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20030927
But what kind of future?
What follows is a message from one of my former supervisors with the AmeriCorps program Children of the Future in Columbus OH. This is an afterschool program for 5- to 12-year-olds that began in 1994 as a Dept. of Housing and Urban Development public safety program, pretty much thought up and run, initially, by the person who wrote this message. That pilot program began at the site where I served from 3.2000 until 12.2001.
When I was a member, there were 8 sites served, with three or four staff in place at each location. Programming would be offered from 3 until 6 p.m. every weekday, January through December. Aside from this, we often took children to local museums and performing arts centers, they had a photo exhibit at the state gallery, there was an annual performance during the Columbus Arts Festival, the occasional festival or community party, etc.
While I often tell people it was an arts education program, its primary function was to develop conflict-resolution skills among the children, most of whom lived in parts of the city with the most instability, violent crime, poverty, etc. This was done mainly through activities of expression -- drawing, painting, acting, dance, music -- along with positive modeling between staff, and the use of a conflict-resolution curriculum kit.
Being artists (or "artist-members") many of us tended to leave the kit to the side and just dealt with the kids. More than a year before I returned to Ohio, I had decided that I wanted to work with children in the arts. The program didn't provide the classroom or studio environment that I might have anticipated, but it was a learning, feeling, entertaining, aggravating and unnerving environment of singular importance to me. A couple of you in Seattle have seen the portfolio that I have, which is stuffed mostly with work that the children did or that I did while I worked with them.
The program has been a model for other initiatives in the state. It expanded its scope to serve 13 locations. And now it has no money, since the state (through the Governor's Council for Public Service) is strapped and, more to the point, the federal budget has been hijacked to battle the spectre of international terrorism, domestic insecurity, tyrannical foreign despots with dirty bombs, and whatever other crisis that the junta has created in its War Against Reason.
... ... ...
"Perhaps this is a good time to bring you up to speed on the COF program. Not good news unfortunately but it could be even worse. Basically we have heard nothing from Wahington or AmeriCorps regarding our request to be reconsidered for funding. All indications are that despite Mr. Bush's continued ads requesting the public to commit to public service and volunteerism* he has done nothing to provide any more funding (maybe he misplaced the money and left it behind the weapons of mass destruction that they are still looking for)... thus we have no AmeriCorps program.
The Greater Columbus Arts Council plans to continue the program on an EXTREMELY reduced scale, i.e. from 13 sites down to 2 maybe 3 or 4 maximum if we can ever find more funding. There will be a total of 4 members at the 2 sites and yours truly will be one of the members. I will spend half of my day in the GCAC office and the other half on site working with the children (just hope this old turkey can still strut his stuff). This degree of programming will be even smaller in scale than the very first year as an AmeriCorps program, 9 years ago, and not much bigger than my original pilot program. At least the "baby" lives.
We are hoping to keep the program in some form for a year or two until the current corrupt regime that invaded the White House can be removed and an elected official with more sense can take the reins. I thought you would want to know, and please keep the program and the children in your thoughts and prayers.
Oh yes don't forget that there is to be an international protest in Washington on October 25th and national protest around the U.S. on the same day, I can't wait. I even called to fly into D.C. as I have done for 2 major protests in the past but the price for airfare has gone through the roof. I could fly in to D.C. in the morning and get home that night for around $200. Now the same flight is over $800!
Oh well I still have my vote and will protest in my own backyard. Keep in touch."
... ... ...
* During the summer, I read a story in the P-I that explained how the Bush administration's plan to alter (or break?) AmeriCorps funding structure would've made it impossible for the organization to function. If I remember correctly, they wanted the Corporation for National Service to have all the money for education awards -- the post-service award we got for college/loan payoffs -- in its accounts right now, instead of having money generated by interest or from other funding sources. This had never been the case before, but the Bush line was "Do this, or you won't be funded at all." And so even if this was done, which seemed unlikely, George then asked for $87 Billion to rebuild the second country he ordered to be bombed within 18 months. Conservative compassion... toward whom?
