And another good post.

I've left this comment on that journal:

dglenn tries to justify horrible cis-oppression by mean trans people. Don't be taken in!

At this point, we asked one of the museum guides if there was an easier way to get to the exhibits we wanted to see. (The visitor map provided was of little use; it showed things that looked like ramps but were actually stairways, with no indication of which routes were accessible and which were not.) She explained that Gehry's design was intended to encourage the museum-goer to explore the existing galleries (though one could circumvent more galleries by using the stairs), and that the re-design had taken out most of the ramps. "Frank hates ramps," she explained. She was sympathetic; it was clear that she had heard this question before, and she encouraged us to write letters and provide feedback via the website.

— Frank Gehry hates disabled people

New AGO design: full of fail!

I've been away for a whole weekend! And the Pam's House Blend commenters are still clueless.

I just watched Yes Men, and all I can think is, "Brüno could have been this clever, but instead it's Brüno."

Links:

1. Wikipedia page
2. Trailer
3. The Yes Men impersonate Dow Chemical (here's the original interview)

Indeed, indeed, I cannot tell

Indeed, indeed, I cannot tell,
Though I ponder on it well,
Which were easier to state,
All my love or all my hate.
Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me
When I say thou dost disgust me.
O, I hate thee with a hate
That would fain annihilate;
Yet sometimes against my will,
My dear friend, I love thee still.
It were treason to our love,
And a sin to God above,
One iota to abate
Of a pure impartial hate.

— Henry David Thoreau

I love movies. I love the structure of film. I love its conventions. I can sit and admire the assemblage of shots of a well-made film for hours. I love film theory. I love film soundtracks, and great actors. I love a lot of films that are very popular, and I love a lot of films that people avoid in droves. Film is, to me, art.

I can't say, though, that I really understand studios.

Holy shit. Progress?

Washington, June 30, 2009 – Haiti was granted US$1.2 billion of debt relief by reaching the completion point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative approved by the Boards of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Haiti is now the 26th country to reach the completion point under the Initiative. Debt service savings result from the HIPC Initiative (US$265 million) and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) (US$972.7 million).

— Haiti Gets US$1.2 Billion of Debt Relief

I've been pretty skeptical of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which has always struck me as a program to force poor countries to adopt pro-globalization economic reforms rather than a way to cancel unfair debt. And I've long believed that much of Haiti's debt could be classified as "odious" (around 45% of Haiti's external debt was acquired during the Duvalier period).

Finally, I find this whole press release very jargon-y and difficult to make sense of. Take this passage:

By reaching the HIPC completion point, Haiti now is eligible under the MDRI for further debt relief from IDA and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). MDRI relief would save Haiti US$972.7 million in debt service of which US$486.7 million owed to IDA and US$486 million to the IADB. While the IMF is a participant in the MDRI, Haiti does not have any MDRI-eligible debt to the IMF.

So, um, are they getting the US $972.7M or are they just "now eligible"?

One of the ongoing cricisms of aid (including, for example, a lot of the aid that was promised as a result of last fall's hurricanes) is that it gets promised but not dispersed. I never know when something is positive or not, anymore, since governments are much more about the press release than about the follow-through.

Haitian police say a demonstrator found slain after a clash with U.N. peacekeepers during a funeral procession was killed by a bullet, and not by a rock as peacekeepers initially reported.

But the police inspector who shared details of the autopsy report on Monday said ballistics tests are needed to determine who fired the fatal shot. The inspector who viewed the autopsy report spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the autopsy. He did not offer any additional details.

— Police: Haiti marcher killed by bullet in UN clash

Busted.

Trans people: Big old meanies. TRUFAX!

Who understands what happened in Honduras?

What seems to me a -- in a sense -- very terrifying aspect of our society, and of other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe such events. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler or LeMay or other that crops up. These people would not be able to operate were it not for the... this apathy and equanimity. And therefore I think that it's in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who share a very serious burden of guilt that they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme or more violent.

— Noam Chomsky, in a 1969 interview with William F. Buckley, as shown in the documentary, Manufacturing Consent

I really like this story: "Superhero Girl" by Jessica Lee

YouTube has the footage of the UN soldiers firing at Fr. Jean-Juste's funeral. As other sources have reported, it's not clear that the UN soldiers hit the person who was killed, but it's hard to imagine what else might have happened -- it doesn't look like the scene was violent or ugly.

One of the things that I used to say to explain the significance of Lovinsky's kidnapping was that, to the Haitians, he was as significant as David Suzuki. Fr. Jean-Juste was even more important to the Haitian people. Other than Aristide, I don't think there's anyone more beloved by the Haitian people. And it pisses me off that MINUSTAH has defiled that funeral. The UN is maintaining that the person who was killed had been hit by a rock, and that they only fired into the air. They shouldn't be fucking shooting at a funeral. Jeezuz.

I got this from a mailing list the other day; it talks about a period in 2005, after the coup:

"[The opposition] stationed a death squad outside the church," Jean-Juste explained. "This was later to become the coup’s terror force, Lanme Timachet . They were trained to get me. Some of them didn't even know me, because at first they went to another priest with a beard. To start the attack, Magalie Comeau Denis and another woman began screaming and accusing me of killing Jacques. Then two leaders from the Group of 184 pointed me out to the death squad and they rushed in my direction. They circled me."

