"When my heart is cold and I cannot pray as I should I scourge myself with the thought of the impiety and ingratitude of my enemies...so that my heart swells with righteous indignation and vehemence: 'Holy be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!' And the hotter I grow the more ardent do my prayers become."
-Martin Luther, "Table Talk," Number 2387 a-b
Saturday, June 21, 2003
I look down my nose at.... "Democrats Go Off the Cliff" In his latest article for the Weekly Standard, David Brooks says that the Democrats have embraced Middle Eastern style (read: Arab Terrorist) conspiracy theories, compares the Democrats to the Palestinian Intifada and says the party has gone insane, then goes on to lecture about how the Democrats should be more civil. The mental dexterity of current conservative pundits is really a modern marvel.
UTZ, Fla., June 12 — On the third-to-last day of summer camp, the temperature has risen to 98 degrees, and even the troupers have begun to whine.
"I don't want to play strip volleyball!" complained Jane Jeffries, 13, her sunburned shoulders sagging. "I want to play regular volleyball."
Halie Nelson, 14, agreed, "Yeah, I'd rather get all the clothes off, and keep all the clothes off."
Here at the Youth Leadership Camp run by the American Association for Nude Recreation, the dress code for regular volleyball — and for the pudding toss, mini-golf and campfire sing-alongs — is the same as it is for skinny dipping.
Basking in what nudist organizations say is a growing interest in nude recreation, the association has begun a nationwide expansion of summer camps for nudists age 11 to 18. The first began here 10 years ago, in a county north of Tampa known for its concentration of nudist resorts. In 2000, the association opened its second camp in Arizona.
A third is to open outside Richmond, Va., this month, and organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp there for the summer of 2005.
Naked summer camp might strike non-nudists as illegal or prurient, or like striking a match to the gasoline of adolescent hormones.
Anti-nudity statutes in Florida and other states, however, say that nudity on private property is perfectly legal, even among minors, as long as there is no lewdness. And camp rules, drawn up by campers themselves a few years ago, guard against that. "Do not allow nudity and lust to mingle," they state. "No improper touch. Nudity must not be humiliating, degrading or promote ridicule." Even the occasional clothing, worn in the camp's shuttle van, must not be "sexually alluring."
Nude tourism has grown to a $400 million business this year from a $120 million business in 1992, reports the nudist association, with travel agencies noting a surge in nude cruises and, in May, the first nude charter flight. The association itself is growing, with 30 new clubs, for a total of 267, in the last two years.
There are still few places, however, for teenagers.
"I've spent my life around nudist resorts; this is the first time I've ever been around kids my own age," said Halie, who had been named Camper of the Day the previous night for participating fully despite a foot swollen by a bee sting. "It's either 45 and over or 10 and under."
The campers, many of them alumni of church or scout camps, say they like this better, but not for the reasons most people might expect.
"I learned to play tennis this morning," Amanda Williamson, 18, said. "I never did that at church camp. I'm getting better at volleyball, too."
Aside from the obvious, naked camp looks a lot like other camps: campers play Capture the Flag, catch frogs and leap up when the whistle blows signaling seconds for ice cream. They make s'mores and sing modified campfire songs ("This Land Is Your Land" ends, "This land was made nude and free.") Each camp team writes a song for the annual talent show, with hosts "Sunny and Bare."
Parents and campers say the camp promotes a healthy body image at an age when confidence can crumble, and better relations between the sexes when awkwardness normally prevails.
"In gym class, some of the girls will hide in their lockers to take off their shirts in front of other girls," Halie said. "Sometimes I'll say, `Why are you so insecure?' They all say, `I need to lose a few pounds.' I just don't care about that stuff. I accept my body the way it is."
The nudist association, the larger of two nationwide, sees this as a place to train "youth ambassadors" to what nudists call the "textile" world. (To the question posed by one after-dinner discussion, "I'm a Nudist; Am I a Nut?," the answer, not surprisingly, was no.)
