresque Situations

Many of you, I'm sure, have heard the quote by Reverend Martin Niemöller that goes as follows:

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the trade unionists, but I was neither so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

(Note: There are several versions of this quote in existence. Supposedly, the "true" one, recorded in the U.S. Congressional Record, is as follows: "When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.")

Regardless of what the actual quote is, what I want to say here is that we in the United States—those of us who are not male and Muslim or Arab or South Asian—are now in a Niemölleresque situation, given our government's recent decision to force airlines to hand over personal information on *all* passengers flying within the United States.

That is to say: First "they" did it to the Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians; then "they" did it to all foreigners; and now "they" are doing it to "us."

If this news disturbs you, you may also want to read this interview with the communications director of the Technology and Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Perhaps I am being an alarmist. But the fact is, the moment I learned that the World Trade Towers had been hit, back on Sept. 11, my first thought was, "Great. Now the government can use this as an excuse to clamp down on civil liberties." And of course that is what happened. So I feel inclined to trust my instincts on this, and my instincts tell me this is very bad.

Department of Showing Chad How a Blog Works

Department of Something Everyone Who Opposes the Bush Administration's Policies Should Be Aware Of

I'm talking about MoveOn's incredible "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest, which challenged anti-Bush Americans to come up with a 30-second ad that will convince TV watchers why they should not vote for Bush in 2004. I meant to post about this much earlier, while you still could have registered to vote, but you can at least view the 15 finalists here. This is one of the most creatively radical projects to come along in years.

Among the finalists, my favorites are "In My Country," "What Are We Teaching Our Children?", and "Wake Up, America."

The funniest one I saw—though there were more than a thousand ads, and I only had a chance to view about a hundred of them—was titled "If Parents Acted Like Bush." It's not one of the finalists, but you can still see it here.

Department of New Dance Mixes for the New Year

Allow me to pass along a New Year's gift from my Prague DJ friend Doug Arellanes, a.k.a. Dougiegyro. Let me put it in Doug's words:

Heyas,

Seeing as New Year's is coming up and you may be hosting or going to parties, here is my New Year's gift to you: the new mix I compiled, called Žižkoteca, after the Žižkov club where I play, the Palac Akropolis. It's uploading now, and will be available for download at this address:

http://www.arellanes.com/zizkoteca

I've put it up in two formats: a single long MP3 file, or if you prefer individual tracks, there's a ZIP file with all the tracks in there. (If you're burning a CD, be sure to set the pause between tracks to "0 seconds" otherwise there'll be these weird gaps in there. There's a CD cover there as well in PDF, should you want one.)

It's mostly Latin house, but there are a few surprises thrown in there too.

Happy New Year's!

dougie

And (a late) Happy New Year's from StickFinger, too.

Department of Strange and, to My Ears, Eerie-Sounding Branches of Federal Government

Did *you* know the United States has an ambassador for (and office of) international religious freedom? I didn't, until I read this story.

Department of Things That Make Me Sick to My Stomach

Supplemental Report on September 11 Detainees' Allegations of Abuse at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York

Though physically paling in comparison to the other allegations of abuse documented in the report, this part struck me as especially sick and sadistic: "T-Shirt with Flag and Slogan"

Nephrology Department

So it turns out that my kidney doctor, Gerald Appel, who is the nation's leading authority on my disease, IGA nephropathy, also ministers to NBA star Alonzo Mourning, who is being forced to retire because of his kidney problems. Who knew?

I don't follow the NBA, or any pro sports, for that matter, so I only found out when I walked into Dr. Appel's office today and saw on the wall an article with a photo of him from the New York Times. (It ran on Dec. 4, so you have to pay to access it now or I'd give y'all the link.)

Department of Things I Would Have Blogged Long Ago Had I Had a Blog at the Time That I Can Now Blog Because I Have One (a.k.a. Czech Matchboxes Rule)

(Be) Careful, Kids

Department of the Things You Find Out When You Google Yourself

Last year I translated a play for a series called New Czech Plays: Staged Readings in Translation. This is an event the Czech Center New York—in particular, its whip-smart, energetic deputy director, Irena Kovarova—launched in 2002 to offer, duh, new Czech plays to theater-hungry New Yorkers in an intimate, informal setting.

