Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
sporadically produced odds, ends, and essaylets on any number of topics from programming to politics, paramecia to puff pastries.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Got a Great Piece of Male Privilege A Couple Weeks Ago
Being a feminist and having worked on sites like The 3rd WWWave (http://www.3rdwwwave.com), I get vitriol poured in my ear now and then (just like Hamlet's dad, only I'm not dead, although, on the Internet, can you really tell?).
A few weeks back, it was an email message addressed to "c*nts", describing all the ways in which women rule the world, topped off with the reminder that the author doesn't hate all women, just those women who think he's wrong.
Well, I'm one of those women. This person in his missive made a great many inaccurate assertions, broad sweeping statements to a one, and none of them substantiated:
1. A woman will be given a much lighter sentence than a man convicted of the same crime.
Not that I'm aware of. The federal sentencing guidelines (USSG), for example, do not distinguish by gender. Provide your data.
2. A woman can falsely accuse a man of rape or spousal abuse, and he'll be instantly presumed guilty; the law will by default take her side.
Alas, no, as first- and second-year law students get to learn. On the contrary, the woman is often unofficially placed on trial. If deemed "a slut", or otherwise "asking for it", and what c*nt isn't, you know, her attacker will go free and her life is ruined.
3. Women get everything in divorce settlements. Always.
Anything with "always" or "invariably" in a remark about the law is almost surely wrong. It's not at all uncommon these days for divorcing parties to sell the house and split the proceeds. That said, yes, women are more likely to be presumptively the proper parent for primary custody of children (and the attendant child support - and where do you think child support goes, for Mom's trips to Tahiti? No, to support the child), even though, as women, we earn between 70 and 80 cents to you masculine dollar. Both of those facts can be connected to sexist assumptions about proper child-rearing roles and a woman's "place".
4. Women are overcompensated in sexual harrassment lawsuits-an immature joke or gesture does not entitle you to a ten million dollar settlement.
Provide your data. And while you're at it, how many women don't report harrassment (or worse) because they know the system is against them?
Consider this: Rapists in the ranks: Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.
5. Girls get more attention in school than boys do.
Bullshit. Boys are so used to getting the bulk of the attention, that when teachers start actually treating boys and girls equally, boys perceive the situation incorrectly, and see that equal time as unequal. See, e.g., Tanenbaum, L. (1994, July 28). Hey, Teach! The Nation, 280-284.
6. TV sitcoms stereotype men as idiots.
Yes, they do seem to. You, as a man, should do something about it. Don't expect me to clean things up for you, that's just pandering to the stereotype if you do that, isn't it? How about starting by asking yourself why the childlike male and mommy-like female is such an enduring icon. Is your mother the only woman in the world, ever? Why?
7. Violence perpetuated by women against men is seen as acceptable.
Provide your data.
If women ran the world, would we have less representation in government, less money, be told we have to hide ourselves at night to be safe, be demonized by various religions, and all the other crap we alternately fight and put up with daily?
A few weeks back, it was an email message addressed to "c*nts", describing all the ways in which women rule the world, topped off with the reminder that the author doesn't hate all women, just those women who think he's wrong.
Well, I'm one of those women. This person in his missive made a great many inaccurate assertions, broad sweeping statements to a one, and none of them substantiated:
1. A woman will be given a much lighter sentence than a man convicted of the same crime.
Not that I'm aware of. The federal sentencing guidelines (USSG), for example, do not distinguish by gender. Provide your data.
2. A woman can falsely accuse a man of rape or spousal abuse, and he'll be instantly presumed guilty; the law will by default take her side.
Alas, no, as first- and second-year law students get to learn. On the contrary, the woman is often unofficially placed on trial. If deemed "a slut", or otherwise "asking for it", and what c*nt isn't, you know, her attacker will go free and her life is ruined.
3. Women get everything in divorce settlements. Always.
Anything with "always" or "invariably" in a remark about the law is almost surely wrong. It's not at all uncommon these days for divorcing parties to sell the house and split the proceeds. That said, yes, women are more likely to be presumptively the proper parent for primary custody of children (and the attendant child support - and where do you think child support goes, for Mom's trips to Tahiti? No, to support the child), even though, as women, we earn between 70 and 80 cents to you masculine dollar. Both of those facts can be connected to sexist assumptions about proper child-rearing roles and a woman's "place".
