Er, how did it get this late?
Happy Birthday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
antheia. (I should probably do happy birthday wishes the day before since I don't update until bedtime on the day of, huh?)
Heading into the T this morning I saw Hannah going the other way. She recognized me first and kindly volunteered her name when it was clear I didn't recognize her.
( gym )
CNN this morning, John Roberts was talking to Laura Flanders and Joe "Pags" Pagliarulo. There was actual argument. I was so pleased.
Flanders argued that Americans want to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq on day 1 and Pagliarulo argued that Americans want to win in Iraq, which is different from wanting immediate troop withdrawals. They also quarreled over whether the economy or Iraq was Issue #1 among voters.
Hameer facebook messaged me apologized for never getting back to me about hanging out and said, "maybe third time's a charm whenever i come back next (probably winter time?) In any case, fill me in on what you're doing these days. keep in touch!" I wasn't too upset about his dropping the ball since I was so busy with apartment stuff and everything, but I did appreciate the follow up and I feel like he may be sincere in his (friendly!) interest beyond just the courtesy interest which so annoys me with its superficiality.
I was telling someone about MFA films I've seen and I mentioned To Paint or Make Love. I saw it at the MFA in July 2006 and could only find the French Region 2 DVD, but on a whim I checked Amazon while composing the e-mail and actually found it.
I dunno if it's less humid or if I'm just acclimating to the heat or something, but I didn't especially mind the walk home tonight despite the fact that I got all sweaty. Though okay, I wasn't motivated enough to haul my bag of donations all the way down to Goodwill -- though I really should, so it's one less thing cluttering up the apartment come Saturday's party. (I thought thunderstorms were predicted, though; where are they? Also, I was amused to see "1st Atlantic season hurricane becomes Category 3 (AP)" topping YahooHome's Top Stories at one point tonight 'cause on CNN's This American Morning this morning, the weather guy (Rob Marciano) was saying they expected it to stay at a Category 1 but that they hadn't expected it to even become a hurricane or to move this far west so who knows.
I started digging through boxes and found all the opening pages of stories I wrote in adolescence -- the grandiose ideas and the trashy trash. One is called "What is Lesbian?" about a girl whose mom is a lesbian, which I had completely forgotten about. I don't know when I wrote it. (There are typed bits, and there's another story with a typed bit that says "Copyright 1995," so that gives me some estimate.) I think most of that stuff predates high school anyway. Which makes this one interesting to me since I think of my queer stuff as later -- I wrote an essay on the Bible and homosexuality like my junior year at the instigation of some zinesters and had my first same-sex crush my senior year (though in retrospect I was able to see signs at least to 7th grade, so I guess it's not all that surprising).
I found one or two story-starters that I don't even remember writing. (I feel like I should use Ari's "i have no history" tag.) I'm being good about chucking almost all of my old writing stuff. The journals not so much. I'm having moderate success in being ruthless with birthday cards. I don't really know what to do with the scads of photos I have. Doing this while still wearing my dark-colored work pants was probably not my brightest idea ever, given the dust, but it wasn't too bad.
antheia. (I should probably do happy birthday wishes the day before since I don't update until bedtime on the day of, huh?)Heading into the T this morning I saw Hannah going the other way. She recognized me first and kindly volunteered her name when it was clear I didn't recognize her.
( gym )CNN this morning, John Roberts was talking to Laura Flanders and Joe "Pags" Pagliarulo. There was actual argument. I was so pleased.
Flanders argued that Americans want to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq on day 1 and Pagliarulo argued that Americans want to win in Iraq, which is different from wanting immediate troop withdrawals. They also quarreled over whether the economy or Iraq was Issue #1 among voters.
Hameer facebook messaged me apologized for never getting back to me about hanging out and said, "maybe third time's a charm whenever i come back next (probably winter time?) In any case, fill me in on what you're doing these days. keep in touch!" I wasn't too upset about his dropping the ball since I was so busy with apartment stuff and everything, but I did appreciate the follow up and I feel like he may be sincere in his (friendly!) interest beyond just the courtesy interest which so annoys me with its superficiality.
I was telling someone about MFA films I've seen and I mentioned To Paint or Make Love. I saw it at the MFA in July 2006 and could only find the French Region 2 DVD, but on a whim I checked Amazon while composing the e-mail and actually found it.
- Format: Import, NTSC
- Language: French
- Region: All Regions
- Studio: Metropole Canada
- DVD Release Date: September 26, 2006
I dunno if it's less humid or if I'm just acclimating to the heat or something, but I didn't especially mind the walk home tonight despite the fact that I got all sweaty. Though okay, I wasn't motivated enough to haul my bag of donations all the way down to Goodwill -- though I really should, so it's one less thing cluttering up the apartment come Saturday's party. (I thought thunderstorms were predicted, though; where are they? Also, I was amused to see "1st Atlantic season hurricane becomes Category 3 (AP)" topping YahooHome's Top Stories at one point tonight 'cause on CNN's This American Morning this morning, the weather guy (Rob Marciano) was saying they expected it to stay at a Category 1 but that they hadn't expected it to even become a hurricane or to move this far west so who knows.
I started digging through boxes and found all the opening pages of stories I wrote in adolescence -- the grandiose ideas and the trashy trash. One is called "What is Lesbian?" about a girl whose mom is a lesbian, which I had completely forgotten about. I don't know when I wrote it. (There are typed bits, and there's another story with a typed bit that says "Copyright 1995," so that gives me some estimate.) I think most of that stuff predates high school anyway. Which makes this one interesting to me since I think of my queer stuff as later -- I wrote an essay on the Bible and homosexuality like my junior year at the instigation of some zinesters and had my first same-sex crush my senior year (though in retrospect I was able to see signs at least to 7th grade, so I guess it's not all that surprising).
I found one or two story-starters that I don't even remember writing. (I feel like I should use Ari's "i have no history" tag.) I'm being good about chucking almost all of my old writing stuff. The journals not so much. I'm having moderate success in being ruthless with birthday cards. I don't really know what to do with the scads of photos I have. Doing this while still wearing my dark-colored work pants was probably not my brightest idea ever, given the dust, but it wasn't too bad.
One of these days I will get to bed at a reasonable hour again.
I wrested two giant staples out of the DeathStar Stapler this morning. I feel I fulfilled my butch cred quota for the day.
I was in the mood for pasta at lunch, but it is risotto this week. However, the GlobalVegetarian was Greek, so I got spanikopita (and other stuff), which was exciting -- and more filling than I was expecting (I worried I hadn't gotten enough food, but I ended up not actually finishing all of it until later in the afternoon).
Supposedly it was like 71F when I left work. Regardless, it felt warmer than I was expecting and also warmer than I really wanted it to be. As I approached Teele Square, it started sprinkling rain a little bit. \o/
A little after six I was sitting in front of my computer and could smell that rain-on-ground smell, and I looked over and indeed there was all this rain on my windowpane. I was a little worried I would get soaked on my way to the MFA (I like the rain, but having to sit somewhere being soggy is not fun), but it was just barely sprinkling when I left again a little before 7 and was sunny, so it had that sort of summer feel that I like. Waiting for the Green Line around 10, it barely started to sprinkle again, and walking home it was sprinkling a little harder and I actually ran part of the way just 'cause I felt like it.
I (finally) finished reading last week's Economist -- and then started on this week's.
***
( gym )
On CNN's This American Morning, they had the electoral map from 2004 and talked about which states might flip given an Obama v. McCain contest, which was interesting. Hey look, a Wikipedia entry on swing states.
They also talked about Democratic fears that fears that Obama v. McCain will be like unto McGovern v. Nixon.( Read more... )
***
Last night, mjules linked me to an AP article on U.S. paper currency and the blind -- which also got talked about on CNN This American Morning.
monkeycrackmary linked to scans_daily post for Robin #174. zomg! I really haven't been following this issue 'cause it's not my fandom at all, but I know enough of the background.
