...y prospero anno nuevo

so this is the new year.
and i don't feel any different.
the clanking of crystal
explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

so this is the new year
and I have no resolutions
for self assigned penance
for problems with easy solutions

so everybody put your best suit or dress on
let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogues bleed into one

i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that can hold us back.

~Deathcab for Cutie, Transatlanticism

Death of a Michigan President

I'm not a big Ford fan. The guy pardoned Nixon. But I just had to display a little school pride about this well-organized online exhibit. The Gerald Ford Presidential Library is just across the street from my building, by the Bentley Historical Museum. We've got the documents; the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids is full of memorabilia for the populace.

What planet are these people from?

Writing cover letters while watching Grandma. She has the O'Reilly Factor on. Insane. Completely insane.

Cute little Michelle, who is subing for Bill, is an absolute fascist (Oops! Already fulfilled Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies). Everyone on there is hung up on communism. THE COLD WAR IS OVER, PEOPLE.

There was a clip of Pat Buchanan and Bill arguing about the culture war. Pat maintained that Paris Hilton and the generally immoral culture of things "that would have never have happened in the Fifties" WERE EXAMPLES OF MARXISM TRIUMPHANT?? WTF? Thanks to Dr. Sanders, I can confidently state that Marx did not actively promote a consumer society such as ours. That's all Keynesian, my friend.

THEN, while Michelle was arguing with Francisco Hernandez on immigration:

Michelle: "We have laws and we should support immigrants who are here legally."
Francisco: "In the 1960s, our laws were unjust and people fought against them."
Michelle (quite vindictively): "And they paid the price!"
Hernandez (bemused): "Um...yes they did"
Michelle: "Thank you Francisco, and good luck to you and your fellow travelers..."

I was paraphrasing, but they really did say the bits about the Fifties, Marxism, punishing civil rights, and fellow travelers.

And don't get me started on the Fifties.

Decisions, Decisions

So I've decided to keep the boots, and to try running my life democratically. I now need advice on a much more serious decision...i.e., where do I want to apply for a job.

There is a lovely-looking job working for college constortium in the lovely-looking town of Claremont, CA. Problem: it's 30 miles outside of LA. I hate both the general slutiness of LA and the housing prices.

Salisbury, MD is in a beautiful location on the Maryland Penninsula -- certainly not as noxious as LA. Problem: It's a public university. I cannot philosophically conform to the mission of a government-supported institution. Of course, I violate my principles to some extent every time I drive on a government road, but one doesn't want to make a career of it...

Belmont College is a respected private, Christian school. Problem: It's in Nashville! Kind of like Vegas for Christian people. Hating hicks, the South, and country music as much as I do, Nashville is probably not the ideal location for me. Extremely difficult, I would think, to find classical music stations and marijuana. On the bright side, Tennessee Walkers are gorgeous horses, and I wouldn't mind having one.

Southern Methodist University has also posted a job that matches my skills and paltry experience well. Problem: It's in Texas.

UC Irvine is also looking for someone like me...why are so many schools controlled by the Dark Side?

Finally, Drexel is looking for someone to run the Internet Public Library ask-a-question service. Drexel sort of "bought" the IPL from Michigan, and since I've already done ref admin work for them and I know how things work, I might land the job. Problem: I know from direct observation that they overworked the last librarian in the position. Also, I'm not sure I'm a good match with Philly.

So...yeah...I'm going to keep looking. Any of those places sound particularly appealing?

Awwww....sad

I was looking for pictures of boots, and this sad little kitty came up. You can tell he's embarrassed.

Oh -- and Happy Sol Invictus Day everybody!

Fashion Post

I am, in fact, interested in shallow things. Recent posts may have indicated that I find politics relevant to my life. I don't. It's just something to talk about. Clothing is actually much more of an existential concern. To dissipate my air of gravitas, I must note that in two movies I recently saw -- that were not at all about fashion -- it was the fashions that caught my eye. Particularly the fashion of the late 90s.

The two movies were Spellbound -- about the 1999 Scripts-Howard Spelling Bee -- and The Queen -- about Elizabeth's reaction to the death of Diana.

I know fashion changes quickly. Within the past year I've become almost afraid to wear flare jeans. I also know how the clothing companies exploit trends in order to sell more clothes. But some things I simply cannot wear. Billowing, tucked-in t-shirts, for example. Everyone wore everything tucked in. Or a long, flowered, polyester dress. Somehow, that's what I envisioned people wearing in the late '80s and early '90s. Yet, that is exactly what people were wearing as late as 1999! Not just the dweebs in Missouri and Tampa who were featured in Spellbound, either. Even older women wore different clothes than they would now.

It seems like fashion used to change by decades and now changes by year. Am I just more fashion-conscious than I used to be? Are people in general just more fashion-conscious now than they were six years ago?



Which leads me to a question -- Brianna, Sarah, Emma, Emily, et al. -- I recently purchased a new pair of boots with my anticipated Christmas money. They fit well (slightly snug in the calf), but the shaft falls 3 - 4 inches below my knee. Is that where they should be, or should I send them back to Zappos and relinquish my quest for appropriately-sized boots? I love them because they are waterproof, and I can wear them with just about any of my black or grey skirts and pants.

The Gulf War and Today

I listened to a podcast today from a history lecture at UC Berkeley called "9/11 and Beyond." it made me like H.W. better. He got lambasted for saying "it wouldn't be prudent" to invade Iraq and depose Saddam, and even blamed for the current war. The professor (Jennifer Burns) characterized H.W. as a cautious, experienced man who was a consensus-builder. The U.N. passed a resolution to defend Kuwait, America went in with 20 other nations, and our military still had Soviet-era military build-up, which Bush used to swiftly win the war. Significantly, Bush refused to pursue the war any further than Kuwait's border.

