Magpie

Saturday, June 10

Carnival of Feminists 16!

We almost forgot to point out that the lastest Carnival of Feminists is up over here, compiled this time by Welcome to the Nuthouse.

As usual, there's lots of smokin' hot feminist blogging on offer. Here are some sample items to pique your interest:

On the issue of disability and coming into puberty, maman poulet writes beautifully of her own experiences. The lack of a period that usually enables us to distinguish between the transition from girlhood to womanhood was lacking in her life and she tells us why it really is a big deal. I think it goes well with the debate at Alas a blog and Pandagon with regards to "natural" vs. "unnatural". [...]

Coming from Irrational Point's Soapbox, One Step Forward, Three Steps Back analyses Kenya's new sexual assault law, where apparently the Parliament thought it okay to put the punishment of false rape accusations on par with the actual penalties of the rape itself. And no, I'm not kidding. [...]

Lis Riba of Riba Rambles gives us a historical look at The Radical Feminist vs. The Flapper and how the same argument that is used today existed during the flapper era. You will enjoy it as much as I did, I promise.

Then Heart takes it one step further (Without trying mind you. I doubt she knew of Lis Riba's post before it being published just above hers in this carnival. Isn't it cool how these things work?) and addresses Radical Feminism is her post, "Radical Feminism: What it is and what it isn't." [...]

Shakespeare's Sister and Mad Kane take on John Aravosis of Americablog for his use of "big girl" when referring to Pat Robertson. John's response was to move his post so no more of us feminists could find it and vilify him for his obvious misogyny. SS and MK provide you with brand new links to his cover up so go join in the fun all over again! Seriously, this is exactly why I don't read the big A-lister bloggers that are male, not even Atrios or Kos (especially since I heard the latter on the Al Franken show and he wasn't very sympathetic to women's issues but was touted as an "expert" on the issues he has so pointedly made clear were of no interest to him).

There's a whole lot more to look at if you go look at the rest of the 16th Carnival over here.

The 17th Carnival is coming up on Wednesday, June 17th, and it will be hosted by BitchLab. To nominate a post, — and it's definitely okay to nominate one of your own — use this submission form at the Blog Carnival home page.

And if you want to keep posted on what's up with the Carnival of Feminists in general, bookmark the home page.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:53 PM | Get permalink

Can someone please tell me why this isn't terrorism?

On Thursday, Maryland police arrested a young man by the name of Robert F. Weiler Jr. on charges of (among other things) of making and possessing an illegal explosive device. Weiler's 'device' was a pipe bomb which he intended to use to attack a family planning clinic in College Park, Maryland.

If you read this story in the Baltimore Sun, you won't find a single mention of 'terror' or 'terrorism.' And if you go search Google News, you won't be able to find those word in any of the 137 current stories about Weiler and his 'device.'

You better bet that if Weiler's target had been, say, an army recruiting office or a federal building, the press would be screaming 'terror' in the headlines. Especially if, instead of Weiler, the accused bomber's had a Middle Eastern name. But I guess since Weiler's target was an abortion clinic and those evil doctors and clinic personnel who kill babies, the word 'terror' just doesn't apply.

It's very sad sign of how far to the right this country has been dragged.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:38 PM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

Brazilian director Guilherme Marcondes brings us Tyger, a short film loosely based on William Blake's poem, 'The Tyger.' Marcondes' film depicts a gigantic tiger stalking the streets of Sao Paulo, bringing amazing changes in its wake.

You can watch Tyger here [QuickTime movie].

Still from Tyger

Screen grab from Tyger.

You can read Marcondes' explanation of how the film came to be if you go here.

Via MetaFilter.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:09 PM | Get permalink

Friday, June 9

Forget about that anti-flag burning amendment to the US Constitution.

