Impotent Rage

Social Work Terminology

2010-06-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been curious about the terms social workers use among themselves? Of course you aren't. When you are forced to think of social workers at all (which is rare) you probably just shudder and thank the gods that you aren't one yourself.

Nonetheless, I decided to list some social worker terms for your amusement.

1. Directable- A client that is directable is a client who, when going off the rails, can be implored to stop going off the rails. A directable client can be bent to the social worker's will, which is to say, is able to respond to the social worker's requests.

"He will usually talk about his delusions about the Mafia persecuting him in group, but he's pretty directable and able to get back to the topic at hand with some prodding"

2. Hot Mess- A client who is currently exhibiting intense manifestations of their addiction/mental health symptoms/ unhealthy behaviors.

"I saw Ms. P at the bus stop today, trying to get money for crystal meth. Girlfriend was a hot mess."

3. Baseline- The normal functioning mode of a particular client. Functioning above one's baseline would indicate a possibility of progress and a glimmer of hope, functioning below one's baseline might be an indication that action needs to be taken.

Social worker 1 :"I saw Mr. Smith today on the floor of his room intoxicated, unable to stand, and ranting incoherently. Should I call an ambulance?"

Social worker 2 "Nah, that's pretty much his baseline".

4. Borderline/ AXIS 2- Axis 2 disorders, as categorized by the DSM (Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) are personality disorders. However, "borderline" or "axis 2" can be applied as social worker shorthand to any client with an ability to drive everyone around them nuts, especially if they have a penchant for doing so in a passive-aggressive manner.

Social Worker 1 "Carrie was in group today. She made two other participants cry, and got another one kicked out the program by inciting him to threaten violence"

Social Worker 2 , rolling eyes, "Man, she is soooooooo borderline. That girl is totally axis 2".

5. Population- The group of people the social worker serves, categorized by age, economic insecurity, common or similar dysfunction, disability, or any other identifier that may indicate the need for a social worker's help.

Social worker 1 "I am working with teenage pregnant gang members who are victims of domestic violence"

Social Worker 2, with empathy, " Wow, that's a tough population."

6. Chase Management - A play on the term 'case management', chase management is the exercise of trying to help a reluctant or evasive client.

"I've been playing chase management with that client for weeks. He never returns my calls"

7. Empowerment- A term that has been over-used by so many social workers for so many years, that social workers have become reluctant to utter it or occasionally threaten to puke if they ever have to hear it again. When it is uttered, it must be prefaced with an apology.

"I hate this over-used term, but I think it would be really empowering for our disabled clients if we helped them start their own small business."

Anyone else have a few to add to the list?

Right Wing Talk Show Hosts Have Huge Problems with White Privilege.

2010-04-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

A few months back I wrote an essay in which I defended Rush Limbaugh's comments about his hope that Barack Obama would fail as president. Rush, I observed, was merely telling the truth. He is not an elected official who has to feign interest in the advancement of the nation, but an entertainer. And while I wouldn't defend an entertainer who tries to incite violence, I would defend one who expresses his his unattractive desire to see his team win, even if it is at great cost to the nation. He merely spoke his mind. He was just being his misanthropic self.

I lambasted Rush in the same essay for the white privilege he wields when making comments to the effect that Colin Powell came to support Barack Obama based only on their shared African heritage. Rush, I pointed out, will never have to defend that his support of Republican candidates isn't due to shared ethnicity because white is the default color of political candidates.

Now Glenn Beck wants to take a stab at cashin' in on white privilege by suggesting that Obama should appoint a "gay, handicapped black women who is an immigrant" to the supreme court. You know, because doing so would bring about completely unfair charges of racism or sexism against anyone who opposes the judicial appointment.

What other motive could Obama have for appointing a gay judge or a black judge or a female judge, right? So now, any appointment of any judge who *isn't* white and male is some sneaky trick to get his appointment in?

Fear not, Glenn. I somehow doubt that the fact that Obama's appointment is minority (actually majority if they are female, or a brown person from the majority-minority state of California) will diminish a muscular, obstructionist response from the Republican Party.

I like this. I don't know why.

2010-04-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

I have been horribly remiss in contributing to my blog due to gainful employment. Heck, I can't even call it a proper blog. Yet, I felt this image should be distributed in some sort of forum. So I am just dropping by to post it. Pretty special, isn't it?

AFGHAN STAR DOCUMENTARY trailer

2010-03-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

Afghanistan must be bizarro world- a place where everything is inverted. In America I would probably choose to clean hair out of the drain in my bathroom over watching an episode of "American Idol"

This video, though, makes me want to sell everything I own and donate it all to the people brave enough to stand up and sing and dance on t.v. for their fellow countrymen in the show "Afghan Star".

I will never understand the idea that song and dance are evil and displeasing to god. I find the idea an affront to everything that is right, a great big swindle being perpetrated against humanity. It must be countered and fought and defied.

I hope that contestants in this show continue to perform in safety and bring sweet, sweet music to all the ears that want to hear.

"Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn't matter

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music

The strumming of the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world' harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing

So the candle flickers and goes out
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

The singing art is sea foam
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor

Poems reach up like a spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can't see

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest
and let the spirits fly in and out"

-Rumi

Holy Holi, Batman!

2010-03-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

It is time for the festival of Holi in India- the days when people throw colored water and powder on anyone and anything that moves in celebration of spring.

My dear old friend Prateek used to tell me stories about Holi in Calcutta. I have around 4 or 5 lifelong unfulfilled dreams. Due to Prateek's influence I think around 3 or 4 of those dreams involve travel to India. One dream involves a big glass of bhang lassi and a walk around Calcutta on the days of Holi.

Read more about this colorful holiday here. To read about Holi from the POV of a person who's not so crazy about it, go here.

Here's hoping your dreams come true. And mine, too.

A poem for Holi:

Year after year
purity of fire
is challenged by evil,
appeased with offerings

A full moon looks on
as winds stoke embers,
flare flames
to a flickering dance

Right in the center
of crimson blaze
sits Holika,
Prahlad in her lap -
her arms a circle of heat

White sparks fly from her hair,
eyes smolder in fury;
her mouth sucks in air,
engulfs rice and wheat

Wood chars,
coconuts splinter,
flowers singe
smearing earth with ash.

Year after year
faith survives.
Holika burns to death.

-unknown

Texas and Textbooks

2010-02-22T20:54:00.001-08:00

Two weeks ago The New York Times magazine ran an article about the role the Texas board of Education plays in determining the content of American textbooks.

Texas is the second largest buyer of elementary school textbooks in the U.S. and advises the textbook industry about what is acceptable to teach as history curricula to American schoolchildren. As could be expected in Texas, quite a few board members are fundamentalist Christians who have no background in U.S. or world history, yet have made it a priority to emphasize the role of Christianity played for the founders.

I think they are right to observe that no mention of Christianity or it's cultural role in the lives of colonial Americans would be a gross omission. Similarly, I feel frustrated watching my son come home from school with material about Greek philosophers with all of the spiritual implications of their works completely leached out of the curriculum. Real understanding of history demands that we knew the spiritual orientation of the people living in the era.

But I think there is a massive delusion among fundamentalists about the role of Mosaic law in informing America's legal system and constitution. The rights guaranteed Americans under the constitution and in the legal system came about as a reaction against biblical law - it was not derived from it.

I have copied here some of the interesting paragraphs in the article. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, though, if you have the time to do it:

"In the new guidelines, students taking classes in U.S. government are asked to identify traditions that informed America’s founding, “including Judeo-Christian (especially biblical law),” and to “identify the individuals whose principles of law and government institutions informed the American founding documents,” among whom they include Moses. The idea that the Bible and Mosaic law provided foundations for American law has taken root in Christian teaching about American history. So when Steven K. Green, director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., testified at the board meeting last month in opposition to the board’s approach to bringing religion into history, warning that the Supreme Court has forbidden public schools from “seeking to impress upon students the importance of particular religious values through the curriculum,” and in the process said that the founders “did not draw on Mosaic law, as is mentioned in the standards,” several of the board members seemed dumbstruck. Don McLeroy insisted it was a legitimate claim, since the Enlightenment took place in Europe, in a Christian context. Green countered that the Enlightenment had in fact developed in opposition to reliance on biblical law and said he had done a lengthy study in search of American court cases that referenced Mosaic law. “The record is basically bereft,” he said. Nevertheless, biblical law and Moses remain in the TEKS.

In fact, the founders were rooted in Christianity — they were inheritors of the entire European Christian tradition — and at the same time they were steeped in an Enlightenment rationalism that was, if not opposed to religion, determined to establish separate spheres for faith and reason. “I don’t think the founders would have said they were applying Christian principles to government,” says Richard Brookhiser, the conservative columnist and author of books on Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington. “What they said was ‘the laws of nature and nature’s God.’ They didn’t say, ‘We put our faith in Jesus Christ.’ ” Martin Marty says: “They had to invent a new, broad way. Washington, in his writings, makes scores of different references to God, but not one is biblical. He talks instead about a ‘Grand Architect,’ deliberately avoiding the Christian terms, because it had to be a religious language that was accessible to all people.”

Or, as Brookhiser rather succinctly summarizes the point: “The founders were not as Christian as those people would like them to be, though they weren’t as secularist as Christopher Hitchens would like them to be.”

According to the Times on March 3rd many of the fundamentalist members of the board of education are up for re-election. Even if many of these voices are removed from the board, though, the textbook will be in use for up decade.

San Francisco 2009 Pillow Fight

2010-02-14T13:52:00.001-08:00

Every year on Valentine's Day, a few thousand drunk or lonely or rageful, jovial, disinhibited people gather in Justin Herman Square to pillow-fight a bunch of strangers.

The event is not without controversy, as last year's feather cleanup cost the city many thousands of dollars.

So grab your latex pillow and come on down. If you aren't getting laid on Valentine's day, at least you can get gobsmacked by a pillow!

Ogden Nash's Valentine Poem

2010-02-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

To My Valentine

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're love by me.

Khumbha Mela

2010-02-10T11:56:00.001-08:00

You can read more on this holiday here. Khumbla Mela is a festival with Vedic roots, it celebrates the churning of the "milky sea" by the gods who engaged a twelve-year long epic battle with demons for the prize of immortality.

The cities that host the festival rotate, this year it will be hosted in Hardiwar. Khumbla Mela is the largest gathering in the world, with 10 million people attending. The celebration started on January 10th, with millions of attendants submerging themselves in the river Ganges for purification.

Haiti and the Evangelist Shock Doctrine.

2010-02-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

Naomi Klein's 2007 book, "The Shock Doctrine" explored the American doctrine of economic opportunism. Klein's book detailed with precision how war, coups, and natural disasters are exploited by the American proponents of Milton Friedman economic school to get a foothold in "shocked" regions and implement neo-liberal economic policies.

Friedman economics added energy to the academic and economic arm of the military coup that pushed out Chile's left-leaning democratically elected president Salvador Allende in 1972. Friedman himself commented on the coup and the resulting panic and destabilization that would provide the "shock treatment" that would "facilitate the adjustment" to the economic policies he hoped to see implemented worldwide. He would not be disappointed. Chile quickly implemented Friedman's policies. The shock of militarization of Chile's streets, the threat of torture, and mass disappearances of dissidents facilitated the collective psychological "shock" necessary for economic takeover on a massive scale.

One needn't consider shock exploitation on purely a macro level. There are also micro examples. Klein documented the way developers swept into Sri Lanka in the wake of the Tsunami to grab land from fishermen and build huge tourist hotels. But I also remember the terrible story of a SriLankan woman who was raped by a man "offering help" literally the minute the wave of water that carried them both dropped them to the ground.

All of these examples came to mind when I read about a recent case in Haiti in which a group of evangelical missionaries were stopped from transporting Haitian "orphans" over the border to their mission in the Dominican Republic ostensably for food and shelter but, most certainly also for the purpose of being "saved" by Jesus.

From chattahbox.com:

"Kidnappers for Jesus? A group of Evangelical church folk from Idaho, led by personal shopper Laura Silsby, Executive Director and founder of New Life Children Refuge, descended upon the earthquake ravaged country of Haiti last week, to snatch and grab 100 orphans off of the streets and from orphanages. The Baptist group’s mission statement was to “share God’s love with these precious children, helping them heal and find new life in Christ.” However, they were only able to “gather” up 33, some of whom weren’t even orphans. The evangelical do-gooders became alleged kidnappers and child traffickers when they loaded the Haitian “orphans” on a bus and attempted to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic to the New Life Refuge orphanage, with no documents from the Haitian government. Well, the so-called orphanage turns out to be a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic that the group was renting. The group of ten Americans from two Baptist churches based in Idaho were arrested at the border and are now in custody in Port-au-Prince Haiti, charged with child trafficking. And the group of child-snatching evangelizing Americans have set off an international firestorm in Haiti, with officials already fearful of child trafficking in the wake of the chaos in the devastated country."

The blog blackspin.com reported today:

"The twists continue in the story of 10 American Baptist missionaries charged with child trafficking in Haiti. Now the Associated Press is reporting that many of the children who had been taken were turned over to the Americans by their own desperate parents, and are not orphans at all.

From where I sit, this is an even more alarming development, because it means that the missionaries lied about the children they were taking. And if you know anything about child trafficking around the world, you know that it is very common for parents to be coerced in to giving away their children with some amorphous promise that the children will be whisked away to a better life.That's exactly what appears to have been promised in this case:

Parents in this quake-wracked Haitian village unable to feed or clothe their children handed the youngsters over to a group of American missionaries who promised to give them a better life.

In a testament to the misery of a nation that was the Western hemisphere's poorest even before a Jan. 12 earthquake, many Callebas parents say they wouldn't know what to do if they had to take the children back.

"I am living in a tent with a friend," said Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician who gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6. "My main concern is that if the kids come back, I'm not going to be able to feed them." Source: US Baptists to appear before Haitian prosecutor, Associated Press"

Do you see the shock doctrine at work here? A group of missionaries who fly into Haiti to "help" convince parents that the only way their children will find shelter, food, and education is to hand their future over entirely to evangelists. Were they well intentioned people? Probably. So were the Milton Friedman economists who were eager to "fix" the economy of post war Iraq and Chile. The problem is that both groups are so blindly convinced of the ability of their ideological brand to fix misery that they end up contributing to the misery themselves. Both exploited disaster to meet their own ends.

I would love for Klein to focus on this particular brand of shock doctrine in the future. How many times have the "true believers" swept in after a tragedy with promises and a "plan" to fix it all? I already have the title for the book. "The Flock Doctrine- The Rise of Disaster Evangelism"

More on this case as it unfolds.

"Londonistan"

2010-01-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

Melanie Phillips, a British writer for London's Daily Mail, published "Londinistan" in 2006 as an appeal to anti-terrorist nations to wake up to the warning that the epicenter for the threat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is now London, a fact which can hardly be disputed or denied.

Oddly, while I was reading this book, the Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, made his unspectacular and fizzled attempt to bring down an American commercial transatlantic flight. He was radicalized in London like his ancestor, the equally lame British shoe-bomber Richard Reid.

The first half of Phillip's book made me realize just how anecdotal Bruce Bower's book was. Phillips is well researched and the first chapter reads like a CIA dossier. Do you know who the Muslim Brotherhood is? Or who Ibrahim Mudayris is? Or Omar Bakri Mohammed? Phillips lists every radical mosque, who their ideological predecessors are, their funding sources, and their Labor Party supporters (like London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who she abhors). She does nothing to conceal her resentment of English appeasers of Islamic radicals. She decries Prince Charles' request that Saudi Arabia donate millions to build a huge mosque in northwest London which incredibly, instantly, fell into radical leadership upon completion.

The first half of Phillip's book provides an education and links the pieces together. Any person who believes (as I do) that counter terrorism efforts should be treated as a criminal rather than military effort will take a keen interest in what is happening in meeting halls, prisons, and radical mosques in London. We can learn way more about global terrorism by looking at London than we can by focusing on Baghdad. Melanie seemingly gets this.

And then she goes off the rails. Totally and completely off the rails.

After her well-researched presentation of the players in London-based terrorism, she launches into an attack against European gay marriage and legislation of rights for transgendered people. Basically, she begins down a road I care not to tread because it reminds me of Pat Robertson's post 9/11 statements. The premise is that we are too morally lax as a society and this invites terrorism on behalf of violent people who are guided by their own brand of "morality". We have to fight their Wahhabist version of morality with our own form of Judeo-Christian morality. In other words, why not start the crusades all over again?

Personally, I prefer to live in a society guided by ethics- something more inclusive and protective because the guiding core is based on reason and fairness, not righteousness as revealed by prophets in deserts thousands of years ago. Melanie has a different take- she rightly protests European anti-semitism, but conflates leftist criticism of Israel as some sort of assault on morality:

"At the core of those Western majority values lay the Mosaic code, which first gave the world the concept of morality, self-discipline, and laws regulating behavior. Who, then, could be surprised that the Jews found themselves in the left's crosshairs? As it took aim at morality and self-restraint, it seized the opportunity to pulverize the very people who invented the rules in the first place."

There is so much wrong with this particular paragraph that I don't even know where to begin to dissect it. But I will give it a shot.

Problem one: From the point of view of middle eastern Islamic nations, Israel is the country lacking the laws regulating self-behavior that she decries. Why? Because, Israel operates as a western liberal democracy, and accordingly grants rights to sexual minorities. Other wonderful rights come along with this type of rule, like freedom of the press. Does Israel or Judaism somehow represent long-lost standards of Mosaic morality? I hardly think so. The Zionists who formed Israel barely believed in God.

Problem two: Western majority values and the values that guide our legal system are thankfully not based on Mosaic code. They are an outgrowth of speculation about natural law. This lazy blogger who is running out of time lifted this quote from a wiki about Epicurus. I think it is relevant:

"The value that Epicurus and his followers attached to the law(s) was relative, not absolute: (human*) laws are definitely neither god-given (unlike, e.g. the Mosaic law), nor are they immutable.

According to Epicurus, the purpose of the laws is to serve human well-being, and therefore their validity is conditional: if a law does serve its purpose, it should remain in effect; if, however (e.g. due to changing conditions, different situations, etc.), it ceases to do so, it should be repealed.

In this respect, the Epicurean notion of the laws lies at the heart of the legal system of all liberal democracies, and is foreign to that of political/religious fundamentalist regimes, as those rest on necessarily absolute values .Laws were discussed by Epicurus and his followers in the context of society, social order, and the like; justice "proper", on the contrary, was discussed primarily on the level of the individual."

This is not to say that self-discipline and moral behavior were not also emphasized in Epicurus' time, because they were. The Delphic Maxims provided citizens of ancient Greece with guidelines on murder (you shouldn't do it) and respecting your parents (you should). No prophet was involved in coming up with these guidelines but they still seem pretty self-evident, no? The arrogance of Phillip's statement that these ideas never occurred to the world before Moses marched down the mountain is irksome to say the least.

Phillips has done a great job of investigating the players in the game of global Islamic terrorism. Her analysis of their motivations and what our response should be are way, way off. CIA operative may do themselves a favor by reading the first chapter- and then tossing this book in the can marked "rubbish".