4. Women are overcompensated in sexual harrassment lawsuits-an immature joke or gesture does not entitle you to a ten million dollar settlement.
Provide your data. And while you're at it, how many women don't report harrassment (or worse) because they know the system is against them?
Consider this: Rapists in the ranks: Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.
5. Girls get more attention in school than boys do.
Bullshit. Boys are so used to getting the bulk of the attention, that when teachers start actually treating boys and girls equally, boys perceive the situation incorrectly, and see that equal time as unequal. See, e.g., Tanenbaum, L. (1994, July 28). Hey, Teach! The Nation, 280-284.
6. TV sitcoms stereotype men as idiots.
Yes, they do seem to. You, as a man, should do something about it. Don't expect me to clean things up for you, that's just pandering to the stereotype if you do that, isn't it? How about starting by asking yourself why the childlike male and mommy-like female is such an enduring icon. Is your mother the only woman in the world, ever? Why?
7. Violence perpetuated by women against men is seen as acceptable.
Provide your data.
If women ran the world, would we have less representation in government, less money, be told we have to hide ourselves at night to be safe, be demonized by various religions, and all the other crap we alternately fight and put up with daily?
Monday, February 11, 2008
Waterboarding is Officially Torture
As if anyone but a Bush toady had doubts: U.N. says waterboarding should be prosecuted as torture
We're right up there with Latin American dictatorships in the 70s and 80s. Yes, dictatorships. "Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s were known to use waterboarding on political prisoners."
"I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, told a news conference in Mexico City.
Arbour made her comment in response to a question about whether U.S. officials could be tried for the use of waterboarding that referred to CIA director Michael Hayden telling Congress on Tuesday his agency had used waterboarding on three detainees captured after the September 11 attacks.
Violators of the U.N. Convention against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of 'universal jurisdiction' which allows countries to try accused war criminals from other nations, Arbour said.
We're right up there with Latin American dictatorships in the 70s and 80s. Yes, dictatorships. "Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s were known to use waterboarding on political prisoners."
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Meaning of Feminism
M. LeBlanc over at Bitch Ph.D's blog writes about an epiphany from her own sense of surprise over arriving at a band's show and finding out the band is all female:
But in all this trying, all this thinking and learning and analyzing, I never understood something the way I had that night. I looked at these women of the band, these forceful, beautiful, human beings, and I cried. I cried, because seeing them shocked me. The scale of thousands of years of the oppression of women flashed before my eyes, like I was dying.
I thought of the billions of women who have lived and are living. I thought of women raped and forced into slavery, sold for money, held in subjugation. I thought of the sheer numbers of women, which is to say, nearly all of them, who were told explicitly or implicitly that they couldn't do something they wanted to do, because of their sex. Told that they were less smart, less capable, less strong, less worthy, less important than their brothers. Women who didn't go to school because resources were limited and funds were saved for their brothers' education. Women who dropped out of school to care for their siblings. Women who were beaten by their husbands or fathers, women fired for being too sexy or not sexy enough. Women ignored or silenced, women whose writings disappeared because they never existed or never mattered. Women who died trying to terminate a pregnancy. Women, all of them, who feel that they are not worth loving because they do not conform to impossible ideals of beauty, women who hate their bodies, women who starve themselves to death, women who refuse to live their lives the way they want for fear of being scorned because they are not acceptable. Women insulted, abused, downtrodden, scared. Women, all of them, limited by the forces outside them that keep them small and quiet.
If there is anything I can do with my life and my career, to lift women out of poverty and shame, to help them live as full human beings, to take away the shackles of oppression and free them, to exercise their power to live complete, unafraid, glorious lives, I will do it.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Bush: Lies: War
Study: Falsehoods Preceded Iraq War
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top Administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and Administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaeda or both. "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."
The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. "The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Just to Prove How Bizarre I Can Be
I was on the subway the other day, and nosyparker that I am, I always look to see what other people are reading. A woman was reading a book titled "God's Footprints", and the image on the cover was sort of a more modern-looking version (though I can't tell you how) of an Irish trinity symbol, done in black and white.
Being a sick, sick creature, myself, MY first thought was that this image looked like the footprint of ED-209 from Robocop. See!? Look at ED's feet!
So, there you have it. Life's mysteries revealed: God is ED-209.
Being a sick, sick creature, myself, MY first thought was that this image looked like the footprint of ED-209 from Robocop. See!? Look at ED's feet!
So, there you have it. Life's mysteries revealed: God is ED-209.