Total solar eclipses, 29.3.2006 + 22.7.2009
Found more data for the solar eclipse on March 29 2006... while I still want to be in Africa (after the moonshadow makes landfall in Ghana, or perhaps while standing in the Sahara Desert), there is this plot showing the circumstances in central Turkey. Click on the map contained in that link and bear witness to the power of CalSKY.
Speaking of bearing witness, take a look at the last eclipse indexed on this page: 22 July 2009. Note that it passes over N. India -- specifically (and I've already plotted this using Starry Night) the holy cities of Bodh Gaya and Varanasi (approx. 25N, 84E)... one hour and eight minutes after the sun rises... with a maximum phase of 108.1% I'm still tweaked when I see those numbers; 108 is an important number/vibration in Hindu, Buddhist and, as it happens, Hebrew traditions. What I'm struck by is the comparatively short eclipse track, kinda like the event was mean just for that part of the world...
US goal is 'world hegemony'
"Michael Meacher, who served as a minister for six years until three months ago, today goes further than any other mainstream British politician in blaming the Iraq war on a US desire for domination of the Gulf and the world.
Mr Meacher, a leftwinger who is close to the green lobby, also claims in an article in today's Guardian that the war on terrorism is a smokescreen and that the US knew in advance about the September 11 attack on New York but, for strategic reasons, chose not to act on the warnings.
He says the US goal is 'world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies' and that this Pax Americana 'provides a much better explanation of what actually happened before, during and after 9/11 than the global war on terrorism thesis.'"
"Torment" in context
This was done during several hours after reading news stories about the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. I just went into a brief explanation of this image to a friend, and since people stop and look it over in my portfolio, I thought I'd include something here.
I used the image of the woman, taken for a whole other purpose on the first day of spring, to represent descent, defeat, injury. Also, using a female form was an association with the time of year (burgeoning fertility of the earth) and archetypal association between the woman/the feminine with wisdom, nurturing, the mother... qualities or ideals that I saw being violated or ignored by the onslaught ("shock and awe") that was in progress.
The figure is skewered to represent the injury that people were inflicting on other people, and to communicate that this injury would be visited upon them in turn. The Earth photo is a NASA archive shot from one of the Apollo missions. I rotated it so that the Tigris and Euphrates valleys (approx. 33N, 44E) are at the top. I hadn't known the coordinates before I did this, but seeing that, I made a connection in my mind with Freemasons (which so many of "the leaders" are)... and how Freemasonry has its origin in the story of the first Crusaders who invaded this territory a thousand years ago. The same old story of conquest for power and supremacy, and obliterating the history and culture and knowledge of those that came before... for what purpose?
Anyhow, I don't recall when or why I thought to use the Lance of Longinus (which was one of the relics sought by the first Crusaders, I discovered). Briefly, this was the weapon used to pierce the side of Christ on the crucifix at Golgotha. Because it was touched by his blood, it was considered a holy relic and a weapon (like the Ark of the Covenant) that would make one invincible.
I'd only learned this a few days earlier while listening to the commentary on the DVD for Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion. I suppose that's why I thought to use the image. There was a lot more history and context that I was unaware of at that moment. When I read it, the choice seemed all the more relevant. The quote at the bottom of the poster came from the page linked above.*
I decided to use the "bunker buster" image going through the Earth as a visual corollary to the lance: inflicting harm on ourselves through use of these weapons.
* At the outset, and to underscore all the news photos, I was going to use the line "We are working to make the world more peaceful," which was a statement by Bush along with Tony Blair after the invasion began. As I read about the hundreds of people being blown apart, maimed, terrorized, injured and incited by this disaster, I became particularly angry with this hollow, ridiculous statement. And wanted to use it as an indictment against what was being done. The bowed head that Blair has in the final image, and the hand Bush is using to move him along/console him... I thought that was the perfect image to use, better than other, more cynical ones I had lined up, which where they were smiling or their lips were in motion.
