Modern Stone-Age Names

One of these days, I'm going to write a story set in a world which has (relatively) advanced technology without having metalworking.

One element of this story is going to be that characters will have "Indian names" (i.e., names which are nouns, verbs and/or adjectives), but names which could pass as "normal" names: Rose Winter, Joy Gold, Amber White, &c.

I have plenty of family names: Smith, Short, Black, Hammer, Harewood, Silver, Miller, Bear, Young, Pine, Potter, Hill, Broadacre, Door, Bale, Pond, Roundtree, Burden, Ransom, Snow, Fish, Hightower, Grass, Linden, &c.

I have plenty of female names: Tulip, Felicity, Holly, Ruby, Hope, Rose, Columbine, Melody&c.

But I'm having trouble with male names: Flint, Walker, Mark, Blue, Spade, Hunter, Stoney, Gray, Rice, Weaver, Oak, Robin, Cooper, Goodman, Cutter....  That's about all I could come up with.

Anybody have any suggestions, especially of male names?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Ball, Black, Pool, Fortune . . . ?"\\

Feminist Graphic Novels

I'm writing to say that Kathe and I have both finished Bitch Planet Volume 1, and will be returning it tomorrow.

In the meantime, I must tell you that neither Kathe nor I liked it very much.  We agreed that it covered ground better tilled by novels like The Handmaid's Tale* and Native Tongues**.

Kathe asked me to come up with a list of better feminist graphic novels, especially ones which depicted a horrific patriarchal dystopia.  I couldn't find that exact thing (unless you would count the Sid Jacobson/Ernie Colon adaptation of the diary of Anne Frank: http://www.amightygirl.com/anne-frank-graphic-novel 

or Marzi: 

http://druidcitycomic.com/graphic-novel-review-marzi-a-memoir/

or Lili Renee:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10866058-lily-renee-escape-artist

or maybe Rosa Parks:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1161932.Rosa_Parks_And_The_Montgomery_Bus_Boycott

and there's a case to be made for The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/888169.Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_Fire), but here are some graphic novels that have come recommended by various people.  Some I have read, some I have not, some which the GNBC has read:

http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/nine-graphic-novels-every-girl-should-read/

http://wrappedupinbooks.org/2014/06/13/feminist-fridays-graphic-novels-reading-lists/

http://bust.com/graphic-novels-by-women-that-you-should-read-now.html

http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/Best-Graphic-Novels-About-Women/588

http://www.amightygirl.com/mighty-girl-picks/graphic-novels

Ody-C tries a different approach to undermining patriarchy, reversing the genders in one of the most influential patriarchalist documents, The Odyssey (which some have claimed was written by a woman): 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25256034-ody-c-vol-1

--  John M. Burt

* http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38447.The_Handmaid_s_Tale

(BTW: A graphic novel of THT is coming soon:  http://groupthink.kinja.com/the-handmaids-tale-graphic-novel-1630506060).

** http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/NativeTongue/Index.html

An Open Letter to Hemlock Andashes and Other "Real" Progressives

There is an interesting article here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/fellow-liberals-dont-harass-the-bigots-please/comments/#disqus

There are a number of interesting comments following it.

But one of the more interesting was this: http://back2theroot.com/2015/04/02/open-letter-to-raw-story-blogger-amanda-marotte-other-faux-progressives/, and I am astonished that I've never heard of back2theroot.com before.

And by "interesting" I mean breathtakingly boring.  I don't think this infantile whiner neglected any sophistry, down to and including Godwin's Law.

And by "astonished" I mean that I could not possibly be less surprised.

Dude, when my wife and I were doing cut-and-paste zines in the 1980s, it was typewritten text we were cutting and pasting to make up pages we could print on a photocopier -- we weren't cutting and pasting weary vanguardist tropes so we could feel all "radical" (and yes, I "get" your oh-so-clever play on words...o_0).

