Improving Access to Birth Control in Brazil

In the wake of the Pope's visit to Brazil (though the timing is unintentional), Brazil began to subsidize birth control pills to all of its citizens this week. Scott at LG&M has touched often upon how efforts to undo abortion rights in the U.S. are a direct assault based as much on class-based notions of gender as anything else. Now, certainly, while the issues of abortion in the U.S. and birth control in Brazil are very differnt, one issue that still has similarities is the access, and lack thereof, to reproductive rights among the poor. Just as abolishing Roe in the U.S. would only make abortion illegal to the poor who couldn't afford safe, secret abortions, so in Brazil birth control pills have been available mostly to the minority number of middle- and upper-class women right now. As the article correctly points out, the enactment of this government program is huge - it will make birth control accessible to all, regardless of income. This in itself is vital towards any effort to leveling the social field in Brazil.

Certainly, the program does not do much in the way of making abortion a legal option for women in Brazil (and, as would be the case if Roe were stricken down in the US, abortion is only illegal in Brazil to those who can't afford to have a safe, private procedure. Despite it's illegality in Brazil, thousands of women still die every year in clandestine abortions, reminding us once again that the illegality of abortion does not lead to its disappearance). Still, by making birth control affordable on the state-subsidized program, Brazil has taken a huge step in improving reproductive rights for women and for the poor.

Carrying the Torch for Constantine XI

Mark Krikorian, living in a small, rough lean-to and feeding on roots, berries, and moss out beyond the farthest frontiers of Wingnutistan:

We shouldn't let May 29 pass without noting the anniversary of one of the great tragedies of history, the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Sure, the Byzantine Empire was already finished at that point, but its final snuffing out by the Turks was an important milestone in the jihad we continue to face.

Wow. Does this mean that we should celebrate our allies', the Mongols', sacking of Baghdad in 1258 as a victory in the war on terror? Or lament the Quraishi defeat at the Battle of Badr in 624 as the moment when 9/11 really became inevitable? Here we have incontrovertible proof that education and knowledge do not necessarily make one smarter; in many cases they just provide a grander framework for one's preexisting resentments and prejudices, a larger stage upon which to rehearse one's stupidity.

Also, I think Krikorian is letting those damn back-stabbing Paulicians off too easy. If only they hadn't weakened Byzantine resolve in the 9th century, we wouldn't all be speaking Turkish now.

How I hate the Paulicians.

Aww...

Mark Steyn objects to the president's suggestion that those against the immigration bill "don't want to do what's right for America":

I respect the President and I appreciate that his sincerity on this issue has been obvious for his entire political career. But I don't think he should impugn the good faith of those who, equally sincerely, disagree - not on "narrow slices" but on the central proposition: that drive-thru legalization for millions of people subject to desultory background checks by an agency without the resources to conduct them is not "what's right for America".

Uh huh. I'm pretty sure Steyn still considers it okay, though, to impugn the good faith, and patriotism, of those who sincerely disagree (and who have been largely vindicated in their disagreement) on the central proposition: that invading and occupying Iraq will not inspire democratic reforms throughout the region, and will serve as a recruiting poster, boot camp, and proving ground for violent, radical jihadism.

No Room for Police Support of the Dictatorship in Brazil

In another nice step in the human rights crusade in Brazil, an officer was fired supporting Brazil's military dictatorship in a speech he offered to his troops in April. Tenente-Coronel Antõnio Borges Germano declared before his subordinates on April 17th that torture was a totally acceptable practice and he basically missed the good old days of Brazil's dictatorship (1964-1985), all in an effort to "motivate the troops" (his own words).

Fortunately, the military police (which are more like militarized police than like the MPs of the U.S.) and Rio's governor, Sérgio Cabral, have no such use for authority figures who yearn for the dictatorship for any reason and who support torture, lamenting the fact they have to work "within the law", so after this story broke yesterday, Germano finds himself unemployed today.

Certainly, there are other officers in the police who may share his opinions, and torture of the poor (who have little recourse to legal protection or civil rights) continues in Brazil, but it's good to see the local government taking a stand and saying, "We will not tolerate such attitudes."

Rot in Hell, Michael Vick

I am as much a dog-person as anybody can be. I absolutely love dogs - I have lived a full 4 months of my entire 27+ years of life without dogs.

And all these reports involving Michael Vick's ties to dogfighting leaves me worse than sick and more than furious. I've refrained thus far on this, simply because I figured maybe his cousin was running this under his nose and he really didn't know. But with people now saying he bets a LOT on dogfights, and the ties to his property and dogfighting, and the fact that some of these witnesses have brought down other dog-fighters, makes Vick too close to avoid condemnation. It doesn't even matter now if he's never personally gone to a fight, trained a dog to fight, whatever. It won't matter if they decide there isn't enough charges to bring against Vick himself, just his family members and friends. The fact that he is so closely tied to dogfighting in so many aspects should be more than enough to end his career forever. Those who abuse domestic animals for profits are some of the most vile pieces of shit on this planet. Michale Vick is apparently one of those pieces of absolute, worse-than-human, filth who will probably never see the type of pain he's inflicted on harmless animals, all for his own personal adrenaline rush. Burn in hell, Vick.

