Literary Meme

Thanks to Cousin Sara J, I have to do this chain literary confession. What the hell, it looks like it might be fun.

One book that changed your life: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I am not really sure how it changed my life, but discovering Kurt Vonnegut as a teenager seemed incredibly important. I have read and reread all of his books, especially the earlier ones. As a teenager (me not him), his style greatly influenced my own writing. And I had the opportunity to hear him speak once in Berkeley – he speaks just as he writes and it was an amazing evening.

One book you've read more than once: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. My favourite book of all time. I think it illustrates better than any other book I have read the absurdity of the world we live in. I can’t even count how many times I have read Catch-22 or how many copies I have given away. One interesting observation about the book – Brits don’t get it. All the Americans I have ever talked to about Catch-22 have only praise for the book. Almost all the limeys I have ever talked to about Catch-22 say that they didn’t like it. I have also heard Joseph Heller speak – it was at a book fair in Prague not too long before he died. I got to hear everything he said twice because he spoke in English and his words were interpreted into Czech.

One book you would want on a desert island: Everyone else seems to be picking complete works – fair enough. After all, you never know how long you will be stuck on that desert island. I would want the complete works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I discovered The Great Gatsby in my mother’s library long before I was old enough to understand it, but I loved the story anyway. I love Fitzgerald’s novels and his short stories, and I actually do own a complete collection - it is currently taking up an entire shelf in my mom’s library in LA.

One book that made you laugh: How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen. I refer you to my book report of last October.

One book that made you cry: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Like my lovely Aunt Cookie, I love Russian literature. The irony in this choice of book for me is that my ex-husband also committed suicide by throwing himself under a train.

One book you wish you had written: The Trial by Franz Kafka. In fact, I almost wish I were Franz Kafka. Not really, because he was an uptight and unhappy man, but to be able to write like him… And I do have an earlier post related to The Trial. I love Kafka and have read all of his fiction – even a few of his shortest stories in German. I know where he lived, where he worked, where he hung out and I have visited his grave. Repeatedly. There is a lot of Kafka’s world still in Prague – both physically and metaphysically. I like that.

One book you wish had never been written: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I have not read it, I have not seen the film, and I hope the hype is just about over and I never have to hear anyone talking about it again. I might have agreed with Aunt Cookie but, frankly, there is a better chance that I will someday read Mein Kampf than that I will ever read Dan Brown’s book.

One book you are currently reading: Untold Stories by Alan Bennett, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and Kafka: The Decisive Years by Reiner Stach. I realise that is three books, but they are what I am currently reading.

One book you have been meaning to read: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It is sitting on my shelf, my bookmark is at page 60 in the 800-page abridged version, and someday I will get back to it.

Tag five people: Ludovic, Knottyboy, Evil Pig, Miss Mickey, Last Muse

S.2453

What with wars in the Middle East, contested elections in Mexico, volcanoes erupting and the imminent threat of a bird flu pandemic... not to mention phone taps in Clarence House, global warming and 9-11 movies...

Do you have any idea what is going on in the great halls of the US capitol?

Here’s one thing: S.2453, the National Security Surveillance Act of 2006, brought to you by VP Dick Cheney and Senator Arlen Specter. It was introduced in the Senate in March of this year.

If S.2453 becomes law, what it will effectively do is make FISA and the Fourth Amendment optional for the “president”. That is not an exaggeration. The government would be able to spy on and search our homes and businesses without warrants or any sort of judicial control. Can you say data-mining? We would not be able to challenge any act of government spying before an independent court. Call it a war on terror, call it what you want. It still looks like good old-fashioned fascism to me.

Here’s another thing: HR 5825, the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act, introduced last month by 10 representatives in the House. Under HR 5825, in the event of a terrorist attack in The America, FISA and the Fourth Amendment would cease to exist for a period of 45 days, which period could be renewed for an additional 45 days – over and over and over again. Ad infinitum, in fact.

These bills are a serious problem. They represent direct attacks on our Constitution and our liberty – concepts that Americans once held dear, and some of us still do. Who the fuck elected these morons?!!

For more information on the bills and how to take action, please click on the “Stop the Surveillance Bills” button in the sidebar.