The main reason he might be blamed for the current war is because he gave in to the Saudis and left American troops in Saudi Arabia to guard against Iraq. This incensed Bin Ladin, who is a Saudi, for nationalist reasons and because much of Saudi Arabia is holy land. Of course, Bin Ladin and other extremists also have their panties in a twist over our defense of Israel against Palestine, and because of our marketing of items they see as immoral, such as Coca-Cola and scantily-clad women (I like capitalism, but I also believe the government and the corporations are often in an unholy alliance to pry open new markets).

George W. is NOT a consensus builder, but acts on his own beliefs. There has always been a segment of the Republican party, according to Burns, that has wanted to invade Iraq and force a regime change since the end of the Gulf War. 9/11 provided sufficient paranoia to be an impetus against any threats. Bush also acted based on his own interpretation of a past U.N. sanction on Iraq. The Security Council would not approve these actions.

So, essentially, George W. has come up with a new foreign policy: for the safety of the U.S., force a complete regime change in countries that appear hostile. This is similar, but not completely like, the policy of containment during the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Spanish-American War (both times in Cuba, of course, we were facing off against another superpower; not attempting the regime change of a national government. In both Vietnam and the Philippines there was a fledgling provisional government that we were "supporting.") The question is, of course, should a "hyper-power" like America embrace this role of arbiter of other countries' national governments, or should we attempt to lessen our presence in other countries, thereby perhaps reducing their reasons for hating us?

Anyway...I would highly recommend listening to the podcast. I just recently discovered all the lectures you can get from Princeton...Berkeley...etc. on almost any subject.

Third Annual Office Party at the Zoo

And I had to turn in two papers the next day...


And I got TOUCHED...


And there was no booze...



No wonder I was pouting.

Sauron?

Oh...speaking of presidents, guess who is Michigan's commencement speaker for 2007. Hey -- it's a step above Brett Hume. I may have to graduate after all just so I can shake his hand -- from a safe distance.

Reason #1171 Why My Kids Are Never Going to Public School...

Man convicted of animal cruelty sentenced to dress in dog suit and talk to elementary school kids about animal cruelty.

Yes. I definitely want my kids to learn about animal cruelty from a fake, convicted dalmation.

Annual Foot in Mouth Prize (AU)

Forget breast cancer and gay marriage, I'm joining the Plain English Campaign. Surprisingly, Bush came in for only one nomination...

Camilla = Hyacinth

I'm sorry, Emma, but I see little difference in the style -- the improbable hat, the shapeless, pastel dress, the costume jewelery (although Camilla's, sadly, is probably real).

"Evil-minded parishioners making life hell for clergy"

The Times reports that "troublemakers indulge in 'church hopping', moving on to the next church once they have had enough of the one they are in. Dr Savage says that these people suffer from neurotic personality disorders bordering on the psychotic. "

*gulps nervously and stares at fixed point on ceiling*

"Churches in Britain are a 'toxic cocktail' of bullying and terror, as parish priests struggle to lead congregations dominated by neurotic worshippers who spread havoc with gossip and manipulation."

Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances? Anyone?



But maybe this is all to be expected when you take the "angel" out of "Anglican".

Quick Post -- Then Back to Work

K...I'm feeling guilty. But I don't really have time to post right now. Here are some things that make grad school in December a little more bearable:

Advent Calendar -- Trader Joe's -- 99 cents (!) -- (warning: contains Santa Claus)

Apricot/Orange Jam -- Trader Joe's

Sangria -- Whole Foods -- $5.99

I'll be back next week!

In other news, I've adopted a minor "heresy" (this is not related to tests below). I might post more on the subject after I consider if admitting this could result in being burned at the stake or any other nasty consequences.

I'm doing other stuff too...like talking to Brianna...and writing a paper

Here's the test Brianna found; we scored the same on the top two, except they were inverted.

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Neo orthodox 68% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Reformed Evangelical 57% Roman Catholic 50% Fundamentalist 39% Classical Liberal 36% Modern Liberal 25% Charismatic/Pentecostal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Ooops...I'm only 71% Christian

You scored as Christianity. Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian. Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins. Christianity 71% Buddhism 58% agnosticism 50% Paganism 38% Judaism 38% Islam 29% Satanism 29% Hinduism 21% atheism 8% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Religious Test

You scored as Presbytarian. You have mainly Presbytarian beliefs. You have a strong Calvinist Christian theology background and place great importance in learning the scriptures Presbytarian 93% Trinitarian 74% Protestant 73% Non Denominational Christian 67% Evangelical 67% Anglican/Episcopal 60% Ecumenical 53% Catholic/Orthodox 26% Messianic Jew/J4J 20% Charismatic/Pentecostal 7% Christian Scientist 7% Unitarian Christian 7% Mormon 0% Jehovahs Witness 0% What kind of Christian beliefs do you have? created with QuizFarm.com

Post-Rapture Post

Whether or not you are a pre-millenialist, this is pretty funny:
http://postrapturepost.com/index.html

(blogger is messed up right now -- will embed the link as soon as it gets itself fixed.)

Warning: Could Make You Sick

This, my friends, is a rant. A serious rant, no less. I would suggest (A) seeing Jesus Camp yourself or (B) skipping to the movie clips with descriptive captions.


About three weeks ago I went to see the movie Jesus Camp with some friends from GCF. It's dark, and confusing, and it makes you think hard about where you are on the spectrum compared to the wackos portrayed.

On the one hand, I agree with them that:
1. Widespread, government-sanctioned abortion is a social ill.
2. Kids are going to imbibe some sort of ideology.
3. The public schools have their own form of ideology.