Notes on Argentina (III): Random bits

-Meat. Much is made of Argentine meat. They themselves claim their meat is the best in the world. I must say, the meat is that good, as is the wine and alfajors (two thin cake-like cookies held together with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate). However, beyond that, Argentina’s food is not just not good, it’s straight up bad. Almost no vegetable selection, even compared to the U.S. (which, doesn’t have the greatest selection in the world), an extreme reliance on eggs and ham (neither of which taste very good for whatever reason), and generally just items that would almost be tasteless, were it not for the absurd amount of lard you can taste in them. I can't remember a time when I ate things that I generally like (ham, eggs, etc.) and felt like vomiting just from the taste, but that happened in Argentina. So for those who travel there - get the beef.

-Ambience. As great as the 19th-century architecture and the wide avenues in Buenos Aires are, in some ways it’s just not as scenic to me as Rio is. This may be bias, but I absolutely love Rio’s environment – you go from beaches to 3000+foot mountains in no time, giving the city a great natural landscape, even if the buildings are ugly. Buenos Aires has that great Belle Epoque architecture, but it’s all flat, so there’s nothing to see besides buildings after buildings after buildings. Even with all the pollution you find in economically marginal (and even not-so-marginal) areas of the city, I’ll take Rio over Buenos Aires in this regard any day of the week.

-While the dollar has died since I arrived in Brazil (last week, it went to 1.92 reais to the dollar, the first time it had been below 2:1 since 2001), it was great to be in Argentina, where everything is so cheap. They have recovered VERY well from the 2001 fiasco, and things are far more resonably priced there than in Brazil. Thus, I was able to go out to a REALLY nice dinner with my wife (steak, bottle of wine, etc.) for about 40 dollars total, and we picked up 9 tango CDs for about 42 dollars (nothing like less than 5 dollars a CD).

-Sinister hair. Argentina takes awful hair to a new level. If you’ve watched the World Cup, you notice an abundance of mullets on the Argentine team; however, the bad hair in Buenos Aires went WELL beyond mullets; faux-hawks on 30-something businessmen in suits, and all kinds of bizarre formations forged from a heavy use of gel were the norm, and it was, quite simply, awful. And this isn’t any “anti-hipness” on my part – it was clearly a contest within the male machismo to do extremely absurd things in a giant “hey everybody, look at me!” contest. And the women also were fans of bad hair (I have NEVER seen so many she-mullets, not even in rural Ohio). I used to think Santa Fe was the sinister-hair capital of the world, but it’s Buenos Aires, by light years.

-Evita. Even without Madonna (pardon the gaggins sound), the Evita cult in Buenos Aires is that big (though slightly smaller than the "Mardona is actually Jesus" cult). I got an awesome magnet, and even saw her grave, which was (of course) a tourist park. But you couldn't escape here. There really is a holy trinity of Argentine figures that dominate t-shirts, posters, books, magnets, cheap street paintings, etc.: Evita, Ché, and Maradona.

Film Review--Chain Camera (2001)

In 2000, filmmaker Kirby Dick had wanted to produce a documentary about teenagers. His approach was to hand out ten video cameras to students at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and asked them to document their lives for one week, without fear of censorship. Then, after their week was up, they were to give these cameras to ten different students, who would do the same for the entire school year. The final product, 2001’s Chain Camera, is the raw footage of sixteen of these kids, filtered through the editing room. This footage, while a mixed bag most of the time, does however bring up some interesting questions.

Ideally, Chain Camera is a documentary without a subjective voice. This is, however, an impossibly ridiculous notion. The thousands of hours recorded by hundreds of students is shrunk down to approximately eight minutes screen time for sixteen stories, and this forces the issue of subjectivity, if only do get the ninety most interesting minutes. But, given how interminably boring some of the segments are, they couldn’t have been filtered for human interest. The students are fairly diverse in class, race, and gender, but there appears to be an overriding message, that is to say that everything with kids today is a-ok. It seems like there should have been some alternative world views presented and, while there is a lesbian couple, a politically-charged artist from a broken home, and a girl who’s dream is to be a stripper, they all seem to come to the same conclusion: that, with hard work and determination, they’ll be able to make something of themselves. That’s dandy, but I have a hard time believing that this is the viewpoint of most of these hundreds of people, and it appears to have been placed together to give a falsely naïve viewpoint. Are these kids this single-minded? I have a hard time believing it. Are these kids, like most kids, so self-absorbed that they can’t see beyond the walls of their school? This I can buy but, if this is the case, Kirby Dick could have, in the editing room, given viewers a sense of this. There would have been, literally, thousands of hours of footage to compile here; there really could have been some meaty material here. Instead, the most “shocking” thing shown in the film was a high school senior smoking pot. Wow…a true revelation.

