Today is 2 years since I moved to Canada. I love it here.

plans

Ah, yes. I am heading to Guelph next year. Sad to leave McMaster, but excited about the next step. I'm working on writing up my thesis for the next few weeks, and will defend it on July 19.

Eat local!

I've made this point before, but while Jon Schwarz is mentioning it, I'll say it again. Changing your eating habits is one of the easiest ways to really make a huge difference in the world. Think about how much money you spend per year on food, and imagine if that amount went into your local community to people growing food in an ethical way, rather than giving it to giant, evil corporations that abuse workers, animals, and the environment to increase profits for the wealthy people that own and manage them. Eat local!

my pain, the world's pain

I've had a rather rough last 6 months, dealing with the collapse of my marriage (I'm doing okay though). During that time, whenever I've read something like this, I've often remembered IOZ's moving thoughts after a break-up he went through. Somehow it helps. I strongly recommend reading it.

NYT sucks

the nyt is a hideous pile of shit.

the entire thing is just copying down what anonymous government officials say and printing it. they give it the title "evidence mounts for taliban role in car bomb plot" when no evidence whatsoever is produced.

plus you get shit like this:

There is no doubt among intelligence officials that the barrage of attacks by C.I.A. drones over the past year has made Pakistan’s Taliban, which goes by the name Tehrik-i-Taliban, increasingly determined to seek revenge by finding any way possible to strike at the United States.

The C.I.A.’s drone program in Pakistan, which was accelerated in 2008 and expanded by President Obama last year, has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Washington in part because it was perceived as eliminating dangerous militants while keeping Americans safe.

But the attack in December on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan, and now possibly the failed S.U.V. attack in Manhattan, are reminders that the drones’ very success may be provoking a costly response.

notice anything funny? there's no fucking mention of hundreds of innocent civilians who've been slaughtered by BO's flying death robots.

and this is funny too:

The message may be, “ ‘The U.S. is pounding us with drone attacks, but we’re powerful enough to strike back’; it’s certainly enough to attract ever more recruits to replace those they’re losing,” Mr. Hoffman said.

correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't the entire plot a huge fucking failure, and the guy who did it a huge fucking moron?

!!!!

girlfriend!

Is there any rhyme or reason to the phenomenon whereby heterosexual women sometimes refer to their same-sex friends as "girlfriends" instead of simply "friends"?

Also, is my question mark at the end of the last sentence supposed to be inside or outside of the quote? [update: outside was right!]

Steal from Work Day!

Is today!

new computer for me

After almost 8 years of faithful service, my Dell desktop is being put out of its misery retired. I finally caved and bought a new computer. Big change for me - I bought a Macbook. So far I like it. If the goal of marketing is to create a blind loyalty to a corporate brand, the Apple people have succeeded. Asking people for advice on whether to get a Mac or a PC is like asking "Jesus or Allah?" But I tried to filter out the religious gunk and get to the substance, so hopefully I made the right choice. If I can make this machine last half as long as the last, I'll be fairly happy.

"Innocent until proven guilty" is meaningless: Captain Hope-n-Change Orders the Murder of an American

So, The Obama has decreed that an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, must be "killed or captured."

An "American Official" who wouldn't give his name says: "The United States works, exactly as the American people expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual - through his own actions - has become one. Awlaki knows what he's done, and he knows he won't be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone."

I think that the American people expect that accusations by cowardly government officials who won't even give their own names as they talk tough about handshakes and flowers aren't the same as a conviction in a fair trial. But he's right that none of this should surprise.

Let's be very clear about this: Obama can simply say that someone is a "security threat" and then order them to be killed. A political leader who issues unilateral death sentences is a despot, not a fucking servant of democracy. I'd say "fuck you, Obama" but that might make me a security threat, so instead I'll just give a big fat YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY AMERICA!!!!!

ouch

I read footnotes 20 and 21 here and my heart breaks a million times in a row.

"amazing"

I've seen this in a few places, and it seems worth repeating here.

KABUL, Afghanistan — American and NATO troops firing from passing convoys and military checkpoints have killed 30 Afghans and wounded 80 others since last summer, but in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops, according to military officials in Kabul.

