Conspiracy

I just finished watching the HBO film Conspiracy, about the Wannsee Conference, a meeting of 15 Nazi generals, SS officers and government ministers at a villa on the shore of a Berlin lake Wannsee on a cold winter's afternoon, Jan 20, 1942. Organized by Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann, they would politely discuss and determine over wine and dinner the "the final solution" to the "Jewish question." The meeting lasted only 90 minutes. According to the Holocaust Memorial Museium, the Wansee Conference

. . . did not mark the beginning of the "Final Solution." The mobile killing squads were already slaughtering Jews in the occupied Soviet Union. Rather, the Wannsee Conference was the place where the "final solution" was formally revealed to non-Nazi leaders who would help arrange for Jews to be transported from all over German-occupied Europe to SS-operated "extermination" camps in Poland.

The minutes of the meeting were taken by Adolf Eichmann and edited by Heydrich. It never explicitly mentions the killing of Jews, or the methods used to do so -- according to Eichmann's testimony, all 15 attendees of the meeting were quite aware of what was meant by the euphamism "evacuation", and discussed the use of gas chambers and crematoriums in the process. Of the 30 copies that were made only one remained, found by American investigators in the Reich Foreign Office in 1948 and became the "smoking gun" during the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Conspiracy is an excellent film, with a first-rate cast and script (based on the minutes of the conference). It is very well done -- and chilling to the bone. If I ever chose to rent it again, I would most likely do so in conjunction with Spielberg's Schindler's List: the calm and collected dialogue of the conference room juxtaposed against the screams of the gas chambers and the stink of the ovens is something to think about. There are many cases of genocide in human history, but Conspiracy reinforces the dreadful uniqueness that was the Holocaust.

• Germany Marks a Dark Anniversary, Jan. 18, 2002. CBSNews.com.
• Protokoll der "Wannsee-Konferenz" vom 20. Januar 1942. The actual notes of the meeting themselves.
• House of the Wannsee Conference, now a Memorial and Educational site for the Holocaust.
• Conspiracy - HBO Movie website.

Wittgenstein's Poker

Just finished Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten Minute Argument between Two Great Philosophers -- specifically, Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein, with Bertrand Russel intervening at one point, in a small room in Cambridge, England on Oct. 25, 1946, as chronicled by BBC reporters David Edmonds and John Eidinow. It's not so much an account of the argument itself as the contentious personalities and lives of the participants and the conflict of ideas they represented. For those who are interested, here's a brief review from the Guardian to fill you in on the details. Amazing how they can get 300 pages worth from a mere ten-minute encounter, but they managed to hold my attention throughout. Altogether a fascinating and enjoyable book, even for those who don't particularly enjoy philosophy.

Michael Moore - Bowling for Journalistic Integrity?

I haven't read Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, nor have I seen the movie "Bowling for Columbine" -- although I expect I'll rent the movie (simply because a good number of my friends or co-workers have raved about it ), and will undoubtedly never get around to reading the book (more substantial things to read than one man's tirade against America). At any rate, Michael Moore apparently has a tendency of playing fast and loose with the facts.

Back in April 2002 Ben Fritz's blog "Spinsanity" documented some of Moore's errors in Stupid White Men, the cause of which he believes is "Lazy cribbing from media outlets and the Internet." (Just so you're aware, Spinsanity goes after the lies and distortions of those on the ideological left and right). On November 19, 2002 and Nov. 25, 2002, Fritz exposed additional errors and/or deliberate misrepresentations in Moore's "hard-core analysis" in the movie "Bowling for Columbine", including Moore's altering of a Bush/Quayle campaign advertisement by inserting a caption which did not appear in the original version, the staging of a scene in a bank handing out guns to new customers, and some slick editing/splicing of two separate speeches by Charleton Heston at an NRA convention.

According to Spinsanity on 9/23/03, Moore has apparently admitted the false caption, which he corrected in the DVD release, defending himself in his latest column. However, a quick surf of the web reveals enough critiques on Moore's film that makes me more than a little wary of believing anything "Bowling for Columbine" suggests:

• "Michael Moore and The Awful Truth:" Volume One,
• Volume Two and Volume Three, by Anthony Zoubek, "a series examining ‘Bowling for Columbine’and what it implies of truth in the documentary film genre."
• Bowling for Columbine: Documentary or Fiction?, by David T. Hardy -- focusing on Moore's misrepresentation of Charleton Heston and deceptive use of footage from various NRA rallies.
• BowlingForTruth.Com - scene-by-scene analysis of "Bowling for Columbine."

