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December 31, 2004
Where to contribute
by JeremyThe Command Post has an extensive list of links for donating to tsunami relief. Some are predicting the death toll could climb toward half a million people. It's difficult to fathom the magnitude of that much loss of humanity, but it's not hard to contribute enough to help one or two people survive the coming days and weeks (and months and years...).
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks there was far more money contributed than could be used. I don't think there is any chance of that happening with a tragedy of this tremendous scope given that there are literally millions of people whose continued survival will depend on receiving aid. Though supplies are piling up at the moment due to the huge difficulty of physically reaching many of the survivors, one hopes this difficulty will be increasingly overcome and that the relief supplies will begin to be rapidly distributed.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
News Analysis: Osama's Odds
by Jeremy
Osama Bin Laden's continued relevance in the months and years to come may depend on his placing a few crucial bets on a series of winning horses. He has failed these past few years to wantonly exterminate very many human beings and that has frankly cost him some gravitas. Osama is losing market share and, what's more, he knows it. That may explain a few intriguing strategic plays he has made in recent weeks.
First it was the "deputizing" of Zarqawi.
Then that feeble offer of 20 million dollars (over five years) to recruit Pedro Martinez for an all-star anti-Western baseball team. Once again a strong pick for Osama, though his eyes were bigger than his stomach on that one. "Bin Laden just doesn't respect me" Martinez was quoted as saying.
One pick the lanky mass murderer has not yet made, at least publicly, concerns his plans for a more programmatic series of broadcasts of his "fireside chats" that have, as yet, only barely kept his name in the society pages. Unsurprisingly ambivalent about signing a contract with commercial American radio networks such as Clear Channel, the Jihadi-fascist has announced a move to satellite radio some time within the next calendar year. What investors want to know, of course, is whether it will be XM or Sirius. And this shrewd would-be architect of Armageddon is keeping it close to the vest.
So how good is Osama at picking a prize pony? Time, as they say, will tell.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 26, 2004
Zany Jack Russels
by Jeremy
Posted by Jeremy at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Earthquake
by JeremyIt's shocking and humbling to wake up to news of the tremendous earthquake in Southern Asia today. Norm has a roundup of links.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dog Delay
by JeremyNotice to Waiting Dog fans: I forgot to cue one up for today so today's Waiting Dog won't be waiting until late this evening.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy Inkeeper Awareness Day!
We enjoyed ours, thanks. And now it's snowing out here in Eastern Massachusetts. Very festive.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 24, 2004
Iranian Inclusiveness
by JeremyIn what European negotiators are describing as a good faith effort by the Iranian Mullahs to increase multi-cultural sensitivity, next year's controversial "Ramadan Television Theater" broadcast will be sanitized to remove content that some are calling divisive.
This year's Ramadan broadcast featured the Syrian-produced TV series "Al-Shatat" (The Diaspora), a dramatization of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in which, among many other edgy scenes, a Christian boy's throat is slit on the orders of a rabbi so his blood can be baked into Passover matzos.
"This is bleeding edge broadcasting" a spokesman for the Hezbollah Channel said. "Did you notice the way the camera shakes while the zionists slaughter the Christian child? It's sort of like your American crime-drama verite. Nevertheless, we understand the concerns and we respect where the Iranian government is coming from with the reform they have requested."
Next year's broadcast of Al-Shatat, a spokesman for the Iranian Mullahs has promised, will be referred to as "The Winter Festival Television Theater," dropping the controversial use of the word "Ramadan" altogether.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 21, 2004
A Candle and a Deck of Cards (at least)
by JeremyYule is no more a part of the Judaism of my heritage than is Christmas, but it is clearly the holiday that I am currently celebrating, my 'reason for the season.' I rebuke the sacrificing of pigs part, but I love the holiday as it has been passed on to us.
Soon the blessed Yule will arrive, - the children begin to anticipate. All will receive something nice, - at least a candle and a deck of cards.
Ain't that nice?
So, happy Yuletide! And Merry Christmas...and all the others. It's not a contest, just a good time to celebrate.