Chain Camera is a great idea and a solid theory. Unfortunately, its success ends here. There are some entertaining segments, there are some boring ones. Most importantly, though, there are no connections made between any of them and it feels like each student, behind the camera, is living in a bubble. It would have been interesting, as a special feature on the DVD, to revisit some of these kids a few years later to see if and how their views have changed once they left school, a la the 7 Up series, but it seems they were content to leave these stories in their respective bubbles. Personally, I’ll go back to Paul Almond and Michael Apted for this kind of insight into children and young adults. Even if these productions are solidly dated, they are superior and, if Chain Camera taught me anything, it’s that the mindset of kids doesn’t change that much generation to generation, at least when one asks them about themselves.

Jay Stevens on Brucellosis

Over at Left in the West, Jay Stevens has a thought-provoking post on brucellosis. This is a disease that cattle gave to bison and now bison can give it back to cattle. It has been quite contentious over the past couple of decades near Yellowstone National Park. Jay writes that "brucellosis is the perfect collision between environment, industry, immigration, and history." Absolutely true. Europeans brought it over and infected wildlife. Now we have an industry in the West that is economically struggling and declining. Brucellosis infections can wipe out a ranch.

From a strictly economically or environmentally rational point of view, one might argue that we should force out this marginal industry from the West. But is that so simple? First, and I will go into this in more detail when I write about my grasslands trip, if you simply take the cattle off the land, this leaves ranchers with one reasonable economic option: sell their land for housing developments. Do any of us with an environmental consciousness want this? I don't think so. The damage that housing causes wildlife is far more than ranching. Second, the traditions and way of life of these people have legitimacy. We need to find ways for ranchers to stay on the land and keep their ranches together, with or without cattle. It's better for people and the land to do so. This could happen through tourism, though there is a limited market for that I suppose. Perhaps some organic cattle raising could work too, which would keep the cows healthier and give ranchers a higher price for their beef.

There is no clear answer and we need a more open discussion about these issues.

A Few Things

Over the next week, I'll be posting about some of the amazing things I saw on my tour of grassland ecologies on the US-Mexico border in the last week. But first, let me just mention a few things about things that have happened while I was gone.

1. Good to see the Yankees still sucking. Clemens is not going to push this team over the top. They are finished.

2. Very sad to note the death of the great anthropologist Mary Douglas, whose work, Purity and Danger, I can not recommend highly enough.

3. Thanks to Lyrad for posting my pictures of the day. Hopefully, he can avoid getting into any more fights.

4. I'll get into this in much more detail later, but no one on either side of the immigration issue who hasn't spent time there has no fucking clue what they are talking about. My mind was totally blown.

5. For the first time, the US has suffered over 100 deaths in consecutive months in Iraq. Great to see the surge working so well!

6. Jewel sucks and people need to have a sense of humor. (See comments of linked post for the second half of this)

Historical Image of the Day

Santa Fe Railroad Train, 1900

Listen

Andrew Bacevich reflects on the loss of his son, in a war he rightly predicted would be a disaster.

Lyrad's Random 10

A music collection built the way mine has been, which is through a fairly indiscriminate selection of promotional material, can be very diverse but, when when it comes to things like the random 10, can also be difficult to write about. Such is the case with the selection from Greek guitarist/composer Nikos Papakostas, who I have little to no knowledge about. There is scarcely any information on him that I can locate and the CD is no help. So, what little I was able to find tells me that Papakostas is a varied composer who has worked over the last thirty years in just about every musical avenue Greece has to offer. From traditional performance to film and theater soundtracks to Vice Human, Greece's longest running heavy metal act, to board member of the Federation of International Producers and Independant Labels, Papakostas is everywhere in Greek and Balkan music. The album that "Friday Night" comes from is called Terra Humanna, a sometimes traditional album and sometimes pop album, this selection is a mixture of both. It begins with a good dance featuring guitar and bouzouki, and then degenerates into some kind of traditional/heavy metal crossover. It is all acoustic, but the soloing strategies are very much '80s metal. This tone, combined with a 7+ minute track time, makes the song somewhat dull and very self-indulgent. The rest of the album doesn't neccessarily conform to this same feeling, but "Friday Night" displays a lot of what's wrong with European popular music.