And then there's the other hand.

First, I strongly disagree with doing that to children (see movie clips below). I remember being furious when I drove past someone holding up a picture of an aborted baby on the street when I had A. in the car with me. His parents and I, though coming from different perspectives, jointly agreed upon what was age appropriate and wouldn't traumatize him at his stage of development. Yet here was someone, most likely a Christian, holding up something more gory than anything you could see in an R-rated movie for the viewing of general audiences.

I disagree with the obvious encouragement of hysteria in children (i.e. the spooky humming and shouting by adults) in the name of the "Holy Spirit." If being "touched by the Holy Spirit" means five year olds experiencing epilepsy, then I'm converting to Buddhism. Frankly, it creeped me out more than the Exorcist. I'm going to stop there.

The part I feel I can speak to more authoritatively is indoctrinating children with strong opinions about things they can't possibly understand. Unfortunately, some kids are going to know about rape, incest, and birth deformities when they are three. I think we can agree that is not optimal. Yet it's not possible to have an informed opinion on abortion without understanding these concepts. Kids are smart, but they are also mimics. They can't make judgments about complex moral issues until at least their teens. Unless you really think a child can understand the controversy surrounding abortion, you shouldn't use them as tools, and you shouldn't actively engage their emotions. Making them bless a cardboard cut out of George Bush? I think even Dr. F. would have blanched at that sort of "political activism," I hope.

Second, there's the thoughtless hypocrisy. Spotlighted by Ted Haggard, of course. See the clip below where he mocks the discussions of general assemblies about homosexuality because he thinks it's such a clear issue in the Bible. I guess the National Association of Evangelicals could perhaps have benefitted from some discussion about the topic. Yes, we all sin, but the hypocrisy comes in when someone publicly harangues against sin rather than trying help the people affected by the sin. Perhaps Haggard and the leaders of the Jesus Camp are involved in caring for pregnant teens and fighting AIDS, but that is certainly not where their emphasis is.

Then there's the commercialism. I have no problem with Dannon as a water retailer, but what precisely is the connotation of washing away sins with a plastic water bottle? Sorry, but in the realm of symbolism, the Catholic Church has got it all over you guys when it comes to significance. And the shirts that link Christianity and commercial products. What are we saying with the word "Jesus" written to look like the Reeses Logo? Are we saying there is some sort of correlation between Christ and a peanut butter cup? Are we trying to make Christianity palatable? It never seems to occur to these people that perhaps I'm not ashamed of Christ, but I'm not so sure of myself that Christ might not frequently be ashamed of me. Until my actions are faultless, I'm not going to go around advertising (literally) my Christianity to people who see only a fragment of my actions.




Featurette by the creators of Jesus Camp. Footage of children experiencing seizures, being "baptized" with a bottle of Dannon water.




Is any scandal complete until Jon Stewart comments on it? The clip shown is from Jesus Camp.

Randomania

Again, I do have better things to do, but I just ingested my first cup of coffee in several weeks (in anticipation of turning in the code release of my website), so now I'm wired and disinclined to be productive for the next ten minutes.

Firstly, hoodies. I've got a new one that says "Michigan Archives." It's awesome because it is too long for normal people -- i.e. perfect for me. I just chuckle evily that they get to wear ill-fitted clothes for once. The pouches seem so organic compared to backpacks, purses, and even pants pockets. It's so easy to slip cellphones, keys, pepper spray, etc. in and out of them. Like a kangaroo. Of course, one must be careful not to acquire the pregnant look (Do pregnant women look inherently victimized to anyone else, or is it just me?).

Secondly, I locked myself out of my apartment today while I was going to work out. Since I was just going downstairs, I didn't have my laptop or cellphone. All I had were my IPOD and the wrong keys. It made me realize I had no coping skills sans electonics.

Normally, I would call my roommates, or one of the dozens of people in my cellphone, who would look online for the emergency number for the office, who would come let me in. I don't really know my neighbors--my community, except for the people I come in contact with daily because I live or work with them, exists digitally. It's not like Seinfield where people are walking in and out of each other's apartments. In addition, I don't know any numbers even if I got up the guts to ask to use someone's phone, since my numbers are all programmed in my cell. So, not knowing where to go for help, I sat outside my door and played pong on my IPOD until my roommates showed up. (Yes, my my my...it's all about me).

Reevaluation of the New Pride and Prejudice

I watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice again last night, and my opinion has become more favorable.

I had always thought that the setting was particularly good. The roughness of even middle-class British citizens is better revealed. The materials that the Bennett girls wore in the 1995 version are worn only by the Bingleys and their peers. The Bennett's home is more obviously a working farm, complete with mud and pigs. Mr. Bennett (well played by Donald Sutherland) is quite clearly a farmer. The scenery is as good or better than the '95 version.

I have also decided that Macfadyen makes a tolerable Darcy. He is agreeably disagreeable in the first scene. My only complaint is that he begins to look besotted too soon and retains a puppy-like visage for the duration.

Rosamund Pike is a lovely Jane, Wickham is scuzzy yet appealing, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is frightening, and Charlotte Lucas is likeable and plain. I think I actually agree with the more sympathetic portrayal of Mrs. Bennett and Mary. The family is much less dysfunctional than in other interpretations.

The two things that originally turned my stomach yet remain:

Knightley's portrayal of Elizabeth is much different than Jennifer Ehle's. She is less mature, more emotional and transparent. She actually seems to have a lot of strange twitches and grimaces.

Too bad they had to edit so much of the book out of the screenplay, but I thought the dialog they did put in to cover this up was appropriate and blended seamlessly with the original. EXCEPT for the last scene! Ahhh! Keep the cheesy, anachronistic, sentimental fantasies in your own warped, 21st century mind Moggach!

