July 2006 Archives

It's far from a secret, but today Kari made the first public posting (and her first blog entry in a year) to announce that we're planning to move to England some time next summer.

For the past few weeks I've been responding to Fred at Slacktivist's requests that his readers select a particular section of the alphabet and post in the comments any songs whose titles fall in that range that we enjoy and he doesn't have in his list.

Since I'm making the list anyway, I thought I'd post the results here. Today it's songs whose title begin with the word "Don't", and the list that follows represent the playlist from my iPod, which is a small fraction of our overall collection.

• Don't Ask Why - Neil Finn - One Nil
• Don't Bang The Drum - The Waterboys - The Secret Life Of The Waterboys
• Don't Be Afraid, You Have Just Got Your Eyes Closed - Múm - Finally We Are No One
• Don't Be Scared There Is A Savior - Joel Pickell - Krismus Karuls
• Don't Believe Anything I say - Graham Coxon - Love Travels At Illegal Speeds
• Don't Breathe - Duke Special - Duke Special
• Don't Call Me Red - Ry Cooder - Chavez Ravine
• Don't Get Lost In Heaven - Gorillaz - Demon Days
• Don't Get Your Back Up - Sarah Harmer - You Were Here
• Don't Give Up The Fight - The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
• Don't Go - Nouvelle Vague - Bande A Part
• Don't Go Down - Elliott Smith - From A Basement On A Hill
• Don't Go Into The Barn - Tom Waits - Real Gone
• Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - The Costello Show - King Of America
• Don't Look Back - Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
• Don't Stop - The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
• Don't Sweat It - The Soft Drugs - In Moderation
• Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) - The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
• Don't Understand - Calamateur - Tiny Pushes Vol. 2

The more I hear about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the harder I find it to understand her reputation as a figurehead of liberalism in the United States. Even once I get past the fact that most of those considered 'liberal' in US politics would barely be considered centrists in most of the rest of the democratic world, there's the fact of her vigorous support of the administration's hawkish tendencies in the Middle East.

Take for example this report on statements she made in New York yesterday. Anyone deserving of her liberal tag should be urging people to look beyond crass simplifications of the current Middle Eastern crisis, but she seems happy to parrot the Israeli and neo-conservative lines and perpetuate ignorance.

People should not be worried that Clinton will run for president because she's "so liberal", but because she is (along with many of her fellow Senators, whose overwhelming support for Israel's military action is deeply disturbing) a warmonger, either failing to understand a situation her husband worked so hard to try to resolve, or exploiting it for political capital. And perhaps we should also be wondering how anyone was so able to twist reality that she ended up with the labels she has.

Tags:
lebanon, hillary clinton, middle-eastern crisis, israel

If this transcript of an accidentally amplified conversation between Messrs. Bush and Blair gets you down (and aside from the satisfaction of 'told you so', it probably should), perhaps the new Gnarls Barkley video will provide a little cheer.

Tags: gnarls barkley, tony blair, george w bush

NPR's foreign correspondent, Deborah Amos, was interviewed on Morning Edition this morning about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. Particularly interesting in her report was a comment that for many on the street, Hezbollah's action has united Sunni and Shi'a muslims. Hezbollah is a Shi'a organization, but the Sunni population of the region is largely supportive of them.

That's particularly significant in the broader current context, since one of the distinguishing features of Iran (within the region) is it's Shi'a government and population. Some hawkish commentators have suggested that other Middle Eastern countries would welcome western intervention in Iran, and that religious differences would hold them back from becoming involved. What those commentators miss is that while the fault lines between Sunni and Shi'a are very real, Middle Eastern and Islamic identity will always trump that division once outside forces become involved.

While some neighbouring governments--particularly those such as Qatar who have been welcoming to US bases--may be slow to come to Iran's aid, their populations are likely to have other ideas.

Tags:
iran, hezbollah, lebanon, islamic identity, shi'a, sunni

The situation in the Middle East seems to be going from bad to worse as Ehud Olmert demonstrates that to him everything is a big nail to be hit with his military hammer, and the militants in Palestine and Lebanon show that that's their preferred state of affairs. Here in the US we have the joy of receiving the news about the situation from such bastions of newstainment as CNN, who bring us this remarkably poorly written story (via Ed). In the midst of a story that does very little to explain much of anything, preferring to remind us that both sides are using threatening language, is this little treat of a link description:

"Watch gunfire and smoke as Israeli troops enter southern Lebanon -- 2:55"

The article may not give us much useful information, but it does remind us once again that 24-hour televised news is a bad thing. To survive it relies on feeding us war porn, rather than actually trying to work out who invaded whom first, why they might have done that, or which strategy is likely to bring about a peaceful settlement. Those three minutes may be better spent here or here.

The folks at Demos ("the think tank for everyday democracy") have just relaunched their website with a new design and a number of new features. The design isn't all that striking, but has a smattering of nicely subtle features and succeeds in getting out of the way and letting you see the content quickly.

More worthy of note is the fact that they're now making much more use of news feeds to help readers keep up to date, and have launched a podcast. The second edition of the podcast appeared today, featuring an interview with John Craig on Production Values and the future of 'professionalism.' It's well worth the 15 minutes.

Sent to NPR this morning:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was surprised and disappointed as I listened to Morning Edition this morning that your interviewer repeatedly allowed Nicholas Burns (State Department Under-Secretary for Political Affairs) to repeat the administration's line—that they need to be convinced that Iran is serious about negotiations and that they are running out of patience—without challenge.

The United States government has not been engaged in the negotiations with Iran that have occurred up until now due to its consistent refusal to take part in face-to-face talks with Iranian representatives. While the European governments attempted to conduct negotiations, the US administration's consistent threats serve only to undermine those negotiations given the US' recent track record of unilateral action.

While some overtures have recently been made, it is still difficult to see why the Iranian government should take those seriously when they were chastised for not responding immediately (something no government can seriously do in such negotiations) or when the US government's first offer is also presented as its final one. The United States is far from establishing enough credibility for anyone outside this country to take the administration's statements seriously.

Given that context it seems negligent that your interviewer simply allowed Mr. Burns' statements to go by without comment, and I hope to hear more rigorous and better researched interviews in future.

yours,

James Stewart

The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days.

So starts a nicely timed piece in yesterday's Guardian that probably ought to have made more waves than it so far seems to have. The supreme court's ruling that detainees at Guantánomo Bay ought to be granted their right to proper hearings was a good step for due process, but the Guardian report demonstrates that a lot more scrutiny will be needed if those prisoners are to ever get the treatment any human being deserves.

It also makes you wonder how long it would take a committed team of journalists to find other people who are missing in Afghanistan.