sofa in the sky

against the death penalty

2011-04-20T07:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Representative Kokoruda, April 20, 2011 I am writing to urge you to vote ‘Yes’ to repeal the Death Penalty. Several decades ago, the Supreme Court ended the ban on capital punishment, with the proviso that it be carried out fairly. The death penalty is not fairly carried out: it is clear that sentencing often depends on factors (race, poverty, etc) having nothing to do with the objective

bahrain, bahrain

2011-02-18T18:15:00.001-08:00

The situation in Bahrain is worse than it was in Egypt. 1, The military is killing unarmed demonstrators. 2, Bahrain is situated on the Persian Gulf, across from Iran, which means that the Obama government -- no doubt with patriotic support from the Right -- has decided that democracy can wait for them. Oh, and worst of all, the trump card -- most Bahrainis are Shiite. Think, 'boogie man' (one of

(mis)logic of autocracy

2011-02-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

i hope now that the old 'logic' (read: delusion) that autocratic stability is our best hope against Islamist power is thrown in the dumpster of history. for one, political Islam was always overrated, both as a threat to the US, and as a political force. it grew gigantic in people's paranoid imaginations. and one reason people had to rely on their imaginations to conceive of it was because of the

silver trees

2011-02-04T09:40:00.001-08:00

yesterday driving down the Merritt Parkway i was amazed at trees glittering, blazing in the sun. i realized that every branch and twig was plated in ice which caught the light. it was a cruel beauty -- trees and saplings and reeds bowed, armored in silver. when not viewed against the sun, the trees were like an old photograph, black frosted with feathery grey. but i kept craning my head high up

patriotic Islamophobia

2011-02-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

It is incredible listening to the patriotic paranoia echoing through the US media. Mixed in with joy at the (possible) coming of democracy to Egypt are unmistakeable tremors of fear that an 'Islamic' or 'Islamist' or 'al-Qaeda' government will come to power there. A caller to an NPR news show today demanded to know why 'President Obama insisted, insisted, that the Muslim Brotherhood attend his

Nap Time

2011-01-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

This really happened – every bit of it. I saw signs, sure, outraged criesthat I would not helpyou walk. Real anguish. Screams meantto get me to my feet andhands under your armsto march through the house. I drew the line. You wouldn’t eat, either. The sightof the food twisted your head aside -- my ‘yum yumyum’ trick flopped. I hypothesized – and brought you up to bed. Oh you wailed,squirmed -- out

having it both ways

2011-01-14T04:20:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin claims that criminal acts must 'stand on their own.' and yet she also claims that America's greatness is due to something shared, something collective among all the people. she cannot logically assert that bad american things belong to individuals but good american things belong to, and come from, everybody. a cursory look at the events of last saturday show that, while loughner as a

Juan Cole on Gaza

2011-01-06T20:22:00.001-08:00

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost has released a March, 2008, US embassy cable describing the Israeli blockade and siege of Occupied Gaza as an attempt to reduce the society to the lowest possible level of functioning without provoking a “humanitarian crisis” (presumably mass starvation).“Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the

from John Mearsheimer

2010-12-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

a quote from an article he recently published (i think in 'Public Interest'):Finally, the ability of terrorists to strike the American homeland has been blown out of all proportion. In the nine years since 9/11, government officials and terrorist experts have issued countless warnings that another major attack on American soil is probable—even imminent. But this is simply not the case. The only

'tis the season

2010-12-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

. . . for competitive shows of happiness. i'm talking about the christmas/new year's cards that are basically photos of large, shiny families. whatever else they are, emotionally or psychologically or relationally, they are also class performances. but instead of showing off one's money, these photos show off one's family's smiles. look how happy we are! (are you as happy as we are?) in america,

small government death spiral

2010-12-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

first principle: government, any government, is bad. the founding fathers were men of god, but (somehow) the government they created is evil. always. the country itself is stronger with small government. it became a superpower during and after WW2 because it had a weak government. step two: continually deride anything the government does (exception: anything the government does to foreigners is

quite a name!

2010-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

one of my wife's chinese language students goes by the name 'Thora'! i looked at it, puzzled. what kind of name is that? 'Thor' came to mind, and i mentioned to her Thor was the Norse god of thunder. guess what? her Chinese name, or nickname, is 'Lei Lei,' or 'thunder thunder'! i busted out laughing. apparently the little girl is super cute. and named thora!just an example of Chinese people's

a new way for palestine?