***
Another round of Things You Might Not Know About LJ But Should:
The Date Out of Order function.
You don't need to actually change the date, just click "Date out of order" and it won't show up on anybody's flist, but it'll show up on the main page of that journal.
Who can create polls.
# Paid, Plus and Permanent Users: You can create polls in your own journal and any communities (whether Basic or Paid) where you have posting access.
# Basic Users: You can only vote in polls, with one exception. If you maintain a Paid or Permanent community, you can post polls in that community.
I was in the mood for pasta at lunch, but it is risotto this week. However, the GlobalVegetarian was Greek, so I got spanikopita (and other stuff), which was exciting -- and more filling than I was expecting (I worried I hadn't gotten enough food, but I ended up not actually finishing all of it until later in the afternoon).
Supposedly it was like 71F when I left work. Regardless, it felt warmer than I was expecting and also warmer than I really wanted it to be. As I approached Teele Square, it started sprinkling rain a little bit. \o/
A little after six I was sitting in front of my computer and could smell that rain-on-ground smell, and I looked over and indeed there was all this rain on my windowpane. I was a little worried I would get soaked on my way to the MFA (I like the rain, but having to sit somewhere being soggy is not fun), but it was just barely sprinkling when I left again a little before 7 and was sunny, so it had that sort of summer feel that I like. Waiting for the Green Line around 10, it barely started to sprinkle again, and walking home it was sprinkling a little harder and I actually ran part of the way just 'cause I felt like it.
I (finally) finished reading last week's Economist -- and then started on this week's.
***
( gym )On CNN's This American Morning, they had the electoral map from 2004 and talked about which states might flip given an Obama v. McCain contest, which was interesting. Hey look, a Wikipedia entry on swing states.
They also talked about Democratic fears that fears that Obama v. McCain will be like unto McGovern v. Nixon.
( Read more... )***
Last night, mjules linked me to an AP article on U.S. paper currency and the blind -- which also got talked about on CNN This American Morning.
While the government has been fighting to overturn the lower court ruling, it has been taking some steps toward modifying U.S. currency for the visually impaired. The most recent currency redesign of the $5 bill introduced in March features a giant "5" printed in purple on one side of the bill to help those with vision problems distinguish the bill.***
Indeed, Treasury has previously considered making different sizes of bills but ran into opposition from makers of vending and change machines. Government lawyers raised this issue in court, saying it could cost billions to redesign vending machines. But the court said such data are murky, especially since one proposed solution would be to leave $1 bills unchanged.
monkeycrackmary linked to scans_daily post for Robin #174. zomg! I really haven't been following this issue 'cause it's not my fandom at all, but I know enough of the background.***
Another round of Things You Might Not Know About LJ But Should:
The Date Out of Order function.
You don't need to actually change the date, just click "Date out of order" and it won't show up on anybody's flist, but it'll show up on the main page of that journal.
Who can create polls.
# Paid, Plus and Permanent Users: You can create polls in your own journal and any communities (whether Basic or Paid) where you have posting access.
# Basic Users: You can only vote in polls, with one exception. If you maintain a Paid or Permanent community, you can post polls in that community.
"i wonder if everything i do i do instead of something i want to do more"
NMB asked us to read the Grimms' "Snow White" and think about the symbols and what they meant to us and then read Gilbert and Gubar's article. I knew i had already read both and written a short paper applying the article to the Sigourney Weaver Snow White: A Tale of Terror, but i figured i could compartmentalize. What i hadn't expected (though i should have) was how much i was reminded of other tale variants as i read. Not that i conflated fanon and canon, but i was reminded of them -- like how certain Biblical passages or ideas remind me of Joel's class last semester. As i read the very opening of the story i thought of Angela Carter's "The Snow Child." At the introduction of the huntsman i thought of The Tenth Kingdom. And by this point i was well aware that i was aware of variants and i began to recall the assorted variants i had seen or read and the different presentations of the scenes flitted through my mind as i read the scenes. I also realized that i had forgotten the "Goldilocks"-esque quality of some of it. Also: the story is problematic in a multiplicity of ways that i hadn't caught last time (primarily in narrative integrity, 'cause i'm Consistency Bitch).
I want Snow White/huntsman fic.
I got to be smart in class. I used other texts as avenues into the Grimms' "Snow White" (not just saying "Let me tell you about all these interesting variants i've seen/read") and focused on imagery and made good arguments and yay. I talked about connecting the mother figures, and the creepiness of the opening scene (influenced by Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and the Sigourney Weaver Snow White: A Tale of Terror) and the initiation into adulthood (helped by some poem i read and now cannot find -- oops, actually 10th Kingdom; IMDb quotage gives me: "Why did I let her in? Didn't I know she was bad? Yes, I did. But I also knew I couldn't keep the door closed all my life just because it was dangerous. Just because there was a chance I might get hurt."). Later in the class NMB actually handed out Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and talked about it, and Becca came up with the great phrases "necropedophelia incest" and "adulterous affair with strange construct" in discussing the story.
And discussing sexual themes in children's lit and how much goes over children's heads, Heather said, "They're not watching porn like the rest of us." (Equally amusing was seeing the shocked faces of some classmates who clearly don't watch porn on a regular basis. Personally, i'll take Candi and her "eroticised childhood.")
Discussing "Snow White" and the G&G article, NMB mentioned Marina Warner's reading of the wicked mother figure in many fairy tales as a mother-in-law, which i'm fairly certain i read while taking Betsey's class, but which i had forgotten about. Becca pointed out that in French, "stepmother" and "mother-in-law" are the same word -- again with the me having forgotten from Betsey's class.
NMB talked about the daughter-in-law as teller of the story and the safe cottage as fantasy and said lots of things which made sense and maybe this time they'll actually stick in my brain so as to inform my future readings of Grimms' tales.
She also handed around the announcement of the department honors thesis presentations, and AJ said i can leave work early to attend the Monday one. I imagine at some point all majors will get the announcement e-mailed out to them, but for now here's the list.
Thursday April 21, 5pm - Candi (Nabokov) and Gillian (Doris Lessing)
Monday, April 25, 4pm - Victoria Whom I Don't Know (Auden's Spiritual Calendar), Liz In My Seminar (Lewis' Space Trilogy), Jessica (first creative writing thesis ever allowed by the Smith College English Department)
In Telling&Retelling, Skarda said that Mary Krull (The Hours) made her think of me because gender studies, people actually attend her lectures, and piercings. Um, cultural studies prof... i'm only vaguely seeing the connection here. I actually liked Robin Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway, and she said i could do my final paper on that if i wanted, which was nice, though i'm gonna stick with defending The Eyre Affair.
Skarda says they're gonna phase 199 into being optional, that you're gonna be required to take 2 of the following 4: 199, 200, 201, and the AmLit-1865 survey. Oh so much love.
In other news: apparently we're recycling a quote from a 2000 Jane interview. ("I'm the person most likely to sleep with my female fans.") I don't think i'd realized that she's said for years that she's bisexual.
from a 2000 Elle interview: "Honestly, I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny. Which is a problem when I’m walking down the street." and "I need someone physically stronger than me. I am always on top. It's really unfortunate. I am begging for the man that can put me on the bottom. Or the woman. Anybody that can take me down."
Who wants to write rps?
I had a nonsexual date with Cat (and Haven!Laura) tonight to go to the Senior Dance Concert. Johnna's was definitely my favorite. The fluid motions and the cool-color-end-of-the-spectrum outfits of tank tops and swishy pants that flowed into each other, and ShavedHeadGirl looked like she was enjoying herself so much, and the second part i was less fond of, but it grew on me, and part of the issue was just that the artistic vision of the song that Johnna was enacting was not how i would choreograph that song were i ever to. And yes okay it helped that i already knew and loved the music. (It was Ani's "Swan Dive" for the ensemble piece and then a solo to "Joyful Girl.")
