Historical Image of the Day
US propaganda poster, World War II. This one still scares me.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Right-Wing Terrorism
When will this nation have a serious discussion of right-wing terrorism?
As you've probably heard by now, a guy flew a plane into the IRS building in Austin, taking off from my town of Georgetown. According to CNN:
A message on a Web site registered to Joseph Andrew Stack appears to be a suicide note: "If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?'" the message says. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time." In the long message, the writer rails against the government and, particularly, the Internal Revenue Service.
Oklahoma City. The killings in the Unitarian Church in Knoxville. The murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. The IRS building in Austin. All of these acts are excused not only by the right-wingers but by the mainstream media as the acts of isolated extremists. We are unwilling to talk about what's actually happening--right-wing radio, blogs, and other media encouraging people to commit violent acts.
No doubt this guy is a lone whacko, but like the guy who shot up the Knoxville church, he is a lunatic empowered by right-wing hate.
But I'm sure Limbaugh, Beck, and the gang will again publicly distance themselves from these actions while privately rejoicing in glee.
Update: Here's the guy's entire letter, via the Austin American-Statesman website.And here's a piece of this bizarre twisted document:
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse....
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
Update #2--The Times has a piece about how cable networks are unwilling to call this terrorism, asking the question "The subtext on cable news today is this: what is the definition of terrorism?"
The answer is fairly clear--it's terrorism if the actor has brown skin.
Today in Depressing Environmental News
A new report says half of the primates in the world are in danger of extinction. Not surprisingly, human-spurred deforestation is a major factor. Of course, the report will probably be ignored by the primates who are responsible, but it's just another devastating and depressing reminder of the destructive power of unchecked human growth and "development" is having on the rest of the world.
Around Latin America
-Staying true to its word, Argentina is going to the UN to protest the plans for oil exploration off the Malvinas/Falklands Islands.
-Although Roberto Micheletti's repressive government has exited office, there are reports that anti-coup leaders in Honduras are continuing to suffer repression and violence, indicating the human rights violations of the intern government may be continuing. Certainly, maintaining the military chief behind last June's coup, as Lobo has chosen to do, is not a step in the right direction.
-Also in Honduras, in more bad news (non-political variety), its forests are falling victim to a growing illegal logging industry, a fact that could have terrible repercussions not only on the environment, but on the Honduran economy and communities as well.
-More trouble for Alvaro Uribe: having already had political allies tied to paramilitary groups in the past, three of Uribe's closest aides are now involved in a wiretap scandal in which they're charged with tapping the lines of politicians, judges, and others in Colombia.
-Concerns over death-squad killings in El Salvador have risen in the wake of a coordinated attack that left 12 youths dead last week.
Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (VI) - Carnaval Wrap-Up
Carnaval has officially ended - the blocos on the streets have come to an end, the massive parades are over, and a winner has been announced. The samba school of Unidos da Tijuca, with their theme of "It's Secret!," ended up being this year's champion in Rio. Meanwhile, placing a 7-year-old as its Rainha may have cost Viradouro dearly. Julia Lira got stage fright, which is more than understandable given the pressure of being the head of a parade at 7 and having cameras shoved in your face, and ultimately, Viradouro fell out of the first division for their performance, and really, it wasn't even that close.
Carnaval had other interesting moments, as well. It was very well attended, including by the likes of the two leading candidates for the Brazilian presidency, as well as Madonna, who was in Rio alongside Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral and PT candidate Dilma Rousseff for the event (and the accompanying video gives you a sense of the size and spectacle of Rio's Carnaval). And Geisy Arruda, who had been expelled from a school after her dress was declared "too short" and students brutally mocked her, was able to take part in the parades. (The second link is an interview in Portuguese, but again gives the sense of the sound and sights of Carnaval).
As I mentioned before, there were record-setting heats, making Carnaval particularly uncomfortable this year. Therefore, one of the regional expressions of Carnaval must have felt wonderful, as hundreds gathered in the colonial city of Paraty to partake in the annual mud-fest that marks Carnaval in that city.
Overall, this year's Carnaval looked as spectacular as it usually does, and made me wish to be back in Rio (though the heat reminded me why I was glad I wasn't). For those interested, here are some more semi-offensive, mostly-lascivious, and barely-SFW photos from the events this year.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Diplomatic Issues Facing Honduras's Porfirio Lobo Sosa
It would appear that Porfirio Lobo Sosa's administration is not going to get the smooth diplomatic treatment many in Honduras had hoped for. For starters, Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said Brazil continues to not recognize the electoral process that brought Lobo Sosa to power, though in a linguistic trick, also claimed that Brazil recognized "states, not governments."
