First night's in the books! - 27 March 2008

It was a pretty short set, and not as much for playing, so the chops didn’t get totally exhausted. More shows to arrive, of course. In a few weeks, ask me again. It’s also late, and so I should be sleeping. There may be a bit less snark and text associated with things tonight.

Internationally, fighting in Iraq has intensified as the government bids for control. Which doesn’t stop the Pentagon from spinning it into something positive. And in a study that will set the hawks salivating, supposedly when the media is more anti-war, the attack frequency increases.

Elsewhere in the world, Dennis Prager finds the coverage given to Palestine in comparison to Tibet to be indicative of several factors and prejudices. Speaking of Tibet, the Polish Prime Minister is not going to be present at the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing.

And in a true moment of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Mexico has anti-emo protests going on.

On the domestic front, the economic crunch is getting worse. Even those who can afford their mortgages, after doing the calculations, sometimes appear to come out ahead by walking away from their mortgages. So they do. This creates headaches for the banks and other lenders, of course. And screws mightily with the economy. Then again, job losses and laws designed at punishing illegal immigrants are doing their share in some towns. So while the housing thing is helping, there are other forces at work. Which could mean that sovereign wealth funds take on a bigger share of what they already have.

Let me say this (again) to start the stupid files - while those whose faith was strong have been able to heal the sick, for most of us, go to see a doctor in addition to praying. That way the 11 year-old daughter with the treatable diabetes doesn't die. Continuing on in the stupid files, pulling a gun on the deliverymen because they won't take their shoes off is a bit extreme, ya?

Cal Thomas falls into the trap of believing that the lack of two-parent households is the cause for ills in the African-American community. So it’s not them being black, it’s that they’re one-parent households. It seems like a step forward, even though it isn’t at all. But it might be enough to deflect away any criticism of racism. Although it does invite an accusation of being sexist.

Staying in religious areas for a bit, first Christian kitsch, and then Star Wars advertisements (which are religious to some), and then back to an article about how much George Bush really isn't a Christian by Christian standards.

Google may be in trouble, as one of its managers may have fibbed to Congress about the percentage and prevalence of African-American workers at the search company.

A federal appeals court has ruled that persons on the tarmac are cargo, not people, and thus not entitled to things like fresh air, water, or being able to use the bathrooms.

And through all of that, and pretty speeches, and the like, slavery still exists and is used to make profit in human trafficking and prostitution. Doesn’t that just make you feel warm and fuzzy? No? Well, perhaps some contributions from our Unabashed Feminism department will help. Bureau Chief ldragoon takes a couple big swings, linking to prepubescent girls getting eyebrow pluckings and Brazilian waxes, and not for any particular reason other than to make the little girls concerned about their bodies and images at an early age. This assault is also being picked up in children’s books, as the Sweet Valley High books are getting reprinted, keeping in details about how the girls are still "perfect size" X. No, no, no! Whatever happened to childhood’s innocence? There’s no need to start exposing and imposing the sick and twisted ideas that our society has about women at that age. In fact, it’s not fair nor right to try and impose those ideas on a girl before she’s even developed the faculties to analyze it and call it the bullshit it is. ldragoon goes “Hulk Smash” and declares that she's going to write a manuscript where the girls are normal girls.

With regard to candidates in the United States general election, John McCain gave a speech today outlining a collaborative foreign policy, while continuing to insist that he won’t budge on Iraq.

A Gallup Poll suggests Democrats will vote for The Other Guy if their candidate doesn't get the nod. This would definitely make a Bad Ending for the election 2008 dating sim. Thing is, the candidates are still pretty even-up, and 22% of Democrats said Senator Obama should withdraw, and a different 22% percent said Senator Clinton should turn aside.

In science (SCIENCE!), organic matter has been found on a Saturnian moon, and reversible suspended animation is possible in small animals using sewer gas. Also, take a peek at some concept laptops and a virtual avatar that mimics you on screen. And, following up from a previous event, Richard Dawkings reviews the events at the Expelled! premiere as well as the movie itself

Last for tonight, there was going to be something here about how sex and flirting works in Japan, but the post has since been locked down, and I have no transcripts.

