My goodness, but the Southern Baptist Convention is just a bastion of pure hatred these days, isn't it? It's not that they demand that the DC Baptist Convention support their political positions that surprises me; after all, that kind of comes with having signed the convention agreement, now doesn't it? No, the surprise is that the SBC is demanding that DC "must agree not to promote the cultural festivals that include non-Christian religious denominations" -- a reference, Haggray said, to D.C. support of the annual interfaith service honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I mean, what the hell does SBC have against King? For that matter, since when did SBC have that big a problem with interfath festivals? They've become that bigoted and intolerant in recent years?
It seems a very bad political miscalculation to me, although I suppose that's arguable. There's simply no way that SBC can come out of this looking well. And, of course, they don't want to. They don't care. But if there are any more liberal or less observant congregations still inside SBC, they may start looking at other affiliation options. And granted that SBC pays its churches according to the affiliation agreement, but SBC has to get its money from somewhere. The various churches must pay some role in that. Logically, the fewer churches, the less money SBC pays out, but also the less money they take in. At some point, alienating their left wing (so to speak) has to start costing more than its worth.
@ 11:56 PM CST [Link]
Drag queen seeks to rule Canadian party: Toronto's best-known drag queen, famous for six-inch heels, slinky dresses and a failed bid to become the city's mayor, said on Thursday she wanted to join the race to head the right-wing opposition Canadian Alliance party. ''I am a supermodel for a super party,'' said Enza 'Supermodel'' Anderson. ''I don't care what you call me but please put in supermodel.''
So two things here: (1) The Arizona Republic continues to establish its reputation as the weirdest newspaper in the Southwest, and possibly even in the entire country, and (2) Canadian politics are just incredibly entertaining, aren't they? Wouldn't it be great if the Supermodel actually won the party leadership? Can you just imagine the stage for the debates? It would be like something from Monty Python.
@ 10:20 PM CST [Link]
Ashcroft Praises German Terror Law: Attorney General John Ashcroft praised Germany's newly enacted law that allows authorities to ban religious organizations used as fronts for extremists, saying Friday it was a necessary measure in the war on terrorism.
Hum. Interesting. Especially since any such law would be technically unconstitutional here. Makes you wonder what our Lord High Minister of Injustice has planned, doesn't it?
@ 10:15 PM CST [Link]
Bush Invokes Executive Privilege on Hill. Well, it's always nice when someone shows his true colors, isn't it? Combine this with him and our Lord High Minister of Injustice locking down presidential documents in direct defiance of an existing law mandating their release, and it's plain that he simply doesn't intend to release information about anything. He's trying to establish the pattern now, at the moment when he's riding highest, because if he tries it later, once people are back in the habit of regarding him with all the respect he has truly earned, he won't get away with it. (I mean, let's get real. What possible executive privilege can be involved in releasing the records of a 30-year-old FBI case where it's already known that there was FBI malfeasance? Unless, of course, he plans to repeat that pattern as well. Oh, wait ....)
The problem is, he's managed to cheese off his own party. AGAIN. This may be just one step too far for them to take, even right now.
@ 11:59 AM CST [Link]
The future of farming: Dale Reimers of Jamestown, North Dakota, remembers when farmers lined up to drop off their grain at the local elevator. The Reimers now own the elevator, the most recent addition to what has become a 20,000-acre farm, some 20 times the average size in North Dakota. They are doing well, but Mr Reimer still bemoans the loss of small towns. He would rather farm a quarter of his present land, and have more neighbours round him. Instead, he expects to see fewer and fewer. Profit margins are good, but the community has gone [...] Roughly 20% of farmers, [Ford Runge, a professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota] estimates, are receiving some 80% of the federal subsidies. This 20% also happen to own the largest farms. They are using the federal subsidies mainly to remain viable, but also to bid land away from other farmers. The cap for federal subsidies is very high; so the larger farms get, the more subsidies they receive. As large farms bid up land prices, capital costs for smaller operations rise, and young people find it harder to buy land. In this way, say Mr Runge and others, the federal government, far from propping up small farming towns, is hastening their decline.