There's absolutely no need for it, as a super-duper, top secret, eyes-only Justice Department memo obtained by consitutional lawyer Jack Belkin explains:

Indeed, it is well established under the laws of war -- including those laws of war which the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has plenary authority to completely ignore or declare "quaint" -- that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, may detain persons who have taken up arms against the United States until such time as hostilities are completed. The President may reasonably determine that any person who burns an American flag is hostile to the United States. By definition, a person who is "hostile" to the United States may be prepared at some point in the future to engage in "hostilities." Therefore the President has sole authority to detain any person suspected of conspiring to burn a flag in the future -- or to defend or otherwise assist such a person -- until such time as the President may be assured that the person will not, upon release, "return to the battlefield" by threatening an American flag or otherwise defending those persons who would threaten an American flag. Since the President, as head of the Unitary Executive, may execute enemy combatants on the battlefield, it follows that he may take the lesser step of arresting them and detaining them indefinitely.

The scariest thing about this 'memo' is that Belkin's pseudo-constitutional nonsense is almost indistinguishable from the legal justifications for Dubya's trashing of the Consitution that keep coming from the real US Justice Department.

You can read the whole thing here.

Via Belkinization.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:13 AM | Get permalink

And while we're on the subject of flag burning.

I dug up this Ted Rall cartoon from last year. I guess those right-wing backers of the anti-flag burning amendment oughta think twice.

Ted Rall cartoon on banning flag burning

Ted Rall cartoon on banning flag burning

You'll find a big mess of Rall's more recent cartoons here.

Thanks to the excellent Mikhaela Reid for having the only link I could find to this particular Rall cartoon. (Make sure to check out some of Mikhaela's cartoons, too.)

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:11 AM | Get permalink

Iraqi women get trampled as 'freedom marches on.'

I'm sure that Dubya's supporters couldn't care less about what's happening to Iraqi women in Basra. After all, the US effort in Iraq has passed yet another turning point with the death of al-Zarqawi and the prez continues to spread freedom and democracy in the Mideast.

Under Saddam, women played little part in political life but businesswomen and academics travelled the country unchallenged while their daughters mixed freely with male students at university.

Now, even the most emancipated woman feels cowed.

A television producer Arij Al-Soltan, 27, now exiled, said: "It is much worse for women in the south. I blame the British for not taking a strong stand."

Sajeda Hanoon Alebadi, 37, who — like Mrs Aziz — has now taken to wearing a headscarf, said: "Women are being assassinated. We know the people behind it are saying we have a fatwa, these are not good women, they should be killed."

Behind the wave of insurgent attacks, the violence against women who dare to challenge the Islamic orthodoxy is growing. Fatwas banning women from driving or being seen out alone are regularly issued.

Infiltrated by militia, the police are unwilling or unable to crack down on the fundamentalists.

Ms Alebadi said: "After the fall of the regime, the religious extremist parties came out on to the streets and threatened women. Although the extremists are in the minority, they control powerful positions, so they control Basra."

To venture on the streets today without a male relative is to risk attack, humiliation or kidnap.

A journalist, Shatta Kareem, said: "I was driving my car one day when someone just crashed into me and drove me off the road. If a woman is seen driving these days it is considered a violation of men's rights."

There is a fear that Islamic law will become enshrined in the new legislation. Ms Aziz said: "In the Muslim religion, if a man dies his money goes to a male member of the family. After the Iran-Iraq war, there were so many widows that Saddam changed the law so it would go to the women and children. Now it has been changed back."

Via UK Independent.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:54 AM | Get permalink

The DeLay Principle.

Former US House majority leader Tom DeLay may have left Congress to go fight the various legal charges against him back home in Texas, but his way of doing things is still alive and well on Capitol Hill.

As Paul Krugman notes in his latest column, the federal estate tax originated almost a century ago as a way to raise money as it became obvious that the US would soon be entering the First World War. The notion then was that the people in society with the most privileges should also bear a substantial part of the war's financial burden.

But today's Congressional leaders have a very different view about wartime priorities. "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes," declared Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, in 2003....

Consider the priorities on display in Congress this week.

On one side, a measure that would have increased scrutiny of containers entering U.S. ports, at a cost of $648 million, has been dropped from a national security package being negotiated in Congress....

