test blog #10

A new reason to hate the MTA. This morning the New York Times reports : The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has thrown his support behind the Jets' $720 million bid for the rights to build a stadium over its railyards on the West Side of Manhattan, all but assuring that the authority's board will approve a sale to the team at its meeting this morning, according to two people who spoke yesterday with the chairman, Peter S. Kalikow. The team's proposal has been championed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who sees the stadium as the centerpiece of the city's effort to lure the 2012 Olympics... So much for the highest bidder. The Cablevision bid is being called "not credible". Not credible is how these people decide to spend our money.

We saw the movie "Vera Drake" last night, just out on DVD. (Thank you Netflix !). I thought it was very well done. Writer and director Mike Leigh is a master at illustrating complex themes through his story, without ever using characters as billboards. Since I struggle to do that with my own writing, I know how hard it is, and I am very impressed. I felt a deep kinship with the character Vera Drake, a working-class woman who "helps girls out," as she calls it, by terminating early pregnancies. I am very prone to this stirring feeling of solidarity, be the characters striking office-cleaners ("Bread and Roses") or Alabama bus boycotters. I believe we are all part of the same struggle - that everyone working for justice is linked, across all cultures and all times. The movie "Vera Drake" also illustrates abortion as an act of morality and compassion. The fetus is a form of life; that much is clear. A human being in a persistent vegetative state is ...

I got a little package from Ottawa last Saturday - a large envelope with a sealed business envelope inside. The enclosed letter instructed me to bring the sealed envelope to the doctor who did my medical evaluation for immigration, who would then open said envelope and instruct me further. I wasn't authorized to open the envelope myself - it had to be brought to the doctor sealed. The Ancient One who did our exams has hours only a few afternoons a week, and the office is very inconvenient, so it would be a few days before the mystery could be solved. This left plenty of time for my imagination to run wild. I tried to be reasonable... with limited success. I was a wee bit anxious over what could possibly have gone wrong. And I was not happy about the prospect of Dr Old stabbing me in a vain attempt to draw more blood. (A pun? I pun unintentionally.) I am not at all afraid of needles - I get blood drawn regularly without the slightest flinch. But this man left my arm looking like a...

I kind of can't believe I'm blogging about the Schiavo insanity again , but when the media blankets an event as it has this one, there are bound to be some unusual takes. "These are their stories." [kah-chunk] One. Has anyone asked the Feeding Tube where it stands? How will the Feeding Tube's quiet voice be heard above the din? Get Your War On brings us that lost perspective, and thanks to BWV for pointing it out. Two. The Curmudgeonly Crab has something to say about irony . Did you know that women are not the property of their husbands? It's true! Did you know it's OK to maim and kill people in order to save a brain-dead person? See, there's a lot you don't know! These people just love blobs of cells. Blobs of cells in the uterus, blobs of human remains in a bed, they just can't get enough of those cell blobs. And three. Antonia Zerbisias, an excellent columnist for the Toronto Star , comments on what robbed Terri Schiavo of her consciousnes...

Uh-oh. I have something in common with David Brooks . With Opening Day around a quick corner (yay!), the conservative pundit is considering withdrawing his loyalty from his beloved Mets and bestowing it on the new team in his town, The Nationals, who are the reincarnation of the Montreal Expos. I, too, have changed allegiances, and it still causes me some confusion. And I didn't just jump from Team A to Team B. After nearly 30 years, I switched sides in the oldest and most heated rivalry in American sports. (If you're interested - which I understand you probably are not! - I wrote about it here .) Allan and I have been re-watching the 2004 post-season - he has the whole thing on DVD - as our own personal Spring Training. Last night the Red Sox completed their historic comeback, the Yankees completed their historic collapse, and Yankee Stadium belonged to Red Sox Nation. I felt a little pang, but mostly the joy in my heart told me which side I'm now on. I don't like to s...