“We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat,” said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

Later in the article:

The persistence of deadly convoy and checkpoint shootings has led to growing resentment among Afghans fearful of Western troops and angry at what they see as the impunity with which the troops operate — a friction that has turned villages firmly against the occupation.

They hate us for our freedom! turns out to be correct — our freedom to kill them with impunity. Sorry, "what they see as" our freedom to kill them with impunity.

Donkeys

Any poor souls still suffering under the delusion that government represents the interests of the people really ought to read this story. The whole thing is about how Nancy Pelosi is "twisting arms" to ensure that enough democrats vote in favor of Obama's stupid healthcare reform bill. Enough representatives must do the "heavy lifting" to ensure that the Democrats win the "argument between Democrats and their own constituents."

The contempt these people have for democracy is obvious.

For an example of the criteria she uses to decide who will be "given absolution to vote no," Pelosi won't "grant a pass" to Representatives whose "districts have smaller black populations," because black votes are "traditionally reliable," so their Representatives can afford to support the bill. Because once you know votes are reliable, YOU DON'T HAVE TO EARN THEM BY ACTING IN THE INTERESTS OF PEOPLE WHO CAST THOSE VOTES. This is what Democrats do. Stop voting for them, you fucking idiots!

almost certainly all I'll say about the NCAA tournament this year

So I've been trying to cut down on how much attention I pay to sports. Its been gradually dropping over the last few years, and is probably down to "not very much" from a high of "a whole fucking lot." But I still check in at ESPN.com every once in a while, more out of inertia and temporary boredom than actual interest. Today I stopped by and this was the front page:



Breaking news! His Majesty hath spoken! Jesus fucking Christ. Needless to say I closed the page and resolved not to go back for a long time.

Coincidentally, last night I read a passage from Understanding Power where Chomsky says some smart things about non-participatory sports. This blogger has excerpted the highlights.

let's not talk about it

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama probably would veto legislation authorizing the next budget for U.S. intelligence agencies if it calls for a new investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, an administration official said.

A proposed probe by the intelligence agencies’ inspector general “would undermine public confidence” in an FBI probe of the attacks “and unfairly cast doubt on its conclusions,” Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Scrutiny of government activities would make the government look bad, so Obama would prevent scrutiny of government activities. Sounds about right!

fish and future

Students in my animal behavior lab class this semester are doing some experiments using fish, so I've been trying to keep 120 guppies alive for them. They all lived 3 days on my watch, but today I found 4 dead ones. They were all the same kind of fish, and the others of that type are looking pretty unhealthy, so I'm betting I'll lose more over the weekend. The deaths are frustrating, but aside from that, I'm finding fish-keeping to be a surprisingly enjoyable endeavor. There's something soothing about sitting and watching them swim around, listening to the water run through the filter.

In other news, I received word that I will be accepted to the Psychology PhD program at the University of Guelph, to work with this guy, so that instantly becomes my leading option for next year. There's really only one competitor, and I'm still waiting to hear from them.

here's what school is really all about

Maryland teacher calls police when her 13 year old student refuses to say the pledge of allegiance.

We need men with guns to deal with the threat posed by a child who won't swear fealty to a bloody fucking rag on a stick. Bow before the altar of the state, lest the state's hired goons drag you away.

life and the spectacle

J.R. Boyd's LadyPoverty regularly posts excellent stuff, but this one really blew me away, and inspired a lot of thought about my own life. I recommend the whole thing, though I'll excerpt some of it to share my own thoughts.

It starts with this quote:

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle:

The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.

I've occasionally noted a feeling of disconnectedness from my world, or that I just don't quite belong where I am. Boyd's elaboration on Debord's thought is a brilliant explanation of a big part of the proximate mechanisms at work in that feeling, defining the spectacle as "the industrial production of information under capitalism."

This passage hits especially close to home:

I have a younger colleague at one of my jobs. When I am able to speak authoritatively on some matter of commercial urgency -- the release of a new movie or electronic product -- we enjoy a warm working relationship. The rest of our time, however, is comprised mostly of crickets and tumbleweeds. It is a sad testament to the fact that we don't consume enough of the same things with the same enthusiasm, for it is only in consuming things that one exercises that degree of individuality to which others can relate.

