Les said, the better II

Ok, so all over the news is a story of a woman in a permanent vegetative state who has a feeding tube. Her parents believe she can get better. Her husband wants closure, as they say. He says she wouldn’t want to go on like this. A court ruled that she would have wanted to be unplugged and so she was. A few times. And then re-plugged in. A few people have asked me what I think about this.

I saw Dr. Dobson (of Focus on the Family) on Hannity and Colmes. Sean Hannity was saying that he couldn’t imagine a more painful way to die than lack of food and water. “Arg! Turn it off!” I screamed. FYI, people who die of wasting diseases like cancer or AIDS often do not take food or water for the last several days or even a week or two. Hospice workers assure family members that this is not painful. They point to people who have survived extreme dehydration. Those people claim that becoming dehydrated is not uncomfortable. They don’t experience pain until they re-hydrate. Let me tell you that watching someone you love stop taking food or water is incredibly painful. For Hannity to blather on TV and say ignorant stupid, unresearched opinions is just going to freak people out. I dunno, I watched a lot of TV when my mom was dying. I could imagine some of my family members seeing that and freaking out demanding a feeding tube, which just would have been even more awful. And what’s painful is not the removal of the feeding tube, but this constant taking it out and putting it back in. Why do her parents keep doing this to her? Denial is so strong sometimes. Anyway, before Hannity annoyed me, but now I hate him for stupidly raining down such pain on his audience without even thinking about it. What a fucking asshat
Ok, so the parents have hired Randall Terry as their spokes person. If that name rings a bell, it’s because he’s the former head of Operation Rescue, a semi-violent anti-choice organization. after that fell apart, he dabbled briefly in homophobia. It looks like now he’s back in the “pro-life” movement. He’s got a doctor he’s working with who says he can treat the woman. I hate to say this, but there are people on the fringes of the medical profession who will say that no matter what the case. (they take cash only.) My uncle showed up once with somebody who said he could cure my mom’s cancer. A quarter of her brain was removed. Her tumor was growing faster than a zucchini in july. this guy claimed that if we gave her protein and vitamin C in massive (kidney stopping) quantities, her tumor would go into remission and then she could have therapy that would cause her to regain all of her lost motor and thinking skills. Randall Terry’s friend claims that therapy will bring back all of this woman’s motor and thinking skills. Therapy is magic. Also, you’d think if it worked, he would have published a paper and gone for the fame and the money connected to such a tremendous discovery. Again, what a fucking asshat.
Ok, so why is Dr. Dobson and Randall Terry involved? Because it’s part of the pro-life movement! They’re against the rights of women to make their own health decisions in all cases!
And then congress had an emergency meeting and pres bush flew back to “save” the life of this woman by changing court jurisdictions so she could sue in federal court. Bloggers have been all over this, upset about separation of powers, about politicians cravenly using this family’s pain to play to pro-lifers, of how a precedent might be used to legislative overrule other court decisions, etc. All of these things are issues, but what the fuck is going on in Iraq right now where all of our attention is being diverted to this one thing? It’s the most terrible thing for the family, a horrible personal drama. One that is played out over and over again, every day as families have to make horrible, gut-wrenching decisions about people they love. Usually, the president doesn’t get involved (but he did in the state of Texas, where as governor he signed a law saying doctors could just pull the plug on you if they didn’t want to treat you anymore.) This is, however, a diversion. something must be up for them to stage a diversion so big. Look! Over Here! Over Here!
Tag: Euthanasia

I can’t remember what classes I have on tuesdays. Maybe it will come back to me by morning.

I’m back at school for the home stretch. my concert is two weeks from tomorrow in the Memorial Chapel on the Wesleyan campus at 8:00 pm. yikes
I sat on the airplane yesterday next to a woman who is writing her PhD dissertation on lesbian novels from the 1970’s. Awesome. The idealism of that time is nifty. Also, I think I want to spend some time living on a women’s land trust. Otherwise known as a lesbian separatist commune. I know that some of them still exist. I imagine that they would either be retreat-like or else embittered, digging in the trenches after so many years of fighting.
Yeah, so I got back to school and am sooo tired and have completely forgotten my routine. To the “do I wear pajamas when I sleep?” level. Hopefully it’s just jetlag.
I saw the band Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum on Saturday night. they are so awesome. I want to be a rock star when I grow up.
Tag: Celesteh

except for you

I don’t have as much as a draft as I wanted. My current creative endeavors involve Fred Phelps and Bill O’Reilley talking about homosexuals. Augh. Can’t deal with another day of that. Today I must figure out my taxes. I fly back east Sunday. I didn’t take care of some thing with the county assessor office. I have no idea what it’s even about.
I need a better way of dealing with stress other than envisioning breaking dish wear. grrr. kill. smash. break. I have a list of people I wanted to see today, but I feel too frustrated to make polite conversation.
Maybe it’s my morning coffee. I’m not good at caffeine.
Tag: Celesteh

