October 14, 2007

Update

My blogging here was dropping off. I thought it might be this blog, and that I might start a new, more stream-lined blog. So I did. Then my uni got caught in a political tsunami and I made a purpose-built blog where I have been doing all my blogging lately. Not a whole lot there to interest people who aren't either academic or New Brunswickers, I'm afraid. But once it is all over, I should be able to get back to other business.

And while you are here, would you mind signing our petition? Thankee!

February 17, 2007

Dedicated to a few people I've had contact with lately

"Once upon a time, before the awful misfortunes of the 1960s, America was a theme park constructed by nonunion labor along the lines of the Garden of Eden. But then something terrible happened, and a plague of guitarists descended upon the land. Spawned by the sexual confusions of the amoral news media, spores of Marxist ideology blew around in the wind, multiplied the powers of government, and impregnated the English departments at the Ivy League universities, which then gave birth to the monster of deconstruction that devoured the arts of learning. Pretty soon the trout began to die in Wyoming, and the next thing that anybody knew the nation's elementary schools had been debased, too many favors were being granted to women and blacks, federal bureaucrats were smothering capitalist entrepreneurs with the pillows of government regulation, prime-time television was broadcasting continuous footage from Sodom and Gomorrah, and the noble edifice of Western civilization had collapsed into the rubble of feminist prose."

from Louis Lapham, Hotel America: Scenes in the Lobby of the Fin-De-Siecle

Doing my bit to increase the rubble, here and there. But sometimes it's a thankless task.

December 26, 2006

Town with a "kick me" sign taped to its back

A couple of links about the pipeline proposal. The hearings at the National Energy Board were a few weeks ago and we expect to hear early in the new year.

Save Rockwood Park
Friends of Rockwood Park
City Under Siege. The Fight For Saint John

This is what we get for living in the last feudal state in the West.

December 17, 2006

Today

is the 4th annual International Day to End Violence against Sex Trade Workers.

December 13, 2006

What, you were expecting Real Women?

Via Bitch Ph.D.

(I fudged the voting question; I would have voted for Kerry, if I were an American. So sue me.)

"Eternal Forces":

Hateful and inept.

December 11, 2006

Save yourselves!

(It's too late for me.)

Have a buy nothing christmas '06 (via Mirabilis).

Or, if that is unthinkable, at least have an ethical Christmas (via Philobiblon).

And to stiffen the resolve, hum along:

Carol of the Toys by Erica Avery (to the tune "Carol of the Bells")

High voices: Barbie Dream House
Mi-ickey Mouse Beanie Babies Tamagotchis

Low Voices: Too Much stu- -uff

High voices: Cabbage Patch Dolls Ninja Turtles Super Nintendo Tickle-me-Elmo

Low voices: Too much Stu -uff

Repeat, changing key each time

Maybe I should learn from the Jinker Boy. One of my colleagues, himself a parent, asked JB what he would like from Santa:

JB: (emphatically) Ear muffs.
Colleague: (jaw drops; looks at me)
Me: (making "shut up!" signs behind JB's back)

Ah Jinker Boy, I have already blown the budget on you, and still have to shop for everyone else.

December 8, 2006

Please

let this be the last of it. Gawd! China patterns all around, I say.

October 23, 2006

Status of Women

Status Report is a new website, set up in response to the situation of Status of Women Canada. For those from away, as we say in these parts:

On September 25, 2006, the federal government announced a 5 million dollar (40%) cut to SWC's administrative budget.

On October 3rd, they removed the very word "equality" from SWC's mandate and changed the rules so that women's groups cannot use federal funding to do advocacy or lobbying.

All of this takes place nine months after [Prime Minister] Harper committed to take concrete and immediate steps to increase women's equality in Canada.

These actions represent a serious attack on the sole federal department engaged in monitoring and promoting women's equality and women's rights in Canada, and the organizations it supports.

And here is Womyn's Voices, "a virtual community where women can share online experiences, analyze the implications of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) for women and women's equality issues, and provide easy access to our rich library of resources on policy development, issues, and realities facing women using ICTs."

And don't forget that it's Women's History Month.

October 4, 2006

Raising a little tiny activist

Two nights ago the Jinker Boy, on his own initiative, made me two posters for my office door. He decided on the slogans — "No Pipeline"¹ and "Stop Cancer"² — then asked me to spell them out to him so he could write them down. (He is fascinated by the various "No Smoking" and "No Dogs" signs with red circles with lines through them, and that is the look he was going for here.)

¹ There is an active campaign in Saint John in opposition to a plan to run a natural gas pipeline through the city. Wish us well.

² They just did a Terry Fox run at school. And I have already mentioned JB's fascination with magnetic ribbons.

October 1, 2006

Just stumbled across

this post on Joseph Duemer's blog and could not resist linking to it. Those magnetic ribbons — and I am old enough to remember when one had to be willing to deface ones bumper in order to make a political statement — are a constant irritation. The Jinker Boy is fascinated by them; he catalogues them as we drive and tries to remember what all the colours signify. You can imagine the enlightening conversations we have: Mummy, what is cancer? Mummy, why is there a war? How do you win a war? Are they trying to kill everyone? These are necessary discussions, but some are damned difficult to have with a curious five-year-old. We have our own ribbon now, in support of the Saint John Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. JB was very pleased when we bought it and he is ecstatic whenever he sees another car with a blue magnet like ours. But of course it has just opened up another can of worms: But Mummy, why would anyone be cruel to animals?

MORE!
Stick Magnetic Ribbons on your SUV: brilliant!
AntiMagnet.com

Addendum: "Confessions of a Pink Ribbon Hater: It is time we put the women first when it comes to breast cancer" by Kate Stuart-Kotze

Postscript (4/10/06): The conversation continues at Joseph Duemer's.

September 27, 2006

Cuts to regional museums.

Philistines.

September 25, 2006

Rumours have been flying for weeks

and now it is official: the Tories are making $5-million in administrative cuts to the Status of Women department.

Words cannot express my feelings. At least, words that I will allow myself to type here.

And just in time for Women's History Month. Oh the irony.

Update (26/9/06): Follow-up story in Globe.

September 18, 2006

Election Night in N.B.

Well, at least the Tories are out. But what on earth happened to the NDP vote? Down into the single digits. And the weird thing? Not all of the lost voters migrated to the Liberals. One commentator explained it by suggesting that NDPers and Tories share "an interest in community," while the Liberals do not. Surely, though, those "communities" are very, very different.

My New Brunswick includes drag queens and Wiccans.

Anyway, the big news is, the Lord has left the building.

August 16, 2006

Pro-Choice Rally

Any readers in Fredericton and environs: there will be a Rally for Choice Saturday August 19th at 1pm at Officer's Square organized by the Access to Options Caucus of the Fredericton Social Network. This event is designed to cap the Coat Hanger Campaign of the past month.

August 11, 2006

Pride Week in Saint John

Pride Week is coming to a head with the cruise this evening, then the auction, march, and dance tomorrow. Anyone locally reading this, come on down. Diminished rights for one are diminished rights for all.

Here's Joe and Sally at the last march; here's the Jinker Boy with some friends, again, and in a pensive moment. Sally got her own picture, and this one just because.

July 18, 2006

Child care

(Update to an earlier post):

Majority of Canadians reject Harper's childcare plan. Well, he can't ignore that, can he?

Well, can he?

And no, this is not mutating into a half-arsed political blog; it will remain a half-arsed … whatever it is now. It's just been a bad day, is all.

Anti-abortion activists: ignorant, opportunistic, or just wanting a holiday?

You decide.

But why else would they come from Ontario to New Brunswick where the provincial government is already on their side, unless they just wanted to beat the heat and enjoy some temperate Maritime summer?

Honestly, though, I was quite jealous of their budget, if not their designer, when I drove by all those huge glossy posters down by King's Square this afternoon. Why, when I was in the pro-choice movement in Ontario, we had to hold garage sales to pay for even a small run of a two colour poster.

And ours didn't frighten the horses.

July 6, 2006

America's home videos

What they don't run on Fox.

May 28, 2006

Petition

to extend the proposed "soccer mom" tax credit to include other extracurricular activities rather than just athletic ones.

While the stats on childhood obesity are sobering and childhood athletics need to be promoted, it does seem unfair that such life-enhancing activities as dance, drama, and music are not considered worthy of support.

Here is the petition.

And I post this as someone who just enrolled their kid in soccer.

May 17, 2006

National and International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Last year's march, in better weather than today's looks to be.

In receipt of the following message:

The UNBSJ Q-Collective and PFLAG Canada — Saint John Chapter along with like minded individuals and groups will commemorate the National Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia with the Rainbow Peace March commencing at 6:00 p.m. on Harbour Passage underneath the Harbour Bridge (off Chesley Drive, behind the HMCS Brunswicker), Wednesday, May 17, 2006 (Rain or Shine).

The Rainbow Peace March will travel along the beautiful Harbour Passage, passing the boardwalk, up King Street to King Square and follow the route to Centenary Queen Square United Church at 215 Wentworth Street. At 7:00 p.m. the Rev. Don Uhryniw will then conduct a Service of Prayer and Hope.

A special invitation goes out to all families and friends of all ages who have a Lesbian, Gay, Bi, or Trans daughter, son, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, co-worker, or neighbour.

If you have rainbow flags, clothing, wind socks etc. then bring them along to show that Saint Johners do not condone Homophobia or Transphobia.

I wear mainly black but will try to dig up something brighter. The Jinker Boy has lots of colourful togs; he can make up for Joe and I.

Hey, and the Mayor and City Council have signed off on it.

April 24, 2006

Please sign the petition

to nominate Stephen Lewis for a Nobel Peace prize for his work on H.I.V./A.I.D.S. in Africa.

April 2, 2006

Did you hear the one

about the Tory MP who wanted to jail stroppy reporters?