2010-12-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

from an article posted by the Jerusalem Fund:There is a way out for Abbas - and the Palestinian people - of the trap of endless negotiations as the ground is pulled out from under their feet: To work for an end to the occupation before going into negotiations. What would this involve? The Palestinians would state that they are committed to living in peace and security with Israel, but will not

rising intonations: time-saver? or gender-bending?

2010-11-26T14:46:00.000-08:00

since when did people begin using a rising intonation when talking casually, telling stories? 'so, i was at the store? and there was this crazy-looking dude over by the egg nog? and he was freaking me out, cuz one of his eyes was glowing green? . . "i've found myself doing it occasionally. is it a replacement of the so-called 'tag question'? 'so i was in the store, right?/ya know?' if so, it

american monarchy in our midst

2010-11-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

taken from "what to do about guantanamo?" by david cole in the new york review of books, october 14, 2010.'even the physical design of the guantanamo courtroom is shaped by the desire to conceal our own abuses. a soundproof glass wall separates the onlookers from the trial participants, so that the only way an observer can hear what is going on is thru headphones with a 40 second delay. the

stealing other people's land -- with US help

2010-11-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

This is a portion of an article posted on The Jerusalem Fund's website. Read it and judge for yourself whether the US can both assist this type of theft and make peace in Palestine/Israel. By the way, we should stop calling that fictitious 'process' a 'peace process.' What is needed is an 'independence process,' since Palestinian occupation is the issue here. Can you think of any other place in

the roar of money

2010-11-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

the roar of money overwhelms reasoned voices, hijacking some for its own purposes, simply drowning out the rest. the recent documentary film about charter schools, 'waiting for superman,' is a great example. just as with the health care industry (and health care reform) previously, the floods of money pouring into education (as a profit-making investment) seize control of the agenda and give an

envy's hidden virtues

2010-10-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

i can understand why envy has long been frowned upon: it is dangerous to social stability. but recently i have wondered why it has not only been feared, but seen as a moral failing. i think calling envy a moral failing to be laughed at -- 'oh he's just sour grapes,' for example -- is just a way to justify inequality. isn't envy a natural reaction in situations, such as the transition from

teetering

2010-10-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

how life hard becomes when sleep doesn't come. how fragile i get! i lie there, wondering how i will be in front of my students. last week was bad. i had been sleeping badly all along, but only last week these experiences accumulated into an awful certainty: a consciousness i felt as soon as i lay down that i wouldn't sleep well. and then i didn't. it was a hard week. i teach 15 hours a week which

Toby by the Sofa

2010-09-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Your hand intrudedlike a careless bird one dayinto that block of suntipping over the sofa, and you pausedin your work to see it so changed.On a hunch you drew back thehand -- that went dark,the hand that -- flapped now(for you knew now)flashing – flickering -- bright fat bird in furious flight -- before returning to your business of moments,little scientist of shade and light.

The Islamic Center and the "Pearl Harbor" analogy

2010-08-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

by Scott KurashagiIn May 2007, George W. Bush welcomed Queen Elizabeth II to the White House, hosting a ceremony attended by 7,000 guests followed by the first white-tie state dinner of his presidency. If we abide by the twisted logic of some “Ground Zero mosque” opponents, we must now view this affair as controversial, explosive, and offensive. With Bush and the Republicans in charge, our

words' lingering life

2010-08-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

wednesday: on the phone a couple weeks ago a retired man from -- where, PA or NJ? -- shocked me. he: 'so i'll get back to you by tuesday or weDnesday.' he kept talking but i was grinning to myself, amazed: someone actually pronounces the first 'd' in wednesday? he didn't pronounce it as i used to as a kid to remind myself the spelling -- wed-nes-day -- but more like 'wed'ns-day,' like a 'day for

burning fields

2010-07-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

when we got out of the hospital at Xintian, where we had taken baby T to be treated for bronchitis, most of the rice fields in Yuanli where my in-laws live had been harvested. instead of bowing heads of grain rustling in gold-green fields, there were clumps of stalks shorn near the earth. everything was dried out, and a pleasant hay-like smell hung in the air. but some of the farmers still burn