Advice to Ringling Bros. Circus

Feel privileged, O readers, after three days without a wireless connection (ack! the withdrawals from slashdot), I choose to commune with you rather than fix a routing error in my rails homework.

The topic for today is not Thanksgiving. I shan't describe the feast, for it is traditional, which means unchanging. I shan't gossip about familial friction because it i'n't prudent. I shan't boast about the genetic superiority displayed among my beauteous relations, because I don't currently have photographic evidence to back it up. I shan't talk about the 11 hour drive to and from Frontenac, MN, because...well...that would just be boring.

So today I am going to give advice to the Ringling Brother's Circus.

Get some nostalgia, guys. I don't mean nostalgia for the 1990s, of which the spiffy sneakers and glaring colors were reminiscent. Most people don't like crass commericalism; it makes them feel like dupes. Take a lesson from the Cirque du Soliel, but keep the elephants. Special effects don't wow people in the days of X-Box 360s and IMax theaters. When people see a live show they are looking for artistry, connection, the human touch (no matter how corny). You should never have replaced the big canvas top, the peanuts crunching under foot, and the fat lady with sports arenas, dippin' dots, and lame plastic gimmicks. There are only so many five-year-olds in the world, but you could appeal to a wider audience.

Thanksgiving, Marriage, and Why I Might Vote for Hillary

Emily said that if I wanted people to comment I had to be frivolous. I thought road signs and police brutality were frivolous. But I will try to increase my frivolity.

Thanksgiving and Marriage: Oppressing Academia Everywhere

Thanksgiving. It poses a problem for my people. We're supposed to blithely trek home across the country for a period of three days or less--in the middle of paper-writing season. So we can communally gnaw on a turkey carcass and watch the Macy's Day Parade. Most of us are vegetarians for crying out loud! A little respect for the academic lifestyle, here!

But...NOOOOO....It's a FAMILY TRADITION. Really, I see similarities to the whole marriage metanarrative. If someone isn't "home" for Thanksgiving, just like if someone doesn't have a spouse/partner/friend by the time they're 25, they are objects of societal sympathy. The sympathy is a disavowal of the fact that there may be people out there who would PREFER to be in the library studying by themselves. That would be unthinkable...strange...we'd have to lock those people up because they are outside the norm.

In case you're wondering, yes, I am making sacrifices to societal folly and participating in the annual pre-winter fattening festivity. No, I will not sacrifice my happiness or my ulcer-inducing student lifestyle for the sake of fulfilling societal expectations in other areas.

Why I Might Vote for Hillary

She said "hortatory." I don't think most Republicans could even spell it. So if there are two, in my opinion, equally corrupt and slimy candidates, and if someone drags me screaming to the voting booth, and if there are no third party candidates, will I vote for Hillary because she has the better vocabulary? Indubitably.

Road Anarchy Works!

Eliminating traffic signs reduces accidents in Europe.

Hayden White

"In a seminal study published in 1980, 'The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality,' Hayden White deconstructs the conventional view of history as a story of some kind, suggesting instead that events in themselves, prior to their finding a place in the historical record, are lacking in narrative value. White hypostasizes historical reality as 'mere sequence' (24), and he suggests that the annalist, with his reliance on chronological order, comes closest to rendering its unorganized truth. For us, by contrast, he argues, for whom narrative form has become so deeply naturalized and internalized that we unthinkingly accept it as the mark of the real, history is properly historical only when it achieves the shape and closure of a story."*

Ah...I'd forgotten White...and how much we all embraced him in historiography...and how much that disturbed Dr. Sanders. Such a long, long journey into existentialism.

*Eakin, Paul John. Touching the World: Reference in Autobiography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Notes from Zizek: Why Atheists Are the Only True Believers

Last week I went to hear the Lacanian cultural critic Slavoj Zizek speak. Surprisingly, I could understand most of what he was saying, if I could not always follow the connections between his points. Here is a basic outline of his discussion, with my thoughts in italics:

The first part of Zizek's speech seemed the most difficult to engage. He spoke of the scene in Hitchock, where there are generic clothes hung on the line but viewers think they see underwear because of the context. The generic clothes are hung instead of underwear because of the censors. Leading Zizek to wonder: if everyone automatically thinks "the worst," who are we trying to protect? In the same way, he brings up the Soviet Encyclopedia. After Beria was killed, everyone was ordered to replace the page on him with a page on the Bering Straits. Why this meticulous subterfuge, if everyone knew Beria used to be there? According to Zizek, Sovietism is a sort of religion.

He next spoke of the recent rash of 9/11 movies. He posited that we would have reacted differently if the WTC had collapsed because of an earthquake. He sees an underlying theological dimension. When the plane crashes into the tower, we never see the plane, but a shadow, what he considers to be symbolizing angels of death, the apocalypse, divine retribution. He notes that both the religious right (Falwell) and Islamic fundamentalists explicitly believe that 9/11 was a judgment. Yet he argues the ultimate point of these movies is that 9/11 was a blessing in disguise--it "brought out the best" in us. The catastrophe was a distraction that allowed the message of social solidarity to come forward. Zizek considers this implicit message manipulative and underhanded: if we want social solidarity, we don't need to have a "cover" for it.

He believes that Christianity and the "religions of the Book (particularly OT)" are actually a corrective for the judgment theory. He argues that the Book of Job denies us the justification to read meaning into catastrophe. Job's response to his 3 friends is to deny that suffering has meaning rather than that he merely doesn't deserve it. Yet we ignore this message because people would rather have a bad meaning than no meaning.