Posted by Jeremy at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2004
Very Cold
by JeremyWhen I got up this morning it was about 10 degrees outside (that's -12.2 Celsius for the Fahrenheit impaired among you) and I swaddled myself up like a baby Michelin Man before daring to step outside to walk ten feet to my car.
But by now my hard-won Calvinist stoicism has kicked in for the season. I was out a little while ago in what is now 3 degree cold (that's -16.1 Celsius) without my gloves or ear muffs. I'm a wild man. I'm a New Englander. It's expected to get 5 degrees colder before sunrise.
On Wednesday it is expected to be 50 degrees (10 Celsius).
In the last ten years the coldest I have seen here in Western Massacusetts was -20 (-28.9 C.) and the hottest temperature was 106 (41.1 C.).
Welcome to New England.
But anyway...Happy Winter Solstice!!!
Posted by Jeremy at 09:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
No Food or Drink or Pets
by Jeremy
Posted by Jeremy at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 17, 2004
Iraq Timeline
by JeremyIf anyone is still out there I strongly urge you to read this witty and cathartic piece by Pootergeek. Read the whole thing (don't skim).
Posted by Jeremy at 06:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Few Stories I'm Tracking
by JeremyI'm sorry I don't have much to blog about and I'm too lazy to supply the links, but here are a couple of stories I've been reading that I think you might find unusual:
White Rapper Jack Rolls Unsuspecting Public
Upon learning that rapper Eminem's bizarre manner of speaking is meant to resemble the speaking style of a young African-American man, rapper Snoop Dogg is incredulous:
?Damn man, that shit is inappropriate.?
But surely this can?t have been news to Mr. Dogg?
?I guess I just assumed he was Cajun or something. I always knew that dog was blunted, but that is some wackizzle shizizzle.?
Heh. Indeed.
And here's another one of those pictures of sensitive apologetic people. This one seemed especially moving.
Posted by Jeremy at 01:00 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 14, 2004
Crazy Small Blog World
by JeremyOmar and Mohammed meet Bush, then Jeff Jarvis:
They said President Bush assured them that we would finish the job this time.[...]
Bush also went to Omar, as a dentist, and said he wanted him to fix a cavity.
Mohammed said the President understood what blogs are and their importance and they found the staff in the White House views reading blogs as part of their jobs now. The brothers said they were in the White House not just as Iraqi citizens but as representatives of the blogosphere.
Then they grab dinner on the west coast with Roger:
One thing I would like to say at the outset is that they were terrific people and I was instantly comfortable with them in the way you are with old friends. This is one of the miracles of the blogosphere. We all know each other to an extraordinary degree before we meet.[...]
I was relieved by what they were like on a deeper level as well. They don't know this, but on the darkest days of the war, at the times the media were at their gloomiest and I was racked with guilt that I had so adamantly supported our actions, I almost always turned first to them. I didn't look to them for unbiased opinions. There is no such thing. I looked to them to see how real Iraqis were reacting to a situation that affected them more directly than it could ever affect me or the prognosticators of doom in our media.
You'd swear the population of the world was no more than ten thousand people. But it's more than that. There's something significant afoot.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 13, 2004
Juan Cole Has a Theory
by JeremyHere's Michael's cathartically apt synopsis of a bit of idiocy from Juan Cole:
An American was murdered by an Iraqi because he "looked Jewish" and Professor Juan Cole (perhaps the most over-rated blogger in the world) blames, wait for it, Israel!
Juan Cole manages to take the blame-the-victim game to a whole new level. First deny it's anti-Semitism, then go ahead and blame the victim for it and, while you're taking the trouble, blame Israel. And thus is the asshat trifecta effortlessly achieved.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:42 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Bush Lied
by Jeremy...er...or something.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This is inspiring...