hearts of gold, gone

2010-07-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

this past week, two people with hearts of gold died: my aunt kathryn and ben floyd, a friend of my dad's for decades. i knew both of them when little but whether memory is too weak or childish perception too shallow, i only really got to know and appreciate them in the last 10 years or so. it was only a bit over a month ago that i knocked at aunt kathryn's door, at the old yellow-brick house on

feifei in the tropics

2010-06-27T00:41:00.000-07:00

fei fei is back to his happy self, now that we've been in taiwan 2 and half weeks. but in the heat it takes a lot of baths and a lot of naps to keep him happy. one of the pictures is with wild flowers in utah. there are 3 of him eating -- the food he wants (our food) vs. the food he doesn't want (apple sauce and bananas). and then the one big people's food he likes so far: carrot baby food. we

biting gnats

2010-06-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

i drove out, with sara, her mom, and toby, to sara's maternal grandparents' house to give her gramma a ride to the doctor's. i got out when her grampa invited me in for a quick drink of xiancao, a cooling herbal drink. sara told me to open the windows and turn off the air. i went in the farm house's dim kitchen. suddenly her grampa was warning me about mosquitoes, since i had shorts on. no, i

melty, flirty, jiggly, toasty

2010-05-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

since late last year i have caught on to a mini-trend in advertising: using -y ending adjectives most associated with children. (i remember my little brothers using the word 'coldy'). i think there are two reasons for this strategy: one, these words are visceral, physical words that conjure up vivid physical impressions. and two, they are linked to childhood in a comforting sort of regression

pimsleur's romance

2010-05-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

at new haven library i found a pimsleur intro course to syrian arabic. having struggled with arabic over the years, it has become a white whale, never to be conquered, but never to be given up either. knowing that i might actually be able to use a few words with my iraqi friends, as they had lived a few years in syria, i checked the cds out. i really liked the method -- simple, repetitious,

old techniques

2010-05-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

my wife told an iraqi woman friend of ours (moved last year as a refugee to here) about our difficulty in getting our baby to fall asleep in his crib. she told sara a simple, intriguing aid: when you put the baby down, place in his arms an article of the mother's clothing. the idea was not only charming, an old piece of folk wisdom from a family-centric culture, it also has helped. i saw it work

juan cole: the story of 4 maps

2010-03-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

i wish there was a way to link to a particular blog post, not the whole blog - this post by Juan Cole on Palestine's thwarted independence is a gem, using 4 maps (showing the successive dispossession of palestinians) to tell a simple story.

two lesbians in chilly almost-spring

2010-03-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

a few days ago when the temperature had nosed up to 50 or so, Sara and I and Dad strolled downtown, with Toby in his stroller. two young girls maybe 15 or 16 walked toward us, blonde, in form-fitting clothes, hand in hand, jacketless. they walked fast, as if with a purpose, and before we had reached the gas station they passed us from behind. apparently the purpose was accomplished. maybe it was

toby discussing

2010-03-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

i am sticking my tongue out for toby. a nurse in the hospital told us babies try to imitate people right away, and would try to stick out their tongues if we did it to them. he reacts with recognition each time i do it; sometimes he even sticks his tongue out at me, knowing i am the one who engages him in this game. sometimes he just grins; sometimes he really works his tongue around in his

Toby Feb/March 2010

2010-03-06T20:15:00.001-08:00

far right 'patriots'

2010-02-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Frank Rich quotes a Republican Representative in congress rationalizing the suicide attack on the IRS building in Texas:Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, even rationalized Stack’s crime. “It’s sad the incident in Texas happened,” he said, “but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary. And when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the I.R.S., it’s going to be a

peanut butter

2010-02-17T20:25:00.001-08:00

the other night my dad told me that when i was little and they took me to disney world (or land?) i had just learned the word 'peanut butter.' as we walked about the park, i kept repeating the word, sometimes shouting it out. i laughed hearing this. glomming onto new words and then randomly and annoyingly using them in any possible situation is exactly how i learn them. i remember as a second

assassination cool

2010-02-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

it is amazing how the mainstream media casualizes murder -- when the murder happens to be of someone seen, however vaguely, as 'anti-american,' or 'anti-israel.' murder is made casual, a sport to be chatted about calmly and indifferently, or with small appreciation for style and flair. these media personalities and the 'experts' they invite in pose in their special cool: look how calmly and

the rigidity of 'security' paranoia

2010-02-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

the security imperative takes the simple-minded idea that certain things -- words or objects -- are in themselves dangerous. while seeming to be merely a rigidly equal approach that avoids ethnic profiling -- 'we confiscate all sharp objects, not just those carried by ethnic-looking men' -- in fact this rigidity opens the door to utter paranoia and unreason, stoked by ethnic fear. there have been

na'vi in bilin?