On the other side, Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, tried yesterday to push through elimination of the estate tax, which the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates would reduce federal revenue by $355 billion over the next 10 years. He fell three votes short of the 60 needed to end debate, but promised to keep pushing....

So there you have it. Some people might wonder whether it makes sense to balk at spending a few hundred million dollars — that's million with an "m" — to secure our ports against a possible terrorist attack, while sacrificing several hundred billion dollars — that's billion with a "b" — in federal revenue to give wealthy heirs a tax break. But nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.

The estate tax repeal went down to defeat in Congress yesterday, but as Krugman points out, we can probably expect the GOP to take another try at providing a massive give-away to just eighteen wealthy families.

If you have a NY Times sub, you can read Krugman's full column here, behind the pay firewall. Otherwise, we suggest taking a peek at this.

A big Magpie thank you goes this time to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:20 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, June 8

Grrrrr!

Blogger was down all day. Again.

Obviously, it's back up as I write this, but I won't be surprised if it goes down again.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:46 PM | Get permalink

Does it matter much that Zarqawi is out of the Iraq picture?

Mideast expert Juan Cole weighs in on the significance Zarqawi's death.

Zarqawi had been a significant leader of the Salafi Jihadi radical strain of Islamist volunteers in Iraq, and had succeeded in spreading his ideas to local Iraqis in places like Ramadi. He engaged in grandstanding when he renamed his group "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia," even though he had early been critical of al-Qaeda and had a long rivalry with it. For background, see the Zarqawi file.

There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don't expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon.

Via Informed Comment.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:36 AM | Get permalink

Great balls of fire!

Scientists create ball lightning in the lab. (Or something a lot like it, anyway.)

German scientists say they've created glowing plasma clouds that resemble what ball lightning is supposed to look like. These clouds are up to 20 cm/7.8 inches across and last for almost half a second.

Plasma ball created by German researchers.
[Image: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics]

Ball lightning has puzzled scientists for centuries. Though little reliable data exist, there have been many anecdotal sightings, with people as diverse and famous as Charlemagne, Henry II and the physicist Niels Bohr all claiming to have seen it....

Most accounts describe a hovering, glowing, ball-like object up to 40 centimetres across, ranging in colour from red to yellow to blue and lasting for several seconds or in rare cases even minutes. Many scientists believe ball lightning is a ball of plasma formed when lightning strikes the ground, but the exact mechanism is unclear despite the many theories proposed.

Earlier in 2006, Israeli scientists created plasma balls by using microwaves to vaporise various materials, but Gerd Fussmann and his colleagues [at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Humboldt University] used a different approach that they believe comes closer to the natural phenomenon. "It is likely that lightning flashes and water interact to produce ball lightning," says Fussmann. "We therefore use a short, high-voltage discharge of 5000 volts to vaporise some of the water in a glass tank and create the plasma ball."

The tank contains two electrodes, one of which is insulated from the surrounding water by a clay tube. The high voltage causes enormous currents of up to 60 amps — over 200 times those needed to cause death — to flow through the water for a fraction of a second. These enter the clay tube, causing the water there to evaporate and a luminous plasma ball — consisting of ionised water molecules — to rise from the surface.

"The balls survive up to 0.3 seconds after the current is switched off — far longer than normal plasmas, which decay away far more quickly," says Fussmann. For example, the plasmas used in laboratories and nuclear fusion plants decay within milliseconds of the power being switched off.

Despite the bright glow, the balls also appear to be rather cold, much like neon lights. A sheet of paper placed above them is lifted but does not catch fire.

I saw ball lightning once, during an electrical storm in California. It was more white-orange than what the Max Planck researchers have come up with, but otherwise looks rather similar. Let me tell you, it was very strange watching a glowing ball drift down the other side of the street for several seconds before disappearing.

Wikipedia has more on ball lightning here.

Via New Scientist.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:07 AM | Get permalink

Anti-gay ballot measure dies in Washington State.

