All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
Jenny and I will be going to Town Hall tonight to see a preview performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, after a pre-theater dinner at Ruby Foo’s, which I’ve never tried before but have heard is excellent. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
According to Condoleeza Rice, the Bush administration today changed its position on torture, finally determining that the UN Convention against Torture, which bans “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of prisoners, applies even to US personnel even outside of US territory — an interpretation that has been glaringly obvious to everyone else all along.
Let’s just hope that we actually adhere to this new public policy. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that while we’re now officially swearing off such behavior, it’s still going on in secret.
Update: Sadly, it looks like I (and much of the media) jumped the gun on this one. My friend Daniel Kleinfeld posted a couple of clarifying links in the comments, including this one, which explains that Condi’s language has been in use by the administration for some time and does nothing to stop or prevent the continued torture of those we have imprisoned without anything resembling due process.
A group called The Atheist Agenda, out of the University of Texas at San Antonio, has gotten national media attention for its “Smut for Smut” program, in which they set up a table and offered to give pornography to anyone who traded in a Bible or another religious tome. It’s a stunt, clearly, but meant to demonstrate that there’s a lot of dirty business in the Bible, which makes it a questionable basis for morality.
The group’s president, Thomas Jackson, was recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson on MSNBC’s The Situation, and it turns out (no surprise) that Jackson has thought through his position more carefully than Carlson. Said Jackson:
Morality is not derived from religious texts. Religious texts actually contradict each other. If you read the Bible, it contradicts itself on nearly every page. And the fact that people can decide which one to go with shows that they are getting their morality from somewhere else ….
[Morality is] based off of things that are good for society. If citizens murder each other, this is bad for society. And you see this across the board in many nations.
Several religions have stumbled upon this, but it’s not the religious text that’s bringing this to people. They are finding this on their own, and societies that don’t find this don’t survive.
Brilliant. This is a very clear summation of an argument that I’ve often had with religious people who believe that morality is only possible if you believe in God. Indeed, this is so obvious that Talmudic rabbis differentiated between those laws between man and man whose purposes could be rationally understood, and those between man and God, which may or may not lend themselves to human understanding.
So the new American ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, announced his presence by calling North Korea a criminal regime.
Okay, so North Korea did manage to poke America in the eye, which is what triggered Vershbow’s harsh words. North Korea insisted that the US lift economic sanctions, threatening to walk out of the negotiations if we didn’t. So Vershbow was explaining why we weren’t going to back down on this issue:
This is a criminal regime, and we can’t somehow remove our sanctions as a political gesture when this regime is engaging in dangerous activities such as weapons exports to rogue states, narcotics trafficking as a state activity and counterfeiting of our money on a large scale.
Nevertheless, it was totally unnecessary to poke back. We could have said simply that the sanctions, like everything else, could be discussed at the Six-Party Talks once North Korea has dismantled its nuclear program.
Unfortunately, as has so often been the case with the Bush administration, we seem to have decided that a tough stance was worth more than actual progress. What did we gain with our tough talk? If North Korea walks out on the negotiations, we will have succeeded in highlighting our impotence on the Korean Peninsula.
Whatever happened to walking softly and carrying a big stick? At the moment, our big stick is looking stretched and fragile in Iraq, and still our government insists on shouting when a few quiet words would do.
Dance Dance Revolution is back! Now that it’s no longer sweltering, my friend Daniel has broken out the dance pads once again, this time for Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3. This latest version of the game comes with all kinds of bells and whistles, including a quest mode that looks to be blindingly dull — you start out in Sacramento, but succeed at about 30 songs and you can move on to Culver City! — but the biggest improvement is the songs.
The Konami legal department has clearly been busy. Along with the requisite J-pop and techno tracks, you can now get your revolutionary groove on to the B-52s’ “Rock Lobster,” the Clash’s “Hateful,” Devo’s “Whip It” and Run DMC’s “Walk This Way,” among other actually good songs. I found it somewhat distracting to be dancing to songs I like, but I’m sure that would pass with time, and it’s pretty cool to be able to listen to songs I enjoy while playing DDR. (And the song choices indicate that people my age, or even slightly older, are a target demographic.)
Another entertaining feature is a preview of Karaoke Revolution, in which you are scored on the pitch and timing of your vocals, along with some simple dance steps. The demo version only had two songs, so Daniel was forced to sing a white-boy-falsetto version of Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” which he had never heard before. This was a fine experience for all involved.
So the revolution lives on. Our cadre met on Sunday, and today is Tuesday, and my feets is still sore.
Sorry about the technical difficulties last night and today. Everything should be back to normal now.
Slate today has a photo essay on North Korea. Nothing earth-shattering here, but notice that every single picture emphasizes collective activity. In North Korea, no one is ever alone.
When I was a teenager, nothing thrilled me more than going to a rock concert. At clubs like the Filmore and the Stone in San Francisco, the Phoenix in Petaluma and the Berkeley Square in Berkeley (duh), I saw bands like the Limbomaniacs, Dizzybam, the Blüchunks, Nuclear Rabbit, Mr. Bungle and MCM and the Monster. There was a lot of overlap and cross-polination among these bands, most of whom were related in one way or another to Primus, and all of whom were into bizarre theatrics, musical experimentation and very dirty humor.
M.I.R.V. was one of the best of these bands, always putting on a tight, rockin’ show, and now they’ve got all three of their albums, plus a couple of live shows and demos, available as streaming audio on their website. I realize that it really isn’t the same without the live show, but there’s a lot that’s worth a listen. I especially recommend Monkey Boy and Unabomer from Feeding Time on Monkey Island.
Also, WildLupin.com has a great photo page, and has this to say about M.I.R.V.: “Part faith healing, part circus sideshow, part rock opera, M.I.R.V. is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Their music has been described as ‘Frank Zappa strangling KoRn with a little help from Luciano Pavarotti.’ Bizarre as it sounds, that’s quite accurate.”
Indeed.
Jin: Freestyle | Learn Chinese (WMV Video Link)
Jin is a Chinese-American MC from New York’s Chinatown. Part of the Ruff Ryders crew, which also includes DMX and Jadakiss, he is in many ways cut from the same mold — lots of blustery gangsta-talk and hypermachismo — but he definitely brings his own Chinese flavor to the mix. (And please, skip the soy sauce jokes.)
Freestyle begins with a blues riff over which a thickly accented voice is singing way off key: “I was born in China/Moved to the USA/Opened up a restaurant/I worked there every day.” The singer then goes on to tell us about his son, Jin, whose rap opens with the story of his father’s exploitation in China and his decision to move to America and make a new life. It’s the quintessential American story, but decidedly not the African-American story — obviously their ancestors didn’t come here in search of a better life — so it’s something new for hip-hop.
Learn Chinese plays a similar game, this time turning on hip-hop’s fascination with kung-fu movies. In the video, two black guys are watching videos and get all excited when Jin’s comes on. At the same time, Jin is outside the house, knocking on the door and trying to deliver an order of Chinese food before giving up in disgust and storming away. The rest of the video, and the song, are given over to the usual hip-hop bragging, but again with an Asian twist as Jin declares that “Y’all gon’ learn Chinese/When the punks come out, y’all gon’ speak Chinese.” The track, too, has some interesting Asian touches, including backing vocals in Chinese.
No, it’s not genius, but it’s definitely interesting. I expect we’ll be seeing more Asian-American pop and hip-hop as time goes on.
