linkery

Quick Hit: Kai Chang

If you don’t read Kai Chang’s Zuky, well, let me tell you, you’re missing out.  He’s an absolutely brilliant writer, and whether talking about gardening or the toxic legacy of colonialism, what he has to say is always worth your time.  I first found Kai through Nezua, but to my great detriment I didn’t start following his blog again until I saw him in the running for the 2008 Weblog Awards, and thought “oh hey! ‘Zuky’ sounds familiar!”  And then the first post of his I saw contributed to my quotes sidebar one of the most brilliant sentences I think I’ve ever read.  His latest again displays the same kind of (I’ll have to ask you to pardon the cliché — what else but cliché can an inferior writer fall back on when describing a far superior?) gemlike clarity.  I don’t kid myself that my tiny readership will make much difference to his numbers, but even if I’m not doing Kai much of a favor by trying to point y’all his way, if you do start following his blog, I will certainly have done you one.

Quick Hit: Pando

(I’m not dead!)

This is just about the most amazing thing I’ve read all year.  It’s a post at Cosmic Variance about Pando, the largest, and almost certainly the oldest multicellular, organism on Earth.  Pando weighs over 6600 tons, occupies 107 acres, and is estimated to be 80,000 years old or more.  Pando is, depending on how you look at it, either an entire forest of Quaking Aspen, or a single tree: all the trunks share an enormous root system and are genetically identical.

My mind, it is blown.

Why Does Glenn Beck Hate America?

On his Fox show last week, it seems Glenn Beck, noted professional terrible person, had a panel including ex-CIA and ex-Army officers discussing a supposed coming civil war in the US.  Greenwald:

[H]e convened a panel that includes former CIA officer Michael Scheuer and Ret. U.S. Army Sgt. Major Tim Strong.  They discuss a coming “civil war” led by American “Bubba” militias — Beck says he “believes we’re on this road” — and they contemplate whether the U.S. military would follow the President’s orders to subdue civil unrest or would instead join with “the people” in defense of their Constitutional rights against the Government (they agree that the U.S. military would be with “the people”) [Emphasis mine.]

Even for a vile, eliminationist blowhard like Beck, this is shockingly blatant (and I’m a bit surprised Dave Neiwert hasn’t written about it yet; he probably has a piece in the pipeline, though).  I probably don’t even need to bring up the kind of enormous storm of fauxtrage we’d be seeing from the right wing, if a Rachel Maddow or a Keith Olbermann or a Michael Moore had said something even a fraction as inflammatory as this.

This bears empasis, so pardon my repetition: Glenn Beck, a professional political commentator employed (presumably to the tune of a rather large number of dollars) formerly by CNN and now by Fox News (sic), just ran a program promoting the idea that there will soon be a civil war in this country, in which in violation of their oaths the military will side with survivalist-type civilian militias against the (Democratic-Party-controlled) government.

This is insane.  And it’s unconscionably, dangerously irresponsible, especially in light of recent, tragic proof that this kind of violence-promoting rhetoric is not just a gimmick to boost ratings (and the question of whether Beck himself thinks that it’s just a gimmick is essentially irrelevant to the horrific results) has real, and terrible consequences.

The only remotely conscientious, responsible course of action for Fox is to cancel Beck’s show immediately and require him to deliver an on-air apology.  They won’t do that, of course, because they aren’t conscientious or responsible.

Update: See also Cosmic Variance.

Neko Case: People Got A Lotta Nerve

Neko Case, one of the best singer-songwriters I know of and owner of the most amazing voice of probably any living musician, has a new album, Middle Cyclone, coming out soon.  Case is a strong advocate for humane treatment of animals, and she and her label, Anti-, are offering an mp3 of a song on the subject, “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” from Middle Cyclone as a free download.  For every blog that links to the download, Case and Anti- will donate $5 to the Best Friends Animal Society.

There’s also an extended profile of Case at the New York Times, which is a worthwhile read.

[Update: oops!  Apparently the promotion (despite being mentioned in the Times piece, which was published on February 13th) actually ended on February 3rd.  Should have read the Anti- blog post more carefully.  At any rate, the mp3 is still available.]

And if you’re not familiar with Case’s music, please allow me to humbly suggest you rectify this matter post-haste.

Quick Hit: The Obameter

From the fine folks who brought you the Truth-O-Meter, the St. Petersburg Times’s PolitiFact has now launched the Obameter, a project to track President Obama’s performance on his campaign promises.  They list 510 promises, and

We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.

The report card […] provides an up-to-the-minute tally of all the promises.

Found via Feminist Law Profs, with whose opinion I concur1 in noting

One great feature of the Internet is the ability to track the performance of politicians in real time like this.

This is a fantastic project, and I’d love to see this kind of tracking become an expected, normal part of our political discourse.

1 see what I did there?

Nouning Considered Harmful*

Note: I’ve taken the opportunity of Melissa McEwan’s generous offer of a guest post at Shakesville to revise this post to clarify some phrasing and expand on some areas I didn’t feel I’d covered sufficiently.

Here’s the thing: using adjectives as nouns obscures meaning, harms discourse, impairs communication, and ultimately reduces our ability to think in a careful and nuanced way about controversial issues, let alone effect social progress.  Anyone who wants to see our society become less divided rather than more, and in particular anyone who wants to combat racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other forms of prejudice and modes of oppression, should try hard to avoid the practice. Don’t call anyone a sexist, or a racist, or a homophobe. Here’s why.

(more…)

Go, Read.

Charley is exactly right:

There simply must be prosecutions. It’s not enough to imagine that we can restore the Constitution by popular vote, by just electing people of better morals, of more restraint, of greater reverence for the law and human history. Because “good people” come and go. You don’t always get the people you need in positions of power. The law itself must be affirmed, and those who intentionally and flagrantly abused its practice — for the purpose of abusing humans — must be punished.

…

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, someone asked Ben Franklin whether we had a monarchy or a republic. “A republic — if you can keep it,” replied Franklin. The lesson is that the Constitution is not magic, not an all-seeing eye, not a god that imperceptibly guides the machine of state. It depends on people of good faith and forbearance to keep it.

High-level Bush administration officials must be prosecuted.  Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted.  If no one at that level of power goes to jail, it will be the end of law in this country.

In Lieu of Content

Go read what Boston Brahmina said.  And if anyone tries to argue with you about abortion rights, make them go read it too.  She has perfectly nailed down the correct understanding of the right to choose, in a way that, as long as you assume that women are in fact human beings, is simply irrefutable.

More real posts coming from me, eventually — F&A is not dead! — but having the time to write only rarely coincides with having the mental energy to write, these days.