He considers the "big picture" mentality towards disasters to be "obscene". Here he connected it to Christ's death somehow...He said that Christianity is the only religion in which "God at one point doesn't believe in God," where Christ finds himself in the position of Job.

He condemned Rumsfeld for saying "there are no unknowns." Zizek categorized epistemology into "unknown unknowns"--things we don't know that we don't know; and "unknown knowns"--things we don't know that we know, i.e. the unconscious, fantasies.

Zizek believes that most people don't fully believe in what they say they believe in. Atheists will project their belief onto someone else--a child or parent whose "innocence" they are protecting. He quoted Asimov: "either we are alone or we are not alone," and said humans find either option equally horrible. So we compromise and don't truly believe either. We don't like externalizing our beliefs or discussing them. Rituals are ways we internalize. We also engage in fetish disavowment. An example of this is global warming and the environment. We know empirically that we are destroying the earth, yet because the birds are twittering and the sun is shining, we are unable to truly "believe" and act upon it at an elementary level. Our senses contradict it. We are embedded in a life. Zizek says we must cut the links of our embeddedness to truly believe. In Q&A, he gave an example of escaping from embeddedness as the Japanese movement towards "playing" with technology in order to free ourselves from it.

What holds our society together are the explicit rules we don't use--"empty gestures." These are the unknown knowns embodied. Our ability to torture a person in front of us is an evolutionary regression. We bypass the "unknown known" through technology.

Zizek discussed the biblical concept of "neighbor" in relation to the "other." We fear the abyss between us and the other will disappear with our "neighbor." Our politics are against the Neighbor--we are mobilized by fear. Liberals now rephrase all problems in terms of tolerance. But, for example, the problem of racism used to be a question of equality rather than just generic tolerance. This is ludicrous, for example, in relation to feminism: women don't want their husbands to tolerate them: they want to be treated as equals. Now all proper economic problems are turned into administrative problems--there is no true struggle. He likes Wendy Brown, who wrote a book saying that tolerance is evidence of a post-political society.

Zizek objects to solving problems by "always listening to the other side's stories." Hitler was our enemy not because we didn't listen to him, but because he was evil. The stories we tell ourselves are not ourselves. The story Hitler told himself, and would have told us, was a lie. Religions of the Book can be a corrective against this destructive form of liberalism. Zizek says he agrees with Fukayama here and disagrees with the liberalism of Rorty, who says we can live in harmony with different ideas.

The only true respect for Otherness is not to impose your universality on it, according to Wendy Brown. Zizek says she is too Marxist/classist here. Even if universality is false, even if we create it, it is taken up by others. We are not aware how our particularity affects universality. Once a society experiences capitalism, etc., it is no longer part of the original culture. There are problems in all societies, so the only solution is struggle. The Book allows us to bypass our particular culture to universality. There is universal truth, but it is attained dialectically. There must be struggle, cut, negativity.

So those notes probably didn't make a whole lot of sense. But I think the lecture raised valuable questions for me:

Can we really escape our embeddedness? How? If not, how can we ever believe?

Do we agree that there must always be "struggle"? What is the place of tolerance? Is tolerance a valuable concept?

Is there a way to re-engage true politics in our post-political society (i.e. how do we encourage people to break away from all thinking the same basic thing)?

I think I agree with him that by "tolerating" a society engage with, we will change it to some extent, but I'm not ready to throw out Rorty yet.

Oh--and he never did explain why atheists are the only true believers.

Police Brutality in UCLA Campus Library

Story in Higher Ed, Library Journal, International Herald Tribune. This video of the incident is really viscerally repulsive. Maybe it's because I identify with the student and something like this happening in the UM Library seems so unthinkable.



First: What sort of police society assumes that people are going to always have ID with them? "Where are your papers?" -- Hmmm....remind anyone of Apartheid South Africa/Nazi Germany/Soviet Russia....? I certainly don't always have my student ID when I'm in the library

Second: Library administrators agree, fairly universally, that libraries should be open-access--a public university library, in particular, should not feel like there are "no trespassing" signs. The UM library is restricted to students after midnight, but that is mainly because there is not enough staff to keep it open to everyone.

Third: Repeatedly tazing a student after he has already been handcuffed (while trying to leave the building), when he couldn't possibly fight back, just because he won't stand up, is simply brutal. I wouldn't want to go with a couple of police officers who wouldn't identify themselves, either.

Fourth: I, personally, find racial profiling repulsive. I know many Americans disagree with me.

Fifth: Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.

Ultimately, it seems the cops just didn't like the attitude to authority the student was displaying. My brother thinks most cops go into the business because they are power-hungry and dumb. Maybe he's right. No one should get tazed because of an attitude.

Oh, What a Wonderful, Wonderful Day!

Dark chocolate shown to be as effective as aspirin for preventing blood clots and heart attacks!

Yes, I think about food alot. That's because I am a glutton.

$160,000 Truffle

1.5kg truffle bought by a Hong Kong businessman for 125,000 euros. Mmmmmm.... Seriously though--think how much good wine and chocolate you could buy for that! I think the redistribution of wealth happens naturally because wealth seems to breed stupidity in spending habits.

Peeping Tom

Julio is an anomalous cat. He shares most of my personality disorders, but especially the narcissism. He also likes running water (most cats, actually, prefer to drink from running water because, unlike dogs, they prefer clean water in nature, which would usually come from a river or a stream). So we often let him in the bathroom with us while we shower and he will bat at the water or sit on the sink. But yesterday he just sat right in front of the shower and WATCHED me like some Victorian gentleman at the Moulin Rouge. (I think I've mentioned before that our shower curtain at home is clear). Very unnerving.



