Hashishim

The word “assassin” derives from “hashishim” — Arabic men who led, short, opulent lives and served as mercenaries for Jihad. They considered their lives already over, and so lived every day like it was a freebie, a gift, giving themselves permission to consort with loose women, get high, drink, etc. Basically a way to circumvent the laws of the Quoran in exchange for their fore-ordained commitment to die for the cause. Sound familiar?

Skronk

Last week I mentioned that I had just been turned on to Betty Davis, ex-wife of Miles Davis. Betty did a couple records of this incredible skronk/funk/badass deep soul that almost no one has ever heard. Doesn’t really fall on the jazz side, though one can imagine it going really well with some of Mile’s early 70s stuff (On the Corner, Agharta, etc.) Apparently Miles and Betty actually did do a recording together at some point, but Miles destroyed it in a fit of rage after one of their frequent arguments.

Anyway, I promised to put some up for folks to get a taste. I normally don’t do the MP3 trading thing, but in this case it’s rare stuff that people aren’t likely to go out and hear on their own, and it’s just a couple of tracks… so I’ll leave this up for a few days. An exception to the rule.

Betty Davis on birdhouse

“He was a BIG freak!”

The War on Dissent

Many thanks to (actually, a friend of his) for pointing out this great article at The Globe : The War on Dissent. If you’re afraid the media isn’t telling the whole story, and that censorship is alive and well in America right now, please forward this URL around.

Conflicted

What does one do when some of one’s beliefs happen to coincide with those of a person one considers to be the embodiment of evil? There is a dissenting faction in America that has long believed that U.S. support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine has deep moral problems. There are those of us who have long been troubled that U.S. sanctions on Iraq are responsible for the death of 5,000 innocent souls PER MONTH for the past 11 years. We have believed these U.S. involvements to be problematic long before we ever heard the name “bin Laden.”

So now bin Laden has made his speech, citing the hypocrisy of America, the hypocrisy which allows us to view some innocent lives as expendable and others as precious. How can an informed person read his words and not acknowledge that he is at least partially correct? Acknowledging that he is right on some points does not require one to agree with his methods. Let’s just leave that out of it and stick to the facts.

It’s like thinking Heidegger is a great philosopher while leaving his Nazism aside. Except that it’s current and real. At this point in the game, and for a long time to come, it will be impossible for America to acknowledge any wrong-doing in the world theater, because we have dug in our heels, and entrenched our righteousness, no matter how wrong some of our foreign policies may be. This is an extremely difficult time for the voice of dissent in America, at a time when to say anything against America is considered tantamount to a lack of patriotism. The fact that some of bin Laden’s points are correct will be utterly squelched in the media is frightening me. American Journalists are already being fired for saying “unpatriotic” things. We are in grave danger, and not just from Al Qaeda. We are in danger of undermining our own principles of free speech and self-criticism.

I predict that, over time, this issue will create deep rifts in the American political landscape.

Update: I’ve been asked what I meant about journalists being fired recently for speaking their minds. This article at the Washington Post describes the situation pretty well.

Adequacy

From an irate post in alt.os.linux.mandrake  found myself at adequacy.org, paging through a truly bizarre review of Mandrake 8.1. It tottered between being totally serious, snidely clever, and questionably misinformed. It was weird, but pretty soon it was clear that all of Adequacy is dripping in this smug, hilarious, puzzling tone (the site’s name exemplifies this in a single word). It’s an irony site that’s done so ironically that it fools the unwary into thinking it’s just another web mag, so they take it seriously, get pissed off, and post the URL all over the place.

For example.

From Crossing the Linux Fault Threshold:

“The Linux Fault Threshold is the point in any conversation about Linux at which your interlocutor stops talking about how your problem might be solved under Linux and starts talking about how it isn’t Linux’s fault that your problem cannot be solved under Linux. ”

Okay, that’s a bit silly, but it’s also exactly correct. The whole article skewers Linux culture, but completely from within – there’s enough detail in the article to know that the guy isn’t just bluffing.

Underworld

A few years ago Amy gave me a copy of Don DeLilo’s “Underworld” for Christmas. I had forgotten about the image on the cover, but have just been reminded of it. Creepy and chilling in light of recent events. I never finished reading it for some reason. Should pick it up again.

Happy Birthday E-Mail

Yahoo reports that e-mail was born 30 years ago yesterday. The creator doesn’t remember what the first message said, but he knows it was in ALL CAPS. I had to laugh.