Lazy Blogging About American Evangelicals Exporting Anti-Gay Hate

2010-01-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

I rarely ever go over and cut-n-paste an entire article to post on my blog because I consider that to be really lazy blogging. But I read this article today and decided to start cutting and pasting. S.F.gate is tracing the steps between American evangelicals and the murderous anti-gay bill pending in Uganda. S.F. Gate also posted an article about the fact that two of these three preachers live in northern California and, like Rick Warren, have begun to backpedal in their support of the bill their ideals helped set into motion. Kudos to S.F. Gate for some good reporting. And shame on Rick Warren, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge, and Scott Schmeirer. Your words have caused the pain and suffering of innocents. Own it.

" Kampala, Uganda -- In March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about "curing" homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived in Uganda's capital to give a series of talks.

The theme of the event, according to Stephen Langa, its Ugandan organizer, was "the gay agenda - that whole hidden and dark agenda" - and the threat homosexuals posed to Bible-based values and the traditional African family.

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to change people from homosexual to heterosexual, how homosexual men often sodomized teenage boys, and how "the gay movement is an evil institution" whose goal is "to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity."

One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the U.S. government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Donor countries, including the United States, are demanding that Uganda's government drop the proposed law. The Ugandan government, facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid, is now indicating that it will back down, slightly, and change the death penalty provision to life in prison for some homosexuals. But the battle is far from over.

The three Americans who spoke at the conference - Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several anti-homosexual books; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads "healing seminars"; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is "mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality" - are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

But the Ugandan organizers of the conference admit helping draft the bill.

Human rights advocates in Uganda say the visit by the three Americans helped set in motion what could be a very dangerous cycle. Gay Ugandans already describe a world of blackmail and death threats.

"What these people have done is set the fire they can't quench," said the who went undercover for six months to chronicle the relationship between the African anti-homosexual movement and American evangelicals.

A Poem For Michael

2010-01-08T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss in keeping up my blog due to a new job and also, sadly, due to grief.

I got the very bad news of Mike's death in Buzios, Brazil this Thursday. I was in a state of disbelief and anger and numbness. It is particularly senseless when some one is murdered, as our friend was, by gunshots. The presumed motive was the theft of his wallet and car which were later found burned. His friends stateside, including me, feel that he knew his attacker. There are many questions and I have spent a lot of time pouring over articles in Portuguese, trying to make sense of them and look for clues as to what really happened. I studied Portuguese for three years, it has been of little help- my Portuguese really sucks. So did Mike's, actually, though after seven years of living there I'm sure it had gotten better than mine! Today the first English language story about his death appeared on the internet. You can find it here.

I liked Mike's style. His weird vintage button-down shirts. The freaky smoking jacket with bedroom slippers he wore to our wedding. I liked that he rode a motorcycle to burningman and moved to Brazil. His humor was warped, which I also liked. He made a very bizarre joke to me once that I can't even describe here, though I remember it perfectly.

Tomorrow is the memorial service and I have decided to make feijoada in tribute to the American ex-pat who adored Brazil. I am also looking through old photos and searching for a poem to read.

There is only one Seamus Heaney poem I really like, though I feel I am supposed to like more. I have a big book of Heaney's poems in my bathroom and I have come back to this one again and again. It actually involves a character named "Michael" but that is not why I chose it. I'm not sure people will "get it" since I don't really get it myself. No matter, though. It just feels right.

I have taken to wearing a coin around my neck as a reminder of mortality. I can hope, though it is doubtful, that if I were found dead somewhere, the coin could be taken off the chain and put in my mouth to pay the ferry for my trip to Hades or the Eleusian fields or the summerlands, or wherever it is Hermes cares to guide my soul. If nothing else it would be a mark of finality, like the placement of a period at the end of a long and meandering sentence. The day before Mike died, the coin broke off the chain. I should get it fixed.

A Kite for Michael and Christopher

All through that Sunday afternoon
a kite flew above Sunday,
a tightened drumhead, an armful of blown chaff.

I’d seen it grey and slippy in the making,
I’d tapped it when it dried out white and stiff,
I’d tied the bows of newspaper
along its six-foot tail.

But now it was far up like a small black lark
and now it dragged as if the bellied string
were a wet rope hauled upon
to lift a shoal.

My friend says that the human soul
is about the weight of a snipe,
yet the soul at anchor there,
the string that sags and ascends,
weigh like a furrow assumed into the heavens.

Before the kite plunges down into the wood
and this line goes useless
take in your two hands, boys, and feel
the strumming, rooted, long-tailed pull of grief.
You were born fit for it.
Stand in here in front of me
and take the strain.

My Favorite Albums of 2009

2009-12-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

1. Them Crooked Vultures.

Thanks to my pal Dick Byrum for telling me about this incredible album. I have been obsessed with the prolific career of musical genius Josh Homme for some years now so it's no surprise that I would also love his newest project. Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl comprise this superband. I listened to this album so much the first week I got it that it actually scared me. The song "Interlude with Ludes" is one of the more Dionysian songs- if you aren't able to take mushrooms and wander through the desert as the sun is coming up, t

rust me, listening to this song is the next best thing.

I clipped this from their website FAQ:

What does the band sound like? It sounds like the guy from Queens of the Stone Age singing and playing guitar with the bass player from Led Zeppelin and the drummer from Nirvana.

I give them ten bonus points for wise ass-ness.

2. Bjork. Voltaic.

Thanks Marjorie and Steve for the heads up in this one. It's innovative and you can dance to it. I am always a sucker for Bjork's remix albums and this one is no exception. I think there are live songs on here, too, I'm not sure.

My favorite song was "Earth Intruders" the idea

for it is described here:

The song "Earth Intruders," in particular, was sculpted soon after Björk awoke from a dream she had during a cross-Atlantic flight to New York. In the dream, the singer said a "tsunami of millions and millions of poverty-stricken people" swelled high above the airplane she was a passenger on. Eventually, the wave overtook the plane, hit land and razed the White House into oblivion. "It's a quite chaotic song," she said of Volta's first single. "Lyrically, it's a collection of all of these images" burned into her memory, from her trip

to Indonesia as well as her vivid, in-flight reverie."

3. The Horrors. Primary Colours. Thanks for heads up on this one, Steve. Been loving this album from this brilliant English indy-rock band ever since I got it.

4. Mr. Gnome. My stepson, Cyprus, alerted me to this boy-girl duo from Ohio. I hope I get to see them next time they make it back to San Francisco.

5. The XX. Thanks Janis and the DJs at KUSF for introducing me to this great trio from south west London. Word has it, though, that one of the band members has quit. Isn't that crazy, a band that gets famous and instantly disintegrates? What makes that happen in the music world?

6. Prodigy. Invaders Must Die. This year's contribution from Prodigy is a thumpin good time.

7. Santogold. Even though Santogold came out with her album in 2008, as a late-comer (I'm only just now going to try Lady Gaga, remember?) I spent much of 2009 listening to it and loving it. Santogold is an American who sounds English. That is my endorsement.

Everyone was Gaga over Lady Gaga in 2009, but I've been late to jump on the bandwagon. She had injected glamour into a world in desperate need of glamour and for that, I am grateful. Everytime I see her, though, I am reminded of my great love for Goldfrapp and wonder if the Lady has what it takes musically. I intend to give her a proper listen in 2010, my loyalty to Allison Goldfrapp be damned. I also hear that Goldfrapp has a new album coming out in 2010, my fingers are crossed that it will be as good as Black Cherry, Felt Mountain, and Supernature.

Islam in Europe- Multiculturalism and Appeasement

2009-12-27T23:49:00.000-08:00

I picked up Bruce Bawer's "While Europe Slept- How Radical Islam Is Destroying The West From Within" this weekend- it is probably the first time I have willingly bought a book by a conservative about a conservative point of view. Bawer isn't a typical conservative, though, he is a gay New Yorker who wrote a book critical of Fundamentalist Christianity ("Stealing Jesus") that was very well received in liberal circles. "While Europe Slept" is critical of radical Islam in Europe and critical of European denial about the problem. Bawer says that he angered liberals with his critique of fundamentalist Islam and was accused of "changing", but he claims that he has done no such thing- both critiques are fair and consistent with the ideals of freedom he championed all along.

Here is how Random House summarized his book:

"As an American living in Europe since 1998, Bruce Bawer has seen this problem up close. Across the continent—in Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Stockholm—he encountered large, rapidly expanding Muslim enclaves in which women were oppressed and abused, homosexuals persecuted and killed, “infidels” threatened and vilified, Jews demonized and attacked, barbaric traditions (such as honor killing and forced marriage) widely practiced, and freedom of speech and religion firmly repudiated.

The European political and media establishment turned a blind eye to all this, selling out women, Jews, gays, and democratic principles generally—even criminalizing free speech—in order to pacify the radical Islamists and preserve the illusion of multicultural harmony. The few heroic figures who dared to criticize Muslim extremists and speak up for true liberal values were systematically slandered as fascist bigots. Witnessing the disgraceful reaction of Europe’s elites to 9/11, to the terrorist attacks on Madrid, Beslan, and London, and to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bawer concluded that Europe was heading inexorably down a path to cultural suicide."

One of the first things I noticed myself reacting against in Bawer's book is his defense of George Bush and the Iraq war. He accuses the Europeans he lives among as failing to see the "real" threat as George Bush did. While Iraq could have been seen as posing a threat, mostly to Israel I imagine, Bawer creates this slight of hand wherein he tries to pass Iraq off as a fundamentalist state. I disagree. I will not belabor this point though, because I have had Iraq war fatigue for way too many years now, and I don't think his feelings about Bush or the Iraq war obscure the real point he was making in his book.

That point is that most of western Europe, in their fear of resurgence of fascism and in their quest for "multiculturalism" has entered into a practice of habitual reflexive appeasement of radical Islamists and have generally turned a blind eye to the belligerence that is coming from the radicalized sections of Muslim ghettos that are chipping away at liberal democratic ideals.

I have been hearing about appeasement in Europe for some time, but I was curious to see if there are specific examples of this appeasement codified in law. There are a few. Take for example the law in Sweden regarding minimum age for marriage. For ethnic Swedes that age is 18, but the requirement is waived for immigrants, allowing for families to arrange marriage for teenage daughters. In Germany an ethnic German citizen wishing to marry a foreigner and bring them to Germany must answer a long list of personal questions devised to detect if the couple are genuinely involved or merely have made an arrangement for immigration purposes. That requirement is waived for immigrants, many of whom arrange marriages for their kids with people from their country of origin (Bawer claims this is a purposeful act to prevent any kind of cultural assimilation into the European host country and that arranged marriages can go on like this for generations).

In both instances conservative Muslim ideals are upheld and the autonomy of women denied. Bawer makes a case that women in arranged marriages are often victims of rape, because they don't consent to the relationships arranged for them and have little to no recourse to refuse their husbands. He cites that four of five women in Oslo's domestic violence shelters are immigrant women. Human rights organizations report that women fleeing from arranged marriages complain of repeated sexual assaults on behalf of their "husbands".

Indeed, domestic violence shelters targeted at immigrant women are met with accusations of racism and hostility to "family values". He quotes a Brittish Muslim, Faisal Bodi, railing against the shelters in the Guardian, that the shelters "tear apart our families. Once a girl has walked in through that door they do their best to stop her ever returning to her family". Mr. Bodi argued that Muslim communities should be treated as an "organic whole", that sharia law should be seen as a "sharp sword that can cut through generational and cultural divide" and that the Muslim community should have autonomy in resolving conflicts over forced marriage. In short, English law should be subservient to sharia law.

Bawer seems to be resentful of the immigrants dependence on the social welfare state, citing that 40% of Muslim immigrants in Oslo are on the dole. While this may be entirely true, I didn't agree with the tone or the point he was trying to make in stating this observation which I interpreted to be something along the lines of "those ungrateful bastards suckle at the teat of the "infidel" state that they condemn". I object because many of those social security recipients may well prefer jobs but find themselves locked out due to racism or nativism. Luckily, a few chapters later Bawer admitted that it is nearly impossible for foreigners to find work in Norway. He found himself locked out of candidacy for a professorship even though he was far more qualified than the other candidates (in Norway you are entitled to see the resumes of the candidates you are up against when applying for a university position). He went on to list anecdotal reports from immigrants who complain of their difficulties in finding work, of being cheerfully encouraged to report to the social security office to get on the dole. One story was of an Indian friend who was an engineer and who spent two years applying for over 200 jobs. Finally, he changed his legal name to something more Scandinavian and miraculously landed a job in 2 weeks.

France suffers the same problem, many African and Muslim immigrants living in ghettos there are on the dole, even though they are highly educated. This accounts in part for the popularity of Barack Obama among immigrants in France-a man named "Barack Obama" with brown skin would likely never make it to the presidency there. Here is where the second part of "appeasement" comes in. Appeasement can mean giving in to the unreasonable demands of tyrants, but it also means giving someone just enough of a payoff to get them out of your hair and to not have to really take them seriously. Such is relationship of the welfare state to Muslim immigrants in western Europe.

Bawer states his belief that the Norwegians, who would hate more than anything to be accused of being ungenerous or racist, love having bragging rights about their multicultural society. But what they mean when they talk proudly about their colorful society is a society with ethnic enclaves that never change. Bawer is incredulous when he hears Norwegians refer to "third generation immigrants" (?) and quotes a Pakistani-Norwegian comedian who says that her countrymen are often disappointed that she speaks without a least " a little bit" of an accent. In short, they want to have communities of Pakistanis in their cities, not communities of Norwegians of Pakistani heritage. Because of their attachment to exoticisizing the "other" they are unable to invite Muslim citizens to the table, include them as real Europeans, and hold them to the same expectations they have for their white countrymen.

Bawer hits the nail on the head when he states that, "As a rule, the establishment strives to overlook the fact that being a Muslim is a matter of holding certain beliefs and living (and dying) by them; it prefers instead to think of Muslim identity as having to do with cuisine, clothing, and skin color. Consequently there's an automatic tendency to view the likes of Krekar (a terrorist pampered by the Norwegian establishment) not as someone whose beliefs are a challenge to Western democracy but as an opportunity to prove one is not racist. To the extent that the establishment does acknowledge the reality of such phenomena as intolerance, sexual inequality, self-segregation, spousal abuse, and forced marriage within the immigrant community, it chooses to view them as aspects of cultural difference that simply must be accepted in a 'multicultural society'".

Bawer is able to demonstrate that this thinking leads to absurd instances in which liberal European professors, journalists, and politicians become apologists for the most reprehensible practices imaginable, from honor killings to fatwas against authors who exercise freedom of speech. It also has lead to an increase of "separate but equal" type of accommodations for Muslims, such as gender-segregated classes, swimming pool hours, cafeterias in colleges.

He quotes an Iraqi writer, Walid al-Kubaisi, who challenged the director of a Norwegian international cultural center. "The center hosted activities by various ethnic groups, providing each with its own separate space; when al-Kubaisi criticized this arrangement for encouraging a 'ghetto mentality' the director demurred, asserting his intention to showcase cultures and provide 'exotic atmosphere'.

'But isn't it more important', he inquired, ' for immigrants to learn about Norwegian culture and values than for foreigners to...provide you and other Norwegians with a little exotic atmosphere?'

"It isn't our job to teach them Norwegian culture,' he replied. 'They can decide about that for themselves, if they wish. Foreigners have a rich culture. You mustn't think that way. It causes lots of problems. We have our culture and you have your culture."

'No, I'm thinking for example about values such as freedom of expression and religion,' al-Kubaisi replied.

"Yes, of course these Norwegian values concern you Muslims also. We have religious freedom and this allows you Muslims to practice Islam freely....you can slaughter animals in the Muslim way in order to eat your Islamic meat,,,,you can make use of your freedom of expression to tell others about Islam and your fascinating culture, you can criticize Norwegian racists.....'

But what, al-Kubaisi asked, about the freedom of Muslims to criticize their own religion-or even convert? The director was displeased.

"You are a Muslim, Walid, and you must not lose your identity. If you become Norwegian we will not see you as you are. You must be yourself"

"But do you believe that I will lose my identity if I believe in freedom of expression?"

"Listen, this is something you decide for yourself. But your attitude causes a lot of problems. We want to create a multicultural society, and we don't want to dissolve these foreign cultures........."

I wish Bawer took more time to point out the fact that the greatest victims of Muslim extremism in western Europe are not ethnically European women or gay couples, though both groups have been subjected to increasing hate crimes. The greatest victims in all of this, of course, are moderate Muslims and many female Muslims who are being bullied into living a life dictated by Sharia law, even though they are supposedly living in Western liberal democracies.

In Germany and in the Netherlands there are women who supposedly live under enlightened human rights conventions and who are supposedly entitled to the freedoms democracy ensures, but who know nothing of those freedoms and aren't at liberty to take advantage of them. Bawer's book convinced me that the French government was correct in banning the headscarf in schools, I didn't realize previously that girls in French schools are being bullied by classmates into wearing hijab even if they don't want to, into declining gym class and art classes (no graven images, y'all) on religious grounds and being physically threatened by these neighborhood enforcers against Muslims who are living like French "infidels". If the headscarf weren't banned there, tyrants may begin threatening girls who refuse to wear a chador or a burqa. Sadly the situation leaves no room for personal autonomy, what schoolgirls wear is decided by either politicians or local extremists.

Bawer's book is mostly anecdotal and a tad bit hysterical. He is way more conservative than I am when it comes to foreign policy. Overall, though, he makes some good points and challenges us to re-examine what our values are and what multiculturalism should look like in a pluralist democratic society.

Dies Natalis Solis Invictus

2009-12-25T11:22:00.001-08:00

"The Moon and the sun are eternal travelers........Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." -Matsuo Basho

When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best

2009-12-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

Looking for greeting cards that express the sentiments of dictators, demagogues, and tyrants? Look no more. Dictatorgoods.com provides cards for every occasion. O.K., maybe just the occasion that calls for a card quoting Nero, Mussolini, or someone of that ilk.

Want to send the worst St. Patrick's day card ever? How about a thank you card that quotes Oliver Cromwell?

The Genghis Khan card is my favorite. "The Greatest Happiness" quotes the cover, to be continued inside "is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."

Good times, good times.

Rep. Michele Bachmann at FRC "Prayercast" to Stop Health care Reform

2009-12-20T21:28:00.001-08:00

I considered not playing this one since it is not exactly in keeping with the merriment theme of Saturnalia. It did, however, elicit a chuckle when I first watched it. Plus, I've always been a sucker for the low-hanging fruit.

The rest pretty much speaks for itself.

Michele Bachmann is batshit insane.

Another Joke for Saturnalia

2009-12-20T10:17:00.001-08:00

Above is a picture of a statue in Buenos Aires depicting Saturnalia.

I was hoping to post a joke a day for Saturnalia but I have fallen hopelessly behind. Then again, I did recently post 10 jokes about Joe Lieberman, so that should keep me more or less covered.

Joke:

Question: Why does Mike Tyson get tears in his eyes when making love?

Answer: Mace

Happy Saturnalia!

The Spirit Of Saturnalia- Jokes about Joe Lieberman

2009-12-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today starts Saturnalia (OK, yesterday actually). I have been having fun giving my family presents, drinking wine, and tonight I plan to sit down in front of Playstation (2? 3?) and play Madden, the NFL football video game, in imitation of my son while he cooks the family dinner (role reversal is one of the many fun aspects of Saturnalia)

In the spirit of Saturnalia I would also like to share a few jokes about Joe Lieberman. Luckily it took no more than 3 seconds of googling (sp?) the interwebs to find this absolutely beautiful tribute to the man from Connecticut. Thank you blogger David Rees for this bit of merriment. May you enjoy it as much as I do! Happy Saturnalia!