P.S. I'm not disputing the fact that Michael Moore may have some legitimate concerns about various social issues -- but his attempt to convey those concerns in what appears to be a shoddy "documentary" seems to be counter-productive.

Opus The Penguin Returns!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! -- boy, this just made my day. I'm so happy that Berk Breathed, creator of Bloom County (my absolutefavoritist comic strip as a kid) is returning with a new comic strip featuring Opus The Penguin!!

THE SUNDAY-ONLY STRIP, to be called “Opus,” begins Nov. 23, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

It will be syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group.

A 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winner for editorial cartooning, Breathed stopped drawing the daily “Bloom County” in 1989 when it was running in nearly 1,300 papers.        

He began a Sunday strip, “Outland,” with many of the same characters — including the penguin’s hairball-hacking sidekick, Bill the cat — but quit that in 1995.        

Partly chalking it up to artistic burnout, Breathed said at the time that cartoonists “die and go to cartoon hell for working beyond that magic intersection of art and fun.”        

He has since written children’s books and sold the rights to an Opus movie that could start filming by the end of the year. [MSNBC News.com]

• Interview with The Onion A.V. Club
• A Great Returns, by Radley Balko. National Review Sept. 25, 2003.

American Ingenuity

"Even so, we endure. The Iraqis are suspect of this. They cannot imagine that we can operate in our battle gear and armored vehicles in the August sun and therefore another explanation must be given other than our toughness and willpower. Since we are Americans, we must have made some technology that allows us this freedom of movement. Iraqis ask us about our air-conditioned helmets and how they are powered. They talk on the street of our cooling vests and air-conditioned underwear. Despite all our efforts we cannot find these for purchase."

"More from the Front", posted by Porphyrogenitus

The Fight for Terry Schindler Schiavo

Judge Greer has ordered the forced starvation of Terry Schindler Schiavoto begin on October 15, 2003, at the request of her husband, Michael Schiavo.

Terri has been confined to a nursing home in what has been called a 'persistent vegetative state' due to brain damage from a "sudden collapse" in 1990. (This charge is disputed by videotaped evidence that Terri responds to stimulus, such as her presence of her parents).

Terri was awarded $750,000 from this suit and an additional $250,000 from a separate malpractice lawsuit. The money was awarded to Terri for her care and rehabilitation and to be placed in a Medical Trust Fund.  Terri’s husband received his personal award money and Terri’s medical fund money in early 1993. From the date he received the award money in 1993, Michael Schiavo has denied Terri any rehabilitation treatment. Michael Schiavo has confined Terri to a nursing home (currently, Terri is in a Hospice facility) where she is 'maintained.' ¹

Michael Schiavo claims his wife would not want to live this way and has been petitioning to have the feeding tube removed since 1998. He is currently living with another woman to whom he has announced his engagement -- because Terri has no will, in the event of her death he would inherit what is left of Terri’s $750,000 medical fund, which he currently uses to pay for his legal bills.

Terri's parents are fighting to save her life. Their efforts are impeded by the fact that her husband has withheld all medical and neurological information and will not permit any doctor to examine Terri other than the doctors he selects.

Even more disturbing is the fact that there appears to be criminal play behind Terri's "collapse." According to this article:

But Terri's parents have questions about the circumstances of the reported heart attack that caused Terri's brain damage, questions they believe should cast doubt on Michael Schiavo's fitness to be Terri's guardian. They point to an emergency room "admitting summary" from the night the brain damage occurred, which noted that Terri had a "rigid neck." One physician reviewing the records stated that the only other patient he had treated with a similarly "rigid neck" had been the victim of strangulation.

The parents also believe a bone-scan report supports their theory that Terri's brain damage is the result of an assault and not a heart attack. The parties in the dispute hotly contest the bone scan, which was completed 53 weeks after the event that led to the brain damage.

Three physicians have testified that, based upon the bone scan, Terri appeared to have been physically assaulted. The injuries they identified included "trauma to her ribs, her pelvic area, L1 vertebrae, spine, both knees and both ankles...a broken femur and a broken back." ²

According to a petition to Governor Bush, Terri's husband has recently petitioned the court to have Terri’s body cremated immediately following her death. The Schindler Family believes Terri’s cremation is a maneuver her husband will utilize to destroy evidence of his criminal acts.

[Thanks to Michael Dubruiel by way of Times Against Humanity for the news].

Additional Links:

• Interview Bob Schindler, Jr. Terri's brother.
• Terri Schiavo’s Life and Death. National Review Sept. 16, 2003.
• Not Dead Yet, people with disabilities opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide, have joined in the fight for Terri's life.

