Generation Y

One of the best blogs out there, from Cuba.

Looking at the FBI's Powers

Worth checking out this NY Times article looking at how much additional leeway agents have been given in the post-Sept. 11 era, and how

even if agents find nothing, the personal information they collect during assessments can be retained in F.B.I. databases, the manual says.

When selecting targets, agents are permitted to consider political speech or religion as one criterion. The manual tells agents not to engage in racial profiling, but it authorizes them to take into account “specific and relevant ethnic behavior” and to “identify locations of concentrated ethnic communities.”

Add that to the Obama administration's continuation of Bush's Homeland Security policies eroding civil liberties, plus their cover-up of Bush admin war crimes, and voila, a perfect example of why we should all read Herta Müller.

Nobel Prize In Literature

Updated

A bit late posting this, but worth noting Herta Müller won the Nobel prize for literature.

In her essay, Securitate in all but name she describes what it was like to be a writer under Ceausescu in Romania, and how even after his execution decades ago his secret service is still active.

There's a pretty good bio of Müller by Verena Auffermann in SignandSight.

Chronic Problems with CDC

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. In "A Case of Chronic Denial" about the news that once again, research shows that a retrovirus is responsible for the lamely named Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Hillary Johnson reminds us that

Congress has appropriated money for research on chronic fatigue syndrome, too, though in far smaller amounts, but the C.D.C. has seemed unwilling to spend it productively. A decade ago, investigations by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services and what was then called the General Accounting Office revealed that for years government scientists had been funneling millions meant for research on this disease into other pet projects.

Furthermore

Hints that a retroviral infection might play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome have been present from the beginning. In 1991, Dr. Elaine DeFreitas, a virologist at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, found retroviral DNA in 80 percent of 30 chronic fatigue patients. The C.D.C. went so far as to try to replicate her effort, but refused to follow her exacting methods for finding the virus. In addition, the centers’ blood samples became contaminated, and some people at the agency said that administrators ended the research prematurely. Rather than admit any such failure, the C.D.C. publicly criticized Dr. DeFreitas’s findings.

That episode had a chilling effect on other researchers in the field, and the search for the cause was largely abandoned for 20 years.

Fuckers.

Ontological Confusion in New York

A Secret Paris

Beehives near the small apple and pear orchard at the Luxembourg Gardens where there are a few grape vines and a persimmon tree as well.

Comité de la jupe

On October 11th, the "Comité de la jupe" (Skirt Committee) met in real life for lunch and inspiration before taking to the Paris streets. These women-led "citizen Catholics," largely organized on the internet, have the ambitious goal of making the Catholic Church more democratic. They also have the odd idea Christians should focus more on the values of Christ.

While I'd like to sneer, I actually found the speech and manifesto really moving. What's not to like about equality and kindness?

On Guns

Field Negro on the pistol-packing woman who toted her gun to her five-year old's soccer games and got shot by her husband. WTF

Some of you might -or might not remember Maleanie Hain. She is the soccer mom who liked to pack heat while attending her kids soccer games. She became a celebrity among the NRA folks and gun lovers here in A-merry-ca, and they defended her with her law suit in her fight to be able to bear arms at her five year old child's soccer games. Well they can withdraw the suit now, because Meleanie Hain is dead. She was shot by her husband in the kitchen of their Lebanon home while her trusty pistol sat in her backpack.

"Meleanie Hain always carried her holstered 9mm Glock pistol, even to the grocery store, and was holding a rifle while she talked to someone outside her house last week..."

According to some of the comments on the FN post, Maleanie was shot by her parole officer husband while webcamming with her boyfriend. They did not live in a trailer.

Let's Hear It For the Blogs

The BBC reports on the growing phenomenon of Cuban bloggers, by and large born after the Soviet fall. Not allied to the dissident movement or independent press, they offer descriptions of daily life, complete with economic disasters, social disintegration, and personal humiliations.

So far, they haven't been harassed as much as the usual independent journalists, partly because they rarely go as far as demanding changes in governmental policy or politicians. Daniel Erikson believes its because the government doesn't understand the power of blogs.

"I suspect there is a generational disconnection between the activities of Raul Castro and Yoani Sanchez," Mr Erikson says.

Killling Queers

New York Magazine's featuring a piece How a Few New Yorkers Are Trying to Save the Hunted Gay Men of Iraq. Murders of queers also increasing in Honduras. Both a reminder that in most countries LGBT rights can't be addressed alone. Pre-existing conditions: a certain amount of democracy, secularism, peace.