Friday, February 14, 2003

Excerpts from H.L. Mencken's "On Being An American"

All the while I have been forgetting the third of my reasons for remaining so faithful a citizen of the Federation, despite all the lascivious inducements from expatriates to follow them beyond the seas, and all the surly suggestions from patriots that I succumb. It is the reason which grows out of my mediaeval but unashamed taste for the bizarre and indelicate, my congenital weakness for comedy of the grosser varieties. The United States, to my eye, is incomparably the greatest show on earth. It is a show which avoids diligently all the kinds of clowning which tire me most quickly - for example, royal ceremonials, the tedious hocus-pocus of haut politique, the taking of politics seriously - and lays chief stress upon the kinds which delight me unceasingly - for example, the ribald combats of demagogues, the exquisitely ingenious operations of master rogues, the pursuit of witches and heretics, the desperate struggles of inferior men to claw their way into Heaven......

Consider, for example, a campaign for the Presidency. Would it be possible to imagine anything more uproariously idiotic - a deafening, nerve-wracking battle to the death between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Harlequin and Sganarelle, Gobbo and Dr. Cook - the unspeakable, with fearful snorts, gradually swallowing the inconceivable? I defy any one to match it elsewhere on this earth. In other lands, at worst, there are at least intelligible issues, coherent ideas, salient personalities. Somebody says something, and somebody replies.....

Here, having perfected democracy, we lift the whole combat to symbolism, to transcendentalism, to metaphysics. Here we load a pair of palpably tin cannon with blank cartridges charged with talcum power, and so let fly. Here one may howl over the show without any uneasy reminder that it is serious, and that some one may be hurt. I hold that this elevation of politics to the plane of undiluted comedy is peculiarly American, that no-where else on this disreputable ball has the art of the sham-battle been developed to such fineness...

But feeling better for the laugh. Ridi si sapis, said Martial. Mirth is necessary to wisdom, to comfort, above all to happiness. Well, here is the land of mirth, as Germany is the land of metaphysics and France is the land of fornication. Here the buffoonery never stops. What could be more delightful than the endless struggle of the Puritan to make the joy of the minority unlawful and impossible? The effort is itself a greater joy to one standing on the side-lines than any or all of the carnal joys it combats...

So the uplifter, the soul-saver, the Americanizer, striving to make the Republic fit for Y.M.C.A. secretaries. He is the eternal American, ever moved by the best of intentions, ever running a la Krausemeyer to the rescue of virtue, and ever getting his pantaloons fanned by the Devil. I am naturally sinful, and such spectacles caress me. If the slap-stick were a sash-weight, the show would be cruel, and I'd probably complain to the Polizei. As it is, I know that the uplifter is not really hurt, but simply shocked. The blow, in fact, does him good, for it helps get him into Heaven, as exegetes prove from Matthew v, 11: Hereux serez-vous, lorsqu'on vous outragera, qu'on vous persecutera, and so on. As for me, it makes me a more contented man, and hence a better citizen. One man prefers the Republic because it pays better wages than Bulgaria. Another because it has laws to keep him sober and his daughter chaste. Another because the Woolworth Building is higher than the cathedral at Chartres. Another because, living here, he can read the New York Evening Journal. Another because there is a warrant out for him somewhere else. Me, I like it because it amuses me to my taste. I never get tired of the show. It is worth every cent it costs.

Friday, February 14, 2003

Playing with the Pentagon.

Gene Healy expounds on the pros and cons of duct tape as protection against terrorism. Meanwhile, for those who have invested in vast quantities of duct tape and chicken soup, the Associated Press reports that a senior government official claimed the administration now believes some of the information which led to upgrading the nation's terror threat level last week to orange, or high, was probably fabricated. I hate it when the government mistake's V-D for April Fool's Day. Or perhaps this is the Pentagon's equivalent of a box of chocolates?

Friday, February 14, 2003

War games.

Elise Kissling reports from Germany on the Schroeder government's position towards the war on Iraq:

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has seen his course on Iraq confirmed this week, with French President Jacques Chirac hardening his anti-war stance and two other UN Security Council members defecting to the German-French camp.

In a statement on Thursday in the Bundestag, the German parliament, Schröder vigorously defended his position. He said his government would decide whether to send troops to the Gulf based on "the principles of freedom, peace and law," adding, "We can disarm Iraq without war."

After Russia, China has now put its weight behind the Franco-German attempt to expand and prolong weapons inspections in Iraq, a strategy flatly rejected by the United States, Britain and Spain. But together with Bulgaria, the German government says these are the only countries on the 15-member UN Security Council prepared to back a war without further weapons inspections.