The "torment" statement was less about blame and counterattack, and put this in the perspective of unified, interconnected existence. It even worked in how I saw Bush taking control of Blair, and how they were then bound together with the outcome of this deadly misadventure.
Right, so my friend Cinnamon had a fantastic meeting with a hawk yesterday.
I recall that the animal generally associated with April (or at least the first moon of the astrological year) in most indigenous American systems is the red hawk, which would seem to be Cooper's... I mention this because of the shamanic association of this bird with vision, leadership and creativity, and the connection to April/Aries, which is associated with the same qualities.
Thinking about this later, I recalled two experiences (before this year) with hawks in Arizona and Ohio. The first was sitting on top of Camel Head Mountain in Sedona in the late summer, and watching one glide on the updraft, both of us at relative eye level for several moments.
In Ohio, I rode my bike along Cleveland Avenue one afternoon, headed toward Ft. Hayes and downtown, when a LARGE (memory probably makes it seem much bigger) hawk veered in front of me, either being harrassed by or followed by 4 or 5 crows. It came from the east and headed west over the rail tracks... and as it passed, it flew on its side right before me... so it seemed like its wingspan was 6 or 8 feet. Time got really slow for a few seconds, and in my mind, it seems like the bird stopped in midair. My mouth and mind were hanging open as I continued to pedal and watched that accipiter fly on...
Actually, that reminds me of a dream I had during the same period. I was in Arizona again, climbing over a boulder or a cliff, and when I gotto the top I had a wide view of a rocky valley. A hawk flew by from the southeast, and as it it flew turned the southwest, its wings or body became a rainbow that spread out like a hoop and came into contact with my dream body. I remember being particularly conscious (from outside the dream, if you understand that) and hearing myself go "Whooaaaa!" in excitement. Then a buddha emanated from the sun above the valley.
Sounds like Hendrix lyrics...
20030925
I should note that because Moses asked readers to review the bits for their sun and rising signs, I found the most resonance with the Vedic aspects, not the Western. For me, that meant reading Pisces and Gemini instead of Aries and Cancer. You can determine how these aspects might differ for you by using this handy resource. If you need help deciphering the output, gimme a ring.
Padilla v. Rumsfeld
The [president's] constitutional argument [in the case of Jose Padilla] would give every President the unchecked power to detain, without charge and forever, all citizens it chooses to label as "enemy combatants." �friend-of-the-court brief, Padilla v. Rumsfeld, by the Cato Institute, the Center for National Security Studies, the Constitution Project, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, People for the American Way, and the Rutherford Institute.
Ignored by most media, an array of prominent federal judges, government officials, and other members of the legal establishment has joined in a historic rebellion against George W. Bush's unprecedented and unconstitutional arrogance of power that threatens the fundamental right of American citizens to have access to their lawyers before disappearing indefinitely into military custody without charges, without seeing an attorney or anyone except their guards.
The case, Padilla v. Rumsfeld, is now before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In a compelling friend-of-the-court brief on Padilla's behalf by an extraordinary gathering of the aforementioned former federal court judges, district court judges, and other legal luminaries of the establishment bar, they charge:
"This case involves an unprecedented detention by the United States of an American citizen, seized on American soil, and held incommunicado for more than a year without any charge being filed against him, without any access to counsel, and without any right to challenge the basis of his detention before a United States judge or magistrate . . . "
20030924
Today is September 23.
Today would have been the 77th birthday of John William Coltrane.
I think that I first became aware of this person when I flipped through CDs in the High Street record stores in Columbus. Many times, at least when I was a freshman or sophomore, I wouldn't buy anything; I'd just thumb through the bins taking in all the names, thinking that this... or this... might be interesting, but I didn't know what it was about.
Never occurred to me to go to the library. But oh well.
