November 2004 Archives

The New York Times sees new hope for classical music recording as smaller publishers thrive.

The New York Times > Reuters > News > Red Cross: Guantanamo Tactics 'Tantamount to Torture'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has accused the U.S. military of using tactics ``tantamount to torture'' on prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds (washingtonpost.com)

Alabama voters rejected a state constitutional amendment on November 2 that would have repealed provisions in the state constitution requiring separate schools for white and black children. Their reason? The amendment would also have repealed language that says the state does not guarantee a public education. Former Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from the state supreme court after trying to bring a giant granite sculpture of the ten commandments into the supreme court building earlier this year, led the fight against the amendment. Moore threw the fear into the population that "activist federal judges" might force the state to raise taxes to pay for public education. Since Alabama is apparently ranked 44th in per pupil expenditures by state, this might not be such a bad idea.

R.I. Reporter Found Guilty In Trial for Not Naming Source (washingtonpost.com)

Reporter Jim Taricani, despite living with a heart transplant, would rather go to jail than reveal the name of his source, who revealed a tape of the mayor of Providence taking a bribe. Unlike the federal judge who is holding Taricani in contempt, Taricani recognizes that the First Amendment requires that reporters be able to preserve their access to sources by promising confidentiality if a free press is to fulfill its duty to inform the public.

MoorishGirl: Writing with Children

Writers who have children write, produce, the same way writers without children do. They find a spot, a closet, a room, and a writing tool, and they string words together on essentially borrowed time.

Randa Jarrar is matter of fact about finding time to write while raising children. Obviously, however, it is never as easy as it sounds, and it is a measure of her dedication, and accomplishment, that she can write about finishing a novel and baking cupcakes for her son's eighth birthday at the same time.

Q. Who was Nina Simone's pianist?

A. Nina Simone.

The Nina Simone Web - Mississippi Goddam

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I have been listening to Nina Simone. She seems appropriate right about now. The old stuff is the best; I'm not too big on synthesizers. I just remind myself, "My Baby Just Cares for Me."

If you are not using Firefox, Rob Pegoraro wants to know why.

Mostly blew leaves today, after a delicious tongue sandwich at the Parkway Deli. Rachel had a kosher hot dog and was ecstatic over the tropical fish in the wall. What really made Rachel's day, however, was a trip to the supermarket and the drug store. Besides cruising the aisles, she was particularly enamored of the balloons at the Giant and the Christmas decorations at the CVS.

I ran across Andrew Sullivan's article in which he takes William Safire to task for criticizing John Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney during the debates. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review argues that Kerry is "creepy" for bringing up Mary Cheney's sexual orientation because he is "using" a family member of an opponent for political gain. Ultimately, however, Goldberg's argument still rests on the assumption that homosexuality is a stigma. He asks, for example, what would happen if George Bush brought up John Kerry's divorce. Goldberg would probably regard divorce as something to be ashamed of; the whole point of the arguments of people like Sullivan and Hillary Rosen is that homosexuality is not. As for Goldberg's asking whether Kerry would have been offended if Bush had commented on the fact that Teresa Kerry is a successful immigrant; I do not think that Kerry would have so much as blinked.

Andrew Sullivan points to cartograms that give a truer picture of the political composition of the country.

The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. The divorce rate in Texas is nearly twice as high. How's that for family values? There's more; born again Christians have the highest divorce rates.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Voting Without the Facts

Bob Herbert of the New York Times argues that ignorance about the war may have played as great a role in the election as religious bigotry. For example, he reports that 70 percent of Bush supporters thought that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. (The 9/11 Commission found no evidence of this.) Herbert thinks we need four years of teach ins.

Am I Blue? (washingtonpost.com)

I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are free to choose abortion and where gay relationships have full civil equality with straight ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least my values -- as deplorable as I'm sure they are -- don't involve any direct imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to marry someone of the same gender, whereas you do want to close out those possibilities for us. Which is more arrogant?

Every once in a while, Michael Kinsley reminds me why he is one of my favorite writers. Kinsley cogently, and with wry humor, makes that point that opponents of George Bush need not trim out sails to the political wind of the moment just because it seems to being blowing in his direction. (Note: At this moment, this article is the most emailed article on The Washington Post.)

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Values-Vote Myth

[Bush] won because 53 percent of voters approved of his performance as president. Fifty-eight percent of them trust Bush to fight terrorism. They had roughly equal confidence in Bush and Kerry to handle the economy. Most approved of the decision to go to war in Iraq. Most see it as part of the war on terror.

The fact is that if you think we are safer now, you probably voted for Bush. If you think we are less safe, you probably voted for Kerry. That's policy, not fundamentalism. The upsurge in voters was an upsurge of people with conservative policy views, whether they are religious or not.

If Brooks is right, then the interesting question becomes why do people think an unnecessary, unsuccessful war against a country that was not an immediate threat makes us safer.

I sometimes think my list of (mostly) current interests, after my friends and family, reads a bit like Borges' famous list. My list includes:

jazz, classical music, sea stories, chess, civil rights, First Amendment freedoms, historical fiction, Shakespeare, GBS, George Orwell, Morocco, Arabic, French, law, newspapers, The New Republic, Tingis, Le Nouvel Observateur, Poetry, poetry, The Odyssey, Elizabethan literature, Scotland, Walter Scott, William Butler Yeats, military history, model ships, cooking . . .

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never - The Churchill Centre

[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Sir Winston Churchill

The election is over, but the fight to save the country has just begun.

I cast my vote today. I tried. We may know how it turned out in the morning, but right now I am not too optimistic.