Norman Mailer: Jan. 31, 1923 - Nov. 10, 2007

Another of the few Americans writing with intelligence, compassion, concern, and thought has died.

Norman Mailer

If for nothing else than the following remarks excerpted from his contribution to The New York Review of Books' article in its issue of November 4, 2004, Vol.51, No.17, "The Election and America's Future", he earned undying respect and admiration, at least from the writer of this blog. His was another voice which will be sorely missed and hardly possible to replace.

A victory for Bush may yet be seen as one of our nation's unforgettable ironies. No need to speak again of the mendacities, manipulations, and spiritual mediocrity of the post–9/11 years; the time has come to recover from the shock that so abysmal a record (and so complete a refusal to look at the record) looks nonetheless likely to prevail. Who, then, are we? In just what kind of condition are the American people?
[...]
People in Alcoholics Anonymous speak of themselves as dry drunks. As they see it, they may no longer drink, yet a sense of imbalance at having to do without liquor does not go away. Rather the impulse is sequestered behind the faith that God is supporting one's efforts to remain sober.
Giving up booze may have been the most heroic act of George W.'s life, but America could now be paying the price. George W.'s piety has become a pomade to cover all the tamped-down dry-drunk craziness that still stirs in his livid inner air.
[...]
Perhaps it is no longer Jesus or Allah who oversees our fate but the turn of the Greek gods to take another run around the track. When it comes to destiny, they were the first, after all, to conceive of the Ironies.

And he is remembered especially in New York and Old Europe:

The New York Times
Focus

Norman Mailer, mort d'un géant de la littérature américaine
LEMONDE.FR 10.11.07

©

A Real No-Brainer !

The playpen's infamous chainy once called waterboarding a no-brainer, and meant that anyone with a brain must know it's something you do when you want information from someone resisting your efforts to get it out of him, necessary for the war on terror, etc. At the time I could only take no-brainer literally and consider the chainy one to be one with none, i.e. with no brain. If you waterboard someone you can probably get him to confess to having given birth to the virgin Mary, to Buddha, and to Abraham Lincoln while smoking a cigar and standing on one foot: really essential information, in other words, and especially reliable, since the only thing the waterboarded person's words mean is "STOP IT!"

So, it is indeed heart-warming to learn that according to

a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. telephone poll of 1,024 American adults
Waterboarding is torture
Story Highlights
69 percent say technique is torture; 58 percent say U.S. shouldn't use it.
Interrogation method an issue in attorney general nomination.
Michael Mukasey's refusal to reject technique troubles some senators.

Let us hope that ever more see the light!

Pakistan Syndrome

Pakistan's got nuclear weapons, tests them, threatens its neighbor India with them, is in an unending conflict over Kashmir, and is home to throngs of fundamentalist Islamists, terrorists, Taliban leaders, and even al-Qaida militants. So the president there puts the constitution out of effect, declares emergency powers and arrests thousands of opposition members (of the democratic, not fundamentalist or islamist variety), and gets slapped on the wrist by Condy, while the bushbaby says its important to keep funding the junta's military. Is that the BBW3 beginning? Is that an explosive device about to fall into the hands of terrorists?
With friends like those...
North African terrorists unite in joint efforts with al-Qaida, which calls for attacks on Spanish, French, and U.S. interests there. Or is this the beginning?
Guantánamo's closure, in the face of court cases, is once again being "considered" (until the court cases are over, probably). Justice would demand immediate closure without discussion and the trial of those being held there in a court of law. A country that is a model democracy would do so. Its closure might just convince some enemies of US sincerity and reduce the risk of war.
But perhaps the playpen is suffering from the Pakistan Syndrome.
Or wishes to do it like Putin in his neo-czarist Russia.
Or like the commando communist capitalists of the "People's" Republic of China.
Or pick your dictator or leader on the way to becoming one or wishing he could be one at the very least.
Sources for these remarks:
All English, American, French, German, and Italian newspapers that are not boulevard rags.