There's a question. What, precisely, is the value of the small or family-owned farm these days? I'm not saying all these people should be run out of business or anything that heartless. However, I am saying that maybe, if their children are leaving the land and not coming back, having farms merge into larger blobs isn't necessarily a bad thing. (I do not believe I just said that.) From what I've been able to see, aside from the family and community issues, the principal value of the family farm is in some ways to enable American nostalgia. The way things were back in the simpler days. And I'm not saying that things were really worse than people think (although they were); I'm only saying that nostalgia is a very bad reason to prop up businesses that are failing in their current form. At least, it's a bad reason when you don't acknowledge that this is, at least, exactly what you're doing.
Of course, the other issue is that the Oglala aquifer is being badly drained by the larger cities of the Great Plains, as well as the farming. And these days, in a water-rights battle between large corporate farms, small family farms, and cities, the small family farm is almost certain to lose first.
@ 11:02 AM CST [Link]
The Times of India: Security forces shot dead all the militants who mounted a suicide attack on the Parliament House on Thursday. Six Delhi Police personnel, including a woman CRPF constable, were also killed in the shootout. All ministers and MPs are safe.
Militants in army uniform reportedly came in a white Ambassador car (DL 3CJ 1527) blaring sirens. The car had both Parliament House as well as home ministry stickers on it. They entered the Parliament complex from the Rajya Sabha side by following the security guards of an MP around 11.45 am. They threw a grenade at the security forces and started indiscriminate firing. [...] The militants were armed with China-made grenades, RDX and AK-47 automatic rifles. One of the militants was reportedly a suicide bomber with a bomb strapped to his body.
@ 03:46 PM CST [Link]
Interview with President & Mrs. Bush, part 3: And having read through that, all I can conclude is ... a totally and completely incoherent man was selected to be president. It may be that it sounded better -- one hopes considerably better -- than it reads. But in places, he simply makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
That aside, his statements about military tribunals and about John Walker are ... illustrative.
But in times of war the president ought to have at his disposal extraordinary measures to deal, means to deal with extraordinary circumstances.… First of all, we have never had a military tribunal in my administration.… I'd like the tool just in case we need to use it. Secondly, no U.S. citizen will be brought before a military tribunal… Let me finish… [...] Well, we think — we're not sure — we're just trying to learn the facts about this poor fellow. Obviously he has been misled. It appears to me he thought he was going to fight for a great cause; and in fact, he was going to support a government that was one of the most repressive governments in the history of mankind. Surely he was raised better than to know that a government that suppresses women and women's rights, that doesn't educate young girls, is not the kind of government worth dying for.
Well, yes. Surely he was. And surely most of the Pakistani and Saudi and other "poor fellows" and other people fighting for the Taliban thought they were fighting for a great cause as well. And yet we still intend to put them through military tribunals; that they were young and misled -- as surely a great many of them were -- is not considered a reason or excuse. What Walker was raised to believe and what he thought he was fighting for is surely completely irrelevant to what it is that you decide to do with the man.
As an American who did not renounce his citizenship as such (curious, that), Walker is ineligible for His Fraudulency's military tribunals. Fair enough, I suppose, in that no American citizen is eligible. But there should be no sympathy for him. If anything, there should be less. He DID know better. And yet he chose to go and fight that war. He chose to be a part of that repressive regime, if only as a footsoldier.
You wonder sometimes if Bush realizes the moment that has arrived. He didn't want it, certainly; what man would want this at all, let alone as a defining point in his presidency only a few months in. And yet, here it is. If he goes easy on Walker, it will undo much of his coalition; the militants and terrorists will easily be able to frame it as a war on Islam, as a war made purely because we could, and the governments will have no defense. And inside these United States, minorities will look at that result, and if they had any doubt about what the man is, any sense that they should wait to give him a fair shake, those doubts would be gone.