Marvin Gaye asked the question, now Paul Krugman does the same. Read it. Think about it. People still wondering why I'm leaving the country need look no further. ++++++ What's Going On? By Paul Krugman Democratic societies have a hard time dealing with extremists in their midst. The desire to show respect for other people's beliefs all too easily turns into denial: nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for democracy itself. We can see this failing clearly in other countries. In the Netherlands, for example, a culture of tolerance led the nation to ignore the growing influence of Islamic extremists until they turned murderous. But it's also true of the United States, where dangerous extremists belong to the majority religion and the majority ethnic group, and wield great political influence. Before he saw the polls, Tom DeLay declared that "one thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visi...

This photo was included as a pull-out poster in a recent mailing from the International Paralympic Committee. It was originally published in Sports Illustrated and won the 2005 World Press Photo prize in the Sports Action category. I can't post it, but you can see it here . It might take a moment to orient yourself and figure out what you're looking at. Great, huh? All the 2005 winners are here and selections from 50 years of this prize are here . The "50 year gallery" is tough to look at, since the winning photos often depict the horrors humans inflict on one another.

I've got two things for you to do today, or at least this week. I'm a little late to both of these, but perhaps you missed them, too. Thanks to Common Dreams , I read Norman Solomon's column about MoveOn.org's stance - or lack thereof - on the US's occupation of Iraq. I was extremely surprised to learn that MoveOn is not calling for troop withdrawal, and not even supporting the House of Representative resolution calling for a rapid exit. This is very disappointing, given MoveOn's ability to reach millions of progressives, including many armchair activists who rely on their inbox for direction. (I'm not being snide. It's a reality, and MoveOn has tapped into it brilliantly.) I also find it more than a little strange, given this is the organization that helped produce and distribute "Uncovered" . MoveOn claims it is determined to remain a grassroots, member-driven organization, and avoid top-down organizing. According to Solomon, its leadership ...

Headline from Common Dreams : "Man Sells Device That Blocks Fox News". Wow! It's a little thingy that screws into the back of your television set to filter out Fox News. The inventor of Fox Blocker, a former registered Republican, says his product is not just about preventing people from watching Fox, "which he acknowledges can be done without the Blocker. But he likens his device to burning a draft card, a tangible example of disagreement. . . . After buying the $8.95 device online, would-be blockers are shown a letter that they can send to advertisers via the Fox Blocker site. 'The point is not to block the channel or block free speech but to raise awareness,' said Kimery, who works in the tech industry." The Fox Blocker even improves on the TV-B-Gone , a keychain-sized universal remote that lets you turn off televisions in public places. For more information - or to order yours! - go here . Buy a dozen and give 'em out as gifts!

Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom has an idea that would make my life a whole lot easier. Walkom agrees, as do I, that the American conscientious objector Jeremy Hinzman did not qualify for refugee status in Canada based on his refusal to serve in Iraq. I admire Hinzman (and all war resisters) no end, but he's not facing persecution and can't claim to be a refugee. That's pretty clear. If you haven't been following this story, here's some background: Jeremy Hinzman's website , an interview with Hinzman by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, and a story in the Star after his bid for refugee status was denied . I object to the newspaper's use of the words "dodger" and "deserter", which is why I offer the two other links as well. Anyway, back to the columnist who wants to help people like me. During the Vietnam War, draft resisters were able to drive across the border, settle in, then apply for resident status from inside Canada. Most Ameri...

There's a story in today's New York Times about how difficult it is to be a U.S. Army recruiter these days. Gee, I wonder why that would be? It seems that recruiters are buckling under the strain. They are suffering from physical ailments, depression and even mental breakdowns as the army reprimands them for not meeting their quotas. This reminds me of a political cartoon I have on my bulletin board, saved from the anti-apartheid movement days of the 1980s. It depicts a white soldier named South Africa standing with his foot on the head of a black man. Ronald Reagan watches, saying, "Gee, I sympathize, that constant pressure must be hell on your foot."