18 Years Later

EunSook Lee, S. Korean artist, has installed this plastic illuminated “wall” from 31 Oct - 9 Nov, 2007, to "fall" on the 18th anniversary of the fall of what you can see below. The art is a lot friendlier than the real thing was (and the art is on the correct side of, but not as far away from, the Gate as the real thing, since a street is now there full of traffic).

Life in the city.

Mutating Pumpkins

On the day after Halloween, Jennifer's jack'o'lantern is well on the way to turning into a real spook. Here's a picture of another such case of the bushbabyblight debilitating pumpkins. First they regurgitate their innards, then get a whitish mold, and finally end up moulting like this.


In other news, the Saudis, the royal family, are still kindly supporting western democracy by financing the publication of hate literature and calls for killing gays, apostates, critics of Islam, etc. and paying for distribution of it in mosques in Great Britain. Also in the US? in Germany? in France?

With friends like these, who needs enemies ...

Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Weaver and agencies
Tuesday October 30, 2007
"The controversial state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which got under way today with a lavish ceremony, has prompted new criticism over his regime's alleged role in distributing hate literature in British mosques.
[...]
Some of the literature advocated violent jihad, murdering gay people and stoning adulterers, its researchers found.
Most of the material is produced by agencies closely linked to the Saudi regime, according to the investigation."


The Independent
Hate material 'in one in four UK mosques'
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Published: 30 October 2007
"Material urging hatred of other religions can be found in mosques across Britain, most of it linked to Saudi Arabia, according to a new investigation."

Marcelin Pleynet

Marcelin Pleynet, dans "Situation" dans le n°100 de L'Infini, écrit sur le secret selon lequel il a vécu depuis des décennies et qui me plaît énormément:

« Qui pense le plus profond aime le plus vivant. »

In English this can be rendered:

"The deepest thinker is the liveliest lover."

And is what Marcelin Pleynet describes in the most recent issue of L'Infini as the secret by which he has lived for decades. I agree.

Auf Deutsch:

»Wer am tiefsten denkt, liebt am lebendigsten.«

Was Marcelin Pleynet als sein Lebensgeheimnis beschreibt in der neuesten Ausgabe von L'Infini. Toll !

Reading recommended ...

Salmon Rushdie: Shalimar the Clown

Frédéric Berthet: Journal de Trêve

Jonathan Littell: Les Bienveillantes

Ohan Pamuk: Snow (Eng. transl.)

Martin Heidegger: Feldweg-Gespräche

Philippe Sollers: Un vrai roman

Philippe Sollers: Guerres secrètes

Noam Chomsky: Failed States

Yannick Haenel: Cercle

Reform Iran

Promote all efforts for democratic reform and human rights in Iran !

Iran : le parti réformateur désapprouve la politique internationale d'Ahmadinejad
LEMONDE.FR 26.10.07

©

The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2007
Filed at 3:22 p.m. ET

"U.S. military action would also likely silence the domestic opposition to Ahmadinejad as people rally around the government. The head of the largest pro-reform party, Mohsen Mirdamadi, has warned a U.S. attack would set back chances for reform and democracy in Iran by decades."

Can Europe Teach the Playpen Justice ?

At least there is another effort to force one denizen of the playpen to answer to charges he condoned &/or ordered torture of prisoners. Rumsfeld has been charged in France. Perhaps he will, under cross-examination in a court of law, finally have to explain what he thinks his actions had to do with protecting the system of justice and law on which democracy is based.

The following links provide more information. The French link has further links to the court documents themselves.

Rumsfeld poursuivi en France pour tortures
Libération, 26. octobre 2007

Donald Rumsfeld dans le viseur de la justice. Plusieurs organisations de défense des droits de l’homme ont déposé plainte pour torture à l’encontre l’ancien secrétaire américain à la Défense Donald Rumsfeld (2001-2006), de passage à Paris depuis jeudi.
La Fédération internationale des droits de l’Homme (FIDH), la Ligue française des droits de l’Homme (LDH), l’organisation américaine Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) et l’association allemande European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) reprochent à Rumsfeld d’avoir été l’instigateur de sévices contre des prisonniers détenus dans les geôles de Guantanamo à Cuba et d’Abou Ghraib en Irak.

