*Short Music Review

Bon Jovi's Have a Nice Day came out today. Apparently I was not the only one to make a point of buying it, as the cashier said it was a big seller.

I must say this is their most palatable album in years. There are hardly any goofy "Jon songs"...in fact, I don't remember hearing the name of a single glorified criminal. Of course, I'll have to listen again to be absolutely sure. Dr. Phil gets a mention, but it's towards the end, so that's okay.

I recommend it.

*Sho'ah

The best way we can honor Simon Wiesenthal is to remember.

You can take a virtual tour of Auschwitz.

Or buy Terrence Des Pres's The Survivor and familiarize yourself with the term "excremental assault". (An excerpt in the extended.)

Do either of these and I don't think you'll forget the images.

Everybody in the block had typhus...it came to Belsen Bergen in its most violent, most painful, deadliest form. The diarrhea caused by it became uncontrollable. It flooded the bottom of the cages, dripping through the cracks into the faces of the women lying in the cages below, and mixed with blood, pus and urine, formed a slimy, fetid mud on the floor of the barracks.

There was one latrine for thirty to thirty two thousand women and we were permitted to use it only at certain hours of the day. We stood in line to get into this tiny building knee-deep in human excrement. As we all suffered from dysentery, we could rarely wait until our turn came, and soiled our ragged clothes, which never came off our bodies, thus adding to the horror of our existence by the terrible smell which surrounded us like a cloud.

Excremental assault was employed by the Nazis on purpose to dehumanize the Jews. It's easier to kill a disgusting, unsanitary animal than a fellow human being.

*Revenge of the Nerds v.2.0

Apparently, a remake is in the works.

In the immortal words of Dudley Dawson, "I say we blow the f---ers up."

*3

One of the gifts I received for my birthday was the ESPN movie "3". Now, I've seen the movie before, of course, but I haven't watched it on DVD yet. The DVD set comes with Dale Earnhardt interviews and racing highlights, and I've been watching those instead.

Let me tell you...I am one of those people who still misses that black car on race days. And watching the shortened races they have on the DVD has been nice. In each of the races there is a black number 3 car. Just like there oughta be.

I have several old videotaped Daytona races that are collecting dust, but I just might have to pull one or two out for a look-see one of these days.

"The only thing worse than seeing the number 3 in your rearview mirror is not seeing the number 3 at all."

Indeed.

*Old Zealand

For the curious.

*Sappy McSap

While on break during my last class, I saw that I had a voicemail message...I checked it and was treated to the best rendition of "Happy Birthday" ever. My mom, niece, and nephew were singing it for me.

I got a little misty-eyed, I admit.

This was actually a pretty good birthday. It proves I don't need to go out and get drunk--I just need people to pay attention to me. And give me things.

Thanks to all of you who paid attention to me today. Or gave me things. Or both.

Who Died on Jen's birthday

Since this blog used to be about history I figured that this might be of some interest..

891 Pope Steven V- The pontificate of Stephen V (or VI) witnessed the disintigration of the Carolingian Empire.
1523 Pope Adrian VI - Adrian VI was the only Dutch pope, and the last non-Italian pope to be elected until Pope John Paul II in the twentieth century.
1759 Louis Montcalm French general (Plains of Abraham), dies at 47
1836 Aaron Burr 3rd VP, dies
1852 Arthur Wellesley General/Duke of Wellington, dies at 83
1901 Pres William McKinley dies in Buffalo, of gunshot wounds inflicted
by an assassin. VP Theodore Roosevelt became president
1911 Piotr Stolypin Russia's PM assassinated by Mordka Bogrov
1927 Isadora Duncan dies as her scarf became entangled in her car's wheel
1966 Gertrude Berg actress (Molly Goldberg-The Goldbergs), dies at 66
1974 Vera Vague [Barbara Jo Allen], actr (Follow the Leader), dies at 70
1974 Warren Hull actor (Strike it Rich, Who in the World), dies at 71
1982 Bashir Gemayel Lebanon's president-elect, killed by a bomb
1982 Grace Kelly princess of Monaco, dies at 52 in a car crash
1984 Janet Gaynor actress, dies at 77 from a traffic accident
1988 Louis Quinn actor, dies at 73 of cancer
1991 Julie Bovasso actress (Saturday Night Fever), dies at 61 of cancer

On a brighter note Checkov was born today - 1938 Walter Koenig Chicago Ill
as was Mary Crosby LA Calif in 1959

*I Am Cornholio!

I've never been more awake.

Cake and ice cream for breakfast (because my sister rocks the free world)...followed by a glass of Diet Pepsi...followed by a large caramel cappucino courtesy Candidate J. And that was all before 10:00.

Wheeee!

Required Reading

For me, not for you. Your reading of it is strictly voluntary, but I found it interesting.

It's an article on anthropology and counterinsurgency. It's a bit lengthy, so I want to include a quote from the end of the piece which I thought was notable:

Regardless of whether anthropologists decide to enter the national-security arena, cultural information will inevitably be used as the basis of military operations and public policy. And, if anthropologists refuse to contribute, how reliable will that information be? The result of using incomplete "bad" anthropology is, invariably, tailed operations and failed policy. In a May 2004 New Yorker article, "The Gray Zone: How a Secret Pentagon Program Came to Abu Ghraib," Seymour Hersh notes that Raphael Patai's 1973 study of Arab culture and psychology, The Arab Mind, was the basis of the military's understanding of the psychological vulnerabilities of Arabs, particularly to sexual shame and humiliation.61

Patai says: "The segregation of the sexes, the veiling of the women . . . , and all the other minute rules that govern and restrict contact between men and women, have the effect of making sex a prime mental preoccupation in the Arab world." Apparently, the goal of photographing the sexual humiliation was to blackmail Iraqi victims into becoming informants against the insurgency. To prevent the dissemination of photos to family and friends, it was believed Iraqi men would do almost anything.62

As Bernard Brodie said of the French Army in 1914, "This was neither the first nor the last time that bad anthropology contributed to bad strategy." Using sexual humiliation to blackmail Iraqi men into becoming informants could never have worked as a strategy since it only destroys honor, and for Iraqis, lost honor requires its restoration through the appeasement of blood. This concept is well developed in Iraqi culture, and there is even a specific Arabic word for it: al-sharaf, upholding one's manly honor. The alleged use of Patai's book as the basis of the psychological torment at Abu Ghraib, devoid of any understanding of the broader context of Iraqi culture, demonstrates the folly of using decontextualized culture as the basis of policy.63

I have to write a reaction paper on the whole thing and how it relates to the ethics of anthropology, by the way.

Quick Poll

I'm curious. Who here believes in evolution? Which ones of you prefer Creationism, or intelligent design?

I'll be particularly interested in the good Reverend's comments on the matter.

Tuesday's Quote

"He possessed all the disposition to deceive, but wanted the power."

-Frederick Douglass