by JeremyBut read the whole thing to get to the inspiring parts.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 12, 2004
Design Builders
by Jeremy
Posted by Jeremy at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 10, 2004
Uncanny Similarities Between Kerry and Yushchenko
by JeremyMany people have pointed to some obvious similarities between the recent elections in the U.S. and Ukraine. The staff at Who Knew? decided to do some independent research into the similarities between John Kerry and Viktor Yushchenko. We think some of our results may startle you:
| Yushchenko is married and has two daughters | Kerry is married and has two daughters |
| In August, Yushchenko's car was run off the road by a truck in an apparent assassination attempt. | In March, Kerry was knocked over on his snowboard by a 'sonofabitch' Secret Service agent. |
| Yushchenko, before being disfigured by assassination attempts, used to look like a gameshow host. | Kerry sounds exactly like gameshow host, Alex Trebek. |
| Yushchenko was the hugely popular favorite among the voting populace. | Kerry was also a much beloved candidate so his loss was similarly inexplicable. |
| Yushchenko, in an apparent assassination attempt, was poisoned with what he believes to have been a bacterial toxin. Though he survived the incident his face has been dramatically altered, much to the concern and astonishment of the voting public. | Kerry too is injected with a deadly bacterial toxin, altering his face dramatically, much to the concern and astonishment of the voting public. |
UPDATE: It turns out Yushchenko was poisoned with Dioxin.
If you have noticed other compelling similarities, please leave them in the comments.
Posted by Jeremy at 02:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Recent Dream
by JeremyI don't necessarily believe in paying heed to all dreams as if they were the oracle of truth. Some dreams are just B movies. My digestive problems have contributed to some of the high drama of my dreams lately because, as Scrooge said to the first spirit he was visited by:
...a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There?s more of gravy than grave about you, whatever you are.
Some dreams, however, are sure as hell trying to tell you something. Or, more precisely, they are you trying to tell yourself that you are trying to tell yourself something (can you tell I read R. D. Laing in high school?).
I had a dream a week or so ago that I was in some kind of very low tent and I was shuffling through some very large schematic drawings that other people had done and I was trying to explain them to some people who were walking away. I suddenly realized that these drawings were the work of other people and that I had not actually contributed anything much to them. I wanted to follow the people who had walked out of the tent (I can hear a therapist out there asking, "who do you think those people were?" but I have a feeling that, like Soylent Green, they were just...people) but I realized that in order to get out of that tent I had to lie down and squeeze through a small opening and I suddently felt extremely claustrophobic and panicked. If you think you have an interpretation of that last bit that won't make me say "no shit, Sherlock" then feel free to offer it up (I'm not being cruel, dear reader, just kidding).
A cheeseball therapist would take me through all kinds of Freudian hoops. That stuff, the psychosexual, the repressed birth trauma, the stuff that a mechanical adding machine made in 1947 could tell me about that dream, that stuff is always there. That's all window dressing. What I think this dream means is:
- A blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese
- I'm writing about other people's writing or research or reporting instead of working on my own stuff
- I'm getting a bit depressed again which means I'm feeling even more like a little boy lost in a world of other people's work than I normally do
My doctor is helping me to sort out the moderate depression from the stomach problem. It's possible that depression and anxiety is making my stomach problem worse. I think it's more likely that my stomach problem is making my depression and anxiety worse and that they are in turn making my stomach worse, etc. This is the classic feedback loop. But the evidence for my theory is that when I fast for eight hours or so I begin to feel very positive and energetic. But not eating has side effects that are far worse than any anti-depressant.
My GP is a wise doctor. He's not one to chalk everything up to either a need for a drug or a psychosomatic cause. He's good at seeing the potential piffle on both sides of that kind of debate: drugs don't fix everything and mind-body explanations are often bullshit too. If something's true it's true, if it's piffle it's piffle. I like that.
So the current plan is, if I'm more depressed lately and St. Johnswort is not good enough, try Zoloft. If it helps my stomach (prediction: it won't) great. If it doesn't, then I've got a lousy stomach but I'm less depressed. You can't lose. Then, adding only one new medicine at a time as befits the scientific method, I can try that new drug for my stomach, the one that I thought I was ordering semi-legally from Mexico but ended up getting mailed to me from Thailand. My doctor does not like the sound of that and would just as soon take a few weeks to research it anyway.
But in any event, it makes sense to simplify things for a few weeks. Hence absolving myself of the obligation to blog every day (watch me do it anyway. There's nothing more energizing than promising to relax).