First they came for the reporters of the liberal-controlled media but I did nothing.

No wonder Harper has told his MPs to keep their mouths shut.

March 28, 2006

Public Childcare Petition

Please go here to sign a petition urging the new federal government to honour its commitment to national childcare.

February 23, 2006

South Dakota seeks to return to the 17thc

The NY Times has a story today on how South Dakota is leading a charge against the godless murderers by seeking to outlaw all abortions, even when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, even if it threatens the woman's health.

Buried in the story is the most telling line: "[The South Dakota Senate] also rejected an effort to allow South Dakotans to decide the question in a referendum." In other words, they know damn well that most people disagree with them and THEY DON'T CARE.

Further reading: some thoughtful posts at Sappho's Breathing.

The US feminist bloggers are all over the issue, of course, and I am not going to attempt any sort of real coverage. But I do wonder about how our new federal government is regarding the developments south of the border.

January 24, 2006

Well, what can we say?

That it could have been worse, I suppose.

I'm going now, to practise the Pledge of Allegiance.

But first, a few reactions around the Canadian blogosphere:

This Magazine: "Calls for a rousing, 'Now, more than ever!'"

Revolutionary Moderation: "The loss of Tory seats in BC is a victory for smart tactical voting."

The optimistic Chandrasutra: "The tories may have got a minority win but we (NDP, Liberal and Bloc) can keep them in line and call another election before they start doing any serious damage."

Let's hope Warren Kinsella is right:

What does it mean? It means that, for Harper, running a perfect campaign isn't enough. Having his opponent run a terrible, terrible campaign isn't enough.

It means Harper has to run a perfect government. No mistakes. He has to ensure there are no backbench bimbo eruptions whatsoever. No fumbles, no flubs.

He has to show his party is indeed moderate and centrist.

That's all he can do. Hell, he's done everything else.

I feel a little queasy. Though frankly, would a Liberal minority have been all that much better? And now I will join the Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land: "I suspect I won't make any comments on the results — I'm sick of talking about their politics."

January 23, 2006

Well, it's early days

but so far, watching the Atlantic election results, my hair hasn't quite turned white. But the night is young.

Sorry to be so cryptic, but a fellow is being sued for premature posting of results two elections ago.

January 22, 2006

Blogging for Choice

Today is the 33rd Anniversary of Roe V. Wade and NARAL has called for a Blog for Choice Day in honour of the occasion. A month ago, contributing would have seemed like a nice gesture of solidarity to our beleaguered sisters to the south. I know things are hardly ideal here — I live in New Brunswick, remember, where the provincial government still refuses to pay medicare for abortion procedures done in clinics — but the situation below the 49th parallel is dire; just read the posts of the other participants in the Blog for Choice Day. At any rate, a month ago I would have felt that the threat was at a distance in Canada. But the recent Reform Conservative surge in the polls has put the boots to any complacency.

The Globe and Mail today had a compelling story by Sonja Puzic : "Tories would curb access to abortion, activists warn. I just hope people read it, buried as it was on page 17, below the fold. For more in depth information, read "Conservative Win Would Endanger Abortion Rights" by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, which helpfully lists anti-choice candidates (Paul Zed, our local incumbent, a Liberal, is listed). Here are stories from this site:

Conservative Party Muzzles Its Candidates
Conservative Party's "Official" Abortion Position Does Not Mean Abortion Rights Are Safe
What the Conservatives Could Do in Power to Restrict Abortion
MPs and Candidates Speak Out Against Abortion
Private Member’s Bill Threatens to Recognize Fetal Personhood [sic]

I feel like an old war horse who just had a whiff of gunpowder. I was very involved with the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics in the 80s and 90s; I organized clinic defence, and presented our brief to Senate when they were debating decriminalizing surgical abortions. Things were quiet our last few years in Toronto, and then we moved here and life went in other directions. But we may be coming into interesting times.

Links:

No Choice: Canadian women tell their stories of illegal abortion (full text available as both PDF and HTML; link to buy print copies)
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
Pro-Choice Action Network!
Abortion Facts/Stats from the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League
Other Links

The clinics were there by the time I was of reproductive age but I knew older women who had survived the bad old days. One, in her seventies, I knew for years. She was a stalwart clinic escort, walking young women past the picketers. This book collects some of those stories. Lest we forget.

Update: Bitch/Lab has posted a list of participants in Blog for Choice Day.

January 20, 2006

Out of the mouths of babes

A colleague of mine today told me the following story: his daughter's class at school has been working on an election project for the last few days: they looked up information on each of the four parties and then held a mock election. She told her delighted parents quite emphatically that she was voting NDP, but then came home on election day and said, "Are you going to be mad at me?"

Parents: Why?
Daughter: I voted Liberal.

Turns out she was worried that the Conservatives would get in and she voted "strategically." The irony? Quite a number of her classmates had told her they were also voting NDP, but when the votes were counted, the NDP came in last, after the Green Party.

Election Monday

and I am so depressed about it I can barely watch the news. Not that I approve of Paul Martin or anything — who could? — but at least he lives in the same reality as me. Harper, on the other hand, is a rabid ideologue and it looks like he is going to get in, giving much of the hemisphere over to crazy people who want to turn the clock back to some imagined vision of white middle-class North America that never was while they wait complacently to be plucked up by the Rapture.

Part of the problem is the fact that the party-formerly-known-as-Reform took the name of the erstwhile Conservative Party. Now the Conservatives were bad enough — anyone old enough to remember Brian Muldoon knows that — but we ain't seen nothing yet. Anyone out there thinking indulgent thoughts about that nice fellow Joe Clark or the reliable comfort of Stanfield's underwear is in for a rude awakening.

And this argument that the Liberals have "had their turn," now it's the Conservatives'? This is not a playground, people (though it's true, sometimes one might be excused for making that mistake).

And another thing that gets on my wick: people who vote for friendly local candidates even though they are in the party of the devil. Yes it does matter. Important issues come along — same-sex marriage; abortion — and those friendly local candidates that you may know personally and think are swell, are going to vote right along with their Fuhrer.

I am "wasting" my vote, of course, as usual, by voting NDP.

For a change of pace: for some smart posts about the election go see Chandrasutra, Scott, Revolutionary Moderation, rabble.ca, Rick Mercer (smart and funny), and BlogsCanada.

("I am Spartacus!")

January 19, 2006

No doubt you will have seen this:

"Rightwing group offers students $100 to spy on professors": "Republican graduate's site prompts witch-hunt fears / 31 academics listed as 'worthy of scrutiny.'" (Thirty-one seems like an awfully low number ... ). At any rate, one David A. has posted the following excellent suggestions to the CUNY faculty list (courtesy of Robert Lapides on C18-L):

Wow — this sounds like an interesting business opportunity for tenured faculty who wish to collaborate with their students. A set of faculty (the larger the better) put up on their websites a large set of buried "liberal zingers" — you have to drill down to find them. Then each collaborating student submits one distinct zinger per prof. Say you have 50 profs, each with 50 zingers (prof's zingers can overlap) and 50 students. So each student can bring in $2500 in revenue. The prof gets 40% say, so each prof gets $1000 plus the satisfaction of scamming these idiots and each student gets $1500 — a tidy sum for not much work.

The evil organization pays $125,000 for a situation that amounts to a large number of profs saying "I am Spartacus".

I know this might not be realistic. But then again it might. The point is, maybe we should all try to think outside the box a bit more.

I am with you, David A. And the way the election here in Canada looks to be going, we will not be too far behind you.

December 24, 2005

At least they didn't get James Earl Jones to do Aslan

"Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion" by Polly Toynbee for The Guardian. For those interested, there is a whole discussion of the film, available for the googling: does it proselytize or not? Can anyone doubt it?

US born-agains are using the movie. The Mission America Coalition is "inviting church leaders around the country to consider the fantastic ministry opportunity presented by the release of this film". The president's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, is organising a scheme for every child in his state to read the book. Walden Media, co-producer of the movie, offers a "17-week Narnia Bible study for children". The owner of Walden Media is both a big Republican donor and a donor to the Florida governor's book promotion - a neat synergy of politics, religion and product placement.

It saddens me not to see Tilda Swinton as the witch. Not enough to fork over my hard-earned dough to Walden Media, you understand. But nonetheless. I read in an interview somewhere that she had to talk them into letting her play the part sans make-up. An interesting idea: actually seeing the face of a villainess. Step aside, Cruella.

Fortuitous link: found at wood s lot: Without gods: toward a history of atheism (Mitchell Stephens blogs his book).

November 14, 2005

When is an "alternative" paper anything but? II

When they replace the snarky little mini-reviews of movies they used to offer — useful in a city that rarely sees anything but the most commercial films — with a reproduction, verbatim, of the promotional copy on the multiplex website.

November 11, 2005

From Canada, where we're pretty far gone ...

Great video from The Daily Show, "Mass. Hysteria," about the horrendous effects gay marriage has had on Massachusetts (heads up from Crooks and Liars, where you can find a direct link).

And to prove how far gone: here are two upcoming events at UNBSJ:

1) On Monday Nov. 14, Kristiana Gordon and Wayne Harrison are speaking on the need to create a safe/welcoming environment for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people, at 7pm in the Faculty/Staff lounge.

2) EGALE Canada, the UNBSJ Department of Social Science and Education and the UNBSJ Q-Collective are very pleased to present Douglas Victor Janoff, author of Pink Blood, Homophobic Violence in Canada, on Mon. Nov. 21 from 7:30-9:30 in Ganong Hall 215. Free to all, but a donation to the UNBSJ Q-Collective would be appreciated.

Bonus links:
Equal Marriage for Same-sex Couples, Saint John Pride Day
PFLAG Saint John

November 7, 2005

Guilt-free shopping

and just in time for the annual consumer bacchanalia that is Christmas.