I didn't have too much to say today, but our friend Crabletta wants to wish you all a good morning . She believes in the culture of life and would like you all to help.

Let's not let this "culture of life" bullshit work its way into our vocabularies! Pop Culturist speaks to the vigilantes outside the hospice in Florida: Hey you people out there holding signs bowing your heads down in prayer, did ya know that just last week in Texas a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes? All because of the Texas Futile Care Law. When he was Governor, Bush signed this law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. Recently, Republicans voted to eliminate medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country. Did you know that Bush, as Governor of the Lone Star state. signed for the execution of no less than 152 people. It has been said that statistically 7% of all people that...

Yesterday Allan and I took a tour of Grand Central Terminal , one of the world's great public spaces, and one of New York's greatest buildings. The Municipal Art Society , an urban planning and preservation group, conducts a tour every Wednesday. The tour was more a social history of the Terminal than an architectural tour, which was still fascinating, but a little disappointing for me. We thought we'd be taken into areas that are inaccessible to the public, especially the catwalks in the huge windows . Apparently the tour used to include that, but hasn't for many years. Despite these minor disappointments, it was very interesting and extensive. If you visit New York, even if a two-hour tour of a building doesn't grab you, do see Grand Central. A few blocks away you can visit the main branch of the New York Public Library , with its famous Reading Room , another grand public space . Grand Central and the Reading Room were both restored to full splendor in the late ...

The FBI has confirmed that I, too, am felony-free. Tomorrow we mail off our next round of immigration documents. These are: - financial records for the preceding four years, - proof of current employment, - proof of common-law partnership, and - FBI certificates of no record. I did another cool New York thing today. Details tomorrow. Whoo-hoo! We are almost there!!

Since I rarely watch TV news, I've been only vaguely aware that the US mainstream media has taken a break from the Michael Jackson trial and MarthaWatch to go all-feeding-tube, all the time. And I vowed to myself that there'd be no mention of this bizarre fiasco in wmtc. After ALPF sent this very good story on how a similar case couldn't happen in Canada, I wavered a bit: "The so-called religious right doesn't have anything like that influence in Canada. Overwhelmingly, people of all religions -- and none -- accept that life should not always be prolonged." Love that so-called ! And the mention of people of no religion. Imagine that. But still, I couldn't quite bring myself to break my Vow Of Feeding-Tube Silence. Finally, Jon Stewart decided for me. Here, lovingly transcribed by yours truly, is Stewart's recent Daily Show take on the whole sickening, hypocritical mess. I only wish I could transcribe Stewart's brilliant delivery. You can watch it...

Today is World Water Day 2005 . To my mind, water privatization is the scariest demon of this young century. Read about it here and in this excellent article by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke in The Nation . That story is two years old, and awareness has grown somewhat since then, but we have a long way to go. They write: The antidote to water commodification is its decommodification. Water must be declared and understood for all time to be the common property of all. In a world where everything is being privatized, citizens must establish clear perimeters around those areas that are sacred to life and necessary for the survival of the planet. Simply, governments must declare that water belongs to the earth and all species and is a fundamental human right. No one has the right to appropriate it for profit. Water must be declared a public trust, and all governments must enact legislation to protect the freshwater resources in their territory... Read more here .

Well, Allan isn't, anyway. Finally, we've received one of our "certificates of no record" from the FBI. It's actually the fingerprints that we sent them, with the words "NO ARREST RECORD" and the date stamped on the back. A loyal reader in Colorado (hi Nick!) said his took ten weeks to come back; we're in week nine, so that was right on the money. Assuming my fingerprint card is not far behind, we are poised to take that next big step.

That's the name of one of my favorite blogs. The author occasionally comments here under the name Cin. Cin lives in Vancouver and is originally from, I believe, Chile. It's Raining Again is a meditation on art, politics, the creative process, life in a vibrant city, living with animals, choosing optimism, choosing joy. Cin writes a lot of what I would if I kept a more personal journal online. (Does that make me narcissistic? I'll just say I feel a real click of recognition with her thoughts.) Cin, if you ever want to write about why you moved to Canada, and your thoughts on being an expatriate living there... at least one person in NYC would like to read it.