The series is fantastic. Every play I've been to has been followed by an enlightening and entertaining discussion between members of the cast and the audience, which is typically a mix of Czech-Americans, assorted East European emigrés, American Czechophiles, and New York theaterites. Often Irena will also invite a director or author from the Czech Republic to speak as well, and I never fail to walk away feeling that I've learned something new about acting or writing or any aspect of theater you can think of pretty much. And, most pleasing to me, it is one of the only times I have ever heard "regular" people talk about translation.

I should add here too that the series, though only two years old, has already proved itself so popular that the 2004 edition is going to be held at the illustrious Public Theater, founded by the legendary Joseph Papp.

The play I translated for last year's series, Minach, by Iva Volánková, was a 2002 winner of the Alfred Radok Prize, awarded each year since 1992 to the best original Czech and Slovak plays. Apart from a chunk of crownage, the winners are honored by having their works translated into English (and possibly other languages as well; I just don't know about that), in the hope that they will be performed in other countries.

So I knew my translation was going to be published, but until this evening I didn't know it had already happened! (To be honest, I had wanted to do a little more work on it still, after I saw it performed in the Czech Center's series. Oh well.)

P.S. I have also this evening, while putting off work on the translation I should be doing right now, added a few more links on Czech lit, City Sister Silver, and Jáchym Topol. Czech lit lovers, live it up!

Department of Bands That Include Bartenders from Enid's

I've added Enon to my music links below. In this case, it's the bass player, Toko, who tends bar at Enid's (when she's not out on tour with the band, that is). She also plays keyboards and sings, wonderfully.

Enon has a really fun and interesting Web site, including a joke "Livecam" feature, two MP3s, three videos, and a free, Web-only song of the month, hidden in a different place on the site each time around. Plus the usual photos, discography, and tour news.

The best thing about Enon, though, is that they are *great* in concert, and these days they are almost always touring, so you can be sure they'll be coming soon to a club near you—even if you live in Europe, Australia, or Japan.

Department of What Life Is Like, And Don't You Forget It

(Courtesy of Katharena Eiermann)

Department of They Came to Play, Part II

Paula Zahn of CNN spoke with a Jew and a Muslim about the First Annual Muslim Football Tournament, noted here on Dec. 8th.

It seems the names of some of the teams have caused consternation among overly sensitive types who don't understand the principles behind naming a football team in this country. (Apparently, the critics won out; clicking on the teams link reveals that a couple of the names cited in the interview as offensive—in particular, Mujahideen and Soldiers of Allah—have since been changed. Intifada, however, remains.)

Here is the transcript of the Paula Zahn interview (scroll down to the first mention of Sabiha Khan).

Department of Putting to Rest, Once and for All, Old Czarist Propaganda

Specialists from the Simon Wiesenthal Center have written a book that scholars say is the first item-by-item rebuttal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It's about f***in' time.

Department of Politically Correct Synonymetry

I just discovered that my copy of Microsoft Word does not offer any synonyms for the words slave or slavery. No bondage, no serfdom, no servitude, nothin'. How stupid.

Department of Moving On

Lizzy Ratner, with whom I've marched the streets a time or two, has a profile of Eli Pariser of MoveOn in the current New York Observer.

Department of What It Was Like Trying to Get Back Into Our House After Going Out "for a Few" During the Snowstorm This Past Weekend

If I could only get that damn key in the lock . . .

(Courtesy of G. A. Cerny, who himself got it from ex-Prognosisite Ken Layne.)

Department of the Place to Be This Thursday Night

POST ROAD 7 Publication Party
December 11 @ 7:30
KGB
85 E. 4th St. (bet. Second and Third)
Performances by Jonathan Ames and John Wesley Harding
Free
www.postroadmag.com

Department of One of the Coolest Sites I've Encountered in Many a Moon

Give it a ride with Led Zep. (Thanks, Doug!)