2010-02-15T21:03:00.001-08:00

a few days ago, palestinian protesters at the village of Bilin dressed as the blue people from the movie Avatar, attempting to claim that narrative of resistance as their own.

pasta, passion, and pistols

2010-02-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

this is the name of a mystery/detective game i saw in the local Goodwill store. the things you can see in a Goodwill -- all the failed, bizarre stabs at entrepreneurial success.

Ehud Barak uses term 'apartheid'

2010-02-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

It takes oppressors a long time to use the most proper term for what they are engaged in -- not due to lack of intelligence, but to lack of moral courage. Or maybe they can only open up when they have painted themselves into the most desperate of corners, as this regime has certainly done. After all, they could have accepted Palestinian statehood 15 years ago, when less of the West Bank was

toby yifei

2009-12-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

not you, sir

2009-12-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

driving up route 17 to middletown tonight to return to the hospital where my wife and new baby are staying, i was listening to an oldies station. they played a song by Kool and the Gang, and as it ended the DJ said, 'that's 'i wanna kiss you all over,' and i don't mean you, sir.' his little comment right after saying the name of the song made me laugh. the accepted convention, fiction really, is

walmart notes

2009-12-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

1. to show the mad desire of junk food marketers to reach youths no matter how idiotic or cheesy, the Frito Lay display at Walmart, (or "Mall Wart" as one bumper sticker has it) is 'scrawled' with slogans imitating 7th grade bathroom grafitti: 'Corn Rules' and 'I (heart) spuds'. They refer to the Doritoes or potato chips and their bitter gang rivalry (which, now that it is known, is sure to

Little Secret

2009-12-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Knowing you’ll be here any day now, you secretwriggling, wriggling toward the light --Christmas ever-closer and the due-datecome and gone,your mother still twirls and prances to showhow agile she is, or to spuryou out from your slumber; the blood that flamed in my left eye spreads, slowly fades -- I sleep,coughing, in the basement. Knowing you’ll be here any day now Mom and Dad sit us on the

Glen Greenwald on US 'regression'

2009-12-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

"When it comes to torture, the vast bulk of the country is now to the "right" (for lack of a better term) of Ronald Reagan, who at least in words (if not in deeds) insisted upon an absolute prohibition on the practice and mandatory prosecution for those responsible.With these new numbers, it's virtually impossible to find a country with as high a percentage of torture supporters as the U.S. has.

small minds consumed by . . .

2009-12-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

consumer culture!from a yelp review about a sports bar:I went here on Saturday, Nov. 14th. It is truly only okay. Their alcohol selection is really very rudimentary. The pomegranate mojito I had was bordering on kinda gross. The appetizers were only so so. The whole thing was just so beaujois. Nothing at all special about this place.i'd like to ask the person who wrote this: have you opened up

costco

2009-12-06T15:54:00.000-08:00

i am always amazed when i go to costco: the scale and perspective of the place, running hundreds of yards in every direction, stacked with an infinity of goods. the nutritional supplements aisle grows and grows. this fact shows us a populace afraid of disease and uncertain about medical care, a population eager to self-medicate and prevent disease if possible. it also shows a population that has

our wondrous "guided democracy"!

2009-12-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

guided democracy was a term used by the Suharto government of Indonesia to refer to its political system. this system, they claimed, was democratic, but not to a negative extreme: it was 'guided' by major institutions, namely, the army and president. there were elections, but they did not dislodge the power of the military.the US now finds itself a 'guided democracy.' the military is setting and

Juan Cole on Iraq's Surge

2009-12-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

Juan Cole (at his blog, 'informed comment') punctures the 'Iraq Analogy' used by Obama and other supporters of further escalation in Afghanistan. besides pointing out the differences between the two countries, Cole points out that the civil war tapered off in 2007 simply because one side, the Shiites, had already won in Baghdad. The Sunnis turned to the US in desperation. The simple fact of the

our feckless ruling class

2009-12-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

listening to media commentators and politicians talk this week about afghanistan, with nary a voice boldly speaking the truth, the historical parallel that comes to mind is england in decline: bogged down in endless useless wars but still talking as if it had some, any authority. for years on end we can expect to have these tin pot 'experts' analysing troop movements in helmand province;

october photos

2009-11-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

a great one of mom and dad; the khammases looking up at skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan; me, fuad, and ali on the ferry; a food stand at the big E; a door on Wall street; sara looking pensive and pregnant (now she is more of the latter and less of the former).