And purely as an aside: of course we haven't had a military tribunal in your administration, Shrub. We haven't had one since World War 2. Do catch up on your history.
@ 03:36 PM CST [Link]
You know ... I think I can safely say that you will never ever ever EVER see something along these lines in this here weblog. Nope nope nope. My exhibitionistic abilities only go so far. Or my courage only goes so far, take your pick.
Talking about someone else's real sex week, now .....
(I have just totally screwed with someone's search results. Not that the people who keep looking for "Oscar dresses" and "buffalo testicles" will actually mind.)
@ 01:29 PM CST [Link]
After remaining unpublished and largely unnoticed since 1857, The Bondswoman's Narrative has now been authenticated as the real thing – an autobiographical account of a woman who fled slavery. As such, it is not only the earliest known novel by a female black slave but probably the earliest novel by a black woman anywhere. ...
I definitely want to see this. (AOL Time Warner is publishing? What on earth...) It looks like it would be fascinating.
@ 12:47 PM CST [Link]
Death Penalty for Terrorists Debated: The United States will deal with European objections to the death penalty on a case-by-case basis as it seeks extradition of suspects linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday. ... "Individuals and nations with which we have dealt regarding extraditions have dealt on a case-by-case basis and I think that is the best way to go forward,'' Ashcroft added.
You know what's going to happen, right?
Since he was captured here, Europe will reluctantly concede that the US has the technical right to sentence Moussaoui to death, should he be found guilty of a crime carrying that penalty. (I'm actually surprised that conspiracy charges can carry a death sentence, frankly. That's usually reserved for people who actively participate in whatever the given offense is.) The next few people indicted will face only lower level preliminary charges, none of which will carry the death penalty, and Europe will be lulled into handing some people over. And once the Administration feels it has as many of the high level people as it could reasonably expect to get, Suddenly a miracle will occur! and new charges carrying the death penalty will be brought! and Europe will feel betrayed and will never ever extradite anyone back to the US as long as the Shrubbery is in office.
@ 12:43 PM CST [Link]
John Walker Lindh, the Taliban guerrilla captured near Mazar-e-Sharif, said in intelligence debriefings at the U.S. Marine Corps base near Kandahar that "Phase II" of al Qaeda's war against the United States will occur at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends Sunday. Mr. Lindh told U.S. intelligence officials that the Ramadan attack will involve the use of biological weapons. A third phase of al Qaeda's war on the United States will result in the destruction of the entire country, the Islamic convert stated. The officials said they have questioned the credibility of Mr. Lindh's claim because of his relatively low-level position.
Aw. And this is the idealistic kid that little Orrin Hatch would like to protect. How sweet. How charming.
How could you ally yourself with someone who would want to unleash something like that when it might affect your own parents and family? This is a poor misunderstood young man? Give me a break!
@ 09:47 AM CST [Link]
Britain Ready to Lead Force for the U.N. After the War. Really? You know, I thought the various Afghans had all pretty much said that they didn't want any Britons in their country. (Bad history, y'know.) Somehow, it just doesn't seem that it would be a good thing for our erstwhile allies to take time out from attacking our current enemies and arguing with our other erstwhile allies to start fighting with our longtime allies. Bad form, you know.
@ 09:43 AM CST [Link]
Well, sir, in response to your lament, I give you this response:
... hypermasculinity and homophobia often go hand in hand. In fact, the very professions being idolised have long harboured some of the worst harassers of gay people and women. ... until Sept. 11, a lot of people may have never considered the enormous danger involved in these kinds of jobs. Now many of us have begun pondering the inner strength it takes to run directly into danger instead of away from it -- all in an effort to save other people's lives. This intense selflessness and bravery have caught the country's imagination, turning firefighters and cops into instant icons. ... Many lesbians and gay men may, in fact, have been finding themselves with conflicting feelings about these "manly" professions, which, though esteemed for bravery, have traditionally been bastions of homophobia and sexism.