On the other hand, while the United States has moved to recognized Honduras in the wake of elections, it has made it clear that recognition will not be a carte blanche for Lobo Sosa:
The US State Department has rejected Porfirio Lobo Sosa's nomination of Roberto Flores Bermúdez to be the Honduran Ambassador to the United States. Flores Bermúdez was appointed Ambassador to the United States by Manuel Zelaya Rosales, but shortly after the coup on June 28, 2009, switched allegiance to the de facto regime in Honduras.As RNS points out, it is quite possible that
Lobo Sosa was likely testing the waters to see how much he needed to distance himself from the de facto regime, which he has never denounced. No one who was directly involved in the de facto regime has had their US visa restored. The State Department's rejection of Lobo Sosa's choice as Ambassador means that the United States, like Spain, so far, is rejecting the participation in diplomacy of anyone directly linked to the de facto regime.I think this makes sense, and I think it speaks better of the Obama administration's approach than many have allowed. I agree that perhaps it could have done more to condemn the coup, but I (semi-paradoxically) also have few objections to the U.S. not directly intervening in Latin America. Presuming the U.S. continues to remain inflexible in refusing members of the de facto Micheletti government to have visas or participate in international politics with regards to the U.S., then I think this is a worthwhile message to send, and offers at least some measure of punishment to those politicians and business leaders who hoped to get well off of the coup.
GOP Grandstanding Redux
Every now and again, the issue of the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship makes its way into some frazzled GOP operative's head. I wrote about a California ballot initiative that was crafted to end birthright citizenship here last summer; now Congressional Republicans are mounting a bill to "amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify the interpretation of the 14th amendment". Of course, this bill wouldn't come close to passing Constitutional muster-- the very idea that an act of Congress could change a long-held interpretation of the Constitution should smack anyone with an 8th grade education as ludicrous.
But my guess is that the GOP is making a really slick tactical move here. Smart GOP leaders know that this has no chance of passing, and even if it did, no chance of passing a Supreme Court hearing. They also know that many (if not most) people lack a fundamental understanding of how our government works. By introducing a bill like this, the wingnuts can force Democrats to vote against it and pillory them with the usual complaints of being soft on illegal immigration. In fact, I'm sure the higher-ups in the GOP would be terrified if something like this actually passed, since they would lose this sure-fire way to rouse the base. This kind of bill is a lot like the flag burning amendment that makes its way into Congress every once in a while. While the strategy is probably effective on some level, it really irks me.
I could go into the disgust many of us share at the nefarious scapegoating and blatant racism that underlies the whole thing, but really, right now I'm as angry at the fact that this is a complete and utter waste of time from a public policy perspective. Once again, the Republicans have proven that they are more interested in the political games and power plays than being a constructive partner in governance.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Brewing Controversy between Germany and Uruguay
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the relatively little-known Battle of the River Plate and Uruguay's role in the sinking of a Nazi ship that remains in Montevideo's harbor to this day. Lillie over at Memory in Latin America had a nice little post about Uruguay raising the Nazi eagle and swastika from the ship's wreckage a few years ago, and about the controversy it is now causing.
It's the swastika that is causing the trouble. The German government, as represented by its ambassador in Uruguay, is opposed to the display of the eagle with the Nazi cross. Germany, understandably enough, is sensitive about the ultimate symbol of National Symbolism. Public display of it is generally illegal in Germany although exceptions are made for historical and educational purposes.It's pretty interesting, and well worth checking out in its entirety.
There now seems to be some uncertainty about the ownership of the eagle. Germany believes the ship to be part of its cultural heritage. According to Uruguayan law, sunken ships predating 1973 in their waters are generally considered property of the Uruguayan state. Uruguayan businessman Alfredo Etchegaray has the rights to salvage the wreck and he doesn't believe that Germany even has the right to express an opinion on the matter. He points out that Germany has its own share of historical relics from other countries, including the head of Nefertiti which Egypt would very much like back. Uruguayan newspaper El Pais notes that Germany contributes money to the preservation of concentration camp Auschwitz, in modern-day Poland.
Caranval in Brazil 2010 (V) - Photos from the Second Night in Rio
I should have my recap of Carnaval this year later this week, For now, here are photos from the schools that participated in the second night of parades in Rio (only made available online this afternoon). The schools that participated in the second day included some of the most famous and oldest samba schools, including Mangueira, Portela, Vila Isabel, Porto da Pedra, Mocidade, and Grande Rio. And once again, if you'd like to hear this year's samba songs from each school's second night, you can hear the songs from Mangueira, Portela, Vila Isabel, Porto da Pedra, Mocidade, and Grande Rio.