The thugs attacked Jean-Juste as he backed away from them up a staircase toward the rectory. A North American lawyer, Bill Quigley, and a young Haitian woman threw themselves between the attackers and the priest. One of the attackers tried to stab Jean-Juste with a spike, but wounded the woman instead. Another assailant had a gun but apparently became too afraid to use it. The U.N. occupation troops, MINUSTAH belatedly intervened, turning Jean-Juste over to Haitian police, who promptly arrested him because he was accused of Roche’s killing by "public clamor."

"I learned later that it was a 3 million gourdes plot [$77,000 US]," Jean-Juste said. "The thugs got one million up front, but the balance of two million was to come only after delivering my body."

In all, Jean-Juste spent some seven months in jail as what Amnesty International called “a prisoner of conscience.” Under pressure from an international human rights campaign, the de facto authorities “provisionally released” Jean-Juste in January 2006 for health reasons after a surreptitious jailhouse examination and blood-drawing by Dr. Paul Farmer revealed the priest was suffering from advanced leukemia. He was flown to Miami and treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The leukemia briefly went into remission.

I've never met Fr. Jean-Juste, although I know a lot of people who were close to him. I've attended his church. I have met Bill Quigley.

I feel very much like I felt in March 2004.

From jamie_miller: (via sabotabby)

Every now and then the police arrest somebody suspected of some terrible, violent crime, and as a piece of public relations they'll announce all of the horrible books, movies and/or CDs they found in the suspect's house, as if to prove that the suspect is obviously guilty and horrible and monstrous.

So here is my challenge to you. You can either do this from memory or take a moment to look through your book and music collections, and then answer this question:

Name ten books, CDs and/or movies that you own that the police would cite as evidence against you at their press conference.

Hm. Can I name ten? I don't think I'm too radical. But, hey, we're going up against a media machine!

1. The Qu'ran
2. The Weather Underground
3. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
4. The Black Jacobins
5. The Abu Ghraib Investigations: The Official Reports of the Independent Panel and the Pentagon on the Shocking Prisoner Abuse in Iraq
6. I'm sure that my several books and documentaries by and about Noam Chomsky would be used to show my undying devotion to Hugo Chavez.
7. And let's face it: the story would almost certainly be about how I got in with radical anti-imperialists, so The Shock Doctrine and Bad Samaritans would probably play into that story. While we're at it: Blue Gold and the Vandana Shiva books would also round out the mix.
8. I can't leave V for Vendetta (book and movie!) off the list, can I? And, for that matter, won't my Dexter Blu-Ray discs play a role? "She often expressed her admiration for the series, Dexter, about a serial killer."
9. What'd probably clinch it, though, is some of my (paper) correspondence. I was originally going to be a bit more explicit about that, but I decided to shy away from saying anything more. So that must say something. Google cache, and all.

I have a coupl'a relatively light books on Marxism, but I think they'd be too light. I do own a copy of a book called New World Order and the Rise of the antiChrist. I have no idea where I got that.

Edit: How could I have forgotton Entheogenesis? Or the various decorative skulls in my place? Or Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons? Or the other books in that series?

And I think I even own a copy of GURPS: Cyberpunk.

What is it about men and sentences, anyway? Do they wander around going, "That one! That sentence is in danger of being finished all on its own. I must leap in and act!"

I have lost friends, some by death -- Percival -- others through sheer inability to cross the street.

— Virginia Woolf, The Waves

A large banner waved overhead declaring "[Father] Jerry you left us but the struggle continues" as thousands of mourners streamed out carrying Jean-Juste's casket sparking an impromptu pro-Lavalas demonstration.

[...]

The procession and demonstration were suddenly interrupted by gunfire that could be heard from around the corner. Witnesses report that Brazilian soldiers with the UN military mission opened fire after attempting to arrest one of the mourners. The UN has since denied the shooting and claim that the victim had been killed by either a rock thrown by the crowd or a blunt instrument. Eyewitnesses on the scene have countered that the UN is trying to cover-up the affair as it promises to heighten tensions before Sunday's elections.

— Haiti: UN Peacekeepers Open Fire on Jean-Juste Funeral Protest

A Haitian television station broadcast video Friday that provided new details on a deadly confrontation between U.N. peacekeepers and mourners for a popular priest allied with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Thursday clash, in which a young man was killed, could exacerbate tensions between Haitians and the 9,000-member international force that has been in Haiti since an uprising forced Aristide into exile in 2004. Protesters incensed with the presence of foreign troops burned a U.N. vehicle in a nearby neighborhood the day before.

The video did not appear to show what happened to the man, showing only some U.N. soldiers arresting another man and firing shots into the air.

The station, Radio Tele Ginen, did not comment on the video, but quoted lawmakers and witnesses repeating charges that Brazilian soldiers fired a bullet that struck the man in the face and killed him.

U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise reiterated the United Nations' position that the soldiers did not kill the marcher. He said the fatal injury was caused by a blunt object such as a rock, not a bullet. He did not say what evidence the U.N. used to reach that conclusion.

The U.N. earlier acknowledged its soldiers fired warning shots, but Blaise said he did not know if they used live ammunition or rubber bullets [...].

— Google News

I wouldn't be surprised if this got pretty ugly.

I'm the witch; you're the world.

— "Last Midnight", Into the Woods

The weirdest trans-inclusive small print I've ever seen.