Okay, there’s a postscript, but it’s my professional self telling you to take a look at The Forbidden Library, composed strictly of books that have been banned or challenged (using the ALA challenged list and another book as the sources).

So, bedlikething. Now.

Blog Anti-Torture Day: How Us Became Them.

This is a specific post for Blog Anti-Torture Day, crafted by the Unabashed Feminism department head ldragoon. The short version of this post is such: Torture doesn't work for the purposes of gathering intelligence. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you. By the time torture is used, it's not intelligence that the torturers want, but to convince the victim that they aren't actually a person. In that light, the reason why the W. Bush administration wants to keep torture while claiming they don't torture makes much more sense.



And now, the long version: The recent shift in the United States' position on the use of torture, "enhanced interrogation techniques", or whatever particular bowdlerization someone wants to use, is troubling. Torture is what They do, for whatever They that Oceania has always been at war against. A stock part of the Square-Jawed American Hero story is when he (and yes, it's almost always he, for reasons that the Unabashed Feminism department can probably explain better than I) is captured by the enemy and subjected to cruel torture that hurts him greatly, leaves wounds, but also makes his desire to defeat Them that much greater. We know They are evil because they torture the Hero and the Innocents equally cruelly, and usually end up killing the Innocents. Just from that narrative alone, you would think that the United States wouldn't want to join up with Them.

The government of the W. Bush administration tells us that there's a pressing need to get useful intelligence out of the prisoners they've captured. They also assume that the prisoners have no motivation to tell them the truth, or anything at all, for that matter. The natural conclusion out of this is that the prisoners need inducement to tell the truth. What that inducement is depends. Reduced sentences, some luxuries, possibly a good word with the judge, or immunity from prosecution are all things that We can offer to get intelligence. It will need to be fact-checked, but all intelligence needs fact-checking, no matter what circumstances it was obtained under.

Problems start when there's a third assumption added into the mix - that the prisoners are so ideologically set in their ways that no inducement or temptation to defect will be successful. If the guards and interrogators believe that the prisoners are all radicals, plotting escape and waiting for any opportunity to get back to their fellows and continue spreading terror, then instead of convincing, the mindset turns to "cracking" the prisoner's shell until they confess everything and tell all they know. The easiest way we know of how to "crack" someone is to put them in pain, hoping that the self-preservation instinct will kick in and the prisoner will tell all. Thus, all sorts of interesting devices and "stress positions" have evolved over the years to do just that. Thumbscrews, the Rack, dripping water, pressing, the bed of Procrustes, all of those things and more have been born from the idea that pain gets results.The truth is, though, pain usually gets people to say whatever their captor wants them to say, whether true or false. We know this. We've had examples in our history that show this pretty easily - the Inquisition's search for witches, for example. At some fundamental level, everyone knows that torture doesn't work for intelligence purposes.

So if torture makes the United States into one of Them, and it really doesn't work anyway, then why do it? And why insist that there be a capacity to do so, in spite of all of this? Well, there are a couple things that torture does well. Torture is very good at inspiring fear in a populace. If you're going to attack Them, and you know They will torture anyone they catch, it makes it harder to muster brave souls. If you're one of the citizens of Their empire, then it will be much harder to stand up and tell Them that it's wrong for Them to torture, or to break Their own laws. If you've been captured by Them, the anticipation of torture or the time between sessions is quite the time to be inspired by fear.

Torture is also very efficient at creating and enforcing the idea that the class of people being tortured are not actually people. The laws of the land are for citizens. Slaves can be beaten with impunity. Non-citizens can be jailed for arbitrary reasons. They have no rights nor protections. Which makes it all that much easier to think of them as not-people. The real goal of torture is to convince the person on the rack that they aren't a person by systematically removing every assumption, given, or belief the victim has about their status.