I'll have more tomorrow as Carnaval activities wind down and official winners are announced.
Forgotten American Bastard Blogging: Thomas Midgley
Americans love technology. We follow technology's lead wherever it may take us. We don't care if it destroys all notions of privacy. We don't care that it pollutes the planet. We don't care that it is produced in the backyards of poor people. We don't care that we have to despoil developing world countries to make the stuff. None of this matters. When new technology comes knocking, we always answer the door. Of course, our national technological fetish has been pushed by industry and government as much as by consumer demand.
While much of this technology has made our lives better, some of it has had disastrous effects. A surprising amount of this technology was created by one man: Thomas Midgley. Born in 1889 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Midgley grew up in Columbus, Ohio and graduated from Cornell University in 1911 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1916, he began working at the Dayton Research Laboratories. A subsidiary of General Motors, Midgley was part of a team looking to improve the performance of automobiles.
In 1921, Midgley discovered that when you added lead to gasoline, it boosted engine performance and allowed manufactures to sell edgier and faster cars. People weren't really comfortable with leaded gasoline. We forget that early cars were not always precursors to the environmental nightmare of current automobiles. Many were electric. These electric cars were largely designed for women, who were not thought able to start an engine. Sadly, the industry left these electric cars behind when engines became easier to start; in fact, today's technology barely surpasses that of the 1910s.
The problem Midgley was working on was something called "engine knock." Basically, electrical engines were causing the engine to rattle around at high (for the time) rate of speeds, potentially destroying it. Midgley discovered that if you add tetraethyl lead to gasoline, you eliminated the knock. The automobile, oil, and lead companies celebrated.
The thing is that there were other ways to get rid of engine knock. If you burned grain alcohol in an auto engine, you didn't get engine knock at all. But there was no money in grain alcohol. People could make their own fuel. That was not a good business model for GM, Standard Oil, and other interested parties.
But they faced opposition. In 1922, William Mansfield Clark from the U.S. Public Health Service publicly explained that tetraethyl lead was extremely poisonous and could endanger public health along highways and in cities. U.S. Surgeon General H.S. Cumming wrote a letter to Pierre du Point, chairman of the DELCO, the chemical company, about leaded gasoline's health hazards. Midgley was given the task of responding. He admitted that he had done no studies, but "the average street will probably be so free from lead that it will be impossible to detect it or its absorption." At the same time, Midgley himself was recovering from lead poisoning he received working on the project.
In 1923, GM agreed to allow the U.S. Bureau of Mines to do a study of leaded gasoline, but it forged agreement with the agency that the reserachers had to submit their report to GM first for comment. This ensured nothing damaging to the company would come out. A series of studies in the 1920s claimed lead gasoline caused no harm. Some scientists publicly attacked these biased studies, but GM had its way.
Meanwhile, beginning in 1923, DELCO was producing leaded gasoline. GM, Du Pont, and Standard Oil came together in 1924 to form a company to sell ethyl gasoline and America's leaded gasoline craze began in earnest. Unfortunately, people working on the project began dropping dead. 2 died of lead poisoning in 1923. They built a new plant in New Jersey, but 8 more workers died in the next year. In response to a public health outcry and in order to prove that leaded gasoline didn't cause sickness, Midgley called a press conference where he breathed in a bottle of tetraethyl gasoline for 60 seconds. However, he kept from the media that the case of lead poisoning he suffered was so severe that it took him nearly a year to recover.
Midgley also invented Freon, the world's first chlorofluorocarbon, in 1930.While the discovery of CFC's helped make Midgley a rich man and gave Americans air conditioning and hairspray cans, CFC's also put a huge hole in the ozone layer. After over fifty years of unregulated CFC use, a giant hole in the ozone layer developed over Antarctica that was definitively linked to CFC usage. Luckily, we have found this one environmental problem relatively fixable, as the hole has generally not grown in the last 20 years as most of the world has cut back on its CFC usage. Nevertheless, Midgely's invention proved spectacularly ruinous to the environment for most of the 20th century.
With his developed of both lead gasoline and CFC's one environmental historian noted that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth history."
Somewhat ironically, Midgley died from one of his own inventions, though not the ones that would kill so many others. In 1940, he contracted polio. He fought that terrible illness, designing a series of pulleys that would drag him from his bed. However, in 1944, he got caught up in the ropes and they strangled him.
Give Me That Old-Time Intolerance
The case of Melissa Hussain is making the rounds. An 8th grade science teacher in North Carolina, she posted on Facebook about her Christian students harassing her openly about religion, which she is calling a hate crime.