It was one afternoon at Gem City Records in Dayton when I finally bought a Coltrane recording: The Art of John Coltrane, a two-LP set on Atlantic. This featured many jazz standards and some of what I would later learn was his emergent style. I can't recall what I heard in this or how I reacted to it, but I know that I played the records often (along with Art Blakey, one or two of the Miles Davis albums I had from my father, and random jazz LPs I bought over time). The seed had germinated.
Let's say that was '93. Ramesh gave me his copy of Coltrane Plays the Blues in '95. That was another Atlantic recording, with a more contextual flow (since the songs were done at the same time). Now this was when the seed began to sprout. I played that album a lot -- hours of repeat play -- but then I did the same with a number of recording at time, notably Pavement's Watery, Domestic; Orbus Terrarum by The Orb; and ISDN by Future Sound of London.
The next purchase was the Impulse! 3-CD Coltrane Retrospective (which had just been issued, I think... no, '92). Anyhow, this was the entry into the progressive sound of Coltrane; the seedling had rooted. Here were the works of the classic quartet with Coltrane on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on the drums. I'm listening to the album Crescent at this moment -- "Wise One" -- selections from which are on the Retrospective. What I have to remark on is that the music conveys no aspect of datedness. The space and texture is as embracing and vivid now as it was in '95 and '96, when I'd be listening at 1 in the morning... and probably as enchanting as it was to those who heard it in '63 and '64 when those pieces were recorded.
That's the remarkable thing about this music: It's the singular sincerity and narrative quality of what was created by these four men. Even before I began to read more about what Coltrane was driven by, the intensity with which he tried to take human emotion and spiritual yearning and transfigure them into sound (or "sheets of sound"), I knew that this music was altering my perception or ability to perceive. And not just in terms of what I could hear, but the ability to delve into myself and my mind.
That was happening anyway, though often not in the best way. I moved on, in space and in music, and went west. I lived in San Francisco for a bit, where I was fortunate to attend the service at the "Church of Coltrane" in its former location on Divisadero. That was a pivotal experience, because, basically, it elicited hope and and a sense of belonging that I hadn't had in a long time. And to read what Coltrane had to say -- to find out that there were lyrics to "Psalm" on A Love Supreme -- it was a joyous and enriching couple of hours. I was moved. And soon afterward, my father died... and I remember going back after the funeral and not wanting to accept the same message.
Eventually I went back to New Mexico, ending up near Santa Fe in 1999. There was a cool store, Rare Bear, that unfortunately went out of business soon after I arrived. On the day that this closure was announced, I was browsing the racks... and ended up in a photo on B1 of The New Mexican, looking at a copy of Sun Ship.
The headline under the photo read, "A rare find lost," which I believed said something about me at the time.
Anyhow... this was the period during which I took in more of the latter-day Coltrane sound, the avant garde (or atrocious, depending on who wrote the review) stylings that featured frenetic and powerful works. These recordings featured Alice Coltrane on piano and harp, Rashied Ali on drums, and Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax. When I first listened to Interstellar Space, I ended up with a headache... I was trying to write or read and had headphones on while listening to the rapid-fire bangs and bleats of Coltrane and Ali playing in duet. I'd been interested in this album by its name and design for years, but after that listen I wasn't so sure...
What I've come to understand is that my progression with Coltrane has been a mirror of my own receptivity in terms or understanding, emotion, awareness and relative peace of mind. I was in an unsettled and averse mode of thought and life when I first listened to Interstellar Space, and I heard that reflected back at me. Listening to it today -- the track "Mars," coincidentally enough* -- I see-hear the energy of amibition and yearning and drive and engagement, which is probably why the song has the subtitle "The battlefield of the cosmic giants."
This album, along with Stellar Regions, Meditations, OM (recorded in Lynnwood WA?!), Kulu Se Mama, Ascension and Selflessness, was produced during the last two years of Coltrane's life**, before he died from liver cancer on July 17, 1967. One of the reissue liners -- or perhaps it was the biography I bought some time ago -- said that he must have known he was gravely ill at some point, but he kept on playing in spite of frequent pain.