Google now allows you to search the text of books. This I knew, but they also let you search books which are still in copyright. My advisor told me to look at the section on taping in William S. Burroughs The Ticket That Expolded. I’ve heard some of Burroughs’ tape pieces and I think I’ve even been to a museum or library or something dedicated to him, but I’ve never actually read his writing before.

ha ha. you can’t cut and paste from google’s results, so no blockquote for you. Start with “Take an everyday situation you are arguing with your boy friend or girl friend remembering what was said last time and thinking of things to say next time the whole stupid argument going round and round like the music in your head until it bores you silly to hear it . . .” Midway down the page and read the next couple of pages
As a veteran of the great verbal wars of 1995-2003, his solution is entirely brilliant and certainly great conceptual art, but I can’t imagine putting it into practice without causing even greater warfare. But you know, if you end apologizing for the same past misdeeds over and over and over again, why not just tape it and play the recording?
I apologize to any and all who are inflamed by this post. An mp3 of an apology will be forthcoming.
Tag: Celesteh

Ok, so I’m messing around with Fred Phelps. His sermon that I’ve got is like an hour long. I’m cutting out all his ramblings about Billy Graham (who, when he was with Phelps at Bob Jones, used to preach about hell nearly every time he preached, says Phelps), the Washington Post, and that den of sodomites calling itself the Topeka City Council. Actually, I left in the part of the den of sodomites. When I think Topeka, I think sodomy.

Ahem. One of the members of the Topeka City Council is a lesbian. Phelps’ granddaughter ran against her recently for the seat, mainly on the platform that the entire city would be destroyed by fire and brimstone, ala Sodom, but in the afterlife, if they elect a homosexual. Phelps didn’t get very many votes.
It’s actually very surprising how much in common Phelp’s sound-bite-ish sermonizing has in common with Ann Coulter’s sound-bite-ish pontificating. Ad hominem all the way. It’s also kind of disturbing that Phelps has a more nuanced understanding of the war in Iraq. “They don’t want us there.” We’re “slaughtering” them. “They have ideas and they’re not ignorant.” And “That miserable little idiot in the whitehouse” has “a phony, false, hypocritical religion.” Right-on. Oh, no, wait, it’s because he’s part of the sodomite agenda. Nevermind.
Fred Phelps’ website God Hates Fags
Who funds this guy? He’s so over-the-top, I wonder if some pro-gay group is secretly funding him to give homophobes a bad name. I also suspect that Peta was created by the beef industry.
Tag: Fred Phelps

If you have no idea about any of the pundits I mention, the CBC has an excellent documentary introduction to political discourse in the US. It explains who is who, gives both sides, etc. I started out being displeased with it because it said that liberals were engaged in hysterical attacks as well as conservatives and then played clips of liberals trying to get a word in edgewise on Fox News. On the other hand, it’s true that Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a somewhat inflamatory title . . .. But a funny book. They talk about Richard Mellon Scaife without talking about how he was directly involved in digging up dirt on Clinton to give to the Starr investigation. However, they come to conclusions that seem correct and the many of the clips they use of pundits in action are all from the anti-Canada day that ran on Fox News when there was talk of blue staters migrating north en-masse after the election. They didn’t play the full clips, but I’m pretty certain I recognized them. (heh heh heh) There is also a very wonderful exchange with Ann Coulter there, in a separate short file. I’ve never seen her speechless before. She had her ass handed to her on a platter, but very subtly. It was great.
Also, I am under the impression (possibly incorrect) that Canadians think labeling homelessness a “liberal” issue is insane. As opposed to a social issue or a moral issue or a problem-that-needs-to-be-solved issue, but I could be projecting here. Watching foreign documentaries on the US is useful because they don’t make unspoken US assumptions, but confusing because they make their own unspoken assumptions.
It would have been nice if they had some expert talking about the difference between the media serving power and the media serving people and how “liberal” issues are often connected to the people, like universal healthcare and poverty, vs corporate handouts, but, you know, I could make my own documentary . . ..
So, if you want to know what’s going on on the most popular TV News show (the O’Reilly Factory) and what sort of political news plays away from The Daily Show, check out this documentary.
Tags: Pundits, Ann Coulter, Canada, Media

I was listening to NPR this morning, whilst half asleep and there was a balanced-type news article, one that talks to both sides of an issue. The subject was torture. The question: does it work?