In recent years, reports of firefighters bullying their gay and female co-workers have been widespread and persistent. In 1999, an internal review by Britain's Fire Service found the levels of homophobia and sexism among firefighters in that country "difficult to believe." Although there's been no such national report in the United States, numerous local incidents of harassment of gay and female firefighters suggest that findings over here might be very similar. Only weeks before the terrorist assault, for example, gay firefighters in Boston joined female colleagues and firefighters of colour in filing complaints against the city's fire department. One straight black female firefighter told the Associated Press horror stories of finding broken glass inside her work boots and having her oxygen mask and gloves stolen by fellow firefighters. The perpetrators of such "jokes," she said, "are more than just a few bad apples."
The problem with "manliness" is that it too easily turns into stupidity and violence when that "manliness" seems threatened.
What makes a man? What makes manliness? Whatever it is, it should mean that you (generically speaking) are confident that, however you behave and whatever you do, you're still a man. And you can let others be their own sort of man, and it doesn't matter because it doesn't reflect on you, doesn't have anything to do with you. Putting glass in a firefighter's boot? Stealing their equipment? Man, that takes some serious brain damage. You don't alienate people whom you may need to count on to pull your own fat out of the fire. You don't compromise their effectiveness -- which, in turn, compromises yours. You don't do something that delays you getting to a fire, that costs people their lives, that could possibly even cost you your own -- a delay could mean that the situation got worse, which makes the difference. That's no kind of man worth the name. That's barely any kind of human.
Also, sir, a good number of the firefighters and police and soldiers who have been involved in all this are women. Yes, most of them are men, to be sure, but not all. However, by your formulation, all the women firefighters and police and soldiers are apparently actually men in drag. Who knew? Since many of them have husbands or boyfriends ... well, I'd wager that the men in their lives would be rather surprised to discover that they've been sleeping with men all this time. Their reactions would probably be very ugly indeed.
Courage doesn't have anything to do with testosterone.
(Also, having read that particular Bleat ... what on earth has what he said to do with what what you said? He clearly didn't mean it THAT way. ANYONE who plays with Legos needs motors. Now if you were talking about his reaction to Parker Posey, that would make more sense.)
(And, purely on the geeky side, talking about that UK site that I link to ... man, that is some sucky site design.)
@ 02:34 AM CST [Link]
A 26-year-old Australian man captured in Afghanistan had trained extensively with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said today.
Well. My goodness. You just wonder if we'll be seeing this little meme wandering through all the Western countries now. "Oh, look! an American! An Australian! A Frenchman! A German! It's a little Taliban NATO!"
@ 12:32 AM CST [Link]
Online journalism is the same as print, radio and TV news when it comes to free-press protections against charges of libel. That's the decision of the New York State Supreme Court in the widely watched case of the National Bank of Mexico against Narconews.com. The court ruled that online journalists reporting on matters of public importance, like their colleagues in other media, can only be found guilty of libel if their actions are deemed malicious.
Hum. Wonder if that would apply to webloggers? After all, this is essentially commentary on publically available information, right?
@ 03:52 PM CST [Link]
Changing The Profile: Let's thank John Walker, American Taliban fighter, for broadening our horizons. If you're on the hunt for Al-Qaeda types, you'd better be able to look beyond skin deep. The suburban kid from Marin is making racial profiling a bit passé [...] John Walker proves you just can't do that anymore.
Since when?
It's utter idiocy to assume that just because ONE middle class white guy was caught with the Taliban, that means that you can't or won't use racial profiling any more. First, almost everyone will dismiss him as an aberration, a total fruitcake -- and he IS an aberration. I can't imagine that there are all that many white, middle class, Americans out there in Afghanistan, standing toe to toe with the remnants of the Taliban, being bombed into oblivion (or at least deafness). People will do what they always do when confronted with any such case: they'll say, "Oh, he's an exception," and they'll sail along, profiling merrily. Flying While Arab will be a crime for the foreseeable future. Driving While Black (or Hispanic, or sometimes Asian) will always be a crime.
