- Humor and it’s power to restore perspective, promote cultural understanding, and emotional balance: Did You Hear the One About the Suicide Bomber?
- Show Highlights ‘Outlaw Comic’ Bill Hicks
- The banality of the good:
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In the Cafe Orange on the Oranienburgerstrasse, in the now trendy heart of what used to be East Berlin, I talk to a guy dressed in T-shirt, sandals and designer sunglasses. An old ’68er, he is sharply critical of the current policies of the Bush administration. At one point he leans forward and says, teasingly: “Don’t you think we need a new Boston tea party?” Surely, he jokes, the Boston tea party was good for relations between Britain and America – in the long term. When he gets up to leave, I notice that he puts on a black baseball cap advertising “American Eagle”. “Ja,” he says, “das habe ich in Boston gekauft.” (“I bought it in Boston.”)
Yes, there is some serious power politics, too. It is dangerous for the world to have only one hyperpower. It is dangerous for America itself to be that only hyperpower. As the guy in the Cafe Orange in Berlin argued, one reason European-American relations are so bad is that Europe is weak. The US needs a stronger partner, and Europe badly needs Britain in order to become that stronger partner. Dead right. And that’s what the real Europe can help us do.
Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention the name of the guy in the Cafe Orange. It was Joschka Fischer. Yes, that Joschka Fischer: the one who’s Germany’s Green foreign minister, and may soon be Europe’s first foreign minister.
15
Jun 03
Humor and it’s power
14
Jun 03
Some news
Here are some good news stories I came across today:
- Resistance to occupation is growing:
- “America’s generals, happy to boast about the rapid defeat of Saddam’s regime, now admit the war is far from over. In Baghdad yesterday Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander of US ground forces in Iraq, said his troops would be needed for a long time to come, that Baghdad and a large swathe of northern and western Iraq is only a “semi-permissive” environment, and that “subversive forces” are still active. Should all this be so surprising?
The US and Britain said they came to liberate Iraq and protect its people. The failure to understand how Iraqis would respond may be rooted in arrogance. It is also a colossal failure in intelligence which may prove to be at least as important as the inability to find any of Iraq’s banned weapons. The commander of British forces in the war, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, admitted as much in remarkably frank evidence to MPs this week. Asked about the problems of “policing” Iraq, and the number of forces needed to do the job, he replied: “I’m not sure we understand yet.”
- Mounting opposition or wary citizens trying to protect themselves? Iraqis Buying and Hoarding Guns, Grenades
- US purge aims to eliminate resistance
- US loses helicopter, fighter jet in Iraq:
- The campaign came as the top American civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer, issued a notice banning all gatherings, pronouncements or publications that incite to disorder, riot, violence against the US-led occupation forces, or espouse the return of the Baath Party. The decree said violators would be arrested and held.
- US turns to the Taliban
10
Jun 03
What a day
After work I stopped by to see G. at her new job running a Smoothie place at the gym. She hooked me up with a mango smoothie and we chatted for a bit in the afternoon sun. I stopped by the day before and saw her and Phil and they looked so cute and happy I had to come back. I actually used to have quite the boyish crush on G. in high school.
Then I walked down to Texpresso with my laptop to chat on aim for a little while I waited for Phillip to show up. He brought his laptop and we stopped at Popeye’s and then went to pick up L. at work before we went to the Howard Dean rally where we ran into Erik, Mark, and David (the future film star).
The Howard Dean rally was pretty cool although I wasn’t totally into it because I was so hot and sweaty. After the rally we went to Cafe Mundi where they were playing Ghost World and shared some beers. Mark told some really neat stories about flying an F-16 (he’s in the air force). It actually sounded pretty scary to me. It was a good day. I even saw my friend, Lin, from high school. Here’s Howard Dean below:
07
Jun 03
Changes
I met some old friends, Karen and Favio, for shave ice and they brought me a photo of myself from when I was in fourth grade. I have a tight grip on Ginger (the dachshund) because she had this habit of running off if she got the chance.
07
Jun 03
News-related
- Reshaping empire: US redeploys its troops to cover ‘arc of instability’
- Iraqi Shi’ites and Kurds challenge Americans in Iraq: Shiite, Kurdish Leaders Decide to ‘Play Hardball’
- More Than 13,000 May Face Deportation
- Constitutional protections rescinded to fight ‘terror’: For enemy combatant, speaking with lawyer is impossible
- Political Oppression, Not Poverty, Inspires Terrorism: Seeking the Roots of Terrorism
- Prohibiting vocal opposition to US occupation in Iraq: U.S. To Ban “Incitement” Against Occupation In Iraq
06
Jun 03
From Authority:
I’ve been reading this book, Authority by Richard Sennett. It has some pretty meaty ideas in it, even if a lot of them come from citing other sources. I liked this one:
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The young Hegel thought that the burden of establishing conditions of liberty in society lay with the oppressed; no benevolent Platonic guardian, no necessary angel, would come to the rescue. The Hegel of the Phenomenology has clarified this idea. Hegel does so by defining the birth of liberty — in the bondsman’s consciousness of his work. He then describes the stages of liberty through which the bondsman passes. There are four of these stages, and the movement from each to the next occurs when the oppressed negates what he or she had formerly believed.
These four stages are stoicism, scepticism, the unhappy consciousness, and rational consciousness. They begin with the stoic’s withdrawal from the world into his or her own thought, a primitive, inward freedom. The scepticism of the next stage turns toward the world: the bondsman, still an obedient servant, nonetheless disbelieves in the role he acts and in the lord’s moral superiority. The unhappy consciousness takes this sceptical knowledge about a social relationship inside; there is a lord and bondsman in every human being. Hegel calls unhappy consciousness “consciousness of self as a dual-natured, merely contradictory being.” In a rational consciousness this knowledge again becomes social; the unhappy schism each person feels in himself he also sees in others. Hegel calls this final stage of freedom “rational” because now the person can perceive and act with others according to common purposes; there is no longer the need to fight others for recognition, since one’s own consciousness is so developed that one knows the divisions within oneself are divisions that exist in all humanity. Hegel also calls this rational, purposive consciousness an “absolute” state of freedom, and the use of the word “absolute” is key to his overall intentions: “Of the absolute it must be said that it is essentially a result, that only in the end is it what it truly is.”
06
Jun 03
Drawrings
Here’s what I did. What little I did do gave me a feeling of carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand and wrist.
06
Jun 03
Mozart’s
I’m at Mozart’s trying to figure out how long my laptop’s battery is going to last since I forgot my power cord. I think it will last long enough, but the power meter is so unreliable.
Today, I picked up Susan for a nice lunch together. I had fun talking to her about things. She’s a smart cookie. We went and got some mexican food from Mi Madre’s and then went for some good frozen yogurt. There’s something fun about driving with an ice cream cone in your hand. It’s like the two things are made for each other.
I’ve been spending my weekend trying to get organized. It makes me feel good to take care of shit because usuallyI’m drowning in bills, things, and committments to friends and family. It’s nice to streamline. In a little while I plan on trying to draw something. If I come up with anything nice I’ll scan and post. Deal?
06
Jun 03
Have I got the thing for you
For all you web-browsing Windows users I have the perfect thing for you: Slimbrowser. It’s a tabbed browser (so, you can view multiple pages in the same window) with a pop-up blocker. Since it uses the Internet Explorer renderer webpages look the same as in Internet Explorer. I’m a big fan.