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Do the right thing."\\

I Forgive You For Hating Teen Moms

I have only just discovered the FB page "I Hate Teen Moms" and the unfortunately large group of pages which imitate it. Looking them over has helped me to finally understand why Jesus said "Judge not, lest ye be judged". Clearly, Jesus understood that most people who are extremely judgmental are trying to push away the possibility that they would not measure up to the standards they set themselves, and think that attacking other people they will somehow shield themselves from judgment. Lighten up, people. It won't work. In fact, the best way to feel better about your own failings is the opposite: to be forgiving and understanding of other people.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "I think Jesus said that, too."\\

Christmas Truce Poem

Not long after I finished The Christmas Mutiny, I met a woman writing poems "to order" at the Saturday Market. I commissioned a poem on the subject of the Christmas Truce, but then didn't see her for several months. I learned later she had been out of town most of the time.
Yesterday, she was at the market again, spotted me and delivered the poem. I like it a lot:


The Christmas Truce, by Cassie Ruud

We will not fight today.
We will not let you order us
into these pukish
mud-blood-soaked trenches
on this day.
You took us from our families,
from the arms of our wives and children
and thrown us against each other
for reasons
we do not understand.
So we will not fight today.
We will stand a tree,
sing our songs,
play soccer out in No-Man's-Land
almost far enough away
to hide from the trench stench
We will pretend our darlings
are close to us, show
each other pocketed lockets
full of pictures,
smoke our pipes in silence and stare numbly into the fire.


//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Peace on Earth."\\

God Damn It All

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/a-young-black-man-being-late

Emmett Till was an awfully cute kid, too . . . .

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Inch by inch, row by row."\\

So, I Hear There's This Doonesbury Strip . . . .

Some newspapers don't want to run it.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/assets/pdf/BK186474313.PDF

Others are only putting it up on their web sites -- that way, kids won't see it, I suppose.

http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2012/03/12

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Some people have no sense of humor."\\

Peace On Earth

I have just read Nate Powell's Any Empire, and I like it rather a lot.

It tells, in a non-linear fashion, about how children's "missions", the play which they approach in absolute earnest, shapes their choices in adult life.

I am especially reviewing it here because one of Powell's young protagonists is deeply impressed by the classic cartoon "Peace on Earth", which deeply impressed me, and remains one of my own holiday favorites.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "People say war exists because of 'the nature of the beast', and they are right, but the beast in question is not Homo sapiens but Leviathan."\\

They Broke It

I used to be a free-market anarchist, but that was back when the free market hadn't been broken.

Now? The rotters have broken it as thoroughly as they broke the Code of Honor.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "This is why we can't have nice things."\\

A Flag

Out driving around with Kathe today, I saw a flag I'd never seen before (the one with trees). I was interested enough that we went around and stopped at the house. The woman there said her husband had bought it, and she thought it was the flag of the province of Prince Edward Island, or maybe the personal banner of King Richard the Lionhearted.

I have no idea what either of those things might mean to her husband, but it was an interesting experience.

Oh, and for the record, it is PEI. Richard's banner is the one with three lions.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "A flag can mean many things."\\

The Ronald Reagan Centennial

Let us never forget the many ways in which Ronald Reagan changed the world forever.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Never forget."\\

The Overton Wall

There's been a lot of talk lately about the Overton Window, the range of generally acceptable opinions and positions, the positions which will allow people, even if they disagree with your position, to at least take you seriously.

To say, "Welfare eligibility should be further restricted" is within the Overton Window. To say, "Welfare recipients should be given six months to find jobs or go to concentration camps" is outside it.

One of the great concerns people have is that the Overton Window keeps moving, and it moves according to the statements and actions of a relatively small number of people. When President Richard nixon announced that he would go to China to meet with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the Window moved to meet him. When it was revealed that Justice department lawyer John Yoo had written a secret memo providing a rationale for torture, the window moved.