Hints that France would not back down and agree to sign a second UN resolution authorizing a U.S.-led attack on Iraq came late last week when the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, responded to Bush's statement, "The game is over," with a curt, "It's not a game and it's not over." In a telephone conversation with Bush, Chirac also suggested that he would veto a new resolution at this time. If so, it would be the first time France has used its veto in the Security Council.

A second front emerged early in the week when France, Germany and Belgium said they would not begin preparations to defend fellow NATO member Turkey before the Security Council had made a final decision on whether to oust Saddam Hussein by force. This prompted Washington to call into question the alliance, but with negotiations underway on Thursday, Germany hinted that a compromise may be found as early as Saturday.

Observers said that this week's developments have strengthened Schröder's hand at home. His greater credibility in international affairs has taken the heat off the intense criticism coming from within and outside his own coalition on domestic problems, which led to humbling losses by Schröder's Social Democrats in two state elections early this month. But opinion is divided over whether this unilateral action will have a permanent impact on German foreign policy or the future of NATO and the UN.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Alina's V-day blues in uneven time.

What ever happened to love?
Since when is it all about money?
With kissing hermeneutics now codified,
with respect or honor well-alibied,
can love ever be more than a game,
calling bluffs by some fancy name?
Rest assured Eros, the cup is half-full,
your self-generated "cybersweetie" is "totally cool".
Screw the listless anticipiation of the night sky,
an internet quiz, you know, will never lie.
And if your Hallmarked love is meant to last,
then you'll share a first mortgage or something less vast.

Yes, dear, today all seems darker,
and my prophet is Dorothy Parker;
the 3 percent scarlet-lettered on my forehead,
the dead flowers for those still obssessed by the dead.
All this corporate love clutters the head,
So I think I'll go marching instead.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Hmmmmm...

I wonder if this has anything to do with reports of Schroeder's falling popularity in German polls? If so, then the politicians once again mistake cause and effect-- Schroeder only got elected because he opposed the war in Iraq. Continuing economic downturn in Germany was never his forte. If he wants to change something, he should change his fossilized economic policy.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Self-flagellation gets more trendy every year.

Hey ladies-- here's a sweet gift to give your insignificant other tommorow. He will "love" you for it. Next, you should try getting your breasts sliced open and stuffed with silicon-- I hear it feels great! If your man still ain't sassified, there's always foot-binding.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Be my anti-Valentine.

All in good fun.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Recent voices cautioning against war in Iraq.

Parker W. Borg urges consideration of the fact that dialogue and negotiation cannot be genuine when US war against Iraq is a given. Former Amabassador to Bulgaria Jack Perry thinks this war is the last question deciding whether we move towards multilateralism or empire. I must add here that the dichotomy Mr. Perry sets up is overly simplistic, which is a pity given that this is precisely what perturbs me about US media presentation of foreign policy options. Foreign service officials should be more acknowledging of the mutiple shades of gray. Only in this way can genuine foreign policy debate begin.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Radley links to a V-D nightmare.

Don't trust the roses, ladies. Wildflowers might save you both the money.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Love songs.

Nerve goes through the best love tunes of the last 69 years. I would add Con Te Partiro by Andrea Boccelli, Et Si Tu N'Existais Pas by Joe Dassin, Ne Me Quitte Pas by Jacques Brel, I Want you by Elvis Costello, Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For by Nick Cave, Nobody But You by Lou Reed and John Cale, Painted On My Heart by The Cult, If You Fall by Steve Earle, You by REM, Make Me Cry by Concrete Blonde, It Had to Be You by Harry Connick Jr., Fools Rush In by Rosemary Clooney, Almost Blue by Chet Baker, Big Gay Heart by Evan Dando, and, of course, Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Destiny by John William Waterhouse.

This painting always dumbs me. Perhaps the medieval history buff in me appreciates the reckless irresponsibility of ascribing blame to fate. If I must drink from the cup of destiny, would that it were a large silver chalice.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Persian poetry.

What follows is Sufi poet-mystic Rumi's Ghazal 314, as translated by Jack Marshall and hosted by Blissbat.