The New York Times
International / Europe
Groups Tie Rumsfeld to Torture in Complaint
By DOREEN CARVAJAL
Published: October 27, 2007

PARIS, Oct. 26 — Several human rights organizations based in the United States and Europe have filed a complaint in a Paris court accusing former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture.

The Washington Post
Torture Complaint Filed Against Rumsfeld
By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD The Associated Press Friday, October 26, 2007; 2:57 PM

PARIS -- American and European rights groups filed a legal complaint in France accusing former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay.

Tantamount to a Declaration of War ?

The military of another sovereign nation, whether it's a nation one likes or dislikes (and I sure have NO positive feelings for the current Iran), is one of that nation's institutions. If one declares the military, or a part of it, a terrorist organization -- which for the playpen means enemy, means incarcerable, means to be fought at all costs, means to be eliminated -- isn't that tantamount to declaring the entire government terrorist? ...the entire country? Isn't that the first announcement of war against that country? Isn't that the way the bushbaby did it with Afghanistan (where Karzai yesterday questioned why the US is still bombing his country six years later) and later with Iraq (where Turkey now wants to get in on the game, this time against playpen Kurdish pets)? Wasn't it the bushbaby who last week said we should be worried about WWIII in connection with Iran? Is it possible he knows why? ...and that he's the reason? Is bushbaby war 3 on the way? BBW3

US imposes sweeping sanctions on Tehran Iran - Guardian Unlimited:

"The sanctions target the 125,000-strong Iranian revolutionary guard (IRG), one of the best-resourced parts of the country's military, with its own tanks and planes. It also owns hotels, oil companies and other businesses. The Bush administration went a step further with the IRG's elite Quds division, responsible for covert actions abroad, labelling it a terrorist organisation, the first time a state's military has been put on America's terrorist list."

Guy Môquet ( 26-IV-1924 — 22-X-1941 )

Brief information about the young communist imprisoned by his own countrymen in France and turned over by them to the Nazis for execution in reprisal for the assassination of a German Nazi officer in France. Here is the letter that Sarkozy has ordered read in all French schools today in memoriam, as well as the poem Guy was carrying when he was arrested by French police on October 15, 1940. Sarkozy has NOT included a reading of that poem in his order.

The letter:

Ma petite maman chérie, mon tout petit frère adoré, mon petit papa aimé,
Je vais mourir ! Ce que je vous demande, toi, en particulier ma petite maman, c’est d’être courageuse. Je le suis et je veux l’être autant que ceux qui sont passés avant moi. Certes, j’aurais voulu vivre. Mais ce que je souhaite de tout mon coeur, c’est que ma mort serve à quelque chose. Je n’ai pas eu le temps d’embrasser Jean. J’ai embrassé mes deux frères Roger et Rino. Quant au véritable je ne peux le faire hélas !

J’éspère que toutes mes affaires te seront renvoyées, elles pourront servir à Serge, qui je l’escompte sera fier de les porter un jour.

A toi, petit Papa, si je t’ai fait, ainsi qu’à petite Maman, bien des peines, je te salue une dernière fois. Sache que j’ai fait de mon mieux pour suivre la voie que tu m’as tracée. Un dernier adieu à tous mes amis et à mon frère que j’aime beaucoup. Qu’il étudie bien pour être plus tard un homme.

17 ans et demi ! Ma vie a été courte !

Je n’ai aucun regret, si ce n’est de vous quitter tous.

Je vais mourir avec Tintin, Michels.

Maman, ce que je te demande, ce que je veux que tu me promettes, c’est d’être courageuse et de surmonter ta peine. Je ne peux pas en mettre davantage. Je vous quitte tous, toutes, toi Maman, Serge, Papa, je vous embrasse de tout mon cœur d’enfant.

Courage !