But what happens to a pundit, candidate, blogger or water-cooler sachem, who misses the Overton Window?

Obviously, s/he hits the Overton Wall [my own coinage -- I Googled to make sure].

I hereby predict that Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and most of their TEA Party classmates in the 2010 election are aimed squarely to the right of the Overton Window, some of them by as much as 45 degrees, and they are going to hit the Overton Wall good and hard.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Normally, I'd wanr you against making bold predictions, but in this case, I'll just suggest that a wise man would make some popcorn."\\

Pastor Jones

Text of a message Kathe and I sent out this morning:

Pastor Jones is back in the news today (first he says he will, and then he won't), and we have decided to donate $20 to the local mosque for the express purpose of providing a copy of the Quran to someone who wants or needs it. We'll inform our local newspapers, also, in the hope that other non-Muslims will follow our example. Maybe we can out-weigh the "pastor's" destruction, for a net increase in the number of Qurans.

We are pretty damned short of money, but we will find $20 in our budget for this purpose, and we hope to persuade some of our friends to do the same.

Considering that "Pastor" Jones' church-and-used-furniture business only has about fifty members, our "action" may be bigger than his.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Comparisons are odious."\\

Dances With Wolves

I took a break from running my Census crew (and I was really, really worn out) to finally* watch Dances With Wolves with Kathe.

Did me a world of good, I'll tell you.

Yes, after a day that really wore me down, I felt a lot better after watching a powerful, beautiful, uplifting film. And eating good food. And rubbing Kathe's feet.

Shortly, when Kathe gets out of the tub, I will go have a soak and go to bed.

Bet that will do me some good, too.

* Yes, "finally", as in, "I never did it before".

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Love yourself; get outside yourself and take action. Focus on the solution; be at peace."\\

Top Ten Good News Stories From the Muslim Nations

10. Saudi Arabia opened its first coeducational college campus, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University. In a country where the sexes have been so separated in public that some have spoken of 'gender Apartheid,' this move, which came from King Abdullah, provoked raging controversy. When a prominent cleric criticized having male and female students on the same campus and the teaching of modern scientific theories like Darwinism, the king summarily fired his ass. It may seem a small thing, but many big social processes start small. Most Americans forget that Princeton U. did not become coed until 1969.

9. Qatar is on track to average 7.5 percent per annum growth for the next few years. The natural gas giant is a cauldron of development activity. It permits Aljazeera satellite news to remain the most open and controversial media outlet in the Arab world. It is expanding the 'Education City' complex, in which many American universities maintain campuses, and which serves as a key educational hub for the Gulf and its region. (This robust expansion contrasts with the difficult times higher education is facing in Dubai).

8. A Pew Forum on Religion and Life poll finds that American Muslims are unusual in the degree to which they are integrated into mainstream American society and demonstrate moderate attitudes, condemning religious extremism and violence. They differ siegnificantly from the profile of Muslims in the UK and Germany, e.g, in these regards. (Muslims in the US are generally from higher class origins and are better educated and wealthier than is typically the case with European Muslims).

7. The information revolution is making strides in the Arab world. A University of Maryland Poll finds that "the use of the internet continued to grow, with 36% stating that they use the internet at least several times a week and only 38% stating that they never use the internet (compared with 52% in 2008).

6. Albania has averaged 10 percent a year growth for each of the last four years, and was the fastest-growing economy in Europe in 2009. It held elections in 2009, and although they were imperfect, an EU report described them [pdf] "as meeting most OSCE commitments," despite flaws. The European Union seems to be giving the country a nod in its application to join the EU. Albania has an especially aggressive government policy toward implementing alternative energy and wants to be the first green country in Europe. It depends heavily on thermal and hydroelectric plants (perhaps too heavily). Brussels concluded this year, "The government took measures towards the development of the sector by issuing licences for the construction of seven wind farms with a total installed capacity of about 1360 MW and one 140 MW biomass thermal power station." Albania, a country of 3.2 million, is 70-80% of Muslim heritage, but a majority of the country is non-religious. That is, these European Muslims are more secular than German, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Polish Christians.