Because of Blogger's technical problems yesterday, we couldn't report that an effort to get an anti-gay measure onto Washington's November ballot has failed.

Tim Eyman reveals his failure

Tim Eyman announces that his anti-gay ballot measure is dead before arrival. Boo-hoo.
[Photo: Laurie Matanich/AP]

Back in January, Washington's legislature added sexual orientation to the categories of people protected from discrimination by the state's civil rights law. Under that law, the phrase 'sexual orientation' was added to the list of classes of people protected against discrimination in housing, lending, and employment.

That legislature's decision was immediately denounced by religious-right groups, including the Christian Coalition, which then joined with referendum maven Tim Eyman in an attempt to qualify Referendum 65 for the November ballot. If passed by voters, that meausure would have rescinded the changes to the civil rights law. As of Tuesday, however, petition backers didn't have enough signatures to get on the ballot: 112,400 were needed; only 105,103 had been collected; and at least 130,000 signatures were needed to offset possible invalid signatures.

With the failure of the initiative campaign, the revised civil rights law goes into effect as scheduled on July 1 — making Washington the 17th state to extend protection from discrimination to its lesbian and gay citizens.

Via Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:38 AM | Get permalink

35 years later, I'm still sick of Eric Clapton's song, 'Layla.'

Or I was until I saw this video clip of Clapton playing the song sometime recently. (If anyone knows the time and date of the video, I'd love to get the info.) It's a very interesting, very rhythmic re-working of the tune that pretty much brings it out from under the long shadow of slide guitarist Duane Allman.

And yes, that is Dr John on the keyboard.

Via The Sideshow.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:37 AM | Get permalink

The tangled web of CIA prisons and renditions.

A much-awaited report from the Council of Europe charges that the US has created 'a clandestine "spider's web" of disappearances, secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers' — and that member states of the European Union have aided in that effort, or just refused to acknowledge what the US was doing on or in the skies above their territories.

The report from European senator Dick Marty of Switzerland says that the CIA has moved hundreds of people through this web of prisons, some of whom had little proven connections with terrorist organizations. According to the report, European nations cooperated with the US covert effort by 'secretly detaining a person on European territory, capturing a person and handing them over to the US or permitting unlawful ?renditions? through their airspace or across their territory.'

Perhaps the most useful part of the report is the best map I've seen to date of the secret network. (A larger, much more legible version is here.)

Map of CIA prison web

CIA prisons and prisoner transfer routes. View a larger version here.
[Graphic: Council of Europe PACE]

From the Boston Globe's story on the Council of Europe report:

The 67-page report specifically accused Poland and Romania of allowing the CIA to use their territory to transfer secret prisoners from plane to plane. At least 12 other European nations allowed refueling stops, "pickup points," or "staging centers" for controversial CIA undertakings, the report stated.

Using often colorful language, the report described CIA operatives "dressed in black like ninjas" hustling suspects on and off airplanes on missions spanning four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America.

Bangor, Maine, which is frequently used for US military flights, may have served as a refueling point for CIA planes headed out on rendition operations, according to the report. Other landing spots ranged from the Spanish resort island of Mallorca -- where American intelligence agents may have enjoyed R&R breaks as well as transferred captives -- to Kabul, Afghanistan, according to the report.

The Maine airport was listed as a CIA "stopover" point along with airports in Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Greece.

Germany, Spain, Cyprus, and Turkey were identified as "staging" grounds for clandestine operations.

The report focused on alleged Europe collusion with the CIA but also cites Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan as apparently colluding in extensive operations starting after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

While the Council of Europe report relies largely on information previously available, its endorsement by such a prestigious European body will put additional pressure on Dubya's administraton to abandon its policy of abducting terror suspects and holding them in secret prisons.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:04 AM | Get permalink

Zarqawi dead in US air strike.

The Iraqi government and US military officials report that Sunni insurgent and al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed.

"Today we have eliminated Zarqawi," Mr Maliki said, sparking sustained applause....

