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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: July 19, 2006
Latest Update: July 20, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

A Few Good Friends, Some of Them New

Jeanne the Cat is prowling this week. The heat got her. And she came back to her senses alternately hissing and purring. Typical personality disorder . . .

Don't believe them, not for a second, when "they" tell you that you will "disengage," be content with withdrawing from work, friends, and society, need less sleep, have someone to care for you. "They" lie. If you're anything like Jeanne the Cat, you'll have your whole day, and then some, planned, trying to catch up from the 3-day blackout, not 2, as "they" reported in the newspapers, when you explode over juxtaposed headlines in the New York Times. Wednesday, July, 19, 2006, at p. A 1:

• Iraqi Death Toll Rises Above 100 Per Day, U.N. Says

• With Israeli Use of Force, Debate Over Proportion This is the headline at 1:57 p.m., on my computer. My print edition of the New York Times, delivered much earlier this morning, gave the headline as: With Israeli Responses, a Debate Over Proportion.

  Did any of you see the American President, film from 90s, I reckon, in which Michael Douglas as the president says, "One day someone's going to have to explain to me the value of a Proportionate Response?" Me, too. And one day, someone's going to have to explain to me just who set up this game of "war," and why. jeanne the cat

• Lebanon Sold Out: A Lebanese Response Posted by Doha on July 19, 2006. This response by a Lebanese puts an incredibly realistic spin on my reaction in my not-poem. (Arnold says it's not a poem.) This link is here to demonstrate the importance of not locking yourself off in an insular ideological space, sure that you're right. Of course, I'm right. How could I not be? I'm me. I think. Therefore . . . Pace, Descartes. I think; he thinks; she thinks; the Other thinks. And we all feel, too. And we are all human. Doha's pain is almost visible. Like mine. I'm sure we could both paint it. Mine came from the idiocy of a leading newspaper (The New York Times) posting three headlines on its front page on July 19, 2006.

  The New York Times headlines suggest that Israel must make a "proportionate" response, "they" (Congress and President, etc.) think, plastered along side of another headline detailing the numbers of Iraqis who have died in the Iraqi war. You can kill as many people as you like, destroy as much infrastructure as you like, as long as the other side kills the same or almost the same number of people and the same percentage of the infrastructure. Someone please explain to me how proportionate response applies to Lebanon and Israel, but not to the U.S.. Bush's pre-emptive war on Iraq was proportionate to what, again?

  Note that if it's the United States, there seems to be a non-rebuttable presumption that the response is proportional. Bush is now making moral decisions that are imposed without law and over the laws of Congress (stem cell research) that all Americans must follow. Gee, I thought morality at that level was in the sphere of philosophy (which does not rule) and religion (which does not rule in a democracy such as the United States).

  Perhaps the most significant line I wrote was "Liar, liar, pants on fire." It is so hard to get news without ideological spin when we are so far away from the events. Doha could be right. Israel could be right. I'm not there; and there is no way for me to judge from here, with my non-existent Middle East personal contacts, who is "right." Doha, wherever you are, my heart goes out to you, and to Israel, and to Lebanon, and to those of us who are struggling to understand.

  Someone is directing this idiocy. This killing. This destruction. No, it is not the citizens of Israel alone; nor is it the citizens of Lebanon alone. Most of those killed and suffering are peripheral to the issues. Numbers, to be turned into chips in bargaining across tables in countries and power groups I do not even know of.

  Doha's comments were triggered by the Washington Post:

  "Just as in Kuwait in 1991, what must follow the air campaign is a land invasion to clear the ground and expel the occupier. Israel must retake south Lebanon and expel Hezbollah. It would then declare the obvious: that it has no claim to Lebanese territories and is prepared to withdraw and hand south Lebanon over to the Lebanese army..."

  from Charles Krauthammer's opinion piece in the Post. Scroll down about a half inch on the Lebanese Blogger to find the quote.

  I agree with Doha that Israel graciously handing over Southern Lebanon to the Lebanese is someone's pipe dream or nightmare. Which Lebanese? Which Israelis? None of these are monolithic groups. They're real people caught in real hellish situations that are fired up regularly by those on either side that would profit from them. When will we put down the guns and violence and begin to hear one another in good faith?

  love and peace to human kind, jeanne

Left-over piece from writing poem. You can use it, if you want to, or I'll find a place for it - jeanne

That's not proportionate.
What about if I take over your country?
You know, like Iraq? Can I do that?
Is that proportionate?
"Compared to what?, as Les McCann might have asked.
What about if I'm American, and not Israeli?
Then can I do it?

