Heretics' almanac

Neon hell

While in Florida, I drove Route 193 to get to the apartment we had rented in Kissimee. Route 193, like Routes 22 and 10 in New Jersey and countless similar strips throughout the republic, is zoned for retail enterprise. Every available space is used for stores, parking lots, and enormous lit signs. Chain restaurants dominate the scenery. On Route 193 I didn't see a single bookstore, but shlock shops too numerous to count.

You drive along one of these roads when you need to psych yourself up for an anti-globalization rally or want to lose faith in capitalism. These highways are convenient only in the sense that the stores are clustered, but they offer only access to what is mass-produced, and all too often disposable. They are lit up loudly by neon, and you can't help but wonder if Marx imagined places like this when he conceived of alienation. It's my hope that this is one thing the world doesn't import from the US.

It's an architect's challenge, how to improve the aesthetics without wrecking the economics. Perhaps towns should put more thought into the zoning requirments.
Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.

Giving us the purple finger

From my American cousin who is stationed in Iraq comes this little tidbit: Iraqis are proudly brandishing purple fingers these days, since everyone who votes gets their finger stamped to avoid election fraud. According to the Wall Street Journal more than the “expected” 57% turned out, though the Sunni minority participated less.

Meanwhile in Israel, there is movement to turn over West Bank towns to the PA, coordination between Israelis and PA security forces is increasing in anticipation of the Gaza disengagement.

There is, in other words, reason to be just a little hopeful. I don't think these developments will slow down the terrorists much in the short term, but they pave the way for alternatives in the collective Arab mind. Both Israel and the US must manage a delicate balance between maintaining security on the one hand, and granting self-determination on the other. The terrorists will be hell-bent on destrying that balance by provoking an overreaction one way (e.g., hasty American withdrawals from Beirut and Mogadishu) or the other (e.g., massive bombing campaigns in the Sunni triangle). It's time to get smart, people. Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.

In Florida/Disney

Visiting Disney World hardly gets you a travel column these days, and my family's visit these days is an adventure for us but not in the context of the human enterprise. And since I've seen (most of) it before, I've gotten to asking myself questions about the place, like:

- What is Disney World's dark underbelly, its gritty side? Do the cast members that appear as Disney characters have deviant sexual lives? Are the princesses sluts? Does Peter Pan have a gambling problem?

- What are the stories Disney would rather you didn't know? Has anyone streaked the Magic Kingdom? Is there a Phantom of Frontierland? Any dangerous animals make their way into the area?

Not much disturbing to see there, though. It's all very typecast, and the cast members are friendly, service-minded, and seemingly healthy. They remind me a bit of Mormons, to be honest about it. Among the guests there were some asses that would give B'rer Bear a run for his money, as well as one or two horrifying combovers. But the cast members were great - they even responded genuinely when I asked whether they ever got tired of the music.

When's that “Memoirs of a Disney World Cast Member coming out? Is this soemthing David (or maybe even Amy) Sedaris would consider? Or Stephen Colbert? Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.

Moral slovenliness

TOH to honestreporting comes an article by Anthony Lipmann, who at the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz wondered whether he would have stood up to the Nazis. Based on what he writes, I'm not sure he would.

Because for Lipmann, Jenin is an example of modern-day Auschwitz. And for me, you can only stand up to oppression and injustice if you have the ability to make moral distinctions. Someone who draws specious comparisons does not make moral distinctions, and Lipmann shamelessly invokes Auschwitz to make a cheap and otherwise untenable political point.

Any reasonable person would know that the battle of Jenin and the unimaginable horrors of Auschwitz can not compare in anything but the most superficial ways. Melanie Phillips points out that such a comparison trivializes the Shoah and distorts the nature of an understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But it is all too typical of recent political rhetoric that seeks to malign Israel - and by extension Jews - by equating them to Nazis. If you don't believe me, try to think of a single state that endures more frequent comparisons more often to Nazi Germany than Israel.

As far as Auschwitz is concerned, Lipmann might just as well have peed on the ash marshes that surround the camp. For him, Auschwitz is nothing more than a political device, a means to an undistinguished end. This is customary stuff among the types of demagogues that felt comfortable in the Nazi party.

Offended, Anthony? You should be, as should be the Israelis you malkigned.

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60 years ago, near a small village in Poland

This entry is part of the blogburst commemorating both the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 63rd anniversary of the Wannsee conference.  A list of participating blogs can be found here.

I learned to speak German in Austria, many years ago, so I know how to pronounce the words "Auschwitz" and "Wannsee" properly.  The "w" is pronounced like a "v" in English; the "ee" in "Wannsee" is a slightly elongated "eh" with a hint of a dipthong.  The "itz" syllable is a little short.  If you say the names often enough, they somehow become familiar. 

But in the time between what happened at Wannsee on January 20th, 1942 and at Auschwitz on January 27th, 1945, the Nazis brought hell a little closer to earth.  These German names, once so ordinary, will forever invoke a sense of dread and horror. 

Jewish assembly in Russia

(TOH to Ike) 20 members of the Russian Duma are pushing for legislation that would ban all Jewish groups in Russia. Arguing that stereotypes of Jews are substantially accurate but stylistically problematic (bigotry is a matter of finesse, after all), they believe that Jews in groups cause hatred and ... antisemitism.