1. Source: http://www.terrisfight.org.
2. Florida Woman to Be Allowed to Die Despite Family's Wishes, by Jeff Johnson. CNSNews.com August 05, 2003

Windtalkers

Just saw Jon Woo's WindTalkers, about the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. The U.S. Navy employed the Navajo language in battlefield communications. The complexity of the language proved extremely frustrating to the Japanese (who were quite skilled in cryptology), and the Navajo code remained unbroken.

The Code Talkers -- between 375-420 in all -- were part of every major Marine assault in the Pacific. Some say that the U.S. might never have won the war in the Pacific without them. "Windtalkers" has the look and feel of a traditional World War II action movie. Personally I wished they had focused more on the code itself and less on hand-to-hand combat, but all in all it was a fitting tribute. Here's another page I came across by the son of a CodeTalker with a lot of background information.

Johnny Cash - 1932-2003.

I discovered Johnny Cash relatively late in his life, my first introduction being in 1991, when he sung with a punk band called One Bad Pig on a cover of 'Man in Black'. I thought that was pretty cool, although I didn't care much for country music at the time and associated 'Johnny Cash' with all the other old musicians my mom listened to.

My second encounter with Johnny Cash's music happened in 1993, by way of U2's album Zooropa, when he sang with Bono on "The Wanderer", a truly amazing and deeply spiritual song. And he kept re-appearing after that. In the summer of 1994 I recall browsing a friend's record collection and discovering his American Recordings, which stood out in sharp contrast to the rest of his albums (we listened to Slayer, Scorn, Godflesh, The Melvins). But in a way, it kind of made sense. Cash was hard and gritty and real as they came -- and one couldn't help but be impressed by his cover of Danzig's 'Thirteen' (or his subsequent cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage".

A little while afterwards I started listening to his country albums, bought Live at Fulsom Prison and enjoyed his " God, Love, Murder collection, hand-picked by Cash himself.

As he said in the liner notes for American III: "On the question of youth and old age, I wouldn't trade my future for any one's I know . . . The Master of Life's been good to me. . . . Life and love go on. Let the music play."

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger, traveling through this world below. There's no sickness, no, toil, nor danger in that bright land to which I go. I'm going there to see my Father and all my loved ones who've gone home. I'm just going over Jordan, I'm just going over home. I know dark clouds will gather 'round me, I know my way is hard and steep. But beauteous fields arise before me, where God's redeemed their vigils keep. I'm going there to see my mother, she said she'd meet me when I come. So I'm just going over Jordan, I'm just going over home. I'm just going over Jordan, I'm just going over home. Johnny Cash. 1932-2003

"Obfuscation in a time of terror."

What happens to our passion for literature when any "text" qualifies as literature, when theory is elevated above poetry and the critic above the poet, and when literature, interpretation, and theory alike are said to be indeterminate and infinitely malleable? What happens to our respect for philosophy -- the "love of wisdom," as it once was -- when we are told that philosophy has nothing to do with either wisdom or virtue, that what passes for metaphysics is really linguistics, that morality is a form of aesthetics and that the best thing we can do is not to take philosophy seriously?

And what happens to our sense of the past when we are told that there is no past save that which the historian creates; or to our perception of the momentousness of history when we are assured that is is we who give moment to history; or to that most momentous historical event, the Holocaust, when it can be so readily "demystified" and "normalized," "structuralized" and "deconstructed"?

And what happens when we look into the abyss and see no real beasts but only a pale reflection of ourselves -- of our particular race, glass, and gender; or, worse yet, when we see only the metaphorical, rhetorical, mythical, linguistic, semiotic, figurative, fictive simulations of our imaginations? And when, looking at an abyss so remote from reality, we are moved to say, like Trilling's students, "How interesting, how exciting."

Gertrude Himmelfarb
On Looking Into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society

* * *

EXERCISE: Consider this in relation to a dialogue with Jacques Derrida on the subject of 9/11.

"I became the profane pervert Arab blogger"

Salaam Pax writes about browsing and blogging under Saddam Hussein. I wonder if this is the first time a blog has ever been published in book format?

Scraping the bottom the barrel

You know somebody's hard-up for attention-getting spam subject lines when you're greeted with: "Oppressed Arab Women Going SEX-CRAZY!"