References:

• palisrael25bk.htm Backup of Casualty Figures: With Israeli Use of Force, Debate Over Proportion. NYTimes.
• palisrael26bk.htm Backup of Violence: U.S. Appears to Be Waiting to Act on Israeli Airstrikes NYTimes.
• iraqdthtoll01bk.htm Backup on disproportionate Iraqi death toll from Iraqi Death Toll Rises Above 100 Per Day, U.N. Says, NYTimes.
• Lebanon Sold Out by Doha on Lebanese Blogger, July 19, 2006.
• National Public Radio's Report on the Middle East
• Stop that Shit! By Uri Avnery, Arabic Media Internet (AMIN), July 18, 2006. From a link sent by Ihab Saloul of Cultural Analysis Summer Academy (CASA) -note from Ihab on Lebanon-Israel conflict, on the CASA mailing list. Notice that because I follow many lists, these alternate perspectives come to me without my having to hunt them down. This forces me to remember the complexities and let go of my own pain with its ideological presumptions. jeanne
• The Politics of Proportionality A Lebanesse Perspective by Remi Kanazi (Remi Kanazi is the primary writer for the political website http://www.PoeticInjustice.net. He lives in New York City as a Palestinian American freelance writer, poet and performer and can [be] reached via email at remroum@gmail.com). I think my objection to Remi's conclusion is that the killing altogether is wrong. Never mind "the disproportional" use of force, how about objecting to the use of force altogether? Once we have unleashed such violence and torture, not even a nation that claims to be free can constrain its President from outrageous acts - like pre-emptive war on what was to all appearances now the wrong country. I have lived through many wars, none of which touched me closely because none of my family was involved, and my country acted (except for the Second World War) as if it weren't at war. I abhor the violence. And I don't believe that any of the groups involved, including my own, has any corner on the commission or refusal to commit acts of horrible violence. Violence is wrong! And that has not changed throughout my seventy years on this earth. It's still wrong. And it's still happening. Why?

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Events Discussion Topics:

• Hate to Hope

  
  "The remarkable story of reconciliation between the perpetrator and victim of a hate crime who now both work at the Museum of Tolerance."

  Museum of Tolerance
  9786 West Pico Blvd
  Los Angeles
  www.museumoftolerance.com

  At 1 p.m.

• My Theory of Everything

  Serialized. First Draft of novel, My Theory of Everything, by jeanne. Stories that help me to see that much of what I fear can be defanged by remembering "there's really more to me than that." These first few chapters have gone up very quickly - my free time, summer. I'll slow down soon, but will post the chapters as they are written. jeanne

• Come Fly Away with Me - Preface
• "Eloise" at the Convent - Chapter 1
• Ma Bête Noire - Midface 1 - a kind of preface that interrupts the story
• Little Maids All in a Row - Chapter 2
• There's More to Art than Finishing It, Mother - Midface 2
• The Little Japanese Girl - Chapter 3
• Home, Pascagoula, and Mother's Victory Garden - Chapter 4
• Home? - Chapter 5
• The Railroad House - Chapter 10
• Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: It hurts just like it always did. - Chapter 11
• Discovering Penis Envy - Chapter 47

News on Immigration, Family Unification, and Population Explosion

Immigration runs into all the problems of parts of the family having citizenship on one side of the border, parts on the other side. No problem, except that as migration patterns swell during nation-state disputes, real people hurt. No, I'm not talking about the Mexican -U.S. border. I'm talking about Palestine-Israel. These questions are never simple. Here's a story that may help you see how complicated it all gets: Immigration, Family Unification, and Population Explosion

News on HIV / AIDS

From The BodyPro. There is some concern amongst treating professionals that the attempt to put all medicines into a pill that can be taken once a day is likely to run into problems with drug resistances that may result from some mixtures of drugs. While it is true that a once-a-regimen is easier to follow, practitioners caution that we must not move too quickly to convenience if it sacrifices long-term well-being.

One of the motivators for switching over to the once-a-day regimen is poor and disadvantaged populations. Also easier to get one pill per day per patient into developing countries.

If you wish to follow such developments do so on The Body, a site dedicaated to keeping us up to date on the fight against HIV / AIDS.

Insurance Coverage for Human Papilloma Virus HPV Vaccine - Recommended for all young girls by 11 or 12 years of age

from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

July 3, 2006

"Health insurance company WellPoint Inc. said Thursday it will cover Merck & Co.'s vaccine that blocks the two types of the STD human papillomavirus (HPV) responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancers. Earlier on Thursday, CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended the Gardasil vaccine be routinely given to girls ages 11-12. Health officials estimated that more than half of sexually active women and men will be infected with one or more types of HPV in their lifetime. WellPoint said its decision to cover Gardasil was prompted by the committee's recommendation. [Source: Associated Press, 06.29.06.] "

Materials on the Dada Art Movement

Dada's Women, Ahead of Their Time Another New York Show. Backup.