I had a nightmare last night that I was, I can't quite remember, on a ship or on a street during an earthquake. I was extremely nauseous and had vertigo and all that. I woke up and was relieved to find I was not really on a ship or in an earthquake, but I was disappointed to find that I really did have bad nausea and vertigo. That's the kind of bad dream that is trying to tell me exactly nothing deep or psychological; it is simply saying: "tell me what you plan to do about this stomach thing, asshole, because this is not acceptable." How do I explain to this dream portion of my brain that my solution is to try Zoloft for a month and worry about my stomach later. I can hear it now: "you are doing what!?" But then there is that other part of my brain that has been waiting for thirty seven years for something to get done about my depression. So take a number, dammit.
But dreaming, as I have heard said (read the last answer), is hard work.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 09, 2004
Light Blogging Now Through the Holidays
by JeremyThat's my plan. I've noticed my energy flagging a bit and my stats dropping and the holidays coming and some new stomach meds coming and a new paid writing deadline coming and my enthusiasm for creative writing increasing...so I'm going to roll with it and post less for a few weeks.
I will continue to do my little satirical posts every Friday and my dog posts every Sunday. And otherwise I'll post when I need to or want to and not necessarily every day.
A few promises: I'm not going wobbly or anything; I haven't lost interest in blogging but I'm going to need a little Saturnalia/festival of lights/tannenbaum type of thing to help me get my energy back; I will make completely pointless changes to the technical side of this blog; I will finish my one-click blogroll builder for Movable Type and post it for download within a few weeks.
The sorry truth is that I believe that the blogosphere, this collectively written hydra, full of sound and fury, with its vision both eye-witness and armchair, is an historically important document. I'm proud to have been able to contribute a tiny little bit to it. I don't want to lose that little piece of real estate so I'm definitely not going to quit.
So please keep checking back every few days, or put me in your bloglines or some other RSS aggregator so you'll know when I've got a new post. I'd like to promise there won't be any self-indulgent fluff, but there probably will be.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 08, 2004
What 'Peace' in Iraq Looked Like
by JeremyYou should take ten minutes and look at all 310 of these pictures of the unearthing of mass graves in Iraq (via Norm. Also see this post by Varifrank from a while back).
Posted by Jeremy at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 07, 2004
Speaking of England...Gastroparesis Rant #326
by JeremyThe medication that, by all accounts, is the best one by far for treating gastroparesis is not available in the United States because it has not been approved by the FDA. I have been doing some research and it may be possible for my doctor to write me a prescription that I can fill online through a Canadian pharmacy. I can also buy it online, without a prescription, from Mexico. I have ordered some, but frankly it scares me (no, I won't take it without seeing my doctor first. I've got an appointment this week).
But now I find that the damned stuff, domperidone, is available over-the-counter in the UK!
When you consider that the medication previously prescribed to me can cause permanent neurological damage, though it is FDA approved, you can see why I'm a bit miffed.
Maybe it's time for us to move to England. Do you think a slacker with a digestive disorder is the kind of person the UK is searching the world for? I would think so. Plus I can juggle. And I've figured out how to make fluffy scrambled eggs (and if I can get this medication maybe I can actually eat them more often).
Posted by Jeremy at 09:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More Whining From the Anti-Genocide Freaks
by JeremyI'm tired of people whining about people whining about the holocaust. Probably there are not more anti-Semites in England than in the U.S., but the English ones have a way with words, don't they, an admirable flair for subtlety (via Norm):
[T]he BBC justifies the series [the new six-part series about Auschwitz] with solemn talk about the need to educate the British public which, it claims, is ignorant about the Holocaust, a likely tale in view of the fact that it is referred to on news bulletins and current affairs programmes at every opportunity... [T]he reason yet another series is being made is that there is an audience for concentration camps, as there is for war and bloodshed and atrocities of all kinds.
The clever person quoted above is Guardian writer Richard Ingrams.
I was once riding from Massachusetts to NYC on a Trailways bus that, for some reason, was filled with people speaking in English accents. One of them was sitting just in front of me and was talking about the summer camp he worked for the previous year. He decided not to return to that job because the kids at this high priced camp were rich little brats. The woman sitting next to him said "was this a Jewish camp?" and the guy replied, in a foppish tone, "How did you figure that out?"