You who are not kept anxiously awake for love's sake, sleep on.
In restless search for that river, we hurry along;
you whose heart such anxiety has not disturbed, sleep on.
Love's place is out beyond the many separate sects;
since you love choosing and excluding, sleep on.
Love's dawn cup is our sunrise, his dusk our supper;
you whose longing is for sweets and whose passion
is for supper, sleep on.
In search of the philosopher's stone, we are melting like copper;
you whose philosopher's stone is cushion and pillow, sleep on.
I have abandoned hope for my brain and head; you who wish for
a clear head and fresh brain, sleep on.
I have torn speech like a tattered robe and let words go;
you who are still dressed in your clothes, sleep on.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

On the right couch at the right time.

The movie Walking and Talking was on TV last night. Surprisingly good-- Catherine Keener and Anne Heche reveal their acting roots. And I can't say enough about the soundtrack, which includes songs by Bill Bragg, Frente, Greenhouse 27, Joe Henry, The Sea and Cake, Shrimp Boat, and Jerry Burns.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Say no more: If Hillary supports it, then it must be righteous.

Saying that she is strongly opposed to "illegal immigrants," New York Sen. Hillary Clinton announced this week that she would support a national identification card for U.S. citizens if other measures to keep illegals out of the country failed.

"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants," Clinton told WABC Radio's John Gambling. Then, a few moments later, the Democratic Party presidential front-runner added, "We might have to move towards an ID system even for citizens."

Hillary's reason for supporting national ID's, apart. of course, from her apparent distaste towards immigrants? Why, national security. And universal healthcare. Clinton said she would support a national ID card as part of an overall effort to improve the U.S.'s national security.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

India needs more women.

In India, the preference for sons is creating a desperate shortage of females in India's 1 billion-plus population-- a national "shortfall" of about 40m women that is disproportionately high in some regions. Historically, when the number of eligible husbands far exceeded the number of eligible wives, the cost usually came in terms of gender equality under the law. Hopefully, the Indian tradition of strong reverence for wives and mothers will not be compromised by impending population pressures.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Your economic "self-interest" might be my economic suicide.

Why don't more Americans want to distribute more wealth down to people like themselves?

This is the question that David Brooks seeks to answer for The New York Times. On Brooks' view, it would be in the average American's "self-interest" to vote for candidates who support economic redistribution on an egalitarian basis.

People vote their aspirations. The most telling polling result from the 2000 election was from a Time magazine survey that asked people if they are in the top 1 percent of earners. Nineteen percent of Americans say they are in the richest 1 percent and a further 20 percent expect to be someday. So right away you have 39 percent of Americans who thought that when Mr. Gore savaged a plan that favored the top 1 percent, he was taking a direct shot at them.

It's not hard to see why they think this way. Americans live in a culture of abundance. They have always had a sense that great opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing. None of us is really poor; we're just pre-rich.

Americans read magazines for people more affluent than they are (W, Cigar Aficionado, The New Yorker, Robb Report, Town and Country) because they think that someday they could be that guy with the tastefully appointed horse farm. Democratic politicians proposing to take from the rich are just bashing the dreams of our imminent selves.

Income resentment is not a strong emotion in much of America. If you earn $125,000 a year and live in Manhattan, certainly, you are surrounded by things you cannot afford. You have to walk by those buildings on Central Park West with the 2,500-square-foot apartments that are empty three-quarters of the year because their evil owners are mostly living at their other houses in L.A.

But if you are a middle-class person in most of America, you are not brought into incessant contact with things you can't afford. There aren't Lexus dealerships on every corner. There are no snooty restaurants with water sommeliers to help you sort though the bottled eau selections. You can afford most of the things at Wal-Mart or Kohl's and the occasional meal at the Macaroni Grill. Moreover, it would be socially unacceptable for you to pull up to church in a Jaguar or to hire a caterer for your dinner party anyway. So you are not plagued by a nagging feeling of doing without.

While this might be true for the majority of Americans, I've always maintained that I run with an exceptional crowd. Unfortunately, I see intelligent young people who want to devote their lives to preventing children from experiencing the material resentment that they themselves experienced as children. Of course, this might succeed if the real reason for the whining of my middle-class friends neared economic want. Unfortunately, envy by any other name still reeks. If they didn't resent Brent for his two-story house, then they would resent him for his outgoing personality. Instead of palliating such already-spoiled young Americans who believe the world owes them happiness-- that it is the duty of others to make them "feel good"-- perhaps we should send a few to boot-camp. It's amazing what a little dull routine will do to make the otherwise-ungrateful ecstatic about their presumably mediocre fortunes.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Hopeless/romantic?

The hopeless romantic in me froths to the surface upon reading this lovely defense of boycotting V-D. Lest I fall to accusations of bitterness, this is actually about a husband and wife who have decided that Hallmarking it is de-marking it. J'adore.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Love at light speed.