5. The small Gulf oil monarchy of Kuwait took steps toward greater democracy and rule of law. Women were given the vote in 2005, and in the May parliamentary elections, 4 women were for the first time elected to the 50-seat parliament, and fundamentalists only gained 16 seats, down from 24 previously. As Greg Gause points out, in December parliament was allowed to go forward with a vote of no-confidence in the prime minister, which he survived. What is significant is that he is from the ruling Al-Sabah family and it had previously not been considered dignified to subject a high official from the family to such a vote.

4. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world at about 230 mn., had successful parliamentary elections in 2009, further consolidating the country's decade-old democracy. Secular parties did better this year, and support for Muslim fundamentalism dropped, both in the voting both and in opinion polls. President Barack Obama's enormous popularity in the country is credited by some observers for a sharp decline in approval of Muslim militancy. Indonesia has become the world's 19th largest economy, and it, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the three Muslim-majority states in the G20.

3. Turkey, which averaged 5.8 percent a year economic growth between 2002 and 2008, was slowed but not devastated by the world's financial crisis. In these 6 years it has moved from being the world's 26th largest economy to being the 17th largest. It is on track to be the second fastest-growing economy in 2010, after South Korea, according to OECD projections. The democratically elected Justice and Development Party government continued to govern with considerable popularity. Despite severe tensions between Ankara and the Kurdish minority in the southeast, the ruling party took the bold step of pushing for more Kurdish rights.

2. Stability returned to Lebanon. Successful parliamentary elections, untainted by Syrian interference, were held in June, and a national unity government was formed in November after a lengthy negotiating process. The Lebanese army intervened forcefully and in a timely fashion to nip potential sectarian flare-ups in the bud. The 13,000 UN troops patrolling the south helped back the Lebanese army, and despite tensions with Israel on the part both of Palestinian militants and the Shiite Hizbullah militia, there was no significant clash on thbe southern border. Prime Minister Saad Hariri recently visited Damascus, building on earlier diplomacy by Maronite Catholic president Michel Suleiman, a former general, and reducing regional tensions. Lebanon is probably now about 70% Muslim if the children are counted. The year 2009 saw the return of musical and cultural festivals and the country of 4 million attracted 2 million tourists, the best year ever. Lebanon's banking and real estate sectors were slowed but by no means devastated by the global financial crisis, since they had adopted conservative investment policies as a result of bad experiences during the years of instability in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The country was on track to grow 6 percent in 2009, down from 8.5 percent in 2008. The brutal Israeli assault on Lebanon's economic infrastructure of summer, 2006, set the country back three decades, and it will take time fully to recover. But despite fragility and a few clashes and small bombings, it is fair to say that at the moment, your biggest problem in Beirut is that you can't get a timely reservation at the better restaurants.

1. A considerable proportion of the Iranian public resorted to concerted street and cultural protests against the stealing of the June presidential election by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Crowds demanded popular sovereignty and democracy and condemned dictatorship. Among the largest demonstrations were held just last Sunday. It is the greatest political awakening in Iran for 30 years. (Well, OK, you heard about this one, but not as much last weekend as it deserved; the corporate media go on vacation from news at awkward times.)

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Look for good news, don't wait for it to come to you."\\

The Genocide Appropriation Project

As members of the Genocide Appropriation Project, our goal is to appropriate images of the Nazi Holocaust and other historic crimes and use them to dress up our political or cultural cause du jour.

We find it easy and convenient to exploit the suffering of other people in order to persuade the ignorant, and to shock those who oppose us into silence.

The Genocide Appropriation Project is not a membership organization. We count as members of the GAP any person who has ever used a specious analogy to promote their own agenda. For instance. we are very proud to associate ourselves with former President Ronald Reagan, for his famous declaration (in front of an African American group, no less) that marijuana smoking was "Twentieth Century slavery".