More cultured than a classically American phrase like "Japs and Heebs" but I'm not sure it makes much of a difference. One thing that has occurred to me, and I wish I'd tested this theory, is that the English are generally more vulnerable to embarrassment. If I'd leaned over that bus seat and politely told the people in front of me that I was Jewish and was offended by their conversation, there's a good chance that they'd have been mortified. I don't think the average English person can conceive of there being Jewish people within earshot at any given time. In the parts of the U.S. I've lived in, by contrast, audible anti-Semitism comes from a perception that we buggers are everywhere, passing as ordinary White people. So when you hear it there's a better chance that the person responsible for the utterance is looking for trouble. Again, I could be wrong about this. And let me say that I'd rather take my chances in England and American over Europe these days.
An interesting example of anti-Semitism stemming from a lack of familiarity with Jewish people is the case of Charles Dickens, whose Fagin character has offended many Jews (count me as one). A Jewish woman of Dickens' acquaintance, a Mrs. Davis, impressed upon Dickens via an editorial in the "Jewish Chronicle" that he had some thinking to do and it seems he did this thinking, if gradually and incompletely. Anyway, he took the criticism seriously enough to write a sympathetic Jewish character into his last novel.
Mrs. Davis was pleased with Dickens' creation of a good Jew and sent him a copy of a new translation of the Hebrew Bible. Dickens was gratitude personified in his response, asserting:"There is nothing but good will left between me and a People for whom I have a real regard and to whom I would not wilfully have given an offence or done an injustice for any worldly consideration. Believe me, Very faithfully yours, Charles Dickens."
I have a feeling Shakespeare, also known for using a certain hook-nosed stock Jewish character, though far more compellingly and thoughtfully, would sign such a letter.
You can drive yourself crazy wondering whether the fiction you love was written by an anti-Semite, and when you catch yourself doing this it makes you feel paranoid, or like you're 'whining.' But then there's no avoiding the subject even if you'd like to. Roald Dahl, though I love much of his work, must not be forgiven for saying this of Jews and our whining:
"There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity...even a stinker like Hitler didn?t just pick on them for no reason."
Much has been made of some of Dahl's anti-Semitic jokes, but the above, stated seriously during an interview, was not disguised as a joke.
And Dahl, it seems, was also asked by the Jewish Chronicle in 1990 to answer for his anti-Semitism. His attitude to the reporter on the telephone was not exactly contrite:
"I'm an old hand at dealing with you buggers", he said. "No comment."
(source for Dahl items: this book, which you can search inside at Amazon).
Well I am one bugger who is no longer averse to being thought of as a paranoid whiner. It beats complacency.
By the way, I had no idea the word "buggers" or the "Jewish Chronicle", mentioned earlier in this post, would surface again when I did my research on Roald Dahl. That's why I love blogging.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 05, 2004
One Year and Still Waiting...
by JeremyThose eloquent and inspiring bloggers at Socialism in an Age of Waiting (SIAW) marked their one year anniversary yesterday, so congratulations to them!
They celebrate with a guest post by Hak Mao (whose name, I think, has less to do with her political alliances than with the sounds her cat makes) in which the whole 'waiting' thing is explained. I might as well say that I, myself, am not waiting for a socialist revolution. I don't think pure socialism is a recipe for structuring a society (though I must disclose that I'm a lousy scholar, unlike the folks mentioned above, so I'm not challenging anyone to a debate on scripture, though I invite them or anyone else to voice their views here, dissenting or not). The goals of a well-meaning and intelligent socialist, though admirable, are in my view utopian.
Where I strongly agree with the views expressed in Hak Mao's post is that an effort to force a better society using a top-down approach initiated by a tiny elite is a recipe for totalitarianism (which no one should doubt is the enemy of honest socialist ideals when you consider that there are few meaningful differences between Stalinism, Maoism, and Fascism. Ask a knowledgeable person to differentiate these and you'll know the sound of a hair being split).
Hak Mao warns would-be revolutionary socialists (emphasis mine):
Attempts at revolution without sufficient support and preparation are play-acting, and place people in unnecessary danger. When the international working class is ready and sufficiently organised, revolution, in whatever form, will take care of itself. Until then the totalitarian impulses apparent in so many so-called leftist groups must be challenged, and the commitment to the principles of universal, indivisible human rights and freedom of thought proclaimed.