Monday, January 21, 2008
WWWomen Moves to New URL
The Web, by Women, for Women website is moving to http://wwwomen.3rdwwwave.com/. Please adjust your view of the universe accordingly.
While both the WWWomen and 3rd WWWave web projects are predominantly in maintenance mode, I remain stunned by and proud of what 6 pissed-off women can do with just words. We still get email today from
I'm damn proud. I was a pissed-off feminist in my 20s with an actual Real Woman's Body(tm), and I'm a pissed-off feminist in my 30s with an actual Real Woman's Body(tm) today.
Both projects I think of as a product of the 90s, though 3rd WWWave was more of a millennial work, and while each of us six contributors have moved on to various and sundry things (renewed study, both formal and informal, writing in other venues, life, etc.) none of us have lost our connection with or support of each other in our chosen endeavors.
Web, by Women, for Women, and The 3rd WWWave of Feminism, I salute you, and stand by my younger self's words. And I'll add some new ones, today:
Women are real people, with real body parts.
Women have sex, and sexual desire.
Sometimes women get pregnant.
Mystery about women's bodies isn't some spiffy "mystique". Ignorance kills.
Patriarchy sucks. Hard.
While both the WWWomen and 3rd WWWave web projects are predominantly in maintenance mode, I remain stunned by and proud of what 6 pissed-off women can do with just words. We still get email today from
- emerging feminists, with a happy cry of recognition
- angry men or women trying to use the Bible to make us feel bad
- angry men or women trying to use the Koran to make us feel bad (quite a bit rarer)
- average Jills happy to see a group of women with a casual attitude toward discussing women's bodies out in front of everybody. We're not dirty, and we resent like hell anyone who tries to make us feel that way.
- scholars & editors wanting reprints of specific articles for books, magazines, or other projects
I'm damn proud. I was a pissed-off feminist in my 20s with an actual Real Woman's Body(tm), and I'm a pissed-off feminist in my 30s with an actual Real Woman's Body(tm) today.
Both projects I think of as a product of the 90s, though 3rd WWWave was more of a millennial work, and while each of us six contributors have moved on to various and sundry things (renewed study, both formal and informal, writing in other venues, life, etc.) none of us have lost our connection with or support of each other in our chosen endeavors.
Web, by Women, for Women, and The 3rd WWWave of Feminism, I salute you, and stand by my younger self's words. And I'll add some new ones, today:
Women are real people, with real body parts.
Women have sex, and sexual desire.
Sometimes women get pregnant.
Mystery about women's bodies isn't some spiffy "mystique". Ignorance kills.
Patriarchy sucks. Hard.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Maher Arar's Letelier-Moffitt Award Acceptance Speech
Mr. Arar, you'll recall, is the Canadian national who was illegally mailed to Syria by the US, to be tortured.
His Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award acceptance speech
His Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award acceptance speech
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The Cat That Controls New Hampshire Voting Machine Programming
Reprinted by permission.
***
Please distribute widely, Digg, Blog, reprints, get this to the media, etc.
A YouTube video from Black Box Voting that you won't soon forget:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiaBqwqkXs
THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody in New England -- Or at least, a very large component in it.
Last fall, with the help of citizens like you, Black Box Voting began working on "Chain of Custody" projects, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list for the Northeast U.S. is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.
RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE
In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.
The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.
VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP
One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.
Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.
WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG
Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!
NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY
Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.
Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.
IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.
LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.
CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP
Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.
Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.
Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.
After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.
Our local computer repairman may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the next video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.
I'll post the link to that in a follow up here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/71200.html?1199744175 , and invite you techs to weigh in.
Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.
Bev Harris
Black Box Voting
bev@blackboxvoting.org
* * * * *
This is the year to support Election protection actions: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
or mail to:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
Donations over $45 receive the "Hacking Democracy" DVD as a gift.
***
Please distribute widely, Digg, Blog, reprints, get this to the media, etc.
A YouTube video from Black Box Voting that you won't soon forget:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiaBqwqkXs
THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody in New England -- Or at least, a very large component in it.
Last fall, with the help of citizens like you, Black Box Voting began working on "Chain of Custody" projects, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list for the Northeast U.S. is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.
RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE
In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.
The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.
VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP
One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.
Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.
WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG
Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!
NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY
Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.
Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.
IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.
LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.
CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP
Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.
Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.
Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.
After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.
Our local computer repairman may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the next video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.