"This was a man who, as Jimmy Garrison said, had discovered what he was on Earth to do: and because he had so clear and urgent a sense of the reason for his being, he was able to focus all his energies on that reason, by contrast with the scattered use most of the rest of us make of our capacities. Together, of course, with the formidable nature and scope of his musicianship, it was the compression of energy made possible by so complete a commitment that resulted in the nonpareil albums and personal appearances by Coltrane in recent years.
This last album (Expression) is not titled as a memorial album or as an album in tribute because it was titled by Coltrane himself the Friday before his death on Monday, July 17, 1967. He and (producer) Bob Thiele were considering words that might apply to the sense of his album, and finally Coltrane said, 'Expression. That's what it is.'" -- Net Hentoff in his liner notes for Expression
I've used the same word (instead of art, or work) as a label for what I show or create, whether the means of expression are photos, fractals, words, flowers or any combination from that group. This is what I know I'm supposed to do, what I want to do, and what I will continue to do, despite -- or perhaps expressly against -- convention or expectation or what makes sense. I have seen and been shown aspects of a deeper, richer nature to existence and I want to continue to express this for as long as I can.
"There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine, new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings ad sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give those who listen to the essence the best of what we are. But to do that, at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror." -- Coltrane's liner notes for Meditations
* The summer of 1999 was when I became aware and took in the sight of the periodic "close encounter" between Earth and Mars, which also made a beautiful (and personally poignant) conjunction with the star Antares ("rival of Mars"). And here we are in the time of another Mars-Earth conjunction...
**This list should also include A Love Supreme, which was recorded in December 1964.
20030923
Anti-terrorism laws v. civil rights
The Sacramento Bee has undertaken a four-day series on the effects of federal anti-terrorism laws on civil rights
20030922
I read this and actually felt a grip of sadness.
20030919
What the doc said about stomach-sleeping is misleading; it's not good for you.
20030918
My friend Barbie sent me a story about the Dalai Lama's current tour, and so I've uploaded some of my articles from 2000-2001... including his address in Washington DC in July 2000.
20030917
Accomplishments of President George W. Bush
Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in history.
The first president in U.S. history to have almost all 50 states simultaneously suffer massive financial crisis.
Spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
Shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
Most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period during presidency.
All-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period during presidency.
All-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market during presidency.
In the first year in office, more than 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month, leaving us with higher than ever unemployment.
Presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use national reserves as past presidents have done.
Entered into office with the strongest economy in U.S. history. Every single economic category has turned downward -- all in less than two years.
---
All-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
Largest lifetime campaign contributor Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history. The Republican Party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure success during the U.S. Supreme Court hearings after the 2000 election.
Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. president.
Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history. (But dismissed worldwide protests as the kind of irrelevant feedback that one might get from a focus group)
Set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president since the advent of television.
Signed more laws and executive orders effectively amending or ignoring the Constitution than any president in history.
Have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any president in U.S. history.
Removed more checks and balances, and has had the least amount of congressional oversight, than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
Created the largest governmental department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
Appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any president in U.S. history.
Changed U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
Set an all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling their huge personal investments in corporations that bid for U.S. contracts.
Members of cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. The "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
Allowed non-compete oil contracts to go to VP's company (where he is still employed, but on "deferred compensation") and won't answer to anyone about it.
Made this presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.
---
Set the the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period.
After taking-off the entire month of August 2001, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history. Has successfully prevented ANY public investigation into the security failure on 9-11.
Bush family is very close with the Saudi Royal family -- has been for years -- and so the pages in the report on 9-11 that might put the Saudis in a bad light have been excised.
Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder congressional leaders at the U.S. Capitol Building. There are no leads and no credible suspects.