I'll get to Hussain's teaching in a minute, but there's no question that her students and their parents and the atmosphere in the school that tolerates this behavior is indicative of the utter hypocrisy of evangelical Christians. They push their ideas on everyone, both in the U.S. and around the world. They don't tolerate other viewpoints. And then they have the temerity to complain of discrimination against them because they can't have a copy of the Ten Commandments in a courtroom.
Amanda says it well:
The reports I could find on this don’t explain why they think Hussain isn’t a Christian. It could be her last name---I’d be shocked if that wasn’t a factor---or the fact that she’s a science teacher. Or maybe she isn’t a Christian and didn’t take pains to hide that fact. So what? This country supposedly respects religious freedom, and that counts even for school teachers and even for women and even in North Carolina. The levels of harassment this woman was subject to are shocking, even for a bunch of ignorant rednecks. The harassers are admitting that they were provoked by the fact that Hussain taught real world biology that included the theory of evolution.
On her Facebook page, Hussain wrote about students spreading rumors that she was a Jesus hater. She complained about her students wearing Jesus T-shirts and singing “Jesus Loves Me.” She objected to students reading the Bible instead of doing class work.
But Annette Balint, whose daughter is in Hussain’s class, said the students have the right to wear those shirts and sing “Jesus Loves Me,” a long-time Sunday School staple. She said the students were reading the Bible during free time in class.So, what appears to be happening is that the parents are encouraging their children to disrupt class to harass a woman they believe deserves no respect by refusing to do their schoolwork, and loudly singing hymns. And when called out on it, they play innocent, acting like open disruption of the classroom is just a legitimate, harmless expression of belief. This is not all that Hussain was subject to. Students got into the habit of leaving religious materials on her desk to taunt her. Postcards with pictures of Jesus were left on her desk so that students could act all butt hurt when she did what you always do when junk mail is left for you, which is throw it away. Bibles were left on her desk, presumably to create the same kind of faux outrage if she treated them like anything short of magical objects. After the evolution dust-up, when kids tried to stop the lesson by squawking about Jesus and no doubt freaking out on the teacher, a student left a Christmas card on Hussain’s desk with the word “Christ” underlined.
This behavior, of course, is bullying, and it appears to be encouraged by parents. Bullying is the absolute favorite tactic of the religious right, from women’s clinic blockades to calling the cops on women who dare admit while pregnant to being anything but as blissed out as a dog suckling her pups. Men are subject to this kind of bullying, but generally, wingnuts prefer to set their sights on female targets, because they believe women are weak, and like all bullies, they prefer to pick on someone they perceive as weak.
Indeed.
Now, the other issue here is whether Hussain should have complained about this on Facebook. And the answer is of course not. Rule #1 in modern teaching should be to never talk about the specifics of teaching problems in a public or semi-public forum. There should be clear avenues for dealing with these problems. On one level, you discipline students--you control the classroom, you report them to the principal, you suspend them, you make their lives hell in your classroom. Of course, this is a lot easier for a man to do than a young woman. And who knows if she has the right temperament to handle a classroom of right-wing 8th graders. Lots of us don't.
If parents and your administration don't support you, take it higher up. Take it to the superintendent. Make someone listen. And if no one will listen, then you can consider taking it public, but in very specific ways that would probably include you quitting your job first.
Now, obviously this was a frustrated and hurt teacher who faced a very difficult situation that she didn't expect. I really feel for her. I can't say I know what I'd do in her situation. But I think the lesson for me if I am ever teaching on the pre-college level is to control the classroom and to tolerate none of that kind of behavior. I really couldn't care less if the students like me or not. That's actually harder to do on the college level because administrators actually believe that teaching evaluations are legitimate critiques on your effectiveness as a teacher. In the public schools, I can't see how your students not being a little afraid of you is a good thing.
An Idea So Crazy, I Can't Believe Rick Perry Didn't Think of It First
Perhaps you've heard of the proposal in the Utah state legislature to eliminate the mandatory 12th grade. Seniors just screw around anyway, right? Also, I'm sure if that happened, senioritis wouldn't just transfer to the 11th grade or anything. Also, large numbers of teenagers hanging around with nothing to do has never caused any problems in society or anything.
Obviously we can make fun of these wackos in any number of ways. But let's take this proposal seriously for a minute. Because it now represents a serious policy idea in the conservative world. If you went back 40 years and suggested that much of the current Republican agenda would be mainstream and that even the Democrats would have adopted much of it, you'd have been laughed out of the room. Since Americans don't want to pay taxes under any circumstances and they also don't want big deficits (except for the military of course. Support our troops!!!!11!!11), we can expect crazier and crazier cuts to domestic programs. Cut the 12th grade? Eliminate all busing for high schoolers? Why not!