David Rees

Nov. 2 2009 - 2:31 pm | 22,608 views | 9 recommendations | 22 comments

10 jokes about Joe Lieberman & his threat to filibuster any health care bill which includes a public option

1. Joe Lieberman walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender turns to him and says, “Sorry, we don’t serve bitter old egomaniacs here. And fuck your stupid parrot.”

2. Joe Lieberman walks into a second bar. The second bartender says, “Get out.” Joe Lieberman says, “Why? Can’t I buy a drink?” The second bartender says, “Don’t you get it? Everybody hates you.”

3. Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Joe.
Joe who?
Joe Lieberman.
Get off my doorstep, you asshole.

4. Joe Lieberman is on a lifeboat with a young woman who was denied insurance coverage because she was raped, a middle-class guy who can’t afford his premiums, and a sickly child. He stabs them all in the back.

5. Joe Lieberman is fellating the health insurance industry when a little boy opens the door and screams, “What are you doing, Senator Lieberman?!?” Lieberman wipes his mouth and says, “Isn’t it obvious, Timmy?”

6. What do you get when you cross Joe Lieberman with a frog? A fascinating, frog-voiced lump of wrinkles whose blood runs cold with reptilian contempt for those in need. And a frog.

7. Why did Joe Lieberman set his hair on fire and run down the street naked, screaming “Look at me, look at me, everybody look at me”? Because he has a compulsive need for attention.

8. What’s the difference between John McCain and Joe Lieberman? Oh God, WHO CARES? Seriously, enough with those two. What have they been right about in the past 8 years? Iraq? The economy? Please. Anybody who takes anything those two say seriously should check themselves in to one of those emergency-stop-smoking-crack clinics with Dr. Drew.

9. How do you know when Joe Lieberman is lying? His lips are movi– wait, wait. WHO CARES? Why do I let this guy get under my skin? He’s not gonna actually filibuster the Senate bill. He’s just upset that nobody paid attention to him for a few weeks, so he’s lashing out. It’s all based on a deep-seated anxiety about salvaging his hopelessly battered reputation– by clawing his way back into the Sunday-show spotlight, or something. Seriously, I can’t even get inside this guy’s head to figure out his motivation, because after 10 seconds of trying to see the world the way Joe Lieberman sees it, I start to feel clammy and bugs start crawling out of my fingertips and when I look in the mirror, my face looks like a melted candle.

10. Why did Joe Lieberman cross the road? I can only assume it’s because he sucks.

A Ride Down Market Street

2009-12-16T00:55:00.001-08:00

I am sending thanks to my friend Bill for tipping me off to this fantastic video of a ride down San Francisco's Market Street before the earthquake in '09. The music is by Air

Was that a crack whore on the corner of Jones and Market? Some things never change....

Swiss Architecture

2009-12-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

I posted a few days back about the Swiss ban on minarets and alluded to Swiss persnickety-ness in regards to their surroundings (Don't ever, ever litter if you go to Lucerne, I'm not kidding)

Of course, the ban was not really about minarets, not really.

Bizarrely, however, I came across a bunch of random things about Swiss architecture the last two days and thought I should share them.

I learned about the Hungarian architect, Zalotay Elemer, when reading a book entitled, "Green Architecture". Elemer lives in a controversial home he built himself in the Swiss countryside.

His home (above left) looks like it was made out of "found objects" i.e., junk. The few photos I saw were beautiful. I love homes like this because they make me feel like I can build my own home someday out of , ahem, "found objects". His structure is low to the ground and made with glass and cables. It is fabulous.

His home is hated by many of his Swiss neighbors, though, and has been stoned by protesters on more than one occasion (Elemer left the rocks where they landed as a tribute to the randomness of art).

Also, I stumbled across the incredible home built into the Swiss mountainside (top of page) at apartment therapy. Read all about it and take a house tour here.

Mayor Osby Davis, Condemns Constituants to Hell, Doesn't See What the Big Deal Is

2009-12-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

VAllejo California's Mayor Davis recently got himself into a bit of trouble when, in response to a question about his view of homosexuality he responded, "They're committing a sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven. But you don't hate the person. You hate the sin they commit.". He said this while talking on record to a reporter from N.Y. Times blogs.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore that people like Mayor Davis act surprised that people might object to these sort of statements and then defend themselves by saying, as Mayor Davis said, that his comments were "taken out of context". In what context is it O.K., I wonder, for an elected official to call his gay constituents, who have committed no crime "sinners"?

Read the full follow-up interview here which also includes an audio recording.

Here's another interesting quote from Mayor Davis:

“I don’t know what the fear is about considering Vallejo as a city of God,” Mayor Davis said. If believed, he said, “that God created heaven and earth and everything that’s in it, and that God is sovereign, then you believe that he is already a part of this community and this is already his city; and so what’s the big deal?”

Right, what's the big deal? And I'm sure that Mr. David would have no problem if I became mayor and referred to Ares aiding our soldiers in Iraq or Zeus being sovereign over our city because, uh, it's what I believe. So that makes it OK for me to speak as a public official and share those beliefs? I'm sure the evangelical community would have no objections? I won't go into it here, but statements like this are typical in a dominant culture. "I don't have a problem with it so neither should you" really means, "I don't have to worry about hearing you talk about your god(s) from a platform of power because you wouldn't dare"

Bizarrely, Davis won office by a mere two votes, his opponent is gay. Some residents of Vallejo are rightly worried about a theocratic takeover of office, those fears were not alliviated I suspect when Davis locked himself into a city council meeting with around 100 supporters (many who are self-described 'faith community members') where people testified on his behalf and on behalf of the Christian god. A simultaneous protest was attended on the outside by an equal number of protestors.

The Gypsy/Balkan Music Craze- I Want In

2009-12-06T12:00:00.001-08:00

Last night I dropped by an event called Kalfana Balkan to check out the music being spun by my friend's baby daddy, "Zeljko"- a Serbian bike messenger who lives in my neighborhood (my friend and her child have long since moved on to Brooklyn)

I've been wanting to check out Baltic music for a while now. Last year when working my shift at the childcare co-op another parent raved on and on about the greatness of Gogol Bordelo (featured in the video above).

Also my tattoo artist, Marie Wadman (incidentally the greatest tattoo artist in the world) filled me in while tattooing my upper bicep on the fantastic Fillmore show by Balkan Beatbox she had attended.

Last night was my first foray into the Balkan music world and it was a good, good time. Zeljko's set was mighty fun, but I loved the live band Brass Menazeri the best, which sounded like some bizarre mixture of Fela Kuti and the Klezmatics and a really good Brazilian batteria. There were six horns, a big drum that was worn in front of the drummer and a clarinet. The band was equally divided between men and women. The women were my age and older, they were not skinny glam queens. They were all dressed as if headed for a bar mitzvah. I loved them.

Everyone in the audience was dancing with ecclectic dance moves, including samba reggae (this former sambista executed a few of those herself) waltz, polka, slam dancing, every kind of dance imaginable.

Can't wait to go to my next Balkan music night.

The Swiss Ban on Minarets

2009-12-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

The Swiss voted in a popular referendum last week to ban the minarets that buttress large mosques. There are currently four minarets in the country that will be allowed to remain, but by law there cannot be new ones built from here on in.

Crooks and Liars, a blog I love and follow daily, covered the story with tones of hysteria, comparing the Swiss who prefer not to see minarets on the Swiss landscape to Nazis. I was disappointed in the coverage because I felt the comparison was unfair. My grandmother was born and raised in Switzerland and I have visited there once. I'd like to think I know a thing or two about how the Swiss see the world, though I admit I am nothing close to being an expert. I am merely a casual observer, but this much I know- the Swiss are persnickety. They like things "just so" and they like the architecture to look, how should I say this, "Swiss". They would really like to preserve the character of the country and while they aren't overly "hostile" to outsiders, I wouldn't say they are particularly welcoming, either. I recommend the film "Bread and Chocolate" for understanding the passive hostility immigrants in Switzerland experience.

As I have continued to read about this story I've come to realize, though, that this referendum didn't arise from a question of architecture or maintaining character through local ordinances. This isn't a battle with a homeowner's association in the alps. What it is about is Swiss concerns about Islamist dominance and a challenge to their values and culture. Are they right in feeling so threatened? I'm not sure. Here are some thoughts about the Swiss ban by Ayaan Hersi Ali:

"The minaret is a symbol of Islamist supremacy, a token of domination that came to symbolize Islamic conquest. It was introduced decades after the founding of Islam.

In Europe, as in other places in the world where Muslims settle, the places of worship are simple at first. All that a Muslim needs to fulfill the obligation of prayer is a compass to indicate the direction of Mecca, water for ablution, a clean prayer mat, and a way of telling the time so as to pray five times a day in the allocated period.

The construction of large mosques with extremely tall towers that cost millions of dollars to erect are considered only after the demography of Muslims becomes significant.

The mosque evolves from a prayer house to a political center.

Imams can then preach a message of self-segregation and a bold rejection of the ways of the non-Muslims.

Men and women are separated; gays, apostates and Jews are openly condemned; and believers organize around political goals that call for the introduction of forms of sharia (Islamic) law, starting with family law.

This is the trend we have seen in Europe, and also in other countries where Muslims have settled. None of those Western academics, diplomats, and politicians who condemn the Swiss vote to ban the minaret address, let alone dispute, these facts.

In their response to the presence of Islam in their midst, Europeans have developed what one can discern as roughly two competing views. The first view emphasizes accuracy. Is it accurate to equate political symbols like those used by Communists and Nazis with a religious symbol like the minaret and its accessories of crescent and star; the uniforms of the Third Reich with the burqa and beards of current Islamists?

If it is accurate, then Islam, as a political movement, should be rejected on the basis of its own bigotry. In this view, Muslims should not be rejected as residents or citizens. The objection is to practices that are justified in the name of Islam, like honor killings, jihad, the we-versus-they perspective, the self-segregation. In short, Islamist supremacy.

The second view refuses to equate political symbols of various forms of white fascism with the symbols of a religion. In this school of thought, Islamic Scripture is compared to Christian and Jewish Scripture. Those who reason from this perspective preach pragmatism. According to them, the key to the assimilation of Muslims is dialogue. They are prepared to appease some of the demands that Muslim minorities make in the hope that one day their attachment to radical Scripture will wear off like that of Christian and Jewish peoples.

These two contrasting perspectives correspond to two quite distinct groups in Europe. The first are mainly the working class. The second are the classes that George Orwell described as "indeterminate." Cosmopolitan in outlook, they include diplomats, businesspeople, mainstream politicians, and journalists. They are well versed in globalization and tend to focus on the international image of their respective countries. With every conflict between Islam and the West, they emphasize the possible backlash from Muslim countries and how that will affect the image of their country.

By contrast, those who reject the ideas and practices of political Islam are in touch with Muslims on a local level. They have been asked to accept Muslim immigrants as neighbors, classmates, colleagues – they are what Americans would refer to as Main Street. Here is the great paradox of today's Europe: that the working class, who voted for generations for the left, now find themselves voting for right-wing parties because they feel that the social democratic parties are out of touch.

The pragmatists, most of whom are power holders, are partially right when they insist that the integration of Muslims will take a very long time. Their calls for dialogue are sensible. But as long as they do not engage Muslims to make a choice between the values of the countries that they have come to and those of the countries they left, they will find themselves faced with more surprises. And this is what the Swiss vote shows us. This is a confrontation between local, working-class voters (and some middle-class feminists) and Muslim immigrant newcomers who feel that they are entitled, not only to practice their religion, but also to replace the local political order with that of their own.

Look carefully at the reactions of the Swiss, EU and UN elites. The Swiss government is embarrassed by the outcome of the vote. The Swedes, who are currently chairing EU meetings, have condemned the Swiss vote as intolerant and xenophobic. It is remarkable that the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said in public that the Swiss vote is a poor act of diplomacy. What he overlooks is that this is a discussion of Islam as a domestic issue. It has nothing to do with foreign policy.

The Swiss vote highlights the debate on Islam as a domestic issue in Europe. That is, Islam as a set of political and collectivist ideas. Native Europeans have been asked over and over again by their leaders to be tolerant and accepting of Muslims. They have done that. And that can be measured a) by the amount of taxpayer money that is invested in healthcare, housing, education, and welfare for Muslims and b) the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who are knocking on the doors of Europe to be admitted. If those people who cry that Europe is intolerant are right, if there was, indeed, xenophobia and a rejection of Muslims, then we would have observed the reverse. There would have been an exodus of Muslims out of Europe.

There is indeed a wider international confrontation between Islam and the West. The Iraq and Afghan wars are part of that, not to mention the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians and the nuclear ambitions of Iran. That confrontation should never be confused with the local problem of absorbing those Muslims who have been permitted to become permanent residents and citizens into European societies."

Aayan Hersi Ali may have an axe to grind- in girlhood her genitals were mutilated by her family in the practice of a coming-of-age rite (she is Somali by birth). She currently lives in hiding because Muslim extremists seek to kill her, they have already succeeded in killing her artistic collaborator, Theo Van Gogh in 2006 in a grisly assassination in Holland.

What I like about her analysis, is the attention paid to class perception about the "Islamic threat", which are not unsimilar to the class differences in threat perceived by Americans. What she seems to miss though, are the reasons for disaffected Muslims in Europe, a phenomenon that is much less prevelent in the U.S. Ali is correct in stating that European nations have taken in Muslims, have educated and housed them. Perhaps that's the problem. In France large numbers of African and Muslim young men are on the dole and in state housing. A good number of them are highly educated but find themselves unable to get good jobs. Many young Muslims in Europe find themselves warehoused by an enlightened, socialist system that would never allow them to starve, but that also appears unable or unwilling to fully assimilate them. England has similar problems and faces an increasingly radicalized Islamic population.

The U.S. has not been as generous to Muslim immigrants. Ample government housing is not forthcoming, nor are welfare checks. Yet social mobility is more easily achieved and I think it's fair to say there is greater assimilation here.

Ali accuses European Muslims of being insular and resistant to assimilation. Is the insularity, I wonder, a response to a structure that doesn't easily assimilate otherness due to an long-standing national identity that didn't traditionally include Africans and Muslims? Sarah Palin et al, would like to have us believe that there is a cohesive national idenity in the U.S. that doesn't include large swaths of people, but Americans who live in urban areas know this isn't true at all. In the US the national identity is constantly morphing, the avereage American completely different today from the Anglo puritan that founded the country and we are better off for it. The fact that most of our ancestors didn't speak English presents no barrier to us feeling fully American.

Ali is correct in asserting that the threat in Europe is real. Radicalism is real, the toll, in honor killings and mass terrorist bombing in Spain and England, is real (yes, there are honor killings in Germany, England, and other European countries). These countries have to be vigilant about the threat of radical Islam. Is the banning of Islamic practices a way to counter the threat? I am not convinced.

I am generally sympathetic to the banning of minarets, since I am the kind of person who, if given the chance, would ban 90% of the architecture out there today. Minarets look like missiles, which never create a sense of peace or serenity. I feel differently about the banning of head scarves and whether such a measures is effective in assimilating European Muslims. In schools in France the hijab is banned, Germany is considering a similar ban among teaching staff.

I've been surprised that there's been so much uproar over the right to build minarets yet little protest over the right of a woman to cover her hair if she chooses to. Mind you, banning burquas while driving or in a court of law where identity has to be established makes complete sense. But why should a woman be compelled to show her hair if she feels it is immodest, especially in a culture that unfairly judges and rewards women based on their appearence and "attractiveness"? Plenty of women feel the male gaze is oppressive and some of them would like to opt out of that game. I am sympathetic to women who of their own free will choose to to cover themselves rather than be judged by men about their relative attractiveness. I even wonder sometimes if the headscarf debate is so heated because of a collective sense of entitlement to judge and observe a woman's appearence. There were whole decades during the reign of the Shah when the chador was banned in Iran. The "habit" wasn't broken, though. In fact, it came back with a vengance after the revolution, as a symbol of national pride. The same will happen when the hijab is banned in Europe. It's not a battle worth fighting when women are dying in honor killings, being forced into marriage against their will, and being mutilated.

Ali questions, along with other Europeans, whether it is possible to be a practicing Muslim and live in a liberal democracy, believing that Islam in fundamentally incompatable with democracy. Is it possible to be a Muslim and tolerate free speech, for example, when that speech is a cartoon lampooning the prophet Mohammed? Islam compells its adherents to challenge that which opposes Islam. Kirsi Ali was raised a devout Muslim and maintians that the directives in the Koran are clear- non-believers are to be compelled to become believers, submission to God is a directive.

Terrorism is a threat but so are a small accomodations, or so the argument goes, to bend liberal democratic values in order to accomodate socially conservative Muslim values. In England Sharia civil courts are becoming a popular way for Muslims to settle disputes. When I first read about Sharia civil courts, I was very much a supporter. After all, the state courts are overburdened and costly, if two people with a dispute would like to settle it before an imam, it brings relief to the courts, the state, and Joe taxpayer. In fact, Christian civil courts would be a great idea in the U.S. The churches enjoy tax exempt status, maybe they can "earn" it by unburdening our courts. It's crystal clear though, that the minute Sharia law creeps into the criminal system that's is when it would get, well, creepy. And this is what Ali and other people who share her concerns say, that the people who are drawn to radical mosques want to live by Sharia Law and will continue to push for it or dole out justice on their own according to Sharia principles. In Germany, where there has been a rash of honor killings, are courts willing to give harsh sentences to Muslim offenders when burdened with the Nazi legacy, there is fear of being branded xenophobic or racist?

I believe Europe has reason to fear. Not fear the "other" mind you, but rather, fear for losing something hard won. It was wasn't so long Europe struggled to rid itself of fascism. Now it enjoys the development is the natural result of liberal democracy- good health outcomes, wide access to education, a mostly fair justice system without capital punishment, free press, and a populace that places a high value on the rights of minorities and women. These achievements have to continue to be guarded and valued- but what is going wrong if the inherent worth of these freedoms isn't obvious or desirable to a segment of the population that is supposedly benefitting from them?

The Elephant and the Blind Men

2009-12-02T00:13:00.001-08:00

I read a very interesting blog post today over at the blog Carbuncle of the Sun that reminded me of that old parable of the blind men and the elephant.

It also reminded me of an art installation missed at the Whitney Biennial two years back. I have a good excuse for missing it because I live in San Francisco and the Whitney is in New York, but I still feel the loss acutely and think often of how amazing this video installation must have been.

Javier Tellez shot the video entitled "Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See.". He is also known for making a film in which he shot another artist out of a cannon over the U.S.-Mexico border while temporarily liberated patients from a Tijuana psychiatric facility cheered him on.

In "Letter on the Blind" he brought an elephant to an empty pool in Brooklyn and had six blind people feel the elephant and describe what they experienced. An art reporter for th e Boston Globe offers this reflection on the work:

"Téllez, who often works with mentally or physically challenged people, is improvising on a theme set out in an Indian parable known as "The Six Blind Men and the Elephant." Six wise but blind men approach an elephant and, each feeling a different part of its anatomy, come to different conclusions about what it is. The moral, presumably, is that one shouldn't leap to wrong-headed conclusions on the basis of scant evidence. But of course, like all the best parables, this one's flexible, and I don't think Téllez has anything particularly didactic in mind. Indeed, on the face of it, his film has all the hallmarks of an undergraduate psychology experiment: How do people react in unknown situations? With fear, or with openness and curiosity?