Attacked and overtook two countries, promised to rebuild them, and has not yet done so (at least, not without another US$87 billion).
Failed to fulfill pledge to capture Osama Bin Laden, "dead or alive."
Failed to capture Saddam Hussein.
First president in U.S. history to order a pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation, and did so against the judgment of the United Nations and the world community.
All-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest against in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of humankind.
U.S. troops are being killed, and thousands of Iraqis have been killed, under the lie of WMD components. Blame for this lie has been placed on the British and the CIA, which, coincidentally, his father used to lead.
Supports development of a "Tactical Bunker Buster" nuclear weapon, a WMD.
Cut health care benefits for war veterans and supports a cut in duty benefits for active-duty troops and their families -- in wartime.
---
Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
The first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
The first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Elections Monitoring Board.
Withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
Refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war (detainees) and thereby has refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
The first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
Actively working on a policy of "disengagement," contributing to the most hostile Israel-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
The first to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view this presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
The first president in history to have the people of South Korea feel more threatened by the U.S. than by their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
---
AWOL from the National Guard (yet stood proud in a flight suit on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 2003).
All records of tenure as Governor of Texas are now in Bush Sr's library, sealed, and unavailable for public view.
All records of SEC investigations into insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
All records or minutes from meetings that he, or his Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
~ Please... consider the experience of George W. Bush when voting in 2004. ~
20030915
On Friday night, I played the role of "projectionist" for a two-night, mini-festival of films by Cinema Diaspora. This is a venture begun by Stephanie Chomondeley, a recent arrival in Seattle from Los Angeles... and a friend of my friends and cousins (I ran the video, Michele introduced the films, and for a minute my cousin Anne sold tickets).
In its full manifestation, Cinema Diaspora will bring films by and about African people in this country, in Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, the African continent and other lands to the screen in the Emerald City. I think (I won't confirm yet) that this will take place at the location of last week's screenings, the soon to be completed Central Cinema on 21st Ave E, just north of Union.
The theme of the weekend event was "...On Image," and each film addressed conflicts in perception of beauty and freedom of sexuality among African women.
The films were "The Body Beautiful" by Ngozi Onwurah, dealing with the story of the director's mother and the loss of her breast (and supposedly her sexuality) after cancer manifests; "Black Women On: The Light/Dark Thang," about the origins, politics and effects of skin tone preference ("light supremacy"); "Warrior Marks" by Pratibha Parmar, narrated by and featuring Alice Walker, delving into the stories and communities where female genital mutilation is practiced; and "Perfect Image?" by Maureen Blackwood, which addressed some of the same light-dark conflicts from before in a series of mostly comical vignettes.
20030913
I've added a couple of not-so-random photos
Walk to the Moon and
WTC site, 12 Apr 02
20030912
Thanks, Uncle Bob
OK, so I bought the lens assembly from what might have been a K-22 reconnaissance camera, the imaging equipment supplied for B-29 Superfortresses during World War II. it cost $5 and I plan to build it into a view or possibly portrait camera to be used with light-sensitive paper or maybe, at some point, 5x7 film.
Anyhow, as I look for links to the figure known as "Uncle Bob" who came into possession of this equipment (and more) from around the Hanford site, I've found a couple of links to Dayton, OH, the place of my birth.
First, after WWI, the military was immensely scaled back. George W. Goddard "molded U.S. aerial reconnaissance programs from 1920 to 1950. With his assignment to McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, he became responsible for Aerial Photographic Research, and during this early period began forming the nucleus of the Wright Avionics Laboratory."
The B-29 came into production in 1944. One site that I found (which provided the equipment names for these cameras) listed all the 2,000-some B-29s produced... and in some cases, where they are stored/on display. Bock's Car, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki Japan on Aug. 9 1945, is (according to this) on show at the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton. I can't recall or confirm this at the moment, because I haven't been to the museum since I was in 6th or 7th grade.