photos

2009-11-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

two photos are from Clinton beach with Sara and the Khammas family. One is friends in NY when Mark came to visit. One is little Abdul, being comforted by his dad, Fuad. and the last one is the High Line Park in NYC, once an eleveated rail line, now turned into a park. it is hard to photograph, and with so many people on a sunday, it felt more like a crowded garden.

mabel in the dining room

2009-10-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Announcement: This is the waiting room for final deportation They are provided desserts, snacks, wine. She: She can’t help the smile from smiling when he asks if she would like some dessert: Only if you’ve got some maple walnut hidden away for me somewhere she smiles. It’s as good as it was 70 plus years ago that rush of the eyes, the hunger, and sweetness. But everything’s ruined now gone and

stories of the sea

2009-10-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

The sea doesn’t have any stories whatsoever, it’s got absolutely nothin’ to tell I mean it might be might be a world as you say but it’s a silent one Oh sea let me see you be in you seen by you sea, my sea It’s like this gigantic eye you know what I mean it’s seen everything under the sun but it aint talkin’ it just aint it aint it’s just blinking, winking under the sunlight -- Silent stories

sarekat islam merah

2009-10-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

apparently indonesian marxists infiltrated sarekat islam, a muslim nationalist organization, in the early 20s. for a short time they formed a 'red sarekat islam,' which is hard to imagine now, after the afghan jihad against the soviets. but in those days, i guess anything oppositional to colonialists seemed in harmony. marxism and catholicism mixed in 'liberation theology' in latin america later

December 8, 1941

2009-10-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

my dad told me the other day that the day after Pearl Harbor a classmate at school told him the japanese have an extra toe on each foot.

tom englehardt on sovereignty

2009-10-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Packard reports Holbrooke's disappointment over the amount of aid Congress is ponying up for Pakistan ($7.5 billion) and, to add to his set of frustrations, there's this: "Because of Pakistan's sensitivity about its sovereignty, he had been unable to persuade its military to allow American helicopters to bring aid to the refugees," who had been driven from the Swat Valley by the Taliban and a

think tanks advise our military?

2009-09-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

talking points memo carried an article on neocon fred kagan advising general mcchrystal on afghanistan policy. what opened my eyes what not the specifics about this political hack advising our military leaders, but the general fact that lots of think tanks are busy advising them! how is this accepted and normal? what does this trend do to the view of the military as 'non-political' or even above

muslims, and tigers, and bears, oh my!

2009-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

i invited two iraqi friends to dad's 80th birthday party yesterday. most of the attendees were my parent's church friends. i greeted a couple of men who openly profess extremist views. one of them, named ed, got me really angry a couple of years ago by informing me out of his deep learning that all muslims are commanded to (and accept the command to) kill non-muslims. when i argued the absurdity

the best men are haunted (for dad's 80th)

2009-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

See his work pants, speckled with the paint of a dozen dogged summers, projects in wood and brick, bitter with detail; his shoes, shredded and gouged by nails, splinters, snags, doubts, duties: have I really done enough? In old pictures he’s delicately eared and nosed, small of smiles, a colt gentle in the eyes, but in the sinews stoic. See him now, decades done, craggy and laconic, shuffling

the pathos of a job app

2009-09-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

the other day i accompanied an iraqi friend to apply for a job at Willoughby's, a popular cafe in town. 36 years old and struggling to learn english, with a strong limp from a gunshot wound to the leg, he painstakingly wrote his name and address in child-like script. when it came to 'previous work experience' i took a deep breathe. 'what was the name of that boutique you ran?' i asked. then i

concentration camp origin

2009-08-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

one of the few interesting facts learned from "the long recessional," a busy, but somehow empty biography of rudyard kipling, is this: the term (and method) "concentration camps" came from spanish military efforts to push civilian populations into "campos de reconcentracion" during the struggles of the late 1890s. a few years later, in 1900, british general Kitchener decided to move

oddities

2009-08-20T19:37:00.001-07:00

Senator Max Baucus reported that some members of the town hall audience he faced in recent days were "holding Youtubes." what he meant was "holding cameras," but the slip shows something essentially true: hand held digital video cameras are basically broadcast platforms for YouTube. i thought the slip was hilarious. imagine a crime bass saying a suspected informant is wearing an "FBI" on his body

the belgian mom and the iraqi grandma. . .