"...the commitment to the principles of universal, indivisible human rights and freedom of thought." Now that has the makings of a litmus test I can proudly stand behind. And what has amazed me these past few years is the wide ideological variety among the people I have found passing this test with flying colors. The result is that I feel I have a common cause with socialists, conservatives, libertarians, centrists...and I'm increasingly proud of that. I think this is progress.
To put it another way, I consider myself on the same ideological team with Lefties who bitterly reject Stalinism and other forms of totalitarianism, Righties who bitterly reject social Darwinism and the fostering of fascist client states, and of course centrists who have never been tempted toward such sinister failings of either political pole (which is to say many but not all centrists).
What we're all in fact waiting for is a universal commitment to democratic principles within a system that excludes fewer and fewer people.
And the SIAW guys have repeatedly shown a belief, which I share, that you can't magically jump from a corrupt society to an ideal society, that until enough people have shown a genuine commitment to even the most rudimentary notions of liberal democracy, of justice and freedom, until the number of people laughing at such phrases has been reduced to a ridiculed minority...until then we've all got some more work to to before we can get to anything categorically better. And this is true regardless of how you, as a decent person, would define what a better society will look like.
But my point (delivered within a fittingly long post!) was really just that I greatly respect those SIAW guys and have appreciated their ideas and their prose, and so my congratulations!
Posted by Jeremy at 01:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Internet Trouble?
by JeremyI was initiallly a bit worried that my domain name www.whoknew.us does not seem to be working at the moment and that I can't bring up the website of the registrar for that domain.
But then I noticed that I can't bring up Google.com either, so I felt better.
Then I started to worry again.
Anyone know what's going on? (out of the 12 visitors I've had so far?)
UPDATE: It appears to be a problem with the my ISP (internet service provider) since I was able to get results for the above URLs by checking them at Netmechanic.
UPDATE #2: It turns out to have been nothing more than a router problem that went away when I restarted my router. I've never heard of such a thing, have you? I could get connect to some URLs but not others. But then this also means that I really only have gotten a few dozen visitors today. By any objective standard I should hang it up after a year and a quarter of such low numbers, but I don't think I'm going to. I know that a few of you enjoy this blog and I'm grateful. Some of you have your own blogs with small readership. So let's all keep building our crazy little wonderlands, like this one (just remember to backup your wonderland frequently, because they're not all made of bluestone).
Posted by Jeremy at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Waiting Dogs #3
by Jeremy
This young Northampton (MA) doggie is distracted at the moment by something going on down the street, but he must surely feel stung by the unfair discrimination allowing that other doggie to be inside the store (look carefully) while he's got to wait outside.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 03, 2004
It's About the Empowerment; It's About the Inkeepers
by JeremyNo one's taking anything away from Christmas, OK, so don't bother with the hate mail. And I'm sorry, I'm not apologizing if you think I'm 'uppity' in this post, but I'm fired up, can't take no more, and I'm not going to be your little monkey.
This post is about something I recently learned concerning the difference between 'celebrating holidays' which all too often takes the form of acceding to a kind of cultural hegemony, vs. using the 'holiday season' as a reminder of our true strident and courageous selves that have been left to squat in the corner of the culture with their bottom lips undulating into a collective excrescence of psychic pain due to being subjected to a kind of holocaust of cultural hegemon...oh, I said that already.
Specifically, what I learned is about the other side of Christmas. Yes, yes, the baby Jesus, yes, yes, the manger, right, sure, the inkeepers. Those evil, self-interested, mendacious, hidebound inkeeper bastards. Or so it goes. What? The Son of God? Going to die for our sins? No, sorry. You can sleep in the fucking barn.
That's how the inkeepers are perceived this time of year, so don't put your baggage on me. Offended? Well how in the hell do you think hospitality professionals feel this time of year? Come on people, this is the 21st century. Cultural sensitivity is not an optional extra anymore, it's included in the terms of the social contract. In large fucking type, OK? So it's time to stop defaulting on the contract, people.