Not that I can point any fingers. More of a "take heed by looking at my sad case" kind of warning.

But if you live in the Saint John area, please think of enjoying an hour or two of useful throwing around of the charge card.

UNB Saint John students who are involved with World University Service of Canada (WUSC), would like to invite everyone to attend the Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale on Friday, Nov. 18 (9 am – 8 pm) and Saturday, Nov. 19 (from 9 am – 4 pm) at the St. Mark’s United Church at 50 Dexter Drive (off Manawagonish Road). Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit project of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America, has had a 59-year mission to help people in the developing world by encouraging economic development and trading fairly with artisans. Products sold at this event come from 30 countries around the world, countries considered to be “Third World� or “underdeveloped.� All are welcome and admission is free. (source)

October 13, 2005

When is an "alternative" paper anything but?

Answer: when it is so puerile that it thinks the sight of a breastfeeding infant is sexual. I hadn't been aware of the recent ludicrous events at [here] magazine, Saint John's erstwhile independent weekly bought out some time ago by the people who own every other newspaper in the province; my students told me about it today. In a nutshell, the Oct. 6 issue, originally displaying a lovely photograph of a suckling infant, was pulled off the stands and replaced by an illustration of .. well, Barbie. Barbie with a bad smell under her nose. The roses are a nice touch, don't you think? They remind me of my breastfeeding days. Or, wait, maybe a Kotex ad. Something feminine. And the editor of the paper, Miriam Christensen, who had already given notice, was fired. As it turns out, you can fire someone who has already quit: you lock them out of their computer and escort them off the premises. Something that should probably only happen at the Pentagon. Or maybe The National Post. The irony is — well, one of the ironies — that the photograph was illustrating a story which deplores the comparatively low rate of breastfeeding in this province, and advocates the development of more accepting attitudes toward breastfeeding, more public education, and more professional training. And what a good start they have made here. That, and ensuring our podunk status in the rest of the country: here is the CBC story, and a follow-up interview with the woman whose breast is at issue. (Funny, she doesn't look like a porn star. Barbie, on the other hand ... )

Further reading:

Saint Johnners aren't taking it lying down. Here is one thread, and here is an interesting discussion at giraffecycle.com (Brent MacDonald, the author of the article, comments about not doing any more work for [here], among other things).

Three stories about the Irvings and their monopoly on the English-language media in this province, at Your Media. The story by Erin Steuter (Sociology, Mount Allison U) is particularly good.

September 12, 2005

Saving New Orleans history

This from the National Coalition for History (U.S.A.) (heads up from Anita Guerrini on C18-L):

HISTORY/ARCHIVES COMMUNITY RALLY TO ASSIST IN KATRINA AFTERMATH
As emergency officials continue to find and rescue survivors, recover bodies, and clean up the wreckage from Hurricane Katrina ... efforts are also underway by various history and archival organizations to pitch in and begin to survey the damage done to sites of historical significance and to preserve as much as possible. This rescue and salvage effort takes on special importance in a part of the country that is especially rich with historic sites, artifacts, and archives.
....
Virtually everything in the Latin Quarter and the Garden District suffered some damage. Preliminary reports indicate that the New Orleans Public Library was hit hard and its archive of city records, which are housed in the basement of the building, probably experienced flooding. At the New Orleans Notarial Archives, which hold some 40 million pages of signed acts compiled by notaries of new Orleans over three centuries, initial efforts to save historical documents were unsuccessful. A Swedish document salvage firm, hired by the archives to freeze-dry records to remove the moisture from them, was turned away by uniformed personnel as they attempted to enter the city. There are a considerable number of freezer trucks available as soon as they are allowed to access areas currently closed. In the case of both the public library and the notarial archives, time is of the essence as humidity, mold, and water damage may decimate these collections in a matter of days.

Read more. Various links toward the end.

September 5, 2005

Fiddling while Rome burns

Really want to be chic, Ms. Rice? Ditch the boyfriend.

And, it's Labour Day

Poster by Milton Glaser

Writing Katrina

Anne Rice has a succinct article, "Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans," in the NY Times (link from PCL LinkDump):

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Novelist/New Orleans resident Poppy Z. Brite blogs on LiveJournal (heads up from Metafilter).

This from BoingBoing: Help the Internet Archive archive blog coverage of Katrina. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, writes:

The Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library, needs help in finding URL's of sites and blogs that contain documents of this major disaster.

Please email links to sites and pages that should be saved for future research to katrina@archive.org.

We have worked to archive events such as 9/11 and the tsunami with the generous help of volunteers finding and sending in links. We then save these digital works for the long term and create research tools (for example: http://www.loc.gov/minerva/collect/sept11/index.html and http://web.archive.org). As a library, we provide free access to those wanting to learn from these events — we can only hope that we learn some lessons from disasters such as these.

Again, please send email to katrina@archive.org with lists of URL's you suggest should be archived relevant to the Katrina Disaster.

We are also looking for a couple of volunteers that can help orchestrate the crawl. If you are interested, please send a note to katrina@archive.org with "volunteer" in the subject line.

International reactions: from the BBC: "New Orleans crisis shames US" by Matt Wells; from The Observer: "Bush Strafes New Orleans. Where is our Huey Long" by Greg Palast; from the LA Times: "Katrina Elicits Sympathy, Jeers Worldwide" by Héctor Tobar; Watching America (via Metafilter). See also " Hurricane Katrina: What next" (comments from readers to the BBC), and from The Globe and Mail: "Chaos, disorganization epitomize rescue plans" by Christie Blatchford (reg. req.), "Political fury grows at slow federal effort" by Shawn McCarthy, and "Storm's victims still seek blame as Katrina's toll grows higher" by Timothy Appleby.

September 3, 2005

New Orleans

Carrol Cox posted the following piece by Jordan Flaherty to C18-L, and as Flaherty has written "Please Forward" at the top, I will reproduce it here, in its entirety. This is one of the most telling pieces on the catastrophe that I have seen or read yet. Scroll to the end for links.

Please Forward

Notes From Inside New Orleans by Jordan Flaherty Friday, September 2, 2005

I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.

I travelled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want to be here at night."

There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.

To understand this tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself. For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.

It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.

There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months.

The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.

Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race.

Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane, we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations, hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.

While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.

No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but thats just what the media did over and over again. Sherrifs and politicians talked of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.

Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.

City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city.

While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.

The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of Huey Long.

In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.

Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, de-industrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.

Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and we need to fight for its rebirth.

_______________

Jordan Flaherty is an editor of Left Turn Magazine.

_______________

Below are some small, grassroots and New Orleans-based resources, organizations and institutions that will need your support in the coming months.

Social Justice:
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
If They Can Learn
NOLA Palestinian Solidarity
The Peoples Institute
Critical Resistance New Orleans

Cultural Resources:
The Backstreet Cultural Museum
ASHE Cultural Arts Center
The Neighborhood Gallery
New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival
the iron rail: literacy. politics. culture.
girl gang productions

Current Info and Resources

August 9, 2005

Pride SJ

It's pride week here in Saint John. Check it out. Screening of Why Thee Wed? tonight on campus. Screenings of Trevor and It's in the Water on Aug. 11. And don't miss the parade at 1pm on Saturday, beginning at Queen's Square South.

July 16, 2005

Marx #1 with a bullet

BBC Radio 4 has conducted a Greatest Philosopher poll (pointed out by Allen Michie on C18-L), and the results are very encouraging. Well, depending on your perspective.

Rule Britannia.

July 7, 2005

Another reason to move to Scandinavia

Interesting post at WorldChanging about the sane and reasoned responses in Finland to that country's aging population.

June 29, 2005

Would have posted this yesterday

but I was busy pondering how what utter strangers may do would affect the sanctity of my marriage.

I expect a flurry of invites, people!

June 17, 2005

Two from the BBC

Katherine Frank alerts us to "a lively discussion programme on the Scriblerus Club with John Mullan and others" on BBC Radio 4, while Andrew Pink notes that on the Early Music Show on Radio 3, "Lucie Skeaping visits The George public house in Southwark to join a meeting of the Merrie Fellowes Catch Club. With the club's chairman, Patrick Johns, she traces its development" (available online until June 25).

(links from Frank and Pink on C18-L).

And good news from CBC radio.

Gawd I love public broadcasting! And on that front, horrifying news from south of the border.

June 12, 2005

From "taxi talk" to blogging

A CBC television documentary on political blogging in Iran, and among Iranian expats, just ended. The narrator asked, could this be the real revolution in Iran? but was quick to add that not much was expected to change in the coming election.

June 2, 2005

Contract Academic Staff conference

I have just spent the day at the CAUT conference Moving Forward: Achieving Equity for Contract Academic Staff with my colleague Lee. It was useful, and at times inspirational. In the next few days (?!) Lee and I will be posting about the sessions to our sadly underutilized AUNBT Status of Women Committee weblog.

And the Jinker Boy created quite a stir at the one workshop he attended. His interventions were perhaps lacking in political rigour, but he made up for it with his enthusiasm.

May 18, 2005

Support UWO's support of us

UWO has decided to award an honorary degree to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a gutsy decision and a long-overdue acknowledgement of his importance to the struggle for women's rights in Canada.

UWO President Paul Davenport has written:

Dr. Morgentaler is being honoured for his committed campaign in support of a Woman’s Right to Choose.

Dr. Morgentaler’s Honorary Degree involves deeply held beliefs and values for many in our community, on both sides of the issue.

If you are interesting in sending messages of support to counterbalance the various expressions of outrage that are circulating, go here. Here is the message that I sent:

I would like to congratulate the University of Western Ontario for its decision to honour Dr. Henry Morgentaler with an honorary degree in law, in recognition of the importance of his contribution to women's rights in Canada.