There are things that set this camp apart. Mosquito bites are more irritating, the sunscreen police more vigilant. Campers pack lighter, but drag towels, Linus-like, because nudist etiquette dictates using one when sitting. And the discussion groups feature topics like "Is God Mad at Me Because I'm a Nudist?" (Again, no.)
Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude
(Page 2 of 2)And everyone is on guard against COG's — "creepy outside guys" — who try to sneak in past the tall fences and security gates, to peek. On Tuesday, when a suspicious-looking man arrived at the pool, counselors quickly herded campers away and guards escorted the unwelcome visitor from the premises."It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing," said Michelle Jones, 15, a camper from Texas. Advertisement
Pat Brown, president of the American Association for Nude Recreation, said the camps run extensive background and criminal checks on counselors, often college students who have been nude campers themselves.Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pasco County, where the Lutz camp is, said he had never heard any complaints about it.Parents seem to have no worries about pedophilia, speaking of nudist camps and resorts as safe, family-like environments."Everybody keeps an eye on the children," George Jeffries, Jane's father, said. "There are no transgressions by regular folks coming here, and newcomers are watched very closely."Still, even parents who have sent their children here for several years do not necessarily tell their church friends or relatives about it."If I'm confronted I will not lie, but it's not something I want to have to explain," the father of two boys, an engineer for a telecommunications company, said. "I worry about my kids being ostracized. I believe in this, but a lot of people don't."The father, like others, said the camp discourages some of the less attractive behavior of adolescents: "I don't have to worry about them sneaking around and seeing things their friends are, the girlie magazines and the porn movies."Campers agree."It takes the mystery out of what the other person looks like, so sex becomes more something you know you're waiting to experience, rather than just a physical thing where you want to find out," said an 18-year-old who gave her name as Jeanene."At school, if you see a person, you just see their clothes," Jane said. "Here you have to actually get to know the people."But some things about teenagers, nudist or not, remain true. Boys at 13 still find scatological humor far funnier than anyone else does. Eleven-year-old girls still fight about who gets to dance as J. Lo in the talent show. Even nudist campers coo at the "cute" swimsuits as they pull on clothing to get back in the van.Pulling out of one resort during a field trip, a few campers ask the van driver to stop so they can check out the souvenirs. Inside, they finger sarongs and embroidered T-shirts. But they don't buy.Too expensive.
The White House rejected a suggestion by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle on Wednesday that Bush meet with Democrats before filling any Supreme Court vacancies to avoid a potentially bruising confirmation fight.
"Unless and until there is a vacancy, this is idle chit chat," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Should there be such a vacancy, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales will be happy to meet with senators to discuss the process, Fleischer said.
"But the Constitution is clear, and the Constitution will be followed," Fleischer said, referring to the president's unfettered constitutional right to fill Supreme Court vacancies.
I hope the Senate Democrats filibuster them back into the Stone Age.
Populism? Regular People Won't Go For That! EDWARDS'S PLAN FALLS ON DEAF EARS In his latest update for the TNR Primary, Greg Easterbook argues that Edward's proposed tax cut and populist rhetoric are misguided. I think Easterbook is far too confident (just look at the title of his piece, he acts as if its a known fact that Edwards' plan has failed even though he's just announced it) in his belief that populism is a dead end. While he's right that Americans generally don't respond well to appeals to class and by and large don't go for the politics of envy, they also don't like getting screwed over. Edwards' isn't making a radical redistributionist attack on the inequaties of capitalism, but new policies that would benefit the wealthiest Americans. This is no trifling difference, while Americans might be accepting of the inequality created naturally by the free market system, I doubt they are all that keen on inequality generated by special interest manipulation of the government. Edwards' appeal is even more potent because of the current economic slowdown. While the first type of inequality is accepted because its viewed as a necessary component of economic growth and greater prosperity for all, the second kind of inequality can be attacked as a cause of the worsening economic situation.