You will note that, for modesty's sake, I represented myself as the typical female symbol in crosswalks, etc. (I was not actually wearing a tulip skirt). I think I may start a campaign to represent women in more realistic attire. How about a school girl in jeans with a ponytail? Or a businesswoman in a suit? Also, note that when only one figure is represented, it is always male.

Oh Dear...I Really Need to Watch My Waistline

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Yes, I do have better things to be doing...

Which perhaps indicates that I am NOT obssessive-compulsive. Did anyone else get diagnosed as "high" in four areas?

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	High
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	Low
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	Low
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	High
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	High
Dependent Personality Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High
-- Take the Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Info --

The Concert

So when I went to Cedar Point I said that I doubted the experience measured up to recreational drug use. Not so with the Decemberists in Pontiac. Initially it was similar. Getting lost trying to find it, standing in line with a bunch of tobacco-puffing, disease-ridden suburban teenagers, being branded like criminals according to age, crowding into a building populated by hawkers of alcohol and promotional paraphernalia. And then there was the waiting....and waiting...and waiting....Mother always told me that I would have to wait a lot in life, but I never used to believe her.

The venue was Clutch Cargo's in Pontiac. From the pictures of former online, I was hoping it was a shabby, slightly dangerous warehouses in downtown Detroit. But Pontiac is a sleepy little suburb by a lake, and Clutch Cargo's is a renovated church. It was not at capacity, which made me slightly discontent that Ticketmaster had gotten 11 smacerkoos from me in convenience charges.

I have never been more pleased with my stature--we stood about 15 feet from the stage and I had a panoramic view over the heads of the undermenchen. We were also equidistant from the stage and the speakers, which, according to heresay, is the ideal location.

As I said, we were waiting...about 8:00 Alasdair Roberts, from Glasgow came out to open. They were good--very Scottish, very folksy, but they didn't make me forget that I was getting too warm and had been standing on cement for an hour surrounded by a homogeneous group of young people in fake vintage t-shirts drinking beer out of plastic cups (SO frat boy).

Then we had to wait some more while the crew tuned the Decemberists' many, many, many instruments...I think that they are squandering their newfound wealth on progressively more wonderful instruments. There were also beers (NOT in plastic cups) set out for everyone but the drummer, who, it appeared, got a whole bottle of wine.

Finally Colin's voice came over the speaker system, commanding us to greet our neighbors and admire the architecture. They came out, dapperly-attired, and started playing with a big sound that shook the cement floor.

They played a fair mix from all of their albums, not necessarily in the following order:

Shankhill Butchers (appropriate for post-Halloween and Election Day), July, July!, I'm an Engine Driver, O Valencia, Legionnaire's Lament, Sons and Daughters, 16 Military Wives...a lot from the Crane Wife, but I don't have all the numbers down yet--I'm not sure if it was Crane Wife #1, 2, or 3. I was disappointed they didn't play Grace Cathedral Hill.

At one point, they had the audience chant "bombs fade away." Nice sentiment, it probably won't be terribly effective to sing them away, but what the hell, I thought, it couldn't hurt.

They finished up with the Cautionary Tale, and Chris, John, and Mary wound through the crowd with percussion instruments and re-enacted the beheading of Anne Boleyn. Finally, Colin finished with Red Right Ankle.

The beat was loud and infectious, but the lyrics were still discernible. We were amazed by the proficiency of all the musicians with nearly all the instruments. Chris would pick up Colin's mandolin, Jenny played everything that had keys, John fiddled around with the hand organ. Nate mostly stuck to bass...but someone has to do it.

One of the most versatile musicians up there was Mary--who is evidently not "officially" a part of the band. She played viola, keyboard, and rocked with a guitar. If she is on trial, they should definitely add her. I think they had a bigger sound with six, and that's not just because of the speaker system.

Goddess Eyes

Em said I couldn't put this on my resume because it would fit better on a personals site.


Four posts today because one of my most avid readers was complaining.

Things Overheard Even in Ann Arbor

"The Palestinians, maybe they are the descendents of the Philistines."

Um...maybe...and maybe I'm the descendent of a Visigoth.

Why I Love Searching for Secondary Sources:

Robson, C. 2001: Men in wonderland: the lost girlhood of the Victorian gentleman.
Princeton University Press.

I'm going to have to check that out someday just to see what in the world it is.

Ephemeral Male Victorian Role Model of the Day

Charles Eliot Norton


About the annexation of the Philippines and the beginning of overseas American expansion:

"She has lost her unique position as a potential leader in the progress of of civilization, and has taken up her place simply as one of the grasping and selfish nations of the present day [bringing upon herself] the misery and burdens that war and standing armies have brought upon the nations of the Old World."

Mal d' Archive: A Willian Impression

1. I like using [sic].

2. I chortle silently when I find something that supports my thesis.

3. If I had an Oedipal complex, who would be my intellectual "father"? I'm afraid we all know who.

I'm Going to Hear the Decemberists!

Believe it or not, it will be my first rock (well, ok, indie pop) concert. Lots of classical venues, but no popular ones. So I think I can justify the expenditure. I mean, Pink Floyd and the Beatles are gone, so who else would I want to see? I'll just have to forgo another set of designer jeans (and you think I'm joking).

Which reminds me, I should post on the opera Romeo and Juliet...I got discouraged the other day because I couldn't find pictures, and I like pictures.

So I have decided I am uncool for three reasons:

1) The Decemberists are just about the ONLY Indie group I like. The rest just don't sound good. And I'm sorry, but I still like music to sound good.

2) I have never been to a concert before (vestige of homeschooling?).

3) I am excited about something.

Lost, Lost, I've Lost My Alma Mater

I just need to stop reading Veith's blog, but I keep wanting to believe that he is a thoughtful Christian since he is essentially the only hope our former school has left.