Bringing these ideas out and looking at the W. Bush administration through those lenses, it becomes a lot easier to see why he insists that the Untied States doesn't torture, while also insisting that the United States be able to torture. If the detainees at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib are people/citizens, then it's absolutely true that the United States has been torturing them. But the W. Bush administration doesn't see them as people. The rights afforded citizens in the United States are not extended to them. The rights afforded to prisoners of war are not given to them. They are seen as things to draw intelligence out of, intelligence that is unlikely to be true. And through the cycle that assumes the prisoners are lying, so they need more pain to tell the truth, but that more pain will only make them lie more, so they need more pain to make them tell the truth, etc. the line between interrogation and torture is quickly vaulted over.

The Untied States does torture. With the blessing and sanction of the government, in violation of treaties that the United States has been a signatory to for decades. We have joined Them, and there doesn't seem to be enough people in the populace or the government willing to say no. Perhaps they are afraid that the government will arrest or harass them for speaking out, like it has to anti-war advocates. Perhaps they are worried about appearing "soft on national security" or not "supporting the troops", and are thus silent. Perhaps they still believe that torture is a justifiable method of gathering intelligence. Whatever the reasoning is, it is insufficient. Human beings all deserve the rights of personhood, even if that particular person and I are diametrically opposed to each other. To do otherwise is to invite calamity upon one's people and to retard the evolution of human beings. Torture is atavistic, destructive, and cruel. The human race is better than this.

And your regular Friday entry - 28 March 2008

Before beginning tonight's entry, please go and see all of the great stuff that's been posted against torture today. (Yes, it seems redundant to have to specifically say one is against anti-torture, but that's another wonderful by-product of the current administration). The first batch starts here, with the second batch providing more perspectives on why torture is something no person in this country should sanction or tolerate, batch three shows just how many people think that this issue should have been resolved a long time ago, batch four shows that torture comes in all sorts of forms, all bad, and ldragoon provides the finisher.

Now, for other news. Internationally, Mr. Bush is asking for yet more patience and time with regard to Iraq, saying that the politicians there aren't foot-dragging or delaying and that politicians here who want to see a reduction in troops are damaging the possibility of progress. Well, the fighting has intensified, that's for sure. Which means that even previously "secure" environments such as the Green Zone are now seeing a lot more violence.

CNS News wails that someone sympathetic to Castro and a person who isn't fond of Israel have been put on the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission. Considering that Israel does do things like build separate road systems for its citizens, it may be justified having a critical voice on the Council.

I'm not sure whether this is bad, in that it uses Hitler, or good, in that it uses Hitler, but either way, a utilities company in Ukraine got unpaid bills settled after sending out a notice with Hitler's portrait.

Trying to exchange dollars for local currency in Amsterdam? Good luck. Because of the beating that the currency is taking, some exchange shops aren't taking th dollar for fear that it will lose too much value before it can be sold again. Yet more damage done because of the housing crisis and the runaway Republican spending. Speaking of that, foreclosures and housing problems affect the pets, too. When the people lose the house or move, sometimes the pets go to the shelter, rather than with the people. That can only put more stress on the adoption and shelter care systems.

The builders of the world's largest particle collider are being sued, because of the very tiny chance that the experiment might generate something like a black hole.

In domestic news, the Defense Secretary has ordered an inventory of nuclear technologies and equipment after ballistic missile fuses were accidentally delivered to Taiwan. Between this and the flyover with nuclear missiles by the Air Force, the Secretary has decided that things are getting a little too careless with the WMDs.

Jesus' General reminds us that The Secret Service has important priorities, much more important than investigating threats against presidential candidates. Furthermore, Your Transportation Security Agency is not above requiring women to remove their nipple piercings while male staff look on and snicker.

The story's in Arizona, but I'll bet this happens all over the country - for professions that require a state license, a felony bust in the past, including one for say, pot, can mean that any licensing bid is crushed before it begins. But some people aren't being told of that as they pursue careers. Not to mention that felony charge probably screwed up a significant amount of their student loans - I know of at least one federal program that makes the aid vanish if there's a conviction. Perhaps if the government were a little bit more understanding about charges and convictions, there might be a few more people in skilled professions in the country.

Don't mess with a mother's protective instincts, as they can make it so that standing near and talking to children results in an arrest with $100,000 bail. Now, if the guy creeped out the mother, that's fine, but I'm with Reason magazine in saying that the police could probably do something other than arrest in this situation. Plus, where's Mom in this situation? Is she going over and staying near the kids and figuring out what's going on with the man? Doesn't sound like it. And the guy doesn't have a sex offender conviction anywhere.