I'm not a hotel professional but this time, this season, I'm going to damn well be thinking of them. You do what you want.
Let's take a good hard look at this thing from another perspective, M'kay? It's late at night, Christmas Eve, you're an inkeeper still at work, and some pregnant woman and her husband with no reservation are begging for a room. Need I say more?
Well I found this on the internet and it made me cry. If you can read this brave person's testimony without feeling moved, then you are a lousy person:
I am a Reservations AgentI have advanced degrees in accounting, public relations, marketing, business, computer science, civil engineering, and Swahili. I can also read minds.
Of course I have the reservation that you booked six years ago, even though you don't have your confirmation number and you think it was made under a name that starts with "X"It's not a problem for me to give you seven connecting, non-smoking, poolside suites with two king beds in each, four rollaways, and yes I can install a wet bar. I know that it is my fault that we do not have a helicopter landing pad.
I am a reservations agent, I am expected to speak all languages. It is obvious to me that when you booked your reservation for Friday, that you really meant Saturday. My company has entrusted me with all financial information and decisions, and yes I can tell you why your bill from 1989 contained a 25 cent phone charge because, obviously, you never pay for phone charges.
I understand that mcgillicotty's widget manufacturing is a vast empire that will make or break our hotel. Yes, I am lying to you when I say we have no more rooms available. It's not a problem for me to quickly construct several more guest rooms. This time I will remember to build the helicopter landing pad. And it's my fault that everyone wanted to stay here at our hotel, I should have known that you were coming in even though you have no reservation.
There's more of that you can read if you even care.
I'm sorry. I warned you this was emotionally affecting. What can you do? Well, for starters you can join with me in celebrating International Inkeepers' Empowerment Day this December 25th.
Next week I will share my thoughts on the sobering implications the miracle of Hannukah holds for the good people of the Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 01, 2004
Michael Totten's Pictures of Libya
by JeremyMichael has posted some snapshots of his Thanksgiving trip to Libya. It takes some time for them to load, even with a high speed connection, but well worth it. Click over, go grab a sandwich, then take a look see.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Those 380 Tons of Explosives
by JeremyThank heaven for the diligence and outrage of Kerry and Edwards and of righteous bloggers for speaking truth to power about that missing store of high explosives that threatened to derail Bush's presidential campaign (though that has nothing to do with anything).
They will be delighted to know that the mystery may have been solved:
The disappearance of the explosive, known as HMX (high melting explosives), in mysterious circumstances at the end of the war caused a few nasty moments for President George Bush's presidential election campaign last month.A letter to Saddam from Dr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, five days before the fall of Baghdad, suggests taking the HMX from underground bunkers, where it had been kept under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and giving it to suicide bombers.
He wrote: "It is possible to increase the explosive power of the suicide-driven cars by using the highly explosive material [HMX] which is sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] and stored in the warehouses of the Military Industry Departments."
The Iraqi regime took credit for several suicide bombs towards the end of the war. After the fall of Saddam, one of the worst attacks - which killed 22 UN workers and the special envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, in August 2003 - had an explosive force that could only have come from military grade explosives.
Er...Halliburton? Uh...Bush lie...um...plastic tur...Oh forget it.
(Hat tip: Norm)
Posted by Jeremy at 11:58 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
A Poem for Iran
by JeremyHere's the absolutely incredible yet completely unsurprising news flash:
Iran says suspension of nuclear program only temporary
Last Updated Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:54:25 ESTTEHRAN - Just a day after reaching an agreement with three European powers to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, Iran says the suspension will only be temporary.
And I'm not yet sure how exactly it fits, but something tells me this poetic couplet, which I quote from the wall of a men's room, sheds some important philosophical light on the matter:
"No matter how you shake and dance,
the last drop always falls in your pants."
Setting aside the likelihood that the Mullahs will want to use their nuclear weapons on Jews, Infidels, and other Satans, it would be fun for you to help me understand why I think that piece of verse is so apt here (and a little practical advice: shake, wait...shake, wait...shake. And maybe that's the thing that Europe is trying to do, maybe that's the problem. This foolproof method doesn't work with nuclear weapons non-proliferation as far as I can see).
Posted by Jeremy at 12:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