But posts like this are upsetting not only because of what Veith says, but because there is only one moderate in the whole platoon (appropriate word?) of comments; the rest sound like raving lunatics.

Have I just been in A2 too long, or is it not sheer madness to suggest that the only alternative to the war in Iraq is A-bombing the country or having our "own women and children suffer the violence of the enemy?" (btw--have you noticed the tendency to bring the women and children into it every time someone is being illogical?) Yes, of course, we went over there to bring democracy (since there weren't any weapons of mass destruction and the guy who perpetrated 9/11 is still somewhere out there under the Afghani stars), but if we don't succeed, we'd best just blow the whole damn thing up.

Of course, I am coming from the liberal mindset. I do, in fact, see soldiers as perpetrators or victims, but mostly perpetrators.

Waahhhhh....

So the Decemberists are coming to Pontiac, which is not that far away. Does anyone want to buy a downtrodden grad student a ticket, or better yet, come with her?

Happy Haaaalloooweeeeennn

Beat ya this year, Em :-)

A close-up of my exquisitely tasteful dead-person makeup scheme.

Librarian Fetish Video

Emma shared this with me. Neither of us find it lyrically or musically remarkable, but the setting is an example of the sexy librarian phenomenon.



Yes Emma, there are a few cute guys in my department, but then I don't have much with which to compare them ....

And, yes, the disordering of the card catalog was painful. We still have one at Special Collections, and I have occasionally have to file the new cards in the shelf list. Strangest was the complete absence of technology (except for, apparently, a disco ball). Where are the laptops??!!

My geekiness is now official--Today I received an invitation from the new Google branch in Ann Arbor to come play pinball with them. I didn't accept--No corporate leash for me, thank you very much. Academia and six weeks paid vacation all the way!

Another Video of Peter Sellers..um...George Bush

Not so much verbal as physical blunders this time.



Just remember, "you can't take the high horse and claim the low road."

Good guys and bad guys

Ann and I went to see a movie which, honestly, was so gross that I didn't enjoy it at all -- The Black Dahlia. I am NOT recommending it to anyone. Post facto, I wanted to see what Plugged In would say about it. Overall, I agreed with the review, but I didn't understand this remark:

Other Negative Elements
As is the norm with noir thrillers, several police detectives are revealed to be corrupt and/or compromised, muddying the lines between the good guys and the bad guys...

Um... excuse me but isn't it...um...TRUE....that many officials are corrupt? The hero/villian distinction makes movies like Spiderman and The Matrix unrealistic, thereby giving viewers a skewed perception of the world. Film Noir's realism, even if it is not enjoyable, is at least truthful. That's not a negative element. While I don't think there is a need for graphic sex and violence, portraying all people as sinful is...dare I say it...BIBLICAL?

For your information

I AM NOT OLD YET. Everyone under 24 is a now officially a child.

Literary Apparel

Ann and I are mature adults. BUT . . . we like children's literature. We saw hoodies in the jr. department the other day that had pictures of Whos on them and said "a person's a person, no matter how small." But being the jr. dept., we discovered we were too BIG to wear the who shirts. We thought that was ironic.

With children's literature apparel on our mind, we ransacked Amazon. Here are some of our findings. Which shall I buy next time I get my rewards certificate?

Ann's Here!

We've been running around corn mazes, amusement parks, and malls. Quite exhausted. Too much exposure to the vulgus. While malls can hardly be avoided, I have made a firm resolution for the third time to NEVER GO TO CEDAR POINT AGAIN. Let me tell you, 10 minutes of ecstasy is not worth 5 hours of standing around like a Soviet in a bread line. Next time I'm getting my transcendent experience in pill form.

"Why, Grouchy"

It's been a taciturn week. I've been ducking behind bushes when I see acquaintances and wearing a truly terrible scowl. I'm always particularly unsocial in the morning. Now, there are two sorts of people, those who take this personally and those who don't. I've always been blessed with at least some people who are of the later type, and who even share my disposition. Ann and Emily, for example, were all lovely grunts and mutters in the morning. Occasionally we would speak, but in a language resembling cling-on. Brianna never took offense, and even curbed her native cheerfulness on our behalf.

I think there is a rational basis for disliking "good mornings," particularly when accompanied by "how are you?" On its own, "good morning" is akin to two dogs walking up and sniffing each other--"are we going to get into a fight today, or can we exist peaceably?" I refuse to enter into such dealings with my friends. I prefer the cat method: we eat from the same foodbowl, we groom each other, and we sleep in the same bed, so why do we need to re-establish our relationship every morning? How tedious. And "how are you?" is completely unanswerable: either (1) I am doing the same as I was doing last night or (2) I feel worse. Save the pleasantries for those trying to sell something. If you have something substantive to say, say it--or better yet write it for me to read at my convenience. Otherwise, SHUT UP!

Another observation--grad students don't necessarily entertain themselves in a wholesome or serious way. You would be surprised at the number of my colleagues who are frequent consumers of cute animal blogs, tetris, solitaire, beer, more beer, and the Disney channel. It's my contention that (1) we don't have regular schedules for normal human recreation, like owning a pet or raising a child, and (2) we want mindless entertainment as a respite. Come to think of it, movies made during wars were vapid in order to provide an escape from reality. It's a similar thing.

Speaking of vapidity, I'm in much closer contact with Geek culture than I've ever been before. In fact, you could say I'm acquiring Geek skills myself. But I refuse to become a full-fledged Geek because in my opinion it's really quite sad. They take what are essentially a set of tools and turn them into a lifestyle. Because they spend all their time programming, and because they don't feel connected to a larger social group, they lack true content in their lives. Lorem ipsum, if you know what I mean. They fill this gap in their souls with . . . hamster dances. (Actually, I believe there have been books written about this).