Forget that Walker told Newsweek he supported the September 11 attacks that killed thousands of innocent civilians, Father Frank Lindh called Walker "a good boy," to whom he wanted to give a big hug and "maybe a little kick in the butt for not asking my permission to go to Afghanistan." Astonishingly, Walker's screw-up parents aren't his only defenders. The fatuous Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told CNN's Larry King that Walker is "an idealist who really believed in what he was doing." Worse, Hatch said: "I would like to go after those who corrupted this idealistic kid and I would like to give him a break if I can." Does Hatch have any idea how bad he makes America look?
Well, yes, I would imagine that Walker WAS an idealist; that's what he was doing there. And no, Hatch doesn't know how he makes America look -- nor does he care. If a middle class white boy supports the Taliban, he must have been deceived or brainwashed, and that's all there is to it in Orrin Hatch's America. (I must admit, I would dearly love to hear what he would have said had Mr Walker been from the Nation of Islam and been captured. Some nice, middle class black kid who believed as Farrakhan does, and who went over to support those whom he believed were like him. What would little Orrin Hatch say then, one wonders? One suspects the words "traitor" and "treason" and "immediate firing squad" would have been bandied about. One suspects.)
As one U.S. official reacted, "We are asking countries around the world to take actions against their citizens who are joining the Taliban and al Qaeda and trying to bring death and destruction elsewhere, and we're asking them to crack down on their people." [...] The official added, "Poor misguided youths with a religious bent? If that's good enough to get you off for an American, it ought to be good enough to get you off for an Afghan or a Saudi."
But of course, it wouldn't be.
Do African Americans view the events surrounding Sept. 11 the same as other segments of society? Should we? [...] While we share the majority's view of Sept. 11, African Americans have a different perspective on Sept. 12 and thereafter. We are not nearly as anxious to go bombing around the world in a macho attempt to restore our pride as the biggest, baddest player on the planet. [...] One word best describes the black perspective on this so-called war on terrorism: skepticism. There is great skepticism in black America that politicians are truly looking out for the best interests of the people. [...] We were fighting hard against racial profiling before Sept. 11. Now it seems to be the principal means by which the government will seek out potential terrorists.
We have reason to be especially concerned. A quick glance at the FBI's most- wanted terrorist list is revealing. Even though 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens (all of whom died in the attacks), of the 22 on the FBI's most-wanted terrorists list, 12 are Africans. They try to tell us the anti-terrorism provisions are aimed at noncitizens. But many of the brothers on the most-wanted list look like African Americans on any U.S. city street, and by the time the police figure out that you are from Cairo, Ga., and not Cairo, Egypt, you could be dead.
We fear that when the terrorist threat recedes, these laws will be used to prosecute and incarcerate black folks in even greater numbers. Civil libertarians are up in arms over the invasion of privacy these laws represent, but African Americans are concerned about the denial of personal freedom they may mean.
And can you imagine how difficult it would be for someone who was arrested (let us assume that the police will, for the hell of it, exercise enough restraint not to kill them out of hand) if they were a member of the Nation of Islam? I can't imagine that local law enforcement or local offices of the FBI are the least bit interested in distinguishing between domestic and foreign Muslims, at least not initially. (God forbid they're wearing that hat when they're arrested.)
That said, I would submit that invoking Hiroshima and Nagasaki as Shockley has done only produces false comparisons. When development on the bomb started, after all, it was being created to drop on Berlin, and has nothing to do with our experiences in this country as such.
(From a purely editorial point of view, that paragraph should have started with, "Black America has experienced terrorism in this country ...." It would have mostly true -- the powerless have few choices but nonviolence as a response, after all, if they want to avoid extermination. That said, studying black communities these days would not leave one sanguine that we are continuing to avoid violence, now would it? He should also definitely have chopped off everything after "But we are also intimately familiar with its faults." The rest is just fulsome baggage and compromises the rest of the article.)
@ 02:51 PM CST [Link]
Gay orangutans spotted in Sumatra. Not much to add to that, really. Primates R Us, or something.