ShavedHeadGirl reminded me somewhat of Bryn and at certain moments ofpaper_crystals. She's an '07, so there are only 3 semesters of classes i could have had with her, and recalling all those classes i can't particularly see her in any of them. It's possible that she just reminds me of Abigail in my Telling&Retelling class, but i feel like the memory goes back further.
"Marty the used car salesman" is from First Wives Club (Brenda's husband) -- for anyone who was there during that dinner conversation.
Cuthbert and Floris now grace my door.
I like David Brooks. (And Thomas Friedman.)
I want Snow White/huntsman fic.
From the point of view of the mad, self-assertive Queen, conventional female arts kill. But from the point of view of the docile and selfless princess, such arts, even while they kill, confer the only measure of power available to a woman in a patriarchal culture.That was one of my favorite sections of the Gilbert and Gubar piece. (Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, "Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother" from The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, 1979)
-page 295 in Maria Tatar's The Classic Fairy Tales
I got to be smart in class. I used other texts as avenues into the Grimms' "Snow White" (not just saying "Let me tell you about all these interesting variants i've seen/read") and focused on imagery and made good arguments and yay. I talked about connecting the mother figures, and the creepiness of the opening scene (influenced by Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and the Sigourney Weaver Snow White: A Tale of Terror) and the initiation into adulthood (helped by some poem i read and now cannot find -- oops, actually 10th Kingdom; IMDb quotage gives me: "Why did I let her in? Didn't I know she was bad? Yes, I did. But I also knew I couldn't keep the door closed all my life just because it was dangerous. Just because there was a chance I might get hurt."). Later in the class NMB actually handed out Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and talked about it, and Becca came up with the great phrases "necropedophelia incest" and "adulterous affair with strange construct" in discussing the story.
And discussing sexual themes in children's lit and how much goes over children's heads, Heather said, "They're not watching porn like the rest of us." (Equally amusing was seeing the shocked faces of some classmates who clearly don't watch porn on a regular basis. Personally, i'll take Candi and her "eroticised childhood.")
Discussing "Snow White" and the G&G article, NMB mentioned Marina Warner's reading of the wicked mother figure in many fairy tales as a mother-in-law, which i'm fairly certain i read while taking Betsey's class, but which i had forgotten about. Becca pointed out that in French, "stepmother" and "mother-in-law" are the same word -- again with the me having forgotten from Betsey's class.
NMB talked about the daughter-in-law as teller of the story and the safe cottage as fantasy and said lots of things which made sense and maybe this time they'll actually stick in my brain so as to inform my future readings of Grimms' tales.
She also handed around the announcement of the department honors thesis presentations, and AJ said i can leave work early to attend the Monday one. I imagine at some point all majors will get the announcement e-mailed out to them, but for now here's the list.
Thursday April 21, 5pm - Candi (Nabokov) and Gillian (Doris Lessing)
Monday, April 25, 4pm - Victoria Whom I Don't Know (Auden's Spiritual Calendar), Liz In My Seminar (Lewis' Space Trilogy), Jessica (first creative writing thesis ever allowed by the Smith College English Department)
In Telling&Retelling, Skarda said that Mary Krull (The Hours) made her think of me because gender studies, people actually attend her lectures, and piercings. Um, cultural studies prof... i'm only vaguely seeing the connection here. I actually liked Robin Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway, and she said i could do my final paper on that if i wanted, which was nice, though i'm gonna stick with defending The Eyre Affair.
Skarda says they're gonna phase 199 into being optional, that you're gonna be required to take 2 of the following 4: 199, 200, 201, and the AmLit-1865 survey. Oh so much love.
In other news: apparently we're recycling a quote from a 2000 Jane interview. ("I'm the person most likely to sleep with my female fans.") I don't think i'd realized that she's said for years that she's bisexual.
from a 2000 Elle interview: "Honestly, I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny. Which is a problem when I’m walking down the street." and "I need someone physically stronger than me. I am always on top. It's really unfortunate. I am begging for the man that can put me on the bottom. Or the woman. Anybody that can take me down."
Who wants to write rps?
I had a nonsexual date with Cat (and Haven!Laura) tonight to go to the Senior Dance Concert. Johnna's was definitely my favorite. The fluid motions and the cool-color-end-of-the-spectrum outfits of tank tops and swishy pants that flowed into each other, and ShavedHeadGirl looked like she was enjoying herself so much, and the second part i was less fond of, but it grew on me, and part of the issue was just that the artistic vision of the song that Johnna was enacting was not how i would choreograph that song were i ever to. And yes okay it helped that i already knew and loved the music. (It was Ani's "Swan Dive" for the ensemble piece and then a solo to "Joyful Girl.")
ShavedHeadGirl reminded me somewhat of Bryn and at certain moments of
paper_crystals. She's an '07, so there are only 3 semesters of classes i could have had with her, and recalling all those classes i can't particularly see her in any of them. It's possible that she just reminds me of Abigail in my Telling&Retelling class, but i feel like the memory goes back further."Marty the used car salesman" is from First Wives Club (Brenda's husband) -- for anyone who was there during that dinner conversation.
Cuthbert and Floris now grace my door.
I like David Brooks. (And Thomas Friedman.)
Entry tags:
"Do you think you could be with me soulfully?"
Mmm, arguing Narnia. The fact that i've read the whole series definitely helps. In class i talked about The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle in addition to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and was pleased to learn that at least one other student in the class has read the entire series. (She said something about Prince Caspian, and CZ mentioned Companion to Narnia, which i now really wanna read, since i've been interested ever since i reread the series over Winter Break about the Christian symbolism/allegory in the 4 non-obvious books. Though i just found a nice bullet-point list on Wikipedia.)
I referenced The Magician's Nephew in a Blackboard argument about Edmund over the weekend and tonight referenced The Last Battle, the Bible (John 20:29b), TNG ("Devil's Due") and The Passion of the Christ ["Theologically, the point is not that Jesus suffered more than any human being ever has on a physical level. It is that his suffering was profound and voluntary and the culmination of a life and a teaching that Gibson essentially omits." -Andrew Sullivan] all in the same post :)
"I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia'; I said 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen'. "
-letter from C. S. Lewis to some Maryland fifth graders in 1954 (via a Blackboard poster)
I also wrote fanfic (porn) during some of the boring parts of class. My![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
femslash05 fic is turning all dark and non-shippy. Meep.
Set in England but filmed in France, as director Roman Polanski was wanted on sex-related charges in the United States and could have been extradited from England.
-IMDb trivia for Tess
Reading NYTimes, how did i forget about "Product message (optional)." That was possibly the best commercial of the night, but no, Diet Pepsi guy getting checked out by Cindy Crawford and Carson Kressley is what i remember.
P.S. I really like this story.
I referenced The Magician's Nephew in a Blackboard argument about Edmund over the weekend and tonight referenced The Last Battle, the Bible (John 20:29b), TNG ("Devil's Due") and The Passion of the Christ ["Theologically, the point is not that Jesus suffered more than any human being ever has on a physical level. It is that his suffering was profound and voluntary and the culmination of a life and a teaching that Gibson essentially omits." -Andrew Sullivan] all in the same post :)
"I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia'; I said 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen'. "
-letter from C. S. Lewis to some Maryland fifth graders in 1954 (via a Blackboard poster)
I also wrote fanfic (porn) during some of the boring parts of class. My
femslash05 fic is turning all dark and non-shippy. Meep.Set in England but filmed in France, as director Roman Polanski was wanted on sex-related charges in the United States and could have been extradited from England.
-IMDb trivia for Tess
Reading NYTimes, how did i forget about "Product message (optional)." That was possibly the best commercial of the night, but no, Diet Pepsi guy getting checked out by Cindy Crawford and Carson Kressley is what i remember.
P.S. I really like this story.
Entry tags:
political links, mostly Edwards/Kerry and Kerry vs. Bush
More evidence that Iraq was developing weapons. And even more.