The head of US-led forces in Iraq, General George Casey, said Zarqawi was killed at 1815 on Wednesday, in an air strike against an "isolated safe house... approximately 8km (five miles) north of Baquba".

"Iraqi police were first on the scene after the air strike," he said, followed shortly afterwards by coalition forces.

Zarqawi was said to have been in a meeting with associates at the time. Several other people were reported to have been killed in the raid.

General George Casey said Zarqawi's body was identified through fingerprints and facial recognition.

US officials and journalists on the ground in Iraq are warning that Zarqawi's death may mean little in terms of the strength of the insurgency and the level of day-to-day violence in Iraq. Given how little difference the much-ballyhooed capture of Saddam Hussein made, I'm inclined to agree.

In addition, there are interesting questions about how Zarqawi was found by US forces. From CNN:

[General] Casey provided details about the strike that killed al-Zarqawi.

He said al-Zarqawi and a key lieutenant, spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, were at an isolated safe house at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday.

"Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers north of Baquba when the airstrike was launched.

Baquba is a volatile area northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province, a mixed Shiite-Sunni jurisdiction.

Got that? Zarqawi was turned in by his own people.

Now here's where it gets really interesting. Check out this post at Strategy Page, which predicted Zarqawi's imminent death about a day before the air strike that killed him:

The relationship between terrorist leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and and the mainline al Qaeda leadership continues to deteriorate. Zarqawi's recent audio messages have not only attacked the U.S. and the Shia-dominated government in Iraq, but also Iran. He's even claiming that the U.S., Iran, and Shia in general, are in cahoots to destroy Islam. He has also called for continued attacks against Shia.

Except for his verbal attacks on the U.S. and the Iraqi government, he is almost totally distanced himself from the central leadership. Other al Qaeda leaders have been trying to down play anti-Iranian and anti-Shia rhetoric, and have been strongly discouraging attacks on civilians.

Given that Zarqawi has become a loose cannon and that his actions are handicapping Al Qaeda's efforts, it seems reasonable to expect that an accident may befall him at some point in the near future. If handled right it can be made to look like he went out in a blaze of glory fighting American troops or that he was foully murdered. Either way, al Qaeda gets rid of a problem and gains another "martyr."

I can't vouch for the accuracy record of Strategy Page, but it sure looks like they called this one. And they certainly aren't the only one to report apparent tensions between Zarqawi and Iran.

What I have to wonder is:

Did Iran have a role in Zarqawi's death? Perhaps information on his whereabouts was offered up by the Iranians as a pro quid pro for US 'understandings' about its nuclear program?
Was the airstrike that killed Zarqawi essentially an intervention on the side of the Shia in the Iraqi civil war? In an attempt to salvage something from Dubya's Iraq adventure, has the US become a bit player in the ongoing drama of Iraqi sectarian politics?

Those are just my immediate questions about Zarqawi's death. I'm sure there are more to be asked. And that answers will, as they say, be revealed in the fullness of time.

Via BBC, CNN, Aljazeera.al-Zarqawi

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:17 AM | Get permalink

How come 'real' journalists don't do this?

I'm not Jon Stewart's biggest fan. I mean, he's funny, but I have no trouble living without watching the Daily Show, and I have no illusions that watching someone getting skewered by Stewart is a replacement for political action.

That said, I really have to admit that Stewart's grilling of right-wing blowhard Bill Bennett on Wednesday night is an object lesson to 'real' journalists about the kind of questioning that they should routinely be giving to opponents of lesbian and gay rights. YouTube has the video here.

Jon Stewart nails Bill Bennett to the wall

Jon Stewart nails Bill Bennett to the wall

Are you paying attention, NY Times? How about it, CNN?

Via MetaFilter.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:59 AM | Get permalink

Bloggered.

Blogger decided not to work for a good chunk of yesterday, leaving me with plenty of material but no way to get it online. I took Blogger's downtime as an omen that I should go outside and play. Which I did.

As you can see, however, I'm back. Look out, world!