Hezbollah TV

I had not known that Hezbollah had their own tv station. I had never thought about it. Then this morning, reading the paper on my way to work, I came across an article on the opinion page entitled “Mediální bomba Hizballáhu” – Hezbollah’s Media Bomb. I thought it was interesting so I have translated the article in order to share it.*

The article is by Pavel Kohout and it appeared in today’s Mladá fronta Dnes.

Hezbollah’s Media Bomb

The terrorist organisation Hezbollah was still relatively unknown in the 1980s, but now it stirs world events. Hezbollah owes its rise to power not only to the support of the Syrian and Iranian governments, but also to the power of the media. In that respect, Hezbollah also received help from western technology and western finance.

In 1991, Hezbollah took advantage of the legislative chaos in Lebanon and started pirate television broadcasts. The organisation later obtained a licence and the television station Al Manar became a legal civil communications medium. In the year 2000, Al Manar began satellite broadcasts worldwide in Arabic, English and French.

If the word “islamo-fascism” existed, propaganda station Al Manar would fit the definition perfectly. In 2001, they broke the “news” about the alleged Jewish conspiracy that had organised the attacks of September 11th. Not even Goebbels could have thought up the plot of the television serial “Zahara’s Blue Eyes” in which evil Jews kidnap Palestinian children and take their organs for transplant; the protagonist Zahara in this way loses her eyes. Another serial “Al Shahat” – The Diaspora – was based on that anti-Semitic classic The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Al Manar’s broadcasts were always full of advertisements for the armed elements of Hezbollah. Animated souls of suicide bombers came to rest amongst rose-coloured clouds in blue heavens. Al Manar also broadcasted interviews with the mothers of real suicide bombers. A woman in a black chador would talk about the heroism of her son who had blown himself up on an Israeli bus. “In comparison with others, I have sacrificed nothing. Yes, I have sacrificed a son, but other mothers have sacrificed two or three. I hope that more of my sons will become martyrs,” she declares to the camera. She is so overcome with happiness that her eyes are flowing with tears.

A western viewer might doubt that the tears are really tears of joy, but the moderator does not allow anyone to doubt. At another time, Al Manar broadcasted film of the suicide bomber Salah Ghandour in action and the subsequent interview with his widow, the mother of three small children. What joy, what happiness! And of course many new recruits for “martyr operations”.

This terrorist propaganda was until not long ago disseminated, entirely legally, through western media outlets. For example, the television company Globecast (a subsidiary of France Telecom) broadcasted Al Manar programmes to North America through transmitters belonging to the Bermudan company Intelsat. (Intelsat’s management is in Washington.) European company Eutelsat, with its headquarters in Paris, broadcasted to Europe and North Africa. The company New Skies Satellites, registered in the US but operating from The Hague in the Netherlands, also broadcasted Al Manar signals. The firm Asiasat, registered in Bermuda and owned by the Luxembourg company SES, broadcasted Al Manar’s programmes to Asia. Hispasat broadcasted to South America, its main shareholder is Eutelsat.

In short, capital and technology from Europe and the USA helped propagate terrorism without limitation for several years. Not until the new year of 2004-2005 were the broadcasts of Al Manar prohibited in the USA, Canadia, Australia and all of the EU countries. There is a question as to whether the prohibition is enforceable by law. Protests have been called by left-orientated human rights groups. It is simply not acceptable to restrict the freedom of expression. It is simply not acceptable to impose censorship on private media companies. But the human rights of the victims of terrorism did not interest those who were fighting for freedom of expression.

Nevertheless, in the end, the Al Manar broadcasts were markedly restricted. Western media’s main reason for breaking with Al Manar was probably not the official prohibition, but rather privatisation. The shareholders of Intelsat and Eutelsat did not want terrorism on their airwaves. Not all capitalists are willing to sell ropes that in the end may hang them.


* Disclaimer – I have warned you before that I am not a talented translator. Read at your own peril.

BBC blows (so to speak)

Today I was reading about Google wi-fi on the BBC News website when I came across an editing error that made me laugh out loud.

“And Mountain View isn't the first of its kind. In 59 other regions in the US, cities and companies have built similar networks, both fee and free-based, according to a research organization called Muni Wireless.”