Glenn Reynolds asks "Has France ever met a murderous regime it didn't like?" re: Darfur (Sudan) and discusses the politics of oil interests.
Instapundit.com/Glenn Reynolds has been posting tons of stuff about Kerry/Edwards since it was announced.
( Read more... )
Glenn Reynolds asks "Has France ever met a murderous regime it didn't like?" re: Darfur (Sudan) and discusses the politics of oil interests.
Instapundit.com/Glenn Reynolds has been posting tons of stuff about Kerry/Edwards since it was announced.
( Read more... )Entry tags:
seven minutes (Michael Moore's 9/11 film)
I’m not going to see Michael Moore’s 9/11 film.
lilithchilde argues that yes it’s a manipulative performance piece but, "If you're going to draw your conclusions from shallow and slanted sources (which most of us do), it's still probably best to get several slants to work with." Yes, i know everyone has agendas/biases, but i try to avoid actual shallowness (personal attacks, twisting/misrepresentation of facts, etc.) altogether, though we know of course i’m all about multiple perspectives. (And really now, defending Michael Moore’s use of deceptive half-truths and carefully phrased by saying that’s what the bad guys do? Gee and here i thought i was ends-justify-the-means girl.) And yes i’m being slightly unfair in basing my opinion of the film on what other people say. For example, akronohten wrote: "Then mom and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I was a bit skepctial going in, after reading this Christopher Hitchens piece, but I doubted whether we were seeing the same film."
At first i was saying that i wasn’t inclined to discuss the film much since it’s Michael Moore, for whom i have about 0 respect, and that from what i understand, it says/shows little that hasn’t already been said/seen before, so i’ve basically had all the discussions already. And yet, i found myself reading everything about the film i came across.( Read more... )
lilithchilde argues that yes it’s a manipulative performance piece but, "If you're going to draw your conclusions from shallow and slanted sources (which most of us do), it's still probably best to get several slants to work with." Yes, i know everyone has agendas/biases, but i try to avoid actual shallowness (personal attacks, twisting/misrepresentation of facts, etc.) altogether, though we know of course i’m all about multiple perspectives. (And really now, defending Michael Moore’s use of deceptive half-truths and carefully phrased by saying that’s what the bad guys do? Gee and here i thought i was ends-justify-the-means girl.) And yes i’m being slightly unfair in basing my opinion of the film on what other people say. For example, akronohten wrote: "Then mom and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I was a bit skepctial going in, after reading this Christopher Hitchens piece, but I doubted whether we were seeing the same film."At first i was saying that i wasn’t inclined to discuss the film much since it’s Michael Moore, for whom i have about 0 respect, and that from what i understand, it says/shows little that hasn’t already been said/seen before, so i’ve basically had all the discussions already. And yet, i found myself reading everything about the film i came across.
( Read more... )Entry tags:
(no subject)
[Yes i know this is weeks old. I haven’t seen anything about in a while, but it was sitting on my computer, so i thought i’d finish it and post it.]
Neil Gaiman wrote:
It’s far easier to be nominated than to actually win one of these things, and i would be astonished, given the general atmosphere of world opinion on the subject, but i would be far from appalled if B&B won. I feel like i’ve already talked this issue (the war) to death, but i’ll still gladly engage anyone in debate.
( But first i'm gonna talk more about hypocrisy, the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Iraq War )
Neil Gaiman wrote:
Sunday, February 01, 2004I wrote:
Or dead again, anyway
You know, in a world in which Bush and Blair can be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, "for having dared to take the necessary decision to launch a war on Iraq without having the support of the UN" I find myself agreeing with Tom Lehrer: satire is dead.
re: satire is deadI get that it’s bizarre to award a “peace prize” to people for a war, and if you don’t believe that Saddam had weapons or had programs in place to create weapons, and don’t believe that he was in any way a threat to the general international peace, then by all means oppose the nomination. (I’ve actually read things linking him to Al Qaeda, but i can’t put my finger on them.) Did some quick Googling and although i was half-expecting many many “Nobel Peace Prizes” awarded for mere human rights work, it appears that most of them do in fact relate to efforts toward international peace.
I understand the objections people have to the action taken against Iraq, particularly the rationale given by the US government, but can we talk about what a cruel man Saddam Hussein was and how the world is unequivocally a better place with him out of power? I understand the arguments in favor of having UN support, but the UN keeps undermining its own credibility (Libya chairing the Commission on Human Rights, for example) and sometimes i think the real joke is that people keep insisting that one needs the backing of the UN to have legitimacy.
-Elizabeth Sweeny
It’s far easier to be nominated than to actually win one of these things, and i would be astonished, given the general atmosphere of world opinion on the subject, but i would be far from appalled if B&B won. I feel like i’ve already talked this issue (the war) to death, but i’ll still gladly engage anyone in debate.
( But first i'm gonna talk more about hypocrisy, the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Iraq War )Entry tags:
So, people are upset that Bush&Blair were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
When i first heard this i thought, "Well, the rationale is obvious (even if you don't agree with it). The idea was that they were preventing future violence. Sacrificing some for the greater good and all that." But i was eating a strawberry after having handed in my last assignment of my sophomore year and a commercial break in ER during exam week is not the best time to have a political discussion. (One of the things i love about LJ is that you can choose to engage people and their ideas and do it through writing where you can look over what you've said before you actually say it. Though "real" interaction has its benefits in this area of conversation as well.)
( Read more... )
( Read more... )Entry tags:
Thank you. Just... thank you.
I was thinking last night. All of us complain and bitch about President Bush, but in the future, 20 years later in textbooks, he won't be remembered for all of this shit. Not for the rejected environmental laws or the pretzel or the Patriot Act. The only people who'll learn about the messed up elections are AP US History Students. Years later, Bush will be remembered for liberating two countries that everyone was afraid of.
Whenever Afghanistan was mentioned in the past, you'd hear about how horrible it was for women. Now that's no more. Girls can actually get an education. For Iraq, everyone hated Saddam (if you said you didn't, it's b/c you're afraid of getting shot) and people pitied the Iraqis. Now that's no more. All because someone decided not to sit back and watch and talk about what's going on, but to actually go out there and change it.
I'm not Republican. I'm not a Bush-supporter. I wouldn't have voted for him. But you must admit, knocking down two horrible regimes during a single term is pretty up-there. Yes, a lot of people were killed, but all of this would happen eventually. It just waited for the person with enough guts to do it. Even if you hate Bush, you have to agree that it's going to be better without the Taliban and Saddam. I didn't know how much Iraqis despised the latter until they were knocking down statues and smacking them with sandals. That's amazing.
You can be the person that leans back and complains about what's going on, or you can be the person that goes out there and changes it.
It makes me wonder. Perhaps the 2000 election wasn't as wacked-out as we think. The butterfly ballot scandal came out of nowhere; it was such a random thing, with a huge effect. If those old people in Florida voted correctly, Gore would've won. If Gore was president, all of this undoubtedly wouldn't have happened. Women in Afghanistan would be stoned in streets and people would be afraid for their lives to speak their minds in Iraq. It makes me wonder if this is the way it was meant to be, if this is a plan of someone above us.
Entry tags:
I have been on news hiatus since March 16 for various reasons.
But i do read the e-mails my dad sends me -- eventually. I may end up posting relevant bits, but i suspect that by the time i get around to it, much will not be relevant anymore.