So there, I've now alienated 1) techies, 2) fellow graduate students and 3) people who say "good morning." Not bad for one post, eh?

Stupidity

So I came to the Duderstadt Center--the sterile wasteland 24/7 shopping mall computer library to minimize my ability to distract myself. But someone just opened the "fire alarm" door and . . . . . set off the fire alarm about five minutes ago (WHY should the fire alarm go off if someone opens a door?). This reinforces my belief that many college students actually can't read--even big signs like "fire alarm will sound."

My Misfortune and the Royal Shakespeare Company

Last Saturday my rooomates and I got up at 6:30 AM and stood in line waiting for the student tickets to the three plays the Royal Shakespeare Company is performing in November. It was cold, it was raining, and four hours later, they sold out 10 people ahead of us. We were 200th in a line of 700.


It was depressing, but on the bright side I amazingly didn't get sick and I even more amazingly didn't get (the wrong kind of) ticket for being illegally parked. And I enlightened some business majors about Austrian economics.

The Ascent from Purgatory, or the Seussical Derrida

I admit, I'm just writing this post because the last post was a blatant expression of befuddlement, and I don't like being befuddled. At least Emily is befuddled, too.

Hell week is over! Yay! Our web design professor explained that he intended the homework from last week to be the hardest assignment of the semester, and that our final project would no doubt be easier, since no one would actually try to lay out a newspaper front page with CSS! It was an object lesson. A BLOODY 14 HOUR OBJECT LESSON. Rather, excuse me, I take issue with his pedagogical methods....

In my now-prodigious amount of spare time, I watched the original Stepford Wives from the late 70s. Unlike the new one, it's intended to be serious. I found it a bit slow except for the wardrobe. Anyone who thinks society is disintegrating needs to go watch movies from the 1970s, or even the 1930s (I LOVED the Big Sleep). Miniskirts and belly-baring have been around since, well, Egypt. Not to mention that because of women's lib...oh never mind.

Well, I must be getting back to Maurice Halbwachs and Jacques Derrida (Archive Fever) for my Collective Memory class. Derrida never made much sense to me before, but I'm now realizing that he reasons etymologically rather than linearly. So I've kept the OED and a Greek dictionary pulled up on my computer. I have to say, though, that even with a slight knowledge of Greek, some of his word constructions baffle me. Such as, for example, anarchivic, archiviolithic, aneconomy and hypomnema -- all from two pages! Try looking THOSE up in the OED.

Seriously....

I'm not doing this. It's at 99,000-something. Is anyone else experiencing this?

That's Funny...

My counter (see below) shot up over 10,000 hits. I think it was in the low 8000's last I checked. If I hadn't spent 14 hours this week working with CSS/HTML/programming languages, I'd try to fix it.

My Favorite Holiday

Has always been Halloween. Unfortunately, my religion is currently boycotting it as a "pagan holiday." Senior year I corrupted two innocent juniors into trick-or-treating with me. Festivities in Ann Arbor don't tend to be as harmless. Nevertheless, I find myself looking at costumes instead of studying Dublin Core.

Which one? Nanny?














Nun?











Or Gollum?












Other suggestions?

I was going to take a nap...

But then I remembered that I have 10 hours worth of work left in the 6 remaining hours of my day. Silly me!

Open-Minded Me

So I was checking out the free Napster and Rebecca St. James' playlist looked good. It had Frou Frou and Alanis. So I thought I'd listen to the CCM stuff too to expand my musical knowledge. Some of it's OK, but Chris Tomlin was driving me CRAZY because he was dropping consonants at the end of his words--something every choir director warns against! So what I heard was something along the lines of HOW CRAY IS OUR GAA.

Come on, people--you're singing about the Deity--it's How GreaT is our GoD

Is Our Children Learning?

And other great quotes from our quotable president. Seriously, watch this. Bush may not be the "breast and brightest" head of state, but he can sure give a helluva "state-of-the-whatever-you-want-to-call-it..."

The Annals of a Student Librarian; or, Manual Typewriters, Ghostly Communications, and Peter Pan Bras

It's been hell week in library land. Mostly because of my Design of Complex Websites class. The course is "front loaded" so we have two homeworks due per week: one dealing with CSS/HTML and one with programming. I've brought away one life application: In addition to an accountant and a mechanic, I now hope to someday employ a programmer.

Cataloging is equally as tedious, but less frustrating and work intensive. Except when it turns out the AACR2 has entries about how to format communications with spirits, but not about how to format Native American names.

Finally, my work at the Herbarium has been an interesting "melding of technology," as my supervisor likes to call it. I use the ipni.org computer database to decipher the botanists' illegible scribbling of plant names (they have to keep up the scribbling- on- a- notepad- in- the- middle- of- the- wilderness mystique, I guess). I asked for a typewriter to fill in the annotations on the labels, and they found me a manual one from the top shelf of a storage room. They all think it is very funny and keep telling me to put it on my resume. The ribbon was dry, so I had to change it. I'm 23. None of the old botanists could tell me how to change it. We're talking about people in their 50s, 60s, and even 90s. Anyway, I figured it out, albeit while making a very inky mess. It's A LOT easier than a cascading style sheet.

The specimens I'm working with are not mounted--meaning they are loose, fifty-year-old weeds nested in old editions of the Ann Arbor News. I must admit it is easy to be distracted by the container. Media is message....or...well...that doesn't really work. Anyway, the Peter Pan Bra, for example. This baffled me so much I had to look it up online. Why would they call an enhancing bra that? Wouldn't that be a minimizer?