For ten years I worked with the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics; at one point I organized volunteers to escort patients past the protesters outside the Harbord St. Clinic. I knew Dr. Morgentaler during that time. He is a fine, brave man, who at great personal risk has fought for years for reproductive freedom for women.

UWO is to be commended for acknowledging Dr. Morgentaler. As an academic, I was delighted to learn that my colleagues at UWO have decided to award their highest honour in such a meaningful way.

Western News stories on the topic.

May 4, 2005

Across the finish line!

Just entered the final grades for my last course. Hasn't really sunk in yet. Huge load fallen etc. etc. Though I have a pile of other pressing things, all due yesterday. Still, hope to get back to my usual level of posting pronto. Just after I go and have a nice nap. Just for a little while.

Meanwhile, for your perusal: Idioms illustrated by fourth graders (via BoingBoing) and heroes of atheism mugs and tea-towels (via things magazine). Major sellers, it would seem.

And, Mark Woods reminds us that it is the thirty-fifth anniversary of Kent State.

April 25, 2005

Does writing change anything?

asks Salman Rushdie. The answer is yes:

When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced. We love relatively few books in our lives, and those books become parts of the way we see our lives; we read our lives through them, and their descriptions of the inner and outer worlds become mixed up with ours — they become ours.

[Last week we honored] the memory of Susan Sontag and Arthur Miller, great writers, intellectuals and truth-tellers. The old idea of the intellectual as the one who speaks truth to power is still an idea worth holding on to. Tyrants fear the truth of books because it's a truth that's in hock to nobody; it's a single artist's unfettered vision of the world. They fear it even more because it's incomplete, because the act of reading completes it, so that the book's truth is slightly different in each reader's different inner world, and these are the true revolutions of literature, these invisible, intimate communions of strangers, these tiny revolutions inside each reader's imagination; and the enemies of the imagination, politburos, ayatollahs, all the different goon squads of gods and power, want to shut these revolutions down, and can't. Not even the author of a book can know exactly what effect his book will have, but good books do have effects, and some of these effects are powerful, and all of them, thank goodness, are impossible to predict in advance.

Literature is a loose cannon. This is a very good thing.

(Link from Third Wave Agenda).

In his Herbert Read Memorial Lecture (Feb. 6, 1990), Rushdie said,

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way. The reason for ensuring that that privileged arena is preserved is not that writers want the absolute freedom to say and do whatever they please. It is that we, all of us, readers and writers and citizens and generals and goodmen, need that little, unimportant-looking room. We do not need to call it sacred, but we do need to remember that it is necessary.

Rushdie is one writer who reconciles the political v. aesthetic schism. Or, at least, he sketches out a common vocabulary for us to talk about it.

[cross-posted to The Valve].

April 18, 2005

LGF quiz

Late German Fascist? or Little Green Footballer? You be the judge. From General J.C. Christian via Echidne.

I scored 85%. Mainly by separating the quotes by levels of literacy. Piece of cake.

April 16, 2005

Andrea Dworkin remembered

Since my earlier roundup there have been a lot more posts about Dworkin and her legacy. Go to Rad Geek People's Daily for some marvellous posts, and a comprehensive list of links.

April 13, 2005

Andrea Dworkin, R.I.P.

Andrea Dworkin was part of the coming-of-age of many women of my generation. With her death, much else has also passed away.

Obituary in the NYTimes (registration required), The New York Sun, and a balanced retrospective with some good links in The Guardian.

Jenny Diski, "Oh, Andrea Dworkin: rev. of Misogyny: The Male Malady by David Gilmore, London Review of Books.

The Andrea Dworkin Website, including The Andrea Dworkin Lie Detector and links to Dworkin's writings.

Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon, "Press Release About Canada"

Wikipedia – first with the news (via Kameron Hurley). More on CultureCat, feministing.com, Pen-Elayne on the Web (and here).

Bloggers take note — Ampersand, blackfeminism.org, Echidne, feministe, Jessica, Christine (some good links), Pinko Feminist Hellcat (excellent links), XX (more good links) — even those with reservations. There are lots of others. She was important.

Some notable posts:

Rad Geek, Andrea Dworkin media blackout lifts, a little, More by and about Andrea Dworkin, May she be at peace: Andrea Dworkin, and Andrea Dworkin does not believe that all heterosexual sex is rape.
Susie Bright, Andrea Dworkin Has Died.
Cleis, In electric memory of Andrea Dworkin.
Flea, Andrea Dworkin, on the "I didn't always agree with her" syndrome.
my name is Andrea. it means manhood or courage at Nyarlathotep's Miscellany (via Echidne)

Some quotable quotes:

"[A] Leon Trotsky of the sex war," according to Punch¹

"Dworkin is one of the few remaining specimens of pure countercultural Romanticism: fierce, melodramatic and utterly convinced that all truth can be found in her own roiling, untempered emotions."²

"She was a warrior."³

"[I]t's tempting to say that if Andrea Dworkin didn't exist, we would have had to invent her.
Which, come to think about it, is exactly what we have done."⁴

E.: It is so hard to write you. Why am I doing it this way, not intending ever to send this letter, still with one eye to publication, a grand concept for a book in some sense, and still with one eye, that poets conscience, to a future which becomes increasingly impossible to imagine. It seems the only way I can bear the passion behind the language, the memory, the desire, the only way not to be burnt up by what I feel. You come over me in waves of memory, especially when I sleep, and I wake up in sweat and trembling, not knowing where I am, not remembering the years that separate us.⁵

¹ Adam Bernstein, Washington Post (Tues. April 12, 2005): B06.

² Laura Miller, Rev. of Heartbreak, The New York Times Book Review (2002).

³ Lisa Jardine on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

⁴ Louise Armstrong, "The Trouble with Andrea."

⁵ Andrea Dworkin, First Love: a chapter from an unpublished novel.

(Thanks to Murray Littlejohn for some of this material).

March 26, 2005

SF lists

Awhile ago I noted China Miéville's list of fifty sf novels for socialists. Since he doesn't "know any longer what socialism is," waggish recently posted a list of sf novels for liberals. Not to be outdone, the fellows at SFSignal posted a series of lists, among them "SF for Imperialists" and sf for people who "want Arthur to rule" (links from Matthew Cheney).

March 18, 2005

Sherrie Wolff,

a prominent Democrat from Colorado, has been on campus for the past two days. She gave a lively talk yesterday about women and development, and was on a panel today on women and democratization with our local MPP and outgoing leader of the provincial NDP, Elizabeth Weir. Elizabeth met Sherrie on a project they worked on together, in Cambodia. A group of us went out to dinner last night to D'Amico's, a local eatery. A stimulating evening.

These two events were the highlights of our International Women's Week celebrations. One final event on Monday: the students from my Writing by Women class are performing an early Suffrage play, a comedy called "How the Vote was Won." Very funny, and the students are great in it. We've staged it but we're only doing a read-through, not a full production. Less pressure, more fun.

March 15, 2005

How the Vote was Won

An early-twentieth-century suffragist comedy in one-act by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John.

Local readers: come to a read-through by the students of ENGL3622: Writing by Women II, on Monday March 21 at 2pm in the Whitebone Lounge at UNBSJ. All welcome; free admission.

Part of International Women's Week @ UNBSJ.

Download the poster (11"×8.5" PDF).

March 8, 2005

IWD 2005

From A History of International Women's Day in words and images by Joyce Stevens

Happy International Women's Day, sistern and brethren.

Local readers: don't forget International Women's Week @ UNBSJ.

Loads of vaggin' good links:

Sharon at the beautiful Watermark offers a comprehensive IWD link roundup.

Sharon across the pond has a series of wonderful links, historical and literary.

Natalie posts some links and ponders her blogroll.

feminist blogs, a collection of, well, feminist blogs, has many, many entries today.

The goddess calls on us to work towards making our towns nuclear non-proliferation zones.

Jessica at feministing sends greetings then offers two good reasons against post-feminism.

Tiffany at blackfeminism.org offers some links.

Gina at misbehaving has some global links.

Cleis provides some welcome context.

P.Z. Myers tells you what.

Kameron Hurley posts on Fat Actress and polyamory.

Trish Wilson, at XX, offers two thoughtful posts, one on abusive relationships and the other on so-called "Friendly Parent Provisions." And on her own site she posts on the rarity of women film directors.

Take the superhard IWD quiz (link from Rox Populi).

Flea asks, "what would your professional name be if you were a stripper?" Me? Fluffy Highway 53. Shake it.

And what am I doing to celebrate? I've been building up the appropriate section of my blogroll.

And then there is the classic "Thank a Feminist," turning up just everywhere:

If you're female and...

...you can vote, thank a feminist.
...you get paid as much as men doing the same job, thank a feminist.
...you went to college instead of being expected to quit after high school so your brothers could go because "You'll just get married anyway", thank a feminist.
...you can apply for any job, not just "women's work", thank a feminist.
...you can get or give birth control information without going to jail, thank a feminist.
...your doctor, lawyer, pastor judge or legislator is a woman, thank a feminist.
...you play an organized sport, thank a feminist.
...you can wear slacks without being excommunicated from your church or run out of town, thank a feminist.
...your boss isn't allowed to pressure you to sleep with him, thank a feminist.
...you get raped and the trial isn't about your hemline or your previous boyfriends, thank a feminist.
...you start a small business and can get a loan using only your name and credit history, thank a feminist.
...you are on trial and are allowed to testify in your own defense, thank a feminist.
...you have the right to your own salary even if you are married or have a male relative, thank a feminist.
...you get custody of your children following divorce or separation, thank a feminist.
...you get a voice in the raising and care of your children instead of them being completely controlled by the husband/father, thank a feminist.
...your husband beats you and it is illegal and the police stop him instead of lecturing you on better wifely behavior, thank a feminist.
...you are granted a degree after attending college instead of a certificate of completion, thank a feminist.
...you can breastfeed your baby discreetly in a public place and not be arrested, thank a feminist.
...you marry and your civil human rights do not disappear into your husband's rights, thank a feminist.
...you have the right to refuse sex with a diseased husband [or just "husband"], thank a feminist.
...you have the right to keep your medical records confidential from the men in your family, thank a feminist.
...you have the right to read the books you want, thank a feminist.
...you can testify in court about crimes or wrongs your husband has committed, thank a feminist.
...you can choose to be a mother or not a mother in you own time not at the dictates of a husband or rapist, thank a feminist.
...you can look forward to a lifespan of 80 years instead of dying in your 20s from unlimited childbirth, thank a feminist.
...you can see yourself as a full, adult human being instead of a minor who needs to be controlled by a man, thank a feminist.
— Author unknown

Thank you.