I already know something about Canadian conservatives, from our own RobfromAlberta . If he is a representative sample, they are a more rational breed than their American counterparts. But this week's Conservative Party convention has taught me a thing or two more. I don't pretend to know much about it, but all the stories I've seen indicate that the party has moved to the center (centre) in order to be more unified. ALPF was kind enough to send a clip from the Edmonton Sun with the welcome headline "Anti-abortion Fight Fizzles" : The Conservative party abandoned the fight for an abortion law yesterday after four decades of bitter national debate that sparked court challenges, police raids and passionate protest. The historic vote at the party convention left anti-abortion advocates with no mainstream political vehicle for the first time ever as the party opted to stake its fortunes a little closer to the political centre. . . . One jubilant pro-choice delegate c...

I see it's been several weeks - ack, possibly months! - since I quoted the brilliant Katha Pollitt, my fellow New Yorker and abortion-access activist. In this week's Nation she writes about the ridiculous dearth of women on the Op-Ed pages of major US print publications. It's really worth your time to read the whole column . Bloggers might be especially interested. The blogosphere has changed a lot of things about media. Sexism isn't one of them.

You can click on the photo for a list of anti-war activities taking place all over the globe this weekend. Thanks to Al at Not the Country Club for the pic & link. You can also visit UFPJ to search by region or city. Speak out for peace. Add your voice to the growing chorus.

This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. As of today, 1696 "coalition" forces have been killed in combat, and 11,220 are listed as wounded by the Department of Defense. Somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. There is no estimate on how many have been disabled, orphaned or left homeless. No weapons of mass destruction of any type, or equipment to make them, have been found. No link between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of September 11th has been found. It has been proven that none existed. Baghdad and other Iraqi cities lack reliable electricity, fresh water and other basic resources. Saddam Hussein has been deposed. An election has been held. A substantial number of Iraqis boycotted it as fraudulent. There are very few signs that a secular democracy will be established. A small group of hand-picked multinational corporations are making vast sums of wealth from the war, through the privatization of military s...

Independent journalist Greg Palast writes : The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed. Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protestors claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered. In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists." "Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants. Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th...

"It's time to break that cycle, and it needs to happen from the top down. That's why the truth needs to come out, however ugly the truth might be." What ugly truth could Representative Tom Davis of Virginia be referring to? Abu Ghraib? Torture extraditions? Enron, Worldcom, Tyco? Wrong! It's steroid use in Major League Baseball. What a waste of time. Sunday night, April 3: Yankees vs. Red Sox on ESPN. Be there.

As I'm sure you know, yesterday the US Senate voted 51-49 on a resolution that begins to clear the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Five decent Republicans crossed party lines to vote for the resolution (i.e., against drilling): Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Senators Collins and Snowe, both of Maine, Smith of Oregon and Arizona's John McCain. And three indecent Democrats sold out: Senators Akaka and Inouye, both of Hawaii, and that scumbucket Landrieu from Louisiana. Arctic drilling is still not a done deal. To become law, the Senate budget bill must be reconciled with the House budget bill, which Congress has been unable to do in recent years. So the fight is still on to delete Arctic drilling from any budget that actually winds up on W's desk. But there's no way to soft-soap this. It's bad. It's especially bad for these guys.

Birds again. Canada says, be gentle. US farmers say shoot the bastards. Somehow this seems very fitting. Many Americans already think Canadians are too permissive with drug users, too lax toward terrorists, too lenient with criminals in general. Some are convinced we blithely let mad cows stumble into the United States. Now U.S. agriculture officials have another bone to pick with Canada, which they have accused of being soft on starlings. Fruit farmers in Washington state want British Columbia authorities to join them in a trapping and poisoning program to help rid the border region of the speckled pests instead of merely frightening them away with noisemakers. ... Killing birds -- "population control" in official parlance -- is not provincial policy. Why doesn't surprise me? If you care, read more here . If you don't care, blame ALPF. But seriously folks. This is yet another, albeit small, illustration of a difference of priorities and approach. In comments to this ...