Ok, sure, they said “extreme interrogation methods,” which, it should be noted, violate the quaint Geneva conventions. We don’t do this in domestic prisons . . . yet. But,um, I’m appalled. How did torture become a debate? And how on earth could the debate have gotten over to whether or not it works. The debate should be, “torture: total evil or complete evil?”
Ok, so we have a guy who knows where the ticking time bomb is. Torture him! Ok, we have this guy that we’re 90% certain knows where the ticking time bomb is. Torture him! Ok, we have this guy who is 80% certain. Torture! Ok, we have 3 guys and we’re 90% certain that one of those three guys knows where the ticking time bob is. Torture all three! We can sort out the innocent later! Ok, we have this guy and we’re 90% sure that his brother in law planted a bomb. There’s an 80% chance that this guy knows where his brother in law is hiding. But when we ask him, he keeps saying “I don’t know.” Torture him too, right? Ok, you might know where your best friend, the brother in law of the bomber, is hiding. You’re innocent. The brother in law is also innocent but is scared out of his wits knowing that chemical lights are destined for his anus. The bomber is completely uninnocent and has found an excellent hiding place. We torture you, right? Innocent people might die if that bomb went off. It could go off at any second. We need to torture you, right? Because when you say “I don’t know,” you might just be protecting you innocent best friend. But, whoops, we failed to catch you. You took off when you heard we might torture you. We just caught your spouse, whom we have no choice but to torture . . .
Ok, so this was a problem, but we would still torture the bomber, right? Because the bomb could go off at any second. However . . . he holds out for two days. That’s not unreasonable. In the mean time, the bomb has either gone off or the bomber’s co-conspirators noticed that the bomber is missing and have moved the bomb. Our “intelligence” isn’t so valuable then, is it?
Meanwhile, you, your spouse and the terrified chemical-lighted brother-in-law, all of whom thought the bomber was a lunatic, have realized that the government really is a bunch of torturers and have started working to overthrow it.
However, even if torture did “work,” it would still be wrong. If we always caught the right guy and he always confessed in the nick of time . . . Because our soldiers have knowledge about coming bombs, knowledge that is valuable to the societies we destroy. Soldiers know what their orders are. They know what houses might be raided next. If we torture, why shouldn’t our targets torture? Or is it only ok if we do it? What if we’re at war with another state, not an insurgency, the war with Finland? Why would they abstain from torturing our soldiers if we are documented torturers?
And finally, What kind of monsters are we for torturing prisoners? All other concerns aside, it’s just wrong. Evil. Bad. Wrong.
At some point in this country, morality came to mean objecting to what other people do in bed and how well others conform to ideal gender, class, religious, national and racial identities. Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, clothing the naked, examining your own conscience and trying to be a “good Samaritan” have all fallen out of favor. Torture isn’t immoral unless it’s a consentual SM scene in the East Village (which isn’t actually torture). Darwinism is bad, unless you’re talking about ruthless social darwinism, in which case, survival of the fittest is god’s law. Torturing evil folks is a-ok, and those Iraqis are not conforming very well to being white American Christians, so they’re excellent targets.

Update

Fafblog explores the moral quandry of torture: “There’s a bomb on the streets of Hypotheticopolis – a ticking bomb! – and only Giblets can stop it! But time is running out and in order to find it Giblets may have to resort to the first weapon of last resort: torture.”
Tag: Torture

Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

http://www.aim.com/tos/tos.adp (emphasis added)

Does this say that AOL can use the content of my instant messages in any way that it wants? IChat uses the AIM network. I’m offline until further notice.
Actually, um, I’ve strongly advised against IMing sensitive corporate material for a long time. It goes through AOL servers. They probably don’t read individual messages. But I’d bet money that they’re scanning for links and probably also key words, in order to compile statistics. La la la. When I worked there, I’d get a weekly report of web traffic through their servers, as they could tell what websites their subscribers were hitting. It was very interesting. I bet SBC also collects web stats. I bet somebody buys these sorts of stats. I bet there are folks paid to spend a lot of time and energy analyzing these stats to see what sort of useful data they can gleam from them.
What’s a good replacement for AIM?
Tag: AIM

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’ll write them here in case I decide I need more padding . . . err discussion.

In Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky documents extensively how media in the United States serves power. He demolishes the myth of the liberal media. This persistent myth is also countered quite effectively by David Brock, in his coverage of how fringe right wing ideas got coverage in mainstream media outlets. He also documents how the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal became so biased that they embarrassed the news section of the Journal. News in the United States is controlled by corporate power, which has little interest in actually reporting the news. Journalist Laurie Garrett wrote in her goodbye letter to NewsDay, “All across America news organizations have been devoured by massive corporations – and allegiance to stockholders, the drive for higher share prices, and push for larger dividend returns trumps everything that the grunts in the newsrooms consider their missions.” (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/151255) This increased drive for profit hurts news, because the profitability of investigate journalism is low. They go instead for cheap: celebrity stories and often “news” releases produced by corporations or the government. Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story detailing how PR firms hired by the federal government produced several “news” stories, which aired as if they were actual news on local news broadcasts across the country. Aside from airing blatant propaganda, media outlets cut costs by replacing journalism with pundits – talking heads which shout talking points at each other, giving the impression of analyzing the news, but in fact doing nothing but trying to advance an agenda with information that is often incorrect.
This shortchanging of news is inherently conservative. Liberals who watched a lot of TV news coverage post 9-11 tended to shift rightward (yadda yadda). Laziness and cheapness in reporting means repeating what official sources say. Official sources are not the voices of the people, but instead the voice of the government and of corporations, whose interests often run directly counter to the interests of the people and whose voices often run directly counter to the truth. With no money spent debunking these lies, and a media culture of serving power, the lies become the reported truth.
Pundits are the most obviously biased and openly right wing media voices of our government policies of prison torture, scapegoating, pro-christianity and conservatism, so they make the easiest targets for protest music. However, in addition to going for what is obvious and easy, leftists must engage all of the “liberal” media and must fight media consolidation.
Garrett commented, alarmedly, that people under 30 are not consuming official news sources. “First of all, all across the news industry there’s a recognition that people under 30 are not watching. They’re not reading. They don’t subscribe to newspapers. They’re not watching the evening news, and in many cases, it’s hard to pin down exactly how people under 30 in America are getting information. It’s a kind of information cocoon in which you’re osmotically absorbing from thousands and thousands of places from the internet, from your friends, from text messaging, from God knows where.” (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/151255) I suspect that “god knows where” is often music, the blogosphere and from independent media outlets. Dropping out of the toxic, lie-filled mainstream media is a good start, but, like Plato’s guy in the allegory of the cave, we must return to the darkness to expose it as fraud.
Not to be elitist or anything . . .
Tag: Celesteh

I am unaware of to what extent leftists
listen to and engage right wing pundits. 
I am under the impression that conservative media outlets are mostly
consumed by conservatives. The popularity of the movie Outfoxed, a film that does nothing but advances the
hypothesis that Fox News is biased, seems to support this assumption. Brock’s
fact checking efforts represent a new era of fighting the right.  It is critical that the left engage
right-wing media, but as active participants and not as passive consumers. On
March 8, 2005, University of Madison, Wisconsin published a study that showed
that post 9-11 TV watching tended to push liberals in a rightward
direction. 

 

The survey showed that among liberals who
watched little television, about 20 percent favored more government police
powers. But about 41 percent of liberals who were heavy viewers of TV news
supported such measures – much closer to the 50 to 60 percent of conservatives
who supported greater police powers, regardless of how much TV news they
watched.

            (Chaptman
http://www.news.wisc.edu/10779.html)

 

            Many
leftists are aware that popular and conservative television media is biased and
distorted and so to preserve their sanity, refuse to engage it.  I do not watch TV.  I follow media through Media Matters
and through blogs such as Newshounds (“We watch Fox so you don’t have to”), the
Wonkette and Atrios. TV’s constant stream of biased, corporate-produced images
is overwhelming to me.  My
fascination with punditry is as an outsider.  My pieces are like tourist photos.  I do not know if the locals would consider them trite or
compelling.  (My media-obsessed
friends seem to like them, though.)

To fight the echo chamber, we must be
aware of how the far right is changing discourse.   I write pieces with the idea that they will help raise
this awareness. I hope that awareness persuades leftists to action or at least
to outrage. At the least, one hopes that all of the Alien Others constantly
attacked by the right wing would begin to feel solidarity for each other.  Arabs and queers are often used almost
interchangeably. Imus in the Morning described an Iraqi resistance fighter as “an enemy combatant
who had sworn fidelity to some bearded fatwa fairy.” (http://mediamatters.org/items/200411190009) Queers stand-in for almost any social
“problem.” Bill Cunningham said while discussing classroom discipline on Hannity
& Colmes, “In the
good old days, back when AIDS was an appetite suppressant and when gay meant
you were happy, back in those days there was discipline in public schools. But
not today.” 
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200503040003) Ah yes, back when people
knew their place and social norms could be enforced with lynching, in that mythical
golden age, children were well-behaved. 

This post is not Creative Commons. It is Copyright 2005 Celeste Hutchins, all Right Reserved

Tag: Celesteh