TechnOccult puts up a convincing argument that letting children die because of religious beliefs should make the state consider whether the other children in a household really are safe. After all, if they get sick with the same thing, the parents have already shown what they're going to do, and it's not the option that will save the children. So there's a lot of latitude in action when religion is involved. As far as I know, though, there's no official religion, nor official blessing in law that people can break civil law because of their religious beliefs. I could be wrong, and I'd like to see where the counterexamples are, actually.

And last of the depressing parenting things, BoibnBoing talks about how "adoption" works in Guatemala - children are taken from their parents, documents are forged, and then monies are paid to fast-track the child to America. The system there has been corrupted horribly, and there's a good chance that many Americans who adopt don't know whether the child they want was actually given up for adoption or ripped from the mother's arms.

It's probably news, at least in as much sense that the changing of the leader of an organization that claims to be able to cure homosexuals through the usage of draconian rules is. Anyway, John Smid is stepping down as the head of Love in Action. Apparently Smid is famous for a speech where he said that his wife's vagina was enough. The General recounts his own ability to accept that his wife' vagina is enough, with a little help from Ben-Hur.

And four shots of Scientology, all from Radar. First, Scientology bought a castle in South Africa. That said, they still have to deal with Anonymous, defectors, and governments that are increasingly hostile to them. In characteristic fashion, the Church has gone after their detractors, deanonymizing members of Anonymous and serving them with threats of lawsuits. Unfortunately, as a tactic it seems to have the desired chilling effect on protesters. Accusing one's detractors of terrorism is a time-honored tactic. the worst part of it is that one of these named Anons needs a champion with coffers deep enough that they want to take on Scientology and aren't going to be worried about all the intimidation and other tactics the Church will throw at them.

With regard to candidates for the general election, Harper's magazine goes more in-depth with Hillary Clinton's religious group "The Family".

Out on Slate, Christopher Beam smears Senator Obama by association by mentioning an endorsement of the Senator by someone that Americans would find problematic. Tell me again why the endorsement of a candidate by someone is a worthwhile item of interest? And why that should change anyone's opinion about the Senator? If Obama said he was a fan of this particular person's music, that might be worthwhile. But endorsement of a candidate doesn't necessarily mean that candidate espouses the values of the endorser. After all, the Religious Right has been endorsing Republicans that have been wildly at variance with their professed beliefs for decades now.

Out in other realms, the FunSmith's guest blogger says the best way to really enjoy a game is to get good at it, which means practice and study and knowledge. Wouldn't hurt if you found a game that you'd be willing to put in the time and effort of study and play into, either. If the passion for playing equals the amount of time and effort it must have taken to discover limericks and ragtime both have Fibonacci patterns in them, then there's probably a good chance the game will be enjoyed.

In science and technology, flexible plastic circuitry, which could make for a whole host of interesting gadgets. There's also what may be the earliest recorded sound played back, thanks to some virtual grooves from analyzing a picture of a sound wave. Additionally, scientists are trying to train fish that will swim into a net when a tone is sounded. Certainly makes them easier to catch.

Finally, out of this segment, meditation on compassion increases one's capacity and empathy. Which, compared to trying to engineer suicidal fish above, might make for some interesting dilemmas.

An interesting thought from Fantastika! - Could Steampunk represent a certain DIY aesthetic about building things and solving problems from the ground up, rather than the top down? Encouraging the amateur to try and solve things, or at least contribute to understanding, and possibly with a few extra shiny bits or cogs in the device, sounds like a good idea. Making it look good comes after making it work, and it gets built by hand, or at least through the involvement of others. This contrasts it with something like The Church of Apathy, which claims a bigger membership than its adherents know, or The Church of Mammon, which wants everyone to always keep gaining.

My professional self had a look through The Guardian's preview of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials prequel, One Upon A Time In The North. I wonder if our library system is getting it... yep, we are. Hold placed.

And now, I'll just go off for a bit. Maybe I'll even catch some games this weekend.