But what actually takes place in this series of extraordinary encounters between man and beast is so specific, so inimitable, so unpredictable, that it is impossible not to be moved.

One big man approaches confidently. With gliding, cherishing hands, he feels his way over the elephant's skin, finding its ears and face without strain, and whispering tender, awestruck things like "You're beautiful," "It's like the ocean in here," and "I hear you." Afterward, as he reflects in voice-over, he says, "You feel the power and the strength, but you also feel the tenderness." If asked to reflect on its own encounter with this man, you suspect the elephant might say something similar."

Although I missed Tellez's film, I was lucky enough to read the blog post that gives insight into evolutionary development of the senses- and the implications about what we perceive, how evolution abetted the cobbling together of the tools of perception, and what we are able to intuit from there. We are but blind men feeling an elephant......

Eddie Izzard- Death Star Canteen

2009-11-29T16:54:00.001-08:00

An animated Eddie Izzard skit. Darth Vader goes to the Death Star cafeteria for Penne Arrabiata and hilarity ensues.

It's Eddie Izzard's world, we're just living in it.

How to make Chia Fresca

2009-11-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

I've jumped on many a nutritional bandwagon in my day. I am always on the lookout for that miracle food that enhances mood, increases stamina and energy, and gives a little boost to the old libido.

To that end, I have bought kambucha, wolfberries, cocoa nibs, and spirulina.

Yes, I still occasionally drink kambucha but I have decided not to make it myself because my son is a master mess maker and breaker of things. I know for sure that the minute I throw a kambucha mother or mushroom in a vat of sweetened tea, he will find a way to get all over the kitchen floor, causing me to curse him and the kambucha. Better to splurge on the 3 bucks and buy a bottle every now and again at Rainbow grocery.

Wolfberries, or Goji, offer a wide array of health benefits, but they don't taste so great. I used to throw them in my tea, but I've become more of a coffee drinker lately, so the Gogi berries lay patiently in a bag on top of my kitchen cabinet.

Cocoa nibs are also great for you, but they taste is quite bitter. I used to eat them with honey, which tastes pretty good but then I asked myself "Do I really need the insulin response this is causing"? Cafe Gratitude, the annoying raw-foods hippy place on Harrison street, makes an amazing shake with cocoa nibs but the shake costs like 10 bucks. So I rarely ever buy it.

Spirulina- I honestly never got into that craze. Not sure why. But I did occasionally buy a Trader Joe's smoothie with spirulina in it. Then I stopped.

My new craze is Iskiate. Iskiate is made of chia seeds (yes, the same chia plant that you cultivate when you adopt a chia pet). The chia seeds can be made into a drink with limes and water. All you need to do is throw a teaspoon or two of the chia seeds into water, squeeze some lime juice in there and maybe some sugar (or in my case, stevia, because I am carb-phobic)

I recently read Christopher McDougall's book "Born to Run; a Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" (review to follow) which chronicles McDougall's investigation into the lives of the Taraumara tribe that lives in Mexico's Copper Canyon. The Taraumara have this amazing ability to run 60 miles non-stop wearing nothing but sandals on their feet. AND they drink Iskiate, which according to McDougall "is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they're superpacked with omega-3s, omega-6s, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and anti-oxidants. Aztec runners used to chomp chia seeds as they went into battle, and the Hopis fueled themselves on chia during their epic runs from Arizona to the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican state of Chiapas is actually named after the seed".

I was looking forward to buying some chia seeds, making Iskiate, drinking it once or twice and then leaving the seeds to rot on a high shelf in my kitchen. Turns out, though, that so far I really do like the stuff. It does become a bit gooey, but that's fine with me. It reminds me a bit of those tampioca drinks you get at Asian stores. I haven't noticed a super-human energy boost, but I'll continue on, anyway, at least until the next nutrition craze hits.

Douchebags and Defamation Suits

2009-11-27T22:26:00.001-08:00

It's not a bad thing to have lawyers in the family. I have a whopping four lawyers in my family of origin, and one of them alerted me to this interesting legal precedent.

Have you ever wanted to call some one a "douche" or a "douchebag" but refrained for fear of a defamation suit being brought against you?

Well fear no more. In the eyes of the law, it is up to a "douchebag" to prove that he is not, in fact, a douchebag. And that is hard to prove.

An excerpt of the finding is quoted here:

"To the extent that Mr. Kerr's action implied a statement that Mr. Torossian was "a 'douche' or 'douche bag,'" Gische wrote in Four Corners Communications Inc. v. Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company, 601166/09, it is an opinion which "is not capable of being proven false." Based on that finding, Gische found that the insurance company could not rely on a provision of the policy exempting defamation coverage of statements made "with knowledge of falsity."

The court found that calling some one a "douche" is matter of offering an opinion, not a statement of fact.

Read all about it here.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T14:10:00.001-08:00

There are two schools of thought about Thanksgiving. One is that it celebrates the swindle and massacres of indigenous peoples and therefore should not be observed. The second is that it is a great opportunity to come together with loved ones and take stock of one's bounty while sharing in fabulous food.

Both groups are "right" of course, and I happen to fall into group two, though to those in group one I say "more power to you" in a completely non-sarcastic way.

When I go into spiritual practice it results in a deep sense of gratitude. I don't know why this is, but I have observed it in others, too, across many different faiths, beliefs, practices. I know this sounds obnoxious, as if an atheist couldn't feel gratitude, and I am sorry. Maybe I should say that for me this seems to be the case. Others may not need god or gods at all to feel appreciation for what they have.

This year has had much cosmological focus for me and accordingly I found myself welling up with gratitude last night. I completed my shift at work with people who have been through the wringer, who were not given any compassion or kindness as kids, who were abused and exploited and consequently suffer to the point that normal functioning is difficult. I am remarkably lucky to have a family that treated me with compassion as a child and to have the opportunity to do the same with my beautiful children. I have no idea why I have been so lucky, but you better believe when I got home I poured libations not just for Hermes and Hestia as is my Wednesday practice, but for Tyche (Fortuna) and Nemesis as well. I feel like I am the luckiest person in the world.

I found this awesome quote on family and I keep coming back to it, all day long. It exemplifies a lot of what I am feeling and I would like to share it with you:

"It never takes longer than a few minutes, whenever they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That's what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and whiskey stills that you make of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire you light to keep away the beasts." -- Michael Chabon.

Happy thanksgiving.

Hearing Voices

2009-11-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

Today I will facilitate a group called "hearing voices". I work on-call for a residential treatment center for people in physciatric distress.

I first heard about "hearing voices" when I was working as a therapist intern for the harm reduction team at the Tenderloin Aids Resource Center (now known as Tenderloin Health). My supervisor asked me to start a group called "hearing voices". I was keen but my internship ended and I never got a chance to give it a go.

When I was asked to faciliate a group today, I decided it was time to give it a go. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I've started researching the concept and I've been really excited about what I have been finding. "Hearing Voices" groups appear to be popular in England and I have seen some great endorsements by people who attend the groups.

Around 3-4% of the overall population reports hearing voices. As a mental health practioner, the treatment of auditory hallucinations seems to boil down to the question of whether you try to disseude the voice hearer of her hallucinations or if collude with them by not challenging their reality. Most practitioners I know don't challenge the voices unless they seem to scare the hearer or otherwise interfer with their functioning. I have noticed that when clients talk about their voices, practioners can become uneasy, not wanting to either "collude" nor "challenge" the hearer. The client, sensing the uncomforabilty of the situation, often chooses not to bring up the voices at all.

In hearing voices groups, however, the voices are explored. Are they male or female? What is their message and is there a truth inside that message? How does one cope with a loud voice that is interfering with a conversation? How does one cope with an abusive voice?

I found a very interesting letter from a hearing voices group addressed to Oprah Winfrey in reponse to a show that featured a "schizophrenic" nine year old girl who hears voices. You can read it here.

Intervoice is the organization representing the hearing voices movement, they have a great blog and a webpage. The group, Mad Pride is also connected to this movement and is worth looking over as well.

Here is a list of historically important people who heard voices:

Socrates (philosopher)
Charlemagne (Emperor)
Caeser (Emperor)
Jesus (prophet)
Alexander the Great (Emperor)
Mohammed (prophet)
Teresa of Avila (religious mystic)
Joan of Arc (martyr)
Columbus (discoverer)
Martin Luther (religious leader)
Swedenbourg (philosopher/politician)
Calvin (religious leader)
John Wellesley (founder of Methodism)
Carl Jung (psychologist)
William Blake (artist)
Jonathan Swift (writer)
Mahatma Ghandi (politician/ pacifist)
Evelyn Waugh (writer)
Anthony Hopkins (actor)
Malcolm Lowry (writer)
Charles Dickens (writer)
Zoe Wannamaker (actress)
Sylvia Plath (poet)
Philip K. Dick (writer)
John Paul Sartre (writer)
Beethoven (composer)
Virginia Woolf (writer)

Christian Side Hug

2009-11-24T10:11:00.001-08:00

No, this isn't a joke. It is Christian rappers advocating, via bad rap, the Christian side hug. I learned today that the Christian side hug is an alternative to the frontal hug, that leads to genital touching and lustful feelings.

"I'm pure, I want to keep away from sin"

"Jesus never hugged"

I'm not really sure what more to say about this. I think the video speaks for itself..

Love the Painting- Can You Guess the Medium?

2009-11-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

These renderings really capture the mood of my favorite city in the world. Hard to believe they were rendered with an ipod app! Read all about it over at Apartment Therapy, my favorite website for indulging my obsession for checking out the interiors of other people's homes. By the way, I don't have an iphone so I don't know if it's hard to make something like this on one. I'm still quite impressed...

A belated Veteran's Day tribute to Ares and Ogum

2009-11-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

The Yoruba god of war is Ogum, (Ogun in the Spanish-speaking world) who resembles a hybrid between the Greek gods Ares and Hephaistos. He is the forger of iron and a warrior. Nations with railways, skyscrapers, all the modern, shiny, metal things that speak of modern development are said to have Ogum as their patron.

So it is that the United States- a country that loves war, shiny metal things, and innovation is a child of the Yoruba god of War, Ogum.

The Greek god Ares, people tell me, is given to anger and doesn't exactly embody ideals that man should aspire to, like rationality and self-control. I am sadly, woefully ignorant of the nature of Ares . I have a lot to learn. When I ponder Ares I find Ogum popping into my consciousness. Rightly or wrongly, I turn to Ogum for guidance on Ares.

A few weeks back Michael Pollan wrote an article in the New York Times about the sorry state of cooking in the U.S., where most people microwave and heat up food instead of chopping, sauteing, brining, steaming, poaching, dicing, glazing, roasting, and just plain cooking food.

The trend began after World War 2- when the army invented instant foods for the battlefield which made their way into modern kitchens. When you make a Duncan Haines cake from a boxed cake mix, you are utilizing an innovation of war. Also when you are cooking Spam.

When you use Google maps, you are using an innovation created by war.

Ditto for cell phones.

And hairbrushes.

And microwave ovens

And countless other things.

Right now the army is developing a bandage made of shrimp (!) that instantly stops hemorrhaging. The VA is working on treatment for chronic pain, for missing limbs, for neurological problems related to head trauma. The Iraq war, in my opinion, was wrong and misguided, but when it is over there will be entirely new medical technologies that will benefit us in peacetime.

War is one of the mothers of invention, and therefore, in my thinking, so is Ogum and Ares. The first human to forge iron in the fire probably did so in an attempt to make weapons. Of course, once that war was over there were many practical uses for smithed hard metals. And the rest was history.

In addition to innovation, the gods of war embody the type of strength you draw on when you need to do something and feel tired or unable- the inner strength you draw on to continue marching forward. Inner discipline and hard work are attributes I associate with gods of war. So are courage and bravery.

Recently I went out to collect seed from native plants on San Bruno mountain- the plants are usually scarce but last year there was a fire on the mountain and now they are back in abundance. I am sure the mountain looked sadly destroyed after the blaze, yet there was a renewal in it's wake. From destruction comes renewal.

Democracy is a Pagan Value- My New Strange Bedfellow

2009-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Politics breeds strange bedfellows. Remember uberfemminist Andrea Dworkin's bizarre alliance with fundamentalist Christians in her battle against pornography? And those same fundie Christians alliance with Israel?

My new strange bedfellow is a Pakistani writer named M.A. Niazi. Today I stumbled across Mr. Niazi's essay entitled "Paganism Without Idols", in which he puts forth the idea that the modern liberal democracy is a product of pagan values, first articulated and implemented the polytheist ancient Greeks. I know, Mr. Niazi! But just try telling that the the blustery American Christian politicians who try to claim that democracy is a Christian value, inspired by Christian culture and Christian ideals!

Mr. Niazi observes that the laws that guided Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike were the laws presented by Moses and authority behind those laws was God, and the fear of God. Yet during the era of the enlightenment, Christians began to look to ancient polytheist philosophers for guidance about how to create a society that is defined by liberal ideas- Justice guided by natural law became more important than justice guided by God's law.

" These were ultimately borrowed from the French Revolution, from its Rights of Man, so that Revolution, even though it was predated by the American, became the seminal Western Revolution, with all of its rigmarole of a new calendar and a new religion, with its virulent anti-clericalism. Western man no longer was willing to be judged by the Almighty, as was Islamic man; and that was the main difference. The Afterlife might have been foretold, but it included a Judgement according to a code, which had been revealed through the Prophets."

According to Mr. Niazi, that is where Christians and Jews went all wrong. We are no longer afraid of God and hell, he says. We worship money and capitalism. The Muslims are the only adherents left who live according to revealed religion as told to Moses.

Mr. Niazi may be my strange bedfellow, but that doesn't mean I find him very likable. He isn't the kind of guy you would want to have to beer with (not that he would drink one) and he appears to have big grudges against Hindus and their "idols" (India is the largest democracy in the world and democracy=paganism). But I appreciate the point he is making because it is a point I have made before and it bears repeating. A society founded entirely on Christian values would not look like a modern democracy, but rather a Taliban-run operation.

I have posted this quote by Michael Slate before, but I can't help but post it again because it is a good one:

"In reality, neither Jewish nor Christian traditions know anything of the ideas of natural rights and social contract found in Hobbes, Gassendi and Locke. That's because those ideas were inspired by themes found in non-Christian Greek and Roman philosophy. Ideas of the social contract were anticipated in the fourth and fifth centuries BC by the sophists Glaucon and Lycophron, according to Plato and Aristotle, and by Epicurus, who banished divine activity from a universe explained by natural forces and taught that justice is an agreement among people neither to harm nor be harmed. The idea that all human beings are equal by nature also comes from the Greek sophists and was planted by the Roman jurist Ulpian in Roman law: "quod ad ius naturale attinet, omnes homines aequales sunt" -- according to the law of nature, all human beings are equal."

Teen Fiction. Oh. My. Gods.

2009-11-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

On Saturday I spent an hour or so perusing new teen fiction releases over at Barnes and Noble. I have decided to put a pony in the race over at NaNoWriMo by attempting to write a short novel targeted at the teen and tween market. So my time spent at Barnes and Noble was an attempt at a bit of "research".

I enjoyed the premise of this fun teen book, which chronicles a year in the life of Phoebe, a teenage track star who is uprooted from her California home and moved to an island in Greece during her senior year by her mother who has fallen in love with a Greek guy.

She soon comes to discover that all her new high school friends are descendants of Greek Gods! The book is either going to be a delightful romp or deeply offensive to my Hellenist beliefs, I'm not sure which. I am hoping that there is a subplot in which Hermes gives her some pointers to beef up her mad track skills. I regretfully did not buy the book, but I still might pick it up on amazon.com.

Another discovery while pouring through the latest teen fiction- Vampires are hot, hot, hot right now. There were hundreds of titles, but my favorite by far had to be "The Vampire is Just not That Into You". The darkest vampire book appeared to be one entitled "Let the Right One In" which is set in a housing block in Sweden and was penned by the Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. I am waiting to get the film adaptation through the mail on my Netflix account- the film has gotten some good reviews and who doesn't enjoy a good Swedish vampire flick every now and again?

I was happy to see that the V.C. Andrew's series, "Flowers in The Attic" are still popular and flying off the shelves. I couldn't help open one of the books and reading a few paragraphs which lead me to wonder why teen girls so love these deeply creepy books about an incestuous brother and sister duo locked into an attic by a sadistic mother who is trying to poison them and their younger sibs with arsenic-laden meals. *shivers*

Lars Von Trier- Misogynist or Genius?

2009-11-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

"We've talked about it in letters
And we've talked about it on the phone
But how you really feel about it
I don't really know
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?
Misogynist? Genius? Misogynist? Genius?
Misogynist? Genius? Misogynist? Genius?
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?(x4)
Alcoholic? Messiah? Alcoholic? Messiah?
Alcoholic? Messiah? Alcoholic? Messiah?
What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?(x4)
Genius? Misogynist? Alcoholic?"

- Le Tigre "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes"

I feel obligated to give full disclosure about my position on Lars Von Trier right from the get-go. I can't stand him and his films piss me off. There, I said it. If you google the phrase "I hate Lars Von Trier" you will find a whole lot of folks like myself who have taken to the internets to express their particular hatred of/disgust with the Danish director and the films he made.

I do, however, find Von Trier interesting as a phenomenon. There is something intriguing about his ability to get under the viewer's skin. My dislike of him borders on obsessive (which is why I know what happens when you Google 'I hate Lars Von Trier' -an activity I engaged in last night well beyond my bedtime). During my search I encountered a very interesting anti-trend among his detractors. Many of them will defend some of his films and completely lambaste others, yet there seems to be no quantifiable and coherent agreement about which of the films are "bad" and which ones are "good". Here were some typical observations: "Dogville was a wonderful film, but 'Breaking the Waves' and 'Dancer in the Dark' were horrible" and in response, "What do you mean? "Breaking the Waves" was fantastic, 'Dogville' was the very worst". Maybe the truth is that Von Trier's work is like a sneaky and toxic carcinogen- the damage is cumulative- the body can only tolerate so much before the tumors begin to take hold.

I, too, fall into this category. I saw "Breaking the Waves" about a year after it was released and was impressed with Emily Watson's performance. I liked the film, though I was unsure what it was all supposed to "mean". After friends whose opinions I trusted gave me hearty recommendations for the film "Dancer in the Dark', I checked it out. After watching it I felt like my friends, and Von Trier, had lured me into some sort of terrible ambush. I can truly say that I still want that two hours and a half of my life back. After watching "Dancer" I become a sworn enemy of Von Trier and everything he stands for or, more accurately, seeks to to tear down, destroy, and take a piss on.

I will say this for Von Trier- he coaxes good performances out of his cast. Even as I felt hatred for Bjork's character in "Dancer", I was impressed with her ability to act. But I was disgusted with the agony he put his character through. As a friend on a social networking site observed, 'it was like he was saying 'OK, now you have to watch me crush the cute kitten's skull AGAIN'. An argument can be made that capital punishment should make us feel uncomfortable and that was is what makes the film a work of powerful social commentary, but you can lead me to that conclusion by the hand rather than dragging me there on a spiky chain. It's a fact that capital punishment in America has created victims, some of them innocent. To my knowledge few of them have been blind single mothers of children with chronic illnesses. A more compelling story would portray a morally ambiguous character guilty of heinous crimes who nonetheless leaves the viewer uncomfortable about the death penalty (I am thinking about a film like "Dead Man Walking".) But then we wouldn't get to see the kitten's skull crushed, would we?