@ 11:03 AM CST [Link]
THE latest Hamas suicide-bomber to strike Israel may have been planning to detonate a crude chemical weapon, Israeli police said yesterday. [...] Sayfien was shot dead by police as he lay grievously wounded on the street after triggering the explosives hidden under his coat. With what little life he had left, he was crawling towards the second, even bigger bomb. It was this that police claimed may have contained chemicals. What would be a significant new departure for Palestinian terrorist groups was revealed yesterday by government officials, who said that a bomb that exploded in a pedestrian precinct in the centre of Jerusalem last Saturday night, killing 11, had “traces of hazardous materials”.
You wonder, if this is true ... what on earth could Hamas hope to accomplish with this? First, contaminating Israel with spots of chemical warfare is startlingly silly; after all, the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs still have to live in the immediate area. Depending on the size of the weapon, it can be remarkably indiscriminate. Second, having any sort of successful attack with chemical weapons -- even if it's just rat poison embedded in skin and open wounds -- would remove any sort of restraint from Israel; I'm not sure that even the other Arab countries could figure out how to condemn Israel for what would surely follow.
To be sure, at this stage, it looks like we're talking about low level chemical weapons -- rat poison was reported coating one bomb. That betrays a certain lack of understanding of how bombs work; why would you coat it? Most of the poison would vaporise in the explosion, and the remainder would mostly stick to the bomb itself. (It's interesting to see the difference in coverage from different places; the Times attitude can best be described as, "Egad! Horrors! Chemical weapons!" and the Jerusalem Post's attitude, in what's almost literally a throwaway paragraph buried deep in the article, can be described as "Eh. Chemical weapons. Rat poison. Big whoop.")
As for Israel ... well, it's going to be remarkably effective to run around killing children, now isn't it? You kill their children, they kill yours, and eventually, with a little luck, the entire civilized world will wash its hands of all of them until they've seen enough of their children die to be willing to make some compromises.
@ 05:58 PM CST [Link]
Teens held in "Goner" investigation: Four Israeli teenagers were placed under house arrest Monday after admitting they wrote and spread the "Goner" worm that wreaked havoc on computers worldwide, police said. Tel Aviv's juvenile court accepted a police request to confine the youths, ages 15 and 16, to their houses pending five days of investigation, said Meir Zohar, head of the Israeli police computer crimes squad.
Hum.
Well, by the terms of the Bill of Rights Recision Act ... er, pardon, the USA Patriot Act, these kids are guilty of crimes warranting extraordinarily hefty prison sentences, at the very least. I wonder if we'll try to extradite them from Israel so that they can be properly tried for the offenses they committed against us?
@ 05:16 PM CST [Link]
NEW laws banning discrimination against homosexuals will be outlined this week, risking a new confrontation between Tony Blair and some religious groups. For the first time, homosexuals rejected for jobs or persecuted in the office because of their sexual orientation will have the right to sue. Partners of homosexuals could win pension rights and other perks previously reserved for heterosexual couples. Churches will be allowed to stipulate behaviour for some religious posts. For example, homosexuals may be hired only if they remain celibate.
Good heavens. Britain is considering this at a national level?
The House of Lords is going to plotz.
How wonderfully liberal ....
@ 04:36 PM CST [Link]
A VIDEOTAPE seized by American intelligence agents in Afghanistan shows Osama bin Laden gloating over the attack on the World Trade Centre and expressing surprise that the twin towers had collapsed. The tape, found in a private home in Jalalabad, throws doubt on whether the two aircraft flown into the towers were deliberately aimed at places where their impact would destroy the entire structure.
Well, DUH. Nothing anyone has found so far indicates that the terrorists had planned for the towers to come down. They almost certainly expected them to stand, and then we'd have this giant, towering symbol of what they could do as we struggled to figure out exactly what to do with the buildings. (Well, nobody's had to bring down a supertall building before, especially in the middle of a city. Really, nobody would know quite what to do.) You wouldn't be able to look at the towers, whether they were repaired or lowered or whatever would have been done, without remembering. Granted, they achieved much the same goal by taking them down, but it was almost certainly not their first choice.