Thanks for the giggle, BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5251646.stm

When Max loves her job

This is an example of things I am asked for at work that just make my day. On Thursday, I got this email:

"Max, could you tell me, please, what is the correct common English word for these things? Thanks!"

Wank-a-thon

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Max’s Happy Morning

It’s Friday. Maybe that is why so many people seem to be in good spirits.

Last Friday the temperature got up to about 34ºC. That is 34ºC with high humidity and without air conditioning. The temperature right now is about 16ºC. Maybe that is why people’s moods have lifted.

I got up on time this morning, but I still left my house late. I’ve realised that most of the time it’s just because I don’t really want to leave my house at all. I got downstairs and a blast of air reminded me that it was cold out and that the coming rain would therefore be cold. I went back upstairs for a cardigan and an umbrella. I own two umbrellas in spite of the fact that I hate umbrellas, but I could not find either one.

The construction on the tram lines near my house has been under way for nearly 5 weeks. Still over 3 weeks to go. The middle of the main road of my part of Žižkov is an open pit. The tram rails have been dug up and everything under them is being repaired or replaced. The pavements have also been torn to pieces because there are electricity cables for the trams and who knows what else under them. There is not a lot of room to walk. But because of the construction, instead of turning the first corner and being at the tram stop, I have to walk about a kilometre to get to the next one. Sure, there are buses, but I prefer walking.

There were lots of old people out this morning and as I was walking towards the tram stop, they kept getting in my way. But I held my swearing under my breath and didn’t knock anyone over. I only sneered a little bit at the Jehovah’s Witness who stands glassy-eyed by my tram stop with her magazines.

I got off the tram in front of my bank. I walked in and saw the same young man that had helped me two days ago. I approached his desk and he looked up. I smiled and he smiled. He remembered me. Being foreign is sometimes an advantage. When I told him that I was again having problems with internet banking, that I had already fucked up the new code he had given me on Wednesday, he just smiled some more and said he would give me another new code. We talked about what had gone wrong and how to make sure nothing goes wrong this time. He was really sweet and didn’t treat me like I was stupid (which I probably would have done if we had traded shoes). I left the bank feeling good.

I decided to stop and get a coffee on my way to the office. There are not a lot of places to get take-away coffee in Prague, but a bakery near my work makes a decent latte. In Starbucks sizes, it would be “teeny-weeny”, but it’s normal over here. Every time I go to that particular bakery, it seems they have hired someone new who has not yet learned to use the register and who will probably never learn because her iq is only 32. But this time there were 3 of them at the counter, meaning a combined iq high enough to not only use the register, but also to make the coffee quickly. And all three of those girls smiled at me too.

There has been no rain.

9-11 again

We have all talked about the 9-11 conspiracy over and over again. We have all talked to idiots who refuse to believe the irrefutable evidence that the events of 9-11 did not happen in the way our government has told us they did. I will not apologise for talking about 9-11 again.

All I have to say today is that you should look at this website: http://www.tyrannyalert.com/800.html.

Tyranny Alert has a 25-page report with lots of photographs (so even morons and those of us with attention disorders can read it). It is well-structured and well-organised and offers all of the evidence in one place. The report has citations and links to other sites. Please have a look – you will find it enlightening.

Max

Mel Gibson cartoons

Ed Stein, The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado

Ingrid Rice, BC, Canadia

For a complete collection of cartoons on the same theme, go to http://cagle.com/news/MelGibson/main.asp

“Live bombs in court create chaos” – BBC News

It seemed to make sense at the time.

Five men were arrested for possession of explosives in Bangladesh last December. They are allegedly members of Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, an illegal Islamist organisation. The men are currently on trial in Dhaka.

Evidence was brought into the courtroom yesterday. Security force officer Captain Tareq Rahman Khan watched the public prosecutor open the box to show the explosives to the judge.

"I got the shock of my life," he was quoted as saying in the New Age newspaper.

Captain Khan immediately alerted the court to the fact that the bombs were live and the judge called a recess so the court could be evacuated.

The best part as reported by the BBC:

Officials blame police for not defusing the devices before coming to court. The police say they were not asked to.