The social commentary Von Trier makes with "Dancer" is more like a caricature of flaws in the American justice system rather than an honest accounting of them. But what do you expect from a person that has never visited the United States and who has barely left Denmark? I don't have to live in Saudi Arabia to comment about Wahabism and it's detriment to the status of women, but if I were going to make a film about one such fictitious woman's life, you can be certain that I would visit Saudi Arabia first and talk to Saudi women on their own turf before I would start rolling the cameras.

The more disturbing trend in Von Trier's films, though, is the portrayal of a long- suffering female protagonist who is tortured, beaten, and humiliated throughout the narrative with no sign of redemption or vindication at the end of the ordeal. This trend is what has landed Von Trier in the camp of directors accused of misogyny, perhaps rightly so. Plenty of women find themselves wondering if Von Trier "enjoys" inflicting pain on female characters over and again. Just as many women seem to enjoy his films, though, describing his characters as "strong females" who endure injustice at the hands of God, gang-rapists, fate, and the justice system. Plenty of films seem disinterested in the female character at all, unless used as a romantic device, whereas women are forefront and prominent in Von Trier's work. I suppose the question is 'it better to be martyred for all to see if the alternative is to be ignored?'

Von Trier's latest is a film called "Antichrist", and it premiered at the Cannes to toxic reviews. From what I read, there is a scene in the film in which a woman mutilates her own genitals with a razor. I won't comment on the scene, because I haven't seen it and feel that such things need to be evaluated within the context of the entire film. Hearing about the mutilation, though, does nothing to convince me that I won't be treated to the same ambush "Dancer" staged. No, thanks.

"Forget all the excuses, `the childish fascination` and `the all embracing humility`, for this is my confession, black on white: I, Lars von Trier, am but a simple masturbator of the silver screen."

-Lars Von Trier

Bowie on Pixies

2009-11-11T10:18:00.001-08:00

I saw the Pixies at the Fox Theater in Oakland last night. Since I am not a music critic I will let David Bowie, who knows a thing or two about music, explain why the Pixies are so good. I love when he uses the word "texture" to describe their music. Yes, there is a heavy, beautiful texture overlaying all their songs. Maybe this "texture" is what saves the Pixies songs from slipping into the shmaltz of pop, while maintaining the infectiousness of pop.

I've never been to a concert where a band has played an entire album before, but that is exactly what the Pixies did last night, playing every song from "Doolittle" in the very order it appears on the album. Some people might object that this makes for a very "studio" experience, but in this case it's O.K. "Doolittle" is a flawless album, the order of the songs shouldn't be disrupted and none should be left out.

I want to give a shout out for the Fox Theater here, which has to be the most beautiful venue I've ever stepped in. It makes San Francisco's Warfield theater (where I used to work as a cocktail waitress) look like a pit (which it is). The Fox has two huge, regal statues on either side of the stage. I wasn't sure if the figures were Buddhas because they looked like Poseidon. I decided they were a new, fusion god named Posudda or Buddhsiedon. The statues have green, glowing eyes and sit with a regal equanimity looking over the entire audience. It's nice to be in a theater with it's own patron god(s).

Another shout out here to the Pixies for their staging. I enjoyed watching clips from Luis Brunel's "L'age D'or" behind the band. Overhead, they had a sculptural moving tubing piece that looked like an air duct lit from within or a huge Japanese paper lantern.

I will be sure to catch them if they come through town again, even if I already know what the playlist is going to be.

Painting of Furies Hounding Gang Member

2009-11-10T11:56:00.001-08:00

Or Orestes. O.K., technically, it's Orestes, but employing suspension of disbelief powers, we can imagine that this is a thugging, murdering, Sureno or Norteno being hounded by the Furies.

For a similar image of Bernie Madoff being hounded by the furies, click here.

This painting was rendered by William Adolphe Bouguereau. Orestes' crime was matricide, a crime that particularly enrages the furies.

Wherein I Ask Nemesis to Curse Local Gangbangers

2009-11-09T08:07:00.001-08:00

Just about any Mission-dweller is familiar with this sign, located on a building on 18th street between Dolores and Guerrero Streets.

There are so many temptations for blocking a garage on 18th---you may be tempted run into the wonderful BiRite grocery and buy a 5 dollar organic apple and bottle of kambucha. Or you may be tempted to dash in to Tartine Bakery for some ginger scones and Gruyere croissant.

Tempting as it is, I wouldn't advise blocking this chick's garage. No kambucha in the world is worth having a curse of the ancients fall upon your head.

But what happens when some one does, in fact, deserve to have the wrath of the ancients fall upon their heads? Well, that's where Nemesis comes in.

Recently some gang bangers riding the 9 Muni bus struck up a conversation with Christoph er Borgzinner. He is a 19 year old actor who portrayed a gang member in the recent independent local film La Mission. They asked if he was in a gang because he was wearing read sneakers. No, he explained, he is not even from the Mission (he grew up in the neighboring Portola district). He was only passing through the Mission on the way to an acting class downtown. Then the gang bangers beat him severely. He was hospitalized with multiple face fractures. Bizarrely, this is the second time this young man was jumped by gangs in the Mission.

There have been far worse crimes in the Mission perpetrated by gangs. Two double homicides have happened within a year of each other, both within watching distance of my house (I will never forget watching them load the dead bodies on the meat truck. They were moving so slow I knew the guys on the gurneys had to be dead).

I know there are deep sociological reasons for this sort of violence. I know these kids grew up without a lot of the things I got in childhood. I even realize that I have white privilege and therefore don't have to feel the same fear young Latino men feel when walking through the neighborhood, so I have less right to be indignant. Yet I have become indignant.

This recent crime makes me question whether I can allow my son (who is Latino and looks like a cute little homie with corn-row hair and baggy pants) to wear his favorite Giants sweatshirt (red and blue, the two forbidden colors) on the bus home. Why are these knuckleheads dictating what we can wear? Why do I have to leave the neighborhood I have adored for 16 years? Are these fuckers going to get away with murder?

Nemesis is the Greek goddess of retribution. I am calling on her to bring the wrath of the ancients on the heads of all the gang members who harass, beat up, threaten, and kill all the fine citizens of the Mission. May they be cursed, may they be dogged for their days by the furies, may they know justice and if justice means punishment, may they know punishment. I do not know the means to bring about justice. If justice means they will be killed, or incarcerated, or have a full turn-around and become benevolent young people who dedicate their lives to improving the lives of others, then I hope justice be done. I implore you, Nemesis.

May justice be done.

Better Late than Never- Photos From the Day of the Dead

2009-11-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Heart with many Arteries

Fallen Homies

This year was the best Day of the Dead ever. I laughed, I cried, I watched the sun come up, I heard people I never met before tell of the people they loved who died.

One girl brought her own small shrine to her brother. I was photographing it when she told me his story. He was recently graduated from high school when he was killed by a drunk driver. She honors his memory by never, ever, riding in a car with a person who has been drinking. We both poured libations on the ground to her brother Michael and moved on.

There were shrines to Michael jackson, to everyone killed in the war in Sri Lanka. A young physician killed by breast cancer. Cesar Chavez.

I, of course, left a note to my ex-husband, my grandparents, and dear Emperor Julian.

A strange footnote is that I woke up at precisely 3AM, unable to go back to sleep. That has happened before on the day of the dead. I assume my spirits, who I invoked after all, want to be kept company. Only fair I thought, so I dressed, came out into the living room and watched the sun come up. When it did, I thanked all the spirits for coming to visit and asked them to come again next year.

Halloween in the Mission

2009-11-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

You think your neighborhood is cool? Well do you have Krishna devotees playing electric guitar on the street corner on Halloween, giving out candy to the kids? Didn't think so.

I love the Mission.

The Worst-When Death Isn't a Party

2009-11-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

Today I will make my altar for the dead in anticipation of the day of the dead party and procession. I spent some time last night going through pictures of my son's father. He will take his place on the altar, along with my grandparents.

I have never lost parent and consider myself very lucky. I can't pretend to know what that feels like. I am at the age where more and more friends are losing their parents and of course, I am the parent of a boy who lost a parent.

I recommend this zine, entitled "The Worst". It is a compilation of essays about grieving and loss. The authors tell about loss, and the things they found helpful afterwards. Included is an essay I wrote for it about my son's grieving process, and the question of how to help a dying person in pain.

To be honest, I feel like I've fallen down in my role as a friend to people who have experienced loss. I think back to times over the years when people close to me have lost a loved one and I realize I could have, should have done more. I don't think I am unique in this. We don't know how to be helpful or how to react when our friends lose some one they love. Luckily, we don't get a lot of practice in this sort of thing. But that doesn't mean we can't get better at it. That is why I liked this zine so much. The writers were very specific in describing how they felt they were let down, or what they felt was helpful from their friends after experiencing loss.

As far as my son's grieving process, I feel like I've been there for him throughout it. I'm not sure if that's enough, though. Kids aren't into talking about feelings and don't always have a lot of insight into their emotions. I really felt that I have made a "safe space" for my son to be expressive about his dad, I have tried to keep his father's memory alive through pictures, treasured objects his dad once owned, stories about who he was. But my son has been resistant to joining groups of kids who have have gone through loss. He hates the idea of therapy and doesn't talk about his dad with friends. I fear he has been isolated in his grief. I was conflicted about whether to force him to attend a grief group but ultimately decided not to force it.

I was surprised that there seemed to be a sense of shame from him after his dad died. I realized, however, that the shame springs from a sense of "difference". Most kids his age have not lost a parent. Kids don't want to be different or stand out. Any form of difference can be fodder for a bully who likes to ridicule. My son never reported teasing about his loss, but I have heard of other kids who have been teased for it. I could tell that the death made him feel vulnerable and he didn't want anyone in his class to know about it or focus on it.

Barbara Ehrenreich's new book "Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" is about breast cancer and pinpoints the seemingly unique American idea that death is a defeat. There does seem to be this nasty and insidious idea in our culture that if one succumbs to death it may be because they didn't fight hard enough or didn

't think "positively". I hope Erlenreich's book gives voice to those who resist this idea, though revolt against it was also articulated well in the play "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner. Kushner was inspired to resist the the popularity of health and positive thinking gurus like Louise Hay, who were very popular with some victims of AIDS and HIV in the eighties and nineties.

I know people who feel they have benefited from the "positive thinking" regimen in their "battle" with cancer and AIDS. I don't seek to deride them or deny them a voice. But the "battle" metaphor doesn't work well for everyone, and shouldn't be pushed as the norm. Personally, I would like there to be more focus on the carcinogenic environmental causes of cancer and less focus on the idea that one's emotional state is a dramatic influence.

The Spiral Dance Ritual

2009-10-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

If you are in San Francisco this Saturday (October 31st) you might want to check this out.

Reclaiming has been sponsoring a Spiral Dance to celebrate Samhain for nearly three decades.

Personally, I have not been to Spiral Dance. I usually observe the Day of the Dead in the Mission district on November 2nd by going out on the procession and having a party at my home. I hope someday I can make it to the Spiral Dance. I heard it is very special.

Samhain is my favorite time of year. When I was a kid I could really "feel" the energy of the season but there was no narrative to describe what I was feeling. There was the great fun of Halloween, but I sensed that it was a highly mystical time of year. Now I know that the veil between worlds is thinnest at this time of year and all the things I felt as a child make sense.

More on spiral dance and the reason for the season over at Hecate. Check it out here.

Make Mexican Sugar Skulls-Celebrate Your Dead

2009-10-30T13:54:00.001-07:00

I made Mexican sugar skulls with my son last night to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is observed in San Francisco's Mission district on Monday, November 2nd, from 7-9pm. It is my favorite community gathering of the year.

Every year on day of the dead I have a party and serve curried pumpkin soup, pumpkin lasagne, mould wine, and other goodies. People drop by and leave little notes for their dearly departed on the altar I create in my

home. Then we go outside with our warm mould wine and candles to join the crowd in their

procession through the Mission. The procession

ends in Garfield Park, where artists construct many, many altars to honor the dead. Some of the altars are political in nature, honoring all the women brutally murdered in Mexican border towns, or honoring people who died of AIDS. Others are specific and personal, with photos conveying the love and loss of a vital looking man smiling on his bike, or a grandmother in her home surrounded by religious objects.

To make sugar skulls you will need sugar, meregue powder, water, and a sugar mold.

All these items can be purchased at mexicansugarskulls.com. Detailed instructions are also provided on the site. I originally considered taking photos of me and my son making them, but then I saw they had step-by-step photos on mexicansugarskulls.com. Check out the photo above--is their anyone in the world cuter than that adorable hipster Frida Kahlo lookalike? I decided it would be

more fun for readers to take instruction from her. Plus it would be less work for me.

I've noticed plenty of sugar-skull tattoos in the last few years. It's a lovely subject for a tattoo and allows for a goth-like spookiness paired with bright color combinations.

If you live in San Francisco, skull-making items can be purchased at Casa Bonampak on Valencia St. Happy Day of the Dead!

Brookfield Homes Endangered Species Habitat Destruction

2009-10-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of the endangered Mission Blue butterfly, a resident of San Bruno Mountain. The Callippe Silverspot butterfly is also a resident of San Bruno mountain and is about to become further encroached on by a new development there.

Brookfield homes will cost between 1-2 million dollars each. They will be built on land crucial to the survival of this already endangered butterfly. For reasons I don't understand, the Silverspot was removed from the endangered species list in June of this year.

This morning I met with Ken McIntire of San Bruno Mountain Watch and we chatted for around an hour. I was supposed to start filming today ( I am supposedly making a film about the Mission Blue Butterfly) but I decided to meet with Ken and get some information first.

Ken told me that Brookfield Homes, which is not supposed to start grading due to environmental concerns around the Callippe Silverspot butterfly, went in and scraped the land. This is a common developer's trick- they scrape the land , thus causing all the damage in advance of the hearing so that in effect the damage is already done and they can claim there are no more butterflies on the development spot. San Bruno Mountain Watch is hoping that Brookfield can be made to replace the habitat that was scraped, but let's face it- it's nearly impossible to replicate a botanical topography that grew in an organic manner. The scraped land will never be the same, and it is obstructing a greenway path that the Silverspot needs to travel to get to the Johnny Jump Up, a species of violet and a plant crucial to it's reproductive process. The Silverspot will not fly over homes or roads.

I enjoyed my talk with McIntire and I was honest with him about my film. Part of me, I told him, feels ambivalent about endangered species like the Mission Blue and the Callippe Silverspot. I want to convince myself that it matters that these butterflies will be gone forever if action isn't taken. I want to see the world from a more animist point of view and a less Abrahamic P.O.V. that already informs how I and most Americans see nature- as "dead", as resources to be used by man in some kind of old-testament dominion scheme. I told him I had attempted an animist P.O.V. in the past and found it difficult, and that I also intended to interview Derrick Jensen as part of the project, hoping that he could help me in my reorientation.

Ken suggested two books to me, one which he lent me there on the spot. He handed me Edward O. Wilson's "The Diversity of Life" which I am assuming makes a case for species diversity and interdependence. He also recommended Thom Hartman's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", a suggestion I accepted enthusiastically because I have great respect for Thom Hartmann's show on Air America Radio.

I hope I can keep momentum going on the plight of the butterflies and start to become someone who is useful in some way to San Bruno Mountain Watch. They organize twice monthly work parties on the mountain to pull up invasive non-native plants so maybe I can join them weed out some predatory invaders.

The struggle with Brookfield homes and their allies in the town counsel and with the Fish and Wild Game Service is far from over. More reports to follow.

Some personal thoughts on Homelessness and Reciprocity

2009-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Increasingly I find myself engaged in duties relating to my role as a representative payee to Chuck, a homeless man in my neighborhood. As his rep payee I get his social security disability checks, cash them, and disburse money to him. Disbursements are on a daily basis these days.

Chuck is the boyfriend of Kelli, another homeless friend of mine who I have known for 4 years or so. I have been meaning to write about Kelli for some time, but I always end up putting it off. I feel like the ending of the story of Kelli and me is still up in the air. How can I write a story with no ending yet? Something tells me that when that story ends it will be dramatic and final.

There have already been some dramatic turns in our relationship. My landlord threatened to evict me over my friendship with her once (I'm still housed), my neighbors stopped talking to me for some time (the feeling was mutual) and Kelli threatened to burn down my house (I knew she wouldn't do it and she didn't).

The truth is that Kelli is a ball of chaos and that her particular chaos infects anyone who spends anything beyond a few minutes at a time with her. Boundaries with her need to be continually negotiated, drawn, and maintained. Our relationship makes me ask myself questions about what friendship is, what I expect to get from it, and whether I am, in fact, getting what is needed in order to define the relationship with Kelli as a "friendship". It has made me realize that friendship is built on getting something in return for time invested with a person. In any friendship there is an exchange and mutual benefits.

I spent a good part of my day yesterday waiting to meet with a social security worker about Chuck's case. I got a letter from SSI last week stating that we both needed to come in and answer questions about his continued eligibility as a person who is disabled and entitled to support from the U.S. government in the form of social security checks.

Chuck, Kelli, and I spent hours waiting in hard chairs. It wasn't hard for me, I brought a copy of the New yorker magazine and my newest read, a book called "Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture". For Kelli and Chuck, though, the wait was nearly unbearable. They bought malt liquors from the corner store before we went in a chugged them down within 2 minutes. We had an interesting debate before going in about the merits of Steel Reserve vs. St. Ides brands (Chuck likes St. Ides, Kelli likes Steel Reserve).

I knew that once we went in there, though, the fun would end and there would be a dragging of time, a ton of kvetching and fidgeting. It is hard for them to sit without liquor for over 30 minutes at a time. On my first visit to a social security office (this was my third visit with them) Chuck and I waited 2.5 hours for his number to be called. When it finally was called, he was outside, chugging malt liquor. We missed our place in line. I told them I wasn't willing to make that wait again and that they would have to find some one else to be their payee. In the long run I relented, though, and went back to that tubercular wait room, and I assumed responsibility as his payee.

Yesterday, despite visible discomfort, they waited it out. After 3 hours or so, a worker finally called us in to answer questions about whether Chuck had gotten a job or acquired any property. No and no, we answered. Then we were free to go.

I am niggardly about my time, and I guard it very selfishly. I currently pay a lot of money to a preschool to have free time to write and attend other interests. I feel guilt about the money spent on the preschool and about my son's pleas to let him stay with me all day. When I have to give some of that time to neighborhood folks, I start to feel resentful. As we left social security I knew I would have to pick up my kids from school right away for orthodontist appointments, dinner making and such. The day was lost. Not much had been achieved short of reading "Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture" and helping Chuck keep his social security.

I decided I would go straight to my son's school for pick up and let Chuck and Kelli walk back to our neighborhood, which was about 15 blocks away. They kvetched about it and my resentment grew. I could have given them a ride, but I was determined not to, my feeling being something along the lines of "Haven't I done enough for you today already?" and "What the hell else do you have to do today, you, with obligations to nobody!?" I withdrew 40 dollars from my bank account, gave it to them, and booted them out of the car, protests notwithstanding.

I have many homeless people on my block and I have worked with homeless people for years as a social worker. I have loved some of these people and I have become exasperated with them. Chuck and Kelli are unable to make it in the paper world (the name I give the world of paychecks, identification cards, rental agreements and such). They have emotional problems from being raised in foster homes, they have anxiety, they are severe alcoholics, their behavior is disinhibited and bizarre, Kelli has an explosive temper that I attribute to a severe head injury she received as a child. She also has a personality disorder. I want to have hope for them but I am unable to. The paper world requires tremendous social grooming to fit in. They aren't groomed, and they appear be ungroomable. To some extent they are comfortable in their own world of sleeping outside, prostituting, drinking, and getting by. But I fear they can't be long for that world, either.