Votre Guy qui vous aime

The poem:

Parmi ceux qui sont en prison
Se trouvent nos 3 camarades
Berselli, Planquette et Simon
Qui vont passer des jours maussades

Vous êtes tous trois enfermés
Mais patience, prenez courage
Vous serez bientôt libérés
Par tous vos frères d’esclavage

Les traîtres de notre pays
Ces agents du capitalisme
Nous les chasserons hors d’ici
Pour instaurer le socialisme

Main dans la main Révolution
Pour que vainque le communisme
Pour vous sortir de la prison
Pour tuer le capitalisme

Ils se sont sacrifiés pour nous
Par leur action libératrice.

Wikipedia English:

On 20 October 1941, the commanding officer of the German occupation forces in Loire-Atlantique, Karl Hotz, was assassinated by three communist resisters. Pierre Pucheu, Interior Minister of the Pétain government, chose Communist prisoners to be given as hostages “in order to avoid letting 50 good French people get shot.” His selection comprised 18 imprisoned in Nantes, 27 at Châteaubriant, and 5 from Nantes who were imprisoned in Paris.
Two days later, the 27 prisoners at Châteaubriant were shot in three groups. They refused blindfolds, and died crying out “Vive la France” (“Long live France”). Guy Môquet, the youngest, was executed at 4PM.

Wikipedia Deutsch:

Als am 20. Oktober 1941 der deutsche Oberstleutnant Karl Hotz in Nantes Opfer eines Attentats wurde, ordnete Hitler drakonische Vergeltungsmaßnahmen an. "Um zu verhindern, dass man 50 gute Franzosen erschießen lässt," lieferte der französische Innenminister Pierre Pucheu aus verschiedenen Gefängnissen 50 Geiseln den Nationalsozialisten aus, davon 27 aus dem Lager Châteaubriant.
Am 22. Oktober 1941 wurde der erst 17 Jahre alte Guy Môquet zusammen mit 26 anderen Geiseln in Châteaubriant von deutschen Soldaten erschossen. Unter den Opfern befanden sich auch die Widerstandskämpfer Charles Michel und Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Guy Môquet war das jüngste Opfer.

Wikipedia French:

Le 20 octobre 1941, Karl Hotz, commandant des troupes d'occupation de la Loire-Inférieure, est exécuté à Nantes par trois jeunes communistes. Le ministre de l'Intérieur du gouvernement de collaboration de Pétain, Pierre Pucheu, sélectionne des otages communistes « pour éviter de laisser fusiller cinquante bons Français » : dix-huit emprisonnés à Nantes, vingt-sept à Châteaubriant et cinq Nantais emprisonnés à Paris.
Deux jours plus tard, neuf poteaux sont dressés à la Sablière, vaste carrière à la sortie de Châteaubriant. En trois groupes, les vingt-sept otages s'y appuient, refusent qu'on leur bande les yeux et s'écrient: « Vive la France ! » devant le peloton d'exécution. Guy Môquet est le plus jeune. Il a un évanouissement mais il est fusillé dans cet état. Il est abattu à 16 heures. Avant d'être fusillé, il avait écrit une lettre à ses parents.

In a Different Light ...

Berlin's Festival of Lights as we saw it yesterday evening in just our part of town and photographed it less than perfectly. Nonetheless, the illuminations are captivating; the photos give a bit of an idea of what light can do and remind me of how much better the eye is than a camera lens.

So don't listen to the bushbaby threatening a world war while claiming to warn against the one only he and his fellow fundamentalists of all colors, religions, and countries want. The bombs blew up in Pakistan yesterday, the land the playpen claims as ally. Turkey plans to invade the Kurdish portion of Iraq because it harbors terrorists (which reminds one of the justification for attacking Afghanistan 6 years ago, still no success).

Instead of crying and moaning over all that be open for what you can do nothing but enjoy and relish in. Let something beautiful gaze at you and gaze back at it. Love, and gaze with the four eyes of two lovers at the wonders abound you. Light up your world!

Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2007

Take the time to see how freedom of the press is doing. Reporters Without Borders has just issued its new ranking, and also provides complete insight into how the statistics were prepared.

Germany is now at rank 20, up from last year; France now up to 31; USA up to 48; UK up to 24. Russia is "up" to place 144; China "stable" at 163.

Top ranked and tied for 1st place are Iceland and Norway.