20030911
If our leaders had seen 9/11 as crime against humanity
"Is there anything left that matters?"
mr damon 23:36
"The anthropology of talk radio explains its predominately male audience."
"After all, when you listen to one of these shows, it's all about screaming and chest thumping -- sort of like what you see in those studies of the great apes. Think of the host as the silverback: He screams and thumps his chest, and the listeners call in to emulate him.
"That's not a mating call," [USC's Michael] Kaplan says wryly, "it's a macho dominance game. In that sense, talk radio is no longer much different than the sports call-in shows, which use knowledgeability of the game as a kind of male bonding ritual."
-- from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times to which I didn't take the time to link.
This is a fruitful time of year, full of memories.
In terms of season, this is a time to begin harvesting seeds and vegetables, and enjoy the last of the summer flowers. Plums are falling off the trees and gooping up sidewalks. Apples still have a bit of time to go.
Today would have been my father's 57th birthday. He died five years ago, while I was hiding from myself (and indulging notions of my own death) in San Francisco.
Two years ago today was the beginning of my first full day of recovery after getting jacked on the street in Columbus. That was probably the second, no third, time I can recall being even remotely "prepared" to die -- or at least, being well aware that I might not be alive a few moments later. The other two were on the sides of cliffs in Arizona and Colorado.
That experience and the messages I gave to myself informed my perspective of the disaster on that Tuesday in 2001.
Without intending to review it all when I sat down an hour ago, I just cleaned up a lot of the articles and statements I'd saved in regard to Sept. 11. I ended one missive: "i pray that our world can find its way through this time toward a place of peace and equanimity. as my teacher wrote a few days ago, "This crisis could midwife the rebirth of a worldwide longing for peace, and a recognition that we are all potential perpetrators -- and all potential relievers of the world's sufferings."
I still believe in that sentiment, and I know that this can come to be at some point in this human realm.
More pointedly, there was this:
"We may think of peace as the absence of war,
that if the great powers would reduce
their weapons arsenals, we could have peace.
But if we look deeply into the weapons,
we will see our own minds--our own prejudices,
fears, and ignorance. Even if we transport
all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war
and the roots of the bombs are still here --
in our hearts and minds--and, sooner or later,
we will make new bombs.
To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves
and from the hearts of men and women.
To start a war and give the opportunity
to one million men and women to practice killing
day and night in their hearts is to plant many,
many seeds of war -- anger, frustration,
and the fear of being killed."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, "Love In Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change"
20030909
The pitfalls of empire
"Americans believe that freedom is precisely why we went into Iraq and why we should be loved instead of hated there -- because we are bringing it to the poor, benighted Iraqis. The French felt similarly put out because the Algerians were rejecting not merely them but also their culture, which they believed to be vastly superior to anything the Algerians might have to offer. I am reminded of a conversation I had many years ago with my conservative Dutch father, who was convinced that the Dutch had governed Indonesia, their former colony, much better than it was subsequently being run.
"Perhaps," I answered, "but even if they misgovern it, it's still their country." And that is surely the ultimate message of Pontecorvo's film, whether it's the one that the Pentagon's viewers drew from it or not. And, by extension, it's the Iraqis (regardless of their political affiliations) who are entitled (and increasingly determined) to run Iraq. If one credits Donald Rumsfeld's latest pronouncements, that's also what he wants for Iraq . . . except, of course, that he wants the U.S. to choose who can join the Iraqi army, head their government, and operate their oil fields."
20030908
"These men got their war in Iraq by making you afraid of September 11."
"Virtually all of the heavies in [the Bush administration] moved heaven and earth to avoid military service in Vietnam. Dick Cheney "had other priorities," as did Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Andrew Card, John Ashcroft and several others. Some, like George W. Bush himself, had the same kind of powerful family connections that Kennedy enjoyed, and used them to stay as far away from the fight as possible.