I think I understand why people get angry when they have to step over homeless people in the street and wind up complaining that they are somehow the victims of homeless people's mere presence. I think we feel the heavy weight of the obligation and want to unburden ourselves of it. "What do you want from me? A dollar? A coat? My fucking house? A bed in a rehab?". The needs seem endless. If we stop to consider the need, we begin to feel drained. We could easily give away every single thing we have in material terms and in the form of personal time and it would barely make a dent. In fact, we would end up homeless ourselves. So we give a dollar, or not, and step over that person and wish we didn't have to think about them.

I have found my mind wondering to the question of "what can Kelli do for me?" I have given Kelli various things over the years and quite a bit of my time. Sometimes I surprise myself by hearing myself ask, "I wonder if she could help me with the yard"? or "Could she help me with childcare?". The answer to those questions is "NO!" of course she can't help with those things, she is way too disorganized, but why am I wondering? Is it because I feel like I'm giving without getting back? Is the nature of most human relationships that we are seeking tangible benefits? Is it an equation of "you give me this and I'll give you that?". I hate to think it, but it seems to be the case.

Kelli, being a human and knowing the nature of friendship, has given me things over the years, too, though this practice has begun to wane on her side. Maybe she knows I have to throw out stuffed animals she leaves for my son because of my fear of bed bugs. Maybe she is more focused on giving to Chuck right now, which is normal. He is everything to her and I am happy she is finally in a relationship and less lonely.

Something keeps me in Kelli's orbit, and it isn't the used stuffed animals she used to leave. I genuinely like her. I admire her tenacity, her survival instincts, her sense of humor. Her indifference to the concerns of us people occupying the paper world are refreshing. But maybe I am exploiting her? Do I like hanging around her for the sake of 'slumming'? Does her continuous drama keep me amused? Have I been reluctant to write about her for fear that I am using her as writing material? I remember the wife of a medical social worker telling me about her husband. "He likes trouble " she said. Am I a person who just likes trouble?

Kelli is getting married on Saturday and she has made it clear that she wants my help. She has no plans or means to buy a dress or shower or get dressed up. I find myself feeling fear about the wedding and her hints that she expects a night in a hotel as a gift, help with a dress, and someone to stand with her. How much, I wonder, am I willing to give?

Nikki McClure, I am your Fan

2009-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

I love the art of Nikki McClure. She captures the whimsical moments of parenthood and the seasons of life with her renderings made of paper, etched with her magic exacto knife.

The simple contrast of positive and negative space is powerful.

Last night there was an opening for her at the zine store, Needles and Pens. I am glad I missed it because that space is super small and McClure's fans are numerous. I bet it was mobbed.

Since Needles is close to my son's school, though, I am going to try to pop in for a visit this week.

November is National Novel Writing Month. Are You Up For the Challenge, Bitches?

2009-10-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the obnoxious title of this post, really I do. It's just that I am using the voice I use to encourage myself to write. And that voice is relentless, mean, withholding, and strangely ineffective. I don't know any better. I always think the only way to get myself to write is by berating, telling myself I'm just a big, flabby, lazy pussy. But it doesn't work.

Hey, you know what I hear works sometimes? Deadlines. That's why National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was developed, to give a deadline to those suffering from writer's inertia. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month, starting on November 1st. Anyone who writes a 50,000 word piece wins (no, you can't write the same word over and over again, but why would you want to? What are you, some kind of wise ass?)

Yes, a lot of horrible novels are the product of Nanowrimo. So are some publishable novels. The goal is to get you write. It's about process, not product. Who cares what the destination is, it's all about getting outside and going for the ride.

So, are you up for the challenge, bitches?

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

2009-10-22T14:15:00.001-07:00

I hopped on my bike alongside my husband today for a ride up Twin Peaks. While we were riding (and panting) around diamond Heights I heard a hella loud squawking up above. My husband shouted, "Look, it's the parrots!" I looked up and, sure enough, there were around 30 green feathered parrots flying overhead. I have lived in San Francisco for sixteen years. Before today I never saw the parrots.

Whenever I force myself to run or ride my bike outside I am rewarded with a transcendent experience. Sometimes I am able to run further than I thought I could. Sometimes a great idea comes to me. Sometimes I see wild parrots.

Our brain tries to trick us into thinking that conserving energy is in our best interest. "Chill out here, Project Runway is on," my brain coaxes.

Putting energy out in the world brings returns. I should generate energy, expend it, share it. I should not go outside in the spirit of competition, but rather in the spirit of participation. I am alive and I can make my body sweat and make my heart beat fast. I can make my body take me to places where wild parrots fly.

I will never need a gym membership as long as I have running shoes and a bike.

Christian Domestic Discipline and Jimmy Carter

2009-10-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

All my life I have wanted to do a blog entry that linked Jimmy carter to kinky sex.

I think I have figured out a way to do it, but it will require the telling of a tangential story. Luckily I know my readers and I am certain they wouldn't want anything dumbed down for them. They can follow my meanderings from the Southern Baptist Convention to the bedrooms of fundamentalist Christian couples who engage in, ahem, "loving physical discipline".

Let's start our meandering, shall we? Apparently Jimmy Carter has quit the Southern Baptist Convention, citing sexism. Friends who know more than I do tell me that the SBC has issued a decree (or whatever it is Southern Baptists issue) stating that wives must be subservient to their husbands. Some of these friends in the know tell me that a few of these elders have even gone so far as to assert that husbands have the right to physically discipline their wives. Carter issued a statement against this sort of thing wherein he outlines some of the saddest injustices carried out against women worldwide. It makes good copy. Carter is correct, of course, and he has been struggling with the convention since 2000.

So let's skip to the sexy part now.

Some time ago I stumbled upon this website which is dedicated to (and run by) couples who are interested in Christian domestic discipline, or, men who spank their wives because God wants it that way.

I am embarrassed to say that after reading the content I felt offended and appalled. I put on my buttinsky social worker hat and went about trying to "help" the women in the forums by informing them how sick and misguided they are. Then I went to bed.

Yet somewhere along the way in the days that followed I began to rethink my crusade. After all, I live in a place that positively celebrates most forms of bondage and discipline sex play. Heck, I let all kinds of strangers spank me at burningman just for the fun of it and would be appropriately polite to anyone's mistress or master if I were introduced to one at a cocktail party, art opening, or playdate. (hasn't happened yet, but it's bound to sooner or later)

So why was I so very rankled by these folks? Two reasons- one, they are Christian fundamentalists and fundies stick in my craw and two, I forgot that this is consensual and that it is essentially kink. The fact that these women used the bible to "justify" the kink freaked me out initially. Now I realize that the bible is just a prop for these guys, like a riding crop or a blindfold or something. These are people who love to be disciplined by their husbands and by their God. I don't get it, but it makes them happy and I should have just left them alone fer chrissakes.

I checked back in on the website recently and discovered that their discussion forums are now closed and available to members only (no surprise given my reaction and the negative feedback from readers like me). I also discovered that the site now provides links to non-religious sites that address the needs of adults who like to be disciplined.

Next time I decide to go on a crusade, can somebody just tell me to think about it for a few weeks first?

I am not sure what Jimmy Carter would think of Christian domestic discipline. I am assuming the Southern Baptist Convention would approve.

By the way, Mike Huckabee has signed onto the Southern Baptist Convention's decree or statement or whatever it is that states that wives should submit to their husbands. When confronted about it, he does not denounce the statement.

World's Tiniest Violin Plays Saddest Song for Operation Resue, Which is Now Broke

2009-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

Operation Rescue has announced that they're weeks away from declaring bankruptcy. It would seem that their contributions have sharply declined since the discovery that the murderer of Dr. Tiller had Operation Rescue's senior policy advisor's phone number in his car at the time of the killing.

Operation Rescue was founded by Randall Terry, a man who admonished people for loose morals, then divorced his wife of twenty some years to marry a woman half his age. He also admonished people for choosing abortion when parenting is "inconvenient" then disowned two of his children because one got pregnant out of wedlock and the other came out as being gay. Also, Terry has taken to walking around in priest's clothing. Check out this picture of him (above).

My favorite Terry quote, made when addressing doctors who perform abortions:

“When I, or people like me, are running the country, you’d better flee, because we will find you, we will try you and we will execute you.”

The sad story of Operation Rescue's impending bankruptcy can be read here.

Goodbye, Operation Rescue. And good riddance.

Happy Birthday, Euripides

2009-09-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

"The deity, the son of Zeus,

in feast, in festival, delights.

He loves the goddess Peace

generous of good,

preserver of the young.

To rich and poor he gives

the simple gift of wine,

the gladness of the grape.

But him who scoffs he hates,

and him who mocks his life,

the happiness of those

for whom the day is blessed

but doubly blessed the night;

whose simple wisdom shuns the thoughts

of proud, uncommon men and all

the god-encroaching dreams.

But what the common people do,

the things that simple men believe,

I too believe and do."

-Chorus from The Bacchae

Today is the birthday of Euripides, if Wikipedia and National Public Radio are to be believed.

Even though I made it to New York this summer, I missed out on JoAnn Akalaitis' production of The Bacchae in Central Park. I will always be pissed that I missed that. Akalaitis is Philip Glass's ex-wife and she had him compose the score for the show. The cast was dressed in disco gear, Dionysus wore a leather jacket and lipstick throughout the production like a wonderful glitter rocker. Reviews of the show can be read here.

If you missed Bacchae in the park this summer, don't fret. Pop culture references to crazed Maenads can now be found weekly on HBO's series, True Blood, where the Maenads are every bit as wild as the ones roaming ancient Thebes.

"O Thebes, nurse of Semele,

crown your hair with ivy!

Grow green with bryony!

Redden with berries! O city,

with boughs of oak and fir,

come dance the dance of god!

Fringe your skins of dappled fawn

with tufts of twisted wool!

Handle with holy care

the violent wand of god!

And let the dance begin!

He is Bromius who runs

to the mountain!

where the throng of women waits,

driven from shuttle and loom,

possessed by Dionysus!"

from The Bacchae

Laura Ingalls Wilder- Mother of the American Libertarian Movement?

2009-09-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

The New Yorker published an amazing piece a few weeks back about Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House on the Prairie" series. I adored those books as a kid and millions of other girls did too (including Sarah Palin, who apparently devoured the books as a kid).

Some of the interesting revelations in the article were that (A) Laura Ingalls Wilder's series were heavily edited and probably partially fabricated by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane and that (B) Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane were heavy hitters in the libertarian movement, considered by some to be the American-born versions of Ayn Rand. In fact, Rose Wilder Lane is the person who first coined the term "libertarian"

Anyone who has read the books knows that Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family

lived a hardscrabble life trying to eke out a living off the land and getting smacked upside the head by adversity all along the way. (Think 'Brokeback Mountain', but without the running water and add plagues of locusts destroying crops and remove references to homosexuality)

They bore the adversity without complaint, being devout Protestants who believed that hard work would bring salvation. After Laura married "Manly" (Almanzo Wilder) the hardships continued- she lost children, had a house burn down, lived in poverty because Manly was injured and unable to work. Laura had to do the manly (no pun intended) and womanly work around the farm. The only child who survived was their daughter Rose, named after prairie roses.

Rose grew up to be a writer and lived something of a bohemian life- she traveled to Paris, to New York, and lived in San Francisco during a brief unhappy marriage. Like many writers of prominence hanging around Paris in the 30's, she flirted with communism, but ultimately rejected communist ideals and started to articulate libertarian ideas. She hated the new deal and FDR.

Rose and Laura embodied the experience of the rural poor. Their saturation with adversity convinced them that others could/should live with adversity too. Is this a common reaction to rural poverty as opposed to the experience of urban poverty that to orients people towards more collectivist solutions? Take note of the fact that current anti-health care reform movements have the greatest momentum in the states where the fewest people are insured and the most people suffer the effects of the current pay-to-play health care system. Quote Rose Wilder, "What we accomplished was without help of any kind, from anyone". She also asserted, "The greatest good to the greatest number will obviously be reached when each individual of the greatest number is doing the greatest good to himself."

As the New Yorker points out, her revisionist memory of complete independence is selective:

"The Wilders, in fact, received unacknowledged help from their families, and the Ingallses, like all pioneers, were dependent, to some degree, on the railroads; tax-payer financed schools (Mary's tuition at a college for the blind, Hill points out, was paid for by the Dakota territory); on credit-which is to say, the savings of their fellow-citizens; on "boughten" supplies they couldn't make or grow, and, most of all, on the federal government, which had cleared the their land of its previous owners. 'There were no people' on the prairie, Laura, or Rose had written. 'Only Indians lived there'. Wilder agreed to amend the sentence when a outraged reader objected, calling it a "stupid blunder". It now reads 'there were no settlers'".

I had a flash of understanding myself when reading a section of the article which recalls one of the books in the series (The One entitled 'Little House on the Prairie') in which the family is run off the land by the federal government, who Charles, Laura's dad, curses. That land had been reserved for Indians who had presumably been run off their own land. The Ingalles had settled that land in defiance of it's reserved status and in apparent indifference to the plight of the indigenous people staying there. I didn't realize it when I was a kid, but it was kind of fucked up that the Ingalles had done that and that they had the audacity to felt put upon by the government for making them move.

On the positive side, I would still recommend these books to young girls. I can't help but think they planted a latent seed in the minds of the current urban homesteaders who are popping up everywhere. Ingalls Wilder taught us about the way-cool homesteading arts like making your own butter, reusing scraps of old clothes to make quilts, and making candy out of maple syrup and snow. Their ethics could be a breath of fresh air for girls of today's times who are taught to emphasize looks and clothes and materialism. The Ingalles emphasized industry, humility, kindness to others, and self-sacrifice. Taken to extremes these values can become pathological but I will take them any day over the anorexia-inducing emphasis on prettiness and thinness evidenced by the popularity of those horrible BRATZ dolls.

There's nothing wrong with exposing kids to the knowledge that folks at one time lived without all the conveniences we now take for granted. There's also no harm in telling kids how we got those conveniences- by collectively pooling our resources to build an infrastructure that would benefit us all and benefit generations to come.

A Marxist Catholic Takes on the New Atheists

2009-09-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

In one of my previous posts I bemoaned the lack of good old liberation theology Catholics like we had back in the day. That is why I am happy to report that I have recently learned of one who seems pretty interesting.

The photo I have posted here is of Ernesto Cardenal, a Catholic priest who also happens to be a Marxist and a Sandinista. I love the image of the pope giving him a good finger-wagging. Priests, apparently, are not supposed to become prominent Sandinistas with high-level positions in revolutionary governments. Who knew?

But that's not the Marxist Catholic I came here to write about. I recently read a bang-up review of a book written by Terry Eagleton in which he challenges the new atheists, Hitchins and Dawkins, who he called "Ditchkins" for short. I have to confess that I have watched you tube videos of Hitchens taking on Christian beliefs and I have enjoyed those videos. Hitchens is a highly entertaining guy, a cynic and an alcoholic, qualities that I appreciate in an Englishman. Nonetheless, it probably is high time some one smarter than Sean Hannity have a chance to square off against him and challenge his quick and easy dismissal of humanity's tendency towards spiritual belief as some sort of delusion.

And that is just what Eagleton has done. Eagleton is a Marxist and a Catholic and he is no intellectual lightweight. I would love to see him debate Hitchens on stage somewhere. Or get into a drunken bar brawl with him as if they were two football hooligans from opposing teams (did I mention that Eagleton is also English?)

Of course, Eagleton is not without faulty logic himself and he tends to move the goalposts around in his challenge of the new atheists. Reviews charge him with being too vague in laying out how religious belief will act as a unifying force for good and for progress. But he does a good job of calling out Ditckens for using the most simplistic fundamentalist examples of religion to exploit the prejudices of their audience and make their case for throwing out the baby(all of spiritual experience in humanity) (fundamentalist hostility to science) with the bathwater (fundamentalist hostility to science)

Sadly, though, Eagleton sometimes makes statements that make him sound like a fundamentalist himself. Take this doozy, for example:

God "hates burnt offerings and acts of smug self-righteousness, is the enemy of idols, fetishes, and graven images of all kinds-gods, churches, ritual sacrifice, the Stars and Stripes."

Ouch. I guess us "primitive" pagans have to be thrown under the bus in order for him to prove to Ditckins how evolved his religious beliefs are! Too bad.

I'm not going to read Eagleton's new book, nor am I endorsing it. I do find the world a more colorful place with Eagleton in it, though, and I guess I am grateful for that.

What I didn't do on Summer Break, part 1. Why the Hell am I not at Burninman?

2009-09-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

This is my third year in a row that I find myself sitting out burningman from the sidelines here in San Francisco. It's an especially cruel sidelines to be confined to. In the lead up to Burningman there are neighbors on my street welding away at their elaborate art car, more neighbors packing up their gear into a rented Uhaul. RV's with bikes attached are frequently sighted, Black Rock City is their destination. Next year I am going, for real. I am sick of watching the exodus of burners at the beginning of the week followed by the return of cars caked in playa dust at the end of the week, knowing the whole time what amazing experiences everyone had while I did what at home? Shop at Safeway? Watch "Project Runway"?

Burningman is not an experience that can be summed up easily, any attempts to do so come off sounding arrogant and annoying. But it is an experience that has had an impact on my way of seeing the world. I would like to share so

me of my observations here.

Burningman is a manifestation of the collective unconscious

Fire is magic. When we play with fire and burn images in effigy we are engaging in the symbolism of the transformative power of fire. Fire cleans, it destroys, it warms and

sustains, it is pretty. Fire creates a "hearth" where people can come together and tell their stories to one another. Voice and language are only one way of telling a story. Building a moving fire-breathing dragon and allowing people to ride on it is another way of telling a story. Wearing costumes is another way of telling a story, also a way of transcending self, of "trying on" a different identity.

Costuming, telling stories, playing with fire, burning wickermen, it all been done before. At first glance these things seem to hold little appeal in an age where we can drive sports cars real fast, fly in commercial jets, or connect with anyone in the world in a matter of seconds via the internet. In fact, that is part of the problem. I think we have forgotten how important playing with fire and costuming is! Our ancestors did it, and when I do it out in the high desert I realize that I have been missing out on something important by spending so much time in front of the computer screen and less time burning wooden men with strangers.

We need to deal with death better

I have noticed that the theme of death pops up again and again at burningman. Usually some one will build a "temple" or some other structure and people will be spontaneously drawn to this structure as a place for honoring the dead. Photos, notes, poems, pictures, will all be attached to the monument. Burningman is a wonderful place for mourning, and it coincides with similar collective semi-spontaneous mourning movements I have observed over the last decade.

My Mexican-american neighborhood, for example, celebrates the day of the dead every November 2nd. On this day the Mexican-American community used to come out to the streets and have a procession to the local park. I cannot tell you how much this procession has grown. In fact, there is grumbling and outright complaints on behalf of the Mexicans that the whole affair has been co-opted by the Anglo residents of the Mission (like myself). To which I enter a plea of "guilty as charged". But the anglos don't just get drunk and make a menace of themselves. They really actually show up to mourn the dead, to memorialize, to build altars in the park and costume as the dead themselves (skeleton costumes are the way to go at this event). What I see is a hunger, a thirst, a huge unmet need to confront death in a human way- with booze and poems and candles(fire!) and costumes, and photos.