2009-08-17T20:03:00.001-07:00

i was amazed at this coincidence: a belgian woman and an iraqi woman were talking at the party we had last saturday here. abdul, the two year old, was hiccuping. the belgian woman said, 'my mom used to tell me when i hiccup that my heart is growing.''my grandma used to tell me that too,' said the iraqi woman. somehow, across thousands of miles, these two cultures share a tiny sliver of

brouhaha!

2009-08-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

etymology:1885–90; < F, orig. brou, ha, ha! exclamation used by characters representing the devil in the 16th-cent. drama; perh. < Heb, distortion of the recited phrase bārūkh habbā (beshēm ădhōnai) “blessed is he who comes (in the name of the Lord)” (Ps. 118:26)another funny note: in spanish, garlic is measured in "teeth," as in "dos dientes de ajo." seen on a morning cooking show.

rich attack poor

2009-08-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

at the end of vasily grossman's war notebooks (see post just below) he notes the bewilderment of soviet troops as they encountered the prosperity of the german landscape. "our soldiers have seen the two story suburban houses with electricity, gas, bathrooms, and beautifully tended gardens. our people have seen the villas of the rich bourgeoisie in berlin, the unbelievable luxury of castles,

vasily grossman

2009-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

i just finished a book called "A Writer at War," featuring the war time notebooks of Soviet writer Grossman. it offered vivid snippets of grossman's experience of the front during world war II. the snippets were contextualized by the editors, who explained where he was and what he was doing when he wrote his notes. his notebook was like an artist's sketchbook. he was constantly describing people

in praise of stems

2009-07-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

i mean stems of words. all words in all languages have origins, but in most, the stem or root is buried in the modern word or eroded to a new form: looking at "good bye" one cannot know that the root of "good" here is actually "god," and "bye" is a mashing together of "be with ye." but languages whose vocabulary branches out from ancient units, which one must know in order to use a dictionary,

the girls who went away

2009-07-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

this is the kind of book that gets me every time: devastatingly intense stories of suffering. the book is the stories of women who gave up their babies for adoption in the 50s and 60s, before abortion was legal. 'gave up' is misleading -- they were almost never given a choice in the matter, forced by parents and the maternity home staff to give in to protect everyone's false, fragile sense of

Grampa Lian, you've come back!

2009-07-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sara tells me that this was how Nationalist Party chairman Lian Zhan was ceremonially welcomed when he made his first trip to China in 2005. A young girl raised her arm with a flourish and cried out, "Lian Yeye, ni huilai le!" Her artificial tone made this statement a hit with ironic cell phone users in Taiwan, many of whom used it as a ring tone for their phones.Today I found a piece of

1941, the year that keeps returning

2009-07-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

in the ny review of books i read a review of a powerful book, not yet in english, by a croatian editor and journalist. goldstein wrote about the events of 1941, when croatia was taken, with nazi german help, by a fascist ultra-nationalist movement called the 'ustasha.' they put into motion a bloody plan that disturbed even the SS and the italians who were their allies, to wipe out the 1.8 million

lewontin on darwin

2009-07-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

i learned something very interesting in reading this review essay on books about darwin in a recent new york review of books (i like this magazine because it lets me 'read' dozens of books on the cheap, by simply reading their reviews, which always include the best or worst parts). i had always heard that political philosophy in the late 19th century borrowed from darwin's theories of evolution,

investors against genocide

2009-07-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

at our latest amnesty international meeting here in madison, eric cohen, a co-founder of the group, spoke to us. apparently they are able to exert moral pressure through New Deal-era financial regulations, requiring companies and mutual funds to allow shareholders to present proposals for a vote. in other countries these laws don't exist, so what they are doing here is not possible. what they are

first potatoes

2009-06-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

these are the first crop of any kind we have harvested. how exciting it was, to dig them up and wash them off, revealing crisp white spuds. it's too bad our cooking that day did them little justice, stewing in a mediocre curry. but it was still a good feeling eating our own potatoes. maybe tomorrow i'll go out and pick that spinach that has struggled for months to attain even its puny size. . .

yeah, i'm weird

2009-06-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

but really, the shape of the bananas was perfectly suited to the curve of my head. . .