I haven't been doing very well on my plan to check off one "NYC to-do" each week. But spring is coming, so I can pick up the pace, and we still haven't heard from the FBI, so unfortunately there seems to be time. Yesterday I went to the Noguchi Museum , housed in a converted factory in Long Island City, a neighborhood in Queens just over the East River from Manhattan. Noguchi was a fascinating artist, and it's a little gem of a museum. Isamu Noguchi was a sculptor and designer, but those labels don't even hint at his creativity and versatility. He created gardens, fountains, "playscapes", and sculpture of amazing grace and beauty. He designed lamps and furniture whose shapes have become so familiar that we forget how fresh and innovative they once were. For a long time, he collaborated with the great choreographer Martha Graham on designs and sets for her dances. And he was astonishingly prolific , working in the US, Paris, Japan, China, Mexico, Ind...

The argument over Social Security privatization isn't about rival views on how to secure the program's future - even the administration admits that private accounts would do nothing to help the system's finances. It's a debate about what kind of society America should be. And it's a debate Republicans appear to be losing, because the public doesn't share their view that it's a good idea to expose middle-class families, whose lives have become steadily riskier over the past few decades, to even more risk. As soon as voters started to realize that private accounts would replace traditional Social Security benefits, not add to them, support for privatization collapsed. But the Republicans' loss may not be the Democrats' gain, for two reasons... Don't miss yesterday's Paul Krugman column, not least because he continues to expose Joe Lieberman for the Republican that he really is. W & Co are throwing about this "$600 billion" figure...

Allan just found another way for me to waste time. If you love dogs, you must visit Dogster , the coolest dog site I've ever seen. It just won a People's Choice award, so I'm sure it's zipping all over the web. Of course I've already registered Buster , Cody and the dearly departed Gypsy and Clyde. Does anyone know how I can make paragraph breaks in text that you enter into form boxes? HTML paragraph and line-break codes don't work.

Another victory! A California state judge ruled yesterday that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, thus overturning a proposition passed in 2000 defining marriage as between a man and woman. Judge Richard A. Kramer of San Francisco County Superior Court said "the denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary," thus violating the equal protection clause of the state's Constitution. According to the New York Times , Judge Kramer's ruling "left no argument against same-sex marriage unexamined, and virtually no glimmer of light for the attorney general's office or the other groups that filed briefs in support of current state law". Whoo-hoo! The judge compared some of the arguments made by same-sex marriage opponents to those made in cases dealing with interracial marriage laws. "The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the courts," he wr...

There may be eggs in the nest! The red-tailed hawks known as Pale Male and Lola, having endured the destruction of their Fifth Avenue nest in December and the ensuing media storm before rebuilding with thousands of twigs from Central Park, appear to have crossed another critical threshold in their unlikely battle for turf in the center of Manhattan. According to several naturalists and bird watchers who monitor the hawks' behavior closely, there are eggs in the nest. If so, New York's most celebrated birds have entered a new chapter, fraught with its own peril, in an unlikely saga that has melded raw nature with urban life and captivated bird lovers around the world. [More here .] expecting? pale male stands guard In animal news closer to home, our struggle to save Buster's eyesight continues, and I'm starting to feel like it's a losing battle. Two problems are under control - at an extremely high maintenance cost - but a new problem has appeared. That makes two mys...