Recently there's interesting stuff about horrors of Iraq not being reported by reporters who knew about them. Eason Jordan of CNN wrote a NYTimes piece coming clean about it, and people have written criticizing his rationale. [edited to link to various other reactions: Instapundit one, two, [oops, i missed one] three, four, five; Volokh one, two, three, four]
[In WST class today we talked a bit about the Phillipines and their history with the U.S., and i was reminded of how important it is to know history, to understand how history influence the present. This is something most people, myself included, unfortunately don't really get when in high school, so we don't pay much attention and have to learn it all later on when we finally realize the importance. Lots of different issues have come up throughout this Iraq situation, and i've realized that i can't just pick individual issues/situations to learn about, because everything is so interrelated. I want to start reading about what's going on the world. And i'm all about the varied news sources. We discussed the budget and what gets how much in class the other day, and speaking about one portion, Wendy said, "I guess the UN payments we never make would be included in that." I was under the impression that we have actually given lots of money to the United Nations. I get disturbed by some things i hear from the Left -- like in class today, that only US corporations got to bid on all the Iraq rebuilding contracts -- because i fear they're true, but i get disturbed by other things because i suspect they're not.]
Relatedly... Oh. My. God. This makes me want to cry.
[edit the umpteenth: San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, NPR (twice), Chicago Tribune, National Geographic, BBC, CNN -- those are all on the opening page of this media watchdog site right now; this disturbs me]
Recently there's interesting stuff about horrors of Iraq not being reported by reporters who knew about them. Eason Jordan of CNN wrote a NYTimes piece coming clean about it, and people have written criticizing his rationale. [edited to link to various other reactions: Instapundit one, two, [oops, i missed one] three, four, five; Volokh one, two, three, four]
[In WST class today we talked a bit about the Phillipines and their history with the U.S., and i was reminded of how important it is to know history, to understand how history influence the present. This is something most people, myself included, unfortunately don't really get when in high school, so we don't pay much attention and have to learn it all later on when we finally realize the importance. Lots of different issues have come up throughout this Iraq situation, and i've realized that i can't just pick individual issues/situations to learn about, because everything is so interrelated. I want to start reading about what's going on the world. And i'm all about the varied news sources. We discussed the budget and what gets how much in class the other day, and speaking about one portion, Wendy said, "I guess the UN payments we never make would be included in that." I was under the impression that we have actually given lots of money to the United Nations. I get disturbed by some things i hear from the Left -- like in class today, that only US corporations got to bid on all the Iraq rebuilding contracts -- because i fear they're true, but i get disturbed by other things because i suspect they're not.]
Relatedly... Oh. My. God. This makes me want to cry.
[edit the umpteenth: San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, NPR (twice), Chicago Tribune, National Geographic, BBC, CNN -- those are all on the opening page of this media watchdog site right now; this disturbs me]
Entry tags:
"Jalapeño cheese grits RULE."
Yes, we spent the first 10 or 15 minutes of Am. Lit. class yesterday talking about Southern food. I learned that Michael’s a vegetarian, which always endears people to me. He talked about how he doesn’t get along with his family, how he gets along with them better since he moved 1500 miles away. He also did some of that talking about his children are of the devil, though i don’t think he meant it (partly from the kinda “i don’t really mean this” quality of it, but mainly because i’ve seen him with his kids and it’s obvious that he loves them). That bothers me. I was telling Allie that it’s because some people really don’t get along with their families and it’s something very serious that makes me very sad, so i don’t like when people joke about it, but i think actually it’s more of an honesty issue. Like, i buy that he doesn’t get along with his family, but i don’t buy that he doesn’t like his children because i’ve seen evidence to the contrary, so that makes me question the validity of the statements about the family, and then of course the important part is that then it puts the marital griping into more questionable territory, and not only do i like believability and consistency but i’m doing my thesis on his marital status. ;)
He asked whether we wanted to take some time to talk about what’s going on internationally before talking about Birth of a Nation or set aside some time at the end to talk about it or just what. Someone said something about this racist war, and i asked if someone could explain to me just how this war is “racist” since i’ve heard that term thrown around a lot but haven’t heard any explanation, and a bunch of hands shot up, so Michael said we seemed to have agreed on a direction and was everyone okay with that.
(For the record, it’s a racist war because, duh, it’s being waged against people of darker skin than us, though i forget the elaborate rationale which makes that argument actually make sense, and because so many members of the military – i.e., Americans who are going to die in this – are people of color. I’ll accept that as a legitimate criticism, but really that just says that the military is racially problematic or something; it doesn’t apply solely to this war.)
Since i’ve been back from Spring Break (during which i assiduously avoided war coverage) i’ve been weary. I have continued to avoid reading about the war, just felt very weary of the whole thing, and inclined to be anti-war hearing about the death and destruction and all (plus i oppose a lot of what this administration has done, so it gets difficult to support/defend something they’re doing). But listening to people state reasons why they opposed the war, i jotted the ideas down because i had counters to them. Dealing with specific issues, arguments, logics, this i can do. The amorphous sadness can envelop me, because i can’t do anything about it, but individual points i can deal with. Like light piercing through the enveloping cloud. Argument invigorates me. And in class i actually got to point out some of the problematics of the “We should have just let the inspectors do their jobs” argument (though Michael did in turn point out that as long as the inspectors were there, with the threat of military force if WMDs were discovered or used, if any weapons existed they were rendered unusable).
(Following up on my post about The Birth of a Nation, since we did spend the last half hour or so of class talking about the film, is “Dixiecrats Triumphant: The secret history of Woodrow Wilson” from Reason magazine, sent to me by my Dad.)
I wore my red short-sleeved shirt with the floral cutouts, because it’s pretty and spring-y. I remembered the Wear Red to Oppose the War, but decided that i hadn’t seen anything about that in the publicity for this day, so i would be okay. And i was fine until i went to the Dean Walters teach-in, where there were a couple Radical Cheerleaders in their red shirts and some other people in red shirts and i felt so very aware of the fact that i was being read as anti-war. It made me realize how problematic it is to “read” people, that you may well not be working within the same set of codes.
The Jennifer Walters thing was good. She opened saying she’s a mess, and she said that the flailing keeps her honest, keeps her from being self-righteous, and i liked that. I think that’s one of the ways that messy and wounded places are places where the light can come in (one of the major themes of her talk).
We talked about the used of religious language in the media and so on, and one woman said that she feels like her religion has been co-opted (by the Bush administration) to mean and to justify things she doesn’t agree with, and that it makes it difficult for her to connect to her religion and spirituality, to use them as methods of healing in this time, and how much moreso Muslims have felt that after September 11, and both those ideas really struck me.
I was also interested that two people who seemed to be very definitely anti-war were also advocating complexity and grey area and stuff with their words, though i think they were thinking of it just as an attack on the anti-war side. One person said that it seems like stepping away from extremes, getting into grey areas, is seen as traitorous, and i know she was referring to the “You’re either with us or you’re against us” type rhetoric from the administration, but i thought about how one of the reasons it’s so difficult to have debate within the “liberal” community is because i very much think that (often) if you support the war you are seen as a traitor. The second woman talked about how in our culture we’re very quick to judge, to make everything black and white, that that’s how we deal with things. I know she was talking about the axis of evil rhetoric and so on, but it made me think about how the anti-war stuff is so much about right vs. wrong (Bush is wrong and evil, killing people is wrong, peace is right and good, etc.).
And lastly, one woman talked about how Iraqis surrendering is presented as being because they love the U.S. so much, but that in Islam, jihad is only justified if your religion, your ability to practice your religion, is threatened, and that otherwise you are not supposed to fight, not supposed to hurt people, so if these people are Islamic of course they would surrender. I thought that was interesting food for thought – though it’s problematic in many ways (maybe the U.S. is the lesser of two evils compared to Saddam, maybe it’s more about hating Saddam than loving us, for one, and for a second, even if that is an accurate description of Islamic belief, if people of Islam are anything like Christian, than the degree to which they live their life by their religion varies greatly, and there is much disagreement over just what the religion/holy text says).
[The following was too good snark to pass up.]
He asked whether we wanted to take some time to talk about what’s going on internationally before talking about Birth of a Nation or set aside some time at the end to talk about it or just what. Someone said something about this racist war, and i asked if someone could explain to me just how this war is “racist” since i’ve heard that term thrown around a lot but haven’t heard any explanation, and a bunch of hands shot up, so Michael said we seemed to have agreed on a direction and was everyone okay with that.