I need to recheck some of these links. I thought I backed them all up, but things were pretty hectic. As soon as I can take a break from narrative writing I'll be puting up lectures on this. We'll use the concept in Moot court this Fall because the Dada movement occurred in a time very similar to our own - in which people felt a kind of despair, and artists responded with the kind of inanity they saw all around them. jeanne

For more on understanding why and how artists engage in the process of trying to change traditional museum-bound painting, go to Dada as Arts Politically and Socially Opposed to Some of the Consequences of Our Culture and Our Preference for the Rational and The Arrogance of its Knowingness. And don't miss Paul Tractman's Dada, The Irreverent, Rowdy Revolution in the May 2006 Smithsonian Magazine Online. Backup. And now 'Dada' at MoMA: The Moment When Artists Took Over the Asylum By Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, June 16, 2006.

Why School Is Like It Is

What's the big idea? Toward a pedagogy of idea power. by S. Papert. Our topic for Moot Court in Fall 2006 will be Thinking, For All of Us, By All of Us This reading will is one from a graduate MIT course, Technologies for Creative Learning, Fall 2004, by Prof. Mitchel Resnick. I'll have more up on this shortly. jeanne

Visual Sociology

• Dada
  
  
  Francis M. Naumann Fine Art
  Beatrice Wood's "Thank God for Television," circa 1958.

• Dada's Women, Ahead of Their Time By Holland Carter. New York Times, Art Section, July 6, 2006. Backup Talk about postmodern!

• Visual AIDS
  Second week posted.
  

  "fiery turd," 1998
  Chuck Nanney
  Latex on canvas, wire, 1" x 6.25" x 3"

  References:

  • July's Web Gallery: Vital Signs. Not only unusual media, but also the revisioning (seeking another perspective) of unusual sights, things we sometimes refuse to see. Note how similar this is to Facing Their Scars and Finding Beauty this is.

  • Visual AIDS. Founded in 1988 by arts professionals as a response to the effects of AIDS on the arts community and as a way of organizing artists, arts institutions, and arts audiences towards direct action, Visual AIDS has evolved into an arts organization with a two-pronged mission. 1) Through the Frank Moore Archive Project, the largest slide library of work by artists living with HIV and the estates of artists who have died of AIDS, Visual AIDS historicizes the contributions of visual artists with HIV while supporting their ability to continue making art and furthering their professional careers. 2) In collaboration with museums, galleries, artists, schools, and AIDS service organizations, Visual AIDS produces exhibitions, publications, and events utilizing visual art to spread the message 'AIDS IS NOT OVER.' "

  Curator's Statement Curator, Catharina Manchanda, of Germany, does a hepful critique of the art in a July 2006 selection of art on Vital Signs. Take the time to look at the whole selection on the site of The Body, and to follow the curator's interpretation. Sometimes art says what words cannot.

• Art As a Social Catalyst Third week posted.
  
  Richard Perry/The New York Times

  Louise Benoit, left, and her sister Rebecca, who were badly burned in a house fire that killed five relatives, with portraits by an artist in Hoboken, N.J. from Facing Their Scars, and Finding Beauty

  These photographs really struck me when the NY Times published them. Recall Goffman's Stigma.

  References

  • Backup of Facing Their Scars, and Finding Beauty.
  • Celebrating Erving Goffman, 1983 By Eliot Freidson, in Contemporary Sociology, 12 (4) July, 1983: 359-362. "This paper was read at a memorial session for Erving Goffman at the Eastern Sociological Society meeting in Baltimore, March 4, 1983. I was asked to discuss his early work. Others discussed his later work." Discussion of Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylum, and Stigma.Freidson speaks of "Goffman's deep moral sensibility, the compassion he displays for those whose selves are attacked, whose identities are spoiled, whom the social world through its ordinary members and its official agents, seeks to shape to its convenience. In all this Goffman is as much moralist as analyst, and a celebrant and defender of the self against society rather than, as might be expected of a sociologist who cites Durkheim, a celebrant of society and social forces." A few paragraphs from the end of the file. Consulted on July 2, 2006.

A Range of Sources on Global Info

Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation - The Cato Institute (Libertarian)
BBC NEWS | Americas - truthout - Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - La Opinion - The Washington Post
Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor - Palestine Report
The American Prospect

Memorandum, Political Web - Diggs - College Network of New York Times - New York Times Learning Network

Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile - KPFK Progressive Radio
Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group - Mirror of Justice

Theory, Policy, Practice of a Career by jeanne and Susan.

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