Of course, this isn't going to pass. The same laziness and greed that makes us not want to pay taxes makes us not want to deal with the consequences of not paying taxes either, particularly when that means we have to figure out what to do with our kids. But don't be surprised to see similar ideas pop up around the conservative blogosphere and filtering into Republican politics and mainstream political discourse in coming years.
Historical Image of the Day
World War II propaganda posters.
I wonder what would happen if the government made similar posters today, "When you ride ALONE, you ride with Osama!"
Monday, February 15, 2010
Film Preservation Blogathon: Film Preservation and Teaching History
I am a late 19th and early 20th century U.S. historian by training. Although I can teach widely within the field, I'd prefer to talk about this period as often as possible.
The work of the National Film Preservation Foundation has added a tremendous tool to my teaching repertoire. It's one thing to talk about race and it's another to supplement that with showing a racist film from the 1910s. You can yap on and on about immigration, but to see an early gangster film overflowing with Italian stereotypes drives that home in ways I cannot.
Just today, my American Cities class read and discussed an article about how Progressives thought the urban environment of immigrants was icky and was contributing to race suicide. They felt the need to get immigrant children out of the urban nature they were used to and into beautiful bucolic rural nature.
That fit perfectly with the 1912 film The Land Beyond the Sunset, available on the 4th disc of Volume I of the NFPF's Treasures from American Film Archives. In this film, a young boy lives a terrible urban life. He is taken care of by a drunken abusive grandmother. He sells newspapers to earn income, which his grandmother promptly steals to buy more booze. But he has a ticket from some reformers to go out in the city for a day. While in the park, a woman tells a story called "The Land Beyond the Sunset." In it, a young boy is mistreated by an evil witch but good fairies intervene. They then put him in a boat and go to an island beyond the sunset without evil old witches. The boy sees his own life in this story. He then doesn't go back to the city. He escapes, steals a boat, and sails into the ocean to the land beyond the sunset.
Of course, you know he's probably going to die. And that's the point--this film is a middle-class fantasy about how awful the slums are. The boy would rather die than be poor.
Thanks to the National Film Preservation Foundation, I can show The Land Beyond the Sunset and any number of other silent, rare, and experimental films to my classes. I owe them tremendously. The students got the point in a way they never would have without the film. It was wonderful.
The NFPF is preserving our glorious history. Give them a little cash if you can spare it. I want more awesome silent movies to present my students.
500 Days of Summer
Reviewing the very bad 500 Days of Summer, Deborah notes:
About half the reviews I've seen of (500) Days of Summer were delighted and laudatory. Most of the others suggested that the movie was too cutesy and self-satisfied with its own happy cuteness. In response to those, I thought, Wow, sounds like the movie for me! I love cute. Finally, some reviews suggested that the movie was sexist, and while I don't love that, I love movies, and a lot of them are sexist. I survive.
Boy, was I not prepared for the hellfest that was (500) Days of Summer.
God yes. That movie stinks for precisely these reasons. One hipster cliche after another. The word "cloying" describes the whole thing. I suppose the film does a good job of shooting Los Angeles in a new way, but it's quite bad.
Not to mention the pretentious parentheses surrounding "500", which I refuse to use.
Bayh
Good riddance.
I know it's always better to have a Democrat than a Republican, but having a Democrat who constantly whines about how he hates Washington and who is disengaged in the process except to parachute in to make progressive change impossible is not exactly a great thing. Given the effectiveness of a filibuster-proof majority is a myth anyway, I don't see that losing Bayh is a huge problem. It should be a competitive seat, especially given the national Democrats blew up Dan Coats' entrance last week through some seriously excellent knee-capping.
Historical Image of the Day
This week's theme are World War II propaganda posters. And this one is tough to beat.
Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (IV) - Photos from Rio on the First Night
I may have more later today or tomorrow, but the first night of the official Carnaval parades in Rio occurred last night. Here are photos from the parades of the samba schools of Salgueiro, Beija-Flor, Viradouro, Imperatriz Leopoldense, União da Ilha, and Unidos da Tijuca. As you can see, the parades themselves are much more than scanitly clad women, with remarkably complex floats and impeccable choreography (though the pictures have a harder time conveying that).
And for those who are interested, each samba school has its own song each year. For the first time, you can hear those songs by clicking the "play" button near the top of each school's page (União da Ilha, Imperatriz, Unidos da Tijuca, Viradouro, Salgueiro, and Beija-Flor).
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