So to me, Burningman and the Day of the Dead in San Francisco's Mission district are part of a collective unmet need that is finally being approached. It is no different than what our ancestors did, or what Mexicans have been doing for years, yet somehow we forgot how to do this stuff. Slowly we are finding our way back. I thank anyone who is helping us find our way back or creating a venue that allows that need to be met.

Of course burningman is other things, too. It is a party, a chance to get laid, to show off, to get way fucked up on drugs. All those things are part of the transcendence, too, and they are also fun. When it's over everyone packs up and goes home to their jobs and responsibility of maintaining the persona we have made for ourselves. But, like during Saturnalia or carnival, we all know that for one week of the year we can try on a new identity- be "Cyborga the bacon-gifting slut" or "The guy with the amazing stilts and LED lights".

See you next year on the playa!

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

2009-08-10T15:09:00.001-07:00

If you have ten minutes to listen to this speech by Ronald Reagan you're gonna hear some very familiar themes. Reagan predicted that there would be a push for socialized medicine that it would result in a loss of freedoms for doctors and patients. He predicted that proponents of socialized medicine would try to tug at the nation's heartstrings by invoking images of the sick elderly who have no coverage. He predicted that adoption of socialized medicine would result in doctors being forced to work in rural underserved areas of the country, much like the
victims of Pol Pot's forced ruralization programs.

At the end of the speech he predicts that one day we will sit around and tell our children's children that we used to be free. This segment of the speech was lifted and retold verbatim by former Governor Sarah Palin in one of her stump speeches given on the campaign trail.

I guess what is funny about Reagan's claims is that they are in response to the creation of medicare. His predictions did not come to pass. And twenty years later he was no longer opposed to the program.

Sure, plenty of doctors complain about medicare, mostly because of the low reimbursement rates offered. None, to my knowledge, have been forced to relocate in some evil Khmer Rouge- type plot.

What's also interesting about Reagan's (and other's) predictions about medicare as that the private health sector has neatly fulfilled the prophesies projected on to government health care. Panels that decide who lives and who dies? See the HMOs. Officials telling us which doctors we can see and who we can't? Sounds just like my private insurance coverage, which sent me a book of in-plan doctors when I signed on.

Doctors being forced to work for free? What do you think happens every time a doctor has to get on the phone and negotiate (daily, multiple times) with various insurance companies to get "approval" to treat their patients? How many unpaid hours are spent in this wasteful and frustrating activity?

This speech was off an LP that Reagan recorded and distributed to groups that met for coffee to strategize the push to oppose the implementation of medicare. It was called "operation coffee cup" and emphasized a concerted campaign to oppose "socialized medicine" (now known as 'medicare')

"Meet James Ensor" They Might Be Giants Live at WNYC

2009-08-01T09:34:00.001-07:00

They Might Be Giants doing a little song about James Ensor (see review below)

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

2009-07-31T17:21:00.001-07:00

"Drenched in British purples, I have offered up my tones: pigeon breast, hind belly, balky mule lung, monkey bottom pink, lapis lazuli and malachite, excited nymph thigh, panther pee-pee, high-smelling hen hair, hedgehog in aspic, barrel-maker's brothel, revered rose, monkeybush, turkey-like white, sly violet, page's slipper, immaculate nun spring, unspeakable red, Ensor azure, affected yellow, mummy skull, rock-hard gray, brunt celadon, shop soiled smoke ring."
— James Ensor

"I was born at Ostend, on Friday, April 13, 1860, the day of Venus. At my birth Venus came toward me, smiling, and we looked into each others eyes. She smelled pleasantly of salt water."
-James Ensor

I just got back from my yearly sojourn to New Jersey, the place of my birth. While there I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to pop into New York's MOMA and check out the works of Belgian artist James Ensor. My previous visit to the MOMA left me underwhelmed for irrational and cranky reasons. The Ensor show, though, did not disappoint at all.

His father was English, but Ensor was born, raised, and died in the seaside town of Ostend, Belgium. He lived in the same house for most of his life, never marrying and invading the household attic for use as his studio. I think his family ran a bizarre curio shop that he helped out with. He is the kind of guy everyone would label a loser if his art hadn't grabbed the right people's attention, bringing him and Ostend fame. I think he only left that town for three years or so to study art in Brussels as a young man. I don't think he ever completed art school.

His works are surreal, morbid, satirical, creepy. Recurring themes are carnival masks, skeletons, and religious allegories. He poked fun at the Catholic church, the Belgian monarchy, and the gossipy small townsfolk he choose to live among for all of his days. His paintings are not entirely unlike those of Edvard Munch who lived during the same era. People say Bosch (also Belgian) was an inspiration, which is probably true, though Munch and Ensor didn't have the technical skill that Bosch had.

The big opposing schools during that time, of course, were the expressionists vs. the impressionists. I always find these "opposing schools" things kind of funny, and cannot really understand the subtle differences between the schools. Mods vs Rockers, Expressionists vs Impressionist, meh, whatever, these battles are nearly always irrelevant within 15 years after beginning. Ensor, with time, managed to alienate himself from proponents of both schools.

Art critics say Ensor atrophied in his later years, that he stopped doing anything new or exciting for decades before his death. That's not really surprising, considering he was holed up in an attic in a small town for all his life, thumbing his nose at the world and the art establishment. When he was good, though, he was very good, and the show is compelling. In particular I liked his reflection on Belgian carnival and the device of masks. Carnival was an institution that had been lassoed and drowned in the trough across the channel in Calvinist England, the implication of this loss of collective release and vehicle for class transcendence are covered nicely in Barbara Ehrenreich's "Dancing in the Streets; A History of Collective Joy".

The only disappointment is that the Getty Museum, which houses Ensor's "Christ's Entry Into Brussels" refused to loan the painting to the NY MOMA, the stingy bastards. Nonetheless, the MOMA got their hands on more than 100 works, enough to keep you busy on a lazy N.Y. afternoon.

Whatever Happened to Dan White?

2009-07-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

A few months back, inspired by the wonderful film, "Milk", I posted a blog that followed up on the life of Anita Bryant. For some time I have been thinking about doing a blog post about what became of supervisor Dan White, the man who murdered both Harvey Milk and former Mayor George Mascone.

I loved the movie "Milk", but I don't entirely agree with it's implications. I do not believe, for example, that Dan White was motivated by homophobia when he killed Harvey Milk.

When White was released from Soledad prison, where he served 5 measly years, he went to Los Angeles to live with one of his former cop friends. There he confessed to premeditated murder, telling his friend that:

"I really lost it. I was on a mission. I wanted four of them"

"Four?"

"Carol Ruth Silver was the biggest snake of the bunch. And Willie Brown. He was masterminding the whole thing"

The murder appears to have been motivated by his hatred of the lefty supervisors. You will notice that (then) supervisor Diane Feinstein didn't make Milk's bloody list.

After spending some time in L.A., White moved back to San Francisco. He eventually committed suicide in 1985 in his estranged wife's garage where he left the car engine on until he asphyxiated. In his suicide note he left multiple apologies about the trouble his suicide would cause, but left no apologies for the crimes he committed.

Last week the New York Times magazine did a piece about contenders for the gubernatorial race in California. Mayor Gavin Newsom was interviewed. This is how the article begins. It is one of those bizarre stories that make you want to laugh and cry at the same time:

"Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, has an emergency button under his desk that was installed 30 years ago after former City Supervisor Dan White entered City Hall through a window and fatally shot Mayor George Mascone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Not knowing what the button was for, Newsom kept pushing it on his first day in office, only to have three sheriffs rush in repeatedly.

Newsom says he has no had occasion to press the button since, although the mayor admits he is tempted to whenever meetings drag on or when he becomes bored, something that happens easily."

he whole thing

The Vatican Vs. Reiki and nuns

2009-07-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

I should have known that the Vatican would have an official position on Reiki. After all, the Vatican consists of a bunch of literate guys sitting on a bunch of committees probably writing a bunch of reports on all kinds of subjects. Yet I was somehow surprised when I read the official statement by the U.S. conference of bishops condemning the practice.

One of the church's objections to Reiki is that it doesn't hold up to scientific standards. Fair enough, I would be reluctant make an official endorsement of Reiki, too, if it isn't an evidence-based practice (it's not, I believe there is no study anywhere that can demonstrate that Reiki reduces symptoms due to illness or is beneficial in any quantifiable way-if I am wrong, please send me the studies). However, the report goes on to delineate what kinds of "healing" is acceptable. I shouldn't be surprised by what is said here, but it was worth review because it seems to touch directly on the Christian themes that cause me cognitive dissonance:

"The difference between what Christians recognize as healing by divine grace and Reiki therapy is also evident in the basic terms used by Reiki proponents to describe what happens in Reiki therapy, particularly that of "universal life energy." Neither the Scriptures nor the Christian tradition as a whole speak of the natural world as based on "universal life energy" that is subject to manipulation by the natural human power of thought and will. In fact, this world- view has its origins in eastern religions and has a certain monist and pantheistic character, in that distinctions among self, world, and God tend to fall away.8 We have already seen that Reiki practitioners are unable to differentiate clearly between divine healing power and power that is at human disposal. "

Apparently some American nuns have been using Reiki for healing purposes and this has got the Vatican in a snit. Actually, the Vatican is auditing American nuns soon to see if they are upholding "the true teachings of the church". I can see why they are concerned. A year or two back I read an account of a woman's handfasting to her life partner, which happened at ***drumroll*** a CONVENT. She approached the nuns, told them what a handfasting was, and asked if she could use the grounds for the ceremony. The nuns, she said, were excited and many turned out in attendance to check out the pagan ceremony!

There are other reasons why the Vatican is worried. Many American nuns these days don't wear a habit and choose to live independently. They pursue academic careers and live in their own homes. In other words, they are ceasing to become an unpaid workforce for the church. This is no small thing. My aunt was a nun in the sixties. She taught a class of something like 30 Catholic kids a day. She lived in obedience, was not allowed to see movies deemed inappropriate, and was rarely allowed visits to her family of origin. The most scandalous thing about her life as a nun, though, was that she was expected to do the priests laundry. Yes, after a day of teaching a bunch of unruly Catholic kids, she was expected to do these guys laundry. What the hell were the priests doing all day that they couldn't do their own damn laundry?

It's no wonder so many have marched out of the convents and that the Vatican is scared.

Before There Was Stonewall.....

2009-06-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

This Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of the famous Stonewall riots, memorializing a historic day when queer people declared "enough is enough!" and fought back with everything they had. That day changed the course of history, but most importantly it changed the way gay people perceived themselves. It was the day that marked not just a collective "coming out" but a punching, hitting, shoving, and striding out of the dark bar in order to take a rightful place in the open air, in the light of the day (O.K., more like the light of night, but you get my drift).

Few people know, though, that 3 years before Stonewall there was the Compton's Cafeteria riot, an occasion when transgender people fought back bullying police with the spikes of their high heels and lots of heart.

Compton's was a restaurant in the heart of San Francisco's Tenderloin district where transgendered sex workers often went to eat in the early morning hours. When police came to dish out their usual abuse and bullying on that particular August day in 1966, the queens fought back and they fought back hard. To hear it told by people who were there, the queens won. The window of the cafeteria and the windows of the police cars were smashed. A newstand was set on fire and days of picketing followed. Things were never quite the same after.

In the 1960's cross-dressing was actually illegal. If you had a penis, you could be hauled in for wearing heels. Lesbians swept up in bar raids would have to prove that they were wearing three articles of female clothing to avoid arrest. Remarkably, after the riot the San Francisco police began to talk to the GLBT community and began a process of reform. This was largely due to the efforts of Sgt. Elliot Blackstone, a straight police officer who spent his entire career advocating on behalf of gay people and street youth. He began his efforts right after the Compton riots.

Today is the transmarch in San Francisco, an event that has been growing by leaps and bounds every year. Even though it isn't the anniversary of The Compton Cafeteria Riots, it's a perfect day to remember the queens who fought back.

Here's a link to an interesting film called "Screaming Queens; The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria"

Persepolis and Coming of Age in Iran

2009-06-25T15:26:00.001-07:00

I admit I have not seen the film yet. But Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels, "Persepolis" and "Persepolis 2" are excellent. If you have a chance to see the film or can get your hands on the books, I highly recommend treating yourself to Satrapi's story.

Satrapi penned two graphic novels chronicling her coming of age as a young woman during the Iranian revolution in 1979. The rendering of the panels are simple but highly expressive. When Satrapi is interviewed she always demures that she isn't a good artist, I think she doesn't give herself enough credit.

Some of the plots are unique to the Iranian experience. The struggle of her liberal-minded family against fundamentalism, for example, or her telling of visits to her Marxist uncle imprisoned for his political stances.

But many of the themes she recounts are universal- the awkwardness and excitement of a teen's sexual awakening, youth's use of the language of punk culture as a way to push up against authority.

Ultimately you get an snapshot of Persian culture, of multicultural life in Tehran before 1979 when there was a sizable Jewish population, of the hopes and dreams liberal Iranians were willing to pin on the revolution, and of what they ended up getting instead.

"Persepolis 2" recounts the immigrant experience. When she immigrates to western Europe she becomes a template onto which the west projects their ideas about Iran. She is idealized and patronized by Austrian leftists and punks who see her as a resistor in exile, she is resented as a burden to the Iranian family that has to put her up. She is a foreigner in a strange land, dropped into a sexually permissive culture at a time when she is becoming sexually mature. In Iran she would be be treated with repressive paternalism, in Austria she is left to completely fend for herself. Just being a "normal" carefree teen wasn't an option, and her struggle to to find some sort of balance, identity and normalcy takes on near life-and-death proportions.

My great hope is that there will be a "Persepolis 3". The world is a better place for having Marjane Satrapi in it.

Michelle Obama in San Franicisco

2009-06-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

My heart was warmed to the core when I learned on Monday that Michelle Obama came to San Francisco to help kick off a volunteer day at a Bayview-Hunters Point playground.

You may think that it's no big deal for a president or his wife to visit a well-known American city, but it really is a big deal.

George W Bush never visited San Francisco.

You read me right, he never came here in his 8 years as president. The cold shoulder he gave us was unprecedented, he was the first president in 75 years to ignore San Francisco altogether. Bill Clinton came here something like 9 times during his presidency. I remember his motorcade barreling down 9th street below my office more than once.

Admittedly we didn't really want Bush here, which is probably why he didn't come. Still, you begin to feel like a distant colony after so many years of no contact between Washington and San Francisco. But now we are truly part of the fold, we are Americans, dammit! The president's wife drops by on a moment's notice, that's how close we are.

Of course, there had to be some drama along with her visit. District Supervisor Sophie Maxwell let it be known that she and some other Bayview residents felt dissed because they weren't informed of or invited to the event. The people who got to meet the Michelle were the folks who had signed up to do the actual volunteer work of fixing the playground. They had no idea Michelle was coming and they were rewarded for their efforts by getting to meet the first lady.

Get over it, Maxwell. You should be thanking everyone who put in time to help fix the playground, not licking your wounds over a missed a photo op.

Obama Chia

2009-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, this really is an Obama Chia. You can buy one here.

Line Drying Clothes is An Act of Resistance

2009-06-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

A few years ago California energy companies pulled off a heist of epic proportions. They intentionally closed down power centers for "maintenance" to cause a phony energy shortage and jack up energy rates during the peak of usage (August, when houses in the hot valley are running the air conditioners). During this time I began to line-dry my clothes to avoid heavy power costs and to stick it to the electric companies.

I have never stopped line-drying my clothes. I derive a geeky joy from this simple chore and it actually helps me understand nature better. I like calculating the path of the sun over the course of the day in deciding where to place the clothes for optimal dryness. It makes me appreciate the wind and if I lived in a place where it rains in the summer I would search the skies for signs of rainclouds employing all the senses, included smell. Since my spirituality is nature-based, line-drying the clothes has become something of a spiritual endeavor.

Homeowner associations all over the country ban the practice of line drying clothes, which is too bad, because using an electric dryer draws about 5,000 watts of electricity an hour. Luckily Oregon is moving to ban homeowner's associations from clothes-drying restrictions. Florida, Colorado and Utah already have right-to-dry laws on the books and more states are jumping on board.

Check out project laundry list here.

Catholics I Like

2009-06-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is inspired by a lesbian, feminist magazine I once read that provided a section entitled "Men We Like". As a polytheist who often rants against Christianity as an institution, I thought it would be fun to acknowledge the Catholics I like.

Mind you, I was reared by wonderful, loving Catholic peoples so there are many, many Catholics I like and love. I would not be alive today, nor would I know how to read or tie my shoes or use the potty were it not for the loving, compassionate Catholics in my life who had the patience and fortitude to teach me all those great things. You know who you are, Catholics, and you know that I love you!

Sadly, however, many people who are famous for being Catholic are people who I would not like to sit next to at a dinner party. Catholic League director, William Donohue springs to mind. But we aren't going to focus on him, because it's time for the famous Catholics I like to step into the spotlight. Ready to play? Let's go!

Antonio de Montesinos-(1500s?) Was a friar from Colonial Spain who utterly and completely pissed off the conquistadors for calling them out on their brutal behavior. He thought slavery was wrong and that the Indians of the Americas were peaceful peoples who deserved to be left alone. He berated the conquistadors in sermons that angered and scandalized many. He persuaded King Ferdinand to implement the Laws of Burgos, that set limits on what kinds of demands the colonists could make on native peoples. He said the Spanish in the Americas are "all in mortal sin and live and die in it because of the cruelty and tyranny they practice against innocent people". Way to speak truth to power, father Antonio!

Bartolo De Las Casas-(1484-1566) Yes, he did Christianize Indians, a practice I find distasteful, but he didn't do it through force or coercion (unless you think it's coercive to tell people they are going to hell, but let's focus on the positive here, O.K.?). Like Father Antonio, Las Casas opposed slavery (O.K. he initially supported it, but he came around) and argued that indigenous peoples were not inferior to Europeans. He documented abuses of the Spanish in the colonial Americas and he wrote persuasive essays indicting their practices.

Dorothy Day- (1897-1980) Started the Catholic Worker movement that sought to bring solidarity to working people struggling for justice. She was sympathetic to anarchist and pacifist movements. She was herself a complete pacifist and took a lot of criticism for opposing the Second World War. She set up centers in New York City to serve the poor. Apparently she is being considered for sainthood, which would be interesting since she had an abortion in her early twenties. They just don't make Catholics like this anymore.

Hildegard Von Bingen-(1098-1179) Lived in Germany in the middle ages, was tithed to the church by her parents (thanks, mom and dad!). She became an abbess and settled into life as a prolific, freaky savant. There is nothing this woman didn't do, she was a composer (check out her music, it's really good) a botanist, author, linguist, herbalist, philosopher, and I wouldn't be surprised if she could whip up an incredible meal at a moment's notice with a few ingredients found around the abbey. Wow. I suspect she was somewhat manic, but still, you really have to admire all she accomplished. She developed her own written language, for chrissakes.

Archbishop Oscar Romero- (1917-1980) Was the archbishop of San Salvador and advocate for peace. He became unpopular because he advocated for the rights of poor Salvadorans, effectively taking their side in the brutal civil war funded by the United States. He was shot in the heart while saying mass and bled to death all over the altar. Right wing death squads are mostly likely responsible for his murder.