HOOB!

2009-06-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

as we sat at the birthday party yesterday, the younger son translated a charming bit of iraqi culture for us. the littlest boy was asking his father to throw him into the air and catch him. apparently that game is called "hoob" after the shout of the father as he throws the child upward. "dad, hoob, hoob," the toddler was saying. and the tired dad stood up to do it again. "hoob!" he shouted. "

iraqis come to the shoreline

2009-06-15T18:03:00.001-07:00

not long after the US media reported on the mere 500 or so Iraqis admitted to the US -- out of a couple of million made refugees by our wonderful war -- this scandal is in a tiny way ameliorated. the scandal was that we had raped their country and were doing nothing to help those directly victimized by our presence, such as the translators who were threatened with death for helping our army. the

soul music in madison?

2009-06-08T20:16:00.001-07:00

it was an amazing sight, to see a choir of almost all white people swaying and clapping and shouting -- and singing. their athletic director, angela clemmons, professional back up singer and soul music enthusiast, pumped her arms and used her entire energy to keep them moving. they had completed a four week workshop. i was impressed. it was funny to see the four or five men standing stolidly in

family of the martyr

2009-06-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

yesterday i saw part of an iraqi tv show which borrowed, i think, from two unusually different sources: iranian government policy and american television. it was a show featuring the families of men killed in the civil war. and although they made an inclusive statement near the end of the show saying something like all sects and communities were damaged by the violence, i suspect this channel's

teeming rain?

2009-06-01T19:25:00.001-07:00

at the peace vigil i attended tonight (it is held every monday evening) in madison, a fellow participant described the "teeming rain" of a few weeks before, when a kind sympathizer brought them a pizza. his usage of "teeming" was, i think, an inadvertent innovation. cities and streets teem. rain pours, streams, drives, etc in conventional usage. but like language used by non-native speakers, this

who was anna dickinson?

2009-06-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

in NY a few weeks ago, i saw a book on "America's Joan of Arc" selling for 98 cents. it was an advance copy not meant for retail sale, but turned out to be a fascinating look at politics and culture in civil war-era and reconstruction-era america. she was a quaker from philadelphia drawn to reformist movements on the eve of the civil war, namely women's rights and abolitionism. she was 17 when

jordanian tv

2009-06-01T09:09:00.001-07:00

today i was unable to get the iraqi tv channel i usually frequent, so i turned to my second favorite, jordan tv, the official government channel. one of its most salient features is its employment of every tall, commanding, long-haired woman east of the jordan river as anchors and talk show hosts -- or so it seems. and they all dress in modernistic blouses and smocks with ethnic patterns -- a

Iraqi TV

2009-05-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

the last few days i have gotten lucky with Iraqi TV. i have gotten programs on the Euphrates Channel that are not theologians in black robes and turbans. the glimpses i catch of Iraq through this channel show a society in turbulent, often fearful and anguished, transition. there was a brief commercial advertising iran as an investment destination. there were no words or text, only pictures of

malls are now. . .

2009-05-09T13:25:00.001-07:00

"lifestyle centers." oh, the beauty of corporate euphemisms! the joy of finding a "lifestyle" in a store! maybe we can even find "community" and "love" in these sterile, rule-bound spaces? no. "lifestyle" is where the money is at.

citbank is lobbying. . . ME

2009-05-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

after getting billions in taxpayer bailout money, citigroup is lobbying me, a borrower, to petition the government to protect its racket!! are they out of their minds? i have neither sympathy nor love for these thugs. note how "choice" is always the word used in fake-grassroots opposition to state initiatives to help ordinary people. the point in state initiatives is precisely to give us a choice

The NYT Finally Prints "Torture"

2009-05-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

from the Atlantic's blog -- Here we have it in broad daylight: the New York Times' cowardice in the face of its own government. In an obit today, the editors manage to use the word "torture". It's in an obit. The obit runs:Col. Harold E. Fischer Jr., an American fighter pilot who was routinely tortured in a Chinese prison during and after the Korean War, becoming — along with three other American

wondrous language

2009-05-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

i learned a new word while watching jordanian tv this evening: "bawasir," meaning "hemorrhoid." it comes from the root "basara," meaning, "to scowl or frown."it makes a certain intuitive sense, doesn't it?