The claim, made by Easterbook and many others, that Gore's "people versuses the powerful theme" doomed his campaign is also of the mark, Gore's populism might have been the principle reason why Gore was able to catch up with Bush (for those that care to remember, Gore's poll numbers went up significantly following his very populist acceptance speech at the Convention). The notion that populism doomed Gore is more the conventional wisdom of those generally hostile to populism than a matter of fact, another example of reality being molded by ideology.
And if were to have things Easterbook's way, how would we go about attacking Bush? To ignore the elitism of his policies his to overlook the elephant in the living room and one of the President's greatest weaknesses. Its more than likely that the Democrats' nominee will make populist appeals (unless of course, its Joe Lieberman, who will spend a lot of time being "civil" and boring most voters to death) and I think Edwards' populism is the best. By pushing to repeal Bush's tax cut and replace it with a middle class tax cut rather than new spending, like many others plan to do, Edwards insulates himself from charges that he's a "tax and spend liberal". So might argue that voters won't know the difference between Edwards' cuts and Bush's, but this can be corrected quite easily by constantly reminding the public that one tax cut is for them and the other is for much richer people. Another advantage to Edwards' approach is that he can convince the party's left leaning base that he is all right (something vitally important for any candidate that wishes to win the primaries) and because his tax cut is less "liberal" than the spending proposals of his peers, Edwards can also attract moderates, who will be essential for winning the general election. As a matter of fact, the New Republic's own blog points out the importance of doing just that.
So to get to the point: Edwards is the BEST CANDIDATE EVER!
Depravity Snobbery Depravity Snobbery How Lap Dancing Ruined the Striptease Blast these cheap hussies and tasteless cads. They have taken all the respectability and dignity of taking of your clothes for money! Stripping use to be such a high art form, I remember those fine days when me and the other fellows from the Firm would head down to local gentlemen's club for an elegant evening of yelling catcalls and leering at women of loose morals. Why there really hasn't been any decent debauchery since the reign of Queen Victoria. People knew how to be voyeurs then, not like today's vulgarians. Oh my, its enough to make me lock myself away in the basement with a stack of the Economist, because magazines are so much better when they use "colour" instead of "color".
Comments Go Down, Again...and again The last couple of posts don't have a comments section because now Blogger seems to believe the same script that the script I've been using has an error. Hopefully, I can fix this.
A Savage, But Accurate Parody Usually, all right, frequently...er...occasionally I'm all for civility in debate, but I found the following quite amusing and really don't care if it is impolite and intemperate. However, in order to cover myself from charges of flagrant partisanship and ad hominem attacks, let me just say that posting this piece isn’t meant to be an attack on conservatism in general, just putting some sort of mythical conservative jack ass in his place.
Conservatives are literally the stupidest people alive on the earth today. Examples:
A
Normal human being: Weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq. What happened?
Conservatives: Why do you hate America so much? Maybe you would be happier living under your friend
Saddam!!!
B
Normal human being: The PATRIOT Act is taking away vital Constitutional protections.
Conservatives: I was expecting you to say that, you being a democRAT and a LIEberal.
C
Normal human being: This tax cut is only going to benefit the rich.
Conservatives: I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think becuase I missed Bill O'Reilly last night. His journalism is HARD HITTING.
Conservitives don't have an answer for anything except something thats so stupid that it ends the debate.
Is the Economy Half Empty or Half Full?
Deflation risks grow dimmer; manufacturing looks up Well, its good that deflation isn't that likely and we probably aren't slouching towards the kind of stagnation that Japan is still suffering from. However, as Krugman pointed out on his personal webpage when deflation first became a major concern, falling prices and wages aren't what we really have to worry about. Deflation is only a symptom of the disease as it were, the disease being the "liquidity trap", where any increase in the money supply is hoarded, not borrowed and spent and so has no stimulative effect. So, just because the risk of deflation is diminished, we aren't out of the woods. Also, as the article warns:
But economists say the data do not erase concerns that the economy, and the job market in particular, will remain weak for months.
There would probably have to be a pretty strong recovery to reduce unemployment, because the economy would have to grow fairly quickly in order to create jobs for the unemployed, new workers and those displaced by rising producivity.