Loners, this can be a happy V-D for you too because, now, you no longer need a requited love in order to get one of those precious little nicknames that lovers stick to each other. Thanks to the Valentine's Day Nickname Generator, you can be "Fluffnugget" or "Piddles" or an ever better concoction by just typing in the name of your crush.

Downside? Every girl or boy who shares your crush might get the same nickname. But that doesn't matter anyway, since you will probably never get around to actually being addressed by your nickname in the first place.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Fiat justitia-- ruat caelum.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

On living your radicalism, not as rebellion but as a lifelong commitment.

Re-reading Christopher Hitchens' most timeless work, Letters to a Young Contratian, I am reminded of the important role that intellectual dissidents-- those who decided to live their lives "as if" they had choices-- played in formulating the postcommunist governments in East and Central Europe. Rather than accept the easy route of cooperating with monstrous regimes, and thereby legitimizing them, courageous individuals like Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, and Ana Blandiana, to name a few, resisted the urge to "belong", to "fit in".

Instead, they chose to live their lives in continuous conflict against communist ideology, propaganda, and totalitarianism. Hitchens makes a useful comment on this matter (though he does not directly relate it to the lifestyles of the dissidents).

"There is something idiotic about those who believe that consensus is the highest good...My conviction that human beings do not, in fact, desire to live in some Disneyland of the mind, where there is an end to striving and a general feeling of contentment and bliss. This would be idiocy in its pejorative sense; the Athenians originally employed the term more lightly, defining as idiotis any man who was blandly indifferent to public affairs.

Back to the former dissidents-- more particularly, back to Vaclav Havel. David Remnick describes Vaclav Havel in a timeless eulogy for the Czech Republic's most stately President.

Awkward and shy, Havel is a curiously natural director. Forty-odd years ago, he started out as a stagehand and a playwright. He was an acolyte of Beckett and Ionesco—the theatre of the absurd. The sense of the absurd extends to his own life. There is surely no modern biography that is more improbable yet dramatically coherent. Havel's is the rare life, Milan Kundera has written, that resembles a work of art and gives "the impression of a perfect compositional unity." Consider: A bourgeois boy becomes a bohemian playwright; he then becomes a dissident, who, for the crime of writing subversive essays and helping to organize a subversive movement called Charter 77, is encouraged by the regime to master the art of welding in a reeking Czech prison; finally, in late November, 1989, everything implodes and he is leading demonstrations in Wenceslas Square, and hundreds of thousands of people are shouting "Havel na hrad!" ("Havel to the Castle!"); within days, he is the head of state, working in the same hilltop redoubt that served as a seat of power for dynasts of the Bohemian kingdom and the Hapsburg monarchy, for the emissaries of Berlin and the satraps of the Kremlin.

During the uprising, which quickly became known as the Velvet Revolution, and for a while afterward, there were graffiti around town proclaiming, "Havel je král"—"Havel Is King." The King tried to demystify his Castle. He ordered the costume designer for the movie "Amadeus" to create red-white-and-blue uniforms for the palace guards. (Communist-era guards wore khaki.) He himself at first refused the suits that his friend Prince Karel Schwarzenberg brought him. "I can't wear any of these!" Havel said. "I'd look like a gigolo." In jeans and sweater, he rode a scooter through the Castle halls. He threw a "festival of democracy" in the courtyards, with jugglers and mimes performing while he wandered around drinking Pilsner and greeting everyone. Later on, when he discovered that the chandeliers in the gilded Spanish Hall were outmoded, a couple of typical visitors, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, paid for new fixtures. For weeks, he drove his staff crazy as he monkeyed around with the remote control, dimming the lights, then brightening them again.

"When I first came here, there were many things that I found absurd," Havel told me in his office. A sly, can-youbelieve-it smile creased his face. "For example, it seemed to us on the first day that there were three rooms, close to where we're sitting now, which you couldn't enter. When we finally got inside, we discovered a kind of communications facility for contacts within the Warsaw Pact. So we took advantage of that and sent a New Year's greeting to Mikhail Gorbachev. Later, I heard from confidential sources that the K.G.B. chief, Vladimir Kryuchkov, didn't really appreciate the fact that we'd found those facilities."

The rise of nationalist politics in the postcommunist states took many former dissidents, already well-versed in the absurd, by surprise. In Ceausescu's Romania, for example, where the totalitarian leadership indoctrinated Romanian citizens with a nationalist, anti-Soviet communism, accentuated by an all-pervading personality cult around the state leader, nationalism might have been a more predictable political response to the institutional and social vaccuum following December 1989. But why did Tito's multiethnic Yugoslavia turn out to be the real disaster?