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:51 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, June 7

Ooooooh, ~~shiny~~ smoky!

The eruption plume from Alaska's Mt Cleveland volcano, as seen from the International Space Station.

Since the volcano is located in a remote part of the Aleutian Islands, no one had known it was erupting until a report from astronaut Jeffrey Williams. The eruption occurred two weeks ago.

Ash cloud from erupting Mt Cleveland

[Photo: Jeffrey Williams/ISS/NASA]

To get a sense of the photo's scale, Mt Cleveland sits on Chuginadak Island, which is 14 miles/23 km long and 8 miles/12.9 km wide. The volcano itself is 5,675 ft/1,730 m high.

NASA's Earth Observatory has more background about the eruption and photo here. And for a really big version of the photo, x marks the spot.

You can find more information about Mt Cleveland here and here.

Via Astronomy Picture of the Day.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:53 AM | Get permalink

Norway to Wal-Mart: Drop dead.

The Norwegian government has excluded Wal-Mart's stock from its Petroleum Fund — a US$ 240 billion investment fund that pays for health and pension benefits for the country's citizens. According to Norway's finance ministry, Wal-Mart is unsuitable for investment beause of its 'serious/systematic violations of human rights and labour rights.' As a result of that finding, the Petroleum Fund has sold off Wal-Mart stock worth US$ 414 million.

Anti Wal-Mart logo

This action against Wal-Mart is not just political posturing: Norway's oil fund is the largest pension fund in the world, with assets that have a value almost equal to Norway's entire economy — and that more than twice as big as the largest US pension fund, the Californial Public Employees Retirement System. Norway's divestiture of its Wal-Mart holding will most definitely be noticed by managers of other pension funds.

The [finance] ministry said [its ethics council] had found "an extensive body of material" that indicated Wal-Mart had broken norms, including employing minors against international rules, allowing hazardous working conditions at many of its suppliers and blocking workers' efforts to form unions.

It also listed other alleged Wal-Mart abuses including pressuring workers to work overtime without compensation, discriminating against women in pay and blocking "all attempts to unionise".

It said Wal-Mart employees were "in a number of cases unreasonably punished and locked in".

The council's report encompassed Wal-Mart's operations in the United States and Canada and its suppliers in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Malawi, Madagascar, Swaziland, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia.

The finance ministry said Norway's central bank, which manages the investment fund, had invited Wal-Mart to comment on the allegations in September, but the company did not respond.

Wal-Mart now joins 18 other companies that have already been excluded from Norway's investment fund for ethical reasons. Companies previously rejected include manufacturers of land mines, cluster bombs, and nuclear weapons. Wal-Mart is apparently the first retailer to be rejected.

Via UK Guardian.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:12 AM | Get permalink

How much we must love our children.

So much that they've become little more than another market that we can sell to advertisers.

A Massachusetts company wants to beam commercial radio broadcasts into school buses every morning and afternoon, the latest mingling of education and commerce to spark outcry as the firm lobbies school districts across the state to sign contracts for the fall.

Needham-based Bus Radio said yesterday that it has signed up school systems with nearly 100,000 school children in Massachusetts and other states for the service next school year. The company says it is offering a cutting-edge service in which children select music online for their district's buses, drivers can finish their routes with their passengers quiet, and school districts get cash from the company. Bus Radio can sell advertising time to businesses trying to reach young consumers.

But critics say such arrangements exploit captive young ears already inundated by advertising pitches morning to night. Yesterday, one consumer group sent Governor Mitt Romney a letter urging him to prevent the company from working with Bay State districts, while activists flooded the state Education Department with protest e-mails.

"What these corporations want to do is be in children's faces 24 hours a day, and they're getting close to that," said Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston.

What I especially love is the reasoning of the advertising company: Put our music and ads on the buses and the children will behave. Of course, if schools were funded sufficiently, there wouldn't be any trouble paying an adult monitor to ride on buses so that the bus driver doesn't have to simultaneously drive and attempt to keep order. And if we taxed ourselves enough to support our schools well, school districts wouldn't be so anxious to sell their students' ears to advertisers in order to gain a few bucks.