Help Overturn the FCC Ruling If you have been following the news, you probably know that the Federal Communications Commission has allowed firms to own more media outlets. This decision can only result in further media consolidation. On June 19th, this Thursday, the Senate will vote on a bill meant to overturn the recent FCC ruling. I encourage you to do your part and click here to find out what you ought to do.
Tools for the Lazy My friend Timon has created a nifty little piece of software designed to take the work out of creating bibliographies. Click here to give it a whirl.
A New Addition to the Blog I've invited Jon Chin to become a co-blogger here at Brian's Blog. Hopefully this arrangement will work out. With any luck at all, we won't devolve into this.
Anyway, we citizens of the blogosphere must be wary, and avoid any smugness. While we are not likely to become as bone-stupid as Sontag, we face certain hazards. We can become enamored of ephemera, of whatever was posted fifteen minutes ago. Very often the old guys (some of whom don't even have anything online) were often better, wiser, more lucid, more learned men (and women) than we are. So, don't just click the mouse, hit the books, too.
Not like I ever follow it, but hey, its a noble principle.
FReeping Again I'm posting on Free Republic again. Last time I was kicked out for arguing that Bill Clinton is not a murderer. I hope I last a bit longer and perhaps I can get some choice comments from other FReepers for you all or learn some neat new debate ending phrases. At any rate, if you wish to observe me in the wonderful world of the Free Republic, my user name is Miltonfried.
Marines Steam to Liberia I'm glad to see we are finally do something about the disorder and bloodshed in West Africa and taking responsibility for Liberia. It seems that Peter Beinart's call for a US intervention has finally been answered.
Anybody But W. Former Secretary of Labor, Robert B. Reich stresses the importance of Democratic Unity in his latest article for the Prospect. As much as a take pot shots at some of the primary candidates I would rather have any of them, well, any of the serious candidates, than George W. Bush as President. I think that Democrats should save up their bile and other vital resources for the general election. I strong discourage anyone from giving money this early in the game to their favorite in the primary, because the money will be used to savage other Democrats and not Bush. That's why I'm pretty alarmed by the MoveOn Primary, which is looking to pick and then assist the "Progressive" candidate. Very little good can come out of this, the MoveOn Primary is more likely to waste valuable campaign funds and cause factional strife than create a viable presidential candidate.
SARS Rumors My friend Jon Chin wrote the following. I don't vouch for its accuracy, but I'm more than willing to take credit for this it turns out to be right:
I was doing this article at 4:00 in the morning and it was ill-focused...
What is important, though, is that I had just ate with my father's friend, who is an advisor of Taiwanese Vice President and majored in Public Health. According to him, WHO discovered new DNA evidence which indicates SARS is a biological weapon. That is why the WHO has been speedy in denying the Chinese official explainations about the origin of the disease.
The sample was collected on the bodies of the first seven SARS victims. They are all medical workers in a Chinese governent hospital. The bodies were ferried to the USA, where WHO officials and US specialists used bio-weapons probe to test them. According to the friend, the DNA samples showed traces of genetical engineering. He says the WHO has not publicized the report because it is using the report to put political pressure on China for bargainging purposes. However, if the Chinese does not comply, the WHO will bust it.
Taiwanese security officials are communicating with their counter-parts in Sigapore and they are considering to unite Asian states (Sigapore, Korea, Japan...etc) in order to pressure WHO in releasing the documents.
Besides for his being an insider, he is also a public health specialist. He theorized that, if this disease is originated from animals, the specie should have been pin-pointed. He says when AIDS was discovered, it took four years to find its genetic sequence and profile of behavior. It took four months now to find SARS'. But the origin of AIDS was found in the first month of its outbreak. The natural host of SARS remained unknown. "It was not found because it doesn't exist," he says.
The report sounds fancical, but its from very reliable resource. It is also consistent with reports from Russian experts and The Washington Post. Given Russia's history of bio-weaons research, its report should not be easily dismissed, espeically when China is one of Russia possible buyers of weaponry. It is reasonable to assume that they share at least some common technologies.