(For the record, it’s a racist war because, duh, it’s being waged against people of darker skin than us, though i forget the elaborate rationale which makes that argument actually make sense, and because so many members of the military – i.e., Americans who are going to die in this – are people of color. I’ll accept that as a legitimate criticism, but really that just says that the military is racially problematic or something; it doesn’t apply solely to this war.)
Since i’ve been back from Spring Break (during which i assiduously avoided war coverage) i’ve been weary. I have continued to avoid reading about the war, just felt very weary of the whole thing, and inclined to be anti-war hearing about the death and destruction and all (plus i oppose a lot of what this administration has done, so it gets difficult to support/defend something they’re doing). But listening to people state reasons why they opposed the war, i jotted the ideas down because i had counters to them. Dealing with specific issues, arguments, logics, this i can do. The amorphous sadness can envelop me, because i can’t do anything about it, but individual points i can deal with. Like light piercing through the enveloping cloud. Argument invigorates me. And in class i actually got to point out some of the problematics of the “We should have just let the inspectors do their jobs” argument (though Michael did in turn point out that as long as the inspectors were there, with the threat of military force if WMDs were discovered or used, if any weapons existed they were rendered unusable).
(Following up on my post about The Birth of a Nation, since we did spend the last half hour or so of class talking about the film, is “Dixiecrats Triumphant: The secret history of Woodrow Wilson” from Reason magazine, sent to me by my Dad.)
I wore my red short-sleeved shirt with the floral cutouts, because it’s pretty and spring-y. I remembered the Wear Red to Oppose the War, but decided that i hadn’t seen anything about that in the publicity for this day, so i would be okay. And i was fine until i went to the Dean Walters teach-in, where there were a couple Radical Cheerleaders in their red shirts and some other people in red shirts and i felt so very aware of the fact that i was being read as anti-war. It made me realize how problematic it is to “read” people, that you may well not be working within the same set of codes.
The Jennifer Walters thing was good. She opened saying she’s a mess, and she said that the flailing keeps her honest, keeps her from being self-righteous, and i liked that. I think that’s one of the ways that messy and wounded places are places where the light can come in (one of the major themes of her talk).
We talked about the used of religious language in the media and so on, and one woman said that she feels like her religion has been co-opted (by the Bush administration) to mean and to justify things she doesn’t agree with, and that it makes it difficult for her to connect to her religion and spirituality, to use them as methods of healing in this time, and how much moreso Muslims have felt that after September 11, and both those ideas really struck me.
I was also interested that two people who seemed to be very definitely anti-war were also advocating complexity and grey area and stuff with their words, though i think they were thinking of it just as an attack on the anti-war side. One person said that it seems like stepping away from extremes, getting into grey areas, is seen as traitorous, and i know she was referring to the “You’re either with us or you’re against us” type rhetoric from the administration, but i thought about how one of the reasons it’s so difficult to have debate within the “liberal” community is because i very much think that (often) if you support the war you are seen as a traitor. The second woman talked about how in our culture we’re very quick to judge, to make everything black and white, that that’s how we deal with things. I know she was talking about the axis of evil rhetoric and so on, but it made me think about how the anti-war stuff is so much about right vs. wrong (Bush is wrong and evil, killing people is wrong, peace is right and good, etc.).
And lastly, one woman talked about how Iraqis surrendering is presented as being because they love the U.S. so much, but that in Islam, jihad is only justified if your religion, your ability to practice your religion, is threatened, and that otherwise you are not supposed to fight, not supposed to hurt people, so if these people are Islamic of course they would surrender. I thought that was interesting food for thought – though it’s problematic in many ways (maybe the U.S. is the lesser of two evils compared to Saddam, maybe it’s more about hating Saddam than loving us, for one, and for a second, even if that is an accurate description of Islamic belief, if people of Islam are anything like Christian, than the degree to which they live their life by their religion varies greatly, and there is much disagreement over just what the religion/holy text says).
[The following was too good snark to pass up.]
Where:
All over the place
Topics:
US and Bush are evil
Saddam is misunderstood
The path to Utopia is blocked by the US and capitalism
Pretty much a typical day at Smith.
Guest name (Guest) wrote:
-------------------------------
OK, I know the jolt isn't the most warm and cuddly place to ask this question, but does anyone know where the teach-ins are going to be tomorrow morning? Any idea what the topics are going to be?
Entry tags:
Only(?) at Smith.
Smithies (and yes, lots of people all over) are protesting the war by not going to any classes tomorrow. There will be rallies and teach-ins and such. Thurston’s doing one of the teach-ins, so i’m sad that i’ll miss that, but 9:30-12 i am definitely in class. (And why don’t they tell you where the teach-ins are, anyway? Dean Walters is giving one in Wright Auditorium at 2:45, so i may go to that one because Kim cancelled class, and it's Jennifer Walters.)
Honoring the student strike, Kim cancelled class for Thursday, recognizing that not everyone in the class necessarily opposed the war but saying that we should take the time to think about the issue and inform ourselves. She said it’s important to listen to the arguments of, and be sensitive to, other people who disagree with you. She said that anyone who is absolutely sure of their position knows more than she does, ‘cause she doesn’t know everything (because one can never know everything). She also said that education is about moving out of your comfort zone, and i wondered if i have a comfort zone. I’m always problematizing things, having issues with things, coming at things differently than those around me. She also said something like we don’t have the right to be complacent, and i had to take issue with that a little, because i think some people need to avoid issues, for their own emotional/psychological well-being, and i think that’s entirely valid. [Yes, as Allie pointed out, everything is either “valid” or “problematic” according to me -- and sometimes both ;)]
In Soc class on Tuesday we watched the FX docudrama The Pentagon Papers. Watching it reminded me of what i had only known vaguely and intellectually before -- that a lot of the modern distrust of the government comes from Vietnam. Four presidential administrations. Wow; i hadn’t realized it went back that far. But somehow, i think the reality of Watergate and Vietnam and everything have made the government less likely to engage in such conspiracies, knowing the possibility that it could blow up in their faces again. But then, who would ever have thought we would have such infringement upon civil liberties in the name of homeland security, so perhaps i am just naive.
The student strike reminds me in some ways of the preppy guy who spoke at the War Resisters of America thing at Haverford College in 1969 in the movie. He said he was your basic born-with-a-silver-spoon kid, but that he was going to go to jail because he opposed the war. He said he didn’t want to register as a conscientious objector and be brushed off as some dilettante dabbling in ideology, that he was going to go to jail, which would mark him for life and prohibit him from attaining such high positions as he had always been expected to attain, but that he would wear that mark with pride. My understanding of conscientious objector status is that it’s something of a process, otherwise anyone wanting to avoid the draft for any old reason would claim it, but perhaps i’m wrong or perhaps it was easier back then. But my major thought was that he is wealthy and privileged and therefore that black mark won’t hurt him much. Not only is this something of a class issue in that people in a lower class who had more going against them would be more hurt by such a black mark but he will still go on and be successful, but while people over in the war area are fighting and dying and suffering. It’s essentially a make believe sacrifice he’s making. And writing about it now it reminds me of all that “I’m more oppressed than you. ... Look, see, I was discriminated against too. ... I have more [insert subculture adjective here] cred that you. ... etc.” crap. Go out and DO something, don’t just make a statement. No, that’s too simplistic. Making a statement is good. But be careful how you do it. Go for effectiveness over ego-stroking.
Offices of the College send all-college e-mails, but student orgs use their own mailing lists and often utilize the phonemail system (send a message to the HPs and have them forward it out to the members of their respective houses) as well as of course flyering/chalking the campus. Smith anti-war students have frequently sent mass e-mails advertising protests and related events recently.