These are the fellows who are now in the business of making you afraid. Fear is their growth stock, and they use the dividends to make war. These men, who never came within 16,000 miles of a combat situation in their entire lives, now use combat as the sole principle of American diplomacy around the world. The only way they are able to get away with this is by selling fear on the home front. They are quite good at it.
These men got their war in Iraq by making you afraid of September 11. They sold the fear that Saddam Hussein was somehow involved, that he had connections to al Qaeda, that he had all these terrible weapons lying around that would surely, surely come to find you. These men used September 11 against you, deliberately and convincingly. If you think you're not a sucker for this, go take a look around your house. Do you have any plastic sheeting and duct tape stashed away somewhere? I thought so."
(orig. pub'd here)
"The novel she has trouble reading is Isabel Allende's 'Of Love and Shadows,' set in the post-coup terror of Augusto Pinochet's Nazi-style regime in Chile from 1973 to 1989.
No one in the class, including the English majors, can write a focused essay of analysis, so I have to teach that. No one in the class knows where Chile is, so I make photocopies of general information from world guide surveys. No one knows what socialism or fascism is, so I spend time writing up digestible definitions. No one knows what Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave' is, and I supply it because it's impossible to understand the theme of the novel without a basic knowledge of that work -- which used to be required reading a few generations ago. And no one in the class has ever heard of 11 September 1973, the CIA-sponsored coup which terminated Chile's mature democracy. There is complete shock when I supply declassified documents proving US collusion with the generals' coup and the assassination of elected president, Salvador Allende.
Geography, history, philosophy, and political science -- all missing from their preparation. I realize that my students are, in fact, the oppressed, as Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed' pointed out, and that they are paying for their own oppression. So, I patiently explain: no, our government has not been the friend of democracy in Chile; yes, our government did fund both the coup and the junta torture-machine; yes, the same goes for most of Latin America. Then, one student asks, 'Why?'
Well, I say, the CIA and the corporations run roughshod over the world in part because of the ignorance of the people of the United States, which apparently is induced by formal education, reinforced by the media, and cheered by Hollywood. As the more people read, the less they know and the more indoctrinated they become, you get this national enabling stupidity to acquire, for which they go into bottomless pools of debt. If it weren't tragic, it would be funny."
20030905
Four moms from New Jersey
"The [FBI and CIA], it turns out, did in fact manage to spot�and even monitor�several several of the 9/11 hijackers before they carried out the attacks, in some cases long before.* Yet for reasons that so far remain a mystery, counterterrorism officials at FBI headquarters and the CIA consistently dropped the ball when it came to apprehending them�sometimes acting in ways that ran counter to standard practice, at times to the bafflement and anger of their colleagues.
It�s a point that was underlined during a revealing exchange that took place at a recent meeting between senior FBI agents and relatives of 9/11 victims. At the meeting, Kristen Breitweiser, a widow of one of the dead, posed a question: 'How is it that a few hours after the attacks, the nation is brought to its knees, and miraculously FBI agents showed up at Embry-Riddle flight school in Florida where some of the terrorists trained?'
'We got lucky,' was the reply, according to an account of the meeting by Gail Sheehy in the New York Observer."
* Something that came to mind was a report I saw on ABC or NBC back in '93, after the parking garage bombing of the WTC. In it, there was footage that some law enforcement agency had of the men who eventually detonated the explosives. If I remember correctly, it showed them working in a garage, creating the bomb or some aspect of its transport mechanism. And yet they were able to drive off in a truck and rock the foundation of the complex, killing six and injuring 1000.
"Now, now my good man; this is no time for making enemies."
Voltaire on his deathbed,
in response to a priest
asking that he renounce Satan.
20030903
People love machines in 2029.
Ooh... here's a little bit of info on the GIIS sequel that I'd heard about last fall. And here's a link about Masamune, with the second series (the one to be in the next film?) at the bottom.
-- Maj. Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell,
the film I refer to almost every time
I read something from New Scientist.
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"Don't tread on me, either."
HST 1937-2005
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