I'll post the link to that in a follow up here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/71200.html?1199744175 , and invite you techs to weigh in.
Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.
Bev Harris
Black Box Voting
bev@blackboxvoting.org
* * * * *
This is the year to support Election protection actions: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
or mail to:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057
Donations over $45 receive the "Hacking Democracy" DVD as a gift.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Padilla Suing Yoo
Padilla v. Yoo -- "José Padilla wants John Yoo to have a day in court."
UC Berkeley lawyer who justified harsh treatment of detainees sued
Padilla's complaint, filed last Friday, Jan 04, 2008.
UC Berkeley lawyer who justified harsh treatment of detainees sued
Padilla's complaint, filed last Friday, Jan 04, 2008.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Lakota Nation Declares Sovereign Status, Withdraws from Treaties w/US
I was just catching up on my blog-reading and spotting this from a December post by Cinnamon Swirl: Freedom! Lakota Sioux Indians Declare Sovereign Nation Status, and the Republic of Lakotah website.
Friday, January 04, 2008
"Helicopter Parents" -- Those Meddling Adults
Wow. This is insane.
The curse of the meddling parent: "Helicopter parents" who "hyperactively intervene" in the lives of their offspring could damage their children's job prospects.
I agree with the article - as an employer or manager, you bet I want someone self-reliant.
I'm so glad I grew up before this trend. I've called it "styrofoaming" in the past, in conversations with friends, meaning the relentless insulation by parents of their children from every possible danger, and thus, quite a bit of life. But I think I like "helicopter parents" better.
Or, maybe here in the US it's better considered a form of isolationism, with parent as the border fence, border guards, searches, seizures, security theater, etc., and child as the protected territory. Hm.
The curse of the meddling parent: "Helicopter parents" who "hyperactively intervene" in the lives of their offspring could damage their children's job prospects.
I agree with the article - as an employer or manager, you bet I want someone self-reliant.
I'm so glad I grew up before this trend. I've called it "styrofoaming" in the past, in conversations with friends, meaning the relentless insulation by parents of their children from every possible danger, and thus, quite a bit of life. But I think I like "helicopter parents" better.
Or, maybe here in the US it's better considered a form of isolationism, with parent as the border fence, border guards, searches, seizures, security theater, etc., and child as the protected territory. Hm.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Touch Screens Out in Ohio
Ohio SoS to Cleveland: Ditch the Touch Screens
[New Secretary of State] Jennifer Brunner cast the deciding vote in the 3-2 decision to get rid of Cleveland's touch screen voting machines, which have helped the Republicans cheat their way to victory in the last several elections.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Q's for Candidates, and CIA Torture
Nieman Watchdog lists a series of questions every candidate should get asked. It's not about Bush-bashing, it's about defining how you, Candidate, will operate as president.
Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites".
The CIA's torture teachers
Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites".
The nightmare started for him back in fall 2003. Bashmilah had traveled to Jordan from Indonesia, where he was living with his wife and working in the clothing business. He and his wife went to Jordan to meet Bashmilah's mother, who had also traveled there. The family hoped to arrange for heart surgery for Bashmilah's mother at a hospital in Amman. But before leaving Indonesia, Bashmilah had lost his passport and had received a replacement. Upon arrival in Jordan, Jordanian officials questioned his lack of stamps in the new one, and they grew suspicious when Bashmilah admitted he had visited Afghanistan in 2000. Bashmilah was taken into custody by Jordanian authorities on Oct. 21, 2003. He would not reappear again until he stepped out of a CIA plane in Yemen on May 5, 2005.
Bashmilah's apparent innocence was clearly lost on officials with Jordan's General Intelligence Department. After his arrest, the Jordanians brutally beat him, peppering him with questions about al-Qaida. He was forced to jog around in a yard until he collapsed. Officers hung him upside down with a leather strap and his hands tied. They beat the soles of his feet and his sides. They threatened to electrocute him with wires. The told him they would rape his wife and mother.
It was too much. Bashmilah signed a confession multiple pages long, but he was disoriented and afraid even to read it. "I felt sure it included things I did not say," he wrote in his declaration to the court delivered Friday. "I was willing to sign a hundred sheets so long as they would end the interrogation."
The CIA's torture teachers
According to congressional sources and mental healthcare professionals knowledgeable about the secret program who spoke with Salon, two CIA-employed psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were at the center of the program, which likely violated the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)