But being short on military, they send only owls... An extreme decline in the rodent population in the boreal forest has caused thousands of owls to head south in search of food. More than 2,000 great gray owls, 200 hawk owls and 300 boreal owls have been spotted in Minnesota, northern Michigan and other parts of the upper US. More typical numbers would be last year's: 35 great gray owls, 6 northern hawk owls and 1 boreal owl. This massive bird migration is called an "irruption", and apparently an irruption of this proportion is extremely rare. OK, this qualifies as my most off-topic post ever. The connection to Canada, though real, was just an excuse to post photos of these amazing birds. I love birds of prey, and these faces are magnificent. The maps (which you probably can't see well here) are their territories. Click here and then on "follow the rats" (on the right) for larger pictures.

According to an annual quality of life survey, five Canadian cities are the most livable places in North America, and among the top 25 best places to live in the world. For the second straight year, Vancouver placed third worldwide behind Geneva and Zurich. Toronto was 14th, Ottawa 20th, Montreal 22nd, and Calgary came in at 25th. I am truly impressed. Among US cities, Honolulu and San Francisco ranked highest for livability (both 25th), mainly because of lower crime rates relative to the rest of the country. Boston, New York, Portland, and Washington follow at 36, 39, 42, and 42, respectively. Houston ranks lowest at 68. (Way to go, Texas!) I've been chewing this over, wondering how Boston can rate ahead of New York in anything - yes Allan, except baseball. But I will grudgingly concede that it is probably easier to live in Boston than New York. Not better, just easier. The survey also gives a separate ranking based on personal safety and security. The world's least secure ci...

Bored stupid here at work, I went off to find a window. From 40+ floors up in the middle of Rockefeller Center, that can be a treat. Sure enough, it's a sparkling clear night. I can see the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the New York Life tower, even the Statue of Liberty in the distant harbor. Ah, New York. The top of the Empire State Building is lit in blue and white. Hmm, let's see. It's not St. Patrick's Day - too early, and that's obviously green. Israel Independence Day is blue, but that's in May. Blue and white on March 13... No idea. Back at my desk, I googled "empire state building lighting colors". Take a look for yourself. You'll never guess. Someone please make a good joke here. Redsock, I'm counting on you.

Steve over at the The Shameless Antagonist is writing great stuff about torture, corporate media self-censorship and all the things that make America great. I recommend it. That is all.

Based on some reader comments, I think I was misunderstood, or that George Lakoff's ideas may have been misunderstood at wmtc. In "Moral Politics," Lakoff doesn't say that the Democrats lost the election because they support same-sex marriage. (By the way, do they support same-sex marriage? Most of them were too squirrelly to take a stand!) And he definitely doesn't say that they lost the election because of gays and lesbians. Rather, Lakoff is saying that the Democrats have allowed the Republicans to cloak themselves in the appearance of morality - to be perceived as the more moral party. And that, to be effective, the Democrats need to do a better job of articulating their own morality and their own values, such as tolerance, justice, equality, and other liberal values. That the Dems should be less issues-oriented and more values-oriented. I definitely reject it. I just wanted to be clear on what I was rejecting.

Sometimes I can't figure out if these guys are clueless - so entrenched in their own world view, that they can't accurately assess the real world around them - or if it's all part of their diabolic plan. I usually go with The Satan Factor, but items like this make me wonder. In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting. The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away. Dr. Araji said his account was based largely on observatio...

More fake news, and not the Jon Stewart variety. Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production . This winter, Washington has been roiled by revelations that a handful of columnists wrote in support of administration policies without disclosing they had accepted payments from the government. But the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive...

Redsock gives us more Seymour Hersh. This is how the US brings democracy to the world. It hurts to look at it, but look we must. Please read it. Please demand the war stop.

Well, not on George Lakoff himself, I don't know the man. On the ideas of his that I've read. Lakoff is the author of an essay, first published in The Nation , called "Our Moral Values" , and two very popular books, Moral Politics and Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate . I tried to read both books at the urging of a hyperactive person on my voter-registration trip. She was a recent convert to activism and couldn't stop talking about Lakoff and his supposedly new approach. I tried to read them... but failed. Couldn't get through either one. After the election, the "Moral Politics" essay was making the rounds big-time. It was all over the internet, and appeared several times in my inbox. Each time, I had the same reaction. I tried to be open to it, but found myself rejecting it, for reasons I found difficult to articulate. So when Crabletta recently asked me to share my thoughts on Lakoff, I used it as an opportunit...