I don’t think i actually have a copy of the Smith Student Handbook, but a Jolter says that on page 30 it forbids the use of college e-mail for “canvassing,” and it makes sense to me that the college policy would be something like that.
That's what we need! A walkout to protest inappropriate use of Smith email. Who's with me?
we are in the middle of war, people are dying, business cannot go on as usual. If this means "abusing" the college's e-mail list then so be it, i am in total support of these people.
Ah, let’s break the law (or, in this case, college rules) because we are at war. That’s always such a good idea.
And of course it’s a slippery slope, because if people can mass e-mail asking people to oppose the war, then surely supporters of the war should be able to counter, and oh, it could become like those zinesters list “discussions” of old. (Sadly,offbalance will be the only who gets this analogy.)
That was the Jolt this morning, and so far this afternoon 3 people utilized the “reply all” on last night’s mass e-mail.
Honoring the student strike, Kim cancelled class for Thursday, recognizing that not everyone in the class necessarily opposed the war but saying that we should take the time to think about the issue and inform ourselves. She said it’s important to listen to the arguments of, and be sensitive to, other people who disagree with you. She said that anyone who is absolutely sure of their position knows more than she does, ‘cause she doesn’t know everything (because one can never know everything). She also said that education is about moving out of your comfort zone, and i wondered if i have a comfort zone. I’m always problematizing things, having issues with things, coming at things differently than those around me. She also said something like we don’t have the right to be complacent, and i had to take issue with that a little, because i think some people need to avoid issues, for their own emotional/psychological well-being, and i think that’s entirely valid. [Yes, as Allie pointed out, everything is either “valid” or “problematic” according to me -- and sometimes both ;)]
In Soc class on Tuesday we watched the FX docudrama The Pentagon Papers. Watching it reminded me of what i had only known vaguely and intellectually before -- that a lot of the modern distrust of the government comes from Vietnam. Four presidential administrations. Wow; i hadn’t realized it went back that far. But somehow, i think the reality of Watergate and Vietnam and everything have made the government less likely to engage in such conspiracies, knowing the possibility that it could blow up in their faces again. But then, who would ever have thought we would have such infringement upon civil liberties in the name of homeland security, so perhaps i am just naive.
The student strike reminds me in some ways of the preppy guy who spoke at the War Resisters of America thing at Haverford College in 1969 in the movie. He said he was your basic born-with-a-silver-spoon kid, but that he was going to go to jail because he opposed the war. He said he didn’t want to register as a conscientious objector and be brushed off as some dilettante dabbling in ideology, that he was going to go to jail, which would mark him for life and prohibit him from attaining such high positions as he had always been expected to attain, but that he would wear that mark with pride. My understanding of conscientious objector status is that it’s something of a process, otherwise anyone wanting to avoid the draft for any old reason would claim it, but perhaps i’m wrong or perhaps it was easier back then. But my major thought was that he is wealthy and privileged and therefore that black mark won’t hurt him much. Not only is this something of a class issue in that people in a lower class who had more going against them would be more hurt by such a black mark but he will still go on and be successful, but while people over in the war area are fighting and dying and suffering. It’s essentially a make believe sacrifice he’s making. And writing about it now it reminds me of all that “I’m more oppressed than you. ... Look, see, I was discriminated against too. ... I have more [insert subculture adjective here] cred that you. ... etc.” crap. Go out and DO something, don’t just make a statement. No, that’s too simplistic. Making a statement is good. But be careful how you do it. Go for effectiveness over ego-stroking.
Offices of the College send all-college e-mails, but student orgs use their own mailing lists and often utilize the phonemail system (send a message to the HPs and have them forward it out to the members of their respective houses) as well as of course flyering/chalking the campus. Smith anti-war students have frequently sent mass e-mails advertising protests and related events recently.
I don’t think i actually have a copy of the Smith Student Handbook, but a Jolter says that on page 30 it forbids the use of college e-mail for “canvassing,” and it makes sense to me that the college policy would be something like that.
That's what we need! A walkout to protest inappropriate use of Smith email. Who's with me?
we are in the middle of war, people are dying, business cannot go on as usual. If this means "abusing" the college's e-mail list then so be it, i am in total support of these people.
Ah, let’s break the law (or, in this case, college rules) because we are at war. That’s always such a good idea.
And of course it’s a slippery slope, because if people can mass e-mail asking people to oppose the war, then surely supporters of the war should be able to counter, and oh, it could become like those zinesters list “discussions” of old. (Sadly,
offbalance will be the only who gets this analogy.)That was the Jolt this morning, and so far this afternoon 3 people utilized the “reply all” on last night’s mass e-mail.
Entry tags:
"you know you are still the song i sing to myself when i'm alone"
i wonder
can these boys smell me bleeding
though my underwear
Terry asked me about Oxford. He’s not the first person to ask me if i’m still going or if i’m scared because of the war. I never really understood this. I mean, it’s not like i’m going to the Middle East. While i was talking to him last night, though, it occurred to me for the first time that 9-11 was because of hijackers on a plane, that that’s what people are talking about when they talk about being scared to fly. (Have we mentioned how oblivious i can be sometimes?) He said to be careful when i’m at bars, to watch my drink, so no one puts anything in it. Hi, i’m a girl, i’ve been taught that. He was actually referring to friends putting “pick-me-ups” in your drink. Yeah, his friends are delinquents and i’m never going out drinking with him. Someone putting shit in my drink is something i’ll probably worry about, but i’m not worried about flying.
Relatedly, am i the only person not getting all apocalyptic about this war? We’ve been involved in dicey situations before. Is it because we don’t have the security of UN backing? Is it because this situation has new variables like chemical weapons and suicidal hijackers? I understand people being worrying about terrorist retaliation and worrying about the troops and so on, but i don’t understand why so many people are all, “We’re all gonna die.” Someone please explain this to me.
can these boys smell me bleeding
though my underwear
Terry asked me about Oxford. He’s not the first person to ask me if i’m still going or if i’m scared because of the war. I never really understood this. I mean, it’s not like i’m going to the Middle East. While i was talking to him last night, though, it occurred to me for the first time that 9-11 was because of hijackers on a plane, that that’s what people are talking about when they talk about being scared to fly. (Have we mentioned how oblivious i can be sometimes?) He said to be careful when i’m at bars, to watch my drink, so no one puts anything in it. Hi, i’m a girl, i’ve been taught that. He was actually referring to friends putting “pick-me-ups” in your drink. Yeah, his friends are delinquents and i’m never going out drinking with him. Someone putting shit in my drink is something i’ll probably worry about, but i’m not worried about flying.
Relatedly, am i the only person not getting all apocalyptic about this war? We’ve been involved in dicey situations before. Is it because we don’t have the security of UN backing? Is it because this situation has new variables like chemical weapons and suicidal hijackers? I understand people being worrying about terrorist retaliation and worrying about the troops and so on, but i don’t understand why so many people are all, “We’re all gonna die.” Someone please explain this to me.
life just keeps getting harder
keeps getting harder to hide
darker it is around me
easier it is to see inside
and outside the glass
the whole world is magnified
and it's half an inch
from here to the other side
i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of
if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're going to have to get in line
keeps getting harder to hide
darker it is around me
easier it is to see inside
and outside the glass
the whole world is magnified
and it's half an inch
from here to the other side
i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of
if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're going to have to get in line
Entry tags:
Entry tags:
Entry tags:
“Every theory has a human price.”
That’s a line from one of the last pieces Alix Olson did tonight.
I can definitely see why a lot of people like her, but i didn’t think she was that great, and i don’t agree with most of her politics and found a lot of what she said or how she said it to be problematic.
I really should have taken notes or something. I always think this after events that i don’t bring a notebook to, and when i do bring a notebook i end up not using it. Oh well.