After using so many key-words for terrorism, the FBI is going to read this letter. Yap, the Carnivore must be interested. Anyway, don't be too suprised if any of this stuff pop up in a real media.
EDWARDS STANDS HIS GROUND Unlike John Kerry, who has frequently flip flopped on the Iraq War, especially now that evidence of a WMD program has not been found, Edwards has not equivocated on Iraq. Senator Edwards has voted for the War and has stood by his vote. While his unapolgetic support of the Iraq War might cause short term political problems in the primaries, in the long term it'll be an important assent. Kerry's refusal to take a firm posistion on the issue only feeds the Press' growing prejudice that Kerry is the new Gore, in that he is an opportunist without convictions who is willing to say anything to get elected. Whether or not this is true is besides the point, the fact that the Press' has prejudices is a fact that must be accepted and dealt with. On a number of occasions, from his "discovery" of his Jewish roots and his prostate cancer surgery, the press corps has attacked Kerry for dishonesty and opportunism. Edwards should exlpoit this dynamic and use it against Kerry, otherwise W. will probably have a chance to do that in the general election.
Bush scolds Israel over assassination attempt against Hamas leader Bad Israel, Bad. How dare you try to defend yourself! Don't you know we have a peace process now and that kind of behavior is simply not aloud? Now, just take whatever they throw at you and don't complain. The President has this neat "roadmap" and we can't have your screwing it up by trying to protect your citizens, it is very inconsiderate, this is Mr. Bush's last chance to look like an international statesman.
More on Comments The comments are burhmmmed indefinetly. I don't know what's going on or how to fix it. I'll take care of the problem eventually, but now its time to play Civilization.
A Word on the Comments I've been getting complaints about the comments section of my blog. It appears that I have accidently created two threads of comments. The New thread is beneath all of my new posts, the old one is on the posts towards the bottom of the blog. The old thread also has a lot more comments and is far more lively than the new one, which has no comments on it. So, you can either post on the new thread (please) or click here to go to the old one. Damnation, its hard running a web site when you know nothing about anything.
Israel Begins Taking Down Settlement Outposts Excellent. Those land stealing nut jobs had it coming. Their illegal settlements should have been dismantled eve if there wasn't any kind of peace process. I wonder if Israel will be begin taking out the "legal" settlements that it has planted in the occupied territories. Though I'm very sympathetic to Israel, I'm opposed to the settlements. They are immoral and undermine the long term security of Israel by angering the Palestinians, requiring protection by the IDF and making a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict even more difficult. Only a far-gone Greater Israel Rejectionist or a Fundamentalist Christian who thinks the settlers will bring about the Second Coming of Christ can in good conscience support the settlement movement.
Voting Eric Alterman has a brief op-ed piece by Steven Hill and Rob Richie on his site about full (or proportional) representation as opposed to our system of winner take all districts. Its pretty interesting and I agree with the notion that the way elections are run in the this country ought to be changed. However, I really don't think that there is any hope of this happening. Electoral reforms don't really capture the imagination of the public and very little progress has been made in this area since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The fact that we still have the electoral college around does not bode well for the cause of election reform.
All Edwards All The Time For those of you that want the latest information about John Edwards' campaign, the Hartford Courant
Raleigh News & Observer has got a portion of the paper dedicated to observing it. It actually has more information about the campaign than Edwards' official site. I also think that it has a pro-Edwards slant, since he's the local boy made good and all.
The Unbearable Absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction Recently, a number of hawks (Jon Chin for example) have responded to the absence of WMDs in Iraq by saying that the war was about more than weapons of mass destruction. While they are right, they are missing the point. I myself supported war and for me, weapons of mass destruction were of secondary importance, but I am deeply disturbed by our inability to uncover any. This war was sold to the senate, the American public and the world on the basis of the "imminent threat" of Saddam's WMD program (and the even more ridiculous claim that he had close ties with Al Qeada). For this reason, the fact we have been unable to find any and even more disturbing, reports are coming out that our intelligence agencies were pressured by the Administration to exaggerate Iraq's WMD capabilities, is very important. It means that the Bush administration duped the country into a war. Some might say that it was worth it, that lying about the danger posed by Saddam to advance the great cause of Iraqi freedom was acceptable. However, I find this view alarming elitist. It is the argument of a fanatic more committed to his blessed aims than to democracy. Such secrecy, mendacity and deception is entirely incompatible with a free society.
