Moving

After a great deal of time away, I'm back on the blogging horse. So, what's the problem? The new "phase-in" of the improved features hasn't hit this blog yet. That pisses me off. If they're going to introduce these features, roll them out to everyone. This piecemeal bullshit is just that...bullshit. To get around this frustration, I simply created a new account based upon my Gmail account. So, this blog is being moved to Knowledge and Valor for the time being. I'd prefer not to do things that way, but I want to access the tagging features and templates that the new service offers. When I'm able to update this blog, I'll likely move my posts over here and delete the old blog. Until then...

Denial of Holocausts

Robert Fisk has a wonderful piece today about the horror of the denial of historical truths. It may not be a new lesson, but it seems that many people have still not learned that history is often created and re-created by those with something to prove. Whether it's neo-Nazis or Muslims who deny the killing of Jews and other "unter Menschen" by the Germans, Israelis who deny the killings at Sabra and Chatila or the ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, Americans who paint their country as the Great Liberator and champion of human rights, or Christians who downplay the horrors of the witch burnings, the Inquisition, the Crusades and the church-supported genocide in the "new world," the powerful continue to distort the past for the goals of the present.

The Duke Debacle

Politics: Sexism

Up to this point, I haven't thought a lot about the rape allegations against the lacrosse team at Duke. I've followed the news reports, but that's about all. The recent release of a team member's email about killing and skinning women, however, just pushes this case into a realm of disgust that I haven't felt in quite some time. The worst part is that the latest stories have this to say about the email: "It is not clear whether the message was serious or a joke." Since when is a guy talking about how he would get off on killing and skinning women "a joke"? I guess I'm just one of those humorless feminists, because I fail to see any kind of humor in that.

Beyond the obvious questions about the privilege of athletes in U.S. society, the charges of racism have been rife. Jason Whitlock makes a case for the events and their aftermath having nothing to do with race. The problem? He claims that this is just how men act. In one sentence, he talks about how this doesn't mean he thinks men are prone to rape merely because they're in groups. However, he goes on to say that the racist and sexist slurs hurled at the dancers were just normal male behavior. If that's "normal" male behavior, count me as happy to have an "abnormal" husband and gay friends.

Whether or not the case has anything to do with race, I don't think you can get away from the class implications. If these players weren't wealthy, they wouldn't have the high-powered attorneys that they're currently hiding behind. They'd be sitting in jail talking to an overburdened public defender. When the trial came up, they'd be encouraged by that public defender to plead to reduced charges--guilty or not. I don't know what happened in that house, but I suspect that money will rule the day when all's said and done.

More protesting kids

Politics: Immigration

So much for the idea that the local school district is supportive of the kids' right to free speech. Yesterday, about 100 kids from my daughter's eighth-grade class were prepared to go protest the immigration issue. However, the school has taken to posting people at all exits and physically keeping the kids from doing so. They have their campus cop (or the SRO, as they call him) patrolling and monitors everywhere. Guess they don't think much of democracy after all.

Students protest anti-immigration zealots

Politics: Immigration

With the immigration debate taking an ugly turn in Washington, it was nice to see our younger citizens in Tucson taking a position--and doing something about it. For the past two days, middle and high school students have been leaving school and demonstrating against the draconian House measure. The media is reporting that the school district is being tolerant, but that is not entirely true. My daughter, an eighth-grader in TUSD, told me yesterday that the students at her school were told that they would be charged with truancy if they joined the protests. Then, today, the district began to brandish their big hammer: they sent a letter home with the students that included vague threats..er, warnings...that high school students leaving school next week could miss the AIMS testing and, therefore, fail to graduate. You can have your little protest, kids, but don't push it. After all, the Minutemen are returning next week, so the media won't have time to waste on your little attempts at civil disobedience.

Scientology and Bombs

Entertainment: Television

On the Scientology-goes-Hollywood front, Isaac Hayes has asked to be allowed to quit South Park because of "innappropriate ridicule of religious communities." While the creators may have a point that Hayes was cool with the "ridicule" of Jews, Mormons, Muslims and (other) Christians, but only got peeved when they turned on Scientology, I have to say that I can see telling these guys to get lost. First, the anti-Scientology attitudes have gotten a bit overboard, especially since Tom Cruise has decided to be such a freak. I have no more use for the religion than I do for "traditional" religions, but it's just a step down from Islam on the ladder of vilified religions in the U.S. People really need to worry about their own spirituality rather than spend time dissecting the beliefs of others. There are entire websites devoted to "outing" Scientologists and bashing their beliefs. Besides, South Park is generally juvenile, repetitive and decidedly not funny. I blame Hayes for sticking around as long as he has.

While sticking to the subjects of bad TV, yet another flagwaving military drama has just started its run. The testosterone-addicted David Mamet has brought us The Unit. The show is not just about the bombing and killing, Mamet tells us, but the drama on the homefront (soldiers are people, too!). After attesting to his deep admiration for soldiers, Mamet lets us know that the show is all about "killing people with kindness...and C-4." That's exactly what was missing on network television.

Flagwaving, baseball & the right to control your own body

Entertainment: Sports

After Bush Administration posturing, pitchcount impositions and much face-painting, the World Baseball Classic is underway. Despite attempts by the Bushies to keep baseball free of Evil Communists (at least Latino Communists), Cuba is taking part. This has given ESPN the opportunity to wave the flags of Democracy and Freedom--which are, of course, identical to Old Glory--at every turn. How bad has the propaganda gotten? Just check out the sites for Cuba(where we're told that baseball fields are among the only places Cubans can practice freedom of expression), China (which, oddly, gets little criticism), Korea (where you can hear "Communist propaganda" that is "blasted" from the North while on "non-Communist soil"--no comments about the Voice of America, of course) and the U.S. ("home of freedom") on ESPN's site. During the Cuba-Panama game, one of the commentators was Cuban defector Orestes Destrade. His comments that Cuba was the "only country here who is under a dictator" were beyond ignorant. Huh? China? Just as China was not a target of the State Department prior to this event, that country was given a pass on the totalitarianism question. I mean, c'mon, just think abou that market! It goes without saying that no mention was made of the fact that the U.S. is the only country participating whose leader is currently the occupier and dictator of someone else's country.
The media has also been on alert for any anti-Cuban sentiment in the stands. As such, they gave a lot of attention to a story about a man with an anti-Castro banner in the stands during a game played in Puerto Rico. The self-righteous tone in the story telling how a Cuban official was "lectured" about "free speech" could have been written by a Bush speech-writer. Too bad no one's sharing such "lectures" with the country that runs Guantanomo Bay--which is ironically located on Cuban soil but run by the country that fancies itself the "home of freedom." One wonders if spectators would be allowed to bring anti-Bush posters into the stands. I'm thinking that Puerto Rican activists who do not favor "commonwealth status" aren't encouraged to exercise their "freedom of speech" during the WBC.
Of course, these days, the subject of baseball inevitably leads to the question of steroids. ESPN's Page 2 ran an interesting piece by Patrick Hruby defending the rights of athletes to decide what to put in their own bodies. I have to agree with Hruby. If someone wants to abuse his own body for whatever reasons, that's his body. As it is, decisions to abuse the body by playing injured are left to the player or team. The wrestlers I knew in high school commonly starved themselves to "make weight"--even to the point of endangering their health. They were allowed and even encouraged to do this. Anyone who didn't want to do this faced pressure to do "what everyone else is doing." What's the difference?