I relate to this very strongly, especially in regards to colleagues from my former professions and many people I've considered friends over the years. In academia it is a little bit better, to the extent that matters of academic interest are distinct from matters of commercial urgency, which is debatable. Still, even here, in a factory of science nerds whose shared purpose is, at least ostensibly, the pursuit of an understanding of the world, there are lots of nice people to whom I'm unable to relate without reference to movies or sports or some other mass media spectacles. Which isn't to say I dislike or think poorly of those people; quite to the contrary, I lament that spectacle is our only medium of discourse because I imagine I'd enjoy being able to bond over something more real.

Boyd continues:

Divorced from its commercial utility, individuality does not translate well. In fact, it is often met with silence and a horrified expression.

I think I've always tended to push the boundaries of acceptable individualism. In my first corporate job I did this mainly for its own sake, and a bit as rebellion against a stifling culture. Colleagues decorated their cubicles with sports banners; I strung rubber bands between thumbtacks at the right tensions that when I plucked them I could play the "NBC" network 3 notes. I broke unspoken rules by making the same jokes at lunch as I did in the office, knowing they'd get genuine laughs in the former setting, and nervous laughs in the latter. Basically I pushed them just far enough that they thought I was a bit weird, but not so far that they didn't like me. The reaction when I quit illustrates this tension rather well, and their response to my explanation suggests that lots of people would like to break free and be more individual, but are unable to do so for various reasons.

In academia I wouldn't go so far as to say that non-spectacle individuality is encouraged (again with the questionable exception of academic specialty), but a much wider range is tolerated than in the corporate world. But these days my efforts at individuality often have a moral/political purpose, which is where Boyd's final point rings true for me:

Anything which lacks its own promotional budget cannot be communicated intelligibly without enormous effort, because nobody enjoys a preexisting familiarity with it. As Guy Debord would say, our social relationships are mediated by the Spectacle: we can talk to each other about Haiti as long as it is made real by the TV. The rest of the time Haiti does not exist, so we can't talk about it. And that's because nobody will have anything to say about Haiti unless it is on the TV. If you had something to say about Haiti before it was on the TV, then you are a very odd bird, indeed, because nobody else shared that experience. Nobody knew it could exist, or why it should.

I hold political positions with which most people are unfamiliar because they're excluded from mainstream media. People have limited patience for political proselytism so I've taken the approach of trying to amuse people on a regular basis, and then occasionally throw out something substantive (It raised $50, which isn't much, but grad students basically live below the poverty line, so I was happy with that level of donation). Consistently keep people entertained, and they're more willing to listen to your occasional non-entertaining messages. Interestingly, that's the same basic model as commercial media, only they capture the profits for the enrichment of an elite few.

A challenging aspect of the whole thing is that it is pretty hard to be funny without reference to the spectacle, since a lot of humor depends on a shared base of knowledge. I don't want to use the spectacle, so I often try to make goodhearted jokes about people everyone knows, but sometimes I resort to movies. It's easier, and hell, it's fun. But I don't want to do it too often. I think my favorite of all these silly lists, and perhaps my best effort to combine my goal of raising awareness about important political/moral issues and keeping people amused was this one, in which I used Obama's Nobel Peace prize as a basis for a bunch of simple "opposite" jokes.

Anyway, props to J.R. Boyd for a great post, and check out his second post on the spectacle, here.

IOZ: "our government is a huge, implacable, rapacious, imovable death god into whose insatiable maw we are damned to make perpetual sacrifice"

reasons

"...remember when all Good Democrats agreed that Karl Rove's attempts to influence the DOJ was really bad because prosecutorial decisions are not supposed to be politicized?"