1. Nikos Papakostas--Friday Night
2. Marc Ribot--I'm Confessing (that I Love You)
3. Bill Monroe--Ashland Breakdown
4. Handsome Boy Modeling School--Metaphysical
5. The Butthole Surfers--The Annoying Song
6. New York Dolls--Give Her a Great Big Kiss
7. Ennio Morricone--Rag Nuziale [from the Trio Infernale soundtrack]
8. Doc Watson & Clarence Ashley--My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
9. Bruno Nicolai--Il Mercenario (Reprise) [from the Il Mercenario soundtrack]
10. Motorhead--On Parole

Historical Image of the Day

Members of Independent Finnish Socialist Party of America, 1904

Erik's Random 10

I wonder how the Eels will be seen in a decade. I have never been quite sure what to make about their 2005 album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. It's too long and some of the songs are kind of lame. Others though are really touching and just make you feel good. I guess I always wonder how bands will age, which probably led me to mostly exclude newer groups on my best rock albums of all time and most underrated rock albums lists. I suppose I should listen to this album more--it's never really been central to my playlists. The more I listen to it, the more I like it.

1. Eels, Marie Floating over the Backyard
2. Beck, Puttin' It Down
3. Dave Alvin, Honky Tonk
4. Hazel Dickens, Here Today and Gone Tomorrow
5. Jessi Colter, I Ain't the One
6. Bonnie Prince Billy, Mrs. William
7. Gary Lucas, Interstellar Low Ways
8. Hank Thompson, I'll Start Believing In You
9. Don Rigsby, These Golden Fields
10. Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass, Drive Time

Today's Minor Epiphany

Victor Davis Hanson is the Andy Rooney of the new American century. But with more exploded limbs, and less complaining about how difficult computers are.

Friday Guitar Blogging

Merle Travis.

Ignatius J. Peretz Has A Posse

Regarding the rather entertaining dustup between Matt Yglesias and a small confederacy of dunces, let me just say, first, that having your views on Palestinian politics recommended by Marty Peretz and Jonah Goldberg is a bit like being hailed as the world's greatest living poet by Jewel and the person who cleans Jewel's pool.

Second, any analysis of the Fatah-Hamas conflict which attempts to ignore or exonerate forty years of Israeli occupation, and the cultivation of Palestinian disunity which has been a central goal of that occupation, is, quite simply, not to be taken seriously. Blaming the factional violence in Gaza on the supposedly inherently violent nature of Palestinian Arab society (which, remember, doesn't really exist, according to Peretz), while turning a blind eye to the myriad ways in which the Israeli occupation has proscribed, manipulated, and handicapped Palestinian political life during the last four decades, is as racist as it is daft.

Welcome back to reality, Benedict

The pope has apparently woken up from the slumber he was in when he was in Brazil last week. Taking back previous comments about indigenous peoples, he has now said that it is “not possible to forget the suffering and the injustices inflicted by colonizers against the indigenous population, whose fundamental human rights were often trampled.” This comes in the wake of his claims last week that American indigenous peoples had been "silently longing" for Christianity when Europeans arrived, and that nothing was "imposed" on the indigenous populations.

While it's not an open "mea culpa," it's nice to know one of his advisors finally got a hold of a history book and explained to Benedict what actually happened.


...UPDATE - Check out Randy's post for quotations on what the colonizers actually did (and I'd add that, while Bartolome de las Casas' writings were very political, designed to spur outrage, and thus at times embellished, they are still ultimately based on things Casas saw).

Historical Image of the Day

Suffrage activists picketing in front of White House during Wilson administration

Is it 2009 yet?

Generally, comments on stories like this from the White House almost seem almost futile, aside from the reminder that, as the Onion put it in 2002, "They say people get the government they deserve, but I don't recall knife-raping any retarded nuns".

Yet there are two extremely disturbing things here. The first is, Bush is presently gladly declassifying documents from the last 3 years of our ongoing "war on terror" to say, "look, the terrerrists could attack!", even while historians still can't get access to various documents (the Iran-Contra affair comes to mind) because of "national security". So the administration is giving the message that documents are only to be declassified when they aid the administration in its ongoing, corrupt war, but any actual declassification for historical research is not going to happen. No surprise here, but it's still infuriating.

Secondly, let's pretend that Bush's contention that bin Laden admitted to wanting to set up base in Iraq in 2005 is true (and it very well may not be). That would never have happened had we not still been there in the first place. This isn't a support for Hussein - 2005 was two years after Bush went to war in Iraq. Had we never gone to war, or had we actually had a plan for stability after we got in, then it wouldn't have been so unstable for bin Laden to set up camp in the first place (again, IF we accept this claim as true). But of course, this doesn't matter to Bush - it's just one more in the increasingly awful and baseless attempts to tie bin Laden to Iraq any way the administration can.