At the bottom are Eritrea (169), North Korea (168), and Turkmenistan (167).

Use the link to view the entire report in English or French, download it, or share it.

Reporters sans frontières - Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2007

Peace Outside the Playpen

Congratulations to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize !

Here the press release from the Norwegian Nobel Committee:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states.
Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent.
Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.
By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian
Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control.
Oslo, 12 October 2007

And let us hope that those in the playpen, those in Peking, and those elsewhere resisting efforts to rescue the environment will hear the bell tolling ... finally.

Documentary on the Caricature Controversy

To get more information on the inflammatory reactions to the Mohammed caricatures, the trials, the murders, the arsons, the cowardice, the bravery, it's a good idea to watch this new film.
It is being shown on the German/French cultural channel ARTE on Tuesday, Oktober 16, at 8:40 pm. The French title is Sacrées caricatures, and under the title link on the ARTE site you can view the entire documentary in French. The German title is Teuflische Karikaturen, and under that title link at ARTE you can view the German trailer with Caroline Fourest's introduction to the film.
In English, it is being shown on BBC World on 20-10-2007 at 12:10, 19:10, and 07:10 (GMT); on 21-10-2007 at 17:10, 04:10, and 09:10 (GMT); and on 22-10-2007 at 01:10 (GMT) under the title Bloody Cartoons. Under this link is info about the film and the English language trailer for it.
And finally, a link to the Danish caricatures themselves that served to remind us of who is for and who is against freedom of speech and thinking as opposed to canting and believing.
Thinking is not easy, but it IS liberating, it IS what being human is all about...

Torture by any other name...

... remains a crime against humanity, and is certainly no method to convince would-be fundamentalist terrorists to see the light of democratic principles of freedom, rights, and justice.

So, that means, Auntie Times got it right again:

The New York Times
Editorial
On Torture and American Values
Published: October 7, 2007
Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values.
The Bush administration has dishonored that history and squandered that respect. As an article on this newspaper’s front page last week laid out in disturbing detail, President Bush and his aides have not only condoned torture and abuse at secret prisons, but they have conducted a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies. [...]
Is this a nation that tortures human beings and then concocts legal sophistries to confuse the world and avoid accountability before American voters?

Brita Entered a New Half-Century ...

... and we forgot to congratulate her. Excuses abound: literature festival, sister's visit, etc., etc.
But it's embarrassing and she's one of our dearest friends and now she's fifty and probably even more sensitive.
We beg forgiveness and send belated best wishes for a wonderful new semi-century!

/for a new second half of the first decade of that second century/ is what should have been said here, as it was her 55th b'day we simple minds forgot to congratulate her on !

Hölderlin...

This poet speaks hope, truth, being; don't forget, think, go forward, see light.

"Wo aber Gefahr ist, wächst

Das Rettende auch."

- Friedrich Hölderlin, Patmos, Dem Landgrafen von Homburg, 1802-03/1805

Mais là où il y a danger, croît

Ce qui sauve aussi.

But where danger is, increases

that which saves as well.

- trad./trans. RG

The Worried Mom Overture

Thanks to my sister for putting me on to this musical tribute to mothering types everywhere (and to those who survived them and thrived because and despite but also only due to them).

And this is also a little tribute to the Countess. If anyone from Chicora Court catches it, it's also a tribute to all of you.

YOU CANNOT READ THIS IF YOU'RE IN BURMA !

Yet another example of the fear dictators and repressive regimes have of free exchange of information is so-called Myanmar's government shutting down the Internet in Burma: too much information was getting into and out of the country that some of the starving population were nudging towards change.

The New York Times
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too
By SETH MYDANS
Published: October 4, 2007
BANGKOK, Oct. 3 — It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet.

Such examples bear recalling whenever anyone in our western democracies calls for more control over information, access to it, and exchange of it. Governments have no right to control what the inhabitants of the countries they serve read, watch, say, hear, write, or otherwise express or perceive.

UPDATE: Use this link to sign the petition in support of the Burmese people. (And thanks to Jennifer for providing the link.)