February 15, 2005

IWD2005

Spent much of the day working on a page listing the events we are planning to celebrate International Women's Day this year. Since March 8 falls on our winter break, our campus will celebrate the following week. In fact, we're taking the whole week. Anyone reading this who wants to plan an event or otherwise get involved, please let me know.

February 3, 2005

Bombing for Choice

Just came across this, via feministe, and have added it to the sidebar:

Anti-abortion ideologues beware: I'm promoting objective, factual information on:

• Roe v. Wade
• abortion

You can too. Join me in Bombing for Choice.

I know some have questioned the efficacy of googlebombing, but if nothing else, it starts discussion.

January 31, 2005

It's the most wonderful time

of the year.

Well, not really. But I'm short on time and material.

Here is My Creepy Valentine and Chocolate Voodoo Doll (via Fishbucket).

Apropos of the card, above, my women's writing class is planning a performance of Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John's How the Vote Was Won: A Play in One Act, a very funny piece suitable for a group (Literature of the Women's Suffrage Campaign in England). I will post more. Or not.

January 20, 2005

I love this guy.

I do. He's the thinking woman's Sean Connery.

SF

Farah Mendlesohn is doing a survey for a book on children and science fiction. She blogs at The Inter-Galactic Playground.

Benjamin Rosenbaum has released his amazing story, "Start the Clock," under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license. What a fascinating idea (via BoingBoing). I hope he, or someone, traces any offshoots.

"I'll be a postfeminist in a postpatriarchy, or, Can We Really Imagine Life after Feminism?" by Lisa Yaszek. Part of this essay discusses sf as it relates to "postfeminism":

[F]for feminist authors, SF’s insistence on historical mutability and utopian possibility provides an ideal narrative vehicle through which to posit and explore the always necessary and political question, “what comes after patriarchy?”

(link from Mark Woods).

StarTrek R.I.P.? Not in our hearts (link from The Website at the End of the Universe).

January 13, 2005

It's a baby if she says it is

Lauren at feministe posts a slew of links under the title "Thursday Feminist Reading Material." Was particularly moved by Ayelet Waldman's post about her own second-trimester abortion and the necessity of developing more nuance in pro-choice rhetoric. It ends, "Listen to the pregnant woman. Value her. She values the life growing inside her. Listen to the pregnant woman, and you cannot help but defend her right to abortion." I spent a decade as an activist in the pro-choice movement and have never wavered, but having fertility problems and then finally a healthy pregnancy of my own certainly broadened, and deepened, my beliefs. Though I suppose all those years doing posters, media bites and op-eds has paid off because I still seem to have managed to come up with a slogan. Not a very wise slogan, perhaps ...

January 11, 2005

Unwanted children

Most are probably aware of the ill-considered bill which, had it become law, would have required women to report stillbirths and presumably miscarriages to local authorities within twelve hours. Most are probably also aware that "after a firestorm of controversy spread across the World Wide Web over the weekend," John Cosgrove, the proposer of the bill, has withdrawn it.

Posting has been fast and furious: Democracy for Virginia has a series of comprehensive posts. See also

Pharyngula: "Virginia is for hateful loons"
iBeth: "Safe Havens": Terrible Idea
The Well-Timed Period: "Del. Cosgrove: Don't Relax Just Yet"
Bitch Ph.D (and here)
apostropher: "All your baby are belong to us."
Rosemary Hurford is spitting mad.
getupgrrl's vagina is angry. And how.
Dr. B: Pardon My French.... and The Power of the Blogosphere.
A rant from Echidne.
(Not) Mousewords: "First these women blog, and next thing you know, they'll be letting them vote."

Our sisters to the South just dodged a bullet. But while they are jubilant, I don't suppose anyone is forgetting that that particular gun is still cocked and loaded.

Oops, a double entendre. But I don't feel in the least amused, writing this.

Sharon has an excellent post, outlining the history of legislation against infanticide in England (she also links to two excellent bibliographies, btw).

This whole story — apart from the apparent power of blogging — is disheartening. My dissertation was about infanticide in Britain in the 18th- and 19th centuries, so I am familiar with the history Sharon outlines. And with the hysteria over the visions of "dead babies on rubbish heaps" that gripped England in the Victorian era. And the ludicrous, punitive, and ignorant responses of the authorities.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

December 14, 2004

1984

Maud blogs about the new McCarthy era south of the border. The thin edge of the wedge; no doubt the current administration would be most comfortable with all books being banned. Well, all but one. And not the King James version, either.

December 6, 2004

Day of Remembrance

Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, the day on which we remember the victims of the Montreal Massacre at l'Ecole Polytechnique on December 6, 1989 and all the other victims of violence against women, and reaffirm our committment to fight against the systemic violence against the most vulnerable in our society, and globally.

And local readers: don't forget the meeting later today, in the Faculty/Staff Lounge at UNBSJ, to discuss IWD 2005.

New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women Events Calendar.

December 2, 2004

Round up

Ten worst Xmas stories ever, from John Scalzi (from Crooked Timber). These are brilliant: Chomsky deconstructs Christmas; Dorothy Parker drunkenly imperils Santa's chastity; Orson Welles practices for The War of the Worlds; Ayn Rand, via an elf, convinces Santa to go on strike; Captain Kirk comforts a lonely Mrs. Claus; the Village People sing "Oh come all ye faithful", and more!

Thailand to bomb southern provinces with origami peace cranes (via Boing Boing).

Michael Allen evaluates the recent stories that Irish Murdoch's Alzheimer's was evident in her writing long before her diagnosis, and speculates on how one's writing might evolve over the course of a long career.

Sharon Claire points to the Britain in Print project.

wood s lot wishes Jonathan Swift a happy birthday.

The other Miriam deplores bad adaptations of The Christmas Carol and points towards a misguided/satirical/drug-induced (?) plan to make a movie about the Marquis de Sade reincarnated as a California teen. Dude, where's my clit ring?

She also links to a good article on altered books.

Plep points toward illegal art and Giant Burning Man Panoramas.

Mirabilis tells of a "new cross-platform email program from Mozilla called Thunderbird, reminds us of Viviana, the patron saint of hangovers in good time for the holidays, and alerts us to the problem of the illegal immigration of American liberals:

In the days since the election, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border.  Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers. "If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age," an official said.

Life in the Present points towards "100 jokes". Henny Youngman, Roddy Dangerfield. Actually .. don't even go.

Update (3/12/04): Attribution for a link corrected. Sorry, Claire! So many of you U.K. historians, some with multiple sites; I get confused!

December 1, 2004

Counting the hours

One ... more ... class.

Had our last prose narrative meeting this past Monday. A small, but very good group. We had discussions, rather than classes, and that was a pleasure.

Gender Studies finished today. Much larger, but also a good group. Quite a few of them clearly engaged with the course, and with each other, and I was glad to be able to offer them something to move on to (we are organizing for International Women's Day, starting next week;¹ there may be some action on campus climate issues as a result of recent — and some not-so-recent —anti-transgender harassment).

The intro. class will continue next term.

Marking-marking-marking for the next who-can-tell-how-long, but it all has to be tied-up before Dec. 14th when we leave for NYC for ten days or so.

¹ Mon. Dec. 6 at 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff lounge, if anyone is interested.

November 28, 2004

Tell it, Sister!

Sharon asks, "Is a working father good for the child?"

Pericat demonstrates le plus ce change....

November 27, 2004

Well I'm back

An interesting evening: a reading and the ballet. I generally have to work hard to convince myself to go out again once I am home, and after a long week it was difficult to go back into the cold and leave a warm house, a pre-schooler getting ready for his bath, and a soft bed. But I did, and am glad.

Beth Powning reads well. I haven't read The Hatbox Letters but from the two excerpts I heard, it is, at least in part, an intensely nuanced exploration of loss and loneliness. In other words, although I recognize the artistry, I doubt I will read it any time soon.

There is an interesting congruence between Powning's novel —

When Kate Harding, recently widowed, receives nine antique hatboxes — family letters, diaries, and memorabilia — from Hartford, Connecticut, she finds herself drawn back to the childhood summers she spent in Shepton, her grandparents’ Connecticut house.

and the ballet, Les Portes Tournantes, in which there are also documents from the past in the form of "a mysterious black book."

It appears that this evening was my time for dabbling: first a reading from a book I likely won't read, and then the first ballet I've seen in well over a decade. The first Act failed to draw me in, though the second did, despite my reservations about the narrative as some sort of wish-fulfilment story for children of divorced parents, and my discomfort with the theme of two mothers who leave their children. Boy children. (Wonder what my little sprout is doing? Is he upset that I went out? Why am I here watching a narrative about abandonment since to do so required me to temporarily abandon my son? And of course, when I got home I found that he had had a fine evening with his father, played for ages, and went easily to sleep. So.)