Hitchens devotes quite a few pages to the intellectual catastrophe implied by the success of nationalist, right-wing parties in the 1990's. One passage in particular stands out as a warning:

"Distrust any speaker who talks confidently about 'we', or speaks in the name of 'us'. Distrust yourself if you hear these tones creeping into your own style. The search for security and majority is not always the same as solidarity; it can be another name for consensus and tyranny and tribalism. Never forget that, even if there are 'masses' to be invoked, or 'the people' to be praised, they and it must by definition be composed of individuals."

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Iranian reformists express dismay over US plans to recruit Iranians for the war in Iraq.

Yesterday, President Mohammad Khatami issued a blunt warning to US leaders against supporting Iranian dissidents and exiled opposition as Iran commemorated the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution with anti-war and anti-American rallies held around the country.

"America has once tried its luck in confronting this nation by supporting the regime of Shah, but I hope it will not be under further illusion to support the remnants of the former regime," he told a flood of the people who had converged at the Azadi square, west of Tehran.

Given US plans to do precisely what Khatami discouraged, the possibility of containing this war within Iraqi borders does not look so bright.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

The closer we get, the less we know.

According to Australian officials, the transcript of the most recent bin Laden tape reinforces fears about WMD and possible terrorist attacks in the near future. But top NATO members remain unconvinced that bombing Iraq will prevent such terrorist attacks. In fact, according to the Chinese press, NATO might be crumbling under its own over-extended weight.

Still wavering between Europe and the United States, the Russian government instead has concentrated its security surveillance at home. This week, Russian officials who issued passports to hostage-taking terrorists were identified. Putin does not suffer such fools lightly.

How he manages to suffer the fools at Pravda, however, is beyond me. Can it possibly benefit Russian strategy to suggest that bin Laden plans to wage war in Iraq? Why on earth would bin Laden do such a thing if we have already committed ourselves to doing it for him? I don't mean to suggest that Vasily Bubnov speaks no truth whatsoever. His main assertion-- that the US stands to benefit most from Wahhabist antipathy towards secular regimes like those of Hussein's Ba'ath party-- is fair. But why invalidate it by sounding as if you wrote the essay after consuming too much vodka?

Iraqis at once characterized the bin Laden speech as “provocation.” According to Iraqis, the existence of the tape is profitable only for the US, searching for a pretext for launching a military offensive. The hint is plain: Iraq considers the tape may be fabricated by special services of certain influential power. This hint as well as many other hints of all interested parts hardly could be confirmed with documents. Nevertheless, the situation looks paradoxical: the speech of the terrorist with whom the US fought so long is advantageous for Washington.

Who would dare to oppose the Saddam overthrow, if it appears he really has or had some links to bin Laden? Nobody would. However, it is still not known whether Osama bin Laden is alive or not. It was probably somebody else who is implicated in the tape production. So, the tape authenticity is under question. But this fact does not hinders Americans from using it as ideological weapon in its fight with terrorism or - in patronage of it.

In the meantime, all ye slackers rest assured. You can wage war on the infidel by playing Gulf War II.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

The closer we get, the less we know.

According to Australian officials, the transcript of the most recent bin Laden tape reinforces fears about WMD and possible terrorist attacks in the near future. But top NATO members remain unconvinced that bombing Iraq will prevent such terrorist attacks. In fact, according to the Chinese press, NATO might be crumbling under its own over-extended weight.

Still wavering between Europe and the United States, the Russian government instead has concentrated its security surveillance at home. This week, Russian officials who issued passports to hostage-taking terrorists were identified. Putin does not suffer such fools lightly.

How he manages to suffer the fools at Pravda, however, is beyond me. Can it possibly benefit Russian strategy to suggest that bin Laden plans to wage war in Iraq? Why on earth would bin Laden do such a thing if we have already committed ourselves to doing it for him? I don't mean to suggest that Vasily Bubnov speaks no truth whatsoever. His main assertion-- that the US stands to benefit most from Wahhabist antipathy towards secular regimes like those of Hussein's Ba'ath party-- is fair. But why invalidate it by sounding as if you wrote the essay after consuming too much vodka?