She said that half the Easter baskets sold in K-mart this year have G.I.Joes instead of chocolate bunnies. (If true, this greatly disturbs me, just as this disturbs me.) So this woman dressed up as the Easter Bunny and went to K-mart to protest and got arrested. This upset George Bush, because now he knows the Easter Bunny isn’t real. Can i tell you how much crap like that annoys me? She told two other Bush jokes, the first of which has been everywhere and is a low blow, but i admit i actually laughed at the second one.
She talked about being at the post office and there was this protest and one of the press people was interviewing one of the people who worked there, and he said that there’s freedom of speech in this country, and we’re fighting to bring about that kind of freedom in Iraq, to establish a democracy there, so if people want to voice their dissent here, that’s fine, and i thought Bravo to that guy.
Later she talked about the shuttle crash and how it didn’t feel like a tragedy to her, how she was sad but not weepy like the people around her, and trying to figure out why she felt that way. She realized that while it was sad that these people had died, they had died doing something they loved, something they had worked their whole lives toward, knowing there was a risk, probably having wills and everything set up, and that to her real tragedy is when people don’t have the opportunity to pursue their dreams, to live full lives. And i knew where this was gonna go (and she did touch on the issue in the poem that followed), and i thought, “Oh yes, because the people there are so free now. They absolutely have opportunity and full lives with pursuit of dreams.” I understand that lots of aspects of the war are problematic, but it seems intensely blind to me to act as if the civilians here have wonderful lives that we’re just coming in and ruining. (Yes, killing = bad, got that. But to ignore the fact that for many of them, life = bad, is to oversimplify.)
She told a story about a truck driver asking them (her and her manager) what a radical feminist is when they were stopped at a light, because they had a bumper sticker saying “This is what a radical feminist looks like,” and her and Sam having no idea what a radical feminist is (my understanding is that they call themselves radical feminists, she just meant she had no idea how to articulate what that meant) and Sam finally saying, “It means we like girls,” and the guy said, “That’s cool. So do I.” She loved the idea of a radical feminist movement of truck drivers. Even i liked the story, but i was so struck by the fact that she publicly claimed a label whose meaning she couldn’t articulate, something i would never do because i always operate on the assumption that i’m going to have to explain myself. For all my love of identifying myself with various labels, i’m very careful as to what i label myself as, what beliefs i state having. Partly i’m in the process of figuring out just what i think on a lot of issues, but also i want to know just what i’m saying when i’m attaching myself to a label. I can tell you what it means to me to identify as queer, to be queer. I can tell you why i’m a vegetarian who wishes she were a vegan. I’m not registered to vote under any particular party. I refused to get confirmed in my church.
She’s a pro-choice vegetarian. “It’s a chicken, not a choice.” That was from early in the show, and i loved that line.
A lot of her stuff reminded me of Ani DiFranco, the ideas, the wording.
She has some good lines. In her fairytale poem (which i was largely not that taken with, though i wanted to be), Rapunzel leaves the tower before the prince comes for her and says, “I shaved my head and got me some rope.”
I’m much more inclined to like the poems that aren’t political (i think this is because relationships are much more of a universal thing that everyone can relate to, whereas with politics there’s so much to disagree on). There’s the great poem that has the line “God would be a dyke if she could find someone to hold her.” And she has a poem from a story another folk person told, about Rage and Kindness meeting in a bar, sort of an estranged couple, and while it doesn’t quite work, it’s really good.
There might have been more to say. Allie, lemme know if there’s anything else i should touch on. ;)
I can definitely see why a lot of people like her, but i didn’t think she was that great, and i don’t agree with most of her politics and found a lot of what she said or how she said it to be problematic.
I really should have taken notes or something. I always think this after events that i don’t bring a notebook to, and when i do bring a notebook i end up not using it. Oh well.
She said that half the Easter baskets sold in K-mart this year have G.I.Joes instead of chocolate bunnies. (If true, this greatly disturbs me, just as this disturbs me.) So this woman dressed up as the Easter Bunny and went to K-mart to protest and got arrested. This upset George Bush, because now he knows the Easter Bunny isn’t real. Can i tell you how much crap like that annoys me? She told two other Bush jokes, the first of which has been everywhere and is a low blow, but i admit i actually laughed at the second one.
She talked about being at the post office and there was this protest and one of the press people was interviewing one of the people who worked there, and he said that there’s freedom of speech in this country, and we’re fighting to bring about that kind of freedom in Iraq, to establish a democracy there, so if people want to voice their dissent here, that’s fine, and i thought Bravo to that guy.
Later she talked about the shuttle crash and how it didn’t feel like a tragedy to her, how she was sad but not weepy like the people around her, and trying to figure out why she felt that way. She realized that while it was sad that these people had died, they had died doing something they loved, something they had worked their whole lives toward, knowing there was a risk, probably having wills and everything set up, and that to her real tragedy is when people don’t have the opportunity to pursue their dreams, to live full lives. And i knew where this was gonna go (and she did touch on the issue in the poem that followed), and i thought, “Oh yes, because the people there are so free now. They absolutely have opportunity and full lives with pursuit of dreams.” I understand that lots of aspects of the war are problematic, but it seems intensely blind to me to act as if the civilians here have wonderful lives that we’re just coming in and ruining. (Yes, killing = bad, got that. But to ignore the fact that for many of them, life = bad, is to oversimplify.)
She told a story about a truck driver asking them (her and her manager) what a radical feminist is when they were stopped at a light, because they had a bumper sticker saying “This is what a radical feminist looks like,” and her and Sam having no idea what a radical feminist is (my understanding is that they call themselves radical feminists, she just meant she had no idea how to articulate what that meant) and Sam finally saying, “It means we like girls,” and the guy said, “That’s cool. So do I.” She loved the idea of a radical feminist movement of truck drivers. Even i liked the story, but i was so struck by the fact that she publicly claimed a label whose meaning she couldn’t articulate, something i would never do because i always operate on the assumption that i’m going to have to explain myself. For all my love of identifying myself with various labels, i’m very careful as to what i label myself as, what beliefs i state having. Partly i’m in the process of figuring out just what i think on a lot of issues, but also i want to know just what i’m saying when i’m attaching myself to a label. I can tell you what it means to me to identify as queer, to be queer. I can tell you why i’m a vegetarian who wishes she were a vegan. I’m not registered to vote under any particular party. I refused to get confirmed in my church.
She’s a pro-choice vegetarian. “It’s a chicken, not a choice.” That was from early in the show, and i loved that line.
A lot of her stuff reminded me of Ani DiFranco, the ideas, the wording.
She has some good lines. In her fairytale poem (which i was largely not that taken with, though i wanted to be), Rapunzel leaves the tower before the prince comes for her and says, “I shaved my head and got me some rope.”
I’m much more inclined to like the poems that aren’t political (i think this is because relationships are much more of a universal thing that everyone can relate to, whereas with politics there’s so much to disagree on). There’s the great poem that has the line “God would be a dyke if she could find someone to hold her.” And she has a poem from a story another folk person told, about Rage and Kindness meeting in a bar, sort of an estranged couple, and while it doesn’t quite work, it’s really good.
There might have been more to say. Allie, lemme know if there’s anything else i should touch on. ;)
Entry tags:
We will not be surprised if i graduate a conservative.
I love this comic. (Interview with the creator here.)
Unfortunately, it’s scripted in such a way that i can’t link to specific days. So i’ll just list the dates of the ones i particularly like:
November 2, 12, 14, 18, 21
December 15, 16, 23
January 4, 5, 10, 27
February 10, 22, 28
March 1, 4
( okay, so when the war is all over the world of the printed pixel it's hard for me to shut up about it (especially when there's studying i don't want to be doing) )
Unfortunately, it’s scripted in such a way that i can’t link to specific days. So i’ll just list the dates of the ones i particularly like:
November 2, 12, 14, 18, 21
December 15, 16, 23
January 4, 5, 10, 27
February 10, 22, 28
March 1, 4
( okay, so when the war is all over the world of the printed pixel it's hard for me to shut up about it (especially when there's studying i don't want to be doing) )