Therapists call it re-framing. Orwell calls it Political Language. Naomi Klein wonders, "Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?". From her recent column in The Nation : "Brand USA is in trouble. . . it's a problem for business," Bono warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The solution is "to re-describe ourselves to a world that is unsure of our values." The Bush administration wholeheartedly agrees, as evidenced by the orgy of redescription that now passes for American foreign policy. Faced with an Arab world enraged by its occupation of Iraq and its blind support for Israel, the US solution is not to change these brutal policies; it is, in the pseudo-academic language of corporate branding, to "change the story." Brand USA's latest story was launched on January 30, the day of the Iraqi elections, complete with a catchy tag line ("purple power"), instantly iconic imagery (purple fingers) and, of course, a new narrativ...

Stomach-turning story on the front page of this morning's Times . It begins: Two Afghan prisoners who died in American custody in Afghanistan in December 2002 were chained to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained assaults that caused their deaths, according to Army criminal investigative reports that have not yet been made public. One soldier, Pfc. Willie V. Brand, was charged with manslaughter in a closed hearing last month in Texas in connection with one of the deaths, another Army document shows. Private Brand, who acknowledged striking a detainee named Dilawar 37 times, was accused of having maimed and killed him over a five-day period by "destroying his leg muscle tissue with repeated unlawful knee strikes." The attacks on Mr. Dilawar were so severe that "even if he had survived, both legs would have had to be amputated," the Army report said, citing a medical examiner. Read more to learn about attempted drownings, oral and anal...

From the Guardian . Read it. You know I only post the good stuff. Our new Guernica by Timothy Garton Ash "I am your choice, your decision: yes, I am Spain." Thus the poet WH Auden, responding to the Spanish civil war in 1937. A lifetime later, Spain is the theatre of another war that affects every European, every citizen of any democracy. This is a war that won't be won by men with guns and bombers from the air. It's a war to avoid another war. On one side of a broad city street, here in Madrid, you can view Picasso's Guernica at the Queen Sofia Art Centre. Probably the single most famous artistic image of war in the modern world, this commemoration of a town bombed during the Spanish civil war shows, in giant angular segments of black, grey and white, distorted and dismembered body parts - legs, arms and, most of all, heads, with each mouth open in a howl of pain. Just a few metres away, on the other side of the street, is the Atocha railway station. Here, on the...

Today is the first anniversary of the bombings in Spain that killed 192 people, and a Spanish day of national mourning. Timothy Garton Ash writes from Madrid about the Spanish people's response to "11-M", and the current climate in Madrid: "Our new Guernica" . And guess what? There are choices. War is not inevitable. It's an excellent piece; I might post more from it later when I have time. Here's a Spanish story (in English) about the national day of mourning. It closes with: The one group not to take part in any of today's events are the members of the March 11th Association of those Affected by Terrorism. They say they will spend the day in silence and so they have closed their doors to the public for the first time in a year. On that door 192 black ribbons hang this morning – all prepared by the mother of one of the victims. As a New Yorker - which means I am a person affected by terrorism, if only emotionally and mentally - my heart goes out to...

The observation roof at the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza - where I spend my weekends as a corporate drone - will soon reopen. When it closed in 1986, it was NYC's third highest observatory. Now it will be the second. Here's what visitors to the deck will see... view from 30 rock ...and here's a really good story about it by David Dunlap, who writes about the physical city for the New York Times . I enjoy his writing.