johann hari on factory farms

2009-05-02T15:01:00.001-07:00

Until yesterday, we could only speculate about the origins of the current H1N1 virus killing human beings – but now we know more. The Centre for Computational Biology at Columbia University has studied the virus and now believes that it is not a new emergence of a triple human-swine-bird flu virus. It is a slight variant on a virus we have seen before. We can see its family tree – and its daddy

torture as political tool

2009-04-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

wow. i take this from "the daily kos," which itself quotes from a mcclatchy story.A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that intelligence agencies and interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration."There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and

my first iraqi television

2009-04-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

by chance today, maybe a bad internet connection, my four reliable arabic tv channels -- the russian propaganda, the coptic christian theology, and the jordanian tall, majestic women talk show hosts -- were not available. i went back to a website i had tried before, and only come up with a scratchy, boring algerian channel. but lo and behold, when i clicked on al-furat out of baghdad, it played.

how civilized. . .

2009-04-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

we've caught our enemy. . . now we can indulge in middle-school-boy humiliations. "During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was also regularly depicted in a similar manner during the TV series."

thanksgiving, 1676

2009-04-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

thanksgiving of that year was celebrated with the severed head of wampanoag chief Phillip stuck on a pole in the middle of plymouth. phillip was the son of massassoiet, the chief who had signed a treaty of friendship with the english their first tough year at plymouth. unable to stem english dispossession of native rights to land, phillip was goaded into fighting so that the english could take

glenn beck -- patriot?

2009-04-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Interviewing Norris on the March 3 edition of his radio program, according to a transcript posted on his website, Beck stated: "Somebody asked me this morning, they said, you really believe that there's going to be trouble in the future. And I said, if this country starts to spiral out of control and, you know, and Mexico melts down or whatever, if it really starts to spiral out of control. ...

David Niewart -- definitions

2009-04-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

Niewart is a journalist who has followed rightist fringe groups for many years. In his new book he describes the common theme of "eliminationism:"Eliminationism: a politics and a culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and ejection, or extermination. His definition of

hartford rally

2009-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

today i drove the old S-10 up to Hartford in the rain to join in the "A New Way Forward" rally, calling for the government to take a stronger hand with the banks. i had gotten an e-mail from "democrats.com," one of the several generic addresses i have been getting since volunteering for Obama's campaign in early '08 in New Hampshire and Connecticut. usually i do not open them, but this time i did

"a world without nuclear weapons" (2)

2009-04-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

People of Prague: first blessed with words we -- forgot were -- permitted -- to be spoken aloud by presidents -- How I wish that I were of you, face leaning forward into the words’ warmth, eyes closed in the crowd -- that much closer to news that salves a weary world with reason. A lank man unfolds himself on a dais the words that need to be said already resounding inside him reverberating

new embroidery

2009-04-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

i have just about finished embroidering a big design on my jacket. it is an ancient chinese character for "longevity" (shou), very different from the modern character. the one deficiency is the lines (strokes) are too thin in most places. one of the charms of the original is these bold, powerful lines marking out baby birds' effervescence.

"a world without nuclear weapons"

2009-04-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

People of Prague, first blessed with news we forgot was permitted to be spoken aloud by presidents, How I wish that I were of you, face leaning forward into it, eyes closed in the crowd, that much closer to a news that envelopes a weary world in reason. A lank man unfolds himself on a dais the words that need to be said already resounded inside him reverberating ten thousand faces willing

an end to nuclear weapons?

2009-04-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

has obama spoken aloud what millions around the world have dreamed a long time? of a world free of nuclear weapons? so-called "realists" have resisted all moves toward abolition, imagining that more and harsher threats against all "enemies" will lead to security. but asserting dominance has never brought acquiescence. the only way to peace and security is to lead by example. we cannot continue to

arizona haunting

2009-04-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

i was haunted by a 20/20 episode i saw a few nights ago, about a Mormon love triangle. the odd woman out, a saintly, self-abnegating woman named Fay from Arizona, once she realized she had gotten in the way of her husband's relationship with a much younger woman, starting dreaming of her own death. and she died, sleeping pills in her stomach and drowning in her bathtub. there was no proof the