Reading and its discontents

You know how it is for employees at a restaurant -- after a couple of weeks you get tired of the (same old) food. I wonder if some librarians undergo a similar "loss of appetite"? At least, that's what flashed through my mind this afternoon as a teenager with a vacant expression swiped the barcode on my books and barely stifled a yawn when she handed it to me . . . would it have made any difference had she known just how long I'd waited to read Brink Lindsey's Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism? (I'd heard an interview with the author on NPR back in 2001 which I was utterly fascinated by and, not being able to afford a brand new copy, had been anxiously waiting for the New York Public Library to acquire a copy ever since.)

I had to wonder how many teenagers feel that delicious thrill that I do every time I get a book from the library, the experience of encountering new authors and exploring new worlds of thought that had me hooked from the time I was a little boy. Some of my most vivid memories from childhood are my visits to the libraries in Pennsylvania & North Carolina, and the many books I discovered there.

Anyway, I'd like to hope that it was just the weather (high 90's and humid), or that she had a long day and couldn't wait to get out of there . . . or perhaps she just didn't give a damn about the struggle for global capitalism.

On a similar note, I'd like to know who determines the acquisitions of the New York Public Library -- this book was first published in December 2001 and I had to wait nearly two years before it was added to the library's collection. And yet, Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and Its Discontents, also of the same genre, was published in April 2003 and appeared almost instantly on the library bookshelves. What's up wit' 'dat?

Relocating.

The New Criterion threw a great part -- ahem, book sale -- this evening, cleaning out their offices in preparation for a move to new digs downtown. It's not often you go to a book sale where they provide wine, beer & munchies (Thank you to the nice girl who coerced another employee into providing me with their last beer -- much appreciated!) The staff were very friendly, although I admit I did feel slightly out of my element. However, I did walk away with Allen Ginsberg's Collected Poems, Christopher Lasch's The True & Only Heaven, Gertrude Himmelfarb's On Looking Into the Abyss, Gary Dorrien's The Neoconservative Mind (a study of Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Michael Novak & Peter Berger) and last but not least The Art of War in the Western World -- the latter which I'll probably never read, but it was a steal at $2.00 and does look rather impressive on one's bookshelf.

I already know what I want for Christmas . . .

Harold Bloom vs. The School of Resentment

Harold Bloom (literary critic, lover of Hamlet and mortal enemy of Harry Potter) on the infiltration of "cultural studies" in academics in a delightful interview with Jennie Rothenberg of The Atlantic:

". . . To a rather considerable extent, literary studies have been replaced by that incredible absurdity called cultural studies which, as far as I can tell, are neither cultural nor are they studies. But there has always been an arrogance, I think, of the semi-learned.

. . . we have this nonsense called Theory with a capital T, mostly imported from the French and now having evilly taken root in the English-speaking world. And that, I suppose, also has encouraged absurd attitudes toward what we used to call imaginative literature.

. . . the wave of French theory was replaced by the terrible mélange that I increasingly have come to call the School of Resentment—the so-called multiculturalists and feminists who tell us we are to value a literary work because of the ethnic background or the gender of the author. . . . I have sometimes characterized these people as a Rabblement of Lemmings, dashing off the cliff and carrying their supposed subject down to destruction with them."

"Ranting Against Cant"
The Atlantic Unbound, 8/16/03

Reassuring News from Iraq

The author of Porphyrogenitus.Net posts a reassuring letter from his uncle in Iraq:

. . . For the first time in decades, public executions, the torture of children in front of their parents and the killing of people who might disagree with the Iraqi government are no longer taking place. The rape of school girls as young as thirteen are no longer conducted in the son's palace and the oil for food program is actually going for food for the population, rather then the palaces for a select few. I can tell you from being in one of [Saddam's] reported 70 palaces, (seventeen just in Baghdad) that the amount of money spent just in marble for the floors would have fed and clothed hundreds if not thousands. . . .

Medical supplies, food aid, employment, free press, representative government and schools opening back up are things that are going on over here but for what ever the reason those very good things are under reported in Western news papers. I guess, "Thousands getting clean drinking water" which happens to be a frequent occurrence, doesn't sell as many newspapers as "soldier being killed" which is a much less frequent happening.

What I did when the lights went off

Like many commuters in NYC, I was -- to put a positive spin on things -- blessed with the opportunity to take a scenic walk home across the Queensborough Bridge and along Queens Blvd. ¹

A few vendors eager to exploit the panic for profit immediately jacked up the prices on essential materials (water, flashlights, candles). Thankfully, we encountered many benevolent souls along the way who provided free water -- including a touching scene of two little kids manning a table all by themselves (with a large supply of plastic cups and gallon jugs from their parents), and a fire station which kept a hose running to cool people in the sweltering 90+ heat.