Last Friday, under virtually unanimous international pressure, the US dropped its politically motivated demand that a UN resolution to promote equality for women contain an anti-abortion-rights amendment. Under intense global pressure, the United States on Friday dropped its demand to amend a declaration reaffirming the U.N. blueprint to achieve equality for women. . . U.S. Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey said the United States would join other nations in approving the declaration endorsing the 150-page platform for action adopted at the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing. The proposed U.S. amendment would have reaffirmed the Beijing platform and a declaration adopted with it — but only "while reaffirming that they do not create any new international human rights, and that they do not include the right to abortion." But the United States found itself virtually alone, with nations from Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia all opposed. The attempt to amend the one-page de...

A website dedicated to the woman we here at wmtc affectionately call "That Crazy Woman". From the StopAnnCoulter.com mission statement: We feel that Ann Coulter is hurting America on a regular basis. She regularly lies, distorts facts, and uses childish insults in order to advance her radical ideology. This, of course, could be simply ignored if she didn't have significant influence. . . . The purpose of this website is to dismantle that myth. . . . It is important to note that this is not a website fueled by partisanship. . . . This is not an anti-conservative website. The staff of StopAnnCoulter.com feels very strongly that intelligent, informed debate is essential to maintaining the strength of our democracy. Ann Coulter, however, knows absolutely nothing about informed debate, and she must be stopped. . . . Assuming they're not actually sending hit men after her, I'm all for it.

According to a recent report (and ALPF's LOD!), immigrants to Canada are much more likely to become citizens than immigrants to any other country. The report, summarized in this Globe and Mail story, says 84% of eligible immigrants were Canadian citizens in 2001, compared with 40% of foreign-born US residents, 50% in the UK and 75% in Australia. Even though immigrants are eligible to apply to become a citizen only after they have lived in Canada for three years out of the previous four, the decision to become one happens quickly after arrival. The majority of immigrants decide within the first six months of their of residence whether they intend to become citizens. The study cites several factors that influence the decision: attachment to birth country and Canada, rules in their home country regarding dual citizenship, time, cost and knowledge of the citizenship process. I've heard from several people, mostly from South Asia, that it's incredibly difficult to become an Am...

I read a great story yesterday about one man's efforts to increase understanding and decrease the decibel level. Mark Rosenblum, a professor at New York City's Queens College, teaches a course on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Students learn all they can, examine their stance, then present their best case - for the other side . I'm trying to imagine having to debate for capital punishment or against abortion rights. Could I do it? Whether or not I was successful, the exercise would force me to understand the other side's point of view. Rosenblum began the course in response to hostility on campus towards Muslim students after 9/11. His class was extremely diverse, including Orthodox Jews and Muslim student activists. Class would routinely run twice as long as its scheduled time, and students were so moved by the experience that they continued meeting on their own, after the semester ended. Rosenblum and some students are now exploring ways to continue the format in a...

How long were we waiting to see this headline? Data Is Lacking on Iran's Arms, U.S. Panel Says A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work. . . . The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections in Iran for two years, has said it has not found evidence of any weapons program. But the agency has also expressed skepticism about Iran's insistence that its nuclear activities are strictly civilian. . . . In its report, the panel is also expected to be sharply critical of American intelligence on North Korea. But in interviews, people who have been briefed on the commission's deliberations and conclusions said they regarded the record on Iran as particularly worrisome. . . . Apparently the only way to be safe from US attack is to actually have nuclear weapons...

Last week, the W administration announced a plan to raise revenue on the backs of those who can least afford it and least deserve it, the nation's veterans. In yesterday's Letters to the New York Times , veterans and those who care about them respond: To the Editor: Veterans should do what they did in war: fight for all Americans and for the values of this country, for equality and justice. I know of no veteran who risked his life for a tax cut for the wealthy but plenty who fought for a compassionate country that takes care of its less well off, children and the elderly. President Bush's cynical strategy to try to use us to achieve his unconscionable domestic cuts will not work. But there is a more cynical game afoot. The administration is raising trial balloons to pit veterans' benefits and retired pay against active-duty needs, especially the need for more, higher cost systems. Veterans must not only fight for the disadvantaged; we must fight for the needed equipmen...