Think about it: the one thing you can say about the attack on the towers is that it worked too well. The terrorists had remarkably limited goals, from what we've heard. They wanted us to know that we could be hit and hurt, that our skies were not safe, and they wanted to provoke us into the sorts of response we've had before. And if all they had done was to kill a few hundred people, it may well be that we wouldn't have done much more than pummel Afghanistan for daring to harbor them. Hard to tell. However, an attack which kills thousands, which destroys two buildings, sends a hard shock through our economy, damages a chunk of the nation's largest city ... that sort of attack not only demands a more comprehensive response, it demands a relatively well thought out one.
Because the World Trade Center was, in fact, exactly what the name states, it also turned out to be not only the largest attack on US soil and citizens, but the largest single terrorist attack against the citizens of several countries. Most of our major European trading partners lost at least 100 people each, from what I've read. Yemen -- cited as a supporter of terrorism itself -- lost more than 60 people. Had the towers stood, other countries would not have lost as many people, and might not have been as ready to support us.
It'll be fascinating to see what decision the administration comes to about releasing the tape. I can't see how it would possibly hurt; anyone wanting to be recruited by them is already gone.
@ 04:23 PM CST [Link]
"When I was a young girl I dreamt of having a happy family. I dreamt of having kids. I wanted to marry, have children, and shower them with love." Kausalya got married all right. When she was 19, to a relative.
That was in 1995. A few weeks later her husband tested positive for AIDS.
All she knew about the disease at that point was that "it was dirty, and anyone who caught it would die".
"It was very cruel of him to marry me because he was tested positive before," she said. "The doctors had asked him not to marry, but he did not pay heed."
Seven months on, Kausalya's husband died, leaving her HIV-positive. "All my dreams were shattered," she said. "I could only wait for death."
Time erased her tears, only to replace them with a dull sense of despair. She contemplated suicide. But friends persuaded her not to take her life.
Then, slowly, she began wanting to live again. To fight AIDS. And the best way to do that, she felt, was to educate people, especially girls like her, about the disease.
@ 04:02 PM CST [Link]
The lawsuit that forced Virginia Military Institute to accept female cadets for the first time in its 162-year history has been dropped. U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser dismissed the 10-year-old case Thursday night, ruling that VMI had successfully transformed into a coed institution. The decision ends the court's supervision of VMI.
My, that was ... fast. Most such oversight cases go on for quite a few years -- more than five, anyway.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union told VMI to scrap a proposal to require cadets to leave school if they become pregnant or cause a pregnancy. In a letter sent to VMI officials Friday, ACLU Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis said the proposed policy discriminates against women. "A woman cadet could not possibly hide a pregnancy more than a few months," he said. "A man who causes a pregnancy, on the other hand, may never be detected. VMI spokesman Chuck Steenburgh said Kiser has already looked at the proposal. "Just because the ACLU jumps up and says they have a problem with it, I don't see any reason we should take heed of them," Steenburgh said.
Well, this will be interesting. I suspect what will happen is that the judge will want to wait and see the effects of the policy before doing anything. These days, courts are inclined to look for discriminatory intent rather than discriminatory effect, and a policy that's gender-neutral on its face stands a pretty good chance of surviving. (Although saying "why should we take heed of the ACLU?", under the circumstances, is pretty much spitting into the wind. I mean, the reason you take heed of the ACLU is that they sued you and won once before; that's the kind of thing most people really prefer to avoid, you know?)
@ 12:40 PM CST [Link]
An aide to President Bush admitted the White House went too far in bashing talk show host Bill Maher for his "Politically Incorrect" comments about the Sept. 11 attacks. [...] This week, [White House advisor Mark McKinnon] called Fleischer's comments "pretty Big Brother-ish."
My my. Three months late, and done by a very minor aide -- who isn't really part of the Administration -- during a minor conference. Big of them, isn't it?
@ 10:54 PM CST [Link]
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!