But then financially starving the ublic schools has always been part of the US right wing's game plan, hasn't it?

Via Boston Globe.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:03 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, June 6

Yay!

Fafblog is back from ... well ... wherever it is that they were.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:27 PM | Get permalink

Update on the new, lesbian Batwoman.

The Onion nails it, as usual.

I applaud DC Comics for taking the bold step of introducing a voluptuous, beautiful, girl-kissing superheroine. I only hope DC's legion of chronic masturbators will accept her.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, see this earlier post.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:05 PM | Get permalink

A really, really bad day in Iraq.

Riverbend has a new post up. Things in Baghdad are bleak:

There's an ethnic cleansing in progress and it's impossible to deny. People are being killed according to their ID card. Extremists on both sides are making life impossible. Some of them work for 'Zarqawi', and the others work for the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. We hear about Shia being killed in the 'Sunni triangle' and corpses of Sunnis named 'Omar' (a Sunni name) arriving by the dozen at the Baghdad morgue. I never thought I'd actually miss the car bombs. At least a car bomb is indiscriminate. It doesn't seek you out because you're Sunni or Shia.

We still don't have ministers in the key ministries- defense and interior. Iraq is falling apart and Maliki and his team are still bickering over who should get more power — who is more qualified to oppress Iraqis with the help of foreign occupiers? On top of all of this, rumor has it that the Iraqi parliament have a 'vacation' coming up during July and August. They're so exhausted with the arguing, and struggling for power, they need to take a couple of months off to rest. They'll leave their well-guarded homes behind for a couple of months, and spend some time abroad with their families (who can't live in Iraq anymore — they're too precious for that).

Where does one go to avoid the death and destruction? Are the Americans happy with this progress? Does Bush still insist we're progressing?

Emily Dickinson wrote, "hope is a thing with feathers". If what she wrote is true, then hope has flown far — very far — from Iraq.

Meanwhile, Dubya and his administration keeps throwing out that same old lie about how how the Iraq war has reached yet another 'turning point.' I'm sure that turning point was real noticeable to each and every Iraqi.

Via Baghdad Burning.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:54 PM | Get permalink

Busy day, little time at the computer.

But I'm working on some posts now. Honest!

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:39 PM | Get permalink

Monday, June 5

US military to drop torture ban.

The beginning of this story says it all:

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to military officials, a step that would mark a potentially permanent shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

This decision is a big win for VP Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington, who have been pushing since 9/11 for the use of torture and abuse against US 'detainees.' Their back-stage victory isn't going to help the international standing of the US, which is already suffering from revelations of the torture at Abu Ghraib and the masscre at Haditha (to name only a few examples).

The question raised by the decision to drop the Geneva Convention language from the Army field manul is obvious: If the US military isn't torturing people, or isn't planning on using torture in the future, why is it so important to get the Geneva language out of the manual?

Inquiring magpies want to know.

Via SF Chronicle.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:36 PM | Get permalink

Omigawd, I'm so confused!

Given all the gender panic in Washington today (see here, for example), I got panicked about my own gender. Luckily, my good pal alphabitch found a test that made it possible for me to sort out whether I'm a boy or a girl.

You scored as Female. Being mostly female by thought, is even though (still) considered inferior to masculinity in Western culture, a good thing in many ways: It means that you are more creative, and sensitive towards your environment, enabling you to express yourself freely and multitask.

Female
Either
Male
Neither 71%
54%
45%
25%

Gee, I feel so much better now!

If you're panicking about your gender, too, you can go take the test here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:30 PM | Get permalink

Sunday, June 4

Pop quiz!

Quick! Give me one reason why Republican politicians and right-wing political positions always get better treatment in US mass media than anyone else.

Here's a subtle hint:

Fewer corporations own more of the media

Fewer corporations own more of the media

[Source: Ben Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly]

And an even subtler hint: Do huge corporations benefit from GOP administrations and right-wing politics?