I walked this very same route on 9/11, so I was familiar with many of the spots where we rested -- I even recognized one of the people offering free water and bathrooms as the same person who did so two years ago.

One time while we stopped to rest we noticed a young woman having a lot of trouble with her shoes (high heels) -- her co-worker (boyfriend?) took off his own shoes, gave them to her, and walked alongside her barefoot.

The experience was not without humor -- In Forest Hills I passed by a liquor store selling shots for $1.00, and a sushi restaurant attempting to clean out its stock (just what you really want on a hot day with a blackout: RAW FISH!)

As it grew dark there were many families sitting on the steps of their apartments with candles -- one little boy (getting into the capitalist spirit) decided to try and sell his to passers-by for 25 cents, but the decision was quickly vetoed by his mother.

I walked in the door around 9:30pm. Residents of our apartment were hanging out front with candles and incense and had a radio tuned in to the news. It was nice to look up and see the stars for a change (a rare sight for those living in New York).

What I've learned from this experience -- besides the importance of being prepared for emergencies -- is that New Yorkers are an especially resilient bunch, especially after 9/11. (As one radio announcer commented, we're "90% scar tissue"). ² I was particularly impressed with the way (mostly) everybody pulled together over the last couple of days, both on the walk back to Queens and in general.

Although a transplanted Tarheel from North Carolina, I have to say I'm very proud to live here.

---

1. Now that we have power again I charted my route on Mapquest and, although not mathematically certain, it appears to be btw/ 9-10 miles. Quite a trek!
2. Still, we're practically wimps compared to the Iraqis, who've been living under similar conditions for months!

Additional Links

• New York City Blackout - Gothamist Extended Edition
• New York City Blackout as Photographed by John Wehr

The Founding Fakers

In "The Founding Fakers" (The New Republic 8/11/03), Franklin Foer tackles what I consider a glaring and persistent flaw in the conduct of recent Republican administrations: namely, the willingness of some within the GOP to cloak some morally repugnant characters who would otherwise fall into the category of criminals or terrorists in the mantle of democracy when it is politically expedient to do so -- i.e., "the foreign opposition leader romanticized beyond reason."

Liberals did this with Stalin and Fidel Castro; Reagan with the Nicaraguan Contras (or as he called them, "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers"); the Bush (senior) administration with the Afghan mujahedin . . . and now, says Foer, the spotlight may be turning towards militant groups in Iran such as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a militant organization based in Iraq which, although currently classified as a terrorist organization, may be useful should the U.S. extend its "war on terrorism" into Iran.

Extolling the virtues of cults like the Iranian mujahedin doesn't simply cheapen rhetoric about liberal democracy, it cheapens conservatism itself. Ever since Edmund Burke, conservatives have made skepticism about revolutions and revolutionaries a central tenet of their politics. As Irving Kristol rephrased the classic complaint in a 1972 essay, "to think we have it in our power to change people so as to make the human estate wonderfully better than it is, remarkably different from what it is, and in very short order, is to assume that this generation of Americans can do what no other generation in all of human history could accomplish." This rigid traditionalism has been sometimes deployed to justify turning away from injustice. But it was also a source of humaneness, a bulwark against rash plans for social upheaval, a vital warning about the violent excesses of ideological fervor, a reminder that revolutions often end in tears. In this new era, with grand plans for remaking the map and new heroes being born, we could stand to be reminded of these old dictates, which add a touch of realism to right-wing idealism and offer a salutary dose of conservatism for conservatives.

Whether the MEK will occupy the same pedestal as the Contras remains to be seen, but I do think Foer has a good point: it's one of those blatant utiliatarian political decisions that can only turn around and hurt us in the end.

. . . oops.

Exactly how this will play out in church situations is unclear, judging from a press conference Wednesday in Minneapolis. There, Wendy Griffith, a reporter with the Christian Broadcasting Network, asked presiding Episcopal Bishop Frank Griswold about Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson, who was confirmed Tuesday as the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop. He is divorced and lives with his male partner.     

If, the reporter asked, a divorced male bishop could live with a man to whom he was not married, what about a divorced heterosexual male bishop living with a female lover?     

"Or," she added, "is being outside marriage only OK if you are gay?"     

"The Episcopal Church honors holy matrimony," Bishop Griswold said, "and certainly if a male were elected bishop and was living with a woman without benefit of clergy, that would be a significant problem."     

"So there's a double standard, then?" Miss Griffith asked, at which point church spokesman Jim Solheim abruptly ended the press conference.

Washington Post August 8, 2003.

"The Internet is Shit"

The Internet is Shit.