One thing I found interesting about the performance was the consistent focus on other forms of artistic production: one character is a painter, and paintings are a significant part of the set. Another is a musician; a "string quartet" dances their performance with their instruments. The artist's mother, danced by the magnificent Evelina Sushko, was a pianist who accompanied silent films in Cambellton, N.B. Textual documents — the mother's unmailed letters — are central. And of course the ballet itself is based upon Jacques Savoie's 1985 novel.

But much of this is still dabbling. The fact of the matter is that I could not bring myself to care very much for any of these characters, Powning's or the dancers' (with the exception of Sushko's solo in which she gives up her infant son. Yeah, there's a theme here). I was irritated with Powning's widowed Kate; she seemed so solipsistic, so bogged down — or even luxuriating in — in the minutia of her existence. (Big caveat: yes I know I only heard two small sections.) Jaded? Cold? Tired? Insensitive? Overwhelmed? In denial??? You be the judge.

Turned on the ignition in the car afterward and was blasted with some screaming metal on the campus radio, flipped to the "Golden Oldies" station but it was even more maudlin than usual, so settled on the CBC. And caught the tail end of the last in this year's Massey Lecture series, A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright:

Each time history repeats itself, so it's said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water — the very elements of life.

The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: where will this growth lead? can it be consolidated or sustained? and what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future?

In A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we recognize the experiment's inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome.

Finally, some perspective. There will be no readings, no ballet, after the apocalypse. But on the plus side: no critics, either.

Globe and Mail review of the ballet.
Part one of the Massey Lectures is available on audio.
A Short History of Progress available from Anansi Press.
Interview with Ronald Wright. And another.
Wright's novels, A Scientific Romance and Henderson's Spear.
Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme: The Maya's ruined temples reveal a frightening message for us all, says archaeologist Ronald Wright (originally published in the Globe & Mail 08/05/2000).

November 24, 2004

Just say no to consumerism

Nov. 26 is Buy Nothing Day. And if that gets you motivated, you could go on to join the Christmas Resistance Movement (both from wood s lot). As for me, I will try to remember to pack a lunch Friday.

November 23, 2004

WWFD?

"What would Freya do?" is my new blog motto.

What is she on about? you ask. Go here.

November 16, 2004

Alix Olsen

Folk poet and so much more.

Visit her site.

Critics write: "Slam superstar Alix Olsen gives voice to the voiceless," and "She will make you laugh your head off and then cry your eyes out in the space of five minutes."

November 22, 2004
Ganong Hall Lecture Theatre, UNBSJ
Doors open 4:45pm
Show 5pm
Free Admission

Presented by the Faculty of Arts, the Gender Studies Programme, and the Women's Resource Centre

Update (19/11/04): Alix Olsen's Canadian dates have been cancelled; no word yet on rebooking. Too bad; it looked to be a good show.

November 11, 2004

Lest we forget

Thoughtful post and comments at Crooked Timber.

Michelle puts it in perspective, and offers a link to vintage postcards at First World War.com.

Had a discussion yesterday with a colleague who does not ever wear a poppy because he is a pacifist. I, too, would describe myself as a pacifist, and I used to wear a peace symbol on and around Nov. 11 when I lived in Toronto, a peace symbol which I seem to have mislaid now that I live in New Brunswick. Where, for the first time in my life, I have bought poppies from the various old codgers or pimply cadets who sell them. It's almost a different country here. I was puttering around the house today, trying to burn my lines into my memory (which is another story. Amazing what it does to one's sense of well-being when one's mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's) when I heard bagpipes playing nearby. Now I don't live near the centre of town, I live in what are called the suburbs here (though in southern Ontario this type of neighbourhood would be regarded as being in the country). Someone practising for something or other, yeah, but it seemed a symbol of the ubiquity of a certain shade of historical sensibility in this province.

My father was born in 1915. He remembers the Zeppelins over London. His uncles fought in the trenches, wearing goddamned kilts that froze out in front of them horizontally when they sat down for too long. Which I suppose would have answered the age-old question, if anyone had cared. The "Ladies from Hell." Or in hell. Lots of family stories about one uncle who had a plate in his head, another whose lungs were destroyed by gas, and a third who was never the same after the war: he flew into rages.

My father was the same age as my son is now when the war ended. He will turn ninety next March. Perhaps it is knowing that WWI is at the far edge of living memory, that it is soon to join the Boer War on the flat pages of history books, that has prompted me to drop a loonie into the tray and pick up a poppy.

A poppy which I promptly lose. Those straight pins never keep them attached for very long.

One of the two characters in "Mortal Remains," one of the three plays we are doing, is a veteran of WWII. My character's late husband was also a veteran. The play was written two decades or so ago. Those characters could not be written now; the play has become a period piece in a very short time. It feels important to do it now, while it still makes some kind of sense.

If I could only remember my lines.

November 6, 2004

And here's a parting shot

from Giornale Nuovo which brings to mind the U.S. election. And not just because most everything brings to mind the U.S. election these past couple of days (I worked it into a lecture on Pilgrim's Progress yesterday. Which I suppose is not really that much of a stretch).

November 5, 2004

Maud knows what to do

Here is some good advice. Though the truth, even when available, can so easily be ignored. But if there are enough voices ...

November 4, 2004

Cue Hendrix guitar solo

This makes me feel a little better (certainly better than this or this or this):

Click for larger image.

(From Jeff Culver via Boing Boing).

November 3, 2004

Message to fellow Canadians

Ho ho, my frostbitten compatriots, our plans for world domination continue apace. But someone squealed. She will have to shovel the driveway.

Then, there is this. I did my bit years ago. The rest of you: act now! Thanks, Chuck.

And the world

is even less safe this morning than it was before.

November 2, 2004

Here's crossing our fingers

for all our American friends. And for the rest of us, too.

October 22, 2004

Phyllis Chesler has lost her mind

Just heard Chesler being interviewed on the CBC this morning, and she said that she was voting for Bush (whom she described as an "alpha male," appealing in times of trouble), largely because of concerns about terrorism and the Middle East.

And I just had my innocent Gender Studies students read an article of hers in their anthology. On reproductive rights, luckily, on which she still has a clue.

How could someone who says she has never voted Republican in her life choose this election to do so?

July 31, 2004

Parodies

A few days ago The Little Professor posted a link to the fifth annual Faux Faulkner and Imitation Hemingway Contests contest. I particularly like the Faulkner-writes-Piglet entry:

“Yes,” Piglet said, “Yes.” And will be: more tracks and even more after them, unhurried and without increment, save the increment of there always being two more: following, leading, a doomed and final charge of Hefalumps, moving through land that was always theirs and beyond which they will, can know nothing: “I’m getting very hungry,” said Pooh.

And Tom Runnacles at Crooked Timber notes that the UK government treats its citizens like bears of little brain.

June 29, 2004

Could've been worse.

A lot worse.

The election results are almost in and the winner is: the devil that we know.

Lots of Canadian bloggers have commented, some extensively, some making thoughtful comparisons with their home countries.

Prize for most suggestive post: Mark Woods' series of links about Carl Rakosi, beginning with this excerpt from "The Citizen" (1996):

And everywhere
the same old working man,
his nose to the grindstone,
expecting nothing,
not knowing where to turn.
Like Prometheus, the citizen,
who rages, “God
damn this debasement!
Must we become cynics?”

Oh, citizen!

June 28, 2004

To my compatriots:

[Unless you plan to vote Reform Alliance "Conservative." In which case — hey, look over there!]

June 21, 2004

Which twin has the Toni?

Well if this isn't enough to make one believe in phrenology, I don't know what is...

Choosing a novel

for my upcoming introduction to gender studies course.¹ I had thought of Morrison's Beloved, of course, but it's been done to death and I wanted to do something Canadian. I want something accessible, that treats gender and race issues, by a contemporary author. One of my colleagues recommended I look at

Anita Rau Badami's The Hero's Walk and Tamarind Mem,
Shani Mootoo's Cereus Blooms at Night, and
Bharati Mukherjee's Desirable Daughters.

I think that I will go with Tamarind Mem. The Hero's Walk is set entirely in India, and I wanted to be able to talk about cross-cultural experience. Desirable Daughters fits the bill and I look forward to reading it myself, but I think it might not be entirely accessible to a lower level class of non-English majors, and Cereus Blooms at Night is wrenching, even just skimming through (it is for that reason that I thought of, and discarded, Ann Marie MacDonald's Fall On Your Knees: it is simply too daunting to think of reading it again, even though I know students love it.) But there is still time to drive the staff at the bookstore crazy by changing my order, so if anyone has any other suggestions, please don't hesitate to send them on.

¹ Issues of Gender (ed. Ellen G. Friedman and Jennifer D. Marshall) is the main course text.

June 15, 2004

Various follow-ups

More LotR pastiches. Some of these are really clever. At Making Light.

Women voting: from a UK perspective. Check out the suffrage board game! (via misbehaving).

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step: blogging Ulysses (via Edward Champion). This guy is gonna get sued.

On comics: two posts from Edward Champion: Comics as Literature — Some Starting Points and Someone Cuts Through the Swath. Next, manga is encroaching on US bestseller lists. And, Weirdwriter thinks much the same as I do about comics, but argues the point better. Finally, talk about Art! Isadora Duncan, eat your heart out.

June 14, 2004

I wear lipstick and I vote

One of my commentors pointed towards Women's Equality is a Must, a site put together by a coalition of Canadian women's groups to promote participation in the upcoming election.

Addendum (4:56pm): This from the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women (NB Women's News 14/6/04):

ELECTION UPDATE
How many New Brunswick women are running in the upcoming federal election? Eight, out of 40 candidates (20%): 1 Conservative, 1 Liberal, 2 NDP and 4 Green.