Thanks to Ian Welsh at BOPNews for finding the graph. He has a longer post on media consolidation that you might want to look at.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:26 PM | Get permalink

Freedom continues to march on in Iraq.

Just before the Iraq war and during the early days of the US-led occupation, one of the best sources for what was really going on in Iraq was a blog by Salam Pax. These days, Pax is a Baghdad-based news producer, and he posts from time to time at a new blog.

Right now, Pax is trying to put together a couple of stories, but he's having trouble getting anyone to talk to him. It seems that people are afraid that if they speak on camera, they'll wind up being the next target of one of the country's many death squads.

A friend of mine, after seeing how desperate and frustrated I was getting trying to get someone to talk on camera, said that I should go to the Kadhimiya district. People will talk there he said. Right. I haven?t been there for ages and I had no reason to believe that it will be different there, but I was getting desperate. I decided to go there the day after a bomb exploded by a bus in that neighbourhood and killed 13 people.

In case you didn?t know Kadhimiya is a Shia district, I have a Sunni family name. The knot in my stomach was getting tighter the closer we got to the check point through which we get into the market area near the Kadhimiya Shrine. What if they ask me for my Iraqi ID? They had an explosion here yesterday and I have a Sunni family name? No this is not paranoia. I have the wrong name and I need to get myself a new forged ID with a Shia name. Anyway, I was lucky they were happy with my NUJ card (the first time I was really happy I had it on me, I usually fear that if people see it they think I?m a foreign journalist).

Once inside I had the biggest eye opener. I saw the future of Iraq, or at least Baghdad. Inside the barricade and past the checkpoint was a piece of the old Baghdad. Shops full of people, all relaxed and smiling. Everybody wants to talk and tell me how their lives are and I even got invited to have tea and accepted the invitation without thinking that this man saw my camera and he is just delaying me until the kidnappers arrive.

You know what was different? Kadhimiya is set up these days like a fortress. Entrances are tightly controlled, no unknown cars get in and they basically had their own secret police there; when I lingered too long with my camera in front of the shrine I was quickly called inside and a security guard demanded IDs and wanted to look through the film, I thanked heavens again for the NUJ card.

So people I give you the future of Baghdad. Districts will become tightly controlled fortresses that are ethnically/religiously homogeneous. Outsiders are only let in after being inspected and checked. I really want to go back to Kadhimiya but only after I get my fake Shia ID.

Having trouble getting into a Shia district doesn?t mean that I am OK in Sunni areas. Sunni areas are even tougher. To start with they have their own set of fashion rules. There is a whole What Not To Wear spin-off for the west of Baghdad and the prize isn?t just a special wardrobe but you get to stay alive.

Let me give you a quick run down. Let?s look at men?s fashions first. Things that can get you killed include:

Shorts
A goatee beard
Jeans that are a bit tight or are too fashionably ?distressed?
Colourful shirts
Hair Gel!!!
A necklace
A Shia name (anything that has anything to do with Imam Hussein or a member of his family)

Before I started shooting for this video blog I was talking to one of my uncles about this whole death and value of life thing. He told me that today our lives are as valuable as an empty bullet casing left on the road after a shooting. Absolutely worthless.

I found a couple of empty rounds on the street the other day, I keep them in my backpack with my camera as a reminder.

Any further comments from me would be redundant.

Via War and Piece.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:03 PM | Get permalink

The world's most significant drum break.

It's called the 'Amen Break,' and it's six seconds of drumming that originally appeared in a song called 'Amen Brother,' the B-side of a 1969 single by the Winstons. Without that break, hip-hop, jungle, and present-day commmercials (to name just a few examples) would be very different.

'Amen Brother' single

The mother lode.

A 2004 video by Nate Harrison gives the history of the Amen Break, and ties its use in to the whole controversy over copyright and the ownership of culture. Trust me: The video is way more interesting than my last sentence makes it sound.

Via YouTube.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:05 PM | Get permalink