Russia's chief rabbi respoinds by implying that these people are playing the antisemitism card to get attention in popular opinion.

So it's not just Russian nationalists who think that objecting to antisemitism causes more antisemitism. Norway's Kåre Willoch has also said that all this whining strengthens prejudice against Jews. Nor is this argument limited to Jews - civil rights opponents have long argued that the chief cause of racism is uppity black people.

More frightening is the rabbi's analysis that antisemitic propaganda is a red herring, something to get the masses (Lenin's word) excited. Which is to say that antisemitism runs deep and wide in Russia.

Which is one good reason why Israel exists. Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.

Fairness and objectivity

NPR's On the Media this weekend featured a discussion on the rise of “niche” outlets that are throwing any pretense of “objectivity,” and flagrantly spinning news to fit their point of view. Farewell, Walter Cronkite, hello Bob Novak. The NPR voice on the show interjected that in her view, “objectivity” was unattainable; all she hoped for was “fairness.”

The problem here is that fairness is not a lesser version on a continuum to objectivity. A “fair” representation of the civil rights movement would give equal voice to the Klu Klux Klan as Martin Luther King. It would encourage extremism, given the public propensity to believe that the truth is an average between two extremes.

A better word might be “honest.” We should expect journalists top report what they see, smell, hear and learn, not what they'd like to believe. We may have to accept that no journalist can pull together a complete and nuanced picture in the fog of unfolding events, but I think it's fair to say that Ed Morrow earned our respect because his accounts were honest.

I still think “objectivity” should be the perfect 10 in journalism. It may never be awarded - anything over a 9 might qualify for a Pulitzer in this imperfect world of ours. But ther's no reason to give up. Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.

Guerilla constitution-making

Norwegian newspapers are so shitty that the best national paper - by far - is the marxist-leninist paper Klassekampen.  I'd be surprised if there is a single political issue the editors and I agree about, but it's the only newspaper that takes an earnest interest in issues that really matter.

One such issue - apparently trivial to the other papers - is that Norway is contemplating a complete rewrite of its constitution.  The current president of the Norwegian parliament, a professor in law at the University of Oslo, and the leader of the Progress party all agree that 2014 would be a suitable occasion to pass a new constitution more in tune with today's demands. 

Brewing crisis for Abbas

Things are coming to a head in and around Israel.  After Sharon made it clear that Abbas would get no honeymoon from the Israelis, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is ordered shut down, and PNA security forces are ordered to stop all terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.  Abbas is either a man of considerable physical courage, or he has learned from Arafat how to put on a good show with very little substance.  Time will tell which it is.

In the meantime, there may be war afoot in Lebanon between Al Qaeda and Fatah, and I'm inclined to believe that Fatah may kick Al Qaeda's butt, being the more experienced terrorist group of the two.  If Hamas and PIJ decide to resist Abbas's offensive against them, and Al Qaeda gets into the mix, there is a definitive possibility of a civil war with (yet again) the Palestinians as the fulcrum.  That would be tragic and disruptive.

Some (me) like it hot

<Warning: lots of polysyllabic Sanskrit coming your way>

I committed to taking as much yoga as I could find time for between December 15th and January 15th.  I ended up completing 22 hot yoga sessions in those 31 days, and here's what I found out:

• Hamstrings are tight, resilient buggers.  I count it as a great accomplishment if they loosened up as much as half an inch.  I managed - with great difficulty - to straighten my legs for Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimottanasana, but only my left leg for Dandayamana Janushirasana. 
• I don't breath so easily lying on my stomach.  After flowing through Bhujangasana, Salabhasana (which is a killer even if you do it well, which apparently I did), Poorna Salabhasana (which I only do OK - can't quite get those feet up high enough), and Dhanurasana (not bad, if I do say so myself), there is no flipping way I can lie on my stomach and get my breath back.  I flop onto my side and shamelessly gasp through my mouth.
• I lost inches, but not much weight.  Which means that I replaced fat with muscle but have some work ahead. 
• Some of the poses make more sense in more advanced forms.  On the last day, I took Tadasana all the way down to (a very imperfect and wobbly) Padungustasana, and it wasn't as horrifying as I thought it would be.  I also did Tuladandasana with parallel flat palms with better effect, and Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Janurshirasana had a different feel with my hands in prayer position behind my back.  I learned to start loving Ustrasana once I got my hands to my heels and could actually push my chest up. 
• I have a lot of fear tied up in my body.  This whole thing about "opening up your heart center" is pretty terrifying stuff.  After the afore-mentioned Ustrasana ("camel pose") my heart is pounding from a major infusion of adrenaline, and it takes quite a bit of fortitude to catch my breath long enough to do the second round.  I think it's also at the root of my problems with Dandayamana Dhanurasana, where I have to choose between holding the pose or going deep, but never both.
• Definitely go for those tight pants.  Tight-fitting clothes are not my bag, but I am never going back to shorts after I tried Nike jammers made of lycra and nylon (trademarks respectively of Nike, DuPont, and DuPont).  Apart from the occasional uncomfortable feeling that I was naked, they became my "magic pants," and I now have them in black, navy, and dark green.

I probably won't be able to do more than 2 or hopefully 3 sessions in the next few months, but my theory is that you need to 2 to maintain and 3 or more to build your practice.