No, Glenn, I don't.

buzz

Suddenly I'm getting a Google "buzz" icon in my gmail, which I assume is a new social networking thing. It tells me I now have a bunch of "followers," who will get a notification every time I share something in Google Reader, which I do a lot, or post a blog entry, which I do a lot. So I assume they'll get a lot of shit from me for a few days, and then they'll un-follow me, because why would anyone want to get a notification every time I do anything?

house under water

About two and a half years ago I sold my house. As that was happening, the real estate market was beginning its collapse, and I was aware of this fact and very nervous. After reading this piece, I just checked zillow.com for an estimate of the current value of my old house. It is probably worth $80,000 to $100,000 less than I sold it for, if not less. I wonder what life would be like for me right now if that sale hadn't gone through. I continue to feel very lucky about how it all worked out. I feel bad for the woman who bought my house, and everyone else whose home is now worth less than they paid for it. What a terrible situation to be in.

My takeaway from this is that the only real hope for salvaging what's left of our environment isn't new technologies; it is changing our behavior - trying to meet the vast majority of our needs through local exchange with known and trusted people. It is too easy to just buy something off a shelf and close our eyes to everything that happened to get it to that shelf.

I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't be using gmail.

a sad day.

3 months ago, my marriage ended. Today she moved out.

What can I say? This is tough.

Howard Zinn R.I.P. (updated x4)

Howard Zinn died yesterday. I'll echo Michael J. Smith:

What can you say? He fought the good fight, and probably did more good than most of us.

I'm sorry he's gone, and grateful for what he did.

J.R. Boyd has a nice thought too:

Whatever it is you are good at, marshal those forces against the things you hate in defense of the things you love.

Update:
And a nice tribute from Dennis Perrin.

Update 2:
Jonathon Schwarz - I love his point about resenting bullies.

Update 3:
Kevin Carson

Update 4:

Tom Engelhardt

I've been in a bad mood, which I recognize to be unproductive, yet I feel unable to adjust. I'm not used to this, and I don't like it. Guess I'm getting grumpy in my old age.

I'm due to defend my Master's degree this summer. I can probably work out a way to stay here for my PhD, but I'm also trying to line up other options. I've applied to the University of Guelph, which is just down the road from here. I'm also submitting an application this week to the University of British Columbia, which is a long way from here. If I'm accepted at one or both of those places, I'll have a tough decision to make.

FW: GOD Is Busy

Here's another wonderful edition in the ongoing series of email forwards I get from my family, and my replies to them.

Subject: FW: GOD Is Busy

----- This is great...keep it going! If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!! A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU. One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min.' The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.' It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?' The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me.' The classroom erupted in cheers!

So a student attacks a teacher for saying things he didn't like, and then delivers a sanctimonious lecture about protecting freedom of speech... this violence and hypocrisy is something theists approve of?

There have been over 4,000 US military deaths in Iraq, hundreds in Afghanistan, and tens of thousands wounded. I guess GOD didn't protect those people, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have died in these wars and the millions who have been driven from their homes? But instead of reflecting on the carnage and terror our country's leaders and military have inflicted on our own troops and on countless innocent people throughout the world, let's all fantasize about smashing atheists in the face!

Destructive and illegal invasions of other countries have obviously made us less safe, not more, which even US intelligence agencies acknowledge (and which was understood to be the likely consequence beforehand). Holding up these murderous rampages as some glorious acts of protecting freedom is ridiculous. And making war out to be a holy act of god makes me proud to be an atheist.

things cops are allowed to do to strippers

if an on-duty cop can't wait outside of a strip club until a dancer leaves, follow her to a secluded stretch of road to pull her over, whip out his erect penis and ejaculate on her, i think we'd all be less safe. thank sweet birthday jesus for good cops like david alex park, and for the jury who ruled that the slut deserved it. hooray for justice!

dinner party lineup

in a dream last night, i was in a room with:

1) a girl that i (barely) knew about 15 years ago, and haven't seen for at least 10

2) a guy i worked with 5 years ago and haven't seen for 4

3) dick cheney, who brought me to the room

WHAT THE FUCK?

spectacle

I have a friend who has a tradition of going to a mall Thanksgiving night to watch the "Black Friday" shoppers. He doesn't buy anything; he just enjoys watching the insane spectacle. I find the whole thing too rotten and sad to get any pleasure out of it, perhaps for the same reasons I don't think I could possibly enjoy watching a dog fight or a cock fight: fighting animals and Black Friday shoppers are both pitiable creatures conditioned to enthusiastically destroy themselves for someone else's benefit.