Hmmmmm It seems that I'm still getting a lot of hits from the search engines for "tragdor" (correct spelling, trogdor). I think I'll keep this thing going, because hey, hits are hits.
FCC vote paves way for bigger media Well, that's just terriffic. I look forward to the day when Rupert Murdoch owns every media outlet in the English speaking world and beyond. Of course the conservative press (with the exception of William Safire, who's brain does function from time to time) will applaud this move as a victory for "the market" and reassure us by pointing out that all the great variaty of cable channels that exist, while dutifully ignoring the fact they are owned by just a few companies and rarely, if ever will do anything counter to the interests of their owners. The lack of coverage that the debate over the FCC's rules got is proof in itself that big media is not benign .
A new conservative mind virus is at large and making its way through the right wing blogs and beyond. Apparently, the Republicans are victims of prejudice and bigotry. This is another example of the kind of "logic" (literalism that's too clever by half) that YAFers that never quite grew up just love. One of the conservative "victims" :
When somebody makes a prejudicial comment about Republicans in my presence, I play a private game. I replay the sentence in my mind—only I substitute a word like "black" or "lesbian" or "Mexican" in place of the word "Republican." In performing this verbal sleight-of-hand, it becomes increasingly apparent that the speaker of the sentence may harbor views not generally considered to be tolerant or open-minded.
The writer here is half right, these views would not be considered tolerant or open-minded if they were about minorities, but this does not mean that they are intolerant when they are aimed at Republicans. Its just not the same, those comments might be rude depending on the context, but they certainly aren’t bigoted, at least not anymore bigoted then lawyer jokes. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, people choose to be Republicans; it is a set of opinions, not part of their identity like race, sexual orientation or religion. Secondly, the Republicans (or Democrats for that matter) have never suffered serious oppression or discrimination unlike ethnic or religious minorities. I think comments like “I hate these Republicans Neanderthals” are more along the lines of personal insults rather than any kind of “hate speech”. It’s the height of thin-skinnedness to be deeply bothered by such these kinds of remarks and to compare them to real intolerance, the center-left catches plenty of flack, but I never claim to be the victim of prejudice. Its also a bit odd to hear conservatives wailing about how their the victims of so much hate when they control all of the federal government, most state government and much of the press and are always giving stern lectures to certain groups (minorities) on the importance of not wallowing in victimhood.
Blasted Republican Idiots.
Note:
the Chicagoboyz have also commented on this topic, but to their credit (they are smarter than the average righty), have avioided being as completely foolish as the folks that I mentioned (and attacked) and actually made some pretty good points in their post about it.
I Apologize... This blog is getting increasingly self-referential, self-induglent and unserious. Hopefully, there will be a return to some kind of professionalism in the near future, because at this rate I'll never regain my seat on the B of P.
Grand Ream Well, last Friday my school had the privellege of hosting the Grand Skeem. Here's a quote from their web site:
Led by up and coming vocalist, songwriter, producer, and remixer Ali Dee, THE GRAND SKEEM combines a delicious rock and pop assault with old school hip-hop stylings for a sound so infectious, they should probably start handing out penicillin at shows.
Needless to say, their stuff is absolute crap, unless your into mall bands made up of overweight twentysomethings that see themselves as sex symbols and jump up and down a lot, sweat soaking their clothes. Myself, I felt kind of guilty for even looking into the theater for a few seconds, it felt a bit like rubbernecking at the site of a gorey car accident. Everyone that sat and watched should be ashamed of themselves, by showing up they only helped feed the delusions of these fruit loops. Then again, its really kind of fun to be attend an event where the performers are really into it, but no one else is.