So, if you are having a hard time getting people to listen to your eleventy-twelfth repetition of your opinion on some subject, just call muster on the unquiet dead of the long and bloody history of our species, preferably invoking a crime committed against a group which does not include your own ancestors (or even committed by a group who are your ancestors). You're sure to win lots of friends, even if it's only among your fellow Appropriationists.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Patience, like genius and unlike stupidity, has its limits."\\

Pirates Who Talk Like Somalis

Somali pirates seized yet another cargo ship in the Indian Ocean, but this time the crew successfully fought back.

The difference being that the crew of this ship were merchant seamen.

Proving, once again, that if you want a job done right, hire union labor.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Acta non verba"\\

New Keys

My Uncle Wesley is too sick to drive his Isuzu pickup, so waste not-want not, my aunt Anne is allowing me to borrow it indefinitely.

It did have one problem: the key was bent, and over months it got worse. I took it to a drug store and the clerk clamped the crooked key into their grinder, but the copy looked like the original the way that the FBI Unabomber sketch looks like Ted Kaczynski.
Finally the other day, I was riding around with Kathe while she delivered notices, and noticed that her current stop was a locksmith's shop, a real one and not just a grinder setup at a drug store.

So, I got a pair of keys made and took them home to try them out on the pickup. Only aftyer I got home did I notice that both the old key and the new ones were from Albany Lock & Key. Huh.

Not only did the new keys work, but they work better than the bent key at unlocking the doors and starting the motor.

Dang, I should have done that months ago. Among other things....

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "At least that's one thiong taken care of. Don't stop now. And don't forget to thank Anne and Wes again."\\

It Suits Today the Meek and Base

The other day I was watching a financial news report and saw a great big red flag (Chinese) flying in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Probably not one person in ten who saw that image even noticed the irony.

A socialist of, say, 1908, if granted a millennial vision of the future, would have drawn all the wrong conclusions.

George Orwell, though, would have recognized the final scene of Animal Farm.

BTW, have any of you seen the British comic strip "Maggie's Farm", in which a human (well, zombie) manager is hired for the dilapidated Animal Farm? She remains puzzled by why production continues to fall, in spite of strictly observed taxidermist policies, although she is pleased by the reduced costs....

Anyway, it's a strange old world, isn't it?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yes, it is."\\

Memorial Day

In the Oregon State University Daily Barometer for 29 May 2008, columnist Dan Fitzpatrick complains that "the mainstream media has [sic] been paying less...attention to American...wars in the Middle East", and proposes to "provide a brief dedication" to recent Medal of Honor recipients.

Unfortunately, Fitzpatrick is unable to follow through on his lofty goals, and instead uses American heroes as cheap props in a feeble attempt to dress up the abject failures of his beloved President Bush, talking wishfully about "the success of last year's troop surge".

Let me tell you about honoring the service of brave and capable Americans in war, without regard for the politics and personalities which sent them off to war.

When I was serving in the United States Navy, I was stationed at a medical center which had been in continuous use for over a hundred years. Although most of the base was modern and up-to-date, there were a few reminders of older times, most notably a military cemetery behind the enlisted men's quarters. I walked past that cemetery almost every day, and frequently paused to read the stones and contemplate their meaning: "Unknown USN...Unknown CSN...LCpl. R. Jones, USMC...Ens. M. Richards, CSN...."

The stones were identical, and no effort was made to separate the Union from the Confederate dead. This in spite of the fact that, no matter what the Confederate sailors' personal motivations might have been, the judgment of history is that the Confederacy was founded on "treason in defense of slavery".

But there's something more: the graves were dug (and filled) right in the midst of that terrible war, by Union sailors who were burying their own comrades -- and the men who had killed them.

That is what I call setting aside politics in order to honor the dead.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Rest in peace, one and all."\\