I manage to avoid the consumerist frenzy of the Christmas season for the most part, as I don't watch TV or go to malls. There do seem to be more parties to attend though.

today i sewed a button onto a pair of pants. i haven't tried them on yet to be sure it worked, mostly because i'm too proud of myself right now.

I honestly believe that this guy, an unemployed 22 year old running for mayor of Minneapolis on an "awesomeness" platform, would make a far better pres than BO

more great things the state does

Government steals peoples' homes and gives their land to private corporations. Supreme Court approves, saying the theft serves a legitimate public purpose, presumably because the city claims that it is all part of a plan to lure big-pharma ogre Pfizer to the area and create jobs. A few years later, Pfizer announces they're shutting down operations and leaving. Hooray!

why gay people shouldn't adopt children, according to Utah Senator

So the quote is funny in that way, but also note the obvious contradiction. If gay people living their lives or fighting for equality offends him so much that he sees such actions as "stuffing it down his throat," then, no, he isn't okay with gay people.

Virginia cops kill an unarmed man suspected of stealing flowers. Hooray for the state!

a brave kid

Not a big fan of lawyers, but his career aspirations aside, I'm going to say that Will Phillips is awesome.

All living no blogging these days. Most of what's going on I just don't want to blog about.

I churn out one of these most weeks, but those are geared to a fairly narrow audience.

The strike here ended with the union accepting the offer that had been on the table before it started, leaving me wondering why the hell we were on strike.

Noam Chomsky on life without his wife

union

My union of teaching assistants has been on strike for over a week now. I've withheld my labor, and put in 5 days of picket duty, each 4 hour shifts, for which I was paid $10/hour from union funds, which partially offset my lost teaching wages. Picketing has been a memorable and exhausting experience. I wonder if I've been fighting for nothing though.

I suspect the union will cave and accept a bad contract from the University, which is a shame, because I think it will hurt the quality of education here in the long run, and it will make it even harder for grad students to pay their bills without debt financing. Ideally we'd have a huge turnout and a decisive rejection of the offer, which would put tremendous pressure on the administration to come back with a better deal that includes protection for TAs from tuition increases, better benefits, and limitations on class sizes. More likely, in my estimation, is that the offer will be accepted with less than half of the union bothering to vote. Results will be announced later today; maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I do want to get back to work soon though. I genuinely like many of my TA duties (with marking exams as the primary exception), and picketing is distracting me from my research. But if the strike continues, I'll most likely be back out on the lines...

wow

dundas peak

Martin Daly - Risk-taking, Inequality, and Homicide

A recent public lecture by my supervisor. 45 minute video.

confusion

Why would someone think it's wise to embrace the defining tactics of a political movement that has been stomped, repudiated and crushed?

Uh, because they're part of that movement and continue to believe in it, and because it hasn't actually been crushed, just rebranded?

expectations

Criminalizing cancer and AIDS patients for using a substance that is (a) prescribed by their doctors and (b) legal under the laws of their state has always been abominable. The Obama administration deserves major credit not only for ceasing this practice, but for memorializing it formally in writing.

- Glenn Greenwald

What other abominable things does BO deserve credit for not doing?

please consider sending Arthur Silber some money. he's a brilliant writer living in desperate poverty and illness. every little bit helps.

i might have commented on the BO peace prize or columbus day, but i was visiting friends in wisconsin. cheese and beer, etc.

responsibly avoiding responsibility

Nina Alexander, the prosecutor who went after a grandmother who bought more cold medicine for her 3 grandchildren than the law allows one person to buy within a week, says basically: "I am incapable of distinguishing law from morality, and thus am absolved of any responsibility for anything I do that follows the letter of the law. I am a robot, programmed by the state. You wouldn't get mad at a robot, would you!?"

My favorite part was her demented nanny-state logic whereby a law that results in chaining, caging, and fining the poor old lady trying to care for her sick grandkids must be "a good law because it has had the desired effect, i.e. a reduction in meth manufacturing and meth use." By Nina's logic, a law that says anyone suspected of using meth must immediately be shot would be a good law.

As always, the lesson is that the state poses more danger to you than it prevents. A secondary lesson is that law is a religion, and a particularly pathetic one.