How many female candidates overall nationally? 303 of 1,307 or 23% of candidates. (1993: 23%; 1997: 24%; 2000, 19%).
NDP 31%
Liberal 25%
Bloc Québécois 24%
Green Party 23%
Conservative 11% (source)

How do the parties' policy platforms compare on women's issues? See comparison of 3 major parties' platforms, by Michelle Smith.

One-stop site on the June 28 election and women's concerns

View Still in Shock, a document modeled after the much-acclaimed Shocking Pink Paper, published in 1988 and 1993 by the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (abolished in 1995).

Expecting a visit from an election candidate? Print a list of questions to ask. Ex.: What will your party do to extend Canada's human rights legislation so that the fundamental human rights of Aboriginal women living on reserve are protected? Will your party support a publicly funded, universal, high quality, inclusive, not-for-profit child care system? Will you and your party support the introduction of some proportional representation into Canada's electoral system?

June 7, 2004

Reagan reconsidered

More links (now this is more like it):

Joseph Duemer on Reagan's Legacy.
Juan Cole on Reagan's Passing (via Sharp Sand).
Charlie writes about how Reagan almost killed him.
John Quiggin on Risk and Reagan
Echidne culls some good quotes from The Guardian.
Michael Bérubé on A wingnut credo.
"Ronald Reagan — The Bonzo Years" (via Shatnerian).
Mark Sarvas offers a Reagan Corrective and links to Steve over at Splinters.

And award for best title of a post goes to the Rake for "Ronald Reagan is dead and I don't feel so well myself."

Update (8/7/04): And,
George makes a good point, and Edward Champion avoids the whole topic.

(10/6/04): And from Respectful of Otters.

June 6, 2004

Ronald Reagan, 1911—2004

"Reagan's Liberal Legacy" by Joshua Green (Washington Monthly) (from Alas, a Blog).
"Ronald Reagan 1911-2004" by Steve Gilliard (from Alas, a Blog and Lying Media Bastards).
"Detractors of CBS' The Reagans Rewrite, Distort AIDS History" (via bentkid).

May 28, 2004

Must ... control ... fist ... of death!

I just had to delete thirty comments all from some porn site promoting more varieties of rape than I would have thought possible. And, I'm very bitter for having now been made to think about them. So, here are some light-hearted links. Go on, chuckle!

Finally — American politics explained.

The 100 Worst Porn Movie Titles (from the Rake, living up to his name). I'm trying to decide between May the Foreskin Be With You, Ass-Hole O Mio, and Yank My Doodle, It's A Dandy. Okay, you may not want to visit this page. But at least there's nothing about rape there.

Gawker says that Soul Plane is "the Citizen Kane of blacksploitation airline industry films." Shatnerian says that this is "The Movie Blurb of the Day. I say, they are both right.

Stephany Aulenback's Beckett for Babies project continues apace. I regret not having sent in a photo of the Jinker Boy, but he is just so purposeful.

Check out The Blog of Death, a blog of obituaries (link from Portage). Okay, that one's not funny. But now I feel better.

Thanks for being there.

May 26, 2004

Some links

Feministing has a post about Cindy Sherman, Photographer extraordinaire, and links to some other feminist artists (Yay Guerrilla Girls!).

The Ex-Classics Web Site takes on the needful task of reproducing texts formerly influential, now out of print, such as the Newgate Calendar with its tales of crime and depravity.

Million Book Project (via Maud).

Two very funny links from Boing Boing: Donald and Mickey insinuated into various canonical works of art, and famous nudes with clothing on.

This is doing the rounds. Reminds me of those little videos of Dave Pogue on the Macworld CDs. Do those guys go to some speech school somewhere?

Common Errors in English and How to Recognize Plagiarism (both via Palimpsest).

The Power of Woe, The Power of Life. Images of women in prints from the Renaissance to the present (from Plep).

Amnesty International’s annual report for 2004 now out (via Crooked Timber):

Around the world, more than a billion people's lives were ruined by extreme poverty and social injustice while governments continued to spend freely on arms.

May 18, 2004

The snack that smiles back, and other book news

Three posts on politics and literature at The Reading Experience.

Collecting bizarre books (via Mirabilis).

From Giornale Nuovo: a suit of books (playing cards with images of books rather than hearts or spades) by Jost Amma, published in 1588.

Pepperidge Farm is suing St. Martin's over the cover of Tom Perrotta's new novel, Little Children, which features two goldfish crackers (The Literary Salon).

The Little Prince tattoo (from Maud).

Nobel prize laureate Wole Soyinka tear-gassed and arrested (via Bookslut and The Literary Salon).

May 16, 2004

Well worth a look

At wood s lot: Adrian Rich, the People's Park, Brian Eno, Aleister Crowley, and lots of politics.

May 12, 2004

Googlebomb update

Alex Halavais points out that the recent googlebombing of the word "jew" was only successful in the short term, questions the efficacy of the whole strategy, and links to yesterday's Wired article. Google's arguments seem solid, but as Wired notes, it is interesting that no other search engines turn up the white supremicist site. Couple this with Google's anti-porn option, and where is the free speech argument?

May 9, 2004

"Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage"

Ampersand posts about the radical roots of Mothers' Day.

Addendum (1:45am): Two posts at Blog Sisters about Mothers' Day: its origins, and its significance this year because of the war.

April 26, 2004

Some links

Poetry in your pocket (via Culture Cat).

Tracking kids with Lego writstbands (via slashdot).

Zombies are the new Republicans (via the chutry experiment).

A woman who says her iPod is better than her boyfriend (via Cult of Mac).

Screensaver mimics airplane window (via Cult of Mac).

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: a punctuation game (via forty.something. And no, you may not know my score.)

La Gringa asks, "What would Joan Jett do?" (W.W.J.J.D.?)

Marching for women's lives

Go to ms. musings for a series of exhilarating, exuberant, posts on the march yesterday.

Addendum (4:27): More on the march, from feministing.

Update (9:57): Edward Champion is underwhelmed by the coverage in both the media and the blogosphere. (Hey, I blogged it! What am I, chopped liver?)

(11:04): And feministe has lots of thoughtful material.

(27/4/04): And Geekery Today.

Democracy in action

The Green Party of Canada has a wiki. How cool is that? Via Boing Boing.

April 25, 2004

Politics and art and sf

Against his better judgement, Kip Manley weighs in on the politics and art debate with a post subtitled "Why I Don't Trust Aesthetes." He includes a link to a horrifying story about an interview Donna Minkowitz did with Orson Scott Card, and makes some excellent points about choosing whether or not to read sf, specifically, on political grounds:

... science fiction is largely a fiction of setting: the bulk of the iceberg that’s unseen, underwater, is the act of world-building, and in that act, politics is paramount. (One is building a polis, after all.) (Oh, hey, look! World-building again!) —Therefore, it’s all-too-appropriate to keep in mind an author’s politics when considering their science fiction: an author who, say, considers homosexuality to be an aberration, is un- (or perhaps less) likely to build a world that would appeal to a reader who does not. There’s an assumption clash: one of his fundamental, foundational bedrocks is abhorrent to me, and vice-versa.

... I’ll allow as how there’s frequently large gaps in the jerry-rigged polis left as exercises for the reader: one can hardly describe every kitchen sink, after all; one must make assumptions, and count on the reader doing likewise (which among other reasons is why fan fiction [and slash fiction] is so popular in science fiction). But that’s precisely why when those assumptions suddenly clash, it’s unsettling, even violently dissonant ...

(And he goes on to quote one of my favourite writers. Read the whole post.)

Of course some sf writers reproduce the here and now in the if and when, while some mainstream writers create a strange new world in the suburbs. But Kip is correct; the particular characteristics of sf add a twist to the whole question. If I list the writers whose heads I don't mind living in for extended periods, they are often fellow travellers of one stripe or another, because in sf they are the ones asking some of the "what ifs?" that I interest me as well, even if, as is often the case, I didn't realize it before picking up the book.

Let's go back to Matthew Cheney's post of ten days ago, in which he argues not only that there are aspects of sf which make the politics of the author particularly significant, but that sf, broadly defined, is the main locus of political imaginings in literature:

It seems to me that books such as The Grapes of Wrath are anomalies in the history of fiction, and that the majority of political art — political art that lasts more than a few weeks, that is — has utilized imagination and fantasy to explore truths which lie beneath the surface of the morning paper's headlines.

Which opens the door to a discussion of definition of the genre. Another discussion; not this one.

April 22, 2004

Stand up for Women's Lives

The March for Women's Lives! will take place in just a few days, on April 25, 2004.

Several posts about abortion in the last little while: see particularly Lauren's searching entry at feministe and ampersand at Alas, a Blog, here and here.

Addendum (23/4/04): (And George's post, here.)

April 19, 2004

Politics and art II

The conversation about politics and art continues apace. If you haven't read it, check out my previous entry and follow the links. Dan Green and Edward Champion have each posted thoughtful explorations of what it means to be an aesthete, in part in answer to my rather offhand characterization in the earlier post (think Oscar Wilde with the green carnation here). I could have been clearer: I was referring to the ultimate position on some sort of continuum rather than to individuals who consider aesthetic values paramount in all the nuanced ways in which it is possible to do so. But then I suppose I should have said that.

In a comment to the earlier post Edward Champion suggested that we are manoeuvring around a semantic difference, and I am increasingly convinced that this is, in part, true. We are all referring to "politics" at cross-purposes. I do in fact mean "by saying everyone is 'political' we mean everyone has his/her interests," as Dan Green puts it. He also writes, "If we are all 'political creatures who exist in the world,' are we not also 'sociological creatures,' 'historical creatures,' 'cultural creatures,' 'economic creatures'? Such abstractions are so cosmically extended as to be meaningless." To my mind the term "political" includes all these other ideas, but even so I don't feel that the term is meaningless. I suppose what I am really saying is that I am a materialist. That is how I look at things, at everything. That does not mean that I don't appreciate aesthetic values; it just means that I don't think they were inspired by the muses ("muses" meaning, something outside of history). This doesn't mean that I "prefer" politics over art; it means that I understand art — individual instances of it, our appreciation (or not) of those instances, as well as "art" as a concept or concepts — as arising from material conditions.