Department of They Came to Play

First Annual Muslim Football Tournament, Irvine, California; January 4, 2004



"Taking the Intifada to the Football Field"

Department of Shocking Exports

"A new Amnesty International report charges that in 2002, the Bush administration violated the spirit of its own export policy and approved the sale of equipment implicated in torture to Yemen, Jordan, Morocco and Thailand, despite the countries' documented use of such weapons to punish, mistreat and inflict torture on prisoners. The U.S. is also alleged to have handed suspects in the 'war on terror' to the same countries.

"The total value of US exports of electro-shock weapons was $14.7 million in 2002 and exports of restraints totaled $4.4 million in the same period. The Commerce and State Departments approved these sales, permitting 45 countries to purchase electro-shock technology, including 19 that had been cited for the use of such weapons to inflict torture since 1990."



Read the rest of the press release.

Read the report: The Pain Merchants: Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill treatment

Slang Treasure Trove Department

Courtesy of the White House: Street Terms: Drugs and the Drug Trade



"The Street Terms database contains over 2,300 street terms that refer to specific drug types or drug activity. The database is used by police officers, parents, treatment providers and others who require a better understanding of drug culture."

Department of Blogs Ad Nauseam

Vote for your favorite blogs in 20 different categories at Wizbang. Former Prognosisites Matt Welch and Amy Langfield are both nominees in the Media/Journalist category.

Department of Important Words Brought to Light by My Friend Lou at Reuters

"September 11, which has dominated the world's agenda for more than two years, claimed 3,000 lives. Every day, 20,000 people are dying because of poverty — from AIDS, TB, and malaria. Every single day."

"Economist Sachs Slams Bush on 'War Agenda,' AIDS"

Department of People I Know in the News

Jaime Clarke, comrade and creative colleague of my neighborhood pivo pal Pete "House" Hausler, made a splash this week with his revelations about the enigmatic J. D. Salinger.

Jaime is also the author of a finely written if frivolous novel titled We're So Famous, which I bought, read, and enjoyed. (Film rights to the book, I believe, are still available.)

Jaime (so) famously made waves when his book was published in spring 2001 by setting a bounty on the head of the anonymous reviewer who gave the novel a negative review in Publishers Weekly.

Cheeky stunt, that. What will Mr. Clarke come up with next?

Department of What's Wrong With Tom DeLay's Idea to House Some 2,000 Republican Members of Congress on the Luxury Liner Norwegian Dawn During the GOP Convention in NYC This Summer

Okay, okay. He backed down from the idea. (Read this, too.) Here, in a nutshell, anyway, are the reasons why it was wrong.

Why does a city host a political party's national convention? 1) To bring in money; 2) to curry favor with the party in question; and 3) to raise the city's profile.

And yet DeLay's plan (as stated in the title of this posting above) effectively nullified all of those reasons: 1) The people who stayed on the ship would be spending their money (hotel, booze, food, etc.) on the ship rather than in the city's hotels, bars, restaurants, cafés, and shops (the ship even has its own health club and theater); 2) No one in their right mind could possibly believe that by having the GOP convention here, New Yorkers are going to vote for Bush; 3) By choosing to stay "offshore" rather than on Manhattan, the GOPers would be sending a strong signal to the effect that they either do not like New York, do not feel safe in New York, do not think New York is high-class enough for them, or do not care about New York, or some combination of these—in any case, it would hardly be a boost to NYC's profile.

To these reasons add the fact that the ship's staff is multinational, meaning lost income for New Yorkers who would otherwise serve and wait on the ship's inhabitants were they to spend their money in Manhattan, and the fact that DeLay's former chief of staff, Susan Hirschman, is a member of the lobbying firm the ship's owners hired to sell the idea to DeLay, and it's clear this idea stank in just about every way, right from the start.

Here, by the way, is a picture of the Norwegian Dawn:

I don't have time to do it right now, as Monday and Tuesday are my busiest days of the week, work-wise, but come Wednesday I will attempt to put into words just how ticked off I am about Tom DeLay's proposal to put up delegates to the GOP convention on a luxury cruise ship anchored off of Manhattan. Talk about kicking a city when it's down.