Iraqis at once characterized the bin Laden speech as “provocation.” According to Iraqis, the existence of the tape is profitable only for the US, searching for a pretext for launching a military offensive. The hint is plain: Iraq considers the tape may be fabricated by special services of certain influential power. This hint as well as many other hints of all interested parts hardly could be confirmed with documents. Nevertheless, the situation looks paradoxical: the speech of the terrorist with whom the US fought so long is advantageous for Washington.

Who would dare to oppose the Saddam overthrow, if it appears he really has or had some links to bin Laden? Nobody would. However, it is still not known whether Osama bin Laden is alive or not. It was probably somebody else who is implicated in the tape production. So, the tape authenticity is under question. But this fact does not hinders Americans from using it as ideological weapon in its fight with terrorism or - in patronage of it.

In the meantime, all ye slackers rest assured. You can wage war on the infidel by playing Gulf War II.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

The Socratic Method by Barry Kite.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

How to get out of combat if you are Australian.

Eleven sailors are heading home from the Middle East after refusing anthrax vaccinations Defence Chief General Peter Cosgrove said today. At the same time, Britain's Ministry of Defence disclosed that more than half the armed forces personnel deploying to the Gulf have refused to be vaccinated against anthrax. Junior defence minister Lewis Moonie is reported to have said that of around 16,500 armed forces service personnel offered anthrax jabs, only 8,103 have accepted. The situation doesn't look so good for the other 8,000 vaccine protestors.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Some quotes on love and sex.

Since I'm feeling especially fuzzy today, I thought I'd include a few words of wisdom from the boys at Dribbleglass.

Sex appeal is 50 percent what you've got and 50 percent what people think you've got.

Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.

Sex is dirty only if it's done right.

When the lights are out, all women are beautiful.

Sow your wild oats on Saturday night. On Sunday, pray for crop failure.

The game of love is never called off on account of darkness.

There may be some things better than sex, and some things worse than sex. But there is nothing exactly like it.

Love is a matter of chemistry. Sex is a matter of physics.

You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

A woman never forgets the men she could have had. A man, the women he couldn't.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he doesn't love her.

Never go to bed mad—stay up and fight.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Make this V-D extra-special.

Don't just buy some choclates or write a corny poem. Instead, surprise that fortunate someone with Bittersweets-- the sardonic tone seems somewhat more affectionate than the average "Be Mine" or "U R Cute" in this age of Alanis-perverted irony. Some sample messages:

UP YER DOSAGE
IT FADED
WANT2C OTHERS
CALL A SHRINK
JUST A FRIEND
RETURN MY CDS
C THAT DOOR?

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Some envoys are bigger than others.

In this review of Jiri Dienstbier's memoir, Blood Levy, which chronicles his observations as a UN envoy in war-torn Balkans, Dienstbier is portrayed as being very critical of the role Western powers and international organizations have played in the Balkans.

Dienstbier’s main preoccupation was the problem of Kosovo, and in his book Kosovo and Serbia receive the most attention. Dienstbier makes clear that he had no sympathy for Slobodan Milosevic and the repressive measures his regime used in the province during the 1990s. However, he was clearly more concerned with ethnic Albanian armed struggle and extremism as it intensified at the time of his appointment as special envoy in 1998. His negative views on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and its actions recur throughout the book and he cites many sources that point to the corruption and criminal character of some KLA leaders. It seems that his contempt for the KLA was also rooted in a refusal to accept violence as a legitimate means of political struggle. This nonviolent conviction emerged from Dienstbier’s own experience as a political opponent of the Czechoslovak communist regime during the 1970s and 1980s. Dienstbier mentioned the parallel himself in a conversation with Ibrahim Rugova in 1998.

"In the struggle against communism," Dienstbier told the pacifist Kosovar leader, "our opposition did not allow a single window to be broken. It never came to our minds to use violent methods. … It was not possible to defeat the Soviet army, and irresponsibility [of an individual resorting to violent methods] could have cost thousands of people their lives."

Dienstbier believed the Yugoslav regime actually welcomed the KLA's violent actions as a good excuse for the use of force. There is certainly ample evidence to back his critique of the excesses and crimes committed by some KLA members, and Dienstbier’s adherence to the tradition of nonviolent political struggle is admirable. The trouble was that most of Kosovo's Albanians and their political leaders used the methods of peaceful resistance recommended by Dienstbier for years without success and without gaining the attention of the outside world before some of them finally took up arms.

"GIVE BACK MY BOOK AND TAKE MY KISS INSTEAD.
WAS IT MY ENEMY OR MY FRIEND I HEARD,
"WHAT A BIG BOOK FOR SUCH A LITTLE HEAD!"
-Edna Saint Vincent Millay

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