I am sympathetic to the irritation of people on the aesthetic side of this debate — if we should even put it that divisive way — when they feel that they are being patronized by the claims of the politicos that they are simply ignorant of the politics that are so manifestly there for anyone with eyes to see; sympathetic, because I myself am irritated by what seem to me to be parallel claims that my perspective is impoverished, that I am blinded by my agenda into merely exploiting artistic products for didactic purposes, that I can't even enjoy the beauty of a sunset without thinking of the pollution that is contributing to the display and cursing the multinationals that are destroying our grandchildren's birthright.

Not sure how to wind this up; clearly this is an old debate, but it rarely fails to draw us in. And as my mother used to say, usually in an (unsuccessful) attempt to end a conversation that was getting too fractious, "Well wouldn't life be boring if we all agreed?" Yes, especially as the quality of the disagreement has been particularly fine, of late.

Update (21/4/04): The discussion continues to be lively over at The Reading Experience.

Reversing vandalism

For a year, an unknown person mutilated copies of books on GLBTQ topics¹ in the San Francisco Public Library and left them with little typewritten advertisements for a Bible radio station inside. He was finally caught, but what to do with the books? Click here to see "Reversing Vandalism," an amazing collection by various artists, professional and amateur, made from the damaged books.

From Maud, via Bookninja.

"For Duf" by Dacey Hunter, courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library.
[The glass highlights the words, "What were you afraid we would learn?"]

¹ Okay, I'm being snotty, quoting this. So be it: "Though the vandal had clearly relied on the library catalog to seek out books on gay issues, he evidently did not understand the search results: Among the books destroyed were works by author Gay Talese and those concerning the Enola Gay, the famous World War II warplane..."

April 17, 2004

Academic freedom

From Ampersand at Alas, a Blog:

Odds are you haven't heard of Title VI of the International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003 - but if it passes the [U.S.] Senate, it'll be an enormous loss for academic freedom and free speech.

It already passed the House last fall (it's bill number is H.R. 3077), and is expected to come up in the Senate soon. If it becomes law, what Title VI will do is creat an "International Higher Education Board," which will review International Studies programs at universities and reccomend to the Secretary of Education and Congress which programs should continue getting grants.

Read more.

April 16, 2004

Politics and art

The discussion is spreading. Maud Newton writes, very reasonably,

I wouldn't necessarily avoid a writer's work based on his or her politics — and I wouldn't "boycott" a book or call for anyone else to do so because an author's beliefs are offensive to me personally. But absent some independent reason for believing that the book would resonate for me, I might be less likely to pick it up.¹

The comments section of my own original post has also become quite interesting.

Edward Champion agrees with Jessa Crispin that art and politics are separate. Kitabkhana is in accord; he writes that authors are not their books. Champion writes that when he tried to think of "great art" that is political,

The only immediate examples that came to my head were Elizabeth Gaskell, Arthur Miller, and Margaret Atwood. But even in these offerings, the politics is relatively subdued, more subject to a reader's individual impressions. It's a far more subtle thing for Atwood to point out the politics of gender in Cat's Eye by showing us how girls are reluctant to touch bugs in a university building, implying that 1940s society carried an unspoken stigma that an entomologist's line was verboeten to women.

Whoever said that politics could not be subtle? I think there is a straw man being set up here: when people hear the words "politics" and "art" together they think of the most heavy handed examples — Soviet "socialist realism" perhaps. I think that Mark Sarvas falls into the same trap in his thoughtful post.

I agree with Matthew Cheney here: all writing — all human endeavour — is political in one way or another. It could not be anything but, as we are all political creatures who exist in the world. The absolute disdain for politics of the aesthete is in itself a political choice. Of course, to a large extent when we are talking about artistic products, given our culture's continuing Romantic hangover, the inherent politics are not always overt or even conscious. But that does not mean that they are not there.

Rasputin at Sloganeering raises the economic question: every dollar you spend on a book in one of Card's endless series is a dollar that he in turn could be funnelling to political groups with whom you may violently disagree: " if you're a particularly sensitive sort, you can almost feel your money going Alliance for Marriage as soon as it leaves your hand." (Which doesn't preclude going the second-hand route, for the conscientious-but-curious.)

I want to be clear that I am not advocating boycotting Orson Scott Card — fat chance — or suggesting that I only read writers who share my particular brand of politics; as I commented about my earlier post, I would have precious little to read if that were the case. What I am saying is that I need reasons to read something, and if there is nothing on the plus side to weigh against a known negative, then I am unlikely to crack the cover. As I also commented earlier, life's too short. I used to finish any book I began, out of some sort of misplaced pride or sense of duty. No longer. And I'll never get all those hours back, either.

But at least I'm not a fantasy reader.

¹ Matthew Cheney responds to Maud's admission in the same post that she doesn't read much sf with a wonderful list of suggestions.

Correction (11:28pm): s1ngularity.net link currently not working; go to the main page and scroll down to April 14/04.

Update (17/4/04): Jessa Crispin has two more links on Card.

April 13, 2004

Off my list

Well now I don't have to feel guilty for never reading Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card authors homophobic diatribe between novels. Via Alas, a Blog.

Update (15/4/04): Bookslut gets misty-eyed about Orson Scott Card. She writes, "His politics and his books are separate." I don't see how they could be, and in the one book of his I have read, they weren't (see comments). But I love Bookslut and will certainly not stop reading her, despite a slight lack of rigour in this single instance.

More Googlebombing

Why type Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew?

Addendum (12:22am): Times of India article about why Google won't pull the offensive listing.

Update (14/4/04): Just typed in "Jew" in Amazon.com's new search engine, A9.com, and the notorious site is nowhere to be seen.

April 8, 2004

Steve Jobs: "Who writes software in French!?"

Plep links to "Resisting Cyber-English" by Joe Lockard (Bad Subjects 24 [Feb. 1996]), an article that is no doubt even more pertinent eight years on. Lockard concludes,

...the overwhelming predominance of cyber-english establishes, through language/class, a monologic and declamatory relationship with the other-than-anglophone world rather than a dialogic and supple relationship. Maintenance of online language/class structures recapitulates offline English-only monologism, which has encountered historic resistance. For those seeking alterity, the character of trans-language software has been configured by marketability rather than communicative needs. Grassroots non-anglophone cyber-access and empowerment hover temptingly at the horizon, but remain vastly distant.

He does offer a sliver of hope, however, in the final paragraph:

In practical terms, English rejectionism in cyberspace without any acceptable substitute is a self-defeating exercise in purposeless autonomy. That leaves anglophones pursuing Gramscian 'badness' in the paradoxical binds of a double consciousness, an awareness of the repressive effects of cyber-english even as we benefit from its use. Double consciousness, fortunately, is a very productive site of practice.

April 5, 2004

Googlebomb against fascism

This in from Crooked Timber: apparently the first site that comes up when one does a Google search for "Jew" is an anti-semitic hate site. Help correct this by including the word Jew on your blog or website, linked to the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew.

Addendum (2:48): Liz at mamamusings suggests links to "Who is a Jew" in addition to/instead of the Wikipedia link.

March 25, 2004

Noam Chomsky has started a blog

here.

Link from Crooked Timber.

March 11, 2004

Whew! This could never happen here

Birmingham University has become embroiled in a controversy because of plans to ban personal websites on university servers. Story from Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber.

Borders

From wood s lot: some very funny bumper stickers. My favs:

Bush in '04: A Thousand Pints of Lite

Bush/Cheney '04: Because FREEDOM can't suppress itself

Bush/Cheney '04: Don't switch horsemen mid-apocalypse

Bush/Cheney '04: Hey, look over there!

And, two articles on "Euro-lish."

February 24, 2004

Not sf

This via jill/txt: according to The Guardian, there is a recent Pentagon report that not only acknowledges the existence of global warming, but warns that we are facing a global catastrophe.

February 15, 2004

Improving the cityscape

This from Plep: a link to the Billboard Liberation Front. What it says. With links to other culture jammers.

February 13, 2004

And two from Plep

1. Positioning composers politically, for those who think art is "above politics." According to this, Wagner did not get such a bad rap after all.

2. "Cold Off The Presses is a growing collection of classic anarchist pamphlets and journals." I like that one of them is called Lucifer: The Light Bearer.

February 3, 2004

No poetry at the White House

Here, via thinking with my fingers, is a link to "The White House has disinvited the poets" by Julia Alvarez, written after Laura Bush withdrew an invitation to poets involved in the antiwar movement. It is rather sweet about the First Lady, "married to a scarier fellow" than any poet.

A sadder companion to an earlier post about the lack of poetry in Washington.

Unelectable reprise

Those of you who were following the unelectable meme—and you know who you are—may be interested in the following exchange taking place on H-Mac. It started with some poor fellow from France, who probably didn't know what he was stepping into, posting a message about miserable failure. I followed up with a post mentioning someone unelectable. These two messages were promptly followed by two others, both rather tetchy. A non-polical forum, tricks are for kids, crypto-politics, yada yada yada. Both respondents freely, one might even say obliviously, admit to more egregious actions themselves. My response is a model of wit and restraint. I am shocked, shocked at this lack of civility among Mac users.

No word yet from France.

February 1, 2004

You know that satire is dead,

as Neil Gaiman writes, when you read that some right–wing nutbar has proposed Dubya and Tony Blair for the Noble Peace Prize "for having dared to take the necessary decision to launch a war on Iraq without having the support of the UN." Mind you, it sounds like all and sundry can make nominations, including "members of parliament and cabinet ministers from around the world and some university professors."