No, Really, I Can be a Bitch at Times

2009-06-18T21:46:00.001-07:00

Why? Because I took a sick, twisted pleasure in reading this story.

Apparently a self-proclaimed social worker who blogs (I know the type!) pulled off a big old hoax on the pro-life community. Her blog chronicled her progress as a pregnant woman who was told that her baby would be born with massive deformities and die shortly after birth. She blogged about her determination to give birth to the baby despite the terrible prognosis. For this she was loved by thousands by pro-lifers who tuned in daily to follow the saga and offer emotional and material support.

But there was no pregnancy and no baby. Beccah Beuhausen was writing fiction for a blog with few followers (I know the type!) and when she floated this story she claimed she inadvertantly saw her following swell to thousands of readers almost overnight. This type of blog fandom is hard to turn away. She became hooked. She delivered the story, and they ate it up every last bit of it.

I think I enjoy the story because, this being fiction and all things being equal, we can play around with the ending a bit. Like, what if she had said she decided to terminate the pregnancy rather than endure the birth? What kind of support would she have gotten then? What kind of hate mail and death threats would have landed on her comments page?

Sadly, there are women who get this prognosis for real, everyday, in doctor's offices. When they do, I am sure they feel like their entire world has crashed in on them. I can imagine few things harder to endure than a scenario like this one. In an ideal world every single one of those women would know that love and support was out there for her.

Not one of those real life women, regardless of how they chose to proceed, will be able to live without the memory of that painful day in the doctors office and all the emotionally and physically painful events that followed.

Which is why, at this particular second in time, I feel something inside called "pride" that I can affix to my self the "pro-choice" label. I feel proud to know that had Beccah's dilemna been real and had she been some one I knew, I could have offered her support and empathy unconditionally. Because women like Beccah are not an abstraction, or a label (Baby killer!) but they are feeling, living, breathing, human persons looking into the darkest, scariest, and saddest hole they will ever have to jump over. If we have not stood in those shoes then we need to either (A) hold out a hand in support or (B) back the fuck up, get out of the way, and shut our stupid mouths.

See, I told you can can be a bitch sometimes.

A poster at HuffPo summed it up nicely:

The point of her hoax was that couples who choose safer procedures and end pregnancies early were wrong, that the unselfish and good make the more moral choice she was living herself.
Except, of course, that she wasn't. She wasn't in the situation, she never was shocked by disastrous test results, she didn't have to make hard choices, her life, health and future fertility weren't threatened, she wasn't told about the complications involved, didn't hear the medical advice given to couples actually in those situations. She had NO CLUE about the reality.
I can understand ProLife advocates being upset by her infotainment. They thought she was willing to martyr herself for her fetus and they as her supporters were wonderful at secondhand because they were supporting someone making the 'right choice'. Unlike THEM, those immoral and subpar couples who had selfishly made different choices and to control whom laws need to be passed. They patted each other on the back and agreed THEY were much better than the real parents dealing with real heartbreak and real medical emergencies because THOSE people didn't manage the 'one right way to be pregnant'.-crowepps

Here's an interesting and sad story about a late-term abortion. The at-turns-reviled-and-loved author, Ayelet Waldman has also written about her experience with late-term abortion.

But, honestly, why do should we feel compelled to throw money and sympathy at all at any person suffering tragedy on the internet? Is there a shortage of suffering in our own neighborhoods and circle of friends? Why not give some sympathy and cash to the hundreds of thousands of kids languishing in foster care because their parents "did the right thing" by birthing them, but then changed their minds about actually raising them? Or how about the sad lonely old guy down the street? Or the crack whore on your own corner (O.K., maybe that's just in my own neighborhood).

Waddya know? It's pagan values month!

2009-06-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

I want to thank the blogger Pax at Crysalis for the creation of pagan values month, a time for pagan bloggers to write about pagan values. I want to participate before the month is over and I miss out! This is the perfect time to post this speech that has been rattling around my brain for a month or so now. The woman who spoke these words was the "keeper of the flame" at the Berkeley Pagan Pride celebration on May 9th. I nodded with recognition at everything she said.

Now here's my take on pagan values. It is inspired in part by the Berkeley speech with some of my own variations:

Value Number One- Bravery- The world is a place of wonder and a place of horror. Let's face it, there are no guarantees that a natural calamity, war, or encounter with some gun-toting freak won't crash everything down on us at a moment's notice. Proceeding in this world requires bravery, a value the ancient heroic pagans understood and exalted. Back in ancient times you could be quickly cut down in childbirth or in a plague. You may be forced to defend your family or territory from invaders. While we are safer and generally living longer these days, our lives require no less bravery now then lives did then. There are countless opportunities to help the victimized, to speak truth to power, to confront fears and try to overcome them. The gods don't ask that we be meek, nor do they offer a reward in heaven in exchange for humility. Your reward is right here, it is what you create, you will reap what you sow. Facing childbirth is still terrifying! Making a presentation can be scary, putting ourselves "out there" and challenging ourselves is uncomfortable, but necessary. Get out there and do it!

Pagan Value Two: Balance- Life is a constant struggle to find balance. Nature teaches us that we are a tiny part of a larger process of creation, destruction, death, birth, regeneration. It's all about balance. In Hellenic terms, that balance may mean acting in moderation. In our personal lives we must be brave, but not heedless, indulge in pleasure, but only after working hard and focusing on the tasks that need to be done. We need to study and strive for greatness, but not become too serious or lose our sense of humor. We are not perfect, nor are we born in sin. We should strive for self-knowledge so that we can calibrate our actions to contribute to balance rather than excess or deficiency. It's a job that's never done, but that's OK, it's not a linear process. There is no beginning and end, just a turning of the wheel.

Another aspect of balance is reciprocation.

Our relationship with the gods should not be passive. We don't merely look to the skies and beg for help and mercy. We make offerings, we gives thanks, we try to embody and reflect on the qualities the gods represent. We give to them as they have given to us. The gods are everywhere and therefore there are countless opportunities to reflect on their nature. When you are working, studying, nuzzling a baby, making love, drinking good wine, enjoying a sunset, taking a swim in the river, reading a poem, driving from one place to the other, you are in the realm of the gods.

There are endless opportunities for creative reciprocation. If you love the river god/dess you can read them a poem, leave an offering, or jump in and fish the garbage out of the water! If we see the divine in everything and give thanks for the gift of life on our green planet, we will be prompted to think about how cutting down a tree or factory farming contributes to (or detracts from) balance. We have been given the gift of reason and the ability to act- we should consider the outcome of actions towards others and our environment.

Value Three- Enjoy! We shouldn't spend our time pining for or fearing whatever comes after death. We should enjoy what is available to us now, here. Enjoy poetry, dance, song, art, sex, food, friendship, company, flowers, kittens. You get the idea.

I can't wait for the opportunity to participate in the "values quest" next year and to read my fellow bloggers interpretation of pagan values. May you all enjoy the bounty of the day!

Louis prima and Sam Butera- Hey Marie

2009-06-11T16:06:00.001-07:00

I listen to this song all the time because it is on one of my favorite soundtrack albums. If you like Italian and Italy-inspired music I recommend checking out the soundtrack for the film "Big Night". There's some great stuff on there, from old Italian folk music to Rosemary Clooney's rendition of "Mambo Italiano".

Sam Butera (the one playing sax) died last week and I am posting this in tribute. He was born and raised in New Orleans, the most musical of cities. He performed often with Louis Prima.

I sometimes wonder if Louis Prima inspired the singing character in Woody Allen's "Broadway Danny Rose".

You will be remembered, Sammy.

Newt Gringrich, Surrounded by Scary Pagans.

2009-06-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

That's right, he said so himself just the other day. Here is the quote, spoken before a congregation in Virginia :

"I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator. [...] I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism"

I am scared that Newt has caught on to the vast pagan conspiracy to promote the pagan ethic known as democracy. I wonder what took him so long. I mean the signs were there all along.

I was hoping that Newt, as a newly converted Catholic ( oh yes he did!) would come out the gate full of invective against Protestants. There just doesn't seem to be enough Protestant vs. Catholic fighting these days. But no. He has to pick on the pagans.

Reading Newt's quote reminded me of this one by Thomas Paine:

" ~ my country is the world, and my religion is to do good ~ "
Rights of Man, part 2, 1792

It is supremely lazy for a blogger to use the same quote in one month, but I just can't help it. Newt's quote also reminded me of this one by Jefferson:

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

I'm sure Newt knows more about the founding of the nation than Jefferson or Paine, though.

Mizuko Kuyo and Healing Abortion

2009-06-03T10:22:00.001-07:00

The events of this week's murder of an abortion doctor have left me reeling. It feels like every time I turn on the radio, go on facebook, or otherwise interact with the outside world I am confronted with the argument- are abortionists and women who choose abortion child killers?

I decided today to focus on a mostly non-political aspect of abortion which is the practice of Mizuko Kuyo in Japan. I first heard about this from my husband, who traveled to Japan many years ago and encountered the Mizuko Kuyo shrines in which women, and sometimes men, go to console the fetuses they have aborted, pay homage and apologize, and otherwise try to help these beings who may not know where to go or what to do in death, being so young and all. The rows of statues above represent unborn children, I think every woman who worships has a statue to represent the unborn fetus that was hers.

Not all women who attend Mizuko Kuyo have had abortions. People also grieve miscarriage and stillborn death there. The distinctions between these different kinds of maternal child loss don't seem to be important to the worshippers. This wonderful study, for example, interviews several women who attend Buddhist services at a Mizuko Kuyo in Tokyo. Some of the women interviewed do so in memory of an abortion, others in memory of a miscarriage, often they worship together but do not know the circumstances of the woman they worship next to, nor do they seem to care.

Women attending to the shrines will pour water on the statues, recognizing the entities as "water babies" since the fetus lives in a liminal realm, surrounded by water. One of the beliefs I read is that the souls of the dead will have to cross over a river (sounds like Hades and the river Styx, no?) and that without guidance the young souls will not know to cross over. Some people think that such entities can haunt or otherwise bring bad luck to the family.

Some of the research on Mizuko Kuyo has revealed that women who participate in services will describe their abortion as a sin that should be atoned for, but interestingly, many feel that abortion is a necessary sin, none of them seem to politicize the issue or advocate for anti-abortion laws.

Abortion is common in Japan, it has been legal there since shortly after WW2, there are no anti-abortion movements there. The Japanese government forbid birth control pills for a time, hoping to revive declining population growth and during that period multiple abortions were common. Since the reversal of the birth control policy, however, and more wide spread availability of condoms, the abortion rate has been drastically reduced, though it is still one of the more common forms of birth control used.

I have also thought about the implications of ritual to address loss due to miscarriage and abortion. Nearly every girlfriend of mine has had a loss due to either, some have had loss due to both. In particular, American women suffering after miscarriage say that the grieving process is strange- nobody brings around casseroles and there is rarely a community ritual to mark the loss. I would say the same is true for women grieving abortion, mostly due to the politicized nature of it. If a woman were to say in public "I am feeling loss and pain due to the abortion I just had" they would be instantly become fodder for activists whose agenda is to outlaw access to abortion. There seems to be real difficulty in our culture with ambiguity.

Indeed, just yesterday, I was told by an anti-abortion person (online) that women describe abortion as a "heart wrenching decision" and that this is absolute proof that abortion is murder and should be outlawed. I did not agree. Every time you come to a crossroads in life and affirm "yes" to one path, you are saying "no" to another- a symbolic death. How many times have we had to make the "heart-wrenching decision" to break off a romantic relationship because it is no longer serving us? Such a decision can be followed by months of crying and depression, it doesn't mean that it was the wrong decision, though!

The American pro-life movement recently has become aware that their "baby murdering" rhetoric is not winning friends among the 25 million American women who have had abortions (this rhetoric is far from gone, though, I was called a 'baby killer' two days ago while participating in a discussion about abortion online, though I myself had not called anyone any names). Some pro-lifers have brilliantly realized that women who have had abortions have pain and loss that has not been addressed and have begun to offer grieving services. These services and groups, however, seem to pin all depression and sadness and misfortune in the post-abortion experience squarely on the experience of abortion. Women are encouraged to name the fetus that was aborted and to basically take up the anti-abortion cause. Such movements are gaining momentum, precisely because of the dearth of non-political Mizuko Kuyo- type of ceremonies for grieving women. I am glad women in these groups have found a venue to express themselves. I worry, however, that they may be "used" for an agenda or made to declare they were wrong for making the decision they did.

My hope is that the needs of those grieving abortion and miscarriage will not continue to go unaddressed. There needs to be a non-politicized venue to express our loss and collectively heal. Of course, many women feel no need to grieve abortion, feeling nothing but relief. That's O.K., too. Luckily for those who feel the need to talk about their experience there is now the non-political online support group, Exhale. But what about healing ritual? Why not make a Mizuko Kuyo shrine in our own yards? Or community shrines? There should be more support in groups. We can't be afraid to let emotion enter the conversation.

Books:
Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan" by William LaFleur

Science. It works, bitches.

2009-05-31T08:46:00.001-07:00

So proclaimed one of the many ironic and/or geek themed t-shirts I spied yesterday while attending the spectacular and enormous "Maker Faire 2009" at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds .

Maker Faire is sponsored by Make magazine, a publication dedicated to DIYers everywhere.

Flaming Lotus Girls were representin' it with their giant flaming flower sculpture with a spinning center. The Lotus Girls are women who make large-scale art that burns. What's not to like?

There were plenty of robots, looms for weaving, "liberated" pianos with harps exposed for banging. Kinetic sculpture. Art cars. A Tesla coil that cooks hot dogs. Diet coke and Mentos.

Yes, there was a stage on which four Mentos each were dumped into 102 bottles of diet Coke, creating a diet Coke fountain the likes of which I have never before seen nor been drenched by nor hope to see and be drenched by again.

Burningman peoples and geeks of all shades and sizes were represented in force. The motorized cupcakes were there. And reconstructed bikes. Too many things to list here, really.

Good times, good times.

Tyson Trailer - Mike Tyson Documentary

2009-05-29T11:45:00.001-07:00

I was able to check out the new doc about Mike Tyson yesterday. If I had to use one word to describe Tyson in the film I guess that word would be 'guileless'. He comes across as completely honest and yes, a little bit vulnerable. He is, after all, a man who has had to defend himself all his life.

I have recently taken a keen interest in boxing or, more accurately, in boxers as figures, pondering what motivates them and distinguishes them from one another in style and personality. I recently reviewed "When We Were Kings" and fans of that film will be heartened to hear that there are references to Ali and his fight in Zaire in "Tyson". Ali, of course, is a hero to Tyson, and a distant figurative mentor, but clearly the two men could not possibly be more different.

The ubiquitous Don King is also a presence in "Tyson" and Iron Mike derides him as one the worst people who has ever lived, "the kind of guy who would kill his own mother for a dollar". It was interesting to hear Iron Mike tell the story of how he opened a can of whoop ass on King in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel after discovering that King had embezzled his estate for tens of millions of dollars. The story proves that Tyson is capable of at least some restraint for not killing King or otherwise permanently damaging him.

"Tyson" was not as entertaining as "When We Were Kings". His story is tragic, to be sure, a fact only amplified for the viewer with the sad knowledge that his four-year-old daughter recently died in a at-home accident. (This isn't mentioned in the movie, the incident happened after filming).

For those who don't know, Tyson grew up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn in an atmosphere of neglect. I believe he spent time in foster care. He was viciously bullied by neighborhood roughs (totally plausible considering his strange voice and lisp) until he fell in with a group of delinquents and began robbing people.

He recounts his first mugging of neighborhood drug dealers as a triumph of sorts, a turning point when he switched roles from being the victimized to the victimizer (here he is blazing the path of my favorite fictional character, Omar Little of HBO's 'The Wire"). Inevitably, he ended up in Juvie upstate, where he fell in with former boxing champ, Cus D'Amato, who took on the young Tyson as a project. He moved Tyson into his home, trained him, built up his confidence, convinced Tyson that his destiny was to be the heavyweight champion of the world. D'Amato is a looming figure in Tyson's life who he reveres as a father figure and a god, Tyson describes him as the only person he trusted in his entire life.

Tyson is forthcoming about his inability to trust anyone, a condition that has continuously been reinforced by the hangers-on who have depleted him over the years and, if he is to be believed, the hard time he served based on phony charges of rape.

Lack of trust is not uncommon for adults who have been neglected as children, but the ways Tyson alludes to his lack of trust drives it home in a particularly sad way. His inability to understand D'Amato's interest in him is an example-he says he initially assumed D'Amato had to be gay, why else would he spend time with him or tell him that he had potential?

The other reoccurring theme in Tyson's life is his battle with moderation and restraint. He is very open about his struggle to restrain his sexual impulses, his anger, his drive to blow through huge sums of cash, and, to a lesser extent, his nihilist escape of his problems through drugs and alcohol. He has some pretty good insight on how these impulses have compromised his progress and why he is saddled with them, saying something to the effect of, "I never lived in a normal family where people helped each other".

The viewer is left to ponder how his decent insight, talent, and yes, intelligence, have served him and if they will ultimately give him shelter from the storm that has been his life.

"My power is discombobulatingly devastating. I could feel his muscle tissues collapse under my force. It's ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm." - Mike Tyson

2010: Year of the Bible

2009-05-27T08:28:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the blog "Crooks and Liars" which tipped me to this clip of a Georgia congressman who believes that 2010 should be declared "the year of the bible". Apparently the congressman thinks Prez Obama is violating our rights and a year of contemplation of the bible will restore us to those rights. Also, he is under the mistaken impression that the laws and principles set forth by the bible are the foundation of our modern democracy. He couldn't be more wrong.

I think Michael Lind over at Slate says it best:

"In reality, neither Jewish nor Christian traditions know anything of the ideas of natural rights and social contract found in Hobbes, Gassendi and Locke. That's because those ideas were inspired by themes found in non-Christian Greek and Roman philosophy. Ideas of the social contract were anticipated in the fourth and fifth centuries BC by the sophists Glaucon and Lycophron, according to Plato and Aristotle, and by Epicurus, who banished divine activity from a universe explained by natural forces and taught that justice is an agreement among people neither to harm nor be harmed. The idea that all human beings are equal by nature also comes from the Greek sophists and was planted by the Roman jurist Ulpian in Roman law: "quod ad ius naturale attinet, omnes homines aequales sunt" -- according to the law of nature, all human beings are equal.

Desperate to obscure the actual intellectual roots of the Declaration of Independence in Greek philosophy and Roman law, Christian apologists have sought to identify the "Creator" who endows everyone with unalienable rights with the revealed, personal God of Moses and Jesus. But a few sentences earlier, the Declaration refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Adherents of natural rights liberalism often have dropped "Nature's God" and relied solely on "Nature" as the source of natural rights.

In any event, in order to be a good American citizen one need not subscribe to Lockean liberalism. Jefferson, a Lockean liberal himself, did not impose any philosophical or religious test on good citizenship. In his "Notes on the State of Virginia," he wrote: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Right, please stop crediting the bible with modern democracy. If you have to find a religious origin for democracy, you need look no further than classical polytheism. Yes, pagans invented democracy, congressman. A society built on the principles of the bible would look remarkably similar to a Taliban-run operation.

Of course, you do not have to be a polytheist to appreciate democracy. Anyone can look to the democratic values first espoused by the ancient Greeks and embrace those values for themselves. They are not religious values.

But let's